Chapter Text
Part 1:
Spring, the promise we made that day.
~*~
It was spring when Nagachika Hideyoshi finally settled into his new house in Tokyo. Eight years old and bubbling with excitement for his first city experience after moving in from the countryside, he was a bundle of nerves just at the mere prospect of starting second grade in a class of thirty. It was going to be his first day in the busy and very populated Tokyo, his first time adapting to a new place, his first day of school, and possibly making his first…new friend.
Back in the countryside, he didn’t have any friends. All of the boys were older than him, and all of the girls didn’t like hanging out with the opposite gender. The houses were also separated with a noticeable distance in due part of the farms and ranches. There was so much space in between that it affected the families’ desire to interact with each other. People kept to themselves and did the necessary things, whether it was waking up at the crack of dawn or working till their hands scraped and bruised, to feed their children.
He associated playtime with feeding the pigs and chickens, and often, his hands scraped and bruised just like his dad’s, and although the days were hard, they were fun. He loved tending to the animals. His mom said he was a natural, an “animal whisperer;” someone who understood animal behaviors like it was an expertise, because of how well he tended to them.
But because of how much care and love he poured onto those animals, the parting became unbearably tough. He cried and cried until he couldn’t bring out anymore tears. Before they left, he hugged and squeezed each chick, rooster, mother hen, and fresh-out-of-the-mud-bath pig, told them that he’d be back for them, and though the animals said nothing, he felt like they accepted his promise. Maybe they were crying for him on the inside as well.
He couldn’t do anything but stare out the window in the back of the van and watch as the new family moved in to continue the work they had left behind. He stared and stared until the ranch, the pastel blue house, and the animals were swallowed up in the distance, and by then, he was choking once more from new found tears.
"Please take care of them! They’re my friends, so please, please, don’t let them get hurt," he prayed, snot dribbling down his nose, when, at last, all around was nothing but fields and endless green fields filled with white-petaled dandelions swaying in the spring breeze.
His mother had turned around in the passenger seat, wrinkles around her eyes deep and worried, and he remembered thinking for the first time just how the farm life had aged her. “They’ll be fine, Hide-chan. So don’t cry, okay?”
So he nodded, sullen, and the rest of the ride passed in silence.
But here he was now, his first time in the metropolis, prepping for the first day of class. His mother frittered around, making sure he had everything he needed in his backpack. They were in the living room filled with things that they never had before, things that other families had that they couldn’t afford. There was the TV, the washer and dryer, the electronic stove, electronic everything. He couldn’t keep still, brown eyes wide and taking in all the new things in this new house.
"Don’t forget your bento," his mom reminded him. "Daddy is waiting outside. He’ll walk you to your school. Make friends, okay, Hide-chan?"
"Do you think they’ll like me?" he asked.
She bent down and put her hands on his shoulders, looking into his eyes. He stared back, brows knitted anxiously. He noticed premature white strands of hair among her blonde, the beginnings of crowfeet in the corners of her eyes, and her pale, tired complexion. She put on a happy smile for him everyday, but he knew that it was a facade. Deep down, he knew she wasn’t happy with their life at the ranch. It was a taxing job, from daybreak to dusk; it was neverending, there was no room for rest, and as soon as they closed their eyes, they opened right back up to work.
And it was also emotionally draining.
Every week, the numbers dwindled. A few chickens missing, a pig that magically left its pen in the middle of the night, eggs spirited away, his dad gone for a couple of hours in the rented truck, coming back with a bagful of money and a lack of animals that he had taken out for a “grazing,” grim smile utterly forced –
He knew.
They didn’t need to say anything for him to find out where those animals disappeared off to. They could lie through their teeth as many times as needed, and it would never be enough to fool him.
Yippy and Yappy, the two chickens that he named, a dozen of eggs that he endearingly titled the Freshlings, and an elderly pig called Pinky. They were the last ones to go before the move to Tokyo. The batch of eggs went to a farmer’s market, while the rest went to a slaughterhouse.
He may only be eight, but he wasn’t naive. He knew they didn’t just disappear into thin air like it was some unsolvable mystery. It was something that would occur over and over as long there was life. The animals were sacrificed for him. And there was nothing he could do about it. He knew, heunderstood, and because he understood, he accepted. That was why he didn’t blame his parents or asked them to keep the animals in the same manner that he didn’t beg and plead to stay at the ranch. He accepted it, because he understood that there were things that couldn’t be fought in life.
Because that was how things worked – how life worked, and it was better to sacrifice the animals than sacrifice his own family.
"Will they laugh at me? The only friends I made are pigs and chickens, so…they’ll just laugh at me," he mumbled, and in a much quieter voice, he whispered, "I miss Yippy and Yappy."
"Nagachika Hideyoshi."
He winced at his mother’s stern voice. “Yes, mom?”
There were fingers on his face, and he felt them squeeze and pinch his cheeks three times.
"Ow, ow, it hurts, stop it, mom!” he groaned in pain.
She withdrew after the fifth pinch, strict gaze unwavering and hands on her hips in the way she would react when she caught him lazing around with unfinished laundry.
He rubbed his raw cheeks with a hurt expression, lips jutted in a pout.
"Are you telling me you want to be the loser in class who can’t find a partner for group projects? Hm, Hideyoshi-kun?"
"I don’t want to be a loser," he sulked. "I want to make friends."
His mother’s face relaxed into a smile.
A real smile.
"Then don’t come home until you make one. Pinky promise mommy, Hideyoshi."
Distinctly, he remembered how she used his full name, spoke as if there were no road of return, and smiled with expectation, as he intertwined his pinky with hers and sealed their little promise.
She kissed him on the forehead and told him to go, and when he turned around to look back at her, he saw a bright, carefree smile that he hadn’t seen in years.
And he grinned, waving his arm up high to the blue sky, and he knew without looking that his usually grim-faced father was also sharing their happiness.
In this springtime, they had another shot at a new beginning, and it was with this optimistic outlook that Hideyoshi introduced himself cheerfully on the first day of class.
"Hi! I’m Nagachika Hideyoshi from Yagata Prefecture. This is my first time in Tokyo. I’m a little scared because of it, but I hope you treat me well, and nice to meet you!"
His classmates clapped politely; the boys laughed and the girls giggled, as he bowed his back and blushed hotly. There was the strange feeling of having pairs and pairs of eyes on him, scrutinizing, judging, and he started doubting himself. Did he come off too tacky and country bumpkin-like? Maybe he shouldn’t have been so embarrassingly honest.
"All right, Nagachika-kun, you may choose your seat," the teacher dismissed him. He sighed in relief and straightened up. "Next, Suzuya Haru, please come up and introduce yourself."
He looked around to see if he could find an empty table. He caught the eyes of a couple of girls in the front row, and they looked away shyly. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, grinning, feeling self-conscious and awkward as he searched for friendly faces in an unfamiliar crowd. They were laughing at him just now, weren’t they?
So this is a school…he thought. Wooden floor, rectangular windows letting in streams of morning sun, chalkboard in the front, and rows of desks and chairs filled with kids his age. The teacher said he could take any open seat, but most of them were already taken by groups of friends. He knew it would be awkward for him to sit next to an already established friend zone, so he looked for an empty seat beside someone who could potentially be –
Ah, there it is! I found one.
He headed for the windows and then stopped at the open desk next to a brunet. The boy he had chosen as his table neighbor had black hair, fringed over his round brown eyes, and was absorbed in a book. He looked as if he hadn’t a care for the world around him.
He was perfect.
"Hey," Hideyoshi said, tapping the boy’s shoulder.
His classmate jerked, hands loosening on the book, and the novel dropped to his lap. He uttered a small noise in surprise and then looked up, eyes widening in confusion. “Y-yes?”
"Is there anyone sitting here?" Hideyoshi asked, pointing to the open chair next to the brunet. "If not, can I sit here?"
The boy’s mouth parted slightly. His brown eyes darted left to right as if he thought that Hideyoshi was talking to someone else. When he realized that he was actually the person in address, he blushed in embarrassment. “No one usually asks to sit with me, so…” he trailed off. His voice was soft and meek, taciturn.
"So…" Hideyoshi continued. "It’s okay if I sit?"
The boy nodded after a second’s worth of hesitation.
"Great!" he whispered in excitement, pulling the chair out from under the desk and plopping himself into it.
"All right, class B2. I am your homeroom teacher for the rest of the year. You may address me as Jiro-sensei. Let’s welcome the new students once more, and then open the text to the index."
There were a second round of polite claps, and then all was quiet but the droning lecture of the teacher and uniformed pages rustling to the index.
He found himself dazing into space a third of the way into class. His mom was his first teacher, and he never remembered her lessons to be this boring. But then again, if he ever were distracted, she would punish him with a sharp whack of the ruler on his palm, and that was more than enough to get his undivided attention.
As he glanced out the window, he noticed his dark-haired neighbor was playing the part of a delinquent in quite the academic fashion; he had the textbook on the desk, but he also had the novel he was reading open on his lap. And by the way his neck was bowed and his gaze down, there was no argument as to which book he was paying attention to. The teacher didn’t seem to notice, immersed in his lecture and chalking notes on the blackboard, his back to the students.
No one noticed but him.
-
The school bell rang, and all of the students got up, chatting loudly and filing out of the classroom door pair by pair. Hideyoshi yawned, stretching his arms. His desk neighbor had nodded to him briefly before leaving the class, nose deep in the novel and oblivious to the strange looks he received from his classmates.
He wanted to know the boy’s name so he could call him something other than “desk neighbor,” but he had vanished quietly and quickly like a ninja on a mission.
He couldn’t help but sulk a little when his mom came up the slope to pick him up after school.
"How was your first day, Hide-chan?" she asked, taking his hand. They walked down the pavement side by side, hand in hand. "Why the long face? Did someone bully you?"
"No, it’s just…" he started, sucking in his cheeks and making a disappointed face. "He’s gone."
She took a moment to decipher his meaning. When she understood, she giggled softly and asked, “Why don’t you try again tomorrow? It’s only the first day, after all.”
"But!" he spluttered. "If I don’t make a friend, I can’t go home!"
"Oh, Hide-chan!”
They looked at each other and burst out in laughter, his childish laugh ringing alongside hers. The sun was warm as they continued onward to their new home, as warm as their clasped hands. Sakura petals fluttered every which way in the spring breeze and covered the sidewalk in an overlay of pink. It was refreshing and different from the stink of manure in the countryside. As they passed the river, he noticed a small figure on the grass field.
He stopped walking.
Black hair, white shirt, grey pants – could it be…
"I’ll be right back!" he told his mom, and he sprinted down the decline toward the grassy riverbank.
"Hide-chan, be careful!"
"I’ll be fine!" he replied, excitement rippling through him as he jogged toward the lone boy.
As expected, he was reading a novel. It was the same book he was sneaking passages from earlier in class, the one that had “Beetle” in the title.
Hideyoshi halted in front of the raven, leaning down so that his shadow covered the pages. “You’re always reading something, huh?” he mused.
His desk neighbor looked up, surprised.
"You remember me?" Hideyoshi pointed at himself, grinning cheekily. "I sat next to you today."
His classmate mouthed an ‘o.’ A bashful tone resonated in his murmured reply, “I remember. Sorry, I’m not good at talking to others…”
"That’s fine with me!" Hideyoshi said. "Actually, I just moved here, so I don’t have any friends. That’s why I was wondering if…you would like to be my friend?"
A breath of air flew around them. The dark hair of his classmate, their clothes, Hideyoshi’s blonde locks ruffled in the breeze, as white fluffs of the dandelions on the grassy riverbank left their roots, like children who eventually leave their mothers, and floated into the air, dancing with the wind.
Hideyoshi waited in suspense, his eyes locked on the wide brown irises. His breath caught in his throat, heart jumping hurdles, pulse racing, and –
"Sure."
He felt his chest relax and his heart explode.
The raven, with his knees pulled up to his chest and novel in hand, smiled sheepishly. Cheeks dusted over with a light pink.
"Awesome!" Hideyoshi exclaimed, grinning widely. "I’m Nagachika Hideyoshi. My name’s really long, so you can shorten it if you wanna."
"I’m Kaneki Ken. So, umm, can I call you Hide, then?"
Hideyoshi beamed. “It’s short and sounds good, so yeah! You’re my first friend, Kaneki!”
"Really?" Kaneki wondered.
He nodded. “I lived on a ranch, so long story short, the friends I made were all animals. You’re my first human friend.”
Kaneki laughed quietly alongside him.
"I hope we can be friends forever, Kaneki," he said, crossing his arms behind his head as he straightened up.
The bookworm perked up at his words. He toyed with his bottom lip before murmuring, “Actually, well, maybe it’s possible…there’s this old folklore that said if you wished on a dandelion and then blew out its seeds, you’d free the fairies and they would make your wish come true. I mean, of course it’s just superstition, so – “
"Let’s do it!"
"…Eh?" Kaneki blinked.
Hideyoshi plucked out two dandelions from the grass and handed one to the brunet. “Let’s blow it at the same time on the count of three,” he said excitedly. “Here’s to friends forever! One, two –”
"W-wait! Hide, you did it before me!"
"Crap. Ahahaha, let’s start over. Here."
"Wait properly this time, please!"
"Okay, Kaneki! One, two, three!"
The white plumes of seeds blew, and they watched as the dandelions floated around them. Farther and farther up, they watched as the seeds disappeared into the blue sky.
Farther and farther.
Until they could no longer be seen.