Disclaimer: I don't own FY.
Note: You might not be able to understand some parts of this chapter if you've read my other fic (a side story to this), Death's Angel.
~Realization of Truth: To Forgive…~
The glow around Warren dimmed as he lowered back onto his bed. Tsunami looked at him in surprise as he slowly sat up. His feet dangled off the bed.
"Hi, Tsu-chan," he said casually. "Thanks for waiting around for so long."
Hesitantly, she replied, "Really, it wasn't…a problem. I wanted to make sure that you were all right…"
"Both sides of me?" In a split second, Miboshi was again in possession of the body, but his eyes no longer looked so evil. He stepped forward, but Tsunami held her position. She wasn't sure if she could trust Miboshi or not yet.
He took another step forward, and Tsunami was surprised to find herself being hugged by Miboshi. "I'm sorry for not remembering all of my past, Chiriko, Tsunami…" In his mind, he saw a person who reminded him of both Tsunami and Chiriko so much because they were all one and the same. Hane… "I only knew the bitter memories, and not any of the happy ones."
Chiriko spoke, "It is partly my fault, Miboshi. I did not remember the moments before our deaths, either, and so I did not realize that you were not your true self."
With an understanding nod, Miboshi stopped hugging her and took a step back. "There is one thing that I did not tell you about, Chiriko… Let me tell you the story of my life…"
…Story told in Death's Angel…
Chiriko was crying by the end of the story. "So… that is the reason I was able to retain your soul in my body," he whispered quietly. They were sitting on the bed, together, as the story had taken over half an hour to tell.
"Yes. I know I can never be forgiven for what I have done, but-"
The younger seishi reached out and clasped Miboshi's hands. "I forgive you, and so does Tsunami. It is not your fault that it happened as it did."
Surprise was alight in Miboshi's eyes. "T-thank you…" On the back of his neck, his symbol began to glow. His eyes closed as if in pain or unbound joy, he rubbed the symbol on the back of his neck. Perhaps it was both feelings mixed. "It hasn't done that for more than a lifetime. It's a strange sensation, right, Chiriko?"
"Yes, it most certainly is." [This friendly Miboshi is strange. I'm not accustomed to him behaving amicably.]
{He seems sad. I think that he needs a hug,} observed Tsunami.
[I'm not going to hug him. You wouldn't even of suggested that if he didn't look more like Warren now.]
{That's exactly it,} she pointed out. {He doesn't look evil anymore.}
[I suppose I could,] he agreed, [but I won't. It would be too peculiar. However, I am worried about him.]
{Why don't you ask him what's wrong?}
[I can do that,] he acquiesced. He turned towards Miboshi uncertainly with a concerned light in his eyes. "Miboshi…"
Abruptly, Miboshi got up and opened the door to the room. "I think that we'd better go downstairs," he said as he stepped out.
Chiriko was left sitting alone on the bed, feeling sad and slightly crushed in a way that he'd never felt before.
Miboshi breathed deeply as he leaned against the wall outside his reincarnation's room. The said person was loudly berating him.
{What did you do that for? You really upset her.}
[Him,] he replied absently.
{It's a girl's body, so it doesn't matter! The point is that he was just trying to be nice!} yelled Warren.
Miboshi shook his head. [It doesn't matter. I don't deserve anything from Chiriko. He's too… innocent, and I will taint his purity.] He retired back into his part of the mind and left Warren to take over.
My preincarnation is an idiot. Warren shook his head over the strangeness of his formerly evil side. He still needs time to heal, but anyone with half a mind, or two minds, could tell that either Chiriko does like Miboshi, or Chiriko at least wants to help him.
"Hard-headed counterpart?" asked a soft, familiar voice.
He nodded in her direction. "Yes. Miboshi's just afraid of hurting Chiriko, I think…" He couldn't quite meet her eyes. "Tsu-chan, I'm-"
A finger on his lips silenced him. "Shh. It's not your fault, and it's not Miboshi's fault. It was fate and coincidence mixed together in a negative combination, but now everything is beginning to heal. Life always has it's ups and downs. If you can keep hoping in the darkness, you can usually find light."
He gently clasped her hand and shifted it so that he could speak again. "Miboshi doesn't think he deserves the light." 'I don't deserve it, either,' was left unspoken, but it seemed to float in the air for all to read.
"Both of you deserve it," she declared firmly. "I will never think of it any other way."
"I know," he said with a gentle grin. Her persistence was one of the characteristics that Warren admired in Tsunami. He raised her hand to his lips and softly kissed it. She blushed faintly, but it faded as she smiled. Both of them knew that everything was beginning to mend.
"We'd better go tell the others that you're okay," she reminded him when her blush was completely gone. "Aimee was worried about you and Miboshi."
"Then, let's go." They didn't let go of each other's hand. It felt like it always should have been that way.
When they got to the dining room where the others were waiting, there was the squeal of a chair being pushed over tiles and the pattering of small feet on the floor. "Warren! You're up!" Aimee shouted happily as she glomped his leg. "You're alright!"
"I'm better than I have been in a while," he replied seriously. He glanced at Tsunami. "Tsu-chan, maybe you should call your sister and tell her that you're fine?" She nodded and reluctantly let go of his hand. To everyone else, he said, "I'm sorry for causing you to worry. Miboshi and I just had to recover some forgotten memories, and it took a lot out of us."
"So what you're saying is…?" asked Tsuzu after a moment's silence.
"Miboshi's not a bad person after all?" asked Hikaru disbelievingly. She had been getting some water guns out when Tsunami had called.
"That's right," said Tsunami. "He's very polite now that he remembers everything. He even apologized for being like he was."
"Uh-huh. So… I'm plannin' t' have a pool party over here. Are ya comin' home for it?"
"Um… Just a second." She covered the receiver and asked Warren, "Hey, Hikaru's planning a pool party. Can we have it here instead?"
"Sure," he agreed. "We all need to relax."
She relayed this to Hikaru, who had an adverse reaction. "I dunno if we can trust him, Tsunami! I mean-"
"Don't worry, Hikaru. Everything's all right, so just relax. Believe me, everything's fine."
"Okay," her older sister replied reluctantly, "but if he does anything wrong, he'll be so burnt that he'll have to be swept into the fireplace!"
"I'm sure… So, it's settled?"
Hikaru grudgingly agreed and said that she'd let the others know before hanging up.
Tsunami turned happily to everyone else. "It's settled, then. We're all having a pool party!"
"Why now?" Lee questioned.
"Hikaru probably just felt like everyone needed to relax!" she replied cheerfully. "Why don't you go home and get your little sister? It should be interesting!"
Ira stood up to go. "I might be late. There's something that I need to do first." He had been meaning to do something for a few days, but instead he had conserved his power in case that his friends needed it more.
"I wonder what's so important…" Tsunami wondered aloud as she watched Ira leave.
********
Ira looked down with worry at his mother. "She's been like this since this morning?"
"Yes," the nurse replied softly. "The doctors say that her leukemia has suddenly jumped into a more advanced stage. She keeps on losing consciousness."
Worry filled his eyes as he looked at the pale form of his mother. She seemed so thin and old after battling her disease for so long.
"I'll leave you alone with her for a few minutes. We'll be right outside if you need anything," said his mother's nurse before leaving the room. She carefully closed the door after her.
"Mom," Ira sighed sadly as he looked at her sleeping form. I finally found something that can help you, and I almost waited too long. I was holding it back in case anyone else needed it more badly, but now everything has been fixed, he thought to himself. He carefully held his right hand, palm open, over his parent. "Great…Healing…Power!" he called on the special power that he had been granted. Green light flowed from his hand and into his mother, and he could feel it burn away the sickness inside of her. He had never been able to sense the disease before, but now he could almost see the blemish on his mother's spirit. The green light healed all of that.
When the light faded and everything seemed normal again, he was left feeling drained but happy. He knew in his heart that his mother would be fine, though the doctors would call her sudden recovery impossible or a miracle. She was still asleep, as her body was recovering from it's sudden healing.
As quietly as he could, he exited the ward. The nurse was still standing outside, though he now noticed that her clothing was that of a volunteer.
"Did she wake up, sir?"
He shook his head. "No, but I'm certain that she will be fine." He said it with such conviction that she found it impossible to doubt him.
********
If his house left any doubt that Warren was rich, his pool cleared away the reservations of the unbelievers. It was the same size as the pools used in the Olympics and it was in a patio so large that it could also fit in a small eating area, a shower to rinse off in, one low diving board, one high diving board, a storage place for pool toys and equipment, and a one-story-high waterslide. The water was heated with the help of solar panels, and the huge windows were glass so that no insects could enter.
"Damn, this is huge!" Hikaru exclaimed as she entered. She was wearing a large red T-shirt with a swimsuit underneath. "I didn't think that he had this much money!"
"My mother said that as long as we lived in Florida, we might as well enjoy the stereotypical comforts in our own backyard," Warren said as he entered the area through a sliding glass door. "But when she saw what Dad had paid for, she accused him of going overboard."
"No shit!" Everyone else was already in the pool, except for Ira. Derrick and Erick were there, and the priestesses were there with extra swimsuits that Hikaru had brought. Aimee and Rei were hanging around the edge of it and playing with some floating toys.
Hikaru turned her attention back to Warren. "But listen here, buster. No matter what Tsunami says, I still don't trust you. You try to do anything funny, and I'll make sure that you regret it."
"I'm never going to hurt Tsunami or anyone else," he replied quietly. "I would rather die first."
Hikaru realized that Warren was more serious about Tsunami than she had thought. "Okay, then let me put it this way: If you get too romantic with my sister, you're going to end up in the hospital in pieces. Get it?" She leveled her best 'overprotective older sibling' glare at him.
He smiled nervously. "Ah… I think so…" She continued to glare. "Yes, I understand." Satisfied with that answer, Hikaru turned to survey the pool as Warren walked away.
With the exceptions of Aimee and Rei, everyone seemed nervous about socializing. Kotori and Tsuzu were talking, but even they seemed on edge.
I can't swim, she though as she stepped into the shallow end. I can't swim, and I'm at a pool party with some people who are supposed to be my enemies. She sighed as she carefully sat down on the pool's edge. When did my life get so fuckin' messed up?
A part of her wished that she had never found out that she was one of the Suzaku Seven. Life had been much simpler before that, but she had always felt that something had been missing. Being one of the seishi made her feel more complete, but she wondered if they would stay bonded as they were. Were seishi chosen by an anime box set even meant to exist? It didn't feel like a mistake to her, but she still was unsure. She wondered what other twists of fate were in store for them.
~TBC~
Chibigreen's Ending Rant: *reads reviews for Death's Angel* Happy! ^____^ I didn't get as many reviews for the 3rd chappy as the 2nd chappy, but still… ^___^ Nice people! Nice reviews! Nice! Good comments from CLAMPraven, Draconsis, Evil Hunter, shadow priestess… I must of scared my other readerss with the plot twist. ^___^ Happy… ^___^ *goes back to rereading reviews*
Rime: She's not going to be making sense today. *gives best angst muse glare at Chibigreen*
Nyo: No sense! Chibigreen too happy! *gives cute Nyan-Nyan pose*
Crystal: *flaps wings and blows smoke*
Snow: *freezes the smoke in midair with her breath so that it lands on Rime*
Rime: *brushes of frozen smoke shards* I suppose that we should reply to her reviews for her.
Chibigreen: Try eating them. *goes back to looking at the computer screen, but prints out reviews first*
Rime: *grabs first review* Okay, this one's from CLAMPraven. Yes, I am sorry to say that Chibigreen is a disgustingly honest person. She even works as her own conscience, no matter how many times I try to convince her that she's wrong. And she's happy that you review her stories. Apparently, getting reviews from her one of her favorite authors makes her go very SD.
Nyo: Eat it, eat it!
Rime: *makes a disgusted face and takes a bite out of the review* *blinks* Actually, it tastes… very nice. Like chicken…
Nyo: *grabs next review* Okay, this is from Astral Mikos. Chibigreen likes to mess around with Nakago in fics. She likes him as a good bad guy, but she think's he's scary. That's why she put him as a little girl. Little kids can be scary, too. She messes around with Miboshi because she wouldn't be able to stand him otherwise.
Rime: You can talk in sentences?!
Nyo: Of course! *delicately nibbles on review* Very nice! It tastes a bit like star fruit.
Crystal: *uses a claw to hook the next review*
Rime: How're you going to reply to it?
Crystal: {Telepathically, ahou. Anyway, this is from Sansele. Don't worry; Chibigreen doesn't mind any comments about the sluggishness of her updates because they're true.}
Chibigreen: HEY!
Crystal: {Tsunami gets into unbelievable amounts of trouble 'cause she's the main character, and because Chibigreen is a Chiriko fan. Chiriko's become her second favorite seishi, pushing his way past Tasuki to end up ranked just below Chichiri. She has this weird urge to torture the character that she likes – all Rime's fault, I promise – so Chiriko/Tsunami end up in the worst situations. And she was impressed at Chiriko's "good fashion sense." He wore a green robe, you see. And you're right about that Yuu Watase combination, except for maybe in Ashitare's case. He certainly was not bishounen.} *takes the reviews and gulps it down* {Yum… I think it's like cheesecake.}
Snow: *takes last review* {This is from Flying heart. She thought that she wasn't logged in, but she was.} ^__^ {Chibigreen's glad that you liked her fic.} *neatly devours the review* {Hmm… Strawberries and cream…} ^__^
Chibigreen: Thanks for feeding my muses, everyone! ^___^ Oh, wait, there's one more review, and it's from my friend, Red Wolf. Thanks for finding the time to read my fic! ^___^ It'll be nice to talk to you again. ^___^ *divides review between muses* What's the flavor?
Muses: *all have a bright red face, excluding a satisfied-looking Crystal* Jalapeno peppers!
Chibigreen: Yep, that's Red Wolf, all right! Peace!
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