Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there was a castle called Hyotei. Don't ask. Just don't.
In this castle, there lived a king, whose name was Atobe Keigo. He had only a measly seven knights, but then again, there were no castles (that we know of) with more than seven knights. In fact, Hyotei was considered a rather big establishment.
There was Sir Oshitari Yuushi, who was King Atobe's right-hand man. He was a sadistic genius whose particular talent was calculated jousting. Of course, Sir Yuushi's fencing was among the best, too.
There was Sir Mukahi Gakuto, who, with Sir Shishido Ryou, provided comic relief even though they didn't usually intend to. Sir Gakuto was not a jouster, since his unnaturally small body weight was easily knocked out of the saddle. He stuck to fencing, because this very same disability was a result of extreme flexibility.
There was, as aforementioned, Sir Shishido Ryou, whose squire Ootori Choutarou had recently been admitted to King Atobe's Order of Knights. The two were very close, and stuck together even though it was no longer required of them. Sir Ryou's specialty was speed, which meant that, like Sir Gakuto, his forte was in fencing. This resulted in many disagreements between them as each tried to prove that he was better than the other.
The newly knighted Sir Ootori Choutarou was, as previously said, particularly close to Sir Ryou. Almost as if to make up for his old knight-master, he specialized in jousting. Sir Gakuto once joked that they should be tied together to make one fully-skilled knight. Sir Shishido had pounded the redhead when that comment reached his ears. Sir Choutarou didn't understand why he minded so much about it.
There was also Sir Akutagawa Jirou, who was also nicknamed the 'Sleeping Beauty' by his comrades. He was almost invariably found asleep somewhere in the castle; he was even able to sleep in full armor on the cold stone floor. It was a talent that the others both feared and respected. However, when Sir Jirou actually woke up, his talents in both jousting and fencing were remarkable. The key, though, was that this only happened when he was awake, because when he was awake, he was hyper. One could almost call him bipolar.
The last of the knights was Sir Hiyoshi Wakashi, also recently admitted to the Order along with Sir Choutarou. The different between the two was phenomenal, though. While Sir Choutarou was content to stay in the background, still almost like a squire, Sir Wakashi wanted to overthrow King Atobe and take his place as King Hiyoshi. His trademark phrase was 'Gekokujyou', which meant 'to beat the ones above you and take their place'. That it was his trademark phrase in itself spoke volumes about him. Since he'd grown up in a hand-to-hand fighting gymnasium, he'd managed to incorporate some of the things he learned then into his fencing and jousting.
And presiding over them all was the one and only King Atobe Keigo. He was outrageously egoistical and narcissistic; how he'd managed to procure himself a wife was a subject of much speculation. Most people attributed it to his undeniable skills in both jousting and fencing. Sadly, his favorite line, 'Be awed by my prowess', made him rather irritating, even if one didn't count his own personality problems.
The last person of any notice within the Castle Hyotei was Queen Echizen Ryoma. Everyone agreed that she was a beauty, despite the fact that she was a spoiled brat and was able to fence and joust with the best of them. It was really rather a slap in the face when the knights battled and lost to a female, with no comfort and the damned "Mada mada dane' that she always threw in their faces after they lay pounded into the dust. The unfortunate knights watched their tongues around Queen Ryoma, careful never to say anything to insult her.
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One summer's day, at breakfast, King Atobe rose to speak. He started his speech with the usual 'Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na', which everyone else ignored because they were just so used to hearing it.
King Atobe frowned when he saw everybody, including his wife, ignoring him. "Ore-sama demands that everyone listen to him."
Once everybody – excluding Sir Jirou who was fast asleep – had sullenly turned to him, the silver-haired king announced, "Ore-sama had an interesting dream last night." He looked around expectantly. When nobody said anything, he said crossly, "Do you not want to hear about it, arn?"
"Since you obviously won't shut up until you tell us all about it, I suppose we'll have to hear you out," muttered Sir Ryou.
Taking that as an invitation to share, King Atobe went on to elaborate about his wonderful dream. "Ore-sama dreamed that he was eating this delicious dumpling stuffed with the most delectable pork he has eaten since… since… well, Ore-sama had never eaten such wonderful meat, ever. After Ore-sama had finished eating it, a man came up to him and said, "That was my dumpling that you ate." Then he slapped Ore-sama!"
Sir Gakuto, who had been spacing out, snapped back to the present. "Ah. You must've offended him real bad."
"Well, Ore-sama was gracious –" here almost everyone was attacked by a sudden fit of coughing "– gracious enough to forgive him, for he was obviously a peasant." King Atobe sniffed. "No knight would have been seen dead in such an outfit! It was at least a century out of style!"
"Did he happen to state his name?" inquired Sir Choutarou, out of politeness.
The king thought for a moment. "He said his name was Qu Yuan."
Sir Yuushi perked up, suddenly looking interested. "I believe I've heard that name before. Did he happen to be a poet?"
"As it is, yes, he did mention that. Apparently people gave him dumplings because they loved his poems, or at least that's what Ore-sama thinks he meant. He had a very strange accent," explained King Atobe. "It was difficult to understand what he was saying."
"No, the people didn't give him dumplings because they loved his poems," interrupted Sir Yuushi. "He committed suicide in a river, and the people didn't want the fish to eat his body because then his soul wouldn't be able to find peace. They threw meat dumplings into the water so that the fish would eat those instead and not Qu Yuan's body."
The king of Hyotei was outraged. "Ore-sama was fed fish food?!"
"In a sense, yes," confirmed the blunette.
King Atobe thought for a moment before he flicked his hand dismissively. "No matter. Ore-sama wants more of those dumplings. That fellow – Qu Yuan – said that if one could be found, then there would be an endless supply."
"Ah," said Sir Ryou eloquently.
"And thus," continued the king, as though he'd never been interrupted, "Ore-sama shall send all of you knights on a quest for them! This quest shall be called… the Quest for the Heavenly Dumpling! The first one to bring one back shall receive his weight in gold, straight from Ore-sama's treasure chest!"
There was a short silence. Then Queen Ryoma spoke. "If you do that, I will personally castrate you," she informed her husband tartly.
"Besides, it's not like I weigh very much. I'd get less than the others would for the same amount of effort!" complained Sir Gakuto. The others just stared at their king as though they thought he'd lost his mind. They probably did think that he'd lost his mind. Or rather, that he'd never had a mind to lose in the first place.
King Atobe's eyebrow twitched. "Ore-sama does not care for your excuses. This quest is compulsory. Pack your things after breakfast. Anyone still on my grounds at noon will get booted out. Now hurry up and eat.
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A/N: Just a weird plot bunny that arrived in the middle of Chinese class… because we were doing this chapter about the Duan1 Wu3 Jie2 (I think it's called the Dragon Boat Festival in English; not sure though… yeah, I know I'm totally mada mada dane) which involved the making of stuffed dumplings, or ba zhang (did I spell it correctly? My pronunciation is terrible) as we call them in Hokkien here in Singapore.
As you can see, it's sort of Hyoteicentric (I'll try to include other schools later; definitely Rikkai and Seigaku will appear, possibly Shitenhouji)… and it's also my first attempt at a multichapter in 3rd-person POV and without Romance as the genre. I hope it turns out okay…
I'm uploading only this first chapter before my two-week hiatus (because of midyears… T.T) to see what people think of it. I need to know whether I ought to just trash it. It's so super random that I can't believe it myself. O.o
PS. To those who read my previous multichapters, it seems likely that this one might have shorter chapters. I certainly hope not…
PLEASE REVIEW!! Constructive criticism is appreciated (as is praise, of course XD) and flames shall be ignored. Unless I get so many that I might decide to take this down. Sighz.