Shoichi Irie is two years old when he reads his first book. His older sister is five years old and threw down a book from school in fury, crying that it was far too hard and wouldn't her mother help her, please?
When dinner comes, Shoichi is seen dragging the book to the dinner table, waddling. His sister laughs at the sight, and his mother thinks it is adorable.
Shoichi is too young to know that Daddy is never home.
During dinner, Shoichi looks at the book and begins reading the simple sentences.
"There once was a boy…"
Shoichi Irie is ten years old when he first learns how to stop crying. Daddy is home, and his sister isn't and his mom is yelling at his father for missing Shoichi's award ceremony.
It was a silly little award. Something about mathematical achievements. Shoichi has a whole shelf or two (or three or four or five or none since they're all thrown in the back of his closet, hidden so he never has to see them) of awards. He's old enough to know that Mommy is yelling for him, or even about him.
Shoichi is old enough to stop crying, because if Daddy isn't home ever, if Daddy is always working, Shoichi has to be a big boy and help Mommy. And so Shoichi stopped crying and tries to be ever-so-helpful. He cleans, he shops, he washes his sister's clothes and picks up the apartment.
And he studies. He doesn't go out much; he just studies to make sure he's the smartest and least-troublesome kid ever so that Mommy can do whatever she wants.
"And he was so very alone…."
Shoichi is twelve years olds when his mother forgets his name for the first time. His sister is sitting in the kitchen, reading some gossip magazine, his father is overseas doing something very important and his mother is gabbing on the phone.
"My daughter! All she does it talk and talk on the phone and go out with her boyfriend!" His mother complains lightheartedly. "Honestly, I don't know what to do!"
His sister spares a glance to their mother, before scoffing.
"Oh? Shotaro? Why, he's so quiet I don't understand that boy. All he does is sit in his room and study!"
(and cook and clean and shop and wash and dry and run and sleep and eat and never sleep he can't sleep anymore)
His mother makes a pained expression. "Shoichi, I mean. His name is Shoichi! Shotaro…why, I don't know why I said that!" His mother laughs before talking about some horrid mistake made by a woman on last night's special.
"This lonely boy met an evil wizard one day…"
Shoichi is fifteen years old and just losing his baby fat when he meets Byakuran. It's a hot summer day and his sister is at her boyfriend's family's house in Kyoto and his mother is out with a friend and his father is somewhere in China doing something no doubt very important.
Shoichi is the number one student in Japan, the smartest, the one with the highest score and his mother never forgets his name anymore. His sister is jealous, so jealous that she stole his school uniform and burnt it but Shoichi will never know that and just thinks he misplaced it.
It's a hot day out, and Shoichi would love to be somewhere with friends, somewhere near water and watermelons and fireworks but he doesn't have friends so he's in a suit accepting an award for his research on orchids.
Shoichi doesn't really care about flowers, but it was something that would make his mother proud so he spent three months learning about orchids and their medical uses.
Shoichi has learned that orchids are really a type of weeds. That as beautiful and delicate looking as they are they choke (choke) up all the surrounding plants.
An odd foreigner greets him after the ceremony, while scientists are toasting Shoichi then ignoring him, leaving him to stand in a corner, smiling forcibly.
"Do you like flowers, Shou-chan?"
Shoichi thinks the foreigner must not be very familiar with Japanese. His accent is passable, but he must not really understand the nuances of it, that he's not a child and that being called 'chan' is rather girly.
So, Shoichi doesn't bother correcting him, and just smiles. "Not really. It was a contest, and I had nothing else to do." Shoichi laughs a little, a cheerful social laugh that really means nothing except that there is nothing to talk about.
"My name is Gesso Byakuran. I actually know a few things about flowers myself…"
"And, the boy was an orphan. The wizard took the boy in…"
Shoichi is sixteen years old when he comes home from school, excited to tell everyone that he made a friend, a real life friend whose name he now forgets. He is sixteen years old when he cheerfully walks in to the apartment, whistling a tune.
Mother is home, sister is home and Daddy is home for his birthday, the first time in years. And Shoichi is so excited that he almost forgets to breath, opening the door.
There isn't a lot of blood. Whoever killed them was quick about it, just slicing their throats and throwing the bodies on a pile. There isn't that much blood, but there is some and its staining the snow-white carpet that Shoichi had cleaned yesterday getting ready for his birthday and cake and presents and Daddy and Shoichi screams so loud that he's not screaming, just his mouth open not breathing.
He falls on the floors, sliding boneless against the wall. Shoichi is hysterical, panting and murmuring things.
(why, and how, and who, and when and what and this isn't fair it's his birthday and he's sixteen, Happy Birthday but the cake hasn't been cooked yet since he was planning on doing it as soon as he got home and it was chocolate, everyone else's favorite)
"And the boy loved the wizard, for he was so kind to the boy…"
Shoichi is eighteen years old and he is fluent in Italian. He's lived here for two years now, and doesn't often have to speak Japanese anymore.
Somehow, he ended up living with Byakuran, who tells him he's a scientist of sorts, and a business man of less-then reputable means. Shoichi doesn't question it much, because he's rather thankful to Byakuran.
Byakuran, who saved him from greedy aunts who wanted to brag that they had the smartest child (not a kid anymore) living under their roofs, and wanted to be called "Mother". Byakuran, who saved him from odd whispers about the poor little orphan genius boy and gave him a blessed anonymous life in this country where everyone drinks wine and where there is no one talking in fast-harsh Japanese on phones, but in smooth Italian only.
Byakuran, who kisses him each night before he goes to bed and often comes with him to his bed; not his futon because this isn't Japan anymore. This is Italy.
In Italy, the monsters do not lie under the beds because they are far too beautiful. The monsters sleep on beds.
"And the boy never noticed the wizard was slowly killing him…"
Shoichi is twenty-one years old when he first learns exactly what it is that Byakuran does.
He doesn't care because it is Byakuran who is doing it, and that means that everything is fine. It doesn't matter that what he's now researching will kill his former neighbor.
Shoichi doesn't care, and just pulls Byakuran down to bed.
"One day, the boy left to find the wizard some herbs for a spell…"
Shoichi is twenty-two years old when he goes back to Japan, back to his old neighborhood. A stone's throw, really.
There is no Byakuran, except on television screens and embarrassing flower messages that scare Shoichi because if he knows one thing, it's that he doesn't know what Byakuran means.
"An enemy of the wizard killed the boy, and the wizard who had been living on the boy's energy died."
There is so much blood this time, and Tsuna, the one he knew in Japan, is saying sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry, I'll make sure this never happens and Shoichi wants to kill Tsuna for saying that.
Shoichi is twenty-three years old when he dies, and all he can think of is the scenarios that are going to plague Byakuran now. And for the first time since Shoichi was ten…
He cries.
"The End"