autumnleaf16

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


Chapter Six

Due to what Yuri insisted, the kingdom of Kutou remain oblivious to the fact that their beloved priestess was actually back in their own world. Yuri and Hotohori had made their way back to the palace of Kutou with their faces hidden, and they were served by maids and servants who swore the strongest oath of secrecy.
“I do not know what to do at all.” Yuri admitted, fingering the shinzaho that she placed on her lap, instead of winding around her hair. “I truly do not know how to start.”
The two of them, with the crown prince, had spend many days searching through the library of Kutou, which was rather limited as many of Kutou’s treasures had been destroyed in the civil war when Kamiyasu was usurped.
All she knew was that as the priestess of Seiryuu she must find the shinzaho of Genbu but it had been sent back to Hokkan. They could send messengers to Hokkan but the problem was that with the exception of Konan, Kutou was still not well received by the other kingdoms.
Konan…It was so strange to think of the kingdom being ruled by someone else other then her husband now that he was in this universe again. It was because he had been so dominated by that country.
“The new emperor…he is a good ruler is he not?” Hotohori had asked, recollecting the promise Suzaku had made him. If he did abandon his people and land for the sake of the woman that he loved, then they must be left in good hands.
“He is a good enough ruler.” The emperor of Kutou had answered. “Had he been in a situation as his elder brother was then he would find ruling difficult, but as he rules in a time of peace, he will be a good ruler.”
“I still don’t know what to do, Seiryuu…you brought me here so can you not give me another answer?” she implored.
Yuri was kneeling in front of the statue of Seiryuu in the palace of Kutou, desperate for an answer. She had suddenly waked up in the middle of the night and for some strange reason, made her way here.
“Even if I have both Shinzahos, I still do not know how to do what I must do.” She whispered. “You tell me to remember what happened last time, but I no longer have the sacred scroll and my celestial warriors are all dead.”
The slight uneven footsteps betrayed the identity of the person who entered, it was the emperor.
“Your majesty,” she said respectfully, still in her kneeling position.
She knew a bit more about this man now, the most important discovery being the certainty that he was a good man. But strangely she was sudden possessed with the desire of leaving, and wishing that he had not caught her alone. It was strange, as his behaviour towards her had been nothing but what one would expect of an emperor to the priestess that helped him. He bowed every time he approached her, and only addressed her as ‘priestess’.
“Yuri…” the way her name was spilt so softly and gently made her certain that her instinct was not foolish.
“I…I…” she was going to remind him of her status and his, and that she was in love with the one she wedded in both worlds.
But he was first.
“Do you know why I have no empress?” he whispered, wise enough to not shorten the distance between them.
“If it is because of me then it is a foolish reason.” She said softly, but very firmly.
“Perhaps I am a fool, but I think many would not blame me. After all, the priestess of Seiryuu had given me back the kingdom that was taken from me.”
“Is that enough for you to idolize her?” Yuri asked rather reproachfully. “You knew nothing of me, you had only saw me for a brief moment.”
“I have heard the story of Saihitei and Houkigou, and as I recalled, your husband asked you to become his empress in front of all his officials the moment he saw you. Why is it so easy to condemn me for what I feel?”
“I…” at this she could only sigh as in a way he was right.
“That brief meeting I had of you was enough to make me realize that I wish to have no empress if you are not my empress. When I first saw you, I thought that no one else could be more beautiful, and the way you carried yourself in your robes made you look like some sort of goddess. I felt that you could grant any…”
“You are completely wrong to think that I am powerful, I was merely a vessel for Seiryuu. As for wishes…I could not even grant my own wish.” She interrupted him hastily, now standing up and was slowly heading to the door as well as avoiding going near him.
“Do you really think I am the type of man who would force himself on a woman even if she was not the priestess whom he regarded as almost as sacred as his god?” Kamiyasu asked rather reproachfully. “True, as a youth long ago I was not what you would call a good man, but I have changed greatly. Priestess of Seiryuu, I will not harm you in anyway.
“I merely wish to tell you that in a strange way I have great affection for you. I am uncertain whether it is love but I know enough that I wish to wed no other but you.” (1)
“Why tell me this?”
“For the simple reason that I just want you to know. That if something happens to you, know that I will always welcome you.”
Saying so he finally walked toward her, slightly shaking due to his limp, and offered his hand to her. Understanding what was given, she gently put her hand on his arms and began to aid him to walk. (2)
She did not and would never love this man, and until a few days ago she felt nothing towards him. But as he declared out his feelings, she felt a deep pity for him. It was not the same love Hotohori bore her, what would torment him forever, but it was an affection that was in a way more strong then romantic love. She knew that this man in front of her would never alter his feelings, although he should.
Hotohori had told her something similar- how he had idolize the priestess of Suzaku so much that he ended up half being in love with her. He was a child surrounded by loneliness and the story began as a way of refuge, an ideal that became a reality.
Some may break free from this as he had done, but she feared Kamiyasu would not.
“I will never stop loving Hotohori.” She told him firmly as they began to walk out of the temple, but her tone was very gentle as she began to tell him what Hotohori had once been like.
“But he was a youth while I had been an old enough man when I first met you, priestess.” Her companion stated calmly. “As I said to you, I do not think I love you in that way, or even desire you physically, but in my own way I want you. Such affections are more safe then most love, and yet more dangerous in the fact that they would remain consistent.”
As they reached to the rather lavish chamber he had gave them he removed her arm from his gently and opened the door for her, before he bowed to her once again.
“What I said tonight, I will not repeat again unless you do.” He ensured her, causing her to nod in satisfaction, knowing that he would not act irrationally for this impossible cause.
She turned away and was about to enter her chambers when she suddenly turned very pale, and staggered back.
Concerned, Kamiyasu quickly stepped forward to examine what had caused this.
The sight made him almost curse out in disgust and he was truly tempted to summon guards to end this shameful display were it the fact that it would hurt Yuri more. (3)

He woke up alone, but the note beside him quickly erased any worries. Upon examining the note closer, Hotohori smiled, it seemed that she has subconsciously began to use kanji for every single word now that she was in such a world.
His village had taught him how to read and write, but he had to do many of the learning himself in order to understand the ancient scrolls that contained the legends of Konan. Thus, he had experienced such a thrill when he regained his memories and was able to recollect all these words- almost like the discovering of a lost language.
The knock on the door made him frown. It was in the middle of the night, as the moon still hung on top of the night sky while the court yard was silent saved for the very soft footstep of the ones who happened to be on guard. He could not understand why someone would be knocking on his door.
Unless Yuri wanted to see him and for some strange reason decided to send someone to fetch him instead of coming here herself. Nonetheless he opened the door.
He had not seen the maid before, but something in her lavender eyes made him rather…nervous. (4)
“Yes?” he asked, a hint of authority creeping into his tone without him being aware of it.
She opened her mouth but tumbled forward instead. Without even thinking, Hotohori placed his arms around her to prevent her from falling down. At this, a malicious smile curled around her lips as she quickly sank her teeth into his flesh, drawing blood in the process.
“So even you will fall into my trap.” She whispered suggestively, her hands guiding his hands. “The virtuous Hotohori, the emperor of Konan who loved one woman so much that he denied all of his other concubines even when his empress was barren.”
Hotohori wanted to pull his hand off her but found that he no longer had control over his body at all. But the cruellest thing was that he was allowed to be aware of what his body was now doing, but could not do anything to prevent this.
“Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what the priestess of Seiryuu would say when she sees you with another woman?” she continued teasing him, now using his hand to slowly pull down part of her dress. “Who am I? You are wondering. My name is Miiru and I am sent by Tenkou, whom you dare to stand against.”
There was a lot of things to say, to lash out against her, but just as his hands were unable to move, his mouth might as well have been gagged. (5)
He wanted to throw her away from him, but found his hands continuing pulling down her dress, making their flesh touch. He could taste no arousal or desire, only disgust was present.
If Yuri were to witness this…he did not know how she would take this at all. He loved her greatly, and she was sure that she knew this, but what woman or man could be rational if they see the one they loved and thought loved them about to perform the making of love with another?
He did not even have time to contemplate the possible answer, as he saw the doors of the chamber being opened…

The sight of her husband in the arms of another woman was the first thing she saw when she was about to walk in. Raising a hand to her eyes she rubbed it in a rather childish attempt of denying the visions in front of her.
“This can’t be true.” she whispered as she turned her face away, feeling tears creeping toward her eyes.
“I…” even as she denied it, she fixed her gaze onto her husband once more.
Yuri’s appearance seemed to have broken some of the spell Miiru placed, as Hotohori gained enough control over his own body as to shove Miiru away from him, making her fall to the ground. But it might have been her that released her control, as the damage was already down.
“What excuse can you offer?” the emperor of Kutou snarled, standing beside Yuri and tried to place his arms on her shoulder, only to have them slapped away.
His eyes hardened, but it was not her that angered him, it was Hotohori.
“Yuri…” Hotohori began uncertainly, not sure how he should defend himself as he realized that had the same thing happened to Yuri, he would not find this explanation easy to believe.
“Yuri…” he began again, hastily donning on a robe.
“Do not come near her!” Kamiyasu ordered, his hand resting on his sword, despite being slightly crippled and neglecting the art of using a sword, he could still wield his weapon well enough.
Yuri had stepped back until she was out of the chamber. She was clutching at one of the poles outside while her other hand was clenched tightly together. Her whole body seemed to be shaking.
But it was her eyes that hurt him the most. They become such dark pools with depression circling in them along with anger and sadness at what she must viewed as his betrayal.
It was a betrayal although it was not his fault, but it was not her fault either for seeing it as anything other then this. He would have done the same.
“Yuri…” he repeated for the third time.
She said nothing, only turned and run from him. The moment she did so, he saw the first drop of her tears falling.
“Leave my kingdom as soon as you can.” Kamiyasu spat out to Hotohori, who remained silent, before he quickly chased after Yuri.
What was the point in explaining anything to anyone apart from Yuri? If she did not understand or believe him, then there was no point in asking pardon from anyone else.
But he would not obey the emperor of Kutou, because he had to make her see what had really happened. He simply could not leave her, and if he must, he would hear it from her own lips.
Not surprisingly, they found her in the temple of Seiryuu once again, what shocked them was her complete lose of rationality and control.
She knelt in the middle of the pool of water that surrounded the statue of Seiryuu, and was beating the statue with her bare fists, occasionally splashing the water due to her violent actions. Her body was shaking due to her emotions and tears were falling in a rather rapid rate, but they were silent, which was more scary.
“Why…why?” she was screaming to the statue of the god she served. Her voice was soft but it was edged with great hysteria. “Why bring me here to do this to my life? Why have him do this to me? If this is what is meant to happen, then I rather to have never returned here!”
Despite the sword that was near him, Hotohori still took a step forward.
Yuri remained oblivious, continuing with her curses and crying as she kept on seeing Hotohori with another woman, what he had promised to never do.
Perhaps she loved him too much, she admitted that, as she was being completely irrational. She was acting like a raving woman when she was meant to be carrying herself with dignity due to her position as the priestess of Seiryuu.
“I can’t do it.” she whispered.
She loved Hotohori…it was not love at first sight but she had fell in love with him so fast and the love had never left her. She always loved him just as she thought that he would always continue to love her. That was all she wanted and needed.
She did all she did for him…because she wanted him to live. Let him despise her if he must, she had realized as she was about to make her third wish and therefore give up her own body, but she would be happy as long as she knew that he was safe because of her.
And now she saw him in the arms of another woman…all she could feel was pain. Hurting her and mocking her. They taunted her, telling her that she had been a fool to believe that all this would last.
“It is your fate to be alone.” Someone whispered to her, laughing maliciously as he did so.
She could not be without Hotohori for the sake that she needed him to be beside her, although she believe that she could live as her mother had- be such a loving mother that her children would never complain of their missing father.
She needed him, but yet at the same time she knew that she could not stay with him if he had slept, or about to sleep with another woman. She would have to leave him, but to do that…
Once more she smashed her fist against the statue, ignoring the fact that her finger had begun to bleed, and the flesh was swelling. She didn’t care right now, all she could think about was how happy she had been before she entered this world again.
Someone grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back. It was rather rough, but she was at a sense of shock that she would not react to any gentleness.
“Hotohori?” she whispered softly as her blurred version cleared slightly when the tears in her eyes fell down to join the water she was kneeling on.
“I have to explain.” He whispered, moving his hands to take her’s. He wanted to embrace her, but knew that he could not right now.
“What can you possibly say?” she asked sadly, her words edged with tears. “I saw what you saw, and someone else also saw what I saw.”
“I know that you will not believe me as I will not be able to believe me had I seen the same thing but please! Trust me.” he implored. “I really love you, you know that I love you.”
“I knew.” She corrected. “I knew until I saw you in bed with another woman. I would not be so angry if you are still the emperor of Konan, and I am your barren empress because you are doing what thousands of other demand. But we are not in such positions any more!”
Saying so she pushed him away from her with a violence that he was never aware of its existence.
“Leave me alone!” she demanded. “I need time to myself!”
He was meant to land on the hard marble underneath the shallow water, but much to his surprise he felt himself caught by what seemed to be water. Puzzled, he twisted slightly to see what had happened.
Waters in the shape of snake had caught him and prevented him from falling completely.
“Well, I must admit that I am rather shocked to see you and Yuri quarrelling.” A male’s voice said very gently with no trace of mockery at all.
“Who are you and how did you arrive here?” Kamiyasu demanded, pulling out his sword. He had shut the temple’s door and bolted it as he knew that Yuri would not wish to be seen in such a state.
Sitting up, Hotohori was able to have a better look at the man, and as soon as he did so, he felt that there was a sense of strong familiarity in this man.
He was rather tall with very long hair that was the colour of pale gold, with his eye an equally light blue. The strange thing about him was that his right eye was covered by an eye patch.
“You must be…” Hotohori chocked out as his gaze rested on the eye patch, then moved onto the man’s clothing: they were what was worn among the normadic tribes of Hokkan.
“I am Hikitsu, and I was more then a little disappointed that I did not get to meet you with the rest of the celestial warriors of Suzaku.” The celestial warrior of Genbu said with a slight smile. (6)
Yuri realized that there was something very similar about the two men, in that there was a hidden sadness that surrounded them. (7)
“Hikitsu…the celestial warrior of Genbu…” Kamiyasu muttered in disbelieve as he sheathed his sword, there was no point in fighting someone who could not be harmed at all. “But why are you here? Legends say that after you gave the shinzaho to the priestess of Suzaku you were able to go to heaven.”
“That is not wrong,” Hikitsu continued, “But I have come down from that place to deliver the Shinzaho of Genbu to the priestess of Seiryuu.”
Saying so he approached Yuri and actually knelt down so he could look at her at eye level. Hotohori realized that he was looking at her in such a fashion that made it seem that he knew her personally.
What he said…they were rather strange too. He must be aware of the love they have for each other in order to be surprised about what was happening.
Gently, Hikitsu reached out a hand and brushed away the lock of hair that had covered part of her face. Hotohori felt no jealousy at all because his instinct told him that Hikitsu did this act from the position of an elder brother like figure.
“The last time I saw you as who you really are…you were kneeling in front of the statue of Seiryuu, and like last time you are screaming at him for what had happened.” The celestial warrior of Genbu said softly, “I always cursed myself for not helping you because I was too worried about her. But I still lost her in the end, to you.” At this he turned to look at Hotohori. “Perhaps it is my punishment for loving her too much, that I was doing what you are doing. Loving another more then your priestess.” (8)
The way he spoke was enough to make Yuri halt her hysterical crying because this man…this spirit…this being was addressing her without talking to her. He was seeing someone else in her…who she was, not who she is.
“What had happened?” she whispered before raising her voice to make it a demand. “What had happened?”
“Do you really wish to know?” although he never once changed the tone of his voice, this question made Yuri shiver slightly.
“The truth does hurt.” Hikitsu continued. “But it is necessary. We, all of us, repeated our mistakes because we do not remember what had happened before.”
Saying so he raise one hand and took his eye patch off, then immediately used his other hand to cover up his right eye.
“Do not think I do this as a way of revenge.” He said very firmly. “Very well. Priestess of Seiryuu, you will remember that I had to test the priestess of Suzaku, I must test you out of this same reason. You must proof yourself as the Priestess of Seiryuu, even though,” at this point he smiled slightly, the same bitter smile Hotohori used to smile. “I know that you are Seiryuu’s chosen one.”
“What are you doing to her?” Hotohori and Kamiyasu demanded at the same time. They had to ask this question, because they had no power to prevent the celestial warrior of Genbu to do anything.
“I will make her remember all that which had happened,” Hikitsu said grimly as he finally uncovered his right eye. “If she survives then I will give the shinzaho to her.”
As soon as she gazed into his right eye, Yuri slumped forward, but she did not fall, as Hikitsu quickly caught her.
“Do not touch her.” He stated. “Neither of you will wish to see into her memories.”
“Why do you test her like this?” Hotohori demanded angrily. He remembered what he had read from the legends of Genbu and Hikitsu’s test was making Yuri recollect memories that were buried, which were the most painful memories. “You did not test Miaka like this, and if you know that she is the priestess then why…”
“Because I do not want the past to repeat itself again!” Hikitsu finally broke into a yell. “But when I watches what is happening I see you and Yuri repeating what you had done!
“I do not want what had happened to happen again.” He repeated firmly, although he looked at Yuri with what seemed to be a gentleness mingled with pity. “So I will do this even though I know that Seiryuu does not wish it.”

Her mother was lying on the hospital bed, her head covered by a headscarf as the treatment against her type of cancer forced her very long hair to all fell off.
The eight year old Yuri knew that she had to be brave, because that was what her mother told her to do, as well as the reassurance that everything was going to be fine. But for the first time in her life, she did not believe in her mother’s words.
It was hard to believe that her mother would recover when she was growing thinner and thinner every day, and then that day…when all her hair was gone…
“You shouldn’t cry about such things.” Her mother said as she rested her hand over her daughter’s head lovingly.
“But Haha, you love your hair so much!” Yuri whispered, remembering all the times she had seen her mother brushing her hair. She knew that her mother had a simple happiness at these actions because her hair was the part of her body that she loved the best. “And it is such pretty hair too!” (9)
“I don’t mind it that much.” Her mother assured her. “Beside, your hair is the most beautiful hair I have ever seen. As long as you are beautiful Yuri, which you always will be, then I will not mind what happens to me.
“Now, let Haha brush your hair again…”
She knelt down beside the bed so her mother can brush her hair and tied it that way with a ribbon. It was something that her mother did through out her entire life, but the little girl did not know, that this would be one of the last times her mother would do this… (10)

When Miaka and Tamahome finally finished telling the story of what had happened in their past life, they were in the palace. Throughout the journey everyone had been unusually quiet, even Genro, and the two of them viewed that as a good sign.
“That seems crazy though.” Ryoen said. “That I, well…”
“Used to cross dress and was in love with Hotohori, who is reborn as Seishuku.” Ju-An managed to finish the sentence with his typical straight face. “But then it kinds of make sense, how Seishuku behaved when he saw Yuri in the hospital.”
“Hotohori had been married to Yuri, they were married for more then two years.” Miaka continued, she just has to add the last bit of the story in, that Hotohori had also been the emperor of Konan.
“I think it is possible,” Hojun decided, “In view of all this it must be possible.”
“There really is no other explanation.” Dokun agreed, before he began another analyze of what was happening. He was very intelligent and studious, but he was not chained to any scientific idea as one might have believed due to his studying.
The rest five all had to believe that they had a past life here when the older member of the emperor’s court came out and recognized them as the celestial warriors of Suzaku. Satisfied, it was deemed that they should be taken to the emperor immediately.
“So how did we manage to get into the palace anyway?” Genro whispered to Miaka, still managing to slap Tamahome when his hand was itching towards a very elaborately decorated candleholder.
Miaka and Tamahome both recognized this path as the way to the emperor’s private quarters. From what she heard, the emperor was still unmarried, this made Miaka wander what happened to the empress’ private quarters, the chambers that had once belonged to Yuri. Were they left the way they were? Or did they completely change with the arrival of a new overall owner?
All these rituals seemed rather reminiscent to Miaka, after all, it had only been more then one year for her. As she watched the guards knelt she remembered how she had once stood behind some guards like this, only that she was waiting for another emperor.
“The priestess of Suzaku? Are you sure?” even the voice was familiar, but it was a bit higher then Hotohori’s voice. (12)
The new emperor of Konan was now twenty years old, having been only sixteen when he was told by Suzaku to take over the throne from his older half brother.
His hair was loose and down as well, but they were not as dark as the hair of his half brother’s hair. Hotohori’s hair was a very deep raven back, while the current emperor’s hair was more of an olive brown. (13)
Even though he resembled Hotohori greatly, he lacked that haunting, and even shocking beauty his elder half brother had been blessed with. He could and would be described as handsome, but not as beautiful.
Somehow he also seemed much younger, although when she first saw Hotohori, he was only twenty years old as well. But then Hotohori had been burdened with a kingdom that was on the brink of destruction, as that was the condition a country would be in with the appearance of the Suzaku priestess.
“My name is Kotsuki.” The young man said softly. “I am the fifth emperor of Konan.”
“I am Miaka, the priestess of Suzaku. And they are all celestial warriors of Suzaku in their previous lives, only that some of them don’t remember their life here yet!” Miaka declared happily, reaching out to grab the emperor’s hand impulsively. At first Kotsuki frowned at the boldness of the girl, but he smiled as he though about the tales that he had heard of the priestess of Suzaku.
“You all look like the paintings in the temple of Suzaku. In the first year of my reign I consented to my people’s wish of having the images of the seven celestial warriors painted and put in the temple of Suzaku where they could all pray to.” Kotsuki explained, continuing in a rather soft voice, he had been born with a rather quiet nature that had to adjust most severely with his new position.
“Tamahome; Nuriko; Chichiri; Taisuki; Mitsukake and Chiriko.” He told each of them. As he finished Chiriko’s name he frowned and turned to Miaka, his eyes suddenly very dark.
“But where is my brother? Why is he not with you all?” Kotsuki demanded, a hint of command creeping into his voice. “And where is Houkigou too? I though that she and he would both be here as well.”
“I believe that Yuri…Houkigou is in Kutou now…” Miaka began, but was interrupted by everyone else’s scream or yell of shock, with the exception of Tamahome, who was now fixing his gaze on the elaborate furniture in the emperor’s room.
“Yuri was Houkigou, the empress of this country?”
“Yes, Yuri is the name of my brother’s wife.” Kotsuki added, completely failing to comprehend their shock. “I want to meet her too, the empress so loved by her husband that he refused to elect another even though she gave him no children. Also, because she seems to be the one person who truly know and understand my brother.”
“Wait…if Yuri was Houkigou, the last empress of this kingdom then this means that…” Ju-An chocked out.
“My brother was Saihitei, he was the emperor of this country?” Ryoen added in equal shock. “I am actually sort of related to royalty?”
“Hotohori was a celestial warrior of Suzaku as well as being the forth emperor of Konan.” Mika finally said this line out. “And Ryoen, you had been a concubine in this palace who was in love with him.”
“I really wish that you are joking.” Ryoen groaned out. “But somehow I don’t think that you are. I don’t even want to think about the fact that I was in love with another man, who is now my brother, let along asking why I became a concubine to the emperor”
“I can take you to the temple of Suzaku if you wish,” Kotsuki interrupted politely after he dismissed their escort with some form of order. “Perhaps that will help some of you to recollect your past life.
“But first…” at this the young emperor’s voice actually became even more quiet, and he actually bent down his head slightly as he turned to Ryoen. “I have a favour to ask from you first.”
“A favour? But aren’t you the emperor? Isn’t the emperor the most powerful man?” Ryoen muttered, rather uneasy at this sudden display of humbleness. The modern system of Japan’s monarchy was very different from the absolute monarchy of Konan, but they could easily realize the high status that the emperor of this land had, therefore they were all uneasiness at the possibility of a request. (14)
“I have a request that no one else can grant me.” Kotsuki declared softly, but steadily. “I want you to tell me more about Hotohori, my brother, who is now your brother.”
“I remember nothing of my own past life, let along his past life.” Ryoen said.
“Then tell me of his new life. I want to know, I need to know.” At the rather curious glances from the others he smiled rather sadly, and Ju-An and Hojun both recollected how they saw Seishuku smiling in that same haunting way when Yuri had disappeared into the scroll without him, it was the first time when they saw a smile that expressed more sorrow then tears.
As Seishuku the young man had no cause to smile that way as he had pretty much all he wanted, and with the birth of his children he really though that everything would be well. What had made him even happier was that he could appreciate these simple happiness due to remembering what had happened in his past life as Hotohori.
Then he saw Yuri disappearing into the scroll, leaving him for the second time. The memories he had tried to suppress all rushed back to him again, the months he had to live without her as well as her death…
That was why he could smile in the same way as Hotohori had often smiled…
“All that I know of my brother I know from the perspective of a subject, I know that as Saihitei he was a good and fair ruler, and like most of the people in Konan I have heard the legends of how much he love Houkigou. But other then that…I have nothing.”
“Have you never talked to your brother at all?” Ryoen asked, feeling great empathy for this man’s wish, although he himself could not imagine being distant from his own brother. Since he was only an infant, Seishuku had played and looked after him. Ryoen had his own large group of childhood friends too but the most special time was always the time when he was with his elder brother and his two friends.
“Seishuku is such a good brother, he lets his little brother do anything.” Was the very common saying in the village whenever anyone saw the two brothers walking side by side.
Ryoen only started to have a friction in his original ‘intimate’ relationship with his brother due to his continuing disapprove of Seishuku’s marriage.
Maybe it was jealousy from the past life…it was easier to think that then to blame himself fully. Secretly he knew that he disapproved of the marriage not because it was too quick, but because he actually resented how Yuri became the centre to Seishuku’s life the moment she entered.
It might have been better for him to admit this and talked about it with maybe his parents or Seishuku’s two best friends. Ju-An and Hojun were almost like brothers to him too, or at the very least like elder cousins, but he did not want anyone to accuse him of having an elder-brother complex.
“I had little chance of talking to my brother through out my whole life.” Was the short reply.
Nodding, Ryoen began to tell the emperor all he could about Seishuku, his elder brother, along with additional help from Ju-An and Hojun at times.
“He is truly the best brother, now that I think about it there had been times when he talked to me about how he wanted to be a good brother.”
This had been before he choose to go to live in Tokyo, but at that time both Ju-An and Hojun had already left. Upon finding his brother sitting in front of the empty fields one morning, he had joined him although he should be heading to school.
“I’m just thinking.” Seishuku said easily, dismissing Ryoen’s question about his wellbeing. “Hojun left the village just as Ju-An, and some people are now wondering when I will leave the village since the three of us have been best friends since our infancy.”
“Are you going to?” he asked nervously.
“I will not leave Konan.” Seishuku stated softly, ruffling his brother’s now short hair.
“That’s good, because I don’t want you to go away!” he had said passionately, hugging his elder brother tightly.
“Because I am such a good brother?” Seishuku’s tone seemed very light-hearted but Ryoen could sense the seriousness in them.
“You are the best brother in the world!” he stated firmly.
“That is good then, as that is what I want to be.” leaning back Ryoen was shocked at the relief that appeared on Seishuku’s face. “I don’t know why, Ryoen, but sometimes I have this fear nagging at me, the fear that I am a horrible brother who will be hated by my siblings.”
Ryoen felt a strange connection to the young emperor who stood next to him due to the fact that in a way, they were both younger brothers to the same man.
“Was he speaking of his past?” he demanded. “Just as you want to know about Seishuku, I want to know more about my brother when he was Hotohori.”
“I have told you that I know little about my own brother.” Kotsuki said, like Ryoen, he felt a tie between himself and the reincarnation of the Suzaku warrior previously known as Nuriko. “But yes, in his past life as Hotohori, he was a bad brother although that was certainly not his fault. He had also been hated by his other siblings, including me.” Seeing the curious glance of the others, even Dokun and Genro, who knew very little of Hotohori, Kotsuki nodded and began to explain.
“Hotohori and I were the son of an emperor who did not care for any of his five sons or two daughters at all. All our life we were looked after by our mother, who competed with each other very heatedly for the price position of being the mother of the future emperor. (15)
“Like Hotohori, I was the younger out of two brothers. The only difference is that my mother had only been a concubine, while his mother was the empress. Although my mother’s triumph card was that she had gave birth to the emperor’s first son. I knew nothing of that brother either, he was my mother’s price, I was just the extra backup. Like all my other siblings, we were raised being secluded from each other.
“Hotohori said something like that to me once.” Miaka butted in. “That was when Yuri was gone, he told me that he became the emperor at fourteen due to his mother’s action, and his two elder brothers then led a rebellion, supported by his younger brothers.”
Kotsuki nodded. “Yes, I did support my full brother. But that is too far ahead of my explanation. I saw Hotohori wandering in the garden and he seemed so lonely and sad that I believed we could be friends. I actually went up and talk to him. We were only children at that time, I was eight and he was twelve, being four years older.
“We only exchanged two sentences before our mothers both dragged us off, but I then felt that this brother of mine was someone that could be my friend. At that time he must have though the same too, because from that day on if we happened to walk past one another, he would always smile at me shyly in these rare meeting.”
“What went wrong then?” Miaka interrupted again. She was brought to that time when she found Hotohori kneeling in Yuri’s room, almost sobbing with despair, after reading out Yuri’s letter he had told her about how lonely his life had been. A large family that was not even a family.
“He became the emperor. At that time I was only ten, ignoring both my mother and brother’s orders I went to see Hotohori in his court, I even prepared a gift for him. I had hoped to be loved by him and he certainly greeted me warmly before he walked with me in the garden. I really thought that from now on we would become good brothers…
“When we returned…” what happened that day still caused anger as the emperor’s hand clenched tightly over the hilt of his sword. “When we returned I was faced with his mother and a group of guards. Before I knew what happened I was in the dungeon. In there, I was beaten everyday and I only managed to escape there due to the civil war that our other elder brothers started.
“After what happened I though that he did this on purpose. So I easily began to hate him…”
“I don’t believe you!” Miaka yelled. “Hotohori would never do something like that. It must be his mother. She must have done something to make you appear guilty in his eyes.”
“It seems so ironic that you can understand what took me years to realize so quickly.” The emperor whispered sadly. “Yes, that was what happened. His mother hid a dagger in my gift to him. I was arrested on the ground of treason, and he probably believed that too…I can’t really blame him for being manipulated so easily as it was his own mother who tied the shackles on him.
“Anyway, the revolts were crashed and I managed to escape with my own life although my mother and full brother both failed to. The empress did not just execute them, she would not be satisfied until she tortured them. I naturally spent the next years living in hiding, growing up hating Hotohori all this time.
“Then one day I heard of the news of the imperial marriage, by that time I was fourteen, the same age as Hotohori when he ascended, but unlike him I was still like a child. I had a ridiculous plan of assassinating him, believing I would achieve satisfaction that way. It was pathetic but I blamed everything on him.
“So I stood amongst the people, and I saw them being carried on the litter. Around me, everyone else was yelling with joy, some were even throwing flowers at the emperor with his new empress. I was suddenly puzzled as I asked myself for the very first time: how could this well-loved man be the same villain that I cursed every night?
“His new empress was waving at the crowd with what seem to be true sincerity, then she turned to him and I saw the tender smile on his face as he took her hand to whisper something. I suddenly remembered my first meeting with him, how he had smiled like that. It was well that I remembered that incident as I also recollected the way his mother had glare at me…
“Somehow that made me more rational, and once I compared what happened during his reign before and after his mother’s death, it was obvious that any cruelty was done because of his mother.
“I actually began to throw flowers like the rest, truly glad for him. But even though I stopped my foolish hatred, I still did not know him. I continued to live outside the palace in hiding although I no longer need to, but I did it out of guilt for what I almost done. Thus I knew no more then what the rest of his people knew.”
At the same time when the young emperor ended his story with a sigh, they heard a soft knock. Kotsuki seemed to recognize the person just by this knock as he smiled in that strange way as again that made them wonder whether he was happy or sad.
A young woman entered, probably only a year or two older then Miaka. Judging by the clothes she had, she must be servant to someone with a very high rank. Her clothes were made from materials that were fine but their very simple cut style revealed her status as a servant, as no women of a high rank would ever wear such a dress. But strangely her hair was held up by a head dresser that seemed a bit too elaborate for a simple maid.
She knelt down in front of the emperor and in a very soft voice she asked him what he desired. Miaka suddenly crouched down to look at this woman in the face, as she was sure that she had seen this woman before.
“Chinatsu, I am going to the temple of Suzaku with the celestial warrior and priestess of Suzaku so make sure that it is empty.” Kotsuki said, strangely enough his tone was not one of ordering, but of affection.
“I do what the new emperor demands of me.” the young woman called Chinatsu answered in a very flat tone. Because she was right beside the two of them, Miaka was certain that the emperor’s face changed at this very former address.
“Who are you?” Miaka asked in her usual blunt fashion when the woman stood up and was prepared to leave. “I think I have seen you before.”
“You would have, priestess of Suzaku.” the woman said very sadly. “My name is Chinatsu and along with my twin sister Chiharu we used to be the maids of the empress.” (16)
“But Kotsuki have no empress!” Miaka frowned. (17)
“Not the fifth empress of Konan which does not exist, but will.” At this her fists actually clenched together. “I was the private maid of Houkigou, the fourth empress of Konan!”
This time, she shut the door behind her. Everyone quickly turned to Kotsuki but once again, his face had become rather emotionless. Miaka and Tamahome couldn’t help but to compare him with Hotohori as they thought about the burden their following celestial warrior had to bear.
Tamahome had been angry that Hotohori had choose to go with Yuri when he should have stayed with Miaka, who was his priestess. But once more, he could understand the other man slightly but thinking about what he would do had their position swapped.
After witnessing what just happened with Hotohori’s brother and the woman he seemed to have affection, they were beginning to understand why Hotohori would threw away his obligations this time.
As the emperor he had been held back by chains which he only broke free due to their new life. Now it seemed the chains were trying to tangle him with it once again, and so he grabbed onto Yuri to shatter them.

(1) This all relate to my weird prologue as I mentioned before. Another story.
(2) During Tenkou’s entrance I have focused on a lot of what is in my weird prologue (another story, but I think I lose courage of writing it as it will be very radical) but I will explain what had happened in the end. Basically it kind of talk about the life they had before this life and I promise, everything that happened would all link.
(3) Initially the people of Kutou would only know Yuri as Houkigou but then I decided against it, even though few people knew her first name the people of Kutou probably would be able to find out from the stories in Konan.
(4) I mean, this is a world where woman all have long as waist length hair, and the shortest is probably up to their shoulders and Yuri cut her hair so that it just touched her shoulder. The men in this world often have rather long hair as well, cause many hold it up so it must be tolerable long, like Nuriko’s brother.
(5) This was actually really problematic. I didn’t know what kind of statue it should be, I didn’t want it to be gold or silver or something like that, but people in ancient china doesn’t seem to have focused on life like sculptures and paintings that much. I mean, no offence, but all the emperor’s paintings and all doesn’t seem to be that life like. But then it would just be that I am not use to that kind of style. And I also want color, that is an important factor. So I decided to make it a china statue. By the way the statue is not wearing the robes of the priestess of Seiryuu for the practical reason that later on in the story Yuri would be wearing it.
Note: the jade headdress that Yuri wore, and the thing her statue now wears is actually the shinzaho of Seiryuu.
(6) About four years has passed.
(7) It’s sad, but the temple of Suzaku only has paintings of Miaka and her seven celestial warriors. So Hotohori’s picture is in the temple of Suzaku in Konan, but not Yuri’s. That was one of the reasons that many traveled to this temple in Kutou.
(8) Kotsuki is one of Hotohori’s younger brother, which came out in the Hotohori novel. The two brothers seemed to be quite close, although Kotsuki got killed by Hotohori’s mother, and she framed him for trying to kill Hotohori.
(9) I didn’t believe I would actually say this but it was weird calling them by their name as the celestial warriors. So this is what I will do, for those who know who they are (Hotohori/Seishuku, Tamahome/Taka) I will call them by their name as the celestial warriors, but for everyone else until they gain back their memory I will call them by their real name.
(10) I am presuming that most people in the universe of the four gods only know them by their name as celestial warriors.
(11) This just seems a typical rather blond thing for Miaka to do, this bit actually remind me of the bit in the anime when they were caught by bandits. Nuriko had offered to be taken instead of Miaka, but Miaka actually refused. Which does show she is not the brightest at time.
(12) There should be no need to say this but I’m naturally thinking of Hotohori’s voice as Koyasu Takehito’s voice.
(13) This is kind of my private joke. I think Hotohori’s hair should be black, but his hair in the anime is like an olive brown.
(14) I don’t know that much about Japan’s government system but I have the impression that it is pretty like England. Meaning the rulers does not have absolute power, although some people still hold them in awe. Or at the very least, you will be rather awed at meeting them.
(15) This is my own version of Hotohori’s family story, and it will be very different from the novel.
(16) I was looking at a site of Japanese name when I saw the names Chiharu and Chinatsu, and I just thought that it is really pretty and it really will be a good name for Yuri’s two maids, who are twins. Chiharu (千春) means a thousand spring while Chinatsu (千夏) will mean a thousand summer. Chi(千) haru(春), Chi(千) natsu(夏).
In case some of you don’t remember, before Yuri died she gave some of her jewelries along with their freedom to the two girls. The head dresser that Chinatsu wear is one of them.
(17) I think this is quite like Miaka, calling Kotsuki by his name. I mean she is probably the only one who call Hotohori by his name (which is good, I have to admit). And in the very beginning she would call him Hotohori then quickly change to call him the emperor.

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

Chapter Five

The pool of water became distorted once more when Tenkou brought his fist into the small sink. His lip curled into a hard sneer as he saw the priestess of Seiryuu reunite with that man she loved. If he was right beside her, then his plans would be harder to carry out…
Yuri, the priestess of Seiryuu, she was the one he wanted to suffer the most. Even after all these centuries he recollected what had happened with great anger, how she had caused his perfect plan to collapse. (1)
She had been the perfect prey because of the depression she was in, having sinned just because she loved another, and had to leave him because of that, then the two dearest to her next to him had been killed because of her own action of loving another.
“You will cure me of this curse and let me be with him?” she had whispered as she touched the bruises and scales that covered half of her body, they were her punishment for loving another physically from the deity she was forced to serve. “And you will also bring them to life once again somehow?”
Because she was in that state of mental confusion she had taken his bait most eagerly, promising to bring what he required to him. She had signed her own doom as soon as she agreed.
His miscalculation was that she would kill herself instead in this deal when she had no way of going back.
“This time…I will not fail.” He stated flatly, in a tone that left no room for doubt. He had learnt from his mistake and he knew that in order to destroy the priestess of Seiryuu, he must first destroy the celestial warrior of suzaku that she loved so much.
Because she was dead, he had been able to manipulate the one known as Hotohori. In the same way he was also wise enough to know that he must not completely limit his focus on one group of people, he must be careful about the priestess of Suzaku and the rest of her warriors as well.
Clicking his fingers he summoned Miiru and Rin, they were amongst his finest servants but he still had to prevent himself from openly sneering as he watched the two siblings that knelt down in front of his throne. Like the priestess of Seiryuu, they had fallen because of their consumption of forbidden love. The same petty emotion that was so important to all these humans.
“You two must destroy the priestess of Seiryuu and the priestess of Suzaku.” he began, masking the contempt he had for them with what appeared to be genuine friendship toward his two subordinates.
His plan was simply but very effective, to simply break them by shattering their emotional barrier. A person become nothing more then a machine when they lost all their strength and will of carrying on. He wanted the two priestesses to be like that so they would lack the strength of living, let along summoning the four gods- which required a tremendous amount of will.
He preferred them to be broken instead of being killed, even though the end would be the same, as the first method would give him much more entertainment.
“The priestess of Suzaku is deeply loved by all of her warriors and it is this love that you must use against them.” He instructed.
All are fool because they don’t realize that too much love is dangerous, he added inside his head as he matched the two in front of them with this statement.
“Likewise, the priestess of Seiryuu’s deep love for that man is what you must use to break her. I am confident,” he declared with what seemed like true trust for the two that he would carelessly discard once they served his purpose. “That you two’s powers will be able to manipulate them.”
Miiru and Rin nodded before they stood up and prepared to depart, their hands joined together despite all the harm that had came to them ever since the day when they first rejoined their hand once more. It was ironic at what changed with one’s growth.
As children they would hold their hands all the time, and people had even praised them for being such a pair of loving siblings. These same people would hurl stones at them when the two teenagers held their hand once more after many years of staying away from the other to prevent what still happened.
“One more word of warning,” Tenkou was almost tempted to not tell them this, but then decided against it. The greatest amusement would not be seeing these two suffering, but it would be to see the priestess of Seiryuu reduced to a broken doll as soon as possible.
“The priestess of Seiryuu is the more dangerous one due to her love. It is true that the priestess of Suzaku loves as much as her, but unlike the priestess of Seiryuu, she would not do everything just for the sake of her loved ones. Remember the story of the Seiryuu priestess, she had killed for the sake of the man she love, and some of these people were innocent, and she knew it. She will do literally anything for him.”
Once again he recollected what had happened so long ago, what she would have done just to be with the man that she love, as well as what she did to make him live. She had sacrificed the life of others in order to have his life continuing- the one who was like a brother to her!
When they left he turned to that pool of water again and once more, he began to observe her as she began to make her way toward the shinzaho of Kutou. It was probably too late for him to prevent her from taking it but he was certain that there would be an amusing show for him to see. (2)

Kutou finally managed to give her people the peace and stability that had long been absent with the reign of the new ruler. Due to this, the people of Kutou began to believe in their guardian, Seiryuu, once again.
They also regard Houkigou, Seiryuu’s priestess with a very strong reverence, as Seiryuu would never have appeared and heal their long corrupted country without her. That was why she almost became a goddess to the people of Kutou.
While she was only ever spoken as the priestess, instead of a goddess, the people of Kutou would pray to her as well Seiryuu. It was clear that their new emperor felt the same way about her, as he erected a statue of her in the temple of Seiryuu when he rebuilt it. There would always be a group of people in the temple praying to Seiryuu or his priestess, some even travelled from the other end of the country just to visit the temple. Sometimes it was even possible to have visitors from Konan. (3)
That was why the two strangers making their inquiries about the temple was not an usual sight, since the man and woman who held the other’s hand so tightly as if there was a fear for the other disappearing, the warden thought of them as lovers who were celebrating their marriage by going to see the statue of Houkigou. This was rather common, as Houkigou and Saihitei’s story was regarded as a very beautiful love legend by many.
The man appeared as unusually beautiful, and using the word beautiful to describe him was not strange at all, as he truly was that fair to look upon. Even though he was dressed very plainly, there was a strange air of authority around him, when he asked a question, they felt that they had to answer it.
His companion was a woman, this was distinguished from the figure that was barely visible due to the rather thick cloak she had on her, the cowl was pulled down to hid her face completely- although her long hair was still visible, and tresses of her curly hair managed to escape from the cloak’s bound.
“There had been a miracle here in this temple!” one of the temple wardens declared out proudly.
“A miracle?” the woman asked rather sharply, her hand tightening on her companion’s even more. “What sort of miracle?”
The statue had been based on one of the paintings done by the emperor, and it was said to bore a deep resemblance to Houkigou, the priestess of Seiryuu. Even though the people of Kutou managed to discover her real name: Houki Yuri, they still preferred to call her by her title if they must call her by something other then the priestess of Seiryuu, as they felt that she deserved to be addressed in such a respectful fashion.
Both the emperor and his guards recollected that the priestess of Seiryuu had rather short hair, they remembered this as they thought that it was a bit too short, rather unusual for a woman even if she was from a completely different world. (4)
So the statue was modelled with short hair, but the morning after it was erected in the temple, the priestess’ hair became long and flowing, reaching up to her waist.
There was no way that someone could have sneaked in the temple and changed the statue in this fashion, although anyone could enter the temple at anytime. It was because the statue was made in a way that any more attempt of moulding it, would break completely.
“It must be a sign from Seiryuu,” the warden ended, “it was said that Houkigou actually had very long hair, probably as long as your hair.”
“Is that so?” the woman said with a slight amusement and wonder in her voice, automatically, she tugged her hood down even further.
It was good that she did so because she would have caused a great chaos due to being recognized immediately, the statue of her was almost like a photograph. She had seen pictures of many famous Greek statues before but she had never appreciated sculpturing as much as painting until now. This work truly captured that fragment of memory the emperor of Kutou had of her from their very brief meeting.
The statue was a china statue that allowed the artists to paint colours onto it, and the artist had done the paintings so carefully that the statue became even more real. The blue dress was darker at bits, and the hem of her skirt even seemed be rippling slightly. (5)
“I am smiling…” Yuri, as that was the identity of the strange woman, said in wonder. “Have they even seen me smile before?”
Hotohori was naturally her companion, he too, marvelled at the lifelikeness of the statue. Upon seeing the peaceful smile of the statue, he couldn’t help but to smile tenderly at both the woman and her reflection.
Suddenly, they both gasped. Resting around the hair of the statue at the crown was that jade headdress. Hotohori could sense the power that was coming from it as easily as Yuri.
“The shinzaho of Seiryuu.” Yuri whispered, her hand touched the part of her head that once had the headdress around. “I know that I am meant to get this.”
“Should we go to the palace and find the emperor then?” Hotohori suggested.
She nodded. “I know almost nothing of him but I believe that he would help us. I think he will remember me, even though many years had passed.” (6)
Unknown to both Yuri and Hotohori, they arrived at the time when the emperor would be making one of his long customary visit. Even now, the wardens outside were beginning to clear the temple for their ruler.

The new emperor of Kutou was a very different emperor from most of his ancestors, technically he was not the new emperor as he was the emperor even before his brother died, because he was the rightful heir.
He was a strange emperor for Kutou as he was so idealistic, many other men who suffered what he suffered would often turn to the opposite way of thinking, to inflict the same pain onto the rest of the world, so that they would suffer what they had to.
Nakago was like that.
The emperor of Kutou was now in his late thirties, his thirty ninth year. He had elected no empress and many suspected that he no longer had any interest in women since his accident, although he did do his duty by providing Kutou with an heir that was now fifteen year old, a rather sombre boy who took his duties of helping his father very seriously.
It was said that the boy had been born from a maid in the palace before the emperor’s accident happened. Since the emperor never selected any concubines due to the civil war that marked his first shorter reign, this bastard boy naturally became the heir. It was not unusual for such a thing to happen, although it was more preferable that the emperor to be was borne from an elected concubine, but since the boy’s mother was not a prostitute, there were little objections.
The young boy had been beside his father when Yuri first came, liked the rest of the people of Kutou he saw her as a saviour. He would pray in front of the statue faithfully, recollection how the woman who had appeared in front of them was truly identical to this statue, as she seemed equally immobile.
His childish eyes judged her to be rather pretty, but it was not a beauty that appealed to him. The difference between the statue in the temple and the real woman was that the real pair of eyes had been too cold and distant, instead of staring at those who knelt in the temple with that peaceful smile that reached to her eyes.
As he grew older he learnt more about the legends and even travelled to the famous temple of Suzaku in the capital of Konan. Much to his disappointment he found nothing that could show him the humanity of the priestess of Seiryuu, that she had been a human being like him. (7)
Maybe that was why it was so easy for him to believe in her powers.
“Father, you are shaking. Are you unwell?” he asked in great concern as he guided his father to the door way.
“I have a very strange feeling, it was identical to what I felt before she came to my hideout and delivered her news.” Was the strange reply. Turning to a warden, the emperor asked: “Who is in the temple right now?”
“Only a man and a woman, I was just going to get them out…”
“No.” the emperor of Kutou said, waving his hand in a gesture of dismissal at all the wardens. “Leave them be.”

Instead of following Hotohori and turning away from the statue, Yuri found herself taking another step toward it, and even stretched out her hand. It was not as if she had lost command over her body’s actions, it was only that she could not force her mind to be rational.
The shinzaho was calling out to her, just as the book had called her to it all these years ago. She wanted to grasp that headdress into her own hands right now, and she knew that it wanted her to claim it.
She could no longer remember who had first twirled the jewellery around her hair, she had been like a corpse as she prepared to summon Seiryuu, because she must be the living sacrifice. She was only aware of the decoration in her hair when she peered into the water to see her self one last time.
Seiryuu did devour her, and this headdress was the only thing that he had left. Later on, the emperor of Konan, Kotsuki, sent this back to Kutou along with his agreement of the peace treaty. (8)
Without any one telling her Yuri knew that the headdress was the shinzaho of Seiryuu. Since she was the priestess of Seiryuu, it could be said to be her possession.
Hotohori was wise in suggesting going to the emperor first, and that would be the most logical thing to do. The emperor of Kutou would help her, but she was ignoring any logic.
Yuri closed her hand over the headdress and slid it off the statue. The moment her flesh came to contact with the jade, a soft blue light began to illuminate around the headdress.
“Yuri…” Hotohori began again.
“I do not know why or how, but I have to take this right now.” Yuri explained.
The emperor of Kutou choose to enter at this moment with his son, the first thing they both noticed was that the sacred headdress was no longer resting on the statue, but in the woman’s hand instead.
To them, the jade headdress was sacred, not just because it had been deemed as holy items left by Seiryuu along with the ceremonial robe since a the stories were first told, but because like the robe, it was one of the only physical things they had to remember their priestess by.
At the sight of the emperor Yuri was shocked, as she could actually recognize him, although she did not even know his name. As for the equally well dressed young man beside him, that must be the little boy who had stared at her rather fearfully from behind the throne.
“How dare you!” the emperor hissed, he was angry but somehow he could not convey the anger fully.
Yuri raised her hand to push the cowl of her cloak down, and at the same time pulled the white hair ribbon off, her long hair immediately fell down in a thick abundance of curls.
“Do you recognize me now?” she asked softly.
The crown prince literally chocked as he saw the priestess of Seiryuu again with her statue right behind her. It was as if the reflection of the mirror had decided to play a trick by appearing as well, as the likeness of the priestess had been caught down so well.
He was so shocked that he almost tripped when he felt his father pulling him down to kneel beside him.

Meanwhile in Konan, Miaka and the rest of her celestial warriors had arrived. With the exception of her and Taka, whom she knew that she must call Tamahome, as that is who he is now, everyone else was not reacting well to all that had happened.
Some of them still had great difficulty in believing that they actually travelled through a scroll, while for those who managed to suspend their believes about how they got there, they were now trying to work out where they were- which was another great shock.
“But where is this place?” Dokun chocked out once more. “It seems like ancient china but yet I have never seen these names in any encyclopaedia.”
“Well…” Miaka began nervously, unsure of how to explain this. Even though some of the reincarnated celestial warriors believe in the concept of past lives this was still a very hard thing to explain.
“The thing is…” she began.
“Did we fall into a time portal or something?” Genro mumbled, eying everything with suspension, especially the two girls who stood a few pace away from them, and pointing at him, giggling. “Keisuke would love this place.” (9)
“I’ll go and ask someone.” Hojun decided practically after he exchanged a glance with Ju-An, after all, the two of them were the oldest.
“Ryoen, your brother and Yuri at least seem to know about what is happening.” Ju-An said softly, as they all waited for Hojun. The two of them decided that it would be best for them to hide here for a while, until they knew what kind of situation they had stumbled into.
Ryoen could only nod. Like the others he was deeply confused at what happened last night, why Yuri was able to be disappeared into a scroll with his brother, and the strange conversation that she had with Seishuku.
Once more, it sounded as if something had happened to them a few years ago, before that fateful meeting in the hospital, but he knew full well that the first time Seishuku left the village had been with him.
“I don’t know anything anymore.” Ryoen whispered.
“Who does?” Genro said good naturedly. “After all we fell into a scroll, as crazy as that sound.”
“Their cloths…” Ju-An was just going to make some remark about the familiarity of the peasant’s clothes when they were suddenly approached by two fully armed man.
“You, what is your name!?” one of them barked to Ju-An, clearly because he seemed the oldest in the group.”
“My name? It is Ju-An.” (10)
“What is your trade?”
“Why are you asking him this?” Genro butted in, waving his fist in a rather threat-like fashion.
At this blunt threat the two guards, as that was what the two men were, scoffed and took out their imperial orders.
“YOU WANT ME TO GO TO THE PALACE WITH YOU AS A POSSIBLE CONCUBINE FOR THE EMPEROR!!!” Miaka’s screeches were three time sharper as usual as she read the words on the imperial document.
“Don’t make such a fuss!” one of the guards snapped, grabbing her hand. “You might not even be deemed suitable.”
Somehow this seemed so much more offensive then her being seen as a possible candidate.
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on her!” Tamahome yelled, pulling Miaka back to him. “Don’t you know who she is?”
Meanwhile Hojun had made his way discreetly back the moment he saw this chaos. Even though he was very confused at the information that he just heard, including this kingdom’s mere existence, he was wise enough to accept the facts first and try to get out of this mess, then debate about the reality.
“But we are foreign to this place…” he began with what he hoped as a natural laugh.
“Yes, we are from…” Ju-An quickly caught on.
“Your origin does not matter, we were ordered to take any virgin girls who seem beautiful enough.” The other guard explained, stepping up to take Miaka by the wrist again. “Beside, the last empress of Konan was actually foreign.”
“But she is not a virgin!” Ju-An suddenly burst out.
“Yes, yes, she already…” Hojun began.
In a way it was almost funny, this took them to the night before Seishuku’s wedding with Yuri when the soon to be groom had asked the two of them why they were still not married, when they both knew who they wanted to marry.
“Because I feel that I want to see more of the world.” Hojun had replied, quickly followed by Ju-An’s: “Yes, I want to learn more.”
“Why don’t you marry Shoka then and take her with you, you know she will follow you.” Seishuku demanded to Ju-An, then turned to Hojun. “And you, you are worse, you know you want to marry her so why don’t you at least tell her?”
“But that’ll be unfair because I am not ready to be spend enough time wit her, as I will need for a marriage.” Ju-An finally said.
“Yes, yes, I am not ready to settle down yet.” Hojun added.
Like last time, the first part was true while the second bit was a lie.
Miaka had to ruin the two men’s hard work.
“How dare you say that I am not a virgin? I am a virgin!” she snapped back at them. (11)
“Miaka…” Ryoen muttered in exasperation. “You can be so…”
“Hand her over!” the guards said together. “Or…”
“She is the priestess of Suzaku, how dare you treat her like this?” Tamahome finally screamed out.
For the first time the two guards realized the strange clothing all these seven people were wearing underneath their cloak, the clothes were queer both in the style and the material. Now that they thought about it, the cloth on the girl does seem rather like the description they had heard.
“Then please come to the palace with us.” Immediately, the two changed to tones of the utmost respect. “There will be many in the palace who have seen you before.”
Miaka nodded. “So, how long has it been?”
“Priestess of Suzaku, it has been four years since Suzaku and Seiryuu were called out, and four years since the death of Saihitei and Houkigou.”
“Wait wait wait! What did you just call her, and what is all this?” Genro burst out.
Miaka and Tamahome exchanged glances again before they nodded. It was time to tell them what had happened.

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

Chapter Four

After they met Hojun at the train station they all went to Yui’s home and everyone was ushered into the living room with the exception of Yuri and Hotohori, whose first priority were making sure that their children was comfortably off. Yui managed to find the discarded cradle her parents had for her in their attic and lend it to the new parents.
Yuri knelt beside the cradle after she placed her two children in, she then began to rock the cradle as well as singing softly to calm them. Occasionally she would bend down to kiss their faces, her eyes glowing with pleasure due to their mere presence.
Walking past the hidden Miaka, Seishuku knelt beside his wife to slip an arm around her waist, while the other hovered over the cradle to stroke the faces of their new born children.
The two of them seemed so happy that Miaka felt what she had to do was almost like a sin: to interrupt this moment of happiness.
She felt a deep twang of guilt when the knock made their face darkened. Sighing, Seishuku leant down to kiss the twin babies before turning to Yuri and kissed her on the forehead. It seemed that they both already predicted that something was going to be wrong.
“Neesan, Seishuku.” Miaka said softly as she too approached the cradle, she couldn’t help but to smile at Boushin and Seihana, they were just so adorable. She could almost understand why birthing was a triumph for the parents. “Taka and I decided that it is best to try and explain what we must do first, to convince them to enter the universe of the four gods.”
“I understand.” Seishuku nodded, he had been waiting for this but strangely there was this unnatural feeling of worry in him. He turned to Yuri and took her hands, almost begging her: “Will you come with me?”
Smiling rather sadly Yuri shook her head. “I do not want to. I am the priestess of Seiryuu, everyone else is a celestial warrior of Suzaku who is to protect the priestess of Suzaku.”
“Yuri…”
She smiled brightly as she leant on Seishuku. “I will be jealous when I hear Miaka talking about Suzaku, because I wish that Seiryuu could be as kind as Suzaku is to Miaka…to be able to be loved by my celestial warriors is something I will really like to have. And,” she added the last bit even more light heartedly, “I am also jealous because you will have to assure Miaka that you will protect her.”
“Silly girl.” Seishuku said, rolling his eyes as he kissed her again.
But he still couldn’t stop the feeling of dread as he left the room, even though she was smiling merrily as she waved him good bye, and was saying that tidying up their little luggage would occupy her until he came back.
Yuri occupied his mind all through out their ‘meeting’, it didn’t matter that much as he was one of the few who already knew what was going to happen, as he already had his memory.
Suddenly, he recollected the night before Yuri left him when they were in the universe of the four gods, she had behaved so cheerfully after days of sadness.
Ignoring the others’ muttering as he stood up abruptly, he exist the room to walk to their room. He hoped he was wrong, because at the very worst Yuri would just laugh at him for being so paranoid, but knowing her, she would also be happy that he was thinking about her so much.
Once again, he prayed that he was wrong.

As soon as Seishuku and Miaka turned at the end of the hallway, Yuri lost her smile. Closing the door, she quickly locked all two locks, and then pushed the desk in front of the door.
Technically, all her preparation was done, she was dressed in the native custom of the village of Konan, which was very much like what she saw the peasants wore in the universe of the four gods, and this should allow her to blend in with the people without being too conspicuous.
Just to be on the safe side, she also made a very plain cloak.
The truth was that she was not ready to return there yet, because she was afraid. She didn’t want to relive these three months when she was by herself, she didn’t want to be lonely again.
But she had to do this now, when everyone else was with Miaka. Otherwise she would surely loss her resolve and tell Seishuku about it, and knowing him, he would abandon everyone and go with her.
“You will arrive in Kutou.” That had been Sieryuu’s words, Seishuku…Hotohori would be needed in Konan with the priestess of Suzaku.
Her children would be well cared for by Yui, Yuri trusted the much grimmer girl immensely. She worked out that the whole thing would only take about a night’s time in this world, so she did not need to worry about her children.
“Once again I am worrying about myself.” She whispered. “As I told Hotohori, I didn’t do what I did for Konan, it was for him, and ultimately for myself.”
She bent down at the cradle again, kissing her two children in turn.
“Haha will return soon, be good for Chichi while she is gone.” She whispered before putting them both down.
At last her hand closed over the scroll, it seemed such an ugly thing. The deep blue parchment and the darker blue ribbon that tied it together, perhaps it was because this reminded her of the robes she had wore as the priestess of Seiryuu.
She hated these robes, and it was natural, that had been what she wore when she summoned her own death.
“I do not hate you, but I cannot love you either.” She had told Seiryuu when he first demanded her service. “How can I love you when you killed me and ate my corpse? But at the same time I do not hate you either, because I know that it is not your fault.”
“So once more you call me to your service, and I agreed to it because I want Hotohori…Seishuku to live. That is why I will try and summon you to stop this ‘new evil’. This is just like last time, I am not doing my duty out of obligation.” Yuri said bitterly as she untied the band of dark blue and threw the scroll out. It fell in front of her with a loud ‘clang’ rather ungracefully, twisted in an unnatural angle, she almost wander whether it was mocking her.
Kneeling down she placed her hand over the writing and began to chant to Seiryuu. (1)
“Take me to Kutou.” She whispered. “Your kingdom that was also the threat to the kingdom of my husband.”

Seishuku realized that something was wrong when the door refused to open. Desperately, he began to bang on the door even as he rattled the knob once more, hoping that the lock would be broken by some miracle.
“Yuri, don’t do anything stupid!” he cried out urgently, “Open the door and let me in.”
There was no reply, taking a deep breath he pressed his ears against the door, maybe she was asleep and he really was just worrying a bit too much? It would not be unnatural for her to lock her door when she was in a stranger’s house. Yui might be Miaka’s best friend but to Yuri she was really just an acquaintance.
To his great horror, he heard her voice whispering something, this meant that she choose to not open the door as there was no way that she could have shut out his loud screams and banging if she was not sleeping.
“Yuri!” he screamed again as he resumed beating on the door. “Yuri, let me in!”
“What is wrong?” Genro asked nervously.
He did not know this man very well, after all he was just his cousin’s girl friend’s half sister’s husband- a distant connection. Miaka did mention something bizarre about how they all had to go inside the book or something, and although he was sure that Miaka meant well, he still asked Taka whether she was feverish of something.
He knew little of Seishuku, even though he had been a guest in the formers village for a month. During this time Seishuku had devote most of the time that was not spent with Yuri and his children to his younger brother and Ju-An.
“She’s doing something stupid again, I know it!” Seishuku said angrily. “Yui, I’m sorry but I must break your door!”
“Wait!” Yui quickly grabbed Seishuku’s raised hand. “You can’t just break the door of my house! What will I say to my parents?”
“I’ll pay for the damage.” Seishuku replied briskly. Just as he had been in his past life, Seishuku was losing all rationality when Yuri was involved.
Luckily for Yui, the lock was in a rather bad condition in the first place, therefore Seishuku was able to force the door open without completely damaging the door.
He gasped at the sight of Yuri, and immediately shook his head in denial. She was kneeling in front of the scroll with her two hands over it, dressed in the native costume of the village. What she said next made him chock.
“Take me to Kutou.” She whispered out, bending her head down so that her long hair covered her face completely. “Your kingdom that was also the threat to the kingdom of my husband.”
“Yuri, no!” he yelled, he intended to run to her and grab her but a blue light began to form a shield around her, preventing him from even touching her.
“Seishuku? You are not meant to se this!” Yuri whispered as the light began to surround her, making her look rather unearthly. “Seishuku…Hotohori…you can not come with me to Kutou! You are needed in Konan.”
“I am not going to let you go alone this time!” he yelled, pounding on the shield.
Yuri only shook her head, the light around her suddenly grew very bright and they began to cover her. When she raised her head again her two arms were barely visible as the lights were so bright.
“I really wanted you to come with me, just as I almost gave in when you asked me to take you with me that time in Konan. Do you remember, just before Seiryuu…”
“And the memory of you leaving me still hurt me even now if I ever allow myself to think about it.” Seishuku slid onto the ground, his hands still on the shield as he continued to hope that he could breach this barrier somehow.
“I love you, is that enough for you to forgive me again?” Yuri whispered before the light covered her face.
Seishuku could only let out a sob and bury his head in his face, Taka and Miaka both looked at him sympathetically, while the rest were simply too shocked to offer any form of comfort.
“Why do you to this to me for the second time, Suzaku?” he whispered.
Suddenly, he smiled, it was a very strange smile though, and the frightening part was that the smile conveyed more sadness then his tears. It seemed the smile of one who gave up all his hope that he could not even manage to cry anymore, all he could was to smile as he was so desperate that he even mocked his own feelings due to the happier memories all being suppressed.
He walked to the discarded scroll and picked it up very calmly.
“Seiryuu, can you hear me?” he whispered to the scroll softly. “I want to go with Yuri.”
Without warning, a chuckle rang in Seishuku’s ear, he immediately knew that it was the voice of Seiryuu, the deity that Yuri served as priestess, also the same deity that had killed her. When he gained his memory, he was not sure what he felt for Seiryuu. He hated him to an extent for what he did to Yuri, even though Yuri was with him at that time, and she had constantly told him it was not Seiryuu’s fault for obeying the rules in regard to the sacrifice.
“The main thing is that I am here with you now.” Yuri had said softly as she embraced him tightly in the hospital. “Let us forget about the pain our partings gave us, because we are together now.
“But she is not here anymore.” He said to himself.
“You wish to go with her? Seishuku…no, Hotohori, one of the celestial warriors of Suzaku; Saihitei, the forth emperor of Konan.”
“I do.” He declared. “I will not let Yuri go alone anymore, especially after what she suffered last time.”
He felt the laughter again, but it was not an unkind laughter, in fact, it seemed almost indulgent, like a parent to a stubborn child. Seishuku realized that despite what Seiryuu had to do to Yuri, he was actually rather fond of his priestess, and it seemed that since Yuri loved Seishuku so much, Seiryuu was willing to do something that would make her happy. If that meant sending Seishuku to Kutou with her, then so be it.
“I will grant you your wish then, as it doe not really matter, whether you arrive in Kutou or Konan first.”

When Yuri first entered the universe of the four gods, she had ended up in the kitchen of the tavern that she ended up working in. The owner was not a bad man, as he thought that she was a girl who only turned to thievery due to desperation.
Upon seeing that she was rather pretty, he decided to be opportunistic and employ her, although this was done purely out of kindness. His two daughters were safer when Yuri was there, as most people were more interested in the grown woman instead of the two girls.
The employment only lasted a week though, due to the election of imperial concubines. He had attempted to get her taken instead of his daughters, which was understandable, as he loved his two daughters while she was nothing but a stranger.
This time, however, she was behind some sort of empty building in Kutou. This was probably more convenient, but she was rather puzzled. Seiryuu had said that he would send her to the palace so she could talk to the emperor immediately. (2)
The emperor of Kutou…she knew nothing of that man other then the fact that he would be a good ruler.
A soft groan coming behind her interrupted her thoughts and she quickly put on her simple makeshift cloak. She was about to edge away from the source of the sound when she suddenly noticed that the person who groomed was clothed in the same way Seishuku had this morning, and his raven hair was very long, as well as being secured with a red ribbon.
“Impossible…” she whispered as she grabbed the end of the person’s hair to push it back, in order to see his face.
It was Seishuku…no, he was Hotohori now that he was in this world. It seemed more natural to call him that. To her he had always just been Hotohori, the emperor was Saihitei- he was the one she bowed to in the formal way that the ceremonies required an empress to do to the emperor.
She could only wait for him to wake up and explain to her how, as she already knew all the answers to why. Unclasping her cloak, she spread it over him, and held his hand in her’s.
She shouldn’t be happy to see him here, as he was not meant to be here, but she was still overjoyed that her beloved was beside her. She needed him, she always would just as she knew very well that he must have her by his side. She wouldn’t be so afraid of what she must do this time, because he was with her.
“Is that how Miaka felt?” she asked herself softly.
“Hotohori…” she whispered the name out, it was a name that she rarely said in the past year, she had adjusted to calling him Seishuku faster then she had thought. Although the few times in their first months when she accidentally called him Hotohori, it did not matter that much, as Seishuku and Hotohori really meant the same thing.
Now I must call him Hotohori again, she thought, it still sounds so natural though, because I know that they are the same person. It is two lives but to me they seem just like one life, just like me.
He would not mind her calling him that. She recollected how he had asked her to say only his name when they were first alone.

He was taking her around the palace, her arms resting on his. She was eighteen years old and although she had no boyfriends before, she was not so naïve as there was had been those who flirted with her, she was a rather attractive girl after all. But somehow the contact with this man…this emperor made her feel so nervous.
It is because he is the emperor, she whispered to herself firmly.
A strange emperor to her too, not because he seemed so young, but because he told her that he wished to marry her as well as declaring out in front of everyone that he actually loved her.
“Is the weather too warm?” the emperor asked, mistaking the blush that appeared on her cheeks for something else, but he did notice that the soft hint of red made her very attractive too.
“No,” she hastily replied, shaking her head quickly.
“Do you like flowers?” he suddenly asked.
She nodded, recollecting the many times she often pauses outside a florist’s shop to admire at the flowers, but they had been a luxury that she could never afford. Since she lived in a rather shabby street in the city, flowers were naturally rather scarce. (3)
“Then I think you will like the garden.” He told her, pointing to their destination.
The garden in front of her was the most beautiful garden she had ever seen with the most lavish collection of flowers. The flowers in the park and the flower shops could not compare with these at all.
“Can I take some, your majesty…” she began.
At this the emperor smiled rather sadly, “Please, Yuri, do not call me that when we are alone like now, I want you to call me Hotohori.”
“Hotohori?”
He nodded. “That is my name, but few people ever called me by that. Actually, now that I think about it, only my mother had ever called me with my own name. To everyone else I am the emperor, and before that a prince so they always called me that or used your majesty. That make me feel as if I am only an object, not a man.
“So please,” he implored her as he took her two hands into his. “Only call me Hotohori in private. I want you at least to see me as a man, not just as the emperor. (4)
She had nodded, it was the first time when she was allowed to see the real man, as he took his mask off for her.

With a groan, Hotohori finally sat up. He knew that he was back in the universe of the four gods even before he was told of it. He was greeted with the same emotion as he felt when he returned to the village of Konan in Japan after his brief stay in Tokyo. The joyful feeling of homecoming.
“Yuri?” This was his first concern, sitting up he was so relieved to see her crouching right beside him that he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly.
“Why did you do that?” he scolded her, a bit angry, “Why did you leave me again? I was so worried…”
Yuri saw him as the emperor of Konan once more, grabbing onto her hand even though the sleeping draught began to work. It had been so hard to leave him, but she had to, even though she knew what pain he would endure with her gone.
Did she really had a right in doing that to him a second time?
“I…” she mumbled, bending her head down to evade the anger in his eyes, although it would not have been so hard to look at his gaze if anger were the only emotion there in his golden eyes, it was mainly due to the concern and love in them.
Putting his hand on her head he tilted it up so that she would face him, he always hated it when she refused to meet his gaze, because it almost meant that she did not trust him or believed that he love her enough to be able to understand her action.
“I meant what I said, Hotohori, I am to go to Kutou but you are meant to accompany Miaka to Konan…”
He interrupted her speech by giving her a fierce kiss, then resumed his tight hold on her, fearing that she would escape as she had before.
“That doesn’t matter now.” He told her firmly. “I am not the emperor anymore, I do not have to be chained to any duties that forbid me to be with the woman I love, I can devote myself to her this time.”
“But even if you are not the emperor of Konan, you are still a celestial warrior of Suzaku.” Yuri said sadly. “At times like this, I am no longer your first priority…”
“I will protect you instead of Miaka, I will be your celestial warrior if you want, Yuri.” He promised. “I do not think neither Suzaku or Seiryuu would grudge me so much for doing this, if Suzaku wields the power of love then he would allow me to do this, and Seiryuu…”
“You met Seiryuu?” she asked in surprise as his voice trailed off, as his tone was not fully hostile like before. He had always showed a rather strong dislike for Seiryuu due to what had happened to her as the priestess of Seiryuu.
“I talked to him, and I…I feel that he have affection for you that is like the relationship between Suzaku and Miaka.” Hotohori was recollecting the kindness that Suzaku had showed his priestess when Miaka summoned him. “That is why I think he would not grudge you for a protector.” (5)
“And know that I will protect you, even from your own protectors.” She quoted out softly, remembering what Seiryuu had once said to her. “He is not a cruel god. Hotohori…I do not know if this is right or wrong, to have you protecting me instead of Miaka, but I am so happy that you will be with me.”
“Then I will protect you as best as I can.” He vowed to her, “I…I…” he paused a bit before he declared out. “I will save you instead of Miaka if such a choice must be made.”
“You are breaking your vow but it would not matter that much, as after all, Miaka have so many others to protect her.” As Hotohori loved her so much, he easily heard the hidden bitterness in her tone. Seeing his rather puzzled gaze, Yuri explained: “I was not joking when I said that I wished to have the love of my celestial warriors, to this day I sometimes think of what I did to them and feel great guilt and shame.” (6)

It would not be wrong to describe the situation that Yuri and Hotohori left as a complete mess. With the exception of Taka, Miaka and Yui who already knew what would happen, everyone else was in a state of mental shock.
Hojun and Ju-An were trying to be calm as they were the eldest, but it was very difficult, as they had just seen their best friend and his wife disappearing into a scroll.
Ryoen had literally fell down after what had happened and Dokun would have helped his friend had he not been staring at the scroll himself.
Miaka exchanged a glance with Taka before she decided what she must do, they must arrive into their old world as soon as they can. Explanations…that would come later.
“That story is true then?” Hojun asked. “Our past lives.”
“Yes and we have to return there now!” Miaka pleaded out. “Please, just trust me…”
“Aniki…” Ryoen muttered as Taka pulled him up. “Where are you now?”
“I can take you to him.” Miaka said gently. “So listen to me…”
She made them all knelt down in a ring beside her as she herself touched the scroll and began to chant to Suzaku. as the red light began to surround t hem all she smiled as she was thinking of the universe of the four gods which she was returning too. It was a place where she had been happy, although she did suffer there as well, but because it was where she met Tamahome, she could ignore all the other sufferings she had.
Even though she was almost always protected by her celestial warriors she had suffered slightly, such as the time when Tamahome rejected her love due to various reasons, as well as being attacked by certain celestial warriors of Seiryuu.
But she was luckier then Yuri- she never had to face any painful decisions as Yuri did, and Tamahome had always made her his first priority. She would return and learn many new things, and grew in the process but most lessons would not be hard. (7)


(1) In the manga it seems all Miaka had to do was to open the scroll and jump in but Yuri’s entrance need sometime so that is why she is chanting to Seiryuu.
(2) I don’t think I have explained this but initially Seiryuu was going to sent her to the palace, but due to brining another person (Hotohori) he had to divide the power, so he sent them to the next best place the temple. That is why the Suzaku warriors and Miaka ended up in the market.
(3) I don’t know if flowers will be really expensive in Japan too but in NZ flowers are quite expensive. Ha, the whole references to flowers just remind me of Weiss Kreuz. (for those who don’t know, Weiss Kreuz is basically the creation of Koyasu Takehito)
(4) This sentence is so hard to get right, because what I want him to say is that I want you to only call me by my name instead of my title when we are alone, but it can also be interpreted as you can only call me by my name when we are alone. So, remember, it’s the first meaning.
(5) I like to think that the four beast gods all have some sort of affection in regard to their priestesses, despite the rules, in the book Suzaku does seem to be quite fond of Miaka. And I suppose for my story it make sense, in Hidden secrets Seiryuu actually took Yuri to Konan when he realized that her body could not last long enough for her to get there, and he also allowed her to back down by taking her to Konan before she and him…merged (?) in order for her to make the wishes.
(6) Some more foreshadowing about Yuri’s view of Miaka. Although if you think about it in the book Miaka really had it lucky, the first two celestial warriors she met ended up in love with her, while the rest all adore her due to what she did and said. Plus, one of the celestial warriors is the emperor so she didn’t need to worry much about how the country sees her, as the priestess was made as a savior, instead of a harbinger. Compared this to Yui, whose celestial warriors are not the best of characters, and I don’t think they all wanted to protect her, for example- I doubt that Soi would really care whether Yui is safe or not if it wasn’t for Nakago. Then to Takiko, who probably have the worst deal so far, Uruki’s father is sending assassins to them on a daily basis, while the rest of the country shun them as harbingers.
The warriors of Suzaku are really lucky too, they all grew up being told that it was an honor being one of the warriors of Suzaku, I’m not so sure about the warriors of Seiryuu, but defiantly not the warriors of Genbu. Tomite is relatively lucky, but Uruki’s father want to kill him because of that, while Hikitsu was shunned by his whole tribe due to his special powers, and ended up having all these nasty rumors, such as him controlling monsters and all that..
(7) I think I better clarify this, in my story Miaka didn’t suffer that much as Yuri underwent many of her sufferings. (Yuri was the one who caught the fever, and the one who almost got killed by the bandits) as Yui is not in the story as the priestess of seiryuu Miaka didn’t go to Kutou and suffer that much, and all her celestial warriors lived. The rape scene didn’t happen either.

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

Seika had always been unusually quiet, unlike her elder sister. Seishuku did not harboured any romantic feelings for her or any of the other girls in the village, as he realized he was waiting for Yuri even before he remembered his life as Hotohori, but sometimes Seika would join him in a companionable silence as he gazed at the view of Konan from some vintage spot. She was only one year younger then him but he regarded her as a little sister like girl, perhaps in the similar fashion he had regarded his priestess as.
“Seishuku, have you heard from Hojun? Is he well?” Seika whispered out in that quiet voice which Hojun so adored. “He does not write to me because he…”
Her companion only nodded as he was doing a mental calculation at the same time. The last time the two met would have been about eight months ago, at his wedding to Yuri.
“Tell him that I don’t want anyone else, and I will wait for him forever!” she declared passionately.
“Seika…” he was rather unsure of how to respond, at one hand he believed that a person should wait for the person they love forever, just as he had waited for Yuri, but yet at the same time he felt that this advice sounded quite heartless.
“Hojun does love you,” he finally decided, “In his last letter to me he wrote that…”
What he wanted to say next was interrupted by a sharp scream, to his horror he recognized the source as from upstairs. And right now there was only one person upstairs.
“Yuri…” he whispered.

Yuri was sitting upright on the bed, the sheets crinkled due to her hands clenching at it tightly. The long strands of her hair had escaped from their plait as the white ribbon was broken, and her hair was plastered onto her face and back due to sweat.
Upon hearing footsteps she quickly grabbed the discarded blanket and pulled it over her, concealing her body which she was sure was bruised, even though she had not examined it yet.
“Yuri, what is wrong?” naturally, Seishuku was the first man to enter, followed closely by his parents.
Standing a bit further in the corridor were Miaka and most of the celestial warriors, with the exception of Genro, who was too occupied, and Ryoen, who probably only thought that his sister in law was being a bit hysterical due to some nightmare. Like it or not, that would have to be her excuse to the rest of the world.
“I am fine!” she laughed rather shrilly, pulling the blanket up even more.
Strangely, for no reasons at all she suddenly remembered the many times her mother had mumbled something in her dream, only to have forgotten all about it the very next day.
“I had such a nice dream last night, Yuri.” Her mother once told her as she began to brush Yuri’s long hair, she would lean against her mother- taking her presence there for granted.
“But what did you dream of, Haha?” the young Yuri would always ask, even though she might be absorbed in her new toy or the breakfast her mother would always lovingly prepare for her. Her mother always made sure that she had something she liked for breakfast, and insisted on brushing her hair everyday, even though she was a busy woman who ended up having to rush to work due to her little child’s tendency of staying in her bed until she had to get up.
Strangely, Yuri began to wake up very early with the death of her mother, and she would always regret the time lost to her because of her previous inability of waking up on time.
“I don’t remember, darling.” Her mother always laughed at this, “But I just knew that it was a very lovely dream.”
“Was it about otousan?” she once asked childishly, that had been when she first realized that it was not normal to not have a father. Every other girl often spoke of their father, or at the very least referred to him. But she, she had no father, as long as she could remember her home only consisted of her mother and her.
“Your father? No, of course not! What do I need him for!” her mother had declared passionately, “All I need to be happy is to have you beside me. You are my most precious treasure! Yes, I must have been dreaming about you since it was such a nice dream!”
Maybe she was thinking about her mother as she had become a mother herself.
“I had a bad dream, that was it.” Yuri told everyone easily. “I am so sorry to have caused you all so much trouble but it was just a dream.”
“What did you dream about?” Seishuku began worriedly, especially since she appeared rather dazed for a long time.
“I do not remember what it was.” Yuri lied for the sake of everyone else.
“Well, these things are not uncommon to a new mother.” Her mother in law quickly came to her rescue, even though she was completely unaware of how much Yuri wanted everyone to leave her chamber. “I used to have some sort of nightmares about Seishuku being hurt during the first year of his birth. To be honest I still worry about him even though he is a parent himself now!” this last sentence immediately lightened the tension in the room. Smiling, she told Yuri: “We’ll just leave you to rest then.”
“I will stay with you…” Seishuku began but he suddenly paused.
He quickly covered his halt by leaning forward to plant a kiss on Yuri’s forehead, but the object of his love saw that he had another motive, he ‘accidentally’ pulled her hair forward in order to cover the slight swell on her neck, and his hands were actually shaking slightly.
“You must be quite cold.” He said as he took another blanket and spread it over her, concealing the slightly visible bruise on her leg due to the small new tear in her nightgown.
Had he not been so shocked then he might have noticed the blue scroll that was placed on the floor, then he would not have reached his conclusion.
Seishuku was forcing himself to remain calm even though he was beginning to panic, but after all, he did have six years of training from being an emperor.
As soon as he ushered everyone out he slammed the door shut and locked it, but instead of rushing to Yuri’s side as he thought he would, he actually felt himself sinking to the ground, his hands barely managed to clench into fists.
“Seishuku?” Yuri whispered softly, she too expected that he would come and sit by her side and ask her what happened.
She wanted to stand up but found that she was still shaking a bit due to what happened in her dream, what Tenkou did to her. Instead of standing up properly she actually staggered down, the hem of her skirt happened to cover the whole of the scroll, which Seishuku might have otherwise seen.
Upon hearing the loud thud he immediately controlled himself enough to walk to her and took her into his arms. Holding her against him tightly he buried his face amidst her loose hair.
“I never ever thought that such thing would happen in this place,” he whispered, “But I still love you Yuri, no matter what. Tell me who did it and I will kill him.”
“Seishuku?” Yuri whispered, very puzzled. Initially she thought that he understood that she had saw Seiryuu in her dreams but his reaction seemed a bit too passionate. She could understand why he might be a little upset as what happened indicated that there would soon be trouble, but his actions still seemed rather extreme.
“I wish we can kill him that easily…” she whispered rather wistfully, feeling sad at the thought of having to part with Seishuku in order to go to Kutou, while he goes with Miaka to Konan. How would she tell him this in the first place? Knowing him…
“I will kill him!” Seishuku declared fervently, as he drew back to look at Yuri on eyelevel. “I will kill him for daring to do this to you. I don’t care who he is or what will happen, I will kill him. And I promise, I will still love you. No matter what happens, you will never be tainted.”
Yuri finally frowned openly and asked: “Seishuku, why would I regard myself as being tainted from talking to Seiryuu and then being attacked by some sort of demon?”
At this Seishuku literally chocked.
“That…that was what happened? Your wounds came because…”
Yuri managed to summarized what happened in her dream as brief as she could, as it was clear that her husband was highly agitated. As she finished Seishuku embraced her fiercely once again, only that he was laughing in relief this time.
“What did you think happened?” she asked.
“I…I thought you were raped. I couldn’t believe that any man in this village could actually commit such a crime but I didn’t know what else to think when I saw you lying on the bed with part of your bodies bruised.” He muttered out. “I’m so happy that nothing of that sort happened, but I want you to know that I would not stop loving you even if that happened. You will always be the most beautiful woman in my eyes, Yuri, and nothing that anyone do can ever destroy that beauty, not even old age.” (9)
Yuri managed to laugh too, she cupped his face between her hands and told him simply: “I can protect myself, Seishuku, you made sure of that by teaching me how to wield a sword, so you do not have to worry about that happening.”
He nodded, “But I still want to protect you, Yuri, even though I know that you can protect yourself rather well.” (10)

As they expected, Miaka was visited by Suzaku that night, unlike Yuri though, she has not met Tenkou due to what happened in Yuri’s dream. Suzaku had told Miaka what she must do as well as elaborating on the details.
They were to go to the universe of the four gods through the scrolls, the seven celestial warriors of Suzaku was to accompany their priestess to Konan, where they must find seven stones that contains their memories. In the case of Taka and Seishuku, who already gained back their memory, they would still find a stone only that it would be a bit different then everyone else. The only clue Miaka knew was that these seven stones represent the seven celestial warrior’s past.
The four of them pondered on what they should do for a long time, as it was impossible to disappear in this village without being discovered, but if they leave their village Seishuku and Yuri must take their children with them and the children would have be looked after.
In the end they decided to stay at Yui’s house, as she already knew about the universe of the four gods, and she was alone in her rather large house, as her parents were away due to an emergency business trip.
That was why two days after the celebration, Seishuku found himself on this train toward Tokyo with his wife and his children, as well as the six other who had been celestial warriors.
Using their excuse of visiting the grave of Yuri’s mother, everyone had nodded in understanding as they heard of their plan of going to Tokyo on such a short notice. The only one who expressed some hesitation toward their plan was his parents, who worried that their daughter-in-law was not completely recovered yet.
“But Otousan, Kaasan, I want to take them to see my haha now.” Yuri had reasoned.
Yuri was sleeping, leaning against him with a tattered blanket covering her, they were both dressed in the native costume of Konan as they had decided that such cloths would help them when they return to the universe of the four gods.
Looking at her he couldn’t but help to recollect everything once again, how it was like a sign of fate. Just before they were about to leave he had receive a phone call from Hojun, who was suddenly in Japan and planned to return to the village, after he offered many congratulations.
“Stay…stay in Tokyo and meet us there.” Seishuku had finally said after a long pause. It was just like the day when Yuri finally woke up from her coma. Everyone had been gathered together once again.
He bent down to put the blanket in place once again. As he did so he heard her whisper something softly, bending over he heard the word ‘Hotohori’, what his name had been.
“Hotohori? Why does she call you that, aniki?” Ryoen asked when he took the seat next to his brother, remembering what the strange name his sister-in-law often call his brother during the days before their marriage.
“Ryoen, do you know about the twenty eight constellations?” Seishuku began. “In the twenty eight constellations one of the constellations is Hotohori, and the kanji for Hotohori is exactly the same as the kanji in my name Seishuku.”
“She always does seem to be interested in stars.” Ryoen agreed, remembering the time he had found his brother and her outside at nighttimes, looking at the stars. “But aniki, why are you and Yuri not staying with Ju-An or I, but with Yui?”
“We have a reason…” Seishuku said softly. “You will find out soon, Ryoen.” This referring to how everyone was going straight to Yui’s house first as Miaka and Taka had something to announce.
“Are you two planning to get married?” Genro had immediately yelled out in the middle of the whole village. As to be expected, Ju-An had to spend the next few minutes to make sure that he was not too severely injured.
“So we will return there.” Seishuku whispered softly.
He wonders whether the people in that world would still remember him at all after all these times, as it might be longer in that world. He couldn’t help but to think of those who had been his family in that world. His family was not even a family, but yet he couldn’t help but to think about them.
Did he want to return to that world at all? He had been very happy in that world as that was where he first met Yuri and married her, and for two years they had been very happy. But the universe of the four gods had been a place where he had been tormented with guilt due to the great responsibility that he had, not only as a celestial warrior of Suzaku, but also as the emperor of Konan.
In the same way he knew that Yuri had been happy in Konan as well, because that was where the first met him, the first person to love her as well as receiving her love since her mother died. But at the same time he did not always made her happy.
One memory particularly haunted him, it was his last memory of her before she was killed. Could he face these buried memories? Memories that they hide amongst all their other memories because living it had been to painful. (11)


(1) This bit is referring to when Hotohori first saw Boushin, his reaction to his son. As I recall he said something like “He look just like me when I was little, such grace, wit etc.” I quite like that bit as I thought it was quite cute, as for Hotohori, saying anyone looks just like him is his greatest way of complimenting on their appearance.
(2) Once again, this is a way of showing how much he loves Yuri and his children, by thinking that they are actually more beautiful then him!
(3) I don’t fully know why I had this bit, maybe as a reminder that the past is always there, what happened in there was true so that it should not be forgotten. Once more, this refer to what Yuri feel in regard to what Miaka did.
In one version I actually considered letting Yuri and Hotohori remain in Konan as the emperor and empress, had that happen their daughter would eventually have married the son of the emperor of Kutou, and she would actually have ended up as the empress of Kutou, with her brother as the emperor of Konan (and he might have married the daughter of the emperor of Kutou.) But it would have been a marriage of love, they would have been friends with their future suppose since they were little.
(4) In regard to the window I did say that the village ‘Konan’ is rather rural so the windows are not made from glass. Since Yuri lives in the house of the village leader, the window is a bit better then the rest of the village by not only being a hole, it actually have a shuttle covered by paper (a bit like the window in Hotohori’s room that he chopped up)
(5) This is kind of one of the early hints that Yuri had not fully accepted Miaka.
(6) Nothing romantic here, he really is just doing this to make sure she wouldn’t get killed.
(7) Miaka would be able to have a longer talk with Suzaku as the attack on Yuri and Seiryuu made Tenkou much weaker.
(8) That is what I felt in regard to Chichiri’s fiancée, she just seemed like that, your very traditional Chinese woman, although I feel she is way too extreme, to feel that she could not be with the man she love just because another man kissed her by force.
She will be called Seika 聖華, and will actually be Shoka’s sister. Kind of why not.
(9) Somehow that just came, I actually quite like what Tamahome told Miaka after the whole Nakago incident, that nothing can defy and taint her, so that was why I wanted to use this concept in regard to Hotohori and Yuri, and I kind of stole part of Tamahome’s speech.
(10) I just had to add this last bit in because that is something I quite like about Yuri. She can actually protect herself tolerable well, but she does not become too reliant on herself, she will willingly accept other’s people wish of protecting her.
(11) The title of the story, I seem to always try and do this in many of my stories- incorporating the title.
Someone asked me why I dislike Miaka so and my reason has been because I feel that she never understand the whole situation, such as the bit when she went into Nakago’s tent and start eating. And another reason that I don’t like both her and Yui is that they never seem to truly realize what they done, what they caused to both Kutou and Konan as well as many others. And another thing I realize that now, I don’t like these type of people who are always good and uses love to convert everyone (abit like the seven seals in X-1999, which I don’t really like either) I just feel that there are times when you really have no right despite what happened in the past.

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

Chapter Three

Lovingly, her husband sat down beside her and began to braid her long hair for her. Usually he liked to unbind them and see her lovely hair loose, it was probably because a grown woman would only let the one closest to her to perform this very intimate action.
“They told me that you must rest tonight.” Seishuku informed her gently, securing the end with a white ribbon.
She would get tired so easily, but the doctor had assured the very worried husband that this was not a dangerous sign, and that his beloved wife would defiantly recover as long as she obeys the tradition of resting for the majority of the month.
It seemed that she was recovering, although she was still not strong yet to stay through the festival herself. She had been down briefly to greet the guest, which was whole village along with the additional guests. As soon as she did this, she was allowed to go back and rest.
Her husband would have carried her back although it was not necessary had she not been holding their two children, as a result he gently guided her back.
“Boushin and Seihana are the most beautiful children I have ever seen,” Seishuku said happily, not for the first time. “I know that Seihana will definitely be as beautiful as her mother, which means that we will have quite some problems when she grows up. We’ll probably have to deal with young men asking for her hand every single day. The same goes for Boushin as well, he will end up just like his father, he’ll probably end up breaking every young girl’s heart in the village. Not that I was interested in any girl apart from you. I had been waiting for you ever since I was reborn into your world.” Seishuku hastily added. (1)
Closing her eyes Yuri was content to just hold her husband’s hand and listen to him talk like a normal man with the birth of his children. She was glad that he was only Seishuku, the son of a village leader, instead of Hotohori, an emperor. If he was Hotohori then by now he would probably have to arrange some sort of ceremony required due to the presence of an heir, if not already playing his part in it.
She would be left in her chambers again, if she was lucky then she might be able to watch her children, but likely they would be taken away for the necessary rituals. Or she might be dragged up to stand beside the emperor.
Many coveted the life of royalty, and like many little girls she had once dreamt of being a princess after having met prince charming, who would save her from everything and take her to his palace. After being an empress for two years she realized how ridiculous that dream was.
It was an impossible thing to be with one’s husband for the whole day, even now she was often apart from Seishuku as he worked on the fields during many of the morning and afternoon, and most people in society would be working. Although a farmer’s life resembled an emperor’s life in the fact that neither had weekends, that was probably the only similarity.
The main difference was that she knew when Seishuku would be back, unlike Hotohori-who might be away even at the evenings due to some urgent matter of the state. And if when she was very ill, Hotohori still had to look after his state first instead of spending his whole day beside her, like now.
Her two children seemed to be sound asleep, Yuri wander what life would have been like for them if she was still the empress of Konan. There would be grand celebrations when all she wanted was to hold her two children and be held by the man she loves.
“Chichi and haha are absolutely delighted with their grandchildren.” Seishuku was saying. “According to haha they look exactly like me when I was only an infant.”
“You must have been a beautiful child.”
“Yuri, I was naturally a child endowed with great wisdom, grace and wit in both lives.” He said this with a perfectly straight face and maybe he really did believe it, but it was clear that he regard his wife the most beautiful woman, while his children were the most adorable children ever seen, even more good-looking then him. (2)
Seishuku continued talking very light heartedly until Yuri finally managed to sleep, he could tell as her breath became more even and the weight of her hand became much lighter. He bent down and kissed her forehead before he took his two children into his arms and gently shut the door with his elbow.
The villagers were all at the house of the parents, ready to take part of this traditional celebration. Seishuku had insisted on making sure that Yuri was resting and refused to leave her side until he was satisfied that she was asleep. As Seishuku he could naturally do this and even be praised for being such a loving husband, but if he was still Hotohori then he would probably have to make Yuri stand beside him as they paraded around with their children.
Sometimes Seishuku was glad of having the memories of his past life not just because Yuri was there, but because they made him appreciate his new life even more.
But yet he still couldn’t resist whispering the following to his children: “Boushin, you almost could have become the emperor of a great kingdom, and you Seihana, would probably have ended up as an empress. You two may not believe this but your chichi was once the emperor of a grand nation, and your haha was his empress.” (3)

She was sitting beside the window as she often would when she was awake, but the strange thing was that the surface of the window became glass like instead of being thick paper. (4)
She could see her own reflection in the mirror, but instead of having her hair in the braid plait by Seishuku, her hair was loose and decorated with a headdress made from jade, not surprisingly it was carved into the shape of a dragon.
The loose night gown she wore was gone as well, replaced by the ceremonial robe of the priestess of Seiryuu. As to be expected, her forehead was marked by that symbol of a dragon.
“Why this…” she cursed angrily.
Raising her hand she planned to either strike the glass or tore the headdresses off. But her hand was grabbed by a strong grip, from the window’s reflection she saw that the hand was covered by blue scales.
“Do you so hate me, Seiryuu?” she hissed as she snatched her hand back, refusing to turn to face the god whose priestess she became. She knew that this dream was just like the first dream she had of Seiryuu, it was real. “You had what you wanted, your kingdom is saved and you will not be forgotten, and you even had me as your sacrifice, so why do you come before me again?”
“It seems that I should be the one to ask that, do you so hate me for what I had to do?” Seiryuu said, and his voice was rather quiet.
Yuri leant back and closed her eyes, her hand resting on her abdomen, remembering how he had clawed his way out of her body from there. That was also a few seconds before he finally ended her pain through death.
“I used my celestial warriors just as they used me, in the same way you used me just as I used you to get what I want. How can there be hatred?” she said softly.
“You are not like the priestess of Suzaku.” Seiryuu remarked out. “Suzaku will soon be talking to her, and I believe that her attitude will be very different from yours.”
“Suzaku granted Miaka her most desired wish, and let her live with the one that she love the best.” Yuri found that she was unable to keep the rather bitter tone out of her voice as she explained. “You could not grant me what I really wanted, and you also ate me, therefore taking me away from the man that I love.” (5)
“Do you hate me for that then?”
She shook her head and finally turned to face him. “I do not blame you for doing what you had to do. I do not hate you, but I cannot love you either. How can I love you when you killed me and ate my corpse? But at the same time I do not hate you either, because I know that it is not your fault.
“So what do you want, Seiryuu? I will listen to you.”
“I need your help, just as Suzaku need his priestess’ help. Listen carefully, as I do not think I can come to you again.” He began to explain to her about how the four gods had once sealed a being called Tenkou, who was a threat to the universe of the four gods, as well as this world. “But he is now breaking free of his seal, and in order to chain him up the four gods must all be summoned out.”
“I do not want to die, Seiryuu.” She whispered this out, almost pleading. “Especially not when I just had the children I always longed for.”
“You will not die this time,” he promised. “You must return to the universe of the four gods with the Suzaku priestess and obtain the two shinzaho of the other two gods, and then you must summon me.”
“How do I do that?”
“The scroll of Seiryuu will take you to Kutou and…”
Yuri was sure that Seiryuu was just going to explain to her when they were suddenly interrupted by a loud bang, and soon she felt the window behind her shattering, the glasses piercing into her back. Much to her surprise Seiryuu actually picked her up and held her next to him, preventing from her being seriously wounded. (6)
“You need to stay alive in order to summon me.” he explained simply. Turning he released a jet of blue light, making the presence in front of them visible.
The figure snickered as Yuri fixed her gaze on him, it was the silhouette of a man who appeared very slender and tall, clad in full black with long white hair hanging at his side, the colour highlighted even more due to the contrasting colour of his robes.
“Tenkou.” Seiryuu said angrily.
Neither the name, nor the appearance of the man, seemed unfamiliar.
“Your chain is breaking every single moment.” The one called Tenkou chuckled out. “I can now follow you as you enter the dream of this woman. You better leave her, Seiryuu,” he continued on with his mocking. “Otherwise your will soon find your precious priestess gone for the second time.”
With the ending of his sentence thick vines crawled around Yuri, chocking her. Beside her, Seiryuu snapped his fingers, the vines immediately disappeared, but her body was still bruised, proving that what happened was no illusion.
Tenkou chuckled again and waved his hand, ropes shot out this time, they were much thicker then the vines and instead of fixing them self around her lower body, they climbed up to curve around her neck.
This time Seiryuu had to close his hand over the rope and tear it to get rid of it.
“What will you do next time, Seiryuu? It will not be hard to kill her now as long as you stay with her.”
“You will know when you can summon me.” Seiryuu whispered to Yuri before he picked her up and threw her away from him. “Remembering all that happened last time!” (7)

As with any society, the gathering of the whole village ended up with a dance, providing an opportunity for both courting and the chance of lovers being together.
The father of the new born children spend most of the time showing his children off to the rest of the village, as one expected of him. It was clear that he was very proud of being the father to these twins, although most people realize that he really just wanted to be by the side of his wife, who was resting due to the birth.
“Seishuku, don’t you want to dance as well?” Miaka asked when she finally was able to take a break from dancing with Ryoen and the rest of the visitors to the village.
“Do you wish to dance with me, Miaka?” he asked well naturedly. “I certainly will not mind dancing with my sister in law!”
“Can I claim that honour instead, Seishuku?”
The speaker was a young woman who seemed to be around Seishuku’s age. She was dressed in the traditional dress of Konan with her hair gathered up on either side of her head. Miaka immediately felt that this woman seemed one of those typical ideal female in ancient Chinese and Japanese history, the ultimate symbol of pure and extreme femininity: quiet and gentle. (8)
She also seemed so sad, there was a smile on her face but it did not reach her eyes, therefore it could be not be labelled as a true smile.
“Seika…” Seishuku acknowledged quickly. “Let me just do an introduction first, this is Miaka, my sister in law as she is Yuri’s sister. Miaka, this is Seika, Shoka’s younger sister by one year. You have already met Shoka, she is Ju-An’s fiancée.”
“Will you dance with me, Seishuku? I would like to dance but I don’t want to dance with anyone else other then you or Ju-An, and he is dancing with my sister right now.”
“Seika…” Seishuku sighed slightly as he handed his twin children to Miaka. “You don’t have to be like that, you know. It’s not as if you are engaged to Hojun and even if you are…”
The rest of his words were lost to Miaka as Seika took his hand and led him away. But what she heard was enough to make her become rather excited.
“RYOEN!!!” she yelled the moment he made his way beside her with Taka, both juggling the plate of foods she had declared to want to eat. “Who is Seika?”
“Seika? You mean Shoka’s sister?” following the direction that Miaka pointed to, Ryoen nodded. “Seika also is…was Hojun’s girlfriend.”
“Was?”
“Well…Seika had been Hojun’s girlfriend since they were little, just as Shoka had been Ju-An’s girlfriend. Ju-An and Shoka got engaged and everyone thought that Seika and Hojun would be doing so too. Then on Hojun’s eighteenth birthday he said that he would be making an announcement that day…”
That event completely broke Seika’s heart because Hojun never once told her that he would leave her in such a fashion, and after he said that he was leaving he actually told her that he would not blame her if she wanted to be with someone else in the full view of the whole village.
Despite Seika’s declaration that she would not never be anyone else’s girlfriend there was still a large group of hopefuls who attempted to court her, but the only other man she would talk to beside her immediate family would be Seishuku, who was the one of the best friend of the man that she love.
Seishuku tried to comfort her as much as he could, but he could not lie to her by assuring her that Hojun would soon come back, because he himself was both unsure and surprised that Hojun would really leave the village. He had heard of his friend expressing a wish of exploring the world, but he never once thought that it would be like that.
“Since they were little the two sisters would often play with my brother and his two best friends, and as they grew older my brother would often purposely leave the two couples. He didn’t mind that much as he always told me they were opportunities for him to spend time with me.” Ryoen concluded with a rather wistful sigh.
Upon hearing this story Miaka shook her head hard, very angry. She remembered what Chichiri had told her and she had always hoped that Hojun would be able to find the happiness that he had lost when he was Chichiri, just like Mitsukake. But it seemed that once more he let the one he loved slip away from him…

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

Chapter Two

By the time that the train finally arrived in the right station, its passengers were quite happy to get off, as it had been about half a day. (1)
Miaka was probably the happiest person to be arriving, apart from the two that was returning as a native. She had wanted to come to Yuri’s wedding but was unable to, as her mother and stepfather had also decided for that time to be a family vacation.
The six of them were able to make their way out of the train station rather fast because few people get off at this station. As they expected, they saw the familiar sight of the village’s cart, accompanied by Seishuku, who was pacing so agitatedly that he did not notice their presence.
“Aniki!” Ryoen cried out joyfully as he was met with a warm hug from the brother whom he loved a lot. (2)
“Oh, you arrived already!” Seishuku laughed, but they all sensed a sense of nervousness in his laughter. “I’m sorry, but I was too occupied with my thoughts.”
“Is something wrong with our parents, Aniki?” his brother naturally asked in concern.
“No, Chichi and Haha are both fine. It is just that Yuri is in labour right now.” (3)
“So soon?” Miaka called out, dumping all her luggage on Taka so she could run forward. “I thought that it would be a few days more and…”
“According to the village midwife it is normal for children to be born maybe one week or even two weeks earlier or later then the expected date.” The listeners couldn’t help but to wonder whether he was assuring himself or them, as he was clearly very worried.
“Well, on behalf of the village of Konan,” he began the tradition that was rarely practiced as few people would go there, the last time a formal welcome was given was when Yuri arrived. “Since my father the village leader is unable to be here, I, his eldest son and heir stands in his place, to welcome you all.”
“I’m so happy to be here!” Miaka cried out happily as soon as Seishuku finished speaking. “I am so glad to see neesan again. Is she well? Is she happy?”
“We are very happy, so much more then we thought that we could ever be.” Seishuku said, referring to their past life.
“Aniki…you are really happy then?” Ryoen said very softly as they began to head back toward the village.
At this his brother frowned, as Ryoen knew that he would. This question was not as innocent as it sounded because even up to the day of the actual wedding, Ryoen had suggested that he should wait a bit longer- which caused some strain in the brothers’ relationship.
It was not his fault that he could not remember his life as Nuriko, Seishuku would say to himself as he was staring to feel angry. Why should he not be with Yuri immediately after what happened?
He did not know that you were married to her for two years, to him you just met her and proposed to her on the very same day, he repeated again, but surely by now…
“I am very happy with my life, Ryoen.” He said in equal softness to push back the initiating anger. “I know that you are worried about what might happen because Yuri and I got married after a very short engagement but we really are happy, because we really do love each other.”
“But you asked her to marry you in your first meeting!” Ryoen began once more, that was always what frustrated him.
Behind them, Ju-An gave a rather indiscreet cough and began speaking. Like Ryoen, he had been rather sceptical about his best friend’s very hasty engagement and marriage, but he quickly got over it when he saw, with most people, how happy they were. But then, he would be rather biased, as he and Houki Yuri had been good friends. (4)
The two of them had talked of marriage once, when he somehow mentioned his engagement. She had congratulated him and he still remembered her words rather clearly: she would never marry for a mercenary reason.
“I have a job and I have supported myself since I was very young, and I grew up in a household that had a tragic marriage, that is why I would not marry for such reasons. If I ever marry, I want a happy marriage.”
“Seishuku, I hope you still remember Dokun? He is our landlady’s son, who is now quite good friends with Ryoen.” Everyone knew that he said this to interrupt the possibility of a fight. Both brothers shot him a grateful look as the two brothers had always been close, so this new conflict was something that frustrated both of them.
“Of course I remember him and his mother, how is she? She is such a kind woman.” Seishuku quickly said. “Yuri always talks about how grateful she is that her stuff was not thrown away, and that her old room was not even rented out.”
“She is in good health, she asked after Yuri, hoping that she is happy with her marriage…” at this Dokun quickly shot a glance at Ryoen but conveniently his friend was busily talking with Genro.
Thus, they managed to arrive back rather peacefully.

Yuri was surrounded by her mother in law, the village midwife, as well as many other women in the village who were mothers. In a way, she found this rather amusing: this dedicated attention which had been given to her since the moment her water first broke. (5)
“The labour will not be very long, but you will be fine.” The midwife reassured her as she began to scatter numerous herbs in the room.
“How is Seishuku?” Yuri asked her mother in law.
“Worried as a new father would be, worrying as bad as his father was when he was born.” she said with a reminiscent smile. “His father was so shocked when he heard about the birth of Seishuku that he didn’t know which direction to walk.”
“And you sent Seishuku to the train station?” Yuri protested, visualising an image of her husband driving to some wilderness due to his worry, which was very clear when she told him that their children are going to be born this day.
“He will be with Ju-An and Ryoen, they can take over the driving if he get too nervous. Beside,” her mother in law reassured her with a careless wave of hand. “They, the fathers, need something to do, otherwise their worry is going to affect everyone negatively.”
“When Seishuku was born his father kept on pacing so much in the next room that it was beginning to distract all of us.” The midwife explained. “That was why we sent him to fetch us my extra basket of herbs from my home.”
Yuri herself was not worried about the birth of her children at all, although she was not unaware about the danger of pregnancy that existed both today and in Konan: her two maids’ mother had died in giving birth to them. But she was not worried at all as she knew that she was in excellent hands, and somehow she was also very sure that the children she and Seishuku had wanted so much would not create difficulties for their arrival. The hard bit seemed to be their conception.
Automatically, Yuri began to think what it must have been like when she was born. From her birth certificate she knew where she was born: the hospital that also housed her for three years due to that ‘car accident’ (6)
She was a child from an affair so her arrival was naturally not waited eagerly by her father, she wonder whether he even knew that she was going to be born?
Her mother had run away from her home when she was only fourteen, with a boy that became her first lover. Yuri had never heard of anything from her grandparents, although she did ask about them once.
“Oh darling, we should not worry about them.” Her mother had laughed out, as she gave her only child a warm embrace. “You do not need to know them.” (7)
“Why don’t they come and see us? Everyone else’s grandparents come and see them.” Yuri had asked in one of the opening days of school, where parents and grandparents all came. Her mother was naturally there, but she could not help but so feel sad as everyone else had at least both parents if they were not surrounded by doting grandparents and other relatives. (8)
“Well, they…along with my other relatives…don’t think that you should have been born because I am not married, so that is why I refused to have them visit us.” Her mother announced proudly, making her daughter believe that her grandparents would have come if it wasn’t for her mother, instead of the opposite way.
Later on, Yuri would discover that Houki Chiai was only the perfect mother, as she did not achieve any success in all the other categories. As a daughter she was most likely a rebel, running off at fourteen from a home that was relatively comfortable; as a lover she was probably a failure as she indulged in various relationships that never worked. (9)
So she must have been alone when her daughter was going to be born. Yuri shuddered as she thought about what it must have been like, lying on the cold hospital bed alone with no one to reassure you that it would be alright, with no one waiting…
She could not even understand how her mother even managed to be in a love affair with a married man. How could you love someone, even if it was not a permanent love, knowing that they would never be with you?
But the ironic thing was that her mother was a perfect mother, even though her daughter did wonder why she only had a mother, she was perfectly happy as long as her mother was there.
Yuri had been her mother’s first priority, there were even times when her mother broke up with her new boyfriends because they could not accept the little girl’s appearance and dominance. (10)
“Sp please help me now, Haha.” she whispered when the first spasm of serious pain began. Someone grabbed her hand, it must be her mother in law, but with the tears in her eyes she could almost see that blurred figure as her mother.
Her mother in law grabbed her hand tightly as the difficult part of the birthing began, once more, she was glad that her son was not here, as he would surely start to panic if he heard Yuri’s screams.
The pain of birthing was something that no woman could get used to, no matter how many children she has. She herself had screamed just as much at Ryoen’s birth, even though he was the second child.
“Haha…” at this address she knew that her daughter in law was no longer thinking of her, but of her real mother. She wished that she knew more of the other woman so that she could reassure Yuri somehow.
“You will be alright, Yuri.” She promised.

Shoka was waiting right beside the entrance of the village, she had wanted to go with Seishuku but was told that she could not as the cart would not fit everyone. So she had spent the interval making herself as beautiful as she could possibly be, although it was a needless action as her fiancé loved her so much. (11)
She knew that Ju-An loved her, but what angered her the most is his unwillingness to marry her right now. Why should they wait when they loved each other and knew that they would love each other?
The warriors of Suzaku were given a second chance, but the irony was that many were repeating what they had done in their past life.
Shoka sighed again as she turned to look at the village leader’s house, where Yuri was along with many women in the village. She couldn’t help but to breathe out a sigh of envy as she would love to be in Yuri’s role: to be married to the man you love and about to give birth to their children.
She liked Yuri, Seishuku’s wife. Unlike Ryoen, she truly believed that it was a very romantic act of true love. Since the village was small there weren’t many other girls of their age, so she naturally became very good friends with Yuri along with her sister, although Seika was so much shyer.
Yuri was friends with Ju-An, this naturally bond them even more. But she couldn’t help but to be jealous of Yuri, as Seishuku was not afraid to marry her immediately as soon as he found her.
“Ju-An!” she cried out loudly as soon as she saw the sight of the village cart, this would not be the first time she did this. What she truly wanted was to be on that cart with him!
“Shoka!” she could hear his voice even before the cart stop, and within a few seconds he had jumped down to run to her and embrace her tightly. It was a rather uncharacteristic thing to do but it had been eight months or so since they last met.
“Ryoen, it is good to see you again after a whole year. We all missed you very much.” Shoka said when Ju-An finally let her go.
“Shoka, about Yuri…” Seishuku asked urgently, as she had expected him to. She had talked with Yuri and she was instructed to make sure that Seishuku was not going to panic.
“Yuri is perfectly fine.” She said, and this was not untrue. Even though the other woman was a bit pale, the wife had told the worried friend that it was nothing unusual.
“My children has not arrived, have they?” the soon to be father asked nervously, afraid of missing the opportunity to be with his wife and children as soon as he could.
Once again Shoka shook her head. “Oh but I am being very rude! I have not introduced myself at all!” she suddenly called out, as she turned to face the visitors.
Miaka has not seen Shoka before, but she was simply glad that Ju-An was happy, as she recollect the sadness in Mitsukake’s face whenever he thought and talked about Shoka, his lover that died from a diseases that he could have cured had he been there. (12)
“I am Shoka. Ju-An’s fiancée.” She said to these strangers, she couldn’t help but to sigh slightly, she wished that she could say that she was his wife, as Yuri could. But she could at least take some comfort in her title, unlike her sister.
“I am Miaka, I am Yuri’s sister!” Miaka declared out.
“Yuri’s little sister?” Shoka frowned slightly. “But you don’t seem to…” her words trailed off as Miaka misjudged the distant between them and ended up tripping onto the ground, instead of shaking her hand.
“They are half-sisters.” Ju-An whispered. “They are not very…” at this he paused, wondering why he was suddenly going to tell his girlfriend that the two siblings were not close when they must be. He himself could remember the numerous times that Miaka had come to find Yuri.
“I will take you back to our house then.” Seishuku interrupted, despite his eagerness to get back he caught his friend’s slip of tongue. Was that a sign that Ju-An was going to remember his life as Mitsukake?

Pale but happy, Yuri held her two children in her arms. After all this struggle her children finally arrived in the world in perfect safety.
“A boy and a girl! Didn’t I promise that there will be at least one son?” the midwife smiled at the new mother as she began the tidying up.
“A future leader of this village.” Yuri’s mother in law said merrily, even though such thing did not matter that much in their village anymore, it was still good for tradition to remain unbroken by the birth of a boy.
The two women helped Yuri to sit up straighter, and then began to brush her hair, which had tangled slightly due to the labour. Even though her husband was not going to notice any of this, they both knew the importance of this to a woman.
Yuri herself was in great shock, she wasn’t even sure whether this was true at all right now. She could feel the two children’s weight on her arms but somehow she just couldn’t quite realize the impact of all that has happened.
“My children.” She repeated, hoping to reassure herself of the reality of all this. She was the mother to these two beautiful children, children that she dreamt of having for such a long time, not because they were necessary as heir or prove that she was not barren, but because she simply wanted to have children with the man that she loved.
“I just don’t believe this.” She repeated once more. “It is like a dream.”
These two beautiful babies…did they really come out from her body? Bending down she could see that her stomach was now flattened, but somehow…
Before she even had time to react, she felt her husband’s arms around her…he had suddenly appeared and was sitting beside her. Strangely enough he seemed to be crying, as her cheeks seemed quite wet.
“We are parents.” She whispered to him, as he held the two new babies in his hand, his whole body seemed to be shaking.
Chocking, Seishuku nodded. He couldn’t even speak for his throat seemed to be blocked with tears, and even if they weren’t, he truly didn’t know what to say at all.
Yuri was safe, and she was holding their children…such beautiful children too, just like their mother. This seemed like a dream, because it just didn’t seem possible that anyone could be as happy as he was at that moment.
I have my heir now, he thought when he first heard the cry of his son, before he realized with great relief that he was no longer the emperor of Konan.
“Seishuku,” his mother whispered to him as she elbowed him gently from her position behind him. “Their names.”
“Whose names?” he asked dumb fondly, so great was his shook that he out of all people forgot about the practices of their village: children were to have their name announced as soon as their father held them.
“Your children’s names.” His mother said again, almost laughing. It just seemed ironic that her son, who loved these old tales and ritual so much, would be forgetting about them completely. She was relieved too, as there was a time when she was afraid that he would be more interested in what were stories, instead of what was real. (13)
“My children’s name…my children’s name!” he repeated when he suddenly remembered both the tradition, as well as the names he and Yuri had come up with.
“Our son will be called Boushin, while our daughter will be called Seihana.” (14)

To Miaka, her niece and nephew were absolutely adorable, although their uncle could not be as certain as she was. But then, Ryoen was only a teenager boy.
“They…” Ryoen didn’t know how he could say the two babies were like his brother or his sister in law, when they seemed to be nothing alike.
Behind him, both Taka and Genro were thinking the same thing, the formal not knowing that within a few years he would be doing what Seishuku was doing. Taka could understand how happy Seishuku must have felt, as he secretly begun to imagine he and Miaka being in a family as well, but he couldn’t comprehend why the man he regard as rather narcissist, was seeing these two babies as the most beautiful things in the world.
It was not as if they were ugly at all, but they were what most babies looked like!
“Yuri-neesan, you must be so happy!” Miaka said to her half sister, who could only smile happily as an answer. Right now, Yuri was so full of goodwill that she truly couldn’t be sad or angry in anyway.
“I am glad to see you.” she said softly, her strength used up for the birthing. “Is everything alright? Keisuke…”
“Everything is fine!” Miaka dismissed any possibilities with a wave of hand. “But are you alright, neesan? You don’t write to me that often.”
Yuri evaded the question by smiling, as she didn’t want to explain to the other right now about how she really felt in regard to the altering of their lives.
“Miaka, I am so happy in my life.” She said truthfully. “Married to the man I love, and now the mother of children that I longed for. It will not be hard for you to understand.”
Meanwhile, Seishuku could finally greet his best friend properly, as well as those who were his comrades in his past life, he could not say that they were his friends, as his title and status had made them drew an invisible line between them, yet he had longed to receive friendship from them: the other six who should be his equal. (15)
“How long do you plan to stay in our village?” he asked Taka, who would probably speak for his cousin as well. Cousins…he dimly recollected how these two were always fighting. It seemed rather fitting.
“Perhaps a month or so.” Taka replied.
“Good, you and Miaka will be able to attend the whole-month festival.”
“What is that?” Dokun asked. “I think I have read about this somewhere.”
“It is an old tradition that is probably not practiced much in the city now.” Seishuku explained. “We will hold a celebration when the new born children turned a month old.” (16)
The festival had always been something that everyone looked forward to due to its very nature of being a celebration, as well as symbolising the full recovering of the mother.
Ironically, the real sorrow chooses to arrive on the day of the festival. (17)

(1) I actually made a mistake in my last story, well I wrote something that was completely unreasonable. I wrote that the village of Konan is about two days of train ride away from Tokyo, since Tokyo is in the middle of Japan this seems a bit too impossible no matter how slow the train get, and the village is not in the very bottom either. So, to make it more practical it will only be half a day. Please ignore the inconsistency.
(2) Since they are reborn as normal people I decided to make them be called by their real name. (apart from Tamahome, as his real name is not Taka but something else, but since he’s called Taka in the original story…)
Hotohori = Seishuku (I’m still not that sure about this but well, according to some sources it is his real name, although it just seems an alternative pronunciation of his name as the kanji are the same)
Nuriko = Ryoen
Chichiri = Hojun
Taisuki = Shunu (also known as Genro)
Mitsukake = Ju-An
Chiriko = Dokun
There is another inconsistency in my story again, do forgive me. In hidden secrets Ryoen actually calls Seishuku ‘Onichan’, which is an affectionate enough term for your older brother, but I decided to change it to Aniki, because that is what the real Nuriko calls his brother. I don’t know whether this meaning is more formal or not but I don’t think it is like super formal or anything.
(3) According to my friend chichi means daddy, while haha means mummy. She tells me it’s very affectionate, so hopefully it is right. The real Hotohori does call his parents with that. Do correct me if it is wrong.
(4) In my fan fiction Yuri and Mitsukake/Ju-An have always been quite close. She and Mitsukake had both understand and experienced the whole concept of sacrifice for lover and be bind by that, and then she was Ju-An’s neighbor, so they are rather good friends.
(5) I am presuming that by being rather rural the village follows the tradition approach toward birthing, that is all men are excluded and the women would have a heavy use of herbs.
(6) Due to Suzaku’s alteration of their life Yuri got into a car accident on her eighteenth birthday, instead of arriving in the universe of the four gods. As a result she was unconscious for three years until Seishuku came, in which he woke her up.
(7) I think Yuri’s mother would be like that, very open and expressive in her feelings for her daughter. From what Yuri recollected in Hidden Secrets, I think her mother never found the one man she truly loved, but I think she would love Miaka’s father the best out of all her boy friends, although that would only be because he allowed Yuri to be born.
(8) I don’t know what this is called in English, but it’s basically the idea of parents coming to see their children in school, not really an open day. But just for parents to see their children.
(9) Randomly I also decided to let this be Yuri’s mother’s name, Chiai, (千愛) which means a thousand love. Chi(千) ai (愛). I guess this can have a lot of interpretations but no matter what, it is just really ironic considering the nature or her love life.
(10) I am really glad to get that bit done, because that was something I thought of very early when Yuri’s character first got created, but somehow that didn’t make it to Hidden Secrets.
(11) Shoka is reincarnated as I actually find the thing with her and Mitsukake really sad so that is why, and likewise Chichiri’s fiancée, I also find that really sad too. But Kourin is not coming out, it’s not because I am cold-blooded to Nuriko on purpose but I simply have no idea how I will fit that into my story. Sorry!”
(12) This bit is altered. In hidden secrets Yuri found Mitsukake and he told her about what happened to Shoka, which changed. Mitsukake could only cure a person affected with the fever only before a certain amount of time passed. In Shoka’s case it was too late as she had been sick for too long, but even though she was sick, she still made him leave her in order to save more people. When she died he couldn’t take it, so that’s why he stopped healing people. Then he met Yuri, who caught the fever and he was really touched when she told him to go to find the miko for Hotohori’s sake, instead of asking him to save her.
(13) That was what happened to Hotohori, he was so obsessed by the story of the suzaku priestess, what was only a legend, that he took no interest in the women around him at all, who were real.
(14) Seihana literally mean star flower, flower of the star.
(15) One of the saddest things about Hotohori is that everyone treat him as the emperor, whenever they call him Hotohori-sama or Koutei heika it is just so sad, because I think that is the sign of them not regarding him as the same. Because of his title he always seemed to be like the outsider. Especially when people like Taisuki and Nuriko might call Tamahome Taka, but Hotohori was still called Hotohori-sama apart from Miaka, who just call him by his name.
(16) This is probably not a western custom, although I’m not sure if they still practiced this in eastern words, I think they will. It is a tradition for a mother to rest for about a month and then there will be a celebration.
(17) I forgot to mention that in my fan fiction Urumiya is going to be an OC. So basically she is just an OC, forget about the person who really is Urumiya, the Urumiya in my story is a woman by the way. It is really funny, as I discovered the other day that in Genbu Kaiden…SPOILER- Urumiya is that assassin

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

Warning: This entry contains a lot of my opinion which will be said in a very strong way so you might be offended if you are a seigaku fan

Ok…there have been a lot of bit in prince of tennis that made me really angry but this is the first time I have feel this mad. I now can understand why my friend penguin-chan and some of her friends have been so mad about what has been happening, because I now finally understand what they must have feel, seeing their favourite characters and schools being humiliated just because they are not in the hero school. I have now finally decided…

I WANT RIKKAI TO WIN!!! (although I doubt that this can happen because we all have too much proof about seigaku being the hero school.) But seriously, the whole thing in genius 365 angered me soo much!!!

Ok…what pissed me off is the following. Ryuzaki sensei saying that Fuji, in this game managed to what…use this game to show that he is able to be better then Shiraishi, and saying that his lose was a humiliation… for goodness sake, Fuji lose to some one who beat him because of his own fault and the fact that person is in a way better then him, it was not a humiliation. And it was not as if Shiraishi did what Fuji did to Mizuki, it was not as if Shiraishi purposely humiliated him or anything, all Shiraishi did was trying to win the game as fast as he could. I HATE HOW THEY MADE IT APPEAR AS IF SHIRAISHI IS A REAL BASTARD JUST FOR BEATING FUJI. That is seriously so unfair. Especially when Shiraishi has been one of the most courteous players. And for goodness sake, Niou is not Shiraishi! No matter what they are different! (

So Fuji can now attack cord balls but that doesn’t mean he is automatically better then Shiraishi. Note: Shiraishi plays perfect tennis, hitting cord ball is just one of the things he can do, it is not as if he is screwed without cord ball. In fact, Shiraishi is the last person this would apply to, because he dose not rely on a particular style, he is very hard to beat. So even though Fuji can now counter cordball or something like that, he will still be in trouble when he plays with Shiraishi because Shiraishi still have other ways to play. I don’t like the exchange between Shiraishi and Kin-chan because I believe that by showing this the author is confirming with the whole ‘Fuji is now better then Shiraishi’ thing, I was really expecting Watanabe to come out and make some comment about this can’t work because Niou is not Shiriashi. (one bit that I really don’t like is when Fuji says he can’t lose because it is Seigaku’s dream to win the nationals, honestly, I really wish Shiraishi snapped back at him too, because that is why he plays perfect tennis, why he this sacrifice of doing something he doesn’t like.)

Seriously, I am so angry that this is happening. That any one who wins over Seigaku will be seen as being wrong. I really hate this, Shiraishi won over Fuji fair and square, and I think the author has already been kind enough to Fuji (I’ve seen a lot of people who thinks Fuji is the real winner due to the whole white dragon being out thing), but now he have to do this. To be honest, I don’t even think Seigaku should actually be here! Much as I like Kawamura I just don’t like how he suddenly did something at matchpoint and made Gin default. I seriously believe that Shitenhouji should have won the singles 2 match, and as for the doubles 2 match- it didn’t make sense that Koharu and Yuuji wouldn’t have discovered that their opponent swapped because the clothes and shoes are all the same. And if the singles 1 match did play I think Kin-chan would have win. But leaving that aside I am still so mad. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO PICK ON THE ONE PERSON WHO DID WIN? Once again, I just think of what someone had said on a Shiraishi forum: “If you have to let Seigaku win then fine, but don’t make the others so strong that it seem clear that Seigaku only win because they are the hero school.”

I am just so angry at what the author did, so it seems this whole thing is turning into a Seigaku is invincible thing. That is why my conclusion is now this…

“RIKKAI PLEASE WIN!”

(Goes to Penguin-chan’s blog and offers to stand under their rikkai banner) (if you don’t understand this then don’t worry)

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

The last chapter was longer then I thought so this is the explanations to it.

(1) Yuri actually calls her father in law otousan, and her mother in law kaasan. I don’t know if they do this in Japan but I know that in china, it is not unnatural to call your in laws father and mother, if you are rather close to them. Although according to the online Japanese dictionary that I use, there is the word ‘gifu’, which means father-in-law/foster father/step father, and gibo, which means mother-in-law/foster mother/step mother. But anyway, Yuri is actually using the more formal term in addressing her in laws, while she calls her own birth mother haha, which is kind of like mummy.
(2) The traditional costume for the village of Konan is very much like the cloths of the kingdom of Konan, as I mentioned before Yuri’s wedding gown looked very much like what she had wore as the empress. In this scene Hotohori would be wearing clothes that look like the one he wore when he traveled with Miaka and the rest…the clothes he wore for his disguise?
(3) As this fan fiction is extended, I thought I’ll bring in the issue of Ryoen not being fully happy with his brother’s marriage due to various reasons. I guess this is due to the tiny amount of memory he have of being Nuriko.
(4) Every one in the village has the last name of Konan.
(5) Once again, an ironic little remark that I just couldn’t help but to add in. Although it is important to remember that Yuri didn’t actually enjoy being an empress that much, and the whole urgency of producing an heir almost made her mad. Plus, she didn’t agree to marry Hotohori until three months later, and that was because she loves him, not because he was an emperor.
(6) This is inspired by the story in volume one of Tokyo Babylon. Just a slight mentioning, although the stars do play a very big part in Fushigi Yugi.
(7) Wow…amazing. Originally I really just wanted to write about Yuri watching the stars but somehow I ended up making the random bits into two purpose-filled ideas. I’m impressed…although this idea is actually not original. It is what two charactesr in my baldur’s gate fan fiction are meant to say to each other, although it was goddess instead of faeries. So that’s how Seihana is called that, but I have no idea who they name their son Boushin, well… why the real Houki did I guess.
(8) This bit is related to the weird prologue story for Fushigi Yugi that I want to write, it is a crazy idea but I some how decided to do it. This will get explained at the end of the story (hopefully)  I won’t say much about it, other then the fact that it is set kind of in heaven (where the celestial warriors are from, in Genbu Kaiden it said that the celestial warriors were sent down by Taiitsukun ). It will be a bit of an explanation as to why everything happened.
I think some people might not like the ideas of the prologue at all, but I want to write it so I will.
(9) In my story priestesses can call out their god even if they are not virginal, the only consequence is that she will be eaten by the god. I explained this in hidden secrets in more detail so if this is confusing then I suggest for hidden secret to be read. As for Takiko’s actions, I will explain this later.
(10) This is a dream, but it is also a flashback, it’s linked to my prologue story. And that is a very radical (?), well crazy story.
(11) I guess you can say this is like the past life of their past life, before their lives as the celestial warriors in the fushigi yugi story.

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

Chapter One

Yuri sat by the window, watching Seishuku, who was working hard outside on the fields. Usually she would be helping him, or at the very least doing some sort of task that would help the farmers of the village indirectly.
But she was ordered by everyone to stay out of the summer sun, just in case she would be harmed somehow along with the children that would soon arrive into this world.
Smiling happily she rested her hand over her abdomen again, very soon she and Seishuku would finally be parents, what they wanted for such a long time. For this dream to come true, she would do anything, even if that mean being treated as a piece of glass ready to break at the slightest vibration.
When she was empress she had been carefully guarded too as one in her role must be, being constantly accompanied by guards or her maids, but that had been different, she had the power to walk anywhere in the palace. Right now, everyone seemed to think that even walking would harm her and the children inside.
It had been eight months since she married Seishuku, or she could say that she remarried him, and soon it would be one year since they got reunited again.
Yuri was very happy with her new life, she had all that she wanted, along with additional happiness that she never expected. Not only was she with Hotohori/Seishuku again, she was close to Miaka as a sister should be, and her parents in law really became like parents to her.
“I am very happy, please be at peace.” she whispered out her only regret, as she touched her hair. Even though she was no longer shadowed by the death of her mother, she still missed the woman who loved her the best, and sometimes she would wished rather wistfully that her mother could be beside her, seeing her grandchildren.
“Are you feeling well, Yuri?” her mother in law asked in concern as she entered her son and daughter in law’s room, carrying a glass of water.
“I am fine, I’m pregnant, not sick!” she laughed. “You and otousan can be as bad as Seishuku sometimes, you don’t have to take care of me that much! I’ll be fine!” (1)
“You are like our own daughter, Yuri.” The older woman said with true affection in her voice. “And now you are carrying my grandchildren.”
At the plural Yuri smiled, she had been shocked when the village midwife told her that she was carrying twins.
“And there will be at least one son.” The midwife had promised.
“I don’t care about that!” Seishuku had declared out as he pulled his wife into his embrace. “As long as they are Yuri’s then that is enough to make me love them madly!”
“I also came because there are some letters for you and Seishuku.” Saying so, her mother in law took out the bundles of papers that were covered by the tray.
The village of Konan was isolated so the most effective way of communication was through letters, not that there were many as few would leave the village.
Opening the first letter Yuri immediately smiled, Miaka’s letter was filled with repeated congratulations as well as the trivia in her school along with saying how happy she was with Taka. The last paragraph consisted the confirmation of her visiting very soon and staying in order for the birth of her nephew and/or niece.
Her other letter was from her brother, it was not as long as Miaka’s letter but the fondness in it was still very clear, they were both linked due to their affection for their younger sister. He ended with the apology of not being able to come to see her as he was tied up in doing some thing for the society he was in at university.
“I am really glad that my sister will be able to stay here until the children’s birth.” She said rather happily as she carefully folded the letter and tucked it in with the rest of her letters. It was truly a shock to discover how much Miaka actually wanted to be her sister. Most of the time, she was grateful for that.
“It happens to be at summer vacation too, although it is amazing how small the world seems to be. You were Ju-An’s flatmate and then your half sister become Ryoen’s friend.”
“Maybe it is fate.” Yuri said this with a slight smile on her lips.
Seishuku choose to enter, he was clad in the village’s traditional plain working cloths with his hair tied in a red ribbon. He was carrying a large tray of food for his wife, and with her pregnancy Yuri’s appetite increased very dramatically. (2)
“I swear you can compete with Miaka now with the amount of food that you eat.” He teased her lightly after he kissed her, and then acknowledged the presence of his mother with a nod.
“You have some letters, Seishuku.” she told him before she left the two people who were still very much in love.
“Letters…this one is from Ryoen.” Seishuku said, he sat down beside her and pressed his hand over her’s. “He says that he will be returning to the village in his holidays, well, we all know that…and he…what is wrong?”
Yuri’s face darkened considerably at the mentioning of his ‘brother’. Sighing she leant against him before she spoke.
“He still doesn’t approve of your marriage.”
“He will understand as soon as he remembers who he had been.” He reassured her.

Miaka had wanted to visit the village of Konan as soon as she heard about it from Hotohori, who was now called Seishuku. She was filled with the excitement and curiosity at seeing what the equivalent of the kingdom would be in Japan.
“I told you before, Miaka, it is only a small village. Apart from those who are native there, Konan is nothing interesting.” Ryoen muttered at Miaka, who was eagerly peering out of the window again at the sight of the station. “And I will tell you when we arrive there!”
“But it is interesting!” Taka quickly defended Miaka.
“Why?” Ryoen asked rather flatly.
At this Taka froze, after all, he couldn’t exactly say it was because in his past life he had lived in a country that bore the same name, and technically their village was almost like a reincarnation of the kingdom the seven celestial warriors of Suzaku had been from.
“Well, the legends of Konan…” Taka quickly yelled out. “How the village have Chinese tradition instead of being influenced by Japanese culture…”
“You have been talking too way much with Keisuke.” Genro muttered. “I am really surprised that he didn’t just drop everything and charge here.”
“But why are you here?” Ju-An asked good naturedly, “You are not from this village, and you are not related to Yuri in anyway.”
“Neither is he!” Genro pointed to Taka. “But lover boy is here because he couldn’t even be parted with Miaka for a few seconds. Because he doesn’t want to be seen as an intruder, lover boy here drags me to accompany him!”
“What did you just call me?!”
Miaka was going to the village to see Yuri; naturally Taka was beside her; Genro was somehow there due to the insistence of Miaka and Taka, who hoped that the sight of the village of Konan might be able to trigger some of his memories as Taisuki. Due to this reason, Dokun was there too, but he knew Yuri to some extent and he was Ryoen’s good friend.
The only one missing was Hojun, according to Ju-An he was somewhere in South Korea now.
“The one person who should be here.” Ju-An muttered out. “He is one of Seishuku’s best friends, and that poor girl…”
“What are you talking about? What girl?” Miaka asked innocently, just as she had in their previous lives, she managed to quickly earn their affection in this current life too.
Ju-An was just about to explain when Ryoen let out another sigh.
“Why is it that the two who should have married a long time ago is still not marrying, while the one who should have took his time married immediately?” (3)
“You mean Seishuku should have waited?” Ju-An asked.
“He married someone he didn’t even know! You told me that Houki Yuri…”
‘Konan Yuri.” The elder quickly corrected. “She is married to him and her name…” (4)
“That’s not the point!” Ryoen snapped in frustration. “He just proposed to someone in their first meeting and then he married her only after three months! You told me that Yuri never once mentioned anything about Seishuku, and vice versa…”
“I admit that their meeting had been very strange but Ryoen, your brother is truly happy with his marriage!”
“What if she just married him for wealth?”
At this Ju-An burst out into laughter, this unusual display of emotion from the one who was always very quiet silenced everyone, including Taka and Genro, who were engaged in another fight.
“Ryoen, Ryoen, Ryoen, your brother is the future village leader of our village and for those in Konan that is indeed a prestigious role, but outside Konan no one would regard Seishuku as a rich man, he would only been seen as the future heir to some small village that no one ever heard of. You talk as if Seishuku was an emperor and Yuri was set out to ensnare him!” (5)

Having come from Tokyo, Yuri was used to seeing people still wandering outside if she ever peered out from the window of her rather shabby apartment on the nights that she couldn’t sleep. Sometimes she would just sit by the window and read, occasionally looking outside.
Tokyo had been a city that never sleeps, unlike her new home. Funnily enough the real Konan was probably more like Tokyo then the village of Konan. There were usually guards patrolling around the palace every hour of the day, they might be kept out from her private quarters but they were still stationed just outside, never completely away.
The quietness almost seemed unnatural, although it was very comfortable. She was sitting by the window again, enjoying the view just as she had in day time. As she carefully untangled herself from Seishuku’s embrace, her husband muttered slightly and tried to held onto her tightly. Bending down, she kissed him, causing him to cease the subconscious’ movements.
In the first few months that she came here, before the children in her belly grew this big, she would spend many of her nights outside, content in spending the whole night watching the stars. In Tokyo, a person could never truly see the stars this clearly due to the towering buildings in almost all part of the town, the only possibility was to go to the famous Tokyo tower. (6)
As for Konan, she had lived in the palace in the capital, the buildings in the palace themselves prevented her from seeing the stars clearly.
“They are so pretty,” she would whisper to Seishuku, pointing at somewhere random in the sky. “The stars are like beads plaited in the hair of the fairies.”
“I’ll plait flowers into your hair so you can have beads that rival the fairies.” he had said, running his hand through her long hair as he actually began to pick some flowers.
That was how they come up with the name of their daughter, if they would have a daughter. (7)
Ryoen would be returning tomorrow with Ju-An, along side with her sister and Tamahome. She knew that this would be regarded as quite an excitement for the rest of the village, as they rarely get any visitors.
What did she feel about it? When her parents in law asked her she had laughed and said that she was overjoyed to see her sister as that was surely a great act of affection to ask a young girl to come to such a place in her long waited holiday.
But secretly…secretly she was not so sure. In the village of Konan she had been very happy as she was rarely reminded of her past, something that would cease to happen when those who had been the warriors of Suzaku returns here.
Miaka…most of all, Yuri did not know how to face Miaka. Initially she had been overjoyed at the fact that Miaka wanted to be her sister even to ask Suzaku to alter their past, but now she was not so sure. It seemed too unfair for a person to redeem them self in such a fashion.
The action might have happened but it did not happen in a way that she was aware off. She woke up knowing about these changes, but she remembered what had happened in her first life so much more clearly. All that she did in her second life only seemed like an act.
Someone, probably Miaka, told her that they had been very close but these memories of time spent with Miaka did not seem real to her, it only seemed like a performance.
What she remembered more clearly was how she was taken away by that man who smiled at everyone but her, she tried to hold at the end of his coat, only to have him unwind her fingers. It was not a rough act, but the pained caused by the rejection from her own father never left.
Then she had stood alone, with only her doll as a protection. It was the last toy that her mother had ever given her, she could still remember how happy she was on that day. Her old doll had broken to the point that her mother threw it away, and she had spent a week crying for her.
Walking across the room, Yuri took her precious doll down from the shelf, one of the few things she had left of her mother. Even though Seishuku had teased her about placing a doll like that on his book shelf, which contained his collection of legends he was glad of her action: it was an acceptance of her mother’s death, and she was no longer afraid of her past as she openly displayed the object.
Yuri smiled as she examined the doll, this was one of the few things that she missed quite a lot when she was in Konan, she had been quite happy to discover that it was still sitting on the little table in her shabby apartment.
The most distinguished thing about the doll was that it had very long hair that was bound in the same way as her, when Miaka’s mother forced her to cut her hair, Yuri had practised on her doll instead.
This doll was her only solace in these days, living with a father who saw her presence as a mistake.
She had held the doll in her hand as she watched the two strangers fight, turning, she saw two kids standing near the door, peeping in.
Were they her new siblings? She recollected something about how she had a brother and a sister, they seemed scared of her, maybe they would understand…
She actually walked toward them, but they turned away from her, running out of the doorway.
Later on, whenever she saw either of her new siblings they would quickly turn away from her. She knew that this was partly done due to their mother’s orders, and she never held this as a grudge against them. After all, Houki Yuri’s presence caused the illusion of a happy family break apart.
The past was always what could not be changed, and everyone had to pay for the consequences of their actions. If Miaka truly wanted to be a sister to her, then she should amend the actions she did in the past in the present instead of simply altering the past.
She held the doll tighter, seeming to be a little girl once more. Why was she unable to simply just let everything go? Did not she have all she wanted? A family. A man who love her, with her siblings loving her as well.
The ignorance had hurt and alters her, making her into the way she had been. A woman who was afraid of being loved as not even those who should loved her did, a woman who was also yearning for love as she had received little love.
It seemed so unfair that all this could be changed just because of one wish. Miaka seemed to truly believe that she could change the past completely.
It did not turn out that way, the memories of Miaka giving her a present was suppressed by what she regarded as the truth: walking alone because she had nowhere to go, refusing to go home because there was no one who would care.
The lines of happiness…they were all just what she said in a dream.

Seishuku was still slightly paranoid by how Yuri had left him when he was sleeping when he had been Hotohori, he could still feel all the emotions that he had experienced when he realized that she was gone because of him.
That was why he tended to get worried when she was not in his arms, as the past could not be forgotten so easily.
But his worry was quickly gone, as he saw her standing beside the now opened window, with that doll in her hand, her fingers absently adjusting the doll’s hair do.
“Can you not sleep?” he asked tenderly as he draped the blanket over her, he was told that it would not be unusual for her to be sleepless as her pregnancy would affect her mood very strongly.
She nodded as she used her free hand to adjust the blanket, while her other hand placed the doll down so she could take her husband’s hand.
“Are you thinking about your mother again?” Seishuku asked, he knew that she was rather sad at the fact that her mother did not have the opportunity to see her daughter in a respectful marriage made from love, and the opportunity to see her grandchildren.
Yuri gave another nod.
“We can go to Tokyo and see her as soon as you recover from the children’s birth.” He told her. “We can stay with Ju-An or Ryoen when we get there.”
“I like that idea.” Yuri said, smiling. “I believe that they would be able to meet if we go to her grave.”
“Yuri…do you believe in an afterlife?” he finally asked.
This question had plagued him ever since he remembered his past as Hotohori, as he naturally recollected her death. But he did not mention this at all, as Tamahome had told him exactly what had happened to Yuri when Seiryuu began to devour her.
“I do.” Yuri whispered. “And I even remember some of it.”
Softly, she began to describe what had happened when she died. Contrary to what she had thought of death, it was a not a sleep.

She had been standing in what seemed like an elaborate temple for all the four gods in the universe of the four gods as she could see all four statues.
Seiryuu’s statue was right beside her, someone whom she no longer remembers had smiled at her as they helped her up. Then another approached her, and dimly she could recollect the embrace the other gave her.
But she could no longer recall their faces at all, not the two who stood right beside her, or the others who were at some distant, slowly approaching her. All she could remember was Seiryuu and Suzaku, who quickly ordered the others to leave her.
“But she is finally here! Everything has finished! Why should she suffer again?” someone had said out angrily, grabbing her even more tightly.
Sadly, she could not even remember the gender of this voice that was full of concern for her.
“Let her go back once more to live life as she always wanted to.” Seiryuu commanded, but his voice was rather kind. “She would be happy, and then she would come back here.”
“Because of the priestess of Suzaku?” someone one else demanded.
“Do not forget that you were all responsible for what happened to her too.” Suzaku interrupted before he turned to Yuri. “Come, priestess of Seiryuu, I will return you to Hotohori.”
“But why should she go now? He will come to her anyway!” the first speaker protested again, not releasing their hold on her.
“Do they not deserve one happy life?” a new speaker interrupted, but this was not Seiryuu or Suzaku’s voice. Turning, Yuri saw two people standing beside the statue of Genbu, one being the speaker. “Let them have one normal life, the life that she dreamt of having before she was chosen to this fate.” (8)

“That is all I remember.” Yuri ended. “But it is enough to make me realize that death is nothing to be frightened of, as it is an afterlife that I will return to with you.”
“What of the people there? Do you remember them?” he asked curiously.
At this she shook her head, all she could recollect was how a strand of reddish brown hair slapped her body slightly when that person pulled her into an embrace, while the last speaker’s eyes had not matched.
“Seishuku, do you know the legend of Genbu and Byakko?” she asked impulsively, recollecting the two figures who had been beside the statue of Genbu. Perhaps they were related to Genbu in some fashion? Although she could not remember any of the people near her, and she doubted that she would recognize them even if they were the warriors of Seiryuu.
“I know a little as I had hoped to find out more about the priestess of Suzaku through the legends of the other priestesses.” Seishuku admitted, recollecting how he had once thought of the priestess of Suzaku as the symbol of perfection.
When he was Hotohori, he had wished that Yuri was the priestess of Suzaku instead, as he could then regard her as his first priority without being reminded that she was not. As an emperor Yuri lost to his kingdom, while as a celestial warrior of Suzaku he was meant to protect the priestess of Suzaku instead of the one who turned out to be the priestess of Seiryuu.
“I know that the priestess of Genbu was the first priestess to summon Genbu, and because she was not virginal she was…” his voice began to shook as he was remembering how the exact same thing had happened to Yuri.
“The sacrifice.” Yuri concluded for him.
He nodded, and continued. “It was said that she was in love with one of her warriors, and it was because of him that she lost her virginity. Other then that, I do not know. (9)
“Two of her warriors guard the shinzaho, and when Miaka took them they were allowed to go back to heaven after two hundred years. Apparently they were the first two warriors that died. The names of the Genbu celestial warriors are Uruki; Tomite; Hatsui; Namame; Hikitsu; Inami and Urumiya.”
“Hikitsu? Urumiya?” she repeated these names, there was a strange sense of familiarity in them.
“As for the story of Byakko, I know even less.” Seishuku continued. “All I have heard is that the priestess of Byakko loved one of her celestial warriors as the priestess of Genbu did, only that she remained virginal when she called out the god. She left this world as Byakko did not grant her wish of being with her lover.”
There was no familiar name among the celestial warriors of Byakko, although she realized that she was beginning to feel rather angry.
“Miaka really is lucky.” She said rather bitterly. “She could have her wish granted, unlike the others.”
“We are so happy now, more then anyone, so why think of the past?” he employed out. Taking her hand, Seishuku led her back to their bed, and held her against him, with their unborn children between them. “Isn’t that what you always say to me?”
Yuri could only nod, as she would often repeat these words during the first few months of their reunion, Seishuku could not manage to forgive Seiryuu for what he had to do to her.
“Do you think of me as selfish?” she asked.
Her question left a strong impact on him, as he had a very strange dream that night.

Yuri was kneeling in front of something, dressed as the priestess of Seiryuu as he managed to recognize the shade of her dress. (10)
He was walking to her…running. But it was too late, he knew it was too late even before she turned around.
The dagger was already stabbed in her body, although it could not have been very long ago, as her hand was still around the hilt.
“Am I selfish in wanting to be loved?” she whispered as she fell into his arms.
He was crying and so was she, but her tears was silent, she did not wipe her tears at all because they had become natural. Raising a hand she pointed toward the sky…
“He died for our crime, for our sin.” She whispered. “I will pay for my crimes with my death.”
He wanted to pick her up to take her somewhere but she only shook her head.
“I cannot go back due to what I did. I will be killed as soon as any of them sees me.”
“By being one of the chosen you would know when I die, just as you felt his death. Hotohori…I killed myself because I don’t want you to abandon your priestess and find me in the world of mortals…my old world. I let Nakago die because I refused to name you as the one responsible as I want you to live!” (11)

He would have told Yuri about the strange dream but he never had the chance, as their children announced their decision of wanting to come out that very morning. Between worrying about Yuri, as well as being assured that his children would not be born before he gets back from the train station in order to take his brother and friends back to Konan, he forgot about the dream completely.

I thought I’ll just put all my fan fiction up instead of putting them up weekly. So here it is, my second Fushigi Yugi fan fiction, the sequel. Buried memories is the sequel to Hidden secrets and for those who knows the Fushigi yugi story, it deals with the second arch of the story, the events in volume 14-18.

Title: Buried Memories
Pairing: Hotohori and OC (Houki Yuri)
Written at: July 26- December 31 (I wrote this in fragment, I actually didn’t write this in a chronological fashion
Category: Romance
Summary: Sequel to Hidden Secrets, the very happy life of Hotohori and Yuri are threatened when Tenkou began to break from his seals, as a result they must return to the universe of the four gods and come to term with their past .

Author’s Note: After a long time of writing and pondering I decided to put this up, although it gets really weird at time. As for why I started to write again, I think it is because with Fushigi Yugi I have the desire of committing myself to such a project, a feeling that I have not feel for any other manga or anime. I might think of some thing that I want to do but I wouldn’t actually do it.
So I decided to continue with my original plan, which had been writing about what happens in Fushigi Yugi volume 14-18, the whole thing with Tenkou. Then I was reading Genbu Kaiden and that actually inspired me to do another fan fiction, and then I came up with the most crazy idea that is like a prologue for Fushigi Yugi and Genbu Kaiden.
Warning: I now realized, after watching anime, that I start to dislike Miaka quite a bit, although I am not sure why. I also dislike Yui, as I think she is quite…annoying? I really dislike how she says she understand when she doesn’t seem to. I am biased but I think I would like her better if she actually feels guilty for what she did to Konan. I don’t really know why but I just really don’t like Miaka, I think it is because I feel that she never fully grasp the situation. So, if you like these two then don’t read this story! Another thing I noticed is that I am more interested in the warriors of Seiryuu now, so hopefully I will talk about them more.
But anyway, here is the story. The prologue is a bit of a summary and foreshadowing though, so don’t expect too much from it. Lastly, if you are haven’t read my first story then please don’t read this one until you finished reading “hidden secrets” as it wouldn’t make sense otherwise.

Prologue

There is a great legend of love in the world of the universe of the four gods, about two people who gave up everything just for the sake of the one that they love.
The forth emperor of Konan, Saihitei, was one of the seven celestial warriors of Suzaku, the guardian of Konan. He was a highly skilled swordsman as well as being a very wise ruler despite his youth, but that is no longer what first comes to the mind of anyone in the world where he had once lived in.
They think of him as a man who was so deeply in love that he ended up abandoning everything just to be with her. It was said that when Suzaku offered him the choice of leaving everything in this world in order to be reunited with the one that he love, he agreed without any hesitation. (1)
“You will no longer be an emperor, but only an ordinary person in her original world.” Suzaku had told the young but wise emperor.
“All I ever truly want is to be with her.” Saihitei answered calmly, tightening his embrace on her sleeping form.
His people does not condemn him as he had been partially responsible for them to be enjoying their now peaceful life, he had contributed in this event along with the priestess of Suzaku and the other companions. Sine his successor, his younger brother, is fair, the people of Konan could remember him fondly, and view his action affectionately by weaving it into a romantic legend.
For the rest of the world, they are pleased enough by this legend that they could tell at winter gatherings or to little children whenever they demanded it.
Whenever he is mentioned, his empress’ part would be spoke of with equal importance, just as Saihitei was regarded as a man deeply in love, Houkigou was his counterpart, as well as being the receiver of his love,
Before, the only thing most people would know about this empress would be that she was the consort of the emperor, who loved her deeply, and before a few might have heard the rumours of how the emperor refused to elect another concubine even though she was believed to be barren.
Now, she plays an equal proportion in their story, and in Kutou she would even be regarded as the more important character as she was the priestess of Seiryuu, the god of Kutou.
Houkigou had wanted to save the one she loved so much that she choose to became the priestess of Seiryuu, ending up dying for Saihitei in order to let Suzaku to be summoned by his priestess so that Konan would be saved, along with his life.
Those who witnessed her death all agreed that it had been a truly horrifying sight to watch the god dug himself out of her body. Then they would add about how amazing it was that she never once uttered any sound of pain despite how much it must have hurt.

Thus the people of Konan remembers their forth emperor and empress with great love, and regard them as greatly responsible for saving Konan with the priestess of Suzaku.
In Kutou, the legend would be especially elaborated in the bit when Houkigou was the priestess of Seiryuu. This was not surprising, as the people owned their now peaceful life and the new wise emperor due to her actions. She might have done it only out of love for Saihitei of Konan, but the people of Kutou still worshiped her as she changed their lives for the good so dramatically.
Even though she was not loved or even cherished as the priestess of Suzaku was by her celestial warriors, the deep awe and love from the people of Kutou certainly made up for that.
Because their priestess was also the empress of Konan, the two countries that were once main rivals actually managed to have a much better relationship, although old wounds could never be completely healed, there would always be some scars.
The legend ends with the promise of happiness to Saihitei and Houkigou in their new life.
Unknown to anyone, that promise would soon be broken because very shortly, they would be forced to return to the world that they had left behind.

(1) Even though I think Hotohori would have been very happy to be able to give up his throne if it means he could be with the woman he loves, he was quite sad that he couldn’t go with Miaka and he did say that if he was free he would have been at her side. But seeing it from everyone else’s view: giving up one’s kingdom for a woman would be regarded as a very extreme action, as you do sacrifice a lot of stuff and luxury, even if they didn’t really want the responsibility that comes with it in the first place.

Author’s Note: I suppose that served as a reminder of the main stuff that happened in the last story? Well…the purpose is to have an introduction and it’s not really that bad. Although it seems unnaturally short. the next chapter is really the official start of the story, so please at least read the next chapter before you decided anything.

I have finished my exams but I don’t really think I did well, as I kind of feel that I could have studied harder, yet I am not feeling that bad so I think I have done work. But anyway, I have finished exams and I will try to forget about it until I get my result back, then I’ll decide what to do I guess. But anyway I realise I really should come straight home instead of wondering around the city as I seem to be the type of person who have a tendency to spend. But the problem is I don’t even know what I brought that made me spend so much money. Well…a pair of jeans and some additional stuff and all of a sudden my wallet it empty. It really is literally empty, I planned to buy something for lunch but had to go home as I had to money left. (sob…)

But I got called to work so I suppose I will be able to have an increase in my income. A good thing because that time of the year is coming up: Christmas, I always end up spending so much money around the holidays. Now, after having worked in that food stall for a whole year you would think that I would have learnt from past experiences but no…Ok…today, as I said, I didn’t’ bring any lunch as I planned to buy something for lunch (exam was in the morning), and then I went home but somehow I didn’t seem to be hungry and well, it was two and we eat dinner at five in our house so I thought I’ll just wait until dinner, least I get really full now and doesn’t want to eat dinner, which will get me into trouble with my dad. Then I got called to work and I thought I’ll just eat at work, when I got to work I usually eat somewhere between eight and eight fifteen. I wasn’t like starving to death but I was looking forward to eating dinner. And so at about eight I made my ramen but I probably only had a few bite (it was really hot so I had to eat it quite slow) when this customer came. This was ok but then another three customer came. So my ramen got neglected for quite some time. (Sob…) maybe I should adjust my dinner time but I like eating at that time, somewhere between eight and eight fifteen as by the time I finish I can start to pack up. Then I can go home!!!

Well, I thought I’ll relax and do another of those prince of tennis what if scene, I don’t know why but I just really like writing them. Well, this one is inspired by the prince of tennis game- the one about the school festival. Well I was reading this lady’s site in which she talked about what happens with each person as recording some of the conversation down. When I saw the following for Inui I just cracked up…

What happened is that the PC is commenting about the fact that Inui seem to be really busy with collecting data, so she offered to help him… I find it really weird to write Inui and PC so I’ll just call her Hanako, a really popular name, but I heard that you can give the PC any name you want anyway.

Inui: “Well…I would like your help but…”
Hanako: “Isn’t is possible?”
Inui: “Can you manage to get into a males changing room?”
Hanako: “Eh?”
Inui: “That is the best data collecting source.”
Hanako: “That is impossible for me.”
Inui: “Is that so, what a pity. I’ll just have to do it myself.”
Hanako: “I…I am just asking out of curiosity but how does senpai plan to investigate?”
Inui: “Oh, are you interested?”
Hanako: “Yes.”
Inui: “It’s easy, just go into an empty locker. It’s just that. I better go before the target return to the changing room. Bye.”
Hanako: “Yes…yes…”
Hanako: “Senpai…that is kind of like committing a crime.”

I then immediately got an idea for a what if fan fiction. And since this is me, the setting is naturally in Shitenhouji. Laughs, maybe I should introduce my what if scenes like this.

Setting: Shitenhouji
Participators in this scene: Shiraishi, Kenya, Watanabe, Kintarou
Guest star: Inui (the guest star will be the one who is not in Shitenhouji. LOL)

One explanation of why Inui did not have Shitenhouji’s data
Kikumara: “So we are going to play Shitenhouji Chuu next, Inui, what data do you have? Tell us tell us!”
Momoshiro: “That’s right, we will be able to have a huge advantage as we have Inui senpai who have data on all players.
Echizen: “Momo-senpai, I don’t think you should have said that.”
Fuji: “Why, Inui is turning white again.” (1)

(enters into Inui’s flash back…)
Inui: “Hohoho, this has been a most profitable visit, although the problem is that I have got too much data that I hardly remember any of it. I must be very careful with this note book…especially when it also consists of my latest drink.
Inui: “There will be a gap of time after their coach leaves along with this kid and before their buchou enters, I should be able to use this time to escape. Hohohoho…data!!!”
Watanabe: “Kintarou, don’t forget to put Shiraishi’s towel back into his locker and say thank you to him for lending it to you. And don’t forget to lock it this time.”
Kintarou: “Of course I’ll remember, I don’t need Osamu-chan to remind me.”
Watanabe: “No? Should I point out that you are trying to open Kenya’s locker, not Shiraishi’s. His one is the one left to Kenya’s.
Inui: “Wait a moment, the locker left to where he is standing is…”

(the locker is opened…)

Kintarou: “Osamu-chan, look at this! There is someone in Shiraishi’s locker!”
Watanabe: “What?”

(Watanabe went to stand beside Kintarou. Upon the sight of Inui, Watanabe smiled rather evilly before he quickly slammed the door close and locked it, then drags Kintarou outside- where they could not hear any sound from the club room, even though Inui still manages to hear them)

Watanabe: “Kintarou, you must not tell anyone about this.”
Kintarou: “Why not?”
Watanabe: “Especially not to Shiraishi. This is because the person in there is a spirit haunting Shiraishi.”
Kintarou: “I don’t believe that! Osamu-chan is lying again.”
Watanabe: “I am very serious. Haven’t Shiraishi told you about what happened when he first started his training? No, well, I will tell you if you promise to never repeat this to anyone else. After the first week of his training, Shiraishi was examining his hand when he accidentally touched the person next to him.”
Kintarou: “Waaa!!! He really did kill someone with his poisoned hands!”
Watanabe: “No, this was before his training completed so the person is only in a coma. But his spirit is haunting Shiraishi and will remain haunting Shiraishi until the day his wakes up…”

(Shiraishi and Kenya walks toward the changing room.) (2)

Shiraishi: “Kin-chan, haven’t you gone home yet?”
Kintarou: “I promise I’ll behave so please don’t use the poisoned hand on me!!!”

(runs away)

Shiraishi: “Sensei, what did you say to him?”
Watanabe: “Why must you all immediately think that I did something?”
Kenya: “Because you usually are the one responsible.”
Watanabe: “Well, aren’t you two going to pack up? You know that I can’t leave until I see everyone of you leave.”
Kenya: “I swear, you only remember that you are the coach at a time convenient to you…”
Watanabe: “Nonsense, I love my job, especially right now.”

(Shiraishi and Kenya exchanges a glance)

Shiraishi and Kenya: “You did something.”

(The two went to the changing room.)

Shiraishi: “Oh, Kintarou actually remembers to lock my locker after he used it. Seriously, I have told him so many times to do that, even using ‘that’.” (3)

(Shiraishi opens the locker, upon seeing Inui he quickly shut it again.)

Shiraishi: “Kenya, did you just see what I saw…”
Kenya: “You know, I think we’ve both been stressing about the nationals too much.”
Shiraishi: “Yeah, that much be why. Hahahaha, we really shouldn’t worry about it that much as we really are good.”
Kenya: “Definitely.”
Shiraishi: “Alright, ready?”

(upon Kenya’s nod Shiraishi opens the locker again. The two of them exchanged a look before Shiraishi quickly slammed it close and locked it)

Shiraishi: “Alright, we weren’t hallucinating. We better call the police.”
Kenya: “Yeah, although why must the pervert come to our school?”
Shiraishi: “Hey, he is in my locker!!!”
Inui: (banging on the locker: ) I am not a pervert!!!
Kenya: “That is what they all say, why would someone be hiding inside a locker if they are not a pervert?”
Watanabe: (walks out) “don’t you two boys recognize him?”
Kenya: “We are meant to recognize him? Oh my gosh, surely he is not that escaped prisoner the news talked about last night?”

(Inui is in the process of turning white…)

Watanabe: “No, he is Inui Sadaharu, one of the regulars of Seigaku.” (Opens the locker and waves his hand in front of Inui) Inui-kun, you do realise that you are trespassing? First of all, you have no right to be here because you are not a student of Shitenhouji. Not that you have a right to be here even if you are a student here because that locker is Shiraishi’s.”
Watanabe: “But since this is the first time you are here, I will forgive you.”
Inui: “Thank you…” (prepares to escape)
Watanabe: “However, I do not want information about our school to be leaked out. So please hand the book over.”
Inui: “But…but this contains other stuff too.”
Watanabe: “Don’t worry, I will return what does not concern Shitenhouji back to you.”
Inui: “My data…my recipes…”

(half an hour later…)

(A very defeated Inui is heading back to Tokyo with a considerably thinner notebook…)

Inui: “My data…”

(while back in Shitenhouji…)

Watanabe: (whistles cheerfully): “I really do love my job.”
Kenya: “Shiraishi, don’t you think sensei is a bit…”
Shiraishi: “Kenya, that is more then a bit…”

1) think about episode 163 of the anime
2) Shiraishi and Kenya are the last one to leave as they were playing a match with each other.
3) What happened is that Kintarou forgot his towel so Shiraishi told him to get one from his locker, which is what Kintarou did. Since Kintarou forgot to lock Shiraishi’s locker, Inui then went to hide in there.

I decided to poke fun at Inui in this what if scene because I honestly think that going to collect data by hiding in a locker when the regulars are changing is quite perverted… And for some reason I can see Watanabe being really evil. I just wanted to have that story of him scaring Kintarou.

I am still tormented by exams but I am taking a break tonight…so I thought I’ll update my blog. Well…this is a what if scene that I wrote some time ago so it’s not as if I am using up a lot of time. So anywhere, Rikkai fans will be glad as this what if scene sort of focus on Kirihara quite a bit.

Kirihara…you really do have to feel sorry for him. Even though at one hand, he is really privileged, I mean- which other school will actually deliberately lose in order for him to understand more? However, it is quite clear that he is paying a lot for this privilege- well, in regard to all the games and mini dramas for prince of tennic one can see this really easily… (apparently he often get additional training etc etc. direct supervision from Sanada…). But anyway, I then came up with this what if fan fiction…

Kirihara paying a visit to Shitenhouji
Kirihara: I heard from my senpai that Shitenhouji has a first year who is treated in a way a bit like me. Apparently his buchou really sees him as his own brother. That must be horrible – direct pain inflicted from the buchou. I would like to talk to him about a way that will let us resist this.”

(Kirihara arrives in Shitenhouji and begins to talk to Shiraishi- who is in the club room.)

Shiraishi: “You want to talk to Kintarou? I don’t really mind…”
Kenya: “Shiraishi! We have a crisis! Zaizen is chasing Kintarou around and trying to hit him with his racquet.” (1)
Shiraishi: “Excuse me for a second, Kirihara-kun. What has Kin-chan done this time?”
Kirihara: “Ken-chan? I wonder what it would be like if my senpai calls me Aka-chan…(shudders)”
Kenya: “Well…he purposely spilt juice on Zaizen’s jacket”
Shiraishi: “Because?”
Kenya: “Zaizen grabbed him by the ear and twisted it.”
Shiraishi: “Which was done as?”
Kenya: “He addressed Zaizen the way he usually does”
Shiraishi: “For that reason again? For goodness sake, when will these two ever learn? Well, send them to me now.”

(Kenya exists, Zaizen enters.)

Zaizen: “Buchou, I know what you want to say, that I half deserve what I got for twisting his ear.”
Shiraishi: “Well, yes. Zaizen, I know that what Kintarou does is rather rude but he does this for everyone, he’s not just doing this because you are the only second year in the regular. I mean, I’m the buchou and he just calls me Shiraishi. For goodness sake, he even calls Sensei ‘Osamu-chan’!”
Zaizen: “I know, you’ve told me many times before, but…”
Shiraishi: “You should realise by now that Kin-chan is just like that, he is not being rude on purpose. Because we are all regulars he regards us as all being the same. At any rate you should not physically injure him.”
Zaizen: “Nonetheless, my jacket…”
Shiraishi: “I will make him apologise and clean the jacket.”
Zaizen: “Fine, then I will tell him that I am sorry for tearing his ears. I guess I really shouldn’t have done that.”

(Zaizen exists, Kintarou enters.)

Kintarou: “Shiraishi, are you angry?”
Shiraishi: “Kin-chan you know that Zaizen doesn’t like you calling him without adding any suffix, he’s just like that.”
Kintarou: “But it really hurt!”
Shiraishi: “I imagine it will be so, but Kin-chan, you really shouldn’t have spilt juice on his jacket either.”
Kintarou: “But it really hurt!”
Shiraishi: “I know, I know. But to make peace you should apologise to him and clean his jacket, after all you are the one that dirtied it right?”
Kintarou: “But he grabbed me by the ears and twisted it, and that really hurt!”
Shiraishi: “He will apologise for that. So will you apologise when he does?”
Kintarou: “Alright I will.”
Shiraishi: “Good.”

(Shiraishi pats Kintarou on the head)

Shiraishi: “As a reward I will give this pudding to you, but don’t tell anyone else, ok?” (2)

(Kintarou exists with pudding in hand, Kenya enters)

Kenya: “So that’s everything solved. Did you give him food again? Shiraishi, you really are spoiling that kid…by the way, what does Kirihara from Rikkai want?”
Shiraishi: “Eh? Where did he go? That’s so strange…he was there a moment ago.”
Kenya: “Maybe he just wants to see what Shitenhouji is like. You know, I heard that their whole team treat him as if he is their brother, it’s just like what you do with Kintarou.”
Shiraishi: “Then I guess he must be a pretty happy kid if he is spoilt by the whole tennis team instead of just the buchou.” (3)

(outside)

Kirihara: This is so unfair! Why does that kid get to be treated like that when I would be killed for doing just half of what he did!!! Gosh…if I called my senpai just by their last name…

(Enter into Kirihara’s imagination…)

Yagyuu: (pushes his glasses before he calmly slaps Kirihara) I’m doing this for your own good.

Niou: (chuckles evilly)
(The next day.)
(Everything starts to go wrong for Kirihara…he would be surrounded by accidents.)

Yanagi: (says nothing)
(the next day)
Yanagi: Akaya, I told Genichiro that you have been a bit slack lately so he made me modify your training. This is your new training schedule.

Yukimura: (smiles even more radiantly) I think Genichiro heard that and he doesn’t seem to like it. I’m sure that he went to get his katana…

Kirihara: Aghh! I don’t even want to think about that!!!

1- This is an idea from my fan fiction, as I really believe that if Shitenhouji has a fuku-buchou then it will be Kenya. Initially I tried to make my ‘what if fan fiction’ not so much like fan fictions but I then decided…why? This is about stuff that wouldn’t be happening anyway so I might as well do what I want. So in this story, and possibly others, Kenya is occupying the position of fuku-buchou.

2- for some reason I just see Shiraishi doing this- I think it is because I believe Shiraishi really regards Kintarou as his own brother, and I also think the others know about this.

3- Well, as mentioned in the front, it is a different kind of spoiling

Apology: My brain is not very coherent right now so this entry will probably be really hectic…confusing to understand…

I really shouldn’t be doing this but I feel I have to do it…this is a very very quick comment about the latest prince of tennis…which will soon come out, but it’s not that bad as some of this is taken from my comment from my sis’ blog.



First of all. Genius 361-362: since this is already out I can’t be bothered putting git on spoiler but basically this is what I felt.



This seems the worse case of ‘Seigaku as the hero school I have ever seen as this nationals is just turning into Tezuka playing Fuji (now we finally have prove that this is a story that can not be real, although I was quite suprirsed that Fuji was actually playing normal tennis. (Heck…thought I’ll never see such a thing ever since Shiraishi went off…)



But I really don’t like what Nious does because I think he deserves much better then that, he deserves to have his own playing style instead of just being able to turn into Tezuka, yes, that is very impressive but I rather him being able to go into that state of muga, not just because he turned into Tezuka.



To be honest I think it is really bad for Niou to turn into Tezuka. Fuji probably always want to have a game with Tezuka but is worried due to concern for Tezuka’s arm, and now Niou is basically letting him be able to have a game with Tezuka without having to worry about Tezuka’s arm. Because ‘Screw this, look at what Rikkai just did to my own friends…’



And then I thought of Shiraishi, because Shiraishi is (I believe very strongly) on the same level as Fuji, he did beat him and he even managed to push Fuji into a stage of 5-0. Actually he was on match point too…but then I thought that turning into Shiraishi will have a really negative effect too, as bad as Tezuka. Isn’t really bad to turn into some one who actually beat him, and who actually might have beat him with a score of 6-0? (explanation, if Shiraishi had got that point after Fuji stood up again then Shiraishi would have been the winner. Honestly, if I am Fuji I’ll be thinking: “This guy (Shiraishi) beat me in singles, and he even pushed me into a 5-0 siutation. I am so going to beat him this time…”



Next bit contain spoilers for genius 363 . I just saw two pictures from it…so read at your own risk.



But anyway, the reason I typed this up is because Niou actually goes… “Tezuka is actually not that good” and turns to Shiraishi. Now I honestly don’t know what I feel other then this: “LET ME READ THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!” Ok…on one hand I am really glad that I get to see more of Shiraishi (mysterious voice: admit it, you might even want Niou to win just because he turns into Shiraishi. Me: I didn’t hear anything!!!) but yet I am having a bit of mixed feeling about this. First of all I don’t want to see Shiraishi being like Niou!!! No offence to Niou fans but Shiraishi…Shiraishi is so different from Niou! (rolling on the ground) Yet I am also super glad that Niou choose to turn into Shiraishi as it means the author regards him as a top player (otherwise why will Niou substitute Tezuka into him?). But yet I think it is also quite unfair to Shiraishi…another can just copy his playing style without going through all the pain that he went through- both the emotional and physical pain…



But I can’t wait to see Shiraishi coming out again!!! (haven’t been this excited about prince of tennis since I waited for OVA 2’s 3 and 4 to come out. By the time I read the story I think it was at the yakiniku competition and when I looked for OVA OVA 2’s 1 and 2 is already out.) Although I rather see the real Shiraishi but it will still be so cool if Shiraishi will come out again!!! But I have to point out something. Niou can imitate people’s skills but can he imitate their personality? Afterall, Shiraishi is one of the calmest people Fuji has ever seen on court. Can Niou imitate this too? And I think this is a big factor in Shiraishi winning over Fuji as well, he didn’t panic, he just continued to play and try to break the counter. So if Niou can not imitate Shiraishi’s personality then he can not get the full benefit of the transform!!!



(I am in such a dilemma now…)



But sigh…my greatest wish right now is this. As Niou play he’ll make a comment about perfect tennis being boring and everyone can realize what Shiraishi choose to do because of him being the buchou. Not likely but if he does…I will be able to forgive Konomi-sensei for making Majinofuji into the runner up last year instead of Shitenhouji, and even almost being able to forgive him for not giving Shiraishi a more glorious win.



On the other hand, I will never forgive Konomi-sensei if he just uses this to prove that Fuji is better then Shiraishi (to pacify Fuji fans.). As I get a bad feeling he might…then I will be really pissed…although I don’t think it will be that bad, as I said before, I think Shiraishi’s personality played a large part in determining his win.

This is just an explanation of why my blog has been receiving so little attention during this month. This is because I am studying for my exams, which is at the end of the month, as I have been studying exams I naturally don’t have that much time to update. (well, the main reason is that I am not managing my time that well.) So I probably wouldn’t be updating until the end of October, when I almost finished my exam. It is especially difficult now as I still have lecturers- I think most people will understand, having to juggle studying and class is not easy.

and for blog pet
大阪市位於日本本州西部，近畿平原，面臨大阪湾。古時作為京都的外港。與京都、神戶合稱為京阪神。是西日本、近畿地方、京阪神都市圏及大阪都市圏的行政、産業、文化、交通中心，也是大阪府府廳所在地。白天人口僅次於東京都為全國第二名，夜間人口次於橫濱市為全國第三名。


歷史
大阪歷史悠久，傳說日本第一位天皇神武天皇駕船到此，見水勢湍急，因此命名為浪速。數百年後改為同音異字的難波。又數百年後因地形地勢的關係改稱“大阪”。明治維新後忌於“阪”字可拆為“士反”，有“武士叛亂”之諱，因此於明治三年（1870年）正式改名為“大阪”。
古時大阪是通向中國和朝鮮的重要港口。7世紀時已是一個商業中心。16世紀豐臣秀吉在這裏修運河、建橋樑。江戶時代大阪是日本的經濟中心。
1956年，大阪被指定為政令指定都市
行政區
大阪市共分為24區。

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