Chapter 5, Let's Party!!!
"How about that one, Kagome?"
"The one with the blue sea waves? I love it!"
"Really? But I was thinking more of the one with the cherry blossoms…"
"Oh yeah…"
That was pretty much all Kagome and Sango did for the rest of the day, picking out kimonos. It was hideous work but hey, boy did they have fun! In the end Sango picked out a light purple kimono with faint pink sakura blossoms embroidered on it and Kagome picked the one with white flowers that floated like clouds over the light blue background. They didn't notice it but time flew by very quickly. Just when they got dressed Yumi came in the door, telling them that it's almost time for the feast to start. Kagome panicked, "Sango, we haven't even done our hair!" Sango remained calm and got Yumi to help. They barely made it to the feast on time. Unknown to Kagome, her mother was watching her the whole time and her daughter's cheerfulness made her smile.
Kagome and Sango made their way to the dining hall, walking as gracefully as they could. When two servants opened the door for them, Kagome couldn't believe her eyes. The Hall was richly decorated before, but even more so today. Silk banners of red and gold dropped from the ceiling, bamboo bushes hung with strings of gold stood elegantly between rows of exquisitely carved and well polished redwood round tables. Thousands of candles and red paper lanterns lit up the hall like bright stars in the night sky. Today the dining hall was truly grand.
"Sango, look at it!" Kagome whispered, couldn't quite catch her breath. Sango didn't answer, she just stood there and gawked. Kagome was a princess all her life, she bathed in beauty and luxury, yet she was astounded by the Hall's decorations. But Sango was an ordinary village girl until two years ago when she came into the palace. So you could imagine how she must felt. The two snapped out of their trance when they realized that the guests were starting to arrive. They quickly found their spots to sit near the Emperor and Empress.
At first Kagome was a bit scared to face her parents, but her fear disintegrated when she saw both her parents winking at her. Kagome's father spoke up, "Kagome, your mother talked to me about your, um, opinion. We don't have to announce anything tonight. You and Koga can take it slowly. You know, get to know each other a bit. He's an agreeable young man and I'm sure you will like him." Kagome was nearly jumped with joy. Although she would like her parents to call off the engagement altogether, but at least this was a start. She hugged her father, "Thanks Daddy." Then, she smiled at her mother. The shadow of helplessness the engagement had brought was lifted, though did not completely go away. Kagome was cheerful and happy once more, and she intended to have fun tonight.
"Hurry up ya slow poke!" Inuyasha yelled impatiently as he stopped to wait for Miroku for the tenth time. "Inuyasha keep it down," Miroku warned, looking around with alert. Inuyasha gave out a small "feh" then said, "Don't worry Miroku. There ain't anyone near us. My nose didn't pick out any human scent. But still, you are pretty slow." "Inuyasha you are a demon and I'm human," Miroku said, "and it's not my fault that Shikon people built so many walls around their palace. And it's not my fault that they placed guards at every entrance so we have to climb over the walls. And it's still not my fault that you can just jump over and I have to climb." "But it was your idea to attend the feast in the first place," replied Inuyasha. And it's STILL not my fault that you are so obsessed with Kikyo I just had to drag you here, Miroku added mentally.
Miroku let out a sigh of relief when they climbed over the last wall and arrived at the central courtyard. He looked around in awe; it was really a sight to see. The courtyard back in the gloomy palace of Western Kingdom was left untended, on the ground there was nothing but plain gravel, saving occasionally a couple of weeds. But the Shikon courtyard was entirely paved in square blocks of gray-blue mountain rock. They were of the toughest kind and excellent quality, yet somehow the Shikon stonemasons managed to cut them in perfectly straight lines. And it was vast. You could assemble a great army here and everybody would fit comfortably. But the real magnificence was the buildings that surrounded the courtyard themselves. They were also huge. The central palace, which was obviously built for the Emperor and his family, stood about five or six stories high, had yellow roofs with corners that arrogantly curved up and thick red walls. Four towers with the flags of Shikon stood proudly at the corners, guarding the main palace. Four poles stood in front of the gateway in a rectangle, two intersecting ropes hang on them. On the ropes a hundred red lanterns swayed aloft, their vivid light made the palace look even more brilliantly forboding. For a while, Miroku could do nothing but gawking at the sight.
Inuyasha, however, had absolutely no interest in the scenery. He was more concerned with them not being discovered. He perked up his nose and glanced up toward the towers with his superior demon vision. What he saw were slumping forms of sleeping guards, and his nose picked up the scent of alcohol. Inuyasha listened attentively with the white dog ears perched on top of his head, the snoring from the guards were audible even at this distance. Looks like there are all drunk, Inuyasha thought, useless humans. There must be some sort of local festivity tonight. Still he didn't let his guard down. He dragged Miroku along and the two crept silently under the dark shadow casted by the palace walls.
One way or another Inuyasha and Miroku got past the suspicious guards and entered the grand hall. The sight astounded even Inuyasha. A large group of extravagantly dressed lords and ladies were drinking and making merry, their mood was contagious. Soon, our two uninvited guests were feeling almost, welcome. And they blended in just fine. For once in his life Miroku's not wearing the deep blue monk robe, his beloved staff, which he never parted with before, was left at the inn. Instead, he was dressed in the kimono of a rich lord. His hairstyle was still the same, short with a tiny ponytail at the back, but it suited his garments just fine. Inuyasha was still wearing his usual red haori, with his precious sword Tetsusaiga, the Iron Crushing Fang, dangling at his hip. But today he added another shorter sword, and he carefully concealed his dog ears with a straw hat. To everyone else, he was just a brave samurai who had the honour of attending the Emperor's grand feast.
"Okay Inuyasha," Miroku said while rubbing his hands together gleefully, stealing glances at the two most tempting things in the world, food and women, "We're here, safe and sound. So, LET'S PARTY!!!"
A/N: Please, please don't tell me I still have verb tense mistakes in this chapter! Oh well, at least I'm getting better. A reviewer pointed out the same thing for my other fanfic. (sigh) I guess you can never have enough editing.
For the decorations and appearance of the hall and Shikon palace, I must point out that I didn't write it according to Japanese culture. I'm not Japanese. Though I really like the country's culture I have only a few clue how they decorate their castles and palaces in the ancient times. So I kinda cheated. I described according to Chinese style, especially the outer appearance of the palace and those lovely red lanterns. I'm going to write the Western Palace according to Japanese style though, that annoying castle of Naraku's was forever carved into my brain. I once seen a castle in the mist photo in a National Geographic. It was for a samurai article and I was just absolutely enchanted by it. I'm going to use that too. By the way, there was a photo of a samurai sword too. It was OTHERWORLDLY. It was one of the most beautiful thing I've ever seen created by man. My friend agrees too, but she went back to Korea. (cry) Anyway that would be another story.