Rouga-centric chapter, minor KyoRou.
Prompt: Fairy Tales
Once upon a time, there was a little white dog. That dog was owned by a cruel owner, who loved to toy with the dog. It would be kind to the dog on weekends, and on weekdays it would ignore it. The dog would try to get the owner's attention, and the owner would kick it aside, pretending it didn't exist. The dog got discouraged, but stayed out of the owner's way until it was the weekends. Soon its entire life's purpose was to wait for the weekends, so that it would actually gain some kindness from its beloved owner.
One day the owner got tired of watching the dog give its endless affection no matter what they did to the dog, and so it told the dog that it was taking the dog on a vacation. They drove into the woods, where the owner told the dog to stay in a cave while the owner went to get the supplies. Then the owner left for home, leaving the dog in the cave.
The little dog stayed in the cave, waiting for the owner to show up again. It waited and waited and waited. It huddled in the cave when it rained, and watched the sun when the sky was clear. But it never left, trusting its owner to come back someday.
Ten years later, the owner showed up at the cave again by coincidence, having already forgotten about the dog a long time ago. The dog was ecstatic to see the owner again, but the owner told the dog they never cared about it. And then the owner left again.
So that little white dog hid in the cave, growing sadder and angrier by the day. As its anger grew, its body grew as well. And so it grew and grew until it became a giant monster, eating anyone who came near the cave.
"That's just a fairy tale." Rouga says.
"All fairy tales have to come from somewhere." The old man in the bar says, taking another drink. "Are you sure you don't want any?" He says, holding out the bottle to him.
"I'm underage, so no. I'll stick to water." Rouga says, drinking from his glass. He poured some of the contents onto a plate and pushed it over to Cerberus, who immediately began lapping it up. The fairy tale felt familiar, but he didn't remember from where. Maybe one of Kyoya's old story books? "So do you tell fairy tales to every person who comes through here?"
"You're a funny kid." The old man snickers. "Where're you heading?"
"Wherever. I'm not wanted in a lot of places."
"You are wanted in others though, isn't that great?" The old man sighs. "The world's pretty big."
"Not big enough for some people." Rouga mutters. The old man raises an eyebrow at that. "Oh. I know this… person. He's trying to do a lot, but he's lost sight of the world we live in."
"And he's shut himself off from the world as a result." The old man finishes. "Youngsters getting caught up in themselves so much they can't see other people anymore."
It had been a week since Rouga had left ChouTokyo. While they weren't the cleanest, shady bars were good for some things. It provided quick and easy protection from the police, as well as a cheap place to get food and water. He still had the credit card Kyoya had given him long ago, but he was worried that if he used it, he could get tracked. Rouga wasn't sure why the old man was talking to him, but he didn't dislike the conversation.
"Not all of them." Rouga says. "Sure, we're a bunch of stubborn idiots, but a lot of us care about each other. Some too much."
The old man smiles back. "Kids these days. Changing the world before they're even legal to drink!" He cackles.
Changing the world, huh.
"So what's your family like?"
"They're… fine." Kyoya was probably fine. "Really rich."
"And what kind of family lets their kid wander off in the woods at, what are you, sixteen?"
"Fourteen. And he and I aren't on the best terms right now."
"What is he, a kid?"
"Yeah."
The man takes another long drink, then waves at the bartender for another. The bartender ignores him. "Jeez," The old man huffs, then turns back to Rouga. "I don't mean your brother or something. I mean your parents."
That's a sensitive topic. Rouga doesn't even know why it's a sensitive topic, since they were no different from any other family in the slums, but it felt too personal. "They're both dead. I got adopted and taken over to Japan, and I like it."
"Is that so." The old man says quietly.
"Whatever happened to the dog in the fairy tale?" Rouga asks. The old man smiles ominously at him, the light glinting off the glass of alcohol he held. He looked so old and his skin was so pale and wrinkled, it was almost like he was a ghost.
"It's still out there, waiting for its owner to come back so that it can get its revenge."
There's a little village at the back of Mount Fuji, Rouga discovers. It's really small, and reminds him the slums he had been born in, but richer and happier. He doesn't know why he would come back here, after the whole incident with Gaen Kyoya and the Mine, but he found himself here somehow.
He walks down the trail down the center, and already sees two little kids playing ball by the side, but neither of them were smiling. Not happier.
Rouga tries to put on the least scary face he knows, and walks over to the kids. "H-Hey there, kids? Do you know if there's a place for travellers to stay here?" He says, smiling awkwardly. His face hurts at the effort. The kids look up at him with strange faces.
"Y-You could probably stay anywhere you wanted to now…" One of the kids, the older one mumbles. Both of the kids are dressed in dirt and rags, and Rouga can see a few other children peeking their heads out of the little townhouses. No adults though.
"Fuu, there's a newcomer!" The little kid shouts. From a house down the road, a girl a bit older than Rouga walks out, a basket of apples in her arms. She's dressed no better than the rest of them, with her brown hair cut jaggedly across her shoulders.
"Who are you, and why are you here?" The girl walks up to Rouga and demands, looking down on him from the few centimetres taller she is.
"Aragami Rouga. I'm a traveller passing through." Rouga says.
"Did you have to come here of all places?"
"I've been walking for two days. If you have space, any free space at all, I'll take it."
The girl looks conflicted. She clicks her tongue in annoyance, pointing at the house at the farthest down the trail. "You can stay there if you want. But we can't give you any food."
"That's fine with me."
The house isn't bad. It's nicely furnishes, snug and warm, and has a large bed. He sets the fireplace ablaze, and watches the flames flicker. There's a family photo on the ledge above the fireplace, showing a happy mom, dad, and little boy. None of the people featured are in the house.
The door opens, and a little girl, the one at the entrance of the village, walks in with a piece of bread. She sits next to Rouga next to the fire wordlessly, watching the flames.
"Uh," Rouga starts, "can I, help you?"
The little girl holds out the bread to him. "Here."
"I thought I wasn't going to get any food."
"Here." The girl says again. Her stomach growls loudly.
Rouga sighs, and takes the bread from her. He breaks of a small lump from it and pops it in his mouth, then hands the rest of the bread back to the girl. "I'm not hungry." He says.
The girl looks reluctantly, but takes the bread back and begins to eat. "Do you know what happened here?" Rouga asks.
The little girl finishes eating the bread, then swallows hard. "There's a monster at the top of the mountain. Kiru's dad went up there, and never came back down, and when other adults went to investigate, they found the monster. It's been demanding food from our village. If a person from our village doesn't go to the top at the beginning of every day, the monster comes down and takes a bunch of us away." The little girl says.
"A monster?"
"It's really scary!" The little girl says, curling up in a little ball. "The adults all went up first, but there's none of them left now, and the rest of us are going to die. We're all going to die…"
Nameless and quickly, like snowflakes melting. The little girl looked like Hyoryu Kiri. Nobody would miss a little village like this. Nobody would miss another nameless kid dead.
"Rouga, what if I create a world where kids finally have a voice. Nobody would have to die off meaninglessly. Everyone would live together happily. Nobody would have conditions like the slums you and all the rest of the kids had to live through. We'll create a better world, where none of us will be powerless!"
Rouga sighs, then picks up his spear from where he set it. "Cerberus, we have work to do." He says, and Cerberus looks up from where they had been napping. He looks at the little girl and smiles gently, patting the girls head. "Thanks for the bread. We're going to slay the monster now."
He walks out of the front door, and looks at Mount Fuji illuminated by the stars in the night. He can still remember the portal forming a month ago, the fighting, the pain in his body, Kyoya losing.
"Small steps, Kyoya. Small steps are fine."