TA: More-ness! Now y'all can see how I mingle humor in with serious stuff.

~Three days later, night-time, in Konan…~

No one expected what was to come that night. Everyone would have died were it not for a wide awake tiger demon wanna-be.

"Nikki! Nikki wake up!" Tsunoiya called. Nikki grunted and rolled over in her bed. "Nikki!" Still no reply. "I'm gonna regret this…" Tsunoiya dug her claws into Nikki's arm.

"YEOW!"

That did the trick.

"Since when have you had retractable claws?" Nikki asked, rubbing her slightly bleeding arm. "What was that for?"
"Nikki…I smell smoke…"

"It's probably the cook burning something…" Nikki yawned.

"At this time of night?"

"Good point." Nikki pulled on her bathrobe over her pjs. "Let's go see where it's coming from." As she opened the door to step out, a flaming arrow shot over her head, missing by inches.

"We're under attack!" the two girls shouted. Outside, arrows were flying all over the place.

"Get everyone out of the palace, Tsunoiya! Have whoever you can get to the village! I'll get the guards assembled!

"Right!" Tsunoiya ran off. Nikki dodged another arrow and bolted for the guards' housing.

~Minutes later…~

Tsunoiya ran out of the palace, pausing for a moment to watch the guards and archers running around, either fighting or chasing the Kutou archers or taking buckets of water from the lake to the palace or village. Servants and serving maids were carrying water as well. Tsurai, Tasuki, Kai-chi, Chichiri, Nimue and Houki followed Tsunoiya closely.

"Where's Nikki no da?"

"I'm here…" Nikki ran up, catching her breath.

"Then everyone's out…" Tsunoiya scanned the group.

"Tsunoiya…where's Boushin?"

Kai-chi and Tsurai looked at each other and pointed.

"I thought you were going to get him!"

Nikki gasped then turned to head back in.

"Nikki, no!"

"Don't be a hero and get yourself killed too!"

"I don't care!" she yelled, facing her friends. "I don't know Hotohori, and I never will, but I do know he'd haunt us for life if his son died without anyone trying to save him."

Without giving anyone time to argue, she disappeared into the palace. Servants still ran about, trying to put out the fire, but nothing was working well enough.

"So…Tsunoiya…" Nimue started.

"Yeah?"

"Was it necessary for you to run around yelling the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire?

"Well it woke you up, didn't it?"

Silence.

"Then don't question."

~Inside…~

"Boushin!" Nikki called, hoping he wasn't still in his room. The halls were burning and the heat was terrible. "Boushin!" She heard a child scream. The door to Boushin's room was cracked and fire surrounded the doorway. Nikki blasted an area with ice. The heat from the fire melted the ice, and the water extinguished the flames. Inside the room, Boushin trembled in a corner away from the fire.

"Boushin!" Nikki ran over and picked up the small, quivering boy.

"Out?"

"Out, fast." Nikki bolted out of the room. As she ran, the palace burnt without any signs of stopping. A piece of flaming roof fell to the ground in front of Nikki. She tripped and fell, her jaw hitting the ground and Boushin flying out of her arms to land under an unstable roof. A blue light flashed as the roof collapsed.

~Outside…~

"What was that?" Kai-chi jerked towards the palace.

Chichiri dropped down from a tall tree, his mask missing again.

"The roof's collapsed inside…" he said quietly.

"That's no big–" Tsurai started.

"I think that blue flash was Nikki."

Tasuki was the only one left seconds later.

"Hey! Don't leave me!" he ran off after them. At the place where the roof collapsed, Boushin sat in a pile of water and rubble, shivering as smoke billowed everywhere.

"Boushin!" Houki scooped up her son and gasped. "You're so cold…"

Tsurai, Tsunoiya, Nimue, Kai-chi and Chichiri ran by them.

"Nikki!"
"Nik, where are ya!"

"If she's dead you're not gonna get an answer…"

"Don't say something like that!"

"I can't help it if it's true…"

Boushin pointed to a smoking pile of rubble. Kai-chi was quick to levitate the pile.

"Nikki!" Kai-chi moved and dropped the rubble as the others ran to see if she was alright, or even alive. Like, Boushin, she was cold to the touch.

"It doesn't look like she's hurt, just cold and unconscious. I wonder…"

Nimue looked thoughtful for a moment before she snapped.

"She froze herself!"

"What?" the group of girls looked at her stupidly.

"She has freezing abilities! I'll bet almost anything when she saw she wasn't going to get out she froze herself and Boushin. When they got hit with the rubble, the fire melted the ice, hence the water, and the rubble was either slowly lowered onto them or rolled off!"

"That makes more sense than I expected…" Kai-chi admitted.

"Wha…what happened…?" Nikki's eyes opened slightly, then all he way as she was attacked by two happy girls.

"She's alive! Yay!" Tsunoiya and Tsurai cheered.

"When'd the two of you turn into Nyan-Nyans?" Nikki asked, detaching them.

A clang of a sword being drawn distracted them. A Kutou soldier stood in front of the group, sword pointed at them.

"Are you the seven Suzaku seishi?" he asked.

"Who? Us? No way."

"Nope."

"No."

"Nuh uh."

"Not a chance."

"Well maybe a bit of one."

"Okay a lot of one."

"Yes"

"Yep."

"Uh huh."

"Definitely."

"Bakas!"

More soldiers surrounded them in seconds.

"Surround Houki and Boushin," Nikki whispered. The group did so.

"This palace has been claimed in the name of Kutou. Surrender the empress and prince of Konan and we may consider letting you others survive."

"The guards will–" Nimue started.

"Your guards are either captured or dead. All of the captured will soon be killed as well."

"Chichiri…" Nikki whispered, "teleport Houki, Boushin, and Nimue to another village, one not too far away, but in perhaps Genbu's or Byakko's region, so Kutou can't follow you."

"The closest village is in Byakko's region."

"Fine. We'll meet you there. Now go!"

"Best of luck." Chichiri wrapped his kesa around the three and vanished. The guards were taken by surprise.

"On my word, attack at will. Don't go alone, but get out of the palace and into the village. Kill only the necessary guards. We'll move out from there," Nikki whispered to the remaining seishi.

"Kill them!" the first guard shouted.

"NOW!"

~A few days later…~

"I wonder where they could be…" Nimue said, looking towards the city entrance again. Four days had passed and there was no word of the others. Rumors had been flying since the four arrived.

"I hate to say it, but against all those guards, they were most likely either killed or captured."

"Houki, don't say that no da…"

It was four quiet days of waiting. No matter how much they denied the possibility that their long time friends were dead, there was no proof that they were alive. Nimue sighed, then gasped. At the entrance to the village was a tiger. Slowly, growling, it approached Nimue. Chichiri moved to protect her, but the tiger pounced, roaring. Nimue screamed as the tiger knocked her down and…proceeded to lick her face gleefully.

"What the…Tsunoiya?!"

In the tiger flesh!

Nikki, Kai-chi, Tsurai, and Tasuki stood at the entrance to the city.

"Nikki!" Chichiri ran over and pulled her into a hug.

"What the fuck? Chichiri, you…?"

"What no da?" Tsurai whispered something into Tasuki's ear.

"Ah…never mind…" Tasuki flashed his fanged smile.

"You were away so long we thought you were dead…" Houki said, walking up to join the group. Nimue would have done the same were she not still flat on her back with tiger Tsunoiya sitting on her stomach.

"We decided to lead the remaining villagers to a safer village. For now…the emperor of Kutou has put a reward on our heads. The throne room's surrounded, inside and out. The only way to get them to budge would be to kill them or scare them out…or get them from the source."

"We'll be doing that anyway, remember?"

Suddenly, a small blond boy ran in front of them bawking like a chicken and hobbling.

"Damn…" Tsunoiya said, staring. She had turned human form as he appeared.

"That is the village–" Houki began.

"Pseudo Midget–"

"Gremlin–"

"Chicken boy Greg!" Nimue, Nikki, and Tsunoiya chanted.

"He's a friend of ours from back home," Nimue explained.

"What god in his right mind brought him to this world?" Nikki asked.

"A drunk one, obviously."

Houki smiled.

"You all must be tired. I've arranged for some place for everyone to stay. The family that Boushin and I are staying with has room for one more."

"I'll stay," Kai-chi volunteered. Houki nodded her approval.

"Chichiri's staying in an empty house that belonged to my host's brother. There's room for more there. And there are two others with room for the rest of you."

"Tsurai and I are staying together," Tasuki said plainly.

"I am NOT staying with Tsunoiya. No offense, but a wet tiger smells really bad…" Nimue said.

"I only just finished making another mask no da, the fire destroyed my other one."

"Well then," Tsunoiya put an arm around Nikki's shoulder. "Looks like you and me'll be bunking together Nik!"

"Um, Nikki, you can stay with me no da."

Tsunoiya smirked and nudged her friend as Nikki blushed a bit.

"Aw damn it…" Nimue muttered.

"Kutou is rebuilding the palace last we saw. Tsurai watched them for a bit each night on the road. I'm guessing that from the rate they were going, they'll be done in mid-winter. We should attack then to reclaim the palace."

"But…"

"No buts. This isn't playtime anymore."

"Question." Tsunoiya raised her hand.

"Yeah?"
"If there are no buts, what about asses?" The girls and Tasuki cracked up. Nikki glared at them as

Chichiri rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on no da. The house is this way no da."

Tsurai wiped a tear from her eye as they left.

"She's way too serious about this whole thing."
"She'll loosen up when winter comes. I know her enough. She will."

Would you believe the Pseudo Midget Gremlin Chicken Boy really IS a friend of mine, Nimue and Tsunoiya's? He kept trying to erase his cameo =P But he didn't have a very good eraser. It's fun to annoy the Pseudo Midget. Review now please. Or I will hunt you down with my organic rubber haddock and pummel you.