Run!

Escape to the Temple of Suzaku!

Episode 5

"This is crazy!" Tamahome yelled to the winds as he and Lina dashed through the streets of Eiyo. "Are you out of your mind? What did you think you were doing, blasting stuff like that?"

Lina let him rant. She was disturbed by the lack of force in her magic. It couldn't be that time of the month, either. She knew her cycles and they were not the cause of her current lack of magical power. Something else was keeping her from using any black magic at all, and the meager showing in her digger bolt told her shamanist magic would not be of much use. Not that Lina knew much shamanist magic. The sorceress frowned. Would white magic work? Would it matter? Lina knew less white magic than shamanist magic.

"This way, this way," Tamahome said through his ranting, pulling her down a side street. He was still mad, Lina could tell, although she didn't blame him. No matter where they turned, there always seemed to be a group of angry townspeople following them.

"Don't you know a safe place to hide?" demanded Lina. How she wished she could cast a Raywing or Levitation spell! Running about really tired a poor girl out.

"It doesn't matter if they keep following us," growled Tamahome. "We have to lose them before we can find a place to hide!"

They continued fleeing down streets at random. Lina's breath was short; they must have been running for more than an hour! Every road they turned down led somewhere new. Lina was glad Tamahome was guiding her; she would have been lost in minutes. The sheer size of the city was enough to boggle her mind.

"Wait! This way!" Tamahome dragged Lina down a tiny alleyway. They squeezed past several crates, hunkered down, and waited.

Her breath was ragged, but she held it anyway as five people went barreling down the street. She let it out when they had passed by without glancing in their direction.

"Okay, that solves one problem," whispered Tamahome. "But where can we hide?"

"Don't ask me," snapped Lina. "I'm paying you. You're the local."

"Right, right, right," grumbled Tamahome blackly. "Let me think of somewhere."

Lina's stomach had the bad manners to growl right then. Quite loudly, too. She winced for two reasons; she might have given their position away, and she hadn't eaten a bite since that buffet lunch. Judging by the sun's position, it must already be past suppertime.

Tamahome eyed her in irritation but didn't comment.

"Gomen," she apologized quietly. "But I don't think they heard me."

"We can't be too careful. Anyways, we'd better leave this alleyway, in case they get the bright idea of retracing their steps." He wedged his way past the boxes, glanced down the alleyway, and motioned Lina to follow.

This time their pace was not as hurried. Running attracted undue attention, so Tamahome and Lina walked quickly but purposefully.

"Here. This is a good place to hang out." Tamahome led her to a large, but empty, building.

Perfect.

They sat down on the floor behind a large table, out of sight from the main entrance. Lina sucked in air, rubbing a stitch in her side. She'd never had to run so furiously before. Usually she just levitated her way out of a bad situation.

Finally regaining her breath, Lina looked up at the building. It was surprisingly peaceful compared to the bustling activity outside. Four red pillars, carved with ornate decorations, supported the red-tiled roof. Besides the main entrance, there were two other open doorways, one to the west and the other to the south. The table wasn't really a table. It seemed more like an altar. Incense sticks, flowers, and fruit offerings were artfully arranged on top of the silken red cloth. A fuzzy bumblebee was perched on one of the flowers. Behind the table was a large tapestry of a phoenix.

"Ne, Tamahome, where are we?"

He gave her a mean look. "Come on. You have to know where we are by now."

"Look, I'm new here, so give me a break!"

"This is the temple of Suzaku," he sighed. "Do you at least know who Suzaku is?"

Suzaku! That was the phrase in the Shijintenchiso! Lina knitted her brows in concentration. The book had not explained what Suzaku was, it merely mentioned a heroine gathering Suzaku no Shichi Seishi. "Er, not really."

"Sheesh. Suzaku is the protecting god of Konankoku. The red phoenix of the south."

"What about, um, Seiryuu?" Lina recalled her argument with Naga.

"That's the blue dragon god of the eastern country, Kutoukoku. The other two gods are Byakko, the white tiger god of western Sailokoku and Genbu, the black tortoise god of northern Hokkankoku."

"I see," said Lina, although she really didn't. Did that mean that Naga was somewhere in Kutoukoku?

Tamahome looked at her sharply. "You really don't know anything about here, do you? No one can be that ignorant of their surroundings. Where do you come from, some other world?"

"Maybe I do," said Lina. She meant it lightly, and the two of them laughed nervously.

Hotohori, blinked several times, hidden in the southern doorway of Suzaku's temple. He had come to pray to the phoenix god but paused when he noticed the temple was occupied. Respecting their privacy, he had started to withdraw. Then he heard their conversation:

"Where do you come from? Some other world?"

"Maybe I do," the strangely dressed girl had replied.

That stopped him cold. He was reminded of his prayers to Suzaku: aid in defending Konankoku from the war-like Kutoukoku and its army. The legend of Suzaku no Miko sprang into his memory. The miko was supposed to come from another world when Konankoku was in dire need. She was supposed to gather the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi, of which Hotohori was one. She was supposed to summon the scarlet phoenix and be granted three wishes in return. She was supposed to save Konankoku by virtue of those wishes.

Well, Konankoku was in dire straits. Reports from the border told a disturbing tale: an army practicing for battle with a strange, blonde-haired shogun at the lead, rumored to be a powerful warrior. There was unrest in Kutoukoku, and it was likely to spill over into Konankoku.

Unless he could stop it. Hotohori sighed and watched the two laughing. Is she our salvation?

Voices drifted in from outside. They were angry voices, and Tamahome swore.

Lina gulped.

A small band of angry citizens stepped into the temple and stared at them. Mostly they stared at Lina, who had blasted the building, but a few glances were made towards the young man, too.

"Ah...eh-heh-heh-heh... gomen nasai about the building, minna-san," said Lina. "It was an accident, I didn't mean to damage your roof..."

"Quiet!" barked the one Lina had dubbed the shopkeeper. "You could have injured all those people outside of my shop!"

Several others nodded in agreement.

"And what am I supposed to do?" continued the shopkeeper. "Now I have a large hole in my roof! Do you know how expensive it's going to be to get it repaired?"

Two guards filtered in behind the crowd, trying to find out what all the commotion was about. "All right, now, what's the problem, here?"

"Aaaah, well, you see," Lina temporized.

The shopkeeper pointed a finger at Lina. "That girl has just destroyed a good portion of my shop! Then she and that man led us in a merry chase all over the city!"

The guards did not look happy at the news.

"Look, look, I'll repay you!" said Lina hurriedly.

"Repay me? You've brought bad luck on my store. No one wants to come in anymore; they think the roof will fall on them! You're making me lose a lot of business!"

"Hey! It wasn't her fault!" Tamahome spoke up for the first time. "She said it was an accident, apologized, and offered to pay for the damages! Isn't that enough?" His forehead glowed red, and the symbol of 'oni' flashed.

Hotohori gasped. This man was also one of the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi? That was enough; he had to stop this before it got any more out of hand.

The guards were advancing on the two when a young man with long black hair stepped imperiously from the south door. "Stop it, all of you, right now," he ordered.

"Hey, and who do you think you are?" snapped Lina, at the end of her temper.

Everyone else in the room was instantly bowing.

"That's the emperor of Konankoku!" hissed Tamahome into her ear, yanking her down to her knees.

"Oops." Lina knew she had to do something about that habit of speaking before thinking.

"Heika! We're sorry!" said the guards in unison. One of them continued, "We do not mean to disturb your prayers to Suzaku. We'll just take these people out of your way..." He stopped when Hotohori held up his hand.

"I'll deal with them myself," he told them.

Tamahome gulped.

It was not as bad as Lina thought. No one had come to haul them off to prison. The emperor, who looked to be only a few years older than Lina and Tamahome, courteously escorted them to the palace.

If the temple and the city had amazed Lina, the palace left her breathless. A beautiful complex of buildings of a particular architecture, the palace was grander than anything she had ever seen.

The beauty was wasted on Tamahome, who had seen the palace many times from afar. He was nervously following, clearing his throat every few minutes and glancing around.

After he had cleared his throat for the fourth time, Hotohori sighed and said, "You can calm down. I have no wish to harm or imprison you. However, there are things I must discuss with you."

The younger man nodded, but still appeared jittery.

The emperor led them into a small audience room where they all took a seat. "You must be Tamahome," he said, addressing Tamahome.

"How did you know?"

"Let me introduce myself. You probably know me as the emperor, Saihiteh." Hotohori pulled down his collar, exposing his left neck. "But I am also known as Hotohori."

The character for star flashed from his neck.

"Uwah!" said Tamahome. "That's just like me!"

Lina raised a hand. "Hi. I'm Lina Inverse. Is it just me, or are flashing symbols on people's bodies just plain...weird? I mean, 'oni'? 'Hoshi?' Not something you see everyday, ne?"

"Are you familiar with the Shijintenchiso?" Hotohori didn't pause to hear their answers. "The Shijintenchiso was given to each country by Taiitsukun, the creator. It tells of a miko who will come from another world and save the country. The miko has seven protectors: the Shichi Seishi. The Suzaku no Shichi Seishi are known as Tamahome, with the character for ogre; Hotohori, with the character for star; Nuriko, with the character for willow; Chichiri, with the character for well; Tasuki, with the character for wing; Mitsukake, with the character for rare cart; and Chiriko, with the character for stretching."

"Ta-Tamahome?"

He smiled. "Yes. We are both Suzaku no Shichi Seishi. Our duty is to protect Suzaku no Miko." Hotohori looked hopefully at Lina.

"No way," she managed. "What's Suzaku no Miko supposed to do?"

"Suzaku no Miko must first gather the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi. Only when all seven are gathered can Suzaku be summoned. The details for finding the Shichi Seishi are explained in the Shijintenchiso. When Suzaku is summoned, he grants his miko three wishes."

"Three wishes? I thought that was the genie-in-the-lamp deal."

The emperor shook his head. "You, Lina Inverse, are Suzaku no Miko."

"Three wishes? Could they be anything?"

He nodded.

"YATTA! This is great! Just like the book said! Waaaaiiiit..." Lina paused. "What about Naga?"

"Who?" the two men asked.

"Naga, the White Serpent." Lina looked at Tamahome. "She was the one with me when you beat up those slave traders earlier today. I wonder where she's gone off to?"

"Earlier today? What do you mean? That was three months ago."

Lina blinked. "Three months ago?"

Tamahome nodded.

"Hmm." Lina scratched her head. Time moves differently in the book, she thought. When Naga and I had been inside for nearly a day, only an hour had passed. And when several hours passed in my world, three months passed in this world? Then what happened to Naga? "Um, so does Seiryuu have the same deal with the miko and the Shichi Seishi?"

Hotohori frowned at the mentioning of Kutoukoku's god. "Yes. Each country has the same basic legend, but they vary slightly depending on their god."

"Then Naga's Seiryuu no Miko? She gets three wishes too? This is... This is too much to take right now..." Lina suddenly felt very dizzy.

Tamahome caught her before she totally fainted. Lina blinked groggily, trying to make sense of everything and failing completely.

Then her stomach growled again.

"Ummm... maybe I'll make more sense of this after I get something to eat," she suggested.

Continue: Episode 6: Surprise! This Woman's a Suzaku no Shichi Seishi?