autumnleaf16

When Miaka and Tamahome finally finished telling the story of what had happened in their past life, they were in the palace. Throughout the journey everyone had been unusually quiet, even Genro, and the two of them viewed that as a good sign.
“That seems crazy though.” Ryoen said. “That I, well…”
“Used to cross dress and was in love with Hotohori, who is reborn as Seishuku.” Ju-An managed to finish the sentence with his typical straight face. “But then it kinds of make sense, how Seishuku behaved when he saw Yuri in the hospital.”
“Hotohori had been married to Yuri, they were married for more then two years.” Miaka continued, she just has to add the last bit of the story in, that Hotohori had also been the emperor of Konan.
“I think it is possible,” Hojun decided, “In view of all this it must be possible.”
“There really is no other explanation.” Dokun agreed, before he began another analyze of what was happening. He was very intelligent and studious, but he was not chained to any scientific idea as one might have believed due to his studying.
The rest five all had to believe that they had a past life here when the older member of the emperor’s court came out and recognized them as the celestial warriors of Suzaku. Satisfied, it was deemed that they should be taken to the emperor immediately.
“So how did we manage to get into the palace anyway?” Genro whispered to Miaka, still managing to slap Tamahome when his hand was itching towards a very elaborately decorated candleholder.
Miaka and Tamahome both recognized this path as the way to the emperor’s private quarters. From what she heard, the emperor was still unmarried, this made Miaka wander what happened to the empress’ private quarters, the chambers that had once belonged to Yuri. Were they left the way they were? Or did they completely change with the arrival of a new overall owner?
All these rituals seemed rather reminiscent to Miaka, after all, it had only been more then one year for her. As she watched the guards knelt she remembered how she had once stood behind some guards like this, only that she was waiting for another emperor.
“The priestess of Suzaku? Are you sure?” even the voice was familiar, but it was a bit higher then Hotohori’s voice. (12)
The new emperor of Konan was now twenty years old, having been only sixteen when he was told by Suzaku to take over the throne from his older half brother.
His hair was loose and down as well, but they were not as dark as the hair of his half brother’s hair. Hotohori’s hair was a very deep raven back, while the current emperor’s hair was more of an olive brown. (13)
Even though he resembled Hotohori greatly, he lacked that haunting, and even shocking beauty his elder half brother had been blessed with. He could and would be described as handsome, but not as beautiful.
Somehow he also seemed much younger, although when she first saw Hotohori, he was only twenty years old as well. But then Hotohori had been burdened with a kingdom that was on the brink of destruction, as that was the condition a country would be in with the appearance of the Suzaku priestess.
“My name is Kotsuki.” The young man said softly. “I am the fifth emperor of Konan.”
“I am Miaka, the priestess of Suzaku. And they are all celestial warriors of Suzaku in their previous lives, only that some of them don’t remember their life here yet!” Miaka declared happily, reaching out to grab the emperor’s hand impulsively. At first Kotsuki frowned at the boldness of the girl, but he smiled as he though about the tales that he had heard of the priestess of Suzaku.
“You all look like the paintings in the temple of Suzaku. In the first year of my reign I consented to my people’s wish of having the images of the seven celestial warriors painted and put in the temple of Suzaku where they could all pray to.” Kotsuki explained, continuing in a rather soft voice, he had been born with a rather quiet nature that had to adjust most severely with his new position.
“Tamahome; Nuriko; Chichiri; Taisuki; Mitsukake and Chiriko.” He told each of them. As he finished Chiriko’s name he frowned and turned to Miaka, his eyes suddenly very dark.
“But where is my brother? Why is he not with you all?” Kotsuki demanded, a hint of command creeping into his voice. “And where is Houkigou too? I though that she and he would both be here as well.”
“I believe that Yuri…Houkigou is in Kutou now…” Miaka began, but was interrupted by everyone else’s scream or yell of shock, with the exception of Tamahome, who was now fixing his gaze on the elaborate furniture in the emperor’s room.
“Yuri was Houkigou, the empress of this country?”
“Yes, Yuri is the name of my brother’s wife.” Kotsuki added, completely failing to comprehend their shock. “I want to meet her too, the empress so loved by her husband that he refused to elect another even though she gave him no children. Also, because she seems to be the one person who truly know and understand my brother.”
“Wait…if Yuri was Houkigou, the last empress of this kingdom then this means that…” Ju-An chocked out.
“My brother was Saihitei, he was the emperor of this country?” Ryoen added in equal shock. “I am actually sort of related to royalty?”
“Hotohori was a celestial warrior of Suzaku as well as being the forth emperor of Konan.” Mika finally said this line out. “And Ryoen, you had been a concubine in this palace who was in love with him.”
“I really wish that you are joking.” Ryoen groaned out. “But somehow I don’t think that you are. I don’t even want to think about the fact that I was in love with another man, who is now my brother, let along asking why I became a concubine to the emperor”
“I can take you to the temple of Suzaku if you wish,” Kotsuki interrupted politely after he dismissed their escort with some form of order. “Perhaps that will help some of you to recollect your past life.
“But first…” at this the young emperor’s voice actually became even more quiet, and he actually bent down his head slightly as he turned to Ryoen. “I have a favour to ask from you first.”
“A favour? But aren’t you the emperor? Isn’t the emperor the most powerful man?” Ryoen muttered, rather uneasy at this sudden display of humbleness. The modern system of Japan’s monarchy was very different from the absolute monarchy of Konan, but they could easily realize the high status that the emperor of this land had, therefore they were all uneasiness at the possibility of a request. (14)
“I have a request that no one else can grant me.” Kotsuki declared softly, but steadily. “I want you to tell me more about Hotohori, my brother, who is now your brother.”
“I remember nothing of my own past life, let along his past life.” Ryoen said.
“Then tell me of his new life. I want to know, I need to know.” At the rather curious glances from the others he smiled rather sadly, and Ju-An and Hojun both recollected how they saw Seishuku smiling in that same haunting way when Yuri had disappeared into the scroll without him, it was the first time when they saw a smile that expressed more sorrow then tears.
As Seishuku the young man had no cause to smile that way as he had pretty much all he wanted, and with the birth of his children he really though that everything would be well. What had made him even happier was that he could appreciate these simple happiness due to remembering what had happened in his past life as Hotohori.
Then he saw Yuri disappearing into the scroll, leaving him for the second time. The memories he had tried to suppress all rushed back to him again, the months he had to live without her as well as her death…
That was why he could smile in the same way as Hotohori had often smiled…
“All that I know of my brother I know from the perspective of a subject, I know that as Saihitei he was a good and fair ruler, and like most of the people in Konan I have heard the legends of how much he love Houkigou. But other then that…I have nothing.”
“Have you never talked to your brother at all?” Ryoen asked, feeling great empathy for this man’s wish, although he himself could not imagine being distant from his own brother. Since he was only an infant, Seishuku had played and looked after him. Ryoen had his own large group of childhood friends too but the most special time was always the time when he was with his elder brother and his two friends.
“Seishuku is such a good brother, he lets his little brother do anything.” Was the very common saying in the village whenever anyone saw the two brothers walking side by side.
Ryoen only started to have a friction in his original ‘intimate’ relationship with his brother due to his continuing disapprove of Seishuku’s marriage.
Maybe it was jealousy from the past life…it was easier to think that then to blame himself fully. Secretly he knew that he disapproved of the marriage not because it was too quick, but because he actually resented how Yuri became the centre to Seishuku’s life the moment she entered.
It might have been better for him to admit this and talked about it with maybe his parents or Seishuku’s two best friends. Ju-An and Hojun were almost like brothers to him too, or at the very least like elder cousins, but he did not want anyone to accuse him of having an elder-brother complex.
“I had little chance of talking to my brother through out my whole life.” Was the short reply.
Nodding, Ryoen began to tell the emperor all he could about Seishuku, his elder brother, along with additional help from Ju-An and Hojun at times.
“He is truly the best brother, now that I think about it there had been times when he talked to me about how he wanted to be a good brother.”
This had been before he choose to go to live in Tokyo, but at that time both Ju-An and Hojun had already left. Upon finding his brother sitting in front of the empty fields one morning, he had joined him although he should be heading to school.
“I’m just thinking.” Seishuku said easily, dismissing Ryoen’s question about his wellbeing. “Hojun left the village just as Ju-An, and some people are now wondering when I will leave the village since the three of us have been best friends since our infancy.”
“Are you going to?” he asked nervously.
“I will not leave Konan.” Seishuku stated softly, ruffling his brother’s now short hair.
“That’s good, because I don’t want you to go away!” he had said passionately, hugging his elder brother tightly.
“Because I am such a good brother?” Seishuku’s tone seemed very light-hearted but Ryoen could sense the seriousness in them.
“You are the best brother in the world!” he stated firmly.
“That is good then, as that is what I want to be.” leaning back Ryoen was shocked at the relief that appeared on Seishuku’s face. “I don’t know why, Ryoen, but sometimes I have this fear nagging at me, the fear that I am a horrible brother who will be hated by my siblings.”
Ryoen felt a strange connection to the young emperor who stood next to him due to the fact that in a way, they were both younger brothers to the same man.
“Was he speaking of his past?” he demanded. “Just as you want to know about Seishuku, I want to know more about my brother when he was Hotohori.”
“I have told you that I know little about my own brother.” Kotsuki said, like Ryoen, he felt a tie between himself and the reincarnation of the Suzaku warrior previously known as Nuriko. “But yes, in his past life as Hotohori, he was a bad brother although that was certainly not his fault. He had also been hated by his other siblings, including me.” Seeing the curious glance of the others, even Dokun and Genro, who knew very little of Hotohori, Kotsuki nodded and began to explain.
“Hotohori and I were the son of an emperor who did not care for any of his five sons or two daughters at all. All our life we were looked after by our mother, who competed with each other very heatedly for the price position of being the mother of the future emperor. (15)
“Like Hotohori, I was the younger out of two brothers. The only difference is that my mother had only been a concubine, while his mother was the empress. Although my mother’s triumph card was that she had gave birth to the emperor’s first son. I knew nothing of that brother either, he was my mother’s price, I was just the extra backup. Like all my other siblings, we were raised being secluded from each other.
“Hotohori said something like that to me once.” Miaka butted in. “That was when Yuri was gone, he told me that he became the emperor at fourteen due to his mother’s action, and his two elder brothers then led a rebellion, supported by his younger brothers.”
Kotsuki nodded. “Yes, I did support my full brother. But that is too far ahead of my explanation. I saw Hotohori wandering in the garden and he seemed so lonely and sad that I believed we could be friends. I actually went up and talk to him. We were only children at that time, I was eight and he was twelve, being four years older.
“We only exchanged two sentences before our mothers both dragged us off, but I then felt that this brother of mine was someone that could be my friend. At that time he must have though the same too, because from that day on if we happened to walk past one another, he would always smile at me shyly in these rare meeting.”
“What went wrong then?” Miaka interrupted again. She was brought to that time when she found Hotohori kneeling in Yuri’s room, almost sobbing with despair, after reading out Yuri’s letter he had told her about how lonely his life had been. A large family that was not even a family.
“He became the emperor. At that time I was only ten, ignoring both my mother and brother’s orders I went to see Hotohori in his court, I even prepared a gift for him. I had hoped to be loved by him and he certainly greeted me warmly before he walked with me in the garden. I really thought that from now on we would become good brothers…
“When we returned…” what happened that day still caused anger as the emperor’s hand clenched tightly over the hilt of his sword. “When we returned I was faced with his mother and a group of guards. Before I knew what happened I was in the dungeon. In there, I was beaten everyday and I only managed to escape there due to the civil war that our other elder brothers started.
“After what happened I though that he did this on purpose. So I easily began to hate him…”
“I don’t believe you!” Miaka yelled. “Hotohori would never do something like that. It must be his mother. She must have done something to make you appear guilty in his eyes.”
“It seems so ironic that you can understand what took me years to realize so quickly.” The emperor whispered sadly. “Yes, that was what happened. His mother hid a dagger in my gift to him. I was arrested on the ground of treason, and he probably believed that too…I can’t really blame him for being manipulated so easily as it was his own mother who tied the shackles on him.
“Anyway, the revolts were crashed and I managed to escape with my own life although my mother and full brother both failed to. The empress did not just execute them, she would not be satisfied until she tortured them. I naturally spent the next years living in hiding, growing up hating Hotohori all this time.
“Then one day I heard of the news of the imperial marriage, by that time I was fourteen, the same age as Hotohori when he ascended, but unlike him I was still like a child. I had a ridiculous plan of assassinating him, believing I would achieve satisfaction that way. It was pathetic but I blamed everything on him.
“So I stood amongst the people, and I saw them being carried on the litter. Around me, everyone else was yelling with joy, some were even throwing flowers at the emperor with his new empress. I was suddenly puzzled as I asked myself for the very first time: how could this well-loved man be the same villain that I cursed every night?
“His new empress was waving at the crowd with what seem to be true sincerity, then she turned to him and I saw the tender smile on his face as he took her hand to whisper something. I suddenly remembered my first meeting with him, how he had smiled like that. It was well that I remembered that incident as I also recollected the way his mother had glare at me…
“Somehow that made me more rational, and once I compared what happened during his reign before and after his mother’s death, it was obvious that any cruelty was done because of his mother.
“I actually began to throw flowers like the rest, truly glad for him. But even though I stopped my foolish hatred, I still did not know him. I continued to live outside the palace in hiding although I no longer need to, but I did it out of guilt for what I almost done. Thus I knew no more then what the rest of his people knew.”
At the same time when the young emperor ended his story with a sigh, they heard a soft knock. Kotsuki seemed to recognize the person just by this knock as he smiled in that strange way as again that made them wonder whether he was happy or sad.
A young woman entered, probably only a year or two older then Miaka. Judging by the clothes she had, she must be servant to someone with a very high rank. Her clothes were made from materials that were fine but their very simple cut style revealed her status as a servant, as no women of a high rank would ever wear such a dress. But strangely her hair was held up by a head dresser that seemed a bit too elaborate for a simple maid.
She knelt down in front of the emperor and in a very soft voice she asked him what he desired. Miaka suddenly crouched down to look at this woman in the face, as she was sure that she had seen this woman before.
“Chinatsu, I am going to the temple of Suzaku with the celestial warrior and priestess of Suzaku so make sure that it is empty.” Kotsuki said, strangely enough his tone was not one of ordering, but of affection.
“I do what the new emperor demands of me.” the young woman called Chinatsu answered in a very flat tone. Because she was right beside the two of them, Miaka was certain that the emperor’s face changed at this very former address.
“Who are you?” Miaka asked in her usual blunt fashion when the woman stood up and was prepared to leave. “I think I have seen you before.”
“You would have, priestess of Suzaku.” the woman said very sadly. “My name is Chinatsu and along with my twin sister Chiharu we used to be the maids of the empress.” (16)
“But Kotsuki have no empress!” Miaka frowned. (17)
“Not the fifth empress of Konan which does not exist, but will.” At this her fists actually clenched together. “I was the private maid of Houkigou, the fourth empress of Konan!”
This time, she shut the door behind her. Everyone quickly turned to Kotsuki but once again, his face had become rather emotionless. Miaka and Tamahome couldn’t help but to compare him with Hotohori as they thought about the burden their following celestial warrior had to bear.
Tamahome had been angry that Hotohori had choose to go with Yuri when he should have stayed with Miaka, who was his priestess. But once more, he could understand the other man slightly but thinking about what he would do had their position swapped.
After witnessing what just happened with Hotohori’s brother and the woman he seemed to have affection, they were beginning to understand why Hotohori would threw away his obligations this time.
As the emperor he had been held back by chains which he only broke free due to their new life. Now it seemed the chains were trying to tangle him with it once again, and so he grabbed onto Yuri to shatter them.

(1) This all relate to my weird prologue as I mentioned before. Another story.
(2) During Tenkou’s entrance I have focused on a lot of what is in my weird prologue (another story, but I think I lose courage of writing it as it will be very radical) but I will explain what had happened in the end. Basically it kind of talk about the life they had before this life and I promise, everything that happened would all link.
(3) Initially the people of Kutou would only know Yuri as Houkigou but then I decided against it, even though few people knew her first name the people of Kutou probably would be able to find out from the stories in Konan.
(4) I mean, this is a world where woman all have long as waist length hair, and the shortest is probably up to their shoulders and Yuri cut her hair so that it just touched her shoulder. The men in this world often have rather long hair as well, cause many hold it up so it must be tolerable long, like Nuriko’s brother.
(5) This was actually really problematic. I didn’t know what kind of statue it should be, I didn’t want it to be gold or silver or something like that, but people in ancient china doesn’t seem to have focused on life like sculptures and paintings that much. I mean, no offence, but all the emperor’s paintings and all doesn’t seem to be that life like. But then it would just be that I am not use to that kind of style. And I also want color, that is an important factor. So I decided to make it a china statue. By the way the statue is not wearing the robes of the priestess of Seiryuu for the practical reason that later on in the story Yuri would be wearing it.
Note: the jade headdress that Yuri wore, and the thing her statue now wears is actually the shinzaho of Seiryuu.
(6) About four years has passed.
(7) It’s sad, but the temple of Suzaku only has paintings of Miaka and her seven celestial warriors. So Hotohori’s picture is in the temple of Suzaku in Konan, but not Yuri’s. That was one of the reasons that many traveled to this temple in Kutou.
(8) Kotsuki is one of Hotohori’s younger brother, which came out in the Hotohori novel. The two brothers seemed to be quite close, although Kotsuki got killed by Hotohori’s mother, and she framed him for trying to kill Hotohori.
(9) I didn’t believe I would actually say this but it was weird calling them by their name as the celestial warriors. So this is what I will do, for those who know who they are (Hotohori/Seishuku, Tamahome/Taka) I will call them by their name as the celestial warriors, but for everyone else until they gain back their memory I will call them by their real name.
(10) I am presuming that most people in the universe of the four gods only know them by their name as celestial warriors.
(11) This just seems a typical rather blond thing for Miaka to do, this bit actually remind me of the bit in the anime when they were caught by bandits. Nuriko had offered to be taken instead of Miaka, but Miaka actually refused. Which does show she is not the brightest at time.
(12) There should be no need to say this but I’m naturally thinking of Hotohori’s voice as Koyasu Takehito’s voice.
(13) This is kind of my private joke. I think Hotohori’s hair should be black, but his hair in the anime is like an olive brown.
(14) I don’t know that much about Japan’s government system but I have the impression that it is pretty like England. Meaning the rulers does not have absolute power, although some people still hold them in awe. Or at the very least, you will be rather awed at meeting them.
(15) This is my own version of Hotohori’s family story, and it will be very different from the novel.
(16) I was looking at a site of Japanese name when I saw the names Chiharu and Chinatsu, and I just thought that it is really pretty and it really will be a good name for Yuri’s two maids, who are twins. Chiharu (千春) means a thousand spring while Chinatsu (千夏) will mean a thousand summer. Chi(千) haru(春), Chi(千) natsu(夏).
In case some of you don’t remember, before Yuri died she gave some of her jewelries along with their freedom to the two girls. The head dresser that Chinatsu wear is one of them.
(17) I think this is quite like Miaka, calling Kotsuki by his name. I mean she is probably the only one who call Hotohori by his name (which is good, I have to admit). And in the very beginning she would call him Hotohori then quickly change to call him the emperor.