Disclaimer: Guess what? They still aren't mine!

Basic story notes: "Talking."       'Thoughts.'      Any speaking with a star (*) in front

of it is in English. All other speech is in Japanese.

Comments: Okay, people. Um, this is the beginning of the rewritten chapters. Try to ignore little inconsistencies in the story because of the rewrite. On with everything.

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Taki and Lily stood in the woods far away from the bandit camp. They found two large shoulder bags full of clothes and other stuff that Kei's grandmother thought would be useful for them.

Taki looked around "So, any idea where we should look for Kei?"

"Not really…Too bad we have no clues…"

"Ya think?"

Lily glared at her. "Shut up…"

Taki grinned. "Make me…"

"Never mind. Let's try to find a village or something." The two headed east in hopes of finding their younger friend.

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At the bandit camp Kei stood against the tree and frowned at the seishi. She cursed herself for making things so difficult for herself. 'Damn…I should not have done that. I should have just kept my mouth shut.'

Tasuki moved closet to her. "Kei, what exactly are you saying? Do you actually know about this world?"

She scoffed. "What does it matter? You don't give a damn either way. If I dropped dead right now, none of you would care. You'd probably be glad…"

"Now that's now true…"

"Stuff it bandit boy and leave me alone." With that, Kei spun on her heel and ran off into the woods. The seishi stood stunned for a minute. Tasuki was the first to react and went dashing off in the direction Kei had gone.

'Damn…She's fast. I might not be able to catch her.'  Tasuki had a hard time trying to keep up with her. He would only occasionally catch a glimpse of her turning or jumping over a fallen log or something like that.

The other three seishi recovered from their shock and ran back to their horses and went after their fellow seishi and the young girl.

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In the real world, Hikari stood in the room where her granddaughter's friends had disappeared. She sighed. "Suzaku save them…" She was quiet for a minute. "Tai Itsukun! Get over here right now!" She turned around and looked into a very decorative mirror. A few seconds later, and image of Tai Itsukun appeared in the glass.

"Hikari-sama, what's the meaning of this!?" Tai Itsukun looked mad.

"You know damn well what's wrong! My granddaughter Kei was taken to Konan by that damn book! She's too young to be there! She knows nothing about her own powers! Why did this happen?!"

"I'm sorry, but this world was about to fall out of balance if we didn't bring the Guardian over as soon as possible. I didn't have a choice."

"That isn't true! You're not sorry! There is always a choice! You didn't look hard enough!"

"I tried my hardest…Kei-sama will have to find her way…on her own. And complete her destiny."

"No…She's coming home. I sent Taki and Lily to bring her back. I have to train her before she could be of any use to any side!"

"You were a stubborn fool as a young miko and I can see nothing has changed in all these years!" Tai Itsukun frowned.

"You were an ugly old hag when I was a miko and I can see that hasn't changed in all these years either!" She crossed her arms and frowned back.

"Well, I see we have nothing more to discuss. Good-bye." The image of Tai Itsukun flickered away and was replaced with Hikari's refection. After it disappeared, a large black dog pushed it's way into the room, sat at her feet and whined.

"Stupid old fool…I need to contact the girls…" Hikari then noticed the dog
Oh, hello Huan-Lang… Are you worried about the girls? Should I send you too?"

Huan-Lang didn't do much, just sat there and wagged his tail. Hikari ran her fingers through the dog's thick coat.

"Well, Huan-Lang, I think you're the only one here capable of finding her, so come on. You're going through." Hikari said a quick spell and Huan-Lang disappeared in a red flash.

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Inside the forest, Kei found herself in a clearing with four paths. She could choose any of them, but she'd get lost no mater where she went. She only had a few seconds to decide what to do. "Well, here's hoping I get somewhere friendly." She took off her leather jacket and tossed it onto the 1st path. "With any luck they'll go that way, while I go this way." With that Kei took off down the 4th path at top speed.

As soon as she was gone, Tasuki came out of the forest and reached the clearing. He saw Kei's jacket and thought. 'Well, since I doubt she's stupid enough to leave her stuff where she ran, I have 3 other options. Where would she go?' He looked at the dirt and saw footprints in the dust. They made strange patterns so he assumed they were hers. He looked back. The others would come soon. He wanted to talk to her alone, so as he headed down the last path, he rubbed out his and her prints. 'It'll buy me a little time, I guess.'

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Taki and Lily sat in a restaurant in a small town. No one they asked about Kei had any idea who they were talking about. More that a few got their asses kicked after asking the girls other less polite questions.

Lily stared into her sake cup. "So, another dead-end, huh?"

Taki sipped some sake. "Yeah, this was a total waste of time. We were closer in the woods."

Lily sighed deeply "Probably…We should just leave and keep going…"

Suddenly a tall man in armor and a hooded cape stood up for a table and walked over to them. "Now, now, ladies. I think I can be of some help. If you're looking for someone, I can find them."

Taki didn't like the look of him. "I don't think so…Thanks for the offer though. We're fine on our own."

"Please, I think I can really help…" The stranger was intent on helping them. He removed the hood he was wearing and looked at the girls. He had long blonde hair and disturbingly blue eyes. A chill ran down Taki's spine.

Lily rested her hand on the hilt of her sword. "It's really isn't necessary, sir. We really are fine. We can take care of ourselves."

The stranger grinned almost evilly. "I'm sure I can help you two… My name is Nakago…"

Taki and Lily gave each other nervous glances.

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Kei kicked at the ground with her foot. "Great…another river. Now what? I have no idea where I'm going and the more I run the deeper I'm in…" Kei knelt down by the river and stared at her reflection in the crystal clear waters. She took a deep breath and dropped a rock in water, disturbing her reflection. She felt the need to laugh. "Ha… Look at me… The great and powerful Guardian… Heh, the one to save this world from evil…" She flipped her hair back. "I can't even help myself, how can I save another world? Why me?! Why am I the unlucky one?! Why must my life suck so much? Why am I talking to myself? It won't help."

Tasuki watched her from a distance. It took awhile, but he caught up with her. He hadn't heard anything she had just said, just saw laughing at something.. He started to walk up to her slowly. "Kei, what are you doing??"

"Oh damn…" She stood up. "I wasn't doing anything. I was just tried and resting… That's all… What do you want?"

"Just to talk… That's all…"

"I just can't help but doubt that… How long till you're seishi friends find us?"

"I dunno… I wiped out you're footprints and mine, also I was ahead of the others, so it'll take awhile… I hope…"

Kei looked up at Tasuki questioningly. "Are you trying to protect me or what?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. I was hoping we could establish some kind of understanding, just between us… What could it hurt?" He offered his hand to her.

Kei looked at his hand then back at Tasuki. "Well, I my regret it later, but what the hell, I'll try…" She shook hands with Tasuki. I guess I should apologize for being such a bitch so far…"

"Don't worry about it… It's not like my friends have been great hosts… You were just reacting to the way they were treating you… I'm not sure why they haven't been nice to you… Last time there was a girl from another world they were quite different…"

What do you mean 'Last time?' I'm not the only one?" Kei knew other people from her world had been here before, though she didn't let him know that she knew.

Nope, I guess it's a long story…"

"Can you shorten it?"

"Well, the most recent miko we had was only a couple years ago. Almost all the seishi fell in love wit' her. She ended up leaving and I think she's wit' her boyfriend Tamahome…err…Taka… Somethin' like that."

"Taka…That name sounds familiar… What was the miko's name?"

"Yuuki Miaka. Why?"

Kei thought for a second and chuckles. "Yuuki? Miaka? That idiot was a miko? How'd she manage that?"

"You know her?"

"Yeah… And I think she's a lucky idiot. Taka makes a lot of passes at me too. I don't like him."

"Well, he ain't the most likeable person, I'll give you that."

"So… Now what?" She glanced at Tasuki.

"You wanna go home, right?"

"Yeah, I do… Any ideas?"

Before Tasuki could utter another word, a large black dog ran out of the woods, stopped at Kei's feet and licked her hand. Kei stared and realized the dog was hers, Huan-Lang. She giggled and knelt down. "Hello, boy. Did you come to find me?"

            "You know some random dog that runs out for the woods because?"

"Because he's mine. I guess Oba-san sent him."

"How would your grandmother send him?"

"My grandmother was a miko about 60 or more years ago… She knows a lot of magic…"

"You're a descendant of a miko… Lemme see your eyes."

            Kei looked up at him. "Why?" She knew why he wanted to see her eyes.

            Tasuki stared at her. Her eyes were amethyst-colored. Just like the prophecy. "Holy shit…"

            "What?" Kei stood up and looked at him. "What's wrong?"

            "Things just got more complicated. We should try to find a town…"

TBC

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Any input? That wasn't the greatest of chapters, but hey, I wrote it really quickly. Continue or not? Please review. Flame will be used to light candles.

~*~Shadow Hawk~*~