Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Through A Looking Glass ƽ°²¾©¤Î™ÑÎïÕZ ❯ Rebirth, arisen from the ashes ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: everything in this story is entirely original. However I do not own any of the CCS characters.

 

a/n: a historical romance story set in the fascinating era of Heian Period, in the enigmatic city of Heian-Kyo (current Kyoto), about the most well-known aristocratic families in the Japanese history - the Heike Family. Enjoy the story everyone.

 

 

Through A Looking Glass

By: Aisaki Sumi

 

Into the darkness we will fall

The rushing wind and the whispers of dreams

Our eternal companions

And through a looking glass we see

A distorted image of Life

Fabricated with lies

But I will penetrate through the layers

And find the truth hidden beneath

 

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Chapter One

Rebirth, arisen from the ashes

 

The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract

 

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She had been told ever since her birth that a young lady from a wealthy family, such as herself, was born to marry someone from the most aristocratic families at the time. It was always about power struggles and gaining a higher status.

 

There was no love in a marriage. Love wasn't needed when power was invovled. Women were always the tools of men to a higher success. Fathers would send their daughters off to become the wives, sometimes even concubines of powerful men in exchange for more authorities over things.

 

What happened afterwards in their marriage wasn't important. Those innocent young girls who dreamed about a wonderful husband and a family were forced to face the cold, harsh reality. Their husbands, whom they've never met before until the holy ceremony, were nothing like what they had in mind.

 

Most of the girls were being used as a sex toys and breeding machine. If they were able to give birth to a boy, they might be able to keep their status as the wife or concubines.

 

But if they gave birth to a girl, they were considered as disgraceful and were often badly treated like servants. However, even if the wife gave birth to a girl, her child would still be better treated than a girl from a concubine.

 

That was the destiny of women from that era, and throughout recorded history. It wasn't fair. Sakura often thought. Women were just as good as men, perhaps even better. But men dominated the imperial court. They were the ones with the real political powers, rendering women powerless.

 

It wasn't fair.

 

But it was the way life was. There wasn't much she could do other than to watch, silently in the darkness. It irked her to no end that no woman had ever come forth to defy their destiny. No woman had ever rebel against her husband. And she knew the reason behind it, a bit all too well, from her mother.

 

It was because of Love.

 

Women were stupid and naïve enough to fall in love with their heartless husbands over a few gifts or poisonously sweeten words and unrealistic promises of a better future. After they lose their beauty and youth, they were pushed away and were treated like nothing but dirt.

 

Love, such a pathetic ideology, was at the heart of those women's miseries and sufferings. Their visions were blinded; their minds were poisoned by fantasies of a beautiful and dazzling future. To worsen their predicaments, they still tried so hard to please their husbands in a desperate attempt to win over those hearts when those men had none to begin with.

 

Every day, they fought endlessly for their husbands' attentions. Every day they had to compete against each other to see who would be the most beautiful woman in the house and who would win their husband's heart. Dirty tricks were commonly used to make their competitors look bad.

 

It was almost pathetic.

 

Her mother, Nadeshiko, was once a beautiful woman; elegant and witty. She was born into a wealthy and well-respected family. Her father was a successful merchant in Heian-kyo. Brilliant and honest he was, but sometimes a bit too straightforward. And this nature of his made him many enemies.

 

When her mother was only sixteen, her family business went bankrupted over one night. Her father's enemies ganged up on them and brought down their business by pulling a few strings here and there.

 

Nadeshiko's father committed suicide shortly because his pride wouldn't allow such a disgraceful failure. Her mother fell terribly ill and passed a way soon after because she didn't know how to support the family, leaving Nadeshiko homeless and in a great amount of debts.

 

Nadeshiko was supposed to marry Kinomoto Fujitaka in a deal made by the two families long ago. And her husband, Fujitaka, was the owner of the biggest silk selling stores in Heian-kyo at the time. But because of her family's downfall, she was no longer wanted.

 

But the Kinomoto family kept their words, though with much reluctance, and took her in. Only under the condition that she could only be a concubine. Nadeshiko knew this was the only way for her to survive, in a world where women were powerless and where everything was ran by men.

 

Nadeshiko swallowed her pride and dignity and married Fujitaka. A year later, she was born, and was named Sakura because she was as beautiful and as pure as the fallen cherry blossom petals. However, her gender decided her fate the very moment she was born.

 

Unwanted by her father despite her the ingeniousness revealed at a young age. Her beauty and talents were often overlooked, because of her mother's low status. On the other hand, her younger sister, Sakuno, born from the wife, was treated with much more respect.

 

Her father clearly favored Sakuno more, and it was the way things were. Sakura had accepted it long ago, because prolonged struggles to please her father would only prolong the agony.

 

Sakura learned at a very young age that the world was never a fair place. There wasn't any justice or right or wrong. As long as you had power, as long as you had a higher status, whatever you say would be right. Whatever you say would be the law.

 

And if she ever wanted to gain control over her own life, she needed power.

 

Over the years, she frequently sneaked into her father's study room to take out history books to read at night, since women were considered as incapable of learning at the time. She learned, through history, how to become successful, how to rise to the top.

 

She knew what kind of mistakes were considered as fatal and would bring her her ultimate downfall, through recorded history. And she would never make the same mistake again.

 

Knowledge was the key to success, and she used her talent as a fast learner to full advantage. In every single way, she was better than her sister. Much better. But she never revealed any of this to anyone in the Kinomoto household, not even to her own mother.

 

Silently, like a predator awaiting in the darkness, she watched silently and waited for her perfect moment to strike. She trained herself to be patient, to be able to tolerate all kinds of humiliations and mockeries brought upon by her low status.

 

However she wasn't someone weak and would be pushed around forever. She vowed to herself that one day, when she rose to the top, those people would pay dearly for all the things they did to her and her mother.

 

Her chance finally came when her younger sister ran away from her arranged marriage with the youngest son of the aristocratic Heike family, leaving the Kinomotos in distress. Fujitaka had worked very hard to tie the knot, but he miscalculated the irresponsibility of his favorite daughter.

 

But since Fujitaka only had two daughters, one whom everyone in Heian-kyo knew of and the other one whose existence was unheard of, it was easy for Sakura to take up Sakuno's identity and marry Syaoran, the Heike family's youngest son.

 

Besides, unmarried women weren't allowed to be seen in public. Thus, no one would be able to tell her and Sakuno apart. To the others' eyes, Fujitaka only has one daughter, because he denied the existence of the other and never talked about her in front of anyone.

 

Marrying Heike No Syaoran was her first step towards success. But she wasn't stupid like the other young girls of her age to think that her husband was everything and her duty was to give birth to a boy to secure her status in the family.

 

She would rip out her heart before she steps into that bridal sedan. She didn't need love in her life, because she had seen what her mother had gone through. For a man to control a woman, all he needs to do is to capture her heart. Nadeshiko whispered to her hearts before she got into the bridal sedan.

 

Nadeshiko had to learn it the hard way, but Sakura would not allow herself to make the same mistake again. Love wasn't necessary in her life when she could have something greater by being the wife of Heike No Syaoran.

 

After all, she was a woman with great ambitions.

 

She would challenge the set of traditions imposed upon women and enter the world dominated by men. This was her destiny and her brilliance was her gift from god. She was meant to dominate the stage of politics and lead the battles of one of the ugliest power struggles in the Japanese history.

 

From this moment on, Kinomoto Sakura was dead, wiped out of existence as if she was never there in the first place.

 

Like a golden phoenix arisen from the ashes, she was a whole new woman now; brilliant and bright like the distant Northern Star. Her marks would be left on the unwritten pages of history books, and her stories would be passed on through oral tales or songs or poems for centuries to come.

 

Kinomoto Sakuno. This name would become a legend in the Japanese history, and would be remembered forever and ever until the end of time.

 

Her story begins here.

 

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a.n.: newly improved version of Fading into the Facades, the story originally had 8 chapters which would explain the reason why there are 729 reviews for only one chapter. Sakura takes on a much more strong and influential personality in this story. Women from that era were supposed to be weak and powerless and depend on men only, but she is going to change all that.

 

Comparing to the last version, which was more innocent and fairytale-like, this version is darker and much more gruesome. Because it will reveal the ugliness and the cold-blood nature of politics, power struggles in a world where you can't trust anyone but yourself.

 

For those of you who know the history of the Heike family and their downfall and the Genpei war, would know why I say this still will be dark. I've incorporated a lot of the Japanese history into this story and the major events in this story are all historical facts. The only thing that is fictional is the CCS characters.

 

Drop me a review and let me know if you want me to continue this story or not.

 

Please disregard all mistakes.