Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ The Girl Who Didn't Believe ❯ A Jealous Tasuki=A Tasuki In Love? ( Chapter 10 )

The Girl Who Didn't Believe

Hello!! Chapter 10 is here!! Oh, and did anyone read the story, This Time Around? Heheheh… Nothing much to write except to please forgive me for my spelling, grammatical and tenses errors. Gomen-nasai for that and arrigato-gozaimasu for being lenient. Lastly, please, PLEASE, review after the story!! Thank you!!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the FY characters. They belong to Yuu Watase. I do own Kitten and Sable, though.

//…//=telepathic conversations

`…'=thoughts

########## = at another place

^^^^^^^^^^=starting and ending of recall

That's all, minna!! Enjoy!!

Chapter 10-A Jealous Tasuki=A Tasuki In Love??

"What's wrong with him?" Kitten asked Kouji, clearly unaware of the implications of what had just happened.

"Beats me," Kouji shrugged, when he very well knew what had happened. "He must have gotten up the wrong side of bed this morning."

Kitten stared at Kouji suspiciously. Somehow, she had a feeling that the blue-haired bandit know of something that she did not.

Chichiri, Suzaku and Sable arrived just then.

"Ohayo!! Kitten, Kouji!! How's your walk?!!"

"Ohayo, no da," Chichiri greeted too, "Did you two enjoy your walk, no da?"

"Hai. I didn't get to see the wolves though…" Kitten trailed when she realized that no one was paying much attention to her words; they were all busy whispering with Kouji.

"…successful?…I think so…his reaction…very entertaining…" were a few words that Kitten managed to catch.

`What the hell are they talking about?'

"Oi!!" Kitten called out as she peeked into the group circle, "Whatcha talking about?"

"Huh?" Sable asked absently.

She turned, jumped when she realized that it was Kitten, and hurriedly amended her answer.

"Iie!! Iie, Kit, it was nothing; the three of us were just talking about how entertaining it would be if Suzaku is accidentally fried by Tasuki's tessen."

//WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!!// The said kami-sama looked and sounded indignant.

"Yeah…hai," Kouji sweatdropped a little at that ridiculous excuse before agreeing, "I mean, with the both of them rubbing the other the wrong way all the time, it is only a matter of time before someone, and I don't mean Tasuki, gets burned. Right, Chiri?"

Chichiri was also sweatdropping and had to be poked at before he answered.

"…Hai, no da."

Kitten still did not looked very convinced but decided to drop it, much to the relief of the others.

"What is wrong with Tasuki?" Kitten asked instead.

Silence.

"Does anybody know? He seems very agitated…I wonder why…"

Kitten looked to the four for answers.

"Anou…Now that you and Kouji have finished your walk…it is Chichiri and my turn. Hell!! Let's bring Suzaku along too!!"

"Daaaa??"

//NANI?!! GODS DO NOT GO FOR WALKS!!//

Sable began dragging a bewildered Chichiri and a protesting Suzaku towards the direction of the forest.

Kitten was getting confused. Something is definitely going on here but she had no goddamned idea what!!

"Kouji…" Kitten started again, this time warningly.

Kouji looked trapped. He retreated even as he looked left and right, trying to find some excuse.

Kitten stalked him.

"Anou…" the bandit stammered, then he immediately feigned a look of amazement as he pointed towards the forest. "Look!! Sable is performing a strip dance for Chiri to see!!"

Kitten's only reaction was to narrow her eyes into tiny slits.

"Very funny."

Kouji, bless him, did not give up. In fact, he forced his look of amazement into one of incredulity.

"What the fuck?!! Now Chiri is stripping too!!"

That Kitten had got to see.

"NANI?!! Where?!! Where?!!" she turned to see nothing but the forest.

Suddenly something hit her on the head.

"Itai!! Itai!!" Kitten turned to confront Kouji, who was already way ahead of her.

"Bakasaru!! Why did you throw the pebble at my head!!"

Kouji's response floated back to her after a while.

"I'm not a stupid monkey! And ya deserved it for being a hentai-pervert!!"

Kitten turned red.

"That's it you bakasaru!!" the blue-haired girl yelled as she prepared to give chase. "You are so going to get it when I catch up with you!!"

"Not, when, onna!! IF ya can catch up with me, and I seriously doubt so!!"

"Why you…" Kitten chased after a hooting Kouji.

The two were so engrossed in their play that they did not notice a redheaded figure nearby, glaring at them with anger.

And also with, although he did not yet realize, blatant jealousy.

##########

Sable, Suzaku and Chichiri were somewhere near the edge of the forest. Once there, Sable looked anxiously behind her.

"Phew. She had not followed us." Sable sighed in relief, wiping an imaginary drop of sweat from her forehead in the process.

"What was that for, no da?" Chichiri frowned.

//YES, I DEMAND TO KNOW TOO. IT IS SO UNSEEMLY FOR ONE TO RUSH ABOUT LIKE THIS.// Suzaku looked disdainful.

//AND IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT YET REALISED, I HAVE NOT FORGIVEN YOU FOR IMPLYING THAT I'D BE FRIED BY MY OWN SEISHI.//

"Don't you two understand? If Kit even vaguely perceives of what we are trying to do, she'd SKIN us alive!! Do you want to die now?"

Chichiri sweatdropped at that answer.

"Daaaaa…I'm sure that that's a little exaggerated, no da."

Suzaku merely poked his nose/beak in the air and sniffed. However, unbeknownst to him, a chicken cannot do that and thus he ended up snorting loudly instead, which humiliated him to no end.

Mortified, he demanded to be let down.

//PUT ME DOWN IMMEDIATELY!! I WISH TO GO BACK TO THE KEEP!//

Chichiri, seeing that Suzaku is his god after all, decided to comply. Upon touching the ground, the said god immediately waddled awkwardly towards the direction where they came from.

Sable stared at Chichiri and shrugged, grinning.

"You two go ahead…Kouji told me of a little waterfall nearby; I want to go and take a look."

Chichiri agreed and was about to follow Suzaku when his dilemma hit him; now, he is supposed to see to Sable's safety, the last time he was careless, Kitten got injured. However, on the other hand, he is equally obligated to his god too. So what is a man to do?

Sable stared at Chichiri, who looked clearly torn.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Any longer and you are going to lose Suzie."

Sable's bright green eyes were twinkling with amusement. Chichiri did not know why, but the fact that Sable was happy makes him feel good.

There and then, Chichiri made up his mind.

"Iie, no da, I'm going to follow you. I think that I'd like to see that waterfall myself, no da. Anyway, no da, the path to the bandit hold is just a stone's throw away, no da. How much trouble could one god, and a diminished one at that, get into, right, no da?"

##########

The said god was in deep trouble.

He was lost.

Somehow, somewhere during the short waddle towards the bandits' hold, he had taken a wrong turn and was now hopelessly lost.

Yes, he was in deep shit.

Now, one would think that the logical thing for him to do now is to call his seishis for help. However, being a man first and a god second, Suzaku decided against asking for directions (A/N: You know, the trouble with men and directions?) and felt that he could do it himself and thus started to blunder blindly along.

Little did he know that he was heading towards the opposite direction of the keep.

Suzaku also did not know that he was going to be in deeper shit.

But he is going to realize it.

Soon.

##########

The sound of bubbling water grew louder as they drew nearer.

"Chichiri!! We are reaching!!" Sable exclaimed, her faced flushed with excitement and exertion.

Sure enough, they arrived at a clearing. As Kouji had said, the waterfall was quite small but somehow, it was created in the right position and the sunlight playing upon the gentle spray of the water made it seem as though there is a tiny rainbow over the entire structure.

"Kirei…" Sable breathed. "It is like a miniature version of Mt. Taikyoku."

"Hai, no da. Speaking of Mt. Taikyoku, no da, I wonder how is Taitsukun, no da."

"I suppose that she's all right. Why? Do you miss her?" Sable asked curiously.

"I suppose, no da. I think that I see her as my grandmother, no da. She has been there for me since…" Chichiri trailed off.

"Since the flood, you mean."

Chichiri looked at Sable in surprise.

"Na…nani? How did you know?"

Sable looked sad then. Chichiri's tragic past always depressed her.

"Chichiri, I know everything. How you ended up in Mt. Taikyoku. Why you became a monk. Why you wear that smiling mask of yours."

"You…you know? From the very start?"

"Hai."

"Demo…you knew, demo then why did you not despise me for what I did? I know I would if I were you."

Sable bit her lips and trembled, tears swimming in her eyes. Chichiri's anguish was so palpable to her. What's worse is that his obvious pain was making her insides bleed, too.

Overwhelmed by her feelings for him, Sable threw herself at Chichiri without thinking.

Chichiri was surprised when he saw Sable's body hurtling towards him. However, he instinctively opened his arms and pulled her towards him.

"Sable…" Chichiri asked with alarm when he felt her shoulders shaking.

Chichiri sighed.

So it had finally come to this.

She had finally realized how disgusting he was.

"Sable, are you crying…because…I'm revolting to you?"

"IIE!! IIE!!" Sable lifted tear-streaked eyes to look at him.

When he saw the distress in her eyes, Chichiri was too shocked for words.

`Those tears that she had shed…they were not tears of revulsion.'

He realized.

`They were the kind of tears one sheds when there is heart break…"

"Chiri, please don't do this to yourself." Sable cried into his chest. "It's not your fault. It never was. It was an accident. You couldn't help letting go when the log hit you; I'm sure Hikou would not blame you for it. You cannot go on expecting to be able to save everybody. You can't. This world is too big for your shoulders alone. You can't blame yourself for everything that happened. Can't you see? Can't you see that you have done enough?" Sable's voice broke slightly then. "Can't you see that you are hurting me like this?"

He was speechless.

For the first time, it was someone comforting him, not the other way around. He wondered when was the last time that anyone did that for him and realized that he could not even think of an instance when that happened.

^^^^^^^^^^

"Can't you see that you are hurting me like this?"

^^^^^^^^^^

Those words echoed in his mind. With dawning comprehension, Chichiri finally realized that she was hurting for him. For him. With that knowledge in mind, he was extremely touched, and at the same time, it was as if a heavy weight was eased from his shoulder.

He suddenly felt freer as something inside him seems to have burst free.

"Gomen, Sable…gomen-nasai." He husked, even as he awkwardly tightened his arms around the girl and dropped his chin to rest on the crown of her head. His throat did not seem to work effectively against the onslaught of emotions.

Sable, by then had done crying and was sniffling quietly. She lifted her head to stare at Chichiri. Realizing that he was still wearing his mask, she reached up and pulled it off his face.

The mask came off most reluctantly, as if it did not want Sable to see its owner's face. When it did come out, however, Chichiri instinctively tried to shield his scarred eye from her.

Sable immediately put a stop to that.

"Iie. Let me see." She tilted Chichiri's face towards her and gently used her fingers to trace the scar.

Tears started to leak out of her eyes then, and Chichiri, thinking that it was his hideous disfigurement that distressed her, immediately tried to turn his face away.

However, before he could do anything, Sable tiptoed and kissed his scar gently.

He froze.

No one had ever done that to him, and the butterfly-light kiss made him feel all warm inside.

`She doesn't care about my scar.' He thought, giddy with happiness.

"I'm sorry, Chichiri."

"Nani?"

"I'm sorry, for all the pain that you had to endure all by yourself. I'm sorry that you had to lose practically all who were dear to you in a mere blink of an eye. I'm sorry, because you were all but forced to grow up overnight. I'm sorry. If I could, I would have been there, by your side."

Chichiri was quietly contemplative for a while.

The couple stayed in that position, with Sable snuffled against Chichiri's chest, contentedly hearing the comforting beats of his heart.

There and then, Chichiri made his decision.

`What had happened had happened. Nine years ago, in fact.'

`What use is there for regret?'

`Is there any use to feel guilty anymore?'

`Sable was right, it was time to let go.'

With that in mind, the blue-haired man suddenly felt a lot better as he finally understood.

//Gomen, Kouran, Hikou, gomen-nasai for my taking so long to understand what was going on. Now that I finally do, I think that it is past time to let both you go…both of you will rest peacefully in my heart from now onwards. Until we meet again someday, sayonara.//

Sable stared at Chichiri as he closed his eye. Slowly, she felt Chichiri relax and immediately sensed what had happened.

"Chiri…"

"Iie, Sable, don't worry about me." Chichiri said at last, opening his eye. Sable, upon seeing that his eye was turbulent no more, relaxed too.

Chichiri was finally at peace with his past.

"What had happened to me then was nothing compared to what the others had to give up; their lives. It was what made me the person that I am today. At first, I did not understand, did not understand why I was meant to be the only survivor of the flood. Why not take me too?" He smiled down at Sable.

"But today, I finally realized why; my being alive, being the person that I am now, that was the last gift that Hikou and Kouran gave to me. And although I cannot say that I'm perfect, I can safely admit that the experience had made me a much better person than I had ever hoped to be."

Chichiri shook his head a little before continuing.

"However, instead of thanking them and living it, living life to the fullest, I had asked instead for my life to end. I was so near to throwing it all away, and even when I had managed to live on, I had spent countless times deep in regret and guilt. But now, now, that I finally comprehend, I've realized that it is well past time to let those memories go."

Sable tightened her hold on Chichiri.

`He had understood,' She thought. `He had finally understood.'

##########

Meanwhile, a band of bandits were roaming around Mt. Reikaku. They were renegades, driven out by their own gangs because of their abnormal thirst for blood and their strange liking for sadistic pleasures.

And they had just spotted dinner.

How could they not, when their glaringly neon-pink prey was so incongruent in color compared with the peaceful earth tones of the forest?

How could they not when the said prey was making enough noise for an entire hoard of bandits?

How could they not indeed?

Oh, yes………the renegades are going to have gourmet turkey tonight.

##########

Sable and Chichiri were still literally glued together when they heard an unearthly shriek echoing through the entire forest.

Both of them winced. Unfortunately, they had experience with that god awful sound before and thus fortunately, they knew who it belonged to.

"It's Suzaku! Something is wrong. I can feel it." Sable muttered as they hurriedly separated from each other.

The two immediately sped off in the direction of the sound.

##########

Kitten stiffened. Something is wrong!!!

"What is it, Kit?" Kouji asked.

They were in the cafeteria having lunch.

It had been Kouji's peace offering for riling the blue-haired girl.

"Something doesn't feel right." Kit said.

Suddenly, they heard it.

An unearthly shriek that was Suzaku's unique signature.

The duo stared at each other.

"Shimatta!! Suzaku!!"

Their meal forgotten, they rushed helter skelter out of the cafeteria and rushed off towards the sound.

##########

Tasuki was sitting by the stream that snakes through the bandit hold when he heard Suzaku's wail of distress.

"What the fuck? Something is not right. Suzaku doesn't make noise like that. It is as if…kuso!! He's in trouble!!"

Immediately, Tasuki was off, his seishi speed rapidly leading him to where his god is.

##########

Sable, Chichiri, Kitten, Kouji, and Tasuki somehow managed to converge at the edge of the forest.

"Where is Suzaku?" Kitten asked Chichiri.

"We don't know, no da. He said that he wanted to go back to the keep himself, no da, and since that it was quite near, I've decided to let him go by himself, no da."

"In that case, then isn't him supposed to be in the keep?" Sable asked.

"Iie," Kouji and Kitten replied.

"He is not in there, if he was, we'd have seen him. Trust me, he's not there." Kitten said.

"Furthermore," Tasuki added, "His call did not come from the keep, I heard it and it seems to be from inside the forest?"

"Which part of the forest?" Kouji asked.

"How the fucking hell am I supposed to know!!" the redhead snarled. For obvious reasons, he was not very happy with his friend at the moment.

Chichiri and Sable sweatdropped.

Now was simply not the time for antlers to go crashing.

"Anou…Kit, can you try to mind-speak to Suzaku to get him to call again?"

"Hai."

Kitten closed her eyes and concentrated.

//Suzaku, where are you? We are coming. Could you please call out again?//

Then, everyone settled to listen for Suzaku's reply.

None came, and with it the chilling realization that something horrendous must have happened to Suzaku.

Sable started to fret.

"What's wrong, Suzaku would never keep quiet like that. Nothing can shut him up that easily…unless…"

Chichiri, Kouji and Tasuki blanched at her implication.

However, it was Kitten who came to the rescue.

"Iie…IIE…keep quiet, all of you…and concentrate…NOW!!" Kitten roared, when her previous words was not heeded.

Obediently, the group did just that.

At first, all heard nothing, then they realized that there is a faint whisper.

//my seishis…bandits got me…hurry…not much time…at the waterfall now…//

The group stared at each other with horror. This is not good.

At last, it was Sable who recovered first.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!! Tasuki, you with your seishi speed; you can reach there first to stop whatever those bastards are doing to Suzaku. Chiri, you follow by teleportation; Suzaku might need to be teleported back to the keep fast. Kouji, you go back to the hold to gather up some men to fight those bandits; I don't think that they are from Mt. Reikaku as your bandits know that Suzaku belongs to Chichiri. Kitten, you will also go back to the keep and get the bandits to bring the doctor who treated you earlier back up again; Suzaku will need his help. I will go back to the hold too, to prepare first aid materials."

"Let's go now!! Suzaku might be in grave danger now!!" She told the group grimly.

Moved into action by Sable's practical words, the group dispersed.

Tasuki disappeared into the forest in an orange flash; Chichiri jumped into his kasa and disappeared; Kouji, Kitten and Sable rushed into the holding to do their respective tasks.

As Sable started rushing around, preparing a makeshift sick bay, she prayed.

"Please, let Suzaku to be alright…"

ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!! paws_bells write WAFF!! paws_bells is very terrible in WAFF!! paws_bells says that it is all Riverwood's fault. paws_bells takes out a lot of meatballs and uses Riverwood's head for target practice.

paws_bells: It is*boink* all*boink* your fault*boink*. You*boink*just had to*boink*want it*boink*. Well, here you*boink* go*boink*. In case you*boink*haven't guessed*boink* this is also my*boink* revenge *boink* BWA HAHAHAHAH!!!

paws_bells: Well, that's that!! Hey!! I feel a lot better now!! Maybe I should do more of this…hmmm…I wonder who I should target next time…I got it!!

paws_bells:You readers!!*points to all the pple facing the computer screen* Yes, you nerdy fellows!! You will review this story or I will throw all my meatballs at all of you*boink*. You got that*boink*?

Suddenly, meatballs started raining on top of paws_bells' head.

paws_bells: WTF?!!*boink* Who is throwing the meatballs at me*boink*?!!

Nerdy Fellows: It is us*boink*, the readers*boink*!! How dare*boink*you call us nerdy*boink*fellows*boink*?

paws_bells: Itai!!*boink*Itai!!Okay*boink*!! Okay*boink*!! You are not nerdy fellows*boink*!! And stop boinking me!! *paws_bells immediately turns and glares and throws meatballs at hentai-perverts* Not that kind of `boink', idiots!! And, okay, okay, I'd not call you pple nerdy fellows if you review my stories, ne?

Nerdy Fellows: *discuss among themselves* Okay, we agree.

*paws_bells and Nerdy Fellows shake on it*

*Nerdy Fellows immediately press the little button below this chapter, and boom!! They transform into cool dudes and gals!*

What is the moral of this story?

Thou who dost not review art thy Nerdy Fellows!!

P.S.: Heheheheh…please don't flame me!! I'm desperate for reviews!! I want feedback!! I want!! I want!! Please review!! ^__^