Author's Notes: See chapter one for disclaimer and explanation.
Love, Life, and Death By Annie-chan Chapter Twelve: Meetings"Ah…there they are, no da."
Hôjun had been searching around for a while for Suzaku no Miko. Not that he couldn't pinpoint where they were, they just kept moving around. He had just witnessed a rather affectionate reunion between Suzaku no Miko, who was apparently named Miaka, and a tall young man with greenish-black hair. The man had almost impaled her hand on a scythe before he recognized her.
Hôjun knew who that young man was. Suzaku Shichi Seishi, Tamahome. Taiitsukun had taught Hôjun to recognize different ki signatures, and the signature of this man was unmistakable.
So, that's our champion, ne, no da? Hôjun thought. He seemed a bit on the childish side, but Suzaku must have chosen him to be the champion of the Suzaku Shichi Seishi for a reason.
Then, you had the purple-haired young woman. That was Nuriko, as indicated by her ki. Hôjun was a bit confused, as he thought he remembered Taiitsukun referring to all the Suzaku Shichi Seishi as "he." He got the feeling there was more to this woman than met the eye.
"Who are these people?" Hôjun heard one of Tamahome's companions ask.
"Oh!" Tamahome exclaimed, as if just remembering there were other people in the clearing with them. "This is Suzaku no Miko," he said, indicating Miaka. Then, he pointed to Nuriko. "And, this guy's gay."
So, Hôjun thought as an irked Nuriko clobbered Tamahome on the head, Nuriko is a man, no da! He was a little surprised, to say the least. A man who apparently went all out to look like a woman was not what Hôjun really expected to find. To each his own, I guess, no da.
Danger! Hôjun's senses suddenly screamed in his head. Protect the Miko!
Without thinking, Hôjun started forward toward Miaka. He wasn't sure what the danger was, but he knew he should get her out of the clearing. There was no time for formalities, so Hôjun didn't even bother to announce himself. He just reached out of the trees, put his hands over her mouth to keep her from screaming, and dragged her back into the woods.
"Miaka!" he heard Tamahome call, followed by the sound of someone running through the trees toward them. He was not happy, and neither was Miaka, if you could tell anything from how she struggled to get away. She was small, but she was feisty. She reminded him of Hanabira, to tell the truth. He had managed to get her far enough from the clearing and was about to let her go, when he felt a sharp pain flare up in his hand.
"Te!!!!!!!!!!!!" he squealed, letting her go. She had bitten him! He probably would have done the same thing in her position, but damn, it hurt! "Itai, no da," he whined in the high-pitched voice he tended to use while wearing his mask. "You know, no da, I don't mind if you bite me, Miss, but you can't do that to everyone you meet, no da!" Actually, I mind very much that you bit me, no da! "Bye-bye, no da!" With that, he disappeared into his kasa.
"Wait!" he heard Miaka squeak when he disappeared, and he got the feeling she had grabbed his kasa before it could disappear as well. "Kitsune-san! Don't go!" He might as well let her keep hold of the kasa. Makes it much easier to find her next time.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Eh? What's this?"
Hôjun jerked awake, having drifted off to a light sleep after a while of waiting and listening for the best time to make his appearance. He wasn't intent on making an entrance, but there was no need to scare Miaka or anyone around her by just popping up out of the kasa unexpected. He wouldn't have disappeared in the first place, but he wanted to tend to his hand. Now, Suzaku no Miko was, judging by the sound of running water, near a river.
"Let's see…it says here that the fourth Seishi of Suzaku is…" Miaka seemed to have a bit of trouble reading something. Maybe the writing in her world is different from ours, no da. "Ara? This kanji is for 'carpenter,' and this other one is for…'mask,' I think. What do those two kanji have to do with each other? A carpenter who makes masks?"
Hôjun smiled. I guess they do sound a little odd together, no da.
Right then, he heard a strange man's voice, and he didn't like the sound of it. Miaka started to respond, her own voice completely trusting. She wasn't more than a few words into her response, though, before she stopped and gasped. There was a chud, the sound of a scythe striking earth.
She's being attacked, no da! Now's as good a time as ever to come out, no da! He soon realized a bit of a problem. Oh, shit! She's wearing it, no da!!!!!!!!!! The sound of fighting came through into the kasa-space, and apparently Tamahome had shown up. By the sound of it, there were two assassins now, instead of one. And one had backed Miaka up against a tree…
Taking a risk, he plunged his hands out of the kasa. Pinpointing the assassin's ki, he formed a simple ki ball and knocked him backwards, out of range for attacking Miaka. The assassins—indeed, everyone—seemed disconcerted by the sight of hands just appearing out of a hat, and disappeared. Hôjun managed to get the kasa off of Miaka's shoulders, and emerged completely.
"I'm glad you're all right, no da!" he said. Tamahome seemed reluctant to let Miaka even near him. It was no wonder, for they had just witnessed disembodied hands come out of a hat and chase away two assassins, then comes this man with a fox-looking face, an extremely high soprano voice, and rather funny-looking hair, and to top it off, he had a monk's prayer beads and shakujo, but the rest of his clothes indicated that he was not a monk at all. They may think I'm a thief who stole them from a monk, no da. Turns out, Tamahome didn't even think Hôjun was human.
The next several hours flew by as they went to a small village to a house (which, considering the resemblance between Tamahome and the boy called Chûei, was Tamahome's family's), Miaka left for something "feminine," Tamahome left in a rush a little later yelling Miaka's name, Hôjun decided to abandon Nuriko and follow, Tamahome saved Miaka from a hungry tiger (Hôjun almost laughed when he heard Miaka's "Tora!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"), Tamahome left again, and Miaka, who promised to stay right where she was, ran off toward the Kutô-koku border.
Where's she going now? Hôjun thought. I ought to follow. As it turned out, she was going straight into Kutô-koku, which was a rather stupid thing to do, due to the recent strains between the two counties. Hôjun himself really didn't want to cross the border, but he would if he had to.
As he expected, she had trouble at the border gate. She expected to just be able to walk right through, the silly girl. Hôjun, hiding behind the wall of the gate, decided to try a little something. He had never spellbound anyone before, and he wanted to see if he could do it properly. He could. I did it, no da!
A cold, burning feeling swept over him, and he almost lost his grip on his spell. Seiryû Shichi Seishi! Amazingly powerful, too! The Seiryû Shichi Seishi weren't any reason to get upset—not that Hôjun could foresee, anyway—but the feeling of this one approaching…it didn't feel right. It didn't feel friendly at all. He took a chance and peeked around the wall.
It was the Kutô-koku shôgun, if Hôjun was correct in interpreting his armor. He was a huge man, very tall and solid muscle, albeit slender. A very powerful aura surrounded him, and the feeling of it was that of mental instability. What's a mentally unstable man doing as the shôgun, no da? It only unsettled Hôjun further. Lost in his thoughts of the newcomer, Hôjun didn't realized what they were saying until he felt his spellbind break abruptly. It was the shôgun, apparently skilled in manipulating his ki. Hôjun finally had the presence of mind to identify this man. Nakago…I don't like the sound of that, no da. While reading up on the Seishi of all four gods at Daikyoku-zan (the most information was on the Byakko and Genbu Seishi, as the Suzaku and Seiryû Seishi had not been utilized yet), all he could find on the one called Nakago was that he would cause great upset in the world.
Just as he realized that, he heard Miaka telling Nakago that she was Seiryû no Miko! Miaka no baka, no da! Don't go with him, no da! He had been so wrapped up in Nakago, that Hôjun hadn't realized Tamahome was running up, and was now trying to shove his way past the border guards. Kuso! Tamahome, you idiot! He saw Miaka get on Nakago's horse and go off with him toward the capital city, which wasn't too far from here (Eep! Miaka no bakayarô, no da!), giving Hôjun no choice but to deal with Tamahome.
"Domo sumimasen, na no da!" he cried, jumping up behind Tamahome and dragging him off. "He's just had a little too much sake to drink, no da! We'll be going now, no da!" He ignored the surprised looks the guards gave him and shoved Tamahome behind a tree, praying to Suzaku that the brash young man wouldn't yell out once he let him go.
"Chichiri! What're you—" Tamahome began.
"Shh, no da! Let me handle this, no da!" With that, Hôjun disappeared, heading for the Kutô-koku palace. In his haste to go, he didn't notice Tamahome heading back toward the gate to try to force his way through again.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Things just got from bad to worse as Hôjun observed everything as best he could without letting Nakago know he was there. Miaka was taken before the Emperor of Kutô-koku (How dare that old man insult our emperor, no da?!), Hôjun realized with surprise that the Emperor of Kônan-koku was one of the Suzaku Seishi when he heard Miaka refer to him as "Hotohori," Miaka was tearfully reunited with a similarly-dressed girl called Yui (Kawaii, no da. She looks like Kôran with short blonde hair, no da), Nakago got a hold of Kônan-koku's Shi Jin Tenchi Sho, and Miaka and Yui were chased through the palace halls by armed guards. Despite all that, suddenly sensing Tamahome's ki in the courtyard of the palace took the cake. He wasn't supposed to be here!
Hôjun teleported outside into the pouring rain just as a guard ran up to Nakago to tell of an intruder in the palace. He watched nervously from the roof as Tamahome and Nakago came face-to-face, and Nakago seemed to keep up with even Tamahome's fighting skills by not letting him get a hit in. No choice, no da! He quickly spellbound Nakago, hoping to give Tamahome enough time to get away. He really didn't know how long he could hold someone as strong as the shôgun still. Tamahome was able to get away, but Nakago broke out of the spellbind a second later. Hôjun had no time to react before he was knocked off the roof with Nakago's release of ki. He teleported to a (hopefully) safe place before he fell very far.
Kuso, no da, he thought, a little irritated. Now what do I do, no da? Might as well keep an eye on Miaka and Tamahome's ki, no da.
It wasn't long before he sensed danger again. Miaka was being forcefully subdued by some force of Seiryû, and Tamahome was angry and scared about something. Hôjun quickly teleported to where they were, finding himself in front of a door guarded by a strong, anti-Suzaku barrier.
"Shimatta, no da!" Hôjun cursed when the barrier didn't show any signs of weakness. He took the time to clonk Tamahome with his shakujo when asked if his last statement was a pun.
"Chichiri!" Tamahome cried, desperation creeping into his voice. "Can you find a way in there?!"
"I can try, no da," Hôjun replied, and began concentrating his ki. He was going to need one doozy of a teleportation spell for this. He did his best to block out the sounds of Miaka being attacked and Tamahome's outraged curses, praying that he would be able to get in there in time.
He thanked his lucky star that he did. He was just able to catch Miaka before she was smashed into the shrine wall.
"Wow, no da! You would have died if you had hit the wall going that fast, no da!" he said, false cheerfulness in his tone. He was anything but cheerful now. To tell the truth, he was terrified and furious at the same time.
"Chichiri…" Miaka managed to whisper before she passed out in his arms.
Damn you, Nakago! Hôjun thought heatedly as he concentrated and let loose a powerful ki blast. Before the light faded, he sensed Tamahome. The young martial artist had managed to break through the ward. Hôjun had barely realized this when Tamahome had run over and grabbed Miaka from him.
"Miaka! Miaka! It's me! Daijôbu ka?!" He had his back to Nakago, and unless Hôjun stayed on alert, the blond Shôgun would probably ki-blast the couple on the floor. He took off his kasa and threw it at them.
"Get in there, no da!" he ordered. "You'll be safe, no da!"
"No, wait!" Miaka cried, just having regained consciousness. "We can't leave Yui-chan!"
"Yui!" Tamahome said urgently to the girl behind Nakago. "We're going now…"
Hôjun was lost to the exchange of words as he brought up his hands to block a blast of blue ki from the shôgun. He was knocked backwards, almost into Tamahome and Miaka. When the ki faded, he thought they were all safe for now, until…
…his mask fell off.
Oh, no! he thought, mortified. Oh, gods! Oh, Suzaku! No matter the situation, practical strangers seeing his face was something he wished would never happen. What would they think of him now?! As he feared, everyone, even the furious Nakago, stopped and stared. He wanted to curl up and die, but he managed to keep himself calm on the outside.
"Hayaku, no da!" he cried to Tamahome and Miaka. "Go, no da!" The Miko and the Seishi finally went into the kasa. Hôjun picked it up and placed it on his head, teleporting himself and the other two to Daikyoku-zan.
To be continued…Author's Notes: Yes, I know this chapter is almost exactly like in the manga and anime, but it's from a different point of view as in Watase's original. I probably won't do any other chapters this close to the original, but it's possible. Oh, and a note on Hôjun's hair: his fringe of bangs stick up just like they do in the anime and manga, but it's not buzzed over most of the scalp. It's basically like it is in his flashbacks to where he was eighteen, just with his bangs longer and more vertical. Anyway, I hope I didn't bore you with an almost complete recap of this particular part of the original, and please send any comments to mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu!