Author Fangirling: Back to your once-a-Saturday update as usual! Keisuke, then Tetsuya this time.

Wasn't I just dying a second ago? Things were seeming calmer all of a sudden, and I didn't feel any pain at all. Maybe I was still okay, and this was all a dream? No, I was probably already dead because I never had dreams this real.

"Taka… you still there?"

Nope. Couldn't hear anything. He was probably going to have a real bad day, telling Miaka 'hey, guess what, I remember a few of the warriors! Besides being dead, they're doing fine! Oh, speaking of dead, I have to tell you about your brother.' Ha ha… maybe now wasn't the best time to practice my sense of humor.

Man, I never even got a sexy girlfriend. Not even an ugly one for very long.

Then there was a bright light. Wasn't it a little late for that, I thought, but instead of being white this one was red, and pretty darn dazzling. Plus, it had feathers. A person with feathers, anyway.

"I sense you have a connection with My priestess."

Holy crap. This was Suzaku. This was a god! I saw him fighting Seiryuu one time and all, but this one was human looking. He was a deity!

"Call My priestess. Have her summon Me. I will seal away the demon Tenkou."

My hand was moving my cell phone up to my mouth when he spoke to me, and without thinking I pushed the speed dial. It was ringing.

Doooot. Doooot.

If only summoning a god had ever been as easy as picking up a phone.

Doooot. Doooot.

Easy, but wrong.

Click.

"I'm sorry, Suzaku. I just can't bring Miaka into this anymore, it's not good for her. Besides, she's already fulfilled her duty and summoned you before."

"It is only with one of the Four God's power that he will be stopped. If he is allowed to get any more powerful, it would take more than even just My own power to contain him."

"This isn't my job, either. Taiitsukun wants me out of here as soon as I stop Tetsuya, that's all. I can't do anything else." He should listen to his mother, or whatever she is to him, right?

"I understand your concern. However, I will call to My priestess if it so becomes necessary."

No, please don't do that; I had a sinking feeling. He started to fade away, or maybe it was me that was fading.

"Priestess Brother! I think he's waking up!"

That was Nyan-Nyan. She sound like she was right on top of me. Wincing, I managed to open to my eyes and scope out my surroundings. I was laying flat on a floor, there was a light in my face, and Nyan-Nyan's chin. Nope, not dead. She looked back down to me with wide eyes and a smile to match. "You're alright! I'm so glad!"

"Where the heck have you been all this time!?" I lunged at her with a fist, not actually meaning to hurt her or anything, but wound up falling forward on top of her, like I was too heavy to move myself or something, and the room started spinning again. Maybe I was dead after all, and Nyan-Nyan was killed by that demon earlier.

"Careful. I healed your wounds, but I couldn't pump you up with more blood."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I'm relieved to see you're alright," Hotohori said. "We were afraid the worst had happened when you protected Houki--for which, I am grateful. That was quite brave." Houki was sitting on the bed, looking a little shaken up, but acknowledged similarly that I was alright and thanked me, probably not having heard Hotohori. "It was shortly afterwards that Nyan-Nyan came and we destroyed the demon."

"Destroyed it, huh?"

"I've been keeping very busy," she said, "there were demons following you everywhere! I couldn't catch them all though, sorry about that."

"Well… at least I'm alive."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Houki still looked pretty upset. I assured her I was, standing up as well as I could (but falling down into a chair instead. Good thing she was already taken, otherwise I never would have gotten over doing that in front of a single, pretty girl). "I see," she spoke, and fingered her belly. "I'm very sorry. During the attack, the warmness in my womb… it disappeared."

"Oh no! No, no, no, no, no, don't worry! Nothing bad happened to it, Your Highness, Tamahome was able to recover those memories. That's why they're gone."

"Really?" she instantly looked much more relieved. "Thank goodness. Then hopefully that means the baby will be safe now, too."

Hotohori also smiled warmly. "Then he remembers me now."

"Aw, isn't that nice? Everyone should remember His Majesty," another voice joined the conversation.

"Nuriko!?"

"Nuriko?" Houki looked around.

"Hi dear," he waved. "I hope you don't mind that I invited myself back in, now that my own jewel is taken care of anyway. Besides, look who I found!"

Another ghost stepped out from behind him. "Pleased to meet you. You must be Keisuke, Miaka's brother."

That couldn't have been anyone else. "Chiriko!"

He smiled at the sound of his name, but then frowned. "Nuriko has already told me why you're here. I'm sorry to report that I've already met your friend, Tetsuya."

"And? What's going on, where is he?"

Chiriko explained what had actually happened in the library, and just like I feared, the disappearance of the jewel and the old scholar's murder were both his fault. What I didn't know but should have feared more were these powers he talked about.

"He seemed very confused, like he was sure taking the jewel was for the best. He didn't seem to have any ill will at all."

"That's because Tenkou's been feeding him some stupid lies."

"I had heard a few things about Tenkou before, but," he started to look more uneasy, "after I recovered from the shock, I looked around for more information about Tenkou. It seems that he had also come from your world at some point. He's only gotten so powerful because he's gathered so much negative energy."

"From my world? Who would have even known about this?"

"It seems that it was a very, very long time ago, before any of the priestesses had even been born."

Well, the origins of the books had been around for centuries, so it could have happened who knows how long ago. "Did you find out anything else?"

"He is capable of granting a significant amount of power. Actually, the tribe Nakago belonged to had often called on him for aid."

"That would explain what happened to Tetsuya. He was just a normal guy before."

"I'm not entirely sure what his intentions are, but I think it would be safe to assume that it has to do with world domination." (It was just a little unsettling how he could say that like it was so normal.) He continued, "And given what Nakago had accomplished in the past, it wouldn't seem surprising if he tried to attack your world as well."

"Which would bring Miaka back into this whole mess, too. Why can't bad guys ever think of something a little less inconvenient to everyone else? What are they going to do with all that power once they have it?"

"It's something you and I just can't understand. In any case, Tamahome's memory jewels each have a significant amount of power. I'm very sorry I let him have mine."

"Don't worry about it, you probably put up a good fight. Better than I could have done, anyway, all I have is this rock Taiitsukun gave me, and all it does is glow. It's not even bright enough to blind anyone. Or who knows, maybe it is. Good thing Tetsuya forgot to bring his sunglasses!" Yeah, I have a stupid sense of humor, but he at least humored me by acting like it cheered him up. "So we know Taka--Tamahome, that is--has Tasuki, Nuriko and Hotohori's jewels now, so those are safe from Tenkou. And we know what happened to Chiriko's, but do we know anything about Mitsukake's?"

"I haven't seen him at all," Nuriko shook his head.

"I saw Chichiri earlier, and everything seemed fine. I just didn't get a chance to say anything to him."

"Tasuki's looking for him right now. Hopefully that won't be too hard."

I wasted no time trying to find Hikou and wherever he had taken Chichiri. The pieces just fit together too well. Chichiri had killed his best friend after he stole his girlfriend from him, and Hikou died on the receiving end of that kind of action. Plus, he probably went out of his way to show up and take him. I'm an idiot for not figuring this out earlier! Here I am trying to save the warriors, but instead I've only put Chichiri in a position to be used for all this revenge business. Suboshi was right, I'm such a big idiot that I was born in the real world because the true extent of my idiocy couldn't even fit in the pages of a book.

Teleportation powers… to anywhere… to wherever he was! My mind was racing too much to focus on exactly where that would be. My desire to get there must have helped instead, because the next thing I new, my feet were wet. I was splashing through some kind of cave, probably Hikou's little secret hideout. He was there alright, berating Chichiri, who was kneeling in the water and whose clothes had been torn by the occasional splash of water Hikou was throwing at him. Mitsukake was there, too, he was just locked in some kind of bubble.

"I knew it. I knew you were only going to do this to Chichiri!" I shouted. Everyone turned to face me and I was mad enough to blow Hikou's head off right then and there, but suddenly there was something sharp and uncomfortably hot against my neck.

"No, I knew it. You're that idiot Tetsuya guy Keisuke was talking about. It's your fault my friends are in this mess."

"… Tasuki, isn't it?"

"I was just sneaking in here myself to help them out until you came splashing in." The sound traveled away from my ear as he addressed Hikou instead. "Listen, pal, if you want your other ally back here, you hand over my friends, nice and easy."

"Fry him. I have no friends or allies."

"That's what I thought you'd say. Well, that just gives me an excuse to come over and fry you up close and personal."

"Except that you're afraid of stepping any closer because it looks deeper over there," I muttered.

"I already figured that part out, thanks for calling my bluff for him to hear."

"Tasuki, don't!"

We all turned to Chichiri, who was shaking as he kneeled in the water. His mask was shredded and I wasn't close enough to make out the details of his face. He might have been closing his eyes tightly, or I might just have seen the side of his face with the scar. "Don't hurt him… Hikou, I'm sorry… how can I…"

"You can never atone!" he flared up and hit him with another stream of water in the face.

"Chichiri!" Mitsukake banged on the side of the bubble, but he couldn't do anything. Maybe if he had been in his physical body it wouldn't have been a problem, but in any case the bubble was winning.

Hikou went on, "You'll never know. You'll never understand how much I'm nursed a hatred for you, after so many years! Killing you now wouldn't even be enough for me. It won't be until I take away everything precious thing from you." While this was going on, he made a stream of water wrap around his neck, evidently making it hard for him to breath. Tasuki broke away from me at barked at him to stop, but a wall of water shot up and knocked him down. I ran over to help him up but he pushed me away.

"Get out of my way! I'm not gonna let you do one more thing to my friends!"

"I'm not! I… I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Then just stay out of my way!" he shook me off again.

"Wait, I… I just want to help you all! I don't want to…"

Ignored. Completely ignored. Tasuki, despite having a fear of water, was charging towards Hikou and Chichiri and firing off flames, but Hikou was too prepared for his attacks. Over all the noise, Mitsukake yelled for him, and they had been such tight comrades before that Tasuki could immediately tell that he meant to fired at the bubble instead. It shattered- or popped, I guess- and Mitsukake was free, but Hikou had put a wall around himself and Chichiri, not letting anyone get through.

The wall starting expanding, and faster than we could run, water had filled up the whole cave. It was a source of panic for everyone, sure, but in the water we could hear Hikou's words even clearer.

"Your friends… this world… even your own priestess. You're going to see me make them all suffer."

The look on Tasuki's face went from panicked to serious as soon as Miaka was mentioned, and as if he had no fear at all he started swimming towards Chichiri, reaching out of the water wall with as much strength as he had. It was admirable how much they took care of each other. I was an idiot to think I could have helped at all. But now Hikou wants to hurt Miaka? I can't stand for that! The only thought… or rather, it was a collection of feelings, most of them angry whether at myself, or at Hikou for what he meant to do, or Tenkou for fooling me in the first place, or even Nakago just because he was easy to be angry at… but only one thought: stop him. It's that one thought that materialized, and in some ground shaking manner, caused Hikou to act like an invisible boulder had just fallen on him, and the water all surged away from him. I wasn't sure exactly what happened, but I knew I caused it. Even my fingers were tingling after that.

The water rushed out until it was about knee level again, and I looked behind me to where it had flowed. Tasuki had grabbed hold of Chichiri and washed up a little ways away, and Mitsukake looked just as shaken was but was near them. Whatever the situation was, we had still managed to get Chichiri away from Hikou, so at that moment I got to feel I had done something right.

I didn't get to enjoy that long, because I was suddenly caught in a bubble myself. Have you ever been caught it a bubble? It's like the television got turned inside out so you watch everything from inside a shiny box. I banged on it, and the rainbow wall shook, but not much. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Hikou was back in action, this time looking straight at me with the same angry look he had at Chichiri. That was enough to make me a little nervous, so I turned back and yelled at the others to get away. They started running, and then I felt trapped.

I really hope the plot of this book starts getting better soon.