Misara stared for a moment at the place where Taylor had been, her eyes adjusting after the flash of light. She blinked a couple of times, both trying to see and fight back tears. Suddenly, the entire building started to shake, and Misara fell over in surprise.

"Miboshi..." Nakago mused. "It appears he has taken over one of your friends, Misara." Misara stood unsteadily, unsure of what he meant. Suddenly, Tasuki was at her side, steadying her.

"Are you alright?" He asked. She nodded distractedly, trying to feel if one of her friends were indeed in trouble. Unexpectedly, she felt all of them at once...they were all in danger.

Before she could move, Nakago turned away and started walking. "It is time to summon Seiryu, Lady Yui." Yui nodded hesitantly, then moved to follow him. Over his shoulder, Nakago spoke to Misara. "Come along."

She snorted. "Yeah, right. What for?"

"Lady Yui will receive an extra wish if you are present at the summoning. This way, please."

Tasuki began pulling Misara the other way. "We've got to go find the others..." he whispered.

"I'm not going to ask you again, Misara." Nakago turned around angrily. "Come with me." As he spoke the order, his voice became distorted in Misara's mind, and she winced.

"Come with me," he said again, softer this time. Although he spoke quietly, the words boomed inside Misara's head, and she took a step toward him.

Tasuki tugged on her sleeve. "What are you doing? We've got to find the others! Come on!"

Misara turned back to him and nodded. "Right." She said, then followed him for a few steps.

"Misara!" The loud yell was even louder in her mind, and she grabbed the sides of her head with her hands.

"Nakago, what are you doing?" Yui cried.

"No..." Misara whispered.

"What's going on, Misara?" Tasuki asked worriedly. "What's wrong?"

She looked up at him miserably. "I...can't...help it..." She stammered, backing away from him and moving once more toward Nakago.

"What do you mean?" Tasuki cried, grabbing both her shoulders. "Snap out of it, woman! Miaka and the others are in trouble-can't you feel it? Come on!"

"Come with me, Misara." Nakago said, his face contorted with anger. She looked fearfully at him over her shoulder.

"Don't listen to him, Misara!" Tasuki roared.

"I...can't help it..." she said again, trying to pull herself out of his grasp.

"Nakago!" Tasuki gritted his teeth. "She's supposed to go of her own will-you can't force her!"

Nakago glared at him, but didn't answer him. "Come, Misara." He said, more softly this time.

"Don't listen to him, Misara!" Tasuki cried.

Misara's eyes flew from one to the other, not sure of who to obey. Tears welled up in her eyes again as she realized that Nakago's life force was stronger than Tasuki's...and so was his influence over her. She moved toward Nakago again.

"No!" Tasuki shouted, grabbing her face this time. "Look at me, Misara!" He said angrily, forcing her to look at him. When her eyes finally focused on his face, she started struggling.

"Let me go!" She cried, as Nakago called her name again.

"Misara!" Tasuki roared again, then a thousand things happened at once.

Tasuki kissed her...
Nakago called her name...
Chiriko stabbed himself...
and Misara watched, in her mind, as Hotohori kissed a woman with long, purple hair...his wife...

Misara fainted, and Tasuki barely caught her before she hit the floor. Picking her up, he headed out the door, but not before catching of glimpse of Nakago, who shrugged lightly and turned away.

Tasuki hurried through the hallways, which normally wouldn't have been easy, carrying Misara. But this time, he couldn't even tell that he was carrying her. He, too, had felt something from Chiriko, and the worry and desperation he felt combined with his shame for kissing Misara. He turned a corner and found the rest of the Suzaku warriors. They were watching Chiriko, who was covered in his own blood and apparently trying to kill himself. As he stabbed himself once more, Misara woke with a start and Tasuki dropped her. She looked up from the floor and saw Chiriko.

"Chiriko!" She cried. "Stop!"

Surprised, he looked down at her. "I...have to kill...this thing...inside of...me..." he gasped.

Suddenly, Misara realized what Nakago had meant. Miboshi, whoever he was, had taken over Chiriko's body! Misara's mind raced for a solution, but she couldn't think of anything. Chiriko cried out in pain again. Then, she had an idea.

"Chiriko, give me that scroll that Taitskun gave you!" She called up to him. He quickly reached into his shirt and pulled it out, but apparently Miboshi knew what she was planning for he wouldn't let Chiriko give it to her.

"Chichiri, give me your staff." Misara whispered, and the monk quickly obliged.

"What are you going to do?" he asked. "Trap Miboshi inside the scroll?"

"I'm going to try," she said, "but I'm not sure if it will work. First I have to get that scroll away from him..."

Suddenly, Chiriko stabbed himself again, trying to distract the demon inside him, and it dropped the scroll down to her.

She caught it with one hand and opened it quickly. Now what? She thought. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around to see Chichiri standing there, giving her his strength. Then she knew what she had to do. Throwing the open scroll on to the floor, she slammed the end of the staff into it. A blinding red light shot out of the place where the staff and the scroll connected and hit Chiriko next to his heart.

Misara screamed the spell that Chichiri shoved into her mind, the words sounding foreign and garbled to her. Apparently they worked, for the light surrounded Chiriko completely, and she couldn't see him for a second. Then, a blue ball of light flashed inside the red ball around Chiriko and flew down toward the scroll. As it entered the scroll, the staff Misara was holding grew hot and started shaking, and she had to let go of it. It fell over as the scroll curled back up, and Chiriko dropped to the floor. Misara ignored the scroll and hurried over to Chiriko.

"Are you alright?" She cried, as the others came running over. Mitsukake smiled as he leaned down and held up his palm, his symbol shining brightly. In a few seconds, Chiriko was fine and all the blood was gone. Everyone sighed with relief, but Misara stood up worriedly.

"Miaka, Yui is about to summon Seiryu." She said.

"We've got to stop her!" Tamahome cried. Misara was about to reply when the building started to shake again.

"What-? What's going on??" Miaka cried.

"We're too late!" Chichiri cried. "She's already summoned Seiryu!"

"What do we do now?" Nuriko cried.

"We've got to get out of here. There's nothing we can do now!" Chichiri said firmly. He picked up his staff and the scroll that Miboshi was trapped in. "Let's go!" Throwing down his cape, the group huddled onto it. Tokaki and Subaru stood away from them, Tokaki holding a limp person in his arms.

"Get out of here, now!" Subaru cried. "We'll be alright!"

The warriors of Suzaku nodded. "Let's go!" Chichiri said again, and they disappeared into darkness.




When Misara opened her eyes again, she saw her room, back in the palace in Konan. She was lying on top of her bed, and Tasuki was sleeping next to her. She sat up quickly, causing him to stir, as she remembered everything that had happened at the monastery. Her hand flew up to her lips as she quietly gasped.

He...kissed me...but why?

Her mind was too confused to think about it rationally, and she climbed out of her bed, trying not to wake him up. Then she remembered Hotohori, and she forgot all about Tasuki kissing her when she thought about Hotohori kissing that...other woman.

She hurried out of the room to find him, and ran into Nuriko.

"Are you going to look for Hotohori?" Nuriko asked her. Misara nodded, and Nuriko told her that he would come along. The two of them continued down the hallway. Opening the door to the throne room, they saw Hotohori standing there with the rest of the Suzaku warriors. Misara and Nuriko caught the last part of Hotohori's sentence.

"...can meet my wife, Houki."

Misara gasped without thinking, and Hotohori looked up. When he saw her standing there, his eyes grew wide and he sat down heavily in his throne. The others turned around, and when they saw Misara, they looked at her sadly. Miaka took a tentative step toward her.

"Your...wife?" Misara asked quietly. He nodded, horrified, but couldn't speak. "Congratulations..." Misara trailed off, then tried to smile. "I'm very happy for you."

Hotohori covered his mouth with his hand and started shaking. Misara blinked back tears, trying to think of something to say. Nuriko's hand on her shoulder didn't help, and she shook it off, not caring whether she hurt Nuriko's feelings or not. She backed up, trying to find the door to get out, but she couldn't find the handle. When Hotohori saw her trying to leave, he stood quickly and tried to stop her.

"Misara, wait..." he said, finally able to speak. When she saw that he was trying to come closer to her, she tried vainly to think of an excuse to leave the room.

"You know, I'm still kind of...tired...so, if you would just wake me up when it's time for dinner..." she said, turning to face Nuriko. She pushed the door open behind her, slamming it into someone. She turned around quickly, only to find a half-sleeping Tasuki holding onto his face in pain.

"Oh my...I'm so sorry!" she cried. Tasuki rubbed at his nose and looked up at her. He saw her shaken look and stopped.

"I'm alright." He said slowly. "Are you-?" Misara nodded quickly, cutting him off, then tried to duck past him and get to her room. Unfortunately, Hotohori had caught up to her by that time.

"Misara, please don't go." He said softly, touching her arm. "I must speak with you, please."

Misara avoided looking at him as she tried again to think of a reason not to talk to him. But she was so shaken that she could think of nothing, and finally nodded sadly. Then she turned around and walked as fast as she could to her room as he tried to keep up. She sat down on her bed as he closed the door behind him and sat opposite her in a chair. She still didn't look at him, but instead stared at her fingers. Her hand felt strange with the absence of her ring, and for a brief second, she wondered where it was.

"Misara..." Hotohori started.




Okay, I realize that many of you will refuse to read the rest of this story after reading this chapter, so I just want to say thanks for reading up to here. Don't blame me! I told you in the beginning that this would follow the storyline more or less! I didn't have the heart to kill off Nuriko or Chiriko, so shame on me, I know. I'm not even sure yet if I'm going to keep Hotohori alive or not, so why break Misara's heart later? Yeah, I know-there's no excusing my stupidity. Why did she fall in love in the first place? Well, think about it-could you be around him and not fall in love? I thought not...besides, when I first thought of this story, I had originally planned for Misara and Tasuki, and didn't even know that I would be dumb enough to make her fall in love with Hotohori. What am I saying? Nothing can make up for it, I know...please don't tell me you hate me! You can hate me eternally...just don't tell me, because I'll cry. Really! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...