Disclaimer: I do not own Rayearth. It belongs to Clamp.
Chapter I : Return to Cephiro
Hikaru sat across from her newly engaged best friend Umi who sported a rather large diamond ring on her finger, she was sipping from her tea when she noticed Hikaru's stare. Her right fine plucked eyebrow arched up "Is something wrong?" she asked while placing the teacup down.
"Oh. It's nothing." she lied. She didn't want to trouble Umi with her problems.
She sighed "Hikaru, we've been friends for how long? I can tell that something is bothering you."
The shorter girl lowered her head in defeat and nodded while placing her hands upon her lap "I was thinking about Cephiro again."
"Hikaru! Enough it's been years. It's time to move on!" she hated scolding her friend, but someone had to wake her up back into reality. Not that she didn't miss Cephiro...or a certain high mage; but years passed since she's last been allowed in Cephiro. Umi frowned when she saw her friend's eyes brim with tears. She instantly felt guilty now for scolding her. Shaking her head she opened the desert menu and placed it before Hikaru "Hey! How about we order more desert?" she said with a smile, trying to cheer up her friend.
Hikaru looked up with her expressive crimson eyes while gently wiping back her tears with a napkin "O-Okay!" she perked right back up while taking the menu.
Umi smiled and reached deep into her designer blue purse pulling out her cellphone. She flipped it open and frowned while reading a text message from Fuu. It seemed her flight was delayed and she wouldn't be arriving in Tokyo today. She sighed closing it and glanced back at Hikaru "Fuu texted me, said her flight got delayed."
"Oh? What about that appointment today? We can't possibly go pick out a bridesmaid dress without her." Hikaru lowered her gaze to her teacup.
Umi nodded "I'll cancel and make another appointment. It's just a bummer I was really looking forward for the three of us being together again." she sighed while picking up her fork and digging it into a piece of cake "Ever since Fuu went to college in America it's been so hard to get together."
"Not just with Fuu. We've all been busy..well more like you guys have." Hikaru pouted as she thought about her current situation in life. She was doing nothing but helping her older brother run the family dojo ever since her other two brothers took off and got married.
Her friend just smiled "What are you talking about? I've heard your lessons are a big rave with the boys." she joked.
"T-That's not funny!" Hikaru said as her face turned a crimson shade and she nervously stuck a huge piece of cake in her mouth.
"Oh Hikaru, always so adorable."
After they were done the two headed out of the cafe, as soon as Umi exited a flash of light and the sound of camera's shutter went off. Hikaru rubbed her eyes and Umi frowned at the paparazzi "Do you mind?" she said to the stranger with the camera before walking past him paying no more mind of him.
"Wow. You sure are popular now." Hikaru commented while glancing back every now and then as she watched the paparazzi following them.
Umi sighed "It's such a hassel. Even for someone like me who craves attention." she said while approaching the black limo. The girls got in the back and Umi leaned back in her seat while staring up at the limo's ceiling "What should we do now?" wherever she went she knew she was going to be followed. She bet whatever picture that man took of her was going to be sold to the dumbest tabloids, she could picture it now with the headline; Models eat too or Newly enganged Umi Ryuuzaki hangs with some mysterious friend.
As the limo drove past Tokyo Tower Hikaru placed her hands upon the window and stared at the tower longingly. She turned to look at Umi "Do you think tomorrow we could visit it with Fuu? For old times sake?" she looked to Umi with a pleading look.
Umi looked to her friend giving her this puppy dog look. How was she to refuse her? She just nodded "I don't see why not? Lets call Fuu and tell her to meet up with us tomorrow there." she said while pulling out her cellphone.
Fuu sat in the airport staring up at the flight to Tokyo. This delay came at such an unfortunate time. If only she didn't have an exam two days ago she would had scheduled a little earlier. She sighed while pulling out her cellphone and smiled at her phone's wallpaper. It was a picture of the three of them at the beach two summer's ago when she came back on holiday.
"Hey Fuu, I've got you a caramel latte!"
She closed her cellphone and smiled up at her friend while taking the warm cup into her hands "Thanks Chris." she said before taking a sip.
He smiled at her and took a seat beside her. He looked up at the boarding flights and shook his head "It's my fault. I shouldn't had booked a flight that made transfer flights."
Fuu shook her head "Do not blame yourself. It's unfortunate but it cannot be helped. I'm just grateful that you'd tag along." she said smiling at him which caused him to look away blushing slightly.
Christopher then cleared his throat in embarrassment and thought about a subject to talk about with his long time crush. He wanted to go on this trip with Fuu the minute he heard she was heading back home, he lied and told her it was mostly to meet the beautiful friend model of hers but in reality it was just to get close to her. She's been so busy with school and work he hadn't had the chance to confess his feelings to her. Though even when he did have his chances in the past he always blew it and oddly felt like it wasn't the best time to do so, it almost felt like Fuu pushed away at the idea of romance.
"Hmm." Fuu's phone began to ring and she pulled it out.
"Who's calling?" he let it slip out before he could even stop himself, was it really any of his business to be asking that question.
She smiled "It's Umi!" she placed the phone to hear ear "Umi!"
He watched as she talked on the phone with her long time best friend. Her facial expressions jumped from excited to happy and then something he couldn't register. It was strange it was almost like she wanted to cry. His heart tighten at the sight of her sad eyes. He longed to get up and be a man, embrace her to make her problems go away.
But alas, he just remained seated and watched as she talked on the phone. When she hung up she smiled "She wants me to meet up at Tokyo Tower tomorrow with them." she told him.
"Oh?" he didn't want to sound hurt of the exclusion.
Fuu then looked to him with concern "Hmm." she closed her eyes as if she was in deep thought and then smiled "I know! You'll come too! I mean it's your first time in Japan. You should go see Tokyo Tower, I'm sure my friends won't mind!"
"You think so?" he asked uncertain.
She nodded "Of course."
"It's settled, we'll meet up at Tokyo Tower tomorrow." Umi told Hikaru with a smile.
The limo stopped before the Shidou Dojo and Hikaru hugged Umi before getting out the limo. She waved as the limo pulled away and then headed inside to find her older brother looking annoyed as Kakeru's five year old daughter was messing around with the dojo's equipment. She couldn't help but giggle at the sight her extremely tall quiet older brother looking after a cute little girl "Asami!" she cried out while opening her arms wide to her little niece.
"KARU!" she squealed while dropping a knee pad then running into her arms.
Satoru sighed in relief at the sight of his youngest sister and smiled "Welcome back Hikaru!"
Umi arrived at her home to find her fiance looking over some photos while taking long chugs from his glass of whiskey, this wasn't good. He only drank like that when something troubled him. When she shut the door he turned around and looked to her with a hazed expression "Umi?" he called out to her while placing the glass down onto his desk. As he walked to her in a stagger, it was worse then she thought. When he went to hug her, she pulled away and wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Yamato! What is going on? You reek of booze!" she snapped while tossing her purse upon the chair.
He sighed while running his hand through his spiky black hair "Sorry. It's just the band wants to split after a fight."
"Oh?" she thought more and her eyes narrowed "Let me guess they've pinned me the Yoko Ono of the band?"
"No! I'm telling you the band is excited for us! It has nothing to do with us-it's about our drummer." he frowned.
She found that hard to believe considering their main female vocalist was in love with her fiance and hated her. Yep, he was hiding the truth to her once more. She just shook her head "You know what? I don't care, I just want to get some sleep." she said while taking off her fancy coat and dropping it to the floor before heading up the spiral staircase.
"But love!" he called out to her, but she ignored him.
Next Day:
Tokyo Tower was always booming with tourists and Hikaru once again was feeling a bit lost in the crowd because of her height, even though she was now twenty-three she didn't really grow since the last time she traveled to Cephiro. As she continued to swim through the tourists she found Umi standing before the window her back to Hikaru as she placed a hand on the glass looking out at the gathering stormy gray clouds "Umi!" Hikaru called out to her.
Umi turned around and smiled to find Hikaru wading through a horde of people. She was dressed rather adorable today in a cute pink sun dress, something she rarely seen Hikaru wear. She couldn't help but wonder the special occasion. When Hikaru finally made it through she embraced her "You look so adorable today." she whispered in her friend's ear.
"Oh please! It's not like I'm anything next to you." Hikaru replied while looking over Umi who was dressed in her usual fashionable clothes with her hair pulled up in a high ponytail.
"Hikaru! Umi!" they both turned around to find Fuu heading over with a young man with pale skin and blonde curly hair. Umi instantly noticed Fuu's style has changed. She grew out her hair and her glasses's frames were much smaller, more fashionable.
"Fuu!" Hikaru's face lit up and she tackled her other best friend.
Umi smiled and hugged her too then glanced over at the young male friend looking nervously at them, as Fuu let go of them she introduced her friend "This is Christopher Knight. He's a friend of mine." she said with a smile.
Christopher just bowed his head "It's a pleasure to finally meet the both of you."
"Like wise." Umi smiled and couldn't help but find his proper manner perfect for Fuu. But judging by the way things were she had a feeling they were nothing more but friends.
Hikaru who was always rather informal just hugged Christoper and made comments about how lovely his skin was, which only made him feel flustered. Fuu just watched and laughed at the sight while Umi crossed her arms across her chest-then suddenly the unthinkable happened. A bright light engulfed them "It can't be!" Fuu cried out.
"Are we returning?" Hikaru said sounding almost overjoyed of the idea as she clasped her hands together.
"No-not now!" Umi had a wedding to plan!
In a instant flash they were falling. Hikaru stretched her arms wide open and laughed with a large confident expression. While Umi's hair became undone and flapped about, Fuu held onto her glasses but her eyes widen as she caught sight of the figure falling down beside her "CHRIS?!"
He was pale as a ghost and he was screaming bloody murder. What was going on? Was he about to die? Fuu then reached out to him and grabbed his arm while using her other hand to keep her glasses to her face "Fuu! What the hell is going on?" he cried out.
"It's okay! Relax!" she tried to calm him down as they landed upon the flying fish.
"Fyula!" Hikaru squealed as she hugged onto the back of the fish.
Christopher just sat there in silence as he tried to take in what was going on around him. He watched as the three girls seemed familiar and at ease, was he dreaming? He thought to himself as he pinched his arm, he winced and frowned. Nope this was not a dream. Fuu looked to Christopher with concern while Umi looked interested "I wonder why he's able to come along?
"Where am I?" he asked while looking around. He caught sight of a floating mountain and a volcano in the distance. Was this some sort of video game? He wondered to himself.
Hikaru looked up with what looked like cat ears that instantly appeared as if this was some sort of anime "It's Cephiro!"
"Um come again?" he doesn't recall any Cephiro in his world studies or anything about a giant flying fish.
"It's hard to explain. I'll tell you once we've landed." Fuu promised him while clasping her hands together in apologetic expression.
Fyula started to lower causing the four to clutch on tightly not wanting to fall off. As the giant flying fish landed Hikaru jumped off and stretched her arms while turning back to look towards them "I wonder where we are? This doesn't look like the castle." she said while observing the area.
"You are quite right." Fuu said while getting off of Fyula. This area seemed rather unfamiliar to them. It was an open area filled with purple flowers and a large mirror door hoovering in the air, Umi glanced towards Chris who remained on the fish. He was hugging his knees to his chest and mumbling "This can't be real." over and over.
"C'mon." she said while holding her hand out to him.
He looked towards it and placed his shaking hand onto hers. She rolled her eyes and helped him down from the fish while glancing up at the mirror. There was something strange about it-then again this was Cephiro there was plenty of strange things in this world!
Hikaru cautiously approached the mirror door. She stood before it and instead of seeing her adult reflection she saw her fifteen yearold self "What the?"
"Hmm not much has changed." Umi joked about Hikaru's appearance.
Christopher stood beside Fuu while looking around. He took it this wasn't the time or place to ask questions considering they seemed just as lost. He watched as Fuu started to approach the mirror and his hand wanted to reach out to stop her but before he could a large ball of light appeared before them. The ball of light bursted and a short male figure with a horn who was wielding a staff appeared before them.
"CLEF!" the girls said in sync.
"Young girls" he paused and looked them over while clearing his throat "Young women from another world what has brought you back?" he asked them curiously. He had thought since the pillar system was destroyed there was no use or capable power in order to summon them again. Though he'd be lying if he wasn't happy to see them again. He then blinked his eyes at the young man that was with them "Who is he?" he asked while approaching him to further inspect him.
Christopher started to back away and Fuu looked towards Clef "He's Christopher. A friend of mine and some how he also came with us when we were at Tokyo Tower together."
"I see." Clef said while rubbing his chin.
"Um Clef, What is that big mirror anyways?" Umi asked as she pointed up towards it.
He shook his head "I'm not sure to be honest. This is something new, it appeared the minute you all arrived." he said while looking up at the mirror wearily. A mirror door appearing as the magic knights arrived, he had a sinking feeling it was linked to them. He then raised his staff in the air "We shall return to the castle and further discuss this matter." and with that they were all transported to the castle of Cephiro.
When they reappeared it was in the throne room of the castle. Ferio who was sitting there quickly got up from his seat in shock at the sight of the magic knights. Fuu's eyes instantly landed on him and she could feel her heart beating rapidly at the sight of him. He's changed a little, he looked a little older and his hair grown out a little more but he kept it tied back like usual. He was about to head over towards them until the woman sitting in the throne beside him looked upon them with confusion "Guru Clef, what is the meaning of this?" she demanded.
Fuu looked towards the woman and her eyes widen, the woman who sat beside Ferio had a crown upon her head! She glanced towards Ferio who gave her a solem look and then back towards the woman. Christopher looked over at Fuu and noticed that she looked as if she was ready to cry. Who was this man to her? He thought to himself.
"I apologize, Queen Jade." Clef bowed before them "These women are the legendary magic knights. The ones who saved Cephiro." he said to her.
Jade looked the girls over while twirling a crimson curl of hair around her finger "Is that so?" her eyes then landed on Hikaru "You were the last pillar?" she asked the shortest girl.
"That I am." she nodded with a smile.
"I see.." Jade then got up from her throne and approached them with a smile "Well as Queen of Cephiro I welcome you back!"
Ferio nodded "As I." his eyes shifted away from Fuu's hurt look.
Queen Jade then clapped her hands to summon her servants. Two young women approached them "Please show the magics knights and this young gentleman to the guest wing."
"Shouldn't we discuss what is going on first?" Umi said to Clef.
He shook his head then glanced at Fuu "I think it might do you all good to rest up. I shall summon you all later." he said as he looked back towards Umi.
Hikaru and Umi walked side by side. The two of them whispered back and forth while Fuu oddly walked behind with Christopher tailing along. Ferio watched as the magic knights left and he deeply sighed taking his seat. What was he to do now? He thought to himself while closing his golden.
"She's pretty." Jade said as she took a seat beside him while her right leg swung over the other.
Ferio glanced over "Who?" he acted ignorant of her comment.
The queen just rolled her eyes while taking out her fan to fan herself. He could deny all he wanted but she knew there was something going on between him and that wind knight. She's heard the rumors of his lover from the other world. Though it didn't matter in the end. She had the crown.
Mokona hopped about in the field of flowers. He was chasing after something or more like someone. A little fairy who went by the name of Primera. Sure his role was needed elsewhere, but he couldn't resist. When he caught sight of blue among the flowers he pounced "PUU!" he cried out.
Primera scrambled underneath him "MOKONA! Remove yourself at once!" she cried out. As they continued to mess around with their usual routine the mirror door opened. Mokona looked up with a curious look as his gem began to glow while Primera pushed off the ball of fluff. She noticed Mokona's expression change to absolute fear and his ears stood up straight "Hey? What's going on?" she asked while looking up. Her eyes widen and she clamped her mouth stopping herself from screaming.
A woman stood before the glass mirror. She was tall and slender. Her hair was a long golden mane and her eyes they were the color of the sky..
Author Note: Sorry if this sucks! It's been awhile since I've wrote a fanfic. I just started re-watching Rayearth and I couldn't help myself. T_T Please R&R to let me know if you want it continued. Also do not be put off by an OC, I promise he will not end up with a cannon character!