Very interesting fact: Juufan has actually wrote a disclaimer for the past seven…or six chapters! And so, she's writing one more: Say I own this and this fic will be sued and Juufan will have no comp and fic shall end. Okay? ^_^


I stared at the red-faced Iname with my mouth open, not able to believe that the person sitting down opposite of me dressed in men's clothes was an onna. An ONNA! An onna whom even Hikitsu could mistake for an otoko, judging by how low the other seishi's jaw had dropped after hearing that astounding fact.

My eyes darted back and forth from Takiko to him…or her. There was a world of difference between the two; that was obvious. But an onna? What the…?

The silence was finally broken by Hikitsu who promptly shut his mouth and tried to look nonchalant at the new phenomenon that had just unfolded before his very eyes. "Er…that's an interesting fact."

"Weird, you mean," I retorted, still not taking my eyes off Iname with my mouth hanging wide open. That...otoko lookalike was an onna? When will wonders in the world never cease? Would Genbu suddenly appear in robes and start boating down to Konan?

A hard hit to my head brought me back to my senses, and I glared at Takiko. She was frowning apparently, but wasn't doing a good enough job at it. It was quite obvious that even she was trying to restrain and hide her surprise at the new discovery too. Miracles will always happen at the weirdest times. When will Takiko suddenly decide that she wanted fox years and live in the forest?

"Don't say that, you baka. That's not nice."

"Interesting that you can actually fit the words 'baka' and 'nice' into one breath," I muttered, rubbing the spot on my head with a huff. The bluish-green haired Iname still seemed to have a sight red tint on the cheeks as…She averted her eyes. Remember...not a he, but a she. A she. She.

"Was I wrong in telling that…?" she inquired after some time, and three of us immediately shook our heads, trying our best to mask the sweatdrops that we knew were sliding down the back of our heads. She looked slightly unbelievingly at us with her yellow cat eyes and frowned slightly. "Was I?"

"Well…it was unexpected!" Takiko chirped up suddenly, trying her best, as I could tell, to mask her surprise and nervousness. "Come on, Iname-chan, I'll tell you how to hit that baka hentai Chamka over the head if he ever bothers you, ne? Don't worry, if you can't do it, all you have to do is to ask Hikitsu here to do it!"

I glared sideways at her, but she simply turned away and took the girl's arm. It looked as if she had finally learned a tip on how to get out of someone's glare daggers and stay alive at the same time. Iname, however, looked slightly surprised as she turned to look at both Hikitsu and me.

"…Chamka?"

"Tomite," Hikitsu replied decisively, pushing me forward slightly to introduce me. "I'm Hikitsu, by the way. Nice to meet another seishi, don't you think so, Tomite?" he asked. I could swear that mentally he was telling me to say yes, or risk eternal mutilation from his ice snakes.

"Er…hai." I gave Hikitsu one of those fine-I-did-that-are-you-satisfied-now looks before turning back to her. "So…nice to meet you?"

"Well…Tomite doesn't look like quite a bad person," she volunteered, only to get another round of big and bug-eyed stares from Takiko. "…In fact, I think he's rather…cute."

I myself was shocked at the end of her sentence. No, make that incredulous. Or better even, make it mortified. Gods above, she thought I was cute?! A Genbu seishi thought I was CUTE?! Dear Genbu, why do you torture me ever so much? First, I had to put up with the fact that there was a weird crossdressing onna as a Genbu seishi, and now the new fact that I was cute in her eyes? Gods above, save me….

"Ah…" Hikitsu gazed at me from the corner of his eyes skeptically to see how I was taking all this. "Well, I guess so. He is rather…cute."

"I am not," I mumbled under breath as I folded my arms. "Now can you mind telling us what you did yesterday?"

"Oh?" he…no, she blinked. "That was one of the skills that I learnt when I was trying to master my wind manipulating capabilities. It's supposed to protect you from any injuries, as far as I can remember."

Takiko had sat back in her chair and was staring very interestedly at Iname now. Apparently, this was her first run-in with crossdressers, but I couldn't blame her. There used to be one very weird man in my village who got his kicks in wearing women's underwear…or so I heard. All I knew was that he got really, really injured after the women in the village found out who had been stealing their laundry. Then again, I was better off not thinking about that.

"So…" I tried my best not to stare to see if I could actually see the top half of her chest. "What is your real name, anyway? As far as I know, Sho Huang is well…a guy's name. Surely you must have an onna name?"

"I'm…Shunrei. Kou Shunrei, at your service. And you're the Genbu no miko…?" she directed the question to Takiko again before recoiling slightly as the overly genki (from amusement, I presume) miko chirped a loud "Hai!!!"

Trying to distract myself from vying to look at Shunrei (or rather her chest area, in fact) I looked around at the small room that we were in. We did need accommodations and staying at the inn wasn't a good idea to save money, so…

"Ne, Iname-san. Can I ask you something?"

She looked up from her somewhat one-sided conversation with Takiko for a moment, her eyes reflecting great surprise in them. "Nani?"

"Do you mind if we stay here for tonight and for…well, until we can set off again?"

-------

It was just after nightfall before I could finally separate myself from the crowds in the town market that had swarmed around me to purchase my newly chopped firewood. As I predicted, many people were lazy (in my eyes, anyway) and were more than glad to pay a small price to have their work done for them. Shunrei had finally agreed to let us stay in the house, despite her protests on how it would look weird if there was an onna in the house. I couldn't blame her- even I knew about the traditions and the taboos that surrounded men and women living in the same house.

Plopping myself down onto a bench, I shivered at the freezing night breeze that grazed my skin, wondering why it didn't seem any warmer despite the fact that we were heading down south towards the capital. Weren't we supposed to get nearer to the deserts of Sairo than to the northern mountains of Hokkan?

"Tomite-san…?"

I looked up, and my eyes widened in surprise to see Shunrei standing there, holding a few planting tools (I never knew their names; I'd never touched one of them ever in my life) in a very manlike manner, much to my surprise. For all I knew, (s)he was most probably more otoko than me.

"Nani…Iname-san?"

"Just Sho Huang or Shunrei, onegai. I've never told the other villagers about my seishi heritage. You see…they might find about me being an onna."

"I bet they'd die of surprise," I muttered under my breath, thinking how all of them would be horrified to find that the respected, hardworking 'otoko' who worked in the fields was actually an onna. An onna! How horrifying!

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, nothing!" I grinned, rubbing my head as I hoped to Genbu that she hadn't heard my words. "Just…commenting something about the weather. It's rather cold here, don't you think?"

The tools were placed in a nearby barn with a slight plink and plunk metallic sounds of steel being put to the ground before she finally came out, brushing her hands clean. She smiled, taking a seat beside me as she nodded, wiping the perspiration that beaded her forehead despite the biting cold.

"Well, we are near the mountains, and so, we seldom get much sun. I'm sure the weather's much better over Mount Taihun," she spoke, pointing to the dark silhouette of the tall mountain not far off. "Still, who am I to curse Genbu's own doing? Even us villagers graze our goats up there since there's a little grass here and there. I shouldn't complain."

I leaned back, surveying the night sky and the stars that peeped out to twinkle beneath the blanket of clouds that lay spread out on the entire black sky. "At least you're this lucky to have family," I told her, pinpointing out the constellation for Hatsui among the stars. "I don't have any siblings at all, and both my parents are dead."

"Keniji isn't my real brother, you know."

I blinked, taking my eyes off the night sky as I gazed at her face in surprise, my eyes slightly widened. "He isn't? But he has your eyes, or so I could make out…"

She shook her head, pulling off the turban-like cloth that she used to cover her head like a hat. Her long green hair twinkled blue in the dark as she took the cloth in her hands and fingered it.

"'jiisan took us in out of sympathy. I was once the only child of a poor family whose house was destroyed in a fire. Keniji just happened to be one of my neighbors whose parents died too in those fatal flames. Funny how fate can play with your luck, ne?" she sighed, pushing a few loose strands of waist long hair behind her ears.

We were silent for a while, each contemplating and trying to figure out what each other were thinking. It was weird how her history seemed to almost relate to mine; my parents had died in an avalanche, hers in a fire. It seemed eerily…connected, as if it was more than a mere coincidence.

"Demo, you're lucky, Tomite-san," she finally spoke up, and I blinked, looking at her. She was looking at her lap, her left hand squeezing her upper right arm as she gave me what seemed like a smile. "You have Takiko-san and Hikitsu-san who are almost like siblings to you."

I patted her shoulder, giving her a small smile to comfort her. If that head-hitting onna was my sister, I'd cringe and jump off a cliff than admit that she had blood relations with me. What a ghastly thought!

"Well, now that you're one of the seishi, I guess you're in the 'family', then," I joked, giving her a wink as she looked up quizzically. "After all, being Genbu shichiseishi Iname does have its good points, you know."

Her shoulders seemed to shake, and I wondered for a split second if I was patting her too roughly when suddenly, I felt her hand holding mine very tightly. Blinking and turning a slight tint of red, I sweatdropped.

"A…are you okay?"

There was a soft drip as a drop of something liquid landed on my hand. I blinked, lifting my hand up for a moment to study it. Masaka…?

She looked up, her eyes lined with the same liquid that shone soft silver in the moonlight: tears. I recoiled slightly, wondering just how in Genbu's name was I going to explain this to the others when we went back to the house.

"H…hai," she stammered, hurriedly wiping her eyes with the hem of her sleeve. "It's just that…I've never thought about my past until now. It's always been kept a secret…but I guess that all secrets can't be kept, ne?"

Nani?!

"You're such a nice person, Tomite-san," she whispered, pulling herself closer and I sweatdropped. Just hold on a second! What in all of Genbu's name was happening here? Why the sudden confession and-

A pair of long arms suddenly seemed to find itself around my neck, and before I could blink, she had already pulled me close with unladylike (I wasn't sure if that'd apply in this type of a situation) manner and was already hugging me. Here, I was caught in a very awkward position with her so close to me that I could practically see the top of her head from here. Genbu, what the…?

"Okay, Chamka, who've you been bullying again?" Takiko's face suddenly appeared in front of mine, looming as if she was a ghost.

"GYAHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Before I knew it, I had already shoved a stunned Shunrei away from me and was five feet from where the bench was. Takiko blinked very innocently (I'm sure she would never go to Tengoku, never, unless Genbu was blind!) as she gave us her most angelic smile before suddenly glaring at me.

"You aren't doing hentai things to Iname, are you?" she questioned, suddenly narrowing her eyes as she noticed that the girl was in a very disheveled and teary state. "I know you're a damn baka hentai, but I never knew that you were that perverted! Iname, what did he do to you? If he did hentai things, I'll give him a bashing he'll never forget until he dies!"

"Sureee," I muttered under my breath. "That is if I don't die from a concussion by the rate you're whacking me!"

"Oh, so I see you want to try it out, ne? Come on!"

"Fine then, you damn head-hitting onna! I dare you to do your worst!"

"You're challenging me?" she snapped back, rolling up her sleeves, just when Iname finally spoke up.

"Takiko-san…he wasn't doing that!" she sputtered suddenly and Takiko stopped in mid advance. "We were just talking and I got something in my eye, and he…"

I mentally slapped my forehead. Instead of helping the situation as it was, she had made it worse. Why do I even trust women in the first place? They just brought me more trouble than I needed!

"Look," I retorted, glaring at Takiko. "I did NOT do anything to her, so lay off on the accusations, you damn onna. Besides, what's the big idea suddenly popping out of nowhere? Found that you've finally sprained your arm so you can't hit?"

WHACK!

"Very funny, Chamka," she replied sarcastically. "The much better seishi, Hikitsu was wondering why you guys (she cast a questioning eyebrow at Shunrei) were taking so long to come into the house."

There was a flash of green hair as Shunrei suddenly stood up, her face going phenomenally red for some obscure reason. "I just remembered that I'm supposed to help 'jiisan with the dinner. Sumimasen!"

With that, she sprinted off, leaving the both of us alone. I blinked, but before I could even say anything, she had run into the house, and the wind had blown it shut from the inside. Shrugging, I turned to look at Takiko who seemed to be studying my face with an interest that could bring an elephant to its knees.

"What's with the staring?" I queried, blinking, forgetting about the argument for a moment. "Is there a bug on my head or something?"

She grinned mischievously as she spoke. "Well. Well. Well!"

"Well what?!"

"I never knew you had it in you, Tomite," she folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. It was the first time that she was calling me using the seishi name, I noticed, and I grew more and more confused by the minute.

"Knew I had what in me?"

"I never knew you were such a sap at heart," she grinned, raising an amused eyebrow. "Do you really think I saw nothing at all?"

I looked horrified. "You were listening?!"

She nodded, grinning the widest grin I had ever seen on her face ever since I had met her in the woods that day. "What did you expect? That I'm as shallow as you think? That'll be when I'm old and dying, Chamka no baka. At the moment, I have perfect hearing and eyesight. Now, I think the others would be interested to hear about what happened, ne?"

I glared at her. "You wouldn't dare…!"

"Oh? And what gives you that idea, Chamka the sap hearted?"

"I'll throw your clothes out to feed the wolves if you even breathe a word about it to Hikitsu," I threatened, knowing how the silver haired seishi would tease me if he knew. "I'll…starve you for life too, despite what he says!"

She narrowed her eyes and glared sideways at me. Mumbling something under her breath, she sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll keep that lovey-dovey little scene to myself. Satisfied? Now don't you go hiding all my food!"

I grinned, wondering what would happen if I isolated Takiko from her food. Would she beg for mercy? Crawl and plead for it? I filed away the thought for future incidents if that ever happened.


Author's Notes: Tomite has a soft spot! Tomite has a soft spot! *dances around saying that, although the words 'soft spot' begin to sound like a tongue twister…something like 'sot spot', you see? ^_^*

As all of you should know by now, I won't base Iname on Nuriko, that'll be left for Namame (Gah…I've just given away another hint! Nuuuu!), so hope to (insert your favourite of the four gods here) that she/he comes on soon! No, Namame is not an it… *glares at readers who are whistling a tad too innocently*

Hmm…eighth chapter up! I am soooo proud of myself. I have a good, long attention span! Well, that is until the next best plot bunny hops along, of course! Would you believe that I got stranded in the first half of the fic and couldn't work on it until a week later? Gahhhhh, the curse of writer's block!! .

For all you people who are asking why Iname's character seems so different from the previous chapter, look at it this way: she's never been able to talk about it to anyone for…*thinks for a while* 6 years? Now that she's got a person to listen, she can spill her heart out, ne??

*looks horrified* No, this fic is NOT a Tomite/Iname fic! *cringes* If anyone can remember, I already said that this was going to be a Tomite/Takiko fic, so lay off on poor Iname, people! By the way, if you're curious on how I got the name 'Shunrei', no, I have not been watching too much of Sailormoon and FY to mix up Shunkaku and Rei! Shunrei is just a girl that was in an episode of Gensomaden Saiyuki that I was watching a few days ago! Besides, it's a nice name, ne?

As you can see from here, Tomite has a soft heart, despite the tough manner that he's using to try to cover it up. Unfortunately, he's not as sensitive as that to Takiko…or is he? *grins evilly* Go figure it out, you sappy bunch you!

By the way, the reviews were absolutely great! Eeeee! People, I love you! *glomps reviewers with enough strength to rival Nuriko's* You guys are great! Of course, don't forget to continue reviewing, ne?? ^_~ v

Okay, until next time, ja ne ~!