Starlit Reflections: Dark Quarter

Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics, Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment, Viz Communications and other interested parties. The characters and situation are used without permission for personal entertainment only, and no copyright infringements are intended. No profit is being made from this fic; if there was, Tasuki and Tamahome would lighten me of it, as soon as they could.

Chapter Two: Finding The Path ~ Hatsui

"When I was a child, I used to think ice meant clarity," Hatsui told me once.
"And now?" I asked him.
"Now I know it does."

We were walking briskly through the city of Tolan.

Actually, that is not correct. Takiko was walking briskly. I was limping in her wake, attempting to keep up. My success was qualified by the fact that I'd have to run every few steps to catch up.

She led me on a long, twisty journey through the back streets. This worried me. The eunuchs told stories about what happened in the back streets of the city to the maidservants, and the other children of the Khan and I used to listen in. They were probably hopelessly exaggerated, as they were being used to scare the girls away from the streets and keep them in the palace, but their effect remained, and I was constantly looking for the shadows on the street. In a shadow, I could hide us.

Takiko kept her head high and strode boldly, looking for all the world as if she owned the street she was walking on. She didn't look directly at any of the people on the street, glancing only sidelong at them as we passed them.

We were heading towards a district that I didn't recognise but didn't like the look of. The buildings were not in good repair and every so often people would be loitering on street corners. Which would not be so worrying if it weren't the middle of the afternoon.

We eventually came to a tavern. It may have been during the day, but the raucous sound of singing from within indicated that it's clientele had been there for some time and saw no reason why they wouldn't be there for a good few hours yet.

Before we could do more than glance incredulously at each other, voices inside the tavern were raised and a shouting match began. There was the sound of furniture breaking, and the meaty smack of fist against flesh, accompanied by feminine shrieks (what were women doing in a place that sold wine to be drunk on the premises, I remember wondering; I was very innocent, after all). There were cries of encouragement to the combatants, and finally an almighty crash, in the wake of which a man came flying out through the open door and hit the cobbles of the street in front of the public house. He was unconscious and covered with contusions, and would undoubtedly be very unhappy when he woke up.

Shortly after that, there was a further altercation within the tavern. A burly man appeared at the door, dragging a younger man, who wasn't too scrawny himself. "But he started it!" he was yelling, among expletives.

"I don't care," the burly man told him stolidly. "You've been told, Wen Yuan. Keep your mouth shut or keep out of my tavern."

"But he -"

"I. Don't. Care, boy. Get out and stay out. Count yourself lucky I'm not making you pay for the damage your tongue just caused."

"He hit me -"

"Just don't come back." And with that, the door slammed shut behind the younger man, leaving him standing alone in the street, facing away from us.

"He hit me first, I was only defending myself!" he yelled at the door, as if it cared. "It wasn't my fault!"

"Why did he hit you?" I asked. I was curious.

He swung around, yelped, and fell over. Takiko and I traded glances again.

He sat up, and rubbed the back of his head. "What a first impression," he said ruefully.

"Indeed," Takiko said acidly. "Are you even sober?"

The young man shrugged, smiling at us. His grey eyes gleamed roguishly at us from under his shock of greeny-grey hair. "Mostly," he replied cheerfully. He stood up and began to pat himself down. "Owowowow...." he chanted as he discovered new bruises. "Why do people so object to being told the truth when they're lying?"

"Possibly because they have a reason not to want to tell the truth?" I replied. "Why else would they lie?"

He looked hard at me, blinked, and then threw back his head in a loud laugh. "That... is truth!" he announced to the world at large.

I stepped over to Takiko and pulled gently on her sleeve. "Why are we talking to this drunk?" I hissed in her ear.

His ears were, however, much sharper than they looked. "Now that's not nice, Miss," he said mournfully. "Not nice at all."

Takiko took my hand and smiled at me, forestalling any angry retort I might make. "I am Okuda Takiko," she introduced herself to the man, "and this is my friend Mei Ling."

"You are the Legendary Priestess of Genbu, and the Imperial Princess behind you is the Genbu Shichiseishi Uruki," he corrected her.

After taking a deep breath, I commented, "I take it back. If you were anything like as rude to that man in the tavern, I don't blame him for hitting you at all."

"It is the truth," he said, with a wide-eyed expression.

"So? So was what we introduced ourselves with. I told you there are sometimes reasons for not telling all the truth all the time." Turning to Takiko, I said, "Let's go."

"You can't leave me behind!"

"Why not?" I replied. "All your talking about the truth -"

"It's my Shichiseishi talent! I can't help hearing the truth all the time. I know I'm drunk and I didn't make the best impression, but please believe me." He held out his left hand, the back to us, and I saw black fire tracing the character 'shi' on the skin there. "My Shichiseishi name is Hatsui. That hurts," he added.

"Don't I know it," I replied without thinking.

He laughed again. "Truth! I've got to stay around you, Uruki-star-sister - you're the only person who tells the truth all the time. No fuzzy double speech that drives me crazy from you!"

"Fine," I said flatly. "Now where do we go?" I asked Takiko.

She smoothed away the grin and replied, "I can't feel any other Shichiseishi in Tolan. I think we'll have to leave the city."

I sighed and said, "We'll have to look into buying some horses. Hatsui will be a help there...."

I glanced over at my new star-brother, who was busy throwing up at the side of the road.

"... when he sobers up." I shot a glance at Takiko. "You can giggle, you know," I added sourly.

It was disheartening how quickly she dissolved in laughter.

Once he threw up the wine, Hatsui seemed to sober up a lot. He also knew of a horse lot on the outskirts of the city.

His ability came in very useful there, something that pleased him greatly. I wasn't quite sure why; wouldn't the ability to hear the true value of objects be a great advantage when bargaining?

I'd never done any bargaining before, but I believe I made a decent job of it. My practice for the dramatic skits the Great Khan's wife regularly ordered performed paid off. With great dramatic flair, I dragged the man down to a decent price for three ponies.

Hatsui was apparently well-known to the gate guards.

"Ho, here's the bar-fighter of Tolan," one called. "Leaving us to drink in peace, Wen Yuan?"

"With the rotgut you drink? Pieces, you mean," Hatsui returned cheerfully. "I'm escorting these two young ladies on their journey. There's bandits in the mountains, you know."

"How long are you going for?" the other asked him. "So we'll all know when to head for the hills!"

"Ha, ha," Hatsui returned, with a vicious smile. "I'm not sure. Could be all winter, could be next week. Better drink while you can."

"And that's good advice for everyone!" the first called, as we passed through the gate.

Takiko and I didn't relax until we were out of sight. "Thank you," Takiko said to Hatsui, as we rode on into the mountains.

"It wasn't a problem," Hatsui told us cheerfully. "And now?"

"And now," Takiko said, "we go down there." She pointed down to the great plain below the foothills that Tolan was nestled in.

"The next Shichiseishi?" I asked.

"No - people," she replied. "There's a Shichiseishi there, but I'm supposed to save Hokkan, and they will tell me how."

"But the armies on the border -" I started.

She turned and looked at me. "Uruki," Takiko said gently, "a nation is much more than just land."

With that, she shifted in her saddle and began to gently ride down the path.
 

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