Title: Washed Clean
Theme: Rumor
Genre: General
Rating: G
Summary: Kikyou and Suikotsu ruminate on purity, and whether a sinner's soul really can be washed clean.

Note: Hakureizan means "white soul mountain."

"I've heard there's a place where even an old sinner like me can be saved."

Kikyou could see it clearly now; Hakureizan loomed before her, tall, serene, and terrible. Was this mountain, shrouded in mist and mystery, really all that the old bandit had hoped it would be? Was there truly a place where sins could be washed away?

Soft footsteps approaching from behind gently broke through the quiet hour before sunrise. Kikyou did not need to turn to see who it was; the purity of that single shard resonated clearly enough for her.

"Good morning, Suikotsu-sama," she said without removing her gaze from the mountain.

Suikotsu returned the greeting, and she heard the smile in his voice before she saw it on his face. "I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

"Not at all," she replied, and the young doctor stepped up beside her. Together they stared up the ominous mountain.

"Such an incredible view," Suikotsu whispered reverently.

Kikyou glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "You don't find Hakureizan to be somewhat… eerie?"

He blinked at the question and was silent for a moment. But his smile soon returned as he responded, "Eerie? Well, I suppose at first. I walked right up to the foot of it once, and I couldn't even hear any birds there. But I got used to it after a while." He regarded the miko sympathetically. "Does the mountain unsettle you, Kikyou-sama?"

She frowned. "I simply wonder… it does not seem possible for something so pure to exist in this world." If Suikotsu noticed the searching look she was giving him, he made no indication.

"The white soul mountain," he murmured pensively. "You know, some say that Hakureizan can cleanse the impurities in one's soul."

Kikyou returned her gaze to the mountain. "I have heard that rumor as well."

Suikotsu laughed, a clear and merry sound. "I'm sure it is nothing more than an old wives' tale. Still, it is nice to think that such a place could exist. After all, everyone deserves a second chance, an opportunity to wash themselves clean of a horrible past. If I had a past that I was ashamed of, I know that I would wish for the same thing." He turned his smile towards her once again. "Don't you think so?"

The shard in his neck glowed almost white then, as if in defiance of Kikyou's doubt, of her existence, of her own impurity.

"Even an old sinner like me…"

She closed her eyes. "I wonder…"