The Eve of Loss
Dec. 20th, 2021 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerSo, I hadn't planned on Willow's story going here, but recent events kind of inspired me. (I still am not fully updated and there's a lot here that doesn't match my situation, only bits that sparked the rest.) Fun fact: this is the 44th entry in the bloody petals tag. Shi, if you didn't know, is the word that means 4. It also means death. So.
Cast of Characters (listed the Japanese way of surname first): Akiyama Yoko (Willow), Matriarch of the Akiyama-gumi, a Direct Family of the Amaya-kai
Isamu Ena (Amy), Captain of the Akiyama-gumi
Shokutsu Tenko (Sheila Rosenberg)-Psychological Researcher
Miyamoto Suna (Xander), Matriarch of the Miyamoto-gumi, a Direct Family of the Amaya-kai
Amaya-kai-the Yakuza Clan they're all a part of
Author's Notes: In this universe, Japan is run by the women. As it's a matriarchal society, men take their wife's name. Yoko changed hers back to her father's surname after being disowned.
Terms: Irezumi youkai-tattoo spirits and the sign of a yakuza; drawing on one gives one somewhat of an advantage, such as avoiding some damage when being tossed around. It's also more 'acceptable' than actually invoking against a superior. Otousan-father
Okaasan-mother
gokudou-another term for yakuza
civilian-non-yakuza
musume-daughter
shikata ga nai-It can't be helped.
Shokutsu-food connoisseur actually from surname of Willow’s mom’s actor Tenko-heavenly child
More author's notes: background notes
Timeline-wise, this one is slightly more ambiguous but definitely comes after Kumai's betrayal, since Miyamoto is a Matriarch.
Main Points:
Buffy/Yakuza AU (Bloody Petals)
Chapter Summary: Akiyama gets a phone call.
Word Count: 740
Rating: Teen
Warning: real world discussion of death/dying
(f!xander does not appear in this part; she is only mentioned)
“I’ll take the call.” She smiles and uses a spell to blast Isamu-chan out to the hallway, once she plucks the phone from her Captain’s hand. “Feel free to speculate, Isamu-chan!” she calls out after her, and the woman glares, picking herself up like nothing happened. There’s the telltale gold glimmer that says she probably drew on her irezumi youkai, but that’s fair. Still, she closes the door and there’s the telltale feel of her leaving. She waits until the feeling is entirely gone before she speaks.
“This is Akiyama-san,” she greets.
“Ah, Yoko-kun? I’m sorry to be bearing bad news.” The voice on the other end is correct. Just in case, though, she silently casts a spell to double-check the identity, only to find that yes, it really is her father on the line. “Tenko-chan is dying.”
She frowns, instantly wishing irreverent Suna-chan was here with her. “I’m sorry to hear that, otousan, but fail to understand what it has to do with me. Okaasan was very clear in stating she wished to never see my face again, and I would be remiss in ignoring a dying woman’s wishes.”
He pauses for a moment, just long enough for her to know that she had not changed her mind. “I…hear you have become quite the sorceress. Is it possible you could do something to save her life?”
She frowns. She’ll have to investigate the source of this leak, at a later date. The specifics of a gokudou’s powers are not matters for speculation from any civilian. But no, she should approach this a different way. Of course, permission could be sought, and possibly granted, but that’s not likely to be the greatest source of difficulty.
“Would she accept my help?” Sure, she knew healing spells, but was no healer. She needs to ask this formally, as one of the most powerful gokudou in the East. “Make no mistake, otousan, the favor you ask would be of the Amaya-kai, and not just your own daughter. And, of course, that daughter is, as you said, a sorceress, but more than that. I am a Matriarch. If she turned down the Healers at the hospital in favor of more traditional medicine, what makes you think she’d let me do anything?”
This time, she welcomes the quiet as he contemplates, as the fox beneath her skin snarls and urges her to free it. As she doesn’t particularly want to deal with the rumors about her invoking, however, she forces it back down, to play later. Perhaps with Suna-chan later; her old friend is always ready for a fight.
“I just…don’t want to lose her, musume,” he finally says, attempting to remain calm, but she can hear the tears all the same.
“I could use a spell to alter her personality, but it wouldn’t really be her, anymore,” Yoko states, as compassionately as she can. She doesn’t really wish her father ill, or anything, but all the same, he had not done a thing to protect her from his wife’s disapproval and eventual act to sever the ties of family. True, most men would not be strong enough to stand up to their wife. Still, it was more a matter of a forceful personality than having become accustomed to the state of things since birth—she was a foreign psychological researcher who had sought a name-change in the process of naturalization.
He starts crying in earnest. “Shikata ga nai,” he mutters, over and over, and Yoko says nothing, for it is true. It is difficult to use magic to help someone when they hate magic enough to cut someone out of their life entirely over it.
Cast of Characters (listed the Japanese way of surname first): Akiyama Yoko (Willow), Matriarch of the Akiyama-gumi, a Direct Family of the Amaya-kai
Isamu Ena (Amy), Captain of the Akiyama-gumi
Shokutsu Tenko (Sheila Rosenberg)-Psychological Researcher
Miyamoto Suna (Xander), Matriarch of the Miyamoto-gumi, a Direct Family of the Amaya-kai
Amaya-kai-the Yakuza Clan they're all a part of
Author's Notes: In this universe, Japan is run by the women. As it's a matriarchal society, men take their wife's name. Yoko changed hers back to her father's surname after being disowned.
Terms: Irezumi youkai-tattoo spirits and the sign of a yakuza; drawing on one gives one somewhat of an advantage, such as avoiding some damage when being tossed around. It's also more 'acceptable' than actually invoking against a superior. Otousan-father
Okaasan-mother
gokudou-another term for yakuza
civilian-non-yakuza
musume-daughter
shikata ga nai-It can't be helped.
Shokutsu-food connoisseur actually from surname of Willow’s mom’s actor Tenko-heavenly child
More author's notes: background notes
Timeline-wise, this one is slightly more ambiguous but definitely comes after Kumai's betrayal, since Miyamoto is a Matriarch.
Main Points:
Buffy/Yakuza AU (Bloody Petals)
Chapter Summary: Akiyama gets a phone call.
Word Count: 740
Rating: Teen
Warning: real world discussion of death/dying
(f!xander does not appear in this part; she is only mentioned)
Akiyama’s been disowned by the entire family, she was pretty sure, so she’s utterly baffled when Captain Isamu sidles up to her with a grin, phone in hand. It’s unusual to put a Captain on phone duty, she knows, and more of a punishment than anything. At some point, Isamu-chan really needs to get it drilled into her that she can’t keep turning people into rats or she’s going to be stuck as a rat for a spell and see how she feels. “There’s a Shokutsu-san calling for you? Says he really needs to talk to you about personal matters.” Isamu-chan, she knows, is just begging to have a topic of gossip, because of course one of the Families that specializes in information gathering would also highly value gossip.
“I’ll take the call.” She smiles and uses a spell to blast Isamu-chan out to the hallway, once she plucks the phone from her Captain’s hand. “Feel free to speculate, Isamu-chan!” she calls out after her, and the woman glares, picking herself up like nothing happened. There’s the telltale gold glimmer that says she probably drew on her irezumi youkai, but that’s fair. Still, she closes the door and there’s the telltale feel of her leaving. She waits until the feeling is entirely gone before she speaks.
“This is Akiyama-san,” she greets.
“Ah, Yoko-kun? I’m sorry to be bearing bad news.” The voice on the other end is correct. Just in case, though, she silently casts a spell to double-check the identity, only to find that yes, it really is her father on the line. “Tenko-chan is dying.”
She frowns, instantly wishing irreverent Suna-chan was here with her. “I’m sorry to hear that, otousan, but fail to understand what it has to do with me. Okaasan was very clear in stating she wished to never see my face again, and I would be remiss in ignoring a dying woman’s wishes.”
He pauses for a moment, just long enough for her to know that she had not changed her mind. “I…hear you have become quite the sorceress. Is it possible you could do something to save her life?”
She frowns. She’ll have to investigate the source of this leak, at a later date. The specifics of a gokudou’s powers are not matters for speculation from any civilian. But no, she should approach this a different way. Of course, permission could be sought, and possibly granted, but that’s not likely to be the greatest source of difficulty.
“Would she accept my help?” Sure, she knew healing spells, but was no healer. She needs to ask this formally, as one of the most powerful gokudou in the East. “Make no mistake, otousan, the favor you ask would be of the Amaya-kai, and not just your own daughter. And, of course, that daughter is, as you said, a sorceress, but more than that. I am a Matriarch. If she turned down the Healers at the hospital in favor of more traditional medicine, what makes you think she’d let me do anything?”
This time, she welcomes the quiet as he contemplates, as the fox beneath her skin snarls and urges her to free it. As she doesn’t particularly want to deal with the rumors about her invoking, however, she forces it back down, to play later. Perhaps with Suna-chan later; her old friend is always ready for a fight.
“I just…don’t want to lose her, musume,” he finally says, attempting to remain calm, but she can hear the tears all the same.
“I could use a spell to alter her personality, but it wouldn’t really be her, anymore,” Yoko states, as compassionately as she can. She doesn’t really wish her father ill, or anything, but all the same, he had not done a thing to protect her from his wife’s disapproval and eventual act to sever the ties of family. True, most men would not be strong enough to stand up to their wife. Still, it was more a matter of a forceful personality than having become accustomed to the state of things since birth—she was a foreign psychological researcher who had sought a name-change in the process of naturalization.
He starts crying in earnest. “Shikata ga nai,” he mutters, over and over, and Yoko says nothing, for it is true. It is difficult to use magic to help someone when they hate magic enough to cut someone out of their life entirely over it.
