Forgotten Past - Part 2 - Chapter 4

Kagekao followed AkaDoku through the city. Soon, they reach a moderately sized warehouse.

“おまえここに住んでいる？” (Is this where you live?) Kage asked, looking at the building.

“そうです.” (It is) Doku walks towards it. “来てね.” (Come on)

Doku walked around the side of the building. Kage sees that the doors are closed shut, possibly locked. Doku goes past the doors and to a window. The window is high up, but there are a few crates underneath it.

Doku climbs up the crates and then opens the window. He crawls inside and then beckons Kage to follow him. Kage follows, climbing up the wall without the crate’s help. He goes through the window and then shuts it behind him.

In the warehouse, there are many crates and boxes along with random items here and there. It reminds Kage of where he had lived, yet somehow it was different.

Looking around, there didn’t seem to be any other demons; or any other creatures at all. Kage supposed that they could be hiding; there were many places to hide oneself here.

“You said that two friends of yours lived here; どこにいる？” (Where are they?) Kage questioned, still looking around.

“Emm . . .” Doku looked around at the numerous boxes. “見つける.” (I’ll find them)

Doku goes forward and looks along one of the shelves, moving around various objects to search. Finding no one on the shelf, he moves along to several of the boxes beside it.

“え、どこにいる？” (Eh, where are you?) Doku looks around at the boxes and stops, staring at the boxes intently.

“あ！あった！” (Ah! There!) Doku climbs over several of the boxes and to a box a bit larger than the others. He opens it up and starts searching through the items inside. He pulls out several items and puts them to the side.

“みつけた～！” (Found you~!) Doku reached his arm inside and pulled something out. Long and slender, it was colored with bright hues of black, yellow, and red. It looked around in confusion, flicking its small forked tongue; it was a coral snake.

“キバ！” (Kiba! [Fang]) Doku smiled as Kiba the coral snake looked around, his beady black eyes emotionless, yet somehow surprised.

Kage stared at the snake, a little disappointed.

“友達は蛇?” (Your friend is a snake?) Kage looked around, “You said there were two friends, a him and her, where is she?”

“Ah, I’ll look!” Doku put the coral snake around his neck and started to search the boxes again.

He looked around intently at the boxes again, and then headed towards one of them. Doku opened up this box, and started looking through it.

“Here she is! Kawa likes to hide a lot.” (Kawa - River) Doku reached in and pulled out another snake. This one was larger than the other, and was a bright mixture of greens with black designs on her back; it was a large Okinawan habu.  

The habu looks around, flicking her tongue to sense her surroundings.

Doku got down from the boxes and walked back towards Kage, both of the snakes in hand.

“What’s wrong?” Doku noticed that Kage seemed disappointed. “You don’t like snakes?”

“No, it’s not that I don’t like snakes. I was just hoping that they might be someone else.” Kage sighed and thought for a moment. “Wouldn’t they be more of pets, rather than friends?”

“They’re not pets, they’re friends!” Doku looked at his reptilian companions, “It’s not like I make them stay in a tank all day or something!”

He seemed to turn sad, looking down at the Okinawan habu.

“Besides, they’re all I have since . . . well, umm . . . since . . .” His voice trailed off, remembering something from the past.

They were silent.  

“Oh, right!” Doku broke the silence, he had pushed the hurtful memories from the past away. “Here, hold Kawa.” Doku handed Kage the large serpent.

Doku quickly walked over to a shelf and began looking around it. He pushed aside objects, searching for something. Finding nothing on the bottom shelf, he climbed up the side to the top of it. Spotting a box, he grabbed it and dropped it to the ground. The noise that it made when it hit the ground suggested that it was rather heavy.

Doku jumped to the ground and landed next to the box. He opened it up, revealing its contents. The box was filled with assorted papers and things of that nature. There were pages of script, notes, letters, photos, etc. He rummaged through the papers, looking for the photographs and putting aside the ones that were not what he was looking for.

Finally, he found what he desired, and put the items that he had removed from the box back inside of it. Closing and then pushing the box away, Doku stood up and walked over to Kage.

He took the habu back, and handed Kage what he had been looking for; a photo. Kage took the photo and looked at it.

The photo was of three people. Behind them could be seen a lake or a river. The sun was in the sky, causing the surface of the water to shimmer. The vegetation around them was lush and beautiful, and there were a few birds in the sky or on the branches. From the three people, Kage could recognize himself. He appeared about six or seven. But these other two, his parents? In the margins of the photograph was written ‘カゲカオ.’ (Kagekao)

“お母さん？お父さん？” (Mom? Dad?) Kage whispered to himself quietly. He stared at the picture in silence, hoping dearly that their faces would bring back some memory, any memory, to him. But they didn’t.

“Doku, where did you find this?” Kage asked, not looking up from the photo.

“A while ago I was in the neighboring city, just exploring and looking around, taking some stuff that was interesting. In the woods there I found a house, and I found this photo as well. It interested me, so I took it.”

“Will you take me there?” Kage asked, still staring at the photo.

“To the house? It’s kind of far, might take a little while.”

“I don’t care, I just want to go.”

“Well, alright then. When do you want to leave?”

“As soon as possible.” Kage replied, finally taking his eyes off the photo.

“You sure you don’t want to rest or anything?”

“No.”

“Okay, I’ll take you right now if you want.” Doku set the habu on one of the shelves, where it slowly moved away into the shadows. He took the coral snake off his neck and placed it on top of one of the boxes, where it slithered into it and concealed itself in its contents.

“Follow me then.” Doku walked away, back to the window where they had entered.

Kage took another look at the photo, still hoping it would bring back memories, but it didn’t. He put the photo into his pocket and followed Doku.