AUTHORS NOTE:

The stuff from part 1 still applies to this part too. 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 four parts (why you'd do that, I don't know), or don't remember, Nuriko and Tasuki are brothers in this story, twins.

Can't complain about cliffhangers between part four and this one, considering I'm putting them up together! Reviews are always fun!

The title is still very much subject to change...and still has no basis in the story yet, though it will eventually (I think I'm trying for the part after next or the one after that one at the moment). 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, and Hotohori/Saihitei don't belong to me. Neither do the two others who have just shown up and will show up shortly respectively but haven't actually been named yet... 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 and buying books for this year I have pretty much no money to spare. (Well, except for that which I am saving to use when going to Anime Central in May...but you can't have that!)

Himitsu and Devin on the other hand are mine, ALL MINE!!!!! I haven't let anyone take them yet...and I'm not about to either. 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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Oh yeah, in this chapter, the stuff between the // and // is a dream!

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Chapter 5: Nuriko

That name sent a jolt through me. I recognized it. It was what the dream version of Sai called me. But, outside of my dreams I'd never been called that name, ever. So when the oddly familiar stranger I'd just knocked down called me by it, I panicked and ran.

I left him sitting on the ground and ran. I didn't stop until I was a black from home. I wanted to catch my breath before I got home, so Mom wouldn't think anything was wrong, or I would have run the whole way. So, I stopped, smoothed out my skirt, which was still wrinkled from my fall, and started down the street at a slower pace.

I stopped again when I heard Genrou's voice shouting from in front of our house. He sounded angry, though I couldn't quite make out his words. He was standing there on the sidewalk, shouting at a guy our age with pale blue hair and bangs that seemed to defy gravity. (I swear, it was one of the oddest hairstyles I'd ever seen.) For the second time that night, I had the feeling of déjà vu.

Genrou seemed to know him well, which made me curious. I'd never seen him before, despite how familiar he seemed. I decided to sneak forward as quietly as I could, so I could hear what they were saying. I didn't catch the other guy's response, but by the time Genrou started again I was pretty close, and well within range to hear everything else, so I stopped.

"Of course I was gonna use the tessen on the asshole!" Genrou yelled, and I realized he was talking about that afternoon. "Ya gotta use every weapon ya have in a fight. Ya know that! Anyway, I didn't get to do it, 'cause that freak in the trench coat stopped me. He knew what I was gonna do!"

"That's a good thing, Tasuki," the other guy said. I recognized that name too, even though I hadn't heard it in my dreams. I didn't know where it came from, but I did recognize it. That caused me to drop the bag holding Sai's present, just as Genrou started yelling again.

"Dammit all, don't call me that!" he exclaimed, but the blue haired guy heard my bag hit the grass I was standing on and turned to face me. He looked surprised.

"Nuriko, no da," he said. At that moment, having yet another complete strange use the name that I felt belonged in my dreams, so only the dream Sai could say it, made me lose my temper.

"My name is Ryuuen," I snapped, picking up my bag and stomping all the way to the house. I paused at the door to give Genrou his message. "Oh, Genrou, Himitsu-sensei wants to talk to you tomorrow before school. He says it's not bad. Good night."

As I marched into the room, I heard the blue haired guy make a comment to Genrou. "You never mentioned that your brother was Nuriko." That made me slam the door behind me.

-

That night I dreamed, and it wasn't about Sai...for the first time since I met him in real life.

//I was crying in my palace rooms that night. No matter how many times I saw it, when Hotohori-sama made it clear that he waned only Miaka, as he had that night, it broke my heart. I knew I should just give up on wanting him, but I couldn't

But why would he want a freak like me anyway? He deserved a real woman, a beauty who had charm and grace, like I tried to be, not a little girl like Miaka. He deserved the kind of woman Kourin would have been if she'd gotten the chance to grow up, the way I tried to be for her. He was definitely too good for me.

So there I was, crying my eyes out over a man who was by far too good for me. That was how Tasuki found me that night. He'd heard by sobs and followed them to find my slumped to the ground, my robes almost ruined from the dirt and tears on them.

"Ya look like shit Nuriko," he told me, almost lightly, when I looked up to find him standing the doorway staring at me.

"Go away," I said bitterly. "Hotohori-sama already hates me. I don't need to mocking me too. After all, nobody likes a freak like me."

"That ain't true!" he exclaimed.

"Oh?" I asked. "I was a bitch to Miaka, so she hates me. Same with Tamahome, especially after the stunt I pulled when we first met. Hotohori-sama is terrified of me because I'm a freak, and so's the rest of the palace. Everyone hates me."

"I don't hate ya," he said.

"Sure," I shot back. "Like I'll believe that after you tell me I look like shit?"

"Ya do look like shit right now," he said. Then he strode into the room, grabbed my shoulders, and looked into my eyes. His voice came out determined and fierce with his next words. "But I don't hate ya. It's pretty much the opposite. I think I'm fallin' in love with ya."

I couldn't blow off his words, not with the fierce way he said them. Instead, I let myself try to believe them and tried to believe that there was actually someone who liked me. It was hard.

Then I took a good look at Tasuki; at his flame red hair, at his face, and at his muscled body, proof of his years as a Mt. Leikaku bandit. He wasn't Hotohori-sama, with his sheer beauty, but he was still quite good looking. And he cared.

I threw myself forward into his arms and started sobbing again. It wasn't that I loved him back, thought I was pretty sure it would develop if given a little time. I just wanted someone to hold me then. He was there, and he cared. That was enough for me.

"Oi, Nuriko, what's wrong now?" he asked worriedly. He sounded confused, and lost. "Did I say something wrong?"

I had the sudden desire to be called by something other than Nuriko. Nuriko was a shichiseishi...a warrior. Nuriko was the one who had the courage to face the others calmly, even though he was nothing in the eyes of the one he loved. That wasn't me. I couldn't be like that at that moment.

"Don't call me that," I said, my voice muffled in his chest.

"Don't call ya what?" he asked.

"Nuriko," I said. "Don't call me Nuriko."

"But that's yer name," he said. He sounded confused.

"Not it isn't," I said. "My name is Ryuuen...call me that, please?"

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I don't think I can handle being Nuriko tonight," I said. "Because I haven't been just Ryuuen in a long time..."

He was silent for a few moments, patting my back comfortingly as I sobbed. Then, he pulled me closer suddenly and embraced me tighter. "I understand, Ryuuen," he said.

And then he pulled up my chin and kissed me.//

I woke with a sinking, revolted feeling in my stomach. The dream had continued beyond the kiss, to activities that I would never tell the details of, even if they hadn't been with someone who looked just like my twin brother. I knew, not just because the blue haired guy had called him by that name, that Tasuki and Genrou were the same. The thought of sleeping with him made me feel sick.

It was the middle of the night when I woke up. I laid there, trying to get back to sleep, but I couldn't get that dream out of my head. Finally, I decided I needed to get out of bed and walk for a while.

-

I tried not to talk to Genrou that day. I felt uncomfortable after that dream. I was terrified that I would mention it, and if I did mention it I know I'd die of embarrassment. It was bad enough that Mom asked me if I was feeling all right at breakfast that morning.

I wore pants to school that day. They were part of an outfit my friends had convinced me to buy a few months earlier. I wore the whole outfit that day, even though it was form fitting in places and made it very clear that I was male. I think I wore it because of that. I wanted to be different that day.

I almost gave Mom a heart attack when I went down to breakfast too. I think she thought I might start being her son again (instead of her daughter) since I hadn't worn pants in her presence since I tried to take Kourin's place.

Both Himitsu-sensei and Genrou were gone from school that day. That should have made me worried, since I knew Genrou had left to talk with Himitsu-sensei that morning. Instead, it made me feel relieved. I didn't have to talk to Genrou if he wasn't there. Himitsu-sensei's sub was awful, but I was too worked up to have fun in Himitsu-sensei's class even if he was there.

I saw Sai that afternoon too. He was standing on the sidewalk outside of school, watching people as we got out of school. I guessed he was looking for me. I didn't remember telling him where I went to school, but he did know that I went to a public school, and the school was the one assigned to my area.

I didn't even notice him at first. I was surrounded by my friends, who had almost all decided I was a pretty good looking guy, when I wore something with legs. I had no idea Sai was there until someone started squealing when she noticed him. Everyone in the group followed her finger once she started pointing.

"Oh my God, that's Sai!" she exclaimed. She had friends who went to Sai's school and had told her about him.

"Isn't he the really rich one who goes to Amanda's school?" someone else asked. By then, I'd seen him and was running full speed toward the school, after whispering, "I forgot something," to Sara, who was the person next to me.

I couldn't let him see me in what I was wearing. I felt guilty for not telling him, but I couldn't let him find out that way. I wanted to hope otherwise, but I was pretty sure he wouldn't take that kind of news well.

-

Genrou was still gone when I went home so I could change for my date. I wasn't worried. I was still too unsettled from the dream and busy hoping that Sai hadn't seen me to be worried about him.

I found out right away that Sai had seen me. He hadn't known it was me though. He thought he'd seen the twin brother I'd told him about, Genrou. The only thing that kept me from laughing in his face when he told me that was sheer willpower.

Everything about the night after that was perfect, except for one thing. He took me to a movie again that night, another strange one that no one I knew besides Sai would ever go to. He was a perfect gentleman, as always. Then, I gave him his gift.

"Nuriko, this is beautiful!" he exclaimed after he opened it. I froze at the name, and he got a concerned look on his face. "Is something wrong?"

"W-where did you hear that name?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he said. "It just popped into my head. I think it suits you though."

"You're the third person who's called me that in the last day Sai," I said. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

"I won't do it again if it bothers you," he replied, and then the night went back to being perfect.

Later that night, while he was driving me home, I made a decision. When he escorted me to the door, I got ready to tell him. Then, before he bent over to kiss me good night, I put a finger to his lips. He pulled back to look at me questioningly.

"There's only one person I want to call me Nuriko," I said. "You." Then he kissed me.