Revelations

  The night was calm, now there were no longer any vampire bats lurking about among the trees. Leaves whispered to the wind, and flickers of fireflies sent specks of lights shimmering from the woods. The full moon illuminated everything in a pale silvery glow, upon the distant hills, the trees, pebbles along the path, and the little old shack that now served as their shelter.

  Amiboshi sat silently in the veranda, thinking. The tranquility and delicateness of the night scene before him seemed, to him, to bring a touch of sadness. He had slept throughout the day, and at the times he wasn't asleep, he pretended to. The Suzaku seishi were kind to him, and never questioned him further about his identity and intent. They probably sensed that he didn't feel like talking just yet, which was rather true. His heart was in turmoil, torn between following Nakago's orders, and his own sense of right and wrong.

  And seeing Chichiri here seemed…well, he couldn't place it. He had always wanted to meet the ever-grinning monk again since he left him and Shun-chan under the care of their foster parents. But now, seeing him again…

  Ever since he and his twin had joined the Seiryuu seishi, all they had ever heard of their destined adversaries, the Suzaku seishi, were bad. He had learned that it was the Suzaku seishi who had instigated the imminent war between Konan and Kutou, that Kutou had to summon Seiryuu in defense of Konan's evil attentions.

  But how could anyone like Chichiri ever be bad?

  He was told to foil the Suzaku seishi's plans of summoning their god by posing as one of their members, first gaining their trust, then to betray that trust and annihilate them. Nakago's ways had seemed cruel and inhuman, but he was assured that it was the only way to guarantee the peace between the two kingdoms.

  Nakago must have been lying. All the wars Amiboshi had seen was Kutou's own doing, including the war that had so brutally seized his parents from him, making him and his brother endure the measly life of slaves.

  He wanted all of this to stop. He didn't want to harm the Suzaku seishi. He might not know them well, but already they displayed the camaraderie and friendship the Seiryuu seishi lacked. He… longed for that sense of belonging he had missed after he and Shunkaku had left their foster parents for the imperial palace.

  Threats. All Nakago had ever offered them were threats. The Seiryuu seishi had to undergo a harsh life of hard discipline, all their actions being determined by the blonde shogun. He and Shunkaku had agreed to serve as Seiryuu's seishi only because Nakago had told them the peaceful life they were leading would be shattered by the trauma of war if they didn't follow his wishes.

  Sometimes, he just wasn't sure if they were following Nakago's orders because they chose to, or because they had already become slaves of the shogun's clever manipulations. 

  He couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to tell the Suzaku seishi he was Chiriko, and he certainly couldn't kill them. It might have been different if they were total strangers, but Chichiri was one of them.

  Fate must have done this. It must have intervened to prevent an oncoming tragedy.

  His mind made up, Amiboshi stood and walked silently to the room that Chichiri was currently occupying. He halted at the door.

  A thousand memories began to flood up as his raised his hand to rap lightly at the semi-brittle timber.

  "Come in, no da."

  Amiboshi entered apprehensively. He still wasn't sure that what he was going to do was right. Chichiri's ever-smiling face greeted him, soothing away his fears.

  Now all he had to do was to figure out a way to tell Chichiri the truth.

***

  Chichiri studied the fidgeting young boy in front of him who seemed to have all of a sudden discovered something extremely fascinating about the floor.

  "Is there anything you need, no da?" he inquired gently, 'poofing' a lamp out of thin air.

  The boy's head snapped up. "No…no… I just thought… none of you have asked who I am, or my name…"

  Chichiri smiled under his mask. He knew it would somehow come down to that.

  "You didn't seem to want to tell us, so we felt it wasn't our place to ask no da." Chichiri somehow managed to convey the fact that he was truly smiling, even under his mask, "Though we almost had to gag Tasuki to prevent him from pestering you."

  The boy blinked, obviously taken aback. Again, Chichiri had that strange sense of familiarity.

  "It's getting rather inconvenient to think of you as "the boy", though, maybe you can just give me a name," "Something to call you by," he quickly added, just in case the boy thought he was prying.

  "Chichiri…" the boy began, his voice sounding strangely hollow.

  "Ore wa… Koutoku."

***

  Chichiri could only stare. Koutoku…

  How many years had it been since he had met the pair of young twins who had struggled so hard for survival, how much time had past since he had met those children who had taught him to leave his painful past behind?

  No wonder the boy had seemed familiar; Chichiri could never forget that familiar presence.

  But within those lavender eyes lay the internal turmoil Koutoku was facing, obviously, Koutoku was no longer the innocent child Chichiri had met six years ago.

  So many questions… What was Koutoku doing here amidst the Suzaku seishi? What had happened to the twins during his absence?

  "Koutoku…Why are you here? How are your foster parents getting on? Are they well? " He could no longer keep back the barrage of questions in his mind.

  And lastly… the most important one…

  "Koutoku, where is your brother?"

***

  Koutoku looked at the red eyed monk, who had now taken off his mask, revealing his scarred face, filled to the brim with concern and recognition, as if embracing a long lost family. Amiboshi felt as though he wanted to cry. Before long, tears he had fought back for so long trickled down his face.

  He had to tell Chichiri. If there's one person in this world he could trust besides his twin, it's him. He wondered what his reaction would be?

  There's only one way to find out.

***

  "Chichiri-san…" Amiboshi began tentatively, "…there's one thing you need to know…and I hope you can trust me. Only you can help me now…"

  Slowly, he rolled up his right sleeve, baring his arm. He kept his gaze on Chichiri, and willed his symbol to show.

  Little by little, the bluish hue of the character, "kou," shone from his arm. And then it gradually faded.

  Chichiri's mouth was agape as he took it all in. Koutoku, a member of the Seiryuu Shichiseishi? It was a little hard to swallow, but it made sense. How else was a normal person to use his chi so well if not for the gift of the gods?

  "Kou…high spirits. You must be Amiboshi. Aren't you, Koutoku?" Chichiri asked softly.

  Amiboshi nodded silently.

  "And Shunkaku? Is he alright? Does he know?"

  "Shun-chan bears the symbol of 'kaku' on his left arm…he's Suboshi. He's fine."

***

  Amiboshi awoke the next morning, feeling lighter than he had ever been since he, out of his not very right mind, joined the Seiryuu seishi few years back. He spent the night telling Chichiri the synopsis of his life story after Chichiri left them under the care of their foster parents; how Suboshi's powers revealed itself when he tried to rescue the family cat from drowning in the fast flowing river nearby; how Nakago began gathering the Seiryuu seishi and came around his village seeking the twins, explaining meticulously on how they were fated to get together, to protect Kutou from those Suzaku bastards; and how they, as naive boys of twelve, were taken in to the shogun's sweet talk, followed him with their foster parents' blessings, only to find that things weren't as clear a picture as Nakago first painted.

  Amiboshi remembered how Chichiri had winced when he told him how they were treated under the command of Nakago, and the orders given to them, and later more specifically, he himself on his current one. Chichiri's face showed concern, sympathy, and understanding, not once judging or showed mistrust. Now Amiboshi knew his decision on leaving the Seiryuu seishi was a right and just one. And he resolved to get his twin brother out of the predicament they were in. Chichiri had agreed to help, but told him to stay under his old name for the moment until they found a suitable time to explain everything to the rest of the Suzaku warriors.

  Chichiri had predicted that there would be a squabble when the news broke, but in just a matter of minutes, everybody would be willing to help. Amiboshi thought about the various powers the seishi had and hoped it wouldn't be messy. He would remember to get ready to run for safety especially if the purple haired girl and that fanged redhead with an iron fan got too excited over matters.

***

" OHAYO !!!!!!"

  With a kick, a bang, and a wham, the door to Amiboshi's room was kicked open, hit the wall, and slammed right back into the kicker's nose. A closer examination at the two dimensional paper on the floor revealed Tasuki, who definitely did not look good. He popped back into his usual three dimensional self, nose flattened, face smashed, tessen in hand, standing on one foot, striking on a whole, a very ridiculous pose.

  "Damn you stupid piece of rotting wood!!" The fanged bandit cursed and sent his leg flying at the door. The door obviously didn't take kindly to his remarks, and gave back as hard as it could.

  "OWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!" and with that, everybody's favorite bandit hobbled away, muttering strings after strings of every curse available in the dialects of all four countries. Amiboshi stared at the limping figure, eyes wide, mouth open, with a huge sweatdrop dripping from his brow.

  "Tasuki! What are you doing howling so early in the morning! I need my beauty sleep you know!!" came Nuriko's voice from another part of the shack. Her voice was as powerful as her strength. Amiboshi remembered that his first impression of her was 'What a sweet girl!' and decided that looks can be deceiving. Especially when it came to this group of people he'll be going along with. He'd better get used to them soon.

  Amiboshi walked out of his room and out to the veranda. He stopped short before going out, hearing murmurs. A little eavesdropping wouldn't hurt…

  Miaka was peeling off the petals of an unoffending flower.

  "Tamahome loves me…"
  "I've found another two seishi…"

  "Tamahome…" She peeled off yet another petal.

  " Hotohori...Nuriko… Chichiri…Tasuki… Mitsukake…" She then realized that she was out of petals.

  "One more seishi and I can fetch Tamahome! " she exclaimed gleefully.

  "Chiriko… why can't you just appear? " With this said, Miaka went starry-eyed.

  "Tamahome…"

  Amiboshi blinked. This girl was really obsessed.

  He continued walking about the house looking at what everyone was doing. Chichiri was running about with the cat in his chibi form, and Mitsukake was talking to some plants, which seemed rather commonplace at first glance. Amiboshi did a double take. Plants?

  His conclusion - this place is weird.

***

· (sweatdrops) Another short chapter… Better than nothing, isn't it?  

· BloodyCrystal : Finally, an attempt at humour, and of my doing! (admires her work). Not to mention it's totally focused on Amiboshi.

    Snowdancer : AND Chichiri.

    BloodyCrystal : (blinks at the screen) Where? (notices the look on Snowdancer's face) Fine, perhaps a little of Chichiri.

    Snowdancer : What!? (dons punching gloves)

·   Is it just us, or are the reviews actually dwindling in number? And we're actually giving up precious study time for this. It's our finals, you know. We live on reviews. So… please?

**Oops, we forgot that Tamahome wasn't supposed to be there. As for Chichiri, yep, we changed his part, as Chichiri-sama deserves to be at the place of action. Anyway, we've corrected the teeny-weeny error and took Tamahome out of the fic.

    Snowdancer : How embarrassing… two writers and we didn't notice a mistake like that.

    BloodyCrystal : Comes out of writing at midnight… and posting at 2 in the morning.

    Snowdancer : (glares) So? I was in a hurry. It was your mistake, anyway.

    BloodyCrystal : I was thinking that a certain someone would read over the entire chapter before posting.

    Snowdancer : I was tired!

    BloodyCrystal : Really? Wouldn't the same apply in my case?

    Snowdancer    : …