Chapter Twelve
"We were lucky, you know. We found two rooms for the night at real short notice." Shishi perched on the windowsill of the small, simply furnished chamber, gazing out at the still busy city streets below.
"And when the landlord realised he was entertaining Shichi Seishi, he put on the meal and board for free. Which means we've still got money to buy food tomorrow if Chichiri makes us ride, rather than hat-hop. All's good in the end, don't you think, Hiki?"
"Not if I have to get on a horse." Hikari shuddered, shaking her head, and Shishi laughed.
"It's cool. You can ride with me. I've been ridin' since I was six." She said glibly. "Aniue taught me how. He said no bandit Kashira's ever goin' to be taken seriously if he – or she – can't manage a horse."
"Well, I don't really want to learn." Hikari admitted.
"You are weird, you know." Shishi reflected, sitting back against the window glass as she contemplated. "One minute you're brave as hell, next you're cowerin' like a wimp an' looking like you're about to throw up. I can't make you out…which are you, Hiki? Coward or heroine?"
"Right now, neither. Just homesick and fed up." Hikari sighed. "That guy…do you think he really did have poison in his arrows, Shishi?"
"Yes." Shishi nodded. "He didn't look like the kind of man who'd lie about something like that."
"No…I suppose not." Hikari shivered. "Sorry. It just shook me some. That's all."
"Well, Kashira an' Chichiri won't let anything happen to you. Jin or me, neither." Shishi said reflectively. "We mightn't be Shichi Seishi, Hiki, but we'll do our best anyhow. Since you are Shinzahou, we gotta do what we gotta do."
"Just because I'm Shinzahou, huh?" Hikari sighed. "I guess that makes sense."
"Now what's bugging you?" Shishi looked startled. "I'm not yellin' at you any more…why the long face about it?"
Hikari didn't answer at first, and frustration flickered in the young bandit's bronze eyes.
"Hiki, will you spit it out already? Sheesh! You drive me crazy when you look like that."
"Why do you call me that, Shishi?"
"Huh?" Shishi was floored, eying her companion in bewilderment. "What now?"
"Hiki." Hikari murmured. "Why do you call me that? I mean…why, all of a sudden?"
"I dunno." Shishi pursed her lips. "Does it bother you that much, if I do?"
"No I…I kind of like it." Hikari admitted. "Noone ever did call me Hiki before. My closest friend back home, she calls me Hikari or Hi-chan. My parents have always called me Hikari. It just…it sounds a little funny, but…nice, too. Like…we're becoming friends, or something."
"Ain't we?" Shishi looked confused. "I thought we were."
"You just said you'd protect me because I'm Shinzahou."
"And?" Shishi demanded. "That means we can't be friends as well? Yeesh, you don't half read crap into things, you know that?"
She scrambled off the sill, casting her companion a resigned grin.
"I was mean to you to begin with, and I'm sorry I was, now." She added. "Because I was jealous you had grabbed Kashira's attention, an' Chichiri's, an' everyone's. Plus I was sneakin' out, when I found you – bringin' you back to the mountain got me yelled at by Okaasan too. I didn't like you much for that, either. But it's different, now. After what happened in Makan, I don't think you're such a wimp any more, not really. An' I know you are Shinzahou – I mean, that Kashira an' Chichiri aren't playin' favourites. So I don't mind, if you want to be friends. It's okay by me."
Hikari's eyes widened, then she grinned.
"Chichiri and Tasuki are kind to me, but they're not my family. Not really." She owned. "I miss my home a lot at the moment. It's nice to have people who I can trust around – I'm sorry if I was monopolising them. I guess…I am selfish, sometimes. I mean, it didn't…I guess I'm trying not to think just about me, at the moment. Because every time I do, and think I want to go home, I remember seeing Meikyo and Eiju dead. And…I can't get past that…that's why I'm still here."
"You really saw it, huh? The end of this world?" Shishi asked gravely, and Hikari nodded.
"Before you found me." She agreed. "It was awful…like a wasteland. Everything was dead, even the trees. It scared me…it still does. Especially finding Chichiri's family and then, realising who they were…"
She spread her hands, and Shishi saw genuine apprehension in her companion's dark eyes.
"I had to try and stop it." She whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "Even if Mum and Dad don't forgive me for not going home. I couldn't let it happen to them…they're so innocent and I just…I couldn't."
"Your Ma is Suzaku no Miko, an' your Pa is Tamahome. If anyone'd understand, it'd be them, right?" Shishi dropped down beside her friend, sending her a rueful grin. "Don't cry, Hiki, please. I don't know what to do with people who weep an' wail."
"I'm trying." Hikari admitted, although Shishi was relieved to see a faint smile touch her companion's lips at this. "I just…if I'd come here without having fought with my family, I don't think I'd feel so bad. As it is…"
"What was it you did that was so bad, anyhow?" Shishi demanded, and Hikari shook her head.
"It doesn't matter."
"It does if it's botherin' you an' makin' you blub." Shishi said bluntly. "Jus' tell me already. I told you it can't be bad as all that…not considerin' who you are, an' all. So tell me. All right? Tell me."
Hikari dropped her gaze.
"I took some money…from my uncle's purse." She murmured, and Shishi's eyes opened wide.
"You're a sneak-thief?"
"Not a very good one." Hikari rubbed her temples. "I didn't mean it as stealing, though I guess I…I know it was. Mother caught me in the act. I was only going to borrow it – I wanted to buy…something and I didn't have any money to do it. And…Arina said…"
"Arina?"
"My best friend, back in my world." Hikari responded. "She said it would be okay – just to borrow it, and pay it back when I had the money. It was…for a party – to buy a dress. For…a guy I liked. I guess…but it was a bad thing to do. And now I feel pretty crap about it, but I can't even tell them so. After that Miramu guy attacked us – what if he gets us before I can go home and tell them? I can really die in this world – can't I?"
"Shit, of course you can. Did you really not realise that?" Shishi stared at her, half-wondering if her new ally was mad. "An' as for your friend, she sounds like a real bitch to me, if she pushed it on you to do somethin' underhand like that. You need better friends, that's for sure."
"But you're a bandit, Shishi." Hikari sent her companion a pensive glance. "Don't you ever feel bad – knowing that your people steal for a living? I mean you say that about Arina, but…"
"It ain't the same." Shishi said firmly. "We don't steal. We take toll. An' the proceeds don't go to us. I mean, we got enough to live on, an' all – but we ain't rich – none of us are. Kashira's real strict about this kind of thing. What we take ain't our money – it goes to the villages hereabouts. Some o' them are real poor, especially in the winter. What we collect helps them survive an' buy food in Souun or from other villages. That's why we do what we do. It ain't for selfish reasons. To cross Reikaku-zan, you gotta pay the toll. So. Anyone who does knows they either pay up willingly or it gets taken by force."
"I see." Hikari seemed to be digesting this. "So in fact, you're like a charity organisation, really – you're providing for those who don't have enough."
"I guess. Whatever that means."
Hikari sighed.
"So I guess you've nothing to feel bad about, then. Do you?"
"Nope." Shishi shook her head. "Reikaku-zan bandits are different from all other bandits, anyhow. The mountain is blessed – it judges you as soon as you step onto it. It reads the kind of person you are – there ain't no hidin' from it. Maybe it's because that relic thing is buried deep down – I don't know. But that's still how it is. We're different."
She held out a hand, grasping her companion's fist in hers.
"But you're sorry you did somethin' so shitty to your uncle now, right?"
"Yes…"
"Then it ain't like you're a real sneak-thief…I'm glad about that." Shishi grinned at her. "Because you don't seem like the thief type to me. You jus' did somethin' stupid, an' that I can believe, because you are kinda stupid, sometimes."
"Shishi!" Hikari protested, but there was a glitter of humour in her dark eyes, and Shishi nodded her head.
"Forget about it till you get home." She said frankly. "But listen. Miramu ain't goin' to kill you. You heard Chichiri – he's interested in Seishi an' I don't think either Kashira or Chichiri will let him get the better of them. So you're safe enough, really. Especially so deep into Kounan. So you will get home, you can explain an' if your folks are like the stories I've always heard, they'll understand. It'll be fine…jus' don't let that friend o' yours talk you into doin' stupid shit in the future, huh? Friends don't land one another in trouble, after all…you better go tell her that, when you get home."
"Maybe." Hikari acknowledged. She sighed.
"I've been here almost a week." She added. "But it feels like forever. Like even if I go back to my world, I don't feel like I did before I left it. Is that stupid?"
"No, guess not." Shishi shook her head. "And hey, at least, when you do go back – your parents will have to believe you. Right? Since they came here too. In fact, they probably know where you are an' it's all all right already. Wouldn't surprise me…Suzaku no Miko's involved, after all, an' she did summon Suzaku."
Hikari bit her lip, but she did not answer, and Shishi eyed her keenly.
"This guy you like – was it worth it?" She asked softly, and Hikari gazed at her in surprise. She shrugged.
"Don't know." She admitted. "He doesn't even know I'm alive. But the stupid thing is, since I came here…I haven't thought about him once. So maybe I don't like him so much as I thought I did. Maybe I was just being silly…I really don't know. Truth is, I've never had a boyfriend before, or even really been interested in guys."
"Me either." Shishi snorted. "It's a waste of time. Okaasan said she was seventeen, when she came to live with Papa on the mountain – but that she was your age when she first decided she loved him. She tells me that in a couple of years I might feel different – but I don't think I will. It's not that I hate boys, or being a girl. I just don't have time for any of it. I'm goin' to be a bandit Kashira one day, an' I can't be wastin' time chasin' stupid romance stories. It just ain't me – it's not the way I am."
"That's sort of refreshing." Hikari admitted. "In my world, there's so much pressure to be that kind of girl. To, you know, have a boyfriend, and look pretty and in fashion and…all those kinds of things. And then there's school and entrance exams and everything else, too. Being a teenager there is hard work – in a totally different way from being one in this world, Shishi. You're the first girl I've ever met who doesn't care about appearance or boys or make-up or all those things. And to begin with I thought it was…weird. But now I'm starting to find I like it that way."
"It's dumb, is all." Shishi shrugged. "You're fifteen. You might live till you're ninety. Why worry about gettin' hitched to someone now? Waste of time an' life, I call it."
"Arina is really pretty." Hikari said sadly. "And next to her I always feel inferior. She's bright and sparky and popular and everyone loves her. In comparison, I'm just…sort of there. So I've always tried to live up to her, and I've never really managed."
She sighed, putting her chin in her hands as she stretched out on the low-slung bed.
"You're really pretty too, you know." She said absently. "But I don't feel the same way about it with you, because you don't care about it either way. You care about different things…and I'm sort of learning that those things are important too. That I'm not 'just there', not in this world. In this world I'm learning how to be something else, and it doesn't matter what I look like or any of that. It's weird to get my head around…but I think it's true."
"You think I'm pretty?" Despite herself, Shishi was startled, and Hikari nodded.
"Yes." She agreed. "And you were right – Shishi is your name, not Karin. You are like a lion cub, just like your father is a wolf."
She glanced at her hands.
"I wish I was able to control this power I supposedly have." She added wistfully. "Then I could be more useful to everyone, couldn't I?"
"Well, you should do what Chichiri said." Shishi recovered herself, offering a grin. "Try and practice. See if you can find his chi. He's not here right now, so see if you can do it."
"But I know where he is."
"So? Then you'll know if you're right or not, won't you?" Shishi pointed out. Hikari sighed, but nodded her head, closing her eyes as she creased her brows in concentration. Despite herself Shishi giggled at the funny expression on her friend's face, and Hikari's eyes snapped open indignantly.
"What?"
"You look like you ate somethin' rotten." Shishi chuckled. "Or smelt somethin' funny, pullin' a face like that."
"Shut up! You'll make me self-conscious!" Hikari objected. "Pipe down, all right? It's not easy. It feels funny enough, trying to do this…I don't even really know what I'm looking for."
"Well, then focus on whatever it was you felt when you knew they were in trouble, in Makan." Shishi suggested. "Can you do that?"
"I can try, I guess." Hikari bit her lip. "It all happened kind of suddenly, but…maybe. If I really…concentrate hard…"
She trailed off, screwing up her face once more, and Shishi smirked, crossing the chamber and dropping down onto her own modest bedcovers as she watched her new friend wrestle with the elusiveness of her Suzaku power. For a moment there was silence, and then the schoolgirl let out a gasp, opening her eyes as she met Shishi's quizzical look with a triumphant one of her own.
"Well?" Shishi arched an eyebrow, and Hikari offered her a grin, nodding her head.
"I did it!" She exclaimed. "It was only faint, and only for a moment…but I could feel where he was. It was like my brain was suddenly engulfed in red light, or something – and in the light I could see…I could see Chichiri. Just about. He was there…just like he was in Makan."
"Red light again, huh?" Shishi pursed her lips. "Oh well. He'll be pleased, anyhow. It means you're starting to use your powers yourself, right? That can't be a bad thing."
"I guess not." Hikari's eyes shone with pride. "So I'll keep practicing, and maybe by the morning I'll be able to sense Tasuki's chi as well!"
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Well, so they were finally back in Kutou.
Hyoushin paused outside the entrance to the throne room, pursing his lips as he considered what might have happened in the palace in his absence. Kintsusei's words about Kikei's agent still echoed in his thoughts and his brow furrowed, inwardly hoping that the decision would not prove costly for Kutou in the long run.
"Hyoushin-sama." The guard on duty bowed his head at the Meihi's approach, and Hyoushin acknowledged it with a slight inclination of his own.
"Kintsusei-sama has retired for the night? Or is he still awake?" He asked softly. "I realise the hour, but I feel I should make report to him on our mission to Hokkan as soon as possible."
"The Emperor is within, Sir." The guard said respectfully. "Shall I tell him that you're here?"
"Yes. Do." Hyoushin nodded. "And...Lord Kikei? Is he also on hand?"
"Lord Kikei has retired, Commander." The guard shook his head, and a flicker of relief stirred in Hyoushin's heart even as he offered the guard an even smile.
"Then I shall save my reunion with him for the morning. No doubt it will keep." He said lightly. "Inform the Emperor of my presence...I won't keep him waiting if I can avoid it."
"Yes, sir. At once, sir."
The guard bowed again, then swung back the door, disappearing inside. A moment later the wood was flung fully back, and Hyoushin stared in surprise as the Emperor himself emerged, relief on his tired features as he hurried to clasp his friend's hands in his.
"Hyoushin! I didn't expect you till the morning at the earliest!"
"The men sensed home was near, and all preferred to keep riding rather than seek shelter so close to the capital." Hyoushin responded, gathering his composure in a moment and shooting his companion a level smile. "I suppose that the lure of familiar surroundings and secure barracks drove them on. And I was eager to make my report to you as soon as possible, my Lord...if it is not too late to be troubling you with such matters."
"No...I wasn't sleeping, anyway." Kintsusei admitted. "I've not been able to, much, since Suiko said that Kounan had custody of the Shinzahou. I can't imagine why they'd want it, except to cause us harm...and we can ill afford another war with the South."
"Indeed not." Hyoushin's expression became grave, as the Emperor led them through the halls to his private study, closing the door behind them. "And that concerns me, also. Either Kounan have learnt of my Lord's attempts to retrieve it, and fear some kind of confrontation is brewing - in which case, we should be very careful, I feel, not to excite their paranoia. After all, in this, history is against us...Kutou were hostile to Kounan once in the past, and they may think a repeat is due."
"And otherwise?"
"Otherwise, they already seek to cause us harm, by taking custody of our Shinzahou." Hyoushin said simply. Kintsusei nodded.
"Yes. Quite."
"My Lord, if I may be so bold to ask..." Hyoushin hesitated, then met his companion's gaze with an impassive one of his own. "Kikei-sama's man that you have dispatched to Kounan - is it the assassin, Geiyo Miramu?"
Shock flickered across the Emperor's expression, and he nodded.
"Yes...why? You know of the man?"
"Unfortunately, I have made his acquaintance on a couple of occasions." Hyoushin's lips thinned. "However, I understood he worked from time to time to suit Lord Kikei's bidding. I did not realise he was also on the Emperor's business. Perhaps that was an oversight of mine."
"No...this is the first time I've entrusted anything to him." Kintsusei admitted. "To be honest, Hyoushin, I have reservations about it, and I can tell by the way you ask that you have some, too. He is...not the kind of man in whom I usually put my faith. But, old friend, as you've so rightly pointed out - relations with Kounan continue to be tentative and strained. I would have sent you, but I don't want you to come to harm and I don't want to excite a conflict with our southern neighbours. Miramu is a man of the West, and Kikei has faith in him to carry out his orders to the letter. There is no direct link to Kutou in his going...and I decided this was a safer strategy."
Hyoushin did not answer, and Kintsusei frowned.
"You don't think so?"
"I don't know." Hyoushin admitted. "And it is not my place to judge the decisions of Emperors."
"Hyoushin, if you've something to say, I'd like you to say it." Kintsusei said softly. "There is noone else here...you don't have to persist in your formality."
Hyoushin pursed his lips.
"Geiyo Miramu is an efficient agent, and he does indeed do as he is bidden." He said at length. "However, he has a certain blood-lust for violence, and he is not averse to killing people who get in his way. I am not a fan of that mentality...nor am I confident that Reizeitei-sama is oblivious enough not to notice if someone slays those who are close to his seat of power."
"I have already told Miramu that I don't want blood spilled in the obtaining of Yui-sama's treasure." Kintsusei assured him. "That he's to retrieve it, but that is all. I think the same way you do...that killing Suzaku's Shichi Seishi would be a problem, if it got traced back to us."
"We have no reason to slay men of the Phoenix." Hyoushin said evenly. "And Miramu's methods are despicable on occasion. He does not fight fair odds, my Lord."
"Meaning?" Kintsusei looked startled, and Hyoushin's lip curled.
"His speciality is an arrow dipped deep in some nefarious poison only he knows the composite for." He said softly. "He is no soldier, but a killer in the night. I do not like how he works...it goes against all you trained me to be, when I first came into your service."
"I'm not totally happy about the nature of his profession, either." Kintsusei acknowledged. "But I'm desperate. And Kikei trusts him."
"That is no surprise to me, my Lord."
"There it is again." Kintsusei glanced at his pale-skinned companion. "Censure in your tones when Kikei's name is mentioned...even though you try to conceal it."
"Well, I imagine Lord Kikei and I are never going to be any closer acquaintances than we are now." Hyoushin said, irony glittering in his amethyst eyes.
"Do you think Miramu will fail, Hyoushin?"
"No, my Lord." Hyoushin shook his head. "I believe he will succeed. I just wonder at the cost of his doing so."
"Well, we'll have to hope for the best." Kintsusei said frankly. "Tell me instead about Hokkan - about what you discovered there."
"Nothing of use, except that Ashitare has not been reborn in any form, human or other." Hyoushin's expression flickered with brief frustration. "And that is all. We travelled to the cave where I believe he was slain by a warrior of Suzaku. One of their own is buried there, protected by a crimson barrier. But there is no Shinzahou, and also, we saw no sign of Suzaku's men while we were there either."
"How could they have got there and found it more quickly than we could?" Kintsusei wondered out loud. "Almost as if they knew...almost as if...as if..."
"As if they had some inside information that we do not?" Hyoushin's eyes narrowed. "Is that possible? Kounan and Kutou were enemies, were they not?"
"Yes." Kintsusei admitted. "And yet...they must have travelled directly to the place they felt it was held. And succeeded, too. They didn't go to Touran, or you'd have seen them. So...they must have known something."
"Are you suggesting that we should be sending a spy into Kounan, my Lord?" Hyoushin asked softly. Kintsusei frowned, then, slowly, he shook his head.
"Let's wait and see what Miramu brings us first." He reflected. "And how easily he manages to get the treasure from the men of the South. Then, maybe, we'll think again on that subject. It might be...necessary, but for now, we won't risk it. The men who are completely loyal are few, and too precious to be easily wasted...and such a mission would be dangerous."
"Yes, my Lord. Indeed it would." Hyoushin's eyes flickered slightly, and he nodded his head. "Very well. As you wish."
"All the men came back with you safely? There were no mishaps on the journey?"
"All are safe and well, Kintsusei-sama." Hyoushin agreed.
"I suppose it was a long shot, sending Aoiketsu with you - I imagine even he had no luck in tracing any clues?"
"No..." Hyoushin shook his head. "At least, he and Maichu did ferret out information when we were in Touran - but in the end it amounted to nothing. Still, I am determined not to give up on him. I feel he has more to give Kutou, yet...if he can only overcome his own sensitivities and harden his resolve in situations of conflict."
"Yes, I agree with you." Kintsusei nodded his head. "And we did promise Lady Ruiren to do that by her son. That we'd make him a soldier, and have him fight to defend Kutou against enemies."
"He is still curious." Hyoushin admitted. "Before our trip, I caught him at Ruiren-sama's grave. I do not think divulging everything to him a wise course of action - but if he continues to ask questions - if he continues to push for the truth - he may learn more than we anticipate."
"Perhaps, in the end, it is his destiny to know." Kintsusei reflected. "But for now there is no sense in heaping such things on the head of such a young soldier. He has to prove himself as Kaiga Aoiketsu first...isn't that how your line of thought goes?"
"Indeed." Hyoushin inclined his head in agreement. "And I do believe he will do so. He just needs a little more time...that's all."
"Time we may not have." Kintsusei admitted. "But where he's concerned, I've always followed your counsel. And I will continue to do so, Hyoushin."
He sighed.
"I am glad to have you home." He added. "Even with things so uncertain."
"I confess, I was not sorry to leave Hokkan, either." Hyoushin admitted, a faint memory of the mountain Meihi drifting across his thoughts. "And I shall endeavour to put faith in Miramu, as my Emperor has done so. If he can retrieve the Shinzahou without taking us to war...so much the better for Kutou, after all."
"Yes." Kintsusei looked troubled. "Let's hope so. We have enough of a war here already without adding further parties to the equation!"