Warning: This story has both GakupoxLuka and KaitoxGakupo elements. If this bothers you, please refrain from reading.
EDIT: (only read the following lines if you need to know which pairing 'wins' before reading the story. If not, start reading the story) I realize now that some people won't invest time in this story if they don't know the final romantic outcome of this story. So I will reveal it right now: the girl with pink hair 'wins'. If you wanted the other ship to be the official couple, please read my fics Prince x Wanderer and Endling instead.
Now to the story...
Chapter 1 – The End of the Drought
The dry season had been unusually long and inclement. The fields were nothing but a cracked expanse of wasted hopes; the farmers watched the mirages over the barren soil with reddened eyes and stilled hands, waiting and praying.
Every day, the air itself seemed thick and clotted, almost a presence in itself. There was no stopping the pounding headaches, the endless sweating, the parched throats, the raised tempers of some and languid despair of others.
Even the children seemed low in spirits. They had no obligation to help in the fields, the orchards or the gardens. They could not dig new wells or go to the mountains in search of springs or reservoirs. But although their heads weren't as full as concrete sources of worry as the adults, they couldn't help but sense the fear gripping their parents and neighbors. Most children were forbidden from playing outside under the fierce sunlight, so the forced inactivity was yet another factor in dampening their mood.
One day, four of the youngest inhabitants of Oto were sitting under the wide eaves of one of the outlaying houses of town, bent over sheets of paper and paint. Their heads were a striking contrast of hues, three of them colors seldom seen outside of the region. The boys had purple and blue hair, the girls pink and brown. They all seemed to be around the same age and were dressed in light, simple clothing, to better withstand the heat.
None of them noticed the stranger approaching from the west, along the dusty road that lead to the hills, and beyond that, to the great Ruta Augusta, the ancient highway that connected the main nations of the continent. Despite the heat, the man was incongruously wrapped from head to toe in an ample dark cloak and hood. He carried in his left hand a staff of dark wood, engraved with arcane symbols. He advanced slowly, limping slightly, and stopped completely once he reached the shadow of the house and the naked trees around it. He wiped his brow and observed the children in silence.
One of the girls straightened up, to better appreciate the artistry of her completed work. She was wearing a crimson dress, the same color of the ribbon adorning her chin-length chestnut hair. Satisfied with her handiwork, she seemed about to say something to the blue-haired boy sitting next to her, when she chanced to look towards the man casually leaning on the fence of the property. She yelped in surprise, and grabbed the arm of her friend, who observed her and then the road with interest. The other girl, a tomboyish little thing with soft pink hair, turned around and examined the stranger suspiciously, but her face didn't betray any of the fear the brunette displayed. The final member of the group sat beside her: a delicate looking boy with purple hair and deep blue eyes. In contrast to his companion, he flashed a welcoming smile and stood up to approach the man, but the rose-haired girl grabbed his hand and stopped him before he got too close.
"We're not supposed to talk to strangers!" She growled, both for the boy's and the stranger's benefit.
"I understand," the man said good-humoredly. "But I'm expected here, I believe. The elders of Oto sent me a letter asking for my assistance in ending the drought. I'm the Mystic Verdirrama."
"You can do magic?!" The purple-haired boy opened his eyes wide and before the girl could stop him, he crossed the distance between them in two bounds.
The man laughed and ruffled his soft hair tenderly. "What's your name, small friend?"
"I'm Gakupo," the boy said, gesturing towards his frowning companion and the other two behind them. "This is Luka, and those two are Kaito and Meiko." The tomboyish girl gave the man a curt greeting, trying hard to look unimpressed. Kaito moved closer, dragging with him a fearful Meiko still clutching his arm.
"Gakupo, Luka, Kaito, Meiko…Would you like to see a tree of the Glittering Sands?"
The four children nodded with varying degrees of excitement. The mystic smiled again, and waved the tip of his staff in the direction of one of the trees, muttering a couple of mysterious words. The sounds seemed to echo strangely in the heated air. Gakupo brought a hand to his chest, surprised by the odd vibration permeating him, and turned to the man with a questioning look.
Verdirrama smiled knowingly and pointed towards the tree with his staff. "You're missing the show."
The three other children stared flabbergasted at the shining spectacle. The tree remained where it was, but all over the trunk and branches grew a glittering shell, like a mesh of diamonds draped all around the bark. Long tendrils of silk hung from the naked branches, festooned with stars like a clear night of winter. The tree moved despite the lack of wind, chiming refreshingly like a huge bell. For a long minute, the song remained in the air, making the children shiver with delight. Images of them playing in the fields under a peaceful snowfall flashed through their minds. Then, regretfully, the coat of frost quickly disappeared, sizzling under the sun.
"That was amazing!" Gakupo turned again towards the sage, his eyes sparkling almost as much as the tree had done seconds ago.
"What more can you do?" Kaito asked with curiosity.
"Um…can you fly?" Meiko inquired demurely.
"We need to guide him to the meeting hall," Luka interjected responsibly. "You can make the rain come back, mister?"
"I will certainly try," was the mellow answer.
Luka nodded seriously and gestured to Gakupo. They both ran towards the door in the fence and exited the garden, closely followed by Kaito and Meiko. The mystic strode forward to meet them, and was quickly surrounded by his young escorts.
"This way!" Gakupo pointed towards the north, where some taller structures languished in the merciless sun. The man grinned again, and let the children direct (and pull him) him towards his destination.
Gradually the town revealed itself, with its mixture of stone buildings and newer adobe houses. The residences were much less ornate than the two oldest constructions in sight: the stout watchtower and the temple that housed the relics of El Gris. There were gardens and trees everywhere, now in ruinous state due to the drought.
The small group soon reached the central square, lined by some of the most important buildings in town: the Hall of the Elders, the marketplace, the sole inn and tavern, the local church and the House of Gifts.
Some of the idle adults were sitting in benches lined along the outer walls of the inn, and rose to intercept the mystic and the children.
"Luka, what's going on?" A big man with russet hair asked the girl gruffly. He was one of the town's more prominent hunters, aside from being Luka's father.
"He says the elders asked him to come fix the drought."
"He's a great wizard, Mister Megurine!" Gakupo added, drawing out some laughs from the onlookers.
"Is that so?" Luka's father said placing a hand on his daughter's shoulders.
"My name is Verdirrama, and I do work with the subtle arts," the mystic confirmed. "Whether I'm 'great' or not, however…" He shrugged.
"Well, you come at a good time. Fuuga is in there talking with the elders about the latest problems with the northwestern cistern. They'll want to see you right away." The hunter pointed to the hall behind him with his thumb. "I'll take it from here, kids."
"Actually…" The mystic held up a hand. "I'd like for all of Oto's children born on the year of the battle of Arjavanda to be gathered in one place so I can examine them."
"Why?" Luka's father narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"There was a great discharge of magical energies when the great hero slayed the beast," the mystic explained placidly. "The natural order of things was greatly altered that day, as you plainly see." He again ran his fingers through Gakupo's purple hair. "I need to make sure there isn't some connection between this and the drought."
The hunter considered this for a moment, glancing at some of the onlookers. After a moment, he nodded. "Fine, we'll do what you ask." He didn't seem all that happy about it, however.
"Dad, do you want us to go look for he others?" Luka asked.
"No, the last thing we need is for you to get sunstroke. Go to the House of Gifts and wait in your classroom. I'll get someone else to round up the rest." He patted his daughter's head affectionately and then gently pushed her towards her destination.
"But-" Gakupo started to argue, but Luka took his hand and dragged him along with her, to more snickering of the adults watching them.
"We know who's gonna wear the trousers in that marriage," one of the onlookers commented.
"They're ten," Luka's father stated, rolling his eyes. "Don't marry off my girl so soon." Still, a smile formed in his face as he watched the children walk away bickering.
"I wanted to stay with the mystic…" Gakupo whined, halfway along the square. "We'll miss it if he does another trick."
Luka didn't turn her head. "Dad doesn't want us to be too friendly with him."
"Eh? Why do you think that?" Kaito finally managed to disentangle his arm from Meiko's grip and stepped up to walk in line with the other two. Meiko followed him with a peeved expression.
"I can tell. Besides, no one really likes wizards," Luka said with the air of someone repeating a well-known truth. In actuality, she didn't know what was so terrible about them, but her parents had repeated their misgivings about hiring magical help several times at home, since the idea began to be discussed in the town meetings.
The four children reached the dark red walls of the House of Gifts, and knocked on an unassuming door, near a corner of the building. After a few seconds, the door opened with a loud creaking sound.
"Oh, what do we have here?" The old caretaker of the building inquired, blinking. Behind him, the long hallway looked dim and invitingly cool.
"There's a wizard in town!" Gakupo stated.
"Huh?"
"We were told to wait here for him in our classroom," Luka added.
The caretaker squinted at her, then looked towards the meeting hall. The mystic and the surrounding townspeople were just about to enter the building. "…Hm, I see the elder's guest has arrived." He moved aside to let the children enter. "Go wait in the patio, I just waxed the floors of the classrooms."
"Yes, sir!" the children answered as one and ran down the corridor.
"Don't run in the halls!" The old man shouted fruitlessly at their backs and sighed. "Just what do you want with our children, mage?" He mumbled, glancing again at the distant hall. He shook his head and slowly closed the door.
The afternoon passed by slowly, after that. Other children arrived one by one into the building accompanied by their parents, and joined the group waiting under the shades in the inner courtyard. The usual group of boys and girls that studied together in the House of Gifts began to slowly take shape. While the children played, the adults talked in hushed tones, wondering aloud what the mystic intended to do. Every new arrival added a new nugget of information: after his initial talk with the elders, Verdirrama requested to see the relics in the temple. Afterwards, he walked around town, stopping seemingly at random places to 'sense the lines', as he mysteriously put it. He tasted a sip of the water remaining in each of the main cisterns, and laid down in the dried bed of the river crossing town, just a little north to the central square. He didn't bother to explain any of it to the increasingly confused townspeople. Finally, he again talked to the elders, in what seemed to be a grave conversation.
An hour or so before sundown, Verdirrama finally made his appearance in the House of Gifts, joined by Luka's father, the elders, and a dark-haired man in an impeccable uniform, Captain Naoto Fuuga of the town's guard. All the local members of the procession looked unusually grim, which immediately casted a shroud of nervous silence over the gathered townspeople.
The children were made to form a single line in the open corridor, and the mystic examined them one by one with enervating calmness. Some he spent almost no time checking, to their parents' relief; in other cases he lingered for a long while for no apparent reason. He made each one sing a few stanzas of a song, peered uncomfortably close at their eyes and ears, and even made a few boys and girls jump in place or do coordination exercises. Luka's father got visibly irascible when the stranger continued to poke his daughter for a good couple of minutes; he almost interrupted, but Captain Fuuga placed a hand on his shoulder and shook this head emphatically. Still, the hunter only relaxed when Verdirrama gave a satisfied nod and moved on to Gakupo.
"Hello again, small friend. Please sing for me," the mystic requested mildly.
Gakupo nodded and sang one of his father's favorite songs. He closed his eyes to help him concentrate more on the tune, and less on the strange expressions of the adults looking down on him. He usually enjoyed the attention, especially when he accompanied his father on one of his performances, but this time everyone had such weird looks on their faces that it made it hard to remember the lyrics. To compound matters, he felt the mystic's hand rest on the chest.
"Don't stop," the placid voice ordered him.
The boy continued, and sang the chorus of the song. The cheery melody seemed very out of place in the sudden silence surrounding him. One by one, the stanzas reverberated in the air, until the song was done. He slowly opened his eyes, with an obscure sense of impending trouble, as if he had done a terrible act of mischief.
The mystic stared at him with an unreadable expression. The other adults looked from mage to child and back, looking increasingly worried.
"It's him," the wizard whispered.
"Um, wha-" Gakupo started to ask, but was cut by the severe voice of one of the elders.
"Fuuga, take him to the tower."
The captain nodded and grabbed the confused child's arm. "Come with me."
"Wait, what's going on?" A mother present asked.
One of the elders, a stocky old woman, raised her hands in a stopping motion. "We'll hold a town meeting at sundown, you'll get your answers then. Now let the captain take this…child where he belongs." She glanced at Gakupo with a sour look, making his stomach churn.
"I didn't do anything, I swear!" He pleaded, but Captain Fuuga started to pull him towards the exit. "Luka, tell them!" He reached towards his friend for help, but Luka's father slapped the hand away and pulled his daughter behind him in a protective gesture.
"Touch her and I'll break your arms!" He spat furiously.
"Daddy!" Luka cried out, horrified.
Gakupo stared at the towering man, paralyzed with fear, but Captain Fuuga stood between them. "The mage said it is asleep; you are shouting at a mere boy," he reproached the hunter. Without waiting for an answer, he left with Gakupo in tow. The boy was too shocked to do anything but obey.
For his part, Luka's father kneeled down and hugged his confused daughter, still fuming. "Forget about him, Luka. Just forget about him."
From the circle of his arms, Luka observed the retreating figures, the surrounding townsfolk, the confused faces of Kaito and Meiko. Without even understanding why, tears began to form in her eyes.
Gakupo walked mechanically, without raising his eyes. Captain Fuuga almost wished the boy would scream or threw a tantrum. But seeing him so docile made it even harder to believe the allegations of Verdirrama.
They crossed Oto quickly. Captain Fuuga wanted to be off the street by the time the news spread; the last thing he wanted was some rash idiot attacking the child. Thankfully, Gakupo kept the pace without complaint.
Their destination, the old tower, was the only intact remainder of centuries past, when the town was an outpost of the northern kingdom. And although it was significantly more preserved than the ruinous stones littering the woods around Oto, it was clear that it had seen better times: beyond the ivy covering the ground floor, the walls looked discolored and worn, and the pointed roof was in disrepair. Even under those conditions, the town's guard used the lower floors as storage and holding cells. Usually the only occupants were vociferous drunks and the occasional thief or bandit from outside town. This was unquestionably the first time a child was to be imprisoned there.
At the moment, there were no other prisoners. Captain Fuuga made Gakupo enter one of the first floor cells, and the boy sat in the corner, sobbing and hugging his knees. The two soldiers present observed the scene with confusion, which only deepened when their boss explained that Gakupo was being blamed for the drought.
"And the elders believed the mystic's nonsense?!" One of the soldiers whispered to his captain, incredulous.
"Gakuto is going to have a heart attack when he hears about this!" The other said.
Captain Fuuga looked at the ground, rubbing his temples. "We'll need to go along with this idiocy for now. Get the upper floor cleared up, and tell the boys to fix the damn roof tiles already. We can't have him down here with the rabble," he said to one of the men. The underling nodded and rushed to fulfill his orders. Captain Fuuga turned to the other man. "Watch him, and for Her Grace's sake, don't put any other prisoners on this floor. I need to go talk to his mother."
The soldier cringed. "I don't envy you, sir."
"This is going to bring more misfortune to this town, mark my words," the captain muttered. He headed down the hallway and towards the stairs with a dark expression.
Once the two were alone, the guard kneeled down. "Don't worry, kid. Once the mage scampers off with jingling pockets and the rain fails to come, the elders will have to admit they were duped. You'll be back home soon, I bet on it."
Gakupo nodded rubbing his face. But he felt too scared to do anything more.
With the go-ahead of the master craftsmen of town, Verdirrama locked himself in the workshops of the House of Gifts. Three days later, he emerged carrying a collar and a long silvery chain. The powerful magic used in their forging was meant to keep the beast sleeping inside Gakupo under control.
A sealing ceremony was carried out in the central square, with most of the townspeople watching. Captain Fuuga was glad to see Gakupo's friends weren't present: it was hard enough to witness his expression as the crowd around the stage screamed at him and his parents. No child should hear such obscenities, he thought as he surveyed the square from his spot near Gakupo. Even I would tremble hearing such threats directed towards me.
In the middle of the ruckus, Verdirrama stood with the collar in his hands, completely unperturbed. After he was done with his incantations, he fastened it around Gakupo's neck. Then the mage recovered his staff from the table next to him and made a circle in the air, above the boy's head.
Immediately, a mild drizzle began to fall, among the gasps and cheers of the crowd.
Gakuto Kamui and his wife wailed, fighting the soldiers restraining them with everything they had. "No! It's not his fault! My son, give me back my son!"
The delighted townspeople began to chant hymns of gratitude, almost drowning the desperate pleas of Gakupo's parents. It made for a grotesque contrast, the worst music Captain Fuuga had ever heard.
"Well done, mage!" A merchant patted Verdirrama's back, after he climbed down from the stage.
"Shouldn't we just execute that thing? Why keep him alive?" Another man asked. Several Otonians joined in stating their agreement.
Captain Fuuga quickly made a gesture to his soldiers, who began to make a corridor in the crowd for him and the cursed boy. "Come on, Gakupo, let's go."
Gakupo's teary eyes were fixed on his parents; thankfully, he seemed to have missed the conversation between the mage and the onlookers. "Mom…Dad…"
"I'm sorry, we have to go." The officer picked up the boy in his arms, almost running away towards the tower. Behind him, the screams of Gakupo's parents intensified. Still, he managed to hear Verdirrama's patient tones, as he explained that killing the boy would only cause the evil spirit to jump into another host, whereas confinement would give him time to figure out the way to destroy the beast for good.
After that, the situation for the Kamui family only turned direr. Gakupo wasn't privy to the discussions going on in the meeting hall and clearly couldn't see the town gradually turning against him. But day after day, Captain Fuuga noticed his underlings becoming more and more fearful of the boy, as the fear mongering of the more superstitious townspeople continued. He made a point of remaining as kind as possible with his prisoner, hoping that the situation would improve.
However, by the time Gakupo entered a month inside the tower, the officer began to fear he would never walk the streets of Oto again.
That day, Captain Fuuga himself sat on watch, carving a small wooden figurine and periodically glancing at the immobile boy behind the bars. A heavy rainfall chanted monotonously outside, not the first sign of water in the last couple of weeks after the sealing ceremony, but certainly the most impressive. Gakupo sat in silence with a particularly glum expression, seemingly aware of what the raindrops meant for his future.
The top floor of the tower was an ample square room with small openings near the roof to let the air flow, and a single barred window. At one side of the bars that separated the space in two unequal parts, Fuuga sat on a chair near the end of the stairs. On the other side, there was a simple but clean bed, a table with a stool and a small nightstand near the bed with a basin and a jug of water. In a corner, there was a basinet.
Several old iron rings remained on the wall opposite the window, with broken links of metal hanging from them. Only one had a complete chain attached to it, the long silvery snake forged by Verdirrama that crossed the room and met the collar around Gakupo's neck. The chain was long enough for him to pace around in his cell, but short enough to forbid him to reach the stairs. The collar itself was a thick leather strap, inscribed with mysterious symbols.
A little after midday, the sound of someone loudly coming up the stairs grew in volume, breaking the deep silence of the tower. Gakupo didn't react, until a familiar voice rang out.
"Dad, Gakupo! It's lunchtime!" Kaito appeared with a big bundle in his arms. He smiled, as if this was nothing but a regular visit to a friend's house. His white raincoat glistened with pearly drops of water under the lantern at the top of the stairs, and his cheeks were rosy with the cold.
Captain Fuuga put his carving aside and received the bundle with a kind smile. "Thanks, Kaito." He placed it over a ledge in the wall and unwrapped and separated the contents. "It looks delicious."
"I brought you some cookies," Kaito said to Gakupo and produced a smaller bundle from inside one of his pockets.
The purple-haired boy approached the bars hesitantly, dragging the chain behind him. "Thank you," he uttered, in a shadow of the cheery tone that usually characterized him. He took a cookie from Kaito's hands and munched it while Kaito told him about something or another in an excited whisper.
Fuuga watched them for a second, wondering if he was supposed to pull his son away. He still didn't fully believe Gakupo was a vessel for the beast El Gris vanquished a decade ago, but the weather thus far was certainly backing the mage's theory.
Gakupo met Captain Fuuga's eyes for a second, which made the officer snap back to the present. Whatever it was that Gakupo saw in his expression, it made the child cringe and quickly avert his eyes. Wordlessly, he retreated to the stool in the middle of the room and sat down.
"…Ok, then. Kaito, go home and thank Miss Karin for the meal."
"Can't I stay? I…I brought a ball to play with Gakupo." The boy showed him the bouncy toy, small enough to go through the bars.
"Not today, son."
Kaito pouted. "Can I give it to him, then?"
The captain tilted his head. It wouldn't cause any harm, he supposed. "Sure, just leave it on the ground."
The blue-haired boy grinned and placed the ball next to the bars. "See you later," he told Gakupo, who eyed him and the toy but said nothing. "Bye, dad." He turned towards the stairs and began to climb down carefully. It had taken several lectures to stop Kaito from jumping down recklessly, but now he seemed to understand good behavior was important, if he wanted to keep visiting Gakupo.
"Stay where you are." Captain Fuuga opened the cell door with his key and carried Gakupo's meal inside. He placed it on the table and stood watching him while the boy ate. His own meal was going to get cold, unfortunately.
The boy ate slowly, with no enthusiasm. The meal was mostly untouched when he stopped and timidly looked upwards. "Do you hate me?"
The officer resisted his impulse to rub his temples, while he searched for a proper answer. "…No, I don't. But I can't let you loose with that thing inside of you. You understand that, right?"
Gakupo nodded sadly. After a moment, he raised his eyes again. "Do my parents hate me?"
This time, the captain couldn't stop himself from sighing.
"Even Luka came to visit me once, despite what her father said…" Gakupo pointed out with a melancholic expression.
And she was lucky no one ratted her out, Captain Fuuga mused. The old hunter seemed to have taken special offense that the cursed boy was his daughter's best friend, as if the beast was some kind of transmittable disease.
"But mom and dad won't come," the boy concluded, fresh tears coming down his cheeks.
Not for lack of trying, the officer thought. Gakuto Kamui had tried at least five times now to rescue his boy; it was getting harder and harder to control him. Not to mention, the more belligerent townspeople had taken to pelt him, his wife and their house with rotten fruit, small stones and trash, despite the continuous admonishments of the elders that anyone could've sired the reincarnated beast. It had come to the point neither could safely walk outside without a guard escorting them. The babies of the family, Lily and Gumi, were being cared by out-of-town relatives for the same reason.
Perhaps the problem was that the Kamui family refused to disown their eldest child. If they had only apologized to the town and accepted their misfortune, they would've been pitied by all. But many found their continuous fight for their son an intolerable sign of pride.
Suddenly, a soldier came hurriedly up the stairs. "Sir!"
Captain Fuuga gave the weeping boy a quick glance, and then exited the cell, closing it behind him.
"What is it?"
The soldier seemed to be pale and sweaty, whether it was due to his quick ascent or due to distress, Captain Fuuga couldn't say. "Sir-," his eyes wondered to the weeping child inside the cell, and he raised his eyebrows meaningfully.
"…Let's go down," Captain Fuuga said with a sinking feeling.
They were still descending to the lower floors when the soldier turned towards his superior. "It's his parents, sir."
"What did they do now?" The captain asked in a resigned tone.
"No, sir, it's…they're dead." The soldier looked at the ceiling, almost as if expecting Gakupo to turn into some hideous abomination and pursue them down the stairs, enraged.
"What?!" Captain Fuuga bellowed.
"The patrol found their door open, and the inside of the home trashed. Someone hanged them on their own backyard."
Captain Fuuga interrupted the explanation with a frantic wave of his hand. "So the rain must've erased any tracks by now. I'll need to go take a look anyway."
The Kamui home was almost in the other end of town. Captain Fuuga and the soldier ran down the muddy streets, while the man gave his superior a few more details. It was second-hand information from the patrolling soldiers, but it proved to be distressingly accurate once Captain Fuuga reached the scene.
It clearly wasn't a robbery, since the valuables of the family, including Gakuto's musical instruments, were neatly piled at the feet of the deceased. The neighbors claimed they had neither heard nor seen anything strange, although some seemed rather relieved to be free of the problematic presence of the pair.
The corpses themselves left little doubt to the nature of the crime, from their position up high, swinging from the biggest tree in the garden. Husband and wife had brown bags over their heads and signs hanging from their necks.
"I birthed a monster," the officer read aloud, disgusted. The ink of the letters began to blur due to the rain.
Captain Fuuga stood under the tree, watching his underlings cut down the ropes and lower the lynched couple to the ground. The rain soaked him to the bone, but he remained in place, until the bodies were wrapped and carried inside. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Before heading inside, he gave a last look to the garden surrounding him, slowly growing more verdant. He thought of the dead bard and his pretty wife and child, performing in the previous year's Autumn Festival amongst the cheers and laughter of their neighbors.
Oto's prosperity entailed a heavy price, without question.