Sudden Death - Epilogue 2
Aug. 30th, 2022 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivalriesCW: murder, death, confinement mentions
Season: Winter
---
Location: Ryokan - Day
Tsukasa: ...I have neglected Knights' new members, though. I could never be so arrogant as to claim I ever protected them.
Like those sakura ants, I played with them like toys for my own satisfaction, and in the end will only watch them die.
Kohaku: "Sakura ants"...?
Tsukasa: Do you not recall? I do suppose we were both very small back then.
Kohaku: Mmm... Well, sure, maybe ya were stupid an' weak and couldn't protect a thing.
But that don't suddenly take away all the love ya poured into it.
It's not gonna melt away like an illusion.
All those things ya struggled to hold onto as you kept walkin'... the warmth ya put into 'em is still there.
Ain't no way that was all worthless and meaningless.
Tsukasa: ......
Kohaku: Kohaku Oukawa, me... We survived thanks to the warmth you showed us.
Kohaku Oukawa... the poor kid.
I reckon ya wouldn't know about this, and I dunno if ya still respect the guy or not, but when your grandfather knew he was gonna die, somethin' changed in him.
Tsukasa: Grandfather...?
Kohaku: Yeah. When his death was fast approachin', he probably realized that all the stuff he got during his life was gonna slip right through his fingers.
Can't bring status, fame, love, or anythin' to the afterlife, after all.
Reckon it gave your grandpa a real scare when it dawned on him—shook him right awake like a little kid that had a nightmare.
Nobody knows if the afterlife even exists, but your grandpa wanted to do everythin' he could to improve his life there, to hold himself with pride—
So he decided to collect his virtues. He started to cut away anythin' he could find on himself that was disgusting or sinful, all so he could go to heaven.
"Oh Lord, heed me. These sins and ugly stains are not my own."
"My integrity remains true and virtuous. I implore you, lead me to heaven."
He was gripped with the fear of death, and the very first victims of the folly of this old man who yearned for heaven... were the Oukawas.
Us. This tainted bloodline, specializin' in dirty work. Our role is to stain ourselves in blood for the sake o' the Suous, the sake o' the main family.
We were born for that very purpose. But we're humans too... obviously we don't want be scared, we don't want to get dirty, we don't want to hurt an' kill people!
But even then, we fought tooth an' nail to fulfill our roles for the family—for you all.
And your grandpa... he called us dirty.
Dirty as trash to throw out.
Tsukasa: .....
We'd been livin' on mud this whole time, and yet, for just the idea of life after death, just to raise his own chances of gettin' into heaven, your grandpa tried to quash us.
And to top it all off, at the worst time imaginable, the Oukawas finally had the son they were all waitin' for.
By some stroke o' fate, we Oukawas just don't have too many boys. This one just popped outta the womb by chance.
Can't say I know what goes on in God's head.
We keep havin' girls, so we've jus' had no choice but to give the headship to whichever daughter was born first.
The Oukawas are a branch of the Suous, and the Suous are an old, outdated warrior clan—a traditional family. The eldest son would always get the inheritance, and that was that.
But around the time the Oukawas finally got the boy child they all wished for, that geezer runnin' the main Suou family had an evil worm in his brain.
All he wanted was to prove he was perfectly innocent an' virtuous.
So all the members of the Oukawa family looked at that little boy—at Kohaku—and they swore an oath.
They said, we gotta protect this cute, precious little child from crazy Old Man Suou—at least this kid, if nothin' else.
The mom and dad and sisters, scorned for their filth, thought of themselves as filthy too...
But when Kohaku smiled and touched their hands, everyone knew just what to do.
—This boy...
This adorable little boy, their youngest, has got to be protected.
From that day forward, the Oukawas' war began. It was a war for our survival—the survival of those who were discriminated against, told they were filthy, and never had a soul cheer 'em on or tell 'em they were right.
The world's always said we should get rid of the filth. Can't blame folks; it's pretty much true.
But we're still alive. Even the grossest, most miserable bugs still got the right to live—the right to want to live.
We drove ourselves into the ground jus' to stay alive. We won't let anybody take that away from us.
Tsukasa: ......
Kohaku: But Old Man Suou had other ideas; he tried to stamp out every last one of us. First, he tried to take away our salaries and protection, to weaken us slowly and starve us to death.
The Oukawas were scared it wasn't enough for the old bastard. He could come and kill us with his own hands any day.
And if he did, no doubt he'd go straight for the eldest son, the heir. Even if he was gonna massacre us all in the end, the first to go had to be the one to inherit it all.
It was more'n obvious to a man who'd grown up in an outdated patriarchal family, for sure. Women and the men who'd married into the family weren't a threat to him.
The boy who would inherit the Oukawa bloodline was the "root of all evil" that he had to finish off once and for all.
It was obvious your grandpa would think that way, so before he could get his hands on the boy—the Oukawas hid him away. They shut away their precious little heir that they'd waited so long for.
Stuck 'im in a zashikirou to hide him from the old geezer's sights. Claimed there was no son, no boy born into the Oukawa family.
They had no other choice but to tell the world that "Kohaku Oukawa" never existed.
Tsukasa: ......
---
< Epilogue 1 || Masterlist || Epilogue 3 >
Season: Winter
---
Location: Ryokan - Day
Tsukasa: ...I have neglected Knights' new members, though. I could never be so arrogant as to claim I ever protected them.
Like those sakura ants, I played with them like toys for my own satisfaction, and in the end will only watch them die.
Kohaku: "Sakura ants"...?
Tsukasa: Do you not recall? I do suppose we were both very small back then.
Kohaku: Mmm... Well, sure, maybe ya were stupid an' weak and couldn't protect a thing.
But that don't suddenly take away all the love ya poured into it.
It's not gonna melt away like an illusion.
All those things ya struggled to hold onto as you kept walkin'... the warmth ya put into 'em is still there.
Ain't no way that was all worthless and meaningless.
Tsukasa: ......
Kohaku: Kohaku Oukawa, me... We survived thanks to the warmth you showed us.
Kohaku Oukawa... the poor kid.
I reckon ya wouldn't know about this, and I dunno if ya still respect the guy or not, but when your grandfather knew he was gonna die, somethin' changed in him.
Tsukasa: Grandfather...?
Kohaku: Yeah. When his death was fast approachin', he probably realized that all the stuff he got during his life was gonna slip right through his fingers.
Can't bring status, fame, love, or anythin' to the afterlife, after all.
Reckon it gave your grandpa a real scare when it dawned on him—shook him right awake like a little kid that had a nightmare.
Nobody knows if the afterlife even exists, but your grandpa wanted to do everythin' he could to improve his life there, to hold himself with pride—
So he decided to collect his virtues. He started to cut away anythin' he could find on himself that was disgusting or sinful, all so he could go to heaven.
"Oh Lord, heed me. These sins and ugly stains are not my own."
"My integrity remains true and virtuous. I implore you, lead me to heaven."
He was gripped with the fear of death, and the very first victims of the folly of this old man who yearned for heaven... were the Oukawas.
Us. This tainted bloodline, specializin' in dirty work. Our role is to stain ourselves in blood for the sake o' the Suous, the sake o' the main family.
We were born for that very purpose. But we're humans too... obviously we don't want be scared, we don't want to get dirty, we don't want to hurt an' kill people!
But even then, we fought tooth an' nail to fulfill our roles for the family—for you all.
And your grandpa... he called us dirty.
Dirty as trash to throw out.
Tsukasa: .....
We'd been livin' on mud this whole time, and yet, for just the idea of life after death, just to raise his own chances of gettin' into heaven, your grandpa tried to quash us.
And to top it all off, at the worst time imaginable, the Oukawas finally had the son they were all waitin' for.
By some stroke o' fate, we Oukawas just don't have too many boys. This one just popped outta the womb by chance.
Can't say I know what goes on in God's head.
We keep havin' girls, so we've jus' had no choice but to give the headship to whichever daughter was born first.
The Oukawas are a branch of the Suous, and the Suous are an old, outdated warrior clan—a traditional family. The eldest son would always get the inheritance, and that was that.
But around the time the Oukawas finally got the boy child they all wished for, that geezer runnin' the main Suou family had an evil worm in his brain.
All he wanted was to prove he was perfectly innocent an' virtuous.
So all the members of the Oukawa family looked at that little boy—at Kohaku—and they swore an oath.
They said, we gotta protect this cute, precious little child from crazy Old Man Suou—at least this kid, if nothin' else.
The mom and dad and sisters, scorned for their filth, thought of themselves as filthy too...
But when Kohaku smiled and touched their hands, everyone knew just what to do.
—This boy...
This adorable little boy, their youngest, has got to be protected.
From that day forward, the Oukawas' war began. It was a war for our survival—the survival of those who were discriminated against, told they were filthy, and never had a soul cheer 'em on or tell 'em they were right.
The world's always said we should get rid of the filth. Can't blame folks; it's pretty much true.
But we're still alive. Even the grossest, most miserable bugs still got the right to live—the right to want to live.
We drove ourselves into the ground jus' to stay alive. We won't let anybody take that away from us.
Tsukasa: ......
Kohaku: But Old Man Suou had other ideas; he tried to stamp out every last one of us. First, he tried to take away our salaries and protection, to weaken us slowly and starve us to death.
The Oukawas were scared it wasn't enough for the old bastard. He could come and kill us with his own hands any day.
And if he did, no doubt he'd go straight for the eldest son, the heir. Even if he was gonna massacre us all in the end, the first to go had to be the one to inherit it all.
It was more'n obvious to a man who'd grown up in an outdated patriarchal family, for sure. Women and the men who'd married into the family weren't a threat to him.
The boy who would inherit the Oukawa bloodline was the "root of all evil" that he had to finish off once and for all.
It was obvious your grandpa would think that way, so before he could get his hands on the boy—the Oukawas hid him away. They shut away their precious little heir that they'd waited so long for.
Stuck 'im in a zashikirou to hide him from the old geezer's sights. Claimed there was no son, no boy born into the Oukawa family.
They had no other choice but to tell the world that "Kohaku Oukawa" never existed.
Tsukasa: ......
---
< Epilogue 1 || Masterlist || Epilogue 3 >
