Fushigi Yuugi and all characters are property of Watase Yuu.


LIU::SCENE VI
Meng
The Dream

That evening, Liu Li Hua eagerly waits for the guests to extinguish their lights and fall asleep. Zan Ton Quai still feeling uneasy, carefully examines his room to make sure that it is secure. Locking the door and blowing out his lantern, Zan Ton Quai finally goes to bed, fully clothed and prepared to spring to his feet at a moment's notice.

Bai Hua E
Haku Kaen

I awoke in pure darkness.
My head hurt and I couldn't remember why. Something had happened. Something bad? I couldn't…
"Kaen! Get your good for nothing ass out into the kitchen right now!"
I threw back the covers, shivering in the dark room. The mistress sounded upset.
What mistress?
I scrubbed my face with the rough soap and faded washcloth. My skin was chapped and cracked and the washing hurt, but I gritted my teeth and rinsed off the soap. The makeup would cover that enough.
Stepping across to the chair, I grabbed the dirty dress that hung over the back dress? and slipped it on, grimacing at the smell. Washing was unknown here for lowly kitchen maids like me. The dress's baggy bodice hung down low over my chest, meant for an older woman and not at all fitting my small, bony form.
"Kaen!"
I didn't want a whipping.
Whipping?
No. This is wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

The light was bright out in the kitchens and cooks shoved greasy dishes and cheap bear mugs at me. The tray was too heavy and I staggered.
"Don't drop that, girl!"
My arms gave and the cracked china tumbled to the hard floor, shattering.
What…?
"Kaen, you clumsy bitch!"
I didn't protest as I was dragged out of the room by rough hands. Didn't protest as they flung me on the edge of the chair and raised the long stick over my head.
Na…Nakago.
When they hit me, I did not scream.


Luo Jun
Ryo Chuin

It was so very cold.
"I'm…I'm sorry."
I tried to lift my voice, to respond, to say something, but all that came out was a faint cry.
Why can't I speak?
"I don't want this. It's not your fault. Not your fault."
She was speaking to me?
"Oh gods. I hate you. I hate you!"
And then the crash of water all around me and it was cold and dark and I couldn't breathe. I was drowning in water and no one could save me.
Nakago-sama!


Bai Hua E
Haku Kaen

I was running in a room of mirrors and the light sparkled and reflected off them and into my eyes and I couldn't see.
Help me.
You love him, don't you?

And when I looked into the mirrors I couldn't even see my reflection, just the endless halls of mirrors reflecting upon mirrors in which there were supposed to be walls. Because I knew there were supposed to be walls even if I couldn't see them.
You love him.
Shut up!
You love a man who will never love you the way you want him to love you.

Increasing my pace made the mirrors blur past at an ever increasing speed but the hall went on and on and there was no end and I was so tired.
You know why he won't love you, don't you? Don't you?
The corridor branched suddenly ahead and I had to slow and stop, staring. They were all the same. All the passages. Lined with mirrors of a blazing brilliance and my vision was spinning and I couldn't even tell what was the walls or the floors or anything and I couldn't breathe.
Stop.
I have stopped!
Do you know why?

The mirrors vanished and it was dark. I smelled the faint burning smell of sulfur.
Let me show you.
And then there was one glittering mirror that still remained, drawing nearer and nearer and it glowed with an unearthly light. I couldn't move.
It was my face in the glass, my naked body reflected in the razor sharp nothingness. Except the eyes were dead and blood was running out of the nose and mouth, and a thousand sucking things were crawling over the rotting flesh, tiny pincers ripping bits of muscle and bone and devouring my own corpse as I watched.
This is you. This is your soul. You know that, don't you? That your soul is dirty and he would never want you?
No. No!

I struggled and I fought but I was frozen in place and I could not even shout, could not even scream.
There is no one to help you now.
The chest cavity caved in and where there should have been a heart there was only a cold white moonstone, blinding to the sight. Screaming. White pus leaked slowly out of the stone, puddling on the blackness which was not there. And the vision grew nearer until I could feel the slow crumbling of the body in the glass and the tiny points of pain where the roiling mass of scavengers fed.
You know why. Don't you?
When the glass touched me, it was like a homecoming.


Luo Jun
Ryo Chuin

Lounging in the expensive throne-like chair, I sipped my wine and gazed out the window at the vast expanse of Chinese gardens.
A knock on the door. I turned. "Enter."
The man who entered was my chancellor of state. He bowed respectfully, handing me a letter on a silver tray. I frowned. I usually did not get letters until later in the evening, and especially never at this hour in the morning. I had just woken up. Affairs of state were the last thing on my mind at this point.
"Who is this from?"
"I have no idea, heika-sama."
Strange. I took the tray and placed it on the large desk before me, fingering the paper. It was made of an expensive material, from the woods in the south of the country, probably. My country.
After all, I was the emperor.
"Heika-sama? Shall I take it back?"
I waved the question aside. "No. I will open it eventually."
He nodded his assent. He was used to such behavior from me, would not question it. He had known me as a child and then as a too young emperor when my father had died an untimely death. He knew how burdensome the office was for me, and his help was invaluable. I did not know what I would do without him.
"Do you think me weak?"
"Heika-sama?"
I could hear the surprised tone in his voice. "Don't dodge the question. I am too young to be emperor, I know. Many have said so, even to my face. I-"
"Heika-sama, no one would dare say this to your face!"
I smiled wryly. "So you do not disagree that they do say it."
His silence confirmed my thoughts. I stood slowly, picking up the unopened letter from the tray, walking to the window. The light seemed wrong for early morning, somehow, red and black and grayish all at once, but that was the last of my worries right now.
"I suppose I should not dwell so much on these things," I said lightly, laying one hand on the windowsill. "After all, the world is an illusion, as my father used to say."
"I remember that, heika-sama."
"I don't doubt you do. He was a kind man, my father." I paused, reflecting. I tried to remember his face but for some reason I could only recall the ghostly sound of screaming. I flinched.
He looked alarmed at my reaction, crossing hurriedly to my side. "Are you all right, heika-sama?"
I nodded absently, pulling away from his reaching hand.
"Illusion…everything illusion."
"Not everything," he said.
I frowned at him. The room was growing fuzzy for some reason, and his voice sounded like it was coming through water. "Say again?"
"Not everything." It was like an echo, and I found myself tearing open the seal of the letter in my hand while straining to hear his words.
The letter contained nothing. Only a flat piece of paper stained with something red.
"Blood?" I whispered.
The blood thickened and began to spread, wetting the paper. I dropped it on the floor and watched in horror as it continued to pour out and trickle onto the floor with a horrible wet sound like trickling thick mucus. Watched as it started to fill the room and the walls and still he stared at me.
"What-" I gasped, floundering. "What do you mean?"
"You must learn…to distinguish the illusion from reality. Because there is a reality."
"No!"
"Yes!" His hand grasped for me but met with empty air. "Because without reality there would be no life!"
"Life is an illusion," I said, tasting my own bitter blood in my mouth and feeling it creep up my throat.
He still stared at me as the blood rose to his neck and then to his eyes and I could hear his voice from far away, gurgling through the lake of blood.
"I cannot believe that."


Bai Hua E
Haku Kaen

I was dressed in some kind of silky material and I could feel their hands on me as they gently stroked my hair and lifted me to cradle me against them.
Weeping?
"So young…so young…"
They lifted me again but this time not my body, only the hard wooden pallet I lay on and I tried to ask where we were going but I couldn't speak.
The halls smelled of death and decay and my hands were folded on my chest on the thin silky garment I wore and nothing else. I heard chanting in my ears, a sad, slow, mournful droning that tore at my heart.
We arrived in a cavern lit by a million torches and the fire and the smoke traced patterns on the rocks of ghosts and demons. They bore me still to the center of the chamber where they stopped and I felt them lower me down, down, down…
I knew now. It was a coffin.
I was a corpse. I was dead and they would bury me, except I knew I was still alive.
Only I.
I tried to scream, to kick, to move my body, but it felt like heavy lead and I could not feel my limbs. Was I then a corpse in the true sense of the world?
Was this what death felt like? Alive and not alive, unable to move but able to see and feel and touch but unable to weep?
The coffin lid lowered with a final crash and I could hear the inarticulate chants and weeping still as the procession left the cavern.
Alone at last, I stared blindly at the blackness around me and then I felt my limbs loosen and my throat work and I tried to scream.
Only a tiny, soft, muffled whimper in the dark.


Luo Jun
Ryo Chuin

Can you feel nothing now?
I was a blind fetus in my mother's womb and all I could do was move one small hand in acknowledgement. Nothing.
Good. As it should be.
Where am I?
That is not your concern.

I was the fetus but not. I could feel its blind fear and hunger and all its primal human instincts emerging from the developing shell of a brain and a nervous system still too primitive to sense. Except I could sense.
Where am I? Who am I? Who are you?
A pause. The fetus kicked feebly. Life and warmth and food and darkness.
I am no one and everyone.
Who-
This is life. Watch and observe. A grand illusion, is it not?

I tried to recall, tried to remember the words that someone had once told me. Something about life and illusion…but the fetus mewed again and my concentration broke and there was nothing.
The greatest illusion of all. When you do not even know who you are. The cycle of life, birth and death, and we all return to nothingness.
That is not illusion.
Nothingness can be called illusion. As you well know.
Do I? How can I, if I know nothing of who I am?
You do not need to concern yourself with such trivial matters.

There was a presence near me, an intruder. The fetus' brain registered this and it began to kick more urgently. An intruder in its private world, one who was not welcome, one who did not belong.
I do not belong, just as you did not belong.
Such pain.
How did you-
How did I know? I know all things. Because that is who I am.

It was growing colder and the fetus mewled feebly, trying to bring back the warmth it craved.
Can you see? Death is near, and soon life will return to the illusion of darkness once more.
That is not illusion! That is only death!
Can you tell me you have not killed?
I-
Not knowing. What a tragedy. I will take life as I will, for it is my privilege.
Only a monster would kill an unborn child.
So you have never done so? Not ever? Not once? What about the one you love? How many times has he killed?

So much pain in those words and I couldn't stand it much longer.
That was different!
So you do remember.
No! I-

The fetus struggled but the icy coldness was too much for it and I could feel its feeble attempts slowing, and then it stilled. The tiny head drooped.
So the cycle of life is complete. Death, birth, life, and death once more.
That was not life! It had not even begun to live!
But you said yourself life was an illusion. So what is the difference then, in transferring a living being from one illusion to another?
You twist my words!
I twist nothing. There is nothing to twist, because you can never win. Every way you choose, there is only the ultimate defeat.
You know nothing of who I am!
And you do?
I-
Perhaps you should ask why I know what I know.
I don't care! I don't-
Because we are the same, you and I. I am you. Don't you understand. Fool. You war with yourself and you can never win. The illusion is the same. I am you and you are me and this is the monster you have become.
No. No.

Trapped in a prison of my own making and I could feel the dead fetus touching me against my chest and the bittersweet taste of birth fluid on my lips.
Do not deny it.
I am-
You are not!
Parting the waters, searching for the light.
It is not all illusion. Because it if was, then there would be no life. And I cannot believe that.
He would say that you twist your own words, then. As so you do. You are floundering in an ocean of lies.
He…I…Na…Naka…

There was light. Faces from the light, gentle eyes and strength. A woman's hands. I knew her.
A name.
Soi…
Yes.
He would say that. But she would not. And that is all that matters now. Because we are the same, she and I and you, and she believes what you do not.
You contradict yourself!

Desperation.
No! I know the truth now! And the truth is not illusion!
You-
I am-
You are-
I am Seiryuu seishi Tomo. And I believe in reality!

I burst through the light and the water and took in all the air my starving lungs could hold. There was a shriek and I felt black wings brush my head and my hair and suddenly the water and the light was gone and there was only the cold rock floor and the bluish tinge of light filtering in through tiny windows somewhere, black and damp and cold.
It was quiet.
For a moment I was frozen, still. Then I blinked. There was rock beneath my knees and my arms were cold. I was lying on a rocky floor…
It had just been a nightmare. That was all. A nightmare.
Miboshi's castle. That was where I was. I touched the floor with trembling fingers. There was no blood, no fetus, no river.
For what seemed like eternity I knelt on the floor of the castle I had been tricked into entering, tricked into surrendering my mind, gasping for air and feeling the warm tears run down my cheeks and onto the floor. It was nothing, all those scenes, only in my mind. The voices, the dead fetus and the emperor, the pounding waters of the icy river.
Feeling a little better, I sat back on my heels and tried to piece together what had happened. Miboshi must be some mind controller, able to create spells to trap any unsuspecting beings in a web of their own memories and thoughts. At least that was what I hoped had happened. It was the only conclusion.
Those were my memories, then, and my thoughts, in which he had trapped me and made me suffer. What if I hadn't been able to break free? What if I hadn't been strong enough? Would I have lived an eternity in my own mind, battling him feebly? Would I have died?
He was powerful, this Miboshi. I understood Nakago's warning now. If I had not been strong enough, if I hadn't been able to resist his relentless probing of my own subconsciousness, I would have died.
And then we would not be able to call Seiryuu.
There was a time when I would not have cared if I lived or died. Before this.
I stood up, grasping the cold and damp rock wall to help me keep my balance. My knees still felt weak. Had I lain here the whole time, unconscious? It was a frightening thought.
The visions of the blood and the mysterious voice in my mind came back, and I shivered. The voice had been him, I knew. Miboshi, trying to kill me, or at least permanently put me out of the game.
The words of the ghostly voices on the trail came back to me, and I smiled grimly. I had faced the feared "master," and I had lived.
As much as I could claim to living.
I felt the smile fade. What exactly had been those visions I had seen, when I had been under Miboshi's control? The river and the voice…was that my mother? It was a woman. I closed my eyes. She said she hated me before throwing me into the waters…hadn't she?
She'd said she was sorry.
The emperor fantasy was a strange one. Nakago was the one who wanted to be emperor, a god. Not I. I had not wanted anything of the sort. The words of the man who had spoken to me about illusion and life and death were words I had spoken to Nakago, to Soi, twisted out of my own mouth. Life, I had believed, had told myself I had believed, was just a meaningless prelude to death. Life was pain, and death was release.
Except I had never told Nakago or Soi about my feelings on life, had I? Love, emotion, the great world…but never my thoughts on life as the greatest illusion of all, illusion without purpose, without fulfillment.
Was it because I had never truly believed that myself?
I heard myself speaking to the advisor in my vision, to the man who had never really existed at all and who was but a mere extension of my own unconscious self.
Life is an illusion.
I cannot believe that
, he had said. Was that me, who had said that? Arguing against myself as I had in that disturbing third vision?
Except that hadn't been myself in the third one, but Miboshi pretending to be me, pretending to be Tomo's other half and so corrupt and entangle me. He was cunning, Miboshi. By pretending to be my thoughts and my beliefs, he could have hopelessly trapped me. I could have gone insane by his relentless manipulation. Which of course was probably what he had wanted, to mire me in the depths of my own confused thoughts, the thoughts that I hadn't really even known existed.
But it hadn't worked. Why? How had I been able to break free?
It is not all illusion. Because it if was, then there would be no life. And I cannot believe that.
He would say that you twist your own words, then. As so you do. You are floundering in an ocean of lies.

My legs trembled and my arms could no longer brace myself against the wall so I slid down to the floor again, staring at nothing.
I had…I had broken free. It was clear now. Because I didn't really believe that life was an illusion after all. The Tomo I knew thought things he didn't believe, said things he didn't mean, hid behind a mask of words and lies. Miboshi had pretended to be Tomo, but the Tomo he was masquerading as was but an illusion for my true self to hide behind. And Miboshi hadn't been able to see that, in the end.
And that was what had defeated him. Because no matter how good the other seishi was at his twisted games, I was the master of illusion.
I sighed shakily, trying to stop my fingers from trembling. That didn't really matter, did it? In the end, he had almost defeated me, using my own feelings, my own private emotions against me. It was more a feeling of being violated than anything else. My own memories. Nakago, and Soi…
Oh gods. Soi.
I had forgotten about her. She had to be under Miboshi's spell also, trapped somewhere within these castle walls. I couldn't sense her chi-hell, I couldn't sense anything here. I could search for a thousand years and never find her.
Of course, I had no doubt that was Miboshi's plan all along.
I clenched my hands into fists, the anger strangely helping calm my shaking, and stood once more. My clothing was torn and dirty, but there was no time for vanity now. If I lost Soi, Nakago would never forgive me, and-
I sighed. It was time to stop lying to myself. It had been like that at the beginning…at the beginning, but not anymore. Something had happened on the way here, in the forest, between her and I. She was the only one on this earth who truly knew me now, perhaps better than I even knew myself. If I lost her…
If I lost her, I would never forgive myself.
"You're getting soft, Tomo," I muttered to myself, brushing bits of dried mud from my shirt and taking a wary look at my surroundings. There wasn't much. A dank, dusty corridor, leading into the blackness. A tiny window at the top of one high wall, letting in gray light. It was still daylight outside, then. If Miboshi was like me or any of the Seiryuu seishi, he would work best when darkness fell. I couldn't tell what time of day it was from the light, but it was safe to assume I did not have much time.
I closed my eyes briefly, whispering a prayer to the god whom I professed to serve, even if I still had my doubts. If he really existed, Seiryuu, if he was truly the one granting me my power, he would help me find Soi. Wouldn't he?
Would he intervene to protect one of his chosen ones against an enemy, even if the enemy was another of his chosen ones?
Too many questions.
I began to walk, ignoring the blackness and the sense of foreboding that grew stronger with every step. I had defeated Miboshi once. Surely I could do so again.


Bai Hua E
Haku Kaen

"I've always been strong."
I was standing before the emperor of Kutou and he was staring at me with a strange light in his eyes.
"Have you?"
"What do you want with me?"
He stood from his throne and I watched as he descended the many stairs leading from the throne to the floor where I stood small and humble.
"Come with me."
I followed obediently as he swept out of the audience chamber and into a smaller hallway that led to a small set of double doors at the end. Watched as he unlocked them and motioned me in.
"Come here," he said.
My feet seemed to move of their own accord and I moved mechanically until I was standing by his side at a large table on which a long scroll was unrolled. The paper was brittle and yellow with age, but it seemed to crackle with a strange power as my eyes met its pages.
"Do you know what this is?"
I shook my head. "No, heika-sama."
He touched it with one finger, reverently. "This is called the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho. The Four Gods Sky and Earth, the book of the beast dragon god Seiryuu."
Seiryuu?
I met the emperor's gaze and he smiled, and suddenly my blood turned cold. And as he reached out a hand to touch my shoulder, I could not look away.
"This book," he whispered, drawing me close. My feet stumbled nearer to him. I flinched. "This book will give me the ultimate power." One hand traced my cheekbone roughly.
"I will be the strongest man in the world."
I drew a shuddering breath. "You're wrong."
His eyes held me and one finger stroked my lips. When he spoke his voice was light, teasing. "Oh? Why is that?"
"A book-" I clenched my teeth, trying to suppress the shivers running through me. Trying to break away, but his grip was stronger than iron. "A book can never make you strong." I felt his lips nuzzling my neck and my breath came in cold pants and the fear ran down my spine. "To be strong…to be strong you must earn the right to be!"
His teeth raked a bloody line down my throat and I suppressed a startled cry. "And I suppose," he said, his voice hoarse and muffled against my neck, "you think you have earned that right."
"I-"
The slap was unexpected and my head snapped back with the force of his blow. "You bitch," his voice said. A hand moved to the bodice of my dress and I heard the tearing of fabric. "You are nothing but a whore."
"Stop!" I begged, struggling against his hands. "Stop! Please!"
"How strong are you, my pretty one?" The voice came lower now, and hard, sweaty hands pinched my breasts. I whimpered. His wet mouth tore at my flesh. "How strong are you?"
Black spots swam before my eyes and I wanted to die.
Not this again. Not this. Anything but this.
"The truth is," the whisper said, "you are just a weak woman. Weak. Weak."
Weak. Weak.
"Soi!"
I jerked my head. That voice…
"You are weak."
I cried out.
"Soi! Soi! Wake up! Soi!"
"I-"
"You are nothing but a whore!"
"Soi! Don't listen to him!"
I knew that voice. Somewhere, somehow.
"Soi, defeat the memories. That's all they are-memories!"
Seiryuu.
A flash of blue light and blue power, and the groping hands were gone and I was standing alone in an infinite plane of blue stretching towards the horizon. The glowing scroll was the sky and the earth and I was standing between.
"Soi!"
"I am Seiryuu shichi seishi Soi," I said, "and I will not be manipulated!"
Another flash, this time brighter than the light of a million suns and when I closed my eyes I could still see the light blinding me. I was falling.
Falling…
Strong arms supporting me and I was standing on something solid. I felt drained. My legs were like water and I would have fallen to the floor if not for…
I opened my eyes slowly, stared into golden almond ones. I blinked. If not for the eyes, I would not have recognized him without the paint. Still.
"T-Tomo?"
The emperor's chamber was gone. It was a drab darkness we stood in.
He lowered me gently to the floor, setting me against the wall. He looked drained as well, dark circles under his eyes and a weariness in his movements I had never seen in Tomo before.
"Soi, don't do that again."
"What happened?" I said weakly. The hallway we were in was dark except for small stream of light coming from a window high above.
"What do you remember?" he said quietly.
I closed my eyes. "I…" The visions came tumbling back-the brothel in which I used to work, the mirror and…Opening them quickly. "Gods, Tomo. What happened?"
"Miboshi happened," he said, sliding down to the wall next to me. "We fell into his trap, Soi. He controlled us…manipulated us."
"Gods…" The words of that last vision, or nightmare, whichever it had been, came back to me. "Was that you? Your voice? In my mind?"
Tomo actually looked surprised. "You heard me?"
I nodded absently, touching my neck where the imaginary emperor had bitten me, feeling the smooth flesh. I shivered. "I don't-I don't understand. Why-how-"
"Miboshi seems to have the ability to enter others' minds and bodies and take control of them. He entered ours…controlled our memories to make us imagine things that weren't there."
"Illusions?"
Tomo shook his head. "Not illusions. Miboshi can't create illusions, as far as I can tell, but he can twist reality to suit his own whims." He sighed. I sagged against the wall, the full impact of the things I had seen filling my mind.
"Tomo," I said, my voice sounded small and frightened. I could feel tears start to form and I knew I was shaking, but I couldn't stop. "I thought I'd never see you again…when I lost you in the fog…and then he found me…there were…I saw…I saw myself die. I..they buried me. Alive. But I was dead. I…I was-" The tears fell. "I don't know-they said I was-"
Tentative arms came around me and I wept for all that had never been but could have been. I heard his voice in my ear, whispering.
"Soi. It's all right. It wasn't real."
I swallowed. "It wasn't real…but it could have been..."
"But it's not. Listen." Hands took hold of my shoulders firmly and twisted so I was looking into his face, his eyes, through my tears. "Soi, if we're going to defeat Miboshi, remember what is reality and what isn't. That's the only way you can face him and win. You are a strong woman, Soi."
"No." Shaking my head. "No. I'm weak. He said-"
"Dammit!" I jumped at Tomo's forceful words and he drew a deep breath. For the first time I took a good look at him through my misty vision and noticed how tired and drained he looked. His eyes were red outside the golden amber irises. "I don't care what he said. That's all past and gone now. You have faced him once, and you can do it again. You're strong. You broke free."
"Only because you were there," I said softly. Tracing the stone with one finger. "I wasn't strong enough."
He stood suddenly.
"Tomo?"
"Sometimes," he said, "being strong means relying on the ones who are there being strong for you."
"What-"
"Soi! Get down!"
I didn't ask, just flattened myself against the rock floor as he also dove for the floor where I was. I felt an overwhelming surge in chi and a blue glow filled the hallway. A strange humming buzzed through the rocks I lay on, and I felt the immense dark presence of…something.
"Most amusing," a pleasant voice said.
I raised my head from the floor, dared to look up. I gasped. The hallway had become a vast cavern bathed in blue light. In the center of the cavern stood a tall figure dressed in priestly garments, silhouetted in blue light, carrying a prayer wheel, eyes closed.
I didn't have to ask his identity.
"Miboshi," Tomo ground from between his teeth. The edge in his voice was frightening.
The figure opened its eyes. "You have found me," it said. Male? Female? "Or rather, would it be better to say I have found you?"
"Enough with the mind games!" Tomo snapped. "I've had too much of your stupid manipulations! You will come with us!"
The figure threw back its head and laughed. "So soon? You are brave and foolish to command me so."
I heard movement before I saw it, before they emerged from the shadows of the corners of the cavern-rows and rows of priests, surrounding us and their leader who stood in the middle with prayer wheel upraised like the weapon of the wrath of the gods. I took a step forwards, but Tomo grabbed me, dragging me back.
"Tomo-"
"Enough!" The voice was booming, echoing, powerful. "You have come seeking me, and you have found me."
The eyes of the priest glittered in the blue light. "I am Seiryuu shichi seishi Miboshi," he said. "You wish me to go with you back to your petty country?"
"We need you to summon Seiryuu!"
"And if I refuse?"
"If you refuse," Tomo growled, "I will-"
He stopped. Miboshi laughed. "Ah. That is the crux, isn't it? Nothing you can do to me, if you wish to summon your precious god. You need me alive and well. I, on the other hand-"
He raised one hand and suddenly the floor erupted and needles pierced my skin as I was lifted above the floor by writhing tentacles. From the corner of my eye, I saw Tomo captured the same way as I was, without hope of escape. I could hear Miboshi's laughter.
"You-" I shouted, grimacing as the tentacles squeezed me tighter until I could not breathe. "We have already fought you!"
"On the contrary," Miboshi said, from the floor so far away, prayer wheel still raised high. The ring of priests closed in around the monstrosity of tentacles, and Miboshi smiled.
"The battle has only begun."