Ginkgos In Autumn 4/?
anonymous
July 3 2010, 08:38:18 UTC
4.
Kiku rarely traveled. His job was in the capitol, giving readings to shy girls behind screens and , to officials and keeping up the rites of purification. Herakles helped him in these accomplishments now, in that he seemed to bring a sort of protection that kept other obake away.
However, news came of a small town outside the capitol which had several troubling issues of their children disappearing. The priest in that village had died of old age, and no one had succeeded him. The Minister of the Left personally asked his assistance. He had been a distant relative to the priest, who had moved to the more rural area in the twilight of his life. He did not want his relative's name stained with the rumors of incompetence.
So it was that Kiku left his glorious post to go down the dusty roads. Herakles followed after him, resembling more a dog in his loyalty and affection than a cat.
He stayed in the inns of kindly grannies, of young men and their wives and any other person benevolent enough to have him. Obake and unscrupulous sorts alike took pause with his nekomata companion always by his side. He switched from cat form to his humanoid form on whims, or perhaps it was just by whoever was around him. The human form was just as calm as the cat, and yet, with the way he towered over most of them, he was an imposing force.
When they finally reached the pool, there was no visible hint of carnage, no bones lining the cave of a monster. It looked by all means, a serene place, but Kiku knew better. He could feel the creature, its lingering energy around the place.
He stood and waited. Herakles gaze was also fixated on the pool. His muscles were taut, and he looked ready to pounce at any moment.
He did not have to wait long.
Unlike Herakles, the creature that came out of the pool was not given to a kindly disposition. It was a mix of frog, ape and turtle with green skin, claws, and snapping beaked mouth. It had a lily pad on its head, filled with river water. He could almost see his reflection in it from this distance. He knew that the kappas usually feasted on children. However, they could, at times, be given only to mild trickery. (And he wondered what this said about his stature if it was so willing to add him to its collection).
He knew that what it sought, to bend him over and suck out his shirikodama. It must be a terrible way to go, and one he did not wish, or intend to experience. Herakles jumped in front of him as the kappa reached with its claws and snapping maw. He hissed, teeth bared. He leapt on the kappa that would make a meal of him. The kappa, however, was not afraid of him. It bit into his arm, which only made Herakles dig his claws and teeth in deeper.
Ginkgos In Autumn 5/?
anonymous
July 3 2010, 08:40:41 UTC
However, Herakles did not like water, and the kappa was a creature of water. It began to shake itself, trying to dislodge Herakles. Herakles was thrown to the other side, just missing the large rocks at the mouth of the pool.
He wished to call Herakles' name, to go check on him, but any loss of composure would be the death of both of them. He there was only one cure against kappa: their politeness.
He looked the kappa right in its eyes, and bowed.
The kappa paused, mid stride towards him and bowed back. As he did, the water poured from the lily pad on its head. It stopped, mid place, its features frozen in shock.
As calmly as he could with his racing heart, Kiku filled the lily pad with water from the river.
"You will no longer feast on the children. I will ensure that they bring you other offerings."
The kappa nodded, and disappeared deep into the water again.
Kiku made his way to where Herakles was. He touched a hand to Herakles' heaving side and began to attend to his wounds. The bites were deep, yet he would soon heal. That was the way of the obake. Still, there would be scars left, Kiku thought. He traced his fingers across the white lines left. He recognized some, while others remained mysteries. One was a large horizontal slash from the fight with the tanuki, and this new bite mark.
"You defended me again," Kiku said.
Herakles' eyes were half-closed in pain, and a pervading sleepiness. He nodded, and said a quiet, raspy I always will.
"I'm...I'm glad to have met you, Herakles. Thank you for coming to my doorstep."
He swallowed back any apprehension he felt as he felt the pulse under Herakles' skin. The thought of his life before Herakles had arrived seemed terribly quiet, and so very alone. The thought of him returning to some other place, of him dying left an empty, ragged feeling inside him.
Kiku pulled his hand away, realizing he had kept it on Herakles' chest too long to be decorous. His hand still felt warm from where he had touched, and tingled with the sensation of touching an obake always gave one.
"We must go soon, or we won't reach the village by the time it is dark," Kiku said. His voice was quiet, apologetic, even.
Herakles let out a shaky breath and used what little strength he possessed to turn himself into cat form again. Kiku scooped him up and walked off, the pool melting into the distance as he returned to the village.
He would send word to the Minister of the Left that he would be kept a little longer in instructing the villagers of the offerings to give. That would give him some more time to let Herakles heal.
He would not risk Herakles' life, even for the Minister of the Left in all his power.
Ginkgos In Autumn 6/?
anonymous
July 3 2010, 09:08:45 UTC
5.
Things soon returned to normal. Lady Momoko often came to his divinations. To be paid attention by one of such beauty as her was considering quite an honor through the court. Many poems had been written about the way her hair fell as mysteriously as the dark night, the delicate structure of her nose, or her enigmatic eyes.
As always, for decorum's sake, the divinations were done between a screen. Still, the questions she asked were coy, and certainly inviting. She often asked about marriage and love, always hinting to him of what life would be for him if he could marry.
Herakles was not fond of her. Kiku had to leave him behind in the divining process, for his disapproval of her. Kiku at first had thought that this would be a sign of another Kitsune, for indeed, Lady Momoko did have an ethereal beauty to her, but he felt no aura of the other about her. The grudge Herakles held against her was personal, it seemed.
Kiku returned home to find Herakles sulking. Offers of fish barely made him stir. He was usually such a calm sort, but Lady Momoko never failed to get him into a bad mood. It was almost as bad as the tanuki, he thought with an inner sigh.
All he could do was wait until Herakles would grow hungry enough to talk to him. After he'd eaten, Kiku brushed the silvery scales away from his cheek and waited. Herakles was more than simply a pet. He was a companion, a beloved friend, and very important to him.
"She's hoping you will marry her," Herakles said. He sounded bitter in a way he had never heard before.
"I have no designs towards her," Kiku said, quite honestly. "I am an onmyouji; I have my work."
"Is that all you have...?" Herakles asked.
Herakles leaned in very close, as he was wont to do, but it seemed different somehow. His green eyes were penetrating, searching him.
"Herakles-?" Kiku said.
Herakles was looking at him in a way he'd never seen before. Everything about him seemed different. There was a taunters, a possessiveness to him.
Ginkgos In Autumn 7/8
anonymous
July 3 2010, 09:11:20 UTC
The moment Herakles pressed his lips to him was a surprise. He tasted of salt and fish, a slightly bitter taste. Herakles lifted his chin and hummed, half song, half purr as he licked Kiku's face.
Kiku had never felt something like this before - the caress, the taste, the feeling in his chest. He did not move away, and yet, he did not fear of Herakles' intentions. He trusted Herakles, even with a different side shone through. They stayed there, breaking away for breath at times, only to lean, forehead to forehead for closeness.
"I would have turned myself into a beautiful woman for you, but you do not like women in that manner," Herakles said.
Kiku flushed.
"I saw you coming and going...besides, you were immune to the charms of the Kitsune sisters."
"You've been watching me for some time then?" Kiku asked tentatively.
"You must not remember...I only had one tail then."
He touched Kiku's forehead and Kiku saw a series of images, memories splayed down as a canvas: a well-to-do family, a boy late for his studies, his sandals making a thwack thwack sound on the road as he made his way towards his tutor's house, a hurt cat. The mountain in the background is capped with snow and immense, the gingkos have fallen and line the roofs with nests of gold.
It's all so clear, and yet so dreamlike at once. The details feel so real, as if he could pick up a fallen leaf and keep it with him.
As if he had not remembered it, but actually been transported to that time, that place, that day.
"No, I remember...I did not realize that was you," Kiku said. "You were the first brush I had with that world. You were...what caused me to take this path."
"I was waiting to grow strong enough to transform and find you again," Herakles said. "I've always treasured that kindness..."
Truly, what had it been? His lunch of fish and rice given up freely. A bit of cloth to bind the wounds boughten off of a peddler, nothing much. He'd pulled the cat away from the road and given it care. He could not sneak it inside his home, but he had visited it every day with food, until the day it left the cubbyhole Kiku had found for it.
Herakles stroked Kiku's cheek. "You smell like me. It means you're mine now."
And he could smell the traces Herakles had been leaving on him. Claiming him. It was a musky scent, manly, and yet not entirely unpleasant. It kept away the other obake, the youkai that might think to test him even with his powers stayed away.
He was Herakles. The thought was such a comfort. If Herakles was his, then he wouldn't leave. The house wouldn't return to such emptiness, and he wouldn't have the panicked feelings he'd gotten when he thought he might lose Herakles.
"Yes...I'm yours," he said.
At that moment, Kiku was sure he had never felt happier.
Ginkgos In Autumn 8/8 + notes
anonymous
July 3 2010, 09:17:13 UTC
Epilogue:
The famous monk Honda Kiku lived a long life, and had many great deeds. The Minister of the Left was so pleased with his dealings with the kappa that he often turned to Kiku when any dealings with the supernatural arose. Through his wits and calm ways, Kiku helped keep the land at peace. The nekomata Herakles rarely left his side. The fearsome beast had completely been tamed under Kiku's gentle hand.
Shortly after his death, an attending maid witnessed a cat jump over his body, and sworn he was reanimated to life. But not his body, for his body was left, an empty husk. It was the form of the reincarnation, a cat leaping into the wilds with the nekomata companion. It was said that on full moons one could catch sight of two cats traveling together. One was black, and the other brown.
But then, no one is sure of the last. The threads of his life have been lost to history and rewoven by forgetful hands. He is steeped in legend.
Such maids are always full of tales, but some of them may be true.
~ notes:
Bake-neko: the ghost cat. Generally considered monstrous/bad, but there's exceptions to the rule. (As Kiku ruminates upon) nekomata are what they grow into when their tail splits. The story of the bake-neko seems to have originated from Japanese bobtails. (Thus, not letting their tails get too long). Because of the fish oil in the lamp oil, cats were wont to drink it which made people believe they were bake-nekos, and so on. They generally have a negative connotation, but there's exceptions (such as mentioned in the story).
Kitsune: fox spirits who were shapeshifters, most known for taking the form of beautiful women who loved to seduce men.
Feeding the ghosts: to my knowledge, this is actually Chinese, but it's not completely unheard of that it might get picked up in Japanese culture. Kanji and Buddhism came from China, after all. If not, then call it artistic license - it's quite hard to find Shinto methods of warding spirits, that fit into this.
Kamidana, Ofuda: Kamidana is a household shrine, while Ofuda are strips of wood/metal/paper blessed by priests to keep away bad fortune/bad health/for protection. They have to be renewed every year or so.
Go-hei are ceremonial strips of paper on sticks used in purification rites.
Kappa: a lot of recent media depictions has them as cutesy creatures, but the originals would suck out your intestines! Or, to be more precise, the mythical shirikodama - a ball they believed lived in your anus. They loved cucumber almost as much as they loved the flesh of children.
However, like most obake, not all of them were monstrous. Some of them even had shrines for their notable ways of helping humanity.
Tanuki: the racoon dog. Generally has a more mischievous connotation than monstrous, but there were some cases of tricks played that were quite gruesome. In art, they're almost always portrayed with comically large scrotums (?!)
And yes, that was a Turkey cameo :D
Finally, much thanks to Myaru for help with the research. ♥
Re: Ginkgos In Autumn 8/8 + notes
anonymous
July 3 2010, 16:46:42 UTC
...And once again, I'm blown away at how such a simple request can give birth to such a long and fantastic request. In the end, it went way beyond the request but I don't think anyone is going to care about that.
Japanese mythology has always been something that's fascinated me, and you really gave it life here while keeping true to the characters. It reads like a fairy tale rich in detail, complete with a happy ending, that I really enjoyed reading.
And, well, the cameo of Turkey was win. Poor Turkey, he can't even get close to Japan even in an AU without Greece promptly jumping in to protect his Japan's honor. XD And seeing jealous!Greece in regards to Japan always leaves me with squiggly feelings inside. (Or it's just me and my weird preferences.)
Late OP is laaaaaate!
anonymous
July 6 2010, 02:28:08 UTC
But I loved it! It was way longer and more detailed and more awesome than I ever expected out of my silly request! And the mythology was really interesting :) I love it when this fandom teaches me stuff!
Re: Ginkgos In Autumn 8/8 + notes
anonymous
March 9 2011, 16:19:51 UTC
This fill deserves ... so much more love. The incredible research, the beauty of the story ... I normally don't even like Giripan but this fill is totally bookmarked!
Kiku rarely traveled. His job was in the capitol, giving readings to shy girls behind screens and , to officials and keeping up the rites of purification. Herakles helped him in these accomplishments now, in that he seemed to bring a sort of protection that kept other obake away.
However, news came of a small town outside the capitol which had several troubling issues of their children disappearing. The priest in that village had died of old age, and no one had succeeded him. The Minister of the Left personally asked his assistance. He had been a distant relative to the priest, who had moved to the more rural area in the twilight of his life. He did not want his relative's name stained with the rumors of incompetence.
So it was that Kiku left his glorious post to go down the dusty roads. Herakles followed after him, resembling more a dog in his loyalty and affection than a cat.
He stayed in the inns of kindly grannies, of young men and their wives and any other person benevolent enough to have him. Obake and unscrupulous sorts alike took pause with his nekomata companion always by his side. He switched from cat form to his humanoid form on whims, or perhaps it was just by whoever was around him. The human form was just as calm as the cat, and yet, with the way he towered over most of them, he was an imposing force.
When they finally reached the pool, there was no visible hint of carnage, no bones lining the cave of a monster. It looked by all means, a serene place, but Kiku knew better. He could feel the creature, its lingering energy around the place.
He stood and waited. Herakles gaze was also fixated on the pool. His muscles were taut, and he looked ready to pounce at any moment.
He did not have to wait long.
Unlike Herakles, the creature that came out of the pool was not given to a kindly disposition. It was a mix of frog, ape and turtle with green skin, claws, and snapping beaked mouth. It had a lily pad on its head, filled with river water. He could almost see his reflection in it from this distance. He knew that the kappas usually feasted on children. However, they could, at times, be given only to mild trickery. (And he wondered what this said about his stature if it was so willing to add him to its collection).
He knew that what it sought, to bend him over and suck out his shirikodama. It must be a terrible way to go, and one he did not wish, or intend to experience. Herakles jumped in front of him as the kappa reached with its claws and snapping maw. He hissed, teeth bared. He leapt on the kappa that would make a meal of him. The kappa, however, was not afraid of him. It bit into his arm, which only made Herakles dig his claws and teeth in deeper.
Reply
He wished to call Herakles' name, to go check on him, but any loss of composure would be the death of both of them. He there was only one cure against kappa: their politeness.
He looked the kappa right in its eyes, and bowed.
The kappa paused, mid stride towards him and bowed back. As he did, the water poured from the lily pad on its head. It stopped, mid place, its features frozen in shock.
As calmly as he could with his racing heart, Kiku filled the lily pad with water from the river.
"You will no longer feast on the children. I will ensure that they bring you other offerings."
The kappa nodded, and disappeared deep into the water again.
Kiku made his way to where Herakles was. He touched a hand to Herakles' heaving side and began to attend to his wounds. The bites were deep, yet he would soon heal. That was the way of the obake. Still, there would be scars left, Kiku thought. He traced his fingers across the white lines left. He recognized some, while others remained mysteries. One was a large horizontal slash from the fight with the tanuki, and this new bite mark.
"You defended me again," Kiku said.
Herakles' eyes were half-closed in pain, and a pervading sleepiness. He nodded, and said a quiet, raspy I always will.
"I'm...I'm glad to have met you, Herakles. Thank you for coming to my doorstep."
He swallowed back any apprehension he felt as he felt the pulse under Herakles' skin. The thought of his life before Herakles had arrived seemed terribly quiet, and so very alone. The thought of him returning to some other place, of him dying left an empty, ragged feeling inside him.
Kiku pulled his hand away, realizing he had kept it on Herakles' chest too long to be decorous. His hand still felt warm from where he had touched, and tingled with the sensation of touching an obake always gave one.
"We must go soon, or we won't reach the village by the time it is dark," Kiku said. His voice was quiet, apologetic, even.
Herakles let out a shaky breath and used what little strength he possessed to turn himself into cat form again. Kiku scooped him up and walked off, the pool melting into the distance as he returned to the village.
He would send word to the Minister of the Left that he would be kept a little longer in instructing the villagers of the offerings to give. That would give him some more time to let Herakles heal.
He would not risk Herakles' life, even for the Minister of the Left in all his power.
Reply
Things soon returned to normal. Lady Momoko often came to his divinations. To be paid attention by one of such beauty as her was considering quite an honor through the court. Many poems had been written about the way her hair fell as mysteriously as the dark night, the delicate structure of her nose, or her enigmatic eyes.
As always, for decorum's sake, the divinations were done between a screen. Still, the questions she asked were coy, and certainly inviting. She often asked about marriage and love, always hinting to him of what life would be for him if he could marry.
Herakles was not fond of her. Kiku had to leave him behind in the divining process, for his disapproval of her. Kiku at first had thought that this would be a sign of another Kitsune, for indeed, Lady Momoko did have an ethereal beauty to her, but he felt no aura of the other about her. The grudge Herakles held against her was personal, it seemed.
Kiku returned home to find Herakles sulking. Offers of fish barely made him stir. He was usually such a calm sort, but Lady Momoko never failed to get him into a bad mood. It was almost as bad as the tanuki, he thought with an inner sigh.
All he could do was wait until Herakles would grow hungry enough to talk to him. After he'd eaten, Kiku brushed the silvery scales away from his cheek and waited. Herakles was more than simply a pet. He was a companion, a beloved friend, and very important to him.
"She's hoping you will marry her," Herakles said. He sounded bitter in a way he had never heard before.
"I have no designs towards her," Kiku said, quite honestly. "I am an onmyouji; I have my work."
"Is that all you have...?" Herakles asked.
Herakles leaned in very close, as he was wont to do, but it seemed different somehow. His green eyes were penetrating, searching him.
"Herakles-?" Kiku said.
Herakles was looking at him in a way he'd never seen before. Everything about him seemed different. There was a taunters, a possessiveness to him.
Reply
Kiku had never felt something like this before - the caress, the taste, the feeling in his chest. He did not move away, and yet, he did not fear of Herakles' intentions. He trusted Herakles, even with a different side shone through. They stayed there, breaking away for breath at times, only to lean, forehead to forehead for closeness.
"I would have turned myself into a beautiful woman for you, but you do not like women in that manner," Herakles said.
Kiku flushed.
"I saw you coming and going...besides, you were immune to the charms of the Kitsune sisters."
"You've been watching me for some time then?" Kiku asked tentatively.
"You must not remember...I only had one tail then."
He touched Kiku's forehead and Kiku saw a series of images, memories splayed down as a canvas: a well-to-do family, a boy late for his studies, his sandals making a thwack thwack sound on the road as he made his way towards his tutor's house, a hurt cat. The mountain in the background is capped with snow and immense, the gingkos have fallen and line the roofs with nests of gold.
It's all so clear, and yet so dreamlike at once. The details feel so real, as if he could pick up a fallen leaf and keep it with him.
As if he had not remembered it, but actually been transported to that time, that place, that day.
"No, I remember...I did not realize that was you," Kiku said. "You were the first brush I had with that world. You were...what caused me to take this path."
"I was waiting to grow strong enough to transform and find you again," Herakles said. "I've always treasured that kindness..."
Truly, what had it been? His lunch of fish and rice given up freely. A bit of cloth to bind the wounds boughten off of a peddler, nothing much. He'd pulled the cat away from the road and given it care. He could not sneak it inside his home, but he had visited it every day with food, until the day it left the cubbyhole Kiku had found for it.
Herakles stroked Kiku's cheek. "You smell like me. It means you're mine now."
And he could smell the traces Herakles had been leaving on him. Claiming him. It was a musky scent, manly, and yet not entirely unpleasant. It kept away the other obake, the youkai that might think to test him even with his powers stayed away.
He was Herakles. The thought was such a comfort. If Herakles was his, then he wouldn't leave. The house wouldn't return to such emptiness, and he wouldn't have the panicked feelings he'd gotten when he thought he might lose Herakles.
"Yes...I'm yours," he said.
At that moment, Kiku was sure he had never felt happier.
--
Reply
The famous monk Honda Kiku lived a long life, and had many great deeds. The Minister of the Left was so pleased with his dealings with the kappa that he often turned to Kiku when any dealings with the supernatural arose. Through his wits and calm ways, Kiku helped keep the land at peace. The nekomata Herakles rarely left his side. The fearsome beast had completely been tamed under Kiku's gentle hand.
Shortly after his death, an attending maid witnessed a cat jump over his body, and sworn he was reanimated to life. But not his body, for his body was left, an empty husk. It was the form of the reincarnation, a cat leaping into the wilds with the nekomata companion. It was said that on full moons one could catch sight of two cats traveling together. One was black, and the other brown.
But then, no one is sure of the last. The threads of his life have been lost to history and rewoven by forgetful hands. He is steeped in legend.
Such maids are always full of tales, but some of them may be true.
~
notes:
Bake-neko: the ghost cat. Generally considered monstrous/bad, but there's exceptions to the rule. (As Kiku ruminates upon) nekomata are what they grow into when their tail splits. The story of the bake-neko seems to have originated from Japanese bobtails. (Thus, not letting their tails get too long). Because of the fish oil in the lamp oil, cats were wont to drink it which made people believe they were bake-nekos, and so on. They generally have a negative connotation, but there's exceptions (such as mentioned in the story).
Kitsune: fox spirits who were shapeshifters, most known for taking the form of beautiful women who loved to seduce men.
Feeding the ghosts: to my knowledge, this is actually Chinese, but it's not completely unheard of that it might get picked up in Japanese culture. Kanji and Buddhism came from China, after all. If not, then call it artistic license - it's quite hard to find Shinto methods of warding spirits, that fit into this.
Kamidana, Ofuda: Kamidana is a household shrine, while Ofuda are strips of wood/metal/paper blessed by priests to keep away bad fortune/bad health/for protection. They have to be renewed every year or so.
Go-hei are ceremonial strips of paper on sticks used in purification rites.
Kappa: a lot of recent media depictions has them as cutesy creatures, but the originals would suck out your intestines! Or, to be more precise, the mythical shirikodama - a ball they believed lived in your anus. They loved cucumber almost as much as they loved the flesh of children.
However, like most obake, not all of them were monstrous. Some of them even had shrines for their notable ways of helping humanity.
Tanuki: the racoon dog. Generally has a more mischievous connotation than monstrous, but there were some cases of tricks played that were quite gruesome. In art, they're almost always portrayed with comically large scrotums (?!)
And yes, that was a Turkey cameo :D
Finally, much thanks to Myaru for help with the research. ♥
Reply
Japanese mythology has always been something that's fascinated me, and you really gave it life here while keeping true to the characters. It reads like a fairy tale rich in detail, complete with a happy ending, that I really enjoyed reading.
And, well, the cameo of Turkey was win. Poor Turkey, he can't even get close to Japan even in an AU without Greece promptly jumping in to protect his Japan's honor. XD And seeing jealous!Greece in regards to Japan always leaves me with squiggly feelings inside. (Or it's just me and my weird preferences.)
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Sooooooo much love for you!
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