Hi you guys! Sorry I'm taking so long! But school work is keeping me down! That and the fact that my dad despises my writings and deleted them all…--…But not to worry! I luckily have everything saved on disks, too, so you'll get your chapters…someday…hopefully now that it's thanksgiving break I'll have some time to work on it and get some more chapters edited for ya'll. But enough of that! You probably want the story now right? Well, alright! Thanks for all of you who reviewed! I really appreciate your support and suggestions. Now on with the story!
Rika burst into the room Tasuki had indicated followed by Aya and finally Tasuki and Tamahome. There on the bed was the form of a young man. He was stretched out in slumber and appeared to be quite content.
"Chichiri? Chichiri!" Tasuki ran to the sleeping Chichiri and gave him a bear hug. "You're back!"
Chichiri gazed at him with sleep glazed eyes, "Tasuki? How did you get up here?" Chichiri looked around, becoming more awake every minute. "Or how did I get down here? Where are we, no da?"
"We're back in the palace," Tasuki exclaimed cheerfully. And why shouldn't he be cheerful? He hadn't even gotten slapped for his rendezvous with Rika. Tamahome had gotten a black eye and another very tender area. Tasuki snickered. Look at him! He can't even sit down! He hid his smile from Tamahome, who was standing gingerly in the corner.
"How did we get there?" Chichiri asked, surprised. "And who are the lovely young ladies you have brought, na no da?!" He smiled at Rika, who smiled back.
"We're not sure," Tamahome put in gravely. "And I know I don't know who these girls are. Maybe they'd like to tell us now."
Rika was still staring at Chichiri. Nothing Houki had told them could prepare her for his stunning good looks. He had a haunted look about him. Like there was something in his past that had affected him deeply. True to Houki's word, a scar ran over his left eye. But instead of feeling uneasy, Rika was feeling…turned on. That scar and his whole damn attitude is just too sexy!
"I guess I'll take over the telling of this story," Aya said with no little amusement. "Well, we're not from around here."
"No one with hair that color could be from around here," Chichiri noted. "I've traveled quite a bit, no da. You're only the second person I've seen with hair that color."
"Nakago," Tamahome growled. "Where do you hail from? If you're his kin, I'll show you no mercy!"
Aya stared at him, her contempt obvious. "Isn't Nakago the one you killed? Well, I suppose you must have a pretty good reason for hating him, but let me tell you something. If you mess with me, you'll get your ass kicked. This morning will be nothing."
"Now, now," Chichiri looked uncomfortable. "Let's not fight…"
"You don't have any clue what I've been through!" Tamahome yelled suddenly.
"That's right," Aya agreed getting right in his face. "And I couldn't really care less. All I want to do is go home! But no. I'm stuck here with you in this stupid―"
"Aya," Rika broke in. "Is it that time of the month again?"
Aya's mouth flapped open and she gaped. "H-how dare you!" she flew at Rika with plenty of giggles and exaggerated cries of rage. "That is so not the question to ask me right now!"
"Then it's true!" Rika laughed. "I knew you were acting far too aggressive."
Aya finally grew tired and plopped on the ground, glaring up at her friend. "That, my dear, is not funny in the least. You're the second person in as many days to comment on my bitchiness."
"Well, if there was a queen, you'd be it," Rika shrugged ruefully.
"Thanks, Rika," Aya grinned wryly.
"No problem!" she responded brightly.
"So now what?" Aya asked glancing around at the group. All except Tamahome were smiling at her in a funny way. "What?" she asked sharply. "None of you have ever been around girls before?! These things do happen, you know!"
While the other seishi were talking amongst themselves, Rika whispered to Aya, "Well…We need to find Yuko and Mieri. They have to be in this world as well. But where could they be?!"
Aya shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they landed somewhere else in Konan. We were lucky enough to land in the palace, but they may have landed in another city."
"How big is Konan?" Rika asked, turning to the natives.
"Pretty extensive, no da," Chichiri mused. "Why do you ask?"
"So what do we do?" Rika fretted. "They could be anywhere!"
A moment of silence, then, "They're still be wearing their clothes like we were, right?" Aya asked suddenly.
"Well, yeah, unless they changed like we did," Rika frowned.
"So have Houki put out like a wanted poster or something for all unaccompanied foreign girls that look to be from fifteen to nineteen," Aya suggested logically.
"Did Aya just say something smart?" Rika looked around amazedly. "My Aya? There must me some kind of mistake. My Aya never has anything smart to say."
"Okay you!" Aya laughed and gestured menacingly. "Don't start with me."
"So let's go get Houki," Tasuki shot down the hallway followed by Chichiri and Tamahome. Since Aya and Rika weren't too sure where they were going quite yet, they dashed after the excited boys.
"Hey!" Aya raced down the hall leaving Rika behind her. "Wait up, you idiots!" She glanced back at Rika and slowed down a bit.
"They're just going to Houki's room," Rika pointed out. "It's not like we don't know where it is."
"Oh good! You know! I've forgotten," Aya admitted sheepishly.
Rika shook her head as they arrived at Houki's screen. "For all that you're smart and brave, sometimes you're just dumb."
"It's the blonde coming out I'm afraid," Aya smiled.
Shouts from inside the room caught both girls attention. Aya kicked the screen in and burst into the room, followed closely by Rika. "What's the matter?!" She looked around her in confusion. Houki was crying on her bed clasping Boshin to her breast. Tasuki, Chichiri, and Tamahome had surrounded and were talking excitedly to what looked like another woman. "Who is that?" she asked Houki quietly.
Houki only shook her head. She was crying too hard to reply.
Aya let out a sigh of annoyance and waltzed over to the female. "Who are you?" she asked with a slight frown.
The woman looked up suddenly from where she had been talking to the Suzaku seishi. "Me?"
"No, the other strange woman that I don't know."
Houki gasped. The woman didn't seem to notice as she smiled down at Aya. Aya then realized she was kinda tall even barefoot. Although she didn't feel it at times, Aya was pretty tall for her age at 5'8". But this woman dwarfed her. If she wasn't six feet, she must be just under. She had long silky sable hair that fell to her hips. It was tied very casually back with what looked like a silk thong. Her green eyes were kind when she replied, "Strange woman? I don't think so. But I am beautiful enough, don't you think?"
Aya looked up in confusion. "What in the world are you talking about?"
The woman just smiled.
Houki recovered enough to run back to the woman and wrap her arms around the poor thing.
Aya stepped back for a moment to confer with Rika. "Do you think that's her sister?"
Rika took in the way Houki was sobbing over the stranger. Then the way Tamahome, Chichiri, and Tasuki were still chatting amiably with her. Finally, at the overall wealth of the visitor's clothes. Not many people could afford that. "Hotohori?"
Aya blinked. "No way! Hotohori was a guy!"
"Um…I am a man," the stranger insisted.
"Like hell!" Aya frowned. "I think I'd know my own sex!" she stomped over to the stranger. Placing her hand on his…genital regions, she began, "If you're a man, why don't you have――" Her eyes widened. She felt around a little bit more. The stranger's face turned red as anything, and everyone in the room was staring at her with not a little horror.
Tasuki was the first to break the silence with a loud guffaw. "HA!!! You got caught feeling up the emperor!" He burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Former emperor," Hotohori corrected with a slight clearing of the throat.
Aya jerked back her hand as if it had been burned. She stared at it in terror. "Oh. My. God. I just touched…a penis!" she held her hand out in front of her like something vile and turned to Rika. "What do I do?!"
"First," she hissed, "You should apologize for offending the emperor before we lose our necks!"
"Sorry," Aya mumbled distractedly in the direction of the blushing Hotohori and giggling Houki.
"Next," Rika continued, "Just…I don't know. Wipe it on something."
Aya complied by rubbing her hand on Rika's shoulder.
"NOT ON ME!!!"
Aya grinned finding some of her humor returning. "You said wipe it on something."
"Something not someone!!!"
"Whoops," Aya replied with a little less than apologetic tone and another grin.
"You'll get yours, Aya Namahira. You'll get yours."
Aya laughed along with Rika while the others caught up a bit. But suddenly, realization dawned on Aya. "Hold on!" Everyone turned to face her with a start of surprise. "Isn't the Emperor Hotohori dead?"
"Well, yes, of course," Houki looked a little confused.
"Then why is he here?!" Rika asked with a little bit of panic as she, too, realized the implications.
"Sometimes, the Suzaku seishi come back to see us, na no da," Chichiri offered. "But not often."
"But wouldn't they come back as ghosts?" Rika reasoned. "Hotohori has a flesh and blood body!"
Hotohori looked down at himself as if just realizing. "I'm afraid she's right. I don't really know why I'm here either. I just suddenly found myself here in my bed."
"This is a problem, no da," Chichiri frowned in thought. "It is one thing for us to be transported from different areas to here. But for something to bring back the dead, and in a body, means something very important, no da."
"Is it Suzaku?" Tasuki asked.
Chichiri shrugged. "I don't know, no da."
"Well, if I'm back…" Hotohori glanced towards the door.
Seven people suddenly froze. As one they headed for the door. Tasuki with his swift feet took the lead with the rest of the seishi and the girls in tow.
He came to Nuriko's room first. He threw open the door and halted.
A figure on the bed rolled over to face the wall with a highly audible groan. "I don't know what time it is, but I know it's too early for me to get up!"
"Nuriko!" Tasuki bounded into the room. He wrapped the sleep dazed Nuriko in a huge hug and then set him carefully down.
Nuriko sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing here?" His eyes shot open, "Are you dead, too?!"
"No, idiot!" Tasuki grinned. "You came back!"
"I did?" Nuriko looked around. "Hey, I did! What for?"
"Got me," Tasuki shrugged. "Ask those two," he pointed at a suddenly alarmed Rika and Aya.
"Uh-uh!" Rika protested backing away. "No way, are you blaming this on me!"
"Me either!" Aya agreed.
"Come on!" Houki pulled on her husband's arm. "The others must be here, too!"
Mitsukake's room was next. The large man was sleeping blissfully and appeared calm when they told him he was alive again.
"Oh. Isn't that a pleasant surprise?!" Mitsukake grinned happily.
"You're taking it well, na no da!" Chichiri grinned happily. He was playing with Tama, Mitsukake's cat. Tama had disappeared not long after his master had died.
Mitsukake shrugged. "I don't see any reason why I should fuss. I'm alive again!"
"True!" Houki laughed.
Finally, Chiriko's room was left. Aya was the first one to this door, and she opened it carefully to peek inside. "There's no one here," she informed the rest sadly. "He's not here."
Hotohori had always been rather fond of the young child imagining how his own son would someday be. Hotohori had unfortunately died before he knew Chiriko long or even realized he was to have a child. He frowned a little from disappointment. "I wonder where he is?"
"Where who is?" a voice asked behind him.
"Chiriko," he answered sadly.
"I'm here!" the voice happily answered.
Hotohori turned and saw a smiling Chiriko behind them all. "Where have you been?"
"Looking for you, of course," was the little boy's reply. "I knew the rest of you would have come back, too. And with all the ruckus, I assume we've found everyone?"
"Yeah," Tamahome stepped up. "You were the last of us."
"Now we have everyone!" Houki clapped her hands.
"Everyone except Miaka," Nuriko reminded them.
For a moment, everyone was silent as they thought wistfully of their carefree priestess.
"Speaking of priestesses…" Houki spoke up into the silence. She glanced at Rika and Aya. "I have an assumption that you may want to hear."
Chiriko looked up. "I think I know what you mean to say. We were all brought here for a reason," he began facing the others. "Do you not find it strange that these girls were brought here at basically the same time?"
"We still don't know who these people even are!" Tamahome insisted.
"So ask them," Mitsukake suggested.
Tamahome rounded on Rika, "Where do you come from?!"
Rika blinked in surprise. She saw Aya tense, but for some reason her friend decided to say nothing. "Where am I from? I'm from Tokyo, Japan!"
"And what is that?!" he demanded.
"Her home. Didn't you hear her?" Aya couldn't resist butting in any longer. "That's the world we came from."
Chiriko nodded. "I suspected you might be from another world.
Tasuki hesitated. "How can we know they tell the truth? I have to agree with Tamakins on this one."
"I have a feeling they are telling the truth, na no da," Chichiri put in helpfully. Rika smiled at him.
"Tell them exactly how you came to be in Konan," Houki encouraged.
Rika nodded. "Well, we all four were―"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Tamahome held up his hand. "There are more of you?"
Rika nodded. "Our two friends Yuko and Mieri were also transported here. But we were separated. Yuko and I, Mieri and Aya. Those two had the original version of the Book of the Four Gods," she gestured at Aya. The seishi visibly winced at the mention of the Book of the Four Gods. "We were talking on the phone―I know you don't know what that is, don't ask―when we all four read the first page at the same time. It was at that time that a red light surrounded both parties. Aya and I woke to find ourselves here at the palace. We haven't found Yuko or Mieri yet. I hope they're together and safe." A hint of worry started to creep into her voice.
"I didn't feel the aura of Suzaku when I was being transported," Chichiri frowned. "I would most certainly have felt it. I did feel something though."
"Ahem," Houki cleared her throat nervously.
"Yes?" Hotohori turned to her.
"Something strange did happen last night…"
"What?" Tamahome leaned closer. "If it would help, tell us!"
"Well, late last night the palace guard woke me to report a strange intruder by the pond."
"Strange?" Chiriko mused. "How so?"
"When I went to check this story myself, I saw…Aya."
"Me?!" Aya was taken aback. "I was by the pond last night, but I think I would have noticed you and the guards."
Houki looked at her sympathetically. "Not in the state you were in. When I realized it was Aya, I stopped the guards from approaching her. But she was…not herself. She was surrounded by a very bright aura of white light. And when she opened her eyes, the aura shone through."
"That is very strange, indeed. What else happened, na no da?" Chichiri questioned.
"After her eyes opened, the aura faded; and Aya collapsed onto the grass. She appeared to be unconscious. I had the guards put her back in her room and made them swear to tell no one."
"Is that all?" Hotohori asked gravely. Houki nodded.
Aya had gone deathly pale. "I-I don't remember what happened after I reached the courtyard! I was really sad that I couldn't see you all," her brow furrowed, "I…I don't remember anything else."
"Is it possible she has some type of power?" Nuriko addressed Chichiri and Chiriko as the ones most likely to know.
"It's possible," Chiriko admitted. "Chichiri can you scan her life-force?"
Chichiri nodded and concentrated for a moment. "I cannot sense it, na no da!"
"What?!" as one the Suzaku seishi cried out.
"That's not possible!" Tasuki protested.
"It is possible," Chiriko corrected. "But only if said person is much stronger than Chichiri."
"Check the other's!" Tamahome commanded.
"Hey! I have a name! It's Rika!"
Chichiri concentrated again. "I can't sense hers either, no da."
The Suzaku Seven plus one very smug Houki stared at the two girls. "Don't look at me!" Aya exclaimed. "I didn't do anything!"
"Why would Chichiri be unable to sense their life-forces?" Hotohori wondered out loud.
"You
said the aura was white?" Chiriko asked suddenly. "It could be
that these four girls are new priestesses."
"Impossible!"
Hotohori burst. "We've already had our priestess!"
"Is there anything to say we can't have another?" Mitsukake asked quietly.
"Me!" Tasuki asserted. "I won't replace Miaka with some other girl!"
"Um…Hello?!" Aya stood with her hands on her hips and a decidedly irritated look in her eyes. "Who told you idiots that we wanted to be these priestesses? You just go off and assume that because you value them so much, we must be dying to become one?! Well, you can all just kiss my ass!" she snorted. "I couldn't care less about being a priestess! I'd probably have to wear some kind of dress! No, thank you!" Aya spun around and grabbing a giggling Rika, stomped out of the room.
They rest looked at each other in various forms of shock, amusement, and worry. "Do you really think they are priestesses?" Houki asked Chiriko quietly.
"I don't see any other explanation as to why we would suddenly find ourselves back here."
"Then we'd better figure out how we're going to convince them to like us again," Tamahome sighed. "I don't think they're too open to the idea."
"We'll figure out a way, no da!" Chichiri smiled happily. "They can't hate us too much!"
"I hate them!" Aya stomped down the halls dragging Rika behind. "They're so arrogant! Thinking we'd just jump and beg to be their damn priestesses! Whatever the hell they are!"
Rika allowed herself to be pulled along. She noted in amusement that although they met several guards along the way, all of them scrambled to find alternate routes when they saw Aya's face. "Maybe they didn't mean it that way. I mean we did kind of drop out of the sky on them. Some of them are supposed to be dead! And we're the only way they have to explain what happened. Besides, what if we really are the priestesses?"
Aya stopped and glared at her friend. "Do you have to be so damn PRACTICAL?!"
Rika smiled, "I can always tell when you're really angry. You start cussing a lot."
Aya's anger slowly drained in the face of such annoying cheerfulness. She struggled to hide a grin. "And since when did you get to be such an expert on my moods?"
"Since I've known you for three years or more."
"Smartass."
"That's
the spirit!" Rika laughed. "Now what do you want to do?"
Aya
thought. "As much as I like Houki and some…of the seishi,
I think we need to go find Yuko and Mieri. These people are only
concerned about their priestess. We'll never find them at this
rate!"
Rika nodded reluctantly. "I think you're right. Our friends have to come before people we just met. No matter how much we like them."
"So you wanna go?" Aya asked her eyes alight.
"Shouldn't we get our stuff?" Rika asked.
"What stuff?"
"Well, clothes would be nice."
Aya suddenly remembered that they were still in their nightclothes. She blushed as she realized everyone had seen them. "Agreed. Clothes first."
It took no time at all to sneak back to the rooms and grab their clothing. Having Houki's permission to be there, the two girls had simply walked back to the palace laundry to fish out their clothing. In Japan, Aya had been wearing a spaghetti strap shirt with some cheerleading shorts. But in the US, Rika had been in bed. She had only her cloud pajamas that she could put on.
"I feel like a dork," she complained to Aya.
"Well, you look like one, too, so it's to be expected."
Rika glared, "That's not funny."
"Well, do you think I fit in any better? I'm as much of a sore thumb as you are!"
"True. But at least you don't feel like you're showing something indecent."
Aya turned to study her friend. She smothered a giggle, "You look fine. Just peachy keen!"
"Liar."
"You asked," Aya crept to the door to check the hall. "All clear! Let's go!" She slid out the door and was gone.
"Wait for me!" Rika hissed as she too disappeared out the door to search for her friends.
