The Fake Princess by Yoru-101

Imperial

The Fake Princess

Prompt: Imperial

Word Count: 1000

A groan.

Pain.

Kagome peeked open one eye. Colours everywhere. She shut them immediately.

‘Shit. I’m still here.’

She tried to sit up. The back of her head pounded like the drums of an African savannah.

‘Well, that was a stupid idea.’

Opening her eyes again, she saw Yuki kneeling next to her, a fan in her hand. Had she been fanning her?

Kagome tried to speak.

“Yuki?” she croaked.

The royal minister sighed outwardly.

“Thank kami.” She muttered. “I thought you might have hit your head when you fell.”

‘I did.’ thought Kagome to herself.

Yuki grabbed Kagome’s arm through her sleeve and hauled her up unceremoniously. Kagome’s head was reeling.

“We have no time to waste.” Yuki hurried on. “The monster lord could arrive at any moment, and time is not in our favour. We must have you befitting of a princess before his next visit. Our very lives depend on it.”

Kagome barely heard any of this. She was too busy trying not to vomit all of the mats.

The rest of the day was one long hellish blur. First she was rushed off to the healer to make sure she didn’t have any formidable injuries, then she was immediately run around the castle and given three second summaries of what everything was and what was where. ‘A princess should know her own castle’ Yuki had said.

‘But this isn’t mine’. Kagome couldn’t help thinking.

The castle was beautiful, she had to admit. Not that she had the time to view everything in the manner of which she wished, but at least they were moving at a slightly slower pace than they were before. Servants were unpacking boxes everywhere. It appeared that once news broke out of the princess’ death, the whole castle decided to abandon ship. Now that they had a new lifeline, they were free to go about their lives as they were before.

At one point in the day, Kagome heard Yuki muttering about the funeral procession for the real princess. They couldn’t very well have a public funeral as they would have liked, for that would be a sure dead giveaway. The princess’ body was located somewhere deep within the castle, warded and purified by some traveling monks that fled the scene as soon as their duty was done. The wards couldn’t block out one as strong as the Dog Demon General, but it could at least block the scent and make it less suspicious to the less frequent passer-by.

One of the servant girls suggested that they hold an underground funeral near the furnace. The room was certainly large enough for at least 20 people, and it got the smoke out of the way from the cremation.

Kagome’s heart sank at this. ‘Poor Izayoi, she couldn’t even have a proper funeral.’

The idea was taken into consideration, but it was in no means the final decision. The first act of business was to get Kagome as princess-like in the least amount of time as possible.

The priestess-turned-princess was first given a run-down of the rules and regulations of mannerisms and speech. A woman must never hold her head higher than her lord’s, and she must never speak out of turn.

Kagome snorted at this and was promptly smacked across the arm with Yuki’s fan.

‘Princesses don’t snort.” She had commanded. “You may not be taking this as seriously as we are but our lives are at stake here. You have chosen the path that leads into great danger, but that is the key to our salvation. Now straighten your back and arch your neck, you look like a hunchback.”

Needless to say, Kagome kept her snorting to herself after that.

Somewhere in the recesses of Kagome’s mind, Yuki reminded her of a bizarre combination of Sango when she was mad at Miroku and Kaede. The only differences between the strange fusion between the two was Sango/Kaede hybrid would beat her with a giant boomerang while Yuki only used a fan.

‘Ow.’ Kagome murmured. ‘I must have hit my head harder than I thought.’

She tried not to think of her family back in the Feudal Era. While she was further back in time, she had made a commitment here and she would complete it to the best of her ability. Though she had no idea how long that might be.

Kagome’s guilt welled up inside her like a incoming storm. She didn’t want to be here forever, but she couldn’t have just let all the people die. She was a priestess for kami’s sake and she helped people. She didn’t abandon them. She would find some way around her predicament, and try to get back home.

When the sun had finally set, Kagome was sent to the princess’ chamber.

‘My chamber now.’ She thought ruefully.

It was a large expanse, but above all, it looked empty. Kagome knew for a fact that the princess’ room wasn’t touched in the great panic but it didn’t change the fact there was nothing here to tell her anything about Izayoi’s personality.

A large futon lay in a corner of the room. Great quilts and pillows placed neatly around the sleeping area. Kagome suddenly felt sick.

‘I am sleeping in a dead woman’s bed.’

A small desk with a mirror lay against a wall facing an enormous window. The reflection off the mirror showing nothing but the inky blackness and the small candles that lit the room. A gentle breeze blew in through the open window. Kagome felt drawn to it.

Walking over to the window, she leaned her head and torso outside to get a better feel of the wind. She closed her eyes and breathed in the crisp air of the evening, and felt a little calmer.

Backing away, she sat down on a cushion in front of the vanity. She noticed a small drawer at the base. Opening it, the only contents were a small ink stone, a delicate brush, and a book.

Curious, Kagome picked up the book and flipped it open to a random page. Skimming down through the hand written passages, she read;

“…and my lord smiled at me. Not the smile of death that the rumours tell so fondly of him, but a smile of kindness. I knew at that moment that he’d never hurt me…”

Kagome almost dropped the book. Izayoi’s diary.

She normally would have dropped the book back into the drawer and scolded herself for reading such private thoughts, but this was an emergency. This journal would be the key to Kagome’s plight. She might just have a chance to live after all.

Opening the book again, she flipped open to another page and began reading. She hadn’t gotten past two sentences before a low baritone made her heart stop with fear.

“Hello, my love.”