Anonymous 2011/07/17 (Sun) 00:26 No. 29 "Miss?"
My eyes open.
"Are you all right, miss?" He's talking to me. I rise to my feet unsteadily, every single one of my muscles aching. "That was quite the eruption, wasn't it? These geysers are getting worse and worse every day."
The sun hurts my eyes, and I squint against it to take in the scenery; a whole lot of dirt haphazardly strewn about, cerntered about a crater not more than a few steps away from me, and a fine mist of water still hanging in the air. Through the trees, I see a river, and without knowing why, I know that it is deep, and fast, and very dark at the bottom.
"Miss, are you all right?" The man is right in front of me now, waving his hand before my eyes, concern written on his face; his language has an odd sound to it, an accent unlike any I've heard before, and his clothes are just as unusual.
Am I... Was I...
"Tell..." My throat is so dry that talking is painful. "Tell me... do you know of a man called Yorimasa of the Minamoto?"
The man's concern only grows deeper. "You... You mean the legend?" he asks uncertainly.
The legend.
"Tell me," I breathe, my head going light, "the legend."
"...Miss, are you sure you don't need--"
"Please," I rasp, and the man's worry is plain on his face now, but he accedes, wrinkling his brow in thought.
"There's not much to tell," he begins slowly, still peering into my eyes as though to see inside my head and make sure nothing's broken. "Back at the end of the Heian period, the emperor became ill. His advisors noticed a black cloud hanging over his mansion at night, and realized his illness was being cause by a youkai. They called for Yorimasa, and he shot an arrow into the cloud and killed the beast. There's a Noh play about how the nue was sealed and--"
"The... nue..."
"Y-yes," he stutters, shocked by my interruption. "That's what the youkai was. A nue."
I stagger backwards, and the splinters of wood beneath my feet make themselves known. Taking a short step back, I look down at--
--the box.
My box.
I remember, now; I can scarcely conceive of how I had been made to forget. Even in its ruined state, the lid torn off and crushed, I can feel its pull; the words covering its inside, like letters written on rice, bidding me to come back in, promising me millions of stories -- happy, sad, romantic, tragic, thrilling, ridiculous, anything and everything but the truth of my sealing.
"There's more to Yorimasa's story," I say, and now my voice is beginning to regain some of its old edge.
"N-no, there isn't," the man protests, faltering slightly. His heart knows that all is not as it seems, but his body stays rooted, even as I step over the ruins of my prison towards him once more. "Yorimasa was honored by the emperor, and the nue never came back! It stayed sealed forever! That's all there is!"
"That last part." My claws have dulled, and my wings cramp and ache, but my teeth are still as sharp as ever as I run my tongue over them. "Repeat it."
"I..." His body finally responds, but I match his steps backward with my steps forward, and when he finally turns to run, I have him by the collar, pinning him against a slab of rock sticking out of the mountain.
"Repeat it."
"T-that's all there is...?" All five of my senses are alive, tingling with the signs of his fear.
"Before that." Slowly, painfully, my wings unfold behind me.
"T-the... the nue stayed..." His eyes widen as the terror before him gains a name.
"Stayed?" My smile reaches out to my ears, I'm sure.
"...stayed sealed... forever..." His words are accompanied by a small, pitiful whimper.
"'Stayed sealed forever'?"
A laugh escapes my lips, unbidden.
"Would you like to know a secret?"
I lean towards him, letting my lips brush his ear, savoring the moment.
"That's not what really happened."