If you recognize it, I don't own it.
11. Never sleep again
Chichiri sat on his bed in the dark room. What the…? He rubbed his eye, trying to remember what had woken him up. "This feeling..." He whispered out loud.
"Meow."
"Tama-neko?" He turned to look at the cat sitting on the windowsill. "When did you get back?"
"Meow?"
"No, I don't have any fish, no da." He smiled.
"Meow." It looked like the small white-brown cat shrugged. Then Tama-neko jumped down and quietly made his way to the door. He turned to look at the monk like he was waiting for something.
"Yeah yeah, I know." Chichiri sighed and got up. "But the cook doesn't like you hanging around the kitchen, no da." he laughed, petting the cat as they walked. "Even though you do keep the mice at bay, no da. So.."
"...Chichiri..."
"Huh...?" He stopped dead on his tracks.
"...I don wanna die..."
"What the…?" He looked around the empty hallway. No one was there. "Then who..? Oh no.." The realisation made him stumble so he had to lean to the wall for support. "Oh no.. Sen…" Without thinking Chichiri grabbed the cat by the neck and ran back to his room. He dropped the animal to his bed and hastily gathered his things. Within five minutes he was all dressed up and ready to go.
"Meow!" Tama-neko protested loudly as the monk stuffed him inside his shirt.
"Sorry." Chichiri apologised just before they vanished into the blue cape. Had he looked back he would have seen the paper mask on his bedside table, but he was in too much of a hurry to notice something was missing. Sen's dying, I know it. I can feel it. He scratched the cat's ears as he thought.
"Why?" He whispered.
"Meow?"
"No, not you."
"Meow?"
"Sen." He answered to the cat that was looking up at him. "The girl from Miaka's world no da." He added with soft voice.
"Meow."
"What do you mean 'oh her'?"
"Meow meow meow."
"It's nothing like that!" He blushed. "We're just friends!"
"Meow."
Chichiri sighed. The cat was right.
---
It was snowing outside.
Somehow his brains registered this as he stared at the unmoving body laying on the floor in front of him. His hazel eyes followed a droplet of blood as it travelled down her cheek, ending up to the tip of her nose. The red drop lingered for a while before it dropped down to join the growing puddle of blood that was pooling under her.
"Sen?" He whispered the name. She opened her eyes. Her hazy blue gaze wandered a while before it stopped at him. She stared at him with unseeing eyes.
"Help..." She begged it quiet voice. Her head dropped back down.
"No!" He was at her side in a flash. "Li Mei." He whispered in weak voice. "Somebody get Li Mei!"
---
The girl was a mess. She lay there practically naked, although now nearly covered up in bandages, on Tasukis bed. He had managed to carry her there, before the healer had come running down the corridor with Koji and few of the other bandits. The healer, Li Mei, had pushed the men outside and started to investigate her wounds.
"Come on Sen-chan. If you pull through this you can have all my silk sashes. Every last one." Li Mei was frustrated. She had been with her for an hour or so and she still wasn't all patched up. It seemed that every time Li Mei got one wound bandaged another one started to bleed next to it. She sighed and wiped her brow with a blood covered hand. The girl hissed in pain as she tied yet another bandage to her leg. It was amazing that the girl had been concious for so long.
"How's she doin'?" Tasuki asked as he made his way back to the room. He was carrying more bandages and other stuff Li Mei had ordered. Koji was there to close the door behind him. The healer shook her head. Tasuki sighed in defeat and sat down next to the bed. He reached out to Sens hand. The girl cried out from pain.
"Shh, it's ok. Almost over now." He comforted her while shooting a look at the healer. Li Mei shook her head again. "Yer gonna be just fine, as good as new."
"You're.. A terrible.. Liar." She managed to whisper before the darkness finally swallowed her.
"I know." He sighed. At least now she would not feel a thing.
Finally, after another hour had passed, the healer got up. She wiped most of the blood off her hands and then signalled Tasuki to follow her outside the room. Her tired face was not promising anything. They let Koji in as they exited the room.
---
Koji stared at the small figure covered up in bandages that was lying on the bed. He had been standing in the room for the last ten minutes, but he couldn't just bring himself to take the steps to her bedside. It's my fault, he thought. I should have checked the room before I pushed her inside. I should have heard her scream, I should have done.. Something. He tried to speak, but the words were stuck to his throat.
She turned her head slightly to the sound he was making and opened her eyes.
"Oneesan." He managed to whisper.
"Koji-kun?" She tried to sit up, but quickly gave up as the pain that had been sleeping flared up. She hissed few curses between her teeth and dropped back to the soft mattress.
"Yeah it's me." He answered and walked next to her bed and kneeled down to be at eyelevel with her.
"Tasuki-chan?" She asked quietly.
"Outside, talkin' with Li Mei." He answered.
Sen nodded.
"Oneesan." He whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"Why?" She whispered.
"I didn't check the room." He reached out to push a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "If I had then the assassin who did this.."
"No." She stopped him. "No assassin."
"What?"
"No assassin. A demon, in my dream"
---
Chichiri popped out from his cape at the gates of the Mt. Reikaku fortress. He quickly gathered the blue fabric and made sure Tama-neko was unharmed. Then he looked up the gate and murmured a spell as he walked closer to it. The heavy doors flew open, startling the young bandits that were keeping watch.
"Oi, monk." One of them called after him. "Ya could learn howta knock!" But he wasn't listening as his mind was too occupied by her chi. He could sense fear, and loneliness.. And pain, quite a lot of pain. Tama-neko hissed jumped out of his shirt. The cat ran up the stairs.
"What the..?" He ran after the animal. It was rare for Tama-neko to run anywhere, so he followed him as fast as he could. And soon found him as a purring mass of fur in the lap of very surprised Tasuki.
"Tama-chan!" The bandit petted the cat. "Whatcha doin here?"
"He came with me no da." Chichiri answered as he made his way to the couple. "Li Mei-san."
"Chichiri-sama." The woman bowed slightly.
"Sen..?"
"She 'n there, Koji's with her."
"Is she ok?" Tasuki and Li Mei shared a look. It didn't go unnoticed by the monk. "What happened?"
"She was.. Attacked." Tasuki tentatively said. He could se his friend tense up.
"Attacked. How? By who?"
"We don't know." Tasuki looked away, he seemed ashamed. "But it was severe." He gently lowered Tama-neko to the floor. "We.. We don't know if she'll live through the night."
"But her powers.."
"They aren't working. I dunno what's wrong.." Tasuki looked more beaten than at the time Tamahome had attacked him in Kutou palace. The young bandit was forced to face a problem he couldn't solve with force, and it was driving him mad.
"They only work when she sleeps." Chichiri sighed, patting his friends shoulder.
"Then we might have a problem..." Koji said in grim voice as he opened the door and joined the trio. He looked at the monk with a question evident on his face.
"Just got here." Chichiri said. "What problem?"
"It seems she was attacked by a demon of some sort. A dream demon." Koji answered.
"A demon?" Chichiri asked. "What demon? Did she say a name?"
"No, just that the demon did this to her." Koji shook his head making his dark hair fall over his eyes. "She said.. She said she won't sleep again. She's too scared." Tasuki and Chicihri shared a worried look.
"Let me talk to her." Chichiri finally said. "I think I can make her change her mind."
---
Sen could sense someone coming in to the room again. She growled in frustration. Why couldn't they just let her be, lick her wounds and all that shit. She sensed the person to stop next to her bed and she could hear the person sit down to the chair. She opened her eyes slightly to see who was the one she could feel staring down at her. Blue eyes met one very worried looking magenta eye.
"Chichiri?" The first thing her brains registered was the fact that he wasn't wearing his mask. The next one was that she was naked from waist up, although covered in bandages. She made a feeble attempt to collect the quilt that lay over her feet, but he was faster, tugging the fabric over her chest. "How.. Why are you here?"
"I heard you." He said.
"What?"
"I heard you calling me." He smiled a little. At least she was not pushing him away. "I came here as fast as I could, but it wasn't fast enough."
"No one couldn't have stopped him." She whispered.
"Who was it?"
"I dunno. He didn't tell me his name." She closed her eyes. "But I think.. I can remember the other guy..."
"Other guy?"
"Hey, you dropped the no da again."
"Only you would notice that in a time like this." He managed to chuckle. "The other guy?"
"I think he said his name was Yousui." She opened her eyes. "I'm really not in the mood for this."
"I know." He sighed. "Koji said you won't sleep."
"It's true."
"But your powers.."
"I don't care."
"Sen."
"I won't." She cried out. "He made me see.. Terrible things. He said he would kill Koji.. And Tasuki." She shook her head slightly. "I can't risk it."
"I don't think they care about that." He tried.
"But I do." She whispered back fiercely.
"Fine." He held his hands up in defeat. "But what if there was someone guarding your sleep?"
"It doesn't matter. He comes after me in my dreams, no one can guard those."
"That's not exactly true."
"What?"
"I could, technically, guard your dreams." He scratched the back of his head. "But there's a catch."
"There's always a catch."
"I would be able to see all your dreams."
"That's not so bad.."
"All the dreams Sen. Every last one of them, even the ones you really don't want to share."
"Ohh." She blushed, and was very thankful for the bandages covering most of her face. There were few dreams she absolutely, positively, didn't want him to see. "Can't you, like, look the other way or something?"
"It's not that simple."
"I need to think about this."
"You don't have much time."
"I know." She sighed. "Just give me a minute."
---
Tasuki was leaning his ear to the door. Koji was next to him. Li Mei was rolling her eyes, privacy, yeah right, in this fortress? Although she was curious too, she refrained herself and stood few feet away from the door. Suddenly both bandits jumped back and the door opened.
"She will do it no da." Chichiri said to the trio. He quirked an eyebrow at the bandits who were 'acting casual'. "But I guess you already knew that no da."
"Err.. Yeah." Tasuki admitted.
"I need you to keep watch and make sure I won't fall asleep too no da." Chichiri smiled at his curious friend. Some things seem to run in the family.
"Consider it done." Tasuki promised at once.
"Koji, Li Mei-san. I need you to stay here and make sure no one gets in this room, no da."
The healer and the bandit nodded.
"Okay. Lets do this."
---
TBC
---
AN: I get to write dirty dreams. Whee! I get to write dirty dreams. Whee! I get to write dirty dreams. Whee! ….Ahem, right. 0.o
That was a long chapter, and the hardest one to write so far. Next one '12. Trust In Me'. (psssst, The Jungle Book ) should be done.. Soon…