Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in this story except Kawasaki Arashi; Watase Yuu does.
This is my first fanfic, so please do give me insights as to what you think of it, but also please be gentle. I love writing in general, and I hope that you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it. I will keep on going with more chapters soon. I would REALLY like it if people would review, as I already told you that this is my FIRST fanfic, and I really want to make it a good one.
P.S.-Whenever the words are in Italics like this, it is either the thoughts of one of the characters or some sort of vision/memory they are having.
As Worlds Collide
Chapter One:
Trails of Sparkles
Arashi was on her way out of the library, walking through the main hallway, when she noticed a path of bright red sparkles trailing up the main stairwell, and became aware of barely discernable voices coming from somewhere on the floor above her. Curiosity getting the better of her (as always), she tiptoed up the steps, following the twinkling scarlet sparkles up the stairs and down a hallway. At the end of the hallway, the door to a reference room was cracked slightly open, the voices much louder than before and coming from the room. The trail of twinkly sparkles at first seemed to end at the door, but after a closer look, Arashi realized that the beautiful glitters actually led into the room, and didn't end. Suddenly, she heard a very high-pitched yelp of "Yui!", and a bright flash of crimson light up behind the partially closed door, briefly lighting up part of the hallway near it at the same time.
Arashi sprinted down to the end of the hallway, quickly pushing open the door and searching about to see what had happened. She entered the room just in time to see a book slowly sink to the floor; the bright crimson light emanating from it fading as it neared the ground. She stayed near the door for a second, frightened and ready to flee if necessary, but somehow frozen in place. A tingling sensation enveloped Arashi's body, her muscles tensing, as if anticipating something. For some reason, she knew that she had to pick up the book and open it, and felt as if her spirit were being drawn towards the book. Not quite knowing why, she sat down (now able to actually move), picked up the book, and looked at it for the first time. All around her, the air seemed to be humming, unheard voices urging her to open the book. The book had Chinese lettering on it, and Arashi, having taken Chinese classes in school, translated it:
'The Four Gods Sky and Earth. Hmmm, funny name… let's see what is on the inside.'
She opened the book up-
And a blinding red light burst out of the book, bringing warmth and a spiritual/physical pulling feeling with it. Arashi felt as if she had shed her physical shell and had become a streak of glistening purple light. She was in airless space for a moment or two, and knew she was somehow traveling in between two worlds… she saw another streak of light (this one blue) flash past her, zipping in the opposite direction. She felt everything go purple, and then felt nothing at all as darkness claimed her.
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Chichiri was meditating, calming himself and clearing his head of thoughts in the familiar way. Suddenly, for a second he felt a spiritual feeling that could only be described as "weird" and a tugging sensation on his soul. It felt as if he should be somewhere else, only he couldn't figure out where else he should be.
Then the feeling passed, leaving only the thought that he should go somewhere. He tried to shake the thought out of his head, but it stuck, keeping him from continuing his interrupted meditation session. Chichiri sighed, then got up and began to do some training exercises, hoping that he could clear his head. He practiced, his spirit whispering secrets that went unheard, his heart asking questions that could not be answered, at least for the moment anyway.
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When she awoke, the first thing Arashi noticed was that the surface she was laying on was very hard. She opened one eye, then the other in a cautious manner, and did a survey of her surroundings: she was laying on the ground under a tree, on a mountain of some sort, on a big ledge that jutted out from the mountainside about 50 feet. She got up, stretching the kinks and knacks out of her back and neck, and walked over to the edge of the ledge, looking down as she did so. What she saw made her quickly move back from the edge, trembling at being able to see over a mile straight down from where she had been standing on the edge. She looked around, looking desperately for a way off/down the mountain, walking the entire perimeter of the cliff… and found nothing. Arashi then began to get angry (bad temper, you see) at nothing in particular, just her situation.
And-as always-after anger came hunger. Arashi's stomach growled (although I think "roared" would be a better description for the sound), breaking her out of her mental temper tantrum. She then remembered that she had not eaten since breakfast. She looked around and also searched her pockets for anything that might even be remotely edible, and found zip. Exasperated, she leaned against the tree, kicking it once just for good measure. The kick, having made the tree sway a bit, caused a round, hard object to fall from a branch of the tree, landing squarely on Arashi's shortly cropped silverish-dark blue hair (i.e.-her head). The impact of the round object caused her to yelp in pain/surprise and to make a hasty retreat from the tree.
When she turned back around and peered down at the object that had so rudely hit her, Arashi realized that what she had taken to be a small furry animal (read: rabid chipmunk) was actually a bright green ripe apple. After a closer examination of the tree, she also realized that what she had thought to be a normal run-of-the-mill tall woody plant was, in fact, an apple tree in its prime. How the tree got all the way up here and grew so very well, she would never know. What Arashi did know was that she was astonishingly hungry, and that a plant full of her favorite fruit was rooted right in front of her.
'I don't care how dangerous this is… I am starving, and I have a right to eat when I am hungry!'
After rubbing her still-sore head, she quickly began to climb the branches of the tree, being VERY careful, as the tree was basically on the edge of the cliff. She wanted to find the best apple she could, as she was usually fairly picky, and kept climbing up and up, spying a near-perfect apple at the very top of the tree. The branches became thinner and weaker as she climbed, the thinner top part of the swaying as she neared the crown of the fruity tree…
And, stepping on the third-to-top branch, reaching for the apple-
Heard a cracking sound-
As if a branch were breaking under too much weight-
And, experiencing the feeling of falling very far, very quickly-
Screamed-
Also feeling a force awaken inside her… purple light exploding from within, protecting-
Her forehead suddenly throbbing, all the pain centered on a certain point-
A ball of purple light coming into being around Arashi, stopping her descent, levitating upwards-
Moving too quickly for her to make anything out of her surroundings (which consisted mainly of air anyway)-
Arashi, not knowing what to do-
Tried to move in the bubble of purple light, but was floating in the middle, as if gravity had no affect inside it-
So had to be content with just sitting there, waiting for the trip to end-
Finally, after what seemed like years, the bubble gradually began to slant downward, slowing and at last coming to a complete stop. As it slowed, she perused the area, taking in everything with a curiosity similar to that of a cat's. The bubble was descending upon another mountain, although this one was much prettier, and had an aura of magic around it. Arashi also saw what looked to be a small version of a palace, or maybe a resplendent temple of some sort. There was also a huge, beautiful waterfall cascading over a cliff right in front of the mini palace, with a bridge connecting the two sides of the cliff. There were many paths around the mini palace, and the bubble stopped right above one that was near the temple. She heard a slight popping noise, as the bubble suddenly disappeared, Arashi dropping to the ground to lightly land on all fours.
She looked around, then started walking up the path the bubble had dropped her on, towards the mini palace. The intense pain that had been focused on the middle of her forehead had subsided to a dull ache. She touched the spot where the pain had been centered, but there wasn't any blood. Why had it hurt so much when there wasn't even a wound of some kind? Hmmm… weird. She walked up to one of the many doors of the building, and gently opened it, trying to make as little sound as possible. Seeing no one in the hallway the door led into, she stepped inside, quietly shutting the door behind her.
The hallway Arashi was standing in was way too long, seemingly endless; it stretched out impossible distances on either side of her. She could not see the end either way. There were also many doors, evenly spaced out, the extent of them also stretching out into infinity. She tried to figure this out, scratching her head in confusion, but to no avail. She could think of no logical way that the hallway could look like this from the inside, when from the outside, it actually looked pretty darn short.
'Then again, nothing has been logical since I came to this place, wherever this place might be! I haven't even seen anyone… you would think, having a place like this, people would be flocking to it just to see the beauty of it all. It feels to me like a labyrinth of some kind, but the hallway is completely straight! No matter how annoying the endless hallway is… I am going to find my way through somehow… well, might as well start walking in one direction or another. With my luck, whichever way I take, my destination will be the same.'
She chose to go right, remembering that this was the way that the main section of the building was. At least that was how it had looked from the outside.
Arashi had been trotting steadily for a while (fifteen minutes or so), yet the end of the hallway seemed no closer than before. The hallway around her also looked exactly the same as where she had come in from the outside through the door, fifteen minutes ago. She sighed exasperatingly, as something happened-
A "weird" feeling welled up inside of her-
She felt as if the "real" Arashi (i.e.-her soul) wanted to go to a certain place-
But was grounded by the ungainly mortal shell she was trapped in-
She heard a call, faint but discernable, reach out to her-
And, not knowing how, she answered-
Sending some sort of signal back towards where the first call had come from-
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Chichiri concentrated, taking a tendril of his magic and using it to gently pick up the vase full of flowers, making sure that he didn't let it tip too much one way or another, so it wouldn't fall. Slowly, he brought it towards him, reaching out to grasp the vase before letting it go with his mind. The vase felt much heavier in his hand than it had felt when he used his telekinesis to move it through the air. This type of training didn't really work on increasing power, but helped to develop control and skill. He had been practicing this type of training with his telekinesis and other seishi powers over the last few years, fine tuning them so that he had it down to an art.
This type of training helped Chichiri clear his mind and gather his thoughts, although he didn't know why it helped so. The "weird" spiritual feeling had disappeared as he had practiced, his mind focusing on the training at hand. The feeling was still lurking in the back of his mind, however, and once he stopped training, the "weird" feeling came back full force, making him uneasy and content at the same time.
He sat down on the training room floor, delicately placing the vase of flowers on the ground in front of him. The flowers in the vase were beautiful; bluish-purplish colored "Faerie Crowns" that Chichiri himself had picked from Taitskun's extensive garden. These flowers were his favorite kind. They were fragrant smelling as well as lovely to look at. Chichiri always kept a vase of fresh Faerie Crowns in his room at Taitskun's palace, enjoying the smell and waking up to the sight of them-
He was then broken out of his flowery-trancelike state by a feeling that almost knocked him out because it was so powerful. His soul was trying to break free of its mortal body, trying to go somewhere… his soul was humming… Chichiri then felt a response, as if his soul had been calling out, and something had answered. It was a faint response, but a response nonetheless.
He stilled his impatient spirit, trying to make sense of what was happening. The "weird" feeling began to grow in its intensity, as if the thing that had answered was coming closer. And as the "weird" feeling kept on becoming more and more powerful as the minutes went by, Chichiri just sat there, waiting for whoever or whatever had responded to find him, not able to move…
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Arashi gasped, shocked at the intensity of the feeling that threatened to overwhelm her. She gazed around her, trying to figure out where the source of this "weird" feeling could be, but saw nothing… she felt a presence though, behind one of the doors… she opened it, and walked through…
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As Chichiri sat on the floor, unable to move, he felt the tug on his soul increase in power, his spirit now singing to an otherworldly tune. Without warning, a *click* sounded behind him, signaling that the door to the training room had been opened… the magic that had made Chichiri unable to move unexpectedly ceased, giving him freedom of movement once more. Gracefully rising to his feet, he turned around to see who or what had come into the chamber.
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The chamber that Arashi entered was about the size of basketball court, with the white-tannish walls and floor that meant that it was a training room of some sort. She saw someone sitting Indian style facing away from her in the middle of the room, not moving (she assumed that it was a guy from the clothes and body). Then, the figure jumped (even though he was still sitting), as if he were startled out of some sort of reverie. He then got up smoothly, turning around so that he directly faced her.
'Do I know him? Him, this feeling… they all seem so familiar to me somehow… why am I drawn to him in such a way? And his name. On the tip of my tongue… one of those words that is in the back of my mind, but I can't quite remember it. Like a foggy memory of something I knew long ago…'
"Who are you? Where did you come from, no da?" The man asked, his voice trembling slightly, as if he were either sad or frightened. Or a combination of the two.
A vision came to Arashi; she saw in her mind-
Two souls-
Intertwined-
Woven so closely together that you couldn't tell one from the other-
Neither one ever truly complete without the other-
A love so strong that it bridged the gap in between two worlds-
Lasting throughout the ages-
Abruptly, a searing pain on Arashi's forehead wiped out any thoughts that had been going through her head. All the pain centered on one point in the middle of her forehead, just like before… only this time, she began to get dizzy. She shouted her agony. Arashi's vision becoming fuzzy as her knees buckled, darkness claiming her before she hit the ground.
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Chichiri turned, seeing a girl that looked just a couple years younger than he was gazing at him. Her clothing was not familiar to him, and she didn't look like she was from anywhere in the area.
"Who are you? Where did you come from, no da?" He asked, voice unsteady for some unknown reason.
The girl's eyes became distant, as if she were remembering something or looking at something far away. At that moment, Chichiri had the same vision as the girl, and for an instant, peered straight into her soul. Immediately, a sharp pain developed on his brow at the exact moment that a bright purple character burst into existence in the middle of the girl's forehead, its light shining brilliantly. The girl shrieked in pain, gray-dark blue eyes clouding over as she collapsed to the ground.
Chichiri ran over to the girl, rolling her over (she was on her stomach) and checking to see if she was all right… her skin was pale, and she looked appeared feverish. He promptly picked her limp form up, also noting that the character was still on her forehead, though its light shone much dimmer than before. Fearing the girl was hurt somehow-and wondering what had just happened-Chichiri, still cradling Arashi in his arms (and his soul still singing), went to the only person he knew who might have any idea what was going on… Taitskun.
End of Chapter One
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Why did Chichiri and Arashi have such similar spiritual feelings as they got closer to one another? How are they connected? What is the symbol on the middle of Arashi's forehead? All these question and more will be answered, if you stayed tuned to the next episode of… As Worlds Collide!
So, what do you guys think of it? Review and tell me what you think!…
-RazzleDazzleFaery