[Fic] 星のとなりの空け者 ～マサキ～ (Fools Among the Stars: Masaki) 4/4
星のとなりの空け者 ～マサキ～
Fools Among the Stars: Masaki
Part Two
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ManboP x Yama
A Yama fanfiction adaptation by Mie Tachibana
*****************Mortals live very short lives, hence they have given their best to build and research and try until they're almost a century old. Few of them reach that number at all. They're given a slow world so they could enjoy their pitifully short existence to the fullest, and yet some don't even try.
Non-mortals live excruciatingly long, even for their own sake. They don't push for discovery for they have all the time to learn. They don't strive for achievement for they have unique capabilities and powers right at their disposal. To balance this, they were given the fast world.
Satoshi's eyes grew wide when Masaki told him this.
"But I'm a god." Satoshi had finally sat up, his expression rather frenzied. "He's...we're...we're both gods."
"Yes," Masaki still didn't look at him, feeling so awful to be the bringer of bad news. "Gods can exist on both sides, just as kappa can, so time is different for us, too."
"Well!" Satoshi saw the riverbank at last. "Then it should be fine."
"I suppose," Masaki sighed as they both got off the plate. It shrunk to a normal size and Masaki put it back on his head. "But these worlds...they're not meant for gods, you know? You're supposed to go back to the sky from time to time..."
Satoshi wasn't listening. He had bypassed the laws and the natural order. For Sho's sake, Satoshi knew that he couldn't be stopped.
The riverbank on the non-mortal side looked more idyllic than the side Satoshi had been accustomed to. He had put his heart and soul into muscle training, obsessing over how strong he got. He had tried to swim through the river every day but never got too far, always rescued by Ryuhei. He was camped out just by the riverbank on the other side. He turned and found that he couldn't see the mortal side riverbank anymore.
"Where is he?" Satoshi asked Masaki, who was walking briskly through some tall grass.
"You'll see," Masaki muttered.
"Hello?" a weak voice croaked from the clearing. Masaki stopped walking instantly. Satoshi bumped right on the kappa's back.
"Watch it," Satoshi said angrily as he stood back up and came in the clearing.
"Satoshi?" the weak voice croaked.
Sitting on a rock in the clearing was an old, withered man. He had the glow of a sky god and the kariginu of one. He could have been anyone, an elder sky god. But Satoshi knew those eyes anywhere.
"Sho..." He came closer, tears filling his eyes.
"Satoshi," Sho replied.
"I'm sorry," Masaki whispered with a sad bow. But then, he heard laughter.
Sho was laughing. "Look at you!" He said, beaming at Satoshi as he got up, wobbling on his old knees rather dangerously. Satoshi smiled solemnly and took him by the hand to help him. "Your arms are tougher!" Sho felt Satoshi's shoulders and torso for a moment. "Have you been working out?"
"You have no idea." Satoshi chuckled as Sho touched his face.
"Your face hasn't changed that much," Sho bent slightly to take a good look and Satoshi grinned, his eyes looked dazed. "Still grumpy looking...still roundish...still darkish...like an acorn," They laughed at this and Masaki just gaped at them. "But you look thin! Have you been eating? Did you eat already? I wasn't allowed to even send you a bento."
"Yes, I have and don't worry about it." Satoshi looked incredibly delirious and happy. He gazed fixedly at Sho. "But I guess I'm hungry."
"Would you like me to cook?" Sho said happily. This time, Satoshi laughed too.
"Oh come on, I'm still a bad cook sure, but you'd eat anyway!" Sho lightly hit Satoshi's head.
"You haven't changed at all," Satoshi breathed.
"What!" Masaki blurted. "Yes he has! Are you both not seeing each other clearly right now?"
Sho let Satoshi go and clasped his pale and wrinkled hands on Masaki's. "Thank you, Masaki the kappa. Thank you so much. You can have my company. My house, everything. Take what you want. You've done for us a favor we can't return."
"But..." Masaki looked at Sho's lined face. He surely was still as beautiful as the rumors say, but he had clearly aged a whole lot more than Satoshi. Masaki looked uncertainly to the latter.
"Yes, thank you so much for bringing us together again, despite it all." Satoshi put his arm around Sho's shoulder. "I'd make anything for you, just ask."
"Wait, wait." Masaki put a hand on each of their shoulder. "Why? You both were banned from each other. You got cheated half a lifetime of separation thanks to the curse and your own little distractions. Yet why is it like everything's just gonna be okay?"
Sho and Satoshi looked at each other and laughed again. "Silly kappa." Sho said. "We're brought back together thanks to you!"
"It's because we love each other." Satoshi answered serenely and Sho hit him lightly again. "The way you say it makes it kind of embarrassing."
"Oh come on, who're we hiding from?" Satoshi replied, leaning languidly on Sho who stepped away with a chuckle.
"B-because...love?" Masaki sobbed. "Love?!"
"Y...yes." Sho's eyebrows shot up in alarm and Satoshi froze like a deer in the headlights as Masaki messily cried.
"Love!" Masaki suddenly blurted out. "Yes, love. Your love knows no boundaries!"
"Yes, I suppose you can say that." Sho took a step away from Masaki and Satoshi automatically covered him.
"I'm actually not a kappa." Masaki raised his arms and formed a gesture close to his face and his kappa features faded. A brightly colored and glittery suit materialized on him, with a feathered boa on his shoulders. "I'm a legendary god of love, I go by the name Mr. Funk!" he announced.
There was a flash of lightning and Masaki the Kappa fully transformed into a god of love, his body radiating a soft glow. Satoshi and Sho gaped at him in shock.
"As a kappa in disguise, I waited for something beautiful like this to come from the divide between mortals and non-mortals. Someone to break the limits for this purpose!" He was still crying messily. "Mortals and non-mortals are both too afraid to leave their little bubbles of existence for others. Not a lot of people would take risks for love!"
"Yes, but we're neither." Sho pointed out from behind Satoshi. "We're gods-"
"STILL!" Masaki cried, a wave of pink light and warmth flashed from him. "You both are an example to behold. And for that, I bless your love and lift your curse. The seventh day of the seventh month shall henceforth be the time of wishes made in honor of yours."
"Thank...Thank you...I guess." Sho and Satoshi exchanged looks. They were both startled when Masaki grabbed their hands.
"And from here on, you will always be together. Here and in all your parallel lives." Masaki nodded sagely at them.
"The what?" Satoshi's mind was absolutely left behind.
"You will be tested from time to time. Sometimes, one of you will pass away first, but if the other is dedicated and never resentful, you will always have this blessing." Masaki let them both go and they realized they were glowing.
"Wait-wait-what-?!" Even the very articulate Sho was lost for words.
"I shall put you both among the stars now, to dance forever in the sky!" Masaki announced happily as the couple held hands and glowed more and more brightly...
~~~
Summer in Tokyo, late 90's.
Two teens in yukata looked idly at the sky as they shared some cotton candy.
"Hey Satoshi, did you see that?" the one in red yukata pointed to the sky at a suddenly brightened pair of stars.
"Yeah, what's that?" the one called Satoshi followed the other's gaze, accidentally dropping a bit of cotton candy on his blue yukata. "Sho-kun knows more about stars and everything."
"It's not like I memorized star maps as a hobby or something, come on." Sho laughed. "Didn't you paint something about Tanabata back then?"
"It was a sketch." Ohno smiled.
"It's as good as pro. I'm telling you. Art college will be great for you." Sho shrugged.
~~~
Summer in Yokohama, en route to Tokyo, 2015
"Sakurai, what's that?" a petite man in an expensive suit pointed to the sky in front of his luxury car as he leaned forward from the backseat.
"That?" his assistant called Sakurai peeked. "Oh shachou. That's a traffic light."
"No, jeez! The stars!" the company president huffed impatiently.
"Is shachou..." Sakurai leaned closer to the company president behind him and peered through his glasses intensely. "...an idiot?"
The company president's eyebrows joined and he jutted his chin angrily.
"That's a binary star system. They 're pulled together by each other's gravity. That particular pair is rumored to only be seen by star-crossed lovers." Sakurai smirked.
"Wha-!" Shachou gaped for a moment, trying to form words."Are-are you implying we're something like that?! You're fired! Absolutely fired!"
星のとなりの空け者
END
Starring:
Sho Sakurai as Sho the sky god
Satoshi Ohno as Ohno the water god
Masaki Aiba as Masaki the Kappa "Mr. Funk"
Notes:
Ending scenes look familiar?
Look up 粘着系男子の15年ネチネチ A Clingy Boy's Fifteen-Year Pursuit
and 世界一難しい友情 World's Most Difficult Friendship
This is a fantasy romance-comedy and there's a little drama at the end.
The story is loosely based on the Tanabata legend and a song trilogy by 家の裏でマンボウが死んでるP of the same title.
More information here.
The god of love, sky god and water god are part of my own universe for this story and is not derived from any myth or existing work.
The yokai have been adopted to this world and are more like metahumans than monsters.