Keywords: Omi, Mamoru
Spoilers: all the episodes that reveal Omi's past.
Disclaimer: DAG, but how I wish I owned this guys. Turns out I don't. Ah well.
Authors Notes: This idea has been formulating for some time, and I just had to sit down and write it. PLEASE write comments! I really don't care if it's a flame, because it lets me know that you actually took your time to sit down and read it. (Er, on retrospect, actually, I DO care if it's a flame. Those things hurt.) Criticism is good, also! It helps one learn.
"Father, father, where are you going?
Oh, do not walk so fast!
Speak, father, speak to your little boy,
Or else I shall be lost."
The night was dark, no father was there,
The child was wet with dew;
The mire was deep, and the child did weep,
And away the vapour flew."
-William Blake
The Little Boy Lost
"Mamoru! Watch out for electric sparks!" Hirofumi called desperately from his brother's side. The child, startled by his older brother's sudden outburst failed to move fast enough and watched with dismay as his little Link got caught in a burst of electricity, sending his health down.
"Ni-sannnnn! You startled me! I could see it!"
"What dungeon is this, anyway?"
"Four."
"Have you gotten The Master Key yet?"
"No, I'm just about to...Ah-ha! There!" Mamoru smiled victoriously as the small Link on the screen opened up the chest and The Master key was added to his inventory.
"You're moving through this pretty fast, I'm impressed!"
"Thankssss, Ni-san! Oiiiii! Why isn't the boss in his room?" The golden hair child pouted as he reached the Boss' room, only to find that he wasn't there. His brother laughed from beside him.
"You don't think it would be that easy to beat a Zelda dungeon, did you?"
"Well..."
"You should know better then that," Hirofumi paused for a moment as he watched his youngest brother continue walking Link through the dungeon. "You know, this game is so much better then "Adventures of Link." I'm glad they decided to come out with another sequel, one as good, or better then the original! You've played "The Legend of Zelda", haven't you?"
"Yeah," Mamoru responded distantly, his concentration focused entirely on the game.
"Are you guys still playing that dumb game?" A new voice entered the previously peaceful conversation, and both Hirofumi and Mamoru turned to glare at their other brother, Masafumi.
"Shutup," Hirofumi's eyes narrowed.
"Why should I?" Masafumi taunted, an ugly sneer on his thin face.
"Ni-san, let's just ignore him," Mamoru whispered, tugging on his brother's shirt.
"Ne, Mamoru-*chan*," Masafumi put extra emphasis on the ending, making it
sound like an insult, "You shouldn't send so much time near Hirofumi."
"Why not?"
"Because then you'll end up being a hopeless loser, just like him!"
"Shut up!" Mamoru climbed to his feet, the game temporarily forgotten. "I'm gonna tell dad!"
"Haha, you can't! Dad hates being disturbed, you'll just get in more trouble!" He then turned and ran, his laughing echoing down the halls.
Disgruntled, the youngest boy turned around, plopping down in front of the Nintendo again. "I really hate him. Why does he have to be so mean?"
"I don't know. Don't feel bad though, we'll get him back later," Hirofumi
grinned down at his little brother.
* * * *
"He's one of the richest men in the city. It'll be an easy job, and we'll
be set for life."
"If we get caught, Daisuke..."
"It won't be a problem. We won't even ask an outrageous amount. Besides,
who doesn't want their darling, blonde-haired, blue-eyed child back?"
"Yeah..."
"What's a few million yen to a billionaire anyway? Every parent feels their child is priceless. We'll make it clean and efficient. There's nothing to be worried about, Touru," Daisuke clasped his hand on his partner's shoulder, a dark smile on his face. Their relationship was an odd one, not a stereotypical leader and his crony. They were worked together out of necessity. They were poor, they needed money, but they didn't have the resources to do something extravagant. A kidnapping on the expansive Takatori
grounds would be easy enough. They'd simply split the money and go their separate ways after that.
* * * *
"Mamoru! Get down from there!" Hirofumi crossed his arms, looking up at his brother, who'd managed to climb quite high in one of the many trees on their estate.
"Nyahhh, Hirofumi! You can't make meeeee!" Mamoru sing-songed, laughing
down at his brother.
"What if you fall?!"
"I won't! I'm like a monkey!"
"A stupid monkey," Hirofumi muttered, though not in bad humor.
"I'm not!"
"You are!"
"Am not!"
"You areeee!"
"Mamoru!"
"You're just jealous you can't climb the tree!"
"You wanna bet I can't climb it? I just wasn't doing it because it's too
easy."
"Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!"
"Okay, that's it!" Hirofumi reached for the branch above him, looking up
at his brother good naturedly. He had to act like a father to the child, since their dad was always working and never wanted to spend time with them. "Here I come!" He'd almost reached his brother when his pants got caught on one of the branches. He continued to pull upward, only to be met with a sickening tearing sound. "My pants! They're ruined!"
"Ne, sucks for you."
"Mamoru! Don't use that sort of language!"
"Why not?"
"Because it's a bad word!"
"All the kids at school say it. I'm old enough!"
"You're not 'all the other kids.'"
"Aww...Hirofumiiiiii!"
"Come on, we should get down, it's time for dinner, anyway."
"And Ants on a Log?"
"No, that's for snack," Hirofumi replied, slowly climbing down the tree. He hadn't climbed a tree for years, but he suddenly remembered the bad part about the whole thing: going down. It suddenly looked a lot farther.
"I want Ants on a Log!"
"I already said, you had that for snack!"
"I want it for dessert, then."
"We have ice cream for dessert."
"I want both."
"Maybe..." Hirofumi relented. It didn't make a big difference to him what his brother ate. Though, he couldn't understand his brother's obsession with celery and anything that would go on it.
* * * **
"We'll be able to make the abduction tomorrow. Takatori Mamoru spends the afternoon hours roaming and playing outside. His brothers usually do not bother him, we'll just move carefully."
* * * *
Mamoru sat quietly at the large dinner table. His father, surprisingly, was at the meal, sitting in the chair at the head of the table that was usually left empty. The presence of his father usually made him uncomfortable. He saw little of him, and so Takatori Reiji was almost like a stranger to the child now. There had been a time, in Mamoru's early life whenthings had been different. When his father had played with him and spent time
with him. When he would be taken to the park and played happily in the sand while Masafumi and Hirofumi would play tag or swing, or go down the slides. But that had been many years ago, especially when time was amplified for a child of ten, and one year seemed like forever. He didn't mind so much, though. He just accepted things, though sometimes a bit stubbornly. If his dad needed to spend all his time working and never with him, he accepted it. It didn't hurt him; he didn't feel dejected. He expected one day, however, that things would go back to like they used to be so many years ago. It was only a matter of time, and that was something he thought he had plenty of. He was going to be ten forever.
* * * *
"I'm going out to play, Ni-san!"
"Make sure you're back in time for snack."
"Ants on a log?!"
"Naturally."
"Okay!" The ten year old then ran out the door. Hirofumi turned to watch him go, observing the sun's rays catching his bouncing hair, making it glow a beautiful gold. Shaking his head, smiling, he turned back to reading. He never had any inkling or feeling that it would be many years before he saw his brother again, and both will have
changed very much in that time.
* * * *
"There he is," Daisuke spoke under his breath. He dropped down beside the
kid, covering his mouth with the rag. The child crumpled instantly, and Daisuke was glad that it was going so well. "Come on kid, you're my ticket to riches." The large abductor threw the kid over his shoulder and easily made his way off the property and to the awaiting car. Luckily for them, no member of the Takatori family would ever have considered security on the large, remote premises.
* * * *
"He's beautiful," Daisuke smiled darkly at the child resting against the
wall, his arms tied tightly behind him, his feet bound the same.
"Gold hair, especially in a Japanese child is rare. He's got to have foreign blood running through him," Touru looked up from his position at the large, cumbersome computer.
"Huh? I'm talking about his value as money. That kid alone is worth 50 million yen. We'll be rich beyond our imagination! Have you made the call yet?"
"Not yet. I thought that for dramatic affect, it'll be better to have
them realize he's gone."
"Yeah. Make them anxious. Good plan."
* * * *
"Masafumi? Have you seen Mamoru?"
"No. Why do I care about that little brat?"
"He missed snack, and now it's almost dinner. He's always home before this."
"He probably lost track of time. He'll be here soon, I bet," The middle child replied in a bored tone.
"Yeah..."
But six o' clock rolled around, and Mamoru still wasn't home .Hirofumi was almost having a fit, thinking the worst of all situations.
"Where's Mamoru?" The deep voice that was his father suddenly broke through Hirofumi's worrying, and he looked up in surprise at his dad. He tried to recall the last time his dad had worried about the going ons of any of his children, and the last time he's spoken his youngest brother's name.
"He went out to play and hasn't come back yet."
"Go look for him after we're done eating," Reiji responded, seemingly unruffled by the information. Hirofumi stared at him, was that all the compassion his father had? Did he really care that little about Mamoru, about any of them? But that couldn't be. He used to spend so much time with them, used to hug them and take them places; buy them things. The oldest child considered carefully, looking back into the past, and suddenly realizing how much had changed. They no longer saw their Uncle Shuiichi, who used to visit them on a regular basis, either. Something big had happened, and he'd been oblivious to it.
* * * *
"You're awake," Daisuke crouched next to the child, whose eyes were
widened in shock and fear.
"Wha..what? Where's Hirofumi....??!!" Mamoru stuttered, uncomprehending
the situation. His eyes suddenly welled up with tears. He was cold, he was hungry, and he didn't know where he was.
"You've been kidnapped for ransom. We're hoping your daddy will pay lots
of money for you," Daisuke smiled at Mamoru, but the child felt there was something wrong with it. It was cold, and didn't radiate the warmth that Hirofumi's did. It was like one of Masafumi's smiles when he crushed a butterfly or hurt something. It wasn't a true smile.
For a while, the men did nothing. The bigger one paced the small confines
of the room for a while before leaving. So, only he and the guy with the glasses who sat behind the computer were left. "You hungry?" Mamoru nodded. "I don't have much...we're counting on your ransom to make us rich, so we can buy things. We're out of food. Still.." Touru reached into his pocket and threw a smashed peanut butter and jelly to the golden haired child. "Oh, I suppose you can't eat it. Well, I could take the bonds of briefly..." Touru made to get up, with Daisuke suddenly barged in again.
"What're you doing?"
"I was gonna take the kid's bonds off so that he can eat."
"Leave 'em. Hopefully, he'll be home soon enough."
Shrugging, Touru sat down, casting a sympathetic look at the child sitting
pitifully on the floor.
* * * *
Mamoru wanted to wipe away the tears from his face, but he couldn't. He'd
tried to struggle out of the bombs, but they were tied tightly, and he'd only managed to raw the skin raw so that it hurt when he moved them at all. He was so hungry, and he was scared. New thoughts were bombarding him, things that had never occurred to him, and a small doubt was taking root in the back of his brain. A part of him had begun to realize that he might not be the invincible child he thought he was. But, the thought was still small, and larger concerns were on his mind. The most prominent one was that he had to
go to the bathroom. Bad.
"I hafta go to the bathroom..." He finally voiced, looking up at the large man, who abruptly stopped walking. He spoke after a minute's consideration.
"Hold it."
"It's midnight, I'm making the call," Touru called out to his partner,
picking up the phone.
"Excellent. Make it short, we don't want to get traced. I'm sure Reiji's got the place crawling with police."
"I know," Touru responded, the turning his attention to the phone. "Takatori Reiji?" Touru waited a moment for the conformation. "We have your son. If you would like him back, leave 50 million in a suit case-" Touru paused for a moment as Reiji said something on the other end. His eyes suddenly went large. "No? What?" He listened for a minute before he hung up the phone, looking at it aghast.
"What?!" Daisuke moved forward.
"He just cut me short. He said he doesn't want the kid."
There was a moment of silence in the room. It was broken by the sounds of
Mamoru's sobbing. Touru looked at the child with pity in his eyes, Daisuke with disgust. They had risked a lot for a kid who turned out to be worthless.
Mamoru curled into a tiny ball, ignoring the pain it caused his arms and
wrists. A new emotion begin developing in him. One that none should ever have to feel, most of all, never a child. It was the feeling of not be wanted or loved. He'd felt as though a cold knife had been plunged into his heart, twisting around slowly as it tore out everything he'd held as fact and truth. He was overcome with horrible pain, and was swamped in the realizations that were hitting him with agonizing force. First and foremost was that he'd never get to see Hirofumi again. It was hard to understand all
the repercussions outside of that because there were so many. He did not realize-not fully- that his soul had been broken and would have to be built over again. He did not
realize that he had aged considerably in a matter of seconds. But he did realize that he was alone in a world that now seemed vast and cold.
* * * *
Touru looked contemplated the child. The news of his father not wanting him had visibly broken the kid. After he'd finished sobbing, he'd just sat there sort of catatonic. He hadn't moved from his fetal position, and when Daisuke has mentioned just killing the kid, because what the hell were they supposed to do with him? He hadn't moved, or made a sound. Touru sighed. It wasn't fair for the child, and he suddenly felt like a very evil person. If they hadn't kidnapped him, Mamoru wouldn't have learned about his father's uncaring, at least not for a long time. And ignorance was bliss, wasn't it?
Besides, he had a brother he obviously loved. Suddenly the lights went black and before Touru could react, he felt something smash into the back of his head and everything go dim. When he woke up hours later, he would have a horrible headache, be just as poor as when all of this started, and would have to put up with Daisuke, who would be in a very sour mood.
* * * *
The child didn't know who had grabbed him, and he wasn't aware of where he
was. He had spent the hours after the phone call in shut down mode, and the person who was Takatori Mamoru began to change.
* * * *
Hirofumi looked expectedly at his father, hoping he had news on his
brother, that it had been some sort of ransom case and that it had been paid out, and Mamoru would be home in the morning.
"Hirofumi, Masafumi, I want to let you know that the police found Mamoru's body in an abandoned warehouse at approximately midnight last night. We'll be holding the funeral on Wednesday," Reiji explained to them calmly, as if relaying that his youngest son's death was nothing more then a pig being put to the slaughter. Hirofumi glanced over at his brother, and was glad to see that even he seemed shocked and affected by the news. He was sure he wasn't bothered as much as him though. He could almost feel the pieces of his heart break into tiny slivers.
* * * *
"Do you remember who you are?"
The golden hair child shook his head, looking dully up at the man with
the brown eyes and short brown hair. His memory stirred and he was filled with a sense of deja vu, but it was brief and quickly covered up.
"You are Tsukiyono Omi," The man, Persia, as he would later learn, told him simply and without flourish.
And the happy, teasing child that had once been the youngest member of the Takatori family, a charming child with golden hair and vibrant blue eyes, was dead. And Tsukiyono Omi, for better or for worst, had been born in his place.
End Chapter One!
Well, what did you think? Did you like it? Chapter two will be coming out soon! (I hope!) Please send me comments and things like that! ^^
Spoilers: all the episodes that reveal Omi's past.
Disclaimer: DAG, but how I wish I owned this guys. Turns out I don't. Ah well.
Authors Notes: This idea has been formulating for some time, and I just had to sit down and write it. PLEASE write comments! I really don't care if it's a flame, because it lets me know that you actually took your time to sit down and read it. (Er, on retrospect, actually, I DO care if it's a flame. Those things hurt.) Criticism is good, also! It helps one learn.
"Father, father, where are you going?
Oh, do not walk so fast!
Speak, father, speak to your little boy,
Or else I shall be lost."
The night was dark, no father was there,
The child was wet with dew;
The mire was deep, and the child did weep,
And away the vapour flew."
-William Blake
The Little Boy Lost
"Mamoru! Watch out for electric sparks!" Hirofumi called desperately from his brother's side. The child, startled by his older brother's sudden outburst failed to move fast enough and watched with dismay as his little Link got caught in a burst of electricity, sending his health down.
"Ni-sannnnn! You startled me! I could see it!"
"What dungeon is this, anyway?"
"Four."
"Have you gotten The Master Key yet?"
"No, I'm just about to...Ah-ha! There!" Mamoru smiled victoriously as the small Link on the screen opened up the chest and The Master key was added to his inventory.
"You're moving through this pretty fast, I'm impressed!"
"Thankssss, Ni-san! Oiiiii! Why isn't the boss in his room?" The golden hair child pouted as he reached the Boss' room, only to find that he wasn't there. His brother laughed from beside him.
"You don't think it would be that easy to beat a Zelda dungeon, did you?"
"Well..."
"You should know better then that," Hirofumi paused for a moment as he watched his youngest brother continue walking Link through the dungeon. "You know, this game is so much better then "Adventures of Link." I'm glad they decided to come out with another sequel, one as good, or better then the original! You've played "The Legend of Zelda", haven't you?"
"Yeah," Mamoru responded distantly, his concentration focused entirely on the game.
"Are you guys still playing that dumb game?" A new voice entered the previously peaceful conversation, and both Hirofumi and Mamoru turned to glare at their other brother, Masafumi.
"Shutup," Hirofumi's eyes narrowed.
"Why should I?" Masafumi taunted, an ugly sneer on his thin face.
"Ni-san, let's just ignore him," Mamoru whispered, tugging on his brother's shirt.
"Ne, Mamoru-*chan*," Masafumi put extra emphasis on the ending, making it
sound like an insult, "You shouldn't send so much time near Hirofumi."
"Why not?"
"Because then you'll end up being a hopeless loser, just like him!"
"Shut up!" Mamoru climbed to his feet, the game temporarily forgotten. "I'm gonna tell dad!"
"Haha, you can't! Dad hates being disturbed, you'll just get in more trouble!" He then turned and ran, his laughing echoing down the halls.
Disgruntled, the youngest boy turned around, plopping down in front of the Nintendo again. "I really hate him. Why does he have to be so mean?"
"I don't know. Don't feel bad though, we'll get him back later," Hirofumi
grinned down at his little brother.
* * * *
"He's one of the richest men in the city. It'll be an easy job, and we'll
be set for life."
"If we get caught, Daisuke..."
"It won't be a problem. We won't even ask an outrageous amount. Besides,
who doesn't want their darling, blonde-haired, blue-eyed child back?"
"Yeah..."
"What's a few million yen to a billionaire anyway? Every parent feels their child is priceless. We'll make it clean and efficient. There's nothing to be worried about, Touru," Daisuke clasped his hand on his partner's shoulder, a dark smile on his face. Their relationship was an odd one, not a stereotypical leader and his crony. They were worked together out of necessity. They were poor, they needed money, but they didn't have the resources to do something extravagant. A kidnapping on the expansive Takatori
grounds would be easy enough. They'd simply split the money and go their separate ways after that.
* * * *
"Mamoru! Get down from there!" Hirofumi crossed his arms, looking up at his brother, who'd managed to climb quite high in one of the many trees on their estate.
"Nyahhh, Hirofumi! You can't make meeeee!" Mamoru sing-songed, laughing
down at his brother.
"What if you fall?!"
"I won't! I'm like a monkey!"
"A stupid monkey," Hirofumi muttered, though not in bad humor.
"I'm not!"
"You are!"
"Am not!"
"You areeee!"
"Mamoru!"
"You're just jealous you can't climb the tree!"
"You wanna bet I can't climb it? I just wasn't doing it because it's too
easy."
"Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!"
"Okay, that's it!" Hirofumi reached for the branch above him, looking up
at his brother good naturedly. He had to act like a father to the child, since their dad was always working and never wanted to spend time with them. "Here I come!" He'd almost reached his brother when his pants got caught on one of the branches. He continued to pull upward, only to be met with a sickening tearing sound. "My pants! They're ruined!"
"Ne, sucks for you."
"Mamoru! Don't use that sort of language!"
"Why not?"
"Because it's a bad word!"
"All the kids at school say it. I'm old enough!"
"You're not 'all the other kids.'"
"Aww...Hirofumiiiiii!"
"Come on, we should get down, it's time for dinner, anyway."
"And Ants on a Log?"
"No, that's for snack," Hirofumi replied, slowly climbing down the tree. He hadn't climbed a tree for years, but he suddenly remembered the bad part about the whole thing: going down. It suddenly looked a lot farther.
"I want Ants on a Log!"
"I already said, you had that for snack!"
"I want it for dessert, then."
"We have ice cream for dessert."
"I want both."
"Maybe..." Hirofumi relented. It didn't make a big difference to him what his brother ate. Though, he couldn't understand his brother's obsession with celery and anything that would go on it.
* * * **
"We'll be able to make the abduction tomorrow. Takatori Mamoru spends the afternoon hours roaming and playing outside. His brothers usually do not bother him, we'll just move carefully."
* * * *
Mamoru sat quietly at the large dinner table. His father, surprisingly, was at the meal, sitting in the chair at the head of the table that was usually left empty. The presence of his father usually made him uncomfortable. He saw little of him, and so Takatori Reiji was almost like a stranger to the child now. There had been a time, in Mamoru's early life whenthings had been different. When his father had played with him and spent time
with him. When he would be taken to the park and played happily in the sand while Masafumi and Hirofumi would play tag or swing, or go down the slides. But that had been many years ago, especially when time was amplified for a child of ten, and one year seemed like forever. He didn't mind so much, though. He just accepted things, though sometimes a bit stubbornly. If his dad needed to spend all his time working and never with him, he accepted it. It didn't hurt him; he didn't feel dejected. He expected one day, however, that things would go back to like they used to be so many years ago. It was only a matter of time, and that was something he thought he had plenty of. He was going to be ten forever.
* * * *
"I'm going out to play, Ni-san!"
"Make sure you're back in time for snack."
"Ants on a log?!"
"Naturally."
"Okay!" The ten year old then ran out the door. Hirofumi turned to watch him go, observing the sun's rays catching his bouncing hair, making it glow a beautiful gold. Shaking his head, smiling, he turned back to reading. He never had any inkling or feeling that it would be many years before he saw his brother again, and both will have
changed very much in that time.
* * * *
"There he is," Daisuke spoke under his breath. He dropped down beside the
kid, covering his mouth with the rag. The child crumpled instantly, and Daisuke was glad that it was going so well. "Come on kid, you're my ticket to riches." The large abductor threw the kid over his shoulder and easily made his way off the property and to the awaiting car. Luckily for them, no member of the Takatori family would ever have considered security on the large, remote premises.
* * * *
"He's beautiful," Daisuke smiled darkly at the child resting against the
wall, his arms tied tightly behind him, his feet bound the same.
"Gold hair, especially in a Japanese child is rare. He's got to have foreign blood running through him," Touru looked up from his position at the large, cumbersome computer.
"Huh? I'm talking about his value as money. That kid alone is worth 50 million yen. We'll be rich beyond our imagination! Have you made the call yet?"
"Not yet. I thought that for dramatic affect, it'll be better to have
them realize he's gone."
"Yeah. Make them anxious. Good plan."
* * * *
"Masafumi? Have you seen Mamoru?"
"No. Why do I care about that little brat?"
"He missed snack, and now it's almost dinner. He's always home before this."
"He probably lost track of time. He'll be here soon, I bet," The middle child replied in a bored tone.
"Yeah..."
But six o' clock rolled around, and Mamoru still wasn't home .Hirofumi was almost having a fit, thinking the worst of all situations.
"Where's Mamoru?" The deep voice that was his father suddenly broke through Hirofumi's worrying, and he looked up in surprise at his dad. He tried to recall the last time his dad had worried about the going ons of any of his children, and the last time he's spoken his youngest brother's name.
"He went out to play and hasn't come back yet."
"Go look for him after we're done eating," Reiji responded, seemingly unruffled by the information. Hirofumi stared at him, was that all the compassion his father had? Did he really care that little about Mamoru, about any of them? But that couldn't be. He used to spend so much time with them, used to hug them and take them places; buy them things. The oldest child considered carefully, looking back into the past, and suddenly realizing how much had changed. They no longer saw their Uncle Shuiichi, who used to visit them on a regular basis, either. Something big had happened, and he'd been oblivious to it.
* * * *
"You're awake," Daisuke crouched next to the child, whose eyes were
widened in shock and fear.
"Wha..what? Where's Hirofumi....??!!" Mamoru stuttered, uncomprehending
the situation. His eyes suddenly welled up with tears. He was cold, he was hungry, and he didn't know where he was.
"You've been kidnapped for ransom. We're hoping your daddy will pay lots
of money for you," Daisuke smiled at Mamoru, but the child felt there was something wrong with it. It was cold, and didn't radiate the warmth that Hirofumi's did. It was like one of Masafumi's smiles when he crushed a butterfly or hurt something. It wasn't a true smile.
For a while, the men did nothing. The bigger one paced the small confines
of the room for a while before leaving. So, only he and the guy with the glasses who sat behind the computer were left. "You hungry?" Mamoru nodded. "I don't have much...we're counting on your ransom to make us rich, so we can buy things. We're out of food. Still.." Touru reached into his pocket and threw a smashed peanut butter and jelly to the golden haired child. "Oh, I suppose you can't eat it. Well, I could take the bonds of briefly..." Touru made to get up, with Daisuke suddenly barged in again.
"What're you doing?"
"I was gonna take the kid's bonds off so that he can eat."
"Leave 'em. Hopefully, he'll be home soon enough."
Shrugging, Touru sat down, casting a sympathetic look at the child sitting
pitifully on the floor.
* * * *
Mamoru wanted to wipe away the tears from his face, but he couldn't. He'd
tried to struggle out of the bombs, but they were tied tightly, and he'd only managed to raw the skin raw so that it hurt when he moved them at all. He was so hungry, and he was scared. New thoughts were bombarding him, things that had never occurred to him, and a small doubt was taking root in the back of his brain. A part of him had begun to realize that he might not be the invincible child he thought he was. But, the thought was still small, and larger concerns were on his mind. The most prominent one was that he had to
go to the bathroom. Bad.
"I hafta go to the bathroom..." He finally voiced, looking up at the large man, who abruptly stopped walking. He spoke after a minute's consideration.
"Hold it."
"It's midnight, I'm making the call," Touru called out to his partner,
picking up the phone.
"Excellent. Make it short, we don't want to get traced. I'm sure Reiji's got the place crawling with police."
"I know," Touru responded, the turning his attention to the phone. "Takatori Reiji?" Touru waited a moment for the conformation. "We have your son. If you would like him back, leave 50 million in a suit case-" Touru paused for a moment as Reiji said something on the other end. His eyes suddenly went large. "No? What?" He listened for a minute before he hung up the phone, looking at it aghast.
"What?!" Daisuke moved forward.
"He just cut me short. He said he doesn't want the kid."
There was a moment of silence in the room. It was broken by the sounds of
Mamoru's sobbing. Touru looked at the child with pity in his eyes, Daisuke with disgust. They had risked a lot for a kid who turned out to be worthless.
Mamoru curled into a tiny ball, ignoring the pain it caused his arms and
wrists. A new emotion begin developing in him. One that none should ever have to feel, most of all, never a child. It was the feeling of not be wanted or loved. He'd felt as though a cold knife had been plunged into his heart, twisting around slowly as it tore out everything he'd held as fact and truth. He was overcome with horrible pain, and was swamped in the realizations that were hitting him with agonizing force. First and foremost was that he'd never get to see Hirofumi again. It was hard to understand all
the repercussions outside of that because there were so many. He did not realize-not fully- that his soul had been broken and would have to be built over again. He did not
realize that he had aged considerably in a matter of seconds. But he did realize that he was alone in a world that now seemed vast and cold.
* * * *
Touru looked contemplated the child. The news of his father not wanting him had visibly broken the kid. After he'd finished sobbing, he'd just sat there sort of catatonic. He hadn't moved from his fetal position, and when Daisuke has mentioned just killing the kid, because what the hell were they supposed to do with him? He hadn't moved, or made a sound. Touru sighed. It wasn't fair for the child, and he suddenly felt like a very evil person. If they hadn't kidnapped him, Mamoru wouldn't have learned about his father's uncaring, at least not for a long time. And ignorance was bliss, wasn't it?
Besides, he had a brother he obviously loved. Suddenly the lights went black and before Touru could react, he felt something smash into the back of his head and everything go dim. When he woke up hours later, he would have a horrible headache, be just as poor as when all of this started, and would have to put up with Daisuke, who would be in a very sour mood.
* * * *
The child didn't know who had grabbed him, and he wasn't aware of where he
was. He had spent the hours after the phone call in shut down mode, and the person who was Takatori Mamoru began to change.
* * * *
Hirofumi looked expectedly at his father, hoping he had news on his
brother, that it had been some sort of ransom case and that it had been paid out, and Mamoru would be home in the morning.
"Hirofumi, Masafumi, I want to let you know that the police found Mamoru's body in an abandoned warehouse at approximately midnight last night. We'll be holding the funeral on Wednesday," Reiji explained to them calmly, as if relaying that his youngest son's death was nothing more then a pig being put to the slaughter. Hirofumi glanced over at his brother, and was glad to see that even he seemed shocked and affected by the news. He was sure he wasn't bothered as much as him though. He could almost feel the pieces of his heart break into tiny slivers.
* * * *
"Do you remember who you are?"
The golden hair child shook his head, looking dully up at the man with
the brown eyes and short brown hair. His memory stirred and he was filled with a sense of deja vu, but it was brief and quickly covered up.
"You are Tsukiyono Omi," The man, Persia, as he would later learn, told him simply and without flourish.
And the happy, teasing child that had once been the youngest member of the Takatori family, a charming child with golden hair and vibrant blue eyes, was dead. And Tsukiyono Omi, for better or for worst, had been born in his place.
End Chapter One!
Well, what did you think? Did you like it? Chapter two will be coming out soon! (I hope!) Please send me comments and things like that! ^^