Spring Flowers
Disclaimer: I do not own Okami, Capcom (and Clover Studios) does.
Written because I actually liked Kai, and figured she's much stronger than most people portray her. Also, I liked to entertain the idea of a bit of an inferiority complex, but didn't want Lika to grow up to be a complete female dog to the woman who raised her. I'd love to hear any con crit for this little piece, please enjoy. (also, excuse my tendency to ramble)
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Lika is growing up to be such a beautiful young woman, slender and fair with a head of sleek black hair. Men fall over their feet to get a mere glimpse of the budding priestess, women croon in jealousy behind their tapestries and cooking pots. She's like a spring flower, a wonder to behold clothed in extravagant silks of pea green, with such awe-inspiring magic dancing upon her fingertips that even the nobles of Sei-An City have heard of her prowess. She is only sixteen.
Her sister, Kai, has become accustomed to the fame her sister wields along with powerful magic, accustomed to drawing up the blinds when the eyes of curious young men peer in their windows and cleaning around the temple and making sure Lika eats properly before she goes into meditation. The growing priestess has shot up past Kai's shoulders by now, willowy grace and a coy dimpled grin behind her leaf-shaped mask. When the frost subdues beneath the steady glow of the sun once more, a hundred-something suitors fight to be the first to produce vibrant camellias, orchids and cherry blossoms and metaphorical poetry to match Kamui's budding magic-wielder, their spring flower.
And if Lika is like a spring flower, Kai is like the earth that has cultivated her since they were young. Wolf paws leaving imprints in the snow as she dashes between Laochi Lake and Wep'keer village, Kai is constantly drifting beyond most people's radar, a blur against the stark white backdrop as she tends to the people who need her. "Oh, Kai?" Someone might ask of her on occasion. The answer was always, "She would be Lika's older sister; the only family she has left, bless them both." She should have despised the indifference with which most of Kamui addressed her. She should have despised her sister for all the attention she was given. But Kai was the not that sort of woman, she truly enjoyed caring for others and loved her sister deeply, encouraged her to become the best priestess she could possibly be. She was content to hide in tawny robes and run with the wind when her sister worked too hard and was so stressed under Tuskle's tutelage. Running and hiding would have been a coward's traits, and when they were small Kai was reluctant to embrace her gifts, but the caribou-masked woman of twenty-two learned to grow past petty whispers and thinly-veiled insults.
While the women of Wep'keer babble about how the spirits must be shamed, Kai of twenty-two hasn't even received a marriage proposal while her little sister fends them off left and right, a mocha wolf streaks through Yoshpet dodging icicles and demon trees and collects treasures unheard of by those petty middle-aged gossipers. Her gift is of swiftness and subtlety, and while those women wash clothes and cook for greedy, thankless mouths, the young woman has completely mapped out the forest of confusion's twists and turns and sat among the Poncles, friends with a Celestial Envoy and a Goddess who visits on occasion. She slips back into the house by nightfall in the embrace of shadows and pities those who would never know the wonders of exploration as she does.
So let them compare me to my sister, she thinks, hands gliding over the blankets that protect her lightly snoring charge and tucking in the sides. Her smile is not as sweetly dimpled and her light hair is thin and often frizzes, but the eyes behind her mask are so warm that she knows she shares the beauty of spring somewhere with her sister. "Kai…" the sixteen-year-old priestess mumbles, turns beneath the covers and reaches out to her. "I'm here," she says with ease, bending over to cover her with arms imbued with the strength and sureness of a woman-wolf blessed with speed and the knowledge that she is loved. "I'll always be here."