Ryuusei Den ["The Legend of a Shooting Star"](footnotes at the bottom) Prologue:Koutoku, Shunkaku, listen well. When your poor mother gave birth to you two, it was very painful. But when your two precious faces appeared before our eyes, we felt like we were ascending to the Heavens. Boys, in this village, twins are thought of as important protecting-deities. Mother and Father are so proud of you. But not only because of that. We thought that perhaps you were not only protecting-deities of this village, but maybe also protecting-deities of this country…. Mother and Father thought this when we saw you two. Your lives are gifts from the Heavens. No matter what happens, help each other, love each other, and live strongly. Even if you two should be separated physically, link your souls together as one. However, if you should see a shooting star, that is a gloomy sign that bears tidings of your separation. When that happens, you shall fight with your life on the line. Koutoku shall protect Shunkaku, and Shunkaku shall protect Koutoku in return. You boys are our pride and joy. Because….you are Kutou’s pride and joy…. Chapter 1: The Twins’ Tragedy"Oh! It’s a shooting star…." It was then that nine-year-old Bu
Koutoku witnessed a star shoot across the dusk sky. In the next instant, Koutoku And then, many minutes later, Koutoku stopped in front of the entrance to the village that he had been born and raised in. In an sea of fire, many bloody corpses were piled up…. Cries of death were also heard from various places. Gritting his teeth, Koutoku stumbled towards his house. "Dad! Mom! Shunkaku!!" Kanri, his father, had returned home early today as it was his wife’s birthday. The family of four would be able to enjoy this evening together; which they had not been able to do for some time. Koutoku’s mother, busy with preparations for supper, had sent Koutoku out alone to do the shopping, leaving his feverish brother, Shunkaku, at home to rest. "Return safely", she had said as he left the house. The twins had usually gone to the market place in the neighboring village together, holding hands as they went. It had only been one hour ago that Koutoku’s kind mother had sent him off out of the warm, cozy house…. That once peaceful scene was now no where to be found. Koutoku’s house had been mercilessly smashed, and the front door was surrounded in red flames. But not even seeming to give this a second thought, Koutoku ran into the house. "Dad! Mom! Shunkaku!" Choked up with smoke, and brushing ashes out of his face, Koutoku whirled frantically around the house. "…………Kou…..toku…." Hearing a voice calling him from the bedroom, the boy brushed the smoke out of the way and headed in that direction. "…..Dad….!" His father lay on the floor, and held his mother, as if propping her up. Their clothes were stained in blood. Koutoku crawled up to his parents and shook his father violently. "Dad! Hang in there! You can’t die!" "…..Koutoku…" "Mo…Mom…. Is she…?!" His father shook his head silently. Koutoku leapt to his mother’s corpse and wept bitterly. His body shivered violently, and his tears flowed out uncontrollably. "Koutoku… Pull yourself together. Are you listening? We hid Shunkaku inside the barn out back. Rescue him before the flames reach him." Nodding his trembling head, the boy asked his father "Who in the world…could do such a thing?!" "….Probably one of those anti-government militias… Kutou’s in a terrible state now… Everyone has allowed their hearts to be split, and because of that…soldiers attack innocent villages and towns…" "I, I’ll get back at them. I will avenge Mom’s death!" Kanri firmly grabbed the hand of his son whose face was drenched in tears. "Did you forget…what your Mother had always told you?…." Koutoku said nothing. "She said that you boys were this country’s protecting-deities. That you were this country’s pride and joy…" "Who cares about that! Why do we have to protect this country?! They do…such terrible…things to us…." Kanri looked up at his son, shivering with rage. Under thin eyebrows were intellectual eyes…. Turning to face his brave son of only nine years, Kanri nodded and spoke. "You must protect this country because you are a Seiryuu Seishi." "….Seiryuu Seishi….?" "Have you not heard the story before?" "Come to think of it," Koutoku thought, "I have heard of that story from the boy next door. If a girl from another world appears and calls on the god, Seiryuu, with the seven Seiryuu Seishi, any wish can be granted. And the countries Sairou and Hokkan had supposedly called on their gods, Byakko and Genbu, and had acquired peace…." Koutoku nodded slightly. "Take a good look….at your right shoulder…" Koutoku glanced at his right shoulder showing through his burned clothes, and could clearly see the character "kou" glowing with blue light. He gasped. Koutoku had heard that people with blue characters on parts of their bodies were Seiryuu Seishi. And those names were "Nakago", "Soi", "Ashitare", "Tomo", "Miboshi", and also "Suboshi" and "Amiboshi"…. Which means that I’m "Amiboshi"….? "When you two were born into this world, we could faintly see your characters glowing. ….We discovered that the two of you must be Seiryuu Seishi and used your characters to name you… We had agreed to talk to both of you about this….after your characters had appeared again…" "So is Shunkaku also a Seishi…?" "…..I don’t know. We won’t be sure until his character appears on his left shoulder again…. And besides, we still don’t know how far his Seishi powers have matured yet…. But you are different…." Sliding a wooden flute out from under the bed, Kanri handed it to his son. "You can manipulate your ki through your mouth…. I noticed that for sure. You can probably control your power through this flute…" The boy stared blankly at the flute his father gave him. "Come, why are you just standing there like that?…. Hurry along and rescue Shunkaku." "But Dad…" "Hurry!" Koutoku remembered the shooting star he had just seen as he stared at his dying father. As his mother had told him, it was a bad sign. "Dad….Mom…." His mother’s dead face was peaceful and also beautiful. Wiping his tears with his sleeve, and nodding silently to his father, Koutoku turned around. While coughing from the rising smoke, Koutoku headed for the barn. The flames had reached the barn now. He opened the barn door and yelled his little brother’s name. "Shunkaku! Shunkaku!" There was no answer. He searched behind the shelves and even inside the hay, but he still could not find his little brother. But then… "Nii-chan! Nii-chan!!" When Koutoku heard Shunkaku’s voice, he bolted out of the barn and found his brother standing on a little path by the barn, wailing his head off. The exact opposite of his strong-willed older brother, Shunkaku had been raised whining to his parents and depending on Koutoku. Unable to stand being closed up by himself in the barn, he had run out into the open. Noticing the soldiers that were surrounding Shunkaku, Koutoku was riveted to the spot. Koutoku thought that the soldiers who had attacked his village had left already, but those greedy slobs left over had been prowling around in search of gold or valuables they had overlooked. "So what should we do with this little shit?…" "There’s not much to him; even if we sold him he might not bring us in a penny!" "He’s not gonna live much longer anyway. Let’s just kill him." Barely letting the last soldier finish his order, Koutoku had sprinted over to Shunkaku and stood in front of him protectively. "Nii-chan!" Shunkaku cried as he clung onto his brother. "It’s okay. Nii-chan’s here, so everything will be okay." Laughter burst out from the soldiers. "Oooh, aren’t these guys twins? They don’t act alike, but their faces are exactly the same; they’re perfect *copies* of each other!" "Hey, did ya know that in my village, twins are bad luck? If someone has twins, we kill the weaker one." "Is that so? Okay, so we get to sell the healthy-looking one, and we get to kill the crybaby sonofabitch?" The instant the soldier who said that drew his sword from his sheath, his face became strangely distorted. "Ow….! Ah, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!" Holding his head, the man pointed at the taller twin. "Do…do something about him already!!" His fellow soldiers looked uneasily in the direction of the boy. With burns on his face and clothes, the boy glared at the wincing soldier with clenched teeth, and at the same time, appeared to be blowing air out of his mouth. "What the hell is he doing!" Koutoku faced the soldier who had said that. The instant he did, the man held his face in pain. "Wha, what’s going on! Who *are* you?! Come on! Just kill both of them!" The moment the remaining soldiers drew their swords, Koutoku unconsciously took out the flute that his father had given him. As one would expect, up until now, he had never played, nor touched a flute before. However, Koutoku brought the flute to his lips as if he had been born playing it. His fingers began to move on their own; spinning out a violent, shaking melody. "AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" The soldiers, their faces twisted in agony, fell to the ground one by one.But the sound of the flute did not cease. Koutoku’s eyes glared coldly at the suffering men who had attacked his innocent mother, father, and little brother, and also the village he loved and was raised in. "Die…" A voice inside of himself commanded. "Rip apart!!" * * * Koutoku and Shunkaku returned to their house once more, only to find it
completely burned to the ground. Koutoku bit his lip and hung his head. He would
never see his father or mother again. Koutoku put a strong hand on his little brother’s sobbing head, drenched with tears. Even though the two were twins, the younger one was not only shorter, but thinner and sickly. Koutoku told himself then that he must protect this boy from what unknown danger lay ahead. "Nii-chan?" "Hm?" "When did you practice using the flute to smash up the bad guys?" Shunkaku asked innocently as he looked up in awe at his older brother. "Oh…Don’t you remember I was always whistling? That’s how I practiced." "H~~m, where’d you get the flute?" "…..That nice man from the village next door gave it to me…" "H~~m, I want one, toooo." Koutoku stole a glance at Shunkaku’s naked left shoulder, which had probably been exposed in the scuffle with the soldiers. When Koutoku noticed that there was nothing out of the ordinary on Shunkaku’s shoulder, he self-consciously covered his own shoulder. If Shunkaku were really a Seiryuu Seishi, then the symbol his parents had seen on him at birth should have appeared on his shoulder. That is what his father had told him. And until the day came when Shunkaku’s symbol appeared, Koutoku must tactfully avoid the subject. Koutoku was a Seiryuu Seishi; his power being to easily kill with the aid of his flute, and his younger brother might also be a Seiryuu Seishi… Koutoku vowed in his heart to not only keep this secret from Shunkaku, but from everyone else. "Nii-chan, I’m hungry…" Shunkaku tugged on Koutoku’s sleeve as he wept. footnotes: "Koutoku" and
"Shunkaku" are Amiboshi’s and Suboshi’s former names. The
"kou" in "Koutoku" is the same character that appears on
Amiboshi’s shoulder and the "kaku" in "Shunkaku" is the
character on Suboshi’s shoulder. |