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Will of Solomon
When something awful happens; something you absolutely can't accept; you find a way to make it right. That's just human nature. Perhaps a powerful enough wish is enough to alter the course of destiny.
Important note: This story contains spoilers for the final arc of the manga. That means you really ought to catch up if you haven't yet. Unless, of course, you're some kind of crazy person who likes spoilers. In that case, read on, my friend!
"I should have stopped you, even if I had to use brute force. But even though I was feeling uneasy, I didn't. If I had, we might be seeing a different future now."
-Morgiana, Ch. 281
Prologue
On Wanting to Die
He'd wanted to die. Sometimes, he still does.
Back then, after it had happened, after he'd taken back his empire with blood and madness and shredded his soul in the process; after he'd cruelly murdered his own heart and left himself out to dry, weary and empty and barely attached to the world, he'd often sit by himself in his—it was his now—lonely audience chamber and think about dying. Crybaby Hakuryuu, always such a letdown, presses the freshly polished edge of the broadsword that had lopped off the head of his mother to his throat and tastes freedom.
But he knows death isn't really freedom. Not for someone like him. He's messed up. Royally so. Dying without protecting the things he's sworn to protect or atoning for the countless lives he's ended would be shameful, and Hakuryuu was never a shameful prince, so he lives. And he regrets. And he continues to wish somewhere deep in his heart that he could die.
"Alibaba is dead. You killed him."
He knows. He hated Alibaba. Hated him. Hated him. Hated him. He regrets it so damn much. Alibaba had been his friend. They'd traveled together and fought together and laughed together and even though Hakuryuu hated him, he also loved him. Everyone had loved him.
She had loved him.
"I will watch you. I will always be watching you."
Don't fail me, is what she's saying. She's telling him to live for Alibaba's sake too.
But Hakuryuu will never be Alibaba. He will never shine that brightly. He will try, but he will be a pale imitation, like the moon to Alibaba's sun. And like the moon, he will always be half covered in darkness. But that's okay. He needs a reason to live—not just one not to die—and if he can somehow, after all this, make her smile, he will be satisfied.
So Hakuryuu casts away his broadsword and takes up his halberd and lives.
Now, several years later, Alibaba is back and Morgiana is smiling—she's so happy; she's going to be his bride—and Hakuryuu is smiling too, but he's thinking about death. He still has his reasons not to die, but he's lost his reason to live. Morgiana no longer needs him to make her smile. He no longer needs to live for two people's sakes. Now there's just him and he's realizing how inadequate the small, burnt out moon that is Hakuryuu is without Alibaba's sunlight to help him shine. He's all dark now. No longer visible to her.
"Don't get too depressed over your unrequited love!" Aladdin tells him chipperly, patting him on the back. "You'll meet the right girl someday!"
Aladdin is full of optimism and naivety and light and he can't see that inside the darkness Hakuryuu is already crumbling. He doesn't understand that a dragon loves with his whole soul and Hakuryuu's soul was lost while it still belonged to Morgiana. Maybe he will love again, but such a future is not visible to him right now. He can't see anything but the dark hole where the heart of a kind young prince once lay.
Hakuryuu is no longer a prince. He's not an emperor either. He knows he could disappear right now and nobody would know. His whole existence now revolves around Aladdin and helping him protect the world, but at the end of the day, when their fight is over and done, he doesn't have anywhere left to return to. He has nothing to offer a bride.
Maybe, he privately thinks, when the day their fight finally ends comes, he will at last be allowed to die.
Until then, he needs to find Judar.
Chapter One
Deja Vu
Morgiana stops short suddenly. She's full of confusion. The air smells of salt. She can hear the ocean. In front of her is a woman she has not seen in a very long time. The devilish woman's wrists are bound and her face is bloody. Hakuryuu stands before her, holding a broadsword. He is smiling.
Morgiana blinks. Just a minute ago she'd been with Alibaba and Aladdin somewhere very different. She's sure of it. She looks around and sees the two in question, but they look wrong to her. Alibaba's clothes are different and Aladdin…he's too young. He'd been older. He'd been much taller and broader. And the bound woman…Umm Madaura…she was dead. She'd been dead for many years.
Suddenly, Morgiana isn't sure anymore. She feels like she's been witnessing a very long dream and now that she's awake the memory of it is slipping away like sand through her fingers. Just what had she been doing a moment ago? That's right, she'd just returned with her friends from the pirates' stronghold. They'd saved the port and freed all the children from Umm Madaura's clutches and now the witch was being taken away. She wonders why she'd ever thought she'd been doing anything else.
"Come here! You are such a good boy…a good child…Hakuryuu!" the witch is wailing and looking at Hakuryuu like he's a lifeboat and she's drowning. This is all so familiar. Morgiana feels like she's seen it before.
Hakuryuu's smile is beautiful. He's beautiful. Aladdin and Alibaba are watching, full of alarm. They think he's still under her control. Morgiana thinks he is too, but when he raises his sword and swiftly beheads the pitiful woman, she isn't surprised like they are. When Hakuryuu lifts the head from the ground and brandishes it at the horrified children, she's horrified too, yes, of course she is, but somehow she expects it; had anticipated it.
But, she thinks as Alibaba rushes up and angrily grabs Hakuryuu by his collar, the expression the young prince of Kou wears now that the deed is done is different from what she'd expected. The cold fury she had anticipated is replaced with a look of weariness; of resignation. He'd taken no joy in ending the pirate leader's life. When he explains to them that his true mission all along was to end the life of his own mother, he sounds empty.
Morgiana wonders why she's so unsettled by this.
After everything is said and done, Alibaba takes over responsibility of the children on behalf of Sindria. He is magnificent as always, redirecting the pain of their leader, Olba, and telling them to ford bravely ahead into a kinder future. Morgiana watches him with admiration. He is freeing them just like he freed her. He is radiant; like a king, she thinks. Her dearest wish is to support him.
Hakuryuu looks on impassively. He says nothing. Once again, Morgiana is confused because she thought he would. She was sure of it. You all should have noticed from the beginning that you were never loved. She can hear his voice in her head, the words so clear they practically burn her ears with frost, but he hasn't said anything. She frowns and rubs her temples and hopes maybe she can massage the voice away. There's no reason for her to think Hakuryuu would say such a thing. She feels awful for subconsciously putting such hurtful words in his mouth.
"Are you okay?" Aladdin asks, looking up at her with a concerned frown. Seeing his face brings her peace. He's so wise and patient for such a young boy. His presence stills her turmoil.
"Fine," she replies to put him at ease. "It's odd. I just…don't feel myself today." She doesn't know how to explain the uncanniness she feels to her small friend but Aladdin seems to understand anyway. He smiles and turns his gaze back to Alibaba. Changing the subject, he says, "Alibaba sure is amazing."
"Yes," she agrees, her frown lifting into a smile as well. "He's extraordinary. He can make anyone want to follow him."
Off to the side, Hakuryuu pushes off from the side of the building he'd been leaning against and quietly begins to walk away. She is the only one who notices.
It is nearly an hour later when she finds him. He's packed his things and is walking out through the town's gate. She doesn't know why he's leaving so suddenly, without telling them at that, but she knows she doesn't want him to go. When he turns around to face her, however, her heart starts pounding and she's struck with a sudden feeling of trepidation. Her mouth is dry and she somehow knows that this is a turning point. She needs to tread with caution. Carefully, she addresses him. "Hakuryuu…you're planning to depart alone?"
He bows his head. He looks sullen. "Yes." He turns around, preparing to leave once more. "I can't stay with you all anymore. Thank you for all you have done for me until now."
Morgiana follows after him. "Wait!" she protests. Somehow she knows that if she lets him leave now, she'll regret it immensely. Something very, very important hinges on her not letting him go. "I don't want to say farewell like this."
She hears Hakuryuu take a deep breath and then exhale. She thinks she sees his shoulders shaking. "Then," he starts, and suddenly Morgiana's heart is racing. Her blood is running too fast in her veins. He's going to say something that will upset her. She doesn't know how she knows, but she can hear the words in her head as if he's already said them. She gears up to answer him when he turns around to face her.
Hakuryuu steps forward and he's looking at her not with nervousness or earnestness like she expects but with a sad smile. He reaches out and takes her hand gently in his flesh one and she can feel his warmth and his sorrow in that hand. "Won't you come with me?" he asks softly, holding just her fingertips in a grasp softer than the alighting of freshly fallen snow.
Morgiana is frozen in place. She doesn't know how to answer him. Why is he asking such a thing so suddenly? Why is his demeanor now so different from how she feels like he ought to be acting? He'd always been polite and respectful toward her, but while before there had been a sense of urgency and tightly controlled anger about him, now his aura is calm.
"To kill your mother?" she asks. She watches him carefully, looking for any sign of that festering fury she somehow, somehow knows should be there—why does it feel like she's forgetting something important?—but he simply smiles at her.
"Eventually," he admits, and his voice is still soft; still gentle. "She will need to be stopped. But first, there are preparations I must make and people I must speak with."
Don't let him leave, the voice in her head warns her urgently. You absolutely must not allow him to go off on his own. "Hakuryuu," she says, and his mismatched gaze on her is piercing but patient in a way that almost makes her trip over her words, "I don't understand. Why are you asking me this? Why do you not simply stay with us?"
Hakuryuu closes his eyes and shakes his head. "I said before we got caught up in this town's pirate trouble that it was time for me to go." Opening his eyes again, he tilts his head just slightly and regards her with open fondness. The look causes Morgiana's cheeks to pinken. "On this journey, I was able to make friends with such amazing and wonderful people. It's something I never could have anticipated. But I…" Here, his expression falters and Morgiana wishes she could see into his mind and get even the tiniest glimpse of what he is seeing. She feels like his mind is a locked box and she wonders if a key to it still exists or if he's destroyed them all to keep the world out. Then she wonders why she would think such a thing when she still hardly knows a thing about him. "I just can't stay. This isn't my place. I have a duty to my country."
She's losing him. The window for averting tragedy is passing and she's going to miss it at this rate. Stop him! her brain is screaming now. If you don't, many, many people are going to die! Morgiana doesn't know where this voice is coming from but she trusts her instincts and so without even really thinking she blurts out, "Come with me, then." Once it's out, she realizes what she's said and she freezes, her eyes going wide. She hadn't intended to say that. She's half opened her mouth to take it back, but then Hakuryuu is looking at her in stunned awe and she knows she's snagged his interest. Perhaps she hasn't missed her window after all.
"Go with you?" he echoes, still looking blindsided by the suggestion. Morgiana furrows her eyebrows in determination and expands before he can start making excuses to refuse.
"As you know, tomorrow, me and Alibaba and Aladdin will be going our separate ways for a while. Hakuryuu, you told me before that you were sure I still have family who are alive and out there somewhere. I intend to go to Cathargo, the homeland of my people, to see for myself. Compared with Aladdin and Alibaba, the trip shouldn't be a long one. Come with me to Cathargo and then I will be free to accompany you to Kou or wherever it is that you must go."
Hakuryuu is still gaping at her. If she herself is surprised by her proposal, then he is floored. He looks like he can't believe what she's just finished telling him. She wonders why, if her invitation is so shocking to him, he ever thought she would agree to come with him in the first place. But then, maybe he didn't. Maybe he asked expecting to be rejected. To be honest, were it not for the voice in her head telling her to keep him there, she probably would have rejected him. It isn't that she doesn't like him. In fact, she quite enjoys his company. It's just that she has a mission and she still barely knows him.
Barely knows him, she repeats in her head as she remembers that his favorite color is green and his hobby is cooking and if he drinks too much he'll spend the whole night crying. The memory is gone before she can properly analyze it.
Hakuryuu has recovered now and he's watching her warily as if worried she'll take back her offer if he so much as breathes wrong. "If you wish for me to accompany you on your mission," he says at last, putting his right fist in his left palm and bowing over them respectfully, "then I will. I would be honored to aid you in any way that I may be able."
Despite herself, Morgiana smiles. She feels relieved in a way that she still doesn't understand but she thinks that's okay because life is sometimes funny and incomprehensible and she feels like she's scored a major victory today. There's no need to question it right now.
Together, they return to the inn. A part of Morgiana feels like destiny has changed.
oO0Oo
Hey, boys and girls! Welcome to the fic that probably nobody ever asked for but now it's written and y'all're stuck reading it because let's be honest, the Hakumor section of the Magi fandom is small and sad you all are lonely and thirsty just like me.
That being said, I actually do hope you enjoy this. I wrote it mostly for me (because I'm a sucker and I don't know what's good for me) but if some of you can derive some entertainment and feels from it as well, that would make me super happy. I'll be doing my best to post a new chapter every couple days, so sit back and enjoy this small monstrosity. And if you're one of those beautiful souls who thrive on leaving comments, extra bacon for you.
See you in the next chapter!
