| Part 3 Reese sighed as she looked out the window. It had happened three more times since she had been at the hotel. It was really bugging her. She had no clue what it meant. "Maybe I'm going insane," she mumbled to herself. She doubted it however. This had all happened when she had gone into the downtown area of Tokyo. That's where, according to her father, a huge earthquake had happened and nearly had destroyed all of Tokyo. Maybe it had something to do with that "No" she shook her head. She was suddenly standing in the desert again. "DAMN IT!! I'm getting a LITTLE sick of this!" Reese crossed her arms over her chest and waited for the hotel room to appear again. Nothing happened. She put her hands on her hips. Still nothing happened. "What the HELL?" she screamed into the barren land, "Why am I not going back?" Something moved behind her. Reese spun around just in time to see the heel of a foot headed for her head. She dropped to the ground and screamed. She heard a muffled curse then silence. "Nakago no Miko-sama?" The voice was young, confused, and male, "Is...is it really you?" Reese risked a glance up at the young man. She studied his bright blue eyes, his light green hair, his dull brown clothes, and his slim figure. "Nani?" Reese replied equally confused. He held a hand down to her, which Reese reluctantly took, and helped her to her feet. "I'm Ketsa, a Nakago Seishi. And what is your name, Nakago no Miko-sama?" "Um...Reese," Reese mumbled out, very unsure of what was going on. "Reese-sama, I should take you back to the others. They will be very glad that you have come at last." "At...last..." Ketsa didn't hear what she said as he dragged her off. He did, however, hear her mumble, "Nakago no Miko? Priestess? Nakago's Priestess? Who the hell is Nakago? What the hell is Nakago? What the hell is going on? Where the hell am I? What the hell am I? I'm so confused. Who the hell are you again?" She asked the last question a bit more loudly so her male companion could hear it loud and clear. "I'm Nakago Seishi Ketsa. You aremaybe it would be better if Wataru or Kaijin or Kain explained this to you. I'm not very good at this," the youth admitted with his head down, looking for sand traps. "Who the hell are Wataru, Kaijin, and Kain? Why the hell can't you explain it?" Reese was fuming now and Ketsa didn't know what to do. He would let Kaijin handle it. She would know. She was the only other woman after all. "Um...they are the other three Seishi." "Meaning?" Ketsa stepped to the side and motioned for Reese to do the same. "They are your other protectors. They are the other three that were born just for you. They should have been three more but-" "Stop the clocks! My what? Protectors? Did you say protectors? Protectors from what? Why do I need protecting?" As she spoke it, she fell into a sand trap. With speed of a cat, Ketsa had her hand in his and was pulling her to safety. He blushed slightly when his hand brushed her chest. "I'm...thank you," Reese breathed out in barely a whisper. "Step where I step," Ketsa said in a equally soft voice. They slowly made their way back to the hut. The hut was not large. It only had two rooms, a bedroom and a sitting room that they also used for cooking, or so Reese was told. She sat on the dusty ground and listened quietly to Kaijin's story. Reese nodded her head once or twice as the bits of information became understood. When she was finished, Reese stood and looked at the four, still slightly confused. "Okay...so this Nakago guy...he sounds like a nice guy, right? I mean, he brought his people back from the dead. So...why did this Byakko no Miko seal him?" "'Cuz she's a bitch!" the one called Wataru yelled out. Reese turned to him. He was about the same age as Ketsa, maybe a year older. His blue eyes that were filled with adventure. Reese smiled at him. "Okay...she was bitch. But why would they find Nakago a threat unless they knew something about him that you guys don't. I mean, was he always your God? Maybe he wasn't and these guys knew that he would try something." When Wataru jumped up and thunder clashed in the background, Reese put up her hands in defense. "I'm not saying that he would. I'm just saying that they found him threatening. Who's to stop them from stopping m- this Miko of yours from calling him." "We are," Kain forcefully replied. "Nakago-sama is our God and they had no right to seal him, no matter what he might have done in a past life. He would not do it again." Kaijin stepped up next to her twin. "I agree. Will you help us by unsealing Nakago-sama?" Reese thought about it for a minute. "I...I guess I have no choice if I want to go home, right? What do I have to do?" **** Reese rubbed her gloved hands together before hitting them against her well-covered arms. She looked around the ruins nervously from where she stood with Kaijin as the two waited for the three men to come back. She managed a glance at Kaijin. The other female was merely standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. A blank look occupied her face as she stared with unseeing eyes into the ruins. Although Reese could tell that she was talking her twin, for it had been explained earlier Kaijin and Kain could speak telepathically, she had to know what was going on down in the ruins below. "Um, Kaijin," Her voice was shaking as she spoke, "what's happening down there? Did they find the shinzaho yet?" "Sh," was the harsh reply. Reese frowned but was silent. She slowly returned her gaze to the ruins. She sighed as she waited in an unhappy state of agony for the return of the guys. It was a short wait, but it seemed forever to Reese, she was washed over in relief when she saw Wataru's figure coming over the rise. In the past few weeks, she had really come to care about these four people. She didn't know how she would feel if even one did not come back. "Wataru!" she screamed excitedly as she ran to him and hugged him. His face was beaming as he hugged her back. "We found them." Kain's calmer voice said before the brash Wataru could say one word. His figure came next. It was followed closely by Ketsa. Reese had a hug for each of them, but the biggest and longest was saved for Ketsa. He was the one that had found her and the one that she felt closest to. On the road to Genbou country, Ketsa had been the one she had found still awake on cold nights, and the one that she had gotten to know the best. He was the fourth child of a poor merchant family, and they could barely get food on the table for the five that were there before him. They had left him at the doorstep of another family, Wataru's. The two had grown up as brothers and had seen each other through everything. It was when Ketsa was twelve that he had figured out what the two of them were. It had happened when Wataru's sister had fallen in a deep well. Ketsa was the one who had saved her by jumping in after her then jumping back out. Everyone said he had had the moves and grace of a cat. That was when Ketsa knew that he was special. It was when he heard that two people, one male and one female, were looking for youths with special abilities and a symbol somewhere on their body, that Ketsa knew why he was special. He remember the exact moment that he had heard them call him a Nakago Seishi, he had felt different. He had feltlike his life now made sense. Reese smiled at him now. "You found it," she replied to Kain. "That's so great. Now what?" The question was directed at Ketsa, but Kaijin answered. "Now we go back to the desert and call Nakago-sama." She turned and went back to the horses. A scream suddenly erupted in the air. Ketsa and Wataru went running toward the sound. Kain stayed with Reese already knowing the danger of leaving the Miko alone. Kaijin had also told him what she was screaming over. Suzaku Seishi Tasuki. "Nice shield, no da." Kain turned around to find Chichiri standing right behind him. He put himself between Reese and the monk. Reese craned her neck around Kain's bulk of a figure to look Chichiri in the eyes. He could tell that she did not fear him. "You will not stop our Miko. She will release Nakago-sama," Kain stated matter-of-factly. Chichiri frowned. He looked at Reese, his one eye focusing completely on her. She never flinched, and he looked away first. "Tasuki-kun!" he called. In a flash of red he and the bandit were gone. With them gone, Kain ran to his sister. Reese followed at jog. She was still confused by what the attack had meant. All she knew was that those two guys wanted her, and perhaps not alive. "What the hell was that all about?" she asked Ketsa when she saw him standing over Kaijin. She froze and placed her hand over her open mouth when she saw blood on the ground. She closed her eyes to collect herself before looking at the scene once again. When she looked at the scene this time, it wasn't as bad as she first has thought. Kaijin was holding her wounded arm and Ketsa had a small burn make on his cheek. Reese nearly broke down and cried for the second time in her life. The first time was when her mother had told her that they could leave the one bedroom trailer that the family shared. She sunk to the cold ground and covered her face with both hands as she tried to control her emotions. Ketsa crouched down next to her. He was suddenly knocked to the ground and Reese's head was buried in his jacket front. She was scared for the first time in her life. "What the hell do they want with me?" she asked in between the tears. Ketsa looked to Kaijin. "They want to stop you." The pain was obvious in her voice although she tried to hide it. She winced when she took a step, and Reese noticed that her ankle was swollen. Kain noticed it to. He plucked his sister off of the ground and set her on one of the horses. "We need to get you to a doctor," he commented in that smooth, calm voice that he had. "We need to call Nakago-sama. I will be fine." Kain stared at Kaijin. Kaijin stared at Kain. Some unspoken words passed between them and Kaijin was the one to look away first. A small smile appeared on Kain's face, the first one that Reese had ever seen. It disappeared when he noticed that Reese had noticed. Reese chuckled to herself as she mounted the horse she and Ketsa shared. Ketsa gave her a questioning look over his shoulder, but Reese shrugged it off. "Will there be a doctor who will take her in the city?" Reese turned her attention to Kain as the five took off in that direction. Kain nodded. "If they don't find out who we are." He looked sternly at Wataru. "Whatcha implying?" "I'm implying that you are a hot head and that you need to control that temper of yours. If you can't do that, then take Nakago no Miko-sama back to the desert. The rest of us will catch up with you in a few days." "I'm... want to go with them," Ketsa spoke up. It was one of the only things that Reese had heard him say to the rest of the group. "I have no reason to stay in the city with you and Kaijin. She will be better protected with two of us, as well." Kain nodded. "I believe that Ketsa's idea is a good one. She needs someone with a cool head with her as well. At least she won't be with someone who acts before he thinks." Wataru pouted on top of his mount. "Well, if we are going, let's be gone already," he ordered Ketsa before spurring his horse forward. Ketsa looked to Kain who had his eyes closed. He chuckled and spurred his and Reese's horse after his friend. **** "Damn it, Chichiri! Those Nakago bastards knew we were coming." "This time they won't, no da. We need to try again now, though, no da. Are you up for it, Tasuki-kun?" "You betcha." **** The horse reared , throwing Ketsa and Reese to the ground. Wataru pulled his horse up short and whirled it around. He saw that red haired guy with a metal fan that had jumped them in the pass fighting with Ketsa. Both had amazing speed, but Ketsa was just a bit faster. What he didn't see was the Miko. "Reese-sama!" he yelled out. A low-grade electric ball flew from his hands and hit Tasuki, flinging him into the rock wall. The bandit slumped to the ground. A blue kasa fanned out next to him. The man standing in it pulled his friend on to the cloth and the two disappeared. **** "We shouldn't have let those two go off with her by themselves." "What do you mean?" "The Suzaku Seishi took her." "Took her? Oh no" To read more of my stories visit http://home.att.net/~dreamforever |
