April had finally come, dragging everyone into a new school year. Kagome considered it to be a fairly successful transition. So far, she had only missed three days of school due to her lovely case of 'just shy of pneumonia', and while that had turned out to be extremely problematic in its own way, it hadn't resulted in her missing any crucial information for her classes. In fact, she had finished third in her class over all and was the top scorer in Classical Japanese, history, and literature. As always, math had proven to be her Achilles' heel, with science not too far behind. Some day, she thought grimly, she would beat math. Some day. Unfortunately, today was not that day. In the meantime, she would start thinking about how to suggest that she wanted to be a writer, archivist, or historian to her career advisor without sounding completely delusional. Career counseling was coming up fast, she knew, and those were the only positions that she could think of that wouldn't drive her completely insane. She shook her head with a soft smile. Who would have imagined that she would want to be a historian when she was a fourteen year old? Or would voluntarily lock herself in a building full of dusty scrolls like the ones her grandfather loved so much? Everything had changed since her trip through the well, and she couldn't quite bring herself to regret it.
But, now wasn't the right time for a nostalgia trip, she scolded herself, and returned her focus to her group of friends. "The blossoms on the sakura trees are beautiful this year!" Himawari chirped, "They were last year as well, of course. But they're nice this year! It's like it's completely spring, now!"
Kagome shared a fondly exasperated glance with Doumeki as Watanuki fell backwards, a look of rapture on his face. Sometimes, it was just pathetic how gone Watanuki was over Himawari, especially since he never seemed to take in all the little details, like how almost every time something went horribly, horribly, wrong due to bad luck it was right after he had touched and/or interacted with her. Still, if Watanuki hadn't picked up on Himawari's warped aura, it wasn't Kagome's job to enlighten him. Besides, she knew a lost cause when she saw one.
"That's so true!" her coworker gushed.
Himawari beamed at him, "Oh! Did you see that program on tv last night?"
Kagome shook her head, "Souta-kun wanted to watch a movie, so we did that," she explained, "What about you, Shizuka-senpai?"
He shrugged, "Didn't watch tv. I've been trying to read through some of the journals from the shrine's library in an attempt to organize it better."
"Really?" Kagome asked, intrigued, "How's that been going?"
"Slowly," he said flatly, "Very, very slowly."
"Which show, Himawari-chan?" Watanuki asked, "I didn't get to watch anything because I was helping Yuuko-san."
"It's called "True Stories, Ghostly Experiences: A World You May Not Know About"!" Himawari gushed, "It had a story about a woman who said she saw a ghost at an old, shut down hotel. Well, really, it was about exorcising the ghost that she saw. They had this little girl, they called her a 'spiritual psychic', I think? I was surprised, because she looked like she was barely in middle school."
Kagome and Doumeki glanced at each other, twin frowns on their faces. "Really?" Doumeki asked, his tone deliberately nonchalant. Kagome couldn't blame him. Assuming that this girl was genuine, and not just a child actress, then this was a problem. A very big problem. As in, potential child abuse level problem. Sprits were dangerous, and the vast majority of them did not want to be exorcised, and a tv show was having a kid deal with them?
Besides, most mediums, exorcists, and other spiritual practitioners came into their powers sometime around the onset of puberty, usually when something nasty and potentially dangerous came to call. That was what had happened to her, with Mistress Centipede, to Doumeki with the ghost story debacle, and, as of a week ago, to Souta when he had been attacked alongside Kagome by a low-level youkai after the Shikon no Tama. That brought up another potential problem: spiritual practitioners who didn't know what they were doing usually wound up damaged. Just look at Watanuki- his social skills were severely stunted and mangled due to years of lacking meaningful social interaction. More importantly, without some sort of guide, it was almost impossible to figure out how to use them effectively. Even Souta, who'd been on the periphery of the spiritual world for years due to Kagome and the shrine, hadn't had a clue what to do with his powers when he started glowing. Kagome had had to guide him through the process of shoving that energy at the youkai attacking them. There had not been so much of a whisper in the spiritual world about this girl, at least, not that Kagome knew of. That did not bode well for her if she was genuine. Hopefully, the kid was an actress.
"They're still doing it, too!" Himawari said cheerfully, missing their horror, "Next time, she'll be exorcising this ghost that's been haunting a sakura tree!"
"H-himawari-chan," Watanuki broke in shakily, "You really have no problem with supernatural or scary stuff, do you?"
"Nope! I love it!" she gushed, "It's all so interesting!"
"I-is that so?" he asked weakly.
"But," she added, sobering abruptly, "I think it must be very hard on the people who can actually see or hear them. I don't know that I would want to be able to do that."
Kagome's respect for Himawari rose a great deal with that one statement. "You've put a lot of thought into this, Himawari-chan." She complimented.
The other girl smiled, "Well, all of my friends can see or hear them, or something, right? So it's something I've needed to consider!"
"Well, you're right about that," Kagome agreed, "So, what did you think of it? You've seen us working a bit, did you think it was real?"
Himawari pursed her lips, considering, "Well," she said slowly, "It wasn't like what I've seen you three do, but then, I think I've only actually seen you working the one time with the ghost stories. And I can't imagine that everyone goes around shooting or stabbing youma to exorcise them. But she didn't use anything at all that I could see, and I doubt that's a very common or easy thing to do, especially for a kid that's so young. Still, there was something in her eyes that made me think that maybe she's seen a bit too much." She shrugged, "I guess it could go either way, really. She might be real, she might be fake."
"Did the kid seem ok?" Doumeki asked, his eyes dark.
She blinked, "Why wouldn't she be?"
"Himwari-chan..." Kagome hesitated, then continued, "Exorcisms are dangerous, especially unaided exorcisms like the ones you're talking about. And if she hasn't had any training, and doesn't have any support structure, things could turn out very badly for her."
"Well, she didn't look like she was in danger, but she did have a sort of... sad air about her? I thought it was probably because she felt bad for the ghost, you know? But it might have been something else."
That? Did not sound good. Kagome found herself actively praying that the kid was just an actress, because if she wasn't? What Himawari was describing just sounded like a recipe for disaster.
#
Kagome had agreed, well, promised really, to meet Souta after his soccer practice so that they could get started on some of his proper lessons in how to use his newfound spiritual powers. She was reasonably confident that his were more like Miroku's abilities more than anything else she had seen, which meant that Souta could do some low level channeling through a focus, and use ofuda, probably to a brilliant effect. (It also meant that spiritual powers did indeed tend to breed true down the line, even when centuries separated the progenitor from the eventual result, but Kagome wasn't going to think about that.) Kagome didn't know anywhere near as much as she should about ofuda, and no one had been willing to take Ji-chan's advice on the subject, so she had started looking around for someone who did or had the resources for them to learn. Doumeki might not know much about it himself, but he did have his grandfather's journals, and they had included detailed instructions, particularly the very last volumes. (Kagome was wlling to bet money that he had made those with the intention for them to provide Doumeki with a workbook of sorts when he came into his abilities, as he knew that he wouldn't be there to guide his grandson himself.) So, Kagome was going to collect her little brother at his practice, then take him to Doumeki's, and the three of them were going to start going through the lessons together.
"Are you sure that Doumeki-san won't mind?" Souta asked anxiously, gripping the strap of his soccer bag nervously, "I mean, if Otou-san had left something like that for us, I wouldn't want to share it. Well, not with anyone except you, anyways."
Kagome laughed, "Yes, I'm sure. He's the one that suggested it, actually. We thought it might be an idea to pool our resources. He'll have access to our ofuda books as well, once we get to the point where we can start experimenting." She wasn't going to mention the muttered 'as good as family, anyways' that she'd thought she'd heard him mutter afterwards. Nope. She also wasn't going to contemplate that fluttery feeling she'd gotten in her stomach when she'd heard it. Absolutely not, and especially not to Souta- he'd just be smug and report back to Mama and Ji-chan, who would doubtlessly be insufferable about the potential for a new boyfriend. She bit back a sigh. It wasn't that she couldn't understand; they just wanted her to get a real, if not exactly normal, life, that was focused on the present rather than five hundred years in the past. She was getting there, but she knew that a boyfriend would probably reassure them, and if it was someone who was already at least somewhat involved in the supernatural, then they could be assured that he wouldn't run away screaming from the youkai. That meant her only candidates were Watanuki and Doumeki, and given that she'd said more than once that Watanuki could be a bit much at times, that just left Doumeki. So, of course they were going to shove her at him. Heck, for Ji-chan, there was even the added bonus that he was the son and caretaker of another very respected shrine, and since it looked like that with Souta's newfound spiritual powers, she wouldn't be taking over theirs...
"...Nee-chan? Oneeeeeee-chan? Onee-chan? Can you hear me?" Souta's voice broke into her little reverie, making her jump.
"Wha? Yes, I can hear you. Sorry." She laughed, blushing, "Got lost in thought. What is it?"
Souta pointed up ahead, "Well, I was going to say that the sakura blossoms were really impressive for what looks like a really old tree, but... look at that girl! She can't be older than me. What's she doing here alone?"
Kagome frowned and followed her brother's pointing, "She is a bit young to be on her own," she conceded, "But not by much. Come on. We can go ask."
The pair continued towards the girl. She was pretty, Kagome thought, taking in ridiculously long hair the color of honey and greyish green eyes, had to be some European blood in there somewhere, probably fairly recently in the family tree. Still, this was exactly the kind of kid that she was pretty sure really shouldn't be left alone in the middle of Tokyo for another year or two. The girl turned from her inspection of the Sakura as they approached her. Her eyes were tired, but intense as they locked on Souta.
Her little brother inhaled sharply, then smiled. "Hey. I'm Souta Higurashi. This is my sister, Kagome. What's your name?"
"Kohane-" she managed to get out before a sharp voice cracked through the air.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" a middle aged woman raced forward, all but throwing herself between the siblings and the girl, apparently named Kohane, "Don't come near her!"
Souta's brow furrowed, "O...kaaaaay. I wasn't planning on it, ma'am."
"Ha!" the woman said dismissively, "Liar. You saw her on tv, didn't you? So you think you understand everything, right?" she took another step closer, getting in Souta's face. "Every time someone touches her, she loses some of her power!"
Souta didn't back down, which had to be one of the many reasons Kagome loved her little brother. "I have no idea what you're talking about, actually, but I highly doubt that touching the heir to a well known and respected shrine is going to make her lose whatever 'power' you say she has. I was just introducing myself and my sister." His eyes narrowed, "And I'm more concerned about the fact that her apparent caretaker mentions that she was on television to a complete stranger within five seconds of encountering them, to be honest."
"Don't play dumb with me!" the woman shrieked, "If something were to happen to her and her abilities were to be lost, what would you do?"
"Take her to the shrine and ask for the appropriate blessings, maybe get one of the spiritual practitioners I know to take a look and see if they could figure out what's up?" he suggested, eye brows raising. Kagome had to bite her lip to keep from grinning. This woman might be bordering on hysterical, but she had nothing on InuYasha in terms of intimidation. Souta never backed down from anyone for a reason, and it was because he'd learned to stand up to a hanyou when he was still in elementary school.
"Mother..." Kohane said softly.
"Be quiet!" her mother snapped, "Honestly, I can't take my eyes off of you for a second! I wish you would understand your situation and stay away from people who don't understand your situation! Maybe this time can't be helped, since we're in Tokyo, but you have to remember-" Kohane reached out to try to take her mother's arm, but the woman jerked it out of the way, looking at her daughter with frantic, terrified eyes. The woman slid on a mask of soft sympathy that didn't quite reach her eyes, "Awwww, what's wrong?" Kohane just recoiled, her hand coming up under her chin as she moved towards Souta and Kagome. The woman grimaced, "Well, don't you think it's time we go home now?" she offered, bringing her hand to hover just behind her daughter's shoulder.
Kohane's eyes went back to Souta, "You do understand my position, at least a little, don't you?" she asked softly.
His expression was grim as he nodded, "More than a little, Kohane-san. More than a little."
"Leave her alone!" Her mother snarled as she herded her daughter away, still careful not to come into physical contact with her. Kohane craned her head to look back at Souta for as long as she could, and Souta didn't look away until she turned a corner and was out of sight.
He was silent for a long moment, then said quietly, "I really don't like that woman."
Kagome wrapped an arm around his shoulders, "Me neither, Souta-kun. Me neither."
#
Souta was carefully writing out his first ofuda, lips silently forming the kanji of the kami's name he was writing into the talisman. Kagome and Doumeki looked on, taking advantage of the situation to discuss what had happened by the sakura trees. "I'm pretty sure, given the mother's talk about television, that it was the girl Himawari-chan was talking about at lunch," she explained.
"Definitely genuine, then?" he asked grimly. If what Kagome and Souta had said was even halfway accurate, he already knew that he didn't like this, but was pretty sure that it was only going to get worse.
"Definitely genuine," she confirmed, "Definitely untaught, and definitely powerful. It was almost like she was carrying around..." she hesitated, "You'll think it's crazy."
"I'm an unpaid member of Yuuko's freak show," he told her dryly, "I don't think I'd consider anything crazy, not anymore." Besides, it was Kagome. He highly doubted that he'd ever think she was crazy. Kagome didn't do crazy. She just knew things, usually from experience that she didn't want to share.
"Heh. Fair enough." She sighed, "So, I have so pre-Yuuko-san experience with objects that can amplify spiritual powers. A lot of experience with them."
"Does this have anything to do with why you lied and said you were sick enough that you had to repeat a year of middle school?" he asked, keeping his voice light. Inside, however, he was perking up like a dog offered a treat. Kagome never talked about that year, the one he knew she got most of her spiritual knowledge from. Any information about it was to be hoarded and examined in minute detail.
She smiled wanly, "Yes. Pretty much everything to do with that year. Regardless, I know what an amplifier for spiritual power feels like. Kohane-san definitely had one. I don't know if she knows about it, but she does."
He frowned, "How would you not know that you had something like that?"
"Well, she could know that she has the object, but not what it does," she ticked off on her fingers, "Or it could be something that her mother is doing- something contained in a piece of jewelry, or a pattern sewn into her clothes, for example. Or maybe..." she bit her lip, "It could be something that she was born with or otherwise was absorbed into her body without her knowledge. If she was burned with the object in a past life in an attempt to get rid of it, the amplifier could have been reincarnated with her, for example. There's probably other ways that she could have it without being aware of it, but I'm just not thinking of them."
Doumeki nodded slowly, making a mental note to go digging around for instances, particularly recent incidents of magical objects being reincarnated with a spiritual practitioner. That was a bit too specific for Kagome to have drawn it out of thin air. "Fair enough." He paused, then asked, "Out of curiosity, if it's a part of her body, how would we get it out of her, as I'm assuming that would only make her life easier?"
"Not necessarily-" Kagome countered, her fingers tangling in the ever present strand of prayer beads that she wore around her neck, "It could end up being that she removed it from its safe, relatively obscure, haven, so she ends up getting to spend the rest of her life protecting the damn thing."
"That can happen?" Doumeki demanded, feeling sick.
Kagome laughed bitterly, "Of course it can." She told him, "Considering that the alternative is usually a power hungry youkai or youma who wants to take over the world or do untold other nasty things, it's usually considered a solid plan. As long as it's inside her, and she doesn't draw attention to it, nothing's going to go after it." She sobered, "But if I can tell that some kind of amplifier is there... sooner or later, something else is going to as well. And that's when things are going to start getting dangerous. Especially if it's something that's well known."
"That... doesn't sound good." Doumeki murmured, his mind racing. This sort of intimate knowledge, and that level of bitterness? Yeah, he'd be looking into those incidents, because Kagome was definitely stuck protecting something. Something he would wager could be strung on a strand of prayer beads, at that. And it might just also explain why... "Any chance Yuuko could take it off her hands?"
Kagome sighed, sounding very tired. "Possibly? It would depend on what it was. If it was something that could be reliably shielded by Yuuko-san's power, and wouldn't react negatively to the nature of the shop, or something that Yuuko-san could destroy without any difficulties? Then sure. Not a problem. But..." she shook her head, "Not all amplifiers are that easy. Most are, but some have... nasty consequences for trying to get rid of them. And those are the ones that couldn't just lay in Yuuko-san's storehouse until they were needed."
Doumeki found himself wishing that banging his head repeatedly against a wall wouldn't look completely ridiculous, "Of course they aren't." He muttered.
"Welcome to the spiritual world," Kagome answered with a shrug, "You'll see beautiful and amazing things. The cost is just going to be your sanity, general safety, and convenience."
"Heh. No kidding." He paused before breaching a topic he'd been wondering about since Kagome had told him about Souta's recent development of spiritual powers, "Speaking of general safety," he began slowly, "How is Souta on that front?"
Kagome blinked, "What do you mean?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.
"I mean, do we need to start teaching him how to shoot a bow for his own personal safety." He elaborated, "I know your powers work by channeling, and mine work by focusing them with the bow... do we need to teach Souta how to do one of those?"
"He's a channeler like me," she told him, "So, I'll be working on him on that. And maybe," she considered, "He probably should have a weapon, and goodness knows that between the two of us, we wouldn't have any problems teaching him archery. But he's never expressed an interest, which would probably interfere with his channeling ability..." She trailed off, lips pursing in thought, "I know at one point he was really interested in kendo, but I'm not sure that still holds, now that he's in his second year of middle school. I'll have to check. We have a couple other options available at the shrine," her lips curved, "He might even go for the shakujou we have in one of the store rooms."
"Shakujou?" Doumeki asked, eyebrows raising, "Why does a Shinto shrine have a shakujou?"
"Because the priest who founded the shrine was originally a Buddhist monk who left that path in order to marry his demon-slayer wife." She said with a grin.
His jaw dropped, then his eyes narrowed, "You're making that up."
Her grin broadened, "I am not. We have his journals, which start well before the founding of the shrine. They tell the tale of how he met the Shikon miko and joined her group of travelers as they attempted to repiece the shards of the Shikon no Tama and end the murder spree of the tsuchigumo hanyou Naraku. A few entries later, the party gains a lovely and fierce female demon slayer, and he won't shut up about his 'beloved Sango', who wants nothing to do with him. It took him a while, but he wore her down, and eventually he came to the conclusion that he couldn't live without her. After they finished the quest, he left the path of a monk to become a Shinto priest, since they could marry, and the pair founded the Higurashi Shrine in honor of their departed friend, the Shikon miko."
His eyebrows rose, "Your shrine has an interesting origin story."
Kagome shrugged, "I think it's more that the founders and the first few generations after them were fanatical about making sure everything they left behind would withstand the test of time, so we have some of the best and most complete records of any shrine founded in that era. We can't be the only ones with an interesting origin story. That would just be silly. So, yeah. We have some Buddhist regalia and other interesting weaponry as a result, again, mostly from that era. That shakujou I mentioned, an insanely large boomerang, and a kusarigama are the oldest pieces of weaponry we can definitively link to the shrine."
"Insanely large boomerang?" Who ever heard of a giant boomerang in Japan?
Kagome shrugged, "It's larger than I am, and probably a bit heavier. It's supposed to be made of demon bone, and having felt the aura coming off of it, I can believe it."
"Sounds excessive." Doumeki mused.
"Hmmm, not if you're taking size into account," Kagome countered, "I mean, if you're not backing it up with spiritual power, you'd need a larger weapon to deal with larger demons, don't you think?"
"Maybe, but it's not much help if you can't lift it." He pointed out.
She glared at him, "I'm not that heavy. You could probably pick me up, no problem. God knows Souta-kun can."
"Souta-kun can what?" Souta asked, moving to join them, "I finished the ofuda, does it look right?"
Doumeki picked it up to look over, eyes narrowing as he studied it carefully, both with his eyes and his senses. "Yeah, looks good. And apparently you can pick up your sister without any problems."
"Oh, that. Yeah, as of two years ago." He grinned evilly, "And it's only gotten easier since I finally got to be taller than her last year..."
"Shut up." Kagome muttered, pouting slightly. Doumeki really shouldn't think that it was as adorable as he did.
"So, what brought up my ability to pick you up?" Souta asked, sitting next to his sister and curling into her side.
"We were discussing the possibility of you needing to pick a weapon. Archery would be the obvious choice, of course, but we do have some more interesting weapons at the shrine, any of which you might be interested in, including, but not limited to, the ones dating back to the founding of the shrine. You know, the shakujou, the kusarigama, and, of course, hiraikotsu."
"Hiraikotsu?" Souta asked, brow furrowing.
"The giant demon bone boomerang that weighs a bit more than me." Kagome elaborated.
Souta shook his head, "Not remembering that one. Think you've mentioned it a couple times, but I haven't got seen it personally, which makes sense, 'cause I haven't gone as far back in the storeroom as you have." He grimaced, "Sounds like it might be a bit overkill for day to day use, and hard to carry around. And the shakujou would probably be too noticeable. But the kusarigama might be an option. Same with any number of the swords we have. I don't think archery's for me, but I've been thinking about joining the kendo club anyways. The new soccer club president's a total jerk, so not worth it."
"Well, you did always like swords," Kagome mused, "And the kusarigama would be easier to stash somewhere, I guess. But I didn't know you were planning on quitting soccer."
Souta shrugged, "I'm thinking about it. One of the other fourth years says that he's pretty sure that Itou-senpai is just on a power trip, and that he'll get better in a couple weeks. I'm... not so confidant, and our coach is letting him get away with a lot that he probably shouldn't be. I'll give it another week or so before feeling out the kendo club. Most of them have heard about what's going on, so they probably won't be surprised."
#
Another day, another lesson, Kagome thought sulkily as she and Souta walked to Doumeki's shrine again. Normally, that would be fine, but today? Today, it was pouring down rain, and she shouldn't have been on this side of Tokyo, since she wasn't scheduled for a shift at Yuuko's. Unfortunately, it was also a rare day when Souta's soccer club didn't have practice, even before the unexpected down pour had started, so they had plans to head to the Akatsuki Shrine again. Souta seemed to be taking it with about as much grace than Kagome, although that might have had more to do with the fact that he was already sulking.
A couple days before, the pair had gone a bit crazy in the shrine's storehouse, digging up any and all of the weapons they could find, seeing if anything resonated particularly strongly with Souta, or if he would just have to go with the first weapon that was shoved at him. Privately, Kagome had expected the latter. It was the much more common method for choosing a weapon, and having something practically call to a wielder was all but unheard of. Well, unheard of unless there was some sort of compulsion spell or reincarnation involved. However, Souta appeared to be one of the rare few.
He was still annoyed with his luck, even if Kagome did promise him that eventually, he'd be able to channel through something smaller. In the mean time, she was just glad that Souta had somehow managed to find a sports bag big enough for him to cram hiraikotsu inside, even if it had been a very close call. Still, it was obvious to anyone with even the slightest bit of spiritual power that something about hiraikotsu had just resonated with Souta, to the point that he just couldn't say no to it, damn all of the inconveniences.
"If nothing else, carting this thing around is giving me a great upper body workout," Souta muttered, "Still wondering how I'm supposed to throw it without attracting a bunch of attention that I really don't want to attract."
"Only bring it out when you don't think you'll attract attention," Kagome answered bluntly, "That's how Doumeki and I manage with our bows. Alternatively, if you think you can stash it fast enough, you could always go for the play dumb, 'what giant boomerang?' method."
Souta's lips twitched at that one, "Yeah, I guess that might be worth a shot. But probably only if I get lucky. I mean, there are only so many times you can play dumb before everyone starts checking you for brain damage."
"Not if you play it right," she assured him, "It's tricky, and it involves perfecting your 'who me?' expression. Not the easiest thing for a boy your age to do, for sure, but you should be working on that anyways- sometimes it's really the only way to get out of explaining a supernatural situation."
"Yeah, I kind of got that," he agreed with a frown, "But-" he stopped abruptly, his eyes widening.
"Souta-kun? What is it?"
"She's back," Souta murmured, looking at the sakura tree in front of them. Sure enough, there was the girl from the last time they had been to Doumeki's, Kohane, only this time, she was standing in the pouring rain, staring up at the sakura tree without the benefit of an umbrella.
"Do you want to go talk to her?" she asked, "Maybe you can have an actual conversation before her mother shows up."
"Yeah," he hesitated, "Is it ok if I leave my umbrella with her?"
Kagome smiled, "Why? Do you want to share an umbrella with her?"
"What!? No! I mean-" Souta's spluttering sent her into gales of laughter as she all but shoved him at the girl. He shook his hair and glared at her over his shoulder before heading the rest of the way to Kohane's side. "Hey."
She turned to look at him, a bit startled. Then she smiled, "Hi."
"Any reason you're standing in the rain like this?" He asked, fidgeting.
"It wasn't raining when I got here," she said with a shrug, "And I didn't want to leave just yet, so..."
"Here," Souta took a step closer to her, so they were almost touching, and held his umbrella over both of them, "I know it's a bit late to help, but it's better than nothing, right?"
She giggled, "Yes, it really is." She glanced at him from under her lashes, making Kagome, who was standing back a bit feel like she was watching a cheesy teen rom-com, "So, I really did get to see you again."
Souta flushed slightly, "Did you know you would, or just hope you would?"
"I didn't know for sure," Kohane assured him, "I just hoped. Because... that day, you said that you were like me."
"I see." Souta said, "Yeah, I'm like you- I can see things. I probably wasn't supposed to, since I can exorcise, but I saw some things with my sister when I was younger, and once you know they're there, and how to see them... you can't learn how to unsee them again, you know?"
Kohane looked surprised, "I can do both. Is it that unusual?"
"Yes and no," he hedged, taking his hand and tilting it from side to side, "Most of the time, if you're born with the ability to see, then you can't do anything to defend yourself from the things you see. The same goes for people with the ability to defend themselves with things like purification or exorcism; if you can do that, then you can't see them. That only changes if you have some sort of forced awakening of the sight, as far as I know. I mean, I've never heard of someone gaining the ability to fight back if they were born with the sight." He turned back to Kagome, "Do you know of any?"
"Not off the top of my head," she said, coming closer, "But I would imagine that it's possible, if the payment was high enough. I'll ask Yuuko-san to see what she says when I go in for work tomorrow."
"Thanks, onee-chan." Souta said with a quick grin, "So, you're not weird, so much as you just skipped a couple steps, which is honestly probably a good thing."
"Oh," Kohane said, "I guess that makes sense." Her eyes flicked back the tree, and Souta's followed, "Do you see her?"
"The ghost?" he asked, "Yeah. She doesn't seem to be making any trouble. I mean, I haven't been watching her all that diligently, but in my and, more importantly, my sister's experience, when a ghost wants to make trouble, everyone knows. Everyone with the sight in the general vicinity, that is."
She nodded silently, "She hasn't been making any trouble," she assured him, "And she's been here for a very long time. Many, many years, from what I've been told. They say that she's haunting the tree."
"Well, I guess she kind of is," Souta said with a shrug, "But she's not hurting anything. I'm pretty sure that she just likes the tree, you know?"
"She thinks it's beautiful, yes," Kohane agreed, "But... that won't last if people keep bothering the tree... and her. People have been coming by all the time since that tv show featured the sakura tree, saying that it's a haunted tree. They feel sorry for it, because it's being haunted, but really..."
"The ghost is the only thing keeping the tree alive, isn't it?" Souta asked, resting a hand on the bark, "It's a very old tree. Too old, really. This might be the last year that it blooms at all."
"I think it's only blooming for her." Kohane agreed, "If the ghost leaves, it'll die. And where will she be then?" She shook her head, "It's my fault. If I hadn't come here, or maybe if I hadn't let Mother know about my power, she could just stay in her tree forever. Now..."
"Well," Souta said slowly, "I don't know if there's anything we can do for the tree, but we might be able to do something for the ghost." He looked up at the woman in the elaborate Sengoku era kimono, "How would you like to find a new home, where people won't bother you all the time? It might not be as perfect as this sakura tree, but it's a nice place, I promise." Though it didn't speak, Kagome could feel the ghost's interest. Souta grinned and turned back to Kagome, "Do you think Doumeki-san would mind if we brought his shrine a guest?"
Kagome smiled slowly, "No," she said, "I don't think he'd mind at all. Not the human one," she smiled at Kohane, "Or the ghostly one."
#
Doumeki hadn't minded. And Kohane had been in awe of the shrine grounds, and delighted to hear that the woman appeared to be quite happy with her new home. She had left the group to return home before she was missed, this time with Souta's umbrella to keep her at least moderately dry. Souta had offered to walk with her, but Kohane had turned him down.
"It will make my mother angry," she had explained, looking down and biting her lip, "I... don't want to make her angry."
Souta frowned, "Has she hurt you?"
"No, no, nothing like that," Kohane assured him with a smile, "But she's a bit scary when she's mad, and... she's all I have left, you see. I don't want her to leave, too."
"Well, now you have us." Souta told her firmly, "I won't leave you, and neither would Kagome-nee or Doumeki-san. So you're not alone anymore, Kohane- huh, you never did tell me your last name."
Kohane giggled, "It's Tsuyuri. Kohane Tsuyuri. The kanji for Tsuyuri is May fifth, and little feather for Kohane."
"May fifth and little feather. Got it. Mine is 'thick grass' and 'sunset'." He hesitated, "See you around?"
"I hope so, Souta-kun." And with that, Kohane left, Souta's umbrella keeping the worst of the rain off her as she walked under the shrine's entrance.
"No touching, and a scary temper," Kagome murmered to Doumeki, "That Tsuyuri woman gives me a very bad feeling."
"Why doesn't she want anyone touching the kid?" Doumeki asked, "Touch starvation is a thing, and from what I've heard, it's a good way to send someone off their rocker. Given that we can already see things that no one else can, I'm thinking that could be even worse for people like us than for normal people.
She rolled her eyes, "Supposedly, if you touch her, you'll cause her to lose some of her power."
Doumeki froze, then turned to stare at her slowly, "Are you kidding me?"
"Unfortunately, no. That's what she told Souta-kun and I when we met Tsuyuri-chan." She sighed, "I think she's one of those obsessive types. I mean, have you ever heard of anything like that in your tradition? There's nothing like it in ours, not even in a moronic, misinterpreted version of it."
He shook his head, "I mean, if the woman was paranoid about her daughter having sex, then yeah, I'd get that- it's one of the only things I've heard of that can make a miko lose her spiritual powers, and I've read some conflicting reports on that one-"
"It depends on how the bearer of the power feels about the situation," Kagome explained, "Mostly, if you believe that you're going to use your powers, then you will, or at least, you won't be able to access them." She grinned, "Honestly, I think it started out more as a way of keeping miko from being forced to marry- nobody wants a wife who's completely celibate, and no one wants to lose the village's primary means of protection against youkai!"
Doumeki chuckled, "Now, that I could see. Sneaky. So, mikos don't require that level of purity. Neither do priests. Hell, I don't think monks or nuns require that level of purity!"
"Maybe if you've taken vows to a particularly extreme sect, but no, I don't think so either. Besides," she shrugged, "I doubt Tsuyuri-chan has taken such vows, or her mother wouldn't have custody of her, to be brutally frank."
He grimaced, "Why do I get the feeling that I should be calling child protective services?"
She snorted, "Because if they would believe us on the spiritual power front, you'd have to get in line. Something is very wrong in that family." She shook her head, "But, to turn our attention away from things we cannot change, what are we going to do about the ghost now occupying your sakura trees? I don't think we can just leave her there, on the off chance she turns into something nasty."
"Agreed. I'll say some sutras for her later. If that doesn't send her on, you and Souta could give it a go. If that doesn't work, we could always try for a game of mahjong. My grandfather said the sound of the tiles clinking helped ghosts to move on."
"Hmmmm, I can't play mahjong to save my life, but Yuuko-san would love it, and my Ji-chan's not bad, if worst comes to worst." A smile flickered across her face, "Heh, Ji-chan would probably be delighted to help."
"Seriously? He has power too, then?"
"Not a speck of it!" Kagome informed him cheerily, "But he does so love the trappings. He used to throw sutras on everything, yelling 'youkai, be gone!' Keep in mind that 'everything'? Included me, Souta-kun, Mama, our friends, the television, the fridge, the oven, and the occasional particularly odd shrine visitor. He tried to give me what he claimed was a mummified kappa hand for my fifteenth birthday. So, anything he tells you about the spiritual world? Probably should be taken with a grain of salt. Or ten. Or all of them, really."
He couldn't help it. He started to laugh, "No wonder you were so skeptical about the spiritual world for a while."
"I will admit, the mummified youkai hands were not particularly helpful in that regard," Kagome agreed, eyes dancing, "But I learned better. Oh, speaking of learning, Souta-kun went weapon trawling through the storeroom a couple days ago."
"Oh? He figure out which sword he wanted?"
Kagome snickered, "Not exactly. He was drawn to one of the weapons, powerfully enough that I'm inclined to think reincarnation or something might have been at play."
"Cool. Was it that kusarigama he was talking about?
"That would be much too easy," Kagome scolded him, "No, he saw hiraikotsu and fell in love at first sight."
"You're joking."
"Really not. Want to see him manage to dig a giant boomerang out of that sports bag? It's entertaining."
"Now, this I've got to see..."
#
Another chapter down for The Price of Hitsuzen, this one working out very differently from the manga arc. This is due entirely to the fact that I have Plans for Kohane, which, sadly, don't include Watanuki. That made a good 3/4 of the original arc... kind of useless for my purposes? Ahh well. Such is life.
Cultural notes for this chapter:
1) Ofuda- These would be the paper talismans you see people using in various manga. They actually made an appearance earlier in our story (specifically in the chapter "Of Photographs and Ink", in the form of the protections that were on the library at Doumeki's shrine.) In the most basic sense, these are thin slips of rice paper with name of a kami written on it so that said kami can lend protection, fortune, etc. While they have origins in Bhuddism (think the written form of sutras from India, filtered through China before finally coming to Japan), they have been cheerfully co-opted by Shinto for centuries, and are now more closely associated with Shinto than Bhuddism (at least in Japan). Traditionally, Shinto shrines will pass these out, especially at festivals and the like. As such, while you can make your own, it's generally easier (and cheaper, since you get to avoid buying incense) to just go to the nice Shinto priests who actually know what they're doing. The use of ofuda in anime and manga is where things start to get... Interesting. So, when Onmyouji were still fairly common, they used ofuda as a means of purification. This association with what has essentially become the Japanese version of magic users has probably lead to a more recent development. TV Tropes puts it rather well on their page on ofuda: "In anime and manga, they can do anything, even explode." So. Not strictly accurate, but isn't it so much more fun to play with toys that could do anything depending on what you write on them?
2) Sharing an umbrella- This is… really a cutesy shoujo move. Basically, because you're standing all close together under the umbrella, it's considered romantic and date-like, and you will see people doing some serious internal flailing (but rarely external- that would make you seem like a lunatic in front of your crush, which is NEVER of the good) about sharing an umbrella with their crush in various shoujo manga. Kagome's basically teasing her brother about having a crush on Kohane.
3) Shakujou, kusari-gama, and hiraikotsu (aka the staff Miroku uses, Kohaku's chain and sickle, and Sango's rather impractical boomerang) In order, the staff that Miroku uses, known as a shakujou in Japanese (and a khakkhara in Sanskrit, and a xīzhàng in Mandarin Chinese) is a traditional Bhuddist weapon, with origins in India that, once again, came to Japan by way of China along with the religion it was attached to. It can actually be used in prayer (don't ask me how), but has traditionally become associated with traveling, as the clinking of the rings would a) inform small insects that someone was coming so they could scuttle out of the way to avoid squishing, b) scare away larger, more dangerous, animals, and c) let the faithful know that there was a monk in need of alms in the general vicinity. In the Indian tradition, the number of rings can vary, but carries religious significance and indicates the monk's status. 4 rings is for the Four Noble Truths, 6 rings is for the Six Perfections, and 12 is for the twelvefold chain of cause and effect. However, I'm not sure if this carried over to Japan. Regardless, once the shakujou reached Japan, some martial soul realized that this could be a most effective weapon, what with the pointy bits at the top, the staff portion for blocking, and the metal shod base for thrusting into painful places. And thus, Bhuddist monks were trained to use them, and became quite deadly and proficient with them.
The kusarigama was developed in a similarly martial manner. It was most likely developed from the basic kama (sickle) and kusari (chain) weapons already in play, although what I've found on the origins is a bit muddled, as apparently the Okinawan tradition had a kusarigama that is slightly different, and might be a bit older? Regardless, Kohaku most likely carries the non-Okinawan variant, which means that he was carting around the version developed during the Muromachi period. As such, he's rather cutting edge- the Muromachi period had just under 100 years left to go in the general timeframe Kagome was traveling through the well, since we never get a solid date for her travels beyond "probably the very late 15th century?". Frankly, I'm not sure we got that much confirmed beyond the standard 'five hundred years in the past', which, given the initial publication date of November 13, 1996, puts us at 1496, towards the end of the Muromachi period. But, I digress. Ideally, the kusarigama is used by flinging the chain at things to tangle them up horribly, allowing the practitioner to run in and attack with the sickle at close range without worrying about a counter-attack. Alternatively, you can just aim to bash your opponent with the weighted end of the spinning chain, which I would suspect is also extremely unpleasant. Of potential interest to those of you who have aspirations to start wielding kusarigama yourselves, they are illegal in Canada and Ireland, so please, don't go getting into trouble!
The hiraikotsu... Is a massive problem. So, I did some very basic research (i.e. I used my well-honed skills of Google-fu), and... Yeah, I got nothing. 'Hiraikotsu' only sent me back to InuYasha wikis, 'large boomerang Japanese' sent me to normal boomerang info, and one video of a shuriken boomerang, and 'boomerang Japan' got me a Southeast Asian children's television channel that apparently is found in Japan. At this point, I conceded defeat. Hiraikotsu is completely a thing of fiction, and while this isn't exactly unexpected (let's face it, a weapon THAT big is COMPLETELY impractical and unrealistic), I had hoped somewhere in my cold, Sango-loving heart that maybe, just possibly, there was some sort of real-world cultural inspiration for it. Alas, I a disappointed.
I will note here that the bit about Souta maybe retaining something from a previous life in regards to his attachment to hiraikotsu is completely my own fabrication, and loosely based on the fact that Kagome picked up her mad kyuudo skills awfully fast, given that it usually takes a long time to build up that kind of upper body strength and aiming ability. Logically, the same could apply to other people and other weapons. Make of it what you will.
4) Mahjong- Originally a Chinese game, it was brought to Japan by a solider named Saburo Hirayama 1924. He promptly began a mahjong club in Tokyo, and began spreading the game around. As such, the extremely complicated rules of the Chinese tile game got simplified fairly quickly. Later on, once the spread had slowed down and the people in charge of teaching it were generally better acquainted with the game itself, people came to the conclusion that it was too simple, and began introducing additional rules to make it more complicated. Played with 136 tiles, Japanese mahjong is the most popular table-top game in Japan. As in, there are actual professional players of mahjong. 1,000 of them, or so. That's in addition to the 8,900 mahjong parlors in Japan as of 2008. It features in anime and manga, with multiple manga using it as a major plot line, similar to a sports manga. This game? Is ridiculously popular. It's also fiendishly complicated, and just looking at the basic rules gave me a headache, so I'm not even going to try. I did not, however, find any references to the clink of mahjong tiles being soothing to the dead, despite what appears in XxxHoLiC. I'm not discounting it, mind, but I can't verify that one. Sorry.