Prologue: Things Unexpected
Disclaimer: I know that these characters do not belong to me, they belong
to whoever owns them (Sunrise). I mean nothing bad with this so don't sue
me. <g>
This fanfic is more historically accurate than "Snake
God", and it is also a lot more Japanese feeling, in my opinion. But still,
it's two parts fantasy and one part history, so please don't use what I say
in school reports or such... ooh, please.
This prologue takes place during my story "Ragnarok",
which may or may not be written by the time you read this. Therefore, it'll
be a bit confusing, but oh well. Most of it takes place in the sixteenth
century, anyway. Please feel free to ask me questions about anything.
Thank you Unacera for making Cale my official Second
Favorite Character, which is why I'm actually writing this one now.
Oh, also, Cale's real name in this story is actually
his official real name according to People Who Know These Things (namely
Theria). So, anyway, enjoy!
Hear me now! An existence is made up of the sum of past experiences, no matter how one may wish to put them behind. Though there is pain, there is also joy. Every experience has its own lessons to teach, through life and death, light and dark. And yet, darkness is not always evil just as light is not always pure. Hear me now! This is the sum of an existence...
The place was... bright. And noisy. Incredibly noisy.
Cale could hear at least five different loud pop songs blaring from where
he stood. The smell of food wafted from around some corner, but he wasn't
hungry, so it did nothing but add to the sudden assault on his senses.
The four people who stood just to one side of the large
gilded doorway were silent for a moment. "So..." Dayus finally said. "This
is a mall."
Sekhmet chuckled at both Dayus's remark and Chadih's
little gasp of awe. "I'm just glad that we actually made it. Kayura knew
what she was talking about when she said she'd rather stay back at the Shuzu
house. Are you sure they really did give you a license to drive, and you
didn't just magic one up?"
"I am very sure," the white-haired man scowled. "What
the other people do while driving is not my fault. You're the one who dragged
us along, anyway."
"You know why," he replied softly, and Dayus nodded.
Cale ignored their banter as he gazed about, somewhat
impressed but not showing it. "Eh, there're a lot of stores here. How are
we going to find what we're looking for? Should we even be here? No. We
should be back with the Ronins, figuring out a plan of action."
Dayus raised one thin, pale eyebrow. "The Ronins are
at their own jobs and with their families. There is nothing we can do about
the situation now. You know as well as I do that we're stuck here. So we
may as well start getting used to modern things, like this. Just relax, will
you?"
"Thank you for your words of wisdom, sensei," Cale replied,
grinning. "I will do my best to take them to heart." He rolled his eyes.
"Besides, if we had stayed around Mia's house too much longer, Kuru would
be having a heart attack. He still jumps every time he sees us, and who knows
what he thinks we're doing with his wife while he's--"
Dayus made a sharp noise in his throat, cutting Cale
off. The younger man blinked and looked innocent, and Dayus sighed and turned
to look back at Sekhmet. The other former Warlord had been ignoring them.
He was looking around now as well with a frown, ignoring Chadih's excited
tugs on his hand as she tried to pull free from his grip. "Well, what's the
name of the place that sells these clothes you're after?" Dayus asked patiently.
He started suddenly. "Ah, Mia gave me everything we
needed. Here." Sekhmet reached into a pocket and pulled out two folded sheets
of paper and a rectangular piece of golden plastic.
"Da-ad," Chadih whined, pulling at the belt of Sekhmet's
long, dark coat, "I want to go look at stuff!"
"Hush," he said distractedly, letting go of her hand
to unfold the papers. He glanced at them once and then immediately passed
both to Dayus. "One of these is the name of the store and the list of all
the school uniform stuff Chadih needs, and the other..." he trailed off,
and then finally sighed. "I don't know."
Cale wandered over to look at a movie poster on the
nearby wall. "I hope she gave you money, too."
"That's what this is for." He held up the golden card
to look at it cross-eyed. "Apparently they'll take this instead of money.
If they don't, she says to have them hold onto everything and she'll come
get it later."
"Hmmf." Cale looked down in time to see the skinny girl
wander by him, aiming out into the main part of the mall, and he grabbed
the back of her jacket and pulled her backwards. "Where do you think you're
going?" he asked sternly, though a smile still played on his face.
She fidgeted guiltily, tugging at one of her tri-colored
braids. "I want to go look at what's out there!" Chadih suddenly grabbed
his hand, trying to yank him in the other direction. "Please, Cale, can we
go look?" She made sad puppy eyes at him, and he glanced over to where the
other two were engrossed in figuring out Mia's directions before sighing
in mock-surrender.
"All right, let's go look." She giggled happily, and
he quickly told Dayus and Sekhmet what they were doing before letting her
drag him out into the mall. The noise was even worse here, although there
weren't as many people as there would be when the schools got out for the
day. The crowds consisted mostly of retirees and housewives, which helped
the two stick out even more.
Chadih, caught up in the new experience of the mall,
was oblivious to the hushed whispers her unusual appearance generated, but
Cale noticed the way a group of chatty women suddenly grew silent and stared.
He looked at them, smiled and winked, and turned away. His smirk grew wider
as they suddenly began to giggle like schoolgirls. This is entertaining,
he thought. I've missed being around so many people while I was in
the Netherworld.
Modern clothes, that still looked odd to his eyes despite
the fact he was wearing them, hung in shop windows and from racks on carts
out in the large aisle itself. He paused to let the girl climb up onto the
edge of a large fountain and look in at all the coins that people had thrown
in. She glanced up at him quizzically, wondering why money was in the fountain,
and he shrugged, taking a seat next to her.
She turned around to sit down, swinging her feet back
and forth and craning her neck to try and see up onto the second floor of
the mall. "Will Dad and Dayus be able to find us here?"
He chuckled softly. "They'd be able to find us at midnight
in a blizzard."
"Oh. Because of the armors, right?" she asked in a stage
whisper.
"Right," Cale replied amusedly.
Chadih bobbed her head in a nod. "Well, that's very
handy," she drawled, sliding off the edge of the fountain. "Oh! Let's go
look at this store!"
He tried to pull her back without getting up, and failed.
"I think we'd better stay here for a bit." The faster this gets done the
better. I don't like what's happening in the Netherworld now, not one bit.
I know we're supposed to be relaxing, but it's hard when I think about what's
going on there. It's like we're just wasting time...
"But you'd like this one," she pressed. "There's
a lot of swords and armor and stuff in the window! And remember, you told
me you'd teach me swords, Cale."
"Never, never tell Sekhmet that I said that,"
he reminded her, standing up. "Okay, we'll look at this last one, but that's
it."
She beamed, having gotten her way again, and they went
over to look in the storefront window. Cale glanced up at the sign above
the door. An antique shop, hmm? Funny, this is all stuff I would have
thought of as futuristic, way back when. He crouched down to see closer
and read the cards in front of the items to Chadih, pointing out how old
each one was. It amused him that both of them were older than nearly everything
that was displayed.
As he stood up, Cale noticed a sign taped to the window,
advertising a sixteenth-century display inside the store. He considered a
moment and then decided. "Let's go in this one, Chadih," he said.
She blinked. "Really?"
"Yeah. Don't touch anything."
"I won't, I promise," Chadih avowed, squeezing his hand.
Cale pushed open the door, and a small chime rang to let the proprietor know
people were entering. The store was dimly lit to help prevent fading on the
antiques, and as he looked around he noticed nobody else inside, not even
the storekeeper, who was probably in a back room or something. He shrugged
and searched for what could be the display he was interested in.
He finally noticed the hand-written sign above a glass
case, and, going over to it, he knelt down to better be able to look inside.
The artifacts inside were lit with a special light, and undoubtedly wired
against theft. Chadih leaned forward, hands on her knees, and eyed the contents
critically. "Cool," she finally said, speaking softly because the atmosphere
of the store seemed to demand it. "How old are these?"
"Probably older than both of us," he said, trying to
read the cards that said what everything was but having trouble because of
the glare. Finally he was able to puzzle out what the cramped handwriting
said. "Circa fifteen-fifties. About as old as me," he whispered to her.
"Ooh, is that a katana?" Chadih asked, pointing towards
the back of the case.
Cale peered in and frowned. "Too big for a katana. It's
more like a nodatchi. See how the blade is wider?"
"Really? It's not like yours or even Sage's. Yours is
bigger and has a different handle."
He opened his mouth to explain to her the differences
between a field nodatchi and a formal nodatchi -- not to mention the differences
between a mystical yoroi's weapon and a normal one -- when the card sitting
directly behind an array of women's hairsticks caught his eye. He read what
was written there apprehensively, with a growing feeling of... dread? This
isn't possible. There is absolutely no way this is true. No way. There is
no way. No way...
'Circa fifteen-fifties. Hairsticks with emblem of the
Sasaki family. Found in vault in Tsuchi palace treasury. Presumed war trophies.'
<sun glinted off the gold lining the jade of his
mother's hairsticks as she stood in the doorway>
Cale pressed his face closer to the glass without actually
touching it. That sword... now that he thought about it, it looked familiar
too...
<his father placed his hand on his young son's
head a small smile on his face as the boy tried to lift the sword up to
him>
"Hello? Cale? What's so interesting?" The girl pressed
her nose against the glass, staring in. "Wow, look at that little kimono.
That's pretty, gold and blue."
<Kujuurou come inside you mustn't play in the
dirt with those good clothes on>
His breath hitched in his throat, and he reached out
a hand to trail across the glass barrier holding him back from his past.
He wanted to touch the old artifacts, to remember playing with those toys,
looking at that jewelry. These were his things. His family's things.
It had been such a long time. He had forgotten. He had
forgotten not just this, but everything, thanks to Talpa. But especially
this. After the fire, and the blood... the sharp glint of metal on flesh...
on a gold and blue kimono...
He had especially forgotten Kujuurou.
The loud sound of someone clearing his throat jolted
him back to the present. Cale twisted to look behind him as Chadih shrieked
and jumped, pulling her face away from the glass sheepishly. Her hand shot
out to twist nervously in his sleeve as they both regarded the short man
who stood above them, glaring.
"Can you not read?" he asked testily, waving at a sign
on the wall. "Do Not Touch The Glass." The man, obviously the proprietor
of the store, pushed between the two, brandishing a spray bottle and a towel.
He squirted the case with the cleaner and wiped away the smudges, scowling.
Cale shook his head once more, attempting to clear away
the shock. The chemical smell of the glass cleaner filled his nose and made
him feel like coughing. "Sorry," he apologized hastily. "These things, are
they for sale?" He waved at the case, managing at the last moment not to
touch it. He knew he had no money, but maybe Mia's golden rectangle could
pay for this, too. Besides, they belong to me, they're mine, and
they shouldn't be here in a case for anyone to have!
"No. These artifacts are merely being displayed for
the moment. They will be auctioned off to benefit the museum in a few days."
He sighed in disappointment. "Oh. I see."
"Do you collect antiques, perhaps?" The man blinked
at him, obviously skeptical. "Perhaps you should consider attending the auction."
Cale stammered slightly, "Ah, no... that is... these
are Sasaki... heirlooms... and... and... and." His gaze swept across the
things again, and he lost his train of thought as his mind insisted on dragging
him back to the past. "And I'm a Sasaki," he finally whispered.
"Hmm," the shopkeeper replied noncommittally.
He clenched his hands into fists, his blue eyes fixated
on the shine of his father's nodatchi. "Could I stay and just look for a
while? I won't touch the glass."
"You may stay and look for as long as you like. Make
sure the girl doesn't touch anything."
<hold the hilt tightly and be brave my son we
will be together soon and no one can hurt you>
He flushed a bit at both his nervousness and the sudden
wrenching feelings the memory was bringing him. "Thank you very much!" he
said intensely. The man raised an eyebrow at him momentarily and then turned
and disappeared into a back room.
"Cale?" Chadih queried softly in his ear. "Are you okay?
Your heart is beating really fast." She put her hand on his shoulder, and
he could feel himself calming down slightly. She clapped her other hand to
her own heart and frowned. "Awful fast. That doesn't feel good at
all."
"I'm all right," he said absently. Mother... that
day. Everything was so red... the fire, and the blood... red and dark...
oh, it hurt my eye! The metal flashed... what about before?
He barely registered it as the bell of the front
door of the shop dinged again. Chadih left his side, and he could hear her
voice speaking to whoever had come in, could hear other voices that all blurred
together with the ones coming from inside. He didn't know what they were
saying, didn't care. His mother was talking... but what was she saying?
"Cale," Dayus said, closer to his ear this time, "we'll
be back for you later. We... know what's happening."
<damn you my name is not Cale my name is Sasaki
Kujuurou>
Sekhmet's voice also chimed in from somewhere outside
the mists. "It's a good thing, really. Take all the time you need."
Cale closed his eyes to the shine of electric lights
and glass cases, falling further and further back over the centuries. There
was another ring of the bell over the door.
And then the voices left him to the memory of a sunny
spring day.
sensei - You probably know this one. In this case it means 'teacher'.
Kuru - This is not a word but a name. Shuzu Kuru is Mia's husband in
'Ragnarok'.
Questions, comments, whatevers, send to me! I reply! Yah!