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I-have-finished-a-fic-go-me. Not dragons. Seven Samurai. Kyuuzou (that's the swordsman)/ Katsushirou (that's the kid.) And to spare you all I've used English spelling for the names which are otherwise u-heavy.

I could natter at length about how I tend to be too explicit and how I can't manage to leave things to the imagination and how this exercise is no exception though it might have been if I'd left the first draft as it was and not rewritten it the way that sounded best to me. But I won't. I could natter about how I doubt what I've said was up with Kyuuzou really was up with Kyuuzou, but I won't do that either. I *will* mention some Japanese girl's remark about Kyuuzou, 'I want to fall in love with a man like that but even if I could tell him how I felt I think he'd be cold and unkind and then I'd be even *more* in love with him.' What makes Kyuuzou irresistible is his non-attachment; but non-attachment has to be the real thing if it's going to be irresistible; once he shows attachment... well, he becomes resistible.

Somehow this is going to segue into considerations of the Count of Monte Cristo and how the figure of Dumas' Count is actually undercut for me by his being Edmond Dantes, the nice young man we know in the earlier part of the novel. Yes, Dumas' novel is all about what happens to that nice young man and what a revenger's tragedy it all turns into. But lookasee, Gankutsu-ou starts you mid-novel with Albert's pov, and without any backstory the Count turns into a very satisfying magician/ supernatural power/ God figure indeed. I should hate to lose that by having Gankutsu-ou turn into Edmond Dantes. And I'll point out that Dumas had something of the same idea: in what I feel is the weakest part of the novel- the closing chapters- he presents that quondam nice young man turned revenger playing God, and failing to make the impression his author wants him to because... well, he's not God; he's Edmond Dantes. Dumas should have stuck with one or the other, but as it is... things feel very unsatisfying by the end of the book. Everything tidied away and Edmond given Haydee and Albert and his mother nobly and stiffly vanishing from sight. Mhh. Obviously from a quasi-Japanese and totally yaoi pov it's Albert who has to make amends to the Count for his parents' derelictions and betrayals, preferably with his body; but that, dear readers, will be the subject of my next fic.

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A bit the way we felt when Nii turned out to be just another nihilist wanting meaning and a challenge, not a glorious Taoist immortal (or anything else) after all.

I very much enjoyed the story, by the way.

If I wasn't so fuzzy I might be able to squint and see what Nii looks like to the Japanese. I'm sure they have nihilists enough but not nearly as thick on the ground as here, so he might actually look like a departure. Conversely of course they have Glorious Id-figures, Glorious Animus-figures, and Glorious Archetypes of Choice out the wazoo. That's their version of done and done again ho-hum.

I could natter about how I doubt what I've said was up with Kyuuzou really was up with Kyuuzou, but I won't do that either.

Not that I doubt for a second the existence of restless spirits in the fanfic universe, but it does seems entirely possible from what you've written that it wasn't one at all. One-sided at work, more like.

I've passed along the link. I'm so terribly glad you really did, y'know? :D

(I think if I were to spec an otp, it'd be Kambei and Gorobei -- it's like a middle-aged meet-cute. :)

I'm pretty sure Kyuzo's spirit is there, though why it's there is another question. At the start it was indeed going to be an unscratched itch of the flesh, that would get psychically scratched and thus allow him to become a buddha, as the saying is. But sex seemed too small a thing to tie down someone like that. OTOH clearly it wasn't all a case of 'Kyuzo and his sword, no others need apply' or else he wouldn't have joined Kanbei in the first place. He wanted something more than just to be a perfect swordsman... and so the settei got complicated. But if you posit that Katsushiro's feelings did affect him in some way, he might have stayed around to make sure the boy who loved him was OK- or at least, to see that he got over the (Buddhistic) error of being in love with him.

Thanks for the pass-on, though the requester isn't ever going to get her hawt man-sex scene at this rate (supposing she wants one.)

And I agree. Kanbei and Gorobei are such a nice couple; if I could just imagine sex between them.

He wanted something more than just to be a perfect swordsman... and so the settei got complicated.

Soit. He's the one who turned it down, then showed up with no explanation. And the only one for whom no explanation was ever offered for. So anything goes within reason. :D

I didn't think that was what she wanted (i.e., she did specifically ask for teh hawt for one of the others but not that one).

Re: K/G. That's a hurdle, yeah. ^^ I seem to recall reading somewhere that there's indeed ... what would you call it? ojisan ai? ... but I've not noticed people stampeding to translate any of it for the fannish masses.

I'm still snorting because the BBZips Nice Middle collection contained 30 year olds. But that was many years ago and I suppose there might be something now. But I don't think it's between 40-somethings let alone 50-somethings; I'd guess older guy/ younger guy always.