Stolen Seasons XIII
Reflections in the Stone
Lm. Samiko

-

Winter's ending, snows' melting. A restless prince pacing the chambers of his home, eager as a pup for the time to continue his journey. A restless prince old enough and wise enough to wait for the proper moment. He had spent the winter in contemplation--both in meditation and kata. It had not been... pleasant. It never is, to look into one's heart and truly acknowledge what one finds there.

Rin had proved a welcome diversion to these exercises, filling empty spaces in his days with warmth and laughter. And doing so with a giving heart. She was no longer a mere amusement to him, an experiment, a possession, and he had forced himself to admit that she never had been. She captivated him; she held a piece of his heart in her hands. In exchange, Sesshoumaru realized with no little astonishment, for nearly the whole of her own.

She would never leave him. She would guard whatever he gave her with her life.

Nor would he ever abandon her. He would guard her until the thief, Time, stole her from him; he would even fight Time if such a feat was possible.

It was time, now, to come to terms with another piece of his life. With a calm mind and a beating heart, Sesshoumaru opened the box with the bloodstone. Fitting it to his palm, he looked deep within its heart, to discover how the woman-child had fared over the long winter months.

A flood of images poured forth, flickering with the rapidity of hummingbird's wings. In several, he saw the inhumanly beautiful profile of the undead miko, walking calmly through a forest to the south. Another set displayed Rin, playing with her toy outside the door of his rooms, a habit of hers this winter. A third showed the human woman in an environment entirely unlike anything he had seen before.

Concentration allowed him to focus on these last images, which eventually resolved into a coherent vision. The woman was dressed in the clothes she had previously worn: a dark green jacket and skirt that fit close to her body, a white shirt beneath, an odd string around her neck tied in a bow, and a green hat that was no more than a simple cylinder a few inches high. He recalled that he had never seen her wear the hat. It probably fell off at the first movement more violent than the shallow bows she was currently performing. People dressed in similarly odd clothes passed her singly and in groups through two metal doors on either side of her. None responded to her bows or her smiles and words he could not hear.

With deliberate care, he placed the bloodstone back in its box. Was this where she came from, this strange woman with her odd habits and speech? He considered himself a well-traveled youkai; could this then be a place even farther from the islands than the gaijin lands? Or was it perhaps another plane of existence, where she was a servant to beings higher than herself who had directed her to this place and time? If her appearances were at the behest of the gods, that might explain much. But how was it, then, that the bloodstone should show three very different women? Were they somehow related, then? But how? Had blood been shared between the three in some fashion? He had never paid much attention to miko practices, save for methods that might be used against him. It might very well be that their healing could involve blood magic in its most extreme forms. Or there was a different kind of magic here altogether, that had no relation to human magic as he was familiar with it. However this was possible, it meant that time for introspection was over. When the snows cleared, he would discover the truth.

-

-

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Author's Notes

Sorry to take so long; real life got in the way again. Just a point: I gave Kagome the job I did because of the way the Japanese school system works. Getting into the right high school and the right college is very important and depends on one's ability to pass the entrance exams (and probably one's familial influence, but we'll pretend not). This is why so many school stories have characters going to cram schools. Given Kagome's situation, the likelihood of her passing these exams is minimal, so she went into a low-level job instead of being in college or something 'better'.
And yes, there are women in department stores whose job is to bow and welcome people going into the elevators.