KHR: The Inheritance Project - Prelude

Prologue

A/N - A have this story on FF.net but randomly felt like uploading it here! Hope ya like it~

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I was born on a particularly ordinary day in early November. My Madre was Italian and my Padre was Japanese. They had a home birth in our grand mansion right on the edge of Sicily, Italy. Padre is the tenth generation boss of a highly successful international company. I think they just trusted their own personal doctors rather than the hospital staff.

The landscape was dyed in various tones of brown, red, gold and orange. So, my first experience of the world outside my mother's womb was, well... I was freaking cold. Though the weather was actually quite warm for the season, the fresh crisp late autumn air is bloody freezing to a newborn.

Most people don't really remember those first few months of their lives. In fact, as they get older they seem to forget ever being a child at all. I remember though. Not very clearly, but I remember all the same. I remember being incredibly cold, and the fact everything was so damn bright. Don't even get me started on how noisy everything was...

Everything became a little more bearable when I was finally wrapped up in a nice fluffy warm towel and handed over to my Padre. I knew he was my Padre the second he had me in his arms. At this time my Madre was still occupied with giving birth to my younger brother. He came into the world, kicking and screaming, five minutes after me.

I remember Madre caressing my face but I don't think she held me that day. Everything suddenly became rather chaotic and the doctors were making a huge fuss over Madre and my brother. I don't remember much else after that, I think I must have fallen asleep... being born really takes it out of you.

Aside from all the fuss it was a pretty ordinary birth, wouldn't you say? Well you're wrong; for those who saw the signs, it was a very unnatural birth. Of course, very few had been concentrating on me at the time so it was only natural that my "abnormalities" were overlooked...

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My Padre is an incredible man. He took over a centuries old company and completely reinvented it! Though the main body kept its old name, the name most people recognise is "Alognov Corporation". Eventually I would come to learn that Padre has terrible naming sense...

Luckily he had enough sense to give me a decent name: "Cielo". It means "sky" in Italian. I don't really know the reason he gave me such a name but I kinda like it. Madre was the one who gave my brother the name "Masamune". Apparently it's a tradition in Padre's family to name their sons after Tokugawa Shogans (Japanese warlords, I think...).

My Padre, being the kind and loving man he is, just didn't have the heart to tell Madre that Date Masamune wasn't a Tokugawa Shogan. Nor could he tell her that Date belonged to the "Sengoku" era which came before the Tokugawa era... Well, the name kinda suited him anyways.

Why do I know this? I was awake when they were discussing names, plus I overheard someone asking Padre about it. Yeah, I still remember those conversations. Most people find it weird, but I was just aware of my surroundings.

Maybe I shouldn't have been, but I was. "He" might be the reason I was so aware of everything... "He" was also observing the world around us, taking in every bit of information he could. "He" learnt to talk before I did and he taught me how as well. It was hard at first since my damn mouth refused to cooperate...

Talking was much easier than walking though. I was eight months old when I could finally walk properly. Masamune was sick all the time so he took about a year longer than I did to learn all this stuff. Not to mention he wasn't like me and didn't have a "he" to teach him.

It was around that time that I decided "he" needed to be named. Apparently I inherited my bad naming sense from Padre and simply couldn't come up with anything good. It was through one of my "uncles" that I happen to learn the word "αιγίς".

You pronounce it "Aigís". It means shield in Greek. I found it fitting for him.

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When I was six I had my very first and very last temper tantrum. Masamune had already had about twenty seven by then, and he never really stopped having them. Up until that point I had never really understood the point of throwing a tantrum; all that screaming and crying would just give me, and everyone else, a headache not to mention a sore throat.

But then again I only ever seen my spoilt brother crying over such trivial things, like not getting to hold Madre's hand or not wanting to take a bath. I mean, what's the point in crying over things that can't be helped, right? At least, that's what Aigís always tells me, and that's what I always thought untilthe day I learnt two valuable lessons.

The first being, that there are times when the only way to be truly heard is to scream at the top of your lungs. That and to smash some of the furniture and break a few windows. The second lesson is one I'll never forget for my whole life; there are some things that people simply can't hear, no matter how long I cry for nor how loud I scream, my voice will never reach them.

But that doesn't matter to me now; I'm already used to being ignored. I'm completely fine with it. So long as I have that person to acknowledge me and accept me for who I am then I don't need anybody else. That's right; so long as he's there then I'm okay with being alone-ah, that's not quite right. For, you see, I'm never truly alone. Right, Aigís?