I should update more often... Whoops.
Title: Cursed
Prompt: 92 - Christmas
Series: xxxHOLiC, D.Gray-man
Inspiration: reading manga when I should have been writing a paper and creating an animation for class.
Spoilers: Yes. A little. Most of the shot takes place pre-series, but there are hints (and a few blatant mentions) here and there towards the end.
Summary: The ones left behind are always the ones who suffer the most. Yuuko knows this, but she is powerless to help unless there is a coinciding wish.
--
Working at Yuuko's shop was like walking down a winding road. Sometimes the ground was straight, sometimes, uneven.
Every once in a while, he would stumble across a crossroad, each path leading him to a different encounter.
Crossroads
“Cursed”
By Hikagi
--
Tonight is the new moon, and the stars have come out to play. They shine brightly, like little beacons of hope amidst a great sea of emptiness. They flicker as they call to each other in voices so soft that humans have no chance of discerning them.
Yet, Ichihara Yuuko finds herself gravitating towards the small koi pond in her back yard for reasons that are only half-formed and fleeting. There is no real purpose for the almost senseless roaming save for a small tugging whisper that tells her, this way, this way, soon, closer, please, please, please, this way.
The stars are calling.
This way.
When she finally does peer into the waters, the tiny ripples form scenes of a world that is on the verge of collapse. There, mere children are sent out to fight against horrific creatures that leech off of anguished souls. The screams of the damned grow louder with each passing moment, even though she cannot hear them cry out through the mute images.
There are many who are willing to fight, but only a few who are capable. Yuuko knows this, because she cannot grant everyone the ability to fend off monsters, even if they desperately wish to. They have neither the resolve, nor the proper payment.
Even so, their organization tries to create more weapons to fight. With each experiment comes only another life lost, another soul bound to damnation from the judgment of the God they supposedly serve.
And the ones left behind are the ones who suffer for those failures.
The images fade out, and Yuuko walks away from the pond.
--
The next time she gets a glimpse of that world, it is Christmas Day. She is sitting on her porch, drinking the last of the night’s sake. The stars are calling again, and she waits patiently until the images start swimming in front of her vision.
There is another one - another child.
Somewhere in that cold, depressing world, he is alone. He has lost his only relation, and is staring blankly at nothing in front of the man’s grave. To him, it seems, there is no longer any reason to live. Yuuko cannot intervene even though she knows what is coming next, because she has seen it happen so many times before.
A large shadow cast by an ominous full moon.
Soft footsteps muted by the snow.
A wide, falsely cheerful smile and a pair of glasses perched atop a long, blunt nose.
Ears too pointed to be human.
Cold, malevolent eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses.
A voice that offers the world - a second chance - to a broken spirit.
“Mana Walker. Shall I resurrect him for you?”
Yuuko watches as the boy continues to walk down the dangerous path of destruction and sees the child call out towards his father. She watches as the damned soul is brought back to life. She watches as the child is cursed.
The ones left behind are the ones who suffer the most.
Cursed with slashed eye and a pentacle carved into his flesh.
Suffer.
In that instant, she grants the unspoken wish of Mana Walker, a man who had shown lover toward an abandoned child with a disfigured arm, and has consequently changed a part of history with that small act.
She allows Allen’s Innocence to awaken for the first time.
“Destroy me.”
“No, not him!”
“I love you.”
One hundred nine pieces, and only nineteen conformers chosen.
The price has not been fully paid, but she has already received some payment for her services. The rest, she can collect later, even though only a few from that world are aware of her existence. Many do not even know why or how they have come to be ‘chosen’ by their Innocence, or even the makings of them.
She thinks that the Bookman probably does; him and his young red-haired protégé. Perhaps a few members of the Noah clan as well, but she hasn’t come across any of them in many years.
She takes one more look at the floating images before she waves an arm and they fade away.
Yuuko knows that this child will become someone great. His curse offers many blessings, though he will not see it as such until much later. She also knows that if he is indeed to become the “destroyer of time” as will be prophesized in the future, she has to watch his path from time to time.
However, she is satisfied for the day.
Yuuko turns and walks away, content to spend the rest of the night with Maru and Moro. There is no one else here to spend the holiday season with, after all.
--
It isn’t until years later when she meets a boy who is cursed with seeing spirits, that she remembers about Mana Walker’s curse. And when said boy loses an eye to a spider spirit and forms a connection to his supposed rival, she sees more similarities building up.
Still, as Christmas draws around for the first time since her newest charge enters her life, she is extremely pleased with the outcomes of both Watanuki Kimihiro and Allen Walker.
“Yuuko-san, you should stop drinking.”
“Stop drinking, he says!”
“Stop drinking, stop drinking!”
“Nonsense. One more toast!”
“Hai, hai.”
“Kanpai! To a long life!”
“Kanpai!”
“Long life, long life!”
“Yo, Watanuki! One more for me as well!”
“How is it that a small manju bun like you can hold so much liquor?!”
At least, for the time being.
Who knows what the future would bring?
--
The ones left behind may suffer, but those who are gone will live on through the survivors’ memories.
Yuuko has no doubt that the war between the Noah and the Order will reap much destruction, but she allows herself to think that as long as everyone has something to fight for, things will turn out for the better.
The Millenium Earl is not the only one to have plans, after all.
Fin.
---
Author’s Notes:
Don’t look at me. I have no idea why I wrote a Christmas-related (though, only vaguely) shot halfway across the year. Blame it on my sister, who has gotten me stuck on reading D.Gray-man manga again.
Originally, I wanted to use the ‘moon’ or ‘star’ prompt, but then I couldn’t find a way to close the piece.
Yatsuka Hikagi
2008.VI.24