Here we are, yet again, dear readers. I just want to say thank you for being so patient with me and being so kind in your reviews. I know my writing isn't exactly up to par like it usually is, but I am working on that. Tends to happen when it's been a while since I sat down to write a story.
Hopefully this chapter is better, longer and just a wonderful experience for you.
Thank you all for being here and being my followers.
-I do NOT own YYH or it's characters
-I DO own Shohei and some of the plot.
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Our first day of school dawned bright and early for the two of us. The sun shone through the window and onto our faces, waking us easily before Mother even knocked on our door. Groaning quietly under my breath, I tugged my blanket up over my head to block out the light and attempted to fall back asleep. "It's too early for this." I grumbled softly, ignoring Kurama's soft chuckle as he got up and fixed his bed before collecting our clothes for the day. "Come on, Nick. Today is our first day in school. Are you telling me you cannot do simple children's homework?"
"I'm telling you I don't want to do children's homework." I scowled up at him when he yanked the blanket off of me with a raised eyebrow of amusement. "It's going to be boring." Rolling his eyes, Kurama dropped my clothes on my head and ignored my protests while he got dressed himself. "You know, if you don't get dressed in time, there won't be any breakfast left for you." His statement had me sitting up quickly, staring at him with an open mouth. "You wouldn't dare."
"I would." Straightening his shirt, he walked towards the door and looked back at me with a sly smile growing on his face. "Do you really think I wouldn't live up to any promise I make?" With that, he walked out, closing the door behind him with a click and leaving me to seriously consider the threat he left. Either I loaf around and wait until the last few minutes before we leave. Or, I get up and dressed like my brother so I could eat breakfast before going to our new school.
Weighing heavily on the choices, I groaned loudly and rolled off my bed. Food was more important than relaxing according to the loud noises my stomach was making. Quickly changing clothes, I combed my fingers through my hair to make it presentable and trotted downstairs to join my family for breakfast.
"Shohei, good morning." Mother smiled over at me as I finally sat down at the kitchen table. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, Mother." I accepted the bowl of rice Kurama passed to me and picked up my chop sticks. "Did you find out if Suichi and I would be in the same class yet?" Kurama stopped eating and looked over at their mother curiously when she put her own bowls down and rested her hands on the table in front of her with a soft hum. "I spoke with the teachers last night and they agreed it would be best to keep the two of you together for the first few years of school at least."
A triumphant smile grew over mine and my twin's faces, gleefully turning to each other at that revelation. It was the one point of worry for the both of us over the last few weeks before school started. Both Mother and the school were going back and forth on how important it was for us to stay together because we were best when supporting each other, or be separated in order for us to get used to working with other children. Mother wanted the two of us to stay together, knowing full well it wouldn't work out if we were separated right away. Apparently she finally got her point across to them if they finally agreed with her like this.
Feeling a tad more hopeful for the first day of school now, I turned back to my food with renewed interest. At least now I knew I wouldn't be alone in a strange class full of even stranger people. Children were annoying at this age, in my past life and in this one, last thing I needed was to be irritated my first day of school and have Mother called because of it. I felt a nudge to my foot under the table and glanced over at my brother who waited for our Mother to leave the room before leaning over to whisper to me. "I looked at the papers Mother got in the mail. Our teacher focuses on mathematics."
"We probably scored lowest in that on our tests. They usually try to place kids in classes that will help them where they have the most problem so they won't fall behind other kids their age." I murmured back, straightening back up when I spied Mother walk back in with two bento boxes, our names written on the top. "Here are your lunches for today, boys." She smiled gently and placed them on the table in front of us. "Now don't open them until lunchtime." She cautioned us with a firm look and point of a finger when we reached for the boxes, stopping us and making the two of us look at each other sheepishly. "Yes, Mother." We murmured, picking them up and carefully packing them away in our bags.
The school halls were filled with colors and papers advertising for activities students could join in on. Unfortunately they were for higher grades as Kurama explained when I stopped to read a science club poster with interest. Letting out a sigh, I followed him towards our new classroom, a small group of kids were huddled around outside the door quietly talking to one another. Several of them looked over at the two of us as we walked up, soft smiles appeared in an attempt to coax us into their group. Glancing at my twin, we offered our own smiles to them, politely dipping our heads as we passed on our way into the classroom.
Only a few students milled around the desks, a couple sitting in their seats already, the rest wandering around and examining the various items set up. A bookshelf in the back caught my eye, drawing me over to it with interest until I realized they were all children's books and frowned. "What did you expect?" Kurama murmured when he came to a stop beside me, eyes flicking over the titles with a wry smile tugging on his lips. "Stephen King or Dean Koontz?"
"At least a Goosebumps book." I grumbled back with a sigh, turning away from the bookshelf of disappointment and followed him over to our desks. "Goosebumps?" Looking up at me, Kurama hung his bag on the hook and frowned when I paused to think. "They might not be out yet... Oops."
"We can ask Mother to take us to the library after school if you want." I hummed thoughtfully and settled down at my desk, pulling a few items from my bag and setting them out in front of me. "Yeah, maybe." Resting my chin on my hand, I watched as the other students began trickling into the room, some of their parents with them, some of them on their own like Kurama and myself.
Mother offered to walk us into our class but we told her it was fine. Something we needed to learn, we said. She seemed upset but accepted it easily enough. We'll make it up to her later when we get out of school. Glancing over at my brother, we shared a dry look when a few of the kids let out sniffles when their parents said goodbye. Having a demon for a brother had it's upsides, that was for sure. At least I wasn't the only one dealing with the fact that I was an adult in a child's body.
School days passed in a blur of basic math and language assignments. Tests were the easiest for both Kurama and I, easily bypassing the children without even trying, placing in the top two every time. I will take pride in the fact that it took Kurama longer to realize the problem with getting every question right all the time than it did me. By the time he figured out I was purposely making mistakes on lessons and tests, he had already been given glowing attention from our teachers and mother on a constant basis. His annoyed frustration when he finally came to the realization that he would have to keep up that same level of work every day due to expectations made me grin every time.
I was personally happy with my second place, people had expectations from me, but the eyes were mostly put on Kurama instead. I could slack a little more than my twin, relax a bit more than he did. Though, I do hold pride in one aspect of my schooling- English lessons were something I blew him out of the water with ease. Of course remembering my previous life of living in America helped, but I'll take what I could at this point. While Mother bought him advanced mathematic books (Advanced being used loosely here, mostly multiplication and division instead of just addition), Mother bought me English books, lesson books and regular ones.
It wasn't until our first year of middle school that Mother began showing signs of sickness. A cold that lasted longer than it should have, a cough that persisted, chest pains and headaches that made it nearly impossible for her to get out of bed. It took us months for us to convince her to see a doctor about it. Finally a fever that sent her to the hospital was what made her agree with us.
We weren't allowed in the office while the Doctor was speaking with her, instead sitting in the waiting room. The entire time I tried to ignore the sharp looks Kurama sent my way, green eyes boring into the side of my head. Fiddling with the edge of a page, I tried to read the book in my hands, unable to focus on the words swimming in front of me no matter how hard I tried.
"She'll be fine." I finally burst out, catching my brother by surprise judging from the stiffening of his back. "I promise, no matter what, she'll be fine."
"I wasn't asking."
"I know." I looked up, locking eyes with worried green ones with a weak smile. "But you were practically screaming it in your head. I could feel it."
Breathing out a low sigh, he forced himself to relax in the seat and ran a hand through his hair, a small frown flitting across his features as he stared down at his shoes. "I apologize." Rolling my eyes, I reached over, squeezing his shoulder gently until he looked back up. "Look, don't apologize for being worried. I'm worried too, and if I thought someone had the answers, I'd want them to tell me too..." Squeezing again, I let my hand drop, I folded them on my lap and stared down at my fingers with a frown. "Thing is, it's hard for me to say anything, you know why. I'm constantly worried I'll say something or anything that will end up making you angry or hate me because of how it turns out."
"I could never hate you." Kurama's soft voice brought my head up so I could look at him again, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. "Kurama, there are things-"
"No." He cut me off, a firm shake of his head making the red in his hair glitter dully under the florescent lights overhead. "Your situation puts you in a unique and difficult position, but you're only human. I could never hate or begrudge you for any information you may have about a situation." I nearly flinched at what he said, just barely managing to bite it back with a strained grin instead. Thankfully the Doctor and our Mother stepping out of the office cut off anything else that might have been said.
The look on her face was enough to make Kurama's normally calm energy flicker with worry. The forced smile, the wet, red-rimmed eyes and the way she clenched her hands to her chest told us everything we needed to know.
Cancer, Leukemia to be exact. Something that had been building for a long time, judging from the tests the Doctors have run on Mother, the best they can figure it was around the time Kurama and I were born. Something we both took painfully, Kurama more than myself. He spiraled into self-deprecation, holding firm onto the belief it was his budding demonic energy that had caused this to happen. And while I tried to tell him otherwise, I couldn't fully disagree with him, and it tore me apart knowing that.
He pulled away from me during all of this, distancing himself from both myself and our Mother. Choosing instead to go out at night, train and practice with his powers, killing lesser demons that threatened our neighborhood's safety. No matter how many times I tried, I never could follow him when he left the house. He refused to explain anything to me, or even try to help me when I wanted to train with my own spirit energy, saying instead to focus on my studies and to leave everything else to him.
Instead of fighting him on any of this, I buried myself in training, still struggling with grasping my energy at the most basic level, weak whisps of it flickering at my fingers when I attempted to draw it forth. Mother's job allowed her to begin working from home when it became too much for her to commute back and forth to the office, the spare room set up into a makeshift office quick enough.
With Kurama keeping his distance and Mother focusing on her work and doctor's appointments, I was left to my own devices most of the time, left alone in our room to do whatever I wanted. It didn't take long for me to grow uncomfortable with the constant silence and lonliness, growing up with a twin that was attached to you every day would do that to you.
Instead of sitting in the oppressively quite of the house, I began taking walks whenever my schoolwork was finished. Wandering at first just in the neighborhood, meeting a few of the neighbors and the local shops. When that grew boring, I drifted farther, moving towards the heart of our city, the busy roads and chatter of pedestrians helping to push back the silence and circle of worried thoughts that plagued me.
It was one such walk that brought me to a realization about myself and my weak powers. Several students had already given me their well-wishes for Mother during school, and honestly I didn't want to run into anyone outside of classes if I could help it. Generally taking whatever way I could to get away from anyone I spotted while on a walk.
This time it was a small group of girls from Class C out shopping judging from the bags they were carrying. Five of them walking in my direction on the same side of the road, with the traffic too heavy to cross to the other side and it being a straightway, I had only one option: The steps leading up towards a quiet shrine. Deciding it was the best option presented, I quickly ducked up the stairs, keeping an eye on the girls as I tried to keep inconspicuous to no such luck. One of them had spotted me and tapped her friends on the shoulders, whispering to them, no doubt about why I was at the shrine considering how they were giving me those sad looks. With no other choice, I turned away and climbed up the rest of the way, passing under the Torii Gate with a low sigh. I'd hang around the area for a bit, wait for them to move on then head home.
"You sound distressed." A soft voice murmured, voice rough with age from behind. Spinning on my heel, I stared down at the old man holding a broom with two firm hands, a shrewd look in his eyes as he stared up at me. "Have you come to pray?"
"Um... Well..." I fumbled, trying to think of the best way to explain I was only there to avoid an uncomfortable conversation. While I stammered my way through an explanation, the old man smiled lightly and set the broom aside. "While you figure out what you're here for, share some tea with me, will you? It's rare for visitors to show outside of festivals." Turning away, he folded his hands behind his back and began walking towards one of the larger buildings on the shrine grounds, glancing back at me once with an expectant expression. "Well come on, the wind is only going to get colder the later in the day it gets."
The living space he owned was much nicer than I expected for some reason, leaning more towards traditional with tatami mats and sliding doors covered with wax paper. All along the walls were various shelves and cases filled with random items. The old man busied himself with a small stove, filling a teapot with water and setting it on top to heat while I studied the shelves curiously. "Do you know what these are?" He appeared at my elbow, watching me jump with some amusement. "Not many children your age are interested in any of these or the history they hold."
"I've always found shrines calming places to be." I murmured, looking back at the shelf in front of us with a small smile. "I don't have to... Be anything, or do anything. I can just exist and enjoy the peace." The old man hummed in agreement, reaching over to pick up a small stack of papers and holding them up for me to see. "Do you know what these are?"
"Um..." I frowned in thought, studying the stylized writing on the top paper curiously. "Sutra... Right?" The old man smiled wide and nodded, holding one out to me when I grinned back. "Exactly, priests use sutra to seal, cleanse and protect humans from negative energies."
Reaching out for the sutra, I felt a shock pass through my fingers, jerking back in surprise and holding my hand to my lips. "Ah-" The paper fluttered to the floor between us, the black ink seeming to shine for a second before it fell still once more. "It shocked me..."
"Hm..." The old man stared down at the sutra between us, a glint in his eyes as he thought before a sudden whistle pierced the heavy air around us, making him jerk lightly and hurry to the kitchen to take the pot from the stove. "Sit at the table would you?" He called over to where I still stood, staring down at the sutra. Lifting my head, I nodded dully, wandering to the low table and sitting beside it as he prepared the tea for us, hands automatically wrapping around the cup when he set it in front of me.
"Do you know what spirit energy is?" He asked finally after several moments of silence, the tea helping soothe my nerves and clear my thoughts. I jerked my head up at his words, eyes wide in surprise at his critical expression. "You do then." Nodding to himself, he settled back a bit and ran a finger around the rim of his cup in contemplation. "I take it you know enough to understand each person has a unique use of theirs."
"Y-Yeah... My... Well, my brother can use his on plants..." I murmured, looking back down at the hot tea in my mug, the steam curling as it spiral upwards. "I don't have much though... I can barely touch mine."
"I disagree." His words made me look up in confusion, eyebrows drawn together at what he said. "I can barely use mine, I can't even bring it up to the surface without hours of meditation." I tried to argue, watching him shake his head lightly, one hand reaching over to rest on top of the sutra sitting on the table between us. "All of us with enough spiritual energy to use, must have a medium in which for it to be useful. Some can use their own bodies, others-" He looked up and fixed me with a small smile. "Have unique forms that require a little more help."
"That shock-" I realized, the old man nodded, pushing the sutra towards me with a single finger. "You made a connection with the sutra you touched. Your spirit energy transferred for a moment. You, my boy, have a very unusual form of spiritual energy, one I thought may have been gone forever." Leaning back once more, he lifted his mug to his lips, watching over the rim as I slowly reached out towards the paper, a surprised flinch making my arm jump when the shock bit at my fingertips again at the contact. "Not many people have the ability to channel their spiritual energy into sutra any more. You couldn't bring it forth the way your brother can because it is only meant for use in this way."
Lifting the sutra up, I frowned slightly at the faint tingle in my fingers with the continued contact with it and looked over at the old man in confusion. "What does it mean then? I can only use these things if I want to use my spirit energy?"
"For the moment... With training, you could easily use it in other ways without them." He tipped his head to the side in thought, looking around the room before settling his gaze back on me. "If you wish to learn how to, anyway."
I nearly dropped the sutra from numb fingers once I realized exactly what it was he was hinting at, excitement surging through me as I leaned forward quickly. "You- You would-"
Blinking at my sudden reaction, the old man barked out a laugh and held up a hand between us. "Easy, boy. I only know so much, things passed down through the family. Anything else, you would need to learn on your own." Putting his hand down, he fixed me with a stern glare, a shudder working down my spine at the sudden shine in them. "If you are to train here, I expect work to be done. This shrine is too much to clean on my own anymore."
Blinking in surprise, I leaned back, running a hand through my hair. Honestly, from the look he had been giving me, I was expecting something much more extreme, but cleaning the shrine in exchange for spirit energy training? A bargain. "Alright, I can agree with that..." At my acceptance, he clapped his hands and lifted the mug of cool tea to his lips with a smile. "Good, I expect you here early tomorrow, there is much to do."
"Hold on." I cut through his excitement with a confused frown. "Now, I get paying for my lessons, and if you want to have me clean the shrine for you I'll gladly do it. But why are you even willing to teach me any of this? How do you even know about spirit energy? Why weren't you more surprised about all of this?"
He set his mug down with a soft clack against the wood table, a soft smile hovering around his lips as he studied me in silence a moment. "I could sense your energy the moment you passed under the Torii Gate, clear and bright as the sun. Burning with an almost defeated energy that seeped from your very pores." Humming under his breath in thought, he glanced down at the sutra I still held. "I could tell you needed help, guidance. I merely wished to help the same way I was helped as a child myself." Looking back up, he offered up a wry smile and rested a hand on top of mine, the faint tingle of his own energy touching against mine in a friendly touch. "Your energy is important, boy. Unique and rare, I refuse to let it fade into nothing because I didn't step forward to help."
"Is it really so rare?" I murmured, pulling back and setting the sutra down so I could cross my arms, not really wanting to look at him as I grew embarrassed with his heart-felt words. "It's spirit energy, nothing special."
"Spirit energy is unique to each person." He contested with a shake of the head, staring at me as I focused on a spot over his shoulder instead. "Yours burns like a fire, cleansing the air around it. Haven't you noticed? Many people seem to relax while simply being around you, as if their worries no longer burden them as much as they normally would. Even if you couldn't grasp your energy on your own, you've been using it unconsciously this whole time, keeping those around you in a calm state, one where they can relax and see the problems at a distance instead." Finally looking him in the eye, I frowned slightly in thought, recalling several moments during school where the few people I made friends with seemed to be in a much better mood just by sitting next to me despite having been in a sour mood earlier. "I mean... I guess. But why wouldn't my brother say anything about it? He definitely would have noticed if I have been doing that."
"I cannot speak for your brother, that is something you will need to take up with him." He brushed my concerns aside with a wave of his hand. "If you wish to accept what I can teach you, come early in the morning, five should suffice."
"I have school tomorrow-" I tried to protest only to be fixed with a firm look, cutting off anything else I was going to say. "Exactly why I said to arrive so early. An hour to clean and an hour to train with enough time to get to your school before classes start. Wear clothes you won't mind being dirty and bring your uniform to change into before you leave. If you're late you'll clean for the two hours instead." Picking up our empty mugs, he walked into the kitchen and began cleaning them. "Go home now, you'll need all the sleep you can get."
Recognizing the dismissal for what it was, I got to my feet hesitantly, glancing down at the sutra still sitting on my side of the table as I shook the tingles from my legs. "Take it with you." I looked up to where he stood in the kitchen doorway, a shine in his eyes as he offered up a small smile. "It would be best to be familiar with the tools you'll be learning to use."
Reaching out, I hesitantly picked it up, familiar with the light shock once I touched it enough so it didn't surprise me this time. Holding it up, I studied the marks on it curiously and tucked it safely into one of my pockets, offering a bow to the old man. "My name is Shohei... I'm afraid I never asked your name, Sir."
"You may call me Daisuke."