Light in the Forest
Where there is light, darkness is not far away but where there is darkness there must be light- With no light in the world, what would darkness be if there's nothing stand as an absence?
There was a small window in the room. It was too high to reach so she can look out at the seemingly endless lands, waiting for someone to go outside and walk on the unworn paths- waiting, tantalizing her. Mukuro couldn't see much of the blue sky or the cheerful clouds and there annoying cotton tails. It was just a square of blue or the square of the black night. There was never the sun or the dull moon. Just that square which always left a striped rectangle on the cold hard floor.
Yet there was a comfort laced in the air constantly drenched with the smell of sweat and sex. A slight place to hide from his newborn giggles and the voices of the other women.
She felt a deep throbbing pain deep in her mind so painful that she had a clear image of her head splitting right down the middle allowing all the bloodied flesh that was her brain spill on the floor. (If only... If only it would happen already. Just so it would end already. Probably a thought with double meanings.) Everything was throbbing, banging against a tight container. Mukuro felt an endless boil of hatred. I wish I had a knife so I could st-
The sun was shining bright in the sky that day and the air was warm. (And not even a slight odor in it either!) "Father" lifted her up and put her on his shoulders, giving her a piggy back ride, even though his thick legs forced him to waddle, nearly toppling her over in the process. He let her slide off his back and onto the ground. He fell on his belly and flopped back and forth like a seesaw for a moment. Mukuro burst into laughter so hard that she had to gasp for air for a few minutes with burning lungs and her stomach getting more and more sore. She twitched when she saw his hand coming towards her-
(A hand of a oversized newborn reaching out and grabbing her by the writs in a jerk so powerful that it felt like it was pulling her arm out of its socket or, what's worse, when she had her back to him he would grab her by the hair- the hair he forbade her to cut at any length higher than the waist because "longer hair suits you better and it makes you prettier".)
-and he stroked her hair. He stopped and plucked two dandelions and linked them together in a loop. Mukuro picked a couple more and looped them together with greater ease. Chikyou chuckled-
(He chuckled like a small child, "That's...)
"That's my daughter."-
("How about I cut off your head so I can stick it down your thraot?"
"I wish you would."
That laughter. "That's my daughter.")
He took the dandelion chain, looped it around, and placed it on her head. He lifted her up and gave her another piggy back ride. He stopped again, though out of breath this time. He reached into his pocket and took out a small round translucent object.
Mukuro didn't say anything. She just stared at him with the wide eyes of a child. She took the object when it was given to her and stared into it- the portal to an ocean blue world. Chikyou picked her up again with a bright smile on his face. It was bliss, pure ecstasy.
And where was that marble now? She probably dropped it on the way back but there was no way to say for sure. There was no way she could say the exact year it happened. It was just one vivid memory among the rest of the fragments... But before she could give it more thought he came and grabbed her by the hair, yanking her towards him. The cruel gleam in the mocking faces of the other woman disappeared when they looked away. He knocked her to the ground and-
But it wasn't the marble she wanted. It was only the object that happened to be there in her peripheral vision, the striped square on the ground, the dew on the grass... What she wanted was-
(At the same time, the tears in her eyes that could never escape even if she wanted them to and the mental awareness of giving in like a dog running to its cruel master, tail still wagging and a hopeful look in its eyes).
The light in the forest. (What a lie. What a stupid dream. I'm such a fool and yet I...)
Notes:
Hey, I'm on a roll today! Two things written... (But they're both short in comparison to everything else I've got going.)
I think this statement says it all: "This fandom needs moar Mukuro." I think a lot of Mukuro fans know who I am pretty well, after all, I wrote One More Time to Kill the Pain which is still one of the few stories of this kind. (I don't think Kasanagi Mamoru gets enough credit though, she wrote a Mukuro story way before I even though of writing my own. And it's a really good story too...) Besides that, that one was really wishy washy in how it was written. It was a weird mix of the anime and the manga (mostly the anime) so with regards to Togashi's work, it's pretty crazy. I found a translation of chapter where it tells her story so if you want to take a look for yourself... I hope more people write about her. She gets more crap than she deserves. (And you know something, there was a time when I was a basher myself. Glad that's over.) Yeah, so please take a look at Kasanagi Mamoru's Trading Hells and look at the manga... I hope we see each other again- I am amazed by your beautiful eyes!