Chapter 5

Her Story

          Momiji was forced to crack her eyes open due to the loud insistent pounding on her front door.  With a groan, she rolled over to look at her clock.  With bleary eyes she read the time as 7:08. 

          “Who the hell would be bothering me at this hour?”  Momiji grumped as she dragged her sorry carcass out of her warm, soft bed.  She felt like she had been running a marathon for a week and then only allowed to take a half hour nap. 

          With as much haste as she could muster, Momiji slipped on her robe and stumbled downstairs to the door.  With a huff she ripped open the door to glare at whoever had dared to disturb her much needed sleep.  Guilty shock overtook her as she stared into the red face of her surrogate father Kunakida. 

          “Kunakida!  Oh my gosh, what are you doing here?”  Momiji stammered.  All the while cursing Kusanagi, since she suspected he had contacted the TAC. 

          She wanted their help.  She just wasn’t ready to deal with everything yet.  However, the head of the TAC was standing in her door way and by the way he was pounding this was not a friendly social call.

          “Damn it Momiji!!”  Kunakida yelled.  “I’ve been pounding for 10 minutes.  I was worried that something happened to you.”

          “I’m fine.”  Was all that Momiji’s tired mind could come up with to say.  She continued to stare at Kunakida while her mind tried to kick into gear and figure out how she was going to let the TAC know what was going on with out telling them the things she was not ready to tell.

          She was startled out of her thoughts with a gruff “well aren’t you going to let me in?”

          Blushing furiously at her rudeness, she opened the door wider and ushered her surrogate father in.  To delay the upcoming conversation and to give herself something to do with the nervous energy building up inside of her, Momiji bustled around to make some morning tea as well as a light breakfast for the two of them.  However, Kunakida was not an overly patient man and started to fire questions at her anyways.

          “Momiji, did you know about the Arigami?  Why didn’t you contact us?  How long have you been back from you vacation?  Where was Kusanagi?  Why doesn’t he know what is going on?”

          Momiji drowned out the rest of the questions by covering her ears a screeching “enough! Enough!!  I will answer your questions one at a time; just let me get some food and tea in me!”

          Kunakida lapsed into an impatient silence while he waited for Momiji to sit down and eat her food.  He seemed about to burst when Momiji finally set down her chopsticks and quietly began her story.  Momiji looked into the distanced and pensively swirled her tea as she tried to find the beginning of her story.  Quietly she set down her cup and began to fiddle with the green stone in the center of her bracelet.

          “I guess it started about two months ago.  Kusanagi disappeared for some reason.  I still don’t know why though I suspect it was because he was tired of being around me.” 

Momiji had to shush Kunakida as he tried to reassure her that Kusanagi would always love her.

“At first I was not concerned since he will often disappear for days at a time.  However, after two weeks, I began to worry.  That was when I decided to put in for a vacation and to travel around to his favorite thinking spots.  After searching for two weeks I found myself in Tokyo, at the very place where Kadea first disappeared and later Susano-oh was reborn.  It was there that I felt a strange energy.  It felt like two energies trying to harmonize.  Since I always have some of the science equipment from Mrs. Matsudaira I decided to take some readings.  Well being underground with only artificial lights I did not notice that it got quite late.  When I looked at my watch and noticed it was nearly midnight I decided to pack up.  Before I had half my stuff packed, a blind light seemed to come from everywhere.  Before my eyes could adjust I heard a sardonic male voice. ‘”I must thank you Kushinada for saving me the chore of tracking you down.”’  My blood turned to ice and as my vision cleared I found myself staring into the face of Murakumo.”

This was too much for Kunakida. “What!?  Murakumo?  I thought he died when all of his mitamas cracked during his battle with Kusanagi and Susano-oh!”

“He did.  This was not the same Murakumo I later found out.  He was from a different dimension.  One where my grandmother decided to never have children in the hopes that the Arigami would not awaken.”

“Well it apparently didn’t work if Murakumo is walking around.”  Kunakida broke in.

“No it did.”  Momiji corrected.  “Murakumo was originally the protector of a Kushinada long past.  Like Kusanagi he did not sleep when she sacrificed herself.  Instead he embraced being an Arigami and proceeded to try to find a way to reawaken all the Arigami.  He found a priestess that could wake one Arigami at a time, though it is a great strain on her.  He also found a scientist that is able to manipulate the mitamas to give the Arigami whatever strengths or skills they want.  However, Murakumo wanted to raise all the Arigami and for that he needed a Kushinada.  He took me back to his dimension.  I thought it was over for me with no Kusanagi to come flying in at the last moment to rescue me with cute smile and a rude comment.  I have never felt so alone or so scared.”

Momiji jumped as there was a loud crack from the tree outside.  Apparently a dead branch had chosen that time to break off.

Momiji shook off the memory and continued her story.  “I was held there for four weeks while they did the necessary preparations to raise the Arigami.  It was while I was held there that I learned about the scientist and the priestess.  The scientist was not that bad of a guy actually.  He mainly worked for Murakumo because of the chance to explore new possibilities.  He was actually the one that let it slip that the dimension machine would only work on a new moon.  Anyways, it turns out that he had crafted two mitamas to be implanted into the future protector of the Kushinada. 

“So the other Arigami Kusanagi saw, is she your protector from the other dimension?”  Kunakida asked.

Momiji was silent, thinking for a while before she responded.  “Yes.  Her name is Inda.”  Momiji has stumbled upon that name as the original name of the first Kushinada.  “Yes, she is my protector.  So if Kusanagi came back simplify because he felt compelled to protect me, he can go ahead and leave.  I will be well protected.  She helped me escape.  When they brought me back that night they left me tied to a table in the same room as their dimension machine.  It seemed like their lab of some sort.  One Arigami was left in the room to guard me.  She cut my bonds killed the Arigami and managed to hit the right button to send us here.  I had not contacted anyone because in the process of finding the right button we hit a lot of wrong ones and the machine seemed about to blow when it finally returned me home.  I had hoped that it was done with and that no one needed to worry.  They must have sent the Arigami after me that same night and it just took a week for it to find me.  I’m sorry I was wrong.”  Staring forlornly down at the table Momiji signed that that was the end of her story.

Kunakida stared reflectively into his cup of tea.  “Alright then!!”  He suddenly yelled out.  “I will send Kome and Yaegashi to Tokyo to examine your abduction site.  I will have my wife and Mrs. Matsudaira meet us here to look for remain of last nights Arigami.  We will meet back here and have a debriefing at 2 P.M. today.  Ask Inda to come or if she is at all like Kusanagi ask her for as much information she will give you and bring the information to the meeting.”  With that said Kunakida left to make all the necessary call.

Momiji, waved goodbye.  Not noticing the scowling Kusanagi in the tree next to the kitchen window.