Itsuki ( Others welcome )

[Tainted Infinity]

 Character  -Koborai-

Willow wisps upon the ancient winds of time and fairies dancing in the shadows, a world of pure fantasy and imagination unbound. This was the world of a child, the world of a being of pure innocence. This was what had been taken from him. The small brown haired boy sat on an isolated bridge, on the outskirts of a village he didn’t even know were he was anymore. He sat watching the cold snow fall around him. Each tiny flake serving as a momentary distraction from his thoughts as his green eyes darted from one flake to another calmly almost in a detached manner.

Who was he? He was Koborai. Who was Koborai? What made him this person? Was it a family, A mother who loved him, and a place to call home? Was it the legacy of a father or a sense of who he was inside? Maybe it was a sense of purpose a reason to exist? Such thoughts were not easy for a young mind to contemplate, yet he forced himself to. Should these prove to be what defined who this person was then he was not this person at all. He had become someone else and he needed to know who that someone was.

Barely ten summers old he had been flung into a world so violent and traumatic it had stripped him of his identity. His family had been taken by a great famine, which had swept through his village like a passing tide washing away his entire world. Everyone had perished in the throws of a horrible disease, yet he the one accursed child had lived. None would touch him, seeing him as the incarnate of some demon. Surely he was they had whispered, for why else would he have survived when all others had perished? He had fled for his life from the priests who had come to cleanse his obliterated village, he was sure they wanted to kill him, to exercise this demon they saw inside him. He felt no different but was there something wrong with him? Had it been his fault what happened to mama and papa? Tears streaked the child’s eyes as he raised a tiny hand to brush them away from his face.


He had tried to go somewhere else and had found the world far crueler than he could ever have imagined. This lesson was served up at the hands of Avarian Slaver’s, they had promised him food and shelter, and then bound him up and sold him to the highest bidder. The highest bidder turned out to be a dirty old man content to fatten him up for uses most unbecoming of another man toward a young boy. Luckily he had found it in his heart to stab the old codger to death in his sleep long before any of those plans came to fruition. He might be young but he wasn’t stupid, mother and father had certainly warned him often enough about that sort of man.


Now a homeless runaway slave who had killed his master, Koborai fond himself with several very puzzling dilemmas , the most immediate being he was starving . He had exhausted what he’d managed to steal from the old man days ago and had no way to get more. The second, he was cold and likely to freeze to death tonight. The third and most daunting was finding a reason to do anything about it. There was no reason for him to exist. He was a burden to the world, so why try at all? He could simply lay here on this small wooden bridge, outside some strange place and die a homeless wretch. That was befitting of someone so shameful as to live when all he loved died wasn’t it? He didn’t think it would take long, all he was wearing was a ratty shirt filled with holes which soiled almost black with dirt, and a pair of pants. He didn’t even have shoes. He would surely freeze to death in a few hours. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had bathed, not that it mattered it would be over soon.

The child could only sigh and tuck his head low to his chest as he lost himself to dreams of a child hood with parents who loved him, and began to sing a song he remembered. We will work here until Bon, So we will no longer be here from Bon, If Bon comes early, we will go home early. We are beggars they are of a good family. Wealthy people with nice sashes and nice kimonos, we don't like to take care of crying babies, If they cry the blame is put on us, even if I die. Who will lament my death? All that is heard is the chirping of the cicadas among the pine trees in the mountain near by.

He let a soft sigh escape his lips as he continued to whisper it in a hushed tone rocking back and forth. His old sitter had always sung this and he'd never understood it. Yet if he understood it or not didn’t matter anymore he supposed, for he was going to die and it was a slight comfort to one with no purpose in living to remember his happiness.

[Vaekaera]

Tangsu moved along the road, taking quiet pleasure in the stillness of the snow, the peace that it afforded. He liked it, cold as it might be, for the almost unique way that something as light and gentle as the touch of a feather could take everything you had, bit by bit, until you ended. A morbid thought, possibly, but yet in some ways a hopeful one, one of making a difference...

He mentally shook himself, returning from his revere. Here he was, outside, cold enough for brass monkeys, and he was away pondering about the mysteries of slightly frozen water. He smiled, briefly wondering at the funny ways the mind could take you. Straightening his back and adjusting his cloak, he pushed on with renewed purpose. Time to get somewhere warmer than... well, somewhere else, anywhere would do.

Musing on why he had decided to go on this journey, he recalled his master's words. "You may go for a spell, but if you are not returned by spring's first light, then you will have no place here. And if you come back without a souvenir for me, then I'll be deeply upset." Then he'd smiled, turning back to his scrolls. Though he often spoke in an overly flowery way, he meant no ill towards Tangsu, and the words were said in half jest. But he was still a man to respect, and one not to disobey. So Tangsu had packed supplies, warm clothes and other essentials, and had set forth, heading out into the winter.

His feet swished through the snow, creating elongated trails in the wake of each step, the effort of raising them above the snow level not worth it for the return. He looked up, his hood falling askew again, and as he adjusted it hesaw something up ahead. A small shape, huddled on a bridge, barely moving. Gradually he approached the being, wondering who or what it was.

[Tainted Infinity]

Koborai, this person, this faint feeling in the back of his mind was he dead? The snow fell faster now as if nature itself sought to throw a sense of urgency into the boy’s heart. Yet still he did not move still nothing found its way inside the boys mind for no true feeling could pierce the deep cloud of pain that seemed to have entangled itself with his soul, like so many creeper vines strangling the life and will away from him.  There was truly nothing for him as if his slate had been wiped clean, his only emotion pain his only driving force utter sorrow so deep and seated that it was held in his every breath his every thought.

The sorrow took over and he let his head drop so many faces cascading like an unending barrage across his mind that to his young impressionable mind it seemed as if they danced amongst the snowflakes amidst rainbow colored lights, or was this some vision the light had changed to a bright white now as his father’s face floated upward and was no more.  The tears came now as they had before falling slowly to freeze upon the old bridge leaving their mark as if they had fallen upon some dusty old table, the warmth digging into the snow a small bit before the faint sheen restored itself once again and in this moment, this moment of utter and supreme despair the body seemed to lose his grip on reality and he was gone.
His mind found itself a float in an endless sea of possibility of darkness and of light, of sin and salvation. He let his small thoughts float amongst the heavens as a bird dances amongst the clouds and in his delirium for the briefest of moments he found peace.  The world seemed to break apart and there was warmth on his shoulders.

The smell of fresh cedar on a fire permeated his nose bringing his eyes open.  His face exploded in the brightest of smiles. He was in his mother’s lap in a chair in front of the large hearth in his home; she was rocking him back and forth humming. The old nurse made was in the kitchen cutting away at tonight’s dinner while his father diligently went over the family’s finances. His smile faded from view though as his mother slowly began to shake him “Wake up Koborai wake up my son you know not what you do wake up! “ There was desperation in her voice that tore at him. A sense  of true urgency tore at his heart now something was wrong “ But I am up okaasan I am awake I’m “   he paused as his father sat up ruffling his hair as his mother smiled a gesture that had always made him feel safe and loved. “ Koborai you lazy boy wake up now” 

He was just about to protest when an image of the purest horror flooded his dream. His father’s face had changed as he looked up it was now as he saw him last gaunt and black with the plague eyes so shallow they could see nothing “ wake up Koborai before it’s too late.
The boy’s eyes shot open and he fell to his side coughing, what sorcery was this, was he really a demon? Why had he not died in that sweet dream, why had it turned so terrible? His body shook terribly now he tried to move actually crawled before falling on his face the world spinning in a great cloud of vertigo he felt so sleepy. Someone was coming he heard the faint footsteps his ear inadvertently pressed to the planks of the bridge perhaps the priests or the slavers had caught up with him.. Good mayhaps they would bring an end to the abomination he had become.