Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Dreams Alter Reality ❯ The Waking World Clashes ( Chapter 8 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Well it's almost been two years... I'm so terrible, I know! I've kept in contact with my friend Miss KittyLynne and her beloved Banditscribe! But I put FY on a backburner since my fiancee hasn't seen it and focused solely on notes for my book and my Inuyasha saga. There is a deep love for this series, in all of its incarnations, that for me is timeless. I loved it by myself and hold a deep respect for these girls who defy all odds and unite men and women of different backgrounds and viewpoints to one goal....to save the world! Heheh. That Watase Yu based it on ancient China and building design and clothing is fascinating... almost like an alternate past that she just happens to be writing about. And that is too awesome.

Speaking of all the series incarnates, who is keeping up with the Genbu Kaiden english translation mangas? I have to say something but Prince Bo-Hui of the Qu-Dong empire (or Kutou in the anime), has blond hair and light eyes. This story is about the Genbu no Miko, the first of the four girls to come into the world and save a country from despair by summoning her beast god. So it's a prequel of sorts when FY began with two girls, Miaka and Yui, coming in as Suzaku no Miko and Seiryuu no Miko, finishing up what was already established as a long story. By Miaka and Yui's time, the Kutou royal line was dark-haired and Nakago, while being a celestial warrior to destiny, was from a banished and ill-reputed clan with BLOND HAIR AND LIGHT EYES. What are the odds? I don't think Watase did this on accident.... maybe this is a hint that at one point at the beginning, Nakago's ancestors ruled a very early Kutou!

Now THAT is too interesting! And very awesome. If Nakago DID know this, this would also hint more at his deep fathomless rage and hate towards the Kutou emperor; despite what he had done to him. I can only say I have too much respect for this anime author for making such a correlation, which hints at a deeper writing style.

Wheeee! Anyways, my life has gone for the better and the best in the past almost two years from writing this tale. I came to odds with alot of stuff, left alot of bad influences, including two sisters who are still involved with it. Blood is thicker than water and I know one day I'll hopefully see them again. But I have another sister and she's on the right path. What helped me to this path of freedom is my beloved Skye, my Yashai lover, my fiancee, someone I consider my wife already. I got a better job and am making more money. We're both working towards house and child which is how we want it. She adores my writing, which is why I worked on Inuyasha for her, but for now, I want to call to a very deep appreciation of mine, Fushigi Yugi. I love this series! And I like my friends.

So this one is for Miss Lynne, for Banditscribe, for me, and for anyone who still reads FY fanfiction. It's scary to think it's been over a decade since this was released to the US in vhs syndication. (Effing VHS TAPE for all those really young people out there!!) But Genbu Kaiden the prequel is hopefully opening new fans to this timeless tale! Before Takiko, they should know, there was Miaka and there was Yui. And those are the ones I write about in this story.

Disclaimer: I, penpaninu, does not claim to own the likeness or characters to Fushigi Yugi. They belong solely to Watase Yu and her huge imagination. The only thing I own is this reincarnation story and made up the names to the new players of the old.

"Dreams Alter Reality" chapter eight
The Waking World Clashes

Miaka watched in dismay as her waiter Miro let her hand drop. His grin only widened and although she was released, she felt far from free.

"Are you sure? Because I could show you a good time. And I promise, that I won't disappoint," Miro grinned. "What's your name?"

"I...." Miaka was starting to feel panicked. She looked around, half expecting to see Taka come running to her rescue. The welcome thought was a splash of cold water across her face. Taka was gone! He wasn't coming and it was very doubtful that anyone would come in on a white horse. She would have to handle this on her own, and she didn't know how when her first response was to be kind! "I don't..."

"Hey, Miro! The boss wants to talk to you!" a low voice called out. Miaka looked up, astounded as another of the male waiters came running up. He was dressed in the same black slacks and white dress shirt as Miro, but Miaka found her eyes wanted to linger over him. Miro huffed at the competition, but turned a last dazzling smile at his charge. Her table WAS in his section, after all.

"Alright then, Shinwa. Well, my lady, I shall return." And with a last sweep of his large hand, the waiter jogged back to the bar. Tetsuo released a huge exhale of air he didn't realize he was holding then turned to the woman. The older, still very attractive woman, his mind was quick to assess. Her large, expression-filled eyes stabbed right through him like electricity.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" he murmured, his eyes never leaving hers. There was a hint of sorrow, of understanding, but of something else... something very real. What was it? And suddenly, Tetsuo wanted to never leave her sight.

Miaka swallowed and stammered, then raised her water glass to her lips and sipped slowly. The young man couldn't look away from those ruby red lips, nor the stain they left on the glasses rim. This man's gaze, she could stand.

"I'm fine...I'm fine!" she found herself repeating louder, when all he could do was stare. There wasn't anything on her face, was there? "Thank you so much."

"Ahhhh," Tetsuo scrubbed the back of his neck with one hand and grinned. "It wasn't anything! I just had to warn you, that Miro is a real player around here. I didn't want him to bother you, is all."

Miaka sat up straight, watching this young man with a deep interested gaze. His words were gruff, but his tone had a very honest appeal. "I wish you were my waiter, then," she teased lightly. She laughed mentally as she thought of what Yui would have to say about this bantering of words. 'Probably that I learned how to flirt.' She laughed.

Tetsuo laughed back, but in almost the wrong direction. "But unless you're the type of woman, who LIKES to be bothered, I won't hold you!"

Miaka set her glass down and folded her delicate hands together. "I wouldn't mind being bothered by you..... what's your name?"

"Tetsuo. Shinwa Tetsuo," Tetsuo gave with relish, as if declaring himself for trouble. Miaka felt more tingles throughout her being and then stillness. It was like watching a single drop of water fall and send out ripples into the world. The ripples were filling her one at a time, and she felt she should know something about this soul she happened upon in this large city. "And you, ma'am?"

"Sukunami Miaka," Miaka smiled sadly, rubbing the ring absently on her left hand. Tetsuo was too oblivious to notice the subtle gesture and nodded in agreement.

"So, Miaka-san, why come to a bar? You look like a real kinda lady, if you don't mind my saying," Tetsuo gave. His tone was light, but his chest was so constricted, he felt he couldn't breathe. Couldn't god stop piling rocks on top of his chest already? He couldn't move!

Miaka watched the red-haired youth, feeling more and more things click. She knew she wasn't dreaming, but why was he so familar? "I.... well this is all Yui's fault. See, she's been my best friend since middle school and she and her husband dragged me out here literally, a few nights ago! And well I found I..."

'We have to save Yui-chan!'

Tetsuo blinked hard. Where had that childish voice come from? It had whispered inthe back of his head that hinted at the strange dreams he had been having that led him to the heart of the islands. Why was it so familar? And while Miaka went on in her own easy way, Tetsuo felt his heart throb when he realized it was a memory, a memory of a younger version of the voice he was listening to now.

And tears pricked his eyes.

"Your friend...what was her name, did you say?" Tetsuo asked hoarsely. Miaka blinked.

"Why, it's Boshin Yui. It used to be Hongo, but she married...."

Tetsuo felt himself draw far out, then slam back into himself. Boshin, boshin..... suiiiiiibossshi.....in? That didn't make sense. But part of that word did. It was a name, and one that sounded like he should know what it was. He would come back to that mystery later.

"Oh, I heard ya! So they got you to enjoy the night life awhile!" Tetsuo gave back. Miaka laughed lightly with real mirth and Tetsuo's eyes grew warm.

"I just felt... I just thought... I would like it here," Miaka said softly. Her large doe-like eyes stared back into his and Tetsuo didn't think it was just a shallow flirtation. And he knew suddenly that Miaka just wouldn't know HOW to be shallow. It was against her very nature.

"I'm glad ya...."

"Shinwa!" a voice called from their peripheral vision. It was the first waiter, one Miro. "Come on, already."

"Why?" Tetsuo asked suddenly, and insolently. Miaka tried not to laugh at the look on Miro's face at being refused.

"Cause the 'Boss wants to see you,' " Miro gave back scarcastically. Tetsuo shrugged and gave Miaka an apologetic look as he followed the irate young man.

"This won't take long," he promised. At the bar, they bellied up and Miro turned on Tetsuo with a glare.

"I wasn't called for, man! And you know it!" he accused. Tetsuo shrugged, too much in a good mood to argue.

"Sorry?" he offered lamely. Miro blew his dark bangs out of his eyes and scooped ice into a glass.

"Still, it won't matter. That sweet thing at my table four was looking at me, did you see?" He tossed another glass nimbly around his waist with his left hand and caught it with his right.

Tetsuo's eyes narrowed, his good mood vanishing as suddenly as it came. He scooped ice ackwardly into the glass in his right hand. The hardened water clinked as unhappily as he felt.

"Why do you have to say something like that for? She's a nice woman," Tetsuo swore. "Not like your usual floozies."

'She's too nice for the likes of you.'

Miro laughed. "Nicely aged, you mean. She's a lonely woman and lonely women want ANYTHING that pay them any mind."

Tetsuo hunched over his tray, his anger building to a nice level of red. He let Miro go on a tirade of lewd remarks until his mind went numb. Tetsuo could dimly make out the asshole's words until his last comment stabbed through his stony exterior.

"I know I could get her in bed for an hour."

Tetsuo's mind snapped to a fine point and only now did he find words to speak.

"What did you say?" he asked brusequely. Miro shrugged and leered.

"I know I could get her, is all. Hell, I wouldn't need an hour, just fifeteen minutes. I got two dates tonight already, you know?"

Miro was still laughing when Tetsuo's fist smashed across his mouth. He recoiled back and touched his jaw.

"The fuck's wrong with you!"

And then Tetsuo truly saw red.

The patrons enjoyed their drinks and company, oblivious to the shoutin until Miro crashed over the bar and onto the nearest table. His body hit the wood with a loud smack and the nearest screamed in fear at the dread interruption. Miro's legs flopped wildly, but he didn't fall off and the table held his weight.

Then Tetsuo jumped on top of him, feet first, and the table gave. The two men hit the floor and bounced in a crescendo of noise. Miaka watched, horrified, as the two men fought against each other.

Miro was gasping as Tetsuo clambered up on top of his chest with spiderlike wiry strength, and pinned him with his knees. His curses came out strangled gasps when Tetsuo punched him meanly in the throat.

'She's been tainted... tainted... no longer a virgin....' a deep voice spoke in the back of Tetsuo's mind. Or was it REMEMBERING a deep voice??

'You'll never be able to summon Suzaku now.' SUZAKU?? Tetsuo's mind jumped around as wildly as his fists. His hands flailed and began to slow when he realized what he was doing to the poor man and then other hands descended, and pulled him back by the shoulders.

Miro was a mass of bruises and lacerations on the floor surrounded by pieces of a broken table and a crowd of gawking, fearful women and men. He turned to look for Sukunami Miaka and met her knowing, surprised gaze. She looked as fearful as the rest, but not of him. Just at his act of aggression.

"SHINWA! What the hell have you done! You stupid, arrogant kid...." The boss was yelling in his face, but Tetsuo didn't register it. He turned to keep Miaka in his gaze but he was being pulled in the other direction.

Reality hit home for him as his coat and night's earnings were thrown at him and he was led to the back door. 'Oh shit, I really needed this job.'

Miaka waited until the night's event calmed down before finding her way to the bar to find someone to interrogate. Miro was down and out and wouldn't want to help her as it was. A young collegewoman was stacking glasses to put away and caught Miaka's thoughtful gaze. It would have to do.

"Excuse me? Anou, miss?" Miaka asked, feeling like a jackass to bother her while she was working. Megumi looked up and tried to smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Apparently that night's escapades was a real downer for her.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" she asked politely. Miaka leaned against the bar carefully.

"That waiter, Shinwa Tetsuo..... do you know what happened to him?" she asked lowly. Megumi wanted to brush her off, but something in the other woman's eyes told her she wasn't just rubber-necking.

"Tetsuo-san was, ah, fired.... I really wish he hadn't been. That Miro's been having it come at him for awhile now. If you ask me, he deserved what he got," Megumi said lowly, with earnest. Miaka warmed to her and leaned closer.

"Do you know his address?" she asked. Megumi nodded and looked around for the employee folder under the bar. She wasn't supposed to know a copy was down there, but she wasn't one to give out her tricks so well. Miaka seemed to catch onto this for when Megumi scribbled the characters down for her, she met her gaze.

"Why are you doing this? It's not just because I asked," Miaka wanted to know.

Megumi's eyes were large and vindicated. "Miro broke my sister's heart, that's why."

Miaka accepted the folded piece of paper and smiled. "Thank you."




*****



Naisen and Sadako walked with Hiroshi to school. He still seemed put off for some reason and the pair wanted to know why. After some cajouling and pushing, and then bribing, Hiroshi finally admitted his concern.

"Mama went out last night again. This time without Aunt Yui and Uncle Saito," Hiroshi mumbled. Naisen and Sadako looked at each other.

"It doesn't seem like Miaka-san's style. Are you sure this wasn't just a one time thing?" Sadako asked. Hiroshi nodded rapidly. His blue bangs hung into his troubled eyes.

"Could be, but I don't like it. She should be at home with me."

"I know, Hiroshi, but all you can do is,...."

"Hi, guys!" Toya called out brightly. Hiroshi's shoulder stiffened subconsciously and Toya faltered, seeing his reaction.

Naisen watched his friend with worry in his eyes. Apparently he HAD confessed his feelings and it hadn't gone as he had wished.

"Toya-kun! What are you doing plastered to that wall for?" Sadako called, trying to lighten the mood. Toya carefully pushed forward. His hair, plaited into an elaborate braid, swung over his shoulder.

"Just waiting on you slowpokes. Is anyone ready for that test today?" Toya tried to make small talk to cover up the nervous feeling eating his stomach open. Hiroshi exhaled, blowing his bangs out of his eyes.

"I think we are. If we flunk, we'll have one chance to make it up," Hiroshi said. Toya smiled shyly, with hope, at his friend. Hiroshi looked at the concrete, but his cheeks were flushed alittle red.

Sadako held her breath and hoped desperately for her friend. But it was all up to Hiroshi if he wanted to have a relationship with him or not.

Naisen only prayed Toya wouldn't influence Hiroshi in any way. But he knew Toya wanted love for real, and not a spell.





*****


Yuki Keisuke was in a mental bind. He had put his small son down for a nap and bounced his baby daughter around in his arms until she fell asleep, smiling. Mayo was out shopping so when he wanted to be solving the riddle his mind spread before him, he knew he must put his children ahead first.

But oh, they were asleep, they were both asleep, and while Keisuke longed to just crawl across the floor of his study and join his tiny girl in dreams, his waking mind wouldn't let him until he had an inkling what was going on.

Keisuke regarded the safe set between his tall bookcases almost with fear. He crawled past the desk in his study towards it, quitely lest he wake his baby. Then he sat on his haunches and punched in the time code. The safe was airtight, and the contents inside were sealed as well. He only brought what was in there out for very, very rare occasions. And those were only for researching reasons with Tetsuya or Miaka or Yui.

But now, but now.... he had to admit, he had the bug, he heard seen light coming from the safe, he had heard whispered male voices in the quiet moments of his married life. Mayo had experienced the book firsthand, so she wouldn't have called him crazy. But she didn't have an answer as to why the book was resonating again, or what the reason would be.

Keisuki looked behind him. His girl was sleeping deeply, her fist pressed against her rosebud lips. Keisuke reflected that alot of fun had gone into making her, then turned back to the task at hand. The safe binged the end of the time wait and he carefully pulled the metal handle back.

The Universe of the Four Gods lay wrapped in a triple-wrap of sealed plastic. It wasn't glowing, it wasn't moving, no voices were audible. All seemed suspicious because it SEEMED nothing was happening. Keisuke gulped and reached with trembling hands for the book and unwrapped it. The book had been warped and damaged during his wife's brief time inside, but now it didn't seem as bad. It wasn't as brand-new as the night Miaka showed it to him, then fell into the red light of the world. But it wasn't as bad as how Mayo had found it years ago. It looked like a beloved faded red book you would find in a second-hand book store.

Keisuke gripped the used leather binding and opened the book. The pages seemed to creak with his finger's movements.

Four elaborately painted faces looked back up at him.

Keisuke stared, bug-eyed. He hadn't flipped to any specific chapter or drawing, but the book seemed to have opened upon something happening that maybe he wasn't supposed to know about. Focusing closer, the painted lines were made to resemble the human forms of the Four Gods. The lines describing Suzaku, Seiryuu, Genbu and Byakko's faces jumped and shifted as if the scene hadn't happened already. In fact, Keisuke realized, it was probably happening this very instant.

"Suzaku no miko's brother-interpretor has seen us," the mustachioed Genbu entoned. Seiryuu regarded him with steely eyes and Suzaku gave a warm smile.

"What of it? He has been of help in the past," Suzaku said. Byakko nodded, his child-like face serious.

"He and his friends helped my beloved miko find her love who has served me to his dying breath."

"A well and stolid man. He and his have served us in the past, and maybe just maybe.... they can serve us again," Seiryuu said. His heavenly eyes seemed to be filled with loneliness, Keisuke realized. As steely as Naisen's eyes had been when he was once Nakago...

"Wait," Keisuke finally formed. "Wait! What do you mean 'serve you again??'

The picture's lines jumped and shifted and the book slammed shut in Keisuke's hand.

He sat there, breathing hard, then turned and curled himself around his daughter. When Mayo came home, she found the two of them like that.



*****


"This had better be good," Nana said. Hideyuki rang the bell and Mareshi smiled indulgently at her.

"You know we had to take on Satoru as our other teammate, Nana. It was unavoidable," Mareshi crooned. Nana crossed her arms under her small breasts.

"I still don't like it. We don't know this person at all!" she exclaimed.

Hideyuki stood back and flipped his ponytail over his shoulder. "We'll just make the most of it, Nana-chan. Come on, now, let's go ahead now."

The door opened and the three students were welcomed by their classmate's mother. Satoru led them upstairs to his room.

"Sorry about the mess, but it's my maid's day off," he said glibely. Nana rolled her eyes to Hideyuki. His eyes warned her to be kind. The students opened their books to begin but soon they hit a standstill.

"I don't get this..." Mareshi flipped through his books, a pencil between his teeth. Nana frowned and put her head close to Hideyuki's. Their lips formed words as they read together.

"Don't look at me, I don't know," Satoru said. "We could ask Chen, he might know."

"Who's Chen?" Nana asked, haltingly since she was trying to read at the same time.

"My kid brother. He's in middle school still, but he's super smart," Satoru snapped his book shut.

"How smart?" Hideyuki assessed.

"He's taking courses for his first year of college," Satoru said. "Hey, Chen!"

A short boy with a high ponytail came running in. He clutched three textbooks to his small chest with skinny arms. "What is it now? You know that I have to study, too!"

Satoru ruffled his brother's messy ponytail and grinned at his gawking classmates. "This is Chen, and he's gonna save our project."

Chen blushed under the scrutiny and bowed his head low. "I'll help alittle bit, but I have work to do."

Nana was the first of the three to jump up. "Nana! And very pleased to meet you."

Chen accepted her hand with a bright red face, but bowed formally to the two other boys. His serious eyes took them all in. "Hey, I got the funny feeling that we met before. Have we?"

Hideyuki shrugged easily and Mareshi grinned. "I know, we get the same feeling."



*****

Chichiri shuffled along the heavenly corridors, holding himself upright with his staff. He had gotten older, and while still slim as a reed and nimble to boot, it was showing in his joints and speed. His hair was turning white slowly, and still stuck out at absurd angles. His hands were wrinkled and shook sometimes, but he knew he was lucky to have aged this well.

The Four Gods were holding court at Tatisukun's domain and he had been invited along as the soul surviving seishi of any of them. (Byakko's old ones had died years ago happily and Hikitsu and Tomite of Genbu's Seven had passed to Heaven when they had bestowed the Shiatspou upon Miaka). It was lonely, as the other souls had all passed on, but the NyanNyans were good company. And Taitsukun while gruff, was better company than the Four Gods.

They were scary when together, Chichiri had to admit. He didn't know what was going on in that cavernous conference room, but he knew it definately wasn't any of his business. He carried Tasuki's staff strapped to his side, and a few necklaces and bracelets that once belonged to his Majesty and to Nuriko when they lived at the capitol. It belied his monk's garb, but they were beloved items of his departed friends and they had been given to Chichiri from her highness, the Dowager Empress Houki.

It was lonely at this juncture in his life. When he was a much younger man, (but still older than the other Suzaku seishi) he knew that he would find friends and fulfill their task in life. But that task had been achieved once, and then even twice and three times. He had guided and protected Miaka-chan and he had watched his dear friends die while he lived on and on. He felt justified in wondering if his lot on this world was done and he would be able to move on.

But the memories of his beloved friends kept him from joining the unknown path of reincarnation. How would he find them again, would he know them when he saw them? And that fear was a good enough reason to live on , and on and on for many more years.

Besides, Suzaku Sekun had asked him to stay and keep serving, so he had no choice in the matter if he wanted it that way. Chichiri always knew he could visit Houki and check in on Hotohori's son if he needed company. He heard a rustling to his right and turned, indulgently smiling.

Surely it was a Nyannyan ready to play a prank. But he was far wrong. Ethereal light wafted out and pulled on the edges of his cloak and Chichiri's eyes widened in pure shock.

"Taka-kun!" he said shrilly. So surprised was he, that his smiling mask fell off completely, exposing his good eye, wide and shocked. The spirit of Sukunami Taka shuffled forward, smiling shyly.

"I don't know much about this place or remember much of it," he gave as best he could. "But I know you, and knew I could come to you."

"What, what... what is it, Taka-san? You've passed on already?" Chichiri asked sadly. His sorrow-filled eye took in the faint edges of the Tokyo man that he knew. He was an outline, a ghost, ready to move on if he could.

"Yes. I got sick and... I felt, near the end, that it was Suzaku's will. I don't know if he wants me to move onto my next incarnation, or wait, but he is taking care of my destiny."

"What did you come for? To ask me to take care of Miaka-san?" he asked. There was so much he could do when the story was finished and the link through the book all but gone. The copy in Miaka's world was being held by her brother, which was good for them, but there wasn't much of a link through, if one, any more.

"Yes. Suzaku has sent our friends through to the modern world to see her through and she will be fine, though I want to be with her the rest of all days. Please lend her your prayers, lend her your strength to raise our son."

"So you two had a son," Chichiri's eye twinkled. "I'm so happy for you. I'll do the best I can, though you know it is hard."

"I know..." Taka's spirit turned and smiled as a very old cat limped along behind the hallway and toward Chichiri's ankles. Chichiri clucked with affection and bent slowly down to collect her up with one hand.

"Is that Tama's incarnation?" Taka asked. Chichiri nodded and scratched the cat beneath her chin. Tama purred appreciatively.

"She is. And luckily she had kittens before she got as old as I am," Chichiri smiled. One large cat stalked the hallway behind the pair, well ahead of his siblings. Taka laughed.

"So her soul will go on. Mitsukake would be pleased."

"When you love an animal so much, you see their soul shining naked in their eyes. An animal cannot lie like humans can," Chichiri murmured thoughtfully. "And when you love an animal so much, and they love you in return, they'll be bound to find you again."

"I didn't think of it that way," Taka confessed. "I mean, I love pets, but we never got around to getting Hiroshi one."

"I will lend my strength to Hiroshi-kun and Miaka-san. You can count on me," Chichiri smiled.

Taka's spirit turned and looked down the cavernous hallway. "I have to go...."

"I understand. Please, look for the others and look for me... in your next life," Chichiri asked. Taka's smile was wide.

"I will. And don't worry when you pass on. It's not that bad."

Chichiri smiled in relief.


End for now

If you're a fan of the show and the manga, (meaning what has happened before to Miaka and Yui and references to what's going on now in Genbu Kaiden) then you'll get several references to scenes in my chapter. I hope you enjoy and please always REVIEW it helps! I have more planned. Sorry the only scene with Naisen is so short. I had lots to go over. And sorry that the scene with Chen was so clipped, but I hope you know who this is. Chiriko's reincarnation!

Like it? Love it? Send a review! Even if its only two words, it takes one second and really helps the writing process!

3/09/08