Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ In Dreams ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

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

Disclaimer: I own no Fushigi Yuugi Chararcters, Places or Ideas.



Suboshi looked around himself in slight confusion. He was back in the dream that he had left at Tarakai's scream. He looked up from his kneeling position and stared into the eyes of the black clothed figure sitting "incorrectly" on the large marble throne. He used incorrectly loosely in his thoughts because if one had enough power to sit on a throne they could sit however they pleased, even if it did look undignified to have one's legs draped over on the arm rests. In the brief leave of his dream he had forgotten all of who the figure was and what he had been saying. He looked up questioningly into the strangely featured face. The man on the throne sighed.

"I see that I must begin again. I am Tarakai's god, Kælar, and you are here in my hall. I have brought you here because I wanted to thank you. Without your help, I am sure that Tarakai's quest would have failed by now. You are acting very out of your character because you have realized that you are the only one who can save this mission." The man's voice was impossibly deep and Suboshi marveled at it. He was shocked to hear himself be praised by a god, though and could find nothing to say in response.

"Very soon, though, you shall be freed from your self assigned task. At that time you shall receive a gift caused by slight nudging on my part." The god Kælar actually grinned. Suboshi's jaw dropped. Was this god just admitting that he had tampered with someone's mind?! "Oh, don't look so surprised. And I didn't "tamper." I just "suggested."" The god made flourishing hand movements to accompany his words. Suboshi closed his mouth and just shook his head. Kælar snorted, "Oh, you are one to be disapproving of me." Suboshi looked up incredulous at the god's light tone and couldn't help but laugh at the mock sulking expression that the god wore. The god laughed as well, then waved in a dismissing gesture, "Be gone now, and dream of your gift to come." The words didn't make any sense in his mind as he faded into true sleep and they didn't register themselves in his memory either.



Suboshi woke up to a very loud bustling sound coming from the rest of the camp. He tiredly pulled on a shirt and stepped out of the tent. He looked around and saw servants running everywhere, swarming around Nakago's tent like a disturbed bunch of hornets. He walked up confusedly and was about to enter when Soi grabbed his arm and held him back. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you." She said menacingly. Suboshi blinked at her a few times. She'd been acting strangely cold to Nakago lately so it was a surprise to have her keep him away from Nakago, all of a sudden.

"Why? What's going on?" He asked, trying to not show his confusion, but failing miserably. Subterfuge was not his strong point.

"He is taking her eminence to a temple where he believes the last Seishi, Miboshi, to be. He will be leaving the rest of us here to baby sit the girl-child while he goes. He is upset about something and if you would like your girl to keep her head, I would stay away from him." He nodded at her and then turned back to his tent. He went inside and began digging through his things for some clean clothing. Things were certainly becoming interesting.

First, he had had the interesting dream the night before where a delinquent god had admitted to tampering with some one's mind and will. Secondly, he had found that Tarakai was having nightmares and waking up the whole encampment, even after he had gone in to check on her. And lastly, Soi was actually being nice to him, Tarakai and Tomo. The reason behind that was a complete mystery because hitherto she had just hated everyone equally and saw them as a threat to her imaginary relationship with Nakago. He sighed trying to reason the three things out, but gave up and went to ask a servant if there was any place to bathe nearby.



Amibos hi sighed. He was so confused he couldn't think straight. He and the Suzaku Seishi had been halfway to the next city when Tamahome's old "Master" had shown up and dragged them back to the city saying something along the lines of "How stupid could he possibly be," and "I had thought that I had trained him better than that." As if that weren't bad enough, when they had arrived once again in the city and met with the old man's wife, they had revealed themselves to be remaining Seishi of Byakko, who had been active ninety years prior, and that they knew the location of the Shinzaho. He rubbed his forehead, still trying to figure everything out. The main point of everything seemed to be that they had traveled right past the Shinzaho and kept on going without a clue of anything.

Miaka had gone with Tamahome to collect the Shinzaho from Tatara, another remaining Byakko Seishi, leaving the rest of them behind at the mercy of Tokaki and Subaru, which really wasn't very nice of them, in Amiboshi's opinion. They seemed a little eccentric to Amiboshi, but he guessed that it couldn't be helped. Currently Tokaki was muttering about how Tamahome was doomed because he refused to renounce Miaka. That was another sore point in and of itself. Tokaki had said that the only thing a priestess couldn't wish for was to be made a part of this world. Which, of course, meant that Suboshi was doomed as well because he loved Yui. At very least in that case Yui didn't love him back, but that was always subject to change. Amiboshi sighed again and leaned back slightly.

Chichiri came and sat down next to him, "Confused, no da?" He asked through his mask. Amiboshi still wondered about the mask sometimes. He just figured that he hadn't been around when Chichiri had explained it to everyone, that is, of course, if he had explained it at all. Some things from the past just didn't need to be said...

"Yes, I am." Amiboshi said tiredly. He rather thought that confused was a gross understatement, but saying so would be terribly rude.

"You are still worried about Jennifer, aren't you, no da?" He looked over at the monk. He definitely knew how to get straight to the point. Not that that was a bad thing, but he was just really worked up about Jennifer.

"Is it that obvious?" Chichiri tilted his head slightly, thinking about it. Amiboshi sighed and leaned back some more. It was an odd position to be in, but it was more comfortable than it looked.

"Not really, no da. It is just a lot of little things that you do, no da." Amiboshi cocked an eyebrow at him. Most people didn't pay attention to little things that could give him away, but then again, the monk probably also had other ways of knowing and was just calling it suck to be polite.

"I see what you mean, mostly at least. I can't help thinking that she's in danger. I feel guilty about leaving Huaike's(Kaika's) parent's like that, too. I told them that I wouldn't leave and my coming just opened an old wound in the first place, but you're right, it's mostly about abandoning Jennifer." He ran a hand through his hair and then began to finger the new head band that he had recently bought. He was planning on tearing it in half again, so that Jenn could have a new token, only this time he planned on telling her the full meaning of the symbol.

"Hotohori was the same way when we left him behind to find Mitsukake and Tasuki. That's why I offered to take over for him for a while, no da." Amiboshi looked back up at Chichiri, remembering the scene when they had arrived back at the palace when they still believed him to be Chiriko. He nodded in understanding and looked over at the others as he thought about it. "Why don't you just go? No one here needs you, no da." Amiboshi snapped his gaze back to Chichiri, trying to understand what he was saying. Go? Why hadn't he though of that before? Chichiri was right. He wasn't doing anything except sitting around and worrying and probably causing some stress in the others.

"You're right. I should go." He stood up and looked down at Chichiri thankfully. He walked out of the house and back into the city. He took a deep breath to clear his mind and then tried to "feel" Suboshi. He was surprised at how strong the link and subsequently how close he was. He blinked a few times and then started out of the city.



Suboshi sat cross-legged on the bank of the nearly dry creek that one of the servants had found the day before and told him about when he had asked of a bathing place. Nakago had finally left when the sun had reached its zenith and Suboshi was feeling much better with him away. Now that Nakago was gone he held some faint hope that Tarakai would wake up from the potion. His faint hope, however, was quickly diminishing as Tarakai only began to act stranger and stranger. Right now, said eccentric girl was sitting on the opposite bank with her feet in the shallow water. She was splashing around and making a total disgrace of herself and acting like a child. He scowled at her, but his expression went unnoticed by her.

Since his dream the night before he was being much less charitable towards her. Knowing that his time of watching over her was coming to an end was making every annoying thing that she did just that much more annoying. On top of that, he was upset that Nakago had taken Lady Yui with him when he had gone. He worried about the priestess for more reasons than one and he was more than a little jealous of Nakago who he, by now, hated fully and completely. He felt his eyebrow twitch of its own accord at the thought. He leaned back a little more and watched Tarakai with half lidded eyes. He would have taken a nap, the slow heat of the desert mixed with the cool of the water before him making him tired, but he had to watch and make sure that Tarakai didn't hurt herself or get kidnapped by wandering slave traders or bandits.

He yawned broadly and reached out with his other senses to try and pinpoint the location of the other Seiryu Seishi. He could feel them, but he couldn't identify them or know what they were doing as he assumed that Tarakai could when she used her power, which was dormant at this point, courtesy of Nakago. As he scanned the area he counted the little feelings of the others and started when he felt his brother close by and coming closer. He stood up hurriedly and jumped across the pathetic strip of water over to Tarakai. He didn't look at her, but faced back towards the camp. "Put your sandals on, we're going back now."

He gave he a sparse glance and saw her slight confusion at his strange actions, but thankfully she complied without question. She stood up next to him and he held her wrist as they returned to the camp. He had her sit in the mess tent and eat something while he went out to try and meet Amiboshi before he reached the camp. He was sure that the reuniting between the two would be something ugly if his brother didn't know what was going on.


Amiboshi could hear the encampment before he could see it. The desert dunes seemed to amplify the sounds. He no longer needed to use his link to his brother to try and find Jennifer because he could feel her in her own right. He wasn't sure why, but he believed that it might still be the after effects of him having bound himself to her, even if the binding had been removed. He circled slowly to the side of the camp, opting to come in as close to Jennifer as he could. He knew that he could not remove her now. On the way to the camp he had felt Nakago leaving, going off on some errand, probably with the Lady Yui in tow.

He knew that if she disappeared while Nakago was away, he would automatically suspect Amiboshi of it. He sighed and moved a little closer to the tent where he knew Jennifer to be. He did not want to be seen and it was a miracle that none of the upset servants had seen him as of yet. He made a quick dash to the tent and bolted inside as soon as the servant that he had been watching turned away. His light feet made no sound on the sand for which he was grateful, but the feeling faded as he saw what was before him.

Jennifer was sitting in a small chair, similar to ones that he had seen within the city and she was brushing out her long brown hair, oblivious to everything around her. Her grey eyes were fixed on the main entrance to the tent and she was humming quietly to herself. What caused him to gasp for breath, however, were her clothes. She was wearing clothing of suitable style for the overly warm climate, but seeing her dressed in the traditional clothing of a Lady of Kotou was breath taking and heart stopping for him, even if it was mostly caused by the fact that in all of the time that he had seen her through Mark's eyes she had always worn loose, drab clothing. When she turned to look at him, he was barely able to choke out her name, through the raging emotions he felt, "Jennifer..."

She blinked up at him a few times before answering him, as if she were trying to understand something, her face, however, cleared just before she spoke, "Oh, are you looking for her? I'm not sure who she is, but I'm sure that my koibito, the Seishi Suboshi, could help you. He just went out through there. I'd show you, but he asked me to stay here. He said he was going to wait for someone." She paused to take in a breath, "I'm not sure who he is waiting for though. He didn't say before he left and Nakago shouldn't be back with Mistress Yui for a while yet." Amiboshi felt his heart shatter for the second time. For some reason, some how, she had forgotten about him, about herself.

"Oh, here he is, you can just ask him now!" Amiboshi's eyes met his brother's. He knew that betrayal was shining in his own and he couldn't help but see the look of horror that passed over his brother's face, nor could he miss the band that was tied around his arm, he looked away, unable to hurt himself anymore. He felt his knees begin to weaken and grabbed onto a table for support. It was too much. Somehow his brother had betrayed him. He had given him the benefit of the doubt about his murdering Tamahome's family, but now, with this? It was beyond even a twin's ability to forgive. He turned back to his brother. His anger was so potent that he felt his eyes darken.

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"Sorry about the short chapter, I just had to end it here, otherwise it would have gone on forever and never gotten put up. Okay, I voted myself and decided that I am going to write the YYH, just because I'm losing sleep over not writing it. If it's crap, I won't put it up, but don't worry, I'm not giving up on this story. Thanks to: I Love Redheads With Fangs and Lirael1 for reviewing! Have a great vaction, everyone else!" -Tk and Zv DuVeraun