Helix and Alias stood in their room, leaning over the book Helix had snatched from the library, the manga put away for a rainy day. Alias opened the book and scratched her foot which was in her indoor slippers, "Onee I can't read Chinese" Helix sighed and read what they had read before, then turning the page she began to read "and so the young maiden of Byakko turned the page and she and her twin, the young maiden of Genbu were swept into the story" Helix found herself engulfed in a white light and she screamed, Okaasan, a young twenty five year old woman, one of the youngest to become and Okaasan of a teahouse (15)[1] ran into the room in time to see Alias lunge at her sister and go straight though her. Helix mouthed her sisters name then disappeared, and Alias picked up the book sobbing "Okaasan the book took her, and the man with the white hair stopped her from touching me!" with this Alias was surrounded by a green light and shrieked, sounding the mirror of her sisters scream from before, Okaasan tried to touch her and watched as a man with green hair and Chinese style robes dragged the girl back, Alias disappeared and Okaasan picked up the book and began to read



"The priestess of Byakko was taken to the Imperial gardens of Salio and the priestess of Genbu was taken to a snow covered field where two of her stars or seishi were"





Kichiyama, nicknamed Kiama by the pair of twins she had adopted fell to her knees and read in horror as her daughters were swept into a book and thanked the gods that she had no appointments that day. [2]





Helix fell through a cloud of mist in which there were flashes of white, blackish green, blue and red. Suddenly she was caught in a pair of strong arms and looked up to see the strange white haired man from before, he smiled down at her revealing sharp canines and she felt afraid suddenly "welcome back, second miko of Byakko" 'Second?" she thought and suddenly she say a table, it was divided into four parts Green, White, Blue, and Red. Each section had two twinkling lights surrounded by seven others. "there are two miko's for each god: for Genbu there is Takiko and Alias, For Byakko there is Shunzo and Helix, for Seiryuu there is Yui and Yue and for Suzaku there is Miaka and another Miko that hasn't been found yet." Helix blinked and then it clicked "I can see! I'm not using anyone's mind to see" the man smiled again, then looked sad, "whenever you are here you have your sight, but in the book you will be blind again." Helix nodded, and the man let her go, and she resumed her fall towards earth, feeling her eyes slide shut.



Ci Doulin looked sideways at her fellow concubine Ryo Ryuen[3], something about Ryuen wasn't right, she was beautiful with decidedly odd coloured hair which fell in a waterfall of different shades of blue changing like the water into different shades when let loose of its elaborate style and rose coloured eyes. She was in the way of Doulin getting any where near the royals but that wasn't what was bothering her. She didn't have time to muse as a flash of white light appeared and the form of a young girl hit the ground hard enough to make both females wince, Ryuen made her way over to the girl and bent down, examining her she seemed to reach a decision, picking her up she walked back to Doulin, "Go inform the emperor that a girl in strange clothes just landed in the middle of his garden" Doulin bowed and ran of not giving herself time to look at the girl, she found the emperor, one of his sons Lanva and the Shogun of Salio walking near the herb garden, she immediately fell into a kneeling position with her forehead on the ground "Your majesty, Niru-sama, Lanva-sama, a strange girl just appeared in the garden in a flash of white light, Ryo Ryuen has taken her to the Concubines quarters because she was still unconscious" she would have said more except that Niru-sama took of towards the concubines quarters, Doulin looked up to see that Lanva was looking straight down her robe SMACK "YOU HENTAI!!!" the emperor watched this all with an amused smile and shook his head lightly. His son might be a great martial artist and a seishi but that didn't stop him from perving on women, thank Byakko he was the son of a concubine and not the Empress. "Lanva, as a seishi of Byakko shouldn't you be going with Niru, to see wether this is Byakko no Miko??" Lanva nodded then turned to the concubine with a positively evil smile, his golden eyes glinting, before she had time to react the concubine was swept over his shoulder and his symbol glowed, there was a pop and he disappeared, leaving only the blue ribbon that had fallen from the concubines snow white hair, a perfect match for Lanva's.



Ryo Ryuen, hurriedly carried the young girl to one of the spare rooms, laying her on the bed Ryuen noted the girls odd clothes and hair. She seemed to be wearing many robes, securely fastened around the middle with a stiff material that was tied in an intricate knot at the back. Then there was her hair staring at her hair made Ryuen's breath catch, it was long, down to her ankles and kept in hundreds of tiny plats weighed down by silver rings with rainbow like stones in them. The hair was a black as night, with and odd sheen to it that made it flash different colours depending on the angle of the light. Suddenly a popping sound was heard and a white haired man appeared in the room, a white seishi symbol glowing on his cheek, he held a struggling white haired woman that Ryuen realised was Doulin, she was screaming and kicking at Lanva to drop her. SLAP "THAT'S FOR GROPING ME ON THE WAY HERE!!!" Ryuen blinked and sweat dropped as Lanva proceeded to chase Doulin around the room. The door slid open to reveal the Shogun of Salio, his Dark green hair in disarray and falling down his back, needless to say Ryuen nearly fainted. The shogun leaned against the doorway for a moment and his sleave fell away to reveal the burning white sign "fallen" on his forearm. 'that's right' Ryuen thought dimly "he's Byakko sechiseishi Karasuki" the world became dim as Ryuen's mind gave into the stress that the day had put onto the poor concubine.



Helix woke up with a start and sensed the pair of green eyes staring down at her. She blinked then shook the fog from her brain "who're you?" she slurred softly, the fog not quite dispelled. Reaching into the strangers mid she saw everything that happened and all of the young mans history. The stranger blinked "I am Byakko no sechiseishi Karasuki and the passed out concubine beside you is Ryo Ryuen, Byakko no Miko" "I'm not Byakko no Miko I'm Helix" "no not your name its your title" "how do you know??" "I'll show you" helix found herself picked up and carried some where. It must have been far away cause Karasuki changed direction many times, at last she heard a pair of large doors opening and was carried into a large room. "this is the temple of Byakko, only the seishi and miko of Byakko can enter, others are stopped by Byakko's barrier." "Oh" reaching once more into the strangers mind she looked though his eyes and saw a beautiful room, it was white marble with black streaks lancing through it and in the middle was a silver and gold statue of a tiger, its eyes made of course from Tigers eye. She nodded faintly and decided not to let anyone know that she was blind, she could tell them later but she didn't think that she should let it out about her weakness, for some reason she was filled with a sense of foreboding. "can you take me back to where we were?" she felt him nod and was picked up again. Finally feeling safe she snuggled into his arms and fell asleep.

[1] usually you're a maiko if your this young not a geisha but for the stories sake I've changed this a bit.

[2] if you want to know more about this I suggest you read "Geisha" by Liza Dalby

[3] not Nuriko's reincarnation but. lets just say that they wear the same style of clothes ^.~.