The Duel
Disclaimer: Juuni Kokuki belongs to Ono Fuyumi. I hope she continues writing the novels soon.-------------
The date had been decided sometime before. The preparations had been completed. The small crowd was ready. The two men were standing in armor with swords and shields in hand, looking at each other with piercing eyes, in full concentration.
When the referee signaled them to begin, neither made any noticeable moves. It looked like they were taking the time to measure their opponents' strength. Then after a few minutes, they attacked at the same time.
Shouryuu had predicted this, but it was still quite surprising for him. He knew that since his opponent had become an emperor, receiving divine revelation and being an ultimate royal immortal, his power must have increased significantly. But he hadn't thought Gyousou would be this strong. He felt his hand shook a little, receiving the enormous clashing pressure between their swords. Gyousou was quite amazed as well, for his opponent was even stronger than what he remembered.
Since none of their officials wanted their emperors to be killed by accident, or kill another emperor by accident, the use of royal swords was out of the question. But of course they were using the best swords that could possibly be made using normal kinds of metal, completed with low level spells as well. However, at the moment, both fighters and the spectators had some doubts whether the swords could hold for long.
But then it was proven that the swords could indeed hold well enough. It had been hours. Neither of the fighters eased up even the slightest. They had been charging, swinging their swords, aiming for vital spots, backing swiftly to avoid attacks, leaping, ducking, and using their shields to block the attacks for hours. All these were performed gracefully and skillfully, with speed and power that had really impressed the crowd. It was even difficult for the spectators to breathe calmly, being drawn to the heat of the duel.
Meanwhile, not too far from that small arena, a little kid was staring blankly at the wall of his room while sitting restlessly on his bed.
The emperor and the officials were busy receiving a royal guest, so that day all governmental activities including Taiho's classes were canceled.
The day before, during their dinner together, Gyousou reminded him firmly. "Kouri, it's really not necessary for you to attend the duel. Of course En-Ou would understand. It would not be a good sight for you, so don't come."
It was not really an order, at least to Taiki's ears, so he was torn. No Kirins would like to see fights and wars, no Kirins enjoyed seeing the sight of swords and blood. However, he was worried. He knew the duel would not really harm anyone, but a fight was a fight. There's a possibility his master would get hurt. And there's a part of him that had been wondering about the complexity of his master's combat.
He's waiting for Gouran to return. He had asked that shirei of his to secretly take a look at the duel. It shouldn't have taken this long but his shirei had not returned yet.
Even En Taiho refused to come in this occasion, Taiki said to himself. He should just rest quietly here and wait until his master returned from the duel. But Gyousou had been waiting eagerly for this duel for weeks… Shouldn't he at least take a quick look?
"Taiho." That was Gouran.
"Gouran, how was it?"
"I don't understand why humans enjoy swords fight so much." That was Gouran's answer, ignoring the fact that he had stayed much longer than necessary to watch the stimulating duel.
"All in all, it was a very tight game. It has been going on for hours but nobody's scored yet. Soon the duel must be stopped with or without a winner."
"Scored? What exactly do you mean by scoring?" Gouran didn't answer, but Taiki understood. He quickly jumped off his bed and ran to the door.
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Gyousou knew it was nearly the time to end the fight. It had been previously agreed that their duel would last for only a day. Tai could not afford to lose more time, because there were so many problems and matters that needed to be settled. This duel was a kind of 'entertainment' as well, a break from their crazily busy schedule. Gyousou realized if he did nothing extraordinary soon, this duel would either be a draw or a narrow victory for En-Ou. His opponent's skill was indeed remarkable.
Being always a brave heart, Gyousou decided to take his chance. After avoiding a fast thrust of En-Ou's sword, he backed away, threw his shield away, and took a stance. This would be their last move. En-Ou would surely understand his silent challenge, and this duel would soon end with a clear result.
Shouryuu grinned. He had expected something like this from Gyousou. This would definitely give them both open access to attack, but if he missed just the slightest, or over maneuvered in anyway, it would be his definite loss. Shouryuu threw his shield away as well, gripped his sword tighter and charged.
Gyousou concentrated hard, waiting for the right moment to avoid the attack and to strike back at the same time. But before that moment arrived, there was a frightened shriek breaking the heavy silence.
If that sound came from anybody else, Gyousou would not lose any of his concentration.
If his opponent was not the mighty En-Ou, Gyousou's extremely brief moment of concentration-loss would not matter that much.
If they were using royal swords, Gyousou would probably have a sword deep inside his body by now.
As it was, Shouryuu managed to deliver a clean hit and tore Gyousou's armor, broke the skin of Gyousou's left abdomen and made a relatively shallow cut as well as breaking his sword into few big pieces. Royals were indeed as strong as youma. Or probably the sword had already been on the verge of breaking because of the powerful fight. Though obviously quite exhausted, throwing his broken sword, Shouryuu stood tall as the winner, while Gyousou's down on the dry soil. The referee raised his flag for En-Ou's victory. After a short pause of shock and disappointment, the crowd began to give a heartfelt clap. After all, they had been shown such an amazing duel they might never have the chance to see again.
Some medical officers who stood by the arena hurriedly came to Gyousou's aid, but he waved them away. Then from the spectators' spot came running a small child with steel colored hair. Before the child could come closer, Gyousou shouted, "Don't come closer! Kouri, go back to Seishin." When he saw the child hesitated, he made the instruction stronger. "Go back, this is an order!" Having no other choice, the little Kirin left after shooting a brief look at En-Ou.
Feeling somewhat like the antithesis of kindness, thanks to the little Kirin's gaze, Shouryuu laughed and offered his hand to Gyousou. "That's why we shouldn't bring a Kirin to combats," he grinned. Gyousou accepted the offer, hailed himself up, then touched his bleeding abdomen with his hand. He calmly said to En-Ou, "I demand another duel in near future." "Deal." Shouryuu quickly agreed.
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Taiki hung his head in shame. He didn't mean to startle his master. He knew better than that. He knew he shouldn't have let out any distracting sounds. But it was purely accidental; he couldn't help feeling shocked seeing his master stood defenseless, while En-Ou came attacking with such a big sword, and he simply couldn't stop himself from voicing his shock. He shouldn't have come to that arena. He should have done as he was told.
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When Gyousou went out of the bathroom, the hot water had made him feel much better. As usual, he just used whatever new soap and shampoo made available by his courtiers, and he winced because the flowery scent got even stronger after he dried himself. His long, silvery hair still sparkled with few drops of water, looked closer to grayish for not being completely dried. He tended his own injury, and was quite surprised that it's already disappearing; only a very small cut left. He definitely didn't heal this fast when he was still the Kingun General. Wearing his most casual kimono, he went to his living room, thinking about dozing off for a few minutes on his cozy couch.
Right after he laid himself on the couch, he noticed a small shadow on the transparent part of his front door. His residence was restricted to only very few people, so it's not hard to guess the source of that little shadow, the only being that would be allowed by the Royal Guards to paste his face on the emperor's door, Gyousou thought rather amusedly.
He stood up, went to his door and slid it open gently. His little Kirin looked up at him with his big dark eyes. "What were you doing standing there like that? Come in." He said that without any force, and Taiki trotted into the room. Taiki was about to climb into his master's embrace instinctively, so Gyousou swiftly backed off, raising his hand. "Don't come too near, Kouri. I was bleeding a little."
Taiki stopped. He indeed could feel the blood. It was a thin scent but present. He searched with his eyes but couldn't see anything for Gyousou's front was completely covered with his kimono. "It's just a small cut and it's curing already." His master said, noticing his searching eyes.
Taiki hung his head. "Gyousou sama… I'm sorry. I must have startled you with my scream and made you lose the duel."
Gyousou lifted one eyebrow. "You screamed? Really?"
Taiki looked up again.
"If you screamed there's no way I could hear you, Kouri. The crowd wasn't exactly silent."
Taiki looked confused.
"And if there's a distraction, En-Ou would have been distracted equally. He was just too fast for me. But seriously, I didn't even hear a thing. Are you underestimating my ability to concentrate? However you shouldn't have come; it wasn't good for you."
Gyousou looked convincing, and Taiki wasn't as sure as before. He had heard few officials saying their emperor had lost because their Taiho showed up at the wrong moment, confirming his own belief. But now Gyousou confidently said otherwise without any hesitancy.
Taiki finally decided to trust his master. "I'm sorry… Does it hurt?"
"Not at all. It's just a scratch. Still, don't get so near, you'd get sick."
It's true that blood could affect his health. However he thought he could overcome such thin scent.
"It's okay, there's not enough blood to make me ill." Though uncertain, he said so confidently. He looked interestedly at Gyousou's long hair. It's quite a rare sight seeing his master's hair being let loose like that. Gyousou always had his hair tied one way or the other. He couldn't keep in a chuckle realizing the strong flowery scent. He was just sure Gyousou wasn't the type of man who preferred feminine stuff.
Understanding his chuckle, Gyousou grimaced a little. "Yes I know… Looks like one of the courtiers was bored with her job." Gyousou's smile showed he was only joking, so Taiki held his protest.
"Why don't you prepare yourself? Soon we'll have a banquet to honor En-Ou. En Taiho would be present as well. Get ready, and when you're done, return here. We'll go there together."
"Okay!" Taiki smiled widely and ran to his own place.
Gyousou lay down on the couch again and closed his eyes. The tiring, stimulating and exciting duel was over for now. He's quite satisfied with the result, because he had been better than their last duel. Next time he would be the winner. Tomorrow things would return to normal, he would return to piles of problems to deal with. However tonight he would relax, drink and have fun with his close people and his guests. Not a bad conclusion of a very long day, he decided.
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End
Note: Thank you for reading. Please take the time to review, let me know what you think about this story, or show me typo/other mistakes. No need to be too kind with your comment just because there are (truly) too few Juuni Kokuki fanfics around:)