Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ The Girl Who Didn't Believe ❯ Flight Of The Phoenix ( Chapter 14 )

The Girl Who Didn't Believe

Hiya all!! For once I have absolutely nothing to write other than the usual, which is to forgive me for my spelling, tenses and grammar errors. Arrigato gozaimasu!! ^__^ Also, I'd appreciate it if ppl out there would do me a favor and help review this fic of mine. Thank you again!! And Happy Chinese New Year to all!!

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

//…// = telepathic conversation

`…' = thoughts

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

^^^^^^^^^^ = of recall

********** = dream sequence

That's all, minna!! Enjoy!

Chapter 14-FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX

Kitten and Tasuki were heading back to the keep. Because Kitten was still a little unsteady on her feet, Tasuki had to piggyback her all the way back. The two traveled in comfortable silence, despite the fact that both were wet and soaked to the skin by the rain.

They were at the entrance of the bandit hold when Kitten spoke up.

"Anou…Tasuki, maybe you should put me down now."

"Nani? Doushite? Demo, you are still not feeling very good, onna."

"Demo what will the others think if we went in like that?"

Tasuki finally understood what all that beating around the bush was for.

"Ne, Kit, are you shy?"

Kitten turned bright red.

"I…I …Iie!!"

"Then, there is no reason for me to put you down." Tasuki continued walking into the keep, oblivious to the stares that were directed at them.

"Demo…demo" Kitten sputtered, desperately looking for an excuse. She finally found one, much to her relief. "You are supposed to dislike girls!! What will your bandits think?!!"

Tasuki snorted slightly.

"Kit, give it up, you are really grasping at straws here. Why, the bandits will merely think twice about trying anything funny with you now that I have laid my claim on you."

That was not the correct thing to say.

"Claim?!!" Kitten questioned dangerously, her feminist instincts fully aroused. "And what do you mean by that, TASUKI?!!"

Tasuki was taken aback by the girl's sudden ire. Sighing mentally, he wondered what was wrong now.

"Claim as in that you are mine now, kirei."

Kitten kind of melted when Tasuki called her that. It made no sense, but coming from him, it really made her think that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. `However,' she thought. `now is not the time for those kind of things.' She still had a bone to pick with the redhead.

Kitten was about to let rip her comments when Sable spotted them. She looked at the couple with a speculative eye and motioned to Kouji, Suzaku and Chichiri, who were all standing conveniently beside her.

"Sou ka…I see that both of you back to being sweet and loving again."

Tasuki and Kitten flushed and the blue-haired girl immediately clenched her fists and pounded them on Tasuki's head even as she demanded to be let down. Tasuki cursed back at the girl and abruptly released his hold on her, resulting in a long and painful drop to the ground, which needless to say, made Kitten even madder.

Within minutes, the group had another of the couple's infamous full-blown squabble on their hands.

Chichiri sweatdropped whereas Kouji snorted with amusement. Suzaku made no reply but there was a similar glint of amusement in his eyes.

Sable merely rolled her eyes with exasperation.

`Well,' she considered. `At least they are back to normal again.'

"ITAI!! Tasuki no baka!! How dare you drop me like this? What kind of person are you?"

"I won't even drop you if you weren't pounding on my head, stupid onna!! What did you think it was, a fucking drum?"

"It might as well be; your head is as empty as a drum anyway!!"

"Why you…I was kind enough to carry you back here and instead of thanking me, you insult me?!!"

"I didn't ask you to carry me at all, period!!" Kitten shot back. "And you deserved that insult for `claiming' me!! What did you think I was, your pet dog?!!"

"A dog would be less troublesome than you!!"

"Well, if that is so, then why don't you go marry one?!!"

By now, Tasuki and Kitten's yelling match had attracted a lot of attention from the bandits. Every one gathered around to watch. The audiences' eyes flew back and forth as the irate couple threw insults left and right.

Kouji's grin widened, and upon seeing that, Chichiri's sweatdrop grew bigger. Shaking his head, he decided to stop the quarrel before it escalates to anything even more childish. Sable obviously had the same idea because she too stepped up to Kitten.

//You go distract Tasuki while I do something to Kitten.// Sable's voice echoed in his head. Chichiri agreed and was about to do exactly that when it hit him.

`MATTE!!' he thought. `Did I just hear Sable's voice in my head?!! What is going on?' He looked frantically at Sable, who did not seemed at all perturbed by what had just come to pass.

`Sable is not giving any indication of what had happened; so maybe it is just my imagination. Hai. It must be so.' He chuckled nervously to himself. `I'm getting too good at reading people's expressions.'

The thought making him feel better, Chichiri proceeded to immerse himself in the all-consuming task of peacekeeping.

##########

Two more weeks passed by with relative peace.

Tasuki and Kitten were back to normal, so as to say.

Suzaku was still expanding rapidly; he was at fledgling stage now, with his fluffy red down slowly being replaced by handsome red feathers. And because of this shedding, every available surface in the Mt. Reikaku bandit hold was constantly covered with red down. Suzaku was after all, almost full grown; nearing the approximate size of an elephant. That was a lot of down.

However, one good did come out of this mass shedding; the bandits had no lack of stuffing for their beds, much to Suzaku' s indignation (he was extremely insulted and dismayed that his precious down was reduced to be used as something so `common') and everyone's amusement.

All in all, the past two weeks had been amusing and fun for everyone.

Except for Chichiri.

The poor man did not know what was going on within him. The incident where he had heard Sable's voice in his head had only happened once and not again since, but as much as he tried to tell himself that it was all but a hallucination, Chichiri was equally convinced that it was not.

He also did not understand why thoughts of Sable kept invading his mind. And the recurring dreams were not helping him either.

^^^^^^^^^^

**********

"Chichiri!!"

Chichiri turned around just in time to catch a petite woman in his arms.

"Kouran!! What are you doing here?"

Kouran looked up with eyes filled with love.

"Isn't the fact that I'm here enough, my love?"

Chichiri nodded and he hugged the tiny woman to him. How he loved her unique scent, which smelt of home and hearth. He sighed contentedly.

Opening his eye, he looked around. They were in a forest glade. On their left, was a tiny stream, and beyond the stream was…

Chichiri started.

Beyond the stream was Sable. The brunette was looking straight at him, heartbreak and despair evident in bright green eyes that refused to cry. Sable's mouth moved then, and although he and Kouran were standing far away, he could still hear what she was saying.

"Don't you have any feelings for me at all?"

Chichiri was torn. He did not know what to do. Suddenly, he felt a tug on his sleeves. He looked down into Kouran's beautiful doe eyes.

"Who is that woman, Chichiri? She doesn't mean anything to you, does she?"

`Does Sable mean anything to me?' he wondered. `Demo, what about Kouran? I loved her. I SHOULD love her. I cannot be unfaithful. I have no choice. Sou ka…my mind is made up.'

Mutely, he shook his head, his eyes silently conveying all his apologies to Sable.

`Gomen nasai, Sable. Kouran is my love, always has been and always will be…' he thought as he bent down to kiss Kouran on the lips.

"Aishiteru." He whispered against Kouran's lips and at that moment, he did not know to whom were those words directed at.

The tears started then.

They formed rivulets on Sable's cheeks. Helpless, he watched as the girl turned and ran headfirst into the forest.

Then the screams started. Tortured, anguished cries of fear and terror echoed in the glade.

"Sable." He said even as he automatically started to disentangle himself from Kouran's clingy embrace.

`Clingy?' he thought. `When had he started thinking of Kouran's beloved embrace as clingy?'

"Chichiri," Kouran cried, her hold on Chichiri tightened. "Where are you going?"

The screams were receding, weakened.

"Sable. Sable is in trouble. I have to go and help."

"IIE!! IIE!! Why must you go?" Kouran all but clamped herself to Chichiri.

Her voice turning soft, she asked:

"Don't you love me?"

**********

^^^^^^^^^^

At which point, Chichiri would spring awake. Perspiration dotting his brows, he would use his power to sense Sable's ki, only to sigh with infinite relief when he found the said girl sleeping peacefully.

Those dreams always made him guilty as hell, as he always chose Kouran in the end. Therefore, he grew extremely uncomfortable with Sable. Unbeknownst to him, Sable too can sense his feelings and had felt him distancing himself away from her. That had distressed the girl badly.

Suzaku, together with Kouji, watched as the two hemmed and hawed away at each other whenever they are put together.

Kouji sighed at last.

"Ya know, Suzaku, ever since the lot of you have come to Mt. Reikaku, this place has seen more melodrama in the one month you all were here than it had in the last five years. First it was you being mistaken for poultry, and then it was Kitten and Tasuki slugging it out for no reason whatsoever. Now, it has finally come to Sable and Chichiri. What is wrong with all of you?"

//KOUJI, CHICHIRI AND SABLE, THEY ARE SORTING OUT THEIR CONFUSION.//

"Confusion? What confusion?" Kouji asked, scoffing. "What I see between them is as clear as crystal. Even an imbecile will know what is going on. It is obvious that Sable likes Chichiri, but our Chichiri no baka here, he is desperately trying to deny his own feelings for the pretty little brunette. Come to think of it, my bandits are having a wager over how long Chichiri is going to be in denial."

//YOU CAN SEE THE PROBLEM CLEARLY, BUT THIS IS ONLY THE SURFACE OF IT. WHAT YOU DID NOT SEE IS THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM. CHICHIRI IS FIGHTING AN INTERNAL BATTLE NOW. WHEN IT IS OVER, HE WILL SEE THE LIGHT.//

Kouji snorted.

"Well, yer the god. You know best. Just don't involve me in any of these things."

`Now, that is an idea.' Suzaku thought amusedly as he watched the scarred bandit walk away.

##########

Kitten watched with curiosity as Tasuki scribbled something on a tiny piece of paper, rolled it and tied it onto the feet of a messenger pigeon before releasing it. Both watched as the pigeon took flight.

"What was that about?"

Tasuki jumped and went chibi. He had not noticed Kitten.

"Dammit onna!! Don't give me a heart attack!!" The SD redhead puffed exaggerated in a bid for his heartbeat to go back to normal.

Kitten sweatdropped.

"Tasuki no baka!! I have been standing here for the past ten minutes!! And what was that about? You didn't answer me!!"

The seishi popped back to normal and glared at the girl.

"I was sending a letter to Houki-sama, alright!! She wanted a weekly report on how Suzaku was doing!!" he yelled before muttering. "Damn inquisitive females."

Kitten heard but did not comment. Instead, she asked more questions.

"So, what did you tell her?"

Tasuki grumbled a little more before answering.

"I told her that Suzaku was now so huge that he could not fit through a door and that he is almost full grown."

"Sou ka."

"You see? What exactly did you see?" Tasuki demanded.

"Suzaku is leaving us soon. Our first quest is almost completed."

"Yeah…" the flame-haired man said sourly. "One down, three to go."

His `enthusiastic' response earned him a bop on the head.

"Itai!!" he glared at Kitten.

However, Kitten was not interested. Her attention was currently focused on more intriguing matters. Like what Sable and Chichiri were doing.

"What are they doing?" Tasuki asked, looking from behind Kitten's shoulder, his curiosity aroused.

"Wakarinai. But let's see."

##########

Sable was determined to get to the bottom of matters. Now. She had decided that it was the time to confront Chichiri about what was troubling him.

"What is wrong with you, Chiri?"

"Na…Nani?!!" Chichiri stuttered.

"Don't lie to me; you have been acting very weird for the past week. You kept shying away from me, and if possible, avoided me altogether as much as you can. What is troubling you?"

Chichiri kept quiet, but his mind was racing on ahead wildly.

`What is there to say?' He thought. `What can I tell her? That I'm afraid that I will fall in love with her? That I might hurt her unintentionally?' the significance of the dream had not been lost on the man; in the dream, it was because of his rejection of her that had caused her to run into danger. `Unless…'

Sighing, he made up his mind.

There is no choice. This might hurt her now, but at least it will save both of them more grief later.

`This is for the best. For the both of us.' He convinced himself.

Sable sensed the grimness in his stance.

"Chiri?!!" She asked hesitantly even as she reached out a hand to touch his shoulder.

Chichiri stiffened under her touch.

"Please do not call me that. I do not remember giving you any permission to do so. Furthermore, it implies of an intimacy between the both of us that we do not share."

Sable was shocked. She retracted her hand quickly back as if she was burnt.

Chichiri's voice was not his normal light-pitched tone; instead, they were lower, but that was not what that had stunned the girl. It was the coldness of his tone; Chichiri had said those words so frigidly that it was as if…as if…he despised her.

Sable did not understand at all; what had she done to garner such…such contempt from him?

"Chichiri? What is wrong? I thought that…that we are friends?" Sable asked uncertainly.

Chichiri turned away from Sable and walked a few steps away from her.

"Hai." He said coolly, still in that voice which Sable is learning to hate. "We are friends, and friends is as far as this relationship is going to get. Better still, I think that we'd be better off maintaining a protector-protectee relationship. I do not wish for you to misunderstand, and do something that might embarrass the both of us later. Please be reminded that I love only one," Chichiri paused as he prepared the final blow. "And you are not her."

Sable reacted as if she was struck hard. She staggered a few steps back, away from Chichiri. All she wanted to do now was to get as far away from Chichiri as possible.

With anguished eyes, she stared at his back.

`Doushite? Why is he doing this?' a part of her screamed in torment. `Why is he hurting me like that, when I least expects it? Doushite?'

Sable wanted to collapse in a puddle of tears and scream at Chichiri for hurting her like that. But her pride and years of training in the orphanage would not allow her to do so. Instead, she gathered her tattered pride around her and stood tall even as all traces of emotions died from her eyes.

"Sou ka, Chichiri. If you really felt that way, you should have told me sooner." Sable said politely, as if they had been talking about the weather for the past fifteen minutes. "And you are right; it is best not to get that involved. So Chichiri, if you'd excuse me, I'd like to go to my room to rest. Ja ne."

Chichiri was surprised by Sable's tone. He whipped around quickly but the brunette was already walking away.

Sighing, his shoulders slumped and he rubbed his temples.

"This is for the best."

##########

Kitten and Tasuki were felled by what had just transpired between their friends.

"What the fuck!!" Kitten fumed. "How dare that little weasel hurt Sable. I will fucking kill him!!"

Tasuki sweatdropped.

He remembered just yesterday when Kitten had praised "the little weasel", saying what a good person he was and that he, Tasuki should learn from his friend.

"Anou…Matte, matte, Kit. I know Chichiri, he would never hurt anyone purposely, much less Sable."

"Demo what was that? A fucking play?" The blue-haired girl snarled.

"I'm sure he has his reasons. Look, why don't I go talk to him and you go to Sable and see if she is alright?"

Kitten calmed a little.

"You are right. I will go find Sab. But," she threatened. "If what Chichiri did was without excuse, I WILL kick his ass. I don't care if he is your friend or not."

Tasuki nodded.

"Hai. If he cannot justify what he had done, hell, I will kick his ass too. But I don't think so. Chichiri always has a reason for everything that he does."

"Hmm…" was all that Kitten said as she went to look for Sable.

##########

Sable walked to her room opened the door, enter, shut the door, and leant against it.

She closed her eyes.

^^^^^^^^^^

"…I love only one and you are not her."

^^^^^^^^^^

Chichiri's words, stark and frank, repeated themselves again and again in her mind like a broken recorder.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door.

"Sable, I know that you are in there!! Open the door!!"

Kitten was about to bang her fists against the door when it opened. Hurriedly, the blue-haired girl stepped in and locked the door behind her.

"Sable, diajoubu ka?"

"Hai." Sable smiled. "Do I have any reason not to?"

Kitten stared at her friend, confused. How could she still act cheerful?

"Sable, Tasuki and I saw what happened between you and Chichiri."

"So you did."

Kitten was taken aback. Sable sounded uncaring. Sensing something wrong, Kitten hugged Sable, who stiffened.

"Kitten?"

"Sable, I know that you must be hurting inside. Why don't you cry? Let it all out."

Sable stared at the wall behind Kitten's shoulder.

"Cry? Kitten, I have tried, I honestly did; but the tears, they refused to come. Demo never mind, I'm alright. I really am." She convinced.

Kitten looked at her best friend and instinctively knew what had happened.

"Dammit, Sab, you shut down, didn't you? Everything concerning Chichiri, you have pushed into the furthest recesses of your mind and slammed the door, didn't you?"

Seeing Sable's serene look, Kitten began to curse fluently, but after a while, she quieted and sighed.

"I don't know how you do it, Sab, but if you don't want to talk about him, I won't force you. You will have to face it someday, though. Just remember that I will always be on your side."

Sable smiled gratefully.

"Arrigato, Kitten."

Suddenly, the girls heard a loud boom outside.

"What the fuck?" Kitten yelled as she stared at her friend.

"Let's go and see what has happened."

##########

Tasuki was trying his darnest to nag Chichiri into telling him what was going on between him and Sable. He was not very successful. In fact, he was not successful at all, period. He took a deep breath and was about to threaten his friend with bodily harm when they heard the loud boom.

"What is that?" asked Tasuki even as both seishis took off running towards the sound.

"Wakarinai, no da. Let's go check it out!!"

###########

Everyone arrived at the courtyard where the sound was being made and saw………

"Suzaku!!" Kitten yelled. "What the hell are you doing up there? Get down here now!! You will fall and break your foolish neck!!"

Suzaku, perched on the edge of a roof ignored the girl.

"Suzaku!!" Tasuki tried. "Come on, Suzie, please come down before you hurt yourself or someone else!!"

Suzaku merely hmmphhed and replied.

//DON'T YOU SEE, MY SEISHI, IT IS TIME FOR MY TRANSFORMATION. YOUR FIRST QUEST IS COMPLETE. ARRIGATO GOZAIMASU FOR HELPING ME OUT. I HAVE LEARNT MUCH IN ALL OF YOUR PRESENCE. I AM GOING BACK TO THE REALM OF THE GODS NOW, IF ONLY TO ANNOY MY BROTHER GODS.// Suzaku said, amusement evident in his voice. However, everyone also detected his genuine joy in being able to return home.

//I WILL NOT BE SEEING OR HELPING YOU PEOPLE UNTIL THE END OF THE SIX MONTHS. I WISH YOU LUCK FOR THE REST OF YOUR QUESTS.//

Thus said, the kami-sama launched himself into the air.

For one breathtaking moment, nothing happened.

Then the transformation started.

Suzaku's crimson wings folded to cover himself and a brilliant red light exploded from his body, blinding all who watched.

When their visions cleared though, they saw that the wings, now pinkish-white; slowly unfold to reveal a handsome red-haired man.

"Suzaku." Kitten breathed.

The phoenix god stayed in that position for a while, his great wings flapping lazily to support him.

"Again, I thank all of you for helping me, this time by giving each of you a little something. Kouji, for all your help, I give you this. These daggers are blessed by myself. Their owner will be protected from all evil."

A pair of intricately designed, gem-studded daggers floated in front of the surprised bandit. However, Kouji did rouse himself enough to accept the gift. When he touched the weapons, they flared red before turning back to normal.

"The daggers have bonded with you; it would be impossible now for anyone to steal them."

"Arrigato gozaimasu, Suzaku seikun."

Next, the phoenix god turned to the girls.

"For you both, I have helped to awaken the magical abilities that had before lain dormant in you. I think that they might help in your quests."

The girls nodded, dazed. They HAVE magical abilities?

Thus said, the god was about to leave when Tasuki stopped him.

"What about us, Suzaku? We are your seishi; don't we deserve anything?"

Suzaku looked amused at his most hotheaded seishi.

"Your gifts? I have already given them to you both long ago, since the start of the quest. Have you two figured out what it is already? No? Then let me tell you that have the next four and a half months to find out what it is. After that, if you still have no idea, you may ask me. Until then, ja na!!"

Raising a hand to bid the group farewell, he turned and teleported away.

Chapter 14 finishes!! Yay!! The first quest is completed. But sad, too. I think that I am going to miss Suzaku. It was fun writing about him though. Maybe I will put in cameo appearances of him. ^__^

And no, I am not going to pair up someone with Kouji. Maybe in another fic, but not this one!! Why? Because I wanna keep him for myself!! I have already paired up Chichiri and Tasuki, so I want Kouji!! So there!!

As for Chichiri and Sable, Chichiri fans, please don't flame me!! As I said in my previous chapter, I wanna torture them first!! I wanna!! I had heard from some feedback that Kit/Tas relationship was kinda fast, so I did not want to rush Chiri/Sab. Come on!! Good things come to those who wait, ne?

I also know that the title of this chapter had little to do with the actual content. Gomen-nasai for that!! And I think most of you can already figure out what the seishis' gifts are. If not, you are just gonna have to wait till the end of the story!! Until then, please review!! ^__^ Arrigato Gozaimasu!!