Subject: [FFML] [Kyoshirou][Kannazuki no Miko] Temptation of a True Embrace
From: Jenny Chan
Date: 11/26/2006, 11:56 AM
To: ffml@anifics.com

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[KannaMiko][Kyoshirou] Temptation of a True Embrace

Temptation of a True Embrace - Teaser
A Kannazuki no Miko / Kyoshiro to Towa no Kuu Shortfic By Jen-chan
jen-chan@shaw.ca
Nov 24, 2006 - Nov 24, 2006

DISCLAIMER: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko and Kyoshiro to Towa 
no Kuu that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are 
being used without permission from their owners who include Geneon, 
TNK and Kaishaku.

CONTINUITY: Everything I know about Kyoshirou (which is to say, not 
very much) is from this thread, with these scans: 
http://www.shoujoai.com/forum/topic_show.pl?pid=699153#699153

SYNOPSIS: For Murakumo no Kaon, there was no greater triumph than 
knowing her love was requited. There was also no greater tragedy than 
knowing that such a requitement would end her beloved's life. 

WARNING: This fic deals with mature subject matter that is intended for 
a mature audience. Reader discretion is advised.

Author's notes follow the end of this fic.


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The sparse bed chamber was completely dark and almost cold; it was 
winter and the dead of night in the land of Kaga after all. Although 
her eyes were closed, Murakumo no Kaon laid fully awake on her side in 
her bed. She did not face the door, but all her senses were trained on 
it, as she waited, and waited, and waited, wondering if it was a good 
thing that it remained unopened, undisturbed, untouched, as the minutes 
rolled by in the night.

It was well past the twilight hour now. 

Himiko would not be coming to Kaon's bed tonight if she hadn't done so 
already.

Kaon felt a familiar dull ache in her heart but she told herself that 
it was for the best. Another night without Himiko asleep by her side - 
in her arms - against her body - was another night that the blonde miko 
from the land of the sun remained healthy, safely away from the 
intoxicating temptation of a True Embrace. 

Gradually, Kaon let the tension and strength bleed from her body as she 
began to lull herself into the meditative trance that will allow her 
body to slowly regenerate its own mana. 

It was a slow and trying process, much less efficient than regaining 
strength through an Embrace. Kaon knew it would take at least a week's 
worth of meditation (and only if she took care not to expend the mana 
accumulated in that time unduly), for her to come back to full 
strength. 

On the other hand, she would only need to engage in three or four 
Embraces, a chore of minutes, to regain the equivalent mana. 

But replenishing her mana from the lips of one of the many girls in 
Mika-sama's outer harem was no longer an option. It had not been, since 
the day Kaon realized just what Himiko meant to her...

And then, just as Kaon reached the cusp of achieving meditative sleep, 
she heard the soft knock on her chamber door. 

Kaon's eyes snapped open. 

Light from the hallway poured into the room for a few moments as the 
door opened, and then shut again. The room returned into inky 
blackness, but Kaon knew she was no longer alone. 

She heard the soft clinking of chains as feet padded noiselessly across 
the room to her bedside. 

Oh... no...

If Himiko was in her chains, then it could only mean that she had 
already been Full-Embraced by Mika-sama tonight. 

Kaon's heart tied itself into unbreakable knots. 

It was not the fact that another had claims to Himiko's body besides 
herself that bothered her. 

What tore up Kaon's heart the most savagely, was knowing that when 
Mika-sama extracted mana from her subjects, the Queen of Kaga was not 
known to be... especially... humane...  

Kaon prayed, though she doubted any God above would ever listen to her, 
that Himiko would be able to heal quickly. 

Just as Kaon pulled herself upright, a small body collapsed heavily 
into her, knocking the wind out of her chest momentarily.  

Himiko was as cold as death. Her breathing was laboured.  

A lump developed in Kaon's throat. 

Oh, gods... it was bad tonight...

"Himiko..." 

Kaon's voice sounded heart-broken, even in her own ears, as she 
hesitantly called the small woman she held. 

Himiko did not answer. She only shivered uncontrollably.

Quickly, Kaon broke the shackles around Himiko's neck, wrists and 
ankles - as an Absolute Angel, and Mika-sama's most trusted Sword, Kaon 
was able to abolish the mana made chains. They glowed a dull green 
momentarily before crumbling into nothingness in her hands. 

Freed from her physical bonds, Himiko grew suddenly light as a 
feather...

... as though she were made of nothing... as though she were not even 
there...

Kaon scooped the small woman up and re-deposited her under the 
blankets, peeling off the torn and ripped rags that once properly 
clothed Himiko. It was a small miracle that the material came off of 
Himiko's body smoothly. The tell-tale sticky evidence of drawn blood 
was absent; Mika-sama had not bled Himiko tonight. 

Quickly, Kaon removed her own sleeping yukata and wrapped her arms 
around the small girl, holding Himiko tightly against herself, 
desperately trying to warm that icy flesh with her own.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Kaon was rewarded for her efforts, and Himiko's 
trembling body stilled, and gradually warmed.

An indeterminable time passed in that desperate darkness, until 
finally, thankfully, Himiko stirred of her own accord; the small girl 
reached up, and wrapped her own arms around Kaon's neck, snuggling her 
face into Kaon's chest.

Kaon let out a breathe she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and felt 
the terrible tension of worry and apprehension fade from her limbs. 

For now anyway, the worst had passed.

"Himiko...?"

The small girl made no motion of acknowledgement.   

Kaon realized her error. She brushed the hair tenderly out of the small 
woman's face and tried again. 

"Himeko."

Though she couldn't have had the energy to, the small blonde lifted her 
head, and rewarded Kaon with a smile - a small, exhausted, but genuine 
smile. "That's better, Chikane-chan."

Kaon smiled wanly back. 

While Kaon herself didn't feel any particular attachment to her 
previous identity, before she assumed the mantle of Absolute Angel 
Murakumo, she knew how much Himi... Himeko treasured her childhood, 
before she was forcibly ripped from her homeland, the Land of the Sun, 
and taken into Mika-sama's outer harem. The irony was that Mika-sama 
had taken inspiration in re-naming Himeko from the role that the girl 
had been destined for, of which she would now never fulfill: Himiko - 
Hi no miko - Priestess of the Sun.  

"Himeko," Kaon said as gently as she could, "I'm doing to turn on the 
light now. I have to look at your injuries." 

Kaon reached for her beside lamp, but Himeko stopped her with a gentle 
touch on her arm.

"I'm alright," Himeko said softly, tugging Kaon's hand gently back to 
return to its original position on the small of her back. "I wasn't 
hurt. It wasn't so bad tonight. I wasn't the first. Mika-sama was 
already mostly sated by the time she got to me." The blond miko smiled 
apologetically and reached up to cup the side of Kaon's face tenderly. 
"I'm sorry, I should have asked Mika-sama to remove the chains first 
before she left her chambers. I didn't mean to make you worry." 

Kaon sighed as she reached up and put her hand over Himeko's, nuzzling 
against Himeko's palm. Closing her eyes, she kissed those thin, 
delicate fingers. 

Himeko sighed contently. She allowed Kaon to lavish loving attention 
onto her fingers for a few more moments, before she slipped her hand 
from Kaon's grasp. 

Under the blankets, Kaon felt Himeko pull her bare body upright, until 
she straddled Kaon's thighs. She slid her hands - lingering almost 
teasingly so - over Kaon's breasts before draping her arms over Kaon's 
shoulders.

Kaon opened her eyes, an apprehensive expression on her face. 
"Himeko... what are you... doing...?"

Coyly, Himeko touched her fingers to Kaon's lips, silencing her with a 
soft, "shh..." She leaned forward and kissed Kaon softly on the cheek, 
and then on her ear, her neck, the soft spot where her jaw met her 
throat...

Tension, though of an entirely different nature from before, flooded 
though Kaon's body again as she tilted her head upwards instinctively 
in pleasure, giving Himeko more flesh to claim. She became very keenly 
aware of several things...

... how gloriously soft, tantalizingly near, and absolutely bare 
Himeko's body was...

... how quickly their hearts were pounding, in union...

... how deeply, consummately, agonizingly, she, Himeko, they both 
wanted each other...

... how perilous, how dangerous, the situation was.

Himeko reached up, and pulled Kaon's face towards her. She closed her 
eyes, and dipped her head to kiss Kaon's lips...

Kaon's heart leapt up into her throat, as she watched those quavering 
lips come closer, and closer, and...

... somehow, someway, she managed to turn her head to the side. 
Himeko's lips pressed harmlessly against Kaon's cheek.

Reaching up, Kaon cupped the side of Himeko's face, and pushed her 
back, so that she could regard her properly. For the first time that 
night, Kaon could clearly see the truth in Himeko's large, shimmering, 
amethyst eyes... 

... and she realized that those comforting words that Himeko had given 
her earlier - that tonight hadn't been bad, that she hadn't been hurt, 
that she would be alright - were all lies... lies... lies... 

Realizing that she'd been caught, and that it would not be so easy to 
initiate the Embrace, but unwilling to just give up at this stage, 
Himeko rolled her head out of Kaon's gentle grasp and went to nibble on 
one of Kaon's ears, even as her hands slid downwards to brush 
provocatively against more sensitive areas. 

Kaon bit her lip and tried not to let Himeko drive her to madness. 
"Himeko... stop... we can't..." Kaon begged, wishing _oh_ _so_ _much_ 
that they _could_, that it was unclear even to herself what she was 
begging for. "We can't... you know we can't..."

But Himeko wouldn't stop her tantalizing torture.

Kaon could feel the roaring in her blood as Himeko continued to stoke 
her arousal. "I... your mana..." 

It was no good, Kaon realized. At the rate things were going... 

Kaon bit her tongue, hard. The metallic taste of blood flooded into her 
mouth and the sharp, sudden pain pulled her out of the intoxicating 
haze Himeko was weaving. In that split second of pain derived clarity, 
Kaon managed to wrestle control of her senses back from instinctual 
urges. She grabbed Himeko's shoulders and pushed her back. 

"Don't you understand?!" Kaon cried, her fingers almost digging into 
Himeko's flesh. "I'd _kill_ you...!" 

The force with which Kaon's spat her words stunned Himeko as though 
she'd been slapped. Eyes wide with shock, Himeko stared unseeingly at 
Kaon, before the blonde came back to herself, and bowed her head.

Kaon instantly regretted her actions as tears began to stream silently 
down Himeko's cheeks. But even though it pained her to know that she'd 
made Himeko cry, she knew she'd done the right thing - what she had to 
do. Because, if she hadn't... 

"Would that be so bad?" Himeko asked softly. "To die of a True 
Embrace... to give everything I am, every drop of mana in my body and 
soul to Chikane-chan... isn't that the most wonderful end that I could 
ever hope for?"  

Kaon stared at the other woman, not quite able to believe what she'd 
just heard.

Was this... was this how Himeko actually felt...?

Kaon gently took Himeko's chin and raised the crying woman's face to 
look at her in her eyes. The misery she found there was so intense, 
Kaon thought her heart would shatter into a million shards by merely 
gazing at it.

"Himeko... please... don't... don't make me live without you." 

Himeko scrunched up her face as the tears began to flow more heavily. 
She tried to shy away from Kaon's desperately earnest gaze, but the 
Absolute Angel would not let her go.

"Please, Himeko. No matter how hard, how bad it gets, promise me you 
won't seek death. Promise me!" 

Himeko swallowed, squeezing her eyes tight, either unable or unwilling 
to meet Kaon's eyes. 

For a terrible, terrible second, Kaon thought the blonde would 
refuse...

... but then, somehow, someway, Himeko managed to find that small shred 
of hope not yet smothered into nothingness in her heart, and she 
summoned the courage to nod meekly.

Kaon felt a small tremor of relief in her chest. 

They were safe, for now; Himeko would not break her promises so 
lightly.

Wordlessly, Kaon pulled Himeko gently back towards her, and laid them 
both down in the bed. She kissed Himeko on the forehead once, softly, 
chastely, although in truth, she still felt anything but, before she 
quietly let the sobbing girl bury her face into her chest, and cry 
herself into merciful exhaustion and dreamless sleep. 

This wouldn't do, Kaon despaired. They couldn't go on like this. 

But what could they do?


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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

... okay, so I know it's totally foolhardy to invest any time or 
energy into a fic (even a shortfic) about characters I know next to 
nothing about in a show that hasn't even begun to air yet, but I 
can't help it. The Himiki/Kaon scans that have been coming out are 
just sooo delicious that muse-chan's been going nuts filling in 
unrevealed plot and characterization in my head.

The product is this fic (which may turn out to be a teaser of sorts 
for a longer story, since muse-chan keeps bombarding me with ideas 
even as I'm desperately trying to complete accounting assignments), 
which will definitely be proven to be utterly WRONG and STUPID as 
soon as Kyoshiro to Towa no Kuu finally hits the air some time in 
2007, but I hope you will enjoy it anyway.

The scans, by the way, can be found here:

http://www.shoujoai.com/forum/topic_show.pl?pid=699153#699153

As a brief note of explanation, I'd like to point out that 
Kyoshirou to Towa no Kuu is unrelated to Kannazuki no miko; it is 
just that the creators of the series are recycling character 
designs, and Himiko and Kaon are replicas of Himeko and Chikane, 
down to the same deliciously doomed relationship. My eternal 
affection for Himeko and Chikane have thusly spilt over into 
Himiko and Kaon...

Cheers,

Jenny


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