Back In Konan again...but without Taylor?

When Misara opened her eyes again, she found herself back in Konan. Strangely enough, she was in her bed and the sun was shining through her window.

Wasn't it dark when I left? It hasn't been that long, she thought.

She moved to sit up, but groaned and quickly lay back down. She felt so sick, a feeling she felt more and more frequently, although she wasn't sure why.

"Not feeling well?" A voice echoed through the room. Misara jumped in surprise. Sitting next to her bed was Nuriko, and Misara wondered how she didn't see him when she first woke up.

"How long have you been here?" She asked, ignoring his question.

"Since you got here, about nine hours ago."

"What?!?" She cried. "Why did you let me sleep so long?"

"You were exhausted-we had to let you rest after the night you had."

Suddenly, Misara was wide awake. "Where's Taylor?" She asked frantically.

Nuriko looked confused. "Who?"

"My friend! The one I brought back with me from Kutou!"

Nuriko shook her head slowly. "There was only you, Misara. We saw a red light coming from the shrine of Suzaku, and we found you inside, unconscious. There wasn't anyone else there with you."

Misara looked bewildered. "But-" She stopped for a second and thought. "Nakago..." She muttered under her breath.

"Well anyway, you should get some more sleep." Nuriko said cheerfully. He stood up and headed for the door. "I'll let the others know how you're doing and I'll come check on you after a while." As he reached for the door handle, it moved on its own and the door swung open to reveal Chichiri standing outside. He rushed inside the room and over to Misara's bed. Nuriko gave him a funny look, but left the two alone. As the door closed behind him, Chichiri sat down on the bed.

"What's the matter, Chichiri?" Misara asked worriedly. She had never seen him so nervous, and even with his smiling mask on, it was obvious that something was wrong. In his hands was the scroll Taitsukun had given Misara.

He motioned to the scroll. "I was reading this a while ago, and now that you're awake, I want to talk to you about something." He opened it up and pointed to some writing that obviously hadn't been there before. "When were you going to tell us about this?" He asked, his voiced laced with anger.

Misara grew uneasy. "What do you mean?" She asked carefully.

"This!" He cried, pointing at the writing. "It says here you have to burn yourself alive in order for us to summon Suzaku! Why didn't you tell us?"

Misara had never seen him so upset, but she was getting upset herself. "I can't read that writing!" she cried. "How was I supposed to tell you something I couldn't read myself?"

"You must have known about it." Chichiri said angrily.

"How do you know that?" Misara shot back.

"It says so in the scroll, no da. Misara, if you can't read this, then how did you know about it?"

Misara looked at her hands and hesitated for a moment before answering, "I had a dream about it. I knew in my dream that it was what I had to do, but I was hoping that's just what it was...a dream. Now that it's in that scroll, I guess it's true." She looked out the window. "I don't want to do it, Chichiri." She said finally.

Chichiri sighed. "I don't blame you, Misara. But I don't think there's anything we can do about it, no da."

"Do I HAVE to do it?" Misara asked loudly. "Does it say in that stupid scroll that I absolutely have to do it in order for you to summon Suzaku?"

Chichiri looked at her for a moment. "Yes." He said finally.

Misara didn't say anything, but looked down at her hands.

Chichiri sighed. "I'm sorry to upset you like this, Misara. I just came in to ask you about it, not make you feel worse. But I do have something else to tell you. Since you can't read this scroll, I suppose you don't know about this either. Do you know why you have to burn yourself?"

Misara turned to face him. "Of course I do! Suzaku is a phoenix, and phoenixes-" She stopped when he gave her a look. "Yeah, I know."

"Well, a phoenix is a bird that can reincarnate itself. It grows older and weaker, weaker being the point, until it is too weak and must die. It then burns itself and is born again, stronger than before."

"What do you mean, 'weaker being the point'?" Misara asked, confused.

"Have you noticed yourself feeling sicker lately?"

Misara shrugged. "I haven't really thought about it, but yeah, I guess."

Chichiri slumped his shoulders. "Apparently, that's one of the signs, no da. The scroll said that the Goddess of the Sky would grow sicker and her powers grow weaker as the Seven Celestial Warriors she had to protect gathered. Once they were all assembled, she would burn herself, like a phoenix, to regain her strength and energy."

Misara gasped. "So that's why I can't teleport so fast like you can! When I tried to teleport to Kutou, I got sidetracked and ended up in a dozen other places. I thought it was because I wasn't concentrating...Is that why I couldn't bring Taylor back with me?"

Chichiri looked astounded. "You tried to bring someone to Konan with you in your condition?"

Misara looked at him curiously. "Well, yeah...why?"

"You could have killed yourself! If you use your powers too much, especially now that they're getting weaker, it'll cause you to get much worse faster than you're supposed to. Trying to teleport someone along with yourself-especially when you couldn't even teleport yourself to the right place the first time...it's a wonder you're still alive! If you had kept on using your powers, you probably would have had to burn yourself alive before we had collected all the warriors." Chichiri cried.

She stopped and looked up at him fearfully. "Does that mean that...now that all the warriors are here...that I have to, you know, soon?"

"The sooner the better, I'm afraid." Chichiri sighed again. "If you don't do it before you get too sick, you'll die and we can't revive you no da."

"Can't Mitsukake heal me so I don't have to do it?" Misara asked frantically.

"I'm sorry Misara." Chichiri stood. "You must complete your task as the Goddess of the Sky. But you do have some time. Since Tamahome is-" He stopped and looked at her as sadness took over her face. "I suppose you know about that." He headed for the door, and as he was leaving, he stopped once more and turned around. "By the way," he said, "Tasuki's feeling better. He wanted to see you as soon as you woke up. I'm afraid you'll have to go to him, no da. He's still pretty injured and Mitsukake won't let him leave his bed." Chichiri closed the door behind him.


A few minutes later, Misara stood outside her door, dressed and hungry. She caught Nuriko coming back to see her, and Nuriko promised to bring her a snack while she was visiting Tasuki. When she opened the door to Tasuki's room, she met Mitsukake, who was coming out.

"Don't say anything that might upset him." Mitsukake reminded her.

She nodded, smiling, and he smiled one of his rare smiles back at her, then held the door open and closed it behind her.

"I'm telling ya, Mitsukake, you're making me sick with all this medicine-" Tasuki stopped his whining when he saw Misara instead of the healer. "Misara!" Tasuki made a move to jump out of bed, groaned really loudly and fell back onto his pillow, his eyes shut tight in pain.

Misara ran over to his bedside. "Are you alright?" She asked frantically.

"What, this?" He said, looking up at her. "I've been hurt worse than this. This is nothing!" He grimaced again.

"Right." Misara said sarcastically. "You know, you need to be a little more careful. What would Mitsukake do when he came back and saw that you had 5 more broken bones than when he left?"

"Hey, I can take care of myself, thank you very much." Tasuki said.

Misara shook her head. "I'm not going to protect you if you keep on being so stupid! And you're supposed to be my friend!"

"I am your friend!" Tasuki said, laughing. "But are you mine?" He asked, half-seriously.

"That depends..." Misara said coyly. "I'll have to think about that one."

Tasuki rolled his eyes at her. "Pull up a chair and stay a while, will ya?"

Misara grabbed the nearest chair and pulled it over to his bed. "Chichiri said you wanted to see me as soon as I woke up. Well, I'm here. What do you need?"

Tasuki shrugged. "I just wanted to see if you were okay, that's all. You didn't come back with us last night, and then I heard that the others found you in the temple of Suzaku. What exactly happened over there?"

Misara looked at the floor. "Well, it's kind of a long story."

Tasuki looked at his wounds. "I got time."



Hey, I couldn't think of any other way to end that chapter, otherwise it would have gone on for a long time. Ah, poor Tasuki. Although Misara has it worse, I'm afraid. Thanks for reading this far-I'll work on the next chapter as soon as I can. Unless, of course, you hate this story and tell me not to continue.