CHAPTER FOUR
Tomo heard her go up the stairs and into the room next to his. He wanted to go check on her, but why? What reason could he make up? He scanned his small room with his eyes, and there he saw it. He needed to put ointment on her arm! He grabbed the bottle with haste and knocked on her door.
"Yes?" She opened the door to her room, "is there something wrong sir?"
Sir? Why did she call him sir? He put his hands to his face, he forgot the paint!
"I-I need to put some more of this on your arm," he held up the bottle.
Catherine stared at him for a while, then her eyes widened, "Tomo? Tomo is that you? I didn't recognize you without your paint! Please, come in!"
He entered and she lifted up her sleeve, "here ya' go," she said cheerfully.
He started to slowly rub the ointment in, and she sat there, staring at him.
"Is there something on my face?"
"Well, no."
"Then don't stare."
"It's not that there's something on your face, it's that there's nothing on your face. Don't get me wrong though, you look good, you should go without paint more often!"
Tomo felt himself blush, and she gave out a little giggle, "what's so funny?" He asked, irritated.
"Nothing, I'm sorry."
Tomo was finished, but he put some more on just to feel her skin, "I think that's enough. By morning all the cuts should be gone."
"Really? Well, thank you very much," she leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
Tomo did not move, her lips were so soft; he wanted her to kiss him again.
"Please, you have to tell me how I can repay you!"
A small smirk came across his mouth, he could think of a good way she could repay him.
"What are you smirking about?" She asked, somewhat playfully.
"Just kiss me one more time, and I will find that payment enough, for now."
She let out a little laugh, "alright, fine," she leaned forward and placed her lips on his cheek, but before she could move away he grabbed her arms and put his mouth against hers.
Her eyes widened, and she pushed him away, "what was that?" She asked, somewhat out of breath.
Tomo smiled, "my payment," and he stood up to leave.
"But I thought you were homosexual… right?"
He frowned, "don't believe everything that harpy, Soi, tells you. She's such a woman, she loves to gossip and she will believe anything she hears."
Cat gave him a strange look, "uh-yeah, stupid, stupid women…"
Tomo crossed his arms, "although I'm sure it's Nakago's fault."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," he hesitated, wondering if he should tell her, "how he regains his power, how he revives himself after battle, he needs to, well, have relations with someone," he explained.
"Oh, so let me guess, you had to help him gain strength, right?" She asked.
"No, he has Soi for that. It's just, one day she was absent, and I was very loyal to my leader, and Nakago was weak. I offered him my services, and he turned me down laughing."
"Oh how sad, so you just wanted to help because you believed in him and whatever it was he was doing."
"No, I wasn't as loyal to him as I was to Serriyu. Hell, if I was in the army and he was my general, I would leave him to rot. If it wasn't for the fact that he was the strongest warrior for Serriyu, I would have never offered to help."
"So now everyone thinks incorrectly about you," she held out her arms, "come here, you poor thing."
Tomo just stood there and raised an eyebrow.
"Come on, don't be afraid, everyone has to love hugs!"
Tomo inched closer, and then sat on her bed.
"Okay, almost there, come on," she encouraged him.
He scooted closer, and he was finally in her arms, "you poor thing," she began to stroke his hair.
Tomo couldn't believe it! It felt better than what he imagined, and her soft touch made it almost unbearable. He wanted her, and he wanted her now.
He pushed away from her and stood up, "I think I should go. Thank you for listening to me."
She frowned, "why do you have to go?"
"I just do," he slammed the door behind him and dashed for his room, once there he sat on his bed trying not to think of the things he wanted to do to her.
"Cat, are you all right? We heard your door slam shut," Miaka said as she knocked on her door.
Cat opened it, "oh, it was nothing, Tomo came in here to give me some more ointment stuff and when he left he accidentally slammed my door, that's all."
"Oh okay, I was just wondering, that's all," when Miaka left to go to her room, she noticed it was already opened.
"Who's there?" She asked, and when she walked in she saw a shirtless Nakago standing there.
He turned around to look at her, "what do you want?"
"N-nothing! I'm sorry; I thought this was my room! Sorry!" She turned around to leave, but Nakago stopped her.
"If you want this one I can leave," he offered.
"No, they're all the same, really, it's no problem!"
He moved closer to her, "do you still fear me? Now that we are allies, we must learn to trust each other or else we will never win."
Miaka nodded, "I know, it's just that-"
"You still hate me for what I did?"
She turned around to face him, "you didn't really do anything. You just said you did something."
"True, but for a time you believed me, and for a longer time we were enemies."
She looked down, "I know… I know…" then she looked up and gave him the brightest smile he had ever seen, "but now we're not enemies, and I can trust you!" She shook his hand, and then hugged him, "pleasant dreams, Nakago!" And she skipped out of his room.
He stood there in shock for a while before he went to bed.
Soi entered his room, and when she saw that he was waiting, she jumped in next to him and began planting kisses all over his muscular chest.
"No, not tonight Soi," Nakago pushed her off, "we paid for your room, go and sleep in it."
Soi frowned, "you never turn me down!"
"Not tonight."
"Oh come, really quick?"
"I said no. Now go, before I get angry."
"Fine! I don't care, I can always manipulate you in other ways!" And she stomped out.
Nakago sat up. Manipulate him! How dare she? No one could manipulate him! He was the great Nakago, powerful, intelligent, and very handsome! But, now that he thought of it, she had always gotten her way whenever she "wanted" to have sex with him. Every time he said no, she would always convince him that he needs to "rest" and then she would "convince" him that she was right.
"Damn that woman. Damn her."
Meanwhile, Soi was fuming. He had never said no! He saw the way he spoke with that stupid cousin of the stupid priestess! It must be her! She had tried to be nice, but now that stupid bitch was trying to steal her man? Never! That little whore was going to pay, and Nakago will return to her fingertips in no time, of that she was sure.
Miaka was still blushing from the encounter with Nakago, and when she entered her room all that she needed was peace and quiet, and a good night's sleep.
"Hello Miaka," Tamahome said as she entered the room.
"Oh dear, it looks like I have the wrong room again!"
Tamahome shook his head, "no, this is yours. We are going to share one tonight."
She usually liked sleeping with him. He was very warm and he didn't mind her hogging the blankets, but the look in his eyes said that he wasn't going to allow her to sleep.
"Tamahome, please, I'm too tired, and everybody will hear us," she pleaded.
"Not if you don't scream," he said.
"Gross! I'm not going to stand for this! I'm going to share a room with Cat!" And she left a very angry Tamahome behind. Stupid bitch, she always loved to fuck him, what was different now? It was that cousin of hers. Everything seemed to have changed when she came along…
Catherine woke up with a start. She heard a strange noise coming from the other room.
"Miaka, wake up," she stood up and wrapped her Kimono around herself.
"Cat? What's wrong?" Miaka asked, still drowsy and half asleep.
"Sshhh! Listen," they both waited then they heard a loud bang.
"Damn it! Stay down!" They heard Tasuki yell. They ran to their door and opened it, to see all of the warriors standing over the man who attacked Cat earlier.
"What is it you want?" Nakago asked. He was still shirtless, and Miaka blushed and hid behind Cat.
The man let out a laugh, "like I'm going to tell you!"
"I think you will, with some persuasion," Hotohori said while holding his sword up.
"I didn't think you had it in you," Nakago commented.
Hotohori shrugged, "I am capable of many things that I put my mind to."
The man started to struggle and he tried to squiggle out of the rope that bound him.
"You can at least tell us your name, no harm in that ya know," Chichiri said.
"My name is Anatawa of the Mibu clan. That is all you are getting from me, you filthy human slaves!"
"Human slaves? What do you mean?"
"When master takes over the world, you will all be nothing but slaves, if you are anything at all!"
"Tell me the name of your master," Catherine spoke up.
"Never!" He began to shout out a strange, guttural language, and it looked like he was insulting or cursing them all.
"I recognize that language," Catherine said more to herself than the others, "I learned some of it…" she thought for a moment, "no gathos plin'dial?"
The man looked up at her in shock, "tu esta icht langue forbintos plinth?"
"Dark language of the master? Yes, I know this language, though not by that name."
"Ircaltos morgantua latos! Ista normandengo!" He managed to stand up, and he started to make his way towards Catherine, his expression becoming angrier with each step.
"Larganua torma dial! Tu esta icht langue forbintos plinth!"
"Nee-ie! Ys spectrum blathard!" She walked towards him, "Numai esta crinzo! Paranthos!"
The man seemed scared, and he backed away, "you are the one that master feared! He was right when he told me to kill you! You cannot live! For the glory of master Joneleth!" He started to run forward again, but was this time stopped by Hotohori's sward in his heart.
"So we have a name for our nemesis," he said as he wiped his blade clean, "but why does he want to kill you?"
Catherine shook her head, "I don't know. He was surprised that I could speak the 'dark language of the master' and then he started shouting at me that I'm the one that will make the rain bleed and I am the one who is the only threat to his master. I have no idea why though," she kneeled down beside the body and began to search the corpse.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Miaka asked.
"Searching for anything at all that would shed light on this terrible affair," was all that Cat said.
Soi watched her, and wanted to kick her in the face. It would be so easy, her head was right there. Stupid bitch just had to be the center of attention. Of course Nakago was looking at her. Stupid whore, the way she put on her kimono made it look like she was in a hurry, the top of her breasts were exposed and her legs were showing. She did that on purpose, she had to.
"Any luck?" Yue asked.
Cat stood up, "no, nothing."
"What should we do with the body?" Tamahome walked forward and pushed Cat out of the way; "we can't just leave it here."
"Leave that to me," Tomo walked forward and picked the body up over his shoulder. He was glad that he couldn't sleep and decided to put his paint back on and meditate until morning. Catherine was the only one that saw him without his paint, and he intended on keeping it that way.
He waved his hand over himself, and immediately he looked like a young peasant girl with laundry on her shoulder, "I'll be right back," he said.
"Let's go back to bed, it will be a long day tomorrow and we need all the rest we can get," Nakago said.
Miaka was going to go to Cat's room, but Nakago held her back.
"I heard what you said to Tamahome, and I am sorry for taking your room, would you like it back?"
"Oh, no! That's okay, really! I'm sorry you had to hear that," she smiled up at him again.
"Please, I insist."
"But, where will you sleep?"
"On the floor, if that doesn't bother you," before she could say no he took her hand and they were in the room.
"Now please, just rest."
"No, I can't just let you sleep on the floor," she looked around, but found nothing that would make a suitable bed.
"I'll be fine. I can handle much worse."
"Yeah but you should enjoy comfortableness while you can!"
He lifted an eyebrow, "comfortableness?"
Miaka blushed, "heh, I think that's a word," she shook her head, "anyway, listen, this might sound kinda bad but, the bed is really big, I can sleep way over there on that end, and you can sleep on the other end. See, there's plenty of room!"
Nakago nodded, "very well, if you are not uncomfortable with this, then I shall sleep on the bed."
"Good, I would feel really bad if I made you stay on the ground!"
Nakago shrugged and lay down far away from her.
Miaka coughed, "uh, just as a warning, I might steal all the blankets…"
Nakago shrugged then turned to look at her, "I will just steal them back."
Miaka blushed, "good night then!" She her face in her pillow, and heard Nakago turning back around.
"Uh… Miaka? Where id you go?" She heard Cat's voice in the hallway.
"Oh, Cat!" She jumped out of bed and opened the door, "sorry, I forgot to tell you that I'm sleeping in here."
Cat looked passed her and saw a half-naked Nakago, "oh, I see," she winked at her cousin, "good night."
Miaka's face turned a dark shade of red, "Cat! It's not what you think!"
She smirked, "you don't know what I'm thinking," she shrugged, "hey, do what you want, I'm not gonna stop you," she turned around before entering her room, "good night."
Nakago let a small grin spread on his face, "Come now, you wouldn't want to keep me waiting."
Miaka's head shot up and she looked at him with wide eyes, "what?"
Nakago just let out a little chuckle, "good night Lady Miaka."