Trigger Warning: Discussion of Rape
(One month later)
After the turmoil that they'd both suffered after the loss of their soulmates, and after Silent Hill had put them both through a tempestuous journey in order to help them heal, Momochi Zabuza and Uzuki Yugao found their humble brick apartment in the middle of Augusta, Maine to be Heaven on Earth. Once he had arrived in the quaint riverside capital of Maine, Zabuza had headed straight for the homeless shelter in the center of the city, where he successfully reunited with Yugao, his fellow survivor. They both had received a free roof over their heads, until Yugao's money had fully transferred to a new American account, enabling her to buy a decent two-bedroom apartment that she gladly paid for them both, until Zabuza could find a suitable job.
Yugao had quickly found favor with Augusta's police department, earning herself a position as a Field Tactician, sharing her wisdom and experiences with the American officers in order to better their practices. The glowing recommendations of her former superiors in Kyoto had helped her gain the job, but as she had nervously shared with Zabuza afterwards, she would be forever uncertain if they'd ever act on their logical and correct suspicion that she was the culprit behind Baki's violent murder.
As for Zabuza, the kind-hearted people at Augusta's homeless shelter had begged him to share his own experiences as a man who'd lived in the slums of Osaka for as long as he could remember. The fact that he was openly gay after his passage through Silent Hill only strengthened their desire to hear him speak.
Later that afternoon, the two of them would head back to the shelter, so that Zabuza could give a public speech about the importance of taking preventing children from becoming homeless, especially gay youth like Haku. He and Yugao sat at their kitchen table, both dressed handsomely for the event, sipping at fresh cups of coffee as they warily pored over the daily newspaper, which contained an unnerving front-page article.
"Japanese Criminal Kabuto Yakushi Found Dead in Silent Hill, Maine"
The desperate mission of Kyoto's police department, along with the federal government of Japan to capture the fugitive criminal Kabuto Yakushi ended when the man's corpse was found in Alchemilla Hospital, one of the main medical centers of Silent Hill, a quiet town in Maine. It remains unknown why Yakushi was in Silent Hill, one of America's most remote towns. Yakushi had been killed by a single gunshot to the chest, and evidently bled to death in the middle of the hospital's operating theater. American officials have been unable to identify the killer, who may've been a vigilante seeking the man's death after learning of the horrific crimes he committed in Japan.
Kabuto Yakushi was the accomplice of Maenari Nobuo, a man once hailed as one of Japan's finest biological researchers before being revealed as "Orochimaru", a monstrous man behind the kidnapping and deaths of dozens of young Japanese girls. Yakushi lured his victims away from their families with his gentlemanly facade, and took them to an underground facility on the outskirts of Kyoto, where the two "researchers" performed horrific human experiments that resulted in the deaths of all the subjected girls. Had it not been for the heroic efforts of Captain Gekkou Hayate of Kyoto's police department, the martyr who helped Miss Mitarashi escape her captors and relate her testimony to his superiors shortly before being assasinated by Orochimaru's hired hitman, it is likely that the world never would've learned of the atrocities committed in that research facility.
Only one person shed tears over Kabuto Yakushi's death: the foster-mother who raised him many years ago, Nonou Kikimoto, who now resides in a nursing home at Kitakyushu. Miss Kikimoto learned of her foster-son's deeds and death at the same time the rest of the world did, and was nothing short of heartbroken at what he'd become.
"He was so innocent, so sweet, and so kind during the years he spent under my roof," she told Japanese journalists. "Out of all the children I took in, he was the one who I was most certain would become a caretaker like me, helping other orphans like him heal. But instead, he destroyed so many young lives, all for the sake of his and Orochimaru's greedy, selfish desire to achieve whatever power they so foolishly thought they could obtain by slaughtering those girls like guinea pigs. What happened to him? What happened to the boy I raised?"
It stands to reason that Miss Kikimoto is the only individual who will ever shed tears over Yakushi's death. His is a loss that will not be missed, especially by the families of the victims.
But there is much joy to be shared at this point in time. While they will forever be grief-stricken by what happened to their daughters, the parents of the murdered girls wrote the following announcement of gratitude to the individual who gunned down Yakushi:
"From the bottom of hearts, forever and always, thank you for granting our daughters the justice we were certain would be forever denied to them. Whoever you are, wherever you are, know no matter what happens, you'll always be our greatest hero for hunting down that sick man and preventing him from causing further tragedies. Our hearts will always ache for our girls, but while we shed our tears of sorrow over their losses, we also shed tears of undying gratitude for what you did. Thank you."
With both Orochimaru and Yakushi now dead, two major child-killers have been defeated by justice. Let this be a lesson to all like-minded murderers hiding among us behind their pretty masks: no matter how high your position, no matter how much money you have, no matter how arrogantly certain you may be that you won't be caught, you will reap in due time the bitter reward for the pain you sow.
Zabuza looked up from the paper into Yugao's proud smile, softly weeping at the overwhelming gratitude of the parents' message. He still hadn't forgotten the horror of realizing how many girls had been murdered by Orochimaru and Kabuto, the image of the dozens of bitterly weeping victims still haunting his dreams.
"You're a hero after all, Zabuza," Yugao gently told him, reaching across the table and squeezing his hand. "Let this be a reminder that no matter what you did in the past, the choices you've made here in the present have clearly shown what a wonderful man you truly are."
He wiped away at his tears and told her, "Yugao, this feels like a dream. I never imagined anybody ever praising me like this. It doesn't feel real."
"It's going to, after we're done with the public meeting," she said. "How do you feel?"
"Nervous," he admitted. Zabuza had never enjoyed public speaking, and that certainly wasn't about to change. "I'm almost afraid to go up on that stage."
"Who wouldn't be? The only people we know there will be the shelter employees, and on top of that, there's the obvious fact that in this current era, people might not take your sexuality warmly."
"Then fuck them, Yugao. I'm doing this for Haku, and if they don't take what happened to him seriously all because they're squeamish about the idea of two men loving each other, I'll gladly make a fool of them all."
"That's the spirit!"
They drained the last dregs of coffee from their mugs, and set them down on the table, looking at each other quietly, taking a long moment to enjoy the peace surrounding them. Outside, the balcony glass door revealed a glorious sunset illuminating the brick-laden city, casting a golden glow over everything in sight. Augusta was gradually awakening to a beautiful day. Along with the soft heat of the sunlight filling their apartment, Zabuza felt Haku's loving warmth still surrounding him, the presence permanently palpable after their reunion in the basement of Alessa's old home.
Yugao gently asked him, "Would you like me to stand with you on the stage, for support?"
"Yes, absolutely," Zabuza answered without hesitating. "There's no way I won't get choked up when I inevitably mention what happened to Haku while he was homeless."
"Then I'll gladly stand by you, Zabuza."
Several hours later, they stood together on the humble wooden stage of the homeless shelter's gym, where dozens of folding chairs had been set up for Augusta's populace to sit in. To Zabuza and Yugao's delight, the event had turned out to be a full-house, with every single seat taken by citizens of varying backgrounds. The shelter's announcement had provoked a far bigger response than anybody could've imagined.
Once the chief of staff gave her signal to them, Zabuza cleared his throat, took a shaky step forward, and began his talk.
"Thank you all for coming here tonight. It means so much to me, seeing how many people showed up here for this talk. My name is Zabuza Momochi, and I'm a man who spent the vast majority of his years living on the streets of Osaka. I had no real home, and I barely managed to survive by taking on various assignments that only gave me just enough money to scrap by until my next task. I was ignored by Japanese society, never taken seriously by everyday civilians, and in general, I felt frowned upon, like I was a nuisance to society just by existing. I felt like a stain on my country and...it only got worse when I eventually had to confront the reality of me being gay, too."
At that, a great deal of murmuring could be heard in the audience, and Zabuza gritted his teeth in frustration at the sight of several people casting malicious side glances at him as they whispered things to their neighbors. Yugao muttered a curse under her breath as the employees looked around nervously, unsure of what to do.
Zabuza raised his voice, snapping at them coldly, "If all it takes is for somebody to be gay for you to despise them, even after you people supposedly had enough compassion to want to hear a victim of homelessness speak, then in my eyes, you're no better than the bastard who raped my lover!"
The instant he said those awful words, a horrified silence fell over the entire gymnasium, to Zabuza's grim satisfaction. He felt Yugao place a reassuring hand on his shoulder as he felt his eyes tear up, the memory of Haku's attacker looming over the frightened boy burning a horrid image in his mind's eye.
"The love of my life, a young gay youth named Haku, was also homeless after forced to flee his home when he killed his murderous Dad in self-defense. He had no help from anybody, and because he had always been naturally effeminate to the point that many mistook him for a girl, he was seen as weak, and easy prey. At one point in his life as a homeless youth, he was so desperate to sustain himself that he turned to prostitution, and put his trust in a lone policeman, a supposed protector of justice, who had an apparent interest in him. That officer intentionally used Haku's trust to corner him, and…"
He choked up, and would've collapsed on the stage had Yugao not reached out for him in time. Zabuza let himself sob as he heard the audience weep likewise, his vicious revelation knocking the prideful citizens off their high horses. When he finally opened his eyes, blinking away blurry tears, he could see that even the ones who had been clearly gossiping about him had their heads clutched in their hands, shaking with the force of their own mortified grief.
He said to them, "Haku assumed that a would-be trustworthy member of society would protect and help him...but he was wrong. I've only lived here in Augusta for a month, but I've seen the exact damn thing. Those of us who find this shelter are lucky enough to have our basic needs covered, but the others who have no choice but to make the streets their home...everybody ignores them, even the hypocrites who prance around collecting money for 'homeless relief efforts'. It's unwise and vain to expect somebody else to take care of them, and from what Haku's story told me, homeless people, especially vulnerable gay youth, are seen as targets for cruelty instead of hurting individuals that need solace."
To the right of the audience, Zabuza saw the chief of staff crying but nodding her head in firm approval. He breathed sharply when he felt another, lighter hand place itself on his back, and Zabuza knew that Haku was silently supporting him too in his tense moment of declaration.
"I later lost Haku when I got myself into a gunfight that I could've easily avoided. He took the bullet that was meant for me, and died shortly afterwards. Even after being brutalized and mistreated by so many others, he didn't hesitate to sacrifice himself for the sake of another. Society wants to view homeless people as selfish, wasteful individuals, when the harsh reality is that the opposite is much more true."
"Apathy will get us nowhere. The homeless living on the streets of our city won't be rescued by mere shrugs of acknowledgment. That, and gay youth forced into homelessness by their families could be wounded like Haku was, if nobody moves to protect them. It's our duty to show them all that we care, in actions, not just in passing words."
Zabuza had the audience's full attention, and he said softly, "I want to ensure that nobody gets hurt like Haku was, ever again, no matter how worthless society deems them to be. And I won't rest until my mission is fully accomplished."
Thank you all so much for reading "Snow White and the Vagabond: a Silent Hill Love Story"! This was a work that I was worried I'd never be able to finish because of life's many interruptions, writer's block, and my at times crippling fear that the story would never be good enough. Even when I'd imagined how to end it in a satisfactory way, I nearly gave up on this ¾ of the way through, partly because I was disheartened by the underwhelming response I was getting, but also because I had doubts that I could make myself sit down and finish it to the ultimate end. This is one of the times I'm glad to be wrong.
As a young gay man who's studied discrimination here in America, who's learned about how many others like me have been forced to live on the streets because their family disowned them and society rejected them, I wanted to craft something darkly realistic about the dangers they face, even from supposed guardians of justice like police officers. That, and I've never been satisfied with how Haku's death in canon was handled; Zabuza and Kakashi didn't react as severely as I thought they should've, especially Zabuza. Writing my interpretation of that infamous scene was extremely important to me, because I wanted to focus on the deep love between Haku and Zabuza, explicitly from the gay point of view. I daresay it worked.
On a somewhat random note, especially for the SH fans who read this fic, I highly recommend checking out the following song: "Richtung Lichtung" by Ali As.
watch?v=nqwPPZaWkaU
It's base is "Pianissimo Epilogue", the end ranking theme for SH2. When I ran the lyrics through Google Translate, I discovered that the song is about running for the light at the end of the tunnel, with your soulmate by your side, no matter how desolate the world around you seems to be. I consider it to be a perfect theme song for Zabuza and Haku's love story.
Thank you all again for reading my story! I gladly welcome any and all feedback you have to offer.
-nightwish435