Kagome, Kagome
Written by: Truth & Awlric Hayell
Inspired by: The Vocaloids Horror song Kagome Kagome
A/N: This was written by my good friend Truth and cowritten/beta'ed by myself after a conversation about the Kagome Kagome Creepy pasta and the vocaloid song of the same name. It's not finished yet, but we hope to be done by this coming Halloween. Enjoy~
Disclaimer: Vocaloids are property of Crypton Future Media. Kakome Kakome is property of Zawazawa-P
Chapter 1: Circle you
What are you doing here? Have you come to laugh at me, too? Go ahead and laugh; everyone does. It used to bother me, but not anymore. The story? You don't want to hear that. No, you really don't. Fine, it's not like I have anything better to do. Listen close; if they hear me telling it again, neither of us will like the outcome. What happened seems so long ago now, almost like something that happened to someone else, but I remember every detail.
Let's see… it all started freshman year of college at Hijiyama University. I was taking a cultural history course, which was required by the school for freshman, and there came an assignment: to do a research paper on a piece of cultural architecture. Certain pieces were exempt, (like Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, the grand shrine of Kamakura), as this was an exercise in not only researching ability, but also self-reliance and team-building. Could we -a group of people who barely knew each other- find these places, do the proper research, and write a paper together in one month's time? Naturally, this did not make us immune to other assignments from other professors; thus this assignment was to teach us how to manage our schedules as well.
And so we were off. There was Ryou; complete goof-off; how he made it into college was one for Ripley's. Ryou's best friend was Ichirou, and somehow his twin, Jirou, also got assigned to the group. The two had been separated at birth and re-united last year at a college fair. Kagome… no one really knew anything about her and even I could only get her to tell me small things about where she came from. And myself, Hitomi.
Jirou had borrowed a school van from his father, (the twins' father being a history professor at the college), and we were off to some God-forsaken corner of the area to find the Miho Jinja. We were actually lucky that Kagome claimed this shrine before some other group could. It may have been in Shimane, but at least it was still in Chugoku. We wouldn't have to travel that far from the school to go and research this incredibly culturally significant shrine.
As with all Shinto shrines, this place was so far deep into the woods that the paved road ended before we would get there. Ryou, being Ryou, was messing around with Ichirou in the far back of the van. I was sitting in the middle with Kagome, and Jirou was driving. As I was about to turn around and tell them both to stop acting like children, Ryou suddenly became very serious and said, "you all know the legend of these woods, right?"
"Oh, blow it out your ass," I said, satisfied when a surprised look came across his dumb face, "in case you've forgotten; we live in JAPAN. This place is so old, that everything has some legend about it. We have stories about umbrellas that come to life after 100 years and let's not forget that every group of drunken jackasses who get lost in the woods make up some story about why they got lost." I knew I was on a roll and so I kept going, "in fact, I wouldn't even be surprised if that tree, that tree right out there," and here I pointed out the window to a gnarled old tree we were slowly driving past, "-has some ancient spirit in it."
We were slowly driving past it because Jirou refused to drive over 10 kph in these woods, for fear of damaging the van. Naturally, when I pointed, everyone turned to look. For a moment, just for a moment, that gnarled old tree appeared to have a happy, smiling child trapped in it's warped rings. I blinked, and the image of the child super-imposed on the trunk was gone. For certain, it had been a trick of my imagination… but why a smiling child? I didn't know any children, and I hadn't been one for at least 10 years. I wrote it off as having children on my mind due to the impossibly immature Ichirou and Ryou, and would have kept going had Kagome not put a hand on my arm.
I turned to look at her and her large, round eyes stared right at me, as they always did, "you of all people shouldn't be poking fun at spirits, Hitomi…" she said quietly.
I opened my mouth, a scathing retort on the tip of my tongue… but something in her eyes made me stop. Stop cold, I just couldn't say the words. What did she mean "you of all people"? I mean, it's true that I lived in a house with a small shrine attached to it, but that's really not that strange. Grandma and grandpa are the only ones that ever go inside the thing and dad tells me to ignore them, but I've asked questions. What they told me made me avoid the little thing as much as I can.
"Yeah, seriously, who came up with that thing where objects come to life after 100 years; who in the hell keeps an umbrella around for 100 years?" Ryou snickered, breaking me out of remembering something grandma said.
"No clue," Ichirou laughed with him.
"Items of historical significance are often kept around. In fact, the shrine we're going to is home to several musical instruments that were used at significant points in history. Among these instruments is-"
"Oh, SHUT. UP." I could hear Ichirou roll his eyes, "when are you going to learn that you're the only one who cares about this crap? Well, you and dad."
"Dad is a history professor, at our college, and well-respected by his peers."
"Peers in something nobody cares about."
"It wouldn't kill you to be more interested in your heritage, Ichirou," Jirou actually turned in his seat to chastise his brother.
I was barely listening to the two of them bicker like an old married couple; I was more focused on Kagome. She was humming something now. I was certain that I knew the song and knew it well, but I could not place it. And the more I tried to concentrate on the sound of her humming, the more the petty fight between the two brothers grated their way deeper into my head. I couldn't stand it anymore, I turned toward the front to remind Jirou he was supposed to be the more mature of the pair and stopped when I saw an immense tree right in the middle of the windshield.
"THE ROAD!" I shouted as I realized the tree indicated a fork in the road.
Jirou snapped his head back around and too late I realized that, at 10 kph, the van wouldn't have even been dented, and that's assuming we had hit the tree head-on. Jirou over-reacted big-time, most likely due to my outburst, and wrenched the wheel to the left.
"Is this even the right direction? I don't remember a fork in the road…" Ryou said slowly, pulling out his phone.
I pulled out mine as well, "all we have to do is check the GPS and… hey, I have no reception." I stared at my phone. I had a plan with DoCoMo, (one of the largest cell-phone providers in Japan), it was rumored that their phones even got reception at the top of Fuji; how could my phone not have any reception?
"Okay, the GPS is, hey!" Ryou said, giving voice to my thoughts, "my phone doesn't have reception? Softbank has reception everywhere, even in elevators; what gives?!"
"It's probably these trees messing with the signal or something," Ichirou said, reaching for his phone.
"They do have a rather closed-off atmosphere, don't they… like nothing enters or leaves… heh, leaves," Kagome was staring dreamily out of the window again.
I was too busy trying to understand what was up with my phone to address that properly; she was always saying things that seemed a little odd anyway.
"My phone's a satellite," Ichirou held it up, "it'll find us in- shit."
"It'll find us in shit?" Ryou laughed, "damn, that's impressive."
"Oh, go eat a dick," Ichirou grumbled as he put his phone away, "the battery's dead."
"Are you volunteering yours?" I sneered. How could he let his battery die?
"Only if you're doing the eating," Ichirou grinned back at me like a monkey infested with herpes.
"No sex, oral or otherwise, in this van," Jirou cut in, "dad would kill me."
My mouth gaped like a fish out of water at the same time my mind became a vast wasteland of half-thoughts. Ichirou's comment, I had a response for; I could not form a comeback sufficiently vicious for Jirou's.
"Ruin all my fun," Ryou said.
"Okay, seriously, we all looked up the route to the shrine," I said, desperate for a change in topic. Ichirou was a star athlete of the college, he was there on a full athletic scholarship and his body reflected it, but thinking about that was not something I was going to let myself do. "If none of us remember a fork in the road, it means we're lost. We should turn around before we got more lost."
"This is the only weekend that was free for all of us, and we don't have time to turn around," Jirou kept driving.
"But we have time to go traipsing about in these woods?" Ryou sneered.
"We know the shrine is in these woods," Jirou bit back after it was clear Ichirou was not going to defend him, "if we don't see it inside of an hour, we'll turn around and take the other fork. These woods are not that big, the shrine is guaranteed to be at the end of one of them."
"Said with such conviction," Kagome let out a sigh, "I wonder what it means to not see the forest for the trees…"
"It means that you're so focused on what's in front of you that you can't see the bigger picture and what your actions have on it. Like someone studying so hard for their upcoming math final that they completely forget to study for the rest of the finals that take place that week," I told her.
"Is that what it means?" her head turned towards me in a way that made me wonder how her neck wasn't snapping in half, "I was thinking of something totally different."
How in the name of all that is holy did I get involved with this girl? I wondered to myself, turning away from her to stare out the window. I just couldn't look at her big, doe eyes staring blankly at me anymore, but I wasn't going to say that.
"I've done that," Ichirou confessed, startling me from my musings, "but Ryou is right, brother. You need to spin this heap around."
"It's not a heap!" Jirou huffed into the steering wheel, "it's a perfectly serviceable van. And I didn't see the great baseball star coming up with a way to transport five people. Who came through? Me, that's who."
"Calm down, we're all grateful you were able to get the van," I said. I hadn't seen Jirou angry before, but the saying "watch out for the quiet ones" was a saying for a reason and I did not want to see him truly angry; especially when he was driving. Even if he was driving like a little old lady who had lost her glasses.
"Surprised you even know how to drive such a modern thing like a car," Ryou snickered, "wouldn't you be happier with a horse?"
"Dude, lay off," Ichirou said, FINALLY stepping up.
"Ah, you're no fun," Ryou shoved him.
I rolled my eyes, was I seriously going to have to play nursemaid to these two imbeciles the whole time? I wondered just how long it was going to be, how much research we were actually going to be able to get done at the shrine before they kicked us out because of these two morons.
I checked my watch, but it read the same time as when we drove off of the paved road. "Hey, Kagome? What time do you have?"
"Oh, not long now," she gave a dreamy sigh, "I'm sure of it."
"Okay, check your girl because she is tripping balls," Ryou said, scooting away from Kagome.
"Agreed, I'm not even touching that statement," Ichirou said, moving over so Ryou could scoot further away, "whatever she is on; it's either really good, or really bad, I can't decide."
"Oh, do you need me to change your diapers?" I said in the most condescending voice I could muster, "get over it, she says stuff like that all the time."
" 'She says stuff like that all the time'… and this doesn't bother you?" Ichirou asked.
"If I knew a girl who said stuff like THAT all the time, I wouldn't know her anymore," Ryou nodded.
"And nobody suspects it's just an act?" Jirou interjected. "Seriously, she could just be saying those things because she gets a high off of creeping people out, it's not all that uncommon."
"I wonder what I would be like if this was an act," Kagome turned toward me again, "what do you think?"
"I think you would be very popular, actually," I answered, "I've talked to you about all kinds of things and you seem to know enough about them to carry a conversation, sort of, and that helps when talking to lots of different people on a daily basis."
"I would be popular," Kagome repeated, "there's a thought."
"If you ever become popular, I would buy you a cheerleader uniform," Ichirou was laughing again.
"Hey, serious?" Ryou asked, "she'd be pretty hot in that."
"The infirmary nurse would be hot in that outfit," Jirou was laughing as well.
"He's a guy," I said, confused.
"Dude," Ryou said solemnly to Ichirou, "your brother's gay."
"What?! No, I-" Jirou backpedaled as hard as he could, "I just meant that anyone, even a guy, would look hot in that skimpy little excuse for clothes and- oh, forget it." He said as Ryou and Ichirou burst into fresh laughter.
Even I was having a hard time keeping from laughing, but something about the way Kagome was still staring at me killed any mirth that might have spilled forth in my throat.
"If I was hot, would you tell me?" she asked.
"Sure," I said, forcing a laugh, "next time you're on fire, I'll be the first to let you know."
"Oh, good. I would want to know that," Kagome turned back to the window and, inwardly, I let out a huge sigh of relief. Ryou had it right; something was seriously off about her.
"Okay, enough horsing around," Jirou said, "help me look for a place to pull a U-turn, we've gone down this fork enough."
"We're travelling at half the speed of smell," Ryou groaned, "pull a K-turn."
"Come on, grandma," Ichirou seconded, "I swear the van will be okay if you go," he performed an over-dramatic gasp, "12 kph."
"Who got us the van?" Jirou asked.
"You," I said. I was about to say more when I noticed a roof poking above the treeline, "hey, maybe this was the right fork after all; there's a building up ahead! At the very least, someone can give us directions."
"Ah, you women and your directions. The building will have reception and we can all use the GPS again," Ryou waved off my comment, "well, all except for Ichirou, here," Ryou patted him on the shoulder, "who was so phenomenally dumb that he let his phone die."
"Shove it," Ichirou replied, knocking his hand away.
"Whoa, what is this place?" I said, leaning between the two front seats as the building came into view.
"A place nobody in their right mind lives," Ryou stated as the van pulled to a stop alongside the building, "look at the plants!"
And indeed, it seemed that the forest had all but reclaimed this work of architecture. Vines covered the structure, ivy draped from its roof, and the undergrowth was higher than a meter.
"How did you even see a building in all that?" Ichirou seconded, reaching for the handle of the side door.
Jirou sniffed and peered out the windshield, "judging by the amount of growth, I'd say it's been growing unchecked for at least two hundred years."
"And there goes getting directions," Ichirou huffed and fell back into his seat, "pull your U-turn, gramps, and get us the heck out of here."
"I never said no-one lived here," Jirou set the brake and turned off the van, "some buildings are allowed to be overgrown like this to preserve the masonry. There's nothing to suggest the inside hasn't been refurbished."
"You mean, they literally let the plants hold the place together?" I asked.
"Precisely," Jirou nodded.
"It seems that something else is also holding it together," Kagome said quietly as she reached for the door handle.
"Yeah, it's called 'mortar'," Ichirou told her, beating me to the door handle. I yanked my hand back when I saw his coming forward. No way was I going to touch his hand and feel some sort of stupid spark. The heart may rule the head, but only if the head allows it the opportunity.
I exited the van, followed by Ichirou and Ryou as Kagome didn't pull her seat forward and Ryou was just lazy. She wandered off into the brush while Jirou came around the front of the van to join us.
"This is amazing," he said, "the architectural style suggests something from the Edo period. Even with the planned overgrowth, it's nothing short of miraculous this place is still standing, given the harsh environment."
"It's a forest, for crying out loud," Ryou groaned, kicking an old stump, "it's not exactly the top of Fuji."
"Seriously," Ichirou seconded, "get a grip, Jirou."
"You 'get a grip'," Jirou snapped back, "am I the only one here who appreciates how rare a discovery this is? Doesn't anyone find this the least bit odd that father reads articles about ancient buildings like this and I've never seen this building's picture before?"
"That is kind of strange," I nodded slowly, trying to humor him…but not really understanding what he was on about.
"Oh, look, I found a strange little man," Kagome's voice was barely above a whisper, like always, but it was almost as though my ears had been tuned to her frequency; I heard her from the other side of the van.
Even I paused at the one. Still, as I was the only one in the group who could be considered her friend, I went over to the other side of the van. There in her hand was a small figure; it was obviously a doll.
In spite of myself, I jumped slightly as Jirou rushed past me. "Is that a real Amagatsu?" he was clearly excited, "it is! And it's actually made with real bamboo, this; if I didn't know any better, I'd say this came straight out of the Edo period."
Kagome handed him the doll for him to inspect more closely, "the Edo period, wasn't that the period in time that Japan closed itself off from the rest of world?"
"Otherwise known as the Isolationist Period, yes," Jirou waved her comment off. "Even the doll's clothes are made of the materials one would find in that time period, it's just incredi-"
"-bly boring?" Ichirou cut him off; Ryou joined him in laughter.
"Dude, your brother's playing with dolls. Face it, he's gay. Just don't try to hook him up with me, alright?"
Jirou didn't even bother answering this, which is more than I could say.
"Would the two of you clowns lay off?! Right now, we are lost in the woods and it seems to me that the only guy around here with their head not firmly lodged up their ass is right-" I turned around to point at Jirou, and found he was walking toward the door.
"I have to know how someone made this doll, it looks like it was made yesterday. The techniques have long been lost," he was muttering, "how has this doll not been burned? Surely the owner came of age…"
"Maybe the owner is inside and wondering where their doll is," Kagome remarked.
"Maybe it's your brother's ghost lover," Ryou gave Ichirou a shove.
I wanted to say something scathing back, really I did, but just as Jirou put a hand on the door, we all heard the sound of a phone ringing. Clear as day, like it was right inside one of those windows with the strange panes.
What was strange about them? Well, I didn't take the time to look at them properly right then, I was too busy sprinting toward Jirou; no-one was going to enter that building until we all agreed to go in.
Nearly tackling Jirou, I managed to get him away from the door. "Slow your roll," I told him, "what happened to the plan of just turning around and trying the other fork?"
"We can't leave now," I heard Kagome behind me and didn't even spare a moment to think what she might mean by that.
"She's right, I have to know who made this," Jirou turned toward the door again.
"It's just some old doll!" Ichirou exploded behind me, "this, this right here is why I had to save your butt from the basketball team the day we met!"
"Now, everyone just – wait, what?" I turned toward Ichirou.
"Oh, he never told you that?" Ichirou walked right past me, glaring at Jirou, "the great history prodigy never told you how he spent his whole childhood hiding from bullies?"
"Dude, be fair," Ryou came up behind him, "look at the string bean; that bulge in his pants is most likely an asthma inhaler. 'Hiding from bullies' is kind of a given."
"I did not spend my whole childhood hiding from bullies," Jirou glared right back at Ichirou and it was then that I realized; the two were the exact same height. It never occurred to me before, Ichirou always seemed so much bigger than his brother. No, it wasn't until I saw them standing face-to-face that it became unmistakable; they really were twins.
"Just because you probably spent your childhood AS a bully does not mean you get to assess the merits of my academic career!" Jirou's voice had raised to meet Ichirou's. "You think you're so much better than me just because you've spent over half of your life chasing after a little white ball! Even if you make it to the Major Leagues, your career will end eventually; then what? Huh?! What are your real-world skills, Ichirou?"
"Whoa, easy, man, let's just-" even Ryou could tell this was getting out of hand as Ichirou gaped like a fish out of water.
"Was I talking to you, you pathetic lay-about?" Jirou snapped, "how did you even get into college?"
"You leave him alone!" Ichirou thundered from somewhere in his stomach, "he's twice the man you'll ever be! You with your books and your, your thick glasses! It's the new millenium, George Burns; get contacts!"
"Isn't anyone going to answer the call?" I heard Kagome behind the four of us, but blew her off; she was going to have to wait.
"Oh, NOW we're getting somewhere!" Jirou made a dramatic roll of his head and threw up his hands, "manliness! That's all you care about; how much of a man you and those around you are! Have you ever stopped to consider that there are other qualities that make a man BESIDES athleticism?"
Ryou and I exchanged a look; I took Jirou's arm, "Jirou! Jirou, he's not worth it; please, calm down."
"How about taking care of your wife and kids?!" Ichirou was fairly screaming at Jirou by this point.
Ryou grabbed Ichirou bodily, "easy, tiger, easy!"
"No!" Ichirou strained against Ryou, "the reason mom took me and left is because our father, the precious renowned history professor, didn't even have the scrote to tell his boss he needed time off to help his wife with newborn twins!"
"That was NOT the reason she left, and you know it!" Jirou took a deep breath, most likely to scream some more, but then we all stopped dead at the sound of a faint 'click'.
We all turned and saw Kagome in the frame of the door, "it's still ringing," she said by way of explanation, her hand on the now-open door, "it must be really important."
"Who the hell cares?!" Ryou stormed up to Kagome, "there's a family crisis going on two inches from your nose and all you can think about is a call from someone you don't know to someone you've never met?!"
I couldn't take it anymore. "SHUT! UP!" Even Kagome turned to look at me. I was breathing rapidly through my nose, partially from anger and partially from a sudden bought of stage fright as a very volatile cocktail of emotional ticking time bombs turned on me.
"For f*ck's sake!" I said, exasperated, "the two of you are at each other's throats when you're twins! You are the closest that any two people can be, and you're fighting just like anyone else; that should prove to you that you're family. And you!" I said, rounding on Ryou, "you jerk; egging on Ichirou, putting down Jirou at every chance, would it kill you to be a positive influence?" Running out of steam, I landed on Kagome, "and what is with you? You walk around half in a daze, half the time I can't even tell if you're fully awake, and why, WHY, did you open that God-forsaken door? We were on the verge of getting out of here, and you open the door."
"I just thought someone should answer the phone; it seems very urgent," Kagome said quietly, her hand falling from the doorknob.
Both Ichirou and Jirou had deflated, Ichirou cast a sidelong glance at Jirou, "come on, Professor Egghead; let's go meet the maker of your doll."
"You sure?" Jirou had all but forgotten the doll, its handmade clothing now rumpled from when he clenched it in his anger.
"Yeah," Ichirou nodded, "I'm sure. But you're coming to my next game."
"Deal," Jirou smiled at his brother.
"Oh, man, I think I'm getting a cavity," Ryou said as Kagome walked inside.
I walked past him and shoved him into the door, "you're a prick."
"Call me when you'd like to see that prick!" Ryou growled after me.
I ignored him and caught up to Kagome, "let's find this phone, okay?"
"Do I really seem like I'm not fully awake?" she asked me.
"I was just angry because of all the fighting and," I told her, "I'm sorry."
Kagome nodded, "okay, let's see who's trying to call."
"She is seriously tripping," Ryou said as Jirou walked past him, "balls."
"Dude, could you maybe grow up? By about two years?" Ichirou held out his hand to help him off the ground, "I can't even get the cheerleaders to date you like this."
"No promises," Ryou took his hand, "but the dangling carrot of girls is a good start."
"I thought you grew up with a big family?" Ichirou pulled him off the ground.
"I did," Ryou dusted himself off, "nine kids. Thing is; wasn't my family."
"You were adopted?" Ichirou asked.
"I wish," Ryou snorted, "the nine kids weren't anybody's family, man. Foster home; all my life."
I suddenly felt a twinge somewhere for shoving him; I beat it down. The ringing phone continued to elude us all. One minute, it would sound like it was right behind the door, the next like it was down the hall. I entertained the thought that there were actually multiple phones, and they were all ringing out of sync.
"It's definitely coming from upstairs," Jirou stood at the base of the landing, still holding that doll.
"That's horse-shit," Ichirou walked over to him, "we all heard the phone ringing like it was right on the other side of the…" he trailed off as he reached Jirou, "he's right."
"It's spreading!" Ryou crossed the hall, "must be a family disease or something. There's no way that we all could have heard a phone that was upstairs from outside the front door."
"The window is open," Kagome was already almost up the stairs before I noticed she wasn't beside me anymore.
"What window?! This place doesn't have windows! We saw that when we were outside!" Ryou gaped after her.
"You got a better explanation?" I hurried up the stairs past him, "because I'd love to hear it." No matter how fast I pumped my legs, I just couldn't seem to catch up to Kagome, "if not; stop your noise!"
I heard the sounds of three pairs of feet chasing us and after what seemed like an endless amount of stairs, I finally reached the top of the landing. "Are we sure this was just a two-story place?" I felt a stitch in my side, even though I walked up easily three times that amount of stairs every single day.
"I know where the call is coming from," I watched Kagome wait for us at the top, but by the time I got there, she had already started walking down the hall.
"Paging Dr. Bell, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell; where the f*ck did you hide the phone, dude?" Ryou leaned against the wall, also holding his side.
"For once, we agree," Jirou was breathing hard. Something twinged inside my brain when I noticed both of them holding their sides. Jirou, understandable; he didn't look like he got much exercise. But the person responsible for stealing the most bases last season? Not a chance a single flight of stairs would do this to him.
But the weirdest part of all was Kagome. I was literally staring in awe as the star of the baseball team was hunched over holding onto his knees, and there she was, walking along as calmly as if she was on her way to class. I had caught a glimpse of her eyes as I came up the stairs; they were distant, glazed-over, as if something was compelling her to keep going. Taking a deep breath, I sucked up my pain and hurried after her; I wasn't about to leave her alone in this disgusting place.
Pressing the flat of my hand deep into my side, I finally got to have a look around. The floors, the walls, the ceilings; everything was made out of stone. Hand-carved, almost delicate work formed the foreboding hallway that lay before me. In between each door was a deep archway, and the floor had been carved to look like wood paneling. Marveling at the oddness of a building that looked like it had been completely carved from a single block of stone the size of, well, the size of a two-story house. I couldn't see a single seam or crack in the stone, even though I knew how old the building must be for all of the plants to be growing on the… wait a second!
My heart skipped a beat as I realized that there was not a single plant on the inside of the building. The overgrowth that had been so prevalent from the outside; there wasn't a single trace of it in here. If I didn't know better, I'd say this building had just been completed less than five years ago. The hallway still smelled of carving tools and fresh stone filings. I breathed deep through my nose, there was something odd about the air in this hallway, something that I hadn't smelled outside or even on the lower floor. But now, here, as I followed Kagome along the wood-etched floor, I couldn't deny it; the air was thicker.
As I was trying to remember what my grandfather had told me about what was happening when the air grew thick, Kagome stopped. I looked up from my musings to see that we had reached the end of the hallway. All of the doors we had passed did not have knobs, they simply slid on their tracks, but the door Kagome stood in front of now was a true door; handle and all. Vaguely, I tried to recall if doors even had doorknobs in the Edo Period. Before I could mention the severe oddness of the very out-of-place door, Ryou exploded between the two of us, "is THIS where the phone is? Finally! It feels like we've walked three miles!"
"No joke," Ichirou seconded, coming to stand behind me and nearly scaring me out of my wits.
"But the stairs are right over there," Kagome pointed to the stairs that were a mere five doors down.
"She's right," Jirou said, running his hand along the wall, "hand-carved stone… you just don't see this anymore."
"Oh, man," Ryou smacked his forehead, "are you seriously going to be jizzing yourself over EVERYTHING in this place? I need to know if I should go grab my rain slicker."
"Hey, we may not have gotten to the shrine, but this will make for one hell of a report," Ichirou told him, "having him around to analyze this place might actually save us from going to that shrine; shut your trap, dude."
"Yeah, yeah, okay. Jizz away, good sir," Ryou made an overly dramatic bow toward Jirou, who stared coldly at him in return.
Normally, I would have had something to say about the twelve-year-old gutter-talk coming straight from the mouth of a twenty-one-year-old, but there was something about that door; I seriously did not want to open it. Before I could find the proper way to articulate my feelings outside of, "I really don't like that door," Ryou had stepped forward and put his hand on the knob.
The sound of the ringing phone stopped and was followed almost immediately by the laughter of children. The five of us looked at each other and it was clear what we were all thinking; children? What were children doing in this god-forsaken-
"I swear to God Almighty if this is some Edo Period-themed summer camp, I'm going to strangle your brother," Ryou growled at Ichirou as he turned the doorknob. The door flew open wide, "okay, kiddies; where's your counselor?"
"Counselor? Is that anything like a doctor?" asked one child's voice; a small girl.
There was a bright light coming from inside the room, but I couldn't see past Ryou as his frame took up the entire doorway.
"You don't want to see the doctor," said a boy's voice.
"Nobody wants to see the doctor," a second girl, older than the first.
"Someone has to; you know that," a second boy, also older.
"Every day, someone has to go and see the doctor," the first girl again.
"Oh, forget this," Ryou grabbed the doll out of Jirou's hand, "if you want this back, take me to an adult."
"Hey, you found Hikyuu!" the younger boy called out, "I've been looking everywhere for him!"
"You should give him back; you're too old to be playing with dolls," the older girl scolded Ryou.
"Dude, you just got called out by a grade-schooler," Ryou sneered at Jirou.
I saw Jirou's mouth open, perhaps to say something back to him or maybe to the children, but the older boy spoke again.
"I've got an idea. Come and play with us, and we'll take you to an adult."
Ryou rolled his eyes, "fine. One game, then take us to an adult."
"Oh, you'll get to see an adult; I promise," there was something in his tone…
"Fan-f*cking-tastic," Ryou walked in the room.
I could tell something was wrong the minute he stepped into the frame of the door. Well, that's not true; I could tell there was something wrong the minute we all heard the phone start to ring, but that was so beyond mattering at the moment. Time seemed to slow as Ryou stepped forward, I saw Ichirou reach out to stop him but it was too late. Far too late for any of us to say anything, much less do anything. I heard unearthly laughter from the mouths of children, a bright flash of light, and the door slammed shut with a boom that shook the entire hallway.
We all stared at the door, unable to move, unable to speak. Then, beyond all rhyme and reason, the door flickered like an old movie projector screen and we saw Ryou on his knees in the middle of the room. The appearance of an old movie was uncanny; Ryou was in black and white, we saw scratches and pops, and then we saw the children.
Oh, as long as I live, I will never forget those children. Most of them had obvious disfigurements; a small girl was missing an arm, there was a boy with a bandage bisecting his face, and another girl with her entire face, save one eye, completely bandaged. I then noticed the boy with only one foot peeking out of the bottom of his kimono, and finally, a girl with her entire neck bandaged to hilt. The more I looked, the more mutilations I counted, and the more I wondered what the kimono were hiding on the children with no trauma that I could see.
I saw Ichirou clench his fists as the children all gathered around Ryou. The oldest boy tied a blindfold on him, then stepped back to join hands with the rest of them. Well, as much as they could join hands, anyway. The aforementioned wounds impeded that somewhat. Yet it seemed like the children were used to this, and with the ease of long practice, they began to walk around Ryou in a circle and intoned with a single voice, "Form a circle, form a circle, the bird is in the cage. When can it come out? At the time of night when night-time ends. The turtle and the crane have slipped from our sight; name the one who stands behind you."
" 'Name the one who stands behind me'?! How in the fucking hell am I supposed to know your names?!"
"You should know our names," the older boy said as the children stopped circling, "we know yours; Ryou."
"You creepy little brats better take me to an adult, RIGHT-" Ryou gritted his teeth and yanked off the blindfold. I instantly saw his mouth go from clenched in anger to slack in surprise, "-now?" his angry shout cutting off at something just short of choking.
I had never heard Ryou sound so scared, and I didn't blame him. The children turned to one another, and their playful grins turned malicious and menacing.
"He took off the blindfold; the game is over!" the young boy declared.
"Sounds like the doctor has a new patient," said the little girl with no arm.
The older girl breathed a sigh of relief, and I could see her touching her neck instead of her chest.
"Wait," said the older boy, "I've got something better in mind."
"But, the doctor-" said the younger boy, "the doctor needs a patient and I don't want to go again."
"Don't worry, you won't," replied the older boy as the image started to fade, "besides-" and it winked out before we could hear what the older boy was going to say.
~To Be Continued...~