Starring:
Date: February 21, 2011
Summary:
None given.
"Coming Home Again"
Unknown location
Kazekage-sama:
I regret to inform you that I am taking my leave of Sunagakure
indefinitely. My duties as Head Recordskeeper will need to be passed on
to—
The letter is quickly destroyd.
Dear Sousa,
I hurt too much to stay here. I can't risk losing control again, so I am
going to go somewhere else in search of a cure—
That letter is destroyed too.
Sousa, I am coming to kill you. I thought as a bit of an experiment we
could see how efficient the inter-village communication system is. We will
see which will be received first: me or this letter.
Nai ponders over that one for several minutes. It is short, eloquent, and
to the point. In the end, he crumbles it up with the rest. Hone Nai is
finally home from that extended assignment. It was one of the most
exhausting missions he has ever been on. Not physically, of course, but
mentally and emotionally. And in the end, every assumption, dream, and
vain hope he had been harboring about himself, the so-called 'False
Immortals', and human beings in general had been shattered.
Now he sits in the basement/library of his house, in the dark, writing
letters. He doesn't know why he's still bothering to pretend he cares what
Sousa thinks about all this. 'I have more in common with that ancient
beast from the Land of the Sea than I do my next-door neighbor,' he muses
to himself.
Abandoning the library, he travels up the stairs to the ground floor. It
is night. It is relatively quiet.
He thinks he might kill someone.
Then, as he is looking up at the night sky, he hears a young,
high-pitched voice singing a song. When he recognizes the song… If Nai
had blood, it would have run cold. If he had a functional heart, it would
have stopped. As it was, he just turned his head to find the source of
that singing!
It turns out it's a little girl standing out on the edge of Nanpuu Street
— the same street that Nai's house is on. She is just standing there
alone, arms around a street light, looking up at the star-filled sky. When
she sees Nai approaching, she stops. Nai pauses where he is and asks, "My
apologies, but where did you hear that song?" The girl blinks at him. "I
dunno'," she answers. "I just know the song." Nai nods slowly. "I have not
heard that song in… A very long time. Not since I was a child. It…
Means a lot to me, and you have a very pretty voice." The little girl
grins and giggles. "Thanks!" Nai asks, "If you do not have anything better
to do… Could you please sing it for me, just once?"
The girl seems a bit embarassed, but with some further encouragement, she
agrees…
The girl sings, and Nai sits down right there on the street to listen.
150+ years old and he is the audience for a child's performance. The girl
seems to become someone else… SomeWHEN else… And the Village of
Sunagakure seems to become someWHERE else. She closes her eyes and her
angelic voice needs not accompaniment.
"May it be an evening star,
shines down upon you…
May it be when darkness falls,
your heart will be true…
You walk a lonely road…
Oh! How far you are from home…"
This is the song that Nai's mother sang to him and his siblings when they
were children. The memories come flooding back at the words. He stares up
at the night sky. The stars reflect in the utterly-dark lenses of his
goggles.
"Morniehh~ utuuliehh~
Believe, and you will find your way.
Morniehh~ alantiehh~
A promise lives within you now…"
Nai lost his ability to shed tears around a hundred years ago. But he
cries anyway. His entire body convulses and shakes. Sobs wrack his form,
though he tries to keep them as quiet as he can.
"May it be the shadow's call,
will fly away…
May it be you journey on,
to light the day…
When the night is overcome,
you may rise to find the sun…"
The singing stops. Nai lowers his gaze eventually to find out why. The
girl is staring at him. "Umm, are you okay, mister?" she asks worriedly.
Nai tries to keep the emotion from his voice, but it's hard. "Y-yes…
Yes, it's just as I said that it is a very… Very meaningful song to me.
And you sing it so beautifully!" he smiles, though his face can't be seen
behind all the bandages, and he has no lips per se even if the bandages
weren't there. The girl smiles bashfully. Nai starts to ask her if she can
finish the song, but she turns her head suddenly as though hearing
something.
"Sorry, Yane-san. My mother is calling for me. I have to go!" she waves,
bows quickly, and starts to run off down the street. Nai gets to his feet
and then WHIPS AROUND to face where the girl went! He cries out, "What did
you call me—!?" But the little girl who knew his name is gone. Her face
remains in his memory though.
That had been the youngest of Nai's sisters. She died a child, long
before he left his nomadic tribe or even THOUGHT about immortality.
Struck dumb by the realization he has either seen a ghost or is going
completely insane, he stands in the middle of the street for awhile. Then
the man once known as Misu Yane turns and heads back inside.
