bakatachi’s alcove

Suzumi sat alone in her room. She knew better than to just idle the last day of her freedom. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to do what she wanted to most - confess to Kyoichi of her love that had held within her for more than 3 years, her love for him. It would be so wrong to confess to her own twin brother, that would mean incest. The girl simply sat there, clearing her thoughts and staring into the adjoining inner garden, welcoming the last sunrise she would ever be able to witness.

Kyoichi could hear her sobs through the closed sliding doors that joined his room to hers. Suzumi gradually started crying uncontrollably. Without much thought, he crossed over to the doors and slid it open a little, only to catch a glimpse of her leaning against the wall on the other side of her room, kneeling. She knew he was watching, but didn’t give any reaction, so he knew it meant that he could enter. It was dark; she had closed the doors to the garden soon after the break of dawn. Silently sliding the doors to his room closed behind him, Kyoichi walked lightly across towards her.

Who is that girl he’s looking at? Mikagi wondered to himself. He came rushing to this house when he felt Ceres’s spirit, and instead found his chosen boy, looking so longingly at this girl. In the growing dark of dusk, in this unlit room, the boy had been kneeling behind her for hours, from morning it seemed. No words had been spoken, no glances exchanged. Confusing as it was, Mikagi continued to linger around him.

She finally had enough courage to turn and face he who had been waiting. "Kyoichi…" He eyed her lips patiently, all his senses awaiting whatever she had to say.

That voice…Mikagi thought he was hallucinating. The girl sounded so much like his beloved. But when she turned, he couldn’t be mistaken. That girl is my descendant too. And Ceres is holding her.

How could I have not realised this earlier!!

Suzumi was startled when she felt a surge of force attack the figure before her. She felt it, Kyoichi was already starting to lose himself, the spirit of Mikagi was entering him. But how could…? We both don’t turn 17 until midnight tonight! It’s dark, but she could figure the twisted look on his face, his body crouched in foetal position, hands curled up in fists..but not making a sound…he’s suffering… "Kyoichi!!!"

Ceres felt the pang in her heart…her girl, she’s overwhelmed by fear…the maiden decided to look Suzumi up. And regretted not doing so earlier. Mikagi had started to take over the boy, in the process of it. But she knew it wouldn’t turn out well; it’s the law set in the heavens, that if you take the body of your chosen too soon before you could, you wouldn’t be let complete control later. And Ceres knew better than to fall prey to desire, unlike Mikagi.

Kyoichi couldn’t do anything; he knew that Mikagi’s spirit was attempting to take him now. He fought to keep his mind to himself, even if his body should be taken. The process was unbearable; his skin was burning, his own soul seemed to be wandering from the present to the nether world. Even with the intensive research his team had been doing, they hadn’t been able to find out what would happen to the soul of the owner of the possessed body after being taken over by the ancient spirits. He struggled to keep control of what was rightfully his.

***

All the activity seemed to end all of a sudden. Aogiri Kazuma and Kaede had been plagued by the strength of the possession process, but didn’t know whether it was their son or daughter who was taken, or both. Now that everything had seemed to calm down, both parents took no action. They daren’t seek for their children, for fear of being massacred by Ceres, if it should be her, just as she had promised to. Suzumi and Kyoichi would have to fend for themselves.

***

"Suzumi…" Kyoichi winced. He reached out his hand to her. Suzumi was uncertain whether to take it, what if Mikagi was playing with her?

"Suzumi..it’s me, its Kyoichi…help me…I’m feeling cold…" His voice sounded pleading. Suzumi’s heart went out to him. She was convinced it was Kyoichi, not Mikagi. Just as she was about to hold him, a voice said "No! Suzumi, Mikagi’s in there! He may be your Kyoichi now but you’ll never know when Mikagi would take his stand!"

"…Ceres..?" Suzumi couldn’t fathom. "Yes, its me, and listen to me, just for now. Mikagi might take over him anytime, he might hurt you. He knows I’ve chosen you. Just run away!" Ceres couldn’t have sounded more serious. Suzumi was confused. Kyoichi was still pleading in front of her. She decided to ignore Ceres’s warning.

Wrong move.

Mikagi took control of Kyoichi’s actions and flung his body over Suzumi to kiss her. The girl took some time to recover from the shock of his force and struggled to free herself. "Kyoichi! What are you doing?!" "This is Kyoichi no more, Ceres. Now, where have you gone? All this while I’ve been looking for you, yet you go around trying to kill me. I love you so much Ceres, and I miss you," he lunged again at her lips, and aggressively ripped Suzumi’s yukata apart, revealing her bare skin.

The voice changed…Kyoichi’s not there anymore..Ceres was right..but Suzumi still believed Kyoichi was in there, somewhere. I have to get him back. She tried to save her modesty much as she could, but Mikagi was too strong for her. Amidst all the harsh kisses and his hands roaming all over her exposed body, she could hear Kyoichi calling out to her. But his voice was too faint, too distant. She felt his pain as well; he was still half-conscious but not able to stop Mikagi from indulging in her. "Kyoichi, my brother, I know you’re still there. Don’t do this to me!!" Suzumi couldn’t stand the torture Mikagi was putting her through, what more the fact that in physique, Kyoichi was the one raping her. As if having fallen in love with her own twin brother wasn’t enough, he was now robbing her of her innocence, even though unintentionally.

Mikagi was extremely pleased that the girl couldn’t resist him much; she’s too weak and still trembling from shock. He was pleased he could finally make love to Ceres again, after so long…he knew Ceres was in this girl somehow, and anyway the girl looks so much like his wife. He released all his desires for her body onto this girl. "Let’s continue having a family, shall we?" He grinned.

Ceres thought she caught the scent of her husband when she found the girl Aogiri Suzumi that she wanted to take over. But she didn’t see him. Just as well. She would need a strong physical body before she can fight it out with Mikagi.

It was the 2nd half of the Hour of the Rat. They still had a little less than 23 hours before they would lose themselves. While Kyoichi tried to let it all out by practicing with his katana in the back garden, well out of sight from Suzumi, the girl indulged in the slow but slightly calming process of helping her long-lost Mother to clean the tea ceremony utensils.

"I thought I was born in Nagano…how could I have been a twin of Kyo-chan…," Suzumi willed herself not to cry. I have to be strong. Kaede paused. "Certainly, it was a lie to make you think that you never were siblings. Of course you can’t be twins if you were born at two different places but at the same time. And of course," Kaede took in a deep breath, "you are actually my daughter. You were born here in this very house. Only a few minutes before Kyo-chan was…I’m sorry to abandon you like that. To have sent you off all the way so far from home and from your blood family. Did they treat you well, your foster parents?" Suzumi still kept her passive face, "My Aunt and Uncle, you mean? Yes, they were wonderful parents to me."

Mikagi was thrilled at the idea that once the boy he chose was old enough to contain him, he would have a body of substance to search for his wife. He longed to touch her, hold her…and use her again.

"I’m truly sorry, my son", Kazuma finally spoke after watching Kyoichi swing and thrust the katana skillfully for quite some time. He is very much stronger now than when I last saw him a year ago. He thanked the darkness of the night for shadowing his bleak expression from his son. Kyoichi stopped. Still breathing heavily, he turned to his father standing behind him. "Is that why you’ve always given me the freedom to do anything, everything except to take Suzumi as my bride when I asked for your permission on this day last year?" Kazuma could not bring himself to answer. He had put his son in a complicated dilemma. Kyoichi simply bowed and left the garden.

Ceres stood close by her chosen girl, eager to use her body in only a day’s time. She watched her every action, every expression, hoping to learn something of this Suzumi while waiting, just to pass her time.

Mikagi was proud of himself for having picked such a well-built, strong, and not to mention good-looking boy. Kyoichi is it, his name? Well, who cares. He’s just a body that he was going to possess in a couple of hours. Mikagi decided to leave the boy alone until the time finally arrives.

Team Tsuki’s Commander Ueno had given the team a new task - to find the spirits of two people, one a celestial and another, a mere man, and destroy them both for the sake of humanity and mankind. The team’s combined spiritual power would react to the waves emitted by the two possessed bodies of the spirits, but first they had to research on them.

Kyoichi’s and Suzumi’s 17th birthday was in three days’ time, but they both had no time to celebrate it, due to their time taken up by the research. Knowing this, Kyoichi’s parents had the both of them called down to the family house in Niigata. They set off the very next day, arriving there at night. Kyoichi’s father, Aogiri Kazuma, invited them to the midnight tea ceremony, to break to them an important piece of news…

Ceres found it. The girl that she could possess. And to make it worse, Mikagi had also chosen a boy to contain his spirit in…

"The two of you…", Kazuma started, "you’re siblings. Biological siblings."

Aogiri Kaede, Kazuma’s wife, started sobbing. Suzumi dropped her chawan of traditional green tea. Kazuma calmed himself and continued, "We had to separate you at birth, when we sensed overpowering negative spiritual powers. We could not decipher it at first, but we, the Clan of Aogiri, have been trying within all our abilities to contain it. But no longer. The spirits have taken over both of you, beyond our control. Tomorrow…" he started to wince as if in deep pain. Kyoichi went to his father, tears welling in his eyes, expecting the worst.

"Tomorrow they will relive their spirits in your bodies…the spirits of the legendary Ceres and her husband Mikagi."

Now both the parents couldn’t hold themselves any longer. They cried together. Kyoichi tried to console his father, even though he was too thrown aback to say anything. Suzumi sat still, stunned by all the almost-impossible information that she had to process. Finally, Kaede mustered what strength she had left to finish up what was to be said. "Yes," she said, with a streak of pain in her voice, "they are the spirits of the two which your Team Tsuki is supposed to destroy. Your teammates should be able to sense it, and would come by anytime tomorrow, once the power is released in you both. We’re very sorry…the Aogiri cannot help anymore."

The spilt green tea from Suzumi’s chawan continued to get soaked into the tatami flooring. Everyone in the room remained silent, trying to compose themselves.

The birds outside continued to sleep on.

More than friends, not very much of a couple. But the two of them often considered themselves as siblings. The two of them, Suzumi and Kyoichi. They even own the same clan name - Aogiri. They’re both born on the same day, in the same year, but in different parts of Japan; Suzumi in Nagano, Kyoichi in Niigata. But at only 9 years old, both Kyoichi and Suzumi were sent to Kansai to be part of the Imperial Capital Defense Team Tsuki. That’s where they got to know each other, and where they grew up together. The two of them had very strong spiritual, telepathic and telekinetic powers within them…

Ceres vowed to return by living in her female descendants that resembled her, so as to kill all men of the Mikagi lineage for revenge. For not allowing her to have her robe back, for not allowing her to return to her true home in tenkai(heaven), and for having to die as a human on earth…

Suzumi never knew her parents. She was adopted at a very young age, and was told that her parents had died shortly after her birth.She had no siblings, which was why she relied on her ‘brother’ Kyoichi. But intriguingly, her family’s assets were very strong, and she had an ever-flowing income of money for herself…

Mikagi, on the other hand, who had been killed by his own wife, and still obsessed about her, had been an unrest spirit, looking for her…

Kyoichi was also the only child of his family. His parents let him decide whatever he wants or needs to, except for one matter…

If ever both the spirits of Ceres and Mikagi were to appear at the same time, disaster will befall…

He stepped forward to peer through the rocks. There he saw the most beautiful beings in the lake, laughing with musical voices. As he turned to have a better look at them playing and bathing in the water, his eyes caught sight of a single pine tree, full of luminous material hanging on it’s branches. It was of the most finest material, glowing within its own radiance, and he soon realised that they all were the robes of those wonderful maidens nearby.

He reached to take one, and soon, the maidens got out of the water, bodies completely bare, except for their hair that was of amber. One by one, the maidens took their respective robes that immediately melted into them, and took form of their second layer of skin, and they flew upwards into the sky, into heaven. All save one.

"Fair lady, what and who are you? For you and your sisters do not seem human to me," the man asked. The maiden in the water turned to answer, but her eyes widened as she saw that he held her robe. And she retaliated "Who are YOU? For you are holding the key for me to return to Heaven, there in your hands." The man hid it, forming up a plan in his mind while answering "I am Mikagi of the fishermen in this area. Pretty maiden, if you’d like your robe back, you must marry me."

Marry they did, and soon turned to love each other. The fair maiden, Ceres, bore him seven children, all out of love, and even rested upon her husband the powers of the Celestials. Mikagi, the husband, began to turn crazy over the powers, that he also was afraid to lose her, and so threw her robe into the ocean, preventing any chance of Ceres escaping back into Heaven. She killed him to stop his madness that she had unwittingly put upon him, but never found the robe, and died as a helpless mother…

(Written by Prince Otsu, 663-87, Japan)

While I stood waiting for my dear

     I was wetted with dew

Dripping down from the mountain trees

     Yes, wetted with dew

(Lady Ishikawa’s Answer to the Above Poem)

Would that I could become

     The dewdrops of the mountain tree

Which grew you so wet

     Waiting for me

(translated by Miyamori Asataro)

"Those bright eyes met mine. I knew at once two things about him: first, that he was afraid of nothing in heaven or on earth; second, that he loved to kill for the sake of killing. Now that he had seen me, there was no hope.

Three of them came after me. They were bigger than I was and could run faster, but I knew the ground, and darkness was falling. So was the rain, heavier now, making the steep tracks of the mountain slippery and treacherous. Two of the men kept calling out to me, telling me what they would take great pleasure in doing to me, swearing at me in words whose meaning I could only guess, but the third ran silently, and he was the one I was afraid of. The other two might turn back after a while, get back to their maize liquor or whatever foul brew the Tohan got drunk on, and claim to have lost me on the mountain, but this other one would never give up. He would pursue me forever until he had killed me."

Earth shakes

          rithannen i geven

Stone breaks

          thangen i harn

The forest is at your door

          na fennas i daur

The dark sleep is broken

          ðl dúr ristannen

The woods have awoken

          Eryn echuiannen

The trees have gone to war

          i ngelaidh dagrar

Roots rend, woods bend

          ristar thynd, cúa tawar

The Ents have answered the call

          Dambedir enyd i ganed

Through branches now the wind sings

          Si linna i waew trin ylf

Feel the power of living things

          Isto i dur chuiyl

The trees have gone to war

          i ngelaidh dagrar

Just as friend

There’s so many things I’d like to share with you

So many words

So many stories

Of the freedom of birds

Of the weirdness of cabbies

Only as a girl

There’s so much I want to confide in you

So much confusion

So much liveliness

Of  problems that were unmentioned

Of my joy and happiness

True as woman

There’s a lot I wish to ask you

A lot about Life

A lot about values

Of why sometimes we lack the drive

Of why one has conflicting views

What’s in being a woman, girl & friend?

What’s me if you’re not there?

This poem, for you it’s meant

And what follows is because I care

On the surface we’re just alike

As 16-year-olds would probably be

Happy we smile, angry we fight

but the truth beneath can be nasty

When all I say is "damn"

I mean to say "I’m sorry"

I’m not as funny as Hem

And I can’t rid you of your worries

Nevertheless I’d always be here

Should you think useless me can lend you a shoulder or a hand

Because in my thoughts you’ll always be dear

Just, and simply because, you’re my friend.