__________________________________________________
Disclaimer: Recca no Honou belongs to its respective owner(s).
The Future
Chapter Two: Flame
by katanashi
Author's Notes: I'll try and explain this fic a little more, since most people were confused by it. This story is in the future, where the Hokage are now deceased (having lived out their lives), and come back now to help the new elemental masters. I cast the madougu as almost having wills of their own, and an internal tendency to fight one another. Each Hokage member acts as a sort of advisor to their respective madougu's new user. As for Yanagi's successor, she's coming-- eventually. You can't have a Recca future fic w/o a sort of Recca/Yanagi romance, right? But you might be surprised exactly who she is.
__________________________________________________
Hiroshi cursed and sat down with a thud. "Shimatta!" he growled. The village had been saved from the fire the night before, but the beautiful forest around them had been utterly destroyed. He had loved that forest; it had been his hideout and a wonderful place for him to
He heard footsteps to the right of him. "What lovely language," someone commented.
Hiroshi turned and saw the same old man, the one who had told him about the flames of Eimin, again. "What is it now?" he asked. Normally, he'd be more polite, but considering he'd spent the whole night battling the fire, trying to direct people and throw water at the same time, he was rightfully exhausted and short-tempered.
The man sat down easily. "I need to talk to you, Kouen."
Hiroshi blinked. "Ano…my name's Hiroshi, sir. Not Kouen."
The man shook his head. "No, your name isn't Hiroshi anymore. It's Kouen."
Hiroshi wondered if the old guy was senile, crazy, or both. "Look, sir, I'm sorry to be rude, but my name is Hiroshi, and--"
The man cut him off. "How many times must I tell you? Didn't you listen to me before? Those that enter the war of the madougu will never emerge the same."
"What?"
The man stood abruptly. "Come."
Hiroshi opened his mouth to protest, but nothing came out. He felt his legs start forward mechanically, as if they weren't of his own will. It was as if he were a marionette, and the strings of destiny controlled his every move.
The man led him to a clearing. Hiroshi recognized it instantly. He had been standing near there last night. It was here that the flames of Eimin had exploded and set fire to everything nearby.
The man stopped and raised his arms. "Come forth, Hachiryu!"
To Hiroshi, it was the previous night all over again, as the tremendous onslaught of flame burst from seemingly nowhere, eerie screams echoing from every direction. But this time, he could sense a higher degree of control, an eager expectancy instead of fierce revelations of freedom. He could make out eight of them, all different shapes and with different expressions on their faces.
"Hachiryu? The Eight Flame Dragons?" Hiroshi whispered. His back was pressed against a tree trunk tightly, as he witnessed what seemed to be the impossible. Who was this old man, and how could he call upon the Karyu? "Who are you?"
The man turned to him. Hiroshi gasped as the man's form changed into the appearance of a young man his own age, in a ninja outfit with sneakers and an orange sash.
The now-young man nodded. "I am Hanabishi Recca. I was the leader of the seventh generation of the Hokage ninja clan, re-established in the late twentieth century, and a flamemaster. I controlled the most powerful of the flames-- the Hachiryu."
"The Hokage?" Hiroshi repeated. He had no idea what was going on. "The Hachiryu? What?"
Recca sighed and rubbed his neck. "One of you guys want to take over for me?" he asked of the dragons.
The dragons looked at each other, sneering, before one of them finally laughed and took pity on Recca. "I'll try my best," a deep, but still feminine voice said. "But I have never been good at explanations."
Recca smiled in relief. "Thanks, Nadare. I always knew I could count on you."
"That's because she's a softy," the dragon to the left of Nadare said.
"Oh, shut up, Saiha. At least I'm not a tempermental sulker." The dragon's flame form coalesced into a beautiful woman, with a comforting smile and a kindly look in her eye. "Fukuto Hiroshi, son of Fukuto Shira, leader of the Karusei village and considered to be the most talented youth of his village, who excels at ninjutsu, self-defense and offensive martial arts, with a high intelligence level as well. Do I have your life correct so far?"
Despite his shock, Hiroshi found Nadare's straightforward attitude reassuring. "Yes, although there's a lot more to my life than just a sentence."
"A run on sentence," the one-eyed dragon commented snidely. "Nadare, you were never good at school, were you?"
A dragon with whiskers seemed to sigh. "Kokuu, shut up. Nadare, just ignore the old geezer."
"Thank you, Madoka." Nadare nodded. "Anyway, what was I saying? Ah, yes. I had to explain this all to Recca once, too."
"You did not," Recca said with a childish pout. "I was smart."
"About as smart as a beetle," Saiha muttered.
"If you two don't be quiet, you know I will make you be quiet, and I'm sure you don't want that." Nadare smiled sweetly as the two arguers readily shut up. "Well, the Hachiryu, Kouen--"
"Hiroshi," he interrupted her again.
"Alright, alright. The Hachiryu, Hiroshi, are actually the reincarnated spirits of the eight greatest flame dragons. Each of us has a special power, in addition to the general ability to use flame, and we lend that power to our masters. We can also be released from our master and attack as dragons. We cannot appear in human form, however, to anyone but our master, and that is only within a special realm. Although we do act as advisors and teachers to our masters, our masters must also win our respect. Only then can they call upon our powers from will."
"Huh?" Hiroshi pointed to Recca. "Isn't he your master?"
"I was," Recca said.
"Umm…okay, so what happened?"
"I died."
"Oh." Hiroshi was taken aback from a moment, then realized in annoyance that Recca had to be a ghost-- no human would be translucent. "From what?"
"Old age. And stress." Recca grinned. "My kids annoyed me to no end, and after that, their grandkids. And now I have to work after death. Man, I get no peace."
"You chose to help out, Recca," Nadare reprimended him lightly. "It was either you or Kurei, and you offered."
"That's because Onnisan would scare him to death," Recca countered.
"You have a brother?" Hiroshi butted in. He was starting to like these people.
"Yeah. Kurei. He's actually my half-brother, but over the years the half has practically disappeared."
"Neat. I wish I had siblings."
"Trust me, you better take that wish back. Kurei stole my clothes a lot."
Nadare broke in a bit impatiently. "Now, we are on a tangent. Recca, do keep your mind on the subject," she told him severely. Recca only shrugged. "Anyhow, Hiroshi, what else was there?"
"The Hokage," Hiroshi reminded her. Despite Recca's bantering, he had managed to keep track of questions to ask Nadare.
"Ah, yes. The Hokage were a group of ancient ninja. Where other ninja groups tried to find physical means of becoming the strongest, the Hokage used their minds. They found ways to harness the power of the elements, both the tangible and the non-tangible, within contraptions known as madougu-- elemental weapons. Do you follow?" Hiroshi nodded. "Good. The Hokage found ways to capture wind, water, thunder, strength, speed, and others. But it wasn't until later that they finally managed to capture the use of the flame. It had to be passed down through the generations, through a mysterious linkage of blood. But with the Time Manipulation Spell disrupting the timestreams and the many intermarriages of the later Hokage, the flame link is as good as gone."
Hiroshi frowned. "So what does this all have to do with me?"
"You have been chosen to be the new flamemaster," Nadare explained patiently. "The blood of the Hokage has been thinned out and almost completely eliminated over the generations. The power of the flame can no longer be passed down by blood; it must be instilled within a chosen successor."
"Then why me?" Hiroshi asked. His head was spinning. "I'm just an ordinary guy. Why do I get to be the flamemaster? Can't you pick anyone else?"
Recca shook his head. "It is Fate. There is no one else but you that can take up the power of fire and use it against the evil. If you don't accept this power, it will not be used in this war, and the other side will almost certainly win. The flame is the most powerful of the so-called madougu."
"What war?"
Nadare shot Recca a look. He gave her a guilty face, but shrugged helplessly. The damage had already been done.
Nadare sighed. "The madougu war," she said, sounding weary, "Is the curse of the Hokage and the madougu itself. For as long as the madougu exist, they will want to fight each other to see who is stronger, who trained their master better. Their masters too will feel conflicts, not only from the influence of their madougu, but because their personalities clash."
"That doesn't make sense," Hiroshi objected. "How can you predict if they have different personalities? Each person is different, and I bet even the madougu doesn't know everything about that person."
Madoka leaned towards Homura. "He's a sharp one."
Homura nodded serenely. "Aa. He has the ability to become as good a ninja as Recca."
"Without the stupidity?"
"We'll see about that." Homura looked faintly amused for some reason.
"Fair enough," Nadare conceded. "It is because each madougu has certain criteria for their masters, and the criteria will often overlap or clash with another madougu's criteria. If one madougu prefers masters who have complete control, and another likes masters with free spirits, then they are naturally in conflict."
"Alright. But why would I fight them as the flamemaster? I have nothing against these people, and I don't even know who they are. It's kind of pointless-- aw, heck, it is pointless-- to fight people that you don't have a grudge against."
Nadare and Recca looked at each other, then back at the other dragons. The one farthest left-- Resshin, Hiroshi remembered-- shook his head.
Nadare turned back with a sigh. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Hiroshi. It's not allowed."
"But I'll tell you this." Recca's eyes were deadly serious. "The flame, through your decision or not, will be a part of this war. If you accept it, you can control it at will. But if you don't, it will be uncontrollable."
"Can't you control it?"
"I'm long-gone dead and a spirit," Recca said quietly. "A spirit can't control something of the mortal world. It's just wrong."
Hiroshi nodded. "I understand. But one more thing. My mother-- is she going to be affected by this war?"
"Everyone will be affected by it," Recca said with certainty. "This isn't a discreet war, like the one I fought when I was a flamemaster. This will be a full-scale war, a direct conflict between all the madougu that were ever made and still exist."
Hiroshi looked him dead in the eye. "Then who will protect my mother, if I'm away at war?"
"Who said you have to go away for war? The war will come to you."
"I don't want that," Hiroshi said flatly. "It will destroy our village."
"There will be a lot of villages destroyed in this war," Recca said quietly. "Hiroshi, you will have to leave your mother behind if you go somewhere else for war."
"No. I won't. My mother is all the family I have left." Hiroshi's jaw muscles tightened stubbornly. "I won't just abandon her and leave her to die."
Recca looked at Nadare and sighed. Recca loved his own mother, Kagero, dearly and didn't have the heart to tell Hiroshi about the sacrifices that the war would demand. "We'll figure something out. In the meantime, do you accept the flame?"
"Not if it means leaving Kaachan behind."
Recca's voice rose slightly. "If you want to protect your mother against this war, then you will accept the power of the flame. Because in doing so, you are accepting the help of the most powerful allies you could ask for, and they understand your love for your mother. Therefore, they will do everythign they can to help you win and at the same time give you the ability to keep your mother safe. What do you really want, Hiroshi?"
Hiroshi sighed and extended his arm. "Then I guess there's no choice, is there?"
"Hiroshi." If possible, Recca grew even more serious. "If you accept the power of the flame, you will never be the same, physically or mentally. Even after the war ends-- if it does end-- you won't change back. You will forever be linked to the flame."
Hiroshi nodded. "Wakata. But I have to do this, for Kaachan." He held up his arm. "I accept your power, Hachiryu! Give me the power of the flame!"
The eight dragons molded together into a ball of fire and descended upon him. Hiroshi felt the flame surrounding him, crackling and hissing as it engulfed the already charred vegetation around him.
Suddenly, the flame disappeared. And Hiroshi was left standing in the middle of the field, without a scratch on him. On his right arm was a forearm guard, white with a black flame etched on it.
He fingered it gently, running his fingers over the slight upraisal of the flame pattern. "What is this?" he asked, wonderingly.
"It's a wrist guard, so that you can control your flame." Recca looked wistfully at the wrist guard. "The Hachiryu cannot do everything for you; you won't earn their respect until you learn how to use your new power. I wore this almost the whole time I was a flamemaster; it was my father's before mine. He only took it off when he had to call upon the full power of his flame." He motioned with his hand. "Go on. Try it."
Hiroshi hesitated. Instinctively, he sank into a fighting stance and brought the wrist-guard hand back, with his other arm folded protectively in front of him. Several moments passed by.
Recca frowned. "What's wrong?"
Hiroshi straightened and looked dubiously at his hands. "It doesn't feel right." At Recca's questioning look, he elaborated. "Well, ok, it's not that I can't call on the flame-- I can feel it in me, waiting-- but something just doesn't feel right." He paused. "I don't feel right."
Recca nodded. "Remember what I said, Kouen?"
"My name's not--" He stopped. "Oh. I see."
"Your identity will be completely changed," Recca said quietly. "Even your name cannot be the same. Those that become directly involved in the war of the madougu are reborn of their elements. You will be reborn of the flame. When you accepted the Hachiryu, couldn't you feel yourself become different?" The other young man nodded mutely. "That's when you became Kouen instead of Hiroshi."
"Kouen." He whispered the new name. "Kouen. The flame."
"Do you still accept the power of the flame…Kouen?"
Slowly, deliberately, Kouen nodded. "I must, for the sake of this world. I must become Kouen."
"Then call on the flame, and seal the bond between human and element."
Kouen raised his arm to the sky, closed his eyes, and concentrated. "Come forth, flame!" he cried out. He felt a tingling running up and down his whole body, almost like a shiver, but one of intense power. Those tingles concentrated themselves in his hand and wrist, and suddenly, he felt that power explode. He opened his eyes, and saw to his awe a golden flame enveloping his hand, burning with a steady light.
"It will grow stronger as you use it more and more," Recca said. "One thing I must caution you on; the flame is not an element that is removeable. It is bound to your soul for as long as you live, not your physical body."
Kouen nodded. "I know." He looked again at his arm again, still glowing with flame.
__________________________________________________
Author's Notes: I think that was incredibly convoluted, and messy...oh well. I'll probably edit it later on. Oh yeah...one thing I was gonna ask you guys...you know how Domon and Recca are sort of perverts in the anime? Who should be the perverts here?
Comments and feedback always (greatly) appreciated. Ja ne! ~katanashi
__________________________________________________