Chapter 2
Miaka woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. Sluggishly she stuck a hand out to shut the thing up. She waved her hand in the air trying to find the obnoxiously loud annoyance, but not having much luck. Finally, after listening to it squeal for a couple of minutes, she looked up and punched the thing, shutting it up. She then slumped back into bed hoping to get a couple more minutes of sleep. But instead of peaceful sleep, she was interrupted by her more than bright and cheery brother.
"Miaka..." he droned, "you have got to get up." He shook put a hand on her shoulder and shook her. The only response he got was, "Mrph." She was trying her best to ignore him which failed miserably when he started tickling her feet. So, purely out of reflex, she kicked him in the closest part of him available. Which just happened to be his gut. He groaned and doubled over, but fortunately, she didn't hurt him too bad. When he got over his pain, he looked up only to see her alarm clock, or what was left of it.
"Miaka..." He droned again, this time with a 'you-did-something-wrong-and-mom's-gonna-kill-you' tone of voice. "This is the third clock you've destroyed this month! You can't keep doing this."
He held the remains of the clock up for Miaka to see. She didn't know she had hit it that hard. The case of the thing looked like a smushed sandwich. She groaned at seeing it, she knew her mother was not going to be happy about having to buy her another clock.
Keisuke set the clock down and looked at her. "You better get up, Mom's making breakfast and you can't be late to school anymore. I end up being late for class every time I have to take you." With that, he walked out the door and left her to her morning ritual.
She stumbled out of bed and tried to stretch. As she stretched, every muscle seemed to scream at her. So she stopped trying. 'I should know better then to try to sleep like a pretzel.' She went to the bathroom and took a shower and then put on her school uniform after she had dried herself off. She brushed out her hair and left it down for the day. She liked it down like this. On top of the fact that Taka liked it like that, since it gave him something to play with, it made her look older and more mature. Yui always joked at her about needing all the help she could get when it comes to her looking more mature. That always got a smack out of Miaka.
Miaka's musings were interrupted by her mother's shrill voice yelling, "Breakfast's ready!!" Miaka didn't need anymore persuasion, she was in the kitchen with her book bag in a minute. Miaka pigged out on her mother's food as she always did before she was rushed out the door to catch the community train.
After traveling for half an hour to get to Yosu Budai Academy, she finally found her way to the front steps of the school. She was greeted by Yui who was smiling and laughing with the other girls that followed her. What followed then was what happened every morning; greetings, playful taunting, laughing, giggling, all the things that girls did on mornings like this. Just as Miaka and the other girls were about to head into the building, a familiar voice called out and caught the girls' attentions.
"Miaka!" With a smile on her face, Miaka turned to see Taka running to catch up to her. "Morning Taka-san!" She reached out to him and he took her in his arms and gave her a big, breathtaking, 'I'm-gonna-absorb-you-into-my-body' bear hug. Miaka gave out a delighted squeak and smiled from ear to ear.
The other girls just stared and Yui gave a bored look and rolled her eyes. "Get a room, guys." After Taka and Miaka separated, they all went inside and the school day began.
The day went pretty much like every school day did; go to class, listen to a boring lecture, fight to stay awake and hope the teacher didn't call on you. Miaka did pretty well until fourth period. It was English and Miaka never did well in that class. She always had to have Yui take her through every word of her homework. So, to little surprise, Miaka started to dose off in the middle of class.
"Miaka," she felt a soft touch on her shoulder. "Miaka," the voice said again. That voice... That voice sounded oddly familiar. Miaka slowly opened her sluggish eyelids to look strait into the face of Chichiri. 'Chichiri? Could it really be him?' Excitedly, Miaka snapped her arms up and snagged him into an affectionate hug. Startled, Chichiri froze for a second and then relaxed and returned the hug.
"Morning, Miaka. You seem glad to see me, no da. You better get up, we have a long day ahead of us, no da." With that, he pulled from her grip and turned away.
As she watched him go, she looked around at her surroundings. They were in a clearing in the middle of a lush forest. Trees were in every direction and birds and other forest creatures made pleasant sounds that could lull you to sleep. Everything seemed perfect here. The sun was shining through the leaves of the trees which caused sunbeams that lit up different spots on the forest floor. She followed one of the sunbeams and found Chichiri. He seemed to glow in the light. She watched him as he packed up the camping supplies.
She started to get up when a movement over to her left caught her eye. Deep in the forest there was a strange eerie shadow that seemed to be getting bigger very fast. No, it wasn't getting bigger, it was getting closer. Miaka gave a startled cry that caught Chichiri's attention. He turned around in time to see the monstrous creature attack him and start to tear him apart. Vicious claws and teeth tore into his soft skin and Miaka could feel his blood curdling scream echo in her head. The beast ripped out Chichiri's throat and silenced him permanently. Miaka watched in horror as the beast seemed to satisfy its blood lust with the seishi's body.
She gave a terrified whimper which caught the creature's attention. It looked up and locked Miaka in a death gaze. It nonchalantly threw the mangled mess of blood and gore to the side and slowly moved in her direction. It had a possessed, evil look in its dark, lifeless eyes. A sinister smile that dripped with blood slowly took possession of its face. It reached for her with a giant black hand that had six inch talons on each of its fingers. Mortified, Miaka finally found her vocal cords and let out a scream that would make dogs cry. The hand grabbed her and started to shake her violently. The beast opened its mouth and started to call her name.
"Miaka! Miaka, snap out of it!!" As she stared, the vision of the beast phased out slowly and was replaced by a worried teacher. "Miaka, are you alright? I've never seen anyone act like that in my class. I'd like to think that English wasn't so scary." His false attempt to be comical eluded Miaka as she stared at the teacher with a haunted look in her eyes.
Yui, who sat behind her, just giggled, "You know Miaka, if you are going to sleep in class, you might not want to take your dreams so seriously." Her callous remark was enough to bring Miaka out of her trance. She looked around only to find every pair of eyes in the class locked on her. She felt so embarrassed and her face turned a shade of red that made the kids around her snicker. At that moment, all she wanted to do was crawl under one of the floor tiles and die.
The rest of the class period felt like an eternity, even though there was only five minutes left. The bell finally rang and the class busted into pandemonium. The students quickly gather their things and shuffled out of the room laughing and joking and giving Miaka amused looks.
"So what were you dreaming about this time?" Yui asked with an amused look to match the other students.
"I don't want to talk about it," was the only thing Miaka could come up with.
It was lunch time, and she and Yui made there way through the crowd to the lunch room. Miaka was only half aware of the people around her as she was lost in her thoughts about Chichiri. 'What did all this mean? Was he going to die? What was that thing that attacked him?'
Without knowing it, she went head first into Taka's chest and almost screamed at the contact. Taka grabbed her and tried to calm her down. "Take it easy, Miaka, it's just me." She looked up at him and busted into to tears. She buried her face into his chest and just sobbed uncontrollably. Taka was totally confused and didn't know what to make of it. He brought his arms around her shoulders and just held her. He looked at Yui hoping for some explanation for her strange behavior. All he got was a helpless sigh and a shrug.
"She fell asleep in class again and apparently had a pretty bad nightmare." Yui had that amused look on her face still and that only confused Taka even more. He slowly rubbed Miaka's back and tried to calm her down. She was attracting a lot of attention which only added to Yui's amusement and annoyed Taka. Finally getting sick of the stares and Yui's sense of humor, or lack there of, Taka decided to take Miaka outside where there were less people and more breathing space. Miaka was completely distraught and not too interested in moving so he ended up half dragging, half carrying her out of the building. He brought her to the fountain the school had just constructed and sat her on its lip. He kneel in front of her and tried to get her to calm down. Her sobbing subsided after a couple of minutes and he was finally able to ask her what was bothering her so badly.
"Miaka, talk to me. What's going on? Why are you so upset?" All she could do was stare at him. She couldn't bring herself to admit what she had seen. It all felt so real to her and she just could not get Chichiri's scream out of her head. She was so scared that what she dreamed about might actually happen. How else could she explain the picture moving in the book last night? Something was either happening to Chichiri or was going to happen to him. Tears started rolling down her face again when she realized this. She knew she had to get into the book to see him. She had to know what was going on.
She felt a finger brush against her cheek, wiping away a stray tear. She looked at Taka and was lost in that concerned look that often took over Tamahome's face when he was worried about her.
"Tamahome..." she whispered.
Taka's face twisted in confusion. "Who is Tamahome?" he asked.
She looked at him with a slightly shocked look. She had forgotten that he didn't remember anything. How could she even begin to explain what had been happening if he didn't remember everything that happened? How could she explain to him that he was Tamahome.
"Miaka," he pressured, "who is Tamahome?"
She looked at him, "You are, Taka." She took in a deep breath, "you are Tamahome."
She got up and headed towards the front of the grounds. Taka was flabbergasted. He didn't know what to make of that. He got up and ran after her.
"What do you mean, I am?" She kept walking and seemed to be off in her own world again. Taka grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. "Miaka, you are really confusing me. First you collapse in my arms and cry and you won't even tell me why and now you are calling by this strange name. What is going on with you?"
"You don't remember anything, do you?" He gave her a blank look and she took that as a no. "Do you remember Suzaku or Konan?" He looked at her with a thoroughly confused look.
"Isn't Suzaku one of those ancient Chinese mythical creatures?"
Miaka gawked. Even she thought he was more versed in history than that. "Suzaku is one of the four beast gods of ancient China. Konan was the county the worshiped him."
Taka didn't know what to say. He had heard something about this. But he didn't remember where. Now that he thought about it, those name did seem familiar, like he did know then at one time. He shook his head trying to clear it. 'What am I thinking? I've never heard this stuff before. What have I got to do with a beast god?' He gave Miaka another confused look and gestured for her to continue.
"There were seven warriors that were blessed by Suzaku with special abilities and were dedicated to protecting Konan and the priestess of Suzaku. They were called celestial warriors. They were identified by the special marks on their bodies, and were called by the names of those marks. There was Chiriko, Mitsukake, Chichiri, Tasuki, Nuriko, Hotohori, and Tamahome. You were once Tamahome. And I was the priestess of Suzaku. Still am, I guess." She paused for a moment to look at Taka to see how he was taking this. She could tell by the incredulous look he was giving her, he didn't quite believe her. "I have to go home. There's something I have to do and I can't stay here any longer."
"You're leaving now? School isn't over yet."
"Doesn't matter, I have to go." After saying that, Miaka ran off toward the train station. Taka called after her, but didn't follow. He was totally confused but wasn't about to leave school. He decided he was going to go talk to Yui and find out from her what was going on.
Miaka got to the station and caught the next train that was heading towards her apartment. When she got there, there was no one home. Her mother was off at work and her brother was still at school. She went to her room and emptied out her book bag onto her bed. She pulled out various clothes and underwear and stuffed them into her pack. Then she gathered her personal items and packed those. She looked around to see what else she might need. She looked at the books she had dumped on her bed. Might as well try to study while I have the extra time. She grabbed the math book, English book, and a notebook and stuffed them in. She went to the kitchen and grabbed some snacks to take too. After finishing all her packing, she made sure everything was in order before going to the book.
She pulled it off the shelf and studied it intently, remembering what had happened the night before. She wasn't sure she wanted to look at the picture again, afraid Chichiri would look at her and then get eaten. She shook her head and called herself silly for thinking that.
She opened the book and turned to the same picture. Sure enough, the picture was unchanged, looking as it always did. She gripped her bag and searched through the pages. She went to every picture and found nothing unusual. Finding everything to be normal, she closed the book and clutched it to her body. She called on Suzaku to bring her to Chichiri hoping he would be there in one piece. As soon as she called Suzaku, a familiar red light surrounded her and swallowed her up. From where she was standing in her room, only the book remained.
Miaka woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. Sluggishly she stuck a hand out to shut the thing up. She waved her hand in the air trying to find the obnoxiously loud annoyance, but not having much luck. Finally, after listening to it squeal for a couple of minutes, she looked up and punched the thing, shutting it up. She then slumped back into bed hoping to get a couple more minutes of sleep. But instead of peaceful sleep, she was interrupted by her more than bright and cheery brother.
"Miaka..." he droned, "you have got to get up." He shook put a hand on her shoulder and shook her. The only response he got was, "Mrph." She was trying her best to ignore him which failed miserably when he started tickling her feet. So, purely out of reflex, she kicked him in the closest part of him available. Which just happened to be his gut. He groaned and doubled over, but fortunately, she didn't hurt him too bad. When he got over his pain, he looked up only to see her alarm clock, or what was left of it.
"Miaka..." He droned again, this time with a 'you-did-something-wrong-and-mom's-gonna-kill-you' tone of voice. "This is the third clock you've destroyed this month! You can't keep doing this."
He held the remains of the clock up for Miaka to see. She didn't know she had hit it that hard. The case of the thing looked like a smushed sandwich. She groaned at seeing it, she knew her mother was not going to be happy about having to buy her another clock.
Keisuke set the clock down and looked at her. "You better get up, Mom's making breakfast and you can't be late to school anymore. I end up being late for class every time I have to take you." With that, he walked out the door and left her to her morning ritual.
She stumbled out of bed and tried to stretch. As she stretched, every muscle seemed to scream at her. So she stopped trying. 'I should know better then to try to sleep like a pretzel.' She went to the bathroom and took a shower and then put on her school uniform after she had dried herself off. She brushed out her hair and left it down for the day. She liked it down like this. On top of the fact that Taka liked it like that, since it gave him something to play with, it made her look older and more mature. Yui always joked at her about needing all the help she could get when it comes to her looking more mature. That always got a smack out of Miaka.
Miaka's musings were interrupted by her mother's shrill voice yelling, "Breakfast's ready!!" Miaka didn't need anymore persuasion, she was in the kitchen with her book bag in a minute. Miaka pigged out on her mother's food as she always did before she was rushed out the door to catch the community train.
After traveling for half an hour to get to Yosu Budai Academy, she finally found her way to the front steps of the school. She was greeted by Yui who was smiling and laughing with the other girls that followed her. What followed then was what happened every morning; greetings, playful taunting, laughing, giggling, all the things that girls did on mornings like this. Just as Miaka and the other girls were about to head into the building, a familiar voice called out and caught the girls' attentions.
"Miaka!" With a smile on her face, Miaka turned to see Taka running to catch up to her. "Morning Taka-san!" She reached out to him and he took her in his arms and gave her a big, breathtaking, 'I'm-gonna-absorb-you-into-my-body' bear hug. Miaka gave out a delighted squeak and smiled from ear to ear.
The other girls just stared and Yui gave a bored look and rolled her eyes. "Get a room, guys." After Taka and Miaka separated, they all went inside and the school day began.
The day went pretty much like every school day did; go to class, listen to a boring lecture, fight to stay awake and hope the teacher didn't call on you. Miaka did pretty well until fourth period. It was English and Miaka never did well in that class. She always had to have Yui take her through every word of her homework. So, to little surprise, Miaka started to dose off in the middle of class.
"Miaka," she felt a soft touch on her shoulder. "Miaka," the voice said again. That voice... That voice sounded oddly familiar. Miaka slowly opened her sluggish eyelids to look strait into the face of Chichiri. 'Chichiri? Could it really be him?' Excitedly, Miaka snapped her arms up and snagged him into an affectionate hug. Startled, Chichiri froze for a second and then relaxed and returned the hug.
"Morning, Miaka. You seem glad to see me, no da. You better get up, we have a long day ahead of us, no da." With that, he pulled from her grip and turned away.
As she watched him go, she looked around at her surroundings. They were in a clearing in the middle of a lush forest. Trees were in every direction and birds and other forest creatures made pleasant sounds that could lull you to sleep. Everything seemed perfect here. The sun was shining through the leaves of the trees which caused sunbeams that lit up different spots on the forest floor. She followed one of the sunbeams and found Chichiri. He seemed to glow in the light. She watched him as he packed up the camping supplies.
She started to get up when a movement over to her left caught her eye. Deep in the forest there was a strange eerie shadow that seemed to be getting bigger very fast. No, it wasn't getting bigger, it was getting closer. Miaka gave a startled cry that caught Chichiri's attention. He turned around in time to see the monstrous creature attack him and start to tear him apart. Vicious claws and teeth tore into his soft skin and Miaka could feel his blood curdling scream echo in her head. The beast ripped out Chichiri's throat and silenced him permanently. Miaka watched in horror as the beast seemed to satisfy its blood lust with the seishi's body.
She gave a terrified whimper which caught the creature's attention. It looked up and locked Miaka in a death gaze. It nonchalantly threw the mangled mess of blood and gore to the side and slowly moved in her direction. It had a possessed, evil look in its dark, lifeless eyes. A sinister smile that dripped with blood slowly took possession of its face. It reached for her with a giant black hand that had six inch talons on each of its fingers. Mortified, Miaka finally found her vocal cords and let out a scream that would make dogs cry. The hand grabbed her and started to shake her violently. The beast opened its mouth and started to call her name.
"Miaka! Miaka, snap out of it!!" As she stared, the vision of the beast phased out slowly and was replaced by a worried teacher. "Miaka, are you alright? I've never seen anyone act like that in my class. I'd like to think that English wasn't so scary." His false attempt to be comical eluded Miaka as she stared at the teacher with a haunted look in her eyes.
Yui, who sat behind her, just giggled, "You know Miaka, if you are going to sleep in class, you might not want to take your dreams so seriously." Her callous remark was enough to bring Miaka out of her trance. She looked around only to find every pair of eyes in the class locked on her. She felt so embarrassed and her face turned a shade of red that made the kids around her snicker. At that moment, all she wanted to do was crawl under one of the floor tiles and die.
The rest of the class period felt like an eternity, even though there was only five minutes left. The bell finally rang and the class busted into pandemonium. The students quickly gather their things and shuffled out of the room laughing and joking and giving Miaka amused looks.
"So what were you dreaming about this time?" Yui asked with an amused look to match the other students.
"I don't want to talk about it," was the only thing Miaka could come up with.
It was lunch time, and she and Yui made there way through the crowd to the lunch room. Miaka was only half aware of the people around her as she was lost in her thoughts about Chichiri. 'What did all this mean? Was he going to die? What was that thing that attacked him?'
Without knowing it, she went head first into Taka's chest and almost screamed at the contact. Taka grabbed her and tried to calm her down. "Take it easy, Miaka, it's just me." She looked up at him and busted into to tears. She buried her face into his chest and just sobbed uncontrollably. Taka was totally confused and didn't know what to make of it. He brought his arms around her shoulders and just held her. He looked at Yui hoping for some explanation for her strange behavior. All he got was a helpless sigh and a shrug.
"She fell asleep in class again and apparently had a pretty bad nightmare." Yui had that amused look on her face still and that only confused Taka even more. He slowly rubbed Miaka's back and tried to calm her down. She was attracting a lot of attention which only added to Yui's amusement and annoyed Taka. Finally getting sick of the stares and Yui's sense of humor, or lack there of, Taka decided to take Miaka outside where there were less people and more breathing space. Miaka was completely distraught and not too interested in moving so he ended up half dragging, half carrying her out of the building. He brought her to the fountain the school had just constructed and sat her on its lip. He kneel in front of her and tried to get her to calm down. Her sobbing subsided after a couple of minutes and he was finally able to ask her what was bothering her so badly.
"Miaka, talk to me. What's going on? Why are you so upset?" All she could do was stare at him. She couldn't bring herself to admit what she had seen. It all felt so real to her and she just could not get Chichiri's scream out of her head. She was so scared that what she dreamed about might actually happen. How else could she explain the picture moving in the book last night? Something was either happening to Chichiri or was going to happen to him. Tears started rolling down her face again when she realized this. She knew she had to get into the book to see him. She had to know what was going on.
She felt a finger brush against her cheek, wiping away a stray tear. She looked at Taka and was lost in that concerned look that often took over Tamahome's face when he was worried about her.
"Tamahome..." she whispered.
Taka's face twisted in confusion. "Who is Tamahome?" he asked.
She looked at him with a slightly shocked look. She had forgotten that he didn't remember anything. How could she even begin to explain what had been happening if he didn't remember everything that happened? How could she explain to him that he was Tamahome.
"Miaka," he pressured, "who is Tamahome?"
She looked at him, "You are, Taka." She took in a deep breath, "you are Tamahome."
She got up and headed towards the front of the grounds. Taka was flabbergasted. He didn't know what to make of that. He got up and ran after her.
"What do you mean, I am?" She kept walking and seemed to be off in her own world again. Taka grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. "Miaka, you are really confusing me. First you collapse in my arms and cry and you won't even tell me why and now you are calling by this strange name. What is going on with you?"
"You don't remember anything, do you?" He gave her a blank look and she took that as a no. "Do you remember Suzaku or Konan?" He looked at her with a thoroughly confused look.
"Isn't Suzaku one of those ancient Chinese mythical creatures?"
Miaka gawked. Even she thought he was more versed in history than that. "Suzaku is one of the four beast gods of ancient China. Konan was the county the worshiped him."
Taka didn't know what to say. He had heard something about this. But he didn't remember where. Now that he thought about it, those name did seem familiar, like he did know then at one time. He shook his head trying to clear it. 'What am I thinking? I've never heard this stuff before. What have I got to do with a beast god?' He gave Miaka another confused look and gestured for her to continue.
"There were seven warriors that were blessed by Suzaku with special abilities and were dedicated to protecting Konan and the priestess of Suzaku. They were called celestial warriors. They were identified by the special marks on their bodies, and were called by the names of those marks. There was Chiriko, Mitsukake, Chichiri, Tasuki, Nuriko, Hotohori, and Tamahome. You were once Tamahome. And I was the priestess of Suzaku. Still am, I guess." She paused for a moment to look at Taka to see how he was taking this. She could tell by the incredulous look he was giving her, he didn't quite believe her. "I have to go home. There's something I have to do and I can't stay here any longer."
"You're leaving now? School isn't over yet."
"Doesn't matter, I have to go." After saying that, Miaka ran off toward the train station. Taka called after her, but didn't follow. He was totally confused but wasn't about to leave school. He decided he was going to go talk to Yui and find out from her what was going on.
Miaka got to the station and caught the next train that was heading towards her apartment. When she got there, there was no one home. Her mother was off at work and her brother was still at school. She went to her room and emptied out her book bag onto her bed. She pulled out various clothes and underwear and stuffed them into her pack. Then she gathered her personal items and packed those. She looked around to see what else she might need. She looked at the books she had dumped on her bed. Might as well try to study while I have the extra time. She grabbed the math book, English book, and a notebook and stuffed them in. She went to the kitchen and grabbed some snacks to take too. After finishing all her packing, she made sure everything was in order before going to the book.
She pulled it off the shelf and studied it intently, remembering what had happened the night before. She wasn't sure she wanted to look at the picture again, afraid Chichiri would look at her and then get eaten. She shook her head and called herself silly for thinking that.
She opened the book and turned to the same picture. Sure enough, the picture was unchanged, looking as it always did. She gripped her bag and searched through the pages. She went to every picture and found nothing unusual. Finding everything to be normal, she closed the book and clutched it to her body. She called on Suzaku to bring her to Chichiri hoping he would be there in one piece. As soon as she called Suzaku, a familiar red light surrounded her and swallowed her up. From where she was standing in her room, only the book remained.