DISCLAIMER: Shall I spell it out for you? N-O-T M-I-N-E.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yes, I am updating this one on WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY now ^_^ I'm going faster! Only a week between chapters! Be happy, as if anyone reads these notes! ^_^
Did I mention it was going to get confusing really soon? ^^;;; Well, that was an understatement. According to my own weird mind, it starts getting very confusing this chapter, but my mind's very scattered and jumbled, so I don't have much in the way of organization... OK, I'm just repeating myself now ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; I'll get it right one of these days, I swear!
And I've learned never to put that statement on my chapters again. Ya think I would know not to do that, but nooooooooo... ahh well, I know I'm kooky ^_^
And I forgot to do this last time! (Sheesh, what is it with me and forgetting things lately?!) ~GLOMPS Stormlight~ My 50th reviewer! Wow, I was sure this story wouldn't get TEN reviews, and it's almost at 60! It's surpasses all my expectations! Thank you soooooooo much everyone, I love you all!
(And Lib-chan, YES I love Rent! It's soooooooo wonderful! Wonderful Wonderful Wonderful! I love "Rent", "Light My Candle", "Out Tonight", "Another Day", both "La Vie Boheme"s, "Seasons of Love", "What You Own"... everything! Wonderful stuff!)
Past noon there came a knock on the door. Reijirou, Nuriko, and Risako broke off their conversation. "Who's there?" Reijirou called. He knew it wasn't a nurse; they had a disturbing tendancy to walk right in without asking.
"It's Kadiri, open the door already!" a female voice called back.
Risako looked at Reijirou, puzzled. "Who?"
"One of my co-workers. It's all right." Risako nodded and stood up, going to the door and opening it. A tall woman about Miaka's age entered, carrying a plastic shopping bag, and glanced around the room, her eyes settling on Reijirou. "So Chiaki was right. She dropped by this morning to tell us what happened."
"And Shunji sent you over to check on me, right?"
Kadiri grinned. "Of course. He wants to know when you can come back to work. Better get well soon or you might not have a job."
Risako cleared her throat. Reijirou hit himself in the forehead with his good hand. "Baka. Kadiri, this is Daishi Risako, a friend of mine. She helped me last night. Risako, this is Mizutani Kadiri, my sort-of manager at work."
The two shook hands. "Thanks for helping Reijirou, we need him on the job." She grinned at the invalid. "He can make a sale better than anyone we've got."
"Except you."
"That's true."
Nuriko was grumbling under his breath and not looking very happy. Reijirou was pretty sure he knew why, but he didn't want to bring it up - especially not with Kadiri in the room. "What's with the bag?"
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Kadiri dropped the bag with an unceremonious clatter on the bedside table. "Shunji actually let go of some money this time. It's your get-well present from all of us."
Reijirou whistled and took the bag. "The penny-pincher's letting up, huh? SUGOI!" He pulled out two CDs. "Thanks! I've been looking for these!"
"We know, we know, now you can finally shut up about them." She quickly glanced at the clock. "I'd better be getting back, he hasn't let up enough to give me time off. I'm taking up my lunch break. See you when you get back." She waved and walked out.
Nuriko pounded his fist against the wall. "Gaaaaaaaaaaahhh! Damnit!" he yelled.
"Don't say it, I don't want to hear it," Reijirou warned.
"Hear what?"
"Don't ask, Risako."
Nuriko huffed and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Not just Miaka, oh no, they want to make Yui pass out too! When's the end?! How many more are there?!"
"And why the hell are we finding so many in just two days?"
"Most of them were already there, remember." Nuriko grumbled under his breath. "At least she seems happier. And nicer."
"Not being sold to a brothel probably has a lot to do with it."
Risako calmly stood up, calmly walked over to Nuriko, and even more calmly smacked him upside the head. "What's going on?"
Nuriko rubbed his head, giving her a slightly wounded look. "That actually hurt." Reijirou smothered laughter.
"They're arm guards, not bracelets now, so of course I didn't go through you. Now, what's going on?"
"That was Soi," Reijirou answered.
"SOI?!"
"Yes, Soi. Makes me wonder, just how many of these people do I know just in regular life?"
Nuriko stood up, still rubbing his head. "Probably a lot. We all had interlocking destinies, so it's not really a surprise to me we're mostly together in this world as well. At least we won't have to look far."
"Yeah…" Risako sat in her chair again. "I'm beginning to feel like an outsider, I didn't go through any of it."
"You might not have, but you know more than most of them now."
"Yeah…"
"Stop worrying Risako, we don't have the time for it. We have to figure out some way to get Reijirou healed and out of here in a hurry."
"Yeah, I'd kind of like to leave this place." Reijirou made a face. "Miaka was right, the food is terrible."
"Want me to go down to the cafeteria Reijirou?"
Reijirou shook his head. "That's all right, I'll suffer." He glanced over at the clock, absently checking the time. "Don't forget, Taka's class starts in half an hour."
Risako yelped. "Baka! I almost forgot! Damn, and I have to walk today. I'll see you guys later!" She jumped up and ran out the door, barely more than a colorful blur.
The room was silent for a few minutes.
"Reijirou…"
He jumped a little. "What, Nuriko?"
"We have to tell Miaka about Gesshin."
"WHAT?! Do you have any idea what she'll DO to him?!"
"Of course, she'll forgive him after she's heard the reason. But I'm being selfish here." Nuriko grinned. "I need a distraction. I wanna hit Tasuki again."
There was a long, slightly uncomfortable pause. "Okay... Whatever you say." Reijirou picked up the phone again, punching in Miaka's number after checking the little pad next to the phone he'd written it on. "It's Reijirou. Listen, there's something you should hear."
"What?" Miaka sounded slightly distracted.
"Are you sitting down?"
"WHAT?! That was Tasuki?!" Miaka yelled. "And you didn't tell me this sooner?!"
Reijirou was holding the phone a long way away from his ear. And he could still plainly hear Miaka. "Can I remind you that that's my eardrum?"
"Oh, sorry." She lowered her voice back to a normal level and sat in the computer chair again, putting her head in her free hand. "Why am I not surprised? And why didn't I see it before?"
"You were a bit too busy being worried about your stuff. Wait. What, Nuriko?" Nuriko was staring interestedly at the receiver. A bit too interestedly.
"I wanna try that thing."
"No way."
"Why not? I won't hurt it, I promise."
Reijirou reluctantly handed over the receiver. "Just don't yell. Talk like you normally do. Uh, and it goes the other way."
Nuriko grinned and turned the phone over so he was speaking into the mouthpiece, not the earpiece. "Miaka? Can you hear me?"
"Nuriko? Is that you?"
"Yes! Amazing! The things in this world are fascinating!"
"This reminds me of when Tama first came here. Nuriko, I need to ask you and Reijirou to get Tasuki over there as soon as possible. I can probably come by this afternoon. Will that be enough time?"
"Let me ask Reijirou." He related Miaka's question, and Reijirou nodded. "Yes, that should be fine Miaka, we'll get him here somehow."
"Ne…" Reijirou said quickly. A thought was forming slowly in his mind. "Nuriko, let me have the phone." Nuriko handed it back, and Reijirou tucked it between his head and his shoulder. "Miaka? It's Reijirou again. Listen, I have an idea."
"What?"
"Would you like to get me out of here?"
"YES!" Reijirou winced slightly at the volume. "I want you to get better and you two out of there as fast as possible."
"Then why don't we wake up Mitsukake?"
There was silence on both ends of the line. Reijirou couldn't see Miaka, but he suspected she looked something like Nuriko: eyes wide, mouth open, surprise plain on his face. Then Nuriko groaned and smacked himself in the forehead. "Nuriko no baka," he muttered.
"Yes, yes, you're right. Then he can heal you. He also might be able to help later. Yes, that's best." Miaka seemed to be babbling. "When does he come by?"
"I have no idea. It'd probably be best to be prepared for him. How soon can you come?"
Miaka glanced at the computer's clock. "I'm expecting an e-mail at one-thirty, I'll come down after that. I don't think I'll bring Naora-chan."
"That's probably smart. We'll see you then." Nuriko tapped him on the shoulder. "One moment Miaka. What now?" he asked, covering the mouthpiece.
"Can I try that again?"
Reijirou considered, then, against his better judgement, handed the receiver to Nuriko. Nuriko put it to his ear again, the right way. "Miaka? It's me again."
"Will you two stop playing musical phone, it's confusing!"
"What?"
"Nothing. Will you tell Reijirou I'm bringing something for him as well?"
"Yep."
"Thanks. See you." There was a click, and a buzzing. Nuriko kept holding the phone to his ear. After a few seconds the buzzing began to annoy him, but he didn't know how to stop it. After a few more seconds, it was really getting on his nerves, and he pulled back his arm to smash it against the wall.
"NO!!!"
Nuriko stopped a bare two inches from the wall. "What?"
"What are you doing?!"
"I'm stopping that annoying sound."
Reijirou groaned. "Give it to me." Nuriko handed the receiver back to him, and he hung it up, returning the phone to the table. "That's how you stop that. If you'd broken it, I would have had to pay even more money to the hospital. They don't like when things are broken."
"Understandable." Nuriko grinned. "But you should've seen the look on your face-" WHUMPH. One of Reijirou's pillows hit him smack in the head.
Miaka walked into the room at quarter to two, lugging a battered briefcase with her. By that time Reijirou had read all the sleep-inducing magazines he'd been able to wheedle out of a not-so-compliant nurse and was flipping channels on the small TV bolted into the corner of the wall and the ceiling, wondering at the bad design of hospital rooms, purposefully made to give one cricks in the neck, and the lack of anything on besides outdated game shows and soap operas. Nuriko, on the other hand, was fascinated by the "little people" in the "magic box", looking up at it happily in awe. Miaka grinned when she saw them. "Bored, Reijirou?"
"YES! Even though Ashitare didn't kill me, this might!"
"Maybe this will help." She set the briefcase on the small table by the window and opened it, revealing a small but sturdy laptop computer, some hook-up wires, and three books, two of which Reijirou recognized immediately: the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho and its translation. He wondered, however, most about the computer.
"Hey, Miaka, why do you have a laptop here? Uh-oh… No Nuriko, it's not a toy!" he yelled as he saw Nuriko's hand dart toward it.
Nuriko gave him an exasperated look. "Hey, I've learned, all right? I won't hurt it, I promise, I just want to look." He was being serious. Miaka turned the briefcase so Nuriko had a better view. The seishi put out a cautious hand and touched it briefly, unsure of what another thing in this new world could do.
Miaka laughed quietly. "It's fine Nuriko, it won't hurt you. Look." She opened the laptop, displaying the screen, keypad, and touch mouse, and put it on the table, facing him. "I use it to work. While you two read I'll be doing my job."
"What do you do, Miaka?"
She glanced back at Reijirou. "I do the Seinan web page. It doesn't pay much, but it's a pretty good stepping stone, I'm hoping for some better commissions from this one."
"So that's why you brought it, I was wondering."
"That's not all I brought. Here." She pulled the third book, a slim white volume, out of the briefcase and handed it to Reijirou. He quickly read the title. "Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho – Continuation. What's this one about?" he asked, glancing up at Miaka.
"It's what happened after Tamahome was reborn. It picks up where the first left off. We were searching for Tamahome's memory jewels then." She grinned. "Somehow it got stuck behind the bed where I couldn't find it, or I would've had you read it yesterday."
"Yesterday?" Reijirou blinked and shook his head slightly. "Seems more like a year ago… Hey, Nuriko!" He grinned. "We've been stuck together nearly a full day now!"
"And we will be for much longer!" Nuriko grinned back, then they both laughed.
Miaka laughed too and shooed at them with her hands. "Read, you two. Nuriko, you might have to explain some parts to him, it can be a little hard to understand in places." They both grinned at her, identical mischievous grins, and she groaned. "What have I let myself into, an afternoon with two Nurikos?"
"Probably more than you know." Reijirou began to read aloud, Nuriko sitting next to the bed, looking at the pages. The same title page, except an extended title, the same translators, the same note abou- …. Wait a minute, that was different. "Miaka, what does it mean when it says 'mostly translated from the original Chinese?'"
"Oh, that, I should've explained that. Some of this happened before we acquired the scroll that told us the story and wasn't in it, so they added it in for completion's sake."
"I see." Reijirou didn't really, but he went back to reading, about the trip Miaka, Tamahome, Keisuke, and Tetsuya had taken to visit the grave of Ohsugi Suzuno…
They were finished a couple of hours later. Reijirou shut the book and laid it on the bedside table, thoughtful rather than overwhelmed this time. "So that's what Rokou was like."
Nuriko smiled at the floor. "Yes, my brother. He finally realized his own strength. He was always a little stupid." He raised his gaze to the wall, still smiling ironically. "But he came through. Strange, isn't it, that we were closer after I was dead?"
Reijirou shrugged with one shoulder. "Maybe not in this case."
"Oh." Miaka looked up from the laptop, her deep concentration broken by their voices. "Finished?"
"Yep." Reijirou grinned. "I find it slightly ironic though…"
"What?"
"What Nuriko said to you about returning here. 'And there are other people there you still have to meet.' And winking."
Nuriko grinned sheepishly. "Well, I was right, wasn't I? And at that time we didn't even know if we were going to try it, let alone if it would work."
Miaka laughed. "Obviously it did."
Nuriko had to laugh as well. "Uh-huh."
Reijirou couldn't help it. "Although we're not quite the same. I have better fashion sense than him."
"Do you want me to force a dress on you when you're better?"
"Not at all." He grinned. "I just wanted to see what you would do to someone you couldn't bash."
"I can grumble with the best of them."
"It's true, he can. Reijirou, which do you think looks better?" Miaka turned her laptop to him, the screen showing two versions of a graphic: the main Seinan building and the school's logo on both of them, but one had the logo on the right while the other was on the left. Reijirou squinted a bit to see the screen. "I think the left."
"Good, that's what I was thinking too." She turned the screen back to herself and got back to work seconds before the door banged open.
"Reijirou! Nuriko! I'm back!" Risako ran in, holding her bag in one hand and a sheaf of papers in the other. "And guess what?! Oh, hello Miaka!"
"Hi, what, and what's all that stuff?" Reijirou pointed to the papers.
"Oh, this is stuff from Taka's class. But listen!" She dropped the papers on the table next to Miaka's briefcase, her bag on the floor, and peeled off her coat. "I was running to get to class on time, and yes, I took the long way, and suddenly this yellow convertible stopped by me, and I looked over and it was your sister, and there was a guy next to her in the passenger seat, and she asked if I wanted a ride, and I got in, and I got a clear look at the guy, and I think it was Hotohori!"
"WHAT?!"
"I said I think the guy in the car was Hotohori! He had the right color hair and the right colored eyes and looked just like I pictured him! And that voice! If that wasn't a royal voice I'll eat cardboard." She flopped in the spare chair.
Miaka suddenly snapped her fingers. "That's it! Pictured!" She dug into the briefcase again and pulled out a small, framed photo. "I knew I was forgetting something. Here."
She handed it to Risako, who glanced at it. Her eyes widened to amazing proportions. "I was right! I knew it was him! He was Hotohori!"
"Ne, let me see." Reijirou reached out and tugged the picture away. It was a Polaroid photo of the seishi. He could identify everyone easily from the descriptions in the book and what Nuriko had told him. There was Nuriko, Mitsukake on his left, then Tasuki, then Chichiri. Tamahome was below Nuriko, then Miaka, making a peace sign, then Hotohori, then Chiriko. He could see water in the background. "Miaka, was this before you set out for Hokkan?"
She grinned. "Yes. Tasuki wasn't too thrilled to know he could be 'duplicated'."
Nuriko laughed. "I remember that. That was fun, posing for…. What was that word again?"
"A photo."
Something clicked in Reijirou's head. "Risako, did you catch Hotohori's new name?"
She nodded vigorously. "Yeah, it's Suezo." He burst out laughing.
Everyone's eyes turned to look at him curiously. After a few seconds he got his laughing more under control. "Nuriko… It's happened… Kourin's seeing the emperor!"
Nuriko looked at him for a second, then giggled, then burst out laughing, shoulders shaking and leaning against the wall for support. "Only… the best… for my little sister!" he said through the laughing. "Only the best…"
Reijirou was laughing too, and Miaka and Risako caught it. After a few minutes, everyone managed to settle down, and Reijirou handed the picture back to Miaka. "Well, that's one less to go. Thanks, Risako."
Risako could feel her face color faintly, but she ignored it. "It was nothing. But what do we do now?"
"We three are going to plan, you are going to read." Nuriko picked up the continuation and handed it to Risako. "More for you to take in."
"Thanks," she said wryly. "It just keeps coming, doesn't it?" She opened the book and began reading without waiting for an answer, murmuring quietly to herself.
Nuriko turned to Reijirou and Miaka. "All right, so we don't give the poor guy a heart attack, how are we going to break it to him?"
A few hours later Reijirou, Nuriko, and Risako were idly talking about the events in the continuation and Miaka was absorbed in her graphics program, frowning slightly in concentration as her fingers danced over the keyboard and mouse. The clicking of the keys and the relaxed talk was making Reijirou feel drowsy again. He blinked to keep himself awake, but it didn't work at all. "Risako, would you move back, please?"
Risako pushed her chair back about a foot. "Why?"
"I'm tired of lying down." He pulled himself into a sitting position and was immediately shoved back down by a rush of purple. "Nuriko, let me go!"
"Idiot! You can't get up, Dr. Seo said so!" Risako glared at him from next to Nuriko. "And until you're fixed you're doing what he says, even if I have to sit on you!" Her eyes flashed with what looked dangerously like lightening.
Nuriko still had him pinned by the shoulders and he could barely move. "Don't worry Risako, I can keep this up for awhile. Unless, of course, you want to sit on him- OW!"
Risako lowered her fist. "Ecchi."
The door opened. Reijirou turned his head (which was about the only part of himself he could move freely) to see who it was, and was not surprised to see Seo Murai. "Reijirou-san, how are you today?"
"All right, considering I have gaping holes in me."
Dr. Seo chuckled, something that suited him well with his smooth, deep voice. "Unfortunate, but in good spirits," he murmured, writing on his clipboard.
"WHAT good spirits? I'm bored out of my mind! When can I move around again?!" Reijirou was shut up by an unexpected thermometer in his mouth.
"Dr. Seo? May I ask you a question?" Miaka shut off her laptop and stood next to her chair. "It's slightly odd…"
He nodded. "Go right ahead, it can't be too much worse than some."
Miaka closed the laptop. "Had you met Reijirou before yesterday?"
The thermometer beeped and Dr. Seo took it back, noting the temperature. "No, the first time I saw him was in surgery."
"Did it feel like you'd met him before?"
Dr Seo blinked, then slowly looked at Miaka, regarding her steadily with his penetrating stare. "Perhaps..."
Miaka stared back, her gaze just as direct. "Did the entire situation feel familiar? Did you feel any sudden emotion?"
He waited a moment before answering. "I felt… like something like that had happened before. I felt… sad, helpless, like I had already failed him." Reijirou shivered. "So... yes."
Miaka gazed at him for another moment, then turned to the briefcase, picking up the laptop and placing it inside. Her hand found the translation of the Shi Jen Ten Chi Sho. "Then I think you'd better look at this."
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! How will he react?! What's up with Kadiri?! What about Suezo?! Is Kaze-chan being too insane for her own good?! ~flops~
