Author's Notes: See chapter one for disclaimer and explanation.
Love, Life, and Death By Annie-chan Chapter Twenty-Seven: RaidNorthern Kônan-koku.
It was only a little while before dawn, as testified by the thin line of light that was steadily growing brighter along the tops of the mountains to the east. The fair-sized town nestled at the bottom of the deep valley still slept. A few of the early-bird farmers were out, but most of the town's citizens were either still in bed or just barely waking up.
The valley was surrounded on three sides by steep mountains. Here and there was a pass where travelers could get through, but the easiest way was to the south, where the mountains broke and the large river that flowed through the valley carved its course through almost the entire north-south distance of Kônan-koku and emptied itself into the sea along the southern coast of the kingdom. On either side of the river at the south end of the valley was a fairly wide expanse of flat land. It was no surprise that most trips in and out of the village used that particular route.
However, the village was being watched not from the south, but from the west. A large group of people was grouped loosely together in the woods on the down-slope of the mountains opposite the impending sunrise, and they were keeping close watch on the town through the eyes of a few of their scouts positioned at strategic vantage points.
They were bandits. They had come far from their home base west of here, going so far as to actually climb over the mountain range, and had never been to this town before. Fresh pickings. They were eager. This town was one of the better-off ones in this region.
Their leader, a lanky, rough-and-tumble type man, was watching the town along with the scouts. His sharp eyes could easily pick out things in the dark, provided there was the slightest bit of light available, and he many times doubled as a lookout for his own band of thieves. He was called Phantom Wolf, but it was a common saying that their previous leader should have named him Phantom Cat, due to his night vision. He wasn't too happy with that declaration. Cats weren't his favorite animals.
"So," a soft tenor breathed from behind him, alerting him of this second-in-command's presence, "should we attack at dawn?"
"Uh-huh," the leader agreed, though he really didn't know why any of them were whispering. None of the men that he knew of were sleeping, and they were too far away from the town to alert any townsfolk that might be awake to their presence and position. He spoke at his normal volume. "You're the one who keeps track of what towns we attack and at what times. You say we've never been here before?"
"Iya," his second answered. "Not since before either you or I joined this band. This town is pretty out-of-the-way in comparison to home, and there're those blasted mountains we just climbed over in the way."
"The men need their exercise," the leader said. For a while, he had been of the opinion that he didn't work his men hard enough, and chose this isolated town as their next target. The journey had been rather rough, but it was worth it. The town was well off when it came to financial assets, and even if the raid was a failure and they were driven out somehow, his men would be toughened up by the trip. Besides, if they were driven out, it might give them a wakeup call that they needed to stop slacking off like their leader had let them for too long. He was angry with himself for doing that. A tiny part of him hoped the raid really was a failure, so they'd get the picture that being a bandit wasn't the easiest thing in the world and you have to stay on your toes to stay alive and well.
After a few minutes of silence, his second spoke again. "Is something wrong? You look thoughtful."
"Oh, nothing," the leader responded. "I just have a feeling I've seen this town before. I don't know where, though. What did you call it again?"
"Shôryû," his second said.
"Hm," the leader mused absently. Ah, well. This town didn't look very unique from what he could see. He had probably just seen another town somewhere in the past that looked like this one from above.
Sharp rays of light suddenly burst over the eastern horizon. Dawn had come.
"Time to go, Genrô," his green-eyed second-in-command said behind him, standing up straight and stretching his muscles.
The red-haired leader stood up as well, flashing a quick grin that revealed sharply pointed canines. "Ready when you are, Kôji."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
On the west side of town, the Ri residence was just waking up. Hôjun walked into the living room, yawning slightly. His wife was ill, so he took on the responsibility of making the meals and keeping the house in order, as well as running his carpentry business. He was glad his children were old enough to help him with some of it, because it'd all be too much for one person to handle without at least some help.
He was just about to light the cooking fire, when a loud, metallic banging interrupted his thoughts. He dropped the flints he was holding and stood up quickly. The bandit alarms were being set off around town. They were being invaded.
He reentered the hallway just as his three children ran out of their bedroom toward him. Ten-year-old Tori, six-year-old Seiryoku, and three-year-old Hana.
"Tôsan!" Tori cried. "What is it?!"
Hôjun opened the door to his bedroom and stepped quickly inside. "Bandits, no da. Stay in here with Kâsan, no da. I'm going out to try to fend them off, no da." His children came into the room after him and gathered around the bed where their mother lay. They knew better than to disobey their father when he used that tone of voice.
"Hôjun," a faint voice came from the bed, "be careful."
"I know, Kôran, no da," he replied, stepping over to the bed and reaching down to touch her cheek. "I'll come back to you in one piece, no da." He straightened up, grabbed his prayer beads and shakujo staff, and went quickly out of the bedroom and outside to the street. Quite a few of the townsmen were outside as well, armed with an assortment of weapons, ranging from real weapons, such as knives and short swords, to farmer's tools, such as scythes and axes. The bandits had not reached the town yet, but would be there in less than a half minute.
"Ri-sama!" someone shouted to him. "What do we do?" Hôjun, because of his magic and his (for the most part) level head, was looked up to as a type of leader in situations such as this.
In the dim early-morning light, Hôjun looked at the dark mass of bandits that was quickly nearing the town. It was too late to set up any kind of organized defense, and throwing up a shield around the town would be risky, because the burst of energy a shield that large would emit as it appeared may kill anyone too close to it, and he wanted to avoid killing people if he could.
"There's nothing fancy we can do, no da," Hôjun replied. "Just fight for all you're worth, no da." He hoped they could somehow turn the bandits back before they got too far into the town. Hôjun himself was not a fighter—he could fight if he needed to, but disliked it with a passion—so, he would be on the defensive instead of the offensive. He teleported to a rooftop so he could see as many people as he could, and he'd try to lend aid to any of the townsmen he saw that needed it. He could get the injured to safety with a simple spell, throw bandits backward with another simple spell, etc. He just couldn't keep an eye on everyone at once, so who he helped depended on who he saw. Besides, he doubted if the bandits would be deterred very easily. Bandits were tenacious little bastards, if his experience with Tasuki was anything to go on. The only way for him to make absolutely sure the town was safe would be a good-sized attack spell, but he may inadvertently hit some of the townsmen, and he didn't want to be the direct cause of anyone's death, townsman or bandit, if he could absolutely avoid it.
The bandits reached the town. The townsmen started yelling battle cries and launching themselves toward their attackers. The fight for the town of Shôryû had begun.
Hôjun realized his mistake. He had teleported to a rooftop too far away from where the townsmen met the bandits. He gathered what little energy he needed for teleportation again and found himself closer to the fray a split second later. Again, he hoped they could drive the bandits back before they got too far into the town and stole too many valuables. If push came to shove, he would indeed release an attack spell on the bandits as a group, but he hoped the situation didn't come to that.
He immediately saw some of the townsmen in trouble, and focused his energy on the bandits they were fighting with, throwing them backward, knocking not only them but also several other bandits off their feet. Not stopping to see how the bandits fared, he pointed his shakujo at two injured townsmen. The townsmen vanished, reappearing on the next street, where they could get themselves to a medic's. Anyone too injured to run, Hôjun would teleport directly to the medic's. He saw more townsmen coming to the fight from other parts of the town, and soon, the numbers on both sides were about even.
Hôjun kept his eyes open for anyone who appeared to be the bandits' leader. It was an unwritten rule that, if the bandit leader was injured enough he couldn't fight, or even killed, then the bandit gang would retreat. He hoped this group of bandits followed that rule.
It wasn't long before his eyes fell on two people he recognized. There was a blue-haired young man, looking about in his mid-twenties, and beside him…flaming-red hair…a sword that looked more like a fan…no, it couldn't be…
"TASUKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Hôjun roared, teleporting down into the fight, directly in front of the young man who he had no doubt was the bandit boss. The young man froze, and Hôjun got a good look at his face in the strengthening dawn light. No doubt about it…it was Tasuki.
Hôjun swung his shakujo in a wide arc, and Tasuki just barely managed to jump backward enough to keep from getting hit. Unfortunately for him, he ended up plowing right into Kôji, knocking them both to the ground.
"Oi! Genrô! What the hell—" Kôji began, but was interrupted by Tasuki's loud voice.
"OI!" Tasuki bellowed to his men, drawing out the word for about four or five seconds. They knew that signal, and they immediately retreated, making all haste back to their camp on the mountainside. The townsmen were surprised at this sudden stop in the fight, and even more surprised that Hôjun was making a point of not letting the blue-haired one or the red-haired one go. Why those two?
Tasuki stared up from where he lay—still half on top of Kôji—at the man towering over them. It was light enough to see quite clearly now, but he almost didn't recognize the man. The hair was the same color, yes, but what really threw him off was the fact that there were two mahogany-brown eyes blazing out at him from behind the curtain of his bangs, which were currently hanging limply over his face.
"Chichiri!" he exclaimed, still surprised over the other Seishi's sudden appearance. "You…your…" All he could do at the moment was point at Hôjun's face.
Hôjun sighed. "Hai, Tasuki, I have two eyes again, no da." He glared at the two bandits again. "Go up and tell your men that you will be back in a little while, and then I want you two to come to that house, no da." He pointed to his house about a block away. "You have a lot of explaining to do, no da."
Without waiting for their answer, Hôjun turned his back on the bandits and walked quickly back to his house to tell his wife and children it was all over.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hôjun sighed, his chin in his hand, his elbow resting on the table. In his other hand, he held a cup of tea, half drained. He stared across the table at the two bandits, both of them holding identical cups of the brownish-black liquid. His three children were gathered around him, quite intimidated by the appearance of these two strangers, especially because of their less-than-kid-friendly looks. Kôran was in her and Hôjun's bedroom, allegedly asleep. Tama-neko was curled up on the pillow next to her.
Hôjun had told them of the healing of his eye, thus explaining the absence of his rather noticeable scar. He then demanded an explanation as to why the Reikaku-zan bandits were attacking this town. Both Tasuki and Kôji—Kôji kept calling Tasuki by his nickname of "Genrô"—supplied the answer, talking over each other and finishing each other's sentences. Both of them looked rather sheepish at attacking the village of Tasuki's closest friend without even realizing it. Apparently, Tasuki had completely forgotten that this was the town he had briefly visited three years ago when Miaka and Taka had returned. Tasuki was one of the weaker Suzaku Seishi when it came to sensing others' ki, but Hôjun was surprised he hadn't sensed Tasuki's ki as soon as he came into the valley. Perhaps it was the distraction of the bandit raid that kept him from noticing the familiar ki.
Why am I not surprised he forgot, no da? Hôjun thought. Tasuki's memory has always needed work, to the best of my knowledge, no da. "Well, no da," he said aloud. "Be happy no one of either side was hurt terribly, no da. I'd be very upset if this little slipup of yours resulted in someone's death, no da." He took a sip of his tea, keeping Tasuki's gaze.
Both bandits were silent.
"Anyway, no da," Hôjun continued, a smile sliding across his face. "Let's put this messy business behind us, ne, no da? We haven't seen each other in three years, Tasuki, no da. I'd like you two to stay here for at least tonight, no da. We can catch up on old business, no da."
"Ano…" Tasuki said, surprised by Hôjun's sudden change of mood. Then again, Hôjun was prone to mood swings, from what he recalled. "All right, then, if you insist." Kôji nodded beside him, indicating his assent. Tasuki looked around. "Er…where's your wife, Chichiri?"
"She's ill, no da," Hôjun replied. "She should hopefully be recovered in a week or so, no da."
"Ah," Tasuki said. He looked deep into Hôjun's eyes as the older Seishi's gaze dropped to his teacup as he lifted it for another drink. Something flickered there…something so faint, you wouldn't have been able to see it unless you were looking for something like it. He knew that Hôjun was one to hold his emotions back, unless something forced them to surface, and that slight flicker confirmed his suspicions that Hôjun was not telling everything. Tasuki cast a worried glance over to Kôji. Something was wrong.
To be continued…Author's Notes: Yay! I finally updated! I know it's been forever since the last chapter, and I'm sorry. I know Katie'll be excited about this. _ Anyway, I hope there will be a lot less time between this chapter and the next than there was between the last chapter and this one. Keep your fingers crossed. The next chapter will take place directly after this one, as implied by this chapter's ending. Yes…I'm going to be mean to my dear Chichiri once again. Gomen ne. I so hope you liked this chapter! Tell me how you like it in a review or at mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu!