Alright, I actually updated on a Thursday! Hmmm . . . Well, I might set this fanfic from weekly to every other week (bimonthly?). I just started a Naruto fanfic, and while I really just did it on a whim, somehow I ended up getting a decent amount of reviews. XD So, I might update one story one week, and he other story the other week! Or something. It keeps me fresh if I do two at the same time anywayz. But then again, it might not happen! '
Note- I'm currently editing my chapters. 1-5 has been edited (Thought th edited version has not been put up) as well as chpaters 14 and 15. So, any misatkes, I'm sure to catch! And if there are mistakes in 14 and 15, which have their edited versions up, please tell me!
Care- Yes, I really need to do romance more! XD 'm just having trouble trying to find the situation . . . Hmmm .. . I gotta figure something out!
Chaotic Demon- lol! I luv pink bubble thingies, 'cause they remind me of gum. XD
Suzuno Oosugi- Yeah, it should end with Tatara x Suzuno- I'm trying to keep the facts given in FY and so far in FYGK striaght!
Kaeru Soyokaze- lol! I'm so happy you like Amefuri so much. XD He's fun to write about.
Lady Rhian Knightmage- Mmmmm . . . Well, the characters in Fushigi Yuugi talked pretty modern as well, didn't they? It's just a translation. XD I wasn't being lazy, honest! ' But I'm still happy you're enjoying this story. I try to udate in between Thursday and Saturday!
Chapter Fifteen
It was as sudden as the nervous spark that prickled Subaru's body when she heard Amefuri slip off the cliff. The bubble stopped moving, jerking the two of them so fast that they clung to the rubber in fear of falling off again.
"We're here?!" Subaru said in an almost shocked voice, still trying to relieve herself of the sudden jolt of excitement she was given. She shook her head left and right quickly, trying to take a look and seeing what there was that could make the bubbly stop. Apparently she was a little too rushed, because when Amefuri tapped her shoulder and pointed, she realized all she needed to do was to look forward.
Before them, easily standing high amongst what little fog was left, was what looked like a giant palace. Tall, crystal clear pillars, all long and so thin you wouldn't thinking they coud support the chinese fancied roof above them. It had tiny shingles, white instead of a normally pasty brown or black, and steps of stairs led to a door at least three sizes the warriors' height. The two hopped off the bubble and quickly stepped upward, ignoring their aching muscles. When they were close enough to the doors, they could see they were outlined with gold and had hundreds of small crystal shards.
"Amazing," Amefuri said in complete awe. He turned to Subaru and smiled. "This place, wherever it is . . . It really is paradise."
"Well," she still seemed doubtful, especially because of that scare he seemed to have so easily forgotten. "Let's go inside and see if it really is paradise first."
"Go, go!"
The two of them jumped at a loud and girlish, childish voice behind them. They both whirled around and looked down to see a small child with emerald hair, her pigtails tangled with little braids. Her eyes were a pleasing ruby-pink, and she was also wearing the same colored robes, all parts which seemed to big for her.
"Who-who . . . are you?" Amefuri asked, and Subaru wondered why he seemed so nervous. His awkward smile told her there was something wrong though. Instead, she really had to try hard not to laugh when he said, "you're n-n-not a little gh-ghost . . are you?"
"Nyan-Nyan is not a ghost!" she said, putting on a pouty expression and putting her hands on her hips. "Nyan-Nyan saved you!"
"You did?" Subaru asked. The little girl smiled and nodded, and just then a little 'poof!' sounded. Before them was the little pink ball, and the two of them were stupefied as the little girl changed back.
"You're the . . . the . . ." Amefuri couldn't even spit the words out, but it was more words than what Subaru could say.
The little girl only pointed to herself, smiling, and said cheerfully, "Nyan-Nyan!" She walked past them, a bounce in her step, and pushed against the doors with all her might; amazingly, with the little tiny, child-like hands she had, the door easily opened, producing a deep creakening sound.
The two walked in, only to find what seemed like an endless amount of snowy white walls, hundreds of more crystal pillars standing evenly in many rows all the way to the far end of the large room. The building had visible arches on the ceiling, and to show some heritage, lying veritcal against the walls were many swords of the samurai and armor. At the very end was a chair, and sitting on it with her legs crossed over one of the arms, one elbow leaning on the second arm while the other lifted slightly so she could feed herself with a golden plate filled with grapes was a stunning woman.
Her dark, round eyes immediantly caught them the second they walked in, her face only turning a little to face them; as she did, the large, golden earrings she wore gleamed a made a gorgeous clang like a windchime. Her eyes gave even further beauty with her flawless naturally dark skin and her soft but shimmering golden eye shadow, which seemed to flow it was so nicely placed up to her arching eyebrows. The same colored lipstick was applied, so though her skin, eyes and long, straight hair were dark, she seemed to literally shine.
"What a beautiful woman," Subaru said, still standing right in front of the door once it had been closed by the little girl. Amefuri nodded, also in awe of her sight. The woman put down the golden plate with grapes she had and sat completely up, turning her body so that it was sitting the correct way. While she wore a Kimoono-like outfit, with a sash round the center making a bow on her back; the dress was cut very short on her thighs, and also while she kept the sleeves which had draped at her sides, it otherwise hung very low on her chest and showed an unmodest amount of cleavage.
"What are you waiting for, Celestial Warriors?" she said in an adult, powerful woman's voice. She smiled a little close-mouthed, her fingers pulling some of her soft, straight cut hair out of her face, "I thought you came here on business?"
"How do you know we're Warriors?" Amefuri asked. She lifted a hand and gestured it as if to say 'come here', and they both did, walking across the hallway all the way to her end. Their shoes clicked against the clean, shiny floorway, until they stopped before her. The woman stood as well, and when compared amongst the three of them, she was taller than the both of them.
She put her hand against her chest and said, "My name is Taiitsukun. I'm sure you've all heard of me before, hm?"
"The Taiitsukun?!" the two of them said together. She nodded, obviously flattered that they would know someone as mighty as her, a legendary Goddess herself.
"I originally just wanted to bring you here," she pointed to Subaru, and instantly the symbol on her breast started to show, "You dear, have a problem that I need to solve."
"Is this about her not knowing how to use her power?" Amefuri suggested. Taiitsukun nodded again, also playing which her hair some more.
"Her power is one that is very useful. And while you decided to tag along, I suppose it could benefit you as well." She reached out to him and held out his arm, the one with the scars and a missing hand. Then she looked at Subaru and pointed to it, saying, "With your power, you could take his hand and instantly change it back to what it was."
"She can?!" Amefuri said excitedly, a wide grin on his face. Then he started worrying about the hard part. "But how?"
"Subaru is a smart woman, but with all the hints I gave her she still couldn't figure it out."
"Hints . . .?" Subaru wondered.
Taiitsukun let go of Amefuri's hand and turned around, looking up at what looked like a giant mirror above her chair. It seemed to fizz for a second, then the waterfall surrounded by black came to view. It was the one in her dream! Subaru watched anxiously, knowing now that she had to pay close attention in order to understand the message that such a powerful being would show. She could see the little sun dial fish, swimming in the water, in their awkward posistion of twelve in a circle. After a moment, it faded out, and Subaru felt a little dissapointed.
"There wasn't a hint there," Subaru said to herself, putting her hand on her chin and looking down, clearly trying to figure it out. "How are fish supposed to reveal my power?"
". . . So, it wasn't speed," Amefuri said. He smiled, and grabbed Subaru's shoulder a little too roughly and pulled her in his direction, "Subaru! The sun dials, the way you easily moved through the crowd!"
". . . Huh?"
He had no quarrels about trying to explain. "When you went through the crowd in the Capitol, you said, 'We can't waste time'. It's time, Subaru! You control time!"
"I . . ." Her eyes went wide as finally all of the hints came through, and she had to replay it in her mind to think of it clearly. "Time . . ."
"Very good," Taiitsukun said with a triumphant smile. She pointed to Subaru, then once again took Amefuri's arm. "Your power can work in multiple ways, though it will take a long time to learn it all. You can turn back the time of one person's physical being, but not their mental. You can also freeze a person's physical being."
"What does that have to do with my arm?" Amefuri asked curiously, though he didn't seem to mind having such a beautiful woman touch him. Subaru noticed his childish but in a way giddy smile, and for a moment inwardly hated the way he lived his life again. She quickly dismissed it when Taiitsukun started to explain.
The Goddess let her nails lightly scan his wrist where his arm stopped, the part that seemed the most bumpy and stunted. The bandage, though just as dirty as he from climbing the mountain, dyed with dark bloches of sweat and dirt, still managed to stay attatched. She removed it, then let her fingers wander over what looked like an extra colorful, disgustingly unattractive mountain terrain.
"How many days has it been since you had this?" she asked.
"About two days, "he replied, trying to think back. Yesterday, he had been on the now not-so-haunted mountain, as Lanva said the plants were nothing like ghosts when he went in so deeply, and Suzuno agreed. The day before was when he had brought Suzuno home after that incident with Byakko's light. So, he was right about his guess.
"Let's make it three," Taiitsukun said with a sly smile. Subaru glanced at Amefuri's hand again, trying to get used to it before she had to do whatever was asked. She saw it when she cleaned it both times, which wasn't so bad since she was cleaning, but now it was dirty, and a little soft and damp looking. Not very pleasant for sight. "Alright then. Even if you want to turn back the time of one part of someone's body, you can."
"How do I do that?" Subaru asked; she understood what she was supposed to do now, it was obvious. But it seemed like such a bizzarre process . . .
"That, my darling, is the easiest part. Your power, though it has yet to reveal itself much, is yours and has been dormant inside you since the day you were born. I would know; I gave it to you." She laughed a little as if to sound clever, and the two Celestial Warriors gave each other strangely nervous looks, thinking how odd she was to laugh for nothing. "Anyhow . . . this power of your is so natural, all you have to do is ask for it. Your body and mind will listen."
It sounded a little strange to Subaru. Was bringing back time such an easy thing? And it was she of all people who could do it! It sounded skeptical. The young female Warrior took a small look around the grand hall, admiring the sparkling pillars. For the first time, she noticed that in between some of them were dark azure, round paper lamps, each with little candlelights inside of them. She also took one last look at the mirror, which she now saw was lined with gold. She stared at it, as if expecting it to spring to life again with people jumping out and shouting, 'Surprise!'
She concentrated very hard on Amefuri's arm, ignoring the way it looked more or less by thinking more than seeing. 'If my powers will come up at will,' she started thinking, and she shut her eyes to help her focus more, 'Then all I have to do is ask . . . just ask . . .'
"I want," she began to say, trying to find commanding words, though it was difficult. "With the power of Byakko, as a Celestial Warrior, I want Amefuri's arm to be restored into the condition it was in three days ago!"
As soon as she said that she could feel the warmth of her symbol coming to life, and the darkness in her eyelids started to brighten a bit. She could hear Amefuri gasp too, and an entire vision when through her mind, as if she really was looking at the magic she was working. She saw a sun dial with the shadows moving backwards at tremendous speed, and at the same time she could see all the scars on Amefuri's hand just mix in his arm, as if swimming in to make their place. In slow motion, she saw the once stubbed arm grow like the way an infant quickly proceeded to age, and before she knew it, the stub at grown a hand.
"Incredible," she heard Amefuri say, and it was then she decided to open her eyes. She was surprised herself when she saw that he was staring down with amazement at two arms and two hands. She grabbed the one that was previously disfigured before to check and see if it was completely healed; she sighed of relief when there wasn't a single deformity.
"Very good," Taiitsukun complimented, smiling and clapping a little. "You will definitely be a strong ally to the Priestess of Byakko."
"Really?"
Knowing that she was finally needed and she could actually do something set a burning flame off inside of Subaru, and it was so powerful she held both her hands over her chest, as if she could literally feel it. She heard Taiitsukun mutter something and when she opened her eyes again, she was back where she was, standing in Amefuri's home in front of the table. Amefuri was sitting down, still admiring his hands.
"Guess you're a lot more useful than Lanva assumed," Amefuri said with a smile. "I can't thank you enough for fixing my arm!"
"Shhh, keep it down," Subaru whispered, putting one finger to her mouth and turning to look down the hall a bit. She glanced over to the window for a moment, saying, "It's still dark."
"Right."
It was silent between the two of them for a second, when finally the younger of them said, "I'm . . . I'm still going to go to the palace tommrow."
"You are?" She didn't seemed mad this time, only a little disbelieving. "Even after all that?"
"You're strong; I think you and Lanva will be able to take care of her 'til then. I think it would be a good idea to tell the King about the arrival of the Priestess too."
"Priestess . . ."
Before Subaru went back to bed, she bid a small goodbye to Amefuri and instead of yelling at him, wished him the best of luck on his own journey.
X x x x x x x
OMGosh, Taiitsukun is a babe?! Gasp What happened to her being the scary-faced lady?! ' Well, I figured she was going to be younger before she got old or something, right? Sometimes I think that baby in FYGK is a baby Taiitsukun, so I kinda went off of that. XD lol! Or maybe that baby is Genbu? Who knows! Oh, and for the Nyan-Nyan, you guys remember who they were little pink bubbles and stuff sometimes, right?
As for her rooooooom . . . . She has rearanged it. Goddess people can have renovtions too! But it's still on Mt. Taikyokou (Or howeva' you spell it. XD). I hope nobody gets mad at me for this drastic changing. . . '
Also . . .
Yeay, Amefuri is healed! Celebrates with Confetti