Chapter Seven

A Lost Little Girl Part II

"Oh, yeah, I remember that little conversation," my eyes lit up, remembering bits and pieces.

Genrou and Kouji both nearly fell over, amazed at what I just said.

"You… remember?" Kouji asked.

"Well, only that conversation for now. Go on," I replied, getting really into Mima's life here inside this, Shijin Tenchi Sho.

"I uh…" Kouji shifted his weight, and continued on with the story. "I lead a girl to Eiken, after that conversation we had…"

Genrou growled at the mention of this Eiken fellow.

"Eiken was this fat pig, who took over the position of Leader, when Genrou was supposed to be it," Kouji continued. "You followed me to take the girl to Eiken, and there we saw Genrou!"

In the corner of my eye, Genrou was beaming. He did fancy poses, and smiling the whole time. But, his fun was done when Kouji's sent an elbow crashing down on his head.

The blue-haired bandit continued explaining Mima's first couple days. "Genrou took the girl, and fled, going to the hideout only him and I know of. You, trying to be heroic, followed him up there…"

Images began running through my head…

|+| Flashback |+|

"Genjitsu Shinzarou!" the man recited. He threw paper, and then all of a sudden some wolves appeared. The wolves attacked Hotohori, Nuriko, and Eiken. I was in such shock, I didn't realize that wolf was running towards me as well!

"Mima! Look out!" Koji cried.

"Nani?!" I tried dodging the wolf, but I was frozen. Then I saw Koji jump in the way, having the wolf attack him instead. "Koji!"

"Don't worry. It's just one of Genrou's tricks." Koji struggled to get away from the wolf, but he just pulled out a knife and shoved it into the wolf's neck.

"No!" I couldn't bear to see that happen, but to my surprise, the wolf turned into paper. I stared at it. "Paper...?" Then I noticed the man getting away with Miaka. He seemed to be laughing evilly after saying something. "Hotohori, Nuriko!"

"N-nani...?" Nuriko struggled to say.

"I'll get Miaka for you!" I announced.

"Mima, you don't know where he's going!" Koji warned.

"I'll follow." I took after the man who had Miaka. I chased after him through trees, over a river, and up a hill. I heard Miaka yelling at him to let her go, but he just ignored her. She pounded on him, but he ignored that, too. I felt a branch slash at my face, right below my right eye. I made a yelp. "Mi...a...ka..." It was intense pain when I felt the branch slash deep into my skin. "Fuck.... shit... damnit..." I grumbled. I didn't stop to feel it or see how much blood was pouring out, I just kept on running.

The chase came to a stop as he walked up the steps to a small...house?... up ahead. I hid behind some bushes until they disappeared into the house. "Great... first I have a deep gash in my thigh, and now my face? This is just my lucky day." I ran up the steps and put my ear against the door to listen in on anything. I heard some talking from the guy, and then him yelling out "Ouch!" Miaka jabbered on about something, and then they began talking. I grew tired of eavesdropping, so I turned to leave when I saw Koji standing right in front of me. "They're just talking."

He nodded. "Genrou wouldn't do such a thing anyway. He'd probably just kiss her then tell her he was just kidding."

"Is Genrou that guy who busted in like that earlier? Ya know, the guy with the red hair and the paper wolves?"

Koji nodded again. "He knows lots of incantations." Koji knocked on the door while saying his usual jibberish. "Good evening. Who's there? Why, it's just Koji the magnificent! Oh, Koji! You're welcome. Please come in. Thank you." He opened the door.

"K-Koji!" Genrou exclaimed. Then, in a flash, they were arm-in-arm, dancing in a circle. "Long time no see, Koji!"

I raised my eyebrow. "What the hell are these guys?"

|+| Flashback |+|

"Mm… yeah!" I flashed a bright smile, all teeth. "I remember running through the forest, following after Genrou." I glared at him. "You have intense speed, you know that? You caused me that scar I have right here!" I pointed to a spot close to my ear. "And here!" I pointed to another spot below my right eye.

Genrou hung his head. "Gomenasai…" he apologized, pitifully.

"You guys have the weirdest greeting dance I've ever seen," I shook my head in disapproval.

Kouji joined Genrou by hanging his head in shame.

"We had that conversation about me becoming leader, and stealing the tessen away from Eiken," Genrou added, showing me a shiny, iron fan.

"Ooh… that's a tessen?" I looked at it in awe.

"Yep, it shoots out fire!" Genrou smiled at me, baring his sharp, toothy fangs.

"Ahem, anyway," Kouji interrupted our fun talk. "What else happened…? Oh yeah!

"You, Genrou, that girl, Miaka, and I went out to get that tessen back, so Genrou could become leader. Eventually, we got it back and Genrou got the position.

"Miaka and her two friends left, and they invited Mima to go along with them."

"Why was Miaka here in the first place?" I asked.

"She was looking for a Suzaku Seishi, Tasuki," Genrou replied. "Tasuki just happened to be me." He looked at me, as if he expected a reaction.

Tasuki did have a certain ring to it, like it was suddenly very familiar. But nothing else came to mind, so I just shrugged.

"Miaka went ahead, and Kouji said I should have gone with them," Genrou continued the story. "I denied it, but Mima brought up the idea that Kouji should be leader so I could go on ahead to go with Miaka and the others. I invited Mima, and of course she followed me."

Genrou explained the most interesting story ever about Suzaku no Miko, the Suzaku Seishi, and everything! But what shocked Kouji and me the most was that Genrou said I was a Suzaku Seishi, too!

"Mima is Suzaku's Animal Seishi?" I asked, wide-eyed.

'Mima sounds like a totally different girl than I am,' I thought. 'Heck, I don't sound like some bouncy little girl like Mima, who's courageous and loyal. But with her powers, I can run this stronghold…'

"I never knew that before," Kouji said. "How come you didn't tell me that, Genrou?"

Genrou just shrugged, and pulled out a mirror from his pocket. "Take a look in it yourself. Maybe you'll recognize something."

I took the mirror and looked into it, and saw my face, for the first time.

Or was it really Mima's?

My eyes were the color of spring green, I had a pointy nose, and high cheekbones. I didn't really look all the beautiful, or all that ugly, but I was pretty okay looking after all. And just as Genrou said earlier, there was a gold design under my left eye. It started from the side of my eye, and then curved down and continued its design.

"Wow, that design is pretty," I thought out loud. "How'd I get it?"

"After proving yourself of being loyal to Miaka before the Genbu Seishi, Mima got it," Genrou replied. "A gift from Suzkau, everybody else says so."

"Too bad that Mima girl doesn't realize how cool this really looks," I said, still checking out my reflection. My hair was pretty cool after all, though it was sort of ugly. "What was her character like, besides fulfilling her duty of being an extra Suzaku Seishi?" I finally tore my eyes away from the mirror and looked at Kouji and Genrou.

The two bandits looked at each other, uneasily. They were taken aback by my question, and I knew that it wasn't going to be easy for them to answer.

"Well, she was…" Genrou started.

"She was nice, at times, yeah," Kouji said. "Demanding, barely wanted to be the only hero of things. She seemed kind of…"

"… Reserved," Genrou interrupted.

"Huh," I stared at the two. "So she was nice, sometimes a priss, demanding, barely ever wanted to be the center of attention, and she was reserved?"

They both gave a slight nod.

"And she was also loyal, devoted, and thought about others before her?" I asked.

Genrou was the only one who nodded this time.

"Sounds like the typical good girl," I shrugged that Mima character off, not giving a last thought about her. "Besides, I'm probably different from her, aren't I?"

"Well…" Kouji started.

"I'm more, exciting, aren't I?" I asked, slyly.

"Uhm…" Genrou said, uneasily.

"Forget about her," I said, leaning back against the wall, looking out the window, seeing a mountain covered with green trees. "I no longer have her memories, do I? So just forget about her. You don't need her anymore."

~*:|: Genrou :|:*~

I was stunned. Completely… in shock.

"Forget about her…?" I repeated. "What do you mean…?"

"I said, forget about her!" the girl screamed, infuriated. "She's no longer here, right? I don't want to be thought of this girl named Mima! So you're going to forget about her, like she never existed, right?!"

"What are you talking about?" Kouji snapped. "Don't you want to be Mima again?"

She didn't answer Kouji. Instead, she looked away from us, not wanting to face the fury and confusion on our fierce faces.

I got up from my chair, glaring at this girl who I used to know as Mima. "Why… why don't you want to be Mima?"

No answer.

"ANSWER ME!" I demanded, tears forming in my eyes, my eyesight becoming blurry.

"Because," she simply said.

"Because?" I repeated.

"I don't like her. She seems like the kind of girl I wouldn't like. She seems like she was the kind of brat who got everything, and everything went her way," she answered. "She even got you into her heart. I know this because they way you look at me. I want to be known as somebody else, other than this 'Mima' girl."

I was having a headache, along with a heartache.

"How about when you go back to your own world, huh?" Kouji had his back facing her, obviously crying. I could read his thoughts. They were something like mine…

'How could I forget Mima? I won't, just because of this brat wants us to,' I thought.

"Yeah, what about my world?" she asked, snobbishly.

"They only know you as Mima, don't they?" Kouji asked.

She thought about it for awhile, and then, "Sure, I guess so. What are you suggesting?"

"Keep that name."

She smirked. "Keep it? Why?"

"Because… because we loved her." Kouji left the room.

This new 'Mima' looked at me, with a raised eyebrow. "Well? Are you going to leave, too, Genrou?" She said my name seductively. I didn't like it, because Mima would never say my name that way.

"It's late, I should go, ya' know?" I turned to the door.

"Oh, but you know I would love it if you stayed here with me… it'll be ever so lonely," she whined, trying to persuade me into staying the night with her.

'I don't like this bitch,' I thought, grumpily. I left her alone, in Kouji's room.

Frustrated, I headed into my room. Who I saw in there surprised me.