Chapter 1
Hitsuzen
"There is no such thing as coincidence in the world. What there is, is Hitsuzen,"
As Yuuko held out Mokona for the three travelers already there, two more people appeared, diverting everyone's attention from Yuuko and Mokona. Everyone turned to find two cloaked figures, one dressed in black, and the other dressed in white.
"You're late, as always," Yuuko said, smugly watching the figure in the black cloak lowered her hood; revealing an absolutely stunning women with flowing black hair and radiant purple eyes. "So… I assume you came here because you have a wish?" The woman nodded in response.
"Of course… We're running, and we'd like to travel with them. We'd also like to visit our home, just for a little while," The black haired women answered for her and the figure still cloaked in white. Yuuko smiled at them smugly.
"As you know… There is a price…" Yuko said, staring at them. "Instead of just having a curse on your senses… From now on they will be permanently damaged. So even if you do ever manage to remove your curse, your senses will never be returned."
"Well… We don't have much of a choice… Do we?" The woman said, with a hint of sadness in her voice. Yuuko walked over to the woman and ran her hand over her eyes, then went to the figure in white and ran her hand over her throat. As Yuuko pulled her hand away, a white orb flew out of the woman's eyes and the figure's throat. She then walked back over and held out the white creature dubbed 'Mokona' again.
"You may go…" Yuuko said. Mokona jumped out of her hand and colorful swirls engulfed the travelers. They all looked around in astonishment as their surroundings completely dissolved. After they were gone, Mokona jumped up again, and he vanished along with the rest if them, leaving no evidence that anyone was ever there. As soon as they were gone, it stopped raining and Yuuko smiled slightly, rising her head toward the sky.
"I wish… You the best of fortune on your journey," She said as the sun shone her face for the second time that day.
"Hitsuzen brought us together… And Hitsuzen may very well tear us apart…"
When the travelers looked around again, they found themselves in completely new settings.
"We're outside…" The woman said quietly.
"No shit!" Kurogane snapped at her. The figure in white finally removed the hood to reveal a beautiful woman with long silver hair and crystal clear blue eyes.
"We were never introduced, so, what are your names?" Fye smiled at them.
"I'm Hakuri," The women with black hair said.
"And what's your name…?" Fye smiled at the silver haired woman. She only blushed and put her head down. "Don't worry, I don't bite, he looks like the scary one if you ask me." Fye pointed over to Kurogane.
"Hey I heard that!" Kurogane snapped, making the woman giggle slightly.
"She can't talk… Her name is Orihime," Hakuri answered for her.
"Oh, so your name is Orihime? Nice to meet you, I'm Fye," He smiled as she looked at him with her sparkling eyes.
"What's his name…?" Hakuri asked, pointing to Kurogane who was glaring at them angrily.
"Oh, you mean Mr. Black over there-?" Fye started.
"IT'S NOT MR. BLACK! IT'S KUROGANE!" He growled, making both Hakuri and Orihime cover their ears.
"What about those two?" Hakuri asked, knowing Orihime was pestering her about the two children who were passed out on the ground.
"If I heard correctly, that is Syaoran, and the girl is Sakura," Fye said, pointing to each one of them in their turn. Then he turned to Kurogane. "So what should we call you…? Kuro-Tan… Kuro-Rin?" He looked at Kurogane slyly.
"JUST KUROGANE!" He snapped.
"And I'm Mokona!" Mokona jumped up onto Fye's shoulder so he could be seen by everyone.
"Well, shouldn't we be getting a place to stay?" Hakuri asked, glancing around, as if looking at the scenery.
"Where the hell are we gonna go?" Kurogane asked her angrily.
"Somewhere that isn't the middle of the sidewalk…" Hakuri muttered.
"Hakuri-Chan… Has a good point…" Fye pointed out.
"Oh, hello?" A man with short black hair said as he came across them. "You guys seem to have come from a COMPLETELY different world." The man seemed to have meant it as a joke but when he saw that no one else was laughing, he guessed that his assumption was right.
"Thank you," Fye smiled as the man helped him lie the sleeping Syaoran and Sakura down in the middle of the room.
"No problem," The man smiled at the blonde as he stood up. "I'll be back with refreshments and we can talk some more than, alright?" The man smiled, shutting the door tightly when he left the room. Hakuri sat in the corner of the room, away from everyone else. Orihime knew not to bother her sister when she was in that state, so she sat next to Fye and helped dry Syaoran and Sakura off.
"That was good timing, wasn't it?" Fye smiled as Orihime helped him. She nodded slightly, everyone else not answering.
"Mokona thinks so too!" Mokona said, starting to help as well.
"S-Sakura!" Syaoran suddenly awoke, holding the girl named Sakura closer to him; when he realized she was close to him the entire time, he relaxed a bit.
"Whaa! He doesn't grab Mokona!" Mokona cried over dramatically. Fye then reached down, picking the small white creature up.
"Oh, looks like he's up," He smiled as Syaoran really began to look around.
"Where are we?" Syaoran asked Fye, "And who are you?" he asked directly to Fye.
"Well, my name's pretty long, but you can call me Fye." Fye smiled, pointing to himself. "And that's Mr. Black over there..." He pointed to Kurogane.
"IT'S KUROGANE!" He yelled.
"And her?" Syaoran asked pointing to Orihime, whom was folding the wet clothes neatly to the side.
"That's Orihime-San!" Fye smiled, "And the other one that looks exactly like her is named, Hakuri-San." Fye explained.
"And I'm Mokona!" Mokona jumped onto Kurogane's lap.
"You... Thing don't get comfortable there!" Kurogane growled at Mokona. Suddenly, to everyone's great surprise, Fye reached over and stuck his hand into Syaoran's cloak.
"What the..." Hakuri stared at Fye quizzically, puzzled by his actions.
"Is this... what the girl's memory looks like?" Fye asked, holding up a strange looking feather in his lanky gloved hand.
"Eh!" Syaoran exclaimed.
"It was stuck to you... Only one though," Fye smiled, holding out the feather in his extended hand. With that, the feather was been absorbed by Sakura's body, some color returning to her face.
"She feels a bit warmer," Syaoran smiled a bit.
"If you hadn't had that feather it might of been a problem," Fye laughed a bit.
"By coincidence one stuck to my clothes," Syaoran said.
"There is no coincidence in this world." Fye stated. "... That's what the witch said, wasn't it? But my question is how can we find them... New feathers... I doubt there will be anymore stuck to our clothes..." Fye said through thought.
"Mokona knows!" Mokona jumped up. "The feather just let off a really big wave! So when Mokona senses a feather, Mokona will be like this!" Mokona opened his eyes wide, waving his arms up and down.
"..." Hakuri gave a stifled laugh while Orihime couldn't help but let out a long silent one.
"... That's a cute laugh you've got there." Fye commented.
"Very cute!" Mokona giggled hopping onto Orihime's head as she blushed. She looked down again, working more on folding the towels, not quite sure how to respond.
"Well it looks like we'll have a way to tell when a feather is near," Fye smiled, as Mokona jumped back to his hand.
"Would you do that...? Tell us when we're near a feather?" Syaoran asked.
"Leave it to me!" Mokona said proudly.
"Thank you!" Syaoran then smiled a nice warm smile.
"Search or don't search, that's up to you," Everyone turned to find Kurogane speaking. "It's got nothing to do with me. I'm here to get back to my own world. That's the only reason I'm here. Don't expect me to stick my neck out for you. Don't expect me to help you. I won't do it!"
"Right, this is my mission here. I'll do my best not to cause you any trouble." Syaoran nodded a serous expression on his face.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Syaoran-Kun is so serious!" Fye laughed.
"Well, what about the rest of you, are you going to help the brat out?" Kurogane asked.
"Hmm, I suppose so." Fye answered first. "My most important mission is not to return to my world. So if it doesn't threaten my life... Sure, I'll help out. I've got nothing better to do. How about you Hakuri-Chan?"
"Yeah... I guess I'll help too, it's not like there's anything else to do... Are you going to Orihime?" Hakuri asked. Orihime only nodded slightly in response.
"You, you woke up!" The man walked in, followed by a women with long black hair entered the room with bowls of snacks for them to eat, "Don't be so alert! You came from Yuuko-sans place? Eh?" The man walked over to Syaoran smiling brightly.
"Yuuko-san?" Syaoran was a bit confused.
"The space witch!" The man grinned.
"I'll take these for you."The woman smiled said to Orihime who jumped when she had placed her hand on her shoulder.
I'm Sorata Arisugawa," Sorata said, smiling.
"I'm Arashi," Arashi bowed slightly as Orihime handed her the wet clothes.
"Just to let you know she's my wife and the woman I love. I call her honey," Sorata said. Arashi looked like she wasn't listening as she took the tray from him.
"Here you go." Arashi handed Syaoran a blanket. Syaoran thanked her placing it over Sakura. She then handed each of them a cup of tea to drink. Each introduced them selves when handed a cup. Sorata on the other hand was still going on. He walked over to Kurogane and put his hands on his shoulders.
"By the way, if you lay a finger on her, you'll die!" He said with a smile on.
"WHY DID YOU ONLY SAY THAT TO ME?" Kurogane yelled. Then Sorata flew to the side carrying a bowl of pastries, with Mokona hopping in front of him.
"But I am serious!" Sorata smiled brightly.
"I SAID I WON'T!" Kurogane roared.
"Well," Sorata went on. "Now..." He picked up Mokona. "I figure you went to the witch lady and got this to get here, right?" Sorata asked, pointing to Mokona.
"Mokona Madoki!" Mokona exclaimed, striking a pose.
"That's a long name, do you mind if I just say Mokona?" Sorata asked.
"Sure! Okay!" Mokona giggled.
"Anyway ladies and gentlemen today is your lucky day," Sorata said, crossing his arms.
"Why is that...?" Hakuri asked tiredly.
"Mokona has no idea which world you land in next right? So... It's a happy chance that he brought you to this world first of all because this... Is the Hanshin Republic!" Sorata said; opening the window looking out to the busy city lit up by the night. Suddenly, like out of nowhere, Sorata rolled over a white board and put on a little hand puppet, and began to talk:
"This is the Hanshin Republic. The best of the island nations! We are surrounded by the sea on all sides. We get the odd Hurricane but we hardly ever have earthquakes. We have several trading partners across the sea and we export like crazy! We have four seasons. Right now we're in fall. The season where rice tastes best." Sorata was using his puppet to point things out.
"The main staple is wheat flour, and our sauce is famous. We have the Hanshin Republic constitution and rule of law! And by law, we mean we never make war with other countries. Modes of transportation... car, bicycle, motorcycle, train, boat, plane, and one could consider a baby carriage as a mode of transportation, right honey?" Sorata asked Arashi's puppet on her hand.
"The shape of the island is thus!" Sorata pointed to a map with a tiger on it. "Because of the similarity to a tiger, people call us the tiger country. Of course the Hanshin republic uses the image of the tiger quite a bit. Our currency is the Koko (tiger). There are one-Koko coins, 100,000 Koko bills, and the tiger head is the symbol of the county!" Sorata's puppet held up money. "And the logo for our baseball team is the same! This year, the team has some really great prospects! Some of the best players in the world!" Sorata's puppet now had a baseball bat.
"Sir! I have a question!" Fye raised his hand.
"Yes? Fye-Kun?" Sorata used his puppet to point to Fye.
"Does everyone in this country have an accent like yours, Sorata-San?" Fye asked a smile on.
"Awwwww, don't be so formal, call me Sora-Chan," Sorata said. "My accent is unique to me. It's an older version of our language."
"Yours is a language they used in the past?" Syaoran asked interest present in his voice.
"That's right! Now a days hardly anyone uses this language. I'm a history teacher, and I'm firmly against allowing the all the old ways fade away." Sorata said.
"You're a history teacher?" Syaoran asked.
"I take it you have an interest in history..." Sorata asked, with his hand puppet faced to him.
"Yes! I'm my world; I used to work on archaeological digs!" Syaoran answered enthusiastically.
"Then I'd say we have something in common," Sorata smiled brightly, his hand puppet talking with him.
"I have one more question," Fye raised his hand yet again. "Now... Exactly where are we? Who owns these rooms?"
"Good question!" Sorata smiled. "This is an empty room in an old traditional apartment my honey and I manage!" That's when he noticed Kurogane had dozed off in the corner. "YOU WAKE UP!" He yelled throwing the hand occupied by the puppet into the air and Kurogane immediately woke up, but not because of being yelled at. Something had hit him on the back of the head.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" He yelled, making everyone look around in confusion. "I didn't feel an enemy! Who threw that! Bastard, you threw it, didn't you?" He turned to Sorata.
"You were in a corner. If he threw anything at you it wouldn't hit you there. It had to come from above." Fye pointed out with a serious tone.
"It was my Kudan..." Sorata answered a sort of blank expression on his face.
"Kudan?" Hakuri, Syaoran, Fye, and Kurogane asked at once. Even Orihime looked like she was thinking about it too.
"You don't know?" Sorata asked. Then it hit him. "Of course you don't know you're from different worlds!" He went back over to the white board. "Everyone in this world has a Kudan attached." He used his puppet to write it on the board. "Here's how it's written in Kanji."
"I see," Kurogane nodded.
"Yeah..." Hakuri agreed.
"I don't see at all!" Fye said happily. It was evident that Orihime couldn't read it either, seeing she was looking at the board, trying to figure out how to read it with no success.
"Mokona can read!" Mokona exclaimed.
"That's great Mokona!" Fye patted his head.
"How about you Syaoran?" Mokona asked.
"Yeah. More or less," He answered.
"And Orihime?" Mokona asked. She shook her head 'no'.
"Kurogane, Hakuri, and Syaoran's worlds use Kanji, but Fye and Orihime's worlds probably doesn't… But you can understand what I say…" Sorata thought a loud.
"Now… What kind of technique is this Kudan? And you used the word attached…" Kurogane asked.
"Even if you come from another world, once you enter this world, a Kudan will be attached." Arashi answered. "Do you mind if I call her Sakura-San?"
"That's fine," Syaoran answered.
"I cannot say where Sakura-San's memory went… How ever, if someone has picked it up… It will be the cause of a fight," Arashi said seriously. Syaoran looked at her in surprise. Then she looked up at Fye and Kurogane. "You've lost your method of battle." She said, completely off topic.
"How did you know?" Fye smiled.
"My honey used to be a Shinto Religion Miko. She posses' spiritual powers." Sorata said. Syaoran noticed that Arashi looked down sadly. "Well… She's retired ever sense she married me. Her beauty when she was dressed as a Miko was god-send!" Arashi looked away, trying not to listen.
"… Actually, I did give my magic power to the dimension witch." Fye smiled.
"And I handed my sword to that bitch!" Kurogane growled angrily, looking away. Arashi looked at Orihime and Hakuri, then moved on to Syaoran, not asking questions.
"It wasn't any sort of power that I gave her. I never had magic or weapons or anything like that from the start." Syaoran said as her eyes met his.
"That may have been your good luck," Arashi smiled.
"Eh?" Syaoran looked at her, curiosity in his eyes.
"There are Kudan in this world. When it comes time to fight, that Kudan should be able to help." Arashi said.
"Then this Kudan was originally meant for battle?" Syaoran asked.
"What you use it for… Or how you use it is all up to you." Sorata smiled. "One look can answer a hundred questions. If you want to see what your Kudan is… The only thing to do is see it with your own eyes. Now… I've pretty much explained everything to know about this country." Sorata erased the white board.
"He did?" Kurogane asked.
"Well, what do you think? Do you think that Sakura-Chan would have a feather on this world?" Sorata bent down and asked Mokona.
"… Sure does! It is still a long, long way away, but… This country has one." Mokona said.
"Shall we find… This feather of yours?" Sorata asked.
"Yes," Syaoran said with a determined look on his face.
"Do the rest of you feel the same?" Sorata turned to Hakuri, Orihime, Kurogane, and Fye.
"I might as well," Fye smiled.
"Yup," Hakuri said, Orihime nodding along with her.
"If I said I wanted to leave, would you do it…? White thing?" Kurogane looked over at Mokona.
"No! Mokona will not leave this country until Mokona finds the feather!" Mokona said, making Kurogane look away angrily.
"Thank you Mokona…" Syaoran said gratefully, picking up the small white creature.
"Fine, while you're all on this world, I'll vouch for you," Sorata said, taking Arashi's hand. "I owe Yuuko-San a favor… This is an apartment building. We've got room. You can use these rooms until you go to your next world."
"Thank you very much!" Syaoran smiled.
"It's after midnight already. It's time to sleep. I'll show you to your rooms." Sorata said.
"I'M NOT ROOMING WITH HIM!" Kurogane growled, pointing an accusing figure at the blonde.
"Me…? So mean Kuro-Chan!" Fye pouted.
"Okay then, Fye you get to stay with Orihime and Hakuri with Kurogane!" Sorata said, trying hard to sort everything out as they walked out of the main room.
"Why do I have to stay with a complete stranger?" Kurogane growled.
"Great… Just great…" Hakuri growled as they left, shaking her head in disbelief.