"He's so adorable!"

"I could eat him right up!"

"You can stop that now," I groaned. The young girls continued to squeal. I hate to admit I'm used to it, though. I've always been kind of small for my age, so you can't blame people for getting the wrong idea.

"Are these girls bothering you, Chiriko?" an older man said and put his hand on my shoulder. Rescued at last!

"Oh, we're sorry sir," one of the girls said when she saw him. "Is this your grandson?"

Poor Mitsukake. He's really much younger than he looks. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. My name is Ou Dokun, but I'm better known as Chiriko of the Suzaku Seven. I've recently joined my fellow warriors and the Priestess. This man here is another warrior of Suzaku, known as Mitsukake. He can be a little hard to talk to, I think, but I still enjoy his company.

"I've got the herbs I was looking for, so I think I'm ready to head back now," he said, trying to hide how bothered he was by the girl's misconception. "Why don't you stay with Chichiri if you're going to be out longer?"

"We'll be just fine, no da," a voice popped out of nowhere (but more specifically, right behind me). Chichiri, as you may have guessed, is yet another Suzaku warrior. He's kind of strange, but it doesn't bother me. I think.

Mitsukake went back towards the imperial palace where all of us are staying before our journey to get the Shinzaho. I'll admit I'm nervous about it… maybe "nervous" isn't the right word. "Terrified" is more like it. I just have to try not to think about it right now. There's enough to distract me right here in the capitol, such as obnoxious girls, my exams… and cats following us around.

"Meeeeeooowww."

"Well, if it isn't Tama-neko," Chichiri bent down to meet him. "For being such a tag-along, this kitty's helped us out in a lot of unexpected ways."

He casually began stroking his furry head as I crouched down as well. "For being Mitsukake's cat, he sure spends a lot more time with I you /I , Chichiri."

"Now that you mention it, that's pretty true! No da!" he laughed as I reached my hand out to pet him too. "He's just too friendly--"

CHOMP.

Chichiri abruptly stopped as we watch Tama try to take a giant bite out of my hand, seeing as he would have been lying if he continued. "Tama-a-a-a!" he held up the cat by the scruff of his neck. "Are you okay, Chiriko?"

"I-I'm alrigh…" And of all the times for my character to disappear, it did. "…..waaaahhhhhh! Why'd he hafta go 'n bite me?"

I'm sorry Chichiri had to see me like that. How embarrassing. I kept sniffling as he wrapped my hand in a bandage, apologizing on behalf of a cat that wasn't even his. He didn't ask about my sudden personality change, though, which I'm grateful for. I get the feeling that he doesn't need to ask. It's as if behind the mask, he has a different side of himself, too. Maybe it's a little strange, but I'm comforted by that.

"I don't know what got into him, no da," he tried to laugh a little. "I've never seen him do that to anyone. Maybe he just thinks your hand tasted good?"

I shook my head as my character started to come back. "They never really liked me much. When I was little, my mother would wrap plenty more wounds like this while my brother chased them all away." After I said that, his expression was somewhere between thinking 'you still are little' and 'what did you do to get so many cats mad at you?' I laughed and tried to say more in defense. "It's not like that happened all the time, though. Just when the strays were around."

"Must have been some mean cats, huh?" he smiled.

"It wasn't just cats. All the animals didn't like me for some reason."

It must have put an interesting mental image in his head, because he started laughing out loud. "I can't even imagine how that must have been like." We fell into an awkward pause as he tied up the last of my bandage. "When I was a little younger than you, I had a pet dog."

I raised my eyebrows to let him know I was intrigued, and he continued. "Well, not just me. My old buddy and I found her as a puppy just barely more than skin and bones. Neither of us were allowed to keep animals, so we hid her in our favorite spot to play, and everyday we'd get excited to bring her scraps of our dinners. She learned to love us pretty quick, and eventually the rest of the village found out about her."

I anticipated a sad ending about angry villagers killing the dog when he paused there, but instead he laughed. "We were having so much trouble keeping her from following us home as night, that the others found it cute and let her wander around. Everyone loved her, she was such a sweet dog, but she was always there for me and Hikou first."

Apparently a can of worms had been opened. Chichiri continued on and on about his little adventures with his dog and best friend. He talked about all the times they fished together, when they'd get in trouble together, and when the dog would heroically help them. It reminded me a little of some "Lassie" dog or something that Miaka (our Priestess) had mentioned before. The entire time he was talking, though, he seemed so wistful. Maybe the dog I did /I have a tragic end.

"Whatever happened to the dog?" I asked out of curiosity, though I hoped I wouldn't be opening any old wounds.

"We grew older," he said in a softer tone. "And we lost interest in playing with a dog. We'd still feed her and all, but gradually stopped going out to do things with her. She'd still wait in the usual spot everyday, though, hoping that we'd change our minds, no da. Quite some time later, we finally noticed she hadn't shown up in a while. But, I guess by that time we didn't care."

That was the ending I wasn't expecting. After all that, he just didn't care about that dog anymore? "And that was it?"

"That was it. I feel guilty about it now, no da… she was such a loyal companion that she was willing to forgive us everyday for ignoring her. But people are fickle," his voice grew quieter. "Those who you think you can depend on someday leave you, in one way or another."

He seemed deeply troubled by something, but I didn't want to leave our conversation there. "But, Chichiri, you can't go through life with just animals. People should be able to depend on other people, right?"

He smiled and looked back at me. "They should, huh?" he laughed. "Sorry I sounded like such a pessimist there, no da. People do hurt other people, but it's also people who help them to heal."

I smiled thanks to his change in mood, and nodded in agreement.

"We should know about loyalty and comrades better than normal people anyway. As Suzaku warriors, it's our duty not only to protect our priestess to our death, but also to take care of each other, no da. We can depend of each other no matter what."

An awkward smile hit my face without me trying. This was partly what I had been so afraid of, but feel even more guilty about now. They all should have been have able to depend on me before, but I abandoned them before my journey even started. My stomach turned in uneasiness. However, from Chichiri's tone, it seemed he had been through exactly was I was feeling. It's probably something I'll never know, but knowing it's there makes me feel a bit better.

"It's getting kinda late, no da," he stood up and acted as if our conversation never took place. "I'll bet we'll be right in time for dinner. Shall we go?"

I nodded and followed. Today Chichiri helped me learn about companionship, and how much we need it. Tomorrow is my first day in the imperial court, with His Highness, Hotohori (who is also one of the Suzaku warriors). I wonder what great things I'll learn then.