Chapter Three: Tyamine Kousa

"Tatara!" Tokaki yelled as he transported to Tatara's side. He had arrived just seconds after Tatara fell, and already Kousa and Suzuno were nowhere to be seen. He felt dizzy and very exhausted. He had never used his power so much at one time. He thought he might pass out. "Tatara! Say something to me!"

Tokaki rolled Tatara's head over and checked his pulse.

"Suzuno..." Tatara whispered. Tokaki smiled.

"Oh good, you're alive."

As carefully as he could, he pulled Tatara out from underneath the horse. He layed him down and then looked at the horse. One of its legs were bent back awkwardly, and he knew the horse could be of no assistance to them again, even if it was still alive.

He wanted to go on then, but he couldn't get back up to his feet. He sat against a tree and watched the black spots in his eyes.

Failure.

Suzuno might be dead. He might never see her again. They were Shichi Seishi, protectors of the Byakko no Miko and they didn't even know where she was.

He couldn't protect anyone...

"Tokaki..." Tatara mumbled, holding his head and pushing himself into a sitting position. There was a bruise on his temple, but otherwise he was all right. "Where's Suzuno? Did you get her back?"

--

She heard a bang and then actually felt the darkness close in on her.

Kousa took his hand off of Suzuno's arm and began to light candles. His heart was racing, and he looked frightened, but not nearly as frightened as Suzuno felt.

She didn't move, she just looked around the small cave.

Behind her were the stairs they had come down, with a cellar door over them that was disguised to look like the forest floor. Only a trained eye would be able to find them. Before her the cave with on, with unlit torches along the wall, something Kousa was taking care of with two rocks.

After a couple of tries he lit a torch and grabbed it, then he grabbed Suzuno's arm and started dragging her down the hall.

"What are you going to do to me?" Suzuno asked with a shaking voice.

"I don' know." Kousa answered aggravated.

"Let me go then, I won't tell them where you are. I-"

"Shut up!" Kousa yelled and turned around to glare at her. He held her close and Suzuno could only look on with fear. "He'll kill him! He's insane! Did ya see what he did to my face!?!"

Kousa pointed to the cuts and bruises on his face, trying to wipe some off the drying blood, but his jacket, not only being dirty, also had its fair amount of blood on it from all the cuts he had ridding received through the forest.

"Like you would care, stuck up Miko like you..." Kousa dragged her into a room and sat her down on a chair. Then with the torches started lighting other candles and torches in the room. It was a small room, with nothing in it except a few broken chairs and the one Suzuno was sitting on.

"Why do you think I'm a Miko?" Suzuno asked cautiously, not wanting to give herself away in case he was just guessing.

"Wasn' hard ta figure out," Kousa said more calmly, standing by the wall. "Ya called him Tokaki. And then ya called that other guy Tatara. The Byakko Shichi Seishi. I'd say yer one of them, but," he pointed to her. "Yer clothes."

Suzuno closed the cloak around her that had opened a little to show her school uniform. It had been a horrible idea for her to wear the uniform. He might very well be an assassin from the North.

Kousa moved towards the entrance and then looked at her crossly. "Don' move." Then he walked out and left her alone.

Suzuno let out the breath she was holding. She wanted to panic but knew that she had to keep calm. Tokaki and Tatara were coming for her. Everything would be fine. They'd come for her. They'd save her.

As quietly as possible, Suzuno got out of the chair and went to the doorway. She looked both ways, no sign of Kousa... or anything. She couldn't see a thing without the light. Suzuno quickly went to the wall and grabbed a candle, then she went back to the doorway.

"I said: Don' move."

Suzuno almost dropped her candle.

"We're not gonna have a problem, are we?" He asked, walking forward, Suzuno backed up and found herself back at the chair. She sat.

"Are you from the North? Is that why Tokaki attacked you?"

Kousa looked at her for a second and then laughed. He stopped a moment to see if she was joking and then went back to laughing his heart out.

It was almost reassuring to see him laughing, but of course he could just be insane.

"Tokaki attacked me because he holds grudges," he said, looking up at the ceiling with a smile on his face. "But you're right, I am from the North. From the mountain, but I've lived down South since I was 9."

"The mountains? I ah... I don't know where that is."

Kousa looked at her oddly as he set down the bags he had obviously gone and collected from the horse. "Ya really are from another world. The whole country's filled with mountains. But up North are the real thing. Mount Taikyou"

Suzuno shrugged.

"Wow... That's crazy." Kousa said as he grabbed a shirt from one of the bags. He began to rip it up.

"You're crazy," Suzuno muttered silently.

"I'm crazy?" Kousa asked, looking a little annoyed. "I'm not the guy who jumped me fer no reason and tried ta kill me. I didn' want ta take you, but what else could I do?"

Kousa took off his jacket and the shirt he wore underneath. All his clothing were very torn, muddy and had blood stains from not just today. Though without his shirt on Suzuno couldn't help but notice his fine toned muscles and the fact that if he was washed up and wearing some new clean clothing, he would be very handsome.

"I can' believe that guy! I haven' seen him in two years, and he's still pissed as hell at me!"

"What did you do to him?"

Kousa paused. "Well, we got into a bit of a fight two years back. Well, actually I got into a fight with another guy and he got involved."

"You're the thief he was talking about!"

Kousa smiled. "So I'm famous, am I?"

"You tried to kill Tatara!" Suzuno yelled, getting to her feet.

"Kill?" Kousa looked dumfounded. "Lady, I' never tried ta kill anyone in my entire life!... I just tried ta steal his money.

"Look, sit down." Kousa said gently. "I don' wanna hurt ya, or tie ya up... Tomorrow we'll leave here."

Suzuno sat down. "Where is here anyway?"

"Used to be a bandits hide out... They're all gone now."

He said nothing else, just sat down and began to used the torn up shirt as bandages on his deeper cuts. She knew that he probably wouldn't sleep, and knew that she couldn't escape. But she also felt safe. She was sure that he wouldn't try to hurt her. Suzuno put the candle down beside her and tried to relax.

--

Suzuno woke to find herself lying on the floor, Kousa must have moved her onto the ground, and she felt something on her face, something warm, it kept coming and going... like someone licking her...

Quickly Suzuno shot up in fear and saw before her a small cat. It was white with black stripes, it reminded her of a small white tiger, but she knew it was nothing more than a cat. She petted in and smiled, it began to purr.

"Nothin', nothin', nothin'," Kousa said quickly to himself as he was throwing stuff out of the bags that had been on the horse. The horse was itself long gone.

"What are you doing!?" Suzuno asked, getting to her feet as she recognized him going through her bag. "Get out of there!"

"Ya got nothin' but paper," Kousa said looking at her. "I guess we can make a fire out of it-"

"No!" Suzuno yelled and grabbed on of her books out of Kousa's hands. "These are mine, and it's not just paper, they're my books!" She opened it. "Can't you see the writing!?!"

"Ya, ya," he said brushing her off. Suzuno noticed that Kousa had abandoned his other clothing and had changed into a pair of pants and a baggy sleeved shirt. Over it all he still had his beige jacket.

"I'll leave yer books alone... Hey what's this," Kousa said and grabbed something metal from the bag. "Ooo, a mirror. I' never seen a pretty one like this-"

Suzuno grabbed that from him as well. "Leave my stuff alone." She said with determination.

"Fine, whatever," Kousa pushed her bag aside and she started putting her things back into it.

Kousa went through the other bag and took what he deemed unnecessary (i.e. all of Tokaki's remaining clothing). He then took some bread and water for himself and for Suzuno. When finished eating he put the bag on.

"Let's go," he said standing up.

"Where?" Suzuno asked, not moving.

"North."

"North!?!" Suzuno jumped to her feet. "But I can't go-"

"Oi, don' worry so much... I'm not goin' that far, just to the border. I' gotta get to my friend Doulin. We can hide there."

"You should just let me go."

Kousa thought it over. "Not until I'm safe. C'mon. Let's go Byakko."

"Byakko?"

"The cat."

--

Tatara and Tokaki had found the horse an hour later, they had recovered enough to go on. The bags had been taken off. They could go on though, because they still had food from Tatara's bag. They looked all the rest of the day through the forest to no avail, when night fell they gave up.

When the morning came again they ate some food and started searching again, then they fond footprint leading North, with the horse in tow, they began to follow them.

--

"Let me burn one, it'll get the fire goin'."

"No way!"

Kousa put all the fire wood in a pile, a very small pile and looked on very unamused. "This won' last long."

"I don't care, these books are mine."

"What are so importan' about books anyway?" Kousa was trying to get the fire going with a few sticks.

They were currently back in the meadows, but there were rocks sheltering them from view if anyone were to walk by. Byakko, Kousa's cat was curled up beside him. She had spent most of the trip being carried in his shirt.

"Lots. There's stories in them and information, and-"

"Like what?" He asked as he finally got their small fire going.

"I have the very first novel ever written."

"What's a novel?"

Suzuno looked on shocked. "You don't know what a novel is? What year is it?"

"Lady, I've been in and out of jail's since I was ten. I have no clue what day it is."

"Well this is a novel," Suzuno rummaged through her bag and handed him one of the books.

Kousa took the book in his hand and turned it over, trying to figure out the scribbles all over it.

"What do these mean?"

"Oh right, I guess you wouldn't be able to read Japanese..."

"Yeah... Japanese... What's Japanese?"

"My language... Actually I don't get why we can speak the same language. I guess it's the power of the book. If it can bring me here, it can probably break the language barrier too." Suzuno began to contemplate it out-loud.

"Lady... I haven' a clue what yer talkin' about."

"It doesn't matter, give me my book back."

Kousa handed it back and stared at her for a moment.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm reading," Suzuno replied with a slight agitation. "That's what you do with books. You read them, not burn them, read them."

"Ok, I get it..." He paused for a second. "Reading what?"

"A novel." she stared at him awkwardly. "I just said that."

"Yeah, but what novel?"

"One I'm reading for school?"

"What happens in it?"

"A Prince falls in love."

"Tell me the whole story."

"What?"

"Nobody's ever told me a story."

"Your mother never told you a story?"

He looked away, hiding his face in the dark. "I didn't have a mother. My parents didn't want me..."

Suzuno paused. "Well I guess someone ought to." She cleared her throat and hen she began to read. "In a certain reign there was a lady not of the first rank whom the emperor loved more than any of the others..."

--

"They stayed here last night," Tokaki said as he kicked the remains of the fire. "We're not too far behind them."

"Do you think Suzuno is all right?"

"I can't tell, but I know she's still alive," Tokaki sounded fierce. I swear if he's hurt her I'll rip him limp for limb."

--

"Here we are," Kousa said with a smile as they stared at an inn. They had crossed through the desert that afternoon and had found themselves in another forest. Now they were in a small village. "Doulin works here, she can help us."

"It's a she?" Suzuno asked.

"Ya, so what?"

Suzuno shrugged with a smile. "Nothin'."

"She's just a friend." Kousa said, rolling his eyes. "C'mon."

The two walked into the inn.

Instantly Suzuno felt worried. The inn was filled with drunkards, singing, dancing, throwing up and looking just down right mean. Suzuno instinctively got closer to Kousa.

"Oi! Doulin!"

"Oh! Kousa! It's been so long!" Suddenly a young girl who looked to be only 17 ran up to Kousa, hugged him and began to kiss his cheeks. She had long white hair like Tokaki's and clear grey eyes. "Where were you!? What happened to you face!?! Your hair's so much longer now..." Doulin grabbed his ponytail and began to look over his hair.

"You should have seen my beard... Well, I was in jail again. But I'm out!" He said happily.

"Hey, you have a cat!" Doulin grabbed Byakko who was rubbing against her leg. "And who's this?" Doulin asked looking at Suzuno with a kind smile.

"Oh this... Well this is my small problem..."

Doulin sighed. "My parents always told me to keep away from you. Ever since I was five."

--

"You think they're here?" Tatara asked, eyeing the inn suspiciously. It looked the sort of place a criminal would hang out.

"Only one way to find out," Tokaki said, and with that stepped forward.

(Dun-dun duhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Isn't this fun!?! I hope you guys are starting to warm up to Kousa if you thought he was mean or anything. He isn't, he just has some serious issues, if you couldn't tell... Anyway, look, a familiar face! Doulin Yi... or should I say *Aoi jumps on me* C'mon LS, not everybody has figured it out. Ok, ok. Saved by the muse. Anyway, I will tell you this, big fight coming up for our heroes and our not so heroes - everyone's a hero in my world! I'm so happy that I got this far in the story. I was worried that I'd just write the first chapter and then give up on it, but something's pushing me on. Beware though, I might just lose interest. So give me lots of reviews to show that people actually like this story. Oh by the way, the novel that Suzuno begins to read is called Genji Monogatari - The Tale of Genji - it was written by

Murasaki Shikibu, and it is considered to be the first novel ever written. Imagine that, the first novel ever was written by a woman! You should read it, and you should also read the Murasaki Diary, which if of course her diaries and while on the subject on Japanese literature written from the Heian period, read Makura no Soushi - The Pillow Book - by Sei Shounagon, such a romantic diary... *goes all dreamy* Aoi: You're insane LS... Banky: Oh you're one to talk!P.S. You guys see the Oscars? Go Adrian!)

Reviews:

Sister of Darkness: Whoa, you must be a little confused about what's going on then. Thanks for reading though!

Zebra-Frog: WOOHOO!!! Pocky!!! *Loves getting gifts* All this chocolate is going straight to me head. WEEEEEEEEEE!!!

arena .m: I'm on it.

Auryn: *Pats head* There you go getting your Gods mixed up again. *Shakes head* Don't feel sorry for Tokaki though, I have a grand ol' plan for him!

Sherry: You're praise is awesome and more than I deserve... but you called me Elsie you ding-bat! I bet you did that on purpose. Didn't you!?! DIDN'T YOU!?! Banky: Ha, Elise... *Hits Banky with frying pan* No good Muse...