3   The Fake Miko's Story

Mitsukake silently looked at his palm, the character having already disappeared, and unexpectedly smiled.

"I'm happy for you.... Mitsukake..." Taka gently placed a hand on Mitsukake's shoulder.

Mitsukake hadn't repeated the pain of long ago when his lover, Shouka, died because he had left her for a long time in order to carry out his job as doctor.

On the contrary, this time those same extreme circumstances instead gave birth to a miracle that restored his previous memories.

"......That girl may really be Shouka's reincarnation." Mitsukake murmured.

Tasuki answered. "Right. And she knows it unconsciously... Even though you did the same as before, she believed you would carry out your mission... Hey, you 2 be happy this time. I know it's a bit early for this but even a 5 year older wife is a good thing, right?"

"......Tasuki..." Mitsukake had come as far as the outskirts of town to see them off.

Chichiri said to him. "Well, this is far enough no da. Shouka-chan is waiting."

"Chichiri... Whatever happened to that holy water I gave you?" Mitsukake asked about the water he had once given to Chichiri to return his eye to normal.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"This scar is a part of my life no da. I am who I am now because of it. And it's better I stay like this so that I don't forget Hikou or Kouran no da... I'll use the water for some other time no da..." Chichiri said, his real face grinning.

Mitsukake nodded. "Well then, take care."

Tasuki put a hand on the tessen. "Well, I've exterminated those suspicious looking ravens for now but."

The eerie black birds that appeared before them had to be the dark envoy that Sakaki Mayo sent. They probably attacked Shouka so as to stop Mitsukake.

".......Mayo..." Taka was suddenly seized by regret over whether he should have told her what he did that night. Even though it would have been a lie back then, wouldn't it have been better to humor her?

"Taka... It's best this way no da." As if reading his friend's mind, Chichiri put a hand on Taka's shoulder. "We can't go against this country's Shinzahou no da..."

The friends around Taka all gave a great nod.

The white cat rubbed it's face against the legs of Taka and the others as it purred.

"He's recovered his memories too?" Seeing the mother cat that brought 3 kittens next to Mitsukake's cat, Tasuki then said. "How come reincarnated you is already married when non-reincarnated me is still single~? Hey, it's not fair."

"What're you doing taking it out on the cat, idiot."

"What was that? Damn you Tama. That's right, you used to have a cat's name. Come to think of it, there was one other name, wasn't there? O-ba-ke-cha~n!"

"Damn you~ Tasuki."
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"Oh, bring it on."

"Come on, let's get going no da..." Chichiri said grabbing Taka and Tasuki by the scruff of their necks with an amazed expression. "Mitsukake... You be careful too no da..."

"Right. As a Suzaku Seishi I won't let anyone around me be harmed..." A proud light that once protected the country resided in Mitsukake's eyes.

In the gloom of the Suzaku shrine in the Kounan Country palace.

"..............." Sakaki Mayo swore under her breath and violently covered a large crystal ball before her with a black cloth.

After the Seishi had left, Mayo was always observing what they were up to in the crystal ball.

"Damn it's useless...!"

Mayo then looked up at the Suzaku statue beside her.

The color had changed unnoticed from shiny gold to black.

It is because your hate is still too weak. The bird told Mayo

"...What was that?..."

Sukunami Taka is a horrible man for not realizing your wholehearted feelings at all. You should hate him more more... more.

"............"

And then, with the power of that hate, make him yours.

Mayo put a hand to her stomach. But the heavenly light did not radiate from there like before. She became uneasy. Was the child no longer there?
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
Was it her imagination or did the color of the ring on her left ring finger also appear to completely fade.

She remembered the night that Taka showed her the street stand ring on a chain and he told her. "This is my real wedding ring..." Mayo's overzealousness grew.

"...I won't lose... Would I lose to Yuuki Miaka?..." She bit her lip.
 
 

A single person entered the Suzaku Shrine then.

"Reizeitei..."

The young Emperor walked to Mayo and sadly looked up at the Suzaku statue. "When did it turn this color?..."

Mayo tilted her head. "What are you saying? It's the same as before..."

Reizeitei looked at Mayo and shook his head slightly. "You must not be able to see it through your eyes..."

Mayo turned her face away looking offended.

He asked the Miko. "How are the Seishi doing...?"

"They're doing well." Mayo glanced over at the crystal ball covered by the black cloth.

Seeming to have made up his mind, Reizeitei asked the Miko. "Do you remember what you said to my mother the other day?"
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
Mayo turned to the Emperor and shrugged her shoulders.

"You told my mother that people's hearts change. That she should know that well."

"Ah, that." Mayo narrowed her eyes and said to the boy. "I don't know what kind of wonderful Suzaku legend you heard from your mother but the truth is it was a story that swirled with filthy hatred."

"............."

"Shall I tell you it?" Mayo's lips raised maliciously. "Your father... Hotohori, was deeply in love with Suzaku no Miko long before he even met her."

"With Suzaku no Miko......" Reizeitei was dumbstruck.

"Just as I thought, no one told you." Mayo laughed and continued. "Though Hotohori loved the Miko to death, the Miko stayed with Tamahome. But a lot happened with those 2, the Miko... Yuuki Miaka, tried many times to switch over to Hotohori. It's a shame, isn't it? Hotohori... your father, was completely toyed with by Yuuki Miaka..."

"............"

"But, in the end, Miaka chose Tamahome. When she did, your father quickly changed his feelings too. He soon married Houki-san. And that's how you were born."

Reizeitei's small shoulders shook.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"I wonder did your parents really love each other...?" Mayo said, remembering her own parents. "A child is a nuisance..."

Reizeitei hung his head. Mayo glanced at him, thinking that he was also a victim just like herself.

"But Miaka and Tamahome didn't really love each other. It only appeared that way." Mayo told the Emperor who looked at her frowning suspiciously.

"And so, in the book..." Having said that much, Mayo stopped. The people of this world didn't know that this was a book world. Even Mayo knew she shouldn't say that. She changed the subject. "But in the end, things weren't going well for those 2 in that world. So I guess you just don't know people's hearts, do you?"

After a bit of silence, the Emperor said. "Are you...... really the new... Suzaku no Miko...?"

Mayo looked cross at that question. "What do you mean by that?" As revered as the Kounan Country Emperor was, Mayo stood firm before him and looked down at the boy who was still 10 cm shorter than her.

"Who was the one asking me to save the country?! Everyone looking at me as if blaming me!!"

"............"

"I didn't come here because I wanted to be Miko! You're the ones who made me Miko!" Mayo declared. "Who'd want to come to a world that's disappearing?! And with no handsome Emperor to fall in love with the Miko. How come Miaka got Hotohori and I get you, a kid?!"
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
Reizeitei's delicate glasswork like face twisted before her eyes. "......You... are not Miko after all..." He shook his head. "The destruction continues unchanged... Even with the powers of those 3 it may already be too late..."

This time it was Sakaki Mayo who began to shake.

Reizeitei silently turned his back on the fake Miko.

"I am Suzaku no Miko!" Mayo spat the words at the Emperor's back. "If it comes to it, I can summon Suzaku all by myself!"

But Reizeitei left the Suzaku shrine without even turning back.

It was close to noon when Kawai Saori rushed into Miaka's hospital room.

"This is......"

It took nearly 3 hours to finally contact the high school girl who had been off looking for Mayo since Sunday morning. Saori had heard what happened from Keisuke on the phone but when she saw Miaka truly lying on the bed all she could do was stand there motionless.

"Saori-chan... You may not believe it but what Keisuke-san said, it's all true..." Yui told the high school underclassman.

Saori looked at the old book that Keisuke opened.

"Mayo and Coach Sukunami... are in there... now?..."
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"Yeah. That's right." The young man with sunglasses at Yui's side said. "Nice to meet you. I'm Kajiwara Tetsuya."

"My boyfriend..." Yui said.

Saori bowed her head.

"Hey, help us out. We want to bring Mayo-chan back here..."

Keisuke cried out at that moment. "Hey! Mayo has brought out the handkerchief! Now's our chance."

All alone after Reizeitei had left her, Mayo bit her lip.

The girl was struck with indescribable loneliness.

Everyone turns their backs on me and leaves......

Why!? Why!?!?

I never did anything bad.

I hung in there hoping with all my might that things between my mother and father would return to how they used to be. I clenched my teeth as much as I could and stuck with my club life.

And when all I did was love my first love with every bit of my might.

And when I finally became Suzaku no Miko and thought Taka and I would save this country, and I could be together... with Taka......

"......How cruel..." Tears spilled down from Mayo's eyes.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
Her hand unconsciously touched the breast pocket of her uniform.

Then.

"Mayo-chan! Listen up."

She heard a voice again. It was Keisuke.

"You're not alone! So come back here!" Yui's voice followed.

"You've just lost sight of yourself."

As she heard the voice of the guy named Tetsuya, Mayo lightly wiped her tears with the scrap of the handkerchief.

"Mayo..."

Mayo stopped her hand and gasped at the girl's voice that she heard. "......Saori..."

"Right, it's me! I heard what happened from coach Yuuki. Hey, last night I got a phone call from your mother. She said in a worried tearful voice that you hadn't come home..."

"........."

Last night...? A day hadn't even passed in the real world since then?

"Everyone's looking for you now! If you don't come back soon, they're going to request a search for you!"

".........That's a lie..."
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"What's a lie?! Don't say such foolishness and come back! If you come back now you can convince them it was just a plain old running away from home or something."

"............"

"Besides, do you know what will happen to Miaka-senpai here?"

Mayo bit her lip at hearing Miaka's name. "...Saori... You're probably better off without me..."

"What are you saying?" Saori cried out. "Are you talking about basketball? If so... I'll quit the team. So..."

"I don't need your pity!" Mayo responded automatically. "And I thought you were my only friend! You're on Yuuki Miaka's side too, aren't you!?"

"Mayo"

"And the stuff about my parents, it's all lies, isn't it?! It's a plot to get me to return so those 2 will be happy, isn't it?!"

"No! Mayo-chan. Calm down and listen."

"Mayo-chan. Please, talk to us a little longer."

"Mayo-chan..."

"Mayo..."

But Mayo was no longer listening.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
She suddenly remembered the story she had overheard from Miaka and Taka.

That's right. When her brother, Keisuke, desperately called Miaka back to the real world, and in order to perform her duty as Miko, she took the ribbon that had become a mediation with that world and......

"......I won't go back."

The 4 in the hospital room heard her voice and shouted at the book. "Mayo---------!!!!"

Keisuke read the book with blood shot eyes. "Mayo dropped her eyes to the handkerchief. She grabbed it. 'I am Suzaku no Miko......' Then she threw the handkerchief in the red flames that burned before the Suzaku statuuuuuuuue............ Owowowow, ow ow."

Flames arose from the mediation that Keisuke held and it instantly turned to ash.

"..............."

Having lost their only means of communication, the 4 looked at the page of the book and their shoulders drooped.

"Hey, Moomin." Mayo said to the maid who was combing her hair.

"Yes. What is it?"

"You hate me, don't you."
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"......What brought that on all of a sudden?..." Moomin was confused. "I neither love nor hate you. I am just the person who serves you so that you will not be inconvenienced."

"H~m... I see." Mayo answered vacantly.

"No one feels that way about you..." The maid told her.

Mayo considered her life here. Though she said such horrible things to Reizeitei, he didn't get openly angry.

And Youtaikou would visit her everyday anxious about her health.

All the people of the palace treated her respectfully, it was an easy content life.

But something was... missing. She didn't feel any warmth from the warm hearted people there...

"I'm thinking I want to do something for this country soon... Really..."

"I know..."

The warmth of her personal maid's hand was her only spiritual anchor now.

The 3 Suzaku Seishi had already found Chiriko and Mitsukake and recovered their memories.

Now they were in the midst of looking for the other 2.

If they find Hotohori and Nuriko and recover their memories, wouldn't the child that was her trump card return to Miaka like Suzaku said?

If so then, what would she do?...
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
Uneasy and lonely, Mayo felt like she was being crushed.

She wanted someone to hold her gently. It didn't matter who.

"Your hair is really beautiful, Mayo-sama. It's so shiny it leaves 2 halos of highlights... Like a pure angel......"

"......Moomin..." Her throat tightened. "You're really... kind..."

Moomin came before Mayo and smiled. "I know that you are a kind, cheerful, brave person. You must be. Could you become Miko if you weren't?..."

"......Moomin..." Mayo's face looked like it would break out crying even now. As if to hide that, she gave the maid something that she held in her hand. "Take this."

"Wh-what is it? Huh~ Mayo-sama, you're so small in this..."

"It's a sticker print."

"Huh~!? C-come to think of it, the previous Emperor showed me a little bit larger picture of all the Suzaku Seishi together."

"Yeah, that's a Polaroid. Now there's also digital cameras and other stuff but."

Moomin shook her head. "Sticker kyaba, dibatal gameras...... The things of your world... Oh my..."

Mayo had completely returned to her smiling face and the maid gently had her stand up.

"Well then, I'll bring a mirror. See, tonight's outfit really looks good on you."

She truly thought so.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
She remembered feeling repulsed by this intolerable girl who stole Taka from Miaka in the beginning. But the fact was that Mumin was beginning to feel like this girl Mayo would one day have a big heart just like Miaka.

The maid extended a large mirror before Mayo who was wrapped in a dreamlike outfit, light like a Tennyo's hagoromo.

Mayo instantly forgot her uneasiness and loneliness and smiled at how beautiful she looked.

But in the next instance her smile stiffened and she put her hands to her face.

".............!" Speechless panic enveloped Mayo.

Nothing reflected in the mirror from below her knees as if they had completely vanished.