The archive of the forgotten

An Emperor's dream

I step onto the ground of the forest and start running. I have never ran so hard in my life. I just want to get away from everything, I don't care when I hear my kosode rip. I don't care that my feet hurt or that I am out of breath. I can't stop running, I am running for the whole night. I have no idea where I am, I am extremely scared. I ended up somewhere in the mountains. The sun is coming up, I cannot, I will not stop but my legs are so tired. I see a suspicious crack in the mountain, it's just big enough for me to walk through it. I walk through it and here I see a valley covered in mist, a beautiful villages with several shrines in the middle.

I collapse unto my knees and lay down in the grass. I close my eyes and I feel my breath slow down. I am happy that I can finally sleep.

Not much later I wake up. not far from me is sitting a young man who is kneeling at the edge of the ravine where we are standing on. I walk up to him. "Sir, may I ask something?" His eyes are closed and he doesn't respond. "Sir." He opens his eyes, pale blue eyes. I've never seen eyes like it. He looks at me with a very hateful stare. "What do you want?" a surprisingly femenine voice responds. "Oh I am sorry ma'am. Where are we?" "Why do you assume I am a woman?" She asks, definitely offended. but before I can answer she goes on. "We are in Shimakura and if you don't know that." she grabs her katana and before I know it I am laying on the ground with it pointed on my throat. "Means you are not supossed to be here."

"You can't kill me!" I scream. "Name one good reason foreigner?" "I am your prince." She smiles. "Stand up" I oblige. She leads me down the mountain with the katana dangerously close to my back. We walk through the beautiful streets of the village and all the people seem to be strangely muscular. I also notice that everyone is wearing some kind of sword. Which also seems strange to me. I see people meditating in gardens. Other's are practicing martial arts. This village is utterly strange.

We arrive at a traditional minko and enter it. There are two men with black and red kosode's are talking incredibly quick with the other, they are having an argument of sorts, but one of them is basically trying to convince the other it's possible to view things his way while trying to remain respectful. One of them, the more dominant one, the less apolegetic one, is a lot older and is beginning to show signs of wrinkles. The other one can't be much older than I am, the young one is wearing a black cloth covering up his mouth. "Father. I found this foreigner who claims to be a prince." She throws me on the ground. I look up at the two men. I have been looking at the older one the whole time and because of that I haven't notice the incredibly frightening eyes of the other.

His eyes do have a pupil but the thing that is normally a colour, is completely white. Giving him the impression he is a ghost of sorts. I had no idea that was possible. "Do you believe him Akira?" the older guy asks. Akira shakes her head, well maybe his. "Look, my katana has the royal seal." I say handing the younger guy the katana. "Does it Ryo?" He smiles and take the katana out of it's sheath. "He is a liar and an idiot." He says smiling. "How so" Akira asks. "It's an uchigatana not a katana." I have never heard of that. I feel a tear roll down my cheek. "But he did not lie about the seal. He must be the prince." He kneels. "Hello little guy." He says almost as if he's teasing me. "She found me! If that stupid women wouldn't have taken me here I would have left you alone!" His eyes spit fire. "You will not call my sibling a women! You royals have no capacity to think free from gender do you!" "Don't flip ryo, it's alright. I will always sound like a women. We can't change that." the one who found me answers.

"why are you here prince ambrocio?" the old one asks. "I feel I do not have the strength determination or ability to lead a country." The young one smiles and whispers something in his ear. "Than we shall teach you, here in Shimakura you will be taught everything about the balance of life, war, and everything any other samurai needs. You will be treated like any other pupil. Your captains will be both Ryo and Akira. The both look confused at eachother. "But father" "The royals are technically the reason our brother Ryu died' they say in the same tone. "Than this will be the best way for you two to torture for this brat." He says. "You are all dismissed." Ryo mumbles something under his breath. He grabs my collar and put me on my legs. "You better do your level best little prince."

Ryo

It's raining. I am only wearing my hakama and the black cloth obsuring my mouth, the hakama are traditional trousers which are so wide they almost seem to be a skirt. The rain softly lands on my bare chest. My body hurts as always. I am guiding my body carefully to every position. I feel everything, every part of my body is aware of it's surroundings, of it's movements of every gust of wind that hits it. I take a deep breath and than I hear his voice, 'your balance is abdominal!' it's not his voice, it's my mind tricking me into remembering him. I collapse onto my knees. I curse him, I curse my own brother. Why do I need to be broken because of his death? He has never been innocent. He has never been kind and still everytime I handed him my pride to wear on his chest. I gave him the world, I gave him everything. I trusted him. And still I cannot believe it. I hate myself for missing him.

I puch the wall of the mountain behind me, the blood runs out of my veins, it hurts, everything hurts. The blood that flows through me belongs to so many others. I should have died. I will not weep for him, I did all I could. He didn't even fight it. It is not my fault. He did so much wrong why am I stuck with this guilt? I will not weep for him, I will not.........I betray myself yet again as a tear streams down my face. I don't want to be like you but father wants me to be like you.

You were a monster and now you've made me one.

Akira

I walk up to Ryo and put my hand softly on his shoulder. He flinches as if my hand is hot. He turns around he looks mad. "What? Aki?" "Come on don't be so agitated. Don't act like ryu" I respond. He melts a bit, he seems miserable. His wel defined muscles seem to tense up by the mere mention of him. "He's alright, the gods have forgiven him." "I do not care about any god even if they are real why would they kill him in the first place? why wouldnt they kill me." He looks up at the sky. "Kill me you damn fools!" nothing happens. I smile. "Brother, you're not the one who's guilty." " Than tell me why is my heart burning? Why is my life like this? the god are torturig me if they're real and otherwise I am torturing myself. I do not know which one is worse" He collapses unto his knees. I grab his hands and put a bandage on it. "Brother, you have always been the kindest soul I have known. You'll be alright." He looks at me and hugs me. "thank you brother." I put my hand on his back.

He doesn't deserve this, if someone deserved to be punished. it was Ryu. Ryo has never been unkind to anybody. He is strict when in training but he is never mean. Ryu was cruel, ryu has never called me brother, he still said sister. Ryu and ryo were twins. Ryu was the first to be born, Ryo was half-dead when he was born. Ryu had been greedy is what my mother would always say. This resulted that Ryo had chronic pain but he learned to live with it. Everyday he woke up in tears, whichever age he was. One touch was enough to hurt him and still there has never been a more talent warrior, he was skilled in everything, martial arts, medition and sword skills. He was extraordinary, you could not hurt him when he was fighting you. He was fearless, he had more honour than anything, but Ryu always stole his thunder, Ryu always stole his strategies, he stole his honour and his name. He stole everything and than they were drafted, Ryo was appointed general after a few months and the envious Ryu replacing him and Ryu disobeyed orders. He was Executed when they found out wht he had done, he was the reason all those men had died. And Ryo still blames himself. He always will I think.

Thank @-CallMeLiam- for akira's perfect name!

an emperor's dream is set in a country heavily inspired by japan in the edo/tokugawa period. I have not set it in the real world so I am a little more free to explore some of my own ideas and not be confined to historical accuracy. Altough I do try my level best. The book is mainly focused on learning discipiline, duty, family, grief and desire. Ambrocio is the youngest prince from an emperor's family when his whole family unexpectedly dies he runs away and discovers another society where he learns more than his parents could have ever taught him.