~Enter: Kokoro~{Kokoro}(Third Character Quest)

She stopped thinking. She looked at her mother.
“You’re sick too?” she asked out loud. Her mother smiled.
“See…” she said as she patted her head. “I told you you are a smart girl…” she said. “But, that’s not all baby. Because you were in mommy’s tummy, and my blood was your blood, that means that…”
“I’m sick too…” Kokoro said.
“Yes…” her mother responded, now looking very sad in the face. There had been a long pause before Kokoro said something that shocked her mother beyond belief.
“I know…” she said. Her mother looked at with a confused look.

“What do you mean you know…” she asked. Kokoro then put her hand up to her mouth and coughed. She then revealed in her hand that she too had been coughing up blood. He mother’s eyes widened.
“It’s worst than I thought…” she sighed, as she put her head in her hand. “I had a medical ninja make an antibiotic… very limited resources. It subsides the disease, but that’s it.” She said. “There is enough to last you until you are at least of drinking age. I want you… to live…” she said. She looked at the ocean’s reflective waves.

“What about you, Mommy?” Kokoro asked. “And Shizou, and Auntie.”
“Auntie will live a little longer. Her outbreak is just starting, so her immune system is working well for her… for now. It’s too late for me. I’ve done nothing but damage in this life. You… in your short life I want you to make a difference in this world. Even if that means finding somebody who can change the world and making them a better person. You and Shizou both…” she said. She sighed. “ I’ll be dead by tomorrow…” she said. “And it will hurt… so I need…”

A tear fell out of her eye at this point.
“I… I need you to be strong, and live, and be a great person. Try to keep this secret from your Daddy, and until Shizou’s mommy begins to die, keep it from them too. Can you do that?” This all became too confusing for her.
“Wait… you’re going to die?”
“Yes…. And you will too. But, don’t worry. There is another side… and there is no pain there. And I’ll be there… waiting for you. It’s all a part of natural living…” she said. “Death is only natural, sweet flower.”

“But…” she began. She looked down at the ocean, just lost in thought. She looked up to see her mother taking off her shirt. She took a tag and placed it over her heart. It read ‘suicide’on it.
“Now… Mommy’s in so much pain, baby… It’s time for me to let go. I have written you books on how to perfect your training in this world… ideas of how to help other people… but in your helping of other people… don’t forget to live. Don’t forget to do what it is that you want to do in your short life.”

She then put her hand on Kokoro’s face, admiring her. A tear began to fall out of Kokoro’s eye.
“Do not cry for me, my love. Be strong, ok?” she said. Kokoro wiped her remaining tear and straightened up her face. “I love you, my flower.” She said. Kokoro looked up at her and nodded.
“I love you too…” she said. The mother then nodded, as she began to lay her head on Kokoro’s lap.
“Good bye, honey. I’ll see you on the other side…”
“Ok… good bye…” she replied. Her mother then bit her finger and swiped the tag.

The tag burned into her chest, and she looked up into her daughter’s eyes. Within seconds, her body released it’s tension. All of the muscles had relaxed some. She smiled, as if she dosed off into sleep. Slowly closing her eyes, her head became limp and lifeless on the lap of her seven year old daughter. She sighed. As much as her body felt flushed and numb, and the only thing to seem to erase that feeling of not feeling would be to cry, she did not. She told her mother she would not so she was not going to.

As she looked onward to the ocean, and the sun setting, the light closed on this scene of her second darkest day… her first is still yet to come. Kokoro knew she was living off of borrowed time. She sat there with her mother’s dead body laying on her until her father had come looking for her by the light of the moon. It had been a tragic and upsetting moment. But… the scene faded out, and the light faded in, as the sunrays beamed through the window of her home in current day situations. She opened her eyes slowly.

She had been at her other home in Konoha. Her life has been nothing but temporary joys and permanent pains. There had been only one person that she saw that would make a difference… the only man she’s ever loved in an intimate way. Lydeck Hayabusa. She had gotten so close to him in the last years that she began to be able to travel into his mind… and know his secret… the biggest secret of them all. She sat up, throwing her sheet off of her. Next to her bed was a origami flower, painted red like blood red.

She took a shower before putting this origami flower on her head. She took passion in her art. Drawing things, forming things with clay and paper… this was her passion… all in which were temporary. She looked at her bottle of meds her mother left for her. She made them into pill form, and swallowed it whole. She looked at her remaining bit, and it seemed as though she only had months left to live.
“A disease only death can cure…” she said. Those were the words of her mother. It was time to leave her father at the bakery.

As she walked to the shop, her father had been cooking cakes.
“Papa…” she said.
“Yes dear. What’s wrong?”
“I quit…”
“What?” he said, shocked.
“I quit. I have to live a little. I only have a few months left… I’m tired of doctors. I have things that I want to do. I need to explore… shut for a little. Let me live, papa, please?”
“But…” he began… “very well… I guess I have to move the shop to Gesshoku where I can get some help from your older sister…” he said.
“I’ll visit… I promise…” she said, walking away…