A/N: LAST CHAPTER! Well, this story seems to have gone by fast. Or maybe it was just me. Anyway, if you recognize some names in this chapter, then you have been reading my fanfics for WAAAAY too long. ;D (Yes, I love picking on Kuro.)
Anyway, I have some news. The final results of the Inuyasha Fanguild 3rd Quarter Awards results are in. First Kiss won FIRST PLACE (!!!!!) Best Romance: Miroku/Sango and Replacement won Third Place Best Romance: Miroku/Sango.
THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO VOTED AND SUPPORTED ME FOR THOSE STORIES!
So, as a thank you gift, I worked to get this out a day early. Aren't I nice?
Oh, and a preview of the next story is at the bottom, as usual.
Chapter 25: What Lies Beyond the Story
Tokyo, Modern Day
"Up until now, I have not been entirely truthful about my life. There was another geisha in our okiya, who was my age, and at one time, heading towards being the most famous geisha of all in Shinbashi. Yet, something happened, which led to her leaving my life forever. Now, as I have learned, her name is erased from history, yet she will live on in pictures for eternity."
Koshita sighed and closed the old, battered book once more. Nothing. Once again, he had flipped through the pages of the memoirs of Houshi Sango, and yet, there was no hint at all to Tokyo's mystery geisha, and her fate. He had hoped, that a review of the text might help reveal something, anything, but alas, it was to no avail.
He could understand the woman wanting to protect her friend's privacy, but why shut away this story and never tell anyone? Didn't she realize what her tight-lipped writing was doing to the sake of history? If she had only thought of giving a hint, then perhaps…something could eventually be found.
History was full of it's constant mysteries and theories, and the real fun in the work was discovering the gaping holes left in the record, and bringing to new light untold stories that would surely delight the imagination. For years now, he had searched about any hint of the mystery geisha, reading up on geisha customs and old records, burying his face into dusty old books, but alas…it was all for naught. Not one clue had ever surfaced, besides that one line in the book he held before him.
Glancing over to the framed, old black and white picture of her, the geisha in her elegant kimono, an expressionless look upon her face as she stared at the camera in almost a challenging gaze, Koshita asked, "Will I ever know who you were?"
The geisha said nothing, but her eyes, like all geisha's, divulged nothing; she left him with no reply to his silent question, just a mysterious look behind a pale face. Geisha were women amongst secrets, and this geisha had a web of secrets around her; and he was sure that the task of unwinding that web would never be his own.
There was a small bustle of chatter in the Takahashi Teahouse in downtown Tokyo, as customers sat at lowered tables and sipped small cups of sake, as men had in the great teahouses of Shinbashi eighty years ago. Takahashi Teahouse was a restaurant, built in a historic teahouse building to resemble a geisha teahouse from years past. In addition to being served by women dressed as geisha, it also had a reputation for good food as well. And according to several historical journals, Takahashi Teahouse also was one of the most accurate reproductions of a geisha teahouse they had ever seen…almost as if the proprietor had lived through the era.
A young woman dressed in an elegant kimono, with the stark white makeup of a geisha upon her face, gave an annoyed growl as she marched back into the server's waiting area, folding her arms in an annoyed tone. If she had not been in such a bad mood, she would have had just the look of a geisha, with elegant black hair in a bun and chocolate eyes. Turning to another woman who watched her, she muttered, "I hate this!," twisting a small bracelet of rosary beads from underneath her draping sleeve. "Why did three waitresses need time off so we had to work today!"
The other woman looked a little bit older, and had a calmer look upon her face. She also had the same hue of hair and eyes. "Kiri, you heard Okaa-san. She said she needed our help today. You agreed to do it, so I don't know why you complain—"
"I forgot how much I hate this, Sara Onee-san," the woman called Kiri muttered to her older sister. "You and Okaa-san might like this, but," she glanced at herself in disgust for a moment. While the light blue kimono, taken from her mother's stores, was pretty, Kiri always felt out of place in it. Even more, considering her mother's legacy. "I hate it."
Sighing, Sara told her with a soft smile, "At least Otou-san agrees with you."
"With good reason," Kiri muttered, and glanced around the small room for a moment. "And where is Kuro? He said he would help out in the kitchens today because we're so short-staffed!"
Sara shrugged, the sleeves of her green kimono sliding a little to reveal another rosary bracelet, like the one of Kiri's wrist. "Who knows where our little brother is? He asked me to cover for him. I think he's meeting that girl from the university…what's her name?"
"Suki," Kiri rolled her eyes. "I've heard him calling her at night—asking her to dinner and things. I don't understand why he needs to see her at night anyways, considering he spends all day at the campus following her around anyway."
Sara giggled for a moment, "Well, that's Kuro for you. Do you remember when he was little? Always following Okaa-san around like Otou-san, saying he wanted to protect her, too? But, I admit, at first, I did think it was odd that Kuro wanted to go back to the university after twenty years…And that human girl doesn't know, does she?"
"Not yet, I don't think. Though, she has asked why he wears that 'odd necklace'. I suspect she'll find out soon enough—he's planning on bringing her home sometime soon."
Another snicker came from Sara as she imagined it; "Oh, that will be fun. Okaa-san will be fussing all over her, and Otou-san will probably growl out her when she asks him why he has the same 'odd necklace'!"
"At least it'll be better than the time I brought home a boy," Kiri muttered. "You think since it's been about fifteen years since then, Otou-san's gotten over it?"
Laughing, Sara said, "No, I don't think he'll ever forget it. He nearly scared that boy out of his wits after he admitted he was from Kyoto, and Otou-san demanded to know if he was 'the spawn of that wolf'!"
Both sisters laughed, reminiscing on humorous memories of their family from all the years they could remember. There were many memories to think of, as the passage of time to normal humans seemed relatively slow to them. While they looked human, Sara was eighty in human years, and Kiri almost sixty.
In fact, as far as they knew, they were one of the last of their kind left in Tokyo, much less Japan. Now, anyone of their blood had to hide it, so those few who lived long enough to remember the days when they still roamed Japan freely were hidden by secrets, and shrouded in mystery…
"Here you go," a woman dressed as a geisha from years ago said, as she set the plate of food down upon the small table in the restaurant. "Sorry about the wait—we're a bit understaffed today…"
"That's all right!" The man in nothing but a t-shirt and jeans, something that would have never been seen in this building eighty years ago said. "As long as the food is good, we don't care." Members of his party nodded in agreement.
As the woman gave a small bow, as geisha of the past would have done, and got up to leave the party in peace, she heard a bit of their conversation. "Hey, speaking of geisha, did you hear about that new exhibit at the Tokyo historical society?"
"Oh, you mean the one about that 'mystery geisha'? Yeah, I heard about it. It's interesting, how they can rattle off a list of names of every geisha in Tokyo from that time, except hers."
"It's odd though, since geisha were like celebrities back then. To hear of one vanishing…that's just enough to strike anyone's interest."
The woman, listening to their conversation, smiled for a moment, as her finger gently touched a tarnished silver wedding band upon her finger, as she walked into the back of the restaurant, into the waitress's waiting area. Two women who were talking instantly looked at her, and said at once, "Okaa-san!"
It had been eighty years, but after all that, Higurashi Kagome, now Takahashi Kagome, was still able to fit into a kimono and wear the white makeup of a geisha with elegance. Many things had happened over the long years, since she had stepped onto that train to Osaka with Inuyasha after going back to him that dark night, but oh, how she could never regret it. Everything in her life after that one moment had been happy.
"Okaa-san!" Kiri complained, resisting the urge to take off the rosary bracelet now that she was in her mother's presence. "Do I have to wear this?"
Kagome merely chuckled, knowing her second daughter was just like her arrogant husband. "You do if you want to look like a geisha, Kiri. Besides, you look lovely, so I don't know why you complain."
"Not everyone likes being 'lovely' Okaa-san," muttered Kiri, folding her arms inside the large sleeves of her kimono.
Kagome only shook her head, knowing she would never see eye to eye with her. "Sara, where is Kuro, I need to tell him—"
"Not here," Sara told her at once, shaking her head. "He went to lunch with that girl from the university, Suki."
Giving a small sigh of annoyance, Kagome spoke, "I told him to come here after he was done with class, but if you see him, can you tell him I won't be here to close up? I'm meeting your father at the train station after he takes the bullet train from Osaka, and I'll see you all at home."
"We'll tell him," Kiri piped up, "After I make sure I get compensated for handling what was supposed to be his responsibility here."
Nodding, Sara answered after her sister, "I will. See you at home, Okaa-san."
Smiling at her children as she walked out the door, Kagome spoke, "We'll pick up dinner on the way back, so don't worry about it! Love you both."
As she walked out of the restaurant, Kagome wiped the white makeup from her face, still, after eighty years, never feeling comfortable in that outfit unless she was working. It seemed that there were some things that never changed, no matter how much time had passed.
Walking the streets of Tokyo that had changed so much as her yellow kimono swished around her, Kagome could recall that if she closed her eyes, she still saw the Tokyo she knew eighty years ago; every detail exact in her mind.
After she and Inuyasha got to Osaka in late 1925, they were married soon after, and before she knew it, their first child, Sara was born. Though they lived not much better than Inuyasha had on his own in that small room above the photography studio, they were happy together. They stayed in Osaka as Inuyasha became in charge of the delivery services of Myouga-san's small company. They lived in Osaka, away from everything they knew in Tokyo for a while, until word reached Kagome that her geisha sister, Sango, was getting married to Houshi Miroku at last.
Kagome smiled to herself for a moment, remembering the joy in her heart that she felt when she had heard the news, happy that her friend had decided this at last. Even though she thought they would never be able to go, luck opened up when Inuyasha had to follow Myouga-san to Tokyo to resolve a problem in the deliveries. Though Kagome did not talk to Sango, or anyone else who attended the wedding, for a brief moment, she and her sister exchanged glances, so the other knew that at last, they had found their happy destiny.
As they lived in Osaka for years afterward, soon both Kagome and Inuyasha discovered something that, while a bit awkard for Kagome, was a blessing for both—because she was the mate of a hanyou, her lifespan had increased as well. As long as she continued to take his blood every year, she would live for nearly as long as he did. Now, eighty years later, she only appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties. It was a problem they had avoid thinking about; the differences in their lifespan, but now, Kagome could live longer to be with him and their children.
Things got difficult for them as Japan began to enter World War II. Kiri was born early on into the war, as when things began to look bad for the country, Inuyasha took his family up north, to Hokkaido, thankfully out of the way when the Americans, the people Kagome had so idolized, began bombing Osaka.
After the defeat, the country was a mess, and Inuyasha knew he would find no job in his field here. Though it was a risky move, they decided that the best choice would be moving to America, despite the hardships they would face after the war. Even though they were finally in the country that Kagome always wanted to visit, starting over in a new place was hard. Even though the Americans had beaten them soundly in the war, they suffered for the prejudices almost every time they walked down the street. But even so, never did Kagome let Inuyasha know it bothered her. At least here, in America, they were able to find work, and were able to eat.
Eventually, as time went by, Inuyasha was able to start his own shipping company, to pull the family through. But, after nearly twenty years of living in America, they both began to miss Japan. Kagome hated to admit it, but living in this place for most of her life made her miss it, and she had to admit, that though she had thought of America as a glamorous place in pictures, she didn't belong there.
In the 1960's, they moved back to a Japan that was beginning to get back on its feet, and things began to look up for them. They moved back to Tokyo, and Inuyasha began ShipJapan, a company that now was rivaled by many international shipping companies. Kuro was born, and everything seemed to be coming together at last. During the early days of Inuyasha's company, Kagome decided to start a restaurant to make a little extra money. Even though she hated to admit it, she did miss her geisha profession just a little bit, so she started the historical teahouse, which became a prosperous little business.
Now, the teahouse was a hobby, as they did very well off of Inuyasha's company.
Sighing, Kagome could see images from so many years past. Such long, happy years, with hopefully many more before them as well. Walking into the train station, in the same place the same station she had run into, begging for Inuyasha's forgiveness years ago was located, but it looked so different now. The bullet trains were incomparable to the steam trains of eighty years ago. It had changed so much, that she was sure she couldn't point out where the platform that she and Inuyasha had been on when they reconciled was anymore.
Things did change over history, and some things Kagome wished hadn't changed. She had grieved for a long while when she heard her geisha sister, Houshi Sango had died a few years ago. Sango had written a book of memories on her life as a geisha, that Kagome had read. Her friend had said nothing more about her than a single sentence, and Kagome was thankful to her friend for that. One thing she had regretted was that she never kept in contact with her friend after Sango married. But at that time, she and Inuyasha were so poor, so to even waste a single sen on a sheet of paper was inconceivable. And then after the war, she didn't even know her geisha sister's whereabouts until her book surfaced in the 1970's. As a last testament to her friend, Kagome acquired a picture of her, taken in the 1920's when Sango was still a geisha, hanging up in the teahouse. When she passed her old friend's picture, she always gave a sad smile, thankful that she had the time to know her in her life.
Since it was Sango that told her to go after Inuyasha that night, years ago, she considered it to have been Sango who, in the end, was the one that pushed her to go after her happiness.
There was an announcement on the loudspeaker, and there was a whirr of noise as the bullet train came in. The white train slid like a snake upon the tracks, until it skidded to a sleek stop upon the long platform. A moment later, the doors open, and Kagome waited, eyes glancing around, until, at last, she saw Inuyasha.
With a happy smile upon her face, she bounded over to him, not a very elegant move in the lacquered zori she wore, but still, was at his side at once. Inuyasha wore a business suit, with a black hat tight over his ears, his silver hair spilling all over. Now that there were less youkai in Japan, the ones that remained had to hide themselves with spells, usually a concealing spell centered in a rosary bracelet. But, since Inuyasha couldn't wear the gawdy rosary to business meetings, he was forced to go as he was. It didn't matter, since the people he was meeting with all knew what he was anyway.
As always, the hanyou's amber eyes lit up when he saw his wife, smiling softly at him, as she had for all these years. "I didn't know you would be picking me up."
Kagome smiled, and let his arm slide around her waist as they walked out of the train station together. "Well, I let our kids handle the teahouse, so I thought we might as well pick up dinner on the way home while they lock up the restaurant."
"Speaking of teahouses," he cut in, as they walked out into the street, underneath the sea of tall, steel buildings. "You know that all the supervisors were planning a weekend excursion to the Kyoto geisha district? They asked me to come, but I turned them down." Grinning mischievously, the hanyou muttered in a low voice, "I told them I've got my own personal geisha to serve me at home."
Elbowing him in the side, she grinned back, "Careful, Inuyasha, unless you don't want any of this geshia's services tonight."
"That's the problem with where you geisha have gone these days," Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Now we have to be nice to get anywhere with you."
Chuckling as she leaned against him, Kagome admitted, "True, but you'll notice if you're nicer, then our services are so much sweeter." Though she didn't have hanyou hearing, Kagome could have sworn she heard him give a soft growl of anticipation. But, she changed the subject, "Anyway, even though you're not going to ask, I should tell you the children are fine, though Kiri doesn't like working at the teahouse for the day."
Snorting, the hanyou spoke, "I don't know what she's talking about. Girl's got it easy compared to years ago. And don't even get me started on Kuro. Kid thinks he can't live without his music player…never stopped to realize their might have been a world without i-whatzits and all those fucking fancy gadgets."
"Kiri gets it from you," Kagome smirked for a moment. "But I am worried a bit about Kuro. He's shirking all his chores to spend more time with that girl from the university. He didn't help out at the teahouse today, but instead decided to take her out to lunch."
Inuyasha laughed out right. "Kid's an amateur, if he thinks little lunch meetings will win him a girl. Kid better turn on the charm unless he wants an empty bed at the end of it—"
"Inuyasha," Kagome glared in a warning. "That is not something we are supposed to suggest to him, understood?"
"I know, I know," the hanyou muttered quickly, in an attempt to salvage the situation. "I'm not saying he should be into it just to fuck her, all I'm saying is—"
One icy glare from Kagome silenced him on the subject. Men, she thought with distaste. You just see if your geisha is so willing to serve you now, Inuyasha. She was annoyed at him for a while, until they passed a building that she recognized.
"Wait, Inuyasha, let's go in here for a second!"
He turned to look at the sign. "The Tokyo Historical Society? What for?"
"You'll see," she told him with a small smile, dragging him in. The inside of the building was very clean, with a shiny floor and walls. All around the plain black walls, by the information desk, were pictures. A girl sat at the information desk, looking as if the arrival of the two woke her up from a boring afternoon. Kagome ignored the girl, but glanced at all the pictures on the walls, until she saw a particular cluster that caught her interest. "This is it!"
Inuyasha looked up at the captioned pictures on display on the wall. The exhibit was titled Tokyo's Mystery Geisha, and a large picture of Kagome herself, one of the ones Toutousai took was underneath. Both were silent for a moment, as they looked at the black and white pictures upon the wall; many of Kagome in various kimono and in geisha poses, a poster advertising her singing in the Summer Festival, the picture Inuyasha took that day when she wore the western clothes, and the one Toutousai had taken of them both in that moment of weakness. Next to the pictures was copies of various geisha records with her name scratched out, the jade comb Kouga had given her, and excerpts of Sango's memoirs and other writings that vaguely mentioned her.
As both Kagome and Inuyasha's eyes came to that one picture of themselves, as they looked at each other with such longing clearly revealed, she leaned against him for a moment, remembering the feelings she had eighty years ago, that had never waned. The old wedding band that Inuyasha had bought her with the last of his money in Osaka still remained upon her finger, and ever since that day, at the Tokyo train station, they had been together.
"Excuse me," a woman said, breaking both Kagome and Inuyasha from the moment. The girl looked young; like a college student, and she wore a nametag that said, "Yuki" upon it. "Does this exhibit interest you?"
Glancing at Inuyasha for a moment, Kagome said with a small smile, "A little bit. It seems…like it has a wonderful story behind it." In that moment, Kagome brushed some of her flyaway hair behind her ear, her wedding ring in full view.
Yuki noticed instantly. "That is a very old ring," she said with a gasp. "Has it been in your family long?"
Inuyasha kept silent, but Kagome gave a soft smile, "Nearly eighty years."
"I see," These people seemed…interesting. And Yuki couldn't figure out why they looked so…familiar. "Well, would you like the brochure on the exhibit?"
Kagome shook her head. "No, that's all right, we have to get going. Thank you, though."
She turned towards the door, as Inuyasha beside her asked, "Can we go home now?" He hated being in public and being talked to when he didn't have to be.
Laughing, she spoke, "Yes, Inuyasha, we can go home now. No more little excursions, I promise."
Yuki watched them walk away, the man in the silver hair and the woman in the kimono, wondering why they looked so familiar, as if she had seen them before. And then, remembering the exhibit as it hit her with a pang, she instantly looked at the picture Akane had found under the floor of the studio, the one with the mystery geisha and the youkai man.
It's the same people! she realized with a jolt, fighting the urge to run to Koshita at once, but… She looked back as the woman and her husband walked out of the doors, still seeing them through the glass. For one moment, the woman, the geisha who had been lost so many years ago, looked directly at her, and in that moment, Yuki understood.
There was no need to tell Koshita-san. There was never any reason to.
The geisha part of Higurashi Kagome's life was over now, lost in history.
And like many things lost to time, the mystery geisha "The Sakura Blossom of Tokyo" did not want to be found.
A/N: The End! Wow, what a story...I mean really, I took a few liberties in this one, more than I had in any others. It's actually the first one I've written here without a final battle; and if that isn't revolutionary for me, I don't know what is. I promise the next story gets back to the "Let's Kill Naraku Yay!" theme, though. XD
So, here's your preview:
Heart of the Sea: (AU/Action/Adventure/Romance). Kingston, 1722. Her father always told her she had a Heart of the Sea, and that her destiny would lie upon the drifting waves. But now, engaged to Kouga Wulfe to secure a position for herself after the death of her father and the disappearance of her sister, it seems that her father's prediction from long ago isn't true. But a pirate raid followed by kidnapping lands Kagome prisoner on the dread pirate Inuyasha's ship. Horrified, and at his mercy, she only wants to escape, until she realizes there is much more to this man than his gruff appearance; she begins to suspect that he might have a Heart of the Sea as well...but what does this mean once Kouga begins chasing after her? And what is this Jewel of the Sea, and why does both Inuyasha and a mysterious pirate named Naraku want it? Action, adventure and romance on the high seas, it's an Eowyn fanfic like you've never seen before!
Yeah, I know. Inuyasha and pirates is a recurring theme in Inuyasha AUs, but, I was never satisfied with the pirate fics I saw. (All the ones I saw sucked, I admit.) So, like with Protector of Her Heart, I took an old idea and made it mine; better. I hope you all stay tuned to read the fanfic coming to you next week! (If I can finish the outline, that is).
But, even so, thanks for reading Fallen Sakura all the way to the end! And double thanks to the reviewers, who's feedback never fails to brighten my day!
Thanks again, and hope to see you soon!