[FIC] Kyo Kara Emperor
Waking up that morning, I, Shibuya Yuuri Harajuku Furri, never thought that I would be sucked into another world via toilet. That morning had begun in the same way that most of them had; I was woken up by my mom, I dressed in my standard school uniform, I rushed down the stairs, and I ate a piece of toast before running out the door on my way to school.
I guess that some of this could be blamed on my timing, but I would blame the heavier part of it on my old middle school classmate Murata Ken. After all, it was because of him that I stopped and stood up to the gangster-like thugs.
Needless to say, I was currently resting on the beach of some strange place. With water dripping down my sleeve-which may have been toilet water-and sand covering every inch of myself, I stood to face this situation head on as a proud Japanese man should.
Looking around, I found smoke rising in tight tendrils above wooden buildings. The sky seemed to be filled with the heavy blackness that smoke brought and also a mixture of some other unfamiliar dark substance.
My eyes moved to the buildings themselves. The rooftops were the familiar angular shapes of traditional Japanese rooftops, and the doors were rather cloth sheets covering in designs that indicated what type of business was held in that particular building.
The people that walked along the dirt streets were also dressed familiarly. The women wore elaborate kimono that could make even the ugliest woman seem beautiful with their flowing silks and wide obi. The men also wore kimono, this time more subtle men’s kimono with traditional kimono pants and jackets. Occasionally I would see a man dressed in westerner’s clothing; Top hats and coats and shiny shoes as opposed to the zori that most people wore.
Was I in some sort of traditional style theme park?!
I was interrupted from my thoughts by the sight of a western man walking towards me. He was wearing a men’s kimono, but he was obviously foreign by the looks of his slicked back blond hair and shiningly clear blue eyes. His shoulders were wide and his arms were probably thicker then my head. An American football player by the looks of it.
“Uh…Can I help you American Football Player-san?” Oops. I didn’t mean to let that slip out! Now I’ll have to rely on all of my skill to recover. “I didn’t mean that!” Nice going, Yuuri.
The football player grunted in confusion and began speaking in a language that sounded like Japanese and yet not quite there. I stared at him in confusion for a while before recognition slowly covered his face.
He placed both of his hands on the sides of my head before he squeezed. Suddenly I felt an incredible pressure being forced on my head. I couldn’t help but let out a yelp of pain as the pain didn’t let up but before I knew it, the American football player had let go of my head and stepped back
“Can you understand me?” He asked suddenly.
Wow! He speaks perfect Japanese.
I scratched at the back of my head nervously and told him so. “You speak perfect Japanese for a foreigner!”
He huffed a tiny bit. “Of course I speak perfect Japanese, I am from Japan! Edo to be exact!”
“Edo?” I asked in a bit of confusion. “Don’t you mean Tokyo?” It wasn’t completely foreign to see someone use the old name for Tokyo, but it hadn’t been called Edo for decades!
Now it was football player-san’s turn to look confused. “’Tokyo’? Where’s that?”
My eyes widened in shock as I turned and took in the place that I was in once more. I surveyed the people and the buildings before turning back to the football player. “You sure are in character! This place is amazingly accurate!” I said with a huge grin on my face.
Instead of replying, he grabbed my wrist and began to drag me to a horse that I hadn’t noticed before. “Never mind that, I need you to come with me Your Majesty.”
Your Majesty? Is this the type of theme park that treats you like you’re royalty? Why does football player-san need me to go with him? My mom taught me to stay away from strangers! But I guess I’ve already broken this rule…
Before the football player could take a step towards the football player, I heard the sound of horse hoofs pounding against the ground and yelling.
“von Grantz Adalbert! Release the Enlightened One at once!” I turned to the source of the yelling and found what appeared to be a samurai riding towards me. His hair was tied in the top-knot hair style that I had seen in numerous pictures at school. A few brown locks escaped the knot and fell into his warm brown eyes. He was wearing the traditional samurai armor minus the helmet and held a sword in one hand, the horse’s reins in the other.
“’Enlightened One’?! What’s going on?!” I shouted as the samurai rushed past me and headed towards the football player.
Just as I was about to yell for the football player-or ‘Adalbert’-to get out of the way, He suddenly drew a sword from a sheathe that had been tied to his horse.
The clash of metal on metal echoed around me and before the fight could escalade much more, this ‘Adalbert’ quickly jumped on his horse and rode off.
I stood there in complete confusion, staring after the escaping man.
“Are you alright Your Majesty?” The samurai asked me as he led his horse towards me. I verified that I was fine and before I could realize what had happened, I was riding on the back of the samurai’s horse and being led towards the town and away from the beach where all this had occurred.
“Its rude to go around snatching people without giving them your name you know!” I scolded.
The samurai turned to look over one shoulder at me before turning back to the street. “Forgive me Your Majesty. I am Lord Weller Conrart, a samurai of the imperial palace.”
I grinned at him. “That’s much better Conrad! My name is Shibuya Yuuri Harajuku Fuuri but you may call me Yuuri.”
“As you wish Your Majesty.”
“Yuuri. You can call me Yuuri. What is all of this ‘Your Majesty’ and ‘Enlightened One’ business? I’m not royalty!”
“Actually,” Conrad said. “You are. You are the twenty-seventh Emperor of Japan, His Majesty Yuuri.”
“Ehhhh?!”
Before I could progress much in my freak out, we had stopped in front of what appeared to be a tea house and the horse was tied up to a post. Conrad was just about to help me down from the horse when a snowy hand knocked his out of the way.
I looked down to see who had stopped Conrad and was met with a pair of lavender eyes, half way covered in silver hair, filled with tears. The man was dressed in a fancy man’s kimono and jacket that matched his lavender eyes. His silver hair hung loose as opposed to the tied back look that Conrad sported.
“Oh Your Majesty! It is such a pleasure for this lowly Gunter to be in you presence at last!” He gushed, squeezing my hand to his chest.
I was about to inform him that he was cutting off the circulation in my hand when he suddenly was overcome by a nosebleed and collapsed on the ground.
What just happened?
“Uh is he alright?” I asked as I was finally helped off the horse by Conrad.
Conrad chuckled and stepped over the unconscious man on the ground. “Gunter is perfectly fine. He was just a little excited to meet Your Majesty and the excitement overcame him.” He turned a bit to look over his shoulder to make sure that I was following him before pulling back the sheet that covered the doorway to what appeared to be a teahouse.
He led us to a table in the back of the place and after a while of waiting I silently questioned why there was no server to bring us tea or maybe dango.
I was just about to vocalize my question when suddenly a round of cheering was brought on by the men in the room.
Now that I mention it, it seems that there aren’t any women here…It was strange but not completely uncommon I suppose.
All of a sudden, my attention was drawn to a figure that walked to the front of the room to a small platform. The person was obviously female from the clothing that she wore. A bright blue kimono covered her body, tiny golden birds and flowers embroidered on the long sleeves and body of the cloth. The wide obi was a soft golden color with stitched flowers that matched the blue of the kimono and ended in a taiko box tie on her back. With her back facing us, I couldn’t see her face but her blonde hair was shocking against the blue of the kimono. It was a color that I was still not used to, and this blonde was so much brighter then the blond of the American football player’s. Her hair was styled in an elaborate up do that most would associate with a geisha’s.
So it was this type of tea house.
She suddenly turned to face the crowd with two golden fans drawn over her face, revealing only her eyes to the crowd. The green color was simply beautiful. I had never seen this color of eyes back home. Sure in Harajuku, you could find someone with dyed blonde hair and green contacts, but it didn’t look at natural and beautiful as these woman’s.
I think I’m in love.
She started moving slowly, dancing with the fans and spinning, her body telling me a story as it was trying to achieve. Her face was never quite revealed, always covered with the fan. As she moved, a few blonde ringlets escaped the hold of the hair ties and I could see a flash of annoyance fill her eyes as she also noticed this. I thought that the slightly messy hair made her even more attractive in my eyes.
Much too soon, the dance was over and the men-myself included-burst into applause, all of us sad to see the beautiful woman leave the stage.
“Who was that beautiful woman, Conrad?” I asked quietly, my eyes staring towards the doorway that she had escaped through.
He simply smiled and didn’t answer.
“I mean she was so pretty even though we couldn’t see a lot of her face, and her hair was so soft looking. The color was also beautiful as were her eyes. The perfect woman!”
As I was dishing out compliments to Conrad, I failed to notice the other figure that seated itself in the seat next to mine, wielding a tray holding a tea pot and cups. She cleared her throat slightly before addressing Yuuri.
“I must thank you for such kind words.”
I turned in shock to see the same geisha from before now sitting so close to me. She was so close that I could smell her. I sighed as the sweet smell of orchid and sunflowers infiltrated my senses.
Her eyes flashed in annoyance once more.
I finally noticed that I could now see her entire face now. She was just as beautiful as I expected her to be although her jaw was slightly masculine, her lips were full and her cheeks round. Her face was painted white like a traditional geisha and her lips outlined and painted in red. She seemed to had fixed her hair backstage because the blonde locks that had escaped before were once more tucked in.
Her smile seemed a little forced as she poured tea in two cups, one for Conrad - who I had forgotten was sitting there-and the other for me. As she handed me my cup, her hand brushed mine and I felt a small jolt as my heart skipped a beat.
My cheeks pooled with color as I basked in this woman’s beauty, and I couldn’t hold back my tongue any longer. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen!”
The geisha seemed deeply shocked and offended by my compliment and I briefly panicked and thought over my statement. Did I make her mad? Were compliments forbidden for geisha? How did I mess up?!
I turned to Conrad for help, my eyes pleading for any scrap of advice. The geisha silently boiled in anger beside me and that caused my panic to rise.
Finally, after an eternity of waiting, I was rewarded with some information.
“Your Majesty, I’m pleased to introduce you to my little brother von Bielefeld Wolfram.”
My heart stopped and my blood ran cold.
“Ehhhh?!”