Black Flower: Tainted Bud

The Seed
"Go away!"

It was a day like any other, sunny, calm, mundane. Far on the southern outskirts of the each day blended seamlessly with the preceding and the following to form the whole of meaningless existence removed from the all-important issues of the  and the. Here, in the decrepit alleyways between half-rotten huts that contended with the forest for dominance in an eternal struggle countless s led insignificant afterlives. They were living on the very edge of the Paradise which was, in fact, not unlike the vestibule of Hell...

"Hey, are you deaf!? I've told you to go away!"

In the corner of one such dark alleyway there was a boy. He was a young boy who appeared to be about six years old, although it was common knowledge just how deceiving appearances were in the case of Souls. Regardless, the fair-skinned boy was clad in tattered rags that once must have been a simple black kimono. Unkempt jet black hair stuck up in all directions, some protruding toward the sky and some falling toward his diamond-shaped face in a thick fringe. The features of his countenance were delicate, with thin eyebrows and a small snub nose. His lips were oddly similar to that of girl. However, the most distinct of traits were his eyes, unusual violet eyes the stare of which was distant, emotionless, hollow.

Those were not the eyes of a child.

"What the hell's wrong with him?"

"That bastard's ignoring us!"

The boy was squatting in a seemingly random location between two small wooden huts. His unsettling glare was fixed upon his hands. In each of them there was a small pebble. But those were not simple pebbles... those were soldiers, marching arm in arm toward the battlefield to face death and glory. The boy kept tapping the ground with the two stones, slowly making their way toward the three other boys who had come there recently.

One of them, the oldest and tallest of the group, took a few steps in the direction of the black-haired boy.

"Listen, we've told you already that we don't want you here! That's our territory and a freak like you ain't allowed here", continued the boy with a hostile, condenscending... and somewhat apprehensive stare.

The squatting boy hesitated for a mere moment when the word "freak" was spoken, yet continued his play unabated in no time. The three boys could have not existed. The village could have not existed. The entire world could have gone to hell. For now there was only he and the two pebble-soldiers, brave warriors ready to conquer any challenges that would dare stand in their way. Nothing else mattered.

"You little...!", the tall boy had grown frustrated with the constant lack of response.

Suddenly, he approached the black-haired boy and reached toward his neck. He grabbed the collar of the tattered kimono and lifted the smaller child with negligible effort, so that now they were directly facing each other. The leader of the pack gazed into the eyes of his unresponsive would-be victim... to find nothing.

"You stupid fuck!", the boy commented with a tone that did not exactly suggest resolution. "You don't even have the balls to reply! Coward!"

The boy with violet eyes stared at him in an inhumanly callous manner. Not a single motion betrayed the train of thought behind those cold eyes. His face expression remained fixed, but not tense. There was no fear, irritation, surprise, only... contempt? After all that tall boy was just an integral part of the environment, an element of the setting, small and insignificant. Like so many others he kept yapping at the cruel world around him, like a frightened little creature.

"You...!", the assaulter seethed, anger, confusion and fear mixed in equal measure prompting him to act, to do something with that horrible face.

But that did not come to pass. In the end he received the response he had wanted but not in a verbal form. The boy with black hair punched him abruptly in the face. The hit was strong, surprisingly so, and the taller boy let him go and took one step back. Then, the boy with black hair hit him again, swiftly, proficiently. And another punch, no chance to think or retaliate. The tall boy swayed and his companions could only watch with their eyes widened to the extremes, dumbfounded. At last, the shorter boy performed a quick roundhouse kick that struck down the assaulter, forcing him to land painfully on his rear end. His cheeks were red and his eyes watery with tears.

"You... how...", he barely managed to voice his disbelief.

And the boy with violet eyes stood there, eerily tranquil, looking down upon him in both literal and figurative sense. Much to even greater surprise of his tormentors-turned-tormented he assumed a fighting stance, ready to relentlessly pummel anyone who dared approach or disturb him any further.

"Kaoru-kun!"

He knew that voice. A female voice. Regardless, he was the only one who did not react in any noticeably way to its sound. Conversely, the three boys who had found his presence unwelcome now came to the conclusion they had some business in another part of the district. As such, the two less bold boys helped their unofficial leader stand up and then they ran away in the wake of the arrival of a grown woman.

Mother.

She was a beautiful young woman, lean and toned. She wore fairly revealing clothing which consisted of a black, sleeveless dress with a very short skirt that exposed her long legs, a fishnet undershirt and bandages wrapped around her waist and forearms. She walked barefoot. Her complexion was as fair as that of her son and her medium-length jet black hair were equally untamed. The features of her diamond-shaped face were similar, yet obviously more feminine and mature than those of her ostensibly delicate son. Her eyes were quite large and a pleasant sky blue in colour. Even though their stare was deep and focussed, they were significantly more expressive than those of the little boy known as Kaoru. Whilst the eyes of a troubled and intelligent person, their gaze was not nearly as piercing.

"Are you okay, Kaoru-kun?", said Asuka as she approached and crouched beside the boy hurriedly.

"I'm okay, mother", replied Kaoru sternly.

He abandoned the fighting stance and let his arms hang loosely. Despite the proximity of his mother his stare was following the group of unruly children as they were running away quickly. Only when she embraced him did he avert his gaze.

"I've told you not to wander too far away from me, Kaoru-kun, don't you remember?", admonished him Asuka with a tone that was not really strict. "It might've been dangerous."

She knew that her son should not walk alone in such a place. However, who precisely was more in danger because of that, he or the people, she was not so sure.

"I just wanted to play a little", replied Kaoru.

His face expression did not change much, although he hanged his arms over the shoulders of his mother and hugged her back. After a short while she slanted backward slightly to look him into the eyes.

"Why have you beaten up that boy? You shouldn't hurt others like that", stated Asuka with a mixture of confusion and worry.

"They wanted to hurt me", was her son's response delivered in a matter-of-fact way. "Words are meaningless. But if I beat them up they become afraid of me and don't come to bother me anymore."

"Please, don't say such things", his mother pleaded, audibly disquieted.

"That's the way it is, mother", declared Kaoru with a shrug.

Asuka leant forward and embraced him again. Her son was safe now. He was not hurt... physically. But she wanted so badly to protect him from the violent and unjust ways of this world, fruitlessly. She wanted him to live as good a childhood as it was possible in a hellhole like that, but here they were, two against the entire world. She was afraid that he would grow up to become yet another callous monster, like those self-righteous Shinigami, the alleged guardians of balance and justice...

"I love you", she heard a whisper to her ear.

She felt as the boy pressed his face against her shoulder and the side of her neck. She held him tighter.

In the end, he was her beloved son. Her little boy.

Kaoru-kun.

Heroes of this World
Noise.

Even though it was early in the morning a distant clamour had woken up many of the inhabitants of the nameless village. The sun had barely risen above the horizon to cast a scarlet glow upon the waking world. Yet, the people of this spiritual realm refused to rest. The period of constant strife that had started a few decades ago continued unabated and this time war visited this removed, insignificant settlement.

Intrigued, Kaoru left his uneasy yet still sleeping mother and exited the large room they had been occupying with a number of random strangers. Those were highly unusual sounds to hear in a place like that. The reckless curiosity of a child brought him on the outskirts of the village where a number of other people had already gathered. Scattered in a number of groups all were gawking at the battlefield. There was a vast, mostly barren plain beyond the village and the mysterious combatants must have decided to choose that dull place for their encounter to occur.

"What's happening?"

"A battle..."

"Who the hell's fightin'?"

"Who? The Shinigami, of course! Can't you see?"

Kaoru chose his position, away from any of the groups. His eyes widened slightly as he gazed upon the fairly distant spectacle. The clamour and clatter of battle were unmistakable but unimpressive. What drew his attention were the more uncommon sounds: whizz, peal and roar of spiritual techniques.

Those were not some random thugs. That was the noise of battle between powerful and trained spiritual beings.

Shinigami.

The earth quaked perceptibly in the aftermath of a particularly loud boom. Kaoru noticed a column of smoke rising toward the navy blue sky. He could see small lights flickering for the briefest moments: torrents of fire, streams of water, bolts of lightning. From such a distance the combatants were meagre specks yet everyone kept watching their otherwordly struggle with awe.

The boy narrowed his eyes. Subsequently, a faint frown appeared on his otherwise inexpressive countenance. In spite of the distance and semi-darkness he could perceive the battle with some detail. Feats of unarmed combat and swordsmanship alternating with bursts of incredible speed and blasts of diverse energies... Every now and then the ground shook heavily when one of the warriors decided to employ a high-level move, whether a finishing move or a desperate last resort.

Suddenly, a of crimson fire flew from the battlefield straight toward the village.

The onlookers screamed in an asynchronous choir when the bullet sped in their direction. Many of the villagers began to retreat hastily, overcome with fear. However, Kaoru stood calmly and witnessed as the ethereal technique finished its long flight and impacted harmlessly with the ground a fair distance from the settlement. This time the sound of explosion was especially sharp. The boy could see chunks of charred soil burst into the undulating air. Smell the scent of blood, sweat and burnt body that came with a potent gust of wind soon afterward.

And as the commoners were withdrawing back to their not-so-safe houses and homes he stood there unperturbed. Tranquil.

With a blank face expression.

*** There was no end to the chatter in the aftermath of the battle. Not accustomed to such spectacles transpiring in the vicinity of their backwater home the Souls kept discussing any conceivable topic related to the mysterious skirmish. Few bothered to fulfil their daily duties. The alleys were crowded, sultry, when the heat of the multiple bodies combined with that of the relentless sun high on the cloudless sky.

"Who exactly has fought over there?"

"What was their goal?"

"I'm afraid they might come here..."

Kaoru walked through the crowd undisturbed. The Souls seemed to more or less consciously get out of his way as he was unhurriedly going ever onward. Despite the fact he could see little due to how many adults filled the narrow alleys there was a visible purposefullness in his direction. After all, he was intently approaching a very familiar presence.

"Kaoru-kun!"

There she was. He saw his mother among the unnamed. She ran toward him and crouched in front of him with a face expression indicating mild worry.

"Where have you been, Kaoru-kun? I've been worried", she said with a motherly smile, stroking his cheek.

"I've seen a battle", the boy replied with typical lack of enthusiasm. "Close to the village. I think those were Shinigami."

"Shinigami?", reacted Asuka as if he uttered a curse unfit for a child his age.

"I've seen them moving fast like wind and casting flames from their hands", added Kaoru to support his opinion. "Like you do."

His mother bit her lower lip in obvious distress. However, next to worry there was another prevalent emotion that she could not hope to easily repress and conceal from her son: fury.

"What possibly could they have been seeking in here...", she muttered absent-mindedly, staring into the distance.

"Are they dangerous, mother?", inquired Kaoru.

"Maybe", she almost whispered.

Suddenly, there was a shift in the crowd that could not be seen as much as it was experienced. People started spreading out away from the centre of the alley. The voices of the crowd died out gradually to pave the way for boisterous remarks and unpleasant laughter.

"They're coming", noted Asuka, her gaze now focussed. "We should go."

"But I want to see them", stated Kaoru.

She looked at him, ready to convince him otherwise. However, there was something that she saw deep within his beautiful eyes that stopped her from doing so. She cringed. What was that? What kind of emotion was that? He was a calm and pensive child but every now and then his attitude changed... there was something... tenacious... dark...

He pushed her gently. She realised that the Shinigami had come close in the meantime so that they had to move out of their way. Asuka stood up, grabbed Kaoru's shoulders and led him toward the wall of a nearby hut. Thus, they stood amongst the divided crowd, quiet, watching the mysterious "heroes" who decided to leave their heavenly place and grace them with their illustrious presence...

"Out of the way, filth! Don't you dare breathe at me!"

There were about a dozen of them, mostly men but also a couple of women. Regardless, they all seemed tall, muscular, rough. All of them wore distinct black kimono and had sheathes tied to their sashes. Within rested the weaponised shards of their souls, spiritual weapons: Zanpakutō. And even though they all appeared to be seasoned warriors one of them stood out, a giant of a man with tanned complexion, long black hair tied in a braid and exposed hairy chest. There was a hideous irregular scar that run at the side of his squarish jaw.

He was the one to yell at the villagers.

"We've just rescued your sorry asses from a bunch of renegades, show some respect!", he continued, turning his head constantly to stare down the pitiful Souls.

His companions were all stern. They seemed to pay little heed to his words yet Kaoru noticed some of them exchanging meaningful glances. Then, he looked at the man who was likely their leader and a grimace of disgust slowly formed on his young face. At some subconscious level he knew that the man was an intrinsically horrible person.

"I'm fuckin' hungry after a good battle like that! Prepare us some food you miserable fucks", the giant man demanded, spreading his arms in a wide gesture.

The band of Shinigami had been passing by Asuka and her son. The woman was silent, outwardly calm though withdrawn at the same time, attempting not to draw their attention. Conversely, Kaoru kept looking upward at the warriors, staring at them with contempt. No, not at them, at the one, the one who walked at the front of the group.

And then, as the giant man was looking around yet again, their gazes met.

"Hey, what's that?", the Shinigami stopped abruptly, forcing his companions to do the same. "What are you starin' at?"

Asuka felt a wave of freezing cold immerse her entire body. She had hoped that they would pass by and leave never to be seen again. However, somehow her little boy had drawn the attention of that brute. The corner of her lips started twitching. She was strong, but she could not hope to protect Kaoru from him. When the man approached them, she squeezed the shoulders of her son.

"What's that?", the giant leant to get a closer look at Kaoru. "The first time you see someone who doesn't smell like a pile of shit?"

"You smell like a corpse", the boy responded indifferently.

The man widened his eyes somewhat comically, dumbfounded. For a while the entire area became utterly silent. There was not a single word spoken for several long seconds.

"You little shithead", the giant spouted, his face red and a vein protruding on his temple.

"That's very impolite, Kaoru-kun", Asuka muttered, lowering her hands to grab Kaoru's chest and pull him closer toward her. "You should apologise."

The man looked at her briefly, then stared back at the boy.

"You should listen to your mommy, you fuckin' squirt", he seethed.

Then, he straightened out and spread out his arms.

"I am Nobuo Fukui the Meteor Fist, a hero of the Soul Society!", he bellowed. "I've crushed thousands of powerful warriors with my fists! Show some respect or I'll squash you like a bug", he added in a less booming voice, pointing his finger at the child.

"That's not very heroic", retorted Kaoru, still unimpressed by the Shinigami's behaviour.

Fukui froze again with his index finger fixed at the inexpressive face of his young interlocutor. Asuka moaned quietly.

"Please, Kaoru-kun", she almost sobbed. "Don't say such things."

She tried to pull him away from the paralysed Nobuo but the boy resisted. The man kept gazing at him. He glanced at the woman, then back at her son.

"Pardon us, mighty warrior", said Asuka with a faltering voice. "He's just a child. He doesn't know any better."

Kaoru turned his head slightly to look at her briefly only to face Fukui again. He remained quiet.

"I see", the Shinigami uttered at last. "I see. He's just a stupid spoiled brat who doesn't know any better."

One of the warriors accompanying him attempted to approach and pull the giant away, though another one interruped him and shook her head.

"I'm just tired and hungry after the battle", explained Nobuo in a tense tone and with a smile that did not quite reach his eyes. "S'all."

Asuka widened her eyes and jerked when he slanted and reached with his arm toward her son, but froze when she saw him pat his head.

"You should listen to your mommy and learn some manners, boyo", said Fukui with extremely forced gentleness.

Kaoru did not reply. In fact, he did nod, yet his gaze was tense to the point of being unnerving. That was the stare of a grown man ready to kill. Regardless, Nobuo either did not notice or chose to ignore that. The giant withdrew to his comrades and waved with his hand to signify they should go forward.

"Now, where's my food? Come on, bring something or I'll start taking for myself!", he yelled as the group of warriors was moving away from Kaoru and his frightened mother.

Asuka fell to her knees. Her son turned around quickly, an expression of mild surprise now on his countenance. Some of the crowd began dispersing. Some cast aside glances at the pair only to depart shortly afterward. The chatter rose again into a constant hum of voices.

"Don't behave like that, Kaoru-kun", pleaded Asuka in a tone that saw the boy wince at the sudden realisation. "Please, don't do that again."

"I'm sorry, mother", he replied and embraced her.

She was trembling, so he started caressing the back of her head. There was a hint of relief, although the sheer sense of dread was virtually emanating from her.

"I'm sorry."

When Peals Midnight
Silence.

Night was the period of relative calm even in a place like that. There was nothing to steal so there were no thieves to disturb the populace. Weary after the ordeal of a day exactly the same as hundreds or thousands that had preceded it, people ultimately returned to their houses, modest as they were, in order to sleep. Some groups could share a small hut, although there were a few large buildings where numerous random villagers came to sleep in one spacious hall. With no sheets to speak of they slept where they laid, straight on the firm ground. Acquaintances, friends and complete strangers gathered under a single ceiling.

Silence... but there were many sounds that could be heard if someone bothered to listen. Mostly the gentle hum of many slow, measured breaths of the sleeping people. Sometimes a snore or a moan. The rustle of clothing when a person turned around. The dripping of water. The hum of wind. The air in the room was rather cold and moist but warm enough to stand the place in regular ragged garments. It was peaceful... but there was something else hidden in the dark.

Gorō, an average man with unassuming features and nondescript clothes, one ordinary face amongst thousands was special this night. In spite of the late hour he could not sleep. He knew that most others had fallen asleep long ago, yet he could not. There was nothing in particular that troubled him. No enemies, no family or wealth to lose. All he did was to exist. Yet this night something kept him from running away from this hellish purgatory into the realm of dreams. Something... elusive.

It was dark in the room, but not entirely. The light of distant lanterns and the ambient glow of the moon were sufficient to render pitch blackness a more transparent navy blue. He could see the plentiful silhouettes of others resting beside him, all around the spacious room. Everyone was sleeping, yet he kept hearing movements. The tapping of bare feet against the hardened soil. Quiet, but audible.

Who was that?

Gorō slid his left arm beneath his torso and supported himself on his elbow as he lifted the upper part of the body. Then, he turned around his head, slowly. He could not sleep but he was, understandably, rather tired. He did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Just the usual surroundings and typical colourful splotches amongst the midnight blue of the night. He narrowed his eyes. The splotches were somehow... not right. Should not they disappear quickly once his eyes get used to the darkness? Why where they so sharp? So persistent?

The sound of light footsteps.

He turned around a bit too quickly. The motion was unpleasant to his nape and back. The source of the sound had to be close, yet he could not see anyone moving. Everyone was still sleeping or at least laying calmly. No sudden motions. No-one was walking... right?

Again.

This time it was in another part of the room. The sound was slightly louder than the previous time. Probably to assure him that had not been a mere illusion. And yet again he did not see anyone pacing in-between the sleeping Souls. Just the annoying formless shapes that blasted his eyes with garish colours. Why did they refuse to disappear? Why was it so cold in the room?

Then, he heard a giggle. A short, clear sound, like a partially stifled laughter of a child. On its own a perfectly normal, likely pleasant under certain circumstances, but in this particular case a chilling sound. Gorō could feel his body starting to shake involuntarily. The cold intensified for some reason but that was not the cause. He rubbed his arms with his hands yet that did not help in the slightest. After all, what could that achieve to alleviate his fear?

It had taken a while for him to realise that. It was no colder than fifteen minutes or an hour ago. What caused his body to tremble was primal fear, an oddly pervasive feeling that had been seeping deep into his body since some time. But what was there for him to fear like that? A night owl kid that wanted to pull a prank on him? Or the esoteric shapeless things that surrounded him, floating in the air and dragging their multidimensional forms across the plains of reality...

This had to be a dream. Or rather a nightmare. He must have fallen asleep a while ago. After all, people rarely realised they were in the middle of a dream when one was in progress. Although, he had just done exactly that. That was an even more rare occurrence. Now that he knew that this was a nightmare why were his sensations so sharp? He could hear noises, feel the cold touch of the soil, smell the odour of unwashed bodies and shake because of the fear-induced freezing... He turned his head. His surroundings tinted midnight blue rotated in an eerily unhurried pace, in a motion that seemed to take an eternity to finish. That was a symptom of a dream, yet could that be one?

Giggle.

This time he reacted quickly, his reactions sped up due to agitation. Stupid kid, scaring him at such a late time. He had to sleep so that he could work. So that he could ensure he had a place to come back during the night. Stupid kid... there it was. A child, standing amongst the sleeping people. Half-consciously Gorō noted that the individuals right beside the kid were moving restlessly. Even though sleeping they appeared to be... disturbed. And the child.

The child was little more than a dark shape, a wedge of blackness plunged into the navy blue of late night. Probably a girl? He could not tell for sure, the kid was clad in a cloak that obscured its face with a hood. The nebulous shapes of bright colours were seemingly drawn to the child, bending, twisting and swirling around its body... wait, what? Since when that had been possible? Gorō lifted himself to sit and stare at the spectacle. Yes, now he was certain, the indescribable forms were actually enveloping the shadowy silhouette, disappearing behind it to materialise in front. Since when a meagre optical illusion could have done something like that?

Suddenly, the child burst into a mass of darkness that spread across the room swiftly. The shapes followed, lacing the unfathomed blackness with their unnameable colours.

Gorō laid rapidly on the ground. He was breathing quickly, panting as if in the aftermath of a long run. He refused to watch the room anymore. He fixed his stare at the not-so-distant ceiling to avoid witnessing any more of those surreal apparitions. Those were not real. They could not be. They were not allowed to be. Regardless, whilst he laid inertly the ceiling above him kept rotating, somehow, at a nauseating pace. A single groan escaped from Gorō's tightened throat. Make it stop...

Blackness.

Gorō was still. He wanted to move but was incapable of any motion. He wanted to sink into the ground just to move a few inches away from that. A stain, a wound in the fabric of reality suspended a couple of metres above him, a blotch of unadulterated blackness against the background of midnight blue. The blackness was thick, dense, seemingly palpable. Like a giant drop of some tar-like liquid about to fall upon him. Gorō uttered a stifled squeal.

Then, a face emerged from the dark spot.

Just like that. A white, oval face of a female with closed eyes. White, not even pale. The features were gentle and oddly symmetrical. There was something unnvering, something inhuman to them as well. Like the lack of eyebrows, or the lips, so full, crimson red, slightly too wide... The face smiled. Gorō responded with a violent twitch of his entire body. However, he could not move any farther. He could not escape. Slowly, the face began emerging from the liquid darkness only to be framed with medium-length hair of the same impenetrable colour. Soon, the entire head came forth from the stain of blackness, yet there was no trace of a neck or a body to follow. Suspended directly above him, the ghastly face began its ominous descent toward Gorō.

The man felt something wet on his cheeks. Tears? He tried to say something but only unintelligible sounds escaped from his mouth. Spasms of overwhelming dread were shaking his body as if in a fever. And the face was drawing ever closer, unhurriedly, until it stopped about half a metre above him. Now that it was so close Gorō could tell that the snow-white complexion was not the result of make-up. He gazed at the blood-coloured lips outstretched in an absent-minded smile. At the small nose. At the stringy hair hanging loose, reaching toward him like the tentacles of some unspeakable, unnamed horror...

Then, the wraith opened her eyes to reveal hollow orifices behind the eyelids, bottomless and dripping blood. But there was something, deep within, something, a light, perhaps, but sinister and instilling a sense of hopelessness... one of the crimson drops fell to Gorō's face.

"AAAAAAH!", the man yelled abruptly. "AAAH, argh, AAAAAAA...!"

His voice resounded across the boundless realm of the room, echoing sharply only to vanish into the silence of the night. Other voices rose to accompany it in a cacophony of trepidation, a discordant choir of the damned expressing their lament, bemoaning their eternal perdition...

Gorō slid backward, pushing himself away with his hands from that... creature... but the ghastly woman was gone. As were the unnameable shapes. He was in the spacious sleeping room with only other Souls to accompany him. And they were screaming. Many of them were yelling at the top of their lungs in sheer horror. Gorō stood up rapidly and wiped the blood from his face, trembling. He looked at the side of his hand to see the stain. There was something... or was there? Was that real? A darker facet of the omnipresent shadow or a small stain of crimson blood? What was real?

"It's... it's that brat again!", he barely managed to articulate. "That blasted child!"

Pointing his finger accusingly in the direction he drew the attention of others to Kaoru. The black-haired boy was sleeping, visibly distressed, next to his mother. She was awake herself, watching him with confusion and worry as he fought some internal struggle. Streaks of amethyst, fluorescent gas, maybe, were emanating from his body and spreading slowly across the room, crawling and creeping like malevolent spirits of the darkest night that roamed old forests and vast plains, where there was no escape from their dead-cold clutches.

"That brat!", shouted Gorō again, sprinkling saliva at the people beside him. "He... he's doing that again! I can't stand that anymore!"

"Mother", Kaoru whispered, waking from his own nightmare with the dew of perspiration upon his forehead. "What's happened?"

"We can't let him do that again!", yelled some elderly woman. "He's tormenting us!"

"We can't sleep with that... monster among us!", added a man.

Asuka looked at them with eyes widened. Then, she turned to her son when he asked her calmly:

"Mother? Who's a monster?"

Asuka grimaced, about to burst into tears.

"People can't stand this horror anymore", seethed Gorō with a glint of madness in his sunken eyes. "That boy should not be allowed close any of us. He has no place here... You two have no place her. Leave us right now!"

Asuka crouched and helped Kaoru stand up. She pulled him toward her leg when Gorō approached them. Kaoru watched him with surreal indifference.

"Take him away", he bellowed at Asuka, shaking his fist. "Take that monster far away from us."

"I'm not a monster", stated Kaoru, looking him directly into the eyes.

Surprised, Gorō stared back at him... only to see the same bottomless abyss he had seen in the hollow sockets of the wraith woman.

"You...!", he lifted his arm in preparation to strike.

However, the punch did not connect. He was intercepted by Asuka, who grabbed his wrist with her delicate hand and stopped him with no visible effort. Her grip was gentle but at the same time she virtually locked his arm in that intermediate position. She no longer appeared scared. Sure, some traces of doubt lingered on her beautiful countenance, yet they were overshadowed with disheartening fierceness.

"We will leave", she said quietly, but with a firm tone.

She let him go, and Gorō immediately retreated. Then, Asuka grabbed the hand of her son and led him in-between the people. The crowd parted in front of them with a silent hum. No-one dared say anything else. They only watched as she left the building with her son. And even a time after their departure the people just stood there, speechless.

Their hearts were beating like frightened little creatures locked in the cages of their chests.

***

"Where are we going, mother?"

Asuka was pacing along the narrow alleys of the village, almost dragging her son with her. She was infuriated. She had grown weary of those insufferable mongrels. They did not comprehend concepts such as gentleness or tolerance. They were prejudiced, filthy, harsh... how could they?

"As far away as we can, Kaoru-kun", she replied half-consciously.

She could not let them treat her son like that anymore. He was a child. How could they?

"I am not a monster, right, mother?", she heard.

She stopped abrutply so that Kaoru bumped into her. Then, he stood beside her and lifted his head to look at her contorted face. She had to struggle with so many negative emotions...

"No, Kaoru-kun, of course not", she assured him as she kneeled and embraced his face with both of her hands. "You are a sweet little boy. They've no right to call you like that. They don't understand."

"But they've said I'm a monster", the boy replied with mild surprise that was, in fact, directed at her. "They all say that. "Monster". "Freak". They hate me, mother."

Asuka shook her head. Tears at last escaped her eyes. That was unbearable. The same scene repeated over and over, wherever they went. There was no place for them in this world. They were shunned and banished each time they attempted to settle down. She could weather that, but her son... her little boy...

"Don't say things like that", she said, unable to come up with anything else in her current state.

Kaoru narrowed his otherworldy violet eyes. The light of the moon was reflected in their amethyst tint.

"I didn't want to do that, mother", he stated in a tense tone. "I... I can't stop that, mother. I'm sorry."

Asuka observed in horror as his face contorted in an expression of sudden grief. He had been holding back this emotions. He had been standing their ordeal better than many men could have in his place. But, in the end, he was just a child.

"It's not your fault, Kaoru-kun", she almost sobbed.

"We have to move again because of me, mother", Kaoru continued, biting his lower lip in a grimace of anguish. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Asuka embraced him in an impulse. Both started crying in the middle of a dark alley. They were surrounded with countless small, decrepit huts with decaying walls and hollow windows. High above them upon the black vault was the moon, illuminating them with its ominous, dim glow.

"It's not your fault, Kaoru-kun", Asuka said after a while. "It's all because of me. I shouldn't have brought you here. To this bloody hellhole... We will find a new place to live, okay? Far away from those bad people."

For some time the boy kept sobbing in her warm embrace. Then, he lifted his head to look at her. She could witness the last traces of emotions fading away from his delicate countenance, as if they had been secreted with his tears. The last traces of grief, apprehension and love vanished, replaced with unnerving callousness.

"All right, mother", said Kaoru indifferently.

He wiped the tears from his cheeks with the backs of his hands. With them, he erased all traces of his humanity.

Beyond
For a few days they had been seeking a new place to live in the vast forest beyond Rukongai. In the meantime, they hunted small animals for sustenace, drank water from streams and puddles to stave off thirst and slept on the ground, covering themselves with leaf litter to maintain warmth during the cold of night. The ordeal was short, albeit it had taken its toll on the two. Nevertheless, their hardship was solely of the physical, or even physiological kind.

Because at last they were free.

There were no people to yell at them. Shun them. Cast aside glances, stare with contempt, disgust, horror. No-one to threaten or disturb them. They were alone together and they did not need anyone else but the company of each other to be... happy? The conditions were far from perfect or even mediocre, yet they felt joy.

And, in the end, they found their new home. Deep within the forest beside a stream there was a single solitary building, an abandoned wooden hut with a modest veranda and a glade in front of it. The purpose of such a desolate building was impossible to discern for the two wandering Souls. However, they were very eager to endow the house with a new purpose, to call the house home. As such, they endeavoured to remove most of the fiolage and haphazardly repair what damage they were capable of in order to improve its habitability. Then, they moved into it and decided that from that day onward they shall live in there.

Away from the Soul Society.

*** "Correct your stance and imitate my moves."

Asuka was about to remind her son to calm his mind and focus. It would have equalled reminding him to breathe and blink.

"Yes, mother", replied Kaoru.

Both were holding fairly long and straight wooden sticks, makeshift  procured by Asuka. Whilst crude they were perfectly sufficient for their intended purpose. The two spread their legs slightly, shuffling the dominant legs forward. Their swords were raised relatively high in a two-handed grip, with the blades pointed diagonally upward and somewhat in. That was the basic , that is an opening stance, of chūyōdō. Accordingly to the form's core tenets the kamae was suitable for defence as well as the beginning of offence.

Asuka lifted her arms so that her blade was poised horizontally in order to defend from an imaginary opponent. Kaoru copied the motion almost immediately. Then, she shifted her stance as she leant forward and shuffled her left leg to perform a slash at an angle. Her son emulated the manoeuvre with negligible delay. Change of balance, right knee slightly bent and weight moved to the centre for increased stability as the wooden swords swung backward in a parry. Subsequently, bokken held high, pointed forward and their backs down parallel to the ground in preparation for a rapid sally.

For a time the pair, mother and son, continued practising the basic  of zanjutsu. Strike, shift to the side, sally, withdrawal, block, strike. Time and again, fluid sequences of moves in imaginary combat. With each manoeuvre Kaoru was improving his grip, precision, timing, reflex, physical fitness. His mind was clear, devoid of that unbearable buzz he had to weather back in the nameless village. Just he and his mother amongst the nature, sharing a lucid singular purpose.

"All right, this is enough for the time being", determined Asuka after half an hour of constant training. "Let's rest for a while before we continue."

Kaoru nodded. Still holding his makeshift bokken in his hand he unhurriedly approached the nearby stream. He squatted in front of the water and glanced at his reflexion on the surface.

He was smiling.

The boy slanted and submerged his free hand in the stream. Then, he drank some of the crystal clear water. It was cold and refreshing. Shortly afterward he trotted back to his mother and sat on the ground in front of her.

"How do you feel?", she asked him. "Aren't you tired?"

"I'm fine", said Kaoru with a faint smile.

His mother responded with the kind of parental smile he had not had the chance of seeing too often before they decided to leave the village. Even though there was always a sense of sombreness deep within her heart he knew she was happy at the moment. His own smile widened as he tilted his head, looking at her with pure love.

"Good boy", stated Asuka, stroking his head with a glint in her somewhat watery eyes. "You're going to become a powerful warrior in the future."

"Really?", the boy mused, his happiness giving way to a pensive face expression.

His mother became thoughtful as well. A normal child would have probably reacted with a burst of joy at such a prospect. Conversely, her son began pondering the implications of that statement. She was certain he was an exceptional boy. She would dare call him a prodigy, in fact. Now that he no longer had to endure the hardships of life with the callous and harsh local people she was able to perceive his unusual composure and intellect at full capacity. More than that, he had been learning the basics of combat at an impressive rate. Already he boasted rudimentary skill in all four fields of the zankensoki. Even though the possibility of fighting an adult warrior was something that instilled unhealthy dread onto her mind, at the same time she virtually knew he would be able to hold his own against an ordinary.

Asuka was fairly strong, born a Soul with high spiritual power. However, her son was more than simply strong... In spite of his age, he had already surpassed her in terms of sheer power. That was the reason she endeavoured to train him in the ways of combat, to grant focus to his incredible energy, condition his body and maintain his mind in a state of necessary calm. To prepare him.

For whilst she had managed to solve one of the most pervasive external issues afflicting their life, a few inherent ones remained to plague her little boy.

"I'm ready, mother", said Kaoru.

Asuka shook her head slightly, roused from her stupor. A crooked smile appeared on her face.

"Don't worry, mother", added Kaoru, still with that air of mature solemnity. "Everything will be all right."

Asuka widened her eyes. This might have been a general statement, but the context... As if he had read her mind and tried to comfort her. Could that be her face expression? Did it betray her thoughts? No. She knew that was something else. She was not sure what exactly, but since a time she had suspected the peculiar demeanour of her son had a profound cause. He was always so pensive in the company of others, focussed and attentive. The way he reacted and spoke, as if he knew what precisely people had on their minds. She replied with a somewhat melancholy smile.

He was exceptional.

"Of course, Kaoru-kun. Let's train a bit of spellcasting now, okay?"

"With pleasure", the boy was obviously joyful in his timid way.

Arguably, kidō was the most abstract and as such the most difficult field to learn. Normally she would have waited significantly longer before trying to teach her son spells. Yet, his case was a unique one. Not only he acquired the techniques at a promising pace. She also thought that mastering control early would help alleviate one of his greatest problems, the one that for all its seriousness he was likely barely aware of.

In the meantime, she gathered a number of pebbles and placed them on the ground against the background of the forest. Skilled or not, she was not going to turn their modest hut into a hapless victim of collateral damage. After spreading them at half-metre intervals she returned to her son.

"Today we're going to practise the same spell as the last time, ", she announced.

The two stood beside each other, facing the designated targets: simple stones lain a few metres in front of them. Asuka took a deep, measured breath. Then, she lifted her right hand outstretched forward and pointed her index finger at one of the pebbles.

"Byakurai", she said.

A concentrated beam of pale blue energy burst forth from her finger right at the target to pulverise it in an instant. All that was left was a small circle of scorched earth beneath.

"Remember that focus is very important", she addressed Kaoru shortly afterward. "Do you remember the chant?"

"Yes, mother", Kaoru nodded with a hint of excitement behind the motion.

"Excellent. Spiritual energy courses through your body. Try to visualise that. Imagine it's... like that stream over there, only inside you. Imagine that if flows directly to your hand, then your finger, and gathers there", she instructed him calmly.

The boy nodded again. Subsequently, he lifted his arm and pointed at a stone. A frown of concentration appeared gradually on his countenance. He was breathing slowly, in an even manner. After a while the tip of his index finger began glowing with a small light.

"Very well", commended him Asuka. "Now, this is the time for the chant. It is very important to cast a complete spell. When you are inexperienced and try to cast a spell without a chant it may explode in your face", she explained.

Kaoru smiled briefly, amused by the vivid yet humourously rendered image his mind served him.

"There is no need to hurry. Speak all the words clearly and slowly. Stay focussed. Try to visualise what you are describing, feel the chant."

The boy nodded. Then, he narrowed his eyes. He imagined a dark, cloudy sky. Great storm about to unleash its mindless fury upon the world. Blackness. However, then a single beam of pure light pierced the clouds and dispersed them to expose a clear blue sky.

"During the darkest hour may a glimmer of hope pierce the shroud of gloom", he recited fluently. "Hadō #4, Byakurai."

Unusually wide column of condensed energy erupted from his index finger to blast the chosen pebble... and its surroundings. The boom of detonation resounded across the forest glade as all of the stones vanished in a small crater. Kaoru widened his eyes and gawked at the result of his actions, as did his mother with her mouth slightly open in shock.

"Mother, is that okay? Was that supposed to happen?", the boy asked as he turned to her with mild confusion.

"Y-yes, everything is fine, Kaoru-kun", hesitated Asuka. "The spell was perfect, but we must train your energy control."

She stared at the shallow crater. Someone of her son's proficiency... no, expected proficiency, should have repeated her achievement at best and failed or missed at worst. Nevertheless, Kaoru had just cast a complete spell, with all that entailed. A few days ago he had been unable to produce the bolt of light at all, yet now he accomplished his task with the first try.

Exceptional.

*** The chirping of birds was a relaxing sound.

Kaoru much preferred the gentle songs of the little creatures to the intolerable noise of the inhabitants of his former home. He felt at ease within the forst. His bare feet touched the slightly wet, warm soil. He watched the healthy green of the flora and smelled the pleasant scent of flowers. The rays of sun were piercing the foliage to cast peculiar light upon the inside of the forest, bright patches that contrasted with the prevalent semi-darkness.

The boy stopped next to a shrub. He reached to its branches and grabbed a handful of berries. After a brief glance he put them inside his mouth. Rather tart, but tasty. That was one of his new habits, to wander the forest and find such delicious treasures whilst enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. Mother told him not to go too far away lest he get lost in the still largely unfamiliar area, yet he could perceive her presence easily. He felt... safe.

He left the bush and began marching across the mounds and pits of the forest amongst the omnipresent bushes and trees. He loved his mother genuinely and deeply, yet he as far as he could remember he enjoyed those brief periods of absolute solitude. That annoying hum in his head was virtually inaudible now. He smiled.

Suddenly, he heard the snap of a broken branch.

He did not step on anything himself. As such, that must have been something else. A rabbit, maybe? Or a fox? He liked foxes. They were distrustful yet curious at the same time. Easy to startle but provided enough patience one would eventually approach and sniff his outstretched hand. Once Kaoru was even able to stroke one's head before it withdrew, albeit without hurry.

Giggle.

The boy halted immediately. The snap was one of the manifold natural sounds of the forest. A giggle, on the other hand, was something limited to intelligent beings. A person here? But how? They were quite far from the village in an uninhabited area. For someone (child) to wander there would be rather odd.

"Hello?", he said to no-one in particular.

He turned around to observe the area. Nothing out of the ordinary. Fragrant earth, thick bushes and tall trees. Just that... it was silent now.

What happened to the birds?

"Hello?", he repeated with a slight frown on his face.

Then, as he was scanning the area once again he saw something with the corner of his eye. He turned there instantly and noticed a dark shape behind one of the fairly nearby trees. A small person, a kid, in a cloak and a hood on its head. Without a warning, the kid hid behind the tree.

"Hey, who are you?", asked Kaoru.

After a short consideration he walked toward the tree. But there was no-one over there. Something occurred to him and he looked down, upon the ground. Nothing. Not a trace of anyone's feet or . Kaoru shrugged.

The birds were singing again. Maybe they had not stopped at all? Recently he had been rather lost in thought so he might have simply imagined that. Thus, he wanted to depart, but then noticed something.

A fruit was laying on the ground, right next to the tree. Roughly spherical in shape and deep green in colour. Looked fresh. The boy picked it up with little hesitation and bit it.

"Yummy", he remarked with his mouth full.

*** The aroma of roasted meat was very pleasing.

It was late in the evening. Asuka and Kaoru were sitting in front of a small campfire generated by the former with the use of kidō. Within the crater left by Kaoru's surprisingly strong Byakurai and as such, nearly in the middle of the glade, the modest flames were unlikely to threaten the forest. Put on a makeshift spit was the carcass of a deer. Even though Asuka did not enjoy hunting wild animals with her bare hands she and, most importantly, her son had to eat something. Fruits and berries were easy to find and they fished frequently, although they required actual meat every once in a while.

Suddenly, a fairly loud rumble of a stomach could be heard.

"I think it's ready", stated Kaoru calmly.

Asuka chuckled, then examined the roast. Obviously, she had removed the fur and the inconvenient parts of the animal's body earlier. The meat was hot and its surface had been turning crispy. She rotated the wooden spit to turn another side toward the fire. Subsequently, she focussed her spiritual pressure at the side of her hand to form a blade of faint energy. With this she cut parts of the roasted meat and placed them on a wooden platter, also of her own design. To think she used to eat from first-rate porcelain...

"Wait a moment for it to cool off", she instructed her son as she passed the platter.

Kaoru nodded, then put the wooden dish at his laps. Asuka smiled when she saw him stare at the steaming meat with extreme concentration. In the meantime, she prepared a portion for herself.

"I think it's ready now", she determined after a short while.

"Great!", replied Kaoru.

The meat vanished quickly. Soon, she gave him another portion, and then another one. He was quite the glutton. That was understandable, though. He was a child, still growing. To be frank, he was rather tall considering his age. Regardless, another issue was his spiritual power. With such an amount at his disposal at an early age like that he required considerable nutrition. In spite of her lack of experience with such endeavours she had been strenuously attempting to provide the sustenance he needed. So far, so good.

"I think I'm full now", announced Kaoru once most of the deer had disappeared from the spit.

"I hope so", said Asuka jokingly. "You have smeared your entire mouth with fat", she added.

The boy quickly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, thus smearing the fat on an even greater part of his face and now the hand as well. He smiled at his mother as if he had succeeded in his task so she could not help but chuckle again.

He looked at her with a rather solemn face expression.

"Could you tell me about father?", he asked all of a sudden.

Asuka gazed upon him with a mixture of surprise and confusion. For all the obvious improvement in his behaviour he kept managing to disconcert her every now and then. That must have been a genuine trait of his character, not something caused by the adverse environment. Still, whilst memories were painful this was not an unusual request despite its abrupt nature.

"All right, but first go to the stream and wash your face and hands", she told him, now serious, but not strict, as well.

It did not take long. Asuka noted that he was thorough. Good. Now, she was ready... no, she wasn't ready. But she ought to tell him something. Of course, he was too young to know many of the details. Nevertheless, he deserved to know something about his father and his past.

"Your father was a diplomat", she began after a brief period of silence. "His name... was Shigeru Kurohana. He and I lived in a great palace. A city suspended above the ."

"Suspended", asked Kaoru. "You mean it floated in the air like a cloud?"

"Yes", confirmed Asuka. "The palace was a splendid place. Clean and beautiful. Peaceful. As I've said, your father was a diplomat, a member of a noble clan. I used to be a diplomat as well, though not from such a prestigious family. We worked together to maintain order in the Soul Society."

"You were very important", commented Kaoru.

Asuka smirked. That was not exactly an expression of happiness. Something more bitter.

"Shigeru... your father was a brave man. Kind and diligent. Not much of a warrior, though. He tried hard to impress people with his prowess, but he was far better with words", a dreamy smile outstretched slowly on her face before she forced it to fade away. "We fell in love with each other and became married. For a long time our life was a happy one."

Kaoru had been observing her with great attention. Normally, a child would rapidly lose interest with such an unexciting shoddy story. However, he was staring intently at her, focussed. His gaze was calm yet piercing.

"But the people of your father had been becoming sparse and bad men started exploiting that to do bad things", she continued, reminding herself to filter and censor the details. "Wars started breaking out one after another. Diplomats were no longer needed and everyone had to fight. Your father and I fought as well as we could but we could not hope to change much. We had been losing and the... authority remained indifferent to our struggle. Your father wanted to change that."

"How?", inquired Kaoru in a whisper.

"With words. Negotiations. But that did not work. The authority refused to intervene. Your father could not stand that", Asuka's tone began rising, though she reminded herself to restrain her emotions. "He felt powerless and I wasn't able to help him. However, in the end, a single man rose to oppose the authority. The man gathered his followers, those who shared his view that the current authority had to be deposed and replaced. This included your father."

"What about you?"

That was the most difficult part.

"I wanted to join as well but...", she stopped for a moment. "I was pregnant. By the time the revolution began you were born, Kaoru-kun", she said with a bitter smile.

There was no verbal response to that, only a nod of the head.

"Your father did not want me to participate in a conflict. He was uncertain if the revolution succeeds, so he decided that you and I should hide for the time being. But, before he left for the battle he had held you one last time, a little baby...", she paused briefly. "He told me that the fragrance of a baby is the most beautiful in the world. He gave you your name, Kaoru-kun. Your name is Kaoru Kurohana."

The boy stayed composed for a moment. Then, a smile slowly appeared on his countenance. Briefly.

"They lost, right?", he asked with a suddenly grim voice.

Silence.

"Yes", uttered Asuka at last. "The revolution failed and your father was killed. Exactly as he had feared, the authority began seeking the relatives and associates of the people involved in the revolution. So I took you away from the palace and ran away as far as I could to keep you safe from them."

"I see", the boy replied.

At that point it was extremely difficult to utter any more words. The memories were still quite fresh for Asuka. She had to make an effort not to burst into tears in front of her young son. Their son. The one deprived of his own father and tolerable living conditions. The one forced to live a life of exile on the outskirts of the Soul Society.

"Mother?"

That word roused her from her stupor. She looked at her son and met his... glare.

"Will you teach me to fight well, mother?", he inquired. "Will you teach me to be a great warrior?"

That simple question entailed many things she did not want to think about. Anger, fear, doubt. But that was a very important question. One that deserved an answer.

"I shall teach you", she replied.

*** Kaoru's condition, physical, mental and emotional had been steadily improving with each passing weak ever since they left the hellhole of a village. The disconcerting severity and solemnity of his disposition had been gradually fading away, replaced with a more child-like, if still quite mature, behaviour. Gone were his abrupt swings of mood or periods of eerie silence when he stared into the distance with mysterious intensity.

However, one issue remained unsolved and, in fact, had been slowly aggravating over time.

"It's okay, Kaoru-kun", whispered Asuka in a quavering voice.

It was cold. Freezing almost. Shadows were swirling about them, impenetrable as the blackness of a starless night. Moving. Living. There was a single source of light, a little sphere of kidō summoned to provide a modicum of lighting. Even though they were inside their hut the orb was flickering constantly, like a candle in the gust of wind. The surroundings were unstable. Asuka had the impression that the room was slowly rotating around them, however impossible that was, blurred. And the voices.

The silent but audible whispers with no apparent source. Just loud enough to be noticed but not clear enough to be understood. Unintelligible hum that sent shivers throughout her curled body whilst she laid next to her son.

Kaoru was trembling as well, though his reasons were different. Streaks of amethyst spiritual pressure were emanating from his body to spread across the room. The boy himself was restless, his face contorted in a frown resulting from some internal struggle. He was sleeping but likely dreaming a nightmare.

"Calm down, Kaoru-kun", said Asuka.

She stroke his head gently, trying to soothe him. The voices had become louder to the point of being unbearable. She dared not avert her gaze from her son lest she saw something that should not be seen. To the best of her ability she attempted to ignore the spectacle of madness and focus on her son. What kind of ordeal he had to endure? Each night the same. The excess of his imposing power leaking from his small, delicate frame that could barely contain such vast amount of energy. His spiritual pressure unshackled, exerting its frightening force.

Fear.

"Stairs...", moaned Kaoru even though his eyes were still firmly shut. "Stairs!"

Asuka widened her eyes. Stairs were not something one could see daily in a high-numbered district of the Rukongai. Particularly now that they had been living in a hut in the middle of a forest. Was that some sort of distant memory? But there was no event associated with them that could possibly result in such torment.

"I... I'm falling, mother!", the boy shouted abruptly.

"Kaoru-kun?", Asuka reached to him and grabbed his shoulders. "Kaoru-kun?"

Suddenly, everything stopped. The voices were silenced, the room was once again static and merely semi-dark. Her son let out a deep sigh. Then, he moved slightly, closer to his mother and laid calmly. He was breathing in a slow, measured manner. After a while, Asuka smiled and caressed his cheek.

They will endure.

Violation
Away from the Soul Society the life of Asuka and her young son was a tedious one. However, that was an acceptable price for their safety and health. Asuka devoted her efforts to nurture and teach Kaoru to keep both of them occupied. The boy himself was rather creative and could come up with ways to find entertainment in addition. Thus, days, weeks and months were merging into a singular experience, a languid existence not unlike the purgatory. And with each passing day Asuka's anxiety was minutely diminishing.

After all, who could possibly find them so many years after the revolt, in the middle of nowhere?

*** Evening. The sun was halfway through its descent toward the unseen horizon so that the forest was drowned in a navy blue semi-darkness. It had been getting rather humid and cold recently. As such, Asuka and Kaoru returned to their modest home, slowly preparing to sleep.

Asuka was trying her skills in the art of producing warm garments. With haphazard application of her kidō skills she had been attempting to turn the fur of deers into a set of clothing for the coming winter. In the meantime, Kaoru was playing with a set of pebbles she had told him to wash first. She glanced at the boy. He did not make any sounds whilst playing. He was gazing at the small stones with obvious concentration and kept moving them around in some undiscernible pattern yet did not speak once. Somewhat odd. Did he prefer to assign them voices within his mind? Merely imagine rather than imitate them?

Come to think of it, he had never been one to speak openly about his feelings. He was such an introverted child. She was not sure whether she should have been concerned about that. He did not seem actually sad. Just calm. Suddenly, he lifted his head as he finally noticed she had been observing him for a while. He smiled.

Asuka could not help but respond with a wide smile. She was not sure about many things but she knew he loved her deeply. He was her only reason to keep on living, yet she hoped that in the end he did not feel the same about her. The spiritual world was a scary place and many dangers...

Snap.

Asuka widened her eyes. That was a sharp, loud sound. Something one would not expect late in the evening. Particularly that they were both here, in the mildly spacious main room of the hut. She turned her head toward the door... to see them open. Forced open, in fact.

"Pardon the intrusion", she heard a deep, masculine voice.

There was someone standing at the threshold. A large man who had to slant in order to come inside the hut. A large, muscular man in a black kimono, with tanned complexion, long black hair tied in a braid and exposed hairy chest. He had a hideous irregular scar that run at the side of his squarish jaw. The gaze of his pale green eyes was unnerving, somehow visible in the dim lighting of her special Kidō spell.

"Long time no see", the man added as he approached them.

Both Asuka and Kaoru froze. At the exact same time they recognised that man. The man whom they had once seen a long time ago, when they still lived in the village. The brusque, violent man. The savage who styled himself a hero.

"Finding you in those backwoods was quite an ordeal", said Nobuo Fukui as he halted right beside the two he had been seeking. "Really annoying, but not nearly as much as what you've put me through back in that filthy pit."

Asuka stared at him silently. She remembered all too well the emanation of his spiritual pressure. It was not frightening because of how overwhelming it was; rather, the reason she soon started trembling was because of how vile it was.

"What do you want from us, sir?", she asked politely with the half-conscious hope that addressing him with respect might help her avoid... what?

"Y'see, a warrior has to work hard to earn his reputation", he began in an oddly composed manner. "It takes helluva time to become truly famous but only a while to tarnish that reputation, y'know?"

Asuka unwittingly started crumpling the fur she had been working on. She glanced at her son. He was staring at the man quietly. He did not speak a word, though his face expression betrayed his thoughts. He was furious. Not a trace of surprise or fear, indeed, but pure wrath contorted his face.

"It's not funny when a famous warrior such as myself walks into a backwater village and gets insulted by some stupid brat", continued Nobuo. "It's not funny because people like to talk. They talk with each other and tell their family, friends and livestock that this little kid made fun of the mighty Meteor Fist. Other people pick it up and everyone mocks me behind my back. It makes me angry", he explained in a very forcefully matter-of-fact way.

"I beg your pardon, sir", said Asuka, trying her best to suppress the unbearable sense of dread. "My son is still very young, He did not want to offend you. He... he's just a child. Please, forgive him."

Fukui glanced at Kaoru briefly, but turned back to her with a motion that seemed like he winced.

"Yeah, just a kid", he seemingly agreed. "But you know what? You need to teach your kid manners. Since you've bungled the matter I think I can help you and teach him myself instead."

"Please, no", replied Asuka, clenching her right hand into a fist under the guise of fur. "Please, leave us alone."

Nobuo shook his head slowly with a very malicious smirk that seemed to stretch the scar on his chin.

"Oh, but you're welcome", he said. "I wanna help. My methods are very effective, y'see."

He took a step forward. Something snapped within Asuka as she rapidly stood up. The fur fell from her laps to the floor when she lifted her right arm, the hand glowing with energy.

"Bakudō #4, !", she exclaimed.

The accumulated energy burst forth into a current of yellow light. The resultant rope of pure wrapped around the shocked giant, immobilising his arms.

"Bakudō #61, !", shouted Asuka immediately afterward.

The rope coiling about Fukui's body sprouted six wide beams of light that firmly pinned him at the spot. He looked at her with eyes wide open, then lowered his head to gaze upon the binding spell.

"Kaoru-kun, run! Run away, now!", his mother turned to him and yelled fervently.

She knew she could not stop that man for longer than a few moments. However, if there was any chance that she could stall him long enough for her son to escape she was willing to sacrifice her life in order to achieve that. No matter the cost her son had to live. But even though Kaoru stood up rapidly he appeared to have no intention to run. First, he gazed at his mother with unusually strong bewilderment. Then, he turned his head slightly to the left and his eyes widened briefly.

"Look out, mother!", he warned her.

Asuka turned to Nobuo just in time to witness him flex his imposing muscles. Subsequently, her Bakudō was torn apart and dispersed with a display of monstrous physical strength. In spite of how dire the situation was that feat had shocked her momentarily. Long enough for Fukui to abruptly approach her and perform an uppercut punch right to her abdomen, squeezing the breath out of her lungs with no visible effort.

"Naughty bitch", he seethed. "Now, sit."

Nobuo lifted his right hand and ouststretched the fingers. Then, he struck the back of her neck with what seemed to be miniscule amount of force. Regardless, she fell to the ground as if she had been struck down by a lightning bolt.

"M-mother...", wheezed Kaoru, overwhelmed.

Fukui disregarded him... for the time being. Now, he crouched over the stupefied woman and turned her on her back. Yes, he had come to teach the boy a lesson in manners. However, the boy's mother needed a lesson as well. Something to put her back in line.

"Let's see what you've got under that scanty dress", he murmured.

With those words he reached to the neckline and spread the straps of her somewhat worn-out black leather dress. Beneath there was only a fishnet undershirt. The knit was quite tight, although he could still perceive the gentle curves of her modest bust and the pink shade of areolas.

Asuka jerked violently when she regained her senses. She rose her arm in an abrupt punch. However, Fukui easily intercepted her desparate attempt to defend herself and pinned the arm to the floor.

"I've told ya to sit, bitch", he repeated with mock composure, grinning.

All of a sudden, something changed. Fukui narrowed his eyes. His vision became blurry for some reason. Then, he noticed that the silhouette of the woman began shifting. Her smooth fair skin turned sickly pale with a tint of green, violet veins became visible. Her eyes sank into the depths of her skull to leave empty sockets behind. The dead dark brown wedge of her tongue protruded from in-between her indigo lips. She was a corpse.

"Huh... what!?", he uttered with confusion and horror in equal measure.

Cold. He felt cold. Immense freezing that threatened to suck all heat from his body and kill him on the spot. He heard something, a hum or whisper. He turned to the side.

Snakes.

Giant reptiles of hideous pink colour, swollen heads with little pitch-black eyes and thick white liquid streaming from their gaping mouths. A hydra of flesh.

"What the fu-...!?", he managed to exclaim.

One of the creatures lashed at him so abruptly he had no time to react otherwise. He felt something heavy colliding with the right side of his face. Then, he was launched into the air to fly a short backward flight and land on the floor on his back. He crawled briefly only to rise to a sitting position.

The snakes were emerging from amethyst mist, growing and slithering above the decaying corpse of the woman. The sizzling, rather than hissing sound they were emitting was unbearable. Fukui felt trickles of sweat flowing on his forehead and temples.

Another snake plunged at him. This time Nobuo was better prepared. The creature bit his right forearm. A surge of pain. Regardless, the giant man used his free arm to perform a hasty to get rid of the monster. Blood gushed as the snake was wrested off his arm. Without a warning, the creature vanished.

The rest disappeared without a trace as well. Nobuo gawked at the room. It took him a while to realise, more or less, what had happened. The woman was back to normal; she sat and stared somewhere to his side, obviously petrified. Fukui followed her stare. There he was, that cheeky brat, laying on the floor with a red mark on his forehead. So, that must have been some sort of trick. An illusion.

"Gotta admit, I didn't expect that", said Nobuo whilst wiping off the sweat from his face. "But that's been a one-off trick, I'm afraid."

"You...", seethed Asuka with such fury that Fukui winced inadvertently.

"Oi, calm down, bitch, it's your turn", he replied with some hesitation.

Kaoru jerked abruptly. Subsequently, he rose to a sitting position and glared at the giant man with the eyes of a one-thousand-years-old murderer. Somewhere deep within his broken and twisted psyche Nobuo recognised that he had fallen foul of the wrong people. However, that was a brief, distant thought. On the surface he was concerned with very different matters.

"Hey, you fucking little cunt", he addressed the boy. "Trying to scare me away? Wanna try some more?"

"DIEEE!", the boy roared at him.

When he leapt at Fukui like a bloodthirsty predator ready to tear the victim's throat apart, the man actually felt fear. Pure, unadulterated fear. Despite the fact he had almost regained relative composure moments ago his reaction was born of panic rather than anything more rational.

"Hyaah!", he exclaimed.

Nobuo Fukui, the Meteor Fist, the hero of the Soul Society, lifted his right arm in a lightning-fast uppercut that generated impossible friction. Friction so great that his fist burst into flames: Hiken. When he grazed the boy's face with the upward punch Kaoru was plunged backward. Then, he fell limply to the ground with a streak of smoke trailing behind him. The smell of burnt flesh could be sensed in the aftermath.

"KAORU-KUN!", howled Asuka.

"Shaddup, bitch", demanded Nobuo as he finally stood up.

The woman tried to move toward her son. Fukui did not give her the chance. With a single Flash Step he intercepted her and pinned her to the floor again. Her neckline was still spread so that he stared at her breasts when she struggled to wrench herself out of his incredibly firm grasp. She was crying. He tore her undershirt with a single motion. The woman sobbed and once again attempted to break free, so he struck her face with the back of his hand.

"Stop struggling", he told her. "You may actually enjoy that."

For a moment, there was only pain. Kaoru stared at the ceiling of the small hut he started calling his home. The vision of his right eye was unsteady and blurred. The left eye was closed, barely rescued from the scorching heat generated by the horrible man's punch. For some time he treaded the thin line between reality and some nebulous realm beyond. Eldritch realm.

"Isn't that pleasant?"

Heat. He felt heat, overwhelming heat emanating from the left side of his face to render his entire existence inert with unspeakable anguish. Blood. He tasted blood, the metallic flavour of a blade plunged into his senses. Apparitions. He saw eerie apparitions, shapes without form and forms without shape, submerged in the fabric of reality, endeavouring to wrest their impossible forms into a world of limitations. Sounds. He heard sounds, words, the harbingers of torment and sorrow, the ethereal heralds of despair to come.

"Stop resisting me, you fucking bitch!"

Kaoru turned his head. That was the most he could afford to do. The dim light of his mother's spell illuminated the room. In spite of that, his blurry sight did not allow him to perceive more than flickering silhouettes. Mere shadows of the horrible truth. He perceived the large shape of the horrible man sitting atop his mother. The man's arms outstretched toward her neck, his fingers squeezing her violently. The eidolon of despair strangling the hope out of the innocent and powerless. For a time there was little change to that frightening vision.

"Shit... shit...", after a while there was a murmur.

The large, hulking shape moved. The man stood up, his upper body moving out of the limited area of vision Kaoru had. The man stood in place for a while. Then, he paced toward the exit and vanished without a trace.

For a time, there was nothing.

Mother.

Kaoru tried to turn around. Whilst his body was debilitatingly heavy and numb, he somehow succeeded. Subsequently, he reached forward with one of his arms. He sank his nails into the floor and dragged himself onward, toward that inert silhouette. The heat was so enormous that he could barely maintain consciousness, yet he mustered enough willpower to proceed.

Mother?

Nothing. Why did he feel nothing?

Reach. Drag. Reach. Drag. After what seemed to be a short eternity he eventually reached the silhouette. He pulled his arms beneath his torso to support himself on his elbows. He managed to lift himself sufficiently to take a good look at his mother's face. To see the purple marks at her neck and the blank stare of her eyes that did not blink. Her slightly open mouth from which the last breath had already escaped. He reached as deep as he could, but he could not sense her. In front of him there was only nothingness.

"Mother?"

Twisted
The sun was rising slowly. The midnight black of the nighttime was slowly giving way to the purple and then dark pink of a sunrise. The first birds started chirping as the forest began to wake up. The humble stream babbled and gusts of wind sighed as they gently moved the foliage and blades of grass. Moreover, there was another sound that could be heard amongst the murmur of nature. A silent, repeating sound.

Kaoru's hands were dirty with mud but he did not care at all. Mother would have scolded him. His right eye twitched when that thought crossed his languid mind like a bolt out of the blue. Regardless, he kept digging. Digging a hole at the verge of the forest glade with his own bare hands. His arms were numb and the left side of his face was pain, yet he continued this ordeal. Pile after pile. The air was humid and the wind mild, soothing the terrible burn scar he had received. However, there was nothing that could soothe his tormented mind.

After some time he eventually stopped. He was not tired. No, he merely wanted to evaluate the hole he had dug. Seemed to be large enough. Then, he glanced to the side.

His mother was laying there still. He had fixed her clothing and closed her eyes. If not for the marks on her neck she would have seemed completely all right, as if she had fallen asleep. But she was so horribly motionless. And when he touched her, she was cold. Cold as the ground beneath his bare feet.

Kaoru's mind emerged from the stupor lazily. He walked toward his mother and crouched beside her. His breath became faster. He had to do this. As such, he slowly slid his arms under her and lifted her with little effort. She used to tell him that he was a strong child. That he would grow into a powerful warrior. He took a few steps forward and stood at the edge of the hole. Then, he kneeled. With great care and solemnity he put his mother inside the pit. He made sure to position her comfortably in spite of the cold that emanated from her unmoving body.

And once he straightened up something within him snapped. As if he had been struck by an electric discharge that caused his body to twitch. But that was a fleeting moment. There was no follow up. Only that a single drop of water fell to his mother's face. And another one. Then, Kaoru knelt again and started grabbing the earth he had dug. Pushing the small piles of mud into the hole. Splat. The sound was disgusting, but this had to be done. Only he could do that.

With each pile of wet soil his mother was slowly disappearing within the pit. At the same time Kaoru felt like something had been disappearing deep within his mind, pile after pile.

Gradually and inevitably.

*** What was the reason to live?

Kaoru did not know. Whilst pondering that existential issue he kept shuffling through the stream in the search of a fish. Here, a small school. He took aim and thrust rapidly with a pointed stick of his own make. The stick pierced the fish easily. The rest of the school hastily ran away. In the meantime, Kaoru extracted the fish and walked out of the stream. Near the shore there was his wooden platter with some berries and a single unnamed fruit ready for him.

He took the fish off the stick, still slapping about despite the sizeable hole in its side. Then, he put the stick beside the platter and held the fish high by the fin on its tail. The boy lifted his free hand and pointed the index finger at the creature. Suddenly, a narrow beam of light erupted from the tip of his finger and instantly fried the fish. The scent was quite pleasant.

Thus, he sat down and placed the fish on the platter.

"Lunch is ready", he whispered in a dry voice.

What was the reason to keep doing that? To keep on living? He wanted to become a great warrior. To be recognised and important. But also to avenge his father, the man who tried to change the world and got killed for his efforts. On the one hand those goals seemed insignificant after the recent incident. On the other hand, that very incident provided an additional reason that magnified his motivation.

In the end, just another person to avenge...

*** Kaoru squatted at the shore of the stream. Bored, he kept jabbing the surface with the pointed stick absent-mindedly. He had trained shortly beforehand. Punches and kicks of unarmed combat, kata of swordsmanship, rapid manoeuvres of high-speed movement and spellcasting as well. It was a difficult task with no-one to guide him and teach him new things. All he could do was polish what he had already learnt. But that was no good. He was not going to become a powerful warrior at this rate. At this rate, he was not going to...

There was a loud splash when he stabbed the surface of water so that the stick sank in-between the pebbles at the bottom of the stream.

Voices.

"I tell you, nobody's coming here. We can do all we want."

Strange. Those were not the voices he had been hearing late at night. Those seemed more... natural. Normal. Voices of children? Here?

"It's far away from home, though..."

"Stop being a chicken, Junichi!"

They were louder now. Closer. However, Kaoru pulled his stick out of the stream's bottom and resumed the mindless jabbing. The stare of his blank eyes was lost somewhere in the shallow water, as if he was gazing into a bottomless abyss.

"Hey, look, there's a hut over there."

"And a glade! That's a cool place to play in. Huh?"

"Hey, you see that, Kazuo-san? There's a kid over there."

He sensed their presence, miniscule as it was. They had been steadily approaching him. Cautiosly. Fools.

"Hey, you! Who are you? What's your name!"

Kaoru did not respond. He did not even flinch. Instead, he limited himself to the continuation of his murder of the stream, stab after stab, incessant and relentless. Stab. Stab. Stab.

"Hey, are you deaf or something!?"

"Shut up, Takumi. I think I know that kid."

"Really?"

"He's that creepy guy who used to live in our village with his mother. Don't you remember?"

"Yeah, that's right! It's him!"

"His mother may be somewhere around. Check in the hut."

For a while they remained quiet. Kaoru did not see them, he was mostly turned back to them. But he heard their footsteps and sensed their meagre existences. They were searching the area.

"She's nowhere here. Weird."

"That's great! You know what we can do now?"

"Yeah. Revenge."

Kaoru winced. His eyes widened, although their gaze remained blank. He stopped prodding the surface of the water. His grip on the wooden stick tightened.

"Hey, freak! Remember that time we wanted to talk with you?", he recognised the voice of the tallest boy of the pack, Kazuo. "Your mommy interruped us and we couldn't finish. So..."

Kaoru's face contorted briefly again. He remembered that situation quite differently. No matter.

"Come on, stand up and turn to us so we can talk face to face."

And then, the black-haired boy did just that. The motion was stiff and unnatural, like a puppet attached to strings lifted by its master. He turned his head toward the trio of boys, left side of his face first. Consequently, they could witness the large burn scar that almost took his eye. A vaguely triangular patch of melted, scorched skin that was far darker than his natural complexion.

"Yuck! What's with that!?"

Kaoru remained silent. He continued glaring at the boys with unnerving intensity. The two shorter ones seemed rather disturbed, although Kazuo maintained some of his bravado.

"So, you've got burnt and now your mommy's nowhere to be seen", he commented with a smug face expression. "And that's just the beginning of a really bad day for you."

False. Kaoru had already experienced the worst day in his entire existence. Nothing could compare to that, even remotely. Nothing. For them, however...

"Words are cool'n all, but fists can do the talking too", claimed Kazuo as he was unhurriedly approaching Kaoru, his arms lifted and fists clenched.

Then, he halted abruptly. His two companions, Junichi and Takumi, looked at him with confusion.

"Kazuo-san?", asked one of them.

"Ah... aah... khk...", was all the tall boy was able to utter.

He raised his shaking arms and began reaching toward his face with outstretched fingers. Then, the other boys noticed. The blunt end of Kaoru's pointy stick was protruding from Kazuo's left eye, most of its length embedded within the skull. Blood was flowing profusely from the grisly remains of the eyeball.

Kazuo fell to his knees, slanted forward and dropped to the ground... face down. A single twitch ran through his body. Then, he became completely inert, with a puddle of blood slowly spreading from beneath his face and staining the green of grass with dark crimson.

"Eeee!", Junichi squealed.

Takumi was too horrified to utter any sound. Both boys retreated slightly, shaking. After a while they were able to avert their gaze from their dead leader and looked at the black-haired boy with a scar on his face. The boy had been watching them with a tense face expression.

"Run!", Takumi yelled at the top of his lungs.

The boys turned around and began fleeing, overwhelmed with the unexpected death of their companion. That was not supposed to happen. They only wanted to beat up that freak a little and come back home. Just that, nothing more.

Kaoru slid in front of them with a faint sound. Somehow. The boys screamed as they halted quickly. Then, Kaoru sallied forward and threw a punch. His fist collided with Takumi's jaw and a loud, sickening sound could be heard, as if someone had cracked a frail object wrapped in wet rags. He was struck down swiftly, and when he laid on the ground he started writhing uncontrollably, his head turned upward and to the side at a very disturbing angle.

"Please, no!", Junichi moaned to Kaoru. "Please, don't kill me!"

He began withdrawing on his trembling legs. The boy with the scar glanced at the fallen Takumi. Subsequently, he turned to him. For a while he was only standing there, ostensibly tranquil. But those lips like a straight line, the patch of scorched skin and the glare of his empty eyes... Then, he started following Junichi.

"Hiiii...!", the boy squealed.

After a few more backward steps he inevitably fell to the ground. Kaoru was walking toward him with no haste. Junichi tried crawling away from him, yet the scarred boy caught up with him quickly. He sat at his stomach and reached toward Junichi's neck. The fingers squeezed in a firm clutch.

"Puh-leeease... ghk...!", was all that Junichi could utter.

Kaoru kept strangling him, harder and harder. At first, his face expressed a sense of profound concentration. In the end a wide, ominous grin outstretched on his scarred countenance. Kaoru bared his teeth in the grimace of a madman whilst his fingers sank deeper and deeper into the neck of his tormentor-turned-tormented. For reasons unknown he was able to experience what his victim had been experiencing. And that was good. He felt joy at the sheer dread and suffering that were virtually emanating from the boy together with his fading life.

Suddenly, Kaoru woke up from the stupor. The boy was dead. Had been dead for a while. For how long had he been sitting there like that, with his fingers crushing the neck of a corpse? He glanced at the dead boy and noticed the purple marks left by his fingers...

"Aaaaah!", he yelled in a raspy voice.

He leapt to the side, away from the body. He rolled on the ground and sat, clutching his head with his cold fingers.

What had he done? What was that otherworldly experience? What did he feel? What was that image?

What was that... madness...

*** Cold.

It had been getting cold lately. The sky was dark and the birds no longer chirped. It was quiet. Kaoru stood in the middle of the glade, gazing at the grey clouds above. He could see the steam escaping his nose with each exhalation. His feet were bare, but he had put on the deer fur his mother did not manage to finish. He was able to maintain a tolerable amount of warmth thanks to that fur nonetheless.

Tolerable... intolerable...

Cold. It was cold and quiet. No-one around except for him. He had got rid of the bodies of the foolish boys, dumped them into the stream. Whilst shallow its current proved sufficient to carry them away, away from him, into oblivion. He would not let them rest in this ground, the ground occupied by his mother.

Cold. It was cold and quiet. There was no-one to comfort him. No-one to talk with him. No-one to warm him up. No-one to hug-

"Aaaaaaah!", he bellowed abruptly.

He lifted his head slightly higher so that the scream resounded across the uninhabited area.

"Aaaaah!"

Tears started flowing from his violet eyes. One stream trickled straight down his cheek. The other one meandered along the folds of the burnt skin at the left side of his face.

"Haaaaah!"

Each time the yell was more raspy and hysterical. Kaoru straightened up and held his arms parallel to his body, his hands clenched into trembling fists.

"Aaaaaaah!"

There was no reponse. Just the hollow echo of his own howl. The voice of despair.

"Aaah... gh... hah... aaaaaah!"

All of a sudden, his amethyst eyes began glowing. Glowing with the power that coursed through his small frame barely capable of containing such quantity of energy. The power that had manifested many times during his nightmares emerged in the broad daylight at last to envelop his body with a violet outline.

"HYAAAAAH!", the boy bellowed once again.

The ground beneath his feet shook perceptibly. The faint aura of amethyst light expanded. Streaks of gaseous energy began leaking from his body, large and thick. Blades of grass were pushed away from his as if wind blew. The fur flew into the air.

"HYAAAAAAAA...!", roared Kaoru at the top of his lungs.

It was a roar of sorrow and fury in equal measure, two overwhelming emotions that threatend to crush anything in their vicinity. And the earth began cracking under the pressure of his incredible might, chunks of soil and grass launched into the air. The trees started swaying and the wooden hut creaked in a powerless protest. The ominous glow of dead-cold amethyst spread across the forest glade.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Kaoru lifted his fists, veins protruding on his flexed fledgling muscles. His gleaming eyes almost retreated into the back of his head so that what remained were whites interspersed with the red of blood vessels. Drops of saliva sprayed from his mouth. The ground beneath his feet sank as the world began trembling in its foundations.

And then the aura of amethyst light manifested its true form: countless ghastly faces rose from non-existence with their hollow eye sockets and mouths open in an eternal wail. The wail of the damned and the tormented that joined the animalistic roar of the young boy in a choir that would spell the doom of this world.

"HYAAA-!", the boy stopped without a warning.

In the middle of this tempest of madness something suddenly got stuck to his face. No, something materialised on his face. Kaoru stumbled and fell forward as the storm of wraiths around him dispersed without a trace. He supported himself on his hands, then for a while kept panting heavily.

What was that?

Slowly, he moved toward the stream. Its surface was mostly frozen, but that was no problem. He could still see his reflexion.

Mask.

There was a mask on his face. Ivory white, triangular shape with narrow eye slits. No ornaments. Just a bleak, inexpressive surface. Despite the fact how unexpected and unreal that was, Kaoru was not disturbed by that inexplicable appearance. For some reason...

...it felt right.

New Path
Time was meaningless. Lost in the labirynth of his mind Kaoru had lost track of the passing of time. How many days had passed since then? Weeks? Months? Years?

He had been living out of reflex. He had a single purpose and that was all he needed to perceive, wanted to perceive. Everything else was insignificant. The mysterious mask that had appeared on his face did not cause any trouble. He could swivel it about his head easily. He ate, drank, trained and slept. He grew. The tattered kimono that was his only clothing was reduced to little more than rags as it became too small to accomodate his body.

He existed.

He was alone.

There were other people. Strangers. Intruders. Every once in a while someone wandered into the forest to find his hut. He did not want any visitors. But that was not a major issue. Kaoru felt what they felt. He knew what they feared. And, on top of that, he could show them that which they feared. That was enough. Enough to exist in solitude.

How many years?

*** Summer.

It was a hot day. The sun was suspened high above the forest and there was nary a cloud to obscure it. The crickets chirped noisily. Every now and then there was a pleasant gust of wind. However, most of the time the air kept undulating due to the immense heat.

Kaoru sat at the verge of the modest veranda his wooden hut sported. He had cut his black kimono in several places and haphazardly rearranged the parts to accomodate his growing body. He was now substantially taller than at the time he and his mother escaped from the nameless village. His half-exposed legs and arms boasted toned, sinewy muscles. His jet black hair was quite long as he did not bother to cut it, so that it reached slightly beyond his shoulders.

The eerie ivory mask was upon his face.

The gaze of his eyes was fixed somewhere in the distance. Normally, he would have begun a training session. However, he had sensed something a while ago. Some people had been approaching his place. Some unusual people. If the presence of ordinary Souls was like that of fireflies, those people were like floating lanterns. There was a word, a name reserved to them, a distant memory from the better time.

Shinigami.

"You sure it's there?", he heard a voice from the distance.

"Of course I am. Can't you sense the ?"

"I do. That's why I'm asking..."

They were drawing closer. Kaoru did not appear to be worried, though. Apart from natural minor movements of the body he was almost completely still. No reason to do anything just yet. What would be their reason of seeking him, however? From that short exchange he knew they had come here on purpose and that purpose involved him. But in what way?

"There's a forest glade. I think I can see a hut."

"Yeah, that must be the place."

Soon, a group of Souls in distinct black kimono entered the forest glade. There were six of them, four men and two women. All had their tachi worn in sheathes at the height of their waists. But not simple tachi. Those were the sealed forms of their Zanpakutō. They noticed him after a moment. Then, they started walking toward him with slightly odd caution.

Was he that scary?

"Hmph", he snorted.

"Hey!", a woman with long brown hair and green eyes addressed him. "You, over here!"

"Stop yelling, you idiot", scolded her one of her teammates.

The woman did not pay heed to his words and waved fervently at Kaoru. The boy did not respond. Instead, he kept glaring at the Shinigami from his veranda. Meanwhile, they finally approached him and halted a mere few metres from him.

"I am Eiko Tachibana", the woman introduced herself with a polite bow.

Kaoru regarded her closely. She was quite young, but not as young as he was. A woman, fairly pretty with her small nose covered with freckles and a heart-shaped face. Even though her teammates seemed to be rather wary she smiled at Kaoru in a somewhat timid manner. That was a genuine smile. Surprising.

"We're Shinigami. We've heard the rumours of your presence here and our superior ordered us to investigate", she explained.

Investigate? Did they want to hunt him down like some of those pitiful fools attempted to? No. Certainly not. She had something else in mind...

"Seeing that we've sensed your Reiatsu from afar the rumours must be true", she noted with a slight dose of shock. "We've been recruiting powerful Souls to join -sama's Thirteen Divisions and maintain order in the Soul Society."

Now that was an intriguing development. So, they wanted him to join them? In spite of the fact they were Shinigami they were quite bold to come here and confront him. He could easily crush them. However, when he looked at the woman whom he had recognised as their unofficial leader the thought of getting rid of them faded away. She appeared to be... kind. Kaoru noted that should he stand up they would be of equal height, rather amusing considering the obvious difference in their biological age.

"A masked boy, biological age roughly twelve, who lives in a hut deep within the woods", she recited. "Appears to possess supernatural powers. Scares away any trespassers or makes them disappear under mysterious circumstances."

Oh yes, disappear. Haha.

"Seems we've been right!", she exclaimed happily and clasped her hands. "You're a strong boy. Do you want to join us and become even stronger?"

They could not see that Kaoru widened his eyes. Huh. Become even stronger... He did not have any reason to adore Shinigami and a rather... solid one to utterly despise them. But in isolation like that he could do little to continue his progress in the terms of combat. There was no-one to teach him new techniques. He could improvise to an extent but he knew that was insufficient. The offer was unexpected, to say the least. Intriguing, too.

"So?", asked Eiko, raising one of her eyebrows. "Could you please remove that mask? We'd like to see your face."

"No we don't", protested one of her colleagues.

"Shut up, Minoru", she replied without even glancing at him and with a friendly smile still outstretched on her pretty face.

Kaoru hesitated. He felt comfortable with the mask concealing his countenance. However, the thought of indulging them and seeing their reaction was tempting, to be honest. As such, he reached to his face with one hand and swiveled the mask to the right. Just enough to expose the old burn scar on the left side of his countenance, a part of his effeminate lips and the piercing glare of his amethyst eye.

Some of the Shinigami winced. Exactly as he had expected. What he did not expect was that the woman, Tachibana, seemed to be more worried than frightened. That was strange.

"Oh, I see, you've been wounded", she remarked, stroking her beard. "You can put that mask on if you feel better that way."

That was not a request born of desire not to see his face. She was genuine. How could she? Nevertheless, he swiveled the mask back and stood up.

"I accept", he replied after a short period of ominous silence.

His voice had become deeper and slightly raspy. The onset of puberty was obvious.

"Great!", shouted Eiko as she actually jumped with glee. "We'll bring you to the right away! I mean, if there's anything you want to bring with you, then feel free to pack everything first. We can wait a bit."

One second.

"No. I'm ready", stated Kaoru simply.

"That guy is creepy", muttered the man known as Minoru.

Kaoru glared at him. The Shinigami noticed immediately. Even though he could not see the boy's eyes somehow their stares met and the man shook visibly.

"What... what the hell are you doing!?"

"What's wrong?", asked the other woman in the team.

"He's... using those powers on me!", gasped Minoru as his vision began losing its focus...

"Please, don't scare my teammates", implored Eiko all of a sudden. "You see, they're a bunch of cowards already. They'll soil themselves if you try to scare them."

"Wh-what!?", shouted Minoru, snapping out of his unnatural anxiety.

Kaoru gazed at the brown-haired woman. She was a peculiar being. She was not subject to the omnipresent rot he sensed in most of the beings he had interacted with. Very well.

"Anyway, let's tie up that guy", suggested one of the Shinigami. "You know, so that he... doesn't run away or something."

Tachibana was not sure about that idea. The boy watched the team as they argued the matter briefly.

"Seems there's no other way", summed up Eiko whilst rolling her eyes. "Are you fine with that?"

Kaoru shrugged. That was all the response they needed.

"Oh, well. Bakudō #1, ."

The woman pointed her index and middle finger at the boy to channel the binding spell. Immediately afterward Kaoru's arms were forcibly bent and locked behind his back. Such a weak spell. Still, if that meant the rest of her team would not complain he was willing to tolerate that minor inconvenience.

He had been able to tolerate far worse treatment in the past.

"Okay, then. Let's go!", announced cheerfully Eiko.

When the Shinigami and Kaoru were leaving the place, he did not stop to look at the hut, the forest or the stream for the last time. He cast only one aside glance at a relatively nondescript portion of the glade, where a single flower was growing amongst the grass.

Farewell, mother, the boy thought. I'm going to become a great warrior.

His lips outstretched in an unnerving grin, safely concealed by the inexpressive surface of his mask.

*** Seireitei.

The cradle of civilisation, luxury and power. The heart of the Soul Society. So unlike the distant slums of the Rukongai. Kaoru had been observing the surroundings as he and the team of Shinigami sent to recruit him were making their way through the settlement. Rather than behold, though, he was merely memorising the topography. Residential buildings, barracks, stores, important landmarks. That was going to be his new home and he needed to know every corner to feel remotely comfortable.

"You see, those large buildings with numbers are the headquarters of various Divisions", explained Eiko complete with pointing at some of the aforementioned barracks. "Each Division is a large military force led by a Captain. Though they're autonomous, Yamamoto-sama unifies them when the need arises to fight as a single force."

Divisions. So he was to end in one of the military arms of the Soul Society. A soldier. A warrior. Finally. A Shinigami... For the sake of his purpose.

"We're not going to visit any of them just yet, however", she said in an apologetic tone. "First, you need to complete education at the . There, you will learn the history, philosophy and combat techniques of the Shinigami."

Oh, he had already learnt the basics. His mother had made sure of that. That was going to grant him an quick start. An advantage.

"There it is, that large building in the distance", glanced at him Tachibana only to point at the Academy.

Indeed, there it was.

*** "Ah, another recruit. Welcome to the Shinōreijutsuin", a middle-aged man behind a sizeable desk said.

The team dispersed. Now, Kaoru remained with only Eiko to guide. They were inside the giant building, ready to admit him to the ranks of the students. The would-be Shinigami.

"We've suffered a shortage of manpower recently so every talented person like you is invaluable", the man continued.

He was a mature person of average stature. With a medium complexion and a receding hairline of dark brown hair he had hazel eyes and wore a short beard. His clothing consisted of a peculiar, trailing dark green garb rather than the standard black kimono of the Shinigami. In spite of his age the man appeared to be a lively and jovial one. His smile was genuine, too.

"So, what's your name, prospective warrior?", he asked, readying his brush to list the boy on a piece of paper.

"Oh, silly me!", Eiko placed her hand at her forehead. "I've completely forgotten to ask you. So, what is it?"

The boy remained quiet for a short while.

"I don't have a name", he stated calmly, almost whispering.

"Eeeh?", Tachibana was clearly surprised.

"Oh, that's unfortunate", remarked the official. "He might've forgotten. That's a common occurrence amongst the Souls who come to Rokungai. Where are you from?"

Silence. There was no response coming, so Eiko took it upon herself to provide an answer.

"We've found him on the outskirts of the #80 District of the South Rukongai."

"Ah, I see", agreed the man with a nod of his head, noting something down on the list. "You've forgotten your name but we need to call you somehow. Hmm... For the time being, are you fine with calling you by the name of your home district?"

"I'm not sure whether that's a good idea, Hamasaki-dono?", doubted Eiko.

She turned to the boy. He was gazing at official in an arcane manner. Then, he merely shrugged. Hamasaki narrowed his eyes briefly, then nodded slowly.

"Okay then. Welcome to the Shin'ō Academy... Usuguraiboshi-kun."

End of Chapter