RK doesn't belong to me.
AN: Ah, another chapter, and updated quicker, and about the bracelets, they will be explained in the beginning of the next chapter.
Chapter 2: Enter the Oracles and the Order that Binds
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"Oracles! Time to see…Past, are you here?"
"Here! Like I always am."
"Thank you…Present?"
"Present!"
"Very funny dear. Now, future?"
"…"
"Is she here?"
"No, it seems she isn't."
"Most strange, huh?"
"Oh, and why should that be?"
"She is always gone cause the future shouldn't be showed. I'm I right dear past?"
"Oh maybe, who knows."
"Well I wish to know!"
"Well, you can't, the future can never be known."
"So, why id there one?"
Because there is always Past, Present, and—"
"Future! I know, like the three Faiths of Greek Mythology.
"Yes, the ugly old crowns who share one eye from which they can see all."
"What's wrong with you Order? You are looking pale."
"How can you tell I am looking ill?"
"In this darkness we can't see forms, but images are always born."
"Go, find future, we will do until then."
"Come, come sister. My only kin and blood aside from our new sister. Use your Staff of the Present."
"And you your Sword of Ages Old."
"Our sister may not be here."
"The Cursed Mirror of Future Dreams."
"TO complete the Scared Circle we need three."
"But today we shall see."
"What we need."
"Combine our powers you mean?"
"Yes, sister, create light in the form of a beam."
"Let it point towards the mirror, where our dear sister's soul hopefully will be."
"Kao-san? Are you alright?" Tomoe asked, shaking her cousin softly as the girl seemed to have frozen in the middle of making dinner. It didn't seem right, the way her eyes lost all light…creepy and not normal.
"I
am fine, Tomoe-chan, now, can you please stir this while I got check on the
rice?" She smiled that smile once more, but no one would know that it was
missing an important factor. "Great Aunt has told me that some friends
are yours are coming over for a sleep over and dinner, so we mustn't make
to little for their appetites."
"Yes,
Sano and Yahiko eat like pigs!" Tomoe laughed, feeling ease as she talked
with her, it was like they had known each other for ages without even realizing
it. "But, Kao-san…are you the one from the…"
"From the mirror? Yes, I am the one and the same."
"Then, when did you learn to cook? Even though I was never there—"
"And could never really tell, you know. I learned while in Limbo, we have lots of time lost in a vortex of lost souls while waiting for the wind to come—the right one that will give you chances like never before."
"What?"
"It is a long story, Tomoe-chan, but right now, you need to continue to stir that before it gets burnt on the bottom."
"Hey! Anybody home!" called out Akira for the second time that day, coming in through the front gat with his cousin in tow. Behind them a bunch of familiar faces followed, waiting as they looked about the front yard for people to show.
"Yeah! We're in the kitchen!"
"Coming!" Before long, they showed up, and looked to see a strange beautiful woman cooking with Tomoe.
"You guys, this is my cousin, I guess, Kao-san," said Tomoe, pointing to her as she just smiled. The smallest boy there looked at her for a moment, not believing his eyes. It was her, she was alive, but something was different…wasn't she in the mirror? Lost there until she could become normal again? "Yahiko-chan!"
"Don't call me CHAN!" he called back, and then blinked as everyone laughed.
"Sorry, but you looked so lost I wanted to make sure you were still with us in the living world."
"The line doesn't seem to be very straight anymore," came his reply. Everyone just looked at him as if he was weird, but Kaoru just winked at him before continuing on with her work.
"Tomoe-chan, you've got to keep stirring that."
"Do you need any help?" Kenshin asked, hoping deep inside that he could find a reason behind his quivering insides, the feeling only coming when she was around.
"Yes, all we need a taste tester."
"I'll do it!" cried Enishi, showing up from his spot at the counter. No one noticed his there, melted to the floor almost as he smelled the food getting cooked.
"Alright." Kaoru took a small bowl and filled it with the sauce, and held it out for him, followed by a glass of water. "Warning, it might be a little to spicy."
He didn't pay attention to her, until after he gulped down the sauce. It was like his throat was on fire! Those standing close to him could've sworn they saw fire coming out of his mouth, before he gulped down the glass of water.
"That was hot," he said, his voice scratchy as he did so.
"Exactly how it is supposed to be."
The meal was a big hit, spicy as it was, the rest of the meal was a sedative to the spices in the sauce. The conversations during the meal were normal, and no one seemed to notice the way Yahiko looked at Kaoru, the way his eyes were just investigating her, as he tried to figure her out.
He remembered when he saw her, even if he was an old man, the day he son and daughter-in-law were killed. It was raining, and that only added to the sadness of the day, and he found his two weeping granddaughters crying in the shrine, and with them, was the ghostly image of his sensei, busu…he would never forget that uneasy feeling, the way her eyes looked, how she seemed to calm them all down with out a singled word, jut the soft whisper of a touch.
But, this was the same her, he got the same feeling when he was with this new one. As if she wasn't reborn, but the same ghost that comforted them long ago. Like she was still dead, and no one knew that but him.
He got the funny feeling in his gut that told him he should've stayed home that day.
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AN: I hope you all liked this chapter, and the next one will have review answers and such, but I hope you liked this chapter as well as the rest. And the bracelets will be explained in the next chapter.
Thank you for reading and reviewing. I would like that very much.