Haru:
First Moon
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Bey Blade and Sakura Taisen. I own the OC's portrayed herein. Oh, Asato Tsuzuki's making a cameo here. I do not own him either, and any of his Shikigami, for that matter. So don't shoot me.
Takao
Name: Kinogu, Takao
Country of Origin: Japan
Nationality: Japanese
Birthplace: Hachioji
Age: 13
Height: 157 cm
Weight: 48 kg
Blood Type: B
Birthday: January 23
Skills: Kendo, all swordskill (Tenryuuken Ryuu)
PRN: 0020 - 000 - 000
EP: 98
APR: 94%
Test Results: 100%
COMMENTS:
Recommended for transfer to 35th Imperial Capital Defense Headquarters. Training for Elite Kagekidan Branch approved. For immediate action.
Signed,
JUDY MIZUHARA
Head Instructor,
Imperial Capital Defense Satellite Headquarters,
KYOUTO
"HEY~~~!!!" Takao yells. "You haven't lived until you've tried THIS."
Lei blinked. "What?"
"It's the secret of the Kagekidan's great SUCCESS~~~!!!" Takao said importantly. He then turned minute. "That is, aside from the GREAT ALMIGHTY Kai, as he likes to think."
"Come on, Takao, give Kai a break," Max told him.
"Well it's TRUE, he thinks he's even mightier than the Heir of the Chrysanthemum Throne HIMSELF," Takao replied. He had his hands across his chest. "I just hate it when he puffs his chest all out and starts speaking as if he owned the entire Imperial Opera House."
Kenichiro blinked. "Hey Takao-senpai, you're forgetting about the Kagekidan's Ultimate Secret to Success."
"Oh! Right." Takao grinned at Lei. "Hop in, you have the honors."
They were standing before a huge floor to ceiling portrait of Daitenji-kacho in the Hall of Portraits down the left hall from where the rehearsal hall was. Lei blinked again. "Uh...so, this is the secret to the Kagekidan's success..."
"Yep! Our very own Daitenji-kacho." Takao nodded. "Stand back and be AMAZED."
Takao pressed one of the many colored bulbs lighting up the sides of the portrait, and there was an audible click that was heard in the silence. Lei looked at each of the other paintings that were there: several paintings of the Kagekidan Troupe in all their opera finery, and on closer inspection, showed something that was not visible to the untrained naked eye.
The first painting showed them as the cast of Hamlet. The second showed them as the cast of Macbeth. The third showed them as the cast of Ring of the Nibelung. And the fourth showed them as the cast of Les Miserables (even if the musical was only created recently sometime in the 80's; I am just following the travails of Sakura Taisen 3 game or anime in this part).
"Tragedy comes at the price of rebellion and treachery, unless we see enlightenment to free us from the shackles of self-imposed bondage of ourselves," Max told him. "The paintings are connected to one another just like that. It is supposed to embody the one virtue Daitenji-kacho wishes to impart to all of us, whether onstage or on the battlefield. When you internalize this then you would be truly called a member of the Kagekidan."
"..." Lei was quiet.
Daitenji-kacho's portrait slowly slid upward, and the walls containing 2 each of the paintings separated in the middle, to reveal 4 holes big enough to admit a person of average build, 2 holes still sealed off by thin steel slats, and a hole sealed with brown Kraft paper.
"Welcome to the Kagekidan Lei." Max got his handkerchief then folded it in a manner that he could tie it around Lei's head to cover his eyes. "We're really pleased and honored to have you with us."
"Uh...thank you very much." Lei started to sweatdrop at the sight of Max having an evil grin on his face. "M-Max...uh...what are you doing..."
"Trust us, you're going to like it down THERE." Takao nodded. "Yeah, we all did, as a matter of fact."
"T-Takao..."
"Let me take your baggage for you, Lei-senpai," Kenichiro said, getting Lei's things from him. His eyes were closed happily. "See you down there."
"W-wait~~~!!!" Lei gulped. "You're not...SERIOUS..."
"Heh heh, but we ARE serious," Max said.
There was silence for a few seconds, then Lei felt a huge block of ice settling inside his stomach. "Uh...HEY..."
Max and Takao pounced on him at once; Max tying the handkerchief around his head to cover his eyes, while Takao laughed evilly. Lei was starting to panic. "H-HEY~~~!!!"
"See you down there, Lei Kon~~~!!!" Takao then pushed him head first onto the Kraft paper-sealed hole with all his might. "As the French would say, BON VOYAGE~~~!!!"
"EEEEEEYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAHHHHHH~~~~~!!!"
Takao jumped into his own respective hole after Max and Kenichiro had jumped into their own holes as well. The slide was smooth and sleek.
***Dark void...*** Takao thought suddenly. ***Emptiness...***
Takao could feel the rushing air that greeted him as he took that slide that led him down below, to where his "best friend" was kept.
His only real friend...or so he thought.
His only real friend after his father left...
Takao was just 3 years old then when his father left. He could still remember their loyal retainers that rushed and bustled about the household getting things ready for their master, getting ready for his departure into the unknown.
He was blinking, as he stood there beside his nursemaid, looking at his father. Masao Kinogu stood there in his proper attire as Lord of the Kinogu Clan, as he was to their closely-knit family: the dark blue haori emblazoned with the family crest (mon) consisting of a stylized rendition of a blue dragon curling about clouds and lightning on its 2 lapels (^^;;) over his white kimono top and deep gray hakama and white tabi-clad feet on zori. The only thing Western about him was the bowler hat on top of his head.
His mother, Tsutsuji Kinogu, was seeing him off, pretty in her pale green kimono and deep yellow obi tied in an o-taiko manner, her deep brown hair pulled back into a neat chignon at her nape, and held in place by several tortoiseshell combs. Her startling silver eyes were filled with tears.
***Masao...***
***I shall be back, Tsutsuji, do not worry. Besides, this is just routine work. I'll be back in time for the Spring Festival.*** Mr. Kinogu then knelt down and gazed at his 3 year old son, ruffling his hair affectionately as he did so. ***Take good care of your mother well, Takao. Don't do anything that would cause her to cry rivers of tears.***
Daitenji-kacho was just General Daitenji then, dressed in the drab green clothes of the Imperial Conscript Army. He nodded. ***Let us go, Masao. The ship would be leaving soon. Lady Tsutsuji, Takao...I bid you good day and farewell.***
Mr. Kinogu hugged his wife one last time, then left. Takao could only gaze after him wonderingly.
***Masao...I would like you to meet Asato Tsuzuki. He's the youngest member of the Imperial Capital Defense Corps...Hiwatari was absolutely raving about him...***
Takao could remember a timid young boy wearing a prim blue kimono top over a dark gray hakama and zori, an old bruise that was fading to yellow at the corner of his mouth, hugging a furoshiki which he surmised was where he put all his things in close to his chest. His amethyst eyes were all he could remember that were very remarkable in this young boy; other than that, he couldn't see why anyone would be raving about Asato Tsuzuki.
His nursemaid hissed, almost like a mother goose protecting her goslings, when she saw Asato.
***Devil eyes...demon son...*** she mutters.
***Hello Asato.*** Mr. Kinogu smiled in a fatherly way toward him. ***I am very honored to meet you.***
***...*** Asato just hugged his furoshiki closer to him.
Then they left. That was the last time he ever saw his father. Until that incident 6 years later. His father disappeared, Lei's father was killed (he heard hushed talk going on around the house when General Daitenji visited his mother that day informing her of the news; he surmised that they might be comrades in arms and that he may be Lei's father because he was surnamed Kon as he was), Kai's father started serving as the Imperial Capital's Chief of Defense, Asato became "traumatized" and was bedridden and hospitalized ever since, and General Daitenji and Max's mother were the only ones who were left of the powerful Imperial Capital Defense Corps.
His mother just held him closer to her as they sat in the porch overlooking their manicured gardens.
***Tomorrow morning, your grandfather would start teaching you Tenryuuken Ryuu. Promise me you be strong for it, alright?***
***Mother, I thought Father would be teaching me that...***
***He just has to do some...'things'. Don't worry, he'll be around sometime soon.***
***Alright...***
But his father never came back. Takao felt as if a huge void had been opened in him ever since, threatening to swallow him whole and he was close to the brink of becoming just that; the faintest thread of hope of seeing his father again was the only thing which prevented him from falling into that abyss. He promised himself that when he got his Kagekidan promotion he would find his father, no matter what, just so he could spare his mother the heartache of uncertainty and sadness and tears that engulfed her ever since the day his father left.
The rushing air whooshed past him and Takao could see the light at the end of the dark slide he just popped himself into.
***Yeah, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Heh, Father, I will find you. I don't care how long or how hard it is...the only thing that matters at the moment is to see Mother smile again!***
He sails right onto his landing cushion beneath. Max was laughing heartily as Lei was still sprawled down on his own landing cushion, still too weak and, as Kenichiro accurately diagnosed as Lei having vertigo.
Takao grins.
"So how was your natal ride, eh, Lei?" he asks with a laugh.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Japanese clothing 101: haori is the jacket worn over the kimono (the one with the fluffy bonbon thing up front; BTW the bonbon's a clasp of some sort), hakama is the skirt-like trousers Kenshin Himura is wearing on his costume; tabi are the white socks that have a separate big toe from the rest of the toes (^^;; you get the idea); zori are the open-toed flat sandals that look like modern slippers but are made of light materials (like straw); and a furoshiki is that huge bandanna-like thingy you always see wrapped about o-bento, the Japanese use it as a means of toting their things around in.