"Hmmm? What, Master?"
The boy sighed, warming up yet another bottle of sake. Now should he water this one or should he not...
"Well alright, it's not like I wanted to tell you, but I think - I hafta tell you anyway, don't I. Well, since you are m'prentice and all..."
...Ahhhh? Well, alright, his Master did look good and drunk, now, which didn't happen as often as one might think it did. He usually was pretty good at holding his liquor, but...
"Hey, now, brat, look at me. I may be drunk but I know what I'm sayin..."
"Yessir." The boy sighed, yet again.
"Well, alright, the thing is...According to the old sod that was my Master, and I don't think even she'll make something like that up..."
She? The boy googled a bit. The Master before his Master had been...female?
The man looked at him blearily. "Oh yeah, I never told ya about my Master, did I? Ha ha ha, she'd have scared you witless, brat...but anyway..."
The man sighed, then, looking at the moon and the clouds racing over it.
"We, us, our School - are..."
"...Are?"
"Cursed."
The boy stared.
...Huh?
It didn't really become any more believable, even after his Master had explained just what that 'Curse' was supposed to be all around in all it's drunken detailed glory.
" An' well, it's just an old story, but... I thought you'd need to know, all the same..."
And so he had pulled the blanket over his Master's shoulders, and lay down next to him, looking up at the moon...
It hadn't been a bad life. Quite the contrary.
He'd loved and been loved, after all, despite and still. And the heavens had given him so much...friends, comrades in arms, rivals...even family.
So...
So...
That old story must have had some kind of element of truth, after all.
He really didn't think it was his own regrets keeping him stuck here, after all...
"Our School is cursed, brat... Or so my Master said... Though I'm not sure it was supposed to be a curse, actually, but...
And as far as he knew, his old Master wasn't wandering around discorporate, or even bond to a thing or a place, so...
You, see, brat, according to what m'Master said - the School and the Arts just - aren't allowed to die out. Ever.
Which apparently meant that -
He was going to be stuck here till he managed to pass on the torch, in some way or another. Or until the end of time.
Whichever comes first.
In the quiet aether, a spirit sighs. For the nth time.
Well, well, well.
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(Posted Thu, 15 Mar 2007 07:44)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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