Butterfly's Curse

Hifumi's Past (Part 2)

Upon hearing his name, Hifumi smiled while saying: "That's right, Yugen."

When the blue butterfly heard that name after for a long, long time, he stared at Hifumi for a while like not believing what he was saying. He never thought that he will be called by that name again nor that he would see Naofumi again, everything was too sudden to even believe it.

Hifumi saw the doubt in the blue butterfly's eyes, as he noticed that Yugen was unable to stand his stare looking away.

He was still the same kid Hifumi remembered.

Hifumi got up from the bed of leaves that he was sitting on going towards him, but as he got closer to Yugen, he took a few steps back. And soon his anger filled the forest:

"Don't come closer to me, stay were you are!" Yugen threatened with contempt in his voice.

Hifumi was taken aback by the harsh tone in his voice. "Do you perhaps don't believe me?"

"No, it's not that," Yugen soon denied. "It's just that I can't forgive you for what you did to Seiren... Or should I say the one I can't forgive is Naofumi?" He asked himself, turning his gaze towards Hifumi, but he did not dare to meet his eyes. "Naofumi died a long time ago. You're not him, so you don't need to pay for the sins Naofumi had committed."

"Maybe you're right, but what about you, Yugen? You're helping the red butterfly kidnap children. If I knew since the very beginning that she needed to consume human lives to become human, I would've never promised her anything. However, at that time I was a child and I did not know anything, but what about you? Why are you helping her do something so terrible?"

The blue butterfly gritted his teeth: " What else am I supposed to do? I despise the humans! I hate every single one of them! They deserve the hatred of--"

"No, you don't!" Hifumi cut him short. "You're only lying to yourself! If you really hated them like you said, why save the souls of the children the red butterfly has consumed?"

"How did you--"

"How do I know?" Hifumi finished Yugen's sentence. "I wonder even myself, but it wasn't hard to guess after hearing the children's voices. But there was one thing I know for sure: you don't truly hate the humans. If that was the case, then why did you love Naofumi? He was a human and you still grow feelings for him."

After hearing this, Yugen looked troubled and once again he looked away. Then, there was a long silence until he decided to continue speaking with Hifumi, but this time there was sadness in his voice: "Because of them, my mother and father had..." He paused as his voice started to break. "Because of them..."

Before Yugen could finish his sentence, Hifumi interrupted him once again: "That's right, the humans have killed the white butterfly, but your father the black butterfly is still alive. Your father has lost his true form but he's still alive!"

Yugen after hearing that his father is still alive, he looked towards Hifumi once again; his eyes were shimmering with tears that made Hifumi's heart ache. Even when Yugen was on the verge of tears, he never let a single one of them fall from his sad eyes.

Not being able to stand the blue butterfly's sad expression, Hifumi approached him, and this time he remained where he is. Without wasting any time, he pulled him into his arms. The moment he wrapped his arms around Yugen's back, he tried to break free from his embrace.

When Hifumi's face came closer to Yugen's face, Yugen stopped moving. Hifumi saw tears shimmering in the blue butterfly's beautiful eyes, as he refused to shed any single tear.

As soon as their eyes met, yugen looked away.

"Are you still afraid that you would enchant me if I look you into your eyes?" Hifumi guessed.