Epilogue: Moons and Stars

Arashi's POV:

It's been five years.

Her name is now Misoka Haru.

I watch her stroll through the village streets, arm in arm with a man who is not me. She does not feel my familiar chakra presence nearby. She does not even sense someone watching her.

Watching her for five years.

I watched her as she stumbled upon the small village, lost and confused. I watched as she was taken in by a kind family. She did not remember her name, so she was given new one. I watched as she slowly built up a new life full of lies about who she really is.

She still doesn't remember that she was a kunoichi. She has never activated her Sharingan once in the past five years. Her chakra signature slowly faded away from lack of use. But then again, why would she need it? She resides now in a fishing village, peaceful and blissfully detached from the rest of the world. She is content with her life, a child-bearer for a man who claims to love her.

Hoshiko doesn't remember.

And I'll never forget.

Itachi turns away beside me. Five years haven't changed him much, although now and then I would see that the lines beneath his eyes are a little deeper, his crimson sharingan a little less bright. But maybe I'm just seeing things.

The Uchiha's command is curt. "Let's go."

It takes me what feels like hours before I can pull myself away. But long after, the sound of her rare laughter haunts me still, a ghost that won't stop chasing me, even after all these years. Sometimes, just as I am waking up or falling asleep, I think I can see her mismatched eyes watching me, somewhere in the back of my mind. And I think I can feel her fingers lightly tracing my face, over the spot where I am still missing an eyebrow ring from the time she removed it (not to mention kept it).

I think she is still wandering around somewhere; not lost, but searching...

And then the moment is gone, taking her with it.

I breathe in the salty air, breathe in her scent.

She is standing alone near the shoreline, both hands cupping her unborn baby. Foamy waves crash and break against the sandy beach as the full moon hangs above, a mirror image of itself painted on the sea's surface. It's larger than I have ever seen it before, and perhaps even brighter.

She turns in my direction as I approach, giving me a polite smile. It takes me a moment to remember that she does not recognize me. To her, I am but a stranger, who just so happened to be in this small village, at this particular beach, and at the same time as her, in this small corner of the universe.

How mistaken she is.

"Hello sir." Her voice is friendly. "Beautiful moon, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's...something," I manage lamely.

"Passing by?"

For some reason, the fact that she doesn't remember me hurt a lot. Maybe a tiny part of me always hoped that when I finally meet Hoshiko again, she would recognize me and fly into my arms, never to let go again. A part of me that never despaired at Hoshiko's decision to forget me, to forget it all. A part of me that still hopes.

My throat closes off. "Oh. Uh, yes. I'm visiting...a close friend..." I trail off, then add for no reason: "Very close."

"Ah. I see. Are they well?"

I try not to look at her, look into those strange eyes of her's. Instead, I close my own, gathering my bearings, only to lose them again as my eyes reopened to meet a violet and obsidian one. "She...is very happy. Happier than I had ever seen her." I pray to Kami she didn't hear the catch in my voice, the break in my cool composure.

"I'm glad."

Awkward silence.

Finally, still clinging to a strand of hope, I venture, "Pardon me for being so forward, but you appear slightly familiar. Have we met before?"

She pauses, as I forget how to breathe. Then her face cracks into a smile as she replies, "I'm really not sure. I may sound crazy and all, telling you this, but just a couple of weeks ago, I bumped into this man with long black hair. And I could swear that I had seen him before...perhaps even known him." She tucks a strand of black hair behind an ear. It's grown out now, all the way down to the middle of her back; a raven waterfall of silk.

"His eyes were blood-red," she adds suddenly, almost like an afterthought. "They were beautiful. Familiar." She shakes her head, chuckling slightly. "You must think I'm crazy. We don't even know each other!"

A stab to the heart would have been kinder. Cringing inwardly, I point out, "We do now."

She nods, thoughtful. "True..." Her fingers wander over her stomach. My eyes follow them. Then, almost as if she read my mind, she spoke. "It's going to be a girl, but I'm still thinking of a name," she explains. "My husband wants to name her something traditional, like Aiko." She rolls her eyes before turning them to the glowing moon. "But I want something...different."

This time, it's a heavy, yet comfortable silence. She seems to be lost in thought, as am I; lost in thoughts about her.

After a few minutes of tranquility, Hoshiko (I still refuse to think of her as Misoka) faces me and holds out her hand. "Well, it's getting late, and I really must be going. My husband will be wondering. It's been a pleasure talking to you...?"

My heart skips a beat and almost forgets to continue.

This was it. If I told her my name, would she recognize me? Would there be a spark of recognition in her eyes as she throws her arms around me and declares how much she has missed me too? Would she run off with me, never to return to this accursed village? She deserved so much more, yet she still asked Itachi-sama to clear her memory, to make her forget. But I, I could make it right. I could fix her.

I could fix me.

I open my mouth, my true name sitting on the tip of my tongue, the air seems tense to me, so thick I could barely breathe...

Three words left my mouth: "Kira. Kira Nagashi."

Shock washes over me. I'm frozen in time, my mind shutting down.

I blew it. I destroyed my only chance of ever recovering the lost Hoshiko.

The cynical half of my mind claims it's useless anyway. The old Hoshiko was gone forever, and will never be found again.

But something deeper within me knows the truth. The truth is, Hoshiko is happy. Happy in a village where no one shuns her for her strange appearances, where no one laughs at her clumsiness with weapons. Happy that she can lead a normal life, bear the children of a man she truly does love, and grow old without a worry.

She is happy not remembering.

And perhaps that will suffice.

"It's been a pleasure talking to you, Nagashi-sama." Her hand touches mine, bringing me back down to Earth. I feel the battle scars running over her pale skin, and suddenly, I don't want to let go.

She squeaks as I pull her against me, hugging her for all it was worth. At first, it is like hugging granite, but slowly, her shoulders loosen, her arms drape around my back. It's almost like old times again, even if she was just humoring me, and I could've stood there forever, just holding on.

I murmur one word so softly upon instict, that even I wasn't sure I had said it out loud: Hoshiko. The name sounds foreign, unspoken for such a long time now, always just a whisper of the wind, or a tiny voice in the back of my mind.

"Hoshiko..." I repeat, tasting it on my tongue.

But she doesn't respond. And I don't expect her to.

She is Misoka Haru. Hoshiko died five years ago. I know that now.

And then, as quickly as it had happened, it's over. She pulls away, a faint blush across her cheeks, eyes lost in a slight daze. But she doesn't slap me, or call me a pervert as I am prepared for. In fact, she reaches for my hand one last time, and gives it a good, final squeeze.

Then she walks away.

I stand, rooted to my spot, watching her move with a swing in her hips I'd never noticed before.

Half-way up the beach, she turns around again, and the moon's silvery glow makes her ivory skin radiant. She is gorgeous, in her own special way. I try hard to imprint the picture in the back of my mind, to keep till the end of time. Even from afar, I can see clearly the smile painted upon her face.

"I think I'll name her Tsukino!" she calls back over the crashing waves. I realize that she is talking about her child. "Tsukino of the moon!" She gestures towards said object in the sky, and I am speechless, in shock, my mind churning, desperately trying to process it all as the ocean roars behind me, droplets of saltwater raining down...

She walks away, this time without looking back.

I watch her go, without an effort to stop her. There is no empty feeling within me, strangely enough. There is no stabbing pain in my chest, no flaming anger. Just...a feeling of peace. Contentment.

I know I will never see her again. And maybe, just maybe, that was alright.

My clenched hand loosens, the one that Hoshiko shook, and that is when I feel something hard and small folded in it. Opening my fist, I stare at my once-missing eyebrow ring.

A crooked grin tugs at my lips as I fix the hoop beside my other piercing, where it belongs. It still lingers with five years worth of her clean scent.

When I look up again, she is gone, and I am now alone on the beach.

Alone with the moon and the stars.

But it was alright. It would suffice.

Because I remember.

And that will be enough.

x-X-x-X-x-X-x

X-x-X

-X-

"Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth: that around every circle, another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; and under every deep, a lower deep opens."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

-X-

X-x-X

x-X-x-X-x-X-x

-Owari-

Misoka - born in the end (of the month)...oh, the irony.

--

Yes, this is the end of Starchild, and the end to the Tsukino/Hoshiko series. I'm sorry to say I won't likely revisit the OC-as-main-character idea again. This was just a starter story for me (which lasted a good 3 years -.-;).
I've had several moments where I was SO tempted to delete this pathetic excuse for a story along with it's embarassingly cliche prequel. But in the end, I guess it turned out okay for one of my first stories ever, and your encouragements made it all that better!

Anyway, thanks a million plus one to all of you who have supported me, and I wish you all luck on your own stories!!

- Seireihime

PS. Any chance you'd like to review one last time?? Constructive crticism is always welcome!! ;)