Hello lovely people, and welcome to the second chapter of Catch The Rain!

I always feel like the first chapters of my fics are over-introduced to hell, so I'll let you off lightly if you managed to get through the novel of my notes in the last chapter. No hours of reading the notes before you get to the actual chapter this time. Just this: if you enjoy my writing, consider checking out my other fics: In The Jaws Of The Wolf, a Koga fic, Perfidious, a Bankotsu fic and Miasma, a Naraku fic

Go on and enjoy this chapter!


WARNING There is mention of drug usage in this chapter.


Catch The Rain

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet
- Roger Miller


The first thing I became aware of when I started to wake was a throbbing in the back of my head.

Damn... What had I done last night? I didn't usually feel the headache part of a hangover kick in until I at least moved a little bit. That was why my usual moring after big nights started with a long stint lying in bed trying to convince myself that I'd be absolutely fine if I moved, and failing almost every time. With a headache already beginning to form, I had to ask myself whether it was just booze I'd had last night. It wasn't exactly uncommon but I didn't usually blackout from a high, and mixing wasn't my style.

The more I wallowed in the pain, the more I could pick through it.

No, there was no way this was a headache from anything I'd consumed. It throbbed in a way I'd never felt from a hangover. I was starting to recognise the pain, though.

My bet was that if I touched the area, I'd feel a nice fat bruise. What the fuck had happened last night?!

Oh.

No...

Dread washing through me as things I really hoped was a fucked up dream and not actual memories began to seep back into my aching, frazzled brain.

I cracked an eye open, wincing against the pain.

"Fuck my life," I grunted, rolling onto my back and staring up at the wooden roof of whatever stupid LARPing nightmare hut I was in. That weird two-day trip through the forests of butt-fuck nowhere wasn't a dream. I had seen that weird impossible silver-haired guy pinned to a tree, and been assaulted by those bastards with ancient weapons dragging me to their village of freaks.

Which meant one of them had slapped me.

I was gonna kill him.

Just as soon as I got out of this rope still wrapped around my wrists.

My gaze turned over the room again with a more discerning eye, trying to find something I could use to cut the rope keeping my wrists bound together. My handbag and the bag I had stolen from that silver-haired guy were lying not too far from me.

Too easy.

That really was too easy. Had it been searched? I wouldn't surprised if my bag was half empty. Who would leave a potential weapon with someone that they'd captured and tied up - no matter how willing the capture had been at first. It wasn't so much by the time I had been knocked out, which made the fact that my bag looked entirely untouched even more surprising.

These idiots, apparently, were the type of people who would leave a potential weapon with someone that they'd captured.

My multitool was in the pocket it was always in, right beside the corpse of my phone. That would have probably come in handy right about yesterday when this whole mess had begun. It was just about useless now though. Unless I sed it as a club. The damned thing was sturdy enough. Even I hadn't been able to kill it over the years I had been using it.

Internally debating the usefulness of a dead phone was quickly passed up for a thought that was actually useful. Getting my multitool out and trying to flick out the blade wasn't an easy job with my hands tied so tightly as they were, but I persevered. Then I had a job trying to get myself into a position to be able to use that newly opened knife. I ended up curled up into something similar to the fetal position, with my knees pressed together the tightest they had ever been and the knife held between them. I tried to hold it as still as I possibly could so I could actually use the blade. I bet I would even be able to keep an aspirin in place right now, for the first time in my life. Boy would my Christian mother be proud. There was a first time for everything.

I'd do something else to disappoint her soon enough.

Like a moment later, when I started sawing the rope up and down on the blade, looking for all the world like I was giving some stupid invisible spirit the handjob of their life.

Most important handjob of my life.

One of the quickest, too. I was in the habit of keeping my multitool blade as sharp as it could be just in case I really needed to do some damage to someone. The straw of the rope gave way to the blade real quick. My poor knife wasn't going to like that, though. I'd have it some good TLC when I finally got home. Not that that was unusual. That knife was the best-treated item I owned.

Within minutes, I was massaging some feeling back into my sore, tingling fingers. Next time I saw Rikichi, I was going to beat the meaning of RACK into his head. I felt sorry for whoever he was shaking up with if this was the way he tied a person up.

It isn't fun unless everyone's having fun, Rikichi.

With a sigh, I slumped against the wooden wall of the building. I needed to figure out a way out of here. It didn't look like the door was locked, so getting out of this shed wasn't going to be too much of a problem, at least. It was what came after that I was more worried about.

If the jars and packs in the building I was in was anything to go by, this was the village's storage shed. I didn't see any modern amenities amongst the old jars, though I didn't look too deeply or really fancy rooting around. I could use that time to be planning.

Was this a reenactment village that I'd stumbled on? They were hardcore reenactors if that was the case. My head was aching like a bitch.

But... what sort of reenactors just attacked a person that was clearly not in their game? I certainly didn't fit in with these guys in my bra and tiny skirt. Nothing about what I was wearing said kimono.

What if they weren't reenactors?

As I pondered, I began to dig through my bag for the pack of painkillers I kept at the bottom of it. I pressed out two and swallowed them dry.

If they weren't reenactors, what was happening?

My mind hopped back to that celestial plane idea. Were they really just ancient people my mind had conjured up in a big weird hallucination I was having? If they were, maybe I wasn't as safe as I could be. If these guys weren't people that lived the way I did - or in some approximation of the civilization I knew, because damn in they lived just like I did, they'd be way more jaded than I could deal with - then I could be in some actual danger. Would they actually hurt me if I gave them a chance to?

I gripped my multitool again for comfort.

Working on that theory, what could I do?

What did I already know? It was a small village, though the people of that village clearly had weapons. If the number of huts I had seen on the way to the village was anything to go by, there likely weren't too many people living here. Those people couldn't all be men. There had to be women and children, people that were sick and elderly. I wouldn't have to fight all of them to get out of this. I knew there were at least three men that could pose a problem. I'd be surprised if there were only three to worry about, though. I didn't think I could even go against three of them in a real fight. I could throw a few punches, but I couldn't actually fight. Between some self-defense classes in Scouts, and a handful of Judo lessons I'd been made to go to before I kicked up enough of a fuss that my mom actually let me stop going, I knew a little, but nowhere enough to actually win a fight.

So running out there guns blazing and looking for a fight wasn't going to be in my best interest. I would prepare for a fight, but it wasn't something I was hoping for. If I could avoid one, I would.

Though I was in a mood, and fighting something sounded like a path I really wanted to take.

Take...

They'd mentioned taking me to someone that would take care of me, hadn't they? Their tone hadn't meant fluffing up a pillow and fetching me a nice warm meal. This woman's taking care of me likely wouldn't be too great for me.

What was her name...?

Kaede. Lady Kaede.

Pretty name. I wondered if she would be just as pretty to meet. Would she be dangerous to me? Was she someone that I really had to worry about? Experience told me that fighting with a woman was just as scary as fighting with a man. Women could get really vicious when they got going. I was a pretty vicious bitch myself if I really got stuck into a brawl. I'd pulled out extensions and scratched at eyes with the best of them.

I definitely had the nails for a catfight right now.

But would this even devolve into a fight? I couldn't assume that everyone would fight me, could I?

It probably would. I was involved, after all, and I wasn't happy about the situation in the slightest. I was ready to fight, everyone else's wishes be damned.

What were the chances of being able to get out of here without a fight breaking out, though? If I just sat here and waited for this Lady Kaede to show up, and tried to just talk to her and hash things out like adults?

Nah, fuck that. I wasn't waiting for shit.

If I had to fight my way out of here, I was going to do it, and take people's eyes out if I needed to.

That decided, I hoisted myself up from my sitting position, clutching tighter to my multitool. I flicked the blade back into the handle and pocketed it, keeping my hand in my pocket so I could whip it out quick if I needed it. If this was going to end in all hellfire than I was going to get it over with quickly. There was no use sitting on my thumb as things happened around me. Waiting for things to come to me had never been my style. I wasn't about to make it my style now, either.

I just wanted to get out of here and try and find a way home.

I paused at the doorway, though.

Not only was the door not locked, it barely even counted as a door. What I thought was a solid door without looking at it too deeply turned out to be nothing more than a woven mat tied to the doorframe on closer inspection.

Where was the security here?

There was no way a door like this was safe even without an escaped prisoner on the loose. How did people not just walk in and steal from here? It'd be far too easy. Their prisoner security was shitty, too. It hadn't exactly been difficult to get out of their ropes. I wasn't being particularly resourceful, either. There were a thousand ways to cut ropes. It wouldn't have taken me long to find another way if I didn't have my multitool.

Outside brought with it the same security issues as the inside had. Meaning there seemed to be no form of security. There were no men to speak of in the area. I had stepped out into what looked like the village square, where women sat and watched over children playing now the rain had broken.

Were... were they stupid? I'd attacked one of their own. I was sure the men that had dragged me here would be feeling the kicks I'd gotten on them before being knocked out for quite a while. I bet I wasn't exactly a big threat to them, but I was still a threat. I'd attacked theirs, and now they let me close to their children? It would only take a few seconds to grab one of the kids. They could be great hostages or bargaining chips if I needed them.

But seeing how little they seemed to worry about me almost made me feel bad about wanting to fight them. I was a bitch, but I wasn't an attacking-innocent-women-and-children bitch.

Were they counting on that?

That was stupid, too.

They didn't know me or what I was capable of.

My hesitation at the doorway to the shed was enough for the women across the square to notice me. They were calling the children to them within seconds. The kids didn't even hesitate to run to their parents. What sort of kids were they, that they just dropped their play to run to their moms? I stopped doing that when I was at my mom's knees.

This place was getting weirder and weirder.

"Ye woke earlier than expected, girl."

My head snapped around to the new voice, the haggard voice of an old woman. What I found was the old woman I expected to see. She had to be in her sixties, worn from life and hunched, wearing some really familiar clothing.

She was a shrine maiden. She looked nothing like the shrine maiden I had been arguing with yesterday back in Yokohama. Back when the world made sense.

That was why they'd left me there alone in an open shed? They thought I'd be unconscious for longer. Still not really a good reason for their lack of concern.

I had more important things to do, though. Like deck the asshole stood to the maiden's right. I strode forward with purpose, hands clenching into fists as best they could with the long nails I had as I approached. "You better have something to say for yourself, asshole."

Rikichi flinched back as I approached.

The only thing that saved him from a fist to the face was the old shrine maiden's arm coming up between us. "Mayhap now is not the time for violence. Ye were brought here because ye were found in the Forest of InuYasha. Explain to us the reason for being in such a heinous place?"

Forest of InuYasha. Yeah, I'd heard that before. From Rikichi yesterday. The men had mentioned the forest's name, too. A heinous place, though? I didn't think so. It just seemed like a regular place, besides the freaky silver-haired guy. Was he InuYasha? What sort of ridiculous name was that? InuYasha?

"I was just passing through, looking for people." I decided truthful was probably my best bet here. Kaede didn't come across as hostile. I was still geared up for a fight, but talking might get me some information that I wanted. Like where I was and what was going on. If they knew anything about it. I wasn't so positive they would.

"What was it ye were hoping to find when ye found people?" she questioned. There was obvious distrust in her expression. I couldn't say I didn't blame her for it. Not trusting me was natural as breathing to some people.

"A cellphone, maybe," I answered with a dry sort of amusement, already anticipating a clueless response.

I wasn't disappointed. Kaede and Rikichi shared confused looks before turning back to me. "Cell-phone," Kaede repeated in a broken tone, like she was tasting the words for the very first time.

Well, look at that.

"You got somewhere we can sit and talk, granny? And maybe some booze. I got a feeling this is gonna be a long conversation."


The conversation was predictably a long one.

Kaede had guided me to her home at the base of a tall set of stairs, probably leading to the shrine she cared for. I got the same nauseous feeling I always got around shrines as we sat around the hearth in the centre of her hut.

I'd silently and pointedly stared at the okayu in a pot on the hearth until Kaede offered me a bowl. I got halfway through swallowing it down before I was prompted to start talking. I'd held up a finger to Kaede and took a few more bites. I hadn't eaten an actual proper meal for days. Laura had ordered me take-out a couple days ago. I had absolutely decimated it but hadn't really eaten anything substantial since then. Just the fruits and berries I'd found wandering through InuYasha's Forest.

There was no booze offered, though. I guess that was too big of an ask. Weren't shrine maidens supposed to be pure and virtuous? Alcohol didn't exactly aid in virtuous behaviour.

Her prompting came with a sharp clearing of her throat the second time around, and with a little sigh, I started, warning her that questions could come after storytime, and not a moment before it was finished.

I had no intention of stopping and starting to answer stupid little questions.

She'd conceded with an irritated set to her strong brow, and after another bite of okayu, I started.

I breezed over the events of yesterday morning, giving her the bare necessities of being from another place, up until tripping through the torii. Granny Kaede didn't need to know anything about my life prior to appearing here in this weird place. I wasn't airing anything I didn't need to. Then I had been a little more open about giving details, about how different this place was to what I was used to. There were so few similarities between here and where I was from.

My story finished with a curse at Rikichi that had Granny Kaede pressing her weathered lips together firmly.

"Forgive me, but ye cannot think I am to believe that ye are from another world."

Fair point, Granny. It was pretty far-fetched, even if this was just one big fever dream.

"Ever see someone like me walking around before?" I could almost guarantee the answer was a resounding no. So far everyone I'd seen in this place looked like they were from a period drama from hundreds of years ago. If any of them had ever seen denim, I would be thoroughly surprised.

"No," she responded, eyes roving over my clothing with a disapproving tenseness I certainly wasn't unfamiliar with. People her age judged my clothes no matter where I was apparently. "Such strange clothes. I've never seen the like."

Of course you haven't, Granny. I was starting to think I had actually time traveled. I wasn't about to truly believe that, though. Time travel was crazy. "So I need to find a way back home, back to Yokohama."

Granny Kaede let out a little noise of recognition. "I know Yokohama. A small fishing village in the direction of the Goat. Just a day's walk from here."

That... wasn't what I wanted to hear. That really wasn't what I wanted to hear.

Time travel was sounding way more likely.

A fever dream was still closer to what I was hoping for. If I could just wake up and be at home, I'd be happy. Even if I was in the hospital dying, that was better than here in this abysmal hell. If this was the past, then there wouldn't even be electricity. I was not okay with living without a hairdryer. I liked my shag, but I needed to maintain it for it to not look like something had curled up and died on my head. I didn't just wake up to a perfect shag every day. I wished.

What happened if I had to stay here in this place for a long while?

They didn't have bleach here in ancient Japan, did they? I was gonna end up with way-overgrown roots. That was even more not okay than not having a hairdryer for daily use.

At least my makeup bag was in my handbag. That was a small mercy. Life wouldn't be worth living if I couldn't look good doing it.

"What year is it?"

My abrupt question was met with surprise from the woman, who'd been stoking the fire between us as I brooded in my thoughts. "Ye don't know?"

"Uh hello? Different fucking world? Can you just give me a damned answer, Granny?!" I snapped back. Hadn't she just been listening to me talk?

She drew up with a proud set to her jaw, but she gave me my answer. "We are in the twenty-third year of Tenbun."

Of course, I wouldn't get a useful date. Why would I? That would be too damned much. Not I had to actually try and remember history. Dammit. Tenbun... Tenbun... I'd fucked with my brain way too much since school to remember all this shit. I swear, if I remember this, I would cut back on the drinking and the drugs.

No, I wouldn't, but it was a promise to be made nonetheless.

I squinted, staring into the fire as I tried to remember important dates from history classes.

This was such a headache.

"Oh shit." I felt sick. Tenbun. I remembered now, though I really wish that I didn't. That was in the Muromachi period. We were in the Warring States. The fucking Warring States. "Oh, fuck."

I pressed my hands to my face and gave a shaky breath, trying to count to ten in my mind. That didn't do much to calm me down. Whoever came up with the numbers counting thing was talking a load of shit. "If I can just like, wake up right now, that'd be fucking awesome. Or drop dead. That'll work too. Anything but be here when I open my eyes."

I was actually scared to open my eyes again. It took me a long moment to build up the courage to spread my fingers so I could peek out between them.

Granny Kaede's unimpressed stare was not the sight I wanted to see again between the blurry lines of my fingers. My wish had been ignored by those above, and my hopes for getting home safely were shattered. I let out a pitiful groan, scrubbing my hands roughly over my face. "No, no no no, no nooo."

"What ail ye, girl?" There was shock and actual worry in Kaede's voice.

"We're in the Warring States," I pointed out needlessly, voice muffled by my hands over my face. The nausea I was feeling was just bubbling up and churning worse and worse the more my mind picked away at that fact. "It's a wonder I even made it here without being killed."

Not to say that nothing happened, of course. The painkillers were kicking in, but the dull throb in the back of my head was absolutely still there. I wasn't totally unscathed, but at least I was alive. Between constant battles and the threat of bandits running free with little in the way of solid laws here, I was thoroughly surprised I'd made it walking two days without much trouble.

If it wasn't for the rest of this fucked up situation, I might have called myself one of the luckiest bitches in the world. But, as much as I didn't want it to be real, I was still very much stuck in a world I didn't know, with laws and morals very different from the world I was used to, and very little to my name. That was not lucky.

"War," I moaned, nails biting into my head as I tried to process the fact that war was on my doorstep and I had no idea how to avoid it. "What the Hell am I supposed to do? I can't handle war. I can barely even fucking handle getting out of bed before noon."

And the last time I'd done that, I'd ended up in this shitty situation anyway. I was never waking up early again. It was clearly bad for my health.

"Calm, girl," Kaede tried to soothe. "War has yet to reach this place."

Yeah, I had noticed that. Rikichi was an asshole, but definitely an able-bodied man. The others that had been with him were plenty able-bodied themselves. If war had reached this place, then men like them would have already been conscripted. Just them being here in the village proved that war hadn't reached them yet. But for how long could they rely on that?

Was there a single part of Japan that wasn't influenced by the civil wars breaking out?

This place was safe for now, but for how long?

"I guess I'm staying here for now, then." I poked at the okayu in my bowl, pushing the sticky mass around.

I wanted to get home, but not at the expense of my life. I had a feeling that getting home would mean getting back to where I had appeared in this world and trying to find something to go on there. In such a dangerous time there was no way I was risking my ass for that. Not a chance. I wanted to get home, but I wanted to be alive more.

I chose life over everything else.

Boy, would I miss hairdryers, though.

"Staying here, are ye?" Granny Kaede's tone had developed the sharp, dry edge of someone trying not to lose their wig with someone. I was pretty damned familiar with that tone coming from people when I spoke.

"Well, yeah," I responded with clear annoyance. Duh was another reply I would have given if I was just a few years younger. "If I go back out there alone, who knows what could happen to me? I could stumble on a battle and get hurt, or meet bandits on the road, or a demon." The last one was a bit of dry humour on my part. Demons. Yeah, as if. "And you're a shrine maiden right? Could you live with yourself if you let a poor young girl die out there in the wilds because you turned her away?"

Was I taking advantage of the pure, virtuous lifestyle of a shrine maiden here?

Absolutely.

Did I care about taking advantage?

Absolutely not.

This was my ass on the line, and I wasn't about to risk it. I was staying here until I could figure out how to get back to where I was without ended up on the business end of someone's sword. I didn't care how long that wait was.

Kaede wore the frustrated expression of someone that had been caught. She struck me as quite a strong-willed woman, someone that didn't enjoy the nonsense of others, but she was a maiden, someone that had pledged her life to helping others. I'd put her into a corner and she didn't seem too happy about that. If she tossed me out now, she was going to be going against a lifetime of teachings.

"If ye wish to stay here, girl, ye will have to help. Our village is a poor one and none can afford to take in a hungry mouth without recompense."

Live here, muck in, or get the fuck out. Simple enough, really.

I wasn't exactly thrilled about having to muck in. Without the conveniences I was used to, I had a feeling that any work I had to do would be hard work. That was going to be... Ugh. I certainly wasn't looking forward to it, at any rate. But a bit of hard work for a safe place to stay in an unfamiliar place was something I could try and deal with.

I wouldn't complain.

Much.

Okay that was a flat out lie.

"So what am I going to be doing?" Might as well find out my torture now.

"Ye can be my aid. But we can discuss work come tomorrow. Tonight ye can rest easy and I can look at that ankle for ye."

My ankle. In the wake of the chilling discovery I'd just made, the pain had fallen by the wayside. "Thanks, Granny. It could probably do with some help." At this point, it was probably fucked enough to need a lot of TLC. I hadn't really been in a place where I could rest and ice it.

"Come here, then, and I shall see what I can manage."

I crawled around the hearth and sat back against the wall of the hut, extending my swollen ankle to her. She pulled it onto her lap and prodded at it gently, feeling the area and ignoring my grunts and grumbles. Her fingers were gnarled in her old age, but they were warm and gentle. I couldn't remember the last time someone had touched me so gently.

"Your name, girl. I think mayhap I should know it if we shall be sharing a home for now."

"Watch it, old woman. That hurts." I winced, foot twitching as she pressed on a particularly sore part. "Camille. My name is Camille."

"Kamiru."

"No!" White hot rage coursed through me in the same moment as she pressed a spot that had tears coming to my tired eyes. I jerked my foot back out of her lap and bumped my head against the wall behind me. "Not Kamiru! Don't call me that. Its Camille. Listen, L. La la la la. La. Ca-Mille."

Kaede flinched back when I exploded at her, her expression drawing tight again, but she listened and attempted again to make the L sound that so few people in Japan seemed to be able to master. Her second attempt was just as abysmal as the first.

"Stop. No, nono, just stop. Cami will do. Just call me that."

Though her expression was dubious, Cami came to her tongue a lot easier than Camille.

Just think about how I feel, lady. I didn't like it any more than she did. Cami was too familiar for someone that I barely knew to be calling me. I hated that sort of closeness. But I hated Kamiru more. I would have to deal with it, even if the sound of it made my teeth grit together.

Kaede stood, wincing as her old joints complained at her. "I will get some bandages and a salve for your ankle then leave ye to rest."

"Yeah, sure."


Not too long after Kaede left, a little head poked through the door. One of the village kids.

"Lady Kaede said I gotsa give you this." He held up my handbag in his small hands. The red bag I'd taken from that boy in the forest was tied to the strap of my bag by its strings. Someone had done that for me. Wonder if anything had been taken. Couldn't say I'd be surprised. "Then I gotta leave you to rest."

The boy hesitated in the door, then beamed at me when I gestured for him to come in. His teeth were spaced apart with big gaps. He clearly hadn't grown into his adult teeth yet.

He set my bag up on the raised floor and began to clamor up himself, pausing when he had one leg up on the floor. He looked at me with wide eyes then dropped back down. He pulled off his sandals hurriedly with the sort of panic over something so little that only a kid could have, placed them neatly on the doma floor then hoisted himself up again. I watched with amusement as he picked up my bag and toddled forward, standing before me and thrusting the bag out for me to take.

The boy couldn't have been any older than three.

Why had such a little kid been sent into the lion's den?

I'd barely even been civil to these people. After all that shit, I wouldn't trust me around village children alone. The people in this village were just coming across as more and more stupid to me as time passed.

"Thanks, sprog." I took the offered bag from him and set it on my lap. "You can get going now."

He didn't. The boy shifted back and forth on his little feet as he stood in front of me. It was like a dance. Was that a potty dance? The boy better not need to piss. I was not a babysitter. I did not do kids. Especially kids that needed to piss. I wasn't cleaning up after a kid pissed themself in front of me.

"Lady Kaede says you staying here." He sounded so stinking cute. It was vile.

"Yep." Please go away.

"You're gonna stay and help her protec us?" He couldn't even speak properly yet.

"Yep." Really, please go away, kid.

This is for your benefit, not mine. I was not the person kids should spend any time around. Like ever. It was only a matter of time until I slipped and said something stupid a kid would latch onto. It had happened plenty of times before. I didn't want that on my head in a village that was letting me stay.

Don't do this to me kid. If I was kicked out into war because I accidentally fucked up with a kid, I was going to be so pissed, and this kid would be to blame. I would hold a grudge. I didn't care if he was three.

"I'm Kokichi!"

Cool. Go away. "Cami. Bet your mom's looking for you, kid. Why don't you go find her?"

He pouted, but beamed at me again a moment later, and threw his arms around my neck in a quick hug.

I flinched, and when he didn't let go of me right away, gave his head a pat. That was... appropriate kid affection, right? It worked on dogs well enough. Kids were close enough to that right?

I was so out of my depth.

It seemed to work, though, because he pulled back and grinned at me one more time before scampering off. "Bye, Kami!"

I watched the door after he disappeared out of it, brows drawn together. "Yeah, bye kid," I answered to the silent air. Boy were kids a lot of work. I swear I was never going to have any. Way too much work. I could already feel a headache starting at just the thought of having a kid.

But I had my bag now.

My first point of call was lighting up a cigarette. I shook the box and frowned as I counted up how many I had left. Just fourteen. I had another pack floating around somewhere in my bag, and probably had a couple loose in the bottom of my bag if I got really desperate. That was thirty-four-ish. Not a lot. Damn. That'd only last me a couple of days. If I was here for the longhaul, I was either going to have to ration these guys like crazy, or hope there was some tobacco floating around the area.

When did Japan get tobacco? Couldn't have school taught us important history lessons like that?

My long fingernails tapped anxiously against my leg at the thought of no tobacco.

No tobacco.

Was I going to have to quit?

I was not ready for that. Not in the slightest.

Trying to distract myself from the thought, I reached out for the red bag. Might as well see what goodies I got with that steal. I wasn't holding out for a lot, but there could be something useful in there. Money, maybe?

No such luck.

When I dumped the bag out, it only held a few things, and the majority of it was tat. A blue tasuki, a handful of old coins, a jade magatama on a leather string, and a small wooden box. I counted up the coins quickly. One hundred and seven mon. A veritable fortune.

The only other things in the bag were two lengths of ribbon, one looking considerably older than the other. The older ribbon was silk, a beautiful pale blue colour not too dissimilar to the tasuki. It was old though, and fraying a lot at the edges. The newer ribbon was still not in the best condition. It was off-white, and looked hardier than the other, maybe linen.

The wooden box interested me more than anything else, though, and I reached for it with interest.

Inside was... I wasn't too sure what that was. It was small and blackened. To me, it looked like something mummified...

It hit me all at once what it was, and I slapped the lid back onto the box. The tail of his belly. He carried that around with him? What a weirdo.

"Damn, InuYasha. You didn't look like much, but this is a load of shit."

There was absolutely nothing useful here at all besides the tasuki.

Seriously, how did this guy live before he was pinned to that tree if this was all he kept on his person? I was better prepared and I wasn't even prepared.


A hand on my shoulder had me rolling over and dragging my blanket up over my head to banish even the idea of waking up yet.

"Piss off," I grumbled into the thick fabric covering my face. If I could just ignore it for a little while longer, I could get some more sleep. The sweet heaven I need above all else right now.

The persistent hand didn't give up on their attempts to wake me up, though. The more I tried to hide under my sheets, the more the hand rocked me.

Who the fuck was this asshole and why the fuck did I bring him home with me if he was going to be this annoying come the morning? This was the absolute last time I decided to bring someone home with me. I was banning it from this moment on. Drunk, horny Camille could start learning to follow rules, because I was not dealing with some prick waking me up in the mornings again. Ever.

The hand kept up until I lost my rag, throwing my blanket off my head roughly and shooting up into a sitting position, ready to spit fire and the dickhead that had exactly three seconds left to live.

"Look, asshole, unless there's a fire, I- Uuuugh." I groaned, flopping back on my futon, head hitting the deck hard enough to send a little wave of pain through me. Maybe I could knock myself into a coma? Could save me from a lot of my current issues. "It's you."

False alarm. No annoying ONS that didn't know the meaning of the walk of shame. Though, right now, I would take the obnoxious dickhead that wouldn't let me sleep over what was above me right now.

This was much worse than a one-night stand. Granny Kaede was looking down at me with that bland sense of doneness that was starting to take up a permanent residence on her face around me.

Good. Maybe if I annoyed her enough, she'd piss off and let me go back to sleep.

"The dawn has broken. It is time to start the day."

Dawn... has broken?

I stared at her, trying to process the words, my mouth floundering to find words just as much as my brain was. I had absolutely short-circuitted. There was no way I could reasonably function enough to even express how pissed off I was in the moment. Not even a glare would be able to get across how I felt, even if it burnt her up on the spot.

I was...

Speechless.

Fuming.

"You... did not just wake me at dawn. You didn't." Dawn? Was there a worse time in the world to be awake? I literally just promised myself yesterday to never wake up before noon. Nothing good has ever happened to me before noon.

I covered my face with my hands again, groaning loudly.

"Forget about famine and war, you're gonna be the one to off me, you awful bitch."

The insult actually earned a flat chuckle from Kaede as she peeled back the kosode covering my legs. "Let me see how that ankle has taken to the salves."

I grumbled, but lifted my ankle onto her lap obediently.

She'd probably just patiently sit there staring me down until I got too creeped out and let her do it anyway. She just struck me as that sort of awful person.

Just like yesterday, her touch was firm but not maliciously searching out sore spots as she unwound the bandage and began the slow process of poking and prodding to see what was sore, swollen or unaffected by the sprain my heels had treated me to back in the shrine. It was almost relaxing, feeling her work. For all I was annoyed at her about, and trust me the list was growing quick, I had to admit that Granny Kaede had a cool confidence in her work that relaxed me somewhat. She knew what she was doing, and she didn't care to bring any personal vendetta, like getting back at an annoying bitch hounding her, into her work.

I'd felt more tense around actual qualified doctors before, though that was no surprise. Many doctors took one look at me and wanted to run me out of the door as quick as possible. Kaede made the time to sit down and work without making me feel like I shouldn't run out the door the moment I had stepped into it.

"The swelling has receded," her weathered voice stated as she began to slather salve on my ankle again. The flowery scent of it hit my nose "But the healing is not yet done. Ye will have to rest a few more days."

"Fantastic. Then I'm going back to sleep."

I was halfway through pulling the kosode back over myself again when Kaede stopped me with a noise deep in her throat. "Nay, Cami. There is work to be done, even for those healing. I have collected some herbs that need grinding. You can prepare them while I prepare to visit the infirm of the village."

Smothering myself now would be so much easier.

Just one flaw with that quick out, though. I'd chosen to stay here because I wanted to live. Getting torn apart by samurai was a slightly cooler death than smothering myself with a musty old kimono that had seen better days, but neither were really the way I wanted to go; old, high and causing as much trouble as I possibly could.

Some stupid bitch had agreed to work to live here.

If I ever met her, I was going to punch her in the face.

I was absolutely going to avoid looking at reflective surfaces for a while.

"Alright, alright, I'm up." I threw the kosode aside, hoping to shock the woman with my nearly nude body. I didn't have the heart to wear my bra to sleep again after that first night in the forest, and the only other thing I'd had to cover myself was my worn old hoodie. I wasn't desperate enough to cover up to wear bare metal against my skin when I was asleep. It was warm enough, at least, in late April that I wasn't going to freeze to death sleeping basically nude, so I had shimmied my clothes off once we had settled to sleep last night and piled them up beside my futon.

My plans to shock her gained little reaction from Kaede, who knelt patiently, waiting for me to get up.

Man, this woman was solid as a fucking rock. She gave no reactions.

I was actually impressed.

Mourning the lack of reactions, I reached for the pile of clothing I'd left besides my futon, but paused when I realised there was a folded pile of cloth sat next to my bundled-up pile. "What's this?"

I pulled the top layer of the pile up and held up out. It was a simple deep green kosode with white swirls and red maple leaves embroidered on it. The embroidering was quick and sloppy - a small simple decorative element to jazz up something plain rather than a work of art I'd seen in many kimonos in the past. Nevertheless, it was a pretty thing. I had to admire someone's patience to sit and sew all those leaves. I'd have burned the damn thing and not looked back. I never did earn my craftivism badge.

"Hina gifted it to you to wear." Hina? Who the Hell was that? "I was concerned that your current attire wasn't appropriate for work that ye'll be doing."

Well, what was a surprising amount of concern. Though I had a guess she was more worried about other people's views about the appropriateness of my clothing than my own. I'd worn less in public. Granted not in the 1500's, but potato, potato. "Cool, so are you going to leave or do you get off on watching people get dressed?"

Strained patience crossed her face.

Ahah, so I was getting to her.

Good. I did love to be validated.

"Do ye not need help?"

What? "Uh, no?" Why the fuck would I need help putting on a kimono? Especially one this simple? I was pretty sure an idiot could put this one on without straining themselves. Why would I need help?

She wasn't calling me an idiot was she?

That bitch.

"Given your foreign blood-"

Oh, Jesus. Even here?

How deep does racism run? Well over five hundred years, apparently.

"I'm not fucking foreign." If I heard one more person talk about my lineage, I was going to gut someone. I didn't want it to be Kaede, but shit happens, and I found myself quite easy to forgive. "I was born and raised in Yokohama. I'm very much Japanese."

Half-Japanese, but still very much Japanese.

"Ye are?" She sounded so damned shocked.

I threw my hands up in limp jazz hands. "Surprise. Now can you leave so I can get dressed? If I stick my leg through an armhole, I'll make sure to call you back in."

The bitingly sarcastic words were apparently enough to make her retreat this time, thankfully. She granted me 'a short while' before she'd return to get me started on my work for the day. That short while was enough to let me dress in my gifted kimono and at least slap a little bit of makeup on. Kaede returned as I was finishing up my eyeliner.

"Are ye ready, Cami?"

Not even a little bit. I had a feeling I'd never be ready for anything Kaede planed for me.

I dumped my makeup bag back into my handbag and stood. "Yeah, whatever. Let's do it."

I didn't move far from my spot up on the raised platform of the hut. Kaede dragged an old iron contraption with a large wheel in it from inside her hut and set it just beside the doorway. I got a basic rundown of what it was after I'd told her I had no fucking clue what it was. A yagen, she explained surprisingly patiently, ground down medicinal herbs to use in salves like the one that was on my foot working its magic.

Kind of cool.

Hard work, I realised, though, when I got started. The wheel was heavy, and grinding down the herbs Kaede had left me with was tedious and hard. Trying to get everything to mix into an equal paste was not easy. This was clearly something that needed a tonne of practice to get right. I was not intending on putting all that practice in.

Granny Kaede actually did this herself on a regular basis? The bitch must have had some sort of superhuman strength.

That or she got a lot of poor unsuspecting fools to do the work for her. That I would believe.

It was like an ab wheel but a dozen times more masochistic. I was going to have abs of steel by the end of the day, with the pile of herbs set beside me in a basket. Watch out, Superman, Camille's taking over. Nah, I was more like Catwoman. With less elegance. And more swearing. At least I knew I could rock a catsuit just as well as she did.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted. No matter how much I worked, there was always something more to do. The only saving grace was that people had given me a wide berth, even with sitting outside. That was basically an invitation for most people. I guess my general enthusiasm and serious resting bitch face had warned them away.

Or Kaede had put out a no-contact order.

That one sounded like a pretty sound guess, and one that I liked.

Aw, she did care.


I spoke way too soon.

She didn't care a lick for me besides just how much pain she could cause me.

Kaede was turning out to be a sadistic bitch.

If it wasn't aimed at me, I'd be proud of her. A sadistic shrine maiden, ha!

The second day had started out much the same as the first, with a grumpy morning one-sided slanging match when I was woken up way too early, and being put on the yagen when she deemed me not well enough to walk properly yet again

I was in a foul mood all day, and thrust all of that pent-up energy into grinding herbs.

At least no one approached me again.

Small mercies was all I could get out of this awful situation.

I would have probably bitten their heads off and bathed in their blood if they had even dared to, anyway. It was just that kind of day.


Information Time

Aspirin - It used to be quite a 'popular' birth control method, to keep your legs pressed together so tightly that you could hold an aspirin between your knees. You couldn't have sex if you didn't spread your legs

RACK - An acronym that stands for Risk Aware Consensual Kink. Basically knowing the risks of what you're doing, actively making sure you perform as safely as possible and knowing that while there is always a risk with kinky play, you're working together to make the play safe and fun

Reenactor - Slightly different than the usual more fantasy-based LARP I mentioned in the last chapter. Reenacting is more like becoming someone from an older time period rather than becoming a whole new character

Shrine Maiden - So, this is probably one of my biggest gripes with InuYasha. Shrine Maidens are not priestesses. They can train to eventually become priestesses, but they aren't priestesses themselves yet. Forewarning for future chapters, I will be correcting mentions of priestesses in dialogue from episodes and movies if it doesn't fit.

Okayu - a type of porridge made with rice. Very very popular peasant food through most of Japanese history. It's also basically the chicken noodle soup of Japan. Cold? Okayu. Flu? Okayu. Feeling down and need a quick pick-me-up meal? Okayu. It is always the answer

Goat - So, remember the Ox Tiger direction from the Bad of Seven arc? North-East. It was common in both Japan and China to take directions by way of the Zodiac. Ox Tiger is North East. Goat is South-South-West. About the direction from Tokyo to Yokohama. It's about 30 kilometers away, which is about eight hours walking. A long day of traveling. Two days if you have a twisted ankle and are running on spite alone

Tenbun - Japan has its own calendar that runs alongside the Gregorian calendar that we're used to. Each era corresponds to the reign of the current Japanese emperor. For us, in mid 2021, we're in Reiwa 3. The 'modern' time-period in the start of this fic was Heisei 9, or 1997. Going on the fact that I think InuYasha is set in about 1555, they would be in Tenbun 23

Warring States - The Warring States era, also known as the Sengoku period, was a time of almost constant civil war in Japan, ranging from 1467 to 1615. Between the wars, there were many earthquakes and famines across the country. It was a dark time for Japanese history

Camille/Kamiru - Japanese is a language that uses syllables rather than single letters. like Ka, Ki, Ku, Ke, Ko, rather than K, AIUEO. Japanese also doesn't have the L sound. It often replaced with an equivalent R sound; the L sound on its own is often replaced with Ru. So the name Camille would be translated into Japanese as Ka-Mi-Ru - Kamiru. There is a reason that Camille refuses to be called Kamiru, but you will have to wait for that reason

Cami/Kami - Kami is the Japanese word for God, though the concept of Shinto Kami is so much more involved than the Wester view of God. Kami is spiritual, all the spirits and spiritual belief, the concept of balance in nature, good ad evil. It's all part of the concept of Kami, so much more than it is in the Western view of God. Neither Cami or Kaede are stoked about invoking the idea of Kami in her name. It's a sacred concept, and not something that either want to use as a name

Doma - The doma is the dirt floor section of old Japanese huts. It's the area where old heaters were kept, and in bigger homes, where the cooking was done, or different messy jobs that would make the home dirty if done 'inside'. Its common practice to take your shoes off in the doma (which eventually evolved into the modern-day genkan, still built into homes now) before entering the house proper

Tasuki - A tasuki is a sash used to tie back the long sleeves of a kimono while doing manual labour to keep the sleeves out of the way. Did I spend twenty minutes picking through episodes to find out what colour tasuki InuYasha uses in the series? Yes. Do I regret it? Eh, kinda. But I found it. His tasuki is light blue. A piece of information you will probably never need in your life

Mon - One of the currencies of the era. 107 mon is a ridiculously small amount of money. To put it in proportion: 4000 mon made up 1 yen during the Muromachi period. 1 yen is less than a US cent. Cami was being very sarcastic. Even back in the day, 100 mon wouldn't get you far. I said a few coins in the fic, so why does it add up to 107? There aren't 107 coins in that pouch. Mon comes in different denominations, namely: one mon, four mon and one hundred mon. One and four were the most common, with one hundred being a little more rare. I imagine InuYasha had a hundred mon coin, a four mon and a couple one mon

Tail of the Belly - Called the Heso No O in Japanese, the tail of the belly is the umbilical cord. It's a tradition in Japan to keep the umbilical cord of your child. If the child was sick, sometimes the parent would cut a small piece off the umbilical cord and feed it to them in hopes they'd get better. The parent would often show them on special occasions like birthdays, or give it to them if they move away or get married, as a sign of separation and growing up. I actually can't find information on when this tradition started, but it seems like the sort of thing that was started a long time ago, so I'm just going for it

Kosode - You've probably seen it plenty throughout InuYasha, that characters sleep on futons with a kimono covering them. That's really typical of the time period. The poorer people tended to sleep naked under their kimonos, while the richer had dedicated nightclothes. Kosodes were a pretty common option at the time. Really simple, mostly really cheaply made of linen or hemp

Potato, potato - Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to. A common phrase that actually doesn't translate well to writing. Similar to: six of one, half a dozen of the other. It's basically a phrase that means that the two things pretty much amount to each other. In this context, she's basically saying she doesn't care either way that her clothing is skimpy because even in the modern era, her clothing is still considered slutty and she doesn't care what people think

Foreign - Japan is a very homogenous country. Its inhabitants are 98% ethnically Japanese. Outside of big cities like Tokyo and Yokohama, it's actually generally pretty rare to even see someone not Japanese, and it's quite common for the Japanese to point that out. Not always maliciously, but I can imagine how frustrating it is to always have someone reacting strangely to your presence, especially if you've always lived in Japan, like Camille

Yagen - The Yagen is basically the precursor to the mortar and pestle, an iron boat-shaped dish with an iron wheel on a stick that was used specifically to grind medicinal herbs. The wheel does look like a primitive ab roller, and boy does it look like hard work to operate. I do not envy Cami one bit for having to work on it for that long

Man I am so sorry for how long this information time is. I promise it won't always be this crazy long


Review Corner

Welcome all to the Milkshake Bar! I like to reply to reviews down here when I get them, but feel free to send me a PM if you wanna talk more often than once a chapter! I love talking with people that enjoy reading my stories


You thought you'd get away with a super short AN at the top and that'd be it? You sweet, sweet summer child. You'll learn quickly that I love to talk.

I had a lot of fun with writing this chapter.

Though poor Rikichi. I do actually enjoy him as a character. He seems like a nice enough guy, but Camille has developed a real vendetta against him. It's not gonna be a pretty time for him while she still has a grudge. Sorry Rikichi. I was so excited to get to meeting Kaede, though! She's probably one of my favourite minor characters of the show. She's just so deadpan and done with everyone's bullshit, particularly characters like InuYasha, who you've probably seen some very slight similarities shared with Camille.

I had fun working in the way she was captured too. In the InuYasha novel, Kagome was actually taken to and held in an old shed when she was first brought to the village. I'll be working on the anime story when I write this series, because more filler and chances for emotional moments and stuff, but I do want to make little nods to the manga and the novel here and there. Like having Camille in the shed like Kagome was, though Kagome didn't go all boss ass bitch with a multitool to escape. That's a Cami flourish.

Does anyone want to guess what the ribbons are? They will be showing up again later in the story.

Also I've been playing Secret of the Cursed Mask lately, and I am loving it. Has anyone else played it? Anyone got any tips for me?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!