Disclaimer: I still don't own FY. That may be a good thing because I can't draw manga/anime at all, and FY wouldn't be popular if it weren't drawn well. Wait… did I just say it's a good thing that I don't own all the bishies in FY? Wow, I really am insane.
Warnings: There aren't any spoilers unless you've never heard of Ashitare… And I'm not going to bother warning about stuff that already been seen in this fic.
~Sadness and Hope: A Second Chance~
A book seemed to glow slightly blue in the darkness of Warren's room. {Just turn on the light already,} Warren complained to Miboshi.
[You have no sense of drama,] he said in return, but he did grudgingly switch on the light. The Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho was nestled safely on the pillow of Warren's green- and brown-toned room. Then Miboshi let Warren take control again, and he flopped down onto the bead and flipped the book open.
"Whatever you say. But here's the page we're looking for," he said as he pointed to the book. It was the current page where new information was still appearing. He read it silently. 'Peter again had a strange dream. The feral seishi known as Ashitare stood before him, trying to convince him to turn wild, to kill, and to eat human flesh. Again, Peter was barely able to turn him away, but he did succeed. He awoke from his nap in a cold sweat and decided to go and check on his orange trees to calm his nerves.' "What do you know? Ashitare seems to be the typical Florida orange tree farmer."
[Then stop talking to yourself and let's go!]
"Remember our bet. You have to try to be nice. And I wasn't talking to myself; I was talking to you. But that may be the same thing."
Miboshi grumbled. [All right. Where are we going?]
"To the nearest orange farms, of course."
[Can I drive?]
Warren paled at the thought of Miboshi driving. The last time he had let his counterpart drive he had nearly run them into a palm tree. {Not a chance.}
********
"You nearly died! …What do you mean that you don't care?! You don't have to be as suicidal as Chiriko was!" Hikaru was keeping herself busy lecturing Tsunami as she rested in her room. The walls were neatly covered with various anime pictures, and over the bed was a picture of Chiriko as a girl from the OVA omake. That, Hikaru decided, is just ironic. The room was done in a green and red plants theme that often had Hikaru complain that it was permanently decorated for Christmas.
[I almost feel insulted about that remark. Can you protest that on my behalf?]
{She doesn't know you're here, but sure.} Tsunami quickly wrote more sentences on the notepad that she was using to communicate. Then she showed it to Hikaru.
As she read it, Hikaru seemed to grow angrier. "Okay, so maybe it was brave of him. But it doesn't matter because you are going to stay in bed until you don't feel the least bit tired and we are going to be guarding you," she was referring to the rest of the Suzaku Seven, "so there!" All of that was said very quickly. Tsunami put down another note. "I didn't use my seishi power of speed to talk!" Her little sister just gave her a look. "I get the point! But you," she ordered, "better stay in bed! I'll be back to check on you in a few minutes." She left while mumbling, "I almost wish that my parents were here, but no, they're on a cruise! Now I have to take care of a little suicidal sister whose boyfriend tried to fuckin' kill her. What a load of fuckin' fun!" She shut the door to the room behind her.
Tsunami rolled her eyes, but in a few minutes no one was awake in her mind. Outside of her room, however, Hikaru was anything but tired.
She stormed through the house full of nervous energy. When she got to the kitchen, she raided her parents' alcohol collection and poured herself a glass of wine before sitting at the breakfast bar so that she faced the open living room. She got three concerned glances from Ira, Rayna, and Henry, who had never seen her even slightly drunk, and extremely worried looks from Lee, Tahir, and Vidal. Kara looked as if she was going to protest, but she decided against it. Her little sister looked like she needed a drink.
Lee had arrived a few minutes earlier with Rei. Kara and Henry had driven them here after getting a phone call from Hikaru. Vidal had fixed the phone; it seemed that Miboshi had put another type of silencing spell on it, and Vidal had been able to cancel out that one. But not even Ira's newfound healing powers could restore Tsunami's voice.
Hikaru continued to pour herself glasses of wine and drink them. After she had had eight, she slammed the wineglass down. "Damn it!" she roared. Everyone in the room jumped. "I can't believe Tsunami is takin' this so fuckin' easily! That son-of-a-bitch bastard boyfriend of hers just tried to kill her, and all she can say is that it doesn't matter that she nearly fuckin' died!" She poured herself another drink, but a slender hand reached around to grab it from her before it reached her lips. She turned to stare with anger at Vidal, who carefully poured the drink down the sink behind the bar. "What do ya think yer fuckin' doin'?" she demanded.
"Becoming an alcoholic won't help Tsunami," he reprimanded her gently. And then he regretted it; it seemed like Hikaru was either an angry drunk or…
He realized the second type of drunk she was when she suddenly latched onto his shirt and began to cry…
…a very emotional drunk…
"Er… Hikaru? What's wrong?" he asked nervously as she didn't let go.
She began to wail, "I'm such a horrible big sister!"
"No, you're-"
"Yes, I am! I can't even protect my little sister! WAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Vidal was starting to feel even more nervous as he futilely tried to calm her down. "Hikaru-"
Her eyes were full of tears as she looked up at him. "And I won't even face up to my responsibilities, so I try to get drunk instead!"
That was another type of drunken person showing. It was a very truthful drunk. "Hikaru, why don't you go sit down?" he asked politely before leading her to the only empty chair – which happened to be a loveseat – in the living room.
"I have an anger problem, and a drinking problem, and I can't even stop myself from fuckin' cursing," she sniffled as she sat down, but she wouldn't let go of him.
"Hikaru, can you…" He heard her breathing slow as she fell asleep. "…let go of me?" She wasn't awake enough to hear, and her grip in her sleep was surprisingly strong. He finally bowed to the inevitable and sat down next to her… only for her to shift her grip until she was glomping him around his waist.
Kara noticed that her ex-boyfriend was now an interesting shade of red. "Enjoying yourself?" she teased. His blush turned a shade darker.
"No!" He didn't know which was worse; being hugged by his ex-girlfriend's little sister in her sleep, or being teased by his ex over the fact.
Tahir grinned. "Just remember that she's a minor," he added helpfully.
"Da!" Vidal gulped. He didn't think his feelings went that deep – after all, they had only met this morning. But there was something, a memory that he had never experienced, being stirred up…
Lee joined in on the Vidal torture and got his mind away from the memory that he had almost remembered. "Just think about what a marriage with her will be like if she gets drunk at it," he told Vidal helpfully.
His blush, which had been fading, came back at more than full strength. "Daa!"
"Hikaru isn't chasing Big Brother and Mr. Vidal around with a big metal fan this time," commented Rei innocently.
Little sisters can be embarrassing, Lee decided. He cleared his throat and hastily changed the subject. "Isn't it strange that all of the Suzaku Warriors have gather in less then a day?"
Ira and Rayna, who had been informed of what had happened since everyone received his or her power, nodded in agreement with everybody else. "But perhaps it is not," interjected Rayna. "We certainly would not have found Ira, at least, if Tsunami had not been attacked."
"Not to mention how his cat led him here. That's one unusual kitty," the purple-haired seishi said.
The mage stopped trying to get out of Hikaru's grip long enough to say, "He's a very helpful cat, ya know? Thanks to Tama and Ira, Tsunami is still alive."
"But," rumbled the doctor-in-training, "we do not know how to summon Suzaku." It was amazing how far remembering a few moments of a past life could convince a person that gods did exist.
"We should sleep on it," interjected Tahir, "for a week or two. We're still getting used to our powers right now," he said in reply to the looks he was receiving, "and I don't know about you, but my school starts back up the day after tomorrow, and I have a load of homework to complete." There were reluctant nods of agreement around the room. "Don't forget to watch out for Seiryuu Seishi, but remember that they might not be evil in this life."
Again heads nodded, and the meeting broke up as everyone left the room. Only two people remained. One was Hikaru, who was now snuggling closer to Vidal in her sleep. The other was Vidal, and nothing he tried – not even turning SD – helped him to escape the death grip that Hikaru had on him.
********
A sporty black car pulled up to an orange farm with a slightly worn down fence. Warren slowly got out, and he looked towards a spot further in the grove. {Are you sure that Ashitare is in there?}
[Very. I can sense his life force easily.]
{Okay. You can take over for now,} Warren said as he ceded control over to Miboshi. The reincarnated dark mage scaled the fence and walked further into the grove. He heard some crackling behind him, and a voice growled in a thick Southern accent, "Who are you, and why are you here?"
He turned and saw the person who must have been Ashitare. He had the same bluish-gray hair and yellow eyes, but his skin was no longer the unhealthy gray that it had been. He was twenty or more years younger than Ashitare had been, his features were kinder, and there were no scars on his arms. Miboshi smiled with just a touch of cruelty. "Hello, Ashitare."
Peter started in surprise at hearing that name. "I don't know who you're talking about," he lied. "My names Peter."
"That's right; it is, at least in this life. You seem to remember some about Ashitare and the other Seiryuu Seven. How did you feel about Miboshi?"
This time, Peter did not pretend to misunderstand. "Ashitare hated his guts for being so friendly with Nakago. I couldn't care less."
"What if I said that the Priestess of Seiryuu had reappeared and it was our duty to help her summon Seiryuu?"
"I'd say," Peter emphasized each word, "that I won't have a thing to do with it." He scratched at a forming beard on his chin. "Especially if it has to do with fighting the Suzaku Seven."
"Why not?"
The farmer just smiled and said, "Because I had a strangely long dream one night a few weeks ago, not long after some blue light appeared and went into me. I know all of Ashitare's life, and I actually feel sorry for him. Sure, he was evil and everything; I mean, he liked to eat people, for God's sake. But he might of not turned out too bad if he had ever been treated better, but he wasn't, just 'cause he was dumb. Now me," he said while pointing to his head, "I'm not the sharpest thing in the world, either. But I had a chance at education, and though I work pretty hard to just pass my courses, I've had support along the way. My parents treated me nice, and I went into agriculture and loved it. Now I have my own orange grove and a small farm that I use to support myself, and I do odd jobs so that I can finish earning my degree. I worked pretty hard for my life, and I'm not going to let a couple of memories make me lose all of that. I don't want to be Ashitare."
Miboshi's jaw was hanging slightly open. He hadn't expected the man to be even half as educated as he was, and he certainly hadn't expected to be turned down so firmly. On the other hand, Warren felt like congratulating the orange grower. He had went through the same thing two weeks ago when his complete set of Fushigi Yuugi manga had turned into the Seiryuu version of the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho (which focused on Yui instead of Miaka). But instead of being able to fight off the memories, his hand turned into Miboshi and become a split personality. Tsunami had been safe enough around him – until Miboshi had discovered that she was Chiriko. His hatred for her was unbelievable.
Then the dark monk recovered. "I don't care whether you want to support us or not. I can make you obey me, even if I have to have you possessed by a demon for it to work!" The trick had been what had almost killed Tsunami at the school, but when Chiriko fully awakened because of Tsunami's prayer, Warren had been able to fight back and stop the demons from killing her.
Now Miboshi's counterpart reminded him, {Not allowed, remember? You have to win their support in another manner. Here, let me try.} The control of his body was slowly transferred back to him. He smiled friendlily at Peter. "Don't listen to Miboshi," Warren told him. "He's just grumpy because he can't have full control of my body." The ex-werewolf looked dumbfounded. "I have a split personality syndrome because I fully regained my power. Call me Warren, and the other guy with the weird eyes is Miboshi."
"How can you live with that?" the seishi wondered.
"It's hard," he said seriously, "but we get along fairly well. We share time we're controlling the body so that we don't go crazy."
"Do you still want me to join the Seiryuu Seven?"
He laughed. "Of course! It's our duty as the Seiryuu Seishi to summon Seiryuu, and we might as well work together and complete our duty. But I do not believe that we should fight the Suzaku Seishi, unlike Miboshi. It does not matter if they do or not, because them, being who they are, will only do something that is good for others. And I would not want to fight the Suzaku because my girlfriend is Chiriko." He took out his personal business card that he was glad – for once – that his mother had made him get. "Here's my phone number and address. If you feel like meeting some other members of the Seiryuu Seven, come by anytime on Saturday."
A voice called out from the direction of Peter's house. "Peter, honey! I made you some lemonade!"
"Coming, Mom!" Peter called as he turned to go to his house. When he looked back at where Miboshi/Warren had been, the singular pair had already disappeared. A car could be heard starting and driving off.
"Peter!" came the call again.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" called one of the most disliked members of any of the seishi as he went off to get a glass of lemonade from his mother before returning to his work.
~TBC~
~Akugi~
Narrator: Peter again had a strange dream… *The scene shows a sleeping SD Ashitare in a farmer's outfit snoozing with the dream in a bubble above his head. In the dream, Peter is happily plowing away in his fields.*
Nyan-Nyans: *a troop of them march across the dream* Fix, fix!
Peter: *drops his plow and runs away screaming* No, I don't wanna be fixed! Please don't let them do it!
Narrator: …And Peter showed perfectly how a dog would react to the word "fix" if they knew what it could mean for them… and if they could talk back.
~Akugi #2~
Peter: I don't want to be Ashitare.
Warren: What do you want?
Peter: *sticks fake plastic fangs into his mouth* I vant to suck your blood!
Nyan-Nyan #2: *drops in while carrying a huge mallet, which bonks Peter on the head* Bad puppy! You're a werewolf, not a blood sucking undead!
Chibigreen's Ending Rant: I updated pretty quickly this time, for me at least. I guess this is my way of celebrating my computer being unpacked. Ah, well… I liked the little bit at the end where we found out that Peter's still living with his mommy, who makes him lemonade when he works hard. Aw! It's so cute! *glomps all three of her muses*
Heehee, I already had Chibi Chiriko and Chibi Rime as muses. Now, a Nyan-Nyan has joined. *points towards a Nyan-Nyan dressed completely in green* Her name's Chibi Nyo.
Nyo: Hello! Edit, edit! Fix, fix! Romance!
Chibigreen: Yep, that's what Nyo does. She processes the ideas Chiriko and Rime give me, and she adds in the romance.
Nyo: ^__^ *a bow appears in her hand, and its arrow is tipped with a red heart* Nyo!
Chibigreen: She used that on Vidal and Hikaru when they weren't going to cooperate with the romance scene. ^___^ Now that I have three muses, this story might be a bit longer then I thought…
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