I don't own Fushigi Yuugi

Sorry for the late update, its been spring break for me (last day is today in fact) and I've been feeling really lazy. Lol. I haven't even touched my homework… oh well it can wait until I'm done updating everything XD

Thank you for reviewing:

Everqueen – That can be a bit rough. I know the deal with not liking change, I'm was, and kind of still am, like that, but I'm not autistic. Good to hear about their father :) And thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

ladysakaya – Lol. I don't think anyone's a mutant… well maybe Ashitare fall in that category, but we haven't met him yet. Lol. But I do the same kinds of things often enough. Lol.

Bishiglomper – Lol. The thing with Tasuki is true, I don't know why I didn't make him act louder…

Chichiri's Wanderer – Keara is health. Its just that, as you said, gymnasts tend to be lighter than normal and Chichiri, not knowing about gymnasts, doesn't know that. We'll see a small bit of what he thinks about it in this chapter. Ya, she has yet to find out about the mask, but that'll come soon enough.

ktbug10093 – Lol. I understood it well enough. Thank you! Some characters are just next to impossible to bring OOC, like Chichiri because he has both a childish and a very mature side. Only thing that'd bring him OOC is if he was perverted O.o And that's not something I'd even want to think about. Lol. Though most of the characters aren't like Chichiri and it's only been on a few occasions I've had to rethink what I want certain characters to say. Lol. I do see why you say it though because sometime when characters are brought OOC it's 'kills' them, not always, but sometimes.

Maeleana – Glad your enjoying it and I'm sure you'll get a huge laugh out of one particular part near the end of this chapter XD

Chapter 8

Keara awoke the next morning to something soft gliding across her cheek. Curiously she opened her eyes and found a small brown and white cat rubbing against her almost lovingly. She smiled and sat up before petting the cat with a content smile.

"I see Tama woke you," a voice from the door said. Upon looking up she found the voice belonged to Mitsukake. "Sorry for that."

With a smile and a small shake over her head she silently let the healer know that she did not mind. She gave Tama a final pet before he ran to his master and climbed up his out stretched hand to his shoulder.

"Morning," Chiriko said brightly as he walked in. Keara gave him a curt nod in responses. "We'll be leaving within the hour, so you might want to get your things together."

Keara nodded and got herself out of bed to pack up what few things she had out. As she did this she could not help but wonder at how she had gotten into the tent. 'Someone must have carried me,' she thought with slight dismay. She did not want to be any more of a burden to the group than she already was, not being a seshi or miko and all.

Chiriko walked up to her with a coat in his arms, "This is for you. The village people gave them to us."

With a smile the mute teen took the coat and nodded in thanks. "Welcome," Chiriko said with a smile before leaving.

After putting the warm coat on Keara placed her bag onto her back, sketch book now in it, and stepped out into the cold embrace of the morning air.

"Morning no da," Chichiri said happily as he walked towards her with two rolls in his hands, "Here, you should eat these before we leave no da."

'Arigato,' she mouthed as she took the rolls and began to eat them.

"Welcome," Chichiri said with a smile, though his alternate reason for personally giving her the food was to make sure that her light weight wasn't due to a lack of nutrition. "You're really polite no da," he with a laugh.

Keara blinked at the comment, clearly caught off guard by it. Despite all her fame from winning medals at national and world championships for gymnastics she had not let the glory get to her head and instead thought of herself no differently than the average freshmen college student. She had received the same basic comment the monk had given her many times from reporters (her friend Sara or her mother always there to translate her sign language), but this time she really had never expected the comment.

"It's true no da," Chichiri said, easily catching the surprised expression of the teen.

"You two ready to leave?" Tamahome called from the horses.

With a nod from Keara Chichiri called out, "Hai no da."

Keara smiled and spelled out 'no da' with her free hand for her own amusement. The blue haired monk tilted his head to the side in curiosity and confusion, but the teen dismissed the look with the wave of her hand as she walked towards the horses, taking a bite out of one of the rolls a moment later.

Tamahome rode with Miaka, Tasuki with Chiriko, and Chichiri with Keara while Nuriko and Mitsukake rode alone. They bid the people of the small village farewell and set off for Hokkan once more.

vvvvv

It took a fair amount of time but the group had finally reached Hokkan. It wasn't long after their initial arrival that it began to snow, giving the city a look of wonder and beauty.

Keara had always loved snow, but hated the bitter cold that came with the same season. If the temperature went below twenty degrease Fahrenheit she wasn't very pleased, especially when she had to walk outdoors to walk to classes.

They found a nice looking tavern where they gave their horses to the stable hands before wandering in to have a nice warm meal. Keara looked at the menu over before determining it was in Chinese, a language she couldn't read, and put it to the side. She made a mental note to try and learn the language when she returned home, even though she knew there were many different versions.

It turned out that she didn't really need to know the language at the current time as half the group ordered enough for everyone, counting even Miaka who had a bottomless pit for a stomach. Keara couldn't help but wonder if the miko had two, or even three, stomachs based on how much she normally crammed into her mouth.

As the group waited they chatted about how to find the shinzaho in the large city. Before anything was really determined two rather drunk men walked up to the table, one to Nuriko and the other to Keara. "Hey girls want to come have some fun with us."

Nuriko didn't look pleased and punched the male near him hard enough to fly into the nearby table. The other one didn't seem to get the message to leave and grabbed Keara's arms rather forcefully, pulling her from her chair.

The mute teen's eyebrows knitted together in anger and she kicked the drunk. All the males at the table gave horrified expressions and the man she kicked sang in an outrageously high pitch, somehow managing to stay on his feet. Keara pushed him away before taking her seat, happy that she had taken care of the situation herself, but embarrassed at all the horrified expressions of her friends.

"You don' kick a guy there!" Tasuki yelled when he recovered, "That's just wrong!"

Nuriko laughed, "At least we know she can take care of herself from men of his caliber. Now we need to know if she can handle ones even stronger."

Keara gave a small smirk to show that she wasn't afraid, causing a few of the group to chuckle. In truth she wasn't sure if she could actually fight someone that wasn't drunk beyond logical thought or action as she had never had training in any area of material art before, but she wouldn't tell anyone that.

At that moment their orders arrived and everyone set about eating. Everything was quiet between them for several minutes until Miaka broke it when she dropped her chopsticks and groaned in slight pain. Tamahome looked at her with the utmost concern, "What's wrong Miaka?"

"Hand cramp!" Miaka cried as she tried flexing her hand.

Tamahome laughed nervously at the young red head that was his miko and beloved, "Perhaps you should slow down on eating then."

Keara laughed silently and took Miaka's hand, as she was right next to her, and wobbled the miko's hand to loosen it before massaging it with her thumbs. A large smile came upon the miko's face as the pain gave way to a smooth and relaxing feeling.

"That feels so good," Miaka said happily before holding out her other hand, "Please?" With a smile Keara massaged her other hand, getting a pleased giggle out of the young miko.

Miaka said a bright, "Thank you," when Keara had finished and went back to 'inhaling' her food.

"Is it really that nice no da?" Chichiri asked curiously.

The Suzaku no miko nodded as she somehow kept shoveling food into the vacuum she had for a mouth. Tamahome shook his head as he watched her, "Slow down or you'll choke Miaka."

As if on queue Miaka started to choke, but with the properly placed slaps on the back from Tamahome she was back to 'inhaling' once again.

Keara rolled her eyes and held out her hand, indicating for Chichiri to give her his hand. The monk did as signaled, but as soon as the mute teen felt his hand she made a face as it felt horribly dry due to the combination of sea water and cold weather. She indicated for him to wait a moment as she dug into her bag a retrieved her bottle of hand lotion that smelled very faintly of strawberries; one of her favorite fruits.

Chichiri tilted his head to the side curiously, but didn't ask as some of the pinkish substance was poured into his palm before she gently worked it into his hand. He felt a sense of smoothness in it due to the lotion, something that had been missing for some time now and a small smile crept upon his mask.

After working all the lotion into his hands Keara gently shook his hand out as she tried to get him to loosen it up. She placed her thumbs in the middle of his palm and still felt some of the muscles tensed up, which was natural for a hand, and shook it once more.

"You got to loosen your hand up," Miaka said between mouthfuls of food.

Chichiri nodded and did his best to loosen his hand up. Keara, being satisfied with the looseness of it, began to massage his hand. A smile played on his mask and a soft, "Daa," escaped him accidentally soon after.

A small smile crossed the mute teens face as she finished massaging that hand and repeated the process for the next one. When she was done Chichiri looked at his hands with a pleased expression, or as much of one that would contort onto his mask, which Keara still didn't know about, as he flexed them. "They're so soft and relaxed na no da."

Tasuki, who had been holding back his laughter at the monk, finally erupted, "Chichiri got a hand job!"

Chichiri looked horrified in the bandit's direction, "I most certainly did not no da!"

The damage had already been done though as the men at tables around them erupted in whistles and howls, some yelling, "Me next!"

Keara silently chuckled and shook her head, a faint color flowing to her cheeks from all the hollers of the men in the tavern. She was used to hearing the comment as one of her crazier college friends had cried it gleefully when she had first gotten a hand massage from her, causing several boys to run over.

The flustered monk took a rather large gulp out his drink. He had seen Keara's shoulders shake with laughter, which had confused his since he thought that she would have also been horrified or at least insulted by Tasuki's shrewd comment.

He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention so that he could change the rather embarrassing subject. "We should split into groups to searcher the city for the shinzaho no da."

He thanked Suzaku that his diversionary tactic had worked. The group was slit up with Miaka, Nuriko (who had cut his hair to everyone's surprise) and Tamahome in one group, Tasuki and Mitsukake in another and Chichiri, Keara and Chiriko in the last.

Miaka pouted, "Can Keara come with us? I would like another girl in the group, no offense to you guys, but I can relate a bit more with her." She looked to Keara, "That's if you don't mind…"

Keara shook her head and looked to Chichiri to see if it was alright. The monk thought a moment before nodding, "Alright no da." There was a very small and very faint voice screaming at him to not allow it, but he paid it no heed.

Tehe.The deal with the "hand job" is actually a true event, except I heard about it from my two friends and wasn't there to witness it myself and it wasn't at a collage (I'm not there yet. Lol. Still have about 3 full months until I graduate…. O.o TOO SOON T.T)

But now that they're in Hokkan what's Nakago going to do?

Find out in the next chapter.

Please review.

Thank you!