Memories of the Forgotten One

Chapter 8

Hero

…

"Akira! Did you hear the news?" the boy shouted, the vicious wind batting slashes of rain against his cold skin.

"What are you doing here?" Akira asked impassively. It was late, past midnight, and the weather was terrible. Cold raindrops fell rapidly, carried by unrelenting gusts of wind. The sky was pitch black, like an imposing sheet that had been thrown over the sky.

"I came to tell you the news," said Kazuki simply. His breath came in gasps and Akira noticed there was a slick coating of muck on his clothes, as though the cat had slipped on the muddy ground on his way to see the older boy.

"What news?"

"It's about Daiki," he started, and then stopped. Akira threw him a questioning glance and he continued, "He's passed."

Akira gave an exaggerated sigh. "Kazuki, we all know he's dead."

"Oh."

They stood in silence for a few moments. Kazuki's large eyes shone with disappointment. He brushed some hair out of his eyes, as Akira noticed he often did when he was nervous or upset. But Akira didn't feel like saying anything. Kazuki was seven now, he had to learn to deal with things on his own.

"Is that why you're upset?" Kazuki asked suddenly.

"I'm not upset."

"You're acting upset."

"No I'm not." Akira's voice held a trace of annoyance, and he spoke with a finality that told Kazuki it would be pointless to continue the conversation. Akira got like this sometimes, completely antisocial and brooding.

Kazuki started to walk away, his shoes making squelching noises in the wet earth.

'Wait," called Akira.

Kazuki spun around. "What?"

Akira paused. "Nothing. Never mind."

Kazuki trudged his way back to his house, a nagging feeling of gloom following him back. Standing outside his door, he picked up the secret key from underneath the doormat, and inserted it into the lock. The door opened with a slight click. The sound caused his heart to beat wildly, in fear that someone would hear the sound and wake up. The noise was hardly noticeable, but in the quiet of night is seemed to become exponentially louder.

He looked around nervously. Good, his parents weren't waiting just outside the door to catch him. He always had a feeling they were watching him whenever he did something he knew he shouldn't have. But he sometimes had a need to leave the house, an urge he couldn't fight that took over him and seemed to push him out the door.

The floor creaked slightly beneath his feet and he cringed. The paper doors didn't do much to block out sound. But he made it back to his room without incident, changed out of his muddy clothes, and fell into an uneasy sleep, dreaming of Oni and zodiac animals.

…

"Ah ha!" called the triumphant voice as Akira entered his house. It was completely dark in the dwelling, save for the ray of moonlight that fell in as Akira opened the door.

"Sh!" said Akira, more annoyed than startled. "Do you want to wake them up?"

"I don't know, do I?"

"I thought even you had enough brainpower to answer a yes or no question."

"Shut up."

"Oh, brilliant comeback, Ken," said Akira, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I'll punch you," said Ken'ichi, extremely irritated.

"I'd flip you, they'd wake up, and we'd both be screwed."

Ken'ichi sighed. "You really need to learn some respect for your elders."

"Like you?" asked Akira with a sly grin.

"Don't go there."

"'Kay, fine. So why were you waiting for me?"

"I've had my suspicions about you for a while, and this proves them correct."

"I didn't realize your vocabulary included big words like "correct" or "suspicions"."

"You're such a brat! Anyway, you're not as clever as you seem to think, or else you wouldn't have gotten caught by someone as "stupid" as me."

"Chill out, Ken. You know I'm just messing with you. Don't let me get to ya. You're top of your class anyway, so you can't be as dense as you look."

"Learn some respect!"

"No thanks. Anyway, I think I can guess what this is about."

"Yeah. Anyway, don't you dare tell them, because I now have info on you that you don't want them knowing. If you talk, there will be no more nightly prancing for you."

"Ooh, melodrama," said Akira, rolling his eyes as he walked away.

"Why can't they just send him to school? Maybe some socialization would make him normal," Ken'ichi said to the toaster.

…

He wasn't sure what had wakened him: the loud voices or the first rays of sunlight streaming through his window. He sat up, rubbing his eyes to clear the sleep from them.

"Morning," he greeted his parents as he walked into the main section of the house. His parents replied in unison. Osamu walked out of the house, closing the door after him. "Where's Dad going?" asked Kazuki.

"He has to get to the funeral early, according to orders," said Kimiko, who had begun to try and fit various fancy outfits on Kazuki.

"Whose orders? Not Daiki's, he's dead. Ow!" Kazuki exclaimed as Kimiko accidentally elbowed him in the nose.

"Sorry. Don't say dead. Passed. And they're going to appoint the next head of the family, your father has to be there for that."

"What about me?"

"Ordinary people like you and me don't have to be there until the main part of the funeral."

"I'm an ordinary person?"

"Don't ask so many questions. Done!"

Kazuki looked in the mirror and was unsurprised to see himself wearing extremely fancy attire.

"Won't this get all muddy from outside?"

"We'll take a different route than usual. Wait… how did you know about it being muddy outside?"

"Uh, I heard it raining yesterday."

"Kazuki, don't lie. I saw how muddy your shoes and clothes from yesterday are." Her face was entirely expressionless, so Kazuki had no idea what to do. He knew he could lie, confess, or smile and hope she wasn't angry with him.

He ended up not doing anything. Before he could speak, Kimiko had. "Good," she said simply, a small smile that could mean anything decorating her face.

"Huh?" said Kazuki, completely taken aback.

"Don't mention this to your father, Kazuki," she said, her tone of voice unreadable. It reminded of a promise Kazuki had made himself years ago. He had said he would learn to understand people, so he could keep them from getting angry with him. It seemed he so far hadn't made much progress with that goal. Maybe people made no sense whatsoever.

…

"Hi," Akira mouthed to Ryuu. The other boy didn't notice, so Akira looked back at speaker who was addressing him and the other Juunishi. It was someone he had never seen before, a formal-looking man with neatly trimmed grey hair that looked odd when combined with his young-looking face. It reminded Akira of the rat, who was also listening to the man speak. Well, as much as the rat listened to anything. He always seemed to be in a daze, and even though his parents thought that he would grow out of it with time, at the age of seven he was still exactly the same as he'd always been.

Akira forced his attention back to the speaker, but it was hard to concentrate on what was being said. The man spoke in a monotone, with no enthusiasm whatsoever. "With the departing of Daiki Sohma, a new person must take temporary leadership of the Sohma family, until the next manifestation of the Jade Emperor has revealed himself and grown to an age suitable to rule. Myself and the other elders of the Sohma family have selected this temporary leader. We have chosen…" he paused in what seemed to be a sign of respect, but could have been simply to increase the tension in the crowd. "Ken'ichi Sohma."

WHAT? Akira's mind seemed to scream the thought. He knew he must have let out a small gasp. How on earth could Ken- his own brother! - become leader of the Sohma family? As far as he knew, Ken'ichi didn't have any leadership skills, and he was hardly an adult. How could he have been voted the best choice for leader?

The rest of the crowd seemed to be just as surprised with the results, and a ripple of whispers seemed to spread through the mass.

He glanced over to his brother, who had been standing in the section where the nonzodiac members had been instructed to stand. He saw Ken'ichi calmly walk up and bow deeply to the man. He must have known! Akira swore that as soon as the service was over, he would make Ken'ichi explain all of this.

For the first time he could think of, the world seemed to be running itself without stopping to explain to Akira what the heck was going on.

…

Kazuki squinted to get a better look of the monument to Daiki. It was hard to see with so many people in front of him, most of them much taller than Kazuki. He and Kasumi had to stand separately from the other people attending the ceremony, since he was the cat. It made him feel kind of embarrassed, though he wasn't quite sure why. It's probably because I'm standing out, he realized.

He had thought Osamu Sohma would have joined them by now, but it suddenly dawned on Kazuki that his father wasn't coming. This made him feel surprisingly disappointed. It wasn't like he saw his father much anyway. He spent most of his time at work and doing Sohma family business.

Kazuki was surprised to see how plain the monument was. It was made of black stone, and into the side the name Daiki was carved in ornate letters.

"Who's that?" he whispered, tugging at his mother's arm.

"Ken'ichi-sama, the new head of the family." It sounded strange to hear his mother call Ken'ichi "sama." He was only a teenager, and from what Akira spoke of him, he wasn't very polite.

"No, not him. The old guy."

"Sohma Yuudai-sama. Daiki-sama's father."

"Daiki-sama had a father?"

"Of course. Now be quiet, you're being bad-mannered."

It was then that Kazuki noticed that no one was crying, not even Yuudai.

…

It was late at night, and the crowd had dispersed from the Sohma Family Cemetery. The unpleasant weather conditions from last night had returned. The wind was an animalistic howl, and carried small droplets of rain with it. It battered itself against the man, but he didn't submit to it and continued walking.

It wasn't yet completely dark, the entire landscape was stained navy-blue and the full moon shone down brightly through a parting in the clouds. The man's steps expertly avoided the puddles and muddy areas, as though he had been here many times prior to this. His elegant black shoes picked up hardly a trace of mud in this entire trip.

His footsteps stopped abruptly, and he looked about once more to make sure no one was around. Reassured that he was alone, he sat down beside the black shrine. He began to talk, at first his voice quiet and controlled. He seemed as emotionless as ever for a long time. As he spoke he ran a hand against the cold stone, dripping with icy rainwater.

Then something seemed to snap inside him, and he began to sob. But he continued to talk, even when his words were so waterlogged no human would have been able to understand them. Finally, he regained control.

He stood up, purposely dropping the object that was reason he had come here in the first place. He looked at it, and saw it had landed perfectly and needed no adjustment. He felt a feeling of contentment wash over him, like the rain that had by now soaked through all his layers of clothing.

As he walked away, his silhouette melding with the night, a green stone sparkled against the black monument.