Although I will have a work in publication sometime next semester, it will be neither XxxHoLiC nor InuYasha, as they do not belong to me. I'm a grad student. We don't get to own such nice things with lovely royalties. I am enjoying playing with CLAMP and Takahashi's sandboxes, though!
-===- - -===- - STORY START -===- - -===- - -===- STORY START- - -===-
Fortunately (well, for Kagome and Watanuki, at any rate), a few days after the slapping across the face debacle one of the other girls in Kagome's class was forced to drop out of school due to a verified pregnancy and very hasty wedding to one of her middle school teachers. Coupled with the fact that some of the more reliable in terms of veracity than Nara-chan cogs in the gossip machine had discovered that Watanuki's eye injury was the result of him doing something stupid at their part time job in an effort to keep Kagome 'safe' (Kagome had been kind enough to lie about Doumeki's involvement when questioned) when if he hadn't, she would have been fine after a good scrub down. As this was just Watanuki displaying blatant stupidity and therefore infinitely less intriguing than actual pregnancy, scandal, and very real speculation as to whether the teacher would lose his job (debatable- the girl in question swore up and down that they hadn't started dating until well after she had graduated, and the timeline of the pregnancy seemed to support her claim), the gossip died down surprisingly fast.
Kagome found herself relieved in spite of herself. She and Doumeki had taken to pouring over the old books and scrolls in his temple's library any spare moment they could find, including during hours that would usually be taken up by her part time job, with Yuuko's full approval. This did mean, however, that she wound up missing certain things, including the incident of the desperate woman bringing in what Watanuki had dubbed 'the most creepy picture EVER', although he couldn't quite tell what was wrong with it, apart from it moving and dissolving a metal picture frame.
She was, however, present when the woman came back, having dropped by at Yuuko's request to give a status report. The two were in the back room, while Watanuki was cleaning in the front, where he would be less likely to overhear their discussion. "So, we've gone through most of the really old scroll, and have started covering the newer selections. We haven't found anything really promising yet, but that's a fairly large section, since before Doumeki's father, all of the priests for generations had been fairly powerful spiritual practitioners, and they all kept insanely good records. Even if none of them have found a solution, we haven't gotten very far on the records at my shrine, and we have one of the most extensive libraries on tsuchigumo in the country. Souta's already going through them and setting aside some of the ones that he thinks might have something, but he's really only focused on the more modern texts, since his classical Japanese could still use some serious work. We'll find something, sooner or later, even if we have to call in favors with other shrines to get our hands on their records." She glanced at Yuuko, "And before you ask, no, we don't want your help. Not yet, anyways. We'll keep that as a last resort."
Yuuko nodded with approval. "And that is, of course, why Doumeki can so very rarely see the shop. He prefers to take care of things himself." She looked at Kagome consideringly, "Under normal circumstance, I doubt that you would have found it yourself. You dislike letting others do things for you as well, after…."
Kagome was about to answer her when she was saved by a call from the front of the shop. "Is… is anyone in?"
Watanuki stuck his head into the back room, "That voice… Is that…"
"The one involved," Yuuko intoned, going back into her mysterious and world weary voice, "Is finally here." The trio moved to the front of the shop, where a woman with short hair dressed in a business suit stood, fidgeting a bit. "Welcome back." Yuuko told her, "I take it you are here to discuss that photograph?"
"I…" she glanced quickly at Kagome, "Ye-es."
"She is another part timer," Yuuko assured her, "There is nothing to be concerned about. It is good that you have come. There is something that you should see. Watanuki, go fetch that picture." She escorted the woman to the room where Yuuko usually entertained her human clients, settling her in one of the chairs and taking the one across from her. When Watanuki returned, he set the picture frame in the center of the table, so that the woman could clearly see the damage to the frame as well as how the picture had moved, rather like a film reel.
"No…" the woman whispered, her face going white, "I thought that… this can't be happening! Not again…"
"You can see now, that running away from it will do no good." Yuuko said, her voice hard, "The photo seems to have something it wants you to see."
If anything, that seemed to drive the woman into a further state of panic, although her eyes looked vaguely remorseful. Kagome frowned, and narrowed her eyes at the picture. There was a faint glow about it that she could just see. Spirit possessed, she was fairly certain. Given the way that the woman was shaking and her general expression, Kagome was willing to bet that this particular spirit fell into the very rare category of 'subtle vengeful spirit' which meant that…
Kagome's eyes hardened as Yuuko spoke again. "So have you decided?"
"But I…" the woman answered, nearly in tears.
"What is it that you want to do?" Yuuko asked.
"I—" the woman broke off, as a much smaller version of her entered the photograph to join the smiling woman.
"Wha—" Watanuki murmured, staring at the photo.
The woman's eyes widened as she stood, shaking violently, then snatched the picture from the table. She curled over it, holding it to her chest as she fell to her knees. "No!" she screamed, "I can't look!"
"What is with this woman?" Watanuki muttered in Kagome's ear, so that the client couldn't hear, "It's a happy photo, and if she doesn't want it, why not just tear it up?
"Oh, I imagine she tried that a long time ago," Kagome murmured back, "It just didn't work very well, not with that spirit possessing it."
"Right, Yuuko said something like that." Watanuki agreed.
"Besides, she's probably much too scared to let it out of her sight for very long." Kagome continued, watching the woman with a cold expression.
"Huh? Scared? Why?"
"You want to hide the photo," Yuuko intoned, "But you are too afraid to let it out of your sight. This is from your past, isn't it? A photo isn't like a painting. It is a record of the past, but it doesn't mix with the artist's feelings like a painting would. Sometimes they capture things we want to forget, right?"
The woman clutched the picture frame closer to her chest, but at that moment, the glass gave out, letting the photo flutter to the ground, showing the woman reaching out to push her companion off of the cliff they were standing on. "No," she whispered, "It was an accident… just an accident! The police even said that she fell because she tripped…"
"Is that… true?" Yuuko whispered, tilting the woman's chin up with a long, extended finger, "Then what are you afraid of?" The question was far too innocent, leaving little doubt as to what Yuuko knew, "So, have you made your decision?"
"Make…" The woman choked out before taking a deep breath and settling herself, "Make it be gone. Make it be gone from this earth."
Yuuko's expression was rather pitying. "You will have to pay the price." She warned, Watanuki and Kagome standing behind her. Watanuki looked rather grim, while Kagome's expression was carefully blank.
"I will do anything!" The woman screamed, her shaking starting again as she curled her hands over her ears and started sobbing.
"You should not promise 'anything' so lightly." Yuuko told her, her face going as blank as Kagome's.
"NOTHING IS MORE HORRIBLE TO ME THAN THAT PICTURE!" the woman screamed.
Then maybe you shouldn't have done it. Kagome thought darkly.
Judging by her expression, Yuuko rather agreed with her. "Alright then," she bent to collect the photo from the ground where it had landed, "I will grant your wish." The photo began to disintegrate, falling towards the floor before going up in a puff of dust or smoke, rather like a cloud of ashes, but not quite quickly enough to hide the fiercely happy smile on the woman's face as she realized that she had indeed managed to kill her victim. Watanuki looked rather horrified and took several steps back, away from the woman.
"Alright." Yuuko said, blowing the last traces of the photo's remains off of her fingertips, "The photo is gone. You will never see it again. No one will ever see that photo again. Now, you must pay the price."
"Wh- what do I have to pay?" The woman asked, slowly sliding out of her huddled pose. She was crying and shaking again, but this time Kagome felt sure that it was with relief, rather than panic.
Yuuko's smirk was not comforting. "You must not be captured by any electronic recording device." She told the woman sweetly.
"Huh?" the woman asked, eyes widening.
"Any sort of recording device," Yuuko repeated as if speaking to a very young, very stupid child, "Cameras, video recorders, nothing. If your image is captured by anything of the type... the woman in the photo will come back and show you. If it were just a photo, it would probably be alright," She continued, completely ignoring the woman's horrified expression, "But if you were accidentally on television… every person watching would see what we just saw."
"H-how could you?!" the woman cried out.
Yuuko resumed her usual blank expression at this, "You said that you would be willing to do anything, didn't you? This was your own choice!" Kagome felt certain that it was that last sentiment that sent the woman stumbling out of the shop, alternatively shaking and weeping.
Yuuko sighed and shook her head. "Foolish woman."
"Not such a foolish vengeance spirit, though," Kagome added thoughtfully, "Great way to get her killer's attention, and possibly get her arrested, as well as being surprisingly subtle. I wonder what she was like when she was alive."
"Did- did that woman really push the lady in the photo over the cliff?" Watanuki asked, looking down.
"Judging from how frightened she was?" Kagome answered with a shrug, "I would guess so."
"Then shouldn't we tell the police?" he demanded.
"With what evidence?" she asked, "The photo's gone. Besides, you heard her, the police concluded that it was an accident. They aren't going to over turn that decision based on a creepy photograph. Photo shop is a thing, you know."
"Quite right, Kagome." Yuuko agreed.
"Even so, why did you destroy the photo?" Watanuki asked, confused.
"Because it was her wish." Yuuko answered coolly.
"But she may have killed someone! That was the only evidence!" he shrieked.
"Indeed," Yuuko said quietly, "If you kill someone, you must pay the price for that life."
"Then why—"
"Do you really think that she can avoid being recorded for the rest of her life, Watanuki-senpai?" Kagome asked him, "Because I don't. Maybe someone will take a photo of her, or she'll get filmed in the background of a live television broadcast. Oh, you can't forget all of the security cameras in… pretty much every store, or the ones on display in electronics stores. Do you really think she can avoid every camera lurking around in this day and age? Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if she gets filmed before she even gets home."
"Hmmm…" Yuuko hummed in agreement, "She might just do it if she never sets foot outside of her home ever again, keeping the windows covered, and throws away any of her electronics with a camera." She turned to look at a shell-shocked Watanuki. "I told you before, the price for taking a life is heavy. It is a crushing weight, so heavy that it could even kill a person!"
Kagome shuddered, looking down at her hands. Sure, most of the people she had killed in the Sengoku-Jidai were youkai who were attacking her first, but there had been a few exceptions in the form of bandits or human lackeys. She didn't regret her decisions or actions, most of the time, but…. There was a line from an English play that fit the situation quite well, she thought. What, will these hands ne'er be clean? She shook her head to clear it. "I have to go, Yuuko-san," she said quietly, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room, "I promised Shizuka-senpai that I'd meet him after I stopped by."
Yuuko nodded, "Of course, of course. You're free until this time next week. Good luck with your hunting."
She smiled and bowed, "Thank you very much, Yuuko-san. We need all the luck we can get!"
She could just hear Watanuki asking "What hunting?" as she ran out the door.
-===- - -===- - -===-SCENE CHANGE===- - -===- SCENE CHANGE- - -===-
A few weeks later, Kagome and Doumeki were beginning to lose hope. "There has to be something." Doumeki muttered for the fiftieth time, "With the size of the library, surely someone's dealt with something similar!"
"Maybe they have," Kagome answered with a sigh, blinking in an attempt to give her eyes a rest, "But they haven't recorded it. Or it was on one of those pages that got ripped out. Or it was your grandfather, given that we're going through these in chronological order." She sighed, then let her upper body fall to the floor with a thump, careful to let her head land on one of the cushions they had dragged into the library a few days ago, "I knew that this wasn't going to be easy, but I didn't realize it was going to be quite this bad."
"No joke," Doumeki agreed with a sigh, wiping his hands on one of the dust cloths they had long since realized were absolutely necessary before covering his eyes with one, "Part of it is that my father really let the temple go downhill while he was in charge of the physical caretaking, especially in here. Then I was more worried about getting the temple proper back into shape, and figured that I could get to the library 'later'." He sighed again. "Well, that was a stupid decision."
"No, it wasn't," Kagome scolded, turning onto her side so that she could look at him, "That was what you had to do. If your temple isn't up to scratch, you start to lose patrons. You lose enough patrons—"
"You don't eat." They chorused.
"Yeah, I know," Doumeki agreed, "But still. The temple's been pretty stable for a while now. I should have gotten to the library, at least enough to dust in here."
"Well, look at it this way: once we're finished in here, we'll have pretty much deshelved all of the books. It'll be an excellent opportunity to dust and clean the bookshelves, and then put the books back in an actually organized fashion." She grimaced, "And then we get to clean the floors. Really, it's a blessing in disguise."
Doumeki shot her a look, "Are you offering to help?"
"I helped make the mess, I'll help clean it up." She told him, sounding rather like a martyr, "And then we get to go look through everything at my shrine. Oh joy."
"You do seem confident in your shrine's library." Doumeki said meditatively, "Why is that?"
Kagome sighed, "You've never dealt with spiders before, have you?"
He shook his head, "Can't say that I have. Why would I? Before I met you and Watanuki, I didn't exactly know about the whole 'ability to exorcise' thing. I mean, in hindsight, I think my grandfather did," he added meditatively, "But he didn't tell me that I could. I think he was planning to, but…." He trailed off.
She nodded sympathetically. There was absolutely no reason to make him finish that thought. "Good point. Well, then, how much do you know about my shrine's history, then?"
"Next to nothing." He answered promptly, "I'll admit to having done some very basic research, but nothing major." He grinned, "I really want to see that goshinboku you've got."
"Hmm, goshinboku is very impressive," she agreed, "He's well worth seeing. But the tree of ages isn't the only thing we're known for. The shrine was supposedly built in honor of the miko who defeated Naraku, a tsuchigumo hanyou who sought the Shikon no Tama so that he could rule Japan, if not the entire world. As such, pretty much all of the shrine's priests, miko, houshi, care takers, or whoever else happened to be resident have made it a mission to collect any noteworthy information on tsuchigumo, which are, of course—"
"Spiders."
"Exactly." Kagome nodded. "In academic circles, the Higurashi Shrine is known for having one of the best and most complete collections of written works" she grimaced, "And artifacts pertaining to tsuchigumo. I can say with safety that if we don't have anything on sight stolen by spiders, or hate curses cast by spiders, then we'll have something that references them. And we can probably call in a favor to get a look at them, if we have to."
"Nice. Very nice." Doumeki said admiringly, "I'm surprised that your family doesn't dislike them more, with that sort of thing on your shrine. Although, I didn't your shrine was connected to the Shikon no Tama legend. I always thought that was closer to Kyoto."
"Nope," she answered with a wry smile, "Edo. All of the early documentation we have of it, and we have a lot, says that Edo was the center, waaaaaay back when Edo was a village, and nothing like a city."
"We don't have anything quite so fancy here," he told her with a grin, "Just a very repentant rich guy who sincerely hoped that by paying for a fancy shrine to low grade temple- which is why we have characteristics of both- he would get on the good side of the kami, or Buddha, or whoever was in charge of the afterlife. Not sure how well it worked, but it left us a very nice place that people seem to enjoy seeing at sunrise, even if they can't quite decide if it's a Buddhist temple or a Shinto Shrine. So, we end up calling it both, mostly going with the Shinto theme in more recent years, since we don't have Buddha lying around anywhere."
"I was wondering about that. So is it a shrine, or a temple?"
Doumeki shrugged, "Both? It's a weird situation, and pretty much every priest has used the terms interchangeably."
"Fair enough. Look, I don't know about you, but my eyes are about ready to fall out. Do you think it's late enough for us to call it a day?"
He chuckled, "Dunno. I'll go check." He got to his feet with a groan, "Please tell me we only have a few books left. Please."
"I think we're down to six. Maybe seven." She answered, staring at the remaining pile.
"Better than nothing. We can finish those tomorrow, if need be." With that he headed out the door.
With a wincing groan of her own, Kagome got to her feet and followed, just in time for them to see Watanuki covering his eye and murmuring "Again?"
"Does it hurt?" Doumeki asked, concerned.
"Why do you care, idiot?" Watanuki snapped.
"Your eye." Doumeki repeated, ignoring Watanuki's blatant display of cluelessness, "Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt." Watanuki muttered, "It's fine."
"Hmmm… first part's true, second part? I don't think so." Kagome said softly, so Watanuki couldn't hear her.
Doumeki looked hard at Watanuki, then shrugged, "We have work to do, so please go now. I don't want you to distract us by stumbling around with your one eye."
Kagome grinned and went back into the library, just as Watanuki shrieked "I WAS JUST ABOUT TO LEAVE ANYWAY!" Sometimes it was best to let boys be boys on their own, and besides, there were six (maybe seven) more books to go through before they finished with the Akatsuki Temple/Shrine's library.
She dropped back into her sitting position next to the cushion. "We've found lots of spells, but none of them are for restoring sight. Maybe this one?" She picked up a book of eastern spells and spirituality.
"So, plus side," Doumeki told her, dropping a few things by the door, "I got rid of Watanuki. Downside, it's no where near late enough for us to stop."
She rubbed her eyes and nodded, folding her legs into a slightly more comfortable position. "Should have known. It would have been much too easy for us to be done for the day."
"No kidding. We might manage to finish up here before you have to go." He told her, dropping to the ground next to her and picking up one of the texts. They sat in companionable silence, reading skimming through the texts for anything that might be remotely interesting. After a while, Kagome could feel her body getting heavier. She glanced over at Doumeki. It wouldn't be a problem if she borrowed his shoulder, right? It wasn't like she was going to stop reading, or anything. And he hadn't minded that time she'd fallen asleep on him when they were waiting for Watanuki to come back from saving the little girl under the hydrangeas, so he probably wouldn't mind this time, right? Ever so slowly she rested first her head on Doumeki's shoulder, using her hand to keep the rest of her weight from being dumped on him. That lasted for all of minutes, right up until he abruptly hooked an arm around her waist and hauled her closer, forcing to rest against his side. Kagome squeaked and blushed, while Doumeki smiled ever so slightly.
"It's more comfortable this way." He told her. Kagome wasn't quite sure if she believed him, given that his arm stayed around her waist, but she certainly wasn't going to complain. They stayed there, working their way through the last few books, until there was only one left in the pile, the record left by Doumeki's grandfather. They had been consciously avoiding that one for quite a while ever since they realized that most of the personal records of the shrine keepers had been, well, personal. They were treated more like a diary or journal rather than a straight record, describing familial or inter-shrine difficulties as well as spiritual issues. Doumeki had hesitated every time that they could have opened it, leading Kagome to suggest an alternative. She wasn't exactly sure what Doumeki was worried about, but she would wager that it had something to do with his notably absent father, or even Shizuka himself. Still, Kagome recognized an emotional minefield when she saw one in book form. After all, hadn't she been avoiding Miroku's records of the founding of the shrine and its subsequent years ever since she'd realized that it held the records of her friends' lives? She certainly had no room to talk.
Just as she was about to suggest that they stop for the night, the door banged open. The two jumped, jerking away from each other so that their… rather cozy position wasn't revealed to the intruder, making Doumeki scowl. "Who is it?" he growled.
"It is I, King Watanuki!" the boy called proudly.
Kagome glanced out the window, glad that she had called her mother to let her know that she might be crashing at Yuuko's for the night in addition to the fact that it was a Saturday and they didn't have school in the morning. "…Do you even realize what time it is?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.
"I should be asking you that question!" Watanuki retorted, "How are you going to make your subway home at this time of night?" He looked around, shaking his head, "How much time do you two need to clean up this place, anyway?"
"How was work?" Doumeki asked, side stepping the question quickly.
"I'm done with work!" the other boy told him with a glare before looking around, "And this place doesn't look clean at all! I would have expected you to do a lousy job, Doumeki, but not you, Kagome-chan!"
"Hurry it up," Doumeki snarled, "What do you want?"
Watanuki shoved a paper bag in his face. "Behold! I, the Great Watanuki, have taken pity on your pathetic souls and brought you a lunch!" he struck a pose as Doumeki looked into the bag, interested in spite of himself. "Praise me! Perform a dance of thanks for me!"
Kagome joined Doumeki next to the food, very conscious of the fact that she hadn't had anything to eat besides a granola bar since lunch. "Watanuki-senpai…."
Her companion was much more succinct. "Idiot."
Watanuki turned on them in an instant. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"
"You sure are energetic." Doumeki continued.
"Huh?"
The temple resident sighed, "This place has many books and tools for spell casting and exorcisms. They belonged to my grandfather." He grinned briefly at Kagome, before taking the kouraku bento out and setting it on the floor, "I wonder if there's a spell to be rid of annoying people…"
"IT WOULD ONLY GET RID OF YOU!" Watanuki retorted, before glancing around at the walls, then frowning, "What're those things?" he asked, pointing at one of several sutras pasted to the corner beams of the room.
"My grandfather would never have allowed anything that was truly evil to come in this place." Doumeki said, looking firmly at the bento.
"Those are sutra, Watanuki-senpai," Kagome explained, "They're inscribed with prayers of protection and other similar properties. These are very good." She turned to Doumeki and rested a hand on his shoulder, "Doumeki will probably be able to make them himself someday, so he can add to the protections his grandfather began."
Watanuki looked around, wide eyed, but Doumeki just got out the bento and dug in, probably intending to dodge the subject as much as possible. Kagome decided to pretend she didn't notice, and took a seat, taking a set of chopsticks and starting in on her share of the tamagoyaki. Keeping his face perfectly straight, Doumeki turned to Watanuki. "Did you bring any tea?"
"WHAT?! YOU'RE ALREADY EATING IT?!"
"Well, you did offer, and we haven't really eaten since lunch." Kagome told him with a serene smile, resisting the urge to giggle.
"There's no tea," Watanuki said, before grumbling, "This is your house, you should be the one offering me tea!" he produced a thermos and some cups. "Here! Miso soup! Before you drink it, bow down and thank me three times!"
"Yeah, yeah." Doumeki answered, taking his cup and downing it.
"You didn't thank me!" Watanuki snarled as he passed Kagome her cup, "Just be thankful that you get eat Yuuko's leftovers from dinner!"
"Make us some fried meatballs next time." Doumeki suggested.
"LISTEN TO WHAT OTHERS TELL YOU, DAMN IT!"
"Thank you for the food, Watanuki-senpai." Kagome said sweetly, hoping to dodge extreme conflict.
"Yeah, yeah." He muttered, then turned to a pile of books, "Are you reading these? Looking for a way to get my eye back?" The shrine brats' eyes shifted to look at each other, then back to Watanuki, who continued, "I don't mind it being like this. Really."
"Well, I do." Doumeki answered simply.
"Me, too. Especially since if I hadn't been sick, it wouldn't be." Kagome agreed.
"You should get going," he said deliberately keeping his voice quiet and turning away from his friend, "Evil spirits come out a lot more at night than during the day."
"You do whatever you want," Watanuki answered, sliding to the floor with a dull thud, "And I'll do whatever I want. I'll find it out myself." He glared at the two who were staring at him, "Do you have a problem with that? If you want to fight, bring it on!"
"Ahh, Watanuki-senpai?" Kagome broke in delicately, "That's one of the discard piles."
"What?"
"I've already looked at that book." Doumeki told him bluntly, "We've gone through pretty much all of them at this point. There's only three left. You can check that one." He pointed to the book next to his grandfather's still wrapped record.
Watanuki hurried over to it and tripped solidly over the journal. "Gah! What was that?" he caught sight of the book, and blanched, "Did I damage it?!"
Doumeki picked it up, and unwrapped it, revealing a classically hand bound book with a sutra meant to protect the contents on the cover. "This was my grandfather's. It's his record as master of the shrine."
"Huh?" Watanuki blinked, "You mean, he wrote this book?"
"Yeah," Doumeki agreed, "It's a record of things that happened here, spiritual things he was involved with, that sort of thing, during his tenure as head of the temple."
"Interesting characters." Watanuki said, leaning forward to get a closer look, "I can't read any of it."
"That's because it's in the old style," Doumeki told him, sitting down, "And you clearly haven't been paying attention in Japanese class."
"It's written in the old style?" Kagome asked, intrigued, sitting next to him and looking over his shoulder, "Interesting. Not that many people could manage that for a shrine record these days. Read it, sure, but write it? Not so much."
"Yeah, that was Grandfather for you," Doumeki agreed with a slightly pained smile, "Anything worth doing, and all that." He flipped a page, then paused, startled, "Hey,"
Kagome took a closer look before breaking into a surprised smile, "You found it!"
"Huh?" Watanuki asked, confused.
"A method to restore sight that's been taken away by a spider!" She said, beaming, "Shizuka-senpai's found one!"
"What?! That sort of thing—your grandfather actually describes the process? It's that common for spiders to take away someone's sight?"
"I keep telling you," she answered, shaking her head, "Spiders are vengeful little blighters. You just keep not believing me."
"At sunset on the night of a full moon," Doumeki read, "Wash the lost eye in water from a well, then use this water to…" A rustling startled the trio.
"What the—" Watanuki started, right before a book at the front of the room rustled open and what Kagome thought was a stream of letters congealed into a worm-like form zoomed out and dove towards the book that Doumeki held in his hands. Some force knocked all three teens off of their feet, letting the worm get at the book. Slowly, the carefully inked phrases slid off of the page. "It-it's eating the words?" Watanuki said, voice shaking. Doumeki dove for the text, doubtless hoping to stop it from eating one of the few pieces he had left of his grandfather, but Watanuki grabbed him. "Stay away!"
Still, one of Doumeki's hands almost touched the book before the ink-worm turned on him, its head opening to reveal an extremely impressive inked letter maw that would have doubtless done some serious damage if he hadn't moved his hand away just in time. "It's going to eat the whole book." He said dully, reaching for it again.
Watanuki evidently concluded that Doumeki couldn't be trusted not to go after the book again, regardless of danger, and slammed the empty bento box over it. They could just hear the sound of the worm rattling the lid before returning to the book. "There… I don't think it will get out now."
"You trapped it in there with the book! We can't save the book unless we get it out of there!" Doumeki yelled at him.
"Not necessarily, given that the little guy started radiating youki once it began snacking," Kagome corrected, her eyes grim. "Move over." She knelt by the box, took a deep breath, then slammed her hands onto the bento box, channeling her purifying energy through the wood. The box shone a brilliant pink, and a thin, reedy death screech was audible through the covering. She held it for another few seconds, then rose, dusting her hands. "Well, that should do it."
Hands shaking ever so slightly, Doumeki lifted the bento. The record was open to the page on regaining sight stolen by spider, and a thin line of something very like ash lay across the page. Most of the text was still in tact, but four lines had vanished. Doumeki picked up the book and blew away the remains of the youkai, before reading through it. He growled, then turned back to the other two. "Most of it's fine, but, of course, the four lines it ate were the next four lines of the spell. We can't use it."
"Maybe we could ask Yuuko?" Watanuki suggested tentatively.
"You called?" Yuuko asked, leaning on the door to the library, making the three teenagers jump. "I can tell that Kagome got rid of a pet for you recently. Good work, that! I could have managed, but it would have cost Doumeki the very lovely protections on his library."
"I prefer Kagome's method," he muttered.
Yuuko nodded regally, "Yes, yes. Family relics really should be kept in tact whenever possible. You never know when they'll come in handy. Shame they couldn't work on something that was brought in, even if inadvertently. Perhaps that can be your layer, Doumeki-kun?"
"I'll keep it in mind." He said, voice flat.
"Whatever that… that thing was, it ate some of the lines of his grandfather's book." Watanuki explained, "Is there any way we can get them back?"
"That thing was a bookworm," Yuuko told him, "They inhabit books, and they love to eat precious writings, so of course they after things that were written by Doumeki's grandfather, especially since he was in the room. It was much too tasty a meal for them to resist." She sighed, and shook her head, "Unfortunately, there's no way I can get the text back for you. That's part of their power. Once they get their mouths on text, they get to keep it. It's part of their magic. So, unless Doumeki happened to have that portion memorized and could rewrite it…." Doumeki shook his head, and Yuuko grimaced, looking genuinely remorseful, "I'm sorry, then. It's gone."
"It might be because of the wooden box I trapped it in." Watanuki suggested hesitantly.
"Is that an apology?" Doumeki asked, perhaps a little more cruelly than he usually would.
"NO, IT'S NOT!" Watanuki shrieked and launched himself at Doumeki, attempting to strangle the other boy.
For once, however, Kagome wasn't watching the Watanuki-Doumeki show. Instead, she was following trace amounts of youki to the book that had once housed the bookworm. Frowning, she picked it up. It was far too new to be one of the books that actually belonged in the library, and a quick glance at the title confirmed her suspicion. It was the first book in a popular light novel series.
"How very interesting," Yuuko murmured, leaning over her shoulder, "The bookworm came from here?" Kagome nodded, and Yuuko turned back to the boys, "Whose book is this?" she asked, gesturing to the book that Kagome held up.
"Huh? Oh, it's Himawari-chan's. Why?" Watanuki answered promptly.
"Take a look inside," Yuuko told him, amused.
Looking confused, Watanuki took the book from Kagome and started to flip through the pages. Most of them were missing large quantities of text. "AHHHHHHHHHH! HIMAWARI-CHAN'S BOOK!"
Kagome moved next to Doumeki and crossed her arms over her chest. "And Himawari-senpai's warped aura strikes again." she muttered.
Doumeki glanced sideways at her, "Remind me to have you purify anything she comes into contact with before I bring it anywhere near the important parts of the temple." He requested, keeping his voice low so that Watanuki wouldn't overhear and start an uproar.
She nodded, her face set in grim lines, "Oh, believe me, I will."
"How could this beeeeeeeee?!" Watanuki wailed.
"Indeed, "Yuuko answered, with Mokona scrunching up his face on her shoulder, "I should have guessed that book was hers."
Watanuki seemed to come back to himself at her words. "Yuuko, why are you here now, anyway? We didn't even have the chance to summon you."
"Because I wanted to explore Doumeki's library and storeroom for treasures, of course!" Yuuko answered brightly, "And I also wanted in on some of that tasty looking bento!" she added clapping her hands together.
"We've got plenty of rare books and some nice artifacts," Doumeki told her, "You're welcome to have a look at them, provided that you don't make off with anything- I will come after you if you do. Sorry, but Kagome and I finished off the bento. So, it wasn't just leftovers?"
"Nope!" Yuuko said cheerily, meeting Doumeki's eyes with a telling expression, "We ate noodles today! Very good udon noodles!"
"Arrrrrrgh!" Watanuki moaned, then started nudging Yuuko out the door, "It's late, let's go home! Yes, yes, let's go home, Yuuko! Come on! You know, it's dark now, so it's a good time to drink. Let's go back to the shop so you can have some of that nice sake you made me buy yesterday, ok?"
"Noodles, huh?" Doumeki asked, looking down at his grandfather's book, which he had yet to put down.
"YOU BE SILENT!" Watanuki shouted as he finally succeeded in shoving Yuuko out the door.
The shrine brats turned back to the record, staring silently. Kagome didn't know what to do. Losing even four lines of text from a shrine record was tragedy enough, but for them to be from someone you had known and loved's record was even worse, particularly when they had practically been advice from the grave. She had no idea how Doumeki must be feeling about this, let alone how she could help him. So, she settled for putting her hand on his elbow.
He turned to stare at her, "It's gone. My grandfather's directions… they're gone."
Kagome nodded, and leaned her head on his upper arm. "I know. But…. I know it doesn't make it any better, but with that bookworm, it could have been so much worse. It could have eaten the whole book."
Doumeki nodded. "I know. And I know I'll feel better about it later. But right now…" He trailed off, shaking his head.
"Do you…" Kagome bit her lip, "Do you want to go get some tea, and maybe read some of it together?"
He looked at her for a long moment, then smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah. That'd be good."
"Well then," she smiled back and took his hand, "Let's get going!" With that, she dragged him out of the library and back towards the house. They could both do with some proper light, a couch, and some soothing tea.
-===- - -END NOTES -===- - -===- - -===- - -END NOTES- -===- - -===- -
So. Erm, at this point, I really feel like I should just admit it and start calling these the annual updates of The Price of Hitsuzen. Grad school, for the record, is insane. This year, the winter update was sacrificed in the name of working on my master's thesis research (the thesis is now finished, yay!) and as I'm moving on to a new university and PhD work, I'm sure I'll be sacrificing winter updates in favor of dissertation research/writing. So, all in all, winter updates. They're getting pitched out the window in favor of one annual update that will happen when it happens, probably during the summer. Anything else you get is bonus material.
That being said, I really hope that you enjoyed this chapter! The next one up is the Lady Jorougumo portion, which I really wanted to cover on its own. I have a vague idea of what I want to do with it, so I might, just possibly, get to it before the end of the summer. No promises, though. I do have something that I'm writing for an actual publication, so it wins….
On a much happier note, I would like to dedicate this to my fellow members of the S.S. Kagome/Doumeki! We… probably need to come up with a shorter title for it. But regardless, it is a loyal crew. I never expected it to get very large, so every time I get a comment from people telling me they ship it, my heart warms a little!
That being said, notes on this chapter:
Tsuchigumo: I'm making something of an assumption here, given that I don't know exactly what kind of spider hanyou Naraku was, but I would say that tsuchigumo is a safe bet, given his penchant for underground hiding places. That being said, tsuchigumo are technically 'ground spiders' with demonic references. Unlike most youkai, there are actually records that these guys existed! There's just one itty-bitty catch: they were neither spiders, nor demons. Tsuchigumo started out as a derogatory term for native Japanese clans that didn't ally themselves with the emperor. To make a very long story short, the people we think of as 'Japanese' were actually invaders. They came over with superior technology and better warriors and took over at some point in the past (don't ask me for an exact date, but I would wager the late BCE period). The remaining native peoples, like the Ainu, weren't exactly thrilled with this. Several of them outright resisted. At some point, because these were humbler people than the invaders, the name "tsuchigumo" was attached to them. The exact when and how of this connection to demonic spiders is uncertain, but one of the better ones is that the legend of tsuchigumo started as a derivation of an older derogatory term "tsuchigomori", meaning "those who hide in the ground", referring to the native people's habit of fortifying cave systems and creating hollow mounds to use them as strongholds. Over time, "tsuchigomori" morphed into "tsuchigumo" earth spiders, creating the present legends of intelligent, occasionally anthropomorphic demon spiders. It can be wagered that this really took off after the introduction of tarantulas and other giant, terrifying ground dwelling spiders from the mainland. The Chinese bird spider perhaps deserves special note, as several later descriptions of tsuchigumo seem to borrow heavily from its physical description. All that being said, I think it's a reasonably safe bet that Naraku is some variety of tsuchigumo. I tried not to be too specific on the off chance that I'm wrong, as I've never read the Japanese version of InuYasha, but that is what Naraku, and Lady Jorougumo next chapter, will be unless I'm informed otherwise. Also, it must be stated that there is a much better description of tsuchigumo and their possible origins in the back notes of the second trade volume of Wayward, a comic series by Jim Zub. It's really good, you should go read it, particularly if you're a fan of XxxHoLiC or Mushishi, as it deals with Japanese folklore in a surprisingly well done manner.
What, will these hands ne'er be clean?: So, this quote is a real, actual quote! It's from Shakespeare's Macbeth, and is said by Lady Macbeth in Scene 1 of Act 5, after she's helped her husband (i.e. pushed him into) murder King Duncan and several others so that he (Macbeth) could be king of Scotland. However, in time, the guilt has gotten to her, and she's well and truly mad at this point. "What, will these hands ne'er be clean?" refers to the fact that in her madness, she can still see, feel, and smell the blood on her hands. I use this in reference to Kagome because the fact of the matter is that Kagome killed people in the Sengoku Jidai. Granted, most of the people she killed were youkai, which might have assuaged her guilt a little, might, but I would wager that there was probably a human or two in there as well, either because they were lackeys of Naraku, controlled by the shikon no tama or another youkai, or just bandits who were placing her party in a kill-or-be-killed situation. For someone like Kagome, even the deaths of intelligent youkai would probably weigh pretty heavily on her once she had time to really process what was going on. So, she doesn't regret what she did, but at the same time….
Is it a temple, or a shrine?: So, you may notice this chapter alternates between calling Doumeki's home a shrine or a temple. This is for two reasons: 1) I don't know which it is. 2) The translations that I've read don't seem to know what it is either. In other words, I've seen it written both ways in the manga. This chapter in particular called it a temple. Others called it a shrine. Thus, as it seems to take characteristics from both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, I'm saying that due to the circumstances under which it was built, not even the caretaker's family knows which is should be. It's the best solution I've got, at the moment. If anyone has a better idea, I would be thrilled to hear it. Seriously.
Kouraku bento: These are the ridiculously large bento boxes that you see people taking on picnics with the intention of sharing them. So, if you're meeting up with a group of your friends for lunch at the park, and you're responsible for bringing the food, you would probably use one of these. Watanuki's packing for two people, one of whom is fairly notorious for eating a decent amount of food, so he uses a kouraku bento to minimize his dish washing.
That's it for notes today! If there's anything you think that I've missed, let me know, and I'll do my best to explain. Thanks again for putting up with the long wait times between chapters. It's greatly appreciated!