After getting off at the next village, Miaka and I explored the place a bit, finding out quickly that our money was unfortunately worthless here.
We asked everyone in the small village if they had seen a tall blond wearing the same uniform as Miaka, or even if they had seen a blue haired guy with an ogre symbol on his forehead, but our search was fruitless. It seemed that guy had completely disappeared with our friend.
We were still searching when Miaka plopped down on a crate.
"Ahh, man I'm exhausted."
"Miaka, we've gotta keep searching..." I said. I was just as tired as she was, but I couldn't bring myself to rest knowing Yuui may be hurt or worse in a strange place like this.
"But we've searched everywhere! Yuui...where are you?" Miaka said forlornly, resting her head on her hands.
"Excuse me miss" A voice behind us said "I couldn't help but hear you, and since I'm on my own here too, I was wondering if I could show you around the Konan Empire." The man speaking was handsome in a way. his face was anyway. His hair was an ugly green color pulled back in a tight bun, and his clothes suggested he had money.
"Konan empire?" Miaka asked
"Yea"
"So that's what this place is called..." I mumbled, still sizing this guy up. I don't know why, because the guy had never done anything to suggest he had any other ulterior motive then too help out two lost girls, but then again, don't all men when it comes to the opposite sex? He just seemed a little too...nice I guess.
"Miaka, your babbling again..." I stated, noticing she was going on about this complete stranger asking her out on a date. "and get your priorities strait, idiot!"
"Oh, right, sorry..."
"We're actually looking for someone." I said, giving a side glare to my brainless friend. "He's kinda tall, blue hair, has a red ogre symbol on his forehead? Ever seen him, or are you like everyone else in this village and never seen him before?"
"Oh, yea, I know him! He's a friend of mine as a matter of fact!"
"Really?"
"Really!" Miaka and I said, me more suspicious then ecstatic.
"Do you wanna meet him?"
"Oh yes, please!" Miaka said enthusiastically. I said nothing, not wanting to get my hopes up too much.
After following the guy for what seemed like hours, we had made it to a bad part of town and the more we walked, the scarier it got.
"Hey, we almost there?" I said impatiently. The man stopped suddenly, and he turned around to show that he was looking at us with an evil kinda smirk. The kinda smile you would only ever give to someone you particularly hated.
"We're here" he said with malice coming off every syllable.
Miaka backed up behind me and I glared at our so called guide.
"Well well well, look what he brought this time! somethin a little different too!" My head whipped to the side where three other men came out of a hole in the wall of one of the abandoned houses.
"Yea, I know. Their clothes alone will get us a fortune" The man who had been guiding us said. Two of the men came and stood infront of our guide and glared hungrily at us.
"You tricked us, didn't you?" Miaka accused.
"You dirty bastards" I snarled.
A squat, ugly, pig looking man came up from behind miaka and lifted up her skirt, looking at her underwear.
The same thing that happened when we first arrived here happened now. A strong sense of protectiveness came over me, and I suddenly found myself drop kicking the guy so hard he was out cold.
Protect the priestess.
"What...?" I said, looking around for the source of the voice.
"Percy, how did you do that! That was so cool!"
"I'd be lying if I said I knew..." I mumbled
"YOU BITCH!" Our guide roared, looking at his now fallen comrade. "How dare you..."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I hollered "Do you have any idea what we've been through today?" with each word, I got closer to the guy who had called himself our friend.
"This morning I woke up late, got splashed by mud, sewage and god knows what else..." One of his thugs charged at me, and ducking under his punch I swiped my foot under his feet, and as he came down I elbowed his face so hard, I'm pretty sure one of his teeth got lodged into my elbow.
"I then had to roller blade 20 blocks. 20 FREAKING BLOCKS! Do you have ANY idea how difficult that is! And I crashed into the classroom so hard, I gave the teacher a damn heart attack! What do you think that does to a person's conscience?" the second lacky came at me more hesitantly, which was all the better for me, cause a good right hook was all it took to knock him out.
"And then, after I think my day can't get any worse, I get teleported here by some STUPID magical book and nearly puke when this god awful smelly guy comes along and plays super hero and then expects us to pay him! Then he has the nerve to kidnap our friend. And then, when we thought we finally caught a break and found someone decent, he turns out to be some DAMN NEANDERTHAL WHO THINKS HE CAN HAVE HIS FUCKING WAY WITH US!"
And with that last pleasant line, I kick our guide in the nutsack. Its a cheap shot, I'm well aware, but I wanted to make sure he never had any childeren, so I grinded my foot real well when it hit. when the guy hit the ground, it took me a second to come to my senses.
And that smell hit me again.
In my peripherals, I saw the same guys who had made us go on this wild goose chase in the first place, and he looked like he was about to make a run for it, but before he could, with the adrenaline I had left, I tackled him off the wall he had been perched on and went flying onto the dirt covered ground below.
After getting a good hold of him, I threw him over the wall.
And jumped after him.
Yea, that's right. threw him, like the bad ass I felt like right then.
"Percy! That was incred...hey, are you all right?" Miaka said worriedly, rushing over to me.
"I feel sick" After that, I kinda feinted.
Like the pansy that I actually was.
MIAKA'S POV~
"Percy!" I exclaimed as she fell forward. I caught her, but I hadn't anticipated how heavy she was going to be, and nearly fell.
Laying her down, I saw she had suddenly broken out into a cold sweat, and touching her forehead, I realized that she was developing a horrible fever as well!
"H-hey, is your friend alright?" The ogre symbol guy asked. "Not that I'm worried or nothin of course!" he tacked on, not wanting to show he had any concern for the girl who just stripped away all dignity he had.
"I-I don't know! She was just fine just before those men surrounded us! She...she started to loose her temper and,well, she seemed to...glow? I don't know...I'm just so...scared...I-I do-don't know w-what to do..." And then I threw myself on this complete stranger and started crying. Yea, I know, it's real pathetic and all, but hey, like Percy said, this has been one hell of a day and it just seems to get worse and worse as it goes and this guy had been the only one who had shown us any hint of kindness since we got here and well...he was there at the time too, which helped.
"It's okay" He said, compassion in his once sarcastic voice "Your friend got rid of them, you won't have to worry about that gang anymore"
It took a few minutes, but I finally calmed down enough to form understandable words.
"Oh yea, I heard you were looking for me?" The man asked, remembering why he had been looking for the girls in the first place.
"That's right, I am! Listen, you gotta tell me where my friend Yuui is now!" I begged
"Yuui? Who's that?" The guy said, genuinely confused.
"My friend, the other girl I was with when we first met, remember?" I pleaded. I had spent a lot of this day searching for this man, he just had to know where Yuui was!
The guy gave me a look that told me he was remembering, and he said
"Never heard of her" and he shrugged and walked off, non-nonchalantly stating that he was leaving.
If he thought he was getting away now, the jack wagon had another thing coming.
In a panic, I threw myself at his legs and tripped him.
"I'm not letting go until you give me a hint!
"Alright, alright I give!" he said, throwing up his white flag.
"So are you going to tell me where she is?" I persisted, but he merely mumbled something into the dirt. "Please, tell me something about Yuui!"
The man got up and brushed himself off and glared at me, his nose a pinkish color because of him falling on it.
"How should I know?" and with a cheesy smile, he ran off.
"Hey! Wait!" I almost ran after him, but I quickly stopped, put Percy on my back, and ran as fast as I could with 120 pounds of dead weight on me.
I think I may have crossed the line when I called him a human slave trader right in the middle of the market street. But, it got the man to carry me and Percy off, so it was alright, for a while.
Until he dropped me right on top of my sick friend, who immediately started coughing and gagging.
"Percy!" I exclaimed. she was wheezing, and it looked like it physically pained her to breath.
"You jerk!" I shouted "Look what you did!"
"What I did? You're the one who went to far!" He countered, looking worriedly at Percy.
I couldn't argue with that. I had gone too far. But I still couldn't bring myself to tell him that.
"Yea? Well now my only friend in the whole world is dying and I don't know what to do and I've been treated like dirt by a complete stranger and I have no one else to..." and for the second time that day, I was reduced to tears.
"Hey" He said, sympathy in his voice"...Ugh, well, I don't have time to mess around!" He quickly changed "tracking down a person is hard work ya know?"
He didn't agreed to help me, but he carried Percy on his back, so I guess he gets brownie points for that.
After walking around for another hour, we came across a large crowd in the street, and curiosity got the better of me and I stopped and decided to see what the fuss was about.
I push my way to the front of the crowd to see a parade of soldiers coming down the street, and some of them holding a carrier that was covered by fine silks.
"Oh wow, what's the parade for?" I asked in awe
"It's for the emperor" The guy said, coming up behind me.
"Emperor?" I asked
"Yea, see that guy riding on the fancy carrier? That's him"
"Oh wow, it really is beautiful!" I exclaimed
"Oh man I wish I could have that Imperial crown, or even just one of those jeweled ornaments on it would be alright with me."
"So the emperor is really wealthy then?" I asked
"Is it not obvious?" Okay, I'll admit, dumb question.
"Is he nice too?"
"Well I've never heard anything bad about him" He said, eyebrows raised. An Idea suddenly formed into my head then. It was crazy, but so crazy, it just might work...
"I've decided then."
"Decided what?"
"To ask the emperor for one of his ornaments! Then I'll be able to pay you to help me find Yuui right?"
Tamahome's POV
As the crazy chick ran off, I had a bad feeling I was responcible, so of coarse I had to stop that girl from doing something we'll both regret.
I was too late to stop the girl from asking the emperor for one of the imperial crowns jeweled ornaments, something no peasant has ever seen let alone had, but I had to stop her some how.
But before I could do anything, the doofus trips over a rock, and in her panic to stop from falling, she grabs onto the emperor's carrier and accidentally rips the cloth of one of the curtains.
She still falls on her butt though.
One of the guards, angered by her rash actions, was about to slice her up, but I threw some smoke bombs and with that as my cover, I secured Percy on my back and scooped up the crazy girl and ran off.
Carrying 2 girls at the same time and running is hard work, and I nearly dropped the heavier crazy girl, but somehow I managed to get us far away from the royal parade.
"Are you crazy! You're trying to get yourself killed, aren't you?" I yelled
"But I wanted help!" she whimpered
"Oh please don't start crying again." I sighed "Look, I respect you and was impressed by your guts, so I'll help you find your friend, no charge, okay?"
"Really?" She asked disbelievingly
"Yea, look, my name is Sohisiku, but people call me Tamahome" I said. A little late for the introductions, but hey, better late then never.
Miaka's POV
"Tamahome? Well, I'm Miaka Yuuki. I don't know how I'll ever repay you!" Tamahome suddenly got a kind glint to his eye, and whispered
"Don't worry, I'll think of a way" And kissed my forehead.
It was a sweet little kiss, something I had never gotten to experience before. Percy has had plenty of boyfriends do it, but that's a given because she's beautiful, and even the shy Yuui has had a few boyfriends, but me, the quirky, lame dork friend never had anyone like this ever. Someone who would whisk me off my feet and kiss me like this...
"THERE THEY ARE!" A voice roared "Prepare for death!"
Suddenly, a bright red light engulfed my body, the same light that had appeared around Percy when she was fighting those thugs. It was so bright now though, and when I looked down, I could see right through my hand! I was slowly disappearing!
Suddenly I was being rushed through a dark place with specks of red light all around me. I suddenly stopped and saw a vision of Yuui, still in the library, reading the same book that had teleported us here to begin with.
And I turned to my side and saw a very translucent, very sick looking Percy. She was clad not in her normal outfit, but in a graceful, white skirt what shimmered translucently. Her top was a heavy looking Renaissance styled armor that curved around her figure gorgeously, had intricately carved symbols designed onto the edge hem of it (if thats what the bottom of armor looks like)
.com/?q=erza&order=9&offset=24#/d2wmfpo that's what the armor looks like! and Percy as well. She looks an awful lot like a certain Titania from Fairy tail, No? I'm very aware of this. I LOVE ERZA, GET OVER IT! Derp :B
I was so excited and relieved that Yuui had made it back to the library safely! But now Percy was stuck in this limbo like place, alone and sick. Was that her soul? It looked so...dormant? Not weak or powerless. Quite the opposite. She looked so powerful, and radiated energy. Maybe this was her full potential.
Suddenly, I was being pulled back sharply, like a gust of wind forcing me away.
And as quickly as it had started, I was back in the confused Tamahome's arms again.
"Guards, arrest them. The girls, and the man." The voice of the emperor called out.
"Miaka, what was-" suddenly, the guards were surrounding us, there were so many, that a wall of guards had been made, spears pointing at us from every angle.
We both stood up, Tamahome having a good grip on Percy so she wouldn't fall off of him.
The effort was in vain because one of the Guards ripped her off his back. She was still unconscious, so she looked like a rag doll in the rough guards` hands.
This is NOT good...