It was yet another beautiful day in the land of Nippon. The whether wasn't too hot or too cold. Just how a certain young miko liked it. Kagura, popular child actress of Sei-An City, was taking advantage of the current outdoor conditions to perform her daily miko exercises and meditation in the nearby garden. The young girl clutched an exorcism slip in one hand as she twirled and danced around, gracefully, her eyes closed, breathing in and out, slowly. She was also wearing her miko outfit in order to better enhance her spiritual ballet.
Not too far from where Kagu whirled about, stood a small tree, and behind that small tree, there stood a young boy in purple warrior attire, a large wooden sword strapped to his back. The boy had his head poked just around the trunk of the small tree that concealed him, and he was gazing at Kagu as she danced about, with deep admiration in his beady little eyes. His name was Kuninushi, or Kuni for short, a boy who spent most of his time on a mission to find out who he really was, though more than often however, he would find himself tangled up in some sort of wild and crazy misadventure or another with his friends. However, he wasn't hiding behind a tree in the middle of a garden for either of those reasons. No, today Kuni had something special in mind.
The young swordsman let out a deep sigh as he continued to gaze at the exercising exorcist, misty-eyed. After a few seconds, he managed to snap himself out of his own trance-like state and immediately ducked back behind the tree, fearing that someone may have heard/seen him. Then Kuni suddenly remembered why he was there in the park, hiding behind a tree , which in reality served no means of concealment whatsoever as this was a public park, while making goo-goo eyes at Kagu. The boy walked over to a nearby koi pond and stared at his own reflection and began to talk to himself.
"This is it," said Kuni of the koi pond, "today's the day, it's finally time."
"I-I'm not so sure that I'm mentally prepared for this yet," Kuni admitted, "maybe I shouldn't do this yet..."
"Oh, don't give me that excuse, ya big baby," scolded the second Kuni, "this is what we've been training for, kid. This is why we're here!"
Kuni scratched the back of his head.
"B-bu-but what if she turns me down," he asked his reflection, "wh-what if she flat out rejects me and never speaks to me again! I'll be doomed to remain forever alone!"
"Get ahold of yourself, wimp!" snapped the other Kuni, "You're Kuninushi, kid warrior, raised and trained by Susano, the greatest warrior who ever lived! There ain't nothin' you can't do!"
Kuni straightened up.
"Y-your right," he said, "I CAN do this! I'm GONNA do this, I WILL do this!"
Kuni of the koi pond sprang into a salute.
"At ease, soldier!" he said.
Kuni saluted his reflection in response and turned around. He was surprised to see a mother and her daughter staring at him. After a long moment of silence, Kuni shooed them away.
"Mommy, who was da sword man talking to?" asked the little girl.
Kuni began marching over to Kagu in a marching band fashion. As he got closer, Kuni broke out into a nervous sweat. I can do this, I can do this, Kuni thought over and over again. As he got even closer, he began shaking. I can't do this, I can't do this, Kuni thought. He tried to turn around and make a break for it before Kagu noticed him but his legs seemed to be on autopilot and wouldn't stop. I'm gonna faint, OH MY GOD, I'm gonna pass out, Kuni thought. He was about three feet away from where Kagu stood. I'M GONNA DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE, Kuni thought. He was sweating, shaking, and trembling by the time he reached Kagu.
"HI, KAGU!" he blurted out.
Kagu jumped, turned around, and hurled her exorcism slip at Kuni, who ducked just in time. Kagu blinked.
"Oh, hey, Nushi," she greeted the young swordsman, who was curled up into a ball in a state of shock, "sorry about that, but you should know better than to sneak up on a highly trained miko like you just did."
Kuni slowly got up and dusted himself off.
"No s-sweat," he said, even though he was sweating...A LOT.
"Soooooo..." Kuni began, after he had regained his cool, "a-are you, um, b-bu-busy, er, I mean, are you GOING to be busy, y'know...later on?" Kuni turned red and looked down at his feet.
"No," Kagu answered, "some idiot brought his pipe into the playhouse during rehearsal and started a fire. We put those 'no smoking' signs in the main lobby for a reason." Kagu let out a deep sigh. "The theatre is under renovations right now, so I'm gonna have a lot of free time for the next couple of days."
"THAT'S GREAT!" Kuni cried, suddenly chirpy.
Kagu raised an eyebrow at him. Kuni turned red again.
"Er, I mean," he said, "that's bad, REALLY bad."
This was followed by an awkward moment of silence.
"Soooooo..." said Kuni.
"Soooooo...?" replied Kagu.
"Sooo, um, if you, um, aren't doing anything, y'know, later on..." Kuni began, he was blushing extremely hard, "w-w-would you like t-t-t-to, um," Kuni gulped before he stuttered out the next few words, "g-g-g-g-go s-see a show, get a bite to eat or *gulp* something?" Kuni turned around and covered his ears, fearing a negative response. He half-expected Kagu to explode in a fit of rage. But she didn't.
Kagu's cheeks turned a light shade of pink in response.
"Oh..." she said, "well, I'll have to check my schedule and all that, but if I'm free then sure, I'd love to." She turned to leave, still pink in the face, then looked back. "See you later, Kuni." she muttered, then she left.
Kuni was still crouching and covering his ears, he hadn't heard a thing that Kagu had said.
"Kagu?" he asked. Kuni uncovered his ears and turned around to see the empty space where the young actress had stood. His heart sank.
"She left," he said aloud, Kuni hung his head, "I guess that means no..."
A few hours later, Kuni sat by himself on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the city. There was a nearby cherry blossom tree and a large pond. This was the place where he would usually come to hang out with his friends. They would usually play and Manpuku would even bring a picnic sometimes, most of which he ate himself. Tonight, Kuni was alone, sitting on the edge of a cliff, a small flower in his hand, plucking the petals and tossing them into the air to be caught by the gentle nighttime breeze. Kuni plucked another petal.
"She loves me not, she loves me not," he said with each petal plucked. He was about to pluck another petal, but then stopped. He had accidentally plucked the flower in such a way that with the remaining petals, it looked like the flower headdress that Kagu wore with her usual outfit. Cursing his luck, Kuni threw the flower into the night. The boy let out a deep sigh. Crushed, he was simply crushed. Kuni turned his gaze toward the heavens above. It was one of those nights where you could make out nearly every single star in the cosmos. Thousands of twinkling lights shown overhead. Kuni hung his head, here he was, a hopeless young swordsman, sitting on a cliff, drowing in his own sorrow. Kuni returned his gaze to the heavens and nearly let out a surprised gasp. There, among the thousands of glittering stars, shown one star that glowed far brighter than the rest. This star was so different and glowed in such a unique way that made it stand out among the others that Kuni was sure that it hadn't been there a moment ago.
Kuni stared at this new star completely in awe, rooted to the spot by its hypnotic glow. Then Kuni remembered something that his adoptive mother, Kushi, had told him one night, before she tucked him in. If what she had said was true, then this could be a wishing star; a magical star that granted the wish of the first person to see it. Normally, Kuni would have written that off as pure superstition, but tonight was different. Kuni put his hands together and closed his eyes. Normally, he would have wished to know who he truly was, but tonight he was racked with so much grief that he didn't even consider that as an option.
"Star light, star bright," Kuni began, "first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight," Kuni gulped as he spoke the next few words, "I-I wish that someone, anyone, would help me to get Kagu to...*gulp*...like me."
And with that, Kuni opened his eyes, looked up, and nearly lost his balance and fell off the cliff.
The star was gone!
Kuni's eyes scanned the night sky, but he couldn't find the star anywhere. He knew that he hadn't imagined it. He couldn't have. So where was it? Kuni pondered this strange occurrence, turned his gaze out over the cliff, and breathed a sigh of relief. The wishing star was still there, GLOWING ABOVE THE FREAKIN' CITY! The star was actually hovering, no, MOVING above Sei-An...moving...floating...HEADING TOWARDS HIM! Kuni got up, then he realized just how fast the star was heading for him, there was no way that he could out run it! Kuni curled up into a ball.
"I TAKE IT BACK," he yelled, "NOW I WISH THAT THE WISHING STAR WON'T KILL ME!"
Kuni could see the light emitting from the star grow brighter as it got closer. He shut his eyes. Then, the light dimmed. Kuni could sense that the star was still glowing, but it wasn't glowing as bright as before. Kuni didn't dare open his eyes. Then he heard a familiar voice, a voice he thought that he would never hear again.
Or at least as long as he was alive.
"Yo, dude, long time no see."
One guess. That's it.
Thanks for reading, there WILL be more chapters later on.
Till next time!
