Warnings: Language, sulking bandits, and…other stuff, too.

Notes: Hi, everybody! **wavewave** I'm back at school now, and I start tomorrow. What fun!! ^_^;; I hope you all are doing well, I know most of you are starting pretty soon, too. So. Good luck! ^_^ And thanks for reading; I hope you like it!

YET ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Sixteen:

Heyyy, The Window!!

Genrou was less than thrilled when I managed to drag Tom back to the van, and blocked our entrance, glaring.

"Gen-chaaaaaaaan," I protested, "c'mon! It's really cold out here!"

"Look, ya fuckin stupid little naïve girly-boy, we're not a fuckin home for strays on wheels!" he retorted. "In case you fuckin forgot, we got things to do!"

I opened my mouth to argue, but Tom cleared his throat and cut me off. "Thanks for the offer," he said quietly, stepping away, "but I don't want ya ta cause a rift among…"

I grabbed him by the arm. "Oh, no, you don't! I told you, didn't I? We'll take you to the next town; don't mind Genrou, he's a dork, and he always acts like this. Genrou," I ordered, "get the heck away from the door and let me talk to Sai." To my irritation, he didn't budge, just folded his arms more tightly and clenched his jaw firmly; and suddenly, Sai's head popped up over his shoulder, blinking.

"You want to take him with us, Ryuuen?" he asked, apparently a bit confused.

With a nod, I explained myself. "I think I've met him befoooooore," I stressed, hoping he'd take the hint without me having to go into more detail, detail which, by all rights, might send Tom heading for the hills. I was almost certain that he was someone from the Book, because there couldn't be another explanation for it; I hadn't ever met him in this life, of that I was sure. Well…98 percent sure, anyway. SO. The only other logic behind it (ahaha, if you can really call it logic) would be that he was a seishi. He definitely wasn't a Suzaku, since we'd found everyone already; he probably wasn't a Seiryuu, because Ayuru hadn't said anything. So he was either Genbu or Byakko, right? Of course, my siblings and Kouji and Kouran and Shouka had turned up here, too, with no divine connections to speak of… I don't think I ever met Tom in the past, so he was either an early seishi or someone from a seishi's past whom I'd…yeah. Never met.

Oh, by the way. Sai let me into the car. He wasn't a spazz like Gen-chan, and he'd understood my clue, of course, but had still hesitated—just because someone is a reincarnated seishi doesn't mean they're necessarily safe, after all—until I heard Myojuan's voice pipe up from the front.

"Let him in," he said. "Let him come."

That about did it. If the driver said someone could come, that someone was coming.

Tom took a seat in the back next to Gen-chan, who was sulking because he hadn't gotten his way, and thanked us all graciously for the ride; Sai and I assured him it was no big deal, and Sai smiled at him and asked him where he was from.

"Originally? Oklahoma," our new passenger informed us. "Right outside of Tulsa. But I left when I was sixteen, so I haven't seen home for three years. Little more'n that."

"You left home when you were sixteen?" I repeated, twisting more in my seat to look at him. "Why? Did you run away?" Private, private, that's private stuff, Ryuuen! You shouldn't be delving, you know…

But Tom only shrugged. "Nah, I just left. Told my dad I was goin, didn't bother him none. He never wanted a kid in the first place, and I wasn't more'n a hassle for him, anyway. Didn't understand a kid who wants to draw stupid pictures for a living, kinda like Marty back there, you know, at the gas station." He rubbed his forehead under the rim of his hat and gave a slightly sheepish grin. "Don't bother me much, though; besides, I got…people to find."

People to find! People to find! Like…Book People! AhahahahahAHAHAHahaha, it's been confirmed!! I shot an excited look at Sai, who glanced at me briefly and said in a calm voice, "Oh? Family, you mean?"

The boy laughed a little, leaning back in the seat as if he was embarrassed. "Kinda; I guess. Iunno. Y'all might think I'm missin a few nuts in my head, if ya don't already."

"Try us," I invited, masking my excitement, and Genrou snorted rudely, unwrapping a cupcake and stuffing the whole thing in his mouth. What was his problem??

Tom looked at us measuringly with solemn brown eyes before sighing and saying, "Well. For a few years now, I've been having these dreams…weird dreams, about people I never met before…but somehow, I have. Dunno how to explain it, it's real weird; there're a buncha people who're waitin for me…" He rubbed at his head. "Shit, Iunno. Buncha crazy shit. I got this fool notion that they're real, though, so I've been workin my way toward 'em…Don't have a clue where in hell they are."

"Do you know what they look like?" I said, picturing the Genbu and Byakko seishi I knew in my head. Doulin and Lanva! "Is there a woman with long, white hair, and a man with spiky white hair?" And I remembered two of the Genbu seishi…something was weird about that memory, it was foggy and dim, but I could see them in my mind: "Or…a kid with dark hair and a big hat, or a guy with one eye??" Too late, Sai nudged me with his foot, and I gulped, realizing that any low profile we'd hoped to keep was lost because of my big mouth.

Great job, Ryuuen; give the game away. Can't you be tactful, EASE him into the fact that he's probably a reincarnated seishi and…

"One eye," he breathed, eyes going wide. "Yeah…Yeah, a guy with one eye, I remember that! I can't see them all that well in the dreams, but…I remember that…" His eyes widened, and he put his hands on his knees, leaning forward and looking right into my face. "I do know you, don't I?? Are you one of them?! You're familiar…y'all are so familiar!"

I, meanwhile, had clenched my sleeves in my fists and put them up to my mouth, probably blushing again and wishing someone would have stapled my mouth shut or something before I'd had a chance to destroy the fragile psyches of random reincarnates. My eyes darted to Sai, who reached out to pat my shoulder and sighed.

"Tom," he said, "if I can call you Tom…"

Tom smiled nervously. "Can't call me much else, can ya?" Gen-chan rolled his eyes and muttered something about hicks around the lump of cake and cream filling in his mouth. Why the heck was he acting like a badger with a chip on his shoulder??! It couldn't be just because we'd overruled his unwillingness to let Tom in the van, could it? …But then, knowing Gen-chan, that was probably it. Spazz.

"We seem familiar," Sai said, his voice low and gentle, like the one he'd used with me when he'd told me the story of my past life, "because we come from the same place you do."

Poor Sai; he always gets sucked in to explaining stuff to everyone!

Our passenger looked rather wary. "What, ya mean like…we're space aliens and stuff?"

Sai came to an abrupt halt, and I giggled despite myself; Ayuru peered back at us from the front, eyebrow raised, and even Gen-chan had to bite his lip to keep from laughing, albeit probably scornfully. "N-nooo," Sai continued. "Perhaps…we're going a bit too quickly."

"There's four animals that control the planet, right?" Tom plunged on eagerly. "A turtle, a bird, a dragon…and a big white cat thing, right? Listen, y'all, is this like a, like a…like a past life thing, like a memory? Is that what it is? Cuz I been thinkin about it for years and tryin to figure what the hell's goin on, and it sounds stupid, but it's the best I could come up with; I know all these folks are here, and I can find 'em, but damned if I ever saw 'em before! Not with these eyes, anyhow. So is that it?"

…Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, slow down slow down!!!!!!!!!! How does he KNOW all that?? I didn't know all that, not until I was told! How does he know so much??!

"That's…that's…very good," said Sai weakly. "Good. Good, indeed…"

Despite being relatively flabbergasted, I decided it was time for me to come to his rescue. It took me a few tries, but I eventually came out with, "We're…uhh…all of us, and you, and…lots of other people, too…well, everyone in the van except Ayuru, the blond guy in the front…we're the reincarnations of the Celestial Warriors of Suzaku. The phoenix god." I forced a smile to calm him down in case of panic, my hands still close to my mouth. "Um…I think you might be another of the seishi, from one of the other gods; you said you remember a guy with one eye, and I know that one of the Genbu seishi—Hikitsu, right?—had one eye. And since you say you recognize us, and I, at least, recognize you…"

"Me, too," said Sai.

"…I think it might be…I dunno…maybe some sort of universal seishi bond, or something," I finished meekly, sorry that I couldn't explain it more.

He absorbed the information, jaw dropping a bit. "A seishi," he said finally, musing. "Me? A seishi? Chosen by the Gods?"

"That's what it looks like," Sai said kindly. "Lucky we stopped at that particular station, isn't it?"

Tom folded his arms, brow furrowing slightly. "A seishi," he repeated. "I…Y'know, y'all…" Slowly, a smile grew on his face, showing his teeth, and he laughed. "All my life, I've felt kinda lost, like I was a stray even though I had friends, and a dad…" He raised his eyes. "For the first time, I don't…I don't feel that way. I feel like I've found the people I belong with. Even you, fuzz-for-brains," he told Genrou, who glared. "It's crazy, but…even though I've known y'all for all of ten minutes, I feel like we've been together forever."

I hadn't been without a reincarnated seishi close by since I was in preschool; that's when Gen-chan and I had met, and we'd stuck together ever since. Our past lives probably had more to do with that than any similarities between us. And even when I was younger than that, there had been people from the book: Rokou, my parents…and when I was less than a year old, Kourin. But nothing said that all the reincarnated seishi would be born into the same families as in the book. Sai had told me that his parents were totally different from world to world, and he never had any siblings, even half siblings, like he'd had in Konan. And Doukun was fairly certain that his family was different, too; he had an older sister and two younger brothers in this life, and only one brother, older, before. I wondered how my life would have been different if I'd been born in the company of strangers, people who didn't understand me, even on a subconscious level. It would have been lonely, that's for sure. Sai and I had never discussed this aspect of his past before, and I'd always known he'd been lonely, searching for his friends for so long…but I'd never really realized the deeper implications. Not fitting in, not just on the outside, but on the inside, too. Knowing that, somewhere out there, there were people waiting to find you…waiting for you to find them. And maybe not finding them for a long, long time.

Maybe that explained why Tom remembered so much about the other world. I'd had Gen-chan, and then Miaka and Taka and Doukun and Myojuan; I'd taken my life for granted, never felt anything was wrong, because nothing was wrong; I was with the people I was supposed to be with. If I'd been alone, and felt alone, I know I would've wondered why. It was wondering, I guess, coupled with whatever dreams he'd had, that had provided Tom with the truth.

"We'll help you find them," I said suddenly, before I knew what I was saying. Everyone turned and looked at me, and I stared around at them for a while; then, realizing I'd spoken out loud, I had to hurry to clarify. "I…I mean, the other Genbu seishi. We'll help you find them."

"The others," Tom said, rather dreamily. "Then we can all be together again."

I smiled at his happiness, and Myojuan called from the front, "Well. While your offer is really very sweet, Ryuuen, I think you'd do well to add the fact that, before we help him, we have to take care of a certain problem concerning one of the Seiryuu seishi's attempt to rule the world."

Oh, yeah. Well, I knew that.

Tom, however, had not. His eyes bugged out, and he tilted his head. "Euhh… 'scuse me? What's all this, now?"

I was about to explain, when all of a sudden, Ayuru said, "No. Save it for later."

"But…"

"Ryuuen." He turned to face me, appearing calm, but obviously intending to be obeyed. His eyes were hard…but I didn't think that hardness was directed toward me. "It's too much. Don't discuss it any more; it's enough for now."

I regarded him silently for a while, and realized…Ayuru didn't trust Tom. For some reason…he didn't trust him. And suddenly, belatedly, I remembered that Miboshi had certain skills when it came to making people evil. Chuin had been less than nice, certainly. And though that little shell he'd had might have been the cause of it, since he'd gone back to normal after I'd stepped on it, we had all decided that we couldn't be sure whether it had been the shell or Miboshi's influence that had done the changing.

Does he think Tom has already been found by Miboshi, and corrupted? Well, that made me feel absolutely horrible. Exactly how stupid was I, for crying out loud??! I invite a perfect stranger, albeit one whom I recognize on some strange psychological level, to travel with us, spill the beans about us being seishi in case he hadn't been completely sure of his target, and then attempt to explain our plan of action for thwarting the floating gnome? How naïve and trusting was I?? Gen-chan was right; I was nothing more than a little boy, a stupid little boy who wanted to believe that everyone was good at heart. I'd trusted Tom, I trusted Chuin when he was Sai and look what happened there; I was such a burden, I made myself sick. Making everyone worry about me, making it easy for potentially evil seishi to worm their ways past our defenses…

Tom, not recognizing my bout of self-chastisement, just shrugged. "Hey, I understand; too much is too much, I get that. I s'pose it's weird for y'all, suddenly pickin someone like me off the street. 'Sweird for me too, I tell ya, but…I'm glad I'm here."

There was a tense silence as I mulled over my dumb assumption, and the others, too, I suppose. I wondered if Ayuru sensed something else about Tom; maybe…maybe Tom was Miboshi himself!! He could enter the bodies of random people, so what if he was Tom and ahhhhh!!!! STUPID RYUUEN!!!!! If I'd had anything hard to bang my head against…

Heyyy, the window!

"Ahem," said Sai, trying to break the uncomfortable quiet. "Why not start the radio, Ayuru-kun?"

Ayuru took a moment before reaching out slowly and turning the radio on; immediately, the vehicle was filled with banjo playing and harmonizing female voices, and I lay my head back against the headrest and sighed.

I'm such a nuisance…I should've just stayed at home.

"Heyyy!" Tom exclaimed. "Y'all like the Dixie Chicks?? Rock on!!" Immediately, he began to sing along, much to the dismay of Gen-chan, who snatched up his tessen from the ground and shook it menacingly at the singing boy.

"Ya better fuckin stop that right this goddamn minute or you're fuckin shish kabob, cowboy!!" he roared.

"Not in the VAN, Genrou!!!" Myojuan reminded him roughly, and Ayuru brought a hand to his temple, sighing.

A pyromaniac with a flame-throwing weapon, a former evil shogun, a driver with a bad temper, a stupid kid with screwed-up ideas of trust, and the possible reincarnation-slash-possessed body of the guy who was causing all these problems in the first place. I groaned in my head.

It was gonna be a looooong trip.


TBC…

YET ANOTHER STORY AKUGI Presents:

The Ryuuen and Ayuru Comedy Hour!!

Ryuuen: Ne, Ayuru-kun!

Ayuru: Hai, Ryuu-chan?

Ryuuen: Too bad Hikitsu only has one eye, huh?

Ayuru: Indeed. I bet he wishes he had…**sings** Two eyes, twooo…lalalalalalala!

Ryuuen: Maybe he and Chichiri should have glass ones made, or something; then at least they won't have to wear an eyepatch and a mask!

Ayuru: Yes, they should get… **sings** New eyes, neewwww…lalalalalalala!

Ryuuen: But then again, they might have problems finding glass eyes. I mean, not many people need them, all things considered.

Ayuru: You're quite right; they're very rare. There are… **sings** Few eyes, fewwww…

Ryuuen: And of course, they wouldn't be like the old ones.

Ayuru: No. They'd be fake. They wouldn't be…**sings** True eyes, truuuuuue…

Ryuuen: Maybe there's some sort of spell they can cast, you know, to bring their eyes back!! I bet Chichiri could do something like that, if he wasn't wrapped up in the scar being a symbol of remembering his past…

Ayuru: But you're right; it would be nice if they… **sings** Grew eyes, grewwww…

Ryuuen: And then they'd be happy, and they'd say, "Woo! Eyes! Woo!" ^____^

Ayuru: …

Ryuuen: ^_^;;;

Ayuru: Get off the stage.

Ryuuen: Awww…

(Mouse-chan is assuming that y'all will've heard Nakago's character song, Blue Eyes Blue. **nodnod** ^_~ )