In My Life
by Yuchan
[A school auditorium. A young Minamino Shuuichi (Kurama), aged about ten, steps up to the microphone on the bare stage and begins to sing]
*There are places I remember*
[Fade sl-o-o-o-w-ly into youko-Kurama, standing in the same pose in the forests of the Makai]
*All my life, though some have changed:*
[Rapid cuts between many, many places. Some are forest, some mountainsides, some the interiors of great halls, and some simple huts]
*Some for ever, not for better,*
[The Kamiya Dojo, with its seven inhabitants laughing and running in and out; dissolving into the modern Kamiya Dojo, old, deserted, and in need of serious repair]
*Some have gone,*
[A gentle slope dotted with bright flowers cuts to the same slope as major construction begins. A sign is up on the site: although the words are in Japanese, the picture is of one of Japan's major filling-station chains]
*and some remain.*
[The bustle and wave-motion of a huge youkai fair. The colors are loud, and the noise undoubtedly just as loud]
*All these places have their moments With lovers and friends I still can recall*
[Again, quick flashes between scenes. This time, however, Kurama is in all of them, interacting with other people. Some few are recognizable: a young Kurama with a green-haired youko woman; a heist getaway with Kuronue; Kurama talking to three female youko, one of whom would look exactly like Rebecca Ryan if not for the ears; Kurama and Yomi having an argument; Kuronue playfully threatening Kurama's hair with a dagger; fox-Kurama entangled with a normal-looking fox; a slender woman with red hair, pointed sideways-rabbit ears, dark patterns covering most of her body and her large-eyed face, and red wings springing, apparently, from the back of her neck tossing a bundle down to Kurama from the window she hovers outside by means of her head-wings; fox-Kurama cradled in the arms of a biseinen with red hair pulled back and crossing scars on his left cheek; Kurama pulling a woman with red-gold ringlets and rather disarranged ragged clothes down onto him]
*Some are dead, and some are living*
[Kuronue pierced by all that bamboo ; cut quickly to a graveyard, focusing on a marker that reads "Kamiya"; then cut to the woman from the end of the last line. She is rather older, and her ringlets are grey; the remnants of beauty are still in her face, and she holds a picture of several happy children]
*In my life, I've loved them all.*
[and finally cut to fox-Kurama, lolling in a meadow. He shifts to youko-Kurama, a fond smile on his face]
*But of all these friends and lovers*
[The same youko-Kurama's head before a collage of all of those people, plus numerous others]
*There is no one compares with you*
[dissolves rapidly to Shiori; the screen flashes from one image of her to another]
*And these memories lose their meaning*
[Back to Kurama and the collage; this time it's Shuuichi-Kurama, and all the pictures in the collage are slowly draining of color...]
*When I think of love as something you...*
[...dissolving into Shiori, sitting on the kitchen floor with dinnerware shards in her arms, her lips forming the word "Daijoobu?"]
*Though I know I'll never lose affection*
[an even younger Shuuichi-Kurama at kindergarten, fingerpainting caricatures of some of the people in the flashbacks]
*For people and things that went before -- *
[Shiori puts some of the fingerpaintings up on the refrigerator with alphabet magnets; prominent is one of a black-haired person with way too many ears and another of a smiling youko woman with squiggly lines over the left side of her face and a very bashed-looking left ear, little more than a stump; the pictures are labeled in wobbly hiragana "Baka" and "Momiji"]
*I know I'll often stop and think about them -- *
[Shuuichi-Kurama looks out the school window at the red maple leaves, blowing in the wind; cut to Kurama in the library at a microfilm machine, which bears on its screen a newspaper article titled "Miraculous Reappearance of American Wife" and has a fuzzy photograph of the ringlet woman]
*In my life, I love you more.*
[Kurama singing in the school auditorium again; the camera follows the line of his eyes to where Shiori sits in the audience, a combination of maternal pride and touched unworthiness on her face]
[During the instrumental, there is a quick video recap of the events in "Two Shots," ending when Kurama carries Maya into his house and waves good-bye to Hiei -- who, as one might expect, gives no acknowledgement whatsoever. It then fades out and re-fades into Hiei knocking on an older Kurama's window. Kurama opens the window to listen; he looks tired and worried]
*Though I know I'll never lose affection*
[As Hiei goes on speaking, Kurama's look of polite interest is replaced by an expression akin to a battered member of the Faithful discovering the Promised Land. He finally hops out the window after Hiei]
*For people and things that went before -- *
[Kurama talking with Hiei and Gouki in a forest glade, apparently, planning something. Kurama's eyes are rather bright, and then the camera shifts to his viewpoint. For a moment the scene mists over; the forest becomes that of the Makai, the figures of Gouki and Hiei become those of Yomi and the red-winged woman, and the arm Kurama is gesturing with becomes that of his youko form; then it dissolves back to normal]
*I know I'll often stop and think about them -- *
[The getaway with the Three Treasures of the Reikai. As the three sit down and rest in some forest, Kurama looks off in the distance. The phantom figures of youko-Kurama and Kuronue seem to be running in the distance, cheerfully insulting each other]
*In my life, I love you more.*
[Kurama, turning his back on his coconspirators and walking away; cut to Kurama and Yuusuke visiting Shiori in the hospital, and then to Kurama kneeling before the Mirror on the hospital roof as it shows Shiori's face]
[Kurama reaches out to touch the Mirror]
*In my life,*
[Rapid images flash onscreen: fox-Kurama lolling in the grass, youko-Kurama laughing with his acquaintances, both Kuramas devouring fried tofu at a quite astonishing rate, youko-Kurama wrapped around other people (sequentially) in what is either the precursor to or the successor of coitus -- ]
*I love you more.*
[-- and Shiori, as she was in the audience, and as she sews nametags onto a much younger Shuuichi-Kurama's jacket and hat, and as she sets food on the table, including fried tofu.]
[The white lightning stuff spreads from where Kurama's hand touches the Mirror up his arm and to his head. As his eyes squeeze shut in pain, Shiori's face as it appeared in the Mirror is faintly overlaid over the scene.]
[Fade to black]
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Would somebody please commentificate or something?
Sincerely,
Luriko-Ysabeth, hon otaku | member in good standing of #WEIRD#
Kendappa Clan | Sosai/Pooh-Bah for life of the Washuu-sensei Rules club
#WASHU#, #SkAS#, #ALAS#, MADS, and the Ryohko Forever Fan Club member
"I didn't invent this Web so a moron "Mind if I sit here and drool over like you could misuse it!" you?" (to Kenshin)
--Washuu Kobayashi, Pretty Samy OAV #2 --Shin Sailorpluto, Sailormoon E