Chapter Nine
Graves of the Forgotten
(Featuring: The Obligatory Restaurant Fight Scene)
In one of the stars, I shall be living.
In one of them, I shall be laughing.
And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing when you look at the sky at night.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery (in The Little Prince) ~
Silence fell over Yui's living room as everyone stared at the blotted characters in stunned shock. Even Nakago, who had developed quite a tendency to pass stupid remarks, did not have anything to say. Miaka crumpled to the floor beside the book, putting both hands beside it and squinting at it as though trying to make out the characters. Or perhaps she was trying to see through the book to her daughter. To her credit, though, she wasn't panicking openly. Yui knelt beside her and placed a hand on her back.
Alarmed by the silence, Hanako slipped her hand into Keisuke's, seeking reassurance. Instead, she found something quite different.
"Ink!" she said, drawing her hand away from his as he looked down at her head, still looking shocked. Her hand was smudged with black ink.
Blinking, he looked down at his own hands. "Ink," he had to agree, his hands totally blackened by the ink that was blotting out their only clue to what was happening with his neice. "What on earth is going on!" It was a useless demand and Keisuke knew it. It was even more useless to glare at Nakago as though he was singularly responsible for whatever was happening in the book, but he did so anyway. Damn foul Seiryuu Shichiseishi. What was he doing here anyway?
Hanako tugged at his hand again, perhaps to distract from his futile glaring, and he turned, infuriated. "WHAT?" he demanded, startling everyone, including himself.
"What do you mean, WHAT! Don't yell at me!" Hanako scowled. Keisuke, who was discovering a large number of strange things about himself, found himself wondering when he had become the kind of guy who took crap from a thirteen-year-old. "What happened to the book?"
"I don't know!" snapped Keisuke, frustrated as he had only been when Miaka had been going through her adventures and had Tasuki burn her stupid ribbon. Oh, he was quite romantic - he could see the idealim in that. He knew that as the heroine of the story, that was all she COULD have done. No decent person who was assigned to save the world could come back just because her stupid older brother was worried, right? But the stupid older brother would always wait - that was what he DID. If he had to be honest, even though he had hero-worshipped Tamahome when he'd popped into the real world, and cheered Suzaku on, he was not a hero at all, so much as the one who sat around and waited for people to come back home. "I don't know what happened - I can tell you that's not supposed to happen-"
"No, it is not," agreed Nakago, who was still sitting quite comfortably on Yui's couch.
"And YOU!" Keisuke turned on him, who appeared to be having a minor breakdown of a sort. "What are you supposed to be doing here anyway? If you have to protect the damn Shinzaho, just go do that, this isn't a bloody bedtime story!"
Hanako, in the meanwhile, looked at the adults around her and shook her head. Bending over the book wasn't going to help, really. And yelling at the one person who had come out of the book to protect the "Shinzaho of Seiryuu", whoever that was, was probably not going to help either. In the first place, it had no effect on the man at all. He sat there, arms crossed across his chest and a look of mild amusement on his face, while Yuuki-sensei stomped his feet like a child, red in the face. It was frustrating, but Hanako could sort of understand. He was worried about his niece and annoyed that he couldn't do anything about her predicament. Human emotions, really. Not a rocket science.
After a stare-down session with Nakago, Keisuke decided it may be more productive to stare at the book with his sister instead. As he stomped off, Hanako found that Nakago was looking at her intently. She had an inkling that no one quite liked him (subtle hints like Keisuke trying to kill the table with the tea mug had done the trick), but Hanako, being Hanako, decided she knew better and everyone could be cured with a hug and a bit of politeness.
Fortunately, she decided to try the latter first. "Excuse me," she said, the modicum of good behaviour, "but do you know what might be going on?"
"Not really," said Nakago, still staring unblinkingly.
Hanako cleared her throat. "Not even a little bit?"
"No."
"What do you think that means, if the ink starts blotting like that?"
"I couldn't really say."
"But you have an inkling?"
"Probably."
Hanako stared at him. Any impulse she may have had to give him a hug had taken a backseat to wanting to hit him with something. Not intimate with his past actions, though, the extent of the harsh things she thought about him amounted to, mostly, Ugh! Boys! "Are you being deliberately unhelpful?"
"Yes."
"Right," said Hanako, tightly, turning her back on him firmly and walked back to the book, which was quite decidedly black.
"What do we do?" said Miaka, finally looking up, her eyes meeting Hanako's. Then she shook her head and leaned back against the couch, Yui's hand still on her back, and covered her face. "This is... this is terrible, isn't it, oniichan? It's really, really terrible."
The book remained unyieldingly black.
"Who are they?" Hikari asked her companion, watching the soldiers as they meandered through the customers of the restaurant, seemingly observing each table. They would climb up the stairs next and come to the first landing – it was a distressing thought.
"Soldiers," said the young woman, with some surprise in her voice. If she thought the strange girl in the odd clothing had something to do with this, she said nothing. "From Sairou. They've become a strangely common sight lately."
"Sairou," said Hikari, as her memory jolted a little. What had Chichiri said? "So that must be the white tig- um."
One of the soldiers had stopped and was looking directly at her. "Oh... oh... oh, is this bad?" she asked no one in particular, blinking. The next instant, she felt a light twinge against her chest, as though Nyan Nyan had pinched her. The man called to his comrades and pointed at her, and for a moment, four pairs of eyes focused on her legs. Nyan Nyan punched her in the chest.
"OW! Okay! It is bad," Hikari concluded. "It's very bad. Um," she said, turning to look at the beautiful young woman before her as the men started to climb the stairs. What was she going to do! "You've been really nice, but I think I- um. Okay, bye!"
"Wait!" said the woman, urgently, grabbing at her, but Hikari had already stepped back. The men, coming up the stairs now, sped up. Alarmed, Hikari turned and bumped solidly into the waiter. Several bowls which he had miraculously managed on his single tray went flying as both Hikari and he tumbled to the ground with a total lack of grace. These bowls, of course, found their way to the heads of various patrons of the inn, and chaos erupted. Loudly.
"What the hell?"
"Oh my GOD!"
"BLOODY HELL!"
"DAMN WAITER!"
"YOU STUPID GIRL!"
"GOT YOU!" This last proclamation was most significant, because it was made by a soldier who, while covered in soup, had managed to maneuver his way around screaming, furious patrons to grab Hikari by the scruff of her neck. "You've been a long way, Suzaku n-"
"Hey!" said someone, smartly, before the man was yanked back roughly and tossed - literally TOSSED - to the other side of the room, where he crashed through the wall and fell out with a horrendous yell.
An awed hush fell over the room. Everyone, including Hikari, slowly turned their stunned gazes from what was now a hole in the wall to the young woman standing in the middle of frozen chaos, patting her hands together as though to get the dirt off them. It was hard to tell whether it was this demonstration of pure strength that was more surprising, or the fact that the young woman was glowing determinedly red. One could almost hear the awestruck whispers of 'did you see that?' and 'she must be one of the seven warriors', except no one was really saying anything audibly, the strange sight keeping them quiet.
Strange and beautiful - and not just because the woman was beautiful, which of course she was. It seemed beautiful because, to Hikari, it was a strong and powerful reminder of something she basically knew, even if (confusingly) she had never known it. This odd thought lingered for a moment, while the woman looked at her. Hikari had the oddest, briefest sense of a connection – familiarity on a deep level – but then, as the woman gave her a wink, it was gone.
"Anyone else?" demanded the young woman, turning around so she had neatly placed herself in between Hikari and the three remaining soldiers from Sairou.
There was another moment of silence.
And then all hell broke loose.
Yelling people tried to run away, running in all directions. The soldiers of course tried to get at Hikari, and the young woman before her, but they couldn't because of the crowd, which moved in no direction in particular. Most people were probably trying to get to the stairs, but a few people appeared to be deliberately working against the soldiers. Someone picked the waiter's tray off the ground and smacked a soldier in the head with it.
"That's our cue!" yelled the young woman, over the din, in the wake of the CLANG! that had resounded through the restaurant from this use of the tray.
"Wha-"
Hikari found her wrist grabbed, in the same vice-like grip as before. Then she was pulled along, through the crowd which was moving towards the soldiers - though they were probably just moving towards the stairs, Hikari thought. The young woman yanked at her arm, almost jerking it out of its socket as she flung her at a window, cleanly through it onto the terrace on the other side. Without much to say about the matter, Hikari hit the terrace with her other shoulder and rolled... and rolled...
- and then rolled some more, until she realised that she wasn't really stopping rolling so much as she was just rolling along a slope with an end coming up quite abruptly - BLOODY HELL.
"Aaaaaaarrr-GH!" she concluded, as she rolled off the edge onto a not particularly soft or pleasant cart full of potatoes below.
"Kowaiineechan!" yelped Nyan Nyan, but before Hikari could answer, another incoherent yell sounded and something fell off the ledge. Hikari yelled again (a lot of noise) as the falling person hurtled towards her. Nyan Nyan popped out of her pocket as the young woman who had rescued her from the soldier crashed down beside her, thankfully, causing the death of many innocent potatoes.
For the moment, they lay there, winded and shocked. Overhead, they could hear pure chaos reigning in the restaurant. Several things were broke and a lot of people yelled and screamed. But no one followed their route out, and for the moment, it seemed as though they were safe. Stunned, in pain from the potato-shaped dents in their backs, but mostly safe.
Then, a tiny version of Nyan Nyan floated over their heads, peering at them through huge eyes. "Kowaiineechan okay?"
The young woman squinted. "What's that?"
"I wish I had a clue-"
"NYAN NYAN!" yelled Nyan Nyan, by way of introduction.
"She keeps making that noise."
"Nuriko-chaaaan!" cried the girl, clearly thrilled. So thrilled, in fact, that she turned into an orb and ricocheted around the potato cart. "Nyan Nyan happy you here!"
Nuriko. Hikari blinked, Hanako's words from her "dream" coming back to her. Nuriko… wasn't that one of the Suzaku seishi. With some pain (killing potatoes by falling on them was a painful business) Hikari turned her head to look at the girl beside her, who was straightening up and stretching out. She was still glowing slightly, a subtle but very evident crimson glow about her. "You're a Suzaku Sei-"
"NYAN NYAN HAPPY YOU NOT GAY ANYMORE!" The orb came racing towards the young woman, popped into a fully grown (and yet very tiny) Nyan Nyan who tackled Nuriko with great hyper-excited glee. They both crashed into the potatoes, as Hikari blinked, surprised and very pleased that she wasn't at the receiving end of such violent affection.
"You're gay?" she asked, intrigued, looking at the young woman, who was patting the hyper child, looking surprised but not particularly overwhelmed. The question seemed to annoy her, though.
"No!" glared the young woman, almost too vehemently. "I mean, I don't know! Maybe! I was gay before, apparently, although I don't even know – that's just in my head, maybe! But I don't think that really covers it. It was very complicated!"
"Um," said Hikari, lost.
"Anyway!" declared the young woman. "Would it matter?"
"Nyan Nyan liiiikes Nuriko-chan!"
"Would what matter?" asked Hikari, who had lost track of the question and was trying to deal with raw potatoes in her hair now.
"Being gay! Being gay doesn't matter, does it? I mean I still like the same guy, so what if I wasn't a girl before?"
"You're a guy?" asked Hikari, genuinely surprised.
"No! Do I look like a guy!" demanded the young woman, looking so fierce and flustered that it would take a truly brave person to tell her she looked like a guy. And she didn't, really. She was so beautiful and her features were highly feminine. "I'm a girl! I was a guy but I used to pretend to be a girl, and now I'm a girl!"
Hikari stared for a minute as this failed to compute, and then shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she said, finally, speaking carefully as though she was afraid of another incoherent explanation. It seemed to be the right thing to say, though, which was a relief. It would be quite a pain to find a homophobic fool in ancient China. As if she didn't have enough to deal with. "Thank you for… throwing me out of the window there. I- I just- Um."
"Ooh, serious question," said the young woman, grinning at the small, dirty face of the thirteen-year-old and offering her another wink. It didn't take a genius to work out that Hikari was freaked out and did not belong to the admittedly unusual category of people who believed being thrust into a strange land in weird clothing and subjected to attacks by soldiers was a particularly fascinating experience. The grinning and winking was meant to let her know that she could lighten up. It was probably a mark of character that it didn't work at all, and Hikari remained as solemn as before.
"A- are you a Suzaku Seishi?"
The young woman tilted her head. Aside from that one burst of connection Reishun had felt while looking at her, after tossing that soldier away from her, she hadn't perceived much power or anything from her. But there was that voice in her being, the one called 'Nuriko', who seemed to recognise her - not as the priestess, certainly, but as someone important. If she hadn't been wearing the strange, short clothes she was wearing, Reishun would have thought the little girl was one of the reincarnated Seishi. She didn't know what the girl was, but she was here. The Seishi had been reborn for a purpose, and chances were, she was that purpose.
Alright, then. Apparently, it was time for introductions. No time for introductions better than when lying on one's back in a cart of potatoes.
"I- yes," she said, finally. "I'm Kou Reishun, one of the Suzaku warriors." She raised a hand to pull back her collar just a little, revealing a glowing symbol on her collarbone. "Nuriko. Well, kind of-"
"Kind of?" asked Hikari, raising an eyebrow at her. Nyan Nyan tugged at her sleeve, but she ignored her for the moment "You're ... glowing."
Reishun down at herself and sighed. "Not the most subtle power," she agreed, sitting up again.
Nyan Nyan, loyal to the core, punched Hikari in the shoulder.
"Ow! WHAT?"
"Must move NOW, Kowaiineechan! Bad people coming!"
Something about those words made Hikari shiver as she looked at Nyan Nyan. "Right," she said, with more fierceness than she felt. "Let's go!" Nyan Nyan popped back into her orb form, as, with remarkable foresight, Hikari grabbed a potato. She still hadn't eaten all day and in the event that she did get out of this town, there would be no food around for miles. (Some people would have called this level of planning boring and slightly obsessive, but really, it was just good thinking.) A hand stretched out to her to help her off the cart, and Hikari looked up at Reishun.
"Look, Reishun-san. You- you don't have to come with me. I mean, I'm-"
"Oh, come on!" Reishun cut her off. She had two younger sisters back at home, after all; she knew exactly how awkward kids could get about stupid things. And that was all this person was, even if she had that... that touch of destiny, if you will: she was just a really awkward kid. And the best way to deal with awkward kids was to be brisk and down-to-earth with them. "I told you we should travel together, and nothing's changed." She took Hikari by the scruff of her neck as the soldier from Sairou had not five minutes ago and yanked her off the cart.
Then, she turned and started walking smartly down the path behind the inn, the gentle crimson glow from the orb that was Nyan Nyan lighting up the path just enough for them to see where they were going. Hikari had no choice but to follow, floored by this rather unthinking loyalty and valour. As they reached the edge of the builing, Reishun – Nuriko – paused and peered down the alley to where the bright lights of the market lit up the main street of the town. When she spotted no soldiers, Reishun nodded and they walked on.
"Do you have a name?" asked the older woman, presently.
"I- yes. It's Hikari. Sukunami Hikari." Hikari stopped, feeling both very awkward and very grateful, and therefore basically annoyed. Too much of one feeling was bad enough – to have two of those intense feelings was just too much. "Reishun-san," she said. "I … you shouldn't- This is going to be dangerous."
It was the first time she had even acknowledged the mess she was in, and the actual danger of it. Saying it with such definitive force was not as hard as she had thought it would be. It had no impact on Reishun either, who snorted. Really, it made the whole silent non-acceptance seem thoroughly silly.
"Even if we weren't connected," said the older woman, , "I would do this for you. For anyone in Kounan, if they needed it. That's what being a Suzaku warrior means. I think. So don't get so awkward about it - it's not you." She smirked at the girl, indicating this was only teasing – even if it was true. "Now stop dawdling and move. She's probably right," she inclined her head towards the Nyan-Nyan-orb, "they will come after us. We made quite a mess in there."
"We?" asked Hikari, incredulously. As they set off down the path again, neither mentioned the darker implication of Nyan Nyan's warning.
"Did I run into the waiter?" Reishun reminded her, looking at the chickens with some interest for a moment, before shaking her head and eyeing Hikari.
"No," agreed Hikari, "but you did create a new window for the restaurant."
"Ah, better ventilation," said Reishun, unrepentantly.
"Um," saisd Hikari and Reishun smiled slightly. Here came a serious question, she thought, and indeed, one did follow: "Reishun-san. What do you mean connected? You think we're connected?"
"You don't think we're connected?" asked Reishun, tilting her head to look at Hikari, who swallowed as their eyes met again, and once more, she felt the force of the familiarity. "I don't know how we are - you're obviously not a Suzaku Seishi-"
"Obviously?" demanded Hikari, slightly put off by this.
"Quite obviously," said Reishun, with the same teasing lilt to her voice. "I don't know. But we are connected - that much seems-"
Reishun stopped, in the middle of the path, placing a hand on Hikari's shoulder to make her stop moving as well.
Something was wrong. Reishun had sensed a strange chi while in the restaurant, but it hadn't been as strong as this. What was more troubling was that she could not locate it - as much as she could sense it. It seemed to be nowhere and everywhere all at once, like… or at least, not unlike a divine being, Reishun thought suddenly, uneasy though she simply narrowed her eyes. The shadow of a divine being, perhaps. There was an evil presence, but she couldn't really narrow it down. The fact that Nyan Nyan's glow dimmed suddenly was even more alarming. She took a look at Hikari, who was looking even more anxious than she felt, and shook herself mentally.
Reishun no baka. Don't get carried away.
"What is it?" asked Hikari, in a low, anxious tone. She reached for the Nyan Nyan orb and, as she touched it, it popped back into her breast pocket, almost as though the small being was seeking comfort.
Reishun scratched her head, and then shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we just move carefully."
Hikari nodded.
And thus, proceeding very carefully, they turned around the corner to walk into a small contingent of soldiers from Sairou.
"Oh b-" Hikari said something very rude.
Reishun raised an eyebrow despite herself.
And the captain of the contingent stepped forward and raised his sword. "CHARGE!" he yelled.
"Ah," said Reishun, grabbing Hikari's hand, "run!"
Pulling Hikari along – even though she didn't really need to, the girl was fast enough by herself (a burst of unusual speed, Hikari would later think, brought on by pure hysteria) – Reishun ran back into the alley with the potato cart. "Here," she said, pushing her bag at Hikari. "Just keep running!"
"What?" This is really no time for heroic cliches! "What abou-"
But Reishun ignored her and turned to kick a small, makeshift chicken pen hard, so that it flew at the soldiers. It smacked one of the soldiers in the front in the face and caused great chaos and annoyance.
Reishun turned. "RUN!" she bellowed, and this time, Hikari complied.
The squwaking chickens and absolutely infuriated mother hen seemed to deter the soldiers somewhat. Enough, at least, for them to not realise that Reishun had stopped once again to lift up the whole (very ill-fated) cart of potatoes and throw it at them. Potatoes went flying, a harbinger of the cart. But it was just so unlikely and so non-tactical, the strategy of throwing heavy objects at a contingent, that this herald did nothing to warn them. The cart slammed into the front row of soldiers, who in turn fell against the second. The whole thing would have been comical, really, if there hadn't been a third row behind them, and a fourth and fifth and sixth behind them, all of whom were looking very, very annoyed about having been pelted with potatoes.
"Oh good," said Hikari, clutching the bag she had stolen from the cart with great fervour. "Now they're really annoyed. Well done."
"Y-eah, didn't think about that," said Reishun. It was instinctive to take the young girl's hand – the abstract connection between a Suzaku warrior and, though Reishun did not yet know it, the beast-god's sacred object.
They hurtled down the alley, even though, really, Reishun hadn't a clue where they were going to go. She wasn't really a trained warrior, even if she was a Seishi. She was a merchant's daughter, rich, prosperous and, though she was prone to a lot of physical exercise simply because she found she had a lot of energy, she had never really been given any instruction. Picking up and throwing things was something that came naturally to any girl who had grown up with a mother prone to using the crockery as a mode of expressing her anger towards her husband – and wasn't what you could call a battle strategy. She didn't have a battle strategy. Her actions had so far been prompted by the "get the hell away from the angry men with the sword" rationale.
But then what? she had to wonder as they ran, the soldiers behind them. There were horses in the market place, but you didn't just march up to a thriving market and grab a horses under the noses of the soldiers who were trying to kill or capture you – for whatever reason. How were they going to get out of here? Argh! Reishun did not approve of too many questions; she shoved all of this out of her head and ran, holding Hikari's hand very tightly.
But then, as they turned around another corner, Hikari stopped, gripping at her hand hard. "Stop!" she cried, urgently, and Reishun did, if only because of the urgency in the girl's voice. The next instant, though, as the soldiers came running, Reishun yanked Hikari's hand and placed herself between the soldiers and the girl. But the soldiers stopped too – and Reishun's blood chilled.
Then, the darkness grew thicker, and she knew. It was the presence she had felt before, right before them, though she could see nothing. She had only the brief impression of a huge, moving shadow and a trickle of anticipation that touched her mind. But this was no preparation.
Pain exploded, bright white light flashing behind her eyelids as she clenched them shut, a dance before the actual realisation of the pain crashed into. She stumbled, letting out a scream that even to her ears sounded inhuman. She fell to her hands and knees, biting down viciously on her lip – but it did not help. The pain went beyond her body somehow. It was as though someone had reached into her very being and ripped apart her connection with the most fundamental part of herself – a violation in a sense that was absolutely basic. She could hardly hear anything, even though her head was exploding with a terrible cacophony. Hikari seemed to be screaming something, and her arms came around her to hold her tightly, urgently. A warmth from Hikari's chest tried to touch her, but it didn't quite reach. The darkness grew thicker and thicker, and Hikari's arms were suddenly gone and she was alone, falling into what felt like an everlasting hell-
And then, suddenly and miraculously, it stopped.
Shaking violently, unspeakable horror crashing over her, Reishun looked up to find Hikari placed in between her and a tall man. The soldiers were now dim shapes all around them, holding back as their leader, who this man must be, stared down the thirteen-year-old. In the darkness, she could not see him, except that she could tell he was very tall, at least three feet taller than Hikari. His dark aura so powerful that it seemed to pervade the atmosphere, so thick that it was almost tangible.
Reishun shivered as she felt it crawl over her, like a many limbed being retracting its tentacles from her. As this happened, her perception became clearer, and the man no longer looked quite as tall, though his chi remained powerful, foreboding.
Hikari did not move, standing there looking grim and determined, her face white with fear and shock.
"Are you going to protect her?" asked the man, and his voice was like being dragged over pointed icy blades. "Enlighten me... a sacred object has no power of its own, and at any rate, you are not powerful at all."
Hikari said nothing, though Reishun could feel her shaking. She wanted to stand - oh, Suzaku, where was her strength? - or say something, but she could do nothing.
"If you get out of the way, I'll kill you both quickly and with less pain."
Hikari gripped Reishun's hand hard, somehow steady and warm. "Don't kill her," she said, in a shaky sort of voice. "She doesn't really have anything to do with it-"
The man laughed, and his cold laughter cut through the air, humourless and horrible.
"Are you trying to sacrifice yourself to save this woman?" said the voice, amused. "Or do you live under the misapprehension that just because you are protected as the sacred object, I can't kill you?"
He took a step forward, and the darkness seemed to move with him, eliminating the light from the stars and the lamps of the village that had, thus far, been their guide. He stepped forward again, and Reishun felt Hikari jolt, as though wanting to move back but holding herself in place through pure will. Her fear was so powerful that it reverberated down to Reishun, the thirteen-year-old held steady.
The man stared at her coldly for a long time. Moments passed by slowly, as though he was waiting for her to give in, but through some miraculous strength, Hikari did now. Then, he sneered.
"So be it," he said, and raised his hand. Reishun was sure, as she had never been, that this was the end.
But then Hikari yelled, "NOW!"
She threw something at the man – and for a moment Reishun thought she'd tossed the Nyan Nyan orb at him, but the potato fell down and rolled towards her. The man yelled – roared, the terrible cacophonous sound exploding everywhere as his fingers crackled.
Hikari ducked, or so it seemed, as the man burst into his terrible laughter again. It was a crucial moment before he realised she hadn't ducked out of terror.
She had dived for Reishun, grabbing the woman and pulling her into a tight embrace, just as a small, bright red light had flown from her. Reishun could do little more than stare, as Hikari gripped at her and yelled, "HOLD ON TO ME!"
Something exploded around them, a burst of warmth and power and flame, falling around the two of them so it formed a protective cage of a kind. The man's face contorted horribly and Reishun, who could not close her eyes, had the impression of him contoring into a monster and leaping at them, still roaring. But the protective shield grew brighter and brighter until Reishun felt her eyes sting. Hikari was clinging to her, and it was all she could do to cling back.
They heard a terrible yell, felt a sudden and inconceivably powerful jolt of darkness. But the brightness exploded, somehow around them and inside them at the same time. And they were yanked, into themselves and away.
Later, Reishun would think it was like hurtling along at a great speed into the space of one's own existence. It lasted for perhaps two seconds, but felt like an eternity in which they hurtled through an endless space that was matter and void all at the same time – an experience of pure motion and, somehow, transformation – until they were yanked back and tossed out of that experience, with a sort of cosmic pop.
It was a long time before Reishun could bring herself to open her eyes, and when she did, what she saw made her stare for several long moments in silence at the scene before her.
"Hikari?" she said, finally, to the younger girl who was still holding onto her, trembling. "Look."
It was several seconds before Hikari did, lifting her head.
The red light of the beast-god that had protected them continued to cascade around them, making her cheeks gleam with the testament of fear that she had not allowed to escape her before. There was no sign of the dark alleys of Shichang village or the soldiers who had surrounded them before, or of the terrifying, tall man with black fathomless eyes. They seemed to be in some kind of clearing in a forest, which was simultaneously the end of a narrow road. Tall trees surrounded them on all sides by the one leading down that narrow road towards the infinite darkness that reached for them threateningly.
A bright red orb floating over their heads, after a moment, said, "Kowaiineechan okay?"
But all of this wasn't surprising compared to the fact that, within the protective cage of light that surrounded them, they were not alone: four children stood before them, standing, somehow, between them and the darkness, even though they were all younger than Hikari.
Hikari didn't know how she knew, but she knew, instinctively, that they were not alive. Perhaps it was the slight touch of a glow to their frames or the fact that they reminded her, in a strange way, of how Hanako had looked in her dream scape.
"Are we dreaming?" she asked, finally.
"No, Kowaiineechan," said the orb, floating around the scene. "Safe here. Phoenix-god said here safe!"
"Nyan Nyan..." It did not occur to Hikari to question this.
Hikari turned to look at the four children as the youngest of them turned and smiled. "Mei-chan okay!" she said, brightly.
Hikari turned to Reishun, who nodded, disentangling her limbs carefully from the younger girl's and cringing silently in pain. Whatever the terrifying commander had done certainly had lasting effects on her.
Hikari walked to the oldest of the children. Looking at him, she felt a strong tug of recognition, though it was different from the powerful connection between Reishun and her. "Who are you?" she asked, tilting her head.
"Don't worry, mei-chan," said the oldest boy, giving her a grim sort of smile. "We will watch over you. You are safe here."
"But where is this?" Hikari asked, looking at Reishun, but the Seishi was as confused as her.
The forest clearing was mostly even, plain, other than five small mounds, topped with small rocks. Burials, Hikari realised, looking at the children. But the boy had called her "mei-chan"... so was this...? Hikari opened her mouth to ask, but shook her head.
You did not tell the dead that they had been forgotten – there was something terribly cruel about that.
And they were not forgotten, Hikari thought, suddenly, a terrible sense of loss gripping at her, though she could hardly understand it. Surely, her parents would remember. They had just chosen not to tell her about their past, about the things that they had experienced to bring them close to one another. About where, in a sense, she had come from.
"A long time ago, we were buried here," said the boy. "The beast god has called us to protect you, who are our family, for tonight."
"Mei-chan should rest now!" said the other boy, turning to look at her, the second youngest of the siblings. "Mei-chan has to go to the capital tomorrow morning!"
"It's not very far from here!" said the older girl, who sat next to the youngest sister. They were both smiling reassuringly.
Hikari nodded, dumbly. Are these ... my uncles and aunts? She walked back to Reishun, who patted her on the back but said nothing. Hikari was grateful, even if the silence came from Reishun's painful experience. She felt as though she had been stretched beyond her capabilities, and did not want to talk. She wanted to listen, though, and almost thought of begging the children for their story. How had they come to be here? What had happened to them? They were related to her, and she knew it - and though she had never been a domestic or family-type person, she felt the strong calling to know her own past. But she did not ask.
Instead, she sat beside their graves in silence with the older woman, watching the gentle glow of Suzaku's protection around them, the silhouettes of the ghosts of her unspoken past, standing as sentinels between them and the threatening darkness.
And several hours later, once the light of the dawn chased away the night, they vanished.
Author's Notes: I hope that's not too much to digest in one chapter (I thought it WAS too much to digest in one chapter, so this is actually just the latter half of chapter eight). If you think that creepy man is turning up in too many places at the same time, you're not wrong. He's also beginning to freak me out. Also, the last bit - very odd? How did Hikari become all powerful and cool? o_O
I just... I mean I know Miaka was supposed to be Taka's last memory jewel thing, but there was none for his family and such - I don't think that means they weren't remembered, but I don't know. If anyone does, let me know!
"Mei-chan": I don't know if that's what a niece would be called, but I hope it is? "Mei" does mean "niece".
Thank you for sticking with me!
O.D.A.O.S. (Obligatory Disclaimer And Other Shiznit)
This story is based primarily on Yuu Watase's Fushigi Yuugi, but also uses elements from Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden and some of the Fushigi Yuugi Gaiden books. (Only some elements, though, because of, er, a sort of blatant selective amnesia. So, for instance, Hikari is a girl, which she isn't according to the Sanbou Gaiden.) I will try to stick to manga/anime canon as much as I can. Elements of Chinese and Japanese mythology will probably be employed, also with a blatant disregard for authenticity and mythological autonomy. I apologise in advance - but mostly this fic is supposed to be fun and ... I wouldn't take it seriously. Apologies for stupidity about the Japanese language, but feel free to correct me please - if and when I use stuff like that. Oh, er, and obviously I'm not making any money out of this - I'm just a graduate student with too much time. ;
R&R is welcome and desired and appreciated, even if it's just 'you suck'!