Mirror, Mirror
Summary: Fuji falls through a mirror one day and lands in a complete different world. Sometimes, while doing a favor for someone else, you realize that they're actually doing a favor for you.
Warnings: Shounen-ai
Pairings: Atobe x Fuji
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine.
Haha, this chapter is definitely MUCH longer than the last! XD;; Anyway, I'm still getting faves but no reviews. That's okay, but I appreciate reviews more! And thank you reviewers and readers! Your reviews make my day. Anyway, for those who bother to read this, here's the next chapter! I tried to keep everyone in character, with the exception of some parts where it actually states that they're acting OOC. Anyway, please read, review, and enjoy!
Chapter 2: The Story of the Princes:
What in the world was going on?!!?! That was Fuji's exact thought at the moment. Here he was in the middle of a world that was not his own. He had just fallen through a freaking mirror for crying out loud. And hit a palace floor?! Why was everyone cloaked? Andwhat in heaven's name was Tezuka doing HERE?! Wasn't he just in Fuji's room a couple moments ago?
His train of thought was broken as Jiroh bounced up to him. "Fujiko!!! We've been waiting for you!!!!" he shouted excitedly. It was strange to hear anyone but Kikumaru calling him 'Fujiko'. Which just triggered the remembrance of another event that bothered him. Had that girl called him a her?! 'That's her!!! That's FUJIKO!!!!!' He remembered it quite clearly in his head.
Then Saeki walked up to him, still in his cloak, and pinched his right cheek. "Fujiko is quite a cutie, isn't she?" he asked the other boys there.
"Uhh…" Fuji started to say, but he was interrupted by Eiji.
"CUUUTEE?!!! Is that all you can say, nya?! She's ADORABLE!!!!" he cried. "What do you think, older brother?" he asked Atobe, who was standing next to him.
"She's pretty," he said simply. "Ore-sama believes that she's quite attractive." Fuji was appreciative of the compliment, but his mind was elsewhere again. Had Eiji just called Atobe his older brother?!!!! Something was definitely not right.
"I should ask my older brother!!!" Jiroh shouted. "I'm going to go find him!!!" Then, a thin, pale hand was on his shoulder.
"I'm right here, Jiroh," Yukimura said, chuckling. Fuji looked from Yukimura to Jiroh, and back to Yukimura again. Brothers?!!?!?!? Just who else was related then?!
"Guys…" Fuji tried to say again. He saw Ryoma get the hint, though.
"Seiichiiiiii!!!!!" Jiroh shouted. "What do you think of Fujiko?!"
Yukimura walked over to Fuji gracefully and swiftly. He stroked Fuji's cheek. "Her skin is very soft, and yes, she is pretty."
"Hey…" Fuji was about to be cut off again by Eiji, he presumed, but then Ryoma spoke up loudly.
"EVERYONE!!!!" he shouted in a very un Ryoma-like manner. "I think Fujiko here has something to tell us all."
Fuji sighed. "Thank you." He glanced at Tezuka who was still standing in the back of the room. He thought that perhaps Tezuka knew that he was indeed a guy. "Some of you may know this, but I'm not a girl!" He pulled off the sheet and stood up. "My name isFuji Syusuke, not Fujiko, though my friends call me that sometimes."
"I can see why," Yukimura said, smirking and wrapping an arm around Fuji, pulling him closer. "You're very pretty," he whispered into Fuji's red ear. Fuji blushed and shifted uncomfortably.
"Seiichi," Tezuka said sternly. "I think you're making him uncomfortable." Jiroh took hold of Yukimura's arm and dragged him away from Fuji. Well, not really dragged, more led. Yukimura winked at Fuji, who again blushed.
"Can someone tell me what's going on here?" he asked. "I was studying in my room with—" but then, he cut himself off. Tezuka was standing right there! What should he say? "—a friend. And I suddenly fell into a mirror that mysteriously appeared in my room today. And this world is completely different."
"You friend was probably Kunimitsu here, I presume," Atobe said, walking up to Fuji this time, though not getting as close as Yukimura had been.
"Uhh…yeah," Fuji said, slightly taken aback. "How did you know? And why are you guys here?"
"Long story," Atobe said.
Yukimura finally quite forcefully pulled himself out of Jiroh's grasp. "Fuji," he said, seriously this time. "Take my hand. I'll show you."
Fuji reached forward and complied without much resistance. But he was quite shocked again, when his hand went right through Yukimura's. Fuji screamed, which was an unexpected act for Fuji Syusuke. He stepped back a bit and tripped over the sheet that was still behind him. He was falling (again) when Atobe was suddenly at his side and caught him. "Seiichi, we don't want to scare him away. Our existence depends on him."
"W—What are you talking about?" Fuji said. His hand suddenly felt very cold. He didn't want to be depended on, no matter how much his personality implied it. Especially to nine of his friends. Their existence? Did Atobe mean that virtually, or physically? Fuji took a step back.
"It's not what you think, Fuji," Atobe said. "Not at all. We're not going to die if you don't decide to help us." Fuji breathed a quite noticeable sigh of relief.
"Perhaps we're overwhelming him," Saeki suggested, which was what, inside, Fuji thought, but he didn't really show it. "Would you like to rest a night here or something? We have plenty of unused rooms."
Then Fuji remembered the real world Tezuka. "I should probably get back, actually," he said, taking a couple more steps back, until he was beside the mirror again.
"Oh, don't worry about that," Atobe said, grabbing Fuji's wrist gently. Fuji tried to push his arm away, but of course, his hand fazed right through. Atobe smirked. "Actually, this is quite convenient."
"Keigo," Saeki said, hitting him over the head lightly. "We can touch anything, but nothing can touch us," he explained to Fuji, who nodded. "So," he said, sighing, "I guess it would be quite convenient if we didn't want someone to leave or something, like you."
"How do you have it all figured out?" Fuji said.
"Time in this world may pass, but in your world, it doesn't. Yet, when you go into your world, time passes in this world. Get it?" Atobe said.
"Yeah," Fuji said. "So if I leave now, or even in a day, or a year, no time would have passed from the time I fell into the mirror?" Everyone shook their head.
"Not even one second, nya!" Kikumaru said.
"I suppose there's really no harm in staying, then…" Fuji said. "Seeing as I don't really have a choice," he said, putting emphasis on the word 'choice' and glaring at Atobe, who was still grabbing his wrist, and he only smirked back triumphantly.
"He's going to have to go back some time," Yukimura said. "Our mission for him depends on that."
"That? Depends on what?" Fuji said.
"Your ability to travel between the two worlds. It's really a long story," Ryoma said, speaking for the first time since his 'outburst'. "But to make it short, only you have that ability."
"Why?" Fuji asked. It was only natural.
"That's where the long part comes in, but we'll explain to you the major story first, which is about how we got to be like this," Yukimura said. "It started a long while ago, when we were all at a family reunion."
Fuji heard someone say in the background quietly, "We'll let Seiichi tell the story, since he has the prettiest voice to listen to."
Fuji thought about what he just heard for a moment. Family reunion? Did that mean they were all related? He still didn't quite get the brother thing, either, because as far as he knew, Kikumaru and Atobe were from different schools, and Jiroh and Yukimura were from completely different regions. Yukimura noticed Fuji's look of shock. "Oh, right, we didn't explain to you; we're all cousins."
"Cou-sins?" Fuji said slowly.
"We may not be related at all, the way you know us," Atobe said. "Actually, we're probably not. It's fortunate that you evenknow all of us. We probably don't have anything in common in your world."
"Of course you do," Fuji automatically said. "You all play tennis."
"Tennis?" Ryoma questioned. It was so ironic, to see that word slip out of Ryoma's mouth in such a confused manner. It even made Fuji laugh, since the Ryoma he knew was so obsessed with the sport.
"It's a sport," Fuji explained, still chuckling a bit.
"Anyway," Yukimura said, "I am Jiroh's older brother, Keigo and Eiji are brothers, Kojiroh and Yuuta are brothers, Yuushi is an only child, and last but not least, Kunimitsu and Ryoma are brothers," he said. "Actually, Keigo is only older than Eiji by a couple of minutes; they're twins, you see? But Keigo isn't fond of Eiji, so he dyed his hair. It fits him, does it not?" Yukimura said, ruffling Atobe's hair, and he only received a well deserved swat in the hand and a scowl.
"Oh," was Fuji's only response. He was shocked to hear all this at one time, but when he looked at them, it made sense. Kind of. They either kind of looked like each other, or perhaps they knew each other well in Fuji's world. It was still strange to think of them as being related at all, though. He hadn't heard Yuuta or Oshitari speak almost at all, and it made him wonder. Even Tezuka had spoken.
As if reading his mind, Jiroh bounced over to Yuuta. "Yuutaaaa!!!" he said excitedly. "We haven't heard you say anything since Fuji got here! What do you think of him?"
"Not much," Yuuta said. His arms were crossed and he was scowling, facing away from the group, who were almost all crowded around Fuji. The brunette (Fuji) chuckled. Some things would never change.
Fuji turned back to Yukimura. "Right, family reunion. Go on."
Yukimura nodded. "At a family reunion when we were all very young, maybe four years of age or so. We were all playing in the yard, since we all knew each other. At that time, we all lived with our own parents, and Jiroh and my parents were the actual king and queen of the country. But we're all still royal blood. Well, Ryoma was actually only, what, one or two at the time?" Yukimura chuckled, and Ryoma turned away. "You're still only twelve. Don't get too cocky. But for some reason, he was with us, too. Don't know whose idea it was to bring him along.
"Anyway, when we were playing 'treasure hunt', we found a bright orb on the ground. All I remember of it was that it had a bunch of these shatter marks all over it, but it wasn't shattered, and it was all in one piece. And that it had two white streaks around it, but I can't remember the pattern. No one else remembers anything about it. We picked it up, and then something crazy happened. That's where I can't remember anything else."
"I remember this part!" Jiroh said. "I remember there being a really, really bright light. And then there was this white mist that gathered around the nine of us. All of a sudden, it disappeared, as well as the orb, and we thought everything was normal again. And then, we found out soon enough that no one could touch us! But we can touch them, or each other. Only the royal family knows about it, and even then, some of our parents don't even know about it! Now, the townsfolk don't even know about this curse, and we almost never show ourselves outside. Some of us have never even been seen by the common folk."
"That's where I come in," the girl said. "I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier, since you probably don't know me. My name is Shizuma, and that's all I reveal about my name. I was born twelve years ago, meaning I'm the same age as Ryoma. I am always reincarnated, though. But this is my importance in this castle. I am what you might call a fortune teller. I can see things, but not in the future or past. I can only see things in the present, but I can see anything or anyone that my eyes have already seen. I also have a lot of knowledge about the world, because I existed many, many years ago, too.
"So the first reason the royal family sought me was to figure out what was going on. They found out that the orb was really created by a magical being a very long time ago. The person who created it was very angry, so they cursed the orb with the worst curse that they could think of. It was to be able to love, but not have. And that was portrayed because these nine fine men can love, but they cannot be embraced, or even touched for that matter. And the creator ran off. The creator later died, but was reincarnated through the generations, much like myself. They asked me to keep an eye on the orb, since I can see anything that my eyes have already seen. They told me to not let it out of my sight.
"Guess what? I did. At it was then that the orb was gone. These boys found it in the forest behind their home, and the curse was placed upon anyone in a certain radius. That was what the mist was. Then, the orb was whisked off to a different world. What the orb does exactly is that it separates the cursed one's soul from their body, so that their body, along with the orb, goes to a different world, and their soul stays. So they look real, but when you try to touch them, you can't.
"The creator or a reincarnation of the creator is the only one who can travel between the two worlds without the orb in hand. If I try hard enough, I can hear glimpses of what the reincarnation of the creator is hearing, but I can't see him or her. This is because the creator spoke with my previous incarnations and not me, and they never showed their face. So I can't see them, and I can only hear a bit of what they hear, because he didn't speak with me directly.
"You, Fuji, happens to be the reincarnation, and since I could only hear, I heard Eiji's body in the real world calling you Fujiko a lot, so I figured you were a girl. That's what I told everyone. We have been looking for you for years, only able to hear what other people called you, and what other people have said to you, and even that was limited for me.
"This is the task at hand. We need you to first find the orb, and then bring all of the nice boys' real bodies back into this world so they can be reunited with their souls." And that was where she finished.
All was silence in the room. Not a single person moved; they all wanted to hear Fuji's reaction. This was a crucial moment in their lives, anyway. Fuji took a deep breath. This wasn't overwhelming for him, but it was a lot of information at once. Okay, maybe it was overwhelming, but he got the main gist of it. "So, what you're saying is that the orb is in my world, you want me to get it, and then you want me to bring these nine back into this world. But they can't travel through the mirror unless they have the orb with them, but I can travel through the mirror freely?"
"Precisely," she said.
Fuji sighed. How would helping them hurt him in any way? Okay, so he'd have to go through a series of tasks involving some of the best junior tennis players in the nation, but they all knew him well, so how big of a deal could it be? "No one in the real world knows about this, right?" he asked.
"No, and you probably shouldn't tell anyone. I think you have enough sense to know that," Shizuma said.
"Shizumaaaaaa! We don't want to get on his bad side! What if he doesn't want to help us, then??" Jiroh whined.
Fuji smiled. "Relax, Jiroh. Of course I'll help you guys."
Jiroh's eyes widened to a size that Fuji didn't even know was possible for a fourteen year old. "REALLY?!"
Fuji nodded, and was immediately pounced on by Jiroh and Eiji. He was sent tumbling to the floor by the force. Yukimura leaned over him and stroked his bangs back gently. "That's my—our Fujiko," he said smiling, and Fuji could tell that he had slipped those words on purpose. Tezuka nodded at him.
Fuji looked around the room and found that Atobe had disappeared. Fuji wondered where he had gone, and was about to get up to find him, since Eiji and Jiroh had gotten off of him by now, but was immediately snatched up in the arms of Saeki. "First, we need to get you some decent clothes! Those clothes you're wearing now are so boring!" Fuji looked down and he was indeed wearing only a white t-shirt and khaki pants. His mind was off of Atobe for now, as he was dragged away.
This chapter was...eh. xD;; I have some better chapter coming up, but they're mostly at the end or middle. But until then, enjoy! And please please please review! Thank you! (By the way, it wasn't my idea to make Atobe and Kikumaru brothers XD;; )