Chapter 36

Sakura came into my room about an hour before he would have usually woken me up at, crying out, "Ichimutsu! One hour before we leave for school!"

Sitting up, I muttered at him, "At least you woke me up to give me some time to get ready this time around." I got out of the bed, yawning, "Okay. Is Hotohori awake as well?"

Sakura shook his head, saying, "No. He's still asleep right now." As he and I walked out of my room, he asked me, "Ichimutsu, about Brenta. He told me what he blurted out to you yesterday after helping you getting me and Hotohori here. Um, sorry about that."

I shook my head, saying, "I feel sorry for him. He just ain't my type."

"But, Ichimutsu!" he started to say, but he seemed lost for words.

Raising my hand, I snapped, "Save it, Sakura. I don't want to hear it." Letting out a small sigh, I asked, "What do you want for breakfast, seeing you don't even know how to cook?"

Grabbing several breads, he sighed, "I'll do fine with toasts. I'll make it myself."

As Sakura walked over to the toaster, I asked, "Did you know about Brenta feeling that way this entire time, Sakura?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I just thought it would've been best to keep my mouth shut. Especially since I thought he was just joking around. But now I see that he was being dead serious all along. As I said, sorry. I'm just apologizing on his behalf."

I made several eggs and put it on plates that I had out to put on the dining table. Soon, we heard footsteps coming down the stairs as we heard Hotohori's voice call tiredly, "Ichimutsu? Sakura? You two still here?"

Sticking my head out the kitchen, I called, "In the kitchen, Hotohori!" When Hotohori found his way to the kitchen, I told both him and Sakura, "Go sit at the table. I'm almost done. Oh, Sakura, by the way, can you get my uniform out for me? And put yours on as well. We need to leave several minutes earlier. Need to see if I could find Akiko today to tell her to meet up with the librarian, Yui. She said she needed to talk to Akiko about Priestess of Seiryu stuff and have Akiko see it in the Suzaku side's way."

Sakura groaned, asking me, "Are you serious? We had to deal with her up until last night! We almost got killed because of her and her warriors! You seriously can't be telling me that you're willing to talk to her after all these years of hating one another! I mean, think about it, Ichimutsu! She's hated you ever since you took up martial arts class and started to enter all the competitions, winning this town the first place every year!"

"Scram and get my uniform out of my closet! You owe me after all the times you made me late to class, almost getting me into trouble from Mr. Chang!" I barked, and Sakura quickly obeyed. Once Sakura was gone, I sat down across from Hotohori, asking, "You going to be alright by yourself in the house once Sakura and I are gone at school today?"

Hotohori nodded with a sweet smile, telling me gently, "Don't worry about me. I'll keep myself out of trouble." He leaned over the table and kissed me on the cheek, whispering, "As long as I know that I could be with you in either my world or yours, I'll be satisfied and patient no matter what knowing that I can be with you."

I smiled and kissed him back, whispering, "I'm glad you managed to come to my world with me, Hotohori. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

I was soon lost in my own thoughts about what to say to Akiko when I heard Sakura's voice say, "Ichimutsu, I got your clothes out. You thinking about ever ironing them?"

Getting up, I shook my head as I replied, "Nope! Not today! Need to get going to see if I can catch Akiko before the populars like her gets there, not that I'm saying there are as anyone as popular as I am when it comes to my kind of popularity."

"What kind of popularity am I in, then?" Sakura asked sheepishly.

After giving it a thought, I said, "More or less, her kind of popular. I mean, you are on the soccer team and one of the most popular guys around for being the best player on the team. Don't forget to pack your soccer uniform today as well. I just remembered you have a soccer game today. And tell your coach that you have been practicing while you were away and that I made sure you were practicing while I was doing martial arts. I'll cover your back as long as you cover mine. Don't need to get my ass handed over to me by my sensei."

Sakura grinned in a sly way, saying, "Done deal! Sounds good to me!"

Grinning back the same way, I told him, "You bust my ass to sensei, I bust yours to your coach! See you after school's over, Sakura! And make sure you call up Daisuke as well to see if we could borrow several motorcycles as our run away if we need it!"

I went upstairs and quickly got changed into my school uniform before throwing my bag over my shoulder and heading back down the stairs. Reaching the front door, Sakura called to me, "Daisuke said that he'll leave to motorcycles outside the school for us to use, Ichimutsu!"

"Thanks, Sakura!" I called back. "See you at school!"

On the way, I bumped into Mitsuru and he sounded surprised as he asked me, "Ichimutsu! When did you get back from the other world?"

"Last night," I replied in a hurry. "Akiko summoned Sieryu and used two wishes, second one being sending Santona, me, Sakura and herself back here."

He seemed rather happy that I was back as he said, "So does that mean that you won't be able to go back?"

I shook my head, telling him, "As of now, no. But Hotohori still has a chance to go back inside the book."

"Hotohori made it to our world?" Mitsuru suddenly frowned.

I nodded as we approached the school, and when I saw Akiko walking through the gates, I cried out, "I'll see you in class, Mitsuru! I have to talk to Akiko about what happened before she wished for me, Sakura, Santona and herself back out to this world!" When I caugt up to her as soon as I locked up my bike at the bike rack, I panted, "Akiko! I need to talk to you!"

"Like I'm going to listen to you, Hasukawa?" Akiko snapped furiously.

Raising my hands in air, I cried, "Alright, alright! I get it! You still hate me! But at least do me a favor and go to the public library later and ask for Yui Hongo, one of the librarians. She may want to talk to you since she was the Priestess of Seiryu before you were."

Suddenly, a sly smile appeared across Akiko's face as she said, "The previous Priestess of Seiryu, you say? Fine! I'll go talk to her. She's one person I'm now interested in meeting. You said her name was Yui Hongo?" When I nodded, she walked ahead as she called, "See you around, Hasukawa! If you manage to survive, that is!"

Akiko started to laugh coldly as Mitsuru came up from behind me. He asked me with curiosity, "What's she so happy about?"

"I don't know, but as her old friend, I'm guessing it's not good," I replied.

Mitsuru offered a hand as he sighed, "Give me your bag. Let me at least carry it to the class." When I stared at him with disbelief, he smiled weakly, saying, "Let me at least act like a gentleman instead of being the normal popular student."

I started to hand my bag over to him before stopping myself, saying, "It's okay. Really. You don't need to trouble yourself for me."

When we got to our classroom, Mitsuru asked me, "So for past about two days, what's been going on over in the book? I mean, a lot must've happened ever since I some how got back to this world."

Sighing, I told him, "Let's see. Nuriko died trying to help me get one of the two Shanto-Paos I was supposed to get, which got stolen by the Seiryu warriors. As well as Chiriko, who died trying to help me and my warriors escape from his body taken over by one of the Seiryu warriors that was trying to kill us. And Akiko managed to steal the second Shanto-Pao by deceiving me and she managed to summon Seiryu. She's already made two wishes, both of them came true, and she has one more wish left to make. Not to forget to mention a war broke out and I have no idea if Tamahome, Chichiri, Mitsukake and Tasuki are doing alright on the field."

Mitsuru looked slightly concerned at the information that I just gave him. For awhile, we were both quiet, no words coming from either one of us. As several students started to walk in, Mitsuru quickly asked me, "Are you sure there's no way to summon Suzaku now, Ichimutsu?"

Nodding, I told him, "Trust me. Even all my warriors lost their powers. They're no longer celestial warriors. They're normal human beings like us. No powers of Suzaku, no way to fight except through basic fighting skill, and no symbols on their bodies to declare them the Suzaku celestial warriors." Looking over to several students walking in, I added, "And don't you think you should be mingling with your kind of popular students? I may be popular for being the strongest around, but I don't want to trouble you much by having other students ask you why you're hanging out with me instead of the students that are popular, but not my kind when it comes to popularity."

Mitsuru shook his head, telling me, "I'm the school body president. What do I care? I'll be popular no matter who I talk to and hang out with, any way."

I sighed as we heard Santona's voice snare, "Hasukawa! I need to talk to you!"

"What do you want, Santona?" I asked, rather bored.

Glaring, she sneered, "Get out in the hall, Hasukawa. I need to talk to you in private."

Getting up, I muttered, "Nice in the book, but when we come back, rude again. To think I had given her the best treatment around the palace."

When I went out into the hall, Santona nodded at me to follow her outside. Once outside, she offered me a cigarette and, as I shook my head, she took one out for herself, saying, "Sorry I was harsh back inside. Can't really let others know, now can we?"

Chuckling, I smiled as I said, "I guess not. We are two in different categories of popularities in this school." Leaning against the wall, I asked with a slight frown, "Since when do you smoke? Haven't seen you with a smoke in your hand while we were in Hotohori's world."

Santona lit her cigarette, telling me, "Yeah, well, I was some how dragged to that world without my cigarette on me. It was only several days in terms of our world, any way. I've only started to smoke in our first year of school." Turning to look at me as she breathed in the smoke, she asked, "Got any idea how you're going to stop Akiko now that she summoned Seiryu, Ichimutsu?"

Sighing, I shook my head as I replied, "No clue. I'll have to talk to the previous Priestess of Suzaku and Priestess of Seiryu about this. They were best friends before becoming enemies years ago when they were our age."

As Santona continued to smoke, she told me with a grunt, "At least you seem to have things figured out as of now."

I nodded, telling her, "Yeah, but only for now. Doesn't mean it's gonna help me a whole lot later on."

"Still," Santona told me, "you still pretty much have it figured out for the time being, Ichimutsu. Not many are able to plan things out that far, even if they're on the extremely on the smart side."

As Sakura started to walk towards the building, I snared, "Is that all you wanted to talk about, punk?"

Santona suddenly snapped as she screamed, "Who the bloody hell are you calling punk?"

"You're the one who snapped at me to come out here to talk to you!" I snared. "Now stay away from me if it ain't anything important! You got that?" Just before I went back inside, I whispered to her, only loud enough for her to hear, "Go to the public library after school's over. We'll have to continue our conversation there. I need to talk to the librarian named Yui Hongo there, any way."

I stormed off back into the building and up to my classroom. Luckily, I had made it in just as the bell rang to signal the students that the classes have officially begun. As I took my seat, Mitsuru quickly whispered in an extremely quiet tone, "What was that all about? Weren't thinkgs between you and Santona pretty much on the good side back inside the book? I mean, you two seemed to have been becoming close friends."

"Please keep it down, Mitsuru," I muttered back to him. "I don't need anyone to know about the relation between her and me." The break time seemed forever to come as I took the notes word by word on what Mr. Chang had to say on American Revolution War, but when the bell finally did ring hours later at twelve in the afternoon sharp, I was the first to get up and leave the room. I headed straight down to Sakura's classroom and swung the door open, yelling, "Sakura Hasukawa! You're a dead meat for screwing up dad's best China plates! Now I'll have be the one taking responsibilities for what you did this morning! You hear? Isn't taking blames for you when you broke other China plates!"

The entire class cried out in unison, singing, "Hasukawa's trouble! Hasukawa's in trouble!"

Sakura yelled, "Shut up, guys!" He came out of the classroom and hissed at me as he dragged me away from his classroom, "What the hell is wrong with you? You know as well as I do that I didn't do anything!"

"How was I supposed to get you out of the room by yourself?" I asked him sheepishly. Sakura looked slightly annoyed at this, but I quickly changed the subject by asking him, "Do you think your coach will let you ditch the game today, Sakura? I need to talk to you and the previous Priestess of Suzaku and Priestess of Seiryu at the library about something."

Sakura thought for awhile before he told me, "Coach might let me off, but I'm not sure. Like you said this morning, I'm the best player on the team." Looking at me, he asked, "And aren't you supposed to go to the dojo to keep yourself at the best shape possible for martial arts? You may have passed as the best student, but you've been practicing like hell for years just to keep yourself in shape."

"I could take one more day off, I supposed, from training my ass off," I told him. "I know sensei won't mind. At least, I hope he doesn't mind."

Sakura sighed as he told me, "Okay. I'll try to see if I could miss out on one game. Coach's gonna hate me for it, though."

"Oh, c'mon! He has to cut you some slack at some point! I mean, he never even gives you a break except during the first half and second half!" I cried out. "You're involved in the mess, too, so you'll have to come and talk with us!"

Sakura rolled his eyes, telling me, "Fine! I'll try to get out of the game today!" He thought for awhile and neither of us talked for a few minutes. After a few minutes, as we passed through the court yard in middle of the school building, he asked me, "Do you have a bottle of Advil that I can have? I'm gonna be as sick as a dog, but that's the only best way I could think of to get myself out of the game."

I nodded as I told him, "Let's go back to my class. I have a bottle in my bag." Before we went inside my classroom, I asked him, "Are you sure you don't want to keep the level of stupidity you're in right now? Because by doing this, you could become stupider than you are now, you know."

"I've done stupider things, remember?" he sheepishly replied. "I'm still popular."

Sighing, I walked in and Harin's voice cried out, "Ichimutsu!" I looked over to her and gave her a slight nod before going over to my desk and getting my bottle of Advil. She came running over to me as she asked excitedly, "So? Where are you and Hotohori going to be going when you get home?"

"That's none of your business, Harin," I snapped. Clearing my throat, I lowered my voice, saying, "No offense, but I'd rather keep quiet about Hotohori until everything's figured out on what's going on. I'm just hoping Akiko already left for the public library and lied to her teacher that she's not feeling well. I really need to have her talk to the previous Priestess of Seiryu. It's kinda important that I have them talk about something."

I quickly got out of the room with the Advil in hand and passed it to Sakura. Popping in handful of Advil and swallowing it down with water, he muttered, "Thanks."

Twitching, I sighed, "What you're doing is real stupid, Sakura." Looking down the both sides of halls to make sure no one was around, I asked, "You didn't tell anyone about what happened while were at Hotohori's side of the world, did you?"

Sakura shook his head, telling me, "Don't worry. Who's gonna believe me if I told them, any way? Think about it. Warriors that have godly powers just to protect one girl? It's unreal, Ichimutsu. No one's gonna buy the story except as a fictional one."

"True," I muttered. "It does seem so unreal. The entire story itself."

Mitsuru leaned out the door, asking me, "You have anything planned for after school, 16?"

I shook my head, telling him, "Sorry. Already got plans made, president Ikeda. Maybe some other time?"

Mitsuru looked slightly disappointed, but weakly smiled as he told me, "Alright, then. Some other time, but you better keep your word on this."

When Mitsuru had gone back inside the classroom, Sakura asked, "16, why don't you just give it a rest and let him go out with you on at least one date!"

"First off, don't you dare start calling me 16 just because my name consists of 1 and 6," I snapped. "Second off, I wouldn't date him even if I was offered all the money that the world could offer."

Sakura starated to look pale as he told me, "You're being real stupid, then. I mean, he's extremely popular, Ichimutsu, and you're the one he has crush on!"

"And you look like a complete retard," I commented. "Are you sure eating all those Advils to get yourself out of the game right now was a good idea? You're turning pale, Sakura."

Sakura shook his head, telling me, "Don't worry. Better start looking sick now than start to look sick later. There are some players on the team that can back me up that I haven't been looking too well for several hours instead of saying that I look suspicious for looking so sick all of a sudden."

I sighed as I said, "I'm going to be in so much trouble from dad for this, though, if he finds out that I gave you my advil to keep yourself out of today's game."

"I'll be at the library as soon as I can after school, okay?" Sakura sighed. "It might take me a little longer than it should because I'm thinking about stopping by a store to buy you new bottle of Advil to get yourself out of trouble from dad."

Sighing with relief, I told him, "Thanks. Didn't know how I was going to save my own ass by tonight when dad gets home."

Just before Sakura started to head towards his class, he told me, "Oh, by the way, I told Harin to put your lunch that I packed for you in your desk. Eat it before the break is over. After all, I don't want to choke on your food on the way to the library."

I went back inside and I heard Mitsuru's voice cry out happily, "Hey! Ichimutsu!"

I walked over to my desk and sat down, calling, "What is it, President Ikeda?"

Mitsuru leaned on my desk as he smiled in a friendly way at me, asking, "I was hoping we could hang out after school today! Any place you want to go! My treat!"

Laughing nervously, I replied, "Not today. My brother and I have plans to meet up with several people after school today. It's important that we meet these two people as soon as we can to talk over several things."

"You didn't get jumped on, did you?" Mitsuru looked startled.

Pretending to be worried, I sighed as I told him, "Actually, no. My brother and I joined a mafia, actually. We're dealing drugs now."

As Mitsuru started to look as though he was going to panic, Harin, who heard what I had said, and I almost burst into laughter as Harin cried out, "She was joking around with you! She's not part of a mafia and neither is her brother!" I took out my lunch from my desk and started to eat and Harin quickly told me, "Ichimutsu, that bratty Santona girl seems as though she wants to talk to you."

Getting up, I grumbled, "And I get no time to eat my lunch." I walked out of the classroom to where Santona was and I asked in quiet tone, "What is it?"

Santona replied just as quietly, "Some woman named Miaka Yuki here to see you. She's waiting in the main office, and the principal sent me to get you for some reason."

I screamed with frustration, "Can't I just at least eat my lunch in peace, though? Left and right, I have people needing to talk to me just because of that stupid mess I got pulled into!" Sighing, I muttered, "Thanks for letting me know." I hurried down to the main office and when I saw Miaka, I asked, "What is it, Ms. Yuki? I got the message from Akiko's ally that you came to see me."

She pulled me out into the hall, laughing nervously, and said, "She is way too formal! I guess she's keep forgetting that I married her father's younger brother!"

Once she and I were in the hallway, I asked her with confusion, "What are you talking about? My dad's an only child! It was my mom that had brothers, although I have met only one or two of them!"

"Well, I had to make something up to talk to you," Miaka told me. "Better saying I'm your aunt than saying I'm your grandmother, isn't it?"

Sighing, I asked her, "What is it that you needed to talk to me about? I still haven't gotten to eat my lunch yet."

"It's about the girl who's now the Priestess of Seiryu," Miaka told me. "Akiko was her name, right?" When I nodded, Miaka told me, "I had my brother and his friend Tetsuya drop off two motorcycles from the store your brother's friend Daisuke works at. I just happened to tag along. Just as we were arriving, Akiko was heading towards the library. Do you know why she's going there by any chance?"

I nodded as I told her, "I'm not entire sure, but I have a pretty good idea. I told her just this morning that your friend Yui Hongo the librarian was the previous Priestess of Seiryu. Akiko might be going to the library to meet her."

"Thank god Yui was the smartest one out of from me and two of our friends!" Miaka cried out with relief. "She'll be able to talk some sense into that girl!"

I asked sheepishly, "Can I go back up to my class now? I still haven't eaten my lunch and if it's not my lunch I'm not getting, someone here's gonna die and I know for a fact that it's not me that's going to be dying."

Miaka nodded headed for the front doors of the school, calling over her shoulder, "I'll leave the motorcycles here at the school for you and your brother to use! Okay? You guys'll need it more than me, Taka, my brother and Tetsuya, any way!"

Once she had gone out the front doors of the scool, I quickly ran back up to my class. Just as I started to eat, the break was over, but Mr. Chang was nice enough of a teacher to actually let anyone finish their lunch during class. And lucky for me, I was one of the two top students that he had. The other was Mitsuru Ikeda himself, even if his history skills was extremely weak. The entire class was glaring at me, all except Mitsuru and Harin, while our teacher had his back against us, Mitsuru cried out, "Alright! Why don't you all for once focus in class instead of trying to bother Ichimutsu? It's getting ridiculous! You know that? I mean, we all ate and she didn't because of running because of others needing to talk to her!"

Mr. Chang jumped with a startle as the entire class started focus completely and Mr. Chang said, "Um, thank you, Ikeda. Didn't notice the class not focusing much to the lesson." Clearing his throat, he said, "Well, yes, class. You kids shouldn't be letting Hasukawa having her lunch distract you. You all had time to eat and she didn't get to eat her lunch. Now focus since your lunch is over."

As Mr. Chang went back to teaching, I muttered to Mitsuru, "Thanks. Was starting to get on my nerves."

"I know," Mitsuru replied. "And I know that you also have an extremely bad temper once you snap. Didn't want to see you get into trouble."

As the school slowly came to an end for the day, the last five minutes seemed to dread. But when it finally did, I quickly packed my bag and was the first to run out the door. When Santona and Sakura ran after me at the first floor as I ran past them, they quickly asked, "We leaving now?"

Nodding, I told them, "We have two motorcycles and since we look mature enough, we shouldn't get pulledbe able to pull a trick or two out of my sleeves." We quickly headed to the library and arrived in no time at all.

As soon as I parked the motorcycle I was on and as Santona got off from behind Sakura, Sakura told me, "I'll be back in a few minutes. I did promise you that I'd buy you new bottle of Advil to keep yourself out of trouble from dad when he comes back tonight. Not only that, owe you for using your bottle of Advil to get myself out of the game today, even if it's just one game."

As he drove off, Santona asked me, "Does he have a girlfriend?"

"No," I slowly answered, rather suspiciously. "Why do you ask that all of a sudden?"

Shrugging, she replied, "No reason. Was just wondering. Any way, just thought he had a girlfriend, seeing he has the looks and the popularity."

We went inside and Yui was at the front desk, checking some books out for an old lady. Looking up slightly at us, she motioned us to come over and whispered, "Come around to beind the desk. I have to talk to you as soon as I'm done helping this woman."

We waited patiently for Yui to finish up and when she did, she led us to the staff lounge. As the three of us sat down on couches, I asked, "Has Akiko been here to see you several hours back? It's just that I told her about you and that you were the Priestess of Seiryu before she was and she see seemed interested, wanting to talk to you."

"Ah, yes," Yui told me with a sigh. "She did come around looking for me." She took off her earring from her and showed it to me, saying, "She even had Nakago's earring on. I was able to tell when I saw it, because this earring that I have was also Nakago's from back when I was the Priestess of Seiryu."

I stared at the earring, muttering, "She had the exactly the same earring this morning."

"Nakago probably gave his to her," Yui warned me. "Prepare yourselves. Nakago and Suboshi will be coming. I'm sure it'll be those two celestial warriors of Seiryu that'll be coming, any ways. Soi could be dead by now if you guys made it out because of Akiko's wish to lock you guys out of the book forever. I managed to have her see it through Suzaku side's point. After she makes one more wish, which I'm guessing will be to release Suzaku, she'll be devoured by Seiryu."

"How do you know?" Santona snapped.

Yui looked over to her, saying, "My first wish was for Suzaku to be sealed away. It came true. My second wish was for Miaka and me to return back to this world and lock Miaka out of the book forever. That came true. My third and last wish was for Suzaku to be released. My last wish came true, and then I was devoured by Seiryu. I'm only here today, alive and well, thanks to Miaka using her first wish to release me."

"Did all three of Miaka's wishes come true, Ms. Hongo?" I asked.

Yui nodded as she replied, "Yes, they did. One thing I will never understand, though, is why Suzaku hadn't devoured her after granting her all three of her wishes. But since Suzaku is represented by a phoenix, I guess it makes sense in some way, but not really. What I do know is that three wishes being granted means getting devoured by the god you represent as the Priestess."

Just then, Sakura came into the staff lounge. He was smiling as he handed me the bottle of Advil and took of his helmet, but he didn't even seem to get that nothing good was going to end up happening because when he looked at my pale face, he said jokingly, "You look like you've seen a ghost. What's the matter? I told you that I was going to be back after I got you a new bottle of Advil to keep you out of trouble, didn't I?"