Gabriella and Asakura Hao
Disclaimer: i do not own Shaman King. But this story belongs to my friend Kelly Seo
Gabriella is born in the winter, 1st day of the 12th month, while Hao in the autumn, 8th day of the 8th month. Anna the phoenix is born on the 12th day of the 11th month.
To mua (me), Dragons are males and phoenixes are females… No hab female dragons and male phoenixes… Though it's TRUE that there are females' dragons (See Eragon) and male phoenixes….
The Story of Hope
In the Eastern World, there is a kingdom where the royals and the legendary beasts of The Wilderness, the Dragons and the Phoenix, are in alliance with each other. Every decade, the royals will send all the princes and princesses, together with several selected nobles to the (area where the dragons and phoenixes live) Draenix. There, the selected ones will all mediate around the eggs of the royal phoenixes. If the egg hatched under those selected ones' care, they will be entitled as the newborns' Dragon or Phoenix rider. they will also be titled as "The Embassy" Embassy between the legendary beasts and humans
However, in this particular dynasty, the Emperor is unwilling to visit any other royal concubine's palace other than the Empress'. Bewildered, the Emperor Dowager sent spies to investigate. To her horror, the spies found out the cruel truth…
THE EMPEROR IS GAY!!! DOES NOT LIKE WOMAN!!! I m darv'it LAME… Just read the Naruto's fanfic… Ooshimaru and Kabuto are ……… ha-ha hehe
After 30 years of his rule, there is no news of the royal bloods… Rumors started spreading…
"The Emperor is INFERTILE!!"
"The Emperor is… (Homo)"
"The Empress and the concubines are ugly beyond sight!!!"
"Etc etc … very very awful…"
In order to halt a stop to all these rumors and the Emperor Dowager's guiltiness and that the Emperor is … , the Emperor Dowager, the Emperor came up with a plan and had convinced the Empress to gang up with them..
The Plan
To create an illusion that the Empress is pregnant… With its time for that baby to be 'born', they'll just need to get a baby BOY, obviously… Since they have no intention to do it over and over again.
-:-:-
For the first 3 months, the Empress does the same few things she had always done. Since there's not much of a difference in her tummy. Then, the Empress Dowager used her authority to make the imperial physicians to say that the Empress is having a child, and is 3 month old already. From there onwards, the Empress began to coop herself up in the room. Only the trusted and the physicians are allowed to visit her. The Empress Dowager also spread the rumor that the Emperor and the Empress is sooooooooooo worried about the unborn Prince, that they are restricting the visitors to the Empress's chamber, especially other concubines and the palace maids from other palace. Subdivision in the big palace... so confusing
After 9 months of 'pregnancy', there was a commotion around the Empress's chamber.
The Empress Dowager, afraid that the plan might be leaked out, quickly sent her secret agents They do the spreading of rumors and other 'unlawful' stuffs to get a baby boy that is just born. Hence, one of them went to a nearby orphan's home and then anyhow gets a baby boy.
The Empress also staged a 'pregnancy show' to fool the nosy concubines and palace maids on the day that the baby is born Really is born that day, 8th Day of the 8th month, just not the real parents
The advisors and other ministers began to come up a name for the Crown Prince.
"Hao! Hao! It means 'good' in mandarin" the Emperor exclaimed in front of the servants gong-gong as he held the baby boy.
Some servant say: "Xu gong-gong arrives"
The ministers and advisor: "How? How? Have the Emperor thought of a name for the Crown Prince??" the ministers and advisors asked in unison.
Minister A: "I think that the word 'wei' only or noble is an excellent name for the prince. It meant the only prince and the noble one."
Advisor: "'wei' your head! How can you even imagine that there will be only 1 prince! I think his Excellency should be named as 'xiang' meaning the benevolent one!"
Then everyone started quarreling, some say 'wu' which means fighter/fight. Some say 'quan' authority, some say 'wen' literature etc and the whole argument began to get so loud the hall seems to be shaking…
"QUIET EVERYONE" the Prime Minister yelled. He's the loudest! Humph!
"Xu gong-gone, did his majesty say anything when he saws the young Crown Prince?" The Prime Minister asked the gong-gong in a polite way.
Xu gong-gong replied: "His majesty only said the word 'hao' and nothing else."
The Prime Minister: "I see… Hmm… it's the prefect name for the prince! Hao! Valiant or something Asakura Hao!"
All the ministers agreed in unison… They then began thinking about how smart and intelligence the Emperor is…
The Prime Minister probably thinks that the 'hao'good the eunuch said is 'hao'valiant coz the eunuch had a kind of accent in his/her voice and the Prime Minister probably heard wrongly. Stupid Prime Minister!
The next day, ALL the ministers, together with the advisor, reported that 'hao' is a good name, excellent name for the crown prince. The Emperor, overly happy to have a son, although he knows that the son is not his, agreed to everything the foolish ministers said. … Another foolish Emperor
-:-:-
3 years later, the Emperor and the Royal Dragons decided that the long postponed rituals where the Embassies are chosen are to be held in winter, the year that the Crown Prince turns 3. In total, 1 royalty Hao only is not selected… only got 1 sent together with 6 descendants of the nobles to Draenix. To the Empress Dowager's huge surprise, Hao managed to hatch a phoenix… The Emperor, long forgotten that Hao's not his son, is not at least surprised.
Another 10 years passed. The Empress Dowager much smarter than the Emperor! decided to set 3 tests for Hao to pass. If he fails, she will have no choice but to have him slaughtered as he is, after all, an outsider… So bad so bad The dragons' clan will not be meddling with the Emperor Dowager's plan as the egg hatched out a phoenix. Girls should be shy, her parents will flare really flare up if they knew… so they phoenix can't be of much help…
-:-:-
The First Test
Scenario:
The Empress Dowager pretends to be heavily sick and only the Snow Lotus from the Icy Mountain can cure her.
Quest:
Get that dar'vit thing within a month to prevent her from dying!
Obstacles:
Troubles are stirring around the border and warriors need to put a halt to that. Hence, no reinforcement! She's a phoenix, too bad cannot go out with you until she turns 16.
Aim:
Test his strength, filial, courage and train his endurance.
Hence, my dear crown prince went there alone… and returned with the Lotus.
I am not sure if I should write down the whole process, but Gabriella's part seems short… it doesn't seem so fair…coz hao's part is long already….
-:-:-
Test 2
Scenario:
The poor Crown Prince is to make to trip to the border and deliver foods and stuff to the poorer parts of the country.
Quest:
Traps and mini testes are set-up.
Obstacles:
No phoenix's help. Only 50 footmen to deliver the food. Must reach within 20 days. It's SUMMER! No map given… only knows it's located at the farther east of the palace.
Aim:
Test his benevolent, strategic skills and thinking.
After a day's walk, the Crown Prince got 2 routes to choose: Longer and flat land directly under the sun or Shorter but steep hill forest, got shade.
He chose the longer one. While traveling, he got the footmen to travel during the night and sleeps during the day! How very smart!!
After 5 days of walk, Hao and company took rest at an inn. While grabbing a bite, Hao heard that there are bandits attack merchants. Hao cleverly asked for the town's map and decided to change their route a bit. Using the landscape, Hao easily crushed thought the bandit's defense and defeated the bandit! Hao so pro!! Yeah!yay!(the song of bleach episode abut 111 got 'yeah!yay!')
After 7 days of walk, he came to a cross junction! That village is so stranded…No wonder it's so poor… He chose one of them and reached the village in another 3 day's walk. When he arrived at the village, several of the footmen are confused and buck up their courage to ask the Prince "How did you know which route to take… There's no signboard or anything, neither are you given a map! Plus, all the routes looked identical!!"
Hao let off a laugh and said: "This village is located east of the palace. The sun rises from one end to the other. I don't know sun rise from east or west… Sets at east or west…
Hence, I merely followed the sun's direction. To me, the sun rise from the east… They traveled in the dark, so the sun should shine from the east, the direction of the village. (Or vice versa... I think)
The Empress Dowager heard of this news and is very satisfied with Hao!
-:-:-
Testing, 1, 2, 3
When Hao turned 19, the phoenix 16, the phoenix wore the artifact given to her from her father and went to pay her visit to the royalties. The magical artifact allows her to have a human form.
Scenario:
The phoenix went to pay them her visit and stays there for 1 month (4 weeks).
Quest for the Prince: Anna the Phoenix throws herself onto the prince!
Obstacle: The Prince is unaware of the test!!
Aim:
To test for the true self of the Prince!
-:-:-
The Arrival: Week 1
Princess Anna (Phoenix) set off from her Palace on the 1st day of September, arriving at the border with half and a day's flight. From there, Anna met with the escorts and had to travel the rest of the distance on land, as a phoenix flying pass will be a sight too extravagant. They then began their journey to the palace on the 3rd day. To speed things up, the escorts prepared steeds in every province under the Emperor's rule. This reduced the time taken as the does not need to stop for the horses to rest. They arrived at the Capital in the dawn of the 7th day.
The ministers proposed that the Princess and the Prince to meet at the 8th day, when Princess Anna had a good rest, but the Empress Dowager insisted that the Prince are to welcome the Princess and that they will be neighbors by letting the Princess stay at the sub-division of the palace nearest to the Prince's.
In the early noon, the Prince brought several gifts (together with those the Empress and Empress Dowager prepared. The Emperor's gifts are already there.) to the Princess.
They then went to pay their respect to the Emperor, Empress and Empress Dowager. Princess Anna had a gift of tongue and all the elders are very satisfied with her. She won herself praises and more gifts.
While the Emperor discusses the affairs with the Crown Prince, the Empress Dowager had something, something amusing up on her sleeve and she reveals it to the young Princess, Anna.