Kaerizaku: Shinwa
.:o.o:.
Dreams of Past Forgotten
Wednesday found Kagome and Sango at the library bright and early. Neither had classes until the afternoon, so they chose to do more research for Kagome's project.
"Did you find it?" Sango asked, referring to a book that had been recommended by a friend of Kagome.
"No. Knowing this nut, it's probably a book published over fifty years ago and has been out of print for thirty," she complained. "I'll have to call my dear friend, who lives in the middle of nowhere, and ask the recluse to send me a copy."
.:o.o:.
A blood red stain slowly spread across the sky as the sun sank behind the mountains.
A field...A trap...The once long, rich green grass was now trampled and turned crimson. So surreal...The sky and ground covered in blood...
Hands...hands covered in blood...
The stench of blood and death was thick in the air. Sounds of battle...Surround sound, heh; quieter now, most of the threat had been destroyed.
In the darkening sky a full moon rose in the east...Soft silver light cast the field in eerie shades. Silver light...A flash of silver across the grass.
Him. They fought him fiercely, determined to make this the last stand. So proud they were, not fighting together but not fighting against each other either.
A familiar cry rose over the din. A woman stood back to back with a man in robes. She caught something only to fling it once more. The man fought with a staff that seemed to chime merrily, ironic given his circumstance...His hand...Wind.
Kaze...The kaze tsukai free from her 'father' and master, fighting against him now...
Tai...She was once against him, the one with silver hair, and now was with them...Twins...Iie, sisters, maybe. One of the silver men fall wounded, the other soon after, distracted protecting his kin.
My fault. Guilt...Anguish...Despair...Desperation.
A pink glow...A dark comet coming towards her...
Kagome jerked up in her bed, gasping desperately for air, tears coursing unchecked down her flushed cheeks. As the dream faded, the woman wrapped her arms around her stomach and curled into a ball, crying still for a past she didn't know.
.:o.o:.
Myouga-sensei dismissed the class with a reminder the propositions for the project were to be on his desk by Tuesday next.
Kagome walked out the door, soon flanked by Miroku and Sesshoumaru. Without looking at either, she held out two packets of paper.
"This is everything we've found at present. The last page is a rough outline of the legend but there are gaps. I'm waiting for a book to come from a friend and any additional details the psycho sees fit to tell me. In the meanwhile, I want to look at your father's books." She stopped to sit on a bench in the courtyard. "When can we see them?"
"I have no more classes until Monday. Anytime this weekend is fine."
"I have religious studies and philosophy tomorrow; the last class ends around two o'clock. Tonight I have a study group at seven," Miroku said. "But there's no reason for you two not to get started without me."
"Slacker, you're just hoping we'll find what we need so you don't have to do research."
"Kagome-sama, you wound me with your words. I was planning to compare your notes to mine between classes tomorrow."
She looked at him skeptically. "You read those books already?"
"Well, more like skimmed. However, I was online last night to find more accurate maps from Sengoku Jidai for cross-references of locations mentioned in the legend and where they are today. For instance, the second to last miko who protected the Shikon no Tama lived in a village that stood where the heart of Tokyo is now. As you undoubtedly know, right before her death she sealed a hanyou who had tried to steal the tama to a tree. In one of the books this tree was called Goshinboku and using that name I found one shrine in Tokyo that has such a tree on its grounds that would've been both near a village four, five hundred years ago and already old enough to have been named so honorificly. Interestingly enough that shrine seems to be kept by our lovely Kagome-sama's family." He wore a smug expression in answer to Kagome's awe. Sesshoumaru, though, was not impressed.
"Sama?"
"If your masculinity had been threatened by a woman as she did you would call her -sama as well."
"This Sesshoumaru would never be in such a position to be threatened in the first place," he drawled.
"Yo, Kagome!" Kouga called, running across the grass. Kagome seemed used to his unnatural speed when he abruptly came to a halt standing before her.
"Kouga-kun, what's up?" She didn't see Miroku mouthing 'kun' smugly to Sesshoumaru.
"Sango-san told me you were playing this morning; she doesn't think you got much sleep and frankly, after seeing you, I agree." He sat on the bench beside her, grasping her hands in his. "Mou yume deshita ka?"
Carefully extracting her hands she gave a small nod. She reached into her volumous yellow bag and immediately withdrew a small notebook. "Could you?" Though her partners didn't understand, he did; he accepted the offering with a grim smile. "It might jump around, I really don't know...Is this...Never mind."
"You know I'll help you any way I can," Kouga spoke with such fervor the woman averted her gaze to her lap. In doing this she missed the look in his eyes; it didn't go unnoticed by Sesshoumaru or Miroku. He looked at her with a powerful combination of worry and resigned love.
.:o.o:.
A Familiar Tail
When he had parted company with Kagome earlier they had agreed she would come to his apartment after her rehearsal, which she estimated would be over around eight. She had also insisted on bringing dinner, so it came as no surprise when she was at his door at seven past eight, backpack slung over one shoulder, takeout in her arms. What was a surprise was her little entourage consisting of her fellow 'band' members.
Seeing his dubious look she hastened to explain. "When I told them I was coming here to look at your father's books Sango and Kikyou wanted to come too. There's some belief in Sango's family that centuries ago they were elite taijiya and our darling Kikyou has almost finished her training to become a miko and, therefore, finds the prospect of these books fascinating. Kouga wanted free food and InuYasha says he doesn't trust you farther than he can throw you. So, here we are," she cheerfully finished.
Sesshoumaru, being the brilliant strategist that he is, realized it was all or nothing and stepped back allowing his sanctuary to be invaded. InuYasha led the way to the library, or study, whichever it could be called, and soon every surface was buried under books, notebooks, and Chinese takeout. It had been amusing to watch home owner fret over letting them eat while going through the books, some of which were hundreds of years old, not that there was much to allow as they kind of just ignored him.
InuYasha was on his half-brother's computer where the oldest texts had been transcribed to prevent further wear from handling, gobbling down his first of many containers of ramen; Kikyou took notes when she could understand her boyfriend's garbled dictation, but mostly scanned pages. Kouga skimmed through books, passing them on to some one else for more careful perusal when he found something of interest and the rest took notes from these texts. Sometime around nine a phone rang, not ten minutes later Miroku had joined the hunt, contentedly eating cold rice.
Another half-hour had passed before anything of real use was found. "Here's something," Kouga announced. When he was sure of the attention he continued, "The miko who broke the jewel, was believed to be the reincarnation of the previous miko who had protected the jewel-"
"We know that, baka," InuYasha called out from across the room.
Ignoring the interruption, he went on. "However, no one knew where she came from and nothing we've dug up has been able to tell us but there's a riddle in this one: No matter the distance one Walks, Nor the oceans one Crosses, Nor the mountains one Climbs, Nor the places to where one may Fly, The only way to get there is to go Forward. That sounds like something the brat would say," he mused. The longhaired man flipped the book to the front cover and started to choke.
"Kouga-kun! Daijoubu desu ka?" Kagome asked moving over to him. Still coughing, Kouga pointed to the author's name.
"Nekami Kitsu," she read.
"What kind of name is Kitsu?" Sango wondered aloud.
"Try reading it the Western way," Kouga suggested when he could finally speak.
"Kitsu Nekami..."
"Who names themselves Fox God?" InuYasha mumbled around a mouthful of noodles, his fourth container but he was slowing down now. Kikyou and Kagome exchanged a look. When he realized the unnatural silence in the room, the young amber-eyed man spun his swivel chair around to be confronted by three feline smiles.
"Inu Kami-sama!" Kagome cried out falling to her knees.
"Inu Kami-sama!" Sango immediately followed.
"Inu Kami-sama!" Kikyou finished.
"Inu Kami-sama!" they all cried out, bowing low to the ground, arms stretched towards him.
InuYasha watched slack-jawed at their antics. "Talk about déjà vu..."
"Who would ever worship you?" Sesshoumaru asked. But having heard him, the worshippers sat up, three of room's occupants sharing similar feelings. "If you three are done, may we get back to work?"
"I know someone who loves riddles, he should be able to figure this out," Kouga volunteered.
"Ii desu nee," Kagome agreed. "It's getting late so I suggest we share what we've pieced together of the legend and try to do it chronologically."
"I'll start," Kikyou spoke softly. "InuYasha, take dictation, onegai shimasu," she added before he could protest, looking at him with large brown eyes. She smiled when he grumbled in agreement, putting aside his half-finished ramen. "Ok, roughly nanahyaku or happyaku years ago a miko named Midoriko lived. She was the most powerful one up to that point and for centuries after, believed to have been able to purify the very soul of a youkai, as many as yon at a time. It was this power that the youkai feared and caused them to merge to become more powerful. At the time there was a man in love with Midoriko-sama and it was this man's weak heart allowed the youkai to attain their goal.
"The battle lasted seven days and seven nights, and towards the end the youkai were winning. Demo, Midoriko-sama drew forth the last of her power and captured the youkai no tamashii and inadvertently trapped her soul as well into a jewel that came from her heart: the Shikon no Tama."
"From here the jewel bounced around amongst youkai and evil humans for several centuries until a taijiya slew a demon in possession of it," Sango picked up the thread. "The exterminators then handed the tama to a miko in hopes that she could purify it; however, she died, betrayed by her lover, before she could complete her task. She had sealed the hanyou to a tree called the Goshinboku with the last of her strength and ordered the jewel be burned with her body.
"Roughly fifty years later a mysterious woman appeared, woman, that is, in perspective to the period, she was actually in her mid-teens. Suspicious of the gaijin, the villagers captured her and took her to their miko, sister of the late guardian, who determined the girl to be her sister's reincarnation. A demon attacked the village, demanding the girl, whom the youkai knew to have the Shikon no Tama. The girl ran into the forest, back towards where she had been caught, at the Goshinboku. Somehow, the hanyou had awoken and, in the confusion that followed, the jewel was torn from the girl's side, she broke the seal, freeing the hanyou who then destroyed the demon," Sango recited the information dutifully. The tajiya's descendant took a deep breath before continuing.
"The hanyou then turned on the late miko's reincarnation to get the jewel, but he was subdued by another spell. Soon after, another youkai stole the tama and, in an attempt to stop it, the girl shattered the jewel, which by that point was inside the demon, with an arrow. The hanyou and the girl who turned out to be a miko met a young kitsune-"
"He got a sword first," Miroku interrupted.
"What?"
"The hanyou had a sword that only worked when he would protect the miko."
"InuYasha..." Kagome murmured.
"What? Kagome...Oi Kagome!"
"Eh? Oh, sorry. The hanyou was your namesake, InuYasha. The sword would have been the Tessaiga and the half brother, Sesshoumaru, was the one who found it, but, being that he was a full youkai, he couldn't touch it. Given, then, that the hanyou in the legend was InuYasha, the village was located outside of InuYasha no Mori which was home of the Goshinboku...My family's shrine is smack in the middle of where the forest used to be."
"Okay, so now we have a name, InuYasha," Miroku said. "Now, moving along with the story...After he got his sword they met a kitsune who wanted their shards to avenge his father. InuYasha did the avenging and the kid joined the hunt, having no one else. The next part is still hazy, but somehow InuYasha's lover-"
"Hey!"
"-was resurrected and then roamed the land seeking to kill her betrayer. As the search for the Shikon no kakera continued they met a cursed monk who was using the shards as a lure for his enemy. For some reason, probably the miko's kind heart, he also joined the group. From here, they went to where they had been told the jewel originated. Upon arrival, they discovered a slaughtered village. Though no one in the village lived, a group had been called away to serve a troubled lord; of this group only one survived, a female taijiya. She had been told that InuYasha had destroyed her home and killed her people; however, that belief was corrected and she traveled with the shard hunters, bringing with her a small cat-like youkai, as it would seem that her enemy was also the houshi's and the hanyou's enemy."
"Why?" Kikyou questioned.
"Um, why what?"
"Why was the tajiya's and the houshi's enemy also InuYasha's enemy?"
"Uh, group togetherness? One for all and all for one, maybe?"
"It was a setup." Everyone turned to Sesshoumaru. He sat looking through a book, saying nothing more.
"He's right," InuYasha exclaimed. As the group, even Sesshoumaru, looked at the young man in shock, he was hurriedly typing at the computer, occasionally clicking the mouse. "Here!" he crowed triumphantly. "InuYasha didn't betray the guardian of the jewel, but a 'youkai, with the ability to change his form, took that of the hanyou and attacked the priestess. He then took the form of the miko and attacked the hanyou.' From there nature took its course, I guess. They each thought the other a traitor and took revenge as they saw fit."
"How sad," Kikyou sighed. She blushed at the sudden scrutiny. "I mean, they were lovers but obviously either their love was too new or they weren't in love. Either case allowed for them to believe beyond all doubt the other had betrayed them. How must it have felt, to die thinking the one you loved didn't love you?" Her words hung in the air, a strange foreboding lingering.
Kouga cleared his throat. "Going on now...Not much details are found, just random bits and pieces, some places they went, but they made the village where the miko first arrived their base." He flipped through a thick book in his lap. "Their shards were taken by the dead miko, given then to the enemy...Some run-ins with Sesshoumaru, one of which led to InuYasha learning a powerful attack of Tessaiga...
"Ah! There was an encounter with an ookami youkai that resulted the miko being kidnapped. She helped the ookami with a bird problem, her friends come for her...Another trick. InuYasha was setup again to appear as though he killed a huge group of ookami youkai from two tribes, one group being from the earlier tribe. A fight ensued between the hanyou and the tribe's leader leading to the former's defeat, which allowed a lackey of the enemy to take the latter youkai's shards. But InuYasha protected him, or rather, InuYasha refused to be a pawn in the enemy's plan yet again. He won...The sword broke, InuYasha went insane (nothing new there), sword repaired, and sanity wasn't…something about becoming stronger than the fang's originator. What does that mean?"
"Tessaiga was created to protect InuTaisho's human mate and, also, as a seal for InuYasha's demon blood," Sesshoumaru said. "It was made from his fang, so when it was broken, InuYasha's fang was used to put it back together. However, the seal was still broken. The only way for the seal to work again was by InuYasha becoming stronger than his father, by killing the youkai that had indirectly caused his death, Ryuukotsusei. In killing the ryuu youkai, InuYasha proved himself to be stronger than his father thus resealing his demon blood and he also discovered Tessaiga's ultimate attack, one that was said to use youkai no youki against itself."
"...And you know this how?" InuYasha asked.
"Unlike you, I did not fall asleep when chichiue told us of our namesakes."
"Feh," was his only response.
"They hurt him," Kagome succeeded in drawing all eyes to herself. Reading from her notes and a book on her lap she continued. "The enemy took something of Sesshoumaru's, anticipating his reaction to be along the lines of 'no one tells this Sesshoumaru what to do, for this you will die.' InuYasha had found a way for his sword to break through barriers and joined the fight already occurring. Between the two brothers and their swords, Sesshoumaru now having one called Toukijin, they caused considerable damage to him before he fled.
"The shard-hunting party spent weeks looking for him, before they ran into the Shichinintai, a group of seven resurrected human mercenaries. They were a diversionary tactic to allow the enemy the time he needed to finish healing. Eventually all seven were defeated, the enemy discovered only to flee, 'leaving our heroes in yet another pickle-'"
"Our heroes in a pickle?" Sango asked, amused.
"It says right here," she pointed to the spot as Sango leaned over.
"'...leaving our heroes in yet another pickle.' Huh." She sat back down. "Who wrote that one? It sounds like a comic book."
"Ano, it's the Fox God again. The 'bad guy', not my words, then killed the shibito no miko...how do you kill something that's already dead? Anyway, apparently by doing this he proved that he had gotten rid of his 'human heart'. Chotto matte, I thought he was a demon."
"My guardian, Mushin, told me a legend once," Miroku spoke slowly, trying to remember. "There was a thief who had been badly wounded in a fire and a beautiful miko tended to him in a cave. So beautiful was she that the man wanted her, unable though he was to move. But this desire, this weakness, was so great that he eventually gave his body to a hoard of waiting youkai who desired to destroy the miko. The resulting being was a hanyou called...Naraku." Several people present stiffened at the name, Miroku included. After a second had passed, he went on. "The legend said that though the thief's body was gone, his heart remained, keeping the half-demon from killing the priestess. Perhaps this is our villain from the legend," he tentatively suggested.
This name, like InuYasha's, was accepted as their 'villain's' after a brief debate.
"There's little to no information after all this, including no conclusion to our legend," Kagome informed the group. "If we look using the names 'InuYasha' to 'Naraku', assuming those are correct, maybe we'll find more, ne?"
There was a tired silence broken when Sango stood from her chair, entwining the fingers of both hands together before raising them above her head, starting to groan only for it to turn into a big yawn. At an odd sound, she blinked owlishly, slowly turning her head to her giggling friend. When she arched a dark eyebrow in question, Kagome gestured around the room with one hand, covering her own yawn with the other. Following the unspoken command, Sango moved her gaze to sweep the study, finding all of its occupants in various stages of yawning.
InuYasha gave a mighty one, jaw gaping, tongue coming forward before the tip curled upward and then retreated back into his mouth. The blue-eyed girl giggled again, joined this time by the other two females.
At the boy's questioning stare, Sesshoumaru said with an imperceptible smirk, "They laugh because you just unwittingly acted like that which your name suggests, Inu."
The black hair women burst into outright laughter, fueled by the insanity brought on by exhaustion, at the drawled remark.
One violet-eyed man took advantage of their distraction to reach out…
A scream of 'Hentai' followed by a resounding slap then thud was greeted by a minute silence before another round of laughter started, this time including two of the remaining males, excluding one female who stood breathing hard, dark eyes narrowed on the innocent face of Miroku.
.:o.o:.
Midoriko legend summarized and, possibly, paraphrased (really too tired to double check) from chapter 94, Birth of the Jewel, volume 10 of the manga.
.:o.o:.
Part VI completed: Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Part VII completed: Tuesday, January 6, 2004
Revision completed: Sunday, May 23, 2004