Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Fushigi Yuugi: Daydream's Embrace ❯ Episode 8: Jubilant Return ( Chapter 8 )

Episode 8
Jubilant Return
By: Mrs. Tasuki and Nyan Nyan

"The situation should have never become this grave," Hotohori said sadly to his advisors.

"Your Majesty, I'm surprised that the peace lasted this long. During all of these years, Kutou has almost been too quiet," one of the several advisors replied, sitting before the emperor in the conference room.

Just then two mysterious girls fell from the sky and landed on the emperor's head. The advisors stared in shock as all three of them fell to the floor.

"No. Freakin'. Way," Christina said, looking around her in shock.

Katherine and Hotohori stood up and hugged each other. "I'm so glad to have you back with us," Hotohori said clutching Katherine, as if to make sure she was actually there. They both heard several pounding noises; they turned to find several boxes toppled over in various places in the conference room. Many of the boxes and bags broke open and spilled their contents onto the floor. Christina had to scramble out of the way of a rather large Rubbermaid bin.

"I must be dreaming... am I on Punk'd or Candid Camera? Where's Ashton Kutcher?" Christina said, still shocked, now sitting Indian-style with a blank look on her face.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too, but this is the real thing," Katherine replied.

Christina took a deep breath. "I just can't believe it," she said, exhaling. Katherine walked over and held out her hand for Christina to grab to help her stand up.

"Oh!" Katherine said, remembering that Christina and Hotohori weren't formally introduced. "Hotohori, this is Christina, the friend I was talking to you about. Christina, this is Hotohori, the emperor of this land."

"Nice to meet you," Christina choked out through suppressed laughter. She held out her hand for a handshake, but Hotohori just looked at it blankly.

"This is how we formally greet people in our world," Katherine whispered in Hotohori's ear, "Just grab her hand, and she'll shake it."

Hotohori gave Christina an inquisitive look, as if he was not sure if he should trust this newcomer, then cautiously grabbed Christina's hand. Just as Katherine had said, she took his hand and shook it.

"C'mon! You HAVE to meet Nuriko!" Katherine said, while grabbing Christina's arm, about to bolt out the door.

"There are two priestesses?" an advisor asked curiously.

"I remember the legend speaking of one priestess," another advisor added.

"Well Christina is Priestess Number Two," Katherine said, turning around to face the advisors and holding up two of her fingers.

"Why am I Number Two?" Christina asked, also spinning around.

"Because I was here first!" she exclaimed.

"So? I'm taller than you!" Christina argued.

"Well I'm older than you!"

"Well I'm better!" Christina pointed out. They always had little fights like this. Neither of them ever took it personally; they just did it in the name of fun.

"You wish!" Katherine hollered back as they turned around to walk out of the room and start searching for Nuriko.

"I don't need to! I already am!"

"Katherine! Christina! Wait!" Hotohori interrupted, hoping to stop them before the turned down the hallway. "I must ask you, the Priestesses of Suzaku, for a favor." You must find the other four constellations as soon as possible. Relations with out neighboring county Kutou have deteriorated. Every year we send ambassadors with peace treaties. Our ambassadors have not yet returned! In fact, Kutou accuses us of having never sent them in the first place. Their ministers were outraged, and they declared war. They've sought our lands since antiquity."

"That's so terrible!" Katherine said as her eyes widened. The two priestesses knew from the very beginning that the war was an unavoidable circumstance, but it still seemed so horrendous. She then gathered herself, knowing that sulking about it wouldn't change it. She needed to think of productive things, "Well, you should still meet Nuriko," she continued, turning to Christina. They turned around and walked out the door.

*

"I think I need to sit back down," Christina said as they walked down the hallway in search for Nuriko. "I can't believe that this is actually happening, that I'm going to save a country from going to war. Please tell me that I'm dreaming."

"I wish I could, but I can't. But, hey, look at the bright side," Katherine said as she put on a fake smile, "as least our fantasy is coming true. AND you'll meet Tasuki!"

"Yeah..." Christina replied, now in her own daydream.

They had just turned down a new hallway, when they both saw a flash of purple hair turn the corner. "Nuriko!" Katherine shouted, hoping to catch his attention.

The bishounen turned around quickly. "Katherine?" he asked as his lavender eyes stared incredulously at her, as if he couldn't believe that she was standing right there. They ran up to each other, clasping hands, and started to jump up and down happily, as Christina just stood there with a shocked look on her face.

"H-he's real-" Christina stuttered as she pointed to Nuriko.

"Yes, he is REALLY pretty," Katherine quickly interrupted. She had tried so hard to keep the fact that she knew everything a secret; she couldn't let her friend ruin it now, even if she was in shock. "Nuriko, this is Christina," Katherine said quickly changing the subject, "Christina, this is Nuriko."

"Yo," Christina said while waving once.

"Hi..." Nuriko replied, assuming that yo was some kind of greeting.

"Oh, by the way, where's Baka-home?" Katherine asked Nuriko.

"You mean Tamahome?"

"Same thing."

"He went off to make some money did you really expect him to wait for you for three months without making a cent?" Nuriko asked sarcastically.

"Oh so it HAS been three months..." Katherine mumbled, ignoring Nuriko's question.

"Um..." Christina started, interrupting Katherine's train of thought, "shouldn't we go back and get our boxes before Hotohori or one of his advisors accidentally pushes a button or something?"

"Oh shit-take mushrooms!" Katherine yelled while grabbing Christina's arm and darted back to the conference room.

*

Katherine and Christina bolted through the door to the conference room to find their boxes untouched and the advisors discussing some political matters with Hotohori. "I'm terribly sorry about this mess," Katherine said when they all turned to see who would so rudely enter the room without even knocking, "we'll clean it up right away."

"That's okay. Take your time," Hotohori replied with a slight smile.

The priestesses scurried around, shoving everything back into the boxes as fast as they could. Christina accidentally pressed the stomach of Katherine's Meeko stuffed animal; it let off a loud laughing sound.

Hotohori jumped out of his chair as quickly as he could, as the advisors huddled together out of fear. "Katherine! Christina! Get back! That thing is demonic!"

Katherine and Christina just stared at him and started cracking up. He looked back at them blankly, as if he missed something. "I'm sorry," Katherine started, in-between her laughter," but it's supposed to do that." Then she just sat back down and continued laughing.

Christina took a deep breath, trying to control her laughter, and walked towards Hotohori with the stuffed raccoon in her hands. The emperor took a step back, frightened as to what it might do next. "It's not gonna bite!" Christina snickered, starting to laugh all over again at the fact that the emperor was so cautious over a stuffed animal. "It's Meeko! You know, Pocahontas!" Then, suddenly, Katherine's worst nightmare happened, Christina randomly started to sing. "You think you own whatever land you land on, the earth is just a dead thing you can claim. But I know every rock and tree and creature, has a life, has a spirit, has a name."

"Christina... you're scaring them..." Katherine warned as her friend continued to sing.

"The rainstorm and the river are my brothers, the heron and the otter are my friends and we are all connected to other, in a circle, in a hoop, that never ends. How high does the sycamore grow? If you cut it down, then you'll never know," she continued to sing in her award-winning voice. Katherine just stared at her friend in disbelief, not believing that she was embarrassing both of them like this.

"Well, I believe everything is back in the boxes," Katherine, scanning the room to see if she left anything behind. "Well, we'll be in my room if you need anything."

"I'll have Christina's room prepared at once. It will be right next to your room," Hotohori said as they picked up their boxes and bags.

"Really!?" That's so nice!" Christina said as her eyes grew larger.

As they walked out into the hallway, they saw Nuriko again. "Hey! Nuriko, maybe we should start looking got Tamahome soon," Katherine said as they ran up to him, dragging their boxes and bags behind them.

"Why do we want to find Baka-home again?" Christina quietly asked Katherine.

"Because if we find Baka-home, we find Chichiri," Katherine whispered back so Nuriko couldn't hear.

"I hope you don't mean right now. It's WAY too late. We'll set off tomorrow morning though," Nuriko replied; ignoring the priestesses' secret conversation.

"What do you mean? It's only 5:30," Christina said while looking at her watch. Christina usually didn't go to bed until well after two in the morning.

"Over here, 5:30 is like the end of the day," Katherine explained.

"Are you serious? What am I supposed to do for nine hours?"

"Nine hours!?" Nuriko asked, "When do you go to sleep?"

"Around two..." Christina explained as though anyone who went to bed any earlier was insane.

"I'm sure you two will figure out some way to entertain yourselves until tomorrow morning," Nuriko said while walking away. Katherine and Christina just looked at each other deviously.

*

"On your mark!" Christina started.

"Get set!" Katherine said.

"GO!"

The priestesses of Suzaku darted off; roller-blading as fast as they could down the palace hallway. The smooth tile under their blades made it easy for them to pick up more speed. They loved the rush; the wind blowing through their hair, the scenery growing more and more blurry around them, the lack of pressure as they glided along the white flooring. As they gained more speed, the crouched towards the ground, becoming more aerodynamic and compact. They were both better than average skaters, but far from being pro. They turned a corner sharply, still remaining neck and neck. As they gained even more speed it became harder to keep their eyes open. All of the sudden they saw a blurry, purple object in front of them. Before they knew it, they felt the collars of their shirts choking them and suddenly the blurry purple object focused into Nuriko.

"When I told you to entertain yourselves, I didn't have you two running me over with those... things in mind!" Nuriko scolded as he lowered the two priestesses to the ground and let go of the front of their shirts.

"Sorry..." Katherine and Christina said in unison as the rubbed the back of their necks in pain. Then they slowly continued to roller blade down the hallway.

"Katherine!" Nuriko called after the two girls. Katherine turned around in a 180°.

"What?" she asked as she continued to roller blade backwards.

"One day you two have to teach me how to use those things."

"Sure, no problamo," Katherine answered.

Then Christina jumped into the air and turned around, still continuing to skate backwards when she landed. "By the way, these are called roller blades, just in case you're curious," she added cheerfully. They both turned around with another 180° and continued to race down the halls.

*

"I still can't help thinking that this is all a dream," Christina said while helping Katherine unpack.

"Well, just keep telling yourself that even if this is a dream, you want to meet Tasuki before you wake up," Katherine advised as she put her CD player and her Fushigi Yuugi CD's in one of her drawers.

"Wait," Christina said as she saw Katherine's CD's. "I just had an idea. There is no language barrier in this world right?"

"Yeah, unless it's written," Katherine replied, not seeing where Christina was going with this idea.

"So, wouldn't your F.Y. CD's be-" Christina started.

"IN ENGLISH!" Katherine finished excitedly as she opened the quickly opened the drawer and scrambled to get her CD player open and the CD in, as if she missed a second it would decide to play in Japanese. She hastily put the headphones on her head and pressed play. Automatically it went to track one, the opening song.

Well it wasn't in English, but Katherine could comprehend it. Understanding the words was a very strange feeling, almost like subtitles were playing through their heads. It was as if they were bilingual, and could understand Japanese perfectly. What they heard was 'Maigare, Suzaku. Miracle la', but the girls understood exactly what it was saying, what it meant. 'Soar High Suzaku, Miracle la. The legend begins to unfold'.

"This is SO cool! It's not in English, but I can UNDERSTAND it!" Katherine yelled.

"Lemme listen to Tasuki's song! Lemme listen to Tasuki's song!" Christina chanted back as she reached over, trying to steal Katherine's CD player.

"Not before I hear Hotohori's!" Katherine yelled back, as she skipped to track 4. "Oh my gosh, this song is SO much better once you can understand the lyrics!" she exclaimed as she went off into her own fantasy.

"My turn! My turn! My turn!" Christina said spastically as she reached for the headphones, but Katherine turned away just in time.

"Go get the headphones you brought! My CD player can hold two, but don't get your CD player, we shouldn't waste batteries. Now SHUTUP! I'm trying to listen!" Katherine yelled jokingly.

Christina scrambled through one of her boxes, desperately trying to find her head phones. "Found them!" she shouted happily with her headphones in her right hand. She plugged them in and looked at Katherine anxiously.

"FINE! I'll put on Tasuki's song!" she said while skipped to track 10.

*

"Yes! Food!" Christina shouted happily as she and Katherine sat down to eat. There was a large wooden table with a white table cloth delicately laid over it. They each had a delicious buffet of food before them that included egg rolls and rice.

"CHOW TIME!" Katherine exclaimed happily.

"Christina, your room is ready, if you'd like to unpack once dinner is through." Hotohori told her as he sat down in his chair at the head of the table.

"Really? That quickly?" she replied.

"Out of curiosity," Nuriko said, changing the subject, "did you two run over anybody else with those roller blades of yours?"

"I think a scholar or two," Christina said jokingly.

"Yeah, and a couple of guards... Oh! And a cat... or was that a dog...?" Katherine continued, going along with the joke.

"That was a dog," Christina seriously said.

"Oh, okay then, also a dog," Katherine finished. Nuriko, Hotohori, and the advisors stared at the two priestesses, shocked.

"You two are joking... right?" Nuriko asked.

"Of course we are!" Christina replied with a large smile.

"Yeah, we went back to my room to unpack my stuff right after we almost ran into you," Katherine said.

"By the by," Christina started, using one of her many odd phrases, "Why on earth are you using a fork Katherine?"

"Have you ever seen me use chopsticks? I can assure you, it's quite sad," she replied.

"Yes it is," Nuriko agreed remembering watching Katherine attempt to use them several months before.

"So this time I was smart enough to bring a couple of forks," Katherine continued, "Behold the wonders of fork!" she yelled, as she held the fork out in front of her. "So, Hotohori, what's new?" the she randomly asked, realizing he wasn't talking much.

"You mean besides the fact that his country is going to war?" Christina replied sarcastically.

"Shut up."

"Katherine..." Hotohori scolded, shocked that she would say something so mean to her best friend.

"What? Oh that!? WE say that to each other all the time," Katherine replied, trying to explain herself.

"Oooooooo! Now you're getting in trouble with the emperor! Shame on you!" Christina teased.

"Oh, like you haven't said worse things to me!" Katherine retorted.

"No, I haven't. You cut me deep, Katherine," Christina said in mock grief while clutching her chest as though she had been stabbed.

"I think it may take a while to get used to them," Nuriko whispered in Hotohori's ear as the two priestesses continued with their bickering.

*

"Well I think that's the last of it," Katherine said with a sigh as she looked around Christina's room to make sure all the boxes were empty.

"Yeah... I can't believe we brought so much stuff," Christina said, as she sat own in a chair, exhausted.

"Well, I better be going to bed. We have a long day tomorrow," Katherine replied, walking out the door to go back to her own room.

"Good night," Christina called after her.

"Good night."

*

"Wakey! Wakey! Eggs-and-bacey!" Christina shouted cheerfully in Katherine's ear.

"Christina...?" Katherine replied, still half-asleep. "What time is it?" she asked drowsily, putting her head under the pillow.

"It's eight," Christina answered, looking at her watch. "C'mon! Today is the day we meet Chichiri! And the quicker we meet we meet him, the quicker we meet my Tasuki!" she said anxiously.

" 'Your' Tasuki?" Katherine replied, while looking out from under her pillow.

"Yes... MY Tasuki!" Christina shouted as she grabbed Katherine's arm and dragged her out of her bed. "We still need to wake up Nuriko!"

*

"You two are going to search for Tamahome alone?" Hotohori questioned, worried that they might get lost or hurt.

"No, Nuriko's coming with us!" Katherine replied cheerfully.

"We even got him to wear men's clothes!" Christina added. She reached behind the doorframe, as if she was searching for something, and then she yanked, hard. Suddenly, Nuriko came stumbling through the doorway, wearing a bright pink kimono with a white border. Once he caught his balance, he stood there blushing and looking at the floor, as if he was ashamed of something. "See? Isn't he hott? With two 't's'?" Christina said, putting special emphasis on the word 'hott'.

"The only reason I'm doing this is the fact that it's harder to protect you in women's clothing," Nuriko said, defending himself.

"Hotohori, you can come too, if you want to," Katherine said, hoping that maybe he would be able to this time, knowing that in the series he wasn't able to.

"I'm terribly sorry, but this is one journey on which can not accompany you. Please do be careful though. There are reports of Kutou spies in the area," he replied, concerned.

*

"Hey, Christina! I just had this great idea!" Katherine shouted joyfully from the top of her horse.

"What is it?" she anxiously replied, looking over to Katherine. Nuriko just sat on his horse, in silence, letting the two priestesses talk.

"We could tell Tamahome that you have Tourettes Syndrome!" Katherine suggested while cracking up, almost falling off of her horse.

"Why on earth would you two want to do something like that?" Nuriko asked, as Christina and Katherine were dying of laughter.

"To scare him!" Christina answered in-between laughter.

"Poor Tama-baby..." Nuriko mumbled, using his famous nickname for Tamahome.

Christina and Katherine suddenly stopped and started at Nuriko oddly. The turn to look at each other and continued with their plan. "You could be like," Katherine started, "'Hi Tamahome, nice to meet you... die, Die, DIE!'" And with that, the two priestesses continued to die of laughter while they were traveling to find Tamahome.

*

"Man, it's hot!" Katherine complained.

"If you think it's hot in March, just wait until it's July!" Nuriko replied, surprised that Katherine thought it was warm.

"Sorry, we live in Ohio. It's NEVER this hot in March... wait... it's March!?" Katherine asked, confused because it was May in her world, but then she remembered that the time span was different. Nuriko didn't even bother asking what 'Ohio' was.

"You know what that means, Katherine?" Christina asked, her face bright with joy.

"Oh yeah! We made it just in time for the birthday parties!" Katherine shouted happily, referring to Hotohori's and Tasuki's birthdays, which were both in April. Hotohori's Birthday was April 2nd, and Tasuki's was April 18th.

"Whose birthday is it?" Nuriko asked excitedly, already getting ready to party.

"Ummm... it's-" Katherine started, trying to cover that she knew.

"MINE!" Christina interrupted, saving both of them. There was no way that they would know when Hotohori's birthday was, yet alone Tasuki's if they had never seen Fushigi Yuugi.

"What day?" Nuriko asked curiously

"The 31st," Christina answered proudly.

"But how old am I?" Christina wondered. It was May, and she had already celebrated her fifteenth birthday. "I just had my birthday two months ago, so does that mean we're celebrating my birthday again? Or am I 16?"

"I guess we'll celebrate it again, since there is NO WAY you are old enough to drive," Katherine proclaimed.

"I wonder where Tamahome is; we've been searching for him for hours now!"

Nuriko complained, becoming more and more agitated. "You guys aren't actually going to do that Tourettes thing are you?"

"No... I guess not..." Katherine replied disappointedly.

"Why not!?" Christina yelled, shocked at Katherine's answer. She was already planning the things she was going to do to scare him.

"First of all, he's our sei; we can't scare him TOO much. Second of all, it wouldn't be a very good first impression," Katherine answered.

"I don't care! It's only Baka-home," Christina still couldn't see how scaring Tamahome could be a bad thing.

"This is strange..." Nuriko said randomly, "This place doesn't look familiar; maybe we took a wrong path..."

"We should probably turn around... it's already becoming dusk," Katherine advised.

A large root was jutting out of the ground of the forest floor. Christina's horse stumbled as its foot struck the root, causing Christina to lose her balance and fall off her horse. She landed on her feet, but almost fell over as she bent her legs to absorb the shock of landing on the ground so quickly. She fell forward onto her knees. "Oww..." she complained, having never fallen off of a horse in all the years she had ridden.

"You okay?" Nuriko called towards where Christina had fallen; it was becoming harder to see in the dusk.

"Yeah," her voice called back to Nuriko and Katherine.

Christina slowly stood up and saw a dark shape looming ahead of her. She recoiled, not knowing what it could be. She tried to focus in on whoever it was. Suddenly, a torch was lit somewhere nearby and Christina found herself staring into Tamahome's face.

"Tamahome?" she asked, unsure if she was really seeing him.

"How'd you know my name? Who are you?" he asked as more torches were lit by the villagers and Nuriko and Katherine spotted the two off in the distance.

"Tamahome!" Katherine yelled over to him mischievously in a sing-song voice, "I'm back!"

"Katherine? Nuriko?" Tamahome asked as he turned his head towards them. Nuriko and Katherine dismounted and walked over to where Tamahome and Christina were standing.

"This is Christina," Katherine informed gesturing towards her friend.

It was then Christina remembered that arrows come flying towards the townspeople in the series. "Duck!" she yelled to the men standing around behind Tamahome. Suddenly, a ghastly pair of hands grabbed the priestesses and pulled them into the dark forest.

To be continued...

AN2: We just wanted to point out that we mean no offense to anyone out there who has Tourettes okay? Hope you understand... ~Mrs. Tasuki and Nyan Nyan~

AN3: WOW! LOTSA NOTES! Guess what?! In the next episode you guys get to find out who the Priestess of Seiryuu is! Yay! Anyways... we thought it would be fun if you guys tried to guess who it was before we post it... and if we have already posted it, then just send us a review and guess it before you read on! Fun, eh? Okay... so not THAT much fun... but hey! Why not? You never know... maybe you'll guess it right! *Sorry, I'm slap happy right now, can ya tell? HINT: It is a character that you already know, so don't worry. We aren't gonna surprise you and be like "HEY! The Priestess of Seiryuu is Sue! Wait... Who the hell is Sue?!" ~Nyan Nyan and Mrs. Tasuki~

~*~

Fushigi Akugi

(I randomly found this on my computer titled "Katherine's Happy Ending". I'm thinking that maybe Mrs. Tasuki had some built up anger towards me for one reason or another...yeah...well here it is anyways! Hope you enjoy it...*mumbling stuff about payback towards Mrs. Tasuki* ~Nyan Nyan~)

"Yes! Food!" Christina shouted happily as she sat down to eat. There was a large wooden table with a white table cloth delicately laid over it. They each had a delicious buffet of food before them that included egg rolls and rice. Katherine came out on a platter with an apple in her mouth. She was baked quite nicely. Hotohori turned over to Nuriko and said, "I didn't like her much anyways, she'll probably taste nasty too."

Christina, Tasuki, Hotohori, Nuriko, and the rest of the Suzaku Seishi lived happily ever after, and everyone forgot about Katherine.

Nobody ate Katherine, because they thought she'd taste gross. She was sent to Kutou, where the Nakago, Tomo, Miboshi, Soi, and Ashitare ate her and died of food poisoning.