Fushigi Yuugi and all characters are property of Watase Yuu.


QI::SCENE VII
Da Zhang
The Battle

Liu Li Hua suddenly appears and slinks toward the Zan Ton Quai's quarters. Running his hands around the the shape of the officer's foot, the innkeeper mistakes it for Zan Ton Quai's head. Drawing out his knife, he slashes the heel of Zan Ton Quai's boot, thinking it is his victim's neck.
Confused in the pitch dark of his room, Zan Ton Quai gradually perceives that someone else is there with him and begins crawling about. Hearing noises, Liu Li Hua also begins slowly sensing his way about the dark room. Zan Tan Quai suddenly realizes he is kneeling nose to nose with his attacker.
Jumping to their feet, they square off for hand to hand combat which spills out into the dark hallway, where Chiao Tsan becomes innocently entangled in the battle. He and Zan Ton Quai begin to pursue the innkeeper, who has tried to sneak off.
Realizing he is being chased, Liu Li Hua climbs up a stack of four tables, and somersaults down to the stage, where he is killed by the two officers.

Tomoboshi
The Root

I couldn't breathe as the coiled tentacles of the monster squeezed me tighter, and through my blurred vision I could see Soi had stopped moving.
I could give up. I could acknowledge defeat, what Miboshi wanted. But I had a duty to fulfill, and I would never give up.
My shin was in my pocket…to far to reach, but perhaps…
The rocks exploded again and another tentacled monster crawled from the ruined floor towards the one that held us both captive. Howling, it launched itself upwards, catching the first and shaking it. I closed my eyes, concentrating. If this did not work, we were both dead.
And then I felt myself sailing through the air to a jarring fall on the rocky floor.
"Soi!"
And my concentration wavered and the second monster vanished. I fumbled in my pocket for my shin before I felt the surge of chi which signaled Miboshi's preparation to summon another monster.
"Not bad," I heard his voice say calmly above the bellows of the tentacled monster.
"Bastard!"
I launched fire at him from my shin, but he dodged it easily. The smile on his face infuriated me. I shot the fire again and still he dodged. He could sense my chi, the same as I could sense his, and it was warning him as to my every move. He was no master of illusion, but he was coming close.
Well, if he wanted illusion, he would have it.
Grasping my shin, I directed the chi not at him, but at me and at Soi, focusing. In one instant we were standing in our travel-worn, bloodstained clothes, and the next we were transformed. Soi's armor was brilliant, shining, and my jing costume as new as the first day I had worn it.
If we were going to fight, I would at least show Miboshi the illusion of power he craved from both of us.
Another surge of chi, not as powerful this time, and I whirled around just in time to see Soi raise one armor-clad arm.
"Hakuujin RAIHOU!"
The roof of the cavern cracked and broke completely, falling to the floor in a cloud of dust and I could feel the crackle of electricity and roar of thunder from outside. A flash and an explosion of rock. Something struck me in the back and I cried out in pain.
"Tomo!"


Soiboshi
The Tassel

He had been hit in the back, and I could see the rock lodged between his shoulder blades, sharp as any knife. He cried out and fell to the ground. I could see no sign of Miboshi, but something as simple as my lightning attack could not have killed him.
"Tomo! Tomo!"
"Ah…" he groaned, climbing back to his feet, the pain evident in his eyes. "Miboshi, you BASTARD!"
The blue light reappeared and Miboshi with it. The priest was bleeding a bit from cut down the left side of his face, but otherwise he was as cool and composed as ever. "I merely give you what you want."
"Rot in hell!" Silver daggers shot from the air beside Tomo, one pinning Miboshi in the shoulder and another in his arm. The priest staggered and almost fell, but kept his balance. There was a panic in the mocking gaze that had not been there before. A good sign?
I raised my arms again, but he dodged the lightning. The storm clouds were still there and I could feel the wind coming in through the caved in ceiling.
"Soi! Look out!"
I ducked, and something sailed over my head. Landing in a combat crouch, I looked behind to see one of the other priests holding a knife, crouched in what would have been a killing stance if I had been one second too late.
I raised my arms once more. I would not succumb to the wishes of this wayward seishi turned magician who wanted nothing less than my life. It was not right.
"Hakuujin RAIHO!"


Tomoboshi
The Root

I dodged as Soi's blast attack struck the spot where Miboshi had been standing seconds earlier. Except he was not there any longer. I circled warily, hearing his soft laughter from somewhere close by, but not seeing him. Ducked as one of the priests came at me with a long knife. With one deft twist of the shin, he had collapsed on the floor of the cavern, moaning in pain.
"Come out, Miboshi!"
"Oh, but I already have."
Too late I felt the pressure on my neck. The grip was unearthly and I could not have broken it if I tried. My shin fell from my suddenly nerveless fingers and my body went limp as expert fingers applied pressure to the points in my neck.
I looked into his face, into his catlike slitted eyes, and felt nothing but a great contempt.
"Poor thing," Miboshi said, his smile deadly. "You should not have challenged me. It was all illusion, as I said."
Everything seemed to have ceased except for the movement of his mouth and his voice in my ears. Time was at a standstill. I was suspended in a moment in eternity, endlessly waiting.
"Even life," Miboshi whispered. "You know that, don't you?"
"No…" I whispered. I couldn't hold the illusions much longer. They flickered. Those eyes smiled cruelly.
"But you do." The cold blade of a dagger tickled my cheek. "There is no reality. And if illusion and reality are the same thing…"
"But they aren't," I choked, projecting my certainty into my voice. "Not at all. You know that. Life...has meaning..."
Miboshi frowned.

"If illusion and reality…were...the same…you would have my….power…"
"Silence!" Miboshi thundered. "It is irrelevant now!"
A shadow moved, and suddenly behind the priest I could see Soi, grappling with one of the other priests, dagger in hand, looking straight at me. And then I knew.
"Because there is…such a thing as reality…" I pushed on, meeting his eyes and refusing to let them go. "Because reality…is life!"
And Soi struck just as I could hold the illusions no longer, as her battle armor and my opera dress vanished and her hand striking the dagger down into Miboshi's back was stained with dirt and human blood.
Miboshi's body went rigid, and I fell to the ground, released from his grip. Soi's wide eyes met mine, and in them I saw fear.
"You were wrong about me," Soi said, a hard edge to her voice. "I am strong. Strong enough to protect the ones I care for!"
Miboshi opened his mouth. Once, twice. A trickle of red spittle dribbled from the corner, and then he closed his eyes.
"Tomo…Tomo…I think I killed him!"
I froze in shock.
Miboshi slumped to the ground and the blue light began to fade.
"I…"
"Tomo…what do we do now?" She sounded like a lost child. "Tomo?"
I saw the scenes of our journey flash before my eyes. Leaving Kutou palace. The forest in which we had shared so much. The village and the mountains of ghosts. The nightmares. Soi.
Nakago.
Nakago-sama…
We had failed him.


Soiboshi
The Tassel

I stood, holding the dagger in my numbed hand, looking at the corpse of the one for whom we had come such a long way.
My fault…my fault.
"Soi."
I didn't answer.
"It's not your fault."
"I-"
"Not your fault, indeed."
I drew a sharp breath, whirling around to face this new threat. Blue light flared around something floating in mid-air.
"A great battle."
It was a child priest, dressed in the same garments as the other priests but in green and yellow and red, holding a prayer wheel and smiling. I knew that smile.
I gasped.
"Mi-Miboshi?"
Behind me, Tomo's voice was disbelieving. "That's impossible."
I glanced to my right, at the body of the priest who had been Miboshi, lying like a broken doll on the rocks. The child priest laughed.
"Impossible it is."
The voice was different, but it was unmistakable. It was Miboshi.
"You-"
I saw Tomo clench his fists, but Miboshi simply blinked. "The battle is over. Tomo."
"What do you mean?" I said, not quite believing that this seishi who could not die was simply going to let us go.
"It would be useless to fight anymore, wouldn't it?" he said. He gave me a glance, then Tomo. The cavern was deadly quiet. The ranks of priests had reformed themselves, but now behind him and not surrounding us like a trap. Was it possible…?
"You've managed to kill me," Miboshi said. The voice was still mocking, but I could feel no threat from the new but yet familiar chi that emanated from the child's form. "That has never been accomplished before. No small feat."
The prayer wheel began to spin, and the strange humming filled the cave again.
"You amuse me." The slitted eyes slanted in a sort of smile that sent shivers up my spine. "I suppose I could go with you. It grows tiring here in the mountains, alone."


Tomoboshi
The Root

We emerged from the monastery a little bit before dawn.
I knew it was dawn because of the telltale chill. Evening does not have that dead quality that the time before the dawn does. Evening is vibrant, living, full of secrets and breathing and wildness.
Soi was limping a little, but other than that was fine. Nakago would have nothing to complain about. I had taken care of her, as he asked, and had suffered only a back wound and cuts and bruises for it.
I glanced at her as we started down the slope. Miboshi was already a small speck in the distance ahead, and I was more than glad to let him go. He had promised me he would wait for us at the bottom of the hillsides and we would return to the capital together. I could think of no reason for him to break his bond, and I wanted to take it slow down the mountainside, for Soi's sake. And my own. We were dirty, tired, drained both physically and emotionally. And not all of us could float on air.
"Tomo?"
"What?"
She laughed, a little wearily. "I remember a time when you wouldn't have answered me at all."
I shrugged. "Things are a little different now, aren't they?"
"I suppose."
The landscape was still the same rocky lifeless ground we had walked before, but there were no mists, no lights or voices or oppressiveness. It had all vanished with Miboshi's departure from the place.
"Didn't that seem a little too easy to you?"
I considered. "Why?"
"After all this effort…he suddenly decides to go with us. Just like that. It seems too easy to me."
"Maybe so. But he is here now, and that is all that matters."
"I suppose." She drew a deep breath. "Or maybe he's tired of fighting. Don't you ever get tired of fighting?"
"All the time," I said.
"So do I."
"Miboshi taught me that, I suppose." My lip twisted. "Ironic, isn't it? Invading my mind and digging up my thoughts."
"Still," she said. She stumbled on a rock and then righted herself as I took her arm to steady her, releasing her when it looked like she had her balance. "Nakago will be pleased."
The light changed and I could tell the sun was about to rise. "He will."
"You did it all for him, didn't you? He told you to take care of me."
The self-punishing tone was back in her voice, and I caught her arm again. She frowned at me.
"I did it for him. Of course. At the beginning, all for him." That seemed such a long time ago. "But somehow along the way…" I had to force myself to say it. "Also for you."
She stopped walking. "What?"
"For you," I repeated. Amazing how much easier the words came out the second time. "And for me. It was the great crossroads, don't you realize? Traveling together. We had to go forward one way or the other. There were not too many choices, but I think we chose the right one."
"You're quite the poet, Tomo."
The familiar sarcastic banter in her tone crossed off one more worry off the private list in my head. Soi was still the Soi I knew. She would be fine.
"Still," she said, sounding reflective. "You have a point. As you often seem to have, nowadays."
The first rays of sun climbed up over the hill, sprinkling everything with gold. I shrugged. "I learned that when we were traveling in the forest. We all wear masks, don't we? Illusions. But sometimes we can learn to take that mask off and not be afraid of what lies beneath."
"What if I can't?" she whispered. "Nakago…"
"Nakago will be Nakago. I still love him. I always will. So will you. And I will always wear a mask and carry scars under it, as I told you." The words came out with perfect ease now. It felt right, standing here like this, telling her this. For some reason, it felt strangely fitting. "But I think I understand what he was trying to do now, putting us together like this. And I think he was right."
Soi smiled slightly, and I almost smiled back at her. Almost. I still could not bring myself to do that yet. I would give myself time...with time, anything could be accomplished. Now that life was perhaps no longer the great illusion it had been.
The sun caught the red highlights in her hair, blazing. "He was right. I know."
"I did it for him," I said again, staring into the rising sun and the evaporating darkness, where the raging dragon god who controlled all our destinies awaited us. "For him, for you, and for me."
Turning, I looked down the trail that stretched into eternity and then beyond between heaven and earth and all in between.
"For all of us."