Suzaku no Saiai: Part 1


A New Legend

Standard disclaimer: All of the Fushigi Yuugi characters are the property of
Watase Yuu, Shogakukan, Studio Pierrot, Bandai Visual, TV Tokyo, and Movic.
Please don't sue me; I'm just a poor college student. Kourin and Jin Feng are my
original characters. Feel free to use them, but please let me know
first(jscaife@austin.rr.com)

"Nuriko's not dead!" Miaka screamed, running away from Tamahome.
"Miaka!" he called after her desperately before starting to follow.
The remaining four seishi stood stunned by the death of their comrade. Chichiri
solemnly removed his mask and began praying over the body. All of them
realized that only time would heal the wound caused by Nuriko's death.
Suddenly, the sky opened with a flash of brilliant crimson light, and a girl
appeared before the startled group. "Who the hell are you, and where the fuck
am I?"
The girl swept her gaze over the cluster of men and tried to keep the shock and
disgust out of her face. "Great, I get swept away in a ball of red light to the middle
of nowhere, and the only people around are a strange guy with a fan, fangs, and
earrings, a weirdo with funky, blue - of all colours- hair, a stupid oaf with a cat,
and a little boy!" she muttered angrily. "To top it off, this place is freezing!" She
scanned the strange group again and finally noticed the fifth figure who was
apparently sleeping peacefully on the ground. "Are you all stupid?!" she
demanded harshly. "Your buddy will probably die if you let him...her...sleep in the
snow like that."
Four startled pairs of eyes stared back at her. "Ojousama, that's impossible,"
stated the big man with the cat.
"Why's that? Is he superhuman or something?" the girl quipped sarcastically.
The blue-haired man stepped forward and restrained the man with the fan. "I'm
afraid you misunderstood my companion. You see, Nuriko is already dead."
"You fools, didn't you try a chi transfusion or anything?!" she demanded.
"Mitsukake-san," asked the little boy,"what is the strange woman talking about?"
"Ojousama, none of us can manipulate chi well enough to successfully complete
that procedure," the big man said.
"Maybe there actually is a point in my being here then," she smiled tightly. "How
long has he been dead? If it's longer than a couple of hours I can't do anything,
so don't ask me to bring your dead mothers back or anything funny, okay?"
"He's only been dead a few minutes," a new voice broke in.
The girl turned to find another young man and an odongoed, brown-haired girl
looking at her hopefully.
"Can you really bring Nuriko back to life?" the odongoed girl asked. "Will you
really help us?"
"As a healer it is my duty to provide aid to any who require it," the other girl
replied sharply,"regardless of whether I know them or not. However, I need all of
your help. When I'm transferring my chi, all of my defenses are lowered. If I am
even startled, I could lose control, and both of us could die. Hey, big guy,
Mitsukake was it, you seem to have some healing power yourself, so you get to
be my assistant. You there, with the blue hair, have a particularly strong aura, so
I want you to create a barrier around us. The rest of you should grab a weapon
and defend blue hair and us two, wakatta?"
The brown-haired girl ran to the horses and carefully hefted a large sword with
both hands. It was two thirds as tall as she was, and she could barely lift the tip
from the ground. The strange girl restrained a groan.
"Can you really use that, doll face?" she asked disparagingly. "Are you strong
enought to kill for someone you love?"
The other girl met her gaze steadily. "To bring Nuriko back, I'm capable of doing
anything," she replied with conviction.
"I certainly hope so! Okay, I'm ready to start. Listen up, defenders! Anything that
moves is a possible threat. Also, no matter what I do, don't stop me. My methods
may seem peculiar, but I know that they work. Mitsukake, do you have the power
to heal your pal's outer wounds, so I don't have to expend energy on that?"
The big man nodded in assent, and the odd girl really smiled for the first time.
"Then let us start. Time is of the essence." She waited patiently as the big man
gently dusted the corpse with some sort of magical water which mended the
ruined clothing as well as closing the gaping body wounds. As soon as he was
done, the girl knelt in the snow and began unbuttoning her patient's shirt. She
carefully placed her hands on the young man's chest before bending her head to
cover the corpse's lips with her own. A muffled gasp came from the man
maintaining the barrier, but true to his word he did nothing. The young healer
steeled herself and carefully sent her spirit into her patient's mind.
How can one describe being in another person's mind? There is the awkward,
floating sensation of being in a form that is cohesive but not truly solid. Also,
each individual's mind is different, so no two healing experiences is the same.
There is simply no way to generalize. This young man's mind had no visible
organization at all. It was an open space filled with rainbows, flowers, and
butterflies. Each object carried one pastel hued memory including ones of the
people she had just met.
"This has got to be the most peculiar male mind I've ever seen," the girl
murmured. "I don't have any idea where to start looking down here, but this
'Nuriko's' psyche must be around here somewhere!"
"Sumimasen," interrupted a childish voice, "but are you looking for my brother?"
She turned around in surprise. A young girl of about eight or nine years old knelt
on a rich purple flower a few feet away. The child's hair was exactly the same
hue as the flower, and she bore a striking resemblance to the patient. "Wait a
second, you're only one of this 'Nuriko's' memories. You shouldn't be able to talk
to me!"
The child shook her head sadly. "Niichan never resigned himself to my death,
and, as a result, I've been trapped in his mind ever since. He tried to become a
woman and live for me, but to do so he forced his true personality to the depths
of his mind."
"So your brother actually became you?" the older girl queried incredulously.
"Not exactly; he became the person he would have been if he had been born
female," the child answered gravely. "Because of Niichan's obsession, I have not
been able to rest for eight years. I am weary and long to rest before being reborn.
If I call my brother for you, will you take him to where he belongs up there?" The
child gestured impatiently towards a small building near the top of the open
space.
"Is that your brother's conscious self?" the girl asked, and when her companion
nodded she continued,"Are you asking me to reinforce your older brother's
personality and erase everything except his memory from his mind?!"
The child laughed and clapped her hands in delight. "I knew that you would
understand! After you save him, why don't you marry Niichan? I like you."
The older girl blushed before responding. "Thank you for offering, but I think that
your niichan and I will have to pick our spouses for ourselves. Besides I'm only
nineteen."
"You're nineteen, and you haven't married yet?" the child cried in shock. "You'd
better hurry or no one will want you! Besides Niichan is a very nice boy. Do think
about it!"
"Why don't you call your brother before we discuss marriage?" the older girl
suggested weakly. "I have to bring him back to life first."
"I suppose so, the little girl smiled mischievously. "A dead husband wouldn't be
very good in bed, now, would he?" Before her companion recovered from the
shock, the child called out, "Ryuuen-niichan, come out. We have a visitor!"
A sullen male voice replied, "Kourin, you know that I don't want to see anyone!
There are reasons I hide down here, you know!"
"It's a girl, Niichan, for you. Besides," she added slyly, "if you don't come out
Suzaku no Miko will be very sad."
"Miaka's where? Where did she go?" An almost beautiful young man stumbled
eagerly from behind one of the rainbows. "Kourin, where'd Miaka go?"
The little girl stuck her tongue out at her big brother. "I never said she was here,
Niichan. This is our visitor." She gestured towards the other girl.
The young man circled her, studying her appraisingly. "You look sort of like Yui-
chan, but she has blond hair, and yours is light brown, and Yui's a lot thinner. Oh,
and why are you dressed like a man?"
The subject of his intense scrutiny snorted inelegantly. "Thanks for the analysis
on my beauty or rather my lack thereof!" As far as my clothing goes, you're not
one to talk. You were a cross dresser while you were alive! Besides where I
come from women dress like this all of the time."
"Your culture is okay with women wearing pants?" the young man asked
incredulously. "You know, you're not bad looking, but Miaka is much cuter."
"If Miaka's the girl with the odongos, I got the impression that she's not too quick
on the uptake," his 'rescuer'retorted. "Besides she seems to already be taken!"
"What makes you think that you have a right to criticize Miaka?" Kourin's niichan
argued.
The young girl broke in suddenly. "Stop it, you two! Ryuuen, I want you to please
go with this nice lady. She came all this way to get you."
"I'm not going anywhere with that harpy!" her brother declared firmly.
"Good, because I wouldn't take you with me if you paid me!" the girl returned.
"You can rot down here for all I care. Come on, Kourin-chan, let's go!"
"But, Oneesan, you promised that you'd take Niichan," the child cried piteously.
"Onegai, Oneesan, he didn't really mean what he said."
"Oh, all right!" the girl snapped. She grabbed the young man's arm and began to
pull him upward. "Remember, Kourin-chan, it's only because you asked me to."
"Niichan, I love you," Kourin called out, "and please think about marrying the nice
oneesan."
"That kid never gives up!" the girl thought to herself as she and Nuriko shot up
into the light and disappeared in a flash.
Kourin felt her spirit finally slipping away from the flower she had been bound to
for so long. "Arigatou, Oneesan," she whispered, and, then, she, too, was gone.
The girl's next sensation was the feel of a pair of strong arms crushing her to
someone's chest and a pair of soft, warm lips caressing her own. She shoved at
the offending chest in horror, and the arms instantly released. Without even
looking at the perpetrator she pulled back and viciously slapped him across the
face. "You hentai! What do you think you're doing?!"
The offender sat up, and she found herself staring into the burgundy eyes of
Kourin's niichan. "Gomen nasai, ojousama," he said in a more adult sounding
version of his mental voice. "I thought you were someone else."

Glossary
? seishi -- This literally means 'constellation', but in Fushigi Yuugi it refers to the
seven guardians or protectors of the priestess of each animal god.
? ojousama -- lady or miss
? -san, -chan, and -sama -- These are all honourifics used in Japanese. San is
generally used when you are being polite. Chan is normally used for young girls
or small or cute things. It can also be used to imply intimacy. Sama is mainly used
like lord or lady in English.
? odongos -- odongos are Japanese buns filled with beans or meat. Odongos refers
to a hair style that looks like these buns i.e. Sailor Moon.
? chi -- In Asian religions it refers to life energy. The 'force' in "Star Wars" was
based on the ideas of chi.
? sumimasen -- I'm sorry, excuse me
? oniisan, oniichan, niichan -- older brother, it can also be used to refer to any older
male
? miko -- a priestess or shamaness
? oneesan, oneechan, neechan -- older sister, like oniisan it can be used to refer to
any older female. Neechan can also be used like babe in English.
? Arigatou, doomo arigatou gozaimasu -- Thank you
? hentai -- pervert
? gomen nasai -- less formal form of "I'm sorry"

Comments? Questions?
c 1997 jscaife@austin.rr.com