With a simple nod in reply to my one worded question, I lept for joy out of my bed onto my remaining leg, hopping towards him, after a stumble I barreled into him, burying my muzzle into his fur, shedding tears that held memories from long ago, faded, but never forgotten. A myriad of emotions swept through me, clashing through my thoughts. I could do nothing but cry into Nora's fur.

"Nora..." My eyes glanced over at the patterns on his fur, they faded from bright red to a soft burgundy, the color of poorly healed scars. I clutched his fur in my paws, "Is it really you? I mean, how..."

"You once told me you wanted to be a detective, didn't you?" He asked with a smile. My eyes widened, speechless at the fact that he was alive. After a few moments of sorting through reoccurring questions I could but utter a single phrase:

"I missed you..."

"I know Aoi," he replied, his voice was soothing, like a father to a hurt child, "I'm sorry..."

=16 years ago=

The sky was dark, a small overcast shed light drizzling rain onto a forgotten forest of Asakusa, where in its ruined domain beheld an abandoned Shinto shrine whose god was said to have deserted and cursed it. A young boy sat on the steps, crying, tending wounds with a dirty towel. He kept his eyes closed as he winced with ever single rub of the damp towel across the ragged, torn, scars.

With every stroke of the towel, more and more pain elicited more and more red tears from his eyes. In his other hand was a rusted and nicked cleaver, the edge slicked with blood that slowly dripped off in the cleansing summer rain. He whimpered as he ran the towel over a brutal gash. After he could take the sting of it no longer, he curled up and lied down onto the steps, letting the rain wash over his skin, the blood running down the aged steps onto the cold soft ground below. After collecting himself, he reached behind his back and started tending to the fresh wounds on it, red and raw from where cord met skin tissue.

He was glad that he was gone, gone from that horrible place. He knew he had a long way to go, but he had finally took a step in the right direction.

A twig snapped, the boy sat up to attention, pointing the cleaver at the source of the disturbance, both hands clutching it shaking.

"Dete oide! (Show yourself!)" He cried out in a trembling voice. A small dog waddled from out behind the tree it used as a hiding place, its white fur matted and gray with dirt and dust. Small markings accompanied the dust that pocked its fur. The boy lowered his hands, placing the cleaver on the steps with a metallic clack. Slowly the dog limped over to the boy, a long gash in its side was made clear. The boy rose to his feet, walking uneasily towards the wounded creature.

The dog tread sluggishly through the dirt, which slowly turned into gritty mud with each passing minute. It soon slumped over and fell down, rasping heavily, looking up at the boy with pleading eyes. Without another word, the boy knelt down, reached a hand over his right arm and tore off his sleeve. He wrapped the gash in the makeshift bandage, taking care not to cause any more pain. He cradled the muddy dog in his arms, carrying him into the temple.

"Anzendesu (You're safe)," the boy said, placing it on a stack of tatami mats. He looked down at the creature, slowly stroking its matted fur. After a few glances around the temple, he spotted a collection box in the middle of the room. He stood up, digging through his pockets, which yielded but a single yen coin. He went over and tossed it into the slot, clasping his hands together in prayer.

'Ikiru, Onegai (Please live.)' With that, he went back to nursing his own wounds, leaning against the wall. Not long after, both had fallen asleep as the rain slowly died down to the soft pitter patter of raindrops on the shingled roof.

Birds called out to herald the damp morning air and the return of sunlight, now shining through the temple windows. The dog woke first, twitching its ears to shake off an imaginary itch. He looked at the boy, after recalling last nights events, started to lick the boy's hand. The waif stirred, groaning as if to deny that the day had come. The dog sat there, contemplating his current situation.

'So, this is my new master now,' he thought to himself, 'One who wields a cleaver coated in blood.' He glanced at the nicked cleaver lying on the ground next to the youth. He took a gentle whiff of the blade, lips furled in a snarl. The blood reeked of malice and hatred. He turned his view back to the curled boy in the corner, who emanated a contrary aura of loneliness and pain.

'What strange force dwells within him?' the dog contemplated, head cocked in cautious curiosity, 'The blood shed by a killer, yet the blade wielded by a victim.' A piercing shock passed through him, making him collapse on the dark, damp mat.

The boy awoke in a jolt to the muffled thud next to him, his eyes shooting to the source. His expression dampened as he wrapped his arms around the paralyzed cur, bringing him back to his resting place.

"Bakage inu wa, anata wa mada kizutsuite imasu. (Silly dog, you're still hurt.)" He patted the bandages, slowly peeling away his hand for any sign of further injury. Satisfied of the merely damp result, he sighed in relief. A drowsy grin crept over his face.

"Sore wa asada... (It's morning...)" His stomach growled angrily. The once drowsy grin faded to anxiety as he sifted through his clothes to find nothing edible. He turned his view towards the cleaver, the blood now caked over in a burgundy hue. He grasped it in his hand, thinking of how to get his next meal. Turning to the sky, he saw nothing but fruitless trees. His stomach growled again, the hunger pangs growing stronger by the minute.

He looked back at the dog, petting him once before heading out into the woods. After about 3 hours scouring the woods for something to eat, he had managed to chance upon a few strawberry bushes. He carried the strawberries in a small strip of clothing, tying it around his side with a small cord. He marked the path back to the temple by breaking a few branches along his left. What surprised him was when the forest thinned out a bit to reveal a patch of watermelons. His jaw dropped in excitement, letting loose a stream of drool.

He crouched low, creeping up to the edge of the patch, hugging close to the grass. he headed to the nearest one and slit the vine with the cleaver. Immediately he bolted back into the forest, carrying the heavy melon in his scrawny arms and the rusted cleaver in his mouth. He rushed passed the broken branches as fast as he could, wayward sprigs scratching his face as he passed.

Right as he was about to make it back to the temple, he lost his footing and started to slide along the muddy ground, out of control until he landed face first into the mud. The water melon rolled along the ground, gaining a thin coat of dirt on it. The boy got back up, waddling over to the melon and picking it back up, aching.

"NGHH!" He dropped down on one knee, his ankle flaming with pain. He looked back and found it twisted from the fall. He forced onward, limping back to the temple before landing at its steps. He spit out the cleaver, breathing heavily with a pained smile at his prize. He brought out the pouch of berries, disappointed with a pink stain leaking out from the pouch. The little boy leaned back against the steps, gritting his teeth as he eased his hand down towards his ankle, finding it already swollen. He massaged it and tried to realign it, resulting in piercing screams. Afterward, he limped over to the pup's resting place and placed the pouch onto the ground next to it, gently untying the cord and revealing the berries inside.

"Sono ni iku (There you go...)" He croaked before tending to his new injury, taking his usual seat against the wall. The pup soon awoke again, bracing himself up on his forelegs and sniffing the pile of mushy strawberries. The sweet smell was tantalizing to his nose; he gladly wolfed down the entire pile, juice and all, staining his muzzle a bright pink. The boy giggled as the pup gorged itself on the red fruit.

"Anata ga hen ni mieru. (You look funny)" He smiled, pointing at the dog's berry covered face. The dog duly replied with a lick of his muzzle and then went back to his resting place, satisfied and faring better, even if it wasn't by much.

"Anata no namae wa? (Do you have a name?)" he asked, leaning over to see if the dog had a collar, "Eri nashi? (No collar?)" He stared at the lack of even a trace of a collar. A stray since birth, born free, the dog never really took to such worries as having a name, his eyes flickered at the boy before starting to drift off.

'I never had a collar, but I did have a name,' the dog picked through his thoughts, 'I can't remember it...'

"Nanashi? (No Name?)" The boy mulled over possible names for the dog before shaking his head. "Sate, anata wa norainudesu... (Well you are a stray dog so...)" He tightened the splint with a wince, sighing afterward, "Dono yō ni Nora wa dōdesu ka? (How about Nora?)" he asked, smiling.

The puppy's ears perked up when he heard it. He looked at the boy, head cocked to the side?

'Stray? Is that what he intends to name me?' he thought it over. 'Nora... it does have a nice ring to it.' He barked in response. The boy smiled even wider, happy that his new friend had accepted the name.

"Watashi wa anata no namae o shitte, naritai jirai o shitte imasu ka? (I know your name, wanna know mine?)" The pup nodded. "Watashi wa Myoujin Aoi."

Over the next several weeks, Aoi and Nora spent their days living in the old abandoned temple. Aoi headed into the city often and borrowed books from the library, bringing them back to read. Many were camping guides. He learned from them, how to hunt, how to make animal traps, how to fish, even how to start a garden. From that he managed to scratch up a meal for both of them. With well nourishment and the occasional replacement of 'bandages' Nora soon recovered from his wounds, a new patch of fur covering the once near fatal wound. Aoi however, wasn't so lucky, his would had healed over into discolored scars.

With the game and fruit he gathered, Aoi would go to trade in the marketplace for a couple hundred yen per batch. A few weeks later, he had enough to afford cooking supplies, making rice dishes, stews, soups, etc. Eventually, Aoi had enough to finally replace his clothes, as well as better bedrolls for him and Nora. Aoi soon started to wear long sleeved clothing to hide his scars, embarrassed at how many people gawked at him for it, even going as far as wrapping his hands in gloves or cloth gauntlets.

It wasn't much to live on, but both Aoi and Nora could call their little abandoned temple out in the middle of the forests of Asakusa home. More and more Aoi brought home books from the library, novels of many kinds, and he would often read aloud to Nora as he slept cradled in Aoi's lap, dozing in the mid morning rays. Some days they would just lay around and do absolutely nothing at all but gaze at the sky as clouds drifted on by. Even in the rain, they would sit either parked under the porch of the temple as the rain slicked off of Aoi's clothes and Nora's fur, or under a heavily bloomed tree as they enjoyed the cooling drops from the leaves. Nora soon became well enough to track and hunt for game with Aoi, and both of them would run through the forest, whether to track down quarry, or simply for fun. However, there were many a days where Aoi would sit alone, scratching the single cleaver he had with a piece of sandstone or flint, removing the blood, rust and dirt that had accumulated on it bit by bit, not seeking any company whatsoever. Those were the days that Nora sensed that violent aura he did back then.

Weeks turned into months, and soon enough, winter had arrived. Aoi had saved enough money to replace the doors of the temple, as well as refurnish a sand bed furnace inside for heating and cooking the stores of crops from the small garden. Much of that winter was spent indoors, cradled around the furnace as Aoi read to his companion. Nora took no interest in the literature, often giving a cute wide yawn from underneath the blankets of the bedroll as Aoi articulated the works of Shakespeare and other works of Western Literature dubbed in Nihongo. During some cold nights whenever it snowed heavily, Nora would often crawl out from his bedroll, crawl into Aoi's and sleep curled up next to or even on top of him in a small white ball of fur.

One calm snowfall, as the sika deer pass through the forest where the two resided, Aoi took solace in the evening frost, a red scarf wrapped around half his face with Nora, who grew out a double coat of white fur mottled with a deep maroon, tail swishing about to left to right. They both sat on the porch, an occasional snowflake tickling their noses. Aoi sighed deeply, clutching his gloved hands together. Nora glanced at him with concern and curiosity.

"Anata mo anata no ryōshin o ketsujō ka, Nora? (Do you miss your parents too, Nora?)" Aoi looked down at him with a saddened gaze. "Karera wa, amarini mo anata kara torare, karera ni nakatta? (They were taken from you too, weren't they?)" Nora's ears drooped as he whimpered in reply.

"Itsuka, watashi wa seigi ni watashi no ryōshin o ubatta mono o jisan suru tsumoridesu. (Someday, I'm going to bring the one who took away my parents to justice.)" Aoi pulled out a novel, Sherlock Holmes. "Watashi wa chōdo Shārokku-yō ni, tanteidearu tsumoridesu. (I'm going to be a detective, just like Sherlock.)" He placed the book down on the porch. Nora looked up at Aoi, pondering.

'A noble cause.' He slipped under Aoi's arm. 'Could you live up to it?' He had doubts that Aoi could do so, eying the cleaver the young boy held so close to him. Aoi smiled at him, scratching the growing hound behind his ears.

"Itsuka watashi wa ie ni kaeru koto ga dekirudeshou. (Maybe someday I'll be able to go back home.)" He turned his gaze back to the soft gray sky. "Īdarou to omou koto. (I think that it would be nice.)" Nora responded by twitching his ears and dozing off.

"Anata wa nani no yumewomiru? (What do you dream of?" he asked. Nora's eyes cracked open. He considered what he really wanted to accomplish. All Nora really knew was that he was alive longer than he'd like to be, but no recollection on how or why. But somehow, being with Aoi seemed right.

'I guess what I'd really like to accomplish is to regain my memory,' he concluded before returning to the dull confines of sleep.

Aoi glanced out across the snow scape, the forest gathering a blanket of snow for a season long rest. His mind wandered to the sea salt breeze of the coast, as well as the apartment. His heart started to ache with longing for brighter days that had long since passed. He reached up and rubbed away the tears coming to his eyes.

"Anata ga natsukashii desu. (I miss you)" He whispered to the cold December air, hoping they would reach their long lost audience.

Four long years passed, and the two became close companions. Although Nora couldn't speak, Aoi could always count on him to listen, even if he did end up falling asleep. Sometimes Aoi would act out scenes from Sherlock Holmes, or even Hamlet, quoting speeches and monologues without fail, while Nora watched intently, wondering what Aoi was even doing.

One night, Aoi and Nora stayed awake to see the lanterns floating down river at Obon. Aoi had saved up to buy a pure white kimono to wear in reverence to the dead. He lit two lanterns, placing them gently in the river as its soft ocean current carried it downstream. Bowing his head, he remembered all the good times and bad that him and his parents had celebrated together. Teardrops followed, and soon they left the river as the small lanterns headed to their final destination, lighting up the entire river in a warm glow as the August moon shown overhead, reflected in the shimmering water.

One summer's evening, Aoi had learned about a program that he could take to go to middle school. He came back to the abandoned temple jumping for joy, holding a small envelope in his hand.

"Nora! Mite! (Nora! Look!)" He slid open the door in such a rush, that Nora jolted out from underneath the sheets and bolted under a table. Aoi laughed, sitting down on his bedroll while pulling out a small piece of paper from the envelope. It was an acceptance letter for him to go to middle school. Beaming, he rushed over to the table Nora peek out from under, grabbing him and flinging him up into the air with joy.

"Suteki da ne? (Isn't it wonderful?)" he cheered, holding Nora up in the air. Nora was absolutely terrified of heights. He scrambled out of Aoi's arms and fell back onto the ground.

"Watashi wa gakkō ni iru toki wa, yoi inu ni naru koto o yakusoku, daijōbudesuka? (Promise that you'll be a good dog when I'm in school, okay?)" Nora's ears flattened when he heard this, turning around to meet Aoi's gaze with sad eyes. Aoi sighed and sat down next to him. He started petting Nora's fluffy white coat. He wished he could bring Nora to school, but they wouldn't allow pets in school.

Over the years, Nora grew more and more.

"Soreijō ni seichō shi, watakushiha yori ōku no shokuryō o sodate hajimenakereba naranaideshou, (Grow any more, and I'll have to start growing more food.)" Aoi joked when he found him one day having grown the size of a Great Pyrenees. From then on Nora had to settle to laying beside him at night.

The more Nora grew however, the more he started to have nightmares. Sudden flashes of images in his mind, scenes from ages past. Nora often tossed and turned in his sleep because of this, whimpering and howling in his sleep. Whenever he did this, Aoi sung him a lullaby that his mother sang to him, every night. But one day, nightmare invaded Nora's mind that night, one that he knew would force him to make an impossible choice.

Many more months passed as Aoi went from home to school and back again, each day traversing 2 miles to get to school. Many of the students never talked to him, a rumor soon spread that Aoi was the offspring of a demon because of his red eyes. Some of the upperclassmen teased him about it. Those that did were met with a deadly glare. On a rare occasion, Aoi came home one day with a bruise on his face. A fight happened in school when a prank went to far and someone jokingly tried to 'exorcise' him. The result was one kid having an arm smashed in a locker door and Aoi's cheek bruised from a brutal punch. He cried that night, quietly sobbing as he spent the night sharpening his cleaver like he always did whenever he felt sad or angry. He stopped however when Nora came up to him that night, nuzzling him. He felt better, wiping away his tears on his uniform. Even so, the next morning, Aoi didn't let him come to school with him. In some ways, he felt he was protecting him. The upperclassmen would only try to hurt Aoi to spite him.

But Nora persisted, whining and begging to go with Aoi to school each and every morning without fail. Eventually, Aoi gave in one day, letting him walk behind Aoi as he traversed the countryside. When they reached the city, everything changed. The cars were busier than usual, the bustle of the streets was suffocating as people pushed past Aoi left and right going about their mundane lives. Stoplight blared on and off as the cars traveled unrelentingly towards their destination.

All the while, a single thought was going through Nora's mind.

'For what is about to happen, I am truly sorry...' A red light snapped to green; Aoi and Nora started to cross the road.

A screech of wheels sounded across the street. Everything blurred together as the order of downtown traffic spiraled out of control. Aoi caught a glimpse of a limo out of the corner of his eye headed straight towards him. He froze in fear as it came, swerving erratically. At the very last second, he felt something push him out of the way. It was Nora, slamming into him with watery beads forming at the corner of his eyes.

Aoi sat there on the ground, staring in horror with blood splattered all over him. A sharp pain came from his side where piece of white shrapnel had pierced him. There he was, Nora, once a pup he had known four years ago, laid there, dead, the color of his eyes fading from view, his once white coat marred with bits of broken glass and his own blood. Aoi started to crawl towards Nora, clutching his side as he did so, blood trailing behind him as he approached the side of his friend. Drops of rain trickled down as the overcast rolled into a storm. Amidst the falling raindrops, tears of blood landed on the creature's gaping muzzle. Nora's eyes looked back at Aoi's as their color faded from them. Aoi buried his face in Nora's red stained fur, gasping and whimpering, hoping that this was just all a bad dream.

It was all real, the shrapnel in his side, the blood on his fingers and face, the tears that fell along with the rain. The city growing quiet as traffic stopped and police sirens blared across the road, quarantining the entire block with yellow tape. All of it. Aoi wailed loudly amidst the silence of the city, crying aloud in sadness as the rain fell on his face, mingling with the tears he alone shed for his fallen friend. The slow tapping of rain on the asphalt could not muffle his cries unto the world.

A car door opened, breaking through the singular noise. It was the driver, clad in a suit and hat. His hand rose to take his cap off, gently whispering the words, "Gomen'nasai (I'm sorry)." Aoi's crying stopped, his gaze rose, eyes wide, flaring red with a scowl of pure rage. He stood slowly, reaching over towards his side. With a tearing yank, he pulled out the piece of white shrapnel: a rib, whether it was his, or Nora's, he didn't care.

"Korosu... (Kill)" He growled. The word echoed throughout the entire street. He held the sharp piece of bone in his hands like a dagger.

"KOROSU!!!" He sprinted towards the driver, who turned and ran in horror. Aoi's footsteps slammed across the asphalt, tearing across the street to catch up to the driver. He lunged in a full tackle, barreling the driver over. He turned the driver over onto his back, who raised his arms over his eyes in sheer terror. Aoi stabbed down, missing the driver's head by a centimeter. He raised the bone into the air again. A dull thud to the back of his head stopped him from stabbing again. He dropped the piece of bone, slowly falling down to the ground, unconscious. An old man helped the driver up. The driver fell to his knees, bowing greatly for saving him.

"Arigatōgozaimashita, Mitsuru-sama. (Thank you, Master Mitsuru.)"

"Jūbun ni, wareware wa byōin ni kono shōnen o toru hitsuyō ga arimasu. Kare wa yatara to shukketsu shite. (Enough, we should take this boy to a hospital. He's bleeding profusely.)" The old man said, leaning on his cane. He looked down at Aoi, considering the thought of apprenticing him.

The crowd soon dispersed, the ambulance carrying Aoi away in a stretcher. As the sirens faded away in the distance, two spirits stood at the scene.

"You've made your choice, Inugami," the first spirit said, opening a small paper umbrella. "Or should I call you 'Nora' from now on?" The second spirit snarled at the first.

"Silence. You and your damn prophecy." Inugami's ears drooped down as he looked down at his corpse.

"It was my prophecy to begin with, but your choice. You've naught but yourself to blame for what happens next." Inugami growled in response.

"My choice. Pheh, you mean punishment. Make me forget who I was, keep me alive in a new body for over a thousand years, all to dangle visions of what was to come so I would make a cruel decision. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED?!" He barked at the spirit.

"What I wanted was you to finally learn your lesson, and from what you chose, I'd say you learned it quite well..." The spirit hovered her umbrella over Inugami. "Of course, you wouldn't have learned it had you remembered why you needed to in the first place."

"You can point the finger at me all you want, Inugami, but in the end, when all is said and done, the only person to blame is you. And from what I can see, Aoi will learn that a lot faster than you did."

===

A/N: The Flashback for this gaiden chapter was written in a third person perspective to convey both characters thoughts juxtapose each other.