Yay! Thanks for the reviews!
Reader's response:
Kyae Sohma: (twitch) must resist puppy...eyes...(eventually gives up and gives you a weapon) Here you go!
Queen of Monkey Magic: Why thank you. Nice name by the way.
notquiteagoddess: did you get the email I sentthat I attached the story to?
Enjoy the story people!
Kristen understood many things. She understood that she was now in a completely different world, full of Gods and magic and stuff like that. She understood that the world was very similar to ancient China; she understood that there were seven people to look for in this country and perhaps, if more answers were not revealed soon, in the next three. She understood that Taiitsu-kun, the so-called Creator, had given her and Seiriko weapons.
There was one thing that Kristen did not understand however.
Why the hell were Miaka and Taka there with them?
She questioned this aloud, only to be given the arrogant answer of, "Because you need us" from Taka.
Seiriko abruptly made a 'pfft' sound, which caused Taka to swivel around and glare at her, "You think you can do anything without us?"
"Oh yeah" Seiriko nodded, "We can do a lot of things. We can walk, we can talk, we can kill you and most of all, we can travel in peace without your wife's fat blinding our eyes and your arrogance stifling the air around us!"
Yui could not hold back the snort of laughter.
"Do you think Taiitsu-kun would be mad if I killed them?" Kristen asked, eyeing Taka with a gleam in her eye and her sword was held in just the right position – as if it was carefully set up like that – so that the sun hit in and looked especially menacing. Taka gulped.
"N-now…no need to…"
Seiriko smirked at her; a very evil smirk, to the eyes of Taka, but to Kristen, it was obvious that she was barely holding back her laughter. However, in the eyes of Taka, the fate of his money was much too important to risk and he took off running, not knowing that whatever money he had in his wallet had already been divided up between Kristen and Seiriko. Miaka took off after him, causing a second earthquake to hit Konan in the span of a day. The citizens were so utterly confused, seeing as earthquakes generally did not occur this time of the year, and if they ever had an earthquake, it would be a small one. This one was at least a 15000000. 9 on the Richter Scale. (which, really, only goes up to 10)
So, the three females, happily trekked off ahead (Miaka and Taka had simply ran the direction from which they had walked already), satisfied to be rid of both Miaka and Taka and having received no damage from the earthquake, although Kristen claimed to need a psychiatrist to help her get through the memories of seeing Miaka run. She had so thoroughly described it to the other females, in her shocked and horrified state, that the other two had quickly tried to knock the memory out of their heads.
Other than that, the journey after that, went along smoothly.
"Hey, do you think we're nearing a town yet?" Kristen asked Yui.
"Not a clue" Yui answered, surprising both girls.
"…you don't know?"
"Nope"
"Then why are you leading!" Seiriko hissed quietly, trying not to disturb the nearby forest and having some wild animal charge out and attack them.
"Dunno…because you were too busy knocking already fallen down trees over to block Taka and Miaka from following us and Kristen apparently, has a bad sense of direction"
"I thought you were in this world before" Kristen, ignoring the insult to her directional skills, asked.
"I was in Kutou, not Konan and back then, my seishi did all the work for me" Yui confessed, "Unlike Miaka, who was traipsing around, getting into fights over fish even when she was diagnosed with a deadly disease"
"Guess they found a cure…damn it" Seiriko muttered curses under her breath.
They walked around for another hour at least before Yui finally saw a town up ahead, or what she assumed to be a town. There were lights, in some houses, despite the hour of the night and what they all recognized as an inn was lit brighter than the rest.
"I just realized…" Kristen suddenly thought, taking out the wads of paper that was money in their world.
Seiriko caught onto her train of thoughts, "I don't suppose they accept paper money here, do they?"
"Nope; if I remember correctly; it was gold ryos, silver ryos and bronze ryos and I think there's something else, but I forgot what it's called; mon, or something like that..." Yui shrugged sheepishly.
"Oh shit" Seiriko muttered, "Taiitsu-kun trusted our well-being, success and directions in you?"
Yui looked insulted, "I'll have you know that I – er…well…er…I almost got Miaka killed?"
Seiriko, "Good enough for me! Lead on, oh Great One!"
Kristen shook her head, "I know I didn't give you a slushie, and I know Yui didn't…so how the hell are you hyper?"
"…candy…"
"Back to the business at hand" Yui interrupted, "We need money"
"Right"
"And we need it soon"
"Okay"
"So we'll have to –"
Yui's would-be-brilliant suggestions was cut off by an exclamation from Seiriko. As all such things that come from Seiriko's mouth, it was not a good idea, especially under the influence of sugar filled embodiments of chaos also known as candy. Also, when Seiriko gets this way, one should also note that the extreme insanity also seems to spread to Kristen, and therefore, the two were quickly working on a somewhat dastardly plan to –
" – join a band of bandits!" Kristen finished.
"Well, I was thinking pirates, but that's good too" Seiriko nodded, "Especially since we probably won't have swab the deck or whatever"
"Exactly; praise my genius!" Kristen exclaimed, which Seiriko quickly obliged to, grinning like the maniac she probably was. Now, it was only Yui's opinion, but she had a good inkling that Taiitsu-kun had not meant for the two girls to delve into the magnificent, cunning and rather violent art of banditism. She supposed that Taiitsu-kun had hoped that the two girls would quickly find one of the Suzaku seishi (hopefully not Tasuki, judging by what Yui knew of the seishi and his tendency to do illegal things) and would quickly gather the rest of the seishi. With the way the girls handled their weapons (as if they had been doing so for decades), Yui had to admit, the impression that they would be able to take care of themselves and finish things quickly had seemed very plausible…if only for the fact that they were not entirely insane, out of their minds, bonkers, gone bananas…and all those other words one could use for 'crazy'.
"Uh…I really don't think – "
"Which is what we're here for!" Kristen said brightly, "We have made a marvelous plan that cannot fail and we will get to know the culture and will not give ourselves away too much like Miaka did because if we did give ourselves away, we could always just blame is on our banditism!"
"Is that even a word?" Yui asked.
"It is now!" Seiriko said, mumbling as she wrote a note in her notebook, "Add banditism to dictionary. Put picture of Kristen or Yui in bandit clothes next to it"
"I'm not going to be the definition of 'banditism'!" Yui shouted, high irritated now, "And you aren't either!"
"Of course you aren't" Seiriko said in a tone that implied that she was speaking to someone with a younger mental age than her. Yui could not help but state in her mind that Seiriko's mental age was very confused; one minute, it could be three years old and the next…
"I'm NOT!" Yui shouted. Then again, Yui's mental age was often confused also.
"Right"
"I'M NOT!"
"Fine, we'll take you out of the picture…" Seiriko pouted, "But we'll still be bandits!"
"No we won't!"
"Yes we will"
"Won't!"
"Will!"
"Won't!"
"Will!"
"Won't!"
"WILL!"
Kristen looked up when Seiriko finished the argument and Yui started banging her head against the nearest tree, "Don't worry Yui; you don't have to be one. You can pose as our hostage"
"WHAT!"
"Either that or be a bandit" Kristen smirked as Yui looked resigned to her fate of being a bandit…or a hostage.
"I must say…MISSION: Find Bandit Base and Infiltrate has been a success so far" Kristen remarked casually.
"I agree; 'Stage 1: find bandit base' has been completed"
" 'Stage 2: Infiltrate' has been completed. Such a success"
Yui growled, "Are you two blind or are you missing the fact that we've been captured by bandits!"
"That's where Stage 3 comes in of course" Kristen said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Yui proceeded to try to knock herself out.
The door to the room opened and in walked a multitude of bandits, who were quite fitting their roll of bandits, dressed in 'ruffian' clothing, looking like they had just stumbled in from a fight at a bar. They all trailed behind a man who was obviously their leader, although he seemed more like a noble than a bandit. In fact, he even looked like a noble; only one apparent wound from the dangerous business of being a bandit; a scar over his right eye, moon shaped; shoulder length dark hair and silver eyes. The rest of him was well-kept compared to the rest of the bandits. But as far as leaders went, he was the epitome of leadership and power.
"My men say they caught you on our property" he asked.
"Haku; are you sure it wise to talk to them?" one of the bandits whispered.
"Yes, Haku; I hear they're insane"
"Absolutely mad"
"Crazy"
"Over the edge"
"Mental"
Haku looked amused, "I'm sure they're fine" he looked them in the eyes, "They must be fine warriors to get through the guards…and to put on such an act as to scare you"
"Who says it's an act?" Seiriko countered.
"Who says it's not?" Haku responded just as quickly. All three smirked, leaving a whole crowd of confused bandits behind Haku and an equally confused Yui (who had only managed to knock herself out for five minutes) behind the two girls.
"So…" Haku said, "What are two warriors, capable of defeating my guards, doing here?"
Thus began a conversation; a debate, an argument, a battle of words, one might call it –
"You tell him"
"No, you"
"You"
"You"
"you"
"you"
"you"
"YOU"
"YOU!"
"YOU!"
"Both of us"
"Fine"
"FINE!"
"FINE!"
They both turned to Haku with determination in their eyes, "We wanna be bandits!"
None of the bandits, who had expected that bit of news, fell over in surprised and Yui began to bang her head against the wall once more. Haku blinked once. Then twice.
He laughed.
BANDITISM! (pouts) I want to be a bandit for real. Then I wouldn't have to go to school and I'd spend my days getting drunk...oh, and I'd get weapons too...(sigh)