Dream Saga: Nakatsukuni

Author Notes: Thank you for your reviews so far. Yes, this is the first Dream Saga fic to exist here on this site. I'm surprised, actually, that no one has done it yet so I decided to create one. Hopefully, more people can come in and add their own fics to add more life to this section. (Even though, the manga is sort of old now…) It's one of my favorite Megumi manga right next to Kaitou Saint Tail! Hehe.. I will be using names that are found in the Dream Saga fan translations online because that's what I used to read Dream Saga. I only have the manga in Japanese. Not Tokyo Pop's version.

Also, I apologize for spelling Takaomi's name wrong in the beginning of Act Zero! I'm going to fix that right after this along with other grammatical errors that I find there along with Yuuki's name. I know TP shorten it to "Yuki" but I grew up with "Yuuki" so that's what I feel more comfortable with.

My response to some of you:

Link Fangirl01- You're right! Yuuki was the only one with the "one body" thing. I did forget about it when typing that, but now, I know how to use that 'mistake' into my story. Mwahahaha… Thanks for pointing that out.

Rani- As much as I hate to say this, there are going to be some new characters in this fic. Not too many though. I understand your view though. I also sometimes go "noooo" when some fanfic writers do make new characters into their story as it seems to tarnish the "original" for what it is. It's really sad when they create too many new characters that I sometimes find the fic too hard to follow.

Warning: Spoilers from the fifth volume are scattered in here! I will be taking a scene from the very last chapter too. I highly recommend for those who haven't read the fifth book, to read it to get a better understanding of what takes place here. Unless, you really don't mind knowing the ending since Act Zero, then proceed with no caution!

Disclaimer: I don't own Megumi Tachikawa's manga "Dream Saga: Takamagahara", her characters, her storyline, and also, her website. All of what has been mentioned is, and will always be, of Tachikawa-san's property.

Key:
"speech"
'thought'

: Beginning of a Crisis - Act 1 :

Everything around her was dark. Pitch dark.

'Where am I? This is a dream, right?'

Her long brown hair was flying with the air that was coming from nowhere. She looked down and her eyes widened in surprise. Below her feet was a city. Lots of lights were flashing and blinking. She could manage to see some tall buildings jetting out from the darkness.

"So, it comes down to this, girl of Nakatsukuni?" an elderly voice came from behind her. She slowly turned around to face a man who appeared to be in his seventies. He had no hair and was wearing a long white cloth from his chest to his legs. A golden bracelet glimmered on his left wrist. He chuckled as he saw the girl give him a look of bewilderedness. He knew that she has not heard the term "Nakatsukuni" for two years now.

"Who are you? How did you know…?" she asked suspiciously. She was facing a stranger who could be nothing more than an apparition or a bad guy in disguise.

"Do not fear me. We are in a special illusion created by my magic. My name is Yun. I am also an alien, like Nakime, who has taken residence in this world of Yomi Nakatsukuni that you see below your feet."

"Alien? Yomi Nakatsukuni? I don't understand."

"You will in a moment of time. I am mainly here to introduce myself to you. Next time we meet, it will be tomorrow night right before you go to sleep," the old man slowly lifted his left arm into the air pointing it adjacent to his body. The girl realized something was about to happen so she quickly blurted out her final question.

"Ah! Wait, how do you know Nakime?"

Right after she asked that, Yun's bracelet began to glow a warm light. The girl squinted her eyes as the light grew bigger. That didn't really distract her focus off of Yun though. She could see his expression clearly through the light. He was smiling at her but didn't respond to her question. The light that came from his bracelet started to encircle her body.

"Majikku Hansou!" the girl heard Yun shout this phrase before her vision became filled entirely with that brilliant light.

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"Wake up older sister! They're fighting again!" shouted a familiar voice. It was her younger brother, Kousuke (5th grade), who was practically shaking her body until she bolted up right. Images of what she believed to be a dream were already starting to fade from her mind. As she focused her eyesight, there were voices from the room across her bedroom that were shouting pretty loudly.

"I'm telling Mama on you! If you won't give it back so quickly, I'll be downstairs in one second!"

"Not until you give me back what you stole first!"

"Nah-ah. You're the one who took my Ultraman first!"

"No! Not true! You took Doraemon right before I woke up!"

"ALRIGHT!" shouted a new voice which belonged to their grumpy older sister who came stomping into the twins' bedroom. "QUIT IT BOTH OF YOU! Youji! Give Youichi back his Doraemon stuffed animal! Youichi, stop crying, and give back Youji his Ultraman action figure!"

"Why should I?" Youji stuck his tongue out at his sister. "It's Youichi's fault to begin with."

"Wahhhh! Don't listen to him, nee-chan! He really did steal from me so I thought, if I stole his toy, he would give up Doraemon!" Youichi protested grabbing a hold of his sister's sleeve. The girl sighed before bonking both twins (3rd grade) on their heads which pretty much made them completely quiet.

"Both of you need to grow up!" the girl stomped out of their room with a huge angry vein on her head. "Today's the first day of school! Do you want to stay as second graders for the rest of this semester?"

"No!" both twins cried out at the same time. They saw their older sister swivel to face them with glaring eyes. Even Kousuke, who was watching from the older sister's bedroom doorway, was feeling a bit nervous.

"Then….." the girl pointed at both of the twins, "wash up, exchange your toys, CHANGE, and I want to see you downstairs in twenty minutes!"

"Yes nee-chan!" the twins exclaimed running around their room grabbing hair brushes and towels from each of their sides. The girl sighed as she turned herself around to face her bedroom. Kousuke moved aside so she can get in, but before the girl even walked into her room, she paused right next to him. She turned her head and glared at her younger brother.

"Kousuke? Aren't you going to get ready too?"

"Ye-yes!" the boy instantly replied and dashed off to his room. The girl let loose her glare and began to smile after Kousuke slammed his bedroom door. She felt like a whole new person that morning.

A white text box appears out of nowhere and reads, 'Hey! Sorry that introductions had to be delayed a bit….AGAIN. My name is Wakasa Yuuki. I'm now in the seventh grade attending Kamishirou Junior High Academy. I've matured a bit over the past two years since my adventure with classmates into the dream world known as Takamagahara. It was my job between both this world, Nakatsukumi, and Takamagahara to find the five magatama that were needed in order to save both worlds. In the end, we found out that I was to be the next Amaterasu. My best friend and former classmate, Kai Takaomi, was really Susanowo, the holder of the sixth magatama. He was suffering in pain until he can eat Amaterasu. At our climatic battle, Takaomi sacrificed his life instead of eating Amaterasu or me. Everyone else were able to open the Ama of Iwato. Whenever I think about it….'

"Eh? ………… Kyaa! We're gonna be late!" Yuuki screamed as she noticed that her alarm clock was showing the time of ten minutes past eight. She quickly did all of her morning necessities with a nervous expression. Her face stayed panicky even when she got to her closet. This year, she was now able to wear a school uniform which consisted of a dark red skirt, ruby red shirt, and a dark red sailor collar. The uniform's ribbon color was navy blue. After doing all of her morning objectives, she took one last look at herself in the mirror before dashing down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Ohayo! Morning!"

"Good morning, Yuuki. You're up later than expected, but thankfully, you were able to get all three of them ready for school. Dad has to catch the train to Shibuya soon so he's in a rush as well," a lady, with short wavy hair smiled at her as she carried a tea kettle off the stove. A man, sitting at the kitchen table and was dressed in a business suit, also beamed up at his daughter. In front of him was a plate of half-eaten scrambled eggs and a small black rice bowl.

"Morning. That's odd though. You're the last one out the door."

"What?" Yuuki turned her attention to the clock on the kitchen wall which now read twenty-one minutes past eight. "Did my little brothers have to leave without me?" She ran out of the kitchen holding a piece of toast and was gripping her school hand-held bag tightly. As she got to the door, she sighed as she sat down on the floor and began putting on her shoes.

"Your lunch! Don't you want it?" her mother ran out of the kitchen door holding a small bento box. She reached over to hold the box toward Yuuki, who was beginning to rise from the floor and had the piece of toast in her mouth.

"Yef! Hankf ooh!" Yuuki quickly swiped the box out of her mother's hands. "I'mf eaving ow!"

She went through the front door in lightning speed.

"See you later!", her mother called out as she watched her daughter's figure disappearing down the street. As soon as she closed the door, she turned around to face her three sons who were all standing at the foot of the stairs with huge grins on their faces. They were all still in their pajamas.

"Nee-chan's going to kill us, isn't she?"

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Yuuki didn't know what to expect. All she knew was that she definitely cannot be late for the opening ceremonies. She managed to chew and swallow her toast within the timeframe of two minutes.

At exactly 8:25, the school's warning bell could be heard for miles. Yuuki's heart was beating quickly in fear that the security guard would close the school's gate earlier than 8:30. Once she found herself standing in front of the school's entrance, she nearly collapsed. Panting loudly, Yuuki bended over to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" asked a voice from above her head. Looking up, she was staring at the grim eyes of the security guard. His face was as scary as the monster who appeared in a movie that she saw not too long ago.

"Uh…. I'm fine! Thank you for asking though!" she showed him a false grin as she ran past him. Just as she thought she could make it to the shoe locker section on time, she noticed a small group of people were standing in front of the lockers. All of them were boys. All of them appeared to not have seen her heading their way. All of them looked familiar to her….

It only took a split second for Yuuki to realize who exactly they were.

"Good morning! How come you guys are here? Shouldn't we all be heading to the field?" the girl stopped right in front of the four boys. They all stopped chatting at once when they saw her.

"Yuukiiiii! Why did you get here so early?" the boy with blonde hair, who was standing to the far left side out of the four boys, was grinning at her.

"Early?" she gave him a puzzled look.

"It's only seven forty-five. Most people would be coming in at about fifteen minutes from now depending on traffic and such" said the boy wearing glasses who was standing next to the blonde hair boy. As soon as he got done speaking, the blonde hair boy immediately jumped and hugged him.

"Na-Nachi! Let go of me! Wa-----h!"

"It's only a quarter to eight? What?" Yuuki couldn't believe her ears, "Then, what was that warning bell that was going off not too long ago?"

"Morning Yuuki! The school was doing a test. Nothing else so you should lay your worries to rest", replied a boy standing to the far right side of the group. He had dark well-combed hair with a calm smile on his face.

"I see…. So, my family really did play a trick on me, which they went as far as my watch! Thanks, Keima," she paused as she watched Nachi starting to suffocate the other boy with his hug, "It appears Nachi still hasn't gotten over his fixation over Souta. And you, Taizou?"

The boy, standing besides Keima to his right (and our left), punched his fist into the palm of his other hand.

"I think, I'm definitely going to join the kendo club this year! I heard that this school has one of the top kendo clubs in the district," his semi-messy black hair bobbed up and down as he began to imitate some karate slashes into the air, "Then maybe, one day, I'll get to see Nakime again."

Yuuki gave him an unbelievable stare and sighed.

"Some things never change do they? Look at us! We're now in junior high! It's been two years. No one else remembers those events except us."

There was a pause of silence between all of them except for Souta and Nachi who were barely paying any attention to the rest of their party.

"Yuuki…." Keima said solemnly looking down to the ground, "there's a reason why all of us got here early this morning but we don't know if this concerns you too. Last night, all of us experienced a weird-----"

"I don't think she heard you," Taizou interrupted his friend by waving his hand in front of his lowered face. Keima immediately looked up to see that Yuuki was no longer standing in front of them. Taizou pointed to Yuuki's present location.

She was standing in front of a tall cherry tree that was growing along the side of the school's front yard wall. There were other cherry trees growing next to it that paraded the school's wall. Placing one hand on its bark, she stared at the tree wistfully. An image of a smiling boy, with a scar on his forehead, came into her mind in an instant.

'Takaomi, because of what you did, both worlds can live side by side in harmony. Humans have become better caretakers of nature. Nature, in return, has started to become more considerate to us by giving us less snowstorms and more sunshine in the summer months. We will never forget you. Thank you!' she stuck out her tongue at the cherry tree. Suddenly, the side of her vision caught someone in particular coming through the security check point. It was a student, but it wasn't just any student. Her eyes widened. Could it be? She watched as the boy started walking towards her, but mid-way, stopped to look at the cherry trees that lined the school's front yard. Nachi stopped hugging Souta to look at what's going on. Keima had to stop Taizou from interrogating the new student by gripping one hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Excuse me, is this Kamishirou Junior High?" asked the student as he turned his attention from looking at the cherry trees to Yuuki. His light blue hair reflected the sunlight a little bit. There was a small draft of wind that came through both of them. Yuuki couldn't believe it but she decided to address the newcomer anyways.

"Takaomi?"

"Remember what I said, Yuuki? I'll be back when the cherry blossoms are in bloom?"

"…..When you were moving, you did say something about the cherry blossoms but I couldn't hear so well."

"That's because your face was all covered up in tears just like what you're doing right now," the boy grinned.

"Yeah…," Yuuki nodded slowly before running directly into Takaomi's arms. Small droplets of water fell from her eyes as she ran. The two embraced each other for what felt like an eternity against time itself. At least, that's how Yuuki felt about the moment.

"She saved me," said Takaomi as soon as they ended their hug. The girl gave him a questionable look.

"Who?"

"Nakime. She gave up most of her life-force energy to me, in order to save me from my fate. In the process, my Takamagahara body was destroyed but Nakime was able to send my Takamagahara soul to Nakatsukuni. Now, both Takaomis are living inside of me."

"Really? Does that mean you have multiple personalities now?"

"What are you talking about? I'm 'me', right?" the boy glared hard at Yuuki, who was laughing.

"Hey, you two love love people! We better get a move on or we'll never beat all these people to the field!" Taizou's voice could be heard shouting from a distance.

"Oh yeah!" Yuuki quickly turned around to see students and faculty members alike pouring through the school's front gate. She grabbed Takaomi's hand and lead him toward the shoe locker area with ease.

-----

Once it got to lunchtime, Yuuki and everyone else, except for Taizou, decided to sit at Takaomi's table. Taizou just happened to end up in a different class than everyone else. Earlier, he was complaining that it wasn't fair for Keima to be in Yuuki's class even though, he wasn't during their elementary school days.

"So, thanks to you Takaomi, you saved all of us. To think the person who was destined to destroy things ended up being the savior!" Souta was leaning over Takaomi's desk holding a juice bottle. Takaomi, who was about to take a bite out of his sandwich dropped it in surprise upon seeing Souta's face coming very close to his.

"Uh, well… Yeah. Shocking, eh?", Takaomi gave his friend a half smile as he used his clean hand to push Souta's face a little back.

"So, when did you and your parents get back in town?" Keima was the next person to interview Takaomi.

"Just two days ago. Father's temporary business job, where we use to live, was over with and so, we were able to move back here."

"Geez Takaomi! You had us all worried back in elementary school that you were never coming back. Also in Takamagahara, we knew everything was going to be alright but had that feeling like we'd never see you again. Oh, and you don't have to worry about me anymore. I found someone else" Nachi spoke with that sneaky grin of his. Souta gave the blonde haired boy a creepy eye look and shifted his chair a little further away from the group. Yuuki just smiled with a sweat drop dripping down her head. Takaomi smiled politely with his eyes closed.

"Thank you" and he continued to smile until a student, who sat in back of him, accidentally shoved his desk into the back of Takaomi's chair. Within a flash of a second, Takaomi shot up from his seat and grabbed the collar of the student's uniform.

"Why did you do that?"

"I'm sorry! It was an accident! Miito put something into my uniform which made me jump out of my seat and in the process, I pushed the table as well!"

"That was no accident, com---idiot kid!" Takaomi's eyes were filled with rage. Both Keima and Souta noticed that Takaomi was about to say something but changed it at the last minute. The student was now gripping Takaomi's hands that were holding onto his collar nice and tight.

"Takaomi! Let Makami go now! He apologized!" Yuuki was trying her best to calm down Takaomi. She noticed how much attention he was gaining from everyone who were present in the classroom.

"What's going on here?" the teacher suddenly came barging into the room.

"Yako-sensei? That student over there is angry at Makami for an accident" said a girl classmate as she pointed over to Takaomi.

"Hey! You're Takaomi, right? We don't need to see this on the first day of school! Drop him now!", the teacher scuttled through some of the awed students and their desks as he made his way over to Takaomi. Fortunately, Takaomi did let the traumatized Makami back onto his feet. The poor boy sat back down slowly and adjusted his desk back into its normal position. He stared up slowly at Takaomi's serious eyes before lowering his own back to his desk.

"I'm sorry….", he manage to whisper out. Yuuki was staring up at Takaomi in horror. Would the Nakatsukuni Takaomi usually do this? Never. Would the Takamagahara Takaomi do this? Maybe, but she wasn't sure. Takamagahara Takaomi was a thief but the closest thing he would get easily raging mad at would be if someone precious to him got hurt.

The class soon resumed back to normal. Yuuki was nervous and decided to avoid talking to Takaomi for the rest of the day. After school, Keima tried to ask Takaomi some questions, but, Takaomi was able to excuse himself and went directly home. The remaining ex-holders of the legendary magatama held a meeting in the school's music room. Taizou was able to be notified of the meeting and arrived at the music room promptly. As soon as everyone were all gathered, the meeting started at once.

"Yuuki. Did Takaomi say anything funny or strange to you when you guys were near the trees this morning?" Souta asked as he stared at Yuuki with a serious expression.

"No, but he did tell me of Nakime saving him and how he now has both Takaomis living inside of him."

"I see…. Maybe it's because of two personalities clashing with each other that's making Takaomi act like this?"

The room became silent. Everyone, except for Taizou, was thinking hard and pondering whether they were over-reacting the whole thing or not. Yuuki had her fist resting against her mouth as she began to replay the day's events over and over. She was still in shock.

"Wait, what's going on? I missed something, didn't I? What's this about Takaomi? I thought we were here to discuss last night's dream," Taizou interrupted the silence which brought Yuuki's attention back to reality.

"Dream?" Yuuki looked back and forth between all of the boys.

"Yes. This is what I was trying to tell you earlier," Keima began to reach for something in one of his pant's pockets. "We were visited by three people in our dreams."

Yuuki clasped her hand to her mouth as she saw what Keima pulled from his pocket.

"As you can see, this looks like it could connect with the half of the other stone that's now destroyed," Keima was holding up a brown magatama. It was facing the opposite direction from how their Takamagahara magatama use to face.

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>>>To be continued…