(A/N: All of the following events, from Shuichi's parents to Tohma's boa decision, take place at about the same time…Kind of. Same morning/late night anyway.)

The next morning, Shuichi's parents awoke with a start to find that their son was missing. At the next second, Shuichi's grandmother came running into the room carrying the discarded lucky cricket. The three distressed adults looked at the cricket cage with oncoming worry. They all realized where Shuichi had gone, and why.

"This is my fault. I should have never made Maiko go, or punished Shuichi for his thoughts. This is all of my fault…" said Shuichi's mother with more than a hint of sad regret in her wavering voice. "I'm a horrible mother."

"No. You were only doing what was taught to you by your own honorable parents. You are not wronged, my wife." Responded Shuichi's father in a caring tone.

"We must go after him, and then onto Maiko. We must leave now!" said the grandmother with obvious energy resonating from her crippled form. "Quickly!"

"No. If Shuichi's true plan is discovered, he will be executed. Along with Maiko. We must trust the ancestors to help them make it through this fiasco. It's the only thing that we can do." Answered the father with a gloomy face. "Now we must pray to the ancestors to protect our children."

Meanwhile, in Mongolia, the plot is still unraveling….

"Generals! This is your moment to show China what we Huns are made of. In an hour's time, we will be at The Great Wall of China. And we shall take it! Now, be swift, be silent, and be ruthless. Forward!" shouted Mika as she mounted her own horse and galloped off to great Tohma's advance force.

A half-an-hour's ride south, Tohma and his small force awaited the larger army, led by Mika. That night, the entire army would scale the Great Wall and advance through China, heading straight for the Imperial City, and the weak Chinese Emperor. The plan could not, would not, fail. Hopefully, within a month, China would be his, Tatsuha would be locked up or killed, and he, Tohma the Splendid, would have a new feather boa. And this time, it would be red with white sparkles.

Six hours after Mika and Tohma started marching toward the Great Wall, Eiri was in a state of shock. A messenger from the Imperial City had approached him early in the morning bearing a decree of disastrous proportions. It had read:

Generals of the Imperial Army, the Huns are attacking. All Generals are instructed to report back to the Imperial City to launch a counterattack to the north.

General Uesugi - Stay where you are and recruit new troops. I will be sending my top advisor to alert me of your progress. He will decide when the new troops are prepared for battle. And send the 'maidens' onto the capital. The other generals will meet up with them.

Imperial Emperor Uesugi

Eiri couldn't believe it. Not only was Tohma, his brother-in-law, attacking, he was stuck training buffoons that didn't know the difference between a canon and a rock. Here he was, top of his class, best general in all of China, and now he had the dreaded position of recruitment officer.

"I'm going to kill him!" shouted Eiri as he threw the decree at a large tree trunk.

"Sir? The men and myself are awaiting your orders." Said a soldier as he cautiously approached the very angry man. "Do you want to keep going or set-up camp for the day?"

"As of the time of the delivery of this ridiculous decree, we will now be setting up this war's recruitment camp. Send the girls to the Imperial City and tell the others to turn back toward the last village we passed. We're going to have to go back in and get some new recruits. Make it quick!" snapped the irritable general with an obvious lack of patience.

"Yes, sir!"

An hour later, the general's orders had been carried out and the men, all five of them, were marching back towards the coastal village. And again, Yuki had a feeling that his day was about to get a lot worse, though he had no idea how.

"I think we're lost…" muttered Shuichi to is horse. "Shouldn't there have been a road here?"

Shuichi and his mount had entered a clearing that was surrounded by dark shade trees. One side of the clearing was bordered by a steep hill. A man blatantly screaming curse words could be heard in the vicinity of the bottom of the hill.

"Maybe this is a bad part of the woods." Said Shuichi innocently as he peeked down the steep incline.

"Target acquired, Kuma-chan…" came a whispering voice floating on the breeze toward the clearing.

"Huh?" asked Shuichi, puzzled by the voice. "I think the trees are talking to me…"

"Shuichi!" screamed a dark shape as it catapulted into the clearing, tackling Shuichi to the ground in the process. "Gotcha!"

"AHHH! HELP ME!" screamed Shuichi as a man dressed in a rabbit suit tackled him to the ground.

"Shuichi-kun! I'm your help. Who're callin' to?" asked the man while he straightened up and stood over the boy on the ground. "Huh, Shuichi-kun?"

"Who are you?"

"Oh! Just a sec, I have a great show for you!" squealed the energetic man, jumping behind a large rock and pulling out two sock puppets. One of the puppets was pink; the other was actually a stuffed rabbit.

"Umm…"

"Silence! Kuma-chan is coming on!" said the lunatic man in a deep voice.

"Hi! I'm Kumagoro-kun! How are you, Shuichi?" said the bunny to the pink sock. "My friend Ryuichi and I are here to help you find your sister!"

"What?"

"SHHHH!" hissed the identified Ryuichi Sakuma. "Don't interrupt Kuma!"

"The ancestors sent us to help you find your way! So no worries!" squealed the pink rabbit at the sock. "We're gonna have so much fun!"

"Ok. Show's over!" said Ryuichi as he jumped out from behind the rock and stared at Shuichi, who was still lying on the ground. "Whatcha doin' down there?"

"You knocked me down…"

"I did?"

"Yes…"

"Really?"

"Yeah…really."

"OK. Shuichi says we knocked him down, Kuma, but I think he's lying to us."

"Hey, listen. If you're here to help me, where's the road?" said Shuichi, too tired to be astounded by the grown man talking to his stuffed rabbit. "Ryuichi-san?"

"Just call me Ryuichi!" answered Ryuichi, bounding over to where Shuichi was now standing. "We'll make our own road!"

"Do you know the way to the Imperial City?" asked Shuichi, starting to get excited at the prospect of having someone to travel with.

"Well, not exactly, but Kuma probably does!"

"OK. Let's get going, then." Replied Shuichi, hoping he could handle this expedition.

Fifteen minutes later the two had packed up Kumagoro and were in the process of traveling down the newly discovered road. Shuichi was leading the horse and Ryuichi was on the horse's back, sound asleep and completely covered up by a blanket. Five mounted men impeded their path.

"You there! Halt!" said one of the men.

"Huh?"

"You're supposed to be back with the general!" said another man coming up behind the first. "Get back to the camp!"

"Hey, wait, I'm not a soldier…" stammered Shuichi as he started to back up.

"Now!" returned the first as he drew his sword.

"OK! I'm going!" yelled Shuichi as he made his way around the soldiers.

The soldiers considering their job done, continued on their way towards the village to recruit more soldiers.

"This sucks." Muttered Shuichi to himself. "I'm supposed to be looking for Maiko and now this. Oh well, there's always a way out."

"Not this time…" said Ryuichi, coming out from his blanket and looking entirely serious. "The general in charge of recruitment this time around is General Uesugi. He's as mean as they come and smart. Too smart. We won't be able to get past him."

"I'm sure we'll think of something…" said Shuichi as they rounded a bend in the road. "Won't we?"

Ryuichi didn't have a chance to reply. Around the bend was the camp. White tents littered the horizon. Men were running around with swords, challenging each other to duels. Most were covered in dirt.

"Oh dear Buddha." Muttered Shuichi, taking a step backwards.

"No, no, no! Gotta save your sister!" chirped Ryuichi in a singsong voice.

"So disgusting…"

"It won't be that bad…Kuma and I are here to help!"

Shuichi just shuddered in response and continued stepping backwards. Ryuichi gave him a shove back towards the camp.

"Just act like them! You'll be fine!" said Ryuichi, giving Shuichi a final push that landed him face-first into a mud puddle. The only response was a racket of angry gurgling coming from Shuichi's submerged face.

"Hey…look at this guys…a new guy." Said a tall, blonde man as he sauntered up to Shuichi. Ryuichi had disappeared back into his blanket.

"Need a hand?" asked a man with long, brown hair. "Here." With that he grabbed Shuichi's shirt and pulled him out of the mud.

"Perfect. Another freak." Muttered a young, green-haired man with a sullen tone. "Just what this place needs."

"Umm…thanks." Said Shuichi quietly to the man that had helped him up. "My name is Shuichi."

"I'm Hiro."

"I'm K."

"And I'm Suguru. But you probably don't care."

"Nice to meet you guys…" said Shuichi with a smile.

The four continued talking and found that they got along quite well. However, they were interrupted by several of the disgusting men that had repulsed Shuichi upon his arrival.

"Well looky here. It's a pansy convention." Said one of them, giving Shuichi a look over. "And did one of the maidens get left behind or something?"

"HEY! Watch it you moron!" screamed Shuichi at full volume, causing them all to take a step backward.

"I think we should teach him a lesson, don't you boys?" said the leader, motioning the others to move forward.

"Take another step and face the consequences." Threatened K, pulling out a large object with a fuse attached.

"What are you going to do? Blow sparks at me?" replied one of the men with a smirk. The others started laughing in response. "And get a hair cut."

K's only response was a snarling growl and the sound of a match being struck. A fizzing noise followed. Five seconds later, a large explosion shook the tents to the ground and left a crater the size of a house in the campsite. The men were standing on the edge of the crater, stunned.

"Next time I won't miss." Answered K, looking absolutely evil. "I can promise you that."

Shuichi had ducked behind Hiro and Suguru had gone for cover before the fight even started. He knew K too well. Ryuichi peeked out from underneath the blanket. Kuma was asleep.

"What the hell was that noise!?" questioned a very irate man as he approached the crater. "You're all idiots!"

"Sorry, general, sir." Muttered K and Hiro.

"Listen you, I've warne-…" said the now identified General Uesugi. "YOU."

"Me?" questioned Shuichi meekly, stepping out from behind Hiro and pointing at himself.

"Get out of my camp. NOW." Said Yuki, glaring at the boy still hiding behind Hiro.

"But I just got here…" said Shuichi. Ryuichi then poked him in the back from under his blanket. "Oh…Right. I'm a soldier… you can't kick me out!"

"You are not a soldier and I can do whatever I want." Replied Yuki as he advanced on Shuichi's position.

"I am a soldier! You're men told me to come here! I'm just following orders." Said Shuichi angrily as he took steps backward to avoid Yuki. "You can't throw out a soldier!"

"Watch me…" muttered Yuki reaching for his sword. "If I have to send you out of here in pieces I will."

All of a sudden, there was another explosion. Yuki turned around in place and glared at K, whose hair was smoking. K pointed at Hiro, Hiro pointed at K.

"I'll deal with you later…" he said over his shoulder to Shuichi. When he focused his attention to the others, he found them to be missing. Looking back over to Shuichi, he found that the boy had fled as well. "Idiots."

Considering the circumstances of his troops, Yuki was worried. Worried for China, worried for his sanity, and worried for what would happen to his brother when he got a hold of him. Tomorrow training would start. Yuki was anything but excited.