+Legacy

 

An RK Fanfic: i.e. the author doesn't claim rights to the anime used.

 

Chapter 28 - Public Secrets

 

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"So many things are filled with the intent of being lost, that their

loss is no disaster…"

                                                                       - Elizabeth Bishop

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This part of the province seems to always be dark, hidden away from the light of the sun. Even the trees disobey the urge to rise steadily upward toward their energy source in the sky. Instead they crouch over this spot, huddling together like a herd of sheep trying to protect their younger ones.

 

It has almost always been this way here. No-one who knows what this place used to be ever speaks of it. But somehow, deep in my heart I know there is something here, something that has slipped out of my grasp to linger in the twilight between my awakened and sleeping mind. Something that I used to know but now I cannot touch…

 

I remember a time when this was a place of joy, a place that I could honor with the title of "home". I used to play here, I once felt loved and protected here…but now look at it. Lonely and forgotten with not even an echo of laughter to sustain its existence.

 

Is this the way that all things must be? Must I too, one day, become like this place, barren and unwanted? It would seem that way, everything seems to have some understanding, some capacity for the thought of death.

 

Even the love of one who used to be as close as a sister, but with the passage of time and the lack of laughter, that too seems to have faded away...

 

 

 

The world around her responded to her presence just as it should. The wind that somehow withstood the breaking force of the trees around the gloomy clearing stirred the tendrils of hair that hung over her ears. The grass beneath her feet bent to her will and the robes that she wore whispered with every move her body made.

 

However on this day, more than any other, these things meant little to Himura Kaoru.

 

Instead of feeling the caress of the wind across her cheek, all she could detect was the way the wooden bow in her hand seemed to yield to her touch, its obedience unforgotten with all the years that had passed between that moment and the last caress it had shared with that of her calloused palm

 

Instead of relishing in the natural carpet beneath her bare feet, instead her body noticed only the weight that it applied to each part as she poised herself for battle.

 

The soft whisper of her robes was similarly drowned out by the blood singing in her ears as she forced herself to focus everything that she felt. Every thought and emotion was carefully channeled through her body, down through her fingertips where it's electric charge was then fed into the objects in her hands.

 

A deep sigh of relief escaped her lips as she felt the energy flow out of her and into the place where it would be most useful. For a moment all her senses seemed drained, and an immense feeling of peace came over her entire being. So much so, that she barely noticed the words that came free from the place where they were buried in her heart, under all those negative emotions, the words that she had been meaning to say from the moment she had picked the weapon up in the first place.

 

"For my family's protection." she whispered as she let go of the arrow in her hand

 

Kero watched from his safe place on a tree stump behind her as the still quivering shaft pinned a single, tiny leaf to the trunk of a great tree several yards away.

 

Kaoru sighed again, relaxing her pose and running a hand through her hair before sitting down cross-legged on the grass with her head cradled in her hands.

 

Kero flew over, keeping a fair distance from the young woman. "Donaishitan ya?" the feline guardian asked.

 

Kaoru remained still for a moment before slowly sliding her hands down and nodding. "No…" she said softly, "I'm only a little frightened and angry that's all"

 

He hovered in the air. "Kitto ya na," he observed, "You were casting off some big waves there."

 

A wan, humorless smile appeared behind Kaoru's slender fingers. "I wasn't focusing my energy correctly at all, was I?" she said more to herself that the feline beside her, "Sometimes I get so angry and frustrated it becomes all that I can feel and it messes up my control." She sighed. "I suppose I really am too 'weak' for the task after all…"

 

Kero frowned. "You're not weak. You just need to focus your energy." And it was true. She was projecting some very strong energies. However, the feline guardian suspected that there was more to it than that.

 

Kaoru's hands slipped all the way down to her lap as she turned to give the diminutive sun guardian a short, incredulous glare. Her anger was the only thing she had to focus on, and that was about as stable as Shishio's mental state. Sighing again she turned away to stare at the treetops above, hoping the cat guardian didn't notice the cynical look in her eyes.

 

"I wish my mother were here." she whispered.

 

"Eh?"

 

The smile returned. "I don't know what I'm doing and I'm pretty sure Hideki doesn't either. If my mother were still alive she would have known just what to do and when. I never saw her lose her temper, not once, and she wielded her magic with total control. An irrational, inexperienced miko like me is hardly the woman for the job."

 

Kero twitched his ears as his triangular face folded in thought. "Hmm, well, it sounds just like what a true descendant of Clow could do," he said encouragingly, "So if your mother could do it, so can you."

 

"Che." Kaoru softly swore, her bangs ruffling a little with the air that passed her lips. "I may look a little bit like she did Kero-chan, but I assure that is where the similarity ends. Besides, even if it were possible for me to learn how to control my powers the way she did, I don't think Tian will wait that  long."

 

She stood up, again picking up her bow in her left hand, producing another arrow as her right drew back. The string pulled taut, humming with the energy she fed into the weapon.

 

" I guess, " she said solemnly, "That this time it all comes down to one lucky shot."

 

With that she let the arrow fly, straight into the back of the first, splitting it neatly up to the point and into the old tree.

 

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Being a person who had spent much of his life in the company of a true demon, there weren't many things that could faze Seta Soujiro. He had seen so many things, lived through ten lifetime's worth of nightmares. It was a harsh kind of wisdom that stuck with him even now, when he had finally found his light at the end of the abyss.

 

Oh, but the rabbit-hole is deep and endless. Even when one has conquered one passageway, an infinity of others exist, only waiting to be opened by the choices that we, in our flawed perfection, are destined to make. Even the ones that are made long before we are ever born.

 

Clouds of confusion and anxiety quickly gathering in the storm-gray sky of his eyes, Soujiro turned from the child-creature to his wife and back to the child who held him under a calm, otherworldly gaze.

 

Misao averted her eyes when he looked at her. Even though she knew better, a part of her still felt as if she were betraying his trust. No. It wasn't just that. They had both worked so hard, suffered so much to have the life that they had now. Once he had the knowledge that Mayuka offered, would that all be just another wasted effort? What would it mean to her…what would she mean to him…?

 

The little girl raised her eyes to look at the young woman trembling on the path. Her eyes were trained on the grass at her feet and her fisted hands were held rigidly at her sides. One did not have to be as old as she was to see the measure of fear and pain that Misao struggled to control.

 

"Take heart child," she commanded, "Have faith and that which you love will never leave you."

 

Soujiro looked at his wife again in time to see her raise her head at the child-creature's words. Tears stood at the corners of her eyes, but behind them the emerald of her irises remained bright and true. Whatever it was that was going on here, those eyes believed that it was all right. If she could believe that, then so could he.

 

He turned to the child again, "See here," he said sternly "I want to know just exactly…"

 

Mayuka smiled up at him from her new position as his words trailed off in surprise, "Forgive me, Soujiro," she said, reaching up to gently touch him on the forehead. Immediately, he slumped down and Misao moved quickly to catch him by the shoulders. Sitting down on the grass, she cradled his head in her lap, lovingly stroking his hair away from his face.

 

"Go on and sleep, beloved," she whispered, "I'm not going to leave your side…I am never going to leave your side."

 

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Aoshi watched with the fascination of a child as his own comb ran through the spun moonlight that was Hideki's hair. As the last tangle was freed, she tossed the entire mass over her shoulder so that it could cascade freely down her back.

 

A knowing smile played across him mouth as he reclined against the pillows on the floor, "You didn't braid it this time," he casually observed.

 

Hideki's impish smile was answer enough to his unspoken query, her dark blue eyes sparkling with the mischief of a thousand clever comebacks. Instead, she lay down next to him, propping her upper body up on her elbows as she planted a small kiss on his lips.

 

"I know you prefer me to wear it this way," she replied simply.

 

To confirm her statement, he reached out to the place where an odd curl refused to bend in the same direction as the others, instead sticking out on its own just above her left eye. Gently, he twirled the strand around his finger for a moment before allowing it to spring loose again.

 

"So," he said, eyes still focused on the curl, "What happens now?"

 

Hideki's smile waned as she let out a long and heavy sigh. "Now, I suppose I have to set things right again with Kaoru," she said solemnly, "We said some pretty rotten things to one-another last night. She even called me a coward to my face."

 

"Hideki…"

 

"No, she was right," the blue-haired woman insisted, " But I'm going to make up for it."

 

"How?" Aoshi asked.

 

"I still have some of the cards in my possession," she replied, "If I can use them to locate the guardian, then Kaoru and I will have an advantage over Tian."

 

Aoshi looked confused, "I thought that the cat was the guardian of the cards?"

 

Hideki smiled patiently, "Keroberos is the sun guardian, yes. But the power of the cards are both yin and yang, light and dark. There is another guardian called Yue who is supposed to be on the back cover of the book. He wasn't there when the book came into my possession, but providence dictates that he isn't far away, hiding in some form or other. If I can use a spell to find him, then all the elements that matter will be in our hands."

 

Hideki then crawled closer, resting her head on his chest. Instinctively, his hand fell to stroking the length of her hair.

 

"Is it dangerous?" he softly asked.

 

"Life is dangerous," came the muffled reply, "But that doesn’t stop us from living."

 

There was pause as Aoshi turned an idea over in his mind. "I suppose there isn't anything I can do to help, is there?"

 

Hideki's form molded itself more closely to his own, "You can do the most important thing." she replied as her fingers intertwined with his.

 

"You can hold my hand."

 

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