Here is Chapter Two.

(Although I *do* know about the extension on this
week, I'm choosing to get this out now and use the
extra time to write ahead.)

Please enjoy!

Raye
===================================

Starlit Reflections: Dark Quarter 

by Raye Johnsen
raye_j@yahoo.com

*****
	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 western 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.

*****

Author's Notes:

	1. Don't be too disgusted with Hatsui, he *does* have
a reason for being a drunk.
	According to psychics in our world, alcohol has one
of two effects on their abilities; either it depresses
the psychic ability to the point where, when they're
drunk, it's effectively 'switched off', or it
depresses the controls they have placed on the
ability, so while they are drunk they get more intense
(and frightening) visions, or they can't block out the
thoughts/emotions, etc.  Consequently, most people who
are psychics are either chronic alcoholics or
teetotallers.
	As the only Shichiseishi we ever see drunk is Tasuki,
and he never uses his flame while inebriated, I'm
assuming that being drunk 'switches off' a
Shichiseishi's special ability.
	Hatsui 'hears' the truth and the whole truth,
whenever someone speaks.  If you said "I love your
hat!" to someone, while secretly you hate it, he would
hear *both*.  He doesn't like this ability and drinks
to get it to stop.  All the bar fights start when he's
not drunk enough to stop hearing the truth, but too
drunk to control his mouth.

=====
raye_j@yahoo.com
http://www.thejohnsens.com/index.html

"'I run, therefore I am'; more accurately, 
'I run, therefore with any luck I'll still *be*'."
   - Rincewind's philosophy, as explained in "Interesting Times"

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