Danger!

Lina and Naga's Reunion in Kutoukoku!

Episode 10

Lina blinked her eyes several times to dissipate the effects of Taiitsukun's transportation. She had arrived next to a large wall. Thankfully, no one was around to see her sudden entrance.

"So this is Kutoukoku," she said to herself as she walked along, searching for the palace. She noticed the motif of dragons was a little bit overdone. The wall was painted in a rather fabulous mural of sinuous blue dragons. She could see dragon gargoyles jutting out from several roofs and dragons decorating no small number of doors and doorways. Even the kids were playing with dragon carvings!

She turned a corner and found the palace. Just as she expected, dragons decorated the columns and the roofs and the walls and the doorways and the windows and she expected that even the floors and ceilings would bear dragon images. It was enough to make her want to puke.

"Halt! Where are you going?" Two guards imposed themselves in her path.

Their armor bore a dragon emblem. So did their spears and their helmets.

Lina was starting to get mighty sick of dragons. She took a deep breath so as not to scream, counted to ten, and then told the guards in her most sweetly innocent and vulnerable voice, "I'm kind of lost... do you think you can... help me find my way?"

The guards were made of tough stuff, but the tougher they are on the outside, the softer they are in the inside for cute little girls with big teary eyes. The one on the left instantly smiled and asked helpfully, "Where do you need to go? We can help you find your way."

"Well, you see," continued Lina in an appropriately soft tone of voice, "I was trying to find my auntie's house, and I followed her directions but I think I took a wrong turn somewhere, and now I don't know which way to go..." She wobbled her lips as if she was about to cry.

The other guard smiled as well (they were such suckers that Lina nearly laughed) and put a fatherly hand around her shoulder. "Here, why don't you show me where you got lost?"

Lina nodded, eyes brightening happily, "Mm! I think it was this way..."

The guards cheerily followed her down several streets, where Lina pretended to remember how to get to her invented auntie's house.

"Arigatou!" she told them as she waved goodbye.

The guards smiled and waved goodbye to her departing form.

Lina slipped around the corner and glanced back. The guards were just standing there, chatting to each other, probably taking the chance to take a break from their job.

It was perfect for Lina. Swiftly, she slipped back towards the palace. No guards had replaced the other two, so she let herself in.

"It's amazing how often that trick works," Lina grinned to herself.

The inside of the palace had dragons on the floors and dragons on the ceilings.

Lina got an enormous sweatdrop. "How can they live like this?" she asked the inanimate dragons. She let out a sigh as she turned around a corner.

"Ano..." said the guard who was standing there, looking at her strangely. "What are you doing?"

Lina put on her cute and innocent act again. "Well, you see... I think I took a wrong turn somewhere and now I... can't find my way..." Her eyes trembled convincingly as she looked up at him. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, rather like Gourry, although his hair was a lot shorter. That rang a bell. This is that guy that Hotohori-san was talking about! The shogunate!

He smiled at her. "I can show you the way out," he told her. Something about his manner set off several alarms in Lina's mind. He wasn't nearly as sincere as he was pretending to be.

Still, what could she do but follow him?

"My name is Nakago," he told her.

"Uh, yeah, I'm Lina," she replied warily, noticing that his armor bore more than its fair share of dragon imagery. "Sorry about all the trouble. I'm kind of new around here, you see."

He smiled again, that same, cold smile. "Oh, it's no trouble at all. But I'm curious about something. Your ...clothing is very different. Where do you come from?"

"Errrr..." Lina stopped midstep with a large sweatdrop on her forehead. "I come from..."

"You see, we have a legend about a young girl who comes from another world."

"Um," replied Lina, thinking that Nakago was being a little too blunt.

Nakago continued, "This young girl will summon the blue dragon god, Seiryuu, and save Kutoukoku from harm. I am wondering... could you be that girl?"

Lina bit her tongue to keep from replying that she was NOT a young GIRL, thankyouverymuch, no matter how small she looked. She managed to cough out, "Uh, yeah, I guess so."

Nakago clapped his hands together joyfully. "That is wonderful!" he said, although he did not look overly joyous. "In that case, I must bring you to the emperor!"

Bad! Bad, bad, bad, bad! You're supposed to find Naga and hit the road! "Actually..."

Nakago grabbed her arm and held it tightly. "It's not far, I promise you."

"Hey, lemmie go, you -"

"And look! Here we are now!"

Lina cursed very quietly under her breath.

"Nakago," said the ugly and old emperor sitting on top of the dais, "who is that girl with you?"

Nakago bowed low. "Heika, this girl wishes an audience with you. I believe you should listen to what she says."

The emperor looked at Lina. Lina paled several shades, wondering what to do. "Well?" he demanded. "What do you have to say?"

"Uh, ah-ha-ha-ha," laughed Lina nervously. "I heard you had a legend about girls coming from other worlds and thought, 'what a coincidence! I come from another world!' And then that shogunate saw me and brought me here, so, um, here I am."

"You means she's Seiryuu no Miko?" gasped the emperor.

The chamber was instantly abuzz with the news. Everyone chattered excitedly with each other. A lot of stares were directed towards Lina.

"She looks kind of small," remarked on of the courtiers.

Lina's keen ears caught every syllable he said. She spun around angrily and asked, "Do you have a problem with petite people?"

He blanched. "Ah, no, actually, er..."

This random outbreak led a new round of chatter and gossip, and several doubters raised questions. It took many minutes for the noise level to return to a tolerable position. When it finally quieted down, Nakago motioned to two of the guards.

"Before you do anything," he told everyone else in a quiet but dominant voice, "you should meet someone else."

Lina turned. Two guards led in another young woman.

"Naga!"

The taller sorceress stood between the guards, looking slightly dazed. She was wearing the same outfit Lina had seen in Taiitsukun's mirror, and it looked rather worse for the wear. However, she managed to find a skull necklace somewhere, and Lina knew that she was Naga and not someone else.

The two sorceresses stared at each other from afar. "Li...Lina-chan?" asked Naga quietly. "Is it...it's really you?"

The crowd let out a collective gasp. Only Nakago seemed unsurprised. Actually, he looked smugly pleased.

Lina dashed over to Naga. "Of course it is! Who else would come here looking for you in that stupid book, anyways?"

Something slipped from Lina's manto. It hit the ground softly, and Nakago bent down to pick it up. It was a red scroll - the copy of the Shijintenchiso that Hotohori had given Lina before they had met Taiitsukun.

"This scroll," said Nakago, unrolling it, "is Suzaku's copy of the Shijintenchiso. This girl is nto Seiryuu no Miko, she's Suzaku no Miko!"

"Oops," Lina said as all the guards in the chamber surrounded them. "I think it's a good time for us to..."

The guards looked at her, waiting for her to complete the sentence.

"RUN!!" She grabbed Naga's hand and bowled over the first group of guards. A trail of smoke was all that remained of the two as Lina sped away.

They were hopelessly lost. Actually, only Lina was lost, but Naga was still trying to overcome her shock and was of no use, at least in a directional sense. They stopped in an empty room to catch their breath.

"Lina, what are you doing here?" demanded Naga.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" retorted Lina. "I was trying to find out where you hid yourself! Sheesh. I was kind of worried when I got back to the inn room and found you gone and the book open."

Naga frowned. "It's been such a long time! What took you so long to get here?"

"Ano..." Lina blinked.

Naga slapped her. "Three months! Did you know that? It's been three months since I've been in this world! And you with your silly childish manner think you can just show up and say it's okay? You're so immature, Lina, that's your problem. You think everything's fine because you're here and you're Lina Inverse. I have news for you, Lina. It's not all fine and hunky-dory."

Lina took a step back. "Naga...what are you talking about?"

Naga stood up to her full height. "I can't believe you! Do you know what's been happening? We were supposed to have been partners, a team, but you left me here to fight my own way! What sort of partnership was that?" She took a deep breath. "Do you even KNOW what happened to me here?"

"Naga, I -"

"I'll tell you what happened!" shouted Naga. "I was attacked by a large gang of men! And then my magic failed me and I couldn't even defend myself! I couldn't even escape! If we had been working together it would have been a piece of cake! But you weren't there. You weren't around to help me. You were off in some stupid stuff-your-face-full restaurant in Rand McNally! I couldn't defend myself against so many men! Do you know what they DID to me?"

Lina could only shake her head.

Naga slapped her again. The sound echoed around the empty room. "It's been three long months, Lina Inverse. But you know what? Nakago found me and helped me. He didn't desert me. He was there. Not like you, Lina. He showed me how to use my magic again. I thought you'd come back. I truly did. I thought you'd come back. I thought so for three, long months. But you know what, Lina? It's too late. You abandoned me. I'm going to be Seiryuu no Miko. No... I AM Seiryuu no Miko - I've already found several of my Shichi Seishi. And when I gather all of them and summon Seiryuu, you're going to wish you had never bought that book. You're going to wish you never showed it to me. You know why? Because I'm going to make you pay for what you did to me."

She moved to one side and pointed behind her at a large statue of a dragon. In front of it was an altar draped with blue cloth. Behind it was a tapestry depicting the dragon and several constellations.

They were in Seiryuu's temple.

Something hit Lina, sending her to her knees. It felt like someone had punched her in the stomach, and she had trouble catching her breath.

"You see that, Lina? That's Seiryuu, the blue dragon god of Kutoukoku. This is his domain. And he doesn't like anything or anyone dealing with Suzaku. Especially Suzaku no Miko. Nakago!"

He stepped into the chamber with a scornful look.

"You see, Lina, this is Nakago. He's a Seiryuu no Shichi Seishi. Nakago? Get rid of her."

"Hai, Naga-sama."

"Good-bye, Lina. I can't say it's been nice knowing you," smirked Naga as she walked out.

"Naga?"

Lina was sent flying backwards by a blue blast of energy. Nakago's hands glowed, and so did a character on his forehead.

Kokoro. Ironic that the character for 'heart' would be there, but there it shone.

Battered but not beaten, Lina stood up and faced her new adversity. "You knew this all along, didn't you?" she accused, tensing for another blast.

He shrugged and nodded diffidently. Almost casually, he threw another ki blast at her.

Lina dodged to one side and charged him, brandishing her sword.

Clang! Nakago blocked it with his metal wrist-guard. "You're not bad, for a little girl," he remarked.

Lina's blood ran hot and veins popped on her forehead. "I am NOT," she yelled, "A LITTLE GIRL!" She swung out at him again.

Nakago dodged, but Lina feinted to one side and snaked her arm around for a punch.

Smack!

Nakago stumbled backwards in surprise, wincing and holding his side. "That's the first time anyone's ever hit me," he admitted grudgingly. He regained his composure and his smile swiftly. "And it'll be the last."

Lina found herself staring at the largest blast of energy short of a dragon slave that she had ever seen.

It was not a good way to end one's day.

Continue: Episode 11: Flee! Return to a Safe Haven in Konankoku!