Waves crashed against the submerged cliff before the Torii gate, sending arcs of foam skyward and leaving bright rainbows against the blue sky.
The Torii gate stood solemnly against it all, marking the edge of mouth of the island and where the deep ocean started, unflinchingly watching through the joysome weather.
The island behind it, though only made up of a single, mountainous edge that stretched upwards towards the sky, wrapped around its tiny, shallow bay like a crescent, completely uninhabited, facing the scattering of islands affectionately labelled "the mainland"s of Hawaii.
Along the edge of the tiny beaches flowers of unimaginable shades and types grew, with lush greens to bright reds to the many blues of the oceans and yellows the colours of the sun itself.
But at that very moment, uninhabited it was not, for atop the Torii gate itself, the stark red/orange in direct contrast to the clear blue sky, stood a figure, her hair blowing in the light wind.
But not for long.
With all the grace and dignity of an Olympian, she stepped forward and dove, arching from the gate to the deep blue below.
And with the water rising up to meet her in a white flurry of foam, she disappeared, leaving the silent, beautiful island behind her.
Kagome, still dripping, slipped inside the bamboo door as quietly as she could.
'Damn it,' she cursed, taking in the scene before her, she rifled through her bag and pulled out the grass skirt within, getting changed as quickly as she could.
The scene before her was as such; the backstage area to the tiny community hall, at the front of which came music from the live musicians performing there. Upon the stage were traditional hawaiian dancers, and Kagome was supposed to be one of them.
Upholding tradition was what the Higurashi family was all about,you know.
Having successfully changed, she wrung out her hair once more and slid her way as subtly as she could onto the stage, hiding behind the rearmost-performers.
She snuck into her position; being the most central to the rear line, and joined into the graceful movements of the hula.
Her eyes were on the faraway back wall of the building, but her attention on her footwork, the hula was a complicated dance indeed, especially in sync with the other dancers, who were working to their own specialised routine.
Kagome just hoped that her movements weren't flicking too much water everywhere.
They worked through the steps right until the finale, and with a flourish Kagome mimed the throwing of the frangipani into the air.
But the girl next to her misstepped, and slipped in the dripped water on the stage, crashing spectacularly on her butt.
Immediately three other dancers who noticed leapt back in an attempt to get out of the flicked water puddles, slipped themselves, and went tumbling to the ground in a similar fashion.
'Stop! Stop!' Called their instructor as two more slipped and fell.
The centre part of the stage was cleared by this point, leaving Kagome there alone, flinching at the damages she had caused.
'Kagome Higurashi,' came the Instructor, 'why are you all wet?'
Kagome hung her head. 'Because it's Thursday?'
'What does today being Thursday have to do with you being soaking wet? Did you just come from the beach?' He approached her, treading carefully on the damp floor.
Kagome scratched at some of the semi-dried salt on her face, chuckling nervously. 'Yeah, about that. Every Thursday I have to go and check on the shrine.' She elaborated, but went back on herself. 'Well, I do that more often than once a week, but Thursdays I go and check on the Torii gates, and look at their support beams to look for signs of erosion.'
'Right,'
'Well today some kids decided to graffiti the gate! So I had to go and clear it all off!' Kagome said irritably.
'Isn't that shrine a half mile out to sea?' Her instructor questioned dumbfoundedly.
Kagome shrugged.
'If you're going to swim all the way out there to scrub graffiti off of some run down, old, phoney-baloney shrine that's just a failed tourist trap anyway,' said one of the other girls cruelly, 'you're as loony as anyone who believes in all that stuff. Isn't it just the god of anime or something anyway?'
Kagome couldn't help it, she turned on her slippery heel, swung, and slapped that girl straight across the face, who slipped and fell flat on her back, stunning her.
In the ensuing confusion the instructor was unable to get to Kagome, who towered over the bespectacled girl.
'Lehua is a sacred island that watches over the ancestors and the guardian spirits called Aumakua whose families have been lost. Lehua also houses the spirit of Pele, the fire goddess. This is a religion that has been passed down for generations, long before yours or my family have been here!' She crossed her arms. 'Not that you'd understand, Erica.'
Her instructors hand handed on her shoulder and she was dragged from the scene, where the girl eventually sat up.
'Why are you getting so worked up?' Yana shot back from behind Erica. 'You're not Hawaiian either. Didn't you Japs try to destroy this place way back when? What does it matter to you what the religions are like here?'
Kagome wrenched her arm out from the instructor's hand. 'You have no idea what you're talking about.' She marched forwards. 'My family has been looking after that shrine for nearly a hundred years!-'
'Kagome!' The instructor finally managed to cut her off. 'Enough. Girls, enough. Let's get back to practice.'
The two girls smirked, as Erica unsteadily got to her feet.
'Kagome, maybe I should call your sister.' The instructor said solemnly.
'What?' Kagome shot back, harsher than she meant. 'No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I want to dance. Let's just dance, it's what we're here for, right?' She looked unconvincingly around the room.
'I think I need to sit down,' Erica commented unsteadily from behind her.
Hey guys, short chapter but it was my birthday on monday so sorry! I'm slowly plodding my way through this story but I'm so busy at the moment that updates/chapter lengths will be a little sporadic... anyway enjoy!