"Kutou had already been fighting in Hokkan for three days, and Genbu no Miko, traveling back to the capital, was frantically searching for the seventh Seishi. The news of Kutou's invasion had really broken the group's morale, but Genbu no Miko was optimistic, trying to always cheer her companions on." Einosuke sighed. "Come on, Takiko! You have to find the last Seishi so that you can return home to me!" He continued to read. "They were almost to the capital when they were caught in another ferocious storm."
******
"We'll never make it back to the capitol at this rate!" Hatsui shouted over the roar of the winds. "We need to find shelter!"
"But there are no caves in this region." Hikitsu pointed out.
Tomite spoke up, with a hint of sadness in his voice. "We….we can seek shelter at my old house. It's very close, and it's abandoned now."
Takiko noticed Tomite's sad face. He has to go back there…it'd be like if I had to go back to where our house burnt down… Tears started forming in her eyes. She hadn't thought about her real world for a long time. She was so caught up with becoming Genbu no Miko and finding the Shichiseishi that she hadn't once stopped to think that maybe all of this was fake. Am I inside the book that I was reading with Otosan? Otosan…I wonder if he's worried about me…
"Here it is. We can put the horses in here."
******
They entered the empty mansion, which was full of dust and cobwebs. All the same, Takiko could see that it had once been a house full of life.
"There are plenty of rooms," Tomite began, "And there's a fireplace in each one, and I believe firewood, too." He left the others, heading down a hall.
Takiko could see that he was in emotional pain and decided to follow him. She found him in a room, sitting in the middle of the floor and facing in the opposite direction. "Tomite…you haven't even started a fire. Here, I'll do it." She cleaned out the fireplace and put some firewood inside.
"The wood's a little damp, but I think I should be able to get it going. Aha! That wasn't too hard."
Tomite spoke, but didn't turn around. "This..this was my room. I figured it'd be easiest if I came here, instead of places where they might have been."
Takiko heard him sniffling. She went beside him, putting her hand on his shoulder. He continued. "But..I guess I was wrong. The whole house reminds me…"
Takiko smiled. "The storm will be over soon, so we'll be leaving pretty soon. We'll find the last Genbu Seishi in town, and this will all be over with. Hokkan and we will come out on top, I just know it."
Tomite grabbed Takiko down to his side and hugged her. "Takiko-sama…you're always so happy for us. You keep up our morale." He stood up and approached a dresser. Pulling a key out of his sash, he opened a drawer. After he searched around in the drawer, he pulled out a beautiful necklace with a large gold ornament framed around a purple jewel. "This was my mother's. I want you to have it, Takiko-sama."
Takiko shook her head. "I couldn't. It's important to you."
"But you're more important to me than anything." He paused. "I…I know how you feel about Iname-san."
Takiko's eyes widened. How..how does he know about that?
"But…but…" Tomite pulled Takiko closer and kissed her. After a moment of confusion, shock hit in, and Takiko pushed him away. "Tomite!"
"Takiko-sama! I LOVE YOU!"
They stared at each other for a moment in silence. "To-Tomite…"
*CRASH*
Takiko looked around. "Did that noise come from the wall?"
"Shh!" Tomite put his finger to his lips and waited, listening. "It must have come from the secret passage!"
"Secret passage?" Takiko watched Tomite push a spot on the wall and a section opened.
Tomite pocketed the necklace and turned to Takiko. "Stay here, Takiko-sama. I'll check it out!"
Takiko ran to his side. "I'm coming with you!"
"Then hold on to me." It was pitch black inside. Tomite felt around at the walls, twisting and turning so much that Takiko couldn't remember where the entrance was.
"Is that a light?" Takiko pointed ahead. They turned the corner to see a man, about 20, with long blond hair in the corner. "Stay back!" he shouted.
"Who are you?" Tomite asked. "I own this house, I have a right to know."
"I didn't mean any harm…" All of a sudden, the man pushed aside Tomite and Takiko and ran into the darkness of the maze.
"Wait!" called Takiko.
Tomite held her back. "You'll get lost. Let's just warn the others that there's another person to watch out for."
******
"So we have company somewhere in here." Hikitsu nodded. "If he appears again, we'll let you know."
Hatsui, who had been staring out the window, suddenly gasped. "It looks like Kutou soldiers are heading this way! At least 100, maybe 150 of them! Have they taken control of the capitol to get this far north?"
"Maybe, but I doubt they could be so fast to come this far." Uruki pointed out. "I think they came here on purpose-just to greet us."
Everyone was quiet. Namame broke the silence. "But how can they travel this well through the storm?"
The sign of the "Cow" shone on Iname's forehead. "Let's stop asking questions and get ready to fight!" He turned to his little sister. "Namame, take Takiko somewhere and hide." Namame nodded and grabbed Takiko by the arm.
Takiko wouldn't budge. "I'm staying here with all of you."
Iname pushed her. "Just go!" He turned to Tomite, Uruki, Hikitsu, and Hatsui. "Are you ready?" They nodded, their Genbu signs shining brightly.
******
Takiko and Namame had ducked into Tomite's old room. They could hear the sounds of battle and feel the cold winds from the ice powers of the Genbu Seishi.
"There are too many for them! We have to help them!" Takiko started for the door, but Namame held her back.
"Takiko-san, you must stay away from the battle. You're their main concern, the reason for which they are fighting. And I've been assigned to keep you away from the line of fire, so that is what I will do." She let go of Takiko's arm and looked away. "I'm worried, too. Iname's all I really have now, and if I should lose him…" She smiled. "Let's have faith in their abilities and the grace of Genbu."
"Namame…"
"Quiet!" Namame whispered as she strained to hear. "It sounds as if soldiers are nearby. What should we do?"
Takiko ran to the wall where she had seen Tomite push before. She pushed hard, and the secret passage opened. Takiko and Namame ran inside just as the Kutou shogun entered the room. He saw the wall close and knew exactly where to find the Miko. "There!" He pointed and a dozen soldiers used their swords and axes to chop at the wall.
******
"Damn!" Hikitsu shouted as he used his ice serpents to knock out a few soldiers. "They just keep coming!"
Uruki was throwing ice stars. "These ones are just trying to distract us. I saw a bunch slip past us. Namame will need help protecting the Miko."
Tomite nodded and kept shooting ice arrows. "There are fewer soldiers here now; I'll go after those others."
Iname followed him. "You'll need help."
Tomite nodded and led the way. "I think I saw them go to my old room." As he ran to the opened door, he saw that the wall to the secret passage had been slashed open. His eyes widened. "They're being chased by that many in a pitch black maze! We have to hurry and find them first!"
******
"Genbu no Miko and her Seishi, Namame, kept running in the never-ending maze. It was too dark to see anything, so they kept running into walls. They could hear footsteps from every side.
As they turned one corner, they ran blindly into a bunch of Kutou soldiers. Genbu no Miko felt someone grab her as a light approached."
******
"Shogun! We've found them!"
Takiko saw a tall ugly middle-aged man holding a torch turn the corner. He smiled and went up to Takiko. "At last, we have you, Genbu no Miko. I knew if I used enough soldiers your Seishi would loose you to me."
Takiko turned and saw Namame, knocked unconscious, being held by another soldier. "Don't hurt her!" she cried.
"Of course, we won't. If you cooperate."
A soldier lifted his sword to Namame's throat, and Takiko nodded. "What do you want?"
"We want you to come back with us to Kutou." He paused, smiling an evil smile. "And become our Seiryuu no Miko."
Takiko's eyes widened in shock. If I was their Miko, they would wish for evil things, and my friends would be no better off. What do I do?
"That's a laugh!" Everyone turned to see a green character reading "Roof top" glowing in the darkness. "Your God, Seiryuu, hasn't deemed that it's Kutou's turn to have a Miko, otherwise your Shichiseishi would have appeared as well."
The shogun grew angry. "Who are you?"
"I am the seventh Genbu Seishi, Urumiya!" He stepped into the light.
Takiko was shocked to see the man they had found before in the passage. Her heart fluttered as she realized what he had said. Seishi! The seventh Seishi!
"Let Genbu no Miko go!" Urumiya charged at the soldiers. The shogun grabbed Takiko himself, turning to the solider holding Namame. "Come with me and bring her! We can use her to motivate the Miko."
They started to find their way to the exit when they came face to face with Iname and Tomite.
"Let them go."
The shogun and soldier flung their hostages on the ground and drew their swords. "You'll have to fight us for her!" The shogun charged at Iname, who dodged just in time, but was still cut on his side.
"Iname!" Takiko screamed.
Tomite took out his bow and formed an ice arrow, killing the soldier. He raised it towards the shogun, but he quickly knocked the bow from Tomite's hands with his sword. "He's fast!" Tomite shouted.
Iname raised his hand and formed ice at the shogun's feet, but the shogun didn't loose any speed in attacking them. "Sorry, Genbu Seishi, but it'll take more than that to defeat me! Once I realized you weren't a joke, I trained under a psychic and I know your every power now!" He lunged at the two Seishi.
The fight was long, and even though Tomite and Iname were able to hold their ground, they couldn't hurt the shogun. Takiko realized that her friends might not make it out of this fight.
All of a sudden, what seemed to be a tornado of snow zoomed past Takiko and surrounded the shogun. It held him paralyzed while Iname took the shogun's sword and used it to stab the shogun.
The shogun fell to the ground, bleeding. "Impossible! None of the Seishi has this power…none of the ones gathered yet…" He closed his eyes and died.
Takiko turned to see Urumiya behind her. "Are you all right?" he asked as he helped her up. Takiko nodded. "Arigatou."
Iname lifted Namame, who was starting to awaken, and the four of them followed Tomite out of the secret passage.
******
"I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you, Takiko-san!" Namame apologized.
Takiko smiled. "You did the best you could, so don't worry about it."
"So at last we have found all of the Seishi, and have defeated a whole troop of Kutou soldiers." Hikitsu smiled. "Things are really going our way!"
Hatsui nodded. "And we can head back to the capitol and call Genbu! We'll win this war for sure!" He looked around. "Where did Iname and Uruki go?"
Tomite pointed to a bandage on his arm. "Uruki's bandaging everyone. She's with him now."
"How do we go about calling Genbu, anyway?" asked Urumiya.
"We need the Shijin Tenchi Sho scroll." Takiko told them. "I left it in my bag in Tomite's room. I'll go get it now."
As she practically skipped to Tomite's room, Takiko couldn't help but feel truly happy. I've made up my mind. I don't need to wish for true friends, I've already found them here. I'll save their country and ask Genbu if I can live in this world forever. Forever…with Iname…
******
"Genbu no Miko opened the door of Tomite's room and gasped in shock. She covered her mouth and tears formed in her eyes. In front of her, she saw the Seishi Iname and Uruki locked in a passionate kiss. Genbu no Miko could feel her heart shatter into a thousand pieces."
To be continued…
LK's suggestion to me was to have Tomite offer Takiko the necklace that will become her Shinzaho during the period he confesses his love to her. Originally, I had it in the last chapter.
