Rivers Always Claim What is Their Own
Chapter 4: Spirit's Wound
By: LadyRainStarDragon
I don't own Spirited Away. I will never own it, but I can write.
Last installment on this one, just because somebody was surprised by Chihiro wanting to give up.
His black booted feet sloshed through the water, midnight pants soaking up the flood waters around him, sky-blue shirt becoming damp from his sweat, sticking to his back as he continued his search. The sunlight gleamed from his badge, unable to reach his eyes due to the brim of his constable hat.
A man who looked so much like his father, and yet was not, had been in early in the morning, bringing an anonymous tip that the local Priestess had been killed on the way to town.
The young officer continued on. He had a personal stake in this search, and was determined that Ogino-Nisou be found. She was his mother.
What he found, put even his grandfather Tatsu's stories of wars to shame. Tadasu felt his guts try to force themselves up his tightened esophagus, crying against the sight.
She wasn't even identifiable at first glance.
Her clothing was ripped, blood bathing everything it seemed. Her once sweet face, broken, crushed, bruised, battered, lacerated. It looked more like hamburger than a human. Strangely, her lips bore a peaceful, although pained smile, as if she had received an epiphany at the moment of death, or a visit from a guiding kami.
He suspected the later.
"Over here!"
Her mounds, where he and his sister once suckled her life-giving milk, were no longer there, appearing as if whoever had done this had gouged them off with their fingers. Mother's slightly soft belly, tracked with her fluids, the river long since dried. Looking further down at her precious gateway, what his father called a woman's most sacred mystery, he wondered how his mother could have survived long enough for his father to have found her.
Tadasu couldn't hold back any longer. His tears became the river to ease his mother's journey, his wails the winds that propelled the raft carrying her candle past the sea to the court of the dead.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Sh. That's Officer Ogino, the current High Priest of the Kohakugawa Shrine. He took this job just out of high school, before Koji-san passed."
"You mean, this is his mom?"
"Yeah. And I hope whoever did this to her dies a thousand deaths for it."
"He sure doesn't look like her, does he? I mean, he's got such green eyes and black hair. He looks like that guy that came in giving us the tip about her."
"I saw a picture of his dad once, looks just like him. He was always gone on business, then they say he had an accident. Nobody's seen him since. She never remarried, although there had been guys trying, for the Shrine's money you know."
"Probably somebody's revenge then?"
'I should have gone instead. Instead, Mom wanted me to rest for today's shift. What if this had been Gawakusa?"
For the past seven years, he had dreamed this every night. And every night he would creep to his sister's room, to see that she was indeed safely in her bed.
Every night, he would go to his mother's shrine and pray for her. He'd see her sometimes, when he was on duty and patrolling the area. It was a commonly used path, and so nobody wanted a repeat.
He'd caught quite a few thugs just in time on those nights.
His mother's eyes, the sadness and pain at what others did, it horrified him.
Tonight, he was looking at the improved shrine Gawakusa had constructed. For the first time in seven years, he felt at peace.
The problem was, he knew he would always dream of how his mother looked, with her weapons scattered and her body in that state. Kneeling on the ground, he vowed he would never leave his own mate open like that. When he took one, she would always be chaperoned by someone, this world could be far too cruel.
Unseen to him, Ten and Tatsu watched from the shadows of the sacred grove.
"The boy has been little more than a wraith himself since his mother's death. If I had known that he was on duty that morning, I would have gone to the other desk."
"It's not your fault Tatsu. He probably would have been on the search team anyway. And if not, it would have been the rescue team. What if he had heard their confession that day?"
"He will never be the innocent boy that he once was. He will always dream of what he saw, and what could have been if it were his elder sister. Even worse, he will always blame himself."
"Tatsu. . ."
"My grandchild will always carry that wound, and he is doomed to know his mother will be pulled out of her peaceful existence with my son time and again to stop such things from happening again. She and he will see each other many times as he is a law-enforcer as well as shrine priest, and each time, he will be reminded."
A choked sob caught in the mountain lord's chest as the spring lord carefully placed a hand on the other's shoulder. The half-ling they were watching fell the rest of the way to the ground, screaming one question over and over again to any kami who cared to listen.
"Why?"
The two dragons retreated farther away, tears leaking steadily from their eyes, snowmelt from thawing emotions.
"Becoming involved with the mortals brings such pain as they change from shell to shell."
The two came to a clearing in the forest, Crescent Moon opening her arms to all in pain. The white dragon of the Sacred Mountain looked over a shoulder, imagining his beloved grandchildren.
"Hai, Ten. But the humans can bring such wonderful gifts as well. We must not forget."
Tadasu - to correct
Gawakusa - river grass