(Writer's Note: This storyline is inspired by a comment the 17th Immortal made in my Faking It - Great Guardians storyline when I introduced the concept of a reborn Emperor Lìng [known in Japanese as Reitei] and linking him/her to Moroboshi Ataru in some way, shape or form. This storyline will be different than FI-GG, so what happened there will have no bearing here [though there will be some similarities between the two general story concepts]. Also please note that all names here will be in proper Oriental "family name-first" order.)
Hong Kong, shortly before midnight…
The lovely seventeen year-old woman dressed in the silk black qípáo with gold phoenixes stitched into the fabric walked down the pathway towards the dark pagoda located in a remote section of Päxiäng, a market village in Yuánlâng District. Possessing deep brown eyes and shaggy brown hair cut in a curling taper at the base of her neck, she seemed tomboyish yet clearly a woman. She wore little in the way of makeup save for a light gloss on her lips and a touch of shadow over her eyes. She also had one item of jewellery on her: a gold earring hanging off the lobe of her left ear, it possessing a pearl-white magatama-shaped jewel hooked through the eye by the ring.
Stopping to gaze up the five separate eaves that made up this beautiful structure, the woman's eyes narrowed slightly as she allowed her ki senses to reach into the building to scan what was there. After a moment, she then looked at the main doors, which were chained shut with solid iron links. Noting that there was no lock or other point where the links could be broken, she sighed before lashing out with her index finger.
"SHINZÔ BAKUHATSU SHOKU!"
The chains exploded into fragments by that sudden infusion of ki, the pieces tinkling to the ground as the doors slowly opened inward. With that, the woman walked inside, her eyes instantly adjusting to the near-lack of light in the interior as she focused on the largest ki nexus in the building, located at the very centre of the ground floor. "There you are," she whispered as she walked between the stone statues of warriors that guarded this place and its precious treasure.
In the middle of the room was a raised altar. Upon it, held in a tower-like device, was a clear glass globe, encasing a golden sphere with a dragon etched around it. Staring at it, the woman could only smile as she knelt before it. "The Lóngyù," she whispered. "The key to breaking the curse on so many."
She then reached for it…
…as the main door suddenly slammed shut.
You…
The woman tensed as she turned, her ki senses instantly locking in on several nexi of spirit energy forming within the statues in the hall.
…who has allowed the spirits of ancients to reincarnate… that deep voice declared, …are you trying to escape your destiny?
Hearing that question, the woman felt her lips twist into a scowl. "A destiny that should never have been forced on generation after generation of innocent souls, you mean?" she demanded as knowledge that had been burned into every element of her DNA was keyed into to prepare her for what she had to do. "A destiny that has maimed those who did not deserve the passions of eighteen centuries past to be forced on them? I don't think so."
Insolence! The woman tensed as several of the statues suddenly began to move. You will be made to see what you seek to unleash, unnamed one!
The woman blinked, and then she chuckled. "So because I am not a god of war like such good people as Lyû Bù, Cáo Cäo, Sün Cè — and my own noble kinsman in my first life, Liú Bèi — means that I am not worthy of being recognised?" A smirk. "How typical. Onê-sama was right when she spoke of how far so many have fallen since the days of my first life in Luòyáng. You would rather see the blood of countless generations shed unto Eternity. Misery forced of even more innocents for reasons that had no place in this day and age." Another chuckle. "Very well. I relieve you of your duty of guarding the Lóngyù. Allow me to release you from this existence."
Instantly, the ground quaked as her eyes glowed and her skin sallowed to a sickly white shade, tiger striping appearing as the floor suddenly buckled…
Hong Kong Island, Zhönghuán District, the Mandarin Oriental, after midnight…
"I would have preferred not to do that…"
The woman lightly smiled as she allowed the hot water to pour down over her body to clear away the sweat and soot from her skin. Fortunately for her, the hotel staff hadn't taken notice of the damage her dress had taken thanks to her using the Heart of the Earth Geyser of Fire to level the pagoda which had contained the Dragon Jade for so long. Still, it wouldn't really matter. Her trip from Tôkyô had just been a weekend thing, easily arranged when one had the money to draw on thanks to an inheritance that had been set aside by a lonely and heartbroken woman who had so many things torn away from her over the years. A grandmother the woman would never know in this life.
The shower was soon complete and then the woman stepped out, wrapping a towel around her body as she moved to dry off her hair. Once she sensed she wouldn't be dripping water all over the rug, she headed into the bedroom to stand by the window, gazing out onto the glittering city that was still bustling despite it well being past working hours. Taking in what was around her, the woman sighed.
She could feel all three of them close by…
Atop Prince's Building, across Chater Road from the Mandarin…
"This girl's not making it easy…"
Ryomô Shimei tried not to scowl too much as she peered at the beautiful edifice of the Mandarin Oriental from the roof of the building due south of it, to the immediate west of Statue Square. She had been in Päxiäng, a block away from the pagoda containing the Dragon Jade, when she watched a geyser of pure molten lava explode from right underneath the target building, incinerating it in the flash of an eye. At first horrified that her quest to get the Dragon Jade — the one thing that could save her from the deadly fate a terrible accident years before had forced on her thanks to the machinations of Sôsô Môtoku, with the unknowing assistance of Ryûbi Gentoku — could end like THAT, Shimei then perked on sensing a powerful tôshi leap out of the fire and literally ROOF-HOP towards the urban section of the New Territories.
She had immediately given pursuit, but then got waylaid by two unwelcome surprises: Kakôen Myôsai and Kan'u Unchô, who both had clearly come to the beautiful port city in the delta of the Zhüjiäng to get their hands on the Dragon Jade, no doubt in hopes of helping their beloved leaders — Sôsô Môtoku and Ryûbi Gentoku respectively — change the fates their magatama forced on them. And while Shimei would gladly welcome the chance to find some way to get rid of the dragon fragment lodged in her left eye, she knew she could also use the Jade to affect the destiny of the destined leader of the Nan'yô Academy, the just-arrived Sonsaku Hakufu.
Remembering the ditzy freshman that she had watched take apart thirty tôshi — including the tall and powerful Gakushû — not a few days ago, just before she was told about the Dragon Jade and what it could mean, Shimei could only sigh. The girl was a total INNOCENT! While the whole incident of Gakushû discovering that Hakufu had written her own given name on her magatama at the morning "reception committee" on her first day of classes was actually quite funny, it harked to something far more ominous. And sure enough, Saji Genpô (in the name of the still-missing Enjutsu Kôro) was moving to either eliminate the hapless Hakufu or else get her under his control. As to what it could mean for the upcoming Great Fighters Tournament…
"Who are you…?" Shimei whispered…
Unknown to Shimei, atop the nearby Chater House (to the west of the Mandarin) and Jardine House (to the northwest of the Mandarin, right next door to the Hong Kong Exchange), Unchô and Myôsai were asking that very same question…
Hong Kong International Airport, later that morning…
"You only stayed for a couple days, Moroboshi-nyûshi."
"Oh, just came down to do some shopping before getting back home," the smiling woman said in literate Mandarin as she stood before the immigration office before boarding the 10:35 Sunday flight to Narita, which would arrive in Japan during the middle of the afternoon. She was dressed in a pair of stylish jeans, a T-shirt depicting Hong Kong's skyline and a jean vest, an overnight bag slung over her shoulder. She had checked in her suitcase with the airline staff. "Got to get back to school, of course."
The officer nodded as he read the typed note from the woman's guardian, which she had presented to him along with her passport. A note that gave permission for one Moroboshi Hiromi to travel on her own on a weekend trip to Hong Kong. Noting that the note had been thoughtfully written both in Guänhuà as well as Nihon-go, the officer then smiled. Whoever this woman's guardian was, she was well-schooled. Nodding in understanding, he then stamped the exit visa on the woman's passport, and then handed both of them back to her. "Please have a safe trip home, Moroboshi-nyûshi."
"My eternal thanks, Xiänshëng," she said with a respectful bow of her head. She had been tempted to call the man with the more respectful title "göng" (duke), but she had been reminded before coming to Hong Kong that such a title was normally used to refer to the dead. "May your days be always fortuitous and bear fortune for you and yours."
Stunned by her quite respectful benediction, he flustered a nearly-unintelligible response as she took her personal belongings and headed to the entrance gate where an Airbus A330 was currently waiting for its latest load of passengers…
Moroboshi…?
Shimei tried not to frown too much as she took her passport back from the immigration officer — who was three stations over from the one who had received the mysterious "Moroboshi Hiromi" — she had been seeing as she watched the other woman proceed through the gate to board the aircraft for the trip to Narita. She had been lucky to catch the mysterious woman as she had come to the airport to go home. Fortunately for her, she had not sensed or seen either Unchô or Myôsai since their battle had been broken off very early that morning in Päxiäng. Fortunately for her, she could afford an economy round-trip flight to Hong Kong from Narita; her family — while not as insanely rich and influential as some of the more well-known clans such as the Mendô, the Mizunokôji, the Kunô, the Ijûin, the Ogasawara and the Sakuraba — were quite well off and could afford the odd splurge of money for the girl known as one of the "Four Divas" of the Nan'yô Academy.
And it was a good thing.
But that's not possible! she mentally raged as she took her seat near the end of the Airbus. Nozomi's mother would've told me if Ataru-kun was one of us!
Taking a deep breath, she moved to buckle herself in as she allowed her mind to roll over what she had just learned. The Japanese family name "Moroboshi," written with the characters for "many stars," would be pronounced "Chúxïng" in Mandarin (or "Shôsei" using the on'yomi pronunciation of those two characters in Japanese). As far as Shimei knew, "Chúxïng" was NOT a Chinese family name, though there was an official in the Táng dynasty several centuries after the Three Kingdoms period that had possessed a similar given name (written with different characters, of course). So…
Who are you…? Shimei wondered as we…
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sun, 02 May 2010 22:07)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.