How's everyone's summer going? Gearing up for school to start again?
All right guys! Here's the next chapter. Again, as I'll be saying for the next few chapters, please stick with it! I promise you, great action is coming up! Little bit of a twist in this chapter ;D
Also, a big thanks to all of the reviewers! If you haven't read my other work, then, just to let you know, I always respond to every review at the end of each chapter. I feel like it's a good way to stay in touch with you guys and get your feedback on what's going on.
Side note: while in Japanese, everyone refers directly to another person in conversation with the suffixes –san, -kun, -sama, and –chan unless they are very familiar acquaintances. I won't necessarily do that with the general characters (other than Sesshomaru) unless it's important there's a distinction. It gets a little repetitive to type –san every time, haha.
Vocab list for the chapter:
Onigiri – rice balls with fillings such as pickled plum, salmon, or tuna inside
Shouji – sliding Japanese paper doors
Kusarigama – Kohaku's weapon
I hope you enjoy!
One month passes before Kento finally asks how Kohaku is doing, and when he does, I have to answer truthfully: I don't know. It has been one month, thirty long, silent days since I have heard from Kohaku, and this time, it's not because he's been constantly off fighting demons. I've caught glimpses of him going to and from the outdoor market, but each time he's steadily avoided my gaze. I've left five paper cranes made from the only scraps of parchment I could find around this house on his windowsill, but there has been no response. Never in the past has this failed to summon him to my side. At the least, he used to respond with another crane to let me know that he was okay, but then again, I've never seen him as furious as he was on that night. Surely he must know that I wasn't lying, that there was no game in my attention. He's a fool if he doesn't see it for himself, I think angrily to myself.
In the month that has passed since I last saw him, my life has settled into a rhythm of monotony. I now wake before sunrise every morning, far earlier than I'd like to, in order to feed the chickens and tend to the horse Kento keeps to help with the harvest. It's on a dull, grey morning that I rise like this, sliding a cotton robe on over my loose shirt and pants that serve as my sleeping clothes and tie the knot tightly. Kento has probably already been awake for half an hour at this point, fetching the water for the day at the stream.
I grab the bucket of feed from the shed behind the house and pour the grain into my hands. The chickens are already starting to cluck, roused by the crowing of the old rooster that wakens me from my sleep. Lately, they haven't been producing as many eggs as we need to trade and eat. In fact, three of the eight we keep have stopped laying at all. I keep yelling at them, threatening to make them into a nice chicken dinner, but no amount of intimidation seems to have an effect.
I yawn into the back of my hand, rubbing my sleep-heavy lids. My newly formed calluses brush the skin of my cheek and make me grimace. These days, my hands no longer feel like my own, turning dark from the hours spent in the sun and rough from the handle of the spade. With my adoptive mother, I hardly ever had the need to go outside. I helped with her sewing work from time to time, building a small skill set of my own. Because of this, I rarely spent more time in the sun than was absolutely necessary, thus preserving the pale skin that was a mark of beauty here. Now, however, I'm nearly as dark as any plain girl from Shiramura. Slowly but surely, this man is stripping me of every part of my former self.
Kento returns from the stream with news. Apparently, there was another group of robbers early this morning, the first one a little over a month. Luckily for us, the bandits had not reached our part of the village, instead sticking close to the heart in which there were goods to be stolen from trade stalls and merchant homes. For better or for worse, they had gotten it right this time around. The last group that had come through only managed to grab up a couple of cattle from the edge of the village before Sango and Kohaku caught them red-handed in the midst of a chicken-snatching. This time, however, our two demon fighters hadn't been here to protect us as they had been called off on taijiya duties.
After a breakfast of porridge, the usual way of beginning the day, Kento mentions that he'd like to go to the village market to see if there's anything that can be done to help. I scoff, knowing that more than likely there'll be shopkeepers begging for money to help with repairs, but admittedly, it would be nice to get some fresh air. It's been a while since I've seen anyone other than Kento and I think I'm starting to go stir crazy.
Kento smiles with delight at my nod of affirmation. "You'll get to meet up with some of your old friends! They live near the village center, don't they?"
I mumble an inaudible response. Honestly, I'd never been very popular with the other girls. After a while, they'd all accuse me of stealing away their favorite boy's attention and call me, well, let's leave it at distasteful names. It was fine by me either way; I had no need for their dramatics.
I plait my hair into a long braid to occupy the silence as we make the short trek to the heart of the village as a way. It's perhaps a ten minute walk at a leisurely pace, but the summer sun makes it seem like an hour. The entire time, Kento points out various plants and flowers to me, a subject on which he apparently knows quite a bit.
"Look, my little blossom!" he calls to me again and again. This name, "blossom," has been something he's apparently taken a liking to. I, however, can't say that I enjoy it much. It only reinforces his delusional image of me as a fragile, breakable thing.
Once or twice, our hands brush as we walk, and I can feel Kento's large fingers feeling for mine, but I quickly pull my hands away under the pretense of tucking stray hairs behind my ear.
Suddenly, Kento stops in the middle of the dirt path, plucking a pink flower from the grass. "May I?"
I make no move of protest, so he tucks the stem behind my ear, weaving it through the braid to make it stay. For what may be the first time, I don't feel the need to recoil from his touch. The warmth of his smile and his hands somehow, very strangely, comforts me.
It's not long before we can see some of the rubble left by the bandits. While most of the shops stand intact, there are several that lie in shambles, their hand painted signs snapped in half and their stands toppled over. A few wives hover about the wreckage, their eyes swollen from tears and worry. For some, these broken stands and ashes are the remains of everything they have in the world. Our village has a few prosperous, but the majority of us are poor, even the shopkeepers. Kento is almost immediately pulled from my side by other men in the area needing his strength to help clear away debris blocking shops and homes.
Overall, the damage done isn't too terrible. The buildings at the center of the village are piled and crowded, mostly two-story buildings which serve a double purpose as home and shop. Nearly all are wooden, however, so even a small fire can cause utter devastation.
"Isn't it just terrible?" a small voice says sorrowfully to my right. I turn and see Mika, her green-tinged eyes bright and wide with despair. Her dark brown hair is swept into its usual side braid, swinging slightly as she moves. She's worn her hair like for as long as I can remember, a hairstyle as plain as her personality.
I don't respond, which she seems to take as a sign of my shock. "Dear Rin," she says, sweeping me into a light hug.
Despite being three years younger than I am, she already meets my eyes in height and most likely will surpass my modest stature. I accept the hug and pat her stiffly on the back. She's one of if not the only girl who has always been willing to be my friend, and often actively pursues it, no matter how often I make it clear I have no desire of returning the offer.
"I haven't seen you since your wedding! And what a lovely wedding it was. How have you been, Rin-san? What a pretty flower you have in your hair!" She says this all in a jumble, the words tumbling over themselves to get out of her mouth.
I, on the other hand, respond meagerly with only what politeness dictates. "Oh, just fine Mika-san. How about yourself? Is your parents' shop all right?"
"Oh, yes, thank goodness. I was so scared when the robbers came through, but since we're not quite on the main street, they passed us right up. But dear old Satou-san… she didn't fare as well." Satou was an elderly widow who lived alone, selling handmade soaps and scented oils to make her living. "Apparently they broke in and took whatever she had… Poor dear," she murmurs. "Thank you so much for coming. We can use all the help we can get."
She smiles sweetly as she takes my hand in hers, dragging me into the midst of the disorder. I sigh; I hadn't been expecting to get roped into helping. Mika, my polar opposite, is constantly at everyone's beck and call, the poor, daft girl. She's forever running around, the epitome of a bleeding heart. Though she is only the daughter of a simple noodle soup seller, she's well-versed in anything philanthropic; if it was basic remedies, she could make them, having spent time with the apothecary; if it was donating crops to a nearby village whose own had been burned, she could make the most miserly of men empty their pockets. She goes to far too much trouble to please anybody and everybody, but she plays the game well. Everybody in the village adores her and talks about nothing other than her sweetness. As for me… well, they've had plenty of things to mention when it comes to me.
Mika takes us to the shop of Satou-san where it is evident that the robbers came like a typhoon, sweeping up everything that was of any potential value and destroying anything that wasn't. Inside, everything is upturned. Scented herbs spill out from their containers, littering the old wooden boards of the shop like freshly-fallen snow. Satou-san sat in an old wooden rocking chair in the corning, her wrinkled eyes swollen from crying.
Mika immediately rushes to her side. "Oh, Satou-san, don't worry now! We can take care of everything. Look, Rin-san is here with us! She can help out as well. We'll have everything tidied up in no time. Rin, how about you make a pot of tea? Have you had breakfast yet?"
After the elderly woman shakes her head slowly in the negative, Mika rushes out the door. "I'll be right back! I'll get something from my father's place," she calls as she speeds through the streets. I watch in disbelief for a few moments before walking to the back of the shop where Satou-san lives to prepare the tea. How can Kohaku be in love with a groveling girl like that? She'll never even be able to take care of him! Always too busy fussing about the lives of others, I think to myself as I put a pot of water onto boil.
Soon, I hear footsteps downstairs and the cooing of Mika's voice. I bring the tea down when it's ready, and Mika eagerly thrusts a seaweed-wrapped onigiri into my hands. "I brought one for you as well! Do you like plum? I wasn't sure if you had eaten yet, so I thought it'd be best if I brought extras for everyone." Mika's father had apparently been hard at work, preparing free food such as the rice balls we now held in hand for the people come to help with the wreckage. I'm surprised by the generosity. Though Mika and her family are well enough off, they like everyone else probably don't have enough to fill every villager's mouth.
Mika immediately sets to work as soon as she feels Satou-san is sufficiently cared for, which by definition means fresh miso soup and hot teacup in hand. She finds a small hand broom from a closet inside the shop area and approaches me with it..
"Rin?" she calls to me, extending the broom towards me. "Would you mind sweeping up a little bit? I'm going to see if I can't pick up the glass and reorganize some of these oils. Those horrid men scattered them everywhere, and so many have spilled…" she says sadly.
Gods, how this girl can have empathy for everyone in the world, even inanimate objects, I'll never know. I reluctantly take the broom from her hand, knowing that the sooner everything is cleaned up, the sooner I can go back to Kento's house. I regret coming out at all at this point. However, Mika apparently isn't going to let me off that easy. Instead of letting me work in silence, she begins pestering me with questions.
"How is Kento-san doing? He must be the kindest man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. How do you enjoy your new life with him?"
I smile and say all of the right nonsense, talking about how it's nice to "feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day" and how Kento is "indeed very sweet".
She smiles and nods her head encouragingly. "Oh, how I can't wait to be married!" she says, a dreamy look in her eye.
I feel my own eyes flash for a moment and a scowl flits across my face. She must be thinking about Kohaku when she says these things. I can't believe that this silly woman, no, this girl is my competition, and right now she's winning. Kohaku is so blind not to see that she is nothing but a happy-go-lucky simpleton with the depth of a flower pot. Luckily, she's missed my sour expression, lost in the world of daydreams, rambling on and on about how nice it will be to start her own family, et cetera et cetera. Sounds like she and Kento would be a wonderful match, the blithe fools.
After we sweep the boards, we scrub the walls which look like they hadn't been touched long before the bandits came through. It's mid-afternoon when Kento strolls in looking sweaty but pleased. Apparently he and the rest of the men have managed to carry the debris away and were now working on repairing and rebuilding the shops on the street. It's break time now, however, and he sits with us in the middle of the floor, taking refuge from the scorching sun while we take a moment to catch our breath. Mika fetches him a cup of tea as he inquires about our progress.
"Oh, well, it's been going well so far, but there's still so many other people to meet today and shops to clean."
Kento nods in agreement and I can feel my right eye beginning to twitch. 'So many other shops to clean'? I thought I had signed up for just one, maybe two small tasks to show my empathy to the others and then I'd be done with these stifling shops and hot weather.
"Well, hopefully this will be one of the last raids we have to deal with. The village elders have decided that it's time to start a night watch using the old tower." Kento was referring to a wooden tower built precariously high up on stilts, used during the days of war. Now that demons were our only real enemies, or so we had thought, it had sat abandoned for many years.
"That old thing? Is it sturdy enough?" I ask skeptically.
"With a few repairs, I'm sure it'll be fine," Kento replies gently, taking a deep gulp of his tea. "I've volunteered, of course."
"Why, that's so brave Ueno-san! Thank you so much for your courage," Mika replies, apparently in raptures. I strain to not roll my eyes.
(¯`*•.¸,¤°´-`°¤,¸.•*´¯)
Shortly thereafter, Kento finishes his tea and bids us luck with the rest of our work. Mika bows deeply while I manage a small inclination of the head. "Back to work!" Mika chirps, and I spend the rest of the afternoon wishing I was home again.
Two nights later, Kento returns home drunk. Earlier, the other men of the village who had been working on the market's reparations had invited him out to drink in celebration of being nearly done with rebuilding. In spite of his sweet appearance, Kento apparently had somewhat of a fondness for drink. So, three hours after they left for the small restaurant which served sake at a reasonable price, he walks in the door, leaning on the frame, calling for his wife.
I'm frozen by disgust at the sight of him. His hair is disheveled, his clothes stained with the sauces of food that the bar had served him. Kento's face has turned a deep shade of red, and he sways as he moves.
"Please, my little blossom, please get me some water," he slurs, stumbling into the back bedroom. I groan under my breath. If he leaves a mess, then he'll be the one to clean it up.
Picking up to the wooden bucket of stream water and a ladle, I bring it to the back room where Kento is already laying face first on the futon, his limbs sprawled across the sheets. I look down in annoyance. Apparently, I'll be sleeping in the main room tonight.
I walk to the closet on the opposite side of the room, sliding the shouji open to grab the spare futon we have stored for the guests that never stay in our home, muttering hateful words under my breath. When I turn around, sheets in arm, Kento is propped up on his elbows drinking thirstily from the ladle. I sigh in exhaustion. It's the middle of the night and I would much rather be asleep than witness this.
I'm crossing the room to leave when my thin robe I wear for sleeping catches on something. I look down and see Kento's hand grasping its folds. He's looking up at me with bloodshot eyes, his pinks still flushed from alcohol.
"Thank you, Harumi-chan. I love you…" his sentence trails off as he collapses back onto the futon, his chest rising and falling evenly in a deep sleep.
I remain stock still for a few moments, appalled. Harumi-chan? Who in God's name is Harumi? How dare he address me as another woman? I'm so furious that I'm tempted to kick him in the stomach right here, right now, but I'm afraid that it might cause a mess I'll be left to clean up. I storm out of the room in a rage, throwing the sheets haphazardly on the floor. How dare he make a fool out of me! Was I to be married off to a man only to discover that he had some kind of mistress on the side? It's not that I cared if he loved some other woman, but for him to think that I would take it lying down, to be insulted like this in my own household? I lay in bed for another hour, fuming, before I finally managed to drift off into an uneasy sleep.
(¯`*•.¸,¤°´-`°¤,¸.•*´¯)
I wake the next morning to a bright sun pouring through the paper doors of the house. When my eyes register that the light is too bright, that the day must already be well in progress, I snap awake, sitting up in my futon before realizing that I owe nothing to a man who calls me by another woman's name. I lie in bed a while longer, scheming about the best way to vent my anger. Soon, though, my belly begins to growl, and I realize that until I have food in my stomach, I won't be able to do much.
I rub my eyes, look around, and find that a bowl of porridge with an unexpected raw egg and green onions on top. I look around blearily, deciding that I might as well eat the food lest it go bad, and begin hungrily spooning it into my mouth. Kento must have already left for the fields, I decide, as he's nowhere to be heard in the house. Half-done with my bowl, I'm about to pull myself from bed when I hear footsteps outside. The second Kento steps through the door, all my old rage returns.
"Good morning, my little blossom. How are you today?"
I humph in reply and look away, pretending I don't hear him as I rise and begin folding the sheets of my futon.
"I saw that you were quite tired this morning, so I made you breakfast. Did you like it?"
I remain stonily silent.
"Rin-san…?"
Still, I keep my mouth closed tightly as I snap the sheets together, throwing them onto the floor when I was done.
"I'm so sorry for coming back so late at night. I wanted to make it up to you. How about we go buy some fruit from the stalls? Sango told me that you like peaches a lot–"
"How dare you," I growl, cutting him off midsentence. "How dare you try to make peace with me after you humiliated me last night?!" My voice is growing in pitch and volume, and he seems frightened by my reaction.
"W-what do you mean? I'm sorry that I woke you last night but–"
"Harumi-chan?!" I practically scream. At the name, his face pales, and I feel a surge of satisfaction knowing that I am right. "I'm forced to marry you, you miserable, weak man, and then I find out that you have the nerve to take another woman? If you don't leave this house this minute I'll–"
This time, it's Kento who interrupts me mid-tirade. His face has dropped, his shoulders slumped, and he slides against the wall with his hands draped over his knees. "I'm so sorry, Rin."
"Sorry? Is that the best you can muster?!"
"Rin," he says one more time, his voice raised enough to be able to quell my anger long enough to say, "There is no other woman."
"What do you mean? Don't try to make a fool out of me! You called me by her name last night!"
"She was my wife."
This finally stops the words in my mouth, the insults I had thought up dying on the tip of my tongue.
"Your wife?" I finally stutter after a few moments of silence. His face slides into his hands.
"As you may know, I've only been in Shiramura for these past five years. Before that, I lived in a nearby village named Togawa."
Togawa, yes, I've heard of it before.
"She was taken by a fever, the same that stole your mother from you, I believe."
My heart drops at the mention of the fever and the memories it recalls. The anger drains out of me as if a plug as been pulled. Yes, I remember the fever. The chills, the shaking, the vomiting. A fever which claims its victims in a few, short days. I saw my mother on a Saturday when the coughing began. By Wednesday, my mother was dead. I was only five when she died, but there are some memories that time can't erase.
"I also had a daughter," he says, his voice tremulous. "She was so young, just a baby. A few months old, and the most beautiful little girl you could imagine." He's apparently lost in his own sadness now. I can feel my heart softening, and I sink to the floor to sit by his side. My mother had been quarantined the instant the village miko recognized the symptoms of the fever. It was highly contagious, and my three brothers, my father and I had been moved to a friend's home in the meantime. It was only a day before they realized that it was too late for my second eldest brother when he too began coughing blood into his hands.
"The fever was selfish," he says with a heavy sigh. "It took her, too. It took the two people that meant everything to me." Kento crumples, his large figure trembling as tears stream down his cheeks. It's right of him to expose himself in front of me; if anyone should understand his loss, it's me. Tentatively, I reach a hand out to his. He reaches back, clasping his large hands around mine. Unexpectedly, it's warm and inviting, and this time, I don't resist.
"Anyway," Kento says a little while later, after the tears have stopped; how much time has passed, I don't know. "I came to Shiramura to start a new life. And I got very lucky." He smiles, but I give him a puzzled look. What did he have to thank in this life that took so many of his loved ones? "I got to marry you."
And for once, I give him a half-smile, a real one, back.
(¯`*•.¸,¤°´-`°¤,¸.•*´¯)
Over the next week, I find myself happier than I had ever thought I could be in a life without Kohaku. The stupid chickens have finally decided it was time to start laying eggs again, and Kento has brought home some ripened tomatoes and green onions from the small field, so I'm excited about the prospect of dinner tonight. Perhaps I can even convince him to slaughter a hen for a celebration! It's been so long since I've had fresh chicken… Besides, that little old brown hen isn't producing like the others, and now that they've all started laying, surely we can spare one…
Once Kento returns from the fields that day, though, he informs me that he's on night watch tonight, meaning that we don't have time to cook a chicken. He promises that tomorrow we can have one, but I still scowl inwardly, frustrated at the lack of a solid meal. Even without the chicken, however, we have a small feast with the fresh summer vegetables. He smiles and waves as he leaves. He's taking the first shift that will cover half of the night, so he tells me not to wait up. As I watch his retreating back, my stomach full from a good meal, I realize that if I had to be married to someone other than Kohaku, Kento wasn't such a bad second pick.
I clean up the remaining dishes leftover from the meal in the wash basin behind the house, savoring the warm summer air. Though the days were often brutal in their heat, the nights were like drinking warm tea on a cool fall evening, embracing and inviting you to stay outside.
After I'm done, I lay on the soft grass, contemplating the idea of sleeping on a blanket here. Kohaku and I used to do it when we were younger, and though it wouldn't be the same, it would still be pleasant.
I don't know how long it is before I drift off, but I wake with a start to the sounds of screaming.
I look to the stars only to find that they have been replaced with a hazy, gray mist. The night above me is on fire, flames and smoke scorching the sky. From my vantage point on the hill on which Kento's house is perched, I can see almost the entire village spread out, orange flames engulfing house, tiny black figures skirting across the darkness. I stand up, mesmerized and terrified at the same time. Chaos has erupted in front of me, and here I am watching it like some sick theater play. Screams continue rising from the village center, and I can see people far in the distance running to the river to collect water in buckets, their silhouettes illuminated by the flames. Bandits.
I hear the whinnying of horses and the galloping of hooves heading in my direction. I turn my head to see a group of shadowy figures astride horses coming down the path that leads right by Kento's house. My breath catches in my throat. They're coming here.
Suddenly, an arm is ripping mine backwards, a palm thickly clasped around my mouth. I try to scream, but find that I have no air in my lungs. It's pulling me back into the shadows behind the house. My heart pounds against my ribcage and I claw the hands of my captor with my fingernails.
"Hush, Rin. I said hush!"
I recognize the voice and rip my head around to see the shape of Kohaku. I want to cry out in relief, but the look on his face stops me short. His kusarigama is held tight in his hands which are as steady as a statue's. His focus is not on me but the approaching men. There's a gleam in his eye, one that I've never seen before but would recognize in any man. It's the intent to kill. It unsettles me, and I realize that this is what Kohaku must look like every time he fights a demon.
The horses' footsteps slow in rhythm, and I can hear the jocular laughter of the robbers. There must be at least three of them, and I know more must coming.
"Had any luck yet?" One says to the second group as more arrive. Apparently they had split up to commit their crimes.
"With what, the loot?"
"Hell no. These people are too damn poor to give us crap. Apparently someone else just came through here and already took what was worthwhile, eager bastards," another gruff voice curses, spitting on the ground.
"Well, at least we didn't come away with nothin'," says a member of the second group. "Though this little village ain't got much to speak of for gold or loot, the last group missed out on the fact that they have pretty little women."
My eyes widen in fear, and I peak around my hiding spot just far enough to see one horse with two figures astride, the nearly full moon providing just enough light to see a girl's long, dark brown hair falling from a side braid, hands bound and mouth gagged.
I look to Kohaku to see if he's realized who they've taken, but my face is forced to the ground with a swift blow to my head. Somebody whispers harshly something that sounds like "don't look"; I can't be sure. I'm too dazed to understand what's going on until I hear the violent screams of the men and horses, the singing of the kusarigama whizzing through the air.
A minute passes before the shrieking ends, though the cries of the dying men continue to echo in my ear. I rub the dirt out of my eyes, struggling to find Kohaku, but the instant I do, I regret my decision. I don't have to look hard to find him, for he's standing in the middle of a massacre, pools of blood spreading onto the grass. Six bodies surround him, and in the pale moonlight I can see his face peppered with rust-colored blood. I remain paralyzed with horror. My gut wrenches and I want to throw up, but there's nothing to empty onto the grass.
Mika runs to me, Kohaku apparently having freed her bonds. "Rin! We've got to go. Hurry!"
I try to stand up, but my legs aren't responding. Mika grabs my arm and with surprising strength pulls me to my feet. I stand, looking at the blood and bodies around me. Blood mixes with the dirt to form puddles of mud, smothering my feet as I stumbled towards Kohaku. I look to him, amazed that anyone, especially he who had always been so sweet, could do this. He's attempted to wipe the blood from his face, but instead has smeared it across his brow and cheek like war paint.
"Rin, now!" Mika's high-pitched voice shatters the fog in my brain. I snap to attention and my feet push me as fast as they can go. We're heading over the bridge that crosses the river, down to where the fire is roaring and spitting. The villagers seem to have quelled the fire marginally, but it is still consuming the wooden buildings at a rapid rate. Mika runs to where buckets for the nearby well are piled and thrusts one into my hands. Immediately, we along with twenty others run from river to fire, dousing it again and again. Time drags as we pant, dashing from water to fire without end. Dawn is breaking before we finally extinguish the flames, but the destruction is evident: all that remains of six buildings are cinders. Many others escaped, though with charred roofs and scorched stone.
Exhausted, my legs collapsing beneath my own weight, I fall on the river bank, my chest heaving from exertion. I'm caked in dirt, soot and sweat, my heels cracked and bleeding from running on rocky ground.
Many other soon join me, washing their hands and feet at the river's side, splashing water onto their faces. Some wear grim expressions. Many still appear to be in absolute shock. From what I can hear from the mutters and low conversations of others, there were some twenty robbers in total. Kohaku and Sango seem to have stopped most of them, the remaining few darting off into the forest for safety.
Mika comes and sits by my side, her eyes wearied and her hair disheveled. I want to ask her how she's doing, but something in her expression makes me unable to speak. Her focus is far, far away from here. I start to rise, but she puts a hand on my arm. She looks up at me, her eyes full of tears.
"Mika, what is it?" I ask, exhausted. I want to go home, to sleep, to forget that this ever happened.
"I'm so sorry, Rin-san."
"Sorry for what, Mika?" I would really rather just be in my own futon right now. All warm and cozy. Perhaps if I had a cup of tea before I slept… My thoughts are severed by her next words.
"Ueno-san… your husband… he's dead."
Yeah… a little bit of a cliffhanger. I had planned to take it a little further, but then the chapter turned out to be so long that I thought it'd be better if I just ended it here and saved it for next time. Turbulent action coming next chapter!
Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what you think via PM or review! Anything that you liked, didn't like… I want to hear about it all! If you can, please take the time to review =) It really means so much to me!
To the reviewers of the previous chapters:
SapphireEyesInTheSky – Yeah… sometimes it's pretty painful to be writing this bratty of a character. She's incredibly frustrating for me to write and read, but I guess that is what I was going for, haha. Sesshomaru will be making his appearance in the next chapter or two ;D I am seriously so excited for when Sesshomaru enters. I have so much planned and I can't wait to write it! Even when I try to write these chapters, my mind keeps drifting to Sesshomaru and Rin. Oh well, he'll be here soon! Thank you so much for taking the time to review, and it's great to hear from you again =)
icegirljenni – I'm glad I was accurate, then! I'm also happy I was able to make you feel that way. Also, yeah! The thousand paper cranes legend has been around for a long time in Japan. Was that a book that you read? I heard of a book before with that kind of storyline, and I've always meant to try to find it and read it. You actually folded 1000? Wow, that takes a lot of stamina . I'm amazed and impressed by your kindness to your friend. I completely agree with you. Right now, Rin is 90% self-centered, arrogant, and rather vain. She doesn't deserve the thousand cranes wish. Also, I've heard a variant of the legend that says that if your wish isn't meant to be granted, there will always be something to prevent you from making your thousand cranes. Be looking for that later in the story ;) Anyway, PM me so we can catch up! Thank you for reviewing as always!
Lady Shenzuki – You'll find out quite soon! That is, if you haven't figured it out already~ He's coming up soon, I promise! I'm dying to write him in. Trust me, I have a lot in store for this pair ;) Anyway, thank you so much for reading! It's great to see you again! And of course, thank you for taking the time to review =) I hope everything is going okay for you!
