Disclaimer: Well, no one's sued me (yet), but I don't want to take chances. If Yuu Watase ever reads this, it's either this fic is good or she's looking for a fic to sue. Gack. Watase-sensei, I do not own FY, so don't kill me! .
It took us a week to build up sufficient supplies for the long travel to and over the mountains. Looking by the burden that our horses were carrying, I wouldn't be half surprised if they suddenly collapsed from over exhaustion. Then again, Hikitsu was the person who said that they could bear such weights, but in this weather? It seemed atrocious.
Although not stated clearly by the old 'jiisan who took in Iname (I finally got the hang of calling her Iname and not Shunrei) and Keniji, I could tell that we were starting to overstay our welcome. Despite the fact that he did know about us being seishi, I suspect that if we didn't get going soon, they were going to be flat broke. Keniji didn't seem to mind much though; I suspected that it was either that we spoiled him too much or Hikitsu had given him too much candy to eat. Lucky kid.
Takiko (yes, that head-hitting onna) had finally gathered enough sense and bought herself a few pairs of clothing together with a few coats for us. Despite the fact that I despised her to the very ends of this earth, I guess that I still have to admit, grudgingly or not, that she actually looked nice in the native clothes of Hokkan. Of course, it meant that the thigh-showing days for her were over, unfortunately. Sigh.
On the subject of clothes, Iname had pondered for three days whether she should go as a girl or dress up as an otoko for safety's sake. She finally decide to fact two sets of clothing (one for men and another for women), but used the other four days to wonder if she should buy more clothes. Then again, I guess that girls will be girls, as long as they're not head-hitting onnas. Can't help it Taiitsukun created it that way.
"Tomite? Had enough of dreaming yet?"
I was startled out of my thoughts as Hikitsu lay a broad hand on my shoulder as he loaded up the horses with the other. Seeing how tangled his long hair was, I was sorely tempted to rush out and buy him a comb. He hadn't been taking care of it- it took a long time just to crush it, he explained. Well, I wouldn't go to see the emperor of Hokkan with that type of hair…
"Now that you've given me the biggest bruise in the century, of course I've been severely scarred!" I feinted injury with a hurt look on my face but Hikitsu merely laughed and patted my on the shoulder. Come to think of it, I seemed to be bonding with him nowadays, although I think it's because he's the only otoko (technically speaking, if you don't count Iname) in the entire group.
"Tomite, do you think we can make it over Mount Taihun?" came Hikitsu's question, his voice quieter and his tone a little more subdued than normal. "I've asked around, and it seems that no one's ever managed to go over that mountain without either dying from hunger, coldness or sickness. Even the villagers just scale the foot of the mountain to graze their goats."
I raised an eyebrow at him, watching as he fixed the saddle onto his white stallion. So that was what had been bothering him for the past few days! No wonder he had looked so absent-minded.
"Well, they are normal people after all," I spoke, linking both my fingers behind my head as I watched Iname help Takiko get onto the horse and looking very surprised when she found out that she had a horse phobia. "As a seishi, your powers are much better than any of theirs. So why worry?"
The silver haired seishi chuckled, shaking his head as he looked at me. "You're always the optimist, Tomite. Not that anything's wrong with that, but that's going to be something hard to live with. Then again, it might not be such a bad thing."
"And you had better get a comb," I retorted back, unable to restrain myself any longer as I quirked an eyebrow at him. "By the rate how the wind blows in the mountains, you'll need a few too."
He laughed. "You should be glad that I'm not Takiko-san, or you'd get hit on the head for that. Fine, fine, I'll go buy a comb."
We laughed together, and I could have swore that the girls, especially that head-hitting onna, were actually looking in surprise at us.
-------
We set off the next morning after a hectic night of checking the things to see if we had left out or forgotten something on our little shopping spree. Hikitsu and Iname seemed to be everywhere, checking frantically on everything, as if the world was about to end today. I couldn't understand why they were so panicked, we were just going over a damn mountain, for Genbu's sake, not preparing for someone's funeral!
Takiko herself had seemed a little lost and overwhelmed at the two seishi's frantic movements and had actually asked me if they had gone off their rocker or something weird of that sort. I had given her a weird look, wondering what 'gone off their rocker' meant.
Praise Genbu that I no longer had to ride on the same horse as her, though, now that Iname was here. Despite the gladness though, I felt a little...sad? Maybe it was because I had no more onna kicking me in the leg, but it seemed different, somehow, but I didn't know how to explain it. Then again, why worry about things that you couldn't explain?
"Tomite, look out!"
I blinked, finally noticing that a tree was three inches in front of my horse and quickly pulled it to a stop before it gave an irritated neigh, as if to scold me for my negligence. Hikitsu rode up to me with a slightly annoyed look on his face, and cringed slightly, knowing that I was in for a BIG lecture on how important it was to pay attention when riding up steep mountains.
True enough, he opened his mouth and-
"You don't know how important you are to us, Tomite. If you die, who'll take your place at the summoning?"
I blinked. What? That was it? No lecture? No threatening to chop off my head? Had the world suddenly ended? Or had Hikitsu really gone mad?
I stared wide eyed at him with my mouth hanging open as I blinked repeatedly. "Er…hai. Hikitsu, are you feeling all right? Is the mountain air affecting your head or something?"
He narrowed his eyes, glaring slightly at me as he raised an eyebrow. "What was that supposed to mean?" he asked, his voice sounding somewhere between annoyed and angry- I didn't want to find out.
Takiko grinned from Iname's horse, sticking her tongue out at me while she had to the reins for her dear life. "Well, it simply comes to show that Hikitsu still has more sense to save his saliva then to lecture you, baka."
I glared sideways at her, jerking my horse's reins and made it trot over to her. "Oh, and who's saying that, Miss I-can't-ride-a-horse-because-I'm-scared?"
Sure enough she shot back a biting reply. "Well, at least I'm not the one with the hentai secret!" she sang out, and Hikitsu looked confusedly between me and her. "Hikitsu, do you know that Chamka here has a very interesting thing to tell?"
"Oh?" The silver haired seishi's eyebrow shot to his hairline as I almost shook a fist at the smirking girl. "What kind of a secret is that, Tomite?"
I mumbled under my breath about a certain damn onna who just couldn't keep her mouth close. Genbu, why do I have to suffer of all people? Can't you just ask the other three gods to strike her dead?
"Oh, nothing," I grinned, suddenly having a fantastic idea on how to wipe that smirk of that pale face of hers. "Just that Takiko said that she wanted to go on a diet so that she could go after you…"
I pointed at Hikitsu, as if to state my point, and I could have sworn that Hikitsu had actually cursed me under his breath. His eyes seemed to narrow slightly, but that was nothing compared to the horrified look that had replaced the triumphant expression on Takiko's face earlier.
"I WHAT?!" she sputtered, and I could see that even Iname was trying to hold back her giggles (or perhaps it was chuckles- then again, Iname was acting more and more onna-like nowadays, for some odd reason). Couldn't blame her, though, anyone would either be alarmed or tickled to see the varying shades of changing colour on our dear Takiko's face.
"T…Tomite-san," Iname tried to fit in her words between the giggles that had now been turned into some very suspicious sounding coughs, but failing miserably. "I…*cough* I think it's *cough and a slight giggle* time you stopped joking around. Takiko-san is…"
She never could finish that last sentence for she burst out laughing, almost rolling off her horse as tears came to her eyes. I quirked an amused eyebrow at Hikitsu as the both of us watched her reaction and shrugged simultaneously. Crossdressers were this weird, I guess- must have been those years wearing those otoko clothes. They must have affected her brain or something.
The other onna, however was trying unsuccessfully to glare at the both of us before finally giving up and fixing her glare on the green haired girl who was consumed in her own laughter. "Iname, it's NOT funny!"
"D…demo, Takiko-san, it's so f…f…funny!" she gasped before collapsing into another bout of laughter again, and I sighed, nodding at Hikitsu.
"Remind me never to make jokes again," I told him and he nodded in reply. We stared at her until she finally calmed and quieted down to just a snort or two of laughter.
"Are you sane yet?" I asked her, quirking an eyebrow, and she nodded and pulled herself up by the stirrups and caught hold of the rein to steady herself. "If you aren't, I'd advise you to finish laughing first. We can't take the risk of you tumbling to the ground when we ride up the mountain."
The silver haired seishi eyed her carefully before nodding. "I have to say that Tomite here took the words right out of my mouth. I think you're beginning to learn some sense at last, Tomite."
I glared at him. "Very funny."
Iname nodded her head, obliviously ignoring the death glares that Takiko was shooting towards her. If glares could kill, the both of us would be dead even before we'd walk another step.
"Don't mind me," she sweatdropped with a sheepish grin on her face. "I'm just like that, I guess. 'jiisan says that I have an uproarious sense of humour."
"Or freaky," I muttered under my breath, watching as the head-hitting miko took a deep breath and glared at the both of us. The frown on her face had deepened as she turned her glare to me, giving me full blast of her fury.
"And what exactly did you mean by that statement earlier, Chamka?" she demanded, but I simply whistled (I'd learned that it's a very useful trick when you didn't want to listen to what somebody else was saying) and looked at Hikitsu.
The tall seishi sighed in reply and shook his head. "Honestly, the both of you, do grow up a little. I know that it might seem funny to you, Tomite, but we need to reach the capital as fast as we can before winter sets in. These...inappropriate jokes doesn't seem to be helping to get us anywhere, if you'd notice by now."
"Well, a little humour never hurt anyone," I shrugged, carefully restraining myself from grinning at Takiko from the corner of my mouth. "Besides, no one can be too pessimistic when doing these sort of things (climbing a mountain, I mean). You need to look on the bright side and joke a little!"
"At the expense of others, no less," Takiko mumbled under her breath, and Hikitsu raised an eyebrow to look at Takiko and gave her the best disapproving seishi-to-miko look that he could administer.
"Please, Takiko-san, not you too…"
She directed one last glare at me before turning to Hikitsu. "Fine then, I'll just show him that I'm above those baka comments that Chamka gives," she spoke, and I chuckled. Her? Above me? Never in a thousand years!
"I seeee," I grinned at her. "Then you are a head-hitting onna after all! A damn ugly one with weird clothes that are torn so indecently too! Isn't that interesting?"
Takiko glared at me, and I grinned even wider when my ears caught the faint muttering under her breath that sounded suspiciously like 'Restrain…Restrain…Do NOT reply…". It looked as if our head-hitting miko here had a personality problem…
"Tomite," Hikitsu's voice was a warning, but I happily ignored it, amused at the new prospected of teasing Takiko until she finally gave up the godly act.
"Oh, our poor head-hitting miko!" I shook my head in mock sympathy. "She has to control her temper! Who wants to bet how long she'll last?"
I kept on piling comment after comment until-
WHACK!
I collapsed on the ground, falling off my mare while Takiko brushed her hands clean.
"ITAIIIII!"
Hikitsu sighed and shrugged. "Sometimes, I wonder if the only way to discipline you is to let Takiko-san do that to you, Tomite. You don't learn, and never will until she does that."
I glared at him while Takiko grinned and clapped her hands in a flourish. "Well, what are we waiting for? This baka hentai can always find his way up to his horse again sooner or later. Why waste precious time waiting for useless people like him?"
I despise the Genbu no miko. That damn onna who hits my head about a thousand times already. I hate her!!
Suzaku, Seiryu and Byakko, strike her dead!!!
Author's Notes: Hehehe…humour! Well, this is one of those 'transition' chapters where nothing interesting actually happens, so why not put in a few jokes? I don't want you readers (and reviewers, I hope ^_~) to feel bored, you see!
Oddly enough, Tomite is going really OOC, but then again, I guess that's because of the previous chapter. I have too much sap in my head. Not good. Have to get it out. Yes, I know that it's already Chapter 9 of the fic and there's only the slightest hint of Tomite/Takiko in it, but be patient! Things have to come gradually… ^_^ No, you may not kill me either for writing so many boring (and confusing- did you really think I was going to pair up Tomite with Iname??) chapters with no hint of that pairing! It's my fic, see? ^_^ v
*thinks for a minute* Another weird fact is that I have no idea how long this fic is going to be. Maybe 50 chapters over, by the rate how I'm seeing it, because, they won't be able to find all 7 seishi in this journey alone. Then again, I'm the type to stretch things to long, boring chapters…. *grins*
Of course, if it's getting a little too draggy for your liking, you can always say so in the reviews! (Yes, this is another way to get you people reviewing) Of course, I'm just afraid I'll ruin the plot if I hurry it up too much… *thinks*
By the way, my writer's block is over! After slaving away, I've finally got an idea and inspiration to write! My method? Don't pay attention to your fics for a day or so and go work on something else (like drawing or schoolwork or something or the sort) and come back a few days later! Trust me, you'll see the difference! ^_~ Of course, this tactic might only work for me… -_-;;
Totally random statement of the day: Suzaku driving a red Suzuki with Suboshi eating sushi. Don't ask.
Oh yes, about Mount Taihun!! *grin* Have you guys ever eaten beehoon? It's a type of long, stringy noodle that is usually used in Chinese cooking. Yes, it's nice, but I shall now enlighten you about beehoon in this fic! Taihun = Beehoon. See it? No? Hmm…I'll try again.
Take Mount Taihun. Change it into a mountain (literally, as tall as a real mountain) of beehoon. See?? *watches as Tomite, Hikitsu, Takiko and Iname walk up the Mount Beehoon*
Tomite: *slips* Why is this damn mountain so slippery?
Takiko: 'Cause it's made of beehoon…?
Hikitsu: Looks like our author has a bad sense of humour.
Tomite: Not to mention how cheesy that joke was too.
Hey! I expected a compliment, you know! Anyways... *grins* from now on, I'll be referring to Mount Taihun as Mount Beehoon in my AN, okay? You guys have to understand, cause I won't say it twice nor will I explain why and what 'Mount Beehoon' is again in further chapters if the question ever comes up. I know, I'm baddddd. ^_^
The reviews were so cooool! *squeals* You guys are so great! *takes out cheerleading outfit* Reviews and reviewers are G-R-E-A-T!!!! Yay!! ...That was lame... -_-;;
By the way, Flying Heart, your first two reviews DID come in, so congrats!! You're reviewer number one!! Oh, and Kang Xiu, so far, you're my most avid reviewer!! ^_^ Thanks for your support!!Okay then, until next time, ja ne ~!
