Author's Notes: See chapter one for disclaimer and explanation.
Love, Life, and Death By Annie-chan Chapter Twenty: Returning"Ne, Tasuki? Where are we?"
Tasuki turned from where he was sitting to look over to the newly arrived Miaka and Tamahome. Er…Taka. Well, whatever he was called, he and Miaka were back to Shi Jin Tenchi Sho, and Tama/Taka had no memories of his past life. They were now in the shade of a tree, talking.
"We're in the northern part of Kônan-koku," Tasuki answered. He pointed over to the northwest. "See way over there? That's an arm of the Shôryû River."
"The Shôryû River?" Miaka repeated. "That sounds familiar…I wonder from where…hey! I know!"
Both Tasuki and Taka jumped, startled by the Miko's sudden outburst. The looked over to her, sweatdropping at the fact that she was now pointing her finger in the air and wearing a "Eureka!" look on her face.
"Ehhhh…where did you hear it, Miaka?" Taka questioned.
"Chichiri told me he lived in a town called Shôryû next to a river of the same name!" she said, excited. "If we follow the river, we should get to his village! I wanna see him! Let's go visit!"
"But, which way do we go?" Tasuki asked, absentmindedly playing with his tessen. "I'm not very familiar with this region, and I've never been to Chichiri's town."
"If you're not very familiar with this region, what are you doing here?" Taka asked.
"Passing through," Tasuki grunted in reply. He and Taka were still not very happy in each other's presence, what with Tasuki's…er…greeting. Taka didn't take kindly to being singed out of nowhere.
"Isn't there a farmhouse over that way?" Miaka asked, ignoring the two men as they glared at each other. She pointed to what looked like tilled fields a ways down the river. "We can go ask them which way Shôryû is."
Both Tasuki and Taka stared at Miaka. She usually wasn't this bright. All she seemed to think about was food and Taka. Taka was especially surprised. He knew Miaka hadn't eaten since breakfast, and thought she would have been "dying" with hunger by now.
"Are you just going to stare at me, or are we going to get going?" Miaka asked, giving Tasuki and Taka The Look. They jumped up and followed her over to the farm in the distance.
When they finally got there, Tasuki was complaining. "I get the feeling that we'd have gotten there by now if we had gone the other way!" He was lagging behind.
"Quit whining and hurry up!" Taka called back to him. "We'll never get there if we have to keep waiting for you!"
Tasuki grumbled and sped up a bit.
When they got to the farmhouse, Miaka was the one who knocked. Taka was about thirty or so feet away, standing next to Tasuki, who had plopped down on the ground. The farmer answered, as he was in at the moment, and looked surprised to see a young girl in strange clothing at his door with two young men—one whining about something, the other also in strange clothing—with her.
"Konnichi wa!" Miaka chirped. "Can you tell me which direction the town of Shôryû is?"
The farmer gave her directions to follow the river back the way they came, but to be careful, as the way into the valley from this direction could be a bit treacherous, depending on what path you take.
"Arigatô!" Miaka said, waving goodbye. "Sayonara!"
"What?!" Tasuki yelled when she told her companions which way they should go. "I told you we should have gone the other way!"
Taka gave Tasuki a death glare. His hair was still a little black around the edges. Nevertheless, they set off in the right direction with very little incident. Taka and Tasuki did have to shove each other around a bit when Tasuki stood up. Miaka ignored them.
It took them about three hours of walking, half and hour of which being taken up by waiting for Tasuki to "hurry his ass up," as Taka put it. Taka almost got flamed again.
"Wai!" Miaka squealed as they got to the rim of the Shôryû Valley, seeing the town nestled at the bottom next to the mighty river. They had had to take a detour away from the course of the river for a while, due to the difficulty of the terrain, and came upon the valley from one of the sides, not from the near end. "We're almost there! Look, you guys! Isn't the town so cute?!"
The guys gave vague agreements. They really weren't ones to say a town looked cute. They had to do some convincing to get Miaka to rest up a bit before they descended into the valley, and almost had to threaten to tie her to a tree to keep her from running down the hill toward the town. All three of them seemed to forget that they didn't have any rope with them. Miaka reluctantly agreed to wait a bit to let the guys rest up. She was so excited at being back in the Book, and she wanted to see her two surviving Seishi so badly. One down, one to go.
After about twenty minutes of waiting, Miaka fidgeting the whole time, they continued on, taking what looked like the clearest path down into the valley. Their luck, unfortunately, did not hold out.
"Whaaaagh!" Tasuki squawked as he stepped on an unstable rock, making it tip and dump him several feet down the trail. He plowed right into Taka, who was in front of him, sending them both tumbling. Taka, in turn, fell right into Miaka, and they all went rolling down the hill. About thirty or forty feet later, they finally came to a stop, thanks to a big fallen log they crashed into. Tasuki was on top, Taka was in the middle, and Miaka was squashed on bottom.
"Itai!" they all groaned in unison.
"Aho!" Taka roared at Tasuki, whose tessen was digging into his stomach. "Watch where you're putting your big feet, will ya?"
Tasuki, for once, didn't have a comeback line. He was lying on his back on top of Taka, eyes looking like spirals. About a half-dozen chibi Suzaku birds were flying around his head and chirping.
"Ano…" came a muffled voice from under Taka. "I hate to bother you guys, but GET OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Ack!" Taka exclaimed, jumping up off of Miaka, taking Tasuki with him. Miaka, looking squished and a bit miffed, sat up. She didn't seem to be hurt very much.
"Baka!" she squealed, dusting herself off. She was trying to keep from laughing.
"It was his fault!" Taka insisted, pointing to Tasuki, who was now chasing the little Suzaku birds away. Neither of them noticed Miaka's attempts not to laugh until she lost her little personal battle, bursting into laughter. They both looked at her funny.
"Go…gomen…nasai!" she gasped. "It's just…it's just that…I don't know! That was so funny!" She dissolved into laughter, not being able to speak anymore. Tasuki and Taka just stood there, watching. After a few seconds, they began to smile, then chuckle, then laugh with as much force as Miaka was. After several minutes, they all managed to stop, breathless.
"Gomen nasai!" Miaka said again, catching her breath. "I don't know why I found that so funny!"
"Ah, think nothing of it," Tasuki grinned. He stood up. "Well, might as well go on, ne?"
"Hai!" Miaka cried, jumping up. "Let's go see Chichiri!"
After ten more minutes of walking, they finally came to the outskirts of town. Miaka was about to run off to go find the man they were looking for, when she stopped and realized she didn't know where he lived. This town was big enough that it would take all day or longer to find him without asking somebody.
"Excuse me!" she said to a middle-aged woman. "Can you tell me where Chichiri lives?"
"Chichiri?" the woman asked, eyeing Miaka and Taka oddly. She had never seen clothes like that before. "Oh! You mean Ri Hôjun!"
"Really?" Tasuki asked. "Is that his name?"
"Hai," the woman answered, pointing to the west. "He lives on the edge of town on the western side. Ask somebody there where it is."
"Hai!" Miaka said. "Arigatô gozaimasu!" She fairly ran off in that direction, but Taka and Tasuki each grabbed an arm, holding her back with them. Much more to their tastes, they began walking in that direction.
They got to the west side of town, getting stares all the way, and asked directions to the Ri residence. They had just walked up to it when the door opened, and there stood their man.
"Miaka-chan, no da!" he exclaimed, looking shocked and happy at the same time. "Tasuki-kun, no da! Tamahome-kun, no da! You are here, no da!" He hadn't time to say anything else before Miaka ran up and flung her arms around him, almost knocking him back into the house.
"Chichiri!" Miaka cried. "Hisashiburi yo!"
"Hai, Miaka-chan, no da," Hôjun replied, returning her hug. "It has been a long time, hasn't it, no da?"
Miaka nodded toward Taka. "Chichiri, this is Sukunami Taka. It's Tamahome, but he doesn't remember his past life, just like Tai'itsukun said he wouldn't."
"Ah, no da," Hôjun said, looking Taka over. "Tasuki-kun, you mean you didn't give him the stone with memories of you in it, no da?"
"Ah!" Tasuki cried, slapping his forehead. "I forgot completely!"
"We'll take care of that later, no da," Hôjun said, noticing the confused looks from Miaka and Taka. Hôjun let go of Miaka. "I felt your presences when you arrived, no da. But…I didn't come out to meet you, because I at first didn't believe that you had come back so suddenly, no da. And…" He paused, looking a little shy. "I've been preoccupied today, no da."
"With what?" Miaka asked.
Hôjun suddenly grinned and grabbed her hand, pulling her inside. "I'll show you, no da! Come inside, all of you, no da!"
Miaka and the others followed him into the house. He stopped in front of a partially opened door and motioned them inside, smiling. The inside of the room was dark, lit only by a few candles. Miaka could make out a shape on the bed, and walked over. She broke into a wide-eyed grin when she saw what that shape was.
There, on the bed, was a young woman looking about Hôjun's age. At her breast lay a tiny baby, wrapped warmly in a blanket. The baby was asleep, and the woman looked exhausted.
"Oh!" Miaka whispered. "Kawaii!"
"The baby was born about two hours ago, no da," Hôjun said, stepping up behind her. "She's my second daughter, no da. We've named her Hana, after my sister, no da."
"Mmm," the woman groaned, turning her head toward them and opening her eyes. "Hôjun…who are these people?"
Hôjun knelt down next to the bed, taking her hand and kissing it. "Kôran, no da," he began, adoration lacing his voice. "The young lady is Yûki Miaka, no da. Suzaku no Miko, no da." He motioned toward Tasuki and Taka. "The redhead is Suzaku Shichi Seishi Tasuki, and the one behind is Suzaku Shichi Seishi Tamahome, no da."
Kôran smiled as best she could in her tired state. "It is an honor to meet you," she whispered.
Just then, two children suddenly rushed into the room. They looked scared of the newcomers for a moment, but as soon as their father made introductions, they immediately began looking over their guests. They fingered clothing, stared with wide eyes, and asked tons of questions. Miaka and the others could barely keep up with the answers.
About twenty minutes later, the children had calmed down and gone to their room to play. As Kôran lay in her and Hôjun's bedroom, nursing the baby, Hôjun and the others sat at the dining room table. Hôjun had just gotten Tasuki to fish the memory-holding stone out of his pockets, and had handed it to Taka. The young ex-warrior was just now coming out of the half-trance induced by the rush of memories.
Taka looked over to Tasuki. "Tasuki…I remember you." He didn't let Tasuki respond, grabbing him by the shirt and shaking him back and forth. "BAKAYARÔ! Just who 'blah-blahed' Miaka's 'blah-blah'?!?!?!" He didn't look happy in the slightest over Tasuki's earlier comment.
Miaka looked over to Hôjun, the two of them ignoring the ensuing argument. "Ne, Chichiri? Where's your stone?"
"At Daikyoku-zan, no da," Hôjun replied. He sighed. "I have no idea where the others are, no da. We'll probably do quite a bit of searching, unless we get lucky, no da." He looked over to his bedroom door. "It's my duty to go with you, but I don't want to leave my wife at a time like this, no da."
"You don't have to go, Chichiri," Miaka said.
Hôjun shook his head. "Iie, Miaka-chan, no da. I hate to say it, but my duty as a Seishi comes before my family, no da. Besides, you may need me at some time or another, no da." He didn't look the slightest bit happy about leaving his family again, especially so soon after his wife had given birth. He looked up. "You all should spend the night, no da. It's getting late, and we probably shouldn't start out at this time of day, no da. I could teleport us to Daikyoku-zan, but you all look like you need to rest, no da." Miaka and the others accepted the offer. Well, Miaka did for herself and on behalf of Tasuki and Taka, who were wrestling about on the floor.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hôjun lay in bed, his arms wrapped around his sleeping wife. The baby lay in a baby basket near the bedside. Hôjun was stroking Kôran's hair, hating what had to happen tomorrow morning. Neither he, nor Kôran, nor the children, wanted him to go. He had broken the news to Kôran as gently as possible, but she had still dissolved into his arms in tears. She was obviously scared to death. As simple as a stone hunt sounded, there were all kinds of possibilities of things going wrong. The Suzaku Shichi Seishi probably still had enemies out there, and things could get really difficult really quickly. Postpartum depression didn't help matters. Kôran's sudden change in hormone levels after giving birth was making her emotions go crazy.
"Gomen nasai, Kôran," Hôjun whispered into her hair. "I'll come back to you in one piece. Yakusoku yo."
He lay like that a long time, finally dropping off to sleep about half an hour before midnight.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A low chuckle sounded, its maker standing halfway in the Material Plain, halfway in Limbo. The being wanted to watch its prey, but didn't want its presence revealed.
"Just wait, Hôjun," the being purred, its golden eyes shining in anticipation. "I'll return you to her in one piece, but you won't necessarily be alive." The being reached down and brushed its invisible fingers against Kôran's cheek. Being half out of the Material Plain made its touch like a cold breeze blowing over her skin. She shivered. The being grinned, disappearing back to its lair.
"You will be mine, Kôran," the being whispered softly, watching her through one of its many water mirrors. It touched the surface of the water, making ripples. Its eyes softened, deepest love flashing through their depths. "Ai shiteru yo."
To be continued…Author's Notes: I'm so sorry this chapter took so long to write. School's been in my way, plus I had a whole bunch of other fics to write before I forgot about my fic ideas. Gomen nasai. COME ON, GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVEN'T GOTTEN ANY FEEDBACK ON THIS STORY FOR MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is anybody still reading this fic at all? *whines* Anyway, if anybody is, please let me know, and tell me how I'm doing so far. I'm getting worried that the lack of feedback means nobody's reading. If you don't want to review, let me know what you think at mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu!