The Scarlet Kanji
the remake of The Scarlet Letter
copyright info: Thank you Ramiko Takahashi!! Without you, I'd never have the characters to fit this story so well. That goes to Nathanial Hawthorne, too! Without your crazy ideas of a Puritan society's outcast, none of this would be possible!!
Ok... onto the story now.......
Chapter 1
The Broken Well
The day was gloomy. Overcast, dreary, and snowing, the setting was perfect for the arrival of the ordinary girl name Kagome. The Feudal Ages, Japan's era of war, was set in the exact same kind of weather. Unknown to Kagome, however, her life was going to be nothing of the normal kind for a long time....
*~~~~~~*
"Grandpa!" Kagome yelled, running into the family shrine. After running up the 10 flights of stairs up to the top of the shrine, it was no wonder that Kagome was totally out of breath.
"Yes, Kagome?" Kagome's grandfather peeped his head outside the shrine's housing facilities (A/N- what the HECK do you call the house in a shinto shrine??) The gloomy weather apparently affecting the moods of the people in it, Kagome's grandfather became agitated when Kagome didn't respond immediately. "Kagome! Are you going to tell me what you want or you going to let me freeze outside?? How about you just come inside so this poor old man doesn't turn into a Popsicle?"
"Fine... just.... *huff*..... calm..... down!!" Kagome managed to huff out to satisfy his grandfather enough to put his head back inside and shut the door to warm his numb fingers back up. Grandpa will never understand me... Kagome thought walking into the house, prying off all the winter gear. Once stepping into the warm house and after finally catching her breath (she was very out of shape, being as it had been dark and cold for weeks now), she asked her old, wise grandfather what she had been meaning to say previously. "Grandpa, at school, we're reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. I know that it was around when you were at school, so I'm sure you learned a lot about the Puritan life, right? My teacher is horrible! All he does is expect you to be a genius like Melvin and know everything once you start it!" (A/N- sorry.. had to include some other anime creature's name!! LoL)
Cringing for the time reminder, Kagome's grandfather slowly walked to a large box in the corner of the living room. "Ah... Kagome, I figure you'd end up reading that story someday. Unbelievably enough, we're related to that Hawthorne guy, and he left a journal here stating something strange." Kagome's grandfather lifted an extremely old-looking and dirty journal from the depths of the gigantic leather box. "I know it looks unreadable, but I'm sure you'll understand it if you try to decipher it. Now go along, and find something to do. I have to make sure nothing is frozen in the well-house. There's something we don't want going wrong- our supply of water gone in a day!" Kagome's grandfather slowly walked to the doorway after handing the journal to Kagome. After leaving the room, Kagome closely examined the journal.
Leather bound? I thought Mr. Yamada told us the use of leather on books wasn't popular anymore when Hawthorne wrote the Scarlet Letter. Maybe I'm wrong... (A/N- she's wrong, oh wellz... .she's a ditzy weirdo like me.. hehehehe) Kagome slowly got up, thoroughly examining the leather-bound book. Flipping to the first page, Kagome examined the first words of the book... To my darling Kikyo..... You're my one and only true love.
That's so weird... I have a great great great great great great grandmother named Higarashi Kikyo. She was some sort of priestess... that's how we live in this shrine now! Thought Kagome disbelieving the rest of the book... throwing it onto her bed, she dozed off in a deep slumber. Not even her fat cat, Buyo, could wake her from this sleep.