Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yuugi.

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Narrator's POV

"It's Uruki. There must have been some slow-reacting poison on the demon's claws. Taiitsukun said that they don't have a cure. The only way for her to live is if her will is strong enough to defeat the poison. If Uruki dies then there will be no chance of summoning Genbu," said Hikitsu. Although there was no emotion in his voice and his face was still, Tomite had become close enough to him to tell that he was worried about their newest comrade by the look in his eyes. He tried to sit up only to be pushed down by Takiko again.

"How's she doing? Does it look like she will live?"
Takiko's eyes shone with worry and fear, and her grip on Tomite's arm tightened as he started to lean up, a warning.

"Badly. Taiitsukun and Nyan-Nyan have already done all that they can. It's up to her now, and it doesn't look as if she'll make it," he replied.

"Then I have to go see her," Takiko said quickly. "Tomite, you stay here. I don't want you to get more hurt by moving around. The last thing we need is two seishi on the verge of death with nothing we can do about it." Tomite groaned in protest but Takiko's glare silenced him. Mutely, he nodded. Takiko smiled at him and then got up and left the room with Hikitsu, serious once more.

They walked down the halls silently. Takiko kept sneaking nervous glances at Hikitsu. He didn't seem to notice. He seemed deep in thought. Takiko had to wonder what he was thinking about. Maybe he was just worried about Uruki. They stopped at Uruki's door and walked into the dark room. Once her eyes had adjusted to the gloom, she could see that there was a figure on the bed in the corner. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it was Uruki. Although the girl was sweat soaked, she was still covered in many blankets and hot bricks had been laid beside her. It was also stifling in the room.

"Hikitsu. Can't we open a window or something? It's really hot in here,"
She looked back to the man approaching her, a thin film of sweat already visible on both their foreheads.

"I'm afraid not Takiko. Taiitsukun is trying to sweat some of the poison out of Uruki's body. Although there is only a very slim chance that it will work, we have to try everything that we can at this point," Hikitsu explained. Takiko hesitated, then nodded to show that she understood...

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Hikitsu's POV

It had been three days since we had found out that Uruki was poisoned. Three miserable days. The first two days Takiko and I had taken turns watching over her in that horribly hot room. On the third day Tomite had joined us. Uruki had sweated out a little of the poison, but not much. Not enough to really matter. I looked at her still face. It was my turn to watch her. Genbu, it was hot. I wiped some of the sweat of my forehead. I felt like I was burning up. Uruki groaned and I looked down at her. She had pushed some of her blankets of her for the millionth time. I sighed and pulled them back onto her. She groaned softly and I saw her eyes slowly open.

"Grandpa?" She asked, still dazed.

"No. It's me. Hikitsu," I answered. I wished that her grandpa could have been there for her. Takiko, Tomite, and I had just met her and weren't very close to her like him.

"Hi-Hikitsu?" She asked. Then her eyes widened as she remembered the events of the past few days. She looked around. "Hikitsu, where are we? And why is it so hot in here? Can't you open a window or something?" She paused, "And why weren't you at the camp with the rest of us? I was worried that something had happened to you!" I stared at her. Why would Uruki be worried about me? Was it simply because I was also one of the Genbu Seishi? Or was there some other reason?

"Everything will be explained later," I told her.

"Uruki! You're awake!" I looked behind me as the door swung open. Takiko rushed over and knelt beside the bed. I smiled.

"I'll leave you two alone." I told them. Then, I turned to Takiko. "After you're done talking, go to Taiitsukun and tell her that Uruki is awake," Turning back to Uruki I added, "She can answer all of your questions."

"Taiitsukun? Dose that mean that we're on Mt. Taikyou?" Uruki asked, her eyes widening. I just smiled and nodded, leaving the two girls alone...

Tomite's POV

"Tomite! We're leaving!" I heard Takiko call. After she had waken up, Uruki had gotten better quickly. Sweating out the poison had worked better than we had thought. She was still weak, but we were finaly getting ready to go. Taiitsukun had not been able to help us any more than she already had, like we had hoped, but we were leaving with her blessing. I looked around my temporary room one last time to see if I had forgotten anything, and went outside to where the horses, Takiko and Uruki were standing. Hikitsu wasn't far off trying to comfort Nyan-Nyan, who was crying because she didn't want us to leave. Or rather, because she didn't want Hikitsu to leave. In the days after I had waken up I had learned that they where very close. They had spent most of their time together. When I had asked Hikitsu what they had been doing, he had simply said, "Catching up." After a couple more minutes, he walked over to us.

"Come on. Let's go." He told us. With that, he mounted up and pulled Uruki, rapped in a blanket, up behind him. She had been unusually quiet since her sickness. Although it was probably nothing, I was worried that something was wrong that she wasn't telling us about it.

With a shrug, I mounted and pulled Takiko up behind me, where she promptly clung to my back like a huge tick. She still didn't know how to ride and wasn't too happy about having to for who knew how many miles. I sighed and calmly asked her to loosen her grip, at which Hikitsu laughed. I glared at him and wondered why he got the good riding partner...

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Einosuke's POV

Good. They were finally off again. It was hard to believe that it had already been a month in the book. (I had been keeping track of the days that had passed in it.) It had only been a day in the real world.

BRINGGGGG!! The phone rang. I ignored it, hoping that whoever was calling would just hang up and leave me alone.

BRINGGGGG!! It rang again. I sighed as I laid down the book and got up to answer it.

BR-"Hello?" I answered the phone in mid ring.

"Hello," said the voice on the other end. It sounded like Suzuno Osugi. "Is this Mr. Okuda?"

"Um... Yes. Is that you, Suzuno?" I answered.

"Yes, it is. I was wondering, could I speak to Takiko? She wasn't in school today and I wanted to see if she's all right." That was bad. I had to think of an excuse right away.

"Um... Er... She's fine. She... Um... Just got a cold." I stammered after a pause.

"Oh... Can I speak to her?" For a moment, I considered telling her the truth. She was Takiko's best friend, even though she was two years younger than her. But I decided against it.

"I'm sorry, but no. She's asleep right now. I don't want to disturb her," I answered, hoping that she would believe me despite my horrible lying skills.

"Oh... Then I'll just bring her homework over there for her. "Suzuno sounded disappointed. I felt kind of bad. She deserved to know. 'But I can't tell her,' I scolded my self. 'She's too young to get swept up in all this. And besides, her father would kill me' Her father and I had been friends for years. I knew him well enough to know that he would be very angry if I got Suzuno involved in this. And what if Suzuno was sucked into the book like Takiko was? Then she would be in danger. That was a risk that I wasn't willing to take. I refused to endanger anyone else like I had endangered Takiko by giving her that stupid book.

"That would be great. It would save us both a lot of trouble!" I told calmly her despite the thoughts racing through my head.

"Okay. I'll be over there in a couple of minutes! Bye" She said.

"Bye," I replied as I heard a click on the other end as she hung up.

True to her word, a couple minutes later, I heard the doorbell ring. It shouldn't have surprised me. After all, she only lived a few blocks away. I quickly got up from my chair and got the door. She walked in and set a pile of papers on the table.

"That's her homework. The teacher said that she'd know what to do." She told me.

"I'm sure she will," I assured her nodding. "Takiko's still asleep, but would you like something to drink?" I was silently begging her to say no. I just wanted her to get out of there so I could see what was happening to my daughter inside that book. Who knew how much time had passed in it while I was standing here talking to Suzuno?! The only reason that I had offered was because I had to act like myself and I didn't want to be rude. But, to my dismay, she smiled and nodded.

"That would be nice." I forced a smile and went into the kitchen to get something. We sat and talked for a while, then she got up and said that it was time for her to get going and that her mother would get worried if she stayed any longer. I suppressed a huge sigh of relief and stood to show her to the door. As soon as she was gone, I hurried back to the book on the table, picked itup, and began to read...

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End of chapter 11

Okay. Kill me. I won't stop you. This was another boring chapter that took me forever to get out. Sorry everyone. It will get better. (I can't promise that it will in the next chapter, but...) At least I put in another POV from the real world. (You don't care, do you?) I'm thinking of putting in one by Suzuno sometime. Let me know in your review if you think it's a good idea. I'll also try to get a new Seishi to come in soon. Also, I may have messed up with the times. 1 month in the book probably isn't a day in the real world. Oh well... More coming soon! Please r/r!