Kage Houseki no Himitsu

Chapter 34

Deep in the swamp

A light fog was rising from the warm waters of the muddy swamp in the heat of the late afternoon sun. It cast a ghostly gloom over the area, and made the sun look like an ominous, glowing orb, red as blood, hanging lazily over the western horizon.

Though most of the surrounding swamplands teemed with the sounds of insects, reptiles and snakes as they busied themselves with their evening activities, one small shrine at the very centre of the bog echoed with an unnatural silence.

The shrine floated in the middle of a muddy, shallow lake, surrounded by trees and grasses that seemed devoid of life and sound. The tiny structure could hardly be described as a shrine, at all; a box about the size of a small dog stood in the centre of a wooden platform, raised from the waters of the swamp on four thick poles.

A relatively large fire was burning before the shrine box, its heat barely felt by the pale woman sitting across from it.

The woman gazed into the flames for a moment, her thoughts heavy. After a few moments, she suddenly whipped out her left hand – the hiss of something like sand sounded through the flames, which roared even higher and glowed a sickly, unnatural green.

The woman didn't react at all to the strange flames; her right hand smoothly picked up a branch of leaves lying at her side, and caressed it with her left. Her eyes narrowed, but didn't stray from the green flames for even a moment as she started to chant.

"Furui monoto atarashi i kamigami ga watashi nosasayakana inori wo kii te."

The woman waved the branch slowly through the flames; the fire didn't catch, but that was what she had intended. She laid the branch back at her side, and drew out some locks of hair from her sleeve as she continued.

"Tsuma to musume nokono otoko no kioku wo sakujo shimasu."

As she spoke, she threw the locks one by one into the flames; the coals hissed and sparked, and a different colour flared for a moment before the flames settled back to green.

The woman picked up the branch again, and waved it through the flames once more. This time the branch did catch, and its flames sparked blood red; the woman threw it into the fire.

"Ware ware ha karera no sa bisu notameni kami ni kanshashi masu."

The flames returned to their normal orange colour, and died down almost to embers.

Satisfied, the woman rose to her feet, turned away from the fire, and looked out over the swamp.

Hopefully her customer would be satisfied with the outcome; not that he would remember making the bargain. He had given a priceless possession, an ancient comb said to have been blessed by Amaterasu herself, in exchange for his memories of his dead wife and daughter to be removed.

The woman's eyes were dark as she regarded her silent portion of swamp. Even as the gods blessed mankind with their sympathy and gave her the power to take memories way, they also granted her the power to see into the future. The woman wasn't looking forward to the visit she would soon have, and knew that those who sought her would be disappointed by what they found.

Aoi

I huffed loudly and came to an abrupt halt. Shippou yelped and scrabbled at my neck, trying desperately not to get thrown off; he'd taken a nap and had been snoring noisily in my ear for the last half hour.

"Come on," I whined, throwing my arms into the air in frustration. "We're never gonna find Oboe! And even if we do, who says that I want my stupid memories back? They don't exactly sound like the biggest bundle of joy, from where I'm standing!"

Inuyasha huffed loudly in much the same way I had, and turned to glare at me; I'd brought the whole party to a stand-still. "You know, I'm getting really sick of you, kid. You do realise that we've come all this way for you, right?"

I put my hands on my hips defiantly. "Oh, really? Well how about you put your unfathomable generosity on hold and we go look for the shards of the Sacred Jewel? What with Naraku showing up so often these days, that should be our top priority, shouldn't it?"

Inuyasha started to march over to me, probably to stand nose-to-nose and shout in my face, but Kagome grabbed his arm. "Of course that should be our top priority! So wouldja just shut up and do what we say when we're actually trying to help you, ya brat?"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome said warningly. I recognised that tone; she was one snap away from sending Inuyasha careening face-first into the muddy swamp floor.

"Aoi-san, please try to understand," Miroku began fairly. I could barely keep myself from rolling my eyes. "This isn't how you used to be; I don't know whether it's Kokuei or Ryuusai, but someone or something is trying to make you forget about the dangers you've learned. You need to regain that knowledge quickly, or you could get hurt."

"He's right," Sango agreed. She put a hand on my shoulder. "I don't mean to be rude, but you were a lot… nicer before your memories were taken away." I knew she meant smarter, or better, and I decided to ignore her subtle jibe.

"Look," I began hotly, shrugging off Sango's hand, "I don't want the memories back! Why can't you people just understand that?"

"Why?" Inuyasha snapped. His tone almost sounded accusing. "Why don't you want the memories back?"

"Because you guys are saying that I was getting hurt all the time!" I snapped back. "I don't remember getting torn up by Wind Scar or attacking anybody – well, except Naraku, but he's Naraku – and I don't really wanna remember anything like that! I'm find with phoney memories, if that's what they really are!"

"You don't mean that," Kagome reprimanded gently. She let go of Inuyasha and walked over to me instead. "I know you; you've always hated being out of the loop about things. You want to know what's going on too, don't you?"

Damnit. My cousin knew me well. I tried to hide my curiosity from my expression, but I knew I was doing a poor job.

"The only way we're gonna find out why all this is happening is to find the priestess," Shippou pointed out to me from my back.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, then around at my comrades. I sighed, temporarily defeated. "Whatever. If I have a mental break-down because of this, I'm blaming all of you."

"Inuyasha-sama!"

We all glanced at Myoga; I hadn't noticed that he'd left. He bounded over to us using what dry land he could find between the muddy bogs of the swamp. He jumped up and down with excitement at our feet when he reached us.

"I found her!" He squeaked excitedly. "Priestess Oboe is just through there; I saw her shrine not a moment ago!"

Inuyasha peered through the trees as a soft fog started to blur the distant trees. "You sure, jii-jii? It's starting to get dark; I don't wanna get lost in here. It'd be hell to get back out."

I could almost see the angry vein popping on Myoga's forehead. "Of course! Why doesn't anyone ever believe me? I do everything for you people, and all you do is step on me and squish me! Oh, woe betide, woe betide~!"

"Oh, shut up!" Inuyasha snarled; he placed a perfectly timed kick against the old flea's agitated bouncing body, and sent him flying through the swamp toward where Oboe lay waiting for us.

xXxX

Not bad, eh? Not bad timing? I told you I'd get better :)

Anyways, here's a translation of that 'chant' Oboe was doing. It's not an actual chant, obviously, but I don't know how Shinto chants work and I highly doubt they have a pre-scripted memory curse written anywhere recent.

'The gods old and new hear my humble prayer.

Remove this man's memories of his wife and daughter.

We thank the gods for their service.'

Yeah, pretty simple, but whatever.

I love all your faces! See you next time!