The Story of Rin
Chapter 1
The sun rose over a small house on the outskirts of a dense forest. Dawn found the young miko Yukari standing in her front yard practicing her sword fighting. She held a long katana sword, its blade glittering and sharp in the bright morning light.
Yukari stood unmoving, staring off into the distance, waging an inner battle for peace. It was her custom to train for a few hours each morning, and usually the clarity and concentration came to her naturally. But not today. She sheathed her sword and closed her eyes. Yukari sat down on the dusty ground to meditate, hoping she could find tranquility and focus somewhere within herself. Not today. She struck the ground in frustration, unable to clear her mind of the terrible, distracting images. She clenched her fists, remembering.
*Flashback!*
She walked as if in a dream, everything familiar but reeking with a strangeness she couldn't name. She passed the outlying houses of her village and could see nothing amiss. But it was so quiet. Then she came upon the village square, and she just had to turn away. Her throat tightened, and her eyes burned with unshed tears. There was so much blood…
***
Yukari shook her head as if to clear the memories from her mind, but deep down she knew that nothing could erase them. Those images from her past were burned in her brain and etched into her heart. She turned abruptly, meaning to go into the house, but felt a strange aura approaching. Only seconds after the sensations registered, Yukari felt a white-hot, searing pain in her left shoulder, and then everything went black.
When Yukari awoke she was lying in a pool of blood she assumed was her own. Her shoulder was numb, but she remembered feeling pain there before she lost consciousness. She brought her right hand up to examine the injury. It was deep: a hole punched through her shoulder not quite to her back, but at least the bleeding had stopped. She wasn't worried.
Her mind satisfied as to the extent of her injuries, she looked around to assess her situation. Where the hell am I? she thought. What brought me here? She was sitting against the wall in what seemed to be a deep stone pit. It was dark, but not too dark for her to see. Nonetheless, she felt him before she saw him.
Youkai, her instincts screamed, and she tensed her muscles in anticipation of an attack. But upon closer examination of the man behind her, she realized he was definitely in no state to attack her. Chained to the wall, the silver-haired man seemed to be unconscious. Blood trickled onto his face from a wound on his head, and he had an injury similar to her own through his right shoulder. She crept silently closer to see if his wounds were serious; they weren't. With healing powers similar to her own, full-blooded youkai rarely remained injured for very long. She could sense that his demon blood had already gone to work healing his body, and knew it was only a matter of time before he regained consciousness. Knowing this, she backed away. If he wakes up and wants to fight I'm in trouble, she thought. Miko powers or not, I can't defeat him while I'm injured. She settled down at the opposite side of the pit to wait, and promptly fell asleep.