Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yuugi.

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Narrator's POV

The next day, Takiko and Tomite prepared to leave. The day before they had decided to keep a low profile while they were on the road, so Takiko had gotten some Chinese clothes (which was, as Tomite said, "an experience he'd never forget"-but maybe that's because he decided to cut the trip short. Who knows?). In Tomite's opinion, it was quite an improvement. Not that he'd let her know that. He disliked girls, if only for the reason that most had crushes on him. The only females that he had ever really loved were dead. And nothing could change that.

"Tomite!" Takiko called, "Lets go!"

"Coming!" He sighed. He had enjoyed himself at the palace. It had been nice to be waited on. The only bad thing was all the girls. At least Takiko wasn't like that. He jumped off the wall he had been sitting on and walked over to the Miko. She was finally starting to learn a little more about the legend that she was supposed to fulfill. The emperor had seen to that. Also, on the way to the capital, he had learned that she couldn't ride a horse. He had had to ride with her on the same horse the whole way to the capital. He shivered at the thought. She had held on to him so tightly that he had almost suffocated. She had also fallen of the horse about two thousand times!

Tomite sighed as he mounted and pulled her up on the chestnut horse that was tethered near her waiting for them. "Don't squeeze so hard this time!" He scolded her as she scowled at him. Then, after a pause said, "You're going to have to learn you to ride soon, y'know. It's annoying to have you on the same horse as me."

"What if I don't want to learn how to ride?" She retorted.

"To bad. You're learning whether you like it or not."

"But..."

"No buts! I'm tired of you having to ride with me!" Tomite said as he kicked the horse into a walk, and then a quick trot. Takiko turned around and waved at the emperor, and as she did so, almost fell of the horse. Luckily Tomite caught her before she cracked her skull. He slowed the horse to a quick walk as he pulled her back on the horse. She squeaked and tightly held on to him. As she did so, she heard him mutter something, but the only words she caught were, "can't breathe..." She slowly loosened her grip a tiny bit, much to his relief, but it was so scary to be atop a horse with only a saddle to hold you in. Especially after she'd almost fallen off. She looked up at the back of Tomite's head and sighed. He really wasn't that great, once you got used to him. He wasn't even that cute. She couldn't see why most of the maids, and other girls, at the palace had secret crushes on him and always talked about how "cute" he was when he wasn't looking. Some girls had no taste in boys...

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Tomite's POV

Takiko slowly lessened her grip, much to my relief. I glanced back at her quickly. She seemed lost in thought. I wondered what she was thinking about. Probably dumb girl stuff. Except, Takiko wasn't that type of girl. Oh well...

Around eight or nine we stopped for dinner in a wood on a small mountain. I quietly cooked a wild deer I had just shot as Takiko sewed a tear she'd gotten in her skirt on a thorny bush. We'd gone many miles, and dark came quickly in Hokkan. So, after we were done, we decided to camp there. I set up the tents as Takiko watched the last rays of the sun disappear behind a hill. She looked troubled.

"What's wrong?" I asked. The look of her face bothered me. It was so sad, and with the wind blowing in her hair, she looked beautiful. I shook that thought out of my head quickly. I didn't want to be thinking about the Genbu no Miko that way!

"Hmm?" She looked at me from where she was sitting, "what did you say?"

"What's wrong?"I repeated patiently. Some girls...

"Nothing. I was just thinking about my dad. He must be worried about me. I mean... I've been here for two weeks already! He's probably frantic!" 'Of course that's what she's thinking about!' I scolded myself bitterly, 'Unlike you, she has a family and people that care about her! Of course she'd be worried!' "What about your family? Aren't they worried about you Tomite? Do they even know where you are?" She asked, much to my surprise.

"I guess..." I replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." She waited for me to go on patiently, "I left my family years ago. We were always poor, and with my six brothers and sisters, money was even more scarce. The whole time I knew about my powers and destiny. My parents were very proud of it and made no attempt to hide it from me. Quite the opposite. But I also knew that I'd have to leave sometime. So at age ten, I did. I knew that one less mouth to feed would help my family, and that I'd have to learn how to fend for myself sometime. I visited often and we kept in touch, but..." I paused again. Why was I telling her this? I'd never told anyone before.

"But..." she prompted.

"One day, when I came to see them, the village was gone. Just... gone. It was like it had never been there. They had had a very bad blizzard, and the winds had blown it all away. There were no survivors..."

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Takiko's POV

I stared. The look on his face was so sad. So alone. And his story was so sad. It didn't seem real. But I knew it was. No one could joke about some thing like that. Especially not with a straight face! At least I still had my father, even if my mother was dead and he was far away. And I had him, even if he was annoying. He had no one. I couldn't imagine being all alone. But that was what he'd had to live with for a long time. For the first time since I'd met him, I felt sorry for Tomite. He was always so strong, and he hardly ever acted sad, as he was then. At least not around me.

"I-I'm sorry," I said. What else could I say? He'd lost everything.

"It's not your fault. You shouldn't say you're sorry for things that aren't your fault."

"I guess so... but still. That's so sad. You lost everything!"

"I suppose," he said as he stood up and walked off. I guessed that he wanted to be alone, so I didn't bother him. I was still in shock after hearing that story. 'I thought I knew Tomite.' I thought, 'I guess I still had a lot to learn about him.' The look on his face had been one I'd never seen before. He'd looked so sad. It had reminded me that he was only 16. Just two years older than myself.

I stood, still deep in thought, and began to roll out my bedroll. Man was it cold. I looked over at where Tomite was. I could just see the silhouette of his hunched form. Was he crying? It couldn't be! But... It certainly looked like he was.

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Tomite's POV

I really hoped that Takiko would stay away. I didn't want her to see me crying. 'Doulin... Shinu... Yanata... Nami... Dikoro... Hoshi... Mom... Dad..." I remembered each of them, one by one. It was amazing how much it still hurt after all this time. Doulin had been the youngest. She had only been three as well as sick at the time of the blizzard. I could only hope that her death had been swift and painless. I remembered how Dad had worked so hard to support the family. He had always said, "Someday things will be better. Someday I will find a nice job. And we will live in a nice house. In a nice city. In a nice neighborhood. Some day things will be better..." But things had never gotten better. They had just gotten worse.

As I thought about my family, I couldn't stop the tears, no matter how hard I tried. Finally, I just let them flow freely, glad that no one was watching. It was just so hard. 'Why Genbu? Why did you do this to me? Couldn't you have let them live?' I thought to the tortoise god. But I got no answer. I didn't really expect one. I had asked him the same question many times, but the answer was always the same. Silence. I looked behind me to where Takiko was and saw that she was rolling out her bed roll.

"I'm going for a walk," I called to her.

"Okay. Just don't go to far. It's dark. Who knows what could be out at this time of night," she replied, and shivered at the thought.

I didn't respond, thinking that she sounded like my mother had sounded when she was worried about me. Instead, I just walked off into the woods. I could feel her eyes following me, but ignored it. I didn't want her worrying about me. I didn't want anybody worrying about me. I walked and walked until I couldn't walk any further. Then I sat down on a log, and just cried. Suddenly, there was a scream. It was coming from the direction of the camp. Takiko! I jumped up, my worries forgotten, and started running in the direction of the noise. Why did I leave her alone? She could be prey to many big predators in the forest. Or worse. It could be Kutou spies out to kill her. As I ran, thoughts raced threw my head. It was entirely my fault if she was in danger. I shouldn't have left. It was my duty to protect her!

I burst into the clearing where we had made camp, and, much to my horror I saw Takiko being strangled by a masked and cloaked figure. When I charged in, I took him by surprise and he loosened his grip on her for a second. In that second, Takiko struggled out of his grip, and ran over to me as fast as she could. I quickly pushed her behind me so that I could protect her better. Then I put an arrow to my bow and aimed carefully. I shot...

The arrow only grazed the figure's shoulder. He had narrowly dodged getting hit in the neck. He then jumped up and something flew out of his cape at me. I wrapped around me and I realized that it was some sort of sticky substance that I couldn't break. When I unwillingly dropped my bow, he slowly started to drag me forward, towards him, and I couldn't do anything to stop him...

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End of chapter 3

Well? Well? Do you like it? Don't worry. I'll get some other seishi in there soon. Maybe one will come in during the next chapter. You never know. Please review!
--Hydra-Star