Eleven years ago… LA, the Hogo Shrine.
Tasuki listened to the silence of the house and it was slowly starting to drive him crazy. He couldn't sleep right now if his life depended on it. Getting out of bed, he flipped his bedroom light on so he could see the picture tucked into the rim of his dresser mirror. The picture was of his best friend’s sister Kyoko and he’d taken it from their house when no one was looking.
The photo had been taken at the perfect moment, catching her beautiful emerald eyes in the sunlight. The day it was taken must have been windy because it looked like her hair was lifting around her to frame her sweet face.
He’d never wanted a girlfriend before but the little girl staring back at him from the photo was all he could think about. Reaching for the picture, his hand stilled when he saw something white moving in the reflection behind him. Turning, he went to the window to gaze out at the house next door.
He frowned seeing Kyoko wearing a white nightgown and standing out on her balcony. What was she doing outside at this time of night? Tasuki unlocked his window hoping he could get it raised without the creaking sound waking his father up. He groaned when it stuck about halfway and he had to push harder only for it to then fly up with a loud thud.
Kyoko stepped out onto the small wooden deck that was connected to her bedroom on the second floor. The cool night air felt good as it rustled around her knee length nightgown and blew her long auburn hair back from her face. Emerald eyes stared up at the stars and her lips formed the kind of smile that only a happy little girl could make.
It was close to midnight and she couldn’t sleep. She was too excited. It was almost her birthday and she would be ten years old. All her friends from school were coming to her party, even some of her brother Tama’s friends. Tama was a year younger and already so much taller than her, but she wasn’t jealous at all. She loved her brother dearly.
Tama had taken up for her the other day while walking home from school. Some of the boys from school had started teasing her, saying she was being raised by a crazy old man who went around telling everyone that demons were real. One of them went as far as to say he’d heard his father telling his mother that it wouldn’t be long before the people from the insane asylum would be coming to haul her grandfather off in a straitjacket.
Kyoko had thrown her book bag on the ground and tackled him for lying. He was a bad boy that Yohji!
The bullies hadn’t stood a chance when Tama and Tasuki suddenly appeared. Tasuki had jerked her out of the fray and pushed her behind him while Tama grabbed up a big stick and held it like a baseball bat.
Yohji had only laughed feeling brave in front of his friends and accused Tama of being just as much a freak as his sister. Tama whacked him good across the arm, making Yohji grab his arm and fall to his knees in pain.
When Yohji’s big brother moved forward to retaliate, Tasuki didn’t hesitate and decked the bigger boy making him crash backwards into his brother. Kyoko thought the fight was over and was glad… but Tama wasn’t happy yet.
Her brother had turned on Tasuki and yelled, “I am her protector… me! Not you!”
Kyoko giggled at the memory of the furious look on Tasuki’s face. It was that look that had really scared the bullies away. She’d had to step in to break up the fight between her brother and Tasuki before it was all over. They were best friends for heaven’s sake, and to see the two of them fighting like that was just wrong.
In the end, they had both agreed to be her protector from then on. They were now calling themselves her guardians… they made a blood pact and everything. At least that’s what Tama told her.
Just the thought of guardians surrounding her made Kyoko feel so warm inside that she didn’t think anything would ever get her. With Tasuki living in the house right beside them, they could always walk to and from school together and the bullies would leave her alone.
Her smile got even brighter when she vaguely heard the big old clock downstairs chime twelve times. It was after midnight now and that meant she was officially ten years old.
She glanced toward Tasuki’s house and smiled when she saw him standing in his bedroom window watching her. She started to wave, but he suddenly looked behind him and his bedroom light went out just after he disappeared from the curtains.
Kyoko bit her bottom lip wondering if he’d gotten caught by his dad for being up so late. She didn’t understand why Tasuki had a bedtime. He was twelve years old and, in her eyes, a big boy. When she grew up, he was going to be her boyfriend… he’d told her so just today.
She looked out at the pond that lay just beyond her grandpa’s shrine house and sighed softly when she saw the reflection of the moon on its calm surface. Kyoko tilted her head a little when something from the shrine house caught her attention and she wondered if her grandpa was inside the wooden walls. She could have sworn he was in bed.
