AN: Rough picture of what Mia looks like in Konan soldier gear can be found at
http colon slash slash www dot deviantart dot com slash deviations slash 54091511 slash
replace the appropriate symbols for colon, slash, and dot since this site won't accept such.
Sorry not too good with hands. And Konan needs a fashion consultant to revamp their wardrobe. Too many drab colors.
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Mia rode among the soldiers like she had been glued to Tank's saddle. Of course, with the way her lower extremities felt, she almost had to be to stay on. Still fuming over the "boost" she received that morning, she held back from talking to the men for most of the morning. She simply watched the beauty of the living world around her. Had it just been a few days since she had lamented about missing the sounds of birds and children playing? Every town they passed through, groups of children played childish games of tag and giggled in reckless abandon. No evil was beating on their doorstep yet.
Strange, how it took such a horrible tragedy to make her appreciate the simple pleasures in life. Though, she had always enjoyed the pleasures like eating and good friends, reveling in nature was new to her. She had enjoyed the outdoors, but this was almost a religious experience. Every breath of breeze and every tossing leaf had more significance than she could ever imagine. Part of it was because she had witnessed the horror of them being taken away. The other part was an innate knowledge on her part, that when her mission was completed, she would never witness it again.
Somehow, she knew that she was slowly carving herself out of the flow of time. Like a bend in a river that carves so far into the bank, that eventually, the river bypasses it and moves on a different course. Every move she took was changing the future of the younger Miaka, and therefore, altering her own past. What she had experienced would never come to pass, IF she were successful. Essentially, she would have nothing to return to. Her life would take a different track, and she would cease to exist in that time frame. Her younger self would live past the point where she had left her world, and her life would be gone. Hopefully, her regrets and sorrows would also be erased. So, where did that leave her? She would either disappear, or end up somewhere else. Never would she be able to go back to her world, because she would already be there, living her life. But, her meager, pitiful existence was worth the price to save her friends and family from annihilation.
A deep sigh escaped her chapped lips as they rode further to the north. She noticed that when they galloped into the low lands, that the air turned quite crisp and chilly. At that time, she was thankful for the helmet she wore that had a flap that hung down around her neck and shoulders. Though, who ever designed these uniforms really needed some help from a fashion designer. What was with these people? Didn't they have any pride in their appearance? She remembered some of the outfits that Nuriko and Tamahome wore and wanted to look like that. Still, the uniform would suffice to keep her warm, and might even provide a bit of shielding if they were attacked by arrows or something of that nature.
But, darn if she didn't feel like an ugly boy wearing those colors! She smiled a tiny smile as she remembered her little secret of wearing her frilly, silk camisole under the rough army-issued shirt. She could just imagine the look on the poor guy's face if she were injured in such a manner that her shirt had to be removed. It would be like a scene from a manga!
Feeling somehow lighter about the whole disappearing future, she looked around to see what the others were up to. Chichiri was still riding faithfully to her right, and Lieutenant Kanai was still riding faithfully to her left. Somewhere during the morning, she had realized that the second in command's name was Suitani. He looked like a skinny version of her older brother but with a ragged scar running down his face from his left temple to his jaw. As far as she could tell, this Assistant Lieutenant rarely spoke. She only knew his name because Kanai used it so often. It was rather hard to miss when the name was yelled out in his deep baritone. Suitani rode just to Kanai's left and a bit to the rear, to carry out any commands that were barked at him.
Of the five guards that rode before them, she could only make out any distinguishing features of two of them. One was wider than the rest (she hated to say anyone was fat) and the other seemed to have legs that dragged the ground. Maybe he just had a really short horse. By the end of the day, she expected to know some of their names, simply because that was her nature. It would be rude to expect these men to protect her when she didn't even know their names.
With a slight smile, she turned her upper body to face Chichiri. "Chichiri, can I ask you a favor?" She waited for his assent and continued, "Um, I was wondering if you could use your… whatever you use…to look in on the other group and see about where they are right now? I mostly remember how long things took, but I want to make sure I've got the timing right."
Chichiri was shocked for a moment wondering how she knew he could do that. Then it dawned on him that she had traveled more extensively with him as her younger self than he had realized up until this moment. Of course she had seen him do more things than he had done so far. That was probably how she knew about his dead best friend and his fiancé. Chichiri agreed, "Sure. At the next stop, I need to travel back to the palace to reinforce the illusion of the Emperor, you know. It would be nothing to peek in on the others before I did that, you know." He moved his mount closer to Tank and asked with a wink, "So, when are you going to tell me about that hand, and your hair, you know?"
She chuckled and unconsciously reached a hand up under her helmet flaps to twirl a strand of the shortened auburn hair and answered coyly, "What? Don't you think it's just a new fashion in hair? Maybe it's just a futuristic style? Why, the men of my time might just go wild for a girl with ragged hair. Besides, it's so much easier to care for than that long old mess that you have." Chichiri's eyes shone with a mischievous twinkle as he clearly didn't believe her. She finally relented and agreed, "I'll tell you all about it at the next stop. It's not that great a story. You'll probably be disappointed."
Without warning, the sky turned black and the clouds swirled and boiled with anger. Lightning crashed about on all sides of the column of soldiers like a net trapping them. Mia felt herself tense and prepare for something, though she didn't know what. Shockingly, none of the horses reacted to the deafening noise. Probably because they were used to battle and canons. Poor things.
A huge booming voice screamed out from the tempest, "What do you think you are doing?!" The sound made chills run down Mia's spine as she glanced over to Chichiri. Recognition sparked in his eyes so she tried to rack her brain to see if she knew the voice. Unnoticed, the soldiers closed rank around the female in their group in a defensive maneuver.
Directly in front of them, a small, round, gray mass started to take shape. Then, POP, Taiitsukun materialized. Her normally angry looking face was practically livid with rage. She floated within striking distance of the foremost positioned soldiers and yelled at Mia. "You have no right to change history. You can't do this. Fates are already written and sealed. This will only cause chaos and destruction. What you are attempting is impossible. Go back to your own world!"
Miaka was struck dumb for a moment as her brain processed the sudden appearance of the grandmotherly figure that wrote the Universe of the Four Gods. Then, her hateful words sunk in and sparked a flame of anger in the battered woman. Her stern voice started low and grew in volume as she responded. "No right? Fates sealed? Impossible? Well, excuse me, but there already is chaos and destruction. I can't go back to my world, because it's been destroyed! Maybe you didn't notice that while you were over here playing God with people's lives. How could you let such awful things happen? I saw my friends die, when they didn't need to. You could have told me about the last warrior. You could have shown up a few moments earlier and prevented me from tossing the scroll into the flame! But you chose to do NOTHING!" Pain momentarily stole her breath as she continued in a harsh raspy voice. "My friends died in front of me. My family died in front of me…my husband… my baby. The whole world died in front of me. But, for some reason I lived on. Why? Why! Because of that stupid book! If what I'm doing is impossible, then why did Suzaku give me his blessing? Why did he allow me to cross over for this purpose of righting my mistakes?" Her skin took on a reddish glow as Mia looked at the old woman with anger and pain. "I'm going to fix these mistakes. I'm going to save the lives of my friends. I'm going to stop my world from being destroyed. And I'm going to do it with or without your help!" The wind around the group picked up and whipped at the lashings of their uniforms and saddles. Chichiri had a hard time holding onto his helmet as he realized that the source of the gale came from Miaka herself.
The booming voice of Taiitsukun was heard over the roar of the competing powers. "I will stop you from altering this story. You have not proven yourself worthy of summoning Suzaku." The lightning struck the ground even closer to the tightening group and even split a tree just to their right.
Miaka glared at the withered old lady and began to laugh. The sound was quiet at first and grew. "You are going to stop me? Not with Suzaku on my side you are not. And how dare you say I'm not worthy. I have summoned Suzaku and wielded his powers without being consumed like the priestesses before me. Besides, you are too late. I have already changed this story from this point on; nothing will be as it was. Even if I fail, I will leave behind enough information to see that life does not follow that original story. I have given my life for this opportunity, and you will not be allowed to take it away from me!"
With that shouted to the heavens, red lightning rained down on the area and evaporated the storm clouds and dispelled the lightning. In the hush following the outburst, Taiitsukun floated soundlessly before them, still in a threatening manner. Then, just as suddenly as she appeared, she smiled gratefully and vanished.
Kanai shifted in his saddle. The creaking of the leather the only sound in the clearing. He looked at the riled up woman and asked, "Friend of yours?"
Miaka whipped her head around to face the Lieutenant, sparks still almost flying out of her eyes. Slowly, his question registered, and he watched her body loosen up. The eerie red glow faded and a sheepish grin grew on her stern face. Her voice was low and a bit embarrassed as she answered, "Um, you could say that. Though, she's not my biggest fan." A bark of laughter rumbled from one of the huge soldiers in the rear, which drew her attention. She swiveled in the saddle to look back at the rear guard. The two archers were poised and loaded, ready to open fire on any target. The two sumo wrestler wannabes were holding lances that looked sinister and deadly. The rest of the soldiers held an assortment of hand and throwing weapons at the ready. It was humbling to realize that all these men had been willing to battle this world's most powerful wizards to keep her safe.
In a tiny voice she turned back to the Lieutenant and asked, "Would now be a good time to stop and eat? Losing my temper makes me hungry." More laughter followed this statement as battle-ready bodies relaxed and weapons were sheathed. A few harsh orders and bodies started moving like bees as the camp was set up and the noon meal begun.
Miaka dismounted with grace this time and managed to land on her feet instead of her rear. Tank's big head turned towards her and eyed her with, what she hoped, was respect. Even the big gray horse knew what he should do when they stopped for camp, and he headed over to the handler for some water and his own snack.
Lieutenant Kanai pointed to an area of the clearing and shouted, "Hand to hand sparring over there." He pointed to another area, "Hand to sword there." Then pointed to a third area, "Sword to sword there. Practice until you break a sweat. No need to get lazy and rusty on this trip." So, while the food was being cooked, the men divided up to spar.
Chichiri and Mia chose to wander in the direction away from the activity and sat near a stream. Mia asked, "Is there any way you can put up a barrier so we aren't heard?" He tapped his chin for a moment, then pulled a sutra out of his sleeve. "This should do the trick, you know." And set to chanting.
Mia unwound the bandage from her left hand and inspected the cuts. It had been roughly a day since she had materialized in Konan. So much had happened and so much could go wrong.
After a quick look into Chichiri's hat to make sure the younger Miaka was on schedule, she started to explain her hand and hair. "Well, like I said, it's not very exciting. When everyone was gone in my world, the book reappeared. You know, the book The Universe of the Four Gods. That's how I got here. I was pulled into the book when I started reading it back 9 years ago. Well, after my last trip here, the book vanished. I assumed that the story was complete, and I would never return. So, you can imagine what a puzzle it was to find the book again."
Mia showed Chichiri the intricate patterns of cuts and scabs on her left hand. "I found that regular ink and pencil lead did not remain on the pages. Every mark vanished like the pages were absorbing them. Then, I accidentally got some blood on a page and it stayed. I pulled out a quill pen, and wrote a letter in the blood, and it stayed too. When it dried, it looked exactly like the ink from the previous story. Then, I got the idea to write my story in between the story of my younger self, to try and keep certain tragedies from happening." Chichiri reached over and took her hand and gently inspected the cuts and ran a finger lightly over her palm. "It took a long time to figure out what to write and where I wanted to end up. Then, I set out to write my story in blood. It took quite a while, and as you can see, I didn't expect it to use so much blood." She laughed a bit at herself and her naivety.
She removed her helmet with her right hand, and set it on the ground beside her. Absently, she ran that same hand through her hair, knowing she had a terrible case of "helmet head" hair. She snorted a bit and continued, "About the hair, well, that's part of the story I wrote. See, in the past, something of my world was used to connect me to home when I was here. At first it was my school uniform. Then there were a set of rings that Tamahome and I wore." Chichiri nodded and released her wounded hand as he commented, "So, you needed a connection?"
She nodded, "But it's more than that. See, my final wish is that the warriors can be reincarnated into my world like Tamahome was. I thought that each warrior could choose if he wanted to come, after he was done being reincarnated and doing whatever he was destined to do in this world. He could bring his family, friends and loved ones with him, and we could all be a huge family in my world. You would get to bring your fiancé and best friend, and if you wanted, a love for your friend, so history would not repeat itself." She looked at the utter shock on Chichiri's face and knew that this would be hard to accept.
"See, what made me think of this was a dream that Tamahome had in the past when he was dying in a battle. He dreamed of our wedding day. The strange thing was that his deceased father was there, along with his brothers and sisters who had died. All the warriors were there with their families and loved ones. As I sat in my destroyed world, with the bodies of my husband and daughter, I remembered the dream, and I wanted that. It may be selfish of me, but I wanted all my friends back." Tears formed in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. "I wanted a wedding day where everyone was there to share the joy with us. I also wanted everyone to have their own special love, not like Hotohori is now, thinking he loves my younger self." She reached over and grasped Chichiri's hand and looked into his eyes and continued, "I want you to have your love back and your best friend."
She let go and leaned back to watch the water flow along in the little stream. "With all of you together with my younger self, I'm sure we can discover the cause of the destruction of my world, and somehow prevent it."
A minute passed as she dreamed of the future of her younger self, wishing she could experience it too. "About the hair…. I tried to think of anything that I had that would link you guys to my younger self. And I came up with the hair. I cut off quite a few bundles and put them in my bag for all of you. That was the only thing I could think of. Knowing you and Taiitsukun, I figured you could do something with it."
She stood and looked down at her blue haired friend and laughed, "See, I told you it was a boring story. No damsels in distress, no dragons to fight. Just me and a pair of scissors." As he rose to his feet, Chichiri laughed and announced, "Well, thank you for telling me, you know. It's a lot to think about. But for now, I've got to go supervise my Emperor illusion, you know. Don't want it doing anything too out of the ordinary, you know." And with a smile and a flourish, he held out his hat and stepped into it.
Mia wandered back towards camp, carefully picking up the sutra and tucking it in her pocket. Never knew when that could come in handy. Kanai saw her returning alone, minus the bandage around her hand and called over the healer to look at it again. Mia watched the men spar for a while as her hand was re-goo-ed and bandaged. She leaned towards Kanai and whispered, "Can I practice too? I haven't worked up a good sweat in a while. Although, I'll definitely need a place to bathe tonight if I do."
The Lieutenant looked over the slight figure that looked like a twelve year old boy and grinned. "Sure, you can fight some of the smaller guys, but don't complain to me if you get hurt. My job is to get you to your destination, not to pamper you like a princess. But, if you hold your own, I might be persuaded to look for a deep pond for bathing."
Mia grinned with a cocky tilt to her head, and stalked to the hand to hand sparring area, looking for her first victim.
Back at the palace, Chichiri materialized under the desk of the Emperor. His illusionary Hotohori was sitting there looking despondent with his head in his hands. None of the advisors were around, so it was the perfect opportunity to take its place. Chichiri easily morphed into the likeness of the Emperor, and set about checking on the success of his illusion.
It wasn't hard to set up such an illusion. All it took was a bit of thought and planning to determine the actions and reactions to build in. It was the unexpected that was hard to plan for. If things got too bad, he would just have to make his illusion ill and force it to stay in the Emperor's chambers.
As he wandered through the palace, no one seemed unduly alarmed or upset. It seemed his illusion had been responding appropriately to the mundane events presented to it. But, just to be safe, he found the head minister and announced his plans, as the Emperor, to spend the next few days in prayer for the safety of the Priestess of Suzaku. It was something Hotohori would have done, and it would simplify things greatly.
So, Chichiri made his way back to the office, and pulled out the scroll that was stuck to the underside of the desk. He made his slight adjustments to it, and then reactivated it with a chant and a burst of chakra. A three dimensional likeness of the Emperor coalesced and set off to the temple. Chichiri returned to his normal appearance, and stepped back into his hat.
To any untrained eye, it would look like Chichiri just dropped out of the tree to land next to the Lieutenant. Only Mia and Kanai really knew that he had been gone. As he looked around to reorient himself to the activities of the camp, Kanai leaned over with a conspiratorial grin and announced, "You're just in time to watch your little Priestess humble some of my men."