KURANA. HENA VIALLAG, JAPAN, Jan-20-2025
"Are you really sure about this?" Soran Haru asked the girl beside him as he looked at what she had brought before him.
He couldn't believe he was contemplating doing this. Who'd have thought earlier in the morning that he'd spend his night in a shanty neighborhood with Nika Kigana, Kaito Ran's cousin, searching for one of the girl's lost street urchins?
"I'm certain," Kigana told him, moving the flashlight she was holding and casting the bright beam about, lighting up the view of what lay ahead of the impoverished road they trod upon.
There was nothing much for the light to reveal, nothing but destitute cobblestones that had failed their purpose for years now and were absolutely out of kilter.
They were as equally ruined as his courage on this cold, lonely night. The eerie wind blowing from the east, foreshadowing an imminent storm, didn't help either. Every gust that came in contact with Haru's skin evoked a shudder and he didn't need to look to know that goosebumps were creeping up his arms.
And there was a good reason for that. Where they were was the mystical Hena Village, a deserted village neighbouring Jaiju Village which was where the Kaito and Nika families lived.
On Ran's request to take care of his father, he'd come across Kigana several times. Ran's father's condition and shocking return from the dead after five years and some months was an open secret, so was the truth about Ran in Naraku.
He and Kigana became friends over time, but he didn't agree with her bringing him to a place like this. To look for an American orphan of all things.
The reason why even he, who had been to Naraku several times, and a few monks feared this place was because there was evidence that a shadow portal was here, one that led directly to Naraku. And not just anywhere in Naraku, but where HE was being kept in chains.
"How'd he get lost again?" Haru asked my friend, deciding that the quietness that had settled between them did not suit his nerves.
She gave him an incredulous look, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Who? Kelvin?"
Haru glared at her. "No George Washington."
She didn't take offense to his unprovoked retort. Instead she adopted a grim look that had a hint of sadness. "It's all my fault. I usually come visit them every Friday, but today I was delayed by the school project and was late by hours. Kaneki informed me that Kelvin had grown concerned about my lateness and had, despite their warnings, left for the mansion to see if I was alright," she informed me, looking down in shame and personally burdening herself with the blame.
Within him, Haru scoffed. He would never understand why Kigana found associating with the homeless a fun activity. She didn't even realize that half of her urchin friends were jealous of the wealth she'd been born into.
His instincts were not fluctuating between flight or fight, no, they were bloody screaming at him to run for the hills.
They entered a local school, Haru watched carefully while Kigana just walked ahead boldly.
He was about to call out to her to slow down and be careful when he felt Ran's presence in his mind.
"Ran?"
"Come to me…come son."
That did not feel completely like Ran's mental spiritual signature.
"Ran?" He called out again, a feeling of wariness gnawing at him.
"Erāsus," he heard and right there Haru forgot how to move hiS body, he forgot how to think.
His whole equilibrium had been dismantled by merely hearing that word.
His thoughts disappeared and memories, horrible memories, of times from hell kept flashing through his mind randomly. He shivered and could have sworn his heart skipped several beats and soon began beating faster than was normal.
Was this fear, he wondered, or was this terror. Cold ran down his back as a vision filled his mind, he stared at bright orbs, the wickedness their beauty could not conceal. Tiny sparks of viciousness could practically be seen in those cold starlight eyes.
Whatever it was he was feeling at this moment, be it fear or terror, he knew not but it was ringing alarm bells in his mind, trying to trigger his fight or flight instincts.
As feelings returned to him and he slowly regained composure, his guest whispered, "It's been a long time, mi dulce."
It all came rushing back. The voice did it, it brought back the horrible feelings. It was the tone, it was that particular timbre.
It was like a sound carried by the wind. That voice unlocked horrible memories, memories he'd been trying to bury for almost all his life.
He felt like a child once more. Locked up in his room and hiding under the sheets of his bed as a storm raged around the house. He could hear the unimaginably loud thunders, feel the goosebumps caused by the chilling wind traveling with the downpour.
He was lucky that at that moment he couldn't remember how to speak. Certain he was that he would have let out a scared whimper at that very moment.
His tormentor drew closer, slowly closing the gap between them. His heart thundered with each beat as dark spots began to cloud his eyes. He felt his whole body take on the weight of a feather.
He was becoming faint and was soon to collapse. Who knew that such fear could be induced by the presence of a walking misery from the past. It was simply terrifying, that thought even terrified him more than anything.
Because he started to think, 'what if all my past terrors decide to awaken?'
It was too much for his mind, too much for him to bear. As he slipped into unconscious bliss he caught one last look of the person before.
The woman's face held a smirk and the smirk transformed into a grin as she watched him pass out. It was a dark smile, one that promised nothing but pain.
One that will make him wish he had been brave enough to commit harakiri all those years ago. As he blacked out, he prayed, prayed to whatever god that was listening, he prayed to not wake up, to not see another living day.
And the last words he heard.
"Remember who you are, son of Lucifer."