Summary; Warning; Disclaimer: See First Chapter.
First of all, can someone tell me if it's 'summary' or 'summery'! I'm going bonkers! Second, I hope this chapter answers some of your questions. Sorry it took so long, but was giving me problems. And for future reference: Wei Shen-Jun means 'valuable spiritual truth'. Yes, that's important, okay!
I'm in the middle of the fifteenth chapter, so this is definitely going to be the biggest one yet. Thanks to everyone who reviewed - eight reviews! That's the most yet for one chapter of this story. Maybe I should just take a while...nah. Anyway, if anyone's interested in how things are going, I'm gonna post the stats for the story at the bottom.
Please review if you read. Comments, ideas, suggestions, and helpful criticism welcome.
"My mother…is dead?" Kae repeated softly to herself almost an hour later, alone in her room after a long hot shower and dressing in a short nightshirt. "I was…gone all this time," she murmured, still in shock over the news she had received. "It's not fair!" she cried out, punching her pillow in angry sorrow, unable to accept what had happened during her absence. Tasuki's apparent rejection was also vividly etched into her memory, and she was unable to deal with the two blows to her heart.
"So…Yong Tien-Mei is finally beginning to accept her true destiny ," Keung Xi-Wang chuckled to himself, locked away in his wards but able to sense Kae's presence, even in her own world. "Despair is filling her heart…sorrow, anger, and losing her sense of self – all these things will soon enable to her to become my dark priestess, and she will release me from these damn spells."
Gazing into his palm, the spirit watched with a calm satisfaction at seeing the distress of the young woman before him, who had collapsed onto her bed, her body shaking from sobs.
"This is…horrible, no da," Chichiri managed sadly, as the two Warriors observed her through the sacred mirror. "There's nothing we can do here, either, except watch."
"This sucks!" Tasuki exploded, kicking the stool next to him. "What kinda help is this? How're we supposed ta help her if we can't even contact her?"
"I'm sure there's a reason, no da," his friend replied calmly, his own heart aching at hearing the heart-wrenching cries of the overwhelmed young woman in her own world.
"You have to eat something!" Yoshino argued from the other side of Kae's room the next day. "You haven't come out of this room since you came back – enough is enough! Your mother wouldn't have wanted you to behave this way!"
"How do you know what my mother would have wanted?" Kae shrieked, and hid her face in her pillow. "Go away," she mumbled.
"You're acting like a spoiled child," she scolded. "You're a grown woman!"
"Go away," she repeated, curling her legs to her chest defensively. "Leave me alone and go away. Stop bothering me."
"If that's what you think will solve this," the old woman replied, and shrugged her shoulders. "If you're hungry, get yourself something to eat. When you're ready to behave like an adult, come out and let me know so I can inform your father."
"Go away!" Kae screamed into the pillow, her body trembling in fear. She was unaware the Warriors were watching her that very moment, wishing desperately they were able to do something.
Night soon fell, finding Kae curled on her bed in a fetal position, an eerie silence having fallen over the room as her sobs faded from hearing.
"Are you aware of Tasuki's past?"
"Go away!" she ordered, trying to get the spirit out of her head.
"You do not wish to hear, then?" he prodded, and took the following silence for consent. "Very well, then. Roughly five years ago, a young woman by the name of Reirei fell in love for Tasuki, and even took her life for him. He vowed to avenge her, and he did so by killing the thing that she had fought. Tasuki is in love with this young girl, even so many years after her death, and will never be able to love you."
"It's a lie!" she argued. "He doesn't love anyone!"
"He doesn't love you," Keung Xi-Wang corrected. "And he never can. You are merely a pawn to him – a replacement, perhaps, but nothing more than that. Don't you understand that? Why do you think they have not contacted you? Do you think they are unable to, or is it because they are unable to locate you? It is neither – they have both the means and ability to reach out to you, and yet they do not. Tasuki wishes you gone from his life."
"Leave me alone!" she screamed, and pushed the spirit's chi out of her mind. His words, however, echoed in the recesses of her memory, and she fell to her knees in despair as she returned to reality.
"I can't do it anymore," she said quietly, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. "I can't – it's too much. I'm not a strong person…I don't want to remember any of this," she decided, silvery tracks from her tears still wet on her face and her face set. "If I die, there won't be any more pain, or any more hurt…or any more memories," she finished quietly, and took a pocketknife from her drawer and held it to her wrists. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and pressed the blade against her vein, prepared to sink into the darkness that seemed to beckon to her.
"Yes…this is it!" Keung Xi-Wang smiled coldly, watching her intently. "Soon I shall be free, and she shall become the dark priestess that was foretold!"
"She's not really doin' it, is she?" Tasuki demanded, shaking a poor Chichiri by the shoulders desperately. "She can't be serious, can she?"
"I'm afraid she is," he replied sadly, gazing into the mirror with worry in his eye. "There's nothing we can do from here, no da."
"We can't just watch her kill herself!" the bandit shot back, and grabbed the mirror from Chichiri. Pressing his nose against it, he glared at the empty-eyed woman before him and began to shout at her. "Kae! Don't you go and die, you stupid! What kind of person would do that? You better stop it, or that jackass Keung Xi-Wang'll get what he wants! Cut it out, Kae! Don't do it! Don't go and die on me!"
"Ta…suki?" Kae murmured, opening her eyes in surprise. The blade wavered for a second before it fell from her fingers, and she looked around in wonderment. Not hearing anything else, she sighed and bent to retrieve her weapon. "No…he wouldn't care if I died," she whispered, crouched down on the floor. "He's just a cold-hearted bastard – Keung Xi-Wang is right…what?" Something on her bed caught her eye, and her eyes widened in shock when she saw the coat Tasuki had given her laying on top of her bed. "What the…"
Kae crawled to her bed in the darkness and touched the object gingerly, afraid it would disappear. When it remained solid, she took a shaky breath and pressed it against her face, breathing in deeply his scent.
"Tasuki…" she whispered, and her shoulders shook as she cried into the jacket, releasing her heartache and sorrow through her anguished cries.
"You promised not to make a girl cry, didn't you, Tasuki?" Chichiri asked suddenly, as the bandit stared at the scene before him in shock. When his friend didn't respond, Chichiri's eye narrowed and he grabbed Tasuki's arm. The mirror fell to the floor as Chichiri whirled Tasuki around to face, and glared at his companion in disappointment. "Didn't you? Well, you're the reason she's crying now!" he yelled, trying to snap Tasuki out of his daze. "You're the one who's done this to her!"
"I…I…" Tasuki stammered, but was unable to find anything to say in response to the monk's accusations. He turned away in frustration and picked the mirror back up, and the look in his eyes as he gazed at Kae made Chichiri slightly regret his harsh words. "Kae…Kae, please, don't cry!" he begged, aware of the pain he was feeling himself at seeing her in so much pain. "Please…I don't want ya ta cry anymore! I'll get ya back, and save ya!" he shouted, shaking the mirror in desperation.
"Leave me alone!" she screamed, clamping her hands over her ears, trying to block out the words that managed to reach her. "Stop torturing me! I want to stay here – I don't want to go back! I don't want to be with him anymore, so stop mocking me!" she raced on, tears streaming down her face. "It's not fair! I can't take anymore – so stop it! I hate him!" she shrieked, before falling to her knees in exhaustion. With a last burst of energy, she blocked the Warrior's chi from her and created a barrier to keep them from reaching her again.
"She…hates me?" Tasuki repeated slowly. Chichiri looked at him sympathetically as emotion crossed the bandit's face. Suddenly, Tasuki dropped the mirror into Chichiri's lap as he got to his feet and strode out of the room without another word.
"Tasuki…this is a real mess," Chichiri sighed, rubbing his temple with his index finger. "And now…with that barrier up, we can't do anything, no da."
Almost a week passed, and Kae refused to leave her room. She ate once during the entire time, and the strain on both her body and spirit was quickly becoming too much for the young woman to bear – much less alone and heartbroken. Tasuki, meanwhile, also refused to speak to anyone and continued to avoid looking into the mirror whenever possible.
"This is going better than planned," Keung Xi-Wang said to himself, aware of everything that was happening in both worlds, particularly to Tasuki and Kae. "Soon the priestess will be permanently torn apart from the two Suzaku Warriors, leaving her totally defenseless against me. Then I shall make my move and possess her, and destroy this land of those damned gods!"
"We're being attacked!" Knei-Gong announced abruptly one evening, bursting into Chichiri's room. "I can't find Huan-Lang anywhere! But something big is coming – it's already killed three men!"
"What?" Chichiri demanded, rising to his feet and following the bandit down the hall. "Is it a spirit?"
"I don't have the foggiest idea – but whatever it is, it's big and mean," he replied grimly, and gestured out a window as they passed. Chichiri froze in shock momentarily as the thing came into view, and the monk was unable to comprehend the idea that something like that could exist. Rotting flesh hung off its body, which towered over the tallest trees, and it seemed to be comprised of shadows and corpses – but the stench it emitted was a terrible one, causing Chichiri to gag.
"What the…" he began, but looked up as Tasuki appeared.
"What the hell're ya two doin'?" he demanded, his harisen out and ready for a fight. "We've got company!"
"Daa," Chichiri nodded, preparing his spells as the three rushed down the hall, ready for the battle to come.
"What is…what's this feeling?" Kae wondered, suddenly feeling cold all over. Wearing a white T-shirt that came past her thighs over black leggings with white scrunched-down socks, she crossed her legs instinctively to get them up off the floor. "It feels like death," she realized, rubbing her arms in an effort to warm them. She gasped as her room suddenly became pitch black, and choked as a scent resembling rotting flesh and indescribable evil filled her room and senses. "Oh…god!" she gasped, trying her best to breath in spite of the stench. Her numbing hands found her doorknob, but to her shock it was stuck and unable to open. "Damn it!" she cried, feeling both frightened and angry. "What the hell is going on?" she cried, feeling small and insignificant as the darkness enveloped her.
"Nothin' can harm this damn thing!" Tasuki yelled, when his fire was proved to be ineffective. Chichiri shot chi blasts at the creature, but the thing seemed to absorb them and only become bigger. "How the hell're we supposed ta fight this thing?" he demanded, as Chichiri appeared next to him.
"I don't know," he admitted, panting slightly. "It must be a creature Keung Xi-Wang created, but I have no idea what it is, no da!"
"One thing's for sure – we can't win like this," Knei-Gong added. "Huan-Lang, I'm gonna take the boys up into the mountains – can't let them all get killed."
"Go, Knei-Gong," Tasuki nodded, and made a noise in his throat as his friend left them. "Damn it…" he muttered, gripping his harisen. "What's goin' on? First Kae disappears, and now this thing shows up!"
"Keung Xi-Wang must realize we're weaker with her power gone," Chichiri realized, and frowned in thought. "If there was a way to get her back, we might have a chance of winning, but we'll die if we keep this up."
"I ain't intendin' ta die like this, that's fer sure!" Tasuki retorted, and rushed back into the battle desperately. "Rekka Shin'en!"
"Tasuki!" Chichiri yelled, as his friend's flame was shot back at him, and rushed forward to help.
"Ow!" Kae cried, and winced when she suddenly became aware of a burn on her arm. "What on earth…" she began, and winced again when a deep cut on her leg appeared. "What's happening to them?" she wondered, suddenly filled with fear for the two Warriors she had left behind, even the one she had claimed to hate. "Tasuki…Chichiri…"
"Damn it!" Tasuki grunted, his left arm hanging limp beside him. "That damn thing can move pretty quick, huh?"
"Daa," Chichiri nodded, his right leg badly cut below the knee. "We can't just leave the mountain to him – if the ward is destroyed, there'll be nothing to stop Keung Xi-Wang from coming into this world, no da."
"Then we'll just have ta fight!" the bandit nodded, managing a grin. "Besides, I ain't gonna let a bastard like that take my mountain! I gotta protect it like I promised," he added, ignoring the pain coursing through his body.
"All right, then," his friend agreed, gripping his staff. "As Warriors of Suzaku, we shall do him proud."
"C'mon – come and get us!" Tasuki dared the thing, rushing headlong into it.
"It is enough," Keung Xi-Wang decided, and abruptly narrowed his eyes. The creature Chichiri and Tasuki were facing suddenly disappeared, and Kae's room was cleared of all stench. Their respective wounds remained, however, and the two Warriors looked up at the sky uneasily as dark clouds began to form above them.
"That's not good, is it?" Tasuki asked weakly, and Chichiri could only shake his head.
"I feel…I feel like I'm going to freeze to death!" Kae shivered, as her breath formed clouds. "What's going on?" Her left arm hung limp alongside her shuddering body and blood trickled down from a wound in her hairline, as she closed her eyes in pain.
"Thanks to you, priestess, I now have enough energy to break this cursed barrier and destroy the Warriors of Suzaku once and for all!" the spirit laughed, and rose to his feet in a swift motion. Concentrating the dark chi he had gathered from Kae's broken heart, he attacked the barrier holding him below the earth and with one blow the weakened wards shattered, releasing the dark spirit from his prison.
"Oh, shit," Tasuki managed.
"No freaking da," the monk replied dimly, as the sky became pitch-black and the earth shuddered beneath their feet. They were thrown to the ground as a shadow appeared in the sky before them, and it grew clearer as it drew closer to them, revealing a man all in black, long black hair framing glowing coal-like eyes, which seemed the only things about him to have any light at all.
"I am Keung Xi-Wang," he announced, addressing the two Warriors. "Thanks to you, and the medium whom the gods so tried to protect, I have been freed from my prison!"
"How'd we help?" Tasuki demanded, in no mood for gloating evil spirits at that moment.
"You are the Warrior Tasuki, correct? Thanks to your incompetence, you broke the heart of my desired priestess, allowing me easier access into her already-wounded heart. As time passed it only became easier to manipulate her and to return her to her own world," Keung Xi-Wang told them with a cold smile. "And thanks to her despair and sorrow, and her anger towards you, I was able to gather her energy for my own purposes."
"You bastard!"
"We won't let you win," Chichiri vowed, ignoring Tasuki's outburst.
"We shall see, Warriors of Suzaku," the spirit promised, and outstretched his hand toward them. A black burst of light shot towards them, knocking them backward.
"Augh!" Kae screamed, being throw into her wall and leaving a dent. "How…am I connected, somehow?" she wondered, barely able to move. "How is that possible?"
"You are not evil, Zhen Shen-Jun."
"Suzaku?" she asked, speaking out-loud.
"Your heart has been wounded, and your spirit driven to great grief and despair, but you are not evil," the god told her comfortingly. "You still love the Warrior Tasuki, no matter how much you may deny it. Keung Xi-Wang is not able to take that from you, nor is he able to completely sever the bond you have formed with my chosen ones. That is why you feel the pain they suffer in their world."
"Am I…am I able to go back?" she pressed, and jumped when a winged crimson figure appeared before her, smiling calmly down at her.
"Do you wish to help them, and the land they fight for?"
"Y-yes!" she nodded, and gasped when Suzaku's wings enfolded her and drew her to him. She sighed as warmth and love flowed into her heart, healing her wounds and strengthening her own resolve and love for Tasuki.
"You are ready," Suzaku told her, holding her tightly. "The journey will be painful, but I can return you to them."
"Please," she nodded, bracing her body for the return trip.
Okay, stats: Num. of words, it's #3; num. of chapters, #5; num. of reviews, #5 at 44 reviews; num. of hits, #5; not in a C2; num. of favs, #11 at5 favs; num. of alerts, #4 at 8 alerts. Hey, how come they're off? Ah, well.
For anyone who messaged me and I haven't replied, I'll do that today. I just have to get my comp back together...Please review!