This fic is:
1) Rated PG. Someone gets born and someone else thinks
about their sex life.
2) A spoiler for RG Veda canon.
3) An alternate universe. A VERY alternate universe.
4) The first chapter in a long fic.
Please enjoy!
Raye
=====
raye_j@yahoo.com
Member of the Shoujo Anime Proliferation Project Ynstitute
(SAPPY)
Everyone is a philosopher.
Some people just get paid.
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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: RGVEDA.txt
-- Desc: RGVEDA.txt
Chapter One
by Raye Johnsen
raye_j@yahoo.com
*******************
RG Veda is copyright CLAMP, Flower Comics, and Manga Video. I'd
like to say that all rights are theirs, not mine, that I have no
intentions of claiming anything except Hanako, Shinobu and the
plot (as if anybody else would *want* them), and that I'd really
appreciate it if Yasha-Oh would put his sword away. Please?
Ashura? *Anybody?*
*******************
When asked later, Hanako was never able to remember exactly
*when* she had first started fire-reading. Only that, for as far
back as forever, she would look into the flames, be they the
flickering logs of her aunt's shrine's Sacred Fire, the tinder in
her own family's fireplace or the glimmering of a match, and See.
Before she knew what the flames were telling her, they were
simply stories, pageants played out in the dancing fire, more
interesting than toys or television. After she heard about the
famous Seers of Japan, of Hinoto-hime the Dreaming Princess, the
Buddhist priests of Mt Koya and the Sumeragi Clan, she realized
that others could do as she was doing. But her eyes didn't see a
world she recognised, and so she did not worry about telling
anyone.
When her family were killed in a car accident, her visions
became more important to her than ever. Her aunt became her
guardian, but between her shrine, her work and her own grief,
Watanabe Shinobu had little attention to spare for her quiet
niece. Hanako lost herself in the pictures she saw, and found a
love for the world portrayed within the flames. The five-year-old
learned to draw a quiet comfort from the silent story the fire
told, laughing for the children there and crying for the fallen
in the war the flames showed more and more.
Hanako never told anyone about her gift. It was her secret,
and her undoing, or salvation. It's been recorded in the
histories as both, and it can certainly be construed as either.
Her ability was also the beginning of her destiny. No history
disputes that.
*********
The war against Tentai was moving swiftly to a close.
Ashura-Oh looked at the strategy-board again. Quickly and
yet not quickly enough. He moved a few pieces and nodded; if he
implemented that strategy, victory would be assured and Tentai's
forces would win.
He sighed and moved them back. No. Tentai must lose;
Taishakuten must win; and he -
Ashura-Oh nodded calmly. And he, the head of the Ashura
Clan, must die. But not - quite - yet. His child had six weeks
yet to be born.
He fell back into his chair, permitting himself a groan in
the silence. The soreness from the last time Taishakuten had
slipped past the front lines to him still hadn't completely gone.
Part of him regretted the affair, a part of him Ashura-Oh
quashed into submission every time he was alone and it raised its
head. He had ignored his conscience since his earliest boyhood,
when he had first realized his body's beauty and what it, when
shared with others for a short time, could bring him.
At first, he had rationalized his actions with the thought
that his lovers, if that's what they could be called, knew what
they were doing. Then he treated it like a game; if they didn't
realize he was sleeping with them for what they could give him,
then they deserved to be used. And finally, he had treated the
matter as a simple political tool: sleep with the ones he had to,
to keep his position and influence. As they with him, to keep
their influence over him.
It was one of the reasons he'd married Shasti. She was a
kindred spirit. Power above all, even blood. The little act she'd
put on hadn't fooled him for very long; Shasti was as selfish as
himself and it had shown all too soon. Not that he cared, because
it fitted in with his own desires very well.
But Taishakuten had not wanted influence over him. Or
favour, or indeed any kind of political reward. He had wanted
*him*. Ashura-Oh.
Tentai's head strategist felt a pang of regret. To be
desired for *himself*, not as a pretty toy to be intimidated and
bent to pliancy, not as a source of power and favour, and not as
a challenge to be fought and overcome. How romantic. How sweet.
How very foolish. He really ought not to indulge his prot�g�'s
weakness.
/But it *is* the repayment he asked for./
Ashura-Oh turned back to the board, and plotting his own
forces' demise. It was necessary, for his child to survive.
Moving the tokens that would cause the sacrifice of two
legions, the thought never entered his head that he was
sacrificing two thousand other fathers' children.
**************
Shashti felt one of the children within her bloated womb kick.
Surrounded by her maids, she could do no more than wince, when
she really wanted to fling her head back and shriek.
It wasn't *fair*!
She didn't *deserve* this! She didn't want the swollen
ankles or the constant nausea. She didn't *want* the backaches or
the lack of sleep. It was impossible to believe that pregnancy
was giving her skin a glorious glow (as her husband and lover
both claimed) when she was losing her beautiful, willowy figure
to the brats the two men in her bed had planted in her belly. And
(for Shasti was brutally honest with herself, even as she lied to
the world) she didn't even want the children.
She wanted the power and position she'd accrue bearing them.
/But I would gleefully give worlds to be rid of them!/ she
thought, her entire heart and will behind the thought.
Of such things is the future made. A breath more breeze in
the right place blows a scarf from a pretty girl into a handsome
boy's hands. A drop more rain drowns the crop it would have
otherwise watered.
And a goddess' heartfelt wish for the end of her pregnancy
pushes her into premature labor.
***************
Hanako would never know why she chose to watch the fire that day.
Kujaku would eventually guess a little, but the truth of the
universe was not to be revealed to either of them.
For the truth of the matter, no matter how the gods of any
plane would like their worshippers to believe otherwise, is that
three entities govern every and all things. Or perhaps they are
principles - or personifications of principles...
The question of their exact definition remains one for
philosophers and no two have yet agreed on its answer. So we'll
leave them to debate.
Whatever their nature, these three defining forces are so
powerful that no mortal may escape their view. Many curse them.
Many more do their best to avoid them. But Destiny, Fate and Luck
can be neither avoided nor cursed.
Luck can be taken advantage of, and quite likes it when it
is. Destiny can be thwarted, and has a tendency to be rather
vindictive to its opponents. Fate alone is implacable, but it's
also rather flexible, so long as it's allowed the final word. For
who is to say what is someone's fate, but Fate itself?
Destiny had a plan. Luck would favour its favourites, as it
always had. But Fate decided to take a hand.
It picked Hanako's.
************************
Shasti shrieked.
It *hurt*! Yet *another* reason to hate childbearing! She
honestly felt as though she was being split open from within. If
Ashura-Oh had turned up with the Shurah Sword and offered to cut
her open, she'd have welcomed it!
"Easy now, easy," the midwife tried to soothe her. "I can
see the head..."
Shasti screamed as her body convulsed again.
A thin cry broke the silence. The midwives bustled quietly,
cleaning the infant. Finishing, they laid the newborn in a crib
to the side of the room.
"Everyone," the chief midwife called softly. The cluster of
midwives clucked to her side, dealing with the complications in
the birth of the second twin.
******************
Hanako dropped her bookbag behind her bedroom door. Stripping out
of her school uniform and struggling into the miko robes she'd
appropriated from the storage closet, she ran to the shrine.
Making the barest obeisance to the gods of the shrine, she
quickly dropped into full lotus position before the Fire and
stared deeply into it.
The picture blurred, swayed and fuzzed. Events seemed to
occur too fast for view, too fast for time.
She saw an infant wrapped in a treetrunk, it's father
murdered. A swordsman who lost all he loved, guarding the infant.
A woman sent to be a messenger and guardian, beloved by one who
had chosen the path of strength above all. A boy-warrior, full of
life's fire, able to command water's dragons. A wise woman,
having lost all she held dear, holding on to see justice done.
And all eventually in flames, the world destroyed.
Hanako didn't understand the half of what she saw. Why did
the woman with the half-moon throwing knives hug the lady with
the harp when they weren't sisters and weren't saying 'hello' or
'goodbye'? Why did the boy throw the dragons at the soldiers when
he had that really cool sword? Why was the beautiful lady with
the herons so sad all the time?
But she did understand one thing. It was all started by the
baby being imprisoned.
She was wrong, but it was what she saw at the time.
Hanako stood, and, in a process she was never able to fully
explain afterwards, reached and called. Or so she would later
describe the action.
The flames bent and twisted, and a gateway built itself of
flame in the centre of the Fire. Without any fear, she walked
through.
***********************
Hanako was standing in a hallway, darkened and deserted. The only
light came from the frame of the door she had come through. It
hung in the air behind her, a rectangle of fire.
A scream came from behind the door she was standing
opposite. Hanako stepped across the hall and quickly pulled the
door open.
A woman lay on a bed in the centre of the room, surrounded
by other women. "Easy, now," the one who appeared to be in charge
said. "Don't push yet - the baby's not in position - easy..."
Ah. She was having a baby. Hanako had been told that having
a baby was painful, but worth the pain. The women were looking
after her anyway. She saw a baby, already born, quiet in her
crib.
Hanako slipped over and peeped in. The little one wasn't
asleep. Her big golden eyes were wide, examining everything in
sight. Hanako caught her breath. This was her! The baby who was
the centre of it all! And she hadn't been imprisoned yet...
Picking up the baby, Hanako quickly backed out of the room,
shutting the door behind her. She quickly stepped through the
gate of flame, letting it collapse behind her.
*************
The midwives, bending to their task, all gave a great sigh of
relief when the little boy slid out of the birth canal, blinked,
and gave a soft, weak cry. His passage to the world had been
fraught, and more dangerous than others would like to admit.
But he was here, and would grow strong.
The junior midwife turned to tend to the little girl. The
shriek she uttered on seeing the empty crib was louder than any
that Shasti had given voice to all through her labor.
*************
Watanabe Shinobu liked to think she was a hardened businesswoman.
Nothing could faze her. She was unshockable. She could handle
*anything* Life chose to fling at her. She could withstand the
barb'd arrows of Fate and avoid the pitfalls of any problem.
"Aunt Shinobu, may I speak with you?" her niece's voice
penetrated her fog of concentration.
"Of course, Hanako," she replied, swinging round in her
chair. "What's the prob..."
Hanako was standing in the doorway, her small arms full of
very young, very alive... baby. "I found her. Can I keep her?"
Shinobu felt her illusions shatter into small, glass-sharp
shards. A baby. A baby, abandoned? It didn't happen anymore. Did
it?
"Hanako. Where did you find her?"
Hanako frowned, and then waved a hand vaguely towards the
front of the house, the shrine and the torii at the gate. "Out
there."
Shinobu reached for the last lifeline. "Was there anybody
with her? Or near the gate?"
Hanako shook her head. "No, Aunt Shinobu. Just me 'n her."
"Her? Somebody else? Who?" Yes, she *was* grasping at
straws. One child, six years old and already reliably
housetrained, was hard enough to cope with!
The aforesaid child gave her an 'are you an idiot?' look.
"The baby, Aunt Shinobu."
Great. Just wonderful. An abandoned infant left on her
doorstep. She didn't know a *thing* about babies!
The child began to wail thinly as Keiko thought desperately.
"Don't worry, Asha-little sister," Hanako said calmly, somehow
juggling the baby into another position in her arms. "Aunt
Shinobu's gonna help us make you some nice milk and we'll be all
okay."
'Aunt Shinobu' could take a hint, especially when applied
with a sledgehammer. She stood and began to walk out of the home
office, towards the kitchen.
"By the way," she said, "how are we going to explain her,
when we register her?"
Hanako smiled, the sweet pitiless smile of the enlightened.
"Aunt Shinobu, I know you'll work something out."
/My niece has faith in me. It would be nice if I did, too,/
thought Shinobu as she filled the saucepan with milk.
****************
Ashura-Oh was sitting calmly, waiting for news on the birth of
the child. He was not nervous, nor pacing, but he was rearranging
the tokens on his strategy-board.
This was happening too soon! All his plans were *weeks* off
fruition! The war would end, Taishakuten and he would duel, he
would die, Taishakuten would announce Shasti as his chosen
spouse, wed her, and *then* she would bear the children!
Now, he couldn't predict anything. The child would be born
under *his* hand - and he couldn't kill her. He *couldn't*. That
was what all his meticulous planning was for...
A midwife came charging into the room. She looked harassed
and distressed.
Ashura-Oh rose to walk to her, but the woman burst out, "Oh!
Oh, your majesty, you won't believe it! The most terrible thing!
We only laid her in her crib for a moment! I swear! We never
meant! The poor little lamb! Oh, your majesty!"
Ashura-Oh stopped and blinked. He didn't have time to speak,
as the woman calmed herself enough to continue. "Your majesty,
the princess has been stolen!"
*****************
1) Hanako: "Little flower". The generic girl's name in Japan,
like "Mary" or "Jane" in our culture.
2) Shinobu: Endurance. She's going to have to endure a lot before
I'm done, so it's only fair to give her the quality.
3) Watanabe: I have NO idea what this means, but I'm told by
reliable sources it's a very common family name; an English
analogue would be Jones or Smith. So "Watanabe Hanako"
translates, in spirit, to "Jane Smith". Or, in other words,
commonplace and ordinary.
4) Asha as Ashura's name: In the culture of RG Veda, a clan head
sheds the name they were given by their family and takes the name
of the clan when they're made leader, in order to show that they
now hold the welfare of the clan above their own. Before she was
born, the entire Ashura clan was killed, so Ashura, as the
previous clan-king's heir and the only surviving Ashura, was
automatically the leader of the Ashura. She was never given the
chance to have a childhood name.
In this fic, she is born during her father's lifetime and
therefore has to have a childhood name. As for why Hanako named
her Asha - Hanako *is* only six! She can't say *every* word
right! And she liked the sound of her first attempt, so she stuck
to it.