misfortune | bl | jjk

8: his freedom

8: his freedom

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September 13, 2010

"Happy birthday to me, I guess." Seven-year-old Ayafuji Hayama blew the cheap birthday candle inserted in the cupcake he bought at the convenience store. Taking it off and haphazardly throwing it away in the trash bin, Hayama took a bite out of the cupcake, eating more than half it.

His cheeks puffed out while chewing. If someone poked his cheeks, Hayama would have spat it out.

Today, Hayama once again celebrated his birthday alone. It wasn't that his parents didn't care for him. It was just that they died while hunting curses when he was only three years old. Although Hayama was young, his cognition developed pretty early so he remembered a lot of things in his younger years.

His parents would always come home beaten up but they presented a smile each time they greeted him. They would pick him up, embrace him tight, and ask what he wanted to eat.

When he was younger, Hayama loved his mother's homemade blueberry cupcakes.

Now, he still loves blueberry cupcakes but not as much as he used to. He only ate them during his birthdays, just so that Hayama wouldn't feel like he was all alone on such a special day.

As for his relatives?

They might as well not exist at all.

Little Hayama was a bad-tempered kid. When his cousins annoy him, he beats them up.

When his cousins ask if he wants to play with them, he says no and beats them up.

If his cousins ask if he wants to eat dinner at their place, he says no and beats them up.

Hayama often resorted to violence and no one could control him. Some adults in the clan wanted to kick him out for his unruly behaviour. Besides, what kind of benefit could a child as disobedient as him bring to the clan?

Two days after Hayama's seventh birthday, his talent as a sorcerer came to light and slapped those adults in the face.

After how many years, the Ayafuji's once again nurtured a high-grade sorcerer.

If Hayama heard them say those words, he would have retorted with a, "Nurtured my ass."

...

"No."

The atmosphere in the room turned heavy.

The elders of the clan had called for Ayafuji Hayama, the newest sorcerer in the family. They were informing him of his new duties as a sorcerer of the clan when this child unexpectedly raised his hand and refused the honor of serving the family.

"Why would I when you people forced me to live in a dilapidated courtyard, with overgrown grasses and rodents running around? My mother once said, 'Don't give kindness to people who bully you. Bring them hell and call bullshit!' And I quote my mother, my so-called clan is bullshit."

Several elders almost fainted in anger.

They knew that this kid's mother, a foreigner whose values differed from their own, was no good!

...

They threatened him with his parents' ashes.

So, he was forced to make a Binding Vow.

Out of everything he owned, the ashes were the most valuable and the only thing to remind him of them. Because every thing else that they owned before, Hayama's so-called relatives took them from their house, leaving his home bare and empty. The only things left behind were household items that they had no use for.