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 2
The Unbelievable Curse of Beauty
Kagome woke up the next morning to find Buy, her extremely obese and lazy kitty, scratching lightly at the leather-bound book at the foot of her bed. Yawning, she realized that the old artifact was going to be nothing but cat-fun if she didn't quickly remove it from the claws of the cat. "Buyo!" Kagome said, casually, but demanding at the same time. After all, she just woke up to find her cat doing what nature tells them to- attack all and think later. (A/N- Can you TELL that I'm a dog-lover? There's a good reason behind that too- LoL)
Looking at her master questioningly, Buyo got up, and lazing around a little, curled up into a ball on the pillow of her master, falling asleep yet again. Kagome, realizing that it was impossible to move the fat cat, gave up on sleeping. It was a Saturday, so it really didn't matter what time she woke-up. Lately, however, she was falling behind in her studies. Mathematics, definitely not her strong suit, was giving her the most trouble in catching up. No matter how hard she tried, she'd sit down for 3 hours, to find that all she'd have done was 2 problems. Time to find a tutor... Kagome thought.
Standing up and stretching, her eyes caught the leather-bound book again. She saw that there was a gap in the book to where the author seemed to have turned a lot in the past. Leaning down to grab the book, she was stopped suddenly by her mother calling from downstairs. "KAGOME!! YOU BETTER BE UP OR ELSE!!!" Kagome realized then, that she was due for the doctors. Being 9am, her appointment was in 15 minutes. "I'm coming... I'm coming..." Kagome mumbled quickly showering, changing into a pair of flare kaki jeans, white t-shirt, and her sneakers, and throwing her long, black hair into a tight bun on the top her head. Running downstairs, she grabbed her American mini-backpack. Throwing on her heavy down-feathered coat, she ran to the family van meeting with her mother and her brother, Souta. Her mother quickly drove to Tokyo to meet their family doctor....
*~~~~~~~~~~*
When they arrived back home, it was almost dark. Shop-a-holics, Kagome and her mother couldn't help themselves from stopping at the local stores and spending practically all their lives' savings on worthless material objects. (A/N- hey! that's what i did today... lol.... man, do i hate Christmas time traffic... the mall is crowded!)
"Mom, can I wear a new pair of clothes over to my friend's house tonight? I mean, I know school's the reason why we bought these, but you know how much I love this outfit!" Kagome said holding up a jean mini-skirt and a black, turtle-necked, long-sleeved shirt. After saying it was okay, Kagome's mother told Souta and Kagome that she had to help Grandpa in the Warding-Room of the shrine. (A/N- hey, they need jobs to do... if you have any clue whatsoever that they should do, R/R and I'll be happy as a cow! LOL) Kagome, dressed in her new garb, danced upstairs to pack for her night over at her friend's house. Upon entering her room, she noticed that the leather-bound book was a slightly different color than before. Instead of the brown, leather-like color, it was a bit more yellow. Interested, Kagome picked-up the book and began to read the pages that had been permanently bent to "easy-open" position. As she read, her eyes grew large:
Dear Journal,
You know that throughout all the years, I have never suffered as much heartbreak as today. Upon passing through the barrier to meet my beloved, I was met with an absolute nightmare. My love had been branded an adulteress. Curse with the punishment of wearing a giant kanji symbol in a deep scarlet red, she was standing on the Shinto temple's stair top under the face of their gods. Unsure of the reason, but positive of the punishment, I checked deeper into the matter. My love had become pregnant with a local's baby after believing that her late husband had perished from this earth. Why should you be punished for such an unsuitable law? My love, though not dead, is going to die slowly if this punishment goes on. I will write about this atrocity and let it live in eternity. She will never be forgotten so long as the story survives.
Nathanial Hawthorne
With her eyes almost to tears, she noticed that there were prints on the thick paper from tearstains. Why would HE be crying? She asked herself, realizing shortly that his love had been lost to an unknown townsperson. Hawthorne's whole life had consisted on loving this woman who crushed his heart in one swoop. Wait.... she read the letter over again catching the key phrase of the letter.... 'Upon passing through the barrier to meet my beloved....' The hell..... Flipping quickly to the first page, she read the most important journal entry- the first entry:
Dear Journal,
You'll never know what happened to me today. I've met my soul-mate. Her name's Higarashi Kikyo. The most beautiful woman of any world. Ah, yes, any world. That's where I must explain. Today, I received the greatest urge to go out. Unlucky as most are in the most desperate of times, my car broke down in the middle of the country, but close enough to a local Shinto shrine. Upon climbing up to the shrine's entrance, I got another weird feeling from the empty well. I opened the doors to empty well to be dragged down from a centipede-like monster. Yes, that's right, a centipede monster. I thought I was going to die with that horrible creature, but the most beautiful woman saved me. Dressed in an ancient miko's garb, she shot a spirit-powered arrow through the monster, destroying it totally in one hit. Thank god for those spiritually enabled.
Nthanial Hawthorne
Eyes now popping out her head, Kagome threw down the book with wild thoughts flying through her head of where this temple could possibly be. Could it be mine?? She thought. Never. This temple wasn't about when Hawthorne came through our part of town. Kagome suddenly got an urge to check out the well. That is, until she realized, unlike Hawthorne's time, the well was full with water and the transport between worlds, if that was true, was impossible. Also, the possibility of the void to open-up for her was slim to none. Though, none of this kept this young girl from thinking about trying it anyway. Running downstairs, throwing on her heavy down-feathered jacket, she ran to the well's shrine.
to be continued.....
A/N- ok, I know that I'm not a good writer, but i need you guys to read and review. please? ok, i need to get some moral support from you guys before i continued this really screwed-up scarlet letter adaptation. though, i must say, this story is going MUCH better than planned... hehehehe. i think that it's time to go, but don't forget to visit my sister's stories- her name's Broken Dreams. also, go to my website. hey, you know you want to... www.geocities.com/zeldasetsunagirl..... wahooo!!!!!!!!!!!
^-^
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