DISCLAIMER:
The characters belong to Sai Yukino and Kairi Yura, Kadokawa Shoten,
Madhouse Studios, etc., i.e., not me.
I'm just borrowing them for a
while to spin a tale
Submitted to
Saiun
Challenge's November 2008 Prompt, Faith, +1,500 words, and won Second
Place :)
That
Which Does Not Kill…
By firewolf
November 2008
@>;-'-
It had understandably been
thought that the powers of the Emperor’s Twin Flowers were crippled.
After all, Ran Shuuei had been demoted and furthermore disinherited
from the Ran Clan. And Li Kouyuu had been dismissed as Under Secretary
of the Department of Civil Affairs, and made a very public declaration
of placing his loyalty to the emperor above that of his adopted Clan.
Neither had rank and status in the Courts, nor a direct clan
affiliation any longer.
Most enemies of the throne recognized this diminished status and were
scornful that Emperor Shi Ryuuki refused to set them aside as his
advisors. As much as their first appointment had been a credit to his
office, their continued status as his Twin Flowers when they held so
little influence and power was now seen as personal favouritism.
Ryuuki’s detractors really should have left things well enough alone.
However, one bright spark apparently had not been satisfied with the
now lowly status of the Emperor’s Twin Flowers. Former Official Sai
wanted it brought lower, and in his actions committed a mistake of
horrendous proportions.
Sai was smart enough not to direct his attention at Li Kouyuu. Although
Li was not given the Clan name, stories of Kou Reishin’s love and
protectiveness of *his* son had been increasingly spread across the
land by members of the Kou clan themselves as a warning to others that
Li could still call upon his father’s personal support. Sai also
remembered too clearly Reishin’s whispered words to him regarding his
enacted revenge for an affront paid to Kouyuu many years earlier; a
settling of scores which eventually saw Sai’s removal from office. Sai
did not want to attract the attention of the Kou Clan’s head again.
Still, Ran Shuuei had not been an easy target, and Sai easily lost half
of his mercenary forces during the man’s abduction. With the remainder
slaughtered when the Emperor himself lead his troops to the man’s
rescue. However, Sai had foolishly thought the sacrifice worth it since
the abductors were wiped out to the last man and he hadn’t needed to
pay them for their excellent work; for he had heard whispers that the
mercenaries who survived Ran Shuuei’s seizure took eager retribution
upon their helpless captive. And it did not take a creative mind to
imagine the abuse that cowards would heap on an erstwhile dangerous man
as Ran Shuuei, when they had him powerless to stop his assailants. So
it was a shattered wrack of a man whom Emperor Ryuuki eventually
rescued and brought back to the palace.
As had been correctly predicted, the Emperor’s powers and influence
were little use to track down the mastermind of the craven assault.
However, the same could not be said of the Kous. And Li had known this
when he approached his father to beg his assistance. It was a request
Kou Reishin did not refuse. Furthermore, Li’s father even set aside his
infamous animosity of the Ran Triplets to share the knowledge his spies
had gleaned. The tales of their joint vengeance for the harm inflicted
upon the Emperor’s Twin Flowers were to make men shiver for decades to
come.
The Kous had the clout to completely ruin Sai and to ensure his family
would take generations to rebuild, if the current generation managed to
survive this lifetime. The Rans enacted a more personal retribution,
and in doing so forcefully reminded the general public that although
Ran Shuuei was disinherited by the Clan, he was still the younger
brother of the Clan heads. It was whispered that it took Sai a month to
die. And even then the Ran brothers thought his death too quick.
However, the man’s body could only endure the torture meted out to it
under their expert care for so long before it finally failed.
Unfortunately, revenge could not unmake the damage inflicted upon Ran
Shuuei. The small mercy that he was still physically intact could not
be compared to the devastation enacted on his soul. And the healing of
his spirit would take a woefully longer time than the healing of his
physical wounds.
However, Ran Shuuei would and did heal over the many months and years
to follow. Li demanded nothing less of his fellow Twin Flower. For to
this end, Li Kouyuu was to make himself inseparable from his best
friend.
No matter the numerous times Ran Shuuei had screamed at and cursed the
man, and tried to distance himself in those early days, Li stubbornly
stood firm and steadfast in his resolve to stay by his side. Where
other friends had long fled in hurt and confusion to give the man the
space he demanded, Li alone remained unmoved.
To the relief of all, Ran Shuuei eventually relented and accepted his
loyalty. And thankfully, finally began then his journey to heal.
Significantly, that day also marked the new era of strength and
solidarity for Emperor Ryuuki’s Twin Flowers. For through this
agonising time, Li Kouyuu had come to discover within himself the
unchangeable conviction and spirit of determination necessary to stand
firm in his beliefs to enact the reforms of his ruler; building then
with each passing day a well earned reputation for ruthless efficiency
and results which would carry him fast up the ladder of the Civil
Service. On his part, Ran Shuuei had learned to coolly channel the
anger and frustrations of his wounded soul into battle and strategy;
quickly ensuring his steady and swift climb in the ranks of the
military. And always, the closeness between Li and Ran was such that
the Twin Flowers grew together in perfectly matched power and
influence.
Eventually, there came a time where it seemed to many in the Court of
Saiunkoku that the Emperor’s Twin Flowers no longer needed words to
communicate. For it appeared the men knew each others’ mind so well, a
barely perceptible glance could convey to their counterpart volumes of
information which might otherwise take others hours to articulate. This
was when the Twin Flowers became most respected by the officials of the
Court. And marked the moment when Emperor Shi Ryuuki began ushering
Saiunkoku into what historians would later identify as the Golden Age.
The enemies of the throne were to remember and curse the late
ex-official Sai then; for it was their belief that the Emperor’s Twin
Flowers had been mostly harmless before he precipitated the change. And
it had been their expectations back then that it would take the two men
another decade or more to slowly regain their powers and rank. With the
inferno lit within them by the ‘incident’, however, Ran Shuuei and Li
Kouyuu had remade themselves in the astounding span of just a few
years; becoming in this short time a formidable force greatly feared
yet loved and respected by the citizens of Saiunkoku.
Older officials would suggest that the Emperor’s Twin flowers were only
settling into a long overdue maturity and seriousness with regards to
their positions as the Emperor’s Advisors. However, close friends of
the two men knew better.
Among themselves, their friends were to quietly mourn the changes in Li
and Ran. For they knew that their simpler and more carefree approach to
life and love was now lost to all time. As it was, Ran Shuuei rarely
smiled anymore; neither did he offer to flirt harmlessly with men and
women alike, as he had once done before that fateful abduction. And Li
Kouyuu seldom bickered with Ran as well, since the subject of his
nagging had oft times been over the man’s flirtatious and playfully
indolent nature.
However, the one tiny glimmer of cheer which their friends could see
was the steadily blossoming light of faith and love between the Twin
Flowers. They were never to hear of it, but the little spark had
started when Li Kouyuu shared with Ran Shuuei a tale from his
childhood, so as to convince the former General that the aqua haired
scholar did indeed understand his troubled spirit and the agony which
raked his soul for what was done to him. And that shared secret had
given Shuuei the faith that it was possible for him to heal; the
assurance that he had not been sullied by what was done to him; and the
hope that he could learn to accept love in his heart again.
With the gift of this knowledge, Ran Shuuei had at first dreaded ever
meeting with Kou Reishin again. He knew that it was proper that he did
to thank the man for the invaluable assistance in his rescue. However,
he was also wary of meeting yet another who would look upon him with
pity. And with his past experience with Kouyuu, Shuuei knew that Kou
dono more than all others clearly understood the suffering he now
endured.
To his surprise though, when they met, the man’s eyes held not pity and
understanding, but expectation and challenge. And this, far more than
the kind sympathy offered by others, bolstered Shuuei’s spirit to prove
himself worthy of the love and support offered by the man’s son.
In time to come, Ran and Li’s friends would eventually grow used to the
new ‘quiet’ nature of their affection and love. For few doubted that
Ran Shuuei had deliberately acted like a flirt in front of his best
friend because he wanted Li Kouyuu’s attention, and enjoyed their
almost daily bickering. Now though, the soon to be reinstated General
had the confidence to understand that Senior Official Li never held his
beloved far from his thoughts.
Ran Shuuei came to recognise too that the silence that oft times
settled between them was a comfortable and comforting thing. For Li was
a man of few words. And Ran was discovering that he cherished and loved
far more their quiet time with each other reading in the Emperor’s
gardens, or just sitting together and staring at nothing at all.
It was to be an observation shared by many others. For owing to their
renowned status as the Emperor’s Twin Flowers and their remarkably
attractive countenance, Li and Ran were to find themselves the
preferred subject of many artists; with more artists favouring
portraits of the men together rather than apart.
It was even rumoured that a portrait of the two men by a famous painter
was nearly the cause of the termination of the tentative truce between
Kou Reishin and the Ran Triplets. Fortunately, as the tale went, Ran
Ryuuren had intervened by out bidding the two bitterly fighting
parties, then gifting the portrait to his Bosom Friend #1. The Triplets
could not complain because they technically won the bidding war through
their youngest brother. And Reishin had nothing to gripe about either
since he could see the painting whenever he visited his beloved Aniue.
All, however, agreed that the artist had shown skill beyond belief in
the rendition of her masterpiece. For she had captured perfectly the
quintessential quality of the relationship between the Emperor’s Twin
Flowers, in her portrait of the two men sitting upon the grass in the
shade of a flowering Sakura tree, sharing a plate of manju and cups of
tea, with the rays of the setting sun gently illuminating their
features. That it was a relationship built upon faith, hope, and above
all... Love.
~owari~