History is nice ! I love history ! Hq! people in historical settings ! (ok there isn't that much history but just so you know : first bit is set during the Peloponnesian War, Athens against... like, everyone else lead by Sparta, because Athens was kind of a pain to other Greek cities)
Day 4: Reincarnation - Light and dark
Athens, 434 BC
The boy has light hair, so pale it is almost silver, and Daichi simply has to watch it as the boy swirls around, dances in circle around the table. He has a loincloth around his hips, and barely anything else – it swishes just above his knees when someone calls him to fill in his cup of wine. Daichi usually doesn't drink too much but tonight, he just might.
There will be a battle tomorrow, against Sparta. Daichi is going and he doesn't know if he will make it out alive - is sure he won't make it out alive. It shows, too, in the behaviour of those around him, already tipsy and talking loudly about spears and battle strategy. About life, after the battle, life in the afterworld – heroes die at war and they feel like heroes tonight.
"Please, fill my glass again !"
The boy bows to pour the wine, and no, Daichi is not staring at his chest or at the way the loincloth sways.
Really, it's wonderful how they end up in a garden, lips messily pressing against skin and panting and moaning. If people happened to step on them, Daichi wouldn't even care – he is going to die, he is going to die, he wants to at least die with the memory of pleasure on his mind.
"I don't know your name – aah, don't stop doing this-"
"You don't know my name ?" the boy stops doing whatever he was doing with his mouth, and looks at him, puzzled. "But I thought you recognised my aura, you did follow me, after all."
"I'm sorry, I don't think I ever saw you before today, you were just so – light – I can't think straight when you're mouthing this way !"
"You forgot again, uh. Well it's ok, next time might be the one."
"We won't meet again, I'm going to die tomorrow."
It's not a lie, it's not that he knows he has very few chances to make it out alive anyway – it just is a fact. Shadows deepen when he thinks about tomorrow, and he knows enough about omens to read this one.
"Eh, really ? You always had a knack to predict that kind of thing. Can't you make something fun happen for once ?"
"I can make fun happen now if you stop talking about stuff I don't understand."
"Alright, alright, let's reunite for a while."
Daichi doesn't understand, doesn't really care, he just wants more. And he gets more, more skin, more pale fingers trailing on his thighs as they start kissing again. This is not new to Daichi, the physical part at least. But the boy's eyes are light, his hair is light, everything becomes light when they start rocking their hips together, finally chasing the shadows away – Daichi can't look away, completely lost.
"It didn't work."
"What didn't ? Did you- are you hurt ?"
"No, no, it's just that… I guess it's because you don't remember."
"I don't understand."
"No, probably." The boy gets up, puts his loincloth back, and smiles. Sharp teeth and angles. Not gentle at all. "Go die, now, my dark warrior. Until we meet again."
His sword is broken, and the Spartan in front of him is raising his own – Daichi is going to die, he doesn't even care, charges forth with a battle cry. He remembers the boy. Until they meet again.
Paris, 1439
Witchcraft and sorcery don't exist, they really don't, and Daichi sighs when Shouyou excitedly yanks at his arm. He's just a kid, with shiny eyes and a goofy smile on his too small features.
"You're going to see the witches burn, are you, Daichi ? We have the day off, we should go !"
"I don't understand what's so interesting about this."
"Well, come and you'll see."
And Daichi goes, because he has nothing else to do – there is nothing interesting about death, but he might agree with Shouyou, for an unknown reason.
The town square is swarming with people, like on fair day. They are here to see murder, Daichi realises, and he feels sick to his stomach. There are children here, laughing and playing with sticks, and they're here to see blood. Shouyou looks elated when he wonders aloud how many they are going to burn today.
A weak trumpet sound, a man reading a list – crimes, wickedness, if they truly did all this, those witches do deserve to burn. The witches will burn anyway. They're here now, they've been brought out of the wain that travelled all the way through town from the prison and she is in it. Her pale hair is so dirty Daichi doesn't understand how he even knows it is silver but she is almost shining, climbing on that stake, holding hands with the other young girl, she is here, she is a witch. Daichi doesn't know her but it sends pangs after pangs of hurt to his heart and suddenly the witch burning is very interesting. Shouyou screams when he sees them, and cries, and holds Daichi's hand so tight he doesn't notice how hard Daichi is holding back.
"Daichi. Tobio is up here. Daichi. They can't burn her – she's not a witch !"
"Shouyou, who is the women with her ?"
"I don't know, I don't care, they're-"
"You can't stop that. Those two girls are going to die."
He doesn't know why he is so certain about this fact, like it was decided a long time ago and the witch burning is only a mere coincidence, but he does. They are being tied together now, and the priest is declaiming something in Latin - fake Latin, it sounds fake to his ears, but he never studied Latin, how would he know - and the crowd is alternatively silent and cheering – like a giant heartbeat, the slow breath of the world, and-
"Daichi, please, I don't want her to die."
-they light the stake. Screams, screams, Shouyou is the one screaming louder, or maybe it's just because they're side to side and all he can hear is a blur because she looks at him.
"Ah, you're here !" she says, like there aren't any flames lapping at her feet, like the girl next to her isn't scared to her bones, "Too bad we meet just before one of us dies again."
Daichi can't talk, she wouldn't hear, how did he hear, he just listens as she starts singing softly for the girl besides her, as she disappears before a curtain of fire.
All Daichi sees is light, all too familiar, burning the darkness behind his eyelids.
Verdun, 1914
Bombs, everywhere – almost like a firework, flowers of light and death falling at their feet. The Germans are cheering somewhere close. Do their tranches go as far as theirs ? Will they run into the enemy basecamp when they start digging again, tomorrow morning ? Will he even be alive ?
Without understanding why he is so sure, Daichi knows that yes, he will live to see the sun rise, just like he knew he'd survive yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, ever since the war began and he was sent here to fight. It has stopped being a comforting thought weeks ago. Now, he only wishes for a shell to destroy this pile of mud they call a camp and put an end to their misery. War should be short and glorious, like the poems said, not… not this.
"Hey, look, it's stopped raining."
Indeed, as Koutarou said, water stopped falling from the sky. The air is so damp he didn't even notice.
"Time for the bombs. Get under cover, unless we're firing first ?"
"Nah, we're waiting for powder."
"And food. We need food, the younger ones are going to pass out if they're not given something solid soon."
They look to the North, where the sun lights other notches in the earth. Germans, tranches. Enemies. Daichi thinks they're both wondering whether the Germans have food and powder or if they're just as lost as they are, in this piece of ground that starts to look more and more like a piece of hell. It takes them a little while to notice the white flag someone is waving back and forth frantically, and the head underneath - "Hello ? Hello, please shoot not !"
He has a strong German accent but his English is decent.
"We hear that you miss food ? We need bandages, maybe... maybe we can exchange ?"
They can't do that, that's completely silly and unrealistic and against the rules – and the little shrimp already passed out from exhaustion twice so they don't have much to lose.
"Ok, show your face. Then we deal. No weapons."
"Much thank !"
Pointed helmet, like the ones in caricatures, but the German seems to remember how much of a hate symbol they've become when he sees them seethe and takes it off. His hair, pale silver, seems to be floating for a moment. Daichi's breath catches in his throat. This man. He's seen him before.
"Do I know you ?"
"I've travelled a lot."
"I don't mean it like that. We've met. A long time ago."
The soldier doesn't answer, not looking at him, only giving them canned beef and taking the too damp bandages before sinking back into the hole he came out of. Are they moles now, buried so deep in the earth they're being swallowed whole ? Buried so deep in the darkness they're becoming shadows ?
At least now they'll survive.
"Are you here ?"
Nightfall, cold, blizzard, this has been what the world feels like for the past week. For the past month, even. Coldest winter in a century, they say, and they had to plan the war through it.
"Yes, you can smoke a cigarette, I think we are for long staying here."
"You always speak the verbs funny."
"They are placed very differently in German."
"Figured."
Enemy doesn't have a meaning when you're only seven in a tranche next to the other nine from that country you're fighting against, and the world is so frozen up around you even bombs have stopped falling. No need to add fire hazard to the frost.
"You still haven't told me where we met before. I'm sure we did and I'm never wrong about stuff like that."
"I agree. You are never mistaken when it is about seriousness."
Enemy also means silver-headed mystery.
"Give me hints, at least !"
"We… you fought a war."
"Nah, it's my first battle."
"I was burned at the stake because I was a witch."
"You're… you look very much alive to me."
"I think so too. Hmm, what else… we had sex."
Daichi splutters – they what ?! He would remember that, and it definitely did not happen. No matter what the voice in his head is telling him.
"Ok, you're poking fun, but you still haven't answered."
"Break is over, we have to go."
"Ugh. I hope you don't die."
"That's not what you say to an enemy."
With this endless war, with the cold literally eating at their flesh and burning holes into their skin, with their empty stomachs growling more and more desperately for warm food that never comes, Daichi isn't sure they can tell who is the enemy anymore.
He wakes up with a gasp. Fioush, that's the sound of bombs falling, splourch, that's when they hit the ground, somewhere distant – his side is shooting. Good. He probably won't die.
Koushi will.
He doesn't even feel shock – like two days ago when he saw Koutarou crumble to the ground, not even batting an eye because he knew his head injury was lethal under the thick blanket of mud covering his face, and Tetsurou slapped him because how dare he not react when he sees a companion falling ?! It's not shock – Daichi feels furious. Daichi feels rage pooling in his stomach. Koushi can't die on him without telling him the truth, that's not what they agreed on.
"Hold on, Daichi, you can't just run like that, there are mines everywhere !"
But Tetsurou can yell all he wants, that won't stop him from running over the no man's land like his life depends on it. It sort of does, when a mine explodes under his feet and he is sent flying right into the German tranche.
"Daichi ? What has happened ?"
Even now, he still seems to beam a smile at him, like he did when he was about to burn – no, he was never about to – no, he was here in a loincloth and make up all over his hand and he baked bread for him and they danced for the emperor and they went sailing for the new world. Is head is spinning, blood rushing to his ears as loud as thunder.
"..."
Koushi is shouting his name – not "Daichi", he isn't called "Daichi" - his actual name, that he can't understand, and he answers with a rasp of his own, Koushi's name, if that's what it means.
"You remember ? You really do ?"
Fioush, that's the sound of a bomb falling, the one that will kill Koushi.
"I think so ? We had sex, I remember that. And you were a cat once."
"Oh please, don't ever speak of that again."
Daichi certainly won't, they are going to die, he can hear the bomb falling faster and faster. No chance of avoiding it by hiding into the mud, like he did two days ago, it's directly over them.
"Do you really think we're going to die ? Even if we do, whatever, we'll come back. It's more likely the best thing that has happened in, what, three thousand years ? Since you've forgotten me for that long, I expect a little compensation. Maybe you can be the one to die first this time."
Daichi smirks, and it's so out of place Koushi laughs – he is the one to die first this time, when the bomb shatters his brains and Koushi's laugh turns into a plea and then nothingness.
I have another bit I couldn't add because I didn't manage to write it well but once, Daichi reincarnated as a sailor, and Suga hid in his boat as a clandestine but was found out after a week when he was stealing food, he was so upset Daichi still didn't recognise him he shouted "Be damned !" at the captain and was thrown overboard. And there you go another reincarnation cycle wasted. Get your shit together, Light-incarnation Suga ^^
Their latest incarnation to date is Karasuno, and... they don't remember. The two of them. But they will, later in the future. You know, light, dark, eternally chasing each other but can't reunite. I'll stop rambling now, I hope you enjoyed !