Well, there hasn't been an update in a couple of weeks. Why? I have an excuse! Yeay! I had bad grades on my interim, so my focus was devoted to school and I wasn't allowed on the computer at all. XD Yeah!

But, this is one of my favorite chapters for some reason, so I hope that makes up for it. )

Kaeru Soyokaze: -cries- I can no longer be considered a mad updater! XD It's good to know you dun judge first- there aren't enough people like that!

Suzuno Oosugi- I'm glad you seem okay with Nashie too. XD Tatara shall come back soon! Someday . . . yup . . . TT

Care- Thank you! At some point, all of the warriors will be together. XD I just dunno when that'll happen! I'm gonna try to keep the story at an even pace, but I hope it's not too frustrating. )

Chaotic Demon- Yeay for totouring! –Daces- XD

Hotohori Fan- -Hugs- Thank you so, so, so, so much! Yeay, another Amefuri fan. ) I'm happy everyone finds him so developed since I personally feel like he's so hard to pinpoint! I think he's my favorite character too though! )

Lady Rhian Knightmage- Yes, knowing Japanese is kewl! ) I want to take it someday! I'm happy you like Nashie. I dun wanna reveal her future role, but in this chapter it implies quite a bit of her situation and what's going on with her! It gives the sort of 'world connection' thing to it, and she's greatly involved in that!

My DA account is Hatsu-chan, but I dun have anything up yet. XD I need to get to it!

Fukai Tsumi- No, not at all! I'm bad at updating. XD Does he really remind you of Amiboshi? That wasn't the intent at all! Though Amiboshi is among my favorite FY characters . . . lol! Amefuri's design is partly inspired actually by Tomite of the Genbu Seven, although he definitely has his own flair. XD

Yes, Puriti is related to Yui, who won't be born until about thirty or forty years later. XD lol! I don't have that in a lot yet, as it's not supposed to be a big part of the story, but I have a way to explain it that will be added to the story sooner or later. Alright!

Ummm . . . Lanva doesn't have a profile? XD I forgot him! Poor guy. Lol! When I write a good enough one I'll stick it up someday.

Chapter Eighteen

Amefuri was staring upward, and he would've examined the the swirling green, black and white marble texture of the ceiling had it not been for the swan colored cover connected at the four posts on his bed. His eyes were opening and closing lazily; while he was sure he would fall victim to a nice sleep, he quickly woke up, and now dozing on and off again was the only thing he could do.

Despite this being a palace and him being in the most feather-soft bed the world posessed, his small fever that he knew could rise at any time made him feel increasingly uncomfortable. While he rarely got sick from the acids and poisons he possessed since he was immune to most, there were the few that got to him much worse than others.

'This blessing is more of a curse,' Amefuri thought to himself sarcastically, managing a small laugh. He heard a door nearby creek along with a tiny, fast paced footsteps and turned his face a little. Walking in was a short plump man with slit eyes; though normally such eyes would be from a fearful assassin or warrior, these in particular were jovial and only there because of ethinicity. When he opened them however, they were quite round.

"My, haven't you grown up!" The Emperor said impressively with a wide smile. Amefuri noted the drink in his hand as the short man quickly bounced over to his bedside enthusiastically. "It's been a while; many, many years!"

"Yes, your highness," Amefuri replied, not bothering to sit up or move to show repsect. He knew the man wouldn't mind, as he was always rather jolly and easily forgave the lack of formalities. He smirked. "I see nothing about you has changed."

"No, nothing at all," he replied, not catching the small bit of insult there as Amefuri expected. "How have you been? I heard that in the Capital you're quite popular."

"I guess you could say that."

"Yes, yes."

There was a silence, though the feeling of awkwardness was only one-sided. The Emperor was quite comfortable in the presence of the young man, and even casually offered a bit of his drink. The younger of the two quickly and quietly declined.

"Emperor," Amefuri started after a while, getting his attention. He had a wine bottle in one hand and was pouring it slowly in the glass drink; though obviously tipsy, he seemed to have mastered keeping it all in the glass. "Why . . . why do you want me to be with your daughter?"

"Hm?" he seemed like it was the most obvious path to do to a virgin. "What do you mean?"

"The Empress . . . she's getting married. . . to the future Emperor of Kutou, no less. Is it really . . . my place to be involved in?"

For a moment, Amefuri was surprised at the serious face the Emperor had show him. He stopped his momentary sipping of wine and sat both the bottle and glass on a little round table by the bed, sighing and closing his eyes as if he were mentally preparing for his words.

"There is something more than just this marriage," he said, piquing the Celestial Warriors' interest. "Nashie, smart and strong as she may be, is also naïve. She doesn't know what is out there, and the same goes for Amai."

'The Prince of Kutou,' Amefuri reminded himself, his brain triggering at the name.

"He's a soldier under commander Shuri- best of the best, he is, he is- but has never gone to war. He's also never been in love, and while the Emperor and I both agree this marriage is an appropriate bond for the countries, in the end if it doesn't work out . . ."

"Then both countries will suffer the consequences," Amefuri concluded, and he nodded.

"Yes, yes," he said. "There's also another problem. To keep good ties between our countries, both The Emperor of Konan, and the Emperor of Hokkan and his children visit regularly, as I do visit them." He chuckled a little as he went to retrieve his wine. "Apparently as a multiple of the mistresses in the castle has told me, there's a bit of a love triangle."

"Love triangle?" Unfortunately as it went, Amefuri was with Amai when it came to love. He had never had the feeling before as far as he knew. According to the scowls of dissaproving fellow citizens, sex and love were not one and the same.

The Emperor laughed again. "Yes, yes. I hadn't known until after the arrangement between Amai and my daughter, but Nashie is apparently in love with Sousui, the Emperor of Konan."

'That's not so bad, I guess,' Amefuri concluded, but he was quickly corrected when that wasn't all.

"The Emperor of Hokkan has also told me that his son, Aijin, is in love with my daughters' beauty while his youngest daughter Ritoru is in love with Amai's sword skill.."

"You . . ." Amefuri paused, trying to recollect all of the twists and turns in the life of the royals, finding that the path to understanding was more than confusing. It was more than hard to swallow. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Actually, I'm not," the Emperor said, taking a sip out of his wine. Amefuri sighed a bit of relief and was ready to discard the information form his mind when the man laughed loudly and said, "I suppose it's not a love triangle! What would you call it, a love square? No, no, it has more than four . . ."

"Your highness makes me ill," Amefuri joked. In his curiosity of listening to the story he had sat up a little, but now that the moment of storytelling was over he had fallen rather heavily back onto his bed. He was yet again offered a small sip of the Emperors' drink, and instead of denying it again he took it with a smile and thank you.

"So, where do I come in?" he asked after handing back the glass.

"I want her to fall out of love," he told him in a whisper, his face inching closer as if there were others surrounding them just eager to hear his stradegy, "But not in love with you!"

For a moment the whole idea seem more than far-fetched; how could he make her fall out of love without her falling in love with him? Couldn't he have just as easily done that with his highness Amai? Then the reminder that he was practically a dolt with love according to the Emperor passed through his mind. But there was also the argument that he was the same.

"I don't-"

"You've had this service for years without women falling in love, right?" Amefuri began to speak, but was quickly interrupted. When the Warrior listened more to his side, his plan started to make more and more sense. "Just let her fall out of love; I'm sure it'll be easier for an expert like you, right?"

It was true that this plan was something smart for the Emperor and also something clever enough for Amefuri to pull off . . . What disadvantage could there be? With a smile, he nodded and said, "I'll try it out."

"Good, good!" The Emperor replied with a satisfactory laugh.

"Now, I need to discuss something else."

"Hm?"

"This conversation," he started, ready to let all of his collected thoughts out, "Involves the Priestess of Bykkao."

Unable to receive a horse for their ride, Lanva quickly bought them thin white cloths to protect them from the sun, and Subaru bought water. It was going to be a bit of a hard walk to the next village; worse, they were going in the direction oppisite of the Haunted Mountain, so there was absolutely nowhere to stop in between.

Suzuno had been so used to the hard ground that walking through the dirt that started to slowly loosen into sand was harder than expected. Her socks that were originally almost up to her knees had been sliding down, allowing the sand she unpurposefully kicked up to get uncomfortably down into her feet and toes. Immediantly she hated the idea of walking, but she was happy that the temperature was nice at this hour. She decided it was best not to complain.

"Too bad it's going to get hotter once the sun comes completely up," Lanva said in a dissapointed tone, as if he were reading her mind, "and worse, we might have to camp out or something in the cold."

"The change of temperature will surely bring a fever to Suzuno," Subaru said worridly. She decided to keep quiet and listen as they walked, since the two had been nit-picking over her wellbeing since earlier.

"I can't help that, you know."

"Well, did you buy any cloths thicker than this?"

Lanva sighed, "I couldn't; we don't have enough money!"

"What?!" she shouted back. Suzuno was inbetween the both of them while they were in the sand, and she stopped for a moment just so she could be behind them while they were arguing. She started taking her steps again once she was a bit of a distance, and the two didn't notice her discomfort.

"We're going to freeze to death or burn up before our mission is done!" Subaru said angrily, angry eyes on her fiancee, "what were you thinking?! It'd be best if you had gotten thicker ones instead of these rags!"

"Well if you had a job like me, maybe we would've had the money," he replied, sticking out his tongue like he had won the argument. "Bounty hunting doesn't pay as much as it used to, especially to weak women."

"You shovenistic pig-"

"You . . ."

Both stopped their bickering and turned to look at Suzuno, who was looking at Lanva with a surprised expression. "You're a . . . Bounty Hunter?"

He looked back at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world, saying, "Yeah."

"You must be strong."

Lanva puffed ot his chest like someone had taken a pump and filled him with more ego. He smiled confidently, winking at her at the same time.

"Of course!" he said, "I'm one of the best in Sairou!"

". . . Really?"

"He's lying," Subaru said in a flat tone, instantly bringing her partner's pride down. He kicked the sand up a little as if frustrated, but his face looked more like a pouting child. However, it was true. He quickly admitted that being a Bounty Hunter was so common, it was hard to find jobs or become famous in that area of work. Enthusiastic boys learned about earning a fast coin or two, and now finding money, stopping criminals or stopping upsetting pests was particularly hard.

'At least it seems like this world isn't so troubling,' Suzuno thought with a shy smile as they started to walk again. In the middle of Lanva's small chance for attention, the three had stopped, and Subaru scolded him for holding them up when there wasn't much time for this steady warmth to last. She thought back at the city she had learned as nothing more than the Captial. 'When I was there, I thought that it was full of frightening people . . '

An image of Jin-Shun rose to mind instantly when she thought of scary people, and she remembered his rather harsh features and tall, overpowering height that would intimidate anyone. She remembered feeling further insecure when she saw his small collection of knives, some he claimed for his friends. Even though in the end he seemed like a nice person who turned out to be even younger than her, she couldn't help but keep her first impression of him tricking her to get to Amefuri.

'Amefuri . . .' How was he? He was heading towards the palace, and she was curious if he had gotten there already, or if such a holy place was much further off. She also worried that if the chilling temperatures were as freezing at night as the couple she was with warned her, how his wellbeing would be and if he even had made it.

She thought of one of her few comrades already gone easily discouraged her, and as much as she wanted to get the image out of her mind, she couldn't. If that had happened, she would only be with two out of seven. And didn't they need all of the warriors to Summon Byakko, like she had been told by the same warrior she was nerve-racking over?

Suddenly Suzuno was driven out of her thoughts when she heard a small hiss and looked down, seeing Aoi-Yuki next to her and slightly underneath her robe with a tense body. It stared forward, looking past Subaru and Lanva who had stopped and turned at the little tiger's disturbance. The three twisted their heads in all directions, finding only sand and a slowly color shifting sky as far as they could see.

"Is it another . . ." Suzuno paused, remembering her past incident and feeling a chill shoot through her spine, "Colossal Scorpion?"

"Could be," Lanva said in a slightly serious voice, his face clearly alert for anything peculiar. "But they aren't the only things in the deserts."

With the hairs on the back of her neck standing on edge, Suzuno quietly ushered her little pet forward. She was about to step forward when Aoi-Yuki growled so loudly it frightened her, and right where she was about to wall, she noticed a oddly dark patch of sand . . .

X x x x x

Well, I certainly threw everyone for a loop I bet! XD Lots of names, some more important than others. Here's a small review in no particular order-

Amai- The Princ of Kutou, and Nashie's fiancee

Sousui- The Emperor of Konan, and Nashie's secret love

Aijin- The Prince of Hokkan, and in love with Nashie

Ritoru- The Princess of Hokkan, and in love with Amai

Shuri- The Commander of Kutou's Army

Did I miss any names? XD lol, I hope I didn't! They weren't just thrown in there though- Each character I introduce, subtle or huge, has their role for a reason. Be on the lookout for these guys! I wonder if anyone's opinion of Nashie changed a little . . . Probably not! Lol!

I'm sure people like the Emperor too. Monarchy's are so weird, letting drunks rule kingdoms. XD lol! Just kidding!