Kiss of a phoenix
Note: This fan story may not be appropriate for younger readers because it contains some sexual content, although there's no actual sexual intercourse.
Another important notice: I own nothing Shenmue-related,I'm not Yu Suzuki, so sueing me won't do you any good.
It was the next day, the day after Ryo and Shenhua discovered the two giant mirrors and found the proof Shenhua's father mentioned in the letter.
Shortly after the two left the cave, they found someone from the village, he said some strange men were taking Shenhua's father away but an unknown man stopped them, he then just disappeared. Upon arriving in the village, Shenhua's eyes were filled with tears of happiness as her father was safe and sound. Ryo is introduced to the villagers and he begins his research.
It's 8 a.m., Ryo wakes up and slowly but steadily gets out of bed. He walks to the kitchen and says almost immediately:
-"Good Morning Shen...".
Ryo paused, noticing that Shenhua was not there. Ryo suddenly felt uneasy, his eyes searched the entire kitchen hoping to find her. Ryo runs to the front door, opens it and finds some relief because Shenhua is next to the Shenmue Tree, silently in the swing.
-"Shenhua...", Ryo calls.
Shenhua reacts to the sudden call and replies:
-"Good morning, Ryo. Sorry to worry you...".
Shenhua stares at Ryo and returns him a warm smile, which he replies with a more reassuring expression. Ryo continues:
-"What are you doing here?".
-"I was just thinking...", Shenhua replies, "Who was the man who saved my father...".
Ryo stares at Shenhua and replies calmly:
-"I'm glad your father was ok...", Shenhua nods and Ryo continues his speech:
-"I wonder who he was...", whoever one of the few descriptions kept Ryo thinking, the leg moves he used seemed familiar to Ryo.
-"Anyway I want to thank you, without you I couldn't have found the information I needed."
Shenhua is pleased and replies with a smile, but as she was preparing to get up. Ryo gets behind the swing and starts pushing it. Shenhua surprised, happily replies by moving her legs up to make the swing go higher and faster.
"Faster, Ryo, stronger!", Shenhua screams.
The times passes and the two trade laughter for smiles while Ryo plays with Shenhua on the swing.
Suddenly Ryo stops the swing and so does Shenhua, as they're happy moment was interrupted by a strange growl. Shenhua's starts to laugh and she puts her hand on her mouth, she thinks it's very funny and why not? Ryo hasn't had any breakfast at all:
-"Sorry, Ryo I forgot to make breakfast, you must be starving!", Shenhua replies.
Ryo very embarrassed replies:
-"Yeah, we were having so much fun I nearly forgot about it".
Shenhua gets up from the swing and says to Ryo right in his face:
-"Let's go Ryo, I'm going to make you a very delicious breakfast".
Ryo replies by nodding his head and the two go back inside the house.
A few hours later, the two are sitting down eating their lunch:
-"How do you like the rabbit?", Shenhua asks.
-"It was good, I feel much better", Ryo answers.
-"Ryo, I came home early, what did you find in the village?", Shenhua continues.
Ryo pours water in his cup, and drinks a bit and then he replies:
-"Yes, I know where to go now.". Shenhua asks, "Where to,Ryo?".
Ryo raises his hand and points to the picture on the wall and says:
-"That place, Luoyang.", Ryo continues, "There's a man there that can help me".
-"The best way to get there is to take the train", Ryo continues.
Shenhua lowers her cup and says:
-"Ryo, I'm coming with you!".
-"No!", Ryo firmly says, Shenhua calm expression changes, she becomes concerned, she replies:
-"Why,Ryo? The legend says...", Ryo interrupts her and says, "I said no, Shenhua, these Chi You Men, they are dangerous people". Shenhua replies, "I don't care".
"Well I do care!", Ryo blurts out."But...", Shenhua nearly continues her reply but both her and Ryo cease their argument and stare at each other with an embarrassed expression on both, and why not? The two where arguing like small children.
Ryo turns his head to avoid Shenhua's innocent and pure expression, but he turns around to stare again at her deep brown eyes, Ryo can't help to notice how a fragile girl like herself is so bound to come along with him. But Ryo suddenly remembers that the young women is talking to, didn't even had a second thought about saving that white deer, nor endure the long walks to get to her house. After a few minutes of silence, Ryo spits out: "Sorry, Shenhua I don't want anything to happen to you, I'm leaving now...".
Shenhua raises her head and stares into Ryo's eyes. She suddenly feels sad and says to Ryo:
-"So this is goodbye?".
-"Yes...Goodbye", Ryo gets up and marches straight to the bedroom, the minutes pass and Ryo continues to tidy up his backpack, when suddenly he feels a warm embrace from behind. He feels a warm chest in his back, and two delicate arms wrapped around his chest. Ryo's heart began to pound, but quickly he realized that it was Shenhua.
Ryo tried to brake free of her grasp, but the feeling of the entire embrace was too much for his strength, although he realized that he could easily break up her embrace. Powerless, however Ryo finds some strength to speak:
-"Let me go...", Ryo said hoping that Shenhua would release him from her embrace.
There was no reply, but Ryo could sense another thing apart from the bust on his back and the arms around his chest. Shenhua silently places her head gently in his back and gently yawns. Ryo begins to feel rather uneasy and sweaty at the same time, yet he does not feel disturbed at all. In Ryo's mind, the warm embrace arouses his imagination, but as he realizes that, he immediately comes back to his senses and tries to pull out Shenhua's arms by grabbing Shenhua's hands. Ryo turns around to face Shenhua:
-"Shenhua...I...", Ryo was about to continue his speech when he suddenly stared at his own hands and he noticed how Shenhua's hands were softly holding his hands even tough, Ryo's was trying to brake free of them. Again her warm hands gave him a feeling that he hadn't had at all since he began his quest for revenge.
Ryo turns to stare again at Shenhua, he noticed immediately that she has blushing, such a stare was making Ryo feel very uneasy. He tries to reason with Shenhua:
-"Let me go, Shenhua, why are you doing this why?".
Shenhua almost immediately responds:
-"Ryo, I love you!", Ryo is stunned by such a response, and replies "Y..you love me?".
This isn't the first time someone has said something like this to him, there was that young girl, Xiuying's assistant, Ryo vividly recalls Fangmei Xun, who told him she loved him. That image is very clear in Ryo's memory, comparisons are pointless, Ryo ponders. It's easy to see, because he's standing in front of a much older and more mature women. Ryo feels even more uneasy, but so does Shenhua, the look on her face is clear that she has seen true love. "I...I...", Ryo giggles.
-"Don't say anything...", Shenhua frees her right hand from Ryo's grasp and gently caresses his face, with her delicate fingers smoothly crossing and touching his check.
Ryo's heart is pounding, he feels it more then ever before, he blushes and Shenhua responds with a smile. Ryo's releases his left hand the one holding Shenhua's left arm, and he raises it to also caress Shenhua's face, Shenhua's heart begins to pound wildly, as she wasn't expecting such a gesture. Ryo and Shenhua are blushing as they stare at each other. Shenhua slowly lowers her right hand and Ryo bends his head to meet Shenhua's face. Shenhua does nothing but to puckers her lips as Ryo's face gets closer to Shenhua's.
Shenhua stares at Ryo while he's slowly reaching her lips, Ryo places his arms around Shenhua's waist and finally, he closes his eyes and their lips meet, then Shenhua closes her eyes and thinks nothing but happy thoughts during this moment that seems to go on forever and ever.
A few moments later, Ryo frees Shenhua from the kiss and gently spits out:
-"This was the kiss...the kiss you wanted to give me that day...".
Shenhua knows what Ryo's talking about, she recalls the day after they had met, Shenhua was trying to find herbs for her father, Ryo found lots of them. Shenhua tried to thank him with one harmless kiss. Ryo backed down from it... Shenhua perfectly recalls it, was it just a immature gesture? Whatever it was that entire idea went away with this deep kiss, Shenhua ponders.
Shenhua happily smiles at Ryo as a reply, Ryo gently pulls Shenhua next to the bed and sits down, holding Shenhua. Ryo is very embarrassed, as he slowly places his hands on her shoulders; Shenhua gently grabs his hands and nods.
She pushes Ryo's hands down, she releases his hands and raises her arms, to remove her little hat from her head. Ryo stared as she released her hair locks from her ponytail and the long wavy hair that Shenhua freed fascinated him. His heart was pounding ever so much, pounding even more when suddenly she turns her back on him. Shenhua then places her arms on her long coat and she pulls it up, gently going through her head and then dropping it on the floor. Ryo could clearly see her back, that clean white, again his heart pounded, Ryo tried to calm down, but his thoughts weren't helping and the bulge on his pants wasn't helping at all.
Finally when Shenhua finished undressing, she wraps her arms around her chest covering her breasts. With a very embarrassed expression on her face she then turns to Ryo, he stares at Shenhua and his eyes search every inch of her body. Ryo cannot contain himself and comments:
-"You're beautiful, Shenhua.", Shenhua replied by nodding her head and blushing afterwards. She then unwraps her arms from her chest revealing her bust to Ryo, very embarrassed he turns his eyes await from her breasts and says:
-"Umm, they're very nice...I", but Shenhua interrupts his comment by pushing Ryo into the bed and laying him down. Ryo feels rather uneasy as Shenhua gently climbs the bed and lays down on top of Ryo face to face. Ryo and Shenhua stare at each other as they where prepared to kiss again, Shenhua was already undressing Ryo by taking his jacket off. Their lips were about to meet again, when suddenly a huge knock on the door and endless giggles were heard. Shenhua and Ryo were surprised by the sudden noise, Ryo realized that those giggles where from children:
-"Shenhua, quickly get dressed!", Ryo whispers desperately to Shenhua.
Shenhua also realized that those giggles are from the younglings of the village and tries to get dressed as fast as possible, a little boy opened the front door and called out for Shenhua.
-"Miss Ling?", the boy called.
Luckily for Shenhua, she was completely dressed, when the boy came him.
-"Ah, there you are, Miss Ling!", the boy smiled.
Ryo was sitting in the bed pretending he was tidying up his backpack while Shenhua was sitting in the table acting as if the boy interrupted their conversation, both of them smiled at the boy to make him think nothing strange happened at all:
-"Mu, please come in...", Shenhua replies.
-"Miss Ling, we're waiting outside for the stranger...", the boy continued.
-"Oh, of course I forgot Ryo, you were doing you're research at night you never had time to play with the children from the village", Shenhua addresses to Ryo.
Ryo then answers:
-"But...I", before he could finish Shenhua turns her head to face Ryo and winks at him.
Ryo replies with a smile and both he and Shenhua escort the boy outside, Ryo is surprised to see many children just waiting in front of the house. One of the kids asks:
-"What your name?".
-"I'm Ryo, Ryo Hazuki", Ryo answers.
-"HELLO MR RYO HAZUKI!", the children cheer.
One of the children grabs Ryo's hands and drags him to the yard, while Shenhua watches him playing with the children.
Ryo does nothing else for hours other then answering the children's questions about Japan, the sea and his adventures.
A few hours later, Shenhua's busy cleaning the bedroom, when Ryo enters through the front door.
-"Shenhua, I'm back...", says Ryo.
-"Did you enjoy playing with the children?", Shenhua nods.
-"Yes, I did!", Ryo answers.
Ryo walks into the bedroom and picks up his bag, Shenhua realizes that Ryo's leaving, he then marches to the entrance of the bedroom and nods to Shenhua:
-"It's time to go...", Shenhua remains silent only to hear:
-"Aren't you coming?", Ryo says. Shenhua reacts with a smile and she rapidly turns to Ryo to give him one big hug. A smiling Ryo continues:
-"Let's go Shenhua, if that's what the legend foretells, then you'll have to come along with me and I'm leaving".
Shenhua nods with tears of happiness going down her cheeks, embarrassed she raises her arms and cleans away the tears, then she says:
-"Well, Ryo let's go!".
-"Yes, If we run we can make it to the cave by sundown.", Shenhua replies.
Happily, the two race through the front door and begin their long journey back to harbour.
A few days later, Shenhua and Ryo and sitting in the train bound to Luoyang, Shenhua was sleeping for hours on end, with the last words from her father before departing on her mind "God's speed, Shenhua", these words echoed in Shenhua's head until Ryo gently wakes her up and says:
-"Shenhua, we're almost there!".
Shenhua gently rubs her hands on her face then stands up to look at the window, from a distance, she could already make out the huge temple and the suburbs of Luoyang.
With the wind going through her face Shenhua stares at the city thinking about one single thought:
-"I shall wield myself to the one who holds the phoenix...".
Ryo gets up and stares through the window as they reach the station when the train stops, Ryo smiled for he saw someone in the crowd that made him cheer:
-"Guizhang!", Shenhua then stares at where Ryo's looking.
Both of them make out a dark suited man, with an ironical smile and a right arm waving in the air, for he has also spotted Ryo.
As Ryo turns around and heads to the exit of the train, Shenhua stares at the young man that Ryo recognized, for a split second she pounders about him, he's a friend of Ryo, how did he find him right there in Luoyang?
Shenhua thinks back about the man:
-"Was it him, the man who saved my father? A friend of Ryo helped my father, I'm sure of it."
-"I'm truly happy to come along with Ryo, with him around, I feel protected and blessed...I feel...", Shenhua continues.
-"Shenhua, let's go, Guizhang is waiting", Ryo interrupts.
Shenhua turns around to face Ryo and smiles at him with one last thought in her mind:
-"I feel like I've been kissed by a phoenix".
End
yusaku
carlosalberto_cunha@pt.dreamcast.com
Note: This fan story may not be appropriate for younger readers because it contains some sexual content, although there's no actual sexual intercourse.
Another important notice: I own nothing Shenmue-related,I'm not Yu Suzuki, so sueing me won't do you any good.
It was the next day, the day after Ryo and Shenhua discovered the two giant mirrors and found the proof Shenhua's father mentioned in the letter.
Shortly after the two left the cave, they found someone from the village, he said some strange men were taking Shenhua's father away but an unknown man stopped them, he then just disappeared. Upon arriving in the village, Shenhua's eyes were filled with tears of happiness as her father was safe and sound. Ryo is introduced to the villagers and he begins his research.
It's 8 a.m., Ryo wakes up and slowly but steadily gets out of bed. He walks to the kitchen and says almost immediately:
-"Good Morning Shen...".
Ryo paused, noticing that Shenhua was not there. Ryo suddenly felt uneasy, his eyes searched the entire kitchen hoping to find her. Ryo runs to the front door, opens it and finds some relief because Shenhua is next to the Shenmue Tree, silently in the swing.
-"Shenhua...", Ryo calls.
Shenhua reacts to the sudden call and replies:
-"Good morning, Ryo. Sorry to worry you...".
Shenhua stares at Ryo and returns him a warm smile, which he replies with a more reassuring expression. Ryo continues:
-"What are you doing here?".
-"I was just thinking...", Shenhua replies, "Who was the man who saved my father...".
Ryo stares at Shenhua and replies calmly:
-"I'm glad your father was ok...", Shenhua nods and Ryo continues his speech:
-"I wonder who he was...", whoever one of the few descriptions kept Ryo thinking, the leg moves he used seemed familiar to Ryo.
-"Anyway I want to thank you, without you I couldn't have found the information I needed."
Shenhua is pleased and replies with a smile, but as she was preparing to get up. Ryo gets behind the swing and starts pushing it. Shenhua surprised, happily replies by moving her legs up to make the swing go higher and faster.
"Faster, Ryo, stronger!", Shenhua screams.
The times passes and the two trade laughter for smiles while Ryo plays with Shenhua on the swing.
Suddenly Ryo stops the swing and so does Shenhua, as they're happy moment was interrupted by a strange growl. Shenhua's starts to laugh and she puts her hand on her mouth, she thinks it's very funny and why not? Ryo hasn't had any breakfast at all:
-"Sorry, Ryo I forgot to make breakfast, you must be starving!", Shenhua replies.
Ryo very embarrassed replies:
-"Yeah, we were having so much fun I nearly forgot about it".
Shenhua gets up from the swing and says to Ryo right in his face:
-"Let's go Ryo, I'm going to make you a very delicious breakfast".
Ryo replies by nodding his head and the two go back inside the house.
A few hours later, the two are sitting down eating their lunch:
-"How do you like the rabbit?", Shenhua asks.
-"It was good, I feel much better", Ryo answers.
-"Ryo, I came home early, what did you find in the village?", Shenhua continues.
Ryo pours water in his cup, and drinks a bit and then he replies:
-"Yes, I know where to go now.". Shenhua asks, "Where to,Ryo?".
Ryo raises his hand and points to the picture on the wall and says:
-"That place, Luoyang.", Ryo continues, "There's a man there that can help me".
-"The best way to get there is to take the train", Ryo continues.
Shenhua lowers her cup and says:
-"Ryo, I'm coming with you!".
-"No!", Ryo firmly says, Shenhua calm expression changes, she becomes concerned, she replies:
-"Why,Ryo? The legend says...", Ryo interrupts her and says, "I said no, Shenhua, these Chi You Men, they are dangerous people". Shenhua replies, "I don't care".
"Well I do care!", Ryo blurts out."But...", Shenhua nearly continues her reply but both her and Ryo cease their argument and stare at each other with an embarrassed expression on both, and why not? The two where arguing like small children.
Ryo turns his head to avoid Shenhua's innocent and pure expression, but he turns around to stare again at her deep brown eyes, Ryo can't help to notice how a fragile girl like herself is so bound to come along with him. But Ryo suddenly remembers that the young women is talking to, didn't even had a second thought about saving that white deer, nor endure the long walks to get to her house. After a few minutes of silence, Ryo spits out: "Sorry, Shenhua I don't want anything to happen to you, I'm leaving now...".
Shenhua raises her head and stares into Ryo's eyes. She suddenly feels sad and says to Ryo:
-"So this is goodbye?".
-"Yes...Goodbye", Ryo gets up and marches straight to the bedroom, the minutes pass and Ryo continues to tidy up his backpack, when suddenly he feels a warm embrace from behind. He feels a warm chest in his back, and two delicate arms wrapped around his chest. Ryo's heart began to pound, but quickly he realized that it was Shenhua.
Ryo tried to brake free of her grasp, but the feeling of the entire embrace was too much for his strength, although he realized that he could easily break up her embrace. Powerless, however Ryo finds some strength to speak:
-"Let me go...", Ryo said hoping that Shenhua would release him from her embrace.
There was no reply, but Ryo could sense another thing apart from the bust on his back and the arms around his chest. Shenhua silently places her head gently in his back and gently yawns. Ryo begins to feel rather uneasy and sweaty at the same time, yet he does not feel disturbed at all. In Ryo's mind, the warm embrace arouses his imagination, but as he realizes that, he immediately comes back to his senses and tries to pull out Shenhua's arms by grabbing Shenhua's hands. Ryo turns around to face Shenhua:
-"Shenhua...I...", Ryo was about to continue his speech when he suddenly stared at his own hands and he noticed how Shenhua's hands were softly holding his hands even tough, Ryo's was trying to brake free of them. Again her warm hands gave him a feeling that he hadn't had at all since he began his quest for revenge.
Ryo turns to stare again at Shenhua, he noticed immediately that she has blushing, such a stare was making Ryo feel very uneasy. He tries to reason with Shenhua:
-"Let me go, Shenhua, why are you doing this why?".
Shenhua almost immediately responds:
-"Ryo, I love you!", Ryo is stunned by such a response, and replies "Y..you love me?".
This isn't the first time someone has said something like this to him, there was that young girl, Xiuying's assistant, Ryo vividly recalls Fangmei Xun, who told him she loved him. That image is very clear in Ryo's memory, comparisons are pointless, Ryo ponders. It's easy to see, because he's standing in front of a much older and more mature women. Ryo feels even more uneasy, but so does Shenhua, the look on her face is clear that she has seen true love. "I...I...", Ryo giggles.
-"Don't say anything...", Shenhua frees her right hand from Ryo's grasp and gently caresses his face, with her delicate fingers smoothly crossing and touching his check.
Ryo's heart is pounding, he feels it more then ever before, he blushes and Shenhua responds with a smile. Ryo's releases his left hand the one holding Shenhua's left arm, and he raises it to also caress Shenhua's face, Shenhua's heart begins to pound wildly, as she wasn't expecting such a gesture. Ryo and Shenhua are blushing as they stare at each other. Shenhua slowly lowers her right hand and Ryo bends his head to meet Shenhua's face. Shenhua does nothing but to puckers her lips as Ryo's face gets closer to Shenhua's.
Shenhua stares at Ryo while he's slowly reaching her lips, Ryo places his arms around Shenhua's waist and finally, he closes his eyes and their lips meet, then Shenhua closes her eyes and thinks nothing but happy thoughts during this moment that seems to go on forever and ever.
A few moments later, Ryo frees Shenhua from the kiss and gently spits out:
-"This was the kiss...the kiss you wanted to give me that day...".
Shenhua knows what Ryo's talking about, she recalls the day after they had met, Shenhua was trying to find herbs for her father, Ryo found lots of them. Shenhua tried to thank him with one harmless kiss. Ryo backed down from it... Shenhua perfectly recalls it, was it just a immature gesture? Whatever it was that entire idea went away with this deep kiss, Shenhua ponders.
Shenhua happily smiles at Ryo as a reply, Ryo gently pulls Shenhua next to the bed and sits down, holding Shenhua. Ryo is very embarrassed, as he slowly places his hands on her shoulders; Shenhua gently grabs his hands and nods.
She pushes Ryo's hands down, she releases his hands and raises her arms, to remove her little hat from her head. Ryo stared as she released her hair locks from her ponytail and the long wavy hair that Shenhua freed fascinated him. His heart was pounding ever so much, pounding even more when suddenly she turns her back on him. Shenhua then places her arms on her long coat and she pulls it up, gently going through her head and then dropping it on the floor. Ryo could clearly see her back, that clean white, again his heart pounded, Ryo tried to calm down, but his thoughts weren't helping and the bulge on his pants wasn't helping at all.
Finally when Shenhua finished undressing, she wraps her arms around her chest covering her breasts. With a very embarrassed expression on her face she then turns to Ryo, he stares at Shenhua and his eyes search every inch of her body. Ryo cannot contain himself and comments:
-"You're beautiful, Shenhua.", Shenhua replied by nodding her head and blushing afterwards. She then unwraps her arms from her chest revealing her bust to Ryo, very embarrassed he turns his eyes await from her breasts and says:
-"Umm, they're very nice...I", but Shenhua interrupts his comment by pushing Ryo into the bed and laying him down. Ryo feels rather uneasy as Shenhua gently climbs the bed and lays down on top of Ryo face to face. Ryo and Shenhua stare at each other as they where prepared to kiss again, Shenhua was already undressing Ryo by taking his jacket off. Their lips were about to meet again, when suddenly a huge knock on the door and endless giggles were heard. Shenhua and Ryo were surprised by the sudden noise, Ryo realized that those giggles where from children:
-"Shenhua, quickly get dressed!", Ryo whispers desperately to Shenhua.
Shenhua also realized that those giggles are from the younglings of the village and tries to get dressed as fast as possible, a little boy opened the front door and called out for Shenhua.
-"Miss Ling?", the boy called.
Luckily for Shenhua, she was completely dressed, when the boy came him.
-"Ah, there you are, Miss Ling!", the boy smiled.
Ryo was sitting in the bed pretending he was tidying up his backpack while Shenhua was sitting in the table acting as if the boy interrupted their conversation, both of them smiled at the boy to make him think nothing strange happened at all:
-"Mu, please come in...", Shenhua replies.
-"Miss Ling, we're waiting outside for the stranger...", the boy continued.
-"Oh, of course I forgot Ryo, you were doing you're research at night you never had time to play with the children from the village", Shenhua addresses to Ryo.
Ryo then answers:
-"But...I", before he could finish Shenhua turns her head to face Ryo and winks at him.
Ryo replies with a smile and both he and Shenhua escort the boy outside, Ryo is surprised to see many children just waiting in front of the house. One of the kids asks:
-"What your name?".
-"I'm Ryo, Ryo Hazuki", Ryo answers.
-"HELLO MR RYO HAZUKI!", the children cheer.
One of the children grabs Ryo's hands and drags him to the yard, while Shenhua watches him playing with the children.
Ryo does nothing else for hours other then answering the children's questions about Japan, the sea and his adventures.
A few hours later, Shenhua's busy cleaning the bedroom, when Ryo enters through the front door.
-"Shenhua, I'm back...", says Ryo.
-"Did you enjoy playing with the children?", Shenhua nods.
-"Yes, I did!", Ryo answers.
Ryo walks into the bedroom and picks up his bag, Shenhua realizes that Ryo's leaving, he then marches to the entrance of the bedroom and nods to Shenhua:
-"It's time to go...", Shenhua remains silent only to hear:
-"Aren't you coming?", Ryo says. Shenhua reacts with a smile and she rapidly turns to Ryo to give him one big hug. A smiling Ryo continues:
-"Let's go Shenhua, if that's what the legend foretells, then you'll have to come along with me and I'm leaving".
Shenhua nods with tears of happiness going down her cheeks, embarrassed she raises her arms and cleans away the tears, then she says:
-"Well, Ryo let's go!".
-"Yes, If we run we can make it to the cave by sundown.", Shenhua replies.
Happily, the two race through the front door and begin their long journey back to harbour.
A few days later, Shenhua and Ryo and sitting in the train bound to Luoyang, Shenhua was sleeping for hours on end, with the last words from her father before departing on her mind "God's speed, Shenhua", these words echoed in Shenhua's head until Ryo gently wakes her up and says:
-"Shenhua, we're almost there!".
Shenhua gently rubs her hands on her face then stands up to look at the window, from a distance, she could already make out the huge temple and the suburbs of Luoyang.
With the wind going through her face Shenhua stares at the city thinking about one single thought:
-"I shall wield myself to the one who holds the phoenix...".
Ryo gets up and stares through the window as they reach the station when the train stops, Ryo smiled for he saw someone in the crowd that made him cheer:
-"Guizhang!", Shenhua then stares at where Ryo's looking.
Both of them make out a dark suited man, with an ironical smile and a right arm waving in the air, for he has also spotted Ryo.
As Ryo turns around and heads to the exit of the train, Shenhua stares at the young man that Ryo recognized, for a split second she pounders about him, he's a friend of Ryo, how did he find him right there in Luoyang?
Shenhua thinks back about the man:
-"Was it him, the man who saved my father? A friend of Ryo helped my father, I'm sure of it."
-"I'm truly happy to come along with Ryo, with him around, I feel protected and blessed...I feel...", Shenhua continues.
-"Shenhua, let's go, Guizhang is waiting", Ryo interrupts.
Shenhua turns around to face Ryo and smiles at him with one last thought in her mind:
-"I feel like I've been kissed by a phoenix".
End
yusaku
carlosalberto_cunha@pt.dreamcast.com