Hello Everybody!!!! Just to let you know: I Graduated, I GRADUATED!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA HA HA!!!!

…now just 6 more years left until I get my doctorate, I hope…

Still, I have to finish an independent study, but my family is going to allow me to take it easy, so I won't be returning to school until next January.

Now, as I promised to a few people who have complained by my lack of posts, this chapter, which I rewrote BTW, because my first version was terrible, will be a long one. So kick back, relax and have fun!

P.S. For those keeping count on my review count, if you subtract the two that I added in, then the counter is on 98.

P.P.S. I own nothing, especially anything relating to Fushigi Yuugi characters, otherwise I would have been mobbed by fan girls by now…

P.P.P.S. If you are squeamish, you may want to skip this chapter…

Suffer The Children

Cold, it's so cold! I have been walking down what I think is the road for a couple of hours. Or, at least I believe it to be a couple of hours. With this snowstorm, I haven't been able to see the sun or the stars through the clouds.

My ki is all but drained. Something, or someone, really doesn't want me to meet up with my Miko and the various amount of Seishi. I doubt that I have ever been this cold in my life! What with the large amount of snow, wind and my lack of sleep the night before, I am really beginning to feel the weather's effects. Right now, nothing would be better than a nice nap. I could rest, hopefully feel my Otou's warmth and regain my energy. But, until I find secure shelter, a nap is out of the question. If I fall asleep now, the cold will insure that I will never wake up.

From what I can tell I have maybe a week or so until I meet up with my friends. That is, if Karasuki-san has teleported Opii and Miaka-san to the others and told them of the situation. With my recent luck, some of my friends will try to fool heartedly rescue me. If I can help it, I absolute do not want any of them to break off the search for the Shinzahou. With the first one in our possession, I have no doubt that Nakago-san will stop at nothing to get the second one.

However, with a week left, of me trying not to freeze or starve to death, we may already be too late.

I travel on, feeling a new ki enter into the picture. It is Gembu-ji, trying to stop the weather. By now, he as well must notice this new mysterious ki effecting his land. The snow lets up enough for me to notice a cave. I start to head for it, only to find the storm increase its strength. It takes me a half an hour to find the rock face. Perhaps another fifteen minutes to find the cave, but once inside, I sink down to the ground, thanking my Oji for this chance.

Unfortunately, my rest is short lived. Whomever my Oji is fighting, has decided to not give up. An earthquake is soon upon the area, causing me to jump out of the way of many falling rocks. I was not very fortunate, however, to have no way of dodging a large boulder to the head. I am out cold before I finish hitting the ground.

The normally white space, had turned blood red. Trying to move my feet, I find myself covered in the morbidly sticky liquid that is foremost within the landscape. Something tells me that this is not going to be a good rest. Feeling alarmed, I start trying to ask for a family member. Any family member; heck, I'd even settle for a Nyan-Nyan right about now. I don't have enough ki inside me at the moment to pull forth my Seishi abilities. I hate the feeling of not knowing the events taking place around me.

Still, another problem comes that I cannot make any noise. Well, okay I can make squeaks, as if I had either screamed myself mute or someone has ripped…my…

Oh Otou…if I had any food in my stomach, I would have thrown up. The blood that is on my clothing is from me. Looking around more, I see nightmares, that I have never faced before, appearing. I see my Byakko-ji decapitated; maggots already feasting on the flesh of His neck. I see the areas where animals have feed from Him. What is worse, a few feet from Him is His head; eyes have already been plucked out by birds of some sort. I finally turn from Him, as I see a rat escape from His mouth with a amount of brain matter dangling from its mouth.

I wish I had turned to see the sea of blood once more, but that was not meant to be. The direction that I have chosen leads towards the east, in which I find the fate of Seiryuu sei-kun. He lays upon His stomach, face down in the blood. I know by now that He must be dead, but something draws me near to Him, in order to check the damage inflicted upon Him. It is as if I'm being controlled by something else.

As I turn him over, I find myself in the troughs of dry heaving, the material leaving through my throat. The smell alone is enough to do so, but the sight of Seiryuu sei-kun, His middle section looking as if it had once held a blazing fire, for the organs were all charred, is enough to swear me off any food, in the fear that I would never be able to keep it down. By the look of His wrists, I'd say that He was held down, while this feat was accomplished. What more, by the look on His face, He was awake when they did this to Him and in extreme pain. Sobbing, I turn to the north.

The sight that behold me was even worse. Gembu-ji, whom had only recently helped me, was still alive, but, just barely. As best one can in a sea of blood, I run towards Him, desperate to have someone, anyone, to help shield me from this pain and gore. As I reach Him, I gain a better understanding of what He has lived through. From the first look, I could tell that He was hanging from a wall…by His tongue…on a steel hook. The lower half of His body had been all but torn apart by wild animals, presumably dogs or wolves.

Using what little strength I possess, I fly up a tad and lift my Oji from the hook. Landing with a splash, I do my best to make Him comfortable. In pain, He wildly looks around until His eyes focus upon me.

"I…I tied. You…you hav to get away."

I try to tell Him not to speak, but a painful reminder of the damage done to my throat stops me.

"Go…to yer Ba-tan (Ba-chan). Si can keep…you…sa…"

Within my arms, His head went limp. Crying, shaking, I sit for a while with His head still in my lap. Finally, not able to take the looks of my Ojis' deaths, I run blindly into the sea of blood.

I run until I trip and splash into the rapidly cooling liquid. On my hands and knees, I stand in shock as I regain my wits. This is also when I unfortunately look up. I have managed to find a wall among this mess and slumped against the wall are the bodies of my parents.

Otou's body looks as if He had His intestines pulled from His body; guessing how parts of the intestines still clung to the wall, I'd wager that they intestines were thrown around first, before someone used what was left of hem to strangle my Otou. My Okaa lay next to him, with a yari (Long spear) protruding from her skull. Upon her face is the look of anguish as she must have seen my Otou killed before they killed her, which looks to be after they raped her with some wide object.

It was with this scene, that I believe my soul broke. Had I still my vocal cords, I would have been wailing. Head bowed, I fully expected to sit within the bloody muck until my own death, when I heard someone "hrmph." Looking up, I came face to face with my Obaa.

In normal circumstances, when suddenly being nose to nose with Tai'itsu-kun, the general feeling that rules a body is fear. This fear is either caused by the extreme repulsion to Her looks or by the fact that you are in the presence of the creator of our world. This time, however, I proved to be the exception to the rule. Showing no expression, feeling nothing, I looked into my Obaa's eyes.

"Murderer."

With this simple word, confusion came to mind. I tried to ask Her what She meant, but the lack of vocal cords proved this to be impossible.

"I should have known that this would happen. I gave allowances towards you, allowed you to live and become a Shichiseishi, but just like your cousin, Fuyumi, in that your soul existence is the destruction of everything.

Fuyumi…Fuyumi…who's Fuyumi? Is she talking about Gembu's daughter? But, she can't be! Her name was Yukiko!

Wait…all this pain and suffering…one of Tomo-san's illusions! This must be one, for his illusions are real until the person falls from his trap! Concentrating, I feel the pain in my throat fade and return to normal.

"Nice try, Tomo-san, you really had me for a minute there, but this ends now!"

Using my remaining ki, I create a blast into the mental shield that is keeping me in this nightmarish realm.

…only to find myself looking a quick image of a girl.

The image turns back into the sea of blood and the girl turns back into my Obaa. She is obviously surprise that I was able to break through her shield, but soon, she lapses back into playing the part of my Obaa. I feel as if fingers are trying to invade my mind, trying to make me believe this illusion once more. However, one should learn not to piss off anyone with powers. They would live longer.

"Trying to ignore the truth will not help you, child, nor will it change what must be done towards you!"

"Funny, girl, the way I see it, showing me these lies will not keep me from giving you what you deserve!"

Focusing the last of my power, I send a phoenix-looking blast towards her. Hearing her scream, seeing the nightmare break, I felt like fainting. Such a funny feeling to have when one is already asleep. Groaning, I open my eyes to the land of the awake, only to see the ghost-like appearance of the girl staring at me in disbelief.

"How? How did you know? How did you break it? You're the first one to ever come out alive from one of my nightmares!"

"Because…I knew it had…to be an illusion. Especially after you…gave the wrong name of…my cousin. Her name…was Yukiko."

"No, I mean, I was the one having the nightmare, I dragged you into it. No one that I have brought in has ever survived, even when they found out the truth! Even when I was alive, my nightmares always came true! You are the first one to ever come out alive!"

"Um…thanks…not the honor…that I…"

"Don't speak, you haven't the ki to do so. Out of respect for you, I won't drag you into another nightmare unless my master notices. You will need all the energy that you can gain. Luckily, my master is still fighting your uncle, or he would have noticed by now. He's kept a close eye on you since you were born. I think he wanted you to beg him for his life, like I and all his other followers have, so that he could control your soul."

"Who…"

"Didn't I tell you not to talk? Boy, aren't you stubborn! Still, I won't tell you my master's name. If I mention it, he will take notice and then we would have to fight. It's been so long since I could talk to a real person, that I want it to last."

And so, I stayed lying down for quite a long time, regaining my strength. Due to no longer feeling the bite of the wind and snow, coupled with the fear, concern and warmth that I can feel coming from my Otou, I start to recover fast. During this time, I take the chance to look at this girl more closely.

When she was alive, the Akuma-Hime (Nightmare Princess) had been a very beautiful, but also a very sorrowful girl. It is obvious by looking at her mouth that she had rarely smiled. Her brown eyes hold the interesting combination of being interested in me and sad at the same time. He equally brown hair hung down her back in a braid, with a ice blue woven in as a plait, that was long enough to touch the ground, even with the top section wrapped around her head, giving the impression of a crown. Her main dress was a tattered white, glistening as if it was covered in crystals. The sash that held the dress closed was the same ice blue as her hair ribbon. Her shoes where white, embroidered with blue bell flowers. Still, the dress held the look that she had once belonged to an aristocratic family, before her obvious death. Truthfully, her death was the only thing to destroy what would have been a beautiful, if not tragic look. While white skin is found to be attractive, blue skin is not. She must have noticed me looking at her, for she started to talk.

"I don't normally hold all that well with people staring at me. I don't blame you, truthfully, but it does get a bit creepy after a while."

Given the nightmare that she showed me, I have a hard time believing that such a gesture is possible of creeping her out. She must have seen what I was thinking, for she continued.

"No, it's true! Staring does too do so. When I was alive, my father had been the landlord of a huge track of land up here in Hokkan-koku. I used to run back to my parents whenever the farmers children either beat me or made fun of me. My parents told me to stop crying and forget about those children, for they were beneath me. This hurt me even more, for I had no siblings and thus, no playmates. Finally, I started to get mad and mean-spirited all the time and I began to imagine gruesome ways for these children to be killed, but I never acted upon them. Finally, the day before I was to meet my chosen fiancé, one of the boys got mad at the way I treated him and his younger sister and so he beat me. I woke up five days later, my parents ashamed of my looks, explaining that my fiancé had seen me and had called off the wedding. My parents told me that I was nothing but a disgrace. They told me that they were going to try and patch up the marriage, but if I messed up again, they would disown me and sell me to a brothel. My father looked down at me and told me that if the marriage was called off again, he would adopt the boy who beat me, for he must be worthy of great things if he could upset an aristocrat so.

"For me, this is what broke my heart. My parents may not have been the most loving people in the world, but they were all I had. To even suggest that one of the lower people who constantly harassed me, that my father never punished, could even take my place made me almost hysterical with rage. Lying alone in my bed, I began to daydream all of the horrible things I could do to that boy when I took over the lands. So caught up in the daydream, I didn't notice when I fell asleep. I continue to dream of all the ways to torture him when I was awoken by a scream. My family and I ran outside to see what all of the commotion was. Sure enough, the scream came from the home of the boy that I was dreaming about. My father took one look into the house, and came back in order to empty his stomach. Taking this as a sign, the people began looking around, asking who would want to murder this family. The children pointed me out to their parents, but this idea was immediately discarded, due to the fact that not only was my home too far for me to run back to in time to run with my family to this house in response to the scream, but a maid had been watching me the whole time. She told them that I had been asleep when the scream came. People, disturbed, walked back into their houses with their families, still talking about this event. Me, I was curious. I had wanted this boy dead for so long, so that I decided that I wanted to know how he died. My father warned me against it, but I still walked in. The sight that greeted me was a complete shock. Not because of hoe gruesome the scene was, but because it was exactly as I had dreamed it.

"All together, this happened five more times. Each time afterwards, the children would always stare at me, as if I was an evil spirit walking around to chose my next victim. Even now, I can feel their eyes upon me. I began to wish that I could turn off my nightmares, but couldn't. After the fifth time, with the parents seeing the pattern of the families with the children that taunted me being brutally murdered, they broke into my family's home, killed my parents and bound me up. They brought me to a cave, this cave in fact, to die. Frozen and starved, I finally passed on. But, before doing so, I heard a voice, whom claimed that he could save me, if I was obedient towards him. I agreed and so, here we are."

"But…this is a forest! How long ago did this occur?"

"A long time ago, but you are right, not enough time has passed to create a forest of this size. My master moves my prison to the places where he wants me to dream of the ways for people to die. Unfortunately, this is now your prison as well. I have no idea as to how to get out, or I would have a long time ago. The cave itself is a labyrinth. I tried to find my way, but in such darkness, it is impossible. Besides, it is only a matter of time before my master's attention returns."

"How about we deal. You seem reasonable enough. If I can find a way out of this cave, and take you with me, will you not purposely try to kill me in you dreams if you master's attention returns?"

"For my freedom, and a chance for my soul to go either to Heaven or Hell, but away from his grasp, yes I will try. I already know that your name is Doukun, the Suzaku Shichiseishi Chiriko, so I guess that I could let you know mine, if we are to be partners. I am the Akuma-Hime, Chineru."

"It's a pleasure, Chineru-san."

And maybe it's just Tasuki-san rubbing off on me, but why do I always seem to find girls?!

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See, that wasn't so bad, was it? Many people have been asking for more torture, so here you go! Let me know what you think of it!