[fancypost borderwidth=0px; color: black; font-family: times new roman; font-size: 15px; line-height: 95%; text-align: center; letter-spacing: 4px; text-transform: uppercase;]SOUSUKE[/fancypost][fancypost borderwidth=0px; color: white; font-family: times new roman; font-size: 8px; line-height: 95%; text-align: center; letter-spacing: 4px; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: -6px;]( don't crush your own potential before you even try )[/fancypost]
[fancypost borderwidth=0px; width: 415px; color: black; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 95%; text-align: justify;]ooc;; follow up to https://feralfront.com/index.php?topic=2260467, but i don't think you need to read it in order to understand.
tw for death (but i don't think it's too graphic? if you want to be spoiled, it's
also i have no idea where blizzardclan is, so pretend it's far from japan but not too far (?)
DON'T WORRY THERES A TLDR AT THE BOTTOM so you don't need to read the whole thing ha
ic;; there was a black jaguar at the border.
a muscular tom.
sousuke caught sight of him and froze.
another dream?
probably. first his mother, then his father. that made sense.
maybe he should see someone.
"sousuke? I wondered where you'd run off to."
his head jolted up, his ears swiveling forward.
for a stupid moment he wondered why the other male sounded odd, then it registered in his brain. right, japanese.
[b]"are you really here?"
hell, that was a bit of a weird question to start off with, but precautions had to be taken.
he stepped forward, tentatively touching his paw to the stranger's chest.
solid.
ah, but that wasn't enough, was it? no. he remembered what he'd told divinepaw, all those months ago, but the advice was always sound: blizzardclan was certainly at war, and it was his job to protect the clan any way he could.
"what's my given name?"
his 'father' answered with a small smile. "youthfulfame. how could I have forgotten?"
sousuke still wasn't convinced. his heart was, but he was a man who thought with his brain, not his feelings.
"how did you find me?" he asked. "did you manage to escape the humans?"
"it took...persuasion," his father replied. "but I did manage to escape. I think they're hunting for me, though, so my visit will be exceptionally brief."
sousuke's claws unsheathed instinctively. "you're leading them straight to blizzardclan if that's true, you know that?"
his father waved it aside.
"your mother really would be proud, sousuke. you're exactly the warrior she wanted."
sousuke blinked at him, at a loss for words.
no, no, no, take it back, he silently willed. never, never will I be the warrior she wanted, no, no, take it back.
instead, he nodded.
"may she rest in peace." his father looked at the ground.
"she died?"
his father tilted his head. "you didn't know? oh. yes, she died shortly after leaving you."
oh. so...that...thing that haunted sousuke...that was either a figment of his imagination or her ghost.
he hoped it was the former. he could deal with his mind. he couldn't deal with her.
"never really got to join the clan she wanted," his father continued. "did you know that she got kicked out of an old clan called the elite before you were born? she was unhappy that she'd never reach a high position, no matter what she did. after she left you, she tried to join the exiles, but after a few months, disappeared without a trace." he gave a lopsided smile. "knowing her, she probably picked a fight with someone stronger than her."
"but why--" sousuke began in english, then, remembering himself, switched back to japanese. "why...did she leave me? why didn't she take me with her, if she planned on joining a clan?"
"is that even a real question?" his father shook his head. "you think she'd join a clan with you as her competition for a high position, after she'd trained and molded you to fit the part?"
sousuke turned his gaze to his paws.
"if you think i give a shit, or ever did, about her and her feelings, you're extremely mistaken, old man," he answered, surprised at the bite in his words. "she...she ruined me. she ruined me, my mind..."
his eyes bore into his father's. reflected in them he could see his body, his front leg now weak since his shoulder had finally given out.
"you know what?" he began. his voice was hoarse and laced with pain, barely above a whisper. "after coming here i had a daughter. a real, living daughter."
his father's head quirked to the side in confusion.
"you've never seemed like the type for a family," he mused.
"i wonder why that is, with all the love that surrounded me growing up," he spat back.
the other's fur bristled.
"i would have gladly raised you on my own, youthfulfame," he said coldly. "your mother didn't find that to be the best course of action, since my lifestyle was too soft for her little warrior."
"and we all had to bow down to her judgement, yes, father, i know, i know. nevermind the fact that she nearly killed me every day."
"so now you say you wanted to live with me? after all the times i asked you? and your answer was always...well, youthfulfame, did you ever answer me? no. you could have had an easy life, just the opposite of what your mother wanted, sure, but much better for you, i think. you love swimming, you love sleeping, you even loved the food! remember tonkatsu, or have you already forgotten, what with your hunter life? but given the choice, you went with your mother. there's nothing i could have done."
"i was a kid!" he retorted. "i mean, sure, you all treated me like an adult, but what was i supposed to do?"
"youthfulfame, you know that your mother would have had her way, even if you fought against her," his father sighed. "listen, i know that the way she treated you was harsh--"
"that's an understatement."
"--but she had your best interests at heart! if you had grown up with me, you would have never learned about how to take care of yourself. you know how difficult the past months have been? japan's far from here and i had to walk a good portion of the way. thankfully i found a traveling circus, but i almost died several times! all because i've been living a soft life."
sousuke glared. "no one forced you to come find me. actually, i'd prefer you not to be here. why'd you come, to check up on me?"
his father shifted his weight.
sousuke's eyes widened.
"goddamn, that is why, isn't it?"
he didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or kill the guy. nothing was stopping him from doing all three.
"you leave me with my mother, travel across the world, all for what? a few minutes of talking to me?"
his father's eyes grew glassy. "i wouldn't trade these few minutes for anything."
"how about my well-being?" sousuke stuck his face in front of his father, so close their noses brushed. "you know what happened to me, father? i'm lame now, i'm crippled. i'm unable to fight like i used to. hell, i can't hunt big prey anymore. know why?"
his father didn't back down. on the contrary, he took a step forward, knocking his forehead against his son's and glaring into his eyes.
"what happened to you, what happened between you and your mother and whomever else was out of my control," he growled. "i was across the world, as you said. and the humans were keen on taking you and your mother, remember that? it all went according to her plan."
his father took a deep breath.
"youthfulfame, you know how old i am. your mother may not have mentioned this, but i'm a yamazaki. that likely means nothing to you, but we were a long line in the past, back in japan. and you, as my son, are the last yamazaki. if you go back to japan, you can reclaim whatever is yours, become the head of the yamazaki family. the territory is large, and since we're the only jaguar family in japan, you won't have competition. you can start up your own clan, do whatever you want. but you must reclaim your name and go back."
"i don't give a shit!"
oh, he was angry now. his claws were out, his teeth bared. his father wouldn't stand a chance.
"i tried to raise my daughter to know how to feel and show emotions, i tried to make sure she understood that life's not all about being the best hunter, the best fighter. and she's gone!"
despite the roar and rage in his voice, his breathing, once erratic, was calming down. it was just like before pouncing during a hunt: he was collected, calculating, ready to strike.
"i had an apprentice and taught her to fight, but more importantly, i taught her that it's okay to feel weak, to feel hopeless, but that she'll never be useless. i wanted her to be the opposite of me, i wanted her to truly understand herself and not the mold created by someone else."
just like hunting, his mother told him. you just need to picture your opponent as a prey animal. deer? cattle? perfect.
"and all you care about is not the shit i went through, but so i can hold up some family name? what, go by yamazaki sousuke, like you? yamazaki sousuke, jr? the second?"
it wasn't hard to bring his father to the ground, sweeping him off his legs with a single paw.
"no, you know what?" he glared down at his father and was surprised to see no panic or fear in his expression. "you're not yamazaki sousuke. you never were. names live on when they belong to a legend, and you're a nothing. just like mother said, this is the only time i'm agreeing with her. i took on the name sousuke because i preferred you to her, but now i see that you're just as bad by association. but i can't proudly live as sousuke when my namesake is as awful as you are. so i end association with you tonight. i am sousuke, and you, old man, are nameless."
his father looked into his eyes as his life seeped out.
yamazaki sousuke dragged the corpse away from the border and, grimacing slightly, began to wipe away the traces of what had transpired.
[hr]
tl;dr: sousuke meets his father, who somehow is back from japan (look this is a world with dragons powers ok). sousuke grows increasingly annoyed until he kills him out of pent-up anger. hOWEVER, before dying, sousuke's father tells him that he's the heir to the yamazaki estate back in japan. sousuke takes on the name yamazaki sousuke. will he go back to japan? or will he stay and create his own yamazaki family? dun dun duuun
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