Disclaimer- I don't own Fushigi Yuugi. It's awfully sad, but TRUE!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Heh heh…

AN- So after only a whole eternity of not updating, thanks mostly to the site, SHADOW PRIESTESS IS BACK!! This is the… umm…. almost last chapter. The story's almost over. *sniffle* It's so sad… I actually have over fifty reviews! I never thought I'd get there! I mean, fifty is half of one hundred, which is a tenth of one thousand, so… yeah. After this chapter, which has TOO MANY PEOPLE IN IT, I'm gonna stick in a wonderful homeroom chapter because I forgot to put it between second and third period like I have it at school. I've tried really hard to stick all the people who asked in, but… I think this'll be a two-part chapter. (I'm making this up as I type). One half will have the original people who reviewed in time to be written into the part I started, and then the latecomers can have their own little section. OK... that's sounds good. Back to the story.

CHAPTER 9- In which people are rather violently smashed around and some seishi learn that they can run very, very fast.

Something about Tamahome's PE class scared him. He wasn't sure exactly what it could be, but a deep feeling of dread enveloped him as he peered into the gym. Maybe it was the fact that Draconsis and Suzako no Miko Copy Cabbit had somehow learned to turn up in two places at once so that they could terrorize the rest of the seishi. Or maybe it had something to do with their little crowd of friends, which happened to include Sansele. Whatever it was, he had this insane urge to run in the opposite direction.

Unfortunately for our little seishi friend, Mitsukake chose that moment to start singing the praises of exercise. Literally. To the tune of "Mary had a Little Lamb".

"Exercise is good for you, good for you, good for you… Exercise is good for you, it makes you he-ealthy!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you very much!!" the crazed healer boomed, bowing to the class.

Of course, by this point, the tall dude had attracted the attention of the girls in the gym. Tamahome gulped. He wasn't really so positive about the health benefits of physical education anymore… *cue dramatic chord*

"Move it," a dangerous voice hissed in his ear.

Tamahome very very slowly turned around to see Suboshi's Yo-yos o' Doom hovering by his head. Health benefits? Yeah right. Of course.

"A… ah… uh…. RIGHT AWAY, SENSEI!!!" Tamahome shrieked, practically flying into a corner. He huddled there, shivering like maybe he was afraid or something. He wasn't … yet. Suzaku no shichiseishi Tamahome has a lot to learn about fear. And it looks like it's time for the first lesson….

"You know what?" Sorceress said in a stage whisper. "If we're going to play volleyball, it stands to reason that we'll need a ball. And this under-equipped school has none, so…" She glared pointedly at Tamahome.

"Paper comes from trees," Dragon Goddess muttered. "So that obviously means that Tamahome wants to be repeatedly slammed over the net throughout this class period. It makes, like, total sense."

She, Sansele, Draconsis, Sorceress, and Suzako no Miko Copy Cabbit looked at each other. Then they looked at Tamahome. Then looked at the net. Then back at each other. Identical evil grins slowly spread across their faces.

"ALL RIGHT!!!"

Twenty bandit dances later….

The gang pounced on Tamahome and dragged him over to the volleyball net, which was actually a multi-purpose badminton net, but you didn't care about that.

"Here's the deal, dear Tama," Sansele announced. "You stay curled up while we hit you around and possibly into walls. You put up with it. Any protests or screaming and we bring Mitsukake over to sing 'I Can See the Sky'. UNDERSTOOD?!"

"Yes…. M'lady…"

****

About half an hour after the bell rang, Hotohori appeared, dragging Chiriko along. The child genius seemed to have a mortal fear of physical activity, which was not remedied by seeing the huge and uninviting gym. Once Hotohori let go of his hand, he promptly sat down in a corner and began to suck his thumb, ignored by the fangirls. Hotohori had no such luck. Upon his entrance, Suzako no Miko Copy Cabbit began to play with renewed vigor, slamming Tamahome in increasingly random directions.

"IT- I mean…" Tamahome began to mumble, remembering Sansele's threat. Through some amazing feat of self-control, he managed to stay silent even as he found himself on the roof staring into the gym through the hole he'd just made. He was really beginning to wish that he'd just stayed home sick.

"HEY VOLLEYBALL-CHAN!!" Draconsis yelled up to him. "Get back down here! We're trying to play here, and if you don't… The consequences could be very dire." Maniacal laughter could be heard from below.

Tamahome gulped and leapt down. "I really AM gonna die…." (And of course we'll all be so sad if that happens…)

"AND… LET THE GAMES CONTINUE!!!!"

****

After watching Tamahome suffer for a while, and deciding that he really liked this job, Suboshi had a Very Evil Idea. *huge thunderclaps are heard*

"OK! Tamahome, Chiriko, Mitsukake AND Hotohori!" he called. "You've all been very bad today… heh heh. So… I've decided that you simply must run laps until the end of class. And you have no say on this matter, Volleyball-CHAN," he added when he saw Tamahome's outraged expression. "I am the ALL POWERFUL GYM INSTRUCTOR FROM HECK!!! Now OUT INTO THE FIELD!!"

The quartet complied meekly, even Tamahome, though he was by now violently twitching. They carefully stepped around the dead bodies from the evil volleyball game and blinked in the glare from the sun. It didn't seem TOO bad, now that they considered, until…

"HOTOHORI-CHAN?!"

The emperor looked down at a girl with glasses and her hair in braids. Her hazel eyes were wide with surprise, and she was trying to figure out if she was dreaming. About a minute passed, and then she concluded that this was in fact real, and she glomped the poor bishie.

"HOTOHORI HOTOHORI IT REALLY IS YOU IT IS IT IS!!!!" She dragged the unsuspecting noble into an involuntary bandit dance. "HOTOHORI CAME TO SEE ME HE DID HE DID!!!"

The others looked on with pity in their eyes. At least they weren't getting glomped. Unlike a tall, slender, brown-eyed man whom they seemed to remember from the language arts class and their ill-fated writing assessment…

"EEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yep, K-chan is back.

Suboshi paced around. "All right, underlings! I want all of you to RUN! RUN like you've never RUN before!! And don't even THINK about slacking off and saying that you're incapable of running at high speeds because…" He held up his ryuuseisui, which had somehow multiplied, and sent them off after our heroes with a grunt of concentration. "NOW RUN!"

They did. But not without protest.

"NO!! EVILNESS!!!" K-chan screamed at the top of her lungs, tossing wet cement at the stupid yo-yos. "I WILL RULE THE WORLD AND NO LITTLE PLASTIC TOYS WILL STOP ME!!!!!!" As she asserted her plans for the future, she somehow found the time to plant land mines under Tamahome's feet.

"AAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!" This was not Tama-baby's day. "YOOOWCH!!!! AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" In his haste to avoid the rest of the land mines, the ryuuseisui had hit him. In his agonized struggles, he ended up stepping all over the mines anyway. Aww… It almost makes you feel sorry for him, doesn't it?

"Milui Gweneth," Hotohori began calmly explaining to his little stalker. "I cannot run if you are… clinging to me in this fashion. Could you please release me so that I may escape these ryuuseisui?"

She clutched him tighter. "NO! I can't run! You gotta save me, Hori-chan!!"

"Very well," Hotohori sighed, his nobility getting the best of him. "If you so desire."

"YAY!! YAY YAY YAY YAY… OUCH!" She swatted the Yo-yos of Doom irritably. "Don't you dare touch me!"

"EAGLE!! EAGLE EAGLE!! You'll save me from this madness, woncha?" Taking his incoherent reply as a yes, K-chan began to bandit dance as well as she could while still attached to his leg. "EAGLE LOVES ME!! JUST DO IT, AND IT'LL WORK OUT! Tasuki is SO right!!!! Ne, Tasuki-chan?" she asked her little squeaky Tasuki plushie.

"Squeak," it replied.

Mitsukake, meanwhile, was shielding Chiriko from the horrors of all this, and the child was on the verge of suffocating. Overall, it was very messy in the field. And we have yet to factor in the fact that the whole school was now a virtual minefield. AND that it seemed that Tama-baby was the poor guy sent to roll across it and blow any bombs before the troops came in.

"ARGH!! OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW…"

Poor Tamahomie (the Tamahome from the ghetto). He HAS gotten his share of abuse in this story… I recently got one of my friends hooked on FY, and she's in love with Tamahome. I can't wait to print this out for her. But anyways. After this story is done, I'm thinking of posting this little story I've started that's gonna be major whoever-the-reviewers-hate bashing! It'll be great! OK. Whoever reviews this chapter and asks gets to be in homeroom!! I might even split that into two chapters for the heck of it. Oh, and sorry if you think your part here was too short, but I can only do so much… *sniffle* LEAVE A REVIEW!!! PLEASE!!!