Hey there, everybody! This chapter was much easier for me to write than the last one, which is funny ,because Miaka never comes naturally to me. So, I love language barriers, but tried to keep from using them too much here. On with the story…

I've studied for years about how the priestess of Suzaku would come to our land and gather her seven celestial warriors and summon the beast god to protect us. I both dreaded and anticipated it, being one of the seven warriors, but wasn't sure what to expect of the priestess herself.

Miaka Yuuki came and agreed to be our priestess. For all I've seen of her so far, she has a healthy disposition, as well as a healthy appetite. Like me, she's also studying for some very important exams, but unlike me, she doesn't have very good study habits.

The other warriors all have unique relationships with her and their own ways to assist her. When I heard her mention her exams last night, I figured that helping her study would be the unique way for me to help her. I probably should have thought about my timing a little bit better, since we're leaving the day after tomorrow. As the priestess, Miaka has a lot to keep her busy right now.

"Thanks so much for helping me study, Chiriko," she smiled as she dragged her large bag of foreign books into my room. "I'll bet you're the kid they always ask for notes from class."

"I'm not really sure what you mean by that," I said. "But what subject would you like to start with? Science, history…?"

"Well, I was thinking of working on 'English'!" she smiled and opened of one of books. It had characters I had never remotely seen before, and they all were in horizontal lines.

"This is 'English'?" I observed. I looked closer and found a few characters I understood, but hadn't seen them used in that way before. "Jihpen?"

"Yeah, that's what they call us in English. But I always thought it was said more like 'ja-PAN'," she looked closer, and put her finger under some of the foreign characters.

"I was looking here, at the kanji," I pointed.

"That? No, that's just 'nihon'," she looked at me a little strangely. "That's where I'm from."

I looked back at her curiously. "Then in Japan, or Nihon, or whatever it was, they read these differently?"

"Well, yeah," she struggled a little. It seemed like common knowledge to her, but I hadn't thought of such a thing in my life. "These characters are also part of my writing system… see?"

I looked over finger at the simpler strokes I had never seen. "Are all your books written like this?"

"Well, yeah," she smiled. "Maybe this would be easier if you could read Japanese?"

I nodded. "It's curious that you speak the same language as us, Miaka, but don't write it.'

"That really is kinda funny," she looked up to her head to think of why. "Maybe because this is the Japanese translation?"

"What?'

"Nothing, nothing," she laughed it off. "Well, how about science? That's the same wherever you go, right?"

"I hope so."

She caught me up with what she was having trouble with. Physics always got me excited, but I tried to remind myself I was helping her studying, not teacher more new and interesting things about it. Regardless, I still found myself prattling on.

"So you see, Miaka, no matter how much something weighs, it'll fall at the same speed."

"Uh huh," she looked at me with a glazed over look. "But how come something like paper falls slower?"

"That's because the air pushes against it from below, and gets pushed out towards the edges."

"So that has to do with it's shape?"

"A little bit, yes."

"Then how come a book of paper doesn't get air making it stay up?"

"Well, it's heavier--"

"I thought you said weight doesn't matter," she whined, and showed how confused she was.

"I… well, when air isn't a factor…"

"But where can you not find air? They tell me it's in vacuums, but then what do they call the empty space?"

"Uh, I might have seen a term for that," I turned back to my own books I was familiar with.

"I think I'm done trying my brain up in knots," she stood up, already frustrated.

"Miaka, we haven't even been here for twenty minutes. We set aside two hours to study," I scrunched my eyebrows at her, hoping that there was still something I could do for her. She heaved an exasperated sigh, and sat back down.

"Thanks for trying so hard with me, Chiriko," she smiled a little. "My friends and my mom normally give up on me first!"

"There's no reason for them to do that," said I. "If you need help understanding it, they should help."

"Yui once spent all night just reading dictation to me," she smiled at first, but then looked very sad. I wasn't entirely sure why mentioning her friend made her so upset. Perhaps she was homesick, so I offered to read to her instead of explaining science. "That's a good idea," she perked up. "Sometimes it sticks better if I read aloud to myself!"

I wasn't able to read any of her books, so I chose a passage out of one of mine that related to her topics. Rereading some of my old favorite theories wasn't a chore for me, but I probably should have considered that it was above her level. By the time I peaked over the side of the book at her, she leaning to one side with her eyes half open. "…Miaka?"

She snapped straight up. "Yes, sir, the answer is cupcake!"

I wasn't sure what to make of that, so I stared blankly at her. Miaka blinked and looked around the room, then back at me. "Oh, hi Chiriko. Are we done yet?"

I rolled my eyes and put the book away. "If you want to learn this, you have to make an effort to learn it."

She pouted, and I silently scolded myself for being too harsh. With my character, it was always hard for me to understand people who couldn't study as well as I could. Without it, studying was an unthinkable task. There was never any middle ground, I could never relate to normal study habits.

"Are you mad, Chiriko?" she said quietly.

"No," I smiled. "It was my fault for picking something too hard. How about a topic that you enjoy?"

"A topic I enjoy…" she got a little smirk as a she thought. "PE is easy for me."

"PE?" I smiled. I wasn't sure what this was, but maybe there was someway I could apply traits of whatever that was to her other subjects.

"Too bad it's not on the exams."

I sighed heavily. It didn't look like I was going to be able to do anything to help her. But I knew I would feel guilty if I didn't keep trying. I looked outside at the courtyard.

"What are you doing, Chiriko?" she asked curiously.

"Just seeing how long until lunch."

"Oh!" she got louder. "By looking at the shadows from the position of the sun, right?"

My eyes brightened. "You could tell, Miaka? No one can ever tell that I'm telling time when I look at them!"

She nodded, very pleased with herself. "I heard that's how it was done before they had clocks."

"Clocks?"

"Yeah, they're little machines that tell time. I'll go show you my watch," she rattled through her back pack and pulled out what looked like a leather bracelet, and offered it to me to look at.

"Can I pick it up?" I looked at it's reflective face curiously. She nodded and I carefully lifted it off her hand. For a complex machine, it was amazingly lightweight. I tilted it back and forth a little to see how the light so flatly jumped off of it. It was lined on the inside with little figures and three thin lines went out from the center. I looked closer and noticed that the red line was moving, independent of everything else, in short and constant steps. I held it carefully to my ear, and listened to it make little sounds as the red line moved around the circle. Tsnk…tsnk…tsnk…tsnk… just like a heartbeat.

I looked up from it to make a comment to Miaka, but she was no longer in the room. I looked around, and finally peered outside. Down the outside walkway, I saw her sneaking away on her tiptoes. "Miaka?"

She got startled and then started running. It was obvious now that she was trying to rudely escape the rest of our study session, so I chased after her(even though I was never very fast).

"Miaka!" I continued to yell after her. My legs still hurt from all the running around town I did with Tasuki yesterday. She frantically kept darting around other corners, and kept herself from looking back at me, lest it would make her feel guilty. Just when I thought I was catching up, I tripped over my own feet and slammed against the wooden floor. I started crying out of frustration, and didn't hear her footsteps anymore. That didn't keep me from calling out in her direction. "I though you didn't like people giving up on you, Miaka!"

Little did I notice she had stopped running up ahead when I fell. I continued yelling, and she continued listening. "I won't give up yet, Miaka! You can't be the one to give up, now!" After that, I stayed flat on the ground and sobbing, until she slowly walked back towards me.

"I'm sorry, Chiriko," she said very quietly, trying to hold back how ashamed she was. "You're right. I can't give up."

I wasn't sure what to respond with, since she seemed deep in thought. I was about to forgive her, but she startled me by raising her voice and lifting her head. "The last thing I can do is give up! Everyone is counting on me now, so I have to keep going!"

Her resolute tone surprised me even more, so I continued to just look back at her blankly. She smiled and bent over to help me up. "Studying a little should be easy compared to summoning Suzaku, right?"

It became clear to me then that she was referring to more than just studying. I smiled back, and accepted her help standing back up. I was learning the same lesson with her, so I felt I could reply now. "We both will, Miaka."

She looked relieved as we started walking back towards where we left all our books. "In my language, this would the part were we'd say 'ganbatte kudasai' or something! Heh heh…"

It wasn't easy, but we did spend the next hour working on her studies. She had to keep challenging herself to understand what I said better, and I tried to ask more questions than answering them myself. When all was said and done, I think we both learned more important things today than just slow paper falls to the ground.

Yay for Miaka! Nobody said other people couldn't learn from Chiriko, too. Next is the last chapter, with… you guessed it! Nakago!

…No, I'm not that mean. Mitsukake will finally get more glory next time than just being Chiriko's adoptive grandpa.