The Twelve Kingdoms: The Land of Lion, The Wind of the Moon
Hello, I haven't posted a fanfic in so long! I wrote this story the old fashioned way, but then a thought occurred to me- I can post this fic to add to the very few Junni Koki (easier to spell) fanfics out there. Hey if you like this story, it would be great to get some feedback on aim or msn messenger (you can find all of that on my author's profile) or you could just post a review. Whichever of the two you prefer personally.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters that appear in the show "The Twelve Kingdoms," but I did make up an original character that the plot circles around (Kouki/Mongetsu Amano). All other identifiable characters belong to their respective creators and corporations. This story doesn't profit me in any way other than my own personal enjoyment.
Now with all of that said, enjoy this lovely little fic that I have created!
Prologue
High up on Mt. Hou grew the ranka of the new kirin of the kingdom of Kou. The previous kirin had been stabbed while saving the life of the queen of Kei, by her own master nonetheless. The women who would be caring for the ranka after birth, the nyosen, eyed a creature whose upper torso was that of a woman, but her lower half appeared to be that of a horse. This creature was the nyokai that had been born given the special duty of caring for and protecting the new kirin of Kou. She was stroking the single ranka that grew on the riboku tree, which had been the tree that bore only the ranka of the kirin.
The day that the kirin inside of the ranka was about to be born, an incredibly strong wind storm, called a shoku, blew the ranka off of the tree and far away from Mt. Hou. All of the nyosen and the single nyokai were hysterical- this had only happened twice in the past six hundred years. The ranka of the kirin had been blown into another world known as Hourai to the people of the twelve kingdoms. The ranka had been surrounded by a shell and was born in the form of a human child to Shinta and Yukari Amano under the name of Mongetsu, or the full moon, because he had been born on the night of the full moon.
From the day that Mongetsu was born, everyone in his family knew that he was different. He was special, much purer hearted and warm than any other boy in his class. From an early age, everyone around him knew not to mess with him because odd things would happen around him when they did. It hadn't been his doing though, odd hings just seemed to happen to those people in freak accidents where they would end up badly injured or they would even die.
Mongetsu hardly ever made friends, in fact he was a bit of a loner. He was the favorite of all of his teachers, accelling in every aspect of education he was involved in. He was strong hearted, but compassionate. He wouldn't allow unjustice, but he never had the will to fight. Whenever he fell and scraped his knee or got any sort of cut where he bled even the slightest, he would become weak and pass out sometimes. He would become weak at the sight or smell of any blood, and he would refuse to eat the flesh of any animal. Sometimes people worried about his diet, even his teachers sent notes home with him about it.
That was when they decided to enroll Mongetsu into a private school where they were more open-minded and easy-going. The school was ran by an American woman, who had decided to open a Montessori school in Japan, which is where Mongetsu ended up going until it was time for him to go to middle school and take the entrance exam to get into the best all boys high school prep school in the country. He made it in easilly, but he did not fit in very well. He was teased by the other boys, them all calling him a pansy and making fun of the fact that he never ate with anyone else and that he never played any sports outside with them at lunch.
One day he had been approached by one of the guys that just watched from the sidelines while everyone else made fun of him. He asked him "Why do you let them make fun of you? You know that you don't deserve any of it!"
Mongetsu responded with "I don't wish to fight them. In time they will get sick of me and move onto someone else. They always do."
"Not that crowd of hooligans, at least not any time soon. I was their last punching bag, but now it seems as though they've found a new target- you. You had better watch your back with them around!" said the stranger, taking Mongetsu by surprise. "As soon as they find you on your own, they'll make their move on you. You just wait and see." With that, the guy walked off without a backwards glance as he left Mongetsu to himself once more, eating lunch by himself.
"I wonder what he meant by that," said Mongetsu to himself, then went back to eating.
Sure enough, the stranger's word became true. As he was walking around the school campus, heading back from the library, a gang of the same thugs that were giving him a bad time a few days before showed up. They were being led by the same guy that did all of the talking before. It was like the others were just a bunch of over-sized oafs with smaller brains than a chicken.
Mongetsu had only bent over to tie his shoe, but when he looked up he was surrounded by the gang of idiots. He only sighed and looked wearilly up at the one to his front. All he said was "You are a fool," before nearly receiving the thrashing of a lifetime. All of a sudden some invisible force protected Mongetsu from the punches thrown at him by the punks. It sent them all falling backwards, knocking the wind out of them. They were also knocked out of their senses on top of that. They all looked at one another and ran away towards their dormitory.
Mongetsu was left untouched. He had somehow been protected by a blinding light that came from in front of him. It was a warm, protective light that only he saw.
"Who are you?" he questioned the now empty space around him.
A voice voice of a female on the inside of his head answered, "I cannot show you my true form here. It would cause too much attention. Go to someplace where nobody will see us."
A normal person would have thought that he was going insane, and these were his own thoughts on the matter as well. He knew that he wasn't crazy, but he didn't seem to fit into this world that he was born into. Somehow he knew that he would be alright if he put his trust into his invisible protector because this invisible being was someone that had been protecting him all of his life. Maybe this was who had cause all of the odd events that had occured over the course of several years? He wanted to know, so he followed its directions.
"Head towards the back of your living place when night falls. There is where we shall finally be able to meet," the voice told him.
"Alright, invisible protector," said Mongetsu. "I shall trust you. You have gotten me this far in life."
"I shall finally see you then," the voice said, with a tone that sounded almost as if it had longed for this moment for a long time. "And Enki will be with me."
Who or what was Enki? Mongetsu didn't know, so he wondered about it for a while. He was bored and excited, but all that he could do was wait until nightfall. He returned to his dormitory and read a book about chinese folklore. He came to something about a being called a kirin. "They no longer exist in our own world, but the Chinese believe that there is another world known as The Twelve Kingdoms. There they believe are twelve kirin, whom are only second to the gods in holiness. They are born one to each the twelve kingdoms, and their one purpose in life is to recognise the ruler given the right from heaven... It is in there nature to only bow to their one true master..."
Mongetsu read on about the nature of the kirin and what their appearance is. He felt almost as though for the first time in his life he could relate better to a mythological creature than to humans. He laughed aloud, causing one guy to look over at him from across the room. Mongetsu noticed the attention he had gotten and turned a light tinge of red. He wasn't used to getting any sort of attention from anybody, so of course he was naturally embarassed by the small amount of attention. Regardless of the atttention being negative, it was still some sort of aknowledgement of his existance.
Finally nightfall came and Mongetsu slipped out of the dormitory, going unnoticed by anyone. He crept down the hall to the feeding hall and then out the back door through the joint kitchen-cafeteria. There was nobody present, so he didn't have to go through any unneccesary hastles. He reached a quiet place in the back of the dormitory, and waited.
Eventually Mongetsu quietly called out, "I'm here! Please show thyself, invisible protector and Enki." A few seconds later the figure of a woman-like creature appeared. She looked human from the waist-up, but she had the ears of a cat and her lower half was like a horse, but with feathered wings. She had long red hair and wore no clothing, but her hair was long enough to cover the necessarry areas. Alongside her appeared a short, shaggy, very long-blonde-haired, young man. There was something regal about these two figures, and otherworldy.
"At last I have finally found you, Kouki," said Enki. "I am Enki and this is your nyokai, Ryo."
"Ryo? Are you my invisible protector?" Mongetsu asked.
"Oh Kouki!" the nyokai cried and ran over to Mongetsu, hugging him more gently than anyone in his entire life had, including his own mother and father.
"Why do you call me Kouki?" Mongetsu questioned Enki. "That wasn't the name that my parents gave to me."
"You are the kirin of kou. You were born here, but you originally should have been born on Mt. Hou," explained Enki. "We both have that in common, but I am the kirin of En. I was sent here to search for another kirin named Taiki, but I found you instead. I guess that somehow I became lucky because I found you anyway."
"Taiki? Is that the kirin of Tai?" Kouki asked, noticing the pattern of how the names of the kirin went.
"Very good, Kou finally has an intelligent kirin," said Enki. "I've met at least three other kirin of the same country over the last five hundred years... none of them were as bright as you seem to be."
"Uh... thanks I guess," said Mongetsu/Kouki, not sure how to take this comment.
"Well, anyway I need to take you two home," said Enki. "Before it is too late for your safety."
"You know, I was just reading about kirin in some book. I already know about the twelve kingdoms. So you're saying that I am a kirin? No wonder I felt as though I could relate to them so well..." said Kouki, accepting his destiny. "I'm ready to leave this world. I don't belong here anyway."
"Right you are, and neither did I. I was also born here, but I'll save that story for another time. Now we must leave before any youma attempt to attack us from the other world," said Enki. He performed the ritual to return back to the world of the twelve kingdoms by first turning into his true kirin form, and then incanting a few words. The nyokai lead Kouki over to Enki, and they three disappeared into thin air and reappeared at Mt. Hou in the center of the world of the twelve kingdoms...
End of Prologue...
Thanks to all of you who read this first installment of The Twelve Kingdoms: The Land of Lion, The Wind of the Moon! Thank you in advance to those of you who chose to review this. Even if nobody reviews this, I will still update this. Reviews are the fuel for the authors for their stories to be continued! Talk to ya later!