Love Hurts 5 Ways (OUTDATED STORY)

by Aloubell

This is an outdated story and the beta version for the current Destiny Song series. The story premise is generally the same, but in this beta version, things just kind of happen without much of a plan. I'm keeping it on this site as a record of what used to be. Please check out "Destiny Song" if you want a more coherent story. Thank you!

33. Assurance

ATTENTION READERS: This is the Beta version of LH5W, if you want to read the official, updated version of the story, you'll have to go over to DeviantArt. com and head on over to my page. My username is Aloubell. You can also get there by going to my fanfiction. net profile which provides a link over there.
In any case, this Beta version is basically the rough draft of LH5W, my first attempt at it. Much of the plot points from this version will be the same in the official version, but there are significant and consistent characterization changes, a few (but very important) plot differences, expansion of past ideas, and overall better quality in storytelling.

All of this will be done over on DeviantArt. I no longer will write the story in traditional prose nor submit/update it here to fanfiction. net. The Beta version will remain here, just know that it isn't the 100% official story.
The official version will be written in a lazy prose mixed with play-writing elements (you'll get what I mean when you see it).
This is the new format for the story from now on.
So please head on over there if you're interested in updates to the story! Thank you for stopping by =D

-Aloe

PLEASE NOTE: The official version is being written somewhat out of order. The official version will start on chapter 46, the place where the Beta version left off. The official version will go on to complete the last chapters of Season 2. Once those are done, I will redo the story over again from Chapter 1 which will be the official version.

Having said that, if you choose to continue on reading, I hope you enjoy the Beta version and look forward to the official!

---

Once the red light dimmed out completely, the three of us who were already in the room continued staring at the unexpected guest. Deep down, I was sort of glad that the phenomenon decided to happen when it had. After giving that mini speech back there, I wasn't completely sure if I really wanted to hear Nuriko and Hotohori's answers. It already felt awkward as hell to talk all sentimental like that to people, so it wasn't really a conversation topic that I wanted to go into depth on. And there was absolutely no chance of me asking them about the flower. So…alright—I had to give the universe some credit for its timing there.

With all of us still surprised, Miaka decided to speak first, the perky smile never faded away. "Hi g-guy—!" Shrieking, she instant fell backwards thanks to the gravity that was heavily impacting the way-too stuffed backpack. The moment her backpack hit the floor, taking her with it, she immediately flailed around—legs kicking and arms waving wildly as she tried to stand up again. "Get me out of this please! I can't get up its too heavy!" I sighed, smacking my forehead once and giving it my all not to scream out asking why she idiotically packed so much. Just take your arms out from the straps you spaz. As if she were reading my mind, she did just that, resulting in her sitting on her knees as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Giggling uncontrollably, she said, "Oh yeah…I forgot that I was able to do that. Everything's alright!" Note to self: ask her what the hell is in that poor abused bag. Yeah, it made sense for her to bring along a few things from home to make her stay in a foreign world more adaptable, but it almost looked like she either packed her whole room or the whole kitchen in that thing—perhaps both.

Standing up from his throne, Hotohori walked down the steps as he raised his arms with praise. "Our beloved priestess has come back to us from her world beyond the stars!" The few guards that were at the entrance to the throne room each faced the Odango-headed girl and kneeled to her, bowing their heads out of respect. On a more personal note, happiness flashed in Hotohori's gorgeous hazel eyes, probably ecstatic that the woman of his dreams had finally returned—however he was way too put together to jump around throwing a mini welcome-back party. He did, however, not hesitate to get down on his knees to pull her in for an intimate embrace—his hand resting tenderly on the back of her head to bring her in even closer. You could practically touch the warmness in the air from all of the affectionate feelings floating around. "You have always been in my thoughts Miaka—I am overjoyed to see that you are well."

Reacting like any sane girl would with a hot guy saying something like that to her, Miaka, who was proposed to in the past by said guy, blushed as she responded, "I'm feeling much better Hotohori, thank you!"

Just as Miaka was standing up and breaking the hug, Nuriko giddily ran over to her and took both of the girl's hands, swinging them up and down. "Miaka! You're back! It's about time—I was hoping you'd come back and see your best girlfriend Nuriko again." I knew that that extra emphasis on the word "girlfriend" was meant for me regarding the incidents from the night before.

Not being suspicious of Nuriko's usually uncharacteristically welcoming attitude, Miaka just closed her eyes and returned the cross-dresser's upbeat essence and smile. "I missed you too Nuriko—I'm very happy to be back with all of my friends!"

The whole performance that that purple-haired chump was playing instantly put a sour expression on my face. "Yo, Nuriko!"

Still holding onto my kohai's hands, the guy quickly turned his head to me as his grin transformed into a sly one. "You called?~"

"Why is it that when I showed up, you grilled me for being late—but when Miaka comes along, you treat her way more hospitably?" Not only did he come storming towards me, knocking away any guard that was in his path, but he began spouting nonsense about not writing a letter to tell him, specifically, that I wasn't raped or molested.

Chuckling, he told me, "Simply because she's way more sweet and a significantly better sport than you my dear Aki." While I couldn't wipe the still bitter look on my face, I had to admire his honesty.

"Onee-chan?" Looking over at Miaka, I realized that I once again had to get used to the honorific she had given me thanks to my rescuing her and her teddy bear when she was just a little girl. It didn't bother me as much as it used to, but it still did to some extent. Every time she would use the "older sister" honorific on me, I'd just recall all of those times she had been incredibly clingy and dependent. "I felt really bad for just leaving you here when I left—you could have come home with me."

Believe me, there really wouldn't have been much of a home to go back to. Besides that, the portal would have most likely dropped me off with her in Japan, when in actuality I was staying in America. Sure my parents were still in Japan, but there was no way in Hell that I would recreationally make a visit to them. Waving my hand at her in a "don't worry about me" style, I gave a small smile. "I wanted to stay, remember? So it's really no big." There was definitely enough going on around the world of the Universe of the Four Gods that kept me busy for a while.

"Well…if you say so." Her eyes trailing up and down my form, something lit up in her optimistic olive-green eyes. Her intense observance made me only cling onto the flower's stem even more to make sure that I wouldn't accidentally drop it. "I just noticed your new outfit! It's really awesome looking—like you're at some Chinese festival or something! Something that cool could only really look great on you Aki-nee-chan!" I didn't really want to think about it much, but something about that last comment reminded me all too much about the somewhat dimwitted and too-easily swooned fan-girls from Ouran. Before I even had a chance to thank her or even respond, I noticed a slight change in her tone—almost melancholy—as she let go of Nuriko's hands. "And your hair…it's longer. It's not as long as when we were younger, but I can see that you're growing it out again." She gave me a meaningful look. "I remember when you first cut short…after that happened…with Senpai…."

Unlike every person that I had met on my journey, Miaka was the only person who had known me long enough to be aware of some of the things I had went through while growing up. The girl knew Kajou, even though my older sister wasn't too fond of her—she would tell me that Miaka wasn't really worth my time. However, I was still in Japan at the time and she was around when Kajou died—she knew that I had cut my hair in mourning, never allowing it to grow out for years. Seeing as how my hair was getting longer again, there was a chance that she figured that I was finally over her death. Truth was I'd probably never be over it, but I didn't see a legitimate reason as to why I shouldn't grow my hair out again.

Spazzing out again, Miaka laughed nervously, probably figuring that she hurt my feelings. As long as she didn't reveal more than she had to about my personal life, I didn't necessarily mind what she said. "I'm not saying that it looks bad! I'm just surprised is all! Unless it offends you that I'm surprised! It looks nice! I think it's cute! I—"

Putting my finger over her lips, I decided to end her mild freak out before it became too eccentric. "Miaka, take a breath, and calm down." Feeling the vibrations from her chest rising and falling, I was fortunate in seeing that she took my advice.

Drooping her shoulders, she hung her head low and said, "Sorry about that…" Finally, by brain clicked as I observed this whole situation: Miaka arriving from a flash of red light with an outrageously huge backpack? That was exactly what I saw in my vision before leaving Tasuki behind! Absolutely everything was the same. Before, I had originally thought that my visions were of events that were occurring at the time of the vision. That was how it worked all of the other times (minus the Yui incident). But this particular situation was leading me onto believe that I was also capable of premonitions of the future as well! Huh…If that's the case, then it's going to be a real pain when it comes to deciphering whether or not what I see is in the future. There was a chance that I'd just be scrambling around for something that I thought was happening presently but wasn't actually happening until later.

Boy did I wish that this was the sort of ability that was more consistent.

With the topic of visions coming up, I decided to just go for it and ask her the question that had been bothering me for a while. "Hey Miaka? Did you happen to see Yui at all while you were at home? Just curious…"

She shook her head as the sullen expression returned to her. "No. And I tried calling her house and even looking for her—she wasn't even in the library anymore." Yui Hongo had been Miaka's best friend for quite some years, though I didn't know exactly how long since I didn't particularly care at the time. Although, I did know that they became friends a little after I came along to her rescue. While I was thankful that she did find someone else to be clingy with, it never exactly failed to get her completely off of my back. Yui and I hadn't exactly been close, but she acknowledged that Miaka looked up to me and I was grateful to her for looking after the girl when I either wasn't there or didn't want to. "I heard her voice before I got back—when we were at Mt. Taikyoku. But when I was leaving, I thought I saw some blue light fly past me in the opposite direction." Blue light? What could that have been? "I didn't think anything of it at the time. But as I got more and more worried about where she could be, I started to think that maybe…maybe…"

Maybe she was trapped somewhere in the Universe of the Four Gods. So…Miaka was thinking the exact same thing I was. Turned out that she was a bit more perceptive than I initially made her out to be. But of course that brought up the question:

Why can't I be wrong about these things?

If that blue light had indeed been Yui who was exchanged for Miaka, then that would have meant that Yui was stuck in this world for three months! Oh my God… Who knew the sort of things that could have happened to her in that time? Seeing as how distraught Miaka was about the whole thing, I decided to just not inform her about the vision I had—the same one that turned out to probably have something to do with Yui's being in that world.

And I did absolutely nothing about it.

Praying silently to myself, I put my hopeful thoughts out towards the universe. Please let her be alright!

"Miaka…" Hotohori's serious voice came through while the two of us got misplaced in our thoughts of the lost girl. Both of us and Nuriko all turned our attention to the emperor. "I am very sorry that you have not been able to locate your friend—had our country not been in danger at the present moment, I would dedicate myself to search high and low for her."

With a blank look on her face, the girl asked, "Umm…danger? The country is in danger? What kind of danger?"

Nuriko answered with, "Our neighboring, not to mention rival country Kutou had declared war on Konan a while ago." He shrugged. "So things are probably not going to be very pleasant for a while—you know, country wise."

Eyes growing wide, Miaka grasped, continuously turning her head to both Nuriko and Hotohori. "Are you serious? A war? A real war war? "

I couldn't help it—the opportunity was too great—she set me up way too well for what I was about to say. Scoffing, I told her sarcastically, "No Miaka, when he says war, he just means a huge global event on World of Warcraft—'cause you know how big a game that is in a world like this."

Just when I thought that she couldn't get any more gullible, she instantly perked up and completely went along with what I said. Wiping the sweat off of her brow, she clapped her hands once and started talking quickly. "Oh wow, you guys really had me worried there! Let me tell you—I really loved playing WoW. A few years ago, I would play it almost all of the time—even at school when the teachers weren't looking. Yui forced me to stop playing since my grades were slipping even more than they were. She literally grabbed me by the ear—"

"They aren't playing WoW you ditz!" I yelled in her face, praying to myself that she wasn't actually serious about thinking that this world had an RPG let alone the kind of technology for computers to be possible. "Focus Miaka—of course they are talking about a real war. Does Hotohori really seem like the type of person to kid about something like that?"

Putting an innocent finger over her lips, Miaka's eyes slowly trailed over to the emperor (who was probably staring at the two of us due to our futuristic topic conversation). "No…I guess not." Nuriko? Probably. But Hotohori wouldn't do that. "Really Onee-chan, you got me worked up over something like a game—when in reality, things are much, much worse." Narrowing my eyes at her, I thought, You got yourself worked up. "Now I sort of wish it was a game…if a war is going on, then that's awful…"

Clearing his throat rather loudly, the attention of the room quickly switched back to Hotohori. "Yes well…now that that is out of the way…" Realizing the show we must have put on for him, a small blush appeared on my face. If my self-control weren't intact, I'd probably burst out laughing from embarrassment. "I must stress the importance of the situation towards Miaka." He looked directly at her. "I don't mean to pressure you but the country desperately needs you to complete your celestial duties in order for our future too look bright. I feel that situations might become dire so you must summon Suzaku and ask of him his power to ensure the safety of this land." Not to mention the fact that the threat of another priestess was rearing its ugly head. Now that we knew that the probability of Yui being in that world was pretty darn high, it was also a pretty safe bet that she was in line to become the Priestess of Seiryuu just like I was (except my answer to that would have been a big fat "hell no!").

Realizing how calamitous the situation may turn out, I knew that I had to do something before things got out of hand. If I just looked for Yui and brought her back, then everything would be fine and there would be nothing to worry about (except the war…but really, focusing on one problem at a time was best). Considering everything that was going on, and because of the new priestess threat, Kutou wouldn't have been a bad place to begin my search.

Nuriko may have said before that two priestesses at once wasn't possible, but I preferred to be a bit more on the cautious side of things (which was pretty smart when it came to my luck with the universe). The vision I had about Yui three months prior may have been hazy at best—not to mention completely interrupted by some outside force—I had to act on it in any way I could and try to prevent anything horrible that might happen—or take responsibility for it.

In the end, my decision had been to temporarily dismiss myself from the group when I had the chance and go look for Yui. Right when we were able to get Tamahome back, I'd be surer of Miaka's protection—so that would be when I'd leave.

"I made a promise to you guys…" Miaka proclaimed, determination sparkling in her eyes. "So even though it might be harder than taking the entrance exams to Jonan Academy—which I hadn't even taken yet—I will do my best to help you all out." Scanning the room for the rest of us, she smiled. "After all, you are all so kind and have been so hospitable—I wouldn't want anything bad to happen." It was then that her atmosphere turned to confusion as she seemed to be looking for something—or someone—in the room. "Huh…I wonder…"

"What is it Miaka? You seem bewildered…" Hotohori observed.

"Well," She started, "if it's necessary for me to summon Suzaku, then I need all of the warriors, right? Then we're gonna need Tamahome!" The emperor, Nuriko, and I all exchanged glances to each other. While it did take a while for her to even notice that he wasn't around (not that it wasn't her fault, she was distracted), the three of us had failed to even bring up that he wasn't there or anywhere in the palace. We should have anticipated her wondering his whereabouts sooner or later. Right when one of us was about to explain what was going on, she completely turned her body around and faced the doors. "No need to go anywhere guys, I'll just go find him and bring him back so that we can plan our next action." Running at top speed, you could faintly hear her say, "Be back in a flash!" The three of us just stood there, staring at the spot she just suddenly dashed from.

Sighing in exasperation, Hotohori said, "Miaka…"

Heading towards the exit myself, I held a hand up to him to signal that he should just stay in his spot. "I'll take care of it."

---

"Tamahome! Tamahome!" Miaka ran up and down the hallways, making sure (the best that she could) to not bump into anybody and cause them to fall down (it was actually hard to tell if she actually knew where she was going or not. After all, she had just as much experience with that place that I had (okay, maybe I had a little more time) so she was probably just acting on blind instinct—which usually didn't work…not for her anyway). The girl had been looking forward to seeing him the most and it somewhat (probably) shocked her that he wasn't there to welcome her back like the three of us had been. Luckily, though, she had enough decency to not barge into every room—without knocking—while looking for him. "Tamahome! Where are you? Come out come out wherever you are!"

Being the person that I was, I had been sitting on one of the roofs for a while, ever since I located her, and decided to just see how long she was willing to keep up the meaningless search. This kind of dramatic irony was pretty entertaining to me—yes, I could be evil sometimes and I admit it. But also being quick to boredom, I put it on myself to stop this feat before the poor girl tired herself out and demanded a truckload of food. Oh wait—she'd do that anyway.

Making sure not to make the same mistake twice, I quickly took a trip back to my room and set the flower near my mirror, just in case I wanted to ponder more on its origins later. Those particular answers just didn't seem important enough at the moment.

Flying down right in front of her, the absentminded Miaka didn't look where she was going and ended up crashing right into me, resulting in her falling right to the ground. I, on the other hand, hand the opportunity to brace myself before the impact so all went well.

"Oww!" Rubbing her bottom, she looked up at me with baffled eyes. "Aki-nee-chan! I can't find Tamahome anywhere!"

Nonchalantly turning my head to the side, I scratched the side of my cheek. "That's probably because he isn't here…He left a while ago."

"What?" Jumping onto her feet, the volume in her voice rose. "Onee-chan! Why didn't you tell me before?"

Putting my hands on my waist, I retorted with, "Well you sort of bolted out of the throne room without warning—how could I have gotten a chance?"

Out of nowhere, Nuriko's feminine voice came in from behind. "I'd say that you had plenty of time to tell her what was going on." Appearing at my side, his tone had a somewhat know-it-all edge to it. "After all, you were watching her for quite a while, weren't you?" With my mouth gaping out at him from disbelief, fantasies of me driving him into the dirt in a plethora of ways played blissfully in my mind.

Eyes growing larger with tears forming in her eyes, she gave me a pitiful expression while biting a white handkerchief that came out from some mysterious spot. "Onee-chan?"

Not particularly feeling as if I should justify myself in this situation, something occurred to me. Extending my arm out towards him, I accused Nuriko. "Wait a second…the only way you could possibly know that I was doing that would be if you were looking at me from a well enough spot. Which probably means that you had a pretty nice view of Miaka as well."

The young girl turned to the cross-dresser, her teeth never letting go of the material. "Nuriko?"

Taken aback, he quickly tried to come up with an argument that would assist him in this situation. Looking down into Miaka's big, pouting eyes, his eye twitched in defeat since he had absolutely nothing to really respond with. Now ordinarily, I was sure that Nuriko would have had plenty to say, but with the look that Miaka was giving him, he pretty much broke down like most people would. Yui and I were more used to her doing things like that so it didn't affect us as much as it could have.

Finally coming up with something, he scoffed and replied, "I don't have to justify myself to you—I could have been just rounding the corner for all you know." What I didn't expect was for him to flick me in the forehead like he had done before (happy that he held back on his monstrous strength)—the stinging sensation led to me instantly reaching for my head and tended to it, giving him a "WTF" look. "Besides, we need to focus on the issue at hand—"

"Yeah!" We hadn't even noticed it, but the handkerchief had already disappeared back from wherever it came from. "Like the fact that Tamahome left me…" Miaka sullenly noted. "Why would he do that? Why wouldn't he wait?"

Hearing the sadness in her voice, Nuriko held up from his attitude and softened towards her. "It's not anything worth worrying about Miaka—I guarantee you that Tama-kins is absolutely crazy about you."

Skepticism still hanging on her words, something occurred through her mind as she tried to think things through. "If that's true—"

Grabbing her by the back of her collar, I began to drag her back towards the throne room. "We can discuss the emotional and psychological reasons regarding his actions later. But now, there are some things that need to be discussed with Hotohori."

Following not too far behind, Nuriko decided to have his word in with Miaka as she was being forced against her will. Amusement could be heard as it was slathered onto his tenor. "You see how touchy she gets when it comes to talking about matters of the heart?"

Miaka shrugged and gave a smile, never resisting or questioning my abrasiveness. "She's always been like that—but I don't mind. I still look up to her as my older sister and I love her for that!" Ordinarily, I'd cringe or react in an awkward manner (like lose my composure) if anyone ever said something like that about me. But this was Miaka—who was the same little girl all those years ago who became my substitute shadow. There was one thing she was right about though: I never really talked sentimentally with her—I barely did with anyone. But since it had usually been my goal in the past to "lose" her somehow, I never exactly thought of her enough as a friend to have heart-to-heart conversations with her. Oddly enough, she was never really offended by that characteristic about me and accepted me anyway. While it would have been relatively easy to get rid of her, some part of me decided to just keep her around since, at the time, it was only her and Kajou who could stand being around me after long periods of time.

Once we returned back to the throne room, I released my kohai, only to cross my arms and face the awaiting emperor with indifference. "I apologize for the wait Hotohori. Miaka can be…overly zealous sometimes."

He actually chuckled at that a bit. I wonder if he found all of this funny. "It's quite alright Akimoto—I sort of missed these instances of high energy as well as the antics that went on here with you all around." So this is how he gets his kicks, huh?

"Well on another note," I began, "I'd like to make a request—if it isn't too much trouble."

His eyebrow cocked up. "I'll see what I can do…what is it?"

"I know that Miaka has a bunch of priestess stuff to do starting probably as soon as possible, so before she has to do whatever needs to be done—or even before going on the great trek for the other warriors, can't we take some time out to find Tamahome?" Glancing back at her hopeful eyes, I continued with, "I'd say that that would be top priority for her before getting into how to deal with the war and other Suzaku stuff." Not only that but she'd have a horrible time trying to concentrate if we had decided to put off this Tamahome thing much longer.

Stroking his chin, Hotohori answered with, "I do suppose that that would be the wisest way to accomplish things more efficiently." He nodded. "So it's decided then—I will assist you on your search—"

"Your Highness! You mustn't!" One of the ambiguous guards from behind called out, reminding us that there were other people in the room besides the four of us. "Your country needs you to remain here just in case something unfolds with Kutou." Well that made sense…where would they be without their emperor after all? If an enemy country ever heard that the one they were fighting suddenly walked away from their post, of course they would take the opportunity to attack.

Disappointment riddled onto Hotohori's features, Nuriko was probably the first to notice since he spoke up eagerly. "Think nothing of it Your Majesty! You shouldn't be troubled with such a small task anyway. I'll tag along with Aki and Miaka to get dear Tama-kins back!"

"Are you sure Nuriko? I wouldn't want to trouble you…"

Nuriko giggled like a little girl before his reply. "Oh it's no trouble at all! I'd be happy to do it! Plus traveling with friends makes it all the more fun." Snapping his head back at Miaka and I he asked, "Right girls?"

Miaka nodded genuinely. "Of course! I'm happy to have you come with us!"

I, however, nodded slowly and gave a more sarcastic answer. "Uh…huh…'Fun' was exactly the word that I wanted use when describing an outing with Nuriko."

Ignoring my stab at him, the feminine guy put his attention back onto the emperor. "See? Everything will be just fine!"

"So be it then," Addressing all of us, Hotohori had decided on the way things were going to go. "You shall leave first thing in the morning—that way, you all will have time to prepare."

"Prepare?" I spat out, not caring about how unprofessional I sounded. "No disrespect Hotohori, but I don't think that it will really take that much to do what we need to do. I mean, yeah, Tamahome left the palace. But I really doubt that he went far if he was positive that Miaka would be back eventually." Knowing how much he cared for her, he would have anticipated her return even without knowing how long it would honestly take. "We can take some stuff with us, but I don't think we'll be gone that long—call it a hunch. And also, why should we put off something for tomorrow when we can just get it done today?" The faster we got that guy back, the faster we could finally start getting things—such as summoning Suzaku—done for real.

"You seem really eager to go through with this mission Akimoto," Hotohori said in slight surprise.

"Yeah…" Nuriko came up to me and eyed me in a suspicious way. "A little too eager. I'd expect Miaka being a little more optimistic with this plan—not you. So what do you have planned?"

Making sure that my expression remained unfazed, I simply replied, "There's no hidden agenda—I just want him back soon, safe and sound, and so that he can be happily with our priestess is all." Giving the cross-dresser a slight, almost unnoticeable glare, I added, "Nothing wrong with wanting that—is there?"

Before Nuriko could be predictable and start an unnecessary scene, Miaka cut in. "Of course there isn't! It makes me really happy to know that you want to help me out this much Onee-chan! Thank you! I also think that we should leave quickly!" Right when we managed to re-recruit Tamahome, I'd be able to go off on my own and find Yui. It would have been best to have Miaka worry more about her duties than to be constantly wondering about her friend. If she were to just leave that to me, then things would be just fine. "We really need Tamahome back—not just 'cause I want him back, but with his help, I know that we can save everybody…especially Yui…I'd hate for her to get caught up in the cruelness of a war…" I knew for a fact that Miaka really cared about Yui—they were kindred spirits. She may have put up a cheery demeanor, but she was probably real torn inside for not knowing where the other girl was at…

Facing Hotohori once again, I asked, "So how's about it? We leave today?"

He pondered on it. "If everyone is in agreement, then okay. I didn't exactly condone Tamahome leaving at such a significant time, but it wouldn't have been moral to confine him here against his own will for my own personal standings. And now his priestess calls out for him—it is his honored duty, so retrieving him as soon as possible would be best for everyone." I nodded, triumphantly, along with his ruling. It was only a matter of time before Miaka and I would see Yui again, but I wasn't there yet—I had to be patient. But great. Once this is all over, I'll have two underclassmen that I have to look out for while being in this world—two girls that shouldn't have even been here in the first place!

Whatever.

At least I'd be more at ease when I knew that that girl was alright and out of harm's way. I'll complain about how I have to put my own personal mission aside for the survival of two other girls later.

---

"Wow Nuriko! I didn't expect you to dress like that!"

About an hour or so later, the three of us who were planned to go on the trek to take back our missing comrade met up at the entrance of the palace. We were only planning on taking a few essentials to sleep with as well as one of Hotohori's thoroughbred horses which he graciously offered to us. With my levitation ability, I didn't need to ride on the dark grey-furred, black mane animal, but Nuriko and Miaka needed to get around quickly and that was the way to do it.

Right as things were getting prepared, Nuriko suddenly showed up appearing in a completely unexpected way! For once, he was wearing a man's outfit—it was a magenta long-sleeved Chinese-type shirt that went down past his knees but was slit on the left side. The lining was both white and green except for his cuffs which were just white. At his lower torso was a yellow wrap that tied in the font. He wore eggshell yellow pants that hugged his legs a bit and was wrapped with a green ribbon near the ends on both legs. His shoes were burgundy flats, making it easy for mobility. We were also surprised to see that his violet hair wasn't all fancy and done like it had been in his harem clothes. It was just in a simple, loose braided ponytail that went past his waist which he had sported in the front—his bangs still remained pretty styled, however.

Overall, I was impressed since I didn't exactly think it was capable for him to purposely dress like a guy. While his face still looked pretty feminine, this particular get-up revealed that he didn't in fact have any curves or a prominent chest like a woman would. He wasn't even wearing lipstick anymore!

Miaka seemed more than thrilled to see her companion look the way he did. Rushing over to him, she hugged his arm. "We hardly recognized you now that you decided to dress more like a boy!"

With indifference, he just shrugged it off. "I thought that I'd be less obvious if I went around dressed this way. Besides, it would be harder to really get anything done like defending you if I went out in my palace clothing." He tossed me a look. "The idea was mostly inspired by the outfit I chose for Aki—why should she be the only one with the advantage?" It was true—Nuriko had given me an outfit that made it much easier to move around at times when I really needed to. The feminine robes he used to wear probably would have made fighting a bit more difficult.

Coming up from behind, Hotohori gently put his hands onto Miaka's shoulders, slowly turning her around to face him. Gazing down into her eyes, he said, "Miaka, I sincerely pray that you stay safe. Even if we are not going to be apart for a significantly long time, I still worry about you constantly."

"Don't worry Hotohori, I'll be fine," she said with a sure smile. "I have both Nuriko and Aki-nee-chan to look after me and I have faith in them. We'll bring Tamahome back in no time! I guarantee it!"

Giving her shoulders a slight squeeze, he went on to inform us on something with slight reluctance. "We have been given reports about Kutou spies that have been sent here for sabotage—no doubt that they'd come after you as well. So be extra cautious…"

Leaning against one of the walls with my arms crossed as I watched the exchange of words between my friends, I finally decided to speak up with my input. "To be honest, I never exactly expected everything to go completely smoothly—in fact, I'd be a bit suspicious if absolutely nothing happened." While I was never completely sure on how the universe would make things more difficult for me, it almost never failed to do something to make my life more eventful. I'd just have to keep an eye on Miaka to make sure that nothing or no one snatches her up. The thing was, I wasn't exactly all that worried about facing a bunch of powerless humans who thought they stood a chance. Compared to the things I dealt with in that maze as well as dealing with Shadow Maidens, the thought of some "spies" didn't really come off as a threat.

"Jeez," Nuriko tsked in response to my words. "Leave it to Miss Optimism to jinx us before we even leave." I was just being realistic.

"Don't worry Nuriko," Miaka smiled over at me, "She means well."

Next, Hotohori felt that he should have some parting words for me as well. "While I do hope for you to stay safe Akimoto, I also ask that you take good care of our priestess—you and Nuriko that is." Well it is sort of his celestial job. Instead of giving a reply, I just nodded and gave him a knowing glance—I didn't exactly need him to give me such an obvious command (I mean, of course I'd look after her), but I supposed that it was sweet of him to want his love to be looked after.

After Nuriko got up onto the tall creature, taking the reins, Hotohori took Miaka by the waist and helped her up in the back of our purple-haired companion. To hide her identity until we successfully left the city and most residences around the capital, the emperor gave Miaka a dark beige cloak to conceal herself from potential enemy eyes.

"Miaka, make sure that you keep your eyes on the item that I handed you," Hotohori told her in a somewhat hushed voice. This peaked my interest a bit. Item? "It should help you on your quest."

"I will, thank you."

Noticing me all by my lonesome on the side, the considerate ruler of the country decided to walk over to my side. "Are you certain that you wouldn't like to ride one of my horses as well? I would be more than happy to lend one to you."

Appreciative of his thoughtfulness, I couldn't help but let out a small giggle. "No it's okay—I'm more used to flying around anyway." To add onto that, I wasn't all that comfortable with horses—something about them freaked me out and/or bothered a bit. It was their size, their smell, or the somewhat freakish way they looked close up. Far away, they were fine and majestic (I supposed) to look at. I just didn't want them near me if I was able to avoid it.

"You sure Aki?" Nuriko called back to me. "Miaka's wearing a cloak, and I had to change my clothes to avoid turning heads. Don't you think that a flying person will grab the attention of a couple…thousand people?"

Thinking over his actually rational reasoning's, it didn't exactly take much to come up with a valid solution. "I'll just fly high enough so that no one can see me—or high enough to where people wouldn't expect to see me. And once we get far enough, I'll fly low enough to assist you two." The more I thought about it, though, the more it came to my attention how even my liftoff would turn some heads. Someone somewhere would spot me and probably end up pointing, causing an annoying domino effect where everyone would once again stop what they were doing and look up. My flying upwards in combination with a royal horse trotting at full speed would have definitely looked suspicious to any enemy eyes that might have been observing.

Damn he had a point.

But I REALLY don't want to ride on a horse!

"Come on Aki! What's the holdup?" Nuriko called out. "We have to get a move on if we're gonna find Tama-kins!"

"Yeah…" My eyes uncomfortably trailed away as the thought of me riding a horse crossed my mind. There was a reason as to why I was keeping a well enough distance from it.

Hotohori offered, "Akimoto, if you would like me to fetch a horse for you—"

"No, no!" I uncharacteristically shouted out, earning me questionable looks from my three companions. To hide my obvious anxious attitude towards the beast, I quickly thought of a beneficial solution. "H-How about I just conceal our parting?" Before they could even ask how, I continued. "I have a spell that can make an area covered with fog, and only the people who I wish will be able to see past it. Once we're out of range, I'll let it up." The people might get a bit confused from the sudden weather change, but at least they wouldn't know the origin of the phenomenon. Anything to make it so that I wouldn't have to get near that unnaturally faced animal.

"Umm…doesn't that measure seem a bit…extreme?" Hotohori asked. Hopefully he wasn't catching onto why I'd rather take the long way around. "It'd be no trouble to just—"

"No, no—I'll handle it…" Focusing on the millions of droplets of Water in the air, I gathered my energy as I scanned the area to estimate just how far the spell should cast. To where all of those people are coming in and out would be an appropriate place to cut-off. The spell I was about to use was one of the first ones I had come up with before becoming a Master but after becoming an Element Tamer during my magic training—before I even had that spell book that Taiitsukun gave me to study. I had decided to be somewhat clever and use the planets as a sort of basis for the names of the attacks—it was an astrology thing (you know, how they are supposed to be in relation to an element). Looking back on it, the idea was sort of lame (even if I was fond of my creations), but far be it from me to change their names after all this time. This particular spell centered around the planet closest to the sun. "Mercury Bubbles!" Cupping my hands together, magical bubbles grouped themselves together in my hands mixed with a ball of light. Shifting to make my arms cross in front of my face, the ball of light that contained the bubbles floated in front of my lifted hands before I completed the spell. "Blast!" Right as I said that, my arms stretched out wide to the sides as the bubbles released themselves across the land, each bursting suddenly to form a dense fog, seen by only the people of my choosing.

Having a hand visor on her brow, Miaka switched her head in different directions, sort of like a bird. "I don't see anything."

"Yeah, the light show was nice and all, but I think your spell was a dud," Nuriko added on plainly before perking up a bit. "But nice try though!"

Sending a deathly look his way, I persisted while trying to not let him get to me. "Like I said before, the spell is based on my preferences, so obviously I want you guys to have perfect eyesight. They on the other hand…" Pointing my thumb to the civilians, I said, "are completely confused in a thick mist and have absolutely no idea. So now would be a good time to go." Lifting myself into the air, I felt that if I didn't finally take the first step (in the figurative sense) towards our destination, then we'd still be in that same spot listening to the somewhat over-protective Hotohori. Ascending more and more, the fear of people seeing me with the spell still intact completely nullified, I yelled down to them. "See you guys on the other side!"

---

The three of us were successfully out of the city, allowing me to finally release the fog and let the people wallow in their own confusion. If they had only learned to mind their own business and not gawk at every little unnatural thing, I wouldn't have had to charm them.

For the majority of the day, we had just traveled on the road, going wherever we thought would be more productive. With all of the people out of the way, I was able to fly low enough to communicate verbally with Miaka and Nuriko who were speeding on that well-trained stallion. It was hard to say exactly how many miles per hour we were traveling at (I could have gone a whole lot faster using Ray Wing like I had before), but we were probably making good time. As Miaka clutched to Nuriko by the waist, she made sure to be careful and do her best by trying to make sure that the cloak stayed on. Personally, I would have thought that she was in the clear to where she could voluntarily take it off, but I supposed that if she wanted to add some extra caution to the mix, that was good too.

Off in the distance the sun was beginning to set, setting a warm, off-orange-ish tone to the world around us, causing our shadows to trail constantly behind. The greenery was steadily increasing all around us the farther down the trail we went, eventually leading us into a somewhat lush, yet easy to manage through forest. The rays from the setting sun shone through the branches providing a pleasant guide on our path.

Ever since we left, there had been something that was growing increasingly on my nerves. Turning my head to the side to face Nuriko, I revealed in the feeling of the pleasant wind flying past my locks. "Hey Nuriko, just wondering, but how exactly are we supposed to find a person when we actually have absolutely no idea where they went?" Of course, the guy could have asked Tamahome before he left, but I sort of doubted that he did. "Because I don't know if you noticed, but your whole theory about Tama coming back the moment Miaka did was sort of disproven."

Since he was the one controlling the fast-paced horse, he couldn't exactly switch his full attention to me with complete body expression and all, so he just flashed me a slight look with his pink eyes to show me that he acknowledged my talking. "Well apparently, we have to put a bit more of an effort into it than that." He chuckled as the conversation topic seemed to amuse him. "A little kid may be able to smell the sweets, but you have to be in range for it to work effectively and draw him in." This was pertaining to the little reoccurring inside joke that he and I had about Tamahome being a little kid. Of course he wasn't—in fact he looked all man to me, but in many situations, the little kid metaphor worked—Miaka usually acting as the candy or sweets. "He'll show up."

Even with her face somewhat hidden, I could tell that the girl hanging onto him had a melancholy to her. "I still can't see why Tamahome would just leave like that…when I need him…"

Nuriko's smile widened a bit. "I'm pretty sure that he didn't want to leave—after all, he is in love with you."

Her grip around his waist tightened a bit. "No he doesn't…He told me flat to my face that he didn't feel that strongly about me…" Huh…I sort of remember that…Even though I wasn't there to witness her confession and his rejection, I saw it in a vision that ultimately led to her becoming sick. The vision was there, most likely, to warn me of her health and get her some proper assistance. But the primary dramatic scene did reveal that the guy didn't want to have a relationship with her at the time. However it was even more obvious how much in deep denial he was.

"He only said that because he was probably working through his own feelings," Nuriko told him. "There's a good chance that Tama-kins didn't know what love felt like and it sort of hit him kind of fast. You can't completely blame the guy for not being able to acknowledge strong feelings like that." He looked over at me slightly, who was rather surprised at how sensitive and sympathetic he was being towards Miaka's feelings. "Hey Aki, tell her the kind of condition he was in before you two left."

Recalling the pathetic memory tempted me to almost laugh out loud. "Oh yeah, that boy was so, so-so sad. I mean, messed up can't even describe how out of it he was when you left. It was like his whole world went all screwy 'cause you weren't there to set things straight."

A tint of hope could be heard in her voice as her head snapped up eagerly. "R-Really?"

I gave her a confident smile. "The guy chewed on plates Miaka."

"You see? He does love you—more than you know!" Nuriko guaranteed.

Miaka's face soon fell again. "But still…" I sighed. Of course there is a "but". "It would have been nice to have his smile be the first one I saw when I came back." For some reason, my mind instantly traveled towards Hotohori. He was thrilled that Miaka had returned, and yet her thoughts and affections were really centered on Tamahome. Does anyone else see any more drama headed our way anytime soon? If you do, please tell me so that I can find a route around it all.

"Well Miaka," I began, tearing myself from my thoughts of the emperor and the impending drama. "To be truthful, you weren't exactly here to need him. Besides, dude isn't psychic—he couldn't have possibly known that it would be three months until you came back."

"Whoa! Three months?" She shockingly exclaimed, practically jumping off of the fast-paced horse. How else did she think my hair got so long? Nuriko and I must have been thinking something similar at that loud assessment of hers. None of us had informed Miaka of the time that had gone by since the point of her return—it wasn't exactly surprising that she'd react like that.

Nuriko nodded. "Yeah, three months went by while you were gone—seems like a long time, doesn't it?" I wouldn't exactly have known, after all, the way time flowed in the maze was a bit skewed in comparison to the Universe of the Four Gods as a whole—then again, mine and Miaka's world was supposedly more out of sync with the time flow of the world we were presently in.

"I can't believe that it's been three months! No wonder he left…" She was probably referring to Tamahome. "But who would have guessed? I mean only about a day and a half went by in my world."

My head snapped to face her. "Seriously? Just a day and a half?" Man! Even the maze had us go through a few weeks…but just barely two days? A part of that reality was kind of funny the more I thought about it. Because technically, I'd barely been missing any school at all! Catching up would be a breeze if I ever ended up going back. "Well, like myself, Tamahome obviously needed to pass the time somehow—probably making a quick buck somewhere."

"Like…yourself?" Another thing that I had forgot to inform the girl of before was of everything I had been through while I was gone—I had to remember that she wasn't there for the debriefing I gave to Nuriko and Hotohori when I returned. "You mean that you went somewhere too Onee-chan? If you weren't staying in the palace, then what exactly have you been doing in all that time?"

For the longest time, I had been in some stupid, universe formulated maze that tried to kill me on multiple occasions while looking for some flower that never seemed to get any closer the deeper we went in. Reminiscing on those "happy" times yet again didn't exactly sit right in my stomach, not when I had just relived the whole thing to Nuriko and Hotohori the day before. So I simply told her flatly, "I'll tell you about it later." The headache wasn't worth it at the moment.

All of a sudden, the woods we were in began to get darker and darker without any warning whatsoever. The rays from the sun seemed to have lowered all the way down as if they were one of those dimming light switches. Okay…that's…odd…The road ahead of us was becoming more and more discernible as the last bit of light was completely consumed.

Nuriko also apparently thought the whole situation weird. "What's going on? It doesn't usually become dark this quickly…" It wasn't just dark—it was becoming pitch dark. Last time I checked, the earth wasn't traveling so fast around the sun that it would set so darn suddenly—if it had, the days would only be about five hours long, maybe shorter.

Gathering a small amount of energy, I brought my hands together, leaving about a foot of distance in between. "Light of life, brighter than flame, Let thy power gather in my hand." Immediately after, a small sphere of white light formed in mid-air as I completed, "Lighting!" The sphere grew to about the size of a softball, but the light it gave off paralleled the luminescence of a well-powered flashlight, allowing us to be able to see the path ahead once more.

"Good job Aki! See I knew we keep you around for something!" Nuriko praised. I, of course, grimaced at the comment. You keep saying that…Becoming slightly more serious, he added, "But really, we shouldn't have needed you to do that—something is definitely up." My internal alarm system had been triggered by this point, leading me to think that not only were we about to face something, but that we were probably no longer alone.

"What do you think is going on Nuriko?" Miaka asked, as she looked around.

Instead of him answering, I responded in his place, offering a valid argument. "It probably isn't wise to keep going on blindly like this Nuriko—it's not safe." Even with whatever was happening, the guy still persisted with having the horse go further and further into the unknown. Since he was actually a pretty thoughtful guy, despite the way he normally acted around me, he was probably trying to mull over in his mind why the atmospheric tendencies altered so abruptly and how to deal with it.

But before he even had a proper chance to pitch his ideas to me, some foreign object whipped past me, just barely missing my skin, but I could clearly feel the sharp wind that followed along with it. Having my concentration completely interrupted, I stopped immediately mid-flight as the ball of light fizzled out, levitating above the ground as I scanned around to try and find whatever the heck that was.

Still able to hear constantly fast gallops, I knew that Nuriko and Miaka were still on their way forward, not able to stop their horse as quickly as I was able to stop with my magic.

"Aki, what's wrong?" Nuriko yelled back at me right as something spooked the horse, prompting it to neigh uncontrollably, followed by a loud thud on the ground beside it. What happened? It was much too difficult to see with the lack of lighting in the area. It didn't take long for Nuriko to call out, "Miaka! Are you alright?" My eyes widened at the thought of the girl being hurt. Miaka! If the horse was scared by something chances were that it went back on its hind legs and kicked its front ones as it tried to fend off the danger. Whenever I saw something like that in a TV show or movie, the person riding said horse would fall off. Perhaps…that was the thud I heard?

Through the darkness, I heard Miaka try to fend someone away from her. "What's the big idea? You'd better stay away!"

Then a voice replied threateningly, "Who are you? You have no purpose here—either leave or be prepared to fight back!" Not unless you wanna deal with me! Dashing over with levitation, I rode the air currents to bring me to our unrevealed enemy. Focusing on Fire, I clenched my fist to collect my flaming energy. Yellow and off-white, reddish lightening bolts surged around my hand. All at once, a spherical flame ignited in my palm, right as I wound it up with my arm extended back to prepare for the blast. The glow from the condensed energy lit up the spot I was in, giving the place a dim scarlet lighting, helping me to navigate towards my victim.

Landing in back of Miaka's potential assassin, I brought my arm forward, ready to attack—the whole process seeming like it was happening in slow motion. Just before I could release, I began to say, "Fireba—" I immediately stopped in the pose I was in, careful not to do anything rash as I got a good look at the face of the person I was about to attack. The radiance from the Fireball gave off just enough light for me to fully discern who he was. Even with the red luminescence, his dark teal hair and violet eyes still managed to find a way to click through my brain.

"Aki?" He breathed through a gasp.

"Tamahome…" Miaka said quietly as more of a statement than a question.

"Miaka?" Facing down at her once again, the light from my spell give him a way to see her more clearly.

Holding back and relaxing my muscles—the danger level lowering—I brought my hand in and said in a hushed voice, "Tamahome." Extinguishing the flame in my hands, I allowed the darkness to once again emerge all around us, causing clear sight to be a rarity. However, with my pupils widening, I was able to see only slightly as my eyes adjusted to our darkened surroundings. With that, I was able to more or less discern Miaka, Tamahome, and Nuriko who was getting off of the horse to see what was up. Crossing my arms I returned to my nonchalant attitude. "You know, a split second later and I would have toasted your ass."

Much to my annoyance, the guy didn't even hear my jab at him. While I couldn't exactly tell what he was doing, it was plainly obvious: he was taking in the fact that Miaka had finally returned to him—which was probably why Miaka was also muted a bit.

"Miaka…" His voice was gentle as he spoke with increasing inner joy at the reappearance of his beloved. "You're back…I—"

"Tamahome I've…I've—" The young girl breath out to relieve her anxiety. "It's good to see you again…" Oh my gosh! I thought with a rather frustrated mood. Not only was it aggravating hearing those two—who obviously cared deeply about each other—hold back on their feelings, but this was exactly the sort of scene I hated being around. It didn't matter which world it was in, watching couples get all mushy around each other made me absolutely nauseous (hence the beginning of that situation in the mall with Saru back in my world). I didn't mean to be bitter—I mean, deep down I knew that I was supposed to be happy to see them happy—but the reality of it was that there probably wasn't a high likeliness of me ever being in that position, given my personal circumstances. While being aware of all that, I just couldn't help but growl and curse those couples that outwardly advertising the bliss that I might not ever be able to have. For other girls, it was probably unjustified, petty jealousy, but I had a perfectly valid reason for being sour.

"You have no idea," the man went onto say, "how agonizing it's been for me all this time…not having you by my side. Every day I doubted whether or not I could go on without at least hearing your voice…Miaka." Oh yeah, and Nuriko and I are virtually nothing, right? Thought it wasn't directed at me, I couldn't help but feel my stomach continuously flipping on its own—my face going hotter as the seconds went by. For the most part, I was pretty content that I couldn't see them clearly—the mushy audio was all I could honestly stand. My arms tightened around each other as they remained crossed, putting slight pressure on my stomach to attempt to cease its reactions.

Miaka swooned over his sincere words. "Oh Tamahome…"

Fortunately, my mind was taken off of things when my ears caught onto some movement around us. I was perfectly ready to use my aura vision to estimate the severity of the situation, but it was all in vain the moment a group of men with torches emerged from the dark forest, some holding torches that enlightened the area with a soft glow. Were these enemies? Should I have been springing into action? None of them looked hostile even though some were wielding hoes and sickles. For the most part, they were just stationary and murmuring to themselves.

Figuring that they probably weren't the sort of threat to put too much of my focus on, I turned my attention on the couple who happened to be pretty much perfectly visible at that point. Much to my displeasure, the two of them were caught, eyes closed, in an extended embrace which was mutual for both parties. Both of them seemed like they were in perfect bliss as the world probably seemed to disappear around them—which would explain why they didn't even budge when so many people were catching the free show.

Blush returning with a vengeance, I uncomfortably shifted in my spot, snapping my head to the side in irritation. "Hmph!" Don't they seem comfy?

Out of absolutely nowhere, Nuriko popped up at my side, leaning his elbow on my shoulder. An amused smile played on his lips as his face stood only inches from mine. "Jealous~?"

Scoffing again, I switched the position of my head to the opposite side, avoiding his gaze. "As if!" Limping the shoulder he was supporting himself on, I walked toward the two lovers while clapping my hands several times to get their attention. "Okay you two break it up—we didn't come all the way out here for you two to get cozy." Both of them broke they hug and blinked at me a few times. I sighed. "We're on a mission remember? Do this on your own time people." The moment they realized how much of a spectacle they were, they instantly jumped away from each other, completely embarrassed.

Nuriko chuckled while putting his hands on his waist. "No use in being bashful about it now you two—you're busted!" Can we please just stop talking about this? Trying desperately to put my mind on something else, I focused back onto our captive audience who were standing idly by. Which, of course, started to get on my nerves.

Or rather, I let it get on my nerves.

Grinning evilly, I spouted, "I'll give you guys something to gawk at if you really like." Calling Wind from every direction, a whirlwind began to circle around, brushing past the bushes and larger leaves and branches in the trees. The fire from the torches began to flicker with the influence of my power, earning me questionable, somewhat frightened looks from the men.

"Aki calm down!" Tamahome told me as he grabbed my wrist, allowing him my attention. Once he let go, he began to explain everything. "There's nothing to worry about—these men are with me. We were just scouting out this forest for potential dangers when we ran into you guys."

Cocking an eyebrow up, I slyly asked, "You all look like you're a mob hunting a witch or something. Don't you think that having this many men for just a scouting thing is a bit excessive?"

"Nah, actually it's understandable," Nuriko chimed in. "With the war happening and His Highnesses warning, it would make sense for villages to be cautious about things like this." Hotohori did warn us that there were spies from Kutou, so it was actually a smart idea for scouting parties like that. But for the most part, I figured it was something like that, I just really wanted an excuse to vent my frustrations out on someone.

Confusion struck Tamahome as he eyes Nuriko. "I'm sorry sir but who exactly are you?"

Holding a hand over my mouth, I tried to stifle my laughter. Nuriko, on another hand, was doing his best not to clobber Tama. With a vein popping out from his temple and cheek, he stomped over to the guy with a faux smile on his face, wrapping his arms around one of Tamahome's as he held on tight. "Why Tama-kins! You don't recognize me? That really hurts!"

While attempting to escape the usual cross-dressers grasp, he stuttered. "N-N-Nuriko? Is that really you? I couldn't tell—" Nuriko tugged even harder, bringing apparent pain to the poor guy.

"How rude Tamahome! To forget the person you had such chemistry with at the beginning of all this!" Him referring to the torture he put Tama through back when we all still believed that Nuriko was a woman. His jealousy over Miaka and me for being so close to Hotohori prompted him to toy with Tamahome in efforts to get the emperor jealous (which didn't work by the way since Hotohori saw Nuriko's coldness to Miaka rather appalling).

This was when Nuriko suddenly decided to wrap his arms around Tama's neck, squeezing for all he was worth. The guy looked like he was about to burst (courtesy of a superhuman-strength Suzaku warrior). "I-I was just referring to how you look now! You're not dressed like a woman, so I didn't expect it!"

"Now, now Tama-kins' it would be proper for you to apologize, right~?" Nuriko really wasn't showing any prisoners with this one.

Miaka and I slid into the scene as we both crossed our arms and narrowed our eyes at the tormenter. "Nuriko," we growled in threatening voices.

Catching our drifts, the violet haired guy gave the two of us a sympathetic look while pouting. "Aww come on…we're having so much fun! This is how we play—"

"Nuriko!"

He sighed. "Fine." Then dropped Tamahome to the ground like a rag doll—the guy's soul almost seemed to be coming out of his mouth as he twitched uncontrollably.

It didn't take long for him to jump up to his feet and explode at the playful Nuriko. "What the hell?"

Nuriko teased him by sticking his tongue out and winking. "Oh you know you liked it—all is forgiven Tama-kins!"

Okay, I think that we've just about wasted all the time we possibly could on this little comedy show. Here I was, itching to get Tamahome back and settled so that I could do the country a favor and go and retrieve the one girl who could give our enemies a significant edge over Konan. Not that it wasn't nice to be able to have kooky antics with these people again—I just knew that there was business that really had to be done.

"So Tamahome," I started to ask curiously, "what's up with you and these guys? What I'm wondering is if these people are from your home village or something."

He shook his head, "Not exactly—I'm more like hired help to protect the village." Not a second later, a huge, greedy grin ran across his face. "The pay is pretty excellent too—I'd be making more wonderful money than I had in a long time. Isn't that great? I've hit the jackpot!" Drool could practically be seen coming from the side of his mouth—sparkles pretty much floated around his head as he went off somewhere in la-la land. This boy has some serious issues if he's fantasizing over cash. I was really starting to wonder if—according to Nuriko's theory—Miaka was Tamahome's candy, or if money was.

Shaking my head in shame for him, I opened my mouth to explain to him why exactly we were there, but all of a sudden, each and every one of the torches went out—there wasn't even a strong enough breeze to do such a thing. The darkness had been brought once more, putting every single one of us in a huge sense of alarm. But instead of staying in a clustered group (which I thought might have been smarter), the miscellaneous men in Tamahome's scouting party spanned out, each trying to figure out what the heck happened.

"What trickery is this?"

"How could the fire have gone out? There wasn't any wind at all!"

"Well what if that girl did it?"

"The one with the red eyes? If Tamahome was correct, then she was the one who caused that whirlwind before, right?"

Oh sure blame me. Despite their obvious need for a scapegoat, this one was not my doing at all. I had long since been able to control my powers enough to know when they were and weren't going on.

Crawling its way up my spine, a terrifying chill took full and complete attention of my senses and train of thought. Almost immediately, anxiety consumed my very being while the hair on my arms stood up from the wave after wave of cold, sinister energy. This wasn't the same feeling I received from the Shadow Kissed women—no, this was much more powerful and evident—more…concentrated. The power was so incredibly negative that just the feeling of it had enough power to bring out the worst of your emotions.

Shadow Maidens.

With my eyes scanning around every direction frantically, I tried to locate the source of the disturbance. It had been a long time since I had actually went up against those creatures—those poor girls and women who somehow got consumed by the evil side of Darkness. Unfortunately, it was just too dark for me to really see anything. And I wasn't completely sure if Aura Vision would work either considering its use. Before, it was only used on the Shadow Kissed—focusing on the residue of Darkness left behind. Since it had never once been used on a Shadow Maiden, it was difficult to tell. Did they even give off an aura? Still though, I attempted to close my eyes to see if it would even work.

No dice.

Usually aura's come off of living things, emitting different colors based on who they are as well as their personality and inner emotions. While I could see the multiple colored halos of everyone else, any sign of Shadow Maidens was totally off the radar. That was probably because the way I saw auras was slightly flawed—even Chichiri said so. A normal person who learned the technique could do it with their eyes open and see everything. Because of the circumstances during my training, I got stuck with only being able to see them with my eyes closed—which limited me significantly. Realistically, when one closes their eyes, they only see blackness. With aura's I could see the many colors, but there was a good chance that there would be some hues that I couldn't see.

There's something that I would have to ask Chichiri about next time I saw him.

In my case at that moment, nothing besides the chill on my body was leading me to believe that a Shadow Maiden was around.

There was something, however, that I could look for to verify my senses: the yellow eyes. If I could just catch a glimpse of those cold, glowing yellow eyes of theirs, then I'd be absolutely certain.

But before I even had a chance to initiate that investigation, something wisped past me—front and back, so fast that a sharp sound was hard as it went by. One after another, I heard the sounds and just barely felt the concentration of wind that was being forced by the weapons. Then there were completely different sounds following those—the sounds of bigger masses falling to the ground rather repeatedly.

Closing my eyes to check up again on everyone's auras, what I found was rather alarming—many of them were on the ground practically motionless, even more joined them as the wisps persisted. Nothing made sense…what was happening? I didn't know whether or not I should have been more concerned about the sudden ambush, or my irking feeling of knowing that Shadow Maidens were around somewhere. Where the two related to each other?

All around me there was panic and mayhem—the forest was no longer as silent as it was prior. My body started to shake in the dangerous predicament. I couldn't see and something was attacking us at a pretty serious rate. Every single time I heard that sharp sound, my body would involuntarily jump and face what I thought the source of the sound was. And where were my friends in all of this chaos? Had they abandoned me or were they taken?

'Akimoto!' All of a sudden, a familiar voice came into my head…and it wasn't Shokyoku. It was that male voice that I used to hear more often, it came back! While I still wasn't sure about who it was, I was somewhat relieved to hear him again. 'You must settle your anxiety and calm down. Focus is the key to getting through this and keeping as many fatalities down as possible.' Right as he spoke, a sharp blade-like object wisped by and slashed me in the shoulder—sending a message of stinging pain to my brain. On instinct, my opposite hand raised up to hold the wound, trying to stifle the discomfort.

Growling, I thought, Okay voice, you win. Gathering a relatively small amount of energy around me, I casted, "Seoshi!" The almost transparent dome of orange-ish light surrounded me as well as four other random guys from Tama's group.

But none of them were from my group.

"You coward woman! Let us go so that we may assist our men!" One of them demanded of me. The others seemed to have agreed with their foolish reasoning's as well—I could sense their negative emotions, no doubt caused by the effects of Shokyoku. Nonetheless, they were acting like huge dumbasses.

Giving them one of the most deadly of glares, I hissed at them. "Assist them? Assist them at what, losing?" They all stared at me with lesser resentment than I honestly wanted to feel towards them. "You are all weak in this case so just stand there and shut up!" Still the onslaught of arrows persisted, a good number of them hitting the Seoshi and each of them failing to penetrate as they broke and fell to the ground. "Unless you ungrateful chumps have a better plan or magic abilities, I suggest you just sit tight until the attack is over." Besides the attack, there was still something that was bothering me to no end. Looking around, there was no sign of Nuriko, Tamahome, or Miaka. What happened to them? "Miaka! Tamahome!" I shouted out, still maintaining my focus on the dome. "Nuriko! Answer me!"

The worry inside me was increasing quickly. Observing the aura's on the ground, I was horrified to find that many of them were completely becoming extinguished—the glow just…ceased.

They were dead.

Grinding my teeth, I tried to hold in how angry I was at myself for not reacting much faster. If I hadn't freaked out and froze, then I probably could have saved so much more of those men. Whatever was initiating the attack never hesitated to kill—talking complete advantage over my reluctance. It's just that…it was so dark—things happened so fast and the feeling of Shadow Maidens was all around, I couldn't even remember at the moment to use Lighting to give me some insight. And what if I had lost my friends? I'd never forgive myself for that moment of weakness—that flaw in my personality that tended to happen…I just couldn't stand it! There was absolutely no way that my lack of action would have made Kajou proud.

Only expecting Shadow Maidens was a huge mistake—this attack wasn't their doing. They didn't use weapons like arrows because they had no use for them, not with their abilities. No, we were attacked by other humans, no doubt the ones that Hotohori had warned us about. So not only did the presence of the Shadow Maidens distract me (and said sensation wasn't even there anymore—it had completely vanished), but I underestimated other humans and the power of stealth.

Dammit.

Was something playing with my mind to get me to lose focus? Or were we actually in danger of a Shadow Maiden attack when these guys decided to go for it?

Either way, if anything ended up happening to Miaka, Tamahome and especially Hotohori would hate me for the rest of our lives.

After calling out a few more times, I found that the ambush had suddenly ceased. For the longest time it would be wave after wave of arrows but finally they were either reloading or ran out. Please let it be the latter. To be cautious, I remained quiet for a few seconds, trying to see if I could hear anything suspicious.

"Hey is anyone out there?" A familiar voice yelled out. I gasped, Nuriko! "I'm over here! Can anybody hear me? I can really use some assistance!" Making sure that our enemies had certainly quit for the time being, I let off of my energy and allowed the Seoshi disintegrate. Almost immediately, the four men that I had rescued rushed instantly to their fallen comrades.

Helping to light up the situation, I once again casted a Lighting spell, forming the soft-ball sized sphere of white glowing light that eliminated the area—revealing the bodies of those men who fell victim to the unexpected attack. The sticks from the arrows stuck out in fatal spots on their bodies—the sharp arrowheads lodged deep inside, making their crimson blood trickle out and flow steadily to the ground. This horrific scene that I was forced to see made me really want to throw up—never before had my eyes caught sight of a dead body before, and certainly not a massacre like this. Even when my sister killed herself, I never saw her corpse—there was no way I would've been able to since it was burned to a crisp…only ashes were left.

It really felt like I wouldn't be able to keep everything in my stomach contained, but I had no choice. This wasn't the time to break down and suck everything in.

After re-lighting the men's torches, I went search around the surrounding area with my own source of light to find my friends—wherever they were.

"Hey Tamahome! Miaka!" Nuriko persisted on—his voice making it much easier for me to locate his whereabouts. "Are you guys still alive?" Turned out that the guy wasn't as far as I initially thought he was, but boy was the sight an entertaining one! There Nuriko was—pinned pitifully to a tree by several arrows that conveniently missed his skin but pierced his clothing by the arms, making it harder for him to reach up on his own and release himself. Considering the situation, he was pretty lucky to have gotten off so easily by just being trapped instead of pinned or wounded.

Making myself known to him, I smirked as he realized I was there. "I noticed how you didn't include my name to your little roll call."

He smirked back, only his seemed slightly more hostile with a hint of verbal irony. "Of course not. I saw how you fended for yourself over there." Then the sarcasm was really spread on thick. "Oh yeah, by the way, thanks so much for including me in your little barrier protection group. You have got to remind me to pay you back one of these days!"

Resting my arms behind my head, I relaxingly closed my eyes as I spoke. "Hey, don't blame me. I didn't exactly know who was around me and I only acted on an impulse." Recalling my mini freak out with the nightmare of all of my friends getting killed, I asked. "And why didn't you respond to me sooner when I called out for you?"

"Yeah, I don't really know if you noticed, by I'm sort of PINNED TO A TREE!" His sudden outburst while stating the obvious wasn't exactly called for. Usually Nuriko wasn't an irritable person, but I could definitely see how getting bombarded by a barrage of arrows and having them play darts with him would potentially ruin his day. "It took me a while just to process everything that was happening as well as to even realize that this happened to me." Taking a deep breath in and letting it out, his speech became calmer. "Besides, I had a strong feeling that you'd be fine just 'cause it's you—which also lead me to assume that you'd have Tamahome and Miaka's back." At the mentioning of those two, a slight ping of guilt inflicted me once more as I lowered my arms and looked down and away. "But I guess…that isn't the case?"

Just as I was about to inform him of how I had lost track of those two, there was a rustle in the bushes beside us. Not too long later, the infamous couple appeared safe and sound—not even one scratch on either of them or any sign of struggling with the arrow outbreak. How the heck did they manage that? A gigantic wave of relief washed over me to see that the two of them were unscathed (and that I didn't cause them to die).

Oddly enough, though, Miaka was carrying what seemed like a wide, circular straw hat that was almost saucer like.

I stared at it with suspicion .

Huh.

"Nuriko?" Tamahome asked as he eyed his incapacitated friend. "Umm…what exactly happened to you?" I guess he and Miaka really weren't around at that time…

"What happened? Where were you guys to miss all of that?" Our purple haired companion countered back. He shook his head when he came to my realization as well while his voice became more serious as he recalled that night's events. "Well anyway…everything happened so fast. Once the torches went out, the last thing we really expected was to be suddenly and brutally ambushed. So many arrows came flying out and no one was prepared. Unfortunately, most of the men couldn't have been saved, but Aki managed to save a few. And somehow…" A grimace landed on his face. "This happened to me."

From the corner of my eye, I noticed how Tamahome clenched his fists following Nuriko's explanation. He had told us not too long before how he had been hired to protect the village that those men came from. It was understandable for him to feel a bit frustrated by the happenings of that night. As he felt my eyes upon him, something regarding me caught his eye.

"It doesn't exactly look like you were able to get away from the assault completely." Following his gaze, I was reminded of the somewhat bloodied slash on my shoulder caused by the zooming arrow. After my adrenaline got going, I supposed that I just forgot that it was even there. The wound wasn't really anything serious compared to the things I experienced and suffered during my journey. Unfortunately, not only were the new clothes Nuriko gave to me ripped at that one spot, but they were also stained by blood a bit. Seriously, couldn't the universe have waited at least a few weeks before messing up my new outfit?

Shrugging, I put the whole thing off as if it were nothing. "Don't worry about it—I barely feel it at all. But other than that…" Turning my attention back onto Miaka who happened to be carrying rather familiar head gear, I pondered something that I probably already knew the answer to. "Where exactly did you get that hat Miaka? I'm curious."

Instead of Miaka answering, however, the annoyed Nuriko fussed loudly at us. "Hey don't just change the subject like that! I demand that you take me down from this tree dammit!"

Completely ignoring him, I switched my attention back to my kohai. "So Miaka, about that hat…"

I didn't necessarily need to look at Nuriko to know that he was glaring at me something fierce. Considering he never did outburst long, he once again regained his composure and spoke at a reasonable level. "You know you can be real cold sometimes Akimoto." Part of me wanted to stick out my tongue at him, but told myself otherwise. Adding a pinch of pleasantry to his voice, he turned to the other male of the group. "Tama-kins? I know that you're decent enough to take me down from here, right?"

Sighing heavily, the teal-haired guy walked over to the tree as he said, "Yeah, I guess so."

So as he attended to that matter, I decided to try once more with Miaka. Knocking lightly on her head, I probed further. "Earth to Miaka—the hat please!"

Blinking blankly a few times, she literally popped up when her brain got back into gear. "Oh yeah! It was the weirdest thing—some guy with strange blue hair pulled me away to tell me some stuff and then he disappeared into this hat. At first I thought I went crazy, and to tell you the truth, I'm not completely convinced that I'm not!" She held up said hat. "I mean, how could a person even fit in one of these things?" My eyes squinted at it. I know at least one person who has that ability…

Tamahome pitched in. "What exactly did this guy tell you?"

"This sounds a bit odd Miaka," Nuriko added in his two cents. "Are you sure that this guy didn't just whack you over the head or something?"

Feeling a bit offended by his comment, the young girl retorted, "Hey! I'm just telling you what I saw…"

Patting my hand on her shoulder, I told her, "Don't worry Miaka, I believe you completely. In fact," Carefully, I extracted the hat from her person—giving it even further inspection as I held it in my possession. Feeling the smooth rows of straw neatly woven next to each other, my sense of reminiscence struck me with incredible force. Smiling somewhat mischievously, I continued. "I've been wondering for the longest time about how a certain monk was able to do some of the things he did."

Miaka's eyes became wide with excitement and curiosity. "You know who the owner of that hat is Onee-chan?"

Holding up the hat for all to see with my left hand, I answered with, "Yeah, you can say that. Now…" Facing the hat, I made sure that my smirk never faltered as I added a hint of smoothness to my tone. "We know how sometimes my powers are a bit unstable with my emotions, right? So who's to say that I won't suddenly slip up with this hat in my hands?~"

Of course, my companions were each staring at me like I was crazy or something—which made total and complete sense. If I saw something speaking to an inanimate object, I'd probably either slap them hard or take out the thermometer and check their temperature for a high fever. But it my case, I had a perfectly reasonable explanation for my peculiar actions. Still, one of them couldn't help but ask, "What the heck are you doing—" To which I held up a finger to cut them off so that I could continue with my work.

"Let's see…Water, Fire, Earth, or even Wind—which one do you prefer?" All I could do was ignore the way they thought I had lost it. "What? Fire you say?" Snapping my finders, there was a sudden ignition of an upward-blowing flame that resembled that of a Bunsen burner. Bringing it close to the very flammable hat, I taunted, "Well if you insist—"

"Wait!" A voice suddenly called out from the depths of my almost inert victim—the hat floating out of my hands and persisted to levitate in front of us for all to see.

Bingo.

By some unique force that I was still unsure how it worked exactly, a man arrived from the hat, popping straight out as if it were nothing. With light blue hair that was worn as a long ponytail in the back and gravity-defying bangs in the front, the fox-faced man stood there as if traveling through the inners of an article of clothing was perfectly normal.

Smiling with that usual cheery smile of his, the guy rose up a hand and greeted, "Hiya!"

With my friends backing off in the background, grouping together with their eyes enlarged as they witnessed the bizarre spectacle, I spoke directly to the man, for the most part unfazed by his appearing act. "Chichiri, what are you doing here? You told me that you left because of some business that you had to take care of." Out of him and Tasuki, I sort of expected the latter to leave our little group first, but no, it ended up being the one I looked up to almost like a brother. I couldn't exactly blame him for it, I mean, I knew that eventually we'd all have to split up, but seeing him standing before me not too long after we parted sort of made me suspicious as to what his intentions really were.

Going around my queries at first, he mentioned, "That's a very fitting new outfit you have Aki, you blend in much better now! And it's good to see that you've met back up with your friends, ya know?" Sensing that I'd get confrontational if he didn't soon answer my question (he definitely knew me well enough not to go there), he went on to say, "And I sort of am on business, ya know? There's no doubt about that—I just wasn't very specific about it." Say what? Couldn't really doubt it though… Looking behind me, the monk waved to my other companions. "Hi there! So Aki, I'd really like to meet your friends, ya know?"

"Oh…umm…" Seeing as how they snapped out of it, for the most part, I introduced all of them. "These two guys are Nuriko and Tamahome." The moment I said "guy" and motioned towards Nuriko, Chichiri had sort of an iffy look on his face, but quickly dismissed it. Most people would have did a double take if I told him that "she" was actually a "he". Ah the memories! "And this girl is the one I told you about before—Miaka."

Being the extremely friendly girl that she was, Miaka extended her hand out to be shaken as a sign of friendship. "It's really nice to meet you uh…umm—"

Accepting her offering of friendship gratefully, the monk smiled and replied. "Chichiri—you can call me Chichiri, ya know?" Getting a good look at her for a few moments, he ended the handshake by bowing slightly. "And it's really great to finally meet the Priestess of Suzaku!"

---

Once all of the informalities were out of the way, the five of us as well as they men with their fallen comrades returned back to the village that Tamahome was hired to protect. Luckily, the place wasn't very far away. While our little party proceeded to a small wooden, one room house/shack that Tama was renting, the four men that I saved told us that they would handle the situation with the bodies and inform their respective families. Before they had departed from us, they finally thanked me for saving them, realizing that they should have been grateful for being allowed to live yet another day.

Damn straight!

Pertaining to the situation with acquiring Chichiri once again, I was sort of surprised that he was automatically able to tell who the priestess was. If that were true, then why the heck did he make me go through that whole twenty questions thing right after we left the maze? Was he just testing my knowledge or what? The others seemed to be pretty fascinated by the monk as well—who wouldn't be? This guy had me puzzling something fierce about him since the day we met. Sure, I was more used to him than they were, but there was no doubt that there was just something about him. I was still rather curious as to why he wore that mask of his, but it wasn't exactly in me to dissect him for answers at the time.

The five of us sat in a circle around a warm, crackling fire pit that had been encircled with stone. With that being the only light source in the room, a soft glow illuminated the scene.

Instead of starting off with any small talk, Chichiri immediately got straight to the point. "I just thought you all should know that assassins from Kutou are searching to kill the Priestess of Suzaku, ya know?" Well duh. Miaka immediately tensed up a bit with his somewhat obvious bit of information. Facing her, the monk tried to but on the best serious face he could manage with that fox-mask of his. "Just to warn you, you should really start acting much more responsibly with your duties as the situations starts heating up even more, ya know?" Again, this was pretty much implied. The girl had agreed to become the priestess, probably went into it while not even knowing what the pain and consequences would be. When I started my journey, I'd be lying if I had said that I expected every single thing that happened to me. But nonetheless, I was prepared (I thought) for (almost) anything—ready to (pretty much) do what I needed to in order to get my wish (of course learning that my friends would lose their memories was a bit of an intense shock that I much rather not have had).

Regardless of what she thought would happen, Miaka also had to learn to be prepared…and do it fast. Her actions would determine the fate of an entire nation—talk about pressure. But she got herself into it, and the only way out would probably be to do her job. She would have to learn how to think rationally and make wise decisions—otherwise people could end up paying for it. And the very last thing I wanted was for Miaka to bear the burden of being the one responsible of making other's lives worse. The girl didn't deserve to feel any of the pain that I had experienced—she was way too sweet.

Chichiri continued. "While I was traveling around, I had been hearing rumors about how Kutou soldiers had been searching high and low for their Priestess of Seiryuu, ya know?" Upon hearing that, my eyes narrowed as I slowly turned my head to give Nuriko one of the bitterest looks I had in my arsenal. Shortly before Miaka came back, Nuriko got into this whole thing about how unlikely it was that there would be two priestesses as the same time. From the pit of my stomach I knew that things wouldn't be easy for us and now my monk friend just confirmed it.

My gaze at my purple-haired companion literally read "I told ya so", loud and clear—he seemed to catch it almost immediately. Turning to face me, he just shrugged and waved Chichiri off as if what he had said were nothing serious. "You heard the guy, he told us that it was just a rumor—don't get so uptight after every little thing." With a quieter voice, he addressed both Miaka and I, almost as if he were trying to keep a secret from Chichiri. "Plus doesn't this guy seem a bit weird to you? I'm skeptical of whether or not we can trust him."

Showing us a somewhat troubled look, Chichiri responded with, "Fine—I'll be weird and you be gay, ya know?" Stricken with mild shock by the monk's comment, Nuriko contemplated his next move.

Deciding to receive some information for himself, Tamahome spoke up to the newcomer, "Is it really even possible for two priestesses to exist at the same time?"

Crossing his arms and legs in thought, the masked one replied, "To tell you the truth, nothing like this had ever happened before, ya know? Although unorthodox, if more than one girl comes to this world from another, then I can't exactly knock the idea of there being both a Priestess of Suzaku and Seiryuu, ya know?" With our worst thoughts recognized, both Miaka and I sat there worrying about the girl named Yui. Now that my theory had been more than enough confirmed by Chichiri, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I had to get a move on and rescue her before it was too late—before her and Miaka were forced against each other in not only a physical war, but a mental one as well.

---

Everyone had been asleep for a long enough while, deep enough for me to finally escape and get to that self-appointed mission. The fire went out not too long before, but the room still had that toasty sensation that made it more comfortable to slumber. I, on the other hand, hadn't fallen asleep at all, not while knowing that I had to do something so important. It wasn't exactly my desire to wake up the others around me—especially Nuriko, Tamahome, and Miaka. They would just end up getting worried and deciding to unnecessarily follow me on something that I could accomplish on my own. Besides that, I really couldn't stand the whole "good-bye" and "good luck" process—way too sentimental and time consuming for my tastes. If I were to go off on my own for a while to pursue Yui, then they would be free to presume with their Suzaku duties such as collecting the other warriors. Even though it sort of hurt when Nuriko said it, and even though I knew that he no longer meant it, the fact was I technically wasn't a part of them. All of them were Team Suzaku and I was just all by my lonesome on the side. So my absence from them wouldn't really have affected much of their Suzaku-summoning process.

To settle some of my anxiety some more, I was relieved to know that Miaka had both Tamahome and Nuriko to protect her from whatever would come their way. Who knows? Perhaps even Chichiri would stay around to lend a helping hand.

As I observed everyone in their respective sleeping position, I was relatively confident that none of them would wake up unless I made some loud, obvious, not to mention obnoxious noise. This whole situation sort of helped me recall that night back in the Feudal Era with Inuyasha and the others—moving in the middle of the night, trying to avoid waking people up as I headed into the face of danger. During my training to grasp the elements, I felt that they thought that I couldn't defend myself. So I decided to foolishly go off on my own in order to go face-to-face with that world's strongest being, Naraku. That night, I had to be as quiet as I could in order to go off and prove myself.

Last time, I had decided not to tell anyone—which ultimately failed since Inuyasha technically busted me—but this time, I found it smarter to tell at least one person. This way, said person could at least keep my other friends at bay and potentially tell them if anything happened to me. Or at the very least, tell the others what was up only when I was far enough off the radar that they'd honestly not be able to do anything regarding my actions.

Using Levitation, I easily floated over any possible creek on the floor and avoid hitting anyone or anything. With a smug smile on my face, I felt pretty content with myself for executing my plan so well.

It didn't even really surprise me when Chichiri popped out of virtually nowhere under a crescent moon in a similar fashion to how he usually did (yeah, it took a few times of him popping out and me doing the combo of jump and squeal in order for me to get it right). What could I say? The guy was incredibly clairvoyant at most times—hiding things like that from him was virtually impossible.

Still maintaining a couple feet off of the ground, I crossed my arms in expectance as he spoke. "So you really are planning on going off?"

Nodding my head, I told him, "Yup—what's got to be done has got to be done. If I don't get Miaka's best friend back, it could mean real trouble that I don't exactly have the patience to deal with at the moment." Or like ever.

A puzzled look riddling on his features, he stretched out his neck from side to side as he mulled everything over. "It might not be the best idea, ya know? But knowing you I know you'll probably just go off anyway, right?" You bet your ass on it. Smiling, he then went on to say, "Then I wish you luck on your feat." Now the only problem would have been trying to convince him to stay and help protect Miaka while I was away. Even if I was only gone for a day or two, there were apparently many villains out there who would go through many lengths just to have her head. Using is somewhat irritating ability, he answered my unanswered query. "I would be happy to protect Lady Miaka if you'd like—it would be an honor, ya know?" Scowling at him, I thought, What? No prior engagements? He replied, "Nope—none that I can think of!"

Growling slightly, my annoyance level was rising. "Stop that."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he laughed. "Sorry about that, I just saw an opportunity, ya know?" With that attempt at an apology, I continued to mildly glare at him to illustrate just how much I didn't exactly appreciate him reading my thoughts. However, that was when he decided to change the topic a bit. "This had kind of been bothering me for a while, ya know? But where's Genrou? I sort of expected you two to stay together for a while, ya know?"

Getting a bit offensive, I retorted with, "Hey! Don't pair us together as if we're a couple or something." The sudden subject change to Tasuki sort of threw me for a bit of a loop—yet I should have seen it coming sooner or later. "Besides Ta—" Quickly catching myself, I realized that I almost revealed my knowledge I had about our bandit friend really being a Suzaku warrior by saying his name. Who would have thought that saying his true name in my head so many times would have made me so used to it that I totally disregarded his nickname of "Genrou"?

Still, though, Chichiri seemed to have just barely caught my little slip up. "'Ta'?"

An apparent blush went across my face as I tried my very best to cover myself up before he saw through the whole thing. Talking unsteadily, I said, "Ta…Ta—Talking…Y-Y-Yeah! Talking! That's what I meant to say."

"'Talking'?"

I gave a fake scoff as my words flowed out rather rapidly. "O-Of course! Genrou was talking about how he and I were partners, right? So regardless of where he went—which was probably off to cure his leader—he and I would end up crossing paths one way or another. Besides, we do have a bond, right?" With hopeful eyes and a shaky smile, I deeply hoped that he bought that whole story (not like the story was completely fiction or anything).

The monk stared at me for a few seconds, trying to decipher if what I was saying was actually legit. Snapping once, Chichiri finally agreed, leading me to do a mental sigh of relief. "That does make sense, ya know?"

Quickly switching the subject back to where it was supposed to be heading, I requested something of him. "Tomorrow, you four will have to head back to Konan's capital. I'll need you to do me a favor and tell the emperor that I'm off on business and will return as soon as I am able to." Just don't wait up for me. Lifting myself even higher into the atmosphere, trying my attempt to get out of the whole "farewell for now" thing, I looked above the trees in every which direction. However, a similar problem occurred to me that happened to reveal its ugly head when I left the palace three months before. So this time, I ended up playing it safe. Gazing back down at Chichiri, I asked, "Hey, umm…where is Kutou exactly?" This earned me a slight chuckled from him as he pointed in a certain direction. See? This was another significant reason as to why allowing someone else into the know was beneficial!

He spoke up at me. "Unlike Konan, Kutou's capital city is near its border, so it should be pretty simple to find, ya know?" Nodding in acknowledgement and thanks, I had finally been given some direction to take for my mission. A determined look in my eye, I flew off, silently thanked Chichiri for not making a huge deal out of my leaving.

I didn't see the need to fly at high speeds, especially since I didn't want to overshoot thanks to the intense g-forces. Even without Ray Wing, the wind still managed to refreshingly caress my face with a slight, pleasurable chill—my hair managing to feel the magic as the breeze combed through it with ease. The light clothes that Nuriko gave to me made me feel almost as light as a feather when I flew like that. And here I thought that flying couldn't feel any better! Every time my body was whisked into the sky and stolen by the wind, I felt so much at home and at ease with myself—like I was meant to be there, one with the freedom of wind. It was a similar sensation to the one I felt in my dream at that place with the golden sea. If I were able to feel like that all of the time, perhaps I would end up being less of a hostile and slightly pessimistic person.

Being so lost with myself in such a way made me almost completely miss my target. Up ahead, I caught sight of what did indeed seem like a large city—its scattered silver décor allowed its features to glow with the moonlight, the various torches reminding me of either fireflies or stars. So that's Kutou, huh? Who would have thought that that country was actually pretty close to that village that Tama was protecting? Here I honestly thought that I would have been searching high and low for the place—talk about relief. Hopefully I'd be able to stick to my simple "get Yui and get out" plan.

While it was difficult to tell if whether Konan was bigger or not, I noticed how this place had a lot more taller buildings than the capital city I had grown accustomed to. The palace especially—even from a respectable distance, I could see the silver and blue themed fortress without any problems. I couldn't exactly place why, but for some reason, I felt that the royals in Kutou tried a bit harder to impress people on the outside than Konan really cared to try. Don't get me wrong, Hotohori's palace is absolutely wonderful and exquisite, but Kutou's palace—with its plethora of taller buildings and designs—sort of seemed to shout at you "hey! We're richer than you and you know it!"

Something did happen to really catch my eye, though. There was a very high and rather evident wall made of what seemed like silver-ish white marble (or some other kind of stone) built all around the border of the country. Not only did they seem relatively thick, but also rather tall. They sure wanted to ensure the safety of that nation, no doubt about that. Or was it that they were hiding something? Konan had a wall too, but it wasn't as quite paranoia looking (if you understood that description).

Landing about a mile away, it had come to my attention what great time I managed to make. The night was still, for the most part, young, but nonetheless, a strange woman walking into the capital city to a country in the middle of the night to look around all inches of the place pretty much screamed suspicious. One of the last things I wanted was to become public enemy number one—or rather, prime suspect number one—right when I entered a new place. It would have made more sense to just wait it out until morning when people were coming in and out more plentifully—then I wouldn't be so out of place!

Concealing myself into a luscious and well-furnished tree, I used my power over Earth to make a sort of roomy cocoon made of branches and leaves in order to house myself as well as hide me from any passerby's that happened to look up and see something strange. Settling myself as comfortably as I could, the fresh scent of the greenery all around and calming sounds of the night steadily soothed me off to sleep.

---

Hiding behind a rather large boulder, I observed the process necessary for entering and exiting Kutou's capital city. Right after I woke up sometime during late morning, I didn't hesitate to immediately get to my post (…okay, it did take me a small while to remember exactly where I was at and what I was doing after sleeping so soundly). Considering I'd be entering into enemy territory, it didn't exactly seem like the best idea to just go crashing in. While I had absolutely no doubt about my ability to destroy those walls and go on a rampage, I figured that if I could just keep a low profile while causally looking for Yui, I could avoid any and all trouble. This whole situation made me appreciate even more the outfit Nuriko gave me since blending in would be such a breeze—at least I hoped so.

There were heavily armored soldiers bordering the whole place—each one of them keeping watch of anything or anyone that attempted to get in when they weren't supposed to be there. These guys had the most serious expressions on their rugged faces—all seeming like they weren't afraid to attack and destroy any sort of threat that would arise.

Too easy.

Still, concealment was the key and fortunately for me, no one had detected me yet. As people went in and out, I began to notice a slight stall before anyone was able to proceed with their business. Upon further observance, it could be seen that each one of them had some sort of passport to be allowed to even go on. While I wasn't exactly sure if Konan worked the same way (when you think about it, I never actually entered the country or its city through the "front door" before), it was the way things went down here. And I didn't own anything like that.

So of course I had no choice but to sneak in.

The problem with that being that there were so many guards posted at almost every wall and corner that infiltration without detection seemed almost impossible. Flying in probably wouldn't have been all that smart either—not with all of those eyes on the lookout.

What to do…what to do…

Sitting there for a few minutes rattling my brain, an idea finally came to me. If I couldn't go through them with how things were, then I'd just have to make sure that they weren't there to see me.

Focusing on Fire (huh, just realized how I used that element an awful lot. While I do love Wind, Fire just comes in handy so many times! How ironic considering my early history with it, huh? Besides, in most cases, Wind is really broad and in this one, I needed something more concentrated), I used my energy to condense my power into multiple entities.

Casting silently, I chanted, "Inferno Array!" And before I knew it, several dozen fist-sized balls of off yellow light appeared all around me. Without a second thought or hesitation, I lifted my arm towards the sky and soon the spheres followed the language of my body language without question. Soon they were high above the treetops, making sure that the soldiers had the absolute best view of them.

Taking another peek past the boulder, I could tell that they did as I expected and fell for the bait. They all looked at the sky in alarm, watching warily at the mysterious balls of light in the unsuspecting sky. Talking amongst themselves, they probably had absolutely no idea what to do in a situation like that.

Well…I decided to speed up their decisions up a bit.

Flicking my wrists downward, the spheres instantly went flying far off, only to arch downward and descend—bursting instantaneously on contact, the mini explosions seemed to catch everyone's attention. The woods all around me shook vigorously every single time another sphere interacted with another object—be it a rock, a tree, or even the ground (chances were that some innocent insect buzzed along and got disintegrated as well). Nice thing about this spell was that it wasn't a particularly lethal one—in fact, it was pretty tame. The only uses for it were for the means of capturing, not killing, or making distractions. Luckily for me, my plan was executed flawlessly.

The soldiers, while doing their duty, went off to investigate the strange phenomenon, probably figuring it was Konan's warriors making a sneak attack or something—or perhaps even some thugs who came along and decided to cause some trouble. Whichever way you slice it, they fell for it, and I saw my opening.

Going through the front entrance still wasn't an option for obvious reasons, so I rushed over to one of the now more so unguarded walls and used Wind to produce an air bubble underneath my feet, launching me up and over the well-built structure, allowing me to land on the other side, using Wind once more to soften my landing. And there I was…in Kutou.

Looking around cautiously, I did my best to make sure that no one witnessed what I had just done. Fortunately for me, it seemed like I landed behind some shops and booths, so I was pretty much concealed. Walking out of the darkest corners, I found myself in the streets of this country's capital city. Unlike Konan, the dominating colors seemed to be blues and silver—most likely colors that were in correlation with their god Seiryuu, much like how red and gold symbolized Suzaku.

With bustling crowds, inns, as well as other businesses, nothing exactly looked out of the ordinary. Well, except for the small groups of soldiers that marched in sync as if they were off to battle. Most likely they were just in patrol and trying to keep everything in check with their fair city.

Even as I walked past civilians and got caught up under the shadows of some of the amazingly crafted, Chinese-style taller buildings, no one was giving me any reason to think that they were wary about me in any way—I actually fit in. And if I kept my head down slightly, I could avoid people looking into my scarlet eyes by hiding behind my bangs. Just keep walking and don't make eye contact with anyone. If my eyes were more of a normal color, then I wouldn't have had to worry about people giving me peculiar looks.

Nonetheless, the mission was to search for Yui, even if I had to search throughout the whole country. I had a feeling that she was there somewhere, the trick was pinpointing where exactly.

Right when I least expected it two suspicious men came up at my sides, walking beside me to where it looked like we were some sort of sandwich. They were dangerously close to my person, both of them leaning their arms against mine almost as if they were trying to keep me in place.

To avoid from any other passerby's shooting doubtful glances at us, I maintained calmness, making sure not to react in any eccentric way.

One of them spoke up. "Now just come with us girly and I promise you that there won't be any trouble." Down near my sides, I noticed how that one had a small knife that he was clutching, pointing the blade right towards a vital spot. He kept it low and discrete so that no one other than the three of us knew what was up. Even with the attempted threat, my face remained unfazed—in fact, my expression was in the middle of bored and irritated. But the irritated side was steadily overpowering the other.

His friend felt the need to put his filthy hand on my lower back—tempting me to completely knock his block off right on the spot—probably attempting to travel more south into dangerous territory. "Yeah, we plan on having some fun with you so you better cooperate or else." I sighed, soon followed by a light groan. These guys didn't waste any time did they?

With a bit of force, the two of them directed me into some isolated alleyway in between some buildings. Still I kept my cool, assessing the whole situation as it played out. Right as we arrived near the alley's end, they pushed me up against a wall, the two of them using their bodies to barricade me from freedom.

Or so they thought.

The slimy one with the knife threatened me once more as he jabbed the air in front of me. "We haven't seen you around these parts before. But it's always nice to be getting some fresh meat once more."

"So just slip off those robes for us and let's see what we've got to work with." Crossing my arms, all I did was just scowl at them as I tried to formulate the best kind of punishment that these jerks deserved. Upon further listening, it was obvious that this wasn't the first time they degraded some poor woman or girl. Seeing as how they were still out and about after their dirty deeds, no one had showed them what the true fist of justice felt like. When they figured that I wouldn't budge, he spoke up again. "Well what the hell are you waiting for?"

"We aren't afraid to rough you up a bit." Holding up the knife to the height of my face, he continued, "A flew slashes won't turn us off or anything—we take our women whoever way they come—as long as they satisfy and obey." Grinding my teeth, I tried to contain my energy from causing an immediate tornado that could possibly threaten all likes in that city. I absolutely could not stand people like them who believed that they could get away with virtually anything they wanted with whoever they wanted—it was infuriating! Sure, I would get annoyed of having to save the victims of these chumps, but I could not find myself standing the crap these guys dished out.

The other one stepped closer. "Or would you like it from behind? We're okay with doing all the work—if it gets done, then we're happy." Chances were that these guys weren't bandits or affiliated with bandits, so I couldn't exactly execute my threat that I made to the Mt. Kaou bandits a while back. However, that did not prevent me from bring the hurt to these two sorry fellows.

"So what's it gonna be red-eyes?" They taunted.

Switching my gaze from one to the other continuously, their form of judgment had finally come to me. Taking my hand, I lifted a part of my robes, making it seem like I was complying to their whims.

They smirked. "That's right—be a good girl now."

But then I reached in with the other and made my kunai appear in such a way that they didn't notice that I pulled it out of nowhere—making it seem like I had it concealed in my clothing the entire time.

Instead of acting alarmed, they just traded glances between each other and returned back to me with evilly amused expressions. "Looks like our little pet has a toy!" I am not your pet!

"Tell us, what do you plan on doing with that?"

Gripping onto the handle with full force fueled with anger, I told them with a chilling voice, "I'll tell you bastards what I will do—I am going to throw this weapon into the air. And before it touches the ground, you two will no longer be able to move your bodies or even flap those disgusting holes you call mouths. Crying out for help won't even be an option."

With cruel laughs they asked, "Are you threatening us woman?"

I shook my head. "Nope. That's a promise." Them not taking me seriously was definitely going to make my job a lot easier, with barely any resistance from those two.

Using Wind as a backup, I threw the kunai high up into the air, higher than some of the rooftops even. Just like the idiots I thought them out to be, they stared up at it, thinking that that was probably the only real danger that they'd face.

Manipulating Water, I surrounded myself with a frigid whirlwind, frost even started to form on locks of my hair and the material of my outfit. The two thugs' attention finally came back to me when my power became known to them. Horrific expression hung off of their features as they tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

"The hell?" He attempted to say with a shaky voice.

"What's this broad supposed to be?" I could tell by this point that they had the intention of running.

Like hell I'd let them do that.

Before they could even blink, I brought my hands up to my face, palm facing the sky, as I blew into them. My frosty breath uncoiled the whirlwind around me as it spread out and caught its two victims in the wave. Ly Breim!

The kunai had hit the dirt below, penetrating the ground with its sharpened blade. As promised, the spell was complete and my victims no longer had the ability to speak or even twitch—I wasn't even completely sure if they could really see anything anymore. Contained inside a pillar of solid ice were the two morons who underestimated me and made so many girls suffer—probably traumatizing them deeply.

It was sort of ironic—with all of the red, hot fury I was feeling towards those two, I decided to freeze their asses solid. The best part? Unless some other magic user came along, these two probably wouldn't have thawed out before they were dead. Did people die when they were frozen? Or were they just being preserved? In either case, they wouldn't have been able to mess with anybody else for a long, long time.

Walking casually past them, I didn't even give them a second glance. I just crouched down to pick up the kunai and then went on my way as if nothing even happened.

Cruising nonchalantly out of the alleyway, I scanned using only my eyes to see if anyone witnessed anything that went down back there. Of course the trick was not looking like I was guilty of anything because that would have been a dead giveaway right there. But considering it's me, I was real talented when it came to hiding my emotions or my true character.

That plan would have worked swimmingly if two soldiers, standing tall and ready to pounce, hadn't been eyeing me warily. Not good. Even though I was trying to act inconspicuously, I couldn't help by glance at them almost continuously, watching whether or not they would decide to make a move. Their armor looked like it was made out of some real sturdy metal, decorated with the metallic version of Seiryuu's colors.

"Hey, you there!" One of them called out in a commanding and rather intimidating tone. Pretending like I didn't think they meant me, I continued walking down the streets. "Halt!" Reacting swiftly, the soldiers came towards me in a hasty pace. Banging his staff on the ground, he tried to get my attention once more. "Woman! I demand you to halt!" Running would have meant that I was guilty of something, so I had no choice but to do what the Kutou soldier wanted of me.

Acting as if nothing was wrong, I smiled sweetly and innocently asked, "Is everything okay?"

Not even reacting to my smile, he responded as if everything was all business. "Strange happenings have been going on all morning—we've even had reports about someone potentially sneaking past the border."

"You don't say?"

"Upon investigation, there was a pitiful attempt at pulling soldiers away from their posts." My eyebrow twitched a bit. Pitiful? Who is he calling pitiful? "It's shameful to be a part of the same army with such disgraceful men who were made into fools in only a matter of minutes." His eyes narrowed at me as he grasped onto his spear with vigor—prepared to attack when needed. "The capital city has been put into high alert as we search for the intruder an potential spy. So I ask you woman…" The guy probably thought he was slick. From different directions, other soldiers started to close in on me, almost like they thought that I wasn't aware of what was going on. It was becoming more and more evident to me that I wasn't as careful as I initially thought I was.

Ninja I am not.

"How long have you been in the country of Kutou? Your face is not familiar to me—or anyone else for that matter."

Smile flickering slightly, I did my best to not just end it right there. "Well with so many people living here, wouldn't you think that it would be impossible to remember everyone, right?"

"Our men on lookout say that they never allowed you in here." Dammit! Okay, so maybe I was a bit overconfident about my abilities and I sort of belittled them by thinking that every single one of the soldiers in this country were complete nimrods. They were all trained and taught to detect certain things and that was why they were allowed that duty in the first place (this was supposedly the case anyway). So it would probably be best to say that I failed miserably at blending in. "Hand me your passport," he demanded.

Scratching the back of my head, it was soon clear that my bad acting was going to get me busted for sure—if I wasn't already. "S-Sorry, but I must have left it with the family that I'm visiting in Kutou…"

"Ma'am, you're going to have to come with us." Without warning, he grabbed my arm, not caring if he was gentle or not—the older soldiers forming a circle around us to make sure that I wouldn't get away.

Like I couldn't.

I didn't exactly fancy the idea of being arrested—yet again—so as quickly as the idea formed in my head, I found myself blasting all of them away with a ferocious gust of Wind, blowing them all into nearby walls, windows, and carts. People are so much more susceptible to attack when they least expected one. Not taking even a second to hesitate, I broke out in a run, getting as far away from my captors as possible. After realizing who exactly owned them and how, most of the soldiers managed to recover from my attack and immediately began in pursuit.

Lungs burning and legs starting to die out on me, I honestly started to question why I was using this method of escaping when I could have been zooming across the sky without any worry about being captured. Because then everyone in this city would know that I'm different and that I don't belong here. All hopes of looking for Yui and keeping a low profile would have been completely dead. There would probably be some sort of warrant on my head and most people would end up trying to fight me and turn me in. I'd end up having to look for Miaka's best friend while fending off people and dealing with more stress than I honestly cared for.

Oh screw it. I'd get Yui back my way.

Lifting myself from the ground, I flew rapidly just a few feet above the ground—not exactly caring if I knocked anyone out of not. By this point almost everyone was trying to see what all of the fuss was about and quickly making the mistake of getting in my way. As fast as I was going, I couldn't discern all of the different faces or really even see the details on the buildings. The only thing that was important to me was ditching those chumps.

Right as I was about to round a corner, a huge platoon of soldiers arrived (Man they react fast!) and pointed their sharp spears at me while holding shields in their other hand (well I had to give them a few points for finally adding some line of defense against me). At the risk of not getting run through with a bunch of pointy weapons, I immediately banked upwards, heading towards the safe sky.

When I figured that I was finally in the clear, my body became consumed by a rapid, yet familiar chill. Before I even had a chance to think on it, a black form emerged out of nowhere and flew straight at me. There was no time for me to avoid it. My brain had my body tense up from impact, but the shape somehow managed to become intangible, going right through my body sending an unpleasant and cold sensation coursing throughout my being. Not only did I feel somewhat violated by something going through me, but my body suddenly became enveloped by a painful black sheet of energy. I no longer felt weightless like I normal had when I flew, but instead, it was like gravity was having its revenge against me, seemingly like it had multiplied almost a thousand times. No matter how much I tried to use my powers to bring me back up, absolutely nothing ended up working.

With my heart racing and lungs near hyperventilation, the ground was quickly rushing up and I just couldn't bear to watch myself plummet to my death. Shutting my eyes tight, I silently prayed that my powers—any power—would make itself known in some way that would help save my life.

Suddenly, I felt fierce winds caressing me and swirling in all directions—I could no longer feel myself falling. Opening my eyes slowly, I found myself being carried in some sort of sphere of fast-blowing winds whose only mission was to keep my life preserved. Feeling a pleasant tingle, I discovered that, by looking down at my chest that once again my silver veins were fading in and out, attempting to maintain its visibility until disappearing once more. Surrounding me was a huge crowd of people, soldiers included, who were gawking at me as if I were some sort of freak or monster—their faces illustrating both fear and disapproval.

As I was gently lowered to the ground, Wind began to disperse and the veins went away like it had those other times. After blinking a few times, trying to soak in every odd thing that just happened, I was immediately in the center of a multitude of soldiers who found it necessary to point their many blades at me (sheesh, déjà vu much?). Seriously, why couldn't I go anywhere in this world without the threat of being arrested?

"Capture the witch!" Some civilian shouted out.

"Take her away before she causes even more trouble!"

"Look at her eyes, she can't be human!"

Oh yeah, these people really knew how to welcome a person.

One of the braver soldiers, or perhaps even the leader made his way through with a long, black-ish metal chain. And without hesitation, he bound my arms against my body as he encircled my whole body, tying me up completely using the whole, long chain.

With my physical strength, there was absolutely no way that I'd be able break free of my confinement, so I didn't even try. At this close of a range between my enemies, I was both out of my element and at a huge disadvantage. Like I mentioned sometime before, using my hands was extremely essential to casting spells and if I'm not able to use them…well…we all remember what happened back during the last trial of the maze—you know, when that kid attempted to control my whole body and I ended up "malfunctioning" by casting a bunch of unexpected spells that had absolutely no direction to them whatsoever, ending up with a plethora of explosions. Not only that, but there was also Shokyoku to take into account. For all I knew, she was planning on releasing a huge wave of negative energy that could end up making people either want to kill each other or themselves. See now, if I did that in this situation, I wouldn't have been exactly sure whether or not there would be fatalities. So going crazy was out of the question at the moment, though it was an option.

Truth was that I could have probably found some way to get out of that mess, but something occurred to me at that moment. Back at the palace in Konan, Miaka and I managed to discover three Suzaku Warriors, two of which happened to already be living there. So if I did end up being brought to the Kutou palace to be presented to their emperor, there was a chance that I could not only come across the more significant enemy (a.k.a. Seiryuu Warriors) but also a potential priestess (i.e. Yui).

Even if Yui weren't there, I could just escape and hope that I wouldn't be heavily pursued. While I did have the power to fight back, it didn't necessarily mean that I wanted to. The only time I really enjoyed kicking someone's ass was either when it was hitting Tasuki with the Hammer of Justice or when someone honestly deserved it (like those types of thugs who like preying on the innocent). Anyway! The underlying message in this whole thing was that just because I can do something, didn't necessarily mean that I should.

It was also apparent to me that even if I did attack them, it wasn't like they knew who I was allied with. Since I wasn't from the Universe of the Four Gods, I technically wasn't from Konan or any other country, so in a way, I wasn't necessarily on anyone's side. All of this was important to consider in the long run since it made sure that Hotohori and everyone else in Konan wouldn't have suffered because of my foolish decisions, "act of aggression", and inconsistent temper that could have potentially made the war even worse.

Keeping all of this in mind, I allowed them to arrest me and bring me in—ignoring all of the nasty comments that were directed only at me. Jeez, not even people in Konan were this disrespectful. Keeping a barrier of soldiers around me, they forced me to walk towards the large, impressive palace. One of them even kept hold of the chain to make sure that I wouldn't escape (again, actually a pretty smart move on their part).

As I walked, keeping my head down once again from judging eyes, something continued to bother me. What exactly was that thing that knocked me out of the sky? It was headed right for me and knew exactly what it was doing. Was it a Shadow Maiden? Everything happened so quickly that I couldn't even tell. While we were in the forest looking for Tamahome, I had a feeling then as well that I was in the presence of Shadow Maidens, yet they never even showed up.

What was going on?

Shaking my head, I tried to get those unpleasant thoughts out of my mind. The only thing I was supposed to be focusing on was saving Yui. If the forces of Darkness were going to send its creatures at me once more, then it would have to wait until I got this mission completed first.

For once in my life universe, can you please just level with me here?

---

ATTENTION READERS: This is the Beta version of LH5W, if you want to read the official, updated version of the story, you'll have to go over to DeviantArt. com and head on over to my page. My username is Aloubell. You can also get there by going to my fanfiction. net profile which provides a link over there.
In any case, this Beta version is basically the rough draft of LH5W, my first attempt at it. Much of the plot points from this version will be the same in the official version, but there are significant and consistent characterization changes, a few (but very important) plot differences, expansion of past ideas, and overall better quality in storytelling.

All of this will be done over on DeviantArt. I no longer will write the story in traditional prose nor submit/update it here to fanfiction. net. The Beta version will remain here, just know that it isn't the 100% official story.
The official version will be written in a lazy prose mixed with play-writing elements (you'll get what I mean when you see it).
This is the new format for the story from now on.
So please head on over there if you're interested in updates to the story! Thank you for stopping by =D

-Aloe

PLEASE NOTE: The official version is being written somewhat out of order. The official version will start on chapter 46, the place where the Beta version left off. The official version will go on to complete the last chapters of Season 2. Once those are done, I will redo the story over again from Chapter 1 which will be the official version.

Having said that, if you choose to continue on reading, I hope you enjoy the Beta version and look forward to the official!