Fushigi Yuugi-- The Alternate Reality
Ryuurei's Prologue
Sierra Omega's Note: Hi! This is my first addition to the story, in first person from 'my' POV. Of course, I have changed my name and a few details to fit the Fushigi Yuugi time and place, but other than that, Kinpaku Ryuurei IS me. Enjoy and pleez review!! By the way... let's give Kryllion_dono a BIG hand for his excellent work on the intro!
I'm Kinpaku Ryuurei, but everybody calls me Ryuu. I'm a 16-year old junior high school student who enjoys drawing and reading. Presently I am studying for my high-school entrance exams... and my goal is to make it into Furyoushounen High School along with my best friend Ri Keifu.
Ri... I call him Ri because it's easier on the tongue... he and I haven't known each other all that long, but when we bumped into one another in the school halls one day and began talking, we found that we had a whole lot in common. Hence, we became good friends immediately.
I sit now in a squeaky chair behind an old wooden desk that had numerous scratches and writing from vandalistic students of previous years. I struggle to listen to the monotonous voice of my prep school sensei above the light roar of the air conditioner directly above me, and I fidget with my light school uniform jacket for warmth.
My pencil lies unused in the palm of my left hand, and in a state of boredom I stare at it as if there's nothing else in the world to look at. Anything is better than this class. Now don't get me wrong... school is a big priority in my life and I make pretty good grades, but sitting motionless in a classroom for endless tasking hours can take its toll on anybody. I absently brush a lock of light-brown hair behind my ear, drawing a quizzical look from Ri, who is sitting to my right.
'Daijobu?' he mouths silently, capturing my attention with a small wave of his hand.
'I'm fine,' I mouth back, giving him a small smile. Smiling back he glances at my notebook, where the edges of the paper are covered with small sketches around the sparse notes of algebra and geometry. I blush slightly and shrug at him, and he understood. If there's one thing I hate above all else, it's math... I'm pretty good at it however I tend to become rather impatient by long explanations so I therefore proceed to cover my notes with any drawings that come into my empty mind. Now the page was filled with the image of a young man of about 22 or 23 years of age... some of them showed him looking comically happy, rather like the super-deformed characters that I often see in anime shows. Others showed him deadly serious... his left eye was closed with a large scar over it. A unique hairstyle, and the dress of an ancient Chinese monk...
Ri gives me a concerned glance... one I have become familiar with over the past few days. I nod grimly, sensing his unspoken question.
'After class,' I whisper after making sure that the sensei was turned around. It is only a quarter until the hour... fifteen minutes left. It is Saturday, so the school day is shortened... leaving him and me to spend the afternoon doing whatever we wanted. We might visit the American pizza parlor down the street and order the usual pepperoni, mushroom and black olive with extra cheese... but something was telling me that wasn't going to be the plan today...
Slowly, slowly, agonizingly the last minutes of torture began flowing as if molasses past, and my impatient fidgeting became almost uncontrollable.
"All right class," the sensei called out in his never-changing voice. Angry, pleased or just not caring; whatever the guy was feeling his voice didn't change a single note all day. It astounded me how one's voice box can be so limited... I feel sorry for the poor woman he might be married to.
"Settle down," he continued. "Your assignment is to do the geometry chapters 16 and 17 review questions 1 through 50, and to read and answer the fourth and fifth sections of your algebra text. Next time you will have a practice exam on the entire material."
Ri and I groan with the rest of the class, but the dull sounds turn into happy cheers of delight and relief as the loud bell clanged to freedom. I grab my books and binders, shoving them into my bag quickly and turn to wait for Ri. He grins widely, brown eyes lighting up. I mirror the joyful expression, almost dragging the poor guy out of the room by his arm. Not unwillingly, mind you, for he disliked sitting still in a boring class just as much if not more than I.
"Aiya!" he exclaims as we walk briskly down the crowded stairs of the school. People shoved by us roughly, talking and yelling in a chaotic clamor of sound that was a brutal yet common assault to the hearing, while the pounding of thousands of pairs of running feet shook the floors in its incessant stampede.
"Where to?" I holler above it all. Finally we reach the bottom of the stairs, pushing through the stationary cliques of students blocking the path to the main doors. Some manage to trip me, my reputation as a bookworm easy prey to their mischief, but luckily Ri catches me just before I humiliate myself by falling flat onto my face. He keeps a comforting hand on my shoulder, and fortunately his tall form intimidates most from further harassing me.
At last we emerge into the outside air of the Tokyo streets, and I take a deep breath of the polluted oxygen. Instinctively I turn to the right towards the pizza parlor, and Ri follows silently.
"Who was it?" he asks after a few moments of quiet.
I hesitate in my response. "I... I'm not sure. I've seen him before, but I don't really know where."
"Is it those weird dreams again?" he presses, concern returning after the exhilaration of being out of school recedes into the bright background of a sunny summer afternoon.
I nod without answering, drawing a heavy sigh from him.
"What do you think they mean?"
"I don't know, Ri. But they are coming more and more frequently, though I only remember bits and pieces. It's not just the man you saw in my notebook today... there were others... Last night, I even started to feel conscious of myself in the vision. Like I was really there. I saw, felt, heard, and smelled everything around me... and it was as if I knew it all well.
"What about you?" I inquired, turning the tables on my companion. "Do you remember anything?"
He shook his head solemnly. "No dreams. Just... I just have a kind of déjà vu. Whenever you draw those people in your dreams, I feel all weird inside like I know them... and the strangest thing is the emotion I feel I anger and even hatred at them. I don't know what it all means."
"Neither do I," I agree. I pause to look up at a smudged street sign, and
"We passed the parlor a long time ago," I murmur. realization dawns upon my face. Ri looks with me, and then our gazes lock.
"We're at the library," he adds.
We look at each other in astonishment, wondering how the other never realized that we had found our way here. The Tokyo National Library stood majestically before us, proudly announcing its existence to the world. The bright brick and shining clean windows stood out amongst dirtier and shorter buildings around it... and I find that today something inside of that building is calling out to me.
I think Ri feels it too, for both of us now are continuing silently up the sidewalk and into the huge front doors. The smell of ink and old paper find their way to my nose, filling me with a sense of peace. I have been here many times to study or to do a class project... but never before have I been so compelled to enter this place...
"You feel that?" I ask quietly, and Ri nods.
"Yeah... it's like we're being pulled by puppet's strings... but to where? It feels like it's coming from the back of the library, but there's nothing back there! Right?"
"Well... that's what the librarians say," I answer doubtfully. "But I remember one day I was looking for someone to help me find a book and I saw an old door near the eastern end of the building... we could look there---"
I am only dimly aware of Ri's response, for suddenly I mist of shimmering red and gold light hazed my vision. I hear the distant call of a strange bird... I reach for the sound... It's so far away...
"Ryuurei!" he exclaims, but I don't hear him... all that matters is following that light... the bird's call...
A wind hits me in the face, a warm wind of long, fluttering red feathers fragile as butterflies' wings. Golden shimmers surround me like mist as I begin to walk blindly, mindlessly through the corridors...
I am afraid... and yet I feel no desire to turn back. Destiny calls... and I must obey as I continue my quest...
...Ending at the door to the eastern room of the library. My hand reaches for the musty and rusting steel doorknob... but I feel the click of a lock.
"What are you doing, Ryuurei?" Ri asks me in fright. "It's locked... you cant get in there-"
But the red aura around me brightens, and as I turn it again the lock melts away at my command. The door flies open, and the bird of red and gold instantly reveals itself to me, spreading its magnificent wings of eight-foot span before setting free a musical scream and disappearing into crimson blood light.
"Ryuurei?" Ri repeats. "What's wrong? What are you seeing? Talk to me!"
His voice snaps me out of my trance, and I give him a dazed and confused expression. "You... you mean that you didn't see it?"
"Nani?" he puzzles. "See what? You just kind of lost your contact with reality for a second, and we ended up here! Daijobu?"
"Nandemonai," I respond quickly. "I'm all right. I saw just now... a red bird... it kind of looked like a phoenix. It was calling out to me and I followed it here."
"A phoenix?" he raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're all right? You're not sick? First the dreams, now this..."
"Hey!" I say angrily. "You're the one who has the déjà vu thing going on! You recognize the people I describe and draw... so it's not just me!"
"Okay! Okay!" he raises his hands in defeat. "You're not crazy! Next question... where did the bird go?"
I shrug, looking around the room. Taking small, quiet steps I inspect the musty bookshelves, until one particular volume throws itself at my feet in a golden glow. Ri jumps at the sound and comes running from the other side of the room.
Before out eyes the large book opens by itself... setting us awash in the light emanating from enchanted pages... soon the light blinds us, and we are sent hurling into space and time...
"AAAHHH!" I scream, and Ri's shout echoes my own...
Sierra Omega's Notes: Soo? How was it? Review and let me know! Kryllion_dono's prologue is next... his character is Ri Keifu. ~=)
Ryuurei's Prologue
Sierra Omega's Note: Hi! This is my first addition to the story, in first person from 'my' POV. Of course, I have changed my name and a few details to fit the Fushigi Yuugi time and place, but other than that, Kinpaku Ryuurei IS me. Enjoy and pleez review!! By the way... let's give Kryllion_dono a BIG hand for his excellent work on the intro!
I'm Kinpaku Ryuurei, but everybody calls me Ryuu. I'm a 16-year old junior high school student who enjoys drawing and reading. Presently I am studying for my high-school entrance exams... and my goal is to make it into Furyoushounen High School along with my best friend Ri Keifu.
Ri... I call him Ri because it's easier on the tongue... he and I haven't known each other all that long, but when we bumped into one another in the school halls one day and began talking, we found that we had a whole lot in common. Hence, we became good friends immediately.
I sit now in a squeaky chair behind an old wooden desk that had numerous scratches and writing from vandalistic students of previous years. I struggle to listen to the monotonous voice of my prep school sensei above the light roar of the air conditioner directly above me, and I fidget with my light school uniform jacket for warmth.
My pencil lies unused in the palm of my left hand, and in a state of boredom I stare at it as if there's nothing else in the world to look at. Anything is better than this class. Now don't get me wrong... school is a big priority in my life and I make pretty good grades, but sitting motionless in a classroom for endless tasking hours can take its toll on anybody. I absently brush a lock of light-brown hair behind my ear, drawing a quizzical look from Ri, who is sitting to my right.
'Daijobu?' he mouths silently, capturing my attention with a small wave of his hand.
'I'm fine,' I mouth back, giving him a small smile. Smiling back he glances at my notebook, where the edges of the paper are covered with small sketches around the sparse notes of algebra and geometry. I blush slightly and shrug at him, and he understood. If there's one thing I hate above all else, it's math... I'm pretty good at it however I tend to become rather impatient by long explanations so I therefore proceed to cover my notes with any drawings that come into my empty mind. Now the page was filled with the image of a young man of about 22 or 23 years of age... some of them showed him looking comically happy, rather like the super-deformed characters that I often see in anime shows. Others showed him deadly serious... his left eye was closed with a large scar over it. A unique hairstyle, and the dress of an ancient Chinese monk...
Ri gives me a concerned glance... one I have become familiar with over the past few days. I nod grimly, sensing his unspoken question.
'After class,' I whisper after making sure that the sensei was turned around. It is only a quarter until the hour... fifteen minutes left. It is Saturday, so the school day is shortened... leaving him and me to spend the afternoon doing whatever we wanted. We might visit the American pizza parlor down the street and order the usual pepperoni, mushroom and black olive with extra cheese... but something was telling me that wasn't going to be the plan today...
Slowly, slowly, agonizingly the last minutes of torture began flowing as if molasses past, and my impatient fidgeting became almost uncontrollable.
"All right class," the sensei called out in his never-changing voice. Angry, pleased or just not caring; whatever the guy was feeling his voice didn't change a single note all day. It astounded me how one's voice box can be so limited... I feel sorry for the poor woman he might be married to.
"Settle down," he continued. "Your assignment is to do the geometry chapters 16 and 17 review questions 1 through 50, and to read and answer the fourth and fifth sections of your algebra text. Next time you will have a practice exam on the entire material."
Ri and I groan with the rest of the class, but the dull sounds turn into happy cheers of delight and relief as the loud bell clanged to freedom. I grab my books and binders, shoving them into my bag quickly and turn to wait for Ri. He grins widely, brown eyes lighting up. I mirror the joyful expression, almost dragging the poor guy out of the room by his arm. Not unwillingly, mind you, for he disliked sitting still in a boring class just as much if not more than I.
"Aiya!" he exclaims as we walk briskly down the crowded stairs of the school. People shoved by us roughly, talking and yelling in a chaotic clamor of sound that was a brutal yet common assault to the hearing, while the pounding of thousands of pairs of running feet shook the floors in its incessant stampede.
"Where to?" I holler above it all. Finally we reach the bottom of the stairs, pushing through the stationary cliques of students blocking the path to the main doors. Some manage to trip me, my reputation as a bookworm easy prey to their mischief, but luckily Ri catches me just before I humiliate myself by falling flat onto my face. He keeps a comforting hand on my shoulder, and fortunately his tall form intimidates most from further harassing me.
At last we emerge into the outside air of the Tokyo streets, and I take a deep breath of the polluted oxygen. Instinctively I turn to the right towards the pizza parlor, and Ri follows silently.
"Who was it?" he asks after a few moments of quiet.
I hesitate in my response. "I... I'm not sure. I've seen him before, but I don't really know where."
"Is it those weird dreams again?" he presses, concern returning after the exhilaration of being out of school recedes into the bright background of a sunny summer afternoon.
I nod without answering, drawing a heavy sigh from him.
"What do you think they mean?"
"I don't know, Ri. But they are coming more and more frequently, though I only remember bits and pieces. It's not just the man you saw in my notebook today... there were others... Last night, I even started to feel conscious of myself in the vision. Like I was really there. I saw, felt, heard, and smelled everything around me... and it was as if I knew it all well.
"What about you?" I inquired, turning the tables on my companion. "Do you remember anything?"
He shook his head solemnly. "No dreams. Just... I just have a kind of déjà vu. Whenever you draw those people in your dreams, I feel all weird inside like I know them... and the strangest thing is the emotion I feel I anger and even hatred at them. I don't know what it all means."
"Neither do I," I agree. I pause to look up at a smudged street sign, and
"We passed the parlor a long time ago," I murmur. realization dawns upon my face. Ri looks with me, and then our gazes lock.
"We're at the library," he adds.
We look at each other in astonishment, wondering how the other never realized that we had found our way here. The Tokyo National Library stood majestically before us, proudly announcing its existence to the world. The bright brick and shining clean windows stood out amongst dirtier and shorter buildings around it... and I find that today something inside of that building is calling out to me.
I think Ri feels it too, for both of us now are continuing silently up the sidewalk and into the huge front doors. The smell of ink and old paper find their way to my nose, filling me with a sense of peace. I have been here many times to study or to do a class project... but never before have I been so compelled to enter this place...
"You feel that?" I ask quietly, and Ri nods.
"Yeah... it's like we're being pulled by puppet's strings... but to where? It feels like it's coming from the back of the library, but there's nothing back there! Right?"
"Well... that's what the librarians say," I answer doubtfully. "But I remember one day I was looking for someone to help me find a book and I saw an old door near the eastern end of the building... we could look there---"
I am only dimly aware of Ri's response, for suddenly I mist of shimmering red and gold light hazed my vision. I hear the distant call of a strange bird... I reach for the sound... It's so far away...
"Ryuurei!" he exclaims, but I don't hear him... all that matters is following that light... the bird's call...
A wind hits me in the face, a warm wind of long, fluttering red feathers fragile as butterflies' wings. Golden shimmers surround me like mist as I begin to walk blindly, mindlessly through the corridors...
I am afraid... and yet I feel no desire to turn back. Destiny calls... and I must obey as I continue my quest...
...Ending at the door to the eastern room of the library. My hand reaches for the musty and rusting steel doorknob... but I feel the click of a lock.
"What are you doing, Ryuurei?" Ri asks me in fright. "It's locked... you cant get in there-"
But the red aura around me brightens, and as I turn it again the lock melts away at my command. The door flies open, and the bird of red and gold instantly reveals itself to me, spreading its magnificent wings of eight-foot span before setting free a musical scream and disappearing into crimson blood light.
"Ryuurei?" Ri repeats. "What's wrong? What are you seeing? Talk to me!"
His voice snaps me out of my trance, and I give him a dazed and confused expression. "You... you mean that you didn't see it?"
"Nani?" he puzzles. "See what? You just kind of lost your contact with reality for a second, and we ended up here! Daijobu?"
"Nandemonai," I respond quickly. "I'm all right. I saw just now... a red bird... it kind of looked like a phoenix. It was calling out to me and I followed it here."
"A phoenix?" he raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're all right? You're not sick? First the dreams, now this..."
"Hey!" I say angrily. "You're the one who has the déjà vu thing going on! You recognize the people I describe and draw... so it's not just me!"
"Okay! Okay!" he raises his hands in defeat. "You're not crazy! Next question... where did the bird go?"
I shrug, looking around the room. Taking small, quiet steps I inspect the musty bookshelves, until one particular volume throws itself at my feet in a golden glow. Ri jumps at the sound and comes running from the other side of the room.
Before out eyes the large book opens by itself... setting us awash in the light emanating from enchanted pages... soon the light blinds us, and we are sent hurling into space and time...
"AAAHHH!" I scream, and Ri's shout echoes my own...
Sierra Omega's Notes: Soo? How was it? Review and let me know! Kryllion_dono's prologue is next... his character is Ri Keifu. ~=)
