Hiya! Yes…I've finally updated. And I've also finally figured out a way to spice things up for poor Mieri. Heh heh heh. I will apologize in advance for how depressed and sentimental she is. It's really not her fault. But I really don't have much to say except for I'M GRADUATED! I'M FREE! There. Now on to R&R:
Silver:LOL YES! Confetti:: runs around in circles : Confetticonfetticonfetti! Yes…I am hyper as well. And what's with you not being on either! We're so going to have to set up a schedule. : nods : And the reason they have to dress up as women? A) I like seeing Hotohori dressed up in women's clothing B) I suppose maybe I should have put this in somewhere but basically they're worried about the unknown danger. Plus the Seiryu seishi. So they're being really cautious. (Actually Chiriko and Chichiri made them be really cautious but it amounts to the same thing) So there you have it! And this chapter is much longer than normal so be happy!
Mint:Yes…Mieri has been gone a long time hasn't she? And Yuko too! But that shall change! I guarantee it! Probably Yuko's going to get a lot of time now b/c of unmentionable plot twists. Hee…I love knowing stuff you don't:: evil laughter : And crossdressing is most definitely necessary in ANY FY fanfic. It's just…wrong…without it! And yes….Tasuki loses to the horse…constantly…lol I guess I can't say much though…the other day I was trying to clean out my horse's hooves and he reached around with his head and bit me in the butt! -- That is definitely a punch-on-the-nose situation. So I got him back. And Tasuki would get killed by a bike…Actually…: glimmer of an idea :….Hee! My MSN right now is Death's Mistress….but it's subject to change….I'll wait until you im me or something.
ET:lol so you like Tasuki do you? Don't let Mieri hear you say that…
Yusagi:LOL yes…cute and fluffy animals are ever the bane of men's lives. But Urumiya will get over it. Promise! And opaque means NOT see through. So everything BUT the breasts and AHEM was see through. Better? Tatara did not rig the game lol. Aya and Subaru just suck at games of chance. And Tokaki…yeah….No…Kokie I didn't have enough info on so I just made him up! Maybe later when Watase-sensei comes out with more descriptions I'll have his REAL look. But his powers are correct…I think…LOL Aya's not so scary! She just…handles tense situations in a different manner than most. Usually she's a little ditzy and A LOT blonde. Feel free to borrow the weapons. Hee! It took me like 2 days to think of them all. And they have horses b/c they travel faster than camels. Since there's lots of water along the route their taking, there's no reason for them to use camels. Guess it would have been nice if I'd explained that in the fic huh? ;;
"Cute?" Tamahome shook his head, "I'm not sure if I'd call it cute."
"I think it's absolutely adorable!" Nuriko clapped his hands together like a little school girl. "They're destined!"
"Destined for what? Complete and total annihilation?" Tamahome asked with a heated glare in their direction. People in town were starting to stare.
Nuriko shook his head, "You are so dense."
"I could toast you! Right now if I wanted! Damn woman!" Tasuki roared. The poor horse had been forgotten. Luckily, it seemed content to follow the road and not pause. Tamahome watched it carefully just in case.
"Toast me!" Mieri rose up to her full height — which wasn't saying much. "I didn't want to do this, but you've forced me to it! I'll sic Aya on you!"
Tasuki's eyes widened in very real fear. He recalled all too well how even Tokaki had been subdued by the strange girl with the red-gold hair. He remembered Tamahome's fear of her when he'd first awoken from unconsciousness. And, of course, he remembered how accurate Aya had been with that stick. "No! Don't do anything crazy! She's insane!"
Mieri smirked, "Then be a good little boy and shut up."
Tasuki smoldered but turned back around to gingerly pick up the reins. "That's cheating," he muttered quietly.
"No, cheating is threatening to use a magic fan to toast somebody," Mieri replied calmly as she sank back down into a seated position. Her head was held high as she surveyed the people they passed. "How long till we get out of this city?"
Nuriko suppressed a chuckle and answered as best he could, "I'm not sure. It shouldn't be but a few more miles. We'll be out in the country before you know it!"
"How long will the journey itself take?" Mieri mused, wondering how long she'd have to spend cramped in the back of a wagon with bandit-boy up there for company.
"Um…Probably a few weeks?" Nuriko guessed haphazardly. "I should think it would be less than that with us being seishi and all," he winked at her.
Mieri sighed. Weeks? And that was only till they reached Taitsukun. How much longer than that until she saw Aya? Or Rika? Or Yuko? They might be separated forever. Mieri was not naïve enough to overlook the dangers that could befall any one of them over the long months it seemed to require for them to be reunited.
Tasuki heard her sigh and caught the melancholy stare. He shifted uncomfortably in the wagon seat. Had he caused her sudden depression? Maybe. But it was much more likely that she was missing her friends. He knew what that felt like. Koji, his childhood bandit friend, was probably having no problems leading the band. After all, he was second-in-command to Tasuki as leader of the bandits! There was no reason he should encounter problems. Koji had always led in Tasuki's absence.
Well, regardless, he'd probably have to be the one to cheer Mieri up. He looked back at her, searching for a topic. The gleam of sunlight hitting gold caught his attention. Totally forgetting himself, Tasuki reached back and picked up the necklace. "What's this?"
Mieri started and jumped back a little to land on a surprised Nuriko. The sudden pressure was too much for the thin chain, and it snapped. Instantly a red light shone forth from the tiny kanji to envelope Mieri, Tasuki, and Nuriko. Before either Hotohori or Tamahome could react, the three were gone from this world and already into the next.
Mieri blinked confusedly at the sudden darkness. What had happened? She'd been in the wagon. Then Tasuki had picked up her necklace. Mieri suddenly remembered the chain snapping and frantically reached automatically for her neck but encountered only flesh. Not immediately feeling it upon her person, she patted the ground around her in an attempt to feel it. But she didn't find the necklace. What she found was a warm body. "Eek!" she jumped back only to encounter another warm body. "Eeeek!"
Nuriko sat up and rubbed his head. "No need to be so loud, Priestess…It's just me."
"N-Nuriko?" Mieri pressed her hand into her chest in an effort to calm her racing heart. "Sorry! I-I'm just a little jumpy…I'm not fond of the dark"
"Yeah, well, I'm not fond of people hitting me in the head!" Tasuki's voice sounded from behind her making her jump again. "You bumped into me!"
Hearing the accusation in his voice made Mieri forget all about her fears. "Oh, really! Well, excuse me! It's not like I did it on purpose!"
"Why is there no light?" Nuriko asked, breaking in before it could turn into another argument.
"We were knocked unconscious by Tasuki's fat butt?" Mieri suggested innocently.
Tasuki glared.
"Tama? Hotohori?" Nuriko called out into the darkness. No answer. "Now what in the world is going on?"
Mieri struggled out of the tangle of bodies and felt blindly before her in the darkness. Her outstretched hands suddenly encountered something familiar. "A lamp!" Mieri quickly found the switch and turned it on. Light flooded the room. All in it were momentarily blinded. When they slowly regained their vision, a confusing sight met their eyes.
"No way!" Mieri exclaimed. She gazed around in wide-eyed horror. "We're home!"
"Um…I beg to differ!" Nuriko laughed nervously. He, too, gazed around his new surroundings. They appeared to be in some type of house. But there were all kinds of things that he didn't recognize.
"What I meant was that we're in my world!" Hope flooded Mieri. If she was home…She suddenly fled the room. "Aya? Aya! Are you in here! Yuko! Rika!"
The two seishi could hear her voice as she ran from room to room. Then they heard footsteps pounding on the stairs. "Mieri?" Tasuki called up. He wandered into another room. This one was filled with lots of dangerous looking things that must be weapons, and everything was metal and shiny. "Must be a torture room," he mumbled backing quickly out. He looked around and saw that Nuriko was in yet another room. This one contained a flight of stairs.
"Hurry up, Tasuki!" Nuriko called down from halfway up. "I think she went up here."
Tasuki diligently followed his friend upstairs. There were even more rooms up here. The first and second were empty; but from the third, they heard Mieri's quiet voice.
"Well, this is depressing."
Nuriko and Tasuki cautiously entered. The room was obviously a bedroom. Mieri herself sat silently on the bed. She didn't look up when the two approached. "You know…I almost expected that she would be here. I thought I'd run up here, and she'd be sitting here, laughing. That she'd make fun of me for being so worried. Then I'd tease her, and she'd tease me. That's really what I thought would happen. But it's not to be." Mieri sighed and rose from the bed.
"What should we do?" Nuriko asked hesitantly.
She looked at him. "Well, I suppose we should go into the computer room. That's where me and Aya were before we got pulled into your world." She turned to go, leaving Nuriko and Tasuki to follow.
Tasuki looked around him as they entered the second room. "What is that!" he asked pointing at the computer.
"It's a computer, idiot," Mieri responded absently as she searched the room for something.
"Hey!" Tasuki drew his fan and took a defensive stance. "I didn't know! Don't take your bad mood out on me!"
Mieri caught the flash of the fan out of the corner of her eye. "Hey! Don't be waving that thing around in here! This isn't even my house!"
"What? It's not like I can't control it!"
"So! You could still burn something! Something like me!"
"Oh, give me a break! You can damn well get over it!"
"I'll show you getting over it!"
"Um…excuse me?" Nuriko tried to hide a smile.
"What!" Both Tasuki and Mieri turned on him with furious expressions.
"Is this what you were looking for?" he held up the Book of the Four Gods.
"That's it!" Mieri squealed excitedly, totally forgetting Tasuki. "That's the thing that sucked us in!"
"Uh…huh…" Nuriko opened the pages. "Well, if this is your version of the Scroll of the Four Gods….then…"
"Give me that!" Mieri snatched it from his hands and plopped down on the bed to read it. "Hey…" Mieri raised a brow. "I can read it now…"
Tasuki snickered. "What? You couldn't read before?"
"Shut up," Mieri frowned. "Before, it was in Chinese. Now it's all in Japanese kanji. I can read it with no problem!"
"Maybe the book wants you to read it now," Nuriko shrugged. "It is an instrument of the gods."
Mieri had her doubts, but she wasn't about to question her good fortune. She opened the book to the last page and began reading aloud. "It says that the Suzaku seishi Tamahome and Hotohori looked frantically for their missing Priestess and friends. Hey! They're talking about us!"
"Keep reading!" Tasuki and Nuriko both exclaimed.
"It says that upon not finding their Priestess or their friends, they called upon the seishi Chichiri to help them in their search."
"Aw…they really do miss us!" Nuriko laughed.
"Then it says that they spent an entire week looking all over Eiyo, capital of Konan. But they could not find their comrades. Instead, Chichiri used his powers to transfer them back to Mt. Taikyoku where they met up with Taitsukun to wait for the return of their priestess."
"So…that leaves us where?" Nuriko asked with a slight frown.
"I guess that leaves us stuck here until we can find a way back there," Mieri, too, frowned. "My question is what sent us back? I mean, we were just fine until Tasuki —" Mieri stopped suddenly as she grasped at her empty neck.
Nuriko's eyebrows rose towards his hairline as he, too, caught on.
"What?" Tasuki asked.
Mieri scrambled over to Tasuki, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor. "Where is the necklace you pulled off!" she asked excitedly, grabbing him by the shoulders until they were face to face. "Do you still have it?"
Tasuki flushed slightly and pulled back. "I don't know, woman!" His voice was unnaturally loud and aggressive. Nuriko snickered. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"
Mieri was up in an instant and out of the room. The seishi heard her footsteps as she thudded down the stairs. They hurriedly followed their Priestess. They found her in the room they had landed in, searching the floor on her hands and knees.
Guessing at what she was looking for, Nuriko and Tasuki both joined her without a word. A cry of triumph alerted them when Mieri found it. She held the 'friend' necklace up on its silver chain. "This is it," she nodded decisively. "This is what connects the four of us; its loss must have been enough to pull me back."
"So put it back on!" Tasuki demanded. "This place gives me the creeps!"
"Thanks," Mieri muttered sarcastically. She stared forlornly at the broken chain. "I don't think it's going to be that easy."
4
