Suzaku's Fire

Summary:

The jealousy of a God is never a good thing. And from the four Gods, Seiryuu's hate can be fatal. A war between Suzaku and Seiryuu started when Suzaku called forth his own Miko to prevent Seiryuu from being summoned and bringing the four kingdoms into war. For revenge, Seiryuu sealed Suzaku into a mortal body without his powers…

Disclaimers:

*sighs* I own none of the original FY characters presented during this fic. There. Happy? Good. Because I'm not. *is sulking* *perks up* Except Yuki. He's all mine. ^~

AN:

I'd like to thank Lana and Theresa for being my beta! You guys are the best. ^^

Chapter 1

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 The Four Corners of Heaven had gotten busy lately since Seiryuus' and my Miko had appeared at the same time, which was unusual. Genbu and Byakko followed restlessly the war that had started between Seiryuu and me because the result of our brawl would have some serious effects in their kingdoms too.

 He was clever, I had to admit, but I didn't expect anything less from the God of war. The kodoku case with my Tamahome was especially good. I had had a hard time keeping the little amber of Tamahome alive and when he faced Miaka, I watched restlessly as he swayed on the edge of light and darkness. At one point he was dangerously starting to bend towards the darkness. Now I couldn't have that, could I? A little innocent kick in the right direction did the trick pretty neatly, if I may say so myself. I actually heard Seiryuu explode and roar with frustrated anger in his blue area of Heaven. I bet his seishi, Nakago, would hear from this…

 "That went well *hmm?*" I grinned and fluttered my wings, pleased, and turned to see my white haired brother, Byakko, who had come to see how things were going. I had always had good relationships with my two other brothers, Byakko and Genbu.

 "Smoothly," Byakko smirked his fanged smile "That was music to my ears," he sighed and smiled in bliss, like a cat on a cream cup. "But I'd better get back to make sure Seiryuu won't take it out on me. He's pretty unpredictable y'know. "

 I nodded while I turned to look at the red map made of chi and reached to nudge my Chiriko to make him to hurry to the capital, Konan, where my other seishis were. I wanted to end this pointless thing known as war as soon as possible.

 "See ya later," Byakko nodded and with a wipe of his striped tail he was gone.

 I used this short break to wander to my shrine, which had a connection to its version on the mortal plane, in which I was my strongest. I sighed and bulled my wings together, leaning forward to look into my crystal-like pool to see what was going on in the world. Good. Chiriko was on the capital now and to my surprise, near my shrine. I searched for the rest of my seishi and Miko. For some reason Miaka felt nervous and the rest of the six seishi were inside the shrine, blazing with excitement. What was going on?

"The four places of the heavens.

The four corners of the earth."

 That was the summoning! But this wasn't right. All of my seishi weren't gathered yet!

"In the name of sacred law, belief, and goodness."

 Someone put a hand to my shoulder from behind me, digging long, sharp nails into my shoulder. "What?!" I turned around to see a tall, blue haired man staring me with his cold blue eyes. "Seiryuu!"

"I summon thee, Suzaku,

Lord of the south."

 "Not this time," Seiryuu hissed, his blue eyes blazing. "You're not going to win this time."

"I now say these words to thee."

 "Your time is over…. Brother." He spit the last word with poisoning malice. With one fast slash he struck my wings. I screamed as I felt something breaking inside from several places and a few fiery feathers fell to the ground.

"Appear on earth from the seven places of heaven

For the sake of those here who adore you."

 How could this be? No God should be able to enter into another God's temple. Unless… There was his seishi in my shrine. Seiryuu grasped my flaming red hair and turned my head to look at the crystal pool. There was my Miko in front of the fire and seven persons around her. But I saw only six of my seishi.

"Come to us here."

 I looked closer. Deep inside of the seventh person, there was a flicker of blue. "No…" Seiryuu smiled coldly behind me.

 "Now that would be my Amiboshi. The one who you once tried to steal from me."

"With thy holy power…"

 Seiryuu raised his free hand, gathering his power and released a chi blow on my back, burning my back and clothes. I fell to the ground, gasping for breath. I couldn't feel either of my wings. Panting, I turned to my side and looked at Seiryuu in shock. How could he do this? "Why?…"

"Smash the evil which threatens us."

 He kicked me into my face with his iron boot, and I tasted something that was new for me; my own blood. Seiryuu kneeled next to me and sent another strong chi blast into my chest.

 "This was going to be my time. My summoning!" he sneered. "And I'll make sure that you won't interfere this time."

"Save us!"

 He reached out his hand and lightly touched my forehead. Suddenly I felt my Celestial powers being drained from me and I started to feel weak.

 "N-no…" I snarled. With the little power that I still had I managed to slip between the dimensions of Heaven and earth.

"And hear our wishes to thee."

 I couldn't control my falling, my eyes being blinded by my own blood, so I went towards the only safe place I could sense: my temple on earth. I was almost there when Seiryuu hit his final blow. I screamed in pain as I felt my whole body jerk in the claws of his crackling power.

"Descend to us now from heaven!"

 The falling suddenly ended when I hit hard on stones and bounced, this time hitting even more painfully to the ground if possible and started roll down hill, which suddenly ended with a painful thud. I risked slowly opening one eye. I was on the feet of a tall building. I had made it! It was the back of my temple. Now if I only could manage to get inside…

 Suddenly there was the sharp, ear-piercing play of a flute coming from the inside of the temple.

 'No! My seishi! I have to protect them!' Unsteadily I rose to my feet and tried to spread my wings to fly to them, though I knew that they were broken, but I had to try anyway. I flexed the muscles painfully, but there wasn't any feeling of wind, no rustle of feathers, nothing. I looked over my shoulder.

 "My wings. They're gone!" I breathed.

 "Are you okay mister?" A young voice piped from the shadow of the rail and I turned to look at a young boy that had wide green eyes. 'My Chiriko… But… He doesn't recognize me?'

 "I'm fine," I managed to cough. "Wait!" I shouted when he turned to run up the stairs. I didn't have the time. "Here. Use this." I ripped a couple nice sized leaves from the nearby bush. "Now run!"

 I smiled as I watched him quickly running up the stairs and disappearing out of my sight. I trusted him to figure out why I have given him the leaves. I hadn't given him the gift of wisdom for nothing. Heck, he had beaten me half of the time in Go, when he still was a spirit without a body in Heaven.

 I slowly leaned to the stone rail, taking a deep breath, and grimaced. For some reason, even breathing was hurting. I looked down and blinked and then blinked couple of times again. I was in a body all right. But it wasn't mine!

 I looked at my hands. I had slender and long-fingered men's hands, which looked like they were made for delicate jobs. Mages' hands, as I called them. I was wearing black long pants that were made of some thick but comfortable material. 'Jeans.' The weird word popped to my mind.  I was wearing a soft cream coloured shirt with long sleeves that had a small black pattern on the left side on the chest. The name of the pattern was just on the edge of my mind. Over the shirt I was wearing an open, black, button-down shirt, whose sleeves reached to my elbows. I nudged the thin chain made of bright metal that I noticed hanging on my hip.
 'Keys?' I wondered when I accidentally pulled from my back pocket a small bunch of keys attached to the end of the chain. The most annoying thing was that I had no idea where these fitted, though they seemed weirdly familiar. I noticed a light weight pulling my neck and I reached my hand to touch my throat. I was wearing a necklace that was too small to be slipped over my head. I pulled it as far as I could and saw a glimpse of gold. As my fingers traced the pattern of the pendant, I snarled when I realized what it was.

 'A dragon… Seiryuu!!' I could feel the cold tentacles of his power glowing from the pendant and freezing my fingertips. 'That bastard has sealed me into this other world mortal body!' I gritted my teeth as I curled my fingers into a tight fist around the dragon pendant and gathered my powers to rip the necklace away from my neck and turn it into dust on my hand.
 *tug*
 "…..?!"
 *tug tug YANK TUG* I hissed when the thin, probably gold, chain of the necklace painfully sank into my neck and I saw blue light glowing through my fingers as pendant started to feel like solid ice on my hand. My cruel situation dawned in an instant.
 "That damned lizard has sealed my powers!" I hissed quietly and looked up to my temple, where the flute was still playing. 'My seishi. My Miko.' I started to unsteadily limp up the stairs as fast as I could. 'If something happens to them… I will personally scale Seiryuu. Slowly. I just hope Chiriko isn't too late.'

 I grimaced, as I had to stop to take deep rasping breaths, leaning to a statue and holding my ribs. My best guess was that something had broken inside of me. How much longer could this mortal body hold on? I looked up when I had almost reached for the top of the stairs. The music had stopped and I held my breath. I still could sense my seishis' and Miko's presence. Soon I heard loud shouting and a boom of fire.

 'Ah. And that would be my Tasuki.' I smiled, pleased, but it faded soon when a figure dashed out of the front doors of my temple, chased by two other persons.

 'Amiboshi…. And Tamahome and Tasuki right on his heels! They're going to kill the boy!' I cursed and limped faster up the stairs until two other people ran out of the doors and down the main stairs after them. 'Miaka and Chichiri.' I sighed in relief.

 "Wait, Tamahome!" Miaka shouted after her protector "Chichiri! Take me with you and help me to follow them!" she said for the young mage who had followed her.

 "Got'cha no da." Chichiri nodded and the two of them disappeared with a pulse of red chi. I could now slow down to take careful rasping breathes, because I knew that those two wouldn't let anything happen to Amiboshi. Every step I took towards the top was filled with pain and I started to see little stars on my vision. This couldn't be a good sign.

 I slipped the cursed dragon pendant under my shirt as I finally reached the temple and saw Miaka, Chichiri, Tasuki and Tamahome walking back quietly. I could feel their sorrow radiating from them. I looked away. I couldn't see Amiboshi with them.

 Suddenly I noticed a familiar figure hiding behind the huge pillars near the door and couldn't help myself, but sneaked behind Chiriko.

 "I see that you made it in time," I said softly close to his ear, startling the boy. He quickly turned around, straightening himself and hitting his head to my jaw, knocking me off of my feet.

 "Itaaaaai." He whimpered, rubbing his head and looked at me. "You?"

 "Yeah. Me." I hissed, grimacing, and rubbed my back where I had landed. Every muscle on my body was protesting against this sudden assault. Loudly. I really wasn't thrilled with my taste of mortality.

 "How did you know that I could use the whistle leaf to interrupt the flute?" Chiriko asked quietly when Miaka and my three seishis walked back to my temple.

 "Just a lucky guess." I coughed, fighting for air, and straightened my charred, aching back while trying to avoid his eyes. "Why don't you go inside? I think your friends are missing you."

"Please, come with me," Chiriko suddenly said. "I think the other Suzaku seishi would like to meet you, and thank you." The small boy smiled and tried to help me up. I looked at his eyes for a second, only seeing innocent hopefulness in them.

 'Damn.' I sighed 'Who could resist those eyes?' I smiled and nodded to him. "Why not."