She sufferend a sudden
chill, flinched, and turned about in fear to see an infuriated Nuriko looming up behind
her, eyes flaming and teeth bared.
Uneven Communications
Yui twisted her handkerchief in her hands, water pouring out of it onto the floor. She started when the liquid stopped flowing and held the cloth up before her astonished face. "I can't believe it--it's dry!"
Suddenly remembering what had been happening in the book, Yui forgot the miracle and returned to the pages, one of which held a line drawing of a man, leaning over a woman.
"The Emperor confessed his love to Suzaku no Miko."
*******
Hotohori gently pushed Miaka backwards. The girl fell on her back on his bed, limp and wide-eyed with shock. With one hand on either side of her body, Hotohori filled Miaka's vision. His gaze was compelling and unavoidable.
"Ever since I was a boy and first head the story of Suzaku no Miko, the girl from another world, I have tried to imagine what she would be like, Miaka. You are the one I envisioned."
Miaka's eyes trembled.
"I'm not interested in other women, only in knowing you. Everything about you." Hotohori leaned even closer and closed his eyes.
Inside her breast, Miaka's heart pounded. Her own eyes drifted closed, and behind their thin lids, Tamahome smiled at her. They opened again. Hotohori's face hovered just above her own, their lips only inches apart. The girl clenched her eyes closed again and braced herself.
Hotohori suddenly froze. He pulled away from the girl and took his sheathed sword from within his robes.
"Nani?" Miaka asked him with relief.
The Emperor stepped to a wall of his room and drew his sword.
What's going on?
Done so quickly Miaka could not see it happen, Hotohori slashed the wall three times with his blade. The mortar fell apart in clumps to reveal a pair of eavesdroppers in the next room, hands cupped around their ears to catch every word.
"Tamahome! Nuriko!" Miaka cried with dismay, her blood running cold.
Busted, the two tried to play nonchalant.
"What are you doing out here?" Hotohori demanded, his voice hard with anger.
They stepped through the hole in the wall, all pretense forgotten. "I came to take Miaka back," Tamahome replied.
"You have been given permission to enter my quarters. But in this case....you should have known better."
Tamahome looked beyond Hotohori to where Miaka was still sitting, perched on the bed. The girl averted her gaze and stared at the floor. "You're right," he answered.
"Hotohori--I think it's time I returned to my room."
The Emperor turned away from the intruders. "Miaka, I was serious. You said you wanted to return to your world. But instead, after Suzaku appears and all is done....I will make you my Empress."
Miaka started. She quickly sat up and stared into Hotohori's eyes. "That's selfish!"
"Of course, it's not an order. 'Orders don't change people's minds.' Isn't that what you said?" He spoke with utter confidence. "I will make sure you fall in love with me."
Miaka gasped, eyes quivering. Beyond the Emperor, Tamahome and Nuriko stood in shocked silence.
"You can sleep there." He offered, then turned and left the room.
A traitorous blush across her cheeks, Miaka could scarcely breathe. I don't believe it. That was a proposal, wasn't it?!
*******
Chirping birds and warm sunlight heralded in the new morning. Miaka looked like hell. "I couldn't sleep at all." The girl tiredly pulled on her clothes, thoughts racing. "Could such a handsome man really have confessed his love to me?" She studied her reflection in the mirror. "Is my face more attractive to men in this world?"
She left the rooms with a sigh and walked down the length of the building. She stretched and deeply breathed in the sweet scent of the cherry blossoms that overhung the sides of the walkway. Tamahome overhead everything, didn't he? I wonder what he's thinking. "Oof!" The girl quickly turned and started to apologize to the person she had bumped into. "Escus--" Her words were cut off with a gasp.
Tamahome's face was devoid of emotion and almost as dull as his voice. "Hi." He continued walking away.
Miaka stared after him in dismay. That's it? Just 'Hi?' Because of what happened yesterday?
She quickly moved after him. "What are you going?"
"To town on business. I came to the city to find work, but I haven't gotten much done."
"Wait! I'll come with you!" She scurried after Tamahome, who had stopped.
He turned to suggest, "Why don't you go with Nuriko and find the other four Shichiseishi?" The man resumed walking away.
"Tamahome..." Miaka softly replied, sadness in her voice. She sufferend a sudden
chill, flinched, and turned about in fear to see an infuriated Nuriko looming up behind
her, eyes flaming and teeth bared.
"MIAKA!!!"
"Nuriko!" the girl squeaked.
"You said you have no interest in Hotohori! You stayed the night in his room! I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!!!!"
"But...I didn't really..."
Nuriko paused in her snarling, glanced over Miaka's head, and ran off with a smile. "Tama-chan! Wait!" she pleaded most becomingly.
Miaka watched her depart with tired frustration. "I thought we'd get along now. But things aren't any better."
Nuriko caught up with Tamahome and latched onto his arm to lean into him.
Miaka asked herself the question foremost on her mind. In any case, what does Tamahome feel towards me? He's being so abrupt. Why doesn't he talk to me? Her face hardened. Doesn't he care about me? The girl straightened with sudden determination. "Yoshi!"
*******
The marketplace was
filled to the brim with bustling shoppers and peasants. Walking behind the pair of
Shichiseishi, Miaka was "disguised" in a sheet purloined from the palace linen
closets.
I don't want to chase after him, and I want things to go more smoothly with Nuriko, but I have to know Tamahome's true feelings! Miaka's eyes focused on her third guardian, who still had her hands clamped around the other's arm. Damn Nuriko! She loves Hotohori--but she's hanging all over Tamahome! Evil thoughts raced through Miaka's mind.
"Tama-chan, she thinks she's disguised." Nuriko commented with laughing scorn.
"Leave her alone." Tamahome stoically defended.
Nuriko's voice turned petulant. "Oh, you're so cold!"
The pair and their shadow had reached a building that sat on a large, raised stone dais. Tamahome ran up the steps, turned to spread his arms wide, and addressed the crowd in a loud, confident voice. "Hey hey, listen to me, everyone! You know of Suzaku no Miko?"
"What of her?" one man shouted from the sidelines.
"She didn't come from a bordering country, or even a far-distant country! She came from a completely different world!"
Totally in his element, Tamahome continued his rising sales pitch. "Her clothes and belongings are very different from ours. Miko's incredible stuff will be sold at a discount! So stick around!" He finished with a big grin.
"What? Show us!" the man demanded again.
Still wrapped in her sheet, Miaka watched Tamahome with amazement as he whipped out his first item. "Would that be...?"
"It's this!" Tamahome brandished the three sticks of gum Miaka had given him in their first day inside the palace.
Ooohs and aaahs echoed from the crowd.
"He's still carting the chewing gum around!"
"For one piece--two silver ryou!" Tamahome proclaimed.
"Ehhh? Too expensive!" a voice cried.
Leaning forward, Tamahome held up one finger. "It's discounted! It's not expensive, but affordable!" He continued to sing praises of his wares.
I wonder if Tamahome only thinks that I'm useful for his business. Miaka thought morosely.
One of the bystanders grew suspicious. "Oi! It's weird that you should have Miko's stuff! Miko is in the company of the Emperor!"
Tamahome's eager face frowned at the discord. Nuriko jumped next to the disgruntled man and snagged his shirt in one fist. "What's with you?!?" she yelled in his face. "Are you saying Tama-chan is lying!?!"
The man's eyes narrowed. "I'm saying this guy may not be honest!"
"He's lying just to sell the stuff!" another commented.
Nuriko snatched the new malcontent up in her other hand, close to growling.
"Yes, just to steal from us--" the man continued in a strangled voice.
"Prove it!" someone called.
"It's fake, isn't it!"
The crowd's displeasure grew. Tamahome watched his customers start to turn against him with apprehension.
From within the depths of the masses, a voice yelled out, "Tamahome's telling the truth!"
Tamahome, Nuriko, and everyone else turned to find the source of the shout, who shed her makeshift cloak with determination. "I gave the gum to him!"
"Miaka!" Tamahome said, astonished.
The people stared at the defiant girl. "It's really her!"
Seeing
his chance, Tamahome dashed off the steps and stood before Miaka. He whipped out a pair of
sunglasses and held them to his face. "Hai hai! Form a line! If you
want her signature, you gotta go through me! To shake her hand: one gold ryou!"
Miaka jumped up and shouted in his ear, "Don't suddenly decide to be my manager!!"
"That's right, one man commented to his friend. "That guy was with Miko-sama a while ago."
"He's for real?"
The crowd fixated on the pair and charged, yelling offers of gold ryou. They buried a protesting Tamahome and Miaka in a deluge of warm bodies.
Taking the classic escape, the two squeezed out between the pulsating legs and grabbing hands. They broke for an empty, dim alley, where they leaned, panting, against the side of a building.
"It's safe here," Tamahome said with relief.
"Ehh," Miaka gasped in agreement, her hands on her knees.
"Why did you do that?" he unexpectedly asked.
The girl straightened and stared out in front of her. "Because you think I'm a nuisance."
"I didn't say that."
Miaka looked at him and finally asked him outright. "So what do you think of me?"
He returned her gaze, but was interrupted before he could even begin to think of a reply.
"Excuse me," a pair of men stood before them, appearing out of the coming gloom. "Will you come with us?" Thunder softly rumbled in the sky above.
"What do you want to chat about?" Tamahome demanded of the two toughs.
The larger of the two tapped the flat of his knife in his open palm. "If you want to do business here, you got to pay us for the privilege."
"The mafia exist everywhere," Miaka scathingly remarked to no one.
"I have no money for that," Tamahome replied to them, his voice flat.
The darker of the two men glowered. "Then you'll get beaten."
Miaka gasped when she was jerked from behind by a third man. He held her captive, her arm twisted behind her back, the crook of his elbow around her neck. More scruffy men appeared from the rising shadows.
"Ohh, she is just soooo cute," one older man leered.
"Boss!" the first two greeted.
Tamahome's eyes darkened. "You bastard. Let her go."
The gang's leader dismissed Tamahome's demand with utter confidence. "Don't fight us. This territory is under my control. I can ruin your business here. Whether I do or not depends on your paying up." He held out one hand and waggled his fingers in Tamahome's favorite greedy gesture.
"Boss, that girl is Suzaku no Miko," the first thug informed.
He eyed Miaka with an evil glint. "Oh, even better." The leader's gaze returned to Tamahome. "Hey fella. You're a businessman. Let's negotiate." He lofted a fat purse in one hand. "Thirty gold ryou if you sell us the girl."
Peeking around the corner of the building, Nuriko watched the events with real fear. "Miaka and Tama-chan are in a pinch!" she whispered to herself. Gambatte-yo! I'll keep an eye on you!"
"Thirty gold ryou!" Tamahome scorned. "I'm no fool!" He held up one hand, fingers splayed. "Make it forty!"
The thugs fell to the ground in shock.
"Thirty-five ryou!" their boss proclaimed.
"Forty ryou!" Tamahome yelled back in his face.
"Thirty-seven! You stubborn bastard!"
"I said forty ryou, you cunning old fart!"
With one of the men's hands clamped over her mouth, Miaka could only watch and yell with her mind. Tamahome, you're so cruel! She turned limp and softly began to cry.
"Oh, 'nee-chan, you falling apart?" her captor asked.
Miaka jerked upright to glare at him. "I'm pissed off!" Her fist appeared from out of nowhere and connected with the man's jaw, flinging him backwards. At the same moment, Tamahome exploded and powerfully knocked the first two thugs away. Lighting and thunder crashed through the sky. It began to rain.
He slowly turned to
watch the remaining toughs, his Shichiseishi symbol gleaming from his forehead in the dim
light.
The boss drew his sword. "Bastard! You were faking us out! If you won't sell her--" He turned and charged Miaka, screaming.
Tamahome leaped and snatched the girl out of the way just as the blade sliced through the air. They fell to the ground, and the thugs charged. Jumping upright, Tamahome laid into them, but turned when he heard Miaka's scream. He grasped a loose chunk of wall and flung it into the man's head who had cornered Miaka against the wall. The man collapsed.
Sword still in hand, the gang's leader rushed Tamahome, who stopped him with one solid punch to the gut. The boss slowly collapsed into the mud. Tamahome looked over his shoulder at the trembling Miaka. "Some things are too important to be sold."
"Shit," Nuriko commented from her hiding place, suffering a change of heart for the worse. "Too bad it ended this way." She sneezed.
"Come, let's go," Tamahome stepped forward and held out a hand to Miaka. She slapped it away, eyes flashing.
"Baka! Now you can't do business around here anymore! But even worse, you could have been hurt!" Miaka clenched her fists in anger. "Why? Why did you go that far for me?!" The girl's voice was on the verge of cracking.
Tamahome started silently at her, blood from a cut on his cheek slowly moving down his skin. He turned his back. "Let's go."
"Answer me!" Miaka screamed.
The rain increased and surrounded Tamahome with a pale, translucent halo. "It's not important."
"It is! Because I--I'm--I'm in love with you!" Miaka's eyes flew open in shock, and she covered her mouth with both her hands.
Tamahome did not move. "Sorry. I don't feel the same. I protect you only because you are Suzaku no Miko." He paused for a second. "Let's go home. The Emperor will be worried about you.
Miaka's hands slowly fell from her lips, pain in her eyes. Tamahome... She reached out one trembling hand. T--Ta... The world blacked out before the girl, and Miaka collapsed onto the alley's mud.
"What's wrong, Miaka?" Tamahome ran to her and knelt beside her prone figure. "Shikkari shite! Miaka! Oi, Miaka!"
*******
"Suzaku no Miko, after being saved, came down with a fever, and fell."
** end episode four **
This summary is based on the translation by Karen Duffy and Yamazaki Masatomo. Used with permission. Adaptation by Sailor Two Moons 1-17-99. FY Chapter Four part II last tweaked on 11-15-01, when I tweaked links to bypass the problematic code.