Rouga comes to terms with his past and present, and the future to come.
Prompt: The Future
"You're back?" Fuu exclaims in surprise when she sees him walking back into the village again. "Are you the one that sent that weird girl that came by and froze all around the village? We haven't sent a sacrifice up since it was created, because the girl said it was no longer necessary."
"Don't go around causing me more work."
Rouga really didn't listen well. "No, she just happens to be an acquaintance." He says. "I need to clarify some things though. What happens if a person doesn't go up to sacrifice themself every day?"
"The monster comes down to eat a whole bunch of us, more than the regular deal of one sacrifice."
"Has it ever actually done that?"
Fuu paused. "No. We were all too scared to ever risk losing more than one person per day. Why?"
"I have an idea." Rouga turns back to the mountain, and gazes at the cave located at the very tip. He could feel the familiar power of Disaster Force coursing through his veins, concentrating at his fingertips and waiting for his command. "Thanks, Kyoya, but I'm not someone that needs your command or help for everything anymore."
He looks at Fuu, who's relatively better looking than last time when she was constantly stressed out by the village's situation. "This whole thing's partially my fault, but, I have an idea how to solve it." Rouga says. "And, if the idea doesn't work and I don't come back down, if a person called Gaen Kyoya comes by," the words get caught in his throat "could you tell him, I'm sorry."
This is his stand, and he if he's going down, he's going down with everything he has.
Rouga climbs up Mount Fuji all on his own, enjoying the scenery for once instead of just flying above it. He's taunted by his own shadow the entire time. There's more than just his pair of footsteps crunching leaves, and there's not his laugher surrounding him. "Do you believe in fairy tales?" He sees the old man again, standing by a tree and smiling. The man steps to the side and disappears, and reappears to Rouga's right, sitting on a chair and petting a dog in his arms. "How about now? Do you really think your fairy tale ending will come?" Rouga walks past him, and the man reappears right in front of him. "You born in the slums, you die in the slums. You're just lying to yourself right now; you'll never be anything more than another slum kid to die nameless in the snow."
"Shut up, dad." Rouga mutters, and walks right through him, ignoring the chill that runs through him as he passes through the ethereal form. He finally remembers where he thought the fairy tale sounded familiar. His mom sometimes told him the story, and one time when he asked where she heard it, she replied how it was an old story his father told her. He never liked that fairy tale.
"This is reality. You don't solve a problem just because you want to. Your master isn't coming up to save you when you fail." The old man's voice echoes from behind him. "None of your attacks work on that beast! You think believing in yourself will achieve some different result? As if! The world isn't as kind as that. Go back to the slums and die a dog's death, even when you don't deserve that much. Gaen Kyoya hates your existence, remember!"
Rouga stops. Yeah, Kyoya probably did. But Rouga can't get that memory of being able to happily hang out with the other when they were kids, the happiest moment of his life being when Kyoya entered. And thanks to Kyoya, his world has gotten so much larger. "Even if he hates me, I don't hate him."
"Why do you get to escape the slums and leave everyone else behind?"
The voice is finally quiet, but still harsh and unforgiving and Rouga turns to finally face the man properly. "Is that what all this is about?" He says sadly. The man's expression is angry and upset and frustrated, and Rouga thinks he can understand that feeling well.
"Do you know how many died in the slums, not a single hope for the future? And yet you get to leave, live in a cushy home, and get a future. No health care, never enough food, dirty water, sewage in our homes, never more than a dime in our pockets, I never had anything of my own. But you get so much!"
"You never even bothered naming me, dad." Rouga says. "Nobody gets remembered in the slums."
"But you do, by so many people."
He's tired. He's so tired of listening to others go on and on, as if they know more about him than he does himself. For once, Rouga just wants to do what he wants, run free, and not have any of this tying him down. He doesn't want the ghost of his family always grabbing his ankles, pulling him down, back into that past that always tormented him.
"When I was ten," Rouga says, "I had been picked up by Gaen Kyoya, and lived together with him in his house. Every night, trying to get to sleep in a cushy bed with silk blankets, I saw the faces of the other kids in the slums. I can remember that little girl who lived with her older sister down the path back in our hut. She had been bitten by a poisonous insect, and no one knew what to do, and it swelled up her body until the blisters burst, and she died screaming. I can remember her screaming well. Her older sister killed herself in grief after that. Their faces show up whenever I close my eyes."
The sky is still clear and light blue, although the view's obstructed by the trees. The same view in the slums had always been obstructed by pollution and gases instead. He didn't want people above him blocking his view of what could be anymore. "I miss them, just like how I miss mom, and everyone else. But this is my life, and I'm moving forwards."
And he didn't have to move forwards alone anymore.
"I'm sorry." Rouga says. "You died before I was born, and I never got to know you. I'm sorry you died like every other, and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to do anything for you or any other kids in the slums. But I'm moving forwards, and once I'm finally strong enough, I'll be able to do something for all of you."
"We'll create a better world, where none of us will be powerless!"
"One of my friends already has a plan to help everyone." Rouga says. "Knowing him, he can definitely do it. I'll make sure of it."
The old man stares at him, his expression not changing, but he doesn't say anything else, and Rouga walks past him. Rouga continues on his way up the mountain, and by the time he reaches the top it's night and the old man is long gone. Too bad. He had almost enjoyed the first conversation he ever had with his dad.
Rouga looks up at the huge cave opening, its ominous jaws opening up to him. His footsteps echo off the walls like laughter, and Rouga descends into the darkness.
Rouga makes use of that trick his mom once taught him: how to make a torch easily if you only have wood and no matches. It's lucky he still remembers how to do that. The shadows dance on the walls as he wanders down further, and he faintly wonders if it's all the people who died here trying to send him a message. He can hear the growling, and knows the beast is hungry.
It's fine. Back then, he was always hungry and desperate too.
"Yo," Rouga says, and the giant eyes of the beast glower down at him, "It's been a while." It's grown larger since the last time he saw it, and the sound of the fire on the torch crackling reminds him of that temple back in ChouTokyo, the one they visited that summer, fireworks filling up the night sky as Rouga prayed for his wish to come true.
The beast roars, extinguishing the fire and making Rouga wince and brace himself from the sheer volume. It's completely dark, but Rouga can hear the beast breathing.
"Isn't it lonely in the dark?"
He can feel the wall of the cave next to him crumbling from the beast hitting it, the wind as its paw barely missed his head. "Isn't it sad? Aren't you sad? Frustrated? Angry?" His surroundings continue to get destroyed, as he takes careful silent steps in the darkness. It growls and roars and screams and by this point Rouga finally recognizes the sobbing noises.
"What good is eating people going to do? It's not going to solve anything!" Rouga shouts in the dark, and hears the beast's roar of confirmation that it heard. The ceiling begins to crumble from an attack, and he prays that it won't hit him before he's done all this. "You're not letting the problem get solved!"
It roars, and something smashes into the wall left of Rouga so hard that the entire cave shakes, more rocks fall, and a small crack forms on the ceiling where light is being let in. A sliver of moonlight manages its way into the cave, and the beast howls and retreats as soon as the light hits it.
"So it is then…" Rouga mumbles, picking a rock up off the ground to get ready for his attack. There actually was a dog abandoned here on this mountain, and when the portal to Darkness Dragon World had been opened with this mountain as a mediator, some of the energy got absorbed into all of it, easily affecting the dog. He kept seeing those annoying hallucinations on his way up too.
Well, it all ended now anyways.
Rouga threw the rock at the wall near the beast, using the tiny bit of light as assistance. It growled lightly, but didn't approach. "Yeah, I get it, you're bitter." Rouga says. "You were abandoned by the only person you loved. But that's no reason to take it out on everyone else."
The giant beast roars, stepping forwards, hissing when it passes under the light but continues on towards Rouga. He runs too, making sure the beast is following him the entire way.
"You think this cave is all there is?! There's a whole world out there; that you'll never get to see because you keep clinging to your owner in the past. There's more out there than what your owner says! You meet all sorts of horrible, terrible, scary people! People who will beat and punch you and laugh about it, way worse than your owner! But there are a lot of people who are nice, and kind, and if you just look in a new direction, you'll find that the world can be kind at times too. And there will be people who will love you and believe in you."
The beast growls some more, stepping forwards tentatively in the dark towards Rouga, who takes careful steps backwards. The growls are getting softer, and Rouga can no longer feel the ominous looming of the beast above him as they get closer to the entrance. "Yeah, it sucks. It really sucks to have the only thing you ever loved betray you. Some people really just suck." Rouga says softly. "But that's not the only thing in the world. There's a lot out there, there's no way you'll always be hated. Everyone has their problems, but that's why they have each other to help them get through their problems."
Kiri staying by himself, away from everyone else to think in the mist.
Tasuku constantly putting on a strong face despite losing Jack.
Gao wondering if family really had to be so restricted.
Kyoya recovering slowly, finally smiling purely out of happiness.
Rouga finally reaches the entrance of the cave, and faces the beast. He takes a step out, into the open night spreading over the mountain. He could see the moon setting as the sky slowly lightened. The beast is no taller than him now, still standing in the shadow of the cave and looking warily at him. "Nothing will happen if you stay feeling sorry for yourself alone. You need to take that first step outside your little world into the bigger one." Rouga says. "The world's a lot bigger than you think."
And a little black dog wanders out of the cave.
It looks up at Rouga nervously. He smiles gently at it in response, and its eyes light up and shine as the sun begins to rise from up behind the mountain. Light begins to spread over the mountaintop, and Rouga can finally see the little dog clearly. It's full of hope for the future, and Rouga thinks it would be nice if this time things worked out nicely.
His legs feel like they're about to give out, and Rouga lets them. He pulls the dog closer to him on the ground, and it curls up on his chest in a little ball. "You did good. Let's get some rest." He mumbles, and they fall asleep at the top of Mount Fuji as dawn breaks and light envelops the city, the darkness no longer controlling them.
Kyoya's business deal goes well. The rest of the kids have all been brought to an orphanage in ChouTokyo, funded by the Gaen Financial Group, and the restoration on Mount Fuji is underway. The cave is torn down, and Fuu adopts the little dog. She once messaged him to inform him that all the kids adored playing with the dog, and that there should be no problem making sure the dog was loved this time around.
"Hey," Rouga says at Gao's doorway. Gao's eyes widen, staring up at him as if he couldn't believe it.
"Aragami-senpai!" Gao shouts happily, running forwards and tackling him at the waist in what Rouga thinks is a hug. It knocks the wind out of him, and they fly backwards onto the ground, laughing the entire way.
"So it worked out then." Tasuku peeks his head out from one of the rooms inside, smiling at them.
"Oh great, you're here too." Rouga mutters, but can't contain his own smile. Gao gets off him, smile still wide, and pulls him inside to the living room where Tasuku is waiting.
"This came for you this morning." Gao says, picking up a letter on the coffee table and handing it to him. On the back is 'Aragami Rouga' in fancy print, with the Gaen logo sealing the letter shut. Rouga opens the letter carefully, taking out the small slip of paper inside.
"Not bad." Behind the note are twenty bills, each 10000 yen.
"Good job, Aragami." Tasuku says, smiling at the note.
"Gaen Kyoya contacted you! Nobody's been able to do that for months!" Gao shouts. "We need to celebrate!"
And Gao brings out more takoyaki from the kitchen, his buddy monster trailing after him and eating at a rapid pace. Rouga sits back and lets Gao's little sister fuss over his wounds, watching Gao and Tasuku engage in another buddyfight happily, eating some takoyaki occasionally. A future like this isn't bad at all.
"This is nice." Cerberus says from the sofa.
Rouga tucks the letter into the pocket of his jacket. "Yeah." He says, feeling it press against his heart. "Yeah."