Okay, so here's the first chapter of my new story. Just to warn you, this story will start off a bit slow because I want to show how the character's react and think of different things. Also this story was inspired by Mulan, but not heavily based on it. I'm keeping it at pg-13 for now, I don't know if it will change to R we'll have to see.
Disclaimer: GAH! You know I don't, so don't rub it in!
Kagome slowly began to open her eyes as the morning sunlight began to seep through the tiny cracks in the bamboo blinds covering the windows opening. Still not able to fully open her eyes, she glared in vain at the light since she only managed to blind herself momentarily.
With a small groan, she made her way off of the futon, "another lovely day for chores," she stated sardonically to herself. But then a bright smile replaced the sleepy frown, "but you never know what wonderful things could happen today! Right Buyo?" she quirked in a very chipper tone while lovingly petting her obese feline friend on the head, eventually giving him a scratch behind the ear.
Kagome had grown up on a small shrine that resided in a, for the most part, secluded village. But not so secluded that it couldn't keep in contact with the rest of Japan. In fact, it was one of the closest to the capital where the emperor resided.
She lived on the shrine along with her mother, father, grandfather and younger brother. Unfortunately, her father had fallen ill with a disease that was unknown to the local miko of the village. Her father had been a soldier in the imperial army years ago during the civil war, but it caused him to suffer a strenuous life afterwards. Of course this also made her family be well known and respected.
Once she had her work kimono on, Kagome left the house to start her daily routine of chores, considering her father sick and her grandfather far too old, Kagome was left to do the outside chores. Her mother would work in the house. For the most part of her work, she would feed the chickens and horses and sweep the shrine steps, jobs that 'women could handle'. Her brother, Souta, would normally do all the heavy work.
While sweeping one of the many shrine steps, carefully getting the rocks that had embedded themselves into the tiny crevasses, Kagome looked up and noticed the tall Sakura tree that rested in the center of the main courtyard of the shrine.
She loved that tree. Every year, all the blossoms were perfect; none would perish or fail to bloom. And when the sun was bright, like today, the tree practically glowed, each blossom illuminating at the surrender of the sun's rays. It was so unearthly, Kagome often wondered of the tree had been made by the god's themselves.
Suddenly one of the tiny blossoms floated down from the high branches of the tree, landing in Kagome's open palm.
She sighed as she stared at the little silky pedals; it was a huge reminder of the day to come. Tomorrow, Kagome would be done up to be a bride, beautiful and elegant. Two of which, Kagome didn't believe she was.
Apparently, the young emperor was in search of a bride, and planned on looking all over the small island of Japan to find the perfect woman. Her mother, believing she had a chance, convinced Kagome to compete for a place next to the emperor in his bed, that alone grossed Kagome about. 'And if the emperor doesn't choose you, one of the higher ranks of the imperial soldiers will surely have you for a wife', her mother had said. Even though Kagome would have rather found a husband through love, she would do this for her family and their honor, and what a honor boost it would be, to be the wife of the emperor.
In truth, Kagome should have been married off 3 years ago, when she was 14, a fine young woman in most eyes. But being who she was, she refused. She would like to be free from having to marry, and really just this kind of life at all. Maybe someday, like the sakura blossom, she would break free from the branches that held her down and float to new environments and into the hands of someone who truly adored her for who she was. Instead of withering and being set free when there was no life left for her.
"I hope tomorrow never comes," she sighed to the flower before gently blowing it off her hand.
Looking up once again from her reverie, Kagome saw her brother. He was about to leave the shrine gates, "Souta!" when he turned around to look at her, she knew she had his attention and began to run over to him.
Souta was two years younger than she was, but of course he looked much older. He was about 5'11" and had grown into a very handsome young man. He had been training to be in the imperial army, which Kagome had great confidence in; after all he was their father's son, so he was born of good lineage.
"Where are you going? You should be resting now after coming home yesterday from that long trip!" she questioned, surely he wouldn't be leaving already?
"I have to train, don't you want me to be successful in defeating those samurai?" Souta loved his sister dearly, but she always questioned him and worried so much that it annoyed him.
Kagome hesitated with her answer for a second, it was almost like he was scolding her, "of course Souta, but couldn't you stay home for a while longer...you could train with me!" she added the last part on quickly, why not? Kagome wasn't completely devoid of sword skills, Souta had taught her a few basic katas a while back, ever since, she had practiced herself, trying to get better. She wouldn't be much of a match against Souta, but surely she could help?
"I've already told you before, it's better for me to train alone, it's much easier for me to concentrate and focus," his tone was clipped, as if he were talking to a small child, not his older sister.
'Well that's not going to help you when you're in battle,' Kagome snorted to herself, careful not to say it out loud. If a woman were to insult a man in any way, she could be killed if the man wishes true this was her brother, but if some other man were around and heard her, she would probably not be breathing at the moment.
"So how long do you plan on leaving us for this time?" she had to ask the question, she hated when he left like this. Sometimes he would leave for four days, two weeks, sometimes even a month with no word from him. It always made Kagome wonder what kind of training Souta did.
"Actually this time, I think I may go straight to the capital and join the army, instead of waiting another two weeks for them to come by the pick up new recruits," he said this with a smug smile, "training with the military will give me more experience, then we can destroy those menacing samurai before they even see us coming!"
Kagome smiled at her brother's words, he always had such admirable confidence, "I suppose that would be more efficient"
He gave her a quick nod, "wish me luck, ne?"
She gave him a small sisterly peck on the cheek, giggling when she saw him blush, then she gave him a bone crushing hug, with a burst of strength Souta didn't know she possessed. She realized that if tomorrow were to really happen, she may never see him again, and being in the military, he could be gone for years, "Gambatte!" she resisted the urge to cry.
Waving to him as he descended the shrine steps, she let a solitaire tear run down her cheek, 'goodbye Souta'
With one turn around the corner, he was gone. Soon he would be part of the imperial army, and he would be helping to exterminate those pesky samurai from Japan.
For the past three years, a samurai militia had been threatening the emperor and actually attempting to kill their young ruler. From what she knew, the samurai had no reason for killing the emperor, and why should they? Emperor Naraku had been kind to all the people of Japan, and a great ruler.
The imperial army hadn't succeeded in defeating the samurai militia, because the samurai lived far off into the mountains and knew it quite well. The army would send a medium sized squadron of soldiers, but they would all be slain, due to the disadvantage of not knowing the land. And no one really knew how many of the samurai there were in total.
So now the army was building itself up, and then would declare war on the militia. If it weren't for those samurai, Souta would have no reason to join the army, at least not for many years.
She hoped Souta killed every last one of the samurai, so that the threats and terrorism of innocent villages could be stopped, and of course he come home safe. She knew Souta would sacrifice himself for the people he loved, Japan. Kagome wouldn't know what to do if anything happened to him, but she was sanguine that he would be okay.
Kagome would have been glad to join the army with him, unfortunately, women were unable to join the army or handle weapons for that matter, or else they would be killed. What wonderful lives women led these days, basically all harmless, defenseless, housewives, with a slight exception for Kagome.
"Kagome, are you day dreaming again?" she heard her mother call out from behind.
She quickly turned around to face the older woman, trying to fix her posture, "no okaasan, just...taking a break from chores," surely her mother knew that Souta was leaving to go to the army early? Possibly, but her mother always had a knack at reading her children's minds, he possibly didn't tell her but either way she would have respected Souta's decision, she was like that.
"Don't worry Kagome, I'm sure he'll be back sooner than you think," so she did know, "I've never known you to take breaks, what will the emperor think when he finds out he's to marry a slacker?" her tone was very light-hearted.
Instantly soothed by her mother, Kagome smiled, "Mama, you know the emperor won't pick me"
"Kagome, don't say such a thing! You'll jinx yourself and then you'll never be married off!" her mother scolded, half laughing in the process.
'If only,' Kagome sighed.
"Anyway dear, would you mind going to the market and picking up a few things for me?"
"Of course," she replied happily and after receiving her instructions, she was down the steps and off to the market.
She had always hated going to the market place, it was usually so crowded that you could barely see the nose in front of your face sometimes. And being an eligible young woman, she would get the occasional lecherous stare from men, be they young or old. She really hated it there.
Today wasn't that bad, there was still an outrageous amount of people there, but tolerable. Briskly walking down the gravel clad road, she scanned her eyes over several stands, she was to buy a bag of rice, leek, tofu, and a few other choice items for her mother.
After getting most of her groceries, all was left to get was the leek. 'Ha! Almost a brand new record, now all I have to find it that –', she just spotted the end of her mental sentence, 'leek'.
With a bright smile on her face at her perceptiveness, she began to pace herself over to the waiting vegetable, but she was surprised suddenly when she saw Souta in the corner of her eye, not too far away from her.
"Souta?" she squinted a bit to make sure she had guessed right, 'why is he here? I thought he left?'
Then a slough of screams could be heard behind her, turning around to see what the commotion was all about, Kagome saw that plenty of people were running towards her! Unable to get out of the way of the charging villagers in time, she was pushed this way and that as they ran past her to 'safer' grounds.
'What's going on!?' she screamed inside her head.
"The samurai are attacking! Run for your lives!" she heard one woman scream, almost deafening her.
'Samurai'
After all the people had passed, Kagome raised her head and almost fell backwards with a huge gasp.
There was a man on a horse, a huge black stallion to be exact. She was almost unable to decipher any details, since his adjacency was about 30 yards away. The first thing she noticed was his long silver hair blowing in the wind, 'how unnatural'. The man was swinging a sword around as he rode the stallion. He was a samurai, she couldn't tell by his clothing, since he wasn't wearing the traditional samurai attire, but his posture and skill revealed all.
That's when Kagome noticed that she was the only left standing in that part of the street, and he was coming towards her...with a sword. Her first reaction was to scream, but she was unable to do so, she just stood there like a frightened animal, waiting for the inevitable to happen.
"Don't worry miss, I'll protect you!" one of the imperial guards of her village stepped in front of her, sword drawn.
As soon as the silver haired man came close enough, he easily slashed the poor soldier across the chest. With a small splay of blood hitting her face, Kagome gasped as the body hit the hard ground in front of her. She had never seen anyone die.
Breathing heavily, Kagome managed to raise her head to face the assailant. Chocolate brown was melted in with sweet honey gold.
Kagome was now at a total loss of movement, she was unable to steer her eyes away from his. His intense gaze seemed to be staring straight into her very soul, mesmerizing her.
'What am I doing!? He just killed a man right in front of me! That poor man,' Kagome cut her stare from the samurai, with a sympathetic look to the corpse, dead before her. When she looked back up at the silver haired rebel, he was smirking at her, was he going to kill her next? 'He's trying to scare me'. Not willing to go down without a fight, Kagome's innocent expression turned into a defiant glare. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pouted, ready to give him a piece of her mind.
The sudden mood change surprised the ruthless killer for a second, but he soon smirked again, and then winked at her!
'How can he have the audacity to treat me like some whore!' Kagome was about to show him that she wasn't just any woman he could look down upon, be he on a horse or not, but her attack was cut short when the black beast brought itself up on it's hind legs, causing Kagome to fall backwards on her butt, "ow"
"Hyah!" the man yelled aloud pointing his sword forward and began to gallop off passed Kagome and further on through the street, Kagome watched him run off and finally noticed something that she should have when she had first saw him, he had ears! Silver hair, golden eyes, and dog ears...
'A demon!' she thought frantically, the next thing she was met with was a dozen or so more horses, all occupied by men, both demons and humans, all following the audacious creature that had just left her. Kagome knew that she had to get out of there but an impetuous sensation came over her, she was forgetting something...'Souta!'
Kagome swiftly turned around and began to run back to where she had last seen her brother, there was so much debris and dust in the air due to all the horses she could barely see anything.
Her eyes finally adjusted to pick out the forms of three people not too far away, she managed to pick out Souta and a bright smile spread over her face, 'he's alright', "Sou-"
She didn't get the chance to finish her call when she saw was happened next. Her brother was punched in the face by an unknown man then he was hoisted onto the black horse that was being ridden by the demon
She witnessed as all the samurai began to storm down through the town and out of sight, 'no...Souta' there was nothing Kagome could do as for the second time that day a tear streamed down her cheek.
Kagome had run home to tell her parents and hopefully get help for Souta. She almost wished she hadn't, her mother was grieving terribly over her 'dead' son, there was no way to tell that Souta had been killed, the rest of her family believed so.
Since that it would next to impossible to ever get Souta back, no one would agree to go and help retrieve him. Her father was far too weak to even attempt to go. Kagome sat in her room absently petting the cat that sat in her lap; it was the only form of comfort she could conjure.
"Souta must be alive," Kagome began to motivate herself, "he can't die...he can't," her voice was beginning to crack due to all the tears welling in her eyes. She herself couldn't picture her life without Souta, even if she were married and not be able to see if often since he would be in the military, at least she'd have known that he was alive and well and still in a world that she co-existed with him.
Then Kagome was struck with a noumenon, 'I'll go find Souta myself'. Not one of the smartest ideas and she knew that she might regret it later, but going by her own morals, she couldn't just sit there and do nothing while her brother could be alive and being tortured by those ruthless rebels. She would do anything for her younger brother, he would have done the same for her...except he didn't have the gender problem that she did.
She would have to dress up as a man to get out of the village safely and undetected.
Kagome silently padded down the hall of the house, careful not to wake anyone up in the house. She finally came to her father's armoire, a place where she had only looked into but had never entered. As was said before, women were forbidden to touch a weapon.
Drawing her father's sword from it's sheath, she placed it up to her long ebony tresses and her face scrunched up in sacrosanct pain as she slashed through them easily with the sharp blade, watching as every thread cut fell in silence to the floor. She then proceeded to tie her hair up in a top not, that most men wore.
She managed with great difficulty to put on the armor, 'how do they manage?!' she got through it eventually when she got used to the weight of her new attire. She finally added the final touch when she incased the sword once more at her side.
After leaving a small scroll left out for her family explaining where she had gone, Kagome saddled up her father's best horse she took one last look at the sakura tree, nodding her head and ripped out of the shrine courtyard with incredible speed and a determination that could rival anyone. The night was dark and the rain began to poor down, soaking Kagome to the bone, 'I'm coming Souta.'
Looks like tomorrow would not come after all.
Meh, there you go, I told you starts out slow but it plans to pick up. If this story gets a good reaction, then I'll continue on, if not then well...I guess it won't haha, I have other ideas for fanfics that could probably be better
If you liked it please REVIEW and tell me, great motivation for a next chapter you know, if you didn't like it, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated
Ja mata ne!
