I.

The tall sky-scrapers illuminate the lake like a thousand fireflies are flitting above the surface. One light comes on, another ceases in an endless rhythm. Amaterasu knows this rhythm well, having cycled through the dark and enlightened periods of the world. But she does not wish to believe it, that all these lights she holds precious must one day fall into darkness, out of her reach.

II.

Before the sky-scrapers and traveling and the smell of fear and atomic dust, there was just an empty heaven populated by herself and her companion, Waka. Empty, and yet fuller than anything she could ever have remembered. Summer-lit melodies, spars in the dusty twilight, sake by starlight, a growing belly. Her duty calls, heaven cannot be empty forever.

The months passed like days.

Chibi is born in the early morning in Spring, when the sun had just risen and the moon just fallen. The prophet, having been by her side all night, now sleeps, his head resting against hers with the golden locks pouring like sunlight over mother and child.

Amaterasu cannot sleep, she is much too proud and happy. Yet, something claws at her heart, an anxiety that gnaws on every beat she feels from her sleeping bundle of a child.

Her suspicions are confirmed when Waka wakes and does not look at her, cannot look at her, and leaves the room in a hurried pace.

Amaterasu cannot sleep, for despair claims her dreams.

III.

They debate constantly throughout the starless nights. Chibi sleeps, content, unknowing. And yet Amaterasu knows, knows that Waka's visions are correct and she must leave her children to the demons.

And there is nothing she can do. And there is nothing he can heaven is so full of nothing that she feels as if it would erupt, and so they silence their arguments.

What must be done, must be done. They will leave next Spring, Chibi and the other child.

IV.

Kurou is born in the Fall, within the remnants of an old Lunar laboratory that Waka constructed. The child is nearly ten, but still sleeps within the prophet's arms like a baby.

She asks him, 'Why is his name Kurou?'

He responds, 'It comes from the bird whose feathers only illuminate when the sun is in its path.

Or, perhaps, something else.'

Amaterasu cocks her head and snorts. 'Make up your mind, you silly prophet.' She butts her head against his legs, softly so as not to disturb the sleeping Kurou. Waka laughs and shoos her away. 'Cherie, let this prophet walk, will you?'

They both ignore the implications.

V.

Chibi sometimes leaves his futon and travels into Kurou's room, usually when Amaterasu and Waka are outside and talking in their usual hushed tones. The boy sleeps all day. Chibi doesn't know why; he's too small to understand 'metabolism' or 'dna structure', the jumble of unknown words the prophet sometimes mutters over his papers.

Chibi places his head upon the small boy's chest to listen for a heartbeat, like how his mother places her head upon his chest.

When he hears the steady heartbeat, his tail wags and he licks the boy's cheek. 'Hello friend, what is your name? Your name?'

VI.

Spring comes and the pair leave separately; Chibi, like a dream, is drawn upon the Earth in earthy inktones and Kurou departs within a small rocket, large enough for a few necessities: a flute, a large, red scarf to keep him warm, and a kiss upon the brow. Good night.

They meet again within the city; hello, friend, what is your name?

They travel and camp out at Kurou's secret hideaway, a tall rock precipice above Sei-An city. The lights blink below them like a sea of fireflies, and their light shimmers on them like how the word forever gleams on love.

They have ricecakes, clumsily made but still quite good, and Kurou tells ghost stories.

'Did you hear about the story of the ghost girl and the lover who murders her? Because she has his true name, she is bound to his soul forever and haunts him out of anger.'

Kurou pauses, then adds,

'I don't believe it, though. Names don't have that kind of power, they're just a bunch of katakana and kanji.'

They continue on until they fall asleep, when the moon is high in the sky. Sometimes, Kurou thinks, Chibi understands him more than he thinks possible, as if he knows each thought that beats through his heart.

VII.

Kurou is glad for his scarf. The metal floor is so cold. It's probably why his body is so cold. It's why his fingers are numb, why his legs are like stone. Why all he can see around him is red. The metal is cold.

Yet, he is warm. The scarf is a comforting embrace. He wonders who made it, who hand-stiched it and told him that it was his, who knew that one day he would be this terribly cold.

Chibi places his head upon the boy's heart, and stays long after Kurou is asleep. Will he be asleep all day again? Will there be no more rice cakes, and flutes, and sparring within the dusty twilight?

He moves slowly to lick his cheek. 'Oh friend, oh dear friend, why won't you answer me when I call your name?

I do not want your soul. I do not want to cause you pain. I just want to understand you.'

And all the names Chibi can muster-friend, companion, beloved, Kurou please Kurou!-cannot break the ghosts that ravage their hearts.

Chibi knows that Forever does not gleam anymore.

VIII

'Silly little Chibi. You have my soul. It is bound to you forever.'