The "excuses" corner: Indeed, welcome to you all to that part of the fanfic where the authoress falls at your feet to beg mercy for having blithely disappeared for six months and then has the gall to return with a chappie under her arm, hands in pockets and whistling innocently as if she had never vanished from the face of the net. Because, technically, that's what I did, right?
Anyway, I'm only going to add in my defense that: A- it wasn't intentional. B- I got a new job at the beginning of this year, so now I'm translating (professionally speaking), teaching classes, attending my own college classes and studying Japanese –I sincerely don't know how I even manage to go to the bathroom. Truly, I don't even have time to read fanfic, much less write it myself. C- I have neither internet connection nor computer at home anymore so I have to beg to my friends every time I even want to check my mails or type an essay (yes, being a college student in Argentina sucks. No amount of money is ever enough.) Finally, D- I think I re-wrote this at least twenty times (not exaggerating here) and am still not happy with it. But I figured I might as well go ahead and publish it already as am not feeling like doing it all over again because I want to reach the one that comes after this –I have such great plans for that one...wheee!- I already started it in my notebook.
So, if anyone still cares to cybernetically wallop me, then go ahead, it's your right to do so, you all have my e-mail address...
...and while you're at it, please don't forget to tell me what you thought of this chappie, 'k? ) (wink wink) I know, I know, I'm a sucker for this shite...
Without further rambles, The Fic...
---------------------
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Inuyasha.
---------------------
:Last Dream:
-an Inuyasha fanfiction-
by C.o.m.t.e.s.s.a
--------------------
"…." talking
(….) thinking
---------------------
:Chapter 8::Senkensha:
-Tokyo City... 2pm-
As she breathed in and out evenly, Kagome came to a riveting conclusion.
(What. A. Bastard.
What a condescending, utter prick! The gall of the man...ehmm...demon to come and sniff me so--so--)
"Argh!"
Now that she was safely locked in the van, miles away from the beach, Kagome unleashed the full scale of her anger. (Oh, and his so Cooler Than Thou attitude, his I Come And Go as I Please, his Look At My Hair Blowing In The Distance. Who the Hell does he think he is! I should have thrown a shoe at him or--or maybe a rock. Yes, a nice, hard, basketball sized rock.)
"Neh. Who am I kidding? He was too far away by the time I bloody reacted," she muttered darkly, leaning back against the seat of the van, trying to wriggle her dead-feeling arm out of the recesses of her T-shirt. She sighed. No point in mulling over it now. It was water passed and under the bridge. Oh, how she'd wished she could have drowned that pretty little head of his on the sea, too.
How could he have acted so familiar towards her? It was embarrassing and...and rude!
(And this stupid, stupid shirt won't come off!) She gave a yank at it, and winced when the hem caught on her injured shoulder. Sango had suggested it might be a lot easier-and frankly, a lot less painful-just to cut through the damn fabric and be done with it. But Kagome would hear none of it. The shirt had been a present from her brother and, though already dirty, mildly scratched and awfully disposable-looking, she wanted to preserve it as complete as could be said possible.
Slowly, really slowly, she was pushing her arm out of the sleeve with the trembling fingers of her left arm, her back protesting the unnecessary dead weight. She gave a good, sonorous exhale at the view that greeted her. Her arm wasn't broken after all (Thank the mighty Gods for that!), just terribly bruised and obviously out of service for the time being. She lowered it to lie vertically at her side, her other less destroyed arm already busy inspecting the rest of her. She was quite bruised, and some of the slightly bleeding slashes on her legs would surely leave scars, but all in all she'd made it quite safe and soundly.
Which couldn't be applied so easily to the huntress.
She grimaced again at the memory. She'd helped Kohaku -well, as far as she could with only one arm anyway- to remove Sango's upper clothing. At the time, her inane brain had doodled usesslessly in the softness and stretch of the huntress' black clothing material, the way it hugged the body without constricting its movements in the least, like a soft yet resistant second skin. All to keep her mind away from what laid beneath. As the layers were parted and she had an open view of the young woman's back, she had blanched. The lacerations ran with three major, ragged gashes from shoulder to almost mid back; the rest a collection of minor scratches that were, nevertheless, trickling out a rather constant amount of blood. The entirety of them were dirty blotches of dried black-red and sand mixing, further irritating the paper-white skin, turning it yellowish and grey at the edges. The cloth that Kohaku had fake-tied around the wounds had stuck to them like glue, a cotton-sponge fat and crimson with blood and dust. Removing that had, ironically enough, been more painful for them than for the huntress. It was simply outstanding the way Sango held on all composed through out their shaky, almost skittish ministrations. She didn't moan nor writhe at all. Just sat there, back to the two of them, once in a while hissing silently, but only barking at them to bloody hurry up because they needed to take the eye entourage to the temple as soon as possible.
Never a "Watch out!" or a "Why don't you just kill me right now and be done with it!" as Kagome was sure she would have whimpered had it been she in her place.
Now, with a rather stiff-backed Kohaku sitting behind the wheel, driving them as fast and as inconspicuously as possible through the Bay's back streets towards the Zojoji no Jinja, a cleanly wrapped up and anointed Sango sitting next to him -once in a while giving him some mumbled, much needed driving directions-, Kagome could finally lean back, close her eyes and let tension ease out like melting butter.
Her head lolled unchecked to lay heavily against the sun warm glass of the window. She was tuning out the sounds of the traffic and the hammering ache in her arm, mind drifting to the beach, the dragon, the demon, the fight and her near-death experience. She knew that tonight, once this day waned and ended at last and she was safely tucked at home, eating her favourite dish and watching her favourite TV programme, she'd probably crack up mightily, hyperventilate...and most surely pass out. But as of now, in the still early afternoon of this Friday, trapped in a van skittishly driven by an underaged boy and co-piloted by his bleeding, half-dead half-awake sister, she could calmly navigate the dazed depths of her thoughts unhindered by a possible inner functionary black-out.
The best course of action she could take now was try to be positive about it all. So, she was reveling in the fact that they were all still alive -though not currently fit to begin running a marathon of course-, that she had somehow managed to keep the cool of her powers long enough as to maintain the kekkai up and running during the battle, securing the ignorance of outsiders and the intactness of the beach temple compound once the squabble was over. It was a real thrill knowing she had been able to erect such a shield succesfully and she made a mental note to goad the fact in Miroku's face once she'd reached home.
Her eyes strayed to the wooden box that sat bumping once in a while with their transport's sudden turns. The bag with the eye was safely locked inside it, next to four strange pearls Sango had placed in it to secure the eye's Seeing properties and keeping it from grossly decomposing. Right next to it, blocking the entire left window and door, was her humungous yellow pack, loaded to the brim with towels, protective ofudas and other assorted talismans her jii-chan had seen fit to load her with in her dire adventure, and of course, the many bentos and snacks her mother had prepared in hopes that she might have a pleasent, normal teenage picnic on the beach... Because it was so normal for teenagers to go dragon hunting to desolate, miles-away-from-home beaches in the first place.
She sighed. She should at least be grateful her mother was always trying to make her feel normal after all, but sometimes that became much harder to bear than to feel completely excluded and a possible lost case anyway. Shrugging, she bent towards her pack and rummaged about, taking out two plastic boxes filled in their compartments with salted chicken, lotus roots sliced in neat petal impersonations, and many ohagi rice balls. She unwrapped the transparent plastic that covered them and mutely handed one to her companions. Sango seemed about to refuse, but Kagome smiled and politely insisted. "Plus, you both need the energy anyway. 'kaa-san always told me that squished rice and sweet bean's paste is full of vitamins."
Sango seemed mildly stranged at this sudden interest in her vitamin-ingesting diet, but she decided to accept the treat anyway. She gave Kagome a nod and a somewhat hushed "arigatou", taking the food box and turning once again to indicate her brother to take a right turn five blocks from the main road.
Kagome was beginning to drift into inner addleness again, once in a while popping a root or ohagi in her mouth in silent contemplation.
She was quite happy for possessing the dragon eye, too. Now they had the tools to enter the daisaiin's dreams and, with a bit of luck on their side, solve the whole mystery too.
Yep, she was happy for their success. But that regrettably lead her to darker thoughts. Namely, her promise to that prick of a white demon. Now here was something she couldn't find positiveness in. Yes, she conceded he had saved her life twice, and probably even a third time by being him the one to actually retreive the eye; but that 'help me with my kodai buumu' negotiation just sounded quite a bit fishy. Although, she had already come to submissively accept it had been her own folly that had landed her on such a predicament, in the first place.
Why, oh why did her mouth always speak before consulting with her brains? It was like having your own personal enemy attached to your face.
(So if I am to guess, he comes from way in the past -not much enlightening taking in consideration most of the youkais nowadays were born some hundred of years back-, and I am to somehow find his origins, life and times and shed knowledge into what happened to the world right after he...ehmm...was imprisoned? Was stuck unconscious somewhere? Got amnestic?...Whatever happened to him anyway? I mean, to loose your time bearings and just waltz around needing life-continuance directions must enthuse the fact that somehow you missed the days' passing, right?
How do you do that?) Kagome pondered, marvelling at the pique of envy she felt at him having no idea what was the world now up to. That sounded like a real mental holiday to her.
Then again, it would prove to be a real ass-sore to sort through the past trying to find the moment he dissapperead. Youkais, as far as she knew, were always seen as legend. Yes, they existed, she could sourly vouch for that, but what with the humans increasing and expanding numbers, they had been pushed to the side lines, something that surprisingly enough the demons themselves seemed to have taken to accept quite complacently. Long gone were the days when fierce mortal warriors or strongwilled priests searched their hideouts and their powerful blood. Nobody truly believed or cared for them any longer. And they, in return, didn't care much to continue roaming the world, choosing instead to slip into obscurity. Unknown to the world.
Sadly, that could also be applied to records of them from the past.
No one had seen fit to write or state much about those mythical creatures, not even when they were the supposed rulers of the land. Her grandfather said that demons of those age were so powerful that the mere trace of their names on scroll would summon the doom of an entire village. A risk no scribe would be willing to take.
Kagome surmised it wasn't necesarily so fantastical an occurrence. It must have been only a matter of general illiteracy. Japan's past was full of great writing courtesans, yes, but those knowledged on the arts were far above simple superstitions. Their legacy was a bunch of laws and imperial dictates, the scandals typical of a flourishing empire, records on wars and squabbles, utopian views on how a country should be ruled and the like. Few dwelled objectively on the aspect of peasent beleif.
And that is exactly how demons and ghouls were -and still are, for some-seen. Mere popular fiction.
That left the villagers themselves. But the populace didn't write things down much at the time, no means to do that, of course. It was understood that anything of major significance would simply: A- already be known; or B- orally spread. All records on demons are, then, folk tales born from songs and whispers.
Simple rumours.
Which just left Kagome on a bit of a predicament as to her course of action. (But there has to be something about him on grandpa's books... I could even try Tokyo's Central Library or the Emperor's Temple now that I'm at it! I've heard they have quite a collection on folktales and myths.) She made a quick nod, a plan to rang up the library as soon as she touched home ground rapidly forming on her brain. (Yes, I'm sure they'll help me up with this. I can say it's for a major school project or something...ehmm...that I'm doing a History vs. Legend essay. That sounds neat.)
She chewed the last lotus root and swallowed, now that she had some idea as to how to proceed feeling a world better.
But as the saying goes, all happiness is but momentary.
"So Higurashi," Sango intoned, turning slightly in her seat to address her, "who was that ghost looking demon?"
"What?"
"His name. What's he called? From what I've seen back there you seemed to be on rather friendly terms..." Sango drifted off when she saw the other's rapidly paling face.
Kagome had paused eating. The last lotus root was lurching in her stomach as she opened her mouth to answer but then shut it.
He...
He was...
Her stomach knoted.
She had no idea!
"Oh kami, I forgot to ask his name!" she cried, turning a nasty shade of white, hands flying to her cold cheeks. "How could I have been so stupid! I should have asked him before we left!...oh Gods, and he even knew my name, too. My name when it's me the one who's supposed to find things about him! How am I supposed to do that now! And he's coming tomorrow at midday...I don't have time!
...what am I going to do?" she finished with a lame groan. She felt like thumping her head against the glass pane.
Sango raised both eyebrows, surprised at the helpless outburst. "Ehmm...calm down Higurashi. There's no need to panic--"
"Yes, there is...Damn, and it's all my fault, too."
"But Higurashi..."
"Kagome. Just call me Kagome, please," and the lame tone was still there.
Sango blinked. "O-kay. Kagome-san, I'm sure there's a way out." Sango turned her head around and indicated Kohaku to take the 33 until the exit towards Kinishi Road. Then straight ahead to skirt around Tokyo's noon traffic.
"But I know nothing of him! I just--I just saw him a couple of times and only today he was speaking. I'm supposed to help him with his life story, that was my part of the bargain."
"Life story?" What the Hell--?
"Yeah. I think he was trapped away or something."
"Then why don't you check the old demon scripts? The Zojoji Temple has quite a collection. I'm sure Yiu-san will have no problems with you reading them."
"But I don't even know which type of demon he is! He didn't say. He just ordered me to search information and left!"
Sango put a rice-ball on her mouth, chewed and swallowed. "A lord, most probably."
Kagome, taken aback in mid-rant, cocked her head. "How do you know?"
Sango shrugged with one shoulder. "The mark on his forehead, a crescent moon. Only lords and generals wear marks. Also the fabric of his yellow sash and his kimono's hand painted pattern. I'm guessing he must have been rather important on his time to have such hard to find garments. Maybe even a Great Lord."
Something akin to hope bloomed in the depths of Kagome's stomach. "Do--do you really think so?"
"Sure. If I recall correctly, facial marks showed the high lineage and heritage of demons." Sango gave her a lopsided smile. "But anyway, you can always research for the western kingdom. The Dragon God did called him Nishi-kei, after all. Dind't you hear it?"
Of course! Who wouldn't have heard it? Half of Japan must have for the God beast had shouted it to the four winds...
And just like that Kagome thought she might faint with releif. Of course! Ryou-ue had spent half the fight spitting out those words as if they were blasphemous. "You're right! He mentioned the West and...and something of dogs I think. Mmm...he didn't look much like a dog to me. Although that fluffy thing round his shoulder could be a tail (or a really plush scarf...)" Kagome waved a hand in front of her to dispel the image. "Nah. We are in the middle of summer. Plus, it didn't look like the customery traditional fashion asset of old, right?"
Sango shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe."
"We're here, ane-ue." Kohaku announced, spinning the wheel and screeching the van to a halt at the shrine steps. "Wait, I'll help you down," he said quickly getting down and going round the front to his sister's door.
Kagome sighed and began opening her own door. "Arigatou, Sango-san..."
"Huh?" The huntress turned and looked at her, puzzled. "What for?"
"Well, all this," Kagome said vaguely, smiling nervously, gesturing with her hands between them. "I thought I was going to have to break my promise to him, but now you've given me hope...and some idea where to start looking. Arigatou."
Sango looked at her for a minute, expression softening slightly. Then she shook her head and shrugged non-commitaly. "Well, I must say I've never seen anything like a miko and a demon having any sort of positive interaction before, but... I trust you'll have your well thought out reasons to do it. Hopefully, nothing will go astray."
Kagome laughed awkwardly, eyes averted to her pack as she closed it, to avoid the huntress reading the awful truth on them. The only reason she had agreed to this was because the guy had dangled her several unsafe feet from the ground, threatening to let go if she refused.
That, and because he gave her the creeps.
Kohaku opened his sister's door, saying, "Wouldn't it be better if you just waited here? Higurashi-san and I...we could take the eye for you," he embraced Sango's shoulders and pushed her out slowly, trying to avoid sliding her back against the seat. "Or I could call Yiu-san and tell him to come here instead...I'm sure he wouldn't mind, ane-ue."
"Oh, stop clucking to me like a mother hen. I'm perfectly alright," she abdominished, waving his hands away. She turned to Kagome as she was hobbling slowly up the steps, left side heavily pressing against her still sputtering brother for support. "Kagome-san, please don't forget the box. And don't let it fall down," she finished, almost reaching the step's first landing.
"Hai, hai," the girl yelled back, squirming her way out of the door, bottom first, pulling the box and her pack with only one hand. For a couple of beat up taijiyas they sure as Hell were climbing fast.
Once out, she let the humoungous yellow monstruosity down with and audible "Oof!" and tied her bow and stash of arrows to it; then she began dragging it all up. She ached and sighed and grumbled, hating the excesive excersice she was being forced to endure when she already felt so sore and ready to lie down on her bed to sleep this Friday off for at least a month.
"Higurashi-san! Hurry up."
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she waved at them, jogging the last steps up until reaching the torii. She could already picture herself acing her next semester's gym class like the best.
Once at the temple's entrance, she was aided by two servants whom took her load away and led her through to the back, beyond the sakura trees garden. Amazingly, everywhere she passed was people-free. Probably they had decided to shut the temple to sempai-sha for the time being. Quite a logical thing to do seeing as how none still could answer for the daisaiin's state.
Maybe some visitor had poisoned her?
She shook her head and looked around at the constructions. The cobbled garden which they were crossing was splashed with the pink colour of the falling petals. The two pagodas at the sides of the main temple seemed like drawings out of an old papyrus painted live against the clear blue sky with their crimson tiles, the detailed impressions of swirling dragons crafted on the wood walls and the golden gleam of its hanging lamps.
She passed the two white marbled statues of the koma-inu, the temple's guardian dog spirits, feeling their bejeweled eyes at the back of her head following her steps, making her aware of their innanimate stare.
She looked around and behind. The huntress and her little brother were nowhere to be seen.
"This way, miko-sama. They're awaiting you at Amaterasu-oh-mikami's lower shrine," one of the assistants said dryly, eyeing her disheveled and sweaty appereance distatefully.
(Well, if you had to fight a dragon and be tossed about a whole beach like a rag doll, I'd like to see how you'd fare after that! It's not like the dragon's eye was in a bloody spa or anything!)
"Yes, thank you," she muttered courteously enough despite her crude thoughts, passing a hand through her hair to try combing it somewhat. The servant just coffed and turned away, moving left beyond the cleaning fountain and leading her to the goddess' praying shrine.
She wanted to ask if Sango was already there or if she had gone directly to the daisaiin's quarters, but all words fled her mouth in a whoosh when she stepped inside the well-lit haiden to see who exactly "they" were.
Half of Japan's imperial Court sat round a long chabudai sipping green tea and hushing dark comments through scowling faces. Kagome recognized the Prime Minister Tatakai Yiu at the head of the table, the Chief Councilor Satou Tsukimura, Councilor Takuya Abe and the Head of the District's police force Yoshitoshi Kochii, amongst many others. Even the Court's Head Director and the Emperor's right hand, Mashimo Motosuke, was there!
As the shoji doors parted completely and she stood there gaping like a fish on its last living minutes, ten pairs of eyes turned towards her.
(Holy naked Buddha.) She thought dismally.
The Court members were staring.
Some raised their eyebrows.
Others scowled at her.
Kagome gulped, blushed, bowed, and swore mentally to quit her job as the Higurashi shrine's saiin as soon as she reached home. (What are the Court members doing here! I thought this was supposed to be a secret to the world or something... But, then again, who else can decree a national hush-hush of the subject but the Court itself.
Damn, I should've known.) She bit her lip, feeling very uncomfortable. (And where's Sango when I need her!)
A man on the left side of the long table stood up, his dark clothing and tall black headdress marking him as a high ranking priest. "Higurashi-san, at last we meet," he said in complacent tones, a picture perfect smile plastered on his smooth face.
He bowed slightly. "I'm the Prime Delegate and President of the Jinja no Zojoji's shoten division--"
"Shikimura-sama," Kagome said immediately, recognizing the blank features and quiet prowess of the daisaiin's right hand and Chamberlain of Japan's Shrines Parishioner's Group. The man suspected of having knocked the sacred child out.
Ryoei smiled quaintly. "Ah, I see you recognize me. A pleasure to make your acquaintence. Why don't you sit down?" He motioned to an ampty space in front of him. "We were just discussing a subject that very much concerns you."
Kagome bowed again more pronouncedly and moved towards her seat. Something in Shikimura's voice made her shudder in distaste. It was a strange tone, oozing a warmth that just crawled under you skin with its hard, fake familiarity.
She was feeling every man's eyes in the room following her with undisguised scrutiny so she tried with every ounce of pride she had not to limp too noticiably. She raised her head and squared her shoulders, refusing to let their stares belittle her. Now she understood why the assistants had been eyeing her as if she'd just dropped out of a wild trash-can safari. She dropped easily to her knees over the velvet plushness of the blue sitting pillow. A servant immediately came forward, knelt next to her and served her tea with practiced, deft movements. Then, mutely retired to a corner.
"I am sure, Higurashi-san, that you already know most of us gathered here, if your recent expression was of any indication," Ryoei was saying conversationally, the other elders on the table smiling benignely at her sudden blush of embarrasment. Oh, so they had seen her fish impression, then. Goodness, she shuddered at what her mother would say were she to tell her of her pathetic reaction in front of the country's top political forces. She'd surely die of embarrasment for having spawned such a rude progeny.
"I'll skip the formal introductions, then, in favor of more...pressing matters."
Kagome acquised with a muted nod. She didn't much trust her voice -or sanity-just yet. No teenage girl should ever be put under the stress of being in the same room with ten Court members. It made having a tea party with a lunatic sound so much more safe... (Ok, girl, just calm down and get a grip on yourself. If you pass this, no other oral exam in front of the class will ever be an embarrasing affair. Ever again.)
"Good." The man shuffled through some papers in front of him, skipping their contents through bored eyes and handing some to the Court's Director, Mashimo Motosuke, who sat at the table's head. Kagome thought it strange that it wasn't the Director the one leading the meeting, but a simple high priest. She shrugged mentally. (Whatever. I'm sure they know what they're doing.)
"We have just been told by the Prime Minister that you and one of the descendants of the hunter family have returned with the means to extricate our Lady from her stupor." The man made a pause, raising a rather sceptical eyebrow. "And that those means are...a dragon's Seeing property? Is this correct, Higurashi-san?"
Kagome sweatdropped at the incredulous tone of the other. "Eh, yes. Sango-san, she is a professional demon hunter and, well, she said that if we used the powder of a dragon's scale to create a...potion, I think, well then, that we could use it to enter the daisaiin's dreams and perhaps find out what exactly happened to her. Maybe even bring her back completely."
"Dragon's scale? Do those things even exist?" A man to her right asked with a scoff. Kagome turned to him, intending in telling him exactly how much real those darn things were, but Tatakai won her round. His voice echoed from the other end of the table with unquestionable surety.
"Oh, yes, Ueda-san. I found it hard to believe, too, when I first heard of it. But I have just seen it myself and let me tell you," the Minister continued gravely, one hand over his knee, the other tapping the papers in front of him for emphasis, eyes aglow. "Not only dragons are very much real and mighty but this young lady here and the brave huntress with her brought the entire eye to help us! They fought a great God and defeated him unaided!" he finished proudly with a beaming smile directed to our now flinching, recently-baptized super heroine.
Many gasps and unbelievable whispers followed this statement which, of course, didn't help her blush recede at all.
Tsukimura spoke up from three seats to her right. "A truly remarkable deed, Higurashi-san. However did you come about defeating a kami? Isn't it dangerous to go against the deities one worships?"
(He had to ask that of all things, didn't he? Could he really not wait to prod my believes that much?) "Well, yes, but...it's a bit complicated. We had some...extra-official help." Lame, Kagome thought, but it'd distract them from the moral side of the matter.
Ueda raised an eyebrow, graceful hand delicately raising the porcelain cup to sip some tea. The obvious question of "who?" dancing in his eyes.
Then, the Court Director Mashimo Motosuke spoke up, "Surely, Ueda, you aren't questioning the miko's faith, are you? It is of little relevance what transpired in the fight right now; though of course," his brown eyes behind round spectacles turned towards her. He was an aged man, probably on his late fifties, short and slightly plump. He had thick black eyebrows and hair, and was dressed in an impecable blue suit, which only emphazised his high status and wisdom. He was smiling at Kagome kindly, the first real smile she had received since entering this snake's pit. "I'm sure it is quite an anecdote. Perhaps some day, Higurashi-san, you'll do as the honor to come to the palace and retell it. The Heavenly Lord and Lady have great greed for such tales."
Kagome stared at him wide-eyed for a minute, her heart skipping a beat. (Have I just been invited to see the emperors! Oh my God, this is so cool! Eri-chan and Yuka-chan are so not going to believe me!). She cleared her throat as the inner squeal faded from her mind and said, "Hai, Mashimo-sama. It'll be an honor to oblige you." She bowed her head.
The man smiled more appreciatively.
Good thing her nerves didn't block out her formal manners.
"Excellent. Now, Higurashi-san, why don't you tell us exactly how you plan to use this dragon eye." Ryoei continued, plastic smile fixed on his face. "Wouldn't it be better if one of our trained priests did it for you?"
"Well, yes, I suppose it would. Actually, I'm not sure how the spell is done or what part it is I'm supposed to play. As I said before, it was Sango-san's idea, not mine."
"But, hasn't she relayed anything about the procedure? Haven't you planned anything at all in the past few days? I don't see the need to remind you this is the daisaiin's life we are talking about here, miko," the Head of the Police Department said stonily, brows frowning. "I cannot say I approve of this council's will to accept the help of such a young and obviously untrained girl as you are. This is no child's play." So condescending, so self-righteous in his uncalled accusation. Where the Hell did he get off? He reminded Kagome of a certain someone she'd met today.
There was a silent, uncomfortable pause.
Kagome's left eye was twitching. She could have just kicked him for that.
Instead, she decided to be indignant.
"Of course it isn't!" She bit out, stiffly. How dare he even think she was fooling around in something this important! What did he think she had been doing for the past three hundred and sixty seconds of her day? Having a bloody tea-party with the Sea God!
"We haven't been playing around, as you so blatantly put it, Yoshitoshi-san." She spat the last word, purposely unacknowledging his higher rank. If he wanted to downplay her, she would downplay him twice as hard. "We haven't had much time to sit and talk it over. The plan to use the dragon's scale came to Sango-san's mind only yesterday, and we set off to retreive it early this very morning. When we finished, we came straight back here." Kagome crossed her arms, blue-gray eyes set on the man's with obvious resentment for his censure. If looks could kill, only a smoking puddle of the Police Chief would remain standing in his place. "We've been fighting a huge mass of a dragon kami for more than six hours all alone, sir, excuse us for not having had discussed the plan as we ran around the beach trying to avoid being mauled to death!" She finished, barely resisting the urge to make a rude gesture at him.
Kagome heard them all take a deep breath.
On the corner, the servant flinched, gasped and covered his mouth in mortified bewilderment.
Yoshitoshi's right eye twitched. Twice.
Kagome stood her ground, back straight, not regretting one single word that had left her mouth. (He deserves it anyway. Pompous, know-it-all baka that he is!)
The rest of the Court still stared at her, some beginning to mutter about mannerless youth these days. Yoshitoshi frowned more pronouncedly and countered with a leveled, no-nonsense tone, "I understand you have been busy, child. Don't presume to enlighten me on matters I am very well informed. But we cannot leave anything to chance here, much is at stake," he moved his upper body forward, hands and elbows resting on the table, eyes afire. "We cannot allow you to experiment on our daisaiin just because one of you had a hunch. Don't mistake me, girl, I won't be so easily dazzled or complacent to you lot just because you guard the Shikon Pearl."
Now that put a stop to noise altogether. Kagome felt as if she'd been slapped.
Voices were rising, some agreeing, others outraged by the man's mention of the Pearl. Kagome sat, wide eyed and mouth agape, staring.
"It's outstanding!"
"Indeed, I never agreed to have an outsider miko brought into this..."
"Me neither—"
"Yoshitoshi! How dare you utter the name of that accursed pearl!"
"...what an outrage this is! The Pearl mustn't be mentioned on a sacred place..."
"Please, please, let's all calm down," Mashimo ushered them, making appeasing gestures with his hands, but his voice was lost on the rampanging accusations flying back and forth throughout the table. "Please gentelmen--"
Then Shikimura said, "Silence."
And the voices quieted down.
(O-kay, now that was weird.)
Kagome looked up at him, shocked at his easyness. He was sitting across from her, grey eyes half-lidded, a small smile still on his lips. Amazing how a man as humanly unremarkable could be so darningly disturbing. Then again, there was something on him that just put you on edge. She was sure that one of his blank stares was bound to shut up even a rock concert.
Mashimo stared at him too, quietly, brows furrowed. He was probably thinking along the same lines as she.
"Gentlemen, please let me remind you all that the issue of the priestess' colaboration on this case has already been discussed and approved by this board. Let us not dwindle on it again. She's here with the Prime Minister's and mikado's acceptance, there's no room for more comments here."
To Kagome's further puzzlement, the Court members shifted in their places, embarrased and...was that a blush she was seeing on their faces? (Kami, this day just keeps getting weirder and weirder by the minute...)
Kagome was jerked from her musings when she heard the sudden, rapid thumps of feet on the wood planks of the floor, right outside the door. Raised voices, a boy imploring to be let in, the outside guards refusing sternly.
Mashimo raised from his position, asked abruptly. "What's happening? Who's there?"
The doors slid open with a crash. Kohaku stood there, flushed, panting, bowing repeatedly in apology for his sudden intrusion. "I...I'm looking for Higurashi!"
Kagome immediately stood up but was detained by Yoshitoshi's next question. "What's the meaning of this, taijiya? How dare you interrupt a secret meeting of the Court?"
Kagome scowled. Goodness, give the boy a break! Couldn't he see the poor guy was breathless. (At least invite him in and give him a cup of tea...Kami! and he speaks of rudeness.) So much for playing the charming host, then.
"I'm-I'm sorry! My sister says Kagome is needed on the daisaiin's room. She says—she says everything is ready."
"Higurashi-san, what's he talking about?" Ueda asked, as all eyes turned to her.
She wanted to shrug, to tell them she was just as clueless as they were, but was saved by Kohaku himself whom rushed to explain. "Ane-ue finished the potion, we can go inside the great priestess' dreams now. But we need Kagome!" He was moving from one foot to the other, restless, biting his lips, still bowing everytime one of the men fixed their eyes on him.
Kagome started to move forward, her mind dwaddling off. (Compared to him, my brother is a mannerless monster.)
But then what the boy said registered on her mind and she tripped on an invisible crease on the floor, almost falling, one arm windmilling to keep her balance. "What! The potion is ready? You mean, she finished it!" (How! When! Why did you let me locked up here while you guys had all the esoteric fun!)
"Hai, hai." Kohaku nodded quickly, a small, proud grin now blooming on his face.
Someone behind Kagome punched the table. She jumped slightly and whirled round, eyes not at all surprised to see Yoshitoshi leaning with closed fists over the dark surface of the table, black eyes dangerously slitted. "Who commanded that? Who approved the making of this...this potion!"
"A...anou," Kohaku blushed intensely and then paled to sheet-whiteness when he saw the other men shaking their heads and frowning in dissapproval. "My—my sister... we—we thought we could start..."
"You thought! You mean to tell me you children went ahead and began brewing magic inside the daisaiin's chamber, a sacred, Holy place! Without having consulted with your superiors first!" The man spat out, cheeks reddened, creases of outrage forming on his forehead and under his eyes.
The others began asserting with him like a bunch of trained robots.
"Yes, yes, no magic is authorized inside our Lady's chamber! It's--"
"It's an outrage, that's what it is! Coming here and doing as you please without first consulting us—"
"Indeed! The liberties they have taken!"
"Where is your sister, taijiya? Let's see what she's up to with such a behaviour as this," Yoshitoshi finished, the others still commenting at his back like a flock of talking parrots. He stood up abruptly and stalked towards the boy –who wisely took some steps back-, passed him and was out of the doors in a minute to the hall and from there to the outside garden. The others were following him, only Mashimo, Shikimura and Kagome remaining still in the room.
The first stood massaging his forehead with circular motions, eyes closed. He was renown for being a just, patient man, but now he appeared to be on the brink of screaming some full blasted obcenities. But he wasn't going to. Not aloud, at least. He was, after all, the Head Director of the Imperial Court and had served the Royal Family for more than thirty years. He knew the public protocol expected of him by heart. He put his previously removed glasses back on very, very gently and then proceeded to mentally trace and curse every single one of his peers like no political top notch would ever do. He cursed them up, down and sideways. He surveyed everyman's habit, personality, lineage and their place in the human race. Finally, he sighed in resignation. Such bloody idiots, the lot of them.
Shikimura Ryoei on the other hand, sat, droopy eyes grey and unreadeable. He was drowning his tea in graceful gulps and then stood up slowly, like a cat unraveling after a long nap. His face had a small, lazy smile playing on his lips. Idiots, indeed. In his mind, he was smiling too.
Kagome just stood like a petrified fish, gaping. In her mind...well, God only knows what was on her mind right then. Probably a zillion of meaningless thoughts and severed connections between one idea and the other (i.e. what happened to her everytime she tried to make sense of a situation and came up discovering reality was just a jumble of undecipherable crap.)
"Higurashi-san?" came Mashimo overly calm voice.
She snapped out of her reverie. "Wha-? Huh?" she said, blinking and focusing on the man's tired face.
"I believe we should go, too. They're expecting you, after all."
"Oh...Oh! right, yes." She stopped, blushing. She made some vague gestures with her hand towards the door, eyes on the floorboards "Ehrmm...could you like, go ahead. I sort of get lost easily..."
"Of course," he said politely, not remarking on how stupid that was. "Are you coming too, Ryoei-san?"
The other man was meticulously dusting his robes off, his quaint smile jarring on Kagome's –as well as Mashimo's- nerves. "I'll be there in a minute. You go ahead."
-------------------
Five minutes later, on the stuffed, rather poorly ventilated bedroom of the Child Pristess, one huntess Sango was praying to all the Raijin-ten she could think of for patience.
She knelt amidst a disarray of vials, pots, powders and magical spices which she took from Kagome's backpack –now lying like a yellowed cloth monstruosity on a corner-, slowly dabbing the perspirated forehead of the little girl in front of her with a cold cloth, face scowling as she heard the approaching sound of many wooden sandals and classy shoes making their angry way towards her. (Damn that Kohaku! I send him to get the miko and he brings the entire board of directors... sigh Ten-no-Kami give me the patience not to hurl my boomerang at them inside the goshintai...)
She was so eager to get this done, to finally get back home to help her father locate that devil-spawned hanyou that could shift faces, that any minor distraction was jarring on her sanity. Already this case which she had planned on solving immediately had taken two full days out of her tied up schedule. (Last time I was home, chichi-ue said he was moving the clan to Matsudo were the Murakami family lives. He suspects the Shape-shifter is there, manipulating the soul of Gorou Murakami's son but I can't go with them unless I get this finished right now!)
She sighed.
( Dammit, Kagome, where are--)
Just then the doors drew open, the burly, red-faced form of the Head of the police force barging in, an array of angry looking men rearing him.
Yoshitoshi started opening his mouth to spat some hateful accusation when Sango stood up and pointed a finger at him. "How dare you come in here like a flock of angry demons!" she demanded "What's the meaning of this?"
Yoshitoshi stopped, mouth agape, left eye spasming imperceptibly. "Wha-! Y—You!" he managed to say at last. "How dare you talk to me in that preposterous manner!"
Sango was unperturbed. She might be hurt and rugged looking, but no-one messed with the taijiya's clan heir. "I will speak to you as your manner befits it. You are being noisy and downright rude," she huffed, crossing her arms, seeming not to care that her previous finger pointing had also been rather rude. Instead, she decided to chide them. "And bow in respect, this is your mistress' sick-rooms."
There was a pause. She gave them The Look.
Someone at the back coffed. Then came the shuffling of many heads bowing. Yes, she could be as intimidating as any other when she wished to.
Yoshitoshi remained upright. "Now listen here, girl, I will not be s—"
"Where is Kagome?" Sango plunged on carelessly, scanning the small, rather embarrassed looking crowd.
Yoshitoshi was seeing red. "Answer me girl! Who approved of you being he—"
"Ehrmm...She is not here yet, taijiya-sama," Ueda replied slowly, eyes focused of the Police commander's now rather pronounced eye-tick.
"Do not interrupt me when I am talk—"
"I'm here!" came the sudden response from a panting, huffing Kagome that was leaning against one of the carved door's edge. "Sorry 'bout the delay."
Yoshitoshi was now seeing purple. "I cannot believe the disrespect I am being sub—"
"Now, now, Kochii-san. There's no need for such anger," came Mashimo's voice from behind Kagome. The men parted to allow them way in, Kagome padding directly towards the lying, moaning child, her features worried. She bowed deeply and made a mental prayer for her recovery. "How is she, Sango-san?"
Sango shrugged. "Pretty much the same. Hasn't changed that much since yesterday. She's got a fever now, too." Sango eyed the child, the yellowish, papery skin of her face, the small, opened mouth that was so laborously gasping for breath. "I think she might be fading..."
Kagome gasped –just like half the men in the room-and covered her mouth. "You—you mean..."
Sango nodded. She moved to a small cherry wood stand to the left and picked up a little blue tinged pot. She carried it back to Kagome and knelt next to her, beginning to explain how they would go about using the potion.
As the men were being ushered out by a nervous Tatakai, the raised voices of an abashed Yoshitashi and a drained out Mashimo were heard distinctly clear coming from the outside.
"I cannot believe you are allowing this, Director! It's is dangerous! Preposterous! Our Lady can very well perish in the hands of those—those foolish children!"
"Please, Kochii-san, calm down. They are experienced and they're the best there are in their fields; I'm sure everything will turn out alright in the end."
"But the daisaiin--"
"Kochii-san, please understand..."
A meaningful pause. A sigh. "They're our last hope."
Finally the doors were closed, and a much welcome silence permeated the place.
"So," Kagome said slowly, trying to override the drumming of her heart on her ears as that last phrase echoed in her skull. "I have to drink this and I have to feel for her aura, like a normal soul-connection, right?"
"Hai, pretty much. After that you'll feel..." Sango scratched her head, mildly puzzled. "Actually, I don't know what you'll feel exactly but you will probably begin to see images, or hear the voices on her head being projected to you..."
Kagome cocked her head, dubious. "Like in a movie?"
Sango smiled slightly. "Yeah, I s'ppose." She dabbed the child's forehead again. "Try to focus on what she is feeling, where is her pain located. See if you can rummage through her memories to get a view of what happened that day, who attacked her and, above all else, what exactly did that person do. We can work from there, then."
Kagome swished the cup around lightly in her hands, making the liquid in it stir. She brooded. "Shouldn't there be like, a ceremony or something? You know... to secure my success or whatever?" Yes, ok, maybe she did pay some attention to her grandfather's greatly obssessed teachings on how to correctly perform holy rites. And maybe she was starting to believe in them, too. Or maybe she was just being paranoid.
(Most definetely the latter...)
Sango looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Kagome bit her lip. "Well, it's just that...Oh, I don't know, we went through so much trouble to get the eye and all and now I just had to drink this...stuff and puff! That's it." She shrugged. "It's seems too easy, that's all." (...and boy do I know that things are never as easy as they look...At least, not for me anyway.)
"Well, now that you mention it..." the huntress drawled slowly, head cocked, knowing eyes gazing sideways at the now despirited young miko. "There is an ancient rite that was used to be performed in cases such as this..."
(Yep. I knew it. There is a-always a 'but'.)
"But it's not truly necessary. I mean, the important thing is only drinking the potion and connecting auras, that's all. Are you sure you wanna know?"
"Of course! Maybe there is something I can use to...protect myself."
"I don't think—"
"Oh, please Sango-san, just tell me!" She even managed a small pout.
Sango waved one hand in the air carelessly. "Oh, it's nothing much, really. It's just a five-steps ceremony dating from the..uhmm...let's see...160's I believe, where the leading priestess will try to communicate with the Gods of Protection to safeguard her journey within another's soul by first, petitioning through a three-days-long vocal chant –without pausing for water or food, mind you," Sango added in her full blown scholar-mode.
Kagome's eyes began to widen to alien saucer proportions.
Sango just smiled.
"Yes, well, in the second stage the priestess is garmented with the traditional twnety layered kimono –some, let's see, 60 to 70 pounds of flowing silk, more or less- and she has to dance around the shrine's compound for the Gods from sunrise to sunset..."
"...Don't tell me, without stopping for breath, right?" Kagome said in a thread-like tenor.
Sango smiled. "Exactly. On the fifth day, the priestess will perform the 'ritual exposure of her flesh'" –There came a distinct choke from Kagome at this bit- "where she will attempt to lure the God's sympathy by allowing her virginal body to be tainted by the panting looks of a hundred lustful males," Sango continued all professionally, eyes closed and nodding for serious emphasis.
Kagome's left eye began to twitch. There was a huge ball of... something –probably incredulity- blocking the passage of air on her throat, and the blood that was supposed to flow through to her head had long ago lodged itself on the vecinity of her feet.
"On the fourth stage, the priestess is required to willingly leap into a burning pyre or she can choose another to do this step as, well, if she's the one that has to go into the sick person's soul, she won't be able to do it if she's all burnt up and dead, right? So, well, on the seventh day-and mind you, I personally think this is the easiest part...
"...she has to pee a mirror."
By this time, Kagome was just simply kneelin upright, eyes-half lidded, face scrunched. "P—pee a mirror?"
"Well, yes. It is a way of defiling your own image or something... It's like showing the Gods you are so commited to your cause that you don't care for your pride or womanly beauty. I think. I can never remember that last bit..." and Sango had the gall of seeming to be deeply pondering this!
A pause.
"It's...a joke, right?"
Sango was sincerely taken aback. "Of course not! It's an ancestral tradition passed from generation to generation of priests and warriors through ti—"
Kagome put her hands over her ears to cover the droning of the other's voice and exploded. "Ok, ok, fine! I got it! I'll just drink it and be done with it, ok? No rite, no safeguarding, no peeing mirrors, no nothing. I just don't want to know anymore, thank you!"
Sango shrugged. "Told you so." She placed a hand on Kagome's shoulder. "Now, could you please take that potion already and be done with it? I have other things to do."
"Ok, ok, jeez." She looked at the depths of the small pot as if waiting for a signal. The liquid swiveled inside, a clear blue. Sighing, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, murmured "Kanpai!" and drowned it in one gulp.
Sango stared at her fixedly, expectant.
Kagome lowered the pot to her lap, cleared her throat. Waited. Then turned her head and addressed her companion, "This is disgusting. It tastes like fish-bowl water!"
Sango sagged in her place, tension easing out of her back. Laughed. "Yes, well, it does come from a sea Kami..." She passed a hand through her hair. "So, feel any different?"
Kagome cocked her head, studied her hands and knees. "No, actually. I just feel utterly sick on the stomach. Should I feel different?"
"I would suppose... I've never done this before, but according to what I've read there should be light and magic surrounding you, you know," she shrugged. "All that firework dazzle."
"I don't feel like shooting comets out of my hands, if that's what you mean," Kagome replied mildly. She crawled to sit nearer to the child, placed both her hands hovering down over her forehead –palms down-, began chanting softly.
Sango felt the rise of Kagome's spirit-aura. There was no light or blurry mist whatsoever (Damn exaggerated scrolls!), but the air was beginning to charge as if preparing for a summer storm. She stared attently as the other girl's hands hovered over Kajiura-redi's now muted face, completely still, fingers parted. Kagome's chant began to slowly recede, to fade, her shoulders sagging, face relaxing...
...but then there came a sizzle, a spicy tinge in the quiet air of the room. Kagome was tensing again, brows furrowed.
Sango, worried, tried to stand up and approach her, when suddenly Kagome fell forward, limp...
...into the open arms of a now completely awake grand priestess.
Sango gasped and fell back on her rear, shocked.
The child sat up with half of Kagome in her little arms, red hair fanning round her shoulders and spilling over the golden silk of her chihaya. Her eyes were burgundy red, deep. Impassive.
"Mi-milady...?" Sango hushed, stunned.
The child didn't respond nor turned to her. She moved a hand up to Kagome's white, deadly-looking face and caressed her cheek. "At last you came. But it is too late now, Kikyou..." she murmured softly, strangely, as if talking to her favourite hina.
A little girl with her favourite doll.
The picture in front of her was so sudden and disturbing, that Sango just sat sprawled on the floor, paralized. Entranced.
Kajiura blinked, eyes red and calm. She was moving her hand to Kagome's hip, right where her old scar was located, little fingers appearing from under the recesses of her sleeve spreading, not touching the miko's dirty shirt.
The air grew heavy, stuffy. Ominious. Sango choked on it, stretched her arm out.
A pulse.
Kajiura retreated her small hand abruptly, now fisted, as if pulling an invisible thread.
A pulse.
Light, shining, blinding...
...something bursting out from Kagome's flesh like a bullet.
No blood. No pain. Just the child's smile as she looked up, Kagome's dead stillness, and Sango's mind screaming.
The Shikon Pearl hovering like a small star over their heads.
--------------------
Oh, and, by the way, those things I wrote about the protecting ritual are actually true! Isn't that amazing? I read it a couple of months ago, in a book called: "Enduring Identities: the guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan" when I was doing a paper for Oriental History. The ritual is to ask the Gods for their protection in times of drought or something, so I modified it a bit to suit it here (I just had to, I mean, it's awesome!). So, hope you'd enjoyed it, too.
Glossary of Japanese words:
Senkensha: seer
Zojoji no Jinja: The Zojoji Temple
Ohagi: little balls made of sweetened rice
Kodai buumu: interest in the past, a person's history.
Nishi-kei: Western Lord
Ryou-ue: Higher Dragon
Koma-inu: a pair of statues, ussually dogs, that face each other within the temple's ground. They serve as protection against evil spirits and they're rumoured to attack any who dare enter a temple with bad intentions.
Haiden: s shrine's lower hall of worship. Also, the place were a shrine's meetings take place.
Saiin: main priestess
Shoten: male clergy
Raijin-ten: thunder God, protector of warriors.
Ten-no-Kami: Heavenly Gods
Goshintai: "the most sacred place"
Kanpai: the japanese equivalent for "Cheers!"
Hina: a she-doll.
-----------------------
Appreciations and review answers:
My most humbles thanks to ChildlikeEmpress; Media; Nakshatra; Reiko; Hoku-chan; Flame Ivy Moon; Psychotic priestess; Seshaddict; and all the others who might be reading under the guise of anonymous followers!
Now for the question answering:
Media: Sorry about the delay, terrible attitude on my part, I know, but well, back from the dead as they say. Anyway, thanks for following this story, and I promise, no more 6-months-long-lapsus from my part. )
Nakshatra: Yay! You really follow my story? Well, thanks! Umm…you asked if I was Japanese or was studying it, it's the latter, actually. I've been studying it for two years now, and truly, I love it. It's one of the reasons why I started writing this, to practice my history and culture background. Thanks for reading this and all your comments are always welcome.
Reiko: No! It cannot be! You have unraveled my deep dark secret! (woes be) Jejeje…yes, indeed I am using the name of a singer for the daisaiin's. Why? Not quite sure, actually. Most of the new characters in my stories have the names of Japanese actors or singers, I think it's because I like how they sound….Besides, most of the Japanese names have some sort of meaning, you know, so I don't feel like inventing them or mixing them in case I'm somehow cursing someone or something –one of my greatest fears.
----------------
C.o.m.t.e.s.s.a