He had always been a boy. Always. And up until a certain age he had a happy family. That all changed sometime when he was 5. Well, you could say that it changed, although anyone who said that his life didn't change would be blind. And at around the age of 8 the little boy he had been at age 5 was merely a distant memory. By age 12 it had all but completely faded away.
Well, his happy family was not quite a normal family. A father in the yakuza was definitively not quite normal, and their definition of happiness had always been quite ambiguous. It was all very much up in the air. And they were a bit more cool and distant to even the close relations. The Hibari family was, after all quite different than the average family.
His mother's name was Akiko, and he remembered vaguely that she had been what herbivores would have considered 'pretty'. They never guessed the deadliness that hid in his mothers beauty. It was alright, he duly noted. They were herbivores, the reason that they were herbivores was precisely because they did not notice.
When he was 3 he was taught to use his signature weapons, the tonfas, by various people in the Hibari household, but mostly by his mother.
His incredibly gentle mother taught him to wield the blunt weapons with deadly accuracy. He was going to need it one day, she said. He had only thought it justification for her showing him how to fight at the time.
On looking back he blamed himself for being careless. And on looking back he completely forgot that he was 3 and a far different person than he was now. He forgot, but humans forget, and it is only natural.
As a young boy he was always being praised by the servants at how dedicated he was towards his training, and both of his parents watched him with pride, and a certain grim happiness.
They believed that danger would come, but they underestimated when. The danger came far too soon, although if it came at any time it could have been too soon. Kyoya had only been trained for two years when the attack came.
And it was gentle Akiko that fell defending her son, because she was a mother, and that was the ultimate mother's sacrifice. And the funeral was held quietly, and the funerals of many dead was also held.
Kyoya attended his mother's funeral dry eyed, remembering what she had said to him before she left to defend him. 'Protect Namimori my son when you are old enough.' like she had said many times before.
She had said that she would explain it when he was older, but when he was older she was no longer there, and he was left holding her words close to his heart. Words that held a muddled meaning. He took it literally, the buildings themselves were to be protected, and the school that his mother had went to most of all.
Akiko had often narrated Namimori Middle School to her son. It was the place that she cherished most, although she had told him that all schools were sacred. She had thought it self evident that people were also sacred, but Kyoya never knew about that piece of advice. It had been lost far too soon.
Perhaps it was only by chance that he lost that piece of advise that drove him so horrifically away from other people. His eyebrow twitched slightly in irritation, there was no reason to believe that being different was a bad thing.
Only herbivores were the same as one another, and enjoyed being the same as one another. He was not an herbivore, therefore he had no reason to be the same as everyone else. Although at times when the streets that he patrolled was very dark, he wondered what it would be like to have a normal existence. When the thought can up he quashed it immediately, Hibari's did not think herbivorous thoughts.
His father grew ever more distant from him after the death of his mother. He often immersed himself deep into his work. There were times when Kyoya didn't see him for months at a time. And slowly, he began to grow apart from his father, and from other people.
He still trained with his tonfas daily; he still went to school, but while he pulled the highest marks in his class, he was often anti-social. And very often, he punished people for breaking school rules, or desecrating any part of Namimori.
It became routine, but more than that, it became habit. And slowly but surely he grew up.
He tolerated few people, Tetsuya, his cousin was one. Emiko, although he didn't know why was another, and a few others but they were largely unimportant. Tetsuya, his second in command, and Emiko were the only ones to speak to him. His second was the only real person who talked to him on a daily basis.
And after a while, only Emiko stood in front of him and tilted her head back to look him in the eye. Only the girl-omnivore dared. Not even his second-in-command dared to do that for more than 3 seconds.
Emiko, who was painfully shy with others, although yet also very kind, both herbivorous traits, was able to talk to him without running in the other direction. Or deferring to him in whatever he said even if it was something that was completely insulting. It made her omnivorous.
He knew very well that she was unable to fight him. She had no physical ability whatsoever, but she was still the only person who didn't internally quake in his presence.
And that was refreshing, to a certain extent.
He had demanded many times for her to fight him. He wanted to know what made her tick. She had declined politely every single time. Even when he threatened her there was no use, she stared back at him, unflinchingly.
There was no fear that he could exploit, and she didn't break any rules. She was always quiet, in the back of the classroom. Perhaps she was doodling in her little sketchpad, but she was always listening.
And he didn't know why she didn't also graduate when it came time to graduate Namimori Middle School. Somehow she stayed, not really to learn, he knew well enough that she took high school courses late at night, but for something else.
Someday he would find out what that something else was, but someday is not today.
A.N. A two-shot in the Blooming Flowers, Floating Clouds universe. It's going to include a one-shot about Hibari Kyoya and another one about Kurowa Emiko.
I guess it's just me trying to get how I want my Hibari to be and how I want to represent Emiko.
Tell me what you think. It helps a lot.
Leaf