Author notes: WHEE! Yesh! It's me! Critias! None of you shall ever know my true name… Unless I put it in my profile… Yeah. ANYWAY! Hope my summary didn't ruin anything. Um… I guess I'm gonna take a shot at a Chichiri x OC thing. I can't guarantee it'll be good, so please shoot me if it's crappy. Suggestions would be appreciated. If I sound like I don't appreciate it and sound like somebody mad at you instead, don't take it personally, I'm like that. It's my way of saying I appreciate it. Btw, this story basically follows the storyline of the second OVA. Enough with my rambling! On with the story! By the way, I'll be alternating between updating chapters of my two stories.
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Cold night air filled the empty streets of Tokyo. The moon and stars in the sky shone their light down onto the city. All in all, the city seemed to be very peaceful. But of course, not everything was always as it seemed.
Eighteen year old Kaiya Niigata lay on her side in her bed by a window. Moonlight shone through the blinds, illuminating everything in the room. Her arms lay beside her face as she slept. Two shining streaks were on her face, from the eyes to her chin, revealing that she had been crying.
Suddenly, Kaiya scrunched her face and shifted so that she lay on her back. She whimpered once and her face relaxed.
In Kaiya's dream…
Kaiya stood in a void of darkness. The only thing visible was her own body. Suddenly, a bright light appeared to her left. Kaiya turned her body to face it. She saw a scene. A teenage boy with dark brown hair lay in the middle of a crosswalk. The back of his head faced her, while his body lay on its back. A large pool of blood could be seen around him. Splotches of blood could be seen all over his clothes and flesh. Police kept the crowd behind the yellow tape that circled the area; medics were scrambling about. One medic knelt beside the boy and lifted his arm to see if there was a pulse on his wrist. When the other medics came around, the medic who had knelt, stood up, and shook his head.
A teenage girl with long, dark purple hair, that reached her waist, and brown eyes broke through the crowd and ran past the police to the boy. She wore a sage colored jacket with a red tie, white shirt, and a long brown skirt.
"Kenji! Kenji!" she cried out and tears flew as she ran.
The girl knelt beside the boy and cried over his body.
"Kenji… Kenji, you can't be dead!" she shouted and shook her head. She threw her head back and howled a cry of sadness.
Kaiya stood frozen in place, transfixed on the scene before her.
Finally, she began to run towards it. She ran as fast as she could, tears flowing down her face like an endless river. But each step she took didn't seem to do anything. The scene began to speed away the minute she moved. She tried to run faster, but tripped and fell. The scene continued to speed away 'til it was gone.
Kaiya sat on her knees and let her tears drip onto the ground. She recognized the girl as herself. The boy that lay dead on the ground had been her boyfriend, Kenji, who was the same age as her.
"It hurts too much… Why won't it go away…" she whispered, and bent so her forehead touched the ground. "Someone take it away…"
"I can take it away…"
Kaiya lifted her head to see where the voice came from. She looked around, but saw no one.
"I can take your pain away…"
Kaiya didn't bother looking this time.
"How?" she asked aloud.
"But you must pay a price…"
"Take it away. Take my pain away!" she said without a second thought.
From within the darkness, a man smiled evilly.
A moment after Kaiya had said her request, she felt a sharp pain in her chest and the on the back of her right hand. Kaiya held her chest in pain. It was like her heart was being electrocuted. Her hand felt like something was being burned onto it. She could only lie in pain. She could not shout at all, since air did not want to enter her lungs.
After about a minute, all the pain finally stopped and a black, marble-like jewel came out of her body and flew into the darkness.
"It is done. You will feel no more sadness, no more pain. You have only six weeks left of your life… The symbol on your right hand will tell you how much time you have left. Enjoy the time you have left, Mistress of Time."
Kaiya's gaze returned to the floor. Her eyes were devoid of all emotion. Cackling was heard from the darkness…
Back OUT of the dream…
Kaiya's eyes snapped open. She looked around her room, then at her clock. It was a minute past twelve.
'It was just a dream…' she thought and lay back on the bed. She pulled the covers over herself and dozed off back to sleep. As she slept, a black symbol glowed on the back of her right hand, while a pink symbol glowed on the back of her left hand.
The next morning…
Kaiya sat up and stretched her limbs. Afterwards, she walked sleepily to the bathroom across from her room. As she was combing her hair in the mirror, she noticed a character on the back of her right hand. She put her brush down and held her hand up. It was a Chinese character, only it was outlined like a bubble letter.
Kaiya thought back to all the Chinese vocabulary she had ever studied in school; about four years worth of it.
'Death…' she thought, then remembered her dream and shook her head, 'Probably just a stupid prank…'
Kaiya turned on the tap water. She put her hand under and water and tried to rub it off, thinking it might be some kind of ink. But the character remained the same. The only thing she did was turn her hand red.
Kaiya sighed in defeat.
'I don't have time for this.' She thought, then finished brushing her hair and returned to her room.
Kaiya was pretty much a normal eighteen year old girl. She attended Jounan High School and had pretty good marks; usually A's and B's. Her father had died in a fire accident when she was young, so she lived with her mother and little sister, Meiko, who was only eight.
As she was putting on her school uniform, her mind began to wander, eventually wrapping around the subject of Kenji. Kenji had been her boyfriend for two years, but her best friend since childhood.
'Kenji…' she thought emptily. Suddenly, she realized something. Ever since the accident a couple days ago, she had been incredibly depressed and refused to speak to anyone much. But today, she felt nothing, like a hollow emotion.
Pushing the thought aside, she put on the rest of her uniform and went down for breakfast. Her house was two stories high. Her sister's and her room were on the second floor, beside each other, with the bathroom across from them, and her mother's room was beside the bathroom. Connecting the top floor to the bottom floor were the stairs, that led to the living room. The living room was basically your average living room; a couch, coffee table, television, and a few plants. Right next to the living room, was the kitchen, and next to that was the dining area.
As she sat down at the dining table, her mother handed her two slices of toast. Her mother had short, curly brown hair and blue eyes. She wore a knee-length black skirt, a white, wooly sweater, with an apron over top, and house slippers with white socks.
"Good morning, Kaiya." She said smiling, "How're you today? Do you feel any better?"
Kaiya took a bite out of her toast and swallowed it.
"Mm. I'm fine, thanks." She answered and continued munching on her toast.
After a few minutes, Meiko, who was sitting on the other side of the table, hopped off her chair and walked around the table to her sister. Meiko had chin length brown hair and purple eyes. She wore a canary yellow dress with a little yellow bow on the front.
Meiko tugged lightly at Kaiya's sleeve to get her attention.
Kaiya finished the rest of her toast and looked down at her sister.
"What is it, Meiko?" she asked kindly.
Meiko held out a little flower bracelet to Kaiya.
"You were kinda sad before… and I wanted you to be happy, so I made this for you." She said shyly.
Kaiya gently took the flower bracelet from her sister and put it on her wrist.
"I love it." She said and bent down to hug Meiko. "Thank you. I feel happier now."
Meiko pulled away from her sister and happily ran over to her mother to tell her the good news.
Kaiya's mother bent down and listened, then chuckled.
"You better go, Kaiya. Don't want to be late." Her mother said.
Kaiya nodded and picked up her school bag, then walked out the door.
As she walked down the street, she came across the crosswalk where Kenji died. It seemed as if nothing had even happened.
Looking at it, Kaiya still felt nothing. Her eyes were desolate.
"Heeeeey, Kaiya!"
Kaiya snapped out of her daze and turned her head to her left. Running happily towards her was Miaka Yuki. Behind her was Taka Sukunami. Kaiya was good friends with them both.
Miaka was sixteen years old and went to the same school as Kaiya, so she had the same uniform. Miaka had shoulder length, reddish brown and greenish gold eyes.
Taka was nineteen years old. He was in the same university as Miaka's older brother, Keisuke. He had short, dark blue hair and golden eyes. He wore an aquamarine colored sweater with a sapphire blue shirt underneath and brown pants.
Miaka and Taka were an inseparable couple. They loved each other as if they were newly weds, and never stopped loving each other in that way. A while ago, Kaiya had asked Miaka how she met Taka. Miaka had told her the story of how she had been sucked into a book called The Universe of the Four Gods and Taka had saved her upon her arrival. He was known as Tamahome at the time and it was love at first sight for them both.
Kaiya hadn't known whether to believe Miaka's story or not. A fictional character can't just come out of a book just like that. But Miaka was definitely not the kind of person to lie about how she first met her soul mate.
Kaiya put on a smile and waved a hello.
"Good morning." Miaka said, stopping in front of Kaiya.
"Morning, Miaka." Kaiya said, then turned to Taka, "Morning, Taka."
"You haven't been to school for a couple days… Are you really okay now?" Miaka asked, her face taking on a worried expression.
"You and Kenji were really close…" Taka said, his face grave.
Kaiya smiled nervously and shook her hands in front of her.
"I'm okay now, really." She said, "Don't worry about me. Cheer up."
Miaka and Taka's faces lightened and they smiled. Suddenly, Miaka noticed something on Kaiya's hand.
"Kaiya, what's that on your hand?" she asked.
Now Taka looked and also noticed.
Kaiya looked, then quickly hid it behind her back.
"It's nothing. I think someone drew on my hand." She said, "I must have been in a real daze."
"And a long one too if-" Taka said before taking an elbow to the gut from Miaka.
Kaiya let out a small laugh.
"I'm glad you're feeling better now, Kaiya." Miaka said, "Let's go before we're late."
Kaiya nodded and walked with Miaka and Taka to school.
At Kaiya and Miaka's school, as the three of them are talking, an annoyed looking girl came up to them.
"Oh, you're even going out at SCHOOL now?" she asked.
Miaka laughed sheepishly.
"Oh, come on, Yui. We just walked to school is all." She said.
Yui Hongo had been Miaka's best friend since kindergarten. Her hair was blond and reached her shoulder blades. She had blue eyes as well. Since she went to the same school, she obviously wore the same uniform.
Kyo, another friend of Miaka's decided to join in the conversation.
"Such a bothersome love couple." She said tauntingly, "They want more love than any high school student have the rights to."
"They're even having sex now!" Yui remarked.
"Oh, really?" asked Kyo.
Miaka blushed and waved a hand at them.
"You too, Kyo!" she said and laughed.
Kaiya just stood with a sweat drop and a nervous smile plastered onto her face.
As the girls talked, a boy with short, lavender hair and bright purple eyes walked by. He wore the same uniform, except he wore gray pants.
"Good morning, Ms. Yuki." He said.
Miaka turned around to see the young man.
"Shigyou?" Miaka whispered.
"Good morning, Shigyou!" Kyo said excitedly and ran over to join the crowd of girls that had surrounded Shigyou.
"You know him, Miaka?" asked Yui.
Miaka nodded.
"Yeah… Shigyou transferred into our class last week." She said.
"He's really popular." Said Taka.
"So he's in your class, huh…?" Yui muttered.
"What about it?" Miaka asked.
"He's already announced he's running for student council president." Yui answered, "He'll probably win too, 'cause he's so popular."
"He's just a freshman and he's already doing something so big?" Taka, then realized what time it was, "I gotta go. See you guys later. See you later, Miaka."
As Taka waved goodbye, Shigyou watched from the corner of his eye.
"Hey, Shigyou?" said Kyo.
Shigyou faced Kyo and smiled.
"Oh, sorry." He said, "That guy's a college student, right? He looks pretty cool."
"Oh, he's Miaka's boyfriend." She answered, "He really is cool."
"I'm jealous. Where'd she meet such a cool guy like him?" another girl said.
"Inside the book. He appeared from the pages of a story." Shigyou answered, "But… those kinds of miracles, I don't believe in them."
The girls looked to one another in confusion.
Ding… Ding… Ding…
"Ah! There's the bell. Let's go, Kaiya." Miaka said.
Kaiya nodded an ran off inside.
In the Tokyo University…
Tetsuya and Keisuke sat at a table, doing some research, in a small room filled with books. They were part of the Ancient History Club now.
Keisuke was twenty years old. He had blondish-brown hair and brown eyes. He wore an unbuttoned, bisque colored, collared casual shirt with a black T-shirt underneath and verdigris colored jeans. (Sometimes I don't know half the things I type.)
Tetsuya was also twenty. He had short brown hair and brown eyes, but always wore sunglasses over them. He wore a brown jacket, a white T-shirt underneath and black jeans. He was also Yui's boyfriend.
Flipping a page in the book he was reading, Tetsuya groaned.
"I wish we'd have more people. Including Taka, we've only got three people." He complained, "That's why they assigned us such a tiny room."
As Tetsuya leaned back in frustration, Keisuke walked over to he small refrigerator in the top left corner of the room.
"And who put a fridge with only beer in it in that tiny room, huh!" Tetsuya yelled.
Keisuke looked over his shoulder and laughed nervously.
"Want a drink, Tetsuya?" Keisuke asked.
"Jeez. You act like what happened six months ago didn't affect you." said Tetsuya.
Keisuke grabbed two cans from the fridge. He placed one in front of Tetsuya, then sat down.
"I'll never forget it." Keisuke said, "Hey, Tetsuya, can I ask you something?"
"What?" Tetsuya asked.
"Why are you obsessed so much about the book and the gods, and especially Taka?" Keisuke asked and popped open the can.
Tetsuya thought for a moment, then gazed out to the window.
"Suppose… Suppose the same thing happens to us again." He said.
"The same thing? You mean going into the book again?" Keisuke asked.
Tetsuya nodded.
"If it happens, I'll go into the book, too. No matter what, and I'll protect Yui." He said quietly.
"Tetsuya…" Keisuke said, grabbing his friends attention and held the beer can up, "Cheers!"
"Heh, sure thing." agreed Tetsuya. He picked up his can and gently knocked it against Keisuke's.
Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupted them.
"Who's there?" Keisuke called out.
"And who's polite enough to knock around here?" Tetsuya muttered.
"It's open!" they both shouted.
The door opened and a woman with lavender hair peeked in. Her hair appeared to reach the middle of her back and she had light purple eyes. She wore a rose colored jacket with an orange shirt underneath and blue jeans.
"Excuse me… I'd like to join this group." She said.
Back at Jounan…
Shigyou stood atop the water tower of the school and gazed down at the students on the school grounds. He wore a smug look upon his face as he did so.
"While they cannot accomplish much alone, after they assemble into groups, they bare their teeth against those who are weaker than them." He muttered, "The devil's true power lies inside the hearts of humans."
Shigyou let out a quiet evil laugh.
Meanwhile…
Kaiya gazed out the window of one of the food classrooms of the school. She had just finished her food class and it was the end of the day.
Kaiya turned her attention from the window to the black character on her hand. All day, this mark nagged at her mind. She couldn't think of any possible way for it to have gotten on her hand. Tattooing it on was certainly out of the question. She wouldn't have gotten a tattoo of the character for death, she would never have been drunk to get one, not that she ever drank, and her hand would be sore. Nobody could have drawn on her hand either. The bubble lettered character was done perfectly. No lines were wavy at all. Something that well down would probably need a freaking ruler!
The only explanation left was that her dream was real.
But Kaiya didn't want to believe that either. It's true that she no longer felt the pain and sadness of losing Kenji, and even got the Chinese character on her hand.
The more she thought about it, the more she believed it was real and her mind began to panic.
'Am I really going to die in six weeks?' she thought.
Suddenly, she heard a voice. The minute the voice sounded in her mind, she felt pain in her chest, just like the dream. She dropped to her knees and clutched her chest.
Mistress of Time… Lend my priestess and warriors your power. Help them summon me once more. Hurry! … Hurry!
Once the voice stopped, so did her pain. As if to answer her question from before, a number flashed in her mind. The number read five weeks and five days.
Kaiya panted heavily, her eyes wide with fear.
"I'm really gonna die… I'm really gonna die…" she whispered, "It's too much… Knowing I'm going to die so soon… It's too much."
Kaiya wiped away her tears and stood up. She walked over to one of the kitchen drawers and took out a small knife. Slowly sitting down, her back against the sink cupboards, she held the knife over her left wrist with her right hand. Without hesitation, she pierced deep into her skin and sliced across her wrist. A vein was cut and blood began to drip immediately. She shifted the knife to the other hand and did the same.
Slowly, her vision began to blacken. Before she fell completely unconscious, she heard a voice.
"Miaka!"
Suddenly, a bright crimson light surrounded her. Kaiya finally welcomed the sleep to come to her and passed out.
Elsewhere…
A man in darkness growled. Every feature of his head was hidden by the shadows. Only his body could be seen.
"Curse you, Suzaku… Curse you…" he muttered, "She was almost mine…"