Chapter Text
Part I: The Herbalist Institute
Prelude I: The Journal
Unknown time period
Unknown location
“Shhh, be quiet otherwise she’ll hear.”
“Spffff, you know, Tōga, for being the eldest, you’re remarkably dumb. She can’t hear us like we can hear her.”
The elder boy turned to face the girl to his left dumbly. She merely snickered at the boy’s astounded face. He huffed, blowing a stray lock of silver hair out of his eyes, quite obviously annoyed that they were trying to still do this mock mission of theirs. The rustling of dried papers and bound books seemed to ricochet around the dimly lit room, not that the two who were in the midst of searching for something needed any light. Their eyes were more than powerful enough to see through the mere dark.
“Onī-chan, onē-chan, can you keep it down.” A younger, more timid voice came from behind, their form small against the wall, almost fully hidden next to the towering bookshelves.
“Shhh, Katsuki-chan, just keep watch okay.” Towa whispered towards Katsuki’s direction. Compared to Katsuki’s untrained eyes due to her youth, Towa (and by default, Tōga’s as well) had been training for years to be accustomed to the differing light levels.
“Ahh, I think I’ve found something!” An excited whisper broke the silence of the three. Two pairs of eyes turned immediately to Towa’s elated voice.
In the darkness, Tōga could make out a thick bound book in his sister’s hands, worn down by the years. Lacking any decoration of any sort besides the simple title of “The Journal of Higurashi Kagome” on the front cover.
“Onē-chan, what does it say?” Came the intrigued voice of Katsuki. She had inched forward, crawling on her hands and knees to her two elder siblings to avoid knocking into anything.
“Mmh, it looks like her journal but from a long time ago. Like maybe a hundred years or so? It definitely doesn’t have a recent scent of hers.” Towa sniffed again, trying to analyze the scents further but to no avail. She handed to book to her brother next to her. Tōga was none too please but accepted it anyways, filtering through the pages.
A large majority of the characters were unfamiliar to their young minds, their eyes glazing over in confusion. Even the dates listed at the tops of the pages didn’t seem to make sense, seemingly taking place hundreds of years into the future.
The trio were hunched over the hefty volume, trying to piece together the unknown characters and unfamiliar words. Over the course of a few hours, Katsuki crept back to her post by the shoji screen and fell asleep waiting for her elder siblings to finish.
* * *
Hours later, the shoji screen slid open with a bang. “Hey, what’s with all of this ruckus? What are you three doing in here?” The intruder stood tall in the doorway, palm facing up with a small ball of blue fox fire illuminating his features and green eyes twinkling with mischief. The small girl closest to the door squealed in fright, her untrained, delicate ears not picking up on the light footed kitsune during his approach.
“Ani-ue,” Katsuki jumped up and ran to the figure in the doorframe, quickly hugging his legs. “Onī-chan, and onē-chan, dragged me here. I wanted to stay back with Mikoto-sensei.” The girl wrapped around the much taller kitsune’s legs. The kitsune hunched over to Katsuki’s shaking head and ruffled her dark hair. He straightened and looked back at the two still huddled over the book, their wide eyes quivering in fear.
“Ani-ue,” The silver haired boy said, closing the book sharply and putting it back on the lower shelf. “Please don’t tell Mama, we were snooping in her stuff.”
Shippō in all of his years wanted to laugh and praise his younger siblings for their tact and burgeoning ability to deftly sneak around under their mother’s weak nose. However, that would have to wait as the Lady of the house had demanded to know the whereabouts of her three youngest children prior to the family’s evening meal. And thus, Shippō, the only child currently home (besides previously mentioned troublemakers, of course), was tasked with the arduous task of locating them.
(Of course, the trio’s father or mother could both very easily locate them but at the time they were attending other more serious matters of state.)
Taking Katsuki into his arms, Shippō sent a flare of youki to the elder twins and motioned to fall into line. The two begrudgingly followed after, heads down and auras naturally stifled and brimming with the feeling of disappointment. Shippō led the sibling trio out of the storeroom building and out into one of the many courtyards of the House of the West.