Disclaimer: Please see the Prologue of Suzaku's Oracle for a blanket disclaimer.
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Warnings: Rated PG-13 or Fiction T.
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Notes: 5-4-14 Last chapter we learned that Aneko does have her limits to the things she can endure. So far she's been doing her best to go along with what's been handed to her, but who can keep that up indefinitely? This was the point when Aneko finally seemed like a person to me. In my experience, people tend to keep a tight lid on themselves until they're comfortable in the environment they occupy. Once they're comfortable, they open that lid and let people see who they really are. (This was an analogy used in Fruits Basket, and when I read it, I realized I'd done the same thing with Aneko in OFG!) Aneko is comfortable enough with Chichiri and Tasuki to allow herself to lose her temper. Character development had taken a huge step forward! ~Sapphire
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Oracles of the Four Gods
"Suzaku's Oracle"
By: Sapphire
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Part Seventeen ~ Nightmare Visions
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Aneko felt herself falling, overwhelmed by what she'd witnessed. Chichiri, who had been standing closest to her, caught her before she landed on the ground. She blinked her eyes furiously, trying to reorient herself, and looked up into the monk's concerned face.
"What... what happened?" she asked, confused, as he steadied her on her feet. He kept a careful hold on her, ensuring she stayed upright. "What was that?"
"We were talking, and then it was like you weren't here, no da," Chichiri told her. Aneko looked at him blankly, then closed her eyes trying to remember. As she did, the horrific images came back to her, and a shiver made it's way up her spine.
"It was like a nightmare," Aneko whispered. "There was a village being destroyed. Fires burned with no fuel, buildings were leveled to dust, people were dying…" She looked at Tasuki. "It was so real. I could smell and feel and hear everything..." She shuddered again. "Could it have been- Do you think it was a vision? Like one of my premonitions?" Aneko asked the two seishi, looking between them.
"Who did it? Who was killing those people?" Chichiri was alarmed, especially since she seemed to have a way of predicting things. And Suzaku's light... Whatever Aneko had seen had to be significant.
"I don't- I don't think it was people," Aneko confided. "It was like nothing I have ever seen before." Chichiri was uncertain what Aneko was talking about, but what she had seen had shaken her up considerably. He wasn't quite sure what to think. He wanted to talk it over with Tasuki, before he did anything else.
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"You think it was a premonition?" Tasuki asked. Chichiri nodded slowly. "Any idea what she was talkin' about?" This time Chichiri shook his head. "What do ya think we should do?"
"I don't know," Chichiri replied with a sigh. "Before, when she had those other visions, the event she foresaw happened right after. This village… it might already be too late, no da."
"No tellin' where the hell it was anyway," Tasuki muttered. "She doesn't know a thing about Konan. Couldn't give landmarks. Nothin' ta go on." Tasuki sighed. Aneko was off with some servant trying to locate some parchment and ink. She intended on writing down everything she could remember about the vision in case it was important later on. Tasuki thought it was a futile effort. If it turned out the village's destruction was still to come, there was almost no chance they'd be able to figure out which village in was in time to save it.
"She said it wasn't anything she'd ever seen," Chichiri mused aloud. "What could it have been? What could have done it, no da?"
"A demon?" Tasuki offered. "She said it wasn't people. Don't see how people could do all that. Not even the damned Kutou armies did that much damage." Tasuki admitted to himself he couldn't even imagine whole buildings being reduced to dust like Aneko had described. Crumbled walls, fallen in roofs, caved in houses, smoking burned out ruins, maybe. But reduced to dust? "An' that fire," Tasuki remembered. "What kind a fire burns without damned fuel?"
"Sorcery can do that, no da," Chichiri pointed out. "Just look at your tessen. A metal fan that shoots fire? That takes magic." The monk had a point. "It could have been some kind of sorcerer, no da."
"Ya think Nakago..." Tasuki thought. "Na," he quickly dismissed the idea. "He's dead. We know that." Chichiri nodded.
"Suzaku said something evil has come to this world," Chichiri speculated. "What Aneko saw… this evil entity could be capable of it, no da."
"Yeah, but what kind of evil?" Tasuki was getting fed up. Talking in circles like this wasn't doing any good. "There ain't a damn thing we can do. And who says it was a vision anyway? It could a been some kind a freak nightmare." Chichiri gave him a skeptical look. "Except for that damned red glow," Tasuki tacked on with a sigh. They were getting nowhere. Chichiri nodded absently. Tasuki quirked an eyebrow at him. "I'm sick a this. I'm gonna go find Aneko. Maybe it'll be fun ta roast 'er for a while." Chichiri nodded again, and Tasuki sighed again. The monk was completely absorbed. Not even threatening to fry Aneko could tear him from his thoughts. Tasuki left Chichiri sitting on a bench in the gardens and headed for the pavilion housing Aneko's room.
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Chichiri and Aneko spent the next two days shut up in the Palace library with the dull palace scholars. She had an amazing knowledge of the legends and reality of The Universe of the Four Gods. Chichiri himself didn't know some of the things she did. It was as if she had been sitting there observing everything as it had played out. Aneko attributed it all to a dream. Chichiri was certain Suzaku had done it. The red glow must have been the beast god revealing the past to her. Oracles knew past and present and future, didn't they? Chichiri was positive he was right, especially when she started relating things about Tenkou, and Taka's lost memories.
Aneko did not, however, know anything about the general history of Konan and it's three neighboring empires. Two kindly scholars took on the task of instructing her in that area, including geography when they discovered she knew nothing of that, either. By mid-afternoon on the third day Aneko had had enough, and let Chichiri know it with a rather large scroll sent flying at his head. Chichiri managed to evade the airborne threat, and then heard her grumble to herself that she wouldn't have missed if he hadn't sensed it coming with his Seishi senses. Chichiri thought it wise they both get out for a while, and suggested they take a long walk on the palace grounds.
"So, you two finally decided ta call it quits, huh?" Tasuki called from the pavilion that housed his room.
"Taking a break," Aneko corrected as he descended some stairs and fell into step beside her. "My head was starting to spin."
"Thinkin' too hard about Gods, constellations, and scrolls?" Tasuki joked.
"Enough! I don't want to hear another word for the rest of the day!" Aneko vented her obvious frustration. "I just want to relax." With that, she hurried ahead of them to the edge of the pond where she stopped in the warm sunshine to remove her vest. Chichiri watched as she tossed it onto a rock, then loosened the closure of her shirt at the neck and both wrists. She rolled up her sleeves, kicked off her shoes, then dropped down onto the lush grass with her bare feet dangling in the cool water. Chichiri heard her sigh as he and Tasuki neared. Tasuki followed her example and flopped down on the lawn nearby and stretched out lazily in the cool shade of a big, leafy tree.
"I'm glad I thought of this, no da," Chichiri commented, as he settled himself on the edge of the water and pulled out a fishing pole, dropping a line into the water.
"Your idea!" Aneko retorted. "Who threw a scroll at you, hmm?"
"Da!" Chichiri replied. She ignored him with an indignant sniff.
"Tasuki, how come you're here at the palace? Chichiri said you live up on Mr. Leikaku with your bandits," she said.
"Because Suzaku had ta butt in," he complained, then sighed. "I'm worried about those guys. I don't know how bad that 'quake was up on the mountain. Shinkouyama, the village at the foot of Mt. Leikaku… We get most a our supplies there…" Tasuki shrugged.
"They'll be all right, no da," Chichiri reassured. "The Empress said the reports coming in weren't as bad as everyone expected them to be." Tasuki nodded. "Besides," Chichiri continued. "I'm glad you're here. Last time I saw you was a year ago. You could visit sometimes, no da."
"I would," Tasuki retorted, the gentle chiding lightening the bandit's mood like Chichiri had hoped, "but the Royal Runt yanks my hair, an' ya never know when a certain wandering monk 'll be around."
"Hey, no da!" Chichiri exclaimed indignantly. Aneko laughed at their good natured squabble. The three of them fell into a companionable silence, enjoying the quiet of the summer afternoon.
"It seems so peaceful here," Aneko said with a sigh, interrupting the quiet.
"Usually, it is," Chichiri agreed, glancing at Tasuki. The bandit had drifted off to sleep and was quietly snoring. Aneko noticed, too, and smiled indulgently at him. She pulled her feet from the water, curled up in the grass in the shade, and was soon asleep, too. Chichiri sighed. Trouble could wait, he decided. He pulled in his fishing line and leaned back against a tree, closing his eyes for a nap, too.
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Vaguely, she was aware she was dreaming. Aneko was in that stage of sleep where one dreams the most realistic and memorable dreams; the stage just before one wakes. It was here that she could be home in her own world, in Tokyo.
She was sitting alone in a little restaurant by the window, watching the people passing on the street. The view was disjointed as people she knew paused in front of the window to wave before the scene would shift and another that she knew would appear. The young couple who lived next door had had their baby, a boy. Rei, the girl who sat in the cubicle next to her at work, had become engaged to her boyfriend of three years. The boy who delivered groceries part time to earn extra money had finally saved up enough to go on his class trip…
Her dream-self started. The same stranger had walked by twice. It was impossible to mistake him. Shockingly blonde, tall, and powerfully built, he was bigger than anyone she'd ever seen. The scene shifted again, and he was gone, replaced by another Tokyo acquaintance. There he was again! The same man!
Suddenly she wasn't in Tokyo anymore. Looking around, Aneko realized she was in the Imperial Palace in Konan. From the corner of her eye she saw a blonde figure skirt around a corner and disappear. It was him! She ran after him, suspicious. Corridor after corridor, corner after corner, she chased the stranger, her surroundings flashing by faster than she could possibly run. Then she saw him slip into a palace chamber. Suddenly at the door, she pushed it open. Beyond, the big man stood in the center of the room holding a bloody dagger, the still form of a dead child crumpled at his feet.
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To be continued…
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End Note: More of Aneko's temper! I got a kick out of the idea of her throwing a scroll at Chichiri, and had to write it. Don't worry. It was a little scroll- she's not a violent person. Aneko isn't the only one starting to open up. Tasuki and Chichiri let Aneko see how close a relationship they share when they tease each other by the pond. The three of them may accept each other because they whole-heartedly trust in Suzaku, but they have to build a friendship on their own. ~Sapphire
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