Chapter Text
Chuuya Nakahara’s life so far was short, but unbearably lonely.
He remembered only few glimpses of his life when his parents were still alive: remnants of warmth and summer days spent together outside, picnics in the garden and a beloved pet. But even then, those memories faded over time without anyone to share them with. The one photograph he had of their small family had been lost in the chaos of another move, of another distant family member ultimately rejecting him as they tried to find the next one to take him in.
During the last eight years of his life he was handed from one house to another, again and again. In the beginning he still had hope that this time, maybe, he would get to stay, that he could hide this strange phenomenon and get to find a permanent place for himself. That he would find someone to help him process all this pain inside, who would tell him that things would get better. It never happened. His secret always got out in the end and Chuuya had to watch once more as people started whispering behind his back, as potential foster siblings and parents shut him out if they didn’t start to torment him for his curse.
Because what else was this, if not a curse?
For as long as the young child could remember, he was able to see them: spirits, demons, yokai – whatever you would like to call them. From books in the library that sent evil glances to anyone passing by, to bipedal animals waiting in the shadows of forest paths or human-like specters, that looked normal at first but which were missing faces if you got close – Chuuya had encountered them all.
And they certainly had sought him out as well. Even though he had tried keep a distance, as talking about what he was seeing brought him nothing but misfortune, he had tried so hard to ignore them all. But it was difficult to hide an involuntary flinch if small imp creatures just popped up on top of your school desk. And sometimes it was so difficult to see what was real or not, if the cat he was just petting looked like any other if only she didn’t have a second tail. Whatever he tried, the monsters would find out and just as word spread in schools, in parks or in the supermarket his temporary guardians went to, it would also spread between the yokai. It never took long before they started following him around.
That was never a good thing. Not all of them were malicious, but the ones that were unluckily always got to the people around him involved or destroyed his possessions. Whenever that point was reached, it wasn’t long until he had to pack all his belongings into small cardboard boxes and leave his current residence behind again.
So with time, Chuuya lost all hope of ever finding a place to belong. But instead of letting the sorrow sink in, of processing all the disappointment and grief when it flared up, the child hid those feelings behind anger and violent outbursts. And with all these misdirected emotions, he didn’t care if humans or yokai were at the other end of his fists. The adults always told him to change, that he should think of his future and stop having petty fights, but what future were they even talking about?
So when at the age of thirteen he was sent to Yokohama to live with yet another relative, he didn’t believe anything would change. He only knew that apparently a cousin of his father had resurfaced, who had spent the last few years abroad but decided to settle back in her home town after getting married to the love of her life or whatever. The child didn’t care about the details. He just knew that it was only a matter of time before everything would repeat again and he would be sent away.
(Fortunately, for once in his life, Chuuya would be wrong about that.)
---
With his head pressed against the cold glass, Chuuya absentmindedly saw the world pass by through the train’s window. His last guardians had brought him to the station in the early morning, before leaving him on his own as soon as he had stepped inside the building. No goodbyes, no wait to see if he would get on the correct train. The redhead sighed, watching as his breath fogged up the window for a few seconds.
His clothes had already been sent ahead and Ozaki-san had been notified of his arrival. He knew that she had the same red hair as himself (and his father) but not much more. His previous foster parents had avoided him during his last days at their place, only telling him the bare minimum about his move. He just hoped he would find the woman without trouble and that soon he would be able to maybe take a nap, tired as he was after the long travel.
The overhead speakers announced his stop, so with sluggish movements Chuuya detached himself from the window and grabbed his backpack. A screeching noise announced the train’s arrived at the station. Patiently he waited to step off the wagon, following the flow around him to the main entrance where he looked around in hopes of catching a glimpse of a red-haired women. At the very least, those features should be pretty obvious to notice.
He hadn’t even really reached the entrance of the station yet, when he saw a someone wave out of the corner of his eyes. Turning around he saw a woman dressed in a light pink kimono with a subtle sakura pattern on the fabric walk towards him. Aside from her traditional dress, what he noticed next was her flaming red hair, similar in color to his own, which had been tied up in a bun with a few artificial cherry flowers for decoration. When she saw him look back, she moved towards him with unhurried steps, a small smile on her red-painted lips.
“Chuuya-kun, right? Welcome to Yokohama. I hope your journey was not too troublesome.” she greeted him. The child inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement.
“It was okay.” he muttered, not too interested in any pleasantries right now. As if sensing his reluctance, the woman just gave him a nod and signaled him to follow her.
“I’m sure you’re exhausted, so let’s make haste to get you home, yeah? My name’s Kouyou Ozaki, but just Kouyou is fine. Is it okay to call you Chuuya-kun?” the woman calmly told him as she walked with small measured steps towards the nearby parking lot.
“Just Chuuya’s fine.” he mumbled, fiddling with the strap of his backpack and taking care to focus on the path ahead. Letting his view stray too much always meant he would ultimately draw the attention of the surrounding creatures.
“Boy, speak clearly when you talk to others. I will cut you some slack today, because I’m sure the situation is not easy on you, but I do expect some manners from you.” Kouyou scolded lightly, stopping in front of a small white car and looking at him straight on.
At bit embarrassed but also annoyed, Chuuya averted his eyes and didn’t say anything more. This woman was supposed to be his next guardian so he didn’t want to leave a bad impression on her that fast. After all, his living situation as well as his living expenses were managed by her. With any other random person, he would have readily argued back, but it was better if he could keep a somewhat friendly relationship with Kouyou.
At his continued silence, the woman unlocked the car with a sigh and ushered him inside.
“Let’s go.”
---
It didn’t take long for them to reach what Chuuya believed to be his next temporary home. The house wasn’t all too big, but it had a sizable garden that awarded them some privacy from their neighbors. The area around it was nice and clean, too. On their way there they had passed Chuuya’s new school (as Kouyou had helpfully pointed out) and a public park, that bordered on a small forest. Now and then, the red-haired woman had tried to engage him in some conversation, telling him about local sights and some noteworthy shops, but tiredness was slowly catching up to the boy. His short answers were broken by the occasional yawn, so their last minutes driving were mostly spent in silence.
Chuuya wasn’t in a hurry to move yet after they had stopped, so he stretched his arms above his head before he finally left the car. But then he took in the sight of the house with wondering eyes. Especially the garden got a closer consideration, especially at the flower beds and the green house, before he followed Kouyou as she called out to him.
Suddenly the front door opened and another woman in a light colored summer dress and a dark cardigan stepped out. In her middle-long brown hair a silver butterfly clip shone in the rays of the evening sun. As Chuuya walked to the entrance, Kouyou greeted the other woman with a smile and a light kiss.
“You’re back already? Emergency was not as bad as it seemed?” she asked, keeping a hand on the woman’s arm in a tender gesture.
“You know Taneda-san. Nothing’s ever as bad as he thinks it is.” she answered with a mischievously raised eyebrow, before she turned her attention to the boy awkwardly standing in front of the two. The dark-haired woman lightly leaned down in front of him as she raised a hand to him in greeting.
“Hello there. I’m Akiko Ozaki, but you can call me Akiko. It’s nice to have you here.” she told him with a smile. Chuuya greeted her back, remembering Kouyou’s words and trying to speak clearly this time. It seemed to please both women.
“How nice! Now, come in, come in. I started on a light dinner but it will still take a few minutes, maybe half an hour Darling, why don’t you show him his room. I’ll call when I’m finished.” Akiko offered, before she left the two of them in the entrance with a kiss to her wife’s cheek and a ruffle of the boy’s hair. Chuuya just grumbled slightly as he tried to comb the strands back in order with his fingers.
With a small chuckle, Kouyou waited for him to finish before she led him upstairs.
“We thought you might like some space of your own so we cleared a room upstairs for you. We mostly have some guest rooms and storage space up here. I just ask you to keep out of this one, I use it to store different fabrics and materials, so it’s a bit messy.” the red-haired woman explained, before she opened the door to a simple bedroom. Inside stood a bed, dresser and low table with some cushions. On the ground around the table stood a few cardboard boxes, still unopened.
Chuuya recognized them quickly as the ones he had packed at his old house. One however, was completely unknown to him, free of tape and shipping label.
“What’s this?” he decided to ask straight on, turning to Kouyou as she stood in the entrance to his room, leaning on the door frame. With a melancholy smile, she stepped closer to him and opened the box. Inside Chuuya saw mostly some books and papers as well as some other knickknacks. On top however…
Beside him, the woman took the photo that had caught the boy’s interest, holding it carefully between her fingertips. In it the boy saw three people: a girl that was most likely was a younger version of Kouyou herself, a red-haired boy that was somehow familiar to Chuuya and a man with long blond hair in a ponytail. In the photo, the man had both his hands on the kids shoulders. Although his mouth was set in a flat line, his eyes seemed to be shining joyously, matching the bright grins on the two red-haired children.
“Has anyone told you about me before?” Kouyou asked lightly and as he just shook his head, she also took a book from the box and settled down at the table. Chuuya followed her, sitting down at the side next to her. As she opened the pages, the boy recognized it to be a photo album.
“You know I’m your father’s cousin, right? You might not remember, but I met you before, when you were like three? That was shortly before I left Japan.” she started, leafing through the book as if she was looking for a specific photo. After she seemingly found what she was looking for, she turned the album towards him. On the opened page Chuuya saw a photo of a younger, but adult Kouyou holding a small red-haired kid in her arms. The boy was sleeping and didn’t notice the adults around him looking at him with fond glances. Directly next to a young Kouyou stood two people. With a start, Chuuya recognized the boy to be himself and the two people… to be his parents. With a trembling finger, he traced the edges of the photograph.
“Your father was one of the few people in our family that didn’t reject me for loving another woman… When Akiko and I left the country after my parents finally kicked me out, we kept in contact for a while. But with time and distance, we lost track of each other soon… It took months before I even heard about the accident.” Kouyou spoke in a somber tone. Chuuya kept his eyes firmly on the photo, not looking the woman in the eyes. To everyone else, his parent’s death was an “accident” but he knew. He knew that it was the yokai that had killed them.
“Most of the books in the box are things I took with me when we left. Mostly photos and some old letters I exchanged with your father. But a few things are from Paul-san, the former resident of this house. He would have been your great uncle if he was still alive.”
“He is dead?” Chuuya asked as Kouyou pointed out the blond man from the first photo in one of the other ones. There he was older, with wrinkles in his face and a few silver strands in his hair.
“Yeah. He was the oldest of his siblings and your great uncle. He was always a bit of a lone wolf, always keeping to himself and only rarely showing up to our family gatherings. Our parent’s would tell us keep away from him, but really he was a great guy. Never really understood why they talked like that to be honest…” she mused.
“There were some rumors about him. That he could see the supernatural. It didn’t really help that he was collecting old scripts and tomes on the topic as well. But he always had the best stories to tell. Paul-san would always insist to your father and I that our family was once blessed by a deity.” Kouyou reminisced with a fond expression as Chuuya reached over to browse through the photo album. Kouyou wordlessy pushed the book towards him.
Of course nearly all the pictures had Kouyou herself in it, but he also found a lot with his parents and the blond man, Paul-san. In a few of them Akiko was also present as well as some of his former guardians and some more people the boy didn’t know.
“Some of the books in the box are written by Paul-san. The house stood empty until we decided to move in, so all of his research is still here.” Kouyou sighed. “I couldn’t really bring myself to throw it away. You might find them interesting, otherwise we can just put them away with the others in the storage.”
Chuuya nodded quietly, still absorbed in the different photographs. He had heard her words, but was still distracted as he tried to find more pictures of his parents, trying to ignore the building pressure behind his eyes. He hadn’t expected to feel such relief at just finding another proof of their existence, that there really had been a time when two people had unconditionally loved him. After a few more seconds of silence, Kouyou stood, patting down her clothes.
“I’ll leave you to get settled. Maybe you can try to put away some of you clothes already. We’ll call you when the food is ready.” she offered.
Briefly, the boy teared his eyes away from the album, thanking the woman as she left him alone. When she vacated the room, closing the door behind her, Chuuya brushed his sleeves over his face holding back a few sniffles. He gave himself a minute or so more, before he closed the book and started to open up the boxes to sort out his clothes.
---
Chuuya had arrived on a Friday, so that weekend he got to spend some time with his new foster guardians in his new house. Kouyou and Akiko did their best to include him in their routine, eating together with him, inviting him to help them in the garden or with some shopping. Hoping to quickly fit in with the couple, he took their offers, not regretting it in the least.
After all he learned a lot about the two woman: Kouyou was a fashion designer who mostly worked from home. One of the rooms on the ground floor was a small studio, where she put her visions to paper before she crafted her ideas in fabric and textile. There were times where she took trips to Tokyo to talk to clients and other designers, but most of her work was done from her home office in Yokohama.
Akiko was a doctor with her own medical practice in the city. Her patients mostly came from around Yokohama, but sometimes she even received patients from the surrounding cities. Apparently, the woman was known for great wisdom in the medical field; although she was “only” a general practitioner and had not specialized on a certain topic, she apparently had a knack on finding the correct diagnosis on mysterious cases. Apparently she had also been called in to a last minute case shortly before Chuuya had been due to arrive the day before.
The couple had been together for over a decade and were married for nearly nine years.
The two of them had eloped to France after Kouyou’s arguments with her parents had gotten too much. Akiko was an orphan so they celebrated their wedding in Paris with a bunch of strangers, which later became some of their closest friends. Although they had built a life for themselves in the city over time, the red-haired woman had always wanted to go back some day and live close to her roots. So a few years down the line, they had reached out to some of Kouyou’s relatives that still held contact, quickly learning that Paul Verlaine’s old house was still unoccupied after the man’s death.
Although the house was beautiful and in a great location, many interested parties talked about strange occurrences during viewings or cold shivers running down their back the longer they stayed near. Kouyou had just huffed at that: after all she had spent multiple summers at her uncle’s house and had never experienced anything like that. No one from her family understood as well. So after a while they hadn’t tried to sell it anymore, meaning it was available to the couple, if they so desired.
The decision had been easy for them, even if saying goodbye to their old life had been hard. But after nearly a year back in Yokohama, neither of them regretted their choice. When word had gone out that the child of her cousin needed a new home, Kouyou had quickly discussed the matter with her wife. Ultimately, they had reached out to the boy’s old guardians and offered to take care of him.
And now Chuuya was here with them.
---
As he laid in bed that Sunday night, Chuuya thought about the last two days and what his future might bring. He couldn’t deny that he liked it here already: Kouyou might be the stricter one of his foster guardians, but the boy could tell that she meant well. She adhered to a strict code of conduct and expected the respect she set in others to be returned as well. Akiko was also stern with certain topics (mostly about safety and health) but she was generally more easygoing and brought a lightheartedness into this home.
And Chuuya could see that they were trying. More than he could say about the majority of all his former foster families, he saw their efforts to include him, to engage with him and make him feel at home. It brought a warmth to his chest, similar to when he looked at the pictures of his parents. A sight he had thought he had lost forever, but now it was returned to him.
So although he told himself rationally, that it was a bad idea to get attached to the… idea of what a permanent life here could be, deep inside he couldn’t help but wish for it. Not hope, because hope had burned him one too many times, but to wish that things could stay as they were right now.
And as his eyes fell closed and his mind succumbed to the quiet of sleep, those thoughts bore a wish that settled deep into his mind. His dreams were filled with light and hope that night.