InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Blue Anshan ❯ Unexpected 3 - The Mirror ( Chapter 21 )

The Blue Anshan

By Alesyira

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho are not mine. I made a few OCs to fill in my gaps.

Summary: Well, the rumors said it was a mirror. But oftentimes, things are not always what they seem.

Chapter Rating: T.

Author's Note: Reviews are free to hand out and are my second favorite candy

Arc 3 - Unexpected 3 - The Mirror

1526

rumors

"And how old are you, now?"

I shrugged. "Somewhere between 75 and 100 summers." It didn't really matter how old I was, though, only how far I'd progressed and the things I'd learned.

Youko narrowed his eyes at me. "The second tail is usually not attained until after the hundredth-year. To have a third by now is unheard of."

I wasted some energy to hide them from sight and shrugged again. "Maybe I'm older, then. It's hard to guess my age. I was stuck as a kit for a while after I lost my parents, and then I grew up."

It had happened practically overnight. No need to tell him that, though.

"Orphaned kits often grow without their parents. Although, I admit I've never met one that survived without an adult caretaker of some kind."

I made a small noise in agreement and wondered about this for a moment. The strange circumstances around the curse I'd put (unintentionally) on my favorite person probably had everything to do with my unnatural growth patterns.

"Your marking, here," he pointed to my face, "does not match anything seen elsewhere in the family."

"I like to think of it as a symbol of pride that I survived being burnt alive and escaped mostly unscathed." It had been a game for days by this point. He'd ask a question and I'd give an answer just vague enough to give him something to chew on without seeming intentionally evasive.

My newest adventure was an easy trek along busy dirt roads and paths through thriving forests. I'd recovered enough to walk for longer periods of time, and Hisako had deemed me probably safe enough to be released to travel with Youko's supervision. I'm guessing he owed Sesshoumaru a favor or two, because even with the promise of a good puzzle, I'm not sure I would want to escort a possibly dangerous family member at a snail's pace for days on end.

I didn't really believe I'd been dead to begin with, but I kept my fingers crossed that if some dark force had resurrected me to cause troubles, Youko should be strong enough to get me to someone to save my skin.

As yet another evening approached and we walked on in relative silence, I began to pick up the intriguing sounds of muffled laughter and whispers. It sounded like a small group of travelers had a bit too much to drink and were trying to not be overheard while they shared secrets. The temptation was far too great to ignore. Sure, it might be a trap, but I had a tough, infamous cousin for my escort, and a little eavesdropping of drunken humans sounded like the perfect detour.

We weren't in any rush, and Youko wasn't the only one that liked a good puzzle.

They tried to keep their voices down, but humans have no sense of how easily the average youkai can hear even the smallest of sounds. We took up spots in the trees some distance away from their makeshift campsite and watched their conversation devolve under the influence of alcohol.

Their whispered rumors spoke of a mystic with a mirror. This was nothing out of the ordinary. There were magical people all over the land, both humans and youkai, with all manner of trinkets and tools that could do crazy, wonderful, dangerous things.

The supposed catch was that this mystic had a mirror that could answer any question someone had about the past or future.

Youko scoffed and murmured quietly, "That is nothing more than a mind-reader spinning tales."

One of the drunken humans hiccupped loudly, then leaned toward the fire with a wide-eyed expression. "The mirror…" he whispered, "showed images of things that do not yet exist."

His friend nodded enthusiastically. "I heard it showed someone that his daughter would narrowly escape being eaten by a youkai, but only if he ran straight home that moment to save her. It was true."

This time, I was the one to frown, wondering at the gullibility of humans. "That's just smart planning and someone using illusions. Even I can make things appear that do not exist yet." Although I could only make illusions of things I'd seen, I could claim that truth because I'd seen things Kagome had brought back from the future. Her books had some really interesting photographs of stuff I'd never have imagined in my wildest dreams. "I wonder how much money that 'mystic' is making, doing all that work to convince people he speaks the truth." It could be pretty lucrative work to show people things they wanted to see.

"I heard," said another, "that this mystic will not take payment, and only asks that someone does not talk about what they have seen."

The first human took a long gulp from his wooden cup and chuckled. "But everyone talks about it anyways. That mystic seems kind of dumb to me. He's gonna get that fancy mirror of his stolen for sure one of these days."

I noticed Youko twitch out of the corner of my eye.

I turned to look at him carefully. "You don't really want that thing, do you?"

Golden eyes slanted my way, as though daring me to question what he might or might not want.

I will not press my luck. I will not press my luck.

He was doing me a favor, and I wasn't in such bad shape that a bit more detouring would do much harm. "Ok, we can at least see if it's just some elaborate hoax." If it was the real deal, maybe I could get a few helpful answers instead of all the weird maybes I'd been figuring out along the way.

Their conversation eventually revealed the last person that had gotten to see the mystic: a youthful lord living in a small castle on a hill about a dozen miles south of us.

"We got lucky with eavesdropping. How are you thinking to get information out of a human lord?"

He raised an eyebrow in disbelief that I dared to question him again. "My experience in extracting information from unwilling subjects is no small thing, though they are rarely unwilling." He flexed his fingers and his claws flashed in the moonlight. "I have my ways. And you, with your illusions, can likely charm the words out of any human, given enough practice."

I didn't have enough practice to do that yet. It was still on the to-do list.

I could smell the blood before the castle's short walls had come into view. A few people were shouting in excitement, and one voice rose over them all, clearly audible from even this distance. "The portents have come to pass! They approach! Open the gates!"

Surely they didn't mean us.

A single guard stepped outside the gates with a visibly excited male in a fine silk outfit. "I didn't believe it possible until the tree fell during the storm last week! And with the mare this morning, and my tea moments ago? They should be arriving any minute now. This is the most wonderful day!"

I grimaced. "Ooh, lucky us. He doesn't seem very unwilling."

Youko glanced at me.

I shrugged. "This was your idea. I'm not picking up any creepy vibes, but this has trap written all over it."

Youko smiled and stretched. "The only thing better than a puzzle is a challenging one."

I pursed my lips. I could think of a few other things that were better. Maybe it was just one of those things edgy adults like to say when they really mean something else.

I couldn't argue with the idea, though. This was one of those times that things happened just so conveniently that I knew we were walking into some kind of setup, but I was curious enough that I was willing to take a little bit of a risk.

"Bring them in! I'll go get the note." The finely-dressed male rushed back inside as soon as he spotted us.

We walked up to the gate and the guard took one look at our hair before he sighed, waving for us to follow him inside. We were escorted through the courtyard, where I spotted the remnants of a blackened tree that had been struck by lightning next to a small stable with a few people cleaning up a bloody mess. "Seems pretty ominous," I murmured. "And now they invite in a pair of kitsune youkai?"

We were brought to the castle's meeting hall and a moment later the excited young lord burst in from a side door. "I didn't truly believe it to be possible! Here, here, this is for you, the one with red hair." He pressed a note into my hands.

Words faded into existence on the thin paper: directions and a drawing that read and looked like some kind of treasure map. I looked at them in confusion with Youko staring over my shoulder.

After I'd examined the note for any details I'd missed, Youko plucked it from my fingers and turned it over in his hands, testing the texture of the paper and prodding at its energies. The map vanished and the words shifted to display a different message for its bearer: "Come together."

Within another moment, the thin paper dissolved in his hands and fell with a wet plop to the shining wooden floor.

"Did you…?" I started to question him, wondering what the heck had just happened to the note.

He shot a glare at me. "Did you?"

I shook my head. We knelt to examine the disappearing remains. "What the…?" I muttered, leaning closer. What I had thought to be paper actually looked like tiny insects pulling each other apart into minuscule fragments, becoming dust before our eyes. "That note was alive?"

Youko made a small noise and brushed a claw through the dismantling pieces. He plucked a single tiny insect from the pile with the tips of his claws and examined its wriggling body. It could find nothing else in reach to dismantle, so it turned on itself and soon it fell in sparkling motes to the floor. He glanced at me in silence, and I felt the weight in that gaze.

It's one thing to live in a magical world where anything can happen, but it's something else entirely when the mundane things stop making sense. I shrugged. The lord tried to offer us tea, but Youko declined. I wanted to head out to see where the map and directions led, but Youko made me sit with him and listen to the lord's excited ramblings about his experience with the mystic. He'd been handed a similar note during a visit to the south and had been amazed at how the mystic had just known everything.

He was most excited to tell us that the mystic had told him that after he'd met the two of us and handed us the note, he should expect to meet his future bride in seven days. Youko tried to nudge additional information from the overly talkative human, but he had little to add and less that made sense.

"For a lord," Youko murmured just loud enough for me to hear, "this one is exceptionally unobservant." I hid a smile behind a hand.

The lord understood when I told him we were excited to see what answers we would receive and wished us well on our journey, and then he danced across the hall in excitement as soon as he thought we were out of sight. "Maybe that mystic broke his brain," I muttered.

Youko shrugged, fingering a shiny trinket he'd swiped on our way out of the castle. I rolled my eyes.

mystic

"Ah, please, be welcome! You've arrived perfectly on time." The mystic had an unrecognizable foreign accent and certainly looked the part. A bright red cloth draped across his wavy dark hair and metallic beads looped over his shoulders and arms, connecting to shiny gossamer fabric that swathed his dark skin between strange patches of hand-quilted armor. The outfit was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Youko seemed equally baffled.

He smiled and said, "Sit, sit!" as he waved us to the table and plucked a kettle from a small stove in the corner of the room. He poured three cups of tea and set them on the table between us, then hobbled carefully down a narrow passageway at the back of the room.

Youko watched him disappear into a side door and then glanced at me askance. "Is this your normal experience with humans? I've never seen this many behave so strangely in such a short amount of time."

I shrugged and snorted in amusement. "It's probably some massive setup. Anyways, I've seen worse," thinking of Kagome's anachronistic oddities. I took one of the chairs and settled down, making myself comfortable. This place smelled a bit odd, like worn metal, grease, and something unfamiliar smoldering just out of sight.

The human emerged with a tray filled with small sweet cakes. He seemed very excited to have guests. He sat in his chair and wiggled a little in excitement before he took a deep breath to calm himself.

"Do you not often have visitors?" I ventured, sniffing unobtrusively at the steaming liquid in the cup before me.

"Oh, I do, but today is a day for celebration and joy. Questions to be answered! Journeys coming to an end! New adventures! Today is at the crossroads of five paths - it has been foretold."

Ok, this guy was probably a bit crazy.

"I am Biraat-Mahmati Tek. You may call me Tek. I am so very glad to finally meet you, Shippo. And you as well, Youko Kurama."

I frowned. We hadn't told him our names. Definitely a setup.

He laughed at some hidden thought, stroking his old, dented mirror with a small smile. "This little thing has served me well. I will miss it when it's gone." He clapped in excitement. "But you are here for answers!" He nodded at Youko first. "You may ask your question."

Youko narrowed his eyes at the short human. I'm sure he was wondering the same thing I was: how much this mysterious little human actually knew. He leaned against the far wall and asked, "How will I find the greatest treasure?" I was a little impressed that he went straight for the biggest payout.

Tek's eyes glazed for a moment as he stared blankly into the mirror's surface before he responded, "In this life, or the next?"

What kind of question was that?

The old thief scoffed. "This life, of course."

"In this life, you will find many things you consider to be the greatest treasure." Images briefly appeared in the mirror's cloudy surface: a sparkling crown, a creepy plant, a red pendant. "But things can become worthless, and lives can be so terribly short. I can give you but one piece of advice that you will not heed: Learn to appreciate your treasures while they last."

That sounded pretty ominous, but the mystic had worded his clarifying question in such a strange manner. Youko hadn't missed it, either. "And the next life?"

Tek grinned. "In the next life, you will find your greatest treasure amongst the broken glass."

Youko stared at the strange human, thoughtful. The answers he'd received seemed intentionally vague. Why had the lord gotten such specific details? Perhaps he knew that Youko would be quick to return and murder him if his predictions proved false too quickly.

Silence crept through the room. I realized it was my turn to ask a question. "Where will I learn about what happened to my family?" Seemed like a pretty safe question. I didn't think I would ever find a hint about where to start.

The mystic pursed his lips in consideration before he turned his gaze to the battered mirror in his hands. "I see you traveling with your cousin to his home." He looked a moment longer, then smiled. "There is a small village on an island. Children have gathered around a fire to hear a story." He tilted the mirror so that I could see the flickering light of a bonfire and the excited expressions of children staring in wonder at a grizzled old man. "But I have seen your story. This is not the question you really came here to ask."

A better question immediately flew to the front of my mind, and the breath left my chest in a giddy rush. "Where will I see her again?"

I heard Youko scoff. I bit my lip to hide a smile. He would find it amusing and less suspicious that his youthful cousin would be asking about a girl.

"In a cold room. I see blood smearing the hands of a dark man in a white coat. She is very small. She cries. Her magic will cause trouble."

While I was thankful that this mystic seemed to know exactly which girl I was asking about without giving him anything else to go on, this answer was absolutely unhelpful and seemed a little weird. Was he trying to tell me I'd see her as a baby?

I tried again. I needed information about after she left us for the final time. "Where will I see her again, after she has been cursed?"

He closed his eyes and spread his hands peacefully. "She is cursed many times in her life."

I sighed in exasperation and clarified, wishing I could continue to keep things vague. "After she's cursed to look like me."

I could feel my cousin's interest growing in this strange line of questioning as he stared hard at me, dissecting every nuance in my body language. He would no doubt be trying to pry answers out of me for the foreseeable future.

Tek made a small sound of understanding and nodded. His gaze dropped to his mirror as his eyes unfocused for a few moments. When he glanced up at us, he tilted his head in surprise to peer at Youko. "Interesting." He smiled at me. "I see a large tree, burning with pink fire. When you meet her again, he will be with her," he nodded at Youko, whose eyebrows lifted in surprise. We both could see the fuzzy image of a dark silhouette slumped at the roots of a glowing tree.

Tek's voice became serious as he stared at me. "She was here, but now she's gone home."

I nodded slowly, wondering how much this strange person could see.

"And she can no longer come back," he added, sounding grave.

I shrugged. I wasn't sure what she could or couldn't do. I just hadn't seen her since the day I'd run away from her in the forest. The day I'd considered stealing her away for myself, forever.

"One day, she will be able to make the journey once more. When you two meet again, you will ask her to come back and see me. I need her help to get home."

My jaw fell open. Could this mystic be another time traveler, like Kagome had been? "That magic only ever worked for her."

Tek smiled a bit crookedly, and I got the strong impression that he knew it hadn't just worked for Kagome. "Magic is just another thing that hasn't been explained, yet. You think I'm using magic to find all these answers for people with questions?" He scoffed, examining his battered mirror and buffing out a smudge along the edge. "So many answers to see, if only you know how to look," he muttered. He straightened a soft grey cloth draped over the worn table between us and centered the mirror on it with care. "She'll only come for me if you tell her I'm here."

Youko leaned forward. "If you can see so much, then you'll know whether he tells her or not."

Tek's smile was highly suspect as he shrugged. "I could try to describe, but none of it will make sense to you. It makes very little sense to me, and I have all the answers." He tapped a temple before turning his attention back to me. "Just make sure she gets the message, hm?"

The mystic slowly got to his feet. "If you'll excuse me, I need to attend to my human limitations. I'll be back momentarily. Feel free to poke around. Perhaps you'll think of something else you'd like to ask."

We watched him hobble slowly down the dark passage where he'd fetched the sweet cakes, earlier. I picked one up off the tray, examining it closely. If that guy wanted me to tell Kagome in like five centuries to come back and see him, he'd probably not be trying to poison us. I took a small bite and savored the closest thing to candy that I'd had in decades. I picked up another few cakes and placed them discretely—reverently—in a pocket. As soon as the human came back, I planned to try and get the recipe so I could make more.

"So, of all the life questions you might have asked, it ends up being about a girl?" Youko slid into a seat at my side with a knowing smirk. "And not just any girl, but a cursed one."

I shrugged, brushing it off. "She's my favorite person. I miss her."

"Favorite person as in…" he hedged.

"Nothing like what you're thinking." I wasn't old enough to have picked out a life partner. Apparently kitsune my age weren't even this tall yet.

"So, if he says I will be with her when you meet her again, you won't be offended if I've…" he left the words unspoken with a suggestive arch of an eyebrow.

My eye twitched and I felt the weird stirrings of irritation in my chest. "No, as long as you haven't forced her to do anything."

Youko laughed, and I was immediately wary. "Little cousin, you should know that we don't have to force anything when they come to us so willingly," his voice trailed off in an ominous growl. It sounded like either he had an overinflated ego about his own appeal or he was implying that we didn't need looks and charm if we used magic to get our way.

I didn't really know anything about that. Hu had been super appealing, but I just figured it was because she was really cute. Maybe I'd ask him for pointers on how that worked once we weren't in the creepy cave-dwelling of this weird human that knew too much.

"Did you recognize any of those treasures shown earlier?" I asked, thinking back to the many images we had seen in the mirror's surface. It seemed so ordinary. I leaned forward and examined its finish, but nothing stood out to make it seem anything more than an old-fashioned reflective surface. Kagome's little folding mirror was far more impressive, made of glass in front of thin metal that was so crystal clear it was like looking at a reflection on perfectly still water.

"No. Only the crown seemed of any value, but it is true that the things we treasure change from time to time." Youko turned his attention to the back of the cave where the mystic had gone. "One should not openly suggest that I poke around through their belongings," he chuckled as he did just that.

"This guy probably has something in place to bite unwary fingers."

Youko gave me such an irritated look that I backed away.

"Sure, you've got it all under control. Sorry. I'll just go… wait outside or something." I didn't want to wait around to see what trouble Youko would end up getting into, especially if it blew up in his face. I sighed, unsure why I'd bothered to give him any advice.

I turned and walked toward the entrance of the room. A battered stack of bound pages caught my attention, and I paused over it for a few moments, carefully nudging the papers over as I examined messy sketches of plants and animals, and what looked like lines of text written in a language I'd never seen before. (And I'd seen quite a few languages written in the last few decades with all the poking around in libraries and archives.)

This place smelled very strongly of the human, which meant he'd been here for quite some time. I was a little weirded out by the situation. Someone who knew so much and had been seen by more than a few that believed he was the real deal probably wouldn't stay in a single place without some serious protection in place. The few guards I'd seen posted outside of the cavern-home didn't seem to be too interested in guarding. They were far too relaxed. There was very real danger. Knowledge and truth were tremendously valuable. In fact, one might consider limitless knowledge to be the ultimate greatest treasure.

I peeked over my shoulder at the nosy Youko, who had picked up the mirror to examine it with a critical eye. I hurried toward the exit. I did not want to find out what random item Tek had probably booby-trapped to deter a thief.

I stepped outside and took a deep breath of the evening air. Many possibilities and questions ran circles through my thoughts. What should I do next? Tek had said I'd be going with Youko to his home, so that hadn't really changed, so long as Youko managed to not get mortally wounded while poking around inside.

I glanced around, belatedly noticing that the youkai previously "guarding" (more like purposeful loitering) the entrance were long gone. The campfire had been hurriedly doused and anything that had shown they'd been staying for a while cleaned away. Only a few scraps of rope and a couple of discarded bones from a meal had been left behind. I poked through the remnants, wondering why they'd left. Maybe once we'd arrived their services were no longer needed? I frowned. There had been more guards posted at the end of the trail just out of sight beyond a clutch of trees. I looked back for a brief moment at the entrance of the home and then ran quickly to where I'd seen those other guards.

The small wooden home that had been erected here at the side of the dirt road had been boarded shut. I turned to look back up the path to Tek's private dwelling and was surprised to see the pine needles that had shown exactly where to go had been scattered with the breeze. No one would know to look back there for the mystic's home if they hadn't visited before.

I walked carefully through the woods back to Tek's home, feeling more concerned that something was wrong. Guards gone, trail wiped out, campsite cleared? Maybe we were to be his last visitors. He had acted really strange when he'd first seen us.

The wind changed, bringing with it an impossible scent on the breeze. I froze, sure I had imagined it.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted a brief flash of light from the other side of a tree-lined rocky outcropping. I jumped over the stony hill and landed on the smooth ledge next to a deep pool fed by a stream tumbling over a short waterfall.

Kagome.

She had been right here moments ago. I could taste her in the air. I rushed around the area, my hair standing on end in shocked excitement, looking for where she'd come from or where she'd gone. Nothing. It was only right here. "Youko!" I shouted, wondering if I'd gone mad.

The near-silent tap of my cousin's footfalls sounded behind me. "That mystic has vanished from his home," he announced. "Oh, this is… different. He somehow escaped out a hidden tunnel and ended up out here?" He hummed and slid back to the stone wall behind us to check for any clue as to how it had been accomplished.

"Never mind the mystic, what else do you smell?" Panic clawed up my throat. What the hell was going on?

Youko glanced over his shoulder at me, irritated at my interruption. "A female and a different male were also here recently. Although…" he left his examination of the blank stone wall to circle the clearing. "There's no indication they arrived or left on foot. And the magic here tastes odd." He frowned.

He brushed his fingertips along a nearby tree and listened. His irritation was replaced with a slow smile. "Such strange magic. The spirits have much to say, but none of it is familiar." He dropped his hand and stepped closer to me. "Little cousin, you look as though you've seen a ghost."

He said he needed her help to get home? Impossible…

"I think I just missed seeing a ghost by only a few heartbeats."

And she's long gone, now.

I didn't know what to think. I picked apart the familiar nuances in her scent.

Surprise, embarrassment, irritation, joy.

It told a story, but without any context—like knowing who this other person was or what the nuances in his scent meant— I could only guess at what had happened.

I didn't say anything about what I could pick up, and Youko wouldn't say anything about what the spirits of the forest might have said. I wondered how much of the story's gaps we might be able to fill in if either of us shared our knowledge. I decided wholeheartedly that I didn't want to share anything with a kitsune male considering my favorite person as a possible plaything. I sighed.

After we were certain that the mystic had vanished, we went back into his home to look for any clues we might have missed. The book I'd been poking through had a single page written in a language I could understand, and it said only this:

Time does not judge us for the choices we do or do not make.

Time continues on, regardless.

We can only be judged by those we love.

Had these words been left for me? What the heck could it mean? I could just do whatever and that's what was meant to happen anyways?

Destiny is set in stone and there is no free will?

Complete free will, but time finds a way?

Time is so stupid.

Whatever. I'd make Kagome proud.