Author's Note: This is the first chapter of an AU fic that I've been writing for quite a long time now. The scope is definately epic-- I'm at more than 30,000 words on the main part of the story and it isn't anywhere close to finished yet. Right now I have three major arcs plotted out in my head. We'll see if they ever make it to the page . . . but this is where everything starts. The setting for Demon Hunter is similar to that of the canon continuity, but the major difference is a greater preponderance of magic and supernatural events. Ghosts, magic swords, demons, mystical abilities . . . all of these things are part of the world of Saiunkoku. In this story, they have a much greater relevance to the main plot.

Ryuuki checked the leather wrappings that obscured the rich, distinctive ornamentation of Kanshou and Bakuya one last time, making sure that the cords that bound them were tight. Satisfied that they wouldn't be recognized, he slung them across his back so that they formed an X, securing the straps across his narrow chest. The dark bands hardly contrasted with the somewhat oversized peasant's clothing he had dug out of a dusty, forgotten corner of the storerooms. The cloth smelled musty and felt strangely close and confining against his skin, since he was used to skirted robes and long, hanging sleeves, but the outfit was as sturdy and unobtrusive as he could possibly wish.

The swords were the most important thing, in any case. Beyond that, he had only brought a few meager belongings in a small pack: a waterskin and food from the kitchens, his comb, an extra pair of shoes, a book that Shouka had given him, a small scroll bearing a portrait of his older brother the second prince, a few maps he had stolen from the archives. Ryuuki felt guilty about the maps and had left an apologetic note where he knew it would be found, whenever Shouka came back to the palace again. The youngest prince hadn't seen the archivist in a while, and worried about his safety in chaos of the city down below. Ryuuki's attempts at eavesdropping on the palace orderlies had yielded only hazy and conflicting rumors. He didn't like to go near the Tower of the Sages, since it made him sick and gave him a raging headache every time he got close to it, but it was the only place where he could get a decent view of the city. Concern had prompted him to brave the ascent a few times, though, and he had battled the nausea and the pain to track the fires he could occasionally see raging in the city beyond the palace walls. He wanted to wait, and make sure that Shouka was safe . . .

But urgency tugged at him, insistent. He had waited for years, waited until he had grown up enough to leave, and it was more than long enough. The worsening state of the capital and the courts just made him more determined. It seemed like everything was crumbling around him, little by little, until the very ground beneath his feet was unstable. He could feel the problem in his bones-- the center was dropping out of his world. He could only think of one person who could put the palace back into order, one person who was fit to take up the reins of the country and become the ailing Emperor's heir.

Ever since Shouka had told him of his brother's exile, his heart had yearned to be reunited with his older brother once again. Sometimes it seemed like Seien was just beyond the walls, and that any moment he would surely return, and Ryuuki's loneliness would end. But as the years passed, so slowly, he had realized the impossibility of that dream. There was no way that Seien could break his exile and return unless he were recalled by the Emperor himself. And with time Ryuuki's dream had changed: if Seien could not come to the palace, then Ryuuki would go to him. If they were together, nothing could stop them. They could return, and Seien would take up his proper place again. And everything would be made right again.

Or maybe they wouldn't return. That thought sent a shiver of happiness through Ryuuki, guilty but undeniable. Why did they have to come back to the palace, after all? When every corner just brought up memories of abuse and suffering? When the lurking ghosts stared at him with their cold eyes, hungry and hateful? There was no need, no reason to come back to this unstable and haunted place. Surely the whole kingdom was open to them. He would find Seien, and then they could travel together . . . live free, just the two of them . . .

His imagination furnished the dream with all the adventures and mysteries that Shouka sometimes told him stories of, and a thrill of anticipation tightened his stomach. It would be wonderful. Together, he and his brother could do anything.

But first he would have to find Seien. Learning the location of his exile hadn't been difficult, since it was a matter of Imperial record. And while it had been disheartening to learn that the second prince had disappeared somewhere along the way and no one had heard from him since, Ryuuki had no doubt that Seien was still alive. He would have known if something had happened to his brother. Even with all the distance that separated them, he would know. Ryuuki was confident that he could find Seien. All he would have to do was travel to the last waystation where the second prince had been reported, out on the border of Sa Province, and then start his search from there.

He secured the bundle on his back, then tested the ties on the swords and jumped in place a few times to make sure all was secure. Then he checked the money he had sewn into the hems of his clothing (that theft he certainly didn't feel bad about, not when his other brothers made so free with the treasury themselves), and the Ran family travel pass he had appropriated from an insufficiently cautious clan merchant who had come to the palace recently. Satisfied at last, he blew out the candle that illuminated the room.

The sudden darkness that enveloped him seemed to have a physical, choking presence, but he thought of his second older brother and battled down his terror. There were no clawing hands reaching for him in the darkness, and he felt no chill in the air, heard no sibilant whispers. If he was going to find Seien, he couldn't let his childish fears hold him back. The gardens outside the room proved empty of all presences, natural or otherwise, and he felt calmer. The palace was quiet tonight. He remembered how Seien had often found him hiding among the trees and brought him inside, into the light and warmth, banishing the dangers and terrors that lurked everywhere with the security of his presence.

This time, I'm going to find you.

It was harder to climb the tree he had selected in the gardens than it had been without his heavy burdens, but he managed with a grunt, and from its branches pulled himself onto one of the roofed corridors that snaked through the grounds. From there it was simple enough to move to the roofs, and then the outer wall. None of the palace's ghostly residents had ever appeared on the broad yellow tiles that protected the buildings, and so despite their fierce-looking pottery guardians Ryuuki preferred to use them as his own personal pathway through the Palace grounds. Statues had never bothered him, after all, but the other denizens of the palace were a different matter. Guards patrolled here and there on the grounds below, but their lanterns made them easy to spot. And besides, their attention was directed outwards, against intruders trying to sneak in: they had no reason to think that someone would try to sneak out.

Ryuuki paused briefly on the outer edge of the grounds, his body snug against a sheltering roof tree, and looked back. The inner palace buildings gleamed faintly in the thready starlight, with the looming Tower of the Sages rising above the complex. He swallowed, scared at this last instant to leave behind the only world he knew for the larger, frightening one he had never seen.

He reminded himself that his brother was waiting, somewhere out there, then swung himself down from the roof and into the streets below.