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chineseinkEmi's birthday.
08.12.2005
Plays fast and loose with canon, as you’ll see. Might be hard to understand unless you’ve seen or read all of FY. A note of relevance: Houki looks eerily like Nuriko, only she’s female. Chou Ryuuen is Nuriko’s actual name.
Yanagi = willow, shichiseishi = celestial warrior, seishi = warrior, miko = priestess
14. legends; Hotohori/Nuriko, fushigi yuugi, pg
Few people knew why March 10 was a holiday in the kingdom of Konan. Some thought it might be to celebrate the arrival of spring, but even in the warm climes of the southern country, spring did not make an appearance until late March, at earliest. And so the holiday, while widely celebrated with street festivals, dances, and theater, had a history that remained a mystery to the general populace.
The emperor, however, was familiar with the story of the coming about of the Yanagi Festival. It was a secret—or rather, a truth—that had been passed on to him at his father’s knee. His father, Boushin, son of the revered Hotohori, who had been greatly honored for his benevolence and his justness and, of course, his famed beauty. The man who had been a shichiseishi of the legendary Suzaku no Miko, who had saved their world. The man who’d given his life for his country and had, before then, declared March 10 a day to be forever celebrated.
In honor of the greatest man he’d ever been privileged to know, he’d said.
The emperor knew him as shichiseishi Nuriko, of the sign of the willow, with unbelievable strength and a beauty that rivaled even Hotohori’s. Nuriko had been the first of the seishi to die. The emperor thought he understood his grandfather’s tribute.
However, in a small but well-kept house in the crowded capital city, a family who lived in humbleness knew the truth. For with quiet pride they understood that every March 10 it was an ancestor of their family who was being honored. They knew him as Chou Ryuuen, the younger brother of their honorable grandfather.
The man, all the children knew, who had been loved by Emperor Hotohori.
“Walk with dignity,” their ailing grandfather had told them, smiling, before he’d passed away. “For you are from a family twice-blessed.”
A seishi who had given his life for the miko; a man who had had the heart of the greatest emperor of all time.
The children learned the story as they grew older, of the death of Chou Kourin, of Ryuuen’s assumption of her life, of the royal seraglio and the fateful day Nuriko had saved the miko from under a collapsed pagoda. They learned of the journeys and adventures and struggles and tears and friendships and trusts as the seven seishi were gathered and betrayed and sacrificed. And the unlikely love story, a tragic tale, of two men who loved each other but their miko more, who each gave their life for her and for their country.
Nuriko died first. Hotohori married and had an heir, Boushin, before his death. And the children in the Chou family understood that though the lovers could not be together in life, they would be—were—together in death.
And the present emperor, flipping through a book in the royal library, found a photograph of the seven Suzaku shichiseishi and their miko. He looked at it for a long time, then at the portrait of the Honorable Empress Houki, his grandmother, and understood.
The children were told that March 10 had been Chou Ryuuen’s birthday.
--
The photograph referred to is the one of all the seishi and Miaka while on the ship, before everyone save Hotohori, traveled up north. Where Nuriko died, god damn Seiryuu.
And I just realized this is my first completed Hotohori/Nuriko. Wow.
08.12.2005
Plays fast and loose with canon, as you’ll see. Might be hard to understand unless you’ve seen or read all of FY. A note of relevance: Houki looks eerily like Nuriko, only she’s female. Chou Ryuuen is Nuriko’s actual name.
Yanagi = willow, shichiseishi = celestial warrior, seishi = warrior, miko = priestess
14. legends; Hotohori/Nuriko, fushigi yuugi, pg
Few people knew why March 10 was a holiday in the kingdom of Konan. Some thought it might be to celebrate the arrival of spring, but even in the warm climes of the southern country, spring did not make an appearance until late March, at earliest. And so the holiday, while widely celebrated with street festivals, dances, and theater, had a history that remained a mystery to the general populace.
The emperor, however, was familiar with the story of the coming about of the Yanagi Festival. It was a secret—or rather, a truth—that had been passed on to him at his father’s knee. His father, Boushin, son of the revered Hotohori, who had been greatly honored for his benevolence and his justness and, of course, his famed beauty. The man who had been a shichiseishi of the legendary Suzaku no Miko, who had saved their world. The man who’d given his life for his country and had, before then, declared March 10 a day to be forever celebrated.
In honor of the greatest man he’d ever been privileged to know, he’d said.
The emperor knew him as shichiseishi Nuriko, of the sign of the willow, with unbelievable strength and a beauty that rivaled even Hotohori’s. Nuriko had been the first of the seishi to die. The emperor thought he understood his grandfather’s tribute.
However, in a small but well-kept house in the crowded capital city, a family who lived in humbleness knew the truth. For with quiet pride they understood that every March 10 it was an ancestor of their family who was being honored. They knew him as Chou Ryuuen, the younger brother of their honorable grandfather.
The man, all the children knew, who had been loved by Emperor Hotohori.
“Walk with dignity,” their ailing grandfather had told them, smiling, before he’d passed away. “For you are from a family twice-blessed.”
A seishi who had given his life for the miko; a man who had had the heart of the greatest emperor of all time.
The children learned the story as they grew older, of the death of Chou Kourin, of Ryuuen’s assumption of her life, of the royal seraglio and the fateful day Nuriko had saved the miko from under a collapsed pagoda. They learned of the journeys and adventures and struggles and tears and friendships and trusts as the seven seishi were gathered and betrayed and sacrificed. And the unlikely love story, a tragic tale, of two men who loved each other but their miko more, who each gave their life for her and for their country.
Nuriko died first. Hotohori married and had an heir, Boushin, before his death. And the children in the Chou family understood that though the lovers could not be together in life, they would be—were—together in death.
And the present emperor, flipping through a book in the royal library, found a photograph of the seven Suzaku shichiseishi and their miko. He looked at it for a long time, then at the portrait of the Honorable Empress Houki, his grandmother, and understood.
The children were told that March 10 had been Chou Ryuuen’s birthday.
--
The photograph referred to is the one of all the seishi and Miaka while on the ship, before everyone save Hotohori, traveled up north. Where Nuriko died, god damn Seiryuu.
And I just realized this is my first completed Hotohori/Nuriko. Wow.
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