I do not own FY, I do own this fic and Karen…and stuff. Yea, unless, it to, is a mirage….
On with the show!
A Sweet Tooth
Tasuki barely got to Karen as she fell. The guards hit the ground, she did not. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her abused body and held her to him, glaring at the guards as he turned his head around.
"How dare you call yourselves men attacking women and a child!" he yelled and placed Karen into Mitsukake's hands as the others joined them. He then turned, stood up and gripped his harison, "You bugs don't deserve to live!"
Chiriko had to be a smartass, "Now bugs, do you mean parasites?"
"No. I mean roaches. Ones that run into your house when it's damp, fearing water when they only run into bigger threats of your shoes. I'm talking about ants that build up walls just to have them demolished and scatter like there was no hope. I'm talking about flies who have no other use in the world except to irritate your ears and a horse's ass!"
As the guards stood up, each one head the insults and each one vowed there to kill that bandit, at any and all costs.
Chiriko sighed, "Maybe you should think more before you start speaking. I'm not sure this tactic will promote peace."
"To hell with peace if it is to be taken by destroying families, for harming ones that never knew how to fight, never wanted to learn. It's not right to bring a girl into this world on account that you didn't want her existence to fuck up your own!" Tasuki yelled at his enemies yet again.
"What do you mean, Tasuki?" Nuriko asked, unaware of what the bandit meant. Which was all too often.
"I know, you know?" Chichiri spoke up, "The enemies summoned Karen for their own true intentions. Normally, a priestess would have to be summoned to help Konan or another country to avoid destruction. But in this case, it was not the country in danger, more so the opponents wanted to tip the scale and put a deuce in their hands, you know?"
"I'm not following." Nuriko said.
Chiriko spoke up, "Our country was not in danger, therefore Karen didn't actually have to be here. We could have cleaned up our own mess. However, Kutou wanted power, hence the threats Lord Hotohori received shortly before Karen's arrival. But the plan backfired and Suzaku, himself, must have known this for her to be engulfed in his light. It was clearly to save our lives and her own. If she had not been a successful tool in Kutou's offense, she would have surely been killed."
"But how did they know she was the balance?" Houki asked as she helped Boushin up.
Hotohori cleared his throat, "There must have been some type of location that she would have been in…"
"No, your highness." Chichiri spoke again, "Because we are in separate dimensions, they did not need her to be in a certain place, at a certain time. If that was the case, Suzaku could have and would have altered her fate a bit. No matter what it would do in her future, Suzaku would not let downfall happen to Konan. There is a spell that crosses worlds to Miaka and Taka's homeland that binds whoever is summoned, to appear. All they need is a name and a clear mind."
Nuriko frowned, "But how did they know her name? It doesn't make sense…oh wait, there was that legend."
"Right!" Chiriko chimed, "Even if it is a legend, all myths have some sort of truth behind them."
Mitsukake sighed as he healed Karen's wounds, "You all are missing the point."
"What do you mean?" Hotohori asked.
"Karen is here because of Suzaku and if everything you said is true, Suzaku knew full well what would happen if she actually came here. He had deeper reasoning for bringing her here. Maybe about his soldier's personal lives, I don't know. But she can easily destroy Konan and the surrounding countries however there is one reason she does not."
They all looked at Tasuki who looked at them, confused. "What are ya lookin' at me fer?!"
"You have touched something in Karen's heart, she will not destroy us. Suzaku was once again wise for bringing us peace." Hotohori said.
"Enough chitchat!" a guard yelled and raised his sword, "All of what you said is true…but you won't live long enough to tell it to your grandkids!"
Hotohori walked up and unsheathed his sword, "You have almost cost me my wife and my child. You will not cost me future generations!"
In a few swift movements, every slice hit its mark. They fell around Hotohori like a domino effect. He looked to the others. "That leader will fall. Come on!"
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Tasuki carried Karen over his shoulder as he constantly muttered about how Hotohori got the glory, how everything should have made perfect sense before then, and how this girl was a pain in his ass.
"Tasuki, not so fast. We don't want an ambush." Nuriko said.
"If they are foolish enough to ambush us with no army, then they deserve whatever is coming to them." Hotohori muttered to his comrade.
"He's right, you know? The way Tasuki's looking right now, he could probably take on the entire Kutou empire without hassle and rein, you know?"
"Right Chichiri, we got to see what is really in that hat of yours." Mitsukake laughed.
Chiriko smiled, "Yea, you're beginning to make it sound like Tasuki is a bad guy now."
"Not necessarily. Tasuki just knows what he needs to know, you know?"
"Man is that confusing." Nuriko sighed.
Boushin and Houki were in the middle of the group so as not to be out of sight and in immediate danger. "You were right on the nose, Boushin." Houki said and looked to her son's confused face, "Saying she was here to balance not the world, but the lives."
Boushin smirked, "Yes but there is so much I'd like to know still."
"You've got the chance to learn." Houki said and pointed to Karen as she woke up wearily and looked at the others.
"Hi?" she blinked and then looked to her side. That red hair was unmistakable! "Oh my God! Carrot top! No! Your jokes are corny and you really need a tan! But then you might get skin cancer! Oh put me down!" she kicked and squirmed.
Tasuki tried to hold on to her to make her face him but it was just not fitting well. They toppled over and he flipped his body so he'd land on his back and her on top of him as a cushion.
She looked down, shocked. "Oh…sorry Genrou, I guess I was out for a good while, huh?" she smiled innocently. He glared.
And then they noticed it.
The other Seishi, Houki and Boushin as well.
Their position.
Karen and Tasuki both flushed crimson and jumped away from each other, "WHOA!" Karen hit Houki on accident as she tried to regain posture, "Sorry!"
Tasuki's eye twitched, "Ugh! Women!"
"He hasn't changed a bit." Nuriko laughed.
"That was a strange twist of fate." Chiriko grinned. "You forget to tell us something, Tasuki?" he chided.
"Shut up you little runt!" Tasuki made a fist at the prodigy.
"Now now, be gentle boys." Nuriko said calmly.
Tasuki made a pout face and turned around, his back to the rest of the group. And then he saw him…
The leader of the pack. He glared.
"I'm so enthused that you still have time to have fun." the man grinned.
"Yea, it's called we still know we're going to kick your ass." Tasuki retorted.
"He's getting frisky again." Chichiri muttered.
Tasuki gripped his harison more. Since he was carrying Karen, he didn't want her head to play "hit the harison." Not on his watch at least!
Karen stood up straight and cast the same glare at the man. "I want to know what your name is, you jerk!"
The leader smirked, "It's high time someone cared to ask, or at least asked." he paused and unsheathed his sword, "My name is Rashid Utiko."
"Yea whatever, we just needed a name to write on your tombstone." Karen grumbled.
"Very fiery pest, aren't you?" Rashid asked.
"The very best of the pest." Karen stuck her tongue out at the man.
Tasuki growled, "She's not a pest…" he ran towards Rashid, waving his harison around a bit, "Rekka…"
"Do you remember what happened the last time?" Rashid stopped Tasuki's words as he faltered and stood in defense stance, wide eyed. "I purposely had an incense placed outside your cell so you would dispose of that wretched girl. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like you did it. Did you at least have fun watching her fear you?"
Tasuki felt the sweat on his brow. "Bastard…"
"Yes, I never knew my father. Perhaps if I did, I'd be much better of being a gentleman…but nevertheless, did it please you to see her squirm under your gaze? To know that she knew what you were capable of? To fear what you could and would do to her?"
The other seishi, Houki and Boushin gasped. Karen only glared. "He's more of a man than that, you asshole." she said and stepped up in front of the others, a few feet behind Tasuki. "You think you can control someone's heart, well you can't and I've learned the hard way. You think you can control who they are, it's a waste of time. I can't believe you'd be so naïve."
"What wise words for a girl. Can't believe I underestimated you." Rashid smirked.
"I am a girl. I am almost a woman, but not quite yet." Karen started to flicker, the light around her looking as if lightning bolts were coursing through the air. "You deserve to die, manipulating others for your own deranged enjoyment. These people here had no quarrel with you and yet you made one for your own self indulgence. It's pathetic!"
Her eyes, once again flared red and her hair jet black. "You do not deserve to live in a balance because you thwart it!" she yelled and opened her palm towards Rashid, "You will feel what it is like to have love and hate, peace and war all rolled into one until your dying breath that will come in a few moments after you see what you could have done."
A sphere appeared from her hand, in a design of a yin-yang, swirling around. As it hit Rashid at target, aim, hit, Karen's eyes returned to green and her hair back to brown. She blinked a few times, "Whoa, that was a doozy medicine you gave me Mitsukake!" she laughed back at him.
But the others weren't laughing. She followed their sight to Rashid who began to scream in utter turmoil.
Tasuki grabbed Karen and ran back to the group, standing in front of them as a way of defending it he had to. They watched as Rashid shed tears, dropping his sword. No one could ever begin to imagine the things he was experiencing.
The stench of blood, dried and wasted on no reason at all. Images of slaughters, meaningless as a blade of grass that had already been mowed. Sounds of agonizing screams of women and children as they were watching the men die and they, themselves were being butchered mercilessly. The taste of tears as they shed down the face of those who lost so much for a reason they knew would never be fit. And finally, the feeling of his heart stopping, every last heartbeat till he died.
Her gift was also a curse, able to make you sense with everything you've ever taken for granted, the pain death can bring. Perhaps now, others would begin to realize that meaningless killing is something no one wants upon them.
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As the -real- guards disposed of the bodies, burying them outside the palace in their own little cemetery, Karen was busy thinking in what she'd come to know as her room for the time being. Houki entered and brought in some tea, "Miss Karen, how are you fairing?"
"Very well, thanks." she took a cup from Houki as they sat and drank together, talking of nonsense. Things only girls would think of. "Houki…"
"Yes?" she lifted her gaze to meet Karen.
"How…I mean, I love this place and I wouldn't mind staying…but how would I get home? The mission is done right?"
"I believe I can answer that, you know?" Chichiri was walking past and heard the question.
"And the answer is?" Karen chided.
Chichiri removed his mask and looked at her, hidden by nothing. "Something you have to do, something you feel you must let go or perhaps you don't want to let go…either way, you must figure out what is dwelling within you that makes you stay. That is the only reason you are still here." he put his mask on and it smiled…of course! "We'd love to have you stay here as well, you know?!"
Karen smiled, "Thanks Chichiri…" she looked down then. 'What is it…that is keeping me from leaving then?'
Then she knew. It wasn't what was keeping her here. It was something that she wanted. Craved. Perhaps, there was a way. Taka lives with Miaka now…why can't she live here? Would it be so bad? She sighed and thought it over.
"He probably could care less if I went back home." she said aloud.
Houki stood up, catching Karen off guard and smiled down at her, "If you mean Tasuki, I'm sure you are mistaken." she walked out of the room.
Karen thought more, "Do you…what do you want me to do, Tasuki? I do want to stay…but is it enough? Do I actually have a reason to?"
She just had to find out!
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Reviews please
kage1586
