AUTHORS NOTE:

The stuff from part 1 still applies. This is my first try at fanfiction ever, so I'm a little worried about OOCness. Of course, this is a reincarnation fic, and because they have lived different lives this time around, they won't be exactly the same. For those who for some reason haven't read the first three parts (why you'd do that, I don't know...it would confuse me, and I wrote it!), or don't remember, Nuriko and Tasuki are brothers in this story, twins.

Whee, it's been less than a month since I put out part 3!! I'm going to try not to disappear for another year after putting out this and the part after it...especially considering I already have much of part 6 written. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! to the kind people who left reviews after I added part 3, they make me happy!!

The title is still very much subject to change...and still has no basis in the story yet, though it will eventually. And, I love feedback! I crave feedback. I don't necessarily need it to write...but I have found that, like anime, it is addictive. That, and it makes me feel like people are actually reading my story!! So...feedback GOOOOOOOOOD! Especially feedback about how I'm doing the characters...

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DISCLAIMER:

Nuriko/Ryuuen, Tasuki/Genrou/Shun'u, Kouji, the guy toward the end of this part who is unnamed, and Hotohori/Saihitei don't belong to me. Fushigi Yuugi doesn't belong to me. Eventually, once everyone else shows up, they won't belong to me either. I'm just borrowing them and playing with them (and giving Nuriko what he wants…Hotohori!) Suing me would do no good, because after losing my scholarship for college I have almost no money, except for that which I am saving to go to Anime Central with my friends here at school in May.

Himitsu on the other hand is mine, ALL MINE!!!!! I haven't let anyone take him yet...and I'm not about to either. The person in the trench coat is mine too, so that person's off limits too (and his/her identity is revealed in this part, yay!). All others so far are just random characters, and if you take them I won't be too angry, but if you can't come up with your own random characters that's pretty sad...

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chapter 4: the guy in the trench coat

Over the next month I went on dates with Sai two of three nights each week. I never got up the courage to tell him I was male, and with each date it got harder. It didn't help that he seemed more beautiful each time I saw him either.

He was always the perfect gentleman too. Even when I tried to pay my way, he insisted on paying for everything. I never had to open a door when with him either. And, even once we started sharing a deep farewell kiss at the end of a date instead of a polite kiss to the back of my hand, he never tried to press his advantage and cop a feel. That was always a relief.

I learned some of his imperfections too. He was a perfectionist. He couldn't stand anything that made him seem normal, since he was anything but that. And, he was the greatest fan of his own beauty, which made him the biggest narcissist I'd ever seen.

But I was still falling in love with him. A big part of it was the dreams. I kept having them, even though I'd met him in real life. If I'd thought they were getting a little hot before I met him, they were beyond erotic by then. He always knew I was male in my dreams, and he never seemed to mind. And that was one of the things that made me feel so guilty about not telling him in real life.

I don't think Genrou ever quite accepted that I was regularly dating a guy. Every single time he saw me leave for a date or come back from one, he would tell me I was insane. I never introduced him to Sai, mostly because I didn't trust him not to tell Sai about my gender, despite my little warning. I never even told Mom I was dating, since I knew she wouldn't understand.

-

At the same time I was plodding through my senior year of high school. It was boring, except for Himitsu-sensei's class. He was the most popular teacher in the school by then, because his classes were interesting, and because he was nice. My habit of calling him Himitsu-sensei had caught on after the first day too, so almost everyone in the school called him that. Genrou was one of the few who didn't.

I also saw the person in the trench coat a lot, every single day I bothered to look in fact. He (or she) always waited for Himitsu-sensei after school, no matter whether it was raining, boiling, or just nice weather outside. I was tempted to introduce myself at times, mostly just so I could find out who he (or she) was, but I never did. Every time I had myself ready to do it, Himitsu-sensei came out, and they left.

And then one day I got to meet him. Genrou almost got in a fight that day, and the guy in the trench coat was the one who stopped it. I wasn't involved, but I was nearby, waiting for my friends to get out of the building, when it happened.

It happened right after school. Genrou and Kouji were about to take off for the day. He'd been really good about going to school and behaving since school started that year; he hadn't skipped or gotten in a single fight at all. And then, the leader of one of the groups who used to piss Genrou off all the time just for fun decided it was time to start again. They'd been pretty quite since Genrou had returned.

"Hey Gen-rooooooooou," the guy drawled lazily. "I saw your freaky brother on a date with some pretty boy last night. Guess you rubbed off on him, huh? Like brother, like," he paused to snicker, "sister?"

I never thought someone from school would see me on one of my dates with Sai. The places he took me weren't the kind of places the others at my school would go to on any kind of regular basis, or even at all. Sai had money, so the restaurants we went to were only the really expensive ones, like the French place we were at the night before. The guy who saw us definitely couldn't afford to eat there, so I wondered what he had been doing there.

Genrou turned bright red. I could almost see the steam rising off of him as his temper rose. At the same time, I saw what I thought was a guilty look flash across his face. Kouji tried to get him to just ignore it and go on, but he pulled away with a look on his face that said he was just dying for an excuse to beat the guy to a bloody pulp.

"What didja say?" he asked, walking toward the guy. He reached into his backpack and casually pulled out the last thing I ever suspected he would bring into a fight.

It was an old metal fan, a tessen, that Baa-san had left him in her will when she died. He'd loved it when we were kids, just as much as I'd loved the old pair of bracelets she left me. (I'm still not sure why she gave them to me either, since she refused to accept my trying to be female.) I thought he had more respect for the tessen, that he wouldn't bring it to a simple fight. I wasn't even sure why he had it with him.

The guy's response was nasty. I don't want to repeat it, since the nicest word he used was "fag," and most of it offends my no-so-ladylike sensibilities. That caused Genrou to snap, no surprise there.

He shouted a string of obscenities that would make a sailor blush. I'm pretty sure he didn't know most of those before reform school, and I'm almost certain some of them were physically impossible. Then, he pulled back his arm (the one holding the tessen) like was going to throw something. He was still at least five feet away from the guy, so I guessed he was going to throw the tessen at him before jumping at him and beating him senseless like he normally did.

Before any of us knew it, the guy in the trench coat was in front of Genrou, grabbing his arm and forcing it down with one hand, and putting his other hand over Genrou's mouth. I hadn't been paying attention to him, since I'd been too busy watching Genrou. Genrou struggled, but the guy didn't let him go and just stared at him steadily. It wasn't a glare, but it did make Genrou settle down a little.

"You should know better than to use that on a person," he said, and his baritone voice confirmed that he was male. I wasn't at the right angle to see his face though.

Genrou tried to reply, but with his mouth covered all that came out were muffled noises. I had the feeling that his reply was every bit as obscene as what he'd shouted at the guy who pissed him off. That guy decided to use the chance to get away, but I felt that I should help Genrou out a little.

I wasn't too far from the guy, and I was behind him. So, as he ran by me, away from Genrou and the guy in the trench coat, I snagged his arm and held on tight. He dragged me a couple feet, but I'm a lot stronger than I look, so he didn't get far.

"Are you done now?" the guy in the trench coat asked once the muffled curses died down. "Your brother had the guy you were going to get, so can I trust you enough to let go?"

Genrou nodded, and the guy released him. Just as that happened, Himitsu-sensei walked out of the school, and immediately stopped as he saw the guy in the trench coat by Genrou and me holding the guy who started it all. He then continued toward us, this time at a much slower pace.

"Just what happened here, Dev?" he asked the guy in the trench coat.

"I stopped your student from making a rather stupid mistake after that guy made some...colorful comments about his sexual preferences," the guy replied, pointing at the one I held as he said "that guy."

"Oh," Himitsu-sensei said. Then he went over to me. "You can let go of him now Ryuuen," he told me. "I'll take care of him." I let the guy go and was very surprised when he didn't try to run again. Himitsu-sensei led him into the school saying he'd be right back. Then the guy in the trench coat headed over to me, and Genrou took his chance to run.

"Thank you for grabbing him," he said. "I've seen you watching me every so often. I'm Devin James." He stuck out his hand in greeting, and I noticed that he had very sharp looking fingernails.

From that distance I could see his face, though parts of it were obscured by the hat. He had an almost delicate, though definitely male, face. It was a young handsome face, with a different kind of beauty than Himitsu-sensei's and Sai's. The shadow of his hat made it so I couldn't tell what color his eyes were, and his hair was almost hidden. (It looked like that was on purpose.) A few strands had escaped around his face though, and they were pale green. I wondered if his hair was natural (like mine), or just a good dye job.

"I'm Ryuuen Chou," shaking his hand, but feeling a little odd doing so. It was weird actually talking to him after watching him for so long. "I don't suppose it would be okay for me to ask why you were wearing a trench coat in the kind of heat we had a month ago, would it?" He laughed.

"I don't mind," he said lightly. "Everyone asks me that question, even the people who already know the reason. Unfortunately, I think Himitsu would probably kill me if I told you it. He doesn't want to get any of his students involved in it, and I agree with him."

"Oh," I said, just as Himitsu-sensei came back out of the school.

"I passed him off to someone else," he told Devin. "I didn't want to get stuck here all day long. You ready to go?"

"Yeah," Devin replied. I don't know exactly what it was about them, but they seemed very comfortable with each other. I suspected they were more than just friends, not that that bothered me.

"It was nice meeting you Ryuuen," Devin said to me as Himitsu-sensei waved goodbye. Then they started to walk off, only to stop as Himitsu-sensei turned back to me.

"Oh, Ryuuen," he said. "Could you tell your brother that I'd like to talk to him before first hour tomorrow? It's not about anything bad, so he doesn't have to worry about that."

"Okay," I said, and that time they really did leave.

-

Genrou was nowhere to be found when I got home later that night. Mom had no idea where he was, so I decided I could give him Himitsu-sensei's message before bed, or in the morning if I had to. I wasn't about to wait for him at the time, because I had some shopping to do.

I had a date with Sai planned for the next day. I'd gotten into the habit of getting him little presents for each date. They weren't big or expensive, just little things that made me think of him when I saw them, and I knew he could buy things that were much better, but he said he really liked them. I used the money I made babysitting to get the things, and I felt it was a good use for the money.

I knew exactly what I wanted to get him that time too. I'd see it in the window of a craft shop just past the park the day before, and I though it was beautiful, perfect for Sai. It was a braided hair tie, very simple, but hand made. It was red, gold, and purple, colors that made me think of Sai when I saw it.

So I had decided to get it for him. That meant I needed to hurry to get to the shop before it closed, since I got home later than I thought I would. It was normally a ten minute walk from home, but I made it in five that day and had plenty of time to spare.

As I left the store, cradling the bag with Sai's present in it, I crashed into someone. I lost my balance and chose to let myself fall instead of dropping the present and flinging out my arms so I could stay standing. He fell over too, which I thought was only fair after he almost caused me to drop Sai's present.

When I got up he was still down, so I got a good chance to look him over. He was Japanese and around his early twenties. I figured he was a student at the nearby university, since he was the right age, and there weren't a lot of Japanese (besides us) in the area. A wave of déjà vu washed over me as I stuck my hound out to help him up. He looked familiar, though I was pretty sure I'd never met him before.

"Are you okay?" I asked. He nodded as he shifted his weight on the ground and then turned to me to accept my help. I knew exactly when he saw me, because his eyes grew wide, about the size and shape of saucers, and he gasped in surprise.

"Nuriko?" he asked me, his voice sounding shocked and incredulous.