Chapter Six

For a moment, Tasuki faltered, his eyes not leaving the strange, surreal figure that sat erect atop his white steed. Then his eyes narrowed, and he gripped the tessen more tightly as he prepared to wield it over his head.

"You bastard!" He yelled, as sparks began to fly from the edges of the metal. "Impersonating my friend and burning down my village!? I'll make you pay, you demon - I'll make you pay!"

"Tasuki, no!"

Before Tasuki could react, Chichiri pulled his own horse in front of his friend, holding up his hands. "Don't use the tessen - not here! There's already enough fire and panic - we need to help the people, not create more!"

"But that guy...that demon...my village is..." Tasuki swallowed hard, the tears on his cheeks no longer all caused by the sting of smoke, and Chichiri's expression became grave.

"We need to help the villagers." He said again. "This isn't the time for random revenge - this whole village is going to be ash before long and people might get hurt!"

"People?" Fear flickered in Tasuki's bronze eyes at this and he glanced around him frantically. "My parents! Aidou! They're here somewhere! What if...?"

He trailed off, and Chichiri's frown deepened, as he carefully dismounted from his horse. As soon as the beast's reins were loosed, the creature gave a terrified neigh, bolting for the safety of the woodland beyond, and Chichiri watched it go, a troubled look in his ruby eye.

"We're better off on foot. Your horse will bolt too, if you try and take it any nearer to the flames." He said, grabbing the reins of the bandit's steed even as the beast threatened to rear up. "Tasuki, get a hold of yourself. We'll find your family...just get down from there, and that's what we'll do. Okay? Someone needs to get a hold of this place and organise a way of putting out the fire - we're Suzaku's warriors and we have to help the people of Kounan, no matter what!"

This seemed to penetrate Tasuki's daze and he nodded, leaping down from his horse with a thud as he slid the tessen back into it's holder. He turned his gaze on the man on horseback, resentment glittering in his eyes.

"To impersonate a Shichi Seishi ain't a cool thing to do, but to do it to do something like this..." He muttered, clenching his fists as his character burned brightly on his right forearm. "You do something about the villagers, Chichiri. Find my family - my sister, my parents. I'm going to have some words with the demon here - before he sets fire to anyone else."

"Can't you feel it?" Chichiri grabbed him back, shaking his head. "That's not a demon. At least, right now, it's not."

"But..." Tasuki faltered, casting his friend a bewildered glance, and slowly Chichiri nodded.

"That's his Highness." He said softly.

"No way!" Tasuki shook his head firmly. "That ain't Hotohori-sama! He's such a quiet, gentle kinda guy - he ain't the sort of man to go burning down villages on a random whim!"

"I'm sure it's not a random whim...and I can't explain what's going on." Chichiri said helplessly. "But...it's still him, Tasuki. It's his chi. Don't you sense it, this close? The character on his neck - I can see it from here. It's flaring with energy- the same kind of energy as came out of my kasa on the mountainside. Something's really wrong with him, true, but it's still Hotohori-sama."

"I don't believe it." Tasuki whitened. "His Highness...did all this?"

Chichiri nodded.

"Right now, that's not the important thing." He returned. "People could be hurt - Tasuki, put it out of your mind and help me stop the fire!"

"Right." Tasuki shook his head as if to clear it, glancing around him for some kind of inspiration. "How are we gonna do that? The nearest river's a good fifteen minutes trek away into the hills and my tessen ain't exactly any use to me in this situation, like you said. Can you put a barrier up? Something? Can't you use your powers at all?"

As the words left his mouth, the figure on the horse turned to face them, lifting his sword as he arced it down in a purposeful swing. Bright red flame flared from the blade, coursing across the ground towards them, and Chichiri muttered a curse, bringing his fingers up sharply as he rebounded the fire and diffused it's flare into harmless ash.

"That was close." He reflected. "All right. If Anzu's got to Kouji, your men should be here soon, too. I hope. Meanwhile, I'm going to try and pull a barrier over this place and stamp out the flames. My powers still aren't fully recovered from before, but I'll do my best. You worry about getting villagers out of the centre of this - I can't guarantee that buildings won't fall down even if I do put the fire out somehow."

"Got you." Tasuki nodded grimly, darting into the midst of the swirling villagers and pulling off his jacket, tossing it down onto the burning remains of an old cart. As it smouldered out, he gathered himself, leaping up on top of the half-charred contraption as he sought to gain people's attention.

"Listen to me, you bunch of squealing idiots, you're gonna get yourself killed if you hang around here!" He exclaimed. "Get out of the village, dammit, and go now!"

At the sound of his voice, some of the frightened villagers stopped in their panic and turned to face him, awe and recognition flickering across their faces as they absorbed the speaker. In the darkness, with his profile illuminated by the flare of the flames and the red wings character blazing on his forearm, Tasuki really did appear sent from the heavens to help them, and a couple of people pushed their hands together in desperate prayers of thanksgiving. Tasuki frowned, grabbing the tessen from his back and bringing it down hard against the edge of a nearby wall.

"Are you listening to me!?" He yelled. "Get the hell out! Go that way - towards the mountain path! Reikaku-zan is right ahead - you can get help there. But don't stay here, you bunch of morons. Get going!"

He hit the tessen against the building again, sending chips of plaster and stone cascading to the ground, and this was all the incentive the already jumpy villagers needed to react. As if running from the fire of a loaded pistol, as one person they fled in the direction Tasuki had indicated, and the bandit sighed, biting his lip as he judged whether or not they would make it out of the settlement before the buildings around them started to come to the ground.

"I damn well hope Kouji's on his way." He muttered, even as he leapt down from his perch, turning to scan the landscape for Chichiri. "We can't do this on our own, even with Chichiri's powers."

As he located the monk, he realised that Chichiri's magic was having some, if limited progress against the blaze, stifling the air and providing blocks between the burning buildings as the flames slowly began to die out. The figure on horseback had not given up, however, and as he brought his sword down again, Tasuki let out a yell, darting forward with his tessen outstretched as he deflected the flare back towards the other man. Chichiri, who had been entirely focused on his task turned at the last minute, but it was too late for him to put up any kind of a boundary, and as Tasuki fell hard onto the dusty, charred ground, the monk hurried to his side.

"Tasuki? Are you all right?"

"Don't ask me that, you moron. I just stopped you from getting frittered." Tasuki pulled himself into a sitting position, as the figure on the horse raised his sword for another try. "But we need to do something about that guy, Chichiri. Hotohori-sama or not, we do. It's takin' all your focus to stop this place from being totally torched, and the fire could still spread into other places if we don't get it under control. Soon as we put something out, though, he's going to use that cursed sword and set light to another bunch of stuff. It's sort of a problem."

"Cursed sword..." Chichiri's eyes widened as his companion's words sank in, and he nodded, getting to his feet.

"You're right." He agreed. "Hotohori's sword is acting completely contrary to the way it's meant to act. It's spewing fire like your tessen, but it's not normal fire. It's like the light we saw before, like blood. Like the two things are connected, and they probably are. Hotohori-sama was the Emperor of Kounan, after all...it's almost like he's become an antithesis of the God he was created to serve...at least, that's what it seems like to me."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tasuki grimaced. "While you're theorising and philosophising, he's going to blaze this place to pieces!"

Chichiri pursed his lips, eying the sinister figure of the former Emperor thoughtfully for a moment. Then he brought his hands up before his face, closing his eyes as he muttered an incantation. As he thrust out his hand towards the figure on horseback, a flare of pure energy shot across the landscape, hitting the man square in the chest and knocking him bodily from his horse, sending the sword clattering across the ground.

"I thought we weren't gonna hurt him?" Tasuki objected, and Chichiri shook his head.

"I didn't. I just..." He paused, gesturing towards the figure who stumbled to get up, putting a hand to his head as if waking from some dark, tormented dream. The monk took a few steps forward, but faltered as the former Emperor raised his head, doubt and anguish flaring in his normally gentle eyes. He fumbled for the sword, but even as his fingers closed around the blade, his entire form flickered and disappeared, and the white horse, no longer guarded by the strange spell his rider had been under reared up, bolting into the night in the direction Chichiri's own horse had taken.

"He's gone." Tasuki stated the obvious, getting to his feet and moving to the patch of unburnt earth where the horse had stood. "What the hell was that, Chichiri? What the hell is going on?"

"Genrou!" Before Chichiri could answer, Kouji's voice came out of the darkness, and both warriors turned to see the Reikaku-zan number two, a gathering of men in tow. Anzu, wrapped in her cloak and with her eyes big and fearful at the chaos was also there, but Tasuki's attention was more caught by the fact the bandits had not come unprepared. Each of them bore a vessel containing water from the mountain river, and at a flick of Kouji's fingers, they began to spread out across the still flaming village, dispersing their burdens in an attempt to quiet the fire.

"Just in the nick of time, as ever." Genrou offered his friend an unsteady smile. "Good thinkin'. I owe ya."

"Anzu said she thought it was fire, and we could see it from the slopes." Kouji said quietly. "Sorry it took so long, but we figured we were better comin' prepared."

"No, you did right. I'm glad." Genrou nodded. "But this place is a mess. Still, at least it won't spread into the mountains now, or the other villages...that's something, right?"

"Genrou...what about your family?" Kouji asked hesitantly. Genrou faltered, then bit his lip.

"Don't know." He admitted slowly. "I chased a bunch of villagers outta the place, before things got worse than they were. But I don't know if anyone is still here. Or...anything else. We were kind of preoccupied with the fire and everything...I haven't had a chance to think about it."

"Shun'u?"

A faltering voice from behind them made both the bandits turn, and Tasuki's heart skipped a beat as he registered the pitiful figure that stood before him. Wrapped in a soot-spattered cloak, her cheeks wet with tears and her long thick hair flowing loose and messy over her shoulders, for the first time in his life the bandit almost did not recognise his older sister. She stepped forward, stumbling slightly, and almost instinctively Tasuki hurried to catch her, slipping an arm around her shoulders as he hauled her to her feet.

"Aidou." He murmured. "Dammit, are you...are you all right?"

"I am." Aidou raised uncharacteristically empty eyes to her brother. "I...I was coming to find you. Mother said...get Shun'u, he...he should come and protect...protect the family. But there was so much smoke and it was so confusing, I couldn't s...see..."

She coughed, and Tasuki bit his lip, registering the fact that his companion had inhaled a fair bit of the smoke as she had made her way through the village. "I didn't think I could make it to the mountain. But you...you are here. So I guess Mother was right. You did come to protect us, after all."

"Damn right I did." Tasuki said firmly. "Where are Ma and Pa, anyway? Did they get out all right?"

Aidou shrugged her shoulders.

"They were still at the farm when I...left." She admitted chokily. "Somethin' fell on Pa's leg and Ma wouldn't leave him. So I came...on my own."

"Genrou?" Anzu stepped forward at this moment, uncertainty in her expression, but Tasuki wheeled on her, impatience in his gaze.

"Get out of my way, will you? I haven't got time for you right now." He snapped, his tones unusually harsh. "Kouji? Chichiri? I'm going back to my parents' house. Aidou got out, but Ma and Pa haven't."

"What about your other sisters, Aidou-san? Are they in trouble, too?" Chichiri asked, as Anzu bit her lip, flinching at the redhead's terse words. It was Aidou who shook her head this time, however, swallowing hard as she sought to regain her usual steely composure.

"My sisters...are all married now." She said unsteadily. They live in...neighbouring villages, since the war. It's just me...and Ma...and Pa at home. Now Shun'u...is away."

"Well, Shun'u ain't away right now. So let's get going." Tasuki said sharply. "Kouji, make sure the fires are put out here, okay? And take care of Aidou for me, too, huh? No sense her going back into danger if the farm is still blazin'. This battle ain't a place for a woman, and she'll just get in my way. Chichiri, will you come with me? I might need your help."

"I'm already with you, you know." Chichiri said gravely. "Lead the way - I'm right behind you."

Tasuki relinquished his grip on his still shuddering sister, and Kouji immediately stepped forward, slipping his own night cloak from his shoulders as he wrapped it over the top of the shivering young woman.

"Genrou'll see things okay." he said quietly. "Hey, Anzu, make yourself useful and come look after Aidou, huh? You're a woman, right? Girls are always better at that kind of thing than guys."

"Huh?" Anzu started, staring at him in confusion, and Kouji gestured to his traumatised burden.

"Come look after Aidou." He repeated. "If you wanna do something for Genrou, then come do this, okay? I'm going to help put out the fire, and that ain't no place for a girl, just like the kashira said."

Anzu hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head slowly, and Tasuki, seeing that his sister was all right grabbed Chichiri roughly by the arm, pulling him in the direction of the Kou family farmstead. The blaze had burned itself out by this time, thanks to Chichiri's barriers, but even as they reached it, however, it was clear that the flames had torn through the buildings with little mercy. Tasuki faltered, swearing profusely under his breath as he registered the devastation.

"Could anyone have survived that?" He asked softly. Chichiri's brows knitted together, then he nodded.

"There's life inside. Two distinct signals." He agreed. "I think your parents made it through, Tasuki, but they probably need our help. If your father was hurt..."

"Don't have to tell me twice." At this, Tasuki was galvanised once more into action, pushing aside scorched timbers and blackened thatching as he forced his way into the property. "Which direction are they, Chichiri? You can feel these things stronger than me - and the whole building might come down on them at this rate!"

"To your left. A little further along." Chichiri flung out an arm to indicate, and Tasuki nodded grimly, obediently changing direction.

"I still can't believe Hotohori'd do something like this. No matter whether his sword was cursed or what." He said frankly, as between them the two men shoved aside fallen debris to reach the room in which Chichiri still sensed the life forces of two people. "It don't make a bit of sense."

"I know." Chichiri acknowledged. "And I'm not sure that his sword was the reason, really. It's just..."

"But you said..."

"I know." Chichiri slipped his fingers between a slat in the wall timbers, forcing the broken beam aside. "But it was more that the flame it was giving off was like the power that came out of my hat. Taiitsukun gave Hotohori that sword and Taiitsukun's home is...not right, right now. That was the connection I was making."

"When he fell off his horse, he looked...confused. Like he wasn't sure where he was." Tasuki grunted as he lifted a particularly awkward slab of stone. "Dammit, this place is worse than I thought. You're sure they're still alive in here, Chichiri? You're certain?"

"One hundred percent, you know." Chichiri agreed. "They're not far ahead, now. We're almost there - so be careful where you're throwing things, okay? You don't want to accidentally bring the roof down on them. Looks to me that they sheltered in the strongest room in the place, which just goes to show that your parents have more lateral thinking than you do, you know?"

"Shut up. This ain't a time for joking." Tasuki said grimly. "As for his Highness, is this gonna happen again? Should we be lookin' for him, or what?"

"I think we should, and Nuriko, too." Chichiri admitted. "When we've seen to this place, of course. Your family and the people here come first - we'll work out what to do about Hotohori-sama once it's certain that everyone is safe."

"Nuriko again." Tasuki frowned. "Do you think he's gone mad and stuff, too? Settin' fire to villages or something else crazy?"

"No, it's not that." Chichiri's expression became thoughtful. "I just think we should. The look on his Highness's face...the determination when he wielded his sword at us. I've only seen him look that intense when flying into battle. I wonder, you know...whether he really knew we were here at all. Or if...if he was...well...dreaming."

"Sleep-arson?" Tasuki exclaimed, dropping the slab he had been moving and narrowly missing Chichiri's toes as he did so. "Are you kidding me? Are you seriously suggesting a dead dude went on a rampage in my village because he was having a bad dream?"

"I guess we'll find out when we find him." Chichiri shrugged. "But you're right, his expression did change. His chi didn't, though. It was still him, but...not entirely him. Nuriko's was the same. Him, but not entirely. It's sort of strange, really."

"Well, right now we do as you say. We save this village and make sure noone else gets to attackin' it." Tasuki said smartly. "Then we'll worry about Hotohori and Nuriko and what else is going on. If this is Taiitsukun's fault, I'll be having words to say about it, I'm telling you - noone flames my village and gets away with it. Someone is going to pay for this big time - you have my word on that."

-------

"Are...are you feeling better now?"

Anzu sat hesitantly down beside her companion, casting her a doubtful look as she settled herself more comfortably on the remains of Tasuki's charred cart. Back in the scorched centre of the village, Kouji and his bandit companions had brought the blaze under control, and now that the hot light and warmth of the fire had abated, it was clear exactly how much devastation the raid had caused. Few, if any buildings still stood unmarred, and the entire settlement was caked in black ash, sodden and trampled as the men had gone about their work. They had operated a tireless system of fire-fighting and water fetching, and even though several of them had been sweating from exertion by the end of it, Kouji had kept them at it, his expression resolute as he worked to prevent an outbreak of fire across the other mountain villages. His own face was smeared with soot and sweat, and Anzu had been struck by the dedication with which the bandits all adhered without question or complaint to Tasuki's firm, sharp orders. She sighed, rubbing her temples as she remembered how snappish he had been to her.

"I'll be all right." Aidou spoke now, startling her out of her thoughts, and she turned to glance at the other woman, taking in her features carefully in the moonlight. "Are you one of Shun'u's bandits, then? I didn't think he liked women around. He certainly never has any manners dealing with 'em, that's for sure."

"I...I guess...sort of." Anzu faltered, realising that despite her words she didn't wholly know what she was. "I mean, I was a circus performer, but since my sister died I...I guess I've come here. So...yes. I suppose that is what I am."

She stopped, swallowing hard, then,

"Did Genrou say...are you his sister?"

Aidou nodded, offering her companion a droll smile.

"Genrou." She echoed derisively. "Such a stupid name."

"I...I'm sorry. It's just..."

"It's all right. It's not your brain that cooked it up." Aidou shrugged her shoulders. "And yes, to answer your question. Shun'u's my younger brother...not that he's ever been attentive where the family's concerned. He's always been the kind to slack off - stare at the hills instead of gettin' down to work an' doin' his share. Still...still tonight..."

She trailed off, uttering a sigh.

"If he'd been at home, tonight, it might have been different." She reflected. "But he still came, when he knew there was trouble. So I guess...at least he did one thing right, didn't he? Just...if he took his responsibilities seriously..."

"Genrou risked his life to fight the fire here, and he risked the lives of Kouji and the others as well." Anzu responded hotly. "He isn't a flake, you know - he came to help his village and he's gone to rescue your parents, right now! You should be grateful to him for coming at all!"

Aidou's eyes flickered slightly at this, and Anzu flushed, realising how rude her words had sounded.

"I...I'm sorry." She said apologetically, holding up her hands. "I don't have any right to speak to you like that. Especially not right at the moment."

"You like my brother, then?" Aidou tilted her head on one side. "Is that true? Is that why you're really with these bandit rogues of his - because you seek my brother's favour in all of this?"

"I..." Anzu reddened further, and Aidou offered a slight, cynical smile.

"Shun'u doesn't like women." She said softly. "He's always been that way, since I can remember. He seems to think that we smothered him - and damn it, we made him do his share of the work. But he was the only boy of the house, so he kinda took it resentfully...like he was special, or something. Anyhow, he ran away when he was fifteen and he's only come back spasmodically since then. Livin' in the mountains with a bunch of men like they're playin' hunting games around the trees...he's still a boy, my younger brother. You'll be waiting a long time, if that's your game...you'd do better to give up and go back to your circus. Shun'u isn't ever going to notice you, and you know, you're pretty enough that you shouldn't be hanging around waiting for him to, either."

"I didn't even know his name, before tonight." Anzu sighed, glancing at her hands. "I mean, I knew...I knew he was Genrou. And that he was Tasuki, of the Suzaku Shichi Seishi. But you called him Shun'u - I didn't even think about the fact he had a real name and a...a family, outside of the bandits. He mentions his sisters, sometimes, but even so...I didn't think about you...being real."

She sighed.

"The way he blazed down here, when he knew you were in trouble." She murmured absently. "He really cares about all of you - I never saw that side of him before."

"Sure. He cares." Aidou's lips twitched into an empty smile. "He's a lazy, good-for-nothing layabout when he chooses, but his heart, I guess, is in the right place. He was raised by women, after all, even if he likes to call himself a man. Couldn't possibly grow up without some sense of human feeling in him, even if he is the most stupid boy the village has ever spawned."

Anzu gazed at her older companion, taking in her demeanour carefully for a moment as she digested the other's words. Then she smiled slightly, a look of understanding in her eyes.

"You love your brother a lot too, I think." She said reflectively. "I understand that...I loved my sister a lot, too. Even now she's not here, I still do. So I guess, even when Gen...when Shun'u decided to go to the mountains, you still loved him. And he came to rescue you tonight, so he still cared what happened to you. There was only just my sister and I, though. It must've been more difficult for your family, with so many of you."

"I have three sisters." Aidou agreed. "But in the last eighteen months, they've all found husbands and settled away from home. Now's the time when Mother and Father most needed Shun'u's help around the farm, but instead he's away playing drinking games with his buddies up on Reikaku-zan. It's not surprising, knowing the boy, but...when this happened..."

She shook her head.

"He should have been here." She said firmly. "He's unmarried, and he's the youngest, and his duty is to protect us before any stupid bandit army. Suzaku's work, that's one thing. We couldn't escape that, when the mark appeared on his arm. But this whole thing tonight...if he'd been here..."

She faltered, eying her companion speculatively.

"I'm serious, when I say you shouldn't hold out your hopes for him." She added. "Shun'u will never fully grow up, or accept responsibility in any real way. You'd do better finding a more level kind of man to make your future with. Shun'u will more likely get you killed than make you happy - if he even bothers to notice that you're there. You can't be so very old yet, can you? You don't look older than he is, so you must have prospects yet."

"I'm seventeen." Anzu flushed again, not liking how easily this woman made her feel inadequate and out of place. "And Genrou's nineteen, so...so it's not that big a gap."

"Seventeen is a good age to find a husband." Aidou said pensively. "But you won't find one, hanging around on bandit mountain with my little brother."

"Aidou-san, can I ask...how old you are?" Anzu asked falteringly. Aidou pursed her lips, then she shrugged.

"Twenty four this spring." She admitted. "Most women my age are either wed or bound to their families - I'm probably the latter. With Shun'u not taking responsibility, someone has to. I probably won't be finding a husband now anyway - I'm too old. So you should listen to me, while you're not. Else you'll wind up alone and miserable - and cursing my brother for breaking your heart too, most likely. That's what those fighting types do, in the end, one way or another. We've tried to bang sense into Shun'u's stonewall skull, but it hasn't seemed to work any. So I'll counsel you instead - if you really want to be happy or secure in life, leave my brother alone. He and his kind - they won't make you happy. Take it as advice from one woman to another...it just won't work."

Anzu frowned, uncertain what to say, and silence elapsed between them for a few moments. Then the young acrobat summoned her courage, sending the older woman a sidelong glance.

"You know, he'll rescue them all right. Your parents." She said softly. "Genrou, I mean. He'll do it."

"Yeah, I know he will." Aidou said evenly. "He's always the hero of the hour when it involves last minute heroics. I know he and that monk friend of his will save them, and because of that, I'm not worried. Not any more. But the farm...everything else...our livelihoods. Those can't be saved so easily. Our crops, our produce, our survival for the next few months. All of that is gone. This village is destroyed. Whether people come back or they don't, I have no idea. Even if Shun'u can rescue Ma and Pa, it doesn't mean he's saved everything. You're looking at things idealistically, but it's not so simple as that."

Anzu frowned, casting her gaze around the fire-torn village as she realised her companion was right. Slowly she nodded.

"I see what you mean." She admitted. "But...there must be something that can be done."

"What's the point in even trying?" Aidou spread her hands helplessly. "There are no more crops, so there's nothing to sell at market. There's no food, and there will be no new ones grown. There'll be no money to buy the things we need. Even without this, it's not easy, scraping a living in a place like this. Now the farm and everything is gone...it'll be damn impossible. Suzaku might be able to rise from the ashes, girl, but real people - it's not so easy. This village is dead - it was dead before the second building set ablaze."

She jerked her hand in the direction of Kouji and his bandit companions.

"Those men, they aren't fighting to save this village." She added. "They're working to save the neighbouring ones, and the mountain slopes. They know as well as I do that this one's destroyed. You can't rebuild when it's like this. Since the war with Kutou, there's been no devastation as awful as this anywhere in Kounan, I'd bet my life on it. And then, at least, when it was war, well, when things were settled, there was money given by the Imperial House to help pay for the damages. But this ain't a product of war. This is our own bad luck. In this situation, every family has a struggle to survive. At times like that, everyone counts. Shun'u should've been here before this. If he had been, maybe this place wouldn't have fallen quite so easily."

"You shouldn't blame Genrou because he wasn't here when the fire began." Anzu shook her head. "It's not his fault this happened, Aidou-san. And he's doing his best."

"Yeah, I'm sure that he is." Aidou sighed. "And there are limits to what he can do, I realise that. But..."

She lapsed back into silence, and Anzu found she had nothing she could say.

"Kouji told me to look after her, but she doesn't seem to be ill or shaken as much as he thought." She mused. "At least, she's angry about her village but...her focus...she seems a strong person, not a weak one. Someone who survives, not someone who's easily a victim. She's so critical of Genrou, too, though - is that why he chose to live so far from home? And yet, he loves his family, sure enough. And I think...I think she loves him too. I just...I can't make her out. She doesn't look like him - not really. But there's something just as stubborn and frustrating about her as there is about him."

She tilted her head, eying the girl again, and taking in her features more carefully as she hunted for a family resemblance. Aidou's hair was a shade or two darker, cascading in a tousled mess around her shoulders that reminded her of Genrou's own wild, rampant locks. Her complexion was fair, if touched by working outside in the sun, and her features well-defined, although Anzu fell short of calling her beautiful. There was something both delicate and determined in her expression, and somehow Anzu felt that if Genrou was the wolf, his sister was the mountain lion, for it seemed certain that very little would get past her focused, almost predatorial gaze. She was more slightly built than her brawny younger brother, and yet Anzu realised that it would not be hard to be intimidated by her, for now that the initial shock of the fire had subsided, she was fast resuming her normal, sturdy demeanour. The fingers that folded absently in her lap were delicately proportioned, yet calloused and rough at the tips from hard work, and Anzu smiled slightly, realising that this summed up the contradiction that was Genrou's older sister.

"She's not one thing nor the other. She might be a girl, and she might not be muscled or well built, but she's strong and you wouldn't cross her." She reflected ruefully. "I guess if Genrou is scared of her...I can see why. Strikes me that she'd be a hard taskmaster - a difficult person to please."

At that moment, there was a sudden fleeting shadow above their heads, as Chichiri's kasa appeared in the sky, the monk and his companion re-materialising on the ground. With them were Tasuki's parents, his substantially built mother wrapped in Chichiri's kesa and his father, a thin, pathetic specimen of a man clutching tightly to his son's shirt as the bandit laid him gently down on the ground. Blood soaked through the leg of the old farmer's clothing, but aside from this, he did not seem to be seriously hurt, and Anzu let out an inward sigh of relief.

"Guess it's working now, you know." Chichiri caught his hat, gazing at it pensively for a moment before putting it back on his head. "Good to know."

"Everything's gone." Tasuki glanced around him, as, now that the panic was over, he truly absorbed the state of the village where he had spent his early years. At his words, Aidou got to her feet, cuffing him smartly across the back of the head.

"Don't just stand there, staring at it." She snapped. "Are you just going to leave Father in the middle of the street like that? And what about the other villagers? Now you've done your saving the world routine, do you think maybe you can stop and think a little bit about your family and what you're going to do now?"

"Hey, leave off!" Tasuki put up his hands to prevent another attack. "Aidou, get a grip, would ya? Chichiri and I, and Kouji and the boys, we've just put the damn fire out already. I just ploughed through feet of rubble to rescue Ma and Pa and what happens? First she hits me for taking so long to get there and now you're goin' at me too! Dammit, woman, can't you even take a break for a moment?"

"Tasuki." Chichiri rested a hand on his friend's shoulder, gesturing to the remains of the village with his other arm. "This is a lot of people's homes, right here. I guess you can understand...why Aidou-san is upset."

"Damn, I understand. I understand, okay? I'm not completely stupid." Tasuki muttered, running his fingers through his thick red hair. "I get it. I get it! The village is mashed. But what, exactly, do you think I can do about it? I can't wave my damn tessen and make everything go back to how it was before."

He happened to catch his mother's eye at this, and Anzu observed with detached amusement that he took a hurried step back, almost as if he expected the woman to scold him for his petulant attitude. He grimaced, gazing up at the sky.

"I guess, if there are still people hangin' around here, we'd better take them to the mountain." He said at length. "Kouji! Hey! Are there any other people still in the village? Did you find anyone else who needs our help?!"

"I'm guessing everyone fled at the sight of flames." Kouji called back, brushing the dust from his hands as he shook his head. "But there were people gatherin' at the foot of the mountain, when we came down. I sent some of the men to take care of them - I figured you'd want to bring them back to the base, if there wasn't any other way. Bein' that it's your village an' all - I guessed that's what you'd do."

Tasuki's face cleared, and he nodded his head.

"Right. Then we go back to Reikaku-zan." He said slowly. "Chichiri, tomorrow, you an' I, we're gonna get to the bottom of this. We're gonna track down Hotohori, if we can, an' we're gonna see that no other villages get burnt to a cinder because of whatever's goin' on on Taikyoku-zan. Okay?"

"I think that would be the best idea." Chichiri agreed soberly. "But what about your family? Your father's hurt, and your farm..."

Tasuki cast a brief glance back in the direction of the farm, then shrugged.

"The place is busted." He said bluntly. "There's no point in sticking around here to watch it rot. And while we're lookin' for Hotohori, we can look for Mitsukake, too. I don't think Pa's leg is too bad, but I think it is broken. Maybe if we can find him, it'll be a quicker fix than hangin' around on Reikaku-zan."

"Go up the mountain? With your bandits?" Aidou looked disturbed, and Tasuki grimaced at her.

"Oneechan, there ain't anywhere else for you to go." He said frankly. "I wouldn't worry about it, if you think any of the guys would try it on with you. Believe me, they're not blind, or stupid!"

"Ouch." Anzu winced internally at this remark, and Aidou, who had more than recovered from her shock, was just as quick to react, bringing her hand down hard against the back of his head once more.

"You shut your face." She ordered. "Fine. We're coming up the mountain. Now bring Pa and stop acting like someone just crashed your house party, okay? It's about time you did something with your family in mind for once - if we're going, let's get going!"

"Geez." Tasuki grumbled under his breath, but he did as he was bidden, scooping his father up in his arms once more as he turned to meet Kouji's amused gaze with a rueful one of his own.

"Right. Reikaku-zan." He said simply. "Any stragglers we meet on the way, bring 'em too. At least for tonight. Tomorrow...we'll see how things are. But right now, I've had my fill of this place for one evening. It's gettin' late and there's nothing more we can do here. Let's go."

Random Babble:

I haven't footnoted Kou Aidou, but it just occurred to me that although she appears in the manga, her name there is different, because it's the Chinese version. I think it's Ai Tong or something like that – I can't remember without digging through my books for the right one. Either way, she's Tasuki's sister from the manga, in case anyone is confused. Aidou is just the Japanese reading of her name