Kurama's Song
by GF-ni-Kurama
Part Two
It was already midday and the sun was on its peak. It was scorching hot outside and everyone seem to be doing something else other than notice a lad dressed in filthy clothes begging for food and water in the outskirts of Makai.
The lad was on his early years. He was about a little over five feet and his built skinny, the kind that would probably be blown away by the wind. His expressionless eyes were of light brown and his hair was a gray tangled mess.
He approached three demons feasting on a deer they had just caught. Quietly, he approached them and asked for a piece of its meat. He reasoned that it has been five days since he had last eaten and that all he was asking for was a small bite.
"Who cares if you starved to death?" One of them said as they walked away from the lad, laughing loudly as they saw the boy's eyes glimmer with tears.
He was left with no choice but to cry. He had tried hunting. With all his might, he did. But he just cannot catch anything. Once he was able to bag a rabbit but before he could even eat it, another demon bullied him and took his dinner away.
His frail body shook as he began sobbing. He would wipe the tears from his eyes with his filthy palms only to be soaked again with fresh ones.
He was so hungry. So hungry that he could eat anything. If only there was anything.
He felt like dying from his weakness, he could already feel his knees wobbling.
His stomach ached from too much hunger that he felt like vomiting. His sight began to dim and as if something hard knocked him down from above, the young boy collapsed on the ground.
* * *
Slowly, he opened his eyes. He felt like he had slept forever. He squinted as lights from the window went straight to his eyes.
Windows?
Startled, the boy quickly stood up. He knew he was in a strange place. But before he can even set foot to the floor, he fell back to the bed. He was too weak and his knees were failing him.
"Where am I?!" He shouted in panic. But his voice only went as far as a loud whisper.
The door on his right opened and an old man entered.
"Good! You are awake!" He had said, as he smiled down at him.
"You have been sleeping for two days. I thought you'll be dying." He continued.
The boy tried standing up again but the old man stopped him, telling him that he should rest. He went outside and again when he came back after a few minutes, he was carrying a bowl of hot soup.
He instructed the boy to lean against the bed's head board and the boy followed eagerly, his expressionless eyes now twinkled with anticipation as he saw the bowl of soup.
"I see you have golden eyes, youkai." The old man commented as he gave the lad his dinner.
The boy drank from the bowl quietly and when he was finished he gave the bowl back.
"Where am I?" The boy asked again.
"You are in my home. I saw you half-dead out there. I thought I should bring you here." The old man answered.
"Oh... " Was all he could say.
"Do you have a home?"
"Home?" The boy's face went blank, as if he didn't know what the word meant.
"I can see you don't have any." The old man answered for himself.
"What is your name?" The man asked after a while.
"I believe... I remember someone once called me Kurama. Youko Kurama." He answered uncertainly.
"Kurama. That is a nice name."
He had given Kurama another bowl of soup until he was already full. And after a while, he made the boy sleep again. Saying that he needs to rest.
And that is how everything started. The old man offered him a home, and Kurama accepted. And before he knew it, his life had changed.
The young lad with filthy clothes was replaced with the new Kurama. His gold eyes were to be not mistaken again with light brown anymore for they constantly twinkle with life. His shoulder-length gray hair shone, making it look more like silver than plain gray. He had changed so much that he could hardly recognize himself as he sometime watch his reflection on water.
The old man taught Kurama a lot of things. How to read, to write, to hunt, to fish, and even basic self-defense. And Kurama had learned all of them quickly. They have become very close over the years that they were together. He was like a father to Kurama and Kurama a son to him.
The old man, as he later found out, was also a musician in his own right. He would play to Kurama every night with a flute he had made himself from bamboo until both of them were already sleepy from it.
And soon enough, Kurama had learned the flute and loved the music he could make. He had also made a flute of his own. And together with the old man, he would create beautiful music that would light up the evening with life.
The old man watched Kurama grew up. He would watch him every night as Kurama would play the flute. He could see how the boy loved music. And he also noticed that Kurama wasn't just another average demon.
He had seen him growing fonder and fonder of plants. He would plant varieties of them around their house and would talk to them for hours. He had seen how plants respond to Kurama's touch. They seem to obey him. And that is when he knew Kurama could be more powerful.
But the lad hadn't noticed this. He was contended with his life now. He loved their little house, treasured his music and adored his plants. He just couldn't ask for more.
Both of them were happy with their lives, everything was perfect. They would wake up in the morning and hunt until mid-afternoon and they would eat to their hearts' content. And when evening comes, they'd be doing what they enjoy most, their music. They believed that they would remain like that for the rest of their lives. But they were wrong as fate took an ugly turn.
The night was unusually cold. They had just started playing their flute for one of their evening music sessions when five demons broke inside their house looking for entertainment.
And sure enough they got their entertainment by tying Kurama up and torturing the old man in front of the boy's eyes.
They don't have any particular reason for doing it. Kurama knew that. All they wanted was fun. And torturing the only father he had was fun for them.
No, they didn't kill him fast enough. They did it slowly. So slowly that Kurama saw all the pain in the old man's eyes. He could hear every ache in the old man's screams. Until he couldn't bear it anymore.
Something dark lit up inside Kurama, and louder than the laughter of those demons and the screams of the old man, he shouted what he felt inside. All the pain, all the pity, all the anger.
And to the surprise of the demons, green stems with sharp thorns enveloped their little house, entered and one by one killed all of them.
Kurama's breathing was harsh. He saw what he did and didn't understand how he did it. His eyes wide open in awe. He can't believe that he was capable of something like that. Then, he remembered the old man.
One of the plant's stem came up to him and the thorns freed both his hands and feet. He quickly ran to where the old man was lying. He was struggling for life. And with all the strength left in him, he requested for Kurama to play him the flute before he dies.
Tears flowed from Kurama's eyes as he watched the life slowly fading away in the old man's eyes. He got up to find his flute and when he got back to old man's side, he had already passed way.
And with all the hurt that he had inside, Kurama gave the old man his final wish. He played his flute and created a beautiful melody. He called the song 'A Tear For The Dead'. It was already dawn when Kurama stopped playing.
He has already decided on something. He would leave this place and would go to start a new life of his own. He would give the old man a burial and would say his final goodbye.
His final goodbye. Because as he buries him, he would also bury all the memories they had. Yes, all the memories. Except his songs. He didn't know why. But he wanted to keep his songs.
* * *
A single tear rolled down Kurama's left cheek as he looked at the crumpled paper and recalled pieces of his memory. The pain was still alive after hundreds of years.
He straightened the crumpled lyric sheet. And that is when he realized that he was just fooling himself. Convincing himself that he had buried those memories was a foolishness. Because he knew, that deep inside of him, that's the last thing that he would do.
Maybe that is what he was thinking when he had translated the songs to notes and wrote them in lyric sheets. Maybe that is what he has in mind when he kept his songs hidden in that small box.
Yes, his songs were kept hidden but not forgotten. Just like his memory of the old man. Hidden but not forgotten.
He had overreacted when Kuwabara found these lyric sheets. Maybe because he treasured it so much. And maybe because his songs would have revealed too much of him.
He stood up and returned the lyric sheet inside the small box and slid it under his bed. He would stop thinking about his past for a while. He's got a room to paint and he owed Kuwabara an apology.
And like the past he had, he plans to make this new life he has just as perfect as the one he had with that old man.
* * *
Author's Achuchuchu: Well, that's Kurama's Song. Actually, that wasn't the original Part Two. You see, when my PC crashed down, the original Part Two crashed with it. So I have to rewrite it, it took 1 and a half month to fix my PC again and when it got back to me after all the mind-bloggin' programming assignments I had just gone through, I kinda forgot how the original ending went. Well, what do you think about it? Poor? Just plain okay? C'mon! Tell me! ^_^