The story is loosely based on A Cruel God Reigns.

WARNING!

Please do not read if violence and sexual abuse to children disturbs you. This will include very sensitive scenes in the next chapters and beware, this is not the lighter romance you are looking for. It is loosely inspired by many things with slight renditions and of personal taste. I took this theme because of personal reasons, but please do not flog me for me it. Once again, you have been warned!
The main characters are Asano Gakushuu and Karma Akabane, which the latter will appear in later chapter, heavily. There will be depictions of Karma and Nagisa as a pairing. But the main is Karma and Gakushuu as the focus.

Prologue

Asano Gakushuu was only eleven, when his mother had tried to kill herself by lighting the gas. And fourteen when he had seen the knife, on his own mother's wrists. He knew, that his father had passed away, leaving both of them alone. He had spent his days running back as fast as he could to his home, to make sure his mother hadn't hurt herself. It was an unchanging, stagnant fear.

What will he do when his mother had fell in love with a foreigner and decided to marry him? When for the very first time in seven years that his mother smiled, was the very start of his own demise?

A tragedy in Fushimi. A new home in London.
A new brother. A new father. A new place.
There his torturous nights, began.
Under the hands of the man, Reuben Ackman,
He learnt to be a murderer.

The story mainly follows Asano Gakushuu and Akabane Karma as the main protagonists.

Chapter 1

Mom! Wake up!" there the sound fell on deaf ears. The reek of gas in the air, she had poisoned herself in. The eleven year old boy, had just came home from school. And he found his mother sprawled unconscious on the living room, the house was just a flicker short to a fire. But, she was still breathing.

"Asano."

The roan haired boy, snapped back. This wasn't the past, he is in fact fiveteen, with a mother alive and well. Today's setting wasn't the mortuary, but the wood scented, conventional, Japanese classroom. "Yes, teacher?" he replied in question. "Finish the problem on the board."

There was a heaven in school that he could not explain. That he could be the best among the best, the king of all that can be done well. He was described as a helping, caring boy, who was confident in what he do as he does them well. It lifted him from the things he couldn't have helped himself from. The favor of everyone else, might as well be by his side.

Except perhaps, god himself.

It was fresh like yesterday, how humanity's finest form of perfection, or so in his eyes, his father, had passed away. It was a car accident, a very pitiful one. It was a truck, that had slammed headfirst to the vehicle. And the rest of it, like the doctors said, was beyond help. Asano Gakuhou, was a kind man. A true teacher, a father, a best friend. A man who gave everything for his family and education. When God decided to take his father back, he was ten. Why did he took his father of all people, he often pondered upon. But no answers was given, for him, god was deaf.

Eleven was the age where he feared all the times he had left home and all the times he hadn't gone out. Like the time his mother would prick herself with needles. His mother had apologized to him, multiple of times. As many as the attempts she did on herself. "I don't know, it just bled." she had said, her wrists are slit, five in total. A red, bloody mess. Yet, he couldn't help but worry. And he would rush home, every single time. Just so he had to make sure, that his mother is alright. Because truly, he felt, he had no one else. And he wouldn't let go. Like today, he would gladly ran all the way home. In tattered breaths, worth the relief.

He was greeted by his mother; Asano Aki, a beautiful woman with a graceful smile, a kindred soul with a meek, fragile heart. She would be the kind to dote kindly on his son, anger was never in her kind to do so. And thus, the boy had loved his mother, very much. She was mentally unstable, since her husband had deceased. Finding herself in trances and dangers she has put herself in, her delusions and broken reality. But she kept a beautiful boutique; she had build with her husband as a side business. The happy days where his husband would teach and she would knit garments to sheer perfection. Now, it was no smile, according to her son. It was always an empty expression, close, but never a smile. She had kept a memento of her husband, a sakura ornamented tsuba she held dearly. She had it displayed in the stall of her small boutique, where she would look at it longingly. And it was a painful, yet beautiful reminder, that they were both, once happy together. One day, a man entered the shop with one intention; her deceased husband's memento.

Gakushuu was there, helping his mother tend to the gowns she had sewed. And he heard the conversation. "This is a beautiful boutique." the tall man, a foreigner had complimented. "Thank you, very much." her cheeks was rosy. The boy's eyes lit, he had never seen that expression, in a very long time. The man was definitely wealthy, his clothes were well tailored, and his manner of speaking very languid. He was a British man, that spoke Japanese with a blank slate accent. Nearly perfect. His features were ruddy, handsome, and well groomed. The mannerism of a gentleman, by the way he engaged with the shopkeeper. A tourist, perhaps?

The conversation was around blouses he would have brought back for his relatives back in London. But his expression changed when he saw the cherry blossom memento displayed in the glass case of the store. He had offered quite a sum for the antique "I want to see the tsuba katana. How much?" He had asked. "There are many to choose from." replied the woman, as she drew out the case. "No, not these. I wanted that one." he pointed to that memento. She stood still for a moment, then politely declined with a smile, "It's not for sale, I am afraid." The man had a disgruntled expression, "Let me talk to the manager." The woman looked down as she withdrew the case, "It is very precious to me, you see." He then proceeded to offer very handsome amounts of money, but the widow wouldn't take no matter how high it was. "It has to be that cherry blossom tsuba!" he insisted in a raised tone. "Mister, that's enough." Gakushuu interrupted. He lowered his tone and started to let his money do the talking, but after no avail, the man finally stormed out of the shop, his face crossed, and terribly disappointed. The boy looked at his mother's saddened face. It seems that she had taken quite a liking to that stranger. It was unfair how he acted, the boy with fist clenched. He felt an urge to do something, and he ran after the man.

"Mister!" the boy called, the man was several feet away from the store. The man looked back and was surprised to see the boy tailing at him. "What is it?" he asked, hiding his bitter tone to the perhaps unknowing child. "Why do you want the tsuba so much, mister?" the boy asked. But the man didn't answer, he simply shook his head. The boy felt compelled to explain, because for him, it was rather unfair. "It was important to her, could you pick another one instead?" he asked the man. "Do you know her?" the man asked him back. "I am her son." he answered. "You know, the tsuba is created in a set of a pair, mine only has one." he added. "Mister, what would you do If my mother wanted to buy it from you?" the boy asked. "I wouldn't sell it to anyone." he replied. "My mother, also felt the same. Because that was a memento from my father." the boy said. And the man narrowed his eyes. "I am very sorry for that. Would you walk me back to the store?" the light haired man asked. The boy blinked in surprise, it worked.

With a nod and a short walk, they were back in the shop. The woman was very surprised to see him back here. "Lady, I am very sorry, I didn't knew. And it was rude of me to act that way. I didn't knew it was a memento of your belated husband. I apologize for my stubbornness." he uttered his regrets. Both the mother and son was wide eyed in disbelief, he was a man of good intentions, after all. "The reason why I wanted this piece very badly, was that because.." the man had pulled out a tiny case as he spoke. "This tsuba was the pairing set to the cherry blossom set that my belated wife Amelia, once gave me."

That night, little Gakushuu ate dinner alone, but he was glad. The nice man, had invited his mom for dinner. And it was a change of pace for his mother, who has been lonely for too long. He was glad, that after seven years long, her mother's cheeks was once again, the color of primrose. It was a quick, sudden change of heart in the man. And his little chest puffed up in pride when he remembered how he ran after the man and made his mother happy.

It was just a week and the man had been invited to lunch frequently in their household. She often had left, sightseeing with the man. How quickly things change, the little boy had thought. When two

month had come by, he dared himself to ask his mother, "Are you planning on marrying him?" It surprised his mother, but she had given instead, a pessimistic answer. "A modest boutique owner and a rich merchant from England? I can't dream of something so extravagant. I am an adult, after all." she replied with a smile, a rather sorrowful smile. That night, the boy went up to his bed and wondered what will happen of his mother and that man. He was a nice man who bought gifts, very wealthy, and well educated. A tailored suit Ermegildo Zegna and a degree from Oxford, was beyond what his mother could realistically find in her age nor place. "It was his last night here, in Japan, after all." the boy muttered, before he had fallen asleep.

But the next evening all together, was a whole different story.

"Gakushuu, I am getting married." the news fell like a jawdrop in the next evening. He can't believe how the man hadproposed to her. "When I had wanted to give that tsuba as a parting gift... He proposed to me with a ring. Gakushuu,I can't believe this. I am so happy." she said with her lips trembling. The little boy felt like the world was a whirpool of color, swiftly changing hues of ephemeral colors. It was such a beautiful smile, which was closed with a warm embrace. "Mother, I am very happy for you."

The boy walked slowly through the halls of the school. He was going to fetch his academic report alone, since his mother needed to take care fore certain arrangements for the wedding. The school interior was mostly made of wood, a simple school, that his father was once a teacher in. He inhaled the floral smell of summer, the sound of cicadas. If she married the foreigner, his mother would probably go abroad. Gakushuu clenched his fists. "I don't need to go, right? Japan is the only home, I know." he thought. And when he had went home, he showed his splendid results as usual. First in the entire grade, was written there, his chest puffed highly. He gave it to his mother, who would reward him with a warm hug. And it was probably one of the best things he could study for. He loved his mother very much. And there was nothing in this world is allowed to make her unhappy.