Woohoo! 25 reviews, thanks azn!
Chapter Eleven: Lei-Sying
"Tai-Yi-Jun!?!"
"I know! I couldn't believe it! I never thought she'd be so little and so... ug-"
"What did she say about Byakko?"
"Huh?" Suzuno looked over to Toroki who was sitting by herself in the corner, a serious look on her face, unlike the other Seishi who looked interested and amazed. She had met the Tai-Yi-Jun!
After her meeting with Tai-Yi-Jun, Suzuno had run back to the palace and had wasted no time in gathering everyone up. She was so excited about all of this. The creator of the world had given her a visit. For the first time in all the weeks she had been there, she felt like a real Miko.
She almost had all the Seishi, she had the blessing of the Earth's creator. All that was left was to summon Byakko and get her three wishes... Whatever those wishes would be, she hadn't really thought about them throughout all this turmoil.
Suzuno now looked at Toroki, remembering Tai-Yi-Jun's words.
He's not evil.
But there was something else, Suzuno thought to herself. Byakko was temperamental... But what did she mean by that? He's not bad, just touchy? What was she supposed to say to Toroki who needed a specific answer.
"She said," just tell her word for word. "She said that he's not evil."
Toroki was silent for a few minutes. "Well if he's not evil, then what is he?"
Suzuno had to shrug. "I don't know, I didn't ask..."
Toroki hid her annoyance. "Well then, we're pretty much right where we started." Toroki then got up and left the room. "Wake me up when we're ready to leave."
Amefuri watched her leave. "I should go as well, we do have a long day ahead of us." Amefuri got up and left, confused thoughts of Tai-Yi-Jun running through his head.
"Well she's touchy," Subaru scoffed once Toroki was gone.
"Leave her alone, she's had a hard time," Tokaki defended her.
Subaru glared daggers at him. "Why are you always trying to start a fight with me?"
"What?" Tokaki looked beyond confused as Subaru stormed out of the room. "Ok, just what the heck did I miss? When was I trying to start a fight with her?"
Suzuno looked at Tatara, who gave a shrug and a confused look as well. "I don't know, maybe she's just bad that you're always giving Kokie a hard time."
"Don't even call him that! His name's Kousa, and he's a poor substitute for a real Seishi."
"See, there you go putting him down, and Subaru is his best friend, obviously she's going to have problems with you saying all those mean things."
"I thought we were past all of that!" Tokaki looked exasperated as he thought to those few seconds in the cave when all he could think about was her. And then when they had embraced... But then he remembered how all she could talk about was Kousa. Kousa this and Kousa that. Suddenly he disliked Kousa even more.
Suzuno sighed, suddenly feeling tired. "I think I'm going to bed. Maybe you should just talk to Subaru and ask her why she doesn't like you."
"Doesn't like me? How can I girl not like me?" Suzuno heard Tokaki explain as she left the room, she rolled her eyes as Tatara shook his head at his best friend.
"What I can never figure out is how any girl likes you." Tatara said mockingly.
"Don't even get me started Mr. I'm waiting for the perfect girl."
"Better than sleeping with every girl I meet..."
"I haven't slept with every girl I've ever met."
"Oh?" Tatara raised his eyebrow sceptically.
Tokaki thought for a moment, trying to remember all the women he had ever been with. He thought back to all those waitresses and courtesans of the palace with a fond smile. "Oh! You're mother! I never slept with your mother!"
Tatara's eyebrow twitched. "You better not have," he said through gritted teeth as he loomed over Tokaki.
Tokaki gave a nervous laugh.
The two were silent for a few minutes as they thought things over in their mind. Tokaki was tyring to think of why Subaru might not like him when he couldn't help but like her, and it wasn't just her looks... which were a great added bonus.
There was something else about her, about how kind she was, how loyal she was to her friend - even if he was a complete nuisance. He liked her, and when he thought about the cave and how worried he had been over her... It made his heart shudder at the thought of her hating him.
"Lau'an?"
"Kasara?" Tokaki looked up at Tatara, recognizing the need to use their real names in those moments when they were actually being serious.
"I want you to promise me something."
Tokaki looked at him sceptically. "Well... what exactly?"
"Now, I want you to know that I don't care what you to with others, or even what you do after we summon Byakko."
"...Ok..." Tokaki was beginning to feel more and more suspicious.
"But I want you to keep away from the women Seishi and Suzuno."
"Huh?" Tokaki raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He looked oblivious.
Tatara looked annoyed. "You know what I mean. I don't want you sleeping with them."
Tokaki looked stumped. "None of them?"
"Lau'an!"
"Ok, ok... But-"
"Not 'but's. These aren't women who will disappear in the morning. They're with us until the summoning and I don't think we need anymore added aggravation."
"Aggravation? Just what are you insinuating?"
"That you can't keep your pants on around women!"
Tokaki paused. "You may have a point."
"Promise me, at least until we summon Byakko."
Tokaki looked like he was about to protest, but swallowed his words when he saw how serious Tatara looked.
"Ok... I promise - but only until we summon Byakko!"
"Fine."
"But you can't sleep with Suzuno either."
"Fi-what?"
"If I can't touch, neither can you."
"I wou-"
"Don't even try to feed me that 'gentleman' lie. I've seen how you look at Suzuno. Hey, don't feel bad, can't say the thought didn't cross my mind either... I mean heck, she's hot."
"Don't say that!"
"Right, right," Tokaki had a cocky smile on his face. "She's all yours... after we summon Byakko."
--
"What do you mean he's staying behind!?!" Subaru screamed at Suzuno, causing Byakko to jump up looking around in fear and Kokie to simply ask:
"Huh?"
"Well, for some reason of other he decided it would be best if he stayed here with you and Kokie," Suzuno answered, trying to sound as positive as she possibly could.
"But I don't want him here, and neither does Kousa."
"Nothing we can do about it, his mind is set."
"But why? Why is it set? Is he just trying to annoy me? Does he actually want to drive me to kill him? Because I will."
"Subaru, you don't have to worry about it, I'm sure you won't even see him-"
"Hey Suzuno, Subaru... Kousa..." Tokaki said from the doorway.
Subaru started shaking in anger.
"Tokaki!" Suzuno turned around with a smile, she quickly grabbed his arm and started dragging him away. "Don't wanna miss out on saying goodbye, do you? C'mon, let's go!... faster..." Suzuno looked back at the glaring Subaru and wondered if they wouldn't be one Seishi short when they returned with Karasuki.
--
"Is he to be trusted?" Jian asked Chi's father as they stood outside of a temple, her left arm hung in a bloody sling, her other wounds were too minor in the eyes of a bandit to be cared for.
"Of course he is to be trusted. I put more trust in this man that I do you or any other bandit. I've known him ever since I was a young man, and he has never led me astray and I know he never will," Chi's father rambled on as Jian cocked her head to the side, looking around at the great temple and the monks wandering around.
They were waiting to be summoned before the head monk, and the handful of bandits who had accompanied their leader there looked extremely out of place in their ripped and dirty clothing, mangy hair and unwashed features.
Jian still wasn't sold on the idea of being led by a monk. Just what in the world did this monk know about bandits anyway? They had no real reason to trust him.
"He shall see you now," a young monk came up to them, avoiding them with his eyes.
Chi's father smiled. "Wait here Jian, we will soon have all our answers.
--
The four were travelling across the desert, heading out west to where the village was to be found. Amefuri was leading the way, Tatara and Suzuno rode beside each other having the occasional conversation together, and Toroki stayed in the back, silent and ever watchful.
Tatara had explained to Suzuno that that morning Tokaki had come to his room, telling him that he wasn't going to accompany them because he couldn't stand the thought of a woman hating him and that he was going to figure out what was the matter, even if it killed him.
Suzuno had sighed. "And she may just..." She said as they continued on their way.
Amefuri was sure that they would reach the village the next afternoon, which meant spending a night in the desert, but Suzuno wasn't worried about that, she was becoming accustomed to spending the night outdoors and in strange new places.
As strange as all of this seemed to Suzuno, especially at first, it all seemed so normal now. The fact that most of the Seishi could do incredible feats of magic she could only dream about before didn't startle her. Maybe it was just this place, this whole crazy Chinese like landscape, because she was sure that back in Morioka, had she seen a man begin to teleport, she would have thought she had lost her mind.
Though come to think of it... maybe she had lost her mind.
She looked at Tatara and then Amefuri and Toroki. Were they all just figments of her imagination? Was she actually in some hospital at the moment?
No, she finally thought, that would be too easy. Nothing about all of this is easy.
Toroki suddenly rode up past Tatara and Suzuno to where Amefuri was riding.
"We need to go faster," Toroki said, a hint of worry in the back of her eyes.
"...Why?" Amefuri asked cautiously, bringing his horse to a halt, Suzuno and Tatara joined them.
Toroki looked slightly annoyed. "Because I don't have a terribly good feeling about this." Toroki looked away from Amefuri and looked out at the horizon.
Amefuri looked behind them, but saw nothing but sand.
"Tell me what you're thinking." He said, looking back at Toroki.
"I'm thinking that I haven't heard from my father in a while..."
"You shouldn't be paranoid. How could he possibly know where we are right now?" Tatara asked, Toroki gave him a sharp glance.
"I know my father... and he has ways of knowing where we are... And I just got a bad feeling like he's coming for us.
--
"My Lord," the man kneeled down before the monk, his eyes locked on the floor.
"Ah, welcome Lei-Sying. Please, do stand up," the head monk motioned to the gruff looking man and he stood up, his eyes meeting the monk's. "I hear your daughter has been up to no good."
A look of anger crossed Lei's face, but he quickly suppressed it. "Yes my Lord. She has joined the Seishi."
"As I told you she would," the monk looked slightly cross. "You should have killed her when you had the chance Lei-Sying... like I told you to all those years ago..."
"I wanted to my Lord, truly I did, but-"
"No excuses Lei-Sying!" Lei bit his tongue in anger. He detested being spoken down to. "The job will be finished now. We must save Xi-Lang. "Now... as for that information you wanted about the Miko."
A young monk stepped out from a dark corner, holding out a scroll. He handed it to the head monk and then stepped back as if he never existed.
"Here you go Lei-Sying," he handed Lei the scroll. "I had my monks write it in simple terms for your small bandit mind." The monk smiled while Lei held his temper down.
Lei took the scroll from the monk. "And what of you my Lord?"
The monk paused for a while. "If you fail, and I pray you do not, I will stop the summoning... I will save Xi-Lang."
--
As the sun rose, the four travellers found themselves finally leaving the desert behind, heading towards scattered trees and plains, their shadows in front of them.
Their journey was nearly over, the village was so close. Suzuno felt her heart in he throat at the thought of the last Seishi being just before them, of the summoning just before them, of her future just before them...
Little did she know of the bandits just behind them...
(It had occurred to me that I don't actually know how long Suzuno has been there, but I figure it's been at least two weeks up to this point. Well this chapter didn't go anywhere that I wanted it to, and that's not a bad thing, but they were supposed to get to the village in this chapter... but as I wrote it started getting long and I realised that I had to end it at some point, and this seemed like a nice little cliffender-type ending. I really liked this chapter though, because I was dying to have Tokaki and Tatara just talk and be friends because that's what they are and I haven't really explored it before, but now I am and I'm really liking it. So I left the three characters you were getting used to behind, because Amefuri and Toroki needed some time in the limelight... especially Amefuri, who in the original draft of this chapter wasn't written in at all *sweatdrop*. I love Amefuri, but the story hasn't gotten to his little story arc yet so it's easy to forget his importance. So Lei-Sying is starting to become a main character, he wasn't a big character in the original outline, he was just kinda there and mentioned sometimes. The monk was there, though the outline basically just says 'monks' and they're the 'bad-guys', though nobody's really bad, they're just following religion blindly. I also just wanted to add a note here. Chi's name is actually 'Qi', but I keep writing it as Chi because I figured 'Qi' might be too weird of a name - oh yeah, and Jian Rian's so much more normal... though I don't think I actually named her - and that might get in the way of the story. I have been thinking lately that maybe I should go back and change all that... who knows. Anyhoo, next chapter will have a brand-new character and fighting! Yay fighting! Go fighting, go fighting! Speaking of fighting... I live in a house where I'm a Leaf's fan, my mom's a die hard Bruins fan and my step-dad a die hard Red Wing's fan... Think we'll live through these Playoffs?)
Reviews:
Aoi Dragon: ... I love you! I did in fact realise my Reikaku/Taikyoku mistake yesterday, but all that Chineses stuff is awesome (especially seeing I'm trying to keep this as Chinese as possible). *Gives you a FY Plushie of your choice* Did I mention that I loved you?
Ryochan8: Hey thanks! That's an awesome idea because knowing Kousa (and hey, I can say that I do, right?), I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he'd tell everyone... after he gets out of bed that is... I'm so horrible to him. Now, the reason I can't figure out what the hell Taiitsukun is, is because in the very last episode Taiitsukun transforms into what can only be described as a good looking man...
azn: You're my 25th reviewer, you rock! *Gives you a cookie with sprinkles on top*. So, California huh? Can't say I've ever been there... unless I've been there in a past life, in which I can say I've been there, even though I can't say I remember being there. Who can say? I can't. (Stop me if I've stopped making sense)