Yay! I am done with my tests! Now, another chapter! All bask in the glory that is me! Just joking…

Disclaimer: I hope she would do one last work on Fushigi Yuugi (and I do not mean the Genbu version!)…and make more money than what Tamahome could save!

Hikari

"M-mo…mom…I…wan…you…" the baby babbled softly, face twisting in pain. She reached out to grope at the air blindly, tiny hands clutching nothing. Tears fell from her eyes as she called out in more desperation and determination, "Mommy…I wan…Mommy! Dad…I…wan…daddy!"

"Doctor, you've got to see this! Hikari had turned for the worse!" the nurse cried out, slamming the door open. The doctor looked up, with a look of fatigue crossing his face. "She's calling out for her mother now! You are…not the first doctor!"

The man with long flowing white hair smirked from his seat. "Pitiful fools. Of course, the other doctor was fired the other day for giving a false diagnosis of Hikari. He lied that she had Cancer when it was a completely different thing altogether. One thing was true – Hikari would die at the end of the month, peacefully, and not before."

"What did you SAY?"

"She would not die until the end of the month, I assure you. This is one of the symptoms of the sickness she had. But, I happen to know that she would not die until the end of the month, so rest your heart at that…" the doctor sighed, smoothing his long white hair back. "Nothing more than a miracle could save her now…she will die no doubt of that, at the end of the month."

"How…" the nurse asked softly, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. "…did you know that she would definitely die?"

"I am Tenkou," the doctor said matter-of-factly, raising his strange purple eyes to meet the nurse's, "There is nothing that Tenkou do not know. And sometimes remembering everything could be a bad thing…" he paused, seeing the nurse's confusion. "You have difficulties registering that I am Tenkou, nurse?"

"Of course you are Tenkou, your name states it! I do not know what you are implying! It was not enough of an explanation! I want to know why such a bright light have to be dimmed by the prospect of death!" she cried, nearly breaking down. Tenkou turned sympathetic eyes on her.

"Ah, Hikari means light, or so they say. You really want an explanation? Okay, she is the Suzaku no Miko's daughter, conceived by a warrior and a priestess. It had never happened before. And on the occasion it happened, a curse would be placed on the baby. The baby would not last long. And the same would happen to the next and the next and the next, until they would be forced to adopt a child."

"Suzaku no Miko? What does a priestess have to do with this?"

"That is the whole point. You would not understand it even if it bit you on the nose. The priestess of Suzaku is the main point Hikari has to suffer. And now, I suspect that she could not summon the god anymore, and thus losing all hope that Hikari could be saved. The priestess of Seiryu could help, but she could not mask the fact that she was once both the Genbu and Seiryu's priestess, and the gods demand that their priestess have a real name, worshipping only one god. The only reason I managed to pull it off last time was that I was a god myself…"

"I beg your pardon?"

Tenkou shook his head. How could a commoner understand what the priestesses and Seishi experienced in the book? He stood up and walked out of the door, turning back when he saw the nurse standing in his office, umoving. "Are you coming or not? We are going to ease Hikari's pain, aren't we?"

"Y-yeah…" the nurse hurried to Doctor Tenkou's side hastily. Tenkou smirked at her fluster. No matter what, this time, he would not interrupt the normal sequence of events. The last time he did, he had nearly thrown the two worlds into jeopardy. This time, he knew, it would be different…

He turned to the writhing figure on the bed and sat down beside her. He murmured strange, calming words into her ears. The pain was suddenly gone from the youngster's face as she fell into a dreamless sleep. "Priestess of Suzaku, this is the most your enemy could do for you…and your daughter…no thanks to Tamahome…"

Taka

He wanted to howl in dismay. He had searched practically the whole house and was devastated by the fact that there was no sign of the ring at all. "Where did I last put it?" he asked himself, pausing from his aimless search. "Why in the world did I even take it out in the first place?"

The phone rang loudly, piercing into his thoughts like a needle. He groaned in irritation and plucked it off its hook roughly. "This is Taka and I am in no mood to hear about work and about Mayo…"

"Taka, this is Tetsuya, and you had better hear me out if you want to know about both your wife and child. The doctor had called Yui's mobile, knowing that you'd be in some work or something. She had received message that Hikari is in great pain. Now, however, the problem had been solved…as the doctor is the reincarnation of…" a shout was heard from the background. It was most likely from Yui. Tetsuya came back on the phone just as Taka was wondering who the doctor was.

"That's not the most pressing problem here, Taka. We had just found out that, in the book…" he trailed off, most likely reading the last sentence quickly. Taka felt his heart clench in fear and he had the sudden urge to find the ring immediately. "Taka, your wife is in danger of getting killed here…"

"She had no one protecting her?"

"They were heavily outnumbered and they had suffered losses…"

Taka wanted to cry, staring at the books in the shelf carefully, lest there's a ring wedged into it. "Who died this time?"

"No one…but they had a lot of injuries on them…"

"Why is there people fighting them! The Seiryu Seishi must be really formidable this time…"

"No, this time is a whole new set of enemies, one we've ever seen before…"

Taka hung up. He had a much more important assignment to do besides hearing Tetsuya talk into the phone.

"Idiots. Killing me means killing her too. A curse could not be lifted so easily. And those people fighting you…hah, they are my people. But they are hers too, in a way. No way are you going to get out of this alive! You had a safe path to tread, but you chose the book anyway…and those warriors beside you shall suffer greatly too!" a smooth, silky, feminine voice said.

"If you don't keep your mouth shut, I am going to slap you."

"Oh, would you, Boushin?"

"I would."

"You are certainly different from your father."

"Oh no, that disgusting son of his really loves his subjects so much and all my interventions did not deter him from going to court every morning."

"Boushin, let me tell you, it sometimes did not pay to be a curse at all. My job might be easy but yours…"

"Seishis are not supposed to have children either. Except that the signs of the curse come out later. As you can see, all the children of the Seishis had died over the years very early around their teens. This one could do nothing to stop his destiny to die at my hands."

"The problem with the Prince, or should I say, emperor, is that he is strong."

"He did not have Nuriko's strength, that's for sure. If he does, I could not touch him at all."

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Sorry, well, this chapter is very much on the real world and about Hikari…