Post by GoldenKitten on Aug 14, 2008 1:02:55 GMT -4
‘I am Mamoru Mikosen’
….
‘and if I am ever scheduled for an end of the day mathematics class again I will remind myself to take an electric screwdriver to my temple instead.’
The words flew across the paper from an old beat up push pen that looked like it might have been an expensive piece of metalwork back years ago when it was made. The words were not actually written but instead indentions made in the foam paper but she still wasn’t taking any chances. The girl quickly folded the piece of paper and placed it into her satchel next to her while retrieving another and placing it out before her. Still she was hardly paying attention as math was her worst subject and it was only made harder to both learn and pay attention to so late in the day.
Instead she placed her hand on her face and leaning on her desk looked out the window…or well, sort of, being blind tended to put a whole damper on that “looking at anything” statement. Miko as she was often called due to her obvious name and the fact that it fit, given that she really did look like your traditional Miko, had been blind since the day she was born. Physically blind anyhow, in reality she could see the world in different ways but that wasn’t something she went around telling everybody about. Of course that wasn’t to say she had overcome blindness, she just had learned ways not to let it keep her down and was quickly overcoming different hurdles everyday.
She was a thin girl of fifteen and had a classic female Japanese frame and build. She was shorter but not stocky, rather the exact opposite being lithe, petite and possessing virtually no bust. She was moderate skinned by typical standards and bore deep black hair which she generally kept straight down to her mid-back or in rare occurrences looped around the sides with a pony-tail in the back. Her eyes were a deep brown but unlike others they never moved or conveyed much emotion though her face could easily overcome that, the easiest way to make it understood was to say they seemed dead though to say so openly would be an utmost insult. She currently wore the schools black sweater top and plaid skirt which was longer than many school outfits reaching all the way to the knees for modesty. However it was becoming common knowledge that when school let out she was one of those old traditional sorts that preferred wearing outdoor kimonos and the like (also it was assumable, nicer ones for sleep).
The room she was in looked ancient and while about ten desks and a rack mounted white board made it clear it was a learning place the surroundings showed it was a conversion. The movable partition walls (fusuma) on one side were something more common in older housing and the lattice work ceiling, mat floorboards and smaller storage partitions along what seemed to be a rise in the floor were all dead give aways. The academy had once been an old mansion and while certain things had been added such as an air conditioning system (which in all truth didn’t work that well) and larger windows like the one Miko currently looked out of it still at large was exactly as it had been for over six hundred years.
Mikos attention was brought back to the front of the class when she heard her name being called out; apparently ignoring everyone around you was a good way to have that happen. After being asked some inane question to which she had no clue what the answer was and had the teacher verbally reprimand her he announced the class was over. She did a little dance in her mind while grabbing her things as she listened to the small class filter out into the hall. She grabbed her walking stick or as she liked to call it the “beating stick of doom” and made her way to the door, she briefly waved toward the front of the class where she figured the teacher was before leaving.
The class had been on the third floor and with the many halls in the mansion they quickly dispersed to such an extent that you could walk just about anywhere and there be only one or two people anywhere close. Half of this had to do with the fact that their were only first years here being that this was a new academy and being unproven nobody who had already spent a year or more at another academy would want to switch, that might change if they did well this year. For now though the campus was ruled by the youngest years and even put all together they barely numbered in the three hundreds. That made it both a little lonely and quite nice when you wanted to be alone and think to yourself, being out in the middle of nowhere like the campus was amplified both those facets.
Miko heard several other classes opening up downstairs, her math class being the only one on the upper-most level and the quiet area blew up with noise. She decided she would return to her room and not being very good at fighting through crowds she decided taking the long back way would actually be faster in the end. It was a wrap around hallway that came out in a side-door at the front of the mansion, the way it subtlety connected to most of the major set rooms that were permanent in their purpose such as the old shrine room suggested that it used to be an access way for servants so they could move about without being seen. Thinking on that shrine it had been the one place that was not disturbed which was odd given the principles take on the spiritual, but maybe there were limits even he wouldn’t chance passing?
Miko had turned to the left instead of the right and reached a stairwell that lead down to this roundabout hallway. She had to take careful ponderous steps because unlike the central stairwell this one had no banister to hold and she had to test the step below with her walking stick each time. She didn't mind though, there would have been such a crowd down the central steps that it could be even more dangerous at times since kids never paid much attention to what was around them and often pushed on her when they were rushing out. She hummed to herself as she reached the bottom of the stairwell where there was a door. It was actually rather dark at the bottom of the steps and there were no sounds to keep one company but the effect was lost on Miko, it was always dark to her and she liked silence anyway.
Similarly the effect of opening the hinged door (one of the few such doors that had replaced partition sliding doors around the house as to lock off certain areas after hours) had no effect on her as light came flooding into the darkness. The hallway that I spoke of before in fact was probably once an outside deck but over the years, sometime before the staff of Ritsuzen had taken over even, it had been walled in. To her right was the old building while to her left was a beautifully rendered wooden wall on which were low windows. They had once used mere rice paper but these gaps had been replaced with glass panes to keep the climate inside comfortable. Outside lay a rich garden, it was one of Ritsuzens most selling features and was large enough to accommodate the entire student body (if a bit cramped), it was also something out of a dream with eloquently cut ponds, grasses and newer laid walkways, it even had Sakura trees though they only bloomed for a short period in the early summer.
Inside the all wooden finish was beautiful and the smooth floorboards reminded Miko of a shrine. There were the occasional doors to the right which led to the prominent rooms, usually these doors were near invisible from the other side though since becoming a school several of them had been covered. Along the wall were holsters for torches or being inside now, candles, though at current there was no such thing to be found likely due to the fire hazard. Miko could of course see none of this but she had used this hall after school every evening since arriving a week earlier and she had taken the time to orient herself with any place she was required to travel regularly. As for the garden she had not been there yet but one of the teachers had explained it and told her this hall looked out over one of the closest ponds in which koi once more swam.
Miko now in a place she was used to moved briskly down the straight hall and by prodding the wall with her stick around the time she figured she was in the correct area she made a sharp right at the end of the hall. As expected this hallway was several times longer running along the backside of the mansion, it had several ladders that went up to higher levels but they were snuggly tucked into small alcoves in the wall and not in the way. The windows here just looked out into a straight field with a tree line far away but it was still a pretty view or a pretty mental image at least. It was about halfway along this hallway that Miko stopped and tilted her head.
Somewhere far off she could swear she heard scratching but that wasn't the real reason she had stopped. She hadn't had this feeling in months but she knew exactly what it was. Miko had been born without many senses but in an ironic sense she gained extra perception via other means, hearing was one, but spiritualy was the other. For as long as she could remember Miko had been able to detect, hear and speak with spirits. At first it had been scary but she quickly learned that unlike what the movies would tell you most spirits were either kind and just trying to accomplish some worldly task or paid no attention to humans at all.
She never knew why they stayed in the world of the living but in time she had grown used to them and in most cases ignored them completely as they did her after learning that bringing up the subject was a quick way to make her parents angry or others think she was insane. For those reasons she had not spoken about it with anyone in many years and almost never interacted with the spirits but something grabbed her attention. Maybe it was because it felt different or maybe it was because she simply hadn't felt one in such a long time but before she knew it she was pressing her head up against the wall and listening.
There was definitely scratching coming from somewhere higher up. She retraced her steps quickly along the way and found the nearest ladder, she briefly considered that this was foolish and suicidal given how difficult such a construction was for her to move up but curiosity got the better of her. She dropped her pouch on the ground as she didn't need extra weight holding her down even if it would have been nothing for someone else, she then placed her walking stick under her right shoulder and grabbing onto the steps above her firmly she began to methodically make her way up the ladder. She did so without incident but she still had to sit down once she was at the top having an odd sense of vertigo that kicked in whenever she was forced to climb a ladder because her body couldn't properly distinguish such distances. She briefly hoped this detour and whatever she was going to find was worth it.
Miko tried to feel around herself, she had never been here and didn't actually know what was around and she quickly began feeling with her walking stick, luckily it seemed to be another hall if a bit narrower. At least that was how she perceived it, any sane or sight-able person would have gone right back down that ladder. The hall wasn't just a little smaller, it verged on claustrophobic and the only light came from a single hanging bulb on a wire at the very end which was flickering madly meaning the other end of the hall was pitch black, there were no windows in this hall which was instead like a large wooden box. It was lined with tiny hinged doors which likely would either be storage or like the hall itself pathways that servants would have used long ago to move quickly and stay out of sight of the royalty. There were no push doors leading one to believe this hall did not possess a way back into the main house, the only sliding door was more likely to be storage or even an old hand-servants quarters who had to be on call at all times. Though she did not go as far as the dark end of the hall it appeared there was a ladder up to another level there and something silver, shining brightly in the dark though seeming to be covered by a fabric of sorts.
Miko was busy listening to the wall once more for the mysterious source, she could feel quite easily that the spirit was on this floor though its movements made it hard to place exactly where it was. The scratching she could hear before sounded more like a light knocking now and it was moving all along the inner wall. Miko jumped back momentarily when the knocking came very close and the louder pounding scared her. She didn't like this at all, few spirits she had met ever interacted with her much less made noise of any sort not to mention even she was starting to sense the creepy atmosphere that surrounded her. Still she traced the sound down the hallway as it moved and then straightened up a bit with a look of momentary surprise as her hands moved over the sliding partition door. Subsequently she couldn't help but get a bit of a foreboding feeling as the knocking stopped quite suddenly when she stood dead center in front of the door.
Taking a deep breath and inched toward the door as if to listen closely once more. She was aware of the freezing cold that was now emanating from the door, all spirits felt cold once you got close but this aura could chill bones and the continuing string of bad feelings she was getting continued. Her head was inches from the door when a sudden sound caused her to gasp and jump back from the door several feet. It was a sudden and urgent single slamming blow against the partition before it began to shake wildly, so much so that it was a surprise it didn't come off its rail. Miko backed away from the door as far as she could but in this tight quarters that was hardly far enough to make anyone feel comfortable. She listened for what seemed like ages but what was really only a few moments as the door rattled and then as abruptly as it began it stopped.
The hall was quiet once more and she was just about to make a run for the ladder when she heard a sound that made her squeal. Something issued a harsh labored breath and it was directly behind her though with a wall being there that didn't seem possible. Not thinking she went the only way she could think of, straight and as she pulled from the wall she could have sworn she felt an icy hand grasping her shoulder making her drop her walking stick. She stumbled to the door and without a second thought pulled it open all the way, she pushed threw and held out a fumbling hand trying to detect what was in front of her. Thats when her hand set against something very solid and it only took her a few brief moments of moving her hand upward to realize it was a human figure. She lurched backward her lip quivering a bit as she tried to backup but incapable of doing so in a coordinated manner she ended up tripping and falling back on her back hard. She yelped and as she pushed back up she did the only thing she could do.
“I-is someone there?” she asked timidly, rather poorly attempting to fane courage.
Still it was odd that she could no longer detect the spirit, she couldn't feel it anywhere. She certainly hoped she never had to though, she was convinced whatever it had been had not been a kind or neutral spirit like those she had met before. It might have even been the vengeful kind of legend.
….
‘and if I am ever scheduled for an end of the day mathematics class again I will remind myself to take an electric screwdriver to my temple instead.’
The words flew across the paper from an old beat up push pen that looked like it might have been an expensive piece of metalwork back years ago when it was made. The words were not actually written but instead indentions made in the foam paper but she still wasn’t taking any chances. The girl quickly folded the piece of paper and placed it into her satchel next to her while retrieving another and placing it out before her. Still she was hardly paying attention as math was her worst subject and it was only made harder to both learn and pay attention to so late in the day.
Instead she placed her hand on her face and leaning on her desk looked out the window…or well, sort of, being blind tended to put a whole damper on that “looking at anything” statement. Miko as she was often called due to her obvious name and the fact that it fit, given that she really did look like your traditional Miko, had been blind since the day she was born. Physically blind anyhow, in reality she could see the world in different ways but that wasn’t something she went around telling everybody about. Of course that wasn’t to say she had overcome blindness, she just had learned ways not to let it keep her down and was quickly overcoming different hurdles everyday.
She was a thin girl of fifteen and had a classic female Japanese frame and build. She was shorter but not stocky, rather the exact opposite being lithe, petite and possessing virtually no bust. She was moderate skinned by typical standards and bore deep black hair which she generally kept straight down to her mid-back or in rare occurrences looped around the sides with a pony-tail in the back. Her eyes were a deep brown but unlike others they never moved or conveyed much emotion though her face could easily overcome that, the easiest way to make it understood was to say they seemed dead though to say so openly would be an utmost insult. She currently wore the schools black sweater top and plaid skirt which was longer than many school outfits reaching all the way to the knees for modesty. However it was becoming common knowledge that when school let out she was one of those old traditional sorts that preferred wearing outdoor kimonos and the like (also it was assumable, nicer ones for sleep).
The room she was in looked ancient and while about ten desks and a rack mounted white board made it clear it was a learning place the surroundings showed it was a conversion. The movable partition walls (fusuma) on one side were something more common in older housing and the lattice work ceiling, mat floorboards and smaller storage partitions along what seemed to be a rise in the floor were all dead give aways. The academy had once been an old mansion and while certain things had been added such as an air conditioning system (which in all truth didn’t work that well) and larger windows like the one Miko currently looked out of it still at large was exactly as it had been for over six hundred years.
Mikos attention was brought back to the front of the class when she heard her name being called out; apparently ignoring everyone around you was a good way to have that happen. After being asked some inane question to which she had no clue what the answer was and had the teacher verbally reprimand her he announced the class was over. She did a little dance in her mind while grabbing her things as she listened to the small class filter out into the hall. She grabbed her walking stick or as she liked to call it the “beating stick of doom” and made her way to the door, she briefly waved toward the front of the class where she figured the teacher was before leaving.
The class had been on the third floor and with the many halls in the mansion they quickly dispersed to such an extent that you could walk just about anywhere and there be only one or two people anywhere close. Half of this had to do with the fact that their were only first years here being that this was a new academy and being unproven nobody who had already spent a year or more at another academy would want to switch, that might change if they did well this year. For now though the campus was ruled by the youngest years and even put all together they barely numbered in the three hundreds. That made it both a little lonely and quite nice when you wanted to be alone and think to yourself, being out in the middle of nowhere like the campus was amplified both those facets.
Miko heard several other classes opening up downstairs, her math class being the only one on the upper-most level and the quiet area blew up with noise. She decided she would return to her room and not being very good at fighting through crowds she decided taking the long back way would actually be faster in the end. It was a wrap around hallway that came out in a side-door at the front of the mansion, the way it subtlety connected to most of the major set rooms that were permanent in their purpose such as the old shrine room suggested that it used to be an access way for servants so they could move about without being seen. Thinking on that shrine it had been the one place that was not disturbed which was odd given the principles take on the spiritual, but maybe there were limits even he wouldn’t chance passing?
Miko had turned to the left instead of the right and reached a stairwell that lead down to this roundabout hallway. She had to take careful ponderous steps because unlike the central stairwell this one had no banister to hold and she had to test the step below with her walking stick each time. She didn't mind though, there would have been such a crowd down the central steps that it could be even more dangerous at times since kids never paid much attention to what was around them and often pushed on her when they were rushing out. She hummed to herself as she reached the bottom of the stairwell where there was a door. It was actually rather dark at the bottom of the steps and there were no sounds to keep one company but the effect was lost on Miko, it was always dark to her and she liked silence anyway.
Similarly the effect of opening the hinged door (one of the few such doors that had replaced partition sliding doors around the house as to lock off certain areas after hours) had no effect on her as light came flooding into the darkness. The hallway that I spoke of before in fact was probably once an outside deck but over the years, sometime before the staff of Ritsuzen had taken over even, it had been walled in. To her right was the old building while to her left was a beautifully rendered wooden wall on which were low windows. They had once used mere rice paper but these gaps had been replaced with glass panes to keep the climate inside comfortable. Outside lay a rich garden, it was one of Ritsuzens most selling features and was large enough to accommodate the entire student body (if a bit cramped), it was also something out of a dream with eloquently cut ponds, grasses and newer laid walkways, it even had Sakura trees though they only bloomed for a short period in the early summer.
Inside the all wooden finish was beautiful and the smooth floorboards reminded Miko of a shrine. There were the occasional doors to the right which led to the prominent rooms, usually these doors were near invisible from the other side though since becoming a school several of them had been covered. Along the wall were holsters for torches or being inside now, candles, though at current there was no such thing to be found likely due to the fire hazard. Miko could of course see none of this but she had used this hall after school every evening since arriving a week earlier and she had taken the time to orient herself with any place she was required to travel regularly. As for the garden she had not been there yet but one of the teachers had explained it and told her this hall looked out over one of the closest ponds in which koi once more swam.
Miko now in a place she was used to moved briskly down the straight hall and by prodding the wall with her stick around the time she figured she was in the correct area she made a sharp right at the end of the hall. As expected this hallway was several times longer running along the backside of the mansion, it had several ladders that went up to higher levels but they were snuggly tucked into small alcoves in the wall and not in the way. The windows here just looked out into a straight field with a tree line far away but it was still a pretty view or a pretty mental image at least. It was about halfway along this hallway that Miko stopped and tilted her head.
Somewhere far off she could swear she heard scratching but that wasn't the real reason she had stopped. She hadn't had this feeling in months but she knew exactly what it was. Miko had been born without many senses but in an ironic sense she gained extra perception via other means, hearing was one, but spiritualy was the other. For as long as she could remember Miko had been able to detect, hear and speak with spirits. At first it had been scary but she quickly learned that unlike what the movies would tell you most spirits were either kind and just trying to accomplish some worldly task or paid no attention to humans at all.
She never knew why they stayed in the world of the living but in time she had grown used to them and in most cases ignored them completely as they did her after learning that bringing up the subject was a quick way to make her parents angry or others think she was insane. For those reasons she had not spoken about it with anyone in many years and almost never interacted with the spirits but something grabbed her attention. Maybe it was because it felt different or maybe it was because she simply hadn't felt one in such a long time but before she knew it she was pressing her head up against the wall and listening.
There was definitely scratching coming from somewhere higher up. She retraced her steps quickly along the way and found the nearest ladder, she briefly considered that this was foolish and suicidal given how difficult such a construction was for her to move up but curiosity got the better of her. She dropped her pouch on the ground as she didn't need extra weight holding her down even if it would have been nothing for someone else, she then placed her walking stick under her right shoulder and grabbing onto the steps above her firmly she began to methodically make her way up the ladder. She did so without incident but she still had to sit down once she was at the top having an odd sense of vertigo that kicked in whenever she was forced to climb a ladder because her body couldn't properly distinguish such distances. She briefly hoped this detour and whatever she was going to find was worth it.
Miko tried to feel around herself, she had never been here and didn't actually know what was around and she quickly began feeling with her walking stick, luckily it seemed to be another hall if a bit narrower. At least that was how she perceived it, any sane or sight-able person would have gone right back down that ladder. The hall wasn't just a little smaller, it verged on claustrophobic and the only light came from a single hanging bulb on a wire at the very end which was flickering madly meaning the other end of the hall was pitch black, there were no windows in this hall which was instead like a large wooden box. It was lined with tiny hinged doors which likely would either be storage or like the hall itself pathways that servants would have used long ago to move quickly and stay out of sight of the royalty. There were no push doors leading one to believe this hall did not possess a way back into the main house, the only sliding door was more likely to be storage or even an old hand-servants quarters who had to be on call at all times. Though she did not go as far as the dark end of the hall it appeared there was a ladder up to another level there and something silver, shining brightly in the dark though seeming to be covered by a fabric of sorts.
Miko was busy listening to the wall once more for the mysterious source, she could feel quite easily that the spirit was on this floor though its movements made it hard to place exactly where it was. The scratching she could hear before sounded more like a light knocking now and it was moving all along the inner wall. Miko jumped back momentarily when the knocking came very close and the louder pounding scared her. She didn't like this at all, few spirits she had met ever interacted with her much less made noise of any sort not to mention even she was starting to sense the creepy atmosphere that surrounded her. Still she traced the sound down the hallway as it moved and then straightened up a bit with a look of momentary surprise as her hands moved over the sliding partition door. Subsequently she couldn't help but get a bit of a foreboding feeling as the knocking stopped quite suddenly when she stood dead center in front of the door.
Taking a deep breath and inched toward the door as if to listen closely once more. She was aware of the freezing cold that was now emanating from the door, all spirits felt cold once you got close but this aura could chill bones and the continuing string of bad feelings she was getting continued. Her head was inches from the door when a sudden sound caused her to gasp and jump back from the door several feet. It was a sudden and urgent single slamming blow against the partition before it began to shake wildly, so much so that it was a surprise it didn't come off its rail. Miko backed away from the door as far as she could but in this tight quarters that was hardly far enough to make anyone feel comfortable. She listened for what seemed like ages but what was really only a few moments as the door rattled and then as abruptly as it began it stopped.
The hall was quiet once more and she was just about to make a run for the ladder when she heard a sound that made her squeal. Something issued a harsh labored breath and it was directly behind her though with a wall being there that didn't seem possible. Not thinking she went the only way she could think of, straight and as she pulled from the wall she could have sworn she felt an icy hand grasping her shoulder making her drop her walking stick. She stumbled to the door and without a second thought pulled it open all the way, she pushed threw and held out a fumbling hand trying to detect what was in front of her. Thats when her hand set against something very solid and it only took her a few brief moments of moving her hand upward to realize it was a human figure. She lurched backward her lip quivering a bit as she tried to backup but incapable of doing so in a coordinated manner she ended up tripping and falling back on her back hard. She yelped and as she pushed back up she did the only thing she could do.
“I-is someone there?” she asked timidly, rather poorly attempting to fane courage.
Still it was odd that she could no longer detect the spirit, she couldn't feel it anywhere. She certainly hoped she never had to though, she was convinced whatever it had been had not been a kind or neutral spirit like those she had met before. It might have even been the vengeful kind of legend.
