Second Chance (Fushigi Yuugi fanfiction)

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

After Miaka recovered from her grief at seeing the phantom Tamahome, the bandits apologized to the Priestess and her warriors, Mayume included. Naturally, Miaka forgave them. As they stood before the bandits, Miaka asked, “One more thing. Is there anyone here by the name of Tasuki? I wanna ask him to come along with us.”

The bandits all exchanged glances. It seemed most of them had no idea to whom the Priestess was referring too. One man called out, “Eiken, you know that guy don’t cha?”

“Actually…no I don’t know who he is…” Eiken confessed. The bandits continued to murmur to each other, trying to figure out who Tasuki was.

Genrou leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. Mayume glanced at him and saw a thoughtful look cross his face. “Well, I know who it is.”

Miaka whipped around to face Genrou excitedly. “You do? Tell me!”

“Okay, but don’t get too bummed out…” Genrou warned. “Tasuki was the classified name of our former leader. Which means he’s actually dead now.” For some reason, Mayume felt like Genrou wasn’t telling the whole truth. She knew that he knew who Tasuki really was, but as to whether or not it was their dead boss, Mayume wasn’t too sure about that. “Sorry about that. I wish we could bring him back to life, but we can’t.”

The Suzaku followers stared at Genrou in disbelief. “It’s over now…” Nuriko muttered.

“It can’t be,” Miaka whispered to herself. Mayume bit her lip as she silently hoped none of them would ask her to search the past to confirm what Genrou had said. Her energy had been depleted at good bit since she had seen so many visions that day. In truth, she was trying very hard to fight off sleep.

“Listen, Genrou,” Kouji began, getting Genrou’s attention. “So you wanna go out and visit the boss’s gave tomorrow sometime? You probably miss him don’t cha?”

Genrou nodded, “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Genrou turned to face Miaka and the others. “You four can stay here for the night.” His eyes zeroed in on Mayume when he noticed that she started to sway. “Hey…You okay, there?”

Mayume would have answered if she hadn’t of collapsed from exhaustion. “Mayume?!” she heard her friend’s shout in concern before she was engulfed in darkness.

~*~

The next day after Mayume had finally woken up, she was bombarded with questions. “Are you okay?” Miaka asked the orange eyed girl.

Mayume gave Miaka a closed eyed smile. “Yes, I’m fine now.”

“What happened to cause you to collapse like that anyways?” Nuriko questioned as he, Hotohori, Miaka, and Mayume walked down the hall leading to the dining hall.

“Oh…Well, I used up a lot of energy yesterday. I used my gift a little too much while we were all separated…” Mayume explained.

Hotohori placed a hand on Mayume’s shoulder and smiled. “Well, we are glad that you’re alright.”

Mayume returned his smile. “Thank you…We should go meet Genrou and Kouji now. They’re probably waiting for us.”

“She’s right!” Miaka agreed. Suddenly a loud growl rumbled and echoed through the hall. Everyone turned to Miaka with wide eyes. The Priestess laughed as she scratched the back of her head with a wide smile. “But first…let’s eat!!”

“Of course,” the two Suzaku warriors and Mayume sighed in unison. The four continued on and eventually entered the mess hall. They saw many of the bandits sitting around talking, eating, and some even drinking sake.