Omoide no Mori
Forest of Memories
chapter ten:
*Of Bygone Years and Dizzy Spells*
"Gwaah!"
Krmble krmble...
Miroku swallowed hard as he inched along the slim ledge, peering warily over the side at the steep drop-off. The trail he walked was only about three feet wide at best, spiraling its way up the precarious cliffside like a floating staircase that lacked a handrail. Wiping the back of his hand over his brow, Miroku suddenly wished someone would install a handrail, as he was starting to feel little woozy as part of the ledge slowly crumbled away beneath his sandals.
"Oh, Buddha help me," he muttered, swallowing again, gripping the shakujou for dear life, as though it might catch him if he stumbled. "Inuyasha, I sure hope you appreciate what I go through for you..."
Miroku had never been acrophobic...not really. He didn't particularly like heights, but they'd never bothered him much.
This, however, was a trifle over the top.
No pun intended...he thought wryly, and took a deep breath. Just stop looking down, Idiot, he chided himself, moving forward an inch at a time.
He chuckled to himself.
That onineko surely had chosen the meeting place most difficult to reach... The ancient camphor tree that stood atop the cliffside on the North corner of the forest was a beautiful one, that was for sure...but the cliff was steep, the ledges narrow, the stone not as stable as perhaps it once was. Still, dangerous as it was, many people had tried to scale the precipice...for it was said that ointment made of the leaves of the Great Camphor could heal any wound, no matter how great.
It had been said that over a hundred people had lost their lives trying to get to the camphor.
Miroku, for one, had no intention of being added to that statistic.
He wondered absently, as he made his way, if Inuyasha'd had any trouble thus far. He paused a moment as he sidestepped, his back pressed against the stone face of the cliff as though he might be able to stick to it if he flattened himself against it hard enough. He rubbed his chin, and continued cautiously on his way.
Surely the hanyou could have easily leapt up the cliff face in a few bounds, defying gravity the way he always did, seeming to hover in the air as he sprang along...
That would have been a pretty convenient skill to possess, Miroku found himself thinking ruefully as he lightly stepped over a large crack in the ledge. He was beginning to wish he'd brought Kirara along. That, at least, would have been a lot easier on his nerves. Perhaps he should turn back and seek the cat demon's aid in this little escapa--
"Gyaahah!"
Miroku's thoughts were cut short abruptly as he took a misstep and felt the ledge beneath his right foot give way.
Time froze.
There was a terrifying instant in which he felt as though he were flying, like the air had wrapped its arms around him to carry him off somewhere. But then the feeling turned quickly to a sickening freefall, and, as time seemed to resume its all-too-hurried normal speed, the monk had a sudden troubling thought...
He was going to die.
With a yelp, he pitched sideways, his hands scrambling wildly through the openness, reaching for something--anything--to grab a hold of, and finding nothing but air.
Is this it? he thought frantically. Does it end here? Now?
He gripped his shakujou tightly, contemplating ramming it into the rock face of the cliff as hard as he could, hoping it would find a crevice and hold. But...the shaft of the staff was wood, and would surely splinter away before he found any sort of refuge.
Dammit! he growled low in the back of his throat.
This was all wrong!
He didn't want it to end like this! He had to go help Inuyasha! They still had to defeat Naraku and collect the rest of the shards of the Shikon no Tama! He still had to clear his family's lineage of the curse of the Kazaana! And, what was more, he hadn't even told Sango how he felt about--
"Gotcha!"
Miroku felt a sharp tug on his right arm and glanced up to see a pair of topaz blue eyes smiling down at him. His eyes moved to his right hand and he saw fair-skinned fingers wrapped tightly round his wrist, noting absently the thin blue beaded bracelet around the wrist of his savior.
He opened his mouth, but found he was too startled to speak, so he just sort of gaped dazedly at the face of the young girl who had saved him from the fall. He felt as though a bolt of electricity had been directly injected into his veins, the adrenaline pumping through his blood was so thick.
"Shikkari shite ne," the girl said, pulling his arm steadily, "I've got you."
She pulled slowly and firmly, drawing him upward, and he found himself thinking that she was surprisingly strong for someone of her size, for she appeared quite petite.
His dark eyes moved to the open air below him, and he briefly closed them as a wave of vertigo swept over him at the sight of the ground over a hundred feet down. He felt the girl's other hand grab him under his left arm and haul him up over the side of the ledge, and his shakujou clattered to the ground as he was suddenly hit by the shock of what could have just happened and his hands began to shake. He cast a quick glance at the girl and then his spine turned to jelly and he flopped backward onto the ledge, his feet dangling over the side of the rock shelf.
"Gehhh...I thought I was gonna die..." he sighed, laying the back of his right hand over his face.
There was a soft chuckle from beside him, and Miroku opened his eyes, pulling his hand away from his brow. He sat up slowly, and took a good look at his rescuer.
She was small, slim, with unusually light hair and bright sky-blue eyes. Her clothes were simple; an ice-white yukata dotted with lavender sakura petals, tied at the waist with a sash of the same pale purple. The yukata was a bit unique in itself, in that it appeared to be two pieces--a sarong and a separate top--he could tell by the way she had it wrapped.
Peculiar, he thought to himself, narrowing his eyes a little.
She had her yukata wrapped right-over-left.
Most unusual...that was normally symbolic of death, used in funeral rites.
Pausing a moment, and debating over whether or not to bring this rather morbid oversight to her attention, he lifted his eyes to her face and absently noticed that she had a single shock of pitch black hair smack in the middle of her hairline, falling carelessly over her eyes.
Miroku paused, a frown crossing his face.
What was this?
That peculiar feeling was back again...like a familiar old song.
He squinted at the girl.
Now that the initial fear of falling had abated, and his heartbeat had returned to normal, that strange feeling of déjà vu had come back, stronger now than before.
What was it?
He shook his head quickly, and glanced at the girl again.
Yes...he was quite certain now...the unusual feeling was surely because of her... He'd never felt such a peculiar sensation, he was pretty confident of that. It was odd...there was a kind of strange tugging sensation in his heart, and a quizzical tickle in the back of his brain, as though something was attempting to pry into his soul, like someone was trying to peer beyond his spirit and enter his very psyche.
It was, needless to say, extremely weird.
He narrowed his eyes at her.
Who...who was she...? he wondered, and his eyes widened as he watched a smile creep across her lips.
"Are...ano..." he stammered, and felt a blush form across his face as he awkwardly put one hand behind his head. He cleared his throat and bowed his head quickly. "Arigatou, Ojou-sama," he said, and snapped his chin up as the girl burst into peals of laughter.
He blinked.
"Uhm..."
"O...Ojou-sama?" she echoed incredulously between giggles, one hand near her mouth and the other clutching her stomach. She laughed loudly again, a jovial and pleasant sound like the twitter of birds, and Miroku lifted one ebony eyebrow. She grinned wickedly. "You're still a hopeless case without me around, aren't you?" she asked, and the monk facefaulted.
"Huh?"
"And when did you start addressing me so formally, anyhow, Houshi-han?" she asked. "You haven't called me Ojou-sama since the day I met you!"
Miroku blinked blankly at her, and she flattened her eyes.
"Mou...don't tell me..." she said, her playful smile fading to a feigned sneer, "don't tell me you've forgotten...? You actually don't remember my face?"
She paused a moment and sighed hopelessly as Miroku's blank look didn't change at all. She ran one hand through her short tousled hair.
"Sigh," she said dramatically, draping one hand across her forehead, "is the heart of a houshi really so fickle? Can it be that I'm truly so easily forgotten?" She gave him a wide-eyed pout. "Ma~a~attaku, Houshi-han~n~n!"
Miroku swallowed. Something about her unusual method of complaining did seem awfully familiar... But, then, a lot of things had seemed familiar lately...
He scratched his head.
"Ha...Have me met?"
He suddenly felt like a total idiot. Why didn't he remember? He noted she had a slightly peculiar way of talking...though many of her words sounded the same as any he might use, she managed to say them in such a way that he had to listen carefully to make sure he understood exactly what it was she was telling him.
An accent? he thought.
He wondered where she was from.
He frowned.
Jeez...why couldn't he recall her face? Or her accent, at least?
Well...she was kind of cute...so perhaps if he pretended to remember her...
Miroku checked himself, and shook his head quickly.
What am I thinking?
He would have slapped himself across the face for thinking something like that if he hadn't feared the girl would suspect he was schizophrenic because of it.
She sighed hopelessly again, turning her eyes skyward.
"How to jog a monk's memory...?" she mused aloud, one finger on her chin as Miroku gaped at her, quite confused.
He really couldn't place this girl's face at all, and felt a little guilty about it. She had, after all, just saved his life...if she claimed she knew him, he felt like he should have at least played along. She noticed him eyeing her, and furrowed her brow.
"Homma ni Houshi-han ya de...?" she asked, though it sounded more like an order than a query, and she squinted one bright eye. "That is you, isn't it?" She paused, then nodded. "Un, I'm quite sure of it..."
He gazed at her again, as though rifling through a Rolodex in his brain, trying to put a name with the face of the girl before him.
Let's see, he thought, narrowing one eye, who could it be that I haven't seen in so long...?
He started to run through a list of girls he had kept locked away at the back of his mind (just for future reference...), and then almost slapped himself again.
Dammit all, anyway... Who was this girl that she could cause such a storm of confusion within his brain??
He gaped as a smile suddenly split her features, and she reached for his dropped shakujou.
Miroku made a small noise of protest and snapped his arm out to grab for the staff as the girl's slender fingers closed around its slim wooden shaft. He gave her a startled look.
"Daijoubu," she assured him, holding the shakujou close to her chest as she got quickly to her feet. "I'm just borrowing it for a quick demonstration."
"Demonstra...?"
She smiled prettily at him, and Miroku, deciding he really didn't have much say in the matter, as it were, sat forward with his elbows on his knees.
"Hai, hai," he said, waving one hand, "demonstrate away..."
He made a face, wondering what it was about this girl that made him feel like everything would end up being okay...
Though, he was a trifle concerned for the well-being of his shakujou...
Then he gasped audibly in shock as the girl raised the shakujou up over her head and drove the end of the staff into the ground, plunging it a foot or so into the solid rock until it stood on its own. Miroku felt a tad wan as thoughts of the ledge crumbling beneath the shock of having a staff buried into it entered the back of his mind. He quickly shook such disturbing ideas away and squinted one eye at the girl.
"Ano...?" he said questioningly, and the girl grinned playfully.
"If you've forgotten this," she said, shaking the shakujou to make sure it was steady in the ground, "then there's really no hope for you..."
With that, she leapt straight up into the air...
~
"Houshi-han! Houshi-han, miru nya! Mite, mite!"
The little girl's face was split by an enormous grin, her blue eyes glittering with excitement, her tiny hands tightly gripping the long slender wooden staff she had driven into the ground. She beamed at her companion, whose face reflected something betwixt confusion and nausea.
They were young...the girl perhaps thirteen, the boy a year or two older, but both had a sort of glimmer to their eyes that said there was more to their lives than simple childhood pleasures...a glint of something much older and wiser than their bodies might have suggested...
"I bet I can do something you can't, Houshi-han!" she bragged in a sing-song voice, her features full of exuberance as she grinned at the young boy who stood a few feet away from her.
The boy chortled and shook his head, his left hand on his brow.
"I'll bet there are lots of things you can do that I can't..." he said with a grin.
The girl's shoulders tensed in aggravation.
"You have to watch!" she insisted childishly, and scrunched up her face.
"Okay, okay," the boy laughed, holding his hands out in front of him in a gesture of placation. "I'll watch, I'll watch..."--he paused and suddenly looked a little nauseous again--"just...don't break my shakujou..."
"Ahou, I'm not gonna break it," she told him in a tone that suggested he was foolish to believe she might damage the staff, and then she backed up a little.
With a toothy grin, she crinkled her nose brattishly at the boy, and bent her knees, jumping straight up in the air.
"Ch-Chotto!" the boy cried, alarmed, watching in horror as the young girl landed lightly on the embellished gold head of the shakujou, balanced on only her right foot. "A-Abunai!" he yelped, taking a step forward, his arms flapping rather helplessly at his sides. "Abunai yo--! Get down from there, you'll fall!!"
She looked down at him confidently, leaning forward with her left foot extended out behind her for balance.
"Daijoubu ya de," she insisted. "I know what I'm doing." She smiled cutely. "'Tis not so hard, you know?"
"It's not your ability that worries me," the boy admitted a little fearfully, hovering near the bottom of the staff like some sort of frantic honeybee, "it's the effects of gravity upon you that I am a tad concerned about..."
He grimaced as she wavered slightly, then caught herself.
"Gehhh...come down from there right now! You're gonna fall!"
She giggled.
"Houshi-han, you worry far too much..."
He fisted his hands at his sides.
"I order you to come down right now!" he said firmly.
"Datte--!"
He eyed her paternally.
"You impressed me, okay?" he said. "Now just come down!"
The little girl pouted, her golden hair seeming to droop along with her mood.
"Mou..." she complained.
The boy waved one hand dismissively.
"Hai, hai, I know," he said, "I ruin all your fun..."--he gave her a mildly desperate look--"but will you listen to me just this once?"
She twitched her mouth, and he narrowed one eye.
"Oh...fine," she said haughtily.
And, with a huff, she bent her knees in preparation to jump down--
"Kya~a!"
--and lost her bearings.
With a yelp, she pitched to the side, plunging toward the ground, and the boy leapt forward, a look of panic twisting his features...
"Satsuki!!"
"Oomph!"
Miroku grinned down at the girl in the white yukata as he caught her easily. She was amazingly light, he noted...he felt as though he was holding but a small child in his arms. He suddenly thought it rather astounding that such a slight girl could have hauled him up over the edge of the cliff to safety.
He chuckled. She had her eyes squeezed shut, and the fingers of her right hand were clamped tightly around the purple fabric of his robe. He shook his head, feeling rather silly.
Of course! Why hadn't he recognized her before...? Her unusually light hair, her startling blue eyes...or the peculiar accent, at least! It was almost as if a thousand stolen memories had just suddenly flooded back into his mind, as though a dam had burst open and all the forgotten past was suddenly free to run rampant in his mind.
It was an amazing feeling, to say the least...
She carefully opened one blue eye, and made a wordless sound of perplexion as she met the houshi's eyes.
"Didn't I tell you before that it was dangerous?" he asked in a scolding tone.
She beamed at him.
"But you always rescued me anyway," she laughed as he set her down. She chuckled a little awkwardly, and then gave Miroku a dazzling smile. "So it seems you're not a totally lost cause, after all..."
Miroku gazed at her a moment, then suddenly felt a little dizzy as he took her by the shoulders, and stepped an arm's length away to get a good look at her.
"Sa...Satsuki..." he breathed, as though fearful she might shatter if he spoke above a whisper. "Satsuki...is it really you?"
She lifted one eyebrow.
"Un," she said simply, folding her slender arms over her chest. "Well, who were you expecting, the Queen of Sheb--aack!?"
She let out a startled yelp as Miroku threw his arms around her.
Her eyes bugged out in surprise.
"Na-Na-Nanio shite imakka?!" she stammered. "What are you--?"
"Satsuki," the houshi said, "I'm so happy to see you...! I didn't think I would ever lay eyes on you again! I was so sure you were dead!"
"Dead?"
She gave a start in his arms, shocked at his words.
"What on earth would make you believe I was dead?"
"You just disappeared that day," Miroku said, his chin resting atop her head, as she was several inches shorter than he, "I figured something must have happened to you!"
He drew a breath through his nose, and the slightly spicy scent of ginger filled his nose, sweetened by a hint of waterlily.
It was the same intoxicating scent she'd had years ago...all those years ago...
Why hadn't he at least recognized that?
He held her a little tighter, like he was almost afraid to let go. He winced subtly as he felt something poke his ribs, as though he'd been pricked with a needle...but when he flinched away from it, the pain was gone, and he supposed it must have been perhaps one of Satsuki's hairpins or something of the like.
He squeezed her shoulders in his arms, and for just a moment thought he could just stand there like that forever...
She squinted one eye.
"Ano...Houshi-han...'tis becoming increasingly difficult for me to breathe..."
He loosened the embrace a little, and closed his eyes for a second.
"Satsuki, you don't know what joy it brings me to see you alive..."
"Houshi-- Kyaah!"
Her eyes bugged out again and she let out a startled cry as she felt his hand on her bottom. She quickly shoved him backward.
"Oh...I think I do..." she muttered in response to his previous statement. She straightened the sash on her yukata, and ran one hand through her hair. "'Tis good to see you haven't changed..."--she narrowed her eyes--"at all..."
He coughed nonchalantly into one fist. Then he looked at her, a smile on his face.
Satsuki...
God, how she'd grown up! The young woman who stood before him was a far cry from the rough-and-tumble little tomboy he'd known years ago. Her juvenile ragged edges had smoothed into soft curves, and her youthfully boisterous energy had melted into feminine grace.
But, while her figure may have changed, her face had remained the same.
The large kind blue eyes and beguiling smile...the contagious giggle and playfully untamed mop of white-gold hair, streaked with a single thatch of ebony that gave her an endearingly oddball look... Miroku was overjoyed to see that she was still the same person underneath.
"What are you staring at?" came a falsely annoyed voice. "You'd think you'd never seen a girl before..."
He met her eye.
"You...grew up," he said dumbly, and she laughed.
He felt slightly dizzy again at the entrancing sound of her laughter.
"People tend to do that over the course of five and a half years, you know...?" she told him, still chuckling. She spread her arms out to her sides. "Well...and what about you, Houshi-han?" she said accusingly. "You certainly aren't the fourteen-year-old whelp I met so long ago..."
He put his hand behind his head.
"Ah...yeah..." he stammered, blushing again, unsure of what to say.
Jeez, why was he having such a hard time with this? He shook his head quickly. This girl had been his dearest friend half a decade ago...why couldn't he get his mouth to form words? His tongue felt as though it was made of wood, his throat clogged with cotton.
He couldn't believe that they had found each other again! He had honestly thought her dead all this time. It had been more than five years...he had all but forgotten her completely...perhaps in the belief that if he pushed her from his mind it would stop hurting.
But how? How could it be that she had survived? The day that had torn them apart was still fresh in his mind... The field...the rain...the broken bridge...
...surely no one could have lived through what he saw...
...but...
...
But here she was...! After so many years of solitude, the two old friends had been reunited against what he had believed to be insurmountable odds...
He was quite truly lost for an explanation...
But, well...he decided that, if it wasn't broken, one should not attempt to fix it. She was here, and very much alive, so he figured he should just leave it at that for now.
And then something occurred to him, and he regarded her seriously.
"Have you been following me?" he asked bluntly, and then groaned at his own lack of tact.
She blinked.
"Following...?"
He nodded, and leaned back against the wall of the cliff, feeling a little dizzy again.
Perhaps it was the altitude...
He folded his arms over his chest.
"I've been having this weird feeling all day," he told her, "like someone was watching me..." He narrowed one dark eye. "Besides," he added, with feigned accusation, "how else would you have known to come up here to this ridge to help me out?"
She cocked one eyebrow coyly.
"You'd have preferred the alternative...?"
He threw his arms out in front of him.
"Iya yo!" he cried, a look of panic on his face. "It's not that I was complaining..."--he cast a glance over the ledge and gulped.
Why the hell were they still standing on the blasted ledge anyway??
"I just..."--he glanced at her again--"wondered how you knew to come to my rescue, that's all."
She smiled cryptically.
"I just knew," she said slowly, and her hand moved to the neck of her yukata, rubbing the slender necklace she wore just below her collar between her thumb and index finger. "I always did..."
Miroku did not know how to respond to that.
She suddenly looked a little sad, and he had an urge to say something to her...but he just couldn't seem to think straight enough to form words. He opened his mouth, and no sound came out.
"Ano..." was all he seemed able to say.
Satsuki snapped head up abruptly to gaze piercingly at the monk.
"Tonikaku, Houshi-han," she added, her eyes clouding over with concern as he regarded her lightly, "what are you doing all the way up here, anyway? I sure had a helluva time coming after you..."
Miroku gave a start, as though he had just remembered something of the utmost importance, and his eyes snapped open wide as he slapped his palm with his fist.
"Shimatta!" he cursed. "Dammit, I almost forgot!"
"Huh?"
He locked eyes with her.
"The Great Camphor," he said, and she gave him a look that bordered on baffled. "I have to get to the camphor tree before sunset!"
Satsuki suddenly looked stricken, like she'd been slapped.
"So...Sonna...masaka...so 'tis true, then...?" she whispered in a tone that begged for someone to tell her she was mistaken.
He blinked at her.
"What?"
She shook her head quickly, as if attempting to convince herself that she hadn't said anything.
"Why?" she asked hotly, and Miroku's features hardened. "Why do you have to go to the camphor? I just found you...and you have to go so soon? And it's dangerous...why do you have to go?"
"Someone...someone I know is in trouble," he said. "A...good friend of mine...is in a lot of trouble..."
Satsuki seemed to blanch.
"Trouble?"
"Aa," Miroku said, "he's really gotten in over his head this time, I think...gotten into a scrap he's really in no condition to participate in..."
He cast his eyes quickly to the skies as the light of the heavens turned scarlet, the glowing daystar slipping quickly beyond the opacity of the horizon like a wet plate sliding from someone's grasp. He was almost sure he heard it shatter as it disappeared from sight, leaving nothing but a crimson glow in its place.
Rattled, he glanced back at Satsuki, who appeared a trifle faint.
"I have to go help him," the monk said firmly, "or he may end up getting himself killed."
She gave him a desperate look, and his eyes softened.
"Oide," he said, grabbing her wrist, "we can go together. If I recall correctly, you were always one for a good scuffle, anyway, right?"
He smiled.
"I can't believe we've found each other again, Satsuki, after all this time...I don't want to let you out of my sight..." Miroku clenched his hands around hers. "Say you'll come with me. You can meet him...and the others, too..."
"Others?"
Satsuki suddenly looked as if she might be sick.
Miroku started to ask what she was suddenly so uptight about when a wave of dizziness swept over him, and he quickly let go of her wrist to raise one hand to his brow.
What the--?
This sensation was not simply from being overwhelmed at finding a childhood friend...nor was it residual from the shock of nearly plunging to his death over the edge...
This was...something entirely different...
And he didn't like it at all...
He dropped to one knee, kneading his forehead, his eyes clamped shut as he tried to keep from wavering.
"Daijoubu dekka?"
Satsuki knelt beside him and clutched his shoulder.
"Houshi-han?"
He nodded hurriedly, and leaned forward to wrap his hand around the shakujou still driven into the ground near the edge. Somehow, he thought perhaps the familiar feel of the worn wooden shaft might help...
...but it didn't.
"I...feel strange," he said haltingly, still rubbing his forehead in an attempt to clear his head. "I'm dizzy...everything's swimming in front of my eyes..."
Satsuki gasped softly.
"Shikkari shite, Houshi-han," she pleaded, "I didn't wait all this time to lose you again now..."
Miroku smiled at the concern in her voice.
"Daijoubu," he insisted, but it was a lie. He couldn't even open his eyes, for fear the vertigo would make him pass out.
Jeez! he though angrily. What's happening to me?
"It must be the elevation," Satsuki said wisely, taking Miroku's elbow, "and the shock of what happened before...it must be getting to you..."
He brushed her hand away.
"Iie," he insisted snappishly, and pitched forward, catching himself on his left hand, the fingers of his right hand still clamped firmly around the shaft of his shakujou. "I'm...I'm okay."
Satsuki folded her arms across her chest again.
"Mou, Houshi-han," she chided, "five years later and you still can't lie to save your face..." She shook her head. "Arukeru ka?" she asked softly. "Do you think you can stand?"
He took a deep breath, and for a moment felt as though he might be able to open his eyes without blacking out. He nodded.
"Aa, I think so..." he said, and used the shakujou like a crutch to stand against, staggering to his feet.
Satsuki clutched at his sleeve when he wavered, fearing he was a trifle too near the edge of the rock shelf.
"It's...not that bad anymore," he lied through his teeth as he grit them to keep the dizziness at bay.
He gripped the staff and forced a smile at Satsuki.
She looked at him dubiously.
"Usotsuki..." she muttered, and tried to take his arm to sling it over her shoulder. "You are such a liar."
He pulled away, and quickly yanked the shakujou from where it pierced the earth, leaning heavily on it once it was free.
He looked at her intensely, ignoring her accusation, and squinted.
"What?" she asked, startled by his piercing stare.
"Are you coming?"
"Nani yutennen?" she cried shrilly.
He jerked his chin upward, feeling a drop of sweat run down his cheek as he struggled to hold steady against the darkness dancing at the edges of his vision.
"I have to get to the camphor," he said. "The sun's already set, I've lost too much time as it is..."
Satsuki gaped at him for a moment, then blinked rapidly, her long eyelashes fluttering.
"Ohhh no you don't," she said in a matronly tone. "You're not going anywhere but home, Houshi-han, not in your condition."
Worry snaked across Miroku's features in a wave, and Satsuki gnawed her lip as he said rather feebly, "Demo...Inuyasha ga... I have to..."
She furrowed her brow and sighed.
"Inu...yasha...?" she said slowly, as though she had to force herself to say the name.
Why did it have to be...?
Miroku looked at her.
"I...have to go help him," he said firmly, "else he'll be killed..."
Another wave of dizziness swam through his head, and he leaned on the staff again, grimacing, his eyes squeezed shut as he fumed silently.
Dammit! What was this? Why now?? He didn't have time for this nonsense!
He gave a start as he felt pressure on his forearm, and glanced to his right to see Satsuki had taken his arm in her hands.
"The camphor?" she said, sounding a little tired.
He nodded haltingly.
She sighed again.
"I'll go, Houshi-han."
"But you can't!" he protested. "It's too dangerous to go alone, Satsuki, the road is far too treacherous for you to go by yourself..."
He refused to gasp as the whirling sensation intensified and his grip on the staff slipped a little.
She smiled complacently.
"And you honestly think you can walk it in the shape you're in?"
He didn't respond.
"Listen to me, Houshi-han," she stated firmly, "I promise you I will go and help your friend, but--"
"Dame da, Satsuki," he interrupted. "You can't. Not by yourself. He'll be fighting a very strong demon--"
"And you'd never make it there in your condition," she countered, a little irked at his obstinacy. "Look, if you're concerned for his safety, then let me go. You won't ever make it the rest of the way, not like you are... If I don't go, no one goes. I won't let you fight in that shape."
Miroku glanced at her and met her eye. There was a fierceness in her stare and a growl beneath her voice that made him think twice about questioning her judgement again.
"Satsuki..."
He regarded her a moment, and then reeled, a little panic-stricken, as another fit of dizziness slammed him to his knees with a startled cry.
"Houshi-han!" Satsuki yelped, and caught him under the arms as his legs buckled beneath him. "Houshi-han, daijoubu dekka? Houshi-han!!" She slung his arm over her shoulders to heft him to his feet. "Shikkari shite! Donaishitan ya?"
Miroku barely heard her...everything seemed to swim and dance before his eyes, it was as though he was peering at the world from the backside of a waterfall.
"Dizzy..." he moaned, bringing his hand to his temple, struggling to maintain his grip on the shakujou along with his feeble grasp on consciousness. "Can't...see straight..."
It was alarming. He'd never felt such incapacitating lightheadedness before... Never, in all his days, had he experienced disorientation of this magnitude before. It seemed nearly as debilitating as when he inhaled the poison of Naraku's Saimyoushou... It was not quite the same, in that this wasn't painful, but somehow, the mysteriousness of this particular situation struck him as a bit more troubling than the venomous vespines of the villainous hanyou Naraku...
This was surely no accident...someone had done this to him...
But who?
And when?
Why did this have to happen now? Now, when he had to go help Inuyasha? Now, when he had just been reunited with his best friend from years ago... Why did everything seem to happen at the most inconvenient of times??
He thought back to the battle with the onineko...and recalled that she had managed to injure him with her Fuujin attack...
Could there have been some manner of poison in the attack? Had the cat demon done this to him?
But why had it taken so long to affect him?
It didn't make sense...
"The air is thinner up here," Satsuki said, floundering for something to tell him, to keep him talking if nothing else. "You need to get back to--"
She made a wordless sound of protest as Miroku shrugged off her help and gripped the staff for dear life, as though it might be the only thing keeping him anchored to consciousness.
"Houshi-han, tanomu!" she begged. "You have got to--"
"Satsuki..."
As she watched in utter horror and disbelief, the monk's face went blank, as though he'd fallen asleep, and his eyelids drooped closed, but not before his eyes seemed to roll back in their sockets as he lost consciousness completely.
The entire world seemed to slow down,screeching almost to a halt as she lunged forward to catch him, letting out a shrill cry as his legs folded beneath him and he crumpled to the ground, pitching over the side of the ledge lifelessly, like a discarded doll.
"Houshi-han!!!"
She leapt to the edge and snapped her arm out to grab for Miroku's wrist.
Her fingers grazed the blue rosary around his right hand, but she wasn't fast enough to snatch his arm.
"Yada!"
It wasn't supposed to happen this way!!
Without a second thought, she swung her legs around and leapt off the ledge, pressing her arms to her sides to reduce wind resistance so she would fall faster, desperate to catch up to the houshi as he tumbled just beyond her reach. She extended one hand toward Miroku's unconscious form as they plunged toward the earth.
I won't let it end this way...she thought, and extended her fingers as far as they would reach, grasping wildly for the fabric of the houshi's sleeve. She growled in frustration as her fingertips brushed the fabric, but failed to catch.
Dammit! No! It can't happen like this!
She reached for him again, the wind screaming in her ears like a banshee as they plummeted toward the ground.
I wasn't lying, Houshi-han! she fumed in flustered desperation. 'Twas no lie...you can't die here...I didn't wait all these years...just to lose you now...
* * *
Do you remember
When we thought we were immortal
And the games we played always had a happy end?
~Vertical Horizon
* * *
Author Notes:
Tadaima, O Loyal Readers! I do apologize for my long absense... As it turns out, I took a rather impromptu trip back to Japan, and didn't really have a chance to inform you all before I left. Gomen nasai! But there is good news...since I've been laid off, I should have more time to work on this. I hope to get another chapter done up this week, so tanoshimimasu ne~e~e! ^_^
In response to some reviews I have gotten:
Spectrum and Port: I'm glad you are having a relatively easy time with the Japanese I have put in, I appreciate the feedback and both of your long reviews. It's good to know that my efforts are not in vain. ^_~ I had some misgivings at first, with some of the negative reviews about it, so I've tried upping the standards a little. Let me know if you have any ideas on what might make it easiest for you! ^_^ And Port, thanks for the vote of confidence, I'm looking into a new job right now. Wish me luck!
Fire-Phoenix Archer: Nope, you've got the right story. There will be much M/S to come...but I had to get you guys interested first. ^_~ I wasn't going to be like so many authors and write mindless WaFF right from the start, that would be terribly out of character. Worry not, my friend, the fluffy stuff is to come. ^_^
Kim: Hm...I'm sorry you had a hard time with the elements thing...I will go more in-depth about Kisetsu and the Oracle Jewel in later chapters, so I hope perhaps things will be clearer for you then. Right now, things are still supposed to be a little confusing. ^_~ And, no, the crow demon didn't get killed. He was just a one-scene deal, his contract expired there, so we won't be seeing him anymore. He was just holding onto the jewel for the onineko. Did anyone else have difficulty with this? Maybe I can try and re-vamp...or put another explanation somewhere... Please advise.
Please keep the reviews and emails coming, gang! ^_^ Not only do they really perk up my day, but they also make the reading experience better for you...because it helps me figure out what I'm doing right...or what I'm doing wrong. Oh! And everyone, thank you so much! Over 5000 hits! ::group hug:: You guys make me happy! Arigatou gozaimashita ne~e~e! ^_^
*Glossary of Terms*
I am assuming we all know the Inuyasha basics, like youkai, hanyou, Shikon no Tama, etcetera, so those will not be translated here.
Shikkari shite ne: shikkari actually means firm or steady. Basically this means, "hang in there!", but it can be used in several different contexts, such as "snap out of it" or "don't give up", as well.
Sakura: most of you should know this one...cherry blossoms.
Ojou-sama: loose translation would be "Little Miss", more or less. A formal title for a young girl. Jou is the actual kanji for girl, and the O before it is honorific.
Mattaku: "Really!" or "For goodness' sake!"
Homma ni?: the Kansai-ben version of hontou? meaning "really?" So the Phrase, "Homma ni Houshi-han ya de?" would be the same as the tokyo Japanese, "Hontou ni Houshi-han desu ka?", or "Is that really you, Houshi-han?"
Miru ny; mite: Both mean "Look!", but miru nya is a Kansai-ben conjugation of the same verb.
Nanio shite imakka?: "What the hell are you doing??" In Tokyo Japanese it would read "Nanio shite imasu ka?", but in Kansai-ben, the "su" before an inquirific "ka" is frequently dropped, so imasu ka becomes imakka, desu ka becomes dekka, and so on.
Tonikaku:ANother way of saying "Anyway..."
Oide: An old conjugation meaning "come". From what I can tell, it's sort of obsolete, but in regard to teh time period, it seemed appropriate.
Arukeru ka?: Can you walk?
Usotsuki: Liar.
Nani yutennen?: "What'd you say??" Kansai-ben... Tokyo Japanese would most likely read "Nan da to?"
Donaishitan ya?: What's wrong? Kansai-ben for Doushita no?
Tanomu: Please, in context, but a very severe word for it... Almost as if begging.
Did I miss any?
Oh, and just for reference...I developed Satsuki's character a long time ago...before episode 55 came out...so this Satsuki is of absolutely no relation to the Satsuki Shippou developed a crush on. No correlation or anything...I'm basically writing this as if Shippou never met any Satsuki, so I hope no one gets confused. I was so mad when I saw episode 55 and saw the girl's name was Satsuki! >_<
Please review! Or drop me an email and let me know what you think!
~~hikari