She came to him as if she had been a dream of gold, when he had closed his eyes at night, and arrived in a field of black roses without thorns when he opened them. Under the light of the stars, her white skin seemed to be made of marble, absorbing the starlight, her golden hair slowly blowing in the slight breeze. Those eyes, those eyes so blue and dark, he deemed them to be of sapphire hue, and he knew that there was nothing more beautiful than she could be, not even her, the one he had shed so much blood for. He had never seen her before in life, but her presence; it was so familiar to him, as if he had known her from a time long forgotten.
In her hand, was a sword, or more accurately, a katana, in a saya covered with white snakeskin…? Smiling radiantly, she unsheathed her katana and pointed it at him, as if challenging him to a duel, but she made no such motion. Backing away from him, she stretched her right leg parallel to her upright body, before letting it fall a little below her graceful shoulders. From that, he knew, that she was about to dance.
When she snapped her fingers, little balls of light seemed to emerge from the black roses, floating around her, surrounding her as she started to dance. It was nothing sensual, but a sight of pure beauty. There was a sense of elegance and grace in her countenance, the glimmer of an artist showing pride in her art. As she danced with her katana in her hand, her smile was ever-present, and it intoxicated him.
Suddenly, she stopped, and walked to what seemed to be a spot that she had known. "Dance with me," she told him, throwing another katana to him, which he had caught with his superior reflexes. He was about to tell her that he did not dance, but something within him betrayed him, and he unsheathed it, joining her in mere seconds, mirroring her movements, as if he had known the steps all along.
The balls of light seemed to have multiplied ever since he joined her, their movements in the field casting shadows onto the opposite field, making them seem as they had been dancing amongst perfect, spherical drops of rain. His mind froze at that moment, and he had forgotten everything, everything except breathing, her, and their dance.
She was wearing silk, that much he noted, when their bodies brushed against one another's, during the many "scandalous" moments allowed by the dance. It felt smooth against his skin, and when he held her hand in his, he felt the exact same thing. Her gown had been cut to showcase her best assets, which were concavities and convexities that would make other women in the world scorn her because of their perfection. Her voice, it was akin to the tinkling of a silver bell in the mountains, on a crisp spring day, her laughter clearer than any sound that he had heard.
"It has been a long time," she told him when their dance ended, and they sat down in the field. The balls of light had already returned into the wombs of the roses, with only the almost-full moon as their only source of light. It would be full the next night. Still, she was smiling, and she gave him a dagger, which she pressed into his hands.
He unsheathed the dagger and found it to be made of a particularly strange material that he could not name. It was not silver, yet it glittered like it, nor was it steel, but something stronger. And the most curious part was that there were emeralds on the blade, from the base to its tip, like green stars upon a silver sky. He looked up at her in confusion, unknowing what to say, or what to do with it. He had no use for weapons in combat; his Ki was enough to do the job needed. Even when situations became dire, all he needed to do were to remove three little objects on his ear…
With her sapphire eyes, she scanned him and sheathed the dagger. "You gave me this once before," she said, her tone of voice reminiscent of an event long past. "You said that Heaven was going to be a dangerous place, and gave me this. I never saw you since…"
Heaven? He had fought Gods before, but he had no memory of that place at all. How did she know him, and from where? Perhaps she must have thought that he was someone that looked like him… But her presence, her scent of roses and wine, her smile, it was all too familiar to him… "These are emeralds, because you said that my own eyes looked like them," he continued her sentence, wondering why he said those words seconds later.
Once again, she smiled in recognition. However, she stood up and bowed. "You have moved on, indeed," she said, her sapphire eyes filled with a sort of sad melancholy, and acknowledgement. "But do not fear, dear one, I am not heartbroken… The bonds of the soul between a man and the men he deems as brothers are always stronger than the love that he has for a woman… it has always been that way."
Something stirred within him, something so deeply felt that he immediately stood and held her in his arms. "Forgive me," he said, gently fisting her straight locks of hair. Her body, it fit so perfectly with his, and he could tell that she was of no small stature, being almost as tall as he was. "I have no memory of you, but…"
She put her finger on his lips, hushing him. "Please, do not think any more of this," she told him, kissing his cheek slightly before moving from his embrace. "I will have to go soon, and you will have to awaken from this dream. We both cannot live in the distant past forever."
With that, he opened his eyes.
Cho Hakkai could never understand why he woke up the next morning with a dagger in his hands, a dagger that he had seen only in his dream. Could it be, that what he had seen last night was real? Hiding the dagger before anyone noticed it, he quickly changed and dressed, before the other three did. Experience told him that it would be wise not to fight for the bathroom with Sanzo, Gojyo and Goku if they were pressed for time.
Breakfast was a rowdy affair, as all meals were, with Goku and Gojyo fighting over the slightest portion of food. Life, was as usual, and Hakkai was inwardly thankful for it. Feeding Hakuryu little scraps of meat from the mountain of dishes that they had ordered, he smiled as the little creature chirped thankfully. It was strange that such an adorable creature could transfigure into a trusty mode of transportation, but all four of them had encountered many strange things throughout their travels.
After breakfast, they continued to travel against the sun until it caught up with them, teasing them with its vibrant colored rays of purples, pinks and oranges as dusk approached slowly. They were driving across meadow after meadow, and it was certain that they would have to camp out that night. The next town was still many miles away.
"Hey, look!" Goku suddenly cried, before the sun's last rays disappeared. They had come to a meadow between two green hills, filled with scores upon scores of black roses. Hakkai was shocked to no end, that the scenery from his dream had just materialized before his own eyes. The others, just took it as the surprise that followed the sight of such beauty.
Gojyo, with his mouth agape, exclaimed, "Well, whaddaya know, black roses do exist!" He was so struck by the roses that he forgot to light the cigarette in his mouth, while Sanzo was so taken that he did not come out with any smart retort. Even the great Sanzo Houshi-sama knows that black roses were almost an anomaly of nature, unheard and unknown of. But even a man as cold and scarred as he, knew that beauty of this magnitude was not to be wasted.
That night, they camped in the meadow, careful not to endanger the roses in any way possible, and were rewarded. Just like in Hakkai's dream, the roses spouted balls of white light which danced across the skies, the roses themselves, swaying as if they were dancing as well. No one had ever seen a sight like this at all, and all four of them were silent, taking their fill of the experience.
"Hey, did you see the lights last night?"
"Yeah, it must be the roses again. They are beautiful, aren't they?"
"My grandson was born just as the lights appeared, our family will be in for a great amount of luck!"
Voices could be heard exchanging tales of the lights and the roses in the next village the Sanzo-ikkou came to the next afternoon. Everywhere they turned, everywhere they went, it was the same. Hakkai just had to know what was going on. He had to know why only that place had black roses, and why they were able to create dancing lights. And so, he asked the friendly woman with a pretty face, the receptionist of the inn they were staying at for the night, no less, to Gojyo's chagrin.
"Oh, aren't the lights beautiful?" she replied. "You know, since you're tourists, I might as well tell you the legend behind Black Rose Meadow…"
The woman told them of how 500 years ago, a Marshal of the Heavenly Army fell in love with a goddess in Heaven, the sister of a Dragon-King, a Dragon-Princess herself. Her hair was the color of the finest gold bars, and her eyes of the brightest sapphires. Whenever the Marshal needed to descend from Heaven to restore order upon the living world, her worry and anguish for her beloved turned into a black rose with no thorns. But when Heaven itself was in turmoil, the Marshal was wrongly accused of treason, and was killed fighting against the gods he once served without question, for reasons unknown. He had given the Dragon-Princess a dagger to protect herself with before that, but he never came back to her to tell her that it was a gift to plight their troth to her brother, his superior.
"The light is said to be the tears of the Dragon-Princess," the woman said, reaching the end of the tale. "And every night when the moon is full, they will dance because she is reminded that the last time she had seen her Marshal, was in the night of a full moon."
Such a sad ending to an otherwise beautiful tale… What was once utter magnificence and majesty, was reduced to nothing but a bittersweet memory… Hakkai felt the dagger carefully concealed in the fabric worn across his torso, and felt its cold presence close to him… She had been his beloved, in a past life that he could not remember.
Thus, he walks alone to the temple of the Dragon King, whose sculpture stood tall and proud. He had scales on the side of his face, his skin ashen, and his eyes red like the color of blood. However, he could see hers right beside that of her brother's, holding a black rose in her white hands. Her skin was like that in his dream, smooth like porcelain and marble.
"Many men like you have admired the likeness of the Goddess Ryurei, the Dragon-Princess," said the keeper of the Temple. "But none, even the Gods have ever earned that look of love that she has for her Marshal."
Hakkai smiled, and feigned the unknown guilt and regret gnawing inside him. "Grandfather, can you please tell me, who was this Marshal?"
The keeper brushed his fingers through his long beard and said, "Many people have forgotten this part of the tale, but my grandfather still remembered it, it was Tenpo Gensui."
The name did not strike anything to Hakkai. The land of the living does not take records of the deeds of the Gods, it was just not done. But when he was sure that nobody was there, he left the dagger at her feet, but not before giving it a slight kiss.
"I may not be able to remember you, Princess Ryurei," he spoke quietly to the silent statue, "But I shall return this dagger to you. The man who left you, he must have loved you dearly, but he had to stand by what he believed in… I am sure that given the chance, he would do everything to see you again."
As he left, he heard one of the people burning incense exclaim, "Look, Goddess Ryurei's statue is shedding tears!" Before a commotion was formed, Hakkai had already left, and soon, word reached that someone had returned the Goddess a gift from her beloved…
"You look more relaxed now," Sanzo said to Hakkai when he returned to their lodging for the night. "What happened?"
That insufferable monk was always so sharp, Hakkai grumbled in his head, his frustrations hidden by his usual, cheerful smile. "Well, some fresh air always helps…"
"See that it remains that way," Sanzo gruffly replied. "Sometimes, it's better to put the past where it belongs, Hakkai. Don't let it get to you… too much."
As always, even if he was infuriating, Sanzo was always right. That much, Hakkai knew. The past, was always the past, and he should be looking towards the future.
The Dragon-King Gojun looked at the soldier, Tenpo Gensui. As brilliant as he was, as much of a genius he was, he could never imagine that he would fall for his little sister, Ryurei. Even more surprising was that his love was returned. Ryurei had been acting… strangely ever since she had met with the handsome warrior-god.
"If you wish to court my sister, the rules are simple," he told the other man. "Prove to me that you are a man worthy of her and that you would be able to create a future filled with light for her." That man soon rose highly in the ranks of his Western Army, and was soon made a Marshal, however… eccentric he was.
Not many in Heaven knew of their romance, but those in the lower realms often found them frolicking amidst fields of roses of every hue… His sister was the goddess responsible for flowering plants of the lower realms, after all…
But, he could never have known that his future brother in law would encounter such a fate, following the death of Nataku Taishi. He had chosen death, and even though he died, his soul ever exiled to the realms below, never to be reborn a God, Ryurei said nothing, although her smile had diminished, and she danced with her katana no longer.
The roses in the heavens blossomed no longer, but in the lower realms, they blossomed even more fairer than they ever had in Heaven… "Do you think that he would ever remember you, Ryurei?" he asked his sister. As much as he knew, the God who was Tenpo Gensui was now a youkai known as Cho Hakkai, who had formally been a human being who had killed one thousand youkai, and was cursed to become one. He was travelling to Tenjiku with three other Youkai, one of them, the Seiten-Taisen, Son Goku, and the other, Sha Gojyo, formerly Kenren Taisho. Their apparent leader, Genjyo Sanzo, was Konzen Douji… He found it ironic, that all four of them were together again, but his sister had to watch them from above, far away from them.
"Onii-sama, you need not worry about me," she told him. "He does, and will not remember anything. Its better this way… I am but a lost page of his past. His future will be brighter. We will meet again, one day. I'm sure of it."
Playlist:
Dream scene: Lothlorien, Fellowship of the Ring OST.
Hakkai in Temple and Flashback: Evenstar, The Two Towers OST
