I just got all of Yami no Matsuei, what a great anime!!!!!!! The ending is sooooooooo sweet. ((((sigh)))) And I must say, Hisoka is cute. I'm thinking of writing a Yami no Matsuei/ Gravitation crossover (((although my friend is kind of skeptical about it)))
Anyway, random enough for you? Ok, I'll just shut up now.
P.S. Reading back I will admit that Miaka is fairly OOC in this chapter. Part of that is intentional, I wanted to show that she had grown and matured somewhat. If it's too OOC I can always go back and re-write this one too.
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"You guys are back early." Miaka said, becoming concerned when she saw
Genroe half sit, half collapse onto the couch. She raised an eyebrow at
Taka but he just shook his head and shuffled off to the bathroom. Oh well,
she could grill him later, Genroe, on the other hand, looked as if his
heart was about to break. Something's gone wrong, Miaka thought, feeling
an icy chill run down her spine. Visions of a reincarnated Nakago flew
through her head. She walked over and knelt down, taking hold of one of
Genroe's hands.
"Tasuki, what happened?"
"Chichiri, was at the bar . . ." He trailed off, hunching forward and
placing his head in his hands. She looked up at Taka, who had emerged from
the bathroom and was staring down at Genroe with a pensive expression.
"There was a little scuffle at the bar, nothing big," Taka hastened
to explain, "no one was hurt. Chichiri and his friend were in trouble so
the two of us helped them out. Afterwards we got in an argument over whether
to bring him back here and Chichiri overheard. I'm afraid he got the wrong
idea." Miaka bit her lip, restraining herself from pointing out that it
was probably only natural for Chichiri to be wary of a couple of strange
men who wanted to take him home.
"He was so scared." That was Tasuki, his voice rough, as if he was
fighting to get the words out. "Miaka, the way he looked at me . . .I would
never hurt him, NEVER."
"Chichiri had a rough past in the previous life, do you think that's
what it is?"
"Even back then, he never acted like this." Genroe shook his head.
"Hikou!" Taka said suddenly, "He was drinking with Hikou. But if Hikou's
still alive, then why does Chichiri have the scar?" Genroe's eyes darkened
with anger and he lunged to his feet.
"I don't know, but I'm damn well going to find out." He grabbed his
coat, getting half-way across the room before Miaka stopped him.
"Tasuki-"
"I know where he goes to school. I'll just ask around campus until
I find him."
"Let me handle it." She said simply, stepping between Genroe and the
door. If he was surprised at her insistence he didn't show it. In fact,
his face didn't show anything, a testimony to the severity of his anger.
Miaka hesitated, she didn't want to come between Tasuki and Chichiri, but
in his current state Tasuki would only make the situation worse. Chichiri
would no doubt pick up on his anger and would probably misinterpret it.
"Let me handle it." She repeated, "Please Tasuki, just trust me."
After a long moment he nodded.
* * *
(the next day)
Chichiri grimaced at the pain lancing through his side. This black
fire was powerful enough to break his barrier even though he was channeling
all of his power into it. He could feel the burn eating away at his life
energy. Another hit like that and it would be over.
"Run Chiri." Tasuki gasped, blood and tears running down his face.
He lifted the tessen, arms shaking, and pointed it at Chichiri. He could
see the battle in Tasuki's eyes, the demon was fighting to regain control.
"Please," Tasuki gasped, "just . . .run. . ."
The black aura began to gather around Tasuki once again. It had
regained control. The creature who was not Tasuki laughed, gathering it's
power for the final shot. Chichiri gathered his power as well. He knew
what he had to do and he could only pray that Tasuki would forgive him.
He ignored the demon's attempts to torment him. The hateful insults
flew by, unnoticed. This creature had Tasuki's voice, Tasuki's body, but
not Tasuki himself. Somewhere, deep inside, Tasuki's soul still fought.
Chichiri looked into the demon's eyes, hoping desperately that somewhere
behind those eyes, the real Tasuki could still see him.
"I love you Tasuki," he said softly.
And then the world caught fire.
* * *
A knock on the door jerked Houjun awake. He was cold, horribly cold,
and shaking.
That last one was a bad one, he thought, rubbing his arms fiercely
to try to regain some warmth. He knew better than to try to remember the
dream, all he would gain from the attempt would be a horrid headache. The
knock came again, and he dragged himself out of bed. Fortunately, he had
fallen asleep fully clothed, so he stumbled over to the door. It was probably
Hikou, come to bitch about his hangover and get the details of what had
happened after he had passed out.
It wasn't Hikou.
It was a girl. Which was strange, because the only girl he talked to
was Mai-Lin. He half expected her to run off, or to apologize and tell
him that she'd gotten the wrong apartment, but she did neither. She didn't
even flinch away from the sight of his scar. She just stood there, staring
at him, with a strange little half smile on her face. It was funny, even
though he KNEW that he hadn't seen her before, she seemed . . familiar.
"Can I help you?" he asked hesitantly. She shook herself and smiled
sheepishly.
"Sorry, I just . . .blanked out for a minute. You're Ri Houjun?" It
sounded more like a statement than a question but he answered anyway.
"Yes, I am."
"My name is Tsukinami Miaka. I'm the wife of the blue haired idiot
you met at the bar last night."
There was a long moment of silence.
"I . . see . . " He said hesitantly, trying to decide whether
he was appalled, uncomfortable, or just completely surprised. Probably
some of all three. A thug like that wouldn't send his wife out to get revenge,
would he?
"May I come in?" She asked, smiling sweetly. She seemed harmless enough
so, after a moment of indecision, he let her in. She walked in, setting
her purse down on the couch before turning and bowing very low.
"I want to apologize for my husband and his friend. I think you misinterpreted
their intentions, but even so, they shouldn't have frightened you."
"Uh-" Houjun was at a loss for words. "That's all right, I accept your
apology." He finally said stiffly. Now please get the hell out of here
so that I don't have to deal with you, your husband, or his friend, was
what he wanted to say. Something stopped him. There was some part of himself
that felt oddly protective of this girl. It was the same part of himself
that told him that not all people were bad, that closing himself off from
the world would only hurt him.
Occupied as he was with this internal dialogue, he missed her next
question and had to ask her to repeat herself.
"I was just wondering what your major was."
* * *
"Take out again?" Genroe sighed, poking through his food dejectedly.
"Would you rather have Miaka cook?" Taka pointed out. Genroe turned
green and shook his head rapidly before turning to look at the door for
what had to have been the hundred and eleventh time that evening.
"Enough, already, she'll get back when she gets back." He said, snaking
a hand out while Genroe was distracted and snatching a dumpling off of
his plate.
Gold eyes narrowed.
Blue eyes narrowed.
"I'm home . . ." Miaka called, trailing off when she heard the unmistakable
sound of fighting from the kitchen. If they wrecked the kitchen again .
. .but now wasn't the time to deal with this. She turned around, ushering
Houjun in the front door. "Please, make yourself at home." She smiled,
wincing inwardly as a particularly loud crack punctuated the end of her
sentence. Houjun turned to look at the kitchen with wide eyes.
" I'm HOME." She called again, loud enough this time so that the two
in the kitchen could hear her. The sounds of fighting immediately stopped.
After a moment the two emerged, looking slightly flustered but otherwise
unharmed.
"Welcome back," Taka said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
He turned to Houjun. "It's Houjun right? We're real sorry about last night
aren't we . . .Genroe?"
Genroe felt the apology stick in his throat as his eyes locked with
Houjun's. He could feel a blush rise up on his face and he cursed inwardly,
he probably looked like some love sick teenager. Hell, he was a love sick
teenager.
There was a long moment of awkward silence as everyone stared at everyone
else.
* * *
Houjun sipped his tea, listening to the conversation between the three.
The meeting had been a bit awkward but they seemed normal enough, so he
allowed himself to relax a bit and enjoy their company. They were obviously
very good friends, you could tell from their easy bantering. They even
went so far as to include him, drawing him into their group as if he had
always been a part of it. It was nice, he though suddenly. He hadn't felt
this close to anyone since he and Hikou had had their falling out. Even
after, when they had made up, they hadn't been as close. But this, this
felt good, it felt familiar. It felt so familiar that Houjun had to shake
his head too keep a strange double image from appearing in front of his
eyes. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if there really was something wrong
with him after all. He opened his eyes, only to catch the red head, Genroe,
staring at him. He saw a blush rising on Genroe's face and felt his own
face begin to blush in response. Houjun looked down at his watch, anything
to break eye contact, and was amazed at how much time had passed.
"Um, Mrs. Tsukinami, It's getting fairly late . . ." He began.
"Please, just call me Miaka." She said. "I'm sorry, I totally forgot."
She turned back to her husband. "Houjun told me he was studying Chinese
History and I told him that we had an ancient Chinese manuscript he might
be interested in."
"We do?" Taka asked cluelessly. There was a muffled thump as Miaka
and Genroe kicked him under the table. "Oh, OH . . ." His eyes widened
as enlightenment dawned. "Uh, yeah, I'll just go and get it for you Houjun."
He said, limping out of the kitchen.
"I have to admit you've caught my curiosity." Houjun said, sipping
his tea. "I haven't heard of any rare Chinese manuscripts that are still
privately owned. My Professor has dedicated his career to finding documents
like this and buying them for the University's collection."
Genore and Miaka exchanged a look. "Well, this one isn't very well
known. In fact, very few people know that it exists at all." Taka returned,
placing a book down in front of Houjun.
Houjun felt his excitement begin to rise, this looked like the real
thing, and it was in remarkably good condition for it's age. "The Book
of the Universe of the Four Gods." He read softly, feeling a strange, buzzing
sensation begin to build in the back of his head. He ignored it, opening
to the first page with shaking hands.
"This is the story of a girl who made her dreams come true, after she
came to posses the seven stars of Suzaku, and many powers were bestowed
upon her." The roaring in his head was growing now, and he had to fight
to focus his eyes, but try as he might, he couldn't tear his eyes off the
page.
"The story itself is a spell, whoever reads it will be given the powers
and granted a wish, just like the girl in the story. Because, the story
begins and becomes real the moment the first page is turned . . ."
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Um well, that's it for Chapter three. Hope you liked it.