Promises Are Made For Keeping
Chapter 9
"Mmm.. evil toaster... must..run!" Kina muttered in her sleep, "AAAHHH!!" She screamed, jumping up and falling off the couch. She looked around in a daze for a few moments, "Y..yue? He must be in the kitchen getting breakfast." She told herself.
Nuriko waltzed into the kitchen, "Morning, how's Yue?" He scratched his back.
"He's not here!!!!" Kina ran around the apartment looking everywhere, even under the beds, "What if Tigress got him?" She began to break down in tears, falling to the floor.
"Hey, hey it's ok!" Nuriko caught Kina as she fell down, "If she did get him then I'll kick her ass!"
Kina laughed, feeling better, Nuriko almost never cursed. It's the best feeling to know you have friends who really care about you, even if their way of showing it was 'kicking the ass' of whoever makes you mad.
"What's up?" Hotohori and Shiva both walked into the kitchen from different directions. Shiva absentmindedly walked into the table.
"TABLE!" Hori ran to the tables side, stroking the top of it, "Watch it Shiva, now apologize!"
"Argh, FINE! I'm sorry table!" Shiva glared at Hotohori, she never imagined she'd apologize to a table.
"I can't believe he left, or was kidnapped, or whatever!" Kina sat down on the nearest chair, burying her face into her hands.
"Don't jump to conclusions. Maybe he just went out to get something. That's probably it. He'll be back soon!" Hotohori attempted to comfort his friend.
"But I just have this sickening feeling that we need to find him! We NEED to!" She sat back up, wiping her face, "We should look for him."
Nuriko glanced at everyone in the room, "Maybe we should go out and look, but where?"
"If she did take him or he went to find her, where would it be?" Hotohori thought out loud as he put his arm around Nuriko.
"Maybe in the forest, Yue's bishonen village? Who knows?" Shiva scratched her head.
"Well it's not doing any good by just standing around, let's go look!" Kina jumped up and grabbed her jacket, "We can split up, four can cover more ground then one big group."
"I don't think it's a good idea to split up." Shiva pulled out her two bishonen balls, "How about I'll go look with Chichiri and Mitsukake. Kina you go look with Nuriko and Hotohori. Then we'll all be covering more ground but we'll be safe and together. If you find them, fire this into the air." She produced out of her room a bag full of firecrackers, "I was going to save them for your wedding, but they'll be more handy right now."
"Thanks, good idea." Kina graciously accepted half of the stash of firecrackers while Shiva kept the other half. She pulled out two packages of matches, giving one to Shiva.
"Let's go." Nuriko opened the door for everyone, "We'll go look around where Yue's bishonen village is, Kina thinks she knows where it is. Shiva, you guys go through the forest and ask around town ok?"
"Got it, no da!" Chichiri appeared before the group along with Mitsukake.
"WAIT A MINUTE!" Kina screamed and turned around, scaring the heebie jeebies out of everyone, "Remember Tigress told him to met her at that lake!"
"But what lake?" Shiva questioned her friend.
"The one in the forest! I think I know where it is!" She grabbed Shiva's arm and pulled her forward, "We'll find it then split up to surround them!
The group looked out at the empty street then began their search.
"Yue, why would you leave me?" Kina struggled to answer her own question.
~*~
Tigress sat by the lake, laughing to herself, "They think they've beaten me, we'll they haven't!" She told herself when suddenly a snapping twig broke her from her thought, "Who's there!?!?" She spun around, anger hissing in her voice.
"It's me." Yue walked out of the shadows and into the light, he looked tired and sad. He was even missing one of his shoes and twigs where in his hair, "Tigress, I saw what happened. I'm sorry." He rubbed his hands together then stepped towards her.
"You don't know what it was like!" Tigress snarled at the bishonen.
"You where scared weren't you? It's ok to be afraid Tigress, that's part of life." He stepped closer to her, holding his arms out.
"Shut up, get away from me! Stop it!" She stepped back. *Why is he being so nice to me? WHY?* She thought to herself, part of her felt warm but something inside her kept consuming her, darkness. *He is only being nice because he pities you.* She answered her own question.
"Yue, I'm so sorry." Tigress began to cry warm hot tears.
"It's ok Tigress, let it all out. Then this can all be over with." He embraced her in his arms, letting her cry on his shoulder.
"T-thank you." Tigress looked up at his face but before Yue could do anything, she was kissing him. Then his body went limp in her arms, "Haha, the little sap fell for it." She wiped the lipstick off of her lips, the poisonous lipstick she used for knocking people unconscious. Although she had to be truthful, she never thought it would come in handy.
Smirking, Tigress dragged out chains from behind a rock, she lifted up her arms into the air and muttered a spell, "Darkness within and darkness all around, spirits from hell come and lend me your power. With these chains that I bind, if he tries to break free from them shock his entire body with pain. If he escapes then shoot him down with your hellish black power, straight through his heart. Dragging his soul into everlasting pain. Listen to my request and answer it!" She chanted over the pile of chains as they turned into a black color.
~*~
Kina shifted her gaze through the bushes but something white caught her eye. Squinting, she leaned down and crawled towards the object.
Hotohori began to poke Nuriko's back, "Have you seen anything yet--?" He questioned his friend but all of a sudden his foot caught on a tree root and like a giant chicken, his arms went flying in circles as he attempted to keep his balance. It was a futile effort; Hotohori went flying forwards in a crash course with the ground. But two strong, warm arms caught him as he fell, causing his face to be buried in a bunch of cloth.
"Careful." Nuriko lifted Hotohori to his feet.
"T-thanks." Hotohori blushed and smiled, "You always catch me went I fall!" His arm went behind his head.
"That's because you always are clumsy!" The purple haired bishonen laughed but a tiny cry from the girl ahead of them caused them to stop abruptly.
"What's-the-matter?!" Hotohori ran over to Kina's side, crouching to the ground so he could see what she was holding.
"I-It's Yue's ... shoe!" She burst out into tears, "O-o-one shoe is always a b-bad sign!" Kina attempted to speak in between sobs, "It means something's l-lost, broken or h-h-hurt!!" Her cries came out louder this time.
Nuriko panicked, he didn't know what to do. What if Kina was right, what if they would never really find Yue? No, he couldn't doubt himself, that's the worse thing to do in a bad situation. You've got to keep your head up high and believe it will all work out, keep up the faith.
"I guess I've just had false hope." Kina muttered.
"There is no thing as false hope, if you hope then you hope. And it can never be false because I highly doubt Yue would leave you or he'd let himself lose to Tigress, not when he's got a wonderful girl like you on his side." Nuriko grinned but what Hotohori said next really did the trick. That was his Hotohori, always keeping his head in bad situations and always saying the right things at the right time.
"No Kina, just because you found one shoe it doesn't mean something is lost or broken. Remember that whole thing with Cinderella? The prince and her glass slipper, the fairy godmother and the ball? The prince found her shoe and it led him to his true love!" Hotohori helped Kina stand up as he reminded her that one shoe is a sign of hope.
"I guess you're right." Kina sniffed up her tears, "Let's keep looking, he has to be nearby!"
She shifted through the bushes then paused at what she saw. There in front of them was Tigress and next to her was Yue, but he was strapped with chains onto some strange table. He was pale and wasn't moving. Slowly, everything that had happened lately sunk into her. The truth she didn't want to face was now rearing it's ugly head in her face.
"He's dead." It flashed in her mind, she wanted to run. To run away and hide safe in her own room. But this is the one she loved, how could she abandon him? She tried to scream but it wouldn't come out of her throat because Nuriko quickly clamped his hand around her mouth. Quietly, he dragged her away from the scene while Hotohori followed them.
"We can't set off the fire works to let Shiva know we found Yue or else Tigress will see them." Hotohori whispered to Nuriko, who was still keeping Kina quiet.
"Where are we again?" A voice said out loud as the three turned to see Shiva, Chichiri and Mistukake.
"Just who we're looking for." Nuriko let go of Kina's mouth, "Shh be quiet or else Yue might get killed!"
"He's already dead!" She muttered her face pale with terror.
"He's alive Kina, we need to focus on saving him!" Hotohori whispered hoarsely.
"You're lying!" She pointed an accusing finger at him. She knew Yue might be ok but the shock of seeing her fiancé chained up and pale by the woman she hated made her snap. All that had happened lately was too much for her, not after all they had been through together before he proposed and why would he leave her? Was it for Tigress? That witch?! Did he really want to marry Kina? If he ran away because of one stupid girl, would he run away from Kina again?
"Kina, stop it!!" Nuriko turned and shouted, trying to keep it at a quiet level. "He's not lying; it's true!! It's true!! Yue is FINE!"
Kina stepped towards Nuriko and yanked him back. "You have no clue what you're talking about!!" she roared. "You don't understand! Yue left me for her and this is her idea for revenge, she's killed him! And you both keep feeding me this bullshit!"
"It's not bullshit!!" Nuriko shouted back, trying once more to pull himself away from his friend's forceful grip, and this time…this time… Kina went sprawling on the dirt, propelled by the force of Nuriko's move.
"How the…what did I DO?? What did I do??? Was that me??" Nuriko yelled mentally at himself.
Kina's eyes were as wide as Nuriko's. The other four stared, standing in silence and shock. Nuriko was frozen except for his heart, which was now pounding hard enough to shake his entire body. Finally after staring at his hands in silence, Nuriko looked up at Kina panting on in the dirt with a face full of horror.
Nuriko made a gulping sound, he was trying to say something, he didn't know exactly what; but before he could find the strength to do so, Kina had scrambled to her feet, and ran off into the darkness. Everything inside Nuriko screamed at him to go after her. But he couldn't. The best he could manage was staring after her, mouth half open, shouting at her mentally to come back, please come back, and hoping for some sort of special bishonen telepathic connection. Unfortunately, the magical powers that came with the job description did not appear to include such accessories.
Suddenly, there was worried breathing coming from above Nuriko as Hotohori asked, "Are you alright?"
Nuriko gave a jerky little nod, trying to keep his lip from shaking and betraying him. Not that Nuriko wasn't already betrayed by his expression and position as a whole. Not that a little shaking of the lip would really make a difference where judging his state of all rightness was concerned, "Knew she'd flip out," Nuriko murmured, "Just didn't think something like this would happen and so close to the wedding.
Hotohori wrapped his arm around Nuriko's shoulders and hugged him for a minute, for which Nuriko was grateful, even though he still wanted to pretend that he could look at the situation from a purely logical and unemotional perspective.
Chapter 9
"Mmm.. evil toaster... must..run!" Kina muttered in her sleep, "AAAHHH!!" She screamed, jumping up and falling off the couch. She looked around in a daze for a few moments, "Y..yue? He must be in the kitchen getting breakfast." She told herself.
Nuriko waltzed into the kitchen, "Morning, how's Yue?" He scratched his back.
"He's not here!!!!" Kina ran around the apartment looking everywhere, even under the beds, "What if Tigress got him?" She began to break down in tears, falling to the floor.
"Hey, hey it's ok!" Nuriko caught Kina as she fell down, "If she did get him then I'll kick her ass!"
Kina laughed, feeling better, Nuriko almost never cursed. It's the best feeling to know you have friends who really care about you, even if their way of showing it was 'kicking the ass' of whoever makes you mad.
"What's up?" Hotohori and Shiva both walked into the kitchen from different directions. Shiva absentmindedly walked into the table.
"TABLE!" Hori ran to the tables side, stroking the top of it, "Watch it Shiva, now apologize!"
"Argh, FINE! I'm sorry table!" Shiva glared at Hotohori, she never imagined she'd apologize to a table.
"I can't believe he left, or was kidnapped, or whatever!" Kina sat down on the nearest chair, burying her face into her hands.
"Don't jump to conclusions. Maybe he just went out to get something. That's probably it. He'll be back soon!" Hotohori attempted to comfort his friend.
"But I just have this sickening feeling that we need to find him! We NEED to!" She sat back up, wiping her face, "We should look for him."
Nuriko glanced at everyone in the room, "Maybe we should go out and look, but where?"
"If she did take him or he went to find her, where would it be?" Hotohori thought out loud as he put his arm around Nuriko.
"Maybe in the forest, Yue's bishonen village? Who knows?" Shiva scratched her head.
"Well it's not doing any good by just standing around, let's go look!" Kina jumped up and grabbed her jacket, "We can split up, four can cover more ground then one big group."
"I don't think it's a good idea to split up." Shiva pulled out her two bishonen balls, "How about I'll go look with Chichiri and Mitsukake. Kina you go look with Nuriko and Hotohori. Then we'll all be covering more ground but we'll be safe and together. If you find them, fire this into the air." She produced out of her room a bag full of firecrackers, "I was going to save them for your wedding, but they'll be more handy right now."
"Thanks, good idea." Kina graciously accepted half of the stash of firecrackers while Shiva kept the other half. She pulled out two packages of matches, giving one to Shiva.
"Let's go." Nuriko opened the door for everyone, "We'll go look around where Yue's bishonen village is, Kina thinks she knows where it is. Shiva, you guys go through the forest and ask around town ok?"
"Got it, no da!" Chichiri appeared before the group along with Mitsukake.
"WAIT A MINUTE!" Kina screamed and turned around, scaring the heebie jeebies out of everyone, "Remember Tigress told him to met her at that lake!"
"But what lake?" Shiva questioned her friend.
"The one in the forest! I think I know where it is!" She grabbed Shiva's arm and pulled her forward, "We'll find it then split up to surround them!
The group looked out at the empty street then began their search.
"Yue, why would you leave me?" Kina struggled to answer her own question.
~*~
Tigress sat by the lake, laughing to herself, "They think they've beaten me, we'll they haven't!" She told herself when suddenly a snapping twig broke her from her thought, "Who's there!?!?" She spun around, anger hissing in her voice.
"It's me." Yue walked out of the shadows and into the light, he looked tired and sad. He was even missing one of his shoes and twigs where in his hair, "Tigress, I saw what happened. I'm sorry." He rubbed his hands together then stepped towards her.
"You don't know what it was like!" Tigress snarled at the bishonen.
"You where scared weren't you? It's ok to be afraid Tigress, that's part of life." He stepped closer to her, holding his arms out.
"Shut up, get away from me! Stop it!" She stepped back. *Why is he being so nice to me? WHY?* She thought to herself, part of her felt warm but something inside her kept consuming her, darkness. *He is only being nice because he pities you.* She answered her own question.
"Yue, I'm so sorry." Tigress began to cry warm hot tears.
"It's ok Tigress, let it all out. Then this can all be over with." He embraced her in his arms, letting her cry on his shoulder.
"T-thank you." Tigress looked up at his face but before Yue could do anything, she was kissing him. Then his body went limp in her arms, "Haha, the little sap fell for it." She wiped the lipstick off of her lips, the poisonous lipstick she used for knocking people unconscious. Although she had to be truthful, she never thought it would come in handy.
Smirking, Tigress dragged out chains from behind a rock, she lifted up her arms into the air and muttered a spell, "Darkness within and darkness all around, spirits from hell come and lend me your power. With these chains that I bind, if he tries to break free from them shock his entire body with pain. If he escapes then shoot him down with your hellish black power, straight through his heart. Dragging his soul into everlasting pain. Listen to my request and answer it!" She chanted over the pile of chains as they turned into a black color.
~*~
Kina shifted her gaze through the bushes but something white caught her eye. Squinting, she leaned down and crawled towards the object.
Hotohori began to poke Nuriko's back, "Have you seen anything yet--?" He questioned his friend but all of a sudden his foot caught on a tree root and like a giant chicken, his arms went flying in circles as he attempted to keep his balance. It was a futile effort; Hotohori went flying forwards in a crash course with the ground. But two strong, warm arms caught him as he fell, causing his face to be buried in a bunch of cloth.
"Careful." Nuriko lifted Hotohori to his feet.
"T-thanks." Hotohori blushed and smiled, "You always catch me went I fall!" His arm went behind his head.
"That's because you always are clumsy!" The purple haired bishonen laughed but a tiny cry from the girl ahead of them caused them to stop abruptly.
"What's-the-matter?!" Hotohori ran over to Kina's side, crouching to the ground so he could see what she was holding.
"I-It's Yue's ... shoe!" She burst out into tears, "O-o-one shoe is always a b-bad sign!" Kina attempted to speak in between sobs, "It means something's l-lost, broken or h-h-hurt!!" Her cries came out louder this time.
Nuriko panicked, he didn't know what to do. What if Kina was right, what if they would never really find Yue? No, he couldn't doubt himself, that's the worse thing to do in a bad situation. You've got to keep your head up high and believe it will all work out, keep up the faith.
"I guess I've just had false hope." Kina muttered.
"There is no thing as false hope, if you hope then you hope. And it can never be false because I highly doubt Yue would leave you or he'd let himself lose to Tigress, not when he's got a wonderful girl like you on his side." Nuriko grinned but what Hotohori said next really did the trick. That was his Hotohori, always keeping his head in bad situations and always saying the right things at the right time.
"No Kina, just because you found one shoe it doesn't mean something is lost or broken. Remember that whole thing with Cinderella? The prince and her glass slipper, the fairy godmother and the ball? The prince found her shoe and it led him to his true love!" Hotohori helped Kina stand up as he reminded her that one shoe is a sign of hope.
"I guess you're right." Kina sniffed up her tears, "Let's keep looking, he has to be nearby!"
She shifted through the bushes then paused at what she saw. There in front of them was Tigress and next to her was Yue, but he was strapped with chains onto some strange table. He was pale and wasn't moving. Slowly, everything that had happened lately sunk into her. The truth she didn't want to face was now rearing it's ugly head in her face.
"He's dead." It flashed in her mind, she wanted to run. To run away and hide safe in her own room. But this is the one she loved, how could she abandon him? She tried to scream but it wouldn't come out of her throat because Nuriko quickly clamped his hand around her mouth. Quietly, he dragged her away from the scene while Hotohori followed them.
"We can't set off the fire works to let Shiva know we found Yue or else Tigress will see them." Hotohori whispered to Nuriko, who was still keeping Kina quiet.
"Where are we again?" A voice said out loud as the three turned to see Shiva, Chichiri and Mistukake.
"Just who we're looking for." Nuriko let go of Kina's mouth, "Shh be quiet or else Yue might get killed!"
"He's already dead!" She muttered her face pale with terror.
"He's alive Kina, we need to focus on saving him!" Hotohori whispered hoarsely.
"You're lying!" She pointed an accusing finger at him. She knew Yue might be ok but the shock of seeing her fiancé chained up and pale by the woman she hated made her snap. All that had happened lately was too much for her, not after all they had been through together before he proposed and why would he leave her? Was it for Tigress? That witch?! Did he really want to marry Kina? If he ran away because of one stupid girl, would he run away from Kina again?
"Kina, stop it!!" Nuriko turned and shouted, trying to keep it at a quiet level. "He's not lying; it's true!! It's true!! Yue is FINE!"
Kina stepped towards Nuriko and yanked him back. "You have no clue what you're talking about!!" she roared. "You don't understand! Yue left me for her and this is her idea for revenge, she's killed him! And you both keep feeding me this bullshit!"
"It's not bullshit!!" Nuriko shouted back, trying once more to pull himself away from his friend's forceful grip, and this time…this time… Kina went sprawling on the dirt, propelled by the force of Nuriko's move.
"How the…what did I DO?? What did I do??? Was that me??" Nuriko yelled mentally at himself.
Kina's eyes were as wide as Nuriko's. The other four stared, standing in silence and shock. Nuriko was frozen except for his heart, which was now pounding hard enough to shake his entire body. Finally after staring at his hands in silence, Nuriko looked up at Kina panting on in the dirt with a face full of horror.
Nuriko made a gulping sound, he was trying to say something, he didn't know exactly what; but before he could find the strength to do so, Kina had scrambled to her feet, and ran off into the darkness. Everything inside Nuriko screamed at him to go after her. But he couldn't. The best he could manage was staring after her, mouth half open, shouting at her mentally to come back, please come back, and hoping for some sort of special bishonen telepathic connection. Unfortunately, the magical powers that came with the job description did not appear to include such accessories.
Suddenly, there was worried breathing coming from above Nuriko as Hotohori asked, "Are you alright?"
Nuriko gave a jerky little nod, trying to keep his lip from shaking and betraying him. Not that Nuriko wasn't already betrayed by his expression and position as a whole. Not that a little shaking of the lip would really make a difference where judging his state of all rightness was concerned, "Knew she'd flip out," Nuriko murmured, "Just didn't think something like this would happen and so close to the wedding.
Hotohori wrapped his arm around Nuriko's shoulders and hugged him for a minute, for which Nuriko was grateful, even though he still wanted to pretend that he could look at the situation from a purely logical and unemotional perspective.
