Author's Note: Ok folks, here is the long awaited next chapter. Thank you all for being pateniet(sp?). I have had los of drama and stress going on, and this story is my release. Again thank you for those taht have reviwed, and are still reading this. I promise that I won't let this story hang unfinshed, I hate it when that happends to stories that I read, so I won't do it to you. This is a bit longer than my other updaes, thought you all could use a longer one, for the long wait.... Umm other than that there is not much going on, but give me another few weeks and I can go back to updating every month, sicne classes are ending I will have more time to write. At least that is the plan, nad I am hoping that I can carry that plan out. Do not think there are many typos or misspells in here, I think I am catching most of them, at least I hope, but there could be one or two that I missed. Ok, that is it.
Hope you all enjoy and thanks again!!!
:-)
-JediMadchen86
"Do you really think that there is something up there?" asked Nuriko after 20 minutes of silence.
"I have no clue Nuriko, but something is calling me towards that peak and I intended to find out what it is."
"Still think we should have told the others," said Nuriko under his breath.
"Nuriko, if you really didn't want to come, then turn back. I am a big girl and can take care of myself," said Alexisa without turning around as she continued to walk through the snow.
"It's not like that, I just don't like being separated from the others. We are stronger together."
"I know that Nuriko, I just have to do this, and I doubt that the others would have come. You said it yourself, they were all cold."
"Yea, they must be warm sitting in that inn drinking, and having fun."
"Nuriko."
"Did I say that out loud? Silly me," said Nuriko laughing.
"Sure thing Nuriko," said Alexisa as a smile appeared on her face.
They reached the mountain peak just as the sun began to set, upon reaching the peak they both fell into the snow tired, and out of breath.
"That was steeper than I thought," said Nuriko through his labored breathing.
"But at least you warmed up right?" asked Alexisa sitting down in the snow and looking around the top of the mountain.
"True, but still wish that we had bandit boy here. We could have used his fan when walking up this mountain," said Nuriko getting to his feet and looking around as well. "Anything?"
"No," said Alexisa getting up and walking around.
Nuriko stood up from the snow and began to look around, there was a huge boulder that stood off to the side of the peak, and he walked over to it. "Hey over here."
"You find something?" asked Alexisa as she walked over to him, and seeing the boulder. "I thought you said you found something?"
"No, I just told you to come over here." He replied sticking out his tongue.
"You think that this boulder is hiding something?"
"Well you got the strength to move it, so move it," replied Alexisa as she stood back.
"Glad that I tagged along now huh?" he asked as he flexed his muscles getting ready to move the heavy rock. "And here I thought that you loved me," he commented again.
"Yea, not really, I just love your strength, that's all," said Alexisa as a laugh escaped her lips, and a smile formed on her mouth.
"Thanks, Alexisa. You really know how to make a man happy," said Nuriko as he grabbed a hold of the rock.
"No problem, not get that rock outta there."
Alexisa watched Nuriko grab the boulder and slowly began to lift it up. As Alexisa watched him, she felt a sense of danger approaching them; she took her gaze off of Nuriko and scanned the mountainside behind them. She could not see anything, but she closed her eyes and looked again, and then she felt it, the same sense of evil that she felt down in the plaza. Her eyes popped open, and she began to search for him and out of the corner of her eye, she saw him making a lunge at Nuriko.
"Nuriko!" she screamed as she ran towards her friend.
Hearing his name, Nuriko glanced back and saw a big shadow over his shoulder; he released the boulder, and then felt a sharp pain in his side. He dropped down to his feet, facing the shadow, seeing a big hairy man, standing over him, with his blood on his claws.
"Hey you!" yelled Alexisa. "Your fight is with me remember?"
The beast looked over his shoulder and saw Alexisa standing behind him, he sniffed the air, and a smile appeared on his face.
"Alexisa. What are you doing?" asked Nuriko as he grabbed his side in pain.
"Don't worry Nuriko; I can take care of this guy. We already brawled in the city. Just stay out of my way," said Alexisa as she took a fighting stance. Nuriko looked at Alexisa and then towards the beast standing before him. The beast sniffed the air once more, and slowly walked towards Alexisa.
"Kill, must kill you."
"Yea, come on. Come kill me," said Alexisa as she watched the beast walked towards her, as the beast walked towards her, he began to gain momentum and soon was charging her. Alexisa forehead glowed with the symbol of the ogre, as she used Tamahome's powers to fight this beast again. He came rushing towards her; she jumped out of the way, and circled behind him. He quickly turned around and was facing her again. He bought his hand down and tried to slice her against the chest, but she caught his arm and deflected the attack, but did not see his other hand coming in from the side, until it was too late, she felt pain in her right side. Cries of pain escaped her lips, and she jumped away from him. She crouched in the snow, clutching her side. 'Damn bugger, moves fast,' she thought as she watched him run at her again. She gathered her feet under her and jumped high into the air, hoping that his speed would run him into the mountain behind her, but he stopped right as he was about to hit the mountain. 'Okay so he is not as dumb as he looks either,' she thought again as she landed 10 feet away from him.
Nuriko clutched his side, and watched Alexisa fight the beast man. He could not believe the speed that he possessed, he saw Alexisa land behind the creature and run towards him.
He had yet to see where she landed so Alexisa took the opportunity to attack his back, but once she was in reach of him, he spun around and faced her. He grabbed her arms and pressed them to her sides; he lifted her up into the air, and threw her towards the ground. Once she hit the ground she slid back to where she had landed before, and stopping once she hit a rock. The beast walked to where she lay, and picked her up again, he grabbed her arm picked her up, and started to punch her over and over, until he threw her to the other side of the clearing. (A/N: Ok, so I am not great at doing fight scenes. But I hope you all can understand what is going on.)
"Alexisa!" called Nuriko, seeing his friend being tossed around like a rag doll, he ran towards the beast himself.
Seeing a new victim running so easily towards him, he stopped walking and waited until his new prey came to him. Nuriko reached the beast and ducked low and kicked his feet out from under him, the beast fell to snow covered earth. Nuriko stood up and looked down at him. Just as he was about to punch the beast his own feet was kicked from under him.
"Hey you! You're Ashitare aren't you?" called Alexisa from where she lay. "Took me a while to put it together, but I knew that the Seiryu bastards had a beast working for them," said Alexis as she began to stand up shakily, with blood dripping down the side of her face. "And you're fighting ME!" she yelled running towards him yet again. This time she was able to inflict some damage on him; she punched his side that she stabbed earlier hoping that it had yet to heal. Ashitare howled out in pain, when his side was punched, and he staggered back a few steps. Alexisa looked down at Nuriko and offered her hand to help him up.
"Nuriko, you just worry about trying to get that rock out of the way. I'll keep ugly busy," said Alexisa as she pushed Nuriko towards the rock, just in time to avoid another blow by Ashitare.
"Ok, ugly. Let's finish this," said Alexisa with her mark glowing on her forehead and charging Ashitare again. She reached him, dealing out punch after punch, but he was able to dodge them all. She continued to attack him, but her blows were not connecting. Ashitare easily dodged or diverted her punches to the side. Alexisa tired to renew her attack, quickly running to his backside and attacked him there, but Ashitare somehow managed to grab Alexisa around the neck and lifted her up.
"Now you die."
Alexisa tried to get free of his grip, but he was to strong and her strength was slowly leaving her, before she blacked out she tried to send out a feeling to the others of fear and death. With that last use of her strength darkness consumed her.
"Tasuki, quit starting will ya. Alexisa will be fine," said Chichiri from the table, as he looked over t his friend.
"It's been a few hours since she left though."
"Her and Nuriko probably got distracted somehow," said Miaka trying to relieve her worried friend.
"I guess you're right," said Tasuki as he left the window and walked over to he table where his friends were eating.
"Tasuki, don't worry, Nuriko is with her remember, and even if they did get into trouble then Alexisa would just use her powers to contact us remember," said Tamahome as he handed Tasuki a plate filled with food. "Here we managed to save this from Miaka."
"Thanks," said Tasuki as he took the pale and slowly began eating it.
"Perhaps they found some clue as to where the shinzaho was located and went to check it out," said Chiriko from the end of the table.
"I'm pretty sure, that she would let us know if they were in trouble, after all it is Alexisa we are talking about, ya know."
"Yea, I guess your right," said Tasuki as he continued to eat.
"Well we know that the Seiryu warriors are here as well, looking for the shinzaho. So we all have to be on our guard from now on," said Tamahome
"Yes, we will," said Mits, as a chill came over all of them.
"What was that?" asked Chiriko looking around at his friends.
"One of our warriors is in trouble," said Chichiri
"It has to be Alexisa. Chichiri find her," said Tasuki standing up and pounding his hands on the table.
Chichiri closed her eyes and searched the city for Alexisa, and Nuriko, but he could not find any traces of them. "I can't find them."
"What do you mean you can't find them, they have to be somewhere. Look again."
"Tasuki getting mad is not going to help them at the moment. We need to think about this. Where we they headed when they left?" asked Tamahome
"I don't know."
"I think I overhead Alexisa saw something about a mountain," said Chiriko looking up at everyone.
"You think she would go without telling us?" asked Miaka looking at Tasuki.
"I know she would, after all this is Alexisa we are talking about here," said Tasuki as he walked towards the inn door.
"Where are you going?" asked Tamahome
"I am going to find her," said Tasuki as he walked out the door.
"He could not wait for us at least," said Tamahome as he stood up and walked out the door, having the other warriors follow him as well.
Nuriko watched the fight between Alexisa and Ashitare and he knew that Alexisa would not be able to keep up with the beast for very long, he hoped that the others would come. But he knew that deep inside that help would not come soon enough. The up side to having Alexisa fight was that he was able to move the boulder out of the way, and a door was reveled to be behind it. So the trip would not be a complete failure, but then he turned and saw Alexisa being helped up by the neck by the beast. Even though the wound in his side had failed to stop bleeding Nuriko ran towards the beast, he summoned his strength and knocked Ashitare 20 feet away from where he stood. Alexisa's dropped into the snow, and failed to move.
"Ok, pal. Not it is my turn," said Nuriko as he took up his own fighting stance. He looked to where Ashitare lay, and saw him getting to his feet again. Nuriko lunged at him one again, he reached inside his coat and bought out the flare, and once he was close enough he aimed the flare towards Ashitare's side and released the fire inside. The beast howled out in pain, and the fire spread over his wound and over his back. Nuriko backed away, as Ashitare began to thrash around and ran off. Nuriko dropped the casing for the flare, gripping his wounded side he slowly walked over to where Alexisa lay face down in the snow. Once he reached his friend, kneeling down in the snow, he turned her over.
"Alexisa?" he called out to her, once she was face up. "Hey, wake up," said Nuriko as he shook her shoulders. Nuriko looked down at her, and saw the blood running down the side of her head, she had multiple cuts over her body as well, but he saw her chest slowly rising. "Now all we have to do is wait for the other to show, if they ever do," he said to the air as he looked up into the sky.
"They are coming, just give them time," he heard a voice say very weakly.
Hearing another voice Nuriko looked down at Alexisa.
"They're coming?"
"Yea, sent them a alert before I blacked out. What happened?"
"Well, I used my flare to burn that bastard and he ran off. You ok? You took a damn good beating."
"I think I am, vision is a little fuzzy and my head really hurts."
"Well just stay awake Mits is on his way. Wish we had Tasuki here."
"He is never going to let this go, told him that I could take care of myself," said Alexisa as she began to cough a little.
"Don't worry, I'll smooth things over with him. Just stay awake ok?"
"Yea, I'll do my best," said Alexisa as she began to close her eyes.
"Alexisa, come on stay awake," pleaded Nuriko as he shook her shoulders once again.
"Nuriko, stop. I'm tired, and warm," said Alexisa in a very weak voice.
"I know you're tired, you beat the crap outta that guy, but you have to stay with me. Come on make fun of me, I won't get mad."
"You never get mad at me, just the bandit boy does."
"Ok, well let's make fun of Fang boy then. Hey remember that kid that was scared shitless of him, because of those fangs, that kid would not go near him."
"Yea, that was pretty funny," said Alexisa as she began to laugh a little.
Nuriko looked down at Alexisa as she closed her eyes once again, he shivered because of the cold, and wished that the others would arrive soon. All he could do was sit and wait, their only flare had been used, and there wasn't any wood to start a fire. He hoped that his friends would be able to get here soon, he did not know how much longer Alexisa could hold on, and not to mention his own wounds. Blood still flowed down his side, and onto the white snow beneath him.
"Come on guys, what is taking so long," said Nuriko to no one special.
"They are close, don't worry Nuriko. I am good," said Alexisa keeping her eyes close.
Within the next few minutes Nuriko heard shouts of his friends, he slowly reached his feet and walked over to greet them, as they came into view.
"Bout time you joined the party," said Nuriko falling into the snow, but being caught by Mits.
"Let me heal you."
"No, Go help Alexisa, she needs it more," said Nuriko as he pointed to where she lay in the snow.
"Alexisa!" cried Tasuki as he ran over to her. "Hey, wake up,"
"Tasuki, that you?" she asked as she opened her eyes to see a face looking down at her.
"Yep, I am here. Thought you could take care of your self?"
"I am still here right?" she asked as she coughed.
"Let me see Tasuki," said Mits as he came up beside them both.
Mits began to heal Alexisa's numerous injures, and once she felt her strength returning, she reached up and closed his hand. "Thank you, but go heal Nuriko. I know you can only heal one per day, and Nuriko needs it more," said Alexisa as she tried to stand up but almost fell to the ground.
"Alexisa, you are not healed yet. Let him finish," replied Tasuki as he helped her stand.
"No Tasuki, I am fine now, and beside Nuriko needs it more than I do. I can use my own healing power, once I can see straight of course," she replied holding her head in her hands.
Mits looked up at Tasuki, and he admitted defeat as he walked to where Nuriko sat next to Chichiri and healed him.
"What happened here anyway?" asked Tamahome looking around the clearing.
"Well that old women that we meet in the town square said something that got me thinking, the people here used to worship Genbu, and where do people worship, at the highest point, I saw this mountain and thought I would give it a try," said Alexisa as she walked over to her friends with the help of Tasuki. "But once we got up here, we were attacked by Ashitare."
"Ashitare?"
"Yea, that beast guy that attacked us in the village. I fought him off while Nuriko moved the boulder."
"What boulder?" asked Tamahome.
"The boulder that was over there," said Nuriko standing up and pointing over towards a door.
"Do you think that is where the shinzaho is?" asked Miaka
"That is what I was thinking," said Alexisa.
"Alexisa. Why are you so weak?" asked Chiriko
"Well, even though I went through all that training I am still getting used to the amplified powers of all of you. Every time that I use them, I recover faster, but it took it out of me," said Alexisa as she leaned on Tasuki some more.
"Or maybe you like leaning on the bandit boy," said Nuriko glaring at her.
"Maybe I should have let Ashitare slice you in two when I had the chance," replied Alexisa as a smile appeared on her face.
"Well I for one, want to get going. I mean we finally made it. Let's go get that shinzaho," said Miaka as he walked towards the door, with her warriors gathering around her.