Hello people! I'm finally back with a new chapter!...and this time, will you all please review? I enjoy reading what people think, alright? Please?

On with the story!

Nuriko snickered, watching the expression on a certain easily irritated bandit's face change from disbelief, to anger in various lovely shades. Chiriko patted his beloved horse on the head gently as said horse ate his twenty-forth carrot that day that Chiriko insisted on bestowing on him for successfully managing to get the best of Tasuki three days ago.

Tasuki growled, "Stupid horse!"

"Uh…Tasuki…maybe you shouldn't insult it?" Keikomi advised, without the usual hint of teasing in her voice. Unfortunately, Tasuki did not notice and snapped, "And I suppose you would know you good-for-nothing bitch!"

There was silence for a moment and Nuriko leaned over, "And another example of classic Tasuki stupidity" he said to Chiriko quietly, who nodded. Keikomi's eyes grew cold, looking quite scary especially with the distinct colouring of her eyes. Even Akai deemed it wise not to say anything to further provoke her anger.

However, Tasuki of course, was often at odds with the warrior and did not recognize the danger sign from the usual general – and while angry, safe – banter when he saw it.

"You think you know every don't you, you stupid woman?" Tasuki continued, "Well, you don't, and I bet that as soon as I follow whatever advice you gave me, the horse will probably stomp on me again or kill me or something like that!" he bellowed out in his rage, too caught up in the fact that he was more than embarrassed at having a horse stomp over him to realize what exactly was spewing out of his mouth.

Nuriko felt the urge to suddenly shudder in fear, and probably for good reason; he felt a sense of foreboding and apparently, so did Chiriko and Chichiri, who instantly stilled their horses to keep their distance away from the now very scary Keikomi and Tasuki, who was quickly bringing himself to imminent doom.

Keikomi suddenly gave an enraged hiss in the words of two words, "Fuck you" she hissed, her eyes full of loathing that none of them had ever seen before. Hotohori even flinched at all the negative emotions whirling around in those eyes of hers. Naomi crept quietly backwards, wondering if it was priestessly to hightail it and run off screaming.

"Never" Keikomi said, "Assume that I would plan to kill someone" she said with much venom in her voice, although a strange emotion flickered in her eyes for a moment, as if she was remembering something, and then, the horse, as though it could sense its rider's distress turned around slowly so as not to knock the rider off and then galloped off.

Tasuki gaped at her retreating back, "What the hell was that?" he wondered, receiving disbelieving looks from everyone else.

"You" Nuriko started, "Are an idiot"

Tasuki scowled, "How am I an idiot when she's the one who runs off like that? It wasn't anything to get upset about!"

"Yeah, well, you're insensitive too" Naomi retorted, "Even Chiriko knows what you did wrong, don't you Chiriko?"

The boy nodded, "Yes; it was quite obvious"

"What did I do?" Tasuki snapped.

"…do you even realize what you said?" Chichiri asked curiously.

"…er…"

Keikomi did not even know herself why she reacted so violently to that probably harmless foot-in-mouth statement from Tasuki. She was wondering this even as she sat under a large tree perched on a hill, that was in a meadow connected to the forest. The horse nudged her, whining, and she petted it. Then she took a carrot out of her pocket and it munched on the orange vegetable happily.

Well, she was lying to herself if she claimed she did not know; she did know, but she still had no idea about her reaction itself. She really had no reason to say those things and she briefly wondered if she was just a bit bipolar. She sighed, knowing that she had to go back and apologize for her rudeness and she hated apologizing.

As she was getting on the horse, she was taken by surprise and brutally ripped out of her thoughts when she felt a sudden force from behind pull her away from the horse. A hand was clamped over her mouth and unfortunately for her, in a position that made it impossible for her to bite her captor…which she was reluctant to do in the first place. No way to know where her captor's hand had been. So she began struggling, her elbows flying back into her captor. She heard a grunt and with a voice that deep, it could only be a man and she kept digging her elbows into what she assumed was his ribs. Suddenly, her head met the ground and before she could even roll away or get up, the man was sitting quite painfully on her ribsand she had fallen in such a way that it seemed as though her ankle was twisted, making it impossible for her to move at all…not that she was strong enough to push a grown man off her ribs, which now hurt like hell.

She growled, "Get off me"

The man sneered, "It's not everyday I find a young woman alone in the forest; and judging from all those things attached to your horsie there, you're quite a rich one too…I was thinking of selling you but perhaps I'll get a ransom for you instead"

"Don't make me knee you" Keikomi threatened. The man chuckled derisively, "You're not able to do anything except your arms and especially since I threw you so you twisted your ankle"

"Had it all planned did you?"

"Oh yes. Saw you and your group from the trees; thought one of your girls might make that noble looking man there pay enough money so I'll never have to worry about costs again"

Keikomi rolled her eyes and her other leg, which he was currently crushing with his weight shot up suddenly, sending him flying upwards. As he landed, she got up, ignoring the pain in her ankle and glared menacingly at him. She surveyed him with distaste even as he approached menacingly. She moved forward, glaive appearing in her hand and winced at the pain that resonated in her ankle.

Stupid Kei; if you hadn't been thinking so hard, you wouldn't have been caught off guard, she practically yelled at herself. She tried to move again, only to have her other leg, crushed by the man and then using immense force to kick him away, wobble slightly.

Damn it all; I can't fight if both my legs don't work!

Growling, she wondered how far away the others were, and if they could possibly hear her if she shouted. Then remembering how far off she had ridden off, she realized that they probably could not. She would have to grin and bear it.

She turned her glaive into a offensive position and waited for the man to approach and attempt to attack around the glaive. Once he was an arm length's away, she lashed out with the weapon just as a jet of flame came from the trees. The flames spread across the glaive, heading the metal rod up. Keikomi gave a yelp of pain as her hand was burned and quickly dropped the weapon.

"You really do seem to like pissing off the wrong people don't you?" came the familiar voice from the trees. Keikomi shrugged, "Wasn't my fault this time"

"Oh really?" Tasuki asked, stepping out from the trees, tessen in hand. He smirked at Keikomi, who he deemed – with relief – did not seem so pissed off at him anymore.

"Yes!" Keikomi insisted, "It's not like I try piss people off in the first place" she added. She paused, "What're you doing here in the first place?"

"Hey, I just probably saved you from limping to civilization" Tasuki reminded her.

Keikomi shrugged, "Yeah…you're probably right about that"

Tasuki looked shocked at the fact that she admitted it.

"Thanks" she added and after a moment's silence, "…sorry about my outburst"

Tasuki began to wonder if she had gotten hit on the head or something because the warrior that he knew and argued with never apologized, nor admitted he was right. At all….well, at least to him. The others she got along with perfectly fine.

"Why're you looking at me like I've grown two heads?" Keikomi asked suspiciously.

"…no reason" he felt he may as well not piss her off even more.

Then he paused, cursing the fact that Nuriko and the others had made him feel guilty about what he had said. It was not as if he had meant to say those things. He sighed, knowing that the others would give him hell if he did not apologize, "Uh…I'm sorry too" he said, "About what I said…"

She looked at him incredulously, "…it's fine"

If not for the fact that nobody but someone blessed by the gods could use the other seishis' (warrior's) weapons, he would have thought that she was an imposter. In fact, he was still thinking that right now.

"Damn leg" Keikomi muttered, attempted to walk to the horse, which was pretty far away by now. Horses had a tendency to run when startled and that was definitely what this horse had done. Tasuki glanced at the leg which was now swollen and purplish in colour; he winced. That looked painful. Without thinking, he suddenly lifted her up, and slung her over his shoulder.

"Tasuki! What the hell! I can walk! Put me down!" came the protests but he ignored them, knowing very well how hard it was to walk on a twisted ankle and brought her to the horse, plopped her onto the saddle and then jumped on behind her, "Right. Of course you could walk all that way, but this way is faster" he smirked at her indignant expression, "And besides, we should get you to the village; I'm sure there's a doctor in town somewhere"

She merely groaned and buried her head in her hands, "Oh good god. Tasuki is being nice…the horrors" she muttered, which caused him to adopt an expression similar to her indignant one. He recognized the teasing tone however and found it somewhat safe to argue back.

"Yeah, well, at least I'm not a bitch"

"Pyromaniac"

"Takes one to know one"

"Fang boy"

"Tomboy!"

"Yes…there is a doctor in town, but I don't think he offers his services to just anyone" the merchant told them, peering curiously at Keikomi's injury, which had gotten even worse than before.

"Why not?" Tasuki growled, "I thought he was a doctor!"

"Well, he's in high demand right now" the merchant told them, "Everybody's coming in to see him"

Keikomi rolled her eyes, "Aren't doctors supposed to care about patients and helping people…not money?"

"You can try going to his clinic, but…" the merchant shrugged, "Don't count on it though"

"You wanna see the 'doctor'?" Tasuki asked.

Keikomi gave him a look that plainly said 'do I look stupid to you?'.

"No then…so…maybe there's another doctor in town?"

Keikomi shrugged, "Most likely"

A woman passing by caught the last part of the conversation and began to speak to them, "You don't want to visit that idiot doctor either?" she asked.

Keikomi raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

"Good! At least someone in this town is smart!" the woman said, "I know a doctor, and he doesn't trick sick patients with all these so-called 'healing methods'"

"…is that why you're angry?" Tasuki asked curiously.

"Yes! He gave me bad medicine!" the woman said, enraged, "But nobody believes me"

"Asshole" Keikomi and Tasuki muttered at the same time.

"Come; he's on the other side of town" the woman said, leading the way. Shrugging, the two pyromaniacs followed her to a house located on the field near the forest.

The woman then waved to them, "Go on in; I imagine his wife is there. I have to finish my shopping"

So, they went up to the door (meaning they rode the horse to the door) and knocked on it. Tasuki's mouth dropped when he saw a woman who was the exactly replica of…

"Shouka!" he asked, remembering Mitsukake's dead lover.

"Yes…do I know you?"

"Oh…no…" Keikomi said, "But I have a twisted ankle…and my friend here has his foot in his mouth; could you help us?"

"…I'm sure the ankle can be fixed...the foot in mouth, however…" Shouka's eyes twinkled with mirth, "I'll bring you inside"

Keikomi nodded, wondering how to get into the house from the horse. Shouka smiled, "And perhaps your friend could carry you inside?"

Keikomi grimaced. Great. Being carried around twice in one day. She hated being hurt. Tasuki smirked at her expression but made no comment. As soon as he walked into the room where the doctor did his work, however, his jaw dropped. There, sitting there, mixing herbs, was Mitsukake!

He almost slipped up and called out to his former friend, but thankfully, Shouka unknowingly saved him.

"Juan! This girl needs her ankle checked"

"Sit her down over there" Juan pointed to the cushioned couch used for examining patients. Tasuki put Keikomi down and then whispered, "That's Mitsukake; I'm gonna see if Naomi's here yet" he told her. She nodded and he said a quick 'I'll be back later' to Shouka and Juan and left.

"Well then…how did you manage to do this?" Juan asked, gently prodding her leg.

"Attacked" Keikomi answered grudgingly.

"Where?" Juan asked, startled at her answer.

"Forest"

"Well, those are dangerous parts" he rubbed some sort of cream made from herbs onto her ankle, causing it to feel cool and soothing, "Rest it for the next day or so and it should be fine"

"Thanks doctor"

"Now…to wait for your friend to get back" Juan said. Just as he said this, Tasuki came back with the rest of the group, most of whom were staring at Juan in something akin to disbelief. Naomi, the only not overcome with memories, walked up to Juan and lifted the crystal out from under her shirt. The crystal glowed brightly and then…

"Shouka was amazingly calm about the fact that her husband is Mitsukake"

"Well, assuming she is the reincarnation of Shouka from before…she probably suspected subconsciously" Hotohori mused.

"Well, we'll spend one more day here to let Keikomi's ankle heal and then we'll set off"

"Alright; Mitsukake was wondering if Shouka could come with us" Naomi trailed off, "Is it safe?"

"I'm sure she'll be fine. She'll have Mitsukake with her; and this way, he can restart his clinic in the capital instead of this town where he gets no profit…even if he's only a doctor because he enjoys it"

"True" Chiriko nodded, "...and I think Mitsukake is secretly glad she's coming in case he gets back here and finds her dead…like last time"

"Yeah" Nuriko nodded. He paused, "You think after all this, those two will stop arguing?"

Hotohori raised an eyebrow, "I doubt that will happen soon"

"Why'd you say that?"

"Just listen" Hotohori told him. They all fell silent and in the distance, they could hear…

"Bitch"

"Pyromaniac"

"Sorry excuse for a lady"

Naomi rolled her eyes and the rest listened with amusement.

"Damn it! I don't need to be carried!" came the yell of frustration.

And…one more thing. Next chapter is the final seishi: Tamahome. D'you people think that it should stay Taka or should there be a new Tamahome? Tell me. Please!