Friendly Persuasion
Curse of the Wolves
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Curse of the Wolves
“So what you mean to tell us, Ota-san, is that Kagome-san
only banished your name and body; however, not your shape?”
“That’s right,” she replied, shifting slightly from where she
sat cross-legged with Kouga’s head in her lap, “body and shape are two
different things. I couldn’t take my
exact shape, though, so I made sure to make a change. It’s so minor, though, that no one would be able to notice it
unless they looked very hard.”
“And what change is that, Ota-san?” Sango asked.
She held up her right hand, “My nails are longer.
“So if your name is banished, Ota-chan,” Kagome began, “what
ld wld we call you? Not everyone’s
quite comfortable with Ota-chan or Ota-san.”
“I don’t know. I
suppose no one’s all that comfortable with Ookami-chan, right?”
“Right.” Kagome
shrugged.
“What do you want to call me?”
There was an uncomfortable silence following the former
Leota’s question. No one knew how to
capture her with just one name.
“Kaji.” Inu-Yasha
said.
“What?” Kagome asked.
“It’s what she is,” he shrugged, “‘kaji’ means ‘fire’ or
‘blaze’. I think it suits her
perfectly.”
“I like it,” the newly-dubbed Kaji said, “I actually agree
with Inu-Yasha on this.”
“All rithenthen, it’s settled. Ota-san will now be called Kaji.” Miroku said, his usual smile plastered onto his face.
Kagome looked at Kaji’s hand, “Um, Kaji-chan, you’re doing it
again.”
Looking down, Kaji smirked.
She’d started stroking Kouga’s hair again, more to comfort herself than
him. She’d told all of them to stop her
if they caught her doing it, for she didn’t want to be selfish and try to
comfort herself rather than him.
“Thanks K-chan. I’d
tell you to take him away from me, but I’d probably bite your hand off.”
There was a small amount of chuckling as Kaede brought a cool
washcloth and handed it to Kaji. She
nodded her thanks.
“Tell us, Kaji-san, you spoke earlier of a curse.
freed from?”
Kaji sighed as she wiped the sweat from Kouga’s forehead, “Ah
yes, the infamous Usuya curse.”
Still not looking up, Kaji began laughing.
into a type of maniacal laughter.
Everyone raised their eyebrows, wondering just what seemed so
funny.
“Uh, Kaji-chan?” Shippo asked, “Are you all right?”
Calming down enough to speak, Kaji actually wiped a tear from
her eyes, “Yes, yes, I’m fine. I just
find it absolutely hilarious that Kagome complained and got angry about my
having secrets, and yet the last two are in my name itself.”
“What?” Kagome asked,
wanting to know what her friend was talking about.
“The name you banished means nothing, K-chan, but Ookamia is
completely derived from the word ‘ookami’, meaning ‘wolf’.”
“So?” Kagome asked.
“When you asked to know all about me, I answered you by
saying ‘I’m a fire demon, I’m a bitch, I’m the number one assassin in all of
Asia, and damn am I old’. Isn’t that
right?”
“Hai, Kaji-chan, but what’s that got to...?”
“I’m getting to that,” Kaji interrupted, “I’m a wolf, but
more specifically, I’m a bitch, and I would rather you refer to me as
such. Anyhow, if I’m an old bitch, it
means that I’ve been around for a long time, right? Do you wanna know how long I’ve had this curse?”
“Sure.” Kagome said,
feeling she’d get very angry about now if not for the bargain she’d made.
“I’ve had this curse for about five hundred years now, and
it’s called ‘Kuuran de ta Kilde de Lunia’.”
“And what does that mean?” Inu-Yasha asked.
Kaji blinked, “Uh, um, I don’t know exactly how it
translates. Kaede-sama, do you know?”
“It means ‘Curse of the Children of Lunia’, and Lunia is the
name of the moon goddess on the other side of this world.”
“The ‘other side’?”
Kagome asked.
“That’s right,” Kaji said, a wolf smile tugging at her lips,
“a sort of parallel universe, if you will.
We call ourselves the ‘Children of Lunia’, or as you would call us,
wolves. So the curse translates to,
‘Curse of the Wolves’.”
“So just what are you, exactly?”
“Simply put, Inu-Yasha, I’m not only a fire entity, but I’m a
wolf demon, too.”