5 ch 4

(Kaoru pov)

....

It has been a few weeks....

It was decided that I would marry Lord Genji on the moon of my 13th year to wait for when I first have bled.

I bowed respectfully as I watched my bethrote's palanquin leave the gates to return to his home land.

It didn't take long for them to disappear from sight as there my father and his entourage left to perform their duties and the large crowd around me began to dissipate.

I watched alone as the other servants worked together to close the heavy wooden red gate of the clan walls.

Outside was a scene of a clear mountain full of lush green grass as the morning breeze sweetly caressed my skin.

A sight I rarely see inside these suffocating walls.

With those thoughts as I watched the sight fade before my eyes hidden behind those heavy gates, I too have left.

....

What do I with him now?....

I watched the boy who was asleep on the futon by the shoji door I opened.

Is this really sukuna?.....

He looks like some street dog.

He's thin, gaunt and actually pretty tiny.

Almost pitiful really...

Whatever is it..... I'm probably obligated to be responsible for him at the moment...

Maiko did take him to be a present for me..

As unethical does it sound..

And because of me.... he's currently wounded severely...

That spear pierced through his guts. Honestly he barely survived.

Looking at the state he's in....again could he really be Sukuna?...

Seeing signs of him waking up as he stirred in the bedding, groaning in pain, I sigh and leave the tray of porridge beside him and left the room.

"You..... you're here again. Why?"

He suddenly asks me with a hoarse voice and heavy eyes that quickly lit up at the sight of food.

I froze in shock whilst slowly looking back at him who to my slight chagrin was already carelessly gobbling the food like a wild hungry beast.

I tried to look away once more and leave but he called me again.

"What the hell do you plan to with me!?"

He yells as he tries to rise from the futon but the weight of his injuries make him wince loudly and fall to the floor.

Unable to think at the sudden sight, My eyes then widen as I thought about his wounds that now stained the floor red.

"Calm down! You'll make your wounds worse!"

I tell him, running to his side whilst grabbing then a wooden box of bandages that the doctor left for him.

But before I could touch him, he pushes me away with trembling cautious eyes in a fierce glare.

He looked as if a tiger wanting to pounce but a hunter's arrow had wounded it severely leaving it incapable of hunting for itself.

But no less still a feisty creature...

Then he coughs up blood which forces him to resign to his futon yet his eyes were still locked on me looking for signs lest adrenaline make it for him to run.

"W-what do you plan to do with me?! I'm not gonna be some doll!"

He asks yelling in deeply hidden dripping sweat whilst struggling to pull himself away.

I found myself rather speechless as I felt my shock run through veins almost bewildered as I was not expecting his words.

I completely froze as I felt my hand holding the soft yet stiff fabric of bandages then stiffened like stone.

An atmosphere of nerve maddening awkwardness enveloped us as I finally dropped those bandages.

After coughing out trying to release the trapped air in my lungs from the shock, I returned to my senses.

I see he must've heard Maiko despite all the growling..

Right...I almost forgot about that.

My eyes looked at his heaving wary form on the futon sweating violently like a storm whilst I simply pursed my lips and sighed.

As the breath left with all the stuffed hesitance inside, I was able to compose myself and groan.

"I... don't plan to harm you."

I try to explain to him but in his eyes I don't have to look too deep to understand that it doesn't sound very convincing.

After all that's happened, I don't think any attempts to try and say I don't wish to harm him would do either of us well.

With that I decided to ignore it, the space between us was still uneasy but I knew I had to say it.

"What do you want to do?"

I ask him as his eyes widened but were less wary as fear was replaced with confusion.

I gulped as I waved the bandages trying to imply that it was harmless and I just wanted to fix the bleeding of his wounds which although hesitantly he decided to grab it for himself.

I shook my head but I knew it would be foolish to try and quarrel with him at this state.

"You still wish to leave don't you? I did promise didn't I?"

I said as he stiffened but I felt the tense air around him lighten but not fully release itself.

Albeit cautiously, he nods.

"You're free to go."

I tell him simply as his caution was then fully replaced by confusion .

"That is of course after you heal. If you travel right at the moment, you would bleed to death."

I told him as I left the room and shut the shoji door hearing a loud clack behind me.

he remained speechless.

He didn't say a word with the awkward silence I left him be.

I went across the halls completely listless. What am I gonna do? Will I really marry that man?

I have a few years but still...

I gazed at the darkening sky above fiery hues turning into a deep blue ocean as the shadows begin to awaken.

A memory of a past that I shouldn't even remember resurfaced in flash of light.

The dancing lights in the busy traffic and the hustle and bustle of the city came and left just as fast.

.....

Hana Kureo...

That was my name...

I walked outside despite my feet bare out to the Karensensui garden intently looking up to the beautiful scenery of the starts thta began to ignite up above almost like those dancing city lights.

That person.....grew up in the city where the clouds would never be cleared as the smokey residues never left the air.

I watched alone ignoring my messy hair and bare feet touching the earth as I felt the sweet breeze that almost made me which I would be that free as well.

Hana the one that I was never ever felt the breeze like this even in the beach. A life constrained to huge boxes and colorful lights.

Boring and plain, 21st century that you couldn't complain about only being satisfied by technology...

The only good thing in life in the 21st century...

I can't say I didn't miss it at the very moment..

The yard I was in at this very moment was empty yet deeply serene allowing these empty thoughts to sift and clear into the puzzle...

Yet despite so.....

I felt it stung in my chest as the a familiar face with warm eyes greeted me in that shabby beach....

Hana was a mediocre girl with so many people who shone even brighter than she ever hoped she could that sometimes if made her feel that her own little light would be blown out...

I found it funny.... recounting the past Iike this..Like a story...a memory you can hardly remember but know it happened that was sure enough. .

I can't help it. Despite being the past, it feels like being flooded with thoughts feelings that go against what you thought you once were..

Like life flashing before your eyes before death as all the realizations in your life suddenly come to you..

....

A teenage girl with shoulder length ebony hair woke up yawning from her bed, eyes squinting from the bright warm sunlight penetrating the tiniest bits of her window blinds ...

She groaned as the familiar loud clanging honks outside began to shatter her ears. Her face scrunched but it she didn't flinch one but. She was always used to it already.

A tiny apartment house at the corner of the city right in front of a busy road outside her window was the good morning that greeted her all her life. Despite her annoyance, she comfortably stretches her arms to chase away the tiniest sparks of drowsiness weighing her body.

"Hana!

She heard an old voice call to her as she found herself looking at the elderly man wearing a bright smile with that old faded polo shirt he didn't want to throw out.

A memento of grandma he says...

The old grandfather laughed as he slowly entered the room as more light entered the space she tried to darken a bit for a good nap.

"What is it, grandpa? It's so early. You should sleep first. You'll get dizzy again later."

The girl says as she yawned watching calmly as the man revealed a simple white cream cake the size of a cupcake that was illuminated by a candle on top of it.

The teenager simply smiles whilst her grandfather grinned from ear to ear with his wrinkly eyes.

"Happy birthday to you..~hmhm~... Happy birthday to you~!"

The old man begins to sweetly sing despite his hoarse old voice not being angelic you could feel the feelings in it reverberating through him.

He continues to sing as Hana hears a loud ping from her phone glancing at the screen with a white textbox notification.

'Sweetest birthday, Hun! On my way, better be ready!'

It read with more random shapes and emoji's rather than words itself.

The girl chuckles her old grandfather's steps then reached her as he stood before the girl who sat on her bed, reaching out the dancing fire lit candle waiting for her to blow it out.

....

The memory fades away as the dancing fire was blown out.

I gazed around the empty garden around me. Cold and void....

No noise that bothered me every morning..

No annoying gossiping neighbors from the next apartment over...

All those things I felt were too irritating...

This was too quiet....Those things that I once disliked began to feel like a dream..

I never realized back then how painful absolute eternal silence would be..

I never had to think about it.

Another that's rather interesting really...that me and the one I am now still was born under the same day...

Under a moon so bright under gentle rains of August..

Now at this moment I felt as if I was in a deep and frigid abyss.

A lonely yard... waking up alone with none of the glee I may have took for granted more than I thought...

No silly birthday candles and cupcakes the old clumsy man who raised me made despite a little kid probably doing even better at what it looks like...

It was never much but in this empty space without it all...

The frigid winter that this place is begins to set over my body...

There's not a single drop of freedom I once had and the warmth perhaps I didn't always deserve yet was always there for me..

A little box made wood that encases a doll made like product without heart or purpose sold to anyone who had the coin.

That was what I felt I was now that I remember what a home felt like...

This place....was more a wooden box than a home ..

A wooden box full of dolls cold and rigid who would've never what it is to be a human being.

A sense of dread began to sink in nerves down to the deepest of parts as I sat on the large boulder in the middle of the garden's open field.

I felt a force flow from my core to the ends of my eyes as the tears fell from my face staining it in a scenery reminiscent of raindrops as everything began to settle in my head.

I shouldn't have tried to remember. All of this just made me realize how much I had to lose.

How much I had lost...

I looked up to the moon that finally set at the skies above. A birthday without candles and singing....alone..

I didn't have someone who cares for me in this place that saw me as doll to be traded off...They didn't celebrate birthdays but even if they did ..I don't think anyone would care enoyti make the clumsy cupcakes grandpa used to make.

That memory flashed again continuing as I reminisced in that tiny kitchen with just four chairs and just grandpa and I as well as my most loyal friend singing that tune we all knew.

I found myself in a bitter smile. I tried reminiscing to get my mind off of things but I think it just made it far worse.

.....

"Happy birthday to you~.....-H-happy birthday t-to you!~.."

In the silence under the moonlight a little girl sings to herself her grief made known and melancholy filling her heart with tears almost as if it was weeping inside her very soul.

A song she sung for herself despite her memories of having people sing it with her stung her to the core...

Alone in this empty field singing to herself without a little feast and a candle of light to blow to hold the hopes of her future, she sat contemplating which was left that is uncertainty.

Suddenly a tiny pink petal falls on her nose allowing her to pause and watch with a calm expression despite her bewilderment.

She gazes up as she finds herself looking at the dancing pink soft petals in the most gentle and beautiful dance she's ever seen.

The cherry blossoms began to bloom and rain into a graceful dance almost an embrace around her, almost as if they were celebrating with her.

A slight smile on her face despite the red rimmed eyes she opens her palms as a few cherry blossom petals fell to it tickling her sensitive skin.

The serenity of the scene was then interrupted as she hear a loud thud followed a pained groan.

Her eyes widen whilst her sight landed on the figure of a young boy with disheveled hair that made her think of a ruined rose biting his pained grunts on the ground.

She purses her lips.

....

I almost fell asleep out on the garden when I suddenly heard him.

I watched as he forces himself to stand and begin to bite bone and blood to walk.

Looking around to see if anyone was there, I couldn't help but purse my lips. At the rate he's going he's going to reopen his wounds.

I didn't know if I was just drowsy or I've lost my mind but I decided to follow him.

...

(Ryomen pov)

A boy awoke from his sweet slumber with an unconsciously comfortable expression. Could anyone blame him?

It was the softest things he's felt in his life. He stood up almost confused. He's never felt so well rested. It was weird feeling to him not to have a cramped neck and aching back when he woke up.

He's always hated sleeping.

He didn't even know it was simply the difference of sleeping on a futon rather than the ground.

A passing thought comes through his mind.

I could stay here forever.

There were warm meals....No villagers...

He thought to himself but quickly jolted as his senses returned, biting his tongue in protest.

He threw off the blanket from his form as he reminded himself of what was happening

He remembered that demanding noble beating him up even more than he's ever felt before. He once thought he's experienced all sorts of pain but was opened to something greater than what he could even imagine.

He groans feeling a panging deep pain on his stomach reverberating through his body.

He remembered again. He couldn't stay here. That instinct of survival that forced to him to an early age began to scream even louder than before.

He grunted hiding a yelp,standing up to find a way out.

It took him a few hours forcing himself to wander the halls trying to remember hints and details he remembered the last time he found an an exit.

He felt pain soar through every corner of his body whilst his heavy breaths that gasped for air weighed him down again.

It felt like an eternity to him in these silent dark halls but he found it.

He knew he had to hurry. By daytime the guards would wake up, he knew he couldn't stall even though in the deepest often foolish recess of his mind, it sounded better to stay.

He didn't know how'd he even handle the wound on his stomach out there. Even at the village, a fever was a death sentence to him who lived out on the streets.

He needed everything he had because he had nothing. Lacking even just one of those left of what he had, for people like him, that could mena the end for you along with the dead rats in the alley way.

He slid open the shoji door with all his might pushing it with his back whilst his hand cradled his wounds.

It was so close. He'll worry about what to do later. He limped but he barely felt it with his gaze so intensely intent on getting out of the hell of whatever this place is.

It was just out of his reach as he fell. A crimson taint started to leak and paint his white robes red, blood gushing form his badnages as the most painful sensation he's ever felt arrived, screaming at his very core, his body protesting against him.

He couldn't help but scream which by tiniest grace he barely muffled with his hand, biting his tongue.

He didn't plan to die here. He knew he wasn't finished...

It was for the first time that the roads in his lostife felt clear and he knew exactly where to go.

He wasn't going to lose it or let alone lose his life until he burns everything down.

He put his shaky hands on a nearby wall as he fought through the pain still bitiinh his tongue already knowing it too would wound.

He almost tasted the coppery taste of blood fill his mouth from how he hard he bit down.

He felt his resolve burning but the opposing force that was his own body began to burn out like a blown out candle.

His vision was starting to blur like a stormy sky.

Only....

" Where are you going? I told you that you'd die if your wounds bleed out."

A slightly familiar voice suddenly said behind him and at that very moment he lost to the force of his body that weighed him down as he stumbled but was caught by a trembling force barely holding him up.

His eyes widened like two full moonstone's in shocking surprise tingling in his nerves as in his eyes under the light that was barely there, he saw a young girl despite the obvious exhausted drowsiness in her eyes pushing through the limits of her strength to hold him up.

Her grip was a bit painful as she used it to make up for her lack of weight to lift the older rose haired boy up.

As he looked behind, he felt her soft warm breaths on his skin as her brown eyes the shade of red oak accentuates her rosy cheeks and cherry thins lips pursed together.

Her brows furrowed as she stared intently at the boy who was slightly fading in and out of his own senses.

He felt like world was spinning but only she stood still.

"Your wounds have opened bit. You should go back."

The girl sighs and at the same second he returned to his own head again as he jolted and pushed her away recognizing her as the sister of the very person who put him in such a pathetic state and the person who he was gifted to as a slave.

That notion made his blood boil even hotter than a screaming bloodshot kettle.

"Go away or else I'll kill you!"

He growls at her just barely releasing the steam building at his raging fiery core.

"Listen to me... you're bleeding..."

She says with worried auburn eyes under the light burning through her orbs.

The boy simply turn away repeating his stuggle barely able to stand upright but then he heard the other sigh deeply in her chest.

"Fine....just go but atleast fix the bandages.."

Kaoru, he slightly remembered the little girl's name, says.

"I don't need your help."

He spat out without hiding his wrathful spite with his hoarsened tone.

"You're going the wrong way....."

Kaoru tells him plainly pointing to the wall surrounding the garden that he failed to notice in his struggle.

"You'll end up at the end of wall. Unless you can climb like a lizard I doubt you'll get through them."

She tells him without hesitation whilst he jolted seeing the walls that nearly reached the moon up at the skies.

He couldn't say a word as he froze looking at the height with a gulp.

"It's the other way... I'll lead you there.."

Kaoru says exasperation obvious in her voice whilst taking out the leftovers bandages from her sleeve.

The boy gave her a confused and wary gaze wondering why she was even helping him after all she was his master and currently she was helping her slave run away.

"Why are you helping me?..."

He asks cautiously with animosity as much as he could pull from his pathetic state at the moment.

Almost like a growling wounded beast..

" I promised to let you leave when you wanted didn't I? You're too stubborn anyway. There's no point in keeping you here."

She says calmly handing him the bandages, her open hand reaching out to him.

He contemplates unsure whether he could trust her but as he looked at the high walls and the bleeding pain on his stomach, he decided to give in.

"Fine...."

He replies realizing he really didn't have much of a choice as he harshly grabbed the bandages from her hand whilst she drugs and turned to lead the way.

Even if she was tricking him, he knew it was a dead end...he could either hope she was telling the truth or it's simply all over..

He watched her back that turn

In silence of deep night two figures walked along the Sengoku plains. The wind blew as the young girl's messy hair danced along with her plain evening kimono whilst the wounded ragged boy followed after her quietly.

.....

After a walk he could neither say was long or short the two stood in front of a heavy gate the colour of crimson blood. The little girl infront of him took a deep breath as she steeled herself trying to push weight of the door.

He contemplates helping her but not too long after she succeeded whilst heaving as if she ran a thousand fields.

He watched the tiny noble lady wheezing, trying to catch air from using all her strength. What a weakling he thought with a scoff he didn't bother to hide.

He gazes at her pale skin without a single blemish that could only be achieved by not working all day and those rosy cheeks that burned at the slightest strain. The difference between them as he looked to his own rough and scarred hands was made very obvious to him.

This girl infront of him was raised from what he could compare as sheltered jade he sometimes saw passing merchants guarding with thiwe very lives.

"There's a caravan a few paces north. I heard it from some of the servants."

She says suddenly, startling him causing his wounds to strain but he bit his tongue.

Their eyes were locked as he slowly went pass her and out the gate viewing the wide and open scenery of golden rice paddy fields just outside for miles under the free breeze in the moonlight.

It was.....a beautiful sight... he's never seen anything like it. The world was opening wider than he could've ever imagined past the village fence or just outside the forest.

He himself had never even strayed that far. He gazed at the scenery with wide eyes almost feeling a chill at the back of his neck.

"Here take this. It should be enough for the road."

He hears Kaoru's soft tone as he looked back at her seeing the hair pin held in her hands as the winds blew in her hair that was even more disheveled than before. A dark ebony shade that reflects the light almost as if dancing shadow puppets under a fire.

The boy cautiously takes it from her hands slowly as he could then his thoughts began to run amuck when he turned back to the sight of absolute nowhere which was ironically the most beautiful sight he's ever seen.

He felt frozen in place like stone.

He's lives under the confined in that rugged good for nothing village his whole life. He's never seen anything outside the brothel outskirts he was born on.

"Why are you standing there? It's cold. You should find shelter soon."

Kaoru chimes in again with a yawn as she lazily leaned on the red gate.

"That....uhhh..."

The boy found himself lacking a single word as he looked at the wide expanse before him.

He's always dreamed of running away from the fate that shackled him in that village but..

He was just an orphan boy with neither skills except barely being able to thieve and could not read or write. Someone who just realized how little he knew of the world.

Not knowing where to even go.... he's traveled this far in his life...

Where would he even go ....?

The village.....with a stinging pain in his core he knew he would rather die than return to that place but even so he felt at a loss.

Burning hate for the land he was born in battling with uncertainty and hesitation.

"You ...."

The noble mumbles barely reaching his ears as she stepped towards him going in front of his sight with a thinking light in her eyes.

Her breath dances a mist in the coldness of the night as the moonlight burned reflecting in her warm brown eyes contrasting with her pale skin that was being tainted red by the frigid touch of winds.

Her face no less somehow didn't fit with the scenery due to its plainness and disorderly form.

Like a single white flower at the painting of a beautiful field.

"Do you.... have nowhere to go?..."

The girl who stood like single wild and lost flower in wide sight of the painting asks him under the light of the moon shivering her skin.

He couldn't find the words passing his tongue as his eyes sunk in those deep melancholy eyes that thought of a distance he could not comprehend.

Both figures stood silent their shadows unmoving. Something was felt inside his mind yet he could not quite place it as he looked at her.