@%$#*^&!

The Return of Mount Leikaku's Fiery Wolf!

Episode 14

Sometimes things were just strange. Take today, for example. Lina and her Suzaku no Shichi Seishi and a mysterious woman named Shouka had gone to Mount Leikaku to find Tasuki and bring him back to life. It was a straightforward process... or so Lina had thought. Only, the bandits had acted strangely when they mentioned what they were doing and had disappeared, the strange man with the cat from Choukou had followed them, he was apparently on a first-name basis with Shouka, she suddenly had some gigantic and quite ugly monster uncoiling from her back, and it was hissing and spitting and doing generally very stock monster action.

Actually, "strange" didn't quite do justice to it.

"Shouka!" gasped Juan. "Shouka, what are you doing?"

Her eyes were closed, tears spilling freely out of them. "I'm so sorry, Juan-kun... I waited for you but you never showed up... I couldn't even see you one last time, and then... I'm so sorry..."

"Shouka!?" Juan gripped his fist, and his cat hissed. "How could you do this? Consorting with a devil? Is this why you can bring back the dead?"

The young woman collapsed into a small heap but this didn't hinder the demon at all. It waved around several tentacles in the direction of Lina, possibly because she was the only one resembling a sweet and innocent female.

"Eeeeewww," complained the sorceress. "Even the Mazoku look nicer than this." She paused and amended, "...Most of the time." She poked at one of them with the tip of her sword.

The prodded portion of monster anatomy was not pleased. It yanked the sword out of her grip and slashed her across the wrist.

"Lina-chan! Abunai!" Tamahome grabbed Lina before the demon could inflict more damage, holding her tightly.

She flushed, holding her bleeding arm. It wasn't the act of protection that made her cheeks go red. Gourry had done the same thing several times, but always clumsily. There was something else about Tamahome's fierce protectiveness that made her heart thump a little louder.

"What do we do?" asked Nuriko. "Shouka is the only hope we have to bring Tasuki back to life, but now... now what?" He eyed the slimy appendages nervously.

Chichiri concentrated his powers, then swung his staff out in front of him. A red burst of light cut through the air and slashed through several demonic tentacles.

"Uwaaaah!" cried Shouka in pain.

Juan ran to her side, calling out her name. He held her tightly in his arms despite the monster's protests.

Lina swiftly put a restraining hand on Chichiri's shoulder, stopping him before he could attack again.

"Lina, no da?"

"I think we should let Juan handle this..." said Lina softly.

Shouka looked up at the healer. "Juan... there is something you must do."

He shook his head, tears gently sailing away from his cheeks. "I can't... I can't do it..."

The monster on Shouka's back stirred, beginning to zero in on him.

"You must," insisted Shouka softly. She held his bandaged hand close to her. "At least... I got to see you... one last time..."

"Sh... Shouka..."

"Sayonara, Juan-kun..."

Juan nodded silently. He slowly unwrapped the bandage from his left hand as the others watched apprehensively. "Sayonara, Shouka," he whispered.

"Wo ai ni..." she told him, closing her eyes and smiling weakly.

"Shouka... I'm sorry..." A red light glowed around his hand and enveloped Shouka. The monster let out a screech before it disappeared, leaving the still form of Shouka lying prone on the ground. Delicately, he picked up her still body, tears falling freely onto her pale face.

There was nothing Lina or the others could find to say.

Naturally, someone else found plenty of other things to complain about.

"What the *%&#$@ is going on here?" demanded a voice behind them, breaking the spell of silence like a giant rock through a glass house. "What do you ^@#$* think you're doing, and with that @#&%^$ monster to boot!? I thought you guys had left yesterday, but then you come sneaking back like a bunch of %@*&# thieves!"

Lina popped a few veins in her forehead. "It's not our @&^%$ fault," she yelled, slinging the verbal abuse back in Genrou's face. "She told us she could raise the dead so we thought we'd #&^$ come here and bring Tasuki back to life so we can summon *$&@%^ Suzaku! We didn't know she was a ^@#*$% monster any more than you did!"

The Shichi Seishi drew back a step.

"$#&*^@$&!!!" yelled Genrou. "You came back here for Tasuki?!"

Lina folded her arms across her chest, nodding. "We did. And there's something you're hiding from us, fang boy, something about Tasuki. Kouji and the others went pale as ghosts when we mentioned coming back."

"Ah, @#$%&!" Genrou pushed up the cuff of his right shirtsleeve. "I guess you should know..."

The character for wing glowed red.

"...that I'm Tasuki. Genrou's my nickname up here on Mount Leikaku."

It took a few seconds for this to sink in. When it did, however, Lina's anger blew the roof off and sent it into orbit around the moon. "YOU'RE Tasuki?! You, Fang boy?!" she cried, chasing him around the graveyard several times.

"STOP calling me Fang boy!" yelled Tasuki, running as fast as he could and showing his incisors in the process.

Lina wasn't letting him off that easily. "Why didn't you say that before! You could have saved us all the trouble of coming back and dealing with that monster and ..." She stopped, watching Chichiri talking softly to the healer.

Tasuki took the opportunity to hide behind Nuriko.

"Juan," Lina said quietly. "That power of yours... are you a Suzaku no Shichi Seishi, too?"

He gazed at her, noticing the cut on her wrist. He took her hand before she could protest and held his left hand, palm down, over it. The same red glow that destroyed the monster glowed again, closing the wound as if nothing had happened.

"Suzaku's character!" gasped Lina, seeing the character for 'rare cart' on the man's palm.

He nodded. "I am the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi, Mitsukake. My powers are of healing, but even that couldn't save the one I loved..." His voice trailed away, and his gaze turned back to Shouka, over which Chichiri was saying several prayers.

"Um, well..." Lina looked away, feeling awkward. "I'm really sorry..."

Juan, or rather Mitsukake, sighed deeply. "It happened a year ago. I thought I had put away the sadness, but seeing her there, talking and moving around..."

Tamahome patted him on the shoulder, smiling encouragingly. "I know... sometimes you just don't realize the wound's still there... but it seems that Shouka did get to see you one last time... she even looks happy, there."

"She does..." managed Mitsukake.

"We need you now," Tamahome continued. "Shouka is gone. We can pay our respects to her, but then it's time to look forward. We need you in order to summon Suzaku."

"Yes..."

Tamahome patted Lina cheerfully. "Isn't this great, Lina-chan! We've found two more of the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi! All we have to do is find the last one and we can return to Eiyo and summon Suzaku!"

Lina made a face at him. "And I thought you were the one who was pessimistic over the whole thing."

He clapped his hands together. "But everything worked out so well. This is wonderful! We'll be able to call Suzaku and save everything pretty soon."

The redheaded girl looked down at the ground, thinking about Naga. How far had she gotten, summoning her own Shichi Seishi? Would Seiryuu be called forth first? And would that really be the end of the story? Somehow, it didn't quite seem so down pat.

"Ne, Lina-chan, you're looking glum. What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing." She glanced at Tasuki and changed subjects, "Ne, Gen... err, Tasuki-chan, so why didn't you tell us who you really were at first?"

"Um, well, errrr," stuttered the bandit. "You see, I was supposed to be the leader after Hakurou, but I had to leave Mount Leikaku on a mission. When I came back, Eiken took over my position, but I won it back, thanks in part to you. Still, I had just come back and been named leader. I couldn't very well leave them because some strangers show up, you know what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, I guess so," nodded Lina.

"Anyways, I worked it out so that Kouji's the leader now. So now I can join ya' guys. And I even have this..." He pulled out a large iron fan and smacked it smartly in his palm. "It's Hakurou's tessen, which he handed down to me."

"That's the one that shoots fire!" gasped Tamahome.

Tasuki grinned, showing his fangs. "Yup. Don't know how Eiken learned the incantation to get it to work, though. Hmph. I guess I'll never know." He slung it back across his back. "And that's that, I suppose." He blinked, watching Lina sneak off. "Hey! What do you thing you're @%$#* doing with my tessen?!"

Lina snapped her fingers and sighed. "Shucks, almost got away with it. I mean, a great sorcery genius like me has got to have some awesome weapon to back her up, and since Gourry's so tightwad with his Sword of Light, this seemed like the perfect alternative."

Somewhere in Rand McNally, Gourry munched on a loaf of bread. Upon reading Lina's description of him, he instantly protested (spraying crumbs everywhere), "I am not!"

Tasuki snatched the iron fan from Lina. "You're not what?" he asked.

"Nani?"

"Someone just said 'I am not,'" answered the bandit.

Everyone looked at each other. Everyone shook his or her head.

"What the %$@!? Am I just hearing things, then? Who said that?"

"I did!"

Everyone looked at each other.

"Gourry!" gasped Lina. "What in the... what are you doing right now?"

"I'm eating dinner right now!"

A sweatdrop rolled down the back of Lina's head. "How typical. Anyways, since you're there and I assume you're reading the book, tell us who the next Shichi Seishi is."

There was a pause. Then: "Isn't that against the rules or something? I mean, you don't normally get to know what happens until it happens and, um, something like that. And how come we're suddenly talking again? It's really strange."

"No kidding," said Tamahome. "Who is he?"

"He's Gourry, the guy whom I'm working with right now. And I have absolutely no idea as to why we can occasionally talk with each other. He's in my home world."

"I have an idea," Chichiri spoke up. "This Gourry is reading the book in your world, so a passage between the two worlds is open. Something must be connecting the two, like something found both here and in your world, na no da."

"Something both here and there?" asked Gourry's voice. "What would that be?"

Lina furrowed her brow in concentration. "Gourry, is there anything of mine in that room?"

"Um, let me see." There was a long pause. "Um, you've got one of your bags of stuff in here. Hey, here's one of your spare headbands and..."

"That's it!" said Lina before Gourry could list off the articles in that particular bag of clothing. She patted the headband around her forehead, "That must be the link."

"I guess so..."

"Well, Gourry? Hurry up! Tell us where to find the last Suzaku no Shichi Seishi so I can get this over with and go home!"

"Go... home...?" blinked Tamahome.

"Okay, okay! Give me a few minutes, sheesh! You're always so pushy, you know that, Lina? It says... nani?"

Another sweatdrop. "It says, 'nani' now, does it?" asked Lina skeptically.

"NO! It doesn't say 'nani', I don't know what it says! The next pages are entirely blank!"

"Blank?"

"Yeah... hey, wait, I just turned the page and suddenly it's full... and it's... Hey! It's recording our conversation here! Sugoi!"

"Gourry, you're getting sidetracked. What do you mean the pages are blank? How the heck do I get home if the story's not even finished?"

"Go home?" asked Tamahome to himself.

"It's like the rest of the book is blank, but whenever I finish the page and turn it, the next pages are full, but only those pages. I guess maybe you're writing the book right now. Eh, what?" Another pause. "Lina, I have to go clear some stuff with the innkeeper. I'll be back."

Lina slapped a palm to her forehead. "Great. Just what I wanted to hear. Come on, guys. Let's go find the last Suzaku no Shichi Seishi. Where's the Shijintenchiso? We have to find the clues in it."

"So you can go home," said Tamahome, face in shadow.

"Yes, that's the whole point, right? Summon Suzaku, get three wishes, go home. Come on, we're wasting time!"

The others followed Lina, Tamahome at the very end of the group. No one noticed the tear that traced a glistening path down his cheek.

"Going home..."

Continue: Episode 15: Listen! Beautiful Music From a Special Flute!