In the small mountain village of Jamil, Shion, a young eight-year-old boy with blond hair around his shoulders and normal appearance except for his small eyebrows, ran with enthusiasm and conviction on the steep mountain slopes that separated his isolated village from the rest of the world. The reason? He had to demonstrate what he was capable of.
His father, Hakurei, a middle-aged man with white hair below the hips tied in a high ponytail and who also had small eyebrows, almost never let him go alone to the village, much less out of it, but Yuzuriha and Tokusa, Shion's younger sister and brother, were very sick and there was no other option.
"I have to show him that he can trust me, one day I'll make him feel proud of me."
He repeated himself insistently along the way, avoiding any distraction, buying the medicines that there was not in Jamil and making sure of his own steps.
Being an obedient, responsible boy, his father preferred to call him problematic, since Shion had unusual abilities, but after all, it was a matter of family still undisclosed.
"Oh Shion, you're back, have you got the medicine?"
"Yes, the doctor gave them to me without any problem, you should trust me more times, dad."
"In an inexperienced and crazy child like you? Are you joking? This time it has been a very extreme case, you still have to grow up so that I can trust you completely."
Shion pouted, after all he was a boy and he just wanted his father to congratulate him instead of being so strict with him. He wondered why the eldest of the Lemurian family seemed to hate him despite doing everything he asked and doing well.
Far from it all, Hakurei loved him with all his heart, but he was a lonely man in charge of three small children and he could not ask for help from his younger twin brother, Sage, who also had several issues to solve in a foreign country, nor his first-born, who fled from house and nobody knew anything about him, so his character became more bitter.
"I'm not crazy, I do things better than you, you'll tell me someday!"
He shouted angrily. His tantrum led him out of the house while Hakurei gave the medicine to the other children and ignored the fact that Shion was gone. Until the man realized, they would spend a few long minutes in which the boy reached a beautiful and small waterfall, not really far from that house, whose shore was full of pebbles. One of them was thrown by the annoyed kid, but it didn't jump twice on the water so Shion cursed aloud.
"My father is very stubborn, I always have to do what he wants and then he does not see my effort, he's an old curmudgeon, he has never told me what I do rightly... He hates me!"
"Uhm, I don't see it like that, he is only worried." A boy's voice answered, a totally unknown and disconcerting one, because Shion was alone, only the water and the stones kept him company. Where did that voice come from? Whose was it?
"Who are you? Where are you? What do you want?" An alerted, nervous and afraid Shion adopted the basic position of martial arts as a defense, not knowing that a boy of his own age appeared naked from the waterfall with a smiling and friendly face.
"Quiet, I'm not going to do anything to you, in fact... could you pass me my clothes? Yes, that you're stepping on hehe~"
"Uh? O-Oh I'm sorry...!" 'Chi-Chinese clothes...?' he thought as he picked up the clothes from the floor and cleaned it from the dust.
"...but who are you? And why did you say that thing before?"
Shion still insecure without lowering the guard returning the clothes to its owner, who blushed slightly. Shion was an adorable and kind child in the eyes of the stranger.
"Thank you very much~ You are very kind, my name is Dohko and I was taking a bath before going back to work."
"I... My name is Shion... This... It doesn't sound like I've ever seen you here in Jamil, are you Chinese? Indian? But you speak my language very well..."
"Ah, yes, I am Chinese, from Xi'an, but nowadays it is at war and my orphanage could not support us, they almost destroyed it, so several guys like me and myself started working on whatever was necessary to survive, what made me learn languages because I was working for a Greek gentleman who lived in Lhasa and also for an Indian man from Patna, that's why I could understand you well, this land belongs to India, right?"
While Shion thought that the boy who was dressing was a talker and too confident to talk to a complete stranger about his life, he also realized that should not complain, his life was not as difficult as the other boy's whose brown hair had a length similar to his and the eyes of both were brown. Shion nodded, somehow he likes to listen to Dohko talk, he made his bad mood go fast, in fact the Lemurian boy did not remember the reason for the tantrum.
"And... Excuse me for speaking without knowing before... I think you're lucky to have your father, he sure loves you very much."
"Oh, it doesn't matter..." Shion remembered the subject he managed to forget seconds before, his face was more serious than before and without the courage to joke. Dohko understood without a word, so quickly ended up wearing his worn shirt and smiling at Shion again before saying goodbye.
"Great, well, Shion, see you at another time, okay, if you feel like it, another day we can meet here, hehe, huitóu jiàn~!" With a slight bow, Dohko finaly said goodbye, leaving Shion to reflect on that new boy whom almost, almost he calls friend. But why? They barely knew each other and the young Chinese already caught his attention; so much that Shion could not get him out of his mind back home.
"Hey Shion, how long without seeing you, you brat!"
"What are you... Doing here?"