I do not own "We Shall Be Free" or its writer/singer Garth Brooks.
Note: I attempted to use the correct Japanese honorifics in this story, if I happened to mess something up please don't get mad at me... I'm going off of something I printed off the internet that a Japanese friend of my edited... It's sort of hard to read her handwritting.
There's this song, "We Shall Be Free," and in it, there's this line, "When the last thing we notice is the color of skin, and the first thing we look for is the beauty within." That was really true in my neighborhood, everyone was different, there were even kids who didn't look like their parents. Discrimination was common when I was growing up on the 'inside', no one bothered to see what was inside a person. That was true for me too.
Then again, I guess it was hard to see the beauty inside me. I don't even think I had any, at least not at that point. No, I didn't really have any good qualities until a few years after I moved to the 'inside', until the day I met him...
A young boy was sitting in the park making a nest out of grass. He noticed that a girl about his age had been sitting on the swing not to far from him for a while. She sat on the unmoving swing and her black hair covered her face as she stared at her bare feet.
Kurama watched the girl for a few more minutes before getting up and walking over to her. He stood in front of the girl for a little before smiling and happily saying: "Hi." The girl continued to stare at her feet.
'What is he doing?' the girl thought. 'Why is he talking to me? No one talks to me.'
"Hi," the boy said again.
"Hi." she answered quietly, not looking up.
"My name's Shuichi, what's your name?"
She looked up defiantly at the boy, expecting to scare him, instead, he just watched her expectantly.
"My name? My name's..." 'What am I doing?' she thought. "Just call me Risty."
"Hi 'just call me Risty'-san."
Risty couldn't help it; she let out a short laugh. Then she looked surprised, as if she couldn't believe she had made that sound. Shuichi smiled at her and she immediately went back to hiding behind her hair.
Kurama bit his lip; all he did was smile...
"Are you here by yourself?" he asked, trying to lure her into talking.
"Yes," she answered cautiously.
"Where's your mother?"
"She's dead." Risty snapped, glaring at him. "And don't ask about my father, I don't have a father
"I don't have a father either."
Risty lowered her gaze. "Oh,"
"I do have my mother though, so I guess I have it a little better than you do." 'You're rambling.' he thought. "So whom do you live with?" (Yes that's correct, sadly)
"Um, my dog Shigure, my cat Kyo, my three kittens, Scout, Sox, and Mittens, my gerbil Yuki, my bunny Momiji, my fish, my sea horse Hatori, my snake Ayame, (A/N does anyone know where those came from?) and, of course, Minahi, she's my..." Risty faltered and quickly finished with, "fox."
"That's a lot of animals," the boy whispered. "Do you live with any people? Any adults?"
"No. Who needs adults? I take good care of myself."
"But, you're only eight! You can't live alone!"
"Shows how much you know, and how do you know I'm eight?"
"Because you look like you're the same age I am." Kurama answered.
"Well, you don't know anything so stop acting like you do! If you don't have anything useful to say just go away!" she yelled.
People around the park started to look at them.
Honestly? I didn't really want him to leave, I liked the redheaded boy as I started to call him in my mind, it was just my nature to push everyone away from me. So they couldn't hurt me. At the time, I didn't know this boy wouldn't hurt me, maybe I kept him near me because I liked red-heads, maybe it was because he liked roses, maybe it was just because, deep down, I knew he would help heal some of the hurt I had been keeping inside for so long.
Anyway, he found out who and what I was later that afternoon. I was walking home after he had finally left...
Risty stopped walking for about the fifth time and turned around. She was positive she had heard someone following her, but every time she looked, no one was there. No one came to this part of the woods because people said ghosts haunted it.
'Well, they're partially right.' she thought.
Kurama ducked behind a tree. This had to be the fifth time the girl had turned around. Why was she acting so suspicious? And why was she in this part of the woods? There was a town of demons nearby and she shouldn't be here.
Risty stopped in front of a wall covered in ivy. She followed the wall with Kurama following as close behind her as he could without being seen. The girl sighed as she looked at the wrought iron gate in the wall.
"Home sweet home." she told the silence around her.
"Home?" a voice asked.
Risty spun around and found herself face to face with Shuichi. 'Damn it! He shouldn't be here.' she thought.
"What are you doing here?" she asked calmly.
"I'd ask you the same thing."
"I live here idiot. Why do you think I said 'home'? Not that it's much of a home."
"So, you know what this place is?"
"..."
"If you live here, it must mean you're a demon, right?"
Risty stared wide-eyed at the redhead. "How?"
"How do I know? This is Ikami, where the demons that live in this town live. If Koenma-sama ever found out about this place it would be emptied out and everyone in it would be sent back to the Makai."
"Please don't tell anyone." Risty begged.
"Alright. I won't."
"Thank you Shuichi-san."
"You just called me 'Shuichi-san'."
"Yeah, so?"
"When we aren't around people who know me you can just call me 'Kurama'."
"Kurama?"
"That's my name."
"But you said..."
"I know. Shuichi Minamino is my human name. My name in the Makai was Youko Kurama. So you can just call me Kurama."
"Kurama-san." Risty whispered. "Wait, why would I need to know this?" she asked quickly.
"We demons need to stick together, right? And if you're going to keep visiting the 'outside' you're going to need someone who knows their way around, it's easy to get lost." he smiled at her.
Risty stopped herself as she went to look down. "Eärendil!" she yelled after Kurama. "My name's Eärendil!" he nodded. "But don't call me that!" he nodded again.
Why did I tell him my name? I still don't know. All I know, is that if I hadn't told him, none of this would've happened, and I wouldn't be sitting here, writing this against the end. When they're gone, I want everyone to know the sacrifices these 'outsiders' made for us, for the Kinai. I don't want their deaths to be in vain, I don't want those I love to be forgotten. If this is to be prevented, I must swallow my emotions; I must record every detail, no matter how much it hurts me to remember...