Comings and goings. The world is about comings and goings, sometimes more comings, sometimes more goings. But no matter whether we're coming or going, we're always going somewhere, and have something that we need to do. Some of us have bigger things, some of us smaller, but quite often, all are equally as important as the other. But what if the comings met the goings, and the goings got unraveled? There would be less goings, and so some of us that needed to be going, just couldn't. The cycle would be knocked off balance, and would thusly need to be fixed. Sometimes, this happens, and sometimes, the mending of the cycle needs a bit of help from an outside source..

"Tasuki-kun, something's wrong."

And, when he heard the lack of 'no da', and how deep the voice that addressed him had gotten, Tasuki knew that it had to be true. The red haired bandit scowled into the sake that he's just brought to his lips, before looking up away from it, playfully pouting at the blue haired monk. "What?" was all he asked, but it was all he needed to ask.

"I don't know, it just.. something feels completely wrong. I suddenly feel like everything just got darker." Chichiri commented, looking seriously - well, as seriously as that mask could allow him to be - up at the ceiling above them. Frowning, Tasuki also looked up at the ceiling, half expecting something horrible to fall from it. Like, a tide of water coming to drown them all, and leave absolutely no traces! He shuddered at the very idea, and quickly downed his drink. He must not think that way, it was very bad. Bad, bad. Of course, the way that Chiri was acting was beginning to scare the 'wing' seishi - the other seishi never acted this serious, except when they were alone.

"Darker, huh? Like, less-light darker, or evil darker?" Tasuki asked, refilling his sake bowl, and bringing it back up to his lips, but before he could down it, the older man grabbed it out of his hands, and.. drank it himself. He couldn't believe his eyes. Chichiri, the monk, the completely and totally alcohol intolerant monk, who scolded him when he thought about alcohol, had just stolen his sake bowl and drank it's contents. He continued to stare at the blue haired one, his eyes wide, as he reached for the bottle, now, and then pressed it to his lips, to drink it. "Whoa! Whoa, whoa.. Chiri, what the hell? Stop, stop! I don' wanna deal wit' you when yer drunk, buddy, you get weirder than normal!"

It was a struggle over the bottle, but Tasuki, with his speed, finally got it away from the older man, and then quickly handed it over to Kouji, who was staring at them in confusion, but not really asking, figuring it was probably better that way. Chichiri sagged against Tasuki, watching Kouji as he took the half-empty bottle of sake away from him. Tasuki held up the other man, frowning down at him, and waiting for a good explanation. None came voluntarily, so he knocked on the blue haired man's head a few times. "Yo. Chiri. First you go on abou' somethin' being wrong and darker and shit, then you start drinkin'? What's up?" he asked, then waited silently for an answer, watching his friend, a bit of concern in his eyes. He didn't want the only other living seishi to be going mad - he was the only other one alive who knew exactly what everyone had gone through on their trip to save Konan. Plus, he loved him like an older brother. He didn't want to lose that.

"Well," Chiri started, his voice already sounding just a tad slurred from the alcohol he'd consumed, "You see, Tas-kun, I'm not really sure, but whatever it was, made me suddenly feel I needed a littlesomething. It just.. it just... I don't know, really, my mind felt weird and bad. Dark, no da. I like my mind being lighter, so I thought alcohol would help or something, na no da!" His sentence ended with a little 'hic' for punctuation. Tasuki frowned in confusion, continuing to hold the other up, and thought about it. Something to make Chichiri want to drink to make his mind feel better. Well, that settled it. It couldn't be good.

"Ow.."

Miaka winced, as a sudden splitting headache came on, and she raised her hand to her right temple, to try to massage it away. Though it helped a bit, it didn't alleviate it. This is not what I need right now, this is really not what I need! I'm trying to concentrate on what the teacher's saying.. head, stop it! Why do you hurt anyway? Maybe I'm just hungry.. she thought, and at the thought of food, her stomach growled loudly at her. A blush came to her cheeks, and she quickly glanced around, to make sure that no one else in the class noticed her rather loudly protesting stomach.Stomach! Shh! Needless to say, that didn't work. Her cheeks got darker as her stomach growled loudly, yet again. Ah, how she did wish that she could just get up in the middle of class, to go take a pain reliever and eat something. Oddly enough, getting a pain reliever was more important right now than food.

The rest of the class went on in about the same fashion, and as soon as that class was out, she gathered up her things, zipping out the door as quickly as one with a splitting headache and hunger pangs could. She dodged other students on their way to lunch, or to their classes, and eventually got past all of them, into the girls bathroom. "Finally!" she huffed, stumbled over to the bathroom counter, setting her things down on it. Grabbing her bag, she began to dig through it, looking for the pain reliever she knew that she had in there, for those occasional headaches and feminine pains. "Ah-ha!" she exclaimed triumphantly, as she found it, pulling it out quickly, so she could get the cap off as soon as possible. The headache was throbbing harder, and she was beginning to wonder if it was a migraine - she'd never had one before, but the way this felt, it could have easily been one.

Plop, plop. Two pills, exactly what the bottle said for those above twelve years old. She smiled happily, and recapped the bottle, before looking up at herself in the mirror.. "AAH!" she yelped, nearly dropping the pills in her hand. Her reflection.. it wasn't right. That couldn't be how she looked, could it? Her skin was deathly pale, to the point it was almost green. Her hair was matted, and sticking to her face, neck, shirt. Her eyes looked sunken in, and she just plain lookeddead. "No, no, no!" she yelled at her reflection, dropping the two pills she held, and clamping her hands over her eyes. She wasn't seeing this, she wasn't seeing this! What was it she was seeing, anyway? Why had she looked dead? Why the headache?

"Maybe I'm dreaming. Yes, that has to be it, I'm just having a horrible nightmare, and any moment, I will wake up!" she told herself, fully convinced of what she was telling herself. After all, why would she get a random splitting headache and suddenly have a reflection that looked dead? There was no logical explanation. It might have had something to do with the book, but the last she'd heard of the book was about a year before, and she was sure she would never have to worry about it again.

"Miaka?" Suddenly, a voice sounded from the doorway, as someone began to push the door open. Oh no, Yui heard me in here! she thought frantically, and uncovered her eyes, planning on quickly jumping into one of the stalls. But.. when she looked at her reflection, everything was back to normal. Her hair was tied back, as it had been. Her skin was normal, her eyes were normal. She looked.. alive. Herself. Maybe a bit more tired, but that was a normal occurrence at school. Maybe it had just been her imagination, fueled by her horrible headache, giving her hallucinations.

"Yeah, I'm in here! Hiya, Yui!" she chirped back, though she noticed that she didn't sound quite herself. But after an experience like that, who could sound bubbly? Well, she could, she'd done it a few times. Back when she was inside the book. But that was a different story, this time she was sure had nothing to do with the book, because.. why would she look dead?

"Miaka, I thought I heard you scream.. are you alright?" Yui asked, as she pushed the door all the way open, and stepped in, looking at her best friend in concern. Miaka turned her head and looked at the blonde girl, a bright smile on her face, and waved dismissively at her, before bending to pick up the things she'd dropped.

"Oh, no, yeah.. sorry I worried you! I just thought I saw.. a... spider! Really big, hairy, nasty one. But it was just a clump of hair," she lied, gathering up the two now-dirty-and-wet pills, and tossing them in the garbage. Oh well, her head felt much better now. While she was kneeling on the ground, she glanced around to make sure that she'd gotten everything she'd dropped, before nodding once, and getting to her feet, to grab her stuff. "Let's go! I'm starving!"

"Haha, when aren't you?" Yui laughed, to which he got a light punch in the arm as Miaka ran by her, out the door and down the hall. The blonde girl rolled her eyes, before turning and heading out after her best friend, towards the cafeteria. She couldn't help but wonder what had been the matter, because she knew Miaka. She knew when something was bothering the girl. Something was definitely bothering her. But, Yui couldn't quite figure it out, so she would definitely have to watch her, observe her behavior for the rest of the day. Maybe something had happened at home? Or between her and Taka? But, if it had, wouldn't she have told her? Then, it probably wasn't that. Maybe something during class?

"Yuuuuui, come on, hurry up! You're too slow!" Miaka shouted from a ways down the hall, and Yui snapped out of her thoughts, laughing at her friend's eagerness. She seemed to be back to normal now, so she figured she shouldn't worry about it. For now, at least. If Miaka started acting strange again, she would start to worry. But for now, they would just have lunch.

Taka was listening to the Professor - or at least trying to - when, he felt a sudden tug. He wasn't sure what it was, but it felt like someone stuck a hook through his heart, and then pulled. "Ah.." He winced, and raised a hand to clutch at his chest. It didn't help, and in fact, the tugging only felt worse. "Ahh.. ow." he grunted, trying not to yelp out too loudly. Someone would be sure to notice. Another sharp tugging sensation, and he had to raise his other hand and bite his finger, to keep from shouting. Next to him, he heard someone ask him something, and then felt a hand gently touch his shoulder. Almost as soon as he felt the contact, it was as if someone had ripped the hook free from his heart, and applied something to sooth the pain. "Oh thank kami.."

"Are you alright? You looked like you were dying," he heard a feminine voice, and turned his head ever so slightly, to see a concerned, slightly familiar but mostly not, face. He blinked sluggishly at her, before chuckling quietly. Slowly, he was recovering from the pain, and since he was, he sat up straighter, running a hand back through his hair. It seemed he'd been sweating during his little 'episode', 'cause his forehead was a bit on the damp side.

"Yeah, uh, I'm fine.. I think I just didn't get enough sleep last night or something." Well, it wasn't exactly the truth, but it would do. Honestly, he had absolutely no clue what would have caused pain like that, unless he was having a heart attack. And he was pretty sure that he was too young for that - after all, he was only eighteen-almost-nineteen. He put his hands down on the paper in front of him, and looked back to the girl beside him, who, if he wasn't with Mi-chan, he probably would have thought to be absolutely gorgeous. He still did, but it was toned down a bit in his head. He smiled at her. "Thanks for being concerned, but I'm fine. Really."

She continued to frown at him in worry, but sighed after a bit, and turned to look at her notes. "Alright, then, if you say so." she said, turning to flash him a smile, before looking back down at her papers, grabbing her pencil and getting back to work.

He smiled back at her, before turning back to his work. He had missed everything the professor had said while he was in pain. Hopefully, it wasn't important, or he would probably have to take this class over again. And, well.. that wouldn't exactly be fun, because this definitely wasn't his favorite class. It was on mythology and legends, and thusly, it reminded him of the Universe of the Four Gods. At first, when he was reincarnated, he hadn't remembered, but he slowly remembered everything as he spent more time with his girlfriend. Now he remembered everything of his life from the book - he felt like it was a part of him, and he loved that book dearly, but he wanted to put it behind him. Having to study things along those lines? Didn't really help with the getting past it.

It wasn't too much longer, before the class was over, and he gathered up his things, before heading out the door after all the other students. The professor didn't stop him and ask about anything as he passed, so he figured that the woman hadn't noticed his previous.. ah... trouble. Which was a bit of a relief, 'cause he didn't really want her to ask him to see a doctor or something.

Once out of the classroom, he checked his watch, to see that it was almost time for Miaka to be out of school, and thusly, that was also his last class of the day. So, with a bright grin, he began to head towards the front door of the college, planning on picking her up and taking her to his place. He had a huge dinner planned for that, just for the two of them - well, most of it was for her. But a fourth of it was his. He laughed at the thought of his girlfriend's appetite - she could probably eat him out of house and home, if he let her. And, he loved her so much he probably would.

"Taka! Wait a moment!"

He stopped in his tracks, and turned around, to see the girl from before rushing after him. He frowned. Why was she following him, and how the heck did she know his name, anyway? He watched silently as she ran up to him, and stood there a moment, to catch her breath. He just waited for her to explain herself.

"Thank you for.. waiting. I just wanted to make sure you were feeling alright, y'know?" she said, standing up straighter, and giving him a very caring smile. He had to admit, the girl was very sweet, but he sort of wished she would leave him alone so that he could get to Miaka. But he didn't want to just ignore her, because that would be rude, so he nodded his head slightly, and adjusted his bag so that it was more comfortable on his shoulder.

"You're welcome, and, thanks for worrying, but I'm fine, really. By the way.. how'd you know my name?" Taka asked, tilting his head just a bit, and the girl blinked at him, before looking at his bag, then him, then her bag.

"Oh, right, I suppose that would be confusing! Gomen nasai. It's the other reason I asked you to wait - you dropped this," she stated, reaching into one of the outer pockets of her bag, to pull out his.. driver's license? When had he dropped that? Oh well, he didn't really care, he was just glad that she had found it for him. She looked up at him, and held it out with two fingers, a half smile on her face. "It's nice to meet you, Sukunami Taka-san. I'm Kusatsu Chiaki."

"Nice to meet you, too, Kusatsu Chiaki-san. Arigatou," he thanked Chiaki, as he took his driver's license, and then took out his wallet, to slip the card back into it. He really didn't know how he'd dropped it, it had been snugly in his wallet, and he hadn't taken it out since lunch.. which he didn't even have at the college. Maybe they'd gone to the same restaurant? That could be, a lot of the college kids went there for lunch. He stuffed his wallet back into his back pocket, and looked up at her, with a smile. Now that he looked at her more, she did look familiar. He looked her over, trying to see if he remembered her from the restaurant. She was dressed oddly, in mostly all black and white. She had bright, big blue eyes. Her hair, though.. was a bit on the dramatic side. It came down below her shoulder blades, and was a bit on the curly side; the color, though, was a vibrant shade of pink-ish-purple. Some called it magenta.

She smiled brightly at him, and sketched a bow, before smoothing her skirt. "Do itashimashite, Taka-kun! Ah.. oh, gomen. Sukunami-san." she corrected herself, her smile turning just a bit sheepish as she did so. Taka had to admit, the girl was cute, but just not as cute as Mia-chan. He chuckled, and smiled at her.

"It's alright, Kusatsu-san. You can call me Taka-kun if you really want. But, well, right now I really have to be going. My girlfriend is waiting for me at her school, 'cause I promised to pick her up. Mata aimasho, Kusatsu-san! Ja mata," he said, before bowing to her, and turning on his heel to quickly run in the direction of his car. He was late, he could feel it. Oh, Miaka was going to kill him! Or even worse, eat him alive..

Meanwhile, Chiaki started after him, taking a few steps, and extended her hand, watching him go with a frown on her face. "Iku na! Taka-kun.." she muttered, watching as he climbed into his car, and then took off, heading off towards Jonan Highschool. She blinked slowly, and lowered her hand watching his car, until she could no longer see it's blue, metallic coloring. She crossed her arms over her chest, and scowled, with a deep sigh. "Well, kuso! That certainly didn't work. And here, I even stole his license to make a cover story for myself, and everything. Least he wants to meet me again. And is letting me call him Taka-kun. That's a step up."

A/n: I think I'll stop there, for now. Haha, you have to wait, now. I don't even know if anyone's reading this! Heh. So... anyway. Heya. Hope you enjoy this fanfic, it just suddenly popped into my head one night while I was completely, and totally exhausted. It's now stuck, so I figured I'd go with it. Even though, I don't really know everywhere where I'm going with it. XD In fact, I don't know a lot about it. I'm just writing it as it comes to me. Woo! Go me. Don't flame me/my fic! Flaming is Tasuki's job, and I'm pretty sure you aren't Tasuki.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yuugi, but I do own this idea, and Kusatsu Chiaki. Probably several other characters that will show up, too.

Translation:

Kami - god

Gomen nasai/gomen - I'm sorry

Arigatou - thank you/thanks

Do itashimashite - You're welcome

-san - formal way of addressing someone

-kun - a way to address a male friend

-chan - a form of endearment for kids/someone younger than you/a friend

Mata aimasho - let's meet again

Ja mata - so long

Iku na - don't go

Kuso - a curse word