Broken Wings - BokuAka

Chapter 6

- Akaashi

"Listen, Keiji, you must never tell people your last name, got it?"

That is what my mother always told me when I was younger. Only go by my first name.

"But I'm proud to be your son!" I protested, but my mother just shook her head.

"I'm doing this to protect you, baby. My name is a burden you don't want to carry."

Everyone knew the name of Yuna Akaashi. The girl that was born from both a Yokai and Tenshi, the girl with demon blood. For the longest time, my mother was treated as some sort of monster. She was beaten and ridiculed, and called names that should never, ever be repeated. The worst part was that my mother's mother was the last Yokai. The "demon race" had died out already, but no one believed her. They called her a liar, and my mother's torment continued.

Eventually she got so sick of it that she ran away and changed her name, fading away from the memory of others. That's when she met my father.

In the beginning, they were happy. They were young and in love, and my father treated my mother like a queen, the way she should be treated. But then one night, they got into a fight that changed everything.

My mother found out she was pregnant with me, and while she was overjoyed at the thought of starting a family, my father wasn't pleased. He tried to get her to cancel the pregnancy, but my mother refused. That was the first time my father ever hit my mother. In her rage, my mother's Yokai blood bubbled to the surface and her skin turned black, her eyes glowing hot-coal red. My father then discovered everything.

He started to abuse my mother, and he lost his job, forcing them to move into a house that couldn't even compare in size to their old one. My mother basically became my father's slave, and six months later, gave birth to me, her son, Keiji Akaashi.

My father absolutely despised me from the second he saw me. I was just a mistake, and should have been killed in the womb. My mother however, loved me with all her heart. She said I was proof that love really existed in the world, and always did her best to make sure I got food in my tummy everyday and clothes on my soft back.

I took my mother's old last name, Akaashi, because my father refused to, "share the same name with a monster." My mother also took back her old name, and at times we liked to pretend that it was just me and her, a happy family of two. Before Bokuto came along, my mother was the only person that cared about me.

My mother, who was now lying on the ground, covered in her own blood.

"Mom!" I cried, immediately rushing to her side. I fell to my knees beside her, taking her cold hand in my warm one and looking over her body, trying to find her major wounds.

However my heart stopped, because there was no way I could fix it.

My mother had a gaping hole in her side, blood seeping out of it and into my kimono, turning the navy fabric a dark shade of crimson.

"Mom!" I called again, and even I could hear the desperation in my voice. I used my free hand to shake her gently, looking for any sign that she was alive. "Mom, please wake up!"

"Keiji. . .?" my mother croaked, her eyes slowly opening slightly to look at me. I stared at her as tears started to fill my eyes, and I knew that I couldn't talk even if I wanted to, so I just buried my head into my mother's side, letting out loud, ugly sobs.

"I'm sorry. . ." my mother whispered. "Oh, Keiji, my sweet baby boy. . ."

"Why are you sorry. . .?" I cried, my hands clutching onto my mother's kimono as if I let go, she would fade away.