Disclaimer: Fushigi Yugi and all its characters are the rightful property of Yuu Watase.

Rating: M

Chapter: 2 (The Fallen)

Miaka found herself hurled into the air right in the middle of a storm. Thunder crashed around her and she felt the sting of icy rain pelt each inch of her delicately exposed skin from her hands, legs and face. The flimsy school uniform was no match for the current tumulus weather her body faced. Just a short time ago Miaka had felt as if she had been falling forever into an endless black void. Having long stopped screaming her nerves had given way to numbness as she let her body go to the feeling of vertigo, until suddenly she was blinded by the remarkable explosion of light and sound. Her eyes could barely make out the ground underneath her as her vision blurred with the rapid speed of her continuous falling. Her mind was racing as she finally came to the conclusion that she was going to die. She just knew death was coming for her and there was no point fighting it. How could she survive a fall from this height? Letting her hands cover her face to avoid the view of the impending ground coming closer and closer. With one final thought she hoped for a painless and quick death. She closed her eyes and began to cry. It only took seconds for Miaka's body to collide with the ground.

Hou and Yensi had just had the best day of their lives. First they had cheated death during combat and now they had the marvelous fortune of stumbling across a half naked girl on the outskirts of town.

Hou kneeled down and openly stared at the backside of the girl on the ground.

"Is she dead Hou?" sounded a powerful voice laced with disgust.

"No Yensi she just looks unconscious," replied a soft spoken Hou.

Yensi pulled the reins of his horse, commanding the animal to step closer to the body. Sleek and powerful the black stallion let out a snort of compliance as it moved closer. Yensi removed his armored silver helmet and spoke sharply in a condescending tone.

"Looking's not going to tell me anything. Now if you are not going to touch her to see if she's dead or not then I will!" Hou dropped his gaze from Yensi and stared with shame at the ground.

"Honestly Hou…." grumbled Yensi "You look like the girl's going to wake up and eat your soul. We just left a battle today in one piece when our general's forces were out numbered one to four. The Gods certainly won't use a little girl to send us to our final resting place."

He kicked one foot over his saddle and got off his horse. Sneering at Hou's downward face he bent himself down and turned the girl's body in order to better see her face. Studying her features he let his eyes travel over her body, noticing her unusual looking torn clothing and filthy appearance. Thinking to himself he concluded this girl had probably been abandoned and or abused sexually, no telling who had been or done what to her with the condition she was in now. It was not uncommon to find dumped bodies or dying kidnapped victims just lying on the dangerous roads outside of town. People were naturally scared of the unknown and thieves, robbers, and murderer's thrived in the wild untamed places, eagerly looking for unsuspecting victims to pick pocket for change, hold for ransom or worse. Seems this girl had received more than she bargained for…. Deciding there was no use in contemplating these thoughts if she was dead, he began looking for signs of life. Yensi placed his hands over the girl's breasts, enjoying the feel he kneading them forcefully before placing his head on her chest, listening for a heart beat. There was a faint but consistent thumb that signaled she was unconscious for the moment but alive.

Looking up he caught Hou's eyes. "Good she's still alive although barely. We can't have any fun with her if she's dead, besides I'm sure the selling price for high class whores around here is quite high."

"How do you know she's a whore?" asked Hou quietly with interest.

"Don't be an idiot, just look at her clothes! No respectable woman walks around like this. She might as well be stark naked!" spat Yensi. "I have no doubt someone probably kidnapped her, used her and then dumped the body in the river. You know the Juken River isn't to far from here; she probably wandered out to the main road and passed out here. But it's obvious from her strange and revealing clothes that she's a foreign prostitute. Even if she wasn't soaking wet with gashes in her clothing, she's showing way to much skin for a modest kidnapped woman."

Hou looked closer at the girl's body with newfound interest and was shocked to see she did have the weirdest clothes on he had ever seen. Funny, he thought, "I guess she is a foreigner."

If Yensi was right then her clothing indicated she was an exotic high class prostitute from an unknown emperor's harem. Studying her closer his eyes swept leisurely over her dainty frame. When Hou had viewed her from the back she had just appeared dirty. But now that he could see her from the front it was apparent that her clothing was truly that of a prostitute. The material left nothing to the imagination. Her shirt was wet and stuck to her body, nicely outlining her bust for anyone to see right down to her pink nipples that jutted out. While the material for her legs had risen up to reveal the seductive lines of her bare bottom. Hou noticed that even if someone had pulled it down you still would have been able to see the majority of her legs. Hou felt his face go a deep crimson when he though how close he was to an actual prostitute. Quickly he turned his face from the sight, hoping to clear his mind of the seductive body that would forever be burned into his mind's eye.

Yensi looked over at Hou's red face and laughed.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!…Now, now, now don't you start getting any ideas! You may be a soldier but in my eyes you are still a boy. Why you've never even been with a woman, not that this thing here is a good representation of a woman. Why I've seen women in the city marketplace that have breasts the size of grapefruits!" Yensi's hands shot up in front of his armored chest in semi circles to fully emphasize his point, taking special care to try and lock eyes with Hou's.

Hou ignored Yensi's brash attempts to make him feel uncomfortable by looking down at the ground again, although this time he focused on kicking a rock. Sticking to kicking the pebble in front of him his mind whirled as it tried in vain to calm his rising nerves and rid the red flush of emotion that continued to blaze across his face.

Yensi continued speaking with a growing pitch and unnecessary enthusiasm as he changed topics. Seeing Hou's embarrassed state his green eyes glazed over recalling to mind a pleasant thought. "Why I remember when I first meet you during training. Took one look at you and thought to myself, now how is a runt like that going to survive combat training, let alone successfully succeed in serving his emperor? He won't even bring himself honor and glory as a true warrior! Clearly such a weakling…"

Hou tried to steer the topic toward other things, not liking where the conversation was headed. His history with Yensi was shaky at best. After leaving his family at the age of nineteen to join the Imperial Guards in a quest to gain honor for his family, he had come across Yensi. Four years his senior and with more muscle in his right finger then Hou's entire body, he was everything Hou was not. With sharp piercing green eyes and short black hair, his face held the promise of arrogance, swagger, and ego all wrapped up into one clear definition of the word "superior." He was exactly six foot and towered over Yensi in ever way making him feel inferior with just a look. By clear definition Hou's soft features were almost child like in appearance. His face was heart shaped and held crystal blue eyes and light blond hair. His body was medium height with slight muscle definition earned through his natural flexibility, which he considered an advantage in battle. But compared to Yensi's chiseled power house of a body his looked like he had just began going through the rigorous strains of puberty. He failed to appear manly in the presence of Yensi looking instead more like an awkward young boy.

At training camp Yensi was the leading commander of new recruits. From the very first glance exchanged between the two, he had suddenly become Yensi's personal punching bag. Every exercise in combat training was a demonstration of how Hou was inadequate, weak, and all together unfit to be a warrior in every way possible. Hou didn't even have time to ponder if his performance was worth such punishment, because Yensi seemed determined to beat him to death, in a never ending pursuit designed to mold him into his ideal of the perfect warrior. Yensi was constantly making Hou train after hours, making him stand hips deep in freezing rivers, while holding heavy rocks designed to steel his will and focus his concentration, He practiced his soldier instincts when faced with enemy ambushes in wild woods known for their dangerous beasts. All the while Yensi unmercifully barked orders at him to "Straighten his pose" or "Guard his vulnerable spots," while the rest of the warriors were eating or sleeping. Hou had secretly thought he had found his own personal Hell on Earth and Yensi was the Devil incarnated.

After ten months of extensive dawn till dusk training regimen the day all soldiers feared had arrived. Two messengers ran wildly into camp carrying with them a white scroll wrapped with red ribbon signaling war, meaning a call for able soldiers. While generals assigned troop placement and starting positions, the Gods above had cursed him with the company of Yensi as a companion for his first encountered with the Red Sea of Blood known as the battlefield. He had known signing up for a life in the army was not going to be a cake walk, but still, why was he the one that had to suffer the sharp pains of dealing with Yensi everyday?

Erasing the vivid images of the battle they had nearly escaped with their lives today he cut off Yensi. Pointing to the girl next to Yensi he responded, "So…are we taking her into town with us?"

Yensi's face looked at Hou with contempt, annoyed that he would interrupt his magnificent story for such a simple question. "Of course we are Hou how else are we going to sell her, think for once!"

Standing up Yensi positioned the girl's body over his shoulder as he pulled himself onto the horse. Once on the horse himself he slid her body down and over his armor as he slowly positioned the girl's head to rest on his chest.

Hou looked up at Yensi thinking he looked like an angry soldier that had went into a rampage and destroyed an entire village for a single girl. He could probably do such a thing to, thought Hou, his ferociousness with my training and his enemies today is unbelievable.

Yensi's silver embroidered armor shined in the sun giving him the appearance of a regal deity. Yensi snapped his reigns causing his horse to become startled. The horse buckled and began walking in front of Hou nearly stepping on his feet.

"Get your head out of the clouds Hou! Soldier's that daydream never wake up from those dreams! Do you really want to indulge in behaviors that will get you killed?" He phrased the question with a hint of ominous foreboding. "If so do it alone I'm off for the city to fetch a price for this harem girl."

With a second snap Yensi's horse took off, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process. Hou's horse was startled and began running as well.

Hou coughed and chocked as his eyes watered with the sting of dust and debris. Waving his arms in front of him he blindly reached out trying to clear the air. Knowing his attempts were useless he began running forward hoping to see where his horse was. The swift footed brown stallion he called Wind-Rider was running right along side Yensi's own monstrous black stallion named Avenger. Cursing his luck for the second time today in short rasps between choking breaths, he ran in utmost despair far behind Yensi and his own horse.