Shinu- die
Itai!- Ow
Onee-chan- sister
Yukata- a lighter, summer kimono
Hakama- loose fitting pants
Hotaru- fireflies
Kemari- kickball
Kami Monogatari
It is as perilous to one's soul to deny the Shadow in one as it is
to deny the Light.
Live in the Light, by all means, but do not lose your shadow-vision.
Do not forget how to see in the Dark.
-The Hedge of Mist
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison
Chapter 3- Lavender Eyes, Pale Like the Sky
The world was burning.
Sulfuric stench wafted through the air, making
her senses sting with the scent. Her face was wet, and she lifted a hand
to her cheek, touching it. Cracking her eyes open, she saw her fingers,
tipped red with blood. Moving caused dizziness, sending her spiraling back
down into darkness. Sango struggled against the oncoming blackness, focusing
on the small expanse of ground between her hands. Pebbles and bits of scraggly
grass scratched her palms, already raw. Eyes watering from the sulfuric
tang in the air, she rubbed them, looking around, searching for a familiar
face.
It was cold where smoke did not warm her.
Black clouds drifted through the blank space around her, trees veiling
her location. "Minna!" she tried to call, voice thick, affected by her
injury. "Kagome? Houshi-sama! Inuyasha!" Leaves whispered darkly in the
timeless space, the bloody color of the sky revealing it to be neither
dawn nor sunset. She stood, pushing herself upward and staggering a bit,
a lance of pain in her head shocking her. "Calm...be calm...head injury...."
she stumbled forward a step, towards the origin of the smoke, then leaned
a moment against a tree as the world spun again. She closed her eyes, trying
to run through her memories, sort them out. "Fighting. We've been fighting.
I'm hurt? How did I get hurt? Where?"
A chill wind caught at the loose ends of her
hair, sending them into the wind. The sound of breaking lifted her head,
and she watched trees crumble down through the foliage, buckling in on
themselves as miasma spread through the forest floor. The danger registered,
and she backed away, stumbling out of the way of the dark stream.
The green world was turning into a white one,
pale and dizzying as she heard an explosion behind her, and looked to see
fire burning along the treetops.
"Shinu."
Die.
She turned, leaping to the side on instinct.
A silver disc sliced through the air where she stood, whistling until it
embedded into a tree trunk. She fought the tide of dizziness, eyes focusing
on the small scythe, tracing the links of chain attached to it, finding
the hand that held the end, and the face of the thrower, half hidden behind
a mask.
"Kohaku!"
He moved, yanking the chain and summoning
the sickle back into his hand, poising for another throw. Eyes that were
pale, white and ghostly in their emptiness, stared emptily back at her.
His expression was unreadable, hidden behind the mask of the youkai exterminator.
She pushed herself away from the tree, feeling the world reel around her.
Kohaku. He was there. He was attacking her. Again, the silver disc spun
through the air, cutting so close she stumbled backward to avoid it, collapsing
backward and landing hard on her arm. Droplets of blood flicked onto the
ground from over her eye, evidence of the scalp wound.
"Kohaku! No! It's Sango...Kohaku...."
The white eyes shifted their focus, inward,
outward. Darkness settled around them, touched red by the wildfire in the
forest. It was a dangerous place, with claustrophobic trees and heavy underbrush
pressing around them. Ashes floated through the air, pungently declaring
the presence of the wood that burned. With a tug, the blade returned to
his hand, settling there with a smack.
"Kohaku...remember...please, Kohaku! Naraku
has you under his control. You can break out of it..." she pleaded, hands
open, palm upward. He hesitated, and she took a step forward, encouraged.
"I'm your sister...remember? Kohaku? Remember, we used to practice throwing
that weapon? Kohaku?"
Milky white, stained with ashes, the eyes
gained color, faded, whitened, colored, focusing and unfocusing in a liquid
lens. He remained ready for attack, flinching back as she moved forward
again, edging into the brush. An expression of pain washed his face, uncertainty
clouding his features.
Red flames bloomed in the forest around them.
"Onee-chan?" the eyes turned to see her, brown and familiar, confused.
Streams of fire lit around the ground, catching on dry grass. But the moment
passed, and the brown again became bleached white. "Shinu!"
The shock hit her, seeing the eyes change
color. In the dizzy world, her mind spun, reeling in rejection. So close,
so close, so far. He moved forward, too close to throw, the sickle upraised
and ready for cutting. The blood flowed into her eye, turning the world
dark and unfocused. The blade seemed so close, so bright in the firelight.
And it never fell....
She turned her face upward, watching her little
brother collapse, eyes turning brown and rolling upward into his head as
he sunk to the ground. Sango lifted her arms, catching him as he fell,
limp, the scythe slipping from his fingers, falling with a dull thud against
the ground. He remained still.
"Sango?" It fell hard against her ears, the
voice that hovered above her. Looking up, she saw Miroku, holding a glowing
shikon no kakera in his hand. "It's dangerous here," he told her coolly,
looking down at her. "Leave him. Let's go."
Her hands tightened on Kohaku's back, tentatively
touching where no shard was planted. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment,
then turned them, furious, on the man standing above her. Smoke welled
up around her, stinging her eyes and making them water. Just like that.
Collapse. It hurt, burning, scalding, the sensation of fire smacking her
painfully, stinging the darkness that swirled up around her, choking her
and filling her lungs with darkness.
"Sango!"
"Sango!"
"Sango, wake up...."
"Sango!"
"There's nothing fucking here, dammit!"
"Sango!"
The words drifted on the edge of her vision,
echoing through the recesses of her mind. She felt the wetness of the blood
on her face, and the burning of the fire.
"Sango!"
So tired. She was so tired. Kohaku and blank
eyes. Blood. Fire. So tired....
"Sango, you have to wake up!"
That voice....
"Sango!"
Her eyes opened slightly, and saw the blurry
outlines of figures over her. Slowly, she reached through the lake of nightmare,
world focusing as she drew slowly to its surface. The first face solidified,
violet eyes peering down at her. Her reaction was instantaneous. She slapped
him as hard as she could.
"Itai! Sango, I didn't...."
The words died away before he could say any
more. Having released her, she gave him such a look of exhausted loathing
he backed away, mouth slightly open at the strangeness of it. "Get...away...from
me."
He edged away on the ground, tentatively touching
the fresh handprint on his face, which stung. She lay on the ground, forearms
supporting her up, glaring and laboriously trying to catch her breath.
"Miroku-sama...Inuyasha...." Kagome made a
quick gesture, suggesting they leave.
"But I didn't...." he began to protest, then
silenced himself.
Inuyasha sheathed the transformed Tetsusiaga,
and looked down at the still slightly stunned Miroku. It wasn't so much
the slap- he'd endured that enough before- but the dark look she was giving
him. It was unnerving, being on the receiving end of the glare. "Come on,
Miroku. Let Sango get cleaned up."
Recovering a bit, Miroku stood, trying to
decide what he could have possibly done this time. Having broken the disturbing
gaze, Sango's head remained bent, wet hair veiling her current expression.
Two red drops of blood fell to the ground, trailing from a cut on her forehead.
He backed away and followed Inuyasha as the hanyou headed out.
Sango heard the falls of their footsteps,
fading as the distance grew. She heard Kagome move, and moments later she
felt something warm settle around her shoulders. "Just your yukata, Sango...daijobu
ka?"
Fire. Blood. Kohaku. Shards. Miroku. Miroku,
like he didn't even care. Killed him. Killed Kohaku. Took the shard, just
like that. Fire. White eyes. They spun dizzily around her, the world tilting
and shifting in a delirium.
"I don't feel so good..."
"Daijobu...do you need to throw up...?"
"No...dizzy...sleepy...." her eyes lowered,
and she began to slide to the ground.
"Sango, no, don't sleep! Stay awake!" Kagome
grabbed her shoulders, shaking her a bit to keep her eyes open. "Kirara!"
she called, and the little firecat stepped forward a bit, then took the
initiave and changed in a burst of fire. "Sango, Kirara pulled you out,"
she explained. "Came and got us. Can you tell me what happened?"
Happened? What happened? Kohaku. Shikon no
kakera, Miroku. Eyes the color of clouds, pale and sightless. He'd been
right there. She'd gotten through to him. She'd gotten through to him...then....
"Kohaku...Miroku...shikon no kakera...."
"Miroku?" Kagome blinked, and took one of
Sango's arms, wrapping it around her neck from behind to help her. But
now was not the time to question Sango's name choice. The taiji-ya leaned
heavily against Kagome, and Kirara pushed her head forward, bowing slightly
so Kagome could push Sango onto her back. "Stay awake a little longer,
Sango. We'll get you somewhere safe...you can sleep then."
"Un..." she mumbled. "Eyes...white eyes...."
"White eyes?"
Sango's lashes fell against her cheeks, and
she leaned against Kirara's neck, adrift on the edge of a sleep without
dreams.
He peered around the corner, then stepped around,
seeing nothing. The morning was passing by, and still Shippou found no
trace of the girl he had seen the previous night. Returning to where he
had last seen her, he looked around, searching for signs of footprints.
There were none. It was creepy, and he was tempted to go find Inuyasha.
But the hanyou would probably tell him he was imagining things because
he was scared, with no proof, and just wasting his damn time. Finding mysterious
little girls was not as important as finding the shikon no kakera that
were around here somewhere. Shippou disagreed, but didn't really know why.
It was too odd not to investigate, and he didn't think he'd be able to
help too much in the hunt anyway. So, he set himself to his own search.
"Mou..." he grumbled, kicking a rock. He had
seen Kagome a little earlier, and waved as she went off in search of Inuyasha.
This wasn't doing him any good. So, when he saw Kagan in an old pair of
worn hakama, a bucket and small hand shovel in hand, he decided to follow
him. It was daily work for the older man, tending to the gardens, and Shippou
tailed him outside, until he found the paths separating, one flowing down
towards the river they followed the previous day. The skin on the back
of his neck prickled, thinking of the fireflies that drifted around her.
Hotaru
were
attracted to water, coming out to the wetlands and to the edges of forest
to dance in the darkness. Well, he decided, if he didn't stray too far
from the path, he should be able to find his way back to the old man in
awhile, if his hunch didn't pay off.
The trees lightened, the green canopy drawing
back as the river came into fuller view, sparkling brightly in calm reassurance.
From the earlier day's rains, it had calmed again, leaving a layer of rich
black silt on the riversides. A delicate willow tree graced the bank, long
trails falling into the water, stirring tiny ripples in the glassy surface.
Shippou looked around with amazement. Everything was beautiful, elegant
and graceful, the image of a floating world, reflected in the calm blue
water.
It wasn't a gasp that made him turn, but a
slight intake of breath, as though startled. His case of nerves returned,
having been lost in the quiet place, making him jump backwards in alarm.
Then he tried to force himself to calm, still shaking a bit. He could see
the hem of skirts half hidden behind the willow's trunk, and saw them stir.
He'd found what he was looking for, and now that it was before him, he
wasn't sure if he liked the fact he was alone. "Ko...konichiwa?" he called,
telling himself not to panic.
The fabric stirred, and after a hesitant moment,
a narrow half of face emerged, peering around its hiding place shyly. "Konichiwa?"
she returned, emerging a bit more as she greeted him. Seeing the little
kitsune across from her, she emerged fully, lightly pushing aside one of
the willow fronds in her way. "Are you new here?" she asked, blushing slightly
and tightening her grip on her ball, raising it partway to her face, as
though to hide.
"Uh...yeah...." Shippou agreed, watching her
suspiciously. Her disappearance from sight last night was disturbing, though
at the moment there didn't seem to be anything unusual about her. She smelled
faintly of rain and chrysanthemums, fresh and sweet, though the sun struck
her white skin oddly, giving it a softly glowing quality. But most striking
were her eyes, large and framed by heavy lashes, pale, lavender, and currently
curious now that he had confirmed her suspicion. A smile broke out on her
face, erasing the slight timidity, and it had a calming effect on Shippou.
Smiling was hardly a sign of danger.
"Sugoi ne," she laughed lightly, beaming at
him and bowing politely as she introduced herself. "Watashi wa, Ukifune."
"Shippou," he returned, relaxing further at
the continued smile. She held up the deerskin ball a bit, questioning.
"There aren't any children here. Would you
like to play kemari with me, Shippou-kun? The adults are always so busy!"
Then she caught herself, as though in outburst. "Gomen," she whispered,
more softly. "Loud voices are not so ladylike," she told him, then giggled
a little, shyly hiding her face behind the ball again. "But then neither
is sneaking out to play, ne?"
Sneaking out to play? He grinned back. Playing
tricks on adults could be fun. And he knew there weren't any children there.
The place was empty. He wasn't sure why Ukifune had stayed, but maybe she
had hidden when her family had left, out of fear of the mononoke in the
mansion. It didn't make much sense, he knew. It was unlikely for a girl
to stay when her family left, but she seemed perfectly harmless, though
maybe a little strange.
"Sure," he agreed, and she laughed again,
a light, delicate sound, accompanied by her slowly and formally tossing
the ball into the air as was proper. He ran back a couple steps, moving
under the ball and kicking it neatly back into the air.
"Sugoi!" Ukifune clapped her hands with delight,
then rushed out as the ball returned. She backed up, back into the arms
of willow, the ball tangling inside the branches above and thrown off course.
It splashed into the river, the ball floating idly out of reach. Ukifune
rushed to the edge of the water, and stopped on the ledge, watching her
ball slowly drift away. "Mou...."
"I can get it," Shippou offered, and moved
to take a leaf out of his jacket, planning on popping into his pink balloon
form. It'd be easy to float over the water, pick it up, and come back.
"No!" Ukifune cried, reaching out to stop
him. "No! Don't go into the water, Shippou-kun!"
He paused, confused. "Huh?"
Ukifune had already turned away, and seemed
to close in on herself, lifting her hands to her mouth, covering it with
her long sleeves. She watched her ball float away, and Shippou looked at
her again, seeing her outline against the sky. The whiteness of her skin
had increased, and she looked so pale she was ethereal, her eyes haunted,
elegiac beauty. He backed away a step, uncertain again. He caught a glimpse
of her reflection on the water, and leapt back.
The water was unmoving there, the reflection
a night of fireflies, glowing. The childlike form of Ukifune grew, an elegant
figure in ancient robes, lavender and long, the white fading into deeper
shades of purple as the sleeves reached over her folded hands. No ribbons
adorned her, but rather an intricate looping behind her head, holding back
some of a long, wavy wealth of hair. And her pale, lavender eyes reflected
sorrow.
"Yu...yurei..." Shippou stammered, backing
away. Reflecting an image that was one's own, but not one's own. That was
no trick of the light, no illusion.
"From the water comes reflection,"
she said softly, in a voice far older than that of a little girl. "And
broken dreams are all you can see."
But Shippou was already running away.
"You know, that's the second time Sango's almost
drowned and ended up slapping you instead, Miroku," Inuyasha commented
as he turned around, leaning against the half wall behind him. The sarcastic
tone earned him a dirty look from Miroku, who still sported a faint pink
handprint on his cheek.
"And both times, a misunderstanding." Miroku
defended himself, frowning. Each time he's had perfectly good intentions
after all, not lecherous in the least. "I hardly think she-"
His words were cut off as the shoji slid open
quietly, and Kagome emerged, shutting it with a soft click behind her.
"She's resting," Kagome told them, stepping away from the door and keeping
her voice low.
"How is she?"
Kagome shook her head, holding her hand to
her mouth in a nervous gesture, slightly uncertain. "Exhausted. She needs
sleep...it's like she's been drained. It's weird."
"You didn't fall over like that," Inuyasha
noticed, sending a glance behind Kagome, who had pulled out her portion
of the tama, cupping it in her hands and watching it glow, the colors shifting
faintly in the dimness.
"The nightmare seems real," she countered,
closing her fist around the necklace. "Really real. She was mumbling about
Kohaku and shikon no kakera. Whatever youkai is sending-"
"There's no damn youkai!" Inuyasha shouted,
since he had said this several times through the course of the last day,
and it seemed like nobody wanted to believe him. "It's not youkai! We'd
know by now if it was!"
"Inuyasha!" Kagome whispered sharply, brows
drawing down in irritation. "Let Sango sleep."
"Feh. She was so out of it, I doubt she'd
wake up anyway."
"Osuwari."
Splat.
"Bitch...."
"Be nice, then."
Miroku sighed, shaking his head as the other
two exchanged glares. "Inuyasha. If it's not youkai, then what is it?"
"Hell if I know," he muttered, peeling himself
up from the wooden floor. "But it waited 'til she was alone, didn't it?"
"Alone?" Kagome's head snapped up, eyes widening
as she realized they were missing a member of the group. She grabbed at
his sleeve. "Inuyasha, where's Shippou?"
The other two froze at the statement, and
then began to move as Kagome pushed past, heading out through the narrow
hallways. As the courtyard opened up before them beyond the verandah, they
saw Shippou tearing his way across the ground as though Naraku were hot
on his heels.
"Waaaaah! Inuyasha! Kagome!" On the second
name, he launched himself upward, latching onto Kagome's neck. "Kagome!
A yurei! I saw a yurei!"
"A ghost?"
"Hai!"
"Kuso..." Inuyasha muttered, looking around
warily and placing a hand on Tetsusiaga. "Did it follow you?"
Shippou poked his head out from Kagome's shoulder,
twisting around to see the hanyou. "Don't think so."
"Then what the hell are you panicking about?"
"You try finding out the person you were playing
kemari with was dead and see how you like it!" Shippou shouted back, fists
clenched. "She had a scent! How was I supposed to know she was dead? I
don't see dead people all the time, you know!"
"She, Shippou-chan?" Kagome asked, looking
down. "And kemari? How old was this ghost?"
"Just a kid. Sorta. It was weird. She was
by herself, so I said yeah, I'd play with her, and then the ball went into
the water, she got all worked up, and her reflection was her, but she wasn't
little anymore. So I ran off because that's damn freaky!" he finished in
a rush of breath, folding his arms and looking annoyed, since he realized
he would have been able to find out more had he not run off, and that the
others were giving him odd looks. "She was just a kid," he repeated, as
though they didn't believe him.
"Like Mayu-chan...." Kagome said, considering.
"Mayu-chan?" Miroku asked, backing into the
mansion's hallways again. He glanced at the roofbeams, where he had placed
ofuda the previous night. "It should be safe enough in here, from yurei."
Kagome nodded once, climbing up the small
set of steps. "Mayu was a little girl who died in a fire, in my world.
Before we met you," she added after a moment. "But Mayu was upset about
her mother, and she was trying to hurt people. Did she hurt you, Shippou-chan?
Is that why you..." she trailed off, realizing Shippou was looking embarrassed.
"Gomen ne. She didn't, did she? You just got scared."
"I don't see dead people all the time. And
she did have a scent," he muttered darkly, folding his arms and looking
stubborn. "How was I supposed to know?"
"Daijobu, Shippou-chan," Kagome told him,
then turned to the others. "If this little girl is behind these attacks,
then we need to find out why."
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again,"
Inuyasha told them as he climbed the steps. "Ghosts aren't like youkai.
You can't just knock them around to defeat them."
"I remember," Kagome replied. "And we still
were able to help Mayu. Maybe she's not going after the shikon no kakera
at all."
"Then why attack us in the first place?" Miroku
mused, heading back the way they came, towards the girls rooms. "Sango's
not in good shape, but she left Shippou alone? The same for Yanagi and
Kagan, but then attacking the rest of the people who lived here? There's
no pattern to this at all. It's erratic."
"Well, whatever happens, we don't go wandering
off on our own anymore," Inuyasha decided, almost with a growl as he followed
the others. "That ghost kid-"
"Mayu!" Kagome insisted, frowning at Inuyasha's
word choice.
"Mayu-" he corrected himself, ignoring Kagome's
glare, "caused a hell of a lot of trouble, and almost got you killed. This
yurei-"
"Ukifune," Shippou supplied, earning an odd
look from Kagome. But Inuyasha was still continuing, not paying much attention
to the kitsune as they passed through the hallway, and emerged again into
the skylight outside their rooms. One of the streams ran underneath the
floorboards, and in attempt and architectural grace, a square had been
cut from it, and a skylight from the roof, so that when one stepped out
of their room, daylight or moonlight filled the hallway enough to see by,
or one could look down and see the water below, drifting idly by. Miroku
was again checking the ofuda he had posted the previous night, this time
around their doors.
"This yurei has targeted us, and the last
thing we need is for some baka to go get themselves killed. Sango didn't
say anything about how she got attacked, did she?" Kagome shook her head,
trying not to smile. He was trying to sound tough again, trying to hide
the fact he was worried. She had seen his expression, after she had been
attacked. He also knew he hadn't been able to help when Mayu had nearly
allowed herself to fall into hell. Until there was something solid for
him to attack, he was at a loss. But still continuing, "And there's a shikon
no kakera here somewhere. Nobody goes off alone until we figure out what
the hell is going on." He paused, then his eyes narrowed at Miroku's back.
"Oy, bouzu! You hear me?"
"Hai," came the response, and the houshi turned
slightly, opening the shoji a crack to see Sango sleeping soundly on the
futon, her dark hair clinging damply to the light cover. Kirara lifted
her head at the slight noise, and seeing only Miroku, she lowered it again.
He slid the door to a close. "But with Sango out, I'm not sure who you
expect me to search with, since I assume you will remain with Kagome-sama."
"Take Shippou with you," Inuyasha growled,
and he saw the kitsune gulp nervously. "If nothing else, he can come get
us."
"Hey!"
"That's what you just did, isn't it?"
Shippou scowled.
*****************************************
More notes this time!
I mentioned a the novel 'The Tale of Genji'
before...and it's cropping up again in this chapter. I took the name 'Ukifune'
from some of the final chapters of the book, and applied the name here.
I tried looking up the name Ukifune in Japanese dictionaries, and nothing
came up, so I split it in half and tried the two parts separately. 'Uki'
came up as 'rain, or rainy season' and 'fune' as 'ship, boat or watercraft.'
So it should mean something along the lines of 'A boat in the rain.' Yes,
she
is a yurei, a ghost. In the previous chapter, I had fireflies surrounding
her...there's folklore about 'hotaru'-fireflies- that they contain the
souls of the dead. So if you see any...think of ghosts. ^.~
The game Ukifune is playing is called 'kemari'
and is basically a form of Japanese kickball. It was very popular in the
Heian era, but wasn't much of a girls game. Remember way back in the earlier
Inuyasha episodes, with Muuonna? (Those weird, psychoanalytic episodes
with his fake mother? o.O;) There was a scene in which little Inuyasha
was chasing a ball that some men were kicking around. Basically, I had
two reactions to that scene. 1. Aw, poor chibi-Inuyasha! and 2. Oh my god,
they're playing kemari!! It looks kinda like hackey-sack to me...you keep
kicking the ball around.
Ja ne!
-Queen