InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ An Old Spider's Modern Hand ❯ Literature Class: Folkore Lesson ( Chapter 1 )

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“The sound of children laughing echoed through the air, resonating all across the small village. The spring air was soft and warm; the flora was budding in pastel pinks and pretty greens all around; the baby animals were beginning to rise with the birdsong and laughter. Life was good in this small Japanese village, and the entirety of the small populous was out enjoying it. Even the small clan of kitsunes that were usually about irritating and playing tricks on the children and younger adults were simply lying back and allowing their skin and fur to be warmed by the delightful sun.

The strangest thing happened as soon as the sun was at its highest. The birdsong had begun to falter and within an hour it was completely stopped. No one noticed it, for it usually meant some nasty weather was due to interrupt and no one paid mind to that sort of forewarning this day either since the sky was still clear, the breeze still gentle, and the sun still relaxing and warm.

So the day went on regardless of the ignored ominous feel of nature’s silence that surrounded the village. That was until a slender, dark-haired, beauty of a Miko came to the village and was rendered weak with the baleful feeling that pillaged the relaxing air away. She hurried on forward towards the people and was greeted eagerly by the children playing on the outskirts. ‘Kikyou! Kikyou!’ They all cried out, surrounding her gleefully. ‘You came back, Kikyou!’ One of the young girls noticed the worry on the Miko’s face. ‘Kikyou? What’s wrong?’

‘Little ones…you must go to your homes and hide! Something dark is on its way here!’ Kikyou told them urgently. The children tried to argue to convince her that nothing was wrong, but after a few moments of conversation, they knew better and hurried back to their homes, worried and a little scared. The Miko followed after them and sent her warning to all of the village’s people to get into their homes and hide. She knew that something bad was getting closer as they spoke and moved, but she was not aware as to how bad. She looked dreadfully up to the sunset sky. ‘Attacking at night…like a true oni…’”

This class, along with all of her others, held failing marks and were difficult to focus in. Kagome Higurashi, after all, had much more bothersome and seemingly important things that held her attention during her school days when she was at home in this modern period. Her thoughts often wandered to the worries of InuYasha, Naraku, and the Shikon no Tama that was still so far away from being pulled together completely. The threats of Naraku and his detachments were of an utmost priority. Even Kikyou was seemingly a threat to her. Then, out of nowhere, someone else said Kikyou’s name. She blinked and was pulled out of her thoughts upon hearing the woman’s name again. She was shocked to see that it was her professor speaking. She looked up to the agenda written on the board at the front of the room. “Folklore Lesson.” She looked around the room and really started to pay attention to the story, reading along as the teacher read aloud.

“Soon enough night fell, the sky as black as the ink the people used to keep records. The moon’s light was gone from sight along with her daughters the stars. Thick clouds were the perpetrators to the blackness of this night. Now everything was quiet, very quiet. And frightful. The only being still out and about in the village was the Miko Kikyou, watching for and waiting on whatever was to come. She did her best in putting up protective barriers using what spiritual energy she had. The looming sense of the death was creeping ever so closer and it worried her. The average humans of this village who were trying to sleep could not feel such terrible pain and angst in the air as she could. For that, at least, she was thankful.

Attacking at night was a perfect, evil plan when it came to such unbeknownst places as this. The demons never expected the Miko to be there waiting; it was a shame that her waiting would be in vain. The colossal cloud of slithering demons—weak alone but as whole were a threat to any and all things—were swarming closer and closer. Within the mob was a power so overwhelming that as soon as she felt it, Kikyou knew that she could do nothing. To bear the burden of an entire village of dead souls…it would be a lot, but she would have to find a way, especially if these demons and the overpowering demon that was in control broke through her special barriers. The Miko had just a few moments left to solidify everything and stand her ground against these fiends in order to protect the lives of the innocent humans of this village.

Though as the cloud of demons came into sight, she knew all hope was gone. “Naraku…” she murmured quietly to herself upon unpromising realization. She looked back to the homes and up to the cloud coming ever so closer, a new black against the already black of the sky. She figured that her barriers would hold up long enough, at least, for the villagers to escape into the kitsune foxes’ forest back behind them and find some way to safety. She hurried to the doors and told everyone to wake up and flee. ‘Hurry! They are upon us!’ she cried out. ‘You may just have time to escape!’ This was a quite a desperate move for the usually focused and aware Kikyou.

About half of the village had made it through her barriers when Naraku and his horde came crashing through the other end. ‘Ah, Kikyou…what a,’ the dark-haired man paused in his already darkened drawl to find a specific word. ‘Pleasant…surprise.’ Kikyou only looked up, fear painted all across her pale features. ‘There is no escape, Kikyou.’ And with a minute motion of his hand, the demons were on the humans, moving directly past Kikyou as if she were not there. Screams suddenly and violently broke through the dead silence that surrounded the village. Fortunately, the screaming did not last long. Unfortunately, all but the Miko were brutally and bloodily murdered. Torn apart, actually. All by the orders of the dreaded Naraku who’s name had always been spoken in a whisper with fear.

The Miko turned to take a peek at the carnage that took place behind her. She was heartbroken and felt a little guilty for the event, but, she knew, as was she sure that the village people feared, they were doomed. Nothing could save them. Kikyou turned back to Naraku and simply watched as he gave a dark glare and rose a little higher in the air. ‘I’m glad that you were here to see this, Kikyou…until next time.’ His long black hair flowed in the newfound gentle breeze, his red eyes piercing through the night and boring into the Miko until he finally turned and disappeared into the night, leaving Kikyou distraught in the middle of the result of a massacre.”

On the following page at the end of the folk story was what confirmed to Kagome that the names in this tale were more than just a coincidence. There was an image—a copy of an old painting, to be exact—of Naraku, and he looked exactly as Kagome was used to. One of the other students in the class looked over the image, looked over his shoulder, and returned to the image with a bark of harsh laughter. “Look! This demon looks like Kumo!” Kagome looked up to him and back to the girl they all jokingly called Kumo due to a small mark on her palm that looked like a spider. Kumiko was her real name and…it was true: she was almost identical in appearance to that of the painting of Naraku. How had Kagome never seen this before? Kumiko was a good friend of Kagome’s. Then again, the young reincarnate was so often away on the other side of the well, how could she notice?

Kumiko was just a quiet girl who did what she had to and seemed to let people walk all over her when, really, all she did was take what the others threw at her quietly and continue on with life. She looked up to the few students who mentioned her unapproved nickname through her black bangs with her eyes that were that special brown; that brown that was so brown it was almost red. She sighed and pulled a small piece of her hair back behind her ears. “Hey, Kumo! Are you a demon, too? Are you what’s left of this Naraku?” The students laughed.

“How am I to know?” she murmured quietly. Her voice was soft, but stern at the same time. Nice to hear, but seemingly deceptive. “Perhaps I am a demon’s reincarnate…perhaps you all have lost your heads in the story.” The teacher at the front of the room had begun to quiet down the class down to continue the lesson. “It’s best to not become absorbed by tales of pure fiction, students. Now, I have chosen this tale because it ends so gruesomely.” The teacher spoke as he began the lesson of the day. Kagome, once again, lost focus after she stole a glance of the quiet girl with the spider-shaped mark, back to the painting of Naraku and the images in her mind from her own experiences with the demon, and back to the girl. She stood quietly while the teacher was facing the board away from the students and moved quickly with her things to settle next to Kumiko. “Hey…Kumo…”

“Kumiko.”

“Huh? Oh…sorry…It was the last thing on my mind…” Kagome murmured embarrassed then fixed her words. “Kumiko…Do you think you can come over to the shrine with me after school today?” she offered a smile and busy blue eyes.

“Sure thing, Kagome. I can walk with you after class.” Kumiko smiled, looking back to the board to copy the notes and make new ones on the lecture about how folklore has evolved over the years.

Next to her, Kagome’s head was swimming with thoughts, fears, worries, and ideas. She was half-tempted to admit the reasoning behind her frequent absences from the world and to finally show her the well that they always kept closed off to the public: the Bone Eater’s well that she used to go back and forth between times. She had, in the past few moments, been considering the idea that she could, somehow, be some sort of reincarnate or detachment of Naraku. There was no other way to explain the resemblance. She blinked and averted her gaze from her friend’s to the spider mark on the other girl’s hand. If she is…then maybe the well will work for her too… Kagome frowned quietly and rolled her pen between her fingers, her thoughts overwhelming her. But…if it works, and she goes over…will she change? Because if it works…it means she has some sort of unknown affiliation with Naraku! What…what is he planning? Maybe it would be bad to—

“Kagome!” Kumiko murmured her friend’s name several times before the urgency processed in the other teen girl’s mind. “Wake up! You need to catch these notes…there’s only so much I can share with you, you know.” Kumiko smiled weakly before going back to scribbling the spoken words of the teacher on her papers. Kagome nodded and stared at her blank paper, trying hard to focus, but all she could hear were the names that the teacher spoke, referring back to the story they all read together. Naraku, most of all.

When the final bell rang and the teacher finally dismissed the students, Kagome stood and gathered her bag together along with Kumiko. She thanked her friend for letting her have her notes and, soon enough, they were both on their way down the road to the Higurashi shrine. “So, Kagome, are you going to finally show me that secret well of yours?” Kumiko teased as they reached the top of the staircase and started heading towards Kagome’s home. That request had sort of evolved into an ongoing questioning since Kumiko knew it bugged Kagome, but when the blue-eyed girl did not immediately respond with a laugh and a ‘no,’ Kumiko blinked incredulously. “Wait…so…you are?”

“I don’t know yet…I’ve been considering it, but…” Kagome opened the door to her room when they arrived and she tossed her schoolbag into her closet, replacing it with the yellow backpack she took with her to and from the Feudal world. She went back to the door, paused a moment, and looked back to her friend. “Well…come on, then. I’ll show you the well.” She smiled. Only one way to find out for sure…

Kagome opened the sliding door that led down to the well. It was, as per usual, rather empty, bland, dark, and, well, average for a well. Kumiko did not seem very impressed. “Why is this place such a secret, then, Kagome?” she asked as she leaned against the old wooden rail of the deck surrounding the well down below.

“This is the Bone Eater’s well. It…it’s also the main reason I’m away for so long…” she murmured, took her friend’s hand—the one with the spider mark—and led her down the small set of stairs down to the well. “Um…I don’t know how well you’ll take this, but that story we read in class: Kikyou and Naraku and demons…they’re real. Well, they used to be, at least.” Kagome explained quickly her adventures and problems in the other world and tried to get across her queries about Kumiko. “I know…it’s hard for me to even begin to explain! But…I want to test it out, okay? Trust me.” Kagome gave a gentle smile before turning away, her face falling. If this does not work the way she figured, she may be out on another friend since Ayumi, Eri, and Yuka were all accepted into different high schools. Kagome would be alone again. Well, no one would miss her then—but that is not the point!

“Okay, Kumiko. Just go and open the well cover and then just jump in! Don’t worry, if it doesn’t work we can pull you up, but…this is the only way to know!”

“Kagome…you’re crazy, you know.” Kumiko murmured, pulling back her long black hair, and approached the well. She hesitated, looking back at her closest friend. “Just for you.” She murmured, reaching out to open the well. She took in a big breath, held it, and peered over the edge before crawling over. She sat on the edge, her legs dangling down into the depths of the structure. “You’re…sure, right?” Kagome simply nodded and watched as her best friend—and possible nemesis—descended into the well.
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