Author Request: If you want any questions about Hojo answered or things about his personality revealed or clarified, put them in the review and they just might come up in later chapters. Thank you.
Chapter Two: Grandpa
My feet, charged with purpose, carried me through the city of Tokyo to my destination. That destination was my grandfather's house, or more specifically his basement lab, where I now sit. His house is situated in one of the more upper-class residential neighborhoods of the city and is one of the strangest in existence. Built from an old pagoda temple, it stands four stories high, a crimson monolith against the azure sky. Ancient ceremonial masks and gongs hang from various places along the elaborate balconies. Throughout the house are a variety of old weapons and other artifacts, all from the feudal era. Despite these outward appearances though, the house hides a fully operational physics lab, where my grandfather conducts his experiments.
"Hello, Grandfather." I said, walking through the door.
"Hojo, my boy, what brings you here?" He said warmly. Of all my relatives in the world, I care about him most. It shames me that I don't visit here that often, since he has no one to talk to now that Grandma, his wife for over fifty years, is dead. She died only a year and a half ago of a cancer. The gaunt, vibrant, old man recovered quickly though, diving back into his projects with renewed vigor, and somehow came to terms with her loss. I should ask him how he did it.
"Is there something wrong, son?" He asks, pulling me from my introspection and back to the world of the living.
"Um, no, Grandfather." To emphasize this, I walked into the spacious and modern kitchen and took a seat on the floor at the table.
"Well, if there is, then I know the cure. Try this! Atomic Bunt Cake, System 2000!" The only thing my Grandfather likes more than machines and computers is baking. Unfortunately for me, and anyone else who happens to be in the vicinity, his skill and knowledge with the one do not match the other. Before I could say anything, a plate with the brown-black lump of something was slid across the table toward me, and my Grandfather's eyes were locked with mine, twinkling with expectancy. What did I do? Well, you see, I had no choice. I choked down every last bite and flashed my most winning smile. True to its name, it tasted like something from a reactor core.
The trial of acceptance over, Grandfather took a seat across from me.
"So, child, what have you been up to? How long has it been? Oh, I'd say at least three months. Right?"
"Yes, Grandfather. I'm sorry that I haven't visited lately, but I've had a few things to take care of."
"Oh, don't worry. It's the way of the young to forget the old." He smiled, and waved his hand in a dismissing gesture. He is easily the most forgiving man I have ever known.
"Really, Grandfather I had been meaning to talk to you for some time."
"Oh, yes! I heard that someone had a girlfriend! How is she?"
"She's dead." The smile disappeared, and for a brief moment, I saw him as he was when Grandma died.
"I'm sorry, Hojo. From what your mother told me, she must have been a wonderful person, since you did so much for her. Which one got her?"
"Which what?"
"You know, the diseases she had. Which one did she die from? I heard she was a very sick girl. I'm very proud of you for taking the time to ensure that her final days were happy ones."
I can see why he was misled. Kagome's obituary listed her death as being 'complications resulting from Leukemia.' But I know the truth, which no one except for Kagome's family, and her friends from the feudal era knew. However, I will not mislead this man. The time for action has come, and he will play a pivotal role in my master plan.
"Grandfather, can we continue down in the lab?"
"Um, yes. I don't see why not." We walked down the hall until we came to what looked like a locked closet, but when the knob is turned in certain directions certain numbers of times, the door opened. Behind the door was a long spiral staircase leading down into the lab. We descend quickly into the basement, finished and as advanced as any in the world. In addition, it was all run by my Grandfather without anyone's help.
I walk down the center aisle, absently looking at various devices and hulks of metal. "So, Grandfather, how has that latest project of yours been going?"
"Hojo, you know I can't talk about my work."
"Not the government projects, your private experiment."
"Oh, that. It is almost completed, but I still have to test it."
"You need a human subject, don't you?"
"Yes, but, um, that's going to be me."
It came out suddenly.
"Grandfather. Let me go. Let me be the first to use the Time Gate!"
"Hojo! Is that why you came here? Do you think I'll put my only grandson at risk? No, I can't possibly do such a thing. Besides, what do you hope to accomplish?"
"I'm going to prevent Kagome's death."
"How? Her diseases were all terminal. There's nothing you could have…"
"No, you're wrong. Kagome wasn't sick, she was healthier than you or I. She didn't die of Leukemia. She was murdered." The old man was silent for a moment.
"I see, but why would her family lie about her condition? Was her mother responsible?"
"No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. Kagome's family lied about her condition to explain why she wasn't in school very often." At this time I then told him of Sengoku Jidai, and how Kagome was transported there. My grandfather was incredulous, amazed that such a thing was possible. Then he stopped me.
"Hojo, there's something I must show you." He motioned me to follow him. We went to the back of his lab, to his office and through there to his study. It was enormous, lined wall to wall with books ranging in age from new to ancient. The floor of the place, though, was bare and the only furniture was his desk and chair, and a wooden cabinet on the far wall. The only light came from a desk lamp.
My grandfather motioned me across the room to this cabinet. There was a small, slanted reading desk next to it, and another small lamp on top of the desk. I sat down while my grandfather rummaged through the cabinet. I couldn't see what he was doing, but I could pick up traces of the smell of very old paper. Then, there it was before me. The scroll. The complete history of the Feudal Ages.
"Grandfather, this is…!"
"Yes, now read." So I did. My grandfather went out into his lab while I absorbed myself in the ancient parchment for almost an hour. The scroll was long, since the period was so vast, and mostly fanciful, since not much was known of science at the time. I read through most of it, reading of wars and lords, and who-controlled-what-kingdom-when, but most of it was uninteresting. I was on the verge of giving up and going to find my grandfather when I reached the final passage. The title: Shikon No Tama and the End of the Warring States Period.
This part was no ordinary history. I had expected the period to be ended by some huge war that consolidated all lands under a central government, but this was not the case. Instead, it spoke of a tiny village called Edo, of a love affair between a hanyou and a miko. This love affair ended in tragedy because of another, vengeful, hanyou named…No, Naraku?
It then fast-forwarded fifty years to the arrival of another miko, this time from the future. Imagine my surprise, to know that it was Kagome. I read further, reading of all her experiences in the past. Imagine my horror, when I read of her death! So it was foretold, all this time? What I saw next, though, shocked me the most. It happened in the next battle that her friends had with him. Amazingly, this was right after her funeral, when they went back to the Feudal Era. Filled with vengeance and guided by their love for their friend, they destroyed Naraku and his evil detachments and brought peace to the land. Well, sort of. There were still many other things happening, but history dealt with that.
The fact remains that Kagome was the one to end the Feudal Era. It wasn't immediate, but her courage, love, and kindness led to Naraku's downfall. But why must she give her life for these things to happen?
So lost was I in my own thoughts that I missed my grandfather's approach.
"So now you know."
"Grandfather, why didn't you tell me about this if you knew that Kagome was going to die?"
"I knew that there was nothing you could do. If you went back to their final battle, she would have died anyway, and you might have been taken with her. Hojo, I cannot let you risk your life so foolishly."
"I could use your prototype armor, and the weapons you made…"
"No. Man can build time machines but he cannot change what is or will be. You must accept that."
"But… I love her." He put a comforting arm around my shoulder and spoke softly to me.
"Yes you do, but you must find another. What is gone is gone. The dead are dead, and the living must continue to live. Now why don't you go home, get some rest. You have had a busy day, right?"
"Yes, I went to Kagome's funeral. It was amazing all the friends she had. She was so wonderful…"
"Hojo, go home and sleep. Then face the next day with the determination to live. Only in that way will your heart begin to heal itself."
"Okay, grandpa." He guided me from the chair and led me to the door with his arm still around me. He walked me across the lab and back to the stairs. I took notice of how many different weapons there were, things no man had seen before. Laser blades, pulse rifles, shark pistols, even powerful fusion grenades. I also saw a row of armor, some fully enclosed, other just a collection of metal plates, still others energy-based. Next to them were a vast amount of other devices that just might be useful to me later on.
We walked back upstairs to the kitchen. "Hojo, would you like to take home some Atomic Bunt Cake?"
"No thanks Grandfather." With a final goodbye, I left.