Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Bedlam and Vertigo ❯ Demise ( Chapter 6 )

A/N: Wow, it's been a while.... I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but school takes up a lot of my time.... =(

Like always, disclaimers apply. And um... I don't have much else to say... nothing comes to mind. XD.

Enjoy?

Yeah, enjoy.

"It's so crowded today!" Miaka exclaimed, keeping her grip on the hem of Tasuki's shirt as they pushed through the marketplace.

"Hai," Kouji replied. "Business is booming as always, ne?"

"How far is your cousin's booth, no da?" Chichiri asked, looking around at the variety of foods and gifts being sold.

"Oh, we'll get there," Kouji answered coolly. He folded his arms behind his head and looked to the sky briefly. It was a nice day. He actually hadn't seen his relatives in a while because he spent a lot more time with his fellow bandits. He wondered how much Kiku had grown. He wondered if Yamako had thought of doing something other than selling damn potatoes...

"Oi, Kouji! This it?" called Tasuki's voice.

"Eh?" The blue-haired bandit craned his neck to face his best friend behind him, who was standing in-between Miaka and Chichiri and pointing at the vegetable. Kouji moved his gaze to the booth, and then to a row of sweet potatoes. Behind the counter, he found a familiar head of light-blue hair preparing more, her back to him.

His cousin turned around, an armful of potatoes. Setting them down, she looked up and spotted her cousin. "Oi, I see a familiar man!"

"Yamako," Kouji greeted as he went up to the booth and started searching around it. "Where's Kiku-chan at?"

"Oh, she's around, trying to sell the food," the cousin replied, smiling. "She knows this place and the people in it like the back of her hand. Kiku-chan is trying so hard to get away from me. So I let her."

Kouji frowned. "You let her go by herself?"

"Oh no, Asa-chan went with her."

"Asa? You mean that old bitch who works at the booth next to you?" He gestured to an equal-sized booth that contained painted pots and wicker baskets. There was a grandmotherly person standing behind it, waiting for customers. In place of Asa, Kouji supposed.

Yamako whacked him on the side of his head. "Kouji-nii-chan! She's my best friend!"

Kouji raised an eyebrow.

"And she's only a couple of years older than you."

"Five years older than you..."

Meanwhile, Tasuki, Miaka, and Chichiri were feeling left out.

Miaka blinked. "Ano...." She waved her hand to catch the cousins' attention.

"Waa!" Yamako looked surprised. She hit Kouji again, who looked uneffected but glared at her regardless. "You didn't introduce them to me!" She nodded at them. "... But I think I recognize that fiery-headed one."

"I'm the best friend, Genrou," Tasuki spoke up, smirking. "And that's Miaka and Chichiri." He pointed to each of them respectively.

"Hajimemashite," Miaka said politely, bowing slightly.

"Douzo yoroshiku!" Chichiri added optimistically.

"Hai," said Yamako, smiling.

"Yamako-chan!"

Everyone turned to see a short (shorter than Miaka, even) sandy-haired woman running to them. She grabbed the edge of the booth to catch her breath.

"Asa-chan!" Kouji's cousin replied, surprised that she was back already. "Eh? Doko ni Kiku-chan ga imasu ka?" Yamako asked quickly, noticing the absence of the young girl's presence.

"Where's Kiku-chan?" Asa repeated, still recovering her breath. "I thought... she'd find her way back here..."

Yamako's eyes flared. "You lost her??" She gestured wildly to the crowds with her hand. "Do you realize how crowded the market is today?! And what kind of people could be out there? This town isn't exactly the safest, you know."

"Oi, Asa..." Kouji spoke up in a quietly dangerous voice. "How did you lose her?" He crossed his arms in front of him and narrowed his eyes.

"I was holding her hand in the middle of town square," Asa explained matter-of-factly. She put her hand to her chin, trying to remember. "And we got to a particularly crowded area... and all of a sudden my hand felt empty..."

Neither Yamako nor Kouji felt reassured.

"I tried looking for her, though. But she knows this place well. She's probably out still trying to sell those sweet potatoes."

There was an awkward silence between Asa and the cousins.

"I... I think she'd be able to find her way back," Miaka piped up softly, hoping the tension between the three would lessen.

Kouji frowned at Miaka. "Hn. Maybe so."

"Oi, maybe some of us should go back and try looking for her?" Tasuki suggested.

"Yeah," Kouji agreed immediately. He turned to Yamako and Asa. "You two stay here. The rest of us will go look for her."

Chichiri raised an eyebrow. "Does it take four people to look for a little girl, no da?"

Tasuki nodded. "Good thinking, Chichiri. You can stay." He smiled devilishly.

The monk looked a little miffed, but complied anyway. "Hai...."

"Wanna see something?"

Upon saying those words, and while looking at the girl before him, Kurai was suddenly reminded of his two twin cousins, a boy and a girl. Their names were Arata and Chie, respectively.

They're dead.

He was baby-sitting his grade-school-age cousins. It was just the three of them that evening.

And then there was a fire...

"You worthless piece of shit..."

It wasn't my fault!! Kurai gritted his teeth, trying to force his sister's intruding thoughts out of his head, but they just kept coming, causing his previous thoughts of his cousins and that day to fade...

".... Afraid of everything, huh??"

"Shut up," he rasped out loud, his body beginning to shake out of anger.

"Too afriad to save your cousins??!"

"I'm not afraid!" he suddenly shouted, frightening the girl.

"Afraid of everything, huh??!"

She backed up slightly. "I-I'm sorry for bothering you.... s-sir...." she turned to run, but with his free hand, Kurai grabbed her little arm tightly, intent on bruising it. The girl dropped her basket. The sweet potatoes fell all around them, but he paid them no heed. He eyed the child triumphantly.

Come to think of it, this kid looked a lot like Chie.

Kurai brought the kid closer to him. "I'm not afraid," he hissed. With his pocketed hand, he whipped out his handgun and aimed it at her, pressing the barrel forcefully against her forehead. She immediately froze, gaping at the strange weapon. "Na... Nani...?" she uttered quietly.

"Hey...." he asked, his voice more buoyant. He smirked, humoring her. "What's your name, kid?"

She didn't answer for a long while. The gun pressed harder into her skin. She gulped. "Ki....Kiku desu."

He clicked off the safety with the thumb of the hand holding the gun. "Kawaii."

Bang.

Tasuki, Kouji, and Miaka's heads snapped up at the banging sound that bounced off the buildings around them. Right after came the confused and frightened screams of the bewildered people in the marketplace. People started running away, only to end up crashing into other people trying to get out of the scene.

Tasuki looked confused. "What the fuck was that?!" he exclaimed.

"That doesn't sound too pleasant!" Kouji replied, frowning. Shit, I really need to get to Kiku... He paused thoughtfully for a few seconds, standing still, and then began violently pushing past the panicked people around him. "I can handle this on my own! I'm gonna find her!" he yelled to Tasuki and Miaka.

"Okay!" the seishi called back.

Meanwhile, Miaka let her jaw drop, staring at the ground. She felt as if the wind had been kicked out of her. She couldn't breathe.

The sound was eerily familiar to her.

A gunshot.

Miaka hugged herself. He couldn't have followed me here.... She definitely remembered him. That man... chasing her. That man... who killed Tetsuya, Yui, Keisuke, her mother...

Taka.... She was the last to see him alive. She could see him now, lying on the bed, staring at her weakly, with that sword stabbed through him....

"Ai...shi...teru...Miaka...my love..."

"No..... no......" Miaka stepped backward, away from Tasuki's side. Her eyes were wide and fearful, her skin was pale.

Tasuki turned to her, noticing that she moved away. "Miaka, stay by me," he ordered gently. "You'll get lost in the crowd." He grabbed her by the arm.

"No....!" She began tearing up. "Taka..."

".... Taka?" he looked startled. "What the hell...?" He grabbed her other arm and stared into her face, noticing the huge fear in her expression. "Miaka...? Oi, what's wrong?!" he asked her, slightly frantic. Her eyes focused somewhere a little past his shoulder. She didn't seem to hear him.

Why is she being so unresponsive?

Without thinking, he wrapped his arms around her. He could feel her trembling like mad. "Fuck..." he whispered. What do I do now?!

Kouji felt a hard shove behind him. The bandit stumbled forward, but regained his balance in time to see who pushed him. A man in a red jumpsuit was sprinting away, elbowing past the villagers.

Kouji stared at him, scrutinizing him. He had strange clothing on... maybe he was from Miaka's world? Kouji stayed still as the crowds continued to disperse. There was something fishy about that guy.

"Somebody stop him!"

"Someone get him!"

"It's a murderer from another world!!"

"That black weapon...!! What is that horrid black weapon?!!"

He suddenly became aware of the cries of those near him.

That must be the guy who made that sound... but with what? He watched distractedly as some of the braver townspeople, around five young men, grabbed the foreigner by the arms in an attempt to disable his movement, but the stranger was quick to shove them off. From his pocket, he drew out a black object. He pointed it at each of them and pulled some kind of trigger with his index finger.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Kouji's eyes widened. That was it! That odd sound! He looked on, stunned, as the men attacking the foreigner fell back, blood spraying from their chests as they hit the ground. This was followed by more screams and cries. The crowd around the red-suited man started pushing away from him, causing Kouji to slam backwards into an abandoned booth.

"Dammit!" he yelled. He really needed to get to Kiku now. He broke into a run, dodging other people as he darted his eyes around for any signs of his niece. "Kiku-chan!" he cried out. "Kiku??!!"

He suddenly fell forward again, tripping over something. He landed painfully on one knee. Cursing under his breath as he stood back up, he glanced around his feet for the object that caused him to fall. His jaw dropped significantly when he spotted it behind the heel of his foot.

A sweet potato.

Kouji slowly panned his eyes to other areas on the ground and through people's rushing feet, hoping to find maybe more of the vegetable. Those had to lead him to her.

Seeing more on his left, Kouji turned in that direction. At the same time, he was wondering why there were a bunch of sweet potatoes on the ground. He knew Yamako was the only one who sold them.... maybe Kiku just dropped them as the marketplace turned to chaos? Perhaps she sold some and the customers just dropped theirs?

Kouji slowed down to a jog, remembering that Asa said that she lost the girl near the middle of the town square. He glimpsed at his surroundings, and sure enough, he was pretty close to the center.

He saw that this part of town wasn't as congested as where he was before. He took note of a wicker basket lying on its side a few feet in front of him, with a potato lying inside. It was definitely Kiku's.

A little further ahead, he found a small crowd of older village people, talking in hushed tones. A couple of them were bent down, as if examining something.

Kouji felt his stomach drop. Adding up what he was seeing now and what he had used to lead him to this place, he could only conclude what happened. He stepped forward, but moved no further. He was too scared to find out if it was true. Instead, he stared blankly as two people, shaking their heads, walked away as if they were unable to do anything. His eyes followed their leave absently.

After stalling for what seemed like an hour, Kouji forced himself to walk forward. It's not true, he assured himself. Kiku is back at Yamako's booth, crying in her arms at this spectacle.... she's not....

As if in a trance, he stepped up to the crowd, pushing some of them aside to see. Kouji cast his eyes to the ground, his worst fear confirmed.

... dead.

"Kiku...." he whispered, dropping to his knees. He couldn't recognize her face through the bloody mess the gunshot caused to her head, but he knew the lavender dress on her body. Hell, he was there when Yamako sewed it for her. There was no dress like it.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this happened. He expected himself to act more surprised, to act more shocked, but he could only feel something inside him die with her.

She was his closest niece. His only niece, who he didn't get to see as often as he liked to... but he loved her like a daughter.

Kouji shut his eyes tightly, feeling them burn with tears, something that hasn't happened in a long, long time. He bowed his head and let it all register: the scattered bodily matter, the blood, the fact he'll never hear her voice again. "Kiku-chan...." He didn't hear or feel the people around him speaking or putting comforting hands on him. He could only feel the unbearable pain inside.

He didn't even remember the last time he saw her. This would've been the first time in a while.

But it was too late now. Now there was so much blood... way too much. Blood did not suit her well at all.

Kouji punched fiercely at the ground with one hand, ignoring the pain in his knuckles.

"KIKUUUU!!!!"

A/N: Hm... I wonder how many times I used the word "potato" in this chapter. Hahahaha.

Kurai's little background story seems a bit scattered right now, but it'll be put back in order later on. Sorry about that =P. Oh, and I made a new fanfic journal. There's not very much on it, but anyway, it's on Livejournal, and the username is elcyion(underscore)croix. the link is on my profile too. =)

I've failed to do this in the past chapters, but now I've gotten off my lazy ass and bring you this:

The Glossary!!! =D

hai: yes/okay
~ne: it's kind of like "right?", "huh?" or "isn't it?"
no da: it's a quirky thing Chichiri does. It means something like "you know?"
oi: hey
-chan: a suffix for friends, but you'll also see it put mostly after girl's and children's names.
-nii-chan: In Kouji and Yamako's case, she uses this suffix to indicate that Kouji is her older cousin who she is close to. This term is derived from "Onii-san" which means big brother.
hajimemashite: how do you do?
douzo yoroshiku: nice to meet you. More literally, it translates to something like "let's have our future relationship be favorable." ... uh, correct me if i'm way off. O.o
doko ni Kiku-chan ga imasu ka: in case you couldn't tell from the context clue I tried to put in there, this is one way to ask "where is Kiku-chan?"
ano...: "um..." ... don't confuse it with "ano," which isn't drawn out like the previous. the not-drawn-out ano means "that over there."
nani: what
Kiku desu: I'm Kiku (a shorter way of saying it... but it depends on the context if the subject is understood or not).
kawaii: cute
seishi: warrior
aishiteru: I love you

Stay tuned for next chapter!!!!

Oh, and btw, I LOVE MY REVIEWERS! Hearing from you guys makes me happy! =D