As much as Suboshi wanted to hide from Nakago or run away, he had been around Nakago long enough to know he'd likely expect that. Nakago was never shocked by anything. Even when Suboshi was a rash youth and murdered a fellow Seiryuu warrior, all he had done was give him a knowing tease. His recent attitude was much the same.

The last thing Nakago would expect, Suboshi figured, was for him to show a willing interest. The only question was how well he could keep up an act—never his strong suit.

"Lord Nakago," he asked, "Could I see that world inside the shell again?"

"For how much it scared you last night, you're quick to be curious," he replied and obliged. Suboshi had to feign a bit of his interest, but could not deny how alluring that world was.

"Wow," he smiled, his eyes tracing lines of motion around the bustling chaos. "Have you ever found Lady Yui among all those people?"

"This is only an image of that world. A fabrication."

"So she's not here?"

"These are images from inside the Priestess of Suzaku's head. If you look hard enough, you might be able to find her."

"What about Seiryuu? Would Seiryuu be looking?"

Nakago eyed him. "Should he?"

"Well, if he's active, then… what role would we play? Didn't we already ensure that he was summoned?"

"We're still owed our own wishes."

"But that doesn't make sense. They're Lady Yui's wishes."

"It's fine to our have our own motivation. I still have interest in the world you see inside this shell, and you still have interest in Lady Yui. Miboshi, I'm sure, has his own motivation."

"Miboshi? Since when has he…?"

"You should be more concerned about Suzaku's return than his."

Despite his ordeal, Boushin seemed oddly well rested by the following morning, and was offering to help his mother take care of Mayo. Though he was not very good at it, he found something oddly pleasant about doing menial chores together like cracking eggs and sweeping, bumping elbows with his mother the entire time in their cramped and borrowed space. Houki shared a smile with him, but now that she could relax about his condition, something else was bothering her again. "I'm sorry to ask you about this, Boushin, but your father's sword…"

"Oh, it's safe," he replied. A gigglesome grin crept to his face as knew he was holding a secret, but that reminded him of something he had been pondering since waking up. "Chichiri," he addressed the warrior, "how come I was able to see Chiriko inside of my head?"

"That's where he projected his life force, you know?"

"I see. So it doesn't have to do with his body at all. If a ghost has life force, then you can see them too, right?"

"Well, that," he had a mix of a smile and frown bending together on his rubbery face, "that would be nice if it worked that way."

At this, both Boushin and Mayo had knowing smiles. "Speaking of Chiriko, how is he? He went to bed very early last night," asked she.

"It looks like he got up early and went out somewhere," replied the boy. "I thought he'd be back by now."

"He wouldn't be looking for your sword, would he?"

"No, he wouldn't," he shock his head. He saw clearly that my father had it.

"Maybe he got lost on a walk around the village, you know?"

"What about Tasuki?" asked Mayo. "What's taking him so long? He found you, didn't he?"

"He's going to come back here with Miaka."

"Miaka?"

"Miaka!?" Houki sounded more surprised than Mayo did. She looked first at Chichiri with wide eyes, and then down to Boushin. "She's alive?"

"Oops."

The empress sank into a chair. "But… why would you keep that secret? Is she well, then? Is anyone else…?"

"No," Chichiri shook his head. "It's only Miaka. But I'm sure she'll be happy to see you, you know."

"So she was still here after all," sighed Mayo. When the contents of the book had flowed into her mind it never definitively said she had died, so she wasn't entirely surprised. The other piece of knowledge Mayo had that the others didn't was that she and Tamahome had refrained from touching each other. That could only lead Mayo to one obvious conclusion.

She fingered her belly, still small as it always had been, but warm with Suzaku's presence. Hers was a role no priestess had ever had.

"Tetsuya."

"What?"

"Are you flipping ahead?"

"Why haven't we ever tried this?"

"And?"

"…it's like they're all the same," he hung his head. "Why won't it go on?"

"And get back to Yui, you mean? Let's not forget about Miaka and Sakaki here, too. We've got to figure out some way to contact them... except that Miaka's been there ten years without any thing from this world, and Sakaki probably did a good job of making sure we have no way to contact her."

"Yeah, but who says she even wants to come back? She went in there as an escape. She must have been easy for Suzaku to use because there was no resistance."

"No resistance," he looked back to the words on the page reflecting her thoughts. "At least she's mellowing down now, but…"

"Mayo? Mayo!"

She snapped awake, and saw a fuzzy face over her. "Nu… no, Houki…"

"You looked so pale a moment ago… !"

"I'm fine. Maybe I should just have some water."

"Of course."

Mayo struggled to sit up in bed. If how bad she felt could have any indication of how strong Suzaku had gotten, he had to ready to do godly things again soon. This made her certain that Nuriko wasn't nearby for any ghostly consultation.

"Do you think Miaka will be here soon?"

"Chichiri made it sound like she would be."

"Oh… it's… it's quiet here right now, isn't it?"

"Yes. Chichiri and Boushin went looking for Chiriko."

"Chiriko? Chiriko, where are you?" Boushin called, and then folded his arms. "I can guess that he probably went after Miboshi, but he could have at least left a note."

"And had us go after him sooner?"

"He should have had the decency to… oh," he stopped as Chichiri held up the notes Houki and Chiriko had left behind at the palace. "My counselors aren't very happy with me, are they?"

"Next time, you've got to do what Hotohori did and leave a decoy," he happily pointed to himself.

"Decoy?"

In a puff of smoke, Chichiri changed his form to mirror Boushin, causing the boy to rear back on his heels in surprise. "Pretty good, you know?"

"That's amazing! Just how many powers do you have?"

"Some of them might be just a little rusty," he smiled and held up a hand too large to belong to a child. "Some of our abilities come natural, and others take practice."

"Can you look like anyone?"

"Sure!" he instantly changed to look like Tasuki.

"What did Tamahome look like?"

In another puff of smoke, Chichiri resembled a handsome youth holding an armful of money. Boushin laughed, and then asked for Nuriko. With a shriek of surprise, he jumped again. "Nuriko looks just like my mother!"

"How about Hotohori now?" Chichiri changed before getting his answer. Boushin beamed back in a more quiet response to this display. "Well?"

"Hmm," he looked closer. "Surely the bridge of my father's nose must have been higher than this."

"I… I can't do the impossible, you know…"

"Of course not," he shook his head. "And no need to do Mitsukake. I know Juan, and that's good enough for me."

"It's nice to see that you two were able to make friends."

"Right—" he replied as his hand shot for a pouch around his neck, but he was shocked to not find it there. Chichiri asked what was wrong as he felt around his person for where it could have gone. "I had a good luck charm that Juan made for me. Did you take it off of me while I was under Miboshi's poison?"

"No, I haven't seen it."

"I wouldn't have dropped it anywhere. The knot was tighter than that."

"Maybe your mother took it off to make you more comfortable?"

"I really want to find it, Chichiri," he began to search the ground around him. "He made it especially for me. I don't want him to think I didn't like it. I have to have it when I see him again."

Chichiri was sympathetic, and decided against saying anything uncharacteristically pessimistic about those prospects.

"I think I can smell it. It can't be far from here!" Boushin said. "But I'm sure I wouldn't have dropped it while we were walking… do you think this is near where we fought Miboshi the other day? Maybe it came off while I was fighting..."

"Well, we can keep an eye out for it…"

"I have to find it, Chichiri! It's proof of our friendship! It's going to help me find Juan!"

"…Boushin?"

The two froze at the sound of a quiet voice not far away, and looked around cautiously.

It came again a little louder, and more unmistakable. "Boushin?"

"Juan!" he shouted and ran in the direction it came from, with Chichiri not far behind.

As Boushin tore through the bushes, he was taken aback by the sight on the ground. Juan was lying there, pinned to the ground by Chiriko, who lied face down with a hand over Juan's eyes. A scroll was haphazardly strewn over them. "Boushin!" Juan called again, more frantic.

"I'm here!" he dove down to his side and slid Chiriko's hand away. Juan eyes were full of tears, but he was sure it was him and not the monster that had possessed him. "You're back."

Juan couldn't choke out words as he started to wail. Once Chichiri pulled the limp warrior off of him, Boushin pulled his smaller friend up into a tight embrace and whispered to him as he sobbed. "It must have been frightening, but you're alright now."

"Chiriko," Chichiri nudged him. "Wake up."

"I don't know where I was," Juan squeezed back. "I was just tangled… and I… I… didn't even notice… until…"

"It's alright now, Juan."

"Until… I thought… until I thought you were there!"

"Me?"

"I thought I… smelled the charm I gave you."

"Oh," he shamefully averted his glance. "About that… it's…"

"Oh," Juan noticed a pouch placed in hand. "I did smell it."

"Well, I'm glad it helped." And glad it's safe! "Did you wake up after that?"

His glance fell. "N… no… that's… when I heard Uncle Chiriko."

"Chiriko!" Chichiri hissed again.

"And I was… it was… all over me… I couldn't move. I just… I think I screamed, but…"

Boushin was sympathetic and nodded, thinking back to his own monstrous experience. "But Chiriko showed you the way out after that, didn't he?"

Juan looked like he was holding back another bout of tears as he unceasingly shook his head.

"Juan, what did Chiriko do?"

The boys snapped to attention at Chichiri's deep tone. They looked over to see him holding Chiriko, who didn't even show any signs of response or distress. One glance was all it took for Juan to completely lose composure and bawl.