Not everyone believes in legends or the power of a legend. Some can go on not believing for their entire lives. However, others are slapped in the face, spun around, and forced to see the power of the myth and, in some cases, the truth behind the myth. From the smallest village to the largest city, people are forced into these realizations every second of every day.
This is the story of one such realization.
Unmei no KodomoDestiny's Child
By Nami
:::Prologue:::
Tokyo, Japan
October 13, 1990
Midorikawa Yanagi hated his name. Not really because of what it meant, green river willow, but because it sounded too feminine for his tastes. He asked his friends and teachers to call him Ken (sword) instead of the hated Yanagi. It was bad enough, in his opinion that he looked like a girl sounded like a girl, and was mistaken for a girl on more than one occasion. He decided that he did not need a "girl's name" to go along with it all.
Yanagi, or "Ken", loved kendo, though, and practiced at the neighborhood dojo every day. He had mastered his technique and had begun teaching classes for beginners as soon as he entered high school. He was the top teacher and the rising star of the professional fencing circuit.
But then, he moved. Ken hated moving almost as much as he hated his given name. He hated making new friends, teaching a whole new group of peers to call him "Ken" and not "Yanagi", but most of all, he hated leaving everyone behind. He hated saying goodbye to all his friends and students. He did move, though, because his father received that big promotion. And he started attending a new school, because that's what he did. But he hated it.
He also hated anime, which his sisters loved. They were constantly calling him either "Nuriko" or "Ken-san", depending on which anime series they had just watched. He had given it a try. He sat down with his sisters one day while they watched "Rurouni Kenshin", but he couldn't stop picking out all the impracticalities in the show. No one could move that fast. So he stopped watching and thoroughly hated the fact that his sisters were so taken with their imaginary heroes and battles.
[However, just so that the Reader does not believe that our imaginary hero hated everything in the world…]
He loved sushi; loved cooking; loved the beach; loved wintertime when the snow fell outside his window; and loved kendo. He was a creature of extremes.
And so, because of his devotion to the Way of the Sword, he did two things upon his arrival in Tokyo. First of all, he paid a visit to the nearest training hall. Immediately thereafter, he joined the kendo club at school.
The club was rather small and was always grouped together with the other martial arts clubs at the school, which were also a bit small. The captain of the kendo team was a fellow sophomore, which was a bit unusual in itself. It was also a girl, which was another oddity (in Ken's mind). Her name was Hinata Tsukiko, and she was actually rather good. Ken soon found himself feeling more and more at home in his new surroundings.
