Shichi Seshi Kokie

"Tatara!" Suzuno ran over to Tatara, and before she could stop herself, she found herself wrapping her arms around him, holding him in a tight embrace. Toroki stood beside them, a look of guilt on her face.

"Suzuno," he whispered softly, catching his breath and he held her delicately, smelling her beautiful hair, feeling the rhythm of her heart beating. He wanted to hold her forever, be with her forever... "I was worried."

Suzuno pulled back and smiled sweetly at him. "I was worried too... but I wasn't scared. I knew you would protect me... I was just worried that you would get hurt."

"I'm the one who's supposed to be worried about you."

"We're in this together, aren't we?"

"Of course."

"Then I'm just as entitled to worry about you," her face dropped then.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Suzuno closed her eyes. "It's Kousa... I know you didn't care for him... I know you didn't..." she looked back up at him, tears brimming her eyes. "But he's gone now... He's dead..."

Toroki's face snapped up. Because of her, one of their friends was dead. Dread raced through her mind. What could she do to comfort them? Say sorry? She still wasn't sure what to think about everything that was happening, and now she had to deal with this? How was she going to?

"And I..." Suzuno continued as Toroki's mind raced. "I think I killed someone."

Toroki raised an eyebrow. Killed 'someone'?

"A girl," she looked towards Toroki. "I had to."

"Oh no..." Toroki mumbled, then she took off, racing to the other end of the cave where the Seishi were. She ignored them and found instead what she was looking for. The body of her dearest and truest friend, Jian Rian, who now lay dead. "No!"

She got to her knees, hanging her head. How could this have happened!?! The world was swimming before her, the destiny she didn't want dragging her down. How could this be happening? Her dearest friend, closer than her father, like a sister. They had been together for years and years, ran off to lead a band of younger bandits in hopes of making her father proud. Her father who both loved and detested her because of who she was, a Seishi... and now the only person she could ever count on was dead...

"Jian... I'm sorry..."

--

Across on the hall, as Tatara held the worried Suzuno, Amefuri rose to his feat. He'd heard everything that the two Seishi had said.

"He's not dead!" Amefuri yelled, storming towards the dead body of Kousa. He was still shaky from hitting the wall, but that didn't get in the way of his anger. "He's playing dead, he's a liar!"

"What are you talking about!?!" Suzuno asked, exasperated.

Tokaki and Subaru stood by his body, arms around each other. Subaru was too upset to say anything.

"Look at him," Tokaki said, "he's dead."

"You don't know him!" Amefuri continued, he came up to the body and kneeled down.

"And you do!?!" Suzuno came up behind him, Tatara following closely behind.

Amefuri closed his eyes. "He's been hiding something from you, something you need to know. If he dies now, then all our hopes die with-"

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!" The scream came from Kousa's mouth, he sat up.

Subaru looked at him, and screamed herself. Everyone jumped back. Then Kousa took a deep breath and fell back down.

"He's alive!?!" Tokaki yelled, sounding almost disappointed.

"I saw him get stabbed..." Suzuno muttered. "He was stabbed in the stomach..."

Tatara leaned down and grabbed the knife from Kousa's hand.

"No," Kousa muttered, trying to keep the knife form him, but he was too weak to hold it back.

Tatara held the knife up, it didn't have a single drop of blood on it.

"What are you?" Tatara asked, looking down at him beyond confused. Though maybe Suzuno was wrong, maybe he hadn't been stabbed... But as he looked at her, he was sure that she had seen right. So Kousa had done something...

"I can'... oh I can' see straight. I'm fuckin' dyin' man..." Kousa started mumbling.

"Kousa?" Subaru kneeled down, taking his hand. "It's me Doulin, you're going to be fine."

Amefuri grabbed his collar, looking deep into his eyes. "Tell them, or I will."

Kousa looked up, recognizing his face. His eyes showed fear, and so he closed them. Amefuri let him go, his head fell back to the ground.

"I was hopin' ya died..." Kousa said almost to himself...

"You saw him get stabbed in the stomach?" Tokaki asked, just to be sure. Suzuno nodded.

Tatara grabbed Kousa's shirt by the bottom.

"No!" Kousa protested, trying to inch away, but every movement was intense pain. Tatara lifted the shirt, there was no cut on his stomach, but still everyone gasped at what they saw there.

"I'm going to be sick..." Tokaki exclaimed to himself, turning around.

"You're a Shichi Seishi?" Suzuno asked quickly, disbelief washing over her. There was the character 'stomach', shining just enough so that they could see it.

"The Shichi Seishi Kokie," Amefuri said.

"Fuck..." Kousa mumbled.

"This is it... isn't it? This is what you've been lying about..." She looked at Amefuri. "How did you know?"

"Yeah, who the hell are you!?!" Subaru yelled, recovering from her shock. She wasn't terribly fond of this Amefuri.

"In truth, I cannot tell you..."

"We need to know if we can trust you," Tatara said forcefully, some of the adrenaline from fighting still in his blood.

"I cannot tell you because I cannot remember," Amefuri sighed. "When I was younger, a few years ago, I was found by a man near the base of the mountain. I had hit my head, I couldn't remember a thing! He raised me, taught me many things, helped me master my powers. He was a great monk, and he knew all the identities of the Shichi Seishi.

"When he saw that the Miko had arrived, he knew it was time for me to leave, so he told me who all the Shichi Seishi were and told me to keep a special eye on this one, because he would try everything in his power to get out of his destiny!"

The other Shichi Seishi looked on, trying to figure out whether or not he was lying. Toroki watched on from the sidelines, cradling Jian's head on her lap.

"So... what you're telling us is, you know who the last Shichi Seishi is?" Tokaki asked, having returned to the conversation.

"Yes."

Suzuno had to smile at that, and so did the other Seishi. Their journey would soon be over, in no time at all they would have all the Seishi and would summon Byakko. Then she would be able to return home... She looked at Tatara, smiling to himself, and suddenly she realised that she didn't want to go home that fast... She wouldn't mind taking longer to find the Seishi.

"If you know the Seishi... Then you know what will happen when Byakko is summoned," Toroki suddenly spoke up, everyone but Kousa looked over to her, almost having forgotten about. "Then you know if it's wrong."

Amefuri was silent for a few minutes. "No, I could not possibly know this."

Toroki sighed, brushing some hair out of Jian's pale face, she looked down at her face and gave a small laugh. "It's really the blind leading the blind," she looked up. "Isn't it?"

"Don't worry."

"What, me worry?" She looked back down with sad eyes. "Never..."

"So... does this mean I'm not goin' ta jail anymore?" Kousa suddenly asked, Tokaki glared down at him.

"Rest assured, that you are definitely going to jail!" He looked at the others, Subaru was glaring at him. "But first... you are definitely going to see a doctor," he said, rolling his eyes. Then he looked over at Toroki, a Shichi Seishi and a bandit... Could they trust her? Today they had discovered that three people they're not sure they can trust are actually Seishi. For now, he thought bitterly, he'd just have to keep his emotions in check until they had recuperated at the palace.

If there was reason to not trust them, he'd be the first to react to it.

"Well, we have to go back to the palace as soon as possible," Subaru said, kneeling next to Kousa and stroking his hair. "He needs help."

"Wait, just a moment, how did he avoid the knife?" Tatara suddenly asked.

"He didn't," Amefuri quickly stated. "Hold his hand out."

"What?" Kousa asked, but before he could do anything Tatara was holding his hand out, then Amefuri took the knife and plunge it into his hand. Subaru and Suzuno screamed, but then Kousa quickly took his hand away. They couldn't believe it. The knife had gone right through his hand, like a ghost.

"You can go through things? Like walls and knives?" Subaru asked, completely shocked.

"Yeah..."

"That doesn't make sense," Tokaki started up. "If you could go through walls, why not escape from jail? Why let yourself get beat up all the time?"

Kousa groaned, not wanting to speak anymore, the pain was becoming insufferable. "Don' work on livin' things..." he mumbled. "And as for jail..." Kousa smiled, but said nothing more and Tokaki had to wonder if he wouldn't sneak out at night or anything.

"Well the next cell you go to will be surrounded by bushes or something!" Tokaki yelled.

--

Toroki stayed in silence, listening to the fighting going on between her fellow Shichi Seishi. 'Fellow'... Indeed, for she was one of them, but she still didn't want to. Memories of when her father first found out, how he wanted to kill her... but for her mother who pleaded for her life. She tried telling him that she could be useful, that her Seishi powers could help them.

When her mother had died three years ago, when she was only 14, she knew she could no longer stay with her father, and so she left with her friend. A young girl then, only 12, Jian Rian had been her lifelong friend, the only other person who knew the truth about her, that she was a Shichi Seishi.

Together the two gathered other lost children, boys and girls both, and they became bandits together. She wanted so much to please her father, she would bring him treasure trying to find his blessing. Sometimes he would smile at her, pat her on the back, but always Toroki had to know that her father hated her for who she was... who she might become.

Then the Miko came, and when she heard about the stranger travelling with a small group, she knew her chance to prove to her father that she wouldn't betray him had come. She would give her father the Miko and he could kill her if he wished... And now... now Jian Rian was dead as well, and her father would finally have been betrayed.

She wanted to weep, but held back the tears, because now she had to be strong. If she found out that summoning Byakko was the wrong thing to do, then she wouldn't do it. She would not follow them blindly. No.

And then she felt it, soft at first. It had always been there, but she just hadn't noticed it. Like a drumbeat... a heartbeat. Toroki caught her breath. She was alive, Jian Rian was alive. She wanted to scream it out as she held her friend. She gently placed her head back on the ground and looked her over. She was starting to move, starting to wake up.

"Jian," she whispered, Jian moaned and moved her head a little. She wasn't dead, the Miko hadn't killed her. She smiled and felt happiness again. Maybe things weren't so bad. "Wake up Jian."

"Chi?"

"Yes, it's me. Wake up."

The other Seishi turned their heads, hearing Toroki's voice. Subaru and Suzuno tensed up, they knew who it was waking up, and they weren't so sure that it was a good thing.

Jian moaned again, putting her hand on her head. "My head hurts."

"Yes, it's bleeding, but you're fine, so just wake up," Toroki said a bit more forcefully. "Listen Jian, things are a little different. I can't fight my destiny... I can't..."

"What are you talking about Chi?"

"Well, see my name's Toroki. I'm a Shichi Seishi, you knew that... And I think I have to follow my heart, my destiny... With them."

Jian's eyes shot open, consciousness suddenly hitting her.

"What if my father's wrong?"

Jian looked over, seeing the other Seishi standing just a few feet away. She struggled to get up.

"Jian, slow down, you're still hurt!" Toroki protested, but Jian ignored her.

"Where's my spear?" She asked, groping around as her head swam, she saw black spots dance before her eyes, but she couldn't see her spear. "Where's my spear!?!" She screamed.

Toroki grabbed her shoulder, trying to steady her, but Jian pulled away, falling back to the ground.

"Should we...?" Tokaki began to ask, wondering if it was his place to do something.

"Wait," Subaru hissed.

"Why do you need your spear?" Toroki asked, standing up.

"Because they're the enemy!" She groped around some more and then finally her hands fell across the shaft. Toroki put her foot down on it, not letting Jian pick it up.

"They're not the enemy. You're just not thinking straight."

"Let go of my spear!" Jian tackled Toroki to the ground and then quickly grabbed her spear, using it to help herself stand.

Toroki was quickly on her feet. "Jian, please. I know it's a lot to take in, but I'm going with them. I am one of them."

Jian paused, looking around at the Seishi. "Chi... have they done something to your mind?"

"No, this has been coming for a long time."

Jian shook her head. "No, I know you."

"Then you should understand."

"They're the enemy! If you're one of them..." Jian trailed off, glaring at Toroki. "Then you're my enemy."

"Jian-"

"Shut up!" Jian screamed, swaying a little.

"Are you going to attack me?"

The Seishi stepped forward.

Jian rubbed her eyes, from pain or tears, Toroki couldn't tell. "I can fight you all."

"You don't have to," Toroki took a step forward, putting a hand on Jian's shoulder. Jian quickly moved backwards, slapping her hand away. "Jian... I thought you were dead, and now you're alive... but this..."

Jian shook her head, trying to shake away the pain and cloudiness. "Stand back Chi, or I will kill you."

(Ah! I just kept writing and writing and totally forgot when I was supposed to finish the chapter. I wanted to end here, because I want the next chapter to start out with a fight. I was planning on making Kousa Kokie since the first time I introduced him, but I knew it had to be delayed. When I pretended to kill him off I was really trying to hold onto that, 'cuz the longer I waited, the more you'd think that he was actually dead and not a Seishi, but I finally got to bring him back to life here! Yay! Now here's a big plot change: Originally I was gonna make Jian Karasuki. But! I couldn't help thinking how obvious that was, and then this great plot and the betrayal came to mind and I thought: 'Much better'. So there's still one more seishi to find, yay! Anyway, I hope you're liking this story, because I really like it, even though it's taking me awhile to write it. Oddly enough, I was supposed to be working on my LOTRFic 'The Butterfly Effect', but after two pages of that I realised that I needed a break from LOTRs, and really wanted to work more on this Fic, so here it is! Chapter eight of my ever plot-changing story. Byt the by, if you like this story, read 'Genbu No Miko', it's like this, only about Genbu. I'm very jealous of the author *Eulene* because she published her story almost a year after me, and has posted 22 chapters already! I'm such a slow writer. Banky: You kinda suck too... That was mean Banky, just mean. Well, ignoring my muses, I shall now post this. Yay!Don't be scared to review)

Reviews:

Chaotic Demon: DUDE!

azn: Thanks azn! I'm glad I could make you cry. *Evil laugh*

Roberta: How dare you apologise for a long review! Those are my favourite! Your input was great and I'm definitely gonna keep it when mind when I FINALLY get around to editing this again.