*Note* The following story (all chapters included) Is a work of fiction based on Yu Watase's manga story, Fushigi Yuugi.
It is in no way meant to impose on her rights as an author/artist. The characters of Tasuki, Hotohori. Chichiri, Miaka, Tamahome
Nuriko, Yui, Mitsukake, Chiriko, Taiiskun(I know that just has to be spelled wrong!) Lai-Lai, and all the other characters we know and love from FY, as well as the land of Konan
and the city Eiyo, and Taikiyoku(another mispelling) Mountian belong to Yu Watase. The other characters and places(with the exception of Tokyo, Japan and Tadashi Suki, who
belongs to Miriam, and Star'kev, who belongs to himself, Gods Preserve us)
belong to me and Maemi-chan. Enjoy!
Chapter One: The Celestial Pizza Boy of Suzaku
Deep in the heart of Tokyo, Japan, there is a small, exclusive, private school for girls called Sumida Academy .
Sumida Academy is the top school of its kind in the city, with an excellent academic and arts cirriculum, a competitive sports department, and an economically efficent school lunch program; not to mention really, really cute uniforms. In fact, there was only one bad spot to be found in all of Sumida Academy, and her name was
Chiyo Mary Matsuko.
Chiyo was a sixteen-year-old second year student. She was SA's all-star, record setting track team member, had and impressive 4.0 GPA, and actively participated in several of the school's volunteer youth programs. She also had broken the school's detention record, which had been set by fourth year student Michiko Meisuke in 1962.
Chiyo Matsuko was currently sitting outside the head mistress' office with a red detention request in her lap and a school bag at her feet. She wasn't quite sure what she had done this time, but she was certain it was related to the fact that this was the sixth consecutive week she'd skipped her physical education class. She always had thought the swimming unit was a complete waste(the fact that she didn't know how to swim didn't encourage her attendance record, either). She also wasn't sure how she ended up in detention everyday. Okay, so maybe she did skip classes occasionally, and maybe she had started a few food fights in the cafeteria, but who hadn't? It wasn't like she was planting bombs or anything!
Chiyo sighed. At least her parents knew where she was every day after school. She'd once tried to skip detention, but that had ended disaterously when her father had come home from a buisness trip early and decided to stop at the local burger joint for a quick, pre-homecoming meal.
Ms. Keia Kuyami had been headmistress at Sumida Academy for thirty-three years, and she'd been a math teacher there before that. Ms. Kuyami felt a deep connection to the Academy. She herself had once walked SA's halls between classes, and so had her daughters, and in a few years, so would her granddaughters. Ms. Kuyami glanced out the door of her office, looked heavenward, and shook her head.
It was ten thirty on a Friday morning, and Chiyo Matsuko was already sitting outside the office door with a detention request and a new, neon, plastisized outfit.
In all her long, experienced years at SA, Ms. Kuyami had never, ever encountered a student like Chiyo Mary Matsuko. Not even the infamous Michiko Meisuke of '62.
At least you couldn't see Meisuke coming a thousand miles away!
Ms. Kuyami looked out the window of her office and sighed. How could she be expected to run a well disciplined school with a delinquent like that running rampant? It was such a shame that Matsuko was such a good student, and so important to the track team. In some ways, Matsuko was all that kept Sumida Academy above their biggest rival, Katsodai High School.
What could Ms. Kuyami do? She couldn't expel her, (the girl's father made very large donations to the school annually), and nothing else would ever phase that girl. Ms. Kuyami knew exactly what she could do: absolutely nothing.
The aged headmistress sighed and began writing out yet another detention slip with the name Chiyo Matsuko on it. She shook her head and scratched away with her pen.
Down the hallway in room 124, Maemi Aiko Haung sat in the second row, third seat from the back. She sighed and looked out the window. Where the heck was Chiyo? They were supposed to go to the cafe after Chiyo's detention for coffee and some crash studying in Biology for their final on Tuesday. Maemi sighed again. Now, had Chiyo been called down to the office, or was she just skipping again? It was so hard to tell with her. Chiyo's whereabouts were just about as predictable as what she'd be wearing the next day. True, Chiyo was wore the same uniform as everyone else, and lots of the girls accesorized creatively, but no one accessorized quite like Chiyo. Even Maemi's tie-dyed knee socks were calmer than anything Chiyo ever wore! The girl frightened people. Seriously, seriously frightened them.
Like today, for instance. Chiyo had on these wierd tights that made it look like there were several phoenix birds tatooed on each leg, and black, knee-high, high heeled, lace up boots with shiney silver buckles at the top, and shiney silver toes. Her long nails were painted turquoise, and she wore florescent yellow gel eyeliner with sky blue eyeshadow behind fuscia mascara, and bright, melon-colored lipstick. She'd pulled her almost-blond hair into two high braids that were pinned in place with sparkly purple plastic bow barrettes. A studded collar was around her neck, and several different bright plastic and beaded bracelets paraded up and down her arms. Big plastic gumball-machine rings were on her fingers, and she had a different earring in each one of her five ear piercings, one of which was a large, dangling, silver tiger.
Maemi often wondered how Chiyo got past her mother like that in the morning. The Captain wasn't very approving of Chiyo's wardrobe choices. Maemi would never dream of going out in public like that! If she ever tried it, she'd look like a parrot; but somehow it looked alright, even good, on Chiyo.
Maemi sighed again. Sometimes she seriously wondered what made that girl tick!
Back in front of the office once more, Chiyo pocketed her detention slip. She'd pretended to pay attention to Ms. Kuyami's usual speech about a sense of dignity and pride in one's school and appearance, yadda, yadda, yadda. Chiyo looked shamed and nodded a lot, staring mournfully at the floor, and then left the office in record time the second Ms. Kuyami said that she could.
She walked quickly down the linoleum tile hallway and listened to the heels of her new boots tap along. She noted how her footsteps sounded like a teacher's as she open the door to room 124.
Chiyo slipped into the room and tossed her homework on the teacher's desk on her way past.
"Do you have a pass, Matsuko?" Her history teacher asked without even looking up from the homework he was correcting. Chiyo wondered what he'd ever do if it actually wasn't her, for once.
"No," she cheerfully replied as she slipped into her seat, third row, third seat from the back, and opened her book to the correct page.
"Lemme guess, another detention slip with the name Chiyo Matsuko on it," Maemi Haung mumbled from her desk as she scratched away at her notes.
"Somebody give this girl a cookie!" Chiyo mumbled sarcastically back, then grinned at her friend.
Maemi grinned, too, and then the girls buckled down to their history notes.
Maemi stopped abruptly in front of the cafe, flicked the ignition key, pulled her helmet off her head and sighed, trying to flip some of her pale-ish blond hair out of her eyes.
"Tie-dyed knee socks? Maemi! You're turning into me!" A voice called brightly from just beside her.
Maemi jumped and almost tumbled to the street with her moped on top of her.
"Chiyo! That's not funny! I don't even resemble a neon sign!"
Chiyo was leaning against a lamp post as she pulled her wrist guards off.
"How do you do that? Do you drink jet fuel with your salad in the morning?" Maemi demanded of her friend as she checked her Garfield™ watch. Just as she suspected, detention had only let out maybe ten minutes ago. Even after all these years, she still marveled over how quickly Chiyo could do things without collapsing from exhaustion. The girl was like the energizer bunny; she kept going and going and going and going........
"Yeah. It's great for the skin, too!" Chiyo quipped, untying a rollerblade and sticking her foot into a boot.
Maemi rolled her eyes and locked her moped to said lamp post.
"You're too chipper for your own good. You remind me of Miaka at times like this!"
"Bite your tongue!" Chiyo cried in mock reprimandation, tying her rollerblades together by the laces and swinging them over her shoulder. The girls stood outside the cafe for a minute more as they laughed, and then entered the little coffee shop.
Chiyo made a bee-line for a small booth in the corner as Maemi followed, still chuckling.
"So what did the infamous Chiyo get caught doing this time?" Maemi asked off-handedly as she pulled her biology notebook out of her schoolbag.
"Skipping phys. ed.,"
"Again?"
"Yet still. Hey, what's the name of that monkey woman?"
"Lucy?"
"No, the one who write that wierd book,"
"Jane Goodall?"
"Yeah, that's the one,"
Maemi shook her head in amazement.
Why was it that Chiyo could remember the title and supporting actors of every single Tom Cruise movie in order by day, month and year, had a GPA in the top 10 percentile at SA, but could not remember that Jane Goodall was the monkey lady who wrote the strange book?
Chiyo, meanwhile, had already finished the notes she needed, had whipped off and put away her reading glasses, had downed a mug of expresso, and was idly flipping thought the pages of
Fushigi Yûgi vl.II: Oracle.
"You make me sick, Chiyo," Maemi muttered.
"I love you too, Maemi-Chan!"
Maemi rolled her eyes, Chiyo giggled, and the girls went back to their seperate tasks. Every now and then Maemi would quiz Chiyo on a biology question, which of course Chiyo would get right, or Chiyo would chuckle and read out loud a scene from her story book.
"Where's Tasuki?" Maemi demanded in the middle of Chiyo's over-dramatized rendition of a Tamahome/Miaka reunion. "If I pay good money for a FY book, I demand to see some Fang-Boy action!"
"Well, I could do with a little more Hotohori..." Chiyo said, clutching the open book to her chest and sighed dramatically. "He is such a babe!"
"He's a cartoon character, Chiyo," Maemi teased.
"Yeah, I know, but he's one dead-sexy cartoon character!" Chiyo cried and pretended to swoon, collapsing on the table in front of her.
A waitress had been just about to ask the girls if they wanted refills when she caught the end of Chiyo's impassioned outburst. The poor, befuddled young woman turned abruptly and scurried back to the safety of her cash register.
Maemi and Chiyo laughed.
"Well, I think we can both agree that there should be more Chichiri all around," Maemi stated when her giggles had subsided enough for her to speak semi-clearly.
"No Da!" Chiyo announced in agreement, and the girls giggled hysterically again. The bewildered waitress was sending them worried glances again, and that just made it all the funnier. Eventually, the young women settled down and attempted to behave themselves.
"We should do this," Chiyo announced suddenly after a peaceful ten minutes of silence, slamming her book down on the table.
"Write manga?" Maemi asked doubtfully.
"No, no, no! Gods, how I pity you people cursed with common sense! We should do this!"
"Get sucked into a story book and make friends with all the people who die in the end?"
"Yeah! Wouldn't that be so great!?"
Maemi arched an eyebrow and looked questioningly at Chiyo. Chiyo sighed.
"Alright, Alright, maybe not the people dying at the end part, but all the adventures and stuff? Doesn't that sound like fun to you?"
It was Maemi's turn to sigh.
"Of course it does, Chiyo. That's why it's a story book. Things like that don't happen in real life, and especially not to girls like us,"
"Miaka is a girl like us,"
"Miaka is a cartoon, Chiyo. She's not like us,"
Chiyo wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue.
"You sure know how to suck the magic out of everything, Maemi!" Chiyo sighed finally.
Maemi shrugged.
"Someone's gotta keep this duo below the atmosphere,"
Chiyo grinned, then slipped her book into her schoolbag and stood.
"Thank Suzaku you're here, then! I'd have us to Pluto or worse by now!"
Maemi grinned, too, dropped her stuff into her bag, and also stood.
"Hey, Maemi, whatcha doin' tonight?" Chiyo asked as the girls found themselves once again on the sidewalk in front of the cafe.
"I dunno, why?" Maemi answered as she fiddled with the lock on her moped.
"Well, The Captain's gone to meet Dad at a conference in Osaka. She won't be back until Tuesday, and Dad won't be back until Friday. Ya wanna spend the weekend?"
Maemi squealed with joy, dropped the lock and threw her arms around Chiyo's neck.
"Oh, God! Thank you, Chiyo! The twin terrors have double-header soccer matches all weekend long that I was just dying to miss!" Maemi chattered as she jumped up and down.
"AAAGK!" Chiyo cried as she lost her balance, fell backwards, and the girls landed in an undignfied heap beside the moped.
"A simple "yes" would've sufficed, you know!" Chiyo growled before she began to giggle again.
"C'mon, I'll give you a lift to your place," Maemi laughed as she stood, dusted her skirt off and reached into the side bag she kept especially for Chiyo's helmet.
Chiyo stuffed her pigtails into the helmet and got on behind Maemi, and the two girls sped off down the street.
"Hello, Nifty Pizza? Yes, I'd like two large Nifty pizzas with extra cheese, an order of your tasty twirls breadsticks, Nifty Pizza dipping sauce, a two-liter of orange pop, and two of your Nifty Choco Sundaes, please,"
Chiyo said absently onto the phone, her face a perfect mask of concentration as she carefully put the petals onto the little daisy she'd painted on her big toe nail.
"Phone number? 555-4384......yup, that's the address.....okay.....great....thank you! Ciao!"
"Nifty Pizza?" Maemi repeated with a raised eyebrow as Chiyo hung up her fuzzy purple phone and continued painting her nails. Chiyo shrugged.
"I thought we'd try something new,"
Maemi also shrugged. Maemi was stretched out across her bed in her usual peace-sign-heart-and-smiley-face printed orange pyjamas, her hair in curlers, leafing through an Animerica Extra.
"Man, Tasuki is so cool," she commented, reaching for a handfull of the cheese curls that were in the bowl beside her.
"Yup...." Chiyo responded, biting her bottom lip a little.
Chiyo was thrilled that Maemi had agreed to come over. Although most girls her age would've killed to have a penthouse apartment all to themselves as often as she did, Chiyo thought it got pretty lonesome after a while. Despite her outgoing attitude and wild ways, Chiyo was actually somewhat shy and did not have many friends. Maemi was about all that kept Chiyo sane now days.
"There!" Chiyo announced, wiggling her daisied toes for Maemi to inspect.
"Chiyo, hon, you have way too much time on your hands!"
Chiyo shrugged. "Hey, my homework's done!" she laughed as her eyes skimmed over her extensive nailpolish collection and she settled on a soft peachy coral color.
"When's that pizza getting here?" Maemi asked expectantly. Chiyo knew Maemi's soft spot for pizza. Well, Chiyo had a soft spot for pizza boys.
"They said about twenty minutes,"
Chiyo carefully finished one hand and started the next.
"Oh, hey, looky! It's the part where Chichiri turns into Hotohori and Hotohori has a fit!"
From there Maemi began reading outloud and the girls continued chatting merrily while they waited for their dinner to arrive.
RRRIIINNNNGGGGG!
Chiyo jumped with a start and glanced at the clock on her desk. Had it been twenty minutes already? She frowned and waved at her drying nails. Maemi was giving her a look that meant she was thinking the same thing.
RRRIIINNNNGGGGG!
Chiyo finally stood and padded to the door, smoothing her long, plain white night gown and trying not to smudge her daisies.
"Coming," she called as she grabbed her purse off the kitchen counter and wobbled to the door.
"Sorry about th--agghhtt," Chiyo's apology blended into a startled gasp at the pizza boy before her.
The young man was tall and slender, with bright, fiery orange hair and seductively tilting eyes.
He wore several beaded necklaces around his neck, and beaded earrings hung from his earlobes. When he smiled at her, she noticed two tiny little fang teeth. Chiyo stood stock still and stared at the boy, who stood stalk still and stared back, still grinning.
"God, Chiyo! What's taking you so lo-nngghhh!"
Maemi joined Chiyo in standing shocked before the delivery boy.
"I take it you girls ordered all this food?"
They nodded numbly in unison.
"Wowie," Maemi breathed.
The guy frowned, then scowled.
"What is it with chicks? All of 'em, whenever I give 'em their pizzas! @#$% !"
"T-T-Tasuki?" Maemi choked.
The guy rolled his eyes. "Oh, gees....you chicks are Fushigi Whatsits fans, arencha?"
Maemi and Chiyo nodded in unison again.
"W-we've even read Secret Story," Chiyo mumbled.
"And The Universe of the Four Gods," Maemi added in the same kind of voice.
"And you chicks didn't come in and say hi?" The boy joked cheerfully.
"Of course not! That's impossible! And things like that don't happen to girls like us!" Maemi scolded in her just-for-Chiyo voice. The pizza boy shook his head and handed Maemi the boxes and bags while Chiyo fumbled with her purse.
"&*^$ ! I had no $%&#$%^ idea what I was getting into when I did this, did I? %$^& mumble mumble #$%#@ mumble $%^&* !" The guy muttered to himself as he made change.
He flashed them a fanged smile as Chiyo handed him a tip of some indistinguishable amount.
"You girls have a nice evening, and don't choke on yer pizza over me!" He called as he turned to leave.
"Th-th-thank you!" Chiyo called as the front door drifted shut.
Maemi carried the food into the living room and Chiyo numbly followed. The girls then sank slowly onto the couch and stared straight ahead in silence.
"Ch-Chiyo?"
"Yeah?"
"Did Tasuki just deliver a pizza to us?"
"Y-yeah..."
The girls turned and looked at each other. Maemi's eyes were as wide as saucers, and Chiyo knew hers must be, too.
"AAARRRGGHH!" The girls screamed as one, grabbed each others hands and did a mad little dance around the living room. Then Chiyo ran to get her mother's good champange glasses as Maemi burst into a cheerfully spontanious song that Chiyo placed as "All Star" by Smashmouth.
Within minutes the girls had poured their orange pop and were singing wildly and jumping up and down and laughing and babbling as only teenage girls could manage without giving themselves appendicidal hemmorages.
"Tasuki delivered our pizza! Tasuki delivered our pizza!" Maemi gasped, grinning in sheer delerium.
"I know! This is soooo cool! This is the best day of my life! I knew it was all real! I knew it! I just knew it! I knew it! I even had detention today, and it's still the best day of my life! This is the best day of our young adolescent lives, Maemi!" Chiyo was babbling.
"Taskui delivered our pizza! Tasuki delivered our--"
WHUMP! THUD! CRASH! BOOM! FWOOOSH! KA-CHINK!
"EEEK!" Maemi finished, dropping her glass, which shattered on the white carpet below. Chiyo was too
scared to notice. "What was that!?" She whispered, shaking.
"I dunno!" Maemi whispered back, trembling just as hard as the frightful noises continued.
"Let's go see!" Chiyo suggested weakly and Maemi nodded unconvinced-ly.
The girls huddled together and tiptoed to the front door, where the noise had occured.
Chiyo opened it cautiously and they started to peek out.
"REKKA SHINEN!"
WOOOOOSH!
"EEEK!" Maemi cried again as she and Chiyo pulled their faces back out of the way of the wall of flames that had just shot down the hallway.
Chiyo slammed the door shut, grabbed Maemi's arm, and dragged her friend at a run down the hallway and into her bedroom, not stopping until she and Maemi were both huddled in a shivering mass on the floor of the linen closet in Chiyo's personal bathroom.
"What'll we do? Tasuki's toasting the hallway!" Chiyo cried on the verge of tears.
"Why!?" Maemi demanded, crazed by fear.
"I don't know!"
"There must be something dangerous out there! We're gonna die!" Maemi screamed, grabbing Chiyo's face in both hands and shaking it.
"OW!" Chiyo screamed in response.
"Ohmigod, Chiyo! This is the worst day of my life! We are so going to die!" Maemi was screaming over and over. "I just met Tasuki and we're gonna die! We're so gonna freakin' die! This is so not a test, Chiyo! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!"
The sounds of the battle in the hallway were continuing full throttle as the girls remained piled in a trembling mass of orange pyjamas, white linen, nail-polished daisies, towels, spare toilet paper, and half-undone curlers.
Then suddenly, all noise ceased. The girls paused in their screaming as crazed maniacal laughter echoed through the top floor of Chiyo's building, and then all was silent.
"I thought things like this didn't happen to girls like us!" Chiyo spat sarcastically after a moment.
"Oh, shut up, Chiyo!"
Chiyo swallowed nervously and peeked her nose out the closet door.
"Do you think it's over?"
"How should I know!?"
Chiyo sidestepped skittshly out of the linen closet and into the bathroom, and from there she krept into her bedroom.
"Oh no! What happened to Tasuki?" She wondered with a gasp.
"That maniacally laughing voice could've got him!" Maemi cried.
"We have to save him!" Chiyo announced, grabbing the nearest weapon she could find, which happened to be her hairdryer. Maemi grabbed one of the old dolls lining Chiyo's dresser top and nodded.
"Yeah, we can't let someone as cool as Tasuki die in your hallway!"
"Thanks, Maemi," Chiyo muttered drily.
"What are friends for?" Maemi asked with a sweet smile.
The aforementioned girls ventured forth through Chiyo's nearly destroyed apartment and paused before the door. "One," Chiyo whispered.
"Two," Maemi continued, holding up her Raggedy Anne.
"THREE!" The girls yelled together, leaping into the hallway. Chiyo was swinging her hairdryer around her head like a lasso by the cord, and Maemi had her stuffed toy held up like a James Bond pistol.
Maemi saw him first.
"Tasuki!" She cried at the crumpled figure in the corner by the fire escape.
"Quick, get him in the apartment!" Chiyo ordered, running to their fallen hero and trying to lift him by the shoulders. Maemi grabbed his knees and the young women half drug, half slid the boy towards the open apartment door.
"Good...Gracious! This....guy's....heavy!" Chiyo commented between tugs.
"Yeah...tell....me about...it..." Maemi agreed.
The girls finally suceeded in their task and stretched the celestial warrior out on the kitchen floor.
"Get a pillow for his head!" Chiyo called to Maemi, who had gone off in search of bandages and aloe gel.
Chiyo knealt by Tasuki's side, wondering what they could do for him. It was obvious he needed medical attention. But what was he doing in Tokyo? Delivering pizzas, of all things! And why was Tasuki starting wars in her hallway!?
Chiyo sighed as Maemi reappeared with a large teddy bear and an armful of first aid kits.
"Whaccha do? Clean out the house!?" Chiyo demanded.
"I panicked," Maemi said a little sheepishly and grinned.
Together they propped Tasuki's head up with the teddy bear.
"What do we do now?" Maemi whispered.
"I guess we should stop this bleeding," Chiyo answered, reaching for a bandage and some antiseptic.
She gingerly touched the bleeding spot on Tasuki's forehead with her fingertips and was shocked to feel a surge of energy shoot through her.
"What was that?" She gasped.
"Look!" Maemi cried, pointing to the wound as it healed. "How'd you do that, Chiyo!?"
"I don't know!" Chiyo said in a panicky voice.
"Try it again!" Maemi said, pointing to another bad wound on the pizza-delivering mage's side.
Chiyo hesitantly reached out and put her fingertips on the wound. She felt the same surge of energy, but this time, a golden-white hot light began to eminate around the trio.
"Chiyo....." Maemi whispered nervously.
"Chiyo! Stop! What are you doing!"
"I don't know!" Chiyo screamed as Maemi threw her arms around her and they started spinning.
"MAEMI!" Chiyo screamed, clinging to her friend.
"CHIYO!" Maemi screamed back, clinging just as much and screaming just as loud.
The last thing Chiyo could recall was the two girls toppling over the unconcious boy as they spun out into the white light and began flying fast on a ride like a super-fast upside-down roller coaster with no determined end.
It is in no way meant to impose on her rights as an author/artist. The characters of Tasuki, Hotohori. Chichiri, Miaka, Tamahome
Nuriko, Yui, Mitsukake, Chiriko, Taiiskun(I know that just has to be spelled wrong!) Lai-Lai, and all the other characters we know and love from FY, as well as the land of Konan
and the city Eiyo, and Taikiyoku(another mispelling) Mountian belong to Yu Watase. The other characters and places(with the exception of Tokyo, Japan and Tadashi Suki, who
belongs to Miriam, and Star'kev, who belongs to himself, Gods Preserve us)
belong to me and Maemi-chan. Enjoy!
Chapter One: The Celestial Pizza Boy of Suzaku
Deep in the heart of Tokyo, Japan, there is a small, exclusive, private school for girls called Sumida Academy .
Sumida Academy is the top school of its kind in the city, with an excellent academic and arts cirriculum, a competitive sports department, and an economically efficent school lunch program; not to mention really, really cute uniforms. In fact, there was only one bad spot to be found in all of Sumida Academy, and her name was
Chiyo Mary Matsuko.
Chiyo was a sixteen-year-old second year student. She was SA's all-star, record setting track team member, had and impressive 4.0 GPA, and actively participated in several of the school's volunteer youth programs. She also had broken the school's detention record, which had been set by fourth year student Michiko Meisuke in 1962.
Chiyo Matsuko was currently sitting outside the head mistress' office with a red detention request in her lap and a school bag at her feet. She wasn't quite sure what she had done this time, but she was certain it was related to the fact that this was the sixth consecutive week she'd skipped her physical education class. She always had thought the swimming unit was a complete waste(the fact that she didn't know how to swim didn't encourage her attendance record, either). She also wasn't sure how she ended up in detention everyday. Okay, so maybe she did skip classes occasionally, and maybe she had started a few food fights in the cafeteria, but who hadn't? It wasn't like she was planting bombs or anything!
Chiyo sighed. At least her parents knew where she was every day after school. She'd once tried to skip detention, but that had ended disaterously when her father had come home from a buisness trip early and decided to stop at the local burger joint for a quick, pre-homecoming meal.
Ms. Keia Kuyami had been headmistress at Sumida Academy for thirty-three years, and she'd been a math teacher there before that. Ms. Kuyami felt a deep connection to the Academy. She herself had once walked SA's halls between classes, and so had her daughters, and in a few years, so would her granddaughters. Ms. Kuyami glanced out the door of her office, looked heavenward, and shook her head.
It was ten thirty on a Friday morning, and Chiyo Matsuko was already sitting outside the office door with a detention request and a new, neon, plastisized outfit.
In all her long, experienced years at SA, Ms. Kuyami had never, ever encountered a student like Chiyo Mary Matsuko. Not even the infamous Michiko Meisuke of '62.
At least you couldn't see Meisuke coming a thousand miles away!
Ms. Kuyami looked out the window of her office and sighed. How could she be expected to run a well disciplined school with a delinquent like that running rampant? It was such a shame that Matsuko was such a good student, and so important to the track team. In some ways, Matsuko was all that kept Sumida Academy above their biggest rival, Katsodai High School.
What could Ms. Kuyami do? She couldn't expel her, (the girl's father made very large donations to the school annually), and nothing else would ever phase that girl. Ms. Kuyami knew exactly what she could do: absolutely nothing.
The aged headmistress sighed and began writing out yet another detention slip with the name Chiyo Matsuko on it. She shook her head and scratched away with her pen.
Down the hallway in room 124, Maemi Aiko Haung sat in the second row, third seat from the back. She sighed and looked out the window. Where the heck was Chiyo? They were supposed to go to the cafe after Chiyo's detention for coffee and some crash studying in Biology for their final on Tuesday. Maemi sighed again. Now, had Chiyo been called down to the office, or was she just skipping again? It was so hard to tell with her. Chiyo's whereabouts were just about as predictable as what she'd be wearing the next day. True, Chiyo was wore the same uniform as everyone else, and lots of the girls accesorized creatively, but no one accessorized quite like Chiyo. Even Maemi's tie-dyed knee socks were calmer than anything Chiyo ever wore! The girl frightened people. Seriously, seriously frightened them.
Like today, for instance. Chiyo had on these wierd tights that made it look like there were several phoenix birds tatooed on each leg, and black, knee-high, high heeled, lace up boots with shiney silver buckles at the top, and shiney silver toes. Her long nails were painted turquoise, and she wore florescent yellow gel eyeliner with sky blue eyeshadow behind fuscia mascara, and bright, melon-colored lipstick. She'd pulled her almost-blond hair into two high braids that were pinned in place with sparkly purple plastic bow barrettes. A studded collar was around her neck, and several different bright plastic and beaded bracelets paraded up and down her arms. Big plastic gumball-machine rings were on her fingers, and she had a different earring in each one of her five ear piercings, one of which was a large, dangling, silver tiger.
Maemi often wondered how Chiyo got past her mother like that in the morning. The Captain wasn't very approving of Chiyo's wardrobe choices. Maemi would never dream of going out in public like that! If she ever tried it, she'd look like a parrot; but somehow it looked alright, even good, on Chiyo.
Maemi sighed again. Sometimes she seriously wondered what made that girl tick!
Back in front of the office once more, Chiyo pocketed her detention slip. She'd pretended to pay attention to Ms. Kuyami's usual speech about a sense of dignity and pride in one's school and appearance, yadda, yadda, yadda. Chiyo looked shamed and nodded a lot, staring mournfully at the floor, and then left the office in record time the second Ms. Kuyami said that she could.
She walked quickly down the linoleum tile hallway and listened to the heels of her new boots tap along. She noted how her footsteps sounded like a teacher's as she open the door to room 124.
Chiyo slipped into the room and tossed her homework on the teacher's desk on her way past.
"Do you have a pass, Matsuko?" Her history teacher asked without even looking up from the homework he was correcting. Chiyo wondered what he'd ever do if it actually wasn't her, for once.
"No," she cheerfully replied as she slipped into her seat, third row, third seat from the back, and opened her book to the correct page.
"Lemme guess, another detention slip with the name Chiyo Matsuko on it," Maemi Haung mumbled from her desk as she scratched away at her notes.
"Somebody give this girl a cookie!" Chiyo mumbled sarcastically back, then grinned at her friend.
Maemi grinned, too, and then the girls buckled down to their history notes.
Maemi stopped abruptly in front of the cafe, flicked the ignition key, pulled her helmet off her head and sighed, trying to flip some of her pale-ish blond hair out of her eyes.
"Tie-dyed knee socks? Maemi! You're turning into me!" A voice called brightly from just beside her.
Maemi jumped and almost tumbled to the street with her moped on top of her.
"Chiyo! That's not funny! I don't even resemble a neon sign!"
Chiyo was leaning against a lamp post as she pulled her wrist guards off.
"How do you do that? Do you drink jet fuel with your salad in the morning?" Maemi demanded of her friend as she checked her Garfield™ watch. Just as she suspected, detention had only let out maybe ten minutes ago. Even after all these years, she still marveled over how quickly Chiyo could do things without collapsing from exhaustion. The girl was like the energizer bunny; she kept going and going and going and going........
"Yeah. It's great for the skin, too!" Chiyo quipped, untying a rollerblade and sticking her foot into a boot.
Maemi rolled her eyes and locked her moped to said lamp post.
"You're too chipper for your own good. You remind me of Miaka at times like this!"
"Bite your tongue!" Chiyo cried in mock reprimandation, tying her rollerblades together by the laces and swinging them over her shoulder. The girls stood outside the cafe for a minute more as they laughed, and then entered the little coffee shop.
Chiyo made a bee-line for a small booth in the corner as Maemi followed, still chuckling.
"So what did the infamous Chiyo get caught doing this time?" Maemi asked off-handedly as she pulled her biology notebook out of her schoolbag.
"Skipping phys. ed.,"
"Again?"
"Yet still. Hey, what's the name of that monkey woman?"
"Lucy?"
"No, the one who write that wierd book,"
"Jane Goodall?"
"Yeah, that's the one,"
Maemi shook her head in amazement.
Why was it that Chiyo could remember the title and supporting actors of every single Tom Cruise movie in order by day, month and year, had a GPA in the top 10 percentile at SA, but could not remember that Jane Goodall was the monkey lady who wrote the strange book?
Chiyo, meanwhile, had already finished the notes she needed, had whipped off and put away her reading glasses, had downed a mug of expresso, and was idly flipping thought the pages of
Fushigi Yûgi vl.II: Oracle.
"You make me sick, Chiyo," Maemi muttered.
"I love you too, Maemi-Chan!"
Maemi rolled her eyes, Chiyo giggled, and the girls went back to their seperate tasks. Every now and then Maemi would quiz Chiyo on a biology question, which of course Chiyo would get right, or Chiyo would chuckle and read out loud a scene from her story book.
"Where's Tasuki?" Maemi demanded in the middle of Chiyo's over-dramatized rendition of a Tamahome/Miaka reunion. "If I pay good money for a FY book, I demand to see some Fang-Boy action!"
"Well, I could do with a little more Hotohori..." Chiyo said, clutching the open book to her chest and sighed dramatically. "He is such a babe!"
"He's a cartoon character, Chiyo," Maemi teased.
"Yeah, I know, but he's one dead-sexy cartoon character!" Chiyo cried and pretended to swoon, collapsing on the table in front of her.
A waitress had been just about to ask the girls if they wanted refills when she caught the end of Chiyo's impassioned outburst. The poor, befuddled young woman turned abruptly and scurried back to the safety of her cash register.
Maemi and Chiyo laughed.
"Well, I think we can both agree that there should be more Chichiri all around," Maemi stated when her giggles had subsided enough for her to speak semi-clearly.
"No Da!" Chiyo announced in agreement, and the girls giggled hysterically again. The bewildered waitress was sending them worried glances again, and that just made it all the funnier. Eventually, the young women settled down and attempted to behave themselves.
"We should do this," Chiyo announced suddenly after a peaceful ten minutes of silence, slamming her book down on the table.
"Write manga?" Maemi asked doubtfully.
"No, no, no! Gods, how I pity you people cursed with common sense! We should do this!"
"Get sucked into a story book and make friends with all the people who die in the end?"
"Yeah! Wouldn't that be so great!?"
Maemi arched an eyebrow and looked questioningly at Chiyo. Chiyo sighed.
"Alright, Alright, maybe not the people dying at the end part, but all the adventures and stuff? Doesn't that sound like fun to you?"
It was Maemi's turn to sigh.
"Of course it does, Chiyo. That's why it's a story book. Things like that don't happen in real life, and especially not to girls like us,"
"Miaka is a girl like us,"
"Miaka is a cartoon, Chiyo. She's not like us,"
Chiyo wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue.
"You sure know how to suck the magic out of everything, Maemi!" Chiyo sighed finally.
Maemi shrugged.
"Someone's gotta keep this duo below the atmosphere,"
Chiyo grinned, then slipped her book into her schoolbag and stood.
"Thank Suzaku you're here, then! I'd have us to Pluto or worse by now!"
Maemi grinned, too, dropped her stuff into her bag, and also stood.
"Hey, Maemi, whatcha doin' tonight?" Chiyo asked as the girls found themselves once again on the sidewalk in front of the cafe.
"I dunno, why?" Maemi answered as she fiddled with the lock on her moped.
"Well, The Captain's gone to meet Dad at a conference in Osaka. She won't be back until Tuesday, and Dad won't be back until Friday. Ya wanna spend the weekend?"
Maemi squealed with joy, dropped the lock and threw her arms around Chiyo's neck.
"Oh, God! Thank you, Chiyo! The twin terrors have double-header soccer matches all weekend long that I was just dying to miss!" Maemi chattered as she jumped up and down.
"AAAGK!" Chiyo cried as she lost her balance, fell backwards, and the girls landed in an undignfied heap beside the moped.
"A simple "yes" would've sufficed, you know!" Chiyo growled before she began to giggle again.
"C'mon, I'll give you a lift to your place," Maemi laughed as she stood, dusted her skirt off and reached into the side bag she kept especially for Chiyo's helmet.
Chiyo stuffed her pigtails into the helmet and got on behind Maemi, and the two girls sped off down the street.
"Hello, Nifty Pizza? Yes, I'd like two large Nifty pizzas with extra cheese, an order of your tasty twirls breadsticks, Nifty Pizza dipping sauce, a two-liter of orange pop, and two of your Nifty Choco Sundaes, please,"
Chiyo said absently onto the phone, her face a perfect mask of concentration as she carefully put the petals onto the little daisy she'd painted on her big toe nail.
"Phone number? 555-4384......yup, that's the address.....okay.....great....thank you! Ciao!"
"Nifty Pizza?" Maemi repeated with a raised eyebrow as Chiyo hung up her fuzzy purple phone and continued painting her nails. Chiyo shrugged.
"I thought we'd try something new,"
Maemi also shrugged. Maemi was stretched out across her bed in her usual peace-sign-heart-and-smiley-face printed orange pyjamas, her hair in curlers, leafing through an Animerica Extra.
"Man, Tasuki is so cool," she commented, reaching for a handfull of the cheese curls that were in the bowl beside her.
"Yup...." Chiyo responded, biting her bottom lip a little.
Chiyo was thrilled that Maemi had agreed to come over. Although most girls her age would've killed to have a penthouse apartment all to themselves as often as she did, Chiyo thought it got pretty lonesome after a while. Despite her outgoing attitude and wild ways, Chiyo was actually somewhat shy and did not have many friends. Maemi was about all that kept Chiyo sane now days.
"There!" Chiyo announced, wiggling her daisied toes for Maemi to inspect.
"Chiyo, hon, you have way too much time on your hands!"
Chiyo shrugged. "Hey, my homework's done!" she laughed as her eyes skimmed over her extensive nailpolish collection and she settled on a soft peachy coral color.
"When's that pizza getting here?" Maemi asked expectantly. Chiyo knew Maemi's soft spot for pizza. Well, Chiyo had a soft spot for pizza boys.
"They said about twenty minutes,"
Chiyo carefully finished one hand and started the next.
"Oh, hey, looky! It's the part where Chichiri turns into Hotohori and Hotohori has a fit!"
From there Maemi began reading outloud and the girls continued chatting merrily while they waited for their dinner to arrive.
RRRIIINNNNGGGGG!
Chiyo jumped with a start and glanced at the clock on her desk. Had it been twenty minutes already? She frowned and waved at her drying nails. Maemi was giving her a look that meant she was thinking the same thing.
RRRIIINNNNGGGGG!
Chiyo finally stood and padded to the door, smoothing her long, plain white night gown and trying not to smudge her daisies.
"Coming," she called as she grabbed her purse off the kitchen counter and wobbled to the door.
"Sorry about th--agghhtt," Chiyo's apology blended into a startled gasp at the pizza boy before her.
The young man was tall and slender, with bright, fiery orange hair and seductively tilting eyes.
He wore several beaded necklaces around his neck, and beaded earrings hung from his earlobes. When he smiled at her, she noticed two tiny little fang teeth. Chiyo stood stock still and stared at the boy, who stood stalk still and stared back, still grinning.
"God, Chiyo! What's taking you so lo-nngghhh!"
Maemi joined Chiyo in standing shocked before the delivery boy.
"I take it you girls ordered all this food?"
They nodded numbly in unison.
"Wowie," Maemi breathed.
The guy frowned, then scowled.
"What is it with chicks? All of 'em, whenever I give 'em their pizzas! @#$% !"
"T-T-Tasuki?" Maemi choked.
The guy rolled his eyes. "Oh, gees....you chicks are Fushigi Whatsits fans, arencha?"
Maemi and Chiyo nodded in unison again.
"W-we've even read Secret Story," Chiyo mumbled.
"And The Universe of the Four Gods," Maemi added in the same kind of voice.
"And you chicks didn't come in and say hi?" The boy joked cheerfully.
"Of course not! That's impossible! And things like that don't happen to girls like us!" Maemi scolded in her just-for-Chiyo voice. The pizza boy shook his head and handed Maemi the boxes and bags while Chiyo fumbled with her purse.
"&*^$ ! I had no $%&#$%^ idea what I was getting into when I did this, did I? %$^& mumble mumble #$%#@ mumble $%^&* !" The guy muttered to himself as he made change.
He flashed them a fanged smile as Chiyo handed him a tip of some indistinguishable amount.
"You girls have a nice evening, and don't choke on yer pizza over me!" He called as he turned to leave.
"Th-th-thank you!" Chiyo called as the front door drifted shut.
Maemi carried the food into the living room and Chiyo numbly followed. The girls then sank slowly onto the couch and stared straight ahead in silence.
"Ch-Chiyo?"
"Yeah?"
"Did Tasuki just deliver a pizza to us?"
"Y-yeah..."
The girls turned and looked at each other. Maemi's eyes were as wide as saucers, and Chiyo knew hers must be, too.
"AAARRRGGHH!" The girls screamed as one, grabbed each others hands and did a mad little dance around the living room. Then Chiyo ran to get her mother's good champange glasses as Maemi burst into a cheerfully spontanious song that Chiyo placed as "All Star" by Smashmouth.
Within minutes the girls had poured their orange pop and were singing wildly and jumping up and down and laughing and babbling as only teenage girls could manage without giving themselves appendicidal hemmorages.
"Tasuki delivered our pizza! Tasuki delivered our pizza!" Maemi gasped, grinning in sheer delerium.
"I know! This is soooo cool! This is the best day of my life! I knew it was all real! I knew it! I just knew it! I knew it! I even had detention today, and it's still the best day of my life! This is the best day of our young adolescent lives, Maemi!" Chiyo was babbling.
"Taskui delivered our pizza! Tasuki delivered our--"
WHUMP! THUD! CRASH! BOOM! FWOOOSH! KA-CHINK!
"EEEK!" Maemi finished, dropping her glass, which shattered on the white carpet below. Chiyo was too
scared to notice. "What was that!?" She whispered, shaking.
"I dunno!" Maemi whispered back, trembling just as hard as the frightful noises continued.
"Let's go see!" Chiyo suggested weakly and Maemi nodded unconvinced-ly.
The girls huddled together and tiptoed to the front door, where the noise had occured.
Chiyo opened it cautiously and they started to peek out.
"REKKA SHINEN!"
WOOOOOSH!
"EEEK!" Maemi cried again as she and Chiyo pulled their faces back out of the way of the wall of flames that had just shot down the hallway.
Chiyo slammed the door shut, grabbed Maemi's arm, and dragged her friend at a run down the hallway and into her bedroom, not stopping until she and Maemi were both huddled in a shivering mass on the floor of the linen closet in Chiyo's personal bathroom.
"What'll we do? Tasuki's toasting the hallway!" Chiyo cried on the verge of tears.
"Why!?" Maemi demanded, crazed by fear.
"I don't know!"
"There must be something dangerous out there! We're gonna die!" Maemi screamed, grabbing Chiyo's face in both hands and shaking it.
"OW!" Chiyo screamed in response.
"Ohmigod, Chiyo! This is the worst day of my life! We are so going to die!" Maemi was screaming over and over. "I just met Tasuki and we're gonna die! We're so gonna freakin' die! This is so not a test, Chiyo! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!"
The sounds of the battle in the hallway were continuing full throttle as the girls remained piled in a trembling mass of orange pyjamas, white linen, nail-polished daisies, towels, spare toilet paper, and half-undone curlers.
Then suddenly, all noise ceased. The girls paused in their screaming as crazed maniacal laughter echoed through the top floor of Chiyo's building, and then all was silent.
"I thought things like this didn't happen to girls like us!" Chiyo spat sarcastically after a moment.
"Oh, shut up, Chiyo!"
Chiyo swallowed nervously and peeked her nose out the closet door.
"Do you think it's over?"
"How should I know!?"
Chiyo sidestepped skittshly out of the linen closet and into the bathroom, and from there she krept into her bedroom.
"Oh no! What happened to Tasuki?" She wondered with a gasp.
"That maniacally laughing voice could've got him!" Maemi cried.
"We have to save him!" Chiyo announced, grabbing the nearest weapon she could find, which happened to be her hairdryer. Maemi grabbed one of the old dolls lining Chiyo's dresser top and nodded.
"Yeah, we can't let someone as cool as Tasuki die in your hallway!"
"Thanks, Maemi," Chiyo muttered drily.
"What are friends for?" Maemi asked with a sweet smile.
The aforementioned girls ventured forth through Chiyo's nearly destroyed apartment and paused before the door. "One," Chiyo whispered.
"Two," Maemi continued, holding up her Raggedy Anne.
"THREE!" The girls yelled together, leaping into the hallway. Chiyo was swinging her hairdryer around her head like a lasso by the cord, and Maemi had her stuffed toy held up like a James Bond pistol.
Maemi saw him first.
"Tasuki!" She cried at the crumpled figure in the corner by the fire escape.
"Quick, get him in the apartment!" Chiyo ordered, running to their fallen hero and trying to lift him by the shoulders. Maemi grabbed his knees and the young women half drug, half slid the boy towards the open apartment door.
"Good...Gracious! This....guy's....heavy!" Chiyo commented between tugs.
"Yeah...tell....me about...it..." Maemi agreed.
The girls finally suceeded in their task and stretched the celestial warrior out on the kitchen floor.
"Get a pillow for his head!" Chiyo called to Maemi, who had gone off in search of bandages and aloe gel.
Chiyo knealt by Tasuki's side, wondering what they could do for him. It was obvious he needed medical attention. But what was he doing in Tokyo? Delivering pizzas, of all things! And why was Tasuki starting wars in her hallway!?
Chiyo sighed as Maemi reappeared with a large teddy bear and an armful of first aid kits.
"Whaccha do? Clean out the house!?" Chiyo demanded.
"I panicked," Maemi said a little sheepishly and grinned.
Together they propped Tasuki's head up with the teddy bear.
"What do we do now?" Maemi whispered.
"I guess we should stop this bleeding," Chiyo answered, reaching for a bandage and some antiseptic.
She gingerly touched the bleeding spot on Tasuki's forehead with her fingertips and was shocked to feel a surge of energy shoot through her.
"What was that?" She gasped.
"Look!" Maemi cried, pointing to the wound as it healed. "How'd you do that, Chiyo!?"
"I don't know!" Chiyo said in a panicky voice.
"Try it again!" Maemi said, pointing to another bad wound on the pizza-delivering mage's side.
Chiyo hesitantly reached out and put her fingertips on the wound. She felt the same surge of energy, but this time, a golden-white hot light began to eminate around the trio.
"Chiyo....." Maemi whispered nervously.
"Chiyo! Stop! What are you doing!"
"I don't know!" Chiyo screamed as Maemi threw her arms around her and they started spinning.
"MAEMI!" Chiyo screamed, clinging to her friend.
"CHIYO!" Maemi screamed back, clinging just as much and screaming just as loud.
The last thing Chiyo could recall was the two girls toppling over the unconcious boy as they spun out into the white light and began flying fast on a ride like a super-fast upside-down roller coaster with no determined end.