Disclaimers i don't own anything

Friends Everywhere

Misao stopped in the street trying to decide if this was a good idea. Finally she came to the conclusion she had this morning, yes. She went in. Hiei had extensive knowledge of poisons and other herbal concoctions though no where near as much as Omayu. Her childhood friend looked up when she opened the shoji and smiled, "well to what do I owe this pleasure".

"I need a favor and an answer" she said as she wandered around the room looking at all the little items he sold. "what can I do for my lady?" "I need a ride to Azuchi in northern Japan…" "sure" "…without the group finding out" she finishes and closed her eyes, "WHAAAAAT! Are you crazy! Nothing escapes the Oniwanban-shu" he sat there fuming about illogical women as Misao kept thinking thank the gods there are no customers right now. "actually you may be in luck there is a carriage leaving for the government that no ones supposed to know about I could get you could get a job on it as a body guard" he said, "what is the answer you need?". She asked "What are the effects of vicophor?" Hiei looked up annoyed then started to rummage through notes, "do you want it to snow tomorrow too in the middle of August!" she just glared at him

"oh okay look vicophor is a poison, though it doesn't usually kill. It causes unconsciousness for about an hour before the victim awakes to get rid of the venom."

"what? How?"

"they must raise their temperature enough to sweat and quickly; there are several way this is accomplished, the first and generally most dangerous is simply trying to jump into a fire, the second is emotionally; the other effect is memory loss, after this 'fever' is reached the victim falls back to unconsciousness, between these two bouts of unconsciousness the memory is gone. The person can regain the memory with a drug called Lyserbilo. However this drug causes the mem… Wait-a-minute Why do you want to know this?"

"a friend got it"

"I see,…, well the drug causes the memory to return as a violent dream, violent for context and dream without an ability to awaken till it's over."

Oh lovely Misao thought as she nodded her head to go. Great I'm ready. "Good that solves my problem and here these are finally finished" he handed a back kodachi and a side kodachi that she had been wanting.

------------------------------------------------------

She rode with them to Osaka where she was paid and continued to Azuchi. This was a lake town built over the ruins of the castle and there was a forest of great expanse. When she arrived she went into the woods and proceeded to build a house to survive the winter if need be.

The days passed as she began to train her self not only in her new weapons but in stealth, kenpo, kunai, and general spying. As the season progressed to September Misao had integrated herself into the village when they finally found her.

She was walking along the shore of the lake's spring coming from a bath when she suddenly sensed the chi of several kunuchi near her. The chase began but didn't last long, they gave up after 4 hours of constant running. She went home, and gathered her things and began the next part of her life as a wanderer.

Back at the Aoiya things had changed. Aoshi, though confused by Misao's departure fulfilled his duties of the Okashira to the best of his ability. He wanted to go looking for Misao, but no one had heard of her since she disappeared three weeks ago. They had tried all the ways out of town with no success and, short of going out and looking for her, which she specifically forbid, there was nothing they could do.

Aoshi had a mission to Osaka when it happened. Misao had been gone for four weeks when he found himself sitting by a campfire 12 miles north of Osaka grinning foolishly. He shook his head at the folly and began to make camp. Since he wasn't hungry and had eaten only two hours ago he didn't make a fire, better to enjoy the wildlife. He then became aware of a chi near him that was exhausted, it was slightly familiar. He followed it through the woods, actually running some of the time. When it finally stopped he came up just short of stepping in view. There were many others around and they were converging on the person. Finally we decided to help this outnumbered person.

He sprang into the darkness knocking many out the ones on the outer edge of the group, then proceeded to the middle. He had finished the group off when he turned to the individual. And stumbled back, Misao?

She had known his chi any where, though how he got here she'll never know, but she wasn't sure if she should be glad. This group had surprised her, and she was worried that there were more. "Aoshi what are you doing here?" she grated in a flat voice, "I was on a mission to Osaka and had to take a detour" he answered cautiously, she was acting weirdly. Then suddenly she perked up and her chi all but disappeared, no wonder no one had seen her. Misao though had sensed movement and at the last minute pinpointed the location. She launched herself at Aoshi, knocking him over as arrows raced across the wood. As soon as he was out of the way she sprang up, just in time for a sword slash toward her head. She caught it with her kodachi, kodachi!. Aoshi was confused, Misao didn't usually use kodachis. He thought as he got up to help her. He quickly realized three important points, A these people were many, B they were reasonably skilled, and C they were out for blood.

Misao he soon realized was actually doing better than he, he had to remind himself of how to fight without killing, she on the other hand had had more experience with that type of fighting. Indeed she had noticed this problem as she attempted to draw the Caeku-shu away from him. However he was having trouble anyway. They had decided he was harder to deal with than her so the majority of them were going for him, so what does she do, she jumps in the middle of it, I'll berate myself later for jumping in the thick of things she though with a sigh as she smashed into the tall guy on top.

Things were a bit jumbled there as Aoshi began to feel groggy, he awoke later to a fire. Now what happened! Misao was sitting on the other side of the fire nursing her wounds, "how long was I out?" she didn't look up but answered, "an hour, tops". She wasn't looking at him, and after a minute she turned and tossed a dart in his direction, "you didn't notice the guy in the tree tossing hemlock darts the whole fight, not that he was paying attention to what he wasn't aiming at, got him when he shot you" she said. He looked up and tried to force himself to ask the question that had been on his mind since she left. "go on and ask" she said startling him. He looked up and obediently asked "why did you leave?" "I just did and that's that, they shouldn't be back for at least a few days so we can get at least halfway to Kyoto since you finished your mission in Osaka, we best get going" and with that she got up and began packing her bandages. Aoshi tried to get up before she pushed him back down and handed him a rice ball with veggies inside. He ate and watched her, he could tell he was groggy, and she knew it. This wasn't good. She wasn't pleased that he got involved and now he would have an even harder time defending himself. They both were worried. Misao perked up before he did, but they both heard the noise. 'time to go' she whispered, he silently agreed.

They traveled all night and rested during the day, by the end of the day Aoshi was back to his old self. While he was resting, Misao had gone to a near village for supplies and to use the Oniwanban operative stationed there. She sent a pigeon to Hiei with a message. By the time they got to the farthest outskirts of Kyoto it was way past nightfall, and Aoshi was wary. He didn't want Misao to disappear again, so when she had them stop for the night he was suspicious. "Misao at least come to the Aoiya and say hi to every one, they all miss you". He whirled around when he felt her chi rise. He grabbed her arm just before she would have connected with his head. He twisted the arm behind her back forcing her closer to him, she didn't struggle but smiled, "I didn't think you would let me do that" he looked down at her realizing just how beautiful her eyes were in the moonlight, "Misao please stay" he whispered close to her face. She could feel his breath wash over him but she knew the consequences too, "I can't, I'm sorry, good bye". At that second he felt a prick on his back, she had kept the dart with it's poison on it, it probably had just enough to knock him out for a few hours, he took one last look at her before blacking out. As he slid to the ground she caught him in her embrace and apologized again before looking up, "no harm had better come to him got that". Hiei looked pensive, "I know, some times I wonder what I did to deserve a friend like you" she smiled and repeated for a different reason, "I often wonder a similar thing". She took one last look at her love and ran into the night.

When Aoshi woke he didn't see anything for a moment, then he remembered. Misao he had seen her, but now she was gone. "oh good you're up now if we can get to the Aoiya I can get home for some rest, I've been up all night you know watching you, 'course if Misao had gotten wind that I had even thought of falling asleep I would be dead and buried, well come on let's go!" Aoshi just stared at him as he had said this, then he tried to get up, using the time to think, this man was irritating. He had a complete mask, but a cheerful one, he had no idea of his abilities by either his stance or his chi, "I take it you refuse no matter what to tell me where she is?" he just nodded and began walking. I should have known she wouldn't leave me defenseless when she knocked me out Aoshi thought with a smile as he remembered how protective she was. Misao was only a few dozen feet off watching, Hiei had been right she would have killed him for putting Aoshi in danger but she trusted him to get Aoshi back to the Aoiya safely, with that she leapt off towards the south for a change.

Misao had been traveling around for two more weeks when she finally realized what was wrong and boy was she upset. It took several hours of arguing with herself before she finally settled that she was going to Tokyo in three months.

A/N those of you who tried to read this earlier should have been mightly confused
this is the real ch 3

Ja Ne