Finished Retrieving What Is Lost...

At where the dream started, the boy stopped, the same exact spot, but now facing the forest. "Something about this memory is wrong... Sumi, is this your doing again?", the boy spoke to seemingly none in particular, "I won't be mad, I promise. Just... Give me a sign. Anything. Pick a coin and toss ahead on the grass." But Sumi wasn't responding to Norai? No, it would eventually happen. The yellow eyes gave place to the black ones, his hands reached into the purse, picked a coin and flicked forwards.

Before it landed on the grass, Norai regained control, and rushed to the coin, kneeling down and looking at it in shock. "You... You reacted?! Shouldn't be possible. But you did! Then... I can no longer hide your memories, right? Are you ready to know it?", and in response to that, Sumi partially materialized, standing in front of the boy, who picked the coin and got up, facing him. A little less like Maya, he was a ghost, one that only Norai and Maya could see and interact with.

"Is it a memory I'm going to regret?", Sumi asked, reluctant, but Norai just gave a light shrug. "You are the judge of that, not me.", that was the response, "But know this ahead of time: Dad dies alone, mom leaves us without telling why or where to, and I... I will be fatally wounded trying to protect the village when I'm 31 years old. The memories of my childhood were the last things to cross my mind as I left this world... And unfortunately I know nothing of how you truly came to be. That is your story, not mine, after all..."

As Norai started to walk again, he went through Sumi without a thought, but then stopped and turned to him, smiling a bit, "But mom is an oni! You may see her one day. So, when you see her here, memorize what she looks like, for the case you meet her out of my memories." And soon the two were heading towards the forest once more. "Maya is the one helping me remember this... So we owe to her.", Sumi revealed to Norai about Maya, who looked genuinely surprised, "Eh? You didn't know?" Norai simply shook his head and said "All I know is that I have been preventing you from aching from my own memories. But if sorrow can turn to hope, I won't stop you anymore."

Soon a thunderous bang was heard, one that made Sumi jump, but Norai simply continued walking like his memories led him. The path seemed a long walked one, the grass no longer grew tall and had failure here and there, but there had been no aggression towards the nature here. But the early bang clearly wasn't a thunder, gradually the drumming of an odaiko could be heard, starting low and getting loud enough to be heard outside the forest in a few seconds.

The skies grew dark with clouds that gathered, the thunder accompanying the drum, and in sight soon was the responsible for it, close to a simple house of sliding doors and paper panels: a tall woman of a light tan skin, pale cream hair, and clearly the muscles of a warrior of the time, but this was also an wounded warrior, as a bandage covered one of her fierce golden eyes. The rhythm of her beats carried a perfection that followed each thunder in a frightening harmony, her body covered with white hakama pants and a jacket that was made from tiger skin, but nothing else covered her.

And before this scene, Sumi and Norai stopped, with the later looking a bit sad after he explained: "Mom got hurt because of me. One night I overheard her talking to dad about how she wished to return to the clouds to serve her Raijin. I got angry and left farther from home than I should have... In this age, yokais and demons are distinguishable by how they live their lives, and I was stalked by a bakeneko. When that monster cat got close to me and I thought I was done for...", he looked down, and at that same moment Sumi felt it, the guilt that Norai felt all this time was creeping into him.

It wasn't hard to tell his next words: "Mom got hurt, right?", Sumi's words hit the nail on the head. Norai nodded and continued: "Mom got in the way of the attack, but it clawed the left side of her face. There was so much blood, but I heard her growl in fury and tell me to rush home. Didn't see much, but seeing how she came home covered in blood that wasn't hers I could only assume she did it. She put an end to the bakeneko's life."

One would need to squint to notice the woman still had a few traces of the scar over the left half of her face. They didn't seen as bad now, but certainly have been the job of a cat larger than a tiger. And it wasn't hard for anyone to have a tell of what is going through Norai's mind, it was seeping through Sumi who averted his eyes. Norai still blamed himself for what happened.

Shirogane kept banging the drums, a lively rhythm, as Norai refused to look ahead, and Sumi fought the increasing guilt. "But mom is not angry, can't you tell it, my past self?", Sumi finally pulled through to say what he felt, "Song is her way of expressing, isn't it? Her song doesn't seem to be carrying any anger or grief, she's just doing so because she feels like it. Plus, can't you feel it? Her beats are filled with energy, showing how lively she feels."

However Norai still felt unsure. "Her Raijin contacted her since... Told her to never come back. Even if she heals, mom can never go back to the clouds.", he gave a long sigh, to which Sumi shook his head in disagreement. "She doesn't care, probably. I mean: She is your- OUR mother, by now she must have realized how important we are, for her to risk her own life for you. Maybe all you need to feel convinced is a little PUSH!", Sumi had only approached his past self, resting a hand on his shoulder before giving him a push that made him stumble forth and stop a few feet away from the drumming oni in glamour of an ordinary human.

She hadn't stopped, and Norai stood there, closer now, understanding what Sumi meant earlier. The dream was bound to end soon, and once the drumming stopped, Shirogane bowed, the skies began to clear up and she turned over to see her son, rushing and giving him a firm embrace, lifting him up like he weighed nearly nothing.

"I think we are done here now... What do you say?"

The dream was coming to an end, the illusionary reality was starting to fade around them, Sumi rubbed his eyes once things started to look like some professional watercolor painting, and Shirogane said a few words before the dream came to an end: "One day the whole world will hear the music of life. That is my dream..."

For a moment when he woke up, Sumi stayed still, eyes open, blinking regularly but fixated on the ceiling, until Maya has spoken to him. As he sat up, he thought up on what he experienced, and concluded: "My mother's voice... I think I heard her voice somewhere before? But yes, now I remember it all, even the previous dreams, when she got hurt and all. My past self has finally moved on then..."