If you recognize it, I don't own it.

8. His nightmare

Chichiri peeled of his mask and stared at the slowly falling snowflakes. It was a peaceful scenery, and it made him feel... Serene. He turned as he heard a small gasp behind him.

"What..?" The girl was there, staring at him. "Who are you?"

"It's me." He answered.

"Who?" She took few steps back. "I don't know you."

"It's me, Chichiri no da." He reached out for her, smiling.

"Stay away from me!" She yelled as backed away from him.

"S-Sen?"

"You're a murderer!" (1)

"No, I.. Wait!" He yelled after the girl as she ran from him.

--

"Wait!" He woke up with hands reaching for the dream vision of the girl sleeping next to him. Sen mumbled something in her sleep. Her hand reached out to pat his shoulder as she turned to face him.

"S' ok go t'sleep.." She murmured eyes closed. Chichiri looked down to the girl who had snaked her arm around him. He could see the cut in her lip as a thin pink scar. She was healing up fast. Her ability to do so amazed him, it was like she felt no pain because she knew it would go away as quickly as it came. But how did she know my name? He wondered, I didn't tell it to her, that's for sure. Maybe Tasuki or Koji did, but I can't think any reason why they would.

A soft pink glow made him look down her chest. What the..? It was coming through the fabric of her white pajamas. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but that was the last thing in his mind as he pulled the soft fabric down to reveal more skin. There was a kanji on her chest. It said 'Flower' and it was glowing. Healing powers, he smiled, so they work when she sleeps.

He sighed and pulled the pajama back to its original place. Then started to detach himself from the girl. This proved to be quite a task, since every time he got some part of himself free she grabbed the next part and so on. Finally he stuck a pillow to her side and she hugged it with a happy sigh.

"Hmmm, so I'm just a big pillow to you, no da?" He smiled as he silently stood up.

---

When Sen finally woke up in the afternoon, she found herself looking at the beautiful woman from the gardens. In her sleepy mind, Sen figured the woman was the empress, since it seemed she was reading the letter that was to be given to the empress. She was sitting on a pillow near the door

The woman lifted her purple eyes from the letter when Sen made a small sound.

"Ah, Sen-san." She smiled. "I have been waiting for you to wake up."

"Errr…" What do I say? What do I do? Ack! Heeeelp! Sen blushed deep red as the empress stood up and walked next to her bed. "I.. I.. umm.. Your Highness?"

"Yes?"

"What.. I mean why, no wait.." Sen stuttered. To her surprise the empress laughed as she sat on her bed.

"It is alright Sen-san. The monk asked me to come and visit you, so you would not feel lonely." She brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "But you were asleep."

"Sorry?"

"It's ok. I don't have much to do anyway. Boushin is enjoying torturing his teachers today, so I have what most people call 'day off'."

"Oh."

"So, shall I call the doctors to take a look at you? Do you feel well enough to move?"

"What? No, I'm fine." Sen found herself staring at the empress with unbelieving eyes. Was the woman for real? Somehow she had thought the empress would be more.. Empress-ish, than this. Then again, how many royalties have you met in your life? She silently asked herself. One, was the answer. Sen sighed inside her mind.

"Oh, then shall I take a look of your wounds?"

"Your Highness!" Sen exclaimed, horrified.

"Hmmm?" The woman smiled. "Ah, right. You are not from this world, I seem to have forgotten that." She bowed slightly. "I am sorry. How does one care for the wounded in your world?"

"Err.. Doctors do that. Not royalty."

"Ohh."

"But there's no need really. I'm fine, good as new." Sen made her point by jumping out of the bed and taking few dancing steps. This however woke up her stomach that growled extremely loud. Sen turned to look at the smiling empress with a very red face. "Food would be nice though."

"So I see." The empress clapped her hands and a maid that had been waiting outside the door walked in, carrying a bundle of clothes. "I took the liberty to choose your clothes for today, I hope you don't mind."

"I don't mind." Was Sens answers as she held out the lavish silk dress. "Don't mind at all."

---

The Imperial Palace was a very big place. It had a very big courtyard, very big gardens, very big living quarters and a very big kitchen. Sen was sitting next to the Empress in one of the lounges of the palace and maids were serving them all sorts of food she could think of.

Sen found the young Empress, or Houki as she wished to be called, to be an excellent hostess as they chatted on and on about palace life. In just half an hour, she had heard the latest of rumours and news that went about inside the stone walls. It surprised her that most of the rumours considered herself.

"They really thought I was an assassin..?" She asked in between bites.

"Oh yes." Houki smiled. "My poor, poor guards. You really showed them the power of the 'weaker' sex."

"Err.. Right." Sen gulped. "Sorry about that."

"Oh it's quite alright." Houki took a sip of her tea. "Serves them right.." She added with a quiet voice.

---

Papers, open scrolls, some half eaten dumlings , scattered parchments.

The table in the late emperor's study had seen better days, but Chichiri was learning fast. He wasn't going to disturb Tai itsukun again, for the oracle had been more than generous on her knowledge considering the girl. But the oracle had left out the most important thing; why was the girl here.

The legend of Nu Kwa was the closest thing he could find, but somehow he doubted the girl was there to battle elementals. And he knew by the fact that no elementals had made any sort of war cry in ages.

So the question lingered. Why was the girl here?

"And why did she use that name?"

"I heard it in a dream I had." Came the answer from the doorway.

"Da?" He jumped to the sound, dropping the ink brush he had been playing with for the last ten minutes. His chair clattered to the ground and a hand shot up to make sure his mask was on place, before he turned to look at the girl standing at the doorway. "A dream, no da?"

"Yeah, funny thing though.." Sen let the phrase linger for a moment. "What I saw seemed more like a memory."

"What did you see?" Chichiri turned back to the table and started to clean up the mess he had made.

"I saw a boy in his early twenties, and a girl by the same age standing by a riverbank." She smiled and went to help him.

"And..?"

"And that's it, mostly. She called the boy Houjun." Sen absently collected the scrolls and started to pile them to the chair near the shelves.

"Why did you call me that?"

"I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's your name though, isn't it?"

"...Yes."

"Then why have I been calling you Chichiri all this time?"

"Chichiri is my sheishi name no da."

"What's that?"

"The name I got when Suzaku decided I was to be one of the seven warriors to protect the Suzaku no miko, no da."

"Ah right, Koji told me something about that."

"I guess he told you about lot of things, no da."

"He did, but I was so drunk I can't really remember most of it." She laughed.

---

It took them an hour pile all the documents away. And by the time they were almost done, Sen was feeling this weird nagging thing at the back of her mind. She raised the next load of papers for Chichiri so he could file them away, when she realized it.

"Oh my.. Your face is peeling."

"Daaa?" The papers fell when his hand shot up to his face.

"On the right side, just below you ear." She pointed a finger to the loose skin.

"Oh, heh, dry air.."

"Here, let me get that for you." Her hand reached out and made him back away.

"No really, it's ok, no da."

"Oh stop being such a baby, it's just a dry piece of skin, it won't hurt."

"Sen stop it!"

"Fine, fine." Sen huffed, but backed away. Just as Chichiri turned to collect the fallen paper, she snaked her hand around his head and pulled the peeling skin. To

her surprise (and his horror) it seemed that his whole face came loose. "What the..?"

He was fast, not as fast as Tasuki, but very close. He pushed her away and ran, leaving the wide eyed girl sitting on the floor of the emperor's study.

---

Sen stared at the empty doorway. For a second she just sat there, dumbfound, before her brains kicked in. She was up in seconds. No way was he getting away, there was something fishy about this and she was determined to find out what it was.

The hallway was deserted by the time she got there, but she had a hunch where the monk might have gone. As she passed the great hall she saw a glimpse of the empress walking with a very young boy. Sen tried to stop in her tracks, but the slippery floor made her crash into one of the stone collums.

"Hey Houki! Wait!" She tried to yell while gasping for air. "Did you see Chichiri?"

"In the garden." Houki answered, pointing one delicate finger to the stone passage on her right. She looked rather dazzeled, but she didn't say anything. As an empress of Konan she was quite used to all sorts of weird things happening around her. The little boy hid behind her, but Sen managed to smile at him.

"Thanks." Sen answered and then she was gone again.

---

He sat on his rock by the pond.

She had seen it, he was sure. And now she would run. Just like in the dream.

The scar on his face was a constant remainder of the crime he had committed all those years ago. She should run. And she should run fast and far away. He was, after all, a murderer.

A small voice in the back of his mind tried, as always, to say, it was an accident, but as always, he didn't want to listen to it.

I shouldn't have run, he thought.

A twig snapped behind him, making him turn sharply at the sound. But before his eyes could focus he found himself thrown off balance by the girl he had just been thinking.

The grass was long enough to soften the fall, but still Sen had the wind knocked out of her. She gasped for air as she sat up, holding most of her weight on her arms. Chichiri looked at the girl with shocked expression, had she really tackled him?

"Why?" She coughed. "Why do you have to run?" She leaned forward, looking close to the monks face. He winced but didn't back away. "Like, couldn't you just walk?"

"Wh-What?"

"Walk. It's like running, but much slower pace." He started to rise up. "No no no, stay there. No running. No more." She grabbed his hand. "Please, I'm totally exhausted. "

"What?"

"I'm not as fit as you, I don't walk to places, I don't do yoga." She smiled at the face he was making. "I don't like running, even if it's after you, so please, stay."

"…"

"Great." She leaned back until her back came in contact with the rock he had been sitting on. "Now, tell me about that thing you face did back at the study."

"…"

"Please."

He muttered something.

"Come again?"

"It's a mask."

"Oh. Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes."

"Just okay.?"

"What would you like me to say?"

"..."

"Look Chichiri, if you're wearing a mask then you probably have a very good reason to keep your face hidden." She reasoned. "So what else would I say, but okay."

He remained quiet, staring at the girl sitting infront of him. Somehow, somewhere, inside his head something klicked. He reached out for the mask and peeled it off, and trying very hard, he managed to lift his gaze from the grass as he heard her gasp. Here it comes, he thought, it made him grimase.

"You're the man from the gardens!" Sen exclaimed, making Chichiri tense up. "Wow, I thought I had something on my face, but it was you all along. How silly!"

"Wh-Wh-What?"

"You looked so scared back then, it's the only thing I remember." She laughed as she reached out to the mask he was holding with limb fingers. "I thought I must have looked really bad, to make someone look so scared, but you were scared because you were not wearing this." She held the mask between them.

"I thought.."

"You think too much Houjun." Sen stood up. "You need to relax a bit, or you'll burn up."

"Please, don't call me that."

"What? Houjun? Why not?" Sen looked puzzled "It's your name."

"It's name for a mu.. a bad person Sen, please don't use it."

"Hmmm.. Fine, but only if you promise me something in return." She grinned at the face he made.

"What?"

"Stop wearing this, "She held the mask infront his face. "When your with me."

"I.. Can't."

"Please?"

"You don't know what you are asking." He murmured.

"Sure I do." She stated. "I'm asking you to be yourself rather than.. This." She dropped the mask to the grass and stood up. He averted his eyes and when she got no answer from him she just shrugged her shoulders and walked away, leaving behind a very shaken monk.

---

TBC

---

AN: Sorry to dissapoint you, but I'm not going to make Sen ask about IT. You'll just hafta wait :)

(1) A Gollum moment! XD