*Copyright: Fushigi Yuugi=Yuu Watase any questions?
*Okay things should get interesting in this next chapter. So people don't ask me it, yes I have seen Escaflowne (only one ep), and no this is not a take off of it.
Chapter 4: Luke's Visions.
It was Friday night, and Luke had the house to himself for the night. Brian and his parents went to a college for Brian to check out (it was estimated that Brian would be ready for college in the next year) and they had brought Emily, the youngest with them. Luke chose not to go. He thought, Friday nights + college= beer and vomit on sidewalks and it turned him off immediately. Besides a quiet house gave him a chance to meditate. He enjoyed meditation because it was extremely relaxing but it was hard to in a noisy house. He also wanted to try this new complicated tarot card spread he had found on the internet. It was one that is supposed to tell your past life. Luke looked at it and figured it would be more like telling a story, possibly made up than anything. He was still interested in giving it a go though.
After about an hour of meditation, Luke picked up his tarot card deck and thought about his most recent past life. He began to shuffle, his consentration unfaltering. Then, using 18 cards, he placed them next to each other in a strange formation. Putting the rest of the deck aside he, having sitting cross-legged, leaned backwards on his hands to get a better look at the spread.
The first position was early childhood. The card of The World was in this position. "Happiness," Luke thought with a grin, "That's good."
The next card represented growing up. In that position was the Two of Cups. "A union, often a romantic one," Luke analysized. "Gee, I wasted no time." He grinned a little, "Especially since in this life I haven't really given much thought to it."
The card right next to "growing up" was an inner conflict. And for some reason, this card made Luke's heart jump into his chest. First off it is not a pretty card to see anyway but the fact it was next to the Two of Cups was indeed ugly. On this card was a heart with three swords sticking through. Luke often interpreted this card as heartache but for some reason his intuition told him that this card was to represent a third party, a third person in a love triangle, a interpretation that some people like to use.
"No wonder I don't like to waste my time with stuff like that!" Luke said outloud in a joking fashion. His heart was still beating.
The next card was supposed to be the next important event in his life. In that place was the Hanged Man. To Luke, this represented sacrifice or a great loss.
In the next 2 spots, which was supposed to be personality, lay the Hermit card. It meant spending time alone, trying to find meaning in one's life, trying to reevaluate yourself. Next to the Hermit card was the Fool. The Fool represented individuality, a person who just tried to make the best of things, a non-confromist who often had a sunny disposition. Luke, raised an eyebrow. This was one of the often inconsistancies in tarot. The Fool and the Hermit sort of conflict with each other. However, Luke thought the human personality is often in conflict.
Next to personality lay occupation. In this spot lay the High Priestess. Since this was supposed to be an occupation, Luke knew to take this literally. "I was some sort of religious person," he thought, "Like a priest or a monk or something."
The next position in the spread was "Inner Occupation." Luke was unsure what this meant. But he got the Magician in this spot. So this meant he worked behind the scenes, giving advice, being somewhat shady. For some reason Luke came to the conclusion it meant he was an advisor.
The next card was the next big event in later life. In this place was The Ten of Wands, the card Luke called affectionatly, "The Bite off more than you can Chew Card" which means that you working incrediably hard against something that might proove to be stressful.
The next one was another event, and to Luke's relief, it was the Chariot upside down. To him this meant that you achieved what you needed but with much loss.
"Man, my life sucked!" Luke exclaimed smiling a little.
The next seven cards represented important people in this life. One of them was the King of Cups. This would be a very kind man who was in the position of authority. The next one was the Lovers. He would normally would have thought this meant his lover in the beginning of his life but something told him it was two different people who cared for each other deeply that he also cared for. The next card was a tricky one to interpret for it was the Six of Cups. Six of Cups meant the past. So he thought it meant childhood friends. The next one was the Page of Wands. This meant a studious youth. After this was the Knight of Swords upside down. Luke interpreted a card like this when it represented a person, as an immature teenager that was often too impulsive for his own good. After this card was Strength. Luke just interpreted that as a very strong person either mentally or physically. The final was the Empress, someone who was nurturing and caring.
The last card was to sum up the reading. It was supposed to know why you came back or what to accomplish. This was the Sun. The Sun represented optomisim and happiness.
Luke scratched his head. This was a tricky one, "I came back to be happier? That is a shallow reason to come back. Or maybe it was to try to be happier despite what happened?" Luke shrugged. The reading was more thourough then he thought it would be.
Since he was bored, he decided to find out where he lived. He took out his map of the world and a pendulum. He liked to use pendulum's for fun. He didn't know if it really worked or not he just liked to test it out. He asked the pendulum where did he used to live in his past life. The pendulum just stayed still on the out side of the map. Luke tried placing it in the Pacific ocean. He asked again. Nothing. The boy tried several methods to get it to work.
"What did I come from another world?" he finally asked. The pendulum went clockwise. Clockwise, as Luke set it to, meant yes. Luke felt his face flush with shock and his heart start to speed up.
Feeling a tiny bit creeped out, Luke put his tarots, his pendulum, and his map away. He paused for a moment, then got up and went into the den down in the basement. He popped in an anime video and began to watch it, absent-mindedly playing with a card on the table, making it "disappear" and "reappear" again. He tried to forget about it but for some reason he began to remember certain instances in his childhood.
When he was very little, he seemed to remember that he liked to get a hold of his mother's green beaded necklace and wear it all the time. His mother thought it was cute but his father did not want him to grow up in "that way". And with the green necklace, he remembered he would stare at things hard, anything from a cheerio to a coffee table. When someone asked what he was doing, Luke would say cheerfully, "I am trying to use my chi to make it fly."
His mother would say, "Silly goose, you can't make things fly!"
Little Luke would say, "I can too! I can even hurt people with my chi. And I can turn into other people too!"
His mother would laugh lovingly and mutter, "What an imagination."
Luke, as he got older, forgot about trying to make things fly and went for palor tricks instead. He would look back on those days and just thought it was one of those eccentricities he had as a kid.
Now, as Luke read the subtitles to his anime but not taking them in, wondered if he was remembering a past life and in his past life he could actually do magic. Maybe magic existed in that other plane of existance.
Luke fell asleep to the anime and had a strange dream. He actually thought he had this dream before, many times in fact. He could see through his bad eye and it was in a place that looked like ancient China. It was raining.
He found himself confronting a young man demanding, "Why did you...? How could you...?"
"Houjun, I didn't mean to..." the man tried say. "Houjun" found himself punching the man. The man punched back. Next thing Luke knew he and the man were brawling. The brawling landed them into the river, which was swollen because of the rain. Luke found himself being dragged along with the current. The man he was fighting with was strugging to stay above the surface.
Houjun said, "Hold on Hikou!" And he realized he grabbed onto Hikou's arm. Houjun tried to hold on for as long as he could, feeling remorse for what he said. Suddenly a jagged, broken log comes straight for Houjun and everything goes black. That's when Luke woke up. His bad eye hurt really badly like it often did after that dream. He used his hand to rub it realizing that he had a blanket on him. His family must have came home and his mom must have put a blanket on him
However, that dream was not the only thing that woke him up. There was a crash that came from the closet, followed by some mumblings, kind of like those of an old woman.
Luke jumped, "Who's there? Mom?"
"No, no, I am not your mother," said the voice. "If I were you would not be in this mess."
"Huh?" Luke was a little confused. "Who are you?! Show yourself!"
"Oh goodness gracious!" the voice continued. Suddenly there was a bright light at the foot of the couch. Luke looked up. There appeared to be a floating old woman who looked very very not happy.
All Luke could do was sputter.
"Oh geez," the old woman sighed, "The old you would not be so high strung!"
Luke asked, "Are you some sort of monster?"
The light around the old woman increased menecingly, "NO I AM NOT! I am an ORACLE!"
Luke ducked under the covers.
"First off, I am Taiitskun," said the woman. "And second off, you are not as they call Luke. Well you shouldn't be anyway."
Luke peeked around the corner of his blanket, "Then who should I be?"
"That stupid American sarcasm!" Taiitskun said.
"No, I was actually quite serious," Luke said.
"Very well," Taiitskun said. "Your life force is not of this world."
This is some weird dream, Luke thought.
"This is not some weird dream," Taiitskun read Luke's thoughts
"Okay if this isn't," Luke said. "How do you proove it?"
The oracle muttered something and Luke almost felt something burn on his right knee. Quickly, Luke rolled up his jeans to see what was on his knee. He thought his heart was about to leap out his mouth. On his knee was a glowing, red kanji symbol that looked like a number sign.
"That's who you are," Taiitskun said indicating the symbol.
Luke blinked, "I am a kanji symbol?"
The light around Taiitskun increased menecingly again, "Symbolically!"
"What does it mean?"
"It means 'well'. It represented your original destiny. In fact you went a little overboard," Luke looked confused. This was too much, even for him who understood most complicated concepts.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
Taiitskun sighed, "You know Chichiri would have understood this perfectly."
"Chichiri..." Luke mumbled sort of. Why did that sound so familiar?
"Ah yes, you do regonize it..." the oracle replied.
Luke blushed a little.
"Listen, we haven't got much time," Taiitskun said. "This world and your old world are in danger." She took out a pink marble and advised Luke to hold it. The marble sank into his body.
Suddenly, as if a new set of memories sank into his body, Luke remembered a whole new life, his old one. He was born Houjun Ri in this whole new country in another world known as Konan. He had a fiancee Kouran who he caught kissing his best friend Hikou. The two fought and like the dream, Hikou died and Houjun's eye got poked out. AFter realizing his whole family was killed along with Kouran and Hikou, Houjun joined a monestary and became a monk. This was to find meaning in his life. He hated himself for what he did and tried to kill himself. However, Taiitskun found him saying he was a Suzaku shichiseishi. This was his purpose in life was to protect the suzaku no miko who would be a resident of a different world. Houjun was now Chichiri, his celestial name. His powers included, transformation, ki attacks, manipulating objects with his ki, and other powerful attacks. He also had a Kasa, a hat that helped him transport and hide and a Kesa, a cape that transported people places. He also often wore a mask that was smiling because he was not always smiling. He also wanted to cover up his scar as well.
The the Suzaku No Miko came to Konan. Her name was Miaka Yuuki. Taiitskun let Chichiri know this and Chichiri rescued Miaka from attack assassins. From that point, Chichiri found meaning in his life, his destiny, to call on Suzaku and protect the miko and to protect the country. It was a rough adventure as many more people close to Chichiri died. However, all was accomplished.
After Miaka went back to her world, Chichiri became an advisor as well as protector to Boushin, the new emperor of Konan. He was helped by another seishi, Tasuki. However, after about a decade, Konan, as well as the rest of their world began to collapse. They were hit with earthquakes, strange weather, and famine. Tasuki had actually died from a flood. Devestated, that the last of his surgette family was dead, Chichiri searched for more meaning After much meditation and praying, Chichiri had realized the reason was because it was not just Tamahome who was reborn in the miko's world, some others had followed them. The other seishi cared so much for their miko and wanted to protect her always. This had caused a rip between the two worlds. The only way to close up the rip was to get the people who caused it in the first place to come back and mend it with all their powers. If this could not happen, both worlds were doomed.
After coming to this conclusion, Chichiri was killed when an earthquake hit and the temple collapsed on him. Chichiri, now just a soul, decided to take action and be reincarned himself to warn the others. He chose the body of Luke who lived under the same house as one of the reincarnated seishi. However, Chichiri forgot his memory would be altered.
"Understand, now, Chichiri?" Taiitskun asked.
"Yes all to well, no da," Luke replied. The Luke side of him was shocked to realized that he used the phrase chichiri was known for.
"You know what to do and how to reach me," Taiitskun replied.
Chichiri nodded.
"Wish you luck," and with that Taiitskun was gone.
********
Luke woke up the next morning still on the couch. The sun was just coming from beyond the horizon.
"That was a weird dream, no da," he thought. He got into a sitting position and rubbed his face. His knee stung a little.
Luke thought, "No way, no da!" He rolled up his jeans and his kanji was still there glowing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow that was a long chapter! I think its my best. I will be honest with you. I love Chichiri! Look forward to the next chapter!
*Okay things should get interesting in this next chapter. So people don't ask me it, yes I have seen Escaflowne (only one ep), and no this is not a take off of it.
Chapter 4: Luke's Visions.
It was Friday night, and Luke had the house to himself for the night. Brian and his parents went to a college for Brian to check out (it was estimated that Brian would be ready for college in the next year) and they had brought Emily, the youngest with them. Luke chose not to go. He thought, Friday nights + college= beer and vomit on sidewalks and it turned him off immediately. Besides a quiet house gave him a chance to meditate. He enjoyed meditation because it was extremely relaxing but it was hard to in a noisy house. He also wanted to try this new complicated tarot card spread he had found on the internet. It was one that is supposed to tell your past life. Luke looked at it and figured it would be more like telling a story, possibly made up than anything. He was still interested in giving it a go though.
After about an hour of meditation, Luke picked up his tarot card deck and thought about his most recent past life. He began to shuffle, his consentration unfaltering. Then, using 18 cards, he placed them next to each other in a strange formation. Putting the rest of the deck aside he, having sitting cross-legged, leaned backwards on his hands to get a better look at the spread.
The first position was early childhood. The card of The World was in this position. "Happiness," Luke thought with a grin, "That's good."
The next card represented growing up. In that position was the Two of Cups. "A union, often a romantic one," Luke analysized. "Gee, I wasted no time." He grinned a little, "Especially since in this life I haven't really given much thought to it."
The card right next to "growing up" was an inner conflict. And for some reason, this card made Luke's heart jump into his chest. First off it is not a pretty card to see anyway but the fact it was next to the Two of Cups was indeed ugly. On this card was a heart with three swords sticking through. Luke often interpreted this card as heartache but for some reason his intuition told him that this card was to represent a third party, a third person in a love triangle, a interpretation that some people like to use.
"No wonder I don't like to waste my time with stuff like that!" Luke said outloud in a joking fashion. His heart was still beating.
The next card was supposed to be the next important event in his life. In that place was the Hanged Man. To Luke, this represented sacrifice or a great loss.
In the next 2 spots, which was supposed to be personality, lay the Hermit card. It meant spending time alone, trying to find meaning in one's life, trying to reevaluate yourself. Next to the Hermit card was the Fool. The Fool represented individuality, a person who just tried to make the best of things, a non-confromist who often had a sunny disposition. Luke, raised an eyebrow. This was one of the often inconsistancies in tarot. The Fool and the Hermit sort of conflict with each other. However, Luke thought the human personality is often in conflict.
Next to personality lay occupation. In this spot lay the High Priestess. Since this was supposed to be an occupation, Luke knew to take this literally. "I was some sort of religious person," he thought, "Like a priest or a monk or something."
The next position in the spread was "Inner Occupation." Luke was unsure what this meant. But he got the Magician in this spot. So this meant he worked behind the scenes, giving advice, being somewhat shady. For some reason Luke came to the conclusion it meant he was an advisor.
The next card was the next big event in later life. In this place was The Ten of Wands, the card Luke called affectionatly, "The Bite off more than you can Chew Card" which means that you working incrediably hard against something that might proove to be stressful.
The next one was another event, and to Luke's relief, it was the Chariot upside down. To him this meant that you achieved what you needed but with much loss.
"Man, my life sucked!" Luke exclaimed smiling a little.
The next seven cards represented important people in this life. One of them was the King of Cups. This would be a very kind man who was in the position of authority. The next one was the Lovers. He would normally would have thought this meant his lover in the beginning of his life but something told him it was two different people who cared for each other deeply that he also cared for. The next card was a tricky one to interpret for it was the Six of Cups. Six of Cups meant the past. So he thought it meant childhood friends. The next one was the Page of Wands. This meant a studious youth. After this was the Knight of Swords upside down. Luke interpreted a card like this when it represented a person, as an immature teenager that was often too impulsive for his own good. After this card was Strength. Luke just interpreted that as a very strong person either mentally or physically. The final was the Empress, someone who was nurturing and caring.
The last card was to sum up the reading. It was supposed to know why you came back or what to accomplish. This was the Sun. The Sun represented optomisim and happiness.
Luke scratched his head. This was a tricky one, "I came back to be happier? That is a shallow reason to come back. Or maybe it was to try to be happier despite what happened?" Luke shrugged. The reading was more thourough then he thought it would be.
Since he was bored, he decided to find out where he lived. He took out his map of the world and a pendulum. He liked to use pendulum's for fun. He didn't know if it really worked or not he just liked to test it out. He asked the pendulum where did he used to live in his past life. The pendulum just stayed still on the out side of the map. Luke tried placing it in the Pacific ocean. He asked again. Nothing. The boy tried several methods to get it to work.
"What did I come from another world?" he finally asked. The pendulum went clockwise. Clockwise, as Luke set it to, meant yes. Luke felt his face flush with shock and his heart start to speed up.
Feeling a tiny bit creeped out, Luke put his tarots, his pendulum, and his map away. He paused for a moment, then got up and went into the den down in the basement. He popped in an anime video and began to watch it, absent-mindedly playing with a card on the table, making it "disappear" and "reappear" again. He tried to forget about it but for some reason he began to remember certain instances in his childhood.
When he was very little, he seemed to remember that he liked to get a hold of his mother's green beaded necklace and wear it all the time. His mother thought it was cute but his father did not want him to grow up in "that way". And with the green necklace, he remembered he would stare at things hard, anything from a cheerio to a coffee table. When someone asked what he was doing, Luke would say cheerfully, "I am trying to use my chi to make it fly."
His mother would say, "Silly goose, you can't make things fly!"
Little Luke would say, "I can too! I can even hurt people with my chi. And I can turn into other people too!"
His mother would laugh lovingly and mutter, "What an imagination."
Luke, as he got older, forgot about trying to make things fly and went for palor tricks instead. He would look back on those days and just thought it was one of those eccentricities he had as a kid.
Now, as Luke read the subtitles to his anime but not taking them in, wondered if he was remembering a past life and in his past life he could actually do magic. Maybe magic existed in that other plane of existance.
Luke fell asleep to the anime and had a strange dream. He actually thought he had this dream before, many times in fact. He could see through his bad eye and it was in a place that looked like ancient China. It was raining.
He found himself confronting a young man demanding, "Why did you...? How could you...?"
"Houjun, I didn't mean to..." the man tried say. "Houjun" found himself punching the man. The man punched back. Next thing Luke knew he and the man were brawling. The brawling landed them into the river, which was swollen because of the rain. Luke found himself being dragged along with the current. The man he was fighting with was strugging to stay above the surface.
Houjun said, "Hold on Hikou!" And he realized he grabbed onto Hikou's arm. Houjun tried to hold on for as long as he could, feeling remorse for what he said. Suddenly a jagged, broken log comes straight for Houjun and everything goes black. That's when Luke woke up. His bad eye hurt really badly like it often did after that dream. He used his hand to rub it realizing that he had a blanket on him. His family must have came home and his mom must have put a blanket on him
However, that dream was not the only thing that woke him up. There was a crash that came from the closet, followed by some mumblings, kind of like those of an old woman.
Luke jumped, "Who's there? Mom?"
"No, no, I am not your mother," said the voice. "If I were you would not be in this mess."
"Huh?" Luke was a little confused. "Who are you?! Show yourself!"
"Oh goodness gracious!" the voice continued. Suddenly there was a bright light at the foot of the couch. Luke looked up. There appeared to be a floating old woman who looked very very not happy.
All Luke could do was sputter.
"Oh geez," the old woman sighed, "The old you would not be so high strung!"
Luke asked, "Are you some sort of monster?"
The light around the old woman increased menecingly, "NO I AM NOT! I am an ORACLE!"
Luke ducked under the covers.
"First off, I am Taiitskun," said the woman. "And second off, you are not as they call Luke. Well you shouldn't be anyway."
Luke peeked around the corner of his blanket, "Then who should I be?"
"That stupid American sarcasm!" Taiitskun said.
"No, I was actually quite serious," Luke said.
"Very well," Taiitskun said. "Your life force is not of this world."
This is some weird dream, Luke thought.
"This is not some weird dream," Taiitskun read Luke's thoughts
"Okay if this isn't," Luke said. "How do you proove it?"
The oracle muttered something and Luke almost felt something burn on his right knee. Quickly, Luke rolled up his jeans to see what was on his knee. He thought his heart was about to leap out his mouth. On his knee was a glowing, red kanji symbol that looked like a number sign.
"That's who you are," Taiitskun said indicating the symbol.
Luke blinked, "I am a kanji symbol?"
The light around Taiitskun increased menecingly again, "Symbolically!"
"What does it mean?"
"It means 'well'. It represented your original destiny. In fact you went a little overboard," Luke looked confused. This was too much, even for him who understood most complicated concepts.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
Taiitskun sighed, "You know Chichiri would have understood this perfectly."
"Chichiri..." Luke mumbled sort of. Why did that sound so familiar?
"Ah yes, you do regonize it..." the oracle replied.
Luke blushed a little.
"Listen, we haven't got much time," Taiitskun said. "This world and your old world are in danger." She took out a pink marble and advised Luke to hold it. The marble sank into his body.
Suddenly, as if a new set of memories sank into his body, Luke remembered a whole new life, his old one. He was born Houjun Ri in this whole new country in another world known as Konan. He had a fiancee Kouran who he caught kissing his best friend Hikou. The two fought and like the dream, Hikou died and Houjun's eye got poked out. AFter realizing his whole family was killed along with Kouran and Hikou, Houjun joined a monestary and became a monk. This was to find meaning in his life. He hated himself for what he did and tried to kill himself. However, Taiitskun found him saying he was a Suzaku shichiseishi. This was his purpose in life was to protect the suzaku no miko who would be a resident of a different world. Houjun was now Chichiri, his celestial name. His powers included, transformation, ki attacks, manipulating objects with his ki, and other powerful attacks. He also had a Kasa, a hat that helped him transport and hide and a Kesa, a cape that transported people places. He also often wore a mask that was smiling because he was not always smiling. He also wanted to cover up his scar as well.
The the Suzaku No Miko came to Konan. Her name was Miaka Yuuki. Taiitskun let Chichiri know this and Chichiri rescued Miaka from attack assassins. From that point, Chichiri found meaning in his life, his destiny, to call on Suzaku and protect the miko and to protect the country. It was a rough adventure as many more people close to Chichiri died. However, all was accomplished.
After Miaka went back to her world, Chichiri became an advisor as well as protector to Boushin, the new emperor of Konan. He was helped by another seishi, Tasuki. However, after about a decade, Konan, as well as the rest of their world began to collapse. They were hit with earthquakes, strange weather, and famine. Tasuki had actually died from a flood. Devestated, that the last of his surgette family was dead, Chichiri searched for more meaning After much meditation and praying, Chichiri had realized the reason was because it was not just Tamahome who was reborn in the miko's world, some others had followed them. The other seishi cared so much for their miko and wanted to protect her always. This had caused a rip between the two worlds. The only way to close up the rip was to get the people who caused it in the first place to come back and mend it with all their powers. If this could not happen, both worlds were doomed.
After coming to this conclusion, Chichiri was killed when an earthquake hit and the temple collapsed on him. Chichiri, now just a soul, decided to take action and be reincarned himself to warn the others. He chose the body of Luke who lived under the same house as one of the reincarnated seishi. However, Chichiri forgot his memory would be altered.
"Understand, now, Chichiri?" Taiitskun asked.
"Yes all to well, no da," Luke replied. The Luke side of him was shocked to realized that he used the phrase chichiri was known for.
"You know what to do and how to reach me," Taiitskun replied.
Chichiri nodded.
"Wish you luck," and with that Taiitskun was gone.
********
Luke woke up the next morning still on the couch. The sun was just coming from beyond the horizon.
"That was a weird dream, no da," he thought. He got into a sitting position and rubbed his face. His knee stung a little.
Luke thought, "No way, no da!" He rolled up his jeans and his kanji was still there glowing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow that was a long chapter! I think its my best. I will be honest with you. I love Chichiri! Look forward to the next chapter!