"Open your mouth."
Kouryuu did as told as Koumyou gave the boy a spoonful of medicine. Kouryuu made a face after swallowing the bitter medicine before hurriedly grabbing the cup of tea handed by his foster father and drinking it to wash away the taste.
Kouryuu glanced up to Koumyou before turning his eyes away. He pouted. "I know... I shouldn't be playing with the kitten—" Koumyou nodded sagely before Kouryuu added in defence. "But my allergies hadn't gotten THAT bad at that time!"
"But then—?"
Kouryuu made yet another pouty face. "—and then I fell asleep at the storage room, I know," said the boy dejectedly as Koumyou kept on nodding his head.
"And you were sleeping on the cold stone floor! And you know how hot the storage room could be without proper ventilation, and how cold it'd be at night! If I haven't found you back then—"
"—sorry."
Kouryuu's voice sounded so small and smaller the more the boy kept talking that Koumyou couldn't stay mad at the boy for so long. He was glad that it was just a mild fever... and nothing else more serious.
Koumyou sat beside Kouryuu on the bed as he stared at the boy silently.
"What's wrong... Kouryuu?"
"...nothing."
He let out a long sigh as he decided to change his approach.
"May I check on your arm for a bit?"
Kouryuu immediately hid his right arm inside his sleeve as he shook his head. "It's just some rash... it'll be gone after a while."
"That's why I told you not to play with the cats—"
Kouryuu's cheeks turned red immediately after that.
"Well, I can't help it when the cats kept coming for me."
Koumyou shook his head at the boy...
xxx
Kouryuu was out sweeping the dried leaves in the backyard as Koumyou grabbed his pipe before going out to check on the boy. Because there's no way he would ignore his child when Kouryuu was in need of him.
Though to be fair, it wasn't as if he didn't know what was it that's been troubling his foster child lately. While he may have been acting as if he was always so dense and clueless, in reality, he had always been paying close attention to his surroundings. He was aware of how some of the other apprentice monks had been harbouring feelings of jealousy and envy towards Kouryuu. Both because the child was quite a genius when it comes to learning and because the child was very close to him. Well, he couldn't quite blame them all.
After all, who wouldn't wish to be chosen as a disciple of a Sanzo priest? He used to hear a lot of those kinds of voices when he visited his late friend, Goudai at Zen'ou monastery. He even ended up on the receiving end of some unsavoury rumours due to him not taking any other disciples and doting on Kouryuu too much. He didn't care to be bothered by those kinds of things, but perhaps it was hard for Kouryuu to deal with it when everything wasn't even his fault, to begin with. It was because of that also, that it has become even rarer and rarer for him to hear Kouryuu address him as 'Father'.
"Ouch!" Kouryuu gasped softly, as the boy looked at the rash on his right arm that has started to spread.
Koumyou lighted his pipe as he started to smoke while leaning against a tree. As he predicted, it caught Kouryuu's attention almost immediately.
"Maybe you should smoke that elsewhere where other people can't see you," scolded the child as Koumyou chuckled.
"But the autumn sky was so pretty!"
.
Koumyou gave the boy a side glance before speaking again.
"Kouryuu of the flowing river... is it? What a bothersome nickname. Well, I won't tell you to try to make friends with those so-called monks if you don't want to."
"I'm not worried about that. I'm already used to it..." Kouryuu finally spoke out. "And my name—"
He spoke again as he noticed his master leaning his head lower towards him.
"—honestly, I didn't really hate it that much."
And that was really the truth. After all, who wouldn't be honoured to be named based on the Yangtze river, the longest river in all of China? Not to mention how some of the smaller rivers that made up parts of the Yangtze, namely the Jinsha and Tongtian rivers; were practically referred to as the 'Gold Sands' river and the 'River that leads to Heaven'. In many ways, the name that was given to him, Kouryuu, fitted him just fine.
And he also used to read legends about how the Yangtze river and the Yellow River were originally two dragons that were sent down from the heavens to help the people. So being named based on those dragons, well it didn't sound too bad for him.
The fact that people had been calling him such distasteful nicknames wasn't what actually bothered him a lot. It's the fact that because of him, people were indirectly insulting the person who have taken him in out of kindness.
Kouryuu glanced up at his foster father.
"I wondered about you though, master. I know Buddhism emphasises on mercy and no killing but—you even pick up an orphan like me and kept me by your side..."
.
"It's because I heard your voice." Kouryuu kept staring at him in disbelief as he added, "You called out to me for help, I guess that was my mission."
Koumyou smiled to himself in amusement.
"You were very persistent, you know... it got rather annoying. So I took you back with me."
.
Kouryuu gave his master a suspicious look. How could his master say that hearing his voice calling for him to be so annoying when he sounded so pleased about it?
"I don't get what you're talking about."
xxx
"You might be able to hear it someday too. Someone's voice..."
Genjo huffed at himself as he continued climbing up the mountain. Why on earth he had to remember that conversation he used to have with his master? Not that he was planning to pick up some unsuspecting 'child' and brought them home like what his master did for him. Like seriously, he was planning to go up there and smack the kid who's been calling for him so persistently and tell them to stop. Yes, he was planning to do just THAT.
Genjo straightened himself up as he reached the top of the mountain. But then, the sight of the so-called 'monster' he was supposed to find surpassed anything that he'd ever imagined as Genjo found himself caught off-guard.
Omake: A dream
Koumyou shook his head at the boy as he found the boy's stubbornness astounding. It seemed that Kouryuu might be a tougher nut to crack compared to Ken'yuu. But perhaps he could still try something to get Kouryuu to talk to him.
"Did anyone bully you or something?"
"Huh?" The boy stared at him in surprise as Kouryuu shook his head. "Why did you ask me that, Master?"
Koumyou shrugged.
"Well, when I found you at the storage room earlier... you've been crying."
Kouryuu's face went red again for the second time that night as the boy turned his head away from him.
"That wasn't related to anything..." said the boy as Koumyou kept waiting for him to explain further. Kouryuu pursed his lips, probably out of embarrassment, as he continued.
"I had a dream. A very sad one. It was a dream about a very lonely boy trapped in a cave."