Reader's Response:
kasumi takemoto: Yep; of course I remember you. I missed your reviews. (puts on a sad face) Oh, I changed it 'cause…I dunno…I just felt like changing it. And since everyone was calling me insane around that time, it turned out to be something about insanity. (shrugs and grins) Yes. I agree. Kristen is very right.
notquiteagoddess: (gasps) I would NEVER kill Nuriko off…unless of course, he miraculously survives and becomes a walking medical miracle or something like that 'cause Nuriko is AMAZING! And erm…well, answering your question about her expecting them to be ugly…well, the only 'seishi' she's actually met is Taka and I imagined that in his mid thirties and with his money obsessing ways, he's not exactly appealing in terms of looks. And yeah, I did go to the amusement park; we went to Toronto for a few days so we went to Wonderland and it was SO MUCH FUN! (shudders) Dentist…I don't like going to the dentist.
Kyae Sohma: I'm sorry. You, along with the rest of my friends, get the right to brutally maim me for the torture I have bestowed upon you by making this chapter and thus getting the song that never ends stuck in your head. I'm glad you liked the chapter though. I know I did. Who wouldn't like a chapter with NURIKO AND HOTOHORI!
(looks up from studying for driver's test) Enjoy the chapter! (for some reason, the ordinary dividers that ffnet provides doesn't work this time, so i'll be using whatever actually shows up, such as the one displayed right under this message...)
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"I don't understand…" Tasuki muttered, doing a very good impression of a monkey and scratching his head, "How did we not hear anyone come in?" he wondered, still feeling very confused about the fact that the girls were kidnapped.
Chiriko nodded, "We would have at least heard creaking noises; these floors are not exactly made of stone" he muttered, "The floorboards creak just like the boards at home"
"So then…"
"Maybe they were trained to be silent?" Kouji suggested, "And we couldn't hear anything because of that barrier put up to keep us out"
Tasuki cursed, "Stupid girl" he muttered.
"Don't say that in front of her" Chiriko warned.
Tasuki shuddered, "I won't…"
"so where do you think they could be?" Kouji asked.
"I dunno…we can't do that mind thingy unless they're right in the same area as us" Tasuki grumbled, "So that won't work"
"The stars have said nothing" Chiriko told them, reminding Tasuki of his brother's ability to accurately read the stars.
Kouji just shrugged, "You wanna see if there was a ransom note or something?"
The other two nodded in agreement and crossed over to the girls' side of the room, where their two bags were kept. Tasuki grabbed one and rummaged through it, finding that the bag was exactly like the pouch that had been given to Kouji, seemingly endless in space. Eventually he pulled out a…
He looked at the object strangely. It seemed to be made out of some sort of metal, but yet did not look like completely made of metal and was lighter than most metals were. He looked at it confused, and noticed the strange letters on the inside, and the letters were even glowing. ( AN: For those that find my description of it abysmal…it's a cell phone…)
"…what is that?" Chiriko asked curiously.
"I…don't…know…" Tasuki said, still examining the object, "It's so…" he pressed one of the buttons that held the strange letters and was startled when it made a sudden beeping noise. He decided to put whatever it was back but then…
The thing started making strange noises, and was playing some sort of song. Tasuki saw the glowing green strangely shaped thing above the strange letters and pressed it, only to hear…
"Kristen!"
To his utter surprise, a voice came from the strange object and he almost dropped it. However, he did scream in fright.
"Are you there?"
The three males stared at it in fright.
"I'll take that as a no…" there was a long silence and then…there was a clicking sound and then no sound came again but after a few moments, the thing rang again and this time, Chiriko knocked the scary thing out of Tasuki's hand, making it land on the bed. Then they heard the same voice from before speak again.
"Leaving a message for you. Just wanna tell you that your dad's been looking for you. He's called my house a few times already, so you should call him as soon as you get this…" there was a sudden pause and then some talking in the background, "Alright, where the hell are you! Apparently, the phone company just called on the other line and this call is costing too much for it to just be long distance. How the hell did you get out of Canada so quickly? It's only been a few hours since school ended! You're definitely paying me back once you get back!"
Tasuki relaxed when the strange object stopped talking and he gingerly picked it up and threw it back into the bag. Then he went onto searching into Seiriko's bag; it seemed that he really never did learn. He found another strange object and upon seeing something very similar to the thing from before, he immediately put it back in and went searching around again. He took out something black in color that was in a rectangular shape and he pressed one of the buttons on the side…
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Far, far away, sitting on a blanket on the ground, Seiriko suddenly twitched. Kristen shot her a weird look, "What?" she asked.
Seiriko's eyes narrowed, "Someone's touching my music" she growled almost protectively. Kristen gasped, horrified that anyone would dare touch the music that was both sacred and precious, "…but who…" she suddenly stopped, "…our bags are still at the inn, aren't they?" she asked. Seiriko nodded but then paused, realization dawning on her, "…Tasuki" she muttered in a dangerous tone.
Watching Seiriko plot painful ways for Tasuki to die, Kristen shook her head with a proud expression on her face, "That poor boy…" she muttered, already thinking what to say for his imminent and soon-to-come eulogy.
After plotting, Seiriko looked wistfully at the fire burning in front of them, "Wish we had marshmallows" she muttered.
"NO!" Kristen suddenly shouted, "No more sugar for you!"
Seiriko pouted, glancing at her with puppy-dog eyes full of absolute cuteness which was enhanced even more by the fire reflecting off her red eyes. Kristen twitched. She…had…to……resist.
Of course, that would be when Nuriko and Hotohori came back with more firewood. Hotohori was not sure whether to laugh or roll his eyes at the antics of the two girls. Only half a day with them and he already knew what they were like.
"I'm not even going to comment" Nuriko muttered. Hotohori nodded wisely, "That's a good idea"
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Somewhere even further away from the two groups, green eyes were staring confused at a phone. She then turned around to her friend who was in the same room and shrugged, "Well, she's not answering her phone either…"
"Both Kristen and Seiriko are missing then?"
"Yeah…and my phone bill is too high to even think about paying for!" Holly scowled, "I'm complaining to the phone company"
Jenna raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that just a bit counterproductive? Calling will just add more numbers to your phone bill"
Cursing under her breath, Holly glanced up at the computer screen for a moment. Then she had to blink several times to ensure that she was not dreaming or anything of the sort. She shakily pointed to the screen which was glowing a brilliant light and across the screen in barely seen words were:
Fushigi Yuugi: The Mysterious Play
The Continuation
Everlasting Story
"Weird…" Jenna said aloud, her finger reaching to touch the screen. Holly knocked Jenna's finger away from the screen, "Don't. It could be radioactive or something and kill us all; you wouldn't want to set off a radioactive computer would you!"
Jenna shook her head, "But…wouldn't all those times you probably hit your computer have set it off before?"
Silence.
By then, the light had gotten, if possible, brighter and even larger. Now, it surrounded them and made it impossible to escape the room before it got even huger. Then there was one final extremely bright flash of light and for the two girls, all went dark.
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Taiitsu-kun was never a patient woman, nor was she ever surprised by anything, unless of course, you count that time that her Nyan-nyan's attempted to bake her a cake for her ten thousandth birthday, something they had picked up in the other world (why they had been there, Taiitsu-kun had not asked) and instead of the cake tasting sweet and good, the cake tasted…well, squishy and strange. That was the first and last time Taiitsu-kun would ever touch the contraption known as cheese cake.
However, that was many years ago and this was now. She was certainly surprised now, especially since two girls who were dressed in the same weird style as Kristen and Seiriko had appeared on her mountain, unconscious. Despite popular belief, unconscious girls did not fall out of the sky regularly. Whenever they did so, it meant that they had something to do with the Gods. So that was how Taiitsu-kun came to the conclusion that these girls were the other two chosen by the Gods.
What puzzled her was that they had not been due for some time, not until they were halfway through gathering the Seiryuu seishi at least, but here they were and…they were waking up.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" came the scream from one of them, upon waking up and seeing – Taiitsu-kun glared – her.
"Oh, shut up" she snapped for she was very touchy about her face, especially after Hotohori all that many years ago had claimed that he 'could not stand to look at anything so ugly'.
The girl just ignored her and began poking her friend, "Holly…wake up…the world has been taken over ugly monsters and we're looking at the ugliest one…"
Taiitsu-kun's eye twitched as she attempted to rein in her angry outburst.
Holly opened her eyes groggily and looked in the direction that Jenna had pointed at, "…what the fuck?" she mouthed, her eyes wide and scared, "…it has been taken over by ugly monsters!"
"I am NOT a monster!" Taiitsu-kun barked, "I am Taiitsu-kun, creator of this world"
"…a monster world?"
"Ye – NO! No it's not a monster world!" she paused, "You are in a different world. Normally, those like you would be brought in through a book but seeing as none of you seem to go near the library at all, I had to connect the book portal to something that all four of you were subjected to…your computers" That was mostly true at least. Taiitsu-kun was still pondering over the mystery of how these two arrived ahead of schedule.
"Four…of us…are you having vision problems lady?" Holly questioned, "I only see two. Me" she pointed at herself clearly, obviously thinking that Taiitsu-kun was very retarded, "And Jenna" she pointed at the blue haired girl.
Taiitsu-kun sighed in exasperation, "Two arrived before you did" she explained, "And are out doing their mission right now…" she paused, "At least I hope so…knowing them, they've burnt down one or two villages or something…"
"I see…what mission?"
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"Are we there yet?" Seiriko asked.
"No" Hotohori answered.
"Are we – "
"NO!" he answered again, this time cutting Kristen off.
"How long then?"
"As long as it'll take Nuriko to wake up" he pointed to his friend.
"…which is…?"
"Under the wrath of a bucketful of water…one second. Normally…fifteen minutes" Hotohori told them. Both girls groaned, cursing the mode of travel for the twenty-third time that day.
Just as Nuriko woke up, Hotohori announced that they had arrived. The two girls immediately spotted the inn they had stayed in before and hoped that Tasuki had not done too much damage to their bags. Some damage, when involving Tasuki, was inevitable.
Well…what they discovered upon entering their room at the inn was…
Nothing.
Everything, including the pink beds that Taiitsu-kun had popped up for the guys, was gone and the room looked like it did before they had stepped foot into it. Seiriko groaned and buried her face in her hands, "Mussiccc…" she wailed despairingly.
"…they left something behind" Hotohori said, pointing to the bed where there was a strange object, unknown to either him or Nuriko, who was looking perplexed at Seiriko's unexpected mourning about her 'precious music'.
Kristen of course, recognized her cell phone right away and dove for it, not of course, realizing the fact that nobody else was after it in the first place. She held it gingerly, "Well…it looks like it's fine" she commented. She turned the phone on and was startled to realize that she had a message. Listening to it, she frowned and then turned to Seiriko, "Didn't Taiitsu-kun say that time passed way slower in the other world?"
Seiriko nodded, "So…we've been here about…five months, right?...but that still doesn't work. Yui said that Miaka had been gone for only a few hours in the other world and here, three months passed"
"Perhaps the world is in more danger than we first thought" Hotohori suggested.
Kristen shrugged, "We should go and ambush her to get answers"
"Or…we look for Tasuki, Chiriko and Kouji and get out bags back!" Seiriko shouted, a maniacal gleam in her eye, "Before my music gets damaged!"
"…" Nuriko stared at her, "…of course, the fact that the world could be in danger holds such little relevance to your music…"
He got two similar looks and shook his head, "Never mind"
Hotohori merely chuckled with amusement.
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"Geez…Taiitsu-kun was right" Holly said to Jenna as they traipsed along the deserted terrain, making sure not to step on the heads of the men they had just beat senseless, "It's like every guy we meet wants to sell us or kill us or something"
Jenna nodded in agreement, "Thank heaven for weapons" she said, glancing admiringly at her own weapon.
"I don't see how we're supposed to find the other two that the old hag mentioned!" Holly exclaimed, "Especially since we're looking for two people in an entire country!"
"At least we get all weapons though!" Jenna, it seemed, as just as excited about the idea of being given weapons as Seiriko had been.
Holly glanced around at the still very much abandoned terrain, hoping to find at least some clue about where the other two were, or maybe even a seishi or two to keep them from getting bored. From what she had heard from Taiitsu-kun, the seishi were very good at aiding in causing trouble and trouble was very fun to cause.
Jenna squinted in the distance and pointed, "Hey…look over there…I see something kinda shiny…" she said, "Are there shiny things in wastelands?"
"Er…" Holly, of course, did not know, seeing as she had never been in a wasteland. The only time she ever saw wastelands were in her geography textbook, which did not really help seeing as the textbook went on and on describing the temperature, rainfall, etc, instead of if there was a possibility of shiny things.
"Never mind; let's go see what it is" Jenna suggested, running off. Upon arriving, Jenna gazed curiously at the object, a bit charred near the end, but she recognized it nonetheless.
"What is it?" Holly asked curiously.
Jenna held it up, "I think it's the stuff we used in science in grade ten…magnesium ribbon or whatever"
"The stuff that exploded?"
"Yeah. That"
"…that was a fun class"
"I know…fire…" Both girls were just a tad obsessed with fire.
"Well, I know that this place isn't advanced enough to make magnesium ribbons yet" Holly mused, "So, that must mean that the other two have been here"
"Yeah, except too bad that we're still in the middle of nowhere!" Jenna pointed out, a bit irritated at the lack of leads and people now.
"Damn Taiitsu-kun"
"I know…I mean, she couldn't have popped us to a town or anything?"
"Bitch"
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the ground next to Holly, who yelped in shock as she jumped away from where the lightning had hit. She and Jenna stared at the charred hole in the ground for a few moments before both of them promised to themselves never to badmouth Taiitsu-kun ever again…out loud anyways.
After agreeing to that, the two girls were at a loss about what to do. There was no town that they could see and that was where they wanted to be, especially since it was going to get dark very soon and they wanted somewhere to sleep where they would not be in fear of being kidnapped in their sleep, or spiders. However, that night, paranoia won over the need for sleep (well, Jenna was already insomniac, so that really did not affect her in the slightest) and they spent the night, traipsing through forests, deadened land the fields before…
"Erm….are you two alright?"
The two girls perked up instantly upon hearing a new voice and looked up. Despite the fact that their feet hurt, they had not had a decent meal in two days and the fact that Holly was dead tired, they looked quite happy to see a stranger.
"…tired…" Holly muttered in a groggy voice.
"..m' too" Jenna yawned; walking around all day did wonders for curing insomnia, it seemed.
Then, they both fell asleep right then and there, leaving the stranger with two girls asleep, in the middle of…somewhere.