A/N: Well. Hey. This is sort of a new record for me. I actually had most of this chapter written a long time ago, but I got stuck on the action scenes. More or less figured it out.. three years later? Eh. o.o Anyway, if any suggestions for how to improve them, please let me know. I also messed with the chapter titles a bit. This one actually seemed more fitting for Chapter Five instead of Four.

Episode Five: Reckoning with a Turtle

Stunned silence, even stiller than the aftermath of the earthquake, swept through the clearing. Haien's first thought was that this was impossible. Genbu was one of the four legendary gods, the protector of Hokkan. How could he be here in Nyosei, let alone descend to the earth? What business would he have here? And if he really were who he said he was, she had to get Nazo out of there. Surely the only reason for his appearance would be to rid Nyosei of their Summoner.

"What are you doing here? Who are you?" Mai demanded.

"Me?" Genbu asked, then laughed. "Like I said, I'm called Genbu. As for what I'm doing here, easy enough. I'm on a mission to destroy you all. It shouldn't be hard after all; my supply of puppets will be endless on this island."

One of the women screamed a war cry and fired an arrow at Genbu. Before they could blink, he had caught it. A small snap echoed through the clearing and he threw the broken remains away. "Nice try," he said amusedly.

Mai got to her feet and stood her ground. A list of options scrolled through her head, but none were pleasant. After seeing what had happened, she knew to proceed cautiously. He was obviously not the typical man to land on their island.

Before she could do anything however, Genbu thrust his arms out, throwing five scrolls into the air, and shouted in a language Nazo couldn't understand. The scrolls froze in the air and the ground below them began to shake. Haien tackled Nazo and rolled with him into the bushes just as the corpse of a Hokkan soldier rose from the cracks that had just formed where they had been lying. Its skin was fuzzed over with green fur, and as it opened its rotting eyes, moaning loudly through its festering lips. Looking around, Nazo and Haien saw four other identical zombies that were now swaying where they had just risen. It would have been almost comical if they hadn't noticed the hands. The undead's black claws curved wickedly, and they began to hop towards the women, eerie lights in their otherwise blank eyes. Genbu laughed at the astonished faces on the women. "Do you like them? They're my special puppets, and they're more than enough to deal with you."

"Tenkyoku," Haien whispered. "His supply really will be near endless!"

"What?" Nazo said through gritted teeth.

"The puppets!"

Outside of the bushes, Mai was gathering the women together. "Draw your weapons!" she shouted.

A third of the women unsheathed the swords on their back while another third pointed their spears at the zombies. The last three put arrows on their bows and drew the strings back.

Mai thrust her blade into the air. "Fire!"

The arrows shot toward the zombies, striking their limbs and bodies. The impact caused them to jerk, but nothing more. They continued on their unsightly march towards the women, undeterred. Genbu laughed from behind. "They don't die that easily, fools."

Mai narrowed her eyes. She swept her sword into the air in an upward motion, and the archers' bows followed her lead. "Fire!" she shouted again.

This time, the arrows flew high above the zombies. Genbu swept his arm over his head, and a wall of earth covered him, stopping the arrows. The shield slowly returned to the ground, and he smirked. "Again. That's a-?"

Another arrow shot out, this time released by Mai, and Genbu twisted to the side, barely avoiding it. Haien, seeing that Genbu was distracted, seized her knife and cut through Nazo's bonds. She grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him up. "We're leaving."

"Wait, what about-" Nazo started to protest.

"It's not them he's after, it's us!" Haien answered, and she teleported again.

x

Shoshi raised her head and looked toward the forest outside the palace. She had just sensed a huge surge of power, followed by an attempt to breach the wards set up by the High Priestess. It had failed, but this was still something worth investigating. A strange string of events was unraveling, and she did not like being in the dark about it. Things like this did not happen often because Nyosei was an island separated by an ocean from its brothers, and her habit of killing off any survivors from boat wrecks was an effective way of shutting off any information about the other nations. Likewise, the armies of the four countries did not bother them because of the frightening rumors that surfaced. Thus, Nyosein culture had flourished, virtually uninfluenced and totally capable of protecting itself. No one had ever had the opportunity to truly scale the island and escape alive.

"Shoshi? What is it?" Nari asked her, interrupting her thoughts and bringing her back to the reality that there were two outsiders, two possible Summoners.

Shoshi narrowed her eyes and touched the fire gem on her forehead. "I will be back," she answered. "You think you have everything?"

Nari smiled. "Yeah. Thank you so much for helping me like this."

Shoshi couldn't help but laugh. "It is the least I could do for you. You are destined to become our Priestess after all."

The conflict on the girl's face was apparent. "I.."

Shoshi knelt down and put a hand on Nari's shoulder. "I will be back with your brother. Meanwhile, please allow one of the maids to lead you to the hot springs so you can relax." When Nari shakily met her eyes, Shoshi squeezed her shoulder and stood up. "Do not worry so much. It will be all right." She bowed before leaving and closed the door behind her. Her expression instantly hardened. This time, she would personally take care of whoever dared invade their island.

x

"Ow!"

Nazo opened an eye and saw that they were in the exact same spot, still concealed by the foliage. One of the zombies had been taken down, but the others still harassed the women. As he watched, a zombie plunged its claws into a warrior, and she gasped, her life sucked out of her. Her limp body collapsed to the ground with a quiet thud. That was when it hit him. Jiangshi! The undead puppets were jiangshi! That made this Genbu dude a Taoist, someone capable of summoning the disturbed dead and reanimating them to obey him. Quickly, he looked around for Haien. She was on the ground next to him, face almost as pale as her hair. He shook her gently, afraid of hurting her. Her eyes fluttered, and her hand went to her forehead as she groaned. "I don't get it. Something blocked me from getting to the castle. I think some sort of ward was set up to prevent this kind of entering from happening." She swayed as she climbed to her feet and Nazo grabbed her arm to steady her.

"Haien, those are jiangshi," he said urgently. "Those women aren't going to be able to get out of there alive. We have to do something."

Haien held up a hand. "Wait. I need to regain my senses." She took a couple of deep breaths, then closed her eyes. The ward she had crashed into was most likely a defensive one. Possibly set up by another seishi? Hopefully. The other possibility was much bleaker. "All right. I'm good. What?"

"Jiangshi! I've read about them before in mythology! How do you not know what they are?"

"Can we discuss this somewhere else? We need to get you to safety."

"But-"

Her glare silenced him.

"I'll throw a smoke bomb so it'll be difficult to track us," Haien said. She climbed to her feet and then helped Nazo up. Two small clicks, then Haien pulled out two bombs from the necklace around her neck and threw them against the floor, effectively hiding the women and themselves. "That should help the women here, too, since you're concerned about them," she said as she pulled Nazo with her. How he was she didn't know, especially since they would have given him the usual treatment, but he wasn't a native from this world. Maybe that was why he was watching out for them. Or was it simply because they were women? Did watching out for his sister simply make him more chivalrous than most other men would have been?

"Maybe you could teleport onto him and dr-"

"Did you really think you'd be able to escape?" someone asked from behind them.

Nazo and Haien whirled around and immediately stepped back. It was the green and black warrior from before. Now that they actually had a closer look at him, they could see the black symbol through his bangs painted on his forehead: the outline of a raindrop sitting on top of a circle with a dot inside the drop. Haien drew in a sharp breath as she realized its meaning and moved protectively in front of Nazo.

"So this is the Priest of Tenkyoku and one of his pitiful seishi," he said with a smirk. "This is going to be a lot easier than we thought."

"Stay back, let me handle this," Haien warned.

"That's right, let the little girly handle it," Genbu mocked, folding his arms over his brigandine. "You're a man, can't you defend yourself?"

Priest? Priest? What was this, some kind of- no. He wasn't going to make that crack. He didn't want to leave Haien by herself, but he realized this might just be exactly what Genbu wanted. He glanced at her, nodded, and stepped back.

"Run toward the palace," she said. "I'll catch up."

Goddamn, this really wasn't a dream. The pain on his chin and his nose confirmed it for him. He looked back at Haien one more time, but she glared at him, and biting his lip, he turned and ran.

"Looks like your Priest is quite the coward."

"Quiet!" Haien said fiercely. "I'm your opponent." With that, she vanished and reappeared next to Genbu. Spikes rose where she landed and she quickly teleported away before they fully manifested. She repeated the move until there were multiple afterimages surrounding him and then attacked him. Her fist struck Genbu, but he blocked it with his arm. She jumped away, teleported again, flashed back into existence for a second, and flung three daggers hidden in her sleeve at him. A rock shield shot up and blocked their flight.

"The Tenkyoku seishi really aren't much," Genbu commented, and the weapons he had summoned sank back into the dirt. "At this rate, you won't be able to stop us."

Haien put her hands up in front of her face protectively. "Us?" she asked. It seemed he was not only a Taoist but combined with what she had seen so far, a skilled manipulator of earth, on par with seishi from the past. That would explain the earthquakes from earlier. This was not good. She had told Nazo before that she wouldn't be able to protect him through strength but rather wit. She had hoped he would never have an opportunity to see why, but it was happening now, and against an extremely powerful opponent. If Nazo really was the Priest as Genbu stated, it was worth more than her life to get him to safety. At least she could no longer see him now, although she would always sense him. To Genbu, she demanded, "Why do you carry the name of the God of Hokkan? You're not a seishi, are you?"

Genbu raised an eyebrow. "Am I not from Hokkan? Am I not a powerful warrior? Why can't I? It's not like it's the name of the gods that are sacred but rather the figures themselves."

"How dare you desecrate His name?"

Genbu merely laughed. "Why does it matter to you? You're not a Genbu seishi at all."

The ground began to shake again, and Haien dropped to her knees. "Either way, I'm still a seishi!" she shouted. She teleported again and landed on Genbu's back. Genbu grabbed her by the arms and tried to throw her off, but she clung on. Something sharp sliced into the right side of her back, and she twisted away. Tenkyoku, give me strength, she prayed. Haien yanked a bomb off the chain around her neck, struck it against the chain, and thrust it into his shirt. Less than a second later, she landed next to Nazo and without warning, she grabbed him by the arm and teleported away.

x

A huge explosion rocked the forest. Shoshi pulled her horse to a stop and stared toward the smoke. What the hell was going on? She had expected some trouble, but for something like this? Taking a slip of paper, she folded a swallow with deft fingers and blew on it. The creation came to life, and she sent it toward the smoke, watching its flight with narrowed eyes. First a girl from another world had showed up, then she had claimed to have a brother with her. A brother of all things, when normally the Summoner was a woman. And when had there ever been two people from the outside world but when there was about to be strife? She would not stand for this. If they were to have a Summoner, there could only be one. If there were two, only problems would arise, which Nyosei could not afford to handle right now. However, she could not simply murder one of the siblings. Who knew what effects that would have? In addition, she did not think she was that cold-blooded to commit such an act, even though she knew her mother would probably ask her to if she were aware of the thoughts running through her mind.

Tenkyoku.

The swallow flew back to her and chirped in her ear. Shoshi's eyes narrowed even more and she whipped her horse into a run.

Haien and Nazo reappeared, this time in a dense area of the forest. Here, they were safe, at least for a little while. The bomb was merely a flash bomb, and although it wouldn't kill him, it would certainly delay him. No time to wonder what the heck was going on; they had to focus on running. Haien tried to stand, and she visibly grimaced, clutched her side, and closed her eyes.

"Haien?" Nazo asked.

She released her breath and opened her eyes to look at him. "I'm fine, I'm fine. The bomb only decapitated him for a bit. He'll be back after us in a few minutes. We've got to get you to somewhere safe before that."

"What are you talking about? You're injured!"

Haien gritted her teeth, although he couldn't tell if it was from pain or annoyance anymore. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. My brother's inflicted worse wounds on me. Anyway, it's not too deep. Besides, you're far more important."

Nazo frowned. "I'm more important? What are you-"

Her glare stopped him from continuing on that vein.

He sighed. "All right. If that's what you want. What are we going to do now then?"

She narrowed her eyes. "That presence I sensed earlier is even stronger now. I'm going to take us to whoever it is. Maybe they'll be able to help us figure out what on Tenkyoku is going on now."

"You're sure it'd be safe?"

"If it's not, I'll get you out before myself, don't worry."

That hadn't been what he'd been concerned about, but before he could say so, they had teleported again.

Episode Six: Royal Butterfly - The two different parties meet for the first time! Can Haien and Nazo risk trusting this new woman, or will they continue the lie?

A/N: I usually don't do author's notes at the end, but.. felt I had to do it for this. I'm sorry for cutting off the chapter with a teleport again. . I'll try not to do it again after this chapter (unless absolutely necessary). Also sorry about the jumping around all over this chapter, but it'll ease up in the next one because the two different storylines will converge. Anyway. Thank you for reading!