Back and Forth
by Sk8er7
Chapter 6
The Start of A Journey
"Tamahome! Tamahome!" Miaka called. It was the next day and she could not find him anywhere. She spotted Hotohori.
"Hotohori! Have you seen Tamahome?" Miaka showed him a piece of paper. "He left this." Hotohori took the paper and read it.
"I am afraid that Tamahome has left," he told her remorsely. Miaka covered her mouth with her hand. "I will translate it. 'Dear Miaka. I have gone to Kutou Country. I am sorry that I broke my promise to stay with you. I wanted them to stop attacking the villages so badly! Please continue to look for the remaining guardians without me. When they are all together, I will come back. When I do, I want you to hear me say "wo ai ni".'
Upon hearing this sad and beautiful letter, Miaka began to sniff and then cry. Hotohori looked at her in sympathy.
"Why did he leave?" Miaka cried. "He promised me that he wouldn't! Why then?" She sobbed into the emperor's chest. He embraced her, not caring if anyone saw. This scene was however being viewed in the shadows.
After they both left, Megumi let out a sigh. It was such a strange love triangle.
"What are you doing, Megumi-chan?" Chichiri asked. She jumped around. She began to stammer.
"Well you see," Megumi started, "I was looking for you to return your hat, but on the way to your room, I hid behind this big pillar as a reflex. And that's all." She untied his hat from her neck and handed it to him. "Thank-you, it was a nice shortcut." With that, she ran away.
'How strange,' Chichiri thought. 'My room isn't that way. But Tamahome-kun's is!'
'How did he sneak up on me like that?' Megumi asked herself. She was now back in her room. 'Can he suppress his ki? Even without checking for ki, I can usually tell if someone's there.' Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out some candy.
"And Tamahome-san wanted to help he sell these." Megumi returned it to her bag. She stood up with her sword in hand. She hooked the sheath in her best securely. Pulling the sword out, Megumi swung it around a few times. It was slightly heavy, but she could use it fine. She put her hand in the bag and pulled out a cloth. Megumi carefully began to clean the sword. The cloth was nothing special, just something to clean the sword with.
"I really hope that I don't have to kill anybody," she said out loud. Putting away her shining sword, she looked at the contents of her bag. There were three notebooks, two of which were never used. There was a camera which was in there from her recent field trip. There were pens and pencils littered at the bottom. On top of those were the textbooks of the subjects that she was struggling with.
Standing up, she straightened herself to look presentable. She picked up her things and left her room.
Outside, Nuriko was teaching Megumi how to ride a young horse. But frustration got to him and he picked up the horse and nearly threw it. The horse wouldn't obey and of Nuriko's commands. Megumi approached it cautiously. He snorted and stomped, but when Megumi scratched him around his neck, he fell silent. She pulled herself onto his saddle adn began to ride him. She rode in circles around Nuriko who watched her.
"That's great!" exclaimed Nuriko as Megumi jumped down. She hugged the horse and scratched her once more.
"Does he have a name?" asked Megumi. Nuriko shook his head. "Well, can I name him?"
"Hotohori would probably let you, so why not?" replied Nuriko. Megumi furrowed her eyebrows in thought before saying, "koko."
"Why 'koko'?" Nuriko asked.
"Well, when you were trying to tame him, it kind of reminded me of a tiger that I had seen before, she replied.
"Hello Nuriko, Megumi." they turned around to see Chichiri, Miaka and Hotohori standing at the gate. "Are you ready? You will be leaving shortly."
A few minutes later, everyone was ready to go. Hotohori stood at the gate, watching with sad eyes as his friends departed.
As Miaka and the guardians began to reach the mountains, she looked behind but saw nothing there.
"Where's Chichiri?" asked Miaka. Everyone looked around to see if the monk was there.
"I don't know," replied Nuriko, "but he was right behind us." They shrugged this off, knowing for a fact that he could protect himself.
"Nuriko!" Miaka shouted without warning. She pointed to the small mirror that Taiitskun had given her. It read 'mountain'.
"What is that?" asked Megumi. They gave her a quick explanation of how they had required the mirror.
"There is another guardian in this city!" exclaimed Miaka excitedly. They rode on for mere minutes until Miaka spoke again.
"Nuriko, can we stop at that restaurant?" Miaka pointed to a small restaurant.
"I suppose we can," he replied.
"I can't wait to eat, I'm starving!" They were eating at their second table because Nuriko had broken the first table with his immense strength.
"Here's your food." The chef brought many plates of food to their table before going away to talk with his friend. Megumi didn't like him.
"Miaka," Nuriko warned, "don't eat anything." He turned and saw that all the plates were spotless of the food that was once there. "You ate ours too!" Nuriko turned around ust in time to see the blade before -
There was a clang of metal against metal. Miaka opened her eyes and saw Hotohori with his sword against the knife, as was Megumi's. Hotohori looked at the child with shocked eyes and Megumi returned it with a grin. They pushed against the knife at the same time, causing the chef to fall down and his weapon to stick in the wall. The other man was holding a knife too.
"They're just common bandits!" exclaimed Nuriko. Megumi and Hotohori sheathed their swords, letting Nuriko come up and crack his knuckles. Minutes later, the two men were in a heap on the floor. Some areas of their bodies were contorted into positinos that weren't supposed to be possible.
"Miaka!" Hotohori, followed by Nuriko and Megumi, instantly crowded around Miaka. She was on the ground, clutching at her stomach. "Are you all right?"
The maiden smiled at them saying, "I'm fine. I just ate that too fast." Barely believing her answer, Megumi smacked Miaka for her foolishness.
"Hotohori-san, why are you here? Why aren't you at the palace?" questioned Megumi worriedly. He smiled kindly.
"Chichiri has offered to 'become' me so I could come travel with all of you," he replied. Megumi began to picture Hotohori's body and hair with Chichiri's face. This proved to be too much for her. She began to laugh.
"Why are you laughing, Megumi-chan?" asked Miaka.
"Ha, Chichiri-san's face on Hotohori-san's body!" Megumi laughed. (She quickly added through her laughing fits that she meant it in no offending way to Hotohori) Miaka tried to picture this and began laughing. Nuriko started laughing as well. Even the emperor chuckled.
DONE!
i dont know if this chapter was kind of short or not, but i have to check my info on this story :P. thanks for all the reviews i got and im sorry for not updating recently! love all u reviewers!
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