Starlit Reflections

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Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics, Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment and Viz Communications. I have no rights and make no claim to any. Please send all C&C to raye_j@yahoo.com, but I warn you, any flames will be placed in the brazier in Suzakuseikun's temple.
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Chapter Six: Swords and Secrets

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Captain Youji of the Fifteenth Squad (Detached) of the Third Koutou Army was not a bad person. He was fond of his parents and siblings, enjoyed music and dancing, gave small change to beggars whenever he had any to spare, and was not unduly cruel to his subordinates.

He wasn't happy that night as he followed the small group he'd been given orders to harry. Ordinarily it would've been one of the trackers following the target, but Lord Tomo had been insistent; only one basic squad without any extra personnel.

Youji made a face as he moved unobtrusively through the dark, dewy and above all sharp-spiny underbrush. He would've preferred to be in his bed at the barracks of the Palace, taking his turn at guard duty and thinking about the daughter of the Third Court Baker, who he had been courting. Remembering her smile and her pretty ankles, he almost missed the group's choice of camping spot.

He surveyed the area as the purple-haired boy began to gather firewood, chivvying the brown-haired youth into fetching water. It was a good one; clear and open, with stands of young trees around the edges, almost as a wall; only three exits that weren't that big, and easy to guard. Jump in, pound these kids until they couldn't move for three days, and then leave. They'd be home by sunset tomorrow.

Youji slipped away, beginning to plan. It would take a couple of hours to set up their own camp, and brief the nine men. He'd have to order the men to punch, not stab, and maim, not kill. Lord Tomo had been very insistent on that. He'd also order the girl remain untouched. Rapes were messy, and he wanted as little mess as possible. They'd wait two hours - give the target time to settle and fall asleep - and then strike. Those kids would never know what hit them.

********

Nuriko stood at the edge of the firelight. His - no, her, Hotohori reminded himself - hair was unbound. Her clothes were obviously pulled on; he could see her figure - her feminine figure -

A thousand little clues rushed inside his memory. Nuriko's almost panicked refusal of the Imperial bed-tutors when Hotohori had offered their services. Nuriko's absolute insistence, even when invited, to never enter Hotohori's bedchamber. Nuriko refusing to swim, even on the hottest days. Nuriko referring to - herself (and it had been herself, Hotohori realized) in feminine language, pulling up and correcting herself into formal usage...

And finally, the memories of the last few days:
    "Tell them you'll only marry Kourin's sister Houki..."
    "Houki exists, but you can't marry her, no-one can..."

Hotohori looked across the fire at the girl he had thought was his friend, and finally put it all together.

"Chou Houki, I presume?"

Her eyes twinkled - how could they? This wasn't a joke! His friend was gone - and her lips twitched, the way they did when he - she - was suppressing a smile.

"Yes. I am Chou Houki, and I'm very pleased to meet you."

What the hell is SO DAMN FUNNY?! Hotohori fumed.

Miaka gazed at Nuriko owlishly. This confrontation wasn't what she'd expected. She'd just been so happy that she'd actually managed to tell a guy how she felt without destroying any chance of anything between them, and she'd just let the whole 'Nuriko is a girl' thing slide. It had simply happened too fast. A good gossip the next day about it, maybe tell the boys about it the day after; she could handle that. Handling this... could anyone?

Tamahome glared. That... that... girl! She'd planned his encounter in the spring (he'd been naked! Naked! And she'd been watching! The pervert!) and she'd pushed him to Miaka... had she thrown that stick in, too?

Nuriko, for her part, was suppressing hysterical laughter. It was just so ironic. She'd often imagined telling Hotohori...

Somehow the notion that I'd be standing in the middle of a cold forest in the middle of the night, dripping wet, high on sulfur fumes when I did has never occurred to me before.

Hotohori dropped his eyes and looked away. Nuriko felt the ground lurch beneath her. He couldn't even bear to look at her.

"I am Chou Houki," she repeated.

That's when the Koutou squad, with a great yell, attacked.

*****

Hotohori looked away from Nuriko - no, from Houki. Nuriko had been his friend.

"I am Chou Houki," she repeated.

Hotohori pretended not to hear the half-desperate edge to her voice. So, she's hurting too? Good!

A sudden yell behind him of "BANZAIII!!!" was a warning. He twisted to see a group of soldiers attacking.

Hotohori ran to the saddlebags - fortunately, beside Miaka. "Enemy soldiers! I need my sword!" he told her curtly, pulling at the bags. Luckily, the sword Lord Yukino had given him was in the first bundle he reached for, and he swung around into a defensive stance just in time to parry the strike of the fastest runner in the squad. A slash to the attacker's forearm and he lurched back, attempting to stem the flow of blood from his artery. Hotohori grinned savagely - whatever else happened, he was still the best swordsman in Konan.

Tamahome sprang up into an attack stance, striking the first man who attacked him with a fluid movement that looked like nothing so much as a dancer's stretch.

And Nuriko -

Hotohori lost his focus and simply stared as he saw two soldiers literally flying across the clearing, to crash into a slim willow sapling a good metre above its base. The men slumped to the ground. The tree swayed and, with a soft creeeak and then a sharp crack!, broke off at the point of impact.

"AAAHH! You broke the tree!"

- was fighting in her own, inimitable style. If you could call it that. Hotohori didn't, but he did notice certain stylistic details, such as the way Nuriko picked up a third soldier and used him as a quarterstaff on another opponent.

Tamahome, meanwhile, had violently, gracefully and very very quickly managed to cause a further three soldiers to take involuntary naps. The footwork looked familiar but, combined with the graceful hand movements, weren't anything Hotohori recognised. It was as if Tamahome were dancing, and it was almost an accident that a vulnerable part of his opponent's anatomy was just where his hand or foot was supposed to be.

******

Youji gritted his teeth in anger.

Damn Lord Tomo! He had never told him these weren't ordinary kids! These boys were trained fighters, and they were decimating his squad!

He watched as the purple-haired one - who had seemed to be the most competent of the bunch earlier - deflected a soldier to the teal-haired boy, away from the girl and the brown-haired boy under the tree.

The brown-haired boy - he'd been leading the party and the other two when they were journeying. He was the last layer between his soldiers and the girl. He had to be the leader of this little group. Take him out and the other two would collapse.

Youji unsheathed his throwing daggers. Screw orders. I need to take him down. A back wound isn't always fatal...

*****

Watching the other two proved to be a mistake, as the tenth soldier had been taking advantage of Hotohori's momentary distraction, sneaking up behind him.

"LORD HOTOHORI!!" Nuriko suddenly yelled, and leapt at him. Instinctively Hotohori stepped aside, and the knife aimed at his back plunged into the sod at his feet.

Nuriko's body impacted with the captain's, knocking a second dagger from his hand, gaining a shallow cut on her forearm. The two rolled over the grass, towards where the horses had been tethered.

The animals had been almost unnoticed over the course of the night. Clumped close together in a stand of long grass beside a tiny brook, the four horses had remained well away from the humans and their strange antics. Now, smelling blood and seeing two humans advancing, the horses were startled. The two mares moved behind Tamahome's gelding, while Hotohori's stallion rose up onto his hocks, preparing to rear and attack the threat to his mares.

The Koutou captain, seeing this, gripped Nuriko's upper arms harder and tried to keep rolling. Nuriko, for her part, tried desperately to stop.

It seemed like time was mired in honey, far slower than it should have been, as they all saw the danger.

Hotohori ran to catch up, faster than he thought possible, and, taking careful aim, dropped his sword pommel-first onto the captain's head. The man's eyes rolled up and he passed out. The unconscious man's grip loosened and Nuriko was finally able to break free.

She sat up gingerly, flexing her left hand. The blood from her cut left forearm flowed faster, but she was able to move her hand easily; the injury was not serious.

"Are you all right?"

Nuriko looked up at Hotohori, and then further on to Tamahome, who had asked the question, and Miaka, who had remained behind Hotohori and out of the fight.

"I'll be fine," she answered, smiling. Hotohori silently extended his hand, and Nuriko took the proffered help, standing up.

Miaka shivered. Looking around the clearing, which was somewhat over-full of unconscious men, she asked, "Do we have to stay here?" Her voice was thin and very young-sounding.

"No, of course not," Tamahome replied. "We can go back to the road and ride to the next town, find an inn with some empty rooms?" This last was directed at the other two.

"We will," Hotohori promised grimly, "if I have to empty them myself."

******

Fortunately for the reputation of the inn they arrived at twenty minutes later, Hotohori didn't have to make good on his threat. It had two double rooms available, with breakfast the next morning as part of the room's rate. The four swiftly took them.

"Also, a tankard of the house's bitter ale is available free from the taproom for each person hiring a room," the innkeeper informed them as Hotohori paid.

"The taproom is open?" Nuriko asked. After all, so much had happened, it was rather late...

"It's only been an hour since full dusk," the innkeeper replied, surprised. "We're serving dinner too, if you'd like. Six copper ryu per meal. It's roast pork in honey with steamed vegetables tonight."

"Thank you," Hotohori replied, having finished counting his change and tucking away his moneypouch. Herding a suddenly-starving Miko and two Shishiseishi up the stairs, he steered the group into the closer of the two rooms they'd taken for the evening.

"I'm hungry!" Miaka whined as the door shut behind them. "I'm tired and I've been scared and they're serving dinner! It's delicious! I can smell it! Pleeease?"

"We already had dinner," Nuriko snapped, fiddling with her makeshift bandage. "I cooked it. I didn't think it was that bad."

"It was fine, Nuriko," Tamahome soothed. "It's just that we've all been running around since, so now we're hungry again."

"So my miso and boiled vegetables isn't so crash-hot. It's not like any of you refused it! Or threw up! Or-"

"Dinner was delicious, Nuriko," Hotohori cut her off. "Now let me see that arm. And then we'll go down to the taproom and see about those free tankards. I, for one, would appreciate a drink."

******

It turned out that, while they all could appreciate a drink, nobody wanted to appreciate more than one. Nuriko thought longingly of the crisp apple cider served in Court, while Hotohori fondly recalled his private wine cellar. Miaka decided that even Calpis Sweat tasted better than that, while Tamahome sipped and decided that alcohol was highly overrated. They all sat, nursing their tankards, wondering if they would have to finish the things or if it was acceptable to leave them on the table.

The inn's dinner (which they all ate, though Tamahome and Hotohori did so with sidelong looks at Nuriko, who picked at hers) was not bad. Miaka had four helpings.

Finally, after even Miaka declared herself full, Hotohori paid the bill. It was a sleepy and well-fed foursome who walked up the stairs.

Nuriko and Miaka were about to walk past the room Tamahome and Hotohori had taken, when Tamahome snagged Nuriko's elbow. "Before we all go to bed, I want to know why you let us think you were a boy."

Miaka stopped and blinked. "Yes, you promised to explain before."

"Now's a good time," Hotohori agreed.

Nuriko sighed. "All right," she said. "I did promise."

******

The twin beds in the inn's room were comfortable to sit on. Nuriko sat down on one, ignoring the bolster, facing the other three occupants of the room.

How to begin? she wondered. I'll have to tell them about Elder Brother, I guess...

"We're waiting," Hotohori's voice broke into her reverie. She jumped.

"Sorry," she muttered. "It's just such a tawdry little story."

"Tell us anyway," Tamahome told her.

"All right. It starts with my parents. They had an arranged marriage, and they didn't like each other."

"That isn't so unusual," Hotohori commented. "Most people in arranged marriages aren't happy about it."

"But most try to find some common ground, or at least to get along. My parents didn't. They'd chosen to marry for the wedding settlements, so they couldn't kill each other, but if they could've, they would've. Mother didn't like men very much in general -"

Do I mention her concubine? No, I think I've stirred up enough trouble this evening. Mother's choices aren't mine.

"- and Father preferred the company of another lady, a widow, in our town. That's how it went for several years. Then the lady Father liked found out she was going to have a baby."

And oh the gossip that stirred up!

"Father distanced himself from her when she told him. She was wealthy enough to remain unmarried, and so she had her baby, a son she named Rokou."

Tamahome blinked. "The boy you introduced to me as your brother!" he suddenly said.

Nuriko flashed him a smile. "Yes, that's who he is. Anyway, Father didn't acknowledge him, because his mother hadn't been spending time with just him. Elder Brother's mother is very beautiful and she has a lot of suitors. Anyway, while she was expecting Rokou, Father decided to pay attention to Mother. Shortly after Elder Brother was born, she told him she was going to have a baby too. Father was very proud and told everybody his wife was finally going to give him a son. He strutted about the entire time, until the night my sister was born. Father was terribly disappointed until the midwife told him that Mother was having twins and the second was yet to come. He promptly ran down to the local inn and drank, loudly and in great quantities, to the health of his newborn daughter and son."

Nuriko sighed. "Three days later he came home with a roaring hangover, having just registered our birth at the local government chambers, to be told he had twin daughters. He refused to believe it, and then he told Mother I'd been registered as a boy, I'd just have to be raised as a boy. He bought the midwife's silence, bought Mother's cooperation, and that was that. Legally, I am Chou Ryuuen and nobody except my family knows that Ryuuen isn't a boy. Except you."

Nobody said anything for a very long moment.

"I'm sorry," Miaka said, breaking the silence.

"Why?"

"It must've been awful."

"Not really," Nuriko said thoughtfully. "Ever since I was about twelve or so, I've thought that it was Suzakuseikun's plan,
really."

Hotohori frowned. "A divine plan?"

"Well, yes. I mean, the shishiseishi are supposed to be men, right? So, if a shishiseishi was born a girl, then how can she be a shishiseishi? Unless she's raised to be a man... I decided it was Suzakuseikun's way of ensuring I be allowed to carry out my destiny. It was that or become hopelessly cynical."

Tamahome yawned suddenly.

"Any other questions?" Nuriko asked. "Because there isn't anything else to add, really, and I for one need some sleep."

The other three shook their heads. Bidding each other goodnight, the two girls left the room quietly.

Undressing and slipping into their own beds, neither Nuriko nor Miaka said anything to each other. When both were under their respective covers, Miaka reached over and blew out the lamp.

"Nuriko?" Miaka's voice whispered in the warm darkness.

"Yes, Miaka?"

"I really am sorry, you know."

"I know. So am I. Don't tell them."

"I won't. Goodnight."

Listening to her Miko's breathing, it was a long time before Nuriko fell asleep.

******

Author's Notes:

1) Hot springs are often found around volcanoes and other geothermal vents in the Earth's crust. Japan is a chain of volcanic islands, which is why hot springs are so common there. Another phenomenon associated with geothermal vents is natural gas emissions, which will affect those who breathe them in various ways; some are hallucinogenic, some are psychosis-inducing, while some are euphoric. Several 'legendary healing springs' are hot springs that have a vent of naturally-euphoric gas within the spring or nearby.

2) Imperial bed-tutors - historically, Emperors of China were given specialist instruction in all areas they were expected to be competent in - scholarship, war, and, of course, the arts of love. Watase-sensei did say that Hotohori was inexperienced in this area, but I have chosen to differ. It's just not logical that he would not have been offered the instruction.

3) As a student of Tai Chi Chu'an, I can inform you that both Tamahome and Hotohori fight using a modified form of it - Tamahome uses the unarmed form, while Hotohori uses the sword form. When a skilled master performs the forms, Tai Chi Chu'an looks like an athletic and very graceful dance. Tamahome's style is both familiar and unfamiliar to Hotohori because, while it is still Tai Chi Chu'an, not only are there major differences between the sword form and the unarmed form, both Shishiseishi have modified their fighting forms to accomodate their Shishiseishi abilities.