kokoro no hotori de Close to my heart, anata ga yasashiku ORE wo yonde mo you call gently to me, but mimi wo fusaide I close my ears. hashiru hi mo aru There is also a day I run to, koori no NAIFU wo daite Embracing the ice knife dakedo itsu no hi ka heiwa ga But someday, kono yo wo atatameta nara this peace will warm the world. itetsuku SOURU mo My frozen soul tokedasu hazu sa will probably melt too, PURIZUMU wo hanachi nagara setting a prism free. - "Embracing The Ice Knife" (Yuu Yuu Hakusho)
I had almost reached my destination, when my horse stumbled, very nearly pitching me into a nearby snowdrift. I would have gone right on ahead, giving the incident no further thought, but, in that moment, as I clung to the reins in a pitch of adrenaline, something had managed to catch my eye. A girl was lying almost completely buried in the snow, hidden so well that I would not have seen her, had it not been for her dark hair - a rebellious splash of jet black against the uniform white background.
I rushed to her side, sweeping away the snow from her face and limbs as fast as I could. She was small, only about half my stature, and was, from the looks of it, no more than sixteen years old. Her long hair was limp and tangled, and her cheeks streaked with dried tears. Hesitantly I checked her for signs of life, fighting not to let my hopes get too high. It was not an uncommon thing for people like her to be caught in a blizzard, or just plain collapse from exhaustion and hypothermia. Usually, the ordeal would not be one that they'd live to tell about.
This one, however, was a survivor. I could not tell if she was breathing or not, but her heart still beat, and the fingers on her left hand would twitch from time to time, clutching fitfully at an oversized brown shoulder pack. It was this pack that had nearly tripped my horse, putting my life in jeopardy, and, more likely than not, saving hers.
Now that I had determined that she was still alive, I had to decide what to do with her, and fast. I could hardly leave her there, that much was obvious, but what was I to do with her upon reaching town. It was not as though I had the time or resources to take her under my wing. With luck, her family lived nearby, or I could find someone who would be more capable of helping her then myself. Rummaging through my own bag, I dug out a horse blanket. It was old and smelled like the stables, but it would serve its immediate purpose of shielding her from the cold.
As I went to remove the girl's coat, which would have been soaked by now, but she didn't seem to be wearing one. What kind of idiot would go out in the middle of nowhere, in weather like this, without proper clothing? Judging by her dress - a strange garment, knee-length and made out of stiff, navy blue cloth - her family, while somewhat odd, was likely not poor. They should have seen to it, at least, that she was properly garbed!
Riding with her prone body in my arms was more than a little awkward. The horse was unused to the extra bulk, and insisted on making its displeasure known. Every time we came to a bump, the girl's form would be jolted into an even more unwieldy position, blocking my view and impeding my movements. Still, there was really no other way. I couldn't take the chance of her falling off, or being hurt.
She didn't seem to respond to the added heat that came from my body, or the blanket, even after a half-hour of riding. I took this as a bad sign. Maybe she was too far-gone, and would never revive. I found myself hoping that this was not the case, despite my better judgement telling me not to get my hopes up regarding her chances of survival, or get too attached. She was not the first person to be claimed by this godforsaken climate, and she would not be the last. This was not personal, I told myself, but, somehow, it became personal, anyway. I spurred the horse on, racing against time toward the now visible town lights.
The town was filled with travelers, all desperate to get out of the cold. Their colorful, noisy presence came as a welcome relief from the sheer whiteness of the plains. I arrived just as the markets were closing up, and the people beginning to settle in for the night, cheerfully filing into their respective houses and out of sight. The inns were filled to overflowing, much to the delight of their owners' pocketbooks. It would have been difficult, if not impossible to find a place to stay at this late hour, especially with a sick charge in hand. Luckily, since I was there on business, I had already arranged for room and board with one Seo Akuro, an older woman, whom I had never met before in my entire life. I had no idea how well she'd take to the idea of an additional tenant, who required immediate attention. If things went well, she'd be able to help me. Otherwise both the girl and I would be left high and dry.
I had been able to pry directions out of a hassled mother, who was busy trying to get her children to come inside for dinner. She had been, understandably, less than thrilled with annoying questions from strangers, but softened when she saw the urgency in my face. According to her, I was in the right part of town, and Seo-san lived only a few streets down.
The house in question looked stately, yet inviting. All of its windows were brightly lit, and it exuded a bright, alert atmosphere. Akuro herself answered my knocking. She was a delicate-looking matron, somewhere between thirty and fifty years old. Her curly black hair was greying, and her eyes had laugh-wrinkles around them. She seemed a little put off by my snow-covered, sopping wet form, and even more so wild explanations and requests, but she dealt with it like a pro.
Upon seeing the girl, she was all action. Quickly rattling off an address, she sent me to fetch the doctor, while busying herself with a search for warm, dry clothes and blankets. When I returned, befuddled doctor in tow, Akuro had made the girl as comfortable as humanly possible in her own room, so much that the petite form was nearly lost in a mass of blankets and pillows. Both she and the doctor immediately went to work, Akuro only pausing long enough to shoo me out of the room. I was somewhat irritated at this turn of events, but understood her logic - if I could not be of help, I'd only get in the way.
My horse was nicely situated in an adjacent barn. Apparently, Akuro had seen to it while I was gone. It was munching on some hay, and only looked my way long enough to give me the evil eye, obviously sulking at its supposed mistreatment at my hands. There was really nothing left for me to do there, but give its coat and hooves a perfunctory check (and nearly get kicked in the process). The day's fatigue was starting to catch up with me, so I decided to drag myself into my allotted bedroom.
After changing my own clothes, deciding that it wasn't worth the effort to unpack my belongings for the short span of time I was going to be there, and shoving my bags under the bed, instead, I had nothing left to do but pace. I felt awkward in the strange house, not sure as to where I was or wasn't allowed to go, but unable to stay in my room without dying of boredom and anxiety. At last, I settled on waiting outside the door to Akuro's room.
The doctor left a little after midnight, tired, but not unhappy. Akuro bid him a polite "Good night", before pulling me aside.
"What's going on?" she asked bluntly.
I told her my side of the story.
"So, you have no idea of who she is or what had happened to her?"
"Not really. I just kind of assumed that she was some random person who had been caught outside in bad weather." I couldn't help but wince at the skeptical look she gave me. Now that I had a chance to think about it, this explanation didn't really hold water. What would a traveler be doing out there on foot, with seemingly no preparation, little in the way of supplies, and no companionship? Even a foreigner should have known better. And, for that matter, while she didn't look like she was from around here, I had never seen clothing like hers on those from the surrounding countries, either. Just who was she, and what the hell was going on?
"There's something I'd like you to see", Akuro motioned for me to come in.
The girl was still unconscious, but looked somewhat better, her breathing loud and somewhat congested, but even. She had been dressed in an ill-fitting nightgown, and a cool cloth had been placed on her forehead. Akuro moved the mass of blankets aside, carefully propping the girl into a sitting position, and moving the nightgown to expose her shoulders and collarbone. The sight nearly made me recoil. The pale skin was covered with bruises, and a painful-looking cut ran all the way down the length of her left arm.
"The rest of her is like this, too." Akuro shook her head. "Who, or what could have done something like this?" She was struggling, and failing, to keep her composure, hands shaking in fury.
"Theoretically, it could have been just about anything. She could have been attacked by a wild animal or jumped by bandits, although the fact that she's still alive discounts that fact. She could have been pelted with hailstones. Hell, for all we know, she could have just been plain clumsy and prone to taking spills!" Being presented with yet another mystery after a hard trip and next to no sleep did nothing for my temperament or state of sanity.
Akuro bent down to retrieve the girl's pack, which had been lying discarded at the foot of the bed. Neither of us felt right, searching through this stranger's belonging, but any small thing could have provided a key to her identity and past. The search came up empty. The bag was filled with books, but most of them were written in a language neither of us was familiar with. The one legible book was written in what appeared to be a dialect of the language spoken here: about a half of it readable, and the rest, gibberish. Inside the cover of this book, what I took to be the girl's name was inscribed in neat, sharp handwriting.
"Okuda Takiko." The name sounded strange coming from my mouth. It was not a name that I heard before, but seemed steeped in a puzzling familiarity, nonetheless, without actually helping us one bit. Even now that we knew her name, this brought us no closer to a solution.
Both of us lapsed into silence having come to a dead end. After a few moments, Akuro marched out of the room. I followed her, like a little lost puppy.
That night, I could not sleep, despite being tired enough to drop. I lay on top of the covers, agitated and tense, until the barking of dogs and crowing of roosters signaled daybreak.
TBC...
Notes: I originally decided that I wanted to write this story a few months ago. Back then, it was nothing more than a haphazard idea that I wanted to do something with the Genbu seishi and miko. Since the canonical story told us next to nothing about them, I was left with a lot of room to maneuver in when creating the story. In fact, there were very few things I couldn't do with it. This makes the Genbu characters a godsend for fanfiction writers, yet there's not too much about them out there. By this point, I have narrowed down my options, deciding on a format, a basic plotline, and a starting characterization for the mystery seishi. I don't expect those plans to be all put in motion exactly as they are right now, in fact, I can pretty much guarantee that most of it will change, or, at least, morph, as I write.
By the way, if there are any other Genbu stories out there, I want to know! I'll probably have to wait on reading them, though, until my own story is done, so that I don't end up inadvertently plagiarizing them.