Chapter 2: Early Life
By the time they reached the temple over a week later, the attendants had convinced Koumyou Sanzo that Kouryuu was a better name for the child than Bob (or Bobryuu, his second suggestion). The attendants still remembered Jureii, who had taken a vow of silence after Sanzo had given him the title of Master Herbert.
The years passed quickly. Koumyou learned to look forward to his young ward's tantrums since they invariably happened when he was in the middle of a lesson, necessitating his leaving to calm him down ― Kouryuu would ignore anyone else. It was better than his usual, "Look! A bird has been graced by Buddha with three wings!" ploy (followed by him sneaking out the window). After calming the boy down and indulging in some more Essence of Lotus (for medicinal purposes only), he would have time for himself, to make paper airplanes and smoke.
When Kouryuu was too old for tantrums (despite Koumyou's encouraging him to be *cough* free with his opinions), Koumyou pretended to be privately instructing the child in the great Buddhist mysteries, though in reality he just taught the boy how to make a mean paper airplane. He did remember teaching the boy something about killing Buddha, but that was only to distract him from asking what was in the pipe Koumyou was smoking.
Let's fast forward a few years…
Kouryuu was sweeping. What would have been unusual was for him not to be sweeping. It was standard practice of all the monks to send Kouryuu sweeping if they ever spotted him idle. It was certainly better than him showing up at lessons and showing them up.
"Damn all the extra tutoring Sanzo-sama's been giving him," they muttered amongst themselves.
Kouryuu winced as his paper cuts ground roughly into the handle of his broom and cursed his extra tutoring as well. He looked over at where Oshou-sama was folding paper airplanes on the temple steps, then went back to his sweeping. It was rumoured that there was an entire room filled with orange paper airplanes somewhere in the temple, though Kouryuu had never found it.
"Kouryuu!"
He looked up, then groaned. Kazuo was a new monk at the temple. Tall and always smiling ― to say Kazuo wasn't the brightest man in the world would have been an understatement. And then there was the monk's other problem…
"I still don't understand how they can make a pretty girl like you do all this work," Kazuo said with a smile.
'An imbecile and a pervert,' thought Kouryuu.
"Let me do that for you," said Kazuo, reaching for the broom.
"I'm not a girl," said Kouryuu flatly, but handed him the broom nonetheless. He wasn't about to turn down a helping hand, and Kazuo's miniscule brain was perfectly suited to the task. Kazuo, as usual, didn't seem to hear his denial.
"Your golden hair and amethyst eyes have been haunting my nights. How cruel that you hide your figure beneath those robes!" He was sweeping so hard the leaves were falling dramatically around them. Kouryuu picked an orange leaf out of his hair, and moved to take back the broom. Kuzuo would only make more work for him if he kept sweeping like that.
"Oh, Kouryuu!" Kuzuo grabbed Kouryuu's reaching hand and pulled him into a tight embrace. Kouryuu froze. "I cannot meditate without your face in my mind. Run away with me!" He leant in for a kiss, and Kouryuu recovered from his shock. His knee snapped up at the same time as a heavy paper fan came down on Kuzuo's head. The monk collapsed.
"Oshou-sama!"
"Hmm?" Koumyou Sanzo tucked the paper fan back into his sleeve and smiled at his ward. "I believe it's time to move beyond paper airplanes. Tell me, Kouryuu, have you ever heard of origami?"
They were sitting under one of the temple's fruit trees, folding paper as usual.
"Master Isutomu of Hyôkai Temple sent me a package of hand-painted paper," said Koumyou cheerfully. He brandished a stack of brightly coloured paper. "It would be a shame to waste it."
Considering the legendary rivalry between Master Isutomu and Sanzo-sama, Kouryuu reflected, it was a wonder Oshou-sama wasn't using the paper for his waste disposal. Then again, the rumours said that Master Isutomu's gift had been a lot larger than the sheath of papers Oshou-sama held in his hand…
Sanzo-sama chose a random piece of paper and started his usual paper airplane while Kouryuu looked the selection over eagerly. Since he wasn't allowed to touch Sanzo-sama's 'sacred' orange paper, he usually had to practice with newspaper, or if Oshou-sama was feeling particularly vengeful ― the misplaced copies of the students' sutras. Finally, Kouryuu settled on a paper painted in a brilliant green and blue scale pattern, and began to fold it into a dragon as Oshou-sama had taught him weeks before.
He was only a few folds into the body of the dragon when Sanzo-sama finished his airplane. Standing up, he launched the plane across the orchard.
"The blue and yellow paper look wonderful against the green of the trees," remarked Koumyou.
"Beautiful," agreed Kouryuu. In fact, the plane looked a lot like a–
There was a blur that plunged out of the sky, swooping down on the plane. The blur resolved itself into a hawk that proceeded to land on the grass in front of them and viciously rip the plane to shreds.
–bird.
"Perhaps you should stick to orange paper, Oshou-sama."
Next chapter: Kouryuu gains a title and a headache.
Thanks to Sylk for betaing.
Please review:)
