Chapter 3 - The First Breach

"Hikaru!" Tasuki called out as he ran through the mall. He knew he looked like an damn idiot but he didn't care. "Hikaru! Where the hell are you?"
Hikaru stepped out of the bathroom and heard Tasuki's voice. She knew it was him because of his distinctive mouth. She peeked out from a corner and saw him yelling. She was a bit surprised she hadn't expected to have him follow after her. She was about to hide back in the rest room but he had already spotted her. Tasuki walked over.
"Yo, Hikaru." he started. She looked at him with emotionless eyes.
"What?" she asked bluntly.
"I wanna apologize okay?"
"Okay."
"Alright then...I'm sorry."
"Apology not accepted."
"What??" he exclaimed. He was about to continue but suddenly there was a loud bang and the whole mall shook. People everywhere were screaming , gasping, or shrieking. "C'mon..we gotta go check up on the others." he grabbed her hand. She opened her mouth to protest but was barely able to start when he yanked her back to the Cheesecake Factory.
The two found the others outside waiting for them. "What the fuck is going on here?" Tasuki asked. Kirei pointed behind him. Her crimson eyes grew dark.
"Miboshi..." she said. Tasuki turned around. Sure enough there was the posessed child monk floating up behind them.
"Why Nakago...I would have never thought you to be a betrayer. Especially to these Suzaku sichiseishi." Miboshi said mockingly. Nakago glared at the monk and his symbol glowed a dangerous blue. Miboshi looked around and saw Chiriko.
"Well if it isn't my former body that killed me...and himself in the process." Miboshi said.
Hikaru stood in front of Chiriko protectively while Tasuki grabbed his tessen. He glared at Miboshi with his fiery amber eyes. "Stay away from him..." he growled dangerously. Miboshi laughed.
"Do you dare to threaten me?" Miboshi said angrily. His dark eyes flashed and started chanting a spell. Dark blobs appeared and took on the shape of dripping monsters. "Hahahaha! Let's see if you can defeat my monsters." He then disappeared, his evil laugh echoing through the air.
The monsters slowly made their way towards the four girls and the ten seishi. Tasuki pushed Hikaru behind him. "Stay back..." he told her. She looked at him, scowling. Did he think she was helpless or something? She noticed Hotohori and Amiboshi doing the same thing to Kirei.
'Heh...bad move..' she thought to herself. She saw Kirei's eyes darken angrily. 'After this, those two guys are gonna be seeing fireworks.'
The guys minus Chiriko and Mitsukake took their fighting posts. One monster growled and lunged for Hotohori, who grabbed his deity sword and slashed its arm off with one swing. The monster howled in pain and thrashed his limbs all over the place. Hotohori finished it off by slicing through it in half. (The girls then weren't very angry because it gave them a chance to drool over the guys who were fighting to protect them.)
Another monster headed for Tasuki. Tasuki smirked and used his gift of speed to run around the monster causing it to get dizzy and confused. He then jumped up and brandished his tessen. "RREEEKKAAA~SSHIINEEEEN~~!!!!" he yelled and a storm of fire raged towards the monster. It howled as it felt itself burning and soon bacame nothing but blown away ashes.
But the monsters just seemed to keep on coming. Hotohori diced, Tasuki cooked, Tamahome bashed, Nakago disentegrated, Nuriko smashed to a pulp, Suboshi yo-yoed, and Amiboshi played his flute. "Dammit...these monsters just keep coming!" Nuriko stated as he smashed one down. Amiboshi then got hit by the arm of one of the monsters and was thrown onto a nearby wall.
"Aniki!" Suboshi yelled. He killed the monster that hurt Amiboshi. "Ryu~ Sei~ Sui!~"
"Kou-chan!" Kirei cried out and rushed over to him. She carefully picked him up. Amiboshi groaned in momentary pain."Are you okay?"
"For now I guess..." he managed to say, then winced in pain. A monster spotted them and started for them but Hotohori came in front of them and killed it.
"Move him!" he shouted behind his shoulder. Kirei nodded and helped Amiboshi onto his feet, guiding him towards Mitsukake.
Tasuki was fighting two monsters at once. He jumped over one monster's on-coming hand but then was knocked out by another hand he didn't see coming. He crashed into a glass display case. Hikaru crouched over him.
"Tasuki! Are you okay?" she asked her eyes full of worry. The response she recieved was a sound of pain escaping from his lips. She brushed away some of the broken glass from his face. He had scratches and cuts all over. She looked at him, her anger inside building up slowly, gradually.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Nuriko!" Kirei yelled. "Be careful!!!"
Nuriko turned around and winked. "Don't worry about me." he said.
"Nuriko! Look behind you!!" Yuri warned. But Nuriko had no time to act. The monster was already too close. Nuriko braced himself for the impact.
"Mizu No......RYU~!!!!!" Hikaru's voice chanted clearly. A rush of water shaped like a dragon roared past Nuriko and hit the monster, killing it instantly. One by one the rest of the monsters disappeared. Everyone looked back at Hikaru shocked. Hikaru smiled triumphantly...then collapsed.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Tenkou, the evil god, smirked. "So...one of the enchantresses have gained their first level of power.." he said. Miboshi nodded as they both looked in the mirror.
"This will make things much more interesting, ne Tenkou-sama?" Miboshi said sardonically.
Tenkou smiled to himself again. Yes...it should...it should make things very interesting.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Hikaru! Dammit Hikaru! Wake up! Fuck...Hikaru!!!" Tasuki said urging Hikaru to get up.
Hikaru slowly opened her eyes. At first things were a little blurry but then everything cleared up and her eyes focused on Tasuki. "Your face..." she trailed off. She lifted one hand to his tawny face. He smirked.
"Eh..its nothing. I've been cut up worse than this." he said nonchalantly. She gave him a 'whatever' look and looked at Kirei who was between Amiboshi and Hotohori. She was smiling and the guys had red handprints on their cheeks. She looked at Kirei questioningly. Tasuki noticed.
"She slapped them in the faces for treating her like a weakling lady." he explained.
"Oh~" Hikaru said. "Typical. But that reminds me...Tasuki?"
He looked at her questioningly. "You deserve one, too!" she yelled and slapped him across the face. Everyone sweatdropped.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

They went back home after a little more shopping. Hikaru, Yuri, and Yume all called their mothers and got permission to sleep over Kirei's house. Hikaru and Yuri wanted to skip out on everything and just hang with the guys but Yuri and Kirei insisted on doing their homework first. So they occupied the guys with TV and food. They shut themselves in Kirei's library while the guys were across the hall in the rec room. While they worked Tasuki and Chiriko came in.
"Tasuki!! Try knocking next time!!" Kirei blew up. She was in the middle of doing a French project and was not having a good time. Sensing Kirei's pessimistic mood, he chose to go bother Hikaru.
"What the hell is this?" Tasuki asked as he picked up Hikaru's World Cultures book. Hikaru took it away automatically.
"It's a text book." she answered.
"Text book?"
"A book full of information about different things." Chiriko answered. The girls looked over to him and saw him reading a stack of encyclopedias.
"Whoa..child genius..." Yume commented and went back to her Pre-Algebra. Hikaru and Kirei just stared in awe at Chiriko who had just finished reading all the volumes of her World Book Encyclopedia's. Hikaru poked Tasuki.
"Please...take him back to the rec...I want him to be a normal kid too..." she said. He looked at her and grinned.
"Finally someone who understands." he said and picked Chiriko up, who was now reading a unabridged dictionary, and carried him out.
"I think it's cute that Chiriko's so cute and smart." Yuri commented.
"Please...I like the kid but an Einstien brain is just too creepy for such a little kid." Hikaru protested.
"Little kid? Isn't he 13?" Yume asked. Yuri and Hikaru started arguing.
The whole time Kirei stayed silent, making it look like she was doing her algebra homework but was really doodling. She stopped and stared at the margins of her paper.

KOUTOKOU....
HOTOHORI-SAMA.....
KOU-CHAN..... HOTOHORI...

KIREI & KOUTOKOU....?
KIREI & HOTOHORI...?

She stared at the names and sighed. In her dreams.....