Title: Hitori, Futari -- My Brother, My Dream (previously "Sibling Rivalry)
Genre: InuYasha
Sub-Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Author: Yohko no Gothika
Author's Note: Okay, I know the last one was kind of a trauma-drama kind of thing, but I really couldn't think of a way to reunite them that wasn't. I also have a new name for the fic! I'll call it Hitori, Futari--My Brother, My Dream. So yeah. Anyways, I have a treat for you all: I'm an artist, and I've decided to draw you an actual picture of Tama! It's at the address below:
http(colon)(slash-slash)www(dot)geocities(dot)com(slash)rodentia772
Well then, here we go. Have fun and review pretty please. This chapter'll be set mostly in the past so we can learn about Tamasine's demise. Just a warning. We're also going with the assumption that Kaede was around 10 when Kikyo died. Therefore it is one year after InuYasha was pinned to a tree and all that. So yeah.
Disclaimer: InuYasha is property of Rumiko Takahashi.
Hitori, Futari : Oniichan, Watashi no Yume
Scroll 5 : Remembrance (or The Siblings are Reunited, Part II)
Kaede stared into the summer mist of the new June day. The young 11-year-old miko sighed, deeply, and stood from where she had just placed lilies near the grave of her deceased older sister, Kikyo. She hurried away, down the stone steps and into the courtyard, her small red hakama flapping in the slight breeze that smelled so deeply of water and salt. It was coastal, she decided absently, walking down the road towards her hut. As she entered through the straw flap over the door way, she made her way over to her newest patient, an old woman the village boys had found collapsed near the outskirts. Her comatose state did not bode well; it would seem she suffered from grand mal seizures, a condition for which, Kaede knew, there was no known cure. Paired with the woman's obvious age, her condition was quite dire, and it did not seem as if she would last much longer. Kaede wondered, in fact, if one day the woman would simply turn to dust, without waking and without cause. She seemed so very old and frail.
With yet another sigh, she turned from the woman's bedside after giving her water and tended to her only other real patient: a maimed 8-year-old boy who called himself Kaemon, who by some demon had had the skin of his shoulder thoroughly torn. He was unscrupulously irritable today, and was complaining endlessly as she changed his bandages. Between the two of them, it was he that goaded her most, and personally she couldn't wait until he was well enough to leave. His monstrously aggravating temperament surprised her greatly; his mother was one of the kindest and most polite women you would ever meet. It had to be his father, she guessed. Or maybe it was the fact that the child was only one survivor out of quadruplets. His only remaining sister had passed away 3 months ago. Sweet girl.
She left the hut as morning shown more clearly through the fading mist, the boy going back to sleep for boredom. Trudging up the road she passed many a street merchant. It was Saturday, Market Day, and the whole village bustled with it. Carts of homemade goods rattled up and down the street towards their destinations. Cattle and other livestock made quite a ruckus amongst themselves as they were bartered off to friends and neighbors. Fresh grown produce was traded and exchanged, and salesmen of a foreign nature gathered on street corners by the dozen, attempting to be rid of their imported goods. Despite herself Kaede smiled lightly. Such a village she lived in.
She made her way, once more, up the stone steps of the shrine, under the Torii, and made her way through the masses swarming in the courtyard. Market Day was Gawker's Day as well; all that came with hopes of selling were also sure to visit the grave of the famed Kikyo, Guardian of the Shikon no Tama. It was a tourist attraction. Smile abandoned, Kaede scowled at the thought. Her sister...a tourist attraction. Disgusting.
She, however, continued past the crowded gravesite to a low-to-the-ground building beyond, stepped onto the deck, removed her zori and slid the door open. She shiho walked into the room, checking that she was its only entree, and slid the door closed as quickly as if it had not been open at all. The tatami floor shivered beneath her, and she patted it with reassuring feet as she made her way to the lower floor. All those except for the door guards had been let off duty for the day, and she proceeded by them with a curt and wary nod. They always had to be careful on these days. Accidents were prone to happen when they were the least prepared like this.
She slid past them and creaked the heavy doors open, closing them as soon as she had gone through, and coming upon yet another hallway, this one completely devoid of any occupants. Only the soft candle light filtered through the dark passageway as she met yet another pair of doors. She swallowed her anxiety as best she could with one loud gulp, then lifted the bar off the door, and pressed against the smooth would so that it slid open.
She walked in, her footsteps and slow against the straw-mat flooring as she closed the door behind her with a slight clik, and moved to the small, foot by foot window in the right wall of the room, raising its shade so that a small bit of light and fresh wind filtered in to the stale space. She glanced shyly over at the room's lone occupant, who had not moved since her arrival. The woman, small, pale, stared back at her beneath a curtain of silver hair, amber eyes dull and glassy. Kaede watched her for a moment before walking to kneel beside her. "You're very quiet today Tamasine-san," she said softly. Then again, she thought, it's not as if she ever manages to say anything worth hearing anymore. Poor thing. She had such a good heart too.
The girl had never been the same since her brother died. Ever since the villagers had had to knock her out in order to keep her from murdering them all, she'd been like this; nearly lifeless, silent and unresponsive. Every once in a while she'd be heard to scream absolutely meaningless gibberish, or say things that made Kaede want to cry for what she meant, but she no longer spoke to anyone in particular. She was emotionless and still, engulfed in sorrow and anguish for her brother's passing. She was only still alive out of pity.
Out of pity, they had constructed this place for her. Out of pity, they had imprisoned her just beyond the grave of her brother's killer. Out of pity, they had kept her alive when she did not want to live, fed when she wanted to starve. It was a horrid existence, Kaede knew. Cursed to live, soulless and incomplete, without meaning. Tamasine-san was no more. The young woman of 16 years she cared for was an empty shell, rotting and withering away into nothingness and insanity.
It was not often Kaede felt as much pity for anything as she did for Tamasine-san.
Really, she had not been sure why, at first. This girl...her brother had murdered Kikyo, her wonderful oneesan. Didn't she deserve to be punished for her sibling's actions? At first, Kaede's answer was yes. But this was too much. Tamasine-san was a person too. No person alive deserved to be punished this way.
Kaede sighed, once more, receiving no response to her comment and took a small comb and a small parcel from inside her top. "Here," she said gently, unwrapping the parcel, and revealing its rice-ball contents. "You can eat these, while I comb out your hair alright?" She knew Tamasine-san would not. The hanyou ate very seldom, and only when she was certain she was completely alone. Kaede dismissed it. Better to have tried than not. She went around the back of her 'patient' and brought the long silver tresses out from over Tamasine's shoulders, so that every piece of hair hung down her bony back. Kaede started at the bottom and worked upward, encountering few tangles, despite the obvious disrepair of it all. The hanyou didn't move around enough to get any tangles.
-----
Tamasine sat, cross-legged, staring blankly at the wall, thinking nothing. Kaede had left several minutes before, but Tamasine did not acknowledge it. She never acknowledged anything any more. Nothing was worth acknowledging. The fading light flickering down into her 'window' from the world above told her it must be near sundown. Sundown...a word she remembered and yet could no longer apply to anything recognizable. One of her dark ears flicked ever so slightly and she listened to the echoes of evaporating chatter. She shifted her gaze upwards so that she could peer at the ceiling. Yes, she remembered which one it was. As soon as the light had disappeared and the noises were gone she would go back.
'Restlessness' had no more place in her ever shrinking vocabulary. She waited with unwavering and irrefutable patience, staring at the wall with no more thoughts in her head but one, waiting as the sky finally extinguish itself and the laughter faded into the voices of the cicadas, singing noisily to one another in baritone. She listened for yet another half-an-hour after that, and was finally satisfied.
She stood, balancing on her two feet as she crept, wobbly, to the wall, heaving herself upon it. She gripped it firmly, claws digging expertly into the bamboo, and scrambled up its slick, vertical surface, until she found herself dangling neatly from the ceiling, clinging with both toes and fingers. She glanced about and then, finding her target, wormed her slim hand into an trivial flap in the tiled weaving. It slid open neatly, and she scrambled up, head first, onto the boarded rafters of the ceiling, sliding it back in place behind her. She sniffed lightly, tasting the air. Yes, she could smell it. The grass and the leaves and the light dampness of a clear starry night. Joukai...once again she could smell it.
She felt about in the blackness for the worn wooden rungs of a ladder built into the side of the vertical dirt tunnel she know found herself in. She felt one bottom and gripped it tightly, groping for the next with her opposite hand. Holding one tightly, she swung herself upward, holding onto the ladder with only her hands, climbing the way up with only her upper body. At what she knew to be halfway up she tired of this and let her feet find their own rungs, and continued upwards.
Her head touched on a slight wooden surface above and she nearly smiled, but could not. She no longer remembered how. Instead she reached up with both hands, finding her feet on the same wrung, and pushed hard against the new wooden obstruction, which easily came loose, and she clambered out of her hole. She was in the Niwaurushi now, a large tree, made hollow by fearsome burning. Almost there.
She could feel the moonlit spatters on her face as she again began a steep climb out, only made possible by her claws. Finding the knot, she pressed it, and a hole, like that of an owl's dwelling appeared before her. It was twice as large however, easily big enough through which to squeeze her narrow frame. She slid through it, crouching and looking down, preparing to leap. She did so, tumbling with grace from a great height, and landing with skill on her feet with a small tmp of skin on bark.
Tamasine sniffed about in triumph. The trees surrounding her waved and cheered, their leaves applauding her excellent performance. "Shitari! Oya!" the cicadas called out to her. "Unbelievable! How did she do it?" She smirked inwardly at their incredulity. So easily impressed, cicadas.
She inhaled the night deeply, tasting the leaves and stars in the sky of the surrounding forest. The smell was salty and fresh, beautiful and bereft of any hint of dust or lonely death. The scent welcomed her back, waving its gargantuan hands in her face, embracing her with soft, harboring arms. She could it feel it kissing the flesh of her cheeks with gentle, caressing lips of breeze, and licked at it hungrily, hoping for a but a nibble of flavor on its part, feeling it briefly on her outstretched, starving tongue.
She felt the mossy earth below her bare feet, giving beneath her like elastic. She purred, full of unexplained joviality. It was a perfect night to run.
-----
Tamasine's calf muscles rippled and bunched beneath her shallow, pallid skin as her legs pounded the ground endlessly and effortlessly like pistons. She dodged the branches as they threw themselves at her, and leaves as they ambushed her footsteps. A rabbit, eyes glassy with death brought just minutes ago, spoke to her in a soothing whisper. "The air is so quiet tonight. So quiet. Like you." She ignored it as she ignored everything else.
She wanted to eat it, as she had first intended. To feel its blood dribble down her chin was a sensation she craved more than anything at the moment. A terrible, insatiable desire. She needed to find somewhere to bid it silent. It was pleading for its life, wasn't it? Yes. It had to be. Why else would it speak to her? Sure of her decision to end its begs for mercy and satisfy her own bloodlust, she sniffed for a spot of emptiness, free of the taunting bodies of tree trunks.
She found one in very little time. Empty, devoid of sound but for the slow chatter of leaves and stone tile. She sat upon them, disregarding the buildings on either of her sides, and the small cement house to her left, and pierced her claws deeper into the rabbit's fleshy neck. She bathed in its squeals of terror as she removed them and nibbled at the gore dribbling down into her nail beds. The fur was rough, matted with dirt as she sank her fangs into it, ripping through to the flesh beneath.
The blood had been drying on her nose for several minutes before she realized the nearing sound of soft breathing and the cluk clak of wooden zori on pavement, and the rustle of clothe on clothe yukata. She could smell the deep scent of lilac perfume mixed with the subtle, bitter odor of rice and alcohol. Scowling she stood and wiped the crimson from her chin, tossing the vermin she had shredded to bone and ribbons of muscle into the bushes. She turned to leave. Somewhere deep in the recesses of her tortured mind, she recognized the danger of having privileges revoked just fine, whether she knew it or not. To be out here was a privilege no one but she could ever know about. She prepared to run…
"Ah! Hey! Onnanohito!"
Too late.
The speaker was a young woman, middle height, with long, ugly hair that stretched like greasy ink to the center of her back, oozing over her shoulders. By the breath of her husky, slightly wobbling voice that it was she who smelt ever so faintly of sake. There was another, right beside her, slightly more attractive though not by much. Shorter though. Darker.
With no response from Tamasine, they turned and began to whisper amongst themselves.
"What do you think?" Shortie murmured.
"Well she certainly is a looker."
"No, no. I mean, they said no one was up here. And no one passed us. This is the only way up here—"
"Oh, don't be ridiculous. There must be. That preist's story's gone to your head!"
"But the girl…the demon's imouto…don't you remember what he said? Long white hair, eye's like ice, no voice and lithe movement like that of her wolven brothers! Certainly you can see the resemblance…!"
"To his fair tales, perhaps, but to reality it has no relevance. There is no truth in that rubbish he told this night, Mari-chan!" They turned to face her.
"But those ears! Surely she is a demon!"
Tamasine watched, unmoved, uncomprehending. Voices…so fast, so many words. Did she understand this? Did she understand what they were saying? This language…she had known this language once. Spoken these words. What was she hearing? Her brain was slow to translate the meaning of this familiar dialogue. They were…these things…these things were speaking of her?
"Well…"
"Certainly you can see! The ears…they're like…like…"
"His."
"That demon menace that murdered Kikyo in an attempt to steal the Shikon no Tama!"
"Yes! Him!"
"Yes…that wretch."
"InuYasha."
With that name, that one word, something stung deeply in the center of Tamasine's chest. She felt her head go cold and everything go suddenly white. She was freezing, plummeting and yet standing still. What was happening? What did this one word bring back to her? She was so close to remembering something…something precious…something terrible. Something was striking her again and again, so painful, penetrating her skin, piercing her heart in a thousand places as it struck her back, her shoulder, her torso. Why? This pain…she was so dizzy. This name…'InuYasha'…all these memories came flooding back and yet…she could not grasp them. They were there; just visible and yet out of reach. 'InuYasha'…
"And his sister went mad—"
"And ripped the hearts from half the villagers present—"
"And threatened to do it Kaede-sama as well."
"But then one of the boys—"
"Kine was his name..?"
"He knocked her unconscious with the hilt of his sword—"
"And they locked her away in a room beneath the temple—"
"But can this really be her!"
They stared at her with wide eyes as the world spun. What was wrong with them? Couldn't they feel how fast and excruciating the thrashing came? Couldn't they see the colors twisting and being ripped apart? Tamasine couldn't think…couldn't cope. It hurt…it hurt…
"You…you aren't are you? That awful Tamasine?" Oozey uttered incredulously, approaching her. "You couldn't really be her? Those ears are fake…and those eyes…how did you get that slitted effect? The sake must be doing things to my head!" She turned back to Shortie. "Oyaoya, Mari-chan! How did you let me become so drunk? Heaven knows that there's no possible way that vile thing could set foot here! On Kikyo's gravesite no less! Oyaoya!" Oozey gather the alleged Mari-chan in her arms and dragged her past Tamasine, suddenly ignoring the hanyou's presence, suddenly revealing their reason for being where they were with the slender flowers in their hands. They kneeled beside the small cement house in brief, pausing for slightly slurred prayer and then stood, placing the flowers in a pile near the grave. "Certainly it is too late, Mari-chan! Let us be gone before the spirits are out."
"They already are."
"Mari-chan?"
Mari-chan frowned and glared back at where Tamasine stood, frozen into motionlessness. "You!" she barked, feircly. "How dare you! I don't know who you are, but you should be ashamed! Defiling the sacred grave of our late Kikyo-sama with your cruel jokes! That evil Tamasine should have died with her horrible brother! Don't mock our priestess' vallant death! Go home!"
'Go home'?
"Mari-chan! Stop it!" Oozey tugged at her shoulder and dragged her foreward back past where Tamasine still stood. "Let's go!" Mari began to speak, but was silenced by her friend. "Please! We'll speak of this later!"
'Horrible brother?'
"I won't, Emi-san! Kikyo-sama wouldn't be dead at all if it weren't for that Dog Man! That evil demon! He deserved to die!"
'DIE?'
Tamasine's mind went completely blank. She felt her long unused claws crack and her fangs clench in a way that brought an unending wave of desperate nostalgia crashing against her carnal chambers, and fell into herself, as everything went numb and dark. She could just barely taste it as she swung down on the backs of the fleeing women. Her mind, heart, soul was in a different place, a different time.
She was with a boy on the banks of a river in the depths of a forest. It was summer, bright, freckled and warm and the water was cool and soothing as it ran in gentle rivets around her feet. Her hair was short and hung tightly to her small face as she turned to the boy who was taller than she, leaning against the trunk of the nearest redwood. His own hair was long and silver and stretched to his back, and he turned to her seeing the question in her face.
'What?'
She smiled widely, knowing she was predictable. However, she decided to play a familiar game. She wasn't quite sure if this question was one she should ask.
'What 'what'?'
'Oh Tama!' he sighed, exasperatedly. 'Would you just cut it out! You know what I want.'
'Do not.'
'Do so.'
'Do not.'
'Do so!'
'Do not.'
'Ugh! You're so aggravating! Why can't you just answer the question!'
'What was the question?' she asked innocently, grinning from ear to ear as she watched him struggle.
'Just ask me what you wanted to ask me!' he hollered back. He hated when she was difficult.
Tamasine stopped smiling and shifted her glance back down at her small feet as the cool water pooled about them. Did she really want him to answer this question that throbbed so eagerly at the back of her head? Would he really answer truthfully? She had asked him this question in so many different ways…then again, she knew all the lies by heart. What did she have to lose?
'Well…you know Kikyo-sama, right?'
'Feh. What about her?'
That pretty much answered her question, but she decided to just spit it out.
'What do you think?'
'What do you mean, 'what do I think'?'
'What do you think about her, oniichan?'
'Feh. She's nothing special.'
'Hn! I suppose you're right,' she said, giggling to herself. 'But…do you really think that?'
'Of course. We only need the Jewel, you know.'
'Of course.'
Another lie. No matter how much she loved her brother, he was a terrible liar. And with each one he told her, he got worse at it.
Lies would get neither of them anywhere.
Tamasine could feel the world come spiraling back into focus. She was still so dizzy. The fall had left her nauseous. Everything around her still trembled dangerously. Where had she been? What had she been doing? The horrid light of morning was fresh in the air and she hated it. It swooped in stinging her hollow eyes, and she bared her teeth and arms against it.
"Ningen banji saiou gauma," she murmured, turning away from the two women she had just murdered and bounding back towards Niwaurushi.
-----
"Dead bodies near Kikyo's grave?"
"Aye, it's true Kaede-chan! I saw them as they were carried from their final resting place."
Kaede watched Kine trouble himself over the matter. He'd grown considerably over the last year, his glossy black hair sliding down to hang loosely around the base of his neck as his young muscles grew and filled out with use. He'd gotten taller, but still remained relatively scrawny around the middle. His small face and hands still remained sharply angled and white, and his eyes were still darkly pleasant.
"You warn me not to go today?"
He sighed, looking down. "You read me once more, Kaede-chan."
"You worry for my safety?"
Kine nodded, and a soft smile played on Kaede's small lips.
"You needn't stress yourself like that. I'm sure I'll be fine. I sense no demon aura but that of the Ruffian and Tamasine-chan in the area. It cannot possibly be that much of a threat," she giggled gently, trying to soothe his restless eyes. "It must be a rogue of one sort or another. Nothing you and your boys can not handle."
Kine walked from her hut unconvinced, but respectfully silent. A local village man had interrupted the two on orders to retrieve Kaede for an inspection of the newfound corpses. The young miko sighed unpleasantly, but knew that this was something that needed to be done. She wouldn't be able to visit Tamasine today. Visits were never very eventful any longer, but still, Kaede could not help but to feel guilty. She would need to send someone in her place.
-----
Tamasine sat, feet folded beneath her, the lids pulled low over her eyes, giving her an air of someone who is in deep and untapped thought. And indeed she was.
What was it she had felt last night? She had lost control. She did not know what had happened…what she had done. She had only known the faint sensation of warm, human blood sliding down her fingers as she dashed back to the fearsome tree, Niwaurushi. Something told her that if she were found out, the repercussions of her actions would be negative. But she did not even realize what these actions were. Why did she hide herself like this? The blood…where had it come from? Why did she stink of dying breath and the screams of people she did not know? What had she done last night?
It broke upon her—somewhat later that morning judging by the daylight filtering through her window-hole—that the young serving wench, Kaede, had not come. The small leaf attached to its twig behind her ear remained undiscovered. And thus, Tamasine's precarious balance of spirit went unchecked.
Near mid-afternoon the door creaked noisily behind her, sending her into a wave of startled jitters as she scuttled away from the rushed and hardly calming movements of the newly entered girl. She looked about fourteen with her characteristic scowl and small freckles, her spicy locks pulled back in a handkerchief of bland and displeasing coloration. The sleeves of her similarly decorated yukata were grungy and rolled up to the mid arm just above her bony elbows as she placed a small tray of food in front of Tamasine with a loud clank of china and tin.
"There you are," she snapped rudely, folding her arms across her small chest. "Kaede-sama told me to give it to you. And to stay while you ate it. I can't imagine why she'd care so much for you. You rotten, filthy thing."
Tamasine watched her, disgruntled at the girl's unsettling dislike of her, but was not quite sure how to react. Although the fact that she could understand the quickly spoken words surprised and alarmed her, she overlooked it and decided to do as the girl had said, if only to get her out of the room. She reached cautiously for the platter and took one of the ill-made riceballs from it. Certainly not Kaede's work, she noted, taking a bite and finding it bitter and unsalted.
As she slowly chewed, politely remaining silent, the girl continued to speak to her in the same vicious tones. "Personally, I can't believe you're still alive. You're heartless, brainless, good-for-nothing. I bring you delicious food and get not one word from you. What a pig. Just like that evil brother of yours."
Tamasine stopped chewing. There it was…that stinging pain again. That horrible stinging pain she had felt last night before everything had gone blank. Before whatever had happened had happened. Before she had lost control. Before she had done something she couldn't remember. Those women…hadn't that short one said the word 'brother' as well?
"That horrible InuYasha. You didn't suffer enough for what he did to us. Just out of the blue one day he attempted to assassinate our perfect Kikyo-sama. He stole the Shikon no Tama and set fire to the temple. We're only lucky Kikyo-sama stopped him when she did. But then she died too, from wounds he inflicted upon her. You didn't take any of the blame for his actions. You tried to kill us too! And out of pity we kept you alive and out of harm's way. This is how you thank us? You wretched thing."
Tamasine dropped the riceball, a horrible rasping feeling in the back of her throat. Goosebumps sprang up all over her skin as a tremor ricocheted through her. Her chest pulsated painfully and there was a sudden shrill ringing in her ears as her stomach throbbed. She clutched at her heart, desperate to be sure it was still beating. A wild anger battered her wrists, as the world began to go hazy.
"What's the matter? Eat what I've given you, you ungrateful beast! Or does it pain you to hear what everyone knows is true about InuYasha? About you're 'wonderful oniichan'? Hehe," the girl giggled cruelly. "Well, it's not your fault he was so awful. Maybe that's why Kaede still keeps you locked up in here. Because she pities your bad fortune in being related to him. Hehe…"
Every was going violently white as Tamasine felt her own knuckles crack where she held them to her breast, her teeth gritted as rice dribbled freely through them.
"Oh well. Kaede's ignorant. Always has been, always will be. We'll get rid of you sooner or later. And InuYasha too. I'm tired of going to sleep in fear that he'll disturb it. When I get married to the lord's son, things'll be different. Kikyo's arrow holds him there. We'll just make sure that cur's heart never beats again! Hehe! That'll be the da—"
"Urusai desu yo."
Tamasine just barely felt it as her own hand jabbed itself through the girl's stomach. Barely heard it as the girl's painful scream wrenched itself free of her throat and spurted into the air. Barely knew. Barely thought. Her body wouldn't work under her commands anymore. And yet, she did not struggle. She refused to struggle. This body, this powerful body, was hers. The memories were flooding back and yet did not even remotely register. Only the images were noticed or acknowledged. The nostalgia took over as the door guards fell, rushing into the room only to meet their demise by her claws. They would not control her rage.
And neither would she.
-----
It was the yelling from down the path that first caught Kaede's attention.
"Kaede-sama! Kaede-sama!"
A man of tall stature was making for her as quickly as she had ever seen any human go. She stopped and waited for him to catch up, and within seconds he had skidded to a halt at her side. He had been moving much faster than she had first anticipated, and his arms were sweaty with the humid air and effort of it all. She prepared for a wait as he bent to catch his breath, but to her surprise he panted out the words instead of waiting for the breath he needed to say them properly.
"Please…it's…so awful…Tamasine…rampaging…village…killing…so many…Michiko…the guards…all dead…so spiteful…hurry…please…it's awful…" he panted.
-----
She did not know for how long she ran, or for what cause. The difference between roof tiles and the dirt road beneath her feet was not felt or recognized. Tamasine was lost in a dream-like sensation as she flew through the sunlight, blinded by fury and awesome ire as she slashed through villagers and carts alike. Nothing made sense except her inexplicable anger. She would make them pay. For what, she did not know or care. But she would make them pay. The screams of horror and pleading voices that cried for mercy fell on ears made deaf and daft by a year of darkness and pent-up thunder. She would make them pay…all of them…they would be sorry…
She ripped through the bowels of a horse and its master where they stood in her path, and leapt for the nearest house, grinning eerily with insane pleasure as it fell, eyes wide, glazed and unseeing. Sprinting ever faster, she spread her arms and dragged her sharp claws against the walls surrounding her. Splinters flew as building collapsed, relieved of they're brittle wooden foundations. None of them would live. She would make them pay.
-----
The town meeting had been called on very short notice. Kine was sure that that was the main contributor to the fact that almost none were in its attendance. But then, most who were capable of fighting had come. All the rest were either injured, dead, presumed so, or outwardly ignorant of the situation. But then, no one here really knew what was going on. Rumor had it that Tamasine had gone mad and was destroying the town, but… Kine didn't want to believe that. He fingered the hilt of his sword with uncomfortably pained and brief expression, and then snapped back into respectful emotionlessness as the Shogun entered.
"Kaiji-dono," the townsmen chanted in unison, touching their noses to the floor as they bowed.
Kaiji-dono was tall, almost too much, in a sense. He was twice Kine's height at the very least. But he wore eloquent robes of immense value and quantity, for despite his cleanliness and stature, he was, if anything, very lanky and loosely chiseled. His skin was an unsettling shade of milky yellow, and his eyes were huge with miniscule pupils, something that held true to almost every part of him, Kine was sure. His hair was a greasy sort of blackish murk piled at the edge of his forehead that made you certain it would feel absolutely dreadful to touch it.
He motioned for them all to rectify themselves and they did so. "Now then, my friends," he said quietly, "it is a crisis we find ourselves in. A crisis that we should've seen coming. A crisis that we could've prevented had we just been rid of it in the first place."
All leaned forward with growing anticipation.
"Tamasine has broken from her hold and is destroying the village as we speak."
There was an eruption of gasps from the small gathering followed by piercingly mean-spirited comments.
"That bitch! She should be burned!"
"I knew she was no good from the start!"
"Damn her!"
"Salvaging InuYasha's sister! How absurd! How foolish we were!"
"We'll kill her!"
"We'll get her!"
"Just like that horrible demon scumbag of a brother she's got!"
Kine leaned forward, resisting the urge to keel over with the dismay flooding his belly. This couldn't be happening…Tamasine…why would she do something like this? Oh no…oh God, no…He couldn't kill his best friend of 10 years…could he? He couldn't allow her to die…could he?
Did he even have a choice?
-----
The blood on her hands was cold, unrefreshed, unrelieved. The voices behind her were loud, deafening as the fire that engulfed them. The forest…she needed to get to the forest. A year-old scent of familiarity, fueled her, dragged her towards it. 'Tamasine…' it murmured. 'Hayaku, Tamasine. Hurry and come.' It was calling her. She couldn't resist it. Wouldn't resist it. She had to find something. Something precious and lost. She would recover it. Find it. Un-lose it.
She had to find that one thing she was looking for.
Her silver hair fluttered in her face and in the roaring wind behind her. Buildings and trees laughed at her desperation, her plight. With strangling, suffocating leaves, branches and beams they reached for, grabbing at her limbs, attempting to pull her down and keep her from finding that one precious thing. This thing…it was lost amidst them. She had to find it…they were holding it prisoner. She would save it. She would free her precious thing, lost and captive in the trees of this forest.
Arrows and spears followed her steps, biting at her starved ankles and bare heels. The fire raged in the village just behind her, the townsmen crashing through the foliage. They didn't want her to find her precious either. Evil things…evil things…
She had to find him. Her Precious. Her wonderful Precious.
She whipped through the trees, the sting of a bamboo arrow grazing her thigh gone unnoticed as she leapt aside, her form flowing over the familiar path. Her Precious…her Precious…
She would find it. She would find him. She would do whatever she could. She would free her Precious. These evil things could not stop her.
She saw him by chance, whirling around to face her attackers at the foot of a well. A tree. Evil thing. The tree was keeping him there. She'd known it. All along she'd known it. Evil thing. Imprisoning her Precious.
-----
"We can't let them kill her, Kine!" Eri yelled to him as they dashed through the trees. "She's our friend!"
"Was our friend Eri," Kine replied in a chastising tone, correcting his younger comrade. "I don't think that's the case any longer."
"Of course it is! She was our Captain! She helped us through everything we've every dealt with! Of course she's our friend!" The younger boy didn't seem to get it. Ah well, you couldn't expect much acknowledgement like that from 12-year-olds.
"I'd like to believe that too Eri," Uta yelled from his position across Kine, "but facts are facts! The Captain doesn't exist anymore! She died the same day, InuYasha-kun did!"
"She didn't! I know she's still in there somewhere!" Eri was indignant. He believed in Tama, his Team Captain. She wouldn't let them down like this. She never let them down. She always came through, shining for everyone's benefit, never leaving anyone behind or letting them get hurt. She would come back. She always did. Someday, she would come back and everything would be the way it always had been.
"I think you're right Eri," Kine said softly. "But our Tama's hidden away in there really deep. Too deep. There's nothing we can do to bring her back to life. She's just too far gone. Maybe it'd be better to just put her out of her misery."
-----
Her Precious. She'd found him. Her wonderful Precious. Bound to a tree. Suffering. Dying. She would free him. Stuttered and trembling steps brought Tamasine closer. She pressed her hands into the red clothe of fabric over her chest. So soft…so familiar…he was faintly warm, yet motionless. No pulse, nor breath escaped him. And yet…she knew that he was alive. Alright. Her Precious…so soft, warm and familiar…
Her Precious…
She moved closer, collapsing in slightly, holding on tight to the fabric of his robes, touching it to her face and nose, breathing in the scent of his silver hair, identical to hers. She felt the bark beneath his limp arms, and his stomach against hers. She could remember nothing. Her Precious…her Precious…
She ignored the whiz of arrows and spears as they crashed around her, into her, through her. Her legs were bleeding profusely, full of holes. She couldn't feel them…she was completely numb to the world around her. She held her Precious to her tightly, pressing her face into his chest. Her Precious…her Precious…
The voices were all around her now. She didn't listen, didn't comprehend. Her Precious…her Precious…
-----
"She's found her brother!"
"Get her off of him!"
Eri stood, staring at the scene in absolute horror. Kine hesitated to draw his sword unlike Uta to his left, whose katana glinted in the dying sun.
The sound of yelling had carried the boys swiftly to the crowded circle surrounding her. There she was, perfect as they could ever remember, looking dazed and unyielding, completely oblivious. She couldn't hear any of them. She simply stood there, leaning on her brother's wilted body, embracing him, clinging to his tree. Her lips were moving slightly…she was talking to herself.
They had her boxed in. Why wasn't she fighting, running? Looking for a way out? Her eyes were cold, lifeless and dim. What was wrong? Would she give her life away so carelessly? Sacrificing herself under circumstances of such little meaning?
"Captain…" Eri whispered desperately, his eyes full of unshed tears, pleading for forgiveness for that of his constant savior since birth. This girl who had saved him from starvation with her own small ration of food, allowed him to live in her home, treated him as one of her own when she herself had nothing but that. This girl who was so selfless that she had given up any dreams she had ever had that didn't include her older brother. This girl who had brought all the orphaned children of the village, hypothetically or otherwise, and taught them a game she called "football", full of high kicks and devious plans and laughter and teamwork, things none of them had ever had before. This girl that they all loved one way or another, that they found impossible to live without, that was better than any boy of the team at everything, that he looked to as a foster sibling. Tama-dono…Captain…
Kine chewed at his lip. This couldn't be happening…would they just let them kill her? Certainly she was a threat now…but why? He didn't want to watch her die, by any means. This girl, his rival, his best friend since childhood. He wasn't ready to say goodbye to her yet.
But then, as before, he didn't know if that choice was really his to make.
He drew his sword and Eri looked to him with alarm. "No…! Please Kine! Don' kill her! Please!" He grabbed the older boy's arm. "Please! I'll do anything! Just please! She's my friend! Your friend! Please! Please don't kill her!" The tears slid down his cheeks, unchecked, as Kine watched him with growing dismay.
"What possesses you, boy?" one of the village me yelled from where Tama was encircled by a crowd of spears. "This is a demon! We need to get rid of it before it kills someone else! You should be proud that she tired herself out killing your mother and my wife and children!"
"No! Kine, don't listen! You know that's not true! She's more than just a demon! She's our Captain! She's Tama! Please don't let them kill her!" Eri sobbed. Blank golden eyes starred back at him, beholding nothing, where Tama hung from her brother's shirt.
There was a harsh silence as Kine stared down into little Eri's tear-streaked face.
"And you would rather let her suffer the pain of having no one?" he said finally, talking only to the boy he called his friend.
"ah…! What? She has us!"
"But is that the way you see it? Or the way she sees it?"
"ah…!"
"Look at her Eri. Our Captain isn't there anymore. The only thing that's left of her soul…is her desire to protect her brother. To be with InuYasha…to protect him…to die with him…Isn't that what she told you when we talked about dreams that one night?"
"ah…" Yes, Eri thought. Only a few years ago, when he was seven years old, they had lain the meadow, the whole team, and spoken of what they dreamt of doing with their lives. It had been a warm summer night, full of cicadas in the soft grass stalks. InuYasha-dono had blushed really hard when Tama-dono had said that. He could recall it with undenying clarity. She had said it with no disregard whatsoever, so boldly and heartfelt. It had made everyone blush, he remembered, knowing what their Captain wanted most.
'I'm going to protect Yasha-niichan from everything, forever and ever and ever!'
"She's empty without him. Almost nonexistent. That crushed dream has filled her entirely. That one thing she wanted so badly…was destroyed that day. She has nothing more to live for. It's cruel to try and coerce into coping with that pain. I don't think there's anything better to do. I don't want to kill her…but I don't want her to suffer."
Eri sniffled and nodded. "I know…I don't want that either. But isn't there another way?"
"Yeah, you think of it and let me know," Uta snapped, speaking for the first time after enduring long minutes of silence.
Eri looked away, eyes scrunched tight. He couldn't watch this. He knew Kine was right. But still he couldn't watch this happen. He didn't want to let it happen. But atleast he didn't need to watch. Kine glanced at the younger boy as he left, and sighed gravely. Tama still hadn't moved.
He shared a curt nod with Uta and they parted the circle, walking towards her.
"Tama…don't worry. I'm sorry…I'm sorry to let you suffer so long," he said gently, raising his blade to eye level and gazing sadly into hers. No response, no recognition. Death. Glazed, glassy death in every corner of those eyes. "You're my best friend. I'm so sorry."
No response. She stayed still, however. She refused to move. He memorized how she looked just then: her long, bony figure slumped against that of her unconscious brother, her silver hair fluttering ever so tentatively in the breeze. This wasn't Tama. Tama wasn't like this. Tama was dead.
This was a prisoner. A prisoner long ready for execution.
Somehow, looking at it that way took a little bit of weight off the subject. A prisoner, that's what she was. And he was going to save her from this. It wasn't pretty but it had to be done. So that her suffering would end. So that she could die as she'd always wanted to, by her brother's side.
Not very much weight, mind you, but it did shift the guilt a little.
However, Kine's logics were sliced in two as he lifted his blade to strike. A bamboo arrow, whistling, hollow and well-aimed, zipped past his cheek and directly into Tamasine's back, impaling her where she stood. She shuddered slightly, as silent stares surrounded her, and then slumped, eyes closing.
The pain in her breast was relieving. She blinked, tears finally reaching her and sliding gently down her soft cheeks. It felt good. The pain itself was explosive, but it had penetrated just perfectly, just in the right place. A huge amount of pressure floated away, and she felt as if gravity itself was leaving her.
She shuddered violently, and her lungs emptied themselves.
-----
"Onnichan?"
"What is it?" InuYasha groaned back at his sister, perturbed at the notion of being disturbed just as he was drifting off to sleep.
"I love you. I love you more than the night sky and the wind and the birds in the morning. I love more than the sunlight shining on my face. I love you. I love you so much."
"I know," he sighed, contentedly. "I love you too, Futari-imou."
And he really did.
-----
Kine walked from the forest, solemn, his sword in his sheath. There was no possible excuse for what he'd just seen. For the any of it. There was no excuse. Ever. He would never—could never—ask for redemption from this. Uta plodded beside him, the young woman's corpse in his stiff, white-washed arms, the arrow that had killed her left far behind in the clearing. Eri was nowhere to be found.
There was movement on the forest path ahead as Kaede hurried in to view, freezing upon site of them. "Oh Kami-sama…" she gasped. "Oh, dear Kami-sama…" She covered her mouth with her hands and raced up to them the tears streaking her cheeks, begging the dead body to open its eyes to the world. "Oh Kine-san! What have you done? Oh Kami-sama…Oh Kami-sama…" she sobbed.
"Oh Kami-sama, Kine, what have you done!"
-----
The body was layed down in the backyard of the house both Taisho siblings had shared since their births. It was buried immediately, with little ceremony, as to avoid confrontation with less than mournful villagers. Kine would never recover, and would later be found with his wrists slit soon after his marriage to an upstanding gentlewoman. Kaede would never again open the door to the downstairs corridor of the shrine. The passage Tamasine had used to come and go as she pleased would never be rediscovered, and would soon become overgrown and unusable. And only two people would ever ascertain who had shot the fateful arrow, five-hundred years after it had actually flown.
But the soil was not a person. And ageless as it was it knew all these things. It also knew to carry out the one last request it's master had had for it. And, within two hours of her burial it had penetrated Tamasine's heart, bringing out what was desired by all, the only counter to the Shikon Jewel, it's only equal, and the only thing that could possibly hope to make the situation worse.
And upon doing this, a little girl was transported to rest in her father's tomb for five centuries of waiting, until she could finally be reunited with the one she loved more than anything.
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Wow, that took forever. Yeah, it was supposed to be longer, but I got fed up with waiting for my own freaking update and decided to just get it over with. But hey, fifteen pages! Not bad! Unless no one cares…//faints from her lack of reviewers/
I don't really feel like going through and translating all the Japanese so you're going to need to e-mail me if you want to know what everything means. Review!
