Summary; Warning; Disclaimer: See First Chapter.

All right, after extensive research, I determined that the royal treasure of Kou is unknown. So I made up my own and forgive the poor combination of Japanese words - the only truly reliable translators I could find used characters instead of actual letters, so I had a bit of a problem. I hope you enjoy!


"I'm telling you, Chosi, I heard something down here!" Kaya insisted, the seventeen year-old student led her two male friends through the side street and down a narrow alley in the suburbs of Tokyo. A storm had just passed, catching the three friends on their way home from school, and the girl was positive she had heard a scream nearby.

"It was the wind," the boy protested, wanting to get home and eat something. The taller male shot him a look that meant it was pointless to argue. "Oh, fine, whatever," he grumbled, trudging after the others.

"When you see it was nothing, can we get a move on?" Hojo asked patiently, used to his twin's strange ideas. She sent him a dirty look over her shoulder, sticking her tongue out before heading down the alley. They lagged behind, exchanging eye rolls, before the girl shouted.

"There's someone here!" she yelled, causing the two to stop in surprise before running to meet up with the teenager. Pausing at the beginning of the alley, they saw Kaya at the end near several piles of trash bags, crouched next to a figure.

"Is it hurt?" Chosi asked, moving forward before he realized the figure was a naked young woman about their age with hair longer than any they had ever seen and strange eyes. "Uh, sorry," he mumbled, turning his back on them awkwardly. Hojo shut his eyes, rubbing his temples - he could just sense this was going to be trouble.

"Are you okay? What's your name? I'm Kaya," the girl introduced herself, helping the young woman to an awkward sitting position. The stranger stared at them with a frightened expression and they weren't sure she could understand them for a moment when she finally spoke.

"I'm…Hisayo," the woman told them, a strange lilting accent in her words. "Is this Hourai?" she asked suddenly, looking around with a frightened curiosity.

"Hourai?" Kaya repeated, the word strange on her tongue. "No, this Hamura, in Tokyo. Japan?" she asked, wondering if anything was going to ring a bell. The last word seemed to, as the girl brightened and nodded.

"Ah! I know, where Sekishi is from!" she said, seemingly recognizing something Kaya had said. She exchanged a glance with her twin, who was peering out between his fingers at his sister, and they both shrugged.

"Here, take this. Please," Hojo suggested, handing over his long school coat. Kaya took it and gave it to Hisayo, who managed to wrap it around herself after momentary confusion. "Thank god," he sighed, the two young men able to inspect the female without embarrassment.

"How did you get here?" Kaya asked. Hisayo blinked, then looked up at the sky.

"Didn't you have a storm? A shoku?" she asked, her gaze flickering between all three people. "Being a sennin must allow me to communicate with them, like Sekishi was able to communicate in our world," she realized, sighing in relief.

"Yeah, we had a storm. Why?" Chosi asked, not willing to believe what she was suggesting. "You don't mean a storm brought you here?" he asked incredulously, snorting.

"Chosi!" Kaya scolded him, glaring at the young man before returning her attention to Hisayo. "Well, we can't just leave you here alone. Why don't we take her to Aunt Mei's place?" she suggested to Hojo, the idea occurring to her in an instant. "She'd take her in!"

"I need to talk to you," he said shortly, promptly dragging his sister away from the stranger and further down the alley so they could talk. "She could be on drugs! We don't know anything about her - she's obviously confused," he hissed in the girl's ear, but was brushed off with a shrug.

"Then we'll take her to the hospital. But she at least needs proper clothes!" she retorted under her breath, crossing her arms stubbornly. Hojo sighed, knowing he wouldn't win, and released his sister reluctantly. The girl rushed back to Hisayo, helping her to stand up.

"Are you hurt?" she repeated, but the woman shook her head.

"No, not much," she replied, knowing she had been lucky. She had never heard of someone being blown from her world to Hourai, just the other way around, and had no idea what was going on. "Am I being punished by the Heavens for something?" she wondered suddenly, the idea making her go pale. If that was the case, there was no hope of rescue.

"You look a little pale. Come on, we'll take you to my aunt's house," Kaya told her, slinging her arm through Hisayo's to make sure the woman didn't go wandering off on her own. Chosi shook his head as he followed them out into the street.

"I'm going home. This is too weird right after biology. I'll see you guys tomorrow at school," he said, striding off in the opposite direction. They waved until he turned the corner, then returned their attention to the woman.

"Hisayo, was it? Do you have a last name?" Hojo asked, wondering if they could find a public record of her. The woman appeared stumped - in truth, she didn't have a last name anymore, but her former name resurfaced in her memory.

"Okado," she told them promptly.

"Hisayo Okado? All right then, come on then," Hojo ordered, leading the two girls to their aunt's house. He didn't want to attract too much attention, especially have a policeman question them, but luckily their aunt's house was only a few blocks way and they were able to take side streets to reach it.


"You're telling me you lost my king?" Kouki shouted, having been called to En after the king and Saiho had gotten their bearings about the whole situation.

"Well, not really lost We know she must be in Hourai," Shouryuu began nervously. Kouki was indeed mellow, but was all-too similar to Enki when riled. Especially when he was mad. Like now, for example.

"How did she get in Hourai, you stupid bastard?" the kirin demanded, his eyes narrowed in anger. The kirin may be a peaceful, compassionate creature, but this one was hardly inclined to be those things at the moment. "And what were you doing when the shoku hit?" he continued.

"We went to find her when we realized what was going on," Enki informed his brother calmly. "We tried to grab her, but the winds were too strong. Shouryuu was actually fairly helpful, sort of. Has anything been happening in Kou?" he asked suddenly.

Kouki blinked, taking a moment to realize the implications of the question. "You mean, did the Heavens get rid of her? No!" he replied hotly. "Everything has been going fine! I'm not sick, as you can see," he added pointedly.

Shouryuu raised his hands in a gesture of peace, trying to calm the kirin. "All right, all right, relax. It's a simple job to get her back, isn't it? We can send Enki!" he suggested.

"Why me? It's his ruler!" Enki protested, but his ruler snorted.

"He has to take care of the kingdom in her absence now," he began, but Kouki shook his head.

"No. I need to go find her," he said firmly. "The ministers believe her visiting here for a few days, so with any luck we can find her before any excuses need to be made for her absence. I would like Enki's help, however," he added. "Since he's so familiar with Hourai."

"Oh, fine, it doesn't seem like I have much of a choice anyway," he said pointedly, crossing his arms in aggravation. "I have to go look for a lost king…" he muttered under his breath, striding from the room to prepare for another shoku. Shouryuu turned to Kouki with a sympathetic expression and rested his hand on the stressed kirin's shoulder.

"We'll find Hisayo again, don't worry." He began to leave the room, then paused when he felt the kirin's piercing stare boring into the back of his head. "Is there anything else?" he asked, and blinked in surprise when Kou's royal treasure was handed to him, Omoikanbojou - the Mind Diadem of Longing. A thin silver circlet, it possessed the ability of allowing it's wearer to communicate mentally with any person they chose, a useful tool for a ruler.

"I would appreciate it if you would hold onto this for the time being," Kouki requested. "If I bring it back to Kou, news of her majesty's disappearance would be impossible to keep quiet. So it would be very helpful if you could keep this in your close possession until we retrieve Hisayo."

"Of course," Shouryuu agreed with a nod, his hand closing around the seemingly-delicate circlet and tucking it into the folds of his robes to avoid detection. Kouki nodded in appreciation before striding down the hall to catch up with Enki, prepared to travel through the shoku with his brother.


"There, that's a lot better," Kaya said in satisfaction, she and her aunt having dressed Hisayo in modern undergarments and one of Mei's yukatas, Hisayo having refused to wear anything else.

"I have to agree," her aunt added. Hisayo twisted her hair loosely up and examined herself in the mirror, briefly making a face before turning to the other females and bowing low.

"Thank you for all your hospitality and generosity. It shouldn't be long before my friends come for me," she assured them, having merely said that her friends would find her and take her back home. She saw no reason to try to and explain to these people - they didn't seem like the type to believe her anyway.

"It's not a problem, child," Mei replied with a smile, Hojo having gone home after getting his sister safely to their aunts. "You can stay here as long as you need to. How old are you, by the way?" she asked. Hisayo began to answer her true age, then remembered her appearance.

"Twenty," she replied easily - technically it wasn't lying. "If the Heavens have punished me, am I going to begin aging here? Or will I remain a sennin?" she wondered, frowning slightly at the idea. "No, I have to remain confident Kouki will come and bring me back to Kou," she decided.

"I should be getting home, aunt," Kaya said, interrupting Hisayo's internal debate. "I'll come by after school to see how you are, all right, Hisayo?" she added, turning to the young woman.

"That's fine. Thank you again," she replied with a small smile. Kaya hugged her aunt before leaving the bedroom Hisayo was going to be in. The two women examined each other for a minute before Mei smiled again.

"I'm sure you're hungry after everything you've been through. Come, I'll get dinner started and you can tell me about yourself," she suggested, gesturing for the girl to follow her as she headed towards the kitchen. Hisayo trailed after her, sighing.

"Tell you what? That I'm an immortal ruler of another world that you won't possibly understand?" she thought, then remembered several stories she had heard from Sekishi on the occasional visits in En.


"She stares up at the sky every night, no matter the weather," Mei told Hojo four weeks later. Her nephew had come to visit that night, only to find the young woman sitting on the back lawn, head tipped back to stare up at the stars.

"Is she still waiting for her friends to come?" he asked, moving back to kitchen, aunt trailing after him. She nodded, a worried frown creasing her brow.

"She's speaking less as time goes on. It's almost like she's forgetting everything around her," the woman told him. "I don't know what's going on in her head, Hojo. She isn't a bother - she cleans, cooks, anything I ask her to - but she's growing listless."

"Maybe she just needs a change of scenery," Hojo suggested brightly, determined not to worry. "Hisayo's been cooped up in here ever since she got here, after all. Kaya and I'll take her out tomorrow, so have her ready by eight. We'll show her around town, take her out for lunch. Maybe that'll perk her up."

"That sounds like an excellent plan, Hojo," Mei agreed, sighing in relief. "I'm just growing worried about the girl, that's all." They both glanced out through the window at the still figure, who hadn't moved for the past hour.


"I know you're out there somewhere, Kouki." The thought turned over and over in Hisayo's mind as she stared at the stars, trying to will a shoku into existence. She was positive Enki would be searching as well, if not other kirins, after so much time passing. "He wouldn't want to let people know I'm gone, but it's more important I'm found right now," she decided, trusting in her kirin to make the right choices.

She blinked, feeling her eyes grow sore, and shifted to cross her arms over her bent knees. "Why haven't you come for me yet, Kouki?" she wondered.


"Why is it taking so long?" Kouki demanded, meeting with Enki and Shouryuu in one of the king's favorite places to go in disguise. The kirin glared at the king, the loss of his king weighing heavily on his heart.

"Even finding Taiki wasn't so difficult. It should be easy to locate a king," Enki was forced to agree, having asked Renri to use the Gogoukanda and finding that it was unable to pinpoint the ruler's location. Taiki had recently left for Hourai to help in the search while the other two kirin tried to think of a better plan. Keiki had offered his services, but it had been decided that if any more kirin that left for Hourai it would cause too much of a disturbance, so his was a standing offer.

"Random searching obviously isn't doing any good. How's the situation in Kou, Kouki?" Shouryuu asked, and the kirin shook his head.

"Small rebellions are already rising up once they realized her majesty was missing. Even the fact that she was taken by a shoku doesn't help to reassure the people that their ruler is coming back," Kouki replied sourly. "The incident of Tai is still too fresh in their memories."

"Hey, we're doing all we can," Enki retorted. "I think we need to send another ruler to Hourai with Kouki. A sennin should be able to sense another -"

He was interrupted when a grin spread across Shouryuu's face. "I can do that. I'm a taika as well - that should help in sensing her presence," he suggested, raising a hand to silence Enki's protests. "Drastic times call for drastic measures, you both realize that. Kouki, I'll go through the next shoku with you tonight."

"Think of all the damage it will cause!" Enki began to protest, but Kouki shook his head.

"Not if we do it out in the middle Kyokai," Kouki interrupted his brother soberly. "I can ride En-ou to the middle of the sea and open the shoku there. It will cause minimal damage to any of the kingdoms that way."

Enki and Shouryuu's jaws both dropped open at the fact that Kouki had just volunteered to let the king ride on his back. No one rode a kirin - and even then, only the kirin's master was allowed. Even another ruler had no right. Kouki's face suggested that arguing would be useless, however.

"All right," Enki agreed with a sigh, sighing loudly. "I'll go find Taiki in the meantime and let him know he can return. We'll leave it to you two," he added. He made to leave the room, but froze when Shouryuu began to laugh.

"What're you talking about, Rokuta? You're coming too," he informed his kirin, who turned in horror.

"You're joking!"

"The ministers can handle things for a while. We'll need you in Hourai - the more the better," he reminded the two with a wave of his hand. Rising to his feet, the man stretched lazily and strolled past his stunned kirin, ruffling his hair on the way out. "Come get me when night falls, all right?"

The two kirin were left in an awkward silence. Kouki began to say something, but Enki cut him off quickly. "I don't think I want to hear it," he assured his brother. "Let's just find your damn king so life can go on, all right?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Kouki agreed with a thankful smile.


"You could have at least changed into normal clothes. I did bring some, you know," Kaya scolded the young woman, who had remained silent the entire trip around the city. They had returned to Mei's defeated, the niece offended about Hisayo's choice of clothing.

"I prefer these," she replied quietly, hands folded in her lap. Hojo poked his sister's arm with a frown.

"Hey, lay off," he hissed, shooting her a warning look. Kaya sniffed in response, but refrained from harping on the subject further. "What did you think of movie?" he asked hopefully, turning back to Hisayo. The woman only shrugged slightly.

"I didn't quite understand it," she admitted. "Thank you so much for showing me around the city, though," she added quickly with a smile. "I enjoyed seeing everything and learning more about Tokyo."

"I'm guessing you haven't been here before, then," Hojo said, in the tone of one who's seemingly defeated from sheer exhaustion. Hisayo shook her head patiently - she found it amusing that the twins treated her as if she was a child, when in reality she was old enough to be their grandmother.

"No, merely heard stories of it from a friend," she said, taking the liberty of calling Kei-ou a friend. "It's quite an interesting place."

"What about your home? What's it like?" Kaya asked suddenly, propping her elbows on the floor and staring at the woman intently. Hisayo started, not having expected that question, and she quickly thought of something to say.

"It's a troubled place," she said, choosing her words carefully. "We've recently had a lot of natural disasters and we're an agricultural society, so we're struggling right now." "For the past eighty years," she thought wryly, a bit disgusted that she hadn't been able to do more.

"That sounds harsh," Kaya remarked, trying to figure out where the woman might have come from. Japan wasn't big on agriculture, so it was doubtful she was actually from the country at all. "Were you smuggled here or something?" she asked, then yelped as her brother smacked her on the head. "What was that for?" she demanded.

"You don't ask stuff like that!" he shouted. The queen merely stared at them with a blank expression, trying her best to keep from laughing. "Sorry about my sister - I think maybe we should be getting home," Hojo said apologetically, hauling his sister to her feet after he rose.

"Thank you again," Hisayo replied, rising as well and bowing slightly. She followed them to the front door, a smile on her lips. "I hope you'll come by again soon," she added. Hojo grinned and nodded, ignoring his sister's complaints.

"Sure thing, Hisayo-san. Sleep good," he added, before turning and heading down the street back home, Kaya in tow. Hisayo shook her head in amusement before sliding the door shut - Mei had already gone to bed, she assumed, so she wandered back out into the yard. Heedless of the dewy grass, she settled herself on the grass and stretched out, closing her eyes.

"Kouki…Shouryuu…what's going on?" she wondered, aware that her memories of her life seemed to grow more distant as each day passed. She wondered if the kaikyaku experienced this, but that didn't make sense. "Sekishi still has her memories clearly…is this a side-effect of the shoku transporting someone from our world to Hourai?" she wondered.

Hisayo sat up straight as a strange breeze wrapped around her, staring at the moon as if waiting for something. She was forced to shut her eyes from the sudden force of the wind, which died away in seconds.

"Need a hand?" a familiar voice asked teasingly. She opened her eyes to see Shouryuu smiling above her, hand outstretched. Kouki and Enki were on either side, one looking relieved beyond belief and the other merely put out.