Cirque de Sentimentalité - YANDERE!DAZAI

GLIMPSES OF THE SLUMS BY THE RIVER

"How's the wheel?"

You ask Naja, who was tenderly petting the head of a King Cobra. The snake, in response, gently coils its tail around the old man's wrist.

"It's being fixed," He responds, before shaking the snake off him. "Come, sit here–right there, (last name)."

"Did you need me for something?"

"Just want to have a chat. Most youngsters don't want to talk to the elderly. It's a shame."

You silently take a seat opposite of him. You were currently in his tent. His tent, unlike yours, Mizu's, Joker's, and Bete's, had a low table with cushions for seats. You tuck your feet under your knees and take a seat. He turns to the kettle by his right and pours himself a steaming cup of Masala tea.

"Fancy a cup?"

"Sure."

He pours you a cup. The light brown liquid ripples, your reflection a sepia hue as you blink down at the cup.

"What shall I tell you about?" Naja muses to himself, a soft smile beneath his white beard. His voice is soft and akin to wind chimes, tinkling softly with a genuine sense of warmth. It was as if he was speaking directly from his heart, the aorta producing words that spilled out of his delicate tongue. "Shall I tell you about the time I fell off an elephant back in India?"

"Sure," You say, wrapping your hands around the warm cup of tea.

Naja crosses his legs and blows the surface of his tea. He then takes a small sip, before putting the cup back down onto the table. "When I was a little boy, just before I ran away from home, my father kept a zoo. There I witnessed the brightest of orange, yellow, brown, grey, and pink. From tigers, lions, monkeys, elephants to flamingoes. He was a proud man, but he wasn't proud of me. I was hot-headed and short tempered, and always picked a fight when I could."

"You? Picking a fight?" You question over the rim of the cup. "You wouldn't do such a thing now."

"I'm an old man now. I've sought my peace after being alone for an extended period of time. There is no point in fighting. What matters is I. After all, every one of us is divine and the entire point of life is to realise this divinity.

"But the zoo. I mustn't go off track. I've always admired the elephants. Have you heard of Lord Ganesha? The Elephant god. Remover and placer of obstacles. One day, my father let me ride one of the elephants. She was a mother and saw me as another one of her calves, always giving me fruits from the fruit tree with her trunk. I still remember her name to this day: Anita. My father let me ride her back, but the saddle was loose and I slipped off."

"Oh no."

"I slipped and shattered my collarbone. After that, my father barred me from ever going near them. Said I was bad luck," Naja concludes his story with a soft smile.

"Tell me about the slums," You say. That makes him blink.

"The slums? But are you not familiar with the slums yourself?"

"I want to hear another version. I'm sick of my version," You say. Naja sighs and closes his eyes.

He doesn't say anything for a while, and you return your gaze back to the cup of tea. The tea itself was sweet, with hints of cinnamon and other spices that underlined its presence on your tongue. Naja then begins to speak.

"The reason I ran away from home is a difficult one. I could no longer bear my father's coldness towards me. He beat me until I was black and blue, and my mother could do nothing to mitigate his anger. So I departed," He takes a sip of his tea, his hands slightly trembling. "The slums were an extremely difficult time for me. It was a question as to how I would survive the next day. Food was off the table, so I resorted to stealing from street vendors when they weren't looking. As a result, I was malnourished and sick every day. I felt empty during those times, wandering from shanty house to shanty house. Existence felt more like a curse than a blessing. It was as if I was floating in a pitch black space, all by myself. There was no one I could go to for advice. There was no one for me. As a result, I began to question the point of life. My life was nothing but an unremitting source of pain. Then Joker found me."