The Sun and Moon: Souma/Kendappa (RG Veda)

[von-questenberg.livejournal.com]

Title: The Sun and Moon: The Souma/Kendappa Manifesto
Pairing: Souma/Kendappa-ou
Fandom: RG Veda, Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
Spoilers: For all of RG Veda, some of Kurogane's backstory in TRC

Late like whoah, I know. I'm sorry. This was supposed to be out on the 18th. ^^;


Background

“At the dawn of creation, the place between the sky and the earth was under the gods’ rule. Though humans had no power, they lived in unchanging peace under the king of the gods, Tentei. The land was limitless and richly painted with every color, and the sky was high and clear. Even the Ashuras, the strongest guardian warriors of Tentei, enjoyed a tranquil break from the bloodshed. That is, until the dark cloud of war descended upon the land. One of Tentei’s military commanders, Taishakuten, single-handedly raised a rebel army and stormed the royal palace to raise the severed head of the god king before all. It was the beginning of a turbulent age.”

And thus begins RG Veda, CLAMP’s (the well-known group of four Japanese lady manga writers) re-telling of ancient Hindu mythology and their very first commercial series. (Before RG Veda, they only did doujin.)

The story proper begins three hundred years after the rebellion. Taishakuten orders Yasha-ou (head of the Yasha clan and Taishakuten’s strongest warrior) to kill Kuyou, a personal friend of Yasha and the Royal Stargazer, for her rebellion against Taishakuten. Yasha finds her but does not kill her; she tells him of a prophecy- a prophecy that six people, known as the Six Stars, would gather together, and they ‘would be the schism that splits heaven.’ And that this destruction would begin when he found a child of a lost race- the last child of the Ashura clan, the child of the late Ashura-ou, king of the Ashura tribe killed by Taishakuten during the rebellion. Yasha sets out and finds the genderles child Ashura sealed deep within the forest. They head back to find Kuyou murdered by Taishakuten’s orders. Yasha is now an outlaw, and his entire clan is destroyed for saving Ashura. Yasha swears both to avenge his clan and to protect Ashura no matter what the cost. To fulfill this goal, Yasha and Ashura begin gathering the Six Stars. Our lovers are two of those Stars.

Kendappa: The Sun


Kendappa is queen of the Kendappa clan and the daughter of the late Jikokuten, one of the Shittenou (Four Heavenly Generals*), General of the East. Jikokuten was killed by Taishakuten for refusing to rebel against Tentei. Kendappa now serves as the court musician for Taishakuten and has secretly taken her late father’s place as the General of the East.

Kendappa is not one to fear death, so why does she serve her own father’s murderer and a traitor and tyrant like Taishakuten? The answer lies in Kendappa’s past. When she was a child, her mother was deeply in love with Yasha-ou, despite her marriage and Yasha’s romantic indifference to her. Her mother eventually died of shame and a broken heart, wasting away from her unrequited dishonorable love. This left Kendappa deeply bitter and scornful of ‘weak’ people. By overthrowing Tentei, Taishakuten proved himself the strongest force on Earth and thus Kendappa gave him all her allegiance, an allegiance from which she never swerves. She is one of the few people Taishakuten seems to respect, which says quite a lot.

She is, as I said, unswervingly loyal when she gives her loyalty. Therefore, when she gives her love to Souma, she is left in a terrible position, and makes an equally terrible choice.

(*The other three of the four generals are Bishamonten of the North, Zouchoten of the South, and Koumokuten of the West; all three serve Taishakuten.)

Souma: The Moon


Souma is the last surviving member of her Souma clan. The Souma clan are alchemists and healers, as well as fighters. There is an ancient legend that if one drinks the blood of a Souma, one will live forever. To stop such a power from falling into the hands of his potential enemies, Taishakuten orders the Souma clan destroyed completely. Only Souma herself survives, saved by her parents.

With her clan dead, Kendappa is the only one Souma has now, at least until Yasha and Ashura come into the picture. Souma spends most of RG Veda traveling with Yasha and Ashura, trying to overthrow Taishakuten, yet her love for Kendappa is always clear. Souma has no idea that her lover is secretly the General of the East.

The Story



After Souma’s clan is destroyed, Kendappa finds her exhausted and injured. The other woman takes Souma in and nurses her back to health. They slowly become lovers as time goes along. Kendappa successfully hides Souma from Taishakuten.

Then Yasha and Ashura appear. Hearing their plans to overthrow Taishakuten, Souma decides to accompany them, hoping to help bring Taishakuten down and thus avenge her clan. Kendappa reluctantly lets Souma go, knowing that she can’t sway Souma from her decision. Before they part, Souma gives Kendappa one of her earrings as a sign that she will return.



And so Souma travels with Yasha, Ashura, and eventually two more of the Six Stars, Karura-ou and Ryuu-ou, waiting for the meeting destiny says they will have, sometimes receiving help from the mysterious Kujaku. All through the journey, they wonder who the sixth Star could be. Along the way, they come to realize that the innocent, sweet Ashura has another side- a side that revels in death and destruction.

Only when they come to Zenmi Castle to finally face Taishakuten do they discover that Kendappa is the Sixth Star, but she has no intention of turning her back on Taishakuten. Kendappa and a hurt, confused Souma face each other in battle. Kendappa injures Souma, and then with tears streaming down her face, admits the truth to the dying Souma. Kendappa had never believed it was possible to destroy Taishakuten, and so had considered Souma’s decision to rebel against him a suicidal route; she had also known that she could never convince Souma to change her mind about rebelling against Taishakuten. Faced with the conviction that Souma would inevitably die and her sense of honor refusing to let her betray Taishakuten, Kendappa had decided that if Souma were going to die, she would kill Souma herself. Kendappa then slits her throat, declaring that she has no reason to live without Souma. The desperate Souma tries to get Kendappa to drink her blood, to save her life using the ancient legend of the Souma clan. But Taishakuten pulls Souma away from Kendappa, saying that it is too cruel to make someone live without the one she loves. And so both women die, a tragedy among many tragedies.



Perhaps it seems odd that a tyrant and murderer like Taishakuten would allow his faithful general to die out of mercy. However, Taishakuten did not rebel and become Tentei for the sake of his own lust for power; he did it for the man he loved, Ashura-ou. Ashura-ou had received a prophecy that his child Ashura would become the God of Destruction and lead the world into a blood bath that would end in the destruction of the world. Rather than chose to not father his child, Ashura-ou instead asked Taishakuten to rebel and become the god-king, and then to kill and eat Ashura-ou to take the power of the Ashura clan into himself. All this, so that Taishakuten might be powerful enough to suppress Ashura and hopefully prevent the end of the world. In the end, however, it is Ashura him/herself who stops the destruction. Ashura stabs him/herself rather than kill Yasha, thus saving the world. The survivors of the destruction never forget Souma and Kendappa.

The Relationship

The deep love between the two them is very clear; they several times call each other ‘the one I love the most.’ They embrace and softly speak to each other. Kendappa rejects Taishakuten’s son Tenou (who is truly in love with her) without a second thought out of loyalty to Souma. There is no denying that they love each other, and it is a deep, romantic love.



Souma in many ways seems to put Kendappa on a pedestal, telling her she shouldn’t dirty her hands by killing. Souma insists on referring to Kendappa as ‘My Lady,’ rather than any less formal name. Yet Souma is not blind to Kendappa’s faults, gently chastising her for her sometimes immature behavior. Kendappa is very open to changing for Souma’s sake (except for when it comes to Taishakuten). All in all, their relationship is strong; the biggest weakness in their relationship is that they are both set on their own paths and view of how the world is or should be. They are a pair of very stubborn women; but if they were any less so, they would not love each other as much.

Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE



Both women have shown up in one of CLAMP’s newest series, Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE. The premise of TRC is that there are infinite worlds, and that within these worlds, there are people who share the same soul as a person in another world but who live completely different lives; yet their essence stays the same from world to world. It is, basically, CLAMP’s excuse to write alternate universe stories for all their characters and series.

There are four main protagonists in TRC: Syaoran and Sakura (alternate universe versions of the characters from Cardcaptor Sakura), Fai D. Flowright, and Kurogane (both characters original to TRC).

Kurogane comes from a world called Nihon, based on ancient Japan. The empress of his country is Kendappa, who usually uses the formal name Amaterasu (from the name of the Japanese sun goddess). Kurogane is a bodyguard for Kendappa’s younger sister, Tomoyo (AU version of Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura), the dreamseer of Nihon who uses the formal title of Tsukiyomi (from the Japanese moon god). Tomoyo’s other bodyguard is Souma. There hasn’t been much interaction between Souma and Kendappa shown so far, unfortunately, but it’s safe to assume they are in love with one another, because CLAMP makes a point of pairing together the same characters in their alternate universes.

Fandom

For RG Veda there are ten volumes of manga and a short OVA; for TRC there are sixteen volumes and going, and an anime is currently being produced and is in its second of three planned seasons. (Most of the fandom disowns the anime though.)

I started reading TRC long before I ever picked up RG Veda. I fell in love with Souma from the beginning of TRC, and knowing that she was originally from RG Veda, I did some research about the series. I immediately declared Souma/Kendappa OTP once I got their full story. Such a tragic story of two (gorgeous) women so deeply in love immediately caught my attention. My love for them grew as I finally got my hands on scanlations and read their story first hand. RG Veda is now one of my favorite CLAMP series, and I don’t just love it for Souma and Kendappa, but they will always be a huge part of RG Veda for me.

TokyoPop is in the middle of releasing translations of RG Veda (and are doing a good job of it) but there is still a very limited fandom for the series; most of the fans are within the more inclusive general CLAMP fandom. The TRC fandom is far larger, but it sadly pays very little attention to Souma and Kendappa. Souma receives far more attention than Kendappa, does though.

Communities

rg_veda - The very new RG Veda LJ community

clamp_yuri - LJ community dedicated to all CLAMP lesbian pairings, moderated by myself.

tsubasarc - General TRC LJ com

tsubasa_shoujo - LJ com dedicated to TRC women and lesbian pairings

Recs

RG Veda Memories - Series of RG Veda drabbles, with some Souma/Kendappa

Broken on the Wheel - Short Souma-POV story at end of RG Veda; centers around Souma/Kendappa

Peace - One-shot immediately following Ashura's attempted suicide; mentions of Souma/Kendappa; Tenou-POV

Heartbeat of the War God - Post-RG Veda fic; a few mentions of Souma/Kendappa. I'm including this just because I like it, even though it's not mainly Souma/Kendappa. ^^;

Souma - Short TRC!Souma/Kendapppa fic by me. I'm not above self-promotion to keep my fandom alive.

Kendappa - Another short TRC!Souma/Kendappa fic by me. ^^;

Voices TRC!Souma/Kendappa drabble giftfic for me by my friend ontogenesis ♥

Souma and Kendappa-ou - Beautiful fanart by umidori