Ookami Village doesn't exist. At least I think it doesn't.
But as always, read, enjoy and review!
Ookami was a beautifully small village. It was surrounded by a mass of green hills, nestled right in the centre with only one way in. Through a pass, this laid between two of the hills. Inside the village was just that, a village. There was a small clothes shop. A market was in process with all kinds of vendors. There were two or three stalls where people could eat and a small school, which she was sure, was mixed with a high school. There was a church like building and a doctor's. And the rest of about a hundred or so were houses. There was one inn at the other end of the village.
Kelly stood in the door of this inn. She was the only occupant she knew of. She smiled to herself. The sun was beating down on them; the sky was a pure blue with wispy white clouds and a warm breeze travelled through the place. Technically it was too warm for the leather jacket she had on, but that didn't bother her much. It was more of a fact that she refused to part with the jacket.
Maybe running of to Japan hadn't exactly been what Professor Xavier had meant when he told her to go and find herself again. She could remember the conversation as clear as daylight.
"My dear." His voice had been soft and caring. The way he always spoke. In her trance like, unresponsive state, Kelly realized that this was his normal voice. He would never raise his voice to those around him.
She didn't answer him. She kept staring at the wall. The wall was a safety mechanism. The wall didn't say anything. The wall just stood there. It was a support beam to the roof. The wall didn't have the voice of a kid saying 'the guy was dying anyway. Personally, I think she did him a favor' or 'poor girl. I'm sure she didn't mean to kill him, she loved him after all' the wall didn't say jack shit and while she could still hear them. She could pretend she didn't hear them.
The only conscious thought through her head was that Wade was dead. The only memory running through her head was his completely still chest. And that was it. The rest didn't matter.
She didn't answer him. She didn't because if she did, she'd have to face what she had done. And she wasn't ready for that. "You need to find yourself again, my dear." The Professor continued as if she wasn't ignoring him.
His words made her look at him. His words made her break the trance and for a moment it felt like she had just woken up. The feeling one gets after waking up in an unfamiliar place after sleepwalking. She studied him. He sat in a crouch next to her chair. The one she had turned around so she would face only the wall. "Find myself?" She muttered.
She really wanted to laugh. What was there to find? An empty shell or a broken mirror? "You need to come to terms with what had happened, Kelly." He said.
She continued to stare at him. Come to terms with what happened? That should be easy. She killed the man she loved. What else was there? "You tried to save him." The Professor said. For a moment she thought that he could read minds. Then she remembered that yes, he can read minds. She had heard it somewhere in a conversation.
She looked away from him, at the window; the trees were swaying against the rain pounding down onto them. "Yeah. I saved him. From what? Me?" She asked softly.
"You tried and that is what counts. You did not leave him to die." He said.
She laughed, a broken and cracked and teary laugh. "No. I didn't. But I did kill him. What does that make me?"
The Professor was silent for a few minutes. "I did not know this friend of yours, but I'm sure that he would have appreciated what you have tried to do for him."
She looked at him, a serious determination burning behind her eyes. She wanted him to understand. "But I don't. I took him away from me. I killed him." She snapped.
The Professor sighed. She almost imagined him thinking of her as an ignorant child with no manners. "You are not ignorant. As a matter of fact you are very well informed. But you are in pain and therefore I suggest you take a little break. Find yourself again." He said. "Get on a plane out of New York, go somewhere you've always wanted to go and find closure." He continued. "And when you are ready, come back to us." He smiled. "You will always be welcome here."
The night she left all she took with her was a backpack with a few things; all she wore was a pair of jeans, a black turtleneck shirt and Wade's leather jacket, and she spontaneously (as the airport clerk told her) bough a ticket to Japan at two in the morning, for a flight that wouldn't leave for another four hours.
She sat on the uncomfortable benches as waited, thinking about what the Professor had said. She didn't know how to find herself. It didn't make sense to her. Find herself? How? She's always been with herself. How do you find something you never lost? Did finding herself have to do with finding closure? Or was finding closure finding herself? And where does one start to find one self?
There was a truckload of questions with no answers and even less want to have them answered. But still a need to have them answered. She was confusing herself with contradictions before actually even starting.
She was four days in Tokyo when she finally decided to take the man on the plane up and look for this village. Her first day was impossible. She didn't understand the people and the people didn't understand her. But they worked around that. The inn owners could speak a little English. They taught her a few things in the last two days. Two days in which she never ventured outside of the inn.
But she wanted to explore, and with the few words of Japanese she knew, she'd try.
She weaved in and out of the people at the market. The foods were colorful and smelled great. The clothes drew the attention before you even really looked at it. The people were polite and thoughtful.
It was until she came close to exiting the village that she saw the small shop tucked away in a corner of the village. She studied it for a moment. There was a big sign over the door and it looked a little like it had once been a house. There was small colorful garden. A small brick fence and a cobbled pathway leading up to the door. A water fountain stood to the left of the little path and children's toys were littered over the garden.
She wasn't sure if it was because someone actually lived there, or if it was for decoration. But she liked it. It had an almost homey feel to it. Out of curiosity she walked through the small little black metal gate and down the path. The front door was open, and the wall she could see was stacked with variously colored katana swords. They were all dark colored, deep navy blues to thick crimson reds. She curiously peered around the door to the left and stared in surprise at the walls lined with katana swords, every available space in the place was lined with swords. She looked to the right, the exact same. A small hallway led off out of the lobby like area and she quietly stepped into the cool shade of the house. The place felt like it had some sort of ethereal air around it. The hallway was stacked with the katana swords as well, it lead to a small kitchen, a bathroom and a set of stairs.
She figured the katana swords were the merchandise.
She quietly stepped into the large room to the right. She assumed it was once a dinning room. This was courtesy of the table in the center of the room. She quietly walked around the swords there. They were all beautifully crafted. And they were all really, really cool. She was sure if Wade were here, he'd have bought the whole shop just for the heck of it.
The thought of that, made her smile. She quietly (she didn't want to break the ethereal air or the silence that seemed to make the place) walked to the other side.
She was looking around the room for a full five seconds when she saw them. And fell in love immediately. They were on the opposite end of the wall. Two long bladed katana swords, with the hilts and holsters of some pure white material with what looked like black cherry blossoms over them. They had some sort of crimson red material worked into the hilts, a few spaces from each line. And dangling down from both hilts were two charms, both were made out of metal and in the form of a wolf. One looked like it was howling and the other just stood gazing out at something.
She reached out to them. She was stopped from touching them when someone loudly cleared their throats behind her. She nearly had a heart attack as she spun around and came face to face with a man who could be no older than maybe thirty-six. He narrowed his eyes at her, almost as if he had expected her to take the swords and leave without paying for them. She wondered if they were for sale. She hoped they were, she didn't want trouble. He said something in Japanese. "What are you doing?" He said after a moment's silence and her staring at him like he was insane.
She smiled sheepishly at him. "I wanted to look at the swords. Are they for sale? I'd like to buy them." She explained.
He studied her for a moment. He was now looking at her like she was the insane one. She really didn't like that look. "Can you use katana sword?" He asked.
She sighed and shook her head. "No. But…"
"You would like to learn. I will teach." He said and walked by her. She gazed at the spot he was standing. She didn't mind his offer. There was nothing wrong with the offer. It was a nice offer. But she hadn't really thought about that. She just liked them. That was all she was going to say.
He tugged the katana from their rack and held them both out to her. "Free of charge. I teach and you learn. Many months of training." He nodded a matter of fact manner.
She grinned at him. Maybe if she did the whole training thing for many months, she'll find closure. And she could just imagine Jerry's expression when she came back with two katana swords. "I'll pay, I don't mind." She said seriously.
He shook his head. "Free of charge. I teach, you learn." He said and made her take the swords. "Be back in afternoon. At three." He said. "I prepare." He spoke in the same English as the innkeepers: broken, but understandable.
She walked back with them to the inn. No one even looked at her carrying her two newly acquired swords. Satoshi, the inn owner, glanced at her and smiled the moment she stepped through the front doors. "You see Hiroshi." He said.
She smiled and nodded. "Uhm…can you just remind me to be back at his place before three?" She asked.
He nodded and his expression turned serious. "Do not disappoint him." His tone held warning. "Hiroshi generous and tolerant of many things, disrespect not one." He continued.
She smiled. "Thank you, I'll remember that." She jogged up to her room, closed and locked the door behind her. She sat quietly on the bed. The two katana laid out before her.
She slowly pulled one from the holster and held it out before her. She could see her reflection in the blade of the weapon. For a long time she just stared at her reflection. She smiled slightly. The Professor would be proud. Only a few days…probably more like a week and few days, away and she was already feeling better. But she wasn't ready. She wasn't ready to go home. She replaced the sword in the holster and lay back into the headboard of her bed.
She laced her hands together and placed them on her stomach. She kept her knees in a bent position, over the swords. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. It was the first time she willingly concentrated on her breathing since the day she told Wade about her brother.
The memory came to her even more vividly than the one of her brother. Maybe it was because unlike with this memory, she wanted to forget her brother's death.
She was laying back on a white pool chair. A pair of large black sunglasses on her eyes and book open on her stomach. A warm summer's breeze blew over the ocean towards her. Wade was a few meters away. He moved in fluid and quick motions, the sun glinted of the two swords he twirled around in his hands.
Sand kicked up into the air from where he landed during specific moves and sweat ran down his naked chest and back. He was concentrating so deeply that he didn't notice her scrutiny. She didn't mind. He could ignore her for the rest of her life if he just continued doing what he was and looking like some sort of Greek god.
When they had first gotten to the stupid Island, she hadn't expected this to be the first sight of pure joy she'd see. Not in the first two months.
"You're staring at me." He said suddenly. He wasn't even breathing irregularly.
She raised an eyebrow and gazed steadily at him from behind the glasses. She was sure if it was her, she'd be eating sand and looking dead. "What gives you that idea?" She asked.
He smirked at her and shrugged. "Oh no reason. You know. It's just you're not reading anymore and looking at me." He shrugged again. "I could be wrong. I mean, you could have figured out a new way to read, but who wouldn't stare at a guy like me?" He asked still smirking.
She lifted the sunglasses onto her head and studied him. "Aren't I allowed to stare at my own boyfriend?" She asked, forcing a light tone of huffiness into her voice.
He seemed about as concerned about her huffy attitude as a lion with a ant trying to attack it. "Don't get me wrong. I love the attention, I really do. But wasn't it you who said a guy who deemed himself pretty wasn't exactly your type?" He asked walking over to her.
Her gaze shifted to the two swords he still had in his hands. The sand reflected in the blades and was visible when he wasn't twirling them around his hands. "I might've said something in those lines a couple of years back." She said and lifted her eyes back to his face. "But I can promise you this. You won't consider yourself very pretty if you bring those things with in a year's distance of me." She warned him.
She liked him. A lot. But those things, she didn't trust. Not yet. He pouted, but shoved them into the beach. She studied them. Standing straight up and looking like a Japanese pirate had recently been to the island. She grinned, her grin soon turned to a scowl as Wade threw her book in one or the other direction and crawled over her.
He blocked her sun and the complete need for a pair of sunglasses. "I will murder you if my book got wet." She told him.
He cocked his head to the side and grinned at her. "Hmm, that seems like a not very nice thing to do to someone who wants to give you something." He said.
She raised her brows again. "Oh? And what exactly is it you want to give me?" She asked.
He smirked and shook his head. "Nope. You're too mean." He said. He sounded like a four-year old.
She nodded and looked out under his arms. "Well fine. Be like that. But I would like it if certain two-year olds would go and get my book so that I can go back to my reading. That is, currently, far more interesting than you." She said.
He narrowed his dark eyes at her. For a moment she thought she honestly offended him. She thought she had somehow pissed him off with that little comment. The next moment he was kissing her. He kissed her deep, hard and breathtakingly. His right hand was pressed against the pool chair next to her head and the left dropped to her hip. "I swear to you. A damn book will never be more interesting than me." He got up.
She stared at him. He simply went back to his practicing. She couldn't help be feel huffy. He just kissed the hell out of her and then get up leaving her wanting more. That was clearly very unfair, but he didn't seem to think so. She also didn't get her book back. So she honored him with her attention.
The door banged open and snapped her to attention. Yuki smiled cheerily at her. The woman was small with dark hair and eyes. "Hiroshi come to pick you up." She said.
Kelly's eyes widened in horror. She grabbed the two katana. "I'm late?" She asked as she grabbed the jacket, she wasn't sure when she pulled it off, and ran to the door.
Yuki shook her head. "No. Hiroshi nice. Come pick you up." She explained.
Kelly sighed in relief. Hiroshi stood in jeans and a black t-shirt. He listened while Satoshi babbled away. He didn't seem at all bothered by this. He bowed to Yuki and Satoshi as they left and Kelly felt confused for a moment. "Why did you do that?" She asked.
He glanced at her. "It is manner of saying bye." He explained. She gazed her hands. Hiroshi had taken the swords from her. And felt slightly guilty, she simply waved at them every time she came in or went out of the room.
In the six months following she learned more about cleaning and fixing up various cut wounds. To her amazement she learned something about herself. She didn't scar. That was something she believed was amazing. Hiroshi went under her abuse as well, she learned that he is a mutant and, in fact, seventy-four, not thirty-six. He simply just aged very slowly. According to him he had been stuck in the form of thirty-six for thirty-eight years. While he aged slowly he also healed faster than the normal person, but not instantly.
It took her another six months just how to learn not to cut off anything valuable. To Hiroshi it was important that she learned this. He said that if she was not able to learn this then he would not be able to teach her how to impress people with her dazzling abilities. She doubted her abilities would ever be dazzling. But she humored him. In these six months the inn owners had come to stop asking for rent on the room. When she finally realized she wasn't paying rent and wanted to do so, they told her not to worry. She started helping them around the inn. Not that there was much to do. There weren't many visitors to the inn. In payment to Hiroshi she tried to get better and helped him around the shop. But again, there wasn't much to do either. It seemed like everyone either already had a Hiroshi sword or just didn't want one.
It took her another twelve months to be able to say she had dazzling abilities with swords. And this was only because Hiroshi insisted on it. Two years of solid training and she finally got it down. The idea of not slicing her wrists open with the two, whiling swinging them both around, elated her. But after training, simply sitting in the inn, killed her. She suddenly missed the sassy mouthed Ororo who had told her numerous times, while the girl (probably woman by now) thought she couldn't hear, that it was a good thing Wade had gone and sung to the demons of hell.
She even missed the even-tempered Jean Grey who was sarcastic in her own way. And as much as she missed the girl, she did not like her. Jean had this odd way of explaining the most logical things to Ororo. And even in a trance like 'I don't give a shit about the world' sort of state, it annoyed the hell out of her.
But she was ready to go home. She was ready to figure out what she needed beyond the closure of finding herself. She wasn't sure she did that, but she was sure it came close enough.
It was time to go home.