Memories of the Forgotten One

Chapter 7

Sword

This chapter is weird on purpose. If you're wondering, the name Katana means sword, and that's why she is represented by a purple sword.

Ryuu stood in the center of the dojo, his weight forward on the balls of his feet, ready to lunge or dodge with no warning. He took a deep breath and grinned at the crowd that had come to watch. His long mane of spiky coal-black hair was tied back in a ponytail to keep it out of his eyes, but a few loose strands still managed to escape, and he hastily brushed them away from his peculiar eyes. His eyes were shiny and dark, and seemed to change color with the lighting. Right now they looked like many-facetted blue-black opals.

The teenager looked around to see who would be his next opponent. Ryuu's heart was beating rapidly from the exertion, but the excitement already had his veins pumping full of adrenaline. He loved martial arts of all kinds, and he spent most of his time practicing them. His parents didn't mind if he devoted most of his time to training, as long as he got good grades.

This wasn't really much of a tournament, just a weekly class in martial arts. Even so, Ryuu felt it necessary to prove himself here. So far he was definitely succeeding, having defeated his first three opponents without receiving any injuries himself.

Hachiro was called forward by Shishou, and the boy walked somewhat hesitantly up to Ryuu. Hachiro was about the same age and size as him, but Ryuu looked much more sure of himself than the bespectacled brown-haired boy.

The two opponents bowed, and Ryuu's smile was instantly replaced by a look of intense concentration. Hachiro launched the first attack, a punch that Ryuu blocked. He retaliated, Hachiro just barely dodging the attack. Hachiro stepped back a couple of steps, clearly shaken by the close call. Good, thought Ryuu. He's intimidated.

Just as Ryuu was about to launch another offensive attack, Hachiro beat him to it with a quick roundhouse kick that Ryuu avoided by pulling his head back just in time. He could feel the air in front of his face as Hachiro's foot went by. Before Ryuu could counter, Hachiro attacked again with another kick, this time to the midsection. Fortunately, Ryuu was prepared. He blocked the kick with ease and countered with a quick jab to the head that Hachiro couldn't quite avoid; the punch grazed the side of his face.

Hachiro stumbled and Ryuu immediately took advantage of this weakness. He launched a short, swift kick at the other boy's torso, causing him to fall to the floor. Just when Ryuu thought this battle was his, Hachiro pulled his legs out from under him and used the shift of weight to rapidly pull himself up. Ryuu was dazed by the sudden fall and before he knew it, Hachiro had him pinned to the floor.

There was silence, as, since no one appeared to have predicted this outcome, no one knew how to react. Shishou broke the silence with a few claps, and soon the entire crowd followed his lead. "Hey, Hachi, can I get up now?" asked Ryuu.

"O-oh, of course!" said Hachiro, a bit flustered by all the attention. He looked towards Ryuu to see how the boy was reacting to his loss.

"Good fight, man. But I only lost because I was tired, next time I'll reclaim my honor!" and with those words, Ryuu broke into a huge grin.

Hachiro also smiled broadly, in a somewhat awkward and confused way.

Ryuu walked home, his head swimming with thoughts. He went over the battle repeatedly in his mind, trying to pinpoint the reason why he had lost, but having great difficulty finding the exact cause of defeat. He certainly needed more training. Actually, at the moment he was more in need of a good rest to recover from his injuries; it felt like little sparks were running up and down his spine, stinging his back.

Hachiro was in his class at school, but the two had never really talked before. They hung out with different friends, and all Ryuu knew that they had in common was that they both got average to good grades and both took martial arts.

And they were both "inside." Ryuu was a zodiac animal, and Hachiro's sister had married into the Sohma family. Although Hachiro wasn't a Sohma himself, Daiki had let him "inside" for some reason. Why was a mystery for all of the Sohmas, and a popular topic of conversation, when Daiki wasn't around of course.

Ryuu was glad to be one of the few zodiac members allowed to attend an outside school. Many of the other members were home schooled or taught by teachers in the Sohma family. But Ryuu's family had insisted on an outside school, saying Ryuu needed "exposure." Daiki had allowed this, likely because Ryuu's mother came from a wealthy background and provided much financial support to the already well-off Sohma family. Or maybe it was because Ryuu had such an important job to do for the Sohma family and they couldn't afford to anger him.

"Erase her memory," the cold voice sneered. Ryuu was alone in the room with Daiki and a young woman. Apparently she had seen the rat transform when he fell on her. She looked wide-eyed and confused, but that could as likely be because she had been dragged here against her will.

"Can you please leave, Daiki-sama," said Ryuu, his voice minimally polite, more like an order than a question. He didn't like the man, and he hated having to take orders from him. Even so, he hoped his tone of voice went unnoticed, as he feared punishment from Daiki.

The man left the room, grumbling something as he did so, but Ryuu ignored it.

He touched a hand to the woman's forehead, careful to place his fingers exactly right. This was too risky to be done without meticulous attention to details.

Ryuu found the need to talk as he did this, to calm them both down. His hand kept shaking, and so did the thin woman. Besides, nothing he could say would be remembered. "My name is Ryuu Sohma. I'm thirteen, and the dragon from the Chinese Zodiac. You've found out a secret about the Zodiac, can you tell me about it?"

He knew his statement was really direct, but direct was best for this. If she knew his name it would make her more comfortable talking to him, and if she talked about the memories it would be drawn to the surface of her mind, easier to access.

"P-pleased to meet you. I'm Katana Eniwa," Katana tried to avoid eye contact, but Ryuu persisted in attempting to meet her gaze, even though it was rude. Eventually she found herself unable to escape his haunting eyes, and she was sure she could feel herself being sucked into them.

He felt their minds sink together, almost fusing. Ryuu focused most of his mental energy on trying to keep a thin membrane between the two. If they were allowed to merge totally, one of them could, metaphorically, drown in the other. This could result in major psychosis for one of them and the other one becoming braindead. Or it could result in one or both of them losing touch with reality, or simply completely different personalities for both of them. It hadn't happened enough to know all the outcomes, or even how likely they were. All that anyone knew for sure was that it was an incredibly risky procedure that couldn't be done half-heartedly.

A dragon for the dragon. Amusement rippled through their minds.

She began to speak, but it was difficult to distinguish between words and the louder thoughts.

A little boy, walking. His hair is grey. A hand moves in front of my face, blocking some sight out. There is a path, and the sun is bright. Hopes that it will not darken skin.

Light fabric brushes against skin. Walking. The sun is warm. It's elating, even the sound is beautiful.

A purple sword is constricted by a coal-black dragon, so dark it does not even reflect the light but instead absorbs it. Asking for more.

The boy falls on a rock, kicking up dust, Hands reach out to catch him, but he is gone. Smoke mingles with dust, a pile of clothes, a rat in them. Screams in shock, thoughts go all over the place.

Taken away.

The dragon absorbs the thoughts, taking them away.

Away.

Away…

As the woman fell forwards, Ryuu caught her, careful not to embrace her. He gently put her down and raised a hand to his forehead, where a few beads of sweat were standing out. The memory erasing process was a huge mental strain, and it had sapped away much energy from both of them.

He hated taking away memories. His head was swimming with thoughts and memories, and he had to think hard to distinguish his own from hers. If it were possible he would have asked another dragon if it was supposed to be this painful to erase memories or if he was simply going about it the wrong way. But of course he couldn't, as there were no other dragons alive.

He left the room where he had done the memory erasing. Daiki was standing outside the house, waiting for him. "How did it go?" he asked Ryuu.

Ryuu nodded, too tired to say anything.

He walked a good distance away from Daiki before stopping to observe his surroundings. He hadn't been sure what he was walking towards, just that he was tired and had to get away from Daiki. Now pausing, he was stunned to see that it was almost night. There was a dim shadow cast over the landscape, and a few stars could be seen in the sky. He spent a moment just looking up at the sky. It seemed almost like he could see the stars move, like he could see time passing.

Since it was night, Akira was probably out somewhere. He seemed to spend most of his time on the hill, even on school nights. Ryuu wondered where he got his energy from.

Ryuu took off in a slow jog towards the direction of the hill. He was exhausted and his entire body was aching, but he forced himself to run anyway. He had to do something to distract him from the warped thoughts that had been transplanted into his brain.

Sure enough, Akira was there, standing perilously close to the edge of the cliff. Akira could be annoying, with his know-it-all attitude, but at least he was someone to talk to that wouldn't pester him about how the memory erasing went. Akira already seemed to think he knew all about it. This was a bit annoying as well, because he couldn't have possibly experienced anything as difficult as the memory erasing process, but if he didn't ask questions his condescending attitude was bearable. It was hard for Ryuu to believe that Akira was three years younger than him.

"Hey Akira!" he called, startling the boy into almost falling off the ledge.

"Hey," he responded, in an almost bored tone.

"I had to erase someone's memory. Do you know Katana Eniwa?" There was no use in small talk with Akira. It was better to just cut to the chase. Ryuu didn't doubt that Akira knew all about Eniwa. He seemed to know all about everyone. It was actually kind of scary, and Ryuu wondered how much Akira knew about him.

Akira seemed more interested now. He loved to be asked to regurgitate his information. "She's a teacher, at your school I think."

"What subject?"

"I dunno. She's not a Sohma, so there aren't any records of her accessible to me." He sounded annoyed, and Ryuu wondered if it was because he didn't know everything about everyone or just because he thought it was obvious he didn't know everything and was tired of being asked.

Either way, Ryuu thought it was best to change the topic.