Pride


She was always working - to better herself, to help others, to perform her duties with the utmost of her abilities. She would not - could not - do less than perfection.

She was certain that no one could do more and do it better than she. Her entire life was dedicated to divine duty and work.

She kept the shrine spotless, she tended to the ill, she cared for the village community with care and delicacy. She was kind, she was beautiful, she was perfect.

So, it was no wonder that it was to her that the duty of protecting the jewel of four souls was entrusted. Only she was strong enough, pure enough to carry out that duty. And, for so many months, she did just that, fighting youkai, defending the jewel and the village.

For a long time she was content, her proud spirit sated by the adoration, by the knowledge of her status, by the quiet understanding that she was the only one who could be the Shikon Miko.

But, as the time passed, she realized that pride couldn't replace the comradery, the intimate ties enjoyed by so many under her protection. She grew tired of killing monsters, grew sorrowful, yet she wouldn't - couldn't - relinquish her duty.

After all, she was the only one, the only one so pure and so perfect to hold the jewel away from the foul darkness.

It was long after her death and return, after months of fighting a vile foe, after suffering a wound full of miasma, did she learn the value of humility, when another girl, so inferior to her, healed what she could not purify.