Thursday, June 2, 2005

The Soul Cages: Frozen In Time
*episode 14*

Sesshomaru and Kagura walk through an ice passage side by side. Both of their prides refuse to let the other one take the position of lord, walking in front. Also, neither one is willing to trust the other to walk behind them. So they are walking through a tunnel not wide enough for their bodies and certainly too narrow for their egos, trying to not touch each other. The tunnel itself appeared several minutes ago. A burst of spiritual energy passed right by the cave in which they were trapped, leaving a thin sheet of ice between the chambers. After Sesshomaru proved unable to break through on his own, Kagura raised the air pressure on their side as high as their demon bodies would tolerate, while lowering it on the other side until it was nearly a vacuum. Then, Sesshomaru was able, with some difficulty, to shatter the thin ice. They walk in silence, there discussion having been concluded earlier. Suddenly, two strange bumps form in the ice before them. They grow until they take on the shape of a pair of feet. The ice builds upwards, forming slender female legs, a thin torso, arms which cross upon her chest in a gesture of modesty or frigidness, and finally a head. As the ice sculpture frosts over, taking on the appropriate colors to imitate the transformed Kanna, a disembodied voice whispers down the corridor, “Sister…I’m cold.” Kagura says, “Kanna, where are you? Where is your body?” The voice replies, “It doesn’t matter. That shell never mattered. This is all that I have ever been.” As she speaks, Kanna’s mirror emerges from the ice maiden’s stomach. It still glows blue, and there is a jewel shard embedded in, and fracturing the mirror. Kanna’s voice says, “Sister…please, destroy the mirror. Let me be free.” Sesshomaru says, “If I am not mistaken, and I very, very rarely am, that will not free you, it will kill you.” Kagura says, “No sister. You can be free of Naraku by other means.” “You don’t understand.” Kanna pleads. “I am no longer void. My nothingness has been corrupted by this terrible cold. There is no way to go back, and if there was, I would not want to.” Kagura asks, “Why not? Wait a minute; I thought you said you had no desires.” Kanna replies, “That was before. Now I am something and I wish to once again be nothing. But now that I can want, I realize that I want more than that. An incarnation of void is a meaningless phrase. I wish to be void, and that means no longer existing in this world. Please sister, this is what I need.” A look of great sorrow descends on Kagura’s face. She raises her fan and places it against the looking glass. “Wait.” Sesshomaru commands. He draws the Tenseiga. As he does, he sees the sword and the mirror emitting a strange pulse, beating in time with each other. He gestures Kagura to step back, then he cuts through the border between the two energies. A ribbon of white light shoots from the sword’s tip, into the mirror. The jewel shard falls to the floor as the crack in the mirror dissolves into a vertical, shimmering pool of water. Gradually, the surface of this pool calms to the point where it could easily still be liquid, or it could have returned to solid. In the glass, the fushichou appears and spreads its wings. As the bird calls, it is replaced by the image of child Kanna. The blue light emanating from the cavern walls begins to flicker. It may be a trick of this illumination, but it seems to Kagura that the corners of her sister’s lips form a brief smile as she fades from the mirror, which from that point on never reflects anything again.
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