When Kikyou is five, her mother tells her to go hide, quickly, with a smile on her face and laughter between her teeth. Ever obedient, Kikyou complies, scampering behind the chicken coop, waiting for whatever was to come next.
A few minutes later, her mother finds her, and scoops Kikyou out of the dirty straw, I got you I got you I got you, and Kikyou shrieks in delight.
"The game is called hide-and-seek," says her mother, kissing Kikyou's sweaty brow. "One person counts to ten with their eyes closed, and another goes to hide. Then, the first person looks for the second. The goal for the second person is not being found."
Later, Kikyou thinks she might have won the game if her mother had explained the rules beforehand, rather than when it was over and done with.
Kaede is born in the winter when Kikyou is eight, and their father is disappointed.
"Another girl," he sighs, rocking the bundled newborn in his big, strong, male arms. "My poor children. The world is so cruel, and it is even crueler to women."
Kikyou's father pats her on the head with something like affection; then stands to hand baby Kaede off to her mother, who is haggard and weary from childbirth.
"There are rumors of bandits in the north," her father mutters darkly, looking out the window. Clouds of purple and onyx choke the once-calm sky – soon, there will be another wave of snow. "Some young ones with them, too. Damn bastards train 'em young. Burning whole towns to the ground."
"What should we do?" rasps her mother, clutching Kaede to her chest, knuckles thin and white against the threadbare blanket the babe is wrapped in.
Hide, Kikyou thinks immediately, though she dares not suggest it aloud. Her father is a tall, proud man, and she is old enough to have learned a few of the things that one should never say; so she remains silent, like she always does, and wonders how different her life might have been if she'd been born a boy.
When Kikyou is eight, her mother tells her to go hide, quickly – except this time, there is no smiles or laughter, and there is a crying baby that is shoved into her trembling hands before she scrambles behind a cabinet in the next room, before she hears the horrible sound of flesh meeting blade – and Kikyou forgets the most important rule of hide and seek.
"Mommy!"
(Don't let yourself be found.)
There are too many voices in the house, the air is starting to burn, Kaede won't stop crying, where's Daddy what happened to Daddy I want Mommy I want –
"Found you!"
A tall, ugly man leers down at Kikyou, wagging a curved blade in her direction, flicking her mother's blood all over the furniture.
"Heard there was a couple kids here. Can't leave any behind. Onigumo!"
Through the haze of tears and heartbreak and flecks of ash in the air, Kikyou sees a boy step forward, expression blank. The bigger man points in their direction, turning to kick a vase to the side. "Kill them, would'ya?"
(Now it's Kikyou's turn to cry, and she holds onto her sister like doing so might save the both of them.)
The boy nods grimly, fumbling with matches. The older man punches through a paper screen, laughing at the destruction, and somehow Kikyou is aware that they are not the only ones and that her entire village was probably burned and dead and never-to-be-found, just like her father, just like her mother –
"No!"
Kikyou raises her hand, desperate to protect her baby sister, to shield all she had left, to hide her from these men and keep her safe and sound safe and sound, let's play a game, okay, baby? Let's play a game –
The boy yelps, dropping the matches, and everything is white and dark and Kikyou is gone.
When Kikyou is five, she does not know she will be a priestess, does not know her parents will die at the hands of bandits, and does not know she will be a sister.
Kikyou only knows of life and safety and love, and learns new things every day; only wishes for adventure and days to be filled with fun, and plays hide-and-seek with a mother who always manages to find her, regardless of how well she thinks she's hidden.