My breath catches in my chest as I climb the last few steps to the top of the hill overlooking my village. I'm panting from both the climb and the sheer exhaustion I feel. After that demon ate all of my remaining food and destroyed most of my supplies, I've been struggling to get through the last few days of my journey back home. I've barely slept since then, and I've been forced to eat mostly berries and plants that I've found along the trail. Thankfully though, my bow wasn't harmed by the demon. It's my most precious possession, so that's all that really counts.
Well, that's all that really counts to me right now. When I was scavenging for something, anything edible by the side of a dusty road, almost trembling with exhaustion and with no towns or other people for miles around, I was very loudly cursing the demon for eating my food. At that point yesterday, I would have traded any number of broken bows for just a bowl of rice. It didn't matter to me that my bow had belonged to my sister, Kikyo, and was one of the only things I have left of her, besides a house, a grave, and a whole bunch of painful memories.
Sometimes when I hold that bow, I can almost feel her standing there with me. And every so often, when I take a shot that is indescribably perfect, I can feel her aiming the arrow along with me. When the shot hits, I can feel her smile steal over my face.
But that's enough talk of ghosts. It's a beautiful day, my training journey is over, and I'm home.
My exhaustion momentarily forgotten, I race down the hill, almost laughing with glee as I run towards my village. A huge, ridiculous smile is stretched across my face. Right before I reach the outskirts of town, however, I slow down, take inventory of my remaining possessions, straighten my clothing, and walk calmly into the center of town.
Many of the villagers give me warm smiles as I pass by.
"Welcome back, Lady Kaede!" one calls.
"Priestess! You've been gone for too long!" another one yells.
I return their greetings, asking questions about crops and marriages and children. It's wonderful to see the familiar faces of the villagers, but there's really only one person that I desperately want to see. As I work my way to the shrine, the smile on my face grows even wider. Just as I reach the courtyard, the door opens and out steps Master Hiroshi. He looks at me for a moment before smiling warmly.
"Welcome home, Kaede," he says.
I bow. "I'm glad to be back, Master."
Later that night, after dinner with some of Master Hiroshi's closest village friends, he and I walk back to the shrine together. We're laughing and joking with each other, and he's teasing me about coming back with no supplies left.
"I sent you away with a full pack of supplies, and you come back without even the pack, much less the supplies!" he teasingly scolds me.
I put up my hands. "I'm sorry Master, but a demon attacked me! Would you rather that I have gotten away with my tools or my life?" I say in a fake exasperated tone.
He suddenly becomes thoughtful. "How large was this demon, did you say?"
As I've recounted the story over the course of the evening (with minor edits to the parts that included me hiding – no use in the villagers thinking that their priestess is a coward), the demon has grown increasingly larger. It's gone from twelve feet, to twenty, to about thirty, to at least fifty feet. However, now I answer him truthfully: "About twelve feet tall, sir."
"Hmm," he stops in the road. "I've been hearing reports of larger demons around these parts. Maybe it's some sort of trend?" We resume walking. "Whatever it is, you should be more careful out there. No telling when you may run into one of those things again."
I nod. "Okay. I'll be on my guard the next time I go out."
He smiles again. "You'd better be on your guard. Or else you might start having supplies stolen from you by tiny little fox demons."
I scowl at him. "It was a pretty big demon!" He laughs, and we walk the rest of the way in a companionable sort of silence.
It's been a while since I've felt at ease like this around another person. Ever since Kikyo died, I've never been able to have a bond with anyone as strong as my bond with her. She and Master Hiroshi are the wisest, kindest, most wonderful people that I've ever met, so it makes sense that he would be the one to replace her.
Wait a minute? Replace her? Did I really just think that? No. No one could ever replace Kikyo in my heart. My sister will always be the one that I care for most.
As we walk along, I steal a glance at Master Hiroshi out of the corner of my eye. From what I've been able to glean, he's in his late thirties, maybe almost forty. He was married once, long ago, and he had a daughter. His wife and daughter were both killed in a war that completely destroyed his village. After that, he decided to become a priest, and eventually a wandering one. He's a lot like me, motivated to priesthood after the death of the person that he cared about most.
All this I learned one night when he had drunk a little too much sake. Other than that, Master Hiroshi is a very private person. I don't know very much about him other than those few facts. However, I think I might understand part of the reason that he wanted to help me so much. The morning after the night that he a little drunk and loose-lipped, he apologized to me for causing a mess, and he also told me that I reminded him of his daughter. I think she died when she was only a little younger than I was when Kikyo died. When Master Hiroshi came to my village a year and a half after I lost my sister, he found a broken young girl who reminded him of both his daughter and himself. If you look at it that way, it makes sense why he would stay in a secluded village to look after a stubborn, one-eyed child.
Whatever the reason is, I'm just grateful that he stayed and helped me to become a priestess.
I've never told him about Kikyo. I'm sure that some of the more gossipy village women have told him the story countless times, but I don't really mind. I think he understands me just as much as I understand him. We both have been hurt, and we're both not healed. But maybe, with each other's help, we can get closer to being whole again.
Kikyo. Just saying her name still hurts. Even after five long, heart-breaking years, the mere thought of her can bring me close to tears. My beloved sister, Kikyo. Why did she have to leave me?