My Light

Your light is like your spotlight. Your light is your love, happiness, and hope. The more love, happiness, and hope you have the brighter it shines. When something or someone dearest to you is lost, your light will darken. There are those who have lights that are completely black. Lights of which that are completely black are truely evil. The people who own these lights are evil as well. They do unforgiveable things to those whose lights shine the brightest. When this happens a person's light will darken or go completely black. It's up to the person to bright their light. If they fail in doing so, they will became bitter and jealous of people with bright lights. Those who refuse to give will go looking for someone to help them. The people who help are known as temporary lights. A temporary light only helps you for a short time. The person you need to find is your permant light or the person on the other end of your red thread. Now that you know about your light I can tell you my story.

Mommy used to tell me about my light alot when she was alive. But my father killed her. As of now I'm running from his men. You see I'm the son of daimyo Tatakai Ryuketsu. Which makes me Tatakai Bankotsu. Mommy was married to him before I was born. Ryuketsu thought he was a kami, or a god, and with this thought planted in his head he thought he could never be killed or die. When he found out about mommy being pregnant with me, Ryuketsu  told her he would kill me right after I was born. He found to pointless to have childern since he was going to live 'forever.' Mommy soon leave Ryuketsu so that my life could be saved. After leaving Ryuketsu, mommy met Koibito, my step-dad. Koibito is my daddy not Ryuketsu. Ryuketsu needs to die. I promised mommy I would avenge her and daddy.

"I pro.....promised mommy...I will....avenge..y-you and d-daddy even...even if...it k-kills me," is what I told her before she died. Mommy was able to stay hiden from Ryuketsu for five years. I loved her so much. She was so beautiful and she had a beautiful name. Her name was Oniyuri, which means tiger lily. Mommy had long dark brown hair that she always kept in a braid. And she had the prettiest blue eyes. I miss her so much.

After mommy and daddy's deaths, my light has darken. The only thing left of it is a tiny flicker of light, my hope. I've been running through darkness since their deaths. I have found many temorany lights and also many fake lights. One thing I didn't tell you about your light is what a fake light is. A fake light is a light that's there but when you reach it, it disappears.

That's it! I can't take it anymore! I stop and cry out into the darkness," Where are you my light?! I need you! Show me where you are! Please! I need you! Please!" Tears start to form. They start coming down my face like a heavy rain. As I rise my head to start searching again, a very dim light appears. I get up and run towards it as faster as I can. It has to be my permant light! It has to be! In the middle of the light stands a boy. He has on a light brown kimono with a thin red obi tied around him. His hair is tied back in a simple ponytail but he's left the front part of his hair out of it.

Crap! Crap! My father's men are right behind me! I'm going to get captured! Crap! CRAP!!! Blinded my tears, I see a blurred image of the same boy that I saw in the dim light. "Help me!" I cry out to him. He turns around. When I reach him, he's on his knees. "Get on."  I do as he tells me. "Hold on tight, okay." Hold on!? I'll never let go, no matter what. I trust you. Please! Just...just don't let them capture me. I don't to die. I have to avenge mommy and daddy just like I promised.

He takes off in a dead sprint. He's a lot faster than me. If it wasn't for him, Ryuketsu's men would have captured me by now. As I begin to relax a bit, I'm suddenly on the ground. The tears start to form and fall again. I look up at him with my eyes full of fear. You're not going to let them get me, are you? I...I trusted you. Why? Why?! My tears are worse than they were earlier. He reaches his hand out to me. "Give me your hand," he says calmly. I open my eyes and look up at him again, shocked. "I thought you...you were going to just leave me here." "Will you just shutup and give me your freaking hand." I grab his hand and clench it tightly. He tugs on my arm and pulls me to my feet.

When he releases my hand, I make an attempt to grab it again but fail. The next thing I know I find myself hugging him. "What are you doing?" he asks, trying to push me  off. "Arigato for helping me," I say. "Yeah, yeah. Would you just get off me now," he commands. "Oh, sorry." It didn't hit me that I had such a tight grip on him. I release him. Why did I hug him? Nevermind that. I need to focus on escaping Ryuketsu. The boy walks over to the nearest tree and motions for me to come to him. I follow his command. He lifts me into the tree and then climbs it. "Hey, I think they're over here." Those are Ryuketsu's men. I panic. Crap! Crap! "Would you relax! We're fine!" he yells. "They're over there!"

"Shit! Okay, kid, keep your mouth shut." We follow the same actions over and over again to get to the top. Lift, climb up, lift, climb up. Now we sit on a thin tree branch. I can barely see the ground. And it's a good thing because I'm afraid of heights. "What the hell?! The sound came from over here." "Cra-" He throws his hand over my mouth and whispers loudly, "I told you to shut the hell up!" We stay in that position for the rest of the day until Ryuketsu's men are gone. He helps me down the tree.

"Arigato for helping me. I'm forever in your debt. By the way, what's your name?"

"Jakotsu, but what's it to you? We'll never see each other again."

Never see each other again? I hug him again. "Please, don't leave me. I need help killing Ryuketsu." Jakotsu shoves me off. "Why the hell would I help you again? If Ryuketsu or one of his men sees me with you, I'm dead! I'm not risking my life to help some brat!" I look at his eyes. They're full of pain. "Who did it to you?"

"Do what?"

"Hurt you."

"It..it's none of your business." Jakotsu walks away.

"Where are you going?"

He stops. "You said you wanted help. You're coming, aren't you?"

I run and tackle him. "Arigato, Onii-san!"

"Okay, okay. Get off me."

That night...

Jakotsu comes back with a blanket. "This is all I could find. I know it's not much but...well you know the rest," he hands me the blanket, "Here. You need this more than I do."

He lies down several feet from me. "Onii-san, don't you want to share the blanket. I don't mind."

"This is the last time I'm tell you. My name is Jakotsu. Not 'onii-san'. I'm not your big brother. And NO I do not."

I crawl over to him. I don't care what he says. Jakotsu's share this blanket with me, if he likes it or not. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Sleeping next to my onii-san."

"Did you not just hear a thing I said or are you too stubburn?"

"Too Stubburn and if I curl up next to you I'm sorry. It's just a thing that happens when I sleep next to someone."

"Anything else?" I shake my head. "Okay, good night."

"Aishiteru, onii-san."

"BANKOTSU!!! FOR THE LAST DAMN TIME I AM NOT YOUR ONII-SAN!!!"

"Onii-san! Onii-san! Onii-san!" He sighs. "This is going to be a long night."