Chapter 7: The Chariot

"Maison De Hoshizora… Ah! We're finally here!" Komyo smiled as he read the gold plate on the gates of the mansion. Nii rang the doorbell. Soon, Hibiemi appeared to open the front door for them.

"Nii?" Hibiemi looked unbelievingly at the scientist at her door, "Are you here for the Council Of Immortals?"

"'Course I am, puppet." Nii smiled as he pointed at the black mark that ran under his right eye down to the middle of his cheek, "By the way, may I introduce you to my companion here, Komyo Sanzo…"

"Komyo Sanzo? You mean Sanzo's master?" Hibiemi smiled at the light-haired monk, "Nice to have you here! Anyway… Let's get to business… You've heard of the Silver Apocalypse, right?"

"The Silver Apocalypse? Isn't that the promise of the legacy?" Komyo thought, "Well… That's what it says up there in Tenkai."

"Hai…" Quietus sighed as he entered from the kitchen in his true form, "That's what I've learnt."

"Well then… How do you think we can seal this power, puppet?" Nii asked the youngest immortal.

"Hmm… I have no idea yet. But since the power comes from the legacy, why don't we destroy the source of it?" Hibiemi pondered.

Quietus held his head in his hands and replied, "Are you crazy, Hibiemi? If you destroy the Chameleon Heart, all our data would be deleted… Besides that, we don't know where the artifact is now… It disappeared six hundred years ago the last time I saw the Sanzo-ikkou… I think it was separated into shards since there are three of us in the legacy now… I have my shard of the Chameleon Heart. So does Hibiemi. The largest shard should be in the third descendant's hands. But most probably it wouldn't be in his house… And that third descendant is…"

Hibiemi sighed and looked at the scientist sitting across her, "If I destroy the Chameleon Heart, all who are part of the legacy will disappear. Cease to exist… Which means that history will be changed forever. This means that even the present Hakkai will disappear, too. No… What should we do…? We can't let the world go into havoc…"

Komyo sighed as he tapped his fingers on the table thinking of an answer.

"The sutras." Nii murmured.

"Nani?" Komyo looked at the scientist, "What about the sutras?"

"Don't they possess power? The same power I wanted to take from Sanzo so long ago?" Quietus said thoughtfully.

"I thought you were over thinking about taking over Pandemonium…" Hibiemi sighed, "Anyway… Qui's right. The sutras do contain a high amount of power. Why do you think they'd help, Nii?"

"Easy, puppet…" Nii snapped his fingers, "We'll have to find a suitable channeler to use them first. Then when we find the carrier of the Silver Apocalypse, we can seal it using the sutras."

No one said a word. After a while, Quietus spoke up.

 "Why not kill him?" Quietus murmured, "Kill the carrier of the Silver Apocalypse… That would be the easiest solution to the problem…"

"Quietus… You don't mean…" Komyo gave the ex-reaper worried looks.

"No. Not yet." Hibiemi stopped the older immortals, "We should take him away from everyone else first… We can't let anyone meddle with our plans… If anyone finds out what we're plotting to do, they'll want to stop us at any cost… By the way, I found this in Sanzo's house a week after I heard of his death a century ago…" She got up from her seat and walked towards a nearby chest and took something out of it.

"The Seiten Kyoumon!" Komyo gasped, "I can't believe it was in the hands of my reincarnated self…"

"Unfortunately, you were killed…" Nii sighed, "Thank goodness it was puppet who claimed it and not those demons."

"But what happened to the Maten Kyoumon?" Quietus asked the scientist.

Nii thought hard and hummed, "Well then… Isn't it so that there's a temple on the outskirts of the city?"

"That's where Kouryuu is right now…" Hibiemi smiled, "Ah!! Naruhodo!! Why didn't I remember that right away!! He had the Maten Kyoumon on his shoulders!!"

"You have one heck of a bad memory…" Quietus muttered.

"So do you think we should claim the sutra from him right now?" Komyo asked the rest of the council.

"Iie… I sense something in the air…" Hibiemi hummed.

"And it stinks…" Quietus stuck out his tongue.

"Thank you…" Nii smiled placidly, "Thank you for acknowledging the scent of my fart…"

"AIR FRESHENER!!" Hibiemi cried out as she hastily summoned a can of Lysol from the kitchen.