Third Person: He was dreaming, and it wasn't a happy dream.
The dream was pain and blood, it was fear and heartbreak, and it was words filled with hate. Pain from both people's lips that spilled insults and curses and death, and pain from fists and sticks and weapons raining down on his body. He heard his own pleas and screams, felt his throat go sore by it, felt tears spill down his face as they burned his face with marks that would last for eternity.
When he woke up, he felt his body shivering, tense with memories flooding his mind, seeing faces of people who only wished him pain, instead of the ceiling above him. A strangled sound escaped his throat, and he was unable to tell them to stop, don't, he had nothing to do with it.
When his mind returned to him, sharply telling him that it was something long passed, he noticed. Uzume's body-heat wasn't there... Nor the crushing familiarity of his bone-breaking hugs... What... ”Uzu...!?” Where was he? Where was the stupid idiot? And, when he turned to look to his other side, where was Minamo?
With a body that was still tense and filled with fear, confusion and the need for his friends, he sat up, looked around him and his mind screamed. No, where was anyone? None of the others were there, not Thread Eyes, not Doctor, not Cat Eyes, not Hime-san or Nee-san, nor either of the two tanuki. He was all alone, in a place that he didn't know, didn't recognize, and he didn't like it, he hated it, it reminded him far too much of the loneliness and pain back when he was a child, blamed for being part of something that his father had done all on his own. Things that he had nothing to do with, that he had been punished for.
He rubbed his sleeve over his face, wiped traces of tears, only barely there, and tried not to think about the tattoos that he hated so much. With his movement, something moved in his lap, rolled from his knee and over the floor. With eyes wild, he turned his gaze to it, and noticed what it was.
He must have fallen sleep while reading through the scroll, filled with the old tale of the Kokonotsu written down on it. Taking a deep, shaky breath in an attempt to calm down, he reached for the scroll. Yes, it was the tale of the Kokonotsu treasure. Filled with notes added by people from their group. There were scrawls that was unmistakably Thread Eyes', words written in a tidy hand, belonging to Doctor, Ne-chan's neat but elegant letters. And Uzume's almost illegible writing, corrected with Chouza's own writing. The scroll was even signed, close to Thread Eyes' writing, by Pochi's paw print.
Feeling the texture of the familiar item, feeling the faint scents of everyone mixed together sticking to the scroll, he noticed how his breathing calmed, his grip relaxing. His body was still shivering infrequently, but it wasn't a terrible force anymore, even if he felt as if he was about to double over from the thoughts running through his mind.
Unease and determination took over instead, and he clutched tighter to the scroll as he slowly climbed to his feet. First of all, he had to find the others.
[CANON] Chouza Habaki | Itsuwaribito Utsuho | Reserved | 4/4
He was dreaming, and it wasn't a happy dream.
The dream was pain and blood, it was fear and heartbreak, and it was words filled with hate. Pain from both people's lips that spilled insults and curses and death, and pain from fists and sticks and weapons raining down on his body. He heard his own pleas and screams, felt his throat go sore by it, felt tears spill down his face as they burned his face with marks that would last for eternity.
When he woke up, he felt his body shivering, tense with memories flooding his mind, seeing faces of people who only wished him pain, instead of the ceiling above him. A strangled sound escaped his throat, and he was unable to tell them to stop, don't, he had nothing to do with it.
When his mind returned to him, sharply telling him that it was something long passed, he noticed. Uzume's body-heat wasn't there... Nor the crushing familiarity of his bone-breaking hugs... What... ”Uzu...!?” Where was he? Where was the stupid idiot? And, when he turned to look to his other side, where was Minamo?
With a body that was still tense and filled with fear, confusion and the need for his friends, he sat up, looked around him and his mind screamed. No, where was anyone? None of the others were there, not Thread Eyes, not Doctor, not Cat Eyes, not Hime-san or Nee-san, nor either of the two tanuki. He was all alone, in a place that he didn't know, didn't recognize, and he didn't like it, he hated it, it reminded him far too much of the loneliness and pain back when he was a child, blamed for being part of something that his father had done all on his own. Things that he had nothing to do with, that he had been punished for.
He rubbed his sleeve over his face, wiped traces of tears, only barely there, and tried not to think about the tattoos that he hated so much. With his movement, something moved in his lap, rolled from his knee and over the floor. With eyes wild, he turned his gaze to it, and noticed what it was.
He must have fallen sleep while reading through the scroll, filled with the old tale of the Kokonotsu written down on it. Taking a deep, shaky breath in an attempt to calm down, he reached for the scroll. Yes, it was the tale of the Kokonotsu treasure. Filled with notes added by people from their group. There were scrawls that was unmistakably Thread Eyes', words written in a tidy hand, belonging to Doctor, Ne-chan's neat but elegant letters. And Uzume's almost illegible writing, corrected with Chouza's own writing. The scroll was even signed, close to Thread Eyes' writing, by Pochi's paw print.
Feeling the texture of the familiar item, feeling the faint scents of everyone mixed together sticking to the scroll, he noticed how his breathing calmed, his grip relaxing. His body was still shivering infrequently, but it wasn't a terrible force anymore, even if he felt as if he was about to double over from the thoughts running through his mind.
Unease and determination took over instead, and he clutched tighter to the scroll as he slowly climbed to his feet. First of all, he had to find the others.