Part two: Priestesses return and Nataku's arrangement.
The two new students sat at the back of the room. Ki Hatsu was a handsome young man who had moved to Japan from a wealthy family in China. There were rumors that he was a descendent of bygone emperors floating around the school, but Yui didn't take much notice. The rumors had started simply because the boy was handsome, and Yui was not one for gossip. Other rumors had started as well about the second new student. The other student was a girl.
Beautiful would be an understatement when describing her.
Her hair was a fiery crimson, and fell to her waist. She was well developed, and much taller than most of the students. It was hard to believe she was only 17 and not 22. She carried herself with the dignity of a grand empress, but laughed like a child, and spoke with the sweetest sounding malice. Daa-ji was her name. She too was from China, but she didn't look remotely Asian with the flowing red hair, or fiery eyes that were unbelievably cold. Rumor had it that Daa-ji had no soul.
Yui, for once, agreed.
"Psst, Yui-chan! Pass this note to Miaka. It's from Ki-san," said Yuma, one of Yui's friends. "Yuma, you know you shouldn't be passing notes," Yui scolded softly, but took the note any way. It was from Ki Hatsu. With an aggravated sigh, she opened it. If he was hitting on Miaka.
'Hongo-san, I knew you'd read this before passing it to Miaka, so first I would like to reprimand you for being so nosy."
Yui fumed, but continued reading.
'This is, in fact, not for your friend, but for you! I was wondering if you are busy tonight and if you would-'
"Reading notes in class Hongo-san? Tsk tsk, not up to your usual standards are we? Stand in the hall, please." Professor Kazutaka took the note and read it carefully, then turned his attention to Ki Hatsu. "Ki-san, I would have expected better behavior from a new student."
Blushing from head to toe, Ki Hatsu followed Yui outside, picking up two water buckets.
Geez, trouble on the first day.
Yui's arms already ached from the weight of the buckets as she stood in silence. Ki Hatsu, she noticed, kept sneaking glances at her, and twice had opened his mouth to speak, but Yui shot him a nasty look each time, and he shut it.
"I'm sorry," he blurted quickly before Yui could silence him with another look.
"For what?" She snapped, but very very quietly. She didn't want to annoy Professor Kazutaka any more.
"For getting you in trouble. I should have asked you out after class. Not passing notes like a sixth grader."
Yui didn't know what to say to this, so she stared straight ahead at the wall. Cinder blocks were fascinating, really. Ki Hatsu took Yui's silence as a cue to continue.
"How about dinner with me tonight? What do you say?"
Sploosh!
Ki Hatsu stood in utter shock. Yui had splashed him with the contents of her water bucket and stood grinning with grim triumph.
"I say that you are an over-sexed pretty boy that needs to get his mind off all the skirts flocking to him, and keep his mind on his school work. I also say no."
Ki Hatsu grinned.
"I'll see you at six then?"
"Drop dead."
"I love you too, honey."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
Yui dragged behind Miaka, looking forlorn. She had two choices of evening activities. One was to go to Miaka's and return to the Universe of the Four Gods. The other was to have dinner with the over-sexed pretty boy.
Yui decided she'd take paranoid delusions of rape and treachery, supernatural beings, bad food (and indigestion), and even Nakago, over spending even five seconds with Ki Hatsu.
"Stupid over-sexed pretty boy."
Miaka blinked. "Huh?"
"Nothing, never mind."
All too soon they were standing in front of Miaka's house, and Keisuke was out front, waiting for them.
"You guys sure about going back?"
Miaka and Yui nodded simultaneously, and each handed him a ribbon.
"Our connection." Miaka said.
Keisuke tied the two ribbons, Miaka's red and Yui's blue, to his wristwatch, and handed them the book.
"Ready Yui?"
Yui nodded, but didn't say anything. She thought that if she did, she'd be sick all over the front yard.
Carefully, Miaka opened the book, and slowly Yui began to read. There was the familiar flash of red and blue light, and the sudden rush of wind as Yui and Miaka were drawn once again into the Universe of the Four Gods.
"I don't care!" a man's voice shouted distantly, "I want the family name carried on, and he'll be married whether he wants it or not!"
"Dear," it was a woman's voice, trying to reason with what seemed to be a furious husband, "Nataku is at that age. He wants to be alone."
Yui stirred slowly, feeling very cramped. What the hell was going on? Miaka was also moving slowly into consciousness. It was dark, wherever they were, Yui presumed a closet from how cramped it was.
"Ugh. where are we?"
"Shh!" Yui hissed.
Miaka froze as the voices rose again.
"He's just a boy!" cried the woman's voice. She sounded close to tears.
"He's twenty! He should have been married when he was sixteen, but he was off with that Doushi, rampaging across the country and tearing down the Yin Empire!"
"Your son saved hundreds of lives and aided in the removal of an obsolete emperor and his controlling concubine!"
"And what does a woman know of these matters?" roared the husband.
Miaka bristled, knowing what was to come next.
"He's going to hit her, I know it. Yui, let's go stop him!"
"Shh! They'll hear us, and then he'll probably kill us."
"But."
"Be quiet."
The argument continued for quite some time, when a nasally voice interrupted. Yui thought it sounded much like Tamahome, only much more- sophisticated was not the word - thoughtful? No, that wasn't it.
"If you want me to marry, father, find me someone here who will."
There was a long silence. Yui mused that the young man must be quite ugly if no one would marry him. She peeked out the keyhole to find that her suspicions were very off the mark. The young man, Nataku his mother had called him (although Yui couldn't fathom why (1)) was very, very handsome. Yui would have swooned if she were the type to go about and swoon at handsome men. He was a medium height with soft red hair and a surfer's figure. Yui couldn't understand why, considering the time period, this young man didn't have women hanging off him. From what she could see the family was wealthy, the son handsome, unusually so, so unless Nataku had a very foul personality. but that never stopped anyone.
The father had grown very quiet.
"You're right, Nataku. I can't think of a woman in this village foolish enough to marry a violent soul-less monster!" The father spat, his eyes bulging with fury. But his rage didn't stop there. "You never should have been born, boy. You're no son of mine! You never will be!"
The mother was stunned into silence. From what Yui could see, the woman looked ready to pass out.
Nataku simply glared evenly at his father. Yui could practically see the rage steaming off the red haired man. The silence seemed to last forever.
"We have to get out of here!" Miaka whispered. Yui nodded in agreement. As soon as the coast was clear, they would bolt out of there.
After a few more angry words passed between mother and father, the family soon saw it fit to continue their almighty row in another room of the house. Yui and Miaka quickly took advantage of the opportunity and darted out the closet.
"Stay close and be quiet," Yui murmured as they moved swiftly through the halls, "honestly Miaka, what possessed you to want to come back here?"
"I told you, Yui."
"Not the whole story. How the hell are we supposed to find 'friendship' here?"
Miaka shrugged, her expression awkward.
Yui sighed in exasperation. Miaka could be so. so.
But Yui couldn't continue that line of thought for long. Someone was coming. Grabbing Miaka by the arm, Yui dived through a likely looking door. What she found on the other side was. beautiful.
They had stumbled upon what appeared to be a most magnificent garden complete with a fish pond and thousands of flowers. But, something was strange.
"They're all lotus," said Miaka in an awed sort of voice.
But Yui didn't care about the lotus. Something else had caught her attention.
"There's a wall! If we climb over it, we'll be out of here and then we can get directions to Hong-nan! C'mon!"
They scrambled up the ivy covered walls as quickly as they could. Which was quite slowly owing to the fact the ivy was very slippery and the wall did not provide very good footholds.
When they were about half way up, a nasally voice interrupted.
"Don't move."
Yui turned to glance over her shoulder to come face to face with the red- haired son, Nataku. Or, to be more exact, face to face with a huge brass gauntlet on Nataku's arm.
"Um." Yui stammered. "Shit."
End of part two
Ai-chan: Whew, I just pulled that out of my ass. Anyway, R&R welcome with open arms! Flames will be used to toast marshmallows so don't write any :P. The next part will make a little more sense and actually plot will get developed. Also, heads up to anyone who's reading this, Yaoi stuff is approaching (don't worry, nothing hardcore)! Which means I'll be veering off a bit from what has essentially been a third-person Yui POV (I like Yui! She's so cool!).
(1) "Nataku" was also the God of Battle.
The two new students sat at the back of the room. Ki Hatsu was a handsome young man who had moved to Japan from a wealthy family in China. There were rumors that he was a descendent of bygone emperors floating around the school, but Yui didn't take much notice. The rumors had started simply because the boy was handsome, and Yui was not one for gossip. Other rumors had started as well about the second new student. The other student was a girl.
Beautiful would be an understatement when describing her.
Her hair was a fiery crimson, and fell to her waist. She was well developed, and much taller than most of the students. It was hard to believe she was only 17 and not 22. She carried herself with the dignity of a grand empress, but laughed like a child, and spoke with the sweetest sounding malice. Daa-ji was her name. She too was from China, but she didn't look remotely Asian with the flowing red hair, or fiery eyes that were unbelievably cold. Rumor had it that Daa-ji had no soul.
Yui, for once, agreed.
"Psst, Yui-chan! Pass this note to Miaka. It's from Ki-san," said Yuma, one of Yui's friends. "Yuma, you know you shouldn't be passing notes," Yui scolded softly, but took the note any way. It was from Ki Hatsu. With an aggravated sigh, she opened it. If he was hitting on Miaka.
'Hongo-san, I knew you'd read this before passing it to Miaka, so first I would like to reprimand you for being so nosy."
Yui fumed, but continued reading.
'This is, in fact, not for your friend, but for you! I was wondering if you are busy tonight and if you would-'
"Reading notes in class Hongo-san? Tsk tsk, not up to your usual standards are we? Stand in the hall, please." Professor Kazutaka took the note and read it carefully, then turned his attention to Ki Hatsu. "Ki-san, I would have expected better behavior from a new student."
Blushing from head to toe, Ki Hatsu followed Yui outside, picking up two water buckets.
Geez, trouble on the first day.
Yui's arms already ached from the weight of the buckets as she stood in silence. Ki Hatsu, she noticed, kept sneaking glances at her, and twice had opened his mouth to speak, but Yui shot him a nasty look each time, and he shut it.
"I'm sorry," he blurted quickly before Yui could silence him with another look.
"For what?" She snapped, but very very quietly. She didn't want to annoy Professor Kazutaka any more.
"For getting you in trouble. I should have asked you out after class. Not passing notes like a sixth grader."
Yui didn't know what to say to this, so she stared straight ahead at the wall. Cinder blocks were fascinating, really. Ki Hatsu took Yui's silence as a cue to continue.
"How about dinner with me tonight? What do you say?"
Sploosh!
Ki Hatsu stood in utter shock. Yui had splashed him with the contents of her water bucket and stood grinning with grim triumph.
"I say that you are an over-sexed pretty boy that needs to get his mind off all the skirts flocking to him, and keep his mind on his school work. I also say no."
Ki Hatsu grinned.
"I'll see you at six then?"
"Drop dead."
"I love you too, honey."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
Yui dragged behind Miaka, looking forlorn. She had two choices of evening activities. One was to go to Miaka's and return to the Universe of the Four Gods. The other was to have dinner with the over-sexed pretty boy.
Yui decided she'd take paranoid delusions of rape and treachery, supernatural beings, bad food (and indigestion), and even Nakago, over spending even five seconds with Ki Hatsu.
"Stupid over-sexed pretty boy."
Miaka blinked. "Huh?"
"Nothing, never mind."
All too soon they were standing in front of Miaka's house, and Keisuke was out front, waiting for them.
"You guys sure about going back?"
Miaka and Yui nodded simultaneously, and each handed him a ribbon.
"Our connection." Miaka said.
Keisuke tied the two ribbons, Miaka's red and Yui's blue, to his wristwatch, and handed them the book.
"Ready Yui?"
Yui nodded, but didn't say anything. She thought that if she did, she'd be sick all over the front yard.
Carefully, Miaka opened the book, and slowly Yui began to read. There was the familiar flash of red and blue light, and the sudden rush of wind as Yui and Miaka were drawn once again into the Universe of the Four Gods.
"I don't care!" a man's voice shouted distantly, "I want the family name carried on, and he'll be married whether he wants it or not!"
"Dear," it was a woman's voice, trying to reason with what seemed to be a furious husband, "Nataku is at that age. He wants to be alone."
Yui stirred slowly, feeling very cramped. What the hell was going on? Miaka was also moving slowly into consciousness. It was dark, wherever they were, Yui presumed a closet from how cramped it was.
"Ugh. where are we?"
"Shh!" Yui hissed.
Miaka froze as the voices rose again.
"He's just a boy!" cried the woman's voice. She sounded close to tears.
"He's twenty! He should have been married when he was sixteen, but he was off with that Doushi, rampaging across the country and tearing down the Yin Empire!"
"Your son saved hundreds of lives and aided in the removal of an obsolete emperor and his controlling concubine!"
"And what does a woman know of these matters?" roared the husband.
Miaka bristled, knowing what was to come next.
"He's going to hit her, I know it. Yui, let's go stop him!"
"Shh! They'll hear us, and then he'll probably kill us."
"But."
"Be quiet."
The argument continued for quite some time, when a nasally voice interrupted. Yui thought it sounded much like Tamahome, only much more- sophisticated was not the word - thoughtful? No, that wasn't it.
"If you want me to marry, father, find me someone here who will."
There was a long silence. Yui mused that the young man must be quite ugly if no one would marry him. She peeked out the keyhole to find that her suspicions were very off the mark. The young man, Nataku his mother had called him (although Yui couldn't fathom why (1)) was very, very handsome. Yui would have swooned if she were the type to go about and swoon at handsome men. He was a medium height with soft red hair and a surfer's figure. Yui couldn't understand why, considering the time period, this young man didn't have women hanging off him. From what she could see the family was wealthy, the son handsome, unusually so, so unless Nataku had a very foul personality. but that never stopped anyone.
The father had grown very quiet.
"You're right, Nataku. I can't think of a woman in this village foolish enough to marry a violent soul-less monster!" The father spat, his eyes bulging with fury. But his rage didn't stop there. "You never should have been born, boy. You're no son of mine! You never will be!"
The mother was stunned into silence. From what Yui could see, the woman looked ready to pass out.
Nataku simply glared evenly at his father. Yui could practically see the rage steaming off the red haired man. The silence seemed to last forever.
"We have to get out of here!" Miaka whispered. Yui nodded in agreement. As soon as the coast was clear, they would bolt out of there.
After a few more angry words passed between mother and father, the family soon saw it fit to continue their almighty row in another room of the house. Yui and Miaka quickly took advantage of the opportunity and darted out the closet.
"Stay close and be quiet," Yui murmured as they moved swiftly through the halls, "honestly Miaka, what possessed you to want to come back here?"
"I told you, Yui."
"Not the whole story. How the hell are we supposed to find 'friendship' here?"
Miaka shrugged, her expression awkward.
Yui sighed in exasperation. Miaka could be so. so.
But Yui couldn't continue that line of thought for long. Someone was coming. Grabbing Miaka by the arm, Yui dived through a likely looking door. What she found on the other side was. beautiful.
They had stumbled upon what appeared to be a most magnificent garden complete with a fish pond and thousands of flowers. But, something was strange.
"They're all lotus," said Miaka in an awed sort of voice.
But Yui didn't care about the lotus. Something else had caught her attention.
"There's a wall! If we climb over it, we'll be out of here and then we can get directions to Hong-nan! C'mon!"
They scrambled up the ivy covered walls as quickly as they could. Which was quite slowly owing to the fact the ivy was very slippery and the wall did not provide very good footholds.
When they were about half way up, a nasally voice interrupted.
"Don't move."
Yui turned to glance over her shoulder to come face to face with the red- haired son, Nataku. Or, to be more exact, face to face with a huge brass gauntlet on Nataku's arm.
"Um." Yui stammered. "Shit."
End of part two
Ai-chan: Whew, I just pulled that out of my ass. Anyway, R&R welcome with open arms! Flames will be used to toast marshmallows so don't write any :P. The next part will make a little more sense and actually plot will get developed. Also, heads up to anyone who's reading this, Yaoi stuff is approaching (don't worry, nothing hardcore)! Which means I'll be veering off a bit from what has essentially been a third-person Yui POV (I like Yui! She's so cool!).
(1) "Nataku" was also the God of Battle.