A very informal essay by Kazue Ikeda

What if things had turned out differently?

What if the rules hadn’t been changed at the start of this challenge our family adopted?

Back ages ago when the family tree officially began their records the rules were: (Strict) Equality – Living Will – Strictly Traditional. This meant that both genders were eligible but only blood relatives could be heir. Adopted children were out. Living Will meant that whomever was closest to the prior heir before death would become the next heir. This usually meant the first born because they had known their parent the longest. Sometimes things changed. Sometimes there was a mad race for a distant parent to get to know their children. Up until the 6th or 7th generation the rules remained as-is. At that point they changed that the gender of the heir would alternate each generation. Before that things just fell into place. This looked nice on the family tree.

Then generation 10 was born and my grandfather, Eiji Ikeda, took over. He changed a lot. He did in with the traditional Ikeda naming system. He decided that the first born would be the heir instead of by Living Will. He moved out of the family house and took on the challenge of rebuilding Newcrest. It was different.

I return to my original query: What if things had turned out differently?

What if grandpa had gotten closer to his only daughter instead of his eldest son?

I would not be the heir. My non-existent cousin, a boy, would be. I say non-existent because, well, my aunt currently has one daughter born out of wedlock. She made some foolish decisions right out of high school and there you have it. She moved into one of the next door houses with her boyfriend. As it stands now she’ll probably only have the one child.

If she was the heir she would have another child, just to be safe. If she was lucky it would be a boy. If not she would need to keep having children until she had a boy. (That was how Grandpa Eiji became the heir of the 10th generation and my poor great grandparents ended up with seven children.) She would probably take up yoga as a hobby and her partner would go to work. She would likely take up painting as well. (She would do a lot of different things because she’s considered insane…) Their sons would practice writing, like I am now, and probably publish numerous books.

Yes, things would be different.

The current heir would probably have dark hair and not the blonde I inherited. It’s just genetics, of course. Her parents have red and black hair so it seems obvious. My mother is very blonde. She probably has elf blood in her (so does my father, actually) so perhaps there is some magic there that makes a recessive gene appear when dark hair runs in the family. That must be the answer since ¾ of their children are blonde (I’m reaching but you never know).

Speaking of my siblings, I shouldn’t assume that I will be the heir. I have a younger sister, you know; two brothers as well. Dad is bringing us back to the old way of doing things. Back to the old naming system, back to living will. He hasn’t said if he’s going back to alternating genders but I think he might.

Anyway, the WHOLE reason I wrote this is because I was thinking too much…

Aunt Angie believes in the Watcher. I don’t but… what if the Watcher exists and is thinking about influencing my dad?

What if dad decided to give up his position as heir and let his sister, Angie, take over? Everything I discussed above would be true and you wouldn’t get to really know me aside from this essay. I’d be an off-shoot, a super-spare. Our family wouldn’t fit in that little 2 bedroom house. We’d have to build on. It’s unsettling.

It would look nice for our family in the future. The family tree would keep up appearances. My aunt would change her name to something that fits with tradition. My dad already did this; he adopted the name Hachi (he’s using it as a short form of Hachigatsu, which means August) on the official family records. I don’t know what my aunt would pick (I would bet on Anji even though it doesn’t have a cool meaning). She probably would only mention it once or the next generation would do it when they started their turn.

I don’t have a conclusion. I’m just thinking out loud…

previous chapter

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Author’s Note: This is not a for-sure deal. I’m just testing the waters.
What are your thoughts?

(And for the more shy, a poll!)

PS: I decided that I think I’ll stick with the way things are… I like the names I picked for this gen, August is almost done with his aspiration, and I’m already too attached to gen 12. I’ve put Angie on the galley (cc checked) so maybe I’ll put her somewhere else in the future. :3