Banishment
Disclaimer: Do. Not. Own. Only own my changes to the script and/or film. Everything else belongs to the incredible Miyazaki-San. Who, unfortunately, is retiring from movie-making. Did you hear the news? It's so sad… I just hope that his son continues his legacy.
That night, a meeting was held in the village shrine.
Though most of the village was sleeping, a few stray villagers stayed awake, waiting silently in the courtyard for the news of their Princess's injury. These people all stared up from the courtyard to the side of the mountain towering above them, for built propped up against the mountain face was the village's shrine. It was tucked safely into a little nook just a little higher up than the tallest building in the Emishi village.
Inside the shrine, the wall attached to the mountainside was made up of the cliffside, which bulged into the room. Beneath the cliffside was a small red table, empty except for a single leafy branch cut from one of the trees near the village. Two lit lamps were set up, giving the room only a faint light.
About seven men, all of them members of the village council, were sitting against the wall, while the Wise Woman and San sat far apart, facing each other.
The Wise Woman had a white mat set out in front of her, covered in a variety of smooth, round stones, twigs, one or two animal bones, twigs, leaves, and a single red triangle drawn in the center of the mat. This is what she used to make her predictions.
San sat across from the old lady, kneeling with her hands in her lap, and her hair pulled into a loose braid hanging casually over her shoulder. Her injured right arm was wrapped in new bandages, hiding the damage the Demon had done to her, while she had removed the bandages from her left arm. San hid her emotions well, her expression not showing any fear, anger, or panic that she might have been feeling. Her eyes were steely, making it appear that she was ready for anything the Wise Woman would tell her.
The Wise Woman rolled a pebble onto the mat, and then began speaking. "Well, this is troublesome news." She murmured, watching the stones. "The stones have told me the God came from far to the west of our valley. He had a flame of hatred inside him, eventually driving him mad, destroying any goodness in his heart, and turning him into a Demon." The woman looked up from her readings and stared at the princess. "Princess San."
San straightened. "Yes?"
"Show all of us your right arm."
Something in San's eyes flickered, but it was gone before anyone could see it. Silently, she undid her bandages, thrusting out her arm as they fell off. Encircling San's arm was a long, jagged, black and purple-ish colored mark, with a color that looked like a combination of blood red, wine red, and deep purple. It looked almost like a burn, and it hurt like one too.
All of the men in the room gasped and stared at the mark. "What does it mean?" Ji-San asked the Wise Woman. The old woman looked up and smiled at the eighteen year old girl in front of her.
"My princess, are you prepared to learn what fate the stones have foretold you?"
San was silent for a moment. She had never liked the way the wise woman had said, 'what fate the stones have foretold.' Like none of them had a choice. Like their fates were decided by a couple of rocks. But out loud she heard herself say, "Yes."
The Wise Woman gave a small 'hmm' before saying anything. "The infection will take root in your soul, and spread throughout your entire body. It will cause you great pain, and eventually kill you." The Wise Woman had never felt the need for sugar coating her predictions.
San's teeth clenched as the Wise Woman said these words. Her face tightened, and she gave a sharp nod. Suddenly, Ji-San spoke out again, now looking worried for the princess. "Isn't there any way we could stop it?"
"The princess got that curse by saving our girls!" One man, who happened to be Mai's father, added.
"Can we really only sit here and wait for her to die?" Hana's own father said, staring at the floor with a bitter expression.
The Wise Woman couldn't help but smile at the men's concern for their princess. "You cannot alter your fate, my princess. No one can. However, you can rise to meet it if you choose." She reached into her pocket, and brought out a small iron ball, about the size of a walnut. "Take a look. This iron ball was found inside the boar's skeleton, right where his heart had been. It shattered his bones and destroyed him from the inside. This is what turned him into a Demon."
San drew back, her eyes narrowing. "Who could have possibly created something that could do that?" She looked down, clenching her fists. Her voice was beginning to rise. "Why would someone want to do that? How-"
She was interrupted by the Wise Woman, who was still speaking very calmly, despite being rudely interrupted. "We cannot know who is doing this, my princess. We can only know that there is something ominous happening in the western lands. It's your fate to go there and see what you can see, with eyes unclouded by hate. You may even find a way to lift the curse. Do you understand?"
"Yes." San gave a sharp nod.
"Wait a moment!" Everyone in the room suddenly turned to the man who had spoken out. It was Chagum's father, Gakai. He wasn't often apart of the council meetings, due to the fact that the Wise Woman found that his eyes were clouded - clouded by what, she didn't say. "The Princess has been arranged to marry my son since the day she was born! How can you just-" Gakai quickly grew silent as all the men in the room turned to glare at him.
It was Ji-San who spoke out first. "Nobody wants the Princess to leave, Gakai. But if there's a chance that she can find a cure for her curse and live, then I would rather let her leave forever than sit here and watch her die."
San looked at the ground and closed her eyes. All of the men had turned their eyes back to her. She didn't want to see them staring at her with their sad, pitying eyes. If she saw them, it was possible that she would start crying.
A period of silence filled the room, before one of the elders, Yoshi, spoke in his tired, worn voice. He spoke of the Emishi's history. How they were the last. How it had been five centuries since the Emperor had brought the massacre upon them. How, while they still lived, their tribe's blood grew weaker every new generation. He sighed. "Sometimes I think the gods are laughing at us. It seems only natural that the young woman who was fated to rule us now has to leave us forever."
San turned to the altar. She pulled out a small knife from her belt, and unsheathed it. She picked up her braid, put the knife's blade against it, and sliced through it. The braid came away from her hair, leaving the rest of her hair cut off at the nape of her neck in shorn, light brown tresses. She placed the braid down on the altar in front of her, bowed her head, and turned back to the Oracle. All of the men in the room had looked down, closing their eyes, not wanting to see their princess leave them forever.
"According to our rules, we may not see you off." The Wise Woman said quietly. "I wish you well."
San nodded, and turned around.
She left without looking back.
-(o)-
In the middle of the night, everyone was asleep. Except, of course, the people attending the council meeting. But even they were drifting off, trying to get the troubling events out of their mind as they lay in bed, trying not to think of what dangers could fall on their beloved Princess on her journey.
San, of course, could not just simply get into bed. She had to leave. She was completely silent as she pulled on her travelling clothes. Her underclothes consisted of a dark blue tunic with a kimono styled neckline, and a sash around her waist, both colored a slightly lighter shade of blue. The tunic itself went down a little past her knees, with slits up the sides to give San enough room to move around in. The white shirt she wore underneath her tunic had sleeves that reached her elbows, while the sleeves of the tunic were loose and only reached her biceps. Over this, she wore a slightly oversized white, almost kimono-like robe, over baggy white pants tucked into tall armour styled boots. To keep the robe in place was a dark blue sash tied tightly around her waist. When the elbow-length sleeves of her outer robe stopped, covering her arms (and more importantly, her curse mark) from the elbows down were long gauntlets, styled with the same labyrinth styled pattern as her armoured boots.
As she finished pulling on her travelling clothes, she pulled a white hood over her newly cut hair, and pulled a matching white mask on to cover her face from the eyes down. San shouldered her bow and her quiver of arrows, strapped her sword to her waist, and silently made her way to the stable, where she got Yakuul. She saddled him up as quickly as possible, before leading him towards the gate of the village. San had almost successfully left the village, before…
"San!" Kaya whispered, running over to her sister. San stopped Yakuul from going any further, and stared down at the girl.
"Kaya! What are you doing here?" San hissed.
"What's going on? Where are you going? Can you tell me what's happening?"
San glanced around for a moment, before she dismounted Yakuul. "Kaya, I have to leave." She said calmly, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder.
"But why? Why do you have to leave? Is it because of the wound? Is it serious?"
The elder girl closed her eyes and sighed. "It's not just a wound, Kaya. It's a curse. The Wise Woman says it will eventually kill me. So I'm going to find a cure, and try and stop anything like that Demon from being created ever again."
Kaya's eyes went wide, before she grabbed San's upper arms. "You can't leave! There has to be a cure here, somewhere!" She looked almost hysterical, tears beginning to build up in her eyes.
"It's too late. I've already cut my hair. I can't go back now." San's gaze flickered towards the village shrine. "I have to leave, now. And Kaya, you cannot tell anyone this. I've been banished, I'm as good as dead to the village now." San placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. After a few seconds, Kaya finally looked up, and San pulled of her hat and mask so Kaya could see her face. "You're the last princess of the Emishi people. You have to take my place. Be a good leader. Be the sort of leader our parents would want you to be, but also be the leader you want yourself to be."
Kaya nodded silently, the tears finally spilling down her cheeks. She suddenly darted forward, flinging her arms around her sisters waist.
The two princess of the Emishi exchanged one last hug, before San donned her hat and mask again and pulled herself onto Yakuul.
"Don't you dare die, San." Kaya said forcefully.
San smiled. "I will always think of you, Kaya."
And with those final words, Princess San rode away on her elk, never to return to the Emishi village again.
The end of the chapter.