autumnleaf16

my proper blog is at: http://autumn-leaf16.livejournal.com/

So after ten whole days I will finally have put up my fushigi yugi fan fiction, well, the second one. The problem with this fan fiction is that it seems to have too many words…as life journal keep on telling me that the entry is too large, so I kept on having to split it into pieces, which I really don’t like. But I think I shall try and have a welcoming post and list my stories, so you can just find links to various chapters from that entry, instead of having to use tag, which can get troublesome, especially when some chapters are split. But anyway, here it is…the epilogue.

Epilogue

She was awake even before her eyes opened, as Yuri could hear the crying of her two children- a sound that she has not heard for such a long time. At their crying she instantly felt a slight pang in her heart, so she quickly sat up.
Upon doing so, she saw that she was now dressed in one of her sleeping attires, and she was lying over a futon. Raising her hand she touched her head, and was satisfied in knowing that the jade headdress was no longer there, but back to it’s proper place: on her statue in the temple of Seiryuu.
“You are awake.” Her husband greeted her with a gentle kiss as he handed her one of their children, who immediately ceased their crying due to being in the arms of their mother after their father had lifted them out of their cradle.
At the sight of their two beautiful children, Yuri couldn’t help but to smile, even though she had many questions to ask Hotohori…Seishuku. (1)
“We are at Ryoen’s apartment, he will be staying in Ju-An’s room until we leave. It seems more suitable for us to use my brother’s apartment.” Seishuku quickly explained, crouching to sit beside her, “It…it has been three days since we all returned to Tokyo.”
“What has happened?” she asked simply.
He began to explain how both she and Miaka had remained unconscious even though they left the universe of the four gods, and even though Yui said that her parents would not be home until a few days later, Ryoen had insisted on giving his room to ‘his brother and sister’.
“He is most concerned about you.” Seishuku said with a slight smile,
“He is trying to make amends.” Yuri said, she too was smiling. “I think I will be able to forgive him quite quick.”
“Quicker then Miaka?”
“Ryoen is trying, she is…she has not.”
“I believe that will soon change.” Seishuku commented as he took a letter out from his sleeves and placed it on the empty space on the futon. “This is from Miaka.” (2)
Upon receiving the letter she naturally leant forward to pick it up, but much to her surprise, Seishuku took her hand into his instead, preventing her from opening it.
“I do not deny that what is in there is important, but what concerns me the most right now is you.” He stated gently, but firmly. “Yuri, please tell me what happened. What did Seiryuu…”
Nodding, she began to explain everything to him: what Seiryuu’s true teaching was. At one point she almost wept, because she was recollecting all that which had happened to her celestial warriors, while she was happy that they all made peace, it was still impossible to not feel sad at their sufferings.
“So this is Seiryuu’s true teaching.” He said quietly when she finally finished speaking, by this time he had placed his arms around his wife and their two children, as she ended up shaking slightly. “In a way it is so obvious…”
“But often the simplest thing ends up so complicated.” Yuri replied grimly, her tone very clear and almost emotionless. “It is bad to only know love, but yet to never taste love is the worst punishment there can ever be. In the same way to only experience despair will bring nothing but pain, but it is also the knowledge of despair that creates happiness.”
“So sayth the priestess of Seiryuu.” Seishuku added, understanding why she was suddenly being so formal.
“Who spoke for the last time as Houki Yuri.” Yuri finished before she turned around to gently kiss her husband. “I do not know how you can understand so much without me telling you, I do not think that I will ever know, but I am clever enough to be grateful.”
He only smiled, as he was afraid that his voice would chock if he tried to speak, what happened was deeply symbolic: it meant that Yuri would never have to be the priestess of Seiryuu again in this life, they would be able to truly live in peace as they were now both free of their duties.
They were also lucky for having no fear of death at all, as they already knew what would happen when that day arrived. They would be able to go back to the heaven which they had come from, and without anyone telling them, the two of them knew that the life would only be happy after all that had happened.
Something had happened, and maybe it was something bad, but neither of them could recollect what had happened, and as a further insurance of making sure that no one would remember the past, they were made to not care about what had once happened.
“We have about four days in Tokyo before we return to Konan.” Seishuku told her, glancing at the calendar when Ryoen had pinned onto his wall. He smiled as he read his brother’s scrawl over the whole paper: what was once so important would now almost be light hearted due to the adventure they had undergone in the universe of the four gods.
“Haha…” Yuri whispered to herself, before bending her head down to kiss her two children. “I want them to meet my Haha.”
“We can go now.”
At the suggestion of visiting the cemetery now, Yuri immediately nodded. Even though Seishuku and Yuri had told everyone else that the urgent excuse of visiting Yuri’s mother was only said in order for them to have a way to let them leave now, both of them knew that it was not true.
But they led other to believe it was that because the others would insist the two of them going to the cemetery first. They did not lie due to any lack of love, but it was more due to an understanding. Yuri understood that she must enter the universe of the four gods first, that was what must be done as quickly as possible. But her wish of taking her children to her mother had never once dimmed.
“Shall we still take that strange curry to her?” Seishuku asked, recollecting how Yuri had spent the night before his fist visit to her mother’s grave making some kind of Indian curry that ended up as bright orange. Even though Yuri had explained to him many times that the curry was meant to be that colour, he was still not convinced. (3)
“That was her favourite food.” She said with a light smile, even though her eyes were slightly teary due to the memories of her dead mother. “She loved curry more then any other type of food, and we would go to this curry restaurant at least once a month- even though it was rather expensive. Haha selected many different type of curries as I can still remember all the weird colour food she had: orange; green; yellow.... But that orange curry appeared more time on her plate then any other.” (4)

As he watched Yuri placing the bowl of curry she had purposely brought for her mother so carefully onto the small grave, he had to smile, as he wonders whether she had been that careful with the shinzaho of Seiryuu!
He had been relatively nervous when he first came here with her, as he was rather worried about the unknown woman’s approval even though it really did not matter. But even though Yuri’s mother was dead, she was still a very important presence in Yuri’s life, only she was no longer as dominating as she had once been.
Throughout the visit he had been rather tense, looking at many things as a signal- such as the slight chill that suddenly arrived, or the leaves being blown across her grave. He only relaxed when Yuri told him that she felt the perfectly lovely day was a sign of her mother being very happy.
“Not that it matters that much,” she had added, “but I am so much happier to know that she is pleased.”
After she placed the food down, Yuri leant forward to trace her finger over her mother’s engraved name on the stone: Houki Chiai. Much to her surprise, there was not much dust in there despite the absence of what must be the only few visitors. Yuri had no way of contacting her maternal relatives, so it seems that they probably did not even know about her mother’s death.
Of course, the rather tidy grave did not arouse her suspension from her, as she concluded that it must be due to a very dutiful caretaker. Likewise, she did not regard the middle age man a few steps away as an unusual sight.
“Haha, I am still very happy in my marriage to Seishuku,” Yuri began, “I am very happy in Konan, and his parents even love me as if I am their own child, in a way, I feel as if I have parents again. Do not ever worry that I am not happy.” Turning to her husband, who has knelt down beside her, she took the two children from him and held it toward the grave. “You are a grandmother now, these two beautiful children are your grandchildren.”
Not far away, the other visitor in the graveyard chocked as he heard what Yuri just said, but this went unnoticed by both Yuri and Seishuku, as they were both fixing their eyes on Houki Chiai’s grave.
He began to walk toward them, until he finally placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Who are you?” Yuri demanded as she turned around to face the ‘stranger’, automatically holding her children away from him.
Seishuku instinctively took a step forward to stand in front of his wife and children while his hand immediately went to grasp his sword, only to realize that he was not in a time where he would carry his weapon out onto the streets. (5)
“I am not…I am not going to do anything.” The man quickly said, raising his two hands into the air. The truth was that he was a bit upset that Yuri would even consider such a thing, as it meant that she truly had not the faintest idea of who he was.
But then how could he blame her?
“My name…my name is Yuki Akira.”
“Yuki…” Seishuku repeated the last name with a frown as he was sure that he had heard of it before.
At the last name, Yuri’s face immediately darkened, and she wonder whether she would rather meet a maniac instead of this man whom she had not seen for more then seven years or so, although he would have a slightly different memory from her due to what Miaka had asked Suzaku had done.
But the fact that she had moved out of the house when she was only fifteen years old has not changed. She had immediately left when she finally finished junior high school and was able to work full time, what she had wanted to do for quite sometime. The only reason that she stayed was because that was what her mother would have wanted.
Either way, she still remembered the day that he simply left.
“What do you want?” she asked bluntly. “After seven…five years of complete neglect…no, even more then that…you show up in front of me. You certainly can’t expect me to welcome you with loving arms and call you chichi.” (6)
“I can understand that.” Akira said sadly, as he turned away from his daughter’s cold eyes. She really looked so much like Houki Chiai, the woman whom he had briefly loved. The two of them were both so beautiful in a womanly way, but unlike the mother, the daughter lacked that air of irresponsible enchantment. Perhaps the problem with Yuri was that she looked too much like her mother that her father could never be sure that she really was his daughter as well. (7)
“I…I am not Miaka or Keisuke. I have more to blame you for then you divorcing your wife and never let any of them hear from you again. None of us know where you went.” Yuri continued quietly. “But for me, you had disappointed me since the day I entered your house after my haha’s death.”
“That man is your father?” Seishuku asked her as he placed an arm around her once more in order to comfort her, at her nod, he gently pulled her closer to him, hoping to sooth her somehow.
“I decided to become one of the staff in my company’s American expansion.” He began again, “and business was busy, so it was a way of diversion. Then I…then I decided to return to Japan because I wish to see my children.”
“You children? Do they even include me?” Yuri jabbed in bitterly, obviously remembering the neglect she had received from him.
He could do nothing but sigh as he looked into her dark eyes once more, in truth he was not sure of what he was going to do, so he decided that the easiest thing was to visit Houki Chiai’s grave first: she would give him no discouragement.
“Do you hate me so much, Yuri?” he finally asked, already prepared for the blow.
Much to his surprise, she actually shook her head.
“I don’t hate you, I just can’t forgive you so easily. I resent you for what you did but if you wish to patch things up then I a willing to try. In my life…” her voice softened slightly as she recollected the warriors of Seiryuu as well as her two maids in Konan, “I have met many people whom I grew to love, but whom I am no longer with, as well as people whom I will meet up with. I learnt that there are people whom we must part with when time pass, so if we miss an opportunity, we might never be able to meet with them again, and even if we do, it would not be what it was in this life. (8)
“I regard you as one of these people, so I don’t want to regret missing the chance of mending things with you.” She stated firmly. “It would not be easy, and it might appear that I hate you at times, but I truly do wish to make amends.
“So…so…” taking a deep breath she walked forward so that she was right in front of him, and then handed him the piece of paper that she quickly wrote her address on. “I hope you will write to me, and I will write back to you.”
Gratefully, he accepted the paper. he thought about asking her in regard to the two children she held in his arms, but decided that it would be pushing his luck a bit too far.
“I…I think I am going.” Yuri told him softly, but her tone was not as harsh as he had accepted. “I wish for to think first, but maybe…maybe we can meet before I leave Tokyo.”
He made sure that his daughter and her family left before he knelt in front of Houki Chiai’s grave, fixing his eyes on the name- originally covered by a rather deep layer of dust.
“Is that your doing?” He asked impulsively. “Is that your way of thanking me for tidying you grave?”

Yuri couldn’t help but to turn to her mother’s grave, and at the sight of her father kneeling in front of it, she suddenly realized that in a way, he had to make peace with himself in regard to her mother as well. In a way, her father was not so different from her.
She truly meant what she said to him, as she truly regret not being able to be with her two maids in that way that they had been- because that was a life she would never return too.
That was why she realize the importance of forgiving. She thought about the letter Miaka wrote to her, she would make amend with that too. This time, she knew that she would be able to love her sister without forcing her self too, as Miaka was trying to make amend- instead of just taking everything for granted.
As for her father, she would never able to love him as much as she loved her mother, and she doubt that she would ever call him chichi. But she believed that she would be able to have a father in the very end as well as both a younger sister and brother.
These objectives would be achieved, although the process of accomplishing them would prevent her life from being fully problem-free.
“Life will not be fully easy, because no life is perfect.” She told Seishuku as they began to walk out of the graveyard once more. “But everything would be alright now.
“It will be because that is Seiryuu’s promise to us.”
Happily she leant back against Seishuku, even as her two children were sleeping in her embrace. This day seemed particularly lovely and right now, all she wanted is to be with her husband and their children.
There was nothing that prevented her from this. The two of them were walking back to Ryoen’s apartment leisurely, as they no longer need to rush. As they past a row of shops, they heard a song being sung that made the two of them smile at one another.
“If we are reborn
I will be born as myself
Then I will find you
Once again.” (9)
“I am reborn into this world as Seishuku and in a way, was I not searching for you?” Seishuku told Yuri as he kissed her again, “Then I found you once again.”
“And I’ll always be waiting for you.” She told him lovingly. “I love you so much.”
He was with her again, and she knew that they would never be separated again, because of that, she could safely say that their life would always be happy from now on.

(1) Since they are back in Tokyo (Japan), they’ll be using their real names once again.
(2) This is totally random but I was reading a book set in ancient china, and they were talking about how during that dynasty people didn’t have pockets so they would put everything in their sleeves and since the story talks about this thieve, they explained about how thieves would steal by slashing the sleeves. But basically, I’m presuming the people in fushigi yugi probably used their sleeves as pockets too.
(3) I think this is quite a common eastern custom to place food on the grave of your loved one to eat, or even just somewhere. I came to New Zealand when I was only seven, but I visit my family in Taiwan and when we visit my granddad’s grave (Taiwan), we actually brought food and placed it on the grave. But it doesn’t always have to be done when you visit the grave, you can do this at home as well, my dad actually does this in our house (New Zealand) as well. When we have something we don’t eat everyday, and/or is really special, he would place a plate of this food underneath the portrait for them to eat. It is the idea of giving food for them. I am Christian so I don’t really believe this as I have my own belief in regard to this which is different from ancient tradition but I don’t see any harm doing it, and it is a very affectionate sign too.
(4) I am not 100% sure about this but most of the Japanese curries I have seen sold are a brownish shade, so not bright orange. I don’t know why but I just want to have this bit- although it is not really relevant. But anyway, the curry that Yuri’s mother likes is the Indian curry ‘Butter Chicken’. Personal confession, that is my favorite curry of all time!!! (For anyone who haven’t try it…try it! It is really so good!!!)
And as for Seishuku’s reaction, he has spent most of his life in the country side’s, so I think he probably wouldn’t have much experience with foreign food. While Hotohori lives in feudal China!!!
(5) I think this is quite a good illustration of showing their character. Yuri would not mind being protected.
(6) Yuri will be twenty two very soon, so Seishuku will either soon be twenty two or just having been twenty two, as he is only a few weeks older then her. Since she was about fifteen it’ll be about eight or six years since her father left her (given that she was actually thirteen, but due to the altered time she ended up as being fifteen when he left her) the whole time thing.
And as the last name shown, the man is actually her and Miaka’s father.
(7) Just making sure, but Yuri really is his daughter.
(8) Despite what I said, the idea of reincarnation is at work. Yuri and Hotohori/Seishuku will go to some form of heaven with the rest celestial warriors and the priestess, but everyone else would be reincarnated, like her mother and her two maids.
(9) I really love inserting songs into fan fictions but I know that it can get to tideious if you insert too much so I have actually been very good in controlling myself. But when I saw this song I just felt that I had to use it. this song is called ‘Eternal Wind’ and it is from Ayashi no Ceres (which is another of Watase Yuu’s brilliant work. I also really like this song because I believe it is about my favourite character, Shuro, and the one that she love, Kei. I really love the song and when I hear that verse I just decided that I have to put it into buried memoires because I felt that it really describe what happens in regard to Hotohori and Yuri really well, especially in regard to the prologue story.