Chapter Four: Shichi Seishi Subaru
"Oh wow! She's hot!" Tokaki exclaimed as he saw Doulin serving some beer to men who were beyond drunk.
"Keep focussed," Tatara said and walked up to the bartender.
"I can never ignore a pretty lady..." Tokaki said almost to himself, and then followed Tatara to the bartender.
"Excuse me, have you seen a man with long dirty blonde hair come in here with a girl about so high with long black hair?"
The bartender looked at them, his face monotone, he continued washing glasses. "Lots of people come in here."
"Yes, but did you see these two?"
He shrugged.
The two Seishi were beginning to lose patience.
"I don't suppose anybody else might have noticed them?"
"Yeah, Doulin could've."
"Oh good, where can we find her?" Tokaki asked.
The bartender paused a little, never looking away from Tatara. "I don't know."
--
"Poor kitty, all alone in that damp cave. Good thing Kousa came and found you," Doulin said, hugging the purring ball of fluff.
"I thought you could have her actually, I travel too much ta have a cat," Kousa said, eating the supper he and Suzuno had gotten. They were up in a room above the bar where Tatara and Tokaki were, at the moment.
"Really?" Doulin looked up at Kousa with a sweet smile. "That's so sweet."
"Maybe you should give her a different name," Suzuno suggested.
"What's wrong with Byakko?" Doulin asked sweetly, cuddling the cat.
"It's just such an off-name for a cat. Where did you come up with that anyway Kousa?"
Kousa shrugged. "She looks like Byakko. Little black an' white tabby cat... Besides, she seemed ta like the name."
"Are there cats from where you come from?" Doulin asked, looking up at Suzuno.
"Yeah... but I don't own one."
"It must be hard for you, being torn away from your world to come here and save us." Doulin said with a sad look in her eyes.
"It'll be better once I can get back to that..." Suzuno said looking back at Kousa.
"Oi, I'll be out of yer hair tomorrow when I can get outta here safely."
"Good, as fun as all this had been, I'll be glad once it's all over."
"Oh, Kousa's not so bad," Doulin said, pinching his cheeks.
"Oi, get off," Kousa said, pushing her hand away.
Doulin smiled. "Well, I have to get back to work. I'll talk to you later. Kousa, Miko," Doulin said with a little bow and a bit of a sarcastic smile.
--
"Excuse me miss, are you Doulin?"
"Eh?" Doulin turned around and felt her jaw drop. Before her stood Tokaki and Tatara, but she only noticed the one of them. She's never seen such a beautiful man before, white hair and gold eyes... her breath was just taken away.
"Miss?" Tokaki asked again, wondering if she wasn't perhaps a bumbling idiot, though a beautiful one.
"Ah yes, Doulin. Yi Doulin. And who are who?" She asked, staring intently into his eyes.
"My name is T- Hahm Lau'an, I was wondering if you haven't seen some friends of mine."
"Well I-"
"There was a girl, a little shorter than you, long black hair. Have you seen her come in with a man?" Tatara jumped in, anxious to learn if Suzuno was safe or not.
Doulin got a worried look in her eye, but quickly pushed it away. These men were here for Kousa, she had no doubt about it. "No, I don't think so, I haven't seen any girls come in all day," she plastered on a fake smile. "Maybe you should look through the rest of the village if they came this way. I hope you find her," then she quickly walked away, leaving the two men staring after her in annoyance.
"She's lying," Tatara said with determination, almost glaring after the girl.
Tokaki nodded, with a bit of a sigh. "It's always the beautiful women who stab you in the back."
Tatara ignored his friend. "C'mon, she's probably going to warm Kousa to run, we better follow," and then he quickly took off after the bar maiden.
--
"Kousa! Open up!" Doulin banged on the door, anxious for Kousa to come out.
Finally the door swung open and Kousa came face to face with her.
"Doulin, what's wrong?"
"There's some men here, someone named Hahm-" Doulin yelled, grabbing his arm.
"Hahm!?!" Kousa had a wild look of fear in his eyes. "Are ya sure!?!"
"Positive! He has white hair and came with someone else."
Suzuno perked up. "Tatara? They both came after me?" She felt a small smile form on her lips. They had come after her, to rescue her. She wasn't sure if she even needed rescuing, but the fact that they come...
"We have ta go, we have ta get out of here," Kousa went back into the room and began collecting his things.
"We? What do you mean we? You can go wherever you want but I-"
"I can'! I'm sorry but I can'!"
"Why not!?!" Suzuno yelled and got to her feet. "You can't do this to me! I don't want to be your stinking prisoner!"
"Yer not my prisoner-"
"Then let me go!"
"Kousa..." Doulin said from the doorway, she knew that Kousa was stressed and confused, but she couldn't let him take this girl against her will any longer. "You can run alone, I'll stall them..."
"I don' want ta be runnin' for tha rest of my life!" Kousa screamed, emotions running high. "I hate this!"
Then before anything else could be said or done, Tokaki suddenly appeared in front of Kousa and quickly pulled his fist back and punched him in the face.
"Kousa!" Doulin yelled and tried to run forward, but Tatara grabbed her from behind.
"Tokaki! Tatara!" Suzuno yelled in happiness. It was ok now, her Seishi... no, her friends were here now.
Tokaki though, wasn't finished. He jumped on the fallen Kousa and began to finish his job from before. Kousa was so beat up from the last time that he couldn't get the man off of him, nor could he properly block him. His old wounds opened and ached and new ones bled.
"Stop it! You're killing him! STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Doulin yelled and Tatara was suddenly thrown back. He fell against the wall and looked at her, everyone in the room looked at her and a white aura erupted around her. Her eyes went white.
"JI-KAN!"
The words came out and suddenly Tatara and Tokaki felt the world around them begin to distort, the room began to grow larger... No, they realised with fear, they were growing smaller.
Suddenly the aura around Doulin dissipated and she fell to her knees exhausted, then the room erupted into crying.
Kousa brought himself to his knees and starred at his chest where in Tokaki's clothing now layed a crying baby, he looked over at Doulin confused.
"Doulin... there somethin' ya forgot ta mention?"
Suzuno looked at the infant Tokaki on Kousa and then the infant Tatara behind Doulin. She was speechless, and confused, but then it all clicked.
"You're a Byakko Shichi Seishi..."
--
Kousa lay on the bed, newly re-bandaged and half conscious. After what had happened she quickly tended to him and left the two crying infants for Suzuno to watch until she could figure out what had happened.
Despite everything, Suzuno was staying relatively calm. She wrapped the infants in their shirts and layed them before her wondering if they could understand what has happening. All she knew for sure was that they couldn't speak.
While Doulin attended to Kousa she was mumbling half to herself, half to Suzuno.
"I'm not too sure where the words came from... I guess it's just something inside of me. Me, a Shichi Seishi. Honestly... that's so weird. I bet I can reverse it... maybe if I say it backwards. I'll try that."
After she was done with Kousa her and Suzuno put the clothing on the infants, in hopes that they would go back into them and not become naked before them (though secretly both thoughts the idea wouldn't be so bad).
"You sure this will work?" Suzuno asked just to make sure.
"Well... no surer than I was about how to do it in the first place. The words just kinda popped into my head."
"Just um... don't rush yourself. Concentrate," Suzuno said and then took a step back, dreading what might happen to her Seishi. She couldn't watch.
Doulin stood before the infants trying to remain calm. She started calling up whatever she had felt from before, and then suddenly she felt the aura around her, she felt a burning on her left breast and knew that it must be her character.
Then she started thinking about her missions. He had to bring these infants back to their status of men. She had to play with time once more.
"Kan-Ji!" She yelled and felt magic surround the room.
Suzuno peaked and saw white auras surrounding the men and then watched as before her eyes they began to grow until first Tokaki was back to normal and then Tatara.
The two men sat on the floor, their clothing on their bodies, staring at Doulin. They saw the character for 'Rise' on her breast.
"Subaru..." They both said in unison. Kousa groaned on the bed, probably from the fact that Tokaki was there once more.
"I did it!" Doulin, or rather Subaru jumped up and clapped her hands.
The two men got to their feet and thought over what had just happened.
"You can control time..." Tatara mumbled to himself, still in a bit of disbelief.
"What was it like to be infants again?" Suzuno asked from behind Subaru.
"Frustrating..." Tokaki said quietly.
"So what happens now?" Suzuno asked the uncomfortable looking group.
"Well, I'd imagine that Subaru comes with us and that-"
"What are you going to do with Kousa?" Subaru asked, cutting Tokaki off with a glare.
Tokaki looked at Kousa with dislike, and then looked back to Subaru. "I haven't decided yet."
"Well decide quickly, because if you lay one more finger on Kousa I'm not doing anything to help you."
"But Subaru!" Suzuno jumped in shocked. "You said it yourself, I'm here to save you. I need the Seishi for this."
Subaru looked at Suzuno with a little guilt. "I know... but I can't let him hurt Kousa."
"And I can't just let what he did to Suzuno go unpunished!
Subaru looked at Kousa sadly. "I know..."
"So what are we going to do?" Tatara asked, looking over the crowd.
--
"I did not agree ta this!" Kousa yelled, fiddling with his wrists that were bound together and tied to the saddle of Tokaki's horse. "This is inhumane!"
Tokaki glared dangerously at Kousa. "Would you prefer we do things my way bandit?"
Kousa shrunk back. "No..."
Subaru emerged from the bar with a small bag. She wore travelling clothes which consisted of a long brown skirt, a green shirt with a low cut, and a brown cloak that clasped around her neck and really hid nothing. Tokaki felt his blood run from his head.
Kousa leaned over to Tokaki as he stared at her.
"Oi Hahm," he said with narrow eyes. "Just what are ya looking at."
"Nothing!" Tokaki glared and Kousa shrunk back again. To avoid any more annoyance, Tokaki went over to Tatara.
"So just what are your plans?" Tatara asked as he looked over the wildlife about the town that he hadn't had time to see the night before.
"We'll go back to the capital and I'll throw him back in jail where he belongs."
"That sounds a little harsh."
"Nothing that that bandit doesn't deserve."
"Lau'an... he had nothing to do with-"
"Don't. It doesn't matter."
Then Tokaki walked away and went back into the bar to find Suzuno.
Meanwhile, Subaru walked over to Kousa.
"Lucky you, get to rid the horse!" She said with a big smile.
"Henh," Kousa smiled bitterly as he held up his wrists. "I don' need this."
"Well better this than let that... man beat you beat you up anymore."
"He's gonna throw me back in jail ya know... I'll be gone for a lot longer than two years this time."
Subaru put her hand on his leg reassuringly. "Don't worry Kousa, I won't let him do that."
Not too long after Tokaki and Suzuno came out with their food and once that was on the horse the five of them set out South for the capital.
(Oh wow! There are a lot of RPGs dedicated to Byakko! I've been searching the web for a while now since I started writing this fic to see if there was any information Miss Yuu wrote that I haven't seen, but I've only found tons and tons and tons of RPGs. It's insane! As far as those RPGs go, I've decided not to look at any of the character profiles, I looked at one and it was the exact opposite of what I'm working with, but I think I may have read it because a lot of it seemed familiar. So, for the sake of wanting this story to be my very own, the four Seishi - Amefuri, Toroki, Kokie and Karasaki - will be mine, I haven't taken them from anywhere else, and that's all there is to it. Now to complain about the chapter. It was so hard to get Suzuno and Kousa's relationship right, I wanted there to be an uneasiness between them to show that under any other circumstances they would be friends, but because of what's happening she's pretty angry at him, Now, in the anime you never see Subaru do her little time spell, it's always off screen or just talked about, so I took som liberties by giving her a phrase to say - a la Tasuki. When translated, 'Ji-Kan' literally means 'Time'. It doesn't have to be separated like that, I just did it for effect.
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Sherry: Moowhahahaha! My plan is coming into effect! Death by suspense!!!