The priest stood up, hair wildly blowing with the eerie wind, giving him a maniacal look. Still peering secretively from behind my solid stone rock, I looked on. However, when he moved and I saw what lay in the middle of the circle of 6 men, in front of the standing priest, I couldn't help but gasp.
It was my friend, my bestest dearest lovablest friend.
Yukishiro, Tomoe. Although dead, she still looked resplendent in her white dress, an expression of calm on her face, hands laid peacefully over her large expanded belly. I was stunned. What was this evil man doing to her and her dead child? She'd been dead for a week already! If anyone deserved to be left in peace after death, it was Tomoe. She had always been caring, calm, considerate- the perfect friend. Why were they dishonouring her even after her passing?
These questions filled my head while I continued to observe the sinister ceremony, a combination of anger, curiousity and mostly fear written on my visage. Now, I was certain something was not right. VERY not right. This was wrong, totally wrong. Still, I remained petrified, rooted to the spot, frozen in place, whatever. The point was, I was shell-shocked by what my eyes were telling me.
The priest had started to chant in a high shrill voice, tapping his black shiny mystical-looking staff against Tomoe's belly. Tap, tap, tap. The sound produced sounded hollow, in a cold and empty way. I desperately wanted to turn away, to peel my glued eyes off of her corpse. I wanted to, I really did, but I couldn't. My intuition was screaming for me to run, to escape, to go before something really bad happened. I was a child, and at that moment I really missed the comfort of my mother's arms.
Meanwhile, the chanting continued. I didn't recognize his words. They didn't sound like Japanese, or any other dialects from nearby villages we sometimes spoke. It was hissy and drawly at the same time- many ss and ts. At that time, I'd noticed there was a kind of rhythmic chime to the chanting, and now, at 4000 years old, I've long known it was called dotted rhythm. When you're as old as I am, you pick up many skills. Now dotted rhythm does not sound in the least creepy, but coupled with the ominous chanting and the flat tone, it permeated through the still air like a spreading disease, clogging up the clearing.
While I watched frozenly, the priest's tone rose gradually, higher, higher, faster, faster, reaching a feverish pitch. He wasn't tapping now- he was more of banging on her abdomen, and blood was seeping out from Tomoe's pores. Sickened, I momentarily turned by attention to the surrounding men. By now, I could see that they were disturbed too. At least half of them looked doubtful now, and an identical fear reflected in our eyes. I could see that my father, a cultured man, desperately wanted to turn his head, but the suspense was too great.
Finally, after the crescendo, the priest seemed to reach the climax of the ritual, standing up and raising both arms into the air in front of the bloody corpse, a shiny sheen of blood covering the staff clutched tightly in his right hand. Crying out abruptly, he seemed to call forth the batotsu from the depths of hell. These were the only words I understood throughout the entire ceremony.
Suddenly, Tomoe sat up.
Or rather, her corpse did. I knew for a fact that she was dead- I'd knelt beside her unmoving body praying for her happiness in the next world. I had held her ice-cold hands hours after she died, and I knew without a doubt that she was dead. This was not tomoe. This was the batotsu- the demon had come.
Just as abruptly as it sat up, the batotsu smiled a wide grin on tomoe's normally composed face. I tried hard not to scream. There was something sadistic in the grin as the demon stared at each of the men in the clearing. As its intense gaze passed the rock I was hiding behind, I could feel its eyes on me. It could see me, I was sure. Its grin only seemed to enlarge, as if it was mocking me in my helplessness, behind the large stone. I shivered, partly in anticipation, but mostly in dread.
Then, the demon opened its gaping mouth (I shuddered to think of it as Tomoe's) and extended a long purple tongue. It ended in a fork, like a viper. It was abnormal! I could swear by anything and everything that Tomoe never had a purple tongue. This was one part of the demon which truly belonged to it. The hellish colour coupled with the horribly elongated size gave the tongue a whip-like look. And then, to my extreme horror, as well as the other men's shock, the tongue swept quickly across the priest's face, and came away with skin. I know I tried to scream, but I couldn't- I was too horrified.
What followed next for him was a gory and terrible end, even for one as fanatical as the priest. The batotsu proceeded to lick off all the man's skin, piece by piece, whilst I and the other men sat a distance away, petrified by extreme fear. Deep inside me, I understood that the demon was taking a blood sacrifice- a payment for what the priest had asked it to do- eradicate the yaishino. Even though I did not know Jineh personally, in my culture, it was still a sin to kill an innocent man.
Then, just as it came, the batoutsu left after grinning sadistically, once more, in my direction. Now I was sure it could see me, and I felt cursed. My child's fear induced me into expecting to die any second, but after a while my fears was assuaged. But the night's action had not yet been completed.
The 6 men were whispering in a hushed and awed manner amongst themselves. Doubtless, the priest's death had shocked them to the core, as well. Suddenly, there was shout from the one of them- my father.
"Look! Tomoe's child is not dead!"
When I thought I could be stunned no further, I was quickly proved wrong. Horror-struck, I peeked around the stone again, at Tomoe's corpse. Indeed, the bulge at her navel had started to squirm. By now, I had run out of synonyms for "shocked".
The clearing erupted into loud arguments. 3 of the six men wanted to save the baby, whilst the other three were convinced it would be a curse to their village. As they bickered on, I watched, mesmerized, hoping and hoping that they would decide to leave the corpse there, untouched. However, my father had other ideas.
Quick as a flash, my father took his trusty hunting knife from his boot, and slashed Tomoe's abdomen open. He drew forth the baby, skin dyed red. It started bawling immediately. It was a boy. (I'd helped the midwives with their work, so I didn't feel embarrassed or anything.)
"Look!" He exclaimed forcefully. "Does it not look like any other innocent baby? We must keep it. Our very way of life states that every life is precious. Besides, this is the chief's grandson! Look at how strong he looks! Look at him!"
Other religious men immediately objected. "No! He is a demon. Look at how his eyes move to study us, even though he is only a few minutes old. This cannot be normal! He is an abomination, and he must die."
However, as before, the debate was evenly split: My father, the village chief, and another man on one side; the religious head, his brother, and yet another religious man on another. While they argued, the baby continued to cry. I decided that it was my turn to speak now.
Jumping out from behind the rock, I argued loudly, drawing all attention to me. "Father, look with your own eyes! Tomoe has been dead for over a week! Her body is rotting, her child should be dead. This is not Tomoe's baby: It's the Batotsu, come to torment us. Kill it, father, it cannot be good!"
Everyone was surprised at my presence, and I knew I was going to get it from my father when I returned home. However, then, the baby was more important.
"Still, it is life! What are we to deny it a chance at survival? Can it be blamed for its origins? It is a baby, a clean white sheet of paper! Besides, there have been instances when babies were born after their mothers had died. What about your cousin Hikaru?"
"That was different. Hikaru was born after her mother had been dead for only half an hour. Here, it is wrong! The Batotsu wants to fool us, you saw how it grinned at us!"
Then the debate continued. Some men were afraid of sinning, of taking a life, yet others wanted to take the knife and stab it to death. Finally, my father turned yet again, to me.
"Kaoru-chan, you were Yukishiro-san's best friend. You know best if this child is evil or good. If you are so sure that it is the Batotsu, then kill it with my knife. No one here will blame you."
Of course, I was dismayed. Here I was, a child barely ten, and he wanted me to commit such a serious act. However, my father, wiser than I had thought, continued.
"Now you can see, even you are not sure if this child should be allowed to live. If it grows up to be evil, we can always deal with it then. If not, then we would not be sinning. An error towards life against death is never truly wrong. For now, let us return to the village, and let the Yukishiros take care of this baby."
Said root of all this argument was currently shivering pathetically, still naked. My father wrapped it up in his tunic, and asked me to wipe it clean of the blood. Of course, I refused vehemently. No way was I acknowledging the spawn of the devil. However, when he asked me to name it, I consented.
"His name should be Battousai, accursed son of the Batotsu."
Responses
Thank you, all for reviewing. For a experimenting authoress to receive reviews is like GASP! I HAVE A REVIEW! SOMEONE READS MY CRAP! YAY, so thank you lots! You people are Wonderful reviewers!
BIG thank you to happyloveygirl, Reignashii, skenshingumi, lili125, royal blueKitsune and cleo! Your reviews really inspired me to try with another chapter.
royal blueKitsune: I haven't read interview with a vampire. Is it by Anne Rice? I tried to borrow it, but my local library is limited. Tehe. Anyway, thanks for your review! I haven't quite decided about the pairings yet… Suggestions are welcome :D
cleo: Thank you for your reminder! I will keep it to heart! Thanks for reviewing.
happyloveygirl: If I'm not wrong you're my very first reviewer! I could kiss you (XD). just kidding, but thanks a lot!
skenshingumi: Thank you for reading and reviewing!
Reignashii: The caps really cheered me up a lot! Thanks for reviewing!
lili125: Thank you for bothering to review after reading.