"Here, let me see that wound," Lady Kaede said, lifting Kagome's blouse to get a better look at Kagome's damage. "Hmmm... now that is something I haven't seen the likes of in fifty years..." the old crone murmured, poking the edge of the wound, where the pseudoflesh of Kagome's outer shell joined with her under-armor plating. Being a saber marionette required a certain amount of robustness in construction.
Kagome winced at the cavalier treatment of her wound. "OW! Careful!" protested the robot-girl, "It may be pseudoflesh, but the pseudonerves cause not-so-psuedo pain!"
"Relax, girl! All you need is these healing herbs, and you'll be right as rain."
"No, I need a repair shop!"
Lady Kaede shrugged. "If you say so. They can't hurt," she said and got to work. Kagome winced at the first touch as Kaede dabbed the wound with a salve she had brewed for this purpose. The robot-girl could only hope that it worked as advertised.
"What a place we're left in," Lady Kaede continued in a more somber tone. "Now that the Shikon no Tama has appeared again in this world, the evil beings who desire its power will soon be flocking here."
"Like monsters?" Kagome prompted.
"Not only monsters, but also men," Kaede said, "who are sometimes worse. In this era of war and chaos, the power of the Jewel can make any ambition a reality."
Kagome shuddered. She knew of some horrid ambitions from her history classes: the Holocaust, the Purges in Communist Russia under Stalin, and the slaying of intellectuals during the Maoist Cultural Revolution. She even heard of her own country's dirty little secret in Manchuria just before WWII. (She had to do some serious digging to uncover that.) And those were achieved without the Shikon jewel! How much worse could this little bead make things?
"Hey... why do you want the jewel?" Kagome asked Inuyasha, who was stewing next to the cooking pit. She received only silence. "You're strong already," Kagome continued, "Why do you need more power?"
"He's only a half-demon."
Inuyasha whipped around and smashed his fist through the floor, glaring angrily at Kaede. "Old hag," he ground out, "You've been acting awfully familiar since we met! Do you think you know me?!"
"Ho~~? Don't you recognize me? I suppose not," speculated the old woman. "You don't know Kaede, the little sister of the woman who enchanted you?"
"Kaede?" came Inuyasha's disbelieving reply.
"It's been fifty years," Lady Kaede pointed out, "and some of us grow older."
Inuyasha scratched his head, deep in thought (for him). "You... were that little whelp?" asked the dog-boy, in a bored tone. "Then Kikyou must be even more withered than you! What a bore you mortals are!"
"My elder sister... is dead," Kaede said seriously, "the same day she put the spell on you."
Kagome thought she saw... something flash across Inuyasha's face. Was it concern? Regret? Something else? But it was quickly covered by a smile that seemed insincere. "So, the little witch kicked it, eh?" Inuyasha remarked in an irreverent tone. "Well, nice to hear some good news at last."
Kaede poked at the fire with a pair of pokers. "Inuyasha, I wouldn't start celebrating just yet," said the old crone. She glanced to Kagome with her remaining eye. "There is the matter of reincarnation, don't you agree... Kagome?"
"Eh?" Kagome chirped.
"Your outward likeness. Your mystic abilities and markings. And the Shikon no Tama hidden within your body. What other answer is there?" Kaede elaborated.
Kagome grimaced. Surely there was a perfectly rational explanation for all that!
Inuyasha glanced at Kagome, pondering.
"You were born to protect the jewel."
That's what Lady Kaede had said, but Kagome didn't believe it for a minute. First, she wasn't born in the first place! She was made, by her grandfather's hand! On the other hand, Souta's father never really connected with her... there always seemed to be an undercurrent of 'you don't belong in my family' in all of his dealings with her. The old priest was more her father than her grandfather for this reason.
Her mystic powers? It's the phantom-light drive installed in my systems.
Her mystic markings? Those are my cooling vents, idiot! That Kikyou had them, too? Those must have been ritualistic tatoos. My grandfather can't have been the first to use that design. America seems to have that barbed wire thing going...
The Shikon jewel hidden in her body? Grandfather must have put it there! Kagome thought about that for a moment. He's got some questions to answer when I get back!
Her resmblance to Kikyou? Her brain must be getting moldy! After all, it was fifty years ago!
All in all, to Kagome it sounded pretty unlikely she was the reincarnation of this Kikyou person. Her scowl deepening, Kagome thought firmly, Hmph! A human reincarnating as a marionette? What a ridiculous notion!
"*HAH-CHOO!!*" Tamasaburo and Baiko sneezed in unison. "It's been a while since we've done that. Eh, Hikozaemon?" Tamasaburo remarked, rubbing her nose.
"They call her Lady Kikyou reborn!" whispered a middle-aged lady villager in wonder to an older sir villager.
"She does have a regal bearin', now that I look..." the older sir villager whispered back.
With that, the gathered villagers put down their things and put their hands together in prayer. Toward Kagome.
Gah! thought Kagome. Don't pray to me, dangit! I don't deserve such revere.
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(Posted Sun, 19 Dec 2004 00:11)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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