Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Byakko no... Shounin? ❯ What's going on? ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 1
Authors Notes and Disclaimer: … The people reading my Pocket Bishonen fic are going to kill me, but the idea was too good to pass up! All right, I was watching a friend’s copy of Fushigi Yuugi, and I noticed something rather obvious, so obvious that it took a while for me to catch on. Only girls fall into ‘The Universe of the Four Gods’, no guys have ever entered it. So, that got me thinkin’ on the ‘what if’ path. What if a male opened the book and fell in? What if, when he fell in, he became the priest of whatever-god-was-next-on-the-list? What if this happened before Chichiri and Tasuki, the only two left from the Suzaku/Seiryu battle, became too old to get involved? And so on and so forth. The idea didn’t leave me alone until I had developed an entire story line for it, and I then became too attached to the characters I had created to just let them die an early death in my imagination. Hence, the reason I’m typing this at this very moment.
Oh, and another little blurb, Shounin, according to Jeffery’s Japanese/English online dictionary means Holy Priest or saint, which I think is an appropriate title for the only priest that can summon the god. So, I’m using that for now, unless someone can give me a better, more grammatically correct title (my Japanese language knowledge currently stands at about .6%, help is appreciated).
I was going to add a disclaimer wasn’t I? Fushigi Yugi does not belong to me! The original story was created by Watase Yu, published by Shogakukan, and translated and republished by Viz. I am only a patron of Viz and have no ownership of any of Fushigi Yugi’s intellectual property. Saying this, about 90% + of the following characters do belong to me. This following story was created by me and may be hosted on another site only after my permission has been obtained (permission will usually be accompanied by a Happy Dance, be wary) Now that all the legal, copyright bullshit has been done away with, enjoy the Story! Umm, is anyone still there? #loud snores emanating from audience# Ano…
“Sakura! Onee-san! Give me back my paper!” Came a shout for the bottom floor of a two-story house. The laugh of a teenaged girl soon followed, further followed by a sound reminiscent of stampeding wildebeests. It was the sound of two teenagers tearing up the stairs at high speed. The first one up was a pretty, young girl of around sixteen years of age. She was clearly Japanese in ethnicity, with dark, blue-black hair and black eyes, of middle height. She was wearing the latest fashion in clothing, but had made absolutely sure that her clothes were skin tight and low cut, to show of her… generous endowments. Following right behind her was a young man who was identical and at the same time wild different from the girl, Sakura. He had the same shaped face, had the same height and was even of the same slim build. But he had intensely red hair, almost blood red, and deep, blue-green eyes. One look at his clothes and you could tell that comfort and function came before fashion, more so than is usual for a guy. But the biggest difference between the two who were obviously siblings was the look in their eyes. Sakura had a confidence that bordered on over-weaning pride, while her brother’s eyes held an insecurity that bordered on suicidal-depression.

“You want your precious paper, you’re going to have to run faster than that, Jiroshi nii-chan!” Sakura sneered over her shoulder. As she neared the top of the stairs, she spotted a shoe half-hidden by the railing. With easy agility, she kicked it into Jiroshi’s path without loosing any speed. Jiro didn’t notice the shoe until after he’d tripped over it.

Only years of having to prevent himself from getting hurt and the reflexes that came with it allowed Jiro to catch the rail before he tumbled head-long back to the first floor. He paused a moment to coax his heart to return to it’s proper place in his chest rather than his throat and to tell his stomach that he was still three steps from the second floor instead of on the bottom of the first. With that accomplished he stood and tried to find his sister. She was nowhere to be seen. The stairs led to a hallway lined with five doors, all of them closed. With a sigh, Jiro did the obvious in finding his sister and his stolen research paper; he opened the first door on the right and moved on to the next when it opened into an empty guestroom. Okay, empty guestroom, empty guestroom, empty study, empty office with a heck of a lot of junk, and oh, crap, more stairs!

Jiro sighed as he looked at the stairs that obviously led to an attic of some sort. Sakura had to be up there somewhere, since he had carefully searched the first four rooms and she hadn’t been in any of them. He, carefully, climbed the stairs and opened the door to the attic and beheld…

Books. Dozens upon scores upon hundreds of books, placed within sturdy bookshelves with an obvious love for the information held within each leather-bound tome. Jiro shook his head to settle his mind back onto his current task. It was hard though; books were the only friends he had. Literally. Across the first attic room there was a wall with an empty doorway leading to another room. Jiro could see that it was the same as the first, filled with bookshelves. But no Sakura, from what Jiro could see thus far. But aside from the books, there were several boxes. So, this is a combination library and storage room, I guess. Jiro thought as he moved towards the second room, carefully scanning the first for any sign of Sakura. He was half way into the second room when he heard rapid footsteps, a familiar malicious laugh and the slamming of a door. The first footstep had sent him spinning into its direction, so he caught a brief glimpse of his sister’s sneering face as she slammed the door behind her. Jiro lunged at it, but as his hand touched the knob he heard a click that sent a cold feeling into his gut. He tested the door, but only had his fears confirmed. She’d locked it.

“Sakura! Sakura don’t do this!” Jiro cried out as he banged on the door loudly. Not that it’d do any good; he and Sakura were the only ones in the house and would be until seven pm. Which would mean he’d be stuck in the attic for five hours if he couldn’t coax his sister otherwise. Jiro slammed he fist against the door again, “Sakura, please! Why’d you do this?”

“To let you have fun.” A giggle wafted from the other side of the locked door. “I hid your oh-so-precious research paper in one of those nasty, dirty books that you love so much. I’m sure you’ll have a splendid time looking for it. Ta-ta for now, nii-chan!” The bitch indulged in a full-throated laugh as she waltzed down the stairs, leaving her brother behind.

Jiro pounded the door a couple more times and called for Sakura, but he knew it’d do no good. He turned and pressed his back to the door and slid down to sit with a thump. He was stuck until his parents and their friends came back from whatever show they were watching. And when they came back… boy, would he be in trouble. Hiding in the attic of Keisuke-san’s house while his sister was being good down stairs where she was supposed to be? And wasn’t he supposed to be working on his paper for his high school entrance test? It won’t matter what I say, Sakura will be the one who’s right, like always. He sighed and pulled his knees up to his chest. Sakura had been the favored one since the moment they had been born. He and she were twins, Sakura a whole 30 minutes older. But the real reason she was favored was due entirely to appearance. Their mother was foreign, the father, native Japanese. Sakura took after their father in appearance while Jiro took after his mother. ‘Tou-san never did forgive her for that, or me. The unimportant daughter looks like she should while the all-important son looks like the mongrel half-breed that he is? Unforgivable!

Jiro rubbed his shoulder idly where his newest injury was located. He’d been slammed against the lockers at school again just before he’d been beaten. The teachers didn’t do anything, just looked the other way as the foreign trash was beaten into shape. The only recourse Jiro had for getting any kind of good treatment was to excel academically. And he had, no one wanted to be friends with the redheaded freak, so Jiro couldn’t waste any time hanging out. So my only hope is to get into S High School, whose best teacher is an American. If I go there, my hair and eye color won’t be held against me, as much. I hope. He sighed again, well; sitting on my butt isn’t getting my paper found. I’d best go do that and then try and think up some story as to why I’m here that doesn’t incriminate Sakura.

He stood and started searching the shelves. There was a noticeable layer of dust on the books, so he deduced that if Sakura had indeed hidden his paper in one of them, it would be the only one who’s dust layer was disturbed. And, since his sister was lazy, the book would probably be just below normal eye level. That was the same height that light switches and doorknobs were at, because that was the level that a person’s eye normally rested and was easy to reach since it didn’t involve crouching or stretching. He continued to scan all the shelves in the first room and noticed a patch on a shelf near the door that was a tad cleaner than the surrounding area. Bingo. He went over and examined the area. Only four books were clean. More accurately, clean-ish. He picked up the first one and flipped through it quickly, then gently shook it upside down. He didn’t want to damage another person’s property after all, especially since it was a book. Nothing. He picked up the next one and repeated the process. Nothing again. He reached for the third.

When his hand was about three quarters of an inch away, a small bolt of bluish-white energy arched from the cover to his fingers. He jerked his hand away instinctively, then paused thoughtfully. Static discharge? But how? There’s no rug in here to build up a charge with, and that’s paper, not metal. He looked at his fingertips. And there was no pain at all, unlike every other static shock I’ve ever gotten. He shrugged; the energy may not have behaved like static normally did, but what else could it be? Then, not having much choice if he wanted to find his paper, he reached out to grab the book entitled “The Universe of the Four Gods”, and again energy arched out to meet his out stretched hand. That caused him to hesitated for a second or two before he grabbed the book firmly in a rush of bravado. A charge seemed to pass through his entire body, but Jiro convinced himself that the stuffiness and heat of the attic was causing him to hallucinate. He opened the book to its first page. There was a brilliant flash of blue-white light and when it cleared the open book was resting on the floor of the attic. And Jiroshi was nowhere to be seen.
More Authors Notes: Okay, before anyone yells at me for going crazy on the prejudice issue, I want anyone who would yell at me to read/watch ‘Fruits Basket’ and ‘Bleach’. In Fruits Basket, one of the main characters, Kisa, goes into a spin-dive of depression because this little first grader was unendingly bullied by her classmates because of her hair color. And she’s not the only one bullied, at least two other characters, Kyo and Hatsuharu (I think that’s how his name’s spelled) are harassed also because their hair isn’t straight black. In Bleach, the main character Ichigo explains to his friends that the reason he has such good grades is because he has bright orange hair and a temper. The teachers don’t believe that he didn’t dye his hair (hence the name of the series,… I think) and harass him accordingly and because he has a temper, he fights with his classmates when they tease him about his hair color. The only way he can get any slack, and not get kicked out, is if he does well academically.
But think about it, Japan is a nation composed of people with black hair, black eyes and dusky skin. All of its immediate neighbors are the same way, black, black and dark. Anyone who has different color hair and eyes is going to stand out. And, I hate to say this, but America is a nation with one of the least sever prejudice problems. We Americans are at least aware that we have a problem, and admit it. Other nations aren’t as open. So, when a boy shows up at school with vivid red hair and startling blue-green eyes, and everyone else has black hair and black eyes, and the kids have had the stereotype that native is good and foreign is bad shoved at them constantly since birth, what do you think is going to happen?