Chapter 39
* what chapter am I really on? I keep messing the chapters up! I hope I got this one right! *
The Suzaku were on the move again, reaching the West City in no difficulty. There were no barriers, obstacles, terrible music playing of any kind that got in their way of reaching the West City. And this made Kristin nervous.
According to the anime show, she should have run into Tomo and Kailein, and then, Tamahome's old master would have shown up and taken them in for the night before revealing where the second Shinzaho lay. But Tomo and Kailein did not come, and this made Kristin anxious. Something had gone wrong. Not only were they not going to find Tamahome's old master because Tamahome was no longer with them, but Kristin was not able to reunite with a friend of hers who should have come to stop her.
"Caitlin," Kristin said, pulling Caitlin aside as they reached the city and entered a bar to take a rest and a drink.
"There's something wrong going on around here," Kristin said. "Something doesn't seem right, you know?"
"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked, rolling her eyes at strange faces she was getting from Tasuki.
"I mean," Kristin said, "shouldn't we have run into Tomo and Kailein by now? And what about the Shinzaho? Should we just go straight to the Temple, and start looking for it? How do we explain to the others how we know that the Shinzaho is already there?"
"Well, how about this," Caitlin said, but just then, Tasuki began to call out her name in really irritating notes, almost singing very badly, off-key (.O Holy Night, Caitlin ( )
"Tasuki, not now!" Caitlin hissed. "I'm trying to hold a very important conversation with Kristin right now!"
"But I just need to talk to you!" he said, growling. "What's so wrong with me wanting to talk to you?"
"I'm busy!"
"You're always busy!" Tasuki cried. "Fine, you don't want to hear what I've got to say, then you don't get to hear what I want to say!"
"Fine by me," Caitlin snapped, turning her attention away from Kristin, who simply slunk away, deciding to leave Caitlin and Tasuki alone for their usual fight.
"You have no manners whatsoever, you know!" Caitlin snapped. "She's the Priestess and I'm her . . . "
"Royal Consort," Tasuki sniggered.
"Oh, that's it!" Caitlin cried, and all eyes in the bar turned towards the two. "You're the most irrisponsible jerk I've ever known! All I want to do is talk to my friend about a very, extremely serious and important subject that could save our lives in the midst of all our battles and you have the nerve to be your stupid, annoying self, just as you always are!" Her hand came up, and Tasuki was on the ground with a black eye.
"BACK AT YOU!!!" he screamed, and the two were suddenly in a little cloud of fight, punching and hitting each other, yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs. Hair was torn and fans rang out. Fire developed them but was later smoldered down with a WATER SLAP!! The bartender finally forced the two out of the bar, kicking them out in the back alley were they could be alone.
They fought at each other a little more, and Caitlin stumbled back from Tasuki, panting, "You jerk! I can't believe you started a riot with me IN PUBLIC!! You know how shameful it must be to the Priestess?!"
"You know how shameful it must be for the Priestess to have a Consort LIKE YOU?!?!"
Caitlin sent another WATER SLAP!! towards Tasuki, drenching. He gave a disgusted yell, and they were all over each other in a mob of angry fists.
"What's wrong with you?!" Caitlin screamed, throwing him another WATER SLAP!!
"Too busy with the Priestess, are you?!" Tasuki yelled back. "Can't bother to talk with any of the rest of the seishi, we're just not important enough are we?!"
"Well you aren't!" Caitlin cried. "I can't believe you hit me in public!"
"You started it!"
"How did I start it?!" Caitlin screamed. "You're the one who wouldn't leave me alone when I asked you to! Now Kristin probably thinks I'm nuts!! What's you're PROBLEM, ANYWAY?!?!"
"I JUST WANTED TO PROPOSE MY LOVE TO YOU, DAMN IT!!" Tasuki screamed, loud enough for the whole city to hear. Tasuki suddenly stopped, realizing what he had just said, his face going white.
Caitlin stopped, her cheeks flushing red. "You . . . you wanted to propose? As . . . as in . . . marriage?"
"Yes," Tasuki said, in a little voice. His face turned a bright shade of white, and for awhile, the two stood staring at each other with awkward looks in their eyes. It was a uncomfortable moment, and yet, Caitlin's heart was racing.
Slowly, and rather shyly, Tasuki shuffled his way over to Caitlin, and pulled out a bag. He handed it over to her, and said in soft, embarrassed tone, "Open it . . . uh, please."
Caitlin gently pulled open the bag, and took out a small box. The alley way was utterly silent by that time. She opened the box, and gasped. There was a delicately crafted ring of gold with a red ruby, and fire-like designs on the band.
"I. . . I found it in the mountains," Tasuki said, his face still red, and his voice still full of embarrassement. "I . . . well, do you like it?"
Caitlin didn't know what to say. She felt embarrassed for yelling at him like that. After all her jumping up and down to meet him, and then having so much fun arguing with him and their constant teasing of each other, she had never thought that Tasuki would ever become serious with her. The Mountain bandit that claimed he hated girls had proposed to Caitlin, out of everyone he could have! But, wasn't she the only one who could match his firey temper, and use her water powers to annoy and tease him in her special way that no other girl would dare to do?
"Oh, Tasuki," Caitlin squeaked, "I don't know what to say . . . thank you, I mean . . . I do!"
"You do?" Tasuki asked, taken aback. His face got even more red, if that were possible.
"Of course I do!" Caitlin said. "You're the only one who makes me as happy as I am!"
"But . . . I thought I annoyed you," Tasuki said, blinking in confusion.
"You do," Caitlin said, her voice a little flat, but she perked up right away, and said, "But that's what I like about you. You make me happy. You're fun, you're interesting. Besides, I thought you hated me for annoying you."
"Well . . . " Tasuki said, a bit choked up for words. His face was bright red, more red than a tomato. More red than ketchup. More red than a cheez it box.
"It's okay," Caitlin said. "You don't have to say anything. I understand. We think the same, don't we?"
"That's what that Mitsukake keeps saying," Tasuki growled. "He needs a black eye, badly!"
Caitlin grinned. That's my Tasuki, she thought.
"So," he said, his face still red, but his voice coming back to him. "I'm sorry about interrupting your conversation . . . and hitting you in public. I shouldn't hit girls in public, I know, I know."
"That's okay," Caitlin said, smiling.
"So . . ." Tasuki said, and everything became silent and uncomfortable again. Tasuki looked at the ground, then back up at Caitlin, then back at the ground. Caitlin looked at the walls, the sky, the ground, Tasuki, and then the wall again.
"So," she said back, the silence drawing thicker about them.
"So," said a voice behind them. Caitlin and Tasuki turned around and saw the Lone Wolf Warrior, standing the mouth of the alley way, grinning at them madly.
Tasuki growled, his face still bright red. "What do you think you're doing here, Wolf Lone Warrior?!"
"Lone Wolf . . . ah, forget it," Caitlin said.
"I've had to hide myself by a strange demon taken the form of a giant cheez it," the Lone Wolf Warrior replied rather casually.
Tasuki and Caitlin exchanged confused looks. "Giant cheez it?" Caitlin mouthed to him.
"No matter for that," the Lone Wolf Warrior said, "I've managed to stop the Seiryu Seven who had planned on stopping you."
Tasuki growled. "Didn't we tell you to leave our enemies alone?!"
The Lone Wolf Warrior laughed. "Tomo and Kailein . . . dead. Oh, how I couldn't stand that cackling. Makiko and Miboshi . . . dead. Soon, I'll have those twins dead, followed by the general and his Priestess, but I'll keep the Soi Sauce. I like her."
"You do?" Tasuki and Caitlin chimed in at the same time.
"Yes, she's a nice girl," the Lone Wolf Warrior said in a rather happy tone. "Here, you like this ring? I think I might take her as a bride." It was a cool ring; silver with a wolf head, jaws open holding a blazing white gem, and lightening bolts carved into the band.
"That's nice, yes," Tasuki and Caitlin remarked, as the three looked at the ring, admiring it. "I never thought you two together, but you would make a rather nice couple," Caitlin said.
"You think so?" the Lone Wolf Warrior asked.
"Oh, most definitely," Tasuki said. "Go for it."
Then, the three backed off, gave a pause of silence, and then the Lone Wolf Warrior became serious again.
"It's time I finally finish you off, Tasuki, fire boy!" the Lone Wolf Warrior yelled.
Tasuki took out his fan. "Go ahead and take me on!" he shouted back. "Caitlin, get behind me," he snarled.
Though she would normally protest, Caitlin gave a thrilled giggle, and hid behind her fiancee. Her fiancee! she screamed in her mind happily.
The Lone Wolf Warrior pulled out his lighter and screamed, "LONE WOLF WARRIOR!" Once more, a tiny flame whipped out, and Tasuki smiled stupidly before shouting at the top of his voice, "REKKA SHINEN!"
A mistake was made though. The Lone Wolf Warrior had turned into a Wolf at the last minute, and Tasuki's flame missed him. The Wolf lunged at Tasuki and pinned him down. This is the one move that the Lone Wolf Warrior is good at doing. He clamped his jaws around Tasuki's neck, and began to tear at his skin and clothes, tearing the Seishi apart.
"Tasuki!" Caitlin screamed. She brandished out her fan and screamed, "WATER SLAP!!"
The Wolf was smacked off of Tasuki, and hit the opposite wall hard, knocking him out. Tasuki stumbled to his knees. "It's alright," he muttered, "I'm alright. Just a little in over my head, that's all."
"Let's get out of here before the Lone Wolf Warrior comes to," Caitlin cried, and she grabbed Tasuki's hand and they ran out of the alley. They didn't know where to go, and they forgot about their fellow Seishi and Priestess. They simply ran down the streets, with people giving them strange stares as the bright red-haired boy and his blue-haired girl ran down the streets, hand in hand.
Before they knew it, they had ran all the way to the Temple of Byakko, where they went into the main hall, and closed the giant doors of the Temple shut. They stopped, sliding to the floor, panting hard.
"We made it!" Caitlin breathed.
"Shit, I hate that Lone Wolf Warrior!" Tasuki said.
"Tasuki!" Caitlin remarked. "You . . . you just said it right!"
"What?" Tasuki asked. "The Wolf Lone Warrior?"
Caitlin's face became a frown. "Nevermind."
They let their breaths caught up with them before they realized the open quietness that lingered in the dark hall of the Temple. Caitlin gulped, and Tasuki groaned.
"Are you hurt?" Caitlin asked.
"Na," Tasuki said, his voice upset. "But we forgot our fellow Seishi!"
"Oops," Caitlin said. "I hope the Lone Wolf Warrior doesn't find them. Well, Kristin still has the protection of Chichiri, Mitsukake and Chiriko."
"Yeah, " Tasuki said, not impressed, "and Hotohori will just LOVE us for leaving the Priestess alone while the Lone Wolf Warrior was waiting outside the bar door!"
"Yeah," Caitlin said, her face dropping. The quietness enveloped them. Caitlin shuffled closer to Tasuki on the ground, drawing her body close to him. "It's really empty in here."
"Yeah," Tasuki remarked. "And a little too quiet. Hey, this is some sort of Temple."
"The Temple of Byakko!" Caitlin said. "Of course! This was what I was telling Kristin about . . . before you interrupted me."
"Enough with that already," Tasuki growled, "I said I love you, isn't that enough?"
"Don't you get it?!" Caitlin cried softly. "Where else would the Shinzaho of Byakko be but in the Temple of the beast god of Byakko?"
"Byakko's the turtle, right?"
"Yeah." Caitlin said, and then she stopped. Her heart beat wildly. "Tasuki. . . did you just say * I love you *?"
"Uh . . . " Tasuki said, his face instantly going red again. "No, I didn't."
Caitlin smiled. "Yes, you did. You just said *I love You * to me! Oh, Tasuki!"
"Yeah, WHAT ABOUT IT?! SO I LOVE YOU ALREADY!!"
Caitlin smiled as Tasuki huffed and leaned back against the wall. All was silent in the hall as Caitlin smiled in the darkness, trying to sort things out in her mind about the Shinzaho, and that's when Tasuki reached over, and with a serious face, said, "Of course I love you," and then kissed Caitlin hard, pushing her back to the ground. Some one was very happy that night.
And somewhere, in the distant hallways of the Temple, Tasuki and Caitlin were sure they heard a voice very much like Makiko's yell, "I GET IT!!"
* what chapter am I really on? I keep messing the chapters up! I hope I got this one right! *
The Suzaku were on the move again, reaching the West City in no difficulty. There were no barriers, obstacles, terrible music playing of any kind that got in their way of reaching the West City. And this made Kristin nervous.
According to the anime show, she should have run into Tomo and Kailein, and then, Tamahome's old master would have shown up and taken them in for the night before revealing where the second Shinzaho lay. But Tomo and Kailein did not come, and this made Kristin anxious. Something had gone wrong. Not only were they not going to find Tamahome's old master because Tamahome was no longer with them, but Kristin was not able to reunite with a friend of hers who should have come to stop her.
"Caitlin," Kristin said, pulling Caitlin aside as they reached the city and entered a bar to take a rest and a drink.
"There's something wrong going on around here," Kristin said. "Something doesn't seem right, you know?"
"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked, rolling her eyes at strange faces she was getting from Tasuki.
"I mean," Kristin said, "shouldn't we have run into Tomo and Kailein by now? And what about the Shinzaho? Should we just go straight to the Temple, and start looking for it? How do we explain to the others how we know that the Shinzaho is already there?"
"Well, how about this," Caitlin said, but just then, Tasuki began to call out her name in really irritating notes, almost singing very badly, off-key (.O Holy Night, Caitlin ( )
"Tasuki, not now!" Caitlin hissed. "I'm trying to hold a very important conversation with Kristin right now!"
"But I just need to talk to you!" he said, growling. "What's so wrong with me wanting to talk to you?"
"I'm busy!"
"You're always busy!" Tasuki cried. "Fine, you don't want to hear what I've got to say, then you don't get to hear what I want to say!"
"Fine by me," Caitlin snapped, turning her attention away from Kristin, who simply slunk away, deciding to leave Caitlin and Tasuki alone for their usual fight.
"You have no manners whatsoever, you know!" Caitlin snapped. "She's the Priestess and I'm her . . . "
"Royal Consort," Tasuki sniggered.
"Oh, that's it!" Caitlin cried, and all eyes in the bar turned towards the two. "You're the most irrisponsible jerk I've ever known! All I want to do is talk to my friend about a very, extremely serious and important subject that could save our lives in the midst of all our battles and you have the nerve to be your stupid, annoying self, just as you always are!" Her hand came up, and Tasuki was on the ground with a black eye.
"BACK AT YOU!!!" he screamed, and the two were suddenly in a little cloud of fight, punching and hitting each other, yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs. Hair was torn and fans rang out. Fire developed them but was later smoldered down with a WATER SLAP!! The bartender finally forced the two out of the bar, kicking them out in the back alley were they could be alone.
They fought at each other a little more, and Caitlin stumbled back from Tasuki, panting, "You jerk! I can't believe you started a riot with me IN PUBLIC!! You know how shameful it must be to the Priestess?!"
"You know how shameful it must be for the Priestess to have a Consort LIKE YOU?!?!"
Caitlin sent another WATER SLAP!! towards Tasuki, drenching. He gave a disgusted yell, and they were all over each other in a mob of angry fists.
"What's wrong with you?!" Caitlin screamed, throwing him another WATER SLAP!!
"Too busy with the Priestess, are you?!" Tasuki yelled back. "Can't bother to talk with any of the rest of the seishi, we're just not important enough are we?!"
"Well you aren't!" Caitlin cried. "I can't believe you hit me in public!"
"You started it!"
"How did I start it?!" Caitlin screamed. "You're the one who wouldn't leave me alone when I asked you to! Now Kristin probably thinks I'm nuts!! What's you're PROBLEM, ANYWAY?!?!"
"I JUST WANTED TO PROPOSE MY LOVE TO YOU, DAMN IT!!" Tasuki screamed, loud enough for the whole city to hear. Tasuki suddenly stopped, realizing what he had just said, his face going white.
Caitlin stopped, her cheeks flushing red. "You . . . you wanted to propose? As . . . as in . . . marriage?"
"Yes," Tasuki said, in a little voice. His face turned a bright shade of white, and for awhile, the two stood staring at each other with awkward looks in their eyes. It was a uncomfortable moment, and yet, Caitlin's heart was racing.
Slowly, and rather shyly, Tasuki shuffled his way over to Caitlin, and pulled out a bag. He handed it over to her, and said in soft, embarrassed tone, "Open it . . . uh, please."
Caitlin gently pulled open the bag, and took out a small box. The alley way was utterly silent by that time. She opened the box, and gasped. There was a delicately crafted ring of gold with a red ruby, and fire-like designs on the band.
"I. . . I found it in the mountains," Tasuki said, his face still red, and his voice still full of embarrassement. "I . . . well, do you like it?"
Caitlin didn't know what to say. She felt embarrassed for yelling at him like that. After all her jumping up and down to meet him, and then having so much fun arguing with him and their constant teasing of each other, she had never thought that Tasuki would ever become serious with her. The Mountain bandit that claimed he hated girls had proposed to Caitlin, out of everyone he could have! But, wasn't she the only one who could match his firey temper, and use her water powers to annoy and tease him in her special way that no other girl would dare to do?
"Oh, Tasuki," Caitlin squeaked, "I don't know what to say . . . thank you, I mean . . . I do!"
"You do?" Tasuki asked, taken aback. His face got even more red, if that were possible.
"Of course I do!" Caitlin said. "You're the only one who makes me as happy as I am!"
"But . . . I thought I annoyed you," Tasuki said, blinking in confusion.
"You do," Caitlin said, her voice a little flat, but she perked up right away, and said, "But that's what I like about you. You make me happy. You're fun, you're interesting. Besides, I thought you hated me for annoying you."
"Well . . . " Tasuki said, a bit choked up for words. His face was bright red, more red than a tomato. More red than ketchup. More red than a cheez it box.
"It's okay," Caitlin said. "You don't have to say anything. I understand. We think the same, don't we?"
"That's what that Mitsukake keeps saying," Tasuki growled. "He needs a black eye, badly!"
Caitlin grinned. That's my Tasuki, she thought.
"So," he said, his face still red, but his voice coming back to him. "I'm sorry about interrupting your conversation . . . and hitting you in public. I shouldn't hit girls in public, I know, I know."
"That's okay," Caitlin said, smiling.
"So . . ." Tasuki said, and everything became silent and uncomfortable again. Tasuki looked at the ground, then back up at Caitlin, then back at the ground. Caitlin looked at the walls, the sky, the ground, Tasuki, and then the wall again.
"So," she said back, the silence drawing thicker about them.
"So," said a voice behind them. Caitlin and Tasuki turned around and saw the Lone Wolf Warrior, standing the mouth of the alley way, grinning at them madly.
Tasuki growled, his face still bright red. "What do you think you're doing here, Wolf Lone Warrior?!"
"Lone Wolf . . . ah, forget it," Caitlin said.
"I've had to hide myself by a strange demon taken the form of a giant cheez it," the Lone Wolf Warrior replied rather casually.
Tasuki and Caitlin exchanged confused looks. "Giant cheez it?" Caitlin mouthed to him.
"No matter for that," the Lone Wolf Warrior said, "I've managed to stop the Seiryu Seven who had planned on stopping you."
Tasuki growled. "Didn't we tell you to leave our enemies alone?!"
The Lone Wolf Warrior laughed. "Tomo and Kailein . . . dead. Oh, how I couldn't stand that cackling. Makiko and Miboshi . . . dead. Soon, I'll have those twins dead, followed by the general and his Priestess, but I'll keep the Soi Sauce. I like her."
"You do?" Tasuki and Caitlin chimed in at the same time.
"Yes, she's a nice girl," the Lone Wolf Warrior said in a rather happy tone. "Here, you like this ring? I think I might take her as a bride." It was a cool ring; silver with a wolf head, jaws open holding a blazing white gem, and lightening bolts carved into the band.
"That's nice, yes," Tasuki and Caitlin remarked, as the three looked at the ring, admiring it. "I never thought you two together, but you would make a rather nice couple," Caitlin said.
"You think so?" the Lone Wolf Warrior asked.
"Oh, most definitely," Tasuki said. "Go for it."
Then, the three backed off, gave a pause of silence, and then the Lone Wolf Warrior became serious again.
"It's time I finally finish you off, Tasuki, fire boy!" the Lone Wolf Warrior yelled.
Tasuki took out his fan. "Go ahead and take me on!" he shouted back. "Caitlin, get behind me," he snarled.
Though she would normally protest, Caitlin gave a thrilled giggle, and hid behind her fiancee. Her fiancee! she screamed in her mind happily.
The Lone Wolf Warrior pulled out his lighter and screamed, "LONE WOLF WARRIOR!" Once more, a tiny flame whipped out, and Tasuki smiled stupidly before shouting at the top of his voice, "REKKA SHINEN!"
A mistake was made though. The Lone Wolf Warrior had turned into a Wolf at the last minute, and Tasuki's flame missed him. The Wolf lunged at Tasuki and pinned him down. This is the one move that the Lone Wolf Warrior is good at doing. He clamped his jaws around Tasuki's neck, and began to tear at his skin and clothes, tearing the Seishi apart.
"Tasuki!" Caitlin screamed. She brandished out her fan and screamed, "WATER SLAP!!"
The Wolf was smacked off of Tasuki, and hit the opposite wall hard, knocking him out. Tasuki stumbled to his knees. "It's alright," he muttered, "I'm alright. Just a little in over my head, that's all."
"Let's get out of here before the Lone Wolf Warrior comes to," Caitlin cried, and she grabbed Tasuki's hand and they ran out of the alley. They didn't know where to go, and they forgot about their fellow Seishi and Priestess. They simply ran down the streets, with people giving them strange stares as the bright red-haired boy and his blue-haired girl ran down the streets, hand in hand.
Before they knew it, they had ran all the way to the Temple of Byakko, where they went into the main hall, and closed the giant doors of the Temple shut. They stopped, sliding to the floor, panting hard.
"We made it!" Caitlin breathed.
"Shit, I hate that Lone Wolf Warrior!" Tasuki said.
"Tasuki!" Caitlin remarked. "You . . . you just said it right!"
"What?" Tasuki asked. "The Wolf Lone Warrior?"
Caitlin's face became a frown. "Nevermind."
They let their breaths caught up with them before they realized the open quietness that lingered in the dark hall of the Temple. Caitlin gulped, and Tasuki groaned.
"Are you hurt?" Caitlin asked.
"Na," Tasuki said, his voice upset. "But we forgot our fellow Seishi!"
"Oops," Caitlin said. "I hope the Lone Wolf Warrior doesn't find them. Well, Kristin still has the protection of Chichiri, Mitsukake and Chiriko."
"Yeah, " Tasuki said, not impressed, "and Hotohori will just LOVE us for leaving the Priestess alone while the Lone Wolf Warrior was waiting outside the bar door!"
"Yeah," Caitlin said, her face dropping. The quietness enveloped them. Caitlin shuffled closer to Tasuki on the ground, drawing her body close to him. "It's really empty in here."
"Yeah," Tasuki remarked. "And a little too quiet. Hey, this is some sort of Temple."
"The Temple of Byakko!" Caitlin said. "Of course! This was what I was telling Kristin about . . . before you interrupted me."
"Enough with that already," Tasuki growled, "I said I love you, isn't that enough?"
"Don't you get it?!" Caitlin cried softly. "Where else would the Shinzaho of Byakko be but in the Temple of the beast god of Byakko?"
"Byakko's the turtle, right?"
"Yeah." Caitlin said, and then she stopped. Her heart beat wildly. "Tasuki. . . did you just say * I love you *?"
"Uh . . . " Tasuki said, his face instantly going red again. "No, I didn't."
Caitlin smiled. "Yes, you did. You just said *I love You * to me! Oh, Tasuki!"
"Yeah, WHAT ABOUT IT?! SO I LOVE YOU ALREADY!!"
Caitlin smiled as Tasuki huffed and leaned back against the wall. All was silent in the hall as Caitlin smiled in the darkness, trying to sort things out in her mind about the Shinzaho, and that's when Tasuki reached over, and with a serious face, said, "Of course I love you," and then kissed Caitlin hard, pushing her back to the ground. Some one was very happy that night.
And somewhere, in the distant hallways of the Temple, Tasuki and Caitlin were sure they heard a voice very much like Makiko's yell, "I GET IT!!"