Well, I'm being threatened by my friend to update this even though I would simply prefer to finish memorizing my Hamlet lines, but noooo - obviously, remembering a twenty-something line part is nothing compared to updating.

If I don't remember it all, I'm going to kill her.

Waking up a few days later after the three strangers had arrived in the quiet village, Holly noticed with due curiosity that Hikou and Kouran were looking moderately more awake and definitely chirpier (in Kouran's case) than normal. Normally, nothing short of a large bucket of cold water could get Hikou up so early in the morning, so it was definitely a curious thing indeed when he was awake early.

"What's going on?" she asked, yawning as she stepped into the kitchen, not caring that she was dressed in a large t-shirt and shorts; Hikou and Kouran had been shocked at the way Jenna and Holly had dressed in the beginning but now, they did not even bat an eyelash at the lack of 'proper' clothing. Although, the two still made the two girls wear dresses when going outdoors.

"Dunno" Kouji shrugged, first of the three male guests to be up as usual.

"Genrou and Doukun still asleep?"

"Doukun went down to the school to get help with his weapon from the swords master there" Kouji said, "It's a strange weapon so Genrou and I can't really teach him…and Genrou is still sleep" he paused, "Don't worry; we took care of the birds outside his window first"

Holly breathed a sigh of relief, remembering the first time in which the redheaded bandit had woken up screaming at the birds. She had never known one could use so much profanity in one sentence. Genrou, she thought decisively, must have set some sort of record for the number of cursing used in one single breath.

"So…still no luck in your search?" Holly asked. Despite Kouran and Hikou's assurance that the three males could stay as long as they needed to, Kouji and Genrou had decided that they would not accomplish much just by staying nice and comfortable in such a large home while their friends could possibly be sold or something of the sort and would leave for days at a time, scouring the nearby towns and countryside for any clues. Doukun, however, as he was still not as able to defend himself as the two bandits, stayed behind and got training from whoever was not busy in town.

"Not yet" Kouji admitted, "Not even a clue of some sort"

Hikou suddenly walked – well, waltzed was more like it – into the kitchen, humming under his breath and smiling widely as though the best thing on earth had happened, "Good morning!" he said cheerfully.

Kouji and Holly blinked and stared at the blue-haired man.

"What?" Hikou asked, taken back at the stares.

"Why're you so happy this early in the morning?" Kouji asked, sounding as though a miracle of some sort had happened, "You're usually such a grouch"

"I am not!" Hikou huffed indignantly.

Holly coughed not very discreetly and Hikou shot a mock glare at her.

"Just last week, you threw Jenna out of the kitchen because she wasn't getting out of the way fast enough for you to get to your precious tea" Holly pointed out; tea, in this world, was the less addictive and not as strong, version of coffee, "She's still planning to kill you for that"

Hikou made a noise similar to an 'eep' as he thought about the many ways the blue haired girl could find to kill him.

As if knowing – just knowing – that she was being talked about, Jenna stumbled into the room, looking as though she had gotten only two hours of sleep instead of seven, which Holly to be honest was proud of: Jenna had finally gotten over her insomniac stage!

As though she sensed what Holly was thinking, Jenna levelled a glare at her friend, along with sticking out her tongue, which of course, was the most mature thing to do at the moment but seeing as half of the other people in the room were just as immature, nobody really bothered to comment, especially not Kouji, who after spending two straight days with only Genrou for company, found that the sticking out of the tongue was mature – compared to Genrou, that is.

"I didn't say anything!" Holly insisted, wondering if it was possible that her friend could read her mind.

Jenna rolled her eyes and in a manner reminiscent of Hikou, headed straight for the tea and gulped down two cups before turning back to the rest of the group, "So, besides talking about how I'm gonna kill Hikou, what else were you talking about?" she asked, earning her strange looks for knowing what they had been talking about before she came in; even if she had been right outside, the door was thick enough so that their words would have been too muffled to understand in the first place.

"Why Hikou's so happy this morning" Holly said after a moment of awkward silence.

"Because Houjun's coming back today!" Hikou announced, referring to the last of the group of three friends who lived in this house.

"Really?" Jenna perked up in interest at meeting the friend who was so often talked about.

"Yeah; he was just in the capital for a while, but he said he'd be back by tonight" Hikou nodded, "Kouran's getting a bit dinner fixed up"

"Who's Houjun?" Kouji asked.

"He's Kouran's fiancée" Hikou grinned. Kouji's eyebrows rose, "Heh…no wonder Kouran's so happy today"

"Well, at any rate; I can't wait to meet him" Holly nodded, just as a shout came from Genrou's room, albeit a bit muffled, screaming about chickens and strangulation.

At the moment, Kristen felt like strangling something. It was not, of course, due to the fact that everyone else had managed to drift off into a peaceful sleep (surprisingly, the guys were not snoring, which surprised her still because it was a known fact in the modern world that all guys over the age of fourteen snore). Everyone except her and it was not of course that she was sleeping on a large pile of blankets on the cold forest ground but instead, why she felt like strangling something was because she now had a mission, to murder all the birds on earth, most specifically, the owl that wouldn't stop fucking hooting! She glared daggers at the bird, who merely hooted again, oblivious to her hateful stare.

Hoot

Kristen glared a death glare so deadly that if looks were able to kill, the owl would have exploded in to ten thousand little pieces fifty times already. Unfortunately, however, looks could not kill, which meant that the offending owl was still alive, to Kristen's utter dismay and disappointment.

Hoot!

That was it! Kristen stood, seething, promise of death prominent in her eyes. That owl was going to die!

She cast a suspicious look at the bundle of blankets that was Seiriko just to make sure the black haired girl would not be given more blackmail material, and quickly walked toward the tree where the owl was perched. The owl began to realize the danger it was in as Kristen managed to get from the ground to the branch under the owl in one leap – less gravity in this world, she supposed. It gave one more hoot and flew off, hoping to escape into the night.

However, it had sorely underestimated the fury of Kristen and gave a startled noise that was a cross between a hoot and a squawk of some sort when its leg was pulled so roughly that it went spiralling down toward the earth.

Kristen's eyes glittered both maniacally and maliciously as she looked upon her successfully caught prey. The owl, as smart as it was, had the sense to gulp – or at least the bird version of gulping.

Rose coloured eyes watched this scene with amusement, wondering whether or not to tell Seiriko that her friend spent her nights chasing and punishing owls.

Houjun hummed to himself as his horse neared the town at a steady pace, quite eager to be back in such familiar surroundings and he would hopefully get a good night's sleep. That is, if Hikou had not gotten another of his ideas into his head involving getting drunk out of their minds which usually resulted in a very bad headache the next morning.

As he saw the distinct candlelight that lit up the homes in town, he felt a sudden prickling on the back of his neck and he quickly swivelled around, his sheathed sword making a loud clank when it made contact with the weapon of whoever was attacking him. Gritting his teeth, he put more force into his sheath and pushed, sending his attacker to stumble backwards. He heard a grunt and in the light of the lantern he had with him, he saw the dark clothed figure who clutched a short sword in hand.

"Very nice; I see you haven't lost your touch"

"Who are you?" Houjun asked stonily, "And why did you attack me?"

"I've come for you of course" the man answered.

"Really…I'm sorry but I don't plan to be abducted anytime soon" Houjun retorted, knowing how many people had tried to do so already but failed.

"Who said anything about abducting you?"

Houjun was taken back and confused. So why was this man attacking him?

"I'm here to kill you"

"What?" Houjun could not help but feel shock at those words. However, he quickly recovered and glared at the man, "What makes you think I'll let you do that?"

"You don't have a choice" the man sneered, brandishing his short sword and charging at him. Barely dodging that hit, Houjun ducked to the ground, realizing that this man would not be an easy opponent to beat.

Clack! The swords struck at one another once again and both men leapt back, circling each other in a predatory fashion, looking for some sort of weakness before instinct overcame logic and patience, and both attacked one another, resulting in another draw…that was, until the man slashed at Houjun's side just as Houjun was moving away. Houjun winced at the pain that came with the wound.

Hotohori exchanged an amused look with Nuriko, who was looking as though he was not sure whether to laugh or to simply run away from the obviously insane girls. Of course, he had chosen to laugh after a few moments, for the two girls had started to play cards, resulting in one or the either losing and all of a sudden, the parchment that that had been cut into such odd shapes was everywhere and the two girls were grabbing the cards nearest to them and throwing it at each other.

"Well…" Nuriko trailed off, "They're not bored anymore at least"

"True" Hotohori said, his eyes gazing in exasperation at the two of them. Mitsukake had gone to the nearby stream to fill up the water canteens and in Hotohori's opinion, he was quite lucky to miss this spectacle. Seiriko, suddenly aware of the strange looks they were getting, grinned sheepishly.

"Are you done?" Nuriko asked, eyes twinkling at the black haired girl, which Hotohori discreetly made a note of.

"Uh….nope!" Seiriko said, throwing the last card at Kristen and immediately stood up, "Now I'm done!" she stated, dodging the card that went flying her way.

The violet haired man shook his head, "You are impossible" he said teasingly, which only caused Seiriko to pout and turn large, red, puppy-dog eyes on him. Hotohori chuckled as his friend's usual iron will suddenly start to crumble.

"That's…not fair" Nuriko said through gritted teeth. He would not give in. He would not give in. He would not – oh, to Hell with it!

Hotohori laughed silently once more when he saw that Nuriko had finally given in.

"How long did that one take?" Kristen asked from beside him, startling the amber eyed man. He had not even noticed her beside him.

"Ten seconds" he reported.

"Another record" Kristen mused, "Last time, it took thirteen"

Mitsukake came back just in time to see Seiriko being given a piggyback ride from Nuriko and he sweatdropped.

It had happened too fast for him to realize what was going on; one moment he had been trying to ignore the pain and the next, he found himself on the ground, the man sitting painfully on his back and his head being yanked up painfully.

"You know what…something seems amiss…" the man muttered and Houjun found he did not like the tone of voice at all, "Oh, I know what's missing!"

And with that, he took his knife and dragged it across Houjun's face in a deep wound that crossed from above his eye to across his cheek. It was pure torture and it did not end there; the man would almost randomly twist the knife a bit, as if making some sort of pattern and Houjun had to bite his cheek to keep from screaming in pure pain.

"There…" the man smirked as blood dripped into Houjun's vision, "Now…to finish you off…Chichiri"

Houjun, however, was too much in fear of his life than to listen to what the man was saying. He felt anger and desperation rush into him at once, a rather strange and powerful combination, for as soon as he felt the emotions stir, unbeknownst to him, a rune glowed on his knee.

However, he noticed the red glow that erupted in an explosion around him and he stared aghast as the man leapt away – or at least tried to. Before he could complete escape the crimson glow, it had surrounded the man. He screamed as his skin smoked all over; not even an inch of him was spared and he landed on the ground rather painfully, although it was obvious from his twitching hand that he was still alive.

Houjun then saw the still glowing rune and he stared incredulously at it, as if wondering why it was there. While he did this, the man had taken the opportunity to stand up and hoping to complete his mission, the man charged at Houjun – Chichiri – with a furious roar.

His attempts were foiled by a shout of, "REKKA SHINEN!" that came from the direction of town a jet of flame flew straight at the man…along with another from the opposite direction. Tasuki blinked at the flame; it was too familiar…

"Hey, look Kristen! It's Fang boy!" came another familiar shout.

Tasuki was not sure exactly whether to be joyful that he had found the two he had been looking for or whether to listen to the feeling of dread that told him to run far, far away as soon as he got the opportunity to do so.

Kouran was stunned when Genrou and a group of people she had never met before walked into the kitchen, most of them covered in blood, although it was obviously not their own. It definitely came from the man who was bleeding on her kitchen –

"HOUJUN!" she screamed, recognizing the bloody form of her fiancée.

"Hey…Kouran…" Houjun said weakly, trying to stand, but failing to; the wound in his side had been much worse than he originally thought.

"Do you happen to have a room where we could put him?" the large man with spiky black hair asked politely. Kouran nodded, her eyes never leaving Houjun's bloodied face. Once in Houjun's room, she sat in a chair next to the bed as the healer who introduced himself as Juan started working. It was miraculously quick how he cleaned the wounds and he then simply held up his hand and with a burst of green light, her fiancée's wounds were healed, although she noticed that there was a faint trace of a scar where the wound on his face had been.

"Let him rest" Juan instructed before leaving the room and heading downstairs, where he was met with a strange sight.

Four girls were staring at each other incredulously and in obvious disbelief, their eyes wide and looking almost pale – well, in Kristen's case, there was no difference, but for the others…

Then…

Poke…

"You are real!" Seiriko exclaimed happily.

Holly scowled as she rubbed her arm, "Do I look like an illusion?"

Jenna, who had been about to poke Kristen, withdrew her finger discreetly, "…so you're the ones Taiitsu-kun told us about"

Kristen nodded, still a bit in shock at seeing two of her friends in this strange world also, as indicated by her still wide eyes.

Suddenly, they all broke out into talk, the previous silence forgotten as if it had never existed and the four happily conversed with one another, resulting in a few hugs here and there. The seishi, Hikou and Kouji decided that now was perhaps a good time to sit down and have a few bottles of sake.

"So, any idea who did that to Chichiri?" Hotohori asked, referring to Houjun.

"No idea" Tasuki shrugged, "Hikou?"

"Well…I would have said one of the aristocrats since it's been attempted before, but they have never succeeded to lay a finger on him"

"Why would they attack him?" Chiriko asked, confused.

"Houjun's father was one of the leaders of the ones that opposed the aristocrats but he eventually died in battle and our hometown was burned to the ground as a result of him being found out. Miraculously though, we survived, but now that I think about it, there was a red glow that night but I had always passed it off as a hallucination from too much smoke" he mused, "But the aristocrats are convinced that Houjun is even more of a threat than his father for surviving the massacre and has always come after him"

"Why not you then?" Chiriko asked, still confused but this time about why they would go after Chichiri alone.

Hikou shrugged, "Maybe because he was the son of Daisui? We never bothered to find out"

"Perhaps…Liu has been up to something once again" Nuriko said pensively.

Hotohori smirked, "Then we should sic Kristen and Seiriko on him shouldn't we?" he said, remembering the way he had seen Liu run screaming from the base thanks to the work of the two obviously insane girls.

"We should…" Nuriko's eyes brightened.

All conversation after that, however, was lost when the men got completely drunk and were not able to string even three words together.

"Now that's what I call drunk" Holly poked at Hikou with a chopstick. Hikou twitched but otherwise stayed unconscious.

Yeah...that's it...