Youkai no Kokoro
Youkai no Kokoro
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“And
don’t forget, stay away from the ruins over by the river! Lots of old stories
about that place, none of them good.”
“Yes,
Obasan.” Yuki replied without really hearing the warning. He’d heard it every summer
since he’d started coming here. There were so many other interesting places to
explore on his aunt’s property that he’d never felt the need to disobey. The
repeated warnings, however were beginning to rouse his curiosity; and besides,
he wasn’t a little boy any longer. The ruins were probably just unstable, as
long as he wasn’t close enough for a bit of wall to fall on him or floor to
give way under him, it’d be fine.
Yuki
was seventeen. His life was, in his opinion, crappy. Not “my parents abuse me,
I have no friends, my puppy just died, I’m a cripple and I only have a few
years left to live due to some horrible incurable disease” crappy, but still
crappy. He only had a few close friends he could really talk to, and he did not
get to see them as often as he would have liked to as they now went to
differschoschools. His parents basically ignored him except to take care of the
necessary things, such as providing food, clothing, and transportation to and
from school. His two bossy sisters – one older, one younger – got all the
attention his parents spared from more important matters, such as work and
their social lives, not that that was saying much. In truth, Yumi and Misaki
weren’t paid that much more attention to than he was. One main difference was
that they got to stay home during the summers, where as he’d been sent to his
aunt’s every summer since he turned six. He didn’t mind this situation as much
as he might have. He enjoyed exploring the property Aunt Himiko had inherited
from his paternal grandparents (much to his father’s dismay), and not having to
deal with any people other than his aunt for nearly the entire three months was
a pleasant change.
Most days he’d
leave in the morning for a walk carrying a backpack with his flute, a book, and
the lunch his aunt had packed for him. He’d walk until he found a spot he
liked, then sit and read or play the flute for hours on end. Eventually the
birds and other animals would become accustomed to him and would eat from his
hands. His lunches were always large enough to go around; his aunt was constantly
complaining that he was too thin. She packed him enough food for a dozen
growing boys. He had a healthy appetite, but there was no way he could eat
everything she packed.
Yuki’s flute was
one of his most prized possessions. It was a beautiful flute, silver so pure it
seemed to shine blue, with a vine of ivy of the same metal twined around it.
The ivy was so detailed, Yuki sometimes thought that if he were to unwrap it
from the flute and plant it in a pot of soil, it would grow. The flute had been
a gift from his parents; getting it for him was probably the nicest thing
they’d ever done for Yuki.
As
Yuki got farther and farther from the house, he listened to the music of the
countryside around him. It was different from that of the city. The city had
hundreds of songs. On the buses there was the constant thrum of the engine,
blending with the drone of traffic and the cacophony of voices in a dozen
different languages all talking at once. Occasionally a voice would rise in an
insincere “Excuse me” or a completely sincere “Move,” joined by the inevitable
chorus of “Back door!” Or, at night, he would be fall asleep to a lullaby
formed of the constant buzzing of traffic, the deep call of the foghorn and the
occasional distant wail of sirens – as entrancing to his sleep-relaxed mind as
those that once lured sailors to their dooms.
The
countryside’s music was calmer, quieter than that of the city. The rhythmic
tinkling of the river and the deep booming of the waterfall where it came from
the mountains merged with the low undercurrent of rustling leaves and grasses.
These complimented the trilling of songbirds and the shrill cry of a hawk, all
over the murmur of hundreds of creatures going about their lives. Yuki swore he
could almost hear the collective heartbeat of the animals under it all.
The
cherry blossom trees his grandparents had planted all over their land were no
longer in bloom, but had leaves that were a red so dark it was almost black.
The old oak and maple trees had yet to grow new leaves, and crows perched in
them, so thick they looked like a dark parody of over-decorated Christmas
trees. The pines added some green to picture, as did the new spring grass that
covered the hills that were so common in this area they almost seemed to be
tripping and tumbling over each other rather than rolling.
An
hour after he’d left the house, Yuki was within sight of the ruins. There were
half a dozen buildings; only one still boasted four walls and a roof. Most were
foundations with bits of wall here and there, or just piles of stone. The
intact building was fairly small, with a large wooden door. It had most likely
been used for storage, seeing as how the walls were thick, providing good
insulation, and there were no windows or extra doors that might let in the
elements. It also stood slightly apart from the rest of the buildings.
quick peek inside. Then I’ll leave, go have lunch. Just one quick look couldn’t
hurt?
Yuki
slowly made his way down a slight hill towards the buildings, watching for
stones or gopher holes that could trip him. When he reached the bottom of the
hill, he walked once around the intact building, making sure nothing looked
like it might fall on him. Closer inspection showed nothing he’d not seen from
the top of the hill, so he tried to open the door. When it wouldn’t budge, he
shrugged and started walking amongst the scattered stones that had once made up
the rest of the town. The town had been made from a grey, grainy stone cut from
the nearby mountains. Grass and wildflowers grew between the cobbles of the
street and in places where dirt had gathered or foundations had cracked. Moss
grew in shady, sheltered crannies on the broken and deteriorating stones.
After
looking around the rest of the buildings, Yuki sat on a grassy spot that may
have once been a garden, judging from the now feral rose bush growing against
and over a bit of wall, at the edge of town near the storage building, and
started playing his flute. It was a wild, playful tune inspired by this stone
town that was slowly being reclaimed by nature. Bringing the song to a close,
he put his flute away and got ready to go eat lunch somewhere where the animals
would be more likely to come to him.
Before leaving, he
decided to try the door to the storage building one last time. He grabbed the cool
metal handle, digging his heels into the dirt and throwing his weight into
pulling it open. To his surprise, this time it did so with hardly any
resistance, causing him to stumble. He thought he’d felt a slight tingle as the
door opened, but passed it off as static electricity or maybe a bit of cobweb. When
there was enough space for him to squeeze through he stopped pulling and slid
in sideways, with his back to the room. He coughed as his feet disturbed many
years worth of dust, his eyes watering.
“How
did you get in here?”
Yuki spun around
at the unexpected voice, wincing as he scraped his knuckles on a rough bit of
stone. It took a moment for his eyes to
adjusted to the darkness surrounding the single beam of light let in by the
door. When they did, he saw that in the far corner was a boy about his own age,
maybe a little younger. But there was something not quite right about the boy’s
appearance.
“Through
the door.” Yuki responded.
“But
how?”
“I
pulled it open?”
“But
it was sealed. I’ve been trying to open it for ages.”
“Um, maybe it
broke. Oi!” Yuki had just noticed what it was about the other boy that looked
odd. His ears were pointed, sticking out from behind his hair as if they too
were curious as to how Yuki had opened the door. “Your ears... they’re pointy.”
The boy’s clothes were odd too, they looked like a costume someone playing a Renaissance
noble might wear, except for the fact that they were too well-worn and could
use a good cleaning and mending. The boy himself was much shorter than Yuki,
maybe five foot four, whereas Yuki was an even six feet. Where Yuki had short, straight
, raven black hair the other’s was a pale blond and long enough that even in a
ponytail it reached his lower back. Like him, the boy had pale skin and was
quite lean. The boy’s eyes, when he looked up, were slightly slanted and an
eerie shade of washed-out blue.
“I
am a demon. And the seal could not have broken, it had not even begun to weaken
the last time I tested it.”
“Oddest
costume I’ve ever seen.”
“It
is not a costume. I truly am a demon.”
“Whatever
you say. Hey, you hungry? It’s about lunch time, and I have enough food to feed
a small army. You look like you could use a bite to eat.”
The
boy had been looking at Yuki oddly since he first saw him, but at this his look
changed to one of disbelief. “You mean you’re not afraid of me?”
“Um,
no offence, but you’re like a head shorter than me, the same age as me at most,
and near as skinny as a beanpole. Not exactly the kinda thing that’s likely to
give anyone, or at least me, nightmares. You can go instill fear in the hearts
of bunny rabbits or squirrels or whatever later. Come on, let’s go somewhere
out in the sun and eat.”
“My,
things have changed since I was locked in here.”
“You
hungry or not? Cuz I sure am, and I’m gonna go eat now, with or without you.”
left right after you started the whole demon thing…
“I’d…
love to.” The two of them stepped outside. The boy covered his eyes at the
sudden brightness. “It’s been quite a while since I saw the sun.”
“Here.”
Yuki handed him his sunglasses. “You look like you need these more than I do.”
When the boy just looked at them, Yuki reached over and put them on his face.
The demon looked surprised for a moment, the shrugged. He continued studying
his surroundings, content to follow Yuki as the larger boy led the way.
“So,
you’re really a demon?” A distracted nod was the only response from the demon
boy. Maybe that explained all the stories his aunt was always telling him and
the warnings about the ruins. “How’d you end up in the ruins?”
“When
I was put there, they were not ruins, but a small town barely half a century
old. I was… doing things the townspeople didn’t much like, so they trapped me
there. Looking at the other buildings, I suspect that magic is the only reason
my prison is still standing. I must have been there a long time indeed.”
“Must
have, those have been ruins for a over hundred years now, at least. Ah, here we
are.” Yuki gestured at a flat, bare bit of grass on a hill with a good view of
the river. All around the hill were more cherry blossom trees, covered in their
dark red leaves. Yuki pulled an old blue blanket out of his bag and started
unloading food onto it. “By the way, I never asked your name. Mine’s Yuki.”
“I’m
known as Eclipse.”
years ago, before my grandfather’s grandfather was born, there was a demon
known as Eclipse.
had the face of a child and the temper of a devil. He appeared as a young man
of about sixteen, although his age was more easily counted in centuries than
years.
bright fall, after a particularly plentiful harvest, he descended upon the town
that once stood by the river, where the ruins are now. He took all the hard
earned food and goods, continuing to terrorize the villagers by destroying their
fields and stealing the youngest and fattest babes to eat. The young men of the
town tried to kill him, but they were farmers and craftsmen, not warriors, and
many men better trained and better equipped had tried to defeat the demon
before. None had managed even to harm him.
say he was working under a nearby magician’s control, gathering wealth for his
master. Others say he did these things for his own enjoyment, for when he
killed his expression was one of pure ecstasy. Whatever his reasons, the
townspeople were not about to let him drive them from their homes. They
gathered every object of worth and bit of money remaining in the town and hired
the best magician they could find to deal with the demon boy. The magician was
smuggled into the town, and spent three days locked in a building near the river
preparing a trap for the evil creature. Finally it was set, and the demon was
tricked into the windowless building with only a single, sturdy door and locked
within. For weeks Eclipse howled and shrieked in rage, but he could not escape.
the land he had destroyed was no longer fit for farming or raising livestock,
the food that had been set aside for winter was all gone, and no one would come
to the town, afraid of the trapped demon. The townspeople had defeated the
demon, but it was a hollow victory, for they were forced to abandon their homes
or face starvation during the harsh winter that would soon come. A few stayed,
refusing to leave the land that had been in their family for generations, but
none survived the winter. Those that left endured, but they never returned,
their memories too painful. They put their pasts and the events in the town
behind them, so that now even it’s name is forgotten. In time, the land healed
itself, the town crumbled, and Eclipse became a legend, yet still no one goes
near the ruins; there is an evil there that deters even the most adventurous.
Some nights, it is said, you can still hear him mourning his loss of freedom
from inside his stone prison.
“Ah,
so you are the one from obasan’s old legends then. ‘An evil creature with the
face of a young boy who kills humans like most people kill bugs, and who eats
babies for breakfast,’ he recited in a fair imitation of his aunt voice, if not
exactly her words. “Odd, you don’t seem the homicidal type to me at all. Then
again, it’s always the one’s you’d least suspect.” Yuki joked. “Should I start
begging for my life?”
“I
have never eaten a baby.” Eclipse sounded slightly indignant. “Humans are too
salty. And if I were inclined to kill you begging would do no good. Even
knowing who I am, you do not fear me. Why?”
“I told you, you
just don’t seem scary to me. My friends say I’m too trusting and people will
just take advantage of me, and I suppose they’re right, but I’d rather that
than always being suspicious of people and never trusting at all, right?”
“I’ll
never understand you humans.”
just grinned as he finished unloading the last of the meal and sat down. He
grabbed a wrapped turkey, swiss, and tomato sandwich with ranch dressing along
with a thermos of jasmine tea and started eating, gesturing for Eclipse to do
the same. The demon smiled. It wasn’t a very large smile, hardly there in fact,
but it was the first Yuki had seen on him. It transformed his aloof
handsomeness into breathtaking beauty. Eclipse then looked distrustfully at the
sandwiches and grabbed an apple. The smile had disappeared as quickly as it had
appeared, but his whole attitude looked more relaxed, less defensive.
“So
if you’re the demon from the stories, you have some pretty amazing powers and
stuff, right? ‘A devil with the face of a child’ the legends call you.” Yuki
looked closely at the demon’s face. “I can see it. Your face looks innocent,
angelic almost.” Yuki looked away in embarrassment, hoping Eclipse wouldn’t
take offence.
“Demons
only have power when we have a human master. Otherwise, we’re not much stronger
than humans in the ningenkai, the human world. I can do a few minor things,” he
held out his hand negligently, and a small black flame with green and blue
highlights danced for a moment before he closed his fingers into a fist,
extinguishing it, “but nothing as grand as what I was capable of before my last
master died. Normally, I would have returned to the makkai, the demon world,
but the spells of my prison kept me here.”
Eclipse seemed to
be ignoring the comment about his appearance, for which Yuki was glad.
“Can’t
you go back now that you’re free?”
“I
don’t have the power to go back on my own and I’m not drawn back, so many years
after my master’s death. So it seems that I’m stuck here for now.” He didn’t
sound as upset at the idea as the words indicated.
Yuki could tell
there was more he was not telling, but decided to let him keep his secrets. At
least for the moment. If he had his way, there would be plenty of time to learn
all about the demon boy. He rather liked the demon, and wanted to continue the
friendship that seemed to be forming between them.
“Hey,
you’ll need a place to stay then.” let him say yes, please let him say yes. I don’t want him to disappear, just
when I’m getting to know him. “I could hide you in my room, my aunt would
never suspect a thing. She knows I like my space when I come here for the
summer. And, as you can see, food won’t be a problem. I mostly go on walks like
this during the day. The hardest part would be getting you into and out of my
room, and I’m sure we can manage somehow.”
“But
if you like to be left alone, why would you share your room with me? I can find
somewhere to stay…”
“It’s
no trouble at all. It’d be nice to have a friend my own… well, who looks my own
age anyways.” Yuki grinned at Eclipse.
“If
you’re sure…”
“It’s
decided then. We still have a few hours before we should head back.” Yuki
looked at the food that remained uneaten. They’d managed to consume most of it.
“Saa… now what to do about all this. I usually feed it to the animals, but I’ve
been talking to you instead of sitting quietly or playing music, so they’ve not
come. Guess I’ll just leave it out for them.” He took the remaining bits of food
out of their containers and set them on the grass, putting the empty containers
back into his bag to return to his aunt. “There we go. Shall we?” With a
flourish, he bowed jokingly, and at a nod from his companion the two boys started
walking, paralleling the river for about half a mile before they reached a spot
where stepping stones allowed them to cross. Yuki led them away from the river
in the direction of a large, gnarled old tree he was particularly fond of. Its
large, twisted branches were perfect for climbing and offered plenty of perches
where he often sat and played his flute until the fading light forced him to
climb down while he could still see.
When
they reached the tree, Yuki climbed up to his favorite spot, followed closely
by a bemused demon. Getting thoth oth settled took a little work, and when they
managed they were both sitting astride the branch with Eclipse basically in
Yuki’s lap. Yuki felt himself blushing a bit at the position, then got himself
under control and took out his flute. Without a word Eclipse shifted, giving
the boy the room he needed to play, at which point he proceeded to do just
that. As always, he let the music guide his fingers and breath. For other
people, he played songs memorized from book bit bits of paper, but when he was
by himself he preferred to let the music go where it would. He lost himself in
it, and it wasn’t until the song ended a while later that he even remembered
that he wasn’t actually alone. But it had somehow felt right to play his music
for Eclipse.
When
the music stopped, Eclipse leaned back into Yuki, eyes still closed from
listening, tucking his head under Yuki’s chin. It was a perfect fit. Yuki
jumped at the sudden contact, and flushed again. The demon pretended not to
notice. “That was… beautiful. I can see now why you didn’t fear me. Anyone who
can put that much pure feeling into a song would not fear another for being
what they were, and such a one could never hate or condemn. Only love, accept,
and forgive.”
So
saying, Eclipse turned his head and, without opening his eyes, kissed a stunned
Yuki. “Despite your innocence, or perhaps because of it, you have the heart of
a demon.” The rest of it –
blushing slightly at the compliment, and hugged his demon closer, kissing him
back. He didn’t mind losing his alone time at all.
“Koi,
I’m home!” Yuki called as he kicked off his shoes before walking to the
battered old living room couch where his love was seated and giving Eclipse a
quick peck on the cheek.
“Welcome
back. How was your day?”
“Same
old same old. You?”
“I
saw some ducklings down by the pond when I went there to have lunch under the
cherry blossom trees.”
“Cool,
we’ll have to go down there together later and see them. It’s like a pink
blizzard every time there’s a strong gust of wind this time of year, what with
all the flowers. Can’t right now though, I have a ton of homework.”
“Alright.
Better get started then.”
Yuki
nodded in response and, after another quick peck on the cheek, walked down the
hall to their room. After a minute Eclipse heard the tap-tap-taping of a
keyboard coming from that direction, as he continued the book he’d been
reading.
It
had been three years since Yuki had freed Eclipse, and the two were now sharing
a modest apartment in the small college town where Yuki went to school. When
Yuki had come out to his family – though the true nature of his boyfriend and
how they had met remained a secret – his parents and sisters had disowned him,
saying they wanted nothing more to do with him. He’d never been terribly close
to his immediate family, but it had hurt that they would cast him off just because
he did not meet their standards of “normal,” and his “freakishness” might
affect their social standing. However, with the support of Eclipse and Aunt
Himiko, he’d gotten through it and been able to accept things. He was still
sorry it had turned out this way, but he didn’t let it run his life.
Yuki
had obtained a music scholarship that paid for his tuition and books, and then
the money he earned giving flute lessons, along with what his aunt sent him
every month, kept him and Eclipse housed and fed, as well as covering any other
expenses and leaving a little for pocket money. They lived modestly; their
apartment had a small living room, one bathroom, a kitchen and a bedroom. The
living room contained the one couch, now a non-descript grey that may have been
any color in its past life, a beat-up coffee table with a Plexiglas top that
had been purchased from a fraternity’s garage sale for ten dollars, and a
battered old over-stuffed recliner that listed to one side that they had found
by the dumpster. The bedroom held their bed – a queen size mattress on a box
spring on the floor – and a small black plastic-and-metal desk that had been
bought with the matching chair at Target for forty dollars, some assembly
required, with Yuki’s lap top resting on top of it. In the hallway was a set of
metal shelves that held Yuki’s school books, as well as numerous fantasy and science
fiction novels belonging to the two boys.
Yuki
and Eclipse had many friends – Eclipse had used his powers to disguise his ears
so that they looked normal – and the two of them were happy with their lives.
“Hey,
koi!” Yuki called from the bedroom. “I have less homework than I thought, I
think I’ll be done by dinner time. What say we call up Shen and Wuffie and
everyone, see if they want to have a picnic down by the pond?”
“You
know he hates it when you call him Wuffie.” Eclipse smiled.
“Well
yeah, that’s the point. Wu-bear’s just too easy to tease, it’s his own fault.
So, what do you say?”
“Sure.
You finish working, I’ll call everyone and make our food.”
“Great,
you’re the best!”
Eclipse
heard the sounds of typing resume as he got up to go make the calls, a
contented smile on his face.