Even Out of Battle Mode
Chapter 2
by Laly Konstantin
The established reincarnations:
Ron - Suboshi
Sean - Amiboshi
Rose - Soi
Seit - Nakago?
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No one said anything, even after they watched Yui shut the door and heard her call to the others outside. Complete silence prevailed, except for the sound of water boiling over the side of a pot. Half a step into the front room, Seit turned and raced to the kitchen. 'Turning off the burner might have been a good idea,' Rose commented, eyes on the ceiling.
Sean and Ron turned around at the sound of her voice, exhibiting shadowed expressions that brought Natalie's mind back to the questions she had. 'So what exactly is the story, anyway?'
They exchanged glances, and Rose lowered her gaze back to Natalie. 'Ummmm..' Sean and Ron began simultaneously, and exchanged a glance. 'You do believe in past lives, don't you?' Natalie blinked and nodded, surprised that Sean would remember that. 'That makes it easier.' Sean then leaned over and whispered something in Ron's ear, and the other boy smiled but shook his head.
Rose giggled a little. 'You two are going to be helpful,' she muttered, rolling her eyes but smiling affectionately. 'Basically, we all knew each other in a past life. Ron and I,' she added hastily, 'and Sean, and I always figured that anyway. But the strange thing is that we also knew that girl, Yui.' From her voice, it was hard to tell exactly what she'd thought of 'that girl.' 'Even though it was a long time ago, though, she was about the same. So I start thinking it was in another world, or something. I mean, I remember her as being from another world.'
'The priestess from another world,' Ron agreed wistfully.
'I don't even remember how she came to ours,' Sean commented. 'Well, I only saw her a few times, anyway.'
Without missing a beat, Ron continued. 'She brought me with her, once, when she came back to this world.'
'But of course you didn't remember until you saw her again,' Sean commented, and there was a veiled teasing in his tone.
'Yeah... you didn't remember until I did, aniki.' Ron didn't stumble over the world, but he didn't sound entirely like himself either. Natalie shook her head, and he caught sight of the motion and looked away from Sean again. 'Sean was my twin brother,' he explained, 'and Rose was another person we knew... pretty nice if I remember. Kinda obsessed, though.'
Rose blushed a little, but laughed right back. '*I* was obsessed! "Yui-sama! Yui-sama!" He was obsessed with that girl who just came by.'
Natalie blinked at a slightly faster rate. Ron obsessed with a girl? 'Okay... so you all knew Yui, and you were both obsessed, and I'm still not getting this at all.' Somewhere in the silence between her reiterations, she heard Seit muttering in the background. 'And Nakago?'
'Is who Rose was obsessed with,' Ron scoffed, 'and he was a jerk. Sent my brother off to die, lied to Yui, all sorts of wonderful things.' Somewhere in his sarcasm, Rose thought she still heard a bit of grudging respect.
'You wouldn't have said that if Seit were in the room, would you?' Sean had to ask. Ron cracked up, shaking his head, and his brother continued with a bemused expression. 'He was kind of the leader, since he was really powerful. We were all the priestess's warriors, born with these sort of.. special powers,' and he gestured to demonstrate. 'But he really was the strongest, and I guess that's why the others followed him.'
'You all followed Nakago?' Natalie asked skeptically, casting a quick glance toward the kitchen. 'And they think Seit was this guy?' The footsteps she heard materialised into a tall blond form in the doorway.
'So doubtful,' Seit exclaimed.
Rose shrugged, and spoke before Natalie could. 'You don't remember, right? So who are you to question it?'
Seit crossed the room and sat down next to Natalie. 'Actually, I do remember Nakago.'
Rose's eyes widened. 'Oh? You remember him, or you remember being him?'
'Just about to ask that,' Natalie commented, starting to wonder why she was even there. If they all knew each other in a past life, and had old grudges to settle - she thought of Ron teasing Rose for her obsession with Nakago, and how Sean might react to that now - she wasn't sure she wished to be in the middle of it.
Seit shrugged. 'I looked in the mirror, and - I remembered. I do look like Nakago, don't I?'
Shrugging, and mocking the pose Seit had unintentionally struck, Ron commented: 'Maybe a scrawnier version.'
Seit laughed. 'You never did like him. It was painfully obvious, you know.'
'He did have good reason,' Sean responded.
ROse closed her eyes, getting frustrated. 'None of us were exactly wonderful people, okay?'
'At least you know who you were,' Seit muttered, thinking of Yui again. 'Every time you say something, thinking I can't hear you, it makes me think of another image.' He turned his focus to the door, then to Ron. 'Suboshi kissing Yui, and being an absolute klutz about it. Or poor Soi,' he continued, looking to Rose, 'the expression on your face when-!'
'You must have been Nakago,' Ron interrupted, standing up. 'I can't think of anyone else I disliked so much. And I keep thinking of what it would be like to impale you.'
Despite herself, Natalie laughed.
'Hard as it is to imagine you taking that kind of action against anyone, Ron... are you sure you're not letting your old self take over?' Seit stood, crossing his arms, and leaned against the wall. He caught sight of his reflection in the window. He looked like Nakago; and despite the fact that Ron was a match for his height this time, the reminder of Nakago's power made it easier to laugh off the other boy's outburst.
Rose shook her head. 'I'm not really convinced.' She couldn't explain why, though Natalie's gaze was urging more information out of her; she just knew something about the situation didn't fit.
Sean, who'd been musing in silence while his former twin boiled over, looked up. 'What about the Suzaku warriors? Were we all on the same side?' He cast a glance at Natalie, to see if the word brought out any reaction. By this point, she accepted everything blank-faced, as though it were amusing but meaningless. The same with the name of the rival god.
'Wouldn't Yui have mentioned it?' Ron asked, skin crawling at the mention of the other warriors. *Tamahome,* he thought, *I hated him too.* The name brought a number of half-mad memories, and he tried to shut them away and hear what Sean was saying now.
'It's safe to assume they would have mentioned it. I can see Natalie being from another side, but the rest of us...'
Natalie interrupted. 'Wait. So who are you guys saying I would have been, assuming I'm even involved in this?' She didn't really want to hear the answer. Something about the entire story was beginning to repulse her. 'And by the way, I really don't think I am.'
'I... disagree,' Sean answered. 'If anything, I'm more surprised by Seit than by you.'
'You would be,' Seit commented.
'She wasn't Ashitare,' Rose concluded. 'She could be Miboshi, since I never knew anything about him and can't exclude that. I never liked him much, but you could be Tomo and I wouldn't hold it against you.' She tried to gauge Natalie's reactions.
'Would Miboshi wind up looking like Miaka?' Sean asked.
'Wait,' Natalie stopped him. 'You knew Miaka, too?'
'Hated her,' Ron conceded.
'Liked her,' Sean lashed back with a smile.
'Pretended to be her,' Rose raised an arm, and laughed a little. 'With Tomo's help, of course.'
'Seriously?' Ron incredulously asked. 'I never knew that. So that's why you look like her.'
'She was the other priestess, wasn't she?' Seit supplied. 'The even more gullible girl.'
'Misogynist,' Natalie muttered. 'Did anyone else like her? Enough that they'd be...'
'You?' Sean supplied. He smiled, and it unnerved Natalie for some reason. 'Well, I think any of us would have switched places with the Suzaku, given the chance-'
'Brag about it, why don't you?'
'-but maybe none of us repented as extremely as you did.' He fixed his eyes on Natalie again, trying to decide what could make her remember. Somehow, he was sure, but he didn't want to bring it up unless she realised it herself.
Rose watched Seit, still wondering why Nakago would have returned in such an obvious manner. She remembered the unhappy man who had tossed in his sleep, tortured by a life story as tragic as those the rest of Seiryuu's chosen warriors had suffered. She remembered the smirk on his face, the cold manner, the bare minimum of humanity he'd allowed to survive in his heart, and wondered if Seit really remembered Nakago as he had been. If he did, how could he smile like that? Maybe he didn't remember it all for that reason.
At the same moment, Ron considered that maybe Natalie had a reason for not remembering at all. *If she was Miboshi,* he considered, *then she could have done any kind of things, things anyone would want to forget. I barely knew Miboshi, but sometimes he seemed even worse than Nakago.*
Sean had left his thoughts drift to a simpler topic, and decided to interrupt the silence with it. 'I'm absolutely starving, you guys. We should get dinner eventually.'
Most of the others burst out laughing, and cheerfully agreed that they couldn't work much more of this out right now. Natalie sighed in relief, and Ron muttered an affectionate 'hollow leg.' Set against the overall lightened mood, then, the odd look Seit sent in his direction only bothered him a little.
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AN: Some minor alterations. I hope this 'solid' chapter isn't too dull... the next one jumps around more.
Chapter 2
by Laly Konstantin
The established reincarnations:
Ron - Suboshi
Sean - Amiboshi
Rose - Soi
Seit - Nakago?
------------------------------
No one said anything, even after they watched Yui shut the door and heard her call to the others outside. Complete silence prevailed, except for the sound of water boiling over the side of a pot. Half a step into the front room, Seit turned and raced to the kitchen. 'Turning off the burner might have been a good idea,' Rose commented, eyes on the ceiling.
Sean and Ron turned around at the sound of her voice, exhibiting shadowed expressions that brought Natalie's mind back to the questions she had. 'So what exactly is the story, anyway?'
They exchanged glances, and Rose lowered her gaze back to Natalie. 'Ummmm..' Sean and Ron began simultaneously, and exchanged a glance. 'You do believe in past lives, don't you?' Natalie blinked and nodded, surprised that Sean would remember that. 'That makes it easier.' Sean then leaned over and whispered something in Ron's ear, and the other boy smiled but shook his head.
Rose giggled a little. 'You two are going to be helpful,' she muttered, rolling her eyes but smiling affectionately. 'Basically, we all knew each other in a past life. Ron and I,' she added hastily, 'and Sean, and I always figured that anyway. But the strange thing is that we also knew that girl, Yui.' From her voice, it was hard to tell exactly what she'd thought of 'that girl.' 'Even though it was a long time ago, though, she was about the same. So I start thinking it was in another world, or something. I mean, I remember her as being from another world.'
'The priestess from another world,' Ron agreed wistfully.
'I don't even remember how she came to ours,' Sean commented. 'Well, I only saw her a few times, anyway.'
Without missing a beat, Ron continued. 'She brought me with her, once, when she came back to this world.'
'But of course you didn't remember until you saw her again,' Sean commented, and there was a veiled teasing in his tone.
'Yeah... you didn't remember until I did, aniki.' Ron didn't stumble over the world, but he didn't sound entirely like himself either. Natalie shook her head, and he caught sight of the motion and looked away from Sean again. 'Sean was my twin brother,' he explained, 'and Rose was another person we knew... pretty nice if I remember. Kinda obsessed, though.'
Rose blushed a little, but laughed right back. '*I* was obsessed! "Yui-sama! Yui-sama!" He was obsessed with that girl who just came by.'
Natalie blinked at a slightly faster rate. Ron obsessed with a girl? 'Okay... so you all knew Yui, and you were both obsessed, and I'm still not getting this at all.' Somewhere in the silence between her reiterations, she heard Seit muttering in the background. 'And Nakago?'
'Is who Rose was obsessed with,' Ron scoffed, 'and he was a jerk. Sent my brother off to die, lied to Yui, all sorts of wonderful things.' Somewhere in his sarcasm, Rose thought she still heard a bit of grudging respect.
'You wouldn't have said that if Seit were in the room, would you?' Sean had to ask. Ron cracked up, shaking his head, and his brother continued with a bemused expression. 'He was kind of the leader, since he was really powerful. We were all the priestess's warriors, born with these sort of.. special powers,' and he gestured to demonstrate. 'But he really was the strongest, and I guess that's why the others followed him.'
'You all followed Nakago?' Natalie asked skeptically, casting a quick glance toward the kitchen. 'And they think Seit was this guy?' The footsteps she heard materialised into a tall blond form in the doorway.
'So doubtful,' Seit exclaimed.
Rose shrugged, and spoke before Natalie could. 'You don't remember, right? So who are you to question it?'
Seit crossed the room and sat down next to Natalie. 'Actually, I do remember Nakago.'
Rose's eyes widened. 'Oh? You remember him, or you remember being him?'
'Just about to ask that,' Natalie commented, starting to wonder why she was even there. If they all knew each other in a past life, and had old grudges to settle - she thought of Ron teasing Rose for her obsession with Nakago, and how Sean might react to that now - she wasn't sure she wished to be in the middle of it.
Seit shrugged. 'I looked in the mirror, and - I remembered. I do look like Nakago, don't I?'
Shrugging, and mocking the pose Seit had unintentionally struck, Ron commented: 'Maybe a scrawnier version.'
Seit laughed. 'You never did like him. It was painfully obvious, you know.'
'He did have good reason,' Sean responded.
ROse closed her eyes, getting frustrated. 'None of us were exactly wonderful people, okay?'
'At least you know who you were,' Seit muttered, thinking of Yui again. 'Every time you say something, thinking I can't hear you, it makes me think of another image.' He turned his focus to the door, then to Ron. 'Suboshi kissing Yui, and being an absolute klutz about it. Or poor Soi,' he continued, looking to Rose, 'the expression on your face when-!'
'You must have been Nakago,' Ron interrupted, standing up. 'I can't think of anyone else I disliked so much. And I keep thinking of what it would be like to impale you.'
Despite herself, Natalie laughed.
'Hard as it is to imagine you taking that kind of action against anyone, Ron... are you sure you're not letting your old self take over?' Seit stood, crossing his arms, and leaned against the wall. He caught sight of his reflection in the window. He looked like Nakago; and despite the fact that Ron was a match for his height this time, the reminder of Nakago's power made it easier to laugh off the other boy's outburst.
Rose shook her head. 'I'm not really convinced.' She couldn't explain why, though Natalie's gaze was urging more information out of her; she just knew something about the situation didn't fit.
Sean, who'd been musing in silence while his former twin boiled over, looked up. 'What about the Suzaku warriors? Were we all on the same side?' He cast a glance at Natalie, to see if the word brought out any reaction. By this point, she accepted everything blank-faced, as though it were amusing but meaningless. The same with the name of the rival god.
'Wouldn't Yui have mentioned it?' Ron asked, skin crawling at the mention of the other warriors. *Tamahome,* he thought, *I hated him too.* The name brought a number of half-mad memories, and he tried to shut them away and hear what Sean was saying now.
'It's safe to assume they would have mentioned it. I can see Natalie being from another side, but the rest of us...'
Natalie interrupted. 'Wait. So who are you guys saying I would have been, assuming I'm even involved in this?' She didn't really want to hear the answer. Something about the entire story was beginning to repulse her. 'And by the way, I really don't think I am.'
'I... disagree,' Sean answered. 'If anything, I'm more surprised by Seit than by you.'
'You would be,' Seit commented.
'She wasn't Ashitare,' Rose concluded. 'She could be Miboshi, since I never knew anything about him and can't exclude that. I never liked him much, but you could be Tomo and I wouldn't hold it against you.' She tried to gauge Natalie's reactions.
'Would Miboshi wind up looking like Miaka?' Sean asked.
'Wait,' Natalie stopped him. 'You knew Miaka, too?'
'Hated her,' Ron conceded.
'Liked her,' Sean lashed back with a smile.
'Pretended to be her,' Rose raised an arm, and laughed a little. 'With Tomo's help, of course.'
'Seriously?' Ron incredulously asked. 'I never knew that. So that's why you look like her.'
'She was the other priestess, wasn't she?' Seit supplied. 'The even more gullible girl.'
'Misogynist,' Natalie muttered. 'Did anyone else like her? Enough that they'd be...'
'You?' Sean supplied. He smiled, and it unnerved Natalie for some reason. 'Well, I think any of us would have switched places with the Suzaku, given the chance-'
'Brag about it, why don't you?'
'-but maybe none of us repented as extremely as you did.' He fixed his eyes on Natalie again, trying to decide what could make her remember. Somehow, he was sure, but he didn't want to bring it up unless she realised it herself.
Rose watched Seit, still wondering why Nakago would have returned in such an obvious manner. She remembered the unhappy man who had tossed in his sleep, tortured by a life story as tragic as those the rest of Seiryuu's chosen warriors had suffered. She remembered the smirk on his face, the cold manner, the bare minimum of humanity he'd allowed to survive in his heart, and wondered if Seit really remembered Nakago as he had been. If he did, how could he smile like that? Maybe he didn't remember it all for that reason.
At the same moment, Ron considered that maybe Natalie had a reason for not remembering at all. *If she was Miboshi,* he considered, *then she could have done any kind of things, things anyone would want to forget. I barely knew Miboshi, but sometimes he seemed even worse than Nakago.*
Sean had left his thoughts drift to a simpler topic, and decided to interrupt the silence with it. 'I'm absolutely starving, you guys. We should get dinner eventually.'
Most of the others burst out laughing, and cheerfully agreed that they couldn't work much more of this out right now. Natalie sighed in relief, and Ron muttered an affectionate 'hollow leg.' Set against the overall lightened mood, then, the odd look Seit sent in his direction only bothered him a little.
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AN: Some minor alterations. I hope this 'solid' chapter isn't too dull... the next one jumps around more.