Wa Ga Fushigi

Chapter Two: Lone Wolf

As if sight and the objects of sight's attentions could decay simultaneously, the world around Keifu was shattered with a burst of green energy and a shrieking dissonance. Jade-green light filled his eyes like the darkness of unconsciousness, spilling across his vision with all the pristine endlessness of a cold ocean current. Suddenly, to add to the nausea of the experience, a horrifying agony ripped through his being and from his mouth with the voice of a banshee, glassine colors flirting with the edge of his vision, the sensations of pain and the memory of it something to which no human being should be subjected. As if being carried on unsheltered by a great beast in the highest and windiest stratum of Earth's sky, currents whipped into his body, tumbling him round and round. Keifu was sure that if gravity had possessed dominance at this moment - for surely it did not - whatever would have excused for a floor would be pooled with his previous meals in varying stages of digestion.

When it was finally over, Keifu would remember later on, while feeling bored and introspective one day, that the first that had crossed his mind was the selfish ringing of Why me. . . ? However, the first thing Keifu could feel when he fell back into unconsciousness was a pain all over that he could find no source to. If someone had walked in right then, they would have seen what Keifu did not: a faint aura of green that was slowly flowing back into the book, taking the pain with it (leaving it behind?). For what felt like hours, all Keifu could do was reel from the sudden and unwarranted blast that had been dealt to his mind.

"What . . . what was that?" Keifu gasped out. As if it had been there all along, the book, "Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho," suddenly caught his attention. "You! You did that! Augh!"

In frustration, he weakly kicked the book from where he sat to the opposite end of the aisle, pretending the malefactor was a sentient object for a bit, if only to hope it could feel half as much pain as Keifu himself had been forced through. Sighing with resignation, he suddenly realized that he was alone in the library. Where…? Pushing himself up - the pain seemed to be only psychological, as his body was working as if perfectly normal - he searched the aisles for any sign of Ryuurei.

"Ryuurei! Ryuurei!!" He called, getting desperate. "Taregami-chan, if this is some kind of some kind of joke . . ." Again, his eyes fell onto the book, as if drawn to it. Feeling like an idiot, he treated the urge as request from the book, and replied accordingly.

"Go to hell, you've caused enough trouble as it is," He commanded the book. At least her being left behind meant she didn't go through that... that... whatever it was... Keifu decided. Sight being drawn to the book once more, he sighed in resignation. "All right, all right, I'll pick you up and read!"

Walking over to the book as if each step was a deadly blow to whatever dignity he possessed, Keifu hunched down with a huff and picked up the book, clumsily collapsing himself into a sitting position with his back against a shelf. Realizing that some of the books in this room were extremely old, and not quite as deserving of his indignation, Keifu winced and scooted up a bit from the shelf, adjusting his legs so that he was sitting Indian-style in the middle of the floor.

"Now . . . what is it you want," he muttered. Opening the book, he was surprised and not so much so that it was in Chinese. Figures, he thought, These are supposed to be old books after all... For a moment, the large picture of a bird caught his eyes, which widened in disbelief. Ryuurei said something about a bird . . . this bird...? Flipping the book around for a moment, Keifu stared at the kanji on the spine.

"What are you?" He asked it, not expecting an answer, though wanting one - quite understandably. Huffing when all he got was silence, Keifu flipped the book over again, not wanting the actually quite creepy urge to read the book invade his consciousness again, a hostile enemy dictating his (her?) demands. Deciding he had no-one to laugh at him for talking - the silence was actually beginning to unnerve him - Keifu began to speak out loud, if only to convince himself that all this: being dropped into the middle of mainland China, jettisoned back to the library, leaving Ryuurei behind; all of it, had happened.

"This is a story about a girl who collected the seven Seishi of Suzaku. She obtained omnipotent power and made her wishes come true." Omnipotent power? Wishes coming true? What's next, toilet monsters?? Keifu grinned suddenly. This coming from someone who's just been transported across an ocean twice in one day, instantaneously? Resuming his reading, Keifu became used to the old Chinese, reading more smoothly. "The story itself is an incantation. Whoever finishes reading it will receive this power. As soon as the page is turned, the story will become the truth and begin."

The first thing Ryuurei noticed was that the spells Chichiri were chanting now seemed to be entirely different: much more powerful, much more potent, she sensed that much - though still getting used to the idea of sensing anything. As he rose the customary sphere of crimson energy to protect them, the bandits had already wasted no time, and in many split seconds, thrown knives were narrowly diverted. Picking up a bit of what he was saying, Ryuurei found the Japanese - or was it Chinese? - To be complete gibberish.

"Ouniijyuuiiaino," and even stranger words with less sense to them. The words seemed to have no effect, unless they were just to maintain the shield Chichiri had created - although Ryuurei, backed up with that newly acquired sense of hers, didn't quite believe that. He was doing something differently this time, and it was because there was something dangerous here. Ryuurei scanned the group of bandits, almost laughing outright. Surrounded by an impenetrable shield, the more superstitious of the bandits - most of them - were milling about, almost standing, trying to decided whether or not to attack.

A sharp dissonance to her left reminded Ryuurei with a jolt that not all of them were going to be so easily put off. The one that had attacked them earlier, and a few others that looked the part of dirty lackeys, attacked the shield unrelentingly with assorted weapons; sword, nunchuka, shuriken, and even something that looked like two sticks with roughly spherical balls of metal on top. With another dissonance of metal on . . . magic? Ryuurei found herself whirling around to face a completely different direction, which Chichiri turned to face also.

With a jolt of surprise, Chichiri, with a speed that Ryuurei could barely catch, dispelled the shield in an outward-expanding shock wave (which effectively knocked back by several meters anyone within range), and held up his hands in an odd way that seemed anything but random movement. Then, almost instantaneously following - Ryuurei would remember later that she had seen something out of the corner of her eye even as the shield was dispelled - a jet of fire lunged out of the back hungrily, scorching several bandits that hastened to get out of the way. Although shocked, Chichiri seemed to divert the flow of flames easily, with nothing but ash from the outermost layer of skin on his hands showing that some effort had gone into the event.

Ryuurei watched with more fear than curiosity as a seemingly invisible force started from the furthest back and made its way up to them, the red shield rising once more. Chichiri faced the intruder with utmost seriousness, but Ryuurei could barely keep in laughter at what she had thought to be some kind of fire demon: she had not seen it because the pudgy man was too short to be seen over the heads of the others. Wider than he was tall, the man was unimpressive, and his huge nose and red face were darkened to comical tones by the similarly toned shield that separated him from Ryuurei and Chichiri. Ryuurei found out also his teeth were disgustingly decayed, as he opened his wide mouth in a child-like tantrum.

"What the hell do you two think you're doin'?! This is my territory and whoever passes through has ta pay the price!!" his voice was more hilarious than his size, sounding like a pig with a frog in its throat trying to give a speech over an unreliable PA system while being crushed to death. This time, Ryuurei couldn't help it, and laughed outright, despite the situation they were in. She quickly regretted it, if only because the obviously-intentioned leer the tub of lard gave her as a result gave her more than a bit of revulsion.

"Well, well, well . . . men, take care of the guy and snatch the girly next to 'im!" That puzzled Ryuurei. Did he have no idea that a magical shield separated them? Obviously not, because Face with the Scar bent down to whisper something in his ear. When he got up, the disdain was palpable, while the rage the pudgy man showed was disgusting, as no one wants to see a poorly armored man's stomach vibrate like water from rage - both of which he had ample amounts.

"Why you-! I'll show you two what a cheap magician's act you have!!" With a rage similar to a child's, the man lifted up a fan that Ryuurei had just noticed, and acted as if he were about to hit a baseball bat with it.

"Rekka, shinen!!" He cried out. As he did that, a great funnel of fire sprung out of the fan, and hurtled towards them at an alarming pace. While Chichiri stiffened from surprise, Ryuurei watch as the fire seemed to burrow its way through the shield. Just as the heat was beginning to be unbearable, however, the fire simply circled around the shield, creating another sphere as if from a cast, and dispersed.

"WHAAT!!" the fat idiot cried out. As if one time hadn't been enough, he tried again, and even though the shield nearly shattered, the end result was the same: just as the attack was about to make contact with the target, it circled around them, formed a sphere, and dispersed.

"That's not fair!!" He declared, throwing the fan to the ground and stamping on it, "You broke this thing!" As if blaming it on them, the rage at not getting what he wanted seemed to turn his brain a bit quicker, and the fat man (was he the leader??) yelled out for everyone to attack. The shield gone, all hesitance disappeared, and as one mob, they attacked.

"This wouldn't be a problem if that guy didn't have his fan," Chichiri muttered, "And besides, there's too many people. All a shield would do would keep us sitting in one place while they could get more people . . . I don't know what else they seemed to have acquired. We best retreat from this, Ryuurei." Ryuurei gasped as Chichiri suddenly grabbed her shoulder, and chanted a quick word of apparent power. She watched as her body quickly dissipated into nothing, and her sight blurred shortly to focus again on the tiles of a traditional Chinese home.

"Chichiri, are we supposed to be on top of a roof?" She looked around, and didn't see him. Finally looking up, she saw Chichiri trying to free his clothes from the branches that had caught onto his cloak. "Chichiri! Aren't you supposed to be on the roof? Down here?" Ryuurei snickered a bit, as she tried to figure out a way to help the poor guy.

"Da! I never did learn how to land!"

Keifu leafed through the pages of the book, which had caused him so much frustration, and he noticed with a bit of surprise that beyond a certain point, the pages were blank. Turning back a bit to see what was already written, (the author died while writing it?) Keifu started in the center of the page, not knowing what to look for, only that the book seemed to be giving him some kind of urge to read it. Look at me, my God! Keifu thought, I'm listening to the orders of an urge, and placing the source as a book! I've lost it. He sighed, frustrated, as he read through the pages, something odd not catching his attention.

" . . . Just as the thief's knife was about to reach its target, a wandering monk with blue hair interceded, knocking the enraged bandit out of the way with a staff." Keifu's eyes widened. That's just what happened to us! What's going on here...? Skimming through the pages from the beginning, Keifu saw everything that had happened to him laid out in ink on paper that looked centuries old.

"The young boy saw that the village in the quaint landscape was being looted by pillagers, and awoke his female companion to alert her of the danger," Keifu read, increasingly shocked. He stopped for a moment. "Hey! I'm not a boy!" Looking over the insult - who to gain revenge against for it? - Keifu started again, this time going to a page which showed a guy surrounded by a crude picture of . . . maybe energy? He read the page opposite.

"Then, just as the lady was about to reply to her companion, he found himself enveloped by a green aura, and he disappeared entirely with a whistling of the wind, much to his companion's distress," Keifu nearly dropped the book at the ramifications. This book . . .it recorded everything! Was Ryuurei right... were we... in the book?! Hurriedly turning to the last page with writing on it, Keifu saw the kanji "to fall" appear, then many more words following. Looking back, Keifu went to the beginning of the sentence and began to read again.

"Despite her best efforts, the lady could not dislodge her benefactor from the tree in which they had landed, and after a crack of wood, the monk fell completely from the tree, nearly sliding off the roof . . ."

"Daa!" Chichiri said, rubbing his back, "That hurt!"

"Chichiri! Are you okay?" Ryuurei quickly became concerned after being shocked - he'd almost landed on top of her, after all, and the fall from the top of this building was no stair step either. Chichiri waved away the worry with a grin.

"I'm fine no da. Did I hurt you? I did almost fall onto you, na no da." Ryuurei shook her head, smiling a bit, relieved (both of them were).

"You didn't even get close, although you did get close enough, besides, you almost- . . . " Ryuurei was cut off by someone below them, who yelled his disapproval.

"Hey! Will'ya get down from there!! My roof ain't a hotel, so find someplace else to make noise!! Hey, pay attention!" Ryuurei peered over the edge of the roof, careful not to slip on the angled tiles, and saw a man jumping up and down, indignantly. Apparently, he'd been trying to get their attention for some time. Seeing her, the fiery-haired man calmed a bit - Ryuurei found herself getting tired of perverted men, since that was probably what he was thinking of - but he immediately resumed his yelling once he saw Chichiri.

"Hey, get down! I mean it, I don't even know how you got this close without me hearing, especially with the ruckus you caused on my roof!" the guy paused, his voice becoming intimidating. "If you're Eiken's, then I would run away quickly. Now." Ryuurei didn't respond, tired of getting death-threats. . . from a guy who acted like a child, for crying out loud! Giggling at that thought, the man of course immediately displayed a wounded pride.

"What're you laughing about?! I'm not a laughing matter, so what's got you giggling!" About when he swelled up like a puffer-fish, Ryuurei found herself almost falling off the roof laughing . . . God, she couldn't stop!

I . . . it's not even that funny! If I don't stop laughing soon... Chichiri gave her a concerned look, and, noticing the bandit swiftly becoming truly angry, took action. With a comic flair that few realized was often calculated, Chichiri put his hand over the girl's mouth and stopped her increasingly hysterical laughter. She's gone through enough for that kind of reaction, I guess, but this is the worst time for her to loose it! he thought.

"No, no, no, we don't mean to offend no da!" Chichiri hastened, seeing that the bandit was about to become permanently insulted, and therefore violent. "We were just passing through and a bandit group attacked us! So, you see, we're not from this 'Eiken' fellow no da." The red haired bandit regarded him with wary curiosity.

"Then, who're you from? One of those rival midget clans from Midorikawa?" he said, finally. Despite the suspicion in his tone, Chichiri relaxed, and let go of Ryuurei, who had just barely managed to get control of herself in time for the freedom. As far as he could tell, the thief had let up his guard, and from what Chichiri could tell, the fact that they were or were not from a clan based in Midorikawa wasn't really important to the guy.

"No, we're not," Chichiri replied. "So, is it all right if we come down from here? It's rather uncomfortable, no da."

The man studied them for a moment: a girl who looked foreign and had suddenly went from near-hysterical laughter to near-panic just a moment ago, and a man in monk clothing who apparently knew enough magic to conceal their approach, or maybe even move without using physical means. After a bit, he shrugged, and laid confidence in a wandering monk's tendency to be non-violent unless provoked - the fact that he probably possessed magic also made the bandit wary to refuse, maybe he'd be turned into a toad or something if he refused . . .

An affirmation as small as a shrug was all Chichiri needed, and he picked up Ryuurei and jumped down to the ground. Startled by the unexpected transport, she picked herself up from Chichiri's grasp rather hastily, and almost stumbled when she reached the ground. Blushing a bit, Ryuurei tried to change the subject, when she saw that Chichiri did not share her embarrassment.

"So . . .what's your name?" she said awkwardly. "Atashi no namae Kinpaku Ryuurei desu ka." Slightly surprised at the respectful greeting, the man replied somewhat politely in turn.

"People usually call me Genrou," he said, shrugging once more. "So I guess that's what you should call me." Not knowing what else to do, 'Genrou' walked back into his house, and left Ryuurei with the awkward moment. Sighing in frustration at how strange everyone she met was, she bowed sarcastically.

"Hajime mashite." She said to the air. He could've at least answered her as politely as she had spoken. As Genrou's back retreated into the house, and through the door, Ryuurei felt irritable enough to be insulting. "I guess that if you're raised by drunk bandits, you can't be all that mannerly, can you? Hmph!"

When the silence she had expected went on for a bit too long, Ryuurei looked out the corner of her eye and saw where Chichiri . . . wasn't? Immediately suspecting the worst, that he had dissapeared as suddenly as he had arrived. Almost instinctively supressing an urge to panic, Ryuurei chanced a look behind the trees and even around the corner of the house, and finally went back to where she had been standing, and stared at the horizon. Now, she was definetly alone- . . .

"Ne, Ryuurei-san, do you need my help? Are you looking for something no da?" Ryuurei turned around. . . and stared at Chichiri, who was waving from the window, smiling, oblivious to all the anxiety she'd just gone through. Deciding his grin was sincere enough so that the monk wasn't teasing her, Ryuurei blushed furiously when she realized how idiotic she must've looked, searching for something - as if she'd anything to loose asides from the lint in her pockets! Not even daring to turn around to begin walking into the house until her blush had completely faded, Ryuurei stared at the horizon. Suddenly, the horizon showed signs of movemnent: it had to be Eikan's bandits, looking for them.

Not wanting to chance being a beacon of movement to draw the bandits here, to this guy Genrou's house, she ducked inside, temporarily forgetting her embarassment. Genrou was sitting tiredly on a stool, and Chichiri had taken up a spot near a corner of the surprisingly small room. The monk looked up, his face smiling (didn't his cheeks hurt, a permanent grin on them like that?) and his question innocent enough.

"Did you find what you were looking for, Ryuurei-san?" he asked. She blushed again, to her chagrin. When she didn't respond, Chichiri looked at her curiously. "Ryuurei-san?"

" Na- . . . Nandemonai. I didn't need it anyway." Ryuurei said hastily. She turned around to shut the windows, almost paranoid . . . maybe just because she'd stepped into a safety that could be so easily broken, like cracked glass: an obviously flawed peace, at even the most optimistic outlook.

"Oi, Taregami-chan, baka, if you like the guy, just go an' talk to him! Don't blush . . . come to think of it, I've never seen you blush." he chuckled. "I would pay to see you blush. Nevermind. Keep being embarassed. I'll be right there."

Almost laughing outright when he found himself expecting to be whooshed into the book again, Keifu nevertheless sobered when he thought of how awkward or tired or even perhaps scared Ryuurei must be, dropped into a world inside the past that shouldn't exist at all. He hoped this monk Chichiri was as nice as the book would tell him - he'd only met the man for a moment before the book had thrown him up into the real world. Suddenly, in a mood swing that was odd, for him, Keifu sighed.

"Rei-chan, you're either gonna get me in big trouble with my family or give me pre-maturely graying hair." he said, a bit tiredly. But then, he froze. He heard someone. Someone was walking up the steps! Keifu didn't even want to think what would've happenned if the janitor or guard or whatever hadn't been whistling loud enough to catch his attention. Shutting the book with a thwap that caused the whistling to stop, Keifu's mind raced a mile a minute as he looked for a place to hide. Glancing about him, he realized that it would be next to impossible to avoid detection. Unless . . . Grabbing the ladder and running up it as quietly as he could go, Keifu squeezed himself as far away from the door as possible on top of the bookshelf, and prayed that the old wood wasn't aged enough to give way under his added weight.

"Who's there?" a man said. It was a guard, Keifu thought, but he couldn't really tell for sure. The man did shook his head a bit amusedly. "Koishikawa must've left the door unlocked again." Getting out a set of keys, Keifu barely let himself breath as the man went through the keys to find the one to this room. It seemed to Keifu, in his adrenaline-tinted state, that the man was purposefully taking forever to find the key, each candidate picked up slowly and discarded after what seemed like a few minutes inspection. Finally, when the guard found the right key, he picked it out of the brass loop and locked the door firmly.

"I swear, I have no idea how that guy is keeping his job here, he always- . . . " Keifu didn't find out what "Koishikawa" always did, as the door closed and cut him off from ever finding out. Not that he was extremely depressed about it. Keifu almost slid down the ladder from his cramped position on the shelf, and almost giddily made sure the door was firmly closed. It was, and he was safe from being found, and he could get out whenever he wanted: the door was locked on the outside only.

"I take that back. It's not or," Keifu said, to himself, "It's both: Ryuurei is gonna get me into trouble and get me grey hair." Walking back to the ladder slowly, Keifu sat down on the floor, but then thought better of it. If someone did try to get in, the warning of a key jingling could end up not being enough warning for him to hide if he was in plain view like this. . . Dragging the stepladder to a wall-shelf, he sat down in a the corner least visible from the door, put the book in his lap. Opening it up once more, Keifu found himself at the beginning again.

"I need to reasearch this book, figure it out . . . but later." he said to himself. "Right now . . . hmm, what're you doing, Ryuurei?" Feeling like he sounded crazy, talking to himself like this, Keifu closed his mouth, and read.

"An awkward silence enveloped the room, and the Suzaku no miko found herself at a lack of words . . . "

"That bakayaro ," Genrou commented, suddenly. It wasn't the best phrase to begin a conversation with, but Genrou had been the first to speak in this little house for a long while, so Ryuurei decided not to be picky.

"What did you say?" Ryuurei asked, pretending she'd not heard the bandit when he first spoke. In response, Genrou shrugged and indicated with his hands the closed window, probably he meant what was outside it.

"That bakayaro , Eikan," Genrou elaborated. The man had sat down on the floor a bit ago, and now moved to reclaim his empty chair. "And all those idiots who're listening to him. Especially the ones who really aren't all that dumb." Ryuurei didn't know how to reply to that, she'd no idea what the guy was talking about. Silence reigned for abit more, and it was surprisingly Chichiri who broke it this time,.

"It's easy to see you hold Eikan in disdain," Chichiri began, "But what makes you hate him enough so that you'll threaten to murder his allies?" Genrou had the politeness to pause and at least act contrite at that. However, he answered the question directly after it would've been polite to, so soon afterwards, in fact, that there was very little doubt about the lack of sincerity in his manners. Ryuurei glanced at Chichiri for a moment, and smiled a bit.

"Eikan is a fat man with the nose of a pig who doesn't have the brains of a stump pissed on by a dog," Genrou said, for the first time something other than apathetic or falsly menacing: angry, "But, when the previous leader of the clan died, I happenned to be away on business. Against the master's deathwish, Eikan took up the position of leader, and forced all the guys to go along with it."

"Your bandits don't seem like ones that are easily put under thumb," Chichiri sad, not satisfied with that answer. Genrou smiled at that, but it was a sad, contrite, or maybe even a disgusted smile.

"You've probably met our dear Eikan. If so, you've probably already noticed that he is the most incompetent rambling idiot on the face of the earth," Tasuki replied, "So, since you ran away from him, you've also met the only reason why any idiot on the earth could've become the leader of a bandit clan faimed for visciousness."

"That fan!" Ryuurei exclaimed, miming out the action Eikan had made when casting fire with it. Genrou nodded, sighing. Ryuurei suddenly giggled, though quietly enough so that it was ignored by the bandit without him realizing it.

"The Tessen. It can incinerate anything you want, all you need to know is the incantation, and you've got it made," Genrou said, almost regrettingly. "While the entire clan was burying the master, Eikan made off with the Tessen, and somehow found out the spell for it. When the bandits came back, it was either listen to that block of fat or be incinerated: not a nice way to die- . . ." Suddenly, Genrou cut off his story, and looked out of the corner of his eye at Ryuurei narrowly. On and off, she had been giggling at something , and it was beginning to get on his nerves. Right before he was about to say something, she realized something else, and now looked near tears.

" Anou . . . you do realize that a moment ago you were giggling like insanity itself, and now you look on the edge of hysterics, right . . . ?" Genrou commented, unable to resist a jibe.

"Exuse me, but I have been thrown into another world, rippied out of my old life, my normal life, had my friend come along for the ride, the taken away from me," Ryuurei started, "I have been almost killed about seven million times now, by who knows how many knives, flames, and blood-thirsty creeps! The only people I have for companionship are a monk and a bandit, and I think I am being quite enduring since I'm not on the floor in tears! So I apologize if I don't want to loose my head in front of a bunch of strangers !!"

With that, the Suzaku no miko stalked over to a chair, sat herself fully in it, and immediately put her arms on her table and her head on her arms. Maybe this is why I don't like women, Genrou thought, One minute she's laughing her head off, the next she's screaming at me and near crying, and now, she's thinking rationally! Argh!

Eventually, Ryuurei straightened out in her chair, and began to look like she was honestly thinking. For a while, Genrou didn't say anything, but when Ryuurei got up, he cringed, not wanting another diatribe from the girl at the moment. But, Ryuurei's actions were so surprising and sudden, even impulsive, that the thief was shocked enough to nearly fall out of his own chair.

"We're going to help you," Ryuurei said, with an air of desperate finality. "You deserve that position, not Eikan, and we're gonna help you get your Tessen back." Chichiri interupted, though, before Genrou had a chance to respond.

"As much as both of us want to do that, Ryuurei-san," Chichiri began, slowly, "We don't have nearly enough magic spells and fighting skills combined to take on an entire clan of bandits that are out to capture or maybe even kill us no da." Ryuurei suddenly turned to face Chichiri, and her eyes had a look of pleading that the monk found hard to resist.

"Listen, Chichiri. . . I wasn't just looking for something to compain about when I said all that a bit ago," Ryuurei began, "I admit that I was probably about to loose it. But, if I just sit here all day and wait for Eikan to find us and do whatever he wants, I will most definetly go crazy. I need to do something . . . anything . . . and if we do this, we help someone else, not just me. Onegaishimasu , Chichiri-san."

Chichiri looked at her with eyes that smiled, and a mouth that grinned, but she could still tell that he was looking at her, trying to figure out how much of what she said was felt in her soul. She felt like another set of eyes, ones that never smiled, were looking deep into her, and she almost blushed because of it. But, any embarassment she would've experienced was cut off by Tasuki, who had suddenly become very fed up with something, and was reacting like a child.

" Moshi moshi ," he said dryly. Then, "I'm right here! Don't talk about me as if I'm not here! Look, right here, me! So at least act like I exist!!" The smile Ryuurei gave Genrou to placate him was so big and false that it made one's teach ache. She looked at him patronizingly.

"Now now, Genrou-kun, I know all too well that you exist. Happy?" she asked him. The sullen boy was about to say something about not patronizing him, but Ryuurei immediately lost the false smile and returned with one that was much more sincere. Turning back towards Chichiri, Genrou was at a loss for words. Dangit, women confused him so much!

"Well, all we really have to do is retrieve the Tessen," Chichiri began, hesitantly, "We could sneak in during the night and get it from Eiken; it would be possible to wake up only him if we were extremely careful, no da . . ." Ryuurei grinned happily, and then gained a set look on her brow. Almost marching out to the door, she opened it and happily found everything to be beautiful: mountain air was fresh, the house was muggy, the plants smelled nice, the house smelled like old men, the outside was refreshing . . . the Genrou was inside the house. . .

"Aren't . . . you coming?" she said, staring strangely at first the sunset, then Genrou, Chichiri, and the big falling ball of flaming death in the sky once more. Genrou responded with a laugh of his own, though certainly it wasn't real. "Come on, if we head out now, we'll get there by dark, they'll be asleep, right? Hard day's work thieving, all that. . ."

"Of course not," Genrou said, "A lot of the bandits are guys who left their families and are just now experiencing complete absence of rules. We'll head out around midnight, when they all start drinking. If we go slow, we'll get there just about when most of the people have passed out from the sake ."

"A good idea," Chichiri agreed. The monk watched in mild surprise as Ryuurei, slightly miffed, stalked into the house, closed the door, and gathered three of the four chairs - Genrou was in the fourth - in the house/room, and put them against the wall, back facing outwards. Sliding into the little tunnel that made, Ryuurei was promptly lying down and getting comfortable. It was Genrou's turn to stare at the girl strangely, and he was about to ask before Ryuurei answered herself.

"I'm going to sleep. If I have to choose between staying up all night with you lunatics and going to sleep early for once, then waking up when I normally go to sleep, I will gladly be snoring in a few," Ryuurei stated flatly. "G'night."

"Oh, so you snore, then?" Genrou poked, unable to resist.

"I do not! You know what I mean, baka ," Ryuurei retorted, "Shut up or be quiet or something , and let me sleep!"

"I hate to say it, Ryuurei, but you snore. Loudly ," Genrou commented quietly. From her place in the bushes right next to him, she swiveled around to face him loudly.

"I do not snore! I've never snored in my life, baka , my parents will attest!" Ryuurei hissed, "How- . . ."

"Quiet! We don't want to tell everyone within five hundred li to hear us, girl!" Genrou said, trying to sound severe but coming across as bossy, "We want to be able to get the Tessen, and get out! And to do that without killing a bunch of people and getting ourselves killed in the process, we need to be quiet !"

"Fine, fine, just follow your own advice," Ryuurei retorted, which caused Genrou to realize his voice had been steadily escalating until it approximating what most would definitely call a "loud tone." Not missing a beat, Genrou turned to Chichiri and changed the subject.

"Is it clear yet, Kinoko-chan?" he demanded, "This is getting boring!" Chichiri made an odd kind of half-grin half-grimace at the nickname he'd earned while Ryuurei was asleep. Signaling Genrou to be quiet, the monk concentrated a bit harder for a few more seconds, and finally gave up on an accurate sensing.

"The Tessen is interfering a lot from all the use its getting in the time frame I'm searching, which doesn't make a good omen for us, and besides, I haven't analyzed it enough in person to ignore that static," Chichiri said, finally. "But I can say that I'm reasonably sure that no-one is near enough to interfere, no da." Genrou moaned in response to his luck.

"Just great! And you're supposed to be a monk? Oi . . . " he stopped complaining when Ryuurei poked him. Leaning to the side a bit, Ryuurei put her hand over her mouth, and whispered to Genrou conspiratorially.

"He can teleport, did you know?" Ryuurei asked. Genrou nodded, wondering what this was all about. "But, he can't land." At that, Genrou stifled a grin and looked from her to the monk rapidly, trying to contain a laugh, and did so by standing up slightly from his crouching position, showing no sign of ache from the long time he'd been in that one position. Ryuurei winced as she followed suite, and if Chichiri did, she couldn't tell under that grin of his. Unsure of herself, Ryuurei fell behind Chichiri, trying to step as quickly as he and also where he stepped, since he seemed to be able to find every place where there was no leaves or branches to make noise by stepping on. But, despite her best efforts, she still crackled and crunched along, as if her sound waves wanted someone to discover them.

Studying Chichiri's feet for a bit, she discovered he was walking a bit differently that normal, and tried to imitate. Her stealth quite suddenly became much improved, and Chichiri noticed, giving an approving nod and smile. Smiling back, Ryuurei was concentrating so much on being quiet that she didn't notice until a few seconds inside that they had gotten into the thieves' hideout undetected. Giving a little cheer, she quickly silenced herself when she saw how badly Chichiri tensed at that small sound. He and Genrou were both on edge, and it was infecting her with paranoia. Glancing behind her quickly, hearing something, she felt as if she her peripheral vision had just missed seeing someone. Shuddering, she walked a little faster, a little closer to the two, and turned around.

She was sure of it. She wasn't being paranoid, she wasn't being stupid or jumpy: someone was following them. She had heard something three times, and thrice turned around feeling like she had just missed seeing something, someone. Turning quietly so that she could talk to the other two without going above a whisper, Ryuurei got their attentions with a tap on the shoulder that made each jump maybe one or two miles high.

"We're being followed. I'm sure of it." Ryuurei said, as quietly as she could. To her surprise, Genrou turned around and stopped. Chichiri stopped about a step behind Genrou, and put himself in front of Ryuurei (or maybe just the Suzaku no Miko. . . though why that was bothering to think of it was beyond her at the time). Genrou suddenly called out, dropping all pretenses of stealth.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" he called, almost as if he expected to know who would answer. Ryuurei then heard a man speak, but it was from the strangest person she knew, the way he answered it.

"Knock knock! Who's there? You already asked that," Said the man, "But this is Kouji anyway. Oh Kouji, so nice to see you, let me open the door. Arigato ."

"Kouji!! Where've you been!" As if by some unknown, arcane, and rather disturbing sense, the two of them embraced without knowing where the other had been originally, hooked arms, and started. . . dancing. . . eh? What's going on?? Ryuurei moaned, slapping her forehead. Why is it that every person I meet is another weirdo? Genrou and the "Kouji" character went on talking, loudly at that, and Ryuurei shared a look that she interpreted as " I'll take the blue-haired guy, " with Chichiri. Nodding, she ran up to Genrou and clamped a hand over his mouth, dragging him to where Chichiri had deposited Kouji after making him shut up.

"What do you two think you're doing ?!" Ryuurei demanded, "We've gotten this far, and if you two screw it up because you decided to have some family reunion or something in the middle of enemy territory, I will personally come back to haunt you after I die!"

"Too late," the Kouji guy chortled. Ryuurei reacted immediately and grabbed the blue-haired man in a fury.

"Are you some kind of spy or something?! Why didn't you at least try to stop the guy if you're our friend, you were over there a minute ago!" Ryuurei demanded of the guy. She sighed when the other bandit, who was running down the hall, presumably to reach Eiken, began yelling to wake up, the other boss is here, Kouji defected with him, and another girl is with 'em too! "Answer me!" Genrou quickly separated the two, and sighed.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, hime-sama," he said a bit dryly, "This is Kouji. We've been buddies since before Eiken became a nuisance, so you don't have to worry about the spy bit. As for the thief. . . that was unfortunate. Besides, Kouji was standing on the wrong side of the hall to stop that guy.

"How . . . could you tell?" Ryuurei asked, dripping sarcasm, "Most of the hall is completely dark, and only you two seem to be able to find anything, and then, only each other."

"Hey hey! Now is not the time for fighting amongst ourselves, right Kinoko-chan?" Genrou asked. After explaining whom he was talking about, Kouji introduced himself to the monk, who was concentrating so hard that only a cursory " Hajimemashite " came out of the man's mouth.

" Shimmata !" cried Chichiri. "They're way too many of them, even with the Tessen static interfering!" Kouji looked at the monk with shock, and then realized he was , after all, a monk, he probably would know how to see people not there yet, wouldn't he?

"What do you suggest we do, Chichiri-san?" Kouji asked. Chichiri pursed his lips.

"You two need to hold them off as long as possible, no da," he replied. "Teleportation spells are dangerous without an anchor magic at both origin and destination, and since we have neither, only interference, it's going to take a bit to make a teleportation spell that won't kill us, no da."

"What can I do, Chichiri?" Ryuurei asked, eager to help. Chichiri considered a bit too long, and Ryuurei realized she could do little to affect the outcome of this battle. Finally, Chichiri seemed to come up with a response.

"You are the Suzaku no Miko," Chichiri stated, "Suzaku would not have chose you if there hadn't been some kind of ability latent within you. Please concentrate along with the words I say, it may help, even if you don't understand what they mean." Accepting that all she could do wasn't easy, but Ryuurei decided she'd probably hinder the two who looked more than able to protect themselves. Genrou was getting out a weapon, but for some reason, also paper strips with overly calligraphic Japanese written on them, while Kouji was getting out- . . . his knife . . .

That man!

He was the one who tried to kill Ri!

She hadn't recognized him in the dark and in all her adrenaline... but... that was definitely him!

"Hey, you!" Ryuurei yelled at him, suddenly as angry at the strange man as if he had been responsible for Keifu disappearing and everything else than had happened to her that she disagreed with. When he turned around, she slapped him as hard as she could.

"What was that all about?!" Genrou and Kouji demanded. Ryuurei ignored Genrou but focused on Kouji instead.

"Don't you remember, bakayarou ," she said coldly. Suddenly, the man's eyes widened. "That's right. That was for trying to kill me and my friend." Suddenly, though, Ryuurei let up, as if too tired emotionally to be mad at someone. Sighing, she gave him a light nudge towards where the thieves were coming.

"I forgive you now, since you're friends with Genrou, although that won't take the red mark away, I guess . . . I was mad, and you happened to be there. Sorry." Kouji merely nodded uncertainly, and turned back to the bandits, the slap forgotten in the face of battle-concentration. The first bandit was a lone idiot who was trying to show off and grievously under-estimated Kouji with his relatively small knife. While Kouji set about beating the man up, Genrou got out his pieces of paper, and chanted an incantation. Chichiri's eyes widened as he realized the thief could manipulate at least a little magic. Ryuurei gasped when black demon-like wolves appeared, and began to attack the men. Suddenly, though, a wave of flame ripped through and scorched the stone hall, and Chichiri only just managed to set up a shield against it, cannibalizing the spell he was using for the energy. Flame and shield quickly canceled each other out, being of the same element and of the same god, each forced against the other in a warped fashion.

" Shimmata !" Chichiri cried out, his voice sound normal and lower than his usual high-pitch trill. Sounding more serious and threatening because of this, Ryuurei looked at him, surprised. When Eiken screamed again and tried to blast them apart with the flame, Chichiri used up what little energy he had left in the teleportation spell to erect a barrier that snapped in almost an instant. That was okay, though, because the flames were affected too, although they managed to travel far enough to burn away Genrou's wolves. Suddenly, though, Chichiri took action.

"Genrou, let me have your fuda! Quickly!!" the monk demanded. Baffled by the request, Genrou gave Chichiri a few of his fuda, and the monk suddenly was glowing with red energy, his kanji glowing on his knee, meaning "well." Three of the fuda floated in the air on their own, and began to eat away at themselves, producing red auras which Ryuurei guessed was magical energy - she also guessed that this was a desperate move.

"Together we could handle these guys, but Ryuurei would be in danger! We can't let her come to harm, no da!" Chichiri cried out, "Genrou, I'll try to send you and Kouji with her at first, and then use a high-power spell to subdue the thieves and get that Tessen for you, but keep Ryuurei safe in exchange na no da!" Right as Ryuurei was about to protest, she heard Chichiri mutter a few words, and suddenly, the sounds of battle and knives and wolves were replaced by . . .nature? She was on the roof of the house! Again! Almost laughing with relief, Ryuurei felt giddy, but then stopped, frozen.

"Chichiri, the others . . . " she whispered. Looking around her frantically, she saw that Chichiri's spell had apparently malfunctioned, and only she had been teleported. And she doubted Chichiri had been aiming for the roof of Genrou's house once more. "What're they doing?! They can't fight against that many people! Baka! At least when I was there I could do something, but now I'm just supposed to sit here and wait ?!"

"dammit . . . " she cursed out loudly. Sighing, she made her way down the roof, much slower than before. She kept getting the feeling that someone was watching, but then, she was always feeling that here; most likely it was left-over paranoia from the hide-out. Cursing one more time the malfunctioned spell, Ryuurei went inside the hideout and closed the windows, just for good measure. The hideout had no locks, nothing was really of value here that you couldn't get much easier somewhere else the isolation helped too.

Cursing fate just one more time, Ryuurei decided to concede to her exhaustion, and go to sleep. Upon lying down, she fell asleep almost instantly.

"Chichiri, I don't know about you, but I was expecting to go with the girl to wherever it was you sent her," Genrou commented, having disappeared only to reappear directly behind the monk. Chichiri whirled around and groaned.

"I should've waited and used more stable magic," he lamented. But he brightened a bit. "At least she's safe though. I sent her to the house we met you in, and it's isolated enough to be safe until we finish here." For good measure, Genrou cast a few more wolf phantoms, and joined in the fight once more. Kouji, who had re-materialized outside the den, in front of the entrance, appeared a few moments later, obvious by his tired appearance that he had just fought through many men to reach the monk.

"Looks like your magic didn't work, Chichiri-san," Kouji commented. Chichiri stared angrily at the floor.

"I wasn't thinking clearly. That's never happened before. I just wanted her to be safe, but… now she is, so it's okay, then." Chichiri said softly. Kouji didn't reply. "dammit, if only these men could see some sense and realize - . . . Kouji, who is that?" Chichiri pointed at one man who had just knocked out someone aiming a crossbow at Kouji. The big man smiled and waved, and went about knocking out everyone around him. Kouji smiled, and realized that he was helping them. Brightened considerably, Kouji began to yell over the din while fighting.

"Hey guys! All you bandits!!" Kouji cried out, after knocking out an idiot who had rushed him - he was getting tired, he couldn't do this for much longer. "I'm the most respected one around here, except maybe Eiken ." The sarcasm in his voice was evident. As Kouji punched another man and then repelled another with his knife, his voice worked its own sort of magic, and inspired a few more to aid Genrou and the others.

"As the warriors fight, the second in command, who has joined the Suzaku Seishi whom have so far assembled, begins to persuade others to their cause," Keifu read. Well, things are starting to look up for the good guys now! Coolie! he thought. "Inspired by this speech, more and more of the bandits join the Suzaku Seishi, until fully two portions of three stand against Eiken, leaving him with only those too scared to rebel, therefore those too scared to fight on a loosing side."

"As the priestess unwillingly sleeps in relative safety, her worries are perhaps unjustified, as the victory is won by the Seishi and their allies just when the sun begins to rise." Keifu read. "However, the safety of the priestess is as fragile as cloud wisp, for an advancing tide who know not that the rebel is no longer leader… they still grudgingly look for the priestess, to bring her to their rebel leader, dead or alive..."

"Maybe, just maybe, I had my doubts, Kouji, but you can't say that I thought we would lose, that's unfair! I'm shocked and offended," Genrou said. Kouji paid no attention to this, and pushed the new leader of the bandit clan into the lime lighted stage - although it was just as crowded and low as the rest of the people. Chichiri was off to one corner, and he looked worried for no reason—to the thief, at least: they had the Tessen back, after all, and Eiken, with six supporters of his that Kouji had been glad to get rid of any way, had been cast out of the bandit clan.

"Are you sure that nothing could happen to- …" Chichiri was cut off by Genrou running towards Chichiri, his eyes wild, and face pale...

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Translations:

"Atashi no namae Kinpaku Ryuurei desu ka." -- "My name is Ryuurei Kinpaku."

"Hajime mashite," -- an introduction.

"Nandemonai," -- "Nothing," or maybe "Never mind."

I think everyone knows baka - idiot ^_^.

"Anou" -- "Umm . . . "

"Sake" -- alcohol.

"Li," -- ancient unit of measuring distances in Asia.

"Arigato" -- "Thank you."

"Shimmata" -- "Damn/Shit"

"Fuda" -- basically magic based on usage of paper talismans ^_^;;

One more thing: you're probably wondering about Genrou/Tasuki's nickname for Chichiri. Well, that's a culture bit from Korea and China: in olden times, monks were to be celibate, and reinforced this by eating mushrooms, which they believed to be a potent anti-aphrodisiac ^_^;;. Eventually, the fungus was identified with the monks/priests overall. So, Tasuki brands Chichiri as Kinoko-san: a double insult/jibe, since Kinoko can mean mushroom, or be a girl's name if you use other kanji.