i have been reading a lot of nijihai fics on archives of our own and i really love this couple. but its been a really long time since i last watched or read any knb so im relying on the wikia for personalities and character traits etc. anyway i dont own the characters of kuroko no basuke this is written purely for entertainment purposes
Haizaki Shougo was just a small boy of 5 years when he was crowned with the the kingdom's title of "Little Lion".
Back then, he was too young to understand what that had meant. He thought it was a great praise that he was to receive as the youngest child to the king of Fukuda Sogo.
When he toured the town with his brother, the people would bow down and smile, calling out to him, "Thank you, Little Lion!"
In return, he would smile happily and wave back innocently.
Only later, when he reached the age of maturity, would he come to realize what he really was.
...
...
...
The same dream came to him once again.
"Uncle! Wait for me!"
Ishida smiled gently at the small boy and held out his hand, "Come, Shougo."
Shougo grinned and held his uncle's hand, as they walked through the royal courtyard, admiring the beautifully grown flowers and trees. Ishida brought Shougo to sit under the shade of a big tree and placed the small boy on his lap. "Shougo..."
"Yes, Uncle?"
He could never resist those big doe eyes, and fluffy silver hair of his nephew. When the two made eye contact, Ishida couldn't stop a tear or two from slipping.
"Uncle! You're crying!"
Ishida bellowed out a laugh and wiped his eyes, "No, Shougo, something went in my eye, so now it's all watery."
Distracted by a passing butterfly, Shougo jumped up from his Uncle's lap to try and catch it. Ishida sighed and took out a ring from the pocket of his blazer. The ring had the head of a roaring lion on it, made from glittering gold.
To think the king planned on having no more children, it pained for him to see Haizaki earn this position. Being the Little Lion was nothing to be happy about. And he knows it because he is the Little Lion.
"Uncle~ the butterfly flew away!"
Ishida brought Shougo close to him and looked at him sadly. "Shougo."
"Yes, Uncle?"
He placed the ring into the small boy's palms and looked into his eyes, "When I'm gone, you will be the new Little Lion."
"I will get to be like you, Uncle?"
Ishida smiled sadly and nodded, "Yes, you will be a Little Lion, just like me. Take good care of this ring, okay?"
"Yep! I will take care of it with all my heart because I love Uncle the most in the world!"
He ruffled the boy's hair gently and hugged him. "Good."
The clattering of armor caught his attention and he knew his time was up.
"My Lord, it is time."
Ishida got up slowly and hugged Shougo once more before following the guard.
"Uncle! Where are you going?!"
He smiled one last time before he left for good, "I love you and I will miss you, Shougo. Be a good Little Lion."
"Uncle?"
Shougo didn't know what was happening, but he had to know where his uncle was going.
"Uncle, wait for me!"
With his short legs, he ran after his beloved uncle, refusing to stop until he reached him.
"Uncle! Where are you going?! Uncle!"
Before he could reach the stairs, a few guards blocked his path and a few maids came to calm him down and bring him back to his chambers.
"Let me go! I'm going to see my uncle!"
"Prince, you can't! My Lord has to tend to his duty and no one must interrupt! Please, let's go back to your chambers!"
"No! I want to go to my Uncle!"
Anger and frustration built up inside of him, tears falling as he punched at the armored legs of the guards.
"Prince, you'll hurt yourself! Please, let us go back!"
"No! I want to see Uncle! I want to see him!"
A pair of hands hoisted him from behind and turned him around, carrying him. "Nii-sama! I want to go see Uncle!"
Crown Prince Shindo hugged his dear brother close to him and walked towards his chambers. "You can't, Shou. We can no longer see Uncle Ishi after tomorrow."
"Why not?"
"Because he has a duty to fulfill."
...
...
...
Before he knew it, tomorrow had come and the entire kingdom was wearing black and white for the mourning of the youngest child of King Hideki II: Hideki Ishida, the former Little Lion of Fukuda Sogo.
"Lord Hideki was an admirable general and officer of the kingdom. Even with the title of Little Lion, he had helped the kingdom prosper and stay safe and in harmony before his last duty. Lately, the kingdom of Fukuda Sogo had suffered from an epidemic as a punishment from the gods for our wrongdoings. Therefore, in order to bring peace back to the kingdom, Lord Hideki used his title as the Little Lion to sacrifice himself to the gods, as an apology. We wish the lord nothing but happiness, prosperity, and wealth in the afterlife. To the Little Lion we pray!"
The citizens below all shouted with tears filling their eyes, "To the Little Lion we pray!"
Prince Shougo didn't know what was happening. All he knew was that his uncle was nowhere to be found.
He tugged at the sleeve of the Crown Prince, who was dabbing away at the tears falling from his eyes. "Nii-sama, where is Uncle?"
Shindo held his hand and looked down at his brother with pity and sadness, "He's dead, Shougo. He caught the plague and now he's dead. He sacrificed himself for the peace of the kingdom and we will never forget it."
"He's...dead?"
Shougo couldn't believe it. It wasn't true. They're lying to him. He's not dead. This is a lie.
"That's not true!" he shouted, earning the looks from everyone else, "He's not dead!"
"Shou, quiet down."
"It's not true! Uncle would never leave me!"
"Please, Shou..."
"Uncle went to do his duty! He's not dead! He's not-"
The sound of a slap to the face echoed throughout the kingdom, and the people fell silent, their eyes casting to the ground. King Haizaki glared down at his youngest, who had held his cheek in disbelief. "Shougo, you are not to be loud and disrespectful at the funeral of my brother, do you hear me?"
The five year old trembled and he shakily looked up at his father, tears flowing down his face. "You are all liars! I hate you all!"
He ran out of the balcony, Shindo wanting to follow after him. The king's arm stopped him, "Leave him be. The foolish child will realize soon enough."
"Yes, Father."
"Continue the ceremony."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
...
...
...
Shougo woke up with a start, abruptly sitting up as the memory came back to him.
After that slap to the face, the relationship between him and the king was no longer the same.
Even at the king's grand funeral, he was not there to attend it. He locked himself in his room, and not even the queen or his brother could coax him into attending.
Shougo grew up to be a rebellious prince, skipping his lessons to flirt with the ladies in town, got into fights with the boys of other nobles, and even attempted to color his hair with the dye from some blackberries if it weren't for his brother dragging him to a nearby stream to wash his hands and pour out the mixture.
The only thing that made the queen proud was his fighting abilities. Only within two years of training with the royal army, he surpassed his superiors and became a general of the royal army and one of the few fleet admirals of the royal navy. And he was only 16 then.
Now at the age of 23, he was completely in control of the royal forces. Even generals that were thirty years older than him respected him to the highest degree.
As another Little Lion, Shougo wanted to be as good as his uncle was and not bring shame to his uncle's name.
However, as great as his uncle was, Shougo was not as smart as Ishida was. Nothing he learned processed in his brain. The speeches of his tutor passed through his ears like air.
The one thing he did comprehend, though, was that the kingdom of Fukuda Sogo had prospered through generations of Little Lions. The founder of the kingdom, King Fukuda Sogo, had built the kingdom with his bare hands, helping his people and worked together with them to build a beautiful kingdom from scratch. The king of a hundred thousand years ago used to be the next in line to become king of the lost Fukuda kingdom, until an uprising of his cousin caused him and the people still loyal to his father to flee as far as they could.
Not long after the kingdom was successfully built, news had reached the kingdom of the fall of the old Fukuda kingdom by a tremendous earthquake. The earthquake, the people believed, was a form of punishment from the gods to the king's cousin and his followers for committing treason and betraying his father.
King Fukuda Sogo helped his new kingdom prosper and peace was among them. Until a cyclops threatened the population, eating one human at a time at an irregular pace. At the time, the king had five children and the citizens were begging for help against the giant. The youngest child, Prince Fukuda Arashi, volunteered to slay the giant to stop the mass murdering of the people. It was said that the Goddess of Strength, Leo, saw the bravery of the prince and decided to help him. She granted him with a golden ring with a lion's head as a charm to give him strength, blinding armor made of holy gold with the crest of a lion, and a blood red cloak made of the shed piles of fur from her brother, the God of Fire, Ifrit's mane. As a last gift, she gave him a selection of weapons made from the blackest onyx.
To this day, the set of onyx weapons are still intact and gleaming brightly in the shrine room of their kingdom that was dedicated to Leo, refusing to rust or dull.
Prince Fukuda Arashi chose the onyx bow, lions engraved in the onyx, and the onyx katana, the blade being as black as the bottom of the ocean.
Rumor has it, if anyone besides the Little Lion tries to carry any of the items gifted by the goddess, they will be crushed by the weight of it, even the ring that Shougo wears everyday could feel like a ton to someone else.
At the time of the fight, the prince was only a teenager of 14 years. And with all of the gifts from the lion goddess, the prince was nicknamed the Little Lion.
He went into battle with the cyclops on his own. Entering into the cyclops' den, he lured the giant out and fought with him. After dodging the many blows of the cylops' fists, the prince readied his bow with an arrow, praying to the goddess for his success before he shot, the arrow striking right through the cyclops' eye. With the giant distracted by the pain, the prince climbed up his body and with the katana, he stabbed it right into his heart, killing him instantly. With the prince still hanging onto the katana, the giant collapsed forward, crushing the heroic prince to death beneath him.
Leo carried Prince Arashi back to the kingdom to have a proper funeral and magically built a room in the castle to especially hold her gifted items.
From then on, the youngest child of every king of Fukuda Sogo was named the Little Lion.
Little Lions had the duty of sacrificing themselves to bring peace to the kingdom. Whether it was a large or small matter, every sacrifice ended with the Little Lion dead.
For Ishida, it was because of the plague. The day Ishida gave Shougo the ring was the day he knew that his time living was up. The priests had set up a ritual to have the Lord negotiate with the Goddess of Health, Sekhmet. She was the sister of Leo, and she knew of the tradition that her sister had unintentionally started.
Lord Ishida asked for all of the kingdom to be rid of the plague and be healthy once more. In return, the goddess will direct all of the plague into his body. The goddess agreed and therefore, Ishida was hit with the plague and died hours later. The citizens that were affected by it were nursed back to health as if it never existed.
Haizaki Shougo figured out what he really was.
He was the Little Lion.
The martyr of the kingdom of Fukuda Sogo.
He was the official sacrifice.
Whatever bad news came their way, he's guaranteed to be the first one to go.
Even if it meant he had to die.
...
...
...
But he didn't think that having to be betrothed to the Crown Prince of their greatest enemy counted as a sacrifice.
"Mother! What is the meaning of this?!"
"Shou, calm down a bit first and sit down." his brother commanded.
He stood in place and his voice raised, "No! How can I calm down when Mother betrothed me to that bullshit kingdom that has been trying to steal our lands for years?! I'd rather go to war and get killed than marrying with that kingdom! And with their damn Crown Prince! Not a princess, but a prince!"
The Queen slammed her hands on the marble table, glaring at her son, the same glare his father gave him at Ishida's funeral. Shougo didn't like it one bit.
"War is the exact reason I am having you betrothed to Crown Prince Nijimura Shuuzou! Teiko had went easy on us these past few years by sending only a few thousand troops to try and capture us. But this time, they plan only sending all of their divisions with over hundreds of thousands of troops with the Miracles leading them! We have only fifty thousand soldiers and a population of two hundred thousand. Going against them would mean annihilating our entire kingdom and we'll be lost like our father kingdom of Fukuda! Would you want that, Shougo?!"
His hands balled up into fists, and a growl was bubbling in his throat.
"Why the fuck does it have to be settled through marriage anyway?!"
"Do you want to be a hostage rotting in their jail cells then?!"
"Hell yeah I do! I'd fucking kill myself before I ever get married to that man!"
"Shou! Watch your language! Don't talk back to Mother with that tone!"
"Nii-sama! You have only one child and your wife has lost the ability to bear children. If I were to leave, your daughter would have to inherit my title and god knows none of us want that for her."
"Regardless of whether you go to war or marry the prince, you'll have to give your title to her!"
Shindo was right. Either way, he'd have to leave and pass on the title to her. But he didn't want that kind of miserable future put on to her. Shougo was very attached to his niece, just as much as his brother was and he would never let harm come her way. Misaki loved Shougo just as much as she loved her parents, and it reminded him of his own deceased uncle. He didn't want Misaki to cry and go through that suffering like he did.
This tradition was bullshit and he was going to end it. Even if that meant he had to marry that son of a bitch.
He released his fists and sat down, taking in deep breaths. Then, he looked up at his mother and said, "I agree to marry Crown Prince Nijimura."
The Queen and Prince Shindo were both surprised at his decision. "Really?"
"On one condition: let me speak to Leo."
The Queen called for a servant to gather the priests at the holy room. Shougo will finally see if the lioness is real or not.
Upon completion, the priests called for Shougo to enter the holy room. As directed, he sat down in the middle of the ritual circle that had been drawn with ancient scriptures with white chalk. Once seated, each priest placed one candle beside him, enclosing him a in a circle of lit candles. The priests started their chanting and Shougo was told to close his eyes and clear his mind to ready himself for the arrival of the goddess.
"Leo! Goddess of Strength! We call out to you on behalf of Fukuda Sogo's Little Lion! Prince Haizaki Shougo! Please come forth to communicate with his highness per his request!"
Within a few seconds, a strong gust of wind erupted in the holy room and blew out all of the candles, even when the holy room had no windows. However, a golden light emitted from the air and soon, the goddess had taken form in front of Shougo, the warm light almost blinding him.
"Little Lion, why have you called for me?"
"I want to make a deal."
The goddess arched an eyebrow and leaned in close to his face, smirking almost. He sort of liked it.
"Oh? How so?"
"As you may already know, I am being betrothed to the Nijimura's crown prince, in return of the peace of the kingdom."
"Indeed, I have heard of the news."
"But I will not go through with it."
"The fate of your kingdom will be dark if you do not."
"I will not go through with it unless..."
"Unless?"
"You need to agree to have me as the last Little Lion. After I die, there will be no more Little Lions after me and you can take back all of your weapons and armor, and the ring that you gifted to our kingdom."
She laughed and wiped a fake tear from her eyes, "How selfish you are. How do you know if I will agree? If I don't, your kingdom will perish, just like that of the old Fukuda."
"We've worshipped you and your siblings for hundreds of thousands of years already. And I'm sure you'd like your things back, since they do drain out some of your power every year."
The goddess furrowed her brows and crossed her arms. "How do you know about that?"
Now it was Shougo's tun to smirk. "I've heard from a little bird that a certain god of disaster takes a liking to you."
The goddess had a pink tint run across her cheeks, "You-!"
"For a few thousand years, he's chased after you in hopes of marrying you, but as the hopeless romantic, yet stubborn woman you are, you said you'd rather die than marry him. And so, when he brought that cyclops to the new kingdom of Fukuda Sogo, to piss him off and get him away from you for good, you decided to gift Prince Arashi with your holy items. And each time a Little Lion dies, it drains a bit of your power. You made it that way so that if enough generations of Little Lions passed away, you would die, just like how you said you would and the god would never be able to marry you."
"Damned human-!"
"But throughout the years, his level of disaster cast on our kingdom has lessened, therefore, slowing down the draining process. It seems the god has either loved you enough to not want you to die, or he just has lost his interest in you after waiting for so long. But from another little bird, I heard you've finally started liking him back, no?"
"How dare you search into a deity's personal life?!"
Shougo had on a really smug face now.
"It seems the God of Disaster has grown tired of waiting for you and has decided to go for the Goddess of Beauty instead. And if you want to stay as a goddess in order to get him to like you once more, you'll need all of your power back so that you won't end up turning into a mortal."
Leo's face was clearly red now and her golden light dimmed a bit to try and match the darkness of her blush in order to hide it.
"If you agree to this deal, not only are you helping our kingdom which has long worshiped you and your siblings, but you'll also be helping yourself by regaining the power you had lost. I've heard that mortals will never see the features of a god unless their power has drastically lowered. And even if your light is still blinding me, I can clearly see what you look like. And what I see in front of me is a goddess that is pouting and crossing her arms, her face beat red from embarrassment."
Leo grabbed at her hair and sighed in frustration, "ARGH! FINE! You'll be the last Little Lion and after your death, I will be taking my items back! Now that I've agreed to your deal, do not talk about my love life ever again!"
Shougo shrugged his shoulders and snickered, "That's only if you keep to your end of the deal. Besides, once I die, I won't be able to talk about your love life anymore."
"DAMNED HUMANS! IF I KNEW A PRINCE LIKE YOU WOULD BE THE LITTLE LION I WOULD'VE NEVER HELPED ARASHI!"
She vanished into the air and the room was dark once more, the candles re-lit by the goddess as she left.
The priests had no words for what went on in the room. Prince Shougo had dared threaten their sole goddess. But then again, Prince Shougo will always be Prince Shougo, a rebellious brat at heart.
hey guys! just letting you know, i update slow and when it comes to chapter build up, i cant really slow it down, so if it goes too fast, i'm sorry! i'll try to slow it down to a good pace as much as i can! i really hope you guys liked it so far! don't forget to comment down below!