Hello people! Sorry this update took so long, but I've been busy and my computer messed up on me again. It deleted all my files so I had to get back all the really important stuff first before starting on the stories that were on this site. And I just found time today to work on it because I only had half a day of school today. (cheers)

No reader's response this time.

And there are THIRTEEN days until my birthday! (cakecakecakecakecakepresentscakecakecakecakecakecakedriverlicensecake)

Hope you like this chapter; I had a huge writer's block for this; I couldn't think of what to write and yeah…that's why it sucks.


It had been a rather peaceful day for Hikitsu; luckily, Uruki had decided that she wanted to go have some fun in this town, 'makes a few acquaintances, just in case' as she put it. Hikitsu had known her well enough by now to know what she really meant. By making a few acquaintances, she really meant 'get drunk with a few strange and possible criminals and have them help in future illegal activities'. Hatsui had fallen asleep in the room they were staying in at the inn and hadn't gotten up for a long time. Hatsui hadn't bothered him, figuring that either he was just really tired, or his powers (the ability to see the future or scry) were in use. Both of his abilities were done in his sleep or meditation, so Hikitsu did nothing and decided to go out and try to enjoy himself, before Uruki came back.

However, he was feeling a bit annoyed at the lack of seishi they had found in the last week. Surely, four people could not be that hard to find, especially since the first two had been fairly easy to find. The rest of them were having varied luck. The group in Konan had finally reached Eiyou, and located Hotohori. The Emperor had told them that he had just…appeared, in a field outside the city and upon entering the palace again, he had almost been arrested and even mistaken for a ghost until he confirmed that it was indeed him, a task that was hard to manage since the advisors and nobles kept thinking up different ways that he could have gotten the information or the seishi mark.

However, that was good news because now that they had Hotohori's insistence that he wasn't starting or even thinking of war, they only had two more countries' emperors to ask and hopefully, that wouldn't be too hard.

In Kutou, Amiboshi had been reduced to sitting on the throne, trying to reorganize the entire country. The country to the East, had generally just crumbled after the war between Konan and Kutou; there was a lot of work to be done, Amiboshi reported, and Hikitsu had to admit, the elder twin looked deprived of sleep last time Hikitsu had talked to him. Sai and Suboshi had stayed around to help in the first few days – the most hectic ones – and then they had set off looking for more seishi. So far, nobody had gotten any word of them and they all hoped that no harm had suddenly befallen the two, for that would be disastrous and no one would know for weeks if it had.

Subaru and Tokaki seemed to have the most luck out of all of them. They had found two seishi in one town, and another in the next one and should be arriving at the palace soon. So far, the Byakko group had Subaru, Tokaki, Tatara, Kagasuki, Kokie and Toroki. Now they only needed one more: Amefuri.

So, all in all, so far, the Seiryuu had two seishi (that they knew of), Genbu had three, Suzaku had four and Byakko had six. They were getting there, Hikitsu had to admit, but he really wished they could get things done faster. He couldn't help but feel that something bad was going to happen if they didn't hurry up.

Absently, he kicked at a pebble and on the ground. There was a whole pile of them, so out of boredom, he kicked them all. He watched with a mixture of horror and amusement as the second last one went flying up and hit someone on the head. The man swore violently as he looked around for the perpetrator. By this time, Hikitsu had long blended into the crowds. He really did not feel like confronting angry violent men today.

Just as he thought this, he wandered into an alley and what he saw made him groan. Looks like it wouldn't be a good day after all.


The crown prince of Konan, Boushin, was now reaching the age of fourteen and he was slowly adjusting to all the things that had disrupted his life so much. The first and most important of all was that his father had returned from the dead, looking like his eighteen year old self. It was somewhat disturbing, having your father look only four years older than you while your mother was more than twice your age.

Then Tasuki and Chichiri had come, along with Nuriko and a strange girl he had never met before. But the odd thing was, they all looked young also and this was even more disturbing, seeing the people who had taught him to defend himself, (though Tasuki wasn't much of a teacher) young and closer to his own age.

The girl was even stranger. Yukari, she had introduced herself as, wore strange foreign clothes and obviously did not grow up learning the customs of Konan. She did not bow or become unnecessarily polite when she was introduced to him and his father. She stood there and said a polite, "Nice to meet you" and not a moment after that, she and Tasuki were engaged in a lengthy argument; something about carrots, fish and swimming. Boushin thought it wise not to even try to understand that conversation.

Her strangeness was explained, however, when it turned out that she came from the priestess' world. Boushin did not ask whether or not she was a priestess herself, but judging by the way Chichiri and his father had been discussing what they could possibly be doing here, young again, he assumed that she wasn't.

They were all having dinner. He watched absently as his mother discussed a few things with his father; they both looked happy to be able to talk to each other again. His mother had aged well, Boushin noticed; she only looked to be in her twenties. He had never bothered to notice before.

He watched as Yukari and Tasuki got into another argument. He listened.

"I'm telling you, fang boy, drinking is bad for you!"

"How would you know!"

"My world has made medical advances you used to only dream about"

"Sure, and that's why so many people drink in your world"

"Well, unfortunately, some people, like you, seem to find the taste of alcohol enjoyable"

"So it is good"

"No, it's NOT! It's bad for your body and destroys brain cells!"

"What's a cell?"

"ARGH!" Yukari made a move as if to choke Tasuki and Tasuki just smirked at her, as if daring her to do so. Before she could actually strangle him, however, Chichiri intervened.

"Don't do it Yukari, no da; it's not polite to kill people at the dinner table, no da"

"I'm a seishi; you'll need me" Tasuki also pointed out.

"Yeah" Nuriko smirked, "He's fun to hit"

Tasuki growled and another argument started. Chichiri looked ready to kill all three of them, so he put his mask back on, hiding his murderous expression. Boushin could sympathize with the monk.

Before he could say anything, however, the door burst open and a guard rushed in, gasping for breath.

"Your majesty!"

"What is the meaning of this?" Hotohori asked calmly.

"There's something bad going on in town. I thought you would like to know, your majesty; it doesn't seem normal for all the citizens to gather"

Hotohori stood up, "Nuriko, Tasuki, Chichiri and I will go down to see what is going on…in commoner clothing of course. We'll meet at the palace gates in ten minutes" he said, "Our goal is to blend in this time…" he looked pointedly at Tasuki, who just scowled and nodded.

Fifteen minutes later, they were staring at a whole crowd of people and on the platform where people usually took bids for items they sold, there were four men, who seemed to be leading this. They strained to hear him over the noise of the crowd.

"Citizens, I ask you, how many times have you prayed to Suzaku? And how many times have they actually helped!" he yelled, "None! How many times have our crops died, our families died of sickness that the 'great and powerful' gods that could easily cure? Have you ever wondered why they do not come and help us, those who spend time to worship and pray to them?"

Nuriko and Hotohori exchanged a look, wondering where this was going.

"The answer is simple. They do not care. They do not care about the faith we instill in them; they do not care about our futures, our lives and most of all, they do not care about us!"

There was a horrified silence before, to the seishi's horror, the citizens began murmuring in agreement. Deciding that they had heard enough to get the gist of what was going on, they left the scene, each with shocked and horrified expressions on their faces.

"This is bad" Tasuki muttered.

"Yes it is…if the people are renouncing Suzaku…" Hotohori did not continue, and just let his sentence falter.

And the bad news just did not stop. Yukari announced grimly when they arrived back at the palace that Hikitsu, Amiboshi and Tatara had contacted her, all of them stating that a riot had occurred, such as the one the Suzaku seishi had just witnessed.

Like Tasuki put it, this was bad.