A/N: Okay, so here's where it all really begins. Enjoy, whoever's reading this.
When the bluebells faded, and the summer came, Michiko noted that she had yet to have her monthly cycle. When she did, joy passed over her face, lighting her eyes and added a glow to her face. But she had heard of women her age who became infertile as older women with no apparent cause, and decided to see the court physician first, to see if she was indeed going through such a process. She declared her pregnant, and she had rushed to tell her husband.
She found him sitting in his study, pouring over reports from the south. Things hadn't been going well, she found. Well, at least if the constant frown on his face was anything to go by. "Husband?" she asked gently, knocking on the doorframe. He looked up and forced a smile to appear on his face for her.
"My dear wife, why is it you have come to see me? I hope it is a good reason, it seems I could use some in this instant. The securing of our southern border seems harder than first expected," he said.
"Gracious husband, my reason is the most noble and good reason upon this earth."
"Be it your wifely rights to see me whenever you wish?"
"Nay, good Prince. It is the fact that I bear you a child this instant." There was a bit of a blank look before his face broke into a shining smile, rushing to her and sweeping her up.
"A child!" he laughed, spinning her. When he set her down he kissed her with no small amount of vigor. "We must tell the court! The kingdom must be alerted…oh Michiko, you wonderful woman, you!" She too was laughing, a hand pressed to her stomach. And despite what Akihito said, they could not bring themselves to an appropriate level of sobriety to tell of their imminent child. Most royal marriages were impersonal and the news of a child would be smiled about but not a cause for laughter. Their marriage was, of course, like few royal marriages.
After a good hour, they managed to get to the point where they could announce this event, and went to tell the Queen, as she would be the first to know. She was taking tea with her ladies in waiting, but upon seeing them, she stood and embraced them fondly. "Dear children mine," she said warmly, the light playing on her slightly more grey hair, "what brings you to me? Shall I dismiss my ladies?"
"Nay, good mother," said Akihito. "What has brought us to you must be shared with all the world. My good wife, Crown Princess Michiko Sutoku now carries my child within her." The Ladies of the Queen all cooed in delight, folding their fans and going to the Crown Princess to congratulate her. As they did, the queen reached for her son, placing her hand against his cheek with a proud smile.
"My good son…" She tucked a small lock of blond hair same as hers behind his ear, oddly familial for an instant. Then the spell was broken and she was going on about announcing the child to the world, instantly the professional queen. "…And naturally, we will have a celebration. Good children, what do you think of a pageant?"
"It sounds marvelous, honorable mother," said Michiko, now seated between two cooing Baronesses. Akihito was mainly ignored, but he was fine with that for the time being.
"Very well then. A pageant. Michiko, you must go back and visit the physician again and learn what you can and cannot do while carrying this child. Not a drop of alcohol, do you understand?" Michiko nodded, having heard of the poor babies that were born when their mothers drank.
They were bustled back to the physician and she smiled, knowing exactly why they were there. And as such, she began to run them through what they should or shouldn't do, what she could or couldn't eat, drink, or do. By the end Michiko was never to drink a drop of alcohol until her child (son hopefully) was born. Nor could she do extraneous exercise past her second month pregnant nor breathe in the smoke that some priests used to divine messages.
And as that was being done, Queen Tamako took it upon herself to announce the Crown Princess' pregnancy, as was the mother of the Princes' right. The court had been overjoyed, bells tolled and the news announced to the capital and the news spread to the rest of the kingdom. Everyone was overjoyed, especially the princess, who was already giddy at having a sister and now a niece or nephew? Tears had come to her eyes when she had learned, and she had forgone all propriety when she and her brother were alone, crushing him in a tight hug.
By the end of the week, they had a pageant. While those around her drank to her health, Michiko sipped at soothing tea, Tisane apparently.
The soldiers were performing their fighting arts, adeptly fighting each other off. They appealed Akihito to join, and join he did, taking the dao blade handed to him and fighting, evenly matched, with Brigadier General Takamiyama Daigorō. Eventually, the military man disarmed the prince, who bowed, accepting defeat with a laugh, returning to his wife. Many courtiers congratulated the couple, Michiko's close friends taking her hands and laughing with her.
Michiko had been presented with a trained bird, one that hopped along the table and ate little bits of fruit that she fed her. She was fond of the little creature immediately, naming him Preen. Yoshiko spent half of the pageant feeding the bird blueberries, giggling as it hopped about her plate.
Eventually, King Munehito stood, helping his wife stand, calling everyone to attention. Those who had been performing bowed and knelt. "My friends!" he said. "My Queen and I are overjoyed. Our son, the Crown Prince Akihito and our daughter, the Crown Princess Michiko have—" he cut off when a throwing knife embedded itself in his neck, a fountain of blood pouring down his white silken robes. Tamako let out a scream, as did Yoshiko, but the queen fell second, another throwing knife settling itself in her breast. While her husband fell under the table, she fell across it, her eyes staring lovingly at her children as the light left them. Akihito brought his wife and sister under the table to hide, listening to the screams as more courtiers fell. Michiko noticed, before she was pulled under the table, that her little bird Preen had also been hit, no doubt from one knife aimed at her.
"Your highnesses!" hissed General Mihito, joining them. "Come with me!" The three did, surrounded by soldiers, a few courtiers, and the royal physician, racing away.
"Assassins from KÀ!" snarled General Takara, her arm holding Michiko's head and shoulders down as they ran. "I knew they would have such an underhanded trick! No time to mourn, princess." The last was directed to Yoshiko, who had tears streaming down her face. "We will weep later. For now…run!"
Eventually they reached the woods in the opposite direction from the capital, rushing through the underbrush until they found a place to hide. They heard footsteps rushing around them, but they kept silent and low, and soon they were gone. A foot soldier looked up, before saying, "They are gone. We are safe."
"Debatable," said Noriko, holding herself, her fiancée having been killed before her eyes. Michiko held her, the two crying, the paints on their faces marred.
Yoshiko looked back towards the palace and let out a muted scream of despair. "They are burning the palace!" sobbed Yoshiko, clutching onto her brother. "Our home is nothing but ashes!"
"We can never go back," said the prince, it all hitting at once. "Never. Oh Kishi…" he held her tightly, letting her sob into his neck.
"Where will we go?" asked Michiko quietly, holding her friend as they cried. "Nowhere is safe…"
An idea came to Lieutenant Seishi Inagaki's face. "The Temple of the Harp!" he cried. The others turned to him. "It's safe, no one can get there…and we could certainly use that right now."
"You have the best memory and I am glad of it, sir," said Akihito, remembering that the man had come with them there, an escort for their safety, just as he was then.
"Thank you, your highness."
"I am not entirely certain that the title of your highness fits me now. We are in exile, to be frank. And right now, we just need to get to the Temple of the Harp. None of you call me, my wife, nor my sister by any royal titles until we figure out our future, understood?" The courtiers, physician, and soldiers nodded.
"Then to the Temple," said Yoshiko, oddly serene. She folded her hands, uncaring of her fine dress as she wiped the paints off her face onto the silk.
Akihito was never going to forget the screams that echoed that day for as long as he lived. He realized that as he walked deliberately silently with his wife, rubbing his thumb along her hand as she silently cried. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his father buckle in death and his mother fall. Every time he blocked out the sound of the forest, he heard the screaming of his sister, of himself, of Michiko, of the courtiers and soldiers…
"Your—Akihito," warned General Mihito. "Stay low." They crouched and listened. They heard rustling, and two of the soldiers darted forward, stopping when they saw Vizir Tadamichi Fujiwara and his son, Fusasaki Fujiwara. The boy, only eight, was crying slightly, already terrified out of his mind. "Sir Fujiwara, how did you…"
"Great minds think alike, General," said the former Vizir. "I brought my son here so that the coverage of the forest would save him. His mother has died a painful death from a stray arrow, one aimed for the Baron Taemin Suzumiya, I believe."
"I do not doubt you. But you have lived your whole life in luxury and now you are thrown into the wild. You shan't survive. Come with us." The former Vizir smiled his gratitude and his son ran to General Takara, who picked him up and held him. Her viciously repressed fondness for children bleeding through in favor of comforting the poor boy.
"Then let us continue on. It is a long way to the Temple of the Harp, is it not?" said Lieutenant Akebono Tarō. They continued on in silence yet again, staying low as their group had grown.
Michiko hadn't stopped crying. Her poor child, born in exile! He or she would never know what it meant to prince! Poor babe!
Akihito had his arm around her, breathing comforting nonsense to her, and she was thankful for it. She took his hand and smiled at him weakly. She would be as strong as she could about it. But that was not much strength. Still, she would set an example for the poor Fusasaki. She had been fond of the boy back in the palace…before…She closed her eyes. That train of thought would not be pursued for quite some time obviously. It was too painful, hearing her friends shriek in pain and agony, to see the man and woman she had begun to view as her parents stabbed by a throwing knife-the weapon of cowards-it was far too much for her.
But, as everyone had noticed, the princess hadn't shed a tear since she composed herself from sobbing into her brother's neck. She was ever the Serene Royal Highness Yoshiko Sutoku, but that was what hurt them the most. Her face matched those in the portraits they remembered, solemn and pretty but with no life. In her mind, she was deliberately thinking only of the poetry of times gone and how she might express what the forest looked like. She was composing poem after poem to protect herself from breaking down again. Poems that had nothing to do with regal life nor with humanity so that she may not think on her parents.
They walked on, mournful and silent so that they not be caught, until the sun began to set. Realizing that they needed food and shelter, they divided up the work. Half the soldiers and the prince were to go into town, the courtiers to create shelter with the help of the other half. Then Yoshiko spoke for the first time since she had broken down against her brother.
"You cannot go into town looking like that," she said with no emotion. "None of us can continue wearing silks. Simple as that."
"Your sister is right," said Tadamichi, holding his son close to him. Akihito nodded, and abruptly disrobed. When he wore but his sturdy leather boots and his loincloth, he said,
"Burn the clothes. We travel as bare as this. Far less memorable than silk." The others nodded. The amount of workers who traveled from town to town for work would keep them safer. Michiko retained her shift though, wearing not the usual undergarments for it would constrict her stomach. It seemed that Tadamichi was smart, and had somehow acquired plain blue cotton robes for him and simple clothes for his son. The princess though seemed happy to tear off the red silk kimono in all its unnecessary layers. Left in her undergarments and boots, she grabbed General Takara and walked off into the woods to make shelter.
Akihito sighed. His sister was blocking herself off from emotion. But he turned to his wife and kissed her gently. "Be safe," she whispered, hand going to her stomach a bit shakily.
"Of course, my dear wife." He caressed her face fleetingly before going with the others.
"Well we lost them," declared one man, wrapped in dark green cloth. "The King will kill us."
"Highly likely," said another. "Well, we did slaughter most of the court and destroy their palace."
"True," said a third. "Shall we face the king as men or as cowards?"
"Let us go back," said the first. "He will send out his troops to get them. We have done our part." The others nodded, and they began their travel home, after sending a message informing the King that King Munehito and Queen Tamako were dead, as well as half the court, but that the military had gotten a good two or three dozen people out. Surely they would be caught and disposed of before too long, though? Their leader watched the messenger hawk fly off and sighed, resigning himself to his death upon his return.
Though, as he would be shocked to find out, King Shi Huangdi had no plans on killing them. Instead, they would lead his army in searching for the escapees, once he named himself Emperor. And name himself Emperor he would.
The former assassins—He Yan Feng, Lee Wei, Liu Rui, Chen Run Fa, Wen Shuai, Xue Hai, and Jiang Qi Lin—were to be named Generals of the new Imperial Army, and each were to send a battalion of soldiers to search for and kill the small band of survivors. A trained army would dispose of them quickly, at least was their hope.
And yet, none of these ideas came from the new Emperor Shi Huangdi. Instead, his wife, the new Empress Zeitan, had come up with the idea. She was from a family largely engrossed in the army, her brother a greatly revered General for the king and her reason for gaining favor with him. She knew how to correctly maneuver an army from listening to the men in her family talk over dinner when she wasn't supposed to be listening.
The hunted band reached the Temple of the Harp after only a few weeks, sitting at the bottom of the cliff the Temple rested on the whole night. When the sun rose and they heard the bell above calling the monks to prayer, they began to call up as one, to get their attention before prayer began. After a few minutes, the rope was lowered, and the Crown Princess, as she was pregnant, was loaded in first. They had a bit of trouble tying the rope about the tiny bump that proclaimed her carrying of a child, but eventually she was pulled up.
The young monk who pulled her up, Kong Zĭ, was shocked to see what looked like a common pregnant woman there, but helped her onto solid ground and had her sit on a nearby bench before lowering the rope again. He continued, raising a common man who went to the woman and asked if she was alright.
"I am fine," she assured. "You needn't fuss so."
"I just wanted to make certain, my fair wife," he said, pressing a kiss to her brow. "The others are below so you might want to help them up."
They pulled each other up for another ten minutes, and finally they were all assembled, dressed like workers, but the monk noted that many of them were pale as the moon and some had distinctive military tattoos up their arms.
"Excuse me," he said, "but who exactly are you?"
"Hmm?" said the first man he pulled up. "Oh, I am Crown Prince Akihito, well, formerly, this is my wife, Crown Princess Michiko, and my sister, Princess Yoshiko." Kong Zĭ immediately remembered their visit to their temple all that time ago.
"Your highnesses." He bowed.
"Do not. I understand the urge to do so, but as we are exiled I will not let anyone call me by a false name. Considering that it was the kingdom of KÀ, likely now Empire of, that did this, I would like to not be immediately recognizable by the soldiers that the king now likely Emperor Shi Huangdi will send after us to have us killed."
"Please, husband, he would not know," said Michiko. She turned to Kong Zĭ and said, "May we speak with the Father of this monastery?"
"Yes…once Morning Prayer is done," said the young man.
"Of course. We can wait." She folded her hands over her budding stomach and closed her eyes, the picture of courtly serenity. It was only marred by the fact that she looked for all appearances a common woman. Kong Zĭ nodded, and hurried to Morning Prayer.
He knew that no one but the brothers of other orders, the royal family, and their escorts knew of the Temple, so naturally they couldn't be imposters, but the thought that the kingdom could be overthrown so easily…it was highly disconcerting. Before he had joined the brotherhood, he had always been so certain in the power of the royal family, so certain that they could protect the country with ease. Now all that was gone…
"Prince Akihito?" asked the father of the temple, Lăozĭ. The man looked up, and stood, bowing deeply in respect. "I have been told you came here to seek asylum?"
"Yes, good father," said Akihito. "The Kingdom of KÀ, as far as we know, sent assassins to kill us. They used throwing knives and arrows. My father, my mother, a large amount of the court and military present have all died. We ran away."
Lăozĭ's eyes widened in horror and his mouth fell open just a bit. It shouldn't have been possible! His weary frame, battered from age but strong from prayer, sagged more, his old brown eyes surveying the refugees. One woman was crying, another comforting her, a man was holding a young boy, no older than ten, close to him, keeping an even gaze on him. Princess Yoshiko was staring out where everyone climbed up, no emotion on her face, even as the rest held sadness in their looks.
"I believe," he said, "that if the Spirits spared your life, then you must be destined for something. Perhaps prayer over these next few months will show us what you were spared for. The Spirits may have decided to let you live so that you may reclaim your kingdom."
"Months?" repeated Akihito, no doubt looking for clarification.
"Your wife. She is pregnant. I may not know much about pregnancy, but I highly doubt that she would be able to run at a moment's notice to flee whatever soldiers may be sent after you. In light of that fact, I suggest you spend at least a year with us. It is summer now, so the child will be born in late winter or early spring, I would guess. Not the most favorable time to embark on nomadic life." He offered a smile. "We have rooms where you may stay."
"Thank you," breathed the Prince, taking the man's hand and pressing his brow to it in gratitude. "I will tell the others."
"And I will show you all to where you may stay." Lăozĭ did not like the situation they were thrown into, but he knew that they would survive and that the Spirits would show them eventually why they were alive. Assassins weren't the type to leave those they were charged to kill alive, not without premeditated fate.
"Everyone!" Akihito was calling. "Father Lăozĭ has allowed us to spend a year here, until my beloved wife has delivered our child and she has recovered. He will show us to where we may live in this year." Yoshiko didn't even turn, much to the old man's dismay. Everyone knew of the Princess, how she had been full of emotion, even when weighed down by war.
"If you would follow me…" they followed, all but Yoshiko.
General Mihito noticed, and he went to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and saying, "Yoshiko, Father Lăozĭ is going to show us to where we may stay…"
"It's all gone," she said without emotion. "Nothing matters now. Why should I care where I will sleep this next year? My parents and my closest friends are all dead and no amount of prayer can help it. Why don't I just jump off right here? I would join them."
"Yoshiko," he growled, his hand clenching gently. "You will do no such thing. Did you listen to Father Lăozĭ? The Spirits spared us all. They have a plan. They always do."
"Confound the Spirits," she whispered. "Can the Spirits bring back my mother? My father?"
"Please, just come. You will find as time goes on that the pain will ease." She turned, and he held out his arm. She ignored it and followed the others. General Mihito sighed, but followed after her as well. Yoshiko had once been so happy. Where did the laughing young girl he saw visit his base when he was just a new soldier go?
A/N: Yeah. I just killed lots of people. You're welcome.
So let's talk about a few things. We have Takamiyama Daigorō and Akebono Tarō. They're among the (if not the) most successful outsiders to sumo wrestling. Both come from Hawaii. Takamiyama was named Jesse at birth and Akebono was Chad. So you know, enjoy those yellow radishes (a joke for those who watch the TVXQ drama).
Also, the names of the assassins are all either characters or actors in the Taiwanese drama "Hi My Sweetheart" which has THE most adorable opening song ever.
Now we've got them wearing what we see the Archers and Spearmen wear. You look at old Japanese prints (my dad has one from the 1800's) and workmen are wearing what we see the Spearmen wear, and kilts like some of them have aren't uncommon either. Especially with shinobi dyeing, which is what Cirque used to make the Counselor's Son's kilt at least. I'm guessing with the others as well. Shinobi dyeing isn't that hard. It's tye-dyeing.
Also, Kong Zĭ and Lăozĭ. Ancient Chinese philosophers. We know the first over here in the west as Confucius (we made it sound like all the other philosophers over here, like the Greeks and the Romans) and his teachings STILL have hold over China, even though this was during the Warring States Period, which was around 500 BCE. And the latter is the founder of Taoism/Daoism. At least, traditionally, and his teaching were at the exact same time. So have fun with those two.
Please drop a review? I'd love you forever if you did!