Kage Houseki no Himitsu

Chapter 35

Aoi

Oboe, it seemed, had been waiting for us.

The mist thickened as we followed Myoga through the darkening swamp, our eyes swivelling about us as we watched for snakes and other dangers crawling through the mud. I was the first to spot the shallow lake, though Inuyasha had muttered a few moments earlier that the place was too quiet for his liking.

I'd never seen a shrine like it, if you could even call it that. A wooden boardwalk had been raised above the murky waters on four thick stilts, each looking as though it had once been the trunk of an ancient oak tree. A short, rickety pile of stairs connected the swamp to the raised platform, and the whole thing almost looked as if it were floating on the surface of the lake.

The woman standing atop the structure was the most striking figure I'd ever seen – or, that I remembered seeing, anyway. The robes she wore looked like those of a typical Shinto priestess, though the colours were purple and black instead of red and white. I guessed that probably had something to do with her priestess-slash-witch status.

Her hair was darker even than Kagome's, and so long that it reached the backs of her ankles. It was free-flowing, not tied in the usual Shinto ponytail, nor held back by clips or bands.

Though she must have been at least fifty meters away from us, my demon eyes could easily see her facial features; her eyes were dark blue, the colour of the Atlantic ocean and just as stormy. They were slanted in a way that reminded me of a snake or a cat, though her pupils were that of a normal human.

The rest of her features were stunningly beautiful. I guessed that she was probably twenty years old, though with the way Myoga talked about her, I knew that she must have been much older. If angels existed, I believed that this was the face they would want to have.

I stopped in my tracks as soon as I caught sight of her and her shrine, my mouth falling open. The others stopped too; Miroku and Kagome looked as though they were bracing for trouble, but Sango and Inuyasha saw what I'd seen immediately after I had. Myoga jumped up and down.

"We're here!" He announced excitedly. "You see? I told you I'd get you here, didn't I? And, here she is!"

Kagome squinted at the floating shrine, frowning. "This is it? I thought you said Oboe was in a shrine, Myoga-jii-san."

"There is a shrine," I commented. I pointed toward the miniscule bump in the centre of the boardwalk. "It's tiny, but it's there."

"Well, let's get this over with, then," Inuyasha said gruffly. He took a step forward into the shallow lake.

And instantly sank through to his knee.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome squealed; she and Sango grabbed both Inuyasha's arms as the latter swore loudly.

"What the hell-?!"

Inuyasha's leg was freed surprisingly quickly, sliding out of the muck with a comical squish; all three stumbled backwards into me, and we all fell sprawling into the mud at the lake's edge.

"Watch it!" I squawked, far too late. I struggled to untwist my legs from Sango's as Inuyasha leapt back to his feet, one of his legs covered in slime.

"Hey!" Inuyasha roared at Oboe, who hadn't moved at all in the few seconds of trouble we'd experienced. "What's the big idea?! Are you tryin' ta kill us?!"

"Inuyasha," Miroku said warningly, holding out a hand to hold the half-demon back.

Sango helped me to my feet when we'd found our legs again.

"Calm down," she told Inuyasha. "I'm sure this is some kind of test, to see if we really want to see her."

"Well I don't really wanna see her!" Inuyasha snapped. I pointed a clawed finger at me accusingly. "We're only here for her! Why should I risk my skin just to get her stupid memories back?"

"It was your idea!" Kagome snapped in return.

"Yeah, that was before I realised what a little brat your damned cousin is, Kagome!"

"It's not her fault! You know she wasn't like this a few days ago, it's all Kokuei's fault that she-"

"Hey!" I yelled.

Inuyasha and Kagome both whirled around to glare at me at exactly the same time. "Shut up!" They yelled in unison. I quietened, feeling highly offended, but Miroku thankfully continued reporting what I'd been trying to tell them.

"Oboe's gone."

Inuyasha and Kagome jumped, and turned again to stare at the floating shrine.

The shrine was still there, but the woman was not.

In the short time that our attention had been on the bickering of Inuyasha, Oboe had completely disappeared. It was as if she'd been swallowed up by the mist.

"Oooooh!" Shippou, still somehow latched around my neck, fretted. "What do we do now? What if we get lost in here forever? Or what if Oboe was some demon and she's hunting us right now?!"

"Shut up," Inuyasha huffed; I winced as he brought down his fist on Shippou's head, thinking for a moment that the blow had been meant for me.

The fox demon fell to the ground with a wet splat. He rubbed his head with angry tears in his eyes. "But what if? Why would that Oboe lady go away, she's supposed to be helping Aoi-nee-chan!"

There was a split moment of silence as we all looked back at the floating shrine, as if to make sure that the woman really was gone.

"Perhaps so that she could save you the trouble of swimming through a ring of treacherous quicksand."

I yelped and leapt away from the voice that seemed to have sounded from right by my ear. Everyone else spun around with alarm to look at Oboe, who had materialised a few paces behind me (I'd been at the back of the group).

"What – how-" Kagome spluttered.

"It matters not how," Oboe interrupted calmly. "Only that you should have made a booking. I am, surprisingly enough, a rather busy person."

I decided immediately that I liked Oboe. Her dry sense of humour was something I could get used to.

"There was no time, Milady Oboe," Myoga chirped from our feet. He leapt over to Oboe so that they could see each other better. "This is an emergency that only you can be entrusted with!"

"I know," Oboe replied dryly. "I can see the future, in case you'd forgotten, jii-jii."

Inuyasha smirked. I could tell that despite his blustering, he liked Oboe too.

"In that case," Miroku said, taking a step forward. "If you truly are able to see into the future, are you able to tell us if you can help our friend, Aoi-san?"

The others perked up, but I averted my gaze. I still wasn't at all sure of whether I even wanted my true memories back. But we had come all this way, so I supposed I had to at least humour my friends for a while before I tried to chicken out again.

Oboe looked everyone, including me, in the eye before she continued. "While it is within my ability, I refuse to restore Higurashi Aoi's memories to their original state."