horrorrrpgartmastersupplier requested: Oh! Oh! Tanizaki before he became an Underworld Escort? (I'm excited!)

Admin Notes: Okay, sure! The whole fanfiction is kind of me playing with his namesake a lot so please forgive me. It's all theories I've been slowly conducting, and are probably far from the truth. (My history is also bad, forgive me for any errors I have made.) -Admin Hirahara

While Tanizaki was taking an afternoon nap under the shade of the headquarters, he started having a very unusual dream. It wasn't just any dream; it was a nostalgic dream of days in the past. It was not often he started remembering bits and pieces of his life before Rokkaku found him, and it was never always a solid memory. This time, though, it flowed like some kind of movie, playing in front of his eyes…

—

In a remote village in the Iya Valley, there lived a small boy and his family. Their house was hard to get to, on Oku-Iya, separate from the rest of the houses located on Nishi-Iya. His father, once part of the Heike Clan, was now a refugee in the area. His mother, a resident of the village, fell in love with him and had their children, an older boy and a younger girl. They were all rather happy, even if the people of the village did not accept them.

Their house was built just above a river that cut the valley - the only way to the other side was by crossing one of the various vine bridges that people built. The boy and the girl often went down to the bridges to wash clothing in the river, and they would then string their clothes in rows by the riverbank to dry. Each day was usually spent joyously by the family.

Until one day, the father crossed the village to get vegetables and never returned. The family waited, and waited, but he never crossed back. It was learned later that while on the vine bridge with others, the bridge ripped itself from it's support and the handful of people had fallen to their death. "It's because he was once part of the Heike Clan, and this is punishment." The rumor spread throughout the town.

After that, the children loathed the riverbank. The mother had a hard time as well, for she grew a fear of bridges. She ended up sending her son to run the errands for her, while she doted her daughter at home. "×××, go to the market for me, and sell our handmade tools." She often asked. He often would, but suffered the wrath of the village in the process.

"The cursed child is here…" they would often mutter under their breaths. As if the boy couldn't hear them. The owners of the stalls would often bully him as well, not paying him enough for the tools and making him pay for more than he could afford in food. The family slowly became poor. The boy didn't want to tell his mother or sister of their misfortunes. Instead, when it was clear no one would buy their tools, he began to steal food for his family.

In the mornings, he would cross the bridge with the tools in a basket. When he arrived on Nishi-Iya, he would throw them away by the river rocks and head into the village and markets. There, he would carefully take a few vegetables that would not be missed, and pieces of meat that were sure to be thrown out. He was caught, on occasion, and sometimes returned home empty handed, bruised and hurt.

The little sister began to miss her brother, and sometimes sneaked out to the bridge to watch him leave. One day, she witnessed him dumping the tools into the river. Confused, she followed him across the vine bridge, until she was at the village's edge as well. The little boy did not realize she had been there, but some of the villagers did. "It's the other cursed child…" They whispered to each other. Since she was still a little girl, they acted more boldly to her.

The little boy realized too late what had become of his little sister. The villagers threw her into the river for causing such misfortune to the village. The little boy blamed himself for what had happened. If only I hadn't worried her… he thought. If only I hadn't come home bruised and beaten, she wouldn't have become curious.

He did not want to return home that day, for he knew his mother would worry about his little sister. He decided that he would not go back until he found her and brought her back safely, for he insisted to himself that she was alive. He crossed the vine bridges with persistence, wondering where she could have washed up. It was getting dark, and he feared that if she was not found soon, she would be lost forever.

On his seventh time across the bridge, it was dark and he couldn't see. The vines that were strained under the pressure of being crossed so many times finally gave out, ripping apart. He was thrown off balance and into the river as well. The little brother thought he could survive the fall, for there were not a lot of rocks at the bottom of the river. Instead, he landed on a pile of tools that he'd thoughtlessly discarded days before, and it split him in half on impact. The last thing he remembered was saying sorry to his mother for not being able to return his sister home…

—

"…hm…?" Tanizaki blinked, some dust getting in his eyes. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but the sun had already set. He sat up from his resting place under the building, trying to remember what he was doing before hand. "Dreaming?" He asked out loud. He couldn't remember what it was about. Somehow, though, there was a pang of sadness in his heart.

It only lasted a brief moment. From somewhere higher up, something fell on his head. It was a cork from a bottle of wine. "Ack! Sorry!" He heard Kinoshita call down from the window, before adding "ah! Tanizaki! Come have a drink with me!" For once in his life, the violet eyed man decided that it would be best if he accepted the offer, and returned inside to share the wine with the emerald eyed man.