Young child with dreams
Dream every dream on your own
When children play
Seems like you end up alone
A tall tower rises in the distance. It seems dark and foreboding even clothed in the sun's warming light. A child looks up at the tower, distracted from a game with his many friends. He has heard stories about the family that owns the tower. Someday he wants to play beneath its shadow, just to find out if the stories about a golden haired girl trapped within are true. He thinks that tower is where the story of Rapunzel comes from.
"Rolf!" His friend whines pulling his eyes from the tower. "Come play, you're being boring."
Rolf grins at his friend. "You're such a baby."
"Am not!"
"You can't even last two minutes without yelling at me to start playing with you again."
Rolf's friend sticks out his tongue, then his face morphs into a grumpy mask. "I just don't want the other kids to get mad; we were supposed to be kicking the ball around as a group."
Rolf rolls his eyes, easily seeing through his friend's ruse. "Yeah, yeah." His eyes light quickly on the tower for one more brief instant. He wishes something would at least glitter in the window of that high tower; that would be cool, and give him a hint if his dreams of a pretty blonde princess in the tower were true. With a sigh, he turns away. Even if the princess is there, discovering her will have to wait for another day.
"Rolf!" His friend whines again.
"Shut up, I'm coming!" Rolf yells and races down the field, determinedly keeping his eyes away from the distraction of the tower as he runs.
Papa says he'd love to be with you
If he had the time
So you turn on the only friend you can find
There in your mind
A small boy with shaggy brown hair, dressed in a dark blue kimono, shuffles down the dusty path, uncaring of the plumes of dirt his step kicks up. His geta are getting filthy and his mother might yell when returns, but he is too dejected to care.
His sister appears by a bend in the track. She calls his name and comes running. "Where have you been?" She scolds gently, sensing instinctively that she shouldn't be too harsh with him for disappearing.
He stands and stares up at her quietly for a moment.
His sister crouches before him and brushes at the hair around his face. "Come on what's wrong? You worried us when you disappeared."
"I wanted to see Dad." The boy finally whispers quietly.
She continues to stroke his face and hair, a soft "Oh," slips from her mouth.
The boy looks away ashamed. "I knew he was leaving. He's an Imperial Officer," He states the position proudly, then slumps into dejection again. "But I didn't know he was going yesterday."
The sister smiles sadly. It must have been quite the disappointment to walk all the way into the village only to find out their father had already left on his next mission, without even returning home to say goodbye. They are all used to their father being away a lot, but she suspects it is harder to be the youngest, with so much expectation on your shoulders and not even be able to show the things you were doing to try and live up to that expectation to your father. "I'm sorry you didn't get to see him." She says sympathetically. "Next time we'll make sure you get to say goodbye." It can't be easy for her brother to live in a world without the approval he so desperately longs for from his father.
She stands up and holds out a hand for younger brother to take. "Come on, Kujo, let's go home."
His small hand slips meekly into hers, slowly and quietly they make their way towards home down the dusty path.
Shilo, when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
And we'd play
"Kujo," Victorique whispers, she hates to be admitting this need for him, but there is no other way she can think to make this better. Her hand catches the sleeve of his jacket, an even stronger plea for him to stay than simply saying his name.
He turns to look at her. His eyes are bright, more cheerful than she thought they should have been, Maybe he realizes what it means for me to do this. She thinks her mind in a mild shock as she contemplates this. The pieces of chaos that should have already been aligned to tell her this only now clicking together.
He watches her expectantly.
"Stay." She demands, the single word all that she can manage to say.
Young girl with fire
Something said she understood
I wanted to fly
She made me feel like I could
Kujo stops in surprise. It is the first time in many months that he has worried about being the third son of an Imperial Officer. Slowly he begins to walk again; his feet are carrying him almost automatically towards the library.
He almost freezes again, as he comes to the realization that he might he even know why he's not worried about being the son of an Imperial Officer anymore. Because of a girl, with long blonde hair, who is trapped in a beautiful garden at the top of a library tower. Somehow when he is around Victorique the worries he has carried for most of his life simply vanish.
Or maybe it isn't so surprising. With Victorique around, he worries more about taking care of her than of what he's doing to behave like an Imperial Officer's son. With Victorique around the worries he's carried around for a lifetime aren't important, because he worries about taking care of Victorique instead.
A grin suddenly leaps across his face. He begins to run, maybe she already knows, but Kujo wants to tell her of his discovery anyways.
Held my hand out, and I let her take me
Blind as a child
All I saw was the way that she made me smile
She made me smile
Victorique stares at the hand holding her own in amazement. She wonders how it is always so easy for Kujo to simply take hold of her. Sometimes she thinks he wouldn't ever want to let go. Tonight he said he would be her escort, but it's been more than that. He seems so happy when he can take her hand.
She shifts her grip slightly, letting her hand brush against the softness of his rabbit costume. She wonders if Kujo realizes what he stumbled into by making her Monstre Charmant, how in many ways he is her rabbit, the heart of the monster.
She doesn't necessarily want to be at this party, it's her birthday, but she doesn't understand the point of going to any sort of celebration, probably because for so long there was nothing in her life worth celebrating. Besides for many years she didn't receive anything for either her birthday or Christmas, so it seems strange that she can expect it to happen now, because Kujo would get her the moon if she asked, let alone some measly little present as a token of it being her birthday.
She squeezes Kujo's furry hand slightly, remembering that now she does have something to celebrate, particularly a wonderful someone.
The costume really suits Kujo, but rather than being the heart of the Monstre Charmant, truly he's found the heart of a lonely Gray Wolf. Kujo is her humanity, as long as he is by her side there is nothing else in the world that could matter more to her, nor anything that she would ever want to matter more.
With this in mind she decides that this will be the night that she learns how to take joy in a celebration. She will think of her Kujo and find happiness.
Shilo, when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
But you'd stay
"Victorique!" Kujo yells racing up the stairs. "Victorique!" He keeps calling her name, even though he knows he's too late. He can't bear the idea of having lost her, and at least this way he can still pretend she's waiting at the top of the stairs. She never answered before, so she wouldn't now, if she were at the top.
He still isn't sure how he managed to break free of the suits; he simply knows that when they'd grabbed him he'd lost rational thought. He had to get to Victorique. Somehow he struggled free and now he's racing to the top of the stairs to where he knows she cannot be.
If the suits had him in hand, he's sure that the Inspector would have done the same to Victorique, but still Kujo cannot fight a faint hope, a faint dream that she might still be waiting at the top of those stairs for him.
So he runs, runs until his legs burn and he can hardly put one before the other. He can hear the suits breathing behind him; they haven't been far behind this whole time. He's actually surprised that they haven't caught him and dragged him away yet.
"VICTORIQUE!" He calls one final time, and feels an arm wrap tightly around him, dragging him back down the stairs.
Had a dream, and it filled me with wonder
She had other plans
"Got to go," Said she "know that I'd understand"
I understand
A soldier stumbles across the empty, icy field. Many of his comrades have fallen, beaten down by tumbling snow. But he continues. The wind whips at him and the snow drops piles on him as if trying to bury him where he stands, trudging through the snow already resting so deep on the ground is tiring, but he continues.
The other soldiers watch his perseverance with wonder. His motivation to trudge onward through the snow, is the only thing pushing them to rise to their own feet and press forward as well. The soldiers are hardly able to struggle to their feet.
But one soldier continues steadily on.
Victorique wakes from the lonely dream with tears in her eyes. She hates thinking of Kujo in a cold, frozen wasteland, fighting a terrible war that neither of them wanted to face.
"Kujo." She whispers sadly.
A small girl with the appearance of a doll sits before a chess table. She speaks quietly and moves pieces across the board. Her words carry the power of foresight, but there is no one within the murky gloom of the circular room she is trapped in to hear the predictions she makes.
Quietly and steadily she moves the pieces on the board, mapping out the course of the war. There is no hesitation in her placement; she understands the intricacies of war and conflict better than most people living.
As pieces move across the board the world changes, but she will get to experience no more of it than what she predicts hidden away in a small circular room.
Kujo wakes from the dream panting. He has often dreamed of Victorique since they've been separated, but never quite so vividly as that dream. He hopes she is okay and that she isn't as lonely as she seemed to be in that terrible dream.
Shilo, when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
Come today
She can see a figure pacing the deck. She longs to call out his name, but so much emotion is more than she can express with Kujo's sister standing beside her. She doesn't doubt that Kujo would hear her, even considering the size of the ship and the distance her voice would have to cross simply to reach the ship. Impatiently she watches the figure, wishing he'd stop pacing and just look for a moment. She is sure that if he would look he would see her.
Kujo, Kujo, Kujo, Kujo, Kujo... His name repeats incessantly through her mind, a needless reminder of her impatience. She just wants to be by her Kujo again.
Watching him pace tempts her to pace as well, but as with everything else she's wanted to do today, she is stopped by his sister's presence.
The ship docks and soldiers begin almost immediately to disembark.
His sister leans down suddenly in front of Victorique, "I'll go look over there, wait for a minute okay?"
Victorique takes a step to stop her, but she's too late. So Victorique stands quietly, with her face tucked towards the ground. There is nothing left for her to do but wait. Her attention follows faintly each soldier that walks by her.
Abruptly she realizes someone is walking towards her. She inhales sharply. Her heart begins to pound.
Kujo, Kujo, Kujo, Kujo, Kujo... The ridiculous mantra of his name plays through her head. The mantra stops suddenly. You're finally here.
He stands before her, his bag drops to the ground and then he is kneeling before her, his wonderful, familiar brown eyes meeting hers. "Were you bored?"
Had a dream, and it filled me with wonder
She had other plans
"Got to go," said she "know that I'd understand"
I understand
Kujo feels tense. He doesn't quite understand why, it's almost as if after all this time he's nervous to see her again. Nervous, instead of ridiculously pleased, instead of feeling as if his heart is about to swell out of his chest, as if he will finally be complete again.
He runs memories through his mind, of all the time he was able to spend with Victorique. The silly random treats, the mysteries she solved, the time she got caught up a tree and wouldn't let him help her down, the smile on her face...
He sighs and whips around yet again; he's restless as well as tense. In his peripheral vision he can make out the shore drawing closer, but he doesn't dare look at it. He's waited for this moment for so long, he couldn't bear if she wasn't actually standing there waiting for him.
Waiting for me. He almost pauses, almost throws his head up and looks at the shore anyways, but he can't. He simply continues to pace. His thoughts are becoming almost feverish, matching his pace, but caught up in the idea of her waiting for him. It seems as if he is always later than she wants him to be, that she's always had to wait for him to come to her. Hopefully now, hopefully he'll be able to always be by her side and she'll never have to wait for him again.
His hands clench into fists. I won't make her wait for me ever again. He promises himself and looks out towards the shore. The ship is almost docked. Soon he'll be able to search for Victorique among the crowd gathered to welcome the returning soldiers. His eyes flick quickly over it, searching for her golden hair, so uncommon in his country.
His worries seem confirmed when he can't see her hair amongst the crowd, then he pauses and thinks of the Victorique he knew. He smiles; she wouldn't be waiting amongst the crowd.
His eyes scan the fringe of the crowd, searching, searching. He sees two women standing alone by a cherry tree. He smiles. Though her hair is covered and she seems to be in traditional Japanese garb, he knows it must be Victorique. No one else he knows is quite so short, and he is fairly certain that he recognizes his sister, even at this distance, standing next to the short figure.
Impatiently he waits as the crowd of soldiers before him slowly presses their way down the gangplank.
Finally his feet touch soil again. Now that he knows where Victorique is he feels strangely un-rushed. He walks calmly up to her. Drops his bag and pulls off his hat, he kneels before her small figure.
"Were you bored?" He reaches out and pulls off her hood. "I've got interesting stories to tell you." He says the words almost functioning on autopilot as he sees the moon-like silver of her hair fall around her. "Victorique." He can't help but whisper her name in shock.
She looks as if she is about to cry. "You're late...Reaper that Comes in the Springtime."
He smiles at her. "Don't be mad. I got here as fast as I could."
Shilo, when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
Come today
"Kujo." She whispers with a smile.
"Victorique." He answers a smile also occupying his lips.
Their hands meet and wrap tightly around each other, the only sign either of them needs to express their affection.