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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: fy10.txt
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DISCLAIMER: Okay, I've meddled with, switched around, or outright 
removed enough characters from this story to 'claim' it as mine, 
complete with spiffy new character designs and MUCH better villians. 
^_^ 

However, since I never would have been inspired to write this story 
without a weekend-long binge of Fushigi Yuugi with my mom, I still 
insist this story is fanfiction, with proper credit belonging to Yuu 
Watase, Flower Comics, Shogakukan, Bandai, Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo, 
Movic, Viz, Pioneer, and others, I'm sure. They can sue me all they 
want, but they'll have to wait until I get rich first.






"Is he all right?" Tamahome asked pleadingly.

"I could not tell you," Tai-Yi Jun lied effortlessly as she kept her
back turned to the three warriors, pretending to study her mystic
mirror closely. _Tamahome didn't whine this much the LAST time Suzaku
rose ascendant._

"When will he be back?" Hotohori demanded.

"My augers are silent on that subject as well," Tai-Yi Jun lied
again, rolling her eyes. _And Hotohori isn't much better either.
Women are such worriers about menfold. Fer cryin' out-_

"What can you tell us, then?" A hint of amusement tinged Nuriko's
question, and Tai-Yi Jun responded to that emotion with a slight
smile as she replied honestly,

"That he WILL return, of course. What else is there to say?"


FUSHIGI YUUGI 
TURNING THE WHEEL
CHAPTER 10



Waking up was the hardest thing that Akira ever did. Unconsciousness
clung to him like a quagmire, holding him tight, sucking him under into its warm embrace...

But the desk he was lying on was far too uncomfortable to stay
asleep.

And the pencils in his back weren't helping matters any. 

"Ow ow ow." Akira rolled away from the pencils and, for a brief
moment, hung suspended in midair, his eyes wide open at the sight of
a tile floor four feet underneath him.

Thump. "OW!"

Akira stood up slowly, wincing at the bruises both fresh and old on
his body, and looked around the room he'd ended up in. _Something
about this place feels familiar._ The rows of desks, the third-story
view out the window, the inarticulate scrawl in one corner of the
chalkboard at the front of the room...

"I'm back in my world! This is my classroom!" He rolled his eyes.
"Jeez, talk about having a grasp of the obvious." Akira groaned and
clutched his forehead. "Man, I haven't been to school in a MONTH.
I'll bet I'm not enrolled in classes any more. I don't want to do
this school year AGAIN." 

He walked over to the back of the room and put his hand against the
wall, looking down at the ground. "I'm still wearing my dagger. That
could get me some funny looks; I'd better take it off before someone
asks me about it." 

Akira unbuckled the belt with practiced motions, his eyes wandering
over the calendar in the back of the room. _Huh. This calendar still
says it's March... I wonder who got lazy about changing the month?
Wait a second._ He looked closer at it as his hands wrapped the belt
around his dagger. _It's STILL March?! And only two days after I went
to the library? But I was in that other world for a MONTH!!_

"What are you doing here so early, Akira?"

"Aah!" Akira leapt backwards and put one hand against his chest,
certain that he was about to suffer the first heart attack of his
short life. _Oh, such a tragedy to die so young!_ He whirled towards
the doorway and spotted his class representative standing there,
staring at Akira with a quizzical expression on his face.

"Akira, is something wrong?"

And as Akira opened his mouth to reply...

...He suddenly realized that he couldn't remember his classroom rep's
name. 

_It starts with an 'Sa', I know that; or is it 'Ka?'_ Akira's brow
furrowed as he tried his damnedest to remember. Most of the stuff
that his life had been before falling into the book seemed so 
distant, so unimportant. 

That month he'd spent in the book felt more like a lifetime. 

Fortunately, he was spared from the embarrassment of asking for a
name as a girl popped through the doorway and glomped the class rep
from behind. "Kennn-chan! Where were you last night?!"

Ken blushed and tried to disengage from her arms as Akira's grin grew
wider and wider. "C'mon, Sayuri, not in front of Akira, he's chief
editor of the school newspaper!" He winked at Akira conspiratorially.

Sayuri propped her head on Ken's shoulder and smiled like a cat at
Akira. "Hiiiii Akira! Gonna spread rumors about the tawdry sex
scandal involving your class rep?"

Akira held back the urge to laugh at the sight before him, but the
effort made his sides ache. _How could I forget Ken and Sayuri?_ "Of
course I am! What kind of a rumormonger and yellow journalist would I
be if I didn't?" He harrumph'ed indignantly and spun on one foot,
managing to keep an offended mask on his face for just long enough to
turn his back.

He almost fell over as a heavy weight landed on his back. A low,
husky voice whispered in his ear, "Awh, Akira, don't be like that..."

"Nuriko, get off my back already. You're heavy!"

The weight disappeared. "Who's Nuriko?" 

Akira whirled to face Sayuri, his mind wavering. _Of course that
wasn't Nuriko. He's back in that other world. Why did I think that it
was him?_ He forced a smile, despite the wave of homesickness that
swept over him. _And why-_

_Why do I kinda miss him already?_

****

The day had gone surprisingly well, considering that Akira had left
most of his books at home and didn't have the slightest idea about
what homework was due. Fortunately Akira's sister had called in with
some excuse that had most of his teachers solicitous and
understanding, though he had no idea what it was. 

Bullshitting them was making him more nervous than it usually did because he just didn't know what Mika had told them. It gave him the feeling of impending doom, as if any word he spoke would give away the fact that it was all a lie.

At lunchtime, he was seated at his usual spot (along the inside of
the school wall, shaded by a tree), wolfing down the first melon
bread he'd eaten in a long time. As the last bite disappeared down
his throat, Akira leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.
_Today seems like a dream, one that I kinda want to wake up from._ 

_Ain't it supposed to be the other way around? In anime, when the guy
who gets sucked into another dimension gets back to Japan it's the
other dimension that's supposed to feel like a dream, and Japan the
hard reality._ 

_I don't... I don't..._

"So, Akira, what's this I hear about your girlfriend?" 

"GAH!" Akira jumped into the air and fell back down hard, nearly
biting his tongue. "Tomoya! Don't startle me like that!" 

Tomoya stuck out her own tongue and screwed her face into a grotesque
mask. "Thor-rrry." 

Akira lifted one eyebrow. "With an expression like that, how am I
supposed to take your apology seriously?"

"I abase myself before you and most humbly beg for your forgiveness."
The girl bowed low, and Akira motioned impatiently.

"Oh, don't get silly." With that, Tomoya plopped down onto the grass
across from Akira. He grinned at her. "So, how have things been since
I've been gone?"

"Akira, it's been two days. How much could have happened?" Tomoya
smiled slightly, then she licked her lips and asked nervously, "Have
you seen Matsura today?" 

Akira sat up straight, his eyes wide. "Matsura!" _I forgot about him!
Oh, man, what happened to him after he left that world? I haven't
seen him in a month. I hope he did all right without me..._ He
slapped himself on the forehead. _What am I thinking? It's only been
two days. How much trouble could he get into by himself in two days?_

"Uh, Akira?"

Akira shook his head rapidly. "Naw, I haven't seen him since last
Friday. Why isn't he in school today? He hasn't missed a day of
school since-" He cut himself off and felt a hot blush creeping into
his cheeks. 

Tomoya leaned forward, the hint of a grin twitching at the corners of
his mouth. "'Since?'"

The blush grew hotter. "Uh, er, ah... none of your business!" Akira
looked away and tried to whistle innocently. _I can't tell her what
we tried to do that morning two years ago. She'd kill me!_ "By the
way, why were you looking for him?"

His distracting question managed to work, though he could see from
the corner of his eye an expression that said Tomoya was filing what
happened to ask about some other time. "His 'fan club' wanted to
know."

"...Fan club? For Matsura? You're bullshitting me." 

Tomoya groaned. "Oh, how I wish I was." Her voice rose up into a
mocking parody of an airheaded schoolgirl. "'Oooh, Matsura is just so
cute! He's so calm and reserved! He acts so dignified! He's so smart
too, I wish I could have HIM helping me with homework _every_ night,
teeheehee! It's too bad he hangs around with that-'" Now it was her
turn to cut herself off and flush brightly.

Akira leaned forward, the hint of a grin twitching at the corners of
his mouth. "'That?'"

"Uh, er, ah... none of your business!" Tomoya pointed one finger.
"Besides, you still haven't answered my first question!"

"Question?"

A sly smile spread across Tomoya's face. "About your new girlfriend
you mentioned this morning."

Akira's brow furrowed as he tried to remember if, when, and why he'd
mentioned Tamahome, even though he wasn't certain as to his current
status with her, wherever she was. He failed to recall anything even
remotely resembling such an incident. "Uh?"

"Sayuri's spreading it all over the school. Some girl named Nuriko."
Tomoya winked. "Better tell us all about it before Shizuka finds
out."

"Nuriko? NURIKO? A girlfriend?" A sudden vision of the crossdresser
flitted across Akira's mind, and he started laughing madly at the
thought of taking Nuriko out to a movie or for an ice cream cone. _I
can just see it... "Oh, Akira, DARLING, would you pleeeze move over
so Hotohori-sama could sit there?" and then-_

His train of thought was ended, however, when he felt the hot flames
of rage singing the fine hairs on his left arm as a spectre from some
nightmare hell of feminine wrath incarnate rose up from the ground
and glared at him. Akira threw up one hand to shield himself as she
said, smoke leaking from her mouth at each syllable, "AA-KII-RAAA..." 

"Shizuka? No, it isn't what you YAAAAAARGGH!!!!!"

****

Mika smoothed Akira's hair back from his forehead as the sounds of a
school closing down came through the open infirmary window. "My poor
stupid little brother. I can't believe he was dumb enough to blab
that he'd hooked up with some girl from a book. I sometimes wonder if
we share any genes at all."

Akira stirred restlessly in his sleep and mumbled, "Suzaku... it
ain't right..."

Mika took her hand away, frowning. "Huh?" _Suzaku? What's a suzaku?
Oh!_ She nodded. "That bird in the story!"

"I'll be there, I'll- no, you can't stop me, I won't be bribed..."

His sister put one hand to her mouth and gasped. "He must be having
some sort of prophetic dream. I can't believe it! Even when he's
outside the book..?" 

"Well, maybe... a lifetime's supply of fresh meat? That new computer
motherboard I need to upgrade my old system? An older sister that
doesn't yammer annoyingly when I try to get some peaceful shut-eye?"

For a second, Mika stared down at her brother and his twitching lips
as he tried to restrain a smile, giving away the fact that he was
awake. She suddenly wondered why she'd even BOTHERED being concerned
about him. _I'd be better off if he was DEAD!!_ "AAA-KIIII-RAAAA..."

Akira opened one eye and looked at his rapidly reddening sister.
"Hey, Sis. What's up?" 

"Your life!" 

He raised both hands to ward off an anticipated blow from Mika and
winced as the sudden motion ignited pain in bruises all over his
body. "Ow ow ow OW! Did anyone get the number of that truck what hit
me?"

Mika froze, one fist upraised, torn between letting it fall down onto
Akira's head and laughing out loud. After a moment she did both, but
the laughter stole the strength from her blow. "You IDIOT! Do you
know how worried Matsura and I have been about you?"

"Matsura?!" Akira sat up straight in bed and winced again. "Have you seen him around?"

Mika shook her head. "Not since yesterday. I was gonna head over
there after school today, but since you've gotten out of that weird
book spell thing, I guess I don't have to." She poked her brother in
the ribs playfully, and he jumped away from her finger, almost
falling out of the bed.

"Hey, quit that! And I _want_ to go see Matsura, I haven't seen him
for a mo- Book?" Akira's mind slipped gears visibly, his face moving
from a half-petulant, half-kidding expression to one of mild
confusion. "What book?"

****

Akira remained silent most of the walk over to Matsura's apartment
while his sister spoke about the last few days. Finally, several
minutes after she ran out of things to say, he said one word. "Wow."

Mika stopped, one foot on the landing of the floor that Matsura's
apartment was on, and looked back at her brother, who was ten steps
down. "Tell me about it. YOU were the one trapped in the book, and
you're finding it unbelievable?"

"Not really _unbelievable_, just sort of hard to absorb all at once."
Akira shook his head. "Wow." 

Mika turned away from him and rolled her eyes as she took that last
step upwards.  _Why can't he take ANYTHING seriously?_ A few short
strides took her to her destination, and she spent all of those
wanting to slap some sense into her brother. _This thing isn't
natural, it could KILL him, and all he can say is 'wow'? Grrrrr..._ 

Mika stopped, her tinge of general resentment growing larger as she
saw that Matsura's door had been left open for the second time in as
many days. "What, does he enjoy the thought of rampant fangirls
rummaging through his clothing?" she muttered, thinking back to the
group of them that had stopped her on her way home two nights ago. 

"He doesn't even know he HAS fangirls." 

Lost in the image of a pack of girls wearing little headscarves and
sacks on their backs digging through Matsura's underwear drawer, Mika
jumped and gave out a slight "eek!" at Akira's comment from behind
her. She whirled around and poked a finger into his chest. "Don't DO
that!" 

Akira tilted an eyebrow. "Do what?"

Her eyes narrowed and she spat, "You know what!" _He's changed during
his time in the book. I can't quite put my finger on it, but-_ Mika
blinked. "Are you taller?" 

The teen looked down at Mika for the first time in his life. He
wasn't much taller than her save by a fraction, but the difference
brought home to his older sister for the first time that he really
HAD spent a month in that book. Just as his mouth opened wide to
utter a smartass comment, Mika smacked Akira in the stomach with a
light backhanded slap and smiled slightly. "Remember, no matter how
much bigger than me you get, I'll always be able to kick your butt."

A broad grin spread across his face, but he didn't say whatever he
was thinking as Mika turned back to the door and pushed it open.
"Matsura? Matsura! Are you home?" 

Cold silence answered her. After a moment's pause, she stepped into
the threshold. "I'm coming in."

The moment she stood in the threshold, Mika knew there was no one
there. A vacant apartment gave off a different feeling than one that
has even a single living thing in it, no matter how small, and she
shivered as the empty sadness of an abandoned home washed through
her. _I'm always too sensitive to stuff like this. It isn't real,
girl, get yourself together!_

"Hey, Sis, it looks like he ain't home. Maybe we should-"

Mika looked over her shoulder at her brother, who hadn't even stepped
into the doorway yet. "No, we need to do this." Mika grinned. "He
invited me over yesterday anyway. What's the matter, chicken?" She
slipped her shoes off and walked down the short corridor into the
narrow living room, and despite all her bravado she was happy to hear
Akira step into the apartment behind her. 

The living room looked just as she'd left it last night, aside from
the book, which had been carefully closed and placed on the little
side table in plain view of the door. Mika reached out and touched
its ancient cover, imagining its power as a physical force much
larger than its modest size. 

"Is that the..." Akira let his sentence trail off unfinished, and
Mika nodded slowly. He reached over and picked it up in a lightning-
fast motion that left his sister flatfooted. "Yeah, this is the same
raggety old book that Matsura and I-" 

He put his thumb inside the cover, the pages rustling at the sudden
intrusion, and Mika gasped. "No! Don't-"

Akira opened the book without waiting for her to finish the sentence,
and was surrounded in a sudden wave of red light that slammed into
the room like a tidal wave, throwing Mika's hair back from her head
in a swirling cyclone wind that centered on her brother, frozen in an
expression of mixed terror and excitement, and the book, which was
now pulsing the red light. Mika fought her way through the wind and
snatched the book out of Akira's hands, battling the tattered covers
in a desperate attempt to close it before her brother vanished.

Suddenly the book snapped shut with a sound that reverberated through
Mika's hands, a painful throb rushing up her arms that made her teeth
clatter against each other. She shook her head and gritted her jaw
shut as she pulled the book away from her brother's unresisting
fingers. 

"No, damn you, NO!" Mika controlled the urge to tremble in mingled
fear and rage as she took a step backwards. "This thing is deadly,
Akira, I can feel it! Just forget about it, okay? C'mon, get on with
your life." 

Akira shook his head and said gravely, "I can't abandon all my
friends inside the book, sis. They're counting on me to-"

"To WHAT? Go back?" Mika closed her eyes briefly, then opened them,
her sudden resolve to never allow her little brother to be sucked
back into the spell that the book had woven around him strengthening.
"It's not real, Akira. Nothing in HERE," she shook the book for
emphasis, "is. Not Hotohori, not Suzaku, not even Tamahome. She's
just some author's fantasy, and you're buying into it. Don't do it!
Give it up! Stay here, in real life, where it's safe!"

Akira looked at her, his face drawn and grim, then turned and walked
out of the apartment without saying another word. 

Mika sank into a chair and put one hand to her face, keeping the book
clenched shut with the other, letting the fearful trembles she hadn't
dare show a moment before sweep through her. _I'll follow him in a
second. Closing that book..._ She felt tears trickling out of her
eyes and wiped at her face, then looked at her hand in shock.

"Blood? I'm crying... blood!"

The book vibrated slightly as if resonating with her sudden
exclamation, and Mika nearly screamed as she threw it across the room
and huddled back into the chair, curling up into a defensive ball as
she sobbed uncontrollably.

****

"I'm home." Akira uttered the phrase listlessly as he slipped out of
his sneakers, letting the door swing shut behind him. 

"Akira? Akira!" The pair of shouts was soon followed by the rush of
bare feet, and seconds later his mother appeared in the entrance
hallway. "Where have you been?"

Akira shook his head and stepped out of the entrance. "I... really
don't want to talk about it, okay?" He gave his mom a quick hug and
had just turned away when she spoke, an amused note in her voice.

"Soooooo, what's her name?" 

He whirled around, his face suddenly hot and his mind spinning. _Wha-
huh? How does she know about Tamahome? Ancient Mystic Mother Magick?_
"I don't know what you're talking about?"

She waggled her eyebrows, leering at him with a comically exaggerated
lecherous grin. "C'mon, you can't fool me. You spent the whole
weekend at a girl's house, didn't you?" She sniffled. "My little boy
is growing up!" A stern expression that could crack stone appeared on
her face and she waggled a finger in his face. "You had better have
used protection, young man."

He waved both his hands frantically. "It's not like that, really,
honestly!"

One eyebrow tilted up slowly. "Oh, _really_? Well then tell me where
you were." She crossed her arms over her chest and waited, one foot
tapping a steady dirge on the wooden floor.

Akira looked away, then looked back again. "I was dragged away on a
sudden trip by a close friend, and I'm back for a brief bit before I
go back and finish what I started." _What was it that Mom used to say
about lying by not lying? I thought that was just a stupid saying,
but now..._

She considered that. "You're serious?" Akira nodded, and after a
moment she added, "Sounds like an adventure."

"Yeah, I guess it is." He sighed and glanced at the door. "Mika
should be home soon. She doesn't think I should go back. We're kinda
having a fight about it."

His mother shook her head and muttered something that Akira didn't
quite catch. _Something about cowards and dying on the way? Uh?_ 

She reached out and put one hand on his shoulder. "Would you regret
for the rest of your life if you didn't go?" 

Akira looked into his mother's eyes, which were shimmering with some
emotion that he couldn't quite put a name to, and nodded slowly. 
"Yes. Yes, I would."

His mother touched his cheek gently. "Then go. I've always trusted
you and your sister, and I love you too much to hold you in a cage.
But..." She changed her touch into a fierce pinch. "But you'd better
come back!" 

"Ow ow ow!"

She stepped away from him, releasing her grip suddenly. "And be sure
to bring any girls you meet back here. I've been saving your
embarrassing baby photos for fourteen years, and I'd be ticked if I
never got to use them against you!" 

Akira blushed again and looked down at the ground. "C'mon, Mom! Can't
you take something seriously for more than ten seconds?" 

Before she could reply, the door swung open again and Mika strode
through it, waving the two people standing just inside. "I'm home!"
She stood aside and a man carrying a set of takeout boxes moved into
her place. 

"Somebody order Chinese?"

****

"Honestly, Mom, you are such a stereotype. A career woman who can't
cook and would rather eat takeout than an honest meal?"

"Glargle scarf snap..."

Mika waved her chopsticks irritably. "Chew your food before talking!
Before! Do you eat like that at business dinners?"

Her mother swallowed than shrugged, placing her now-empty bowl on the
table. "You don't go to business dinners to EAT, you go to them to do
business. Besides, I was hungry and didn't know when you'd get back.
Ordering takeout seemed preferable to starvation."

"And you, Akira, your table manners are hardly any better!" 

"Glargle scarf snap..."

Mika whacked her younger brother in the head. "You're both just doing
it to tick me off, aren't you?!"

Akira stopped eating and exchanged a solemn, meaningful glance across
the table with his mother. "She's found us out, Mom."

"Yes. I'm surprised it took her this long."

Mika looked back and forth and back and forth between the two other
members of her family. "...You're kidding, right?"

A long moment of silence hung over the table.

"Of course we are!" they chorused, then went back to eating with a
vengeance. 

Mika put her face into her palm and groaned, then yanked her hand
away and stared at it as if seeing the blood on it that she'd washed
away in Matsura's bathroom. _What happened in there?_ She looked up
at Akira, who was eating as if the last two days had never happened,
and Mika felt a knot in her throat and looked away again. 

_Can things ever go back to the way they were?_

****

Akira poked a final schoolbook into his only large backpack and wiped
his brow. "Whew! That's the last one."

He closed his eyes and leaned back, slowly toppling onto his bed,
reveling in the comfort of his mattress. He had the feeling that it
would be a long, long time before he got to enjoy it again. 

Even though Akira's eyes were closed, he could still _feel_ the book,
like a hot fiery wind against one cheek, like the memory of a burning
kiss on his cool flesh. He turned his head and the feeling moved with
his motion, pointing in the direction of his sister's room.

At first, eating his dinner, he hadn't quite known what that strange
sensation had been that tickled and danced phantom fingers across his
skin, though it had felt familiar. Finally, just as Akira was
standing up from the dinner table, he'd realized what it was, and
that realization almost made him trip over his own feet and had
earned him some good-natured ridicule he'd hardly noticed.

_It's my bond to Tamahome, Nuriko, and Hotohori. Now that I'm not
wearing that weird necklace any more, I can feel them, but it's so
muted and distant... is that because they're in the book?_ He opened
his eyes and stared at his ceiling, speaking aloud. "I'm going to
wait until she goes to sleep, then I'm taking the book away from
her."

Within him, power flickered and sparked to life in response to his
determination and resolve. It was a faint flame compared to what he'd
felt when he was inside the book, but as the power whispered to him,
he thought that it just might be enough to help him do what he had to
do.

****

Something is holding me down bound fast into this nightmare of
lightning and earthquakes as I run with all my heart, trying to
escape something behind me, trying to rescue someone in front of me,
helping those at my side back onto their feet as they fall down,
stumbling and faltering in the face of the impossible task that I
have set for us.

Suddenly, a shockingly violent tremor slides my feet from underneath
me, forcing me to my knees. The ground underneath me is driven into
the sky as if seeking refuge from the unrelenting attacks, a new
mountain erupting from the face of the earth, carrying me up and up
and up until I see the land spread out underneath me in a wide
glorious vista that makes me feel as if I can reach out and touch it,
all the world within my view belonging only to me. I now know what
wonder is, and the lightning subsides and the earth ceases to tremble
as a wide grin of delight spreads across my face.

"Who are you?"

I look over my shoulder at my grandfather, who smiles down at me, and
I stand up, turning about to face him. "You know who I am, don't
you?"

The smile slides from his face slowly as he regards me, his eyes
growing wide with surprise and... fear? 

Slowly, after what feels like days of thought, day and night turning
by like seconds on the clock, he nods once. "Yes. Yes, I know you.
But it is not My time. It is too early."

At this steady statement of fact, spoken as if meant to enlighten me,
I feel the joy that suffuses me dissipating into the cold harsh light
of confusion. "Too early? How do you mean?"

He looks away at the land and reaches up to brush the beard on his
chin between two fingers, each motion stately and inexorable. "The
Wheel has not yet turned to Me. Why are you called? Why am I here?"

I shake my head slowly. "I don't know." He doesn't respond for more
long moments while dusk and dawn flicker by, throwing his craggy face
into sharp, striking contrast, then, when he finally breaks his
near-eternal silence, the issuing words fill my heart with terror
though I cannot understand their meaning.

"Is the Wheel... broken?"

Finally, he looks at me and frowns. "Regardless of that, it is not
yet your time. Back to the place that you came from, girl!"

****

Mika woke up with a gasp, opening her eyes and sitting straight up in
her bed. She put one hand to her face, noting absently that the room
was lit by an eldritch red glow that seemed to seep out of every
surface, and she rubbed her face. _What the hell was that? Why am I
shaking? And... what's that light?!?_

Mika whipped her head away from her hand and saw Akira standing in
the middle of her room, the open book in his hands and a huge camping
pack on his back. "Goodbye for now, Sis."

She swung herself out of bed and tried to force her way through the
wind just as she had earlier today in Matsura's apartment, but now it
was focused against her, pushing her back just as hard as she pushed
forwards. Over the roaring noise that filled the room, she shouted,
"Don't do it, Akira! It's just a trick! It's just a fantasy! IT'S NOT
REAL!!"

Akira regarded her gravely for a moment, than the sound silenced and
what seemed to be flaming wings framed him for a split second as he
softly vanished, leaving behind only the words,

"Maybe fantasy is more real than you or I could ever hope to be..."








FIN Book 1: Turning the Wheel




Book 2: Viewing the Wheel is to follow...





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