[Ranma/SM][FanFic] The Phoenix Prince Saga Book 2, Part 5, Chapter 1
Linda Ward
Chapter One: Precognition - Reiki
Reiki walked down the corridor towards Shima's quarters by herself. She
was hoping that he would have settled in by now, seeing as he had only
came to the Moon Kingdom the day before. It had been several years since
she had last seen her brother before he had left with the Lord Phoenix and
now she wanted to get to know him again.
She figured that one of the best ways to revive their faded bond was to
bring him into her circle. After all, the citizens of the Realms feared
him and his abilities nearly as much, if not more, than they feared her
and her companions. If she could just - she didn't know exactly what she
wanted him to do, but it would be great to have her brother back again. He
wasn't just her brother, after all. He was her dearest friend, her
confidant, and her teacher as well. And she just couldn't see why he
couldn't be the same to her friends.
That decided, she knocked timidly on the simple oaken door she had just
arrived at. Moments later, the door opened silently on its well-oiled
hinges.
"Yes?" came Shima's husky baritone voice, preceding his appearance in the
portal by an easy 15 seconds at least.
And finally, Shima stood before her in the entrance. He was dressed in
the simple outfit he wore when he practiced his Arts. Black silken pants
covered his legs with a strangely attractive manner of loose and tight
areas. His feet were incased in simple black leather slippers without
socks and a long, black, silk sash wrapped its way two or three times
around his lithe waist. His torso was bare, revealing a exquisite
assemblage of wiry chest and abdominal muscles. His long qui was wrapped
several times around his neck, visible testament to its length. The rest
of his midnight black hair spiked wildly about on his head as he refused
to use the traditional oils that would slick his hair down neatly. His
arms bore the marks of one long accustomed to the Arts of War. Finally,
but his wrists were incased in the intricate bands of gold and steel that
served him as bracers. Reiki could only blush at the sight of her handsome
brother before her.
"Well? Did you need something, Reiki, or were you just wanting to stare?"
his mild question interrupted her reverie.
Reiki blushed even deeper at that. "I'm sorry, Shima. I-I just wanted to
ask you to-to come with me and -" she stammered.
"And what, Reiki?"
Reiki looked up and met his eyes. Taking a deep breath to calm herself,
she finally continued. "I want you to come meet my friends, big brother.
Will you?"
Shima looked at her for a short time more then shrugged. "I suppose I
could do that. Do I need to dress fancy or anything, little sister?"
"Nuh-no, Shima. You don't. They're in the training hall right now."
He shrugged again. "Ok. Just let me grab my shirt."
Then he vanished only to reappear moments later wearing a sleeveless
leather jerkin that was unlaced and his scarlet cloak over his pants and
sash combo from moments ago.
"Well, lead the way, little sister!" he finally stated with a smirk as he
gestured grandly towards the corridor exit.
**********
Reiki could not believe that that had happened! How could Akai attack her
brother so vehemently?! So, he was a boy! He was her _brother_ for crying
out loud! He was supposed to be a boy!
And the others attacking them as soon as they walked in the room! At
least Minanoai and Kina had the decency to look abashed at that gross
injustice, but that childish girl, Akai! Sometimes Reiki found it hard to
believe that her and gentle Amilia were twin sisters!
She continued in a similar fashion well into the night.
**********
Reiki slipped silently across the freezing cold stone flags of her
brother's chambers into the Sacred Fire antechamber. She knew that she
didn't exactly have Shima's permission, or the permission of the Lord
Phoenix, to be there, but she was worried about Shima. He had left three
days before to join Serenity's Prince Endymion on Earth in order to assist
the noble young Prince in ridding the Terran High Kingdom from its recent
bandit infestation. Which really wasn't a big deal. The problem was that
he had failed to send any form of contact back to lunar soil to inform
anyone of his well-being. Even Akai had failed to hear from him.
Which was what led to Reiki's invasion of the sacred realm of the Sacred
Fire antechamber. As soon as she entered the presence of the blazing
bonfire that was the Sacred Fire, she bowed in obsequiousness to its
amazing demeanor. Then there were preparations to attend to and she was
kept busy for the next two Terran hours, all the while silently blessing
the fact that she didn't have to relight the Flame, which would have
easily added another three Terran hours to her tasks.
It was quickly nearing the middle of the night before she was able to
fold her legs properly underneath her and begin the ritual that would
allow to use the Flame as a medium for her thoughts. Her hands and fingers
flashed through the intricate movements with the practiced speed of one
who had spent many time periods weaving through the same movements over
and over. Her dark, flashing eyes were closed, though not very tightly.
Her red lips softly formed the ritual words in that strange Terran
language that Shima had insisted she learn, though her pronunciation bore
a rather distinct and pronounced Martian accent.
"Ayro, Pin, Tou, Ryu, Sin, Jo." She whispered, though her voice echoed
strongly throughout the uniquely seamless chamber.
Then, in the back of her mind, she felt more than heard the mysteriously
strange chuckle that she had began to associate with her link with the
Flame as much as the bright and comfortable warmth which spread through
her body. As her consciousness sank slowly into the flickering depths of
the Flame, she gently began sketching out the details of her request. Who
she wanted to find. Where he was likely to be located. What the cause
behind her quest was. And many other questions helped to fine-tune and
further focus the probing spark that was her consciousness in the Realm of
the Flames.
After some time searching she eventually found the brilliant scarlet
essence that she associated with Shima riding on the muted, dull brown and
gold essence that was the charger he rode on Earth. All in all, she was
quite happy with finding him so quickly, but something didn't seem quite
right. She couldn't exactly put her finger on it, so she focused her mind
on it instead. The something off became immediately apparent as soon as
she allowed her attention to back slightly away from Shima and became
aware of the surrounding. Suddenly she knew that he was in battle and
that he had a companion. He was uninjured, so the battle didn't bother her
nearly as much as his companion on the brown and gold steed.
The other essence was a veritable bonfire of scarlet traced with gold
flickers. At first, the extreme similarities between the stranger and her
brother made her think that it was possible that the odd one with him was
his soul mate, then she looked closer and noticed the thin piece of
crimson thread that ran from the center of his soul to somewhere high
above him and smiled slightly. Then she began a more in depth search of
the unusual essence with him. She was quite startled to realize that it
wasn't another soldier on the steed's back with Shima as she had
originally thought, but instead carried the distinct traces of lighter
shades within the essence that declared in no uncertain terms that the
owner of the essence was of the feminine variety.
Suddenly, the bonfire girl disappeared from Shima's steed to soar across
the battlefield towards a rather nasty looking sickly green and yellow
aura a good fifty to seventy-five Terran feet away. As Reiki watched, she
was certain that the girl would fall far short. But most startlingly, the
girl's essence abruptly flared with a powerful influx of the Lord
Phoenix's energies!
The girl cleared the distance between Shima and the sick aura easily, in
fact, with distance to spare. As her essence landed on the sick aura, the
sick aura suddenly began to flicker then faded away. Even as Reiki
watched, Shima rode over and the girl appeared back behind him, the touch
of Lord Phoenix's energies completely omitted from the essence again.
Reiki wondered about the strange girl for sometime, but ever time her
consciousness tried to fix upon the surge of Phoenix Force, she heard,
felt, whatever, that strange and mysterious chuckle in the back of her
mind. Which made her thoughts tend to want to avoid that particular avenue
of reasoning after a time.
Not long after, Reiki finally decided it was time to stop and withdrew
from the fire and began the long ritual to finish a "reading" as Shima
called it.
**********
Reiki tried to think about the girl some more as she headed back to her
chambers wearily. But her mind just didn't want to focus. It kept straying
off on wild jaunts to hither and yon.
Finally, she decided, as she hauled herself into her room and prepared
for bed, that she would just wait and see if the girl came back with Shima
to the Lunar Realm. If she did, then she could ask the girl herself about
the brief influx of energies. And beside, Reiki thought climbing
exhaustedly into bed, she could always be nice to the poor soul and maybe
end up with another friend out of it.
It was a shame that she only remembered her decision to try and make a
new friend after she woke up the next morning.
**********
Reiki stood silently on the balcony that overlooked the gardens in a
strangely pensive mood. Shima had been very upset about something for the
past week and he was still refusing to come and talk to her about it.
Which was, quite understandably, driving her nuts.
She knew that he had talked with all of the other girls, with the
possible exception of Akai. But then, who really ever went to Akai when
they wanted to be cheered up? To be honest with herself, Reiki could only
see Shima going to deliberately see Akai when he was looking for some
serious abuse. That girl had a definite anger problem. Which, for
whatever reason, Shima generally chose to ignore or displace.
She had to admit that Shima had some kind of way with the fiery Mercurian
that behaved much more like a native born Martian instead of one of the
cool and collected Mercurians. No one had really ever bothered to get
close enough to find out what made her tick. The only thing anyone really
knew was that she utterly despised boys. And no one actually knew why that
was, with the possible exception of her twin sister Amilia, and she
certainly wasn't talking.
Reiki sighed and slumped slightly to lean on the railing with her
forearms. She wanted to help. She really did. She just didn't add up like
the other girls did. All she was, was the little sister of the great and
wonderful Phoenix Prince. Who cared that he was once a rather gawky boy
that no one really liked too much? Who bothered to remember his
fascination with books and dusty old tomes that drove their father to
distraction on more than one occasion? No one, that's who. No one, except
Reiki.
She knew. She remembered. It wasn't like she could help it. All of her
memories, as far back as she could remember, involved Shima in some way.
Her dim memories of life as a babe in arms, she was looking up into the
smiling face of Shima. Her mother had died shortly after her birth, and
her father nearly openly rejected her just because she was a girl, and not
considered "worthy" of his praise or attention. So Shima had filled in. He
had been the father that she could hardly remember. He had filled the
shoes of their dearly departed mother awkwardly, but much more skillfully
than the evil witch that had crowded into their lives with their father's
court marriage.
Her face screwed up in wry disgust at that thought. She really shouldn't
have let her mind wander towards their step-mother and that odious little
child of hers. Ugh. To think that a member of the Royal Martian Family
would stoop so low as to actually wed one of the petty queens of the Lower
Earthian Kingdoms was bad enough. But why couldn't their father at least
had the decency and good taste to choose anyone BUT Morriganna of the Fire
Kingdom! That woman put the bad into bad taste! And that boy of hers!
Zoicite? What kind of name was that? Wasn't it some kind of nasty rock or
something? It suited that ugly whelp to a T.
She slowly regained her temper with the thought that Zoicite had been
reclaimed to Earth to serve and obey the High Kingdom. Which was not a
task that the young pest had been any too thrilled about. Nor had his
mother. She kept trying to claim that he was the 'proper heir to Mars' and
as such could not possibly be reclaimed by Earth. As if! Zoicite would
never, could never, be the 'proper heir to Mars' even if there was such a
thing! Even if he could, he never was fit enough to sit the War Throne,
despite the fact that he was three months older than Shima.
Reiki managed a low chuckle at that thought. The War Throne was the
literal and metaphorical icon of the Martian way of life. It was a
physical struggle to even rest upon the Throne momentarily, something
which, Reiki was proud to say, she had managed on her thirteenth birthday,
thus winning back the Heirship left vacant with the calling of her brother
to the Phoenix's side. As Amilia had once commented, the kingdom names
came from the Old Tongue after all.
Mars meant, literally, War. A martian was a warrior in the Old Tongue.
Just as jovian was creator and mercurian was a scholar. The center of the
Realms was where it was because Lunar meant Royalty. Which was why they
existed in the Lunar Realms.
Reiki hadn't exactly expected it, but she was suddenly broken from her
silent reverie by a very familiar tread on the flags of the balcony where
she resided. She spun around in a suddenly much better mood, only to get
worried all over again when she saw the disconsolate look on his face.
"Oniisan?" she whispered, reaching out towards him.
**********
It had been fun to run about with Shima on the balcony. It was as if they
were kids all over again, without all the worries and hardships they faced
on a day to day basis.
She nestled herself more snugly into his arms as the massive wings of
flame that were required to carry Shima and her weight, even with the
relatively low gravity of the Lunar landscape, flickered and flashed as
they cut their fiery swaths through the crisp air. It was warm in her
brother's arms, with the fiery essence that was a quintessential part of
him seeping through to help regulate their body temperatures in the cool
of the night air.
She drifted off to sleep as he tucked her into her bed and brushed the
raven hairs from her brow with a gentle palm. As she did, she briefly
thought upon the fact that Akai was a very lucky girl.
--
Look not for me in bright of day
Look not in dark of night
I am but a solitary figment
Alone created of your mind.
-
Siobhan Recca
The Cybernetic Ninja