Erasing Our Past
Nabari no Ou
Yoite
1
“So, Yoite, what did you say the name of your little friend was again?”
We three were currently headed towards the Fuuma-nin’s village for something or other--I didn’t keep much track of the going-ons within this organization because I have little to no knowledge of what goes on in the world of Nabari, nor do I wish to learn.
I lifted my eyes from the ground when I heard a reference to myself being made. At least, there weren’t any other little people around, so I assumed it was about me.
That’s right, I was short, because I inherited the petite genes from my mother’s side of the family--she’d been around five feet in height, but I was stuck at just under four. We weren’t technically little people or anything, we’d just been jilted with passed on genetic materials. I preferred to think I looked like a fairy of some sort, but most people just assumed I was still a child. But I didn’t really care what the others thought; the only person whose opinion mattered was…
Getting on with things, the person who asked that question was Yukimi, the blond writer we boarded with occasionally. It was a wonder he’d forgotten my name, really, considering the time I’d been around Kairoushuu.
I turned slightly to look up at Yoite from the corner of my eye, wondering how he would respond. Sometimes I wondered if he even remembered my name. I immediately turned my gaze back to the ground under my feet when his blue eyes briefly met mine from beneath the rim of his hat.
“…Himitsu.” The Kira user replied with his usual, faint voice.
He did remember the name he’d taken to calling me! I wasn’t completely sure if he meant that my true name was a secret, since himitsu meant ‘secret’ in our native language, or if that was really my alias, though. But it wasn’t like I was in a hurry to protest that name, for one because I cherished it, and for two, I hadn’t used my voice for about three years, and doubted it even worked anymore.
Yukimi, though he looked to be careless, had his guard up to the surroundings. He couldn’t fool me with that act. He slapped his face and laughed slightly, as if he were being told something obvious. “Ah, I knew there was a reason I called her ‘Hime-chan.’ I just couldn’t remember what it was.”
Yes, back to that infuriating nickname… If I were a ninja of Nabari, I would have never let him get away with calling me that. He made me sound like even more of a child.
I tensed when we reached the misty forest outskirts of Fuuma village. I turned my head slightly to the side, sensing an approaching danger, and pointed in that same direction to warn my comrades of the threat, then held up six fingers. It was probably the Fuuma’s first line of defense.
I knew that Yoite and Yukimi would be able to sense the attacker soon as well, but one of my skills lay in being able to feel disturbances in the surroundings a few seconds before the nin would, enabling my allies to have a higher chance at taking a preemptive strike. It occurred to me more than once that my pointing highly resembled Yoite’s when he was making use of his Kira kinjutsu, but I had no idea how he was able to incapacitate the enemies with just that motion(and I’d tried it a few times to boot, especially on Yukimi…just pointing at people and wishing them dead, you know? But I don’t think that’s all there is to it). Perhaps if I studied a few scrolls…
Yukimi finished off the last nin with his gun (I found it a bit strange that he was a ninja who used a firearm, but it was the 21st century, after all…) before we set off again. Seeing so many people who might have had families or loved ones being killed before my eyes didn’t bother me because I lacked the ability to understand it. In the past I’d been told it was a severe case of ennui, but whatever it really was, the repercussions of being unable to feel my own sorrow came at a great price that would most likely take effect when we reached the inside of the village.
I did not need to point out the next few assaulting nin because my two comrades were on it as soon as they had shown themselves. My only concern at that point was the state Yoite was in. Using his Kira technique made him look like he was in pain at times… it made me wonder why he even used it in the first place.
A few of the Fuuma ninjas tried to approach me, because I seemed like a perfect target what with being so completely unarmed and still in the midst of a slaughter, but none made it very far. It was a good thing to have strong ninjas behind you, after all. I watched the nearest enemy bend over backwards in agony until his spinal column snapped. The blood trickling from his mouth splattered at my feet, dotting my sneakers with liquid life. It seemed I would have to tell Yoite to be cleaner with his kills from now on…
I tried to wipe my shoes on the cleaner patch of grass before joining the two Kairoushuu.
“Damn, scary brat…” Yukimi muttered under his breath as I walked past him. I knew I unnerved him with my apathy towards bloodshed and I kind of enjoyed that fact, in a twisted way. Payback for treating me like a child.
Now, if I smiled at him, it would probably freak him out even more…! Yep. I saw him shudder. Point! I bet he sleeps with one eye open when I’m around. But it wasn’t like I would be able to sneak up on a ninja anyways.
When we reached the entrance to the village, I hung back and hid myself somewhere none of the native nin would be able to see me--not easily, at least. It was a good thing some mist was still lingering around.
If I was around when they killed the people in the houses…well, my ears were already ringing with agony. The repercussions were going to get worse farther into the village. I stealthily--well, if you could call it that--followed after them to avoid getting lost--I wasn’t totally sure they’d come back for me if I managed to lose them. There weren’t many opposing nin left now, it seemed, because most had become corpses strewn across the grounds.
It was…morbidly beautiful, in a way.
…Maybe I’d spent a little too much time around murder scenes, because that thought just now was seriously cracked.
My dark eyes widened when another disturbance echoed in the area. I grabbed Yoite’s sleeve--but only briefly enough to catch his attention before I let go again--and pointed towards the forest to alert them of the intruders, holding up three fingers to relay their number. They were coming from the outside…reinforcements from a local ally village, perhaps?
Yukimi sighed, looking annoyed. Sometimes I wondered if he preferred staying home and typing on his computer to these missions. “More of them? Well, we got the information we needed out of these guys, so we shouldn’t be here long enough to run into others.”
It seemed a nin had escaped with the kinjutsu scroll we were after, somewhere near the outside walls. He didn’t get very far before we found him. And he knew he wouldn’t get away. A sudden pain--almost like a zap of electricity--shot through my head, accompanied by a loud ringing noise. I clutched my hand over my left eye, being that the pain was directly behind it, and hung back as the two Kairoushuu dealt with the nin.
Repercussions. The consequences of being unable to feel sorrow for myself were feeling the sorrow of others. In a way, I was empathic. But it also transferred anguish and irritation, depending on the emotion I wanted to produce at the time, which resonated with what the people who surrounded me felt. In a way, it magnified what I wanted to feel by tenfold and nearly caused my brain to split with the intensity. It wasn’t pleasant to experience, and made me wish I could trade it back for my own feelings.
The Fuuma nin was feeling sorrow and anguish, because the people he knew had been mercilessly slaughtered. It was up to him to avenge them and escape with the scroll for their sakes, so their sacrifices wouldn’t go to waste. But it seemed that he was finished, and that his attempt had been in vain…
Before Yoite could finish off the man, someone stopped him. It seemed the four intruders I’d sensed earlier caught up after all. But, hadn’t I sensed only three…? In any case, this would be interesting… one was an adult man, but the others were young, probably in middle school. It was suddenly a bit pathetic that I was older, yet far shorter than the students… Even so, if they were nin, it was better not to underestimate them. Age didn’t matter when compared to skill. With that distraction, the nin who held the scroll took his chance to escape. I edged towards the wall to keep out of Yoite’s way as Yukimi clicked his tongue and took off after the nin.
No. I had been right. There were only three ninja among the four; the fourth one didn’t seem to be able to do anything, much like myself. A tag-along, perhaps? An apprentice..? He looked…like…The look in his eyes, reflecting nonchalance and yet something else altogether…he reminded me of Yoite. I wondered if Yoite could see it, too. Their eyes…
I wished I could ask for the boy’s name, but he wouldn’t be around soon, anyways. It was almost a pity. The dark-haired man stayed behind to fight Yoite as the three students took off after Yukimi and the scroll. What a poor decision. No one could go against Yoite’s technique for very long. I leaned against the wall and clutched at my head to try to stifle the pathogenic feeling-transfer whirling around within. It was like a bullet train crashing into another bullet train.
This was how it usually happened; I stayed out of the way while Yoite and Yukimi took care of what they needed to. I couldn’t get involved, and I could only help so much, so I just sort of…looked on as it all fell into place.
I wondered if Yoite or Yukimi were affected by the act of taking a life.
Soon enough, everyone had joined up again and were about to fight over the scroll again. I was surprised Yoite hadn’t managed to kill them yet. But the dark-haired man didn’t look like he could last much longer…
The strange boy who caught my interest was the only other one who hadn’t fallen from the Kira technique yet. But it seemed he’d already been hit by it, as the entire right side of his face was covered in blood. I could feel the throbbing in my head intensify. I needed to get away…
I opened my eyes from squinting against the pain when the boy yelled out. I think he said “stop it” but I couldn’t be sure; I didn’t trust my ears at this point.
Regardless of what he’d screamed, it had shaken up my perception of the area and stirred a handful of disturbances. They were coming too fast, there were too many--I couldn’t warn Yoite in time--!
I opened my mouth to scream as Yoite was sent flying through the air by a large red demon cat (obviously a ninjutsu) but felt my vocal cords seize the sound before it could be emitted.
Yoite!
