Grandfather Higurashi thought deeply about what Kagome had told him. He knew a great deal of what Kagome had told him already, due to the fact that Mr. Temporal Tracker had detected the opening of the time corridor in the first place, and he had already done some investigation himself. Kagome only filled in the details, and informed him of what was happening on the other side of the corridor.
Kagome had told him this story as he repaired the breeches in her shell, which required her to be mostly nude. Souta was not allowed to watch, for obvious reasons. (Grandpa almost got kicked out himself, but for the fact that he was the one who needed to make the repairs!) Souta got the news as Grandfather and his daughter, Mei, discussed what they had heard.
"But, father… Kagome's story…" Mei began haltingly, "could it be true…?"
The smell of the nearly-full cup of hot green tea wafted up into Grandpa's nose, the sharp scent focusing his thoughts. He slouched over the table, his grease-stained hands intertwined—grease stains that were soaked deep into his skin, a consequence of having a robotic granddaughter.
Buyo yawned. Typical cat.
"C'mon, Gramps! You know it is!" countered Souta, who although got his information from the other side thirdhand, he was firsthand on the original incident. "A monster came outta the well and grabbed her an'…" Grandfather Higurashi did not hear any more as he put these facts together.
Where was Kagome?
The saber marionette luxuriated in the tub. Her outer shell repaired and once again unblemished by 'wounds', Kagome sighed as she let the piping hot water soak into that same shell, relaxing her. She always took a good hot bath after being serviced in the shop, but after having to go three days without her precious hot baths, she was feeling especially decadent. "I'm not home… I'm in heaven…" she sighed, closing her eyes.
Grandfather Higurashi processed the information he had so far.
The legend has been passed down through the ages about "the Bone-Eater's Well", he thought. Telling of an evil within it that causes the corpses of monsters to disappear… somewhere.
But now that we know that the well is the mouth of a time-corridor, which only fully opens in response to a maiden circuit. But the mouthes would partially open at random intervals, causing whatever's in the well to be sucked up into the corridor. But in this event, the other mouth has not opened… indeed, the throat may not fully open. Thus, the unfortunate creature's remains would become trapped in the time corridor, caught between the folds of time, or bouncing about for all eternity.
Or possibly not. The mouthes are a barrier, but barriers can always be tunneled through. The corpses may wiggle their way free from the folds of spacetime in the corridor. And some times when the mouth opens randomly, it is all the way, allowing unimpeded passage. The result would be a monster, or his bones which can be just as bad, being dumped in this era!
"I can't just sit here!" declared Grandfather Higurashi, rising to his feet.
Five minutes later, he was driving nails into wooden boards covering the well. After that job was done, he stuck ofuda talismans on the wooden boards. "All right!" he said, satisfied at his work.
The room was filled with the sound of a hair-dryer, its nozzle currently pointed at the ends of the black locks of the hair of a certain saber marionette currently living as the granddaughter of this shrine temple family. Although loud and annoying, it wasn't loud enough to prevent conversation between the current user, the saber marionette named Kagome, and her adoptive grandfather/creator/maintainer, Grandpa Higurashi.
"Huh? Spells?" Kagome asked, teasing her hair through the hot blast of air from the nozzle. She wore a towel on her head to keep from dripping all over the place, and fresh clothes—just because she could.
Grandpa Higurashi nodded his head at the robot-girl, who despite her beliefs, was neither his creation alone, nor his sole creation. "I sealed it with my new, super-duper, 100% guaranteed-to-work 'Monster B-Gon™' ofuda (patent pending) and set up a warding shield. Nothing's getting through that thing!" he said confidently, then took a savorful sip of his tea. "Have faith in my charms, child."
Kagome thought a bit. "Well… it's just that, since you found out that the Bone-Eater's Well is just a time corridor, that you chose to seal it with a spell, rather than… say… by collapsing the mouth, or wrapping it up in a loop, or something else that sounds scientific."
"Hmph! What do you take me for, Kagome-chan?" Grandpa sounded almost indignant, crossing his arms. "I may have a technological bent, but I am an ordained shinto priest!"
"Umm… but you are raising the most advanced android on the planet (ie, me) as your granddaughter," Kagome remarked. "Isn't that, like, offensive to the kami and such?"
Grandfather Higurashi glanced significantly at Kagome. "You let me worry about the kami. You just set your mind on putting this behind you," he advised.
In the well-house/mini-shrine, Kagome was deep in thought as she leaned over the ladder leading to the Bone-Eater's Well, the place where her adventure began. The well had been sealed again with wood and nails, and paper strips with squiggly writing of some kind covered its surface. A leafy stem in a paper pocket lay on top.
Somehow, everything that happened seems like a dream… her musings began. But still, I can't help wondering if everything is all right in that world.
Inuyasha sniffed his way, like a dog, to the Bone-Eater's Well of the past. Just to make sure, he sniffed around again. "Yep! Make no mistake: that's her stinkwater scent…" He spied Kagome's fuku rumpled beside the well. "Those are her weird clothes…" He sniffed up the side of the well. "So she escaped down here!" he declared triumphantly, leaping into the abyss.
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(Posted Sun, 26 Dec 2004 08:38)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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