KOTODAMA
"The soul that resides within words"
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Chapter XXVI
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Hi, I'm InuYasha. I haven't been able to call. I hope you are doing alright.
Kagome was looking at the message on her phone, as the train took her to her workplace. She had received it last night, while out with her friends, and she still didn't know how to answer it, nor if she should.
What kind of message was that? She was wondering.
A part of her was glad to know that InuYasha hadn't forgotten his promise of keeping in touch, enough to send an apology for taking so long. However, his words sounded so simple, that he could well have been the washing machine's technician, announcing that they weren't able to come this week.
Kagome huffed, annoyed, her gaze looking out window as soon as she realized a couple of heads were turning her way, before the sound she had just made. In that moment, as the buildings and intricate streets swiftly passed her by, she heard in her mind, the voice of that character that had been with her, her whole life.
"Now I don't seem so bad," he mocked her.
Oh, shut up; were the words that almost escaped her lips, before she pressed them into a thin line. She said them in her mind, however, starting a brief conversation with the InuYasha of her story.
"I'd shut up if I weren't right, but I am," her character insisted.
"It's not that you are right, but that you want to be," was the reply Kagome generated in her mind.
"I am right."
Retorted the InuYasha who had always been there for her, the one she perceived as a marvelous being that protected and warned her. Since childhood, it had been this InuYasha the one appearing in her mind, helping her when she felt unsafe. However, at one point she began to tell him a story, scene by scene, and that had somehow distanced her from him, or had it been the appearance of a real person that was identical to him?
"You aren't," she insisted, then took out a box from inside her bag, where she had a couple of earphones. Music had always helped her to distract herself, and that was precisely what she needed right now.
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Shippo stood at a crosswalk, when it was just a bit past noon; a time he himself labeled as the best of the day. Everyday, he would come to this same place and time, to wait for Soten, on her way back from school. They had spent a few months now like that, with the boy escorting her near the house where she lived with her brothers, stretching the minutes, slowing their steps while they talked about their respective days. Sometimes, seldom really, the silence would become part of their stroll, and their fingers would intertwine in a sort of hold, just close enough to push aside the barrier of friendship. Shippo would often hold back a sigh when that happened, to try and not expose himself before the girl, for after all, he wasn't quite sure how requitted he was. He had the slightest sensation that to fall in love should feel like this, insecure, like walking on smooth, round stones on which one could trip at any moment. A few times, he had thought about asking InuYasha about it, however, despite the trust between them, Shippo would often have a hard time exposing his emotions like that.
He didn't need to wait long to catch the girl's figure, out in the distance, forcing him to take a deep breath as soon as he saw her gesture goodbye to her friends. He followed her steps, as she approached him, his gaze dropping to the ground in an effort of calming his emotions, spreading through him with each heartbeat. He didn't want her to read in his gestures just how restless he could become, every time they were together, and much less for her to notice the way his hands would tremble when she was but a short distance away, nor the time he needed to regain his composure.
"Hi, Shippo," Soten greeted him, with that proud tone resonating in her voice, together with the joy that was so characteristic of her, something that Shippo had to admit, it was among the sides of her, he liked the most.
"Hi," he replied, with a certain caution at first, to then infuse himself with strength. "How has your day been? Were you able to do something in art class?"
Soten was carrying her sketchbook, where she usually drew her roughs.
"Just a few lines." She tried to rest importance to her own, done work.
"Can I see it?" Shippo stepped a bit closer to the girl, in part to appreciate her work, and in part as an excuse; he liked this closeness they could share in moments like these.
Soten opened her sketchbook, and showed him a rough of a drawing that was well on its way to being finished, of a landscape as it was observed through a window. Shippo guessed it was a window from her school, and just as he was about to ask about it, the girl spoke.
"I have to be at home soon today; my brothers want me to be with them before their job tonight," she explained, and Shippo noted the same weight on his chest he would feel when she was far away; he was already missing her, despite that she was still there with him.
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The night was cold, yet Kagome was far from giving up on her efforts of finishing that sketch she had begun a while ago. Today, she decided to come to her family's house at the temple, and as she passed by the well's pagoda on her way, an image plagued her mind. She then greeted her family, and shared a long moment with them. She listened to her grandfather, as he told her a few things about the precedence of some seeds he was planning on planting in his small yard, once he began preparing it. Her mother, a bit later, shared with her some news about some acquaintances, living around them. Kagome tried to pay as much as attention as she could, to them, given that her latest visits had been short lived, she herself, distracted. But after that, and asking Souta to not stay too late playing the videogame he was in, she went to the well's pagoda, and observed it.
She wasn't exactly sure of what she wanted to capture; the small building had been lying there for a long time, and it wasn't about to change any soon, so she could actually draw it whenever she wanted, or take a picture with her phone, then work at her apartment. However, she had the need to do it in-site, directly, to fully capture its details; the light, the shadow, the space and its surroundings.
She sat on the border surrounding it, and in whose interior beautiful flowers would grow during the spring, to start her sketch from there. Time passed her by, from then on, and the only thing that told her so, was the cold that began to permeate her cheeks and nose. It wasn't going to snow, she believed, given the clear sky; but if it were a rainy day, she would surely see the snowflakes fall.
Just a bit more, she repeated in her mind. The sketch was almost finished, and from there, maybe, she'd be able to build a story that could fit the parts that, the InuYasha in her head, had been leaving behind.
In that moment, the glow from the street lights around her, blinked. Kagome lifted her gaze from the drawing, and observed her surroundings, wondering if the event would happen again. Once she watched them steady themselves, she returned to the sheet where she was tracing a few last lines, she considered necessary to fully capture the essence of the place. Then, she observed her work with the critical eye of an artist, that most of the time was like a sharpened knife that seemed to shriek against that which she could perceive as a failure.
The light blinked a couple of times, then left the place immersed in darkness.
Kagome remained there, looking around long enough for her eyes to adapt themselves to the penumbra, then stayed there, enjoying the silence born from a power outage, due to the many devices that just suddenly stopped working. As she began to ponder if she should start making her way back to the house where she was going to spend the night, she caught glimpse of two figures, coming from that same place. One of them, wore the same school uniform as her, during her high school years; a white shirt with green details, aside from a pleated skirt of the same color. The other figure, was the one that caught her attention the most; it was a boy, dressed with red clothes of an older time, and possessing a silvery, long hair that seemed to glow beneath the starlight; InuYasha.
Kagome held back her breath, as she observed something supernatural that seemed to be there, and at the same time, appeared to be but a residual effect of something that had been, once.
InuYasha seemed to be in a hurry, and through his body language, she managed to recognize the anxiety that would usually manifest in him. She was also witness to the way, the character that would normally be in her head, took that Kagome's hand, spurring her to quicken her step, and so reach the door of pagoda where the well was, sooner. There, she watched how InuYasha opened it with a push, strong and fluid, and dramatic enough to show a sort of anger that she knew was but a way to mask his own, blooming emotivity. The door he managed to open was spectral, however, and would superimpose over the actual, closed door. However, it didn't present an obstacle for Kagome, and her vision of those two beings that seemed to have been brought out of her own mind, as she observed them going inside the pagoda, then disappear. An instant later, her own anxiety pushed her to stand up and approach the closed door of that building, cautiously touching the time-dried wood, before perceiving something akin to an emotion. She remained there, very still, waiting for the sensation in her heart, to find the words that wanted to come out, and help her mind interpret what she was feeling. Her thoughts, then, were led to something deeply supernatural, yet she comprehended it with ease, since she had spent her whole life surrounded by ideas that nobody could comprehend, an imaginary friend that had been with her since forever. Once she felt herself strong enough to push the door connecting to the well, she did so. Kagome noted an anxiety in her, yet not the kind that often took one's peace away, but rather, one attached to the possibility of discovering something hidden in her memories; something that, however, she couldn't define. It was like knowing that underneath a thick layer of snow, there is earth that would eventually be exposed.
She looked inside the obscured interior of the pagoda, one that only showed her an empty, dark place, with the structure that was barely visible, of the old well.
And then, the light of the lamps, came back.
What did you expect to find? She heard the voice of the InuYasha that had been with her, her whole life.
Kagome sighed. She had no answer for that question.
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The murmur happening throughout the place, made InuYasha feel at home. Contrary to what some may think, those who really knew him outside of that environment, knew that InuYasha felt at ease in the Kyomu, or Antan, which had been its name when he had first arrived. He had a peculiar love hate relationship with the place, since his second childhood, and his teenager days, were spend inside those walls and its vicissitudes. He knew every action, every kind of movements between the clients and the staff, he knew every method to make the business more rentable, as well as what was needed to resolve any conflict. In a way, InuYasha felt safe inside that which he knew, and what he was good at. However, and on the other hand, he craved a life far away from that intricate vanity that existed in that world.
"Do I get you something?" Asked, for the third time, the girl working behind the bar. InuYasha looked at her, and she remained unperturbed, not showing any emotion; that was the effect the Kyomu, and places like it, had on girls who stayed longer than a couple of years.
"Sake."
He had no plans to drink; he never did while on the job, and much less when alcohol was so common inside most of those inside the establishment. The woman brought him a small cup, that InuYasha observed for a second, before gesturing with his head, as away to show some courtesy. Next, he caught sight of Jakotsu approaching him, who made a gesture to the woman, before she brought him a similar cup to the one InuYasha had.
"How does it feel to be back?" Jakotsu spoke, then drank his cup in one gulp.
"I'm not back, just passing by," InuYasha clarified. It was something Jakotsu knew well.
"Whatever you say," he replied, with his usual condescending tone. Then, he asked for another drink
InuYasha, once again, became part of the murmur of the place, as if it could speak to him in some sort of code that was only comprehensible to those who had spent a long time inside that ecosystem. If he thought about it carefully, there was something one could label as culture, in those places filled by vice. As one walked this path, one would discover a sort of dignity in the people who frequented these places; people who accepted themselves as the decadent part of a society.
A red-haired woman, with a green gaze, was approaching the bar. InuYasha had seen her at a far away table, in company of two men who were full of enthusiast smiles. The woman was attractive, maybe a bit young, and he had seen her a couple of times, arriving or leaving the Kyomu.
"She is Ayame," Jakotsu informed him, without raising his voice, in the confidential way he would use when speaking of something important.
"I've seen her," InuYasha admitted.
"Kouga brought her, not long ago. He keeps a watchful eye over how the clients treat her," Jakotsu added.
InuYasha nodded once, as a sign of understanding, and observed Kouga, near the entrance, controlling those entering. InuYasha weighed the option of speaking to the man, despite their requitted distaste, to have some control over the new clients.
When Ayame reached the bar, as part of her job of bringing the clients their orders, InuYasha addressed her.
"What's your table?" The question was made with the tone used in the place; pleasantries and introductions rarely were part of those kinds of conversations.
"I'm in charge of the seventh." The answer came swift, fitting the method. InuYasha thought better of the girl thanks to that.
"Change to the twelfth. I'll send another girl to take care of the seventh." InuYasha had been observing the appearance and behavior of the two men at the twelfth table. One of them was smoking, calmly, as he took in his surroundings with discontent, while the other, seemed restless, angry even, as if waiting for something before being able to leave.
Ayame nodded once, giving InuYasha a sideways gaze that he returned, and held.
"I want you to pay attention to anything they may say about an exchange or a business," he requested, before she gave him a light nod. "But first, go to your boyfriend and calm him down; it feels like he is going to cut my head, sooner rather than later."
Ayame blushed then, all of a sudden.
"What? No. Kouga isn't my boyfriend," she hurriedly clarified.
"I didn't say his name," InuYasha smiled.
Ayame took a moment to breathe, holding back a sigh at the last instant. After that, she disappeared in one of the interior zones of the Kyomu, and InuYasha soon saw Kouga addressing Ginta for a moment, one of the boys he himself had recruited, before going to the inner zone as well.
"You don't miss anything, do you?" Jakotsu complimented InuYasha's instincts. He, however, just made a speculative sound.
"I'd say I'm missing something, though," he disagreed, "I've been here for a few days now, and the only thing I've got are just those two, too serious guys at a table."
Jakotsu looked at the woman tending the bar, and asked for another Sake. InuYasha stopped him.
"Drink mine," he slid his cup a few centimeters towards his friend.
"Oh, to drink from your cup is almost erotic," Jakotsu mocked. InuYasha let out an easy laugh.
"You won't ever stop, will you." What could have been a question, ended up as a fact.
"Never; not until you introduce me to your girl," he insisted once again; just one of many jabs InuYasha had received from him, which only made more obvious how much his friend wanted to meet Kagome.
"She isn't my girl," he expressed, in the same he had done in previous occasions.
Jakotsu drank his Sake, then let out a soft sound that was meant to be a way to mock him.
"Renko thinks otherwise. He has yet to get his voice back," he pointed out.
InuYasha didn't reply that last comment. However, he did think that Renkotsu deserved it.
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To be continued.
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A/N
This story is taking its time, however, I like that it does. There is so much more to tell.
I hope you've enjoyed it, and that you tell me in the comments.
A kiss, and happy new year.
Anyara
This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart