Disclaimer: This story is an amateur work of fanfiction. The content of this story is the creation of the author, although based on the Anime "Fushigi Yuugi", and is not intended for profit. Idon't own "Fushigi Yuugi" or any of its characters. I have created a few characters for this fic, but they are unnamed.

Warning! SPOILERS for the last episodes of Fushigi Yuugi, violence, slight language, rape, and character death all intended for dramatic and artistic purposes only.

Author's Note: Nakago is at the threshold of choices he must make between his heart and his ambitions. Could he adjust himself, face and make the right choices, or would he just let the shadows of his past consume him? And how important is Soi's role in the twilight of his life? Please Review!

STARS AT TWILIGHT

PROLOGUE

One humid evening of late spring,two figures were approaching a small village within a small province of the then rejuvenating Kutou empire on foot. The larger figure, upon closer inspection, was a broad, stocky build of a woman with strong hips and shoulders, plainly clad and carrying a large cane basket full of what looked like clothes on her left arm. Her right hand clutched the tiny wrist of a small child in a hat, wearing a dusty brown garment so oversized that it often trailed along the pebbly road, picking up leaves and pebbles as they went.

Any casual observer would notice in a short span of time that the woman was aged and failing, perhaps well over seventy on in her late sixties, while the child, young as it was, looked fresh and filled with life.

The woman noticed the child shivering as the late wind blew gently upon them, but the child; a curious little thing, was trying to conceal that fact from her – talking about some other things of interest about them like odd shaped stones and scattering squirrels as well as strange noises within the woods and asking the old one scores of questions.

"Time for a little rest, dear," said the old woman, wiping her brow as she proceeded to sit down upon a large slab of stone.

"But nanny,"

"Now, now, Nanny's tired. Nanny needs rest."

The child settled upon the long grasses on the roadside that emitted a fresh, dusky scent, fed and fanned by the gentle gust of the twilight air until the whole place as astir with a delectable scent. The child got very delighted as it sniffed the air.

"Hyacinths, nanny! I could smell them!"

The woman smiled as the child groped around the grass to find the source of such a refreshing scent, fanning herself with one of the clothes from her basket. At her leisure she traced the smell herself as her gaze went higher – from grass, to trees, to the distant mountains; and finally it rested upon the twilight sky.

The child looked up at once. "Are the stars out, nanny?"

"Yes, they are," she replied. "But not much of them yet, I'm afraid." She knew how much interested in stars the child has been at such a young age.

"What about the stars of Seiryu?"

"They're nearly setting – look. You can see them now," she said, pointing to the heavens.

End prologue