Disclaimer: Nope, nothing has changed since yesterday. ;) Fushigi Yuugi still belongs to Yu Watase.
Ari: Thanks for all the reviews everyone! ^_^ It has encouraged me to type up and upload another chapter, even when I have a nasty summer cold. -_- Ehh... I'm okay though. I'll rest plenty later. Not that sitting in front of a comp tires me out much anyway. On with the story!
Modern Miko: Chapter Three
It had all happened so quickly, only then did Yume react.
"But… that's… the ring was my birthday present!" she sputtered. Blue Hair waved away her protests without looking back, joining Tatara where he stood a few paces away.
Travis snickered. "'Birthday present'…nice one, Gollum." Yume bit her lip, turned toward him.
"Trav, this is no laughing matter! I have to get that ring back." Trav suddenly turned serious. He watched Blue Hair, who held the ring between thumb and forefinger. It glinted in the sun; Trav's expression hardened with determination.
"I'll get it, don't worry…" Before Yume could respond, he began to sprint towards the two men. She blinked. He disappeared.
Blue Hair had seen Travis charging at him out of the corner of his eye, and had half-turned to meet him before he simply… wasn't there. Narrowing his eyes, he searched the near-by dunes for any kind of trick. There was a still, unreal moment of utter silence, and then there was chaos.
Everyone began talking at once, gesturing wildly and trying to make some sense out of what had just happened. Unfamiliar lands or no, people did not just disappear before your eyes.
Blue Hair approached Yume, his face twisted into an expression half snarl, half smirk. For once, he didn't seem entirely confident. He shook a finger in her face, but she refused to flinch as her eyes burned into his. This place was definitely starting to scare her. Where had her cousin gone? She gritted her teeth.
"You…jerk! First you steal my ring, and now my cousin is gone as well? Where the heck is he?" she demanded, batting his finger out of her face with one hand. She stood her ground as he stepped closer, dangling her ring in front of her eyes by its chain. It swung back and forth, but he snatched it back with expert speed when she made a move to grab it.
"Ah, ah, ah…" he said, seemingly regaining control of the situation. "That was a fancy little trick you pulled there. I'd very much like to know how you did it." He narrowed his eyes. Yume glanced over at Ari. She was kicking at the patch of dirt Travis had disappeared from, looking quite bewildered. Tatara wasn't too far away, scanning the horizon with an expression on his face almost identical to Ari's. Yume wondered if she was as pale as she felt, but only had a moment to wonder this before having her attention drawn back to the blue-haired young man.
"Well?" he growled.
"Well what?"
"What kind of magic was it?"
"Say what?" Yume asked, getting even more frustrated.
Blue Hair frowned, and stepped back.
"If that's how you want to play…" A glint of mischief appeared in his eyes as he continued to back away, until he was only a few steps away from Tatara and Ari.
"Think fast, my friend," said Blue Hair as silver flew through his fingertips in an arc behind him. It cut through the dry and quivering desert air, before landing in Tatara's outstretched palm. This took a split second to transpire, but time had stretched as Yume watched in horror.
"Count yourself lucky my friend here has such quick reflexes. It would've been a nightmare to search for, out here," Blue Hair said with a wink.
"Lucky?!" Yume said, reaching her breaking point rapidly. "You call losing my ring and my favorite cousin in a matter of minutes lucky?" If he had been any closer, she might have slapped him.
"Losing your cousin? Don't play games with me, girl. You know what you did, and I know what you did, so—"
He was unable to finish what he had been about to say, as Ari lunged at Tatara with a frustrated shriek. Tatara closed his fist over the ring, stumbling back as she tackled him from the side.
"Ta—"he began to say, before they blinked away as if they had never been there.
A hot wind stirred up the empty sand dune—empty, besides the wild animal carcass Tatara had been carrying—as Blue Hair gaped in disbelief. Looking startled and angry at the same time, he whirled around to face Yume.
"You little witch!" he spat. Yume attempted to sputter her innocence of the situation, but he would hear none of it. Bracing his feet apart on the sand dune, he untied his hair and threw the small strip of orangish leather to the ground. Yume briefly glanced from it to him, wondering what he was up to. What kind of place is this, where people just wink out of existence without warning?
The hot wind—formerly little more than a breeze—kicked up, swirling around the dune. Yume tried to gulp in some air, and it nearly choked her. Blue Hair was smirking again, his eyes ablaze with some unexplainable fire that hadn't been there before. His unusual hair, now wild and flying about in the wind, seemed to move with a mind of its own, and—strangest of all—he seemed to be glowing.
"I was born with the name Kamejiro," he said. "But you may call me Tamahome. Most people do." With that declaration, something truly bizarre happened. A glowing Japanese character appeared on his forehead. It was purple, like the light from the book. Demon? It says demon? Ohh, what have I gotten myself into…
As if he had sensed her thoughts, his smirk spread into a disturbing grin.
"Talk, girl… or I'll be forced to take more drastic measures."
Yume had no time to wonder if he was serious or not. It was down to just the two of them. Would they disappear next? None of it made any sense.
"Wait! I don't belong in this place, I'm no witch! I'm just a curious girl from California, and I'm not even sure how I got here!" Yume attempted to say over the wind.
"From where, you say? It doesn't matter. You're a clever, tricky one and no 'tale of woe' will convince me otherwise." Tamahome clenched his fists, seeming on the verge of charging. Considering it, that is, until the sound of several pairs of feet became audible, coming from somewhere nearby.
Seemingly disappointed, Tamahome relaxed, the character disappearing along with the glow. Sparing a glance for Yume and neglecting to retrieve the strip of leather, he sprinted away from the area just as the group of people crested a nearby dune. Able to breathe again, Yume sunk to the ground as she sucked in giant gulps of air. She grasped at her neck and received a fresh wave of panic; she felt naked without her ring on its chain around her neck. Now 'Tatara' had it, wherever he may be.
The new strangers were climbing her dune. For reasons she couldn't explain, she snatched up the leather piece forgotten by Tamahome, tucking it into her pocket. When she looked up, she was once again surrounded by strange men. There was only about a half dozen of them, and they didn't seem particularly sinister. Of course, neither had Tamahome, at first. Yume attempted to back away, but they had quickly formed a circle around the top of the dune. There appeared to be no escape, and they seemed to be staring at her like she was some kind of alien. Then again, in this place, she might as well be…
******
Ari: Aren't you all so totally shocked at Blue Hair's revelation? ^_^ Okay, so it wasn't supposed to necessarily be some 'big secret'. I just wanted him to have a dramatic introduction, hehe. I have a new "Q&A" I thought to add, so here we go…
Q: The colors are all wrong! Suzaku is red, not purple, right?
A: True, true. ^_^ But like the intro says, the celestial gods become 'the same essence, but changed to fit the new situation'… or at least that's how it works in this story. I know the colors are traditional, white tiger and all that, but we thought it would be fun and interesting to have personalized miko colors. *shrugs*
Anyway, but really, what kind of Tamahome is this? Threatening people and stealing stuff? Sheesh. ^_^;; Also, there may be a bit of a delay in posting the next chapter (thought not too long, I hope). I'm almost out of pages that are already written, so I'll have to write a bit more before chapter 4 can go up. But you can't always expect daily updates, ya know. ;) So, hope you all enjoy!