Chapter 51: Her Grave
They visited the two other villages they planned without further incident. Lamentably, it turned out that their whole trip was uninformative, no one had heard anything about the fragment or the flying yōkai. They may have been full of speculation about the third missing piece, but Kagome and Dekuyume had quietly informed their exterminator companions that it was found, well protected, and hidden in the future. The only real benefit that they had gained was the pouch full of coins they had received for the salt.
No, what was truly worrisome was the fact that even an extra week was not enough to bring them word from either the exterminator village, or from the hunting party that had gone to the Hitomi palace. So, the day after they arrived back in Edo, they set out for the exterminator's village. At mid-day, they were still quiet in their worry, causing Shippō to try and break the tension. "Ne! Anesan! Are you all right! I smell blood." She glances down at him as he walks next to her, his tail gives his intentions away as it wiggles in amusement behind him. Oh, little fox you're far too many tails short to be playing games with me. You expect feudal era sensibilities, and maidenly shyness. You should have expected otherwise, knowing that I was Magatsuhi once.
She stops in her tracks, kneeling down so that she is closer to his height. "I would have thought your father would have covered this when he explained the differences between Dai-yōkai's human forms, and humans, but I see that he has not. Well, one of the primary differences between female yōkai and humans is their reproductive cycles. In humans they are capable of becoming with child year around because of a process called menstruation, while most yōkai, who experience estrus…" Shippō stares in wide eyed horror as the miko explains something he hadn't even wanted to hear from his father! From the other side of Dekuyume Sōten listens with interest. The miko's explanation made a lot more sense than the stuttering explanation she had received from her brothers. Didn't mean she was looking forward to it though.
She can hear Kagome giggling at his horrified expression in the background as she finishes, "You will find me to be a strange adult, but I sincerely believe that if you are aware enough to ask the question, you are ready for the answer." He nods, he was never asking her a question unless he really needed to know again. She grins, "That or I will give you just enough clues to figure it out yourself. You would never learn to figure out anything for yourself if I always gave you the answers." She rises to her feet and winks at Shippō as she walks past him and whispers, "Good game. Maybe next time." He stares after her, oh! He grins, showing his fox heritage, she was good. "Hey! Anesan, wait for me!"
As the boy jumps onto her shoulder, and Sōten uses her cloud to sit on her other one, Dekuyume asks a question she had been meaning to for a while now. "If you don't mind telling me, what sort of protections do the exterminators have around their village?" She knew that they had relied on their strength, their secrecy, and the vantage point they had from their position in the mountains. It had all been for nothing the last time around. A single spell that caused the lookouts to not notice the signs of a massive yōkai horde approaching had been their downfall. Caught off guard and unprepared, they had perished.
She nods at Sango's helpful answer and pauses a moment to remove a pen, paper and a clip board from her backpack. She quickly catches up to the others and begins writing sutra. It would not be a wasted effort. She had given the village plenty of warning weeks ago when she sent them a coded message with one of their own messenger birds. The spell she had placed on the paper had been released, giving her a small glimpse of the one who had opened it and their surroundings. She knew that they had received it and it had not been intercepted. Naraku may have a larger portion of the jewel than previously, but it just wasn't his style to attack persons of unknown strength in person.
Quietly, she explains to the two children what each symbol she adds means, how it relates to the others she has used in the barrier scheme they were meant for, which ones would work better for them since they were yōkai and some of the common mistakes beginners made when using them. Sōten is mildly interested, she would need to know a little bit about written magic when she was big enough to use Raigekijin, but that would be many years from now. In the meantime, her ancestral spear was currently stored in the protection of the Higurashi shrine 500ish years in the future. Kōryū had been skeptical about that, but had been forced to acknowledge that leaving the spear in Raimei valley, or carrying it around were both equally bad ideas.
Shippō was another matter entirely. His mind fills up with ideas, written magic was the basis for permanently enchanting objects. He could make so many things with information like this! Dekuyume taps him on the end of his nose with the back end of her pen to get his attention. She draws a symbol on a spare piece of paper. "You see this symbol? It's a pretty harmless one, only causing hair to grow quickly." He nods studying it avidly. Using her finger, she smudges the end of one of the characters giving it a wide end instead of a sharp one. "You see the difference right? Do you think that such a small difference in shape makes much of a one in the magic?"
Knowing that she wouldn't be asking the question if it didn't make a difference, he can only nod. She smiles and continues, "That's right, just that little alteration causes all of the hair to grow inward instead of outward, turning a simple prank into a messy lethal weapon. No matter what magic I show you, you will not use it without showing it to me first, so I can check it for mistakes for you." He nods vigorously, that must be why so few people used written spells, even though they were so versatile. It was sad Tousan gave up his tails so I could be a Dai-yōkai. There was so much he had not been able to teach me because he didn't have hands. That trick that Anesan showed me with hair pins and normal locks was way too cool to pass up! Indeed he hid a pair of them in his bow now.
She can almost hear the stress leaving the exterminators bodies as their village comes into sight. She glances up taking in the men and women guarding the gate, and the signs of an old battle. They were not destroyed then, only too busy rebuilding, healing and keeping watch, to respond. They are allowed in the village, and the two exterminators run off when they hear that their father and his hunting party had returned to the village over a week ago, and were all with the healers still.
Dekuyume introduces the rest of their party to the exterminators on duty and asks to speak with someone who has the authority to give her permission to wrap their village in a barrier. She smiles indulgingly when Sōten and Shippō ask to go play with the other children kicking around a ball playing a game of some sort. Kirara and Kōryū trail after them, leaving Inuyasha to huff before helping with the repairs.
In the healing cavern, Kei opens his tired eyes to see his beloved children. They were a welcome sight, one he would never have seen again were it not for the ink-spell. It had been a well formulated trap, knowing that they would have to send their best fighters to aid a damiyō, he had weakened the village. Once there at the palace the bastard had tried to lure them into a false sense of security with the defeat of another yōkai. It hadn't worked, they were two members short of a normal hunting party, and it had left them all hyper sensitive and aware.
Kei had felt the moment the ink-spell activated, slapping at the tiny spider that landed on his neck. If the sick bastard had succeeded, he would have forced me to slay the very people I was sworn to lead and protect. It turned into a messy fight after that, it was only when part of the castle collapsed onto the fool who had sold his body to yōkai for power, that they had retreated.
"Naraku has taken the form of Kagewaki Hitomi. The ink-spell protected us, and we fought until we managed to safely retreat. We ran back to the village as quickly as we could to get reinforcements. We must have sent a message ahead, though none of us recalls doing so, because everyone was already prepared for battle. We managed to rest for a few hours before he sent a horde of yōkai to attack the village. He must have used a spell of some sort, to hide them from us, some people have mentioned seeing a Dai-yōkai hidden under a white baboon pelt. He left as we defeated the last one."
Sango reaches out and holds his hand, and Kohaku reaches out to do the same on the other side, stopping to stare in horror when he realizes that he can't. His father was missing half of his other hand… Kei sighs, closing his eyes, finding it much easier to rest knowing that his children were safe. "A serious battle wound to be sure, but your mother is the best healer this village has ever had. I will not die from infection, and I will find other things to do. I am the chief of this village, I probably shouldn't have been spending as much time outside of it as I was."
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-O-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Dekuyume speaks quietly with the elder she had been directed to. The situation was grim. The first hunting party was too hurt after making their way back to their village and fighting off the horde to answer another call to aid, and the secondary, tertiary and quaternary parties were also too banged up and exhausted to be much use. There was only one group left, and even though they were the largest party, they could not be spared. They were the only ones in good enough condition to protect everyone else while they healed. The elders had given the two miko permission to set up a barrier, desperate for some source of respite.
Dekuyume hands the sutra she had written to Kagome. "Just pour enough power into them so they glow and stick to the walls. Place one every 3-5 feet in a full circle around the perimeter wall. If there aren't enough come find me and let me know. It's a chain spell, so I can easily make it longer with extra links." She nods to the young slayer who had been instructed to lead her to The Cave. While she could have set up a way for the exterminators to focus their chi on certain points of the barrier to power it, none of them were healthy enough to give it the initial boost it would need to form. There was another power source nearby though.
It had been here, in the caves of the mountain the exterminators had made their home, that Midoriko and Magatsuhi had made the Shikon no Tama. Their crystallized remains remained there even now, each still emitted the aura they had carried in life. Over a millennia had passed and still the whole cave system that served as her grave remained filled with enough holy magic to prevent those with ill intentions from entering.
She hesitates for a moment at the mouth of the cave. She may have grown and changed since that fateful day, but had she truly changed so much that the residue of her magic no longer found her to be an enemy? There was only one way to find out…She takes a deep breath and moves forward. She moves through the caves before coming to stand in front of the tableau.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-O-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
What was she doing?They had fought for 7 days now, and he had just managed to pierce through her armor. Using the two tentacles like hooks, he was pulling her towards him so that he could adsorb her. Trapped in his heart she would never leave him to face the world alone again.
There is a sharp pain as something rips itself from his very being. He does not care, nor does he fight or struggle against the crystallization spreading across his form, there was no point. Already he could feel her spirit leaving, ascending to the heavens as the chains of hell rose to drag him to his punishment.
Shehad escaped him again. A dark smile spreads across his face as he spots his shinigami.
Perhaps next time she would not be so lucky.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-O-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
She hears footsteps behind her as comes back to herself with a sigh. She was so tired of fighting her, and there was no longer a reason to. Kagome stares in awe at the crystallized proof of her fight with Magatsuhi. She reaches out and takes her sister's hand. It was shaking. Poor anesan, proof of her past misdeeds couldn't be easy to see.
"Never again. Right Anesan?"
Dekuyume grips the hand in hers tightly, as Kagome-chan she had given her everything she had been seeking for so long. She releases Kagome's hand and claps twice and bows. It would never end like this again. The plan in place made sure of that , but even if something went horribly wrong and they were once more split apart by time and incarnation, she would not offer her violence again… Turning to her sister she smiles bravely, "I promise. Never again."
Climbing the crystal coils of a body that was once hers, she places a hand reverently on Midoriko's shoulder. It is a small mater to redirect the magic into the barrier. Kagome chases the ribbon of energy out of the cave to see it split and touch 6 points on the village walls. Another arcs to the sky and serves as the keystone for the dome as it shimmers into existence. It was beautiful. She stares in amazement as the tail end of the ribbon disappears into the barrier and grins at Dekuyume as she too, exits the cave.
They keep their eyes on the forming barrier as they hear the shattering of glass echo from the cave. A powerful wind blows the crystal dust out of the cave shrouding the two of them in a haze as the spell begins its final sequence. The crystal fragments gather together in the center of the exterminator village. It coalesces together into a single crystal prism. It was perfectly clear and uncolored, allowing for a clear view of the Higurashi clan symbol at its center even from their position outside the village.
Dekuyume admires it's magic. The exterminators may be a little unhappy to have our clan symbol staring them face as it protects them with the barrier it anchors. But she rather liked it, this proof that the sunset was the result of their magic working together.
Without signal they walk back to the village center in comfortable silence and neither one of them looks back the way they had come.
