Right...I just realized that I haven't bothered updating in over two months and figured whoever left that's reading this might as well read what else I wrote - and the fact that my friend's glaring at me and is possibly going to kill me if I 'don't start being nice to the people who wait for updates'. I honestly think no one's reading this anymore, but whatever - if anyone actually happens to actually still be reading...well, lucky day for you then. Enjoy.

The first thing Houjun knew when he opened his eyes in the morning was that his head hurt and the sun was a very ruthless, merciless and soon to be dead enemy which he would take much pleasure in destroying later that day, after beating Hikou over the head with the closest blunt object that is. He could not believe that he had once again been talked into getting drunk out of his mind; he should have stayed in bed after being healed by Mitsukake, but no, he just had to listen to Hikou. To further his ire, if that was possible, he saw Hotohori somewhere to his right looking rather amused and pain-free as he poked Nuriko in the shoulder in an attempt to wake him up. Nuriko gave a sound similar to 'hn' and shrugged off Hotohori's pokes, which steadily got fiercer as his best friend refused to wake up. Houjun gave one last groan and glare at the volatile sun before sinking his head back into whatever he had passed out on the night before and slept.

That was the situation that Seiriko found the men in ten minutes later, Chiriko by her side as he rolled his eyes at the passed out men. She raised an eyebrow at Hotohori, who simply shrugged in return, "Everyone else was asleep so I got bored" he pouted. Seiriko wondered if perhaps she should take a picture to show to Kristen later just to watch her mutter 'sexy' under her breath many, many times. Just for the fun of it.

"How long exactly have you been poking him?" Chiriko asked curiously from behind Seiriko, struggling under the heavy pile of books he had to return to Hikou's scholar friend later on.

Hotohori gave a long suffering sigh, "Fifteen whole minutes"

"Right…my turn" Seiriko grinned, deciding to make this a game to see who could wake the purple haired seishi up first, "First one to wake him up wins. Loser has to wake Kristen up"

Hotohori raised an eyebrow at that, "Why should that be considered a menial task?" he wondered.

Seiriko shrugged, "Some owl kept her up at night. All I heard was her ranting death threats at the tree outside our window"

Then, without waiting for an answer, she sat on the other side of Nuriko, right on Tasuki's back (but of course, she really did not care; after all, if horses got the privilege of sitting on him after beating him up, why couldn't she?) and stared at him for a few moments.

And stared.

And stared.

Stare.

Then, she reached over and poked him quite hard on the forehead. Nuriko gave a 'hn' sound and rolled over, sheltering his forehead with the safety of his pillow. Seiriko frowned and poked again, this time in his ribs, at which he rolled over once more. Seiriko pouted, wanting the seishi to wake up to give her more piggy back rides. As if sensing what she was thinking, Nuriko suddenly mumbled, "No…more rides…"

Hotohori's eyebrows shot up with amusement as Seiriko pouted even more. She got off Tasuki's back (the bandit had not even noticed the extra weight) and placed her elbows on the ground in front of the purple haired seishi, her head resting in her hands, "But I want a ride Nuriko" the whine coupled with the rather convincing childish and innocent tone made it rather hard to ignore, for Nuriko twitched and Chiriko's jaw dropped, the words 'I have to learn to do that!' racing through his mind.

"Hn…no Sei…"

From across the room, Kouji who was awake during this whole thing, could only watch as the determination in Seiriko's eyes grew all the while the puppy-dog look in her eyes practically exuded cuteness, "But Nuriko…I want a ride"

The violet haired man's eyes opened tiredly, wondering why he felt like he had to open his eyes or face the consequences. He groaned, wondering what had caused him to pass out in the kitchen of all places, cursing the sun. His eyes slowly adjusted to the light and then, he saw…

"Ride?"

Hotohori laughed loudly when Nuriko suddenly shot up from the floor, lifting Seiriko onto his shoulder at the same time, saying, "Up you go!" Seiriko laughed happily, enjoying this early morning ride very much. Chiriko shook his head in disbelief, "I really need to learn that" he muttered, "That is manipulation at its finest"

Kouji chuckled, "Somehow, Doukun, I don't think you really need to learn" He distinctly remembered one time when Doukun had looked up at Aidou with those great big green eyes after tripping on the ground, his eyes watering and then Aidou had then pushed Genrou out of the way rather quickly, resulting in Genrou crashing into a wall, to get to Doukun. He now knew that puppy-dog eyes could take you very far. Yes…very far.

Meanwhile, Hotohori went to complete his end of the bargain and traipsed up the stairs to find himself in a hallway filled with many doors and he suddenly remembered that he did not know which one was the room that Kristen was given. Well, he reasoned, judging from what Seiriko said, she had been in the same room as Seiriko. Now, if only he knew which one…

Suddenly, one of the door opened and Hotohori jumped back quickly to keep his face from getting a bruise. One of the other girls stumbled out, the one with the brown curls, he saw and she looked up curiously at him, "Did you need something?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Yes, actually; could you perhaps tell me where Kristen's room is? I'm supposed to wake her up" he said politely as always.

Holly blinked then nodded, "This isn't perhaps some half-brained scheme of Seiriko's is it?" she asked.

"Well…she did win that game we had going downstairs" Hotohori mused, "So…yes?"

Holly suppressed a laugh, wondering if she should do Seiriko a favour and videotape this promising to be interesting moment. Deciding that Kristen would most definitely murder her for doing so, Holly continued her trek downstairs after directing Hotohori to the right room. Once downstairs, she found Seiriko sitting happily on the violet haired strong man's shoulders. Doukun – or Chiriko as she was told last night – was sitting in the corner, muttering and adopting very adorable puppy-dog eyes every few minutes.

"What are you doing?" she asked him curiously.

"I'm trying to learn manipulation" Chiriko answered.

"By…using puppy-dog eyes?"

"YES!" Chiriko shouted loudly, "If Seiriko can do it, so can I!"

Holly sent Kouji a questioning look. Kouji chuckled for a good five minutes before he answered, "How do you think Seiriko got Nuriko to give her a ride?"

Meanwhile, upstairs, Hotohori had entered Kristen's room and was amused to see the window pane had splintered, giving him the conclusion that Kristen had most likely slammed it after dealing with the owls last night. Kristen turned in her sleep, unaware that Hotohori had just entered her room.

"Kristen" Hotohori shook her.

She simply turned again and kept sleeping.

Hotohori sighed.

"Kristen!" he shook her again. Just when Hotohori thought that he would have the same trouble getting her up as he normally did with Nuriko, she opened her eyes and stared at him for a long time, the sleep being blinked out of her eyes rather rapidly.

Kristen had been having a nice dream, of weapons and explosives, and not to mention, destroying Miaka, before her dream got disrupted by someone waking her up. She was quite disgruntled when her image of Miaka dying in a rather painful way got interrupted and she was forced to open her eyes. That was…until she saw who had woken her up that wonderful, beautiful morning.

"Hotohori!" Kristen blinked many times. She sat up quickly, all sleepiness startled out of her system by being awoken by Hotohori, "What are you doing here?"

"…waking you up" Hotohori answered as if the answer was obvious. Which it was, actually. Then he chuckled, "I hear you had quite a hard time with the owls last night"

Kristen flushed, "Well, they were loud!" she exclaimed, "And annoying…"

Hotohori chuckled, "I get the point…now, would you perhaps like to get up? Kouran's making breakfast downstairs"

"Nope!" Kristen dove back under the covers, "Too lazy"

"Kristen…"

"Not moving!"

"Please?" Hotohori asked. Kristen merely gave him a mischievous look and yawned loudly. Hotohori sighed. Now he knew why Seiriko did not enjoy waking the redhead up. Well, fortunately, Hotohori was beginning to come up with an idea…

"Hotohori!!!!!" Kristen shouted in protest when she was suddenly hoisted up and slung over Hotohori's shoulder as he grinned mischievously at her, a satisfied gleam in his eye. She continued to protest as he carried her that way down to breakfast. Kristen glared pointedly at Tasuki when he opened his mouth to make a comment, but the bandit smartly kept his mouth shut.

Holly looked back and forth between Nuriko, who was still happily running around with Seiriko on his shoulders, to the victoriously smirking Hotohori, who had Kristen slung across his shoulder, although the redhead girl was slowly managing to get into the more comfortable position on Hotohori's back in the form of a piggy back ride.

"Why is it that I turn around for five seconds and suddenly Seiriko and Kristen get to be carried around by sexually appealing men?!" she pouted. Absolute silence followed that comment and Holly coughed, "I'll shut up now"

Deciding that it was probably best to ignore that comment, Hotohori turned to Kristen, who now had her arms wrapped loosely around his neck as he hoisted her up in a piggy back style, "Comfortable back there?"

"Yes actually" Kristen grinned, "Now, care to explain why you found it necessary to kidnap me from my comfy bed?"

"You said you weren't going to move. So I moved you" Hotohori said innocently.

Jenna wandered in just then, not noticing anything really for she was still half asleep. After gulping down her usual intake of morning tea, she blinked and did a double take, "I wasn't aware that it was Piggyback Ride Day today"

"It's not" Holly told her, "Seiriko's just a child, and Kristen's lazy"

Jenna looked deep in thought, "If I become a lazy child, will I get one too?"

"What?"

"A piggy back ride of course" she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was, really.

"From who? As far as I know, only Nuriko and Hotohori give out piggy back rides, and they're…occupied" Kouji grinned at the blue haired girl. Jenna sighed, looking disappointed, "I have to go take Doukun to return those books anyways"

"Thank you!" Chiriko said from behind the pile of large books. Tasuki rolled his eyes, looking at his brother, "I think you'll need more than two people to carry those"

"Why Tasuki, are you, the almight Genrou, offering help?" Jenna asked, adopting an astonished expression. Tasuki scowled, "Yes!"

"Thanks, Shun'u!" Chiriko piped up as the weight was reduced by a lot.

"I don't know how you could possibly read this much" Tasuki muttered under his breath, "It's not possible"

"Oh, I think you'll find it's extremely possible" Chiriko said, grinning at his brother, "All you have to do is pick up a book. I'm sure you know how to do that, Shun'u?"

"Shaddup, brat" Tasuki said, although he did not sound very angry. Jenna put her hand over her mouth to keep the sudden burst of laughter from escaping.

"And you" Tasuki whirled around, "Don't encourage him"

"Me?" Jenna asked innocently, "I would never!"

Upon reaching the scholar's home, which was more like a gigantic library, Chiriko knocked on the door and told them that he would be staying for a while. So, shrugging, the two teenagers set the books on the ground near him as Chiriko waited for the door to open and set off back to the house.

"Crazy kid" Tasuki shook his head.

"He's not – well…maybe he's a bit too interested in books…"

"You're crazy too" Tasuki stated.

"How so?"

"Why the hell would you want a piggy back ride anyways? Looks uncomfortable if you ask me"

"It looks fun to me" Jenna shrugged. Tasuki stared at her strangely for a few moments, "You really want one?"

"Sure; maybe I can persuade Kouji to give me one when I get back" Jenna mused.

"Nah; Kouji hates carrying people" Tasuki shook his head. Then he sighed, "Get on"

"What?"

Flushing slightly from her incredulous stare, Tasuki instinctively snapped, "You want a ride or not? Just get on damn it!"

Jenna grinned and leapt onto the bandit's back, "Thanks!"

"Yeah, yeah; just don't rub it in later" Tasuki muttered.

When the two entered the house with Jenna still on Tasuki's back, Holly looked up curiously and rolled her eyes, "Looks like you got one"

"Yep!" Jenna smiled happily.

"You're so childish"

"And you're not?"

"NO!"

Jenna grinned as she got off Tasuki's back, "Thanks for the ride Genrou"

"Yeah, yeah…" Tasuki muttered, looking a bit embarrassed, especially since Kouji had started sending him strange looks that suggested that the blue haired bandit had thought that Tasuki had gotten a personality transplant of some sort.

"What happened?" Jenna suddenly found the need to ask when she saw Nuriko's head resting on Seiriko's lap and Seiriko looking sheepish.

"He…got too tired?" Seiriko said.

"Yet you know, he'll probably end up giving her another ride once she uses those eyes again" Hotohori muttered to Kristen, who nodded and began wondering if Hotohori would give her a ride if she used those eyes…

Two days later, the group had gotten their preparations ready and were setting off from the quiet little town (much to the disappointment of Chiriko) to look for the last Suzaku seishi: Tamahome. It was supposed to a short and quiet journey to the next village over, which took approximately two hours to get there by foot. However, as everyone had learned by now, nothing was ever quiet when a part of this strange group.

They had started off the morning quietly at least, Chichiri thought morosely as he watched the rest of the group make bets on what the last Suzaku seishi would be like.

"I bet he's some kind of cheap bastard"

"No, no; that was the last one. Surely, Suzaku wouldn't make the same mistake again"

"You never know…"

"Well, he's a god; he won't make the same mistake twice"

"He made it once didn't he?"

"True…but…"

Before the conversation could continue anymore, Chiriko thought it was wise to hand out drinks. Drinks spiked with some sleeping herbs compliment of Mitsukake of course. Chichiri sighed gratefully as silence reigned upon the group for the next hour, with only Chiriko and Mitsukake talking quietly somewhere behind him. He kept a watch out for possible enemies that might appear, knowing it was necessary with the many attacks already issued against them. True, most of them were kidnapping, but then there was that demon Yao that Mitsukake had killed. Demons were more of a problem than humans simply because they could attack from anywhere.

The hour went by quickly and soon, the drugged members of their group began to wake up, grumbling about being put to sleep and missing many chances at causing chaos. Chichiri sighed, "Wasn't there a stronger herb?" he asked Mitsukake.

"No; unless you want me to put them in a coma, which would not help"

"I guess not" Chichiri sighed.

He was interrupted from saying more when two horrified screams pierced the air behind them. Two familiar heads of red and black came charging at them, not caring if anyone was in their way. Seiriko had a horrified look in her eyes as she grabbed onto her horse's neck. Kristen screamed at her horse to go faster, "Run, you stupid creature, RUN!"

Seiriko shouted at her horse, "If I see you even trying to get tired, I will personally kill you later – when we get to safety" They rushed past, screaming, "GET AWAY!"

Nuriko blinked, "What's wrong with them?"

Tasuki, however, knew what was going on, as did Kouji. The two got horrified expressions on their faces and Tasuki even began making a dealing of cooperation with his horse for the time being. Kouji turned to the others, "If you value your lives, GET GOING!"

That said from the normally calm bandit got the rest of them urging their horses to gallop as fast as they possibly could, following the four bandits' example. Holly made the mistake of looking behind them and she screamed in terror, "What is that thing?!!!"

For behind them, yelling for them to stop, and rolling along the way, all the while crushing nearby trees at the same time was the most disgusting thing any of them had ever seen. Not including It of course, but most of them had never seen It, so this was the most disgusting thing they had ever seen.

"We have to get away!" Jenna called out.

"Don't you think we know?!" Kristen shouted back. Suddenly, her horse's legs buckled and Kristen muttered a, "Crap" as she was thrown off. Luckily, Hotohori grabbed her as he passed by, placing her firmly on his own horse, "So what is that?"

"It's Miaka" Kristen explained, "She was the former priestess of Suzaku"

"That?" Hotohori asked in absolute disgust.

"We're doomed…" Seiriko muttered, "It's the end of the world as we know it…"

Seiriko floated up high as her horse collapsed on the ground and to her absolute horror, she had the misfortune to look at a nearby tree and was completely shocked to see Taka up in the tree, waving at her. She shuddered, "KRISTEN! I FOUND A WAY TO STOP THE FAT - er…well, she's too fat to be a whore...!"

"HOW!?"

"I FOUND THE CHEAP BASTARD!"

"I THOUGHT HE WAS SACRIFICED?!"

"APPARENTLY NOT!"

"WELL, DO IT NOW!"

Seiriko floated to where Taka was, smirking evilly, "Hello Taka"

"Oh, you, you're here! Help; my wife is out of control!"

"We know" Seiriko remarked dryly, "How can we not when she's trampling everything behind us?"

"Help me! I don't want to get trampled! I have too much money: a whole penny!"

"…don't worry. You'll be perfectly safe" Seiriko said innocently. That was, before she grabbed Taka by his collar and threw the man in the direct path of Miaka. The former priestess squealed happily, "TAKA!"

"Aww, looks like you didn't need my help" a voice said from behind Jenna, causing her to jump as she faced a man with dark green hair and brown eyes, who was wearing – a shade of pink she never knew existed. Oh lord, her eyes…

"Who are you?"

"I'm Tamahome of course" the man said, his symbol flaring to life.

"I…see…well…" Kristen was at a loss of words, trying not to look at the bright clothes of the man.

Taka had joined them, somehow escaping from Miaka's grasp. Kristen glared at him. However, Tamahome was quite happy to see the man, "Why hello!"

"…hello?"

"Hmmm…that's your wife is it?"

"Yes…"

"Well, seeing as your wife is a fat cow, perhaps you'd like to come with me to my – "

"NO!"

"I'm sure you'll change your mind soon enough" Tamahome smiled seductively. Seiriko's eyes were wide as she watched this, "I'm not sure, but I think Tamahome is hitting on Taka…"

"He is…" Kristen said, nodding, "He is…"

"I'm scarred…" Seiriko muttered.

"I think we should turn around and walk away as though nothing happened"

"Agreed"

As the group, as one, walked off quietly – very quietly, due to the fact that they were all quite disturbed – they heard an enraged Tamahome scream, "HANDS OFF YOU FAT COW!"

Yeah...Tamahome's basically a comic relief character in all this. I made him as different from Taka / old Tamahome as I possibly could...and this was a result. Actually, at first he was supposed to be a girl who worked in what would be considered the red light district of a city in Konan, but...this seemed funnier...