InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Perish Once More ❯ Chapter Twenty-Two: History ( Chapter 22 )

To Perish Once More: Chapter Twenty-Two: History

-Jasmine Fields

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A/N: This chapter is dedicated to my many reviewers; in particularly, tokyoanimechica, snowfall, shadowdragon69, and Yuki. Catch the kisses I blow your way, if you can!

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…Old.

…Decrepit.

…Useless.

His strength faded and utility wasted, time and fate abandoned him to his ineffectual ranting tirades consistent with the mysteries of old age.

Time betrayed him parting with bitter sweet memories and contemplations - his own thoughts and soul conjured up coincidental regret, joy, loss and contentment.

Gone were the days of youth, when he was on the rebound chased by law enforcement -wanted as a grand thief and gang member. Albeit a poorly educated one, he had adapted to a life of misdemeanor crime and mild violence, raised on a pedestal within his sphere of influence.

I was fifteen once upon a time…

If memory served him well, then his blind youthful ambition and pennilessness eventually served as a tool to teach him the ways and value of an honest day's wage after he cycled through opposing the demands and way of the world. He had been a resentful young man - almost barbaric as a rebel - steeling hateful vengeance against all mankind and trifling in global affairs that he knew nothing of, lacking conviction and aimless in his unwarranted vehement goals.

He remembered his military enlistment and fast rise through the ranks with fondness and remorse.

The energy and morale in his outfit led to continuous success on the battlefield. There was no competition against his unit. Continued victories against his enemies, as he out-witted, out-flanked, and out-maneuvered them, eventually earned the ear of higher ranking officials.

At the time, he was a god of smaller portions, well-respected and feared.

Unfortunately, it was his perversely despicable suggestion that spurred on the events that became known as World War II.

Pearl Harbor - that was my fault - my idea.

Sadly reminiscent of his own dark stubborn pride, he attempted to lift a brand new delivery that recently came to his possession.

Gone were the days of love-making and immature decision making, when he nearly forfeited his rites as a priest. He had enjoyed many fleshy women on splendid moonlit nights as he took them to his bed - or allowed them to seduce him in theirs. At the time, he was still conceited justifying his lust and lack of control as a man with exceptionally abnormal cravings.

Besides, he was the shrine's heir.

…lots of mistakes when I was young.

His ego and covetousness as heir to the shrine that extended beyond the city limits nearly ruined his life with a law suit. It had been unfruitful - his recklessness.

Frowning, he kicked at the unmoving package, mindful of his age progression.

Gone were the days when the responsibilities of marriage and raising children befell him. He'd give up the whole of his damn good health to live that dream come true once again.

…and then some…

Loreli, who left him a widower, had been as gracious as she was beautiful radiating a quiet zeal for life. Often, he glimpsed traces of her appearance and compassion in both his daughter and Kagome - and was filled with sorrowful yearning. He had been fortunate to be gifted with her as his wife.

- And when his daughter was birthed into the world….

The day I held her the first time…

He changed.

That somber day he buried Loreli and made to wish her well in the afterlife he carried baby's breath and a single rose to her headstone begging her forgiveness for all his rotten adolescent ways - and wept his heart's heavy loss on the cold cemetery grave for two consecutive days.

If only the hands of time could be turned back…

Realizing he was losing a battle against the box of shrine donations, he sighed, picking up a freshly polished relic on the storage shelves and placed it in his pocket.

…Alone…

He didn't want to be alone anymore. But somehow, he knew there was some way to redeem his youth's idiocy and cataclysmic affects thereof.

He just didn't know what.

At least fourteen generations of Higarishis have taken care of these holy grounds…

Not comprehending the odd premonition he couldn't quite shake, his memory, testament to his meticulous studies, would not overlook a nearly long lost, yet surviving tale.

The virtue of those involved likened to a brilliant riddle whispered from voices of the past. It seemed the magic of myth and legend melded in the modern era with its unrelenting hymn.

While not verbally confessing his steadily growing fears, his gaze settled on the shrine's most mysterious collection. In it was a composition of foreign words and stray thoughts of transgressions.

Pulling from his pocket the dangling object, he quoted in his mind the words of deceptive solace written between the pages of the volumes of those books.

He only read them once…and then…

Never again.

The expressions and illusions created in his own mind disturbed him and he was suspicious of the modern historical claim behind their past intent.

"Content to live…content to die"

He knew every story ever mentioned to him as both a child and young adult. Still, he remembered all the details passed down - truths, lies, rumors, hypothesis collected in the books, scrolls and narrations of legends and history alike - of the world from the past and the commentaries made by historians of the current times.

"I declare my love, my resentment, my lie"

There were more words to the puzzle, but he was content to meditate on this strange verse. He would never articulate his uneasy concern from the certainty those words prophesied. As he studied, once more, the ancient bobble in his protection, he attempted to piece together one of the greatest secrets of all time.

…and still this trinket bothers my conscious.

There was much speculation and many theories surrounding this mystery, so, while laying in the hospital bed incapacitated with syringes and intravenous tubes sticking in him, he only mentioned his own theory that he had been working out in his own mind to Kagome and Inuyasha who intently listened - a first, he thought, smiling.

Mulling over the situation at hand, he picked up a broom and started thinking of new infections and diseases Kagome could `contract' while visiting Feudal Japan this week coming.

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