Hey everyone, I've returned! Got my brain working again. Sunlight helps...

With that, enjoy!


"When It Rains..."

Asuke hums another little tune. He's not one for silence. Traveling by horseback isn't his style, either. He parted ways with his young soldier companion hours ago, as the scamp needed to run off for the army camp instead of the capital.

"So shrewd, my dear general. You knew I'd get bored so you sent him away," he thinks, staring up through the myriad branches overhead. He's taking a path through an area known for monsters, evil spirits, demons, and all that hokum. He's fine with it. After all, he can relate to those sorts of folk. Besides that, this mountain blocks the rain!

He keeps plodding along, relatively en route to his destination. His mind wanders a bit. There's some mystery to the area, given that Konan is so peaceful it's disgusting. Kutou is more the type of place to have a mountain filled with evil that keeps people away. In fact, he can recall several places, within the empire proper and its satellite provinces, that fit the bill. Kutou should probably be more selective in its choices of land to take over, in his mind, but it's all over his head in the end.

That's when he hears singing. He stops short, both his gait and his voice. He strains his ears to listen through the rustle of the trees. It's faint, but he isn't imagining it: A woman is in the woods with him. She's singing. Curiosity being what it is, and he being so newly a part of the wide world, he pivots. He can get to the capital and to the general when he's satisfied.

With careful steps that any hunter would envy, he stalks into the woods. When the song goes away, he stops, hoping she'll start up again. The song does, but this time, it's different and he can hear strange accompaniment to it. Instruments he's never heard. A second singing voice that's under the first, and as he gets closer it becomes clear that the woman is singing along with whatever song it is.

"What an interesting power," he ruminates, rubbing his chin, "Very arcane."

The song ends, and he's very close now. It's here he learns that the woman is with a man.

He rolls his eyes. "Typical." He shifts a bit closer, sticking close to trees. "At least I'm not catching them doing the dirty out here. A lady deserves a comfy bed, that's my motto."

Peeking around, indeed there is a young woman and a monk sitting in the clearing, at a lakeshore. A simple bamboo fishing pole is stuck in the ground, the line trailing lazily in the water. No attention is paid to it. Instead, the song has ended and the two have leaned close together over something, something that had been emitting the music.

He's about to tiptoe off to get back to his leisurely journey through the countryside, but then they start talking.

"This device is amazing, no da! Your world has some incredible stuff," the monk exclaims, leaving the woman's side to at last check the line. Asuke wonders why: It's obvious that there's no fish. The young woman laughs, and he recognizes the pitch, the very essence of that laugh. How many like it he's heard.

"She's smitten. Interesting choice, given his profession, but I love a good forbidden romance. All the more dramatic." But then he really takes in what was said. And what the young woman is saying. And what the young woman is wearing. His eyebrows turn up in interest.

"My goodness. It seems I've stumbled on the one person the general would adore meeting. Oh well. My mission isn't to capture them or kill them. My mission is to get to the capital, as it stands!"

Feeling clever, he begins the process of sneaking back to the road. If the monk is a celestial warrior, which is a safe assumption, Asuke wonders if he was sensed at all. He got so close, and even his friendly general has issues sensing him. It makes sense that he didn't.

Back on the road, he hums again. One of the songs that woman was singing… It was quite catchy.

... ... ...

It'd been a couple hours at least, full of laughter and talking and she sang along to songs on her phone. She never knew she could feel so relaxed with another person before. Then again, that's always been how he is. Calm. Kind. Talking about mundane topics like splashing in puddles or how the best jokes are actually lame puns but no one wants to admit it.

Yes, a perfect, idyllic couple of hours before heading out into the stress of the world. But even through this, Tia could sense a trepidation. She knows this moment will end, and that Chichiri is waiting for his moment to speak his mind.

At this next still moment, her curiosity overwhelms her anxiety. She stares out at the water.

"This wasn't all just about cheering me up, right? There's something you have to tell me. Is it whatever you didn't tell me on the roof back then?"

Gathering her courage, she breaks her focus from the lake surface to stare him down. Even through his mask, his contemplative frown means serious business. She sits straighter.

"It's more than that?"

He sighs.

"Chiriko wasn't the only one called into Hotohori-sama's war room last night no da. I was also requested," he says, the admittance quiet. He hasn't managed to look back at her yet, but he hears her take a deep breath through her nose.

"'War room', huh. Why wasn't I called? I can help, I want to help."

"Tia." He places his left hand atop her right. "It's not about that, we all know you're invested in doing your part for Konan no da. But you said yourself that we need information."

She bristles. "Yeah, fine, but what does information gathering have to do with you?"

"I'm going." Chichiri pulls the mask from his face with his free hand. He finally turns his head to look at her. "Everything about me makes me the perfect candidate, no da."

"No! No no no, there has to be someone else. You're too important—" she cuts herself off with a tough swallow of her next words.

He smiles, huffing a bit in laughter. "Now there's a reaction I expected. You know how many tricks I have, I'll be perfectly safe no da."

"But there's no telling what the other side is hiding, cuz if they do have the priestess it means seven other warriors. They could sense your good-natured intent from their evil den and-and-and," she rambles, dizzy with the weight of anxiety again. He laughs lightly, and picks up her hand to hold it more securely.

"I'll be careful. The faster you find the other warriors, the faster I'll be back no da."

"You all had to go behind my back." The hurt in her voice drags the mood back downward. She draws her legs in close.

"That's not why this was done, Tia, you know that. You're smart, and you're determined, and it makes you a force to be reckoned with no da. You can't make every single decision, it's unrealistic and unwise."

She sniffles. "I know, I know. But you're-! You're just…"

"We've been together since you first got here, I understand. There's something else I've been meaning to tell you, that I need to tell you no da," he starts, unable to look at her now. She stiffens in alarm.

"You're not about to Old Yeller me and that's why you brought me here, are you?"

"...What?"

"No, never mind, just… keep going. I'm here, I'm listening." Tia senses the more serious nature of what's coming. This is what he wanted to tell her on the roof before. Without much thought, she shifts her hand so her fingers lace with his, which he doesn't pull away from.

The story he tells her next makes her stomach drop while her heart begins to understand why it is destined to break.


Lana Redfield pulls into the driveway to see her cousin's blue sedan and a government-plated black SUV. Alarm bells ring in the back of her mind, but she hauls up and out of her car anyway. She leaves the computer, for now. The government vehicle could mean trouble that could put Tia in a compromising position.

At the front door, she's met by her cousin Robin with a smile. "Hey, heard you driving in. Don't worry about the feds, grandma called them."

Lana scrunches her eyebrows in confusion at the news. Robin shrugs, but steps aside to let her in. They go to a parlor in the old house to see two agents and their grandmother speaking quietly over tea and coffee.

"Lana, glad you made it safely. These are people from the State Department, and don't get huffy about why they're here," she says, not looking up from her steaming mug, expression glib. Introductions go around, but the tension only surmounts as questions sit on Lana's back waiting to be asked.

"How did Tia get into 'The Universe of the Four Gods'? I thought it was a book," she starts, wringing her hands. She assumes the agents or whatever from the government are caught up on the story.

"It is, ma'am. Your grandmother surrendered the book to a classified department in the government after the disappearance of her sister. We're updated on the case file, but after so much time it's surprising for it to act up," one agent answers, but the other agent shifts to take over.

"It seems… um, someone within the department took it from storage and retranslated it from Japanese into English, uploading that translation onto the internet, albeit on a secure cloud kept within the government. The document was originally a scroll from China, and was translated by Einosuke Okuda, but how it first ended up in America is an unknown," he explains, taking a sip afterward.

"He was a friend of my father's. He stole it."

All attention goes to the old woman after her bitter statement. Robin strides to crouch next to her chair, gently stroking her hand in comfort.

"He stole it? Grandpa did from Mr. Okuda, you mean," Lana clarifies, earning a nod.

"He took it and then moved my mother and older sister to America. Then the war started and…" she trails off, choking up. She mutters something under her breath, Lana guesses in Japanese. A tear rolls down her cheek. Then another.

"And in the camp, Auntie Skylark was drawn into the book. You read along as she completed the quest given to her. Now Trianna is there," Robin finishes, keeping close and quiet as she comforts.

No one wants to say anything else. But Lana excuses herself to get the computer and check in on Tia. No use hiding it now.

She thinks about her great aunt, the strife that it caused the family so long ago. How her grandmother never truly recovered from seeing her sister taken from her.

"I can't even tell them my terrible feeling about Carly being in there as well. God, why again? Why us again?!"


Tia sits, surprisingly calm, with a wealth of tragedy on her shoulders. The story he told her was fairly short, but had everything making sense now. He had two best friends growing up. One became his fiancée, and the other was supposed to be happy for them both.

He says he killed his best friend. That after seeing his fiancée in the arms of his best friend, the breaking point as the rain began was his fiancée tearfully calling off the wedding. For being with his best friend. He snapped.

But, in the end, it was an accident. He tried to keep hold of his friend in the flood waters, but… Tia can tell it's all the same in his mind. He lost everyone that night. And while he said his scar from that night is upsetting to other people, she knows it has to be some comfort for him to cover it with a smile.

"You haven't said anything for awhile, no da," he mentions, as if ready for everything he's already heard. Pity, sympathy, general support. Of course, she feels those things, and she's shocked to hear that he could be like this, but, when she thinks about their interactions in the past…

"That's why you keep me from losing my temper. I know you've probably heard this," her voice chokes up a bit, tears leaking from her eyes. The amount of despair he's been through, that he's still saddled with, but she can't imagine her life without him now.

He shifts, turning in toward her in concern.

"I'm glad you're still alive. I'm glad you're still surviving and you're here with me."

"Tia, I—"

"—and I don't mean it in some 'you're a celestial warrior and you're useful' way okay. I'm being selfish. You can say it, I don't care."

"Tia—"

She sniffs quickly and looks into his one eye, up at his face that's become too dear to her.

"They loved you, and you should never ever forget them, you know that right?"

"Of course I do, I'll never forget that day Tia."

She releases his hand, shoving it away to slap her hands to her face in frustration. Too much, too much, overwhelmed! Where does she stand, and does she even stand? Why her? Why now?

"No! I mean yes, it's part of grief and your life but you had a ton more happy times with them! They didn't just stop talking to you for no reason, you didn't just move away."

Finally, he stops letting her interrupt him. He never meant for her to get upset, not like this. It didn't cross his mind that she might respond this way, or that anyone ever would.

"I know what you're trying to say. I don't talk about them often, to anyone," he admits, hands wringing to show the anxiety that he doesn't allow in his voice.

"Then why tell me?"

"You make me happy."

Her sniffles subside, as she waits for the next part of his statement. Her heart sounds like it's in between her ears with how loud it is.

"Yes… that happiness is why I'm telling you this. And it's why I'm leaving to gather information."

Tia feels dizzy as an invisible shroud blankets her.

"He's trying to get away from me."

She bites back the flood of making things worse than they already are.

"There's nothing I can do but let him go."


Mmm, well Tia, welcome to being eighteen years old. I'm an adultier adult, and here's my advice: Don't lend them large sums of money!

How's THAT for not giving anything away?

Thanks everyone who reads, and whomever follows/favorites and reviews. I'm always encouraged when I see them!

Til Next Time,

-A