Some priests, Yukio knew, came to the profession out of necessity or personal belief - but others came to it through their own great spiritual power. The head priest at Bodai-ji had been one of those, of immense power channeled through the Buddhist way of life.
It was clear that the monk who stood before her now was another man of great power.
And great knowledge, it seemed, for he had no trouble identifying her - and the existence of the Itako was not a well-known fact at all, let alone their continued existence.
"I am," she murmured, and closed her pale eyes. "My name is Yukio, Houshi-sama. Yukio of Bodai-ji and Osorezan."
Osorezan - the mountain of fear, the entrance to the underworld - and Bodai-ji, the Buddhist temple that housed the shinto shrine and Itako and served as a gateway to the land of the dead. Those names would, at least, be familiar.
"The Itako were my order, Inuyasha-sama," and a sad smile tugged at her mouth as she spoke. "We are - were a specialized group of shrine workers, uniquely suited to helping spirits pass onto the next life. Which would be the laughter you felt, Houshi-sama." Yukio frowned, and the Children felt her warning acutely. Still, laughter flashed Warm and Silver through her mind.
Children were Children, no matter how alive or otherwise.
"I must apologize for their behavior - you see, my Guides had been children before they died."
She sighed, lifted a hand, pressed it to one temple. None of this conversation was helping her image as an actual helpful and necessary sort of shrine maiden and was instead making her seem uniquely creepy and potentially evil.
"I think a full explanation is in order - Inuyasha-sama, may I sit down somewhere with you and the lord Monk? I have been walking... a long time."
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