Sorry the chapters are rather late nowadays, I seem to keep getting distracted by writing other stuff and video games and the revision that I should be doing...

And sorry Ammy but it looks like you're gonna have to go another chapter before we find out what happens to you because this is Waka's chapter mk.

And lookie here, there was almost a titledrop of the previous story again. I can't see any way for me to accidentally make a titledrop to this story though so the fourth wall is safe for now.

"Geez, these guys just don't give up, do they?" Kazuki tutted as the two of them raced through the halls of the castle. Both his scarf and the right sleeve of his kimono streamed out behind him as he ran and it was a miracle they didn't get caught on anything. "At least they run slow."

"If you carried around half a ton of weapons, you wouldn't be able to run fast either," Waka muttered. He was only half-listening to Kazuki, still trying to remember how to find the way out of here.

"It's a good thing they do. If we can outrun them we don't have to fight."

That was a good point. Waka didn't know what was causing the guards to think they were demons, but he had the feeling that it wasn't of their own will. The city's guards weren't usually so judgemental. They were often wary of strangers – that was their job – but they wouldn't outright attack someone for no reason without there being some proof of them being a threat first. He didn't know what had caused them to imprison Kazuki, but Waka had the feeling it was probably under similar circumstances.

But still, if these guards were being manipulated by something, it wasn't their fault. If possible Waka wanted to avoid fighting them so that nobody would get hurt.

Eventually Waka saw a wall up ahead. This was where the corridor looped around and where the lift was, and slightly beyond that was the entrance of the palace.

"The way out is just ahead," he said plainly.

"Oh, finally!" Kazuki sighed with relief. "So sick of this place."

"Look out! The prisoners are escaping!" one of the guards shouted from further back along the room.

Oh great, Waka thought as he realised what this meant. "There are more guards up ahead. Don't fight them unless you have to, just try and get away."

"That's what I was intending to do in the first place," Kaz muttered.

As they reached the end of the corridor, two more guards appeared. They were clearly about to attempt to block the path but didn't arrive in time.

"Excusez-moi!" Waka said pointedly as they raced past.

"You idiots!" the guard behind them snapped. "Don't let them get away!"

They burst out into the sunlight, leaving the guards behind in the palace.

"Freedom!" Kazuki shouted.

"No time to celebrate just yet," Waka reminded him. "We still have to escape. The guards probably won't give up chasing us until we reach the edge of the ci—"

He quickly had to dodge aside as a blade slashed just inches from his arm. The newest guards were younger than the others and carried much lighter weapons, so they could run faster and had caught up with them already. They had to escape from here as quickly as possible. Maybe these guards wouldn't be much of a threat but if they stopped to fight them the others would catch up and they'd be vastly outnumbered.

"Okay, point taken," Kazuki said quickly, running faster to avoid the guards. "Not to be the bearer of obvious news, but there's a railing ahead…"

"Just try and stay away from these guards!" Waka called. He dodged another weapon as the other guard tried to take a swipe at him and raced after Kazuki.

They had crossed the outside of the palace. Now they just had to get down the stairs and avoid the guards at the gate…

No time to take the stairs. The guards would catch up to them easily and one of them was holding a bow and arrow.

"We might have to jump for it," Waka warned Kazuki as they neared the edge of the platform.

"No sweat!" Kazuki said, glancing back for a split second.

The other escapee reached the railing first. Much to Waka's surprise, he hurdled the barrier, making the two-metre drop to the ground below and landing somewhat heavily on both feet. It was as if he was used to doing that sort of thing.

Now then. Waka just had to try and follow him. This would have been a lot easier if he still had his hat…

He hopped up onto one of the posts of the rail, not even daring to glance back. Then he jumped.

Now he was really regretting not having found a way to fix his hat. With the wings he could have easily floated down here but now the ground was rushing towards him even faster than he expected. He couldn't regain his balance as he landed and he hit the floor, pain searing through his arm once more.

"Hey! You okay?" Kazuki asked, hurrying back over to him.

"I'm fine!" Waka snapped, getting back to his feet. His arm was still throbbing but he tried his best to ignore it. "Just keep going, get past the gate guards and out of the city."

"Okay…" Kaz muttered, racing away. The guards from the gate were heading towards them having heard the commotion, but they were carrying heavy weapons like the guards from inside the palace, and Kazuki easily dodged around them.

Now then. Waka was still slightly dazed from being slammed into the ground, but now that Kazuki had managed to get out of the palace he didn't feel obliged to escape on foot anymore. On his own there was a much easier way to get away.

One of the guards from the gate unsheathed a sword, swinging it at him. Yet it simply sliced through the air as some silver sparks fluttered to the ground.

"What the heck…!?" the guard cried. "Where did he go?"

Kazuki was glad that the city was quiet in the morning. He'd managed to escape over Gojo Bridge without being caught by the guards and now he hurried through the commoner's quarter, heading for the city gate. He lived in the city but something told him that it'd probably be best if he stayed away until all this madness had blown over…

He cast a quick glance behind him and immediately skidded to a halt. Where had Waka gone? The strange guy had told him to run when they were back at the palace… what if he'd been caught by the guards again?

Well… I guess if he has then it's his own fault. Not my problem. Right? Right.

"Hey, aren't you the one who the guards arrested?"

Kaz practically jumped out of his skin as he turned around again to find a young girl standing in front of him. She was wearing a red and white miko costume, although she seemed rather young to be a miko… and he could swear her voice sounded familiar…

"Um…" Kazuki muttered, not really sure how to reply to that. If this girl really was a miko then she could very well be in cahoots with those mental guards. And he didn't fancy being sent back to the palace to be executed…

"Don't worry; I don't really care if you escape. You don't seem like you'd be much of a threat," the girl muttered. "As far as I'm concerned, it's only the man with the blonde hair who deserves any kind of punishment."

"Ohh, you're that kid who was walking around the prison," he realised. "Wait, why do you—"

"There he is! Get him!"

"Ah, never mind. Gotta run," Kazuki shrugged as he noticed the guards were finally starting to catch up to him. If this kid had some quarrel with Waka it wasn't really any of his business anyway. Right now he just had to get out of the city.

"What the… how did…"

Waka felt a familiar spark of amusement as Kazuki reached the top of the path outside the city, looking completely baffled.

"How the heck did you get out here!?" Kazuki cried.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that I can teleport?" Waka laughed.

"If you can teleport when why did you bother sitting around in a prison cell when you could have easily just escaped?" Kazuki tutted.

"The chain on my arm disabled it," the prophet shrugged. "Anyway, I see you managed to escape the guards."

"More or less, though if we stand here for too long they're bound to notice us eventually."

"Trés bien. Well, I must be off. I need to find someone." He turned to walk away. Where was Amaterasu likely to have gone? She wasn't here…

"Hey, wait up!"

"Hm?" he glanced around to see that Kaz was still following him.

"Can I go with you?"

"Quoi?" Waka blinked in surprise. "Why?"

"Well, heading back to the city would be suicide and I don't exactly have anywhere else to go. Besides, I might be able to help you find them."

Thinking for a moment, Waka realised that with Amaterasu that probably wasn't going to be much help… and he wasn't too keen on travelling around with other people either. On the other hand, Kazuki didn't have anywhere else to go, and in Nippon's current state… maybe it would be better to have more people on their side? He let out a long sigh. Waka wished that he could see the future on impulse rather than simply waiting for a vision to come to him.

"Okay, fine. Just don't do anything stupid."

"Stupid? Me? Never," Kazuki held up his hand in honesty. "So, how do we find this person?"

I wouldn't exactly say person… "I don't know if she's in Nippon now or whether she's still in Kamui, so I guess we'll just have to look around until we find her."

"That's… helpful," Kazuki muttered sarcastically.

Waka glanced around briefly. Since they were near the city right now, they might as well check the surrounding areas. Whether Amaterasu knew that he'd been captured or not he didn't know, but it had been days since they were supposed to meet at Ezofuji and she'd probably have realised something was wrong and head this way.

"We'll check North Ryoshima first," he decided, heading down the sloping path.

"Okay then. Oh, what's the name of this person we're looking for?"

"Amaterasu."

"Huh… sounds familiar. Anyway, what does she look like?"

Waka hesitated for a moment. "Well, you'll certainly know when we've found her; I'll leave it at that."

There was hardly any life at all around the northern coast. Broken machinery lay scattered on the grass and the cliff at the side was chipped away. Most notable was the massive crater in the ground. There must have been something there at one time, but whatever it was it was destroyed now.

"I don't see anyone," Kazuki stated, hopping onto one of the boulders and holding his arm up to shield his eyes from the sunlight as he scanned the area.

Ignoring the obvious statement, Waka walked over to the edge of the crater. He was getting a strange feeling about this place…

"What happened here, anyway?"

"I don't know," Waka replied simply. Hmm. There was a gap in the ground within the crater but it was too dark to see what was inside it. He hopped down onto the earth, walking over to look down into the hole. There was more ground not far below, but beyond that only total darkness. It looked like some kind of tunnel…

"You don't think she's in there, do you?" Kazuki asked, not sounding entirely hopeful.

"I doubt it," Waka muttered. "Still…" He couldn't understand what the strange feeling he was getting from this place was. Like something he should recognise but at the same time he just… couldn't. "I want to check this place out."

"Um, okay…" Kazuki shrugged. He took another glance at the dark tunnel. "You don't think there's… anything in there, do you? Y'know, like…"

"Demons?"

"Yeah."

"Possibly," Waka shrugged. "Won't know until we find out."

"Well, if you wanna go into some creepy tunnel then go ahead. You won't find me wandering around in the dark just to get eaten by demons."

Waka cast a glance back at him. Kazuki seemed defiant but every time he cast a glance at the darkness below there was a spark of fear in his eyes. Admittedly Waka wasn't overly keen on dark places either but he wasn't too worried about checking this place out.

"What's the matter?" he scorned. "Scared of the dark?"

"Wha—no! No, of course not. But if it's all the same to you then… I-I think I'll just… wait here… I mean, if the person you're looking for comes here then how are they supposed to know you're wandering in the tunnels and they might leave and—"

"Very well then, wait here," Waka rolled his eyes. "I won't be long."

And with that, he jumped down into the tunnel below.