Circular Reality

Circular Reality

Chapter 14: Glimpses of the Past

Fuji glanced at the men/vampires arrayed behind him in neat 500 by 500 rows (that's like… 250,000 men! Fuji's mind calculated as he willed it to shut up). Taking a deep breath, he looked forward again, into the darkness of the forest in front of him and, with the help of his super vision, the thousands upon thousands of werewolves lurking in the shadows. He glanced back at his men/vampires (his men/vampires! his mind kindly reiterated for him) and then looked nervously backward again. Taking an even deeper breath, he braved a look down. The black and gold armor of his family, as he expected.

Three blinks and a fake nonchalant yawn later and Fuji Syuusuke was on the verge of freaking out, as had been his forte for the last few days. He held it in with a barely suppressed groan and a look up into the sky. With a barely audible, "How did it come to this?" he looked back at his men, unfurled his wings, rallied those gathered behind him with a cry, and flew into the trees, leading the charge.

And yesterday had been a bad day! Fuji mentally screamed, sarcasm seeping from every single word. This morning, he had woken to a frenzy of movement: the soldiers were on the move, the generals were strategizing, and the humans were preparing to enter the fray. A servant had knocked on his door, polite but rushed, and informed him quite loudly (his ears were still ringing, damn it!) that he was needed in the meeting room. Grumbling about this and that he had gotten up and gotten dressed, only to have another servant knock on his door and hand him specially-made clothing to wear. Taking the clothing, he had to suppress a groan. Go figure it was armor.

So he put the armor on. No sense in wasting specially-made clothing, even if it wasn't clothing and it probably wasn't specially-made.

Holding back curses, he walked from one side of the manor to the other, trying to find out exactly which meeting room he was supposed to be in before stumbling across the correct one, now a good hour late. After receiving a patented Atobe glare for his tardiness, he took his seat mumbling about good-for-nothing servants that didn't know what was what. The meeting continued around him. Why had he even bothered to come if he wasn't needed? With a mental sigh—no use showing weakness in front of these guys, they'd probably use it as blackmail—he settled in to wait for anything that needed his input.

Sneaking a glance around the table, he noticed that there were more humans than there had been prior. He recognized the quadrant leaders, giving them a customary nod of recognition before moving on with his appraisal of the gathering. The Rikkai team was there (obviously Niou had gotten away without visible injury), as was the Atobe team and the Rokakuu team. His sister and brother were there too, in their—hey! How come their armor wasn't black and gold? Why wasn't his sister wearing armor? Unfair!

Trying to refrain from showing his childish emotions on his sleeve, Fuji faked a cough to regain his bearings (he'd had them before? registered before he could snuff it out). His brother was wearing sleek black and red armor that looked far more comfortable than Fuji's own not-quite-as-sleek armor. His sister wasn't wearing armor at all, probably in another attempt to stay out of the battle. Rolling his eyes, he continued around the table, albeit grumpily. There were Echizen, Tezuka, and another that he didn't know. Glancing at the man—for he was a man—suspiciously, he looked back at Atobe at the head of the table, who was saying something about the battle. Curse his lack of attention.

From what he could glean from the expressions of those around him, whatever Atobe had been talking about wasn't something to laugh about, so he schooled his expression to match the person's next to him—which, out of all of the things it could have been, had to be bemused. So he was stuck wearing a bemused expression until he figured out what everyone had been talking about. Talk about a pickle. Oh what Fuji would have done for a pickle…

Cue missing more of whatever Atobe was saying. Curse you short attention span!

Glancing over at the person sitting next to him—he still didn't bother wondering who it was—he noticed that the person had, in fact, changed expressions, so he was obligated (sort of) to do the same. This time it was a frown, so Fuji frowned slightly. Man, emotions could be so overrated. And copying could be so annoying.

With a short, barely audible sigh, Fuji looked back at Atobe. Thankfully, he hadn't said or done anything to attract any attention to himself and hopefully he hadn't been called upon to voice his opinion on anything—if he had, he'd definitely missed it. Atobe wasn't even looking at him, which was a good sign. As a feeling of relief spread through his body, he hastily made to pay attention. Atobe was saying something about the army, so it was probably an important issue.

"…So that's what we'll do," Atobe announced. Then, turning toward Fuji, he inquired, "If it's not too much trouble, of course."

Fuji gulped. He hadn't been paying any attention whatsoever, but he knew that nothing good happened when Atobe had that look on his face, so he just nodded stiffly and put his mask back in place. He'd get it out of someone later. Or maybe he could start paying attention…

Shrugging slightly, Fuji decided he had nothing to lose by listening so he turned his gaze once more toward Atobe, intent on paying attention to the best of his ability. Atobe seemed to be finishing up whatever he had been talking about and Fuji groaned remembering the last time this had happened.

"What do you mean you weren't paying attention?!"

"You don't have to yell, you know? I'm just stating a fact."

"I wouldn't have to yell, if you'd actually heard anything from the meeting. It was important, but I guess you don't have to know. You're only the most important part of the plan," Atobe continued sarcastically.

Chuckling nervously, Fuji refrained from cursing in a most inappropriate manner, instead sticking with a sigh and a succinct, "What do I have to do this time?"

"You're going to act as a liaison between the humans and us," Atobe replied airily—almost as if it was a matter of no importance whatsoever.

Fuji's eyes opened briefly in what could have been a deadly glare, before he snapped them closed in favor of his normal mask. He didn't need more blackmail against him—Oshitari Yuushi had already accomplished digging up a truckload of embarrassing/stupid things that he had done in the past. Everything had progressed quite quickly after that—he had agreed, for no apparent reason and probably as a result of extreme distraction during the meeting, that he would immediately leave to act as the go-between. Curse his short attention span!

Come to think of it, that wasn't that long ago, Fuji mused. Soon, Fuji remembered where he was and that he probably should have been paying attention and immediately returned his attention to Atobe's droning voice—ugh, war talk could certainly be boring. Glancing at the person seated next to him—oh, so it was Yagyuu—he quickly schooled his expression to imitate the other man's in hopes that his spacing out hadn't been too obvious. No one seemed to notice his antics so he took a deep breath and began to listen. Atobe seemed to just be finishing up.

"Now that we all know the plan…" No, we don't! Yet Fuji nodded sagely.

"Are there any questions?" Yes! But he shook his head no.

That was just the kind of person he was. In any case, he'd just get it out of someone after the meeting. Most preferably not Atobe.

Atobe ended the meeting with a flourish and a wave and Fuji found himself surrounded by humans. Echizen was the first to sidle up to him, wearing an expression akin to a smile, and when their eyes met the smaller man laughed and began telling Fuji what had been going on during the meeting.

Fuji was quite speechless. "How…?"

Echizen grinned, still chuckling, "You looked really dazed," he shrugged, "and considering your track record for meetings, I figured you'd need a little filling in."

Fuji was torn between laughing and scowling. Instead he schooled his mask back in place and pulled both Echizen and Tezuka (where had he come from anyway?) with him to his room where they proceeded to enlighten him on the basics of his task.

Almost ten minutes later a loud, "No frickin' way!" could be heard reverberating through the halls of the mansion. It even reached the ears of Atobe, who had been seated in his luxuriously-decorated mansion and reading the files and tactical… stuff that he would need to have memorized by the time of the battle. Shrugging it off as a freak occurrence—or perhaps as an everyday occurrence?—he continued on with his reading.

In another location, Fuji was desperately in need of some aspirin—and a nap. But most definitely the aspirin. Both Echizen and Tezuka sat nearby, watching him as he paced back and forth in bouts of anxiety and insecurity. Pace forward: anxiety. Pace backward: insecurity. And so on and so forth.

As Tezuka glanced at Echizen, he could see that the other man was slightly concerned over the fate of the vampire in front of them. Not that he wasn't worried either. Hey, this couldn't exactly be called love, but he wasn't passing it off as just a fling.

Meanwhile, Fuji was having a mental breakdown. When was the last time this had happened? Umm…

"WHAT?" Fuji noticed that the others had plugged their ears but made no attempt to be any quieter. Instead, he was almost certain that he got louder. And just as they were pulling their fingers out of their ears, it sunk in. "What do you mean we're attacking the werewolves at first light tomorrow?"

Oh… right. That was yesterday. Glancing outside the window, he noticed the sun hadn't risen yet, and curiosity got the best of him. He stopped in front of the other two and looked them straight in the eye, as if about to ask some extremely serious thing before whimsically enquiring, "What time is it, anyway?" The other two men, had they been any less concerned and/or serious, would seriously have done the whole anime fall, but, as they were extremely concerned and/or serious, they didn't. Instead they fixed him with skeptical looks before answering.

"What do you mean it's two in the morning?" was his, rather expected, retort. Rolling their eyes in succession, both Tezuka and Echizen glanced at each other before grinning mischievously. And when those grins turned toward one Fuji Syuusuke… well the rest, as they say, is history. Nearly one hour and 45 minutes later, they were getting ready once more, this time in the hopes that they'd see a tomorrow. It was time to get ready. It was time to organize the troops. It was time to say goodbye to the beautiful mansion that had been home for however long they'd been there. It was time to pray to god that they would come back alive and kicking. It was time to leave.

And, as he sat his horse accompanied by the two humans who had recently shared his bed, he couldn't help but reminisce. And not about the good times. Nostalgia set in, leeching his good memories away as his bad ones flopped about like fish fresh out of water. One in particular was strangely vivid.

"This…this can't be true, can it?" Silence was his only answer. "There's no way this is true! I refuse to accept this." Fuji Yuuta was desperate.

The Fuji siblings were currently gathered around a piece of paper in the very heart of the enemy's lair. How they'd gotten there was a different story altogether and they cared little for the dead bodies strewn around them, two holes strategically punctured in every throat. Their attentions were fixed upon a single line on the sheet of paper. The letter itself was quite normal. What was written on it was a completely different story. For it was a story.

My dear children, it began. But it ended with forgive me just this once. Somewhere in the middle was written, "We are not your biological parents." Following this were words that read, "Your mother was a human. Your father was a vampire." And strategically placed near these words was, "Since you're reading this, I must already be dead." Cliché as those words were, what followed them was probably even more so. "I'll have died at the hands of a vampire."

So the letter went something like this:

My dear children,

Since you're reading this, I must already be dead. I'll have died at the hands of a vampire. I meant to tell you everything, but I suppose that it's too late now. So here's the truth: Your mother and I… we're not your biological parents. Your mother was a human. Your father was a vampire. I'm sorry for keeping this a secret for so long. I know this may mean nothing to you now, but we really cared for you. They're looking for you, so run fast and run hard. If they find you… fight as if your life depends on it. It will. Your mother and I love you more than we can say.

So please, forgive me just this once.

The content of the letter hit them hard. It wasn't just the idea that their parents—or at least one of them—was a vampire, but the mere concept that their real parents—not their biological ones—knew that they were going to die.

Fuji Syuusuke swore off crying for the rest of his life. Nothing could be more painful.

As he came back to the present, Fuji could see a hand waving in front of his face. Following the arm to the body of the person it belonged to, he found himself staring into the eyes of one Echizen Ryoma. Who looked entirely too smug for his own good.

"What do you want?" he spat out, incredibly rude but not bothered enough to change his tone. Echizen looked a little taken aback before replying.

"You were spacing again. I thought I'd tell you we'd made it to our destination but since you don't care…" he trailed off before adding, "Just don't bite my head off, ok?"

And there's chapter 14. Sorry it took way too long to come out. I've been in exam central for a while, studying for AP exams and the like, for the last month or so. Or supposedly I was. I don't like studying too much, in any case. I apologize for the lateness in posting this, but I haven't had that much time. Now I remember why I didn't update last year at this point in time. But here it is. Complete with an elevator and a swimming pool. Just kidding. But it is complete with some (hopefully) complete flashbacks. Hope it's enough.

MidnightSunrise951- Yeah, I thought that was a pretty funny twist to the story. I love Fuji Hell but I wasn't able to pull it in with this chapter. It's a pretty wicked (as in COOL) place to be though, I have to assure you. However awesome it would be to find a vamp Fuji, I am highly doubtful it would happen, though I wish you luck. Well... I don't know. I was thinking Gakuto, but he didn't really fit in with the way I wanted to portray the character all that much and the one who did was... well, Niou. Thanks. Uh... acutally, my computer is totally shot again. I'm thinking of getting a laptop or something. Ooooh drama. I like angst better, but drama's all good. Thanks for reviewing!

DemonGirl13- Thanks! And thanks for the review!

2bloodly2love- I'm sorry for missing it! Gosh, I always write my stories really late into the night and I guess its really getting to me. I'm really really really sorry! Thank you! I'm glad you left a review. I love to hear people's opinions and see if I made some mistake somewhere (like time and... stuff. I'm very bad at matching times together). Thank you very much for reviewing!

yoshikochan- Yup, they're together. Completely now. I'd totally draw a smiley face if I could. But it won't let me... I'm happy you found it funny though. I was in a really odd mood when I wrote it so I was wondering if my humor would go to waste--because I'm not that great with humor. Niou's awesome... but I feel really bad for him in the last chapter, though in this chapter he's all good. Yup, but I still haven't really gotten to that part yet. I'm hoping in the next chapter they will. Though I can't say anything about the outcome, I will give you a hint. Some new characters arise and... they're pretty interesting--and well known--too!

Dark Reborn- Unexpected things are my forte! Thanks for reviewing!