I Want to Return

(Fushigi Yuugi Chapter Seven)

Miaka-sama was held within the mirror by Taiitsu-kun, the one who governs the world. Miaka-sama decided to take her own life to save Tamahome and Hotohori from the evil Miaka. In turn, Hotohori and Tamahome spilled their own blood for Miaka-sama.

For that reason, Taiitsu-kun had appeared before them. "Out of respect for you and your Shichiseishi, I will show you how to get back to your world."

The back-lighting faded from around the hovering form of Taiitsu-kun to reveal a squat, aged body and an old, cragged face. Her brows were heavy over wizened eyes, and her jowls and earlobes sagged with the ages. Long gray hair was twisted on top of her head into a fat bun, held in place by a gold hairpiece, complete with long, spiked fingers that poked up, framing the top of her head. The remainder of her hair hung in a thick tail down her back; forming a silver cape over her white and green robes.

Miaka stared at the ancient figure before her, wide-eyed with shock. She pointed one finger at Taiitsu-kun. "Su--su--Sunake-babaa!"

In a split second, Taiitsu-kun loomed ominously over Miaka. "Do you wish me to re-open your wound?!" she threatened.

Miaka sheepishly grinned.

Backing off, Taiitsu-kun regained her composer with practiced ease. Hands held together underneath her long sleeves, she regarded the girl. "Damn, who the hell is Sunake-babaa..." she remarked with distaste.  Before she could speak, Nuriko leaned into her field of vision.

"Ano..."

Taiitsu-kun shifted her eyes to the Shichiseishi. "What is it?" she asked shortly.

"Anata...Taiitsu-kun?" Nuriko asked with humor in his voice and expression.

"Yes."

Nuriko’s eyes opened with disbelief. "Hontou-ni?"

"In the flesh, she who governs this world." Taiitsu-kun eyes shifted to Hotohori, who had his back turned to her, hand clamped over his mouth in revulsion. "Hotohori, what is wrong?" she demanded.

He straightened, still facing away. "I do not wish to look upon your ugliness."

Sweatdrops prominent, Miaka, Tamahome, and Nuriko stared at Taiitsu-kun, who was ignoring Hotohori. The Emperor trembled upon the ground, a large welt sticking out of his head. Taiitsu-kun moved her fingers along her oversized mallet.

"In any case, all except Nuriko have serious injuries. I tested you to see how devoted you are to each other."

"Tested?" Miaka asked with astonishment. "By using the other me?"

The answer was devoid of remorse. "Yes. By my magic."

A spasm of pain racked Miaka’s body. The girl clutched at her breast and tried to fight back the urge to cry out. All three Shichiseishi leaned close over her.

"Miaka!" Tamahome held her shoulders, wanting to comfort her, but fearful of increasing her pain.

"Don’t move!" Nuriko urged. "You’ll tear open your wound!"

Hotohori clenched his jaw. "We must have it treated."

Face stoic, Taiitsu-kun watched the four. "You went that far," she remarked to herself again. Her eyes closed. "I can’t get over it." She again addressed the four, "We will go to my court and talk there."

Taiitsu-kun held up her hands, fingers interlaced. In one fluid motion, she snapped them apart with a gasp. Power streamed from them to surround the four Shichiseishi and their Miko, who were sent screaming up into the air, sitting upon a large, pink tile.

Floating high above the ground, Miaka gazed down upon Mount Taikyoku in wonderment. "Su--sugoi!"

"Kore ga...Taikyoku?" Tamahome asked, short of breath.

The pink tile moved forward, swiftly and smoothly twining around the peaks and lavender globes, intent on its course.

"The thought of falling off doesn’t thrill me!" Nuriko commented, his deathgrip on their perch making his knuckles white.

Dry laugher echoed next to them. Taiitsu-kun floated alongside, slowly outpacing their vehicle. "This mountain is something only a select few can experience." Her voice turned comically dark. "If the evil-hearted came upon it, it would become a mere mountain covered with rocks." She laughed.

*******

"Taiitsu-kun led Suzaku no Miko’s party to the beautiful court of Mt. Taikyoku."

Yui gazed down on Shijintenchisho. One hand pressed upon the bloodstain on her breast in a futile attempt to stop the blood from escaping her body.

"There is not doubt, Miaka is the legendary girl of the story, Suzaku no Miko. She is Miaka."

Yui’s tired eyes sightlessly moved over the dusty pages of the book. They stopped and blinked once, looking down upon two decorative kanji. "The demon character upon the young man's forehead..." she read.

Within her mind, he appeared, Shichiseishi symbol gleaming. His eyes glittered playfully, a trace of a cocky smile upon his lips.

Yui’s own eyelids lowered, and her cheeks became flushed. "Tamahome..." she whispered. "That’s his name." She took a breath, slowly thinking out loud. "For me, all the pain is the same as in the book." With frightening clarity, Yui remembered Miaka’s fall into the palace lake, and Yui’s own drenched school uniform. Miaka’s resulting fever, and Yui’s simultaneous flushed illness. And finally, Miaka’s spearing of her breast with the dinner plate. The blood of which was still spreading, cold and wet, over Yui’s uniform.

"Demo...doushite?  Why should these things that happen in a book about Miaka happen to me as well?"

*******

The regal palace of Taikyou rested upon the summit of a mountain, surrounded by high peaks and fog.  Its curves and lines bespoke of elegance, and the air carried a strange, exotic scent.   Taiitsu-kun led the travelers inside her beatiful home.  "First, you need our injuries tended to," Taiitsu-kun informed the bedraggled and blood-stained group. She looked to the side and croaked out two words, "Nyan Nyan."

A myriad of shiny pink spheres appeared, expanded in size, and popped open to reveal incredibly cute little girls. Perfect clones, they all had pale turquoise hair in braided pigtails with golden globes at the ends. The girls landed on the ground, hands held politely in front of them, red and pink robes swaying in the breeze. They smiled up at the visitors.

"Cure them," Taiitsu-kun ordered shortly.

"Haiiiiiii!" The girls eagerly ran forward, a small group surrounding each wounded person. They happily went to work. "Cure cure! Fix fix!" they giggled with enjoyment.

Two of the Nyan Nyans pulled Miaka away. She looked over her shoulder with a tired smile. "Taiitsu-kun, please tend to Tamahome and Hotohori first. Their injuries were for me."

"Omae wa?"

"I’m okay," Miaka answered Taiitsu-kun with a smile and closed her eyes.

The Nyan Nyans attacked. "No! We’ll fix you!" they shouted in unison, pinning a screaming Miaka to the floor and ripping her dirty clothes away, throwing them aside.

Taiitsu-kun watched the proceedings with her usual expressionless face. "You get treated now, or you wait even longer to return to your world. To go back now would be deadly in the condition you’re in," Taiitsu-kun concluded.

A Nyan Nyan skipped over to look up at Nuriko with bright lavender eyes. "I’ll fix you, too!" she told him.

Nuriko bent down to the girl with a smile. "Watashi no ii no yo! I didn’t get injured."

The Nyan Nyan smiled back. "I’ll heal your perversion!"

With a lighting-fast fist, Nuriko sent the Nyan Nyan flying.

"I want to fix Taiitsu-kun’s face!" a second Nyan Nyan cheerfully offered.

"Yeah!" another one chorused.

The sound of Taiitsu-kun’s mallet striking again preluded the two Nyan Nyans’ appearance. They went sailing through the palace roof, leaving only a fading, "Aiyaaaaaaaa!" in their wake.

"I want to go home now," Miaka told Taiitsu-kun, her voice shaking with the effort to speak against the pain. "I have a high school entrance exam to take. I have to hurry back." She fearlessly met Taiitsu-kun’s glowering gaze from where she knelt on the floor, clad only in underwear, still surrounded by her two attending Nyan Nyans.

One of Taiitsu-kun’s eyes twitched. "What are you saying, girl? You are pale and weak." She closed her eyes, confident in her knowledge. "You couldn’t survive it."

"If that’s the problem, Taiitsu-kun--" Hotohori interrupted. "Then use my blood." He watched for the old figure’s reaction, one shoulder bared to allow the Nyan Nyans to work on his arm.

Tamahome stepped close behind him, his own chest bared. "Give Miaka our blood," he echoed the Emperor.

"Dame da yo!" Miaka protested. "If you do that..."

Taiitsu-kun slowly turned to face the pair of Shichiseishi. Her eyes drew measure of the men, weighing the consequences. She finally spoke. "Fine with me, but your powers will drop in half."

Hotohori smiled. "I want to do it."

Tamahome knelt down in front of one of his Nyan Nyans and stroked her hair, voice gentle. The girl used a cloth to wipe at the wound on his breast. "Breathing for no purpose..." he paused to face Miaka and Taiitsu-kun, then gave them a warm smile. "...is a waste of life."

Eyes trembling, Miaka started at the two men. "Hotohori...Tamahome..."

Taiitsu-kun eyed the men a moment longer, then finally answered, "I understand."

Standing off to the side and feeling a bit left out, Nuriko pointed a finger at himself. "How about me?"

Taiitsu-kun floated past him without a glance. "Next time."

Glaring daggers after the squat form, the third Shichiseishi growled to himself. "You don’t think much of me...." he complained with resentment.

Ignoring Nuriko, Taiitsu-kun addressed them. "Tamahome, Hotohori, by the power of my will, I will give your blood to Miaka." Taiitsu-kun did not wait a second more. If they truly meant it, it was time to prove their devotion. "Kneel, both of you," she commanded.

The two Shichiseishi knelt on the cool tile floor of Mout Taikyoku’s palace. Both swallowed and braced themselves for the upcoming ordeal. Yet not once did either one consider abandoning their Miko.

Taiitsu-kun interlaced her hands, forefingers extended, the pads pressing against each other in front of her aged face. She closed her eyes, and with a sharp hum of concentration, snapped two transparent yellow spheres into existence around the two men. The spheres lifted the astonished Shichiseishi from the tile floor.

"Through these power orbs I will transfer your blood to Miaka-san’s body. Miaka, are you ready?"

At the words, a third sphere engulfed Miaka. Her bra snapped away from her skin, baring her wound to the elements. Her hair ribbons, cast aside as well, freed her two buns, sending her hair cascading round her shoulders. The girl gasped and watched Taiitsu-kun, eyes wide.

"It will be hard on the two of you," Taiitsu-kun informed the Shichiseishi. "Be prepared." With a shout, she tightly clenched her eyes and began the internal spell.

Gritting their teeth against the pain, Hotohori and Tamahome felt their bodies impacted as if struck down by a cold boulder. Sucked from them by the magic, the leeching of blood through their wounds left an empty ache within that clamped down upon their hearts and sent pain coursing through their limbs.

The air around Taiitsu-kun shimmered with blue fire; the scent of ozone crept through the room.

Miaka pressed her hands against the side of her sphere, eyes trembling, mouth agape. Tamahome, Hotohori. It’s too hard on you! Too hard! Tears filled her eyes. "Yamette!!" she shouted, voice choked, then gasped in shock.

The blood filled her veins, slow at first, then increasing in speed as her heart and vessels eagerly welcomed the life it promised. The heat surged within her, leaving Miaka trembling.  Her heart slowly steaded, the even tempo of its beat pusling in warm waves through her body. Miaka’s eyes slowly closed. Atsui. I feel it...Tamahome and Hotohori’s blood. Their blood!

"Into my body, circulating together..." she whispered aloud. "We are becoming.... one."

*******

"Now, in Suzaku no Miko’s body, Hotohori and Tamahome’s blood will live on."

Yui softly gasped and looked down at her breast. "The pain is lessening." She lifted the hand that had pressed her bloody uniform against her skin. The dark red smear on her palm slowly faded away.  "And the blood is disappearing, too."

Releived beyond words for both her friend and herself, she quickly turned the page and continued to read.

*******

Inside her sphere, Miaka smiled with an expression of peace.

"Yoshi, that should be enough." Taiitsu-kun lowered her hands and opened her eyes. The yellow spheres descended and slowly dissolved, leaving the three kneeling once again upon the floor. She turned to look at Tamahome and Hotohori. "You two took it very well, after all."

"Hai, ribbon!" one of Miaka’s Nyan Nyans put the finishing touches on Miaka’s hair buns. "Put on! Put on!" the other chanted with delight, draping Miaka’s white shirt around her shoulders.

"A--arigatou," Miaka whispered. She raised her eyes to see the two Shichiseishi watching her. They were tired, but very happy. "Hotohori! Tamahome! Are you okay? Gomen-ne. Gomen-ne!"

Nuriko watched from the sidelines, relieved at Miaka’s recovery as well, and slightly jealous at being unable to help save her.

Miaka earnestly continued her appology, gazing up into Tamahome’s eyes. "Atashi no tame ni!"

"It's worth it, as long as you are happy," he answered her.

Nuriko grinned. "Mattaku. Just appreciating Tamahome and Hotohori-sama is enough, Miaka."

Miaka nodded acknowledgement. "Yes."

Taitsu-kun cut short the relieved exchange with her usual curtness. "Now then...since Suzaku no Miko has recovered, I will begin the directions for your return to your world."

"Hai!" Miaka answered. Home! Home, at last!