...and here we have chapter 9... It took a little bit longer than I thought it would (considering that chapter 8 came out in early August and now it's October...) But it's done, and I wrote over 75% of this in the past two days ^_^; Anyway, this chapter has explanations...and a certain god acting...not quite as dignified as you'd think a god would be. As well as my randomly (well, not really randomly, since the ties between Himitsu and the book, and Suzaku, and Seiryuu are what gave me the whole idea in the first place) making up backgrounds for Suzaku and Seiryuu...and the book...
I would like to make it clear now that this story is based off of the anime before Eikouden... Yeah, I've seen Eikouden (it's the only FY anime that I actually own ^_^;), but I just don't like some of the stuff it sets up that would have to be reflected in this story. So...if you've seen Eikouden and are scratching your head wondering how in the world some of that stuff fits in here...it doesn't.
As for the next chapter...I have absolutely no idea. I doubt it will be before December, since November I will be working on National Novel Writing Month...and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to go about the next chapter (or how far it will go in the story)...so I doubt I can get it done by the end of October, not while trying to plot out an idea for NaNoWriMo at the same time.
DISCLAIMER: And I still do not own the shoujo goodness that is Fushigi Yuugi. It belongs to Watase Yuu, who draws many pretties...and I am just borrowing the characters and basic setting so that I can take them and bend them to my will. Mwahahahahaha!!! ...but Himitsu and Devin are still mine...even if I do strange things to Himitsu's background for the sake of this story...
Chapter 9: Suzaku
As soon as Taka said it, I could see it. As far as I could remember, I had never seen any representation of Suzaku-sama in any form other than a red bird. That explained why I was so sure that I had never met or seen the man standing in front of me before, because I hadn't. But he was still my god; I was one of his seven warriors, and that explained why I was sure I knew him, because in a way I did. And besides that, Himitsu-sensei had called him sensei, and I vaguely remembered Devin saying something about Himitsu-sensei's teacher being named Suzaku. I hadn't even considered that he might be the same Suzaku, but it almost explained why Devin had been pulled into it.
Of course, that didn't mean that I could think straight right after realizing exactly what Taka had said. It was a shock, a very big shock, and I just wasn't expecting it. So I just kind of stood there and stared at the kindly smiling god standing behind Himitsu-sensei for a while, until Himitsu-sensei finally grabbed me by the arm and started pulling me toward the door, key in hand.
I tried to pull away before I even thought about it. It wasn't that I had anything against Himitsu-sensei; it was just an instinctive reaction to struggle against someone who was making me move before I was ready to move. The strange thing was that I couldn't pull away, even though I'm pretty sure I put all the superhuman strength I could summon without the magical bracers that I remembered having back in the book into it. His grip, while not painful on my arm, was very strong, and definitely not that of a normal person.
"We're going to start attracting attention if we stay out here too much longer," he said as he fumbled to get the door open. "Devin and I are already the main focus of the gossip that the perverted old ladies who live here pass around. I don't need them talking about how I'm seducing a "poor, confused student" now. So if you want to continue this conversation, it happens inside."
I was too busy trying to come up with something that might explain how Himitsu-sensei was stronger than I was to protest. It wasn't going well, and I didn't even realize as he got the lock to work and then dragged me into the apartment, followed closely by both Taka and Suzaku-sama. Before I knew it, I was seated on a couch with Taka on the other end, Suzaku-sama in an easy chair, and Himitsu-sensei on the loveseat across from us.
"Now, what's going on?" Himitsu-sensei asked.
"Are you really Suzaku-sama?" I asked Suzaku-sama. He nodded, and didn't even look a little annoyed, though I think I would have been if I was a god and someone didn't believe that I was. "The real Suzaku-sama?"
"Yes, Ryuuen," he said.
"Why are you here?" I asked him. It was a stupid question to ask, mostly because Suzaku-sama was a god, and I had no right asking him to explain his actions to me. But it came out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Besides, I didn't understand it. Suzaku-sama was from the book, just like all of us, but I remembered at that point that Seiryuu had been trying to use Miaka's friend Yui, his miko, to get out. So why was Suzaku-sama out and walking around the real world?
"I am visiting one of my prize pupils," he said, which only confused me even more. At my look of confusion, he continued. "He is sitting across from you at the moment, and I believe he is currently your teacher, is he not? He calls himself Himitsu now instead of his real name, but that does not change the fact that he is one of my best students."
"But, aren't you just another character in the book, just like we were?" I asked. I immediately regretted asking that particular stupid question as soon as it came out of my mouth. Luckily, he didn't get angry.
"Zennith," he said, turning to Himitsu-sensei. "Am I a character in a book?"
"Probably," Himitsu-sensei replied. His face was completely straight, but his voice was light, and I'm pretty sure he was joking. "You can find pretty much anything in the stories that people write, if you look hard enough. You'd be surprised."
Suzaku-sama sighed. "Let me rephrase that," he said. "Am I just a character in a book?"
"No," Himitsu-sensei said. Then, after a slight pause, he continued. "Though I would love to know why my student seems to think that you are. Have you been experimenting with ways to alter someone's thinking again?"
Suzaku-sama smiled. "Absolutely not," he said. "I would never do something like that."
"Oh?" Himitsu-sensei asked. "I seem to remember when I was young and you had my youngest sister convinced that you were a giant flying chicken, even though she knew better."
Suzaku-sama just continued to smile at Himitsu-sensei, as Taka and I stared at him with what I'm sure were matching looks of shock. I was having a hard time getting my mind to accept the thought of my god playing a trick like that, but he wasn't denying it. When I looked over at Taka, he almost looked like he was about to fall off the couch, and I know that was how I felt. It just didn't seem right...even if it was true.
"That was a very long time ago," Suzaku-sama said, his voice calm. "But this particular situation comes from an even older experiment than that one. A successful one, I might add, but still from long before you were born."
"...you're leaving something out," Himitsu-sensei said, glaring at Suzaku-sama, who continued to smile back.
"It is a long story, and one which Taka and Ryuuen here already know the majority of. And I believe Ryuuen is in a hurry at the moment."
Himitsu-sensei sighed, but it sounded like a sigh of surrender more than anything else. "Fine...but I'd appreciate an explanation later." Then he turned to me. "Okay, Ryuuen...I guess you can try what you were trying to say earlier again now. But please, slower this time. Unlike some people, I'm not quite sure what's going on." He shot a nasty glance at Suzaku-sama, but didn't say anything.
I took a deep breath, and then decided to start with what I was pretty sure he would think was the worst part. "Devin's been kidnapped." I figured that even if he was somehow not willing to help us after Suzaku-sama got involved, that telling him that would make him listen. Of course, it wasn't quite true...since Devin had gone with Nakago willingly, even if he didn't really want to do it.
Himitsu-sensei took it much better than I thought he would, actually. He didn't get mad. Actually, he didn't even look all that surprised. He did at first, but then he sighed, leaned back against the back of his seat, and started to slide down, until he was almost falling off of the loveseat. "Again?" he asked, though he didn't actually seem to be talking to anyone specific.
This surprised me. "Huh?" I asked.
"Never mind. Why don't you tell me what happened, from the beginning?"
I nodded, but before I could start talking, a ringing noise started. It sounded like it was coming from the pocket of Taka's coat. He flashed a guilty look at the rest of us in the room, and then fished a cell phone out of his pocket. "Moshi moshi?" he said, after answering it.
He stayed silent for a few moments, nodding his head every now and then. Then, a surprised look flashed across his face, and he immediately followed that with a, "Are you absolutely sure about that?" After another, much shorter pause, he finally sighed and said, "Fine, let me talk to him first." Right after that, the volume of the person on the other end went up, a lot. Enough that I could hear him (and almost understand him)...and it kinda sounded like Genrou.
Finally, after being shouted at for a while, Taka lowered the phone and turned to me. "It's Tasuki, if you couldn't already tell. He wants to talk to you."
"But..." I said, not wanting to put off telling Himitsu-sensei what had happened just to talk to Genrou, who I was sure was still pissed off at me.
"I'll explain things for you," he said, shoving the cell phone into my hand. "Just try and convince Tasuki to stop threatening to torch buildings." And then I was being pushed into a chair in a different room (it looked like a kitchen). Nervously, I raised the cell phone to my ear.
"Hi...Genrou?" I said.
"Yer at Himitsu's place, aren't ya?" he said. He sounded remarkably calm compared to what I had heard while Taka was talking to him.
"Yeah."
"Have ya tried to explain things yet?"
"Kinda."
"And does he think yer crazy now?"
"..."
"He does, doesn't he?"
"...not really..."
"Ya can't be serious!"
"Genrou, he knows Suzaku-sama," I said.
"He already knows about it?" he asked. "Well, I guess he's a history teacher and all... He must have read some weird books or somethin'."
"No," I said. "He doesn't know about us. He knows Suzaku-sama, the god. He's real, just like your tessen and my strength. And he's sitting in Himitsu-sensei's living room right now listening to Taka."
Right about then, I heard Himitsu-sensei yell at the top of his lungs (which, by the way, was very, very loud...almost painful). It was just one word, "Seiryuu!?" About two seconds later, he came storming through the kitchen, dragging Suzaku-sama by the arm. "Okay, I don't care if it takes a long time...you are explaining now!" he was almost yelling as he pulled Suzaku-sama into a different room and slammed the door behind him. And during the whole thing, I just stared.
I also missed whatever Genrou was saying while Himitsu-sensei crossed the room, since I had dropped the phone to my side as I watched. When I finally put the phone back up, Genrou almost sounded frantic. "Ryuuen? Ya still there?" he was asking.
"Sorry," I said. "I was just a little distracted. I think Himitsu-sensei knows Seiryuu as well, since I just heard him yell that, and then he dragged Suzaku-sama into another room, demanding an explanation."
"Are ya sure he's really Suzaku-sama?" Genrou asked. "What if he's just some weirdo who says he's him? Remember, ya never actually met him."
"But Taka has," I said. "And he's the one who recognized him first, not me. He really is Suzaku-sama, Genrou. I'm sure of it."
"If ya say so," Genrou said, not sounding convinced at all. I made the decision at that point to try to do anything I could to get Genrou and Suzaku-sama in the same place at the same time eventually, just so I could prove it to him. I didn't have much of a problem with him not believing me about Devin's trustworthiness, since I still couldn't figure out why I had trusted him myself. But with Suzaku-sama...I just couldn't let Genrou keep thinking I was wrong about that.
"I do say so," I said, and then I decided that it was time to change the topic. "Are you still mad enough to burn down buildings?" I asked him. "Or have you calmed down a little?"
"I'm pissed off," he said. "But not as pissed off. Aren't ya pissed off too?"
"I'm worried Genrou," I said. "And I'm scared...terrified actually. This wasn't supposed to be this big. It was just supposed to be me, and this guy who I like who doesn't quite realize that I'm not a girl yet... And now it's so complicated. Nakago has Devin and Miaka, and Sai... Suzaku-sama's involved. And Himitsu-sensei is pissed off at Suzaku-sama about something. And Mom is probably crying as we speak... No, I'm not pissed off."
"What happened with Mom?" he asked.
"She was home when Taka and I stopped by to try and find directions to Himitsu-sensei's place," I said. "She didn't want to let me leave. She kept asking questions, and when I told her that I was in a hurry she told me I couldn't go. And then she found out that what's going on is dangerous... And I'm sure she's worried about us, but I couldn't just stay at home and not do anything..."
"I'll go home and try talkin' to her," he said. "I doubt she'll try to stop me when I leave, and maybe I can do a little bit more explainin' to her about what's goin' on and how ya don't really have much of a choice about getting pulled into it. Will that make ya feel a little better?"
"Yeah," I said, smiling for what felt like the first time in forever even though he couldn't see me. "Thanks, Genrou."
"I suppose since I have somethin' useful to do now I should go and do it, and stop makin' ya waste Taka's money with his phone," he said. "Taka should have Houjun's cell number. Call him when ya get done, or if ya figure anythin' else out. Got it?"
"Yeah," I said. "Bye."
"See ya," he said, and then the line went dead. I went back into the living room and gave back Taka's phone. Then I returned to my seat on the couch. Himitsu-sensei and Suzaku-sama were still in the other room talking, so I decided it was a good time to find out what Taka had told them so far.
He told me that he had told them about us all being at Perkins, and how I had decided to eat with Devin after seeing him. He hadn't mentioned that I had gone to Devin mostly because of his own presence, but that was probably just because he didn't know about that part of it. He didn't know what I had talked to Devin about, except that I had told him about the book and being reborn in the real world, but he had told them everything that he could from that part of the time at Perkins.
Then he had gotten to the part where Nakago had shown up. I had told him most of what had happened while we were in the car, since I just couldn't stand silence, and I couldn't think of anything else at the time. Because of that, he knew what had actually happened, so he could tell them that, instead of just vague ideas of what had been going on. But, when he mentioned Nakago, Himitsu-sensei had asked who that was, so he told him.
And that was when Himitsu-sensei had shouted. I actually knew more about what they were doing in the other room than Taka did after that, because Himitsu-sensei hadn't said anything to Taka or Suzaku-sama before leaping off the loveseat and grabbing Suzaku-sama's arm. I had at least heard him demanding an explanation. But that didn't change the fact that we had to wait for Himitsu-sensei to be satisfied with Suzaku-sama's explanation, so they could come back and finish hearing what had happened.
We talked as we waited, about our lives, about random things, about everything under the sun except the current situation. We didn't mention the book. We didn't mention Sai (or Hotohori in Taka's case). We just talked. And then, after a while, Taka finally told me his piece of news that had sparked Genrou's exclamation in the restaurant.
Miaka was pregnant. That was why he was even more worried about her being captured. Miaka, while not a warrior like we were, was always at least somewhat capable of taking care of herself. And, according to Taka, the years since when she was in the book had just made her more confident. But if the wrong things happened, she might lose the baby.
It made me think about how worried I was about Sai. Miaka wasn't a warrior, but she was still strong, and Taka knew that. Taka was worried, but he wasn't falling to pieces like I was. And Sai was a warrior; he was one of us, even if he didn't remember it yet. My panic, even though I didn't mean it that was, was like saying that I didn't think he could take care of himself. Of course, he probably couldn't, not when facing Nakago without his memories, but I had to believe that he could.
We were still talking when Himitsu-sensei and Suzaku-sama finally returned. Anything to keep from thinking more about Miaka and Sai than we had to. Himitsu-sensei did not look happy, but at least he didn't look like he was mad at us, or at Suzaku-sama. He also looked extremely focused.
"Now that Sensei has explained things to me, I probably should tell you two a little more about what is going on on my end of this," Himitsu-sensei said as he said down on the couch. "But first, why don't you finish telling us what happened?"
So I told him. I told him about Nakago showing up at the table, even though Taka had already covered that part. Then I told him, almost word for word, the conversation between Devin and Nakago, before Devin left with him. And the whole time he listened and nodded, like he expected what I was saying. Finally, he asked me what the message that Nakago wanted me to deliver was.
"He told me that he has our miko, Miaka, and one of our shichiseishi," I said. "And then he told me to tell the dragon that he has his fox, but I don't have any idea what that means. The only dragon I know of is Seiryuu, and I don't see why Nakago would want me to take him a message." Except, I had started thinking as I talked, and I wasn't quite sure if that was true or not anymore.
"That's fine, Ryuuen," he said. "I know who he was talking about. You don't have to worry about that anymore; your message has gotten to its intended target."
"Who?" I asked, though by the time he said that I thought I might have figured it out. As I was telling Himitsu-sensei what Nakago and Devin had said, I had noticed something that I hadn't really paid attention to when it happened. Nakago had mentioned a fox twice while he was in Perkins. The first time was when he addressed Devin, though I had been confused at that point. The second time was in his message. He had taken Devin with him after calling him a fox, and then told me to tell someone that he had taken a fox.
And if Devin was the fox...then only one person made sense, to me, to be the dragon.
"I think you already figured it out," Himitsu-sensei said.
"I'm not quite sure," I said. "And I'd rather hear it from someone who knows."
Himitsu-sensei sighed, but smiled at the same time. "I had a feeling you'd say something like that," he said. "But since this is something I already decided I needed to tell you I guess it doesn't bother me that much anyway. I'm the dragon, though I'm sure you already guessed that, and Devin is the fox. And I'm very glad you delivered my uncle's message to me, even if you didn't realize that you were going to do it when you started."