[FAN FIC] Remnant - Prologue

Series: Samurai 7,
Title: Remnant,
Genre: Yaoi/Slash, Fantasy/science fiction, mythology/fairy tales, drama, action/adventure, romance,
Rating: 17+ for language, lemon, gore/violence, angst, BDSM, unresolved sexual tension, extreme disregard for human life and severe property damage,
Summary: All attempts at healing the broken central government have ended in failure. The latest one being even more spectacular than any of its predecessors. Fighting is breaking out everywhere as every petty little lordling tries to grab control of well...anything they could get their hands on. This aggravates the already uneasy relationships between the new, grotesquely rich merchants and the top-heavy, warrior-class hierarchy still mired in their centuries old ways. A hierarchy in which Okamoto Katsushiro was born into.

Katsushiro has gone home after the Capital was destroyed in Kanna. He is no longer interested in war or fighting. Four years later he's now living a normal quiet life but there is something in his DNA that will soon change this. Unfortunately, two people from his past, who are supposedly dead, won't leave him alone either. They are now in his life nursing him back to health.

Before Katsushiro has a chance to get satisfyingly spooked at their re-appearance the world slides further into chaos and drags them all down with it. Only then does he finds out first-hand why the samurai have always been regarded with fear-tinged awe.
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Warnings: Spoiler-ific! This fic deals graphically with issues of war and death, and its continuing ramifications on a group of people who are basically licensed killers.
Notes: Point of view will be 1st person from Katsushiro. Alternate ending to the anime. Kyuuzo, Heihachi, Kanbei, Shichiroji, Yukino, Okara and a few original characters will be appearing later on...
This was written (as most of my fics are now) in a language other than English and is being translated from that language.
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Prologue:
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( Rain. It's raining again. )

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01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11
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Ex. Notes:
---- Everyone's ages are my own invention. It was never mentioned how old anyone was in the anime.
---- Kyuuzo's name is pronounced with the "Kyuu" stressed whereas in "Kyuzo" it would sound like "Kyoto" would. Short and sharp, and in Kyuuzo's case, incorrect.
References:
http://www.samurai-archives.com/sts.html,
http://www.jref.com/language/japanese_suffixes.shtml,
http://www.jref.com/language/politeness_japanese.shtml,
Disclaimers: Samurai 7 © Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni, Mico, GDH, Gonzo Studios, FUNimation and anyone else who is not me. However, this story plot, the samurai being "upgraded" and "enhanced" for generations is a creation of mine.

[FAN FIC] Remnant 06 - Dried Blood

Notes: This is 1st person from Katsushiro's point of view.
Beta: Lily-ko, Ryuuko1 and White Sorcerer. All mistakes are my own.
Rating: Iris -- Adult language, cussing/language, bone-breaking violence,
Pairing/Warnings/Disclaimers/Etc...: Please see the prologue's head and footnotes.
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06: Dried Blood
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( I woke up with a violent start. )

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07 - Ritual
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Ex. Notes:
---- Does parts of this sound familiar? I cannabalized former fics for it because they fit much better into the S7 universe than in other fandoms I wrote them for.
---- Ariake = ah - RI - ah - g/kay, 'the moon in the sky at dawn'.
---- "Before that, I had an idea - a fallen spaceship lying on top of a crevasse." Makoto Kobayashi, mechanical and art director of Samurai 7. Funimation DVD booklet 4, page 29.
---- I don't know the English names for most of the ingredients for the food. ^__^ And because this is alternative history/science fiction I wrote in Asian cuisine but not necessarily a Japanese one.
---- Okamoto Katsushiro. During the Warring States Era, in which the original Kurosawa flick Seven Samurai was placed in, only the upper classes which samurai was the highest beneath courtier and royal family had last/family names. Peasants such as Kirara and Rikichi do not.
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Remnant | 07

[FAN FIC] Remnant 07 - Ritual

Beta: Lily-ko. All mistakes are my own.
Rating: Lily -- Sensitive subjects are thoroughly discussed.
Pairing/Warnings/Disclaimers/Etc...: Please see the prologue's head and footnotes.
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07: Ritual
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( For what it's worth, I do not remember )

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08 - The Ties that Bind,
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Ex. Notes: I speculate that the ships landing on the planet Samurai 7 is located on were filled mostly with Asians/Japanese though other races were obviously on board as well. It seems the planet have been occupied by them for what looks like the better part of a millenia now therefore everyone would have slowly but surely interbred. Because the Japanese outnumbered everyone else their culture, architecture, ways and names would be adopted.

I.E. In my family only the first generation immigrants to the United States of America have Asian names. Some second generations have both Asian and American names while nearly all of the third/fourth generations have only American names. By the fifth generation, I'm sure only one or two will have any Asian names and by then it'll be "Americanized".
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Remnant | 08

[FAN FIC] Remnant 08 - The Ties that Bind

Beta: Lily-ko. All mistakes are my own.
Rating: Tulip - Sensitive subjects are brought up.
Pairing/Warnings/Disclaimers/Etc...: Please see the prologue's head and footnotes.
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08: The Ties that Bind
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( I woke up again and carefully shook my head to dislodge the fuzz... )

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09 - In the Morning's Light
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Ex. Notes:
---- Katana = Japanese sword,
---- Hour of the Dragon. Most Asian calenders goes by the lunar cycle and this uses the Chinese Zodiac. There are 12 zodiac equaling 12 hours. I.E. Hour of the Dragon is 5 in the morning. Second hour of the Dragon is 5 in the evening.

Chinese Zodiac = Rat, Oxen/Water Buffalo, Tiger, Hare/Rabbit, Dragon, Serpent/Snake, Horse, Sheep/Mountain Goat, Monkey, Rooster/Chicken, Canine/Dog, and Boar/Pig.
---- "I want to try living." is Funimation's official subtitle from episode 9 "The Bandits" which Kyuzo utters to a dying Hyougo.
---- Cranes mate for life. They are symbols of love, fidelity and also of eternity (not to be confused with 'immortality'). A very popular motif in Japanese/Chinese weddings.
---- I find the tessen or steel (either ribbed or reinforced 'sheet') fan a much more elegant weapon than the pair of better known samurai katana known as daisho. It is not a female-only weapon, in fact it is a favorite of samurai themselves because sword usage is very, very strict. Unlike in the movies, samurai rarely ever used their swords in public due to sword-usage protocols (for lack of a better phrase) that often times renders the swords all but useless except to commit ritual suicide...or in a battlefield.

A tessen on the other hand is disguised as an everyday, necessary object; a pleated fan. It could be used on anyone and anything. It also takes quite a bit of time and skill to master. And when not in use, it becomes a beautiful body ornament; If there is anything a traditional samurai loved more than their swords it's to find beauty in the most bizarre places.
References:
http://www.e-budokai.com/articles/weapons.htm
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Remnant | 09