Disclaimer: I don't own FY. Full stop. End of story.


Apparently, it was a fire, and a crowd had gathered around the roaring fire, some merely pointing and staring at it while others were working hard to put it out by using the water from a nearby lake. The heat was astounding, one could start sweating and feel sweltering hot when just standing in a 3 miles radius from the burning building.

Hikitsu and Takiko had already arrived by the time I managed to find the scene of the fire after tracing the light back to its source. The look on their faces were serious as they watched the fire grow out of control, and I greatly suspected that they wanted to help despite not knowing how to. After all, the situation was very hectic, and adding a helping hand in might make it worse.

"Chamka, Hikitsu-san, can't you do anything?" Takiko pleaded, her green eyes wide as she stared helplessly at the blazing building that was being consumed by flames. "Can't we at least help?"

Hikitsu's eyes were very serious as he shook his head very slowly, speaking in a low tone. "I'm sorry, Takiko-san, but if we use our powers here, our identities might be revealed. We don't want any danger from the villagers, if you understand what I mean."

Genbu, we were worried about threats from the villagers? Somehow, despite the fact that it was true, it sounded corny, and I wondered bitterly if that was the real reason why we were so hesitant to help. Maybe it was merely us that were over frightened-who knows?

It was at that time that my sharp eyes caught sight of a brightly coloured head somewhere in the red-orange flames, waving frantically to the people down there. I squinted, trying to focus through the smoke that was blocking my line of vision before finally making out a boy of about ten years old in there.

Genbu, he was the same boy that had brought our luggage up to our rooms in the inn! My eyes widened in horror as I realized the seriousness of the situation. I watched as he waved frantically and seemed to yell, but his voice was lost over the sound of the crackling flames. Besides, his small body seemed so inferior to the fire, and no one could see him except those who focused hard enough.

Starting forward, I grabbed a long piece of discarded tablecloth near the rubbish heap nearby and grabbed someone's bucket of water as they were busy trying to extinguish the flames.

"Chamka! What are you doing?" I heard Takiko call but ignored it as I pushed the helpelss man that seemed to cower before me as I took the water. He trembled, looking as frightened as if I was about to kill him, and I snorted. Did he really think that I had the time to toy around with him when someone's life was at stake?

Throwing the water on myself, I then rushed in, dripping wet as I covered myself in the wet cloth. The smoke was terrible- and I dropped to the floor, crawling under the thick, black smoke above me. I thought I heard Hikitsu call me to stop and come back- but everything else had been drowned out by the loud crackling of the flames around me. I couldn't go back now- I had come in here to rescue someone, and I had to do it without sacrificing anybody's life!

The stairs seemed to spiral a long way up as I made my way up slowly, being careful to avoid any fallen beams or any that threatened to collapse in on me at any moment. It wasn't easy, and I had to hurry, for I heard the boy's cries growing fainter as each minute passed. Besides, the heat around me had seemed to increase- it was a matter of time before the cloth dried out and started to catch fire.

"Boy!" I called, hoping to all the four gods in the skies that he could hear me. "Can you hear me? Where are you?"

There was a silence, and just when I thought that he was dead from suffocation-

"Onegai! I'm here, in the third room to the right! Please hurry!"

It was then that my foot slipped from the steps, and I found myself in a dangerous position and about to fall, but my right hand grabbed the wooden railing, steadying the rest of my body. I sighed in relief, silently offering a prayer of thanks to Genbu especially, and continued my task to climb the stairs and avoid any fallen beams.

It didn't take me long to maneuver myself through the hallways after I cleared the stairs- to my luck, the damage and fire wasn't so bad there, but it was slowly spreading. Counting three doors down the hall, I kicked the wooden door down and found the small boy trembling and quaking from fear inside. Perspiration beaded his forehead as he stared in terror at me, as if I was some monster that was going to eat him.

"Okay, now that we've got you, let's get out of here!" I said decisively, trying to calm my own pounding heart as I wrapped him in the wet cloth together with me and painstakingly but quickly made our way down the stairs.

Halfway down the stairs, my worst fears came true. The fire had finally spread and was covering the entire bottom half of the creaky wooden steps, leaving our exit blocked. My eyes darting from left to right, I realized that I had no choice but to leap down to the floor below us, risking a broken leg or try to walk through the fire, which seemed plain ridiculous. Still, a broken leg was better than a lost life, ne? Besides, the ceiling might just cave in and collapse on us any time…

"Listen, kid," I spoke to the whimpering boy whose eyes were wide with fear. "We're going to have to jump, but you've got to land properly, or you'll break one of your legs. Just hang on to me, okay?"

He nodded, his bright blond hair ruffled and unruly as I heaved him onto my back. Inhaling, I took a deep breath and jumped, praying once again for safety from Genbu. Genbu forgive me if I've ever insulted you or anything like that…

As we sailed off the railing, the beams crashed behind us on the spot where we had just been standing, giving me a feeling of relief that I had made that quick decision. Looking down, I concentrated on landing, or at least to feel that pain and hear a loud crunch to prove that we had landed.

It was then that the most bizarre thing happened. A translucent bubble seemed to float from outside through the wall towards us. It seemed to enclose itself around us, bringing us to float down to the floor safely before finally bursting with a soft ping when my feet touched the floor.

"What the hell just happened?" I muttered to myself, then promptly shook myself out of it. Telling myself that now was no time to think about floating bubbles that could go through walls, I tightened my grip around the boy and made a sprint for the door, hearing as more beams collapsed behind us. The boy was hanging onto my neck as hard as he could with his eyes close as I pushed myself forward even more, hoping that my years of chasing after rabbits would finally come to use.

Just as both my feet hit the familiar soil of the outside world, there was a rumbling sound, and the building finally collapsed, leaving the once mighty building in just mere scaffolding now. The boy was roughly grabbed from my reach from whom I thought was his mother, while two arms immediately surrounded me, pulling me hard enough to make me gasp for breath.

"You damn baka, Chamka!" Takiko mumbled as she buried her face in my shirt, and I blinked, looking confusedly at Hikitsu for an explanation. He shrugged and patted me on the back while the girl seemed to sob a river onto my clothes. What in all of Hokkan was going on?

"Next time, think of your own safety before that of others, Tomite," the serious seishi remarked, smiling slightly as he glanced at my back, much to my astonishment. "By the way, your seishi symbol's glowing again."

I frowned at his comment, but patted Takiko's back, wondering why she had suddenly become so emotional of a sudden. Maybe I had done something stupid by just running in like that, but she didn't have to go all teary over me because of that! I stared helplessly at her as she continued to mumble something into my shirt, and finally pulled away.

"Why'd you do something like that for?" she demanded, her voice still scratchy from crying as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Don't you know that you could've gotten killed?"

I sighed, watching as she sniffed, trying to stop the sobs that wracked her body. Smiling slightly, I patted her on the head, smiling slightly as I did so.

"Well, miko-sama, you were the one that told us to help. I just did the best I could."

"Demo, you could have gotten killed! Even over inhalation of smoke could kill someone!"

I smiled, patting her slightly on the head as I offered her my biggest grin. "Well, I'm still alive, aren't I? That's to prove to head-hitting girls like you that I am tougher than you think!"

"You damn baka, who ever said that I was worried about you in the first place?" she shot back, trying to hide her red rimmed eyes as she pouted. I laughed, wondering why she was so stubborn.

"Maybe the fact that you're crying as if the world's going to end tomorrow?" I offered, dodging as she playfully swiped at my head. "Now, now, no more head hitting for tonight- I'm too exhausted to play along with your games."

She laughed and latched on to me again, much to my surprise, and I shrugged. Why pull a girl off when you were getting all the attention that you should've gotten in the first place?

-------

That night, I slept as soundly as a log, never ever feeling this exhausted in my entire life. My dreams were fitful, reminisces of what had happened earlier that night, and according to Hikitsu the next morning, I had smiled and said something about some baka miko in my sleep. Talk about weird…

I hadn't mentioned the weird bubble to Hikitsu or Takiko yet; I had been too drained of energy to even comment about the weird bubble the last night. Still, I wondered if that bubble had anything to do with the other Genbu seishi, for as far as I knew, no normal human could create such things, unless they had great powers of sorcery.

"You're not eating, Tomite?" Hikitsu had asked when I went down for breakfast, noticing that I hadn't touched my food at all. Takiko, however, was happily devouring the food that had been set in front of her, much to my amusement. It was as if she had never seen bread before.

I reluctantly took a bite out of my breakfast, not feeling very hungry, instead quite lethargic, if I could describe it. I was worn out from last night for some weird reason, and I couldn't stop myself from nodding off at the table. "Nothing like that, Hikitsu. Just…tired."

Takiko finally stopped popping things into her mouth and gazed at me, her eyebrow furrowed. "Tired? You shouldn't have woken up so early then, Chamka. We would've let you sleep in- you deserve it."

"True," I remarked, as I stretched, trying to stifle another gigantic yawn from escaping my throat. "Ne, did the two of you see the bubble that floated in from outside yesterday? Did you make it, Hikitsu?"

The seishi was eyeing me with much puzzlement as his forehead wrinkled. "What bubbles? I don't have that type of things in my seishi powers. Are you sure that you weren't hallucinating?"

I was slightly annoyed; did he really think that my senses had been dulled by the smoke? I was much more careful than that! "I don't hallucinate in an emergency. Wait a minute- you said that you didn't do it? Then who did?"

Takiko seemed to look confusedly at the both of us before piping up. "Could it be another Genbu seishi?"

"Probably," Hikitsu agreed as he frowned, thinking as he chewed an extra large piece of dumpling, making me wonder why he didn't choke when swallowing. "Let's see, we have to look for Iname, Namame, Uruki, Urumiya and Hatsui. One of these five may be the person who saved you yesterday, Tomite."

"I'd like to thank him," I yawned as I took another drink of my hot tea in front of me. "If it weren't for him, I'd be lying dead in that house dead like a rat. He saved my life."

Takiko sipped her water, raising an eyebrow at me as she swallowed. "Well, I should've told him or her to leave you alone. A person who simply runs into burning buildings and risks his life for no apparent reason deserves to die like a rat."

I narrowed my eyes as I glared sideways at her. "Sure. And this comes from a head-hitting onna who was going on and on yesterday about how worried she was. Suuuuure."

A most interesting shade of pink lit up Takiko's cheeks as she blushed slightly and looked away. Folding her arms, she averted her eyes, not meeting my amused ones as she spoke.

"Well, it is usual for a person to panic when someone does a crazy thing. After all, I'm sure I would've done the same thing if Hikitsu-san did something like that too. That, of course, is highly improbable, since he has much more sense than you!"

"Nani?! Are you saying that I have no brains at all?"

"Well...judging by your practically nonexistant brain capacity, why not?"

"Take that back, you damn onna!"

Hikitsu sighed as he stood up and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, making me yelp in surprise. Placing some money on the table, he looked at Takiko while still keeping a firm grip on me.

"We'll be going to look for some jobs. Remember, go back to the inn straight after you finish- no wandering around. If news gets out that you're the Genbu no miko…" he shook his head, his eyes serious while I struggled to free myself from his grasp.

She nodded obediently, looking down at my unfinished food. "Can I have Chamka's food since he's not going to eat it?"

I glared at her, just wondering how much food that girl could consume. "That's up to you, you head hitting- itte! Let go of me, Hikitsu!"

Hikitsu had taken some liberties to drag me out by my collar, giving my behind a very hard time as I was dragged along. I winced, directing a death glare straight at him. He shrugged, not listening to me as he pulled, but stopped for some reason.

Astonished, I followed his gaze, only to see the very same boy that I rescued the night before standing at the door of the bar. He seemed just as untidy and didn't seemed to have taken a bath since yesterday. He seemed to be looking at something, for I could see that his eyes shining while his face slightly pale. I blinked, tilting my head slightly so that I could get a better view of him. He seemed to be looking straight at me, or so I thought.

"Are you really the Genbu no miko and her seishi?" he blurted out after a few long minutes of staring, and I felt the seishi's hand on my neck stiffen. The boy knew that we (or just Hikitsu) were seishi? But that was impossible, unless...

Somehow, news of the arrival of the miko had leaked out, and this boy knew. But who else knew that Takiko and Hikitsu were…?

There was a stunned silence as the bread fell from Takiko's hands. The boy still stood there, his eyes darting from her to both me and Hikitsu, as he waited for a reply. The bar suddenly seemed to grow eerily quiet, as if the other patrons had heard the boy's seemingly innocent question. Onegai, Genbu, we've had enough problems already...

"Genbu no miko…?" I heard an awed whisper from somewhere, and I bit my lip. Now, the whole town would know who she really was. This was bad


Author's Notes: Sixth chapter! \^o^/ This fic's gone so far already! Well, it is longer than any of my other fics… *recounts* Yup, it certainly is!

Ah…the mysterious bubble! Who could it be - a friendly sorcerer (as what Tomite said) or one of the shichiseishi? That you people will have to wait and see! Oh, and while all of you die of suspense, do review! It might help me to chug out the next chapter! ^_~ v

If all of you have to know, I'm suffering from a terrible bout of writer's block. It's made my sentences very long winded (reread this chapter and you'll understand what I mean) and everything sounds corny! . My poor creativity resources have been drained empty…

*empty gargle of water sounds from poor Juufan's brain* Ideas…maybe I'll take a rest off this fic for a while. If it continues like this, it'll never get anywhere! Maybe I'll work on a side story for Hikitsu… *thinks* Maybe I will…

*pokes finger into empty brain* Well, that's it. All the rest's gone phut and up in smoke. It needs to cool down a while, so I'll try working on other fics during this stretch. Gomen nasai!! .

Oh yes, thanks for the reviews! Kami-sama, you have no idea how hard it is to get reviews! I'm just glad that you guys know how hard it is! *grins* by the way, I do realize that Takiko seems to hit Tomite in each chapter. So, I've decided a contest: at the end of the fic, the person who correctly counts the number of whacks that Tomite has received throughout the story will receive a prize! Of course, that reward will be a surprise!

*sighs and pokes empty creativity resources again* Oh well, until next time, ja ne ~!