► 1: - The Most Beautiful One

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Many years ago, During the first drought, a great Shaman appeared, bringing a divine revelation with her.

The words of the God of Heaven: Ieyasu.

She said:

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"Every time the Heaven god anger befalls on you,

Rain shall stop falling and the sun will start burning.

You'll be punished with an everlasting drought

that will be removed only by sending as a sacrifice

the most beautiful one in the village.

From the place where Heaven and Earth meet,

the beautiful one shall depart.

To the shining land of the gods where Heaven awaits"

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At first, there were only few that believed her words.

But the drought had been going on for a long time and it didn't seem anywhere near to his end.

Eventually, the villagers, driven by desperation, decided to try with the sacrifice.

The most beautiful girl in the village got sacrificed in the place where Heaven and Earth met.

The next day, the heat diminished and rain fell.

From that day onward, the people of Namimori village kept on sacrificing the most beautiful girl every time a drought came.

Each time, the day after, it never failed to rain.

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"The God's... they are really cruel"

A small girl, no older than ten, was running through the woods, the hems of her kimono in her hands so she could move better. Faster.

"Onii-san! Onii-san!"

She stumbled in some bushes and would have fell flat on her face had it not been for a pair of hands catching her on time.

"Onii-san!" she repeated once again, lacing her arms around her big brother waist.

"Kyoko..." said the young boy hugging his little sister back, close to his heart.

His precious Kyoko.

"Happy Birthday Onii-san!" she said with a wide smile. cheeks flushed from all the running.

"Thank you" he replied with his own, more charming than he knew, smile.

Kyoko watched her brother with sparkling eyes.

Her Onii-san was really beautiful. When he went out of the house, with the rays of sun illuminating his figure, his eyes, the same color of hazelnuts, always shined and seemed somewhat brighter. She stared at him as the wind blew his brown, messy, fluffy hair around and her smile widened.

Yes, when he was out of the house, here in their secret place, away from the village, he always looked even more beautiful than usual; heavenly.

She always found him more good looking than any other boy or girl the village.

If the Gods were not monsters, she was sure they looked like her Onii-san.

"I'm happy you've come to see me but... What are you doing here at this hour? didn't you have lessons with Sensei this morning?"

Kyoko small hands tightened around the fabric of her brother kimono at the mention of their private teacher and the boy frowned.

"...Did something happen?"

after a small moment of silence, Kyoko started trembling, sniffs and hiccups filled the air and the young man grabbed her shoulder tightly.

With his free hand he raised her face and he darkened as tears fell from her eyes.

"Tsuna-nii..." she said, sniffing a couple of times, fear evident in her round, honey eyes. "Sensei... Sensei said that I'm really cute and ... one day I might be chosen as a bride for the Heaven God!" with this said, she burst out crying, clutching on his brother for dear life, like she was afraid that if she let go, someone will come to take her to the place where Heaven and Earth met, to be sent away to the God.

Tsuna knew there was something wrong the moment she didn't call him: Onii-san, but... he never thought it would be about this. The Heaven God Brides.

The Bride.

That was what people called the most beautiful girl that got chosen during drought periods to be shipped off the gods. They dolled them up, dressed them like brides and took them to the Heaven God temple to be offered in exchange for rain.

The Bride... that was just a name they used because it sounded less tragic and barbaric than calling them: The Sacrifice.

"You don't need to worry Kyoko" he said, hugging her tightly. An hand caressing her long, silky, blond hair.

"Back then, I was really naive..."

"Sensei is an idiot. I'm sure they won't choose you". Kyoko sniffled again and raised her head slightly to look at her big brother in the eyes.

"Really?"

"Yup!" said Tsuna with a wide smile.

Kyoko smiled.

"I really thought no one would ever choose her.

I thought no drought would come again anytime soon.

That no one would ever even think of suggesting her as a possible Bride".

"Also, do you think Mother and Father would ever allow it ?" he poked her cheeks and Kyoko giggled. Only a few teardrops left on the corner of her eyes.

"No they wouldn't" she said with a happy smile.

"I thought that in case it ever were to really happen... Mother and Father would protect her".

"Onii-san" A young woman stood at the doorstep of her brother room with lucid eyes and a sorrowful expression on her face.

She looked beautiful. Her shiny orange hair were so long that they reached the ground, just like those of every other girl in the village. Her complexion was fair like his brothers.

Tsuna looked at her, a foreboding feeling infecting his heart like a poison.

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It had not rained for months.

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"No" he thought.

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Her honey colored eyes were brimming with unshed tears.

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"No it can't be..."

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"Onii-san ..."

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"No please, don't say it!"

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"They... they choose me to be The Heaven God Bride".

"NO" he screamed angrily, banging his hands on the desk he had been sitting at just a moment ago.

Tears started flowing freely from Kyoko's eyes. Realization of what being a Bride of Ieyasu meant, falling heavily on her.

She was going to die.

Her brother stormed past her, the long, small portion of hair she had convinced him to grow, today free of any hair tie, swished near her face as he left her alone in his room. No doubt going to ask their father how all of this happened.

She had wanted to say something. To stop him. To say that it wasn't they're father fault and not mother's either.

But she couldn't.

Only one thought echoing painfully in her mind: "I'm going to die".

"I thought they would do something. Anything so that their youngest daughter did not get sent to her death at age fifteen.

But they did nothing."

I' m sorry Tsunayoshi.

That was all his father had been able to say. His mother had just cried.

I'm sorry Tsunayoshi.

Sorry... what was fathers sorry, and mother tears useful for?

Sorry solved nothing! Tears solved nothing!

Kyoko was still the new Bride of the Heaven God. She was going to die and no one seemed to want to help him save her.

Then again, who would?

The villagers were just relived that it wasn't their daughter the one to be sent to death and they didn't give a damn if a fifteen years old girl died as long as it wasn't them dying.

They were starving, and they needed the rain to bring back to life the arid earth.

His father, despite his position as mayor, could not go against the council will in this matter.

They might grow rebellious if a girl less beautiful than Kyoko got sent, afraid that the God would get angry, and the people who had lost their daughters in the past would surely get resentful if the child of the mayor got special treatment just because of who she was born from.

He started banging his forehead slowly against the wood wall of the corridor he had leaned on to cool off some of his anger after the shouting session with his parents.

A part of him understood why no one wanted to help.

Humans were like that.

He too would have done nothing had it not been Kyoko the chosen one.

Still... it was Kyoko.

"Onii-san..."

He stopped hitting the wall with his forehead and turned around to see Kyoko looking at him from the doorway of his room. She had stopped crying.

His sister gestured for him to come close and he did.

She dragged him through his room and opened the other door, the one that took to the corridor that opened on the inner garden.

The arid piece of earth greeted them and Kyoko made him sit next to her on the wood corridor.

She hugged his left arm and let her head rest on his shoulder.

"Onii-san, can you sing a song for me?"

Tsuna looked at her and saw her hopeful face.

One of the main reasons why he loved his sister so dearly was because she had always appreciated him more than anyone else.

In the village, he was always shunned by their peers for one reason or another.

The boys did not found him manly because he had slim figure (very different from their bodies used to heavy lifting and such) and his only real talent was singing (not a very manly thing either in their opinion).

The girls heated him for mostly the same reasons. From what Kyoko said (and what he himself had come to realize while growing up), they were actually jealous of his beautiful appearance (more beautiful than most of theirs, had said Kyoko once, but he wasn't very sure about that...), his gorgeous voice, and also of the way he walked around ( very straight -that was all because of the etiquette lessons mother forced on him, really- and elegant, had also said Kyoko with sparkly eyes... but he had high doubts about the elegant part. He was twenty but he still tripped over nothing at times...).

Kyoko had been the only one to never isolate him out of jealousy or... lack of manliness... and he loved her a lot for that.

She was such a kind person...

He started singing Kyoko favorite song.

It was a happy, optimistic song.

Just like her.

The dark future awaiting her... she did not deserve it.

"That day I made a decision. A very important one that would have changed my life and Kyoko's forever."

He rethread not to think that this was most likely the last time he would sing for her.

But...

"Yes..." he thought, "this will be the last time I'll sing for her... she won't be able to hear my singing anymore..."

He took a look at his sister and as the song ended he let his head rest on hers, his decision finally taken. There had been a thought on his head since he left fathers chambers. A plan that initially had seemed crazy; but if he really was oh so beautiful to be envied by other girls... then maybe It would function.

"Because... I'll be the one who'll disappear".

"The next day, I exposed my plan to my father and the council in a very... particular way..."

For the whole morning, Iemitsu had been planning with the council all the details for the offering with a heavy heart.

Kyoko... he was helping planning the details of his little girl death.

Nana had closed herself in their rooms, refusing to take part in anything related to the ceremony.

Ah, if only he could do that too.

But he was the Major, the patriarch of the Sawada household, he couldn't not take part.

His daughter, tomorrow, would be going to her death, and Tsunayoshi probably hated him now.

Life was so unfair.

The Brides... no one knew what really happened to them... they had no idea if Ieyasu was really the monstrous being they had sculpted in his temple or something different. But of one thing they were sure.

No Bride had ever came back.

He had been staring at his daughter... wedding dress... (a white and orange Kimono with red, pink and golden embroidery) when he received the biggest shock of his life.

"Father..."

There in the doorway, a girl with long brown hair stood. Straight posture, pale face and lips tinted in blood red; kind hazelnut eyes rimmed with black were staring at him.

Those eyes...

She was beautiful.

The most beautiful young girl he had ever seen in Namimori (after his precious Nana, of course) and... SHE WAS HIS SON!?

"Tsuna...yoshi...?" whispered the man in disbelief. The Council people in the room, turned their wide eyes away from the girl to gape at the Mayor, utterly shocked.

"This is... your son?"

"Y- yes?!" answered Iemitsu with eyes wide as saucers.

"What is the meaning of this Tsunayoshi?"

Tsuna took a deep breath and steeled himself for what was to come.

"Father... I ask to take Kyoko's place as Bride of the Heaven God."

After a moment of silence, chaos erupted.

"Son, have you gone mad?!"

"Take Kyoko's place?! do you realize what you are asking boy?"

"We can't send you!"

"Why not?" he asked suddenly, making the room fall into silence again.

"Because you are a boy!" said the same man that had spoken before, like the answer was obvious.

"And so? The Shaman had said: The most beautiful one, not: the most beautiful girl. She didn't set a specific gender!"

Stunned silence fell like a cover on the room. They looked like they had realized that detail only now.

"But the villagers... they are used to girls getting sent... they knew that they function... they wouldn't accept us sending a man!"

"There is no need for them to know yet" bit back Tsuna with a determinate face. "That is the reason why I presented myself like this today. I have no problems dressing up as a girl to keep the villagers serene. I'll put on the wedding dress destined to my sister and let myself be sent to the realm of Gods."

He looked at each of them with an expression that clearly stated that he was not backing down from this.

"I think we all agree that with some make-up and a wig I can easily pass for a girl. A beautiful girl." He said, a tad bit embarrassed for the kind of narcissistic statement. "You'll keep Kyoko hidden, after the day of my departure, rain will fall, the villagers will feel calmer, everything will be fine again and you'll be able to tell them. It's only the rain that they want. I doubt they would care if it was me and not her to be sent as long as rain falls".

The people in the room watched him in contemplative silence. Some were awed by his bravery, others felt sorry, and his father was horrified.

Iemitsu had wanted to say something, anything that could make his son change his mind... but that look on his face... he knew it.

No matter what he said, Tsunayoshi would have not changed his mind.

"Fine..." he muttered in defeat as the whole room turned on his direction, stunned. "We'll do as you wish".

Tsunayoshi smiled and his heart clenched.

"Thank you father".

"I never regretted my decision even once. As long as Kyoko was safe, I was happy"

It was beautiful and it was most likely the last thing he would ever wear.

And it was a woman kimono.

"Ugh..."

Tsuna scowled at the silky, white fabric in his hands as he proceeded to put it on his bare skin. Looking at his reflection on the full-length mirror in front of him, his scowl eased as he watched the hunched form of his mother pinning every part of the kimono in place with trembling hands.

Kyoko was not here, Father had told him that once he explained her of the switch, they had to trap her in a room once she threatened to reveal of their plan to the rest of the villagers before he was sacrificed.

He felt a pang of affection for her, sweet, obedient Kyoko, had gone as far as threatening their Father and the village Council to reveal everything if they sent him on her place.

Thoughts of Kyoko crying her heart out in a locked room lingered on his head as his attention snapped back to their Mother the moment he heard her sniff.

In the end, Nana seemed to have accepted the fact that no matter how long she barricaded herself in a room or prayed for a miracle, today she was going to lose one of her children and wanted to be with the chosen one as long as she could before the Gods took him away from her.

"You know Tsu-kun, I always dreamed of the day I would help my daughter put on her wedding dress... I had never expected that I would put it on my son though..." she finished with a watery smile, in a clear try to ease the tension with some humor.

Tsuna blushed faintly, but mustered up a strained smile to ease her. He had never thought he would put on a wedding dress either.

He stilled as his Mother put the wig on his head and fingered it with practiced hands to make it blend nicely with his original hair.

Tsuna looked at himself in the mirror; his face covered in makeup, eyes rimmed with black, some red and orange eye shadow covered his lids, small glittering stones had been placed on the skin, forming small patterns around his eyes while his lips had been tinted the same shade of red he had put on the day he showed up in his Father office with his proposal. It reminded him of blood.

A knock on the door made his Mother froze in the process of putting his veil on and Tsuna trembled.

It was time to go.

"J-Just a moment" he heard his mother stutter with a shrilly voice.

Despite her hands shaking like mad, Nana somehow managed to pin the veil in place. Tsuna blinked as he saw his Mother kneel in front of him with a watery smile and lucid eyes. For a long moment they simply stared at each other and stopped only when a second knock brought them back to reality.

Releasing a shuddering breath, Nana leaned forward and placed a kiss on top of Tsuna forehead before draping the front, semi-transparent part of the veil over the upper half of his face.

"We are coming" he heard his Mother say as they both stood up.

As they reached the door, Tsuna stopped just a second to give Nana a brief but strong hug as the woman on that had been waiting for them to come out instructed him to follow her.

"See you Mother".

Nana sniffed loudly as her whole body trembled.

"I Love you" she said simply as her oldest child slipped away from her hands.

She watched him and the woman calmly walk away and it was only after they were out of her sight that she let out a shaky breath she had not realized she had been holding in before slumping on her knees and let the tears flow freely, her hiccups and agonized moans were the only sounds echoing in the now empty hallway.

"When we reached the Heaven God temple, differently from what I had first thought, fear was not what I felt when I walked inside the sacred place.

All I felt in that moment was acceptance.

Acceptance mixed with some sort of resignation.

But I was also happy."

He could hear the soft murmurs and the eyes of the people pinned on him as he walked up the four steps that separated him from the place where heaven and earth met: a gigantic mirror-like surface placed on the floor that reflected the sky above.

The temple of the heaven god did not have a roof exactly for that reason. The mirror under his feet had been placed there by the god himself to create a point on earth where people could somehow symbolically step foot in his domain.

Tsuna let his eyes roam around the room and he felt a touch of resentfulness as not a soul on the room looked particularly sad for the departure of one of their kind.

They didn't care. The rain was the only thing their starved bodies and minds wanted. No one gave a damn about his life but he couldn't bring himself to hate them.

He stepped on the mirror-like surface and he was only slightly surprised when, despite the shoes, he could feel the temperature it emitted.

It was cold -just like the God that put it there- he remembered the village elders say once to him and his peers when they were still only curious little kids that liked stories.

"I still like stories.." he thought absentmindedly as the priestess of the temple, Uni, chanted her prayer.

"Too bad mine is gonna end soon..."

Just as he thought that, he saw Uni rise her head up and look at him with an oddly knowing and piercing gaze for a child her age; a gaze that seemed to say: Not just yet.

For a moment he believed her.

But then, wind started blowing, the ground slowly began to slip away under his feet, and everything lost importance.

Light coming out of the mirror surface -that had no surface anymore- irradiated the temple and for a frozen moment, as he remained suspend in air, his eyes met Kyoko's, half hidden by a long cloak with a hood she had put on, probably to hide herself. So she had managed to convince their father to at least let her come to this funeral camouflaged as a marriage?

His father and mother where beside her but he had eyes only for his beloved sister. She was crying.

"No need to cry my cute little sister, we can't do anything about this, no tears or prayers will change reality and you know why too, right?"

He smiled at her as his body feel down, into the reflected sky.

"The Gods are cruel."

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Author corner:

Here I am, posting a new fan fiction even if I have yet to finish my two longs çAç

But I couldn't resist I just had to write this *0*.

This story was inspired by a Korean manga. The bride of the water god. The basic story is similar: girl (boy in this case) gets sacrificed to a god every time there is a drought. But that's where the similarities end. The story is going to be different (I hate those stories that are basically a copy-and-paste of a manga. I'm ok with taking inspiration and some ideas for creating a story, but the happenings must be different from the manga/movie you that inspired you).

I hope you'll like this new story and if there is someone here that is reading my other ongoing stories I have news for you: Tomorrow I'm posting chapter 3 of Spirit Talker ;D

See ya next chapter *3*