A/N: A quick warning: I've been reading Gone with the Wind again. I've been reading that monster for three years on and off and I'm just barely halfway through. The reason for this is its extreme long-winded-ness. Long-winded is the definition of this chapter. On that note, Yua is also a bit of an Expy in personality, but not in appearance. Spot the similarities between her and Scarlett O'Hara.
In addition, my explanation of why Yua's family name is what it is will be at the end of this chapter and will make perfect sense, I promise.
In order to avoid confusion, I would like to give the wiki definitions of some of the Gods/Youkai so far. It took me awhile to realize that not all anime fans are as big on Shintoism as I am… :P
Bakeneko: A shape-shifting cat.
Shikome: Wild women sent by Izanami to harm Izanagi.
Tengu: A wise bird-like demon.
Tennin: A heavenly being. Breath-takingly beautiful. They can fly with the assistance of their feathered Kimono. (Similar to an angel, originated from Chinese Buddhism but was later imported into Shintoism. MY Tennin don't have the feathered kimono except for ceremonies. They have wings.)
Ame-no-Uzume: The Goddess of Mirth, Dawn, and Revelry.
Inari Okami: The androgynous kami of fertility (hence, why Uzume offered to have… it… attend the wedding), agriculture, and foxes.
Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto: The moon god.
Takehaya Susanoo-no-Mikoto: The god of the sea and storms. Also considered to be the ruler of Yomi (let's ignore that last part. Artistic license reasons.)
Amaterasu-Omikami: The goddess of the sun and therefore the universe.
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Creatures of Myth II: Sunlit Summons
Chapter Three: The Queen
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"For my dreams I hold my life
For wishes, I behold my nights.
The truth, at the end of time
Losing faith makes a crime."
- 'Sleeping Sun' by Nightwish
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The halls of Takama-ga-hara were gorgeous in their ornate splendor, but even in the intricate golden and crimson paintings on the shoji, there was an odd feeling of openness and simplicity. The only room that did not have simple wooden floors was the throne room, which boasted lovely stone tiling. Nearly a thousand servants lived in the castle, each in housed two-per-room in the hundreds of relatively small quarters. Each set of eight rooms was grouped around a decent sized common room. Personal servants of the Gods received their own rooms with marginally better quality furniture and amenities, but otherwise were treated the same as every other servant. Their wages were somewhat meager, but their employment also included room and board, so all was fair.
Administrative offices were in the east wing, taking up the space that the archive and museum didn't. There was also a somewhat large infirmary. The west wing included a very large gym, several relatively smaller ones, two pools, and a large spa and public bathhouse, which were open to guests, consorts, Gods, and servants alike. The central building had the bottom half of the rotunda, the throne room, and the servant's quarters, which took up most of the area. The kitchen and dining hall was also there, as well as a semi-private recreational room with board games and the like. Guests were housed in a decent sized building, separate from the main facility. It had all the comforts of the main castle, minus a lot of the hustle and bustle. Also separate were the guard barracks and the homes for their families. The barracks were still separate from the complex that housed the guards' families.
Unlike the very functional, very accessible and all-inclusive first floor, the second floor was open only to consorts, Gods, and select servants. When one ascended the stairway, one was greeted by five statues, the stormy jade Susanoo, the regal silver Tsukuyomi, the glorious golden Amaterasu, the imperious obsidian Izanagi-no-Mikoto, and the imposing marble beauty that was once Izanami-no-Mikoto's image. The rotunda doubled as a gathering point for the more sociable of the consorts, as well as being a central hub. Every hallway in the second floor led back to the rotunda, making it difficult for incompetent residents to claim that they 'got lost'. The rotunda itself had seven hallways leading away from it, three to each side and one at the north side. The east wing was mostly Susanoo's consorts, but there were several rooms for Amaterasu's consorts. The west wing was all Tsukuyomi's consorts. All of it. All the rooms; all of them. It was kind of sad. The rooms typically held six, as they were all the size of a large tennis court, but particularly favored consorts may only share a room with one other person, although most consorts preferred the six-per-room grouping, anyways. Privacy was achieved by hanging decorative curtains and netting from the ceiling, if he or she even cared about privacy. Consorts weren't generally known for being conservative in that manner. Each wing had its own pair of semi-private bathrooms for men and women, but nice-sized powder rooms were placed about two per hall.
Up the north hall were the Gods' rooms, Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu claiming the two largest on either side, Susanoo had the other one on the same side as Amaterasu. Ame-no-Uzume's room shared a side with Tsukuyomi, and due the fact that she generally kept nicely to herself, she was content with its modest size. Her only request was that someone hurries up and soundproofs her walls so she could get a good night's sleep. Izanagi's room was at the very back, and the reason for its somewhat large size was not at all selfish, but it was consort related. It was because it was a shared room. He shared it with his one and only consort, a Tennin by the name of Yua.
Aizen Yua was the daughter of a prominent officer in the royal army. She was somewhat plain by Tennin standards; she had extremely dark brown hair and warm brown eyes, but she wore it well. She'd spent her childhood years practically attached to her father's ankle, and had picked up quite a bit of military strategy. She enjoyed the finer things in life, such as gourmet food, fine clothing, and the convenience of servants. Her etiquette was impeccable and her charisma and eloquence were evident. Social customs she tolerated, as while she was good at smiling convincingly and false niceties, she found little entertainment in doing so. During her teenage years, mystery novels and thrillers had been sufficient entertainment, followed quickly by psychology and strategy texts, but as she reached into her adulthood, she began to crave some excitement for herself. She wanted to test her mind and her abilities to manipulate people towards a goal. She started small, presenting herself to her servants as an expert on relationship advice. Manipulating her servants into situations that resembled television dramas had been fun for about a decade. Her next big step had been to influence indirectly all of her father's decisions that had anything to do with his job. Almost none of the changes that had led to his promotion had been his doing; it had all been her.
When her father had been promoted to the head of the Takamagahara Palace Guard, his family that consisted of his wife and two daughters came along with him. They brought with them a third of their original staff, and gifts such as the family library to add to the already existing one at Takamagahara. The sheer amount of books gave the small army of librarians mixed reactions, ranging from delight to horror at having to catalog them all. Yua spent most of her time in said archive, studying the ancient historical texts. She had been particularly interested in the three Senka Wars, and what documentation they had of the just-beginning Fourth Senka War. The rest of her time she spent socializing, getting as many connections as she could. She was particularly interested in the unwritten social structure of the consorts. Tsukuyomi's consorts seemed to be the butt of every joke, while Susanoo's girls were generally left alone when it came to gossip, and no one dared say a bad thing about Amaterasu's consorts, unless one was caught cheating but then he wouldn't be a consort much longer, anyways. It was better than the puppet show of servants she'd observed back home. It was a million times better, and at the same time, still lacking.
The moment she'd began pulling strings, though, Tsukuyomi noticed the change in his servants and quietly traced it back to the Tennin woman, dutifully relaying this fact back to Izanagi. Intrigued, the god had done some digging, uncovering the web of connections the woman had throughout Takamagahara Palace. The girl had some of the most respected servants and consorts on puppet strings. The most amusing thing was that she didn't even bother screwing with politics, but rather seemed to enjoy watching her own personal soap opera.
The two met for the first time in the Royal Archives. Yua had been reviewing an original copy of the Kojiki, when Izanagi entered. He had absently browsed the texts on the shelf opposite the bookstand Yua had placed the Kojiki on, when he reached a book that was unfamiliar to him. He smirked. "You know," he began off-handedly, "I was familiar with every book and text in this library until your family arrived with their gracious gift, Aizen-san," he commented.
Yua looked up briefly from her text, her blatant disinterest towards him obvious and unveiled on her elegant Tennin face. A moment passed before she blinked and looked up once more, this time moderately curious. She stepped from the book and turned towards him, bowing low at the waist. "Your majesty, Izanagi-sama," she greeted, putting on a smile. "To what do I owe this great honor, if I may ask?"
"Are you bored, Aizen-san?" he asked, completely out of the left field as he returned to browsing.
The Tennin straightened, her eyebrows furrowing from the sudden inquiry. "Not particularly, no," she said, trying to work out a good answer as she went, "Takamagahara has provided sufficient entertainment thus far, your majesty."
The God retrieved a book and flipped through a few pages before replacing it. "Oh? So you consider yourself content?" he noted her nod and smirked, "Gazing down at the mindless millings of the consorts does hold some amusement, Aizen-san, but if you think that to be true entertainment, I request you remember the subtle tugs and pulls you performed in order to be here today." With that, he finally turned and looked at her. She was wearing a simple dark pink Yukata, her dark brown hair pulled up into a bun and decorated with an elegant feather hairpin, typical of a Tennin.
Yua was shocked, if not a little indignant. "How…" she shook her head and sighed. "Politics and strategy were fun, your majesty, but now that I'm in Takamagahara, I've been cautious not to fiddle with anything vital. I suppose I fear the consequences should any plans go awry," she mused, folding her hands in front of her. She'd never actually spoken about this before and it made her somewhat hesitant.
Izanagi chuckled. "Consequences? I assure you, Aizen-san, there is little consequence to moving pawns across a playing board," he leaned back against the sturdy elm bookshelf, so laden with books that there was very little chance of it tipping. "Aizen Yua, how would you feel about having some real fun?" he propositioned.
She let out a short, unattractive cackle. "Fun?" she blurted in disbelief.
"Fun, Aizen-san," he paused, "Or rather, Yua-chan," he stopped to observe her suspicious expression with amusement, "I suggest a game. One on one, two chess masters pitted against each other."
"And if I win?" she asked, crossing her arms.
He smiled at her. "You receive the typical spoils of war."
She quirked a skeptic eyebrow. "Gold and glory?" she asked with a laugh. He gave a nod in answer. "And if I lose?" her inquiry opened Pandora's box.
A bemused expression spread across the deity's visage. "Nothing too unpleasant, Yua-chan," he straightened and approached her. "Nothing unpleasant at all."
Yua's eyes widened before a wild grin alit her face. "Oh, you're on, your majesty. You are so on."
A decade or so later as the Fourth Senka War reached its climax and Izanagi became the victor of the game; Izanagi-no-Mikoto approached the head of the Takamagahara Palace Guard himself to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. Not simply binding as consort, but marriage. Even so, during the following years as the Fourth Senka War began to end, a red ribbon adorned the Tennin Aizen Yua's neck. That short span of five years during which she Aizen Yua had been the most powerful non-deity in Takamagahara had been the most fun five years of her life. Unfortunately, all good things ended.
During her husband's absence and Izanami-no-Mikoto's claim on the throne, everyone tried their best to keep the goddess from knowing exactly how close the Tennin woman and Izanagi were, lest they incite a jealous rage from the death goddess. The two hundred years of living in fear and posing as a librarian had nearly broken her, the worst experience was assisting her fellow librarians in burning every piece of historical text in the library. Izanami-sama hadn't wanted anything referencing her or her ex-husband to exist. Yua had been able to hide away several of the more vital texts by placing false book covers on them and hiding them in the fiction section of the library. It pained her to see the universe's only documentation of the first three Senka Wars go up in flame.
Two hundred years of eavesdropping and gossip mongering, just to find out what her beloved was up to. It had been pathetic. She had felt pathetic. Weak.
And when Izanagi-no-Mikoto finally returned to Takamagahara, clad in the odd black Keikogi of the Shinigami, she was the first person of his family to greet him, her eyes full of traitorous tears as she ran into his arms. She inquired curiously while being sincerely concerned about what he'd been doing. He told her of how he used the first names that had come to his mind, 'Aizen', which he had borrowed from her, and 'Sousuke', a very common name.
Now, about two months had passed since his return, and the subsequent attack from the Shikome had left Yua injured. She sat on her side of the bed, carefully replacing the bandages wrapped around her right arm. She had learned to count her blessings recently. Her appreciation for her finer luxuries grew over the years until she found that she really didn't particularly need them, but they were still nice to have. Izanagi lounged on his side, reading a novel. She smirked to herself. She had a little piece of news for him.
Yua finished wrapping her bandages and wiped the smile off her face, assuming her usual indifferent expression. She sprawled out on her side, head resting on her elbow, and began poking Izanagi's shoulder.
He didn't look up from his book, but his lip quirked upwards in a slight smile. "Yes, my dear?" he asked, bemused.
She began to ramble in a characteristic deadpan that she typically used to tell him mundane details about her day. He normally began to tune her out somewhat at that point. "So today I was having tea with Uzume-sama and she told me that I looked like I'd gained a bit of weight and I was like 'improbable as I have been getting lots of exercise,'" he was tuning her out. Good. "So she thought I should go to the infirmary and see if there was another reason. I went and Uzume tagged along, as she wanted to know, too. And so I asked some nurse to check it out and turns out there is a reason and I made Uzume swear to secrecy until I told you about it," she poked him harder, catching his attention for a brief second. "Preggers," she said in singsong voice.
Izanagi raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"
Yua pursed her lips. "Of course it is. Have I ever lied to you," she said, fluttering her eyelashes.
"Well, that was the premise of our game, my dear," he said with a grin.
She shrugged and unconsciously placed a hand on her navel. "So, do you want to spend the evening pondering whether the child is going to be a Kami or a Tennin, or do you want to celebrate?" she asked nonchalantly.
The Kami set his book aside. "It is within our ability to do both at the same time, Yua, you know that just as well as I do," he said.
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A/N: Welp. There is about five hours of my life, right here. I'm actually really, really, proud of this. I have floor plans of Takamagahara Palace stuffed away somewhere. I could go dig them up and upload them to my DeviantART is you want. I doubt you'll find them very impressive though. I just used them as a stepping stone so I could actually see what this building looked like in my head. I actually made some changes as I wrote this.
As this chapter has a total of ONE canon character in it, I hope I was able to keep Aizen Sousuke in character while still depicting him as Izanagi. I would appreciate some feedback on that. Also, please review. Even if just to say that you a) love this and want me update asap, or b) hate and think I should die in a hole.