"Death Is Always Cruel"

By: Shi-chan

Rating: PG

Warnings: Stuff! Yay! (If you can read/watch Fushigi Yuugi, this should be no problem)

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Fushigi Yuugi. I do, however, own this plot. (Apparently it's quite original. . .)

Author's Corner!!

Shi-chan: Okies, if this gets kinda evil, it's because I've got the flu and don't feel so good, but it'll get better if so, don't worry! :-)

Hotohori: And how exactly would you define evil?

Shi-chan: . . . Anything having to do with me!

Hotohori: Oh, Kami-sama. . . T_T

***NOTE*** Nuriko is still female!!!!!!

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Miaka and Yuki (That's what I'm going to call her mom. . . she's got no definite name, right? If so, tell me!) were the last to get ready and leave the palace due to Yuki's spastic outbursts about how sorry she was for doubting Miaka and for hitting her that night and how worried she was about Miaka doing such dangerous things like battling.

After much traveling, the group arrived just outside Seiryu. They all changed into different outfits so they wouldn't be recognized. Hotohori also put on lipstick and such so people would think he was female, and Miaka helped him put his hair into a bun. Mitsukake got out a piece of cloth to cover his hair, Miaka put her hair into two braids on each side of her shoulders, and Chiriko let his hair down, so he'd be recognized as a small girl. Yuki and Tasuki, however, left their hair the way it was.

Once they got inside of Seiryu, a young man no older than Miaka walked over to the group trying to sell something to him. Once he laid eyes on Hotohori though, he put the items on the ground and grabbed the Emperor's hand. "M'Lady! Surely such a fine looking woman as yourself would do me the justice of dinner tonight?" Hotohori's eyes went wide, but he thought quickly.

"I don't go out with men." Hotohori told the man, clinging to Miaka's arm. Miaka turned red and giggled nervously. "Oh, ha-ha. . . Yeah. . ." She was now as pink as she had ever been. The man backed a little then bowed, and bade them goodbye.

"Hotohori! What was that all about?!" Miaka demanded as everyone else in their group began laughing, and couldn't stop. Hotohori shrugged. "For one, I don't like being hit on by people the same gender as I, especially now that I'm married to you. For two, it makes us less suspicious because no one would think that two females would date in the Celestial Senshi." (Remember, Nuriko's a female in my story, so no male+male either!) Chiriko, still trying to stop giggling, nodded. "Good point, your majesty." He said through his stifled chuckling.

Once the six of them made their way to the center of Seiryu, they began trying to figure out how they would get into the palace to talk to Yui. "What are we going to do?" Yuki asked. Mitsukake and Chiriko sat thoughtfully, unable to come up with any conclusion to the problem at hand. "Perhaps if we say we've got important business with the Seiryu no Miko?" Tasuki suggested. Hotohori shook his head. "That would probably be one of the worst things we could possibly do." He responded.

Suddenly a voice behind the Senshi, the Miko, and her mother spoke up. "I could get you in easily." It said with a feminine tone. They turned around to see a woman with a little too much makeup on, and sky blue hair, neatly pulled into a ponytail in the back, with several strands hanging lose near her ears and where bangs would be. She wore a navy blue gown that came down a bit too low in the front and had spaghetti straps. She smiled and brushed some of her hair behind her ears. "What do you say? Want to try? You've got no other way to get in, and nothing to lose." Hotohori pushed Miaka behind him and drew his sword. "What do you want with us?! There's no way someone off of the street would try to help us in the palace without trying to set a trap!"

The woman smiled and held her hand up, which like a magnet, pulled Miaka straight to her. She held the panicking Suzaku no Miko in her arms, still grinning. She took her other hand to Miaka's throat, and the group watched in horror as her nails drew long and sharp enough to pierce through the Empress. She pressed her nails into the girl's neck, drawing a little bit of blood, until Yuki screamed, "Stop it! Don't hurt her!" The woman's eyebrows lifted somewhat and she made Miaka disappear into thin air. "I've sent her to the palace already. You all either come with me, or you'll never see your precious little Empress ever again." Somewhat reluctantly, they had no other choice.

Meanwhile, Chichiri and Nuriko were NOT getting along at all. "Nuriko, no da, you've got to wear the Empress' robes!" Nuriko stuck her tongue out at the shape-shifting man who currently looked like a chibi Hotohori. "She's probably got some freaky disease and I don't want it!" She protested, crossing her arms like a little child. Chichiri pinned Nuriko to the wall angrily and screamed. "PUT THEM ON, NO DA!"

"Who is this woman?" The Emperor of Seiryu country demanded when Miaka suddenly landed in the middle of the throne room, hitting the floor quite hard. "Someone go get the Seiryu no Miko so she can identify this girl!" He hollered. One of the maids curtseyed and left the room to go get Yui. When she returned a moment later, Yui gasped at the sight familiar unconscious teenager. "That's the Empress of Hong-nan." She told the Emperor, regaining her calmness. The Emperor's eyes grew wide and he yelled, "Kill her," Causing all the men in the room draw their swords and run to her. Yui suddenly stepped in front of the girl and picked her up. "No. I shall see to her death myself." She announced, carrying the Suzaku no Miko through the corridor and to her room.

Yui was quite surprised at how light Miaka was for someone who ate as much as she did. She seemed even lighter than she used to, and her face seemed gentler, making her look like a child sleeping. Yui almost giggled, remembering the last sleepover the pair had, but closed her mouth before any noise came out. They were enemies now, and she had this opportunity to kill her, so now was not the time to rekindle fond memories.

"Your majesty, where is her eminence?" The blue-haired woman asked, coming into the throne room with the Celestial Senshi and Yuki trudging along behind her. "She's in her room. Who are the people with you, Lady Shirei?" The blue-haired woman, obviously Yui's henchwoman Shirei, grinned. "Some of the Celestial Senshi. The blonde woman I'm not quite sure about, however." The Emperor called for binds to be put on the group, and when they found resistance was doing them no good, chains were put around all their wrists and they were all led down to the dungeon, with the exception of Hotohori. "The Mistress Yui has special plans for you, your highness." Shirei told him, giggling, "Now you might want to brush that lipstick off and let your hair down. It looks quite ridiculous on an Emperor."

Hotohori did so, glaring at Shirei all the while. When he was through, they entered Yui's room, in which she sat on her bed holding a sword only inches away from the unconscious Miaka. "No! What are you doing?!" Hotohori cried, watching as Yui enlarged the slit on the Empress' throat. The wound wasn't fatal, but it still scared Hotohori to death. Yui beamed at Miaka's husband.

"Oh, I was just having a little fun waiting for you and Shirei to come up here. Now that you're here, we just need a bucket of cold water to pour over Miaka so she'll wake up. She already bound to the foot of my bed, so she can't escape." Hotohori glared at Yui, wanting to run to her and slit her throat to see how she liked it. "Shirei, please let the Emperor sit down while you go get some water. I can't wait to kill them."

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Author's Corner!!

Shi-chan: Okies, that wasn't as evil as I thought it might turn out, but normally I don't write such bloody things. (All In the Family is probably my most bloody fanfiction)

Miaka: Great. . . does anyone die in the next chapter? -_-

Shi-chan: You'll just have to wait and see won't you? Ehehehe!!!

Miaka: . . .I hate you. . .