Disclaimer: Please see the Prologue of Suzaku's Oracle for a blanket disclaimer.
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Warnings: Rated PG-13 or Fiction T. Language due to Tasuki!
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Notes: 7-27-13 Developing characters is a huge part of the writing process. After all, what's a story without characters? I'm going to discuss Chichiri first. Over the years, I thought a lot about who Chichiri is. We all know him as a wandering monk, but… Not so! Watase included character biographies in the graphic novels, and Chichiri's is in volume six on page sixty-six. (That's a lot of sixes! Is that a bad omen?) Watase wrote, "He would call himself a 'priest,' but he isn't really religious." However, she also wrote, "He is unconcerned with his own mortality. He has become much like a typical Zen master with his abandonment of earthly desires." And yet, she also writes that he's a bit of a manipulator and the power behind Hotohori's throne. That's a little contradictory, don't you think? More in the End Notes. ~Sapphire
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Oracles of the Four Gods
"Suzaku's Oracle"
By: Sapphire
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Part Seven ~ Mysterious Outsider
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"Father Yoshi, I'm worried...about Danno." Aneko swallowed, trying to control her rising fear. "He's late, and he hasn't called. "I don't know where he is. Have you heard from him at all?" She waited nervously for the reply that was far too long in coming.
"Aneko, you know that Mother Kuri and I love you like our own daughter, don't you?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Of course," she answered without having to think about it. "What a weird question," she thought. Then all at once the implications struck her. It was almost impossible to force audible sound from her throat to ask a question she dreaded the answer to. "What- what happened? What's wrong? What happened to Danno?" She was trying so hard to fight the fear rising in the pit of her stomach, but with every passing second she knew she was losing the battle.
"Aneko," Yoshi said in a hushed tone, his voice strangled as if he was fighting off tears of his own. "Danno was in a crash."
"What!" she was frantic. "This can't be happening to me!" her mind screamed at her. But she managed to remain outwardly calm, at least enough to ask questions. "Where is he? Is he okay? What hospital-"
"Aneko!" Yoshi cut her off. She fell silent. "Aneko, I'm afraid it's bad."
"How bad?" She didn't want to know. She didn't want to hear the truth she knew in her heart.
"He didn't make it," Yoshi said. The catch in his voice cut her like a knife.
"Didn't...make...it?" Inside she was screaming, "No, No, No!"
"He died instantly," Yoshi told her.
"Died?" her response was barely a whisper.
"Yes," Yoshi replied. "Aneko?" She couldn't answer. She couldn't believe him. This just couldn't be happening to her. "Aneko?" Yoshi's voice was like a far off echo to her. Father Yoshi would not lie to her. He would never play such a cruel joke. Danno would have called her if everything were all right. She knew it. As the devastating truth hit her full force, she dropped the phone and collapsed into an overstuffed chair and wept.
"Why did you leave me, Danno? Why?"
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…...
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The woman he'd rescued four days ago was still in the depths of slumber. At the moment she seemed restless, like she was dreaming. She dreamed a lot. Chichiri rubbed his temples, trying to massage away the headache he'd gotten from trying to figure out who she was. It was late, and he should have been in bed, but the unconscious woman was his responsibility and he couldn't leave her. Wearily, Chichiri took a seat in a chair beside her bed and continued to watch her carefully. Tears glistened amid her brown eyelashes, threatening to overflow. She made a slight movement with her hand as she shifted in her restless sleep, and it looked as though she was trying to speak. Not for the first time he wondered what she was dreaming about. Suddenly her eyes flew open and she looked up directly at him.
"Why did you leave me, Danno? Why?" she asked. He stared at her, mystified by her unexpected question. "Why?" She grabbed onto his forearm and held tight as large tears fell from her eyes and she continued to stare up at him.
"I- I'm not Danno, no da," he managed to say, putting a gentle hand over the one clutching at his arm. She stared at him, startled, then slowly released her grip on him as she slipped back into unconsciousness. Chichiri sat with her a little while longer, making sure she would be all right, then he stood and made his way outside to the courtyard to find a quiet little corner to sit and think.
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"Why can't she wake up?" Chichiri thought to himself. As far as he or anyone else could tell, there was no physical reason why she should still be unconscious after so long. She'd been exhausted, he knew, but once she'd slept a good while, she should have woken from hunger or thirst, or some other human need. Maybe it wasn't a question of ability. "Why wouldn't she wake up?" he wondered. "What reason could she have?"
He suddenly found himself in a myriad of memories from his own past. There had been times in his life he'd wanted to forget everything or to shut out the rest of life to be alone in his misery. The deaths of his family members. The death of Tenmei, the woman he'd loved. The day his best friend, Hikou, had died. The countless times he found himself wracked with guilt and wished he could be dead, too. The day Hikou returned as a demon and he had to confront him all over again. Even now, despite everything, despite Hikou's own forgiveness, he still felt it was his fault, even though he knew he wasn't entirely to blame. Could this woman be doing that? Could she be blocking everything out, forcing herself to remain in that state, just to keep from facing a painful memory? Or to keep from facing her inner demons? Chichiri recalled the dream she'd been having.
"Could it have to do with this Danno?"
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…...
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Hours later Chichiri was still deep in thought in his corner of the garden. There was so much mystery about the woman he'd rescued, he couldn't keep his mind off of her. The more he thought about her, the more mysterious she became. The more mysterious she became, the more he thought about her. He felt like he was going to go crazy. Noise near the woman's room drew his attention. He jumped up from the grassy spot under a fruit tree and ran to see what it was, hoping she was finally awake.
"Hey, so the wandering monk finally decided to show himself." The taunting remark echoed from the far side of the pavilion's veranda as Chichiri ran up the steps. A fierce looking character with flame red hair strode purposefully toward him. His eyes glinted with mischief and a faint, amused smile etched itself in his smirk.
"Tasuki! Long time no see, no da?" Chichiri greeted cheerfully. He hadn't seen Tasuki in nearly a year. He hadn't realized how much he missed having the brash bandit around.
"So where you been? And who's the girl, anyway?" Tasuki inquired, hitching his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the stranger lying in the room beyond. Chichiri glanced inside, making sure the woman was still soundly asleep. She hadn't moved since he'd last checked on her. He kept a steady gaze on the foreign woman as he spoke.
"She was attacked by slave traders," Chichiri explained. "I was...led to her somehow." His brow furrowed in thought as he considered his words carefully. "When I got to her, they had her surrounded. Before I could step in, a red light surrounded her."
"A red light?" This was sounding far to weird for Tasuki's liking. This business was already reeking of Suzaku, and Tasuki knew he and Chichiri were already in the thick of it. "Thanks a lot, Suzaku," he thought bitterly with a fleeting glance toward the shrine. Chichiri only nodded.
"When a slaver tried to hit her, a character appeared on her forehead. A second later, a life-force blast threw the man across the road. They couldn't touch her anymore. There was a force field around her."
"Can she do magic?" Tasuki wondered. If that were so, maybe Suzaku wasn't involved in all this after all and he could go home to Mt. Leikaku.
"I believe- no, I know it was Suzaku's power protecting her, no da." Tasuki was surprised at the monks certainty about that fact, and quite skeptical about it as well. Red light didn't always have to mean it was Suzaku. "The character on her forehead was 'oni'. It was the ogre symbol, like Tamahome's," Chichiri suddenly added.
"Impossible!" Tasuki bellowed, disbelieving. Now that was just too much. No one but Tamahome could bear the ogre symbol. Could they? Miaka once showed all their symbols when they'd channeled their seishi power through her to Tamahome, but this woman wasn't Miaka. And she certainly wasn't some new Priestess of Suzaku. That was impossible. Wasn't it?
"I know what I saw, no da," Chichiri argued.
"But it can't be!" Tasuki returned. "I knew there was somethin' damn strange goin' on around here, but this is crazy." Chichiri kept silent as Tasuki spewed a few choice curses until he became coherent again. "I felt like something' was going to happen for weeks. I guess this is it." Tasuki noticed Chichiri's attention was suddenly riveted on him as if he'd said something profound in his ranting. "What?" he demanded with a suspicious glare.
"Weeks?" Chichiri asked him. "What kind of feeling was it?"
"Fuckin' weird, that's what," Tasuki fumed flippantly. "As if I didn't have enough ta worry about with the Mt. Leikaku Bandits. Seemed like there was somewhere else I had ta be. I kept havin' these weird feelings, too." Tasuki narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Chichiri. "Why?"
"I felt it, too," Chichiri admitted. "That's how I found her." Tasuki wondered again about the woman and the ogre symbol that Chichiri said had been on her forehead. There were too many weird things for this not to be associated with the southern beast god.
"You're probably right," Tasuki finally relented. "It probably was Suzaku." There was a long silence before he spoke again. "So, who is she, then? She can't be a Priestess. What else is there?" Chichiri shrugged.
"I don't know," he said. "And we can't ask her anything until she wakes up."
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To be continued…
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End Note: A real Buddhist monk named Thich Nhat Hanh once described how to be a monk. "Smile, breathe, and go slowly," he said. After losing his fiancé and his best friend, I think Chichiri would have found peace in such a life, and thus adopted the lifestyle of a monk. From what I understand about Zen Buddhism, it's about attaining self-enlightenment. I think Chichiri would also find that aspect of the lifestyle appealing, considering how he struggles with his own involvement in Hikou's death. Since he's not formally bound to the ways of Zen, he's free to put as many fingers in the political pie as he'd like, and perhaps someday allow himself a few of the "earthly desires" he's given up for now.
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On a somewhat related topic, this chapter makes mention of Chichiri's former fiancé. What? I called her Tenmei? Isn't her name Kouran? Well, that's a topic for another chapter somewhere down the road. Suffice to say, I have my reasons, and am using Tenmei as her name. ~Sapphire
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