New chapters! X3 I hope you enjoy.

Kyia Star- Alright, thank you! I'll try to edit it when I can. :D lol about the Emperor!

aderine no miko- Yes! Actually they are. :D Naw, he's just one of those guys that is only serious when necessay. Ya know? X3 Oh, don't worry, they have plenty of more parts in the future! Though their sort of 'story' is a long ways off . . . I hope you can that long! XD

Suzuno Oosugi- lol yes! Your trademark name. XD Gosh, I always love how many theories you have; you look into this story so deep! X3

quillian91- Thank you! –Hugs- And yes! But what do they learn and encounter in the shrine? XD lol!

Kaeru Soyokaze- lol, yup, that's out Emperor! XD I like him because he's a short and fat chinese looking man. XD XD XD So cool! But it's good that he's nice too, even if he isn't all that smart. X3 lol!

Chapter Thirty-Three

Puriti sneered as she stepped out of Takao's sleek black car, her school shoes stamping hard onto the sidewalk. She turned to look at the driver as she went to grab her small bag, spotting the Universe of the Four Gods between them. She glanced up at him, as if asking if it were okay to take it. Why did she care about him opinion so much anyway? He smiled sweetly, nodding and confirming her question. She turned her head so he wouldn't see the streak of red blotting her cheeks.

"Would you like me to pick you up after school too?" Takao asked, seeming to not mind at all. Part of her wanted to say no, that she could darn well walk home by herself. But seeing his gorgeous, dark eyes, she couldn'r resist.

"Yeah," she replied, trying to sound as uninterested as possible. Besides, it looked like he would have been even more hurt if she said no anyway. But there was something else . . . "My family doesn't know where I was last night though, so . . ."

"Would you like me to call them while you're at school?"

'Thank you!' Puriti was saying in her mind. She tried her hardest to resist a smile, but it was so hard. Takao Oosugi . . . such a charming man, so sweet, so perfect! "Yeah, I can give you the house number."

She turned around again since before her back was facing the car as she talked the better to concentrate. She took out a small piece of paper and a pencil from her bag. She hastily wrote down the number on the Universe of the Four Gods, the first most stable thing she could find and handed it to him as if in a rush. "My Mom is at home all day. Don't worry about the noise; it's loud, but it's only becaue she has my bratty brothers and sisters to take care off."

He laughed a little at her comment, looking at her pouty, annoyed face as she said it. It almost seemed like she was grimacing at the very image itself. He doubted it was as bad as she was saying, but as he took the piece of paper he accepted the rather funny warning she was giving him as well.

"Alright then," he said, smiling again to her and waving a bit before putting his hand on the shift. "I'll see you later today! Have a good day at school."

"Yeah right!" she replied, sticking out her tongue and muttering a small goodbye before shutting the door. She watched him drive off, and for some reason she had a strong desire to just go and run after the car. She pictured it would be a funny looking scene, but while doing it she probably wouldn't care. Even if it was only for a night, she found his company incredibly enjoyable. Almost too enjoyable to bear.

Puriti turned around as she felt a tap on her shoulder, ready and willing to yell at whomever it was that was brave enough to disturb her from her momentary fantasy. While she was with him, she was happy; but outside of that she had a reputation to uphold, and it certainly wasn't a cheery one. "Hey, you-"

She paused her speech but her irritation flared even more so as she recognized the people before her as the five girls that had made Suzuno's life completely miserable the day before. They were almost standing in an orderly fashion, two on one side of the leader and two on the other. The head herself was no doubt the one who started the plan to hurt Suzuno.

She was beautiful, tall and fair-skinned with long, curly dark locks and alluring bright brown eyes. She always wore a thick amount a make-up, plenty of blush and eye framework with a touch of lipstick to bring out a truly gorgeous woman. It was a good thing she was such a splendor too, otherwise men would never go for her with her nasty personality.

"What do you, you nasty bitches?" Puriti snapped, crossing her arms. When she put her pencil back in her bag she had also placed the Universe of the Four Gods in it as well so her hands her free. She eyed the leader in particular. "Especially you, Kumoi."

"Oh!" Kumoi said in an excited, obviously overly dramatic manner as she smacked her hands on her cheeks, giving a rather fearful expression. "What to do, what to do! Miss Puriti is so scary, using her bad language. Why does she target me of all people, I wonder!"

The other four girls sniggered about, all leering at their target. Kumoi eventually laughed with them and Puriti had had to grip the elbow part of her arms trying to control her temper. She almost felt as if the blood circulation was cutting off, she was squeezing so hard.

"Really," Kumoi continued as she stopped laughing. A gust of wind blew and her skirt was so short that she used her hands to push the front down momentarily. "I have to ask; what has you so flustered this morning?"

"What do you think?" Puriti retorted. She took a step forward, letting her arms finally stiffen at her sides. "Why'd you do that to Suzuno Oosugi yesterday?" Kumoi giggled again.

"That girl? Haven't I told you before that I hate weak people like her?" It was true. Even Puriti worked up her nerves through her life so she couldn't be one of those pathetic populace. She herself agreed to the subject, though she'd rather defend them than get them hurt. After all, doing what Kumoi did only made things worse.

The other Jonan attendant, on the other hand, found it much more relieving than Puriti ever had to pick on those fragile ones. "Those kind of people always hide behind others, always feeling sorry for themselves." She pressed her hands to her face again, acting as if she were in a play. "'Oh, I'm so helpless! I need someone to do everything for me because I'm too scared to do anything myself!' Please, those people need to get a life."

"But it's 'cause of idiots like you they can't get a life," Puriti snapped, shifting her weight to her side. "But you can't handle life without putting someone else down.You're weaker than they are!"

She seemed to hit a soft spot for Kumoi for some reason and the girl lunged, pinning the ganguro flat onto the sidewalk. She felt a sharp pain course through her but opened her eyes, noticing something stung on her cheek. There was a small bit of blood seeping through, and Kumoi's long fingernails also had a bit of red.

"Don't ever say I'm weak," Kumoi said in a fiercly dark voice, her eyes glaring down. Her beautiful curly hair was now distressed before school even began, and few people seemed to care about the sudden commotion as they rushed into the building. The attacker was sitting on top of Puriti, with her hands lightly pressed around her neck and her fingernails poking at the skin. She pressed a little harder as she shouted. "I'm not weak! I'm not weak!"

One of Puriti's own hands, which fortunately weren't pinned to her sides, balled into a fist and she sent a hard blow to the girls' face, using her legs to kick her off so she could stand. As she did, she wiped whatever dirt the sidewalked may have tracked upon her, and then she started to gather the things in her bag that had scattered quickly. Of all things, she panicked when she saw the Universe of the Four Gods was neither in her bag nor the ground.

"Where . . .?" she said to herself, looking around frantically a bit. She heard a murmur from Kumoi's pack of four and turned to them. Two were helping their leader up, who seemed to have a very red mark on her face, while the other two her examining Puriti's book. She panicked and ran to the two of them, trying to jerk it out of their hands. "Hey, give that back!"

"What's wrong?" Kumoi taunted as she was completely up, the rage in her voice before gone. The two girls wrestled until they had the Universe of the Four Gods securely in their hands. "What makes this book so important to you. Oh!" she gasped. "Can our dear Puriti actually read? What a surprise! You were always the stupid one back in elementary school."

"Shit," Puriti muttered, trying her best to ignore the mocking. All she wanted back was the book, no matter what. Takao let her bring it to school, and she wasn't going to ruin it for either of them. Plus, even thought the group of five didn't know it, there was a life at stake in there. What would happen if the book was destroyed, or pages were torn out by the group? 'Suzuno probably wouldn't be able to come back . . .'

"Let's see what's inside!" Kumoi said excitedly while the two who had helped the head back up struggled to keep Puriti in her place. She was given the book easily, opening it to the first page and reading it out loud with notice. "Oh, how interesting! A fairy tale!"

"It's not an ordanairy fairy tale!" Puriti shouted, earning a few looks from passerbys. The crowd had thinned greatly since the school bell was about to ring and most were inside, plus the two groups fighting had rather heavy reputations. People who grew up with them didn't want to mess with them. "Give it back, you toothpick bitch! It's not mine!"

Kumoi ignored her, and continued to reading with the book in one hand, the other still holding down the front of her skirt from the wind. A few petals from the cherry blossom trees made her look elegant as she read aloud in a sophisticated manner. "This is the story of a girl who made her dream comes true by calling upon the seven Celestial Warriors. Once the first page is turned you may wish for anything, just like the girl in the story."

'Wait,' Puriti thought, pausing her movements for a moment. 'What would happen if Kumoi turned the page? Would she go in the book too? What if I . . .?'

"Now!" the highschooler said excitedly in an almost fake cheeriness. "Let's turn the page and see what happens!"

"No!" Puriti shouted at the top of her lungs. Because of her lack of resistance for a moment she caught the two offguard as she pushed her way through, reaching for the book. It was too late, however; as Kumoi turned the next page, laughing excitedly like it were a big joke, her eyes became wide with fear as a bright white light erupted. It was blindling, and everyone had to cover their eyes.

After a moment a loud thud was heard on the groud and the light receded. On the ground was the Universe of the four Gods. One of the four girls behind Kumoi, a girl with short straight brown hair and round glasses hurridely went to pick it up, clinging to the book for dear life. "Our Kumoi . . . she's . . . she's . . ."

"Hey," another one said, a girl with long dyed blonde hair. The other three caught her attention. "Kumoi is gone, but . . . where is Puriti Hongo?"

Suzuno was amzed at the site of the palace room she had walked in. It was decorated with beautiful garbs wrapped around the ceiling, all the same beautiful, snowy white lined with gold. On the very back of the room was a tapestry also lined with gold with a fearsome, powerful tiger emrboided around it. A large marble statue of the animal was in front of the wall-hanging and surrounding it in a even circle were several weapons. The holy feel that erupted from the place blew her away.

"This is a shrine," the Emperor began to explain, walking around the statue and looking up at the tapestry. Suzuno and Tatara followed, and for the first time they both noticed a tiny scroll that he picked up. He pulled off the white ribbon and unraveled it; the paper turned out much longer than the other two had thought it would be. "This scroll here was given to our first Emperor, Kan. One of these was also given to the first Emperor's of Kutou, Konan and Hokkan; Koutei, Shujou and Taiso. These were to help us recognize the Priestesses."

He turned to smile at Suzuno rather sweetly, as if she were is own daughter, then as he held the scroll he looked at the tapestry. "Taiitsukun!" he called. "Taiitsukun!"

"What is that?" Suzuno said in a low voice to herself, curious. However, she didn't want to interrupt the Emperor; as fine and kind of a man he seemed, she didn't know what it would take to cross the line. She didn't even want to test it.

Something tickled inside her and her face turned red when she felt Tatara's warm breath near her ear as he whispered to her. He must have heard her question, which would have been easy for him since he was right begind her. "Taiitsukun is our Goddess, the light, the creator of our world."

"Oh . . . Thank you." It was sort of hard to concentrate with his so close, speaking like this. His voice was soft and calm, not in the same silky manner as Amefuri's, but still a handsome voice no less. It almost made her quiver with delight unconciously, and she inwardly hated herself for the strange feeling.

"Taiitsukun! Come out here!" the Emperor called in a somehwat annoyed voice, though with him even that sounded a bit happy. He rapped his knuckles on the tapestry and the Priestess and warrior wondered what on earth it was he was doing. "You may be the Goddess of our world, but you still have a duty to meet our Priestess!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Something about the embroidery on the wall wavered and flickered, and the first thing that came from the airy wave was a pair of legs. There was a momentary pause, then as if she were pushing herself off of something the rest of the Goddess known as Taiitsukun came out, with her beautiful wavy dark hair being flipped back by her delicate hands as she stepped foot to the ground.

Taiitsukun was wearing nothing short of what a Goddess would wear; it weas a strapless, low cut dress that shimmered and looked so finely stitched together Suzuno could have sworn it came from Tokyo itself, or even America. It was golden, just the same as her eye and lip make-up, complimenting her dark skin. The Priestess almost thought of her as an egyptian beauty for some reason.

"Hmm . . ." Taiitsukun stepped forward, the slit in the dress letting one of her legs step out from underneath. Her ankles were wrapped with several ornaments. She took her hand and grabbed Suzuno's face quickly, startling the girl, and held their faces close together as if he were examining her. After a momet of being eye to eye, she smiled. "This is certainly our Priestess!"

"What?" Suzuno said aloud, a little confused. Her voice was muffled since her cheeks were squeezed together. The Goddess had turned to the Emperor for a moment to confirm with him, but looked back. "How could you tell?"

"I know these things," she replied, holding up her index finger and winking a bit. "You don't have to worry about a thing!" Next she spotted Tatara, who hadn't had much acknowledgement from her yet. She smiled slyly. "And our handsome warrior, is it?"

"Tatara," he replied, bowing a little to the Goddess. He decided not to say yes; it would make him seem a little arrogant, with the way she added 'handsome' in there. But, he didn't want to be rude to someone of such high status, either. "Thank you."

"Such a doll," Taiitsukun said in a loving voice. She was back to Suzuno. "Now, I'm sure you want to know a little more about this quest, wouldn't you?"

X x x x x

Wow, everyone was dead-one with this chapter! I had guesses of the Shrine or Taiitsukun; and you both were right! XD Hahahaaa . . . I'm sure you had fun with that! And what's this? Puriti and Takao came back? Well, Puriti came back . . . and so did the girl who started this whole mess! Kumoi. XD I wonder what people will think of her.

Yeay . . . writing this is so exciting! X3 X3 X3