Hey people! I've FINALY gotten this written! Aren't you happy? I'm happy; 'cause It's almost Christmas! I CAN'T WAIT! NO SCHOOL FOR TWO – or so – WEEKS!
Well…anyways…
Reader's response:
Dragonelf 8: Yes…I did have more than 30 chapters. Actually, I had 52 or so, but unfortunately, realized just on that chapter that apparently, my summary was 'interacting with readers' or something and they deleted everything and then some kid I was babysitting decided to press all the buttons on the keyboard and all my files in that folder containing my stories got deleted…this is why I had to start it over. Glad you like it though.
FallenStar89: It's okay; I know you're busy. I'm busy too. And thanks for doing that survey for my summative; I got such a good mark on it. I got an 83! (Insert random smiley here) and yeah…the thing is she probably just stole Taka's keys or something. It's so amusing to make people steal from him…(mutters) stupid cheap ass bastard. Taiitsu-kun…ahh….so funny.
SilvyrJaguar: First of all, true, you're entitled to your own opinion, but I also don't have to listen to you when I have more than five other people saying they like my stories. Oh, and my best friend would like to bash your head in. (cough) anyways; just a piece of advice. When you tell someone they suck at writing, it's a wise choice not to use msn abbreviations such as 'u' because that's being hypocritical. After all, msn abbreviations are not proper English.
Metal Chopsticks: YOU'RE ALIVE! Yeah, I'm gonna try to make Naomi much better this time considering last time, she was just…well…there. Ahh…hangovers. I've had them so many times…(shakes head in remembrance) good thing it was the weekend. My friend was dumb enough to get drunk before school so I had to skip class with him to make sure the principal never found out about it or he'd be expelled or suspended or something like that. Your brother sounds funny. And yes, I agree, grade eleven is absolute and utter hell. I hate it, but my marks ARE improving. It's like instinct to just slack off…(grins sheepishly). Four more days until your birthday. I'll make sure to send an email.
CountingStarsAgain: Yes…getting drunk is fun. Just don't do it in overly crowded bars and keep the getting drunk in a group of friends so they can make sure no one tries to rape you. This is what I learned in Health class in grade 9! Of course…that was two years ago…and yes…I'll try to update before my Christmas break ends. Or not…I have so much stuff due…(runs around in circles and crashes into a wall)
Golden Dawn: well…you don't really see Naomi's reaction, but you can imagine that she freaks out. A lot. And possibly drowns out her shock with alcohol! Tasuki is so…funny. It's so fun to make fun of me…I forget…did I review your story yet? If I didn't, remind me.
O.D.: Hm…Taiitsu-kun with a mallet. That's just scary…I can imagine her swinging the mallet around, chasing the Nyan-nyans when they insult her or something.
Ayshia: Thanks. Glad you like it.
Mtgranola: (bursts out laughing for the next ten minutes) your review was so funny! I see you found two underage girls getting drunk amusing. Of course, so would I…but I'm in that underage category so until I'm overage, I'll be the one getting drunk. (Points at the random hiccup in the review) that got me laughing for another fifteen minutes. It was just randomly there!
Chichiri's Wanderer: See; I updated. Just on time! It's almost all Chichiri in this chapter. (throws you a Christmas present with Chichiri wrapping)
ENJOY THE CHAPTER!...GEEZ…the reader's response took a whole page!
"Shhh"
"What are we doing here?"
"You'll see"
"…um…"
"What?" Tasuki snapped at his fellow redhead, the priestess of Suzaku, who was biting her lip with a worried look on her face. He had bumped into her in the hall when he was armed with what he liked to call payback and to ensure that she didn't rat him out, he decided to drag her into this little scheme of his.
"Uh…" Naomi started to point. Tasuki was an impatient man; he hated to wait, and Naomi was really getting on his nerves right now since she was not getting to the point fast enough.
"WHAT?" Tasuki shouted, and immediately clamped his hand over his mouth as a cool hand wrapped itself around his arm in a vice like grip. A voice hissed, "I'm awake, idiot"
Tasuki screamed, which startled Naomi into screaming, which woke up the flaming bird who was on his perch. Akai let out a loud screech which in turn woke up the people next door, who grumbled at the who they knew, they just knew, was the perpetrator of this early morning wake up call.
The raven haired girl glared at the bandit accusingly, "Now, pray tell, Tasuki, what exactly were you planning to do with that bucket of soapy water there…hmmm?" she asked sarcastically, for she already knew the answer to that one. It was obvious as…Tasuki was conspicuous.
"Um…cleaning your room?" Tasuki offered as an excuse. Naomi stifled the urge to laugh outright at the pathetic excuse.
"So you're my new maid now, huh?"
"…well, you know…Akai is a bird. He probably leaves his droppings everywhere"
Now, Akai was a proud creature. Some might even call him pompous and arrogant, or go as far as to say he was the animal counterpart of Hotohori. Therefore, it would be understandable if he didn't enjoy Tasuki's comment, even if it was just an excuse. Tasuki gave a shout as Akai pecked at him with his amazingly sharp beak and he waved his arms about in random direction to try to stop the bird's furious attack, "ARGH! SHIT! I'm sorry alright! You damn bird; get the fuck off me!"
Keikomi snickered at the shocked look on Naomi's face. Apparently, living amongst other 'proper' girls in an elite boarding school did nothing to help the girl's tolerance of foul words. She sighed, "Akai; stop it…NOW" the bird glared at the Warrior but stopped the attack reluctantly.
"Now…Tasuki…I hope that this does not happen again…hmm?" Keikomi asked, glaring quite effectively at Tasuki. The bandit nodded and grinned sheepishly as he stood near the doorway, "Now…get outta here; I'm still in my pajamas!" Keikomi shouted. Naomi giggled and grabbed the shocked Tasuki by the hand and pulled him out of what she labeled as the 'danger zone'.
Nuriko and Hotohori stumbled into the kitchen one after the other about a half hour later. Hotohori was looking as wide awake as one could be after being woken up by a sleep deprived phoenix in the early morning and Nuriko was yawning. He looked as though he would nod off any time soon. Naomi laughed at the two before making them both sit down in case either of them collapsed right then and there. Ten moments later, arguing was heard outside the dining room. Hotohori shook his head in exasperation and went back to his apple.
"It's your own fault; you shouldn't have left me alone in the harem yesterday; it was YOUR idea to see what it was like there"
"No, it was YOURS!"
"WAS NOT!"
"WAS TOO!"
"WAS NOT!"
"WAS TOO! Who was it exactly that wanted to see if he could outrun harem women also known as experienced stalkers?"
Silence, and then…
"BUT YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO LEAVE ME THERE!"
"You wanted me to stay and get trampled?"
"YES!"
"TOUGH LUCK FANG BOY!"
Tasuki stormed into the dining room. The other three raised a questioning eyebrow and Tasuki muttered, "Shut up and don't say a fucking word" he sat down, grabbed an apple and bit furiously into it.
The other three thought it was wise to comply with that and went back to talking, "So when are we going to look for the next seishi?" Nuriko wondered. He looked at Hotohori who was deep in thought, "We should set out today or tomorrow morning"
Naomi, who had only been here for a week or so, looked up in interest with a question, "How do you find the seishi?" she asked.
"Oh…Taiitsu-kun – the one you met; she healed you of your hangover – she gave us this sphere that allows us to help track the seishi; for example, to find Nuriko, it showed us the general direction to go; south, west, north, east, and then when we got nearer to our destination, it gave us clues. For Nuriko, it was 'battle' and 'strength'" Hotohori explained. Naomi's eyes widened, "That makes it easier than I thought it'd be"
"Yes, but it only gives you the direction once and then you have to work on the clues, which can get hard" Nuriko put in, "Like Fang boy here" at this, Tasuki growled, "According to Keikomi, the Tracker said that the clues were 'mountain' and 'sake'. So Hotohori and Keikomi rode to Mt. Reikaku and found Tasuki drunk out of his mind, sprawled on the ground holding an entire box of sake to him like a baby held a blanket"
Naomi had to bite her lip to keep herself from laughing at that. She could imagine that; if there was one thing she learned about Tasuki in the past week, it was that he enjoyed and was very protective of his alcohol.
"So we should find Keikomi, huh?" she asked, making sure not to look at Tasuki for he was glaring at her.
"Yes" Hotohori nodded, "I shall go and see if I am able to accompany you this time" he said, his expression darkening at the thought of his advisors. Naomi stood up and waited as Nuriko 'convinced' Tasuki to come with them. They found Keikomi lying on the grass in the garden, music from her mp3 player blasting loudly. She waved as they approached while sending a dark look at Tasuki, who returned the same look. Nuriko rolled his eyes.
Naomi hummed under her breath, ignoring the irritated looks sent at her by Tasuki, who seemed to be in an especially grumpy mood today. They were traveling North East now, toward the Kutou-Konan border where the next seishi was supposed to be. It had also been a month of alternating between riding on horseback and walking. Hotohori was obviously extremely glad about this extended holiday of his, for he was looking more relaxed than Naomi had ever seen him. Keikomi and Tasuki, as usual were constantly arguing, but before the arguments could end, however, Nuriko always stepped in and told them to stop it. Tasuki, who was afraid of what Nuriko's super strength could do to him always backed down and Keikomi and Nuriko were very good friends with each other so Keikomi respected Nuriko's wishes and did not pursue the argument any longer. It was ironic, Naomi thought, that the person who could be most violent one was the peacemaker around here.
"It's getting dark" Hotohori stated, "We should either see if there's a town nearby or start a fire"
"Right…Akai" Keikomi called for the bird, who flew over with an annoyed expression on his face, "How far is the next town?"
"There's one not too far from here, but I advise against going there"
"…why?"
"They wouldn't be able to house you tonight; there was a murder there and the town is scouring for the murderer"
Keikomi looked at the rest of them. Judging from the expressions on their faces, Nuriko and Tasuki definitely wanted to go to the town and possibly help with the search, Hotohori wanted to make sure they were safe and no way were they safe with a murderer loose in the forests near the town. Akai was definitely against going there and Keikomi was indifferent. So, they all turned their eyes to Naomi, who shifted uneasily under their glances.
"The decision is yours, Naomi; what do you wish to do?" Hotohori asked.
A few moments of silence followed as Naomi thought about the options. She really wanted to go and help, not to mention, that was where all the action was, but it also seemed a bit dangerous…
"Let's go and help" she said quietly. Up above, Akai gave an indignant sniff at the fact that she had gone against his advice and flew off.
"Let's go then!" Tasuki said, grabbing the reins of the horse. It reared and then took off at a gallop into the woods. The other three horses followed quickly, trying not to lose the redheaded bandit, not knowing what he might do without responsible supervision nearby.
Keikomi looked strangely at the object in her hand, "Well, looks like Naomi made a good decision 'cause the sphere is glowing"
The other three horses stopped and Nuriko turned around on the horse they shared to look at the clues on the sphere.
"Well? What the hell does it say?" Tasuki demanded.
"Two deaths" Nuriko said, frowning, "Alright…so we can guess that it's connected with that murder, but…other than that…"
Tasuki began to curse Taiitsu-kun under his breath.
The others just simply rolled their eyes and without a word, rode off. It was only ten minutes later that they bandit looked up from his muttering and noticed he was far behind everyone else. Swearing profusely at them, he galloped to catch up.
Naomi rode along at the same pace as the others. Years at the boarding school had taught her the proper art of riding. She shot an amused look at Keikomi. The Warrior had refused to share a horse with Tasuki, claiming that the bandit would just simply push her off when no one was looking so instead she was riding on the back of Nuriko's horse.
Suddenly, she felt a hand wrap itself around her arm and she was yanked off the horse. She screamed and quick as a flash, the seishi were all on attack mode. The man holding her looked taken back but kept his grip, "Who're you all?" he asked rudely.
"Your worst nightmare" Keikomi said creepily, taking out a scythe, one of the many weapons she had received from Taiitsu-kun. Naomi thought that she looked very much like the commercialized version of the Grim Reaper back in their world. The only thing missing was the hood covering her face.
Hotohori shook his head at the Warrior's antics, "Kindly release the priestess of Suzaku" he said sternly. The man's expression changed from suspicion, to shock, then anger and back to shock again before he let Naomi go. As Naomi stumbled toward her friends, she rubbed her arm where he had grabbed her, muttering darkly about overly suspicious people.
"What are you doing here?" the man asked, this time a bit more politely.
They had decided before that they would act like they knew nothing about the murder, so that was what they did.
"The question is…what are you doing out here so late?" Nuriko asked.
"We're…uh…looking for a filthy killer" the man said. He took their silence as a sign to continue, "We found our lord and his family dead this evening"
Tasuki grumbled in annoyance. They had been out helping these villagers all night, since Naomi had offered their services. There was no trace of a seishi or even the murderer and he was getting fed up. He shot a glare at Keikomi, who was walking calmly as ever next to him and Akai, who was continuously pecking at him.
"Glare at someone else Fang boy" Akai snapped his beak furiously, "I'm as tired as you are"
"At least someone is" he muttered darkly.
Keikomi must have chosen to ignore him this time because she just kept on walking and Tasuki growled in frustration. He kicked at the ground, "I hate you" he muttered.
The girl just continued to ignore him, and he looked up and squinted. What was that light in the distance? Realizing what it was, he pulled on her arm, and pointed at the light. Her metallic green eyes widened in realization and she ran toward the light. It was a red light. The light of Suzaku.
Tasuki took a deep breath as he ran.
Finally, things were beginning to look up tonight.
They reached an old tree that stood tall and proud. They helped each other onto the first branch and began to climb up until they reached a place near the top where the light was brightest. As they neared it, they heard muttering and wondered who it was. What they saw would haunt their thoughts forever.
A man sat on the topmost branch; he was bleeding all over, but his face was especially bloody where there was a large gash going from the top of his forehead all the way across his eye until it reached just below his ear. His eye looked like it had been gouged out and to say that he was a mess was the biggest understatement ever.
He looked up in shock when he saw them and began to back away. Tasuki just stared in shock at the man while Keikomi lowered her eyes and saw the rune on his knee. This man was Chichiri.
Tasuki forced himself to look away and in a quick and logical decision, he decided to go and find the others. Keikomi looked at the shaking form of the man, unsure what to do. All the bandages she had brought with her were in the bag and the bag was on the horse…
Suddenly…
"Why haven't you attacked me?" he asked in a low voice.
"What?"
"Why haven't you tried to kill me?"
"…and why, pray tell, would I do that?"
"Because they all think of me as murdering scum…"
"And why do they think that?"
He was silent and then, "I'm not from this village. The village I grew up in was destroyed by monsters a few years back. They were all slayed eventually but everyone and everything I knew was gone. I was the only survivor so all the nearby villages called me a monster, insisting that I helped and that was how I was able to be alive. So I came here…" he looked up in remembrance, "They were far away from that village so they accepted me for a while, but then they eventually found out about it. I get nightmares about it sometimes, you see…and they eventually got more and more suspicious of me. Tonight, the lord and his wife were murdered…they immediately blamed me"
Keikomi was stunned but there was one question on her mind, "…why are you telling me this?"
The man looked straight at her and for the first time, made eye contact, "Well…you're the only one tonight who hasn't tried to kill me" he said simply and closed his eye. Keikomi looked at him strangely; in fact, this entire world was getting stranger by the way. Back in her world, it took a lot for someone to even tell another their name and age; and here was this man, just spilling out his past just because she hadn't attacked him.
Strange indeed.
Dawn had come already. Tasuki glanced at the man that Nuriko was helping to bandage. Naomi and Hotohori had gone done to the village to clear things up. After getting the entire story for Chichiri, they had put things together and they knew who the real murderer was. Naomi had also found out that the crystal she had gotten that had brought her and Keikomi to this world could bring out the suppressed memories of the seishi.
Keikomi was looking pale, he noticed. Not that he cared or anything. It was probably the sight of all the blood, or maybe not, he frowned, considering how she didn't hesitate to draw blood when she did what she did best – piss off all the wrong people.
Hotohori and Naomi came back, looking furious.
"What happened?"
"Well, we were right" Naomi sighed.
"You never told us what you thought happened" Nuriko pointed out.
"It was the lord's son" Hotohori said, "Chichiri was actually the favorite of the town; he was polite, calm, confident and he never lashed out unnecessarily. The lord's son was the complete opposite and the lord was going to offer to take Chichiri to the capital if he wanted to, to help him to his full potential by convincing one of the officials to let him take the examination. The lord never offered his son that so the son was in a jealous rage and killed his parents, hoping to frame Chichiri"
"Bastard" Tasuki spat, "And I suppose he did that?" he pointed at the injured seishi.
"No…most of it was the villagers" Hotohori stated in distaste, "Well, this is definitely a town I will not be favoring or reducing the taxes on" he said.
"All done, Chichiri" Nuriko announced.
"Thank you, Nuriko" the man said politely, "We can get going now"
"Right…um…let's go" Naomi nodded, "Which direction?"
"South"
Please review. If you do...um...i have nothing to bribe you with but please do it from the goodness of your heart...consider it a christmas gift!