Chapter 36: The Peony's Knot

Boton's perspective of time.

I always thought that I lived a fairytale life. Sure my human life hadn't been much of anything to speak about, but Enma-daiō made me a ferry girl the moment I stepped into his office so very long ago. We had so many good times… but now they're over, just like my fairytale. Botan stood in the ruined remains of The Well of Time. The Shikon no kami was out at the moment, off answering to the summons sent by The Assembly. It was just her here, she was surprised that she had been allowed on board, but nothing had turned her away or even barred her path, perhaps a leftover of her brief assignment to The Sacred Tree?

She had to see it, this ship that took her everything away.

Her hands grip tightly around the rim of the time portal, her eyes widen in surprise and shock as she looks down the well. The.. the portal was still open! Without a second thought to her safety, or the reason why the portal would still be open causing the ship to use power it would have been better off using to repair itself; she jumps down the well.

A specter of broken dreams, patchwork soul, and forced servitude slides a few switches down their sliders, completely closing the time portal. It knew so little about The Well of Time… there was no telling when the Ferrier had gone; perhaps it should take the time to learn more? There is a commotion at one of the entrances to the room, and as a massive kami pushes debris out of the way he stares in shock for a moment before shouting, "You!" The specter sighs, yes me. It isn't like there is anyone else the Shikon would choose to become her vessel, The Eternal Battlefield, once the jewel proved too flimsy.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-O-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

It hurt. Surely time travel wasn't meant to hurt? It had not been an easy trip, the motes of time had swirled chaotically around her as she was swept along the time stream. Most had moved around her, but others? They had cut her as she passed them, and some of them had passed through her. She might have given up if she had not been able to see her exit up ahead, a single steady light open and waiting. And so she struggled on, desperate for a miracle.

Dekuyume looks up from her packing with a frown, absently brushing her long black braid of hair over her shoulder as her eyes flare red. The barrier tells me I have someone to help. But who would be here at the shrine at this time of night? She is cautious as the sensation leads her to the well, and more so when she sees the crumpled form of the blue haired soul ferry girl who kept The Sacred Tree clean for her father while he was asleep. After checking that the time portal was closed, she jumps down the well, landing softly on a cushion of magic.

She performs the hurt seeking spell on the soul ferry girl. Dekuyume had created it some time ago in response to her illnesses, and had been pleased when she found reason to share it with her favorite doctor. Judging her safe to move, she uses her obi to make a sling for the unconscious woman, before using her magic to stick to the walls of the well, crawling out. She takes a moment to plaster sutras over the lid to the well. They weren't very powerful, but they were very, very accurate. Nothing but a centipede or a miko would pass through them without her permission.

She works on healing the soul Ferrier long into the night, pausing only when she hears her brother shout in the early morning light, "Anesan! Okaasan! Sofu! A naked yōkai lady just pulled Kagome-neesan down the well!" Kagome-chan was far stronger now than what she had been even at the end of her journey where she stood firm and resolute against Naraku. She would be fine. She had to be.

It took nearly a full day to finish healing the blue haired woman, and only a moment to grab her and Kagome's packed bags. She pauses for a brief moment in the well house to check over the sutras lining the walls and affix a rope ladder. Her planning days earlier speeds up the process, two nails were already hammered into the well, hidden from view on the opposite side of the doorway. She carefully hoists the two bags over her shoulders and disappears down the well.

Kagome no kami shakes her head in exasperation as she watches the third reincarnation go. She kneels on the floor next to Botan's head. This was why the Shikon lost. It was not the actions of the kami, or the souls that were bound to it, but because one woman took a leap of faith. Kagome no kami would wait until Botan awoke, and then she would lead her downstairs and she would sit with her family and explain everything that was to come. Only the third reincarnation would expect someone to be able to turn the journal, with its disjointed perspectives of space and time, into some semblance of plot.

Kagome no kami would lead Botan and her mortal family to an area of the shrine that had remained hidden away for nearly 500 years; not even Kiyoshi had known if it's presence. Hours later, after many smiles and many, many tears, welcome home hugs, and welcome to the family introductions, they would settle into enjoying the rest of their lives. It would be a quiet secret between the three human members of house Higurashi, kept from the two daughters, if only so time would not break after being so viciously bent. There they would wait for the beginning to end, the middle to be, and plot the rescue of a kami who wasn't a kami yet thus creating the world that allowed Botan to survive to be a part of the plans. A red eyed goddess smiles like a fox at the dumbfounded expression on Botan's face as they are introduced. She bows mildly, "Thank you for making me real.", the peony knot was an perpetual three loop knot in time, the perfect foundation upon which to stage a coup against the entirety of the celestial ocean.

She waives her poppy painted fan in front of Botan's face, "Ne, c'mon snap out of it." She grins when Botan's eyes focus on her. "Normally this is the point that I start threatening people to make them stay away from my target, but you aren't going to give me any problems are you?" Botan shakes her head no, unable to voice the words moving chaotically through her mind. How had she never noticed! She was a soul Ferrier! To have so greatly misidentified a soul…. The goddess grabs Botan's hand and tugs her along behind her as she gives her a tour of her ship, The Colloquium of Souls. No one else got such nice birthday present's from their Kaasan!

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-O-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

This was alarming, and not in any of the ways he had become used too... Kurama stared into his school locker. Once he had begun schooling with the humans, he had received some strange, unusual and even disturbing things from his classmates… no matter how frosty his behavior toward them had been, they had not stopped, bizarrely some even found him more attractive for it. I may be a 3000 year old fox spirit, but there was just no excuse for females of any age leaving panties in a 10 year old boy's locker. It had also been getting difficult to use his locker for its intended purpose, when half the school seemed to be using his locker as a mail box. It had been a bit cruel, even for him, however, telling his mother that he was being anonymously sexually harassed and having her deal with the school had been the most effective way to ensure the behavior's stopped, or at least slowed to the point where he only had to disinfect his locker once a week.

But of all the things he had received, this was the most alarming. Not only because of its implications toward his safety, but because… he really, really wanted it… implied obligatory reciprocation or not. Finding the strength of will needed to restrain himself long enough to surreptitiously use a plant to check for poisons, magical or mundane, he waits with trembling hands. It comes up clear, and with no one around to watch him accept the offering, he snatches the Inari-zushi from its Tupperware, and savors the flavor. It had been so long since he had received a kitsune-offering, and that was exactly what this was. He eyes the rest of the contents in the small basket the Inari-zushi had been in, there was a bag of uncooked rice, a naturally lost branch from an unusually powerful mundane tree, and a small note.

Carefully examining the note he snorts, smiling wryly. In a boyish scrawl it said: I apologize, but traditional kitsune-offering or not, Kaasan has declared that Sake is not an appropriate gift for an elementary school student, no matter how old their soul is. Higurashi Sōta of the Higurashi shrine.

With a grin Kurama puts the rest of the offering into his backpack, and takes the Tupperware out to his favorite tree to finish his lunch period. He nods to the Higurashi boy on the way, spotting him eating and talking about soccer with some of their other classmates. He is impressed by the way that the Higurashi boy manages to return the acknowledgement without giving anything away to the humans focused on him. As a general rule, humans didn't seem to understand discretion, someone had taught the boy well. As Kurama takes another of the zushi from the container he contemplates his classmates, and how difficult they would make his life if they saw his willingness to interact with the Higurashi boy and thought he was suddenly willing to befriend them all.

It would be a disaster… If being cold and distant was not enough to keep the humans from gracelessly attempting to lure him into a mating was not working, perhaps being immaculately polite would work. Either way, he was doing all paired class projects with the Higurashi boy from now on. If only so he could get more Inari-zushi…