What's to be done?

[thefella]

High up in the mountains and nestled onto one of the highest peaks of the cloud country, the Yotsuki manor dazzled proudly in the light of day. Like the family itself though, it was only a spectacular sight on the outside while the interior grew ever more depressing. The family had suffered casualties during the murder of the county's kage and each member of the family had taken to their own coping mechanisms. Nearly all of them involved drinking.

The majesty of a piano cried softly throughout the manor as Saru's fingers played dextrously across the ivory keys. The ash at the end of his cigarette had grown impressively long without falling to join the pile of ash that now accumulated between his feet. Beside him on the bench was a nearly empty pack of cigarettes, a half empty bottle, and a glass with golden substance.

On and on his fingers danced across the piano intricately playing perhaps the longest song ever played before. Saru hadn't even been paying that much attention as he wove an intricate and sad melody for what must have been hours now. His thoughts were occupied with memories of his lost siblings, and struggling even more to comprehend that they were truly gone. Not just gone away on business or diplomacy, but gone and never coming back to brag and lord their achievements over him.

He smiled and muttered, "You drove me insane with your constant achievements and your pride. You were haughty, arrogant, and strong to boot. You deserved every little bit of pride you had in yourselves, but I detested you for it." As he spoke the pillar of ash fell to the floor and his hand retrieved the still burning cigarette. He held it between his fingers before lifting the glass to his lips and drinking. All the while his left hand still carried the melody absentmindedly on the piano.

[thefella]

"You're form is off..." his mother criticized entering the room followed by her usual entourage of what Saru could only imagine to be the greatest brown-nosers in all the land. Her voice lacked the sarcastic venom she usually laced her words for Saru with. As he set the glass down and turned to look back at her with a sarcastic retort of his own, he saw her gaze peered past him and through the window behind him. He literally and figuratively bit his tongue knowing full well that this wasn't the time for the family to make biting remarks at each other. "If you're going to butcher the instrument at least play something a little less sad won't you? Your brother and sister would never have played something like that in times like this."

Saru's fingers came to a stop and he forced the cigarette butt down into the ash tray on top of the piano. "Would you like me to sing as well? Perhaps I can juggle for you? Or have I let you down so much as a son that I should just jump off the mountain and join my brother and sister. Then you could just mourn all of us at the same time and get it out of your system." As he spoke he pulled one of the two last smokes from the pack beside him setting it to his lips and lighting the end.

As he exhaled it was more than just the bitter smell of tobacco that hung in the room, but also the eerie silence of a mistake. Saru slowly turned to his mother bracing himself for whatever punishment he had brought on himself, but her eyes only watered up as her body trembled. "How can you make a joke about something like that?" Her voice still lacked venom or any true sincerity but she had grown distant and out of touch with reality like much of the family over the past weeks. Saru knew that she wasn't altogether shaken up about the thought of him dying, so much as he had dared to mention his brother and sister in a joke at all so recently after their death.

"It's my coping mechanism. I don't think I should have to explain that to you." His fingers began to strike keys on the piano as chords rang out powerfully now echoing throughout the house. The ass kissers jumped at the sudden change of pace, but any family member in the house would be to intoxicated for such fine reaction times. Saru hummed along with the tune quietly for the short introduction before joining in with his own vocals.

"From The Darkness I Walk Into The Light
From The Day I Walk Into The Night
From The Shadows I Will Appear
With A Message For All Who Will Hear

For The Weak Of Heart
I Will Be Strong
To The Defenders Of Faith
I Will Belong
Till The Last Of Us Fight Till We Die
Till Keys Of The Kingdom Are Mine

All stand together
For the world to see
Now the time is right
To live out all our dreams
Say the words forever
Your strength will never leave
If you want to win the fight
Say, "I Believe"

[thefella]

The entourage's faces of judgement that matched his mother's seemed to change as they too looked out the window listening to Saruoji's song. A few of them seemed to even gain hopeful expressions on their faces, though for what they were hopeful for was beyond Saru. He merely assumed they were day dreaming of the day his mother might give them hand outs. His mother's eyes glistened listening to the song slow it seemed that she might come back to the world of the living. Alas, it wasn't meant to last as all hope and inspiration in the room was soon crushed by the tyrant and business mogul of the family.

The song came to a horrible train-wreck of a halt as all the wrong keys slammed at once as Saru looked across the room. His father, Lord Yotsuki as he liked to be called, had entered the room. His eyes were bloodshot and shadowed, his hair a grizzly mess, and the bottle in his hand seemed to complete the overall picture of a man so low he was trying to drink himself into submission. There was silence in the room that lasted for almost an entire minute as they glared at one another from across the room.

"You useless coward," his father began slowly, "all you do these days is play that piano and drink. Why don't you get out and do something useful with your life for just once?" He staggered forward with some difficulty almost falling over if not for the timely arrival of two members of his wife's suck up committee. Their aid only enraged him as he flung his arms in either direction casting them away from him and completing his destiny of falling onto his ass on the cold marble floor. "God damn it!" he breathed heatedly in pain.

"Good morning to you as well father," Saruoji mused as he pulled again on the cigarette before unable to hold back any politeness for a man who wouldn't remember it. "Of course, it's always a good morning when you honor us with your charming presence." This wasn't Saruoji's first time dealing with his father in this condition and he knew full well that sarcasm proved to be far over his head. "And what is that pungent lovely odor? Are you still keeping up with that new hygiene regiment of not showering?"