Disclaimer: I don't own the Twelve Kingdoms so please don't sue me. I'm just a big fan who likes to write stories

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay but the next chapter is here. Thank you so much for all of your support

Have Fun!

Ch. 6: Those who can and those who can't

"Where are you going, all dressed up?" Shouryuu called after her. She bowed slightly and walked past them.

"To declare war," Natsuki answered. She mounted the red beast right there in the garden and they flew off into the sky.

As they flew a great distance from Genei palace, both remained silent.

"May I ask why you are going to the town of Houryou to find the Taiho's younger brother?" Gouran asked as he looked at her through the hood of his eyes.

"He is still Taiki's brother, so therefore that makes him one of my citizens," she replied. She held onto the fur of Gouran's neck. "I believe his name is Suguru. He really hates Kouri because of the type of child he was. Kirin have the hardest times in the other world because people cannot understand their nature, of being unable to bow before anyone but their masters."

"You speak as if you knew Taiki and his brother before," Gouran said.

"Yes. I only remembered it the night Taiki awakened. When I was younger and first came to Hourai, the first family that adopted me were friends of Taiki's family. I went to play once and I scrapped my knee and bled. Taiki became sick with a very high fever," she explained to Gouran as she watched the towns pass by below them. "I realized what he was but I didn't think he did so I stayed away from him. Taiki and I went to the same school, so I watched out for him when he was being bullied by other kids. But beating other kids up all the time for Taiki got me expelled from school and I never saw him again." She then chuckled. "I also beat up Suguru once but Taiki came to his defense. He wanted to protect the little brother who hated him." She looked down at Gouran. "Strange, right."

"I see."

As they came to the edge of the town, they descended to the ground. Gouran stayed in Natsu's shadow as she walked into the town, looking for the was starting to get tired and hungry since she had not eaten anything that day. As she made her way to the center of the town, she entered a small restaurant and bought some noodles to eat. The clattering of cooking equipment caused her ears to perk in the direction of the multiple people in the tents beside the long wall. They sat around the fire, eating together but it seemed the food was not enough for them for they were no more than skin and bones.

She continued to eat her noodles, but as one of the restaurant workers passed by she called, "Excuse me."

"Yes." He stopped and stood by her table.

"Who are those people over there?" Natsuki asked.

The man looked over at the tents. "Oh, those are refugees. Some are from Tai, others from Kou," the man answered.

Natsuki raised her eyebrow. "I can understand Tai but Kou is closer to Kei. Why would the refugees skip Kei and come to En?"

"The Queen of Kei is still new and does not know how to handle the refugees properly, so they come here, to En," said the man. "Although En is better than Kei, it's still not enough."

"Well, I can understand that," Natsuki said. "Though En is a prosperous kingdom, the king can't afford to spend all his wealth on the refugees."

"Yes." The man agreed. He sat across from her. "Of all the countries that do not have a ruler, Tai is the worst right now. I am, also, a refugee from Tai and I lost my family in a Shoku."

As Natsuki watched him, she could see the sadness in his eyes as he spoke about his family. His eyes resembled hers in the past when she would miss her mother and father.

The man continued, "After Taiki's ranka disappeared from Mt. Hou, the people of Tai spent 10 years in hell but when the new King came, he ruled only for a year, barely enough time to change the situation before he and Taiki disappeared again. The people of Tai have been suffering for the past seven years."

Natsuki took some noodles in her chopsticks and slurped them as she listened.

"Both Taiki and King Tai abandoned us," the man continued.

Natsuki felt a tinge of anger when he spoke with such a hostile tone toward her father. She couldn't help but feel his hatred should have been focused toward her instead of her father but she could understand why he feels angry. He, also, does not know the circumstances for why Taiki and the king had disappeared.

They stayed silent for a while and the man suddenly perked up after realizing he was fuming. "I'm sorry. I lost my temper," the man said.

"It is alright but I may have some news that will ease your hatred," Natsuki said.

The man looked at her and leaned in. The man asked, "What kind of news?"

Natsuki lifted the bowl to her lips, to finish drinking the ramen soup, then placed the empty bowl back down on the table. She looked at the man silently, drawing out the moment. "I come from the capital city of Kankyuu in Sei Province and heard that Enki found Taiki in Hourai," Natsuki said. "The Tai Taiho has returned and should still be in King En's palace."

"Really?"

"Yes, I have a friend working in the Royal Palace that told me that Taiki will be leaving for Mt. Hou soon and will probably choose a ruler during the Summer Solstice." She wasn't lying. She was still unsure about becoming the Queen of Tai and she wanted to make sure Taiki was right. She couldn't deny that Kirin could not bow to anyone but their master - and Taiki had bowed to her - she still felt it may be because of the blood of her father running through her.

Natsuki stood up and placed the money for the ramen by the bowl.

"I, personally, think that it's great news - as a citizen of Tai - you should take the Shozan to see if you will be the next king. The people of Tai need someone who understands their struggles as their ruler; they don't need a Taika. They need people like you," she said.

She walked out of the restaurant, leaving the man gasping with great joy.

Natsuki made it to the shrine where she saw the Riboku. She walked to the gate and knocked on it.

"Hello, I'm looking for a man named Heki," Natsuki called loudly.

The gate opened and she saw an old man. He wasn't that old but he had gray hair and was definitely over fifty. Heki allowed her in and they began speaking Japanese.

"So, you are a Taika?" Natsuki walked beside him, deeper into the yard.

"Yes. When I came back to this world, I was, immediately, able to remember my life here and could speak the language fluently."

"It would seem true because if you were just an ordinary Kaikyaku, your hair and eyes color would not have changed. You remind me of another Taika who came to me once two years ago. I wonder how she's doing now," Heki said in recollection. "So what brings you here?"

"I'm looking for a young boy? There seems to have been a Shoku a while ago and a Kaikyaku was washed here with it," Natsuki explained.

She looked around and saw multiple children playing. She, then, looked over, in a corner and saw the fifteen-year-old teenage boy, sitting on the steps.

"That's him," she said and pointed to Suguru.

Suguru looked and saw the girl walking over to him. He squirmed a little, almost like a turtle trying to retract into his shell.

Natsuki chuckled. "No need to be afraid, Suguru."

When he heard her say his name, he got up and walked closer to her.

"You know my name? Who are you?" he asked.

"Oh, you don't remember me," Natsuki said as she sat on the steps where he was sitting. "Natsuki Naotaka; the girl who used to bully you in elementary school and stopped when the brother you hate so much came to your rescue."

"You," Suguru said. "What happened to you? Why do you look so different from before? How did you get to this world?"

Natsuki remained seated with her leg crossed over her thigh as while Suguru remained standing. "Believe it or not, I came with you." She looked at his face, more puzzled than anything as he looked at her. It seems even after all those years he didn't get much smarter. "Sit down, Suguru. I have a long story to tell you," Natsu replied.

When she finished, Suguru stood up, angry and looked down at her.

"You and Kaname are one of those monsters, too," he said.

"Well, I'm not a monster," Matsuki said. "Taiki's not a monster either." She cocked her head wittily, "Well, between him and I, he most resembles a monster."

Suguru ignores her rebuttal as anger and rage overtook him. "You bring us to this unknown world and watch from the shadows as we suffer," Suguru barked.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You shouldn't be bad mouthing the brother that used to protect you," Natsuki said.

"This world is twisted and should not exist. It is hell for the weak," Suguru said.

"I have no idea what you're saying but since I haven't been here for long, I can't exactly say you're wrong."

"Shut up," Suguru yelled.

Natsuki looked up at him and furrowed her brow. The way he was looking down at her made her sick.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" she said, coldly yet softly.

Suguru suddenly stopped when he heard the bitterness in her voice.

Natsuki's told and kicked him on the side of his knee. He yelped in pain and grabbed his leg, kneeling to the ground on his good knee. Natsuki stood and towered over him, her red eyes gleaming like a beast's as she watched him trowel on the ground.

"That's right. You should get on your hands and knees before me. Who do you think you are to talk and look down upon the Queen of Tai?"

Suguru looked up at her. He was, immediately, intimidated by her red eyes as she looked at him through hooded lids.

"He protected you, yet you resent him," Natsuki said. "And you dare to call the people in the land of my birth monsters? Do you think you'd survive that storm if it wasn't for that monster's kindness? You would've been eaten alive I. The woods if it weren't for those monsters."

Natsuki kicked him in the chest, causing Suguru to fall on his back on the rocky ground. He groaned when she stepped on his chest, pressing her foot down on his breastbone.

"If you hate Taiki and me so much, then in the summer, when you hear that the Tai Taiho and Queen Tai have returned, come to Tai," Natsuki said.

She searched through the inner breast pockets of her kimono and took out a sack of money and dropped it on the floor, by his head.

She continued, "Take a ship to Tai, along with the refugees, and try to say that again to my face and see what happens."

Natsuki took her foot off of his chest and looked at him before she scoffed and walked out, leaving silently through the gates.

When Natsuki walked by the campsite again, where the refugees reside, and listened to them talking about Taiki and the fact that he was back meant that they could return home. They were joyous and happy. It seemed that the man she had told about Taiki was talking to the people and telling them that he would go to Shozan during the Summer Solstice to see if he could be the next king and they were cheering him on. But she began to feel remorse for that man because it would be a wasted trip to go to Mt. Hou. The queen had already been chosen by Taiki and, no matter what, that fact would never change.

Natsuki smiled and passed by silently, not attracting any unwanted attention to herself. She walked for a few hours to the next town.

As she was passing by she saw a vendor selling sweets and decided to buy a dozen bread cakes. She has always had a sweet tooth and could never resist the urge of eating snacks.

"May I have a dozen bread cakes please?" she asked.

"Yes, of course," said the lady. The lady vendor placed them in a box for her and told her the price.

Natsuki searched through her breast pocket and took out the money.

"I really shouldn't have given that idiot all of my money," she said. She handed the lady some money and the lady gave her back her change.

"Thank you," Natsuki said and took the box of cakes and walked away.

"Thank you," The lady vendor called after her. When she was outside of the town, she sat down and opened the box.

Gouran appeared before her.

"Are we going back to Genei Palace?" Gouran asked.

Natsuki took a bite of the cake in her hand and moaned longingly at the soothing and sweet taste of the small cake.

It had a piece of chocolate in the center of a very creamy sweet filling with the bread wrapped around it and some icing layered the outside of the cake.

"Yeah," Natsuki finally answered. She finished eating the first on and licked the icing off her fingers. She took another one and offered it to Gouran.

"Do you want one?"

Gouran sniffed the foreign food before taking it into his mouth out of her hand.

"Do you like it?"

Gouran finished chewing and spoke. "It's very sweet. You'll get sick if you eat too many of them."

Natsuki laughed.

Gouran walked to beside her and laid on the ground, his head resting on his front paws. He perked up when he heard something coming their way. He turned and saw the small, dog with the short, beige coat, standing and shaking as it approached them.

Natsuki noticed Gouran paying attention to something else. She looked where Gouran is looking and saw the small dog.

"Aw, it looks so scared," Natsuki said. She looked at the dog and walked closer to it. She took one of the cakes out and stood a certain distance from the dog. The dog, carefully, approached her and sniffed the cake before taking it out of her hand and eating it.

"You like sweets, too," she said.

When the dog finished chewing, it jumped on her and licked her face. Natsuki laughed. "You must have been really hungry. Let's have some more," she said.

She distributed them between herself, Gouran, and the dog.

"Oh, I forgot that dogs weren't supposed to eat chocolate." She shrugged. "Oh, well." Natsuki got up and tapped the dirt off her pants. "Let's go, Gouran."

Gouran got off the ground and followed her.

The dog looked as they were walking away and whimpered. He, quickly, chased after them, stopping Natsuki by biting the leg of her pants. She turned to look at him and looked at his pleading eyes. She bent down and stroked the dog's fur.

"What's wrong, boy? Don't you have an owner to go back to?" Natsuki asked.

The dog yielded to the warmth of her palm as she picked him up.

"Do you want to come with me?" She asked as she held him against her chest.

The dog barked and nuzzled at the crook of her neck. He reached up and licked her face.

"Alright, you can come with me." Natsuki looked at the dog with kind eyes.

"Your highness…" Gouran said.

"I was also a stray who was picked up, off the street," she said softly, her eyes downcast. She turned to Gouran and smiled. "Let's go back, Gouran."

And Voila!

This arc is almost over since it was only to set up everything and how Taiki and Natsuki were getting used to being back in the Twelve Kingdoms. Each Arc is 8 chapters long so I'll try my best to stay consistent

Look forward to the next chapter. Au Revoir!