Chapter Text
THE DAY OF THE DEAD
30th of October, 1995
Japan, Hasetsu
“Do you believe in destiny? That even the powers of time can be altered for a single purpose? That the luckiest man who walks on this earth is the one who finds ... true love?”- Dracula 1992 (Bram Stoker´s Dracula)
When Harry was Harry, he had trouble believing in destiny, because he thought his destiny sounded like crap.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"
Professor Trelawney was indirectly the reason the Potters were targeted and Harry wondered if her alcohol affliction was making her prophesies worse. Every time she was sober her predictions were either wrong or just not that terrible. Dont misunderstand, he still hated the thought of a destiny, since it almost always got connected with his Boy Who Lived-status, but it got better. Destiny is something he changed himself when he became the Master of Death. It also made it a easier pill to swallow when he got to interact with those who sacrificed themselves for him.
Death wasn't that bad, since it wasn´t one place everyone went. Not exactly Heaven or Hell either. In some way, Dumbledore was right about it being "The Next Great Adventure" despite him probably using it to make himself feel better about sacrificing innocents for his Greater Good. You died and got judged on your actions and the remorse you felt about the bad things one has done in life. Then you get punishment for those bad actions with personal punishments, and then after you had several ways to live after death. Reincarnation without memories, working for the Master of Death, live as a ghost, becoming a guardian angel, it went on.
When Harry became Yuuri, he still talked with the dead in his dreams, by sending his consciousness to deal witht the dead or guide souls. He usually didn't think about it too much when he was awake. It didnt feel strange to him so it never crossed his mind that his family thought he didnt know about death. When one of his class mates had drowned in the Hasetsu ocean and Yuuri had fished him up, the adults all thought he didnt understand death when he didnt cry or react in some extreme way. However when the school counselor was brought in to talk with the 6-year-old it shocked him to hear a young child not only understand death, but also not be sad over the death, but rather how it affected his family and the child soul. "He doesnt like being dead, he doesnt like his family not responding to him."
For Yuuri saw souls walk around, not exactly ghosts or poltergeists, just souls that no one but necromancers and he himself could see. It didnt faze him either, as long as they weren't being pervy.
Hasetsu had a annual festival of the dead at Halloween. They worshipped the gods (or God or Allah) to lead their loved ones to paradise, and Yuuri had to bite his lip from saying anything strange. Something like, "You know Allah and God are just one of the many death workers that wanted recognition for their work on watching over the punished souls?" Yuuri couldn't say that Allah, God and the others weren't real, because they kinda were, despite not being exactly what most expect. For it gave people hope, and love. It soothed their worry about afterlife, about their own life.
The town had the mountains and the beaches decorated with lamps and different decorations from all over the world, the streets well lit up. Every so often a small firework would blow off the top of the mountains where large bonfires cast a orange blow by the trees and rocks. Floating on the waters were small paper and wooden boats where paper figurines of the dead sat. The preparations for this festival had taken a whole week, but it was worth it. Yuuri liked this festival better than the Hogwarts one, even if there were no catastopheses happening every time.
The games were fun and business bloomed for the town when people came to visit the small ocean-mountain town. He and Yuuko had the time of their life, and even with Takeshi trying to constantly best Yuuri in every game to impress Yuuko, nothing could put a damper on the fun.
The older Katsukis had of course been worried about their son experiencing his first real session of respecting the dead. Even after him being alright with his classmate being dead in his arms as he dragged him up from the ocean, they still worried. Their son was gentle in nature, and young, they didnt want to scar him with the sober air that usually settled when people lit candles after 03 am. It was always late at night so that no parents would accidentally let their child see the usual mourning. The elder Katsukis had almost refused Yuuri from seeing it, but he had been stubborn so they decided to let him experience the ceremony. He hardly ever got cross so they figured that he was old enough.
At 3 am a lot of the citizens of Hasetsu gathered. Some had chosen to go and sleep, others didnt want to see it, or they didnt want to let their children see it.
When they gathered at the ocean bank with other families they braugt out their own small wooden raft with 4 small paper figurines. They resembled Hirokos and Toshiyas parents, and the pairs got to sit opposite of each other on the small raft. Hirokos parents on the right, Toshiyas on the left. Each little figurine had their name written on their back in red ink from a pen they only used for this night. Yuuri put a small paper bowl with rice in the middle of the raft and stuck two sticks, resembling chop sticks, into the rice right up. They rice and chopstick would resemble hotokebashi. A funeral ritual.
Other families did the same thing and the local fisherman walked around with bowls of salt, giving it to the families and other people standing there ready to let their raft float off. The people started throwing the salt over themselves and some scattered it around before keeping some to have by the front doors and walkways later that night.
Yuuri saw souls everywhere, some dancing on the slight waves that the ocean and wind generated, others stood with their relatives and friends. The 6-year-old classmate that Yuuri dragged up from the ocean was doing his best to talk with his family with no result. He had been a child that always craved attention and now he got none. The kid had been a perfectly okay human being when he was alive and it hurt Yuuri a little to see a soul throwing away time to float around people who will maybe never even feel his precense.
The mountains lit up brighter than before and several families lit some incense sticks that they attached to the small rafts and boats. They then waded out into the water and sent them out at the calm sea.
Some souls followed their boat out into the waters and ate the small rice corns in their own way where they got the spirit of the food to eat. Something that separated them from ghosts who could never eat. Other spirits stayed by their families and talked with them. Yuuri noticed that a few of the souls that followed their boat shimmered and disappeared into seafoam, others turned back to the shore.
The little spirit boy played with the lanters near his family, and Yuuri noticed that he always blew the candles out when his sister tried to relight them. He found his own way of communication.
The eldest Katsukis grew worried when they saw their little boy looking at the family crying over the lanterns in the sand, but their son didnt seem too bothered, he looked solemn. Oddly enough like he has seen something like that before.
After the Katsuki family stood there and paid their respects they headed home with the bowl of salt, making a small thin trail with a few of the salt grains all they way up to their front door.
Neither Mari or Yuuri had any trouble going to their room for some sleep, but they both knew their parents would struggle.
Yuuri heard them cry later that night. His status as the Master of Death let him know that his grandparents watched over them through the mirrors leading to the world he lived in. They stood in front of a mirror in their home, a mirror dimension similar to the living world. His grandparents worked for him, letting souls in the mirror world for the dead, spend time in their U-Topia. They watched over them through the mirror on the wall of their own bedroom, the bedroom both their children occupied in a different dimension. It warmed Yuuris heart to see all his grandparents working together and watching over them all.
Yuuri cried that night as well, since it hurt a lot more to see the ones he cared about hurting, than it hurt to lose someone himself.
Written 30th of October 2020.