Reunion!

Back Together in the Land of Byakko!

Episode 29

It was a painfully familiar scene that the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi had long since resigned themselves to watching. Actually, they resigned themselves to not watching and turned their gazes elsewhere. Chichiri was doing some monk-thing with his staff, Tasuki paced around cursing to himself, Mitsukake brushed his cat, and Chiriko read from his scroll. Anything to keep from having to watch Lina demolish their food supplies was better than nothing.

Lina just ignored them and turned all her attentions to the spread in front of her. Granted, it wasn't a very large spread, as everyone's supplies were starting to run low, but it was better than having to fish for one's meal. After this she would get a nice long nap in. Sleep and food were the two best ways to replenish her power after draining herself fending off Tomo.

It didn't take long to finish. She wasn't full by any means, but at least she wasn't willing to eat an unsalted piece of rock to assuage her stomach. That business over with, she promptly turned over and went to sleep.

The jaws of the Shichi Seishi dropped and hit the ground with a collective bang.

"Aiyah, na no da," remarked Chichiri.

"Oi! Oi!" Tasuki wasn't pleased. "Don't just fall asleep like that without telling us what's been happening!"

"Calm down, Tasuki. She's plainly at the end of her resources and needs a lot of rest, so don't push her right now."

"Then why doncha' heal her?"

Mitsukake shook his head. "It would be a waste of my powers to heal Lina when all she needs is rest. I may need my powers later, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, fine." Tasuki swore under his breath, then asked, "So what do we do until she wakes up?"

They all looked at each other.

"Hmm..."

"How many?"

"Eh?"

"It's your turn, how many do you want?"

Tasuki blinked a few times and scowled. He stared at Chichiri, whose mask showed nothing about his thoughts, then to Chiriko, who was looking back at Tasuki impatiently. "Hmm..." He ran his tongue over his teeth, debating the odds. "Two," he finally announced, slapping down the cards and receiving two more from Chiriko.

"Two ryou, na no da!" Chichiri bet, tossing in the coins and disturbing a fuzzy bumblebee who had perched on a flower nearby.

"I'm in," muttered Tasuki.

"Me too, and I raise you three."

Chichiri's poker face never fell, considering he was wearing his mask, but he set down his cards. "I fold, no da."

Tasuki put down three more coins. "I call, Chiriko. What's in your hand?"

He set them down quietly. "A full house, Emperor high."

Tasuki's jaw dropped. So did his cards, revealing three 10's. "What?! I thought you said you never played poker before!"

"I pick things up quickly," he explained as he gathered up the coins.

"..." said Tasuki in frustration. "That's impossible!" he concluded.

"Don't be such a sore looser, no da!"

"I can't believe I'm loosing to a ten-year-old! This is crazy!!"

"I'm 13."

"&%*#^$@&$^!! No wonder Mitsukake's just sitting over there meditating! I'll go broke if I play any more!"

"You were the one who suggested the game, weren't you?" remarked the healer as he stroked his cat's fur. The cat purred happily in response. "You shouldn't be the one to complain."

Tasuki's face grew red. "*&^%$#@!"

"Ano..." Chiriko smiled, "He's right, you know. And you shouldn't be speaking that sort of language around kids."

"Stop smiling at me!!" Tasuki yelled at the nearest person, who happened to be Chichiri.

"...What, na no da?"

"That's it! She's slept long enough; I'm gonna wake her up." Before the others could make a move to stop him, Tasuki went over and shook Lina's shoulder.

Her eyes fluttered a little. "Don't... wanna... go to... school today..." she complained.

"Come on, come on, rise and shine little girl!"

"LITTLE GIRL?!"

Tasuki flew over the others' heads as Lina socked him solidly on the jaw. "Itai..." he moaned, obviously not having a good day.

"You should know that I am not a little girl, thank you so very much," Lina yawned as she stretched. "How long have I been sleeping?"

"Several hours. Are you feeling better now?" asked Mitsukake with concern.

Lina nodded. "Sort of. I'll need a full night's sleep later, but at least I don't feel like I'm going to fall over."

"So what happened to you and where's Tama-chan?" Tasuki was never the type to mince over words.

She sat down in front of the small campfire. "It's... a bit of a story..."

The others sat down around her as she related to them what happened in the disastrous attempt to regain the Genbu no Shinzahou and the events that occurred afterwards. When she reached the point with Tomo, she stopped.

"And?" Chiriko prompted instantly.

"Tama-kun... Tomo had... Tamahome..."

"And?!" prompted Tasuki a little more insistently.

She couldn't go on. The image of him slipping over the cliff replayed itself in her memory. A few tears trickled down her cheek.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying? What happened, no da?"

"He fell off the cliff," she said in a soft, horrified voice.

A silence as thick as a tome on the complete chronicles of the amazing hero who became the first prince of Sailoon and his fabulous exploits hung in the air.

"What... you can't mean... No, you're serious?" Tasuki stared at Lina, who was wiping her eyes. "That's impossible! He can't be... not like Nuriko! Tell me it's not true!"

"Calm down, Tasuki," said Chichiri, suddenly very serious.

"But - that means..."

"Minna, we are connected to each other by our bond of being Suzaku no Shichi Seishi, right?" Chichiri glanced at the others, who nodded. "Search for Tamahome's ki. As Shichi Seishi, we have extra abilities to use our ki. If Tamahome had died, we would have felt something like we did when Nuriko died. Isn't that right?"

There was a pause.

"A link... I can feel him, almost!" gasped Tasuki in shock.

"Me too," Mitsukake and Chiriko echoed.

Chichiri hugged Lina gently. "See? Everything's okay, so don't worry. I can sense his general direction. Tomorrow we'll head that way and find him."

"Arigatou, Chichiri," said Lina softly. "Except..."

"Except, no da?"

"Can we at least find a nice inn to spend the night in?"

Lina woke up slowly, enjoying the pleasure of the inn bed. After several minutes of just staring at the ceiling, she got up and drew back the curtains to see the view outside. It was a pleasant view of the busy city. Down below, several vendors were already beginning to set up shop, and several people walked by on various errands. The sky was a light grey that foreshadowed rain, but the clouds were not yet ominously heavy.

In fact, it reminded her of the day she woke up and decided to go find a Magic Shop in Rand McNally. A rather fateful day.

Gourry... She hadn't heard from him in a long time. Of course, considering the fun ways the book screwed with time, she wouldn't have been surprised if it was still the same day where Gourry was, but for her, it had been... far too long... She was starting to get mighty sick of this whole quest. She was starting to want out. But she had an obligation here, a duty she had to perform first.

What would her third wish be?

A little bee sitting on the windowsill buzzed its wings at her, then flew off into the sky. She watched it until it became a tiny dot, which didn't take long. As she stared in vain at the place where it had disappeared, she noticed a strange tower rising in the distance.

Something scratched at the door, distracting her. A second later, she could hear Mitsukake's cat meowing loudly. Lina hopped over and opened the door, and the cat leapt into her arms, purring happily.

"Ahh, so you're awake. Feeling refreshed?" wondered the cat's owner.

"Mm," Lina agreed, scratching the cat behind his ears. The cat purred blissfully. "Amazing what a little sleep will do for you."

"Guess what, no da?" asked Chichiri as he suddenly appeared behind Mitsukake.

Lina dropped the cat in surprise. For his part, the cat landed on his feet, shook himself off, gave Lina an annoyed look, and padded off. Using the amazing powers endowed upon her by being Suzaku no Miko, Lina somehow reached around Mitsukake to give Chichiri another throttling.

"Da..." choked Chichiri.

Mitsukake unobtrusively moved out of the way while Lina ranted, "I thought I told you before never to pop up and scare me like that!" Her fangs glinted in the available light and several veins popped on her head. "I don't like being startled! I have a fast temper, some day I'll fry you before you can even say 'na no da,' okay?! So STOP doing that!"

"But I have..." (Throttle!) "...News of Tamahome..." (Throttle!) "...Na no da..." (Throttle!)

Lina would not be placated. She kept up the throttling, demanding, "So why didn't you say that in the first place?"

"You didn't..." (Throttle, throttle!) "...Give me a chance..." (More throttling!) "...To, no da!"

"So tell us already!!" (Insert throttling here.)

Mitsukake intervened on his fellow Shichi Seishi's behalf. "Ano, Lina, but it would be better if we were all gathered, and I think it would be difficult to tell us the news if you're still trying to kill Chichiri."

Lina turned Eyes of Anger at Mitsukake, although she did let go of Chichiri's kesa. With a long sigh of relief, the monk hurried off to gather the others before the Wrath of Lina fell upon him again.

So they all gathered in Lina's room, each one expectantly watching Chichiri.

"Now, tell us the news," said Lina.

"It goes like this, no da. We can all sense each other's ki as Shichi Seishi. When I was studying under Taiitsukun, I learned a lot of things, and I can track Tamahome by his ki. Now, when I woke up this morning, I felt his ki in this very city!"

Shocked silence (or bemused, if you took Chichiri into consideration.)

Lina leapt up and put her hands on her hips. "Well, what are we waiting for, my loyal Shichi Seishi? Let's go find him!" She blinked and looked at Chichiri, "Did you feel his ki in any specific point?"

"Nope. Gomen, no da."

Lina throttled him for good measure.

So it was that Lina found herself lost (again) in the middle of the large Sailokoku city. They had all agreed that splitting up was the best way to scour the streets, and that they would all meet back at the inn for dinner.

Lina chose streets at random. In the beginning she had a very precise system mapped out, but she had long given up and turned right or left depending on whether she could smell food from said direction.

She turned again and found herself on a very large and very busy street. People pushed around, so Lina did the same, forcing her way down the street. Someone knocked her sideways into another person, then disappeared into the crowd.

"Itai!" said the person she had been pushed into.

"Tamahome-kun?"

"Oi, it's good to see you again, Lina-chan," he smiled, "but we'd better hurry or I'll loose track of them." Without even explaining who they were, he grabbed Lina's hand and pulled her through the crowd.

After several minutes, he turned down a side street, and Lina saw who they were. They were an elderly couple, although they looked like they could handle themselves in a quick skirmish.

The lady turned around and blinked. "Tamahome, who's this young lady with you?"

The man turned around too with a slightly ecchi look on his face. "Young lady, Obake-chan?"

The symbol for 'oni' flashed on Tamahome's forehead as he angrily said, "Don't call me Obake-chan! This is Lina Inverse, Suzaku no Miko."

"Don't talk back to your master!" said the elder man chidingly. He then looked Lina over. "My, my, but she's so little. Hardly what I call -"

He was interrupted when the woman slapped him hard. "Stop lusting over everything female you see, Tokaki."

"You know I only love you, Subaru-chaaaan..."

"Tamahome?" Lina whispered softly, "Just who are these people?"

"They're Tokaki and Subaru, two of the Byakko no Shichi Seishi. Tokaki was my master when I was young, and taught me about fighting. They're taking us to the temple where Tatara is; he's the other living Byakko no Shichi Seishi."

"Oh," said Lina. "So they have the Shinzahou?"

"Mmhmm."

Suddenly, the two Byakko no Shichi Seishi stopped in shock.

"Something... something's happening to Tatara!" cried Subaru.

"His ki... it's getting fainter!"

"What?" gasped Lina. "Don't tell me that the Seiryuu no Shichi Seishi are also here trying to get the Byakko no Shinzahou?!"

Continue: Episode 30: Possession! That's MY Shinzahou!