The Heart Of Shadow

Part 1: Shadow Self

Chapter 2: The Known

By: Kenji

At night, when everyone in the Nonomura house was asleep, the desk light in Uriko's room switched on. Uriko sat on the chair and lain against the table with a pencil in hand, she scrible something on to a piece of white paper and exmain it. It was the words of the voice she heard that morning in the Ohgami house, the voice in Kenji's head. She looked at the paper over and over, filling in letters once in a while until she understand the whole thing.

Danger is coming near, the battle of self, accept your weakness, fear and your past.

Uriko look over the sentence again, wondering about the meaning. She take it seriouly, she don't want any danger hurting her friends and family and especially not Kenji.

'Kenji?!' Realization just hit her head, she hold the paper up to her face and once again, read over the sentence. 'What if this sentence is a warning, a warning to Kenji?!'

Her mind run over the possiblities, she really didn't know, Kenji is a kind of person that don't want to express his emotion, not his fear nor weakness and his past... his past is like a mystery. The answer Uriko's mind came up was a 100% possiblities.

Uriko felt her eyes widen from shook, she drop the paper and press both hands against her mouth, trying to stop the sound of surprise and horror from escaping her troat. After the shook pass, she looked around the place for any sign of looking or peeping, she didn't find any. The next thing her mind could make was to warn Kenji about what the voice said.

Then the second thought hit her head, what if she got the words wrong? Then that would be nasty. After thinking things over several times over her head, she came up with the decision on just keeping a watchful eye on Kenji.

She give out a big yawn and switch off the desk light, carefully and soundlessly pushing the chair back to the table and climb back to bed, pulling the cover over her shoulder and close her eyes for sleep to come. She never expected that she will ever enter...that place...

(-_-)

Kenji open his eyes and find himself in the same place as last night, he is standing facing a gate, a wicked, out-of-place, rustly gate. The gate slowly opens, making a cracking squeeking sound at the hinge. When it's fully opened, a small white fog picked up behind him. A chill ran throught his back, sweat are once again shown. With undecided steps, he slowly walk in. A sudden pain strike his head, the pain bought him to his knees, the same voice came but this time, it's clear what it said.

The 5th night, the 'Battle Of Self' shall start, don't fight against it, accept your role as a 'harmonixer'.

Once the voice was gone so did the pain. Kenji stood back up as if nothing happened except the words of the voice remain in his mind.

'Harmonixer'? What's that? I'm a zoanthrope not a harmonixer.'He thought.

He walked up to the open field in front of him, standing in the middle while looking at the earth. He sniffed, the soil on this part of the land are great for growing things such as crops and such. He can tell the difference of bad soil or good soil, after all, he have been a mole for quite some time now.

A flash came from somewhere but it flashed and the place started to change. A full moon that was hanging there start to change to a sun setting, the chilly night turn to a warm evening. He heard a sound, a shoving sound, behind him. Kenji turn around and saw a grown-up man dressed in a japanese army uniform with a tool used by old days former. He was planning seeds into the earth for growth.

"Dad!" A childish voice shouted over to the man.

Kenji turn around and cough his eyes on a small child around 5, running up to the man.The small child had dark brown hair, brown eyes, wearing an over-size red T-shirt and blue shorts, a pair of brown boots and a fox mask hanging around his neck, not on him.

"Dad!" The child call again.

The man look up from his work, his hair are lighter brown compare to the child, yellow eyes and a brownish colour skin, properly from all the sun he gets a day. He lifted up his shovel to his shoulder and smile at the child.

"Yes, what is it?" His voice strong but soft.

"Mom want you to get some food in you she said." The child answer.

"Ok." His smile grew bigger.

"Dad, can they grow before winter?" The child asked.

"Yes if I work fast enough."

Then there is silence, the child turn around, not facing his dad. Kenji look at the child then at the father then back to the child. He walked up between the two and they seems like he is invisible, which might possibly true.

"Dad?" There is a change in the child voice, it's no longer a sweet soft voice that are filled with cheers but a serious strong willed voice that of a muture.

Noticing the change of voice, he changed his to a serious yet remain soft voice. "Yes?"

"Do you really have to leave at winter?"

Silence, then "Yes." A definit voice replied.

The child let out a sigh and turned around, his eyes norrowed and his brown eyes show sign of a muture. The eyes, the norrowed eyes that Kenji is looking at now, it's just like...

The man smile and went over to his son, kneeing down to his eye level and putting down the shovel. He said in a much much softer voice then before. "I need you to take care of mom for me, you're a strong boy, can you do that for me?"

The child eyes show sign of understanding while he nodded. With a blink of his eyes, he turned back to his childish self. "Ok, I will do it. But now, we need to get you home for dinner."

The man smile grew even bigger and nodded, picking up the shovel and follow his son back to their house.

Kenji stood stationary, while the conversation between the father and son, he had felt a presence, two in fact. One of them seems familiar and far away, the other close but that he is sure he don't know who but in his heart, he dose.

The background of the sun setting changed back again, back to the chilly night with a large full moon. The new addition of wind send more creeps up his back.

He heard a bell, the kind of bell that's in children toys. Kenji turn around, facing a female woman that was wearing a green sleeve top, a black long skirt that go to above her ankles, a pair of black high heeled shoes, the woman face looked familiar to Kenji, with light brown eyes and lighter brown hair that tie up as a pony tail. She had a gold ring on her right hand 4th finger, a pair of crystal-like earring and a small bell hanging around her neck. The small bell ring again, the sound from this bell sounded ghostly and dark, like the lullbuy of hell.

She's walking towards Kenji, her eyes looking at him with a soft gaze. She stopped in front of him, watching his expression of ready to fight and smiled, not a evil wicked one but a soft one like being prond.

"Thank you for coming, my son." her voice sounded very ghost-like, sending a sudden wave of fear in Kenji's haert.

"What do you mean, your son?" Kenji reply, his voice could have been shaking if he didn't control it in time.

"You're my son, that's why. and I'm very prond of you."

"Why?" Kenji ask, acting almost cold hearted but inside him, that's just an act.

"I'm prond of you for having the courage to take your first step back to your past."

"My past..."

-To Be Continue...-

A/N: You might not understand it so far and that's the point so don't think this is hard to understand, it's not, it quite easy actually. Well, hope you enjoy and review it if you do.