The Fallen by MissLibra

Prologue

A/N: Inspired by Sugar0os Kami art. Please visit her page and take a look. It’s great work.

Also the story of the Kami is all imagination. There is no real pantheon with such myths.

“Papa!”

“Hold on sweetie.”

“Papa!”

“Just a minute.”

“Papa come on!”

The high pitched tone climbed to a new octave at the lack of attention. The male of the house hold sighed and finally walked into the bright pink room of his only daughter. Her bedroom was filled with stuffed animals and lace, pink walls and doll houses. The six year old looked at her white book shelf filled with story books of all kinds. Most were books for her age but some were fairytale books for older children. Shou watched his young daughter as she reached up on her tip toes to see what book she wanted for the night. Her cloth night gown was as pink as her room with little quarter length sleeves of white. On the front was pictures of puppies with big eyes and faces. Her hair was long jet black much like his own but her eyes were a bright blue that was not a trait from his side of the family but from his wife’s great grandmother. The little girl turned to him with a large smile, a missing tooth on the left. Her cheeks had a healthy pudgy look that made her that more endearing.

“Did you find one yet?” he asked and walked over to her bed, the small thing squeaked under his weight. The girl shook her head and ran over to the bed before pouncing on it, her small body bounced lightly as she giggled.

“Nope nope. I want to hear the one about the Kamis.” She said with large expecting eyes. Shou sighed and gave a small smile,

“Again? I told you that one a million times.”

“No, it’s only been this many!” she held up two small hands showing a flicking number of six’s and nine’s as she rethought her imaginary count.  

Shou laughed, “Okay okay, but get under the covers.” He said. She pushed back her pink sheets and climbed underneath them, making sure she had them up to her chin so he knew that she was ready for her story. Her favorite story.

Shou was always surprised by how endearing his daughter was. He knew Kagome was a miko because he came from long lines of priests and he could feel the power humming around her but it was laced with such warmth and purity that it seemed to wrap around those around her. No one disliked her at school and no matter what she wanted, she usually got it from others. There was something about her that you wanted to see smile and bask in the warmth and comfort she gave off naturally. It was odd, especially to explain. Her aura did odd things even to the nastiest of people. Of course, he had to make sure that her teachers and friends parents didn’t spoil her or give in to her childish desires because of the oddity. But he was a sucker for the smile and expectant eyes when she wanted to hear her stories.

“Once upon a time, many many years ago, the Kamis of Life created the earth. From the earth they created humans, pulling the life from the dirt and putting it together to create the first humans.”

“Like me!” she squeaked.

“Yes like you.” He chuckled as he run his hand over her head repeatedly in soothing slow motion, “But one Kami saw the fragility of the humans and decided to pull his own tooth and blood and mixed it with the soil. From the mixture came demons. Both human and animal, their lives lengthened and their strength immeasurable, they were placed on earth to hopefully protect the humans.”

“Like Mrs. Miyu!”

“Yes, like Mrs. Miyu,” he acknowledged the mention of her feline preschool teacher, “But the demons did not protect the humans, but instead hunted them and thought themselves better. The Kamis of Life were saddened by this and thought to start over until they noticed very exceptional individuals on Earth. They realized that they could not govern life and fate and everything else on their own so each Kami chose one of the original humans and demons to be Kamis themselves.”

Her eyes were wide with wonder as if she had never heard the story.

“Once chosen, each one were given a piece of humanity to control and guard over. Half were human and the other demon to maintain a balance in the universe. The strongest of them all was the Kami of War.”

Kagome pulled down the covers a bit so her mouth was visible as she puckered and let out a quick:

“Booo!”   

“Youre jumping ahead.” Shou raised an eyebrow at her.

“Sowry.”

“As I was saying, he was the strongest demon the Kami of Life could find to control the wrath and bloodshed of war. Only he was a lord back on earth and kept his proud attitude and hate for humanity. In the heavens he mistreated the hanyou Kami of Greed and looked down on the human kamis that were chosen. After years had gone by with no change in the divide between humans and demons, the Kami of Life realized that something was missing. What do you think it was?”

She smiled and pulled down the covered to pop her head up, “Love!”

“Yes. The Kami’s made guardians for the dark part of the living Earth like war, greed, chaos and punishment. They forgot that they needed someone to pursue the need for kindness and compassion. They looked down over earth and found a little girl who accepted everyone and had the purest soul and the biggest heart. They went to her parents and told them that when she came of age she would go to the heavens to be one of them. The parents cried with joy and honor and raised their daughter to be the all that she could be. But…”

“oh no!”

“Jumping ahead.”

“Sowry.”

“But….as she came of age, the Kami of Darkness saw the something was amiss on Earth and spoke to the Kami of War. The Kami of War dismissed the other Kami telling him that ‘the small human mattered not’. So the Kami of Darkness did nothing. In the dark of the night, the little girl was kidnapped and taken from her parents by dark hearted demons.” The girl gasped, staring at him as his voice got lower and more solemn, “No one knows what happened to her but the next morning, as the ground got cold, she was found on the shrine grounds. The Kamis cried for their fallen child and snow and rained hailed from the heavens, covering the ground in white and leaving harvests barren in their mourning. Thus the Kami of Wind and Spring were born.”

Shou paused as he saw blue eyes start to swim in glassy tears, “Sweetie whats wrong? You’ve heard this story before…”

“It-it still makes me sad..”

He ran his hand over her hair, “You want me to continue?” She nodded.

“The Kamis took the purity of the little girl’s soul and made a new kind of human: mikos and priests. With the purity, they could protect themselves and humans as long as they were pure of soul. They realized that in order to for the Kami of Love to be born, she must be born on Earth to know real love and the world was not ready to nurture such a pure soul. So they hid such divinity away until the time was right when the world could produce such a Kami.

And that’s why the day before Spring is a festivity in white, to show the purity that can still remain—”

“And! And that’s why we right who we love on the p-pieces of paper and hang them on the God Tree!”

“So the Kami of Life know who to watch over.” Shou smiled and kissed her head before standing up,

“Okay that’s it for tonight. Time for bed.”

“Oh no! One more?” she said and pushed out her bottom lip cutely.

“Nope. Next time.” He walked to the door and turned off the light, “Goodnight Kagome.”

“Goodnight, papa.”