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Long, long ago, in a village now lost to legends and stories, there lived a young and handsome man named Hyuuga Junpei. Hyuuga was a typical youth - brash and quick-tempered, but also warm-hearted and friendly. But there was something abnormal about him, something that no one would presume to know.
For Hyuuga Junpei was the lover of the moon spirit, Izuki Shun.
He had been so ever since he turned eighteen, and even before that they had been meeting clandestinely. They had met first when Hyuuga lost his way in the forest as a fifteen-year-old, and Izuki, who had been resting at the nearby Shrine of the Moon, spent the night with him before leading him back home. Now, every night, Izuki would hang his chariot in the sky and fly down to meet the human who had captivated him with his simple charm.
Tonight was a special night - it was Hyuuga’s twenty-first birthday, the day he finally became a legally recognised citizen of the village. The day he could finally leave this hell-hole without permission from his insane parents, who were probably the most overly controlling individuals he’d ever met. The day that he no longer had to keep his dalliances with his Moon secret.
Humming softly, he walked down the vine-entangled path to the Moon’s Shrine, where Izuki would be waiting for him. He smiled at the thought of the spirit whom he had fallen so irrevocably in love with and hastened his steps so he might reach his destination faster.
As he drew closer, he caught sight of a slender man leaning against the ornate outer wall of the shrine and smiling at the approaching Hyuuga. The man’s very skin seemed to glow from within by a pale light that by some miracle did not wash out the colour of his face. He wore a silver haori that was patterned with pearly blue threads, a silken white kosode underneath it, and a white hakama. He floated barely an inch above the ground, bare feet caressed by the late-night summer breeze.
He was as beautiful as ever. Hyuuga ran the last few steps, eager to unite with Izuki already, and pressed his lips to those of the spirit’s.
“Well,” Izuki murmured against his mouth. “We’re eager tonight, aren’t we?”
Hyuuga grinned, pulling away after placing a small butterfly kiss on the margin of Izuki’s lips. “What can I say? I’m just happy to see you.”
Izuki laid his forehead against Hyuuga’s and laughed softly. “And today is the twenty-first anniversary of your day of birth, so you may finally depart your small village. Is that not partly the cause of your excitement?”
Hyuuga dragged a finger along Izuki’s clavicle. “Well, yes. Also the fact that I won’t have to hide so much any longer. It doesn’t have to be such a big hush-hush, this thing between us.”
“I take offence to the fact that you merely consider it a ‘thing’. The moon does not just… how do you humans say it... fall for anybody, you know?” Izuki winked, and Hyuuga frowned before he realised the intensely stupid pun.
“I hate you,” he grumbled into Izuki’s neck. “You’re really lucky you’re cute.”
Izuki carded his fingers through Hyuuga’s hair with gentle hands and grinned. “Come now. We both know that you have been mooning over me for quite some time.”
“Shut up, Shun,” Hyuuga groaned, falling limp against Izuki, who was surprisingly strong for someone who looked so delicate. Between the puns and the playful attitude, it was sometimes difficult to remember that Izuki and his brother Takao, the spirits of the Moon and Sun, had led a bloody war against the autocratic nature of the Great Light, and won it too. But Hyuuga loved every bit of his personality, including the clever wordplay - though it could get annoying - the cool intellect, and the determined fire of passion that showed in Izuki’s every action.
“I brought you something,” Izuki now told Hyuuga, putting his hands on his shoulders to straighten him up. “A gift from the Heavens, to guide and steer you through the most difficult of times when I cannot do so directly.”
He drew an earring from his pocket; the metal ring, made of white gold, shone with the same light that he did. “It will show you the way when you are lost in darkness, just as the moon shows the way for those who lose themselves at night. It will be a reminder, a capsule of my power, that will protect you forever. Wear it always, my erasi.”
Hyuuga took the shining circle of precious metal reverently, and slipped off the ceremonial feather earring that his parents had bestowed him with, not caring that the piercing which had been made that morning still hurt. He inserted Izuki’s earring in its place, and the metal immediately changed to form the exact likeness of the feather that he now held in his hand, before shifting back to its original shape.
“For safety,” Izuki explained when Hyuuga looked questioningly up at him. “It will always feel like my ring to you, but everyone else will see the feather instead and will not question you.”
Hyuuga’s lips twitched up into a dopey grin; he leaned forward, drinking in Izuki’s pure scent as he brushed a kiss over the pale neck. There was really no other way to describe it - the Moon spirit smelled like what Hyuuga imagined bottled moonlight would, clear and fresh.
“Thank you,” he whispered, dragging his mouth slowly down Izuki’s collarbone. Izuki gently eased Hyuuga off him and bent his own head to his lover’s neck, eliciting a few soft moans from Hyuuga. They stayed like that for some time, revelling in each other simply and quietly.
“Do you want to-” Hyuuga began saying.
“Absolutely,” Izuki cut him off, a hungry look in his eyes. It was at times like these when Hyuuga remembered that Izuki had started out human.
He smiled back and raised a hand to part the silk cloth that obscured the Moon spirit’s skin. But Hyuuga’s fingers had barely touched the soft material when rough hands enclosed around his wrists, dragging him harshly away from Izuki, whose eyes turned bright with alarm.
“Junpei-!” he cried, but two more sets of hands clamped around Hyuuga’s neck and mouth, cutting off air supply and rendering him unable to speak. He writhed and thrashed, holding back the tears that threatened to leak from his eyes as he reached out to Izuki. But Izuki could not rush forward to help him - the Shrine’s holy ground acted as a constraint of sorts, being the only place he could set foot in on the earth.
The spirit stood there mutely, watching the brutish men of the village drag away his love, and despising every second of his powerlessness. At that moment, storming with rage and hatred, he made up his mind. These small-minded villagers would pay for what they had done, with everything they had.
The people dragged Hyuuga back to the town; quick fingers wrapped a red cloth around his eyes so he could not see, and then he felt a powerful arm grasp him by the collar and throw him forwards. His body crumpled into a stone wall, head smashing against a brick that stuck out, and the wound - though but a surface cut - began to bleed. The blindfold was removed, and Hyuuga blinked, light pervading his vision, only to realise that he was behind bars.
“You have disappointed us more than words can say!” hissed his father, unadulterated rage in his eyes.
“How dare you assume to dally with our Moon spirit? How dare you ruin his purity with your human sin?!” shrieked his mother, veins popping on her forehead.
Hyuuga looked at them, these two people who had practically driven him insane, and turned his face away. They were a bitter reminder of everything he had lost, everything he had to lose, everything he was losing right now.
He would never be able to see Izuki again. Though the spirit was powerful, he could not come and rescue Hyuuga; and it was unlikely that he would ever be pardoned, much less allowed to go out alone at night. Hyuuga Junpei was cursed to rot here in this cell for the remainder of his days.
He sighed and curled up against the cold stone wall, placing his bleeding forehead against the rough rock and lifting his hand to rub absently at Izuki’s earring.
I love you, he thought, fingering the whitish gold metal with a fond smile. The tears that he had held back for so long finally started sliding down his face again, and sadness replaced the joy that the memory had brought.
Hyuuga put his head between his knees and wept like a child, his heart crying out for the one he loved most.
The next night, the villagers set off to the Shrine, laden with offerings to appease the Moon spirit. He would be angry, they thought, that they had allowed an impudent child to stain his purity.
“We must beg him not to curse us,” said one woman, nervously looking about as if the spirit’s wrath would strike her like an arrow.
“No, we must not speak to him,” said another quietly. “Who knows? Maybe even daring to address him would anger him further.”
They made their way to the Shrine slowly, trembling with every step. The anger of the Moon spirit was nothing to flinch at. And as expected, the beautiful man hovered over the holy ground, eyes filled with incandescent rage. He floated in the air, still and rigid, arms crossed over his chest, a gentle breeze ruffling the bottom of his hakama and haori.
The villagers set the various baskets that they were carrying on the ground and shuffled forwards slowly, one by one stepping onto the holy ground of the Moon’s Shrine. The spirit did not speak, but his eyes said it all. He was still furious, and no amount of offerings or prayers would make him forgive them.
“Please!” cried the first woman impulsively, folding her hands. “We will make sure that tainted boy never comes near you again. Please do not curse us for the crime of letting an impetuous youth touch you. Forgive us, we implore you.”
The spirit cocked his head, coldness setting into the place of rage.
“Forgive?” he asked softly, yet his voice seemed to echo through the clearing. “I do not forgive those who have the audacity to speak such meaningless pleas. I do not forgive those who go against my chosen one.”
“Ancient One,” began a man, but Izuki held up a hand, eyes shining with intense fury.
“Enough!” he shouted. “This is my curse, and you will bear it for as long as this land exists. As long as its descendants, save Hyuuga Junpei, are alive. This is my curse: that never again will you see the light of Sun or Moon. Darkness will trail your steps like a cloak and glue itself to your past, present and future. Leave now, before I decide to burn you all on the spot instead!”
“But-” started the man. Izuki turned his powerful glare on him, and the man disintegrated into dust on the spot. The others scattered within seconds, terrified by the immense power of the Moon spirit.
Seven nights later, Izuki’s malediction had proved true. Neither he nor his brother the Sun rode the skies over the small town, blessing every other part of the world but the cursed village with their light. The townspeople prayed and prayed, but the spirit showed no mercy.
“It must be that boy’s fault,” they whispered amongst themselves under the flickering glow of firelight. “That boy is the one who turned the spirit with his wiles. We must show the Moon that he has deceived him.”
At the beginning of the eighth day - not that the people could tell how much time had passed - Hyuuga’s cell door creaked open. He squinted through his cracked glasses and made out two burly men, holding metallic spears and lanterns that almost seemed to burn his eyes given how long he’d been stuck here in the darkness.
“Up,” ordered one, poking him in the stomach with the spear. “Up and out, sinner.”
Hyuuga didn’t protest. By the looks on their faces, he knew what was going to happen. That sort of grim delight only appeared for one event - the burning of criminals at the stake.
He lifted his face to the moonless sky, one hand on his ear, and prayed with all his might to both Izuki and his brother to make it painless. His heart was already torn apart: he didn’t need more agony.
The villagers tied him to the stake with quick movements, pulling tight the thick rope drenched in oil. Hyuuga leaned his head back against the stick he was bound to, closing his eyes, and thought of Izuki in all his beauty. Izuki smiling that radiant smile, Izuki using his powers to make little balls of moonlight that Hyuuga loved to just stare at despite being too old to be enraptured by such things.
I’m glad… we got those seven years together. I wish I could hear your voice one more time… listen to a pun one more time… but even if I don’t get to do that, at least I had the pleasure of knowing you and loving you. Thank you, Shun. I’ll always love you; every reincarnation of me will, even if I don’t know it.
And with that, he let out a breath, imagining all his fears and worries dissipating into the breeze. He had his love for Izuki, so what was there to be scared of? Even the worst of pain wouldn’t matter, so long as he held on tightly to the beautiful Moon that had lit his dark sky.
“Burn him!” chanted the villagers. “Burn him! Burn him!”
Hyuuga recognised his own parents’ voices among them, but surprisingly, he didn’t care. Was this what it felt like to lose yourself so completely in love and devotion to another?
A match was tossed onto the impromptu pyre from ten feet away. The flame licked at the bottom of the oil-soaked rope and stake, and it slowly started creeping upward, towards Hyuuga, who simply felt the warmth of the fire and laughed. They must think him a madman - but what did he care? He was going to die, anyways.
This is it. To think that death would come like this… it’s almost amusing.
The tongues of fire soared within inches of his green yukata, dancing teasingly around the cloth as if playing a game with it. Any second now, it would consume him. The villagers watched eagerly, waiting for the minute of judgment -
And then they gasped, flinching and closing their eyes. Some shielded their vision with their hands and tried to watch, but it was too bright.
For Hyuuga’s earring had started glowing, the soft shine growing harsher and harsher until it seemed as if the world was white. The rays of light went on increasing in size, becoming larger than life itself, and the villagers cringed before the divine glow - because clearly this was caused by no mortal.
The boy at the centre of the glow had started emitting his own light, a pale golden shine that was somehow brighter than the capsule of power from his earring. Hyuuga’s body started to vibrate frenetically… and then it burst into a shower of small lights, beautiful little things that glowed like diamonds.
The people watched in awe as the fire they had set burned itself out, becoming a small pile of ashes, and the man they had tried to burn disintegrated into a flurry of brilliance. The lights that had been Hyuuga Junpei drifted upwards as if carried by the wind itself, and firmly ensconced themselves in the navy firmament above.
The earring that Hyuuga had been given, which had fallen in the ash upon his disintegration, rose suddenly. It shot upwards into the sky, taking a place right next to the now-visible moon.
It was like a spray of diamonds across dark blue velvet. The moon shone down upon the village, providing light, and the little luminous dots enhanced its beauty; such radiance had never been even dreamt of before.
Then the lights disappeared, never to be seen again by the cruel villagers. Izuki’s curse, true to his word, would chase them like a hunter chased its prey, clinging to their skirts as a child would its mother’s.
The Moon spirit’s final blessing to his love - the power contained in the earring - had turned Hyuuga’s soul into what would come to be known as the stars. All over the world, people would marvel at the Moon and his eternal companion in the heavenly halls of Silir, the stars: jewels of the sky, and of Izuki’s heart.