Chapter 11

Aoi was quietly eating her food. When Tomo said something.

"How is your food?" He tried to ask warmly. For the first time, Aoi looked up from her food and spoke.

"I know its not poisoned but that doesn't mean that you're forgotten. It doesn't mean that I am letting down my guard." Aoi said coldly and returned to eating her food.

Tomo gulped. He stood up and Aoi's eyes flew up to see him push in his chair.

"Once you're done, have a maid show you to your room. You will have a change of clothes there and the clothes you came in. You can choose which ever you would like to wear." Tomo bowed. "I have matters to attend." With that he left the room and Aoi let out a sigh of relief. Now she could relax a little and the room didn't smell as bad.

"Okay. Is everyone clear on their part?" Izumi asked. She looked behind her to see the guys nod their heads. Izumi then smiled and in the blink of an eye, disappeared. She reappeared in front of the door with the locks on it. She was silently trying to pick the lock. She succeeded and the only noise made was the noise of the chains moving. Izumi went into stealth mode.

"Hey, did you hear that?" A guard asked another. Izumi held her breath.

"Nah. I didn't hear nothing." Izumi let out a silent sigh of relief.

She went back to picking the next lock.

"Hal!" Usagi turned and found two more girls standing in front of her. She looked at them again and then sent out a message to Izumi.

"Izumi? Izumi? Do you read?" Usagi asked. Luckily, the only person that could hear the earpiece was the person that had the earpiece in their ear. Izumi opened another lock, went into stealth mode and then tried to open another. She stopped for a split second to answer Usagi.

"Izumi here, what's going on?" She whispered.

"We had company that is coming your way now." Usagi said.

Izumi stopped again. "What kind of company?" She asked.

Before Usagi could answer, Izumi was attacked. She kicked the guard in the stomach but not before he notified the other guards. Chichiri and Tasuki sprung into action. Izumi pulled out her throwing knives, jumped on a sword that was swung at her and knocked out 5 guards. Another came at her from behind and swung. She did a double back handspring, pulled out her ninja like swords and struck him in the stomach. He fell instantly. One guard had snuck up behind her without her noticing until it was too late. She would be struck, she didn't have enough time to move. She waited to be struck when the guard suddenly spontaneously combusted and fell to the floor in ashes. She looked down at what was left of the guard and then looked up at her savior.

"You've got to keep an eye on your back. What would have happened to you if I wasn't here?" Tasuki scolded.

Izumi charged at him and yelled, "Tasuki duck!" Tasuki ducked and the guard behind him swung horizontally. Izumi used Tasuki's shoulder to propel herself over and to kick her target in the face. He fell to the ground cold. She landed back on the ground, flipped her hair and said, "I could say the exact same thing." They smiled at each other and then went on fighting everyone else.

"Man... I need to do something." Usagi was all by herself trying to think of something that would help everyone out but could think of no thing. All she could do was walk around the palace. She walked until she found herself in front of the Suzaku shrine. It was the only thing she could think of. She knew that she shouldn't enter the shrine without being purified first so she stood outside the doors, placed a hand on the door and closed her eyes.

"Suzaku, guardian of the south, please, I beg of you, protect my friends and help them bring Aoi back. Please." All of a sudden the doors burst open and air busted out as if it were trying to blow her away. When it finally stopped she uncovered her face to be revealed to what she thought was Suzaku in human form.

"W-who are you?" She asked.

"I am the answer to your prayers. I am Suzaku." He said.

"Suzaku?" She asked confused.

"Yes it was you who called me correct? I will help you but you must prove yourself worthy."

"Prove myself? How do I do that?" She asked.

"Fight me. If you win then I will protect you and all your friends."

"But who could beat you? You are Suzaku!" Usagi exclaimed.

Suzaku attacked her. She dodged just in time but she didn't have enough time to dodge the second attack. "Your flattery will not help you here." Suzaku said.

Usagi wiped the dirt off her face and grinned confidently. "It was worth trying." She said and charged.

"Usagi? Usagi! Do you read?"

"Izumi! Status report! How many locks did you get?! It's getting a little harder to do this, no da!" Chichiri said fighting by her side.

"I only have 2 locks to go! But I can't reach Usagi!" Izumi yelled back. She picked another one. "Make that 1!" She yelled excitedly. Tasuki burned rows upon rows of people but they just kept coming back. "Usagi will be alright but where are they coming from?!" Tasuki asked angrily. Little did they know that there were few above them ready to shoot them full of arrows.

"The lock is open!" Izumi exclaimed.

"Good! Lets finish up here!" Tasuki yelled. "Rekka Shin'nen!"

They all fought for 5 more minutes.

"This isn't good! There's too many of them, no da!" Chichiri yelled.

"What are we going to do?!" Tasuki asked.

"Shut up and keep fighting!" Izumi yelled at Tasuki. At that moment Izumi felt something and looked up to find a person aiming for Tasuki. "Tasuki!! Look out!!" Izumi screamed. It was too late, the people above let go of the arrows, and all of them were aimed at Tasuki. Izumi ran towards him to knock him out of the way. She wasn't going to make it. She tripped, her fell out of its chop sticks and then she heard a bunch of arrow strikes. She was afraid to look but she did anyways. To her surprise, standing in front of her was Meg/Yume and Jeni/Emi.

"Hey what are you doing down there?" Yume said helping her up and picking up her chopsticks at the same time. She was wearing a black ninja outfit with a utility belt around her waist that was also black. She had black combat boots that didn't make noise and had silver belts on the side. She had her weapon, a long pole stick that could knock anyone out and block almost anything. It was made out of a special type of steel that only they knew of. She had her hair up in cute dragonfly clips in the back. She had diamond earrings and a black choker. "Here." She said. Emi came over to give her a hug.

"You were supposed to help me sneak out of my house! I forgive you though." Emi was dressed in a black tank top and shiny spandex like shorts. (A/N I was soo thinking of Yuniko from wild act while doing Emi's outfit.)

She doesn't really like violence so instead of her weapon, that she left at the palace anyways, she had a stick. She had her hair in a dragon clip in the back of her head. She had a choker on as well and a bracelet that had a care bear on it. "What are you doing here?" Emi asked.

"Yeah you should be saving Aoi! We'll take it from here." Yume said.

"Thanks guys." Izumi said. She took her chopsticks and fixed her hair back into its regular style. She looked back at Chichiri and looked down at Tasuki. "Well guys, what are we waiting for?! Lets go! Aoi needs us!"

They nodded and ran in, Izumi was leading the way.

Yume and Emi watched them leave and then started to fight everyone off. "Come on Emi. Lets beat them good." Yume yelled.

"This is for Aoi!" Emi said hitting a guard in the stomach with her stick while Yume beat a lot of guards with her pole.

"This is your room Aoi-sama." A maid said. "Yell if you need anything." She said and left the room. Once she left Aoi, Aoi picked an outfit for her to wear. Strangely, she liked the outfit Tomo had put out for her and so she was trying it on when there was a knock at the door. The person entered the room anyways.

"Wait a second! I'm not done dressing!" Aoi yelled. The person was still in the room, she could feel it although, and she wasn't turned around to see the person. The only thing that was showing was her bare back. She had most of the clothes on but the top of her outfit was still half way off. "Leave my room please!"

The door closed. She let out a sigh. When she tried to place her clothes on two hands came from behind her to embrace her. She froze. She knew those were not the hands or arms of Chichiri.

"Let me go! Who are you?!" Aoi rebelled.

"Shhh....." It was the sound of Chichiri's voice. "I'm here, everything is alright." Aoi turned around to find Chichiri. He looked different to her but she paid no attention to that little detail.

"Chichiri, what are you doing here?" She asked.

"I came here to rescue you." He said. "But, I want to stay here with you for a while."

"With me? Here? What if Tomo finds us?" Aoi asked.

"He won't. I promise." Chichiri was about to kiss Aoi when Aoi pulled back.

"I'm sorry Chichiri. I just can't do this here. Lets leave now before it's too late. Please Chichiri!" Aoi said frightened.

"Why are you so scared?" Chichiri asked her.

"Scared? What are you talking about? I'm fine. Lets go." She got dressed and got her clothes, took Chichiri's hand and ran out of the room.

She was wearing an outfit that wasn't too bad. It was a kimono dress that went down to her knees. There was a silver sash to tie to the right side. It was a light blue dress and she always did love blue.

"Where're we going?" He asked.

"I've been around here a for a while and I found something you might want to see. They ran to the dinning room. "Look, over there." Aoi pointed. That is there secret plans, why they split up and where each of them is. Chichiri gulped.

"Really?" He said.

"Yeah! Give me a boost would ya?" She said.

"Sure." He hoisted her above his head and she reached for the papers. "Did you get them?" He asked.

"No. I need you to push me up a little higher." She said. He did so and then she said a minute later, "Got it!" He lifted her down and then they ran out of there trying to be quiet.

"Where do you think you're going?" A voice from behind said. She knew that voice. She turned around to find Nakago standing behind them. She jumped in front of Chichiri.

"What are you doing here Nakago?" She asked.

"I came to save you." He said bluntly.

"Well as you can see, that job is already taken. So you can leave now."

"Are you sure priestess?" Nakago waved his hand and Aoi closed her eyes. When she opened them again she noticed that nothing happened. "Before you start thinking I did nothing, take a look behind you."

Aoi was scared to find what was behind her but looked anyways. Behind her was Tomo. She screamed and ran backwards into Nakago to get away from Tomo. She then punched Nakago for touching her.

"What the hell is going on?!" She screamed.

"Don't worry priestess. He's dead now." When Nakago told her that, Tomo fell to the ground dead.

"What happened to him? I was supposed to kill him!" She said and turned around. Nakago swept her into his arms.

"Don't worry about it. Your safe with me around."

"Let go of me! Let go of me!" She screamed over and over.

"As you wish. Your saviors are coming so I will be leaving." Nakago turned. As he started walking into darkness he said, "If you ever need me, I will always be there." Then he disappeared.

"Aoi! Aoi!" Aoi knew that voice, it was her friend Izumi, but no matter how hard she tried to yell back, she couldn't bring herself to yell or move her mouth. She was shocked for the moment. She had to pull herself together before something else happened as well.

TO BE CONTINUED