(A/N: This is the second chapter. Enjoy!)
Twins
I'm Naraku and I had or used to have twin brother by the name of Tanaku. Yeah, I had a twin brother… What of it? Of course no one knows because I don't mention him, but he died. He had a little 'accident'.
"Naraku had a brother?" Sango said shocked.
"I bet this of his brother was just as evil as he is," Inuyasha accused.
"But the brother must have died, and Naraku was the one that killed him with the way he states that 'he had an accident'," Miroku observed.
"Feh, most likely for power," Inuyasha said. "You know how Naraku is. Who's to say that this brother is no different?" Kagome continued onwards.
I was born in a clan where having twins were considered…taboo. A curse, perhaps. The younger twin must always be strangled to death before its first bath. Unfortunately, I was the younger twin. I was born thirty seconds after Tanaku. I could feel grandma's hands wrapped around my neck and squeeze. Everything went black.
I wonder why I'm still alive. I should have been dead. It seems that mother spared my life. But it has only gotten worse.
Tanaku was the next head of the family. At best, I was ignored by the whole family in favor of him. At worst, some members of the family tried to do anything they can to get rid of me.
I always wondered why I'm treated so differently. Tanaku and I look exactly the same. Our face, our body, and our hair is the mere image of each other. I just have my hair down, and he has his in a ponytail.
As twins Onii-chan and I react the same way. If Onii-chan reacts to something, I react. If I react to something, Onii-chan reacts. Onii-chan is my other half. My more pure half is the best way to describe it.
Tanaku means to 'region', I believe. A perfect name for Onii-chan, who is the next head of most important and secret village in Japan. Harazami Village. I was named Naraku meaning 'Hell', which is just the same as saying 'cursed one' or 'to be confined'.
"It seems like Naraku had a bad life," Kagome commented before continuing on.
Tanaku and I came up with a solution to the whole 'Naraku' problem. We started trading places. Tanaku becomes Naraku, and Naraku becomes Tanaku. It's as simple as that. We are both Tanaku, the elder twin, and Naraku, the younger twin. We share Tanaku's joy and happiness, and Naraku's pain and suffering.
We gradually started doing it on the daily basis. It became a game to us. As we got older we called it the manipulation twins' act. There's no tricks, no sorcerer, no shape-shifting. All we do is change clothes and hair styles, and people will mistake us for one or the other. Sometimes we'll get caught in the middle of one of our swaps. "Which one of you is Tanaku?" they will ask. And we point at each other. "Which one of you is Naraku?" they ask again. We point at ourselves. It's fun to see them get frustrated. They just pick up me or Onii-chan. Sometimes I'm taken by mistake.
But one day is where Tanaku permanently became Tanaku, and I became Naraku. Tanaku was given the oni tattoo to show his place as the next heir, and I was branded with the disgusting spider tattoo, another way to show my confinement in this torture world.
One day I was taken to a faraway place from my Onii-chan, my friends, the members of my family. I was shipped off to the most miserable place on earth. An educational faculty. And not just any one. It was St. Lucas.
The page stops there.
"That's kind of sad," Shippo said, depressingly.
"It makes me feel almost sorry for Naraku. Almost," Kagome said.
"Well, it's already late. We better get some sleep," Miroku advised.
"You can read more to us in the morning, Kagome," Sango said as he drifted off to sleep as did everyone else.
(A/N: The end of this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Please read and review!)