Insight

Tasuki POV

Chapter 8

By Ambika-san

"Dammit!" Tasuki growled as he jumped up from the table, ignoring Seiku's surprised exclamation. He pushed the door open in time to see Chichiri stop and turn around, ripping off his mask. The mage was literally glowing with barely-suppressed fury. Tasuki swallowed hard at the sight, but walked toward his friend anyway.

"'Chiri, we gotta talk."

"Not. Now. Tasuki." The monk forced out. Tasuki had never seen Chichiri in this state before. He didn't understand why Chichiri was so angry about what Seiku had done. He knew what it must have looked like, but if Chichiri was angry about that, then that would mean...that would mean that he returned Tasuki's feelings, and that wasn't possible.

"It ain't what ya think..." Tasuki tried to explain, but he didn't know how to continue. What did Chichiri think?

Chichiri's expression was frighteningly cold. "Tasuki. I am going. Don't try to follow me." He whirled and stalked away, leaving Tasuki staring after him in shock.

A slip of paper fluttered to the floor where he had been standing.

Almost without thinking, Tasuki stooped and retrieved it. His gaze shifted, and he studied the smiling mask that now rested in his hands. It wasn't very large. It wasn't very strong. How could it conceal so much?

Rage welled up within Tasuki. He wrenched his hands apart and listened with satisfaction to the loud tearing sound produced as the mask ripped. But then, suddenly, it wasn't enough.

I don' want him ta hide anymore.'

Riip.

I love him. All a' him.'

Rip.

Even when he's sad.'

Rip.

Even when he's angry.'

Rip.

Even if he hates me...'

Tasuki realized that there was nothing left to tear. The mask lay in shreds around him.

He stood, letting the bits of paper that had rested on his legs settle to the floor. "Don' try ta follow ya?" he laughed bitterly. "I'm not gonna let ya hide from me anymore!"

Lessee...He musta teleported by now...' Tasuki reasoned. How th' hell'm I s'posed ta find im?'

There was always the chance that Chichiri hadn't gone yet...Tasuki raced for the stairs, knowing it was hopeless. Sure enough, when he threw open the door to their room, it was empty. The only thing to show that Chichiri had ever been there was an ordinary-looking straw hat that rested in the middle of the floor. Tasuki picked it up, knowing better than to try to follow Chichiri through it. The spell Chichiri used on the hat was brought to completion when the monk stepped through it.

Tasuki slipped the knotted strings of the hat over his head, so that it lay against his back. And then, lost in thought, he turned and walked back the way he'd come.

He entered the common room and leaned against a wall, trying not to attract any attention. How could he find Chichiri?

Chichiri always tracked people through their ki...'Maybe I could do that?' Tasuki thought. But how th'hell d'ya find somebody's life force?'

He tried it, focusing hard on everything that he associated with Chichiri. Fresh air, sunlight, the jingling of his staff on the road...nothing. The way he looked in firelight, shadows painting his face, the way he smiled softly as he stared into the flames, the utter peace that seemed to radiate from him when he was content...still nothing. "I don' know th' first thing about how ta do this..." Tasuki mumbled.

"There's gotta be somethin' else I c'n do" Tasuki let his head fall back against the wall with a thump. "Suzaku! Why does this hafta be so hard?"

He froze. Suzaku...' He'd tried everything else. Surely a prayer couldn't hurt? He was a celestial warrior, after all...maybe Suzaku would help him.

"Suzaku," He murmured. "I don' usually do this, but I'm hopin' yer listenin' right now, cause a friend a' mine needs help. He's hurtin' real bad, an' I think it's my fault. I dunno where he is, though. Please help me, Suzaku. I gotta find him."

The bandit finished praying, wondering what he should do next. How would he know when Suzaku answered his prayer, or even if it had been answered? This was Chichiri's department, not his...

A few hours and a ridiculously small amount of sake later, Tasuki looked up, startled, as the door to the door banged open. A youngish man stood in the doorway. He was breathing hard, leaning on the frame of the door for support. He took a deep breath. One of the waitresses appeared in front of him. "Are you all right, sir?"

The man nodded, still out of breath. A few minutes later, he had managed to recover himself a bit. "I've been running, that's all. I was sent to carry the news as far and as fast as I could, and my horse hurt its leg a mile or so back."

"What news is that?" the waitress asked.

"There're explosions coming from an abandoned quarry a few days' walk from here. Nobody wants to go and see what it is. They all seem to think it's a demon. I have to say, I agree with them. These explosions are huge. Most of the people in the nearby town are leaving."

Tasuki's eyes widened. Explosions? Huge explosions...?' A rapid sequence of thoughts connected themselves in his brain. "Chichiri!" he cried. What else could it be?

Thank you, Suzaku...' He ran, using all of the speed he could summon. Several of the patrons of the inn looked around in surprise, wondering how a person could just disappear that way.

Later, Tasuki would never be able to say how he knew which way to go. Maybe he was better at sensing ki than he'd thought.

While he was running, he was lost to the world around him. Time seemed to stand still, and he didn't know how long he traveled for. When he finally stopped, worn out, the sky was dark above him. He spent a restless night out under the stars.

The next day, his pace had slowed a bit. For all his gift of speed, Tasuki wasn't used to running for days at a time, and he was going on only a few hours of sleep. He hadn't eaten anything since the day before, either. In his haste to get to Chichiri, Tasuki had forgotten to take anything with him.

That day, he passed though a town. The streets were silent, and the windows of the houses were all dark. No birds sang.

"Most of the people in the nearby town are leaving..."

Tasuki smiled grimly. He had to be close. He hurried through the deserted village, stopping only once to take food from a shop.

On his way out, he paused, reached into his pocket and drew out a small pouch. Laughing softly to himself, he placed a few coins on the countertop. "Look at me. A bandit who pays, even though there ain't anyone ta pay..."

He ate the bread and dried fruit as he walked, still not questioning the sense that was telling him which direction to go.

At the outskirts of the town, the road moved in a straight line for a time, then curved lazily around a grassy field before disappearing into a stand of evergreens. The field was at the edge of a quarry that had been abandoned for years.

Tasuki crossed out of the last cluster of houses just in time to see a figure struggling up onto the grassy stretch at the edge of the road. He was too far away to make out any distinguishing features, but he sped up. Even if the person wasn't Chichiri, maybe he or she had seen him...

As he got closer, Tasuki could see that it was indeed Chichiri sitting in the long grass. Tasuki moved faster, only to stop in shock an arm's length from Chichiri. Chichiri's eye was closed and there was a small, peaceful smile on his face. But that wasn't what made Tasuki's eyes widen in surprise and worry.

The monk was covered in dust and scratches. A few of the worst cuts were still bleeding slowly.

Chichiri opened his eye. "Tasuki."

Tasuki stepped toward his friend. "Gods, Chiri..." He reached out and brushed away some of the dirt smudging Chichiri's cheek. The mage flinched at the touch, and Tasuki's heart contracted. He pulled his hand away, staring at the ground.

"Sorry." He murmured. He sat down facing Chichiri.

"You shouldn't apologize. You didn't do anything." Chichiri's voice sounded flat. "I shouldn't have left like that, but I needed to get myself under control."

"Why...um...why'd ya get so mad? I mean, ya don' have ta tell me, I'd jus' like ta know so I don' do it again. If it was me, that is, cause it mighta been somethin' else entirely..." Tasuki trailed off, feeling foolish. He didn't know what to say. Whenever he ran out of the right words, improper ones rushed in to take their place, and Tasuki ended up saying things that made him wince.

"It was nothing, no da." Chichiri brushed off Tasuki's babbling easily, however, he didn't meet the bandit's eyes.

"The hell it was." Tasuki replied evenly. "If ya don' wanna tell me, that's fine, just say so. Don' lie ta me."

Chichiri was silent, his cheeks slightly flushed.

"I just wanna know cause I think it's got somethin' ta do with me. I don' wanna do anythin' like that again."

"That man you were sitting with...Who is he?" Chichiri's voice was too calm.

Tasuki hadn't expected that. "Ah, I dunno, really. All I know is his name, an' that he's good at guessin' stuff. Name's Seiku."

"He looked nice." Chichiri murmured.

"Um, yeah, he was, I guess." Tasuki was on his way to being well and truly baffled. How had Seiku come into this?

"What were the two of you talking about?"

Tasuki willed himself not to blush. "It was nothing."

Chichiri raised his eyebrows at Tasuki. "The hell it was, no da."

Tasuki grinned. "A'right, I'll tell ya what we were talkin' about if ya tell me why ya got so mad." He thought of his promise to Seiku, and realized that whether he was ready or not, that promise would probably be fulfilled soon.

Chichiri sighed, but nodded. "All right...you first."

"Umm..." Tasuki looked away from Chichiri. "We were jus' talkin' about somethin' I needed ta do. I promised him I'd do it, an' then you came in..." Sorry, Seiku...'

"What did you promise him you'd do, no da?"

"Uh-uh...ya gotta tell me why ya were mad first."

"No, I don't think I do, na no da. After all, you haven't fully answered my question."

Tasuki chewed on his lip. "A'right. I'll tell ya what I promised, but ya gotta listen an' not freak out at me, okay?"

Chichiri nodded.

"Actually, we were talkin' about random stuff fer most a' th' time, but then..." Tasuki paused, wondering how to say what came next. "Well, he made a guess abou' somethin' from what I'd said, an' he was right. So I promised him I'd do somethin' about it." Tasuki swallowed hard.

"An' I'm gonna keep my promise. Right now."

Tasuki was blushing by this time, and he was nearly shaking with nerves, but he couldn't stop now. If he tried, he'd never forgive himself.

Moving closer to Chichiri, he leaned and placed a soft kiss on the monk's forehead. He knew he had the right words.

"I love ya, Chiri."

*****

~End Chapter 8

To Be Continued...