Kagu-tsuchi heaved a deep sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He truly was getting too old for this. Mizu, of course, seemed as unaffected as ever - rambling on and on about old fishermen and cranky old crones who feed giant crocodiles and deserved what they got -
“There aren’t even any crocodiles in this part of the world!” Kagu finally lost his temper, sparks twitching from the hand clenched tight about his other elbow. “We’re miles above Australia and they don’t migrate!”
“She was totally feeding crocodiles,” Mizu retorted with a pout. “I saw her do it.”
Kagu stared at his little brother long and hard. Finally, he had to ask, “Have you been eating wild mushrooms again?”
“No!” Mizu hollered, stamping his foot and making the already flooded river rise even higher. “I don’t understand why you keep asking me these things! I’m not on drugs - she had a crocodile, I saw her!”
Kagu suppressed another sigh as he waved a hand at the large mess his little brother was making. Fire leapt to his call and burned away the water, coating the land in a thick fog. “Of course you did,” Kagu stated without conviction, “I believe you.”
Mizu was appeased, and just like that his cheery disposition returned. The boy danced off into the fog happily humming about something. Probably spotted a butterfly. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Kagu watched in slight disbelief of the fact that the two of them were related at all. Especially considering that it was Mizu’s fault, and Kagu was absolutely certain he’d be blamed again.
It always happened like this - Mizu would get angry or upset at something and overflow every last bit of water within a hundred mile radius. Kagu would do his best to dry things out and basically do damage control, but it was hard to simply ‘dry’ something when one’s powers naturally called out a raging inferno. Some things got scorched. And then people started yelling about evil fire and how the waters had flooded to quell that and oh, how wonderful Mizu was and how grand it was for him to keep his brother’s temper in check!
One day, Kagu told himself, one day I’ll actually burn this world to the ground, and then they’ll be sorry they ever doubted me.
After all these years of the same promise, Kagu found that lie wasn’t quite as satisfying as it used to be.
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Notes: So I really love the whole theme of opposites - more specifically turning the expectations of those on their heads. So here, even though in the story it states that Kagu-tsuchi (fire) is the evil child and the second (water) was born to quell his rage I decided to flip the positions. Water is a lot more destructive than fire, after all. The second child wasn’t named, so since he’s the god of water I decided to call him Mizu, which is Japanese for water. Consequently, the title means water and fire.
Bib: “Izanagi and Izanami (Cont.)” from Romance of Old Japan, Part 1: Mythology and Legend (1917) by E.W. Champney and F. Champney. Web source.
BONUS STORY: My Immortal Yamato
Hi, my name is Yamato Takeru and I am descended from the gods themselves. I have long raven hair pulled into a topknot and I wear princely black silk robes tied with a black belt, but covered with manly armour so that I don’t get killed from all of the assassination attempts from those stupid preps that keep trying to kill me. I am a constant target because I am the 12th emperor of Japan. I am a gentle ruler but rule with an iron fist. The people all love me but know better to cross me, as I have fought and killed all of my enemies by myself with no help from my army whatsoever. It has been said that I am a terror on the battlefield. I don’t say so myself because I am humble and do not like to brag.
One day I felt like going for a manly swim in the surf of Suminoye. It is a large cliff with lots of big waves, although that doesn’t matter to me because of my huge muscles and ridiculous strength. Anyway I rode all day and night to reach Suminoye, but when I got there I wasn’t tired at all. Actually I was refreshed and ready to go swim in those huge waves so I sexily got down off of my horse and tied him to a tree (so he wouldn’t run away) and took off all of my clothes in a manly way so that I wouldn’t get them wet before diving into the sea. The waves were large but it didn’t matter to me, as my arms were so strong I easily pushed them out of my way and manfully swam really far - it was like swimming in a calm lake.
I was beginning to get bored so I crawled back onto the beach and laid down to get a tan when suddenly I saw the most beautiful women I had ever seen. I looked up and sexily leaned forward to see the hottie. It was…. a mermaid!
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Notes: So, this is not meant to be taken seriously. At all. This is basically what happens in the first bit of The Rescue of the Princess, but because the Labors of Yamato reminded me a lot of the terrible fanfiction My Immortal (which even has a trope page, it's that infamous) that I ended up rewriting the first bit as a parody of My Immortal.
Yeah, I may or may not be sleep deprived and egged on by friends who shouldn't be encouraging this kind of thing. Oh well, hopefully I'm not the only person who laughs at it.
Bib: "The Labors of Yamato ~ The Rescue of the Princess" from Romance of Old Japan, Part 1: Mythology and Legend (1917) by E.W. Champney and F. Champney. Web source.
