The Memorial
By: Aviantei
A Kagerou Project One Shot
[Twelve Shots of Summer: Second Raid 11-II/12]
[Kagerou Day 2015]
Kokonose Haruka woke up before the sun rose on August fifteenth and got ready for the day.
The memorial was a small one, and Haruka had made it himself. A shoddy excuse for a grave marker carved out of wood. It was supposed to have been a snake but Haruka's artistic talents were with paper and pencil, not off of it. Still, it was the only thing he could think of at the time, and it wasn't like he could ask for help from the others.
He knew what they thought of the Snake—that he was a monster, irredeemable. And in some ways, that was true. They had been killed more times than anyone could count, repeated time loops for what was probably centuries, all because the Snake had prolonged the usefulness of one wish.
But the Snake had kept Kenjirou alive. And for a time, it had kept Haruka alive, too. Maybe that was why he understood.
Because Haruka had also been afraid to die.
In the end, the Snake of the Clearing Eyes had been afraid to disappear. That was why it had tried so hard to create a situation where he couldn't vanish, where Marry would reset the timeline again and again. Having been confined to a hospital bed repeatedly, Haruka understood what that desperation felt like.
But the others wouldn't understand. So every August fifteenth, Haruka came to his dinky memorial alone, even if he preferred not to think of it as a reminder of death.
"Happy birthday."
Thank you.
And later that hot summer afternoon, Haruka would meet up with the others, because no matter what they would forget in time, they would still have this.
I went to add "Kagerou" to my Firefox dictionary, and it tried to tell me the word I was looking for was "dangerous."
Anyway, this was written for both the [Twelve Shots of Summer: Second Raid] challenge, and the fact that it's August fifteenth (at twelve something noon...not really)! Since it being Kagerou Day is obvious, the secondary prompt for T-Sauce this week was "To Only Start a Fire," which I felt like was a good interpretation of how some of the kids would consider the Snake/Kuroha's motives. However, it's a little more than that, and I think that Haruka would be most likely to understand.
To be honest, I've had this idea since last year, but it was going to be Natalis II, the follow-up to the one shot I wrote for last year's Kagerou Day.
You may also notice that this notes the piece as Eleven-II, which is because I have another idea I want to write for the main prompt, "Flower Blooming in the Slums," but I haven't gotten there yet...it'll be up by the end of the weekend.
But do check out the [Twelve Shots of Summer] forums and C2 for some great one shots. And, well, next week's the final week, but you could seriously challenge yourself and try to write twelve one shots in a week, all the power to you! After all, summer only ends when you let it...
Thanks for reading!
[POST] 081515