Uneven Communications
Suzaku no Miko, Miaka-sama, began to search for the five remaining unknown Shichiseishi. The best academically and physically qualified men were assembled. But an Azumaya structure collapsed. Miaka-sama and Tamahome were about to be crushed beneath it when they were saved by a woman. Upon her body she had the character for 'willow'. A princess of the realm, her Shichiseishi name was Nuriko.
But she did not honor her position as a Shichiseishi and behaved disrespectfully towards Miaka-sama.
Red light cast from the setting sun reflected off the immense National Library's windows, bathing the building with a bloody hue. Cars and people passed the structure, oblivious to the unbelievable drama playing inside upon the dry pages of an ancient book.
Still leaning against the dusty shelves within the dim Important Documents Room, Yui continued to read.
"As Suzaku no Miko was bandaged by her champion, she thought to herself..."
*******
If Nuriko sees this, she'll be furious.
Tamahome knelt over Miaka's right thigh, wrapping a long white bandage about it. When his fingers brushed her bare skin, she felt it with a searing burn much more powerful than the ache from her cut.
I feel like I'm doing something wrong.
He stopped adjusting Miaka's bandage and looked up at the girl, his eyes the same level as her own. "What is it?"
Miaka had to ask. "Do you really like Nuriko?"
"Not in the slightest," Tamahome stated flatly. "I just met her today, and she's not exactly my type."
"Really?"
Tamahome's face suddenly contorted in barely controlled laughter. Eyes squeezed shut, he quickly stood and stepped to gaze out over the shimmering red water. He lifted one foot to rest on the rail and leaned over it, chin braced on his fist. His voice was heavy with cocky self-assurance. ""Ahhh! I see! You're jealous! Yeah, I give up."
"Huh?"
"I'm handsome, strong, kind, and altogether marvelous. It's such a sin to be me!" he commented wistfully, eyes closed in self-contemplation. "Gomen-yo, I want money more than love." He turned and laughed in Miaka's astonished face, hands held out as if demanding more of his oh-so-precious coins.
"Th-that's not right!" she yelled back. Her eyes slowly saddened, and she stared into nothing. If that's the way you really think....I feel sorry for Nuriko. And it's not jealousy.
Tamahome continued to guffaw with delight.
"Are you going to laugh forever??!" Miaka shouted at him, anger at his selfish nature barely contained.
Her shout was clearly audible to the person hiding behind a column of the covered walkway, standing at the base of the offshoot that led to where the pair were standing. Nuriko listened a moment more before she soundlessly slipped away.
*******
Night had completely fallen, and an infinite number of stars shown down onto Suzaku's third Shichiseishi. The woman was leaning over the railing outside her second story room, lost in the multitude of her own contemplative thoughts.
She sensed the girl's approach. "Miaka," Nuriko softly acknowledged when the girl stood next to her.
"What's wrong?" Miaka asked with concern, prompted by the other's dull voice.
Nuriko stared down into the courtyard, arms crossed inside their layers of robes. "When I was walking around the pond, west of the court, I lost one of these earrings." She opened her right hand to show a glimmering stone that was surrounded by a band of gold.
Miaka stepped close for a better look at the bit of jewelry. "Ah, it's so neat!"
"It's a Yakouju gem. When I began serving at court, my mother presented these family treasures to me."
Impressed, Miaka softly agreed.
"The stones emit a light in the dark. The best time to find a lost one is at night. My maids are afraid of the dark, so they refuse to go."
Miaka saw her chance. "How about if I try to find it?" she offered brightly.
Nuriko's fist closed about the gem, and she looked at the girl. "Demo--"
"It was given to you by your mother, and it's an important earring, isn't it? Daijoubu! Leave it to me!" Miaka's eyes closed with her smile.
"Ehhhhhh!" Nuriko returned her cheer. "Then, as a reward, in my small way as one of Suzaku's Shichiseishi, I will protect you."
Miaka beamed with delight. "Oh, you really will?!" Fists clenched with determination, she took a step back. "Wait here! I'll find it for sure!" With a wave, she turned and sped away.
"Oh, please do!" Nuriko called after her with a victorious air.
*******
Insects and frogs raised their voices in an intricate symphony of night that surrounded the palace from the vast ponds. Hotohori and two of his retainers were standing at the very place Tamahome and Miaka had been only a brief time before.
"Nani?"
"Yes, Emperor, that's correct. You're eighteen years old now. Will you kindly receive an Empress?"
"Why did we assemble beautiful ladies from all over the country here at court?" the other demanded.
The first one addressed him again, speaking to Hotohori's back. "For what reason do you ignore them?"
"Because..."
"Because...?"
Hotohori turned with a sly smile. "Because I am more beautiful than they are." He inwardly chuckled at the pair's strangled reaction. "Just joking."
"Oh, you are?" The retainer forced out a laugh.
The Emperor tilted back his head and gazed up at the shimmering stars. "It is more important to govern the country and think about the people. I cannot concentrate on finding an Empress."
He turned and stately walked down the stone path towards the palace, both retainers respectfully behind him.
"But--" one protested.
"What about Nuriko?" the other continued.
"Let's stop
kidding," Hotohori almost laughed. "She is one of the Shichiseishi. She's been
released from her duties at court." His eyes closed and he lifted his face to the
cool caress of starlight. "And ever since I was little, I have imagined the ideal
woman."
"The ideal woman?"
"Waaaaaaaahhhh!" Miaka popped up next to the three men with her usual wide, cheerful smile, sending the two retainers leaping backwards with screams of terror. The girl crossed her arms and leaned her chin on the walkway's rail.
Hotohori knelt down to her. "Miaka, what are you doing out so late?"
"Nuriko asked me to do something for her. I'm on my way there."
"Are you two getting along? I heard of her behavior from my servants."
Miaka softly gasped, embarrassed that he knew of the friction between her and her newest Shichiseishi.
Her sound was his answer. "Yoshi. I will tell her to treat you with the respect you are due. No one ignores the Emperor's orders."
Miaka inwardly smiled and held up one finger to slowly waved it back and forth in front of Hotohori's astonished face. "Tsk tsk tsk!" she told him.
He blinked twice.
"Orders can't change people's minds. Besides, I want to get along with her all by myself."
They both straightened, and Miaka continued, "So I'm going to learn to compromise with her." She turned and lightly ran away. "Ja! Gotta go!"
Hotohori watched her disappear with amazement in his eyes.
*******
Miaka slowly picked her way through the shallow marsh at the side of the pond, mud close to oozing over the tops of her black school shoes. "It has to be around here somewhere." She took another step forward and screamed when a flock of birds exploded into the air, wings beating the night around her. Miaka dodged low to avoid them, tripped, and with a shriek, went flying into the deep water.
*******
Yui
gasped and dropped The Four Gods' Sky and Earth onto the floor. Water dripped from
every inch of her, beading at the tips of her bangs and gently splatting onto the cold
tile.
"What's...happening?" she asked in a terrified whisper.
*******
Under the cold water, Miaka vainly struggled against the viny water plants that were twined about her legs. It's no use, I can't get them off! The little air she had escaped her lungs. It hurts! Eyes clenched shut, Miaka's mind cried out for help from the one who had always saved her before. Tamahome, tasukete! Tamahome!
*******
"Miaka!" Tamahome jerked upright in his bed, eyes wide and breath gasping. "Just now...I could swear I felt Miaka calling me." He clenched the open collar of his shirt in one hand, worry creasing his face. "What is this uneasy feeling?"
*******
Victorious
laughter echoing out of her room, Nuriko gaily admired herself in her mirror. "That
girl is a fool! She went to find a nonexistent earring in the dark. How stupid of her not
to realize that I've never been able to leave the court until now, so I could never have
been to the pond."
She moved her fingers on the stem of her crystal glass. "So that's how she really is. She should be a drenched rat by now." Her voice grew condescending. "It may be proper for a girl of another world to muck about in the mud, but not for the etiquette of this court."
A slam resounded through
the room. Nuriko slowly turned to stare into a pair of cold, iron-gray eyes.
"Tamahome."
His voice was low. "Is it true, what you just said?" A vision of Miaka sinking in deep water flashed through his mind. He whirled about and ran, only to be jerked to a sudden halt. Tamahome whipped his head about and shouted, "Hanase!"
With only one hand clamped around his wrist, Nuriko held him captive.
"You're extremely strong!" Tamahome snarled into her lavender eyes.
"I won't let you go to that little bitch!" Nuriko snarled back.
Amazement flitted across his face before Tamahome stepped close to the woman. "Miaka just wants to get along with you! Why don't you try to understand her?!"
"I don't like her! She monopolizes both the Emperor and you! After I came to the court, the Emperor ignored me for almost a year!" Nuriko paused for breath and tried not to think of how easily Miaka intruded upon her life. It did not work. "Suddenly she shows up and is puffed up and hailed by everyone. The Emperor can't help himself! What does he find so attractive in that small little nothing from the other world?"
She bared her teeth. "For revenge, I deliberately went after you."
"What was that?" The voice that spoke from behind them was faint with fatigue.
Tamahome and Nuriko turned to see a drenched Miaka, her arms sagging on either side of her soaked body. Her jacket trailed from one hand.
"You love Hotohori--I mean, the Emperor?" Miaka walked past Tamahome, ignoring his question if she was all right. She stared up into Nuriko's eyes.
"Nani?" Nuriko challenged with hauteur. "I'll never apologize to you. You were the one who was deceived, so that makes you the loser."
"Maybe."
"You're puffed up by everyone."
"Yes."
Nuriko clenched a powerful fist. "Don't make a fool of me!" she growled, her voice rising. "Why don't you get angry?! Don't you care about others?!" Nuriko ended her sentence with a powerful slap to Miaka's cheek.
"Back at you!"
Miaka snapped, her own hand connecting with the other woman's cheek.
Tamahome stared at the pair in shock.
After a pause, Miaka lifted her jacket and pulled a smooth pink stone out of a pocket within its folds. Her voice was soft. "I couldn't find the earring. But this is a pretty stone, isn't it?" She held the pebble in her open palm and offered it up to Nuriko, who gazed down upon it with a face devoid of emotion.
"Here. Don't be
jealous. There is nothing between Hotohori and me."
Nuriko's eyes began to slowly tremble.
"Can I help you? I'll give a hint to Hotohori." Miaka placed the stone in Nuriko's hand with a smile.
The Shichiseishi clenched her fist around the stone and closes her eyes. She turned about to stand with her back to the girl, body quivering with the effort of holding in tears. A soft, painful sob escaped her lips.
Miaka watched her with a gentle face, relieved to learn the truth. She is not in love with Tamahome. The thought made her very happy in a way she was afraid to admit.
The man in question pointed a finger at himself, the women's interlude lost upon him. "How did I fit into this?" he asked with wide, confused eyes.
********
Miaka stood in her robe before the Emperor, also robed, who was sitting on the edge of his bed.
"So then..."
"So then, I wanted you to notice a girl who loves you, and is nearby in your life." Miaka's voice was warm and earnest.
Hotohori paused for a long moment before he finally spoke. "Miaka, do you love someone?"
"Me?" Miaka asked in astonishment. In her mind, Tamahome slowly turned and smiled at her over his shoulder. She fought down a blush and laughed, "Let's not talk about me!"
"I've loved someone for a very long time. And only that one person...." The Emperor of Konan lifted his face, his voice strong and determined. "...I've longed for since."
Miaka returned his gaze, eyes wide, and heart pounding.
This summary is based on the translation by Karen Duffy and Yamazaki Masatomo. Used with permission. Adaptation by Sailor Two Moons 1-17-99. Chapter Four part I last tweaked on 11-15-01, when I tweaked links to bypass the problematic code.