Legal Drug Fan Fiction ❯ The Chains That Bind ❯ O-Bon ( Chapter 4 )

Legal Drug : The Chains That Bind - Chapter 4

 

Summary: Kazahaya's past and present collide for his 18th birthday, as dangers unfold that even Kakei and Saga can't see. Only Rikuo can save Kazahaya from a family reunion, and finally get intimate with Kazahaya in the bargain - more intimate than Rikuo had bargained for. First chapter of the Chains That Bind story arc.

 

Disclaimer: I have no rights to Legal Drug, of course. This was my first attempt at a fanfic.

 

 

Chapter 4 - O-Bon

 

Fireworks spread like willow trees across the sky, reflecting across a broad river, throngs of happy faces gazing up, dressed in particolored yukata on the crowded banks.

 

An old woman guides a small boy to launch a floating paper lantern, to join a glowing fleet drifting slowly down a narrow dark river to the sea.

 

A lone middle-aged salaryman in hapi coat, bandana tied at his brow, dances lost in somber reflection, around a pole set in a traffic circle amidst the vast city.

 

An upside-down desk calendar with male anatomical doodles in the margins - Aug 12 get item, Aug 13 o-bon begins, Aug 14 Kudo's birthday, Aug 16 o-bon ends. Beside the calendar lies a little clump of fine gold chains mixed with girlish charms - a heart locket, a puppy, a kitten, x's for kisses.

 

In defiant defeat, Rikuo swept Kei's golden trinkets into his hand and thrust them deep into his pocket.

 

“That wasn't entirely successful,” observed Kakei, when Kazahaya and Kei had retreated out of earshot toward the front of the store.

 

Rikuo bit back an angry retort, substituting, “I should get back to work.”

 

“Yes. But save some energy for Bon dancing this evening. This outing is not optional, Himura-kun. Not that last night's was…”

 

“You have a plan,” cut in Rikuo. “Really?”

 

“Well… an idea, at least. But it's a few hours yet until closing time, perhaps it will mature into an full-grown plan by then. Send Saiga back to me if the obatarians are done with him? And… just let Kudo-kun and Kudo-san enjoy each other for now in peace, hmm?”

 

-oOo-

 

When quitting time eventually rolled around, and the register was closed out and the fence locked across the front windows, Saiga brought out a surprisingly thorough box of let's-do-Bon paraphernalia.

 

“Tonight, let's do o-Bon,” he proclaimed bracingly.

 

“o-Bon?” parroted Kazahaya dispiritedly. “I…”

 

“It'll be fun,” Kakei insisted, putting his arms around Kazahaya and Kei's waists. “You two can dance with your parents, hmm? Yours as well, Himura. It'll be fun, won't it?”

 

“Absolutely,” replied Rikuo, bemusedly accepting the hapi coat and bandana quartermaster Saiga issued him from the box. The hapi coat had large blue and green fish appliqued at the hem, and Takanawa Sushi blazoned across back and breast. The headband was a rising sun on white, advertising some cram school in Shibaura. The brown and white striped belt probably hailed from a hotel. “My own yukata belt would go better,” he observed.

 

“Yes! But I'm short on belts, so you'll loan your blue one to Kudo-kun, won't you? We want him to look nice for his sister, don't we?” Saiga beamed.

 

“Absolutely,” said Kakei, jabbing a pen into Rikuo's kidney to underscore the point.

 

“Ah, sure,” winced Rikuo, and handed over a similar but smaller outfit, sans belt, to Kazahaya.

 

“Ooh, that's pretty!” breathed Kei, as Saiga gallantly presented her a girl's proper summer festival yukata. Hers was bright pink with mingled white cranes and camellias on vining foliage. The dead girl gets a real outfit with matching belt, observed a cranky Rikuo. He found it difficult not to shrink away from the pretty living breathing dead girl beside him. “Isn't this pretty, Kazahaya? This will be fun!” she said, holding her brother's arm and showing off her outfit.

 

“Ah… it'll look beautiful on you, Kei. I'm kind of tired, though…” Kazahaya attempted.

 

“Nonsense, it'll be fun!” insisted Saiga, issuing another brownish hapi kit to Kakei. Kakei's outfit matched, courtesy of Okubo Janitorial Services, once the somewhat stained uniform of a custodian named Honda. Kakei looked singularly unappreciative. “We all have to get into the spirit, after all,” Saiga said, putting an arm around Kakei, and booming in his ear. “It'll be fun! So! Everybody get changed and we'll meet out front in 15 minutes!”

 

-oOo-

 

The local Bon dance was a modest affair, centered on a tiny park that amounted to little more than a traffic circle with the traffic diverted. But the party was well attended by people of modest means from the neighborhood. Street sellers were on hand to supply those less prepared than Saiga, purveying paper lanterns, choice vegetables and fruits, incense sticks, candles, origami papers, wooden boats, disposable flash cameras… Having taken turns carrying the box, Rikuo knew Saiga had it all covered.

 

They stopped at the concrete steps in front of a bank, letting Kei and Kazahaya erect four paper lanterns with candles. With the same crafty flair Saiga applied to sewing yukata and whipping up cheesecake, he'd turned a fine hand with brush and ink to titling the four little lanterns: Kakei, Saiga, Himura, Kudo. He'd even painted mon devices on them. Rikuo hadn't a clue what the Himura crest was supposed to look like, but it was a nice touch, and perhaps it was the thought that counted. The lanterns summoning their ancestors looked a bit lonely out there on the public street, since most welcomed their ancestors to their homes. Saiga, for one, added a nice eggplant and strawberries as gifts, and looked back a bit apologetically as they moved on.

 

Saiga deposited his box near a vendor's stall, trusting to the convened ancestors to discourage people from filching anything, and they headed for the Bon dance circle. Kei was actually quite eager, like any sheltered girl getting the rare chance to dress up and dream and go out to a dance. She dragged her tired escort brother ahead of them into the crowded circle. Kazahaya was being a good sport about it - obedient. And dressed well enough to go with Kei's lovely summerwear, with shorts underneath his hapi coat, bound with Rikuo's belt. The appliqued sushi bar fish managed to look festive.

 

“You still have Kei's jewelry, don't you?” Kakei asked, when the twins were a ways ahead.

 

Rikuo still wore his work jeans under his fishy hapi coat. He patted his pocket. “Yes, right here. What's the plan?”

 

“For the moment… we dance,” Kakei said sourly. Not a man for dancing, one felt, nor overly eager to commune with dead relatives.

 

“Just do what everyone else is doing,” said Saiga bracingly, smiling behind dark sunglasses in the dark street. “That's what I do - fake it.”

 

Not really what I was asking, thought Rikuo wryly. But the walk had landed him at the edge of the bon dance circle. He stopped abruptly, while Kakei and Saiga waded into the current of the dance. Mmm, guess I'm not much of a man for dancing with dead relatives, either. Mother? Father? Hopefully… not Tsukiko… The thought that they might actually be here, or that his actions might summon them here, suddenly spooked him completely. Frozen to the spot, he watched the others dance.

 

Saiga danced seriously, habitual smile gone for once, interacting with no one living, just the spirits only he could see behind his dark glasses. Kakei, pretty much abandoned, danced without spirit, more or less carried along as the circle went round.

 

Kei and Kazahaya, nicely matched, danced delicately, slowly, both entranced. They held hands like small children clinging together to venture out into the big world, trusting they'd be OK if only they didn't let go of each other. Rikuo's throat constricted. If Kei was dead and gone, Kazahaya really was alone facing the big world, no more prepared than a small child.

 

Thinking this, he wondered if there were anything inside the heart locket, so pulled it out to look. Indeed, inside there was a picture, and a tiny braid, maybe 10 hairs to a strand, of fine light-colored child's hair - perhaps the hair of two light-haired children, woven together. Careful not to drop the hair, he squinted and turned the locket around to catch the street lights, in order to see the tiny picture, barely a centimeter tall, glazed into the curved back of the heart. The twins were probably seven years old, in their school uniforms, happy and healthy and grinning, snuggled each on the lap of the smiling opposite-sex parent. These parents loved their strange offspring, with their strange gifts.

 

Kudo-san-tachi, are you here? he addressed the parents in the picture. He prayed to a friend's dead parents, for the moment forgetful of his fear of addressing his own. Your son is alone now… but he has us. He has me. Please, I don't understannd why your daughter won't let him go… or maybe why your son won't let her go… Please, can you come and guide your daughter away? She shouldn't be here anymore. And I'll hold Kazahaya's hand…

 

Realizing with a jolt what he was saying in his head, he replaced the little braid and snapped the locket shut, shoving it back into his pocket. Kudo-san-tachi… please forgive me. I did mean it… I just feel like an idiot for meaning it. You didn't have a son my age, but… I hope you understand. Your grown son would feel the same, believe me. Like an idiot… With that, his own mercifully forgotten family returned to mind, and the jagged clanging feelings catapulted him into the dance himself.

 

Rikuo was soon as immersed in the dance as Kei or Kazahaya or Saiga. After a few turns, he noticed Kakei too had eventually engaged in some inner dialogue. At first, each step of the dance was painful, a remembered hurt reviewed, a cold rebuff, a cruel word, a betrayal, a disappointment, an abandonment of a thousand days. But each lingering resentment flew up into the sultry August dark as he lifted a foot, old stored anger and hurt melting into the humid air. At some point, after he knew not how long, he simply found himself at the edge of the circle again, finished and calm. His parents were… wherever… and he was here, with friends. He was OK with that, and felt perhaps they were OK with that too.

 

Looking around, he realized the others had finished before him. They were companionably eating yakitori and fruit with their ancestors back at the lanterns.

 

Sheepishly rejoining them, he sat on the step below the Himura lantern with its unfamiliar crest. “Sorry, got kinda caught up. Never done that before. That's… kind of amazing.”

 

“I was surprised, too,” murmured Kakei, idly tracing a fingernail around the edge of his paper lantern.

 

“I do it every year,” said Saiga. “Feel completely refreshed afterwards.”

 

Rikuo chuckled. “Saiga-san, I've known you for years, and I don't believe I'll ever know you at all.”

 

Saiga grinned. “Bought you yakitori and cold tea.” He handed Rikuo chicken on a stick and a green can.

 

The twins were quiet. Kazahaya was clearly beat. Kei sat a step above him, next to their lantern, so Kazahaya could rest his head on her knees, eyes closed. She played tenderly with his hair, and occasionally stroked his hot face with a cool tea can.

 

Given his silent dialogue during the dance, begrudging friendly conversation with a dead girl, suddenly struck Rikuo as rather petty. “Is Kazahaya asleep, Kudo-san?” he asked Kei kindly. She waggled a hand so-so. “I spoke to your parents out there, too.”

 

“Really?” she asked. “Did they say anything?”

 

“No. Well, not directly.” Rikuo noticed that Kakei's attention was riveted on him, eyes narrowed. Saiga was folding an origami doll with pink patterned yukata, but no doubt was also listening. “While you were dancing with Kazahaya… I was thinking how much you two loved and needed each other. Clung to each other. Being… different… and with your parents gone… with a guardian who hid you away… It must be hard to let go.”

 

“I promised I wouldn't, not ever,” she whispered. “He needs me.”

 

“He has us now, though,” said Kakei softly. “We'll take good care of him, help him grow up.”

 

“That's the problem, isn't it,” Kei said, her voice catching. “It's not just me who can't move on, is it… Even before I… died… he held on to me to give me strength. And afterwards… It takes too much out of him, doesn't it.”

 

“Is that why he left?” asked Kakei. “He realized he had to leave you to live?”

 

“Yes, I think so…” The tears began to flow. “You have to understand. I didn't want to hurt him. He didn't want to be alone. I couldn't leave him all alone. I promised,” she sobbed.

 

Kazahaya stirred. “What's wrong, Kei?”

 

“I think I need to go now. Your friends are going to help me go now. Dear brother.”

 

Kazahaya grabbed her hand. “Kei!” he cried in anguish.

 

“It's alright, Kudo-kun,” said Kakei, stroking his back. “You'll see.”

 

“Ah, the doll is finished,” said Saiga. “Do you like it, Kudo-san?”

 

Kei wiped her tears and took the paper doll. She smiled at him best she could. “Thank you. Yes, it's lovely. But I… don't know what to do.”

 

“It's alright,” soothed Kakei. “Let's pack our lanterns and take them to the river.”

 

They packed everything up and walked a few blocks to a canal-like bit of river, like a hundred others running dark and silent between concrete banks through the city. The twins were entwined in each other's arms, but Kazahaya was so tired that Rikuo had to help Kei half-carry him along. At the river's embankment, Saiga and Rikuo handed the twins over the concrete ballustrade, and all five perched on the narrow bit of vertical wall above the water.

 

Kakei and Rikuo and Saiga prepared their boats first, gradually working out the knack of getting candle and lantern and boat all lowered to the water and floating safely out to sea. Kakei's boat foundered altogether. Rikuo's was still afloat for the little distance they could see it, but the candle drowned. By the third try, Saiga's boat looked well on its way, glowing softly around the bend.

 

“Well, I think we've got the hang of this,” said Saiga. “Shall I put the doll in for you?” he asked Kei kindly. Kei handed over the doll, trying to be brave.

 

“The locket and charms you gave your brother, Kudo-san. Shall we put them in as well?” Kakei asked.

 

She started to nod, but then gripped Kazahaya's hand tightly and sobbed in anguish. “Do you have any other pictures, Kazahaya?” But Kazahaya didn't answer. He held tightly to her hand in return, but seemed too far gone to speak.

 

“I'll keep just the locket for him, then,” said Rikuo, “but put the rest in, including the braid of hair. I'll show him the locket sometimes, but keep him safe from it. I won't let him touch it. Is that OK, Kudo-san?” She nodded gratefully, and Rikuo did as he'd suggested. Kakei actually ended up with custody of the locket, though, as he tried to see the picture but was unsuccessful in the dark canal. He wanted to see it later, but promised to return it into Rikuo's keeping.

 

The doll at the helm, candle lit, lantern attached, precious cargo aboard, the boat was ready to launch. “When you're ready,” said Kakei softly.

 

Kei turned to say good-bye to Kazahaya, but his eyes kept drifting closed, and he couldn't respond. So she embraced him and kissed him gently. Then she handed his ring and chained hand to Rikuo. “Take care of him, please, Himura-san?”

 

“Absolutely,” promised Rikuo. He slipped his hand inside the ring chains to hold Kazahaya. He put his other arm around Kazahaya and held him across the stomach, tucking his fingers under the belt he'd loaned him. “I'm glad to have met you, Kudo-san. Good-bye.”

 

“I'm glad to have met you all. Thank you, so much. I'm glad little brother isn't alone anymore.”

 

Saiga nodded, and carefully lowered the little ship to the dark water. As he loosed the ship, Kei faded and shrunk and merged with the paper doll.

 

“I love you, little brother, and set you free. Please be well,” came whispered back across the water. They watched until the lantern bobbed beyond the bend, sailing bravely toward the wide black Pacific.

 

Eventually Kakei asked, “Any chance of rousing Kudo-kun?”

 

“Dead to the world,” said Rikuo. “It's OK. I'm used to carrying him home.”

 

“He never, ever, touches this locket. Agreed?”

 

“Agreed,” said Rikuo.

 

“Definitely,” said Saiga.

 

And they carried Kazahaya and their Bon-in-a-box home, each at peace with his ghosts for the night.

 

-oOo-

 

o-bon - Aug. 13-16 Buddhist festival to pray for the repose of one's ancestors. Japanese ancestors' spirits come back to be reunited with their family during o-bon. Street dances (bon odori) are one of the observances.

 

hapi coat - a short cotton working kimono, reaching the bottom of the torso. Sushi chefs wear them. Common at summer festivals, because a long yukata or kimono makes poor activewear. Underneath men may have shorts or pants or an old-fashioned loincloth. The sweat bandana is also an I'm-working-hard type of thing.

 

obatarians - gaggles of embarrassing old ladies.

 

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