The Emishi Priestess
Kag X Ashitaka
Ch.1 – Lost Farwell
"You must leave us my Prince, never to return." An old wisewoman hands a boy with short brown hair and brown eyes a small blade. He moves to cut his hair when a soft hand stops him. Everyone looks up to see a girl with long black hair and brown eyes wearing blue miko garb.
"You will stay here where you are needed." Her light voice echoes. "Show me." Everyone remains silent as the boy unwraps his right arm to reveal a dark purple wound winding up his arm. "So you are the one who killed Nago." To everyone's astonishment, she begins to run her fingers over the cursed wound. "Since you have caught what I was hunting, I will restore you." Her hands glow white and the injured arm is healed to what it was before the boar demon attacked the village. No one but the boy noticed her pull her right sleeve down further to cover her hand.
"Please, great miko." The wisewoman bows. "Please stay at our village. We would be deeply honored if you would live among us."
"I would appreciate a bed for the night, I do not know if I can stay to live yet."
Later that night the boy finds her sitting out in the fields with a red elk. "Yakul seems to like you."
"Yes, he has been telling me about this village."
"I did not get to introduce myself earlier, I am Ashitaka."
"Kagome."
"I was told growing up, that mikos no longer existed."
"I am the last and have been for a very long time. I am immortal like the old animal gods. I knew the Spirit of the Forest when he was young and stood beside him as he took the form of the Nightwalker for the first time."
"But you look the same age as me."
"I will forever retain my youth."
"I saw the curse mark on you. Why would you take it?"
"Because it cannot hurt me. Here." Kagome pulls back her sleeve to reveal light purple lines. "Its nothing but a scar. I have been purifying it."
"Will you not stay with us?" Ashitaka questions.
"I have no ties to his place, and so I am free to wander as I have always done."
"…What if I asked you to stay?"