Child
The little boy turned his head over on his overstuffed pillow. He couldn't sleep; his head was overflowing with thoughts. It didn't really matter to him whether or not he slept anyway, he could already feel his strength returning, it was easy to go for days without sleep. The young boy waited and listened for any sound of the morning birds, but there were none, and it was winter time so there was no way to tell if it was day or night otherwise, at least not out here on the bottom of the world. His bored eyes scanned the room; kids at school had told him that it was a haunted room, because his grandfather had committed suicide in it the same day that Kosuke was born. It was probably true, but Kosuke didn't care much. There wasn't much of a reason to be afraid, especially when he had so many other things to think about. He hadn't trained in a while and he wanted to just get up already so he could go to the bathhouse and clean up before going out to his training area. Yet again, his caretaker, Daisuke, had told him to stay in bed until it was morning, or until he could hear the morning birds calling.
Daisuke didn't really care about Kosuke though; he seemed to just want him to stay in bed as long as possible. Kosuke knew it was true, he wasn't paranoid; Daisuke let his hate for the young Zuka show plainly most of the time. Kosuke could remember overhearing terrible rumors that Daisuke had spread to the other villagers. He told them that Kosuke was the reason that Kana, his father, had died, and since not many people knew about how Kana had actually died, they believed him. Kosuke also believed him sometimes, he thought that he was the one to have killed his own Ōtou-san. It only made sense; when he heard the stories of his pretoddler years he really did sound like a nightmare. Yet, Kosuke could sense that there was an even greater reason that they hated him so. Almost everyone in the village showed him icy eyes after Daisuke had started it, but Kosuke tried not to care. If he really was a monster, then he didn't have to care, he was above them all, stronger, smarter, and he showed it in school almost every day.
Still, Kosuke couldn't help but cry every time he thought no one was looking, nobody wanted to be around him. Kosuke had asked many people how to repent from the things he had done while still a baby, but they all just cursed at him or tried to ignore him. Daisuke had told him that he was supposed to have died long ago and that fate would always be out to get him, where it hadn't gotten him before. He heard about his mother, Inari, who died bringing him into the world. The villagers told him that his parents were both very kind but they were driven mad by their unborn child, Kosuke. They had tried to keep him a secret child that Kana would care for as a supposedly adopted baby. Though when Kana and the former Shimokage had both died the secret was let out without the current Shimokage's permission. Now everyone in the village, who was over twelve, knew about the demon inside of Kosuke. Kosuke and the other kids his age had no idea of the demon's existence and so they just hated Kosuke because their parents told them to. Even orphaned kids knew the rumors about Kosuke being insane and evil, their friends had spread the story as a terror tale for dark and stormy nights.
Finally, the calls of the morning birds began to ring out in the silent darkness and Kosuke stood up immediately to light a candle on a dresser in his room. He walked quickly over to a cushion where his daywear lay. At least he wasn't poor; the clothes were very intricate and beautiful, as a Zuka's clothes should be. He scooped them up and walked to the door, but when he tried to open it he found that it was locked. This had happened before, so Kosuke ignored it and went to the window to climb out, since he was on only the second floor. He took a white cloak out from a drawer in his dresser and draped it around himself before climbing through the window he had opened, down to the cold ground below.
People were watching him quietly, they whispered to each other about the strange actions of the young Zuka boy. Kosuke passed through the streets, ignoring their cruel gestures and gossiping, heading towards the distant bathhouse. Once he stood at the foot of the building he pushed aside the doors and entered walking slowly through the decorated main hall and over to the men's wing of the house. He passed quietly through the halls with his hood pulled low over his white face. Once he reached his washroom he slid open the door and stepped inside shutting it silently behind him.
He pulled off his cloak and hung it on a hook near the mirror, and then he stood in front of his reflection while he undressed out of his nightclothes and undergarments. He looked over his face and scolded himself inwardly for the tearstains; he hadn't even realized he had been crying that night, and the stains would harm his complexion someday. His long, silken, white hair flowed along his back loosely, cutting off after around five inches below his waistline. He had an extremely thin body and it was completely white; he needed to eat more to keep up some shape, then again he was only seven so it wasn't that important yet. Two long cuts ran along his sides from when he had tried to sneak out to train the other day, they weren't quite healed yet, but they would heal faster than anyone else's cuts in the village, considering the beast gave him the power to do so.
First things first, Kosuke walked over to the sink and took a special bottle out of the cabinet near it. He turned his head to face the ceiling and let five droplets fall into each of his eyes, before he shut them gently and massaged special points around them. With his head still tilted upwards he pulled a bandage off of the sink's counter and wrapped it tightly around his eyes fastening it in the back. Then he walked over to a tub in the back of the washroom and placed its stool next to it so he could lean in and begin filling it with water. He could easily reach in without using the stool, considering he was around four feet and two inches tall, but he didn't want to stress the healing wounds on his sides.
Once the tub was brimming he placed his hands on the sides of the rim and warmed it to the point of rising steam, then he stepped in gently and sat down. The water stung his cuts and it hurt like hell, but Kosuke was adjusted to ignoring that kind of pain as he sat absorbing the warmth of the water. He dunked his head into the warm fragrant water to soak his hair and stayed under for a long while. Sounds of his shifting under the surface quieted and made way for an enchanting silence. Now that he was down under, Kosuke wanted to stay embraced in the warmth of the water forever. He had heard about some of the female Zuka drowning themselves in their tubs because they thought that they weren't pretty enough. They had at least one of their friends go into the washroom with them and they would be drowned so as to not shame their clan. Yet, Kosuke saw many beautiful girls going to their washrooms to be drowned, so he recognized by now that the girls were just overly concerned to the point of being suicidal. Such occurrences were reasons that so few women populated the village.
Kosuke himself almost felt like drowning, being drowned in an essence of life almost sounded poetic. Yet again, Kosuke did have a reason to live; he had tricked himself out of suicide many times by telling himself that, before he could die, he needed to know the real reason that his villagers hated him so.
Kosuke burst from the warmth of his tub and took in a few deep breaths before sitting back down. He let the heat become absorbed into his body while he sat there, breathing in the herbal scent that the warm water had taken on. By the time his muscles were relaxed enough the medicine in his eyes was fully absorbed and he untied the bandages, laying them on the small low table next to the bathtub. He picked out a few different soaps and applied them all to their proper areas before exchanging them all for shampoo and conditioner. Once his hair was brushed and conditioned he dipped and rinsed the remnants of the mixtures and stood to drain the tub and dry off.
His instant bodily heat dried his hair and he brushed it out again before turning to his sink to cleanse his face more thoroughly. His white eyes stared eerily back at him from the depths of his reflection, the same eyes that had brought fortune to the first Shimokage brought him only wishes of death and hate with an unknown origin from his villagers. Yet they were still beautiful.
Kosuke took his clothes to the trough in the back of the washroom and cleaned them carefully before drying them. Then he slipped them on and stood in front of his refection again. He looked inharmoniously charming; his hair fell in long strands and painted white over the shoulders and back of his decorative garment, and his complexion almost radiated a stunning bright pallor.
He took another cloak from one of the hooks and adorned his outfit with its color and texture. Then he slipped out the door and walked quickly through the grand hall, heading for the front door.
Kosuke stepped out into the brisk coldness and wrapped his cloak tighter around his slim body as he treaded across the streets' cobblestones. After he had warmed himself up enough he let the shroud fall loosely around his body and continued his walk in silence. It was a silence that he had never been able to escape, and it dripped onto him uncomfortably as though the quiet was taunting his inability to interact with the villagers that stared at him.
A little girl by the entrance of a shop stood humming a tune while she savored a sucker and watched her mother sew a scarf, but her eyes fixed on Kosuke as he passed.
"Don't look at that boy, Chiya." Her mother snapped instantaneously.
"Why not?" Kosuke listened intently and slowed his pace trying to hear the mother's response.
"Because I told you to, and I'm your Kaa-san!" She answered harshly.
"I can if I want to." She retorted. Her mother snatched her by the wrist and forced her into the shop, closing the door behind them both.
Kosuke's gaze returned to the street and his almost brightened eyes slipped back into their apathetic appearance. He wanted to be seen by the child, no one around his age was allowed to be around him. Suddenly, there was a knocking sound coming from the shop; he turned towards it in curiosity to find the young girl sitting behind a window knocking loudly on the glass with a wide grin painted across her face. Kosuke smiled and watched her in interest as she popped the lolly into her hand and leaned forward to kiss the glass sweetly. Unable to suppress his joy at the good attention, Kosuke ran over to the window and put his hands on either side of her image. She pulled her face off of the glass and placed her own hands over his and licked the glass playfully. Kosuke laughed and put his finger where her tongue was.
The little girl turned around to face her angry mother and hopped away from the window in time for her to slam down the shade. Kosuke stopped smiling and turned away from the glass. He knew it was time to make his way back home. He would remember where the shop was; this was the first time someone had ever wanted to be around him. He wondered if they came there every morning and had only just noticed him on his daily walk. He hoped they did; he was beyond desperate for good attention and needed someone to talk to other than Daisuke, his hating caretaker.
He walked slowly back to his house and tried to think if she was someone he had seen in school. When she didn't come to mind he dismissed that she mustn't have been in training to become a warrior, either that or she was just in a different class. Either way, Kosuke felt a sense of hope pull away the dark curtains of the upcoming day and he could almost smile, though he was all alone.