Chapter 3

The mirror

 “Toilet,” Mai said shortly and took off at full speed, leaving a surprised grandpa Higurashi. She ran into the house.

On her way back, she heard a commotion, probably in the kitchen. She crept towards the source of the noise as quietly as she could and jumped into the kitchen with a loud:

“Aha!”

Then the scream nearly pierced Mai’s ears. In the kitchen was standing Kagome bewildered and desperately clutching her chest, as to steady her heartbeat, and of course in her school uniform.

“Mai, you idiot!” she screamed. “Did you want me to have a heart attack?”

“Oh, no, since you are already nearly dead. Bird smallpox I heard.” Mai said smugly. Kagome did her best to keep a poker face, but her mind was racing wildly. “How much does she know? She knows about the well? Inuyasha? And what story did grandpa tell her?”

“I’m feeling better now.” Kagome said, trying her best to make her voice sound weak. Mai raised her eyebrow.

“Oh, come on, Kagome; you look perfectly fine to me. So what were you doing all this time? Eh?” Mai questioned her.

Kagome started to sweat. Her palms were already wet. She knew that something like this would happen sooner or later, but why today?

“Umm… you know… it’s kind of complicated…” she started.

“You can tell me.” Mai assured Kagome.

The Higurashi girl’s mind screamed, “What am I supposed to say? That I’m going on the trips to the feudal era where I’m fighting lots of demons with a hanyou? It’s insane…” Kagome opened her mouth to utter something when Souta stormed into kitchen.

“Sis, you should really stop playing those video games of yours and get to school!”

Both Mai and Kagome were dumbfounded. Mai was the first to break the silence.

“A video games addiction? No wonder you didn’t want to tell me.”

Kagome smiled sheepishly. She would take Souta to an amusement park and buy him a bucket of ice cream, a very large bucket. Her little brother was a hero for keeping his head cool. God, thank you. Thank you! Luckily, Mai believed the story. Kagome was so occupied with overjoying that her secret was safe, that she didn’t notice that Mai was shaking her.

“Earth to Kagome? I asked if you will help me and your grandpa in the storage house? Girl, get back to the land of living!”

“What? Ah, I’m going, sure.” Kagome managed to utter as Mai started dragging her to the shed.

“Your family knew,” stated Mai. Kagome nodded. “And why the hell are you wearing that school uniform?”

“Eh?” the question took Kagome by surprise.

Right, she was still in her uniform, as always, when she traveled to the feudal era. That would be hard to explain. Mai narrowed her eyes.

“You know what?” said Mai. “I think I really don’t want to know the answer.”

A while later the girls were segregating a pile of junk, which was grandpa’s greatest treasure. Kagome was placing the boxes, jars and vases on the shelves, and Mai was keeping track of the list. Grandpa was supervising, which meant that he basically tortured the girls with stories. Even Mai had enough.

“Any more?” whimpered Kagome. “My hands are falling off!”

“I Imagine that nearly a week of intense gaming must have taken its toll,” responded Mai sarcastically. Kagome narrowed her eyes and looked as though she wanted to annihilate her friend.

“Careful with that, Kagome! This mirror has a long story…” started grandpa. Both girls rolled their eyes as the old man got carried away again. “It’s a mystical mirror. It is said it has power to switch souls of people if they glance into the mirror at the same time. It works however only if one soul is an incarnation of another.”

With these words, grandpa excused himself as Kagome’s mother called him. Mai couldn’t help noticing that Kagome was slightly pale and was holding the mirror as far from her as possible and avoided looking towards the mirror.

“You’re not going to pack it?” asked Mai. Kagome hesitated.

“You do it.” said the Higurashi girl and she tried to hand the mirror to Mai. Mai pushed it away.

“Oh, are you scared that your soul will be switched, Kagome?” laughed Mai. Kagome faked a smile.

“Don’t be silly,” she said quickly. Actually, she was dead afraid that maybe Kikyo would be transferred into her body and then Inuyasha… Kagome pull yourself together! You know that the possibility that Kikyo is staring into this mirror right now 500 years ago is very, very low. On the other hand, the possibility of falling into the well and getting out of it in the feudal era also shouldn’t be high. One must be always cautious.

“All right.” decided Kagome. “We’ll wrap it up together, and Mai, try not to look into the mirror.”

The girls started packing the mirror when Souta ran into the storage house.

“Sis,” he nearly shouted. “Mama wants to see you. Now.”

Kagome sighed and followed Souta. When she was in the doorway, she turned around.

“Mai.” she said to her friend seriously. “Don’t look into it.”

And so Kagome left Mai with the mystical mirror to wrap. “God, why is it pentagonal? It makes it only harder to wrap,” complained Mai to herself. Actually, she wanted to take a good look at it. Kagome seemed to be afraid of it, but she could just be superstitious. It wouldn’t be abnormal to be superstitious when you live in a shrine. After all, there were lots of stories about cursed mirrors, like they could take your soul, have a demon sealed inside or other stupidities. Mai decided it wouldn’t hurt to take a look. Just one. Then she would wrap it and put it away.

Mai flipped the mirror over and examined it. Its shape was pentagonal; it was of a rather medium size, with a plain wooden frame and seemingly old. Mai took a breath and looked at her reflection. Of course, there wasn’t anything out of ordinary. In the mirror was her own plain face staring back. The same brown-green eyes, the same nose, which wasn’t her favorite part of her face, the same childish cheeks and the same brown hair. The same… only longer. Shocked, Mai looked once more. There was no doubt! The Mai that was reflected in the mirror had long hair, much past her shoulders, but she could not tell how long exactly. The girl felt something welling up in her stomach. In the mirror she saw the expression of sheer terror on her face. She tried to toss out the mirror, to scream for Kagome, but her voice wouldn’t come out; her body was still. She desperately tried to loosen her grip on the mirror’s frame, but she couldn’t move them. It was either the fear that had paralyzed her or some unknown force that didn’t want to allow her to avert her gaze from the mirror. She couldn’t do anything as her surroundings started to blur. It felt like the world was disappearing, or like she was. Mai had her gaze still fixed on the face in the mirror, the same as her own, but another. She observed as the reflection was returning to normal, her reflection’s hair becoming shorter, like her own. The world around her was beginning to look more real and not so blurred anymore. Mai finally managed to flex her fingers and the mirror fell on the floor. Her knees bent under, and she had to use her hands to prevent her face from meeting ground. She gasped in shock as her long hair fell like a curtain around her, and then she fainted.

Five hundred years ago, in the castle of Asakura clan.

“Hime-sama!” the maidservant called.

“You may come in.” said a quiet, demure voice. The maidservant came in, bowing deeply.

Inside sat a young noblewoman, the princess of Asakura clan, Amayami-hime. She looked as if she was deep in thought. Her long brown hair, now undone, was falling softly, reaching the floor as she sat on a cushion. Her brown-green eyes had a slightly melancholic look in them. Princess was dressed in a multi-layered kimono made of the finest silk. She looked at a maidservant, who was still bowing in front of her. Princess smiled gently and told the woman in her sweet voice to face her.

“What brings you here, Yume?” Amayami-hime asked. The young servant gasped as she heard her name being remembered by the princess. She seemed to have forgotten, what was she doing in princess’s quarters in the first place? The woman held out a package. Amayami-hime glanced at it curiously.

“What would that be?” she asked.

“My lady,” quickly answered the woman called Yume. “It was sent by Gorouza-dono to Amayami-hime as a gift to commemorate the engagement.”

The blush begun to show on Amayami-hime’s face as she cautiously took the package that was handed over to her. Gorouza-dono was the man she was going to marry in a matter of weeks. The man to whom she would pledge loyalty and love. The man who will become the father of her children. Her destiny, her everything. She couldn’t wait to be married to him. That was the purpose of her life – to become the wife of such a powerful man, and she would more than gladly accept it.

Amayami-hime held the package close to her heart, wondering what the gift was that her beloved lord sent her. Her heart was beating faster as the maidservant took her leave. Princess began to unwrap the package. Inside was a plain-looking mirror. Amayami-hime was a little bit disappointed but told herself that if the gift is one given from the bottom of the heart, it shouldn’t be judged. She held the mirror in front of her face, glancing at her own reflection. Suddenly, the princess stiffened. It was not her reflection. From the mirror, another person was looking at her. She had her face, but she was not her. The other one had noticeably shorter hair, like some village girl, not the knee-long princess’s tresses, and she didn’t have the royal air about her, like Amayami-hime had.

“Gorouza-dono,” thought the princess, “Why would you send me a demon sealed in a mirror? Why?”

That was the last thought of Amayami-hime before she slipped into unconsciousness.