Starlit Reflections

Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics, Studio Perriot, Viz Communications and Pioneer Entertainment. All rights remain theirs and no profit is being made from this (Tamahome would doubtless get it all if there was any anyway).

Chapter 1: Star's Advent

"I hate this," Emperor Saiheitei of the Konan Empire complained in an undertone, despite the fact that he and the person he was speaking to were the only ones in the room. Growing up in a court leaves one with either no sense of modesty whatsoever or an exaggerated fear of gossip, and the Emperor had developed the latter.

"The heavy robes, the bucket hat, the palanquin or the procession?" asked his companion, equally quietly, but with a wide grin and a singsong lilt. Both were so infectious that Saiheitei couldn't help smiling back at his friend.

"Be serious, Nuriko. You know what I mean. But it's all necessary, so I can't get rid of any of it, so don't bother suggesting that. And stop calling the Imperial Crown a 'bucket hat'. It's a majestic symbol of royal authority."

Nuriko shook the purple braid that was the envy of many a court lady at Hotohori. "It looks like a painted bucket, Lord Hotohori. Does nothing for you at all."

"I know, but it isn't a fashion that I can change." Hotohori sighed and shook his head. "I don't know what's wrong with me today. I usually enjoy the processions - Suzaku knows they're the closest I get to my people. But all day today I've been really restless. It's as if someone's just on the edge of earshot and calling my name."

His friend frowned. "I know what you mean - I've felt like riding out into the city all day and looking for something. Don't ask me what, I have no idea. Maybe I'll see it during the procession." Nuriko glanced at Hotohori's face. "What?"

"Pardon?"

"You've got that 'uh-oh, Nuriko's not going to like this' expression on again. The last time you looked like that was when you tried to give me that Lordship of Wherever-it-was. Come on, Lord Hotohori, you can tell me. What is it?"

Saiheitei looked even guiltier. "The Captain of the Guards doesn't want you in the procession."

Nuriko grinned. "Oh, that's all right, he always has silly ideas like..." The words trailed off as Hotohori shook his head. "You didn't agree with him, did you?  Lord Hoto-horiiii!"

This last was a wail.

"He's right, you know. It's coming close to the time when the Priestess of Suzaku will come, and as the only known Shishiseishi of Suzaku -"

"You're a Shichiseishi too!" Nuriko interjected. Hotohori sighed.

"Yes, but I'm not known to be one, and you are. There are those who would not want the Priestess to save Konan, so they'll try to prevent her success."

"And next you'll teach me to read and write! This isn't telling me why I'm not allowed out, Lord Hotohori!"

"Because it's easier to protect you here!" Hotohori finally snapped.

Nuriko stared at him, eyes wide. Then shut the jaw with an audible click. "Protect... me? I don't need protection, I'm not-"

"-aware that there have already been four attempts on your life?" Hotohori interjected sarcastically. "The guards on the palace gate have been doubled in the past six weeks for a reason, you know!"

Nuriko stared at him in shock, then whispered, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Hotohori looked down and shook his head. "How would I have told you? 'Oh, Nuriko, be careful about the food, the foodtaster who tested the supper you asked the kitchen to send to your rooms last night is being treated for poisoning'? or perhaps I should have said 'Oh, Nuriko, the guard on the wing of the Palace where your rooms are was a Koutou spy and he almost got to your room to knife you last night, so sleep lightly'?" He laughed, with absolutely no humour. "All those systems are in place to protect the Emperor, it's kind of funny to see them in operation for someone else." He shook his head. "But I'm glad they're there, I'm glad they work; if they didn't..." Hotohori lifted his head and stared straight at his best friend. "Anyway, you stay here today."

Nuriko stood and walked over to the window. Staring out, the whisper was still clearly audible. "I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"I wanted to."

"If you wanted to, you would have."

"I - I couldn't bear to. Look how upset you are. If I had told you then you would've been worse, and I couldn't bear that."

Whirling on an elegantly-shod heel, Nuriko stalked back across the room, till Nuriko was face to upper chest with Hotohori. Sometimes it was a real pain being short. "I'm not upset that it happened, you dolt! I'm FURIOUS that you didn't trust me!"

Hotohori's expression could be compared with that of a stunned fish in that instant, his mouth opening and shutting without sound. When he finally managed to put voice and lips together, his voice was very small. "I - I never thought that you would - would feel this way."

An Emperor may not apologise, Nuriko thought, because to do so is to admit that he is in the wrong. But the apology in Hotohori's voice was heard, and responded to. "Ah, I don't doubt that with any other, you'd be right. It's frightening, to think that there are those I've never met wanting to kill me."

"It's not you, Nuriko," Hotohori replied, "it's what you represent. Look at me, all the people say they love the Emperor, but how many know and love me? They love what I represent."

"Ah, the burdens of being Emperor. I knew we'd work YOU into it somehow!"

"That is unfair!"

"But is it untrue, my friend?"

Hotohori made a face at Nuriko and then laughed. "Even when there is bad news you lift my spirits. I'm glad you are my brother-star; I'd hate to think of you as an enemy!"

"I'm glad we are friends, too - amazing, isn't it, that an Emperor can get along with the child of a tailor."

"Yes." Hotohori swallowed, and said, "You've heard the latest rumours."

"Which ones? You know a new rumour's born every second minute here."

"About us - being lovers."

"That old chestnut? I've always dismissed it as wishful thinking. There's a certain type of person to whom the notion appeals. Mostly the ladies, which is what amazes me."

"My advisors are using it to try to persuade me to wed."

"Stand firm! Say you'll wed only the princess of Timbucktu!"

"Ha very ha. You won't think this is a joke - they want me to marry your sister, because of your resemblance to her."

Nuriko stood up dead straight. "WHAT??"

"I'm serious. That's what they said. 'Miss Kourin and Lord Nuriko are nearly identical. Marry the sister and you need never miss the brother'."

Nuriko stood up and stalked up to the door. "When I get my hands on those weasels, I'll-"

"You'll stay right here. I'm just telling you what they said. And I'm asking for advice on how to evade them."

A sudden light gleamed in Nuriko's eyes, but the only answer vouchsafed was, "Tell them you'll only marry Kourin's sister Houki."

Hotohori frowned. "I didn't know you had a second sister. Her name's Houki?"

"I don't have a second sister, and Houki's my grandmother's name. I'm saying, give them a plausible-sounding impossibility until you meet the girl of your dreams."

Nuriko then bowed. "And on that note, I shall leave you to go spend the afternoon with Kourin." A woebegone note entered the voice as a mischievous light entered the lilac eyes. "If I can't spend time with my best friend in all the world-"

"Oh, go! Just be here in time to restore my sanity for dinner!"

"Sanity for dinner - that sounds interesting..."

"GO!"

Nuriko sighed and wandered down the corridor that led to the Imperial Seraglio.

Not that Hotohori ever does come here. Sometimes I wonder if the rumours are correct. You would think that a teenager would get urges and come here to slake them... it's not like the place has any other purpose, after all.

A small, nondescript door stood at one side of the corridor. Nuriko took a look around and, seeing nobody, opened the little door and slipped through. It shut silently behind the slender form.

A servant, running down the corridor ten seconds later, had no idea that anyone else had been there.

The quiet corridor that Nuriko stepped into was mildly dusty - a signal that, yet again, somebody was trying to get away with slighting Chou Kourin. Nuriko frowned. Harem politics. It wasn't like there was anything to fight over, as long as Hotohori avoided the place.

There were two doors, relatively close together and close to the end of the corridor. Nuriko walked to the further-away one and again quietly entered. Undoing the blue shirt and loosening the chest bindings, Nuriko selected a loose yellow tunic - almost a dress - and pulled it on, padding through the slightly messy rooms to the small enclosed garden that the two sets of rooms at the end of the corridor shared.

As Nuriko had expected, Kourin was in the garden, tending to the profusion of flowers that both the Chou twins loved.

"Hello, Kourin," Nuriko called to her.

"Hello, Houki," Kourin replied. "How was your day?"

"I am grounded. Confined to the palace for the duration. But I'm under orders to report for dinner. Sanity is on the menu."

"Ooh, yummy. And how was our ever-so-delectable Lord Emperor?"

Nuriko widened her eyes in mock shock at her sister. "Kourin! If Mother heard you talking like that-"

"-she'd commend me for remembering the respectful title."

"Well, yes, maybe, but-"

"I've seen him too, you know," Kourin continued thoughtfully. "Certainly beautiful, with those chocolate eyes and seal-brown hair. You'll make a lovely couple."

Houki closed her eyes. "Don't matchmake, please," she sighed. "He's my friend. He thinks I'm a boy. And I like it that way."

"Really?" Kourin asked, walking over to water a rosebush. Houki wandered over to the small stone fountain set in the middle of the garden, perching on the foot-high wall rimming the pond the water trickled into.

"Yes. Really. Besides, his advisors are suggesting you for his Empress, and I'd never steal my sister's husband."

There was a clatter behind her and Houki grinned. She thought that would get a reaction. Turning, she saw Kourin had dropped the watering can and was staring at her in shock.

"Me? They're crazy!"

"Yes, he's about as fond of the idea as you are."

"Tell me you scotched it. Please," Kourin begged, her lilac eyes wide in entreaty.

"Don't worry. I told him to tell them he was courting your sister Houki."

Kourin blinked at her twin. "My sister Houki? But you're-" she stopped, then smiled slowly. A smile to match the one that Houki herself wore spread across her face. "Oh."

"There's only one problem I can think of," Houki said softly, batting at a waterlily.

"If I'm not betrothed to the Emperor, we can handle it."

"What are you going to tell all the officials who will come around to meet Nuriko's younger sister Houki?"

Kourin opened her mouth, closed it as a thoughtful expression crossed her face, and then suddenly scowled and hefted her watering can.

Houki got inside and slammed her door shut just in time to miss a faceful of water.

After ten minutes of argument through a closed door (of which, suffice it to say that without the door, Houki would have been very wet), Kourin calmed down enough for Houki to venture out, and the two spent a pleasant hour plotting strategies upon the hapless Court offiicials. (Kourin didn't like them much either.)

"It's unfair!" Kourin still said, an hour later. "Why me?"

"Because you're the girl," was her younger twin's less-than-sympathetic response.

Kourin's eyes raked Houki from hairline to toetips. "Strip to your underwear and repeat that statement," she replied acidly.

"Point," conceded her sister. "But you're the one they know as the girl."

"I hate our parents. Why can't Father simply acknowledge Rokou? Mother could've adopted him and there would have been so much less trouble."

"And admit he'd sired his son on the local lady of negotiable virtue? When his own wife managed to produce twins a year later? Father's pride is so touchy and he'd never believe that the gossip would die out. We're just lucky he's prepared to accept Elder Brother as his apprentice, so I don't have to 'marry' and 'inherit the business'."

Kourin burst out laughing. "Oh, your face when you say that!"

After a moment, Houki joined her. "Let's just say that running a cloth-shop isn't my life's ambition! How Elder Brother can be so happy doing it is something I'll never understand!"

"That he is is something that Father finds very satisfying," replied Kourin.

"True." Houki stood and stretched. As she began to walk across the lawn, her stride changed and lengthened, while her shoulders stirred into a sharper angle. Kourin watched as her sister slipped from her 'Houki' persona into 'Nuriko'.

Though truly there is little difference between the two, thought Kourin. It's in the priorities. Houki is my sister, and no matter how dear anyone else is to her, I come first. Nuriko belongs to Suzaku, and her loyalties are to Suzaku, His Priestess and her fellow Shichiseishi, and I run a poor fourth. Ten minutes ago, if I said I hated the Emperor, she'd have said, "All right, why?" Now she'd attack me, because he's her star-brother and more important to her than me.

Kourin looked down and blinked away tears. It hurts. I've lost my sister and she's still in front of me. And I can't even complain because she still cares, she's still my sister - I'm just not as important to her anymore. He's the important one now. Even when she's Houki.

Nuriko, oblivious to her sister's musings, opened her door. "I'm going to go for a good brisk walk," she announced. "Join me?"

Kourin shook her head. "No, thanks. I'm not - not in the mood."

"If you're sure...?"

"I'm sure. Have fun."

Nuriko shrugged and shut the door behind her. Kourin waited a few moments, then hurled her watering pot at the far wall of the garden. It struck the stone and shattered into a thousand pottery shards.

She sighed and walked over to the stone storage chest, cunningly disguised as a garden seat, and took out another watering pot. Another one,she thought absently, and began to water the rest of the garden.

She'd taken to breaking pots recently, and it did relieve the frustration somewhat. But still, it was probably a good thing she'd never been alone with the Emperor whenever she'd seen Houki become Nuriko.

Nuriko wandered around the Palace, feet leading a mind that was not exactly focused on a destination.

Something's wrong with Kourin, she thought absently. I'm so restless today, but Kourin was really weird. Members of the harem aren't allowed to leave their quarters - they have to be taken out. For her to refuse to go - normally she leaps at even a tiny breath of freedom. Something's got to be wrong...

"STOP THERE!!"

A boy ran across the courtyard. Dressed in a dark blue surcoat that had, to put it kindly, seen better days, he was sprinting off down a corridor, a symbol glowing on his forehead, pursued by a slew of the Palace Guard.

A symbol...?

Nuriko put her hand to her collarbone, where she could feel her own Seishi symbol throbbing gently, heating her hand through the fabric of her shirts. The only time it had felt this way before was when she had first met Hotohori-sama.

She smiled and began to sprint after the guards and her new fellow Seishi. Now she knew what had made her so restless all day. But if she wanted to end this chase her way, she'd better get ahead of the group. Seeing the boy begin to run down one of the looping corridors of the Palace, Nuriko grinned tiredly. That particular corridor had no exits until it joined one of the courtyards beside Hotohori-sama's royal reception hall, and she knew a shortcut. She turned and ran down a different, much shorter hall.

Nuriko came running out the end of the corridor, into the courtyard she was aiming for. Yes! She'd beaten them! She turned to see one of the strangest sights she'd ever thought to see: Lord Hotohori... in a dress?!

He was speaking softly to a girl, who was wearing the oddest garments. Looking at her, Nuriko was suddenly struck with a wave of heat, and the quiet throb she was used to feeling from her symbol whenever she was in Hotohori-sama's presence suddenly became an overwhelming pulsing against her chest. Glancing down, she could see her symbol literally blazing. There was only one reason - she must be in the presence of the Priestess of Suzaku. No wonder the strange girl's clothes were so odd!

"Bright Suzaku," she breathed. "No wonder there's another Seishi in the Palace - he must be her personal Seishi."

The chase burst into the courtyard just then, the new Seishi in the lead. "HOLD IT, YOU!!" the leader of the guard bellowed. "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST-"

"No!" Nuriko ran over to the group. Introducing herself to the Priestess of Suzaku would have to wait. "You can't arrest this man!"

"But, Lord Nuriko -" the guard began to protest.

"This man is one of the Shishiseishi of Suzaku! I demand you release him to my custody immediately!"

The guard frowned. "But, Lord Nuriko! He had an accomplice who tried to steal from the Emperor's carriage and then turned into a horrible monster to escape from prison!"

He must mean the Priestess of Suzaku, but a monster? He must be exaggerating.

"Do I have to mention this to the Emperor?" Nuriko demanded imperiously.

"The Emperor? No, of course-"

"Then go!"

The Palace Guard left, muttering.

Nuriko turned then, to the other. "Well, now, just look at you. Cleaning you up's not gonna be quick. You'll have to get a bath, and I'll have to find something decent for you to wear - black and red, I think, yes, and then-"

Tamahome stared at Nuriko.This guy is crazy. "Uh- thanks for rescuing me, but I've got a friend who's wandering around that I've got to find, so I'll just go now, thank you," he muttered.

"The Priestess of Suzaku's over there with Lord Hotohori. She is who you're looking for, ne?" the strange young man said, waving his hand vaguely over his shoulder. "Ne, Lord Hotohori?"

"I wondered if you'd noticed us," came a deep, rich voice. "I should have known that you'd spot us, Nuriko. You always do seem to be the first with the news. That was masterful handling of the guard back there. Maybe I should hand over the reins to you?"

Nuriko grinned and stepped back, revealing Miaka and what appeared to be a glorious young woman, dressed in white, to a relieved Tamahome. "Oh no, Lord Hotohori, I'm just fine."

The young woman nodded at Tamahome. "So now we are three," she said with satisfaction. "And the Priestess of Suzaku is with us at last."

Miaka had stood by, a little dazed, as everything happened around her. Things had just got so crazy! First she'd been rescued from bad guys by Tamahome, then they'd been arrested, then they'd escaped, then Tamahome had found that shrine and gone all mystic, so she'd snuck off to get something to eat, and things had been kind of calm when she found the courtyard and began to talk with Hotohori, but then the guards had burst in and this strange guy had saved Tamahome. Then the strange guy had started to talk about the Priestess of Suzaku too, but there wasn't even a shrine around to explain why he'd started being all mystic too. And now Hotohori was doing it too! It was all enough to befuddle even Yui-chan, and Miaka was no Yui-chan!

"The Priestess of Suzaku? What are you all talking about?" she demanded.

"The Priestess of Suzaku is the girl from another world who will come to protect Kounan. She will call our God Suzaku, who will grant her wishes." Nuriko said, in a but-everyone-knows-this type voice. "She will gather the seven warriors of Suzaku who will defend and protect her."

Miaka stared. "So you're...?"

Hotohori cleared her throat. "He is Nuriko, one of the Shichiseishi of Suzaku. So am I, and so is-" She glanced over at Tamahome. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've been introduced."

Nuriko cast a long-suffering look up at the heavens. "Now you remember your Court manners?" he demanded.

Hotohori cast a quelling look at Nuriko, who met it square-on and didn't look particularly quelled. "I shall speak to you later," she muttered.

"I'm Tamahome," Tamahome hurriedly introduced himself.

"Your Majesty!"

An older man stood at the door of the hall adjoining the courtyard. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Your Majesty," he apologised, "but afternoon Court is about to begin."

Hotohori sighed. "Duty calls."

"Not to mention the bucket hat," Nuriko grinned. It was obviously a private joke between the two, because both grinned, pulled an identical face and then sighed theatrically. Hotohori stood, pulling away her dress, revealing very masculine attire.

He wiped his face and the loss of the cosmetics revealed the masculine features that declared, very distinctly, Hotohori's true gender.

"Nuriko," Hotohori said, picking up what looked like an embroidered brocade bucket, "I leave The Priestess of Suzaku and Tamahome to you. Be nice." And with that, he vanished into the darkness of the throne room.

Nuriko grinned. "All right. It's time to get you two - something to eat!" He chuckled as the two facefaulted. "And then I get to organise your quarters here at the Palace and stomp all over bureaucrats. Don't look so apprehensive! I don't bite. Often."