Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yuugi.

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Narrator's POV

Wait... Let me get you straight. You want us to go to some cave on some mountain out in the middle of nowhere and guard a shinzi-thing-a-mabob thing for who knows how long? Asked Tomite.

To summarize it, yes. And it's called a shinzaho, not a shinzi-thing-a-mabob, Taiitsukun replied, looking at the two Genbu seishi's spirits sitting in front of her. After Takiko has left this world, three others like her will come. One of them will have use for this shinzaho as well as one other. This was said by Byakko.

Why will they need it? And besides that, what exactly is a shinzaho? Hikitsu asked.

When a miko couples with a god, one of the objects that she has will be filled with great power. Each of the mikos will have one, but the item will be different for each one of them. Two of items is enough to summon any of the four gods, as long as you have the miko. If one or more of the seishi die before the god is summoned, or if the scroll is destroyed, a miko must collect two shinzahos so that she can summon the god. Currently, there is only one shinzaho, for Takiko is the only miko that has ever appeared in this world, so Genbu is the only god that has been summoned. Takiko was lucky. She didn't need any shinzahos to summon her god. If she had, I'm afraid that all would have been doomed for Hokkan unless the country could have found some way to defeat Kutou on their own. I can only hope that the next miko, whether it be the Suzaku, Byakko or Seiryuu no Miko, will have as much luck.

But why do we have to guard it? Why can't you keep it here in Mt. Taikyoku?

If the miko messes up by getting one of her seishi killed, or losing the scroll, then she must manage to prove to herself, her god, and her country that she is worthy to be a miko once again. If she is brave enough to find two shinzahos, retrieve them, and summon the god, then, and only then, she is worthy to be a miko, Seiryuu said in a harsh voice.

But then why don't we just leave it somewhere and wait for the mikos to find it?

This was, of course, Tomite. Hikitsu had to stop himself from hitting the boy on the head for being such an idiot. Of course, if he had, his fist probably would have just gone right through him.

Because, Tomite, this shinzaho thing is powerful, and probably very valuable. There are bound to be people who pretend to be mikos and go up and take it. They could probably even get a bunch of fake seishi to go along with them to make the act even more convincing, Hikitsu said, exasperated.

"Oh..... I didn't think of that..... Tomite said. It was obvious to Hikitsu that his friends mind was somewhere else, and he thought that he knew where it was. Tomite was thinking of Takiko, no doubt. That was where his mind always was these days.

Approximately three hours later, Hikitsu and Tomite were left alone in the room to ponder what their decision would be. Tomite looked at Hikitsu and Hikitsu knew that if he said yes, so would Tomite, if he said no, Tomite would stay with him. The Genbu seishi would not leave each other alone, even if all but two of them were far away. They wouldn't be alone as long as they had each other.

Hikitsu knew that it was up to him. But he also knew what he had to do.

Tomite, I'm going to do it. Will you go with me? Of course, he already knew the answer, but he wouldn't decide something for the younger seishi. Hikitsu knew Tomite well enough to know that if he did so, Tomite might get mad and decide not to just to prove him wrong. However, Tomite also knew Hikitsu insanely well from the many hours they had spent together.

I think that you already know the answer to that question, he said. Hikitsu gave him that small smile that he so rarely let cross into his strict features.

Well, I can't say that you're wrong.

But your not going to admit that I'm correct, right?



So, lets go tell the hag.

Y'know, you really shouldn't call her that. She is stronger than you.

Do you really think that's going to stop me?

Not really, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try.

Right. Lets go tell the ha--.......... Taiitsukun now.



They found Taiitsukun easily enough in her mirror room. She said in her old, and sometimes mildly frightening voice (especially frightening to children and small dogs).

We'll do it, Hikitsu said.

Very well...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tomite's POV

I did want to go with Hikitsu to that cave to protect that shinzaho thing – I wouldn't have it any other way – but there was something that I had to ask Taiitsukun for before I left. It wasn't until that night that I got a chance to talk to her alone.
Before I could say anything, she was already talking to me. You want to ask me for a favor before you leave, don't you.

Um... Yeah.

"So... What is it?

Well... I want to be able to keep a promise that I broke.

Ah... A promise to Takiko?

Yes. I want to be able to see her. Just... My voice stopped involuntary as my throat closed up. I cleared it and continued. Just one last time.

You realize that if I do this for you, and I haven't said that I will, that you will only be a spirit. She won't be able to see you – although she may feel your presence – unless her love for you is much stronger than I think that it is.

Are you saying that we don't love each other?

No. You two are soul mates. You belong together and love each other more than anything else in the world. But not only does it take more love to see a spirit than you can possibly imagine, she would also have to have a amazingly strong will and be in perfect health, which I believe that you will find that she is not.

What?! What happened to her?! Is she going to be okay?!

Oops. I shouldn't have said that.

Well, you did, so what's wrong with her?!

I can not tell you that. Now, do you still want me to let you see her, or not?



She paused for a while before finally saying, Very well...

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~End of Chapter 43~

Hee hee. This is a short chapter. Sorry everyone. Also, I know that I just said that I was going to wrap everything up and now I've added another thing, but when I thought of this I just couldn't resist. Besides, this is supposed to be a romance story as well as an action, but it really doesn't have much of the stuff. So the next chapter may have a bit of fluff in it. Maybe not, but oh well.

Also, I just got my first flame ever a few days ago, and I would like to bring up some of the things that Shinshoku Lose Control said to me, for she/he didn't leave an e-mail address so that I could reply to them properly.

First, they said that I had way to many POV changes. I realize that I did in my earlier chapter, but now I've narrowed it down to no more than two per chapter. That's not to much, is it? I mean, I've already fixed that, right? And if any of you read the A/N that I posted on the first chapter (even if most of you didn't), I'm going to rewrite the first chapters after I'm completely done. So I'm not quite sure why they said this.

Then, they told me that I was writing about a stupid subject because most of the characters don't appear in the story. Y'know what I say to that? So what? Without Takiko and the Genbu Seishi, Suzaku and Seiryuu never would have been summoned because Yui wouldn't have gotten the shinzaho. There for, even if they don't appear, they're still important characters, right? Besides, by writing this, I'm trying to answer one of the questions of FY. What happened to them?

Then she said that my chapters were to short. She said that chapter 42 couldn't have been 10 words. Well, I'll have you know that it was 1187 words. Also, she mentioned me listing a bunch of the characters and said that I only did it to make the chapter longer. That is NOT TRUE! Personally, I go for quality over quantity, thank-you-very-much. At first, I was going to make the list just one big paragraph, but then I thought that putting each character alone would make thme stand out more. I never do something just to make my chapters longer. Also, they're much longer than some people's chapters. I've seen fics that literally have 10 words per chapter. Okay... Only one. But that was enough. And even that fic had superb writing. It didn't really make the fic worse. It was just annoying.

And lastly, she said the most insulting thing of all. She said, Oh, and you act really self-centered in your author's notes. Like absolutely everyone wants to read this and loves it or something. I know that a lot of people don't like this fic. If more people liked it, then I'd probably get more reviews. Most stories about the Genbu Seishi get (literally) hundreds of reviews. And in reviews, your not supposed to insult (or complement) the author, but what they write. My sister has been insulting me for years, and that I'm self centered has come up before. But she's my sister, and she'll say anything to hurt my feelings, so I've never taken it to heart. But hearing it from someone else, even though I don't know that at all, really brings me down. Sorry guys, but this is really pissing me off, and I have to get it out of my system. If you don't like this fic, then don't read it. It's just pointless to read something that you don't like.

Oh yes. I won't bring this up again. I'm sure that I've just bored you all to death. I just had to say all that. But now that I've gotten it all out, I won't rant and rave about it again.

More coming soon. Please review!