Hey- Normal talking
Hey- Kazuto's inner monologue
'Hey'- People thinking
(Hey)- Inner circles mean places or time skips
~Flashback~
{Queue Song: "Every Second" -From Ashes to New}
What makes a legacy so great? Is it the path carved by a person that guides others to success from which some had failed? Is it a washed-up way of propaganda to make those who have lost their embers ignite the fire for the new generation to burn with their new desire of grandeur?
Kazuto is seen going through the katas taught to him by his grandfather with a blank look on his face. Every thrust, every slash, and every parry losing its fluid motion by each tick the clock makes. Why should he be doing this anyway? He had no drive. No more fuel to feed the fires of desperation. So why?
"D-don't let this affect you...y-you've got so much potential in you...I just know it...I-I'm proud of y-you...my s-son…"
'Why' Kazuto thought as he touched his frozen heart. 'I'm broken from the shackles that had bound my freedom before. So why...why does it hurt so much?'
"Demons don't recite final verses to repent. As such, you don't deserve any mercy! Die!" Kazuto stated with venom as he pulled the trigger.
'And why did killing that man feel so good?' Kazuto thought blankly. 'I don't want to be a murderer. I don't! Yet I...I-I should go' he thought as he went to change clothes.
"Maybe a walk should help," he said in a monotone voice as he put on a coat to go out. Just as he was nearing the door, he saw his mother washing the dishes and called out to her.
"I'll walk around for a bit ok?" he forced a smile.
"Sure Kazuto," Midori said with a small smile, "but do be careful ok?" she asked with a small whisper.
"I will" said Kazuto with an actual smile, "I just have to clear my head for a bit. Later!" he said as he waved at her and walked out.
"Yeah." Midori said with a tiny voice, "I just wish there was a way to help you…"
(With Kazuto)
'What the hell...I enjoyed killing that man. Why the hell did it feel that way!? I wanted my grandfather gone for so long that when he actually did...when he got killed...I forgot all about my anger. After the last two years, I grew attached...to him. Is that why? And those words…'
["I-I'm proud of y-you...my s-son…"]
'He must have been lying. I just know it! There's no way that he-'
"Hey kid what are you doing?" a voice asked blandly.
For a second, Kazuto was going to answer with a sarcastic remark and tell them to fuck off. 'After all, those eyes...so full of pity...all of them!'
~Flashback~
"Have you heard!?"
"No"
"Enji Kirigaya was found dead in an alleyway!"
"No way! Really!?"
"I know right!?"
"Poor kid"
"Yeah look at him."
"Mommy why does that boy look so sad?"
"Don't look sweety" the mother said lowly in a whisper.
"Why?"
"The boy needs space" the father said with sympathy. "I know! How about we go get ice cream?" he asked as he tried to change the subject.
"Okay papa!"
As Kazuto walked aimlessly, he started clenching his fist so much that they started to bleed. 'Shut up. All of you shut up' he thought as he put his hood on to cover his face.
"Poor kid."
"And to think that he'll now be the legalized Kirigaya heir…"
"At such a young age too…"
"That sucks"
'Shut up!' Kazuto thought as he tried to run away from the whispers with tears rolling down his sides. 'Stop giving me those looks! I hate them! I hate them! Shut up!'
As he kept on walking, those eyes seemed to follow him. All those shallow eyes filled with pity and hidden greed.
"Hey," a guy asked his friend, "if we try to help the Kirigaya heir, do you think he'll thank us with money?"
"Yeah!" another said with enthusiasm as he continued to speak. "Man we'll be the richest men in town! Great thinking Daichi!" he finished with a smirk as his friend looked at him with a greedy grin.
As they were about to approach Kazuto, they felt the air leaving their lungs as a weight was pulling them down. When they tried to look for the cause, their eyes ended up meeting Kazuto's glare. It was filled with so much killing intent that a manifestation of a black crow spreading its wings was all they saw. His stare was piercing their very souls with such intensity that they started to lose their breath. Such intense eyes in someone so young, filled with a glint of death, was intoxicating to the point that the other people that were whispering before were now scurrying away in fear, leaving Kazuto to walk the streets alone.
~Flashback End~
"Nothing. Just taking a stroll around town." Kazuto said coolly.
"In the night?" the same voice questioned blandly.
"What of it?" he asked with irritation.
"Nothing really." the same man said, "I just found it weird for the renowned Kendo champion to end up sitting here in the middle of the lake looking at the moon."
"Huh?" Kazuto questioned blandly as he looked down to make sure. Lo and behold, he was sitting down at the edge of a lake just like the man had said. "Huh. Who would have guessed? It doesn't make much of a difference…does it? Why are you here anyway?" he continued blandly now with a hint of suspicion.
"Geez kid. If I were here to kill you, I wouldn't be talking to you by now. You'd be lying down with no pulse. By the way, my name's Shouta. Shouta Aizawa." the man remarked. He is a slender and tall pale-skinned man with messy, shoulder-length black hair that hung in front of his face with black eyes. His clothes consisted of an all-black attire and...a gray scarf?
"Wow, a great way to start a conversation." Kazuto mocked. "My name i-"
"Kazuto Kirigaya, I know." Shouta cut him off. "I was the announcer for your match three months back. I gotta say, I was impressed."
"Thanks, I guess." Kazuto says, "It was thanks to my training…"
"Your grandfather still a sore spot for you?" Shouta asked blandly as he saw Kazuto stiffen at the mention of his deceased family member.
"Yeah…" Kazuto admitted.
"I can't blame you," Shouta said as he went to sit next to Kazuto and looked up at the glittering white moon. "Believe it or not kid, I know what you're going through."
"Oh?" Kazuto questioned with repressed anger, "Pray tell. How would you know?"
"Well, my plight wasn't as bad as yours since my father figure died fifteen years ago. That man was interesting, I'll tell you that. Always preaching of wanting to be a hero of justice no matter what others told him. Myself included..."
At Kazuto's interested look, he continued. "I told him that he was naive in thinking that he can take the burden of the world on his own. Yet, he just laughed it off, saying that a "hero of justice" could never give up. He wanted to save everyone, no matter if they were good or bad. At one point, he told me about him being the last survivor of an incident that led to him wanting to be a hero."
"Really?" Kazuto questioned, "What was the incident?"
"Now now, I can't just be spilling all his secrets now can I?" Shouta stated sarcastically.
"Asshat…" Kazuto mumbled with a small pout.
"What was that brat?" Shouta asked with a twitching brow.
"Nothing, nothing," Kazuto said with a small smile.
"Hmph. Anyway, what about you? What's with that lost look on your face?"
'Well, he did tell me about himself so I should do the same. I owe him that much…' Kazuto thought as he was debating on whether or not to tell him. In the end…
"What would you do if the person you spent your whole life hating started changing for the better? What if you started to warm up to him, only to see him lying down and knocking on death's door moments after you started to think of him as a father two years later? With the murderer lying right there next to you?" he asked in one go.
"Hypothetically? I don't know. If what you say happened exactly as the news described it, then I'm guessing you shot the man out of spite, fled the scene in a hurry while ultimately leaving the gun at the scene of the crime. You must have also been with other people seeing as the gun was cleaned with no actual fingerprints. Thus, saving you from the crime you committed while running away before you and the others got caught. Sounds about right?" Shouta finished as he looked at Kazuto's shell-shocked face.
"H-how?" asked Kazuto.
"Look kid, I'm not here to turn you in or anything. I just wanted to gauge your state of mind. It was true that I wasn't just walking around until I bumped into you by chance. You see…"
Shouta went to get something out of his back pocket as Kazuto tensed up, ready to run. As Kazuto was cautiously waiting to see what it was, Shouta took out some yellow looking goggles.
"...I'm what you would call an underground hero. I inherited my master's burning embers and decided to carry the torch on my own accord. A legacy if you will. In doing so, I decided to become a hero of justice and save people from the dark chaos surrounding humanity."
As Kazuto looked on with interest, he couldn't help but think back to his past thoughts as he was aimlessly hitting his Shinai.
"I took on my role to honor his teachings. I believe that you were unsure about whether to do the same or to forget about your own legacy past down to you because of the incident. Is that it?" he questioned with interest.
"I-I guess...It's just that...what is the whole point of a legacy if all you could think of was their past exploits? It won't bring them back. So why try?" Kazuto questioned with a lost look.
"It's not on whether it would bring them back or not, but a memento to honor their teachings." Shouta clarified, "That's a simple reason to keep going. Answer me this: would you rather sever that small tie you have with the only person you thought as a father, or honor him by making sure your embers of determination burn brighter than the sun itself? Only you can carve that path ignited by the fire of your past predecessor. That is the beauty of a legacy." Shouta stated as he went to walk away.
"Wait!" Kazuto screamed out as he saw him start walking away, "How can I be sure that it would work?"
"That's a question only you can answer." Shouta said, "Sometimes, someone or something passes on a legacy to you and you can't do a thing about it. It's just how life is. We've just gotta move on and try and live life to the fullest. No point in wasting time on grudges and resentment. It's fine to go through those emotions, but you've got to come to terms with it before life passes you by. If you found the light to your embers, come to this exact spot. If not, you could forget about this encounter and go on your merry way." he finished as he walked away. His footsteps resounding in the night like the thundering sound of rain.
"Only you can carve the path ignited by your past predecessors huh?" Kazuto mused as he stood up and walked home, "that guy…"
(Kirigaya Estate)
As Kazuto was looking at the ceiling in his room, he thought back to his grandfather and the words Shouta told him. The more he thought, the more conflicted he felt. His grandfather laid his life to save him and his family. The same man whose guts he had hated all his life. However, he got attached to him two years prior due to an incident. All he asked in return during his stairway to heaven was to continue to practice, to continue his legacy. Could he really be the starting foundation of his wish? When all he felt was numbness?
[would you rather sever that small tie you have with the only person you thought as a father, or honor him by making sure your embers of determination burn brighter than the sun itself?]
Those exact words. They brought him much thought and yet, they cleared his head clouded with doubt. He breathed a sigh to relax his body. In the end...
In the end, I ended with more questions than answers. Some people would say that it was foolish to talk to a random stranger that you just met about your own conflicting emotions but, it was just something I had to get off my chest. Since the man was so persistent, I decided to hear him out. It helped me with my conflicting thoughts. He was right, only I could choose my own path. The only problem was that I didn't know exactly how to go with it. In the end, I took the man's advice and decided to go searching for him.
(The Dock)
"Oh? You came. I take it you figured out what you want to do?" Shouta asked blandly.
"Yeah, but I not only want to continue his legacy. I want to be something more!" Kazuto said with fire in his eyes as Shouta looked on with a hidden smirk. "I want to be just like you! I want to be a man my grandfather would be proud to call his heir! So.." Kazuto bowed his head "Please take me on as your apprentice! Teach me how to be a hero of justice!"
"Heh." Shouta smiled with a crooked grin, "Why not. Get ready kid, because when the going gets tough, you won't be able to back down. So, are you up for the task?" he questioned.
At Kazuto's nod, he continued. "Alright, come back here tomorrow to start your training. There is a long road ahead of you. I'll be calling a friend for the favor he owed me in order to help with your training. However, don't forget to practice your Kendo. It'll be essential with what I'll be training you in."
As Shouta was about to leave, he stopped midway to tell him some last words.
"By the way, during training, call me Eraserhead."
"Okay...Eraserhead" Kazuto started with a smile as adrenaline was clouding his mind on the prospecting of continuing his grandfather's legacy.
In the end, a legacy is something left behind for someone to continue. Not out of wanting greed, but out of respect for the person you want to continue to have ties with. As such, I will continue to ignite my grandfather's wish while carving my own path with the fires of my will to be something more. I won't only be the long-lasting Kirigaya heir, but a hero of justice to start this new path. I will be the ignition that will set ablaze the wheels of change into a new era of greatness. With my master by my side and my will to stop whatever happened to my father figure to happen to someone else, I know I could change the world. Call it a vendetta if you'd like, but I would laugh at you and call it my burning legacy. You can believe that.
