Lonely Angel

Disclaimer: I do not own any bit of this story, Fushigi Yugi belongs to Yuu Watase, and Harry Potter/Hogwarts belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros.

Author's Note: We finally figure out why Nozomi has been ignoring her feelings for Hotohori! And the origin of the phrase 'Hell hath no fury…' Enjoy!

Past Mistakes and Role Playing

"Nozomi, I wish to speak with you before you go."

Turning to Taiitsukun, Nozomi paused in harnessing her horse. "What is it?"

"Not here, I'd like to speak privately."

"Of course, Hotohori, would you mind finishing up for me here?"

Hotohori walked over to her horse, having already finished with his own, and took the saddle from her. "Not at all. Try not to take too long, though, we need to leave soon." Nozomi nodded, and followed Taiitsukun back into her domain. Hotohori frowned. Nozomi had had trouble looking him in the eye ever since they escaped from Kutou, and it was bothering him.

Misunderstanding the reason for his frown, Chichiri tried to reassure the young man. "Don't worry, no da. Taiitsukun doesn't bite. I've trained under her for three years, and the scariest thing about her is her face, no da!"

Appreciating Chichiri's effort, Hotohori tried to smile. But his worries only increased when it was a much subdued Nozomi who returned to them. And this time he couldn't even hold her, for Taiitsukun had given each of them their own horse.

Over the next few days of traveling, a pattern developed. During the day when they traveled, Nozomi would keep up a light, superficial banter. At night when they set up camp, Nozomi would start the fire for them, and then leave to take a bath, usually not coming back until the fire needed more wood.

At first Hotohori objected to her going off to bathe by herself, considering her track record, but she wouldn't hear any of it.

"What will you do if you're attacked? Maybe by Kutou assassins again?"

Giving him a half smile she said, "I'll scream really loud." and walked away. And with that he had to be satisfied.

On the third night, with still no sign of the other warriors, Hotohori confessed his worries to Chichiri, though not willingly.

"You love her." It was not a question.

"Yes. At first we had a fairly easy-going friendship. But ever since we came back from Kutou she's been distant, much more uncomfortable in my presence, and she's been ignoring me."

"Have you told her how you feel?"

"Yes, before we ever left the palace. But she was never nervous around me until now. I'm worried, and I want to know what happened to change her."

"Have you tried asking?"

"I haven't had the chance. As I said, she seems to be avoiding me."

"Then I'll ask her, no da! She's not avoiding me."

Before Hotohori could tell him to stop, Chichiri had already run away, looking for their priestess, who was off bathing. Sighing, he was left all alone with his worries.

Silently Chichiri crept up behind Nozomi. She was lazily dipping the bottom fins of her red tail into the gently lapping water, while she sat on the bank. Everything about her body language declared that she was lost in her thoughts.

"That's not the correct way to fish, no da."

Startled, Nozomi turned around, and when she saw who it was, smiled a little sadly. "It wouldn't be a good idea anyway, seeing as I can't eat fish."

"Aren't you delaying the transformation like that though? Hotohori-sama told me you can only change back when you're dry."

"That's right. But this is the closest I can come to dipping my feet into the water. I was just…thinking."

"Have a lot on your mind?"

"Let's just say that even if Taiitsukun hadn't given me a lot of food for thought, I'd still have a lot of thinking to do."

"Why don't you tell him?"

"Excuse me? Tell who?"

"Hotohori-sama, tell him how you feel."

Though she had a pretty good idea what he meant, Nozomi didn't want to give up her secret unless she knew for sure. So she decided to play dumb. "What do you mean?"

"Tell him that you love him."

Sighing, she turned to face him. "Now how in the world did you know that? You've only been traveling with us for three days."

"You forget I've been following you for much longer than that, no da. It's amazing what you can figure out when you observe the way people interact."

Nozomi gave a derisive snort. "You're preaching to the choir."

Cocking his head in confusion, Chichiri said, "What does that mean?"

"Sorry, phrase in my world. Means you're trying to convince someone who already knows it's true."

"So why don't you tell him how you feel?"

"Three reasons." Chichiri waited for her to continue, but when it became clear she wasn't going too, he urged her to say something more.

"May one ask what those reasons are?"

"You're not going to let up until I tell you, are you?" Though he hadn't started the interrogation yet, Nozomi had no trouble recognizing the determination in his voice.

"Definitely not, no da!" At the cheerfulness in his tone, Nozomi groaned.

"You and Nyan-Nyan must have gotten along really well." Chichiri just kept smiling. Though granted, he was always smiling while wearing the mask.

"Okay, not necessarily in order of importance, the first reason is that Nuriko loves him too. Number two, I don't deserve him. And last but certainly not least, I don't think I'd make a very good Empress."

The monk sat in thought for a few moments before speaking. "I'm guessing the second one is the main reason." His only reply was a dejected nod. "Why do you think you don't deserve him?"

There was a slight pause before she answered him, and even then it wasn't much of an answer. "There's a religion in my world where if you do something you shouldn't have, you can go to one of the religious leaders, called priests, and confess. But whatever you say to them during your confession, they can never repeat to another living soul."

Knowing what she was getting at, Chichiri nodded wisely. "Consider this a confession, then. I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks. I'm guessing with everything else you know you've heard that my grandfather, my only living relative, died when I was nine." At Chichiri's nod, she continued.

"Well, when he was alive, there was this one man, who really didn't like either of us. I never knew why. Every time he saw us, he would throw insults our way, purposefully trying to get us angry. My first impulse was to rise to his bait, but every time Grandpa stopped me, saying that holding our heads high and with dignity would be the best way to make his actions seem as childish as they were. After time, I didn't feel the need to react, Grandpa and I would just go about our business like he wasn't there, taunting us.

"The day Grandpa had his heart attack, I took him to the hospital, and I got to be with him during the last few moments of his life. I had asked the nurses if I could step outside for a few minutes to deal with my grief.

"I hadn't been outside for more than a few minutes when that same man came by. I don't even remember what he said; only that it was about Grandpa, and it wasn't very nice. All I remember is feeling an explosion of grief and anger. The next thing I knew, doctors were pulling me off of his battered body, and I burst into tears."

Nozomi took a moment to collect herself, though she didn't look up from looking at the grass lining the river bank.

"Before I go any further, I should probably explain that magic in my world feeds off your emotions. That's why we go to school, to learn to control it, even if we get angry or scared. But mermaids are a little different, when we get angry, we start shooting fire. I can control it now, but I hadn't learned how back then.

"Everywhere I'd touched him, he had horrible burns. Even the doctors who pulled me off him burned their hands by touching me. Between the burns and all the bones I cracked and broke, I almost killed him. He spent two days in the intensive care unit."

Nozomi's voice almost broke at the admission, but she cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and continued.

"Everyone thought when I distanced myself from people; it was because of my grandfather's death. I thought so myself at the time. But now I'm wondering if it wasn't more because I was scared of losing control like that again."

As Nozomi fell silent, Chichiri pondered everything she'd said. 'How is it that her situation bears so many similarities to mine? Should I tell her about my past? Would that make her feel better?' At the thought, he cringed. He wasn't ready to tell anyone about his whole past, it was still too painful. But maybe he could let her know that she wasn't alone, without giving specific details.

Taking off his mask, he turned to her, and spoke in his normal, much deeper voice. "You aren't the only one to lose control and act on anger."

At the unexpected change in his vocal timbre, Nozomi looked up, and gasped. Under the mask was a large scar slashing across his left eye and then some. But that wasn't the only reason for her vocal response. Even with the scar, he was much better looking without the mask.

Internally, Chichiri sighed when she displayed the normal shocked reaction. He hated this part. His scar always disturbed people, which is why he wore the mask in the first place. For some reason though, no one seemed to take him seriously when he was wearing it. Of course that could also be because he spoke like a little girl on helium when he wore it, but that was beside the point.

Nozomi kept looking at him, and the more she looked, the more she got used to the scar. It did shock her, it looked incredibly painful, but she had gotten over her initial reaction to it. Now that she could trust her voice, she said the first thing that came to mind.

"You look better without the mask." At Chichiri's slack-jawed look, she tried to explain. "I mean, I don't think I really want to know how you got it, but it's pretty tame as far as scar's go."

"You've seen worse?"

Nozomi scoffed. "You haven't seen scarred until you've seen Mad-Eye Moody. Not only does he not have an eye, but he's also missing a nose and a leg. And that's only the beginning. I've never met him, but I've seen him in passing."

Feeling better about his scar than he had in ages, Chichiri stood up. "I better get back to camp. But Nozomi? I really think you should let Hotohori-sama decide if you deserve him or not. Don't stay out too long."

With that, the blue-haired monk made his way back to Hotohori, leaving a very thoughtful priestess behind him. When Hotohori looked up, his hopeful expression quickly turned into one of shock. "Chichiri? Is that you?"

He was confused until he realized that he still hadn't replaced his mask. 'Darn, she really must have made me feel better about it if I didn't even realize I hadn't put the mask back on.' "Yep, it's me."

"Do you know what's bothering Nozomi?"

"Yes. I'll conveniently disappear tomorrow so you can pry it out of her."

Frowning, Hotohori was going to argue, but then stopped as he realized that Chichiri was right. He needed to hear it from her, and not get his information second hand. Redirecting his impatience, he viciously poked at the fire to get it going faster.

For the rest of the night, Chichiri eased what would have been a very tense situation by turning himself into each of the warriors in turn, and doing such accurate impressions of them that Nozomi and Hotohori couldn't help but laugh. Not to mention his ultra-cute miniature version of himself. That happened to be Nozomi's favorite one, aside from his impression of Hotohori, of course.

Quite possibly her favorite part of the night, however, was Hotohori's reaction to Chichiri's impression of him. At first his face had displayed an awed admiration of the monk's abilities. But when he looked closer, his mouth had set in a grim line, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. Drawing himself up to sit even straighter than he was already, he insisted, "I am far more beautiful than that."

In spite of all the worries plaguing her overworked brain, Nozomi couldn't help but smile. His narcissism was really too much. Chichiri, who wasn't quite as used to Hotohori's eccentricities, sweat dropped, and tried to insist that he couldn't look any more like Hotohori than he did already.

The next morning, they hadn't covered much ground before Chichiri's horse started to act a little sickly. In concern for the stallion's health, they decided to give him a rest. Tying up the horses, Hotohori and Nozomi plopped down and rested against a couple of tree trunks. It was a few seconds later that Nozomi anxiously noticed Chichiri wasn't anywhere in sight. She was getting seriously alarmed, after all, he had been right behind them, and his horse was still there, but Hotohori interrupted her panicked thoughts.

"He's fine. I told him you and I needed to talk, so he's giving us some privacy."

He could have been mistaken, but to him it looked like Nozomi paled a little and then muttered something that sounded a lot like, "Freakin' monk."

"Nozomi, we really do need to talk, you've been avoiding me ever since we set out. What happened to make you uncomfortable? Was it something I said or did while I was drunk?"

Shifting uneasily, Nozomi said, "I guess you could say that."

"What is it then? Just tell me." Before she could stop him, he scooted over and grasped her hands in his. "I'd be happy if we could just go back to that easy friendship we had before. Whatever it is, we'll fix it." When Nozomi still didn't say anything, and was clearly contemplating fleeing, he continued, desperate to make her more at ease. "How about you start at the beginning and work your way to whatever it is that's bothering you?"

Taking a deep breath, Nozomi nodded her agreement. "The first noteworthy thing that happened was when you started prancing around preening yourself and singing 'I feel pretty'." In spite of her nervousness, she had to smile at the memory. Yes indeed, payback still felt good after all this time.

Confused, Hotohori asked for clarification. "Did I just make up a song?"

Trying and failing to inch away, Nozomi said, "No, it's a song from my world."

A teasing light in his eyes, he scolded her, "So it's your fault then."

"Hey! You ordered me to teach it to you. Who am I to ignore a direct order from the emperor?"

"Okay, so what are the words to this song? I'd like to know how big of a fool I made out of myself."

At this, an idea popped in Nozomi's head. An idea that made her heart pound even faster than it was already, and made her palms sweat, but she figured might actually make it easier to tell him what went on. Or so she tried to reason with herself. Another reason she would only admit to herself, was it would also allow her to do something she'd viewed as forbidden fruit for the past four days.

"How about we do a little role-playing? You be me, which will be really easy, you just sit there and laugh, and follow my lead, and I'll be you." Hotohori obligingly began laughing at her, as she began her song, doing her best to impersonate Hotohori's drunken movements.

As their little dance went on, interrupted only by occasional groans of mortification from Hotohori, Nozomi thought she might faint with embarrassment and nerves, and couldn't seem to decide if that was a good thing or not. On the one hand, all she wanted to do was flee and never have to face all these feelings she couldn't control. On the other hand, she really wanted to kiss him again.

The pesky little rational voice in her head told her that she should have just told him about the kiss instead of demonstrating, but she ruthlessly shoved that into the deepest corner of her mind. She could do this, she wasn't going to faint, and maybe going over it again when they were both sober would clear any discomfort between them.

'Either that or we'll both be so embarrassed we won't be able to stand to look at each other.'

All too soon, and yet not soon enough, she came to the end of the song. She considered dipping him, but she was afraid of loosing her grip. So instead she warned him of the difference. "At the end here, you dipped me, but you're considerably heavier and stronger than me, so I'm skipping that part."

Smiling reassuringly, Hotohori looked down into her eyes, "So what came after I dipped you?"

Obviously bracing herself, in one swift movement that left no room for second thoughts, she planted her lips on his. Hotohori's eyes widened in surprise, but quickly closed them, and moved his hands to her waist to bring her closer, as he continued to taste the softness of her mouth. Her hands were now trapped against his chest, gripping the fabric there for dear life as the kiss deepened. One of his hands moved of its own accord to tangle in her hair, cradling her head.

As if in response, Nozomi moved her hands around his neck, taking a tentative step towards him, and a soft moan escaped from the base of her throat. Lightly, she ran her nails against the skin of his back, dipping below the collar of his yukata to clasp his shoulders.

When both were too lightheaded to breathe properly, they gently pulled away. "Not exactly like that, but you get the idea." Her voice was husky, and she still looked dazed from the swarm of emotions coursing through both of them. Her eyes locked in on his, and he suspected that like him, she couldn't bring herself to break eye contact.

"I had hoped our first kiss would be something more romantic than one of us being drunk and unable to remember. Can we forget the first one and us this one as our first kiss?"

Swallowing her nervousness, Nozomi nodded and then asked, "How do you feel about our first kiss?"

With a wicked gleam in his eye, and a mischievous smile on his face, Hotohori declared, "I think we need to repeat it." So said, he swiftly bent down for a second helping.

Several minutes later when the kiss finally ended, Nozomi had a goofy grin on her face. 'Wow. I was right, embarrassment is gone.' But now that that was taken care of, she needed to tell him some things, before he got into his 'I love you, be my Empress' speech. She saw Hotohori open his mouth to say something, so she put a finger to his lips.

"There are some more things we need to talk about before anything else is said. There are things you need to know about me before you decide if you want to explore these feelings we have for each other."

"Nozomi, do you love me?"

Looking into his eyes, sincerity written in every line of her features, she said, "I do."

Smiling, he drew her close. "Then that's all I need to know." Bringing her palm up for a kiss, he continued. "I already know I love you, and no matter what you say, that will never change."

Now Nozomi was torn. 'Should I just take him at his word? I really want to, but this is probably something he should know. I don't know if I could stand to see that loving look change into one of disgust. I guess the question is, am I strong enough to tell him?'

Seeing some of the questions on her face, Hotohori grew a little worried. "Nozomi, what is it?"

"I really think this is something you should know." 'Darn that sounded too pleading. I need to be firm about this, dang it!'

Before she could say another word, a crash was heard nearby. "No fair, no da!"

"Chichiri." they both declared, now thoroughly alarmed. Grabbing their weapons, they ran off to the sound of the fight.

What they saw when they arrived made both their mouths drop in shock. Chichiri was in his super-deformed mode, squirming against the headlock Nuriko had him in. The crash they had heard was Tasuki's horse bucking him off, Tamahome was mercilessly teasing the bandit, and Chiriko was attempting to be the adult in a mass of children.

Sighing, Nozomi looked at Hotohori. "Maybe we should say something before Nuriko ends up killing Chichiri." He nodded once in response, and turned back to the chaos in front of him.

"Nuriko, considering he is one of the Suzaku warriors, we need him alive."

All movement stopped as the five men stared at the two. "Hisashiburi." Nozomi said with a wave.

Finally Nuriko spoke. "You mean he isn't the one who captured you?"

"No. In fact, if it wasn't for him, Kutou would have killed us. Why did you think he was the kidnapper?" This came from Hotohori.

"He had a feather from Nozomi's wings."

"Well, he is one of the good guys. So you can let him go now." As if he hadn't realized he still had Chichiri in a chokehold until Nozomi mentioned it, Nuriko quickly let go, apologizing briefly.

"Da!" was Chichiri's only response as he rubbed the abused portion of his neck. The rest of the day until they set up camp for the night was taken up with explanations and getting acquainted with each other. Nozomi had to take a break to speak with the palace advisors, who were less than happy at current events.

"We want His Highness and one other warrior to come back to the palace immediately. This is far too dangerous. He needs to be where he'll be safe."

"Or, we could find the only warrior left, and he'll have seven bodyguards instead of one."

"It didn't work last time! He got captured, he was almost killed!"

"Exactly! And you want to send him all the way back to the palace with only one person to protect him? Kutou captured two people before; they'll have no problem doing it again. It's safer for him if he stays in the group. Sending him back now is the last thing we need to do."

"We want him back under our security where we can keep an eye on him. Let me talk to Heika-sama. He'll be able to see reason."

"No! I'm not going to let you manipulate his sense of duty and honor to guilt him into doing something that would only put his life in more danger than it is already!"

"Listen you little brat, I've been a faithful advisor to His Majesty's family for more years than you've been alive. I don't need you coming in and putting ideas into his head."

"And what ideas would those be? That he has a right to have a life? To make his own decisions sometimes? And I'm not questioning your loyalty; I'm telling you that in your eagerness to do your job, you are being short-sighted. There's a difference."

Before she was tempted to say a lot more than that, things she shouldn't say, Nozomi lowered the mirror into her pocket, breaking their connection. Trying to breath deeply to calm herself, she walked back to camp, where in spite of her being quite far away, every word was heard.

"Nuriko, take this please." She handed the mirror to him like it was the vilest thing on the face of the planet. "Otherwise I might be tempted to break it."

Looking at her a little anxiously, Chichiri thought he detected a faint trace of that fire she had mentioned the other day. "Nozomi, I think we should go meditate."

"Good idea. I could use some anger management."

Once Nozomi and Chichiri were out of earshot, Hotohori turned to Nuriko. "Nuriko, please hand over the mirror. I need to talk to my advisor's."

Nuriko looked dubiously at him. "Are you sure that's wise? You're pretty angry at them."

"Yes, I am. But that's because I cannot allow anyone to talk to our priestess that way, much less my own advisors. Especially since she is right. I am safer in a group than I would be going back to the palace with only one other person."

"I agree, but don't you think it would be better to wait until everyone has calmed down?"

"Nuriko." Just one word, but it was spoken with such authority and command that he handed the mirror over without another argument.

To say that the palace advisors were shocked to hear that Hotohori agreed with Nozomi would be an understatement, and though they clearly resented the fact that his opinion appeared to be set in stone, they respected him enough to bow out gracefully. Though they couldn't help but shock him in return with one last parting shot.

"She's changed you, you know. And I'm not so certain it's for the better."

Distractedly, Hotohori put down the mirror. He remained lost in his thoughts, wondering of what was said was true. Had he changed? Was he less capable of an emperor now than he was before? How was that possible when Nozomi would be a wonderful empress herself?

He was not the only one pondering that statement. Soon Nuriko's voice penetrated their self-imposed silence. "They're right, you know. You have changed. But unlike them, I think it is for the better. She's made it more possible for you to stand up for your opinion. That's not a bad thing. I'm sure people might be sore about it for a while, but there's nothing wrong with standing up for what you believe in."

A little stung, Hotohori defended himself. "I know that. And I do stand up for what I believe in."

This time it was Tamahome who put in his own brand of wisdom. "Yeah, in your personal life, what little you have. Like when you refused to choose a wife from the harem. But when it comes to your official duties, you've been pretty susceptible to their guilt trips. They've played on your sense of duty to get you to do what they want you to. Tell me this; if Nozomi hadn't interfered before this whole trip, would you have come?"

Hotohori was about to answer with an offended, 'of course!', but then he really got thinking. He remembered what life was like before Nozomi came along. How suffocated his advisors made him feel. Dozens upon dozens of examples of when he had bowed to their wishes and opinions entered his thoughts. Sometimes they had been right, and sometimes not.

Somehow, without him noticing, he had changed, he'd become more sure of himself. He would no longer be a puppet to anyone, he would still listen to their arguments, but he would use his own judgment from now on. The thought was liberating, and he felt like a huge weight had lifted from his shoulders. He took a big breath and smiled in his newfound freedom.

"Earth to Hotohori! Hel-lo! Are you there?" Tasuki's voice intruded into his thoughts. Hotohori snapped to attention, sort of.

"Huh? Oh, uh, what was the question again?"

Tamahome sweat-dropped. "Never mind."

There was a moment of awkward silence that Hotohori didn't notice, as he was lost in his thoughts yet again, when footsteps were heard rapidly approaching. Soon Nozomi's voice could be heard shouting through the trees.

"I know just the thing that'll work. It'll completely kill my headphones, but this way everyone can enjoy it." While she spoke she'd reached her horse where her cloak was draped, and began rummaging through the pockets. Everyone turned to Chichiri in a mutual unasked question of, 'What's she talking about?' To which he only shrugged.

"I have no idea, no da. She just said meditation wasn't 'hitting the spot', and she knew just the thing that would."

"Ta da! Instant music! What do you all want to listen to, Josh Groban or Maaya Sakamoto?" Realizing that no one knew what she was talking about, Nozomi decided for them. "I'm in a Groban mood myself, so let's try that, shall we?"

Without waiting for an answer, she popped a round disc into the strange object she held in her other hand, after closing the lid, she fiddled with a few buttons and knobs before sound filled the campsite. It was a strange kind of music none of them had ever heard before, but it was peculiarly pleasant to listen to.

"This is actually a duet with Charlotte Church and Josh Groban, but there's more with just Groban after this one. Both their voices are good though, don't you think?"

"What are they saying, no da?"

So Nozomi translated some of the words, and explained the basics of Christianity so they could understand the context.

"I don't fucking like this stupid music. Play something different." At Tasuki's request, she tried out Canto Alla Vita, hoping the funkier beat would be more to the bandit's taste. At his request that she translate it, she had to admit that she couldn't. "Why not?"

"It's in Italian."

"Keep going, I don't like this one either."

"Hey bandit-boy, I like it, so stuff it." Nuriko pounded Tasuki on the back, sending him face-first into the ground.

"Same here, flame boy. Quit whining." In truth, Tamahome didn't really care for it, but he'd say almost anything to annoy Tasuki.

"The relationship between the notes is certainly interesting, unlike anything in this world. Nozomi, could I perhaps borrow this sometime to study it in more depth?"

"Of course. I didn't know you were interested in music theory, Chiriko."

"I have read almost every book I have been able to access. Several of them have been on music."

"I don't know anything about music, except that I love listening to it."

"Hey Chiriko, do you know how to play any instruments?"

"Yes, Tamahome, I play the flute, why do you ask?"

Suddenly the warrior looked a little embarrassed and unsure of himself. "It's just that, well, my little sister, Yuiren, she really likes music, and, well, maybe sometime, you could…play for her?"

And so the little group divided into two separate groups of conversation. Tamahome and Chiriko talking about the possibility of him playing for Yuiren, while Nuriko interrupted with inquiries about his sister. Nozomi continued to translate some of the songs for Hotohori, which included You Raise Me Up, When You Say You Love Me, and You're Still You. And Tasuki continued to try and convince her to stop playing the 'sissy music', and switch to something better. Chichiri merely watched the whole group with amusement. Really, you learned so much when you sat back and watched.

Finally, after You're Still You, she bowed to Tasuki's wishes, and put in the Spiderman II Soundtrack, specifically, Ordinary by Train. This was much more to his taste, which he let everyone in the vicinity know by his enthusiastic and loud compliments. He also began to invent his own little 'bandit dance' to the song, rather reminiscent of the one he and Kouji performed back at base.

Nuriko laughed his head off at Tasuki's antics, and tried to show him up. Everyone just laughed harder, however, when Nuriko turned out to be worse than Tasuki. Pretty soon it was a full-on dancing competition, with Nozomi and Chichiri as judges. That is, until Chichiri tried to declare himself as the winner without ever having danced.

Looking about as serious as anyone can with a smiley face mask on, he said, "The winner of Konan's dancing competition is…" after the proper dramatic pause at this point, Chichiri went super-deformed and finished, "me, no da!" Still SD-ed, he began pumping his fists in the air, waving his hips and little shuffling/jumping motions with his feet.

Chiriko was the first one to break down and laugh out loud. He tried valiantly to hold it in, but it was just too strong for him. Soon everyone was laughing with him. With all the roaring laughter around them, no one noticed that there was someone else who couldn't hold his laughter in.

A young man hid in the bushes nearby. He'd been following the group ever since they found the kid. His orders were specific. If the miko happened to escape, he was the backup plan. His laughter stopped as his anger took over. She and her kind were the reason for his misery. He would not fail this mission. He'd let them laugh for now, but tomorrow, there would be no more smiles for them, he'd make sure of it.