Gossip (IY)
Couldn't sleep last night and came up with this.
Gossip
The old man at the Higurashi shrine was mad, they said. He tells his granddaughter stories about demons and believes them.
"Poor Kimiko; to have married into such a family... but she holds up admirably," the neighbours would say and praise Kimiko for taking such good care of her father in law. "His life hasn't been an easy one," they would add, in an attempt to show compassion for the old man and to make amends for their gossiping.
And that was true. His wife died in childbirth, leaving Grandpa Higurashi alone with his two sons and an old mother to take care of. His eldest son was 6 when their beloved Nana passed away, too. From then on it was only the three of them. He raised them on his own, without any outside help.
"An admirable feat," the Edo widow living at the far end of the street would reminisce. "Even my own rascalls weren't as lively and well-behaved as little Yosuke and Ken. Good boys, they were."
Ken became a police officer and eventually moved to Osaka. Yosuke took it onto himself to take over the shrine.
"They're good men," the Edo widow would insist, even though everyone knew that Ken had divorced his wife only shortly after their official joining and that Yosuke had married a women pregnant with another's child.
Still, Ken would visit the family shrine once a month and hold a sermon with his father and brother for their deceased family members and although little Aya Higurashi wasn't his own, Ken loved the little girl as if she were and that, really, proofs that the two Higurashi boys were good men.
"He used to have a sister," Mr. Tanemura told his son when the Higurashi patriarch and little Aya visited his health store. "I used to go to school with her... she could have been your mother, you know. I liked her very much."
"Her name was Kagome. Kagome Higurashi," Rika Suzuki, the owner of the local hair salon, said. "My Aunt Eri used to be friends with her during junior high. People talked a lot about her, Aunt Eri says."
That was true. Kagome Higurashi was the real reason why everyone thought that Grandpa Souta of the shrine was insane. She had been a good girl, her friends insisted, until she turned 15. She met a boy then.
"A yankee," they said distastefully.
"He was violent and rude," Ayumi Tanemura recalled when her husband, Hojo, asked her. "Insanely jealous. Kagome's never missed a single day of school until he showed up."
It was claimed that Kagome was ill when she vanished for longer periods of time. But when Kagome returned from each illness looking stronger than before, people started to have doubts. Eventually, they understood.
"It was only a question of time until she did something really stupid, like running off with that yankee, my mom used to say."
She was 19 when she did. The Higurashi's did not look for her. They knew she wouldn't come back. But her friend's did not give up.
"On the other hand... we never did find her and we probably didn't know as much about the whole situation as we thought we did. Eventually Kagome became one of those unsolved files they store in a damp cellar to gather dust," Dr. Araide said. "It's a shame. Eri, Ayumi, Kagome and me - we used to be the best friends. She was the reason why I became a therapist, you know. She always said "Yuka-chan, you can achieve whatever you want. I know you can"... that helped me a lot during my time at university, picturing Kagome telling me that. I wish I would have been able to help her."
The couple showed up, a few years after Kagome had vanished.
A tall, handsome man with long white hair, dressed in an elegant business suit. He was regal, awe-inspiring. No one ever noticed that he had only one arm because he carried himself with such dignity, such power and self-assurance that the missing limb might have been nothing more than a fold out of place on his immaculate suit. The woman by his side was always dressed in extravagant, hand-made kimonos. Her eyes seemed to look right through you. She always carried a fan, a rather large one, but it seemed to be no effort for her.
"This one knows how to wear a kimono," the Edo widow said, waiting every saturday to see the couple ascend the shrine steps. "A classical beauty, she is."
It was only the two of them coming all through the years to the shrine, never aging, never older than they were the first time they came, but no one found it strange, no one gave it a passing thought.
It was magic, Souta knew. Demonic magic. But he still held it dear.
"Inu-niichan didn't accompany you this time, either, huh?" he muttered when Lord Sesshomaru and Lady Kaguya came to keep him company.
"No," was the lord's court response.
They sat together in silence while drinking tea. Sometimes, they talked about times long past, about a woman long gone and a story long forgotten and always Souta would bid them farewell with the same words.
"Tell Inu-niichan to get over it and visit us. Tell him that I am going to die eventually and I have a lot of things to tell him."
The old man at the Higurashi shrine is mad, they said. He tells his granddaughter stories about demons, about time travels via a magical well and about priestesses falling in love with half-demons.
And his entire family believes him.
Gossip
The old man at the Higurashi shrine was mad, they said. He tells his granddaughter stories about demons and believes them.
"Poor Kimiko; to have married into such a family... but she holds up admirably," the neighbours would say and praise Kimiko for taking such good care of her father in law. "His life hasn't been an easy one," they would add, in an attempt to show compassion for the old man and to make amends for their gossiping.
And that was true. His wife died in childbirth, leaving Grandpa Higurashi alone with his two sons and an old mother to take care of. His eldest son was 6 when their beloved Nana passed away, too. From then on it was only the three of them. He raised them on his own, without any outside help.
"An admirable feat," the Edo widow living at the far end of the street would reminisce. "Even my own rascalls weren't as lively and well-behaved as little Yosuke and Ken. Good boys, they were."
Ken became a police officer and eventually moved to Osaka. Yosuke took it onto himself to take over the shrine.
"They're good men," the Edo widow would insist, even though everyone knew that Ken had divorced his wife only shortly after their official joining and that Yosuke had married a women pregnant with another's child.
Still, Ken would visit the family shrine once a month and hold a sermon with his father and brother for their deceased family members and although little Aya Higurashi wasn't his own, Ken loved the little girl as if she were and that, really, proofs that the two Higurashi boys were good men.
"He used to have a sister," Mr. Tanemura told his son when the Higurashi patriarch and little Aya visited his health store. "I used to go to school with her... she could have been your mother, you know. I liked her very much."
"Her name was Kagome. Kagome Higurashi," Rika Suzuki, the owner of the local hair salon, said. "My Aunt Eri used to be friends with her during junior high. People talked a lot about her, Aunt Eri says."
That was true. Kagome Higurashi was the real reason why everyone thought that Grandpa Souta of the shrine was insane. She had been a good girl, her friends insisted, until she turned 15. She met a boy then.
"A yankee," they said distastefully.
"He was violent and rude," Ayumi Tanemura recalled when her husband, Hojo, asked her. "Insanely jealous. Kagome's never missed a single day of school until he showed up."
It was claimed that Kagome was ill when she vanished for longer periods of time. But when Kagome returned from each illness looking stronger than before, people started to have doubts. Eventually, they understood.
"It was only a question of time until she did something really stupid, like running off with that yankee, my mom used to say."
She was 19 when she did. The Higurashi's did not look for her. They knew she wouldn't come back. But her friend's did not give up.
"On the other hand... we never did find her and we probably didn't know as much about the whole situation as we thought we did. Eventually Kagome became one of those unsolved files they store in a damp cellar to gather dust," Dr. Araide said. "It's a shame. Eri, Ayumi, Kagome and me - we used to be the best friends. She was the reason why I became a therapist, you know. She always said "Yuka-chan, you can achieve whatever you want. I know you can"... that helped me a lot during my time at university, picturing Kagome telling me that. I wish I would have been able to help her."
The couple showed up, a few years after Kagome had vanished.
A tall, handsome man with long white hair, dressed in an elegant business suit. He was regal, awe-inspiring. No one ever noticed that he had only one arm because he carried himself with such dignity, such power and self-assurance that the missing limb might have been nothing more than a fold out of place on his immaculate suit. The woman by his side was always dressed in extravagant, hand-made kimonos. Her eyes seemed to look right through you. She always carried a fan, a rather large one, but it seemed to be no effort for her.
"This one knows how to wear a kimono," the Edo widow said, waiting every saturday to see the couple ascend the shrine steps. "A classical beauty, she is."
It was only the two of them coming all through the years to the shrine, never aging, never older than they were the first time they came, but no one found it strange, no one gave it a passing thought.
It was magic, Souta knew. Demonic magic. But he still held it dear.
"Inu-niichan didn't accompany you this time, either, huh?" he muttered when Lord Sesshomaru and Lady Kaguya came to keep him company.
"No," was the lord's court response.
They sat together in silence while drinking tea. Sometimes, they talked about times long past, about a woman long gone and a story long forgotten and always Souta would bid them farewell with the same words.
"Tell Inu-niichan to get over it and visit us. Tell him that I am going to die eventually and I have a lot of things to tell him."
The old man at the Higurashi shrine is mad, they said. He tells his granddaughter stories about demons, about time travels via a magical well and about priestesses falling in love with half-demons.
And his entire family believes him.