keiichi @ keiichi.net

This was a song fic that I had written to help flesh out and build some history for a character of mine in Guild Wars. It turned out being a LOT more emotional then I meant it to be, but also much better then I expected it to be.

Song Fic for Guild Wars – Yamiguchi Takahari
by Michael Morris

The sun was lighting the skies ablaze with it’s memorial flame as the coming night slowly extinguished the sun’s life below the horizon. Yamiguchi had stopped for the night, working her way back from the Capital to the encampment Aluna-sama had made on the edge of the city. After setting up her rooming for the evening at a small inn, she had gone out for a walk. She was not long into it that she walked across something that brought her heart to a stop. It was a place she had never wanted to see again, and yet she hoped that it would not have been in this condition if she had ever found it. Her body felt hollow as her knees suddenly could not hold her, not able to stop the tears that were falling from her eyes.

風さそう木蔭に俯せて泣いてる
見も知らぬ私を私が見ていた

Kazesasou kokage ni utsubusete naiteru
Mi mo shiranu watashi wo watashi ga miteita

Shaded by the trees, calling out to the wind,
I’m lying face-down crying
I saw a version of myself I didn’t even recognize

Yami giggled as she threw off her sandals and splashed in the puddles caused by the pouring rain. It rained quite often in Cantha, but that never stopped her from enjoying the rain. As she splashed around in the amamizu, her kimono became soaked, and water dripped down from her silver pigtails. “Yamiguchi-sama! Please come back inside! And do not jump in that place, your otou-san will be quite angry!” her mother called out to her.

“Haaiii!!” she called out as she tromped back inside. After quickly changing out of her soaked clothes and drying off, she changed into some sleeping clothes and walked into the hall. She stopped as she heard a strange voice speaking with another voice that sounded like her father, “Then it is sealed,” both said in near unison, and then the door opened and her father looked down at her. “Ahh, Yami-chan. Why don’t you go to your room and get yourself ready for the evening. I will come to you and we will work on your reading, Okay?”

Yami smiled and nodded, “Hai. Arigato Otou-san!” She turned and quickly bounded off…

Yami slowly worked herself back to her feet as she walked into what used to be the gate of the complex. Tears still continued to soak her cheeks as she pulled off her gauntlets and felt the charred remains of the gate that protected the house and the family that would have lived inside.

逝く人の調べを奏でるギターラ
来ぬ人の嘆きに星は落ちて

Yuku hito no shirabe wo kanaderu GITAARA
Konu hito no nageki ni hoshi ha ochite

On this guitar I’m playing the melody of someone who’s passed on
A star falls in the grief of someone who’ll never be seen again

Yamiguchi quietly sat down, her kneels sliding onto the pillow in front of her with as much grace as she could manage, her hands never leaving her lap. “Very good, Yamiguchi-san. You are progressing nicely. Now I want you to stand again.” Yami nodded to her teacher as her gaze migrated briefly to the window, seeing the beautiful lands that sat outside the monastery on the island.

“Yamiguchi-san!” She nearly fell as her eyes shot forward again and began to stand. “How am I to make you a respectable woman if your mind wanders to all lands out and about?!?”

The ground still showed marks where the building had apparently burned. Pieces of the the wall and some of the decorations still remained in the courtyard of the house. The locals must have still seen this place as sacred.. or perhaps haunted, she thought to herself.

行かないで、どんなに叫んでも
オレンジの花びら静かに揺れるだけ
やわらかな額に残された
手のひらの記憶遥か
とこしえのさよならつま弾く

Yukanaide, donna ni sakende mo
ORENJI no hanabira shizuka ni yureru dake
Yawarakana hitai ni nokosareta
Te no hira no kioku haruka
Tokoshie no sayonara tsuma hiku

Please don’t go, no matter how much you scream,
All it will do is quietly stir these orange petals
Saved on my soft brow,
I send the memories in my palm far away
An eternal farewell as I keep strumming

“But Okaa-san! Why are you making me do this?!? You promised me that you would let me choose as I wish!!”

“My child, there is too much at stake. You MUST obey us and marry him. Otherwise, our family will quickly fall from the ranks into the slums that are quickly surrounding us!! Besides, with this, you will have the possibility of becoming the Empress! Do you hear me? The EMPRESS!”

“But Okaa-sama! I do not wish to do this! I would rather not live then marry to one such as him!”

“Child, we have given you too much leeway in your upbringing that you would disgrace your family, mother and father in such a way! Now, you will do this!”

The screen slammed shut in front of her.

Yami stepped into what remained of the building. It had been over ten years since that had happened. But even now, she could remember everything that took place during that cycle of the sun as if it took place only yesterday.

優しい手にすがる子供の心を
燃えさかる車輪は振り払い進む

Yasashii te ni sugaru kodomo no kokoro wo
Moesakaru kuruma ha furiharai susumu

The heart of a child clinging to a gentle hand
The blazing wheels cast it off and continue on

She closed her eyes as she felt the sharp tip of the blade against her. In just a few moments, it would be over. Her eyes jerked open in surprise as she heard a voice yell, “Yameru!!” and the knife was thrown from her hands before she could react further.

“How could you even think of this, ojousan?? Do you really feel there is this much dishonor in honoring your parents wishes??”

Yami tried to hold back, but fell into the maid’s lap and cried. “Gomen nasai. Gomen nesai…”

Emi-san sighed to herself and shook her head, “Alright. Gather some things, just enough to travel with, and then go to sleep. I will wake you late this evening.”

She looked up at her and nodded…

 

---

 

There was no light in the sky when she was shook to awareness. A voice quietly said to her, “Miss, are you sure this is what you wish?” She nodded back to the form, and quietly gathered her things. The darkness of the night enveloped her, and delivered her away from her own personal hell.

Yami walked into a small room that was once her own. Fragments of things that were once hers littered the floor, many of them burnt beyond recognition. But a small, unopened box caught her eye. It had apparently survived the fire. She brushed off the soot on the brush and her eyes widened. ‘How did this survive?’ she thought quietly to herself. She quietly opened it, and winced as a once forgotten trap on the box apparently still worked, and left a gash in her hand…

逝く人の嘆きを奏でてギターラ
胸の糸激しく掻き鳴らして

Yuku hito no nageki wo kanadete GITAARA
Mune no ito hageshiku kakinarashite

On this guitar I’m playing the grief of someone who’s passed on
The strings in my heart being plucked at violently

Yami stared down at the blood on her hands. She stumbled back a few steps before she nearly fell as Emi-sama grabbed her, easing her to the ground. Dead. Both of them. He had tried to sell them to the slavers. But now he had that ceremonial dagger through his chest… Blood… Death… Darkness…

When she came to, she felt the softness of a bed under her, and a soft sheet over her. She quietly sat up and looked around. She felt oddly weak, and the furnishings were of no design she had ever seen before.

“Ahh, you have awakened!”

She looked over towards the door, and a lady with brown hair, and strange features walked through the door. “I thought that you would never wake. Quite a trip you’ve had, Miss Yamiguchi. My name is Rebecca, and your in my house which lies on the outskirts of a village which is near Ashford Abbey in the Kingdom of Ascalon.”

“I`ve never heard of it…”

“Well, from what Emi told me, you were asleep for quite a few cycles. Ascalon is on the other side of the ocean from where you were born. But you should be safe from whatever it is that made you run from there. The great wall keeps all the undesirables out.”

Yami sat down as she looked through her pouches for the proper herb. She was careless, and had forgotten about the trap that was kept on the box. Luckily for her, since it was not the first time this had happened, the poison was normally something very common that could be cured with herbs that almost anyone had. Herbs, which she had quickly learned in her adventures, she should never be without. She pulled out the red herbs and chewed quietly on them, waiting for them to take effect.

哀しみに染まらない白さで
オレンジの花びら揺れてた夏の影に
やわらかな額を失くしても
赤く染めた砂遥か越えて行く
さよならのリズム

Kanashimi ni somaranai shirosa de
ORENJI no hanabira yureteta natsu no kage ni
Yawarakana hitai wo nakushite mo
Akaku someta suna haruka koete yuku
Sayonara no RIZUMU

In the pure white unstained by sorrow,
The orange petals stirred in a summer shadow
Even if my soft brow is lost,
I’ll cross over the far off, red-stained sand
The rhythm of farewell

She was able to witness eight years of peace before it was shattered. It was a day that she will never forget.

The sky suddenly screamed out with the color of blood, as suddenly parts of the sky seemed to fall from the curtain above crashed into the ground, destroying any and all in its path. Yami yelled to the small group of mercenaries that followed her, “Get back into the tunnels, NOW!” It took only a short period of time before the next explosion rocked the caves, followed by a second, and then a third. This went on for quite a while, and when the shaking and explosions finally ended three of her men dead from the falling debris inside the cave. But more importantly, the world was in ruins around her.

Yami sighed as she attempted to push those harsh memories back. She had learned shortly afterwards that Rebecca lost both of her children during the event that was later called “The Searing.” It was not long afterwards that Rebecca lost what remained of herself, and she ended up at the Sanitarium like many others.

Sorting through the box in front of her, she sorted through some jewelry that she remembered from her childhood, but one object caught her attention more then the rest. It was a ring, with a signet on the top of a sakura blossom surrounded by a ring. She sat there for a moment, still wondering if perhaps her eyes were simply betraying her.

想い出を焼き尽くして進む大地に
懐かしく芽吹いて行くものがあるの

Omoide wo yakitsukushite susumu daichi ni
Natsukashiku me fuite yuku mono ga aru no

Branded into my memories, on the ever-turning earth,
There is something sprouting in remembrance

She stood up, tucking the box and its belongings into her bag, the ring and the small pout it sat in still in her hand. Perhaps it was time to embrace her past. Aluna-sama stated that constantly as she tried to gather a force that could help her retake and rebuild her home of Alunkee. She slowly slipped on the ring, and then put her gauntlets back on, as she stopped for a moment at where the shrine to all those who came before her would have been, and knelt with a hand to her heart. She spoke a quiet pledge, to honor all those who came before her, and restore the honor of her family and self. Takahari Yamiguchi, First of the House of Takahari of the royal line of Cantha, serving under the House of Xian of the Kurzick.

暁の車を見送って
オレンジの花びら揺れてる今も何処か
いつか見た安らかな夜明けを
もう一度手にするまで
消さないで灯火
車輪は廻るよ

Akatsuki no kuruma wo miokutte
ORENJI no hanabira yureteru ima mo dokoka
Itsuka mita yasurakana yoake wo
Mou ichido te ni suru made
Kesanaide tomoshibi
Kuruma ha mawaru yo

Wordlessly, I watch the chariot of dawn depart
Even in the present, where orange petals sway, someplace,
The peaceful daybreak I once saw
Until it is placed in my hands once more,
Please don’t let the light go out
The wheels are turning

Song lyrics from: 暁の車
[Akatsuki no Kuruma “Carriage of Dawn”]
Lyrics By: 梶浦由記
[Kajiura Yuki]