Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ In Dreams ❯ Chapter 15 ( Chapter 15 )

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

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

In Dreams
Chapter 15

Mark looked around himself fearfully. Everything about Marie scared him. From her killer cat to the hundreds of clocks that covered the walls in her house, but that wasn't even the worst part, which was Marie herself. Not that she was ugly, or particularly mean, she was just... Evil. Whenever you were around her you felt like you were doing something completely stupid that you should get slapped for, which she mostly took care of, whether you did something or not. So one would assume that she was violent as well as inherently evil. Mark scratched the back of his neck in a nervous gesture while ringing the doorbell with his other hand. He clenched his teeth and flinched when he heard Marie's dog, Ragsdale, barking at him... Not that the bug looking mutt didn't bark at everyone, but still...

Marie came and opened the door, just as all of the clocks in the house struck four; the chimes and bells going off to signal the hour. Marie looked up at him, her cold glare and questioning eyebrow almost made him flinch away again. She was not to be taken lightly, even given her short stature. As always, her hair was pulled back into an innocent looking bow that had caused people to give her the nic-name, "Bowfa." Her dark brown eyebrow rose even higher when he didn't speak, "Did you need something, Mark?"

"Uh.. Umm... Well... I was just wondering if I could borrow some of your manga." He looked away several times while trying to get the one sentence out. Her presence was just.... Foreboding. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a searching look. He fidgeted under her glare and looked away again.

"Oh, really? Can I trust you to bring whatever you borrow back in good condition?" He shifted his eyes around, looking any where, but at her. Jenn had always laughed at how he was terrified by "a harmless little girl". Well, he wasn't fooled by her size or her bow, she was evil! He stuttered out a "yes". "Well, then, what series do you want to borrow?"

He fought to keep down a blush that was coming out of completely no where and he was about to speak when she filled the pause with a disdainful eye roll that only served to further off balance him. He rocked on his heels a bit, "Uh.. Fushigi Yuugi?" She gave him another look and then raised one eyebrow.

"Oh? I thought that, "Fushigi Yuugi is stupid and makes absolutely no sense and I'm not going to ever read that stupid crap like that ever."" She tilted her head in challenge. Mark could only make indignant sputterings in return.

"I was hardly that ineloquent and redundant ab-" He was cut off as he heard someone yell behind him, the person practically throwing themselves out of a forest green Jetta, without even bothering to turn off the stereo, which was still blasting trance music.

"Gods above! I finally found you! It's about time one of you two showed up!" Mark blinked uncomprehendingly at Marissa as she stalked up Marie's driveway and waved her arms about. She flicked back her windblown brown, or "Sienna" as she insisted its color to be, hair out of her face as her wild movements had whipped it into her face.

"Huh? What are you talking ab- Hey! Ow, leggo!" Mark yelled when she grabbed him by the ear and started dragging him back to her car. He went around and climbed in the passenger side before she could throw him in and rubbed his ear, looking at her for an explanation. She only rolled her eyes at him before speeding like a mad woman out of the cul-de-sac. He glanced out the back window at Marie who just scowled before turning around and closing the door behind herself. He then turned back to his crazy, home for the holidays college going, surrogate sister, oh, and did he mention crazy in his mental description?

He waved his arms behind himself, gesturing back towards Marie's house, even though Marissa wasn't paying the least amount of attention to him, "Mari-chan! What in the seven hells was all of that about?! You don't just grab someone by the ear and drag them around!" He sighed in defeat when she didn't respond and pretended that she couldn't hear him. She finally pulled the car into her drive way, which was located right across the street from his own. She turned the car off, but made no move to get out. She didn't look at him as she spoke, her words sounding just on the sad side of indifferent.

"In all of the years that I have known Jenn, not once has she ever gone four days without returning a call from me. Four days Mark. Four days and no response, you tell me what this is all about." She turned to face him and he was saddened by the resignation that he saw in them. Her brown eyes seemed to be holding back tears and Mark was struck, once again at how close Mari-chan and Jennifer actually were. When he had moved in across the street the two girls had instantly taken him into their little bond of sisterhood, which he still thought was very odd, seeing as how he was a guy... As soon as they had gotten over his improvising, they had done all sorts of things together, well, that was until Marissa went off to college last autumn. He sighed and looked away, unable to meet her gaze.

"She disappeared from my house on Saturday night. Nothing has been heard about her since..." He waited while she digested this little tid bit of information. He almost didn't want to know her reaction, but his eyes betrayed him and he looked up. Though unsurprised, he was still taken aback by the dead look on her face. Before she could react or say anything, he added, "But I think she might somehow be in the Universe of the Four Gods."

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Tarakai pursed her lips as she examined the clip in her hands. She had pestered the servants so much about being bored, that one of them had given her a jewelery making kit that they had bought in Saiiro, with Nakago's purse, of course. She was trying to hide the ultra fine wiring that held the tiny beads onto the shirt clip. Right now, one of the fine loops was showing up garishly on the left side of the clip, it would figure that the blemish would show up on her use side. She narrowed her eyes in agitation at it, no matter how she twisted the wire it just wouldn't stay. She sighed, there was just nothing she could do to it that she hadn't already tried. She held it carefully in both hands and stood up. Soi would know how to fix it, she was sure, and if Soi couldn't do it the manual way, she could always just blast it with a little bit of lightening.

She walked through the tent complex, looking into all that she passed, trying, and failing, to find Soi. She'd encountered hundreds of servants, but no sign of the Shichiseishi. About halfway through the encampment, she found a large open air pavilion. She looked in and saw a small child sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking out at...Nothing? She turned and looked over her shoulder to confirm that there was nothing there, before stepping forward slowly. When the child fixed his attention on her, she smiled, "Hello, who are you?"

"I am Celestial Warrior Miboshi, Miss Tarakai." The little child made a sour face as Tarakai blinked trying to understand how this small child could be the last Celestial Warrior, "Nakago has foolishly pulled me out of the monastery before my plans were at completion. We could have had the Byakko Shinzaho by this point, but he prematurely cut my plans off. Now his selfishness will make him pay because the Suzakus will have it before us." He narrowed his eyes and scowled. He looked back at her and his expression soften as he saw something there, "Why do you not go sit by the river. Leave the clip with me. When you return I saw give it to you." Tarakai was taken aback that he knew why she had been wandering around.

"Um.. Uh..?" The child, Miboshi, only shrugged and gestured where he wanted her to leave the clip that she had been working on. She shook her head as she stepped out, confused as to Miboshi's actions and words... It just didn't fit together and it was giving her a headache. She rubbed her head with her left hand and walked back to the more than half dry creek that she had been at the other day with Su-chan. She sat down on the dry bank and wrapped her arms around her knees which were pulled up to her chest. She was so confused lately... Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

She rested her head on her knees and felt silent tears flow down her cheeks. It felt the world was pressing around her and she was being squished in the middle of everything. She didn't know why she, a little half noble nobody, was in the middle of all of these Seishi and their problems and even her relationship with Su-chan seemed... Hollow and without backing... Her body shook slightly as the pain and tears overwhelmed her.

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When Amiboshi had returned to the house of Tokakai and Subaru it had been to a few disappointed faces. At first he had believed that Tamahome and Miaka had failed to retrieve the Shinzaho, but he had later discovered it was because of the words of Byakko Seishi Tatara concerning the love between the two that had come to him. In addition to that, they were now unsure of what to do next... They were at an impasse. They only had one Shinzaho and they needed both to successfully summon Suzaku. He had gone to sleep that night with mixed feelings... His beloved loved his brother, his brother was completely different now than he had been even the last time he had seen him. Suboshi was acting so... Sadly and without his usual fire, which used to rival if not overpower Tasuki's.

He had rolled around on the pallet for near on half the night before he could finally sleep. He woke around noon and went into the thankfully empty kitchen. He began to boil a pot of water before sitting down at the table and resting his head on it. He was too exhausted to turn around when he heard someone enter the room through the door behind him. "So I take it your little mission didn't go very well, since you're back here and without Jennifer in tow." Tamahome's voice floated over the room, coating his introversive thoughts with a sad aura that had clung to him since his return.

Amiboshi sighed before answering, "She is under the spell of a modified Kodoku. There was nothing I could do, she didn't even remember me..." He closed his eyes against the painful memory as it crept back up to the surface of his consciousness. He didn't want to remember the blank look. He didn't want to see her confused face... The empty eyes. He felt his heart clench. He heard the water begin to boil and he moved the pot over, drawing a cup out of one of the cupboards. He set it down and carefully poured in the water, adding the tea leaves after, a habit that he had picked up in his years of having to beg for hot water from women in whatever village that he and Shunkaku had been passing through at the time.

"The poor girl, at least she won't remember anything when she wakes up. I don't think I would have been able to live with myself if I knew exactly what I did in her position." Amiboshi sighed again, stirring his tea distractedly, trying to think of how to word that it was much worse than he could ever comprehend. The only problem was that he couldn't grasp it himself. He was unable to see through his own pain to think of a way to help her.

"Suboshi said that Nakago mentioned that this new kodoku was unbreakable. I saw her... I can't help but thinking that he may have been speaking the truth." He drained the cup of scalding tea, the physical burning of the tea doing nothing to the frozen place within his heart. He closed his eyes and turned his head, fighting back the tears that rose at the thought of her blank expression. He squeezed his lids tightly, failing in his mission as he felt a single tear trace a path down his cheek. He heard as Tamahome tactfully left the room and was thankful. He just needed time to be alone...

He exchanged his clothes for something fresh before leaving the house and then the city. His thoughts chased each other around his mind as he walked a little aimlessly into the desert. He subconsciously realized that it was a bad idea to wander in a desert with no water, but he couldn't spare himself the thought. There was too much else that needed to be solved in his mind before he could worry about a trivial thing like heat exhaustion. At this point he was willing to do anything to relieve himself of the cold block that his heart had become.

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Miboshi continued to scowl as the girl, Tarakai left. He could easily see the taint of the kodoku on her. He saw how Nakago had altered it and was upset that he had dared to corrupt such a wonderful substance. Something that could control someone's mind without either the specific powers or the consent was a masterpiece. It irked him to see how little respect he had that his beautiful creation could be so crudely destroyed. In addition to everything else, it lacked the finesse that he used with everything he did. The mind-control drug screamed his name, but what it did now shamed his work.

This was not the subtle, yet all controlling, mind enveloping power that he worked, nor the slight memory and personality alteration that had been the trademark of his original piece. No, this was the crude complete change and repression of someone's entire mind. And it had so many holes in its workings as well. The poor girl had barely half of a set of memories, it was no wonder that she was such a brainless trollop. At this, after seeing how coherent and fine minded that she was in her inhibited state, he was curious to see what she would be like if not under the effects of Nakago's rudimentarily changed drug.

He barged into a servant's mind to call him hither. Once the man was standing before him, Miboshi passed over a small vile that contained the antidote to the kodoku. He mentally instructed the man to put the substance in a glass of warm sake that was to be brought to Tarakai. He made the servant leave with all haste. The new potion would work swiftly, but he was eager to see the results and Tarakai's true mind.

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"Hi everyone! And after a long break we're back! Special thanks to Mair-chan for reviewing AND beta-ing for us. We're so happy. We also have a new webpage: www.geocities.com/ravenlock_3/index.html. Thanks to Rockie-chan, you're a new reviewer!! Thanks to Reinasinnax, it was great talking to you about the comparative personalities of Tomo and Soi and I was glad to read your things. And also to lirael1 who submitted the 50th review for In Dreams!!