Feathered Dreams An X/FY fic Rabi-chan Part 4 ------------------------- "Are you... really Kamui-chan" "How come... you know my name?" "Kamui-chan!" Kotori threw herself into the arms of the young man sitting in front of her. She put her head against his chest, feeling his warmth in the cold weather through the soft fabric of clothing that someone has put on for her while she was still unconscious. "Six years, I've been waiting... Kamui-chan... Atashi, Kotori desu yo." "Kotori...-san," the young man named Kamui said, "but I don't recognize you. Besides, I don't recall anyone I know with the name Kotori. Are you sure I'm the Kamui-chan that you've been waiting for?" "Kamui-chan?" Kotori gently pushed herself away from him. She stared at his face, the same face that appeared over and over in the dream. The same dream. How could it be wrong? "Oh, you're awake, ojyou-chan!" a slightly overweighted middle-aged woman came in through the bedroom door, carrying a big basin of water in her hands. "Yokatta!" "Mother, she just woke up. Her name is Kotori." Kamui turned to Kotori, "Kotori-san, this is my mother." Kotori saw the woman's face. This can't be Kamui-chan's mother, she thought. Tooru-obasan? The last time she remembered her, she was skinny. She has had long brown hair that could never have turned all grayish in only six years. On top of that, she couldn't be this old. Still puzzled, Kotori bowed politely and greeted Kamui's mother in her soft voice, "My name is Kotori Monou. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." "Domo domo," greeted Kamui's mother in return. "Kotori-chan, this water is for you to wash your face. You're still very weak, so if you need anything, just let us know. Please make yourself comfortable here." She told Kamui to stay with Kotori for a while, and she left the room, closing the door behind her. Kotori couldn't understand it at all. Besides, she still did not know what happened to Kamui's memory. If he couldn't remember her at all, then was it really him? Or was it just someone that looked extremely alike? Then she noticed. The design of the room, the furniture, the clothings. They were all unfamiliar to her, more like in ancient Chinese style. Where am I? She asked herself. She tried to recall her memory. At the beach. Reading an old book. A bright light engulfed her. She woke up in a snowstorm in a weird place. She was calling for help. And then what just happened in this room. Kamui noticed that Kotori has been thinking hard. He knew from her original clothing that she wasn't from this part of the world, so he asked her, "Kotori-san, may I ask where you are from?" "Tokyo," answered Kotori who seemed to catch a small frown on Kamui's forehead. "So I thought," Kamui said. "You're a foreigner here. Where is Tokyo? Considering the amount of clothings that you were wearing in this freezing weather, are you from the south? Kounan?" "I'm from Japan." Kotori was surprised that he didn't know Tokyo. "Tokyo is the capital of my country called Japan." "I've never heard of this country before besides Kounan, Kutou, and Sairoo..." Kamui was confused. He paused for a second then continued on, "Are you, by any chance, from another world?" Another world? That would explain it, Kotori thought. She was engulfed by the book and was transported into it. She remembered it read, 'This is the story of one girl, 'who having gathered the Shichiseishi... '... 'As this page is turned, the story begins itself.' It might have been too hard for ordinary people to believe such things, but, for Kotori, she was no ordinary individual. She knew it would have to be true. A lot of things in the world were mysterious. Supernatural. Even herself, with the power of dr eamgazing, was beyond one's imagination. She said to Kamui, "I could've come from another world, even I can't tell you that for sure. But... if I am, I need to find a way to get back to my own world... By the way, can you tell me where I am?" Kamui stared at Kotori. A young maiden from another world! So the legend was true afterall! It was told in this country that, in the time of crisis, a young maiden would appear from another world. She would summon the god, give peace and save the country from danger. Kamui knelt before Kotori and put both of his hands on the floor. Bowing low at Kotori, he touched the floor with his forehead and said in a loud voice, "This is the Kingdom of Hokkan, Kotori-sama." Tamahome stared blankly at the equations written on the blackboard. Chemistry, he thought, I just hate chemistry. Why is chemistry a required class for engineering freshmen? The class was so packed and everyone was scribbling things on his/her notebooks. Tamahome has stopped taking notes awhile ago. He rather just read the book, since the professor just repeated everything from the book anyway. Tamahome turned his head to the left towards the closed window and thought that he could have felt the warmth of the sun in the air-conditioned room. What a nice day. Miaka must be having fun at the beach, he thought. One could imagine how he wished he could get out of class as soon as possible. The professor put up a transparency full of symbols on the overhead projector at the front of the lecture room. Tamahome couldn't care less. His eyes wandered around and fell on the back of Keisuke, who was sitting a row and two seats away from himself, dozing off. He couldn't understand why Keisuke, a history major, would be taking this course... Probably one of those required science class again. Suddenly, Tamahome's beeper sounded and woke up the half-sleeping Keisuke. Not quite knowing what was going on, Keisuke turned around and saw Tamahome reaching for the beeper on his waist. He thought Tamahome's face has tightened up slightly. What's up with that serious face? Keisuke wondered. He couldn't quite tell, especially he just woke up. Then, his eyes met that of Tamahome, who tipped him the wink of an urgency. Without a second's delay, both of them packed up, trying not to trip over other students' bags and legs, and left the room. "It's from Miaka," said Tamahome the moment when the door of the lecture room was closed. He handed Keisuke the beeper, on which the message screen said, 'Get Keisuke and Tetsuya. Go to Miaka's. Urgent: Tenchisho.' "What?" Keisuke couldn't help but yelled out in surprise. "The Tenchisho? It can't be! How could..." "In any case," Tamahome interrupted, "Keisuke-san, we need to get Tetsuya-san. Do you know where he is?" Keisuke looked at his watch and concluded that Tetsuya must be having his physic lab at this hour. For once, he was glad that he wasn't at the huge campus of the CLAMP Gakuen's University, otherwise it would take them at least three times the amount of time to get to the physics labs from the history building. They hurried to the physics building two blocks away and checked the labs on every floor, one by one. Finally they found him at the basement. They made up an excuse about a serious family matter and hurried back to Keisuke's house in Tetsuya's car. Chichiri and Tasuki followed Taiitsukun and arrived at Mount Taikyoku. To their surprise, Mount Taikyoku seemed to have changed quite a lot since their last visit. Flowers were withering, rivers were drying. No more birds and butterflies and fish and animals, with half the place covered in rocks. The sky was no longer blue but was filled with gray clouds as if lightning was going to strike at any moment. "What the hell's goin' on?" Tasuki couldn't help questioning. "Mount Taikyoku is the center which sustains this world," Taiitsukun explained. "It is linked with Hokkan, Kutou, Kounan, and Sairoo -- the four countries of the four cardinal points. If anything drastic happens to any of the four countries, it will be reflected somehow in Mount Taikyoku, or vice versa. 'A person with an evil heart will only see this place as a mountain of rocks.' But to make it worse, a powerful person with the most evil will can influence the four countries and turn Mount Taikyoku into a real mountain of rocks." "The snowstorms in Hokkan of the north and Sairoo of the west were definitely unnatural," Chichiri noticed. "Soon, Kounan and our eastern neighbor Kutou will be under the snow..." "Ho...hold on a sec," Tasuki interrupted, "so if the storms are moving southward and eastward... it's only a matter of time before they finally get here." "You could say that," answered Taiitsukun. She turned her head away with her back facing them and said, "Or in other words, we have an enemy here." "And... when the storms reach all four countries," Chichiri took a small step towards where Taiitsukun was and added, "it's the end of the world." Fuuma listened attentively to Miaka and Yui, who just finished describing the incredible story of Kotori's disappearance. Shijin Tenchisho. A book, which comes true as one reads to it, word by word. A book, which had been written, all along, waiting for its Mikos to carry out its rituals. A book, which should have concluded itself after the Suzaku and the Seiryuu groups' battle. The same book, awaiting for its new Mikos, to repeat its cycle... A long silence. Fuuma was surprisingly calm. He was known to be the quiet type who never showed his emotions on his face. But yet, it must have been shocking for him, at least inside his heart, to learn that his own sister has been "sucked" into a book. Minutes passed. It was Tamahome who first asked if anything could be done to get Kotori back. "We can use the same method when Yui-chan tried to get Miaka back the first time," Keisuke explained. "First, what we need is an object which links the two worlds together. For Miaka and Yui-chan's case, it was their uniforms..." Miaka and Yui looked at each other for a moment. Something that Kotori and the two of them had in common. Not the uniforms this time. They wore different clothes at the picnic. The picnic? "The bracelet!" Miaka and Yui yelled out at the same time, holding out their wrists and showing the guys what their link might be. "Good," Keisuke continued, opening the Tenchisho. "Next, we need to contact Kotori-chan." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramblings: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Took a long while. Gomen ne. Yeah yeah yeah. You were just being lazy. Give her a break. She had tests and homeworks and stuff to do. She doesn't have to work like I do. I have work too. Really? What work? What work? Web stuff. It's only part-time. Excuses. Excuses. Fine. I'll start working on part five tonight. Where's Wynne? She's ill. Sore throat and stuff. Hopes she gets better soon...