Another chappie . . . What can I say? It' a chappie! XD I edited this twice 'cause I accidentally deleted it the first time, but it's good now. –Listens to 80's music- I wish I was bron in the 80's! There music was awsome! XD

Kaeru Soyokaze- Yes, let's all beat the villagers! XD Actually, you'll have to see if they burnt Toroki or not. 'Cause . . . I dunno! O.o But there are good villagers here. Yeay for new characters! Coming soon! –dances-

Suzuno Oosugi- Ooooh . . . lotsa stuff! And of course Ame-baby would be upset! That's his shy girl Tatara is taking away from him! XD lol, just playing!

Chapter Twenty-Six

Everyone's face turned to Tatara. While they had expected Lanva to inform them of what the village was set ablaze in the crowd, it was the single male warrior among them that answered. Suzuno looked up to him, her eyes wide with fright. Could he be serious?

"How'd you know?" Lanva asked. His eyes were also surprised, completely stumped at how he could figure something like that out. He abruptly stood up from his chair for no particular reason, crossing his arms together and looking around, his fingers seeming quite fidgety. It was almost like he was scared. "Did you see it?"

"Yeah," Tatara replied. "If you looked closely, the shape of what was in the fire was human. No doubt.

There was a long silence between the four of them, and a depressing, frightened aura was present. Suzuno especially couldn't help but shiver in dread. When she first saw the fire, though hot and hard to stand near, she thought in a way it was amazing. To learn that there was something burning there, dying there, made her sick to her stomach. She imagined it was common to burn their food, but from everyone's faces she was sure no one did such a thing to people.

Aoi-Yuki must have sensed something, because Suzuno felt his little body shuffle around uncomfortably until it found an opening through the blanket of a robe. He poked his head through, his snowy white paws steady on her collarbone. She looked down at her pet, feeling like she wanted to smile when she gazed at his adorable blue eyes; unfortunately, part of her also wanted to cry for whoever was in that fire.

Feeling the chill in the air still, Aoi-Yuki further braced himself on Suzuno's chest and reached up to lick her cheek. At this point the warm, rough, sand-paper tongue was definitely what she needed. She squeezed the body of the baby tiger a little as if to say 'thank you', scratching his back affectionately.

"But was was more unusual . . ." Tatara started, looking down towards the ground as if in thought about the body, "Was the reason they were burning it."

"What?" Subaru asked. Though she seemed disgusted, she was still curious. Lanva finished his statement.

"The man told me it was because he was a Toroki," he said, and he shrugged. Partly he wondered how Tatara noticed this as well; he hadn't seen neither a body in the flames nor something like the symbol all the previous creatures possessed. All he did was hear about it from the man he asked the information from.

"What? But wait . . . It was human?"

"Weren't they all animals though?" Suzuno asked. Lanva nodded.

"That's what makes this so strange," he replied."Over the past two months or so there have been around fifty reports of the Toroki, all different descriptions. But I don't remember them ever reporting something about them being human recently, no less any of the past reports being human. I would know; Bounty Hunters get the latest info."

All four of them fell into a profound silence once again, though no words were needed to be able to tell what everyone was feeling. Though different, they each had the same opinions of Midoru; something peculiarly wrong was going on around here.

Finally, Tatara was the first to speak. He sighed a little first, and because of the stilled air everyone heard it and all attention was brought to him. Instead of protruding further, he simply said, "We should all rest for tonight. We can worry about the what's happening in the morning."

A huge heave of relief seemed to flow from Subaru and Lanva who both looked more than happy to take the warrior up on his offer. The two of them ran over to the stand in the far back where a man was. He was sleeping, his head resting comfortably in his arms on the desktop. He looked like he had a long day.

While the other two were getting the attention of the Innkeeper, Lanva being rather loud and rude about waking him up while Subaru scolded him, Tatara, the one who made the suggestion in the first place, seemed to stare off. Suzuno noticed his gaze and wondered what he was contemplating about so much that he forgot to follow the others.

"Tatara . . .?" she said in an almost meek voice, not wanting to shock him out of his thoughts. He right away looked down at her as if he were never in his glazed over state in the first place.

"What is it?" he asked in his calm voice. Something about him speaking made her feel so comfortable, espeically when it directed towards her. He may have at first declined her offer to become a Warrior of Byakko, but it was barely a whole day later that he had changed his mind. He was just as protective of her as Subaru was.

'Should I ask him?' she thought, a sudden stone dropping in the pit of her stomach. She felt a little nervous when she was considering asking her question. When they watched the inferno, he acted strangely. That mystery had at least been solved. But when she looked at the blaze she hadn't seen anything but fire; no body, no symbol. How did he know?

"If something is bothering you . . ." she was distracted by Tatara speaking once again, ". . . Ask me."

"Should I?" she questioned. Her gaze fell to the side, not making eye contact. "I . . . I don't know if it's an offending question or not."

"Remember what I had told you before in the Haunted Mountains?"

'Of course!' she said in her mind, the words he advised to her instantly coming to mind. A person who asks a question remains a fool for five minutes, but one who never asks is a fool forever.' Something about the power behind those words made her feel like she should ask about the things she felt more often.

"Well . . ." she took an inward breath, playing what he told her over and over. She was just hoping that her question wouldn't make him angry. "I'm sorry that I doubt you a little, but . . . How did you really know . . .? About . . ." she paused as she thought out her words, "About the Toroki and what they were buring?"

She was still looking away, and although she was a bit nervous that stone she felt seemed to dissolve the moment she asked on the issue. It was the second time Tatara had used what he said to make her do something she was afraid of doing. She loved the sensation!

Suzuno's eyes became large when for the first time, she heard Tatara actually laugh quietly. It was only a little, but enough to let her know he wasn't angry at all, but quite amused. Her cheeks flushed and she suddenly wished she hadn't asked it; she was so embarrassed, but his words once again reassured her.

"You saw right through me," he told her. A small flutter rose her chest. Now she knew that he wasn't laughing at her, but in an odd way with her. Almost childishly and very unlike him in her opinion, he glanced over to the other two to see if they were still busy and leaned down closer to her. The color on her cheeks turned darker as she felt his breath his her ear, "To tell you the truth, Lanva and the man he was shouting to were loud enough that I could hear their conversation."

This was enough to make just start giggling, without any thought of being embarrassed about it. While still holding Aoi-Yuki tightly in one arm she held her other hand over her mouth, a fuzzy warmth filling her chest so much that it was overflowing. There wasn't anything necessarily funny about what he said, but at the same time it was the most hilarious thing in the world.

In fact, as she started to walk towards the stand with Tatara, the two together since they still were sharing the same overcoat, she began to realize that she hadn't laughed so much in a long time. No one had made her laugh so much in a long time, and it was only over a silly remark. Without even realizing it she leaned her head against him; she was so short compared to him that she only reached his chest. He didn't move as if to protests it, and she relaxed.

'What is it . . .?" she thought to herself as she closed her eyes, relishing in the happy, blue sky sensation filling her up, 'What's happening now that's making me feel so . . . so good?'

The first thought that came to her mind to answer that questions was her Father. Whenever she was with him, even if it was a bad day, he somehow always managed to bring a smile to her face. He was such a wonderful Father, so dedicated, so sweet . . . The feeling she had now was almost reminding her of the same thing. 'But how could . . .?'

"What the hell?"

Suzuno was shocked out of her thoughts when she opened her eyes, only to see Lanva's face nearly nose-to-nose with hers. She jumped back, her arms unconciously clinging over her chest where her little pet was resting before being disturbed. He started to laugh loudly, not even bothering with covering his mouth for civility as Aoi-Yuki jumped out from underneath the cloth. Subaru came from behind him and sent a blow to his head with her fist, in which he at once stopped his chuckling.

"Ow! Okay, okay," he muttered, rubbing the back of his cranium. "No one ever visits here, so there are four rooms, if you guys are good with that."

'A separate room,' Suzuno thought, happy with the idea. In Tokyo she had a cute, pink room all to herself where she could lie down and think is she was ever bothered with something. It was filled with stuffed animals, clothes that were bought for her, the the most comfortable sheets in the world to sleep in. Of course, half the time if she was upset enough she would cuddle with her Father in his room until she felt better, but having her own room did feel nice.

"Could I?" she asked the three of them, looking at each of their faces; she was amazed at how tall the people in Sairou were. They were alll a little surprised, and Subaru looked a little hurt, as if she was the reason that the Priestess wanted to stay alone. "No, no, it's not that! I just . . . like my own place to stay sometimes . . . r-really . . ."

A third nervous silence between them all had arisen since they were inside the Inn. Her stuttering began again, and Suzuno felt horrible inside for suddenly causing so much trouble. Why did she ask? Tatara's advice sounded so nice a lot, but for her it almost always, always makes the situation worse . . .

Where had that happy feeling she had just a moment ago gone?

Tatara spoke up; he didn't really seem upset so much. But then again, the other two companions were much more visibly honest with their feelings, in sometimes almost childish ways. "I think that we should have at least one person stay in the same room as Suzuno."

"What?!" Subaru and Lanva shouted together, again showing how much more they portrayed their emotions.

"She is the Priestess.. With the Toroki incident and everything . . ."

While Lanva was still fuming, only thinking that it was Tatara who wanted to stay in the same room for the sake of being in there with a girl, Subaru completely understood what he really had intended. She crossed her arms over her chest, nodding in agreement. "I see what you mean. If they find out we're warriors, they might attack us."

"Huh? Why would they do what?"

"Shut up, Idiot!"

Suzuno partly felt better now that all of the negative attention from a moment ago had once again been taken away. She listened to the more mature of the two discuss the situation, and in her mind she had a feeling thay even if she wanted a room to herself, she wasn't going to get it. They had good reason not to let her go; unfortunately, the stirring of the Toroki creature was going to make a bad impression on the Preistess.

"Well!" Lanva unclothed Suzuno's top robe and slightly pushed her away from Tatara, setting her next to his fiance and nodding to himself. In replacement, he pulled what was left of the dressing gown and cuddled next to the warrior, snickering like a child. "I say the girls should sleep together so I can stay with this handsome guy!"

"Wait," Subaru started, a bit confused, "Didn't the Innkeeper say there were plenty of rooms for all of us? I heard him." He shook his head.

"No, you were hearing things. Besides . . ." He pulled the soft coat in extra-tight, " . . . I wanna spend some quality boy time!"

The girls raised an eyebrow at his unusual lack of interest in staying with the two of them, but in the end decided it was best not to pursue the subject. Although Subaru had never been in agreement with living with such an immature man, thanks to that she knew him better than everyone else. 'He's planning something . . .'

X x x x

So, what they were burning- still a mystery! Except that it was human . . T.T Evil villagers! But . . . what if there's a reason? Hopefully coming soon! Next Thursday, in fact!