Chapter Four - Enemy
The sun was past setting, and with no windows in the library, there was hardly any light within the book-filled room. The only source of light came from the small amount flooding in from the hallway, and although it wasn't much, it was enough to allow Maaya to continue reading. She found herself completely absorbed in the book, hardly noticing the dusty smell of the library.
Ever since picking up the book, Maaya kept getting this strange feeling and couldn't put it down. For the past hour, she had been curled up in the library, the book close to her face, following the story from the very beginning. Every now and then, she lowered the book and shook her head, letting realization hit as she finally decided that Sakura was (as hard as it was to believe) inside the book. Of course she didn't know how her best friend got in there, hell, she thought she was crazy for believing it, but everything about the main character was exactly like Sakura, no questions about that.
Pulling the book back to her face to read the text, Maaya sighed and began reading again, her voice strong and unwavering as she read the words aloud. "Within five days of Genbu no Miko's recovery, three seishi had already been found. By now, the party was confident in their abilities and took a day to rest before setting back out on the road."
---
With a yawn, Sakura reached upward and stretched, leaning backwards a bit so that her back would crack a few times. Groaning at the feel, she smiled lopsidedly and regained her composure with a content sigh. She had already packed what little belongings she had, and was waiting patiently by the door for her seishi to finish. 'I can't believe we've already found three.' she thought to herself, watching the three seishi with a smile on her lips as she remembered what happened not long after their found Hatsui.
After finding the third seishi, Uruki, Sakura and Hatsui met up with Namame back at the inn. Once seeing Namame, Uruki strolled up to the older woman and shook her fist, scolding her for not showing up when she was needed, and yelling about how splitting up was a bad idea. Namame only shrugged and mentioned something about how her plan was successful either way before turning to greet Hatsui, leaving Uruki to fume out in the street.
Everyone agreed that a rest would be a good idea since the hunt for the first seishi had been successful and the next might not be as easy to find. They settled down for the night in the same room, Sakura sharing a bed with Uruki so that Hatsui could have a bed. Uruki protested, saying that Hatsui should get a different room because he was a man, and that he might try something during the night since all men were alike. This immediately caused a fight between the two seishi, leaving Uruki as the victor, cackling as she pinned poor Hatsui to the floor.
After the little confrontation, the seishi and Sakura discussed plans for finding the next seishi. His, or her, symbol was 'rooftop,' which was no problem, but the clue was 'bear,' and not the most obvious of clues; bears were found all over Hokkan, especially in forests, as Hatsui pointed out. This, of course, prompted Uruki to slap him upside the head, yelling about how she knows her country quite well without having a hooligan like him telling her otherwise. Once that fight had settled down, everyone decided that they would try the closest forest first. Not long after, the party slipped off into a deep sleep without any interruptions.
"Sakura. Sakura? Ne, Sakura!" Hatsui yelled, waving his hand in front of the girl's face.
Blinking a few times, Sakura looked up, "N-nani?"
The brunette smirked, lowering his hand and shaking his head. "You were staring off into space. Ya' ready?"
Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, Sakura nodded.
"What are you doing standing there?" Uruki turned and yelled at Hatsui, promptly chucking a pillow in his direction. "Go get a horse already! We only have two, and there's no way you're riding with me!"
Turning around just in time to be smacked in the face with a pillow, Hatsui narrowed his eyes, letting the pillow fall to the ground. "Sheesh, I'm going, I'm going!" he yelled, grabbing his bag and flinging it over his shoulder. As he walked out the door, he muttered, "Slave driver."
"I heard that!" Uruki yelled, chucking another pillow out the door and hitting Hatsui on the back of the head, eliciting a grunt from him.
With a chuckle, Sakura picked her bag up and waited for Uruki to finish up. The oldest of the seishi was also waiting by the door, shaking her head. "By the time you're done packing your things, the sun will have already set," the white-haired woman spoke as she took note of how Uruki had more bags than anyone else.
Frowning, Uruki hoisted her belongings over her shoulder and turned towards Namame. "Oh, not you too!" she whined. "Everyone's against me!" she yelled, quickly exiting the room and making her way after Hatsui, leaving Sakura laughing and Namame shaking her head.
---
Within twenty minutes of packing and leaving the room, the seishi were out on the road once more, Sakura still riding with Uruki due to her lack of knowledge in the field of riding horses. Although Hatsui tried saying something about the whole matter, Uruki gave him a ball-busting glare, which caused him to immediately shut up.
"Maaan!" Hatsui complained after a little while on the road. "Someone switch horses with me! This one smells!"
Uruki tilted her head to the side a bit, turning her head to get a glance of Hatsui. "Oh, it's the horse? I thought you hadn't taken a bath."
Narrowing his eyes, Hatsui shook his fist, glaring at Uruki, "Kono.."
"Oh well!" Uruki called out, turning back around to watch where she was going. "Hopefully we'll reach another town, and you'll be able to take a bath there. Unless you kill your horse by then since you smell so bad."
Chuckling, Sakura shook her head, "Mou, Uruki! Why not be nice to Hatsui for a change?" She wondered why Uruki was giving Hatsui such a hard time, but realizing it was all out of fun, she wondered if Uruki had a thing for him.
"Huh? But I thought I was! If I hadn't told him he smelled, he might never take a bath!"
"Hey! I heard that!" Hatsui yelled from the back of the group. "I do -not- smell! Unlike -someone- around here!"
Pulling back on the reigns of her horse, Uruki turned the dark colored horse around and eyed Hatsui. "Are you implying that I smell?"
"What? Who? Me? Nooo! Not at all!" he grinned. "But you -could- stand to take a bath sometime soon.. That royal perfume you're wearing doesn't mask the odor so well."
"I'll royal perfume you!" Uruki yelled, shaking a fist and moving to dismount her horse.
"Yamero! Both of you!" Namame called out, having kept silent the entire time. Tilting her head upwards she watched the sky through the trees. From the looks of it, the sky was perfectly fine, completely clear. But she had just gotten the strangest of feelings that moment.
Before the two could get off their horses, they stopped and looked towards the oldest of the group. Blinking, Sakura looked towards Namame, then looked towards the sky. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she looked back down to the white haired woman. "What's wrong?"
"The weather," Namame replied quietly. "I think we should find some shelter soon."
"Doushite? The weather looks fine. It's a perfect blue and there's not a cloud in the sky," Uruki replied, now looking up towards the sky as well.
"Tch, I think I trust Namame's gut feeling over your observations." Hatsui muttered.
"Urusai!" Uruki yelled, turning around once more to glare at the only man in their party. "Before I come over there and make you!"
"Both of you be quiet and follow me!" Namame yelled, her temper showing for the first time. "I think there's a cave around her." With that, she lightly tugged on her horse's reigns and urged it forward at a slow pace, waiting for everyone else to follow her before she kicked her horse, causing the pale skinned creature to pick up its pace to a run.
---
"Looking for shelter so soon?" a childish voice, female by sound, spoke through the air. Giggling quietly, a silhouette of a young girl formed on top of large hill, high above the ground from where the seishi were. Body covered by the shadows cast down from the trees, she tilted her head to the side to look down at the seishi in the distance. "My, my! Hail can't seem to outsmart you!" she giggled, pulling a large object close to her body and wrapping both hands around it. The object was long, around five feet long and an inch thick topped with a large piece of metal that glinted in the light. "Hail will just have to have some fun then!"
With another giggle, the girl lifted the large object into the air, gripping it around the middle with both hands. Almost immediately, the piece of metal took on a light blue aura that spread down the shaft and then covered the girl, her body becoming exposed as the aura cast light over her. Her long white hair waved in the wind as she closed her ice blue eyes, her hands tightening their grip around the shaft of the naginata. "Time for some fun indeed!" she laughed, bringing the blade of the weapon downwards, slicing it through the air and spinning it around before pointing it back into the air. A streak of white colored lightning shot out from the tip of the blade and arched into the air, disappearing into a group of newly formed rain clouds. As the aura around her body dispersed, her form was once more covered with shadows as she lowered her weapon, her eyes opening and head tilting upwards to look towards the sky.
A rumble of thunder sounded and a streak of lightning crossed the sky. Not long after, hail began raining down from the sky, large balls of ice falling quickly through the sky and beating down mercilessly on the ground. The girl continued to giggle, her hair waving across her face, the hail seeming to have no effect on her, not even touching her. A bright green symbol lit up on the right side of her neck before she leapt into the air and disappeared.
---
"Haiyakku!" Namame yelled, leaning forward and urging her horse to run faster as the hail began to fall from the sky, large pellets of ice pelting into her body, thankfully missing any of her exposed skin.
Sakura winced in pain as large pieces of ice violently hit her body causing her to shrink against Uruki's back, hands tightening around the seishi's waist. "Itai." she hissed, feeling a cut form on the side of her face, a ragged piece of ice slicing the skin open.
Feeling the pressure around her waist increase, Uruki followed Namame's lead, leaning forward and urging her horse to run faster, using the heels of her feet to kick the horse's sides. "I think that's it up ahead!" she yelled over the thunder of the hail, just slightly making out the form of a cave some yards in front of them.
A streak of lightning arched through the air again, lightning up the now dark and gloomy forest, outlining the form of the cave up ahead. Within a minute, they turned their horses into the hollow structure and dismounted. "Sakura! Daijoubu?" Uruki asked, pulling Sakura off the horse and pushing her hair back to examine her face.
"I'm fine," she replied, brushing her bangs behind her ears and wincing slightly. A cut had formed beneath her right eye, stretching out from the side of her nose and past her cheekbone, a few drops of blood trickling down her pale cheek.
"Namame!" Uruki pushed Sakura to sit down on one of the rocks as she motioned for the eldest to come over.
"What'd you do now, Uruki? Did'ja try scratching her eye out or something?" Hatsui shook his head, moving to Sakura's side an eyeing the cut, not realizing it was so bad until he noticed the blood staining her coat.
Narrowing her eyes, the raven-haired woman looked up at the boy and growled, "Just for a moment, could you shut up. Some of the hail hit her face and cut her."
Namame crouched in front of Sakura and eyed the cut. "Someone hand me my bag."
Hatsui, being the closest, turned to the horses and undid the straps on Namame's, taking the bag down and bringing it to her as Sakura shook her head, trying to push everyone back. "I'm fine, honestly. It's just a little scratch, no need to worry."
Namame nodded, taking her bag from Hatsui and rummaged through it. "You're right, but we should still clean it and cover it. Who knows what could happen if you leave it go." Taking out some bandages and clean cloth, she quietly blotted away the blood on Sakura's face, although the girl still protested.
With a sigh, Sakura stood still, letting Namame clean and bandage her cut. She didn't understand why there was such a big fuss over such a little cut; she had gotten larger and far worse cuts than this one, and even then, no one made a fuss over them as badly as this one. Maybe it was one of the drawbacks to being Genbu no Miko, how everyone made such a big deal out of the little things. It's not that she minded they were paying attention to her, she just didn't like to feel how she felt when her mother died; she didn't like to feel so helpless and unable to take care of herself.
"There," Namame said, leaning back and putting her supplies away, leaving a small white bandage over the shallow but long cut. "It won't need stitches, but leave it on for a few days, then we'll take it off to let it air out," she quietly gave her directions, acting very much like a doctor. She could easily enough tell Sakura was a bit upset over the whole matter, even if she didn't use her seishi power to read the girl's mind; the look in her eyes told her everything. In a way, she couldn't blame the girl, but Sakura would have to get used to people fussing over her. Standing up, she gently patted the girl on the shoulder before moving to place her bag back on her horse.
Seeing a look of sadness crossed with annoyance on Sakura's face, Hatsui crossed his arms over his chest and walked over to her. "Maybe you should ride with me from now on," Hatsui smirked, sitting down next to Sakura and looking up at Uruki. "Seems Miss Empress over there is pretty reckless when she rides." An even bigger grin spread out on his face as he saw Uruki whip around and start stalking towards him. Sure, he would get a few bruises out of this once Uruki had let out her anger on him, but he was sure Sakura would at least cheer up.
"What was that?" Uruki growled, stalking towards the younger man. Without letting him have the chance to respond, she leapt at him and knocked him backwards, trying to keep herself from laughing as she playfully wrestled him; sure, the brunette often got on her nerves, but she knew it was all joking.
With an exasperated sigh, Namame sat down on one of the rocks and shook her head at the two. "Like children," she muttered with another shake of her head, the beads in her hair lightly clattering against one another. Glancing down to Sakura, she smiled as she saw the girl laughing, glad to see the young miko already back to her old self.
Once again, Uruki had one the fight and sat on Hatsui's back, beaming with pride. "I win, as usual!" she laughed.
"Yeah, well, don't think you'll always win," Hatsui muttered, his face buried in the floor. Rolling onto his back, he forced Uruki off of him and rubbed his neck, glancing around. "Guess we're stuck in here. The hail doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon. Think we should check this place out? Might be some bears in here, or somethin'."
Namame nodded. "Either way, we should move as far back into the cave as possible. If the wind direction changes, we might find ourselves getting hit in the face with more hail." Standing up, she brushed herself off and moved towards her horse, taking the reigns in her hand and gently pulling it further back into the cave, the rest of the seishi following her lead, Sakura staying by Namame's side.
"It's too dark in here. We might as well stop here since we won't be able to see a thing in a moment. Why couldn't your power be something useful, like fire? Maybe then you'd be of some use to us," Uruki muttered, glancing towards Hatsui as they moved back into the cave, far back enough so that hardly any light from the mouth of the structure made it back that far.
"You'll be glad to know," Hatsui retorted, "that I can make a fire out of almost anything!" Letting go of his horses reigns, he took a few steps forward and looked around for some dead leaves or branches. Sadly, there were none. "Well, I could if there were some branches or something," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, refusing to look at the laughing Uruki.
Shaking her head, Uruki laughed at Hatsui, rubbing her hands together. "Oh, what would you do without us!" she snickered. "Just watch!" With that, Uruki lowered her head and closed her eyes, her hands extending out across the floor, palms down. Although hidden, her seishi symbol was already beginning to glow a bright green as the ground began to rumble.
"Holy shit! What are you doing you insane woman?! We don't need you bringing the rocks down over our heads!" Hatsui yelled, covering his head with his arms.
Ignoring him, Uruki slowly lifted her arms up, turning her palms around to face the ceiling of the cave as she continued to raise them. From the ground in front of her, a few plant roots began poking through the dirt, growing upwards and curling around each other, making a perfect circle. As Uruki curled her hands into fists, the ground stopped moving and the roots ceased growing. "Hah! See? You'd be no where without us!" she snickered, brushing her hands together.
Hatsui muttered something to himself, refusing to show her that he had been somewhat surprised by her power, and moved towards the roots, crouching down in front of them and grabbed two rocks. Still muttering some things to himself, he began smacking the rocks against each other, trying to get a fire started.
By the time Hatsui had finally gotten the fire started, all the while being interrupted a few times by Uruki's taunting, the sun had already set. They were far enough into the cave that with the heat from the fire, it was warm enough for them to spend the night and the hail wouldn't have a chance to reach them. Sure that the cave was empty of everything except them, the seishi and miko curled up on the ground and tried to get some sleep, each of them falling off into a very deep sleep.
--- Sakura.
Dare da? Who's calling me?
Sakura. come to me.
Who are you? What do you want?
Don't be afraid, Genbu no Miko.
With a quiet murmur, Sakura slowly sat up from her lying position before getting to her feet and making her way towards the mouth of the cave. Her movements were short and clumsy, obvious attributes to sleep walking. Stumbling forward, her eyes closed peacefully as if she were sleeping, Sakura moved out of the cave and into the forest, the hail, having stopped some time ago, had left the ground wet and slippery.
"Sakura." a quiet voice called out.
"I'm coming." Sakura murmured in reply, still asleep and stumbling forward through the forest, amazingly enough not tripping on any branches.
Some yards in front of Sakura, the shape of a boy appeared, a tall boy with short black hair and deep red eyes. On his forehead, the symbol of Suzaku was burning red. He intently watched Sakura, his arms opening, reaching out to her as she came closer and closer.
Sakura took a few more steps before stopping, a drowsy grin growing on her lips as she felt strong, warm arms embrace her. But she just stood there, unmoving as the boy hugged her.
"Genbu no Miko-sama." the boy sighed, tightening his grip on her, his head moving down to her shoulder as he inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of her skin. "Soon you will be mine," he whispered, turning his head and gently placing a kiss on her neck. Bringing his arms around her front, he moved them, slowly, up her stomach and over her chest, cupping her breasts before moving his hands to undo her coat. As the young man slowly pulled Sakura's coat off, he placed another kiss on her neck, leading a trail of kisses up her neck and to her jaw, hardly taking note of anything else going on around him.
The sound of someone rushing forward was barely heard, the steps deliberately silent, avoiding any dead branches or leaves on the ground that might give off its position. "Let go of her!" another voice yelled, masculine in sound. At the same time, the form of a boy ran forward, throwing something out in front of him, aimed at hitting the other guy.
Narrowing his eyes, the red-eyed boy let go of Sakura and jumped backwards, barely avoiding the nunchuku thrown at him. With a growl, he spun once and crouched downwards, glaring at the intruder. "What do you want?" he hissed, his hand moving towards his back.
The nunchuku was yanked backwards, and the owner caught it with perfect precision, now standing next to the fallen Sakura who was now wide-awake. "Get away from Genbu no Miko-sama before I force you away," the blond boy growled, his eyes narrowing as he gripped his weapon, moving defensively in front of Sakura.
"Force me away?" the taller boy responded with a laugh. Pulling his hand back in front of him, he moved both hands around and tightly held the hilt of his katana. "Well then, boy, seems like you're going to have to force me away," he chuckled, standing upright, spinning the katana around in his right hand. Spreading his feet apart, he extended his left hand and motioned for the blond to come at him.
With a growl, the blond boy ran forward, leaving Sakura, and pulled the nunchukus apart, the chain connecting the two wooden pieces pulling taught. As he came closer to his opponent, he spun the nunchukus using his dominant hand before launching them forward, aimed at the center of the older boy's chest.
"Nani?" Sakura slowly shook her head, opening her eyes and looking around at the forest. "How did I get out here.?" The sound of metal slicing through skin drew her attention and she quickly turned to watch the two boys fighting. She didn't know what was going on, but she could tell that the blond was losing, his left arm weakened as blood dripped down his arm. And then she noticed the green symbol glowing on his temple. ".Rooftop." she whispered, slowly standing up and pulling her coat tight around her. "The fourth seishi." Shaking her head, she ran forward, determined to help in some way or form.
Leaping backwards, the red-eyed boy smirked and snapped his wrist to the side, the blood on the tip of his katana flinging off and to the ground. His eyes darted to the side, taking note of the fully awake miko, and with a shake of his head, he holstered his katana, stepping backwards. "Well, it seems as though your Genbu no Miko is awake. No need to kill one of her own seishi before her eyes. But, I have what I came for," he grinned, taking a step back and waving the scroll in the air before disappearing into the forest.
"Matte!" the boy yelled, but was too late. With a sigh, he dropped his nunchukus to the ground and grasped his bleeding arm, wincing slightly as he turned around to face Sakura. Bowing his head, he got down on one knee and apologized. "Gomen nasai, Genbu no Miko. I've failed you. He got away with the Shi Jin Ten Shi Sho."
Shaking her head, Sakura dropped down onto her knees in front of him and lifted his head up. "Daijoubu." she said, smiling softly, brushing his hair away from his eyes. "You're one of Genbu's seishi, aren't you?" she asked, looking into his eyes.
The blond boy slowly nodded, looking back into his miko's eyes. "H-hai... Watashi wa Urumiya."
'The fourth seishi.' she smiled. By now she had learned not to fling herself at the seishi and instead, hugged him tightly, not taking notice of the blush that had crept onto his cheeks.
*cue ending music XD*
The sun was past setting, and with no windows in the library, there was hardly any light within the book-filled room. The only source of light came from the small amount flooding in from the hallway, and although it wasn't much, it was enough to allow Maaya to continue reading. She found herself completely absorbed in the book, hardly noticing the dusty smell of the library.
Ever since picking up the book, Maaya kept getting this strange feeling and couldn't put it down. For the past hour, she had been curled up in the library, the book close to her face, following the story from the very beginning. Every now and then, she lowered the book and shook her head, letting realization hit as she finally decided that Sakura was (as hard as it was to believe) inside the book. Of course she didn't know how her best friend got in there, hell, she thought she was crazy for believing it, but everything about the main character was exactly like Sakura, no questions about that.
Pulling the book back to her face to read the text, Maaya sighed and began reading again, her voice strong and unwavering as she read the words aloud. "Within five days of Genbu no Miko's recovery, three seishi had already been found. By now, the party was confident in their abilities and took a day to rest before setting back out on the road."
---
With a yawn, Sakura reached upward and stretched, leaning backwards a bit so that her back would crack a few times. Groaning at the feel, she smiled lopsidedly and regained her composure with a content sigh. She had already packed what little belongings she had, and was waiting patiently by the door for her seishi to finish. 'I can't believe we've already found three.' she thought to herself, watching the three seishi with a smile on her lips as she remembered what happened not long after their found Hatsui.
After finding the third seishi, Uruki, Sakura and Hatsui met up with Namame back at the inn. Once seeing Namame, Uruki strolled up to the older woman and shook her fist, scolding her for not showing up when she was needed, and yelling about how splitting up was a bad idea. Namame only shrugged and mentioned something about how her plan was successful either way before turning to greet Hatsui, leaving Uruki to fume out in the street.
Everyone agreed that a rest would be a good idea since the hunt for the first seishi had been successful and the next might not be as easy to find. They settled down for the night in the same room, Sakura sharing a bed with Uruki so that Hatsui could have a bed. Uruki protested, saying that Hatsui should get a different room because he was a man, and that he might try something during the night since all men were alike. This immediately caused a fight between the two seishi, leaving Uruki as the victor, cackling as she pinned poor Hatsui to the floor.
After the little confrontation, the seishi and Sakura discussed plans for finding the next seishi. His, or her, symbol was 'rooftop,' which was no problem, but the clue was 'bear,' and not the most obvious of clues; bears were found all over Hokkan, especially in forests, as Hatsui pointed out. This, of course, prompted Uruki to slap him upside the head, yelling about how she knows her country quite well without having a hooligan like him telling her otherwise. Once that fight had settled down, everyone decided that they would try the closest forest first. Not long after, the party slipped off into a deep sleep without any interruptions.
"Sakura. Sakura? Ne, Sakura!" Hatsui yelled, waving his hand in front of the girl's face.
Blinking a few times, Sakura looked up, "N-nani?"
The brunette smirked, lowering his hand and shaking his head. "You were staring off into space. Ya' ready?"
Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, Sakura nodded.
"What are you doing standing there?" Uruki turned and yelled at Hatsui, promptly chucking a pillow in his direction. "Go get a horse already! We only have two, and there's no way you're riding with me!"
Turning around just in time to be smacked in the face with a pillow, Hatsui narrowed his eyes, letting the pillow fall to the ground. "Sheesh, I'm going, I'm going!" he yelled, grabbing his bag and flinging it over his shoulder. As he walked out the door, he muttered, "Slave driver."
"I heard that!" Uruki yelled, chucking another pillow out the door and hitting Hatsui on the back of the head, eliciting a grunt from him.
With a chuckle, Sakura picked her bag up and waited for Uruki to finish up. The oldest of the seishi was also waiting by the door, shaking her head. "By the time you're done packing your things, the sun will have already set," the white-haired woman spoke as she took note of how Uruki had more bags than anyone else.
Frowning, Uruki hoisted her belongings over her shoulder and turned towards Namame. "Oh, not you too!" she whined. "Everyone's against me!" she yelled, quickly exiting the room and making her way after Hatsui, leaving Sakura laughing and Namame shaking her head.
---
Within twenty minutes of packing and leaving the room, the seishi were out on the road once more, Sakura still riding with Uruki due to her lack of knowledge in the field of riding horses. Although Hatsui tried saying something about the whole matter, Uruki gave him a ball-busting glare, which caused him to immediately shut up.
"Maaan!" Hatsui complained after a little while on the road. "Someone switch horses with me! This one smells!"
Uruki tilted her head to the side a bit, turning her head to get a glance of Hatsui. "Oh, it's the horse? I thought you hadn't taken a bath."
Narrowing his eyes, Hatsui shook his fist, glaring at Uruki, "Kono.."
"Oh well!" Uruki called out, turning back around to watch where she was going. "Hopefully we'll reach another town, and you'll be able to take a bath there. Unless you kill your horse by then since you smell so bad."
Chuckling, Sakura shook her head, "Mou, Uruki! Why not be nice to Hatsui for a change?" She wondered why Uruki was giving Hatsui such a hard time, but realizing it was all out of fun, she wondered if Uruki had a thing for him.
"Huh? But I thought I was! If I hadn't told him he smelled, he might never take a bath!"
"Hey! I heard that!" Hatsui yelled from the back of the group. "I do -not- smell! Unlike -someone- around here!"
Pulling back on the reigns of her horse, Uruki turned the dark colored horse around and eyed Hatsui. "Are you implying that I smell?"
"What? Who? Me? Nooo! Not at all!" he grinned. "But you -could- stand to take a bath sometime soon.. That royal perfume you're wearing doesn't mask the odor so well."
"I'll royal perfume you!" Uruki yelled, shaking a fist and moving to dismount her horse.
"Yamero! Both of you!" Namame called out, having kept silent the entire time. Tilting her head upwards she watched the sky through the trees. From the looks of it, the sky was perfectly fine, completely clear. But she had just gotten the strangest of feelings that moment.
Before the two could get off their horses, they stopped and looked towards the oldest of the group. Blinking, Sakura looked towards Namame, then looked towards the sky. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she looked back down to the white haired woman. "What's wrong?"
"The weather," Namame replied quietly. "I think we should find some shelter soon."
"Doushite? The weather looks fine. It's a perfect blue and there's not a cloud in the sky," Uruki replied, now looking up towards the sky as well.
"Tch, I think I trust Namame's gut feeling over your observations." Hatsui muttered.
"Urusai!" Uruki yelled, turning around once more to glare at the only man in their party. "Before I come over there and make you!"
"Both of you be quiet and follow me!" Namame yelled, her temper showing for the first time. "I think there's a cave around her." With that, she lightly tugged on her horse's reigns and urged it forward at a slow pace, waiting for everyone else to follow her before she kicked her horse, causing the pale skinned creature to pick up its pace to a run.
---
"Looking for shelter so soon?" a childish voice, female by sound, spoke through the air. Giggling quietly, a silhouette of a young girl formed on top of large hill, high above the ground from where the seishi were. Body covered by the shadows cast down from the trees, she tilted her head to the side to look down at the seishi in the distance. "My, my! Hail can't seem to outsmart you!" she giggled, pulling a large object close to her body and wrapping both hands around it. The object was long, around five feet long and an inch thick topped with a large piece of metal that glinted in the light. "Hail will just have to have some fun then!"
With another giggle, the girl lifted the large object into the air, gripping it around the middle with both hands. Almost immediately, the piece of metal took on a light blue aura that spread down the shaft and then covered the girl, her body becoming exposed as the aura cast light over her. Her long white hair waved in the wind as she closed her ice blue eyes, her hands tightening their grip around the shaft of the naginata. "Time for some fun indeed!" she laughed, bringing the blade of the weapon downwards, slicing it through the air and spinning it around before pointing it back into the air. A streak of white colored lightning shot out from the tip of the blade and arched into the air, disappearing into a group of newly formed rain clouds. As the aura around her body dispersed, her form was once more covered with shadows as she lowered her weapon, her eyes opening and head tilting upwards to look towards the sky.
A rumble of thunder sounded and a streak of lightning crossed the sky. Not long after, hail began raining down from the sky, large balls of ice falling quickly through the sky and beating down mercilessly on the ground. The girl continued to giggle, her hair waving across her face, the hail seeming to have no effect on her, not even touching her. A bright green symbol lit up on the right side of her neck before she leapt into the air and disappeared.
---
"Haiyakku!" Namame yelled, leaning forward and urging her horse to run faster as the hail began to fall from the sky, large pellets of ice pelting into her body, thankfully missing any of her exposed skin.
Sakura winced in pain as large pieces of ice violently hit her body causing her to shrink against Uruki's back, hands tightening around the seishi's waist. "Itai." she hissed, feeling a cut form on the side of her face, a ragged piece of ice slicing the skin open.
Feeling the pressure around her waist increase, Uruki followed Namame's lead, leaning forward and urging her horse to run faster, using the heels of her feet to kick the horse's sides. "I think that's it up ahead!" she yelled over the thunder of the hail, just slightly making out the form of a cave some yards in front of them.
A streak of lightning arched through the air again, lightning up the now dark and gloomy forest, outlining the form of the cave up ahead. Within a minute, they turned their horses into the hollow structure and dismounted. "Sakura! Daijoubu?" Uruki asked, pulling Sakura off the horse and pushing her hair back to examine her face.
"I'm fine," she replied, brushing her bangs behind her ears and wincing slightly. A cut had formed beneath her right eye, stretching out from the side of her nose and past her cheekbone, a few drops of blood trickling down her pale cheek.
"Namame!" Uruki pushed Sakura to sit down on one of the rocks as she motioned for the eldest to come over.
"What'd you do now, Uruki? Did'ja try scratching her eye out or something?" Hatsui shook his head, moving to Sakura's side an eyeing the cut, not realizing it was so bad until he noticed the blood staining her coat.
Narrowing her eyes, the raven-haired woman looked up at the boy and growled, "Just for a moment, could you shut up. Some of the hail hit her face and cut her."
Namame crouched in front of Sakura and eyed the cut. "Someone hand me my bag."
Hatsui, being the closest, turned to the horses and undid the straps on Namame's, taking the bag down and bringing it to her as Sakura shook her head, trying to push everyone back. "I'm fine, honestly. It's just a little scratch, no need to worry."
Namame nodded, taking her bag from Hatsui and rummaged through it. "You're right, but we should still clean it and cover it. Who knows what could happen if you leave it go." Taking out some bandages and clean cloth, she quietly blotted away the blood on Sakura's face, although the girl still protested.
With a sigh, Sakura stood still, letting Namame clean and bandage her cut. She didn't understand why there was such a big fuss over such a little cut; she had gotten larger and far worse cuts than this one, and even then, no one made a fuss over them as badly as this one. Maybe it was one of the drawbacks to being Genbu no Miko, how everyone made such a big deal out of the little things. It's not that she minded they were paying attention to her, she just didn't like to feel how she felt when her mother died; she didn't like to feel so helpless and unable to take care of herself.
"There," Namame said, leaning back and putting her supplies away, leaving a small white bandage over the shallow but long cut. "It won't need stitches, but leave it on for a few days, then we'll take it off to let it air out," she quietly gave her directions, acting very much like a doctor. She could easily enough tell Sakura was a bit upset over the whole matter, even if she didn't use her seishi power to read the girl's mind; the look in her eyes told her everything. In a way, she couldn't blame the girl, but Sakura would have to get used to people fussing over her. Standing up, she gently patted the girl on the shoulder before moving to place her bag back on her horse.
Seeing a look of sadness crossed with annoyance on Sakura's face, Hatsui crossed his arms over his chest and walked over to her. "Maybe you should ride with me from now on," Hatsui smirked, sitting down next to Sakura and looking up at Uruki. "Seems Miss Empress over there is pretty reckless when she rides." An even bigger grin spread out on his face as he saw Uruki whip around and start stalking towards him. Sure, he would get a few bruises out of this once Uruki had let out her anger on him, but he was sure Sakura would at least cheer up.
"What was that?" Uruki growled, stalking towards the younger man. Without letting him have the chance to respond, she leapt at him and knocked him backwards, trying to keep herself from laughing as she playfully wrestled him; sure, the brunette often got on her nerves, but she knew it was all joking.
With an exasperated sigh, Namame sat down on one of the rocks and shook her head at the two. "Like children," she muttered with another shake of her head, the beads in her hair lightly clattering against one another. Glancing down to Sakura, she smiled as she saw the girl laughing, glad to see the young miko already back to her old self.
Once again, Uruki had one the fight and sat on Hatsui's back, beaming with pride. "I win, as usual!" she laughed.
"Yeah, well, don't think you'll always win," Hatsui muttered, his face buried in the floor. Rolling onto his back, he forced Uruki off of him and rubbed his neck, glancing around. "Guess we're stuck in here. The hail doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon. Think we should check this place out? Might be some bears in here, or somethin'."
Namame nodded. "Either way, we should move as far back into the cave as possible. If the wind direction changes, we might find ourselves getting hit in the face with more hail." Standing up, she brushed herself off and moved towards her horse, taking the reigns in her hand and gently pulling it further back into the cave, the rest of the seishi following her lead, Sakura staying by Namame's side.
"It's too dark in here. We might as well stop here since we won't be able to see a thing in a moment. Why couldn't your power be something useful, like fire? Maybe then you'd be of some use to us," Uruki muttered, glancing towards Hatsui as they moved back into the cave, far back enough so that hardly any light from the mouth of the structure made it back that far.
"You'll be glad to know," Hatsui retorted, "that I can make a fire out of almost anything!" Letting go of his horses reigns, he took a few steps forward and looked around for some dead leaves or branches. Sadly, there were none. "Well, I could if there were some branches or something," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, refusing to look at the laughing Uruki.
Shaking her head, Uruki laughed at Hatsui, rubbing her hands together. "Oh, what would you do without us!" she snickered. "Just watch!" With that, Uruki lowered her head and closed her eyes, her hands extending out across the floor, palms down. Although hidden, her seishi symbol was already beginning to glow a bright green as the ground began to rumble.
"Holy shit! What are you doing you insane woman?! We don't need you bringing the rocks down over our heads!" Hatsui yelled, covering his head with his arms.
Ignoring him, Uruki slowly lifted her arms up, turning her palms around to face the ceiling of the cave as she continued to raise them. From the ground in front of her, a few plant roots began poking through the dirt, growing upwards and curling around each other, making a perfect circle. As Uruki curled her hands into fists, the ground stopped moving and the roots ceased growing. "Hah! See? You'd be no where without us!" she snickered, brushing her hands together.
Hatsui muttered something to himself, refusing to show her that he had been somewhat surprised by her power, and moved towards the roots, crouching down in front of them and grabbed two rocks. Still muttering some things to himself, he began smacking the rocks against each other, trying to get a fire started.
By the time Hatsui had finally gotten the fire started, all the while being interrupted a few times by Uruki's taunting, the sun had already set. They were far enough into the cave that with the heat from the fire, it was warm enough for them to spend the night and the hail wouldn't have a chance to reach them. Sure that the cave was empty of everything except them, the seishi and miko curled up on the ground and tried to get some sleep, each of them falling off into a very deep sleep.
--- Sakura.
Dare da? Who's calling me?
Sakura. come to me.
Who are you? What do you want?
Don't be afraid, Genbu no Miko.
With a quiet murmur, Sakura slowly sat up from her lying position before getting to her feet and making her way towards the mouth of the cave. Her movements were short and clumsy, obvious attributes to sleep walking. Stumbling forward, her eyes closed peacefully as if she were sleeping, Sakura moved out of the cave and into the forest, the hail, having stopped some time ago, had left the ground wet and slippery.
"Sakura." a quiet voice called out.
"I'm coming." Sakura murmured in reply, still asleep and stumbling forward through the forest, amazingly enough not tripping on any branches.
Some yards in front of Sakura, the shape of a boy appeared, a tall boy with short black hair and deep red eyes. On his forehead, the symbol of Suzaku was burning red. He intently watched Sakura, his arms opening, reaching out to her as she came closer and closer.
Sakura took a few more steps before stopping, a drowsy grin growing on her lips as she felt strong, warm arms embrace her. But she just stood there, unmoving as the boy hugged her.
"Genbu no Miko-sama." the boy sighed, tightening his grip on her, his head moving down to her shoulder as he inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of her skin. "Soon you will be mine," he whispered, turning his head and gently placing a kiss on her neck. Bringing his arms around her front, he moved them, slowly, up her stomach and over her chest, cupping her breasts before moving his hands to undo her coat. As the young man slowly pulled Sakura's coat off, he placed another kiss on her neck, leading a trail of kisses up her neck and to her jaw, hardly taking note of anything else going on around him.
The sound of someone rushing forward was barely heard, the steps deliberately silent, avoiding any dead branches or leaves on the ground that might give off its position. "Let go of her!" another voice yelled, masculine in sound. At the same time, the form of a boy ran forward, throwing something out in front of him, aimed at hitting the other guy.
Narrowing his eyes, the red-eyed boy let go of Sakura and jumped backwards, barely avoiding the nunchuku thrown at him. With a growl, he spun once and crouched downwards, glaring at the intruder. "What do you want?" he hissed, his hand moving towards his back.
The nunchuku was yanked backwards, and the owner caught it with perfect precision, now standing next to the fallen Sakura who was now wide-awake. "Get away from Genbu no Miko-sama before I force you away," the blond boy growled, his eyes narrowing as he gripped his weapon, moving defensively in front of Sakura.
"Force me away?" the taller boy responded with a laugh. Pulling his hand back in front of him, he moved both hands around and tightly held the hilt of his katana. "Well then, boy, seems like you're going to have to force me away," he chuckled, standing upright, spinning the katana around in his right hand. Spreading his feet apart, he extended his left hand and motioned for the blond to come at him.
With a growl, the blond boy ran forward, leaving Sakura, and pulled the nunchukus apart, the chain connecting the two wooden pieces pulling taught. As he came closer to his opponent, he spun the nunchukus using his dominant hand before launching them forward, aimed at the center of the older boy's chest.
"Nani?" Sakura slowly shook her head, opening her eyes and looking around at the forest. "How did I get out here.?" The sound of metal slicing through skin drew her attention and she quickly turned to watch the two boys fighting. She didn't know what was going on, but she could tell that the blond was losing, his left arm weakened as blood dripped down his arm. And then she noticed the green symbol glowing on his temple. ".Rooftop." she whispered, slowly standing up and pulling her coat tight around her. "The fourth seishi." Shaking her head, she ran forward, determined to help in some way or form.
Leaping backwards, the red-eyed boy smirked and snapped his wrist to the side, the blood on the tip of his katana flinging off and to the ground. His eyes darted to the side, taking note of the fully awake miko, and with a shake of his head, he holstered his katana, stepping backwards. "Well, it seems as though your Genbu no Miko is awake. No need to kill one of her own seishi before her eyes. But, I have what I came for," he grinned, taking a step back and waving the scroll in the air before disappearing into the forest.
"Matte!" the boy yelled, but was too late. With a sigh, he dropped his nunchukus to the ground and grasped his bleeding arm, wincing slightly as he turned around to face Sakura. Bowing his head, he got down on one knee and apologized. "Gomen nasai, Genbu no Miko. I've failed you. He got away with the Shi Jin Ten Shi Sho."
Shaking her head, Sakura dropped down onto her knees in front of him and lifted his head up. "Daijoubu." she said, smiling softly, brushing his hair away from his eyes. "You're one of Genbu's seishi, aren't you?" she asked, looking into his eyes.
The blond boy slowly nodded, looking back into his miko's eyes. "H-hai... Watashi wa Urumiya."
'The fourth seishi.' she smiled. By now she had learned not to fling herself at the seishi and instead, hugged him tightly, not taking notice of the blush that had crept onto his cheeks.
*cue ending music XD*