Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Legend ~ Book One: Girl of Legend ❯ Nineteen: Wherein Our Heroine Meets the Maker ( Chapter 19 )

  It didn't take long to realize that quite a few of their supplies had inexplicably gone missing. Apparently, fleeing for their lives had not deterred the bandits from helping themselves to the unguarded packs scattered about the camp on their way out. KC had managed to hang on to her backpack only because she'd thought to take it with her when she'd scrambled to hide, but three of the four satchels holding their spare clothes and most of the foodstuffs were gone. Even the horses had gone missing.

   "Well, look on the bright side," Tamahome chirped. "At least they didn't get my money!" And he pulled a well-worn string of coins from the front of his breeches. KC turned bright red, while Nuriko looked fit to kill.

   "May I?" He regarded KC hopefully.

   "Go for it," she snorted, and the purple-haired Seishi cheerfully broke a large branch off a nearby tree and started toward Tamahome, who promptly decided to go Somewhere Else. Now.

   Chichiri witnessed this exchange with a raised eyebrow. "Are they always like this, no da?" he asked through his fixed smile.

   Hotohori wearily rubbed a temple. "You have no idea."

   "Yeah. You see what I gotta put up with?" KC sighed in mock exasperation. "My Seishi are so weird." She flashed an innocent smile at the emperor's deadpan expression. "Anyway," she continued, "what should we do? Nuriko says we only have about a day's worth of food left. I guess we could always ambush Tamahome and steal his money if we have to, but we haven't seen an actual village in days. Does this sacred mountain even exist?"

   "Of course it exists!" Hotohori looked offended. "The sacred mountain can be seen only by the pure of heart. To anyone with evil intent, there will be nothing but dry, barren land, but as we have no evil intent in our hearts, we will reach Taiitsukun safely."

   "If you say so," KC replied, doubtful. "But, I mean, what if Taiitsukun doesn't want me to leave? The Priestesses aren't usually allowed to go home before they do their jobs, right? So what if Suzaku or Taiitsukun won't let us see the mountain to keep me here?"

   Hotohori hesitated. Apparently, he had never considered this possibility. Then he smiled reassuringly. "I am certain that Suzaku understands the need for you to return to your world for a time," he insisted. "You cannot properly perform your duties as his Priestess if this homesickness continues to plague your heart. You will always be torn between this world and your own. I trust that you will return to us as soon as you have set your mind at ease and regained your strength. My country can hold its own until you come back to us again."

   He sounded so certain that KC couldn't help but wince a bit guiltily. If she was going to be perfectly honest with herself, she had to admit that a small, nagging thought at the back of her mind had been festering. An idea that, as soon as she landed in her own world, she could just take the book and shove it back on the shelf in the library (or even better, burn it) and pretend that she'd never laid eyes on it. Out of sight, out of mind and all that.

   But now, she wondered if she'd ever really be able to escape the book's hold. Even if she managed to destroy it, would she ever be able to forget it? In her mind, she would always know that someone—An entire world of someones—was waiting for her to keep her promise and save an empire from a deadly war. The thought of disappointing the people who had come to depend on her, especially the ones whom she'd come to depend on in return, left a sour taste in the back of her throat.

   She might tell herself that none of them really existed, that they were all just characters written in pen and ink inside an old book. But in her heart of hearts, she'd always know that they'd been real and alive and that she'd doomed them all by refusing to keep her promise.

   Yeah. She would be coming back, all right. She doubted her conscience would let her have it any other way.

   "If you'll kindly allow me to explain, I believe I can help put your minds at ease about your dilemma, no da," Chichiri spoke up suddenly. "I've just come from Taiitsukun myself, as a matter of fact, to retrieve all of you and bring you to her palace, na no da."

   KC's jaw dropped. "You mean you know Taiitsukun personally?"

   "Indeed. I have been studying magic under Taiitsukun's tutelage these past several years now, no da," the monk affirmed. "We've both been aware of your presence since your arrival, Priestess of Suzaku."

   "Well, then how come you didn't show up right away?" KC asked suspiciously. "Didn't you get the summons Hotohori sent out?"

   "We thought it best to wait until the time was right, na no da," he replied mysteriously.

   KC's brow furrowed to express without words her opinion of that faulty piece of logic, but she didn't press the issue. "So, how do we get there then?" she asked instead. "Do we gotta keep walking?"

   In response, Chichiri unfastened the strange-looking robe he'd tied about his body, spread it between them like some sort of a picnic blanket. KC gave it a blank stare, then looked with raised eyebrows. "We're, um, going by way of magic carpet?" she guessed randomly.

   Chichiri snorted. "Don't be silly, no da," he admonished and tapped the robe-turned-blanket once with the butt of his staff.

   Was it KC's imagination, or did the fabric just … glow a little?

   "Hop on!" Chichiri announced cheerfully.

   "And … then what?" The question came from a suspicious Nuriko, who had just rejoined the party. Tama grumpily trailed him, sporting a fresh lump on the head.

   "Don't you trust me, no da?" Chichiri asked with wounded innocence. Well, as wounded as a person could sound while smiling, at any rate. Really, was the guy's face stuck like that?

   "About as far as she could throw you," Nuriko muttered as he jerked a thumb in KC's direction.

   She poked her tongue out in response. "Well, carpe diem and all that," she proclaimed. "Just don't go hollering at me when you get boot prints all over your clothes." And with that, she stepped onto the robe and held her breath with expectation.

   Nothing happened.

   "Uh … is it broken?" She bounced a little, mystified. "Abracadabra!"

   Tamahome stepped on with her, and still nothing untoward occurred. Hotohori followed him, and finally, a reluctant Nuriko stepped on as well. As soon as both of his feet were planted on the robe, Chichiri stepped into its center and gave it another hard tap with his staff.

   And the ground abruptly began to fold in on itself beneath their feet.

   KC shrieked in surprise and latched onto the nearest support, which happened to be Hotohori. Unfortunately, the emperor's balance wasn't any steadier than hers, but he clutched her to him like a lifeline and attempted to remain upright as the ground rippled like water beneath them, pulling them under and through to … somewhere else.

   It took KC a few moments to realize that the unpleasant heaving had ceased and she was once again on solid ground, clinging to Hotohori like a barnacle to a ship. She slowly raised her face from its place buried against his chest, looked around and blinked against the too-brilliant light.

   The forest had vanished around them. In its stead, they stood on the precipice of an enormous mountain, with soaring cliffs and heart-stopping drop-offs that appeared bottomless due to the thick mists hovering in the chasms. The ground had turned into some sort of courtyard paved with huge, pale, multicolored blocks of tile. The air was filled with strange, shimmering, rainbow-hued bubbles, and just past Nuriko—who had scrambled up to cling like a giant purple monkey to Tamahome's oxygen-deprived torso—a winding staircase ascended to the foot of a majestic palace that towered over everything. It was even more breathtaking than Hotohori's palace.

   "Wh-where are we?" KC breathed, gazing around in awe. "This place is fantastic!"

   "This can only be the Sacred Mountain. No mortal palace could ever exceed the magnificence of my own," Hotohori replied thoughtfully. KC leveled a deadpan stare on him, before she abruptly realized that she still clung to him with her arms right around his waist. Of course, he didn't seem to mind, as his arms were still fixed securely about her shoulders. Nevertheless, she hastily released him and stepped away, offered a sheepish grin by way of apology.

   "So, uh, I guess we'd better go see about meeting Taiitsukun," she said with more confidence than she felt. "Where'd Chichiri take himself off to, anyway? If he got stuck in cyberspace somewhere, it'd serve him right for not warning us."

   "I would have expected you to thank my pupil for saving you the trouble of another two days' journey with no supplies," a dry, crackly voice admonished, directly behind her.

   Startled, she whirled around, released a screech of fright and scrambled to hide behind Hotohori's broad back. "It's a monster! Kill it!" she wailed as she clutched the emperor's shoulders for dear life. Hotohori was too busy looking nauseated to reply, but he did start to draw his sword.

   "Oh, knock it off you two!" the hideous entity bellowed, produced a huge, comical-looking mallet from out of nowhere and brandished it threateningly. "Here I am, welcoming you into my home, and you both have the gall to insult me?"

   "Your home?" KC gulped and peeked around Hotohori's shoulder for a better look at the creature.

   "Then … you are Taiitsukun?" Hotohori asked with an air of utter disbelief, his expression a mix of shock and utter horror.

   "Of course I am, you Suzaku ninnies!" the Emperor of the Heavens roared as she took a swing at Hotohori's head. "Who were you expecting?"

   "Somebody taller?" Nuriko muttered as an aside to Tamahome and received an immediate whack across the head from the mallet that sent him crashing to the ground in a twitching heap.

   Tamahome wisely kept his mouth shut.

   KC regarded the Emperor of the Heavens more closely, fascinated despite her initial fright. Now that she got a good look, the odd little creature didn't really look so much like a monster as an extremely wrinkled, extremely decrepit old woman. Who appeared as though she might have once upon a time been resurrected from some ancient Egyptian tomb. If there was such a thing in this world. Now she could see that the woman appeared to be floating in midair on some sort of cloud (Like that Goku guy and his pet cloud-thingy, she thought), with her legs tucked under her robes. She floated at eye-level, but if she stood, she probably would have reached KC's hip.

   KC felt she ought to apologize, if she wanted to have any chance of actually going home again, so she timidly stepped forward—a wary eye on the mallet—and bowed respectfully. "I'm, uh, sorry about the monster crack, Your … erm … Majesty," she said. "I didn't expect to, uh, see you, and you startled me."

   "I suppose it is possible for such a mistake to be made," the old woman grumbled. She patted her elaborate coif of hair, appeased. "Just don't let it happen again."

   KC nudged Hotohori in the ribs, and he bowed awkwardly, as well. "Please also forgive my misunderstanding," he added, as sincerely as possible. It was quite the feat, given that he could not directly look at the Emperor of the Heavens, and did, in fact, look rather green around the gills.

   Taiitsukun eyed him haughtily before she waved a dismissive hand. "Never mind then," she huffed. "You've come all this way to see me, so it must be important. Let us adjourn to my palace now." She gestured and the giant square of tile the group stood on abruptly heaved, began to shake slightly, and slowly rose into the air. KC yelped and hit the deck to cling to the polished surface as best she could. Her Seishi quickly sat down next to her, gripped the edges of the stone, and they began to move very swiftly toward the palace. "I think I'd rather ride a horse," KC groaned as she buried her face against the cold tile.

   Taiitsukun led the way under her own power, her elaborate robes and length of white hair streaming behind her. Soon enough, the tile reached the palace, rudely deposited its riders by flipping up to allow them to slide off and land in a rather undignified heap before the huge, open doors. Then it flew away again. Presumably to put itself back in place on the mountain courtyard.

   "Welcome, no da!" Chichiri greeted them. He waved cheerfully from his place beside an ornate throne, to which Taiitsukun glided and settled herself with the air of a queen. Or a very prissy cat.

   "Have you been here the whole time?" KC accused. "You might've brought us with you, you know."

   "Somebody had to inform Taiitsukun of your arrival, no da. It's very rude to just barge into somebody's palace unannounced, na no da," the Seishi sniffed.

   KC faltered for a second. He had a point. "Well, um, if she's the Emperor of the Heavens, wouldn't she have already known we were here?"

   "It's a matter of formality, no da," he replied with wounded dignity.

   "Yeah, okay, whatever. Now that we're here… Can I go home now? I really, really want to go home now." KC turned beseeching eyes to Taiitsukun. "They said you could get me there. You can, right?"

   Taiitsukun eyed her speculatively.

   "I know what you're probably thinking," she hastily added. "If she goes home, will she come back again? Well, I will come back. I made a promise to help Konan, didn't I? Do you think I'd be able to live with myself if I broke it?"

   "Sometimes, although their intentions might be honorable, humans allow themselves to become distracted from their goals," Taiitsukun stated gravely. "You may have the initial determination to return here, but when you are home, can you promise that you will continue to hold Konan first in your mind? How can you claim that you will not allow the comforts of your true life to lure you from your duties here? Perhaps, it will be, 'I will return tomorrow, once I have taken care of matters here.' And then, when tomorrow comes, you may tell yourself, 'I'll return the next day. I haven't spent enough time saying farewell to my family.' And perhaps, the day after that, you will feel that you are too tired to return, that you still need time to regain your strength, so you must spend another day resting, and after that—"

   "I won't do that!" KC blurted, then blushed when Taiitsukun shot her an admonishing glance. "I won't … I won't let myself become distracted," she insisted. "I'm just worried about my mom and my friends. They've got to be wondering what happened to me by now. It's been weeks, and nobody knows where I am. I … I have to let them know I'm okay." She stared down at the floor as her eyes began to burn. What if, after all this, Taiitsukun wouldn't allow her to leave, after all?

   "Please, Your Eminence, we have traveled all this way in the hopes that you could help KC," Hotohori began softly. "She has been ill, and will not recover properly until she can ease her mind about her family. If Suzaku himself has chosen her to serve him, then why must we doubt her? Surely, he would not choose someone who is so selfish that she would simply abandon those who depend on her at the first opportunity."

   Taiitsukun sighed and waved a dismissive hand. "This is all highly irregular," she complained. "I cannot recall a time when a Priestess and her Seishi have requested leave before she completes her duties. Of course, there have only been two other Priestesses thus far, and their particular situations were … somewhat different." She noted the questioning looks on her guests' faces. "That is a story best related at another time. You are all tired from your battle, and some of you are injured. Doubtless, you are hungry, as well. Allow my Nyan-Nyan to heal and feed you, and then I request that you stay the night to fully regain your strength. I will think on this matter in the meantime."

   KC wanted to protest, but when her Seishi simply bowed in acquiesce with the Emperor of the Heaven's wishes, she realized she was defeated for the time being. She felt her shoulders slump as disappointment crashed heavily onto them. She was so close to getting her wish, and now this. She had never been very patient when it came to getting something she desperately wanted. Suddenly, she felt very, very tired. The burning in her eyes intensified, and she blinked rapidly, tried to look like everything was okay, that she wasn't about to break down into a wailing, blubbering mess in front of everyone.

   Of course, Hotohori knew better—He always seemed to know everything in regards to her emotions—and she felt his arm slide around her to pull her into a comforting embrace. "It will be fine," he assured her gently. "For now, allow Taiitsukun to show us her hospitality. We are all a bit out of sorts. A meal and a night of rest will do much to restore our spirits."

   She nodded silently, unable to speak for fear her grievance would make itself known in apparent anger. It wasn't Hotohori's fault that Taiitsukun had denied their request, after all, and she wasn't about to take her frustration out on him again.

   Taiitsukun clapped her hands and the weird pink bubbles that floated randomly about the room suddenly burst with audible pops. Eleven or twelve strange-looking little girls with aqua-colored hair and huge eyes dropped to the floor amid childish giggles. KC forgot her ire as she gaped at the girls, who looked like they could have been clones of each other. "We heal! We heal!" they chirped in high, tinny voices as they scattered to each of the Seishi and set to work. They reminded her of so many worker bees swarming a hive as they patted and prodded and made a general annoyance of themselves.

   She felt a tug on each of her hands, glanced down to find two Nyan-Nyan of her own clinging to her. They regarded her with huge grins that sent an apprehensive shiver up her spine. "We heal!" one of them squealed, and she yelped as she abruptly found herself being hauled to the floor. For such tiny creatures, the weird clone-girls each packed the strength of a gorilla, and she was helpless to stop them as they stripped her of her soiled, travel-worn garments.

   "Hey!" she yelped. "Can't we at least have some privacy? Hello! There are guys here, you know!"

   But she needn't have worried about being seen; Tamahome, Nuriko, and Hotohori were all buried under their own pile of enthusiastic Nyan-Nyan, and Chichiri had vanished again. Taiitsukun oversaw the whole operation with all the exasperated patience of a mother cat tending her squabbling kittens. She barked commands and, every once in awhile, sent a Nyan-Nyan flying through the roof when one got a little too exuberant in her work.

   When it was finally over, KC found herself somehow cleaned and redressed in her own original clothes, which had been mended and washed and looked better than new. As for that, KC herself felt better than new. At least, she no longer felt weak and dizzy, just a bit disoriented from her whirlwind experience. It was as though she'd never gotten sick in the first place. And she found she was suddenly ravenous. She hadn't realized how much of an appetite she didn't have until that moment, now that she wasn't too nauseous to think about eating.

   "Wow!" She gaped down at the Nyan-Nyan, impressed despite herself. "You guys are fantastic! Can I take you home with me? You're like a laundromat, a bathtub, and a walking pharmacy, all at the same time!"

   The Nyan-Nyan giggled with delight.