This is the story of a girl who's wishes were heard by the gods to revive the "Shi jen ten shou". After the book was finished the first time, it returned to the library to stay. But one girl's wishes, and one worlds loneliness was able to bring to book into there own existence, a new story begging to be told. This is her story. Again the first page is turned, the story's spell revived and a new girl taken into the Universe of the Four Gods.
"Hey Cat! You done with my DVD yet? There are only 4 episodes on it..."
No answer. "…. Caaaaaaaaaatttttt annnssswwerr meeee" There was still no reply. The
girl pulled the headphones off her friends head and yelled into her ear. "OI! BAKA!"
"WAA!" Cat's eyes widened as she lost her balance and the chair she was sitting in tipped over backwards. "Don't DO that!"
"Why not? It got your attention didn't it?"
"I know but still.."
"You ever gonna give my DVD back?"
"Oh that's why you tried to kill me…"
Cat pulled herself back up and reset the chair. She sat down again, but moved further away from her friend. "I probably will, after I see Tamahome flame Tomo a few more times!"
"…..ok…first of all, it's Tasuki that's doing the flaming and it's Tamahome that's getting flamed. " Shirin stared at Cat, eyebrow raised.
Cat gave a blank stare for a moment, blinking as she
thought.
"I……knew that…"
"Yeah sure you did…"
A girl with red hair streaked with blonde put her face in her hand. She sighed and looked at Cat, who was humming a song to herself. "You're humming his song again..." Her friend looked up and grinned.
"I like it! It's a cool song!"
"You wouldn't say that if you didn't like him..."
"Yeah I would..." Her friend pouted a little, but thought better of it than to tell her she was beginning to act like Miaka. That would only get a angry Miaka reaction, followed by a Miaka-ish 'Tamahome-come-over-here- and-beat-up-that-person' kind of look. And...all those references to Miaka...just weren't worth it. The Miaka-ish girl had red hair too but it kinda leaned over into the blonde in some light and brown in others, so you really couldn't tell what her hair color actually was (But it was wise not to call her blonde, or you might get hurt). Cat leaned up against the wall and looked at the ceiling. "I'd like to go into the Universe of the four gods..." She mumbled aloud.
"Yeah...well It ain't gonna happen."
"Hey! You never know Shirin! It could..."
"You keep on dreaming' that...ah shit...I got to go...bye Cat, and bring back my DVD tomorrow!"
"Yeah, whatever..."
Cat sat on her bed that night listening
to one of her CD's. In her hands she held the DVD for Eikoden. She
turned it over in her hands a few times looking at the green cover
with the red phoenix -Suzaku- on the front. She sighed and flopped
back on her bed looking up at her ceiling that was covered in those
plastic glow-in-dark stars. Only halve of the ceiling was actually
covered. She had attempted to put the 28 constellations on, but her
brain died after doing Genbu and Byakko's. She rolled on her side
and set the DVD by her bag. Tomorrow was Friday, only a week until
summer vacation! Cat sat up and looked out her window at the
glittering stars. She knew the constellations for the warriors were
mixed in there somewhere, but she was no good at finding stuff like
that so she didn't even bother trying to find them. Her CD ended
and blinked the last number waiting for an order. It was turned off
and Cat got ready for bed, she looked back at the DVD and thought for
a moment.
"It could happen…If I really wanted it
to…"
"You gonna study? Or are you going to stare
out at the window at the pigeons…?"
Shirin said staring at Cat
waiting for her to answer. Cat just looked over and blinked, she
grinned sheepishly and looked back at the window.
"I have the
urge to go to the public library…"
"Since when did YOU walk
anywhere"
"Hey! I walk!"
"More like drag your feet
and whiiiine. Hang on, I'm just going to get something from my
locker…" Shirin got up from her seat and began to walk away. Cat
looked at the wall and followed it down to the floor, Shirin had left
her backpack behind by mistake. Cat grinned and took it, running to
the library down the street from her school. It wasn't long before
Shirin caught on and began the chase after her bag. Ignoring the
cranky librarians, Cat ran into the library and up the stairs to the
above floors, she ducked into the Mythology section and sat on the
floor to take a break. She tried not to laugh as she peaked through
the books and watched Shirin come in and look around for her.
Eventually Shirin ran by, not seeing Cat. Cat grinned and quickly
stood up, nearly knocking one of the book cases over. The bookcase
leaned to one side and cat quickly pulled it back into place. She
winced in pain as a book fell from one of the top shelves and hit her
on the head. Cat rubbed her head and picked up the red book. She was
bummed when it was just a book on Chinese mythology and symbols, and
not the universe of the four gods. She laughed to herself when she
realized how silly the thought was, and nearly screamed when her
friend had found her.
"Got you!" Shirin yelled lunging for her bag. Cat squealed and grabbed the bag and the book, jumped over her friend and took off again. She dashed through the library, trying to find a better place to hide. She ran by a corridor with a strange red light and paused. Cat backtracked and looked down the corridor. It was one that mostly had old documents, nothing really exciting and hardly anyone went down there. She decided to hide down there figuring her friend would just run by it. Cat took off down the hall and hid in a dark corner in the back of several book cases. She flopped down onto the floor and picked up the book to browse through it. Her eyes widened when she saw it again.
"This...isn't the book that fell on my head..." It was still red, yes, but it had a white binding on it and there was no title on the front. She turned the book around so that in read in the Chinese style and nearly fell over when she saw a title on that side. "This...this is too weird...!" She exclaimed opening it. A picture was one the first page, it was of a Phoenix.. "Okay... Shirin obviously staged this...somehow..." She turned the page again and saw some Chinese characters written on it. "There...see? If this really was the ten to chin shi jen..to...chen...sha..ja...or whatever the hell it's called! Then it would be putting this in English for me..." Cat laughed as she looked on the page again. Slowly, the characters began to shift and warp until they were in English. Cat breathed heavily as she started to read what the words said.
"This is the story of a girl who made her wishes come true. The story itself is a spell and the moment the first page is turned it becomes real. This is the second telling. After the book was finished the first time, it returned to the library to stay. But one girl's wishes, and one worlds loneliness was able to bring to book into there own existence . This is her story. This is her place in the Universe of the Four Gods."
With shaking hands, Cat slowly began to turn the page. The empty page stared at her, begging to tell a story once more. A red light began to show and she quickly shut the book, and dropped it to the floor. Cat shook her head to regain herself, and slowly picked up the book again to look at it. She could hear someone walking down the hallway towards her; she quickly opened the book again and turned the page to get it over with. The call of a bird, a Phoenix, rang in her ears and a bright red light engulfed her and she was gone. Shirin stopped in her tracks and blinked. She had been tipped off by someone that Cat had run down here.
"Cat? Is that you? What was that light...?" She turned to face the corner Cat should have been in, but it was empty except for the swiped bag and a red book. Shirin shook her head and smirked as she picked up the book. "Very funny...I know this is a joke...you can pop out now..." Shirin laughed a bit, nervous now as she looked around expecting her friend to pop out any moment now. The more she looked, the more she realized that there was no where for her friend to hide. Shirin put it out of her mind and walked out with the book, she didn't need to check it out because it was not carded in the library. She took the book home and tossed in onto the top of her bed. Shirin turned on her computer to see if her friend was online; she wasn't. She sighed to herself and looked at the book. "I'll look at you after dinner..." She said turning off the computer and walked out of her room.
Cat's head hurt. She slowly sat up and opened her eyes as she rubbed her head. Her eyes widened when she found herself in an alleyway. She jumped to her feat and ran out onto the busy street. All around her people busied themselves, paying little attention to her. She walked up to someone who looked friendly and cleared her throat.
"Excuse me, sir? Can you tell me where I am please?" She asked politely. The man turned and looked at her from head to foot. He stared at her odd clothes for a moment and looked away.
"Get lost...we don't want foreigners dressed like you here..." the man said. Cat looked around to see that a crowd had gathered and all were staring at her. She gulped and quickly and ran out of the crowd. After sometime, she paused to catch her breath.
"If I saw Suzaku...then I must be in Konan...unless if this is all just a dream..." she thought to herself. "Wait! If I am in Konan, that means the palace is here! And If that is so, Maybe Boushin is still alive or something!" Cat took off to find the palace, which wasn't to hard to find.
Cat gulped when she saw the gates. Two strong looking guards were at their posts, so she decided to play it cool and just try to walk in casually. Of coarse, the moment the guards saw her odd clothes they blocked her path and glared at her.
"Who are you? What business do you have here?"
"I'm Cat...and I'd like to see the emperor please..."
"Why? Do you know him? Is he expecting you?"
"Well...no..but..."
"But nothing! We do not take kindly to oddly dressed foreigners anymore...beat it kid!"
"But, I have no where else to go? What do you expect me to do?"
"I said beat IT!" The guard said picking her up and tossing her back onto the streets.
"FINE! See if I care! I don't want to see your
crummy emperor ANYWAY! I hope he falls off his high horse and gets
laughed at all the people because he's so dumb!" Cat yelled. The
guards glared at her, raising their weapons. Cat sweat dropped and
pointed to something in the sky. " LOOK! It's Suzaku!" The
guards looked up with confused looks. She took the chance and ran by
them. This infuriated the guards and they ran after her trying to
catch her. They chased her around the courtyard for a moment yelling
for someone to catch her.
"CATCH THAT GIRL!" one of the
guards yelled.
"Can't catch me!" She teased them running
in circles. She paused when she saw someone watching her from the
palace. He was standing in the shadows, so she couldn't tell who
it was. She squealed when a guard grabbed her, and she bit his hand
and ran away. Cat ran by the gate guards and ran out into the
marketplace. She pushed her way through the crowd, avoiding grabbing
hands. There was a pause in the crowd and she pushed into it, Cat
looked behind her to see the guards still chasing her. She turned
again to run and ran into a guy who had walked over while she was
looking at the guards. He got a firm hold on her and refused to let
go despite her squirming.
"Woah now...where d'yah think you're going huh?" He asked her. She continued to squirm and stomped on his foot. The man let go and held his foot in pain. "OW! What t'hell? He said angrily watching her run away. The guards caught up to him and breathed heavily.
"Oh...Lord Ta-"
"Let me get her guys, you obviously can't catch that kid." The man said running off in the direction Cat went. The guards nodded and set back to the palace.
Shirin walked into her room and looked at the book again before going online to see if Cat was on. When she saw she wasn't she turned and looked at the book. She stared at is as if expecting it to burst into confetti and banners saying "fooled you!" written on them. Of coarse this idea was completely ridiculous and it did not happen. Shirin's patience snapped and she glared at the book.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" She yelled jumping out of her seat and whacking the book.
"Shirin...are you...alright...?" She heard her dad ask from the living room. She sweat dropped and picked up the book.
"Yeah...I'm ok!" She called back and sat on her bed holding the book. Shirin opened the book and began to read it, hers hands shaking as she watched the Chinese characters switch to English. It Didn't take her long to catch up, and set the book down for a moment to collect her thoughts. She regained herself and read on.
"Hey kid! Get back here! This place isn't safe!" the man called to her.
"Oh, like I wanna be thrown in prison." she said.
"No really! This place really is! I
ain't lyin' ter yah!" He called. That accent… Cat turned to
look at him but was grabbed by a pair of strong arms instead.
"Let
me...go!" Cat struggled to get free. She looked at the man who had
grabbed her. He was young with blonde hair and standing next to him
was a shorter man with brown hair and a taller one with black
hair.
"The man followed the girl into an alleyway, where they ambushed by a local gang of men that lived in the run down part of the city...!""How much do you think we'll get for her?" The man with the black hair asked.
"Not to sure, she sure is a weird one isn't she?" The blonde haired man replied.
"Let her go! Or I'll..."
"Or you'll what?"
"The man grinned as he swiftly attacked the men forcing them to leave. The girl just watched him not knowing what to say."
"Uhm...Thanks..." said turning to look at him finally.
"I told you this place was shit! An' yah still didn't listen to me!" He said to her crossing his arms.
Cat blinked, she knew him, but her mind was
fogging it was getting hard to think.
"You…you're….."
The man uncrossed his arms and brushed a hand through his orange
hair.
"Tasuki……?" He said with a placid expression on his
face. Cat head spun. She put a hand up to her forehead as it was shot
with pain. "Hey, you okay kid?" Tasuki asked her.
"Tasuki
received no reply from the girl as she collapsed to the ground in a
faint."
Tasuki looked down at her, blinking in utter
confusion.
"...Kid?" He again, didn't get an answer. "...HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE HELL DID I DO? WHAT THE HELL DO I DO FOR THAT MATTER?" Tasuki rushed to her and kneeled next to her, poking her with a stick. Tasuki sweat dropped and began to panic.
"WAKE THE HELL UP! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! GIVE ME A BREAK HERE!" Tasuki wailed. After a few moments of no response to any of his bad language (which will not be printed here ; ) he picked her up and dashed back to the palace.
