Disclaimer: To the tune of "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze."
He floats through the air
Fushigi Yugi
with the greatest of ease
Is Yu Watase's
The daring young man on the flying trapeze
Along with a host of big companies
His actions are graceful
I'm humbly admiring
All girls he does please
I make nothing in fees
And my heart he has stolen away.
Oh, don't make me stop writing this please.
Warnings: Danger. Entering adult situations territory. Also, Leikaku Bandits with foul language coming at you. Rated PG-13.
Notes: continued… When I'm done with all of that, and I've posted "Oracles" in it's entirety, I'll go back and re-upload every single chapter. I've made a lot of spelling, grammar, and clarification edits to my master copy. Those problems still exist in my posted chapters. I'll want to polish it up. It won't be necessary to re-read anything, unless you want to, of course.
Notes to be continued next chapter…Sapphire
Oracles of the Four Gods
Oracle's Destiny
By: Sapphire
Part Twenty-one Origins of the Oracles
Kaori slipped past Aneko and approached a young man with long, pale sepia hair. She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. He hugged her, kissing the top of her head, then looked up and made eye contact with Aneko, obviously evaluating her as Suzaku no Orakuru.
"Wataru, this is Aneko, Suzaku no Orakuru," Kaori introduced. "Aneko, this is Wataru." Aneko bowed in greeting.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Wataru said with polite respect.
"Thank-you," Aneko said. "I'm glad to meet you, as well." As she spoke, Aneko noticed someone hanging back in the shadow of the doorway. She could feel his eyes on her, and after a moment, he emerged into the light. It was Danno. He slowly walked toward the small group.
"Hello, Aneko," he said tentatively. He stopped several paces from where she stood.
"Hello," Aneko returned nervously. She didn't know what else to say. Certainly there was nothing she wanted to say that would be fitting before an audience.
"Sit," Taiitsukun said, interrupting the awkward moment. They did, each settling themselves on a stuffed cushion dyed or bleached the color representative of their god.
"Why are we all here?" Kaori asked.
"Because it's nearly time," Taiitsukun replied impatiently.
"Time for what?" Wataru wanted to know. Taiitsukun looked to his and Kaori's confused faces. Then she looked to Danno's depressed expression, and Aneko's pale, frightened one. She gave a big, exasperated sigh.
"I am going to tell you a story," she looked pointedly at each of the oracles in turn. "Do you realize that all of you have been the Orakuru of your respective gods since the beginning of time?" This did not come as news to any of those present. Aneko suspected they had been having dreams and memories of their past lives just as she had. "When the Four Gods created the world, they created four living oracles to be mediums between themselves and the people that populated the Universe of the Four Gods. Having been created in the forms of two women and two men, their greatest function was to maintain the balance of this universe, and act as messengers between the people and the gods. For a long time the people looked to the oracles for guidance from the Four Gods, and the Four Gods were pleased. However, as the populace grew, people began to think, act, and exist independently, as was their nature.
"Eventually this caused a great imbalance, like a rift, and an entity encompassing all that was evil was born of the dissention between people and gods. The oracles worked to restore balance, but were driven to the high mountain called Daikyoku and imprisoned by the evil. The Four Gods feared the collapse of the Universe they had created, but knew of a way to save it. It would come at the cost of sacrificing the four oracles. During the imprisonment, the Four Gods instructed the oracles to unify their power in the creation of two beings, one male and one female, representing the Yin and the Yang principles. Upon their birth, they would assume the responsibility that had been the oracles' since the world began, thus ensuring the world's continuance after the oracles were gone.
"Once Yin and Yang were born, the Four Gods established them in place of the oracles and sent the oracles to their fate. Now able to devote all their energy to combating this evil, the oracles were able to corner the entity on the top of a mountain in the south. There they trapped it, sealing it in the very rock of the mountain with an unbroken chain of power created by their own life energies, draining their bodies.
"The Four Gods knew this evil could be unleashed once again or be reborn anew. They took precautions. They placed the spirits of the four oracles in another world until they were needed again. There they would be born and reborn continually, always accessible to the Gods. This was necessary since maintaining balance meant that everything born must eventually die. The oracles would have to return every five hundred years to regenerate the Yin and Yang.
"I am one of those beings, and I represent the Yin. My counterpart is the Yang, but he rarely makes his presence obvious, unlike myself. We are complete opposites, you see. We balance each other out, just as we work to maintain the balance of this world." There was silence when she finished. Each of the oracles was deep in his or her own thoughts. To all of them the story had a certain ring of familiarity. It was only right that it should. They were those four oracles of the story, the reincarnated forms of them.
"What did you mean, unify our power?" Kaori wondered aloud after a long silence. Four pairs of eyes fixed themselves on Taiitsukun.
"You must join together, Genbu with Byakko, Seiryu with Suzaku. Your destiny is to bring forth the new Yin and Yang to replace myself and my counterpart."
"Join together?" Kaori cast a nervous, sideways glance at Wataru.
"When the stars of the Four Gods align, the Gods will be at their most powerful. Through the oracles, they will conceive an infant to replace myself, and an infant to replace my counterpart."
"You mean-" Danno glanced at Aneko who was starring at the floor, her cheeks a brilliant shade of pink. "You mean we have to…"
"You must join together, both in body and spirit," Taiitsukun said, "after which Kaori and Aneko will be expected to carry the infants until birth. Let me remind you, they are no ordinary infants." Aneko finally looked up, letting her gaze connect only with Kaori. The look in her eyes fairly well matched what Aneko knew was in her own. Fear. "The infants belong to the gods, not to you." Kaori's eyes were now sad. Aneko's own emotions mirrored hers. To give up a baby she would carry in her own womb for nine months... "The infants' conception would not be possible were it not for the power of the Four Gods. The infants will be as much the offspring of the gods as they will be the offspring of the oracles. They must be given into the care of Nyan-Nyan the day they are born, and I'm afraid the four of you will never see them in this life again."
"Kouji?" The second in command pushed the flap of his tent open. Tohru stood just outside, peering in at him.
"What do ya want?" Kouji asked tiredly. Tohru stepped inside, carrying a roll of parchment in his hand.
"Jiro just finished," Tohru said. "I brought the drawings fer ya ta look at."
"I don't fuckin' care about those damn drawings," Kouji nearly shouted. Tohru didn't seem perturbed in the least at his growling. "I got more fuckin' important things ta worry about right now."
"Damnit, Kouji," Tohru said. "You gotta do this some time." Kouji sat back in his salvaged chair and glared. "We gotta start buildin' now," Tohru reminded. "We got the supplies fer the new stronghold." Kouji sighed.
"I've been thinkin' 'bout that," Kouji said. "I know winter's comin' soon." Tohru gave him a satisfied nod. Leave it to Tohru to get his mind back on track. He glanced critically at the plans in front of him. Jiro was one hell of an architect, Kouji thought. "There ain't no way we can get that built before it snows."
"If we don't, where the hell are we gonna live?" Tohru demanded.
"The place is too big," Kouji said. "With that damned devil-woman, there ain't no way we can loosen up security." Tohru nodded in concession. "We don't have enough men ta spare. Only a couple can work on the thing." Again Tohru nodded in agreement.
"So what do we fuckin' do?" Tohru asked. Kouji thought a moment, wondering if he should voice the ideas that had been flitting through his head or not. He figured he didn't have much to lose.
"We build the barn. We could build a kitchen on the back, the men can sleep in the big room, an' Genrou an' me can have the loft." Kouji waited to hear Tohru's reaction.
"An' the animals?" he asked.
"We could divide the barn in half," Kouji said, "half for us an' half fer the horses. We'll build it bigger 'n we need for the animals ta make room fer us. It'll still be cramped, but we can manage." Tohru slowly nodded. "We'll build a real stronghold next summer, an' open our half a the barn up ta the animals."
"That's a good plan," he finally agreed. "So long as ya make my kitchen big enough." Kouji actually laughed.
"It'll be big enough," he said with a half laugh. "Have Jiro draw up a plan fer the new barn." Tohru nodded and hurried off. Kouji returned to his worries with a sober frown.
To be continued…
End Notes: How was that for a revelation? How am I doing? Reviews welcome. Sapphire