Karu's Love And The Darkness In The Kie

Just a warning to those of you that are squeamish this chapter will be a bit gruesome but its important for understanding a bit more about the Kie family situation and of course a bit more about Kyion.

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Upon his recovery from his midlife crisis at the bathhouse Karu gathered up his bags and umbrella and swiftly made his way home without a single care as to who would notice his grumpy step and uncapped hair for all his life he could take a lot of things but there are certain things that went over the line for him and the Kie family drama was that line.

He loved drama and he loved gossip but the Kie family was more than just gossip they were a dark tale of broken souls and the betrayal of innocence.

And in a way they were his family also… Sazuki was not his son but...he was! For the actor had always loved children and had wanted a family but it was sadly not to be, he had married young and became pregnant and his dream was bliss until he miscarried and the injuries it caused left him unable to bere child again and then a year later his husband was killed in a demon attack so he found himself taking up the extra job of babysitting and tutoring in the arts where he grew to care for his charge the young Sazuki as his own son like the child that he never got the chance to have that is until that sweet boy came into his life.

He cared for the boy like his own and tried to save him from the life is neglectful parents had laid out for him but he failed and before he knew it those so-called parents swifted the boy he could remember feeding with bottles while they were out doing goodness knows what, and they married him off to Tajio the butcher of the Kie family in exchange for becoming exempt from the law along with an extra bonus of a hefty sum of money and there was nothing he could do.

He wrote dozens of letters to his boy everyday only to get back small and rushed replies that everything was all right which told him that it wasn't then no one was allowed to the Kie bride and the letters stopped coming.

For the first time in his life he found himself unable to perform any plays for every time he looked out into the crowd he kept seeing the boy that he cared for only to vanish and it soon got to the point where he couldn't wake up without crying.

He thought of writing an urgent letter but he didn't want to get the boy in trouble however when a festival finally came along and he was requested to perform at the temple house he couldn't refuse the chance to see his adopted son again.

It had to be in secret which already made his heart beat fast with fear but nothing could have prepared him for the site that he saw.

With the help of a servant that disguised him he walked into the darkest and deepest parts of the temple house and then into a dark room with only one round window and a plain futon on the floor.

Then at the sight he saw he couldn't help a drop to his feet and cover his mouth to at least try and stop the silent scream in his throat four right there before him sitting upright on the futon was the now barely recognizable sweet bright eyed and tan young boy that he raised and sat for but now he more closely resembled the shedded skin of a snake left behind after a molt.

His once sunkist rosy skin was pale and grayish and dark in his hollow cheeks and under his red and restless eyes, he was thin and going to to the bone his cheek stood out of his face and one could clearly see his ribs and the bones in his fingers and notice the way that his hands suddenly seemed to sporadically twitch as he swayed side to side with empty eyes staring often to nothing.

His voice was soft and horse barely even there like a little bird who had just lost the ability to sing as he called out with shaky breaths and teary eyes.

He can still remember every word.

"...Karu Daha-san...Karu Daha-san are you here?"

"Yes! Yes my sweet kitten! I'm here!"

"Karu Daha-san! You do not know how many nights I have cried for you!"

"And I for you my kitten...Sazuki look at me!"

And with that Sazuki rose his face higher letting it show that they no longer reacted to ligh as the tears streamed down.

"I wish I could see your face again…"

"MY SWEET BOY! ...YOUR...YOUR BLIND! How did this happen! What did that man do to you!"

The boy only threw himself into his arms and cried and that was when he not only learned of the abuse in the arranged marriage but also that his little Sazuki was pregnant with his first child which he wished to be called Kuzu and was due to give birth in three days time.

He had kept the pregnancy a secret from his husband who was away because he feared what the man would do if the child was born a Shiyūdōtai for the man emphasized how much he wanted a strong son fit to become a warrior and that he would tolerate no mistakes so he came by as a chauffeur for his midwife friend until Kuzu was born and as they had planned Karu took Kuzu to be 'properly tutored as a royal child should' before the enraged Kie could return in time to kill the child.

In between caring for his ill grandson and attempting by whatever means necessary to find some way to get his adopted son out of the cruel marriage he was strung thin with nowhere to go.

Then he started receiving letters which it first made no sense until he realized that his adopted son was in crypting them, they displayed that the Kie was becoming angry with him for not bearing him a suitable son and that Sazuki was so distraught with the apparent deaths of his children that he had tried to keep a secret even from Karu that he began to lose his mind and he promised himself in those letters that if he did birth a son that was suitable he could not live with the fact of creating another monster wich made Karu terrified.

His terror was only amplified when he snuck into the temple house for another one of their secret visits this time more urgently because of the graphic letters only to find the sickly boy in a pool of blood stabbing himself in the belly.

Karu stopped him in time but the commotion was heard throughout the temple house which alerted the Kie who was displeased at the action but only because he considered it a waste of his only viable heir which to him was treason there wasn't even any concern for the lives of his family not one bit he simply had is bleeding heavy with child bride thrown in the dungeons to be cared for like some animal and from that point on Karu never saw his boy alive again.

He later learned from his friends that were servants of the temple house that the boy born of the Kie and his dear Sazuki was named Kyion and was born with the marks of the Kie.

When I did get to come by it was more often now since the Kie no longer cared about his 'useless bride' so Karu got to speak with his  adoptive son again but he was never allowed to speak to Kyion for the Kie what's determined on melding him into a warrior no matter the cost and it scared Sazuki to the point where he never looked his own child in the eyes when he spoke to him.

And now looking back on these painful memories it's no surprise to the old artisan why the now young man rejects his bride.

And as he enters his shop he pushes back his tears in order to hand out the orders to the servant waiting for him inside no doubt for his said grandson.

And as he then sat and tried to ease his mind by painting silk he couldn't help but give his grandnephew Yuki a worried look from across the hall as his thoughts and memories wander off onto the troubled relationship of the Kie brothers, Kyion who was more like his father in appearance and was trained by his cruel father to be as cold as he was while Kuzu took after their late mother in appearance...but also in the areas of the fragile mind.

After the old Kie finally got pushed off the right cliff Karu tried to help the brothers repair their bond but...it was useless, Kyion had already been turned against himself.

And then their relationship deteriorated even more when Kuzu fell pregnant with Yuki at fourteen and then died of Black-River-Lily-Flu a week later...leaving Kyion even more quiet than he had already been and with his bad bonding now passed to his nephew.

".....oh my poor boys!...whatever am I to do with you bunch my dears!"

But then as he looked down at the blue silk he was absentmindedly painting just a moment before he noticed how the blue of the fine fabrics reminded him of the new Kie bride…

"...maybe you could have the power to save him!" 

And with that he made up his mind to go pay a visit to the new couple personally.