AUTHORS NOTE:
The stuff from chapter 1 still applies to this one 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 six chapters (why you'd do that, I don't know), or don't remember, Nuriko and Tasuki are brothers in this story, twins.
This is a long part. I wrote the beginning of it right after I finished chapter 6, but then I kinda took a break from this story to finish a different story. I wrote the rest of it yesterday at work and today, so it's all pretty fresh. This is the chapter when the original purpose of the story really starts to happen! *grins*
The title is still very much subject to change...and still has no basis in the story, though it will eventually (I think I'm trying for the part after next 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, Hotohori/Sai Hitei, Chichiri/Houjun, Tamahome/Taka, Nakago, and Miaka don't belong to me. Suzaku and Seiryuu don't belong to me either...but I've taken a few more liberties with them, so this version of them does. 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 I don't even have a permanent full time job and I have to start paying back loans too soon. All the rest of my money is going to go towards Anime Central in May, and you wouldn't deny a poor obsessive fangirl lemming her con, would you?
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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Chapter 7: blonde demon
The next morning Genrou finally got his chance to make me talk about everything. He woke me up early that morning, and I found that he had laid me down in my bed and tucked my blanket up around me after I fell asleep. I was still in the dress I had worn to the restaurant though, and it was in pretty bad shape after being run through the snow, cried in, and slept in. Once I was fully awake, Genrou stood there in front of the door, watching me with a far too serious look.
"I know ya talked to Houjun yesterday, and I know he told ya everythin'," he said. I nodded. "So do ya still have a problem with it? Ya know we weren't brothers back then. I know I don't feel that way about ya anymore, and I don't think ya feel that way either, considerin' ya have the pretty boy now."
"I'm fine with it, I think," I said. Actually, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, but I knew he would just bother me if I didn't give him an answer. I thought about it for a moment then, and I realized that the dreams didn't bother me quite as much as they had the day before.
"Good, cause I don't wanna see ya beatin' yourself up over it," he said. "Now, will ya tell me a little more about what happened with his prettiness last night?"
"I wouldn't let him pick me up here, so we were supposed to meet at the restaurant at 7:30," I told him. "He's never been late yet, so when he wasn't there at 7:45 I called his house. The housekeeper said she hadn't seen him since yesterday morning. Then I came back here, and that's it."
"So he stood you up?" he asked. I scowled at him.
"I don't know," I said. "He wouldn't have done that on purpose, I know that. Unless he figured it out and is mad at me, that is."
"He still thinks yer a girl, doesn't he?" he asked.
"Unless he's been hiding it very well, yeah," I said. He rolled his eyes and shook his head resignedly.
"He's not gonna be happy when he does find out, ya know," he said. "And it'll all be your fault."
"I know," I said, staring at the bed below me instead of looking at him. "You think I haven't been thinking about that the whole time I've been dating him?"
"Then why don't ya just tell him?" he asked.
"Because I'm scared," I said. "I don't want him to hate me, and I'm terrified that he will once I tell him. I should have just told him when I met him, but I didn't. And now that it's been so long it's too late to just come out and tell him."
At that point Mom knocked on the door to see if we were up. I looked over at my clock and noticed that it was already a little past the time that I normally got up. I went over to the door, opened it, and told her that we were both up. She took one look at me and frowned, a concerned look on her face.
"Ryuuen, honey, are you all right?" she asked me. "Why are you still in your clothing from last night?"
"I fell asleep in it," I said, trying to smile. "I'm fine now though."
She didn't look any more convinced than I felt. "What happened, Ryuuen?" she asked.
"I don't really want to talk about it," I muttered, staring at the floor.
"You know I try not to pry into your life too much, Ryuuen," she said. "But I'm worried about you. You've been acting oddly lately, and I would like to know what's going on. I want to know why you came home crying last night. Could we please just sit down some time and talk?"
"I guess so," I said, and she smiled. She gave me a quick hug and then stepped back.
"Thank you," she said. "Now I'll let you get into the shower and get cleaned up."
A little of the hurt went away as I showered and got clean. I always felt better clean. It didn't all go away though, just enough that I didn't feel raw and ready to burst into tears. I knew that that day wasn't going to go much better than the day before had, unless something really good happened to get my mind working properly again and distract me from the dull ache of sadness that I could feel. That ache was more than ready to come back and make me cry again if just the slightest bad thing happened.
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Genrou decided to walk to school with me that day. He was just as worried about me as Mom was, though he knew more about what was going on than she did, and he chose to show it by accompanying me. When he joined me at the door I was surprised to find that I didn't mind him being there, even though I almost snapped at him to leave me along before I thought about it. It felt good to know that he was willing to ignore the jeers that would come from being with me when we got to school for once. It was that gesture of his that finally convinced me that he really didn't mind what had been between us when we were Nuriko and Tasuki.
The ground was covered with snow when we stepped outside. I had seen it through the window, but I hadn't realized just how deep it was until I was standing mid-calf deep in it. It hadn't even reached the tops of my feet when I ran home the night before, so it must have continued to fall all night. Luckily for the people who drove to school, the city had already gotten the plows out on the streets. Still, it was one of the few days during the winter when I was glad I didn't have a car to drive to school in.
I wasn't usually very bitter about not having a car. I knew Mom couldn't afford to have two cars, especially after Genrou got sent to reform school. I just didn't have much of an income aside from my babysitting, and that wasn't anywhere near enough to get a car. It didn't bother me, since I liked the walk to school, except in the winter. It was cold in the winter, and I hated the snow.
I hated driving in the snow even more. I did have my driver's license, despite what most people who knew me thought. I had learned to drive during the six months before my sixteenth birthday, just like any other teenager my age did. Mom had even taken me around to practice in her car so that I wouldn't be quite so nervous when I took my test. That was more than Genrou had gotten, since as far as I knew he still hadn't gotten his license. But I hated driving in the snow, even when the streets were plowed, and that day I was glad that I didn't have to do it. I was even gladder to have Genrou with me as we walked through the stuff.
Of course, when we actually got to school, we found out that it had been cancelled due to snow. We didn't find it out right away, since no one had bothered to put up a sign or leave someone there to tell students who didn't know. We just got to school to find a mostly empty parking lot and locked doors. We ended up climbing into the car of someone we barely knew (who didn't hate either one of us) and shivering there while we all listened to the radio to find out if they had delayed or closed school. Then, after they announced the school closings, including our city's, on the radio, she was nice enough to offer us a ride home.
I didn't understand why they decided to close school that day. It was still the very beginning of "winter," since it wasn't even officially going to be winter for another month. The snow would just get worse, and our school district only had a few snow days to spare before they had to start making us go in for make-up days. The roads were no more dangerous than they would be during a normal winter day, so closing school didn't seem to make any sense. Besides, they had forced us to go to school for what seemed like hundreds of days that were worse than that one before.
Neither Genrou nor I complained that much, though. We only complained because we didn't think it was bad enough to listen for school closings before we left the house, and thus had to trudge through the snow the whole way to school and then back again for no reason. We were still more than happy to have the day off, especially me. I really hadn't been looking forward to forcing myself to pay at least a little bit of attention to classes when I had too many other things on my mind, such as worrying about whether Sai had figured out my secret or was in trouble.
I spent most of the day trying to find something that would take my mind off of things. Every time I stopped consciously not thinking about Sai, my mind returned to him. The same set of worries ran through my head about a thousand times that day. Had he found out that I was a guy and hated me because of it, so that he never wanted to see me again? Had he found out I was a guy and just needed some time to think about it? Was he mad at me for some other reason? Was he hurt, or in trouble? Those worries were starting to drive me crazy, since I couldn't really do anything about them.
I tried calling him once during the day, just in case he had come home and was too mad at me to call me, or not able to call me because he was too hurt. Mary answered the phone, just like she had the other two times, and the answer was just the same. No, he hadn't come home yet. She was starting to get worried, and yes, she would tell him to call me as soon as he showed up. That didn't help, and as the day went on I got more and more worried, which clearly bothered Genrou.
It bothered him enough that he dragged me out of the house around lunch time. I hadn't even realized that he was still in the house until then, but I definitely noticed when he grabbed my arm and started pulling me away from the window, where I was standing and staring at the snow blankly. He wouldn't have gotten me very far if I had refused to go, but I didn't resist at all, and before I knew it I was putting on my jacket and following him out the door into the cold of November in Wisconsin.
Houjun was waiting outside for us. He was standing in front of his car at the side of the street, right in the middle of the snow bank, and smiling at us. He looked a lot more like the Chichiri I remembered from the dreams at that time than he had any time I had seen him before. That cheered me up almost as much as my shower that morning did, because his lighthearted mood didn't seem to be a mask the way it was in the dreams.
"Houjun and I are takin' ya out for lunch," Genrou announced once he had shoved me in the front seat of the car and then gotten in the back himself. "I'm not gonna let ya moon over his prettiness the way ya always did before. I don't wanna see ya cry anymore, so we're gonna get ya cheered up. We're gonna make ya forget all about him!"
"But I don't want to forget about him," I said quietly. It was something that would probably have made me burst into tears before we left the house, but Houjun's mood had made it a little more bearable. Genrou frowned at that, but he didn't protest.
"You don't have to forget about him, Ryuuen," Houjun said. "Tasuki just doesn't want to see you worrying like this. It makes him worry, even if he doesn't want to admit it."
"Dammit, how many times do I have to tell ya, it's Genrou now!" Genrou yelled at Houjun. "If ya can get his name right ya can damn well get mine right too!"
"Gomen ne," Houjun replied, but he turned to grin at me. That smile told me that he knew very well that Genrou didn't like being called Tasuki, and that he did it on purpose. I couldn't help but smile back at him, which pissed Genrou off. I think he realized the understanding that had passed between Houjun and I, and it annoyed him. He started muttering to himself as Houjun started the car and we pulled away from the curb.
Genrou and I argued a bit after Houjun asked me where I wanted to go for lunch and I suggested Subway. Genrou, it turned out, didn't like Subway at all, not to mention he wanted to take me somewhere a little nicer. I didn't see anything wrong with Subway, especially since I happened to like subs. Houjun didn't seem to care, and he seemed to be happy letting us fight it out between the two of us. In the end I gave up, and we went to Perkins.
As we were being seated, I heard a familiar, but not identifiable, voice call out to us. He called Houjun by the name Chichiri, which immediately got the attention of all three of us. When I looked over at the booth where the voice came from, I saw the same man who had called me Nuriko after running into me outside of the craft shop where I bought Sai's present. I realized then that he was Taka, or another reincarnation of Tamahome. I was willing to bet he was the same Taka, though, and that somewhere in the world Miaka was still alive, not too much older than she was when I knew her.
Genrou and Houjun recognized him too. "Taka?" Houjun asked. Like me, he suspected that it really was the same Taka, and the nod that he received in reply just proved it.
"What the hell are ya doin' at Perkins?" Genrou asked. His voice was so loud when he said it that the woman who was supposed to be leading us to our seats turned red and started asking him to keep it down. She looked more than a little worried, and it didn't really help that we were standing in the middle of the restaurant talking to someone when she was supposed to be seating us.
"Having lunch," Taka said. "And I was just wondering the same about you three."
"Ummm, excuse me, but I can't just let you stand here right now," the hostess said nervously. "There are other customers waiting, and I need to get you seated."
"Do you mind if we join you, Taka?" Houjun asked. "So we can talk, and so we can get out of the way?"
"Sure," Taka replied.
Genrou and Houjun sat down next to each other in the booth, across the table from Taka, who scooted toward the wall to let me sit next to him. I just stood there for a few moments, staring at Taka. All I could think of was how I, as Nuriko, had treated Tamahome when we first met. I had a momentary vision of dragging him, tied up in ropes, back to my rooms through the halls of the Konan palace. Then another thought occurred to me. Unlike me, he had gotten his love in the end, and I couldn't help but feel a little bitter as the thought reminded me of Sai being missing.
"What're ya waitin' for, Ryuuen?" Genrou asked me as I continued to stand there. He sounded impatient.
I knew that the conversation at that table would eventually turn to Miaka. It had to. We had all loved her, if not in the same way that Tamahome/Taka did, and Genrou and Houjun were bound to be curious to know how she was doing. I was a little curious too. But at the same time, I didn't want to hear about Miaka, the same girl who Hotohori had loved so much. I didn't want to be reminded any more, and that was why I didn't want to sit down.
I thought about saying I would just eat alone, but I knew that would just piss Genrou off. He would think I wanted to be alone so I could fall back into the blank worrying that I had been doing all morning. So instead I looked around the restaurant with an almost frantic glance, trying to find someone I knew. My first glance didn't reveal anyone who would welcome me joining them, but a second glance showed me a familiar figure in a black trench coat and hat (even while he was inside) sitting just a few booths away.
"I just spotted Himitsu-sensei's friend Devin," I said, smiling a little at Genrou. "You know, the one who's always wearing the trench coat? I think I'm going to join him, okay?"
Genrou growled in anger, but didn't say anything, and Houjun nodded. I think he realized that I didn't want to talk to Taka just yet, that I was still a little uncomfortable with it all. Taka just shrugged. "It was nice seeing you again, Nuriko," he said.
"It's Ryuuen now," I replied, and then I walked over to the table where Devin was sitting. I could hear Houjun explaining to Taka that I had only started remembering things recently, and that I wasn't quite used to the idea yet as I walked away.
He had noticed me. Everyone in the restaurant had noticed us when Genrou had asked Taka why he was there, but most of them had stopped paying attention to us when we quieted down. Devin had still been watching, though, and when I approached him he smiled at me in a friendly fashion. His head was raised just enough that I could see his gray eyes for the first time.
"Do you mind if I join you?" I asked him.
"Go ahead," he said. I sat down across the table from him. "Out of curiosity, why aren't you joining your brother and friends?"
"I don't really want to talk to Taka," I said. "I haven't seen him in forever, and I'm not really in the mood to talk to him right now."
We talked for a while, and I got to know him. It turned out he was Himitsu-sensei's boyfriend, just as I suspected when I saw them together. He told me he didn't get out much, because he worked from home as a computer scientist, and he spent most of his time buried in code. I got the feeling that there was more to it than that, but I tried to ignore it, since it was probably related to the reason he wore that trench coat and hat everywhere.
At one point I remember trying to forget that I was related to Genrou, when he yelled, "She's what?" loud enough to catch the attention of the whole restaurant. I turned bright red and tried to sink down beneath the table, even though no one was paying attention to me. I felt like everyone in the building knew I was the loud idiot's brother, and that they would all be staring at me in just a few moments. It never happened though, and before long the fuss calmed down enough that I could relax.
Then, not too long after a waitress stopped by our table and took my order, everyone's attention got called to the table where Taka, Houjun, and Genrou were sitting again. This time it was because of Taka, who had yelled, "He's what?" just as loud as Genrou had yelled earlier. It didn't bother me quite as much as Genrou's explosion had, but it was still a little embarrassing. The three of them laughed, a little too casually, after they realized that they had caught the attention of everyone in the restaurant again.
Then, I heard Genrou reply, "It's true. And he's even got his prettiness himself for a boyfriend."
I felt the blood drain out of my face after he said that. They were talking about me, and Sai. The mention of Sai brought back all of the worry, and then I started feeling guilty for leaving the house. For all I knew, Sai had returned to his house just a few minutes earlier and was calling my house at the moment as Mary would have told him to. And I was sitting at Perkins talking to Himitsu-sensei's boyfriend instead of waiting for him to get back.
"Ryuuen, are you all right?" Devin asked me then. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
I froze for a few moments. I wasn't all right, and I knew it. But I didn't think I could tell Devin everything that wasn't right with me. It wasn't the problem of Sai being missing, but everything else, and I wanted to tell him it. I felt like I could trust him, but I was afraid that he wouldn't believe it and would then think I was crazy. Still, before I knew it I was telling him the whole story, about the book and the reincarnation, and also about Sai.
He listened silently while I babbled. He didn't even blink when I mentioned the book, or being a reincarnation of a legendary warrior. He just listened. When I got to the part about Sai, and having seen him in my dreams for so long before I met him in real life, he smiled at me. Then when I told him about Sai being missing and standing me up for our date the night before, he looked concerned.
"And that's why we're here at Perkins," I finished. "Genrou and Houjun decided that I needed to get out of the house and stop worrying."
After that he stayed silent for so long that I started wondering if he didn't believe me and was trying to think of a way to tell me that without hurting my feelings. I knew I was close to crying; I could feel the tears just under the surface, ready to break through at any moment. I had the feeling that he knew they were there too. I was pretty sure that the last thing he wanted to deal with was a crying seventeen year old cross dresser.
"You don't believe me, do you?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice from trembling.
"That's not it," he said in a gentle voice. "I believe you. I was just thinking. What did you say the names of your bird god and his enemy were?"
"Suzaku and Seiryuu," I said.
"I've heard those names before..." he mused, but then he shook his head and smiled at me again. "But that doesn't matter. I think your brother was only trying to do what's best for you by getting you out of the house. You do realize that, don't you?"
"He did what he thought was best," I said reluctantly. "But what if Sai gets back and calls while I'm gone?"
"Then he'll leave a message for you," he replied. "And he'll know that you were worried about him, even if he does happen to be angry with you. He won't disappear just because you aren't there, and you weren't doing yourself any good by staying there worrying."
"I still don't like it," I muttered. I sounded childish, and I knew it.
"That's understandable," Devin replied. "Worrying about a loved one is always hard. I would say that you get used to it with time, but it isn't true. That would by lying to you, and I never lie if I can help it. But I can tell you that it will eventually end. I've been similarly worried about Himitsu several times in the past, but they've always come to an end."
Oddly enough, that made me feel a little better. Not completely better, since I was still worried about Sai, but I at least didn't feel like I was about to burst into tears again. I gave him a smile that almost felt real because of it. Then something he said made me more than a little curious.
"Where is Himitsu-sensei?" I asked him. "Didn't he get off because of the snow day too?"
Devin laughed. "He wouldn't have been there today even if school hadn't been cancelled," he said. "He loathes snow so much that he would have called in sick just to get out of having to go outside."
"He does know that it stays snowy here until at least mid-March, doesn't he?" I asked.
"Yeah," he replied. "But that doesn't stop him from skipping out on work for the first snowy day every year. It didn't matter in the end though. He did get the day off, just like you did."
"Then where is he?" I asked.
"He was summoned away for family business," he said. "He was going to use that as his excuse to get out of going in today, since it will probably take all day. Even if it doesn't, he said he was going to stop by and visit an old mentor of his on his way home..."
He then trailed off into silence. After a moment of thought, when I was just about to ask him if he was okay, he got a surprised look on his face. "So that's where I'd heard those names before!" he exclaimed. "His mentor's name is Suzaku. And Seiryuu is..."
I never got to hear what he was saying about Seiryuu. Before he could finish the statement, a man interrupted him. "Excuse me," his deep, but calm and cool, voice said.
I looked up to see a face that I could only remember, from the dreams, having seen once, but still a face that I would never forget. That one time had been after I died, during the one time I had been able to see Miaka's world, when I saved my friends from dying by a falling building. That was when we were facing off against Nakago, the leader of the Seiryuu shichiseishi. The face on the man standing at our table was the same.
Well not exactly the same. He looked younger than the man I remembered, like he was barely even twenty years old. He had his blonde hair tied back, so that it looked like it was cut short when I first looked at him. His blue eyes glinted with a hard look, even though the rest of his face was carefully showing only politeness. Those eyes were full of cruelty, and, if it was possible, they made him seem to be even more dangerous than the Nakago I remembered, like a blonde demon who was politely waiting to be acknowledged.
"Nakago..." I whispered. I wasn't actually trying to let him know that I recognized him. It just kind of slipped out.
"I have been called that before," he said.
I tried to summon some of the courage that I knew I had shown as Nuriko, sometimes. The look in his eyes scared me more than anything else, even my worries about Sai. I tried to at least look brave when I asked him, trying desperately to keep my voice level and strong, "What are you doing here?"
"I've come for the fox," he said.
I gave him a blank look, since I had no idea what he was talking about. But Devin saved me by speaking up. "He's talking about me," he said. "Why don't you go join your brother and friends?"
"No," I said. "He's dangerous. I don't think I can do anything to stop him if he tries to do something, but I can't just leave you alone."
"I can take care of myself, Ryuuen," he said softly.
"He stays," Nakago said, his voice hard. "He needs to take a message to the prince."
"I can do that," Devin replied.
"You are coming with me," Nakago said.
It was at that point that I tried to get up and go over to the table where Genrou, Houjun, and Taka were sitting. None of them had noticed our blonde visitor, which really surprised me. Instead, they were huddled together across the table, talking about something so intently that they weren't noticing anyone around them. When I tried to get up, though, Nakago stepped in front of me and pushed me back into the seat.
"You can't make me," Devin said. "Not without upsetting the whole restaurant."
"I don't care about that," Nakago said. "You are the one who is trying to be secretive. Besides, I could always take him instead. It's your choice. Will you come with me willingly, or do I take another one of Suzaku's minions? Either way, it will get your dragon's attention, which is what my lord wants."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, which just made Nakago glare at me. That glare made my courage fail, and I shrank back in the seat, away from him.
"It's nothing you need to get involved in, Ryuuen," Devin said.
"I already am involved!" I said. "I know him. He's one of the Seiryuu shichiseishi. He's the one who ordered me killed."
"And he's not here for you now; he's here for Himitsu," he told me, and then he turned back to Nakago. "I'll go with you, if you swear to me that you won't hurt Ryuuen."
"As I said, he needs to take a message to your dragon," Nakago replied. "As long as you come willingly I will let him go."
"Fine then," Devin said. "Tell him your message and let's go." Then he stood up from the table and went to stand behind Nakago. He smiled at me weakly when I looked at him, but he didn't say anything else.
"We have your miko and one of your warriors," Nakago told me. "They are still unharmed, but that will not last long if you decide to give us trouble. Tell that to the dragon, and then tell him that we have his fox."
"Tell who?" I asked, but he didn't respond. He just turned away from the table and started walking. Devin followed him silently. I just sat there until they were both out the door, and then I sagged into the seat as part of his message finally sank in.
He said they had the miko. They had Miaka, and from what I had seen of Taka earlier, he didn't know it yet. But besides that, he said they had one of our warriors, one of our shichiseishi. It obviously wasn't one of the four of us who were in the restaurant. It could possibly have been the reincarnation of one of the other two, who I had just recently remembered, Mitsukake or Chiriko. Or it could be the last one, and I had the sickening feeling that it was.
They had Sai.