In the Wake of What Follows

Chapter Twenty: Buried

The cottage was unassuming, a long drive up a dirt road and far away from the tourist traps and decadent, high-class resorts. Terra slipped the borrowed helmet off before climbing out of the garrish, neon-yellow, three-wheeler. She had hitched a ride with the postman from town, but would still have to walk the long driveway.

"Thanks again," she smiled, handing over the helmet and grabbing her bag from the back where it was nestled among the mail. "Would have cost an arm to get a taxi out here." She rubbed some warmth back into her cheeks. It wasn't too cold out, but the wind had nipped as they drove.

"Was coming out here, anyway," he smiled. "Give this to her, yeah?"

The postman handed her a few envelopes. It was probably technically illegal, but it also didn't make sense for him to place it in the mailbox just for someone to walk back down the long driveway after Terra reached the front door. They said goodbye and it wasn't long before Terra was ringing the doorbell.

The cottage was in okay shape. It could use a new coat of paint. The door was peeling, and Terra could spot a few other parts of the porch that had been chipped away by weather. Terra was staring at a bug lamp that looked in need of replacing when the door swung open.

"Oh my goodness."

Terra tried to smile. She wasn't sure how successful she was. "Hi, Lorraine."

Mrs. Scotts ushered Terra inside with a sort of excited worry. "Oh, dear. You must be freezing. I can get you some tea?"

"It's not that cold," Terra told her. Winter in Australia was mild compared to Japan. "But tea sounds great, thank you. Sorry for stopping by without warning."

"Nothing to be sorry about," she huffed. "I told you, any time you wished to visit, didn't I?"

It was true, Mrs. Scotts' invitation had been open ended, but Terra still probably should have called first. Her new phone was like a paperweight she carried around. She had grown so accustomed to not having one at all that Terra often forgot it was even in her bag. Terra had made a few stops before flying to Australia. She'd taken a few things out of storage, and made sure she had a way to use the contact information Kurama gave her just in case.

The house was quiet. Terra had never been there without Jeremy. Jeremy's grandfather had been put into a nursing home, so it was just Lorraine now. Mr. Scotts had been a deadbeat dad. Jeremy never talked about him much, mostly because there was nothing to say. He hadn't really known the man at all. But Terra noticed some children's toys scattered in the living room. When Lorraine came back, she noticed what Terra was looking at.

"My sister moved in," she explained. "She had a daughter, four. Bright kid. It's the weekend so the two of them at the aquarium. Again." Lorraine chuckled fondly. "My sister spends so much money bringing little Katie to see the fish, they ought to give her a share of the place."

It warmed Terra's heart to hear. At least Lorraine wasn't alone. Her hair had greyed out a bit, but her wrinkles seemed to have deeper laugh lines than frowns. Of course, when they caught each other's eye, the deep seated sorrow they shared surfaced.

"It's his anniversary," Mrs. Scotts said softly, "in a few days."

Terra nodded. Her voice had left her, but she managed to whisper a hoarse, "Yeah." With careful, deliberate movements, Terra set her tea cup down and pulled her bag to her feet. She had kept what she needed in a special pocket, so she wouldn't have to go digging to hard. Terra pulled out Jeremy's old, battered notebook and a small velvet pouch she had gotten cheap at a passing store near her storage unit.

She placed them both on the coffee table between them. For a moment, neither of them spoke. Neither of them took their eyes away from the items she was handing over, or even dared to breath.

"I wanted to give these to you," Terra said. "I've kept them long enough."

"Terra…" she began, lost for word and rushed with emotions. "You don't have to."

Terra shook her head. "No. No, I really think I do." She dabbed a finger under her eye, a sudden swell of tears clouding her vision. "This was his journal," she said, pushing the notebook forward. She smiled. "I've read every page. More than once. I might even have it memorized." There was a comfort to the familiar pages, the way pencil and ink was often carved into the paper, pressed so hard you could read it's shadow on the next page over. She could feel the ridges of his words when she ran her fingers over them. It was getting fragile with overuse, already a bit banged up from all the years Jeremy had carted it around. "It was in his bag, on our trip. It should have gone back to you in the first place."

"That doesn't mean you can't still keep it," Lorraine said, although her hand hovered over the tattered journal. After a moment's hesitation, she pulled it towards her and began to leaf through the pages as if it were a great archeological find. Perhaps it was.

"I think, more than photos or videos, that journal captures your son. I want you to have it. I want you to have his thoughts and memories. No one deserves them more than you.'

"Terra-" she began again, but Terra shook her head and pushed the small pouch forward. Lorraine looked at it and set the notebook down gently by her side. She reached for the pouch with a frown, as if she didn't want to suspect what was inside, but had already puzzled it out. Mrs. Scotts carefully tugged loose the little drawstring and tipped the pouch upside down into her palm. Terra's engagement ring landed softly in her hand. "Terra, I can't take this." She placed it back on the table. "It's yours."

"I can't keep it."

Lorraine's ring finger held no band, not even a faded tan line. It had been so long since she and her husband parted ways. Terra wondered what she did with the rings. Had she thrown them at him? Had she sold them? Were they hidden away in a jewelry box among her other rings? Terra wouldn't ask. She didn't need to know.

"It wouldn't feel right, to simply get rid of it," Terra explained. "I can't sell it. I won't. But I can't keep it either." She took a deep breath. Her exhale was shaky, but she pressed on and pushed down the lump in her throat. "I would have said yes."

"I know, Terra. I know."

It was clear that Lorraine wanted to bound across the coffee table and pull Terra into a motherly hug, but she resisted, and Terra was thankful. There was more she needed to say.

"We would have been great together. I know it." Terra didn't bother wiping away the tears she had now. "But we never… I'm not his widow," she said, with some finality in her words. "I can't keep this as a keepsake. It's just a future that never was and for me to move on I have to let that go."

Lorraine nodded. There was understanding in her eyes, even if she didn't know how to voice it. Then, finally, after both of them had found their calm and their tea was no longer hot, Lorraine picked up the ring. "Would you like to visit his grave?"

Terra smiled. It hurt. She wondered if it would ever not hurt, but she smiled, because she loved him. "Yeah. I do."

They buried the ring.

Maybe someone would come along and steal it, but Terra couldn't care. That was a future that no longer involved her. It had been a bit exciting, Terra keeping lookout as Jeremy's aging mother dug into her own son's grave plot. Armed with her gardening tools, it didn't take too long. The hole reached halfway to his coffin and they covered it with the carefully dug up grass and a fresh cut of flowers.

They left laughing, cheeks flushed from the exhilaration of doing something they were both pretty sure had been illegal.

It had felt… good. A release. A celebration of who Jeremy was and what he would have wanted. A little bit of breaking the law, and a token of his love kept close to his heart.

"It was Conner's idea to jump the fence," Terra told Lorraine as they got drunk over more than a few bottles of wine. "But Jeremy planned that route. He wanted adventure before working a desk job."

"That boy," Lorraine tutted, shaking her head. "He had a head for business, alright, but I always felt like he was sacrificing his hobbies for his work instead of finding a way to merge the two. I think he was just trying so hard to be better than his no good father. He wanted to build an empire on the back of a man who gave him nothing. He'd convinced himself that was an adventure, too."

Terra laughed. The idea of working a desk job seemed so impossible to her now. "I was supposed to be a psychologist," she giggled. "God. Can you imagine? Me. Helping other people with their lives."

"Well, you sure. would know how a lot of them feel," she mused. "That could be a leg up."

Terea just kept laughing, even as she tried to drink more wine. "No, no. I don't think I'm built for it. Helping people is nice in theory, but good lord would I not want to deal with anyone remotely like me."

Lorraine nodded sagely, eyes a little glassy from the alcohol. "What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"Million dollar question," Terra said. She thought back to a conversation she had with Kurama a long while ago. He'd lived so many lives because he didn't have the worry of time. He simply did as he wished, for as long as he wished, and didn't worry if he was wasting an opportunity for another. Terra wanted that. She didn't want the pressure of needing to figure it out. She didn't want to rush into a career or force herself to be something. "Go with the flow, I guess."

Terra tipped the last of the wine bottle into her glass. They had maybe too much to drink for how early it still was, but they deserved these vices, if just for today. "I've been starting a new project," she said, the final drop of red leaving a ripple in the liquid of her glass. "Trying to learn more about my family. I remember," she laughed to herself, "I remember there being a huge controversy that my dad took a job at Sony. I never really made the connection to the fact we still got all this free stuff from Nintendo. My, uh, great grandfather invested in the Nintendo before it started into the video games and stuff. I've been looking into him and his life. Before getting into video games, he was a monk! How weird is that?"

Lorraine leaned forward with serious interest. "That's fascinating! Why did he leave the temple?"

Terra shrugged, taking a big sip of her wine. "Still putting it all together."

"My great grandfather was a carpenter, I think. Maybe. Who knows." She threw her head back and laughed. It wasn't exactly a happy laugh. "Oh gosh, so many people. We don't even know our own family. Who will remember us?"

Terra understood the hysterics in her voice. Who would remember Jeremy?

"I don't think I want to be remembered," Terra said. "I just want to live my life. That should be enough." She downed the rest of her wine, about ready to break into a drunken tirade.

Before Terra could get started, Lorraine's sister came home. The little one was screaming with excitement from her day with the fish. It was cute, but very disorienting. Terra had almost forgotten it was only dinner time and not the wee hours of the morning.

Lorraine's eyes lit up at the sight of her niece. Terra felt herself relax knowing that Jeremy's family was going to be okay. Her tirade died on her lips and faded from her mind.

She ended up staying the night. Terra had planned to head out, but Lorraine insisted, making up a guest bed. One day turned into three. Lorraine's sister, Trisha, was a school teacher and home most of the day with Katie because it was school break, and Trisha had a great love for genealogy projects. She helped trace the Nakashima family line for any trace of her great grandfather.

"The boys in your family didn't waste any time becoming fathers," Trisha laughed when pulling up birth records. Trisha was old enough that her pregnancy with Katie was considered geriatric. "Your dad was twenty-three, which is reasonable, but your grandaddy was only eighteen." She shuddered with gross exaggeration. "I try to think of a single boy I went to high school with have a baby when they were still poppin' pimples and at best a work history of a summer at the surf shack hiring out boards to tourists."

"And your great-grandfather, who you're so interested in, was seventeen it looks like when his little boy was born." They both stared at the birth records sadly. So young, still a child himself. Trisha pulled over some files they had printed off the day before and skimmed them for some half remembered information. "Looks like he did that Nintendo investment about a year and a half later. I didn't know the company was that old. I thought video games came out when I was a kid."

"Yeah, no, Nintendo was a playing card company first. Since the 1800s, I think."

"Who could have predicted they would get so big!" Trisha exclaimed. "And he invested a lot. Lucky man. Where'd a monk get that kind of money?"

Terra knew. The Dark Tournament. She wondered if that committee had a hand in making sure Ryunosuke's investment was successful. It would depend on the terms of his wish, she supposed. "Family legend says a martial arts tournament."

"Really? So is it true then? Asian monks are all fighting experts like in the movies?"

Terra laughed. "My experience is limited, but maybe." Terra would fit right into one of those films, training in a secluded temple. She settled and looked at the grainy image of Ryunosuke on the computer. "You think he left his apprenticeship at the temple and found his fortune because he had a baby?"

Trisha turned her head and looked over to where Katie was playing with her collection of little plastic whales like some kids might play with dinosaurs or horses. She smiled and it crinkled the corners of her eyes. "It's likely. Even at seventeen, kid could have have paternal instincts. Wanted to take care of his family, make sure they were supported. I'd move the world for that one if I could."

"Does it say who the mother was?" Terra asked, looking over her grandfather's birth certificate that had been scanned into the system. There was a name, Shimizu Mao, but Terra didn't recognize it from any family stories.

"There's no info on her in the system," Trisha said. "No marriage license, no birth or death certificate. No related family. Just the name, here. I might be able to dig something up, though, if you give me a few hours."

Terra thanked her for her help and returned the favor by starting dinner for when Lorraine came home from work.

It had been odd, these last few days, living with a family, a normal household where no one had been to battle or could make energy glow with power. It had been odd, but peaceful. Calming. But also uncomfortable. It was a respite. But Terra wasn't meant to stay here, stay like this.

Trisha and Lorraine had been curious why Terra had started this research project, and even if she could explain the supernatural, Terra wasn't sure she had an answer. It wasn't just about learning the part of her history Genkai had hid from her, or understanding why Genkai had hid it. Something had been itching at the back of Terra's mind for a while now, like an image she couldn't quite get in focus. The only threads she had to pull to help figure it out was Ryunosuke, Rizu, and the Dark Tournament. Terra didn't have any intention of paying the wani for a visit anytime soon, so she kept to the record books.

She was able to learn a lot in the short amount of time she stayed at Lorraine's. And it passed the time with something productive, until the day she knew would be her last.

Jeremy's anniversary saw Katie sleeping over at a friends house and the three adults drunk off a bottle or two of gin. They laughed and they cried and they visited his grave. The flowers Lorraine and Terra had left to hide the earth the had dug up were still there. Terra placed a hand over the buried ring and smiled. "Jeremy deserved more than this," she said. He deserved more than a painful death by monsters in the night. He deserved more than his life cut short just as he was leaving school to live it. He deserved more than six feet under and an engagement ring three feet away, a ring he never got to propose with, a question he never got to ask.

"We all did," Lorraine said after a moment, her hand on Terra's shoulder.

Terra left in the morning, or rather, the afternoon. She slept in late with her hangover, but at least got to say goodbye to Katie. Lorraine offered her a lift into town, but Terra turned it down. The walk would do good to clear her head. And besides, it was a beautiful day.

She was starting to regret it halfway there. Not that the walk was too much or her pack too heavy. Terra could probably run laps up and down the mountain steps with twice this weight if she had to. No, there was a storm brewing. Terra could taste it in the air, like the gin still on her tongue from the night before. There was wind that threatened to pick up into a tornado. It was uncommon for this part of the country, though. Then she frowned.

No. It wasn't windy. She looked around. At least not here. Dust clouds could be seen in the distance. Terra smelled her breath. It was minty fresh, but she could smell and taste alcohol like she was currently chugging a whole case of sake.

It couldn't be.

Terra tried to focus, but the more she did the more sure she was. Somewhere nearby were two demons. Two demons she knew.