"I know that many guys would actually pay cold hard cash for this kind of thing, but I really wish that I could be anywhere else," many men would have questioned Tekeshi's sexual preferences with that statement.
In an effort to help figure out what was causing Utsuki's problems Yukari had decided that they should delve into her memories. For some reason though the process required a certain state of dress. It meant that Moka, Yukari, Utsuki, and Tekeshi were all in a room, together, in their underwear. The trauma that he felt, and the fact that the family mental health specialist was one of the causes of that trauma, was almost more than he could stand.
"I thought you said you were immune to panties," Utsuki said from where she was lying on a low table.
Honestly, she wasn't that wild about the situation herself, and was barely keeping her eyes off of Tekeshi in his boxers. She somehow was managing to keep a very deep shade of red from her face, and was thankful that she tended to wear camisoles instead of a bra. It didn't make it much less embarrassing to be dressed like that in front of him. Kill her, kill her now.
"Be quiet, there needs to be as open a channel for the magic to flow through. Suck it up Teki-kun, you've seen me in less than this more than once over the years. Now where in this bag did I put that crystal," Yukari lacked modesty in such a way that a succubus would have been scandalised.
Moka was only slightly better with the situation than the teenagers, "Yukari, I really have to question the necessity, versus knowing you are really enjoying me dressed like this. Given that I have absolutely no talent with magic and never bothered to study any, I am trusting you this time. I would ask Ruby, but I have a feeling that she would say we had to be dressed in some weird bondage gear."
"Here it is," the witch said as she found the small crystal sphere she was searching for, "now we set this in between the boobs, and I will explain what is going on. This crystal sphere with be a locus for the magic I will be using. I will remain here completely, while Moka and Tekeshi enter into your memories spiritually. They will be going to the most troubled portion of them, whether you can actually recall them or not. You two will be doing it because Utsuki-chan trusts you more than anyone else. Any questions?"
"Are we going to be half naked in her memories," Tekeshi was doing his best to have as little presence as possible.
"I don't know. How often do you think I actually do this? How often do you think someone actually agrees to have their memories examined in such explicit detail? This is actually the first time I have done this."
"Um, Mrs. Aono, is there anyway I can back out of this now? I'm not feeling quite as confident as I was, and I also don't have any dignity left."
Yukari griped the bridge of her nose for a second, "Teki-kun, would you mind setting a magic circle to isolate us from the rest of the room. Hopefully it won't take all that long, and we can all get dressed before lunch. Make it really strong, I don't trust the maids."
"Of course Aunt Yukari, we just happen to be sitting around half naked, just as if we had a big neon sign saying 'Dress me up'. I will also put in a sequence to keep the temp a little cool," Tekeshi said as he brought his hand up and snapped his fingers.
The room suddenly lit up with multicolored lights as a large, elaborately decorated layered circle formed around them. First it was the rings, then runes and designs filled in between them. From the table she could only catch glimpses of the sight, but she was blown away by it.
"That's magic? When do I start learning how to do stuff like that? That is awesome, snap your fingers and you get a light show, beyond awesome."
"Dial it back Utsuki, the snapping of fingers is Tekeshi's deal. After we have things settled in we will figure out how you are able to activate, and figure out how to teach you as well. Well, Yukari, lets get started with this," Moka was really ready to get dressed, thankful she didn't wear the style of lingerie she tended to when she and Tsukune were away from the school.
"Alright. Moka, Tekeshi, place a hand on the crystal. Make sure it is the crystal, no taking advantage of the situation to grab her globe Teki-kun."
Tekeshi gave his aunt a deadpan look, "Do I look like you or Machiko. I can keep my hands to myself quite well, thank you very much."
As the fog cleared around them Tekeshi could see that they were indeed not half naked. He was actually dressed in his riding clothes, and his mother in one of her track suits. One traumatic crisis averted. Now they just had to figure out what they were seeing before them.
Yukari hadn't gone into too much detail about how the spell worked, given she had never performed it before, but she had said that it would pull them to the darkest corners of Utsuki's memories. He really didn't feel comfortable doing this, and if it wasn't for the fact it would help his friend he wouldn't have. It just felt like he was violating her in a much more intimate way than had he forced himself on her physically.
"Shiraishi Mamoru, step forward to judgement," the voice was booming.
The room appeared to be a traditional Shinto shrine, not all that uncommon throughout the country. This one was not as inviting as most though. Nodachis sat in stands against the walls, most likely ritual sealing blades rather than decorations given the paper seals wrapped around the sheaths. There was little in the way of lighting apart from the entryway and altar. Dark colors made up the palate, and the people were dressed just as dark.
"You left us against the customs given to the Shiraishi family from the heads of the Shira clan, and not only did you return, you returned with an outsider and a child. Such transgressions would have earned your death in days past. We however, must bow to the wishes of the Imperial Family, and settle with banishment. However, since the child is of Shiraishi blood, when she has reached her sixteenth year, she will be retrieved to join us. However you will not know any happiness with her between now and the day she is retrieved."
Tekeshi really didn't understand much of the traditional family and clan politics that were still somewhat present among older families, but this just seemed weird to him. Looking at the man that was being judged, he was surprised to find that it was a much healthier looking version of Utsuki's father. He wasn't any taller than when Tekeshi had met him, but his skin was smooth, and he was well muscled, more like a warrior than a computer geek. Turning he saw a rather beautiful woman holding a young girl who couldn't have been more than a year old. It had to be Utsuki and her mother, and at the moment he could tell where Utsuki got her looks.
"Are these her parents," he had almost forgotten that his own mother was there.
"Amazingly, yes. I don't get it, they look nothing like this now. They had fourteen really hard years."
Suddenly men grabbed the woman and child and forced them down next to the man. Two young women, most likely mikos, came from a side room carrying a sheathed sword, amazing to the two vampires it was a chokuto. The blade had to have been over a thousand years old unless it was a traditional style for the clan.
"To ensure such sentence is carried out, you shall be touched by this cursed blade. Darkness shall fester in your souls, and your memories of this family shall wither. You should have stayed away, it hurts that I must do this to my own nephew," the man who was performing the sentence had a cold, but sad note in his voice.
Utsuki's father finally spoke, "Uncle, I left in grief with my parents deaths. I at that time did not care what the customs and clan laws were. I could not stay here. I know that I cannot justify bringing Tamiko here, but I truly hoped that I might have the chance to raise my daughter among my family. Please, I ask that Utsuki at least be spared from this. She is too young to remember now, she needn't be cursed."
"Fine, for the memory of my sister and her husband, I will spare the child. Just remember, she will still be affected. The curse that has festered in this blade for over a thousand years is strong. Mamoru, I am sorry. If I had any other choice I would take it."
The man's movements were so fast that even Tekeshi, to whom speed was second nature, could not comprehend they had occurred until they done. He drew the sword and sliced through where their necks were, but drew no blood. The sword was two and a half feet of iron, they should have been dead.
Darkness started to fill the room. Oppressive darkness. If he had really been there Tekeshi would have most likely had trouble staying conscious. He couldn't quite put his finger on what was causing it until he looked to one side and saw a young boy, no more than ten years old, pulling one of the nodachis from its sheath.
Utsuki's father went pale when he saw it, "Masahiko, what have you done? Do you know what kind of demon was sealed in that blade?"
"Run Onii-san. The punishment is on this unworthy family. Run away and be..." the child never finished what he was saying as a black mist enveloped him.
Apparently quick decision making was a virtue to the man, as without a single second thought he grabbed up his daughter and began pulling his wife behind him. Ultimately they didn't get to see what the demon was as they left the room, and eventually the temple altogether.
"Japanese history isn't necessarily my strongest subject, but I have never heard of a Shira Clan, have you mom," Tekeshi asked as things faded to black.
Moka shook her head, "I don't ever recall hearing of such. However there have always been legends of hidden clans that were connected to the Imperial Family. I believe most of them were supposed to be shinobi, but these seemed like either priests, or yokai hunters."
"Don't Shinto priests serve as yokai hunters as part of their duties," the younger vampire asked, interested in where this might be leading.
"Possibly, however there were also warriors, not quite ashigaru and definitely not samurai, though there may have been ronin who dabbled in such. Their sole duty was to hunt and either kill or exorcise dangerous yokai that were known to harm humans. I don't have that great a grasp on the history of them, so I can't say much more, and I don't know that we have any literature or references in the family collections."
"The way it sounded they weren't Shira clan, but a branch family from it. Does Dad still have contacts within the Imperial Household?"
Moka thought for a second, "He most likely does, and I think I see where you are going with this. When we return I will talk with him and see if he can track down any information."
The darkness started to twist in upon itself as a new scene came into focus. It was a western style apartment, and not a very large one at that. A young Utsuki sat with her back against a door that most likely led to a bedroom. Yelling could be heard from beyond the door.
"ALL YOU HAVE ARE THOSE GODDAMNED GAMES AND YOUR WORK. WHAT ABOUT ME, HAVE I LOST EVERY BIT OF APPEAL TO YOU? ANSWER ME MAMORU, ANSWER ME."
"Calm down Tamiko. I know that women have carnal needs just as much as men, but I just can't. I wan't to, even with the ravages of the curse you are beautiful to me, but when I go to, something stops me. They said that we wouldn't know happiness. I wish that our daughter could have been spared, but the darkness in us I think is starting to affect her, and I am starting to have trouble remembering my family. I don't know what it may do to her, but no matter what I don't want to lose either of you," Utsuki's father must have been very well trained in some form of discipline to keep that much cool in the face of such an upset woman.
The woman's voice lowered in volume, "I'm scared. I know you had said your family was, unique, but I didn't expect them to try to behead us. You never told me that you would even face punishment if you returned. I wouldn't have wanted to raise Utsuki around such people if I had known what they were going to be like."
"I didn't expect it either. I guess I expected to be welcomed, and not subjected to some ancient laws that were never all that just. I was close to my uncle as a child, and everyone thought that I would eventually take over as a priest when I became old enough, or even be trained as one of the Shadouu~ōkā. I most likely would have if my parents hadn't died. I still can't believe that my brother would release a demon to protect us. We shouldn't fight like this, what if Utsuki hears us."
"I'm sorry. I just want some normalcy, and I don't see any indication that I will ever have any. I am so worried what is going to happen to her. Your uncle said that even if she wasn't touched, the curse thingy would still effect her just from her being around us. How can I not be afraid of what might happen to my four year old daughter. This apartment is so small that she has to hear as leas..."
The words trailed off as the scene darkened once again, "So it wasn't just a sudden thing. They didn't mention anything about being afraid OF her, just for her."
Tekeshi looked over at his mother, "I never delved into childhood development, but doesn't the basis of a child's personality really start forming around four to five years of age?"
"More recent studies place it earlier, but there isn't really a way to be sure if it starts at the same time for any child. It isn't unheard of for people who had similar home lives at that point in their lives to develop narcissistic and even sociopathic tendencies. I'm sure Yukari could give a much better understanding of it than I can."
Another scene came into view. At some point the family had moved into a regular house rather than living in the same apartment. It was still western style, but most modern buildings in Japan had been western since the nineteen seventies. It wasn't a real expensive house, but lined up with a single income home for a successful software engineer like Utsuki's father was.
Utsuki was sitting at a table with some school books and homework spread out. Going off the date on the papers it was about five years ago, so she would have been ten years old. Where her skin had been much more colorful in the other memories, it was now the same pale color that he was used to seeing. Her gray eyes held a somewhat dead, but malevolent look in them that he wasn't prepared to see.
A plate was dropped in front of her suddenly, "Food."
It was the first look he had gotten of Utsuki's mother since the first memory, and he could see much of the woman he had met. Her hair was greasy and stringy, her skin oily, and she seemed like she didn't have much in the way of meat on her. If a person stared they could see the underlying beauty, but the curse had washed most of it away.
"I don't want it, your cooking tastes horrible. I'll wait for dad to come home and have him cook me something. He is at least competent at it," the words seemed a weird mix of, Utsuki and not Utsuki.
"Look you ungrateful little bitch, we are your parents not your slaves. If I put food infront of you, you eat it. You put a smile on your face, say thank you, and you eat it. I'm tired of this rebellion of yours."
Utsuki looked up from the papers she was working on, "What kind of parents treat their child like a burden? Why should I listen to you when you don't care a thing about me? I would be better off without you, Dad at least tries to be nice to me. He might even be happier without you screaming at him, so why don't you just go disappear somewhere."
The words coming from the little girl's mouth chilled him. He was used to her being well spoken, but he hadn't expected that she had always been. The utter vitriol that fell from her lips surprised him. This was an entirely different person than he knew.
"You ungrateful little whore, where do you get off? I should disappear, why don't you? You do nothing but make our lives miserable. What is worse is that you enjoy it. I regret even pushing you out of my crotch. I ou..." she was interrupted by a door opening.
"I'm home," the voice was highly dispassionate, almost like even breathing was a burden to its owner.
"Hey Dad, Mom cooked something, but she sucks at cooking. Could you make me something?"
"Whatever, let me take a shower first. Damn those drunk lazy bosses. Drag people out drinking that don't even want to in the middle of the afternoon, and then puke all over them."
Utsuki's mother seemed to almost glow red with rage, "Mamoru, don't let her treat you like this. She is your daughter, not your master. She needs to appreciate that she wouldn't exist without you. You gave her half her life, you put food on the table, and you put a roof over her head. She would be nothing without us, and she needs to stop acting like she is better than us."
The scene faded out again. Tekeshi had had tension between him and his parents on and off. Even living in America he still kept in touch, and they had visited him every couple of years or so. He had never once treated them like Utsuki had. He couldn't understand how this was the same girl that he cared so much about.
"I can't believe it. There are so many notes in her school records that note her as one of the kindest people there is, even to the point of others taking advantage of her. This little bitch doesn't resemble her in anything but appearance," Moka seemed to be having as hard a time believing it as he was.
He took a breath before he answered, "I had thought that her parents just saw her as a burden, but now I feel like I was a little hasty about killing them when they talked about her scaring them, and their abandonment of her. This curse that was put on them, I have to wonder what it originally was. I also wonder if breaking it could help her."
"The only problem with that, is that we would need that sword. We don't even know where that temple is. I don't know that breaking it would benefit anyone except her parents since she wasn't ever directly placed under it. I think the darkness is truly her own."
"I don't want to accept that, Mom. I just can't. This is who I know, isn't who I want to know. There has to be something that can be done, there has to be. I don't think she wants to be that person, even if she is behind everything."
"I am highly disappointed Kuyo. I would have thought that you had more sense than to simply fight a vampire hand to hand like that. Especially considering that you decided to fight the child of the person you hate most. You do remember that regardless of his father's origin, he is still a member of the House of Shuzen. He was most likely instructed in sword play from a very early age. I should have removed you after that little slip sent you on a three story drop. What would have been the fun in that though?"
"This won't happen again Kiria. I've learned my lesson, and I know I need to swallow my arrogance. I will kill that little maggot the next time I lay eyes on him, and I won't give him the chance to fight back," pain crept through Kuyo's voice as his arms were being regrown.
One would have imagined that magic could do it painlessly, but the truth was that forcing flesh and bone to form itself had many side effects. Such as causing every nerve ending to fire in the limbs as they were restored. It may have truly been the most painful thing magic could do, and the fact that the Yoko could even speak coherently despite it was a testament to his self-discipline.
Kiria took on a stern look as he regarded the fox yokai, "In fact you will not be handling this any longer. Instead you are going to be moving to oversee the academy team. If I see anymore hints of your brain damage making you unpredictable and overly cocky, then I will have no choice but to, retire you permanently."
