Tarot of the Week
Author's Note: This used to be a chapter-fic, Tarot of the Week, but I decided to separate them since they are not related and are from different categories.
At first, I thought, chariot = car = road trip, but I didn't really have any good plot bunnies involving a road trip. Then I looked at other aspects of the card. One person holding the reins of two horses who are facing different direction. So, one person, two paths. But I kinda already did that with the 2 of Pentacles. Then I thought, one person, two minds. So, spilt personalities or multiple personas it is.
XXXXX Jan 21, 2018 XXXXX
Week 4: The Chariot (Nurarihyon no Mago)
Nura Rikuo is one and two and two and one.
He is not exactly sure when it started. Maybe the moment of his birth. Or maybe from the moment his youkai blood first awakens to save his classmates from a traitorous group in their Clan. Whatever it is, he goes from a solid 1 to something just a little extra, a 1.00000000001.
And maybe he would have stayed that way… if it isn't for his father's murder.
Seeing his father lying motionlessly on the ground, blood pooling beneath him, with the girl he called onee-chan mere minutes ago holding a bloodied katana nearby is just too much for his eight-year-old mind. So, he buries the memories deep within his subconsciousness.
And, because he unconsciously associated his father's murder with the fact that he is quarter-youkai, along with the ridicule he faced with his human friends due to his belief, his knowledge, that youkai exists, he denies his youkai heritage and something within him fractures.
1.00000000001 becomes 1 and 0.00000000001. He becomes almost-they.
Maybe if almost-they are more like almost-their father, being half-youkai, with a perfect balance between both bloods, rather than a quarter, almost-their human blood would have never overpowered almost-their youkai side and almost-they would have never separated as such.
Regardless, the tiny seed that has been sectioned off begins to grow. And with every moment that almost-their youkai blood stirs, whether it leads to a complete awakening or not, that seed grows and grows.
Until 1 and 0.00000000001 becomes 1 and 1; and almost-they becomes they.
Their youkai half can remember everything their human half does, but their human half doesn't remember anything about the moments their youkai blood heats up and their youkai half surges up from the depths of their mind.
It creates a stark contrast between their personalities. Day and Night. Relatively timid and confidence bordering on arrogance. Preferring a diplomatic approach and using battles to speak for him. Relatively normal and charismatic. Worrier and proactively solving problems. Not the most well-known and center of the stage.
But, as their friends continue to become more and more involved in their youkai affairs, Day begins to become more aware of Night. Memories cross over between them, but they are still fundamentally too different to truly be considered one.
And so, 1 and 1 becomes 1.5 and 1.5, with Day bleeding into Night and Day finally bleeding into Night for the first time in years. To outsiders, they have mostly become he, but they know better. They are still mostly they.
But as time passes, as more battles are fought, forcing Day to also take up the reins once in a while, they gradually become almost-he. And by the end of everything, almost-he becomes he once more, just like how it is always meant to be.
Nura Rikuo is 1 and 2 and 2 and 1. It has been quite a journey to being one mind to having separate personalities to gradually becoming one again. And really, he wouldn't have it any other way.