A Miko's Heart Ch: 2

When I woke up that morning, I thought it was going to be an everyday. It was just something that I always felt when I would wake up in the morning and do the usual routine. Get up, shower, change, brush my hair and teeth then go eat before leaving to walk to school. I didn’t think that a simple school assignment would have lead me to finding out something about a certain object being true…

And to think, I always thought that history class was pointless…

Sitting in class, a young woman with long blue hair looked up at her teacher. Her white eyes with a hint of lavender stared at her teacher as she listened to him go on and on about a demon that had lived in Japan over six hundred years ago. She didn’t remember the full story though she had heard about some of it from her father, that it was her ancestor that had sealed away the demon though she didn’t really like the story all that much.

Her tired looking eyes just stared at her teacher, his white hair poking out from behind his book though she could also faintly make out the headband that she remembered covered his left eye and the mask that he used to cover half of his face. It was something that she never really did understand what was going on with that though she didn’t really bother to ask him since after all, it wasn’t any of her business. Letting out a soft sigh, the young woman looked out the window as she wondered if there was really a point in history, to her of course there wasn’t much of a point. She hated history, hated it with a passion…

“Hinata Hyuuga, since this part of the chapter is about your ancestor, would you please read it?” asked the teacher.

Looking up, Hinata frowned a little before letting out a soft sigh and sat up and stood by her desk before holding the book in her hands. Looking over the chapter, she saw the picture, in the picture was a handsome man with long hair, on his head his hair was blonde and spiky, while the hair in the ponytail was a deep crimson. His eyes were blue, tanned skin and three whisker marks on his cheeks. His robes were orange and black though she saw that it suited him just fine. If it wasn’t for the fox ears and nine tails behind him, she would have thought he was a human…

“Long ago, there was a savage demon known as ‘The Crimson Fox’. He had gone to the Sacred Village of the Hyuuga Clan, and slaughtered many humans alike, and bewitched a little girl… The demon had slaughtered everyone that had tried to go within the village for protection though never had a chance to make it past the gates for The Crimson Fox had killed them without a purpose but for his own desires.” Read Hinata, not really sure if this was even history or if it was just a story that someone made up both for history and for her clan. “The priestess of the Sacred Village wanted to keep her people safe and did the only thing that she could do, and that was to use her own life energy to seal the demon away forever. The demon’s last words were ‘I hope, you live a peaceful life for that peace will shatter when you least expect it to.’” Strange, why did it seem like he was foreseeing some kind of calamity happening because he was being sealed away?

“Good Hinata, as you have heard, the Crimson Fox was a deadly demon that roamed the world killing humans for his own enjoyment. No one knew the reason for it though. Some say that he had lost his mind for he was once a peaceful demon, but had turned to darkness and started to slaughter the innocent for his own personal gain.” Said the teacher as he slowly lowered the book. Turning to Hinata, the teacher calmly said “and it was thanks to Hinata’s ancestor that the Crimson Fox had been sealed away for all eternity.”

Hinata sighed softly before taking her seat. Why was it that people mentioned about how great her family was? Yes, they were all people with sacred powers, that was something that she had been told over and over again and yes, she was to take over one day but… ’I hate hearing about how great my family is…’ thought Hinata with a sad sigh before looking back up at her teacher.

“Okay class, before we’re done for the day, I’d like to say that for tomorrow’s class, I want you all to bring one thing that has some kind of historic event or even just being historic. Such as where it came from and how old you believe it to be.”

“Yes Mr. Hatake…” said everyone in the class before they heard the bell ring. The only thing students really looked forward to was to hear that bell ring and head on home. Breathing deeply, the young woman grabbed her bag and knew that right now she would just have to head on home and look for something that she could bring for class tomorrow, though she wasn’t sure what it could be that she would be able to bring since there were so many artifacts in her home that no one knew about.

This was something that her family wanted to keep that way for some strange yet unknown reason… She never really understood the reason for it though she didn’t really bother with what it was that her parents wanted to keep secret from the world.

Shaking her head, the young woman held her bag in her left hand and started to walk on by, her black skirt brushed her thighs as she walked, the soft clicking of her shoes hitting the floor echoed through the halls. Her short sleeved white shirt just half way down her arms, the sleeves had a leaf symbol with a swirl in the center. Her black tie swayed in the breeze from the open windows as she walked, the only thing she didn’t like about her outfit, was her long black socks. They didn’t stay up, they kept falling and it annoyed her to no end.

Looking out the window, the young woman wondered if there would be anything interesting for her… Everything was just the same thing day after day and it just became boring. The only thing she ever looked forward to was baking or spending time with her friends. Breathing deeply, the young woman knew that she may as well just head on home and make sure that her sister had a good meal for when she comes home from school. That would be nice, that’s for sure…

Yawning into the back of her hand, Hinata knew that tomorrow was going to be a boring day… though maybe she would be allowed to bring something to the school if her father knew that it would be for her grade. Besides family traditions, school was important to the man as it was with her mother… it couldn’t be that bad right?

***

“Alright, but choose carefully Hinata. You know which items are not to leave the house and what items can.” Said a man with tanned skin, white eyes and long brown hair. He wore a kimono that looked like went out of style at least a hundred years ago but he was a man of tradition. Wasn’t the best answer but it was something, now all she had to do was pick something from the storage shed where they kept some of their oldest artifacts and then she would have something for school. This was going to be perfect though she hoped that it would be old enough for her class.

Making her way to the shed, Hinata wondered what would be old enough for her to take to school, but at the same time young enough that it wouldn’t break as soon as she touched it or even picked it up into her hands. It would be annoying if it broke as soon as her fingers grazed the object that she was going to take with her to school.

Looking around carefully, Hinata wondered why the shed was so far off the property… it did seem rather odd though she figured that it was because the property was so far away from town and no one ever bothered to come here unless they were interested in a history lesson of the shrine and how it came to be. It did seem rather odd, that was for sure though Hinata never did question why that was and knew that there was no point in trying to do anything about it since she didn’t really have any say in what she was to do about this place since it wasn’t even hers… yet.

Breathing deeply the young woman made her way down the dirt path as she made her way toward the shed and tilted her head to the side as she wondered why she felt something… strange about this place. ’Maybe it was all in my head… there shouldn’t be anything wrong about this place…’ thought Hinata as she shook her head and made her way toward the shed and started to unlock the gate. Thankful that the lock was a keypad since they had given up on trying to use a lock and key since someone kept on losing it in the past.

Once the door opened, the young woman squinted her eyes as she tried to see in the darkness before flipping the switch. Thankful that there had been a light placed in the shed, it would have been a nightmare trying to find anything in this place. Heck, it was a nightmare just trying to find her way to her room sometimes and it really got annoying sometimes.

Looking around, Hinata tried to think on finding something that would really wow someone in class, or at least get her a good grade. Smiling brightly, Hinata knew that she would find something that would give her some kind of grade, even a passing one would be nice that was for sure. Breathing deeply, the young woman stretched her arms above her head as she tried to think on what it would be that would give her any kind of grade.

Everything that she walked by didn’t really scream ‘passing grade’ or grade at all for that matter. Sighing softly, the young woman didn’t think that she would find anything that would give her any idea as to what would be good enough to get her any kind of mark for class. Frowning, the young woman had a feeling that it wouldn’t matter what kind of object that she brought to class, that it would be nothing compared to how anyone else’s artifact. Taking a deep breath, the young woman knew that she would still have to at least try to bring in something for class, maybe it would still be worth something… It had to be worth at least a B then she would be happy for that even if it isn’t an A+…

Shaking her head, Hinata’s light lavender coloured eyes looked around as she tried to find anything that would give her some kind of idea as to what she could bring… So far, all she could find were swords, shields, arrows and a few broken shards that she figured were statues at some point from the way some of them had been curved. Otherwise, she didn’t know what they were and knew that she couldn’t really bring any of these with her… There was no way that it would have given her a passing grade, there was just no way that she would get a passing grade from any of these things…

Soon, she made it to the back of the shed and frowned a little when she noticed a vase. It was a vase that she’s never noticed before. Her father never mentioned this vase before so… did that mean that it was safe to take out of the shed and bring it to her school for her to use? She hoped that would be the case since it was the only thing interesting for her to take to school at the moment.

As she walked closer to the vase, Hinata couldn’t help but notice more and more about the vase. It was lavender; it was decorated with swirls of blue, gold and crimson. In a way, she found it to be rather strange to have those colours but at the same time, she felt that it worked perfectly together… almost like waves crashing upon the sands at the beach, that was what the blue and gold made her think about… The crimson though, it somehow made her think of the setting sun over the ocean. She didn’t know what drew her to the vase, but she knew that it was perfect for class.

Smiling to herself, Hinata carefully made her way to the table that the vase resided on and looked a little more closely at it. Now that she was a bit closer, she also noticed that it was large, almost as if it was some kind of urn that would be used to place someone’s ashes in. Tilting her head, the young woman made her way to the vase and looked inside… She didn’t really see anything… ’What was this used for…?’ thought Hinata before shrugging her shoulders and carefully reached out and lifted the vase in her hands, it didn’t feel heavy, in fact it felt very light and still very strong.

“Almost as if it’s brand new…” whispered Hinata.

Shaking her head, the young woman held the vase as close as she could, carefully running her hand over the vase as she tried to feel if maybe there was some kind of crack in it. Though so far she hadn’t felt or found anything no matter if it was through touch or sight. Nothing came to mind though as to why it would be damaged if it’s never been touched let alone fallen. Smiling gently, the young woman ran her palm over the rim of the vase only to hiss in pain as she felt a sharp edge cutting her palm.

Lifting her palm up, Hinata saw a clean cut and a small trickle of blood fell from her palm and into the vase. She didn’t know how it could have cut her; she didn’t see any sharp edges only to frown a little. It seemed that there was a tiny chip in the vase, sharp enough to have cut her skin.

“How could I have not seen that…?” asked Hinata, not really expecting an answer from anyone. Giggling softly, the young woman started to walk out of the shed, knowing that she would have to hurry up and made her way toward her home though she wasn’t sure if she should hold it while going to school, or if she should carefully wrap it in her bag and carry it to school just so it wouldn’t break. She couldn’t really be sure of it, though what she did know was that she would have to be careful with it so it wouldn’t break on her before she got to school, or before she got home.

As she walked, the young woman hummed a soft tune, something that her mother used to sing to her when she was a little girl. Taking a deep breath, Hinata wondered if maybe her mother could teach her the other songs that she knew… It was odd, her mother was once a renowned singer and her father was a businessman at the time. They met once by chance in a café and now they were happily married and with two children, Hinata herself, and her little sister Hanabi. Everything was confusing that they would be attracted to each other though at the moment she didn’t mind it all that much, so long as they were happy than so was she.

Breathing deeply, the young woman wondered if people would even notice the vase in the first place, after all… she was pretty much invisible most of the time. The only people to notice her at school were the few friend’s that she did have. Otherwise, no one really noticed her because she was normally so quite that no one even noticed her, she was even marked absent once because of that. Everything was crazy at school though at least she did have some friend’s; even if it wasn’t many she was happy…

Though it would be nice if the guys would talk to her… or, at least talk to her face instead of speaking to her while looking at her chest. Just thinking about it caused the young woman to hold the vase a little closer to her body, it always made her nervous when a guy spoke to her, well, one that was trying to ask her out who, also just so happened to be staring at her breasts instead of her face to ask her. That was the only thing that annoyed her to no end; it made her feel like some kind of object rather than a person. Is it too much to ask for, to have a guy to like her for her instead of her curves?

’Maybe it is too much to ask for, men don’t care about women, at least there are very few that care about the woman instead of her assets…’ she thought with a sad yet soft sigh before she looked up at the sky, noticing that it was starting to get a little darker out.  Sighing softly, Hinata knew that she should hurry up and get on home before her father started to get worried about her and send one of the guards out to come and get her.

Suddenly, there was a cold gust of wind blowing past her, causing the young woman to shiver from the cold. Though there was something odd about this wind, it almost seemed… dark and sinister. Looking around, Hinata tried to find the source of this wind, knowing that it couldn’t be natural; there was no way that it could be real and natural wind. There was just no way that it could be real.

Shaking her head, Hinata tried to run, maybe if she just hurried toward her home that this wind would leave her alone. There was just no way she was going to stay in this forest now, she had to hurry unless whatever was causing this wind would come after her, she didn’t know what it was but it was frightening all the same. Soon, there stood someone on the path. He wore nothing but black… Black pants, black shirt, black jacket and black boots. His hair was white and his eyes were green like jades, more so than her friend Sakura’s.

“At last, I’ve found you…” whispered the man as he slowly started to walk toward her. Hinata gulped a bit and took steps back, hoping that she could get away from him. Whoever this man was, he wanted something from her, though what that something would be she didn’t know. This guy had to be some kind of nut job if he was looking for her and of course wanted something from her. There was no way that she was going to stick around to find out what it was that he wanted. She had to get away and fast before anything happened to her.

Turning on her heels, Hinata ran back into the forest as fast as she could. She had to get away, running and running was all the young woman did. It seemed that no matter where she would hide, she didn’t think that this mysterious person would find her… only to be discovered with him standing on the tree and giving her some kind of creepy grin upon his face. Staring with wide eyes, the young woman screamed and ran faster and faster.

Just what the hell was he?! There was no way that a normal human would be able to stand upon a tree without using his hands to support himself but standing on it like he would the ground. It just wasn’t possible! Eyes wide, Hinata ran and hid once again, hoping that she could catch her breath, all she wanted was to get away and somehow find another way back home so she could be safe by the protection of her home. Yet, it seemed that he wanted her to go deeper and deeper into the forest…

Turning her head from side to side, Hinata tried to find any sign of him, the mystery man was nowhere  in sight. That had to mean something right? Unless he was just toying with her before he did… whatever it was that he was going to do. She feared that he was going to rape her or something so much worse. Breathing deeply, Hinata tried to get herself to relax, knowing that if she panicked too much then she really was doomed for she wouldn’t be able to think clearly and that would be her own downfall before she could get on home to be safe.

Setting the vase down, Hinata tried checking her pockets, thinking that maybe she could use her cellphone while she still had the chance to call for help… only to remember that she had left it at home because she wasn’t expecting any of this to happen. Crap, she was doomed after all… She wasn’t going to get home at this rate, she would die in this forest and no one would find out, he may end up taking her body somewhere to do whatever he pleased.

Gasping out a little squeak, the young woman looked up and stared with horror in her eyes. Standing on the trunk of the tree like a sidewalk, was the black clad man as he smirked down at her. “No matter where you hide, you will never escape me…” said the man with a chuckle before he started to walk toward her, Hinata of course just did what she could do… she ran as fast as her legs could carry her at the time.

Running as fast as she could, Hinata tried to find another place, a sacred place that she could hide in. Whatever this man was, he held some kind of demonic aura around him causing her fear to rise all the more. She knew that this man couldn’t be human, that he was some kind of monster that didn’t care about anyone’s lives but himself and to do as he wanted. Looking around, the blue haired woman had hoped that she would be able to find a way to get out of this mess. Shaking her head, Hinata hadn’t been able to see anything that could give her any kind of clue as to where she could hide that would keep her safe, nothing came to mind for her and she feared that because of that, this man, monster… whatever he was, would kill her no matter where she hid.

“Why keep running? You will be perfect for my master… all he wants is you to live…” said the man as his voice echoed through the forest. Hinata didn’t like the sound of that, it almost made it sound like she was going to be some kind of slave, which of course she was going to have to say hell no to that. No matter what, she wouldn’t live that kind of life, after all, slaves are never treated with any kind of respect and it annoyed her to no end to how some people treated people…

Soon, Hinata tripped over a root causing her to yelp as the case flew from her hand and shattered once it hit the ground. Hinata stared with wide eyes; she knew that this was how she would die… If she was used as a slave, then she wouldn’t survive, for she would shatter inside, both emotionally and mentally. Looking down at the ground, the young woman knew that she was doomed. Her eyes started to fill with tears as she started to cry…

“Please… someone help me… I don’t want to die; I don’t want to be some kind of slave for a monster.” Hinata cried softly, not wanting to live that kind of life. The only thing that she wanted was to live a normal life, graduate and have a family after taking over the family shrine from her father. This wasn’t what she wanted though, but then again who does? Who wanted to be a slave, to be killed no matter what it was that she did. Looking over her shoulder, Hinata saw the man slowly making his way toward her, a creepy smile on his face as he made his way toward her.

“How does it feel woman? The game has finally ended and now, play time is over. You’ll be coming with me to my master so you can… help us with this human infested world.” Why did he say humans like he wasn’t one? Oh wait, he wasn’t because he didn’t have a normal human aura… Though if that was the case why did he say it with such distaste? Like he hated them with a passion and of course with all his cold stone heart? Hinata wanted to ask what he meant but his smirk stopped her… at least for the moment. “Once we have what we want, then we should be able to remove humans from the planet and rule the world like we should have all those years ago after he was sealed away.”

“He? Who is he? And what makes you think that I’d help you?!” shouted Hinata.

“The Crimson Fox, he had been sealed away six hundred years ago… It was so much fun to watch his face as he was sealed away, the horror, the fear… Oh, it was just so enjoyable even if I could only watch from afar.” Said the man with a smirk, he was making it sound like The Crimson Fox was a good guy, but why was that? Wasn’t The Crimson Fox a bad guy? He did kill all of those people didn’t he? Or was it some kind of misunderstanding?

Shaking her head, Hinata narrowed her eyes as she said “what makes you think that I would help you anyway?!” The man laughed, it was creepy the way he was laughing at her and knew that she wouldn’t like the answer that he was going to give her… Soon, he stopped walking as a gust of heated wind started to swirl around the area. What was going on? Looking around, the young woman turned away from the man as he saw his eyes widen ahead of him. What Hinata saw was the wind swirling around the broken vase, a thick crimson and green fog started to swirl with the wind, causing something to form.

Hinata had no idea what was happening, at first she thought that maybe the man was doing this but then again, why would it be over where the vase was instead of over her? That wouldn’t have made any kind of sense to her at all. The fog started to form into something else; she wasn’t sure what it was though it started from the ground up. On the ground was a pair of straw sandal clad feet and slowly starting to form its way upward. Eyes widening, Hinata watched as the fog kept on trying to form something… though what that was she wasn’t sure what it would be…

As the fog made its way upward, Hinata saw a pair of black umanori hakama. It was something that she had seen in history books. It was rather odd to see something that old in front of her though at the moment she didn’t care. The fog kept on forming slowly upward, the hakama seemed like it had made its way up to someone’s waist but was still going. At this person’s waist was a sword concealed in a black sheath with swirls of orange around it. The sword looked different compared to other weapons that she has seen in her life…

Soon, Hinata had started to see the orange jacket with the black sleeves of this person’s kimono. The sleeves had orange flames on the sleeves and she didn’t know why but it made her think that the flames were dancing… Next, she had noticed that this person was male since the kimono jacket was opened revealing his chest. At that time, she noticed that this man had swirls on his chest that made her think of the wind like in the cartoons she saw as a child.

Turning her gaze to his hands, she saw orange gloves that wrapped around his middle finger and disappeared into his sleeves, and on his hands, she could faintly see the weird flame-like markings on his hands though not as well as the markings on his chest… odd though she had a feeling that was what the gloves were for, to hide those markings. Soon, the fog started to form his face, he was handsome alright… whisker markings on his face. Spiky blonde hair with a red ponytail, though what else she noticed were the orange and black tipped fox eras atop of his head and the swaying orange and black tipped tails behind him…

It was The Crimson Fox from the history books! He was real!? How did that work and how was he standing in front of her and most of all… was he…? Tilting her head, Hinata saw that his eyes were closed and that his breathing was slow and even… That was when, she realised something… “He’s asleep!?”