Author's Notes

Merry Christmas everyone. It's close enough, less than an hour before midnight as I post this, so it will probably be Christmas day once it's up.

The title is from the opening song of Darker than Black, the first season. I thought it suited Duskmon well.

I just love Duskmon to pieces; he is my favourite character after all.

Enjoy, and enjoy your holiday (long or short, depends on what part of the world you're in I suppose).

And in the event that I don't update again this year, Happy New Year to everybody as well.

Hero Without A Name

The world saw me as a villain. But between you and I, there is another story. Duskmon's POV.

Kouichi K

Rating: T

Genre/s: Angst/General

Hero Without A Name

They always saw me as the villain, the dark embodiment of evil willing to follow his Master's whim and destroy the world of light. Perhaps they cannot be blamed for such a perception; after all, first impressions create lasting imprints.

But you are a different case altogether. After all, you made me, the part of you locked away beneath a kind exterior, the part which eventually was unable to be contained when your own emotions got the better of you...and you understood that. That is why you shy away from the topic, because you know and understand that while the world saw me pushing against the light, you saw you, and as you, me.

And yet you honour me, my memory, in your own way. Because you also see that which the rest of the world fails to do so. Perhaps because they are blinded by their prejudice against darkness, or for our misdeeds against them as old wounds take time to heal, because they see you and I as two separate entities, rather than two different identities of the same, or a combination thereof.

Even for you, it took time. But you recognised it in the end, and in doing so, saved my existence. After all, one can only live while they are remembered, and remembrance of hatred alone was unworthy of existence at all.

Yes I still exist Kouichi, even if you may not be fully aware of that. I follow you as your shadow does, even closer as sometimes the shadow is snuffed out. But I am always there, a part of you, a thought to fall back onto when things get tough, when you need a stronger hand leading away.

Whoever said I had to be the villain? I was, after all, as much the saviour to you as the contraire. I threw you into the darkness, but in doing so I saved you from it. After all, what hope was there of you surviving at all without the Spirit? And would you have accepted it at all if you had not reached the end of your restraint? If you had not let me loose?

Cherubimon may have created us, but it was you who made me who I am, and I who helped mould you in return. The banter, the giving and taking that we shared as one.

You needed a way out. I gave that to you. You needed time. I granted that to you as well. You needed courage...or rather, an occurrence to stimulate it, and rather unorthodoxly, I provided that as well. You wouldn't be where you are now without me, and you well know that.

Even if it is between the two of us, I can still be a hero. I may have been the part of you that you were afraid of, that you hid from for a time. I may be the negativity you shied away from for fear of the consequences they could cause, I may be the personification of what others deemed your 'evil', but that doesn't make me evil.

After all, I am you, and one has to truly experience evil before being able to reject it and announce themselves as good.

In that case, I am your hero. To the world, I am a hero without a name.

After all, what is a name without a reputation? And the rest of the world sees me as the villian.

And I still remain, still hidden but now not wholly so. You know now, you remember and you try not to make the same mistake again?

But should you ever again need a reminder...the nameless hero still follows you, closer than your own shadow.