Illusion!

What's Real and What Isn't?

Episode 28

Nakago smirked at Lina and Amiboshi. Lina stared back, stunned. Her vision - it was all coming true, just like the other ones had come true before, and all because of those annoying golden eyes laughing at her…

Now Nakago laughed at her. "It would seem your options have run out, Suzaku no Miko."

"Lina, watch out!" Amiboshi yelled suddenly. "Tomo's power is of illusion! It's - agggggh…" The vines tightened around his throat and he struggled to breath.

"Now, now, Amiboshi, don't spoil all of the fun. Don't make me the one to have to kill you."

Tomo's power is of illusion? Then Lina noticed him holding something. A clamshell, just like the one in her vision. It wasn't Nakago at all - it was Tomo! She had somehow defeated an illusion-Tomo, but the real one was still alive and hiding somewhere.

"Tomo, I presume?" asked Lina, drawing out Hotohori's deity sword.

The image of Nakago blurred, replaced with the unique visage of Tomo. In his hands, a clamshell glowed faintly blue. "Oh, you have spoiled the fun, Amiboshi. But that's okay. As long as I kill Suzaku no Miko, Nakago-sama won't mind if I, say, accidentally killed you, too."

"Leave him out of this!" Lina yelled instantly. "I'm your enemy, remember?" She leveled the sword and glared.

Tomo snickered. He blurred, and soon more Tomo than you could shake a deity sword at surrounded Lina.

Lina glared some more, since there wasn't much else for her to do. She glanced behind for a moment, confirming that more than a dozen images of the Seiryuu no Shichi Seishi had arranged themselves randomly around her. They all looked alike, so who was the real one?

That nagging thought came back again. They could all be illusion. None of them might be the real Tomo.

Of course, that didn't help Lina any. She had to figure out which of the Tomo illusions was not an illusion - if that was possible.

A dozen pairs of long feathers shot out at her, threatening to wrap her up tighter than a mummy. She spun the sword around in an arc, slicing most of them neatly. As the broken pieces of fluff drifted to the ground, they disappeared again. More illusion! Somehow, the illusions had substance - how else could the illusionary vines bind Amiboshi? Hitting them did no good unless she was able to hit Tomo. And that wasn't looking very possible.

"Why don't you just come out and fight me?" she growled angrily, getting mighty fed up with this whole charade.

All the Tomo replied in unison, "But what would be the fun in that?"

And Amiboshi cried, "Behind you!"

She whirled around to slice through Tomo. The blade passed cleanly through him as if he was a ghost, or more precisely, as if he was only a projection.

"Get out of here, Lina! You can't fight him like this!"

It was a good point. Time to retreat, cool her heels, and think out a plan. She ran straight through another image of Tomo, heading towards Amiboshi to cut him loose so they could beat the hell out of this forsaken place.

A wall of fire burst up before her, separating them.

It was only an image, wasn't it? Taking the gamble, Lina leapt through the flames, with only the tips of her split ends getting singed.

She was met by three images of Amiboshi, each one bound by the same vines. One of them had to be the real one, but which?

"Lina, get out of here!" "Lina, save yourself! Run!" "Don't worry about me, just go!"

The sorceress looked intently at all three. Something had to distinguish the real Amiboshi from the imposters. Each one looked exactly like Amiboshi. Each one was struggling against the vines that trapped his body. Each one had a flute in his right arm.

Was it her imagination or did the one on the right have tears in his eyes?

"Abunai!" all three screamed in unison.

Too late, she sensed movement behind her. Something hit her back, sending her sprawling on the ground.

"Well, Suzaku no Miko, which boy will you save?" came the droll voice of Tomo.

Lina pulled herself upright and looked at the three boys. She pointed the deity sword at the boy in the middle, then charged.

Tomo smirked.

At the last moment, she swiveled and sliced the vines holding the boy on the right. They disappeared, and he fell to the ground, shaking.

"Very perceptive, Suzaku no Miko. You even had me fooled for a moment. But are your senses keen enough to get you off this cliff?"

She saw that Tomo had used his illusions again and made the landscape look like a cliff on all sides. She couldn't tell where the path she came in from was anymore. A glance at the ground showed that their footprints had been scattered past all recognition.

Tomo disappeared. "You can't win this time." A blast of blue ki and rocks rocketed towards them.

A burst of pure dissonance rocked the air. The blue ki wavered and was blocked by Amiboshi's own.

"A…Amiboshi!" winced Lina.

He paused for breath, telling her, "My duty is to protect the Miko. Maybe it doesn't matter which Miko."

"You can't win. You can't!!" screeched Tomo's voice. More rocks and various other projectiles came flying at them, only to be blocked by Amiboshi's power. On his right shoulder, the character for high spirits shone bright blue.

The situation was getting a little hairier every moment. Amiboshi couldn't keep up for long… Just as she thought this, an exceptionally powerful blast of ki forced its way past the younger Shichi Seishi's barrier, catching him in the stomach and sending him sprawling.

Lina was there instantly, blocking the next wave with the deity sword. What she would give for an astral vine spell or a flow break! It was maddening to know plenty of ways to beat Tomo but be unable to do anything. Then she remembered the time in Genbu's cave, when the Genbu no Shichi Seishi had challenged her. She had cast the Flare Arrow and it had somehow wrapped itself around the sword, amplifying its power.

Could it work again? There was only one way to find out.

"Flare Arrow!!"

A trio of arrows flared into existence in front of her. Instead of releasing them at her enemy and causing property damage, she reached for the magical power, entwining them together, spinning them around the blade…

And it worked. The deity sword crackled with the spell, burning as brightly as the Hikari no Ken (but still without the annoying hum.) She kept feeding the arrows energy, keeping them alive as another of Tomo's attacks shattered the ground around them.

She couldn't keep this up for long, however. The spell demanded more and more energy and that frightened her. She would reach her limits soon, and then what could she do? Tomo's attacks were relentless. He never stopped, sending blast after blast at them, and every blast sent her back a few inches.

Finally, one blast came that sent her and the deity sword in two opposite directions. She was painfully reacquainted with the ground and its stony embrace.

"Itai…" grunted Lina, spitting out a pebble.

Several more images of Tomo appeared: one by her, one by Amiboshi, and another equidistant between them. "Well, while this has been highly amusing, all good things must come to an end." His voice was droll as his illusions conferred with each other. "Which one should we take out first?"

Lina struggled to rise, but was unsuccessful. She had drained herself flat from all the magical energy, and it would take a lot of sleep to recover.

"Well, Suzaku no Miko, I'm afraid I should probably finish the job and return to Nakago-sama."

She winced. If she only knew which Tomo was the real one…

"Still, there's Amiboshi to be dealt with as well. He is a traitor several times over. He never returned to camp after his mission to botch up your summoning ceremony and now he's taken it into his head to guard you instead of rejoining his own side. Tisk, tisk. Nakago-sama would never let a traitor live after that. Isn't that so, Amiboshi?"

The boy coughed something that neither could make out.

"I can't say it's been nice knowing you," said Tomo sweetly.

"GET AWAY FROM MY ANIKI!" screamed a mad voice from behind them. A piece of rope flew towards them, wrapping around the Tomo standing next to Amiboshi.

"Suboshi!"

It wasn't a piece of rope at all; it was Suboshi's ryuuseisui. It bound the elder Shichi Seishi and slashed through him.

"Impossible," Tomo managed to gasp, dropping his clamshell onto the ground. The illusions instantly vanished. "How did you know…?"

"You're a Seiryuu no Shichi Seishi!" growled Suboshi. "I can sense your ki!"

The ryuuseisui did not relent on his attacks. Tomo slumped to the ground, mumbling, "Nakago-sama…I'm sorry…"

"ANIKI!" Suboshi pushed past her and knelt down to help his brother stand up. "Aniki, are you okay?"

He smiled weakly. "You came just in time. But why are you here?"

"Nakago-sama told me to keep a watch on Tomo. He said he didn't trust Tomo. But then I could feel your ki here… why didn't you come back before? Why did you leave me alone!? Aniki…"

Lina felt it was prudent to make a quiet escape. She started to tiptoe away, but clumsily picked up the deity sword. The blade made a loud scraping sound as it scratched the rock.

Suboshi whirled around to face her.

"Ah-hah-hah-hah!" said Lina nervously. "I'll just be on my way now, if you'll excuse me…"

The ryuuseisui instantly wrapped around her.

"HEY! Now just wait a minute here!" Lina yelled angrily.

"Suboshi!" said Amiboshi sharply. "Let her go."

The other twin gritted his teeth. "She's Suzaku no Miko. We shouldn't let her live. Naga-sama and Nakago-sama said that-"

"What they said doesn't matter. They were lying anyway. Suboshi, please listen to me. The Suzaku no Shichi Seishi aren't evil or bad or mean or anything like that. I didn't go back because I didn't want to fight anymore. An older couple adopted me as their son here, and I liked it. It reminded me of our old home, before the war. I didn't want to go back to the fighting. It's not her fault or the fault of the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi… it's Nakago's fault and Naga's fault! Please, Suboshi, listen to me."

"Aniki, I -"

"Please… join me. Let's stop fighting everybody and live a normal life, here, in Sailokoku. I don't want to fight anymore."

"…" replied Suboshi.

"Please… Let Lina-san go."

Slowly, the ryuuseisui unwrapped itself from around Lina and she could breathe a little more easily.

"Aniki!!" Tears ran freely down Suboshi's face as he hugged his brother tightly. "I will… just don't leave me again! Not like mom and dad!"

"I promise."

Lina felt it was a good time to take her leave.

She was lost. But then, that had ceased to make her do anything but bat an eyelash. She really wished someone had created a 'You Are Here!' spell that created a little map with a flashing star at the caster's location in relation to other Points of Interest, but alas, such things did not exist. She was getting tired, sore, and worse, hungry. Her stomach snarled angrily, demanding to know when it was time to be fed, but she had nothing to appease it.

"Map… Appear!" she cast, closing her eyes and holding her palm open expectantly, although she didn't really imagine anything would happen.

Someone grabbed her hand.

"KYAAAAA!" she screamed reflexively, snatching her hand back.

"Sorry if I scared you, no da!"

"Ch…Ch…Chichiri!" her voice was laden with disgust. "What in the world were you thinking of, scaring me like that?"

"Gomen, Lina, but I though you'd like to join the rest of us, and you had your hand out, but I didn't know what to do so…daaaaaaaa…" His voice trailed off as Lina throttled him.

"Never Scare Me Like That Again! You never knew when I'll throw some spell at you first and ask questions later!"

"I said I was sorry, no da!" Chichiri said as he swayed back and forth in Lina's angry grasp. "But where's Tamahome-kun?"

Lina dropped him faster than if he had just announced there was a ten-platter banquet being held the next hill over. "Oh, um. We got split up you see, and…"

"Split up?" asked Chiriko worriedly, as he and the others arrived in the clearing.

"Yeah, where is Obake-chan, anyways?" wondered Tasuki.

"It's…" She was saved by her stomach. It growled loudly again. "First, can I pleeeeeeease get something to eat?" she begged.

Continue: Episode 29: Reunion! Back Together in the Land of Byakko!