My Soul Will Find Yours : The Fulfillment of the Promise

Goodbye For Now

"No... This isn't happening..." I stared at the golden plaque above the tomb before me. "He's not dead, my husband isn't dead!"

On the plaque was a short summary of the life of Kirishima Kaname, the fifteenth shogun of the Kirishima shogunate. With a shaking hand, I reached out to touch the modern looking tomb.

"1598? But it's only..." before I could finish my sentence, a familiar yet oddly foreign sound made me jump. I looked around to search for its origin. Spotting my mobile phone inside my unzipped bag, I grabbed it and swiped its screen to the right. "Hello?"

"Hello, Miss Yang?" a woman spoke in a heavily accented English. "This is Asami, the tour guide. The tour is starting in five minutes, did you get lost while walking around?"

It took me a few good seconds to understand what her words meant. "N-no, I just... I just had so much fun looking around."

"I see," she said. "If you could return to the temple that would be great."

"Hai," I told her and hung up. Robotically, I grabbed my bag and the little medicine kit on the floor. "I've really returned."

I burst into tears as I recalled what happened earlier. The shocked faces of my family, the hurried oaths Kaname and I made... Everything.

"Kaname," I whispered, my fingers trembling as I touched his moss-laden resting place. "I will wait for you; we will be together again."

~~~

After I calmed down, I called Asami and told her I wasn't feeling well and won't be able to join the remainder of the tour. She asked worriedly if I needed someone to go to where I was but I declined. Because she was still concerned, she told me that the driver will be waiting for me by the temple and will help me get a ride back to the ryokan.

My legs didn't want to move as I remained rooted to where I was standing. After crying in front of Kaname's tomb, I couldn't make myself part from his final resting place. I only felt myself move when I got a call from the coaster driver asking me where I was. With a heavy heart, I left the mausoleum, took my abandoned camera equipment, and went back to the temple. I didn't say anything when the driver asked if I was okay. I probably looked weird because he would furtively give me anxious glances from time to time. He led me to a taxi stand, hailed me a cab, and told the driver the address of the inn I was staying at.

I snapped out of my melancholia when the cab started to move. Like a frightened animal, I jumped and looked around me.

"We're moving?" I gasped, my hands clutching at the corduroy upholstered seat.

"Yes, customer-san. I'm going to bring you to Arashiyama Benkei," the middle-aged driver said patiently, his eyes on the rearview mirror. "Please put on your seatbelt."

"W-what is this—" I began to ask but stopped myself in time and did as was told instead. Then, with wide eyes, I studied my surroundings...

The interiors of the cab oddly reminded me of a grandmother's home with all the doilies and crocheted runners. My driver, on the other hand, looked extremely professional in his black uniform, hat, and white gloves. He perfectly embodied a chauffeur. When he caught me staring through the rearview mirror, I quickly looked down, reminding me once again that I was no longer in pre-modern Japan because I saw that I was wearing the skirt I was showing Kaname barely an hour ago. I rummaged through my bag and took my cellphone, its battery was seventy-five percent full and my wallpaper was of a photo of my cat Panther, not of Kaname kissing my sleeping self during the first birthday I celebrated with him. Slowly, I tapped the Gallery icon but got too scared to find that all the photos I took with my husband and maids were gone so I hurriedly swiped back... With my heart beating fast, I retrieved the compact powder from my makeup bag. It was barely touched, its puff only had a light smudge of the powder when I forgot to use a brush the first time I used it. I looked at myself in the mirror and had another shock: the slight wrinkling I noticed between my brows just days ago was gone and so was the little scar on my left cheek that I got when I was still learning how to use the katana.