Divine Intervention

By: Kyoryoku Nazo
...............
Chapter 1:
      Burning
...............

The Priestess entered a land used to such things...


"AHHHHHHH!"

Duo landed solidly on his rear in the back of what appeared to be someone's yard. Only this
was no sort of house he had seen in his entire life. The roof was composed of thatch and
grass, the most inefficient material for keeping oneself dry he could possibly think of. If
Heero had been here, he probably would have had a talk with the owner just to point out the
man's carelessness.

"Heero..."

'That's right,' he thought. 'Heero can't be here, I got sucked into that...that book!' His
thoughts were registering, trying to make sense of this completly senseless situation. No
matter what he told himself, nothing could fix the fact that his world had been turned 
upside down. 

"My world..."

According to Heero, the spell cast on the book involving those girls years ago taken them to
another world. Another 'plain of existance' as that strange book had put it. He blinked
several times, taking in his surroundings, trying to devise a plan of action. 'I'm a Gundam
pilot,' he told himself over and over. 'Gundam pilots always prevail. It's why we were
chosen. It's what we live for.'

"Hey! Who the hell are you?!"

The harsh voice came from somewhere up and to the right, that's all he could manage to 
understand. Slowly, he opened his eyes to the harsh noon sunlight, gazing into a pair of
golden eyes backed by fiery orange hair. Those eyes that stared him down reminded him barely
of Heero, the harshness behind them, but there was something else. Something that he 
couldn't quite figure out...

"Are ya gonna answer me or what, huh?"

"Who are you talking to, no da?"

"This freak who landed in the garden!"

Another man appeared beside the first, looking much more foreign than the fire-haired 
individual, if that was even possible. His hair was a light blue, his bangs apparently
standing straight up in the air. Both of his eyes were closed in a comical smile, strangely
making Duo feel better about the situation.

"Where am I?" Duo studdered, moving his hand up to his forehead, as if trying to calm the
marching band parade commencing in his skull.

"You're in my garden, that's where you are you little-" the orange haired man shouted, 
raising his fist high above his head. Instinctively, Duo shielded his face with his arms,
crying out in pain as he did so, grabbing his left arm with his other hand.

"Stop it Tasuki, no da! He's obviously hurt, no da!" the blue haired man scolded, pushing
'Tasuki' aside to see what he could do about Duo's injuries. "If only Mitsukake were still
here," the smiling man muttered under his breath.

The red haired man, obviously named Tasuki, kneeled at Duo's side, looking over the other's
minstrations as he attempted to heal the braided boy. He would glance from the blue haired
man to Duo, then back again, seeming to become more frustrated every time. Eventually, he
snorted his comtempt, storming into the poorly roofed house, slamming the door behind him.

"Don't mind him, no da, he's just cranky," the blue haired man said soothingly. "My name is
Chichiri, what's yours, no da?" he asked.

"Um...Duo..Duo Maxwell. I can't exactly explain how I got-" but he was cut off.

"Just try and relax, no da," Chichiri said firmly. "I'm no healer, but I think I can stop 
the bleeding,"

"Bleeding?!" Duo asked alarmed, trying to sit up against Chichiri's strong hold.

"Please, no da! Don't move, no da!"

Duo eventually calmed himself, looking into the trusting...'eyes' of the blue haired man. 
Soon, every thing became dark around his mind, but it was a pleasent darkness, engulfing 
him in a soothed sleep.


			*	*	*


"How're ya feelin'?" a harsh, but kinder voice asked him.

"I..well...better, I guess..thank you,"

"Yeah, well, I guess I should apologize for earlier. I wasn't as nice as I could'a been,"

"No prob'," Duo answered, opening his eyes slowly to see Tasuki's looking back...concerned?
Something about those soft saffron eyes looking worried over him...it actually made Duo
blush. He quickly shut his eyes again. He hadn't felt that way since...

"How ya feeling, no da?!" an extremly cheerful voice asked from across the room. 

'Chichiri,' he thought, trying to organize his thoughts. 'He was the man would healed me. 
But how? He didn't have any surgical tools or anything. What the hell is this place?'

He smiled at the blue haired man with real thanks, "And thank you...for saving me,"

"Oh, I wouldn't say 'save', no da. Your arm was just bent out of shape. Any doctor could 
have patched you up just fine, I figured it would be quicker to use some magic, no da,"

"Magic?" Duo asked flatly, raising one of his eyebrows into a sarcastic stance. "You used
MAGIC to heal me?"

"Well, of course, no da. I am a monk after all," Chichiri grinned, tilting his comical head
to the side. "Now before you started to say something about how you didn't know how you got
here. I guess that all depends on where you think 'here' is, no da. What's the last thing
you remember before you woke up in our yard, no da?"

Duo knitted his brow in thought, trying to sort of the pieces of the stangest day of his 
life. "I was sitting with Heero in Quatre's living room," he said slowly, not so much 
explaining to his new friends, but reminding himself. "I was telling Heero about my dream
about Suzaku," but he stopped. Both Chichiri and Tasuki were looking at him with skeptical
and almost...hopeful expressions. He descided to go on, "In my dream, I told him, a strange
red haired man named Suzaku came to me and gave me 'The Book of the Universes of the Four
Goddesses'. As I was telling him this, he said he had a similar dream, involving a blue 
haired god named Seiryuu."

"Seiryuu?! Get out of my house!" Tasuki bellowed, reaching at his side for something that
looked like an over-sized metal fan. "LEKKA-"

"Tasuki, don't!" Chichiri yelled. Duo took note that with the more serious tone, he left out
the expected 'no da' at the end of his sentence. Once again, Duo winced, waiting for the
oncoming blow which was surely to follow Tasuki's strange 'war cry'. 

"SHINEN!" 

Chichiri grabbed Tasuki's arm, that one holding the fan, and swung towards the opposite wall
with all his strength. What Duo saw caused him to first turn white with fear, then several
shades of nausiating green at the thought of what could have happened had Chichiri not
interfered. For instead of Tasuki trying to hit him, he positioned the metal fan in front
of himself like some sort of gun ready to fire. What came out of the would-be gun was fire.
Honest to God fire! Fortunately and thanks to the monk, the fire was directed out the back
window of the room.

"Holy shit!" Duo exclaimed, eyes wide in half fear, half extreme curiosity. After those 
words, all three men in the room remained silent for a few excrutiating seconds, waiting for
someone to make the first out-burst. Duo was the first one to break from the mute restaints.

"What are you on, man?!?!" he gestured with his good arm towards Tasuki, who stood rather
sheepishly next to the slightly chared window. Tasuki simply half heartedly glared at him,
rotating expressings from anger to embarassment to confusion, eventually storming out of the
room.

"He seems to do that a lot," the braided boy sighed, looking to Chichiri for some sort of
explanation. 

"Yeah, no da," Chichiri shrugged slightly, taking a seat on the edge of the bed Duo was 
sitting upon. "You learn to deal with it, na no da,"

Duo looked carefully from the friendly monk to the door Tasuki just made his way out of and
back again, pausing for a moment to roll some thoughts around his mind. "Saa...are the two
of you...um...?" He paused again to phrase the question tactfully. "Erm, involved?"

If the blue haired man blushed or was offended, he hid it behind that cheerful expression of
his. "I'm surprised you haven't asked yet, no da!" he replied with as normal a tone as if
Duo had asked him for something to drink. "Actually..." but then it was his turn to pause
for a moment of thought, "I thought we were for a while,"

Duo winced inwardly. He remembered all too well the feeling the kind monk had just described
to him. 'Figures,' he thought bitterly. 'I finally get Heero to open up to me and I get
sucked into a fucking book'.

"That's not what's important though," Duo interupted gently, and descided to pry into that 
subject later. Good thing too, for at that moment, he saw a pair of now familiar golden
eyes peek from the corner of the door frame. As soon as Duo made eye contact, they 
dissapeared once more to whatever room lay beyond. "I need to figure out how I got here,
and where to hell 'here' is," he looked around the room slowly, only now noticing how
primative the accomodations were. A pitcher of water on a table with a bowl, wooden blinds,
woven rugs, candle holders where any normal person would have put a lamp...

"Well, no da, you were saying something about Suzaku before, we got, um distracted," 
Chichiri suggested, smiling at Duo encouragingly. 

"Yeah," Duo shook his head slightly, trying to remember. "Heero, my," he paused, "Friend,
well, he said that he had a dream like mine, where he was visited by a blue haired god named
Seiryuu. In both of our dreams, something was said about 'The Book of the Universe of the
Four Goddesses'. Then, when I was telling him this, a book fell out of my pocket with the 
same title, in ancient Chinese no less. Heero had just told me that hundreds of years ago, 
a young girl from Japan found a book called 'The Book of the Universe of the Four Gods' and
that she was sent into that universe to become the Priestess of Suzaku. Also, that she had
to find her seven "celestial warriors". I know this must sound insane," he looked to the
monk apologetically. "So, um, does any of this make any sense to you?"

Chichiri smiled, but there was a bit a wryness in it. "Well, I'd say so. Let me fully 
introduce myself. I am Chichiri, Suzaku no Seishi."

Maybe if Duo hadn't been injured in a way that required immediate treatment, hence the use
of the monk's 'magic', or perhaps if he hadn't seen Tasuki's display with the fan, he would
have laughed his ass off at such a statement. Now though...

"But tell me more about what happened after you found the book. Did you read it?"

"Yeah, I read the first page and then..." Duo's voice trailed off. "The book said that the
story was a spell, a spell that came into affect after the first page was read. It also said
that unlike 'The Book of the Universe of the Four Gods' this story transcends time and 
dimensions. One more thing," Duo looked up, hoping that the monk's kindness would carry over
for the next statement. "In my dream, Suzaku told me that I was supposed to summon Nazo, the
Goddess of the South. And to do so, I would become, the um, Nazo no Miko," he practically
whispered that part.

"You act like you're ashamed of that, no da! That's wonderful! I don't see why any lovely
young girl wouldn't want to be a priestess, no da!"

Duo stared at the monk for several seconds, first in rage, then in slight understanding. 
Only now did he feel the softness of his unbraided hair on the back of his neck. Using the 
hand on his good arm, he ran his fingers through his hair softly. "Chichiri," he began, 
"When you found me outside, was my hair down?"

"Yeah, no da. Why do you ask, na no da?"

Duo started to chuckle quietly, slowly turning into an all out laugh. Moving his hand from
his hair to the collar of his shirt, he quickly yanked it off, tossing it aside. Chichiri
looked at him very carefully, and despite his rather fictitious facial features, he looked
absolutely motified with embarassment.

"Gomen nasai! I didn't know, no da!" the monk glasped a hand over his mouth. It was at that
moment that Tasuki descided to re-enter the room.

"The in the name of all that's holy and precious?!?!" he screeched, taking a look at the
laughing teenager on the bed who just a few seconds ago, he apparently thought to be other-
wise. "You're a GUY?! Shit, Chiri-chan! He's worse than Hotohori and Nuriko put together!"

That sent the monk over the edge, dashing out the room in shame. As he ran, the phrase 
'SORRY!' could be heard until the last one was followed by a door slamming. And now, it was
the fire-haired man who was alone with Duo.

Tasuki was stunned, and it showed all over his face. Duo took note that he didn't even try 
to hide his feelings. 'Quatre would have a talk with him about diplomacy,' he thought.

"Geeze man, I really had no idea. As a chick, you seemed pretty ordinary, but as a DUDE! 
Damn! You're a match for me," he closed his eyes and smiled, raising his chin into the air.

"Someone thinks highly of himself," Duo muttered, purposefully loud enough for the other man
to hear.

"And what's wrong with that?" Tasuki grinned, leaning over on his elbow. "I wouldn't be 
surprised if you break your share of hearts wherever you come from. Girls AND guys," Tasuki
crooned, raising his eyebrow on that last word. "I'm not wrong, am I?

Duo glanced down at the floor, still trying to avoid eye contact with the striking young 
man. Sure, the girls all followed him around when he'd switch between schools during the 
war. But he'd always wondered if they really found him interesting and attractive, or if he 
just carried that air of danger which girls seemed to find so exciting. 

"I used to think so," Duo sighed, resting his chin on his good arm.

"What's that supposed ta mean?"

"Where I came from, there was this huge war. There were no neutral parties, every nation and
every group of people got sucked into it somehow. Out of all the soliders taking part in the
battles, only myself and four other chosen fighters seemed to attract any attention. We 
piloted these things called 'Gundams'," he chose his words carefully, trying not to confuse
someone who obviously lived in such unadvanced surroundings. "We were notorious for messing
up all the big-shot's plans,"

"Like bandits," Tasuki cut in, grinning wryly.

"Yeah, exactly," Duo grinned, "We didn't answer to anyone but ourselves, and we always 
worked as a team. People respected us as much as they feared us, and in the end, we ended up
saving everyone's butts. But then," his voice trailed off for a moment, "The war ended. They
didn't need soliders like us anymore. Sure, everyone would remember the Gundam pilots, but
we were relics of the past,"

Tasuki had a look in his eyes that told Duo he was preaching to the choir. "But what does 
this have to do with your romantic prowess," the tempermental man ventured, trying to see
where this was going.

"I'm getting to that," Duo grinned weakly. "You see, during the war, everyone loved the fact
that I was so famous and dangerous. You never know if you're going to be alive the next day
when you do the kind of work I did. During the war, I was no better than a freaking teen 
idol. But after the war ended, the publicity followed in it's wake. Girls started to catch 
on that normal guys who looked like girls themselves arn't the 'creme de la creme'," he 
muttered bitterly. "As far as guys go...well, let's just say that that kind of relationship 
isn't smiled upon where I come from,"

Tasuki shrugged slightly, "It's not that welcome here either, but hey, whatever turns ya on,
that's what I always say," he leaned foward. "I've never really cared for girls much myself.
Guess I grew up with too many of them. If you've noticed, I haven't threatened to kill ya
ever since I found out you wern't a chick yerself,"

"Yeah, I did kinda notice that," Duo smiled, becoming noticably less tense. "And if I say so
myself, I think we hit it off pretty well since you've put that fan away,"

"Tessen,"

"Okay, that tessen. So," he grinned, one of his trademark Shinigami grins, "Friends?" Duo 
asked genuienly, offering the other man his hand.

Tasuki looked rather shocked for a second, then grinned widely clasping Duo's hand in a 
vice-grip equivalence, "Friends. Now what is it that brings you here, anyways?"

"In short, a god dropped a book in my lap and told me to call a goddess. I don't know why, I
don't know how, and I don't even know if it's real, cause for all I know, this could be one
seriously messed up dream," Duo chuckled, leaning back into the quite comfortable pillows.

"Yeah, that could very well be," Tasuki grinned, staring off into the distance, "I mean, I 
can completly understand why you wouldn't be certain if something this beautiful," he 
gestured towards himself, "Could be real," he turned that grin towards Duo.

Duo found himself blushing again, trying to cover it by coughing, "There ya go again, 
trying to change the subject. Let me just get to the point. Have you ever heard of 
something called 'The Book of the Universe of the Four Goddesses?'"

"Well," Tasuki began, "I've heard of 'The Book of the Universe of the Four Gods'. I would 
hope I would so too, seeing as I'm a Suzaku no Seishi,"

"You too?" Duo gasped, "Chichiri told me that he was, right before I told him that I was
supposed to become a Miko," he immediatly clasped his hand over his mouth, seriously wishing
he hadn't said that.

Tasuki only shrugged, "I've heard stranger stuff. That Nuriko I mentioned earlier prefered 
to dress as a woman. And I've heard of women being High Priests in hierarchies that won't 
allow priestesses. I guess anythings possible when deities are involved,"

"Dang," Duo replied, "I kinda expected you to pick on me a little more than that,"

"Well it's not exactly your fault if your destined for some serious shit to happen to you,"
Tasuki blurted out, almost...nervously?

The sheer fear shown blatantly all over his face but especially in his eyes caused to Duo to
almost scold him for sheer lack of tact. "What the hell are you trying to hide? You know
something about this don't you?!"

"Go ahead and tell him," Chichiri replied soberly from the doorway, "It involved him 
anyways, and it was only a matter of time before it came up, no da,"

Tasuki rose silently, walking over to one of the cabinets at the other end of what Duo was
starting to mentally call the 'main room'. He paused to rumage through his pocket for a key,
producing a small piece of twisted metal. Once unlocked, he reached inside the compartment
and carefully removed a leather-bound black book with tiny white stars. On the cover, in
white writing read 'The Universe of the Four Goddesses'. Duo stared in utter disbelief.

Before Duo could ask any questions, Tasuki explained, "After Suzaku was summoned, the 
Priestess went back to her own world, eventually taking one of her Seishi, Tamahome, whom
she fell in love with, with her. Except for Chichiri and myself, all the others had died
along the lines while batteling the Seiryuu no Seishi. I've never read the damn thing, I
can't seem to get the cover open,"

"But how did you get it?" Duo asked, rather confused.

Chichiri coughed slighty, "After the Miko returned to her own world, Tasuki here asked our,
um, mentor, Taiitsu-kun for a favor, no da," as the monk spoke, Tasuki had his arms folded,
muttering and blushing profusely. Apparently, he and this 'Taiitsu-kun' didn't get along
well. 

"Ya see, I got to thinking how if summoning Suzaku was what I was born for, but the whole
escapade was over before I turned eighteen, then did I really have a reason for living? How
could the rest of my life be the falling action?" he closed his eyes. "That old bitch never
gave me an answer either. All she did was hand me this book, saying that once I read it,
maybe I'd have a more optimistic view of things. First of all, I could even tell how to hold
it since it didn't have a damn title or anything. Second, every direction I tried to open
it from, it was stuck,"

"It has a title, what do ya mean?" Duo asked.

"It didn't at first," the red haired bandit slured out, obviously still trying to figure 
things out for himself. "Then, just about a week ago, those words appeared on it. Still
wouldn't open though. After you mentioned something about it without even knowing I had it,
I guessed you might know something. But from what you've said, I guess now," Tasuki grinned,
showing off his...fangs? Duo hadn't noticed those before. Once again, the braided youth
blushed.

Slowly, with all eyes in the room on him, Duo lifted the cover of the strange book, wincing
back as an undescibable -black?- light emerged from the very pages. The light was dotted
with specks of white/silver light, almost like tiny stars. Duo was surrounded by this light,
held in suspension like in his dream, the vast expanse of stars reaching in every direction.
Including down. Just as suddenly as the light appeared, it vanished, and in it's place were
two very curious faces staring at him like they'd just seen a ghost.

"You...you just dissapeared," Tasuki muttered, completly baffeled. 

Duo stared in shock at the book, not entirely sure what to make of this whole situation.
"Well," he said slowly, "I think it's safe to say that I'm a little bit less skeptical about
this 'magic' of yours,"


			*	*	*


"The Priestess stared in disbelief as Tasuki's book glowed with Nazo's light. It was almost
like the light of the gods of the First Literary Prophecey. However, no one suspected that
those under Suzaku's service would be recruited again to serve the Hawk Goddess," Heero
read tonelessly, shaking his head slightly at the revalations that had been revealed to him
in the past several minutes.

He didn't even notice the glowing golden light behind him until it was too late...


*************************************
GUNDAM WING, FUSHIGI YUUGI AND IT'S CHARACTERS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS
ORIGINAL FICTION IS CONSIDERED PROPERTY OF KYORYOKU NAZO
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.....the best is yet to come