thusia | (no subject)

(no subject)

Who: People
When: Day 28, early morning
Where: the main corridor
What: Mingle

[it is now no longer day 27 \o/ what are you doing this morning? ~~shutupT_T~~]

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[Has... made no progress on this blank book here. Instead he's poking a hole in the corner of the first page with his pen.]

That isn't what books are for, you know.

[Jerks his pen back and looks up at her, frowning.] I know that.

What are you working on?

[... Nnnnnnnnn does he want to talk about this. Guess he doesn't have to explain what it's for entirely.]

I need to write things in it. Stories.

Oh? The stories of your world? Or..?

Just stories. Fiction. [He doesn't really know a lot of them to just copy down, unfortunately.]

Would you like to hear one from my world?

I--[A pause.] All right.

[Sets his pen back to his paper.]

Long ago, humans and youkai were at war. Though Japan was one land, there were five separate kingdoms occupying the same space. The youkai divided the land in quarters, each ruled by a Taiyoukai, but they divided the whole of Japan, leaving no room for humans. The human emperor claimed the whole of Japan for himself, leaving no room for youkai. And so they fought.

Youkai are much stronger than humans, faster, and control an element or some type of magic. War with the youkai would have destroyed the human race entirely, if it had been fought through normal means. So the human emperor issued a challenge, inviting the four Taiyoukai to bring their greatest champions to the human palace. The war would be settled with a one-on-one battle, with the winner taking full control of Japan.

[She sounds so sad as she explains. It sounds like this is personal.]

[--Oh, skipping the first page then to start writing on the second. He's pretty much copying her word for word, so he'll probably ask her to slow down shortly into that so he can keep up.]

[She speaks slowly, but she'll repeat anything necessary.]

We were arrogant. We agreed immediately, for we did not think there was a single field the humans could beat us on. We brought a champion of every weapon--a swordsman, an archer, and so on and so on, and different martial artists in each discipline. We even brought athletes, in case they challenged us to something less direct. We should have expected that that was precisely what they would do.

They named their terms. They challenged us to a game of Go. I was the only one who even knew how to play. Still, even I couldn't compete with a great master who had dedicated his life to the study of the game. Our match was close, but he won.

What happened after the match, though... That is where the story separates from reality and becomes legend. I could tell you what really happened, but... You were collecting fables. This happened five hundred years ago, humans retelling the story have...altered it.

[Absent nod as he continues to right, coming to a stop when she diverges and glances up.

Well, if it's a personal story...] The fable will do.

[she laughs, a very sad, humourless laugh]

The legend goes that the taiyoukai who faced the human champion fell in love with him immediately, and after her defeat at his hands, she killed herself because she could not be with him.

[... Depressing.

A short pause before writing it down.]

[Pretty awesome from the humans' point of view, though. 'Our hero was so cool the bad guys fell in love with him' and all.]

[Leiko sighs forlornly, staring off into space and trying to deal with the memories.]

[Kanda just has bad connotations with "lover's suicide".

Flips to the front page, looking back up at her.] ... Does it have a title?

Not that I know of. 'The Great War' or something like that, I think, would do.

[Nods, making the page a simple large print of the title.]

... Thanks.

Of course.

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