Now, I have been BUSY with stuff and crap on top of everything else, so it's a pure, clean shock that I managed to finish this chapter at ALL! But I did and I'm proud of it for that, I just hope that it sounds good to you guys.

I do not own Senkaiden Houshin Engi aka Soul Hunter, nor do I own its characters and plots, those belong to Mr. Ryu Fujisaki, I just own this little pairing that I shall root for forever.

Just Beyond the Riverbend
By Daydreamer9

The air was warm, but not overwhelmingly so; the heat had left along with most of the storms that had graced the previous two months, though a touch of humidity still hung in the air from time to time. But with the skies free of gray, sporting only cotton-like clouds, it was safe to say that the stormy period was over and done with. While most of the time, the crazed winds had done damage to farms, the rain granted greener crops and the trees that lined both sides of the creek sported green, lush leaves. Sweetness hung in the air as thistle and clover bloomed nearby, the running water adding to the serenity of the setting…

…though the redhead hovering above the rocky side of the creek stuck out like a sore thumb.

Nataku had come here initially to meet a friend, but after nearly ten minutes of searching the stony banks, he saw nothing; no sign of a strange cloth hat, no sign of the dark-haired doushi, not even a sign of a fishing bucket…which was quite strange.

"Went out fishing. Meet me by the banks beyond the west woods to see something really neat."

Taikoubou

That was what the note in his room said; doushi were forbidden to eat meat, much less kill a fish, so what was he up to? In fact, for the past several weeks, the redhead had noticed how his dark-haired friend seemed to duck in and out of the Outpost, sometimes disappearing at dawn and not returning until late noon. He'd always come back a little bit wet and muddy, and if anyone were to ask where he'd been, he'd just flippantly – and rather innocently, too – say, "Fishing." With him being a doushi, this excuse didn't fly too well and instead had caused a lot of rumors to stir up, it was all his parents could do to stop the lies from spreading, despite their own cluelessness. A doushi, a Sennin, going against their own oath intentionally?

Of course, Nataku didn't buy it and that was probably why he found himself here now, doing what he'd initially wanted to do the first time that Taikoubou had come back from the river soaking wet: find out what was really going on.

He'd never break the rules for something so frivolous, he thought, night blue eyes sweeping across the line of dense trees all along the other side of the river, and he's been acting strange in the past months. What's he hiding?

Nataku knew that hiding things from other people wasn't something that Taikoubou made a habit of doing. His shifty behavior was actually starting to make him feel uneasy, but the green-eyed doushi never told him anything whenever he'd ask. He'd just smile, wink, and head off to either help his parents or go do his 'mysterious activity', which couldn't just be fishing. Hovering closer to the creek-like river, the young Paopei Human looked over the edge and was met by his own reflection, something that mesmerized him for a couple of seconds, just seeing his image distorted in the babbling brook the way it was was…interesting. The last river he went to was the same one that his Paopei had reacted badly to three summer's ago, a time that he didn't necessarily wish to remember. He'd never been near a body of water since…till right this moment.

And why hide…whatever he's hiding here, of all places? he continued to think, leaning over carefully a bit to study his wavering reflection a little closer, from the eerie blue markings to his normally blank night blue eyes, even spotting the small minnows beneath the surface, and why would he want to show it to me of all people?

Although it was true that the two were close, Taikoubou possibly being Nataku's only true friend at this moment, the redhead also couldn't help but feel a bit strange around the older Sennin. It wasn't a bad kind of strange, it just stirred up a feeling that Nataku wasn't accustomed to experiencing: he would get nervous if they ever got too close, his face would feel warm if the other did so much as ruffle his hair, and, all the same, he didn't feel uncomfortable at all. It wasn't that, he'd always tell himself, he actually…didn't mind it at all. It was just…

Just…

"There you are."

At the sudden voice behind him, Nataku was in the process of spinning around…when he remembered a couple seconds too late about his bad balance when it came to leaning forward. The sudden motion caused his balance to be thrown and altogether caused him to fall backwards, heading for the placid river with a cry of alarm…until a gloved hand reached out and one of his outstretched ones. In an instant, his downward decent was halted and he found himself looking into the amused green eyes of none other than Taikoubou himself. Giving the surprised – if not embarrassed – redhead a small smile, the older doushi pulled the younger one up to his feet…er, wheels, away from the cool waters below.

"Well," Taikoubou said, helping to steady his friend, "at least you can lean over all well and good, now it's just a matter of learning how to straighten up without somebody helping ya." That last part was accompanied by a wink, though it all just made Nataku feel more embarrassed.

"Leave me alone," he muttered, turning away from the other's toothy grin, "did you call me out here just to watch me humiliate myself?"

Taikoubou giggled a little at that one.

"Nah, all I gotta do is wait for that to happen," he joked, then cringed as the other looked as though he were about to take aim…but then stopped when he noticed something.

"Taikoubou, you're wet."

Opening one eye, Taikoubou looked down at his legs where the redhead was staring and saw that he'd noticed how his pants were soaked up to the knee and gave his friend a wry smile.

"Er, well, yeah, sorta had to get wet to do what I was doing," he admitted, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand.

"Fishing?"

A grin met the question as those bright green, practically emerald eyes took on a mischievous glint.

"Nope," came the response, "that's why I wanted you to come out here. I think that it's just about time."

This got Nataku interested.

"Time for…what?" he asked, cocking his head to one side out of curiosity.

Taikoubou's smile just got wider as he pulled his friend along the bank with a simple, "Follow me." And follow Nataku did, if only to satisfy the question as to what his friend was doing out here, by the riverside and wet, but not fishing. What else could you do by a river besides fish or swim?

"I know that being by water probably isn't a good idea for you," Taikoubou was telling him as they went further upstream, "but I really think that you'll enjoy this."

"Enjoy what?" Nataku asked, feeling like he wasn't being told every single detail, which he probably wasn't with Taikoubou involved.

Taikoubou said nothing more as they continued on down the bank for five more minutes before stopping along one section of the bank that seemed to slope down towards the river with a rather obvious cluster of reeds right across from it. Nataku raised an eyebrow; the area certainly was muddy, was this the place where Taikoubou was always going to?

"Uh, you can let go now," Taikoubou said, causing Nataku to turn and see the other looking down…at where their hands were still holding onto one another. This surprised the redhead; he didn't even realize that he was still holding onto him all this time!

"U-uh, s-sorry," he stuttered, alarm putting a dent in his rather normally stoic disposition as he released the other's hand, barely noticing how Taikoubou's face seemed to have taken on a reddish pigment before he himself turned away, noticing that the warmth in his face had returned.

The two were silent for a while, only the sound of the wind in the leaves and the running water below filling the awkward gap before, finally, Nataku heard movement and looked up to see Taikoubou moving down into the water.

"Taikoubou?" Nataku called out, confused as the dark-haired doushi took step after step into the river, "what are you-"

Taikoubou turned to look at him over his shoulder, smiling knowingly.

"Better leave the Kontenryou on the shore so it doesn't mess up the water," he called over, the water sloshing around his ankles, "now come on, it's probably started by now."

Nataku, of course, was at a loss of what was going on, but when Taikoubou turned back to crossing the river, making his way over to the reeds without so much as a backwards glance afterwards, it was obvious that he expected the redhead to follow him. Seeing as how he obviously had no say in what was happening, Nataku gave a shrug at the sheer confusion of it all, and undid the Kontenryou around his waist, letting the red fabric fall onto the ground as he hovered after Taikoubou, who had reached the reeds by now and was now bent over on his knees, solving one of the mysteries. It was a good thing that the Fuukarin worked underwater, though Nataku still had no idea what was going on as he hovered over to the dun-colored strips of tall grass.

"Now will you tell me what's going on?" he asked in exasperation as he finally stood hovering next to Taikoubou…and noticed that there was something on the reeds. Strange, small white foamy objects were all around the lower ends of the tall grass and they each seemed to contain something inside. "What are those?"

Taikoubou glanced up at him and motioned for him to sit down without saying a word, eyes drawn back to the strange foamy white bubbles. Quirking an eyebrow and then looking down at the water a bit pensively before finally heaving a sigh, he slowly lowered himself into the water. The wetness didn't really bother him, it felt a little cool and he had to steady himself a bit, but he finally fixed himself into a comfortable crouching position. He turned to look at Taikoubou and saw that he was fixating his gaze on the bubbly foam on the reeds. Curious, Nataku turned to see just what was so interesting…and froze.

Thousands of tiny, black creatures that looked like miniature minnows without fins and eyes were wiggling their ways out of the foaming, bubble-shaped spheres and wiggle into the water. There were hundreds; swimming, struggling, some still stuck in their bubbles while those who were high above the water braved the drop when they broke free. They were swarming in masses by the reeds, though some were swimming along the shore on both ends of the river. Nataku had never seen these creatures before and watching their quick, wiggling motions was something to behold in his eyes; watching them hatch and learn to swim in mere seconds upon entering the water.

It…fascinated him.

"They're frogs."

This got a surprised expression from Nataku as he turned to where Taikoubou was still looking at the small creatures.

"What?" he asked, confused all over again.

Taikoubou only slightly nodded as he continued to watch.

"They're baby frogs," he repeated, "they're called tadpoles when they're like this. As they get older, they grow legs and become more froglike. We used to have lots of them by my old village and we'd all be there to watch their eggs hatch." He smiled a little at this. "I found them here a few months back and I've been checking up on them whenever I could. Sometimes it would be at night where I didn't know where I was going, so I wound up getting covered in mud." He then turned around, smiling over at Nataku. "Sorry if I worried you all that way, I know everyone must all be spreading rumors about me. But I figured that, since you never get out of the outpost enough, something like this might interest you and you don't even have to go into town."

Nataku said nothing for a minute as he turned back to watch the tadpoles swim, eyelids lowering; it was true. Save for the time he'd come back from the dead and joined Taikoubou for the Houshin Project, he'd never left the outpost before in his life and never really experienced anything outside of his house…until Taikoubou came. He was starting to actually get out more and stay out, Taikoubou even dragged him on small road trips at times, though he still felt more connected to nature than to people, seeing as how nature was never judgmental of him and was also a part of him now since he was brought back to life. Even still…this was one of the first times he'd ever seen something this extraordinary; so small and seemingly insignificant…and yet…

"They sort of remind me of me."

That one got Nataku staring back at the other with a perplexed look on his face.

"These guys have a hard road ahead of them," Taikoubou went on, "they've got nobody in their lives to guide them, all they have is instinct that they inherited from their parents and that's it, but most of them still make it in the world. Me? Heh, with my parents gone and nothing really certain for me anymore here in the Ningenkai, I guess I'm not so lucky…at least…" At this point, Taikoubou turned back to gaze long and hard at his associate, emerald green eyes meeting midnight blue. "…I thought I wasn't anyway."

The two just stared at one another for a few seconds longer before Nataku finally spoke.

"Out of curiosity," he asked, deciding that there was just one last question to ask to clear up this 'mystery', "how did you find out about this?"

At hearing this, Taikoubou gave him a very big, very wide grin that practically radiated innocence.

"Fishing."

And there you have it! You have no idea how close this thing was to going past the deadline, I mean it, it almost didn't make it! But I just had to redo so many things it's not even funny, but hopefully it sounded okay at the end. It's a little longer than the norm, but that's okay, it gave a little bit more insight for certain things and also dropped some hints for future chapter topics. Hope that you enjoy this chappie and expect September to come out by the first of next month! Adios for now!