Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Facepaint ❯ Enter Mareu In a Burst of Sapphire Light ( Chapter 1 )

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

Not mine, AU, yaoi, R, hentai, etc. See Prologue for full disclaimer and warnings.

Facepaint

by Sunandshadow

Chapter 1 - Enter Mareu in a Burst of Sapphire Light

Soi arrived outside the door of the briefing room and was miffed to see that Tomo had also been summoned. Tomo, of course, was likewise miffed. Nakago's mine and you stay away from him! they both thought, directing evil glares at each other. Then, ritual territorial display done with, they calmly entered the briefing room and sat down across the table from Nakago.

Nakago leveled his icy blue gaze at them. "As you are aware, we have assembled 6 of the 7 Seiryuu seishi. The last one is the seishi of the constellation Miboshi. My intelligence network has located him… but I do not like the reports I've received. Miboshi's power is apparently some kind of thought manipulation, and he's used it to build his own power structure of brainwashed minions. He is very powerful, powerful enough to be dangerous to any of us despite our seishi powers. I myself cannot leave the capital for as long as it would take to reach his demesne, so I'm sending the two of you. Stay alive. If one of you comes back without the other I'm executing the survivor, so cooperate, got it?"

Soi and Tomo blanched and looked at each other. Then they looked back to Nakago and nodded resolutely.

"I'll keep the freak alive, Nakago-sama!"

"I'll return with the electric eel in tow, Nakago-sama!"

The two turned to glare at each other.

"Who are you calling a freak, whore?"

"Who are you calling an eel, gay-boy?"

Nakago gave them both the Icy Glare of Death (tm) and waved them out of the room. They saluted and left. After the door closed, Nakago growled to himself and massaged his temples. If those morons got themselves killed his whole bid for power was going to be in jeopardy. And why oh why did they have to sniff after him like he was a bitch in heat? Being propositioned by anyone was the last thing he wanted, so he tried his damndest to discourage them by being icy and forbidding, even cruel when he got too frustrated and needed to lash out at someone, but nothing seemed to have any impact on them…

* * *

After they left the briefing room, Soi and Tomo turned to look suspiciously at each other.

"I suppose we ought to pack." said Tomo.

"Probably…" Soi hesitated. "Tomo… did you think… that Nakago seemed a bit…."

"Anxious? Morbid? Dare I say… intimidated by this Miboshi?"

"Yeah."

"No, I didn't notice any such thing. Kakakakaka!"

Soi gritted her teeth. "Freak."

"Eel."

Soi rolled her eyes. "Allright fine, I'm just imagining that Nakago seemed to think we might actually get killed. Humor me. Before we start packing let's say a little prayer to Seiryuu, ok? It can't hurt."

Tomo tipped his head to consider this. "Hmm. Perhaps that's not such a bad idea."

Soi spun on her heel and strode toward Seiryuu's shrine, Tomo following more languidly behind.

* * *

Soi knelt matter-of-factly before the statue of the dragon god. Tomo lit a stick of incense, then knelt gracefully beside her.

"Great Lord Seiryuu, please hear your seishi!" Soi began.

"Heavenly Dragon, please heed your chosen warriors!" Added Tomo in a surprisingly impressive theater voice. Soi raised an eyebrow, but decided it was best not to comment in the middle of a prayer.

"We ask you, Seiryuu, to look down on your seishi Miboshi. We are worried that he uses his abilities to benefit himself, and has shown no interest in using them to help summon you."

"We are disconcerted that even the great Nakago-sama, your chosen Shogun, is… ah… concerned that Miboshi might use his power to interfere with your glorious goals."

"Thus we ask that you appear to Miboshi and convince him to cooperate with us."

"Or, that you take your power from him and give it to someone who will be a more loyal seishi."

Soi's glance said, Oh, that might work too.

Tomo's glance said, Well, if Seiryuu happens to actually be listening…

Each thinking to him/herself, If Seiryuu chooses a new person I hope he's hot!, they recited the closing phrase together: "Seiryuu, hear our plea!"

A sapphire light began to gather in the statue of the dragon god. Soi and Tomo blinked, then Soi smirked Told you so… Tomo hmmphed and focused on the divine light. It grew larger, until it was the size of a doorway… then the light flashed brightly and a figure stumbled through.

"N-Nakago-sama?!" The tall blond figure blinked, and as the last of the blue light dissipated the two kneeling seishi realized that this was not quite Nakago - his eyes were green, not blue, and his hair was longer. And what he was wearing… well, neither Tomo nor Soi knew what punk fashion was, but Nakago would probably not be seen wearing black leather and so much jewelry. Although it was an interesting concept…

"Uh… hello?" the man spoke.

Soi recovered fractionally sooner and stood up, brushing herself off and bowing to the newcomer. "Greetings. I am Soi and that is Tomo." Tomo, realizing he had been gazing hypnotized at this Nakago lookalike, (he had been thinking Please be gay, please be gay, please be gay…) blinked and unfolded himself from the floor to stand beside Soi. He folded his arms over his chest and attempted to look impressive. Soi ignored him, and continued, "We are Seriyuu seishi, celestial warriors of the dragon god. May I assume you are Miboshi?"

I blinked at the two oddly dressed oriental people in front of me. "Dragon god? Um, last I knew my name was Mare. Well, Mary actually, but everyone calls me Mare." I noticed that my voice suddenly had that froggy, octave-deeper-than-usual sound, but I shrugged this off as a lower priority that finding out where the hell I was.

"Mareu?" Tomo tested out the name, trying to pronounce it with Chinese phonemes. It felt good on his tongue.

"Uh, close enough. Oh, what were your names again?"

"I'm Tomo, and that is Soi."

"Nice to meet you." I suddenly noticed all the dragon art adorning the shrine, and began examining it, delighted. "Wow, this artwork is beautiful! If you guys are into dragons that's cool with me, they're my favorite subject to draw and sculpt." I had been slowly turning to inspect the room, and now I caught sight of the magnificent gem-encrusted statue that ruled the room, looming over the altar. "Ohmygosh that's the dragon I dreamed about last night! Only he was surrounded with blue light…" Entranced, I reached out and caressed the statue, reveling in the feel of the textured gold, smooth jade, and distinct edges of the emeralds and sapphires beneath my fingers.

Tomo and Soi looked at each other in confusion. Soi said, mostly to herself, "Well, if Seiryuu appeared to him, he must be the new Miboshi, right? Can't be the original Miboshi, Nakago said he was a midget with a third eye in the middle of his forehead."

'Him?' I thought, puzzled. I know I'm a tomboy but people don't usually actually mistake me for a guy… I glanced down at myself and froze, a little eep of surprise escaping my lips. Flat… Where the hell did my boobs go?! I patted over my chest and my hands confirmed the same solid male pectoral muscles that my eyes were reporting. I started to grab lower down, then stopped remembering I was being watched. But now that my attention was focused down there, it was obvious that something felt different… I looked up at my audience and stuttered out, "I-I'm a guy!" No wonder my voice was deeper than usual.

Tomo and Soi looked at each other, looked at me, looked at each other… at last Soi ventured, "Um, you look male to me."

"B-but… I was a girl this morning! What did you guys do to me?!"

"It wasn't me." said Tomo.

"We don't have the power to do that kind of thing - Seiryuu must have thought it was important that you would be male."

"Seiryuu?"

Tomo pointed to the statue I had just been petting. "Seiryuu. The dragon god who appeared to you. And apparently chose you to be his 7th celestial warrior, Miboshi."

"Uh… what does being that entail?"

Soi explained sardonically, "Well, you get a nifty blue symbol and a divine power of some sort - Miboshi's was supposed to be mental manipulation, but yours might be different because Sieryuu switched…"

"Uh, that sounds like a good deal… but why turn me into a guy? And how did I get here, wherever here is?"

"Seiryuu brought you, presumably, and 'here' is Kutou." supplied Tomo.

"Never heard of it. Jeez, are we even in the United States?"

Soi raised an eyebrow. "I don't know a place by that name. This is the land of four kingdoms, and we're in the kingdom of Kutou, specifically in the capital city."

"Kingdoms? You mean with actual kings? But there are only a handful of those still in existence…"

"Do you think he might be from Yui's world?" asked Tomo excitedly. "That would explain the style of clothing, and where a hin came from - I thought Nakago-sama was the only one left alive in this area."

"What's a hin?" I inquired.

Tomo blinked, and, wanting to be diplomatic, looked to Soi. Soi ventured, "Well, a hin is someone who looks like you - pale, and some have gold hair like you and Nakago-sama."

"Oh, you mean a caucasian? Well where I'm from most of the people are caucasians, although some are oriental like you two, and some are other kinds: African, Native American, Hispanic, Indian… we must be somewhere out of the United States if there's only one other caucasian around, not to mention kings…" Suddenly my eyes widened. "Dude, is this the past?! Do you guys know what cars and computers and things are?"

"He must be from Yui's world!"

"How should I know? Look," she turned to me, "we'll just take you to Nakago and he can make sure you're actually Miboshi and explain things. Right Tomo?"

"Um…" Tomo hesitated, trying to imagine how Nakago would react to suddenly being faced with another hin. "Well I suppose we had better."

I took a deep breath and reviewed the situation: I was wandering around in a guy's body in some pre-technologic fantasyland. Maybe I had cracked under the strain of that last research paper? I was a lucid dreamer, so I would know if I was dreaming, and this felt way too real… I shrugged and followed the two pretty celestial warriors down the hall. Somehow the opportunity to admire flowing hair and pert behinds made me feel more at home. Being male for a while could be interesting. Good thing I'm bi though, or the experience might be rather disorienting. I snickered to myself. Hmm, I wonder what my magic power is going to be? Soi mentioned mental manipulation, I could do a lot with that…

* * *

We reached the door to the conference room. Soi knocked.

"Who is it?" growled Nakago.

"Soi and Tomo."

"What are you doing back here?! Get in here and explain why you're not packing!" I was puzzled to note that Tomo and Soi both took a deep breath and visibly braced themselves before Soi pulled the door open. They looked adult enough not to be scared of a guy just because he was crabby. Although they did look a few years younger than me… I followed them into the room, and sure enough, the blond guy glaring at them did look quite a bit like me. Like girl-me I mean, because I had no idea exactly what this male version of myself looked like. Then the man spotted me and froze in mid-question. He didn't blink in shock, he was too controlled for that, but his whole body tensed.

"Who in the hell are you?!" spat Nakago.

"Uh… I'm Mare, these guys said I was a star soldier of the dragon god, or something like that? I don't know, I'm not from this world…"

He squinted at me and glowed slightly blue, then relaxed a bit. "Not an illusion. Mareu? Are you from Yui's world?"

"I dunno, who's Yui?"

"I'm asking the questions here! How did you get in the palace?"

"I'm not sure exactly… there was this big flash of blue light and suddenly I was standing in front of Tomo and Soi in a room with lots of dragon art."

Nakago's brow furrowed. "Soi?"

"Well Tomo and I thought we should pray to Seiryuu before we left, so we went to the shrine. We prayed, asking that Seiryuu either make Miboshi cooperate or give his power to someone who would be less difficult to deal with. And, well, there was a big blue light and Mareu appeared, so it seems Seiryuu answered us. His chi feels like he's a seishi, but you can tell better than I could…"

Nakago once more squinted at me and glowed blue. "Perhaps he is a new Miboshi… that would be extremely convenient. Mareu, would you please think of something that makes you very, very angry?"

"Why?"

Nakago's eyes narrowed, but he replied calmly, "If you are angry enough your seishi symbol will glow and we will know for sure that you are Miboshi."

"Ok, I'll try." I closed my eyes and thought about homework… heaping piles of unreasonable, pointless homework… Calculus and Latin homework and a 12 page paper on the most boring imaginable Victorian novel… and my mom and dad complaining about how much my tuition costs and accusing me of being lazy and wasting my chance to 'make something of myself'…" I felt a burning at the base of my throat, right where the pendant of a medium-length necklace would be, and my eyes snapped open. I pulled the neck of my shirt open a little, and a blue glow escaped into the room.

"Basket." Pronounced Nakago. "Miboshi. It seems that you two don't have to go journeying after all. Praise Seiryuu for making all our lives a little easier. Soi, you go retrieve Yui." Tomo smirked at Soi, thinking You have to run errands and I don't!, but his pleasure was short-lived. "Tomo, you get the twins and bring them back here." Now Soi grinned and Tomo grimaced. Both pretty seishi left and I found myself alone with my rather intimidating lookalike.

"So. I am the Shogun Nakago, leader of the Seiryuu sieshi, and you will take orders from me. Your primary duty is to defend the miko Yui and your fellow seishi. What name do you prefer to go by, Mareu or Miboshi? And what skills do you have that might be useful in carrying out your seishi duties?"

"I prefer Mareu, please. Um, skills… I can ride a horse, that's probably useful. I have a lot of general skills: cooking, sewing, basic mechanics and carpentry. I'm good with people: I can babysit, teach, act, persuade, comfort… See, my professional training is to draw, paint, sculpt, and create stories, but none of that seems particularly useful at the moment."

"Please tell me you have some kind of combat training."

"Oh, well I had a little training with rapier and sabre, but I wouldn't do very well against someone who'd had real training. I know a little archery, or I could probably use a crossbow. I know how to shoot a handgun or a rifle, but I don't imagine those exist here."

Nakago grunted. "Lovely. So essentially you have the skills of a housewife plus those of a tinker, and minimal combat training." Nakago paused, then looked puzzled, and I realized that he had expected me to be insulted by being compared to a housewife.

"Um, one thing that got left out of the story of my arrival here, is that I was a woman this morning - Seiryuu must have thought it's be more useful for me to be male, because that's what I discovered I was when I got here." Nakago's eyebrows went up. "So that's why I'm not terribly bothered to be compared to a housewife. But even had I been born male I would have received approximately the same education because that's how things are done in the United States."

"Hmm. Seiryuu probably knew what he was doing. To the common people you're a hin, and they have no love for us - as a woman you would have been at a higher risk of rape and other unpleasantness. You're still best off not going anywhere alone, so keep that in mind. Well, we'll get you a sword to practice with and with luck you'll be able to figure out how to use your seishi power quickly and it will be something that's useful for fighting. How old are you, by the way?"

"Twenty-one." At that moment there was a knock on the door.

"Enter!" called Nakago, and Soi came in with a girl, presumably Yui. She was also fair-haired, although not so much as Nakago and myself, and she looked about half Japanese.

"I am Yui, Seiryuu no miko. Soi says you might be from my world? Are you British?"

"American actually. I'm Mare, or Mareu as everyone seems to be pronouncing it. You're from the real world? Where there are cars and computers and no magic?"

"Yes, before I came here I was a Japanese high school student."

"I'm a senior university student majoring in art and English. Nice to meet you!"

"You're an English major? Say, could you possibly help me study some English while we're here? I have to take my high school entrance exams when I get back and I want to be prepared."

"Uh, I suppose so, if there's time. I hear those exams are a bitch, I'm glad I didn't have to take them."

Soi pointed at my clothes and asked, "So is that the uniform for your school? It's very different from Yui's." Yui and I both cracked up.

"Nonono, my university doesn't have uniforms. My clothing is casual, what you would call 'punk' style." Another knock at the door.

"Enter!" Tomo came back in, followed by a surprisingly young pair of twins.

"Wow, you look like Nakago-san! Are you Miboshi?" one asked excitedly.

"It seems so, although I would prefer to be called Mareu if you don't mind."

"Cool, now we have everyone!" The other twin smiled, but stayed silent.

Nakago cleared his throat, and suddenly everyone quietly seated themselves around the conference table. Why was everybody so afraid of this guy? "Mareu, Yui is your miko, and these are the other seishi you must protect and cooperate with. There's one more, but he's a wolfman, so we don't let him in the palace. You'll meet him later."

A wolfman. I quirked one eyebrow. Sure, why not?

"Since you're from Yui's world and you don't know the palace and you have to figure out how to use your seishi powers as quickly as possible, I'm going to assign one of the others to be your guide."

The other seishi waited for Nakago's pronouncement with feelings ranging from mild curiosity (the twins), through eagerness (Soi), to Nakago's never going to pick me… (Tomo).

Nakago's thoughts went something like this: This guy looks like me. I definitely don't want him near Soi. Tomo's crush on me is really annoying, maybe his attention can be diverted to this guy, and then he and Soi would have fewer of their stupid squabbles… I hate to be nice to him, but he's still a freak, so Mareu probably won't like him, and he'll still be tormented… Nakago almost smiled. "Tomo. You babysit Mareu. Get him a room, a sword, some clothes, a horse from the stables, etc." Tomo's eyes widened. Me?!? But, but Nakago's never nice to me! Soi's eyes also widened. Tomo?! Why don't I get to play guide to the bisienen? Ooh, maybe Nakago's jealous!

Nakago continued nonchalantly, "Mareu, your duties for the moment are to resume your sword training, learn to use your powers, and stay out of trouble. I will summon you in a few days to check on your progress. If you need help with anything ask one of the other seishi."

I nodded. "Okay, no problem."

"Fine." Nakago returned his attention to the strategic map and stacks of military dispatches on the table. "Dismissed." The twins and Yui went back to whatever they had been doing, and I found myself standing in the hall with Tomo and Soi.

"Don't scare off the new boy, opera freak." shot Soi, smirking at Tomo, then winking at me and turning to leave.

"Take your static elsewhere, eel." Tomo riposted. She didn't look back at him, just waved her hand as if his words were gnats and she was shooing them away.

I raised an eyebrow at Tomo. "Heh, you two seem to have quite a rivalry going."

He turned to me, and it was hard to tell, but I thought he might have turned a little pink under the facepaint. Hmm… "A rivalry… you could call it that. Soi's annoying. I think I know where an empty room is…"

"By all means, lead on, my guide!" I said playfully. Narrow gold eyes dwelled on me for a moment longer than necessary. Then he turned away and I noticed that the unpainted skin of his throat was decidedly pink. I smiled to myself and followed him. "So Tomo, what exactly do celestial warriors do? Are we just bodyguards for the miko, or what?"

"Well, Kutou is a kingdom torn by internal strife, and our overall goal is to summon Seiryuu and ask him to unite the land. Of course everyone has their own goals: Nakago wants power, Soi wants Nakago, Yui wants to go home and never see this place again, the twins their farm back… also, there's another miko in Konan with her own seishi, and we fight them."

"Um… am I gonna… actually have to kill people?"

"…probably. I don't think Yui has killed anyone yet, but she doesn't have any useful divine powers to do it with. Everyone else has found it necessary to take a few lives though. Sometimes people just get in the way, but usually those who die are not innocents, but bandits, slave traders, rapists, bigoted people who insult Nakago for being a hin before they realize how powerful he is… people who don't deserve not to die." The word 'rapists' had been tucked inconspicuously into the middle of the list, but I noted the extra emotion with which he hissed the word and filed that information away for later use.

"I suppose I'll be able to do it then… it's such an odd idea though, when you're raised to believe that human life and happiness is the only sacred thing…"

Tomo wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he was glad to spot the door he was looking for and have an excuse to change the subject. "Here, this room is empty, and some of the rest of us have rooms in this hall, so you'll be able to find one of us quickly if you need something. The twins' room is that one, Soi's is the one down there, and mine is the one opposite." He pushed open the door, revealing a fully-furnished but obviously uninhabited room. I was happy because the room was bigger than my dorm room and there was a nice big cozy bed complete with those canopy/curtain things, a big desk that would be perfect for drawing, and an inviting-looking armchair.

"Nice. This'll be a good place to live."

"Good, we'll get the key from the palace chatelaine. What next, sword and horse, or clothes?"

"Clothes please - I'd rather not think about killing people for a little while."

Why is he so open? wondered Tomo. If I wasn't disposed to be nice to him I could have insulted him a dozen times already from the openings where he's let his feelings show. Nakago could eat him alive. But all Tomo said was, "I'll be amused to see what the palace tailors make of your 'punk' clothes."

I took a moment to look in the mirror. "Hmm… I still look like me, just male. How odd." I studied my reflection for a few minutes more. "Interesting. Alright then, let's go order me some clothes to go with my new look."

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