~Hakurei Shrine~ > Kosuzu's Grand Bookstore
Rising Star (Complete At Last)
Esifex:
This story is very yes.
Christ, I don't have any free time to be doin' any reading nowadays :C
Dorian White:
Dramatic change is dramatic.
Indeed it's so dramatic that it puts the appearance of a god completely in to the background.
♛ Apher-Forte:
I have fallen in love like never before with Shou, a deep dramatic on the origins of Shou.
Had I been pondering seriously on writing a fic for Hijiri's origins I would have wanted it to be as detailed and as well written as this in both perspective and creativity.
Therefore, I'd advise you not to look down on your own writing anymore, you are a captivating storyteller, let not others tell you that you are not.
FinnKaenbyou:
When I opened my eyes, there was no ceiling.
I stared lazily at the night sky for a few seconds, my mind not quite grasping that it wasn't meant to be seeing what it was. I glanced to my left, to my right; my room had apparently vanished in my sleep, and there was nothing but a curtain of stars on either side of me. I saw that my body was bare again, the nightgown I'd worn to bed missing. Pressing my hand down, I noticed there wasn't even a bed beneath me anymore. As I tilted my head backwards I could make out a grassy plain beneath me, approaching at a quickening pace. Besides a single dark-blue dot, all I could see was an endless field of green.
I took in all of this with a surprising lack of interest. Logically, I should have been flailing like a maniac, screaming 'OH CRAP OH CRAP WHERE THE HELL DID EVERYTHING GO I'M FALLING' as the ground came closer and closer. I should have been squeezing my eyes shut and hoping that at least I'd die quickly, or praying that someone would grab me out of the air and save me, or some other act of desperation.
All I did was observe the ground beneath me as it grew larger and larger. The dark-blue dot started to expand, turning into a pool of water. I recognised it - my pack's old watering hole, a forgotten lake that we had managed to obtain for ourselves after some scuffles with the surrounding youkai. By now the wind was almost painful as it flew past my face, but I still remained perfectly, impossibly calm.
It looks like I'm going to land in the lake.
Even my thoughts to myself were civil. Nothing like 'Aah, even if it's water I'm moving too fast!' or 'Crap, I don't know how to swim! What do I do!?'. My mind was quiet, content with looking but not really seeing. I was close enough now to see the reflections of the stars on the water, a rippled replica of the sky above. One in particular was shining brighter than the rest, almost impossibly so. Glancing upwards again, I noticed there was no star in the sky shining brighter than any other. My face registered confusion, even if there were no thoughts to go with it.
The water came up on me from behind, and I hit the lake with a heaving splash.
There was no pain from the impact, not even a feeling of coldness as the freezing water ran across my skin. I was observing what was happening to me, but I didn't seem to have any real part in it. My mouth hung open, and a stream of bubbles hung above me as I sank deeper and deeper. The night sky faded into the distance, the lights of the stars dimming until they couldn't be seen any more.
But I could still see.
I tilted my head back again, and I saw that there was a light coming from within the water itself, brighter than any star. It was the light I had seen on the water that hadn't matched the sky, and now I understood why. I felt curiosity, attraction towards it, without bothering to think about meagre things like breathing.
It drew me in. I was as still as ever, but I found myself unnaturally pulled in by the beacon of light. The world around me grew darker and darker, until it became nothing but me and the light in an endless black curtain. Its source started to take shape - a beautiful five-pointed star, glistening like a diamond from every angle. There was something encased within it, and as I approached I realised it wasn't so much something as someone.
She was sitting within the star, her eyes glancing hopelessly upwards. At this depth she wouldn't even have been able to see the surface, and despair seemed to be holding her back. She tried in vain to pound at the side of her prison, but it was too strong for her to break down. I could make out the tears in her eyes as I approached, finally reaching the star that had been calling me towards it. I knocked at the wall to attract her attention.
The girl turned to look at me, and immediately her eyes widened in fear. Her arms wrapped themselves around her chest as she slid cowering into the distant corner. I couldn't hear her, but her mouth moved as if to say 'Don't look, don't look...'. She was ashamed of herself, ashamed of her own appearance. Ashamed of who she was.
I smiled gently.
"It's okay. There's nothing to hide."
I never stopped to think that I shouldn't have been able to speak. I was too busy watching as the girl's expression of fear slowly faded away, and she pulled herself to her feet. She seemed strangely familiar - those golden eyes, with streaks of red from all of her crying, the unkempt hair, blonde with black streaks running down it. I paid it no mind.
She held out her arm, beckoning me with a single finger. She mouthed another sentence to me.
"Don't leave me. Don't leave me alone."
My hand slipped through the wall of the star as if it had never been there, and the rest of my body followed. She seemed surprised by this, but as she came to terms with it she ran towards me with a look of intense relief on her face. I found my arms wrapping around the girl, consoling her as she wept. There was another feeling of deja vu.
"It's alright...you can cry all you want now. You don't have to be strong anymore."
I patted her on the back, doing what I could to be supportive. The rest of the world was gone now - nothing existed beyond the two of us within that star. The girl took a few minutes to weep, and I silently stood vigil, giving her all the time she needed.
Finally, she looked at me. I noticed that we were looking face-to-face - no height difference in the slightest.
"Will you watch over me?"
She spoke with hope and fear, both at once - praying I'd say yes but worrying I'd say no. She was overjoyed as I nodded my head in response.
"Don't worry. I'll always be here for you."
As I held her close again, I started to feel her slip through my fingers. She moved into me, her body sliding into mine naturally. Her thoughts became my thoughts. Her dreams became mine, her hopes became mine. Within seconds, there was only one girl standing within that star.
"Because...I am you--"
---
"Hey."
My eyes jolted open, quickly falling on the overgrown letter E hanging inches from my face. I could just about make out a disapproving face hanging a few feet behind it, its red eyes looking down on me. It was the mouse girl from last night - Nazrin, that was her name.
"Oh, so you're alive after all. The way you were wrestling around there I was thinking you were having some sort of fit."
She pulled the rod away from me, sighing. I was still looking around the room in a panic - yes, this was where I'd gone to sleep the night before; yes, there was still a ceiling; yes, I was still wearing the nightgown that Byakuren had offered me. I murmured to myself, confused.
"What...what was that?"
Memories hung in my head. I remembered falling, falling into a lake, finding a star, seeing myself trapped inside, holding myself - none of it made any sense. What had happened to me!?
"Oh...I get it. You've never dreamt before."
My head tilted as I turned to look at Nazrin.
"Lemme put it this way. When you go to sleep, your brain gets bored waiting for your body to recharge. When it gets bored, it starts playing out little make-believe stories in your head. That's dreaming. I assume you just didn't have enough brain capacity to dream before, but whatever."
She was especially good at throwing in insults to go with her explanations, I had noticed that. Someting about this girl made me feel a little queasy. Slowly I nodded, accepting her explanation.
"Anyway, breakfast is gonna be out in a few minutes. I'm here to warn you so Hijiri won't moan at me for not telling you to get up. Don't go thinking it's anything other than that."
She let herself out, and as the door closed behind her I took a few minutes to grasp exactly what I'd been told.
"So...none of that really happened? But it felt so real..."
I turned my head, flinching when I realised the pillow beneath me was wet. I pulled my head up, seeing a line of salty tears decorating it. The image of the girl in my dream, eyes still wet from all her crying, hung in my head.
When I turned to look in the mirror, I saw the same face looking back at me. There was something else held within it, though - an inner strength, a confidence that the girl had lacked.
I smiled.
"...I'd better get out for breakfast. Don't want to give a bad first impression and all."
I felt strangely refreshed as I stepped out of bed, walking down the corridor in the hope that I could follow Nazrin to the kitchen.
I was no longer the weak, lost girl I'd been the night before, distraught and desperate in Byakuren's arms.
I was Shou Toramaru, faithful servant of Vaisravana.
And no force on earth was going to stop me from paying my dues to Him.
♛ Apher-Forte:
Yet another vividly narrated chapter.
<3 the work thus far.