Spirit Away [Leclair and Asakura]

[En Asakura]

I think I've spent my entire life like a Monarch.



From the very beginning, as the child of Asakura and Kayano, I was born
fighting. Like the maggots on the leaves that cling hopelessly to life, I ate
gluttonously in order to become stronger. No matter how innocent or poisonous
they were, I forced them by myself until I devoured them relentlessly so that I
could eventually transform inside my shell.



Even though I was the child of nobility, I was not the child they wanted. I was
never spoiled, but I was never loved either. And yet, I grew everyday just so I
could fight for their love. I wanted to prove myself worthy of my name. I
fought, and fought and read and studied and drew and created the mask I wore
until the day those I loved died.



If spirits transform into butterflies, then I am the fire that catches those
fragile things and consumes them alive to feed my own power.



At least, that's what I know, what I've always known. I think that I'm a
monster, because my wife is buried and my best friend disappeared many, many
years ago. The best friend I think I was falling in love with.



The last time I saw him, was the day before our graduation day. My fiance, Rin
was clinging to my arm. I wanted to return to the student council room. I
wanted to sit at my desk one last time, and hold you in my arms. I wanted to
feel my lips against your skin as I held you too me. Our heights were too
different for me to see over your shoulder, so I'd just kiss your neck and do
my work. Sometimes I'd do yours, because you had fallen asleep. And when I was
done, I’d carry you to your room like my bride, and sometimes I’d stay there
with you because I was scared someone would hurt you.

Even though I knew your feelings, I selfishly dated Rin,
because I wanted to save my honor and my name. Even if I returned your
feelings, I married her.

But that’s not what I regret, because I loved my life with
her, and the best thing I’ve ever done is give life to my daughter Ren. My
ojou-san. I am a lucky father, and my little girl is so strong—stronger than I’ll
ever be. Strong because her mother died, and even stronger now because she sees
the cherry blossom’s sixteenth day coming. As Each day passes, the curse of my
grieving wife kills me, turning a new cell black. This slow killing curse
reaches its black fingers like the plague and feasts on my flesh like
amaterasu, the black fire that consumed the world.

I think I’m like a Monarch, because my poison, my love kills
those around me.

I am no longer the fire, but the graveyard of my sins draws me
to it like a moth to a flame and my spirit grows weaker and weaker.

I’m dying.

I suppose this is what I deserve, for loving so selfishly. But
I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die because I want to see my little girl
grow older. I want to see the day she can beat me, her father, and win over the
heart of the maiden she loves. I want to see my princess become the prince she
wants to be. I want to see her happy. I want to cut her hair with my blade one
last time. I want to hold her child in my arms. I want hear “Chichi, welcome
back” as I step into the threshold of our dojo, our home.

Every day I bow to my wife, begging her to forgive me for
our daughter. I hear the cherry blossom tree she is buried under whisper to me
sadly, telling me the only way to be forgiven is to feed the tree, her grave my
blood. I know I have to die, but again, I don’t want to.



The shadow is only a couple inches away from my heart, and I
am forced to wear long sleeves and gloves in the summer just to hide it. I know
that when it reaches my breast, I will die. But somehow, somehow I think if I’m
able to remove the ring I’ll be able to live.



That’s why, my daughter and I set out silently to London,
where we’ll spend our last summer with my our dearest friends the Leclairs. If
Aiji and Decaria can cure me, than I can live a few more summers with my
daughter.

My last chance at living.

Maybe I’ll see my cousin Shalie, my nephew and my niece—Scorpius
and Cassieopia—my nephews Marius and Mattieu Leclair.

That's what I thought, until Mattieu was kidnapped.

Forty-Eight hours. That's what they say how much time you have to find someone who's gone missing, until it's almost impossible to find the trail. There were aurors, and a tracker looking for the boy. Mattieu Leclair. The family was going wild, a friend offered to put it in the paper.

How does a wizard just go missing?

It happened just outside the ally of Leclair Charme, some witnesses saw two boys, around the same age, talking to Mattieu just outside the shop. That was the last anyone had ever seen them.

Fate was a funny thing. Instead of saving his own life, he was spending it's fragile minutes looking to save another's. But this was his honor, his dream. If he could die saving another, another so important to his friends, his beloved nephew--he could die somewhat happily.

Thus began the search for Mattieu Leclair.