Suzaku's Fire

Chapter 4

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Requirements: good English grammar, knows FY charas and remembering the plot of the MANGA. Mail or MSN/YIM me if you are interested and have time to chat in messenger! )

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The shadows inside the temple were soothingly cool contrast on his skin against the heavy midday sun and Yuki squinted his eyes slightly, waiting for his eyes to adjust into the darkness. The scent of burnt insects was lingering in the air and he noticed that designers had heavily leaned on wooden pillars and different shades of red and gold when they had made the place. Stuffing his hands nonchalantly into his pockets, shivering slightly when he felt sudden breeze cold like winter night prickling his skin with icy needles. There wasn't much to see except the large golden statue of over sized peacock but he vaguely recalled a large fire burning in the middle of the room from yesterday.

'It's a phoenix. Not peacock.' A voice noted in his mind.

Yuki tilted his head, watching the statue. Well. It could be a phoenix. That or the artist had had funny ideas of pretty chicken.

'Phoenix.' The tiny voice stated with a hurt pride in his mind.

Another drifting detail nudged his mental sleeve to get his attention and Yuki looked around more carefully, his eyes taking in details until he noticed the artistic circle crafted in ceiling and delicate strokes that couldn't be anything else than star signs.

"Now how did that Feng Shui go, that they have in China?" he muttered to himself "Four directions, North, South, East, West. Hmmm… Black and metal with the turtle Genbu for North. Characteristics stable and reliable?" Yuki said absent mindedly, walking to the altar.

'That is if you can actually wake him…' Muttered his thoughts.

"White for tiger Byakko in West, meaning chaos and destruction." Yuki continued, counting with his fingers. It had been no wonder why the Chinese had disliked of the Europeans when they came…

'Bah, keep his kitty litter clean and give him glass of milk and he will be purring.' The annoying thought chided, making him to shake his head to clear his thoughts.

"Blue and dragon for East…..Seiryuu or something like that…. And was it wealth? No…." he said, trying to recall his Asian culture classes. To his slight relief the tiny voice seemed to be quiet and sulking.

"What was the South? Red and fire, warmth and wealth." He counted with his fingers, staring at the statue. "What did they have? A bird. Pigeon? Cockerel? Turkey? No, I don't think they have turkeys here…" he tried to recall.

'PHOENIX, DAMN IT!' the tiny voice jumped up and down.

"Phoenix?... well that thing hasn't seen a phoenix…." He muttered under his breath.

'Suzaku.' He tiny thought suggested.

"Suzaku?" Yuki blinked. "Oh yeah. They called it Suzaku, I think."

'Thank you.'

"Aw crap." Yuki murmured and carefully slid to sit on the floor as there were no seats in the temple. "They're seriously having some statue of a bird in here and actually worshipping it." He said, continuing of talking to himself quietly, trying to sort out his thoughts and rubbed his arms absentmindedly as it was getting colder.

'What about it? It's not like I'm asking for virgin maidens as sacrifice... No, wait, I do. Scratch that.' the tiny thought commented, but went unnoticed. 'They could have made better work with the peak tho… And the neck. And look those tail feathers. A disgrace I tell you…'

"We have to be really deep in southern China…. " Yuki looked around. "Question is, are we here or in actual past?" for a moment he played with the options and decided not to drive himself mental with it and take things as they came. He stared at the huge statue and altar in silence without really seeing it when he slowly realised something. He had heard a voice nagging in his mind. A look of shock passed his face and he brought his hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose, his shoulders sacking. They had said that loosing eyesight, hearing and possible the sense of balance were possible in later state, but they hadn't said anything about hearing voices. He was supposed to still have plenty of time.

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It was bad enough to wake up into the fact that you were talking, and that it wasn't you who were doing the talking, but that you couldn't control your body either. The pain of my mortal prison was starting to push me over the edge, continuously gnawing in my mind! How could humans live their lives with it? They were so fragile! I would defiantly have to look if I could talk with Tai-Itsukun if there was any ways of fixing them a bit.

I was snapped out of my little thoughts of personal revenge on Seiryuu when my Mitsukake walked in with my Miko. I can't say that I have ever been happier to see them in flesh and blood than on that moment when Miaka offered him to heal me.

'Wait a moment… He is a healer, and while he uses his powers, he can read another persons chi.' I thought and mentally paled, feeling blood draining from my face.

'If they ever find out that I'm here sealed in this mortal instead of the Heavens… No… That's not an option…' I shouted mentally, banging my fists against the mental barriers and for my surprise the body I was tied into crawled back, frantically declining. For a moment I wondered if I should risk it after all just to get rid of the pain when my back and rib made me scream inside my head. I had never felt pain before and I was starting to develop a permanent dislike of it.

The ache triggered a memory of Seiryuus' metal boot and the taste of my blood flashed in my mind and made my determination steel hard. I would have to get them gather my brothers relics and summon me. But something perked my curiosity. Apparently my shouting had hit a sore spot in the boys mind when he had backed from the healers touch. Since I had nothing better to do I started drifting through his memories with gentle touches of my fingers while he was dealing with the conversation.

'Tsck… Someone has attitude issues…' I clicked my tongue when he exploded and folded my arms mentally, sitting back and following the argument with my Miko. My snooping around hadn't brought up anything. His mind was firmly shut about something that he even refused to think of. But I could feel something cold besides me stalking patiently in his mind like a stone and weighting as heavily.

I couldn't hide my curiosity when the boy named Yuki turned to see the mirror and for the first time I could see into what I was tied into and for a second my reflection glimpsed in the mirror. I was a mess. I stared in horror. My beautiful red wings were gone! I could only see two bloodied studs peaking over my shoulders. Apparently I had sent a small pulse of chi, because I could feel the cursed cold bite of the seal hanging on my neck and the image in mirror disappeared.

A boy, no, a young man, about the same age as Chichiri I guessed, was looking me back with a serious frown and gaze that could pierce stones. His skin was strangely almost white, almost as pale as the womens make up and bangs of his messed up brown hair almost reached to touch his deep brown eyes. His stance and face were so foreign that I had to only wonder how he had gotten pulled into this private battle of ours. Yuki certainly was a fitting name for him. I looked at the mirror critically, wrinkling my nose mentally and reached to push the hair away from eyes. He wasn't that bad as far as mortals went. Of course he wasn't as beautiful as Nuriko, or as elegant as Hotohori and of course he was lacking the divine good looks and attraction that I have among both male and female souls in my quarter of Heaven (it's good to be God) but I guess it had to do for now….

I didn't have much of an option but to hang on when we walked outside, running into my cross-dressing Nuriko and I watched amusedly as his interest slowly perked up as he watched her. After all, I'm not called the God of Love for nothing. Match making has always been a bad habit of mine and I defienetly wasn't against male couples. Few of my best success stories were with male and female couples. But right now I didn't want to deal with heart broken men after especially nasty surprise when things would get a bit too heated and excited, so I tried to catch Yuki's attention and break it for him. If physical pain was this bad already, I really wasn't enthusiast of being personally introduced for the pain of shattered hearts.

'Yuki…… she's a guy...' I tried to call out for him, and draw his attention to little details in Nurikos face and body. 'Trust me on this one. Don't get your hopes too high now.' I mentally poked his back and for my surprise he blinked. He could hear me? The thought made me grin like maniac. Maybe everything wasn't lost quite yet. Couple of moments later I had to sigh in despair. Humans were so thick.

I happened to glance at my temple and another thought occurred for me. He could hear me somewhat if I screamed, but what if we were in my temple where I was my strongest? If I could just bear with the seal for long enough to establish a connection with him…. I gently nudged his curiosity. That's it…. Gently, that's the way. No, THOSE stairs. Ow, my side….

Catching our breath on the top of the stairs I couldn't but pray that humans would heal fast because I didn't know how long I could take it, but then again it was awkward to send a prayer for myself. For a moment I wondered how Seiryuu had covered the fact that I was gone before I had to focus when the seal started to work again, wrapping me in its icy cold fangs and trying to send me hibernate and my shrine reacting against the pendant, trying its best to reject me. Funnily tho even if I was feeling weak of the mental attack, it didn't seem to affect much into Yuki.

It was a pleasant surprise that the boy wasn't totally ignorant for a foreign and I had to sigh in relief when he seemed to hear me, even if it was just as a nagging feeling on unconscious level when he was recalling what he thought as a details from school.

"Ah, what the heck." He muttered "I can use with all the luck I can get." He said and walked for the altar and for my surprise lit an insect.

"Suzaku of the South." He said and my ears perked. A prayer gives us Gods our strength and right now he had my undivided attention. This wasn't the time to be picky.

"I have no idea where I am and less how I got here." There was a shaking breath "I just wish I have enough time to get home. I don't have much to go back to, but I'd like to feel proper winter instead of seeing the end in somewhere without anyone knowing that I lived." His words hit me like a wall, feeling like suffocating and I could feel every single grain of mortal time slipping between my fingers. I felt like being trapped and my trap was slowly sinking.

'Why are you afraid of death?' I said out loud. There, while he had focused into the prayer a backdoor had opened for a second in his mind and instantly I sank my fingers in, establishing the mental bond. Yuki startled and whirled around. YES! He had heard me.

"Is there someone?" he called out and I could feel heart beating hard. If he wasn't careful it would burst.

'Take that plate on your right.' I said firmly and reached out, grinning when the hand moved with me and lifted a silver plate to my eye height 'Look.' I said, letting a pulse of red chi spread from my fingertips and the reflection in the metal rippled and changed. For a few seconds a red haired reflection was looking as firmly back, and I defienetly wasn't your happy winged God of love.

"FUCK!" I exclaimed in shock and the silver plate fell with a clang. "Crap…. That's it. I finally went mental." Yuki muttered, covering our eyes and I could feel our knees going suddenly weak for some reason. Humans really were most confusing things.

'No, you haven't gone crazy. I am the Suzaku.' I said, trying very hard to keep pain out of my voice as the attack of the seal and shrine was getting stronger. 'Lets go outside and I will explain you. We have a lot of talking to do.' I said and picked up the plate, putting it carefully back before turning and hurrying out as fast as I could while still keeping my dignity. It was relieving to be back in control, even if it was just for a moment.