Okami Renshin:
While I ran home, I tried to force my body to speed up the way it had when running from that fox. Unfortunately, my body didn't respond the way I needed. However, I did discover something unusual. For some reason or another, I could feel the muscles in my legs moving differently. Like I had been running with weights strapped to me my entire life. Now, my muscles moved with efficiency. Not one fiber lagging behind another. It wasn't until I made this discovery that I realized I, in fact, was running faster than usual. As I processed this, it caused me to stop in place. I was always naturally inquisitive, but I felt like I couldn't stop myself from exploring the changes within me. It felt like my entire body was screaming at me to use it. So, I disregarded my father's instructions and followed my own. I looked down at my calves and studied them as I crouched down. Since I've been examining my own body for years, it wasn't hard at all for me to notice that the muscle groups in my calves had grown more prominent; they had grown stronger. "Well, would ya look at that?!" I said in amazement at my discovery. Seeing how my muscles stretched and contracted gave me an idea. Though it was a foolish idea, so was launching my fist at a tree with all my might. However, that turned out better than I expected. With a curious grin on my face, I asked myself, "how bad could it be?" I gathered every ounce of strength available and launched myself toward the nearest tree branch.
For one second, my half-curious grin grew larger. I couldn't believe that I was soaring through the air. "Oh shit," Those were the first words out of my mouth when I realized I poorly aimed my jump. "Oh, God!" came out of my mouth next when I realized I was about to crash into the ground for the second time that night. Thanks to my grandfather and mother teaching me to always stay calm, I managed to turn to the side before I hit my back on the ground. I landed with a loud thud and rolled in the dirt, while letting out a groan of pain. It wasn't until the groan left my mouth that I assessed the level of pain I felt. A fall like that certainly should have broken my arm. After all, I fell at least six meters down. My arm should have been completely shattered. Yet, the only thing wrong with my arm was that it had a bruise on it of the exact nature when getting punched too hard. I stared deadpan at the bruise on my light brown skin. I tried to wrap my mind around what just happened.
At that moment, I came to two harrowing conclusions. First, my body certainly had changed, and somehow, I failed to notice it. Second, I had no way of understanding or even controlling the changes in my body. I once again glanced down at my hands. "Is this what mom was talking about?" I asked myself in a desperate tone. I needed to understand what was going on with me! Just like I always had, I looked at the crescent moon floating in the air as if it held the answers I sought. When I looked up, I quickly realized it had moved. As soon as this realization hit me, I knew what that meant. While I was busy testing my body, time didn't wait for me to do so. "I'm so late!" I said while jumping to my feet, turning north, and spriting with all my might. This time, while I ran, I was far more cautious of the tree trunks in front of me.
In a forest as vast as the one behind my home, running on the ground was no easy feat. I spent more energy jumping over old tree roots and dodging tree bark rather than actually running. "There's gotta be a more efficient method of travel," I quietly thought to myself. Since adrenaline was coursing through my veins, I had no way of knowing if I made it home faster or not. It wasn't until I stood at my backdoor that I recognized two more changes in my body: I could both smell and hear my father before I even entered the home. He was pacing. Not only was he pacing, he was drinking. An annoyed sigh escaped my lips as I opened the door and walked through. The creaking from the hinges rang in my ears like nails on a chalkboard. I quickly pressed my hand up to my ear while saying, "Ow!" As soon as he heard the creaking of the door, my father changed direction and marched toward me. Once I shut the door behind me, I did nothing but stand in place and stare at my feet. Despite not making eye contact with him, I could smell him well enough to give myself an idea as to where he was.
"I called you thirty minutes ago." he remarked in a commanding tone of voice. I trusted my father as far as I could throw him. I'd fully expect the instant he found out my body was different, he'd sell me out to become some kind of experiment. Through years of dealing with him and analyzing him myself, I had effectively learned how to lie my way out of anything. "I fell down and broke my phone. So, I lost my way." "You lousy brat!" my father shot at me. The instant I raised my head to look at him, the back of his hand collided with my face. Once I felt the stinging sensation, a realization that should've occurred to me before rang in my mind. My silver eyes rested on the fading bruise on my arm as I asked myself, "If a fall like that couldn't hurt me…" I slowly turned my head. For the first time in my life, my gaze met my father's as I continued to ask, "... how could he?!"
Though I only caught a glimpse of it, I saw fear in my father's eyes. That must've been how I looked at the three-tailed fox that stared up at me. As soon as my father realized he feared his fourteen-year-old son, he did exactly what I expected him to do. He clenched his fist and sent it crashing into my face. The moment I hit the ground, my father grabbed me by my shirt and asked, "So you think you're tough, huh!?" Realizing that whether I gave a response or not wouldn't change anything, I opted to stay silent. Once he saw that there was no more defiance left, my father let go of my shirt, causing me to hit my back on the ground. "Don't you ever look at me like that again, got it!?" I looked into my father's light brown eyes and studied the way he looked at me. He stared at me as if I was inferior to him. And I let him think that so that he'd leave me alone. The instant he walked into another room, I spit out the blood I had been holding back from when he punched me. As I stared at it, a slight grin formed on my face. "It didn't hurt!"
I whispered to myself in an astonished tone of voice. The grin on my face turned into a complete smile as I laughed and said, "He can't hurt me anymore!" I quickly picked myself up and darted up the stairs and into my room. I happily plopped down on my bed with my book in hand. "There's nothing he can do to hurt me!" I happily reassured myself while looking in a mirror.
With the reality that my father could no longer harm me set in my mind, I decided to put a plan together. Now that he couldn't harm me, he couldn't stop me from leaving. "But where would I go?" I asked myself while falling down onto my pillow. My jet-black hair fell down on my eyebrows as I began taking deep breaths. One of the other practices that my grandfather wrote for me was meditation. It used to be one of my favorite pastimes. However, whenever I tried to meditate and clear my mind, my mother kept coming up. I could hear her laugh, her cries, her voice. I see her face. I see her smile.
When it's just me alone with my thoughts, she's the only thing that comes up. So, rather than try to meditate, I just forced myself to drift off to sleep. So far, it worked. I felt my breathing naturally grow heavier as I rolled over to my side. My grandfather 's teachings had worked until I heard a ring. My head popped straight up as I turned to my door. I quickly realized it was my father's phone that was ringing. I couldn't understand why the ringing of his phone hurt my ears so much. "Are they sensitive to a certain pitch? What am I, a dog?" I asked myself with a slight chuckle. As soon as I laid back down, I heard my father answer. I managed to tune most of it out due to my complete lack of interest in anything my father had to talk about. It was pretty easy since I was already half asleep. However, the instant my ears caught my father saying, "Like I said, don't worry about it. You paid me to do something I would've done for free."
My eyes shot open as I sat up! Suddenly, the statement I made earlier in the day popped into my mind, "I don't understand how someone like him could ever get a raise." I slowly turned my head until my eyes rested on my bedroom door. I listened as my father walked outside to continue the rest of the conversation. Though he walked as far away from me as possible, I could still hear him vividly.
Arata Renshin:
Once I stepped outside so Okami wouldn't hear me, I raised my burner phone back up to my ear and said, "Alright, go ahead." "So, you're in need of more, are you?" the man who gave me the poison to drug Natomi asked me. With a grin on my aged face, I happily answered, "Yeah, I want the exact same kind you gave me to deal with Natomi. My Boss is deciding who to give this new position to, and it's between another employee and me." I heard him chuckle as he remarked, "I see you're eliminating the competition. Smart power move." I shrugged my shoulders while replying, "I'm just doing what's best for me. I'm sure you can understand." "Yes, I can." the man shot back. Rather than a chuckle, he laughed in my ear as he stated, "Just like me, you're a selfish bastard. I have a bit of a sentiment for selfish people like yourself." My grin only widened, causing me to quickly respond, "I selfishly accept."
"Now, if you want it untraceable like I did with Natomi's, you're gonna have to give me a week." the man cautiously advised. "Don't trip," I assured. Leaning against my home, I calmly remarked, "I got a month to dead this guy." "Then it sounds like we're in agreement. Get rid of this burner. I'll give you another one next time I see you," the man happily ordered. "Got it," I said while hanging up. I dropped the phone on the ground and stomped on it until it was completely broken. I carefully grabbed what was left and threw it into the trash bin. Once I turned to walk into my home, another smirk etched itself onto my face as I thought of how much money I was going to be rolling in. With my hands in my pockets, I walked with a joyous stride and thought, "I think I've earned myself a beer!" As soon as I reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle, I felt something wrong. I felt something I hadn't felt in years. I could feel that someone, or rather something, was coming to take my life.
I slowly turned my head and watched as a white-haired kid rounded the corner. His fists were clenched together, so hard blood ran from the palms of his hands. His teeth looked like serrated knives designed for tearing through flesh and bone. It wasn't until he turned toward me that I saw the set of ears on top of his head. The fur possessed the exact same hue as hair. There were scars etched into the light brown skin on his forearm; scars that looked all too familiar. Upon processing what I saw, I knew what the kid was. I didn't think that it'd happen so fast! I was told it should've been years before it would happen! "So why now?!" I asked myself as fear coursed through my system. However, the true terror didn't seep into my core until I realized that this was my kid. This was Okami!
When he finally raised his head and met my gaze, it caused me to drop the bottle of beer in my hand. The glass shattered against the ground while my eyes went wide. I watched his usual silver eyes darken to a scarlet hue; just like Natomi! When he opened his mouth and angrily declared, "I'm going to kill you for what you did!" I no longer recognized him. Kill? Kill ME?! "When and where did he get the resolve to kill?!" I asked myself out of desperation. I watched as my son took one step forward and suddenly appeared before me faster than I could even blink! His scarred hand wrapped itself around my throat. With nothing but sheer strength, Okami tightened his grip around my airway and threw me to the ground. I looked up at him and watched as his foot crashed into my jaw. Blood flew out of my mouth as my canine tooth was knocked out of place. Suddenly, I felt something heavy drop onto my chest and knock the wind out of my body. I looked up, I saw Okami kicking me in my chest!
The only thing I could think to do was roll onto my back in an attempt to regain my stolen breath. Okami dropped down next to me and wrapped both of his hands around my esophagus. He was strangling me! As soon as I looked him in the eyes, I watched as a grin crept onto his face; a grin that I'd never seen him make before. This grin caused him to order, "You look me in the eyes as you die! You did this to my mother! This is the least you deserve!" With all the might I could muster in my right hand, I launched it towards Okami's jaw. I felt the contact against my knuckles. However, just like before, when I hit him, he was unphased. He only looked me in my eyes and calmly stated, "You can't hurt me anymore. My mother is the last person you'll ever hurt!" It wasn't until I really looked my son in the eyes that I understood the answer to my own question. He got the resolve to kill from me. After all, he's looking down at me the exact same way I looked at the very first man I ever killed. For the first time that I could remember, I felt a bit of pride in my son.
Okami Renshin:
I watched as my father gave up any attempt to fight me back, almost as if he gave up on his will to live. Either way, I didn't care. The only thing I cared about was seeing the lifeless look on his face for what he did to my mother! It wasn't until I heard the snap of his neck that I stopped crushing his airway. I huffed and puffed as I stared down at his corpse. The smile that formed on my face returned, only larger this time. The smile made me think it was a little funny. I couldn't figure out what exactly about it was funny; I just knew something was. Something had to be. That could've been the only reason why I was laughing. However, if I was laughing because something was funny, why was I also sobbing? I couldn't understand why or even how I was both laughing and crying at the same time.