The Moon Illuminates a World of Fancy

Chapter Four: i'm standing there

They hadn't always lived in some rundown shed on the outskirts of town. They hadn't always been orphaned. They hadn't always been under a warm-weathered atmosphere.

And her name hadn't been Gin. Not exactly.

She remembered when she used to live in the snowy parts of the land, in a village sitting at the foot of a mountain and by the seashore. When her stomach didn't shrivel in hunger, when she had a whole wardrobe of warm and bright clothes to wear. When she had a family besides her brother.

While she almost failed to remember her father, she vividly remembered her mother.

Akutagawa Fuku was known as the town beauty. With her starry grey eyes and silky dark hair and melodic voice and loving ways, many men sought for her hand.

Then when she was a little girl she befriended a young demon she found outside an eastern castle gate and became its host, allowing it to take on physical forms using the clothes she wore. In gratitude, the demon named Rashomon became her protector and secret friend. 

Behind her back, her parents and siblings called her a monster. 

Her family didn't love her at all ever since she was born, all because they found her bond to a horrid demon 'abominable'. They thought she didn't hear them, but they were wrong. 

In retaliation to the harsh treatment she was subjected to in her own home, Fuku eloped with and married Niihara Toshizo, a man far below her social station, allowing her family to disown her. The shame was great, but she never regretted her decision to elope with the man into the mountains and raise his children.

Gin was told by her father that they used to have an older sister, but she died when she was just a month old. Both their mother and infant older sister were ill at the time.  She was also told that when Ryuunosuke was born, Fuku was starting to slip. Her health was deteriorating, and the baby inside her womb was also sickly. She was scared for his wellbeing, worried that he would be born with a weak body that can do little to provide and protect itself. So she made an inevitable decision that changed her health and her son's life forever.

The demon that used to burrow its home in her clothing broke its contract with its old mistress and formed a new one with her son as a final favor from her. And it lived by that bond and promise up to this day, as Ryuunosuke's strength. At the cost of her weakening health and sanity that was steadily cracking, their mother saved Gin's brother.

Gin remembered that in those days, her brother smiled more, laughed more, despite the sadness. He was always there for her and their mother. He would spend hours in their mother's room, talking with her, helping her cope with her mental illness. When she couldn't see her brother, she was with her father. He showed her the beautiful things life had to offer, the poetry of life. Fuku's mentality allowed her the gift of seeing and interacting with the spirits of the dead, a gift she feared yet proved useful. Sometimes, she would slip in and out of focus, and in those times, Gin, Ryuunosuke and their father were there for her.

One day, Fuku mysteriously vanished. Not a trace was left.

Father grieved for her so much he was brought down to his sickbed. But Ryuunosuke grieved for Mother harder. He overexerted things just to help her and Father survive, winding up in coughing fits as his sickly lungs protested against his actions.

Father passed away as the new year dawned.

With both their parents gone, home felt alien. Ryuunosuke knew they couldn't stay here anymore.

They didn't have a family anymore and it was left to Ryuunosuke and his sister to try to survive in the decrepit underworld of the slums. Ryuunosuke knew, his ailing coughs drawing little sympathy and his sister's fraying clothing overlooked by apathetic eyes, that no one would step in to help them. They were on their own, and Ryuunosuke had to do his part to protect himself and his sister.

Gin was the provider and Ryuunosuke was the protector. 

When she lost both her parents, Niihara Hisa disappeared from the face of the earth. Akutagawa Gin was a mere fragment of her memory.

🖤🖤🖤

Another wisp of a memory she remembered---but preferred not to---was the first time she fell in love.

She was only seven, but she knew what she felt when she met him. It was on a crisp, cool autumn day. She visited this old crumbling shrine to some nameless deity while she was looking for a hiding place; an innocent game of hide-&-seek with her brother led to this.

The old crumbling temple dedicated to some unnamed deity was actually home to someone. A mysterious, devilishly handsome, rather gentle-mannered boy with burgundy hair and devious eyes.

Who calls himself Yoshisada Kuzumaki.

Kuzumaki invited her into the temple, which was actually cozy and well-kept inside, and gave her some tea. He asked her about who she was, her family.

For the few hours she sat enjoying delicious oolong with a new friend, Gin was lost in the trance of the boy's eyes. Such a fine, distinct shade of hazel. And they glimmered with a dazzling sparkle. She knew why she thought about them that way: she had fallen in love.

With a stranger whom she just met for a few hours until sunset.

Then she asked him if she can see him again soon, and he agreed.

Every once in a while, everyday, Gin took a trip to the old temple and met with Yoshisada Kuzumaki. They played, they talked, they shared pots of tea and sweets, traded little gifts.

One summer, she caught him rubbing an itchy part of his arm when she saw that a portion of his arm had faded in color. She asked what happened.

Kumuzaki gave her a sad smile.

"I'm... not going to last very long, Gin-chan. I just met you for a few months, and I feel I want to be your friend the same way you do, but... you see, I'm just the fragile remains of my existence."

"What do you mean?"

"I used to be a live, but I'm using the last of my magic to appear here. I've always loved visiting this place."

"Magic...? You're a ghost?"

"Apparently so, I'm afraid. I never had a friend in my lifetime, so I just wanted to find one until I completely pass on. Turns out I found one."

Scared as she was, Gin was determined to make his last days on earth the best. And she did.

Ever since she left the mountains with Ryuunosuke, she never saw him again. But he was never out of her mind, and not even her brother knew about the memory of the ghost she fell in love with as a little girl of 7.

But when she went to work with her brother in Hirotsu's smith the next day, she thought she had come face to face with her past once again.

Because he wasn't alone.

Pressing down her surprise, Gin narrowed her eyes at the sneering youth standing across the mat from her. His eyes were hazel, sharp and angry, but not intelligent. He wore a bandaid on his nose and had short messy red hair. His clothes hung off lazily on his form. He appeared roughly the same age as Gin, if not older.

Slouching, the boy sized her up.

This boy, impudent as he looks, could it be?

Kumuzaki-kun...?

"Gin, Tachihara Michizou. A recent recruit like your brother and yourself. He'll be working with you starting today, so I hope you can get along."