AN: This episode is dedicated to our editor... EMI!!! Thank you so much
Emi! You are our lifesaver (not the candy)!
~Nyan Nyan and Mrs. Tasuki~
Episode 9:
Enemies Unseen
By: Nyan Nyan and Mrs. Tasuki
Joan was sitting in the front yard of her family's house, dumbstruck. "This has got to be a joke, or I have got to be insane," she muttered to herself. She quickly closed the book and inspected it, looking for wires. The Universe of the Four Gods was printed in fading black letters on the cover. She reopened the book and flipped through the pages, as if trying to reveal a mass of circuitry. She was hoping that Christina and Katherine somehow figured out how to give the illusion that they were sucked into the book. She turned back to the beginning of the book and read the passage.
This is the story of the young girls who single-handedly gathered the Seven Stars of Suzaku and gained the power to make all their dreams come true. The story itself is an incantation and whomever reads it gains the main characters' powers to have their wishes granted. This is because once they turn the first page; the story will become real and begin.
"This can't be real," she told herself, "It's just not possible! It's not even logical!" She, being the one who introduced her sister and Christina, her sister's friend, to Fushigi Yuugi, knew all about the anime. But this just wasn't possible. "What am I, Keisuke?" she jokingly asked herself. "Wait a minute," she said as she reread the paragraph, "It says girls, not girl." She pondered this thought for a moment and then came to a conclusion. "Oh yeah! In Asian languages, there are no plurals; it can be translated either way ... so I guess that could happen."
*
The two girls felt themselves being dragged through the brush and branches. When they were in the middle of a small clearing, the hands let go and they rose to their feet. Just as they suspected, a blue-haired monk with a mask on was standing before them. "CHICHIRI!" They yelled as they hugged him tightly.
"You know me, no da?" he asked, shocked by their reaction. They quickly let go, realizing that they let their excitement get out of hand.
Christina put her hand up to Katherine's ear and excitedly whispered, "He even says no da!"
"I know!" Katherine agreed, with a large smile, while Chichiri eyed them strangely.
"Priestesses of Suzaku, the Kutou assassins intend to harm you, no da," Chchiri informed, ignoring the priestesses' secret conversation.
Katherine and Christina stared at him in disbelief. "Well duh," Christina answered, "that's why they are called assassins."
"Now I bid you farewell no da," Chichiri said, disregarding Christina's comment. He crouched onto the ground, pulled his hat over himself, and disappeared. Katherine and Christina smiled and picked up the kasa, admiring it like it was much more than just a hat.
"The hat works too!" Katherine and Christina chimed happily. Christina grabbed the hat from Katherine's hands.
"I wanna wear it," she proclaimed as she started to put it around her neck.
"I wanna wear it too!" Katherine said as she snatched it back.
"Katherine, you've already been here for months, I wanna wear it!"
"Fine! But I get to wear it tomorrow!"
"Deal!" they proclaimed in unison as they shook hands. Christina gleefully put the kasa around her neck. Tamahome came bursting through the bushes.
"Are you guys okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, we were just talking to Chichiri," Katherine answered.
"Who's Chi-" Tamahome started, but was interrupted by a blood-curdling scream.
"I told them to duck!" Christina yelled as they ran back to the path. She and Katherine both knew that the assassins attacked the villagers while they were taken away by Chichiri. As they approached the clearing from before both of them hoped that there were no fatalities.
"Oh no..." Katherine mumbled. They looked around in shock; a dozen men were lying on the ground, pierced with arrows. Another dozen were hiding near the bushes, out of harm's way. Nuriko was leaning against a tree and arrows were outlining his body.
"Nuriko, what happened to them?" Tamahome asked, outraged that he was not able to protect them.
"The moment Christina and Katherine were grabbed, and you went after them, these arrows flew directly to where they were." Nuriko explained while standing up and removing an arrow from his sleeve.
*
"Like we said earlier, Chichiri told us that the dudes from Kutou were out to get us," Katherine explained.
"Dudes?" Tamahome asked.
"Yeah, dudes," Christina said, as though it was the dumbest question anyone could ask, "As in 'Dude, grab your board so we can grab some powder' or 'What's up dude?'"
Nuriko, Christina, Katherine, and Tamahome were sitting at a wooden table in a run-down restaurant. There were a few wooden tables scattered around the room, and the concrete floor looked like it needed a good scrubbing, but the food was good nevertheless.
"Do people actually talk like that in your world?" Nuriko asked, still trying to understand what half of the words meant.
"Only surfers," Katherine answered.
"I am not a surfer, I am a snowboarder," Christina pointed out irritably, "And I have never even surfed before. I've done wakeboarding, boogie boarding, and skim boarding, but never surfing."
A man suddenly burst through the main door. "Tamahome! There are some strange people at the west gate!"
Tamahome jumped up from his chair and threw his hands into the air with delight. "What? Is that money I hear?" he said as he stood up. He cleared his throat,
"I mean... that's terrible, Nuriko, watch after those two." Then he pranced out of the room, his arms waving happily up and down.
Nuriko let out a loud sigh from Tamahome being so much like... Tamahome. "Before you find any more constellations, you might want to cure Tamahome's fixations on money," he sarcastically told the priestesses.
"Yeah, I wonder what could be so important," Christina to Katherine said teasingly.
"Hey, he's a nice guy," one of the men commented.
"What do YOU know!? NICE GUYS volunteer they services! They guard villages for free!" Nuriko argued angrily.
*
Katherine stirred in her bed; she heard some mysterious noise through the window. She slowly opened her eyes, agitated that something was waking her up this early in the morning. It had taken Christina and herself a while to fall asleep the night before on account of the fact that they were not used to going to bed before midnight, even on school nights. She continued to hear some rustling through the open window and steadily sat up in her bed.
"What's going on?" Katherine wondered while rubbing her eyes. "Oh yeah! Tamahome is going to go see his family today! She stood up and took Chichiri's hat off of the chair they laid it on, excited that she could wear it for the next twenty-four hours. She looked over to where Christina was laying. Of course, she was still asleep.
"Christina..." Katherine said while jabbing her friend, trying to wake her up. She kicked Christina in the side, but all Christina did was roll over. "Why do you have to be such a heavy sleeper?!" She stood there for a second thinking to herself of how she could get her best friend up. "All that she needs is some motivation," she muttered, she contemplated what Christina would wake up for. "LEKKA SHINEN!" Katherine shouted in her friend's ear, trying her hardest so say it with Tasuki's accent. She was never good at imitating people though and she was even worse when they had accents.
Christina bolted up and looked around, bewildered. "Tasuki? Where's Tasuki?!" she asked while looking around the room, searching for any red- haired bandits.
"Sorry, that was just me," Katherine admitted as she gave her friend angelic eyes.
"That was cruel!" Christina yelled back, slamming her fists into the mattress.
"Well how else am I supposed to get you up?!" Katherine hollered as she grabbed Christina's arm and attempted to pull her out of the bed.
"Well why DO you have to wake me up?! It's early!" Christina shouted back as she resisted, hoping Katherine would let go and let her go back to sleep.
"You want to meet Tamahome's family, don't you?" Katherine asked sarcastically, agitated that she was putting up this much of a fight. They both adored Tamahome's family, even though they disliked him so much.
"All right, all right, I'm going!" Christina said as she slowly stood up and yawned. "What about Nuriko? Did you wake him up yet?"
"No, not yet..." Katherine replied sheepishly.
"WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE HIM UP AND LET ME SLEEP FOR FIVE MORE MINUTES?!" Christina asked angrily.
"Oh shut up, there's nothing we can do about it now!" Katherine said as she stormed over by Nuriko's bed, but he had already awoken from the noise the two priestesses were causing.
"Will you two shut up?!" he screamed at them as he buried his head under his pillow.
"Nuriko, do you want to follow Tamahome?" Katherine innocently asked him as he peeked out from under pillow.
He let out a huge yawn and quickly sat up. "Sure!" he shouted excitedly. He was already planning how much fun it would be to stalk Tamahome. Christina, Katherine, and Nuriko snuck outside and quietly mounted their horses just as Tamahome was leaving.
"Don't follow too closely," Nuriko warned.
"So, where do you think he's going?" Katherine asked innocently.
"I dunno," Christina shrugged.
They rode for another half hour until they saw a small town off in the distance. Tamahome rode in and greeted people as he passed. Nuriko and the priestesses tied their horses to a tree and followed him into the middle of the town. He walked into a small house and yelled, "Chuei! Gyokuran! Shunkei! Yuiren! I'm home!" Four small children ran out and hugged Tamahome's legs tightly.
"Big Brother! You're back!" they chorused happily.
"Has everyone been good?" he asked them.
"Yes!" they answered as they marched into the small house. Tamahome walked over to the bed in the back of the tiny room. A sickly man was lying on the bed.
"Dad, it's me," Tamahome said, "I'm back."
"Tamahome," the man said, happy to see his son.
"Look how much I made," Tamahome said as he held up a string of coins to show his father. "How're you doing?" he asked.
"I'm alright; Chuei's been looking after the farm," the ill man muttered out. Chuei came to stand by his elder brother's side, looking bashful at the praise his father was giving him.
"I'm proud of you," Tamahome said to his little brother. His brother looked just like a miniature Tamahome but with his hair up in a bun instead of in a braid.
"But I'm no good," Chuei confessed as he looked down at the dirt floor, ashamed. "The crops won't grow."
"I guess it was a good thing that I went to the city," Tamahome stated.
"I'm happy that you care about us," Tamahome's father said, "but why don't you start thinking about your own happiness?"
"Dad, never mind about me," Tamahome said modestly. "Anyway, I have to get going. Chuei, take care of things."
"Big brother, do you have to go so soon?" Shunkei begged as he followed his older brother towards the doorway.
"Don't go!" Yuiren yelled as she grabbed onto her brother's leg.
"Tell you what Yuiren; I'll buy you a doll next time!" Tamahome replied as he knelt down to look at his baby sister eye-to-eye.
"I want you more!" she said as she hugged him.
"Yuiren, I'll do anything to make you happy. I'll grit my teeth and work any job!" he said as he held his little brothers and sisters. "So please... Won't you all hang on a little longer? Please..."
*
"Tama-chan's so valiant!" Nuriko sniffled. He and the two priestesses were sitting outside of the window eavesdropping on the whole conversation. Katherine and Christina stared at him in complete disbelief of what he was saying.
"Yuiren! What's wrong?!" they heard Tamahome scream through the open window.
"That's our cue," Katherine stated as she stood up and dusted herself off. They walked towards the front of the house and knocked three times on the door. Tamahome answered it with Yuiren in his arms. He blinked several times, shocked that they were standing there.
"Surprise!" Christina and Katherine shouted cheerfully in unison with wide smiles on their face.
"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Tamahome skeptically asked.
"Where there is a child in need," Katherine started, forming fake tears in her eyes. She then took a deep breath as if finishing the sentence would cause her too much pain.
"We will come," Christina finished in melodramatic voice. She placed her hand over her heart, as if she was pledging her loyalty to someone. Tamahome just stared at them blankly, not knowing how to respond.
Nuriko let out an exasperated sigh as he rolled his lavender eyes. "We were eavesdropping through the window," he explained.
"Tamahome," Yuiren muttered weakly, still in his arms.
"Don't worry, we brought..." Christina said valiantly as she searched through the black mini book bag she was wearing. She paused for a couple seconds, partly for dramatic effect and partly to give herself more time to find the tiny little bottle of pills. "Tylenol®!" she finished as thrust the white bottle towards Tamahome's face. Katherine put both of her hands in front of her mouth and made a heroic trumpet noise as she pretended to play the invisible instrument.
"Aren't you gonna let us in?" Nuriko asked irritably because they had been standing in the doorway for several minutes now. The priestesses and the purple-haired sei didn't wait for Tamahome to answer and automatically walked into his house. Tamahome laid his little sister on one of the beds.
Katherine opened up the bottle of pills and took one out. She looked at it blankly for a couple of seconds as it lay in her hand. She smacked her lips together once and turned to Christina. "We need water," she acknowledged, stating the obvious.
"I'll go get it," Christina volunteered. She grabbed the wooden bucket that was sitting outside the front door and ran off down the path towards where she hoped was a creek. After five minutes of jogging, she saw a lovely little stream before her. She knelt down and quickly filled the bucket with cool, clear water. She turned around to see three tall men, clad in black from head to toe, blocking her path.
"Kutou agents," Christina thought. She backed away slowly as her eyes darted around, looking for a way to escape.
"Priestess of Seiryuu, please come with us," one of the men said In a muffled voice.
"Priestess of Seiryuu..." she wondered, "Oh, what the HELL NO!" she yelled while she hurled the wood bucket towards them. The agent in the center easily sliced it to pieces. But as soon as she had thrown the pail, Christina had taken off into the forest.
*
After reading for a few minutes, Joan figured that she should probably go inside or at least call someone.
"But who would actually believe me?" she asked herself. She stood up and walked into her house. "What I need is someone to be the Tetsuya to my Keisuke," she thought as she opened the door. "What about Lisa?" she asked herself, trying to think of someone who would not only believe her, but know a lot about Fushigi Yuugi. "No, she's on vacation at Myrtle Beach... What about Michelle? No, she's only seen up to episode 37. Sarah? Diana? DIANA!" she thought, not believing it took her so long to think of her friend. Friend of three years, fellow Fushigi Yuugi fan, Diana was perfect for this situation. Although neither of them was as obsessive as Christina or Katherine, but they had seen most of the episodes.
Joan picked up the telephone and dialed Diana's number, desperately hoping that she was home.
"Hello?" a voice asked.
"Diana?"
"Yup," Diana answered through the phone.
"Hey! It's Joan, are you doing anything right now?" she asked, jamming all her words together.
"No..." Diana replied, still trying to comprehend what her friend just said.
"Do you think you could come over?" Joan asked, crossing her fingers.
"Umm. sure!" she said, "When should I come over?"
"Is now good?" Joan asked.
"Mm, okay," Diana replied, having to think about if for a second or two. "I'll drive over now," she continued and then hung up the phone. Joan sat down on one of the blue armchairs in the living room and flipped through the pages of the book until she was where she had left off.
¤
The trees flew by and Christina suddenly became aware of every noise she made. Every snapping twig, every crunched leaf, suddenly sounded like the sound was magnified by hundreds. Christina ran as fast as she could away from the Kutou emissaries. After two minutes of sprinting, she had calmed down enough to realize that she was not running towards Tamahome's house. She turned around toward where the village was and started to run again. After a few more minutes, she stopped to catch her breath at the edge of a small clearing. Her lungs felt like they were going to burst and she thought her legs were going to fall off.
She took another deep breath and got ready to run some more. She was about to start until she saw a Kutou agent in front of her. She backed up and turned to run in another direction, but there was an assassin already blocking her path. Christina was surrounded by Kutou agents, and they were closing in on her, giving her no chance to escape.
"Come with us, Priestess of Seiryuu," the agent on the left insisted. Christina was pressed up against a tree. There was no way she could flee.
"I'm not the Priestess of Seiryuu!" she yelled. She looked back at the black trio and saw one was missing. A hand clamped over her mouth and in the blink of an eye, the Kutou agents and Christina had vanished.
*
The next moment, Christina and her captors appeared in a large dark room that was lit by candles. The agents walked out the door and closed it behind them. The room was almost a copy of Christina's bedroom in Konan, but instead of it being warm and inviting, the room seemed cold. There were two beds, on the opposite sides of the room, and a small table sat in the middle of the room.
She walked across the room to the window and peered outside. There were several large buildings with blue roofs situated on the dingy, gray stone. There was a soft knock on the door. A woman wearing a blue kimono walked in and bowed.
"Lady Priestess," she said politely, "Lord Nakago wishes to see you."
"Well, tell Lord Nakago that he can go-" she started but left her sentence hanging when the three Kutou agents walked into the room.
"Priestess of Seiryuu," they ordered, "come with us, now."
"I told you, I'm not the Priestess of Seiryuu!" she insisted as they led her out of the room and down a maze of hallways. They stopped after they had entered the throne room. It was exactly like the room in Konan Palace. Except that everything seemed to be blue instead of red and where the depiction of Suzaku was in Konan, was a picture of Seiryuu.
Christina looked up at the throne and saw an ugly man with a prominent goatee sitting pompously. The three agents slunk back into the shadows, leaving Christina standing alone. She heard footsteps approaching from the corridor on the other side of the room. She saw a tall figure with blue and silver armor enter the room, followed by a short girl with brown hair.
The girl was about Katherine's height. She was wearing a brown school uniform with a white shirt and a blue bow. Her hair was pulled up into buns, and it reminded Christina thoroughly of Princess Leia. The girl had big, innocent looking eyes and looked as though she led an extremely sheltered life. Christina stared at Miaka in disbelief.
The man took off his helmet to reveal blue eyes and blonde hair. Christina saw Miaka mouth, "A blonde-haired ultra-hunk!"
"Nakago," the emperor asked, "Which one is the Priestess of Seiryuu?"
"Not me!" Christina yelled. Nakago looked over at her, his eyebrow raised. Christina determinedly glared back at the general smugly.
"This one was wandering around near a border town in Konan," Nakago said while looking pointedly at Christina. "And I found her in a deserted part of downtown Kutou," he said, now looking at Miaka.
Miaka shuffled over towards Christina, seeing that she was wearing modern- day clothes. Christina responded by intently glaring at her, but Miaka didn't seem to notice.
"So which one is the priestess?" the emperor asked again.
"Wouldn't it technically be a matter of choice to be the priestess?" Christina pointed out while Nakago watched her in a calculating manner. "And I choose not to be the priestess." Christina finished. Miaka just stayed silent, staring at the floor. Nakago glared at Christina. The girl seemed like she knew too much.
A guard escorted Christina and Miaka back to the room. Christina sprawled out on the bed in frustration. Miaka sat down on one of the chairs that were around the table and gobbled down the food that had been laid out.
"I'm Miaka," she introduced, happy that she was finally meeting someone from her own world, "Nice to meet you!" She was way too cheery, considering the situation; it annoyed Christina how oblivious Miaka was to the danger.
"I'm Christina," she answered.
"So, where are you from?" Miaka asked. The girl didn't look Japanese; she had freckles. "I'm from Japan."
"United States." Christina wasn't in the mood to have a conversation with anyone, especially not Miaka.
"Then how can I understand you?" Miaka asked, "Do you speak Japanese?"
"Well, I'm guessing since the book was translated, languages are automatically translated, which explains why even though I can't read this country's writing, I can understand everyone," Christina answered simply.
"So... what's with all this priestess stuff?" Miaka asked. "I've asked Nakago a couple times, but he won't tell me much."
Christina sighed. "Great. Now I get to explain everything in the Cliff's Notes version," she thought to herself. Christina took a deep breath. "OK, there are four gods; Suzaku, Seiryuu, Byakko, and Genbu. Each god has seven seishi, who are people with wicked powers and they have these Chinese symbols that appear on their bodies. Anywho, the priestesses have to be from another world and they have to gather their god's seishi so they can summon their god. Once the god is summoned, the priestesses get three wishes. Byakko and Genbu have already been summoned, so Kutou is looking for the Priestess of Seiryuu." Christina gave Miaka a few seconds for her brain to process all the information.
"Oh! Now I get it!" Miaka exclaimed. She was glad to have finally met someone besides Nakago.
¤
"Where does it hurt?" Katherine nervously asked Yuiren, since she didn't have too much experience with treating illnesses.
"My head," Yuiren replied softly, looking up at the priestess from where she was lying.
"Ummmm..." Katherine stated, "I honestly don't know all that much about diseases and stuff, but I think you may have caught a cold."
"Are you big brother's wife?" the sick child asked Katherine curiously.
"What?!" Katherine yelled as she took a step backwards, completely disgusted, "Hell no!"
Tamahome was just as shocked and disturbed as Katherine. "Why would I want to marry this idiot?" he said, completely appalled at the idea.
Katherine was horrified; she gasped as she put her hand over her mouth. "Oh no... he called me an idiot," she mumbled to herself, remembering that 'idiot' was Tamahome's pet name for Miaka.
Katherine suddenly remembered what happened in the series at this scene. An assassin in a black long robe would come and string up everyone in thick white ribbons; he would arrive any second now. "Tamahome! You need to get Yuiren out of here!" she shouted frantically, but everyone just stared at her, not knowing the motivation for her sudden outburst. Katherine grabbed Chuei's arm and started to run towards the door, hoping everyone would follow. "C'mon! Please you have to trust me on this! Everyone just needs to get outside!" she yelled. As she ran she felt Chichiri's hat flap against her back. She suddenly stopped, right in front of the doorway and let go of the boy's arm. She swiftly pulled the straw hat off and looked angrily at it. "OH SHIT-TAKE MUSHROOMS!" she screamed as she stomped her right foot into the ground. She ran out of the house, towards the pond. She had to get there before the assassins came for Christina; she needed this hat, otherwise Chichiri wouldn't come out and save her. She felt the dirt path move quickly beneath her feet as she sprinted to where her best friend was.
Katherine finally saw the pond approaching her, but she couldn't see Christina anywhere. "Nononononononono," she muttered to herself as she picked up speed, hoping she would see her friend once she was closer. She stopped at the edge of the water and looked frantically around for Christina. "CHRISTINA! CHRISTINA!!! If this is some kind of joke it's not funny!" she shouted aimlessly into the forest. She waited a couple seconds hoping her friend would answer. She looked across the pond and into the dark forest, waiting for an answer. Any kind of answer, but silence filled the air. The priestess held the straw hat out in front of her and started to shake it violently up and down with both of her hands. "Chichiri!" she pleaded. "Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!" she chanted desperately. Suddenly a super-deformed Chichiri tumbled out of the hat and fell on his head.
"That hurt no da," the blue-haired monk stated as he rubbed his head. He slowly stood up, now in normal form.
"I'm sorry, but Christina's gone! I need you to sense her life force!" she anxiously begged.
Chichiri lifted his hand up to his mouth with two fingers sticking up towards the sky. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the priestess's life force. "This is not good. She's in Kutou no da," he said sadly as he opened his eyes.
To be continued...
~*~
Fushigi Akugi
"I'll go get it," Christina volunteered. She grabbed the wooden bucket that was sitting outside the front door and ran off down the path towards where she hoped was a creek. After five minutes of jogging, she saw a lovely little stream before her. She knelt down and quickly filled the bucket with cool, clear water.
"I feel almost like I'm Tamahome's wife," she said to herself. A look of horror fell across her face. "Oh sweet death, take me now!" she called as she dove into the stream.
*
"Are you big brother's wife?" the sick child asked Katherine curiously.
"What?!" Katherine yelled as she took a step backwards, completely disgusted, "Hell no!"
Tamahome was just as shocked and disturbed as Katherine. "Why would I want to marry this idiot?" he said, completely appalled at the idea.
Katherine was horrified; she gasped as she put her hand over her mouth. "Oh no... he called me an idiot," she mumbled to herself, remembering that "idiot" was Tamahome's pet name for Miaka.
"Oh happy dagger! This is thy sheath!' she yelled, quoting Shakespeare, as she downed the entire contents of the Tylenol®.
Episode 9:
Enemies Unseen
By: Nyan Nyan and Mrs. Tasuki
Joan was sitting in the front yard of her family's house, dumbstruck. "This has got to be a joke, or I have got to be insane," she muttered to herself. She quickly closed the book and inspected it, looking for wires. The Universe of the Four Gods was printed in fading black letters on the cover. She reopened the book and flipped through the pages, as if trying to reveal a mass of circuitry. She was hoping that Christina and Katherine somehow figured out how to give the illusion that they were sucked into the book. She turned back to the beginning of the book and read the passage.
This is the story of the young girls who single-handedly gathered the Seven Stars of Suzaku and gained the power to make all their dreams come true. The story itself is an incantation and whomever reads it gains the main characters' powers to have their wishes granted. This is because once they turn the first page; the story will become real and begin.
"This can't be real," she told herself, "It's just not possible! It's not even logical!" She, being the one who introduced her sister and Christina, her sister's friend, to Fushigi Yuugi, knew all about the anime. But this just wasn't possible. "What am I, Keisuke?" she jokingly asked herself. "Wait a minute," she said as she reread the paragraph, "It says girls, not girl." She pondered this thought for a moment and then came to a conclusion. "Oh yeah! In Asian languages, there are no plurals; it can be translated either way ... so I guess that could happen."
*
The two girls felt themselves being dragged through the brush and branches. When they were in the middle of a small clearing, the hands let go and they rose to their feet. Just as they suspected, a blue-haired monk with a mask on was standing before them. "CHICHIRI!" They yelled as they hugged him tightly.
"You know me, no da?" he asked, shocked by their reaction. They quickly let go, realizing that they let their excitement get out of hand.
Christina put her hand up to Katherine's ear and excitedly whispered, "He even says no da!"
"I know!" Katherine agreed, with a large smile, while Chichiri eyed them strangely.
"Priestesses of Suzaku, the Kutou assassins intend to harm you, no da," Chchiri informed, ignoring the priestesses' secret conversation.
Katherine and Christina stared at him in disbelief. "Well duh," Christina answered, "that's why they are called assassins."
"Now I bid you farewell no da," Chichiri said, disregarding Christina's comment. He crouched onto the ground, pulled his hat over himself, and disappeared. Katherine and Christina smiled and picked up the kasa, admiring it like it was much more than just a hat.
"The hat works too!" Katherine and Christina chimed happily. Christina grabbed the hat from Katherine's hands.
"I wanna wear it," she proclaimed as she started to put it around her neck.
"I wanna wear it too!" Katherine said as she snatched it back.
"Katherine, you've already been here for months, I wanna wear it!"
"Fine! But I get to wear it tomorrow!"
"Deal!" they proclaimed in unison as they shook hands. Christina gleefully put the kasa around her neck. Tamahome came bursting through the bushes.
"Are you guys okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, we were just talking to Chichiri," Katherine answered.
"Who's Chi-" Tamahome started, but was interrupted by a blood-curdling scream.
"I told them to duck!" Christina yelled as they ran back to the path. She and Katherine both knew that the assassins attacked the villagers while they were taken away by Chichiri. As they approached the clearing from before both of them hoped that there were no fatalities.
"Oh no..." Katherine mumbled. They looked around in shock; a dozen men were lying on the ground, pierced with arrows. Another dozen were hiding near the bushes, out of harm's way. Nuriko was leaning against a tree and arrows were outlining his body.
"Nuriko, what happened to them?" Tamahome asked, outraged that he was not able to protect them.
"The moment Christina and Katherine were grabbed, and you went after them, these arrows flew directly to where they were." Nuriko explained while standing up and removing an arrow from his sleeve.
*
"Like we said earlier, Chichiri told us that the dudes from Kutou were out to get us," Katherine explained.
"Dudes?" Tamahome asked.
"Yeah, dudes," Christina said, as though it was the dumbest question anyone could ask, "As in 'Dude, grab your board so we can grab some powder' or 'What's up dude?'"
Nuriko, Christina, Katherine, and Tamahome were sitting at a wooden table in a run-down restaurant. There were a few wooden tables scattered around the room, and the concrete floor looked like it needed a good scrubbing, but the food was good nevertheless.
"Do people actually talk like that in your world?" Nuriko asked, still trying to understand what half of the words meant.
"Only surfers," Katherine answered.
"I am not a surfer, I am a snowboarder," Christina pointed out irritably, "And I have never even surfed before. I've done wakeboarding, boogie boarding, and skim boarding, but never surfing."
A man suddenly burst through the main door. "Tamahome! There are some strange people at the west gate!"
Tamahome jumped up from his chair and threw his hands into the air with delight. "What? Is that money I hear?" he said as he stood up. He cleared his throat,
"I mean... that's terrible, Nuriko, watch after those two." Then he pranced out of the room, his arms waving happily up and down.
Nuriko let out a loud sigh from Tamahome being so much like... Tamahome. "Before you find any more constellations, you might want to cure Tamahome's fixations on money," he sarcastically told the priestesses.
"Yeah, I wonder what could be so important," Christina to Katherine said teasingly.
"Hey, he's a nice guy," one of the men commented.
"What do YOU know!? NICE GUYS volunteer they services! They guard villages for free!" Nuriko argued angrily.
*
Katherine stirred in her bed; she heard some mysterious noise through the window. She slowly opened her eyes, agitated that something was waking her up this early in the morning. It had taken Christina and herself a while to fall asleep the night before on account of the fact that they were not used to going to bed before midnight, even on school nights. She continued to hear some rustling through the open window and steadily sat up in her bed.
"What's going on?" Katherine wondered while rubbing her eyes. "Oh yeah! Tamahome is going to go see his family today! She stood up and took Chichiri's hat off of the chair they laid it on, excited that she could wear it for the next twenty-four hours. She looked over to where Christina was laying. Of course, she was still asleep.
"Christina..." Katherine said while jabbing her friend, trying to wake her up. She kicked Christina in the side, but all Christina did was roll over. "Why do you have to be such a heavy sleeper?!" She stood there for a second thinking to herself of how she could get her best friend up. "All that she needs is some motivation," she muttered, she contemplated what Christina would wake up for. "LEKKA SHINEN!" Katherine shouted in her friend's ear, trying her hardest so say it with Tasuki's accent. She was never good at imitating people though and she was even worse when they had accents.
Christina bolted up and looked around, bewildered. "Tasuki? Where's Tasuki?!" she asked while looking around the room, searching for any red- haired bandits.
"Sorry, that was just me," Katherine admitted as she gave her friend angelic eyes.
"That was cruel!" Christina yelled back, slamming her fists into the mattress.
"Well how else am I supposed to get you up?!" Katherine hollered as she grabbed Christina's arm and attempted to pull her out of the bed.
"Well why DO you have to wake me up?! It's early!" Christina shouted back as she resisted, hoping Katherine would let go and let her go back to sleep.
"You want to meet Tamahome's family, don't you?" Katherine asked sarcastically, agitated that she was putting up this much of a fight. They both adored Tamahome's family, even though they disliked him so much.
"All right, all right, I'm going!" Christina said as she slowly stood up and yawned. "What about Nuriko? Did you wake him up yet?"
"No, not yet..." Katherine replied sheepishly.
"WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE HIM UP AND LET ME SLEEP FOR FIVE MORE MINUTES?!" Christina asked angrily.
"Oh shut up, there's nothing we can do about it now!" Katherine said as she stormed over by Nuriko's bed, but he had already awoken from the noise the two priestesses were causing.
"Will you two shut up?!" he screamed at them as he buried his head under his pillow.
"Nuriko, do you want to follow Tamahome?" Katherine innocently asked him as he peeked out from under pillow.
He let out a huge yawn and quickly sat up. "Sure!" he shouted excitedly. He was already planning how much fun it would be to stalk Tamahome. Christina, Katherine, and Nuriko snuck outside and quietly mounted their horses just as Tamahome was leaving.
"Don't follow too closely," Nuriko warned.
"So, where do you think he's going?" Katherine asked innocently.
"I dunno," Christina shrugged.
They rode for another half hour until they saw a small town off in the distance. Tamahome rode in and greeted people as he passed. Nuriko and the priestesses tied their horses to a tree and followed him into the middle of the town. He walked into a small house and yelled, "Chuei! Gyokuran! Shunkei! Yuiren! I'm home!" Four small children ran out and hugged Tamahome's legs tightly.
"Big Brother! You're back!" they chorused happily.
"Has everyone been good?" he asked them.
"Yes!" they answered as they marched into the small house. Tamahome walked over to the bed in the back of the tiny room. A sickly man was lying on the bed.
"Dad, it's me," Tamahome said, "I'm back."
"Tamahome," the man said, happy to see his son.
"Look how much I made," Tamahome said as he held up a string of coins to show his father. "How're you doing?" he asked.
"I'm alright; Chuei's been looking after the farm," the ill man muttered out. Chuei came to stand by his elder brother's side, looking bashful at the praise his father was giving him.
"I'm proud of you," Tamahome said to his little brother. His brother looked just like a miniature Tamahome but with his hair up in a bun instead of in a braid.
"But I'm no good," Chuei confessed as he looked down at the dirt floor, ashamed. "The crops won't grow."
"I guess it was a good thing that I went to the city," Tamahome stated.
"I'm happy that you care about us," Tamahome's father said, "but why don't you start thinking about your own happiness?"
"Dad, never mind about me," Tamahome said modestly. "Anyway, I have to get going. Chuei, take care of things."
"Big brother, do you have to go so soon?" Shunkei begged as he followed his older brother towards the doorway.
"Don't go!" Yuiren yelled as she grabbed onto her brother's leg.
"Tell you what Yuiren; I'll buy you a doll next time!" Tamahome replied as he knelt down to look at his baby sister eye-to-eye.
"I want you more!" she said as she hugged him.
"Yuiren, I'll do anything to make you happy. I'll grit my teeth and work any job!" he said as he held his little brothers and sisters. "So please... Won't you all hang on a little longer? Please..."
*
"Tama-chan's so valiant!" Nuriko sniffled. He and the two priestesses were sitting outside of the window eavesdropping on the whole conversation. Katherine and Christina stared at him in complete disbelief of what he was saying.
"Yuiren! What's wrong?!" they heard Tamahome scream through the open window.
"That's our cue," Katherine stated as she stood up and dusted herself off. They walked towards the front of the house and knocked three times on the door. Tamahome answered it with Yuiren in his arms. He blinked several times, shocked that they were standing there.
"Surprise!" Christina and Katherine shouted cheerfully in unison with wide smiles on their face.
"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Tamahome skeptically asked.
"Where there is a child in need," Katherine started, forming fake tears in her eyes. She then took a deep breath as if finishing the sentence would cause her too much pain.
"We will come," Christina finished in melodramatic voice. She placed her hand over her heart, as if she was pledging her loyalty to someone. Tamahome just stared at them blankly, not knowing how to respond.
Nuriko let out an exasperated sigh as he rolled his lavender eyes. "We were eavesdropping through the window," he explained.
"Tamahome," Yuiren muttered weakly, still in his arms.
"Don't worry, we brought..." Christina said valiantly as she searched through the black mini book bag she was wearing. She paused for a couple seconds, partly for dramatic effect and partly to give herself more time to find the tiny little bottle of pills. "Tylenol®!" she finished as thrust the white bottle towards Tamahome's face. Katherine put both of her hands in front of her mouth and made a heroic trumpet noise as she pretended to play the invisible instrument.
"Aren't you gonna let us in?" Nuriko asked irritably because they had been standing in the doorway for several minutes now. The priestesses and the purple-haired sei didn't wait for Tamahome to answer and automatically walked into his house. Tamahome laid his little sister on one of the beds.
Katherine opened up the bottle of pills and took one out. She looked at it blankly for a couple of seconds as it lay in her hand. She smacked her lips together once and turned to Christina. "We need water," she acknowledged, stating the obvious.
"I'll go get it," Christina volunteered. She grabbed the wooden bucket that was sitting outside the front door and ran off down the path towards where she hoped was a creek. After five minutes of jogging, she saw a lovely little stream before her. She knelt down and quickly filled the bucket with cool, clear water. She turned around to see three tall men, clad in black from head to toe, blocking her path.
"Kutou agents," Christina thought. She backed away slowly as her eyes darted around, looking for a way to escape.
"Priestess of Seiryuu, please come with us," one of the men said In a muffled voice.
"Priestess of Seiryuu..." she wondered, "Oh, what the HELL NO!" she yelled while she hurled the wood bucket towards them. The agent in the center easily sliced it to pieces. But as soon as she had thrown the pail, Christina had taken off into the forest.
*
After reading for a few minutes, Joan figured that she should probably go inside or at least call someone.
"But who would actually believe me?" she asked herself. She stood up and walked into her house. "What I need is someone to be the Tetsuya to my Keisuke," she thought as she opened the door. "What about Lisa?" she asked herself, trying to think of someone who would not only believe her, but know a lot about Fushigi Yuugi. "No, she's on vacation at Myrtle Beach... What about Michelle? No, she's only seen up to episode 37. Sarah? Diana? DIANA!" she thought, not believing it took her so long to think of her friend. Friend of three years, fellow Fushigi Yuugi fan, Diana was perfect for this situation. Although neither of them was as obsessive as Christina or Katherine, but they had seen most of the episodes.
Joan picked up the telephone and dialed Diana's number, desperately hoping that she was home.
"Hello?" a voice asked.
"Diana?"
"Yup," Diana answered through the phone.
"Hey! It's Joan, are you doing anything right now?" she asked, jamming all her words together.
"No..." Diana replied, still trying to comprehend what her friend just said.
"Do you think you could come over?" Joan asked, crossing her fingers.
"Umm. sure!" she said, "When should I come over?"
"Is now good?" Joan asked.
"Mm, okay," Diana replied, having to think about if for a second or two. "I'll drive over now," she continued and then hung up the phone. Joan sat down on one of the blue armchairs in the living room and flipped through the pages of the book until she was where she had left off.
¤
The trees flew by and Christina suddenly became aware of every noise she made. Every snapping twig, every crunched leaf, suddenly sounded like the sound was magnified by hundreds. Christina ran as fast as she could away from the Kutou emissaries. After two minutes of sprinting, she had calmed down enough to realize that she was not running towards Tamahome's house. She turned around toward where the village was and started to run again. After a few more minutes, she stopped to catch her breath at the edge of a small clearing. Her lungs felt like they were going to burst and she thought her legs were going to fall off.
She took another deep breath and got ready to run some more. She was about to start until she saw a Kutou agent in front of her. She backed up and turned to run in another direction, but there was an assassin already blocking her path. Christina was surrounded by Kutou agents, and they were closing in on her, giving her no chance to escape.
"Come with us, Priestess of Seiryuu," the agent on the left insisted. Christina was pressed up against a tree. There was no way she could flee.
"I'm not the Priestess of Seiryuu!" she yelled. She looked back at the black trio and saw one was missing. A hand clamped over her mouth and in the blink of an eye, the Kutou agents and Christina had vanished.
*
The next moment, Christina and her captors appeared in a large dark room that was lit by candles. The agents walked out the door and closed it behind them. The room was almost a copy of Christina's bedroom in Konan, but instead of it being warm and inviting, the room seemed cold. There were two beds, on the opposite sides of the room, and a small table sat in the middle of the room.
She walked across the room to the window and peered outside. There were several large buildings with blue roofs situated on the dingy, gray stone. There was a soft knock on the door. A woman wearing a blue kimono walked in and bowed.
"Lady Priestess," she said politely, "Lord Nakago wishes to see you."
"Well, tell Lord Nakago that he can go-" she started but left her sentence hanging when the three Kutou agents walked into the room.
"Priestess of Seiryuu," they ordered, "come with us, now."
"I told you, I'm not the Priestess of Seiryuu!" she insisted as they led her out of the room and down a maze of hallways. They stopped after they had entered the throne room. It was exactly like the room in Konan Palace. Except that everything seemed to be blue instead of red and where the depiction of Suzaku was in Konan, was a picture of Seiryuu.
Christina looked up at the throne and saw an ugly man with a prominent goatee sitting pompously. The three agents slunk back into the shadows, leaving Christina standing alone. She heard footsteps approaching from the corridor on the other side of the room. She saw a tall figure with blue and silver armor enter the room, followed by a short girl with brown hair.
The girl was about Katherine's height. She was wearing a brown school uniform with a white shirt and a blue bow. Her hair was pulled up into buns, and it reminded Christina thoroughly of Princess Leia. The girl had big, innocent looking eyes and looked as though she led an extremely sheltered life. Christina stared at Miaka in disbelief.
The man took off his helmet to reveal blue eyes and blonde hair. Christina saw Miaka mouth, "A blonde-haired ultra-hunk!"
"Nakago," the emperor asked, "Which one is the Priestess of Seiryuu?"
"Not me!" Christina yelled. Nakago looked over at her, his eyebrow raised. Christina determinedly glared back at the general smugly.
"This one was wandering around near a border town in Konan," Nakago said while looking pointedly at Christina. "And I found her in a deserted part of downtown Kutou," he said, now looking at Miaka.
Miaka shuffled over towards Christina, seeing that she was wearing modern- day clothes. Christina responded by intently glaring at her, but Miaka didn't seem to notice.
"So which one is the priestess?" the emperor asked again.
"Wouldn't it technically be a matter of choice to be the priestess?" Christina pointed out while Nakago watched her in a calculating manner. "And I choose not to be the priestess." Christina finished. Miaka just stayed silent, staring at the floor. Nakago glared at Christina. The girl seemed like she knew too much.
A guard escorted Christina and Miaka back to the room. Christina sprawled out on the bed in frustration. Miaka sat down on one of the chairs that were around the table and gobbled down the food that had been laid out.
"I'm Miaka," she introduced, happy that she was finally meeting someone from her own world, "Nice to meet you!" She was way too cheery, considering the situation; it annoyed Christina how oblivious Miaka was to the danger.
"I'm Christina," she answered.
"So, where are you from?" Miaka asked. The girl didn't look Japanese; she had freckles. "I'm from Japan."
"United States." Christina wasn't in the mood to have a conversation with anyone, especially not Miaka.
"Then how can I understand you?" Miaka asked, "Do you speak Japanese?"
"Well, I'm guessing since the book was translated, languages are automatically translated, which explains why even though I can't read this country's writing, I can understand everyone," Christina answered simply.
"So... what's with all this priestess stuff?" Miaka asked. "I've asked Nakago a couple times, but he won't tell me much."
Christina sighed. "Great. Now I get to explain everything in the Cliff's Notes version," she thought to herself. Christina took a deep breath. "OK, there are four gods; Suzaku, Seiryuu, Byakko, and Genbu. Each god has seven seishi, who are people with wicked powers and they have these Chinese symbols that appear on their bodies. Anywho, the priestesses have to be from another world and they have to gather their god's seishi so they can summon their god. Once the god is summoned, the priestesses get three wishes. Byakko and Genbu have already been summoned, so Kutou is looking for the Priestess of Seiryuu." Christina gave Miaka a few seconds for her brain to process all the information.
"Oh! Now I get it!" Miaka exclaimed. She was glad to have finally met someone besides Nakago.
¤
"Where does it hurt?" Katherine nervously asked Yuiren, since she didn't have too much experience with treating illnesses.
"My head," Yuiren replied softly, looking up at the priestess from where she was lying.
"Ummmm..." Katherine stated, "I honestly don't know all that much about diseases and stuff, but I think you may have caught a cold."
"Are you big brother's wife?" the sick child asked Katherine curiously.
"What?!" Katherine yelled as she took a step backwards, completely disgusted, "Hell no!"
Tamahome was just as shocked and disturbed as Katherine. "Why would I want to marry this idiot?" he said, completely appalled at the idea.
Katherine was horrified; she gasped as she put her hand over her mouth. "Oh no... he called me an idiot," she mumbled to herself, remembering that 'idiot' was Tamahome's pet name for Miaka.
Katherine suddenly remembered what happened in the series at this scene. An assassin in a black long robe would come and string up everyone in thick white ribbons; he would arrive any second now. "Tamahome! You need to get Yuiren out of here!" she shouted frantically, but everyone just stared at her, not knowing the motivation for her sudden outburst. Katherine grabbed Chuei's arm and started to run towards the door, hoping everyone would follow. "C'mon! Please you have to trust me on this! Everyone just needs to get outside!" she yelled. As she ran she felt Chichiri's hat flap against her back. She suddenly stopped, right in front of the doorway and let go of the boy's arm. She swiftly pulled the straw hat off and looked angrily at it. "OH SHIT-TAKE MUSHROOMS!" she screamed as she stomped her right foot into the ground. She ran out of the house, towards the pond. She had to get there before the assassins came for Christina; she needed this hat, otherwise Chichiri wouldn't come out and save her. She felt the dirt path move quickly beneath her feet as she sprinted to where her best friend was.
Katherine finally saw the pond approaching her, but she couldn't see Christina anywhere. "Nononononononono," she muttered to herself as she picked up speed, hoping she would see her friend once she was closer. She stopped at the edge of the water and looked frantically around for Christina. "CHRISTINA! CHRISTINA!!! If this is some kind of joke it's not funny!" she shouted aimlessly into the forest. She waited a couple seconds hoping her friend would answer. She looked across the pond and into the dark forest, waiting for an answer. Any kind of answer, but silence filled the air. The priestess held the straw hat out in front of her and started to shake it violently up and down with both of her hands. "Chichiri!" she pleaded. "Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!" she chanted desperately. Suddenly a super-deformed Chichiri tumbled out of the hat and fell on his head.
"That hurt no da," the blue-haired monk stated as he rubbed his head. He slowly stood up, now in normal form.
"I'm sorry, but Christina's gone! I need you to sense her life force!" she anxiously begged.
Chichiri lifted his hand up to his mouth with two fingers sticking up towards the sky. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the priestess's life force. "This is not good. She's in Kutou no da," he said sadly as he opened his eyes.
To be continued...
~*~
Fushigi Akugi
"I'll go get it," Christina volunteered. She grabbed the wooden bucket that was sitting outside the front door and ran off down the path towards where she hoped was a creek. After five minutes of jogging, she saw a lovely little stream before her. She knelt down and quickly filled the bucket with cool, clear water.
"I feel almost like I'm Tamahome's wife," she said to herself. A look of horror fell across her face. "Oh sweet death, take me now!" she called as she dove into the stream.
*
"Are you big brother's wife?" the sick child asked Katherine curiously.
"What?!" Katherine yelled as she took a step backwards, completely disgusted, "Hell no!"
Tamahome was just as shocked and disturbed as Katherine. "Why would I want to marry this idiot?" he said, completely appalled at the idea.
Katherine was horrified; she gasped as she put her hand over her mouth. "Oh no... he called me an idiot," she mumbled to herself, remembering that "idiot" was Tamahome's pet name for Miaka.
"Oh happy dagger! This is thy sheath!' she yelled, quoting Shakespeare, as she downed the entire contents of the Tylenol®.