Jyuunini no Enkei
Monogatari
Prologue
by
Ina-chan
First Posted Online: March 19, 2002
History: A Theory on the Origins of the Souma Family Curse
The
first thing that hit him when he opened the sliding door was the
overpowering smell of history. The sweet dusty smell of
carefully preserved ancient records of the past. Ever since he
was a child, he always had a fondness for the Souma Main
House’s personal library. The room not only held family
records, but various rare first edition books as well. They were
various books that accumulated from ancestors who shared the
passion for collecting such treasures. He spent many moments of
his childhood reading books and enjoying the peace within these
serene walls. That is, if he managed to get away from his
cousins, who either dragged or followed him around.
His
visit to this place today, however, was not for the purpose of
reliving those nostalgic memories. He leaned against the shelf
beside him as he found the reason to why he was here, “Yo.”
The
figure straightened up from the desk, and swiveled his seat
around to give the newcomer a smile around the cigarette hanging
from the corner of his mouth, “Ya Ha-san! It’s been a while,
hasn’t it? I haven’t seen you much since you started your
residency. Ahhhh! You look terrible. You’ve gotten thinner,
and you look like you haven’t slept in a week. Let me guess,
you started studying for your board.”
Hatori
sighed as he walked across the room and took the empty seat
beside his cousin, “And you haven’t changed a single bit.
The banquet will start in a few hours. Everyone is getting
ready, and I just barely managed to rescue Ayame from his
brother after he offered to do some ‘minor alterations’ on
Yuki’s costume.”
Shigure
let out a hearty laugh, “Ah, a fate worse than death! The
mouse has been high strung the past couple of days as it is. I
remember my first dance, I was so nervous I almost wet my
pants.”
“Almost?”
Hatori raised an eyebrow as he shook a cigarette from the packet
Shigure
simply laughed as he lit his lighter and offered it to his
cousin, “He’ll be fine. Kagura has been coaching and
practicing with him for more than a month now.”
“Sou,”
Hatori began after a drag, “What is it that caused you to
forget the time?”
Shigure
gave him a conspiratory smirk, “I found something old,
interesting and possibly forbidden.”
Hatori
blinked, “An old perverted magazine?”
The
other man almost fell off his seat with that and gave his cousin
a wounded look, “Ha-san~~~ Really? Is that all you think of
me?”
“Yes,”
Hatori replied without hesitation before taking another long
drag
“I
guess I should have expected that answer from you,” Shigure
replied, sweat-dropping, “But, it isn’t anything like
that.”
“So what is it?”
Shigure raised a mid-sized book-bound object that lay open
on the desk in front of him, “A diary.”
“That’s even worse.”
“I don’t think Iwaku-san will mind me reading it since
he’s long dead, and specially since we share the same
curse.”
“Now I’m sure I don’t want to have anything to do
with that.”
“Hnnnnn? Are you sure Ha-san?” Shigure paused, that
conspiratory expression continuing to shadow his face, “…
this particular journal documents his research on the Jyunnishi
legends.”
A
wave of silence washed over the room as the two men waited for
the other to react. Seeing that his cousin was watching him
expectantly, waiting for him to continue, Shigure smiled and
broke the stillness, “Souma Iwaku-san was a Jyuunishi during
the Meiji era. He was a historian by profession. Because of the
amount of travel due to his work, he was able to dedicate an
equal amount of passion to his hobby, researching and compiling
various folklore legends. He was most particularly interested on
the varying folklore of…”
“…the
Jyunnishi circle,” Hatori finished the sentence for his cousin
Shigure
opened the yellowing leaves of journal to one particular page,
“He mentions one particular not-too-well-known version of the
legend. I found it most interesting because unlike all the other
myths… this one mentions the Souma Family and the Souma Family
curse.”
[Neither
the origin of this tale, nor when it started is known. I
stumbled upon it by chance from the mouth of an old travelling
storyteller. He claimed to be the last direct descendant of
the Mizugawa Clan.
It
all began with a promise, one single promise, filled with good
intentions… a single promise to protect one person holds
dear. This single promise would eventually lead to an ultimate
deception, a feud between two families, the death of
Mizugawa’s faithful eleven, and a curse that will continue
until the world is purged of the Souma bloodline.]
“Hmph,”
Hatori smirked despite of himself, “Until the world is purged
of the Souma bloodline… Iwaku-san is every bit melodramatic as
you are.”
“It gets better,” Shigure stated, “Despite the grand
introduction… according to this legend, the true cause of our
family’s curse is so cheesy, its not even vaguely funny.”
“And that is?”
With a dramatic pause, Shigure let out a long drag before
facing his cousin to give him a knowing smile.
“Love.”
End of Prologue
Continued on Chapter 1
Author’s squawk:
Ina-chan is baaaaaaaack from Internet-less-dom! ^_^.
Well, here is a little welcome back gift for you guys. I still
haven’t checked my mail, so I dunno what’s happening yet, or
what I missed.
I have no idea why I started this knowing that the
Jyuunishi circle in Furuba isn’t even complete yet! Well…
anywayz… I know this is an ambitious fic and not particularly
original. But hopefully, this is going to be entirely different.
I know that there are “curse origins” already written, but
this one just occurred to me… ironically enough… while I was
packing for my move! WAAAAAH! Well, I’ve already outlined the
whole story, unfortunately with the Horse and the Rooster
chapter still missing. The 1st, 2nd and
last (13th) chapters are already finished and written
in my head… If time and inspiration permits, I’ll probably
have chapter 1 out before the end of this week. Heh-heh, I do
have to spend time with my new babies, ne?
Yep!
I am now the proud Mommy of two beautiful baby Mini-Rex bunnies!
One is very friendly and frisky white with grey ears, nose, and
“socks” and soulful red eyes that I promptly christened
“Yukito” (Snowfall) and a very shy pure black bunny with
expressive brown eyes that my sister christened “Yugure”
(Nightfall).
Ja!
Ina-chan
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