Hōsha negai
They say when you wish upon a star, it may come true. But the world is full of fairytales like that, and none of them are real. Wish granting stars are simply nonexistent. Fiction. Tales spun by parents to let their children have false hope.
However for two particular teenagers... their wish, was about to come true.
In ways that would cause ripples through time and space.
|PILOT: Romance Dawn|
[A house in the middle of a small complex, Perth, Australia.]
"C'mon you little... don't you freaking dare..." a young girl growled out as she rapidly tapped the buttons on her controller.
She was rather unremarkable in appearance. From her height and facial features, she was at least sixteen years old. She had short black hair styled into a bit of a bob cut with longer bangs framing her face, dark brown eyes narrowed in concentration and a petite body. She was clad in naught but a green tank top with white stripes and black boxers as she sat in front of her TV, her PS4 humming with life as she tried to survive in a certain game.
Sitting next to her was a boy, who not only appeared to be the same age, but also bore a very similar face, almost identical to hers. He was almost androgynous in appearance, his neck length dark brown hair kept in a messy state, practically uncombed, his wide and black eyes staring at the TV screen with anxiety. He was wearing and identical outfit to the girl's, only his singlet was black and blue. He was nervously clasping his hands together, almost in prayer.
"Come on sister, he's just an old man, he's not even wearing armor-"
"I'm trying to kill him, his guards keep getting in the way! Damn it, why aren't my buddies backing me up properly!?" The girl almost shouted.
On the screen was a mess of action. A dark setting, in a Japanese bedroom for a noble, a number of figures were fighting each other. The most prominent being a short figure wearing a blue furisode kimono, a wide brimmed kasa hat and a white mask with black markings forming a single eye in the center. The figure was holding a wakizashi, roughly seventy centimeters in length, with a brown handle and a gunmetal grey guard shaped like a demonic face. There was a red, thin rope of sorts hanging from the end of the handle.
The figure held the blade in a reverse grip as it slashed and stabbed the blade quickly at a much taller person, an old man with grey hair wearing his sleeping kimono and a menacing looking katana in his hands.
Numerous amounts of samurai were in the rather small room, the uniformed ones trying to attack the figure and its uniquely dressed allies.
This, was Way of The Samurai 4.
"Yes, just need to-YESS! I GOT HIM! I KILLED KINUGAWA!"
And as of this moment, it has been beaten.
"WE FINALLY KILLED THE OLD FUC-"
"L-language Lily!" The boy exclaimed, a scandalized look threatening to spread across his now glad looking face.
"Come off it Tenny, I just killed the old fart! We finally got the true ending! I think!" the doe eyed girl said with a wide smile. The boy simply sighed before shaking his head, a small smile on his lips.
It seemed like a happy moment for the two.
However...
"Wait, what? WHAT? WHAT THE FUCK!?" Lily roared out in outrage as she stared at the scene on the television.
Whereas she thought she had managed to finally defeat the game, the game obviously decided to flip her off.
As it turns out, the Kinugawa she killed... was a decoy. And now, her character AND her compatriots were about to be dropped into a boiling pot of water.
"I-its not fair! Wait, maybe someone will come and save the day, someone who left before! Kogure?"
"H-he's right there next to you..."
"JJ!?"
"Y-you had to kill him before..."
"AKAGI!?"
"H-he's in hospital..."
"SENSEI!?"
"I-I don't think you even met her in this playthrough..."
"Tenma, help me out here!" Lily exclaimed, almost hysteric, until she saw the inevitable.
The hatches in the execution platform opened up and the rebels, including Lily's character, fell to their boiling doom, right before the scene paused and turned black and white, and a summary of the fate of the harbor town of Amihama going across the screen as the narrator spoke.
The black haired girl stared at the screen numbly for a few seconds before she started whining like a hurt puppy and sinking her weight into her brother's side.
"T-they're dead... all dead... all that hard work.. Gone... my beloved Kogure... boiled alive with me..."
"I-its okay sister... w-we can always start a new file and try it again?"
"B-but Fubuki was my favorite... my best character... I can't make another with that style ever again!"
"T-then maybe I should make another character this time?"
"N-no way, we promised that I'd get to make the character who gets the true ending!" Lily looked up at her twin with wide puppy dog eyes.
"R-right... so now what?" Tenma says, averting his eyes from the fabled weapon of all women and children.
She doesn't answer as she remains there, leaning against her brother for a while before sighing irritably and standing up. "Screw it, I'm too tired for this crap. C'mon, mom's gonna be home soon anyway so we need to heat up dinner. You turn off the PS, I'll start up the food."
The brown haired boy sighs, muttering a quite 'Yes mistress' as he begins to exit the game and pack everything up.
[Hours later, 11:00]
The living complex was quiet, most of its residents having retired for the night. Yet in one particular house...
"Tenny! Tenny, wake up!" Lily whispered as she shook her brother's shoulders. The androgynous boy mumbled as he slowly pushed himself up, staring blearily at his twin.
"Sister... why are you still up..?"
"No time, get up to the roof, quick!" She exclaims as quietly as possible before rushing out of the room and into the hallway, heading up the stairs to the attic. Tenma groaned as he got up and followed her. He climbed up the stairs of the attic, quietly so as not to awaken their mother, before heading to the open window and climbing out, crawling along the roof until he makes it to the top, where his sister sat.
"Look!" She nearly squealed as she pointed into the night sky. Tiredly, Tenma turned to where she pointed. His eye widened a bit as they locked onto something bright in the sky, moving at a fast pace.
"A... meteor?"
"No stupid, it's a shooting star! A comet!"
"Comets don't move that slowly..."
"Who cares, it's a comet and you know what that means!" She giddily said, her eyes sparkling.
"We're going to make a wish?" Tenma replied, sighing. "Okay... what are we wishing for..? Same thing as we always do when we make wishes for our birthdays?"
His sister began to look downcast at this, her smile falling. "...I... I don't think we should... even if we keep wishing for it... Dad won't come back..." her lips curved upwards as she began to look giddy again. "But we can always wish for something fun! Come on, if we both make a wish now before it vanishes, it might come true!"
"Okay... like what?" He asked, leaning against the angled roof as she takes a contemplative pose.
"...how about... Aha! Got it! Let's wish to be able to fix our mistake in Way of the Samurai 4 tomorrow!"
"...that's it?" The brown haired youth stared at his sister incredulously.
"What? We might as well wish for something reasonable. We made a mistake along the line in that playthrough and before the holidays are over, I swear to whatever God blessed the guy who designed Kogure-"
"You're a bit too obsessed with that guy, sis."
"-we're gonna get that true ending! Well? It's not like you had any better ideas!" She pouts at him, taking small satisfaction as he turns away embarrassed.
"I-I was going to wish so my voice could sound more masculine... but yeah, let's do it."
"Puh-lease, you're a bit too far gone for that. You could pass off as my sister with your looks and voice." She chimed at him with a cheeky smile.
"C-can we just make the wish? The comets staring to go."
"Crap, right! On the count of three! One, THREE!"
The siblings clasp their hands together, looking at the comet before closing their eyes and praying.
"Please let us correct our mistake and finish the true route of Way of the Samurai 4 tomorrow..."
Neither of them noticed the comet blink brightly for a brief moment before shooting across the sky, vanishing.
[Minutes later]
The two were climbing into their beds, quite as mice without vocal cords, as they slipped under their sheets. Tenma tiredly moaned as he slowly nodded off, his sister doing the same.
Neither were prepared for their wish coming true in the most remarkable of ways.
[Morning, the very next day]
"-enny, wake up! Seriously, wake the fuck up! This is really serious! WAKE THE FUCK UP!"
A loud whack sounded out, a pained yelp following soon after.
"A-AAH, AH, I'M UP, I'M UP!" Tenma exclaimed as he bolted up, his eyes wide with surprise and pain at Lily's loud voice, the smell of seawater filling his nose as he panted.
'Wait... seawater?'
Slowly, he blinked as he took in where he was, feeling whatever he was on rock gently. Almost mechanically, he slowly turned his head to look around him.
Water. Lots of water, with small rolling waves.
He looked down to find himself sitting in a long rowboat... and wearing different clothes.
He raised his arms to look at himself, his mouth gaping in shock.
He was wearing an icy blue kimono with wide and baggy hakama pants of the same color. A pale blue haori was wrapped around his shoulders, like a mantle, until he pulled it off him and held it in front of him to stare at it. His hands and forearms were covered by a finger-less tekko glove made of dark blue cloth. He looked down again to find his feet clad in geta sandals with white tabi socks.
"T-Tenny... you're seeing all this too, right?"
Hearing his sister's voice, he snaps out of his daze and snaps his head to the source of her voice...
And finds a beautiful girl.
His eyes widen as he takes in her appearance. Long black hair cascading down her neck and shoulders, doe eyes staring at him with a worried and fearful expression, her body covered by a deep blue furisode with red and pink flower patterns dotting the lower half of the dress, normal white tabi and straw sandals on her feet. A kasa was hanging off her back by the string around her neck, and she held a blank white mask with familiar looking markings on it. Her hands were covered tekko gloves as well, only black in color.
Suddenly, her face twists into a look of annoyance and anger. "What the hell are you staring at you moron!?"
He blinks and quickly shakes his head quickly at the familiar voice before staring at her again, his eyes bugging out.
"L-LILY!?"
"YES YOU DUNDERHEAD, WHO ELSE!?"
Tenma didn't reply as he stared at her before turning away, his cheeks tinted pink.
'Christ, I just felt enamoured by my own sister... wait...'
"W-where are we?"
"THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT YOU STUPID-"
"Ehem."
The two freeze at the foreign, yet somehow familiar voice. They turn their heads slowly to find the reason their boat was actually going anywhere.
At the end of the boat, stood a man. He was of average height, his skin tanned brown from constant exposure to the sun. He wore naught but an opened blue kimono top and a kasa over his head, the rest of his body laid bare for the world to lay eyes on his fit and well-muscled body. Protecting his shame from the world was a white fundoshi.
The man's face showed signs of him being middle aged, his cheeks and chin bearing a light amount of aftershave. His black hair was short and his eyes were crinkled in amusement as he chewed on the toothpick in his mouth lightly, his arms gripping the steering rod of the boat.
"Amusin' as it is seein' you two fight, though I got no bloody idea what you two are saying, try not to kill each other before we even hit the harbor. I'd rather not have to throw you over board and I'm sure you'd rather keep yerselves dry, ne?"
The two siblings blinked slowly blinked as they stared at him (or in Lily's case, let her eyes roam up and down his body shamelessly) before Tenma broke the silence.
"A-are you Japanese?"
The man raised a brow at this. "Course I am. Aren't you two as well?"
"H-half actually... I-I mean, half, actually..." Tenma replied, switching to Japanese halfway through his sentence. Before the man could say anything to that, Lily grabbed her brother by the front of his kimono and pulled him to the front of the boat slowly, keeping their backs to the confused rower.
"W-what are you-"
"SHHH, you idiot! Recap, okay!? I woke up, on a boat, with no idea where I am, wearing different clothes and my hair is long as hell. And then I find you right next to me, wearing different clothes and with WHITE FUCKING HAIR."
"M-my hair is white? W-wait a minute..." Tenma trailed off, looking at his clothes, only now noticing that his hair wasn't just white, he could even see his locks fall beside his face. "My hair... it's white and longer... my clothes are light blue... wait, is there a-"He reaches his right hand to the left side of his hip... and brushes against a handle.
Silently, he slowly grasps the handle, his sister watching him in shock, before he pulls the handle... partially drawing a beautiful nodachi.
The handle was covered in black cloth, with icy blue diamond shaped gaps in the material, and the blade was clean enough to work as a mirror yet long enough to hang laundry on. The guard was a golden compass-like shape, with four arrows pointing in the different directions.
Tenma moved aside his haori to find that the sheath for the blade was a deep blue with black mixed in. taking this all in with wide eyes, he slowly sheathed the blade, his hand holding the grip tightly.
"Amazarashi... its Amazarashi..." Tenma repeats slowly before turning to look at his shell shocked sister. "L-Lily, check your back!"
Her eyes widen as she moves her right hand behind her, feeling a handle behind her. She grasps it before pulling it loose slowly and holding the revealed blade in front of her, held in reversed grip.
Dark brown handle with a red string at the end, guard in the shape of a Hannya mask, and a short serrated blade.
"M-Mukade... its Fubuki's Mukade..." Her eyes drift up to her brother's as he nods slowly.
"A-and this is my Haku's Amazarashi... from my playthrough before you made Fubuki... and our clothes... And our hair.. We're..." Tenma swallows his saliva nervously before his sister finishes the sentence for him.
"We're our own characters... from the game... and we're on a boat so..." Lily's eyes widen again before she turns to look at the very confused looking rower. "Excuse me-shit-excuse me! Where are we headed now?"
The tanned man looks at her funny before drawling out his answer. "You're kidding me, right? We're heading to Amihama, where else?"
The two siblings felt something odd as they took that in. They were on a boat, in a fictional alternate history of Japan, in a game... everything was too real to be a dream, they even felt the soreness from sleeping uncomfortably on a boat that small, and they had no idea how they got there or how to get back.
And yet...
Lily began to feel a grin spread on her lips as she tried to keep herself from squealing excitedly.
Their wish came true after all.
Just not in the way they expected.
Disclaimer at the bottom of fic because why not.
I do not own Way of the Samurai 4, nor any anime, manga or other works of fiction referenced in this fanfic.