Splash!

Giant Waves Cause Giant Problems!

Episode 19

"We're riding this thing to Hokkankoku?" Tasuki eyed the ship warily. "I don't know about this..."

Lina shrugged and responded, "It's better than a leaky tub. Trust me, I've been on much cheaper outfits. Don't sweat it Come on, you're wasting time."

Tasuki gulped and sweated slightly. "Ummm... are you sure about this?" He held back as the others began to board.

Tamahome looked over his shoulder. "What's wrong, Tasuki?" A light bulb flashed over his head, and he got a mischievous look. "Aaah... I see..."

"Eh, see what?" demanded Tasuki. "I'm just not sure that -"

Tamahome grabbed him and tipped him over the rail. "Don't worry, you won't fall in!"

"UWAAAAAAAAAH! Let me down, obake-chan!"

The symbol of 'oni' flashed on Tamahome's head and his eyes narrowed. "Maybe you should fall in," he said dangerously.

"Lekka SHINEN!"

A crisp Tamahome popped several veins on his forehead, watching while Tasuki posed with his new halisen, giving Lina the victory sign. It didn't last long; Tamahome tackled the bandit and the two broke out into a scuffle.

Large sweatdrops appeared on the backs of the others' heads. Lina's eyebrow twitched as she held back her anger by sheer force of will. "Oi, Fang-chan! Tama-chan! If you don't hurry up the ship's going to leave without you! And if you don't hurry up, I'm going to... to... DRAGON SLAVE you!"

Although her black magic wasn't working, they had heard enough stories of Lina's most destructive black spell to be suitably frightened by it. Tamahome and Tasuki stopped instantly in comical poses.

"Right, right," said Tamahome. Tasuki looked a little green in the face.

"What's wrong, Tasuki?" wondered Nuriko. "Get sea sick?"

He nodded imperceptibly.

The mischievous glint reappeared in Tamahome's eyes, but thankfully Tasuki was walking behind him. The blue-haired Shichi Seishi smirked, "I guess it's hard for a bandit who's lived in the mountains all his life. I bet you never even learned how to swim."

"Oi, what's so wrong with that?!"

Lina was fed up. She had had it. She screamed, "HURRY UP ALREADY, BAKA!"

It took a total of half an hour to get everyone and everything on the ship. Lina had stomped off and sulked in her room after five minutes, so the rest were spared her angry appearance.

Finally, after what Lina felt was too much time, they hauled anchor and started the sail towards Hokkankoku.

Lina let out a sigh and leaned on the windowsill, looking out at the blue sky. It was a beautiful day, but she had been feeling very depressed lately and her short(er than usual) temper was merely an offshoot of this. It was un-Lina-like to be depressed for so long. Things had gotten her down before, but she had always recovered quickly and in stride, without missing a beat. This time, it was different.

So different... the summoning ceremony hadn't worked, and her hopes of a quick end to this whole insane adventure went up in smoke along with the copy of the Shijintenchiso. Chiriko... no, Amiboshi, had died. He may have been one of the enemies, a Seiryuu no Shichi Seishi like Nakago, but she still felt deep regret. He had been such a quiet and gentle boy, nervous but eager to please.

Naga... the thought worried her. What was she doing? What was that slimy Nakago doing? Would she summon Seiryuu? Would she continue to follow Nakago? Would they ever make up and become allies again?

The eyes... they worried her, too. Somehow, they were connected to everything in Kutoukoku, Naga, Nakago... Lina finally understood why they had been laughing at her. Somehow, they knew that Amiboshi was pretending to be Chiriko. They knew it was a sham and the ceremony wouldn't work.

The vision... That worried her the most. She couldn't get the dreary images out of her head. Lina knew that unless they summoned Suzaku and summoned him soon, those images would become reality.

Depressing thoughts, indeed. What she needed was to find a good pile of food to put her worries off and then bust some bandits. Well, maybe the latter wasn't very practical, but the former should be easy enough to do.

Lina went topside to see the Shichi Seishi chatting amongst themselves. All except for Tasuki, who looked rather queasy and was holding his stomach.

Bust some bandits, eh? Lina strode up to the red-haired Shichi Seishi and asked him, "Ne, what's up, Fang-chan?"

"F-f-fang-chan?!" Tasuki stuttered. "I'M a fang-chan?" He clenched his fist, "What about you? You've got fangs as big as mine!"

"Wh-what?!" snorted Lina. "I do not."

"Hah! I should be calling YOU fang-chan!" taunted the bandit.

Lina unconsciously bared her fangs at him, growling, "Oh yeah? FANG-CHAN!"

Nuriko smiled. "You know, those two are very similar. Same hair color, same short temper, same fangs, same tendency towards using violence when angry..."

He ducked as two random pieces of junk lying on the ship came flying towards him. They crashed harmlessly behind the others.

"See?" said Nuriko, standing up.

"Fang-chan, fang-chan, fang-chan!" sang Lina.

"YOU'RE the fang-chan, Lina!" yelled Tasuki, starting to chase her around the ship. Obviously, he had forgotten all about being seasick...

Until Lina was thoughtful enough to point out, "Hey, is the ocean getting rougher or is it just me?"

Tasuki paused and felt the rocking and swaying of the ship below his feet. His face was green in .0295 seconds. The ex-bandit flopped over the railing and squeezed his eyes shut. "%$#@^&, I hate sailing and I hate big bodies of water!"

Tamahome blinked. "The ocean IS getting rougher," he realized. The timbers of the ship creaked more loudly as if in agreement.

Clouds boiled up out of nowhere, surrounding the ship in a gray haze. Thunder rumbled from somewhere nearby.

"What in the world?" gasped Lina. "Where did this come from?"

Chichiri gripped his staff. "I feel the ki of a Shichi Seishi, na no da," he said gravely.

"Seiryuu no Shichi Seishi?" the others gasped.

Larger and larger waves rammed against the ship, making the deck sway back and forth. Tasuki wrapped himself around the main mast, moaning, "Someone tell me when this is all over!" The others were shifted from side to side.

"Minna! Get below deck!" said Tamahome, holding open the door.

Chiriko and Mitsukake were the first to hurry inside, but before the others could follow (except Tasuki, who seemed like he'd need a crowbar to pry him away from the mast), a giant wave swept over the deck. Tamahome let go of the door in surprise, and it slammed shut.

"UWAAAAAAH! TASUKETE!" screamed Tasuki as the pillar of water loosened his grip and swept him overboard.

Having Tasuki yell tasukete should have been rather humorous. This, however, was not one of those times.

"Tasuki!" screamed Nuriko. He swiftly flung out a long coil of rope towards the besieged bandit.

"THIS IS WHY I DON'T LIKE SAILING!" Tasuki screamed as he reached out to grab the rope. (It probably wasn't a good idea, considering he also got a mouthful of salty seawater, but by this point Tasuki was beyond caring.) A large wave washed between him and the rope. "AND LARGE BODIES OF WATER!"

"Aiyah, no da! He can't reach it!"

"Minna!" Mitsukake forced the door open. "Hurry and get below deck!"

"We can't!" yelled Lina. "What about Tasuki?"

Another wave spilled over the deck, accompanied by a crash of lightning.

Lina felt her footing slip.

And felt herself sliding across the deck.

And fall towards the water.

And hear the others reaching for her, yelling her name.

And land in the water.

It came as a shock and brought her out of the daze she was in. Instantly she kicked her legs together and popped to the surface like a cork. And bobbed around like a cork in the rough water. It was so cold! It was numbing her, making her move slowly, pulling her down... if she had her magic she could cast a Raywing bubble to protect her, but here... magic didn't work... the way she was used to...

"Lina!" Tamahome dove into the water in a much more controlled fashion, splashing into the ocean a short distance away.

"Tamahome! Grab the rope!" screamed Nuriko. "Tasuki's gotten hold of it, hurry!"

The coldness surround Lina diminished slightly. Surprised, she was slowly aware of Tamahome holding onto her tightly, struggling to keep both of them afloat in the water. Somewhere deep inside of her, she felt a bit of warmth growing.

"Tama! Over here!" Tasuki reached out with one hand while clinging desperately to the rope with his other.

A large pillar of water splashed between them.

"LINA! TAMAHOME!"

There was a splash nearby. Nuriko fought to reach them through the swirling water.

"Nu-nuriko?" gasped Tamahome.

"YOU GUYS!" Tasuki's voice cried, but the thick clouds obscured the location of the sodden bandit and the ship.

Cold. The water was so cold. Not even the warmth deep inside of her was enough to penetrate the icy poundings of the waves.

"Hurry!" spluttered Tamahome. "We have to find the ship and get out of here!"

"Where?" gasped Nuriko. "I can't tell where the ship is in this weather."

"We have to do something and quickly! I can feel Lina getting weaker..."

A dark shadow loomed in front of them.

A flash of lightning crashed not far from their position, causing the waters to bubble.

"Not good," grunted Nuriko as the waves pushed them towards the shadow. It proved to be a large rock, small, but high enough above the waves and with a small cave inside for shelter.

Any port in a storm.

Nuriko reached it first and hauled himself out of the water as another bolt of lightning crashed down. It was almost eerie at how close it came to hitting them...

"Nuriko!" Tamahome grabbed a outcropping of rock. "Get Lina up there!"

The purple-haired Shichi Seishi reached out and pulled the prone Lina onto the rock. She coughed weakly.

Just as Tamahome was about to climb onto the rock, another flash of lightning came down.

And struck him.

"Uwaaaaah!"

"TAMAHOME!!"

Nuriko gently set Tamahome down. He was unconscious, and Nuriko had grabbed him just in time. As he was pulled out of the ocean, another lightning bolt landed in the water.

"What now?" asked Lina wearily, huddled in a corner. "Where's the ship?"

He struck two pieces of rock together and managed to get a few sparks, but without any fuel, the tiny light was useless. It was almost a mockery of the lightning that constantly flashed outside. "What now? We wait. They'll be searching for us, you know. We should try to dry off some of our clothes so we won't get a chill."

"Yeah..." agreed Lina, wringing out the water in her hair. It was a very soggy mess and Lina was ready to kill for a hot bath. The perfect bath was one heated to just the right temperature with a carefully controlled fireball, in a quiet place where she couldn't be disturbed, preceded (or proceeded) by a nice, large meal... Lina sighed. She was depressed and she couldn't break out of it.

"Lina-chan... what's wrong?"

"Well... I..." Lina blinked as she noticed Nuriko had taken off his shirt and was wringing it out, showing his flat, manly chest. Sometimes I forget that Nuriko is a man, thought Lina to herself. "I've been in a sort of blue funk lately, I guess, so this sure isn't helping matters any. It's really strange because I usually never get depressed, so, well... I guess I'm not making much sense..."

"No..." Nuriko said softly. "I understand... I felt the same way...when..."

Lina blinked. "Huh?"

"When my sister died... It was many years ago. Kourin was running to meet me in the street, when she was struck by cart... everyone told me to forget about her but I couldn't. I mean, she was my little sister... no one seemed to understand me..."

"Kourin?"

"That's when I took on her name... that way I could never forget her... I took on the life she was never able to have."

"Nu...Nuriko," murmured Lina softly, stunned by the sudden revelation. "I..."

He smiled gently. "Like I said, it happened many years ago. It's okay. I know that sometimes when you're depressed, it seems like nothing will ever work out again, but it does. Life does go on, and things start looking up again - but only if you're willing to continue living."

"..." Lina didn't know what to say. "Arigatou, Nuriko-chan."

"Umph," groaned Tamahome, rubbing his face.

"Tamahome!" said Nuriko and Lina in unison. "Daijobu?"

He nodded slowly. "Where's the ship?"

Lina shrugged. "We're waiting for them to return, so -"

"LINA! TAMAHOME! NURIKO?!" Tasuki could be heard yelling.

" - There they are," she concluded. "That was fast."

"WE'RE OVER HERE!" hollered Nuriko.

The ship loomed out of the fog. A rope was thrown down to them.

"You first, Lina." Nuriko caught the end of the rope. "Then you, Tamahome. I'll hold the end and come up last."

She nodded and grabbed the rope, scurrying up.

Large waves battered against the ship, causing it to sway and drift away.

"Tamahome, hurry!"

"But... you can't hold on to the rope like this! You... It's impossible!"

"HURRY UP!" Beads of sweat dripped down Nuriko's brow. "I'll hold it as long as I can! If I let go, we're all lost!"

"But -" gasped Tamahome.

"Hurry!" Nuriko pleaded.

Continue: Episode 20: Flash! Mistress of Lightning, Seiryuu no Shichi Seishi, Soi!