Disclaimer: I have a cute little Chichiri staff that a friend made for me. I also have a few nice FY DVD box sets. But I don't actually own FY. So sad, isn't it? I own the made-up town in Florida I used, but I don't own Florida. My parents own a nice house there with a pool. Too bad I don't live there right now. I heard my brothers somehow turned the pool green…
Warnings: Let's see… today's menu includes cursing, but Hikaru actually curses much, much less than usual. The count of total curses is: 3. We have a few spoilers (again) from episode 44. And an alternative pairing comes into play at the end… Heeheehee…
Remember, thoughts are in italics.
~Rest and Recovery: New Friends and Old Memories~
As it turned out, Vidal's condo was very spacious. Most of the seishi were in the living room. However, Hikaru was acting like a worried nurse to a patched up, but still unconscious, Tsunami, who was currently resting in Vidal's bed. She again checked to make sure that Tsunami was all right before stepping out into the hallway and gently shutting the door behind her.
Kotori was standing outside the doorway, waiting for news on how Tsunami was doing. Seeing Kotori's pensive look, Hikaru smiled reassuringly. "Don't ya worry, Kotori. Tsunami'll be fine when she wakes up. She just needs to rest a bit."
The priestess still looked troubled. "I just…"
Hikaru waited for her to finish. She knew that something important was on Kotori's mind, and Kotori might not say what if she interrupted right now.
Kotori sighed. "I just don't understand why someone would risk their life to save mine. Even when I was in Konan, if somebody tried to assassinate me, my bodyguards would risk their lives to save mine. But why would she do that? I don't get it…"
Hikaru carefully controlled her face, but she was curious. She had bodyguards? Just how important is she back there? She decided not to ask, but instead answered Kotori's question.
"It's our job to protect you," was what she said aloud. Kotori didn't look reassured, so Hikaru continued speaking. "And Tsunami has always been willin' to help someone in trouble," she admitted. "Like this other time about ten years ago… I'll tell ya all about it right now."
****Flashback****
Seven-year-old Hikaru was standing on the edge of a tall precipice. Her whole family was on a camping trip, and she was really curious about the river. She didn't know how to swim, but her best friend, who her parents had also agreed to take along on the camping trip, had dared her to get close to the river as soon as they arrived. She had agreed, not thinking about the fact that the rain and lightning made it unpleasant to stand on a cliff above a fast river with rapids in it.
A thunderclap made her jump in surprise, and then the cliff broke under her. She began to slip down the edge, but something hit her from the side and pushed her back onto high ground.
Immediately she noticed that Tsunami was now hanging off the edge of the cliff.
Panicking, Hikaru dove towards Tsunami and lifted her up until her little sister had finally been able to pull herself up. Both of them sat down on the grass a good distance away from the cliff's edge, and tried to regain their breath.
Hikaru had punched Tsunami in the shoulder. "You little idiot! You could have been killed! What if you had fallen, huh? Mom would've been freaking out at me!"
Tsunami had looked at Hikaru with tears in her eyes that had immediately made Hikaru feel very guilty. "I just wanted to help you!" She began to cry. Through her sobs she said, "I didn't want you to die or get hurt."
In an attempt to comfort her little sister, Hikaru gave Tsunami a big hug. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Tsunami. I didn't mean to make you cry. I just don't understand why you risked your life to save me. Your life is more important than mine; everybody knows you're better than me."
"That's not true, Hikaru," Tsunami had said as her tears had dried. "Everybody is worth saving, especially you. I really care about you, and you're a much better person than me. And you're my sister. I will always save my family." Tsunami had given Hikaru a hug to help her feel better.
"You know," said Hikaru with a dry chuckle, "You talk like a darn grown-up, you're smarter than Mom or Dad, but you think of feelings like a freakin' two-year-old."
Tsunami simply said, "Yes, but it made you feel better, didn't it?" and smiled at Hikaru.
****End Flashback****
"So you see," said Hikaru, "if she thinks of you like a family member or a close friend, Tsunami will do anythin' to protect you. She probably thinks of you as a little sister or somethin'."
While they talked, they had wandered into the main room of the condo where everyone else had been talking to each other. It was a nice room with a very large red couch that somehow went perfectly with the blue floor. Everybody was sitting on it, and it looked soft and plushy. To one side was a pile of multi-colored beanbag chairs, and opposite of the couch was a very nice TV with an even nicer stereo system around it. In front of the sofa was a long, low wood table, and to the right of the table where sliding glass doors. The doors led out to a balcony that overlooked the ocean.
Lee was entertaining Rei with a game while he listened to Tahir and Vidal explain just what was going on, but at that statement everybody threw a puzzled look at Hikaru. They all believed that Tsunami was much younger than she looked. Even Rei stopped playing as she listened to the older people talking.
"Isn't she younger than Kotori?" Tahir asked curiously.
Hikaru laughed out loud. She knew Tsunami looked younger than she was and enjoyed it when people got confused. "Nope," she said as she grinned. "Tsunami's sixteen; didn't ya know that?"
"Huh?" Tahir looked confused. "But she looks maybe thirteen or younger! She has to be fourteen at the most!" Kotori nodded in agreement.
"Well," drawled Hikaru cheerfully, "if she was fourteen, my mom wouldn't allow her to take college courses in her spare time, would she?"
Everyone was staring. "You mean… your sister," Lee asked, "is a genius?"
"Damn straight she is!" exclaimed Hikaru. "Her seishi power may be intelligence, but she was smart before that fuckin' ball of light popped under her skin!"
Rei looked up from the card game (Go Fish!) that she was playing with Lee. "Big brother, what does, "fuckin',' mean?" she asked innocently. Her eyes looked trustingly up at her brother, who was gaping and turning a bright red.
"Uh, um, it's something that you should never say, Rei," he finally managed to get out. He glared at Hikaru. "No polite person would ever say it, either. Promise me that you'll never be impolite and say the word that Hikaru did, Rei." His gaze on his sister was firm, but loving, like he was her father instead of her brother.
Rei nodded and smiled. "I promise, Big Brother." She looked back at her card game. "Do you have an 'Ace'?"
Lee sighed and handing over his Ace from his hand. Rei smiled more, and added yet another pair to the pile growing in front of her.
Hikaru snickered as she watched Lee getting beaten horribly by the five-year-old. "Maybe we should play Poker sometime, Obake-chan. I could probably get all of your money at once with the type of luck you have." She grinned, her fangs poking out, as Lee turned a brighter red than he had before when he heard the nickname that she used.
"Don't call me that!" he protested and sent a pillow flying in her direction. Lee had watched enough Fushigi Yuugi to know what "Obake-chan" meant, and he wasn't particularly pleased to be called "Little Ghost".
As if it were a reflex, Hikaru pulled out her tessen and pointed it towards the pillow flying towards her. "Rek-" she began.
Vidal finally woke up out of the meditation he had gone into to relax when he heard that somehow familiar phrase. "Wait a second! Don't use that in here!" he shouted desperately. He didn't know exactly what the metal fan did, but for some reason the image of his condo in flames popped into his mind.
Hikaru paused and asked, "Why?" She turned her head slightly towards Vidal, and then the pillow hit her in the back of the head. It had been thrown hard enough for her to lose her balance and fall onto the sofa. It just happened to be that Vidal was sitting where she landed.
"DAAA!" he yelped as her fan almost hit his face. It thudded so close to his head he could feel the metal against his ear. Luckily for him, the tessen hitting the sofa had stopped Hikaru's fall. Her knee was inches away from his lower abdomen. He paled when he realized how close he had come to some very excruciating pain.
Sheepishly, Hikaru stepped away and pulled the tessen out of the back of the sofa. "Erm… oops," she said while she picked foam off of the tessen. Then her face grew angry again. "Vidal, why did you distract me right then?"
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Tahir explained as he relaxed back against his portion of the sofa. He had tensed up when Hikaru had been about to use her tessen. "If you had used that dinky fan of yours, this whole place might've been on fire."
"Hey!" said Hikaru protectively as she hugged her tessen and rubbed it against her face. "It's not a fan; it's a tessen! And so what if the condo would have caught on fire? The pillow that Obake-chan threw hit me in the head!"
Tahir sighed and rolled his eyes. "Idiot. Your family seems to have a thing for getting hit on the head. You could have ducked. At least that sister of yours couldn't have avoided it." Ignoring the glare coming from Hikaru, he continued, "She must have picked up some idiocy from you, though, because it's silly to just rush into a fight like that." Hikaru glowered at Tahir for making fun of Tsunami and her. Her face looked like it was going to explode from unconcealed rage.
*******
It was a dream. It had to be a dream because there was no other explanation why she would be experiencing this exact moment. The prayer wheel of Miboshi in her hand, she sought to get rid of a darkness that overpowered her. She brought the prayer wheel closer to her, two other wounds protesting the movement. Then she pierced her chest, realizing while she did it that she was in the body of Chiriko when he was Ou Doukun. A blackness that was different than the evil in her – no, in his – body began to envelop her mind. A triumphant peace overcame him as he held onto the evil and made sure it died with him. He had saved his friends. Through it all he felt the pain of his body slowly bleeding to death…
Tsunami shot awake with a sneeze*. She was glad she had awakened before Chiriko had died. She couldn't quite remember the sensation of dieing, and she didn't really want to.
[I didn't wish to die,] said a voice in her head.
She sat up and looked around. She didn't know where the voice had come from. Then again, she did not know where she was, either.
[Your sister, Hikaru-san, had to swathe our head in bandages because of the wound you acquired through the battle with the people that had been possessed with the demon. Vidal-kun took all of you, including Lee-kun and Rei-san, to his condo to allot you time to recover,] the voice explained to her.
She still didn't see who was talking to her. "It's not your head; it's my head," she corrected the voice.
[I apologize for confusing you, Tsunami-san, but it is our head, as I mentioned before.] The voice paused. [Though I have to admit that it is an unusual feeling to have your consciousness inside the being of reincarnation of yourself that is the opposite gender.]
She finally got it. {What? You're Chiriko, and you're inside my body?} She paused. {Wait… Aren't we the same person?}
Her head shook on the behalf of Chiriko. [Yes, we are, but I believe our consciousnesses were separated when we were injured.]
"Oh," she said aloud. "That explains it. So now I have a split personality, in a way?"
"That is correct," said Chiriko with her mouth. The voice was deeper than Tsunami's.
"That's disturbing," she told him. "Should we tell the other seishi?"
Her head nodded. "I believe that we should to prevent confusion, but we shouldn't say anything until all the seishi are gathered. It may reduce their confidence in themselves if they realize that they may end up with their former selves as a separate person inside their bodies."
"Then let's get out of bed. We might as well go. And who gets primary control over my body?"
"You should. I am unused to such a body, and unusual actions will attract unwanted attention. But I do not want to feel constrained. May I have control when there is no one around?"
"Sure. If that's settles, let's go." She slid off the bed and then walked out of the room across the soft blue carpet floor.
She looked to the left and saw only more doors. There were three other bedrooms, a bathroom, and a closet that way. She looked to the right and noticed more light coming from that direction. She could see what she supposed was the front door.
Hearing the most noise come from her right, she turned that way. She reached the end of the hallway. To her right was a small dining room and a kitchen, and to her left was the living room. While she noted that everyone was in the living room, Tahir run and hide behind her from a tessen-wielding Hikaru. She looked around, wondering what was going on before she saw Hikaru holding her tessen and sweat-dropped.
"Wow, your sister is overprotective," Tahir said. "I was just joking about her habits rubbing off on you, and she came after me with a tessen!" He made puppy-dog eyes and pouted. "I'm allowed to have a bit of fun, too, right?"
Tsunami glanced back at Tahir as he said that and a second sweat drop joined the first. "You looked exactly like a girl when you said that."
[Nuriko is still Nuriko,] Chiriko mentally smiled at that.
{Great for her… I mean him. It's just kind of scary…} Tsunami said as Tahir came out from behind Tsunami. Her sweat drops vanished.
Tsunami grinned at Hikaru. "Thanks for taking care of my injury," she said as she lightly touched the bandages wrapped around her head. "I guess I was a little reckless. Maybe rubbed off on me from you.
At that point, she thought she heard a, "See, I told you so!" from Tahir. Hikaru sighed and shook her head, her fangs sticking out dejectedly.
"Why does everybody have to make fun of me?" Hikaru asked to no one as she slid her tessen back into the sheath she had found for it. It had been on Vidal's sofa when he teleported them to the condo.
Rei, Lee, and Vidal peeked out from behind the sofa. The reason that they hid there was evident in the burn marks across the walls and the floor. "Man, Hikaru, you really have to get some self-control!" complained Lee as he lifted Rei back to the front of the couch.
"Hmph," Hikaru snorted disdainfully. "It's not my fault that you couldn't dodge that fast enough, Obake-chan."
"Why, you…!" Tamahome growled threateningly. But Hikaru's attention was back on her sister.
"Hey, Tsuna!" she called Tsunami using a nickname that usually annoyed her. "Are ya all right?"
Tsunami thought about her split personality and grinned. "Hai. I feel entirely healthy. Do you have the book? We still need to try to find the last two seishi."
[It's not polite to perjure yourself, Tsunami-san,] Chiriko scolded her.
{I didn't exactly lie,} she protested while making sure that she was still paying attention to her friends. {I do feel fine. I didn't say I was normal.}
Chiriko seemed to laugh quietly at that. [That's true, Tsunami-san.]
Tsunami turned her full attention back to Hikaru as she said, "Yeah, we 'ave the book. We remembered to pick it up before we got back over here."
"Actually, I picked it up for you," piped up Kotori.
"Yeah, Kotori remembered," Hikaru admitted, a bit embarrassed. "I would've forgotten, but it didn't help much. Only Kotori was able to read it, and it didn't say anything important.
Tsunami nodded and then she glanced at her watch. "What! It's eleven o'clock already! I was unconscious for two hours?"
"Uh… Yeah," said Hikaru. "Hitting walls with your head does kinda hurt," she said while rolling her eyes.
"I know that. I just wasn't thinking of that." She made sad eyes at Hikaru. "I have a lunch appointment with Warren at one, and I don't want to be late."
Hikaru smacked herself in the head. "Oh, no! Not that kid! Just call him and tell him you can't make it! He's a sucky boyfriend anyway." Everyone glanced in surprise at Tsunami when Hikaru said the word "boyfriend".
Tsunami blushed. "Hikaru! He's not my boyfriend!"
"Yeah, you just go on dates with him and he treats you to fancy restaurants and parties." She rolled her eyes again. "Definitely not dates, right?" Tsunami was even redder from embarrassment.
[You have a boyfriend?] Chiriko asked sounding horrified. [I have a boyfriend?]
{You're a girl in this lifetime! What, do you want a girlfriend when you are a girl?} Tsunami asked to make Chiriko think straight. Maybe the symbol will reappear when he gets over the shock?
[That's a wonderful reason, Tsunami. I, um, guess it's fine…] Chiriko shut up after that.
"It's just a date between friends then!" Tsunami continued to protest aloud. "But, um, ah-"
"Spit it out," said Hikaru.
"I kind of to go home so I can get into my dress, but currently I do not have my license. She gave Hikaru her best sad puppy-dog eyes. "Please?"
Hikaru's mouth twitched when she saw the large, watery eyes. "I still don't-"
Tsunami gave an even sadder look to Hikaru.
"I hate that look," Hikaru informed her. A few moments more, and she relented. "All right; I'll try to get ya there. I don't think we're close to our house, so ya can't walk."
Tsunami smiled. "Thank you, Hikaru!"
"Um, I just don't have a car right now, but I do 'ave my driver's license." She turned to Vidal. "So, do you 'ave a car I can use?"
Vidal sweat-dropped. "Yes, but…" He thought of Hikaru driving recklessly in his nice car. "I don't want to have to buy a new one, you know?"
A vein above her eye twitched. "Are you hinting at something?" She began to reach for her tessen.
"Daa…" was all he was able to get out while he imagined his condo (that had cost even more than the car) going up in flames. He mentally shook away that thought. "Okay, okay! You can borrow it! But you better drive carefully, okay?"
Hikaru looked disappointed. "Oh, all right…" Everyone else in the room sweat-dropped.
*******
Two hours later, Hikaru was driving Tsunami to the restaurant because she could not drive. The restaurant was a fancy, well-known one called "The Shining Star". It was mostly known for its classy oriental food and its round black high ceiling, which was painted to look like the night sky. In the center was a large crystal chandelier that represented the moon. The bottom floor was made to look as much as the outdoors as possible while still retaining the classy look it had.
As they pulled up to the restaurant, Tsunami noticed Warren, her date, standing near the entranceway. He had a strong oriental look about him and was a few inches taller than she was, as well as a year older. He had thick black hair and deep brown irises. He was wearing a nice white dress shirt and dark green slacks with a matching tie. He also had on nice leather shoes and was holding the jacket to his suit over one of his arms.
Most girls (and some boys) in Tsunami and Hikaru's high school admitted that he was cute. Neither Hikaru nor Tsunami had ever said that, but the school gossip had talked about Tsunami and Warren being a very cute couple. They had never actually officially become boyfriend and girlfriend, but today was the one-year anniversary of their unofficial dating.
Tsunami waited for a minute as Hikaru lectured her in place of their mother. It summed up as, "Don't do anything stupid. I'll be here to pick you up in an hour." Tsunami just smiled and nodded as she stepped out of the car. She was wearing one of her nicer dresses. It was green and feminine, but not by using frills and laces. It hung gracefully on her body, but it was not extremely showy. She had also let her hair down instead of having it in her usual short, messy ponytail.
"Nice to see you, Warren!" Tsunami greeted him happily. She slipped her hand into his.
"It's good to see you, Tsunami," said Warren, blushing slightly as he held her hand. "How have you been doing lately?"
"Fine, thanks," she replied, smiling at him and blushing a bit herself.
[Untrue,] grumbled Chiriko. [I'm here. I can't believe it. When I get reincarnated, I go on a date with a guy. It doesn't quite appeal to me.]
She ignored Chiriko and walked calmly into the restaurant with Warren.
~TBC~
* In Japan, there's a belief that you sneeze if someone is talking about you. I got this from Rurouni Kenshin, by the way. It's such a cool anime…
Author's Note: Sugoi! Fifteen reviews! I'm so happy that a wrote a super extra-long chapter! THANKYOUTHANKYOU!!! (Goes off into her own little daydream full of reviews, so Hikaru comes to take over.)
Hikaru: Ahem. Sorry if Chibigreenwizardmon… Ya know what? That's too long of a name. I'm callin' her Chibigreen from now on. Sorry if Chibigreen is too f-
Chibigreen: (Wakes up from daydream.) Hikaru-san! No cursing in the author notes! (Goes into daydream about Tasuki + Chichiri scenes.)
Hikaru: I don't see why I can't f-
Chibigreen: You like red hair more than you would like green hair, right?
Hikaru: That would be gross! D- (Chibigreen holds up green hair dye.) Darn you. What took you so long to update, anyways?
Chibigreen: (Glares.) Do you know the differences between a male and female moss?
Hikaru: Er… One has b-
Chibigreen: Don't even say it.
Hikaru: Ah… I don't wanna know?
Chibigreen: That's correct. Now I need to finish the next few chapters and explain why Tsunami can't drive… Ooh, and this will happen then, and… Oh, I just got the best idea! Heeheehee…
Hikaru: (Sweat-drops.) Chibigreen is doing her freaky "I'm doing something strange and evil with your life" laugh again. I think I'll leave now… (Walks out with a humungous sweat-drop on her forehead.)
Chibigreen: Now I'm done here. I'll go now, too… on to Chapter 6 and some *ahem* interesting akugis! Peace! Review, please!