Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Dreams Alter Reality ❯ Dreaming is Believing ( Chapter 3 )

Once again we're at another chapter. Thanks for the reviews from KittyLynne, black panther, FushigiYugifan, Nuni-chan and others. This chapter is dedicated to Kittylynne, my celestial partner of words and prose.

When the darkness of winter recedes (and indeed it has been a false winter, it's not even cold outside) I find myself falling back to nostalgic wants. Lately I've been rereading my Akira manga, and its always every January or later when I read this yearly. So of course, I'm getting more want to write my own Tetsuo, who won't be as friendless as he was in the Akira story.

Akira property of Otomo Katusuhiro and Streamline Pictures and other studios. Not to penpaninu. I just use one of his characters names for an reincarnation of another character who does not belong to me.

 

Disclaimer: Penpaninu does not claim to own Fushigi Yuugi and is not being paid to write this. Only my reviews are payment in full.

 

“Dreams Alter Reality” chapter three

Dreaming is Believing

 

 

“Slowly. Easy now,” Saito said. He twirled a small rubber ball between his fingertips as he instructed his friend. Naisen sat cross-legged, eyes closed as he tried to concentrate. Asakura sat casually, one leg crooked over his knee as he played a light tune on his flute. Saito watched his brother with a hint of sadness in his eyes and let the ball spin into the air, guided by his power.

Asakura opened one eye without breaking melody. The siblings locked eyes.

 

A line of sweat trickled down Naisen's brow. “It's hard,” he murmured.

Saito snapped the ball from midair and juggled it in his palm.

 

“I know,” he said. “Concentrate harder. Picture nothingness. Walk through the grayness of it. There is only silence….”

Asakura closed his eyes and leaned back, fingers nimbly plucking out another kind tune. The vibrations he sent through the room were careful gestures intended for tranquility. Saito flashed a mental thanks to his brother and watched Naisen.

 

The familiar arcane symbol outlined itself across Naisen's brow. His long blond bangs wavered with an unseen breeze, a high indication of his chi building. Saito leaned forward, the lines at the corners of his eyes crinkling as he narrowed his vision solely on his celestial brother. His fingers gripped together around the rubber sphere in his grasp. Asakura's melody quickened in tempo.

 

Naisen hissed under his breathe, but tightened his stomach muscles as Saito had taught him. He raised one palm and blue light surrounded it, illuminating the lines cut in his flesh. He closed his palms, and exhaled soundlessly, one long drawn out release. The light flickered and went out carefully, as Naisen intended it to.

 

Asakura stopped playing and cradled his flute in his lap, clapping his hands for his friend's effort. Saito laughed and let the ball float playfully between his fingers in triumph.

“Well done, Naisen-kun! Mitsuko really taught you some useful meditative concentrations, huh?” he asked. Naisen smiled slowly, his blue eyes cool. But he looked pleased.

 

“No more than you help me, Saito-san,” Naisen crossed his arms and leaned back smugly. A cry sounded from the doorway and a small child ran for Saito, little legs pumping hard. Saito dropped the rubber ball and opened his arms wide for his daughter. Mariko crashed hard into his chest and squealed as she was swung up into the air. Asakura tucked his flute away and rose to greet his niece.

 

“Are you done yet??” Mariko asked breathlessly as Saito swung her up and down, then drew her close for a kiss. Saito nodded, his eyes crinkling kindly. Not quite thirty and happiness already lined his eyes.

“Of course! Did you want to play?” He asked. Mariko nodded rapidly and hopped down to pounce on her uncle.

 

“Whoa, hey, easy there, princess! You'll squash me!” Asakura suggested. Mariko crowed and hugged his neck.

“No I won't! You're strong, Uncle Asakura-san,” she beamed. Asakura hugged her close and cradled her thin legs.

 

Naisen leaned back on his hands, exhaling carefully. His head slowly felt at ease after that exercise and he smiled as his energetic `foster sister' sprang out of Asakura's arms to crash into him head-on.

“Easy there, Mariko-chan. Do you want to see Sadako-chan again soon?” he asked. Mariko nodded, and tucked her head under his chin. Naisen patted her back easily.

 

Saito turned to greet his wife. Yui smiled widely, her beautiful eyes lighting up. He gave her a soft kiss.

 

“How was Miaka-san?” he whispered. Yui's eyes softened and she shook her head softly. Her mouth was a thin line. Saito's heart clenched and he kissed her brow.

 

“We'll visit her tonight. How does that sound?”

Yui smiled and hugged him. Mariko bounced up and down on Naisen's tummy.

 

“We're going to see Hiroshi-kun and Aunt Miaka? Yeah!” she crowed. Naisen groaned under her hops.

 

* * * *

 

While the young family prepared to visit the Sukunami household, the phone rang halting their preparations.

“I'll get it,” Yui offered and patted her daughter's head as she picked up the cordless. Mariko grinned and dashed off to get her jacket. Saito adjusted his sweater and waited. Yui watched her family, and turned her attention to the mouthpiece.

 

“Hello? Boshin residence.” The ring on her left hand sparkled as she tapped her fingers on the coffeetable.

 

“Hello? Yui?” The voice was as familiar to her as her past. Yui smiled kindly and leaned back on the couch.

 

“Hello, Tetsuya. How are you doing lately?” She and her old lover had never fallen out of touch and had remained friends. He had been invited to the wedding, and had brought a lovely young intern from his office. Incidentally, it was the same young woman Yui had spotted at a visit to his work and who had instigated a heart-to-heart with Tetsuya that had resulted in their break-up. Yui didn't let it bother her, and wished Tetsuya all the happiness he could get.

 

Her friend didn't sound none too happy, and obviously was trying to cover up his true emotion. He was possibly afraid Saito was around, and listening in. Male pride hit hard sometimes.

 

“They're going okay, I suppose…..” Tetsuya sighed and paused. “Is Saito-san nearby?”

 

“Yes, he's right here,” Yui offered. Saito raised an eyebrow and picked up Mariko. The little girl hugged her father around the neck.

“Oh…” Tetsuya, a seemingly confident man, erred to shyness with those he knew best and he now showed that shyness. He stammered and coughed, and Yui waited patiently as she had several times before.

`One time he was so shy, he had asked me out for our first date…' That made Yui sad suddenly.

 

“You can tell me, Tetsuya,” she said sweetly. `Tetsuya?' Saito mouthed. Yui nodded. He shrugged and grinned good-naturedly. Mariko kissed his cheek and sprang down to run to the kitchen. Saito ambled after her. Yui mentally thanked Seiryu for sending her husband to her and turned her attention to the conversation at hand.

 

Yui could have sworn she heard a watery chuckle high overhead as Tetsuya sighed and sniffed. “Tetsuya? Are you crying?”

“Uhm hmm,” Tetsuya said. He made a shuddering sound and Yui gripped the phone, concerned for him.

 

“What happened? Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. Tetsuya gave an affirmative and paused once more. Yui waited as patiently as she always did for him.

 

“Do you remember the girl I was seeing after we moved out?” he asked. Yui said she did. “Emiko…. well, I didn't think she would ever you know….aw, Yui, I caught her in bed with someone else.”

 

Yui gasped, her eyebrow rising. She suddenly felt bad for her ex, and saddened. “Oh, Tetsuya…. are you okay? Do you need anything?”

 

Tetsuya sniffed, sounding clogged with tears. “I just need someone to hear this…can't talk to Keisuke yet, you know how it is with the guys.”

Yui knew Keisuke wasn't the type of friend to rag on Tetsuya for something like this happening, but she let him get it off his chest.

 

“I understand, Tetsuya…. When did this happen?” she asked worriedly.

“Two hours ago. Yui, why did she do this to me? Am I so unlikable?”

 

“No, Tetsuya, you're a sweet loving man…..I can't tell you why she would do this to you. I guess it's safe to ask if it's over?…..” Yui asked. Tetsuya sighed.

 

“Yes, I asked her to leave…. But what am I going to do? No woman's going to want to go out with me,” Tetsuya lamented. Yui assured him that all would be well, and arranged to have a lunch date with her and Mariko.

“Always for two beautiful women,” Tetsuya agreed, sounding a little better. Yui smiled and bid him a fond farewell. Hanging up the phone, she stared into space. Her present almost receded from her and she saw a tall man wearing shades before her, waving. Tetsuya….

 

“Yui?” Saito's deep voice intoned behind her. Yui shook the cobwebs from her mind and turned to smile at her family.

“I'm ready. Shall we go visit Aunt Miaka-san?” Yui smiled. Mariko cheered.

 

* * * *

 

Hiroshi answered the Sukunami door and greeted Yui and Saito amiably. Mariko, he hugged and tugged inside. The little girl giggled and clung to his slim waist.

“Where's your mother?” Yui asked as they stepped out of their shoes at the entryway. Hiroshi sighed, darkness shading his thoughtful eyes.

 

“She's at the family altar….” Was all he said. Saito and Yui looked at each other and went into the adjoining room.

Sukunami Miaka knelt before the altar, her hands pressed together for prayer. Yui touched her shoulder and Miaka gave a start, and looked up. She smiled then, lines pulling at the sides of her tired eyes. She just looked so exhausted.

“How are you doing, Miaka-san?” Saito asked gently. Miaka wiped her eyes and rose to her feet.

“As well as can be…..I must apologize for not being more prepared, but I'm afraid I may have dozed in my prayers,” Miaka brushed her hair back from her face. Yui smiled and kissed her cheek. When Miaka turned into Saito's arms for a hug, she almost fell off her feet.

 

“Miaka-san!” he exclaimed, gently shaking her. “Are you even sleeping at all? You have to take care of yourself!” Yui shook Miaka's arm gently, her face a mask of concern.

 

“I'm just so tired, I don't know why. Well, let's just have dinner. Did you bring Mariko-chan?” Miaka lit up. It was a smile of her former self but Yui would take it.

 

“She's off tormenting Hiroshi as always,” she laughed. Saito turned to the altar.

“We'll offer some incense if you don't mind.”

 

“Please do…. Well I'll be in the kitchen,” Miaka said. Yui lit a stick of incense, prayed and stood it before the portrait of Taka in a pot of sand. She stared at his shy brave smile framed for eternity and the cobwebs of her mind took over once again.

 

`You're nothing but a character inside a book!' No, you were never make-believe, Taka. You were Tamahome and he was real enough for Miaka to love…

 

“My turn, Yui,” Saito said with ready ease and lit his own stick for Taka's departed spirit. Yui gripped his shoulder as he prayed then the two rose to join their friend for dinner.

 

High above the heavens, Suzaku and Seiryuu stared at each other and shrugged.

 

* * * *

 

Miaka seemed to have come to the conclusion that praying to Suzaku often would forgive the sin she felt for dreaming constantly about someone other than her late husband. The youth Tetsuo made his ways to her again and again and while other women her age would have teased her for dreaming of a man young enough to be her son, the dreams were not of the erotic kind.

They were deeper and in their fanciful wanderings in dreamscapes, they seemed to walk a courtship ritual of hands touching, words spoken with great affection and genuine trust exchanged. Miaka knew she shouldn't be thinking of any other man after Taka, and perhaps no other man could compare to his sizeable shoes, but she knew she could not deny she looked forward to those dreams.

 

For a few moments, she was rested and she was wanted and it made her feel good. Then the guilt would come and she would try to pray for her forgiveness. Suzaku may have disagreed with her, for her incense sticks burned out completely after she applied flame to the ends, and deep chuckles filled her ears as she desperately tried to relight.

 

“Mom, what are you doing?” Hiroshi asked as he caught his mother at the required moment of frustration. Miaka put down the matches and winced up at her son.

“The gods I think don't want me to pray today,” she confessed. Hiroshi smiled finally and touched her shoulder.

 

“Come on then! Can you help me with my homework then?” Hiroshi pleaded. Miaka blinked and let him help her to her feet. It surprised her that she came only to Hiroshi's shoulders. When had he grown so tall and strong?

 

“Of course I will. Show me what you have trouble with,” Miaka said. Hiroshi smiled happily as they left the altar behind them. The smile in Taka's portrait seemed to smile sadly.

 

* * * *

 

Tetsuo sketched half-formed characters in the margins of his notebook. They all started with M and if he let himself swallow his confusion he surely would write out the rest of his dream partner's name. Miaka. Miaka-san, as he would be supposed to call her due to age difference and social standing. She was old enough to be his mother! At least, maybe a hot older sister or something…

 

There was no denying that Tetsuo was attracted to the older woman he saw in his dreams almost every time he closed his eyes to sleep. She had already had another man, but she may have been free from that tie to enjoy his company. They had such a good time together, walking through desert landscapes, riding on the backs of serpentine dragons and swimming through liquid as firey as alcohol. With the last few weeks of high school cracking down in a fine schedule of tests, college exams and other social niceties, these pleasurable dreams were welcomed by the tall red-haired student.

 

The ends of his longish hair brushed past the collar of his uniform jacket daringly, and hung dark and black with the dye that attempted to keep his appearance in conformity. His partial European fore sire's temperance came through smack on him in the line and Tetsuo didn't mind the gaijin hair coloring. It was natural anyway, and besides the punk look for his peers was to dye their hair blond anyway. What was so strange from jumping from blond to red?

Miaka had said she liked the look on him anyway. She said he looked a foreign prince, but she did not mean it to be a barb as some of the popular snotty girls in class had done. Tetsuo only turned his nose down on such false companionship and retorted with a tongue-lashing that would have done his past life with pride. The look on that girl's face had been worth the effort in any case, even if it had earned him demerits and detention.

 

As Tetsuo walked home, he waved to friends and girls who he had gone out with large smile and ready hand. It was bittersweet, but as his high school days were coming to a close, he knew he would be moving beyond his small home town in Hokkaido, and would pursue what others would call their dreams. His dreams were vivid and filled with a very real woman, of which Tetsuo had no doubt he knew before. Call him crazy or deranged, but he knew he would be in the right about this. He knew where his heart lay.

And unfortunately, it wasn't with Kaoru, with Chiyoko, with Miyako. He had had a fine time with some of those girls before the dreams had started, and had given his virginity with ready ease. Tetsuo wasn't sad he had known other girls before his dream woman had asserted herself into his heart. He wasn't unexperienced, so he wouldn't disappoint her, right?

 

When he came home, his mother bustled for his attention with several replies from colleges across the islands.

“Your best answer has come from Honshu! Won't you think of going there?” his mother pleaded. Tetsuo gave that one barely a glance and crumpled it up for a ball to toss at the trashcan.

 

“Only ones from Tokyo, Mom. I want to go there for schooling,” Tetsuo asserted his wish. His mother faltered then berated him for a single-minded boy.

“What on earth is in Tokyo, but higher living expenses?? Keep in mind, boy, that your father will be paying for your college, and we don't need unwanted expenditures wasted! Are you even listening to me?? What on all of the kami's green earth is in Tokyo that isn't here, or Shikoku, or Kyushu, or Honshu?” his mother fished out the reply for that college and thrust it into her son's face.

 

Tetsuo watched her hop up and down to try and reach his impressive height and sighed. “I get good enough grades, Mama, leave me alone about it. It's Tokyo, or no college at all.”

 

“Will you just answer my question?? What's in Tokyo that's not here?”

 

Tetsuo sighed and looked out the kitchen window at the country stars. “The answer to my dreams…. that's all.”

 

“Foolish boy! Chasing after stars in his heads…..”

 

Tetsuo reflected his mother was half right. The stars in his head all wore characters on various parts of their bodies and stood seven-as-one under the plumed fire bird. Tetsuo's right forearm burned and he clutched it desperately with his left hand.

He would be following his destiny, and fate must be kind that it would be in some woman's arms.

 

* * * *

 

“I don't like riding the rails this late at night,” Sadako said. She clung to Naisen's arm and stared over his shoulder. That creepy man was back this night, and his eyes always seemed to rove over them trying to pick apart their weaknesses.

“It's alright, Sadako. No one will harm you as long as you're with me,” he assured her. Sadako laid her head on his shoulder and sighed.

 

“I know, but …. some people would try anyway,” she said fretfully. Naisen patted her back and watched the small trickles of humanity at the station as they waited for the last train of the night.

“The city is safe enough, and I won't let anything happen to you,” Naisen promised. Sadako smiled and waited for their train.

 

The ride back was quiet and uneventful but the two didn't feel they had to fill their moments together with frivolous talk. They knew each other enough. It hurt, but Naisen felt stronger for opening himself up to her even more. Sadako did not laugh, or tell anyone without his leave. And he had her support and love.

 

When he walked her to her family's apartment, Naisen tried to move his darkness to speak the words that had plagued him lately.

“Sadako,” he began when she hugged his neck and kissed his ear. He shivered. “You remember when we were in grade school and that man hurt me….does it….”

 

Sadako kissed his lips sweetly and shut him up. “It wasn't your fault, and you didn't ask for it. You didn't ask for it ever, and I know how much it hurt you.”

 

Naisen looked at her with wet eyes and smiled gratefully. Sadako kissed the tears from his eyelids and they separated for the night.

 

“I'll see you tomorrow.”

 

“With Hiroshi and Toya, yes…. good night my warrior.”

 

“Good night, Sadako-cahn.”

 

End for now

Like it? Hate it? Please review. It's crack for fanfiction authors.

 

Most sincerely yours, penpaninu 2/01/06