Disclaimer: ((The characters Miyoko, Sudori, Miraishi, Tshigai, Nanami, and
Master Sukitcho All belong to me, as does the cognomen title Shogun
Kitamura. The Kitamura legend is also mine all mine, but has sweet roots to
Swedish folklore, and I credit them for that so don't sue me. However,
I do not claim to own Inuyasha and related characters. No no, not mine at
all. I also claim all illustrations bearing my signature of 'Circe' to be
mine. I claim these things because I feel like it and my fingers are in
typing mode, but feel free to use them, yoink them, and abuse them without
my consent.... just don't claim them. This my one true love. Circe))
Prologue
I don't remember a life before I met Miyoko, though I know I must have had one. She would stay up all night and talk to me about the wisdom that captivated her so. She was my mentor all the more than I was hers, though I was paid well to teach her all I knew about arithmetic and writing. When she was very young, she had told me, a very wise person told her a very wonderful quote that she would never, in all her years, forget. He said to her, "The only thing harder than having exactly what you really want, is wanting exactly what you really have." We never have exactly what we want, so our quest is meaningless. We strive each living day to get what we want, so bitterly, so deeply. Yet we do not strive to want what we already have. 'We shall have it someday, what our heart desires', we say to ourselves. But will we? Miyoko tearfully admitted she did not appreciate mother enough ...until she was gone.
And of course there was the story. I must tell you of the story... It was her favorite bedtime story, the one of the priestess and the Shadow demon that nobody could defeat. She needed to hear it every night, as if to sustain life, as thought she would simply fall to her pillow with not a breath on her lips if she was not told the story of Tshigai and Nanami. I knew the story by heart. We found the story in the temple annals, where we were not aloud. We went there often, and snuck out scrolls with incredible writings on them. She could not yet read when we found the Tshigai scroll, so I read them to her. We were captivated. The first several times I read it by the scroll, but it wasn't long before the scroll was tucked away, back on it's shelf and I remembered the words of my own accord. It was the story of Kitamura Tshigai, The great Kitsune Koruhyu, the most powerful demon to ever draw breath, who killed countless living things and destroyed centuries of the work of human hands. It was Tshigai, whose reign threatened to destroy what all the living things knew. Nobody stood in his way, and those that did were never heard from again, though their bodies were found stiff with rigor-mortus, and impaled with metal spikes. They were found with their eyes and organs removed, their mouths and noses sown shut as though they were to breathe through their open eye sockets, without lungs or a heart. It was a terrifying time, and the end of days was impending. He reached the threshold of power with little effort, yet one stood in his way. She was a joke to Tshigai, this, a young priestess who had only just completed her training, was threatening to end his reign? And yet she stood, lion hearted but cautious, with sword in hand and armor in place. To Tshigai's amazement, they fought for night and day, neither party weaning in strength or dignity. Yet the priestess grew tired, for demon might could not be beaten. The battle was near, but Tshigai eventually gained the upper hand. Yet in Nanami's dying breaths, she reached the inhuman strength of a dying creature, the strength that cannot be matched, and with it she plunged a hand through her adversary's armor, blood and bones, ripped his black heart right from his chest, and smashed it to oblivion. With that she tore out her own heart, placed in the gaping hole in Tshigai's chest, and used her fleeting gifts to heal this; his mortal wound. Nobody knows why she did this, but apparently the desired effect took place. Tshigai's power never diffused, yet he now had a human heart. With this heart he rued his damage to the Earth and repaired all he had destroyed. Every living thing came to trust and love him, as they had loved Nanami before she died. Tshigai had one offspring, who, like him possessed extraordinary powers and heart of human emotion and care. And so passed the gift through the ages, thus creating the great clan of Kitamura. From this sprang a defender of humans and all those in need, the righteous safekeeper of all things marvelous and powerful. From Tshigai sprang the race of the great Shogun Kitamura Te Kitsune Kurohyu, Shadow Fox Warlord Kitamura, or merely Shogun Kitamura; The great demon with the heart of a human. Perhaps a little violent for a bedtime story? Of course, Nightmares were amicable by Miyoko's book. She looked forward to them and loved to tell me about them. Yet Miyoko had her reasons for loving this story so. Let us just say that she knew quite well of the troubles of the Shogun Kitamura. We both agreed that this was the greatest story ever put on scroll, yet when she told me of her own adventure she dwarfed even Tshigai's fate. Her great tale of adventure that I so wished I had known as well.
Prologue
I don't remember a life before I met Miyoko, though I know I must have had one. She would stay up all night and talk to me about the wisdom that captivated her so. She was my mentor all the more than I was hers, though I was paid well to teach her all I knew about arithmetic and writing. When she was very young, she had told me, a very wise person told her a very wonderful quote that she would never, in all her years, forget. He said to her, "The only thing harder than having exactly what you really want, is wanting exactly what you really have." We never have exactly what we want, so our quest is meaningless. We strive each living day to get what we want, so bitterly, so deeply. Yet we do not strive to want what we already have. 'We shall have it someday, what our heart desires', we say to ourselves. But will we? Miyoko tearfully admitted she did not appreciate mother enough ...until she was gone.
And of course there was the story. I must tell you of the story... It was her favorite bedtime story, the one of the priestess and the Shadow demon that nobody could defeat. She needed to hear it every night, as if to sustain life, as thought she would simply fall to her pillow with not a breath on her lips if she was not told the story of Tshigai and Nanami. I knew the story by heart. We found the story in the temple annals, where we were not aloud. We went there often, and snuck out scrolls with incredible writings on them. She could not yet read when we found the Tshigai scroll, so I read them to her. We were captivated. The first several times I read it by the scroll, but it wasn't long before the scroll was tucked away, back on it's shelf and I remembered the words of my own accord. It was the story of Kitamura Tshigai, The great Kitsune Koruhyu, the most powerful demon to ever draw breath, who killed countless living things and destroyed centuries of the work of human hands. It was Tshigai, whose reign threatened to destroy what all the living things knew. Nobody stood in his way, and those that did were never heard from again, though their bodies were found stiff with rigor-mortus, and impaled with metal spikes. They were found with their eyes and organs removed, their mouths and noses sown shut as though they were to breathe through their open eye sockets, without lungs or a heart. It was a terrifying time, and the end of days was impending. He reached the threshold of power with little effort, yet one stood in his way. She was a joke to Tshigai, this, a young priestess who had only just completed her training, was threatening to end his reign? And yet she stood, lion hearted but cautious, with sword in hand and armor in place. To Tshigai's amazement, they fought for night and day, neither party weaning in strength or dignity. Yet the priestess grew tired, for demon might could not be beaten. The battle was near, but Tshigai eventually gained the upper hand. Yet in Nanami's dying breaths, she reached the inhuman strength of a dying creature, the strength that cannot be matched, and with it she plunged a hand through her adversary's armor, blood and bones, ripped his black heart right from his chest, and smashed it to oblivion. With that she tore out her own heart, placed in the gaping hole in Tshigai's chest, and used her fleeting gifts to heal this; his mortal wound. Nobody knows why she did this, but apparently the desired effect took place. Tshigai's power never diffused, yet he now had a human heart. With this heart he rued his damage to the Earth and repaired all he had destroyed. Every living thing came to trust and love him, as they had loved Nanami before she died. Tshigai had one offspring, who, like him possessed extraordinary powers and heart of human emotion and care. And so passed the gift through the ages, thus creating the great clan of Kitamura. From this sprang a defender of humans and all those in need, the righteous safekeeper of all things marvelous and powerful. From Tshigai sprang the race of the great Shogun Kitamura Te Kitsune Kurohyu, Shadow Fox Warlord Kitamura, or merely Shogun Kitamura; The great demon with the heart of a human. Perhaps a little violent for a bedtime story? Of course, Nightmares were amicable by Miyoko's book. She looked forward to them and loved to tell me about them. Yet Miyoko had her reasons for loving this story so. Let us just say that she knew quite well of the troubles of the Shogun Kitamura. We both agreed that this was the greatest story ever put on scroll, yet when she told me of her own adventure she dwarfed even Tshigai's fate. Her great tale of adventure that I so wished I had known as well.