Nine Lives

1. You Died

The mid-afternoon light shines through the window of Kuroko's bedroom as he wakes. His mind is fuzzy and his eyes unfocused. He groans and tries to sit up, not successfully.

"You're awake." A voice says in a surprised tone from his right. Kuroko groans again, trying to find his voice. There's a gross taste in his mouth and a pounding in his head as he wonders what he's doing still in bed.

"Don't get up. You need to rest still." The voice says. Kuroko turns his head to see a man with red hair kneeling down next to his bed. The man reaches over and brushes the hair out of Kuroko's face.

"Who...?" Kuroko starts, his voice groggily.

"My name is Seijurou. Though, you've taken to calling me Sei." Kuroko furrows his brows in confusion. There's no way this man could be Sei, he thinks but can't seem to make himself say the words. His eyes are getting heavy as he falls back to sleep. "Rest." The mystery man says soothingly just before Kuroko loses consciousness once again.

-

Kuroko was in the park, school was over for the day and he just wanted to play for a while before going home to his grandparents. It's was the first day of grade one, and already he was the target of bullies.

Kuroko crouches down, covering his head as a group of his classmates stands before him. They pick up stones from the ground, throwing them as hard as they can at the cowering boy.

"Evil"

"Witches son"

"Demon boy"

They shout at him. Everyone knows the Kuroko family were a family of witches. Since the founding of the town, the Kuroko's have been there. In the house just outside the town and just before the forest. The witch's house. Kuroko's mother was the last of her family. She married a regular man and he moved into the house with her. Kuroko's father died in an accident before he was born, and his mother lived for only two years after giving birth to him. Kuroko moved in with his father's parents after that. He was raised as a regular boy, but still the stories and rumors followed him everywhere he went.

The boys before him now only know the stories their parents have told them. They only know the evil their own parents created. They never knew Kuroko's mother, they never tried to get to know Kuroko. They only acted in hatred. It wasn't fair.

It isn't fair. Kuroko thinks as he is hit again and again by the stones. Until Kuroko hears a feral growling and the stones cease.

"Wah, it's the demon cat!"

"It came!"

"Hit it!"

The boys turn their stones onto the pure black cat before them. Kuroko can hear the hissing and the sounds of the stones that missed their target hitting the gravel. He doesn't lift his head. He stays as he is, cowering and crying while the bullies turn their hatred onto his mother's pet cat.

He doesn't look up, but he hears everything. He hears the cat yowl, and he hears the loud crack of the tree branch above them. He hears the boys scream when the branch falls to the earth right over top of them, and he hears the sound of feet running away. He doesn't look up.

Once the boys are gone the black cat turns its attention on Kuroko, walking up to the still crying boy and rubbing against him. The cat meows, trying to get the boys attention and failing. The cat nuzzles the boy and pushes its way under his arm, squeezing through until it is in the boys lap. The cat meows again, rubbing its head against the boy's neck and purring. The boy sniffles and looks down at the cat's strange red and yellow eyes as it purrs in his arms.