In the Woods Somewhere (Tsukkiyama)

Brother Wherefore Art Thou?

The incident with Yama's father had scarred Kei far more than he would have liked to admit. Even after two years of friendship, Kei had not realized how important Yama was to him. Finding the human bruised and defeated in the toadstool ring had only proven that Yama was the most important person to Kei, second only to his brother. His brother, who had patiently and without asking too many questions, walked Kei through the best ways to comfort a distressed human friend.

It was no surprise then, that Kei's admiration and respect for Akiteru had also spilled over to Yama. In the months following the unoriginally named Incident, Yama took an even greater interest in Kei's idyllic family. Not wanting to disappoint his best friend, and not wanting to pass up on a chance to brag about his life, Kei humored him. More often than not, Kei would find himself proudly relaying fantastical stories that his brother had told him. Every day, Akiteru would come back from his adventures and recall them, in brilliant detail, to Kei, who would, in turn, pass them on to Yama.

Whenever Yama seemed to need a break from the toils of his life, or when Kei was feeling exceptionally smug and wanted to brag for a bit, he would launch into tangents about his brother. His brother, who had bravely purified an accursed spring in the far south, slain a cruel dragon from the north that had intended to burn down the forest, and had mastered every form of innate magic and tricked wicked humans into handing over their names so he could make them perform good deeds. That last story was the favorite of both Kei and Yama, for obvious and personal reasons. Eventually, though, Kei grew tired of simply retelling the tales of his brother's glories. He never quite did them justice, as Akiteru was always the better storyteller. One evening, several months after the Incident, Kei finally managed to badger Akiteru into telling his stories in person.

And so began Kei and Yama's second favorite tradition, right after eating ill-gotten sweets together. When he got back from his lengthy travels, Akiteru would go to the circle with Kei and masterfully narrate his adventures. Kei couldn't think of a better way to spend his evenings than with his two absolute favorite people, eating sweets and trading stories. Akiteru's stories also sparked a new discussion topic for the boys. A topic which Kei was both excited and terrified to think of.

"Hey, Tsukki? When you reach the age, will you go on adventures like your brother?" Yama's question came out of nowhere, but it hit Kei just as hard as the snowballs he was forming.

"Of course I will; adventuring is the coolest," replied Kei. He spoke with confidence but knew what Yama really wanted to ask.

"I suppose I won't see as much of you then, when you start traveling," Yama didn't look at Kei as he asked the question, focused instead on making snowballs.

Kei stopped packing snow and thought for a minute, it hadn't fully occurred that adventuring would mean leaving Yama by his lonesome. No one ever said he would have to adventure alone though, and if others could travel in groups then there was nothing to stop Kei from taking Yama with him. Kei decided to pitch the idea of traveling together in the distant future then and there. "Nonsense, if I am to go adventuring then you'll come with me. Human knights do it all the time, so you can too."

The finality of Kei's statement seemed to give Yama pause. Finally, after a tense few minutes, which made Kei think he had been too presumptuous, Yama nodded and tackled Kei into the snow with a hug. In retaliation Kei shoved a handful of snow down Yama's coat, thus starting the snow war they had been preparing for prior to the conversation.

After speaking with Yama, Kei took it upon himself to shadow Akiteru on his adventures. Unfortunately for Kei, his older brother would have none of it. Every time Kei asked to tag along with his brother, even just to observe, Akiteru brushed him off. Every attempt would yield the same comments from Akiteru, 'you're too young,' and 'I'll get nervous if you're there'. Kei took every opportunity he could to grumble his complaints about this development to Yama, who was equally disappointed. Still, though, there were always Akiteru's stories.