Disclaimer: Yeah, you know the drill. I don't own the origional story, Yuu Watase does.

Chapter notes:

Uh, I don't really have any... except that sometimes Yuren's reading of the book just pops up. haaa..

The moon brightly shined down on the reflection of water beneathe the bridge Tatara was standing on. Every few moments, he flicked a pebble at his reflection to scramble it. He found it entertaining. He leaned down on the ledge and sighed.

"Tatara," a gentle voice came from behind him. He turned to see Suzuno standing just before the bridge started from the grass. She had a solemn look on her face, with a small warm-hearted smile. She had her hands cupped together in front of her skirt.

Tatara stared at her. She looked so beautiful when the moon hit her face. "Suzuno," he muttered.

"Tatara, what are you doing out here so late? We have to leave early into the morning if we want to get a good start." She walked over beside him and leaned out to see her reflection as well.

"It's so nice out tonight," he paused, "I wanted to spend one good night in the palace before we left."

Suzuno smiled.

Tatara looked upon her for a second, then looked back at their reflections.

Suzuno stared deep into the water, until something suddenly dropped into the water and right in the center of her face. The image scrambled, and she looked up at Tatara.

He smiled big at her as he flipped a pebble with his thumb like you would a coin.

She stared at him, then giggled. They both looked out into the water again.

It grew silent, until Suzuno spoke. Her tone was quiet.

"Are you scared?"

Tatara looked at her, then gave her a dry laugh. "No. Are you?"

She paused, and took a deep breath. "Kinda," she paused again. "I'm kinda embarassed to say it."

"Ohh, there's nothing to be scared of." He shook his hand up and down. "I'm going to be there!" He smiled.

She smiled, but it wasn't true. "I'm not scared of the journey..."

"What are you scared of?"

"I'm scared... that when this is all done and over... and I call upon Byakko to grant me my wishes... if I go back home... life will seem so meaningless compared to this."

Tatara's eyes widened.

Suzuno looked down. Her bangs covered her face. "This has to be the best thing that's ever happened to me. I actually mean something. And when I go back... I'll be normal again. I'll mean nothing." A single tear fell from her face and hit the water, scrambling the image again. She stood in silence. Then, she felt pressure around her body, and the warmth of Tatara's chest as her head soon fell upon it. She stood with his hands wrapped around her. She then slowly put her arms around him, and began clinching on to his shirt. The tears began to come harder now.

Suzuno stepped out of her bed chambers and stretched her arms in front of her. She yawned, and put her hand over her mouth. She walked over to where the emperor stood. Subaru and Tatara were already standing there. Subaru was wearing a white and blue fighting suit. She looked beautiful out of those robes. Tatara was wearing something that he usually wore. And of course, Suzuno wore her school uniform.

"Good morning, Subaru!"

"Good morning, Suzuno-sama."

"Ahh, don't call me Suzuno-sama. Call me Suzuno-chan, or Suzu-chan. But not Suzuno-sama. We are friends."

Subaru stared at Suzuno for a moment, then smiled. She admired Suzuno's modesty. "Alright, Suzuno-chan."

Suzuno smiled. She looked over at Tatara, and waved. "Good morning, Tatara!"

"Ah, good morning, Suzuno."

Suzuno smiled at Tatara, then turned to the emperor, but before she could say 'good morning' the emperor turned to them and spoke.

"We have three horses prepared for you. It has all of your previsions and such."

"Only three?" Suzuno asked.

"Yes. Since Sairou is in danger of a Kutou sneak attack at anytime, it would seem less suspicious if it were only three people traveling rather than numerous armed soldiers. The three will be you, Subaru, and Tatara, like you requested."

Suzuno began to blush and turned and looked at Tatata, who was blushing, too.

He didn't know that she had requested for him to go.

"Tatara looked upon Byakko no miko with shy eyes. His thoughts of her were very unsure." Yuren began to blush uncontollably at the mention of Tatara's name. She didn't really know why. "Byakko no miko and her two seishi set out on their quest. But, they soon found themselves crossed with Kutou assassins," Yuren almost continued, until she had to read it again. "Kutou assassins?!" she screamed.

The ride was quiet for a moment, then Suzuno turned to Subaru, who was to her right, and smiled. "So, Subaru,"

Subaru turned to Suzuno.

"How is life being... a... you know... 'royal consort' in the palace?"

Subaru giggled. "It has it's pros and cons. The emperor is very nice. And very handsome."

Suzuno paused, then spoke. "But... isn't it wierd being an eligable bride for the emperor?"

"Why would it be?"

"Well, you're so young...... and he's so," she paused, "old."

Subaru stared at Suzuno for a moment, then laughed. "I am 17, and the emperor is 22."

KD Suzuno squeeled, "Na ne?!"

KD Tatara stared at Suzuno. He was suprised that she didn't know.

"Hai. He was engaged, but it was a forced marriage, and he soon found a way to break it up. The royal advisors immidiatly gathered all the eligable women from the surrounding towns, and placed us in the palace and said we were 'female royal consorts.' Everyone knew different." Subaru looked over at KD Suzuno, who was still in shock.

KD Subaru and KD Tatara just looked at her.

Suddenly, the horses went wild, and began hiking their legs. The three flew off. Subaru and Tatara landed on their feet, but Suzuno was kicked farther back. Tatara immidiatly sprinted for her and caught her in mid air. They both fell to the ground, Tatara breaking her fall.

"Tatara-kun! Suzuno-chan!"

They both turned and saw numerous men wearing all black. Some had swords in their hands, and some had bows and arrows. And each of them had a dagger attached to the inside of their coat.

"Byakko no miko, I presume?" One spoke with a deep and stern voice.

Suzuno said nothing.

"We have heard rumors that Sairou has found their Byakko no miko," he smiled. "You're a pretty one, aren't you?"

Suzuno's eyes widened. This was the first time she had ever experienced this sort of thing.

But Tatara, the moment he heard that, his face turned red, and his eyes became angry.

"Ah, but I guess I'll have to find out if you're pretty everywhere later, because for now, we're here to kill you."

Suzuno almost fell back in shock.

The group began to take one step forward, until one man in the back suddenly screamed and fell to the ground. The entire group turned to him. Subaru and Suzuno both wondered what happened. Then another from the front screamed. They turned to him to see a vine wrapped around his neck. His face began to turn blue, until he finally stopped breathing. The assassins became confused, but did not let their guard down.

Suzuno watched in disbelief.

The vine came up suddenly from the crowd, and then two more. All three of them swept down to three more of the assassins. One vine came down and squeezed so tightly so quickly around his leg, it completely cut it off from the thigh down. The other two vines did the same as the second death. Two of the assassins suffocated.

Suzuno looked at Subaru, and saw that she was attentively looking at Tatara. Suzuno looked back at Tatara, and saw his hand out in front of him, and then she realized that with each hand movement he made, the vines did as he commanded.

She thought back to in her room, when he made the flower bloom in her palm.

-Tatara stared at Suzuno. He could see something was troubling her deeply. He reached for a seed from his necklace, and grabbed Suzuno's hand.

"Na ne?" Suzuno stared at her hand in Tatara's.

He placed the seed into her palm, then put his hand over. Suzuno could feel warmth producing in her palm. She looked down and on the back of his hand was a glowing chinese symbol. "Lasso," she said aloud. Something was happening in between their hands. Tatara smiled at her, then looked down at his hand over hers. He slowly moved it, and in her palm was a fully bloomed rose head. It was a bright yellow rose, full of life. Suzuno's eyes glissened as she stared down at the beautiful flower. She looked up at Tatara again.-

"There must be more to his powers," she thought. "He can control all plants."

She turned back to the assasins to see that within only 30 seconds, all 9 or 10 of them were dead. She looked back at Tatara. He, finally, noticed her staring at him. He looked over at her, and they both stared deep at each other.

"Tatara!!" Subaru yelled. She ran to him and smiled. "I congratulate you. You did an amazing job. I respect you."

Tatara looked away from Suzuno, then began to blush from embarassment. He rubbed the back of his head. "Aw, it was nothing."

Suzuno blinked. "What? It was not nothing! You just saved us!" Suzuno joined in on Subaru's compliments.

Tatara blushed more and just continued to be modest.

"Byakko no miko and her two seishi were safe thanks to Tatara's ability to control plants. The three soon set off again on their journey. They found themselves settling in a small village for shelter for the night, and food."

"Thank goodness," Yuren muttered.

"Ah, this looks delicious!" Tatara exclaimed. Subaru and Suzuno agreed as they looked at their well cooked meals before them. The chef smiled and wanted to see their reaction to the food since they rarely get travelers in their village.

As they ate, Suzuno pulled out her copy of "The Four Gods: Sky and Earth" and began to look over it. Unlike her younger sister, who is acing Chinese, Suzuno failed it when she was in it. She learned enough to get by, but not enough to carry on an INTELLIGENT conversation. She quickly scanned over, and the word "hentai" caught her eye. She laughed and began to remember her sitting in the back of the class with a Chinese dictionary, looking up dirty words. She laughed to herself in the back of the class. Everyone used to stare at her. Now, she laughed in front of Subaru and Tatara.

"What's funny, Suzuno?" Subaru asked.

KD Suzuno just kept staring at the scroll. "Ohhh, nothing," she laughed. She then started eating her food again.

The three stood in a small room with the chef from the restaraunt.

"Arigatou, chef-san," Suzuno smiled. "It's so nice of you to let us use your spare room!"

"Anything for Byakko no miko!" The chef smiled. He turned and walked out the door.

The three of them turned and looked over the three little sleeping spots that the chef and his wife had made for them.

"It's getting pretty late. We should probably go to bed now so we can awake early." Subaru walked to the spot set up to the right.

Suzuno smiled. "Hai."

Tatara looked at the spot to the left for a moment, then walked to it. As he began to sit, a shreek came from outside. The three of them turned to the window, then ran out the room.

Three beautiful girls stood in the middle of the road, quivering. Their water buckets were on the ground, and all the water was spilled out onto the street. Suzuno ran to them.

"Are you ok?!" Suzuno put her hands on one girl's shoulders.

"H-hai." The girl said, shuttering.

Another girl spoke, "We were walking back from getting water for our families, like we do every night together..."

The other girl spoke, "... when all of a sudden, there was a giant gust of wind, and our skirts blew up..."

Then the girl in front of Suzuno finished, "... and this man appeared out of nowhere under us."

"Appeared?" Tatara muttered under his breath.

"And then, within seconds that our skirts came back down, he vanished." The middle girl continued.

"He startled us, which is why we screamed..."

"... and dropped our water..."

"Akia!" The chef yelled as he and his wife ran from inside the house. They both ran to the girl in front of Suzuno, and hugged her.

"Is this your daughter?" Suzuno asked.

"Hai," the wife responded.

Tatara and Subaru still stood by the house in confusion.

Suzuno, Tatara, and Subaru were with the chef and his wife and daughter in their dining room soon after the incident.

"Excuse me," Suzuno spoke to the chef.

"Yes?"

"Do you have some sort of spring that I can maybe clean myself in? I've gotten dirty from today."

The chef smiled. "Yes, we do, Byakko no miko."

Suzuno stood on a rock that mounted out over the small spring behind the chef's house. She sighed, then knelt down and stuck her foot in. "Aheee!! It's cold!" she shrilled. She shook her head, then stood again. She walked over to a tree only feet away from the rock, and began undressing by first undoing her hair. As she undid the last knot holding her braids together, her hair blew to her sides, and glissened in the moon light. Suzuno smiled, then began unbuttoning her blouse. As she started to pull off her skirt, she noticed something gleaming from the bushes. As she focused closer on what it was, she saw a face staring at her from within the leaves.

"AHHHHEEE!!" she screamed and grabbed her blouse, quickly covering herself. She picked up a rock and chucked it at the person in the bushes.

THUD! "OWW!" The man cried as he stood from the bushes. The man had glowing white hair, with two long pieces in front of his face. He was a dashingly handsome young man with radiant golden eyes. But, he suddenly vanished, with a horrible scolding expression.

"Na ni?" KD Suzuno said, while holding a giant boulder above her head, as if she was going to throw it.

"Suzuno! Are you alright?" Suzuno heard Subaru's voice running to her from behind.

"I'm fine now--" Suzuno turned to see that it was not only Subaru, but Tatara as well. KD Suzuno slowly looked down at her naked top, and then slowly back up at Tatara. "DON'T LOOK!!" She screamed as she threw the boulder at KD Tatara.

"What happened??" Subaru asked.

"Somone was peeping in on me while I was changing. It scared me."

"You think it might have been the same guy that scared the girls from before?"

"Maybe," Suzuno put her shirt back on and walked back through the forest with locked arms with Subaru. They forgot about KD Tatara who was still twitching on the ground.

The moonlight shined in through the window in the room the three were staying in. Tatara and Subaru looked as if they were already asleep, but something was bother Suzuno, who was sitting up in between them. She piddled her fingers a bit, and sighed. As she began to turn over to try and sleep, her foot accidentally knocked over the bag the emperor gave her. The scroll of "The Four Gods: Sky and Earth" rolled out in front of her, and the beam of moonlight hit a single word enough for her to read it. Her eyes widened. (Flash to the scroll and the word as she reads it aloud)

[Insert Fushigi Yuugi Ending Theme]

"Teleportation," she read aloud. Suzuno covered her mouth and stared at the scroll in the moonlight. Subaru and Tatara were still fast alseep.