KOTODAMA
"The soul that resides inside the words."
Chapter I
"THE STORY TELLS THAT FOR THEM, DEATH WAS NON-EXISTENT."
… you have to cast a spell to calm his soul, whatever you need, anything that may work to calm him...
… Could it be you intend to calm me?! …
Those phrases kept playing inside her mind, and Kagome couldn't quite notion how to continue with that part of the story. Staring at a point on the wall, her thoughts wandered, recreating the scene that was given shape during her shower, and that continued as she put her clothes on. She recalled the words and even gave voice to the characters.
"You haven't finished your coffee." Her friend Ayumi observed, bringing her back from her self-absorption.
"Ah?" She introduced her foot inside the shoe as well as she could, they were beside the exit door and it took her an instant to understand what she was saying. "I'll just drink another mid-morning."
To get out of the apartment she shared with her friend was a bit of a complex task. The girl had quite the developed mother instinct, and would apply it to her since she could remember. Maybe that's why Kagome had a hard time placing limits to those ways of showing care, and maybe, too, that was why her mother didn't object to them moving in together to an apartment in the most centric part of the city.
"Have you packed your bentō?" Ayumi insisted, as she untied the apron she usually wore when preparing their breakfast.
Kagome, as an answer, lifted the cloth-packed box with her food. Her friend nodded and smiled, and she had that strange sensation of when you've passed some test, and she liked it, Ayumi's character was purely sweet after all.
"See you." She finished putting on her jacket, the afternoons were already starting to get cold.
She said her goodbyes, opening the door that gave to the corridor and then to the external stairs. Her steps turned quick, she didn't want to arrive late to her third consecutive day at her new job, and she still had a hard time finding her bearings through the small streets she had to walk through after getting off the train. Luckily, she arrived at the station at a decent hour, which put her fifteen minutes ahead as long as she didn't get lost again, spending them in the process. Boarding the wagon, she found a corner where she laid her back against one of its walls, and with her purse held in front of her, she began to see how the buildings passed, her eyes stopping sporadically in some person walking on the streets, on some vehicle or whatever detail that could add some colour to the view.
Without really realizing too much, her thoughts took her to recreate images of a story she'd been some time creating. She held her purse more tightly then, for inside it there was her personal folder in which she'd been storing her drawings for that story. To her mind came the vivid image of its protagonist, and felt her chest filled, as if the joy that came from just imagining him was the most marvelous emotion she could know.
The train gave warning of the station that was her stop, and Kagome brought back her focus to the real world and its matters. She began to wander the streets with complete confidence, but as she passed them, the same uncertainty that had invaded her the previous days, came back. The streets became narrower and shorter, starting to seem labyrinthic. A part of her loved to live in the city, yet the other missed the wide fields, forests and waterfalls, which she longed to see one day.
As she arrived to the last street she fathomed needing to walk through, she leaned forward and looked at it as if wanting to appease the fear of being wrong and becoming lost again. However, she became glad to see the little terrace of the building right before the dwelling of master Izumo, who she worked for. Looking at the hour, she checked she still had fifteen minutes before the agreed time for arrival, yet, given her lateness in previous occasions, she preferred to turn up already, even if early.
She rang the bell at the entrance of the house, which had a tiny study upstairs. She heard the voice of the man greeting her through the intercom, and next, the electronic lock opening, allowing her inside. The house had an external stair which led directly to the second floor, and so to the drawing workshop. The door remained lockless, so she could just push it and get in.
"I see today you didn't lose your way, Kagome." Master Izumo smiled at her, who took her in as his assistant for the drawing of a manga whose chapters were still being released each month.
"No, it was about time I learnt how to get here." She leaned slightly as a greeting, and the man invited her in and to occupy her place.
Kagome went to her seat and before leaving her purse in a space beside her desk, master Izumo was already by her side.
"How are you doing with the backgrounds I gave you yesterday?" He asked. The computer was still starting.
"Good, I've got three pages left, I believe I should be able to cover a lot throughout the morning, so that you can check them." She explained.
"Very well." The man thanked.
Kagome focused on the labour of finishing the three pending pages. She was working on the scanned drawing Izumo sensei had given her, inking digitally, aside from adding the elements he had wrote down at the footer of the page. In the centre she studied at, she was taught different techniques, and that one was one of them, it was comfortable and practical, much more than manual inking, albeit for her own works she preferred the second.
"Good morning, Kagome-sama." She heard.
"Good morning, Koutatsu-sama." She turned and greeted the man who had just arrived with a bag of materials.
By what Kagome could understand, in the study, they worked on more than one story at the same time, and the one Koutatsu-sama collaborated in had an ink finishing, to which the man would make his own ink and would keep it inside a bamboo flask as some artist did some centuries ago.
Sometime later she heard him talking to her again, standing behind her.
"Your work is coming along nicely."
"Thank you." She smiled half-way through her answer, hoping that courtesy was noticed in her voice.
"Mhmm... very well, quite pretty." He insisted, and she realized this time Koutatsu had placed a hand on the back of her chair, and was leaning forward, appearing on her side.
Kagome had the urge of leaning away, as she couldn't help feeling he was invading her personal space and it wasn't the first time he did so during those three days. She looked behind her, towards the desk where Izumo sensei worked and found it empty, just like the two previous times Koutatsu got close like now. She didn't need to think about it too much to know what was going on.
"Could you show me your work, Koutatsu-sama?" She asked, turning the chair to the opposite side of where the man was, to stand up and keep her distance.
"I don't think you'll like it; they are horrendous demons." He explained with a smile.
"You'd be surprised of what could, or not, be horrendous to me." She also answered with a smile.
Kagome had one hour break to eat, and did so quickly, as to be able to dedicate some of it to her own work, the one she kept in her folder. Just like the previous days, she went to a little park two streets away from master Izumo's house, and remained there to sketch a scene she had in her mind since this morning, during her time inside the train.
Kagome had been drawing since she had use of reason, and couldn't recall a time when drawing wasn't present in her life, it was something keeping her company and that made her soul feel illuminated, better. At first, as a child her drawings were in some loose and unrelated papers her mother had to gather inside her room and even the gardens around the temple they lived at. Her favourite place to draw was the sanctuary found by the well, and she did so with the dim light that got in through the door, for as long as it could join her in there. Seldom times her mother would throw away some drawings, and she didn't care too much, under the condition the drawings she considered special remained untouched, and there was one in particular she didn't want to lose, ever: it resided inside her mind as a constant, and Kagome would spare no effort in improving the vision she had of him, and in attempting to draw him as perfect as she imagined.
The alarm of her phone rang then, she had programmed it as to not go past her break time. She sighed, observing her surroundings to check she was practically alone, aside for a couple of young people a few meters from her, who were also eating their bentōs. She made a mental note of thanking Ayumi for the food. She put away the folder with her drawings inside her purse and stood up to undust her dress before walking towards her job. A noise and a movement made her turn around quickly and see a boy with a red ponytail, running away with her purse.
"Wait!" The cry didn't come out as strong nor as soon as she would have wanted, and even to run after the boy was an act of will she thought a few seconds more than was needed, giving him way too much time.
She began to run and follow the thief who was now quite a few meters ahead. She noticed how her mind began to make a thorough check of the stuff she had inside that purse she'd made herself with some old jeans, and of which she was quite proud, despite a few details that could have come out better. Inside it, there was her personal documentation, her wallet with her money, and crap! Her drawings.
She ran as much as she could, her stomach heavy from the food, feeling how her lungs were about to collapse. Tears began to cloud her vision as she saw how the boy with the red ponytail was getting further and further away. She watched him turn a corner, and despite knowing to reach him was not possible anymore, she turned that corner as well and from there looked at him; to her surprise, the boy turned around, slowed his pace when he checked she had desisted, and running backwards he cocked his head to the side in a smile.
The curse that resounded inside her mind was of such caliber she wasn't able to reproduce it out loud.
She huffed and leaned against the wall of a building, letting out tears she couldn't hold back anymore. She had sketches of her drawings at home, and could redo some of her work, however she couldn't help that feeling of loss.
Kagome had been in front of the sheet she began to work on for almost an hour. She had a couple of lines made with pencil and these, despite having the usual shape of her drawings, didn't quite achieve to get the image inside her head, out. She leaned back on her chair, and looked at that drawing she made during her childhood and which was now on the wall, coloured, representing the character with which she had lived with a great part of her twenty-two years of life. She never had an imaginary friend; instead, she had her drawing and that particular being began to appear in her head as if he was real. When little, so little she could barely hold a pen, she would trace some lines representing the body, and would add color to them. Next, she would talk to it about the small happenings of her day.
At the beginning she would tell others about those stories in her head, and the way her character would reply, to the point of holding conversation that would make Kagome laugh, meditate or put her in a melancholic mood; she would also play with him. Until one day someone told her it wasn't a good idea for her to be telling others that, and of course, she couldn't know that such a thing was only hers, Kagome only lived inside her own head.
How could she know of what others have in theirs?
"Today someone stole my drawings. I ran after the thief, but couldn't reach him." She began to talk in solitude, staring at the drawing on her wall who looked at her with eyes a bit out of order, as much as due to being the result of a six years old hand, as for the words Kagome heard as a reply inside her head.
You are far too reckless.
Yes, that's what he would say, with that annoyed and rough tone with which he usually spat things to her face.
She heard a couple of knocks on her door, and knew it was Ayumi.
"Come in." She changed interlocutor.
Her friend opened the door with a shoulder, bringing with her two cups of tea. From there she wanted for Kagome to unload her frustration, and to tell her the details she may wish to share about the event that had marked her day.
The boy with the red hair entered through one of the alleyways of the district he usually spent the night in. It was a place where he knew he could hide and to have some days of relative freedom, although for his own good these couldn't be too many. Today he didn't finish many jobs, he had gotten inside a grocery shop in the morning, and from there took away some milk and an apple. Then, he encountered the girl whose purse was now crossing his chest as if it were a satchel. He left her behind hours ago, and had had a good time running away from her, for she turn up being quite tenacious and that helped him check his own physical condition. Besides, he had to admit she was quite pretty, which made him doubt a bit when the time came for him to take her things. However, the cup of coffee he was drinking, of one of those stores where they wrote your name on them, reassured him of having been right in not hesitating.
He pushed the iron door that gave to what should be a little garden, yet was instead filled with old trinkets that weren't useful anymore. The house was an abandoned place that, due to a violent event that happened there, no one seemed interested in buying it or rent it, and that turned it into a good hideout. Sometimes the cops would come, yet it had been a while since that happened.
He pushed the wooden door that was never closed, only when the house was occupied by him or somebody that knew of it, and as soon as he crossed the threshold, he felt how someone grabbed his armed and pulled.
"What do you have there?" He recognized the voice immediately, and it wasn't hard for him to see who it was, his eyes adapting quickly to the dim light coming from an oil lamp they kept inside the place.
"I took it from a dumb girl who left it defenseless as she slapped her dress." He explained, his tone mocking, as he took the purse off and handed it to his companion.
"I've told you to stop doing these things, Shippo. Someday they'll catch you and you'll end up in a detention center. You won't like it."
The words seemed uncaring, yet he knew the hint of genuine worry they carried.
"Bah! No one can catch me. I run like a demon. I'm sure I can even outrun you." He bragged.
He could see the severe look his companion gave him as he introduced his hand inside the purse. From there he took a folder he handed to Shippo, then continued looking inside. Soon, he found a wallet, and then left the purse aside to examine it.
"There is little else, the wallet, some hair clips and a lipstick. "He smiled, assimilating how pretty he found the girl to be, due to the lipstick detail. "A shame she had her phone in her hand."
Shippo sat on the ground then, to peruse through the sheets inside the folder, he hadn't done it before.
"There is no more than seventh hundred yens." He heard his companion say. "It's not much."
Shippo smiled.
"I spent four hundred in this." He showed his cup of coffee. He knew he'd get an earful, yet stopped his companion from talking, as for what he found in the sheets of the folder aroused his curiosity. "When did you become a model?" He asked the other, who was still examining the wallet.
"What?"
"Look." He took one of the drawings and showed it to him. "Aside from the ears, it looks just like you, InuYasha."
To be continued.
A/N
Here I bring you the first chapter of this story I don't know quite well how it appeared inside my mind, but that immediately caught my attention. It's a sort of alternative universe, albeit not entirely (right now as I write these words I make a mental note of looking up what name this receives).
I hope you'll enjoy it and that you tell me in the comments.
A kiss,
Anyara.
This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart
