Please look back to the disclaimers/whatevers on Chapter one! Thanks!


Chapter Two: Not Bad for Meeting a Bus Head On

Chiyo frowned with her eyes closed. She was having this wierd dream that Maemi had come over to spend the night and they'd ordered a pizza. Except Tasuki was the delivery boy, and on his way back down to the lobby he got in a big fight with a maniacally laughing hair dryer. Maemi and Chiyo had gone down to save his dumb butt and then Maemi, Tasuki and herself had all hid in a linen closet. Suddenly, Chiyo's flashlight malfunctioned and blew up, and then the floor opened beneath them and they all fell into a giant toilet, which got flushed, and then they'd landed in Munchkin land from the Wizard of Oz. The munchkins were just starting to sing when Chiyo heard a soft sound like a cross between a moan and whimpering from somewhere near her. Then she realized that someone was lying half on top of her, and that she had a splitting headache.
"Ooh....ow....," she muttered, bringing a hand up to her head and gently feeling the sizable lump there.
She suddenly got a sensation somewhat akin to that which one would feel if they touched a bare wire with a mild electrical charge. Chiyo frowned once more with her eyes still closed. Now, what were bare wires doing on her forehead? And why hadn't they fried her brain yet?
"Hey, girl! Uh... you okay?" A slightly familiar voice asked somewhere far away.
"I-I think so, thanks....where's Chiyo?" Maemi's bewildered voice replied.
"Over there,"
Chiyo heard Maemi gasp in horror.
"OHMIGOD! Chiyo! Don't move an inch!"
Well, that was the wrong thing to say! Immeadiatly fearing to find her legs on the other side of the room from her head, Chiyo's eyes snapped open. She remembered the feeling of someone being half on top of her at the same instant her eyes locked on the guy.
The unnaturally gorgeous guy who was half on top of her.
"Chiyo! Don't----" Maemi's desperate warning was interrupted by Chiyo's natural impulses.
"AAAIIIEEEEE!" She shrieked, swinging her leg back and bringing her knee forward with all the strength her years of strenuous track conditioning had endowed her with.
She then pushed the guy(who was doubled over and hugging his tummy)off the bed.
He landed on the floor with a thud and groaned.
Chiyo leapt to her feet and stood astride the bed with her hands in a fierce judo pose.
Tasuki was staring at her with very, very wide eyes, his lips drawn tight together.
"Wowie," he murmured after a minute.
Maemi crossed her arms over her chest and eyed Chiyo with severe dissaproval.
"I hope you know who you just maimed," she said, also after a minute or two of speculation.
"And stop doing that! You haven't studied judo for six years!"
Chiyo dropped her pose with a fierce scowl.
"But that guy was on top of me! I had every right to remove him,"
Suddenly, Maemi bit her lip and began to tremble.
"Maemi! What's wrong with you!" Chiyo demanded angrily. Then she reconized the look on Maemi's face.
"Stop laughing! It's not funny!" Chiyo cried as both Maemi and Tasuki burst out into hysterical laughter.
"WHAT IS SO FUNNY! STOP IT! STOP LAUGHING RIGHT NOW!"
Chiyo remained standing on the bed as the two laughing morons laughed some more.
She finally glanced around the room, which was large and scarlet and gold and very, very, very expensive looking. This wasn't her kitchen! This wasn't even her apartment... or her building for that matter!
Maemi was on the floor clutching her stomach by the time the door opened. A slight young woman with a braid of long, purpley-black hair and a beauty mark near her eye entered, then gasped. Chiyo felt slightly relieved to note that the woman was wearing her pyjamas, too.
"Your Majesty!" She cried, and Tasuki and Maemi's laughing fit was renewed.
Chiyo felt a chill go up her back, crinkle over her neck, and tiptoe up her scalp.
"It is alright, Nuriko. We are unharmed,"
Chiyo's mouth opened in a perfect O of horror. "Oh, NO!" she cried.
Tasuki was now leaning against the wall chuckling mildly, and Maemi was still as yet sprawled on the floor at his feet, tittering insanely.
"I hate you, Maemi!" Chiyo cried, taking a long, practiced hurtler's leap directly over the heads of the kneeling Nuriko and the half sitting man she'd kneed.....who's name happened to be Hotohori.
She marched directly up to her traveling compainions.
"You two could've warned me! Or better yet, you two could've warned him!" she exclaimed, jabbing a thumb in the fallen emperor's direction.
"Hey! Ya never gave us the chance! Did she, floor girl?" Tasuki replied, scowling slightly and nodding towards Maemi.
Chiyo noticed a bruise on Tasuki's forehead and decided to take the oppurtunity to freak him out as revenge. As long as she hadn't been hallucinating it...she secretly prayed the shocky-glowy thingy wasn't part of her imagination.
"This is all your fault! You....you....harisen wagging, card throwing, pizza-delivering M-MONKEY HEAD!" She shrieked, took her three forefingers, and poked the bruise roughly.
"AGK!" Tasuki cried, leaping back in angry surprise. "@#$* %$^& *%$^$!"
Chiyo grinned innocently at Tasuki's glare of hatred.
"What the heck are ya? Some kinda phsyco!?" He demanded, rubbing at his forehead.
The three other occupants of the room only stared dropped-jawed in response at the two as the demonic-looking Chiyo crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin up smuggly.
"That's what you get for blowing up my hallway and kidnapping two innocent teenage girls from a sleepover! You're a horrible pizza boy! I'm calling your employers! I want my money back!"
Tasuki stared at her in confusion.
"What is this chick talking about!?"
No one bothered to answer him becasue Maemi had stood and walked to the still trembling Chiyo.
"Hey Chiyo...welcome to Konan," she said brightly.
"Wonderful," Chiyo groaned, burying her face in her hands.
"Just wonderful."


Maemi grinned to herself as she leaned on the railing of the palace. Hotohori had been pretty nice about the whole situation, once a few things had been explained. He'd even laughed, which showed what a great sense of humor he had. Right now he Nuriko, and Tasuki were talking about something or other in private. Chiyo was currently sitting just to the left of Maemi with her back against the railing and her head on her drawn-up knees.
"I can't believe it. I finally get to meet Hotohori, the most liquidy sexy seishi of 'em all... and I'm wearing my nightgown," she murmured every few minutes.
"Now you know how Miyoko felt," Maemi teased.
Chiyo groaned and drew her knees in a little tighter.
Maemi chuckled a little and continued surveying the palace grounds.
"It's really pretty here, Chiyo. You should uncurl yourself from your fetal position for a few minutes and check it out,"
"That's okay...I'm doing just fine right where I am,"
Maemi playfully kicked at Chiyo with her toe.
"Ah, c'mon, cheer up. It could've been worse. You could've nutted him,"
"MAEMI! You are NOT helping!"
Maemi smiled again as she remembered the look on Chiyo's face when Nuriko had come into the room and....
"Maemi! I HATE you! I KNOW you're smiling! STOP IT!"
"I just can't believe that you finally met your precious Hotohori and you beat him up...in your nightgown, yet!"
"Shut UP!" Chiyo cried, trying to pretend she wasn't laughing and trying to look angry.
"And then you started crying and....!"
Maemi never got to finish her sentence, because Chiyo had lept on top of her and was gleefully procedeing to beat her face into the floor.
"AGK! Mercy! Mercy!" Maemi yelled, laughing and trying to shield herself from Chiyo's gentle blows.
"Never!" Chiyo replied in a mock-valliant voice, laughing as well. "Feel the wrath of Chiyo Matsuko!"
Maemi was just about to knock Chiyo's head against the railing when she saw Nuriko running towards them, and running fast.
"Chiyo! Maemi!" He yelled.
"Euh?" Chiyo questioned, sitting up. Maemi took that oppurtunity to push her unceremoniously into a undignified sprawl so she could sit up, and Chiyo whacked her upside the head in retaliation.
Maemi looked towards the frantic young man, and was surprised to see Hotohori and Tasuki with him, and they too, were running. Hotohori had his sword.
"What the--" She started to say, but was interrupted by Tasuki.
"WATCH OUT!" He yelled, whipping out his iron harisen.
Maemi looked up just as Chiyo screamed, and then Maemi pushed Chiyo and they both rolled out of the way, just barely missing being hacked in two by the sword of some mean guy in black.
"REKKA--" Tasuki started.
Maemi was too busy staring up in terror at the sword posed above her and Chiyo. Chiyo had just brought her arm up as if to shield them, when suddenly another white-hot light began to glow around Maemi and Chiyo. The friends froze, and the next thing Maemi knew, the light was taking on a golden hue. Nuriko and Hotohori were staring in shock. Tasuki was too concerned with the mean man in black.
"SHINEN!" Tasuki finished, and flames were swirling around the girls. Maemi wasn't sure whether to be relieved or unsettled that she and Maemi weren't touched by them.
"Oh, NO!" Maemi cried as they started to spin slowly at first, and then faster and faster. "NOT AGAIN!"
"I HATE this ride! I wanna get off!"
Maemi ducked her head and grabbed Chiyo's hand, and the next thing she knew the girls were spiraling towards oblivion for the second time that weekend.



"--mi! Maemi! Wake up!" Maemi opened her eyes and found herself looking up at Chiyo, who was grinning ear to ear.
"Maemi! We did it! We're home! We went to Konan and came back!"
Maemi sat up and realized that they were indeed back in Chiyo's apartment.
"Oh, Maemi! That was so cool!" Chiyo cried.
"I never would've dreamed it possible!" Maemi breathed, and then the girls squealed and began dancing in wild circles, and Maemi broke into plethora of random songs.
Suddenly, Chiyo swore.
"What?" Maemi asked, pausing in mid-verse.
"I completely forgot about the carpet! Get a brush and help me with this soda stain!"
Maemi grabbed the brush and ran in to the living room, where Chiyo was putting the pieces of broken champagne glass in the box with their now cold pizza. As Maemi began scrubbing and Chiyo continued attempting to straighten the destroyed living room, she stopped and looked up at Chiyo.
"Hey, Chiyo?"
"Hm?"
"Watcha gonna tell the Captain about the hallway?"
Chiyo paused and looked at her, and then they both began laughing again.



"That was so strange!" Nuriko muttered again.
Tasuki sighed in exasperation. "Will ya quit sayin that, already!?" He demanded.
"To be truthful, it was not all that odd," Hotohori said from across the table. "Miaka has made many more entrances in many more shocking ways,"
As if on cue, the short Japanese girl came careening into the dining hall in nothing but that wierd white shirt she wore with her other-world get up and those strange little white pants. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail with that red ribbon she always wore, and she was now half-doubled over a chair and panting.
"Did you have a good rest, Miaka?" Nuriko inquired sarcastically with an arched eyebrow.
"Where are they!?" Miaka demanded.
"Where are who?" Nuriko asked.
"The girls! The girls, the girls, the girls!"
Hotohori frowned.
"The young women who arrived early this morning?" He asked.
"Yes! The ones from my world!" Miaka said, seating herself next to Nuriko and piling in on the bowl of dumplings that were there.
"Hey!" Nuriko cried.
"They went back," Tasuki said, wondering how much that girl could eat before she exploded.
"WHAT!?" Miaka cried, dropping her empty bowl and chopsticks.
"They already returned to your world," Hotohori finished gently.
Miaka looked like she was going to cry.
"B-but...how did they get here? Who were they? Did you know what school they came from? What city?"
"Their names were Maemi....and...uh..."
"Chiyo," Nuriko filled in for Tasuki.
"Yeah. They were both taller and a little older that you, both skinnier, and they were both blond. Maemi had blue-green eyes, and the other one had dark eyes, like yours," Tasuki murmured, picturing Maemi's laughing face for an instant.
"But that Chiyo girl didn't look like you, really. The taller one did, kind of," Nuriko finished for him again, giving Tasuki an odd look.
Tasuki scowled and turned away, nursing his cup of hot tea.
"Did you hear their school name? What else do you know?" Miaka was demanding.
Tasuki wasn't paying attention. Why had the girls come back with him? He remembered being thrown into the wall in that building, and then the next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor in Hotohori's bedroom next to Maemi.
"Hey, girl, you okay?" He'd asked, because he didn't know her name yet.
"Um...yeah, I think so. Where's Chiyo?" She'd said, grinning and taking his hand as he helped her up. And then later, when Chiyo'd gone ballistic on Hotohori and Maemi was laughing--
"-ELLO? Earth to Tasuki!" Miaka was yelling in his ear.
"WHAT!" He demanded roughly, jumping a little and flushing slightly.
"I said will you go back to where ever it is you took off to and get them again?" Miaka repeated pleadingly, her eyes all big and dewy and her bottom lip pouted out a little. She looked like a starving,
lost, wounded baby puppy when she made that face. None of the warriors could ever refuse that starving-puppy face. Not even Tasuki(his youngest sister used to use that face on him all the time). He scowled a little more. Why would he ever want to go back to that place? It had been smelly and loud and crowded and dirty...not to mention full of giggling Miaka wannabes.
Maemi's face flashed through his mind's eye for a moment.
He sighed a little and glared at the table before him.
"Yeah, sure, sure. Whatever ya say,"


It was Monday.
Chiyo was late, as usual. She strolled into her classroom and took her seat in the back. The teacher ingnored her. He was used to it by now.
Maemi glanced up at her from her book and smiled, and Chiyo grinned back.
"Hiya, hot stuff!" Chiyo quipped, pulling out a binder and a pen.
"You're so wierd, Chiyo," came the reply.
"Be quiet, Matsuko. Leave Haung alone." The teacher muttered off-handedly.
Chiyo grinned and ducked her head. She had a great feeling about today, like something wonderful and exciting was going to happen. Chiyo wasn't gonna let some crummy math teacher ruin it for her!
"Nice outfit. Whoa! Nice hair, too!" Maemi whispered, grinning, and Chiyo could tell Maemi had that kind of feeling about today, too.
"Thanks," Chiyo beamed and brushed at her hair a little self conciously. The Captian had taken her to get it done yesterday, and she'd had it cut to just below her jaw, with spikey little bangs. Right now she had neon blue clip-in streaks in it. And the outfit! She was very proud of this one. She wore white knee socks with little ruffles and a bow on the tops, and shiney red mary-janes with rhinestoned buckles. In her ears were her silver and gold tiger earrings, and various gold, silver and red sparkling studs. She'd painted her nails red, and wore a clear plastic collar with a dangling red rhinestone heart. She also wore her usual vast multitudes of bracelets and rings and necklaces, including two charm bracelets that she'd just had made in a specialty shop. Her make-up was also a new thing for her--everything natural except the cherry-red lips and the dramatic grey and black eye shadow.
"You look good, too," Chiyo whispered back. It was true, too. With her white blouse and grey skirt and sky blue tie, Maemi had tie-dyed knee socks, and a matching tie-dyed vest(which had a large daisy pinned to it). Her saddle shoes were the regular style except for the orange shoe-laces, and her palish-blond hair was pulled up into two high ponies that were secured with scrunchies that matched her vest and socks. It was the wildest outfit Chiyo had ever seen on her semi-conservative friend, and as far as she was concerned, it looked good.
Chiyo rememered the charm bracelets.
"Hey, Maemi! Look what I got!" She whispered, suddenly remembering the new charm bracelets, and
taking one off and tossing it into Maemi's texbook.
The bracelets were Chiyo's brainchild, sort of a momento of their adventure with Tasuki.
They were just silver chains, but dangling from each one were five tiny porcelin charms: A red phoenix, a blue dragon, a gold tiger, a green turtle-snake, and a tiny pizza box.
"Wowie!" Maemi gasped, slipping hers on. "This is sooo cool! Dig the pizza!"
"MATSUKO! HAUNG!" The teacher bellowed. Maemi and Chiyo glanced sideways at each other and grinned before going back to their books.
"Let's go to the cafe after school," Maemi whispered after about five minutes.
"Sounds good," Chiyo whispered back.
"Matsuko, Haung! I warned you two!"
"Lets meet there, say, three?" Chiyo continued, not bothering to whisper.
"Are you two listening to me!?
"That sounds good. Don't you have detention today, though?" Maemi asked, also ignoring the teacher.
"THAT'S IT! GO TO THE OFFICE!"
"Sorry, Sir, we just weren't listening," Maemi quipped over her shoulder.
Chiyo burst out laughing. The teacher looked like that vein in his forehead was gonna pop any second....
"NOW!" He yelled louder, his voice getting a little shrill.
The two girls scrambled to gather their belongings and scampered out of the classroom and into the hallway, still giggling.
"So are we actually gonna go to the office today?" Maemi asked as they ran down the steps.
"I think we should. I mean, it's kinda risky, with the Captain home now and all...." Chiyo said nervously.
She and Maemi had arrived in front of their lockers. Chiyo glanced at the lockers, and then down the hallway at the headmistress' office.
"Oh well," Chiyo smiled as she opened her locker, ditched her school books, and grabbed her rollerblades.
Maemi did the same with her books, and then the girls skipped quickly out the side door and ran laughing down the sidewalk towards Maemi's moped.


Tasuki sighed and stared at the little glass of saki in front of him.
How could he find those two girls? Where could they be? He'd gone to the shorter one's--Chiyo, if he remembered right(the chick in the long white dress)--apartment, but all he'd succeeded in was scaring the crap out of some blond foreign woman he'd guessed to be Chiyo's mother. Their looks and mannerisms were more than slightly similar, he noted grimly, scowling and rubbing at his newly blackend eye.
After his encounter with the shrew-like demon that had birthed Chiyo, he'd gone to various schools and looked there. He got kicked out of most of them, too. There was a total lack of hospitality in this world!
Tasuki drained his glass, tossed some coins on the table, and walked away.
Well, he was gonna have to find those two nutty women soon. Miaka told him that time ran differently in her world; the few short days he'd spent in Tokyo had been months in Konan. Days were probably flying by even as he got jostled and shoved along the busy street. His hand tightened around the harisen under his long coat. He sighed. The temptation to just whip out the iron fan-like weapon and mutter the short incantation and blow the busy, rushing people into skittering little ashes so that he could walk freely was just too strong. Some woman in a grey suit and grey heels knocked into him, her bag jabbing into his ribs.
"#$%^$" He cried, clutching the remains of his ribcage in one hand. Tasuki'd had enough!
He quickly dodged onto a side street and broke into a run, trying to get rid of some pent-up frustration and escape the masses of dully clad people.
Tasuki wanted to sit somewhere quiet and be alone while he tried to figure out how to find Maemi in this impossibly big world she lived in. He ducked into a small tavern-like building that this city had thousands of, and sat in a curving booth in the corner. He got some hot tea, put his chin on his hand, and brooded.


"Wanna stop at the cafe?" Chiyo yelled over the moped's engine from her spot behind Maemi.
Maemi nodded her head in response and swung a wide turn that sent Chiyo laughing hysterically, and angry drivers honking their horns and swearing out their car windows at the girls.
By the time they got to the cafe, Chiyo was out of breath, and she and Maemi were laughing again. They removed their helmets and tumbled noisily through the door.
Chiyo did a quick scan of the room as Maemi slipped into their usual table.
Chiyo's eyes lingered for a moment on the shock of bright orange hair just barely visible above the edge of a corner booth. She blinked a few times, shook her head, and dismissed it as hallucinations brought on by math class boredom
"I cannot believe we just did that!" Maemi was laughing.
"This is almost as bad as the time I jumped out the window!"
"Or maybe as bad as the time a pizza boy sucked us down the astral toilet and into a storybook," Chiyo teased, ordering a caramel cappucino. Maemi made a face at her.
"But really, I just don't get it. What could be making us act like this!? I mean, you're never this crazy....with the exception of the window incident," Chiyo continued, grinning wickedly.
Maemi stuck her tongue out at her.
"Maybe it's the bracelets," She said in that "I'm-Maemi-and-I'm-feeling-mysterious" voice of hers.
"Yeah, the Celestial Charm Bracelets of Suzaku!" Chiyo exclaimed dramatically.
"Oh, bite me!" Maemi replied, laughing.



Tasuki was shaken out of his brooding by the arrival of two loud girls.
He chose to ignore them.
What was he gonna do? Miaka would eat him for breakfast if he came home without those nutty
girls! They had to be somewhere! This @^# &!%^ city couldn't be that big...could it?
"I cannot believe we just did that!" One of the loud girly voices exclaimed from somewhere behind him. He growled a little and sunk lower in the seat. He wished those dumb girls would just shut up! He needed to think! Girls! Ug! They were the same in all worlds! Except for maybe Maemi...and why was he thinkin' about that chick so much!?
"Yeah, the Celestial Charm Bracelets of Suzaku!" A different loud, girly voice cried behind him, and then there was that loud, girly laughter again. But instead of being annoyed, Tasuki lifted his chin from his hand and listened a little more closely to the conversation.
He picked up tidbits here and there, but what caught his attention was the fact that they were
now saying his name. Repeatedly.
He turned slightly and peeked over the edge of his seat.
The girl with her back to him was blond, and with a short haircut he didn't reconize. But the girl across from her, the laughing one--It was Maemi!
Tasuki quickly spun back around, suddenly struck with an unfamiliar feeling of nervousness.
Hit bit his lip a little and frowned. Well, he'd found Maemi! She probably wouldn't mind if he came and talked to her....so why was his heart hammering inside his chest? Why did he feel like he was gonna vomit? Must be this different world tea, He convinced himself, edgily nudging his cup a few inches away from himself.
Tasuki turned and peeked at Maemi again. She was smiling and looking at something her friend was pointing to in a book. He spun back around. What was he gonna do!? What was he gonna do!?
What was he gonna-----
"Tasuki?"
"ARGH!" He cried, jumping up out of his seat and knocking his cup of tea over. "WHAT!?" He demanded, spinning around and trying to hide his further embarrasment. He slowly sat back down in his chair.
"It is Tasuki! Tasuki, what are you doing here?" Maemi damanded cheerfully, leaping up and slipping into the booth with him. Her friend followed, and he realized numbly that it was, in fact, Chiyo, the short spazzy girl. Funny, he'd thought that chick's hair was longer before. A lot longer. He scowled.
"Gak! What happened to your eye!?" Maemi was asking.
"Uh...I went to her home looking for you two, and some crazy foreign woman attacked me with a lamp," Tasuki mumbled crossly in way of explanation, motioning at Chiyo.
Chiyo burst out laughing.
"The Captian strikes again!" Maemi cried, laughing also.
"The...Captian...?"
"My mother. She's an American. Now you know where I get it from," Chiyo gasped out when the nutty girls had wound themselves down. Tasuki frowned and gingerly rubbed at his bruised eye.
"Oh, poor Tasuki. Now cut that out! I can fix it," Chiyo said, leaning over the table and poking him in the eye.
"OW!" He yelled, clapping a hand over his face.
"WHATARYA, CRAZY?! THAT HURT! @#%$# !" He yelled louder, and the serving woman ran into a back room. The girls giggled.
"Relax, Tasuki. It's all better now," Chiyo said.
Tasuki eyed her uneasily. He was sure that girl was a demon or something. She had blue hair, for cryin' out loud! Not to mention the makeup....something about the way her eyes were painted made him uneasy. Like she knew every little thing that crossed his mind. He didn't like it.
"So you were looking for us?" The devil girl asked with narrowed eyes, and he got that feeling again.
Tasuki scowled.
"Yeah. Miaka wants to meet you two nuts for some reason. She made me come back and see if you'd come," Tasuki muttered, gazing at Maemi, who smiled. He turned back to Chiyo, who was studying him with narrowed eyes again. Then she smiled like she had just found out some big secret.
"Hey, Maemi, wanna go to Konan?" She asked.
Maemi grinned, totally oblivious to whatever was going on in the demon girl's mind.
"Yeah, sure, why not?"
With that the girls stood up and went to the cash register. They paid their bill and went outside.
Tasuki followed suite.
"So, when do we leave?" Maemi asked, walking up to a little two-wheely-motorized something or other. Apparently, she owned the crazy thing.
"Chiyo? CHIYO MARY MATSUKO!" An irate voice bellowed from behind them.
"Oh no! It's that devil woman! She followed me!" Tasuki yelled, fearing another black eye. He ducked behind Chiyo, who looked at him strangely.
"You! Crazy stalker! Get off my daughter! NOW!" The angry blond woman yelled, running down the sidewalk and looking really mad.
"How 'bout we run right about..... NOW!" Chiyo suggested in a singsong voice, taking off down the street on her last word.
Chiyo grabbed Maemi's hand and pulled her somewhat behind her as Tasuki ran after the demon girl. Man! This Chiyo was quick! He was having trouble keeping up with her!
"Hey! My bike!" Maemi was yelling.
"CHIYO! WATCH OUT!" The woman called in fear as the girls dashed off the sidewalk and into traffic and they both turned to look at the frantic blond woman.
"MAEMI! GET OUT OF THE WAY" Tasuki yelled, his heart all but stopping in fear for Maemi and Chiyo. He didn't know what the girls had just ran out in front of, but he knew it was dangerous. Anything that large and that noisy had to be dangerous.
The girls turned in shock and faced the blaring horn and wide front of the oncoming city bus.
"AIEEEEEEEEE!" Maemi shrieked. Chiyo stood numbly beside her with wide eyes and a fearful expression across her brightly accented features. He had to do something! They could get killed! Those stupid, stupid girls were obviously too scared to move, and they were just standing there, hand in hand, and that thing was speeding towards them....the last thing Tasuki clearly remembered was leaping in front of the mechanical hulk and tackling both Chiyo and Maemi to the ground. Then there was a bright light and a nauseating, spinning sensation....





Maemi blinked. Was she dead? She was staring up at a golden ceiling. It was really pretty.
She moaned and turned her head. She was a little sore, and a little stiff, but other than that, okay. Not bad for meeting a bus head on! She was lying on a cold, hard floor, she noted.
"Maemi?" A familiar male voice asked from nearby. She sat up and looked around.
"Tasuki?" She whispered back.
"Are ya okay?" He asked, scowling slightly. God, he was cute when he did that!
He stood, then offered her a hand and helped her up.
Dé ja vòus is the feeling that you have done something before....
"Yeah, I'm alright... How about you?" She answered a little nervously. He was holding her by the elbows and standing really close to her and looking deep into her eyes....
"I-I'm fine," He said shortly, dropping her arms and taking a few steps back.
Maemi blushed and hugged her arms somewhat nervously.
"Are we dead?" She asked after a few tense minutes.
"No, we're back in---"
"THEY'RE HERE! THAT'S WHAT IT WAS!" A voice yelled so loud that Maemi jumped back into Tasuki's arms. They looked at each other and then both lept back like the other was a rabid, starving
tasmanian devil.
Was Tasuki blushing?
Maemi didn't have time to wonder about it.
"It's true! She is from my world!" The loud voice cried, throwing their arms around her from behind.
Maemi spun and pushed her attacker off. Chiyo was the only one who could get away with spontaniety like that, and even then....Maemi blinked and looked down at the girl who was all but dancing around her on her feet. She a little taller than Chiyo, slightly chubby, and with longish auburn-ish hair that was in a longish side braid tied with a red ribbon, and wearing a brown uniform with a turquoise tie...Maemi would know that uniform anywhere!
"Miaka?" She asked, a little in awe of the fruity imp in spite of herself.
"How do you know me?" Miaka asked, tilting her head in puzzlement.
"Nevermind," Maemi replied, deciding not to go into a whole new alternate world scenario now.
Something was wrong....something was missing from this scene...
"Where are you from?"
"Tokyo, Japan,"
"Oooh, wow! That's awesome, so am I!"
"What school do you go to? I don't reconize your uniform. " Miaka continued.
"Sumida Academy," Maemi said, frowning and glancing around the room.
"Where?" Miaka asked, confused. Maemi sighed. SA probably didn't exist in Miaka's alternate Tokyo.
"Um..it's really small and privately owned...and kind of secretly exclusive,"
"Ohh. You must be really sharp, then. Hey, Hotohori! Nuriko! You said there were two of them,"
Maemi gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth.
"Chiyo!" She cried. "Oh no!"




"MAMA!" Someone screamed. The pitiful, frightened plea echoed and returned three times over.
Chiyo gasped and opened her eyes, breathing hard. She then dropped her head back to the ground when she realized she was the one who'd screamed.
The birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and somewhere nearby there was a small stream. She lay still for a moment, squinting up at the sunlight that was filtering in through the thick branches full of leaves above her. Chiyo sat up and groaned. She was a little stiff, and a little sore, but other than that, she was okay. Not bad for meeting a bus head on, she thought. Chiyo now stood somewhat shakily and examined her surroundings. She was in the woods, that much she knew. She didn't think she was dead, and if she was, well, there wasn't much she could do about it now; more likely she'd been sucked back into the World of the Four Gods again, although why, she couldn't fathom. She looked around some more. There was indeed a small stream nerby, and there were millions of wildflowers and tall, thick green grass in a small clearing a few yards off. It was a pretty place, and if Chiyo wasn't so disturbed, she would've enjoyed it more. She wasn't really too upset about the possibility of being dead. What upset her was the fact that she was alone.
"Maemi!" She yelled, hoping her friend was maybe just hiding to tease her.
"Tasuki! Where are you guys?"
Chiyo bit her lip and stood uncertainly when no answer came. Now she was getting scared.
What if she'd come into this world and Maemi hadn't? What about the bus? And where the heck was Tasuki? (Chiyo was sure that somehow this, too, was all his fault) What if Maemi was dead? Or hurt really bad and in horrible pain? What if she was in a coma or paralyzed, or blind or deaf or deformed or mutilated by the crushing tires of the bus beyond all recognition or washed down a sewer......or worst of all...what if Maemi had also been sucked back into this world and was wandering alone somehwere? Chiyo's heart was working overtime. She looked frantically from left to right. She had to find Maemi somehow! But she had no idea where she was! She could be weeks from the nearest town! Chiyo heard a slight hissing noise and froze, looking slowly down.
She screamed at the large snake that was crawling over her feet, kicked it off frantically, and then turned tail and sped away from the sunny clearing, running as fast as she could in the other direction, only stopping when she tripped over a tree root and sprawled flat on her face in the dirt, moss and dead leaves below. She lay on the ground, panting, and tried to figure out if her ankle was broken or just twisted. She hoped it was just twisted...please let it be just twisted!
Chiyo sat up and rubbed at her slightly swelling ankle.
"Damn," she muttered. This went on for several minutes before she remembered the flashy-healy thingy.
She was just about to attempt to heal herself when a noise somewhere to her left made her start--it was a swift sound, like a bird flying through leaves very very quickly. Then she heard a slight scraping somewhere to her right, and a heavy thud directly behind her. Chiyo jumped up as best she could with her lame foot. She winced a little, settled her weight on her other leg, and paused nervously.
The part of the forest she was in now was darker, and the trees here grew closer together. There were only a very few birds singing, and there certainly were no flowers. Chiyo couldn't see or hear the stream. She turned around uncertainly. This place gave her the creeps. She wanted to go back to the Disney-worthy flowers and chirping birds scene, snake and all!
There was a slight rustling noise in the treetops above her, and then there was silence. Chiyo frowned. She stood stalk still and bit her lip as a chill creeped up her spine and the little hairs on the back of her neck stood straight on end. The woods were completely silent now--even those few birds weren't chirping any more. In fact, there was only one sound to be heard, and that was Chiyo's own frightened breathing. Nothing happened for several moments, and Chiyo had just relaxed when she heard large, heavy footsteps coming up behind her, followed by a low, ominous growl.
Good God, what now!?
Chiyo bit her lip and very, very slowly turned to face whatever it was that was growling.
She found herself face to face with a grotesque thing that looked like a cross between a bear and a wolf, with huge glowing orange eyes and black sticky fur from the tip of its huge, wolf-like muzzle to the large bushy end of its tail. The most threatening part was the fact that it stood at least six feet taller than she did....and it was crouched down.
Chiyo stood, dumbstruck with fear, wishing it were once again a bus she was faced head on with.
Instead she was staring directly into the gaping jaws and bloodied fangs of some...some....thing in a dark forest all alone. At least with the bus she'd had Maemi with her! What was she going to do? She couldn't fight it! And with her ankle like this, she couldn't outrun it...Chiyo eyed the monster's powerful legs critically. She wasn't even sure she could outrun it in perfect health!
The beast reared up on its hind legs and stood a terrifying twelve feet tall, roared like a wounded fog horn, and swiped with a bloodied, clawed paw at the frightened girl, who let out a loud, peircing shriek.
Chiyo was knocked off balance by this sudden attack, and scrambled quickly off the ground, barely feeling the pain in her leg as she shuffled blindly backwards. The creature reached for her again and she brought her arms up over her face, certain her last thought was going to be I'M GONNA DIE!
Then suddenly, the branches over her head parted and she glanced up in alarm just to see a blur of gold and blue flash past her. Chiyo frowned in confusion and the monster paused and tilted its head, and both girl and fiend found themselves staring quizzically at the young man who was crouched in front of Chiyo with a double-bladed staff before him. The monster roared again and Chiyo shrieked, now not sure which whe was more frightened of; the big, smelly, hairy monster, or the crouched, blade-wielding guy who dropped from a tree in the middle of nowhere. Chiyo decided that if she were in a manga right now, this would be a SD sweatdrop moment.
"Don't move," He said simply and calmly in a quiet voice that was neither deep nor high.
The monster decided this new distraction was not satisfactory in the least; in fact, the monster and the young man seemed to know each other to an extent. The hairy thing roared once more, and as it swiped at the two humans, the guy lept up, struck out with his staff and landed once more before Chiyo, scowling grimly at the creature who was now down one long-clawed paw. The once-silent forest was now way too loud with the roaring and screaming of the monster. The guy paused for what seemed like less than a second before he flew back at the thing with a simple back flip and his bladed staff swinging and swishing around so fast Chiyo got dizzy from trying to follow its movement. Suddenly, the monster's severed head came flying at her and she had to leap out of the way to avoid it. It fell to the ground with a dull squishing-thud, and the forest was once again silent. The young man was standing calmly on top of the lifeless body of the monster, looking curiously at Chiyo, who looked nervously back at him.
The guy jumped down and walked towards her, hitting some sort of mechanism in the staff that caused the bloodied blades to snap back into it, disquising the weapon as a walking stick. The guy was short, maybe a few inches taller than her, with wild, wild blond spiky hair and bright green eyes. He wasn't really handsome, but he wasn't ugly, and he wasn't exactly just average, either. He wasn't thin, but he wasn't fat, nor was he just average. One thing that was definite was that the guy had a big aura of power around him. Chiyo took this to mean he could snap her in half like a twig if he wanted to. She bit her lip once more, wishing again that Maemi was there with her to share this strange, frightening adventure. The wierd strong blond guy with a staff now stood about four feet in front of her.
"Are you alright?" He asked quietly, still with that almost child-like inquisitive look on his face.
. Chiyo closed her eyes and fell backwards in a dead faint.




"You're sure you had Chiyo, too?" Maemi cried, sitting with her head buried in her hands on the table before her. Tasuki stood near the wall by the window, and Miaka sat beside Maemi, trying to comfort her. Nuriko lounged on a bench near the door, and Hotohori sat at the head of the small table, hands folded meditativly before him.
"Yeah, I'm sure! I pushed her outta the way same as I did you!" Tasuki repeated for the eigth time in ten minutes. Maemi felt bad for making him repeat himself so many times, but she just couldn't understand it! Why wasn't Chiyo here? Maemi figured that when Tasuki was getting sucked back into Konan, he'd tackled her to the ground and was half on top of her. And if he hadn't been touching Chiyo and only knocked her over, then she was left in the street with that bus coming and not able to run in time....
"Oh no, oh no, oh no," she murmured over and over as Miaka reassuringly patted her back.
"Did you let go of the other girl at any time during your transport?" A new voice asked from the enterance of the door. Maemi looked up just in time to hear the "No Da?" that gave away the speaker's identity.
One thing Maemi and Chiyo had always agreed on was that Chichiri looked better without his cat mask. Faced with the magical monk in real life, Maemi felt their assumption proved. With the cat face, the gravity defying blue mohawk and the big-beaded necklaces, Chichiri looked...well, he looked....wierd.
"I think just before we landed, I may have," Tasuki said, frowning in his attempts to recall what had happened during their hectic voyage to Konan.
"You WHAT!?" Maemi bellowed, clenching the table in front of her with both fists as Hotohori jumped a mile and Miaka grabbed her by the shoulders lest she leap over the table and rip Tasuki's heart out through his ass. Nuriko raised an eyebrow and Tasuki looked very upset.
"How could you DO THAT! You LOST my BEST FRIEND!" Maemi continued before dropping her head to the table with a thunk of defeat.
"Chiyo could be anywhere! And she may act tough, but...well, you met her! You know what she's like!"
Tasuki was leaned against the wall by the window, looked outside and brooded.
"From what I heard from His Majesty, your friend can take care of herself, No Da!"
Maemi turned and faced the masked man.
"But that was different! Chiyo isn't what you all think she is! She's only a little girl on the inside! She wouldn't last a minute out there all alone!" Maemi cried, feeling panicked again. "She could've gotten herself into all sorts of trouble by now! She could be captured by slavers or dead in a ditch, or she could've gotten--we have to find her!"
"But, Maemi, we have no idea where she is," Miaka said softly. "She could still be in Tokyo, being just as frantic over you as you are over her,"
"Oh, wonderful! If she's still in Tokyo, that means she got hit by that bus!"
"How could she get hit by a bus? What were you three doing over there?" Miaka asked with a
half-confused, half-frightened look on her face.
"Running from a United States Army captian," Maemi said and Tasuki choked back a rift of laughter.
Maemi shook her head at Miaka's bewildered face and almost smiled.
"Are you sure she's somehwere in this world, No Da?" Chichiri asked thoughtfully before Miaka could ask another question, leaning against his staff. Maemi glanced down at her charm bracelet and brushed her fingers over the little yellow tiger. That tiger looked an awful lot like Chiyo's favorite earrings.
"Yes, I'm sure. She has to be here!" Maemi stated quietly.
"If you are certain she is here within our world, then perhaps Taiiskun could find your friend,"
Hotohori said, speaking for the first time and finally resettled after Maemi's violent outburst.
"Yes! Taiiskun helped me get home once, and she helped me find out about Yui! I'll bet she could help you, too!" Miaka cried, once more becoming chipper and energetic.
"I know," Maemi sighed off-handedly.
"How could you know that?" Nuriko, Hotohori and Miaka asked at once.
"Uh...nevermind," Maemi said in a tiny voice, ducking her head a little. How could she explain? Hey, Miaka! You're a girl from a book that gets sucked into a book, and I've read that book, and now I've gotten sucked into the book in which you get sucked into a book!
Maemi sighed doubtfully, looking at Miaka. In a lot of ways, Miaka reminded her an awful lot of Chiyo. Except Miaka's joy with life wasn't an act like Chiyo's.
"But I don't wanna have to trek up a mountian just to find out Chiyo's hurt, dead or worse,"
Maemi said a bit fearfully. "And besides, scary things give me nightmares,"
"How did you know Taiiskun is scary?" Miaka asked in a clueless tone that Maemi was beginning to find really, really irritating.
"I'll tell ya later," Maemi muttered, her patience with the inquisitive younger girl fading fast.
Suddenly, Hotohori reached over, grabbed her arm, and began studying her wrist.
"What the---" Maemi started.
"What is it, Hotohori?" Miaka quickly interrupted, looking over and gasping. "Hey, wow! Neat!"
Maemi glanced down and realized they were oohing and aawing over her charm bracelet. She snatched her arm back from Hotohori with a glare and slipped the bracelet off, handing it to him to inspect.
"This bracelet is....most interesting! Where did you get it?" He asked in awe. Now the other inhabitants of the room were crowded around him trying to get a look, all except Tasuki, who merely turned back from the window, still scowling.
"Chiyo had it made. We each have one. It's...it's a comemorative kinda thing,"
"Ooh, neat!" Miaka squealed.
"This is Suzaku, and this is Seiryu, and that's Genbu, and the tiger is Byakku!" Nuriko exclaimed, touching each charm as she said the name for each of the miniature gods.
"But...but...what is that, No Da?" Chichiri asked, pointing at the last charm.
Maemi looked up and found her gaze locked with Tasuki's.
"It's a pizza box," she said simply.





Chiyo opened her eyes. It was a bit harder to open her eyes this time than it was before, and her vision was very blurry. She was lying in the clearing next to the brook, or one a lot like it. There were flowers and grass and singing birds and no bloody monsters or strange staff-swinging guys. Chiyo didn't feel like sitting up yet. Her leg still hurt, and her stiffness and soreness had returned ten fold. She sighed.
She had to admit, though, that staff guy had definitely kicked ass.
She turned her head to the side and squinted her eyes at the stream. She knew she'd have to sit up, and probably thank that guy for saving her dumb butt, and then maybe try to heal her unbearably painful ankle injury. She sighed again and decided she'd have to quit procastinating.
Chiyo finally sat up and found herself nearly face to knee with the kick-ass guy's leg.
She screamed and the young man looked down at her in confusion.
"You do that an awful lot," He said in that same calm voice.
"Well, if things would stop scaring me, maybe I wouldn't scream so much!" Chiyo snapped, and immeadiatly felt bad. "I'm sorry. I've had a rough day. Between almost getting hit by a bus, discovering I'm all alone in a different world, having some....some thing try to eat me, and having you jump out of a tree....Look, if there were any hard liquor here, I'd take up drinking," Chiyo finished, burying her face in her hands. The guy was now looking at her like she was crazy. Well, he's probably right. She sighed.
"Okay, here's the drift. I'm sorry again. My name's Chiyo Matsuko, and I'm not from here, I'm from Tokyo, Japan. I got seperated from my friend, Maemi Haung, and I have no idea where she could be...or where I am, for that matter. Oh, and thanks for keeping that thing from eating me, whatever it was," She rushed on. The guy raised a brow.
"You're welcome,"
Chiyo grinned, and put her hand over her badly swollen ankle, felt the slight electric shock and finally saw the goldish glow that meant the relief of no pain. She let out a long, relieved breath and jumped up, wiggling her no-longer swollen ankle and gingerly testing her weight on it.
The guy looked fascinated, but asked no questions.
"So, could you possibly show me to the nearest town....uh...sir?"
The guy nodded and pointed his staff towards a small sand path Chiyo hadn't noticed before.
"Follow that, and it will take you to Shao Su Lang Village. It's about an hour that way," he finished, motioning the direction with his staff again.
"Oh, okay! Thanks a lot!" Chiyo turned and started to walk down the path, feeling a little better knowing that civilization wasn't too far off. She hoped there weren't any more of those things lurking about.
"Oh, and hey! What's your name?" Chiyo called as an after thought, turning to walk backwards.
"I am called Star`kev," The guy replied so calmly and quietly Chiyo had to strain to pick up his voice.
"Star`kev? Hey, thanks again, Star`kev!" Chiyo called, waving once more and turning forward again as the blue-robed figure shook his head in a mixture of bewilderment and disbelief.


Star`kev sighed. He was pretty sure this Chiyo girl had no idea what she was getting herself into
going into Shao Su Lang Village alone in a skirt like that. Of course, from the story she'd told him, she didn't have much choice unless she wanted to fend for herself in the woods, and her earlier encounter with the shadow demon showed him how well that would turn out. Besides, she was probably looking for her friend, that Maemi person. Star`kev sighed. Chiyo wasn't going to last very long on her own. He knew the type she was. She was too trusting, to innocent, and too young to protect herslef in a place like this. And if she was from Tokyo...well, that made it even worse. That girl was going to get herself into trouble.
He sighed again and ran his hand through his hair, debating his options. Even though he'd rather just continue on his way, something was urging him to follow Chiyo and keep an eye on her. He smirked a little to himself as he slipped his staff into the sash across his back and lept up into the nearest tree.
Besides, he thought to himself as he easily lept from branch to branch. Just because I'm keeping an eye on her doesn't mean she has to know it!