Alternate one-shot 1
Author's Note: this story work with the idea of what if. What if the legend of the celestial warriors are viewed in a different way in Kounan? As mentioned in my earlier author's note, this work with the idea that the celestial warriors are seen as accursed, which means that Hotohori would not be regarded as a suitable candidate for the throne.
Keep in mind that a lot of 'what if' is used in this oneshot and the next one, which is related.
Legend differed due to interpretation, even if the words were the same. The priestess of Suzaku and her celestial warriors were said to be heroes that would save the kingdom, a prophecy of reassurance, but what if it was interpreted in the opposite way as a grim warning?
Just by that, the future would be very different.
The ambitious concubine of the emperor of Kounan gave birth to a son that she had to hide away in a farm, but instead of abandoning him by focusing on her second son, she would continue to work for his return. It was not maternal love that motivated her, but a political necessity.
Her second son was automatically excluded from the inheritance battle due to the mark upon his birth.
"A celestial warrior is the symbol of destruction of Kounan, so this child could never be the emperor." Kougentei declared upon the birth of the child. "He is still a prince of Kounan, but that is all he ever would be."
Such a child was useless to the woman that sought to rule through her son.
Instead of trying to let this child be her puppet, his mother continued to place all her hope on her elder son, and she eventually succeeded in welcoming him back as the crown prince.
Fate would be altered greatly as the child to inherit was no longer an isolated child that did not know the outside world, but a boy who lived with the common people, understanding hunger and even hardship.
These were the direct changes caused by a different view, but there were also many indirect changes due to a choice that seemed insignificant.
One of the emperor's younger brothers ended up making a trip to Kutou. Due to him not praying in front of the statue of Suzaku, as the people viewed the legend in a different way, he ended up being at a particular place a few minutes earlier. Just due to a few minutes, he would meet a pretty but flighty young noble girl of Kutou. Due to this meeting, she would marry him instead of being the doomed Senyougou of Kutou.
Her nature remained the same but unlike the prince and eventual emperor of Kutou, this husband had to deal with it in a different way. Instead of the numerous children, the youngest child would be the only child.
The marriage of love did not remain one for long and the father dealt with this by escaping, and the arrival of a daughter changed little for the marriage. The young man would not be the first man to blame a child for their mother's crime and unfortunately, she looked so much like her mother that this was a reminder to the uncertainty of her father due to her mother's adultery. There were lovers aplenty and the child's appearance made her father unable to be certain of whether he did possess the title.
The marriage would probably have ended up with the wife being divorced or cast away, but it ended before either option could happen, as she was to die in childbirth along with yet another child whose parentage was uncertain.
The princess was raised with the lower ranked concubines and some of her father's servants. She continued to remain in the palace even when her father remarried and created a home outside the palace.
Like the prince that could never be the emperor, this child was another unwanted child in the palace and she would have had a lonely and bitter childhood if not for a chance meeting.
One day, a lonely young girl was playing on her qin and on that same day, an equally lonely boy heard the music and decided to find the source of it.
The boy had stared at the instrument in fascination before he realised that he caused the player to stop. At this, he smiled at her very shyly and told her that he thought her playing was really nice.
"Is it really nice?" she asked instead. "I am glad of it. Ever since my mother died, no one said that."
"You must be Yuri then," the boy said, easily working out her identity due to various clues. "I am Eian."
"Eian, the prince?" She immediately said before she realised what this meant on a more personal level. "Then this means that we are cousins."
Their father were actually half siblings and the harem was often a place where it took for the sharing of both parents for the term to apply, and even that did not always prevent the tragedies of siblings fighting. For the two lonely children, however, this mattered little.
"So we are kin, that might be nice. But none of my siblings talk to me. They say that I am cursed." The boy said in a very matter of fact way. "They say that I am cursed because I am a celestial warrior of Suzaku. Would a cousin be nicer then a sibling?"
"I don't know what a celestial warrior of Suzaku is, but I know you are nice, because you are talking to me." She said as she took his hand. "Will you come and talk to me again?"
In another life, the two met as two young adults that needed to build a life together, but this time, they met as two young children in a very different circumstance.
Many years later, the young boy become a young man that found himself being drawn to that particular place once more due to the sound of the qin. It was this sound that interrupted the loneliness that he was accustomed to, and it was this sound that leaded him to the girl that became his dearest friend.
He was to prepare himself to walk away from all that he knew, including her. He was actually quite reluctant to have her stop playing the qin and fixed his attention on her. He hoped to hear the qin a bit longer, as he was not certain when he would be able to hear it again.
"What happened?"
"I am to leave." Eian said simply.
"Because of the plague?" Yuri began in concern. "I know that a lot of the other concubines blame you, especially the ones that lost their children due to the illness, but this is not your fault."
"Even aniue believes that I am a cause of the plague."
"Even Tendou-aniue? Surely he can't be so stupid like everyone else!" she immediately said. "I will go and get him to make sense again."
"It does not matter anymore, Yuri." He told her, although he was very grateful at her reaction. "Everyone else wants me to leave and it might not be bad."
"But I will miss you. I will miss you so much." Yuri said as she grabbed his hands. "What will I do without you, Eian?"
"I am now Hotohori, as I am no longer Eian." He gently corrected before he promised: "I am sure that I will eventually be able to return to the palace, maybe when I have proven that the legend is very different from what everyone else thinks."
"I will miss you so much, but I think you are right. Perhaps it is good for you to have a chance of seeing the outside world." She said bravely, although she still seemed very worried."
"Aniue will be beside you, Yuri." He pointed out, but was interrupted by her angrily.
"Surely you know that you have always been the most important to me, much more then what he can ever be."
"One day, I will come back." He could only give her this assurance as he kissed her on the forehead, an act that he believed he could so since they did grow up closer then any sibling.
"Please come back one day, that is all I want." She whispered as she embraced him.
He was well aware that she was putting on a brave act for his sake, because he could still remember the time when they only had the other, and that period of loneliness not so long ago from then.
He could take her with him and he doubt that this act would be disputed. Yet he chose to leave her in the lonely palace because he was not ready to make the sacrifice that he would need to do by taking her with him.
He also knew that she was forcing herself to not ask him, and perhaps it was also because she was afraid of the answer at the same time. He knew that she was extremely important to him, but it was possible that their definition of the word was not the same.
"I will come back." He promised her once more.
Then, he walked away from the only life that he had known to a world that he had only watched from a great distance. Partly to chase after the ideals he had dreamt about and partly because the reality he knew forced him out of it.
The first year was a very difficult one for Hotohori because he was to learn a new type of loneliness: that of being a stranger who lacked the basic knowledge that everyone else had. From a prince who had all his material goods given to him just by him stretching out a hand, he was now a peasant that had to earn this.
He knew what work meant, but it was still not easy to experience it firsthand. It took him a whole year to be able to discover what the norm was, as there used to be too many times when he would just handed over the money asked for a purchase without considering the reasonableness of it. He even suspected that it was how horrible he was that made those around him decided to help him.
Due to his skills with the sword, he ended up accompanying a group of merchants as a bodyguard. He remained at this job because this allowed him to travel around the kingdom and learn about it, in addition to receiving money from it.
He ended up travelling with various groups, his skills easily allowing him to be employed. At first, there was the slight hostility upon his name, but this did not matter much. In time, he even learnt that there were a few that believed in the same interpretation as him.
He even carefully asked about the rumours of the prince that had this identity, but whose other name was not known due to how the royal family so carefully hid it.
Most of the comments were the impartial view of how the way that the nobles and royalties think was not one that they could understand and most were more concerned with the peasant prince.
But there was one thought that he could still remember very well.
"My sister serves in the palace and she told me that Eian-sama was always kind to her and wanted nothing more then to help the kingdom. She said this to me: 'no matter what, that gentle boy could not be a harbinger of misfortune'."
That was enough, as Hotohori believed that he would be able to change the common view towards the legend.
He travelled through numerous parts of the kingdom and his job constantly brought him back to the capital. Much to the others' surprise, he always stayed in the lodgings just outside the capital. Many of his friends even commented that this seemed the only time he was concerned with saving money.
He actually only had been in the capital outside the imperial palace a few times, but he did not feel any strong desire of exploring it, unlike the other parts of the kingdom. It was also because if he entered it, this would force him to consider the issue of whether he should try and go back to the palace. As long as he was not too near, then he could avoid the question.
After two years, he found himself finishing another job and being at the outskirt to the capital again. He had a certain amount of money saved and he was seriously contemplating whether he should take a trip outside Kounan. This was something that he thought often, but has yet to act on.
Perhaps it would be time to see the snow of Hokkan that he had only read about.
"…are you Hotohori?" he was suddenly approached by a young girl and her companion. Since the young man beside her was counting money, he naturally categorsied them with the many merchants that stayed here. The fact that she then said that they found him due to a particular friend who was also a merchant that he frequently worked with then made him even more certain. Since he was sitting at a secluded corner, the other clearly came to him for a purpose. In the past, it was always the offer a new job.
"Where do you want to go?" he asked.
"We…are not sure yet." The girl said slowly. "But maybe around the outskirt of the capital first."
How they wanted to do business was not his concern, so he did not give this much of a thought.
"How much will you pay me?" at first, this was not a question that he gave much thought of, but after two years of working with numerous merchants, this became a habit that was forced on him.
One of them even wrote out a long list of price grouped by the distance and he actually forced Hotohori to memorise it by using his payment as a hostage.
"Did you grow up as some type of sheltered royalty as to be so clueless about money?" one of the men that ended up being a friend had muttered. "It is good that you are so good with a sword, as there is no way that you can be a merchant."
"Close enough." He chuckled and the others thought that he was joking, so they actually called him 'obocchama' for a while.
His question caused an instant reaction: the man by the girl actually tightened his hold on the purse and yelled out: "I am not giving you anything! Why should I pay you?"
That was certainly strange, because neither of these two seemed like nobles or royalties and the way the man counted money indicated that he was aware of its value.
"I think what I ask is very reasonable." Hotohori reasoned out. "And those around will vouch that I have always maintain the safety of any that I work for."
"I am sorry, Hotohori-san, but you mistaken our meaning." The girl apologised. "My name is Madoka and I am not hiring you as a guard. I am the priestess of Suzaku and I am looking for the celestial warriors. This is Tamahome beside me."
There seemed to be something special about this girl but he could not deny that this might merely be because he wished to see the legend being a reality.
"But Hotohori-san, can I ask you to do something first?" The girl suddenly said. "Can you gather your hair back like this?"
"So you can see my face better?" he chuckled out as he did so.
Madoka stared at his face for a long time while Tamahome was actually doing the same in am ore discreet fashion.
"You do look so much like him." Madoka examined out. "You look so much like Tendou-san."
"Aniue? You met aniue?" he cried out. "Is he well? Did he send you?"
Madoka then began to describe what happened, including how his brother told them to find him.
Tendou also knew that his younger brother actually had a copy of the sacred scroll. Much to Hotohori's surprise, Tendou actually witnessed how he had snuck into the treasury in the middle of the night but kept it as a secret from even him.
Yuri, his partner-in-crime was the guard and she had asked Tendou to hide what he saw.
"It is the only hope that he can have in a place that condemns him for it." Yuri had said. "You have all that he does not, so can he not at least have this?"
"But what aniue have is not what I covet." Hotohori said to the two that were not there before he turned to the two that were, and sank to one knee. "Priestess of Suzaku, please forgive me for my early rudeness. I have been waiting for you and my sword will now serve you."
"Please get up!" Madoka cried out. "You shouldn't kneel to me, you are a prince."
"I stopped being a prince since two years ago and I am only Hotohori now." He said firmly. "My first foremost duty is to serve the priestess."
These were words he had thought of for his whole life, so why did they feel so strange upon the uttering of it?
It was actually with relief for him to hear Tamahome asking about whether they could definitely forget about payment, causing Madoka to complain about the obsession that the other had.
"One small thing." Hotohori said softly, "Did you see her? Did you see Yuri?"
"She asked us to give you her blessing and the hope of you being happy at your dreams being a reality." Madoka said. "I am not fully sure whether I understand her, but that is what she said."
"Did she…did she tell you that she is waiting in anyway?"
"No." Madoka said truthfully.
Why was he upset instead of being happy? Surely this should not bother him.
The journey was certainly not uneventful and Hotohori was glad of it. Yet at the same time, he still wonders about how he should face his brother and Yuri when they were to return to the palace.
A decision that might be happening soon as the celestial warriors now totalled to five with them being very close to the sixth, which might be the most difficult one.
The plague from two years ago was here again. That same plague which caused much loss to the royal family.
It was also this plague that caused him to be exiled due to being blamed as the cause. Even though he was no longer bitter about it, the plague still brought him too many memories.
This did convince him that Madoka was a suitable priestess, because she was actually willing to go into this town at the risk of her own health in order to help the people here along with the strange Shouka.
She was a bright and optimistic girl, very different from both Yuri and his sisters and the numerous other women in the harem. He was sure that he would grow very fond of her, but it was different from what he had imagined as a child, as he was not able to immediately make her the most important person along with Yuri or his brother.
Yuri…she was so important to him but he did not consider how to define that importance. What he did not realise at sixteen could no longer be avoided at eighteen.
Because he was occupied with thoughts of her, the appearance of the one in his thoughts was not immediately registered as being real until she walked past the window of their lodging.
"Yuri?" prior to his life out of the palace, he would never even contemplate such a thing as climbing out of the window, but it no longer mattered as he no longer had that rank's privilege and restriction.
Also, the door was too far.
"Eian…Hotohori?" Yuri was clearly startled at seeing him, but she then laughed and threw her arms around him, just like how they said goodbye two years ago. "I am so glad to see you."
"But what are you doing here? It is dangerous!" he muttered as he quickly guided her indoors.
"I was visiting my father's family as they live here." Yuri said the word with more then a slight edge in her voice. "My stepmother is said to be sick."
"Why do you need to personally come and visit? Surely, sending a servant would be understandable." He protested. "Especially when your stepmother even said that – "
"I don't need you to repeat what she said, even if there are truths in her words." Yuri interrupted. "But apparently this is a filial duty I have to do."
"To the stepmother that won't even acknowledge you?" he said angrily, only to hear the cutting reply of: "To my father that I could not afford to alienate."
It was clear that these two years had not been easy for her at all.
"What did aniue say about this?" he asked after the silence stretched on.
"Tendou-aniue is kind, but he does not have the time to spare for his unimportant cousin or his absent brother." She was not bitter but very matter of fact about it all. "Especially now. Some of your other half-brother are still picking faults with him, saying that he is a peasant, a person who is only suited for farming. Now that you are gone, they uses other issues to critisise him."
Yuri actually made a move to stand, but she then suddenly staggered, causing her to remain sitting.
"A slight dizziness, that is all." she said. "I need to get back to the inn."
"You are staying in an inn instead of in your father's house?" his indignation was growing into anger that he barely hid.
"Don't make me repeat what my stepmother said to me." Yuri said bitterly as she tried to stand up again, only to shake slightly. "My escorts to the palace are coming tomorrow morning."
"You should be resting right now." He insisted as he guided her to sit back down once more. "I will tell the rest."
Hotohori was well aware that his worry should be on working out whether Shouka was a celestial warrior and if she was not, what was the likelihood of the actual celestial warrior being near. There was also the issue that the priestess risked being ill due to her being right by Shouka as she helped the other.
Yet his thoughts kept on turning to Yuri, because the slight dizziness was actually very alarming. As he placed his hand on her forehead, he could feel it burning.
He desperately hoped that it was only a fever because the alternative was too frightening. A part of him then realised that he was able to understand why some of the women in his father's harem had been so bitter at him, because he felt a similar rage at this cruel illness.
It was a whole night before Yuri gave him the answer that he already realised but sought to deny.
"…I cannot see anything." Yuri said in that tone of resignation, a tone that he recognised and a tone he knew to be deceiving.
"I will find a doctor for you." He told her as held onto her hand. "I promise this."
She smiled at this and it was the same smile she gave as they played at being the priestess and celestial warriors when they were two lonely children so long ago.
"What of your priestess and journey?" she asked with that smile. "What of this delay?"
"Don't be foolish, of course I will make sure that you are well first." He said without any hesitation. "So just wait for me."
The truth was that there was no doubt and he was also certain that the priestess would think so too. But if they asked what he would have done if the priestess wished to make the search of the celestial warriors a top priority, then he would have said that the priestess would not think in such a way.
He spent the whole day asking all the doctors, but the answers were the same: this was a disease that could not be curled. Throughout the day, he had been tormented by Yuri's condition but the reality was worse then what he had thought.
Madoka, who looked after Yuri with SHouka, told him that her condition was worsening. The moan of pain then made both the young girl and Hotohori enter the room again.
"Priestess of Suzaku, you should not be here." Yuri said as she struggled to sit up. "You are too important."
"That is nonsense! I can't just watch someone suffer." Madoka said quickly. "And I can tell that Hotohori cares for you so much."
"But in the end, the priestess and the celestial warriors are more important." Yuri said and Hotohori then realised that she was not aware that they had both returned. "In the end, I am merely the girl that dressed up as the priestess while he waits for the arrival of the real priestess. I cannot compete with an ideal. With you here, he would only see you. You can do no wrong while every one of my faults would be a harsh reminder."
This, Hotohori realised as he left the room bitterly, was what she had thought of him all this time. The two years had not been easy for her and it seemed that he was the worst culprit. To make it worse, she was afraid of losing him and he then did the very action she feared the most by leaving to keep on dreaming his dreams.
She was important to him and it was due to the possible loss that made him realise just how important she was. It seemed that he was only realising what he to lose when he was to lose it.
After two years of being away from her, he realised that he wished to be right beside her.
"I might be able to help her." Shouka said, approaching the young man that was barely able to stand. "But she has to be dead first."
"I cannot just watch her die!" Hotohori immediately snapped.
"But that is the only way that I can save her." Shouka said gently. "But she is already severally affected, she only has a few more days left and these days would be very painful."
Beside him, the celestial warriors all began to argue and even though he understood that the tension was high with this being the way that everyone tried to handle the very difficult situation, it was still too much.
"I will," he whispered as he yanked open the door with his sword in his hand, "I will deal with this."
The other side of the door was a silence that was even more uncomfortable.
"…are you going to kill me?" Yuri asked, not even bothering to get up. "Do you think you can save me?"
"I don't know." He admitted as he knelt down by her. "But I know that I cannot bear for you to die. You are important to me, in a different way then the priestess, but still of a similar importance."
"That does not make sense." Yuri pointed out.
"I know that you are important because I care for you greatly." He told her as he unsheathed his sword. This cruel act has already been proven by Shouka but his hands were still shaking greatly. "The priestess is the priestess, but you are you."
The sword was brought down, but it fell out of a grasp that was barely steady. Then, he embraced her, his body still trembling.
"I cannot do it." he said. "There is no way that I can do this."
"Even though you know that it will be alright?" she reasoned before she touched his face. "Hotohori, are you weeping?"
"Could you do this to one who you love from the dept of your heart?" he said as he guided her fingers to his tears. As soon as he said these words, he realised that this was the answer to the question that he had been evading.
He loved her, he always loved her. Even though he was happy due to finally living his dreams of being a celestial warrior and serving the priestess, he still missed Yuri so much. Despite valuing and caring for the priestess, she was not who he could love as he already loved someone.
"Do you truly mean that?" Yuri chocked out. "Am I truly so important?"
"I love you. Perhaps since we were children." He said. "But what of you?"
"Why are you even asking?" she said as she touched his face. "Ever since that day when we first met. You are always the most important to me. Hotohori, I wish I can see because I would like to see your expression."
"I will find a doctor who can heal you. I know it might be painful, but the thought of hurting you is too much." He told her. "I will go to this mysterious doctor and kneel with my head on the ground until he aggress to come and help you. So wait for me."
A lot would happen, including the arrival of the additional celestial warrior. But for Hotohori, the best part was to have Yuri well again and for him to embrace her.
It was not that being a celestial warrior was no longer important, or that he changed his view in regard to the legend. That remained the same but he realised that Yuri's position was at the same rank as these.
She was very important to him and the affection of children changed to love. He had two years of chasing after his dreams and he realised that he had been absent enough. Despite no longer being lonely due to the numerous amounts of friends he had made, he still missed her. He wished for her to be by him simply because he wanted her to be there, not because there were no on else.
When he was faced with the prospect of her dying, he realised that he could not be happy regardless of what else he could achieve.
He knew he was foolish by his dreams but he was not so hopeless as to ignore the mistakes he has made.
"We will wed." he promised her as he kissed her, now on the lips. "Afterwards, we will be together, right by one another."
It was a wedding that was delayed due to him needing to make a final trip as Hotohori the celestial warrior. Much to his surprise, he was experiencing reluctance due to having to leave her.
"So you will leave me once more." Yuri said as they embraced by the port, not far was the ship that would take him away. "It seems that you are always leaving."
"But do I not always come back?" he pointed out. "And this time will be the last time."
"I cannot say no to you." She finally said. "I don't like it this way, but I know it is necessary."
It would be numerous months before this promise could be filled. However, it would be filled and the royal wedding was a celebration that the people desperately needed, which meant that it became more extravagant then necessary.
However, the beautiful couple was well praised and brought hope. Not so much because the groom was a celestial warrior of Suzaku who helped to save the kingdom with the priestess, but because the couple's joy at marrying was sincere.
It was a reminder that despite all that the kingdom had suffered, it was possible to recover and have joy and happiness once more. They were an example that love could still exist despite all that which had taken place.
Author's Note: When I started the story, it was actually from the point of view of Yuri, then Tendou, then Hotohori. However, Hotohori's part ended up being quite long, which makes sense since ultimately, the story is about him. However, I then ended up using Tendou's part as a separate story, which the majority of Yuri's part edited out and changed, so that this story is ultimately Hotohori's view.
The idea of the story is one that came when I was writing and finishing my multi-chapters. What if Kounan had a very different attitude in regard to the celestial warriors and the priestess? Even though I think a lot of it is due to Hotohori, I do think Kounan is originally still a more revenant one, as Hotohori was never condemned due to being a celestial warrior. I feel that if the celestial warriors were regarded as cursed, then you would probably not put one on the throne. So this idea then come. I feel that if this is the situation, then it is very likely that Tendou would become the crown prince, because their mother is very ambitious. If she is not able to manipulate Hotohori, she might choose to use another.
The original idea was meant to be way happier and I really mean that. It was going to be Hotohori leaving with Yuri and the two of them would have travelled together during these two years quite happily. I was not fully sure whether they would have been married, but they would definitely regard the other as being very important. Madoka would meet them due to finding Tasuki, because the bandits kidnapped Yuri, which would cause Hotohori to be really mad. Hence that would have caused him to do what he did in the manga. But once I started writing it, it becomes angst.
This fan fiction basically explores Hotohori's idealism in regard to the whole issue of the priestess and the celestial warrior, even as he is forced with alternative views. Even though I think he is much happier due to him not bearing the responsibility of the emperor, I do think at the same time, he is very bitter that this is happening to him, that he is seen in such a negative way just because he is a celestial warrior at the same time.
This story initially have Tendou's view, but it ended up being a story by itself (the next story)
In regard to Yuri's appearance, that is a way bigger what if, but that is the only way I can think of for Hotohori and her to end up being together without causing any political problems. Yuri's mother is the same, but in this case, her father could only put up with her behaviour and he actually treated her quite well since he did not divorce her, but just spent time away. Although it seemed that he would have done so if she did not die when Yuri was still very young.
Hotohori obviously had to go through a lot of adjustment to real life but I didn't feel like writing it all out. I thought about him being an actor (like the multi-chapters) but even in that, he was actually more of the bodyguard as he would point out that he does not like playing roles. In this case, he probably did still have to live with quite some restrain even though he was the unwanted prince.
In this case, Hotohori grew up with Yuri so he does not realise how important she is, and he needed the two years to chase after his dreams, the two years of being free from the palace. The issue with him and Yuri is not so much that he is doing this, but that he is not willing to think about the consequences that this would have on Yuri. It is not that he should have stayed for her, but that they should have worked out the issue because he pretty much just told himself that he won't think about it and left.
I feel that in this story , he would go back to the palace and help his brother, because he does care about the country but unlike his real self, he is not burdened with the responsibilities. As for the end, I guess I was a bit influenced by dragon age origin, where Alistair's marriage with the human noble warden is really popular as everyone can see how much he love her.