"I stood in this sun sheltered place, until I could see the face behind the face. All that had gone before had left no trace. Down by the railway siding, in a secret world we were colliding. In all the places we were hiding of...what was it we were thinking of?" Peter Gabriel
Chapter two
"She's pretty, Kasaru-chan, where did she come from?" The bright green-eyed seven year old turned to look at her brother as he entered the spare room, gingerly holding a cup of tea in his hands.
"I'm not sure, Ai-Leng, from the sky, I suppose..." like an angel, Kasaru added mentally, but said nothing as he set the steaming cup on the nightstand beside the bed. She did, in fact, look like an angel as she slept, her color had returned some and as her hair dried Kasaru could tell that it was more of a sandy brown than a black. She looked so peaceful, and Kasaru was hesitant to wake her...but he knew he would have to eventually, if only to make sure she was all right health wise.
"Just like the legend..." Ai-Leng said in awe, tugging on a curly strand of auburn hair. Kasaru plopped down in a wicker chair positioned across the room and looked at her oddly, confused as to what she was referring to. "You know!..." she continued "Of the Byakko no miko. A girl with clothes of a strange land would appear from nowhere in a time when the empire was in crisis...and she and her seven seishi would call upon Byakko to help!"
"Perhaps we ought to see if she can save my garden, then...it's withering in this heat wave." Kasaru said light-heartedly, his gaze once again returning to the sleeping girl. Ai-Leng wrinkled her nose and sighed, giving up any hope that her brother would ever take her seriously.
"Fine...laugh all you want 'niisan, but you should think about this sometime...after all, it does explain the 'birthmark' on your hand." She smiled brightly and hoisted her tattered teddy bear into her arms, flouncing out of the room. With a sigh, he sat back and shook his head, for all his love of his little sister; her energy could grate on his nerves when he had had a particularly trying day.
He had just begun to reflect on the day's odd events when the girl stirred in the cotton sheets. Her eyes opened a crack and she glanced around the room, taking in the contents of her surroundings. It appeared to be too much for her and she soon closed her eyes again. Kasaru feared she had fallen back to sleep, but a moment later her soft voice, so contrasting with the strained croak it was earlier, broke the silence in the room.
"Where am I?"
"In the guest room at my house. I'm sorry...but when you fainted I didn't know what to do, town is two or three miles from here...I couldn't carry you that far." Kasaru got to his feet and padded across the wooden planks of the floor over to the bed, seating himself on the very edge so as not to impose upon her space.
"No, no...you've done more than enough." The girl smiled weakly and sat up. Looking down she realized she was no longer in her school clothes, instead she was wrapped in an elaborate ever-green kimono, with soft teal spirals that decorated the sleeves and the tail of the robe, with a teal obi to match. Kasaru noticed her examining it and took the opportunity to break the silence, not that in her presence it was uncomfortable...but he didn't want her to feel awkward.
"It was my mother's, she left it to Ai-Leng when she died...don't worry, my sister gave you the dry clothes, not me...I just, didn't want you catching a cold..." he added the last part hastily, knowing he would die if she mistook him for some kind of ecchi (pervert).
"It's pretty...and thank you." The girl, whom still had not given her name, moved so her legs slipped out from the covers, and she could bury her bare feet in the rug beside the bed. Then she noticed the cup of emerald green tea. "Is...that for me?"
When Kasaru nodded, she reached over and carefully retrieved the cooling cup, sipping at the contents slowly, savoring the mild taste of the tea and the feel of it washing down her raw throat. When the cup was empty, she set it down and turned to him, her eyes alight as if the tea had rejuvenated me. "I'm sorry...I didn't tell you my name. I'm Oosugi Suzuno."
"My name is Kasaru." He smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.
"Do you...live alone?"
"With my sister. I moved out of my home about three years ago, when I was seventeen. During that time my mother became ill and died...my father couldn't handle taking care of Ai-Leng, and so she came to live with me."
"Oh..." Suzuno trailed off with a thoughtful nod, running her fingers through her frayed hair as she once again surveyed the room. It was done simply, not much larger than her closet back at home, but its simplicity gave it a feeling of warmth, which was only added to by the fresh daisies in a vase beside the window and the sunlight that streamed in, casting a square patch of light on the wooden floor.
"You know my sister had the oddest thing to say...she said that your appearance matched the legends of the priestess of Byakko that would come from foreign lands, I told her it was foolish but..."
An ear-piercing scream rang through the house and sliced Kasaru's sentence in half. Although the sound made Kasaru's brain freeze in fear, his feet were already jumping into action, running out of the room and down the hall to the main room that emptied out into the entrance. The scene that greeted his eyes would forever be stained into his memory, for the ninety years he lived after that.
His sister had crumpled in a pool of blood, her face a look of utter surprise, her features slack and inanimate. A crimson gash ran from ear to ear underneath the seven year old's chin, and her neck was snapped back to reveal layers of delicate tissue and spine. Bloody footprints led from the body to halfway to the doors that yawned wide, where they dropped off, as if the attacker had just disappeared.
He was burning with rage but more so grief, feeling a chilling numb spread through his body as he knelt in the pool of his sisters blood and tentatively felt for a pulse, but in the seconds that had separated the scream from this moment, she had already died.
A sob got lodged in Kasaru's throat, cutting off his ability to breathe as he knelt there in disbelief. From the doorway, Suzuno watched, frozen to her spot. She wanted to help, but she didn't know what to do, and the abundance of the scarlet liquid was making her nauseous...blood had always done that to her. She turned her head away from the carnage, and that was when she noticed a stained discarded piece of paper. She bent down and retrieved it, but she couldn't read the calligraphy scrawled messily down the page.
She debated whether or not Kasaru ought to see it; though she couldn't read it there was a sense of foreboding, of evil, in the note alone. A few minutes of mourning passed by, and finally she touched Kasaru's shoulder with timid fingers. He turned to look up at her, his eyes red, but his cheeks dry...as if he could not cry.
"H-here..." her shy words broke the stony silence that had settled uneasily in the room. Suzuno handed the note to Kasaru, and he took it. As his fingers felt along the crisp edges of the paper he left bloody fingerprints. He read over the note once, it was short but its words stung like acid, and caused only more confusion...for Suzuno he read aloud:
Byakko warrior,
Let this be a warning that the powers you tamper with are not child's play. Think of this image as a threat, of what -could- happen. Your sister is safe, but not for long...if you do not bring the Byakko no miko to the Sairou palace.
As Kasaru looked up, Ai-Leng's body disappeared. The blood as well seemed to shiver and then slid through previously unseen cracks in the floor and disappear. An illusion, though Kasaru's mind was still so shaken that he did not register it as such.
"Byakko no miko...but who...?" Kasaru murmured, his brain a blur with questions. He took a deep breath; focusing his thoughts like they had taught him to do the few times he had actually braved Martial Arts lessons. It was then, with his mind cleared, that his sister's words clicked. The legend...the girl from another world...
"I think...this person is referring to you." Kasaru confessed finally, folding the note and slipping it into pocket. "It is supposed to only be a legend...but whoever this is believes legitimately that -you- are the priestess of Byakko and I...am one of your seishi."
"...and he wants you to take me to this palace, to save your sister?"
"Yes...but, I couldn't ask that of you..." Kasaru sighed, shaking his head in defeat. If this person was serious, then there would be only one way he could save Ai-Leng. He would never ask that of Suzuno, he would just have to brave the journey alone and see what he could do on his own.
Suzuno's face contorted in a small frown "I could -never- be that selfish, Kasaru...not after how you saved my life...how could I not do everything in my capabilities to help you and your sister?"
Kasaru bit down on his lower lip, weighing the possibilities "...it could be dangerous, we don't know exactly why he wants me to bring you to him..."
"Well I'm not saying we should just surrender me to him in exchange for Ai-Leng...I just...I don't know, but if there's any truth to these legends...then you might need me, and who knows? We might be able to learn something from the jerk that took her."
When she noted that Kasaru was still hesitating, rolling the facts over in his mind, she hastily added "...please! Let me help...don't turn me away like everyone else does..." Let me prove myself, Suzuno pleaded silently. All her life she had been pampered, not so much as a sprained ankle had ever caused her any sort of pain...her parents guarded her so protectively. It wasn't pain she craved, just a chance to be useful, a chance to be independent. For all she knew...this would be her one and only chance.
"...Fine" Kasaru finally agreed, with a resigned sigh. Suzuno's face lit up, as if she had just been allowed admittance into a secret theme park, dangerous looking but harmless. She told him that she would be ready as she changed back into her school uniform and then turned to leave the room.
What had they gotten into? Kasaru began to silently tick through the possibilities; each one became increasingly more bizarre. If the legends -were- true, then would they need the other six Byakko no seishi? And if so...where could they be found?
"Ai-Leng...please be safe...I can't live without you..."
Chapter two
"She's pretty, Kasaru-chan, where did she come from?" The bright green-eyed seven year old turned to look at her brother as he entered the spare room, gingerly holding a cup of tea in his hands.
"I'm not sure, Ai-Leng, from the sky, I suppose..." like an angel, Kasaru added mentally, but said nothing as he set the steaming cup on the nightstand beside the bed. She did, in fact, look like an angel as she slept, her color had returned some and as her hair dried Kasaru could tell that it was more of a sandy brown than a black. She looked so peaceful, and Kasaru was hesitant to wake her...but he knew he would have to eventually, if only to make sure she was all right health wise.
"Just like the legend..." Ai-Leng said in awe, tugging on a curly strand of auburn hair. Kasaru plopped down in a wicker chair positioned across the room and looked at her oddly, confused as to what she was referring to. "You know!..." she continued "Of the Byakko no miko. A girl with clothes of a strange land would appear from nowhere in a time when the empire was in crisis...and she and her seven seishi would call upon Byakko to help!"
"Perhaps we ought to see if she can save my garden, then...it's withering in this heat wave." Kasaru said light-heartedly, his gaze once again returning to the sleeping girl. Ai-Leng wrinkled her nose and sighed, giving up any hope that her brother would ever take her seriously.
"Fine...laugh all you want 'niisan, but you should think about this sometime...after all, it does explain the 'birthmark' on your hand." She smiled brightly and hoisted her tattered teddy bear into her arms, flouncing out of the room. With a sigh, he sat back and shook his head, for all his love of his little sister; her energy could grate on his nerves when he had had a particularly trying day.
He had just begun to reflect on the day's odd events when the girl stirred in the cotton sheets. Her eyes opened a crack and she glanced around the room, taking in the contents of her surroundings. It appeared to be too much for her and she soon closed her eyes again. Kasaru feared she had fallen back to sleep, but a moment later her soft voice, so contrasting with the strained croak it was earlier, broke the silence in the room.
"Where am I?"
"In the guest room at my house. I'm sorry...but when you fainted I didn't know what to do, town is two or three miles from here...I couldn't carry you that far." Kasaru got to his feet and padded across the wooden planks of the floor over to the bed, seating himself on the very edge so as not to impose upon her space.
"No, no...you've done more than enough." The girl smiled weakly and sat up. Looking down she realized she was no longer in her school clothes, instead she was wrapped in an elaborate ever-green kimono, with soft teal spirals that decorated the sleeves and the tail of the robe, with a teal obi to match. Kasaru noticed her examining it and took the opportunity to break the silence, not that in her presence it was uncomfortable...but he didn't want her to feel awkward.
"It was my mother's, she left it to Ai-Leng when she died...don't worry, my sister gave you the dry clothes, not me...I just, didn't want you catching a cold..." he added the last part hastily, knowing he would die if she mistook him for some kind of ecchi (pervert).
"It's pretty...and thank you." The girl, whom still had not given her name, moved so her legs slipped out from the covers, and she could bury her bare feet in the rug beside the bed. Then she noticed the cup of emerald green tea. "Is...that for me?"
When Kasaru nodded, she reached over and carefully retrieved the cooling cup, sipping at the contents slowly, savoring the mild taste of the tea and the feel of it washing down her raw throat. When the cup was empty, she set it down and turned to him, her eyes alight as if the tea had rejuvenated me. "I'm sorry...I didn't tell you my name. I'm Oosugi Suzuno."
"My name is Kasaru." He smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.
"Do you...live alone?"
"With my sister. I moved out of my home about three years ago, when I was seventeen. During that time my mother became ill and died...my father couldn't handle taking care of Ai-Leng, and so she came to live with me."
"Oh..." Suzuno trailed off with a thoughtful nod, running her fingers through her frayed hair as she once again surveyed the room. It was done simply, not much larger than her closet back at home, but its simplicity gave it a feeling of warmth, which was only added to by the fresh daisies in a vase beside the window and the sunlight that streamed in, casting a square patch of light on the wooden floor.
"You know my sister had the oddest thing to say...she said that your appearance matched the legends of the priestess of Byakko that would come from foreign lands, I told her it was foolish but..."
An ear-piercing scream rang through the house and sliced Kasaru's sentence in half. Although the sound made Kasaru's brain freeze in fear, his feet were already jumping into action, running out of the room and down the hall to the main room that emptied out into the entrance. The scene that greeted his eyes would forever be stained into his memory, for the ninety years he lived after that.
His sister had crumpled in a pool of blood, her face a look of utter surprise, her features slack and inanimate. A crimson gash ran from ear to ear underneath the seven year old's chin, and her neck was snapped back to reveal layers of delicate tissue and spine. Bloody footprints led from the body to halfway to the doors that yawned wide, where they dropped off, as if the attacker had just disappeared.
He was burning with rage but more so grief, feeling a chilling numb spread through his body as he knelt in the pool of his sisters blood and tentatively felt for a pulse, but in the seconds that had separated the scream from this moment, she had already died.
A sob got lodged in Kasaru's throat, cutting off his ability to breathe as he knelt there in disbelief. From the doorway, Suzuno watched, frozen to her spot. She wanted to help, but she didn't know what to do, and the abundance of the scarlet liquid was making her nauseous...blood had always done that to her. She turned her head away from the carnage, and that was when she noticed a stained discarded piece of paper. She bent down and retrieved it, but she couldn't read the calligraphy scrawled messily down the page.
She debated whether or not Kasaru ought to see it; though she couldn't read it there was a sense of foreboding, of evil, in the note alone. A few minutes of mourning passed by, and finally she touched Kasaru's shoulder with timid fingers. He turned to look up at her, his eyes red, but his cheeks dry...as if he could not cry.
"H-here..." her shy words broke the stony silence that had settled uneasily in the room. Suzuno handed the note to Kasaru, and he took it. As his fingers felt along the crisp edges of the paper he left bloody fingerprints. He read over the note once, it was short but its words stung like acid, and caused only more confusion...for Suzuno he read aloud:
Byakko warrior,
Let this be a warning that the powers you tamper with are not child's play. Think of this image as a threat, of what -could- happen. Your sister is safe, but not for long...if you do not bring the Byakko no miko to the Sairou palace.
As Kasaru looked up, Ai-Leng's body disappeared. The blood as well seemed to shiver and then slid through previously unseen cracks in the floor and disappear. An illusion, though Kasaru's mind was still so shaken that he did not register it as such.
"Byakko no miko...but who...?" Kasaru murmured, his brain a blur with questions. He took a deep breath; focusing his thoughts like they had taught him to do the few times he had actually braved Martial Arts lessons. It was then, with his mind cleared, that his sister's words clicked. The legend...the girl from another world...
"I think...this person is referring to you." Kasaru confessed finally, folding the note and slipping it into pocket. "It is supposed to only be a legend...but whoever this is believes legitimately that -you- are the priestess of Byakko and I...am one of your seishi."
"...and he wants you to take me to this palace, to save your sister?"
"Yes...but, I couldn't ask that of you..." Kasaru sighed, shaking his head in defeat. If this person was serious, then there would be only one way he could save Ai-Leng. He would never ask that of Suzuno, he would just have to brave the journey alone and see what he could do on his own.
Suzuno's face contorted in a small frown "I could -never- be that selfish, Kasaru...not after how you saved my life...how could I not do everything in my capabilities to help you and your sister?"
Kasaru bit down on his lower lip, weighing the possibilities "...it could be dangerous, we don't know exactly why he wants me to bring you to him..."
"Well I'm not saying we should just surrender me to him in exchange for Ai-Leng...I just...I don't know, but if there's any truth to these legends...then you might need me, and who knows? We might be able to learn something from the jerk that took her."
When she noted that Kasaru was still hesitating, rolling the facts over in his mind, she hastily added "...please! Let me help...don't turn me away like everyone else does..." Let me prove myself, Suzuno pleaded silently. All her life she had been pampered, not so much as a sprained ankle had ever caused her any sort of pain...her parents guarded her so protectively. It wasn't pain she craved, just a chance to be useful, a chance to be independent. For all she knew...this would be her one and only chance.
"...Fine" Kasaru finally agreed, with a resigned sigh. Suzuno's face lit up, as if she had just been allowed admittance into a secret theme park, dangerous looking but harmless. She told him that she would be ready as she changed back into her school uniform and then turned to leave the room.
What had they gotten into? Kasaru began to silently tick through the possibilities; each one became increasingly more bizarre. If the legends -were- true, then would they need the other six Byakko no seishi? And if so...where could they be found?
"Ai-Leng...please be safe...I can't live without you..."