Author's Note: YEAH, I got book 7! I was really surprised with the ending, but I'm glad it didn't end predictably with a nice little they-all-lived-happily-ever-after ending. I do love the Kaguya-Seeu pairing, but never expected to see them married with children OO I think I've just been inspired for another story…

Review Responses

"it makes the mangas seem more... You Know." I don't really know, but I'm glad the story's... uh, bringing them to life for you!

it's cool that there are other PL stories. i looked but didn't see any. i hope the authors move them to the PL section now that there is one, so we can all find them.

sorry you're not a fan of slash... i love it, personally. i'm surprised you don't think there's been any yet, though, since I thought I was being pretty obvious about who likes whom. i guess you are waiting for a kiss or something to prove for sure what the pairings are. there probably won't be anything like that until close to the end, though.

i'm so glad everyone is in character. i do see how bambi is more humorous, though... i tend to inject lots of sarcastic humor into seemingly unemotional characters. call it a weakness. i can't believe they truly are emotionless, so i guess making them coldly funny is the only way they make sense to me.

i finished book 7, so anything yuo say about it will officially not spoil it for me! it was quite good, and surprising. i hate a predictable plot.

Taken

Chapter 5: On the Road Again (Kaguya's Perspective)

I woke for my second time in the little cabin Bambi-chan had found. She was cooking rabbits, as usual, and I was doing nothing. Gold was apparently also doing nothing, but he had hunted during the night. I never did anything except follow Bambi-chan's lead like a puppy and depend completely on her and Gold. Bambi-chan apparently didn't mind, though, since she'd played that trick on me before when I'd asked if I could help.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and sat up, waiting for breakfast to be ready. The smell of rabbit meat was becoming one of my favorite parts of life out here in the wilderness, though I had to admit, the lack of climate control, indoor plumbing, and all the comfy furniture of the castle, or my house even, was getting annoying. I ate in an awkward silence. Bambi-chan had told me to shut up the previous day, and it made me think twice about starting a conversation. I'd thought she'd grown to like my talking a little, but that proved to me she had only been tolerating it, and could only take so much.

I couldn't really think of anything I wanted to say, anyway, though, since I was still embarrassed about the other thing that happened that day. I wasn't too sure anymore, but I thought I might've caught Bambi-chan looking down the top of my robe when she was up in the tree and I was talking to her. She'd denied it, but who wouldn't? Even if she had been looking, she probably thought it'd make her seem even ruder by just admitting it like it was nothing. I kind of liked the idea of her looking at me like that, but the fact that she did it without my permission and must have stopped listening to me because of it... that was really rude. It was all wrong. She was supposed to look like that when we were having a moment together or something, not just in the middle of a conversation like it was no big deal. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Maybe she was telling the truth; maybe she really hadn't been looking. And maybe pigs would fly soon.

After we finished eating, Bambi-chan cleaned up our mess, as usual, but with a thoroughness that suggested we were not going to make it again there. I was correct, since she stood up and announced that we were moving on, advising that we get our things together. We actually didn't have much of anything besides the clothes we wore and the little bag of vegetables. Gold carried that, and Bambi-chan and I just walked. It was shaping up to be just like before we'd arrived. Walk, walk, walk. Bathe, eat veggies, go to bed. Eat rabbits, walk, walk, walk. Blech. Where were we going? Would we just go on walking until we were captured by whoever had run us out of the castle? Ugh, I couldn't take any more walking!

We did walk for weeks after that. I was beginning to fear I'd do nothing but walk the rest of my life. We stopped occasionally, though, in caves and abandoned buildings, staying a couple of days in one place, doing nothing really. We had no chores except to clean up after we ate and gather vegetables. I didn't really even do that. After awhile I picked up on making fires, so I could cook, but I still had the vast majority of the time to myself. Bambi-chan even became more chatty when she began to realize her choices were walk, sit around in silence and boredom, or talk. She did get bored, I imagine, so maybe I was more of an entertainment than an annoyance after awhile. Talking was all we had to do.

We still bathed together regularly, and I think that had a lot to do with our increasing closeness. The awkwardness of my embarrassment dissolved pretty quickly when I saw her really looking at me then and knew she hadn't been before. She had a different aura about her when she looked at me like that. I liked her with that aura.

We even took on another companion in out travels. He was a nice man named Waseda-san whose soul was in a doll shaped like a giant chicken. It was comical at first, but after hearing his sad tale of being brought here from Japan by a freak accident and getting to know Seeu as a child, seeing the people of Asu die and having to place his soul in the doll before his body died they same way they all had, I couldn't laugh at him. It made me feel sorry for Seeu even more than I had, though.

Shortly after we'd met Waseda-san, I decided to see about all this choosing business. If I could save people from something horrible, I might as well do it, right? Why was I running away from these people who just wanted me to help them? Bambi-chan advised me against it, but soon the day came when we heard Kura's soldiers and this time, we didn't run. Waseda-san left us then, but Bambi-chan and Gold stayed with me when I allowed myself to be captured. Gold had orders from Seeu to stay with me and protect me, and Bambi-chan apparently felt it was her duty to protect me in her way as well, so I had two companions in the carriage the soldiers used to transport me into Kura's presence.

"Stay back!" Bambi-chan shouted to the crowd outside my cell. "The princess will come out only when his majesty arrives!"

His majesty then arrived late in order to make an entrance, I'm sure, but I did come out to greet him, hoping Bambi-chan was wrong. She had made it clear she did not trust him. I wanted to believe he was good, though, because he seemed like my only hope of actually saving any worlds. I didn't know what to do, and he was a person who might tell me.

I didn't get to say a word to the emperor, however, because just as I came out of the carriage, there was a flash of light and Seeu was there, just like when he came to get me in my room back in Eden. He appeared, took hold of me, and we both disappeared, just like in Eden. This time we didn't land back in Telene, though. I was in a giant castle that looked like no one had lived there for a long time. The furniture was overturned in places, there was a thick layer of dust, and there was no one there as far as I could tell, not even Seeu. It was exactly like before. He had brought me somewhere and abandoned me.

It was much more ornate than Bambi-chan's castle, although less kept up. I could tell it had once been beautiful. It was a palace. That thought made me wonder if this was Seeu's palace. He was royalty, according to Bambi-chan, and his palace would look abandoned with everyone dead but him. A place that disheveled would seem to invite rats and bugs, and I definitely didn't see any. Waseda-san had said Seeu's palace was completely pure and sealed off from the outdoors, so it made sense. Where was Seeu, then? Maybe he was around here somewhere.

I looked, but after awhile I gave up. I was getting more and more alone with each visit from Seeu, it seemed. First, I was in Eden, surrounded by people. Next, I was alone with Gold on Telene, where I eventually met a couple of other people. Now here I was completely alone. Not a soul was here from me to talk to, not even Seeu, who had apparently felt the need to bring me here. I just slumped on a couch and moped, angry at Seeu for continually taking me away from everything I knew and all of my friends. I didn't need stupid Seeu. He was probably a jerk anyway, if this was any indication. I just wanted Bambi-chan back.

After wandering around the palace a few hours, I was hungry. If Seeu wasn't going to be polite and show me into his kitchen, I wasn't going to be polite, either. I went straight in with the intent to help myself to whatever I wanted, and there on the table was a prepared bowl of soup and a drink. I wondered if it was for me or if maybe Seeu had fixed it for himself. I didn't see him around, so I just sat down and started munching. It was room temperature, but otherwise okay. It was better than going hungry. When I finished, I walked around some more, still nursing some vague hope of finding Seeu, but it didn't happen. I guessed he didn't want to show himself.

Exploring the castle was a novelty for a couple of days, but the new setting ceased to be new after awhile and I got bored. I got more bored than I'd ever been. It was nicer than being on the run with Bambi-chan in that there were bathrooms and steady meals, but it was incomplete without her there. I was pretty blue after awhile, and after five days I was just about ready to crack.

"Seeu!" I screamed to the air. "If you can hear me wherever you are, it was really mean bringing me here! I'm all alone with no one to talk to, no one to hold my hand or pat my head! Maybe you're used to being all alone like this, but I'm not! I can't take it!" I stood there, rooted to the spot, breathing heavily from all my screaming. I felt a little better, having vented my frustration, but I guess I was still waiting for something to happen. Of course nothing would, though, so I just turned to flop onto the couch and mope some more and saw what I least expected to see.

"Seeu?" I asked the figure before me, rather expecting him to disappear again. Was this real? How had he gotten there so fast? Had he been watching me the whole time?

"You need me to hold your hand, am I right? And pat your head?" He strode toward me purposefully and began to reach out toward me.

"Don't touch me!" I cried, cringing away.

"But I thought you just said you wanted me to hold your hand and pat your head,"

"No!"

"Yes, I'm sure I heard you say exactly those things." He tilted his head as if he were thinking or trying to remember just what I'd said.

"Well, maybe I did say those things, but that's like… giving an example, or trying to explain…" Seeu's hand was hovering over my head as if he wanted to pat it, but was afraid to. Oh, yeah, no one ever touched him, right? He was afraid to touch me because he'd never touched a person before, or maybe just not since his family died.

We stood there for a long moment without moving. Seeu's hand hovered over my head, indecision clear on his face. The fact that he was considering it made me feel good, like he was trying to make me happy. I didn't know whether to hope he would or hope he wouldn't. If it was really that traumatic for him, he didn't need to. I just wanted him around so I wouldn't be alone. I was just about to open my mouth to tell him he didn't need to do it if he didn't want to when I felt the gentlest brush against the hair on top of my head, gradually increasing pressure until his hand rested there, and again and again and again.