I have a cool hat. It has cat ears, and I got it at Oni-Con 2004. But my hat can't do that…

I don't own FY, thank you SO much for rubbing it in…

"Oof," Miyoko grunted, as she fell onto the hard wood floor of her room back in the Palace. She took a deep breath. The air was so much cleaner here, much better than in Tokyo. She set about unpacking her bag, thinking of how she was going to make her grand entrance.

"Lady Miyoko!" the servant cried. It was Miwako, the girl first assigned to be her servant. "You've returned!"

"Shh!" Miyoko hissed. "I don't want to tell them… just yet. Please come in, but shut the door behind you." Miwako did as she was requested.

"I assume you fulfilled your mission in your world?" Miwako questioned.

Miyoko smiled. "Yes, I did. Where is everyone? What has happened since I've been gone?"

Miwako paled. "I… I'm not sure if I'm the best to tell you everything. I might have some of my facts wrong, and I kind of hope I do; the whole thing is fairly disturbing… At any rate, La– um, Nuriko, Lady Hamatsu, and His Majesty are still here in the capital."

"And Tamahome?"

"Lady Miyoko, you've been gone two and a half months. After the first month, Tamahome pretty much just wandered off. He did say he'd be back," she added quickly, seeing the expression on Miyo's face.

'Baka!' she thought angrily. 'You're one of the reasons I came back, and you're not even here!'

"While you were gone, he seemed very… lost," Miwako said. She smiled coyly. "I think you've got quite an admirer, m'Lady." Miyoko blushed. Night was beginning to fall.

"He couldn't have gone far. I'm going to go find him. Until then, keep my door locked, so no one can see I've been here. Please don't tell anyone I've returned yet," she pleaded.

"No problem, m'Lady. If His Majesty scolds me for it, I'll direct him to you."

Miyoko shrugged. "Sure. I'll be back soon!" she promised, and with that, she flounced out the door to the stables, moving stealthily so she wouldn't be seen. This was a very amusing sight.

She found her horse still there. He was beautiful, pure black, named Kamiari–the word for 'lightning.' "Come on, and keep quiet!" she warned. He shook his head in reply and neighed loudly. "Dumb horse!" she told him, quite aware he could understand her. "Didn't you hear me?!" she whispered loudly. He stuck his paw out to the left– where Lady Nuriko's horse was kept.

"Oh, I get it!" Miyoko said. Kamiari snorted sarcastically. "Nuriko's horse is gone… so is Hamatsu's! I wonder where they went? Maybe the two of them are still around the Palace…" She shrugged, and the two of them rode off into the forest.

"Do you know which way Tamahome went?" she asked anxiously. "Hmm, you're a horse, not a dog… I guess you don't have such a good sense of smell, huh?"

Although she couldn't see it, Kamiari rolled his eyes.

They rode for a while at top speed, and she could see Kamiari was tired. She got off near a stream. "Fine then! You can't take a little exercise? You need to lose some weight anyway! Eh, whatever. I'll walk ahead a little to see if there's a village nearby." She tied him to a tree, much to his disdain.

She hummed the tune of Utena's theme song as she walked along. "It's so quiet… like a graveyard…"

"Who's there?" a sharp voice said.

She whirled around, trying to find which direction the voice was coming from. She couldn't see anything; it was too dark!

"If you're from Kutou, you might as well leave now… Before I show you the power of the Suzaku Warriors," they said.

"But I'm the… Wait a minute!" she cried, realizing who it was. Tamahome came out of the shadows, looking extremely ticked off at the 'invader.' "Baka! It's me!" she yelled, glomping him.

"Tamahome… do you know this girl?" another voice asked. A few more men came out of the shadows, holding torches.

"Yes, yes," he replied. The two of them stood up. "She's the–"

All of the sudden, someone came out of nowhere, and grabbed Miyoko! She was so surprised she couldn't get away. Finally they let her go, but they weren't with Tamahome anymore.

"Let… GO OF ME!!" she yelled, kicking whomever it was. They dodged out of the way, but she still hit their shoulder.

"Hey!" the man cried indignantly. "I was only trying to help, no da! Or should I have asked permission before I saved you from the Kutou assassins?"

She looked at him curiously. He had on a chibi-face mask, and was dressed like a monk. "Kutou assassins? What?!"

"Don't let them catch you off guard, Priestess!" he said, changing to chibi form. Then he disappeared inside his hat, leaving the hat behind.

She was still staring at the hat in puzzlement when Tamahome found her. "Miyo! You're all right!" he yelled.

"What happened? What's going on?!" she asked in confusion as he hugged her.

"As soon as you disappeared, arrows flew to where you had been standing! You could've been killed!!"

"Then… there were assassins!" she said thoughtfully.

"So the only thing you did while I was gone was chase after Hotohori?" Miyoko asked.

"I didn't!" Tamahome said helpfully.

They were in a small restaurant in the town where Tamahome had been. He, along with some other men, had been protecting the village against bandits. The village was about an hour away from the capital, and they decided to spend the night there, instead of riding back in the dark.

"Those Kutou assassins… They really were trying to kill me. That guy saved me. I really would've died…" Miyoko said.

"It's war," Nuriko said, sipping a cup of hot tea. "Even though His Majesty won't admit it, war has begun already. They will shoot to kill. It doesn't matter if you're a girl, or how old you are. You're the Priestess of Suzaku, and a threat to them."

They were silent for a moment, except for the sounds of Hamatsu munching on some of the Pocky Miyoko had brought back.

"Don't worry Miyoko! I'm on your side!" chibi- Tamahome said cheerfully.

"Tamahome! Bandits at the north gate!" a man called, leaning into the restaurant.

"Woohoo!! Money!!" Tamahome yelled gleefully, running out of the building.

"Maybe before we try and find the rest of the Suzaku we should try to cure Tamahome's obsession with money, first," Hamatsu said.

"Well… maybe he has his reasons…" Miyoko said thoughtfully. Nuriko banged her hand on the table loudly.

"You LOVE him, don't you?" Nuriko giggled.

Miyoko blushed furiously. "I don't have to tell you ANYTHING!!! I know that anything I say will be misquoted and used against me."

"Oh come on, you can confide in me," Nuriko coaxed. Hamatsu grinned evilly.

"Hmph."

They spent the night at a nearby inn, the innkeepers happy to have the Priestess and her companions there. Nuriko, Hamatsu, and Miyoko were all in the same room. Nuriko was out of the room at one point, and the two best friends spent time catching up.

"So, Miwako said something disturbing happened. What was it?" Miyoko asked curiously.

"Oh." Hamatsu shrugged. "Nuriko's a guy."

Miyoko dropped her cup of water. "WHAT?!?!?!?!"

"Nobody else knew, but I found out!" she said proudly. "So yeah, he's gay. I still think of him as a woman though, since that's how he thinks of himself."

Miyoko went to talk to Tamahome. After all, it had been a while. He had recently returned from catching the bandits from earlier. She found him sitting outside.

"Tamahome," she said, approaching him.

"Hey," he replied.

She sat down next to him. "So how have things been since I left?" she asked. He rolled his eyes.

"It was crazy. Eventually I left, y'know. I came here, where I could get a good job. Other than that, it's been a long three months. I missed you," he admitted.

"I missed you too, and I was only gone for a little while! I mean, compared to the time that passed in this world…"

"Did you think about staying in your world?" Tamahome asked abruptly.

"Were you worried about that?" she asked, smiling. "But no. I didn't. I don't like it there. Hamatsu and my other friends were really the only reasons I had for living. But I love this world, now, and everyone in it. I don't want to be somewhere where at any given time I can't find Hotohori looking in a mirror, Nuriko chasing Hotohori, and you chasing money."

They laughed, and Miyoko rested her head on Tamahome's shoulder.

"At any rate, I'm glad you came back," he said. He kissed her forehead lightly.

"Me too, Tamahome."

"So Nuriko's gay," she said to herself as she went to bed. Miyoko pondered this far into the night. "So the Suzaku Seven is made of an Emperor who collects mirrors, a miser, and a cross-dresser. I hope the others of them are fairly normal," she finally decided.