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Mirrors make us uneasy because we instinctively fear that the face which looks back at us will not display as our own.

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Okuni did not know how long she sat alone in the dark. She did not know what had happened to the last monk (though he was probably dead by then), or the mysterious medicine seller. She was alone.

She tried to remain calm, tried not to cry out in despair or allow herself to break down. What could she possibly do against such a creature? The medicine seller's charms had worked for a time, but then the jorogumo had found a way around them. The salt hadn't seemed to work at all, though neither of those things mattered at all. The medicine seller was gone, as far as she knew, and she herself had no knowledge of how to set up a barrier in the first place.

She only had one choice, and that was to grope around blindly in the dark, going further into the shrine. The honden was much larger than the other parts, and she'd never been in there before. Needless to say, she was a bit nervous. Not only was she in a forbidden place, but this was where the bones of the keepers' victims were stated to be. This was the root of the entire problem, and she was there alone.

She prayed to the kami for forgiveness as she slowly walked on, the boards creaking slightly as she went. And then, out of seemingly nowhere, a light. Okuni shielded her eyes against the sudden assault, and when she had adjusted to it, glanced all around.

She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but the sight would have exceeded her expectations either way. The walls were painted with exquisite landscapes, rich golden fields and blue waterfalls stretching across them. A few folded screens sat on either side of the room, as if leading the way to the altar in the center of the shrine. On either side of the altar were columns tied with sacred rope, and in the center...

A woman.

She was the source of the light, a bright lantern held in her hands as she beckoned to Okuni with one hand. There was something oddly familiar about her, though the girl did not know what it was. The colors of her kimono matched those of the jorōgumo, and that made Okuni wary. However, the woman did not seem malicious, and she was not hiding her face. A gentle smile played on her features, and she continued to beckon to Okuni.

"Let us follow," said a voice beside her, making her scream.

"Stranger! Where did you...?" she gasped. "No, never mind. It is good that you are safe. But...should we really follow her?"

The medicine seller nodded minutely.

"She will reveal the Kotowari to us."

"But what of the mononoke?" she replied.

"Do you not understand? The mononoke is before us," he replied calmly, and Okuni suddenly understood why the woman was so familiar.

"Kureha," she spoke the name. "She is truly Kureha. But...why does she not try to kill us?"

"We will know soon enough. For now, let us follow."

Feeling strangely...reassured, Okuni followed after the medicine seller as he walked purposefully towards the altar. The woman...Kureha, smiled again, pointing towards the kami's statue on the altar. As soon as they reached it, it slid aside to reveal a flight of stairs.

"Down there?" Okuni asked of the priestess, getting a single deliberate nod in response. "W-well, I suppose we don't have any choice..."

The spirit...apparition...whatever she was...led the way. It was strange, this sudden change in the jorogumo. She did not seem hostile at all, but rather, entreating, like she was showing them something that would end the destruction. Okuni still felt afraid, but the medicine seller was anything but. The sword's bell jingled slightly with each step. Down, down, the stairs spiraled for what felt like ages before stopping at a chamber containing nothing but a decorative rug. Again the priestess pointed, this time at the rug itself.

"I don't understand...What-"

Before Okuni's eyes, the rug was no longer beautiful and clean, but ragged and worn, wrapped around a woman's figure. Spiders crawled all over it, under the rug and through the woman's hair. The woman, she realized, was Kureha herself, who feebly lifted her head from the floor and looked fixedly in her direction.

"You...you weren't thrown into the lake at all. They kept you here alone until you died...with only these spiders?" Bile took hold of Okuni's heart.

The priestess nodded fiercely, and a wind picked up from nowhere. The scene before them changed. This time, it showed different men, different shrinekeepers repeating the sins that had occurred before them. Again; and it showed travelers defiling the shrine. Again; it showed Okuni in front of the shrine, sprinkling water from the lake onto the doors, Okuni chastising the monks for their behavior, locking the doors against them, hiding her anger, her feelings of disdain, and the darkness clouding her heart.

"...me?" the girl spoke quietly.

Another nod, another change, and they stood outside of the altar.

"I see," this time, it was the medicine seller who spoke. "You were trapped here for as long as humans continued to repeat the past. You could not escape."

"That's...horrible," Okuni whispered.

"Yet, there is one piece missing. One more vital chapter in your creation. You needed a source, so to speak. You had forgotten your own fury at your treatment. The passage of time had worn it away to a milder feeling of bitterness."

At this, he turned to the shrinekeeper.

"Herein, you found your source. The hidden feelings swept behind screens and lattice doors."

"What? Me? I...had no part in any of this!"

"Your fear, Okuni-san."

The scene shifted once more, a final time to display the missing fragments of the puzzle. Okuni stood behind the doors, her breath heavy and ragged, her hair frazzled.

'It would be so much better if they were gone. I can't stand what they've done to this place. I'm tired of this. I...hate them all.'

Shouldn't they pay...for what they've done?

The wind howled loudly once more, the entire shrine shaking fiercely. Okuni screamed and crouched down, throwing her hands over her head.

"I had no part in this!" she protested.

"Though it was not the trigger, your fear reminded her of her own hatred, the reason why she was trapped here. Thus, she relived that day again and again."

"Then...I?"

"You too created the mononoke."
The priestess smiled once more, just as the teeth on the sword had clacked together. The kotowari was known.

"Destroying the jorogumo means destroying the very source which created it. Okuni-san, if you do not accept your role, you will be at risk as well."

The shrinekeeper felt fear grip at her greater than before. How could such a minor thing have helped the spider manifest? She didn't feel she had done anything wrong. Yet, her fear for the monks, her nagging desire for justice to be dealt...they had all been used by the jorogumo, combined with the priestess' own hatred.

Okuni could think of nothing to say to the priestess. What could she say? Yes, she had hated them. She had even wished them dead on one occasion. Her fear, her anger, her relief at the monks' deaths, and the dark feelings she let fester in her heart had been seen by the mononoke. She had merely refused to acknowledge it. She was not completely innocent. She too, had had her part in creating the jorogumo. But now, it was all over. Indeed, there was no way that it was going to continue, even though it would leave her with bile in her heart and a sickened sensation at her own shadowed thoughts. It was her fault too. She felt shame burning her. Okuni hung her head to the tattered floor.

"I am...so sorry."

"The katachi, makoto, and kotowari are known. The sword shall be released!"

The medicine seller's sleeves spread out in a whirl of color, the sword of exorcism floating above his head. The sword's figure head suddenly seemed to be alive, eyes glittering as the mouth moved.

"Release!" the sword repeated.

A figure clad in golden robes appeared from nowhere as the sword became animated. Golden sigils appeared over his skin, and he opened his eyes, taking up the sword. It was quite a sight; Okuni stood transfixed, wondering yet again just who the medicine seller was. She suspected he was otherworldly, maybe some kind of kami himself. But it was not the time for questions, and any such things purged themselves from her mind as she watched the scene unfold before her.

The sword, previously rather ornamental-looking with all the jewels decorating it, glimmered brightly as it advanced towards the priestess. The mononoke made no move to get away, instead merely smiling gently as the light engulfed her. The flash of light was blinding, forcing Okuni to shut her eyes against it. When she opened them again, she found herself outside of the shrine.

No, that wasn't quite right...she was standing in the same spot, but the shrine was gone. It was as if it had never been there in the first place. The golden figure was gone as well, as was the priestess. The sun was shining brightly, illuminating the beads of dew on the grass spread over the hill.

Had it all been her imagination?

The only indications that she was still where the shrine had been were the lake, clear and bright, and a single shimmering spider web at her feet, strung between two reeds. Nestled in the web was a spider, bright yellow and teal colors catching her eye.

"So it was real..." Okuni mused.

It still felt unearthly, like a hazy dream half-remembered. She had never imagined that any of that would have happened, and she still had questions, but at least...

"What do you intend to do now?"

The familiar voice made her jump, though she avoided screaming a second time.

"Stranger, you're going to end up killing someone from fright if you keep that up." she said to him. "What do I intend to do? Well..."

What, indeed? She had no home to return to, no family, and no money. At that, she had to chuckle a bit. Wouldn't the officials be surprised when it came time to pay her and found no shrine there?

Her own darkness had frightened her. She had played a part in the creation of a mononoke. And yet, this would forever be forgotten to the world, her story never known and her suffering unfelt. Humans would never know their role played in creating mononoke, the jorogumo and so many others. The thought planted a seed in her mind. She smiled a bit and turned to the medicine seller.

"I suppose I will...figure something out eventually."

The medicine seller's mouth curved upward, as if he knew something she did not, and the two parted ways in opposite directions, leaving the glistening spider web woven over the reeds behind.

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The mirror does display every strand woven into the web of yourself.

The End

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Ending Notes:

If you're confused about anything or it's too vague, here are some points to clarify, as well as a few things that I couldn't really find a way to accurately portray;

-Kureha was kept locked in her own shrine by people who wanted the secrets of the lake's "healing water" (four men, just like the monks here) until she died. The only company she had were the spiders, which also kept Okuni company.

-Because Okuni didn't mess with the spiders, or the shrine, or do anything particularly bad, the mononoke didn't want to kill her. Instead, they shared the same hatred for the defilers.

-The mononoke itself was the collective regret and pain of the women trapped and killed there, but Kureha had the "strongest will" of the creature. It was helped along by Okuni's negative feelings.

-After Kureha's demise, she essentially had "cursed" the shrine and any who came to be there (well, the ones who repeated what the shrine-keepers before had done). Any 'evil shrine-keepers' were killed horribly.

-The theme of this story is "facades;" the fronts we all put on in order to hide our innermost thoughts from others. The monks are a simple example, seeming pious and virtuous at first glance simply due to being monks, but being greedy and indulgent in the end. Okuni is a slightly different example. I had wanted to portray the dark side of human nature, showing that there is no such thing as a completely pure person, and so gave Okuni some antisocial tendencies and harmful trains of thought. Unfortunately, due to the story's length, I couldn't find a place to play with it as much as possible.

That's all! Hope you enjoyed the story!