Kindness came in different ways and forms. Everyone had their own definition of kindness. Some people thought they were kind, despite being cruel, unreasonable and mean, while other saw themselves not as kind, although they were. So one could say kindness laid in the eyes of the beholder. Of course, there was a more objective definition of kindness, but who cared about that and who would start an argument with someone else because of said definition? Exactly: no one. How kind was someone, who was partly responsible for a civil war in which thousands of people had died? Was someone like that kind? How kind was someone, who rose up against his own family? Was someone like that kind? How kind was someone, who spared the lives of those, who had opposed him? Was someone like that kind? Those questions could all be answered with yes and with no at the same time. So the real question was, was someone like that a kind person in her eyes? For a long time she could neither say yes nor no. She was unsure.
At first she had been angry with her younger cousin, who had caused a civil war, because she hadn't known and understood, why he had done what he had done. Why was he fighting his own family? On the other hand, all he wanted was Kouen and no one else. So, it was not even like he was after his whole family, but only one person. It had cost her a lot of courage to ask Hakuryuu, why he had started the civil war. What she had learned was something unbelievable for her, but she had no reason to doubt him and his words. There was no reason for him to lie to her. If he wanted her on his side, he could have just used his djinn like he had done with the soldiers, but he hadn't used it against her. However, just because she understood his reasoning did not mean that he was not to blame – he was at fault, just like her brother was and all those who had turned a blind eye to the situation of the empire – or that he was kind. Until the day she was sent into battle against her own family, she had seen Hakuryuu as a very kind and gentle person. He was always smiling at his older sister Hakuei and greeted Kougyoku with one as well. The few times they had talked with each other in the past, he always had been nice to her and seemed like he cared about her – maybe all of this had been her imagination. After the war was won by Hakuryuu and his "allies", Kougyoku had started to doubt everything and everyone. Not only had she lost a big part of her family – a family that had never cared about her –, she also had lost her dear friends Alibaba and Judar and had been used against her own people by her first love Sinbad. This was a little bit too much to handle for her and she had locked herself away for some time. Although she had pledged her loyalty to Hakuryuu and wasn't as mad with him as she was with Sinbad, because in the end Hakuryuu was her cousin and she was sure he had good reasons for his doings and it hadn't been him, who had mind controlled her, she did not want to see him or had any intention of following his commands. Inside her the hate rose up and all she wanted was to let this hate go wild, but she had to stay collected. If she had acted upon her feelings, another tragedy may had just occurred and after all those horrible things that had happened this was not needed at all. What could she have achieved anyway? Besides her own death probably nothing.
So in the end she was on her own, trying to understand what just had happened to her and how her little cousin could have changed so much. When she finally was ready to face reality, to face the new world, she was also ready to confront Hakuryuu. She needed to know what was going on with him and what had going on within this empire. How many tears had she shed, when listening to his story? How often had they shouted at each other, because they disagreed and felt misunderstood? How many times had something been broken? Often, very often. But it all was necessary for them to get closer, to understand the other one and to come to their own conclusions. During those times she also learned that her brothers were all alive and stayed on a small island near the Kou Empire. Hakuryuu even offered her to visit them. Sadly she couldn't stay with them, since this would have caused problems with the International Alliance, but she did not mind as long as her brothers were alive and doing fine. Also she wanted to support her people in this chaotic times. She felt responsible because of Sinbad's mind control. Fortunately no one was holding it against her, seemingly Hakuryuu had told them the truth – that it hadn't been her, who had betrayed her family, but Sinbad who had controlled her. Or maybe no one had believed Sinbad or no one cared about it anyway. Many options, but what mattered in the end was that no one saw her as a traitor.
After knowing about Arba and the truth behind the fire incident, Kougyoku felt bad. Whenever she had seen Hakuryuu, he either had been with Hakuei and seemed happy or he was busy with his studies. Never had she imaged that he had been through something so horrible and that her family was so cruel. If she had known sooner, she had tried to befriend Hakuryuu even more, had tried to be his family even more. Similar to him she also was alone, despite being surrounded by relatives. Her older brothers hadn't paid attention to her and Hakuryuu had and was isolated by the people. So approaching him would have been easy, theoretically. Yet she had been too shy and with his stern look, she often wasn't sure how to talk to him or how he would receive her pathetic tries to get closer to him. She had sought family so much and was so close, still she was lonely. Just like Hakuryuu.
Even knowing about it all, could she forgive him? What was there to forgive? Yes, he had started a civil war, which was also caused by her older brothers and could have easily prevented. However, he hadn't done it, just to get the throne. He had done it to save the empire from an evil cult and to save his own life, since Kouen had made it clear that he would not get rid of Al-Thamen and had no intention of giving the throne to the rightful owner. Sill Hakuryuu had taken her family away from her. Could she forgive that? Yes, she already had, because he also was her family. Well, and her brothers were still alive. Of course, forgiving someone was not an instant thing. It took time and during this time she learned more about her own family, about Hakuryuu and to a certain extent about herself. For the first time she had someone of her family to listen to her, someone she could tell her story to. How alone she had been and felt. How happy she had been, when suddenly someone took care of her. How sad she had been, when she heard of Judar's and Alibaba's death. How happy she had been, when she and Alibaba had become friends and he had shown her how to make flower crowns. Kougyoku even taught Hakuryuu how to make them as well. Moreover it was nice to hear stories about Hakuyuu and Hakuren, her two older cousin, who she had only seen from afar, but never had interacted with. Now she wished, she had done so. Both sounded like very nice and kind people.
Unfortunately, she was only allowed to spend one year with her cousin, who she had sworn to support and protect – she was the older one, so she had to take care of him, right? The conflict between Sinbad and Aladdin hat gotten worse and worse over time. Arba had taken over Hakuei's body and worked together with Sinbad. Kougyoku wondered what those two wanted to achieve. In the end Aladdin had flee and together with Morgiana and Hakuryuu. Differently than her, Hakuryuu still had a djinn, which was much to the dislike of Sinbad. So he left to ensure the safety of Kou and to prepare to fight Arba once again. Shortly before the three disappeared Hakuryuu told her about their plans and asked her for her help. She had been the only one, who could have taken over the throne – he believed in her. At this point she was still not sure, whether Hakuryuu was a kind person or not and how much he had changed. Nevertheless it was not important whether he was or not, they got along and he believed and trusted her. She believed and trusted him as well. He had taken good care of her, but he had caused a civil war in which so many people had died – died mostly by her brother's hand. He had worked together with Sinbad, who had taken advantage of her and made her betrayal her people. Hakuryuu had been ready to kill his family, just like his family had been ready to kill him – they had been ready for that for a long time.
During the two years they were separated a lot happened. The Kou Empire has fallen into debts with the International Alliance and had problems with keeping up with all the changes around it. More and more people left the empire, which caused its economic to break down even more. Moreover, the deadline for paying the debts came closer and closer. Despair was all she felt during this period. Hakuryuu had believed in her and she was only disappointing him. It was so unfair! Why was he so cruel to her? Why had he left? Why did he believe in her? Someone like that couldn't be kind. Kougyoku wished she could hate Hakuryuu, but instead she hated herself and her incapacity. Even though she was the empress now, she caused more and more problems for her people instead of helping the empire to get better. She was at the end.
When Alibaba suddenly appeared in front of her, she couldn't describe her feelings, because there were no words for them, especially when she heard that Judar was alive as well. Together with him she built up the Empire again. Her confident in herself and in her ability as ruler rose. Things got even better when Hakuryuu finally returned. The praise she received felt great for her and she was so proud of herself. In those two years Kougyoku also came to the conclusion that Hakuryuu was still the kind little cousin she knew from her childhood. How she came to this conclusion? She wasn't sure either, it was just a feeling. Yes, he had caused a war, but he had his reasons and never had she thought of her older brother Kouen as unkind, although he had gone to war for over a decade. So why judging Hakuryuu differently? Someone who caused war could be kind. Yes, he had wanted to kill Kouen, but only because otherwise it had been Hakuryuu who would have died. Someone who wanted his family dead could be kind. However, it was also true that Hakuryuu had speared the lives of her brothers, although they had tried to kill him, of the soldiers, who had sided with Kouen, although they had tried to kill him, and the lives of the nobles, who had supported Arba, although they had thrown his life away for their own personal gain. Someone like that was definitely kind!
For her Hakuryuu was kind, despite all the wrong he had committed. No one was perfect and they all now and then made mistakes, some were more severely than others, but this didn't make a person unkind by default – and even the kindest person could be unkind once in a while.
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