Heaven’s Wind – [PART 1]

Author’s note: O-hisashiburi neeeeee, minna-san! I apologise for the lack of updates in recent months m(_ _)m. I bring you a new story — a short, 5-chapter long story — which is dedicated to Aki-chan as a belated birthday present. This story is hugely inspired by Ohno’s 2008 butai, Amatsukaze (Heavenly Wind = Heaven’s Wind XD). Hope you enjoy! <3

HEAVEN’S WIND
an Ohno Satoshi fanfiction

Rating: T
Genre: Historical romance
Banner: Lord Ohno Satoshi and Kikuchi Aki (modeled by Toda Erika)
Summary: When Aki arrives at the Imperial Heian Palace as a new lady-in-waiting in service to the Empress, she is filled with indescribable anticipation and anxiety, knowing a new chapter in her life will begin. What she knows not… is that her life will change completely, and it begins with a chance meeting with a mysterious man on the stone wall.
Note: If there is any factual inaccuracy in terms of historical facts of the Heian Period, it is not intended.

INTRODUCTION:
1 — This story is set in the Heian period (平安時代) of ancient Japan, circa 794 A.D. to 1185 A.D.
2 — The Heian Palace, where the background of this story is set in, was the Imperial Palace of the Heian capital (present-day Kyoto) during the period. The structural design of the palace buildings greatly resembles those of the Forbidden City in ancient China. For images of the Heian Palace you may refer to this site.

GLOSSARY:
1 — bukan sokutai (武官束帯) : a customary garment worn by lower-ranked Imperial warriors.
2 — jyunihitoe (十二単) : a twelve-layer kimono worn by women of the Imperial Palace. The colour and design of the robes defines the rank, as the Empress wears a jyunihitoe of finest silk of gold, red and jade green, whereas the jyunihitoe worn by ladies-in-waiting and lower-ranked court ladies are of less-elaborate design and subtle colours.
3 — kougou-sama (皇后さま) : a title to address the Empress.
4 — tennou-sama (天皇さま) : a title to address the Emperor.

With that said, my friends, onwards! :D

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Heaven’s Wind
Part One

There were no words in her mother language that best described the expression of awestricken disbelief on Aki’s face. With her hand pushing aside the draping cloth and her head sticking out of the window of their horse-drawn carriage, her jaw hung slackened and her eyes widened like ripe almonds as she stared past the edge of the mountain path, down the slopes at the foot of the mountain, drinking in the magnificent view of the sprawling dark turquoise roofs, the red-painted pillars and walls coloured in a shade of intense fury, and the lush greenery of the famed heron gardens. The eastern and western walls stretched beyond the horizon of which was visible to her flawed human eye.

This was the vast capital of the Heian Palace.

“Satoko, look!” she called out over her shoulder.

A woman not ten years older than her glanced through the window and grinned. “Yes, the beauty of the palace invites much praise and awe when viewed from the mountain,” she said. She looked up at Aki, and her grin widened more than ever. “This is your first time laying eyes on the capital, I take it?”

“I am naught but a village girl.” Aki then shot back a look. “And I take it, that due to the countless number of times your eyes have beheld these walls, their magnificence no longer strikes you?”

Satoko chuckled and patted her shoulder. “Lady Kikuchi, I have served as Her Highness the Empress’ lady-in-waiting whilst you were still chasing ducks and digging worms as a child in your homeland. The view of the capital in my eyes is like the view of an herb garden in yours! But no, its magnificence does not tire out my young heart.”

“An obaa-san’s speech coming out of a young heart, I see,” Aki teased, tongue-in-cheek.

Satoko rolled her eyes and adjusted her position on the hard wooden bench. “Trust me, Aki, the capital is – by an immeasurable scale – a far more appropriate place for young ladies like us to reside in. The capital never runs out on all the merriment, the banquets and the plentiful feasts, and moreover the plentiful source of male subjects found fit for our female eyes to feast on,” she spoke in a vibrant voice, her eyes twinkling dreamily, “all of which we were deprived of at the summer palace.”

“Do you not find merriment in the Empress’ summer gardens, or banquets in Her Highness’ grand halls?” Aki questioned, thinking of the feasts the Empress had hosted to entertain guests who traveled far to visit her in the countryside.

“Banquets? You speak of four people sitting with the Empress for a meal that feeds the stomach of thirty court ladies! I hardly call that a merry feast, let alone a banquet,” Satoko exclaimed in mock offence. “My dear friend, you have not seen what a true banquet is. You will have your chance during the Empress’ welcoming feast tonight.”

“Indeed,” Aki murmured with the eager smile of an excited young village girl who had yet to see the world outside her homeland. She turned back to gaze out of the window. The sight of the palace, ever more glorious under the bright afternoon sun, still yielded such breathtaking beauty she could not stop marveling.

“Satoko-nee-sama, where are the women’s quarters located?” she asked.

Satoko leaned over and pointed a slim finger towards the southern division of the palace. “There, in the Greater Palace within close proximity of the southern gate into the Inner Palace. And towards the east of our living quarters,” she gestured at the vastly greenery, “is the heron gardens. It is a lovely place for an invigorating walk in the early dawn, and it is not far from our living quarters if you take the servants’ shortcuts between buildings,” she added with a mischievous smile. Then she leaned down and dug through the light luggage bag beside her feet. “Here, this should help for the inspection,” she said, and handed to Aki a spyglass.

Aki cast a suspicious look at her. “What needs might you have that you find it necessary to own such an object?”

Satoko said nothing, but her innocent expression seemed hurt by that accusation. Once again, Aki was not in the least surprised by all the court-ladies secrets Satoko kept in all the years she served in the palace. Clicking her tongue in disapproval at her friend, she opened the spyglass and put it to her eye.

“Just do not let the horseman see you, or he shall have our heads in citation of spying on His Majesty the Emperor!”

Aki nodded absent-mindedly. She studied the ladies’ quarters Satoko had pointed to her earlier, and in the courtyard she saw two women bouncing around on their toes eager to catch wayward butterflies. In her eyes they looked like ridiculous court jesters in their heavy jyunohitoe garments, and she sniggered.

“I hope you wandering eye does not indulge in perverse ideas,” came Satoko’s gleeful caution.

“Have a care! Keen, I am, but I do not share your enthusiasm for perversity,” was Aki’s cheerful reply. Satoko scowled at her.

She moved the direction of the spyglass eastward, towards the gardens she was most eager to behold since the first time Satoko described to her in such passion of the capital and the gardens’ incomparable beauty. Suddenly, she stopped.

There was a man standing on the stone wall guarding the gardens, watching the vast army of the Empress’ escort.

She could not have mistaken him twice as a mere palace guard, for his garb was not the formal bukan sokutai that she knew was the customary garb of the Emperor’s soldiers. He wore an unfamiliar garment of leather and dark cloth in intricate design, almost in the likes of a wandering ranger (although in all honesty she was not familiar in the common uniform of a ranger). What more, he was standing on a twenty-foot high wall which no common man had any human abilities to reach; he had one hand placed on his hip in a casual manner and the other on the head of a stone dragon statue.

And then the man was staring directly at her through the tunnel of her spyglass.

Aki quickly lowered the spyglass and hid behind the wooden wall of the carriage, feeling her breath quickened and her heart thudding urgently against her ribs.

“What is it?” Satoko asked, curious.

“Nothing, just the warm air making the powder on my face sticky,” Aki lied. Slowly and carefully she glanced back through the window. She was so sure that mysterious man was actually looking at her… but how could he have spotted her, a court lady peering through the window of a wooden carriage amongst the hundreds, from such a distance?

Aki could not understand how she could not erase the man’s piercing gaze from her mind.

~

“They have returned! Her Highness the Empress and her escort have returned!” came a cry from the watchtower guards.

Aki snuck a peek through a slit in the curtain. They were arriving at the main palace gate, and the people of the capital crowded both ends of the pebbled streets leading to it, giving the Empress and her escort a festive welcome deemed fit for a hero. The gates opened and the palace guards knelt and bowed their heads in respect of the Empress as the carriages entered.

“Satoko…” Aki moaned to her friend. She was so nervous, she could not stop wringing her hands in her lap.

Satoko laughed at the state Aki was in and hugged her endearingly. “My friend, do not worry about the mistakes that have not taken place! I will take care of you. All of which you have learned in the summer palace are no different here. Just remember – by all means you must not have eye contact with the Imperial family, nor with the courtesans and ministers who are not women. The rules here are not as lenient and carefree as those imposed at the summer palace, especially under the watchful eyes of the Emperor’s court.”

Aki gulped and nodded. She still found it hard to suppress the urging threat of stomach bile rising through her throat.

The carriage finally drew to a halt, and Aki sucked in her breath. Satoko held her hand for a moment with a comforting smile, and in a motherly fashion she smoothen the front of the younger woman’s jyunihitoe. “Ready?” she asked.

Aki took a deep breath, and held her chin high. “Ready.”

Satoko undid the latch and pushed the door open. She stepped out into the blinding light first, and Aki, pulling up the heavy skirts of her jyunihitoe, followed her and descended the small steps onto the courtyard.

Aki only had a few overwhelming seconds to wonder at the expansive stone courtyard of the Inner Palace that could easily fit tens of thousands of well-armed soldiers. Remembering Satoko’s instructions, she lowered her eyes to the ground and swiftly followed after Satoko’s steps to the formation of the line of court ladies awaiting by the Empress’ golden carriage.

The Empress slowly stepped down her carriage, in her arms carrying a small bundle wrapped in many layers of red and gold silk. She spent a silent few moments scanning her ladies-in-waiting, and her eyes fell on Aki.

“Lady Kikuchi,” her calm voice called out.

Aki’s blood ran cold. Slowly she stepped out of the line and curtsied low. “Present, kougou-sama!”

The Empress strode towards her and smiled. “I shall have you take up the responsibility of carrying the Prince as I bring my escort to the Emperor’s Throne Hall.”

Aki briefly looked back at Satoko with a pleading look, but the fierce and encouraging smile Satoko gave her filled her heart with immense confidence. With another curtsy she carefully took the small bundle the Empress handed to her and nestled him in her arms. She peered at the serene, sleeping face of the Crown Prince; his chubby cheeks were tinged rosy red and he had his tiny thumb between his bow-shaped lips. Aki couldn’t help but smile.

“Come, you must take your place behind me,” the Empress said, gesturing her ringed hand towards the front of the line.

“Wakarimashita, kougou-sama,” Aki said.

The Empress, heading her large escort, began ascending the many steps of the stairs to the shishinden, the Throne Hall of the Emperor. Aki followed closely behind, trying to maintain a safe distance between the Empress and her and careful not to step on the many-layered skirts of the Empress’ beautiful jyunihitoe dragging behind her feet.

“Announcing: the arrival of Her Highness the Empress and His Majesty the Crown Prince!”

The Empress guided her escort into the Throne Hall, with a slight nod at a number of ministers and court officials of the imperial palace who flanked the new arrivals on both sides of the stretching aisle, towards the end where the Emperor sat in his gold-encrusted throne. It was at this point that Aki was inwardly much thankful the young Prince was fast sleep. She could not bear the thought of handling the Prince wide-awake and screaming in the presence of so many courtesans, and more so in the presence of His Majesty the Emperor.

The Empress halted before the Emperor and curtsied, and all the court ladies followed suit.

“I, Empress Anshi, have returned from my confinement of four moon cycles, now well fit to return to my position as Empress in the Imperial Family and of the ruling lands of the Emperor. I give my respects to my lord the Emperor and ask for his blessings.”

The Emperor stood up from his chair and he spoke out. “You have my blessings without hesitation,” his sonorous, commanding voice boomed. Then he descended the throne dais and approached the Empress his wife with his arms opened wide in warm welcome. He held the Empress by the shoulders and brought her up to her feet. “Have you been well, Empress?” he asked.

“Yes I have, my lord,” the Empress answered with a serene smile. “I have come to present to you your newborn child. Lady Kikuchi.”

With a calm poise as best she mustered, Aki stepped forward and brought the sleeping Prince to the Empress, who took him gently and brought him to her glowing husband.

“Your son, the Crown Prince, my lord,” the Empress murmured lovingly.

The Emperor took the small bundle with much care and awkwardness, and gazed at his son with the bloated pride and joy of a new father. Then, he raised the Prince high above his head and cried out, “This is my son, the Crown Prince, and heir to the throne!”

It was then every man in the great hall dropped to their knees and bowed, and a loud, thunderous exclamation echoed throughout the hall. “Praise the Imperial Family, and the heir the Crown Prince!”

The Emperor barked a satisfied laughter and brought the Prince back to his arms. The baby had been awakened by the reverberant boom of one hundred voices and now he cried and screamed and squirmed in his father’s protective arms.

“The little one has strong lungs indeed! Much befitting a lord in the Imperial Family, no?” the Emperor laughed.

As the Emperor began murmuring comforts words in the child’s ear, a man stepped up front and bowed to the Empress. “I represent each nobleman in this great hall of the Emperor to welcome the Empress and her escort back to the capital.”

“Lord,” the Empress nodded, “much is grateful for your welcome, and it does not warm my heart more to see a familiar face.”

“The palace has been a cold and quiet place without the presence of Your Highness, nor her laughter to brighten our hearts,” the lord continued.

The Empress glanced briefly at her husband, and then inclined her head in gesture for the lord to come closer. He slowly leaned forward and offered his ear, and the Empress whispered, “If it were not for my husband the Emperor, I would have given you a warm hug, for I have been deprived of one for one too many months.”

Aki, who stood the closest to the Empress, froze in her spot. She was disgusted by herself for eavesdropping on Her Highness’ private words with the lord, but she was much more appalled by the Empress’ very words. She was shocked; she could not believe that the Empress could utter such intimate words to a man not her husband, and in the presence of the Emperor himself!

Aki could not put off the temptation any longer. Noticing the Emperor was too engrossed in quieting the Prince, she cautiously lifted her eyes up and studied the profile of the man whom the Empress showed such informality to, and she sucked in her breath.

It was the man from the stone wall. The man who was staring at her through the spyglass.

The lord had a stoic expression, but as he exchanged a knowing glance with the Empress, he briefly smiled. Then abruptly, he turned his eyes to Aki as though he knew she was thinking of him. She stopped breathing at once. Their eyes locked on each other for one short moment, before Aki quickly lowered her eyes to the ground.

“Lord Ohno!” the Emperor greeted the lord. “Escort the Empress to her chamber while her ladies-in-waiting retire. It has been a long journey for them and rest is much deserved.”

“Yes, tennou-sama, it has been a long and tiring journey. My ladies and I shall rest and regain our energy for the banquet tonight,” the Empress replied. She curtsied once again and received the Prince from her husband.

“Shall I call for the wet nurse, kougou-sama, to care for the Prince?” Lord Ohno inquired.

“Yes, but first I wish to return to my chamber at once.”

“As you wish,” he bowed as the Empress turned to leave. He followed after her, but not before he stole a curious glimpse at the young lady-in-waiting with her head bowed.

Once the Empress and Emperor have taken their leave from the Throne Hall, a courtesan came to lead the ladies-in-waiting to the women’s quarters in the Greater Palace. Aki retreated along with the court ladies with her mind in a daze, and full of thought and wondering, assessing the very depth of mystery in this Lord Ohno.

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