Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Fushigi Yuugi: Daydream's Embrace ❯ Episode 18: Battle of Anguish ( Chapter 18 )

Episode 18
Battle of Anguish
By: Mrs. Tasuki and Nyan Nyan

Tamahome's screams of pain rang throughout the dungeon in the Kutou palace, reverberating off of the cold granite walls and floors. He was chained up by his wrists and ankles, so there was no possible way he could move to avoid his penalty. Wearily, he looked down at the gray stone flooring that was now splattered crimson with blood.

"Nakago! Stop it!!!" Miaka ordered in vain, wiping away the tears that flowed down her cheeks, praying that the general would stop hurting the blue-haired sei.

"Some messages must be made perfectly clear," Nakago answered callously. "For example, 'what happens when a hostage tries to escape?' We must make sure that such a foolish thought never crosses his mind again," he continued, lifting up Tamahome's chin with the handle of the whip and sneering. "Now promise her eminence that you shall never leave these palace grounds."

Sticking out his tongue rebelliously, Tamahome replied, "No way." Nakago responded by savagely whipping him across the chest, causing Tamahome to let out another cry of pain.

"Stop it!!! You'll kill him!" Miaka shouted, falling weakly to the floor. She covered her face with her hands, trying to control her tears from falling. "Please Nakago, I'm begging you, let him go!"

"He's unconscious...unchain him!" Nakago ordered a guard standing by the prison cell as Tamahome fell to the hard ground with a loud thump. "Remember this well, Tamahome," the general started, hovering over him. "You will never return to Konan. You are kept alive only at the whim of Lady Miaka...do not forget that!"

*

Hotohori approached Shoka cautiously, her face buried in her hands. "Go..." she muttered in a deep voice, much different from her own from the corner in which she was hiding.

Katherine sat up in her bed, desperately trying to focus on what was happening around her. "Hotohori?" she mumbled, seeing his shadow slowly walk towards the shape of Shoka. "Hotohori, maybe we should listen to her," she warned, moving her legs to the side of the bed. She pushed herself off the cot, hoping her legs wouldn't fail her, but once all her weight was upon them she started to sink involuntarily to the floor.

"Katherine!" Hotohori shouted, rushing over to aid her and catching her right arm before her body fully collapsed on the floor. She slowly stood up, leaning on his arm for support, cursing her illness. "Are you alright?" Hotohori tenderly asked while slightly lifting her chin.

Brushing her hair out of her face, Katherine muttered, "Yeah...I'm fine."

"You should take better care of yourself. I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to you," he advised, looking into her hazel eyes.

Shoka clasped her hands over her ears, trying to ignore the lovers' conversation. Starting to breathe heavily, she desperately fought to keep control of her body. "Stop..." she mumbled as memories of her own past flooded her mind, "STOP!!!"

Hotohori and Katherine swiftly looked in Miss Shoka's direction to see what was wrong. Her blond hair had fallen out of her usual hairstyle and flowed about as though life was possessed in each individual strand, as if her hair was moving by its own free will. In a cold stare, she looked up, glaring at the couple who were kneeling on the floor with small, beady eyes. Her skin had become unusually pale, and blue veins had started to materialize up and down her flesh, as if she was aging decades in a matter of seconds.

Hotohori stepped in front Katherine, putting his guard up, ready to protect her. As he raised his sword, he shouted, "I will not let you lay one finger on her!"

Katherine stood clutching to Hotohori's long red tunic, feeling dizzier by the second. All of a sudden, Christina burst through the door, out of breath from running. She took one look at the once-beautiful Shoka, and gasped in surprise. "Oh my God!" she shouted, shocked to see such a stunning, sanguine person suddenly turn into a horrid monster.

Katherine, who could not even see shadows anymore, turned towards the direction of her friend's voice. "Is she really that ugly?" she asked meekly, knowing that Shoka must have gone through a disturbing transformation, and part of her not wanting to know if it was true or not. But Christina was distracted from her friend's question, as she continued to stare in disgust at Shoka, still having trouble believing that she and the monster that stood before her was the same person.

Shoka lunged towards Hotohori, baring her pointed teeth in an animal-like snarl. "Hotohori, watch out! She's been dead for a year!" Christina cried, running towards the emperor. She pushed him out of the way just in time, but in doing so exposed Katherine to the creature. Shoka's bony hand reached out towards the priestess, showing the yellow claws that were once finger nails. She grabbed the weak priestess in one swift move and spun the girl around until her hand rested upon Katherine's scalp, making sure the priestess couldn't budge.

"Katherine!" Hotohori shouted, regaining his balance.

"You're too late. This girl is MINE! Her bones will taste delicious," Shoka sneered in a malicious, rasping voice, digging her nails into Katherine's head. Katherine winced from the pain, trying to get away from the demon, but found herself too weak to wrench herself from Shoka's grasp.

Hotohori started to run towards Shoka, aiming to break Katherine from her grip, but suddenly a deep voice ordered him to halt. The emperor stopped and looked over his shoulder, wondering who the owner of the monotone voice was. A tall broad-shouldered man with short black hair and a purple and yellow headband crisscrossing over his forehead stood before him. He was dressed in a yellow coat with a blue and red border over a white shirt and navy blue pants. "Shoka..." the strange man muttered unbelievingly at her dramatic change of appearance.

"Tasuki! Nuriko! Are you two all right? Who is that man?" asked Hotohori, just noticing the two seishi standing behind the lofty figure.

"He came out of nowhere and insisted on seeing Shoka," Nuriko explained as he walked towards the emperor while staring at Shoka, not taking his eyes off of her in case of an attack.

"Myojuan..." Shoka mumbled to the stranger, suddenly longing for the man to hold her in his arms once again. Her hair became limp and the pale coloring in her face began to disappear.

"He's that doctor?!" Nuriko and Tasuki screamed in unison, not believing that the unfriendly hermit was so young.

"So you were the one spreading this plague," Myojuan accused sternly. "You've become a monster that sucks human souls."

Nuriko arbitrarily tapped Tasuki's shoulder, hoping to get his attention. Tasuki looked behind him, wondering what the sei wanted, and was answered by Nuriko simply pointing towards the open window. Tasuki's eyes followed Nuriko's finger to find dozens of possessed peasants struggling to climb through the window. Drool drizzled uncontrollably down their faces as they gazed through the windowpane, their eyes colorless and vacant. "What th' hell is goin' on here?!" Tasuki shouted as he and Nuriko ran towards the window and quickly closed the shutters on the zombies' faces.

"They were the townspeople that Shoka revived, but now they're undead under her control," Myojuan explained calmly, having full comprehension of the situation. "It's true isn't it, Shoka? But why?"

"You have no right to ask!" cried Shoka, her anger and hate starting to flow through her blood, intoxicating her with rage. "When I caught the disease a year ago, you NEVER came to save me!!!" she continued, moving a long, jagged fingernail closer to Katherine's neck. "I trusted you. I waited! I bore the pain, because I knew you would come! But you..." she stopped for a moment, staring coldly at the hermit. "You think you have the right to say anything?! This girl will die! Then it will be your turn!"

"Tasuki!" Hotohori shouted, unsheathing his sword.

"Right!" Tasuki hollered back, pulling his tessen out of its scabbard. They both rushed towards Shoka, ready to obliterate the demon once and for all.

"NO!" Christina screamed as she ran across the room. She stood in front of both Katherine and Shoka, her arms outstretched to shield the both of them. "I won't let you touch her!"

"What're ya doin'!?" Tasuki yelled, sure that Christina had gone insane.

"She came back to see Myojuan!" Katherine cried out. She glanced back at Miss Shoka, who was now looking more human than monster, though Katherine could not see it. "They loved each other!"

Christina then turned to look back at Shoka, her arms still extended. "You're here because it hurt to die without seeing him one last time," she said quietly, her face and tone of voice growing gentler. She watched sadly as Shoka's face faded into its normal countenance. Myojuan, Hotohori, Tasuki, and Nuriko, who was still holding the windows against the zombies outside, looked on in shock.

Shoka stood there, also frozen with astonishment. She slowly lifted her hand off of Katherine's head and let it fall despairingly to her side. Christina turned around to face Shoka completely and placed her hands gently upon her shoulders. "You can't hurt people because you miss him...because it wasn't his fault."

"I...I was waiting for you..." Shoka confessed, sobbing weakly and wretchedly. "Please help me...please..." Christina felt Shoka's body go rigid and start to shake, as though a shock ran through her entire frame. She released her hold on Shoka's shoulders and started to back away in fear, grabbing Katherine's wrist and pulling her away as well.

Shoka crossed her arms, nails digging into her shoulders, while her body convulsed, as though she was struggling to hold something inside. The fabric of the dress on her back started to ripple while she shuddered and trembled. Everyone in the room watched in horror as numerous spikes ruptured her backbone and burst through her skin, revealing an immensely gruesome beast with great, gnashing teeth and a gargantuan, bloodshot eye, more terrible beyond any horror one can dream of. It's great, bloated, insect-like mass swayed around, examining its surroundings before giving a bloodcurdling shriek, fangs oozing with stinking saliva. It screeched as it unfurled crimson tubules, stretching them towards Christina and Katherine, and finally wrapping the tentacles around the priestesses. Katherine screamed, feeling the prick of tiny teeth embedded in her skin, biting into her arms and legs. The girls were effortlessly lifted into the air by the blood-red tendrils and moved towards the monster's awaiting and snapping jaws.

"Katherine!" Hotohori yelled out as he ran towards the monster, dodging the tentacles as he went.

"Juan! Please! With your power, you could destroy this monster!" Shoka pleaded in desperation while Christina and Katherine struggled and cried out in pain as the teeth seemed to draw the very life out of them. "Juan hurry!" Shoka begged, "It will kill them!"

Myojuan stepped forward, looking at his former love in shock and terror. "You were possessed by a plague demon!?"

"I'm so sorry!" Shoka cried. "I was so lonely...please...free me!"

Myojuan looked up at the two girls, helpless in the grasp of the monster, and back at Shoka, frozen in dismay at the events around him. He clutched the bandages that covered his left hand and began to tug them off, knowing what he must do.

"No!" Christina shouted weakly.

"Isn't there anything else we can do?" Katherine pleaded, breathing heavily from the mere effort of yelling out her question.

Hotohori and Tasuki charged towards the demon, their weapons in hand. Hotohori slashed at the monster, watching in complete and utter shock as its appendages regenerated as soon as they had been removed. Tasuki sent a wave of fire towards the demon, and observed the redeveloping tentacles in surprise as well. A new series of tendrils stretched forth, seizing Nuriko, Tasuki, and Hotohori and raising them into the air too, bringing all of the monster's victims closer to its teeth. Christina screamed as she was elevated towards the creature's open jaws, welcomed by a blast of hot breath and the disgusting stench of its orifice.

"Juan! Hurry!" Shoka yelled as the appendages wrapped around their necks, suffocating the seishi. Christina's eyes widened in terror as she stared into the jaws of the monster and at the acid that dripped from its fangs.

Myojuan stepped forward and raised his left palm, summoning a power deep inside himself. Shoka looked up to Katherine, tears filling her eyes in knowledge that she would finally be free of the demon that had cursed her since she had died. "Katherine...you'll get better soon...goodbye..."

"SHOKA!" Myojuan shouted as brilliant green glow emanated from his hand. The massive creature loosed an earsplitting shriek as the room was engulfed in light, temporarily blinding everyone from seeing what had happened.

"Farewell, Juan...I just wanted to see you...one last time..."

The seishi and Christina stood up, their eyes slowly adjusting to the sudden darkness. The house had disappeared, and now they were seated on the grass, observing the town around them.

"Th' whole house was an illusion!" Tasuki marveled as he stared into the night sky.

"Katherine, are you alright?" Hotohori asked as he gently lifted her head and pulled her from the ground.

Christina covered her mouth in disgust as she surveyed the putrid collection of mummies surrounding her; she had landed in the center of where the undead villagers had fallen. Carefully stepping over the corpses, she made her way towards Katherine and Hotohori.

"Th' spell got broken! An' that'll be th' end of th' plague!!" Tasuki crowed.

"Katherine?!" Hotohori asked his priestess, who was now completely unconscious.

"Don't worry," Myojuan comforted as he kindly lifted her chin and examined her. "She was just too close to the demon." He calmly raised his hand over her face as his the character for 'grief' started glowing. The gloom around Katherine deteriorated, and slowly the darkness lifted, becoming a technicolor blur. She blinked as the haze focused into the tall sei. Katherine rubbed her eyes as she sat up, asking, "What happened?"

"My celestial warrior name is Mitsukake," he told the group as he stepped over the dew-drenched blades of grass to his fallen love and sadly looked into her beautiful countenance. "I have the great healing power."

He tenderly brushed a strand of golden hair out of her face before carefully lifting her into his arms. "That's why I became I doctor; I wanted to help people with my power," he explained forlornly. "I was healing villagers in another town, and Shoka suddenly took ill. But I was too late. The one person I loved most of all, was the one I couldn't save! How dare I call myself a 'great doctor'!? This power of mine...was useless in the end!" He held Shoka's face to his, tears sliding down his face and gently splashing onto her cheeks. He stared angrily at his hands, cursing the power he possessed. "What good is the power to heal!? Nothing mattered! I lost her!"

"So that's why you became a hermit," Nuriko muttered, trying to hold back his tears.

Katherine slowly walked up behind Mitsukake, hoping to bring some comfort to him. "Just look at how peaceful she looks," Katherine started tenderly, while putting her hand on his shoulder. "You saved her."

"I'll hang on, Shoka," Myojuan whispered in his lover's ear.

Katherine lifted her hand off of his shoulder and bit her bottom lip. Tears forming in her eyes, she took a few soft steps backwards and slowly walked towards Christina. "We couldn't save her. What's the point of knowing if we can't do anything about it?" she quietly asked as tears streamed down her face.

Christina looked at the ground and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, her face in a frown as she struggled not to shed anymore tears. "I don't know," she admitted quietly, "I just don't know."

*

Everyone somberly walked back to the room at the inn, knowing that it was too late to start searching for the last seishi. Being lost in their thoughts, no one said a word the whole walk back. They quickly changed into their night clothes and plopped into bed.

Katherine lay restlessly in the worn and lumpy mattress, pondering about what happened throughout the day. She kept on trying to find the non- existent comfortable spot on the bed before falling asleep. She couldn't stop thinking about the look of grief in Mitsukake's eyes as he tenderly held Shoka. Finally, she stood up and tiptoed to the bed next to hers, trying to not disturb anyone else. She looked down at her friend, whose mouth was wide open as she silently breathed, her petite body somehow covering the entire bed.

Katherine put her hand on Christina's shoulder and gently shook it. "Christina, wake up," Katherine whispered in her ear, desperately hoping that no one else would wake up. She heard Christina mumble something inaudible. "That's it," Katherine muttered, glaring at her friend while she angrily put her hands on her hips. She grabbed Christina's arm, which was dangling lifelessly off the edge of the bed, and yanked it with all her might.

Christina quickly snapped out of her blissful dream to find herself on the hard, dusty flooring with a thump. She looked up to see Katherine hovering over her. "What?" she irritably greeted while rubbing her shoulder, which had broken her fall.

"We really need to talk," Katherine whispered, holding out her hand for Christina to grab and hoist herself off the old floorboards.

Christina seized her friend's hand and drowsily asked, "Can't this wait till morning?" But instead of using Katherine's hand to help herself stand up, she grabbed it tightly and jerked it, causing Katherine lose her balance and fall down too.

"No, not really," Katherine answered in a loud whisper while putting her palm behind Christina's head and thrusting her friend's face to the floor.

"OW! Okay I'm up!" Christina yelled as she sat back up, her hands tenderly massaging her nose, which had absorbed the full blow of the wooden floor's wrath. Katherine placed her index finger over her lips, shushing her friend. They walked quietly into the hallway, not wanting to disturb the others.

Still half-asleep, Christina sat down and leaned against the wall. "So, what's this about?" she asked while massaging her eyes, trying to rub the sleep out of them and fully wake up.

Katherine sat down in the middle of the hallway across from her friend. "We need to figure what to do about Amiboshi," she answered with a serious face.

Christina let out an exasperated sigh. "Can't we do this when I'm thinking properly?"

Katherine's jaw slightly dropped, not believing her friend's immaturity. "No," she swiftly answered. "That's what you said about Mits and Shoka but that didn't work, remember?" she added with a sneer.

Her eyes narrowing and her jaw clenched, Christina said through her teeth, "Don't you dare pin this on me! This whole thing is as much your fault as it is mine."

Katherine let out a long sigh and rolled her eyes. Deep down, she knew Christina was right, but she didn't want to have to face the guilt. "Anyways..." she continued slightly annoyed, wanting to stay on the topic of Amiboshi. "We absolutely cannot let Amiboshi pose as Chiriko again."

Even though Christina was still slightly offended by what Katherine had said, she decided to let it go for now. "So, ya have any ideas?" she asked cheerfully, hiding her true emotions.

Having thought of this earlier while she was still in bed, Katherine responded, "Well, if we find Chiriko before we find Amiboshi, then there won't be a problem, right? But I completely forget what city Chiriko lives in."

Christina furrowed her brow, trying to remember what she had read on a random Chiriko web page. "Doesn't he live in that place really far away?" she asked in the middle of her pondering. "He did have to travel, like, a whole day just to get to the palace."

"Yeah..." Katherine softly replied, biting her bottom lip. She started to snap her fingers while quickly saying, "Chiriko...Chiriko...Chiriko...Chiriko..."

Shaking her hands about crazily, Christina excitedly whispered, "Oh! Oh! Doesn't it start with something that sounds like `Jo' or something like that?!"

"Yeah!" Katherine agreed happily, glad that the conversation was going somewhere useful. "Jo...Jo...Jo...Jo...Jo...Jo...Jo..." she chanted, inadvertently snapping her fingers as thought.

"Would'ja stop?" Christina asked irritably, shutting her eyes tightly to ignore the barrage of noise.

"Sorry! It helps me think!" Katherine argued.

In a loud whisper, Christina shushed, "Don't scream, we'll wake them up."

"Sorry," Katherine whispered.

"Well, tomorrow we can ask everyone if they know a city that starts with a `Jo'," Christina concluded.

"What are we gonna be like? `By some unknown force we have discovered that the city where Chiriko is located sounds like `Jo','" she imitated, mocking a low professional voice.

Knowing Katherine had a point, Christina pondered for a few more moments. "Ooooh! Light bulb!" she whispered dynamically. "I can be like: `Last night, I had a dream!'" she shouted melodramatically, her fist in the air exaggeratedly.

"That all men and women were created equal," Katherine sardonically muttered.

"Shut up. First of all, that's not how it goes. And second of all, I'm not done." She resumed her dramatic stance. "`And there was the symbol of Chiriko and it was glowing over a city. I then heard some word that sound like Jo-`" she continued, her gaze towards the heavens.

"Whatever you say..." Katherine mumbled, rolling her eyes. "But, umm...we can't read Chinese, so how would you have known it was Chiriko's symbol?" she asked, suddenly realizing an error in Christina's plan.

"I'll figure it out when the time comes," Christina stated haughtily.

*

"WAKE UP! RISE AND SHINE!" Nuriko joyfully shouted in Katherine's ear.

"AH! NURIKO! That was evil..." she complained, shoving her head under her pillow to hide from the light and noise.

Tasuki was leaning over Christina, shaking her shoulders in an attempt to wake her up. "Are ya gonna get up?"

Christina slowly opened her eyes, and gasped when she focused in on someone's face, since it was only a few inches from her own. "You scared me!" she replied angrily.

"My face ain't scary!" he countered grumpily.

"C'mon you two, we are setting off to find the last warrior today," Hotohori said to the priestesses, pulling a red tunic over his white shirt and brown pants. Katherine sat in up bed and rubbed her eyes, finally awake.

Making the bed, Mitsukake inquired, "How exactly do we find them?"

"Oh my god! You guys! Last night, I had a dream!" Christina said excitedly. Katherine stared at Christina for a moment, not believing her friend was going to follow through with the plan. Having full knowledge of what was coming next, she buried her face into her pillow, trying to smother her laughter.

"Big surprise," Nuriko muttered sarcastically, continuing to pack his bags.

"Katherine, are you alright?" Hotohori asked Katherine. She nodded back, still trying to contain her giggles.

Staring at Katherine confusedly, Tasuki questioned, "What's up with her?"

"YOU GUYS! OVER HERE!" Christina shouted, waving her arms for attention. "Anyways, there was this red symbol thing over the city! I think it's Chiriko's symbol. It looked like this..." she trailed off, walking over to the window and drawing the character for `stretching' on the filthy window. "And I heard someone saying something like `jo' while I saw a town in the distance," she finished, exactly like she had said to Katherine last night.

Katherine laughed even harder. "I can't believe you..." she said between her chuckles, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Are you serious?" Nuriko marveled confusedly, looking from Christina to the symbol traced onto the window. "That means stretching."

"SO!?" Christina yelled defensively. "Your symbol means willow!"

Nuriko raised his eyebrows, then answered, "I'm willowy!" while gracefully posing.

"Yeah, and maybe Chiriko's tall," Katherine added ironically, knowing the truth about Chiriko's height.

"So...are there any towns `round here that start with something that sounds like `Jo'?" Christina asked hopefully, changing the subject from Nuriko, who was still modeling his gracefulness. She turned to Hotohori, assuming that he would probably know.

"I don't believe so..." Hotohori answered while rubbing his chin in thought.

Katherine was strongly reminded of the song she used to sing so many times while she babysat. "Hi, my name is Joe. I have a wife and three kids and I work in a button factory," she sang, dancing around in a circle.

Christina suddenly remembered when she used to sing that song in elementary school. "One day, my boss said to me, he said, `Joe. Are you busy?' I said, `No'," she and Katherine continued to sing, swinging around each other in a `mock bandit dance'. Tasuki scowled at the girls, as they continued. "Joe, push the button with your right hand!"

"There's one west of here called Jouzen-shi..." Mitsukake offered, ignoring the two energetic priestesses.

"That's it!!!" Katherine gasped, her eyes wide, suddenly stopping their dance.

"How would you know?" Nuriko asked suspiciously.

"Priestess intuition," answered Christina. Unfazed by the interruptions, they resumed their song. "'Are you busy?' I said, `No'. Joe, push the button with your left hand."

*

Joan and Diana froze, like two stone statues, at the creaking sound of the garage door opening. Diana shut the book quickly, and struggled to hide it from site by covering the red novel with her hands. She immediately adopted a guise of innocence as the door from the garage slowly opened, revealing Joan and Katherine's father. He was wearing his casual golfing attire with the logo for his bank on the corner of his shirt. He calmly walked into the room, and asked, "Hello, where's mom?"

"Up-upstairs," Joan stammered. Diana elbowed her friend, wishing she wouldn't act so nervous, since the last thing they needed was to try to explain where Katherine and Christina were. To Diana's dismay, Joan's father's gaze fell down upon the tattered, red book that she was protectively clutching in her hands. Diana swallowed, a lump in her throat rising from apprehension, and tightened her vice-grip on the book.

"What's that?" he inquired.

"Diana brought some manga for me to see," Joan answered quickly, glancing over at Diana in question, as thought wondering if she had said the right thing.

Using his moniker for the word 'anime' that both Katherine and Joan hated, he inquired, "Ani-gay?" He chuckled at his humor, and then looked back to his eldest daughter, almost daring her to talk back and correct him.

"Yes, ani-gay," Joan answered compliantly, inadvertently tapping her foot on the ground in her state of anxiety.

Looking around the room for Katherine, Joan's father asked, "Where's your sister?"

"Umm...at the movies with Christina...and they'll call me when they're done...and then we'll go to Diana's. Is that okay?" Joan answered fretfully.

"You're coming over?" Diana gasped in surprise, eyes wide and mouth agape, then caught herself and added, "You're coming over!" She looked up to her friend's dad and flashed a large, fake smile.

Joan's father looked suspiciously from Diana's cheesy grin to his daughter, who was turning bright red from holding her breath with concern. "Fine with me, but you should ask your mother," he said as he left the room and headed upstairs. Joan finally let out a long, exasperated sigh as he disappeared from sight, her face shifting from a bright, tomato-red to a normal skin tone.

"What am I gonna do?" demanded Diana sarcastically. "Say, 'Hey mom, dad, Joan's sleeping over!'?"

"We could go to a hotel..." Joan shrugged, trying to think of someplace else to go where they couldn't be bothered.

Diana raised her eyebrows to see if Joan was actually serious, "No. Just...no."

"Why?" Joan asked, totally oblivious to the sexual implication. "But...oh..." she realized as she teasingly put her arm around Diana's shoulders, and slyly grinned, "You know you want to..."

Diana slapped Joan's arm off of her, and grumpily muttered, "I'll talk to my aunt..."

*

"Finally!" Katherine exclaimed as they entered the city of Jouzen-shi. "I thought we would never get here!"

"Christina, was there anything else in your dream?" Hotohori inquired, looking over to the priestess, who was marveling at the city. He noticed that Katherine and Christina seemed to be interested everywhere they went, as though they had never seen houses before. It caused him to wonder what kind of world the priestesses came from, especially since they couldn't even use chopsticks well.

"Like did you see what his house looked like or something?" Katherine wondered, winking her left eye flashily in hopes that Christina would pick up her idea quickly.

Christina stared at her friend confusedly, not sure what she was supposed to say. "Err...umm..." she mumbled as she desperately tried to figure out her friend's secret code.

"Like was it really small or REALLY big?" Katherine continued, nodding and raising her eyebrows for the latter selection.

"Oh!" Christina marveled. "Yeah! It was really big! Like huge!" she stated, stretching her arms to depict the sheer magnitude of the home as Katherine nodded in agreement.

Mitsukake glanced at Nuriko questioningly, and received a look that revealed the purple haired sei was thinking that the girls were acting strange as well. Nuriko shrugged an answer, unseen to Christina or Katherine, who was still nodding fervently. Mitsukake raised his eyebrow, still somewhat skeptical.

"So," Christina continued, not noticing Nuriko or Mitsukake's strange looks, "we just need to find a really big mansion..." Katherine and Christina looked around, scanning the scenery for large homes.

"Oh yeah!" Katherine suddenly shouted, remembering that The Universe of the Four Gods had clues about each sei. She reached into her small, red book bag and pulled out the scroll. "Can someone read this scroll for us?"

"I will," Nuriko volunteered, taking the scroll from Katherine's hands. "The last one says `intellect'."

"What th' hell is tha' supposed t' mean?" asked Tasuki.

"Now that I think about it, I do recall a religious pilgrim telling me about a young boy around here taking the Kakyo exam," Hotohori mused, ignoring the sei's choice wording.

"Maybe he could be the last seishi..." Christina suggested, looking innocently up at the sky.

"Hmm...you never know..." agreed Katherine, pressing her index finger over her lips naively.

"So..." Nuriko said, "We're looking for a symbol that says `stretching', a big house, and a genius boy?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Christina answered, looking over her shoulder at the sei on the steed behind her.

Katherine suddenly heard a soft music, causing her to stop her horse out of fear. She listened closer, confirming her assumptions that the music was coming from a flute. "Hey..." she meekly whispered to Christina, stopping her horse and looking around fretfully. "Do you hear that?"

Christina pulled back on the reins of her mare and listened intently, to hear a quiet, almost silent melody behind her. The priestesses both looked around in a panic, trying to find where the music radiated from. The remaining seishi turned around as they noticed the girls were looking around in fear.

"What's up with `em?" Tasuki inquired quietly.

"Shhh!" Katherine scolded, holding up a finger to silence the bandit. Everyone was silent, ears pricked, listening for an inaudible noise. Katherine and Christina seemed to recognize the sound, and they stared at each other.

Noticing their shocked reactions, Nuriko questioned, "Someone's playing the flute...so?"

"We were so close too..." Katherine muttered disappointedly, slapping her forehead with her left hand. She looked disappointedly at Christina, who stared back nervously. Nothing was said, but both girls knew they had to quickly think of something. The last thing they needed was to run into Amiboshi.

"Umm...hey, you guys..."Christina started slowly, trying to change her story so they could leave. "I just remembered, in the dream..."

"Yes?" Katherine asked, hoping that her friend had thought of an amazing excuse, for her mind was drawing a blank.

"It wasn't 'Jo', it was 'Cho'!" the priestess exclaimed, spontaneously changing the story of her dream.

"As in Choko?" Nuriko wondered, sighing in incredulity.

"Yeah, that's it! Where we found Mitsukake!" Christina replied.

Playfully slapping her friend's arm, Katherine rebuked, "No wonder you saw a symbol glowing there! You idiot!"

"So, ya had a dream 'bout a sei we already found!?" Tasuki asked, his jaw dropping in disbelief at the fact that they spent days traveling

"I guess she did!" Katherine smiled, letting out a rather fake laugh.

"How does that explain the 'stretching' symbol?" questioned Hotohori.

"Well, like I said earlier," Katherine added, "the seishi she was dreaming about could be tall...and just look at Mits! I mean, no offense or anything..."

"He could play for the NBA! So no seishi here!" Christina finished, tugging her horse's reins to turn, wanting to get out of the city as soon as possible.

"Hi-dee-ho, let's go!" Katherine chanted, also turning her horse around and trotting in the direction they had just come from. The seishi, with no other choice but to follow, turned and trailed after the two girls' steeds, muttering amongst themselves why they were letting two girls, who weren't even from Konan, lead them around the countryside.

The town was larger than most the group had visited, barely smaller than even the capital city. The dirt roads were clustered with people, horses, and carriages, all hurrying about busily to the wide array of shops and houses.

Many classes of citizens walked about, all wearing strange garbs in bright colors. From kimonos and robes that resembled those of the palace inhabitants, to simple pants and shirts. Musicians played instruments at street corners, cases open for spare change, charming listeners with their tunes. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings winked from brightly colored stands, attracting customers to touch the cool metal while beautifully fashioned weapons waited patiently in cases, drawing curious children and inquisitive adults alike to admire the craftsmanship. The soft singing of a flute soared through the air, the notes so sweet and pure that a crowd had begun to form around the performer. The man had scruffy, brown hair and a short mustache that was uncommon for most. His lean build was dressed in a simple pair of brown pants and a white shirt. Despite his humble appearance, the music of his flute swelled, rivaling that of a professional instrumentalist.

In front the musician there was a small boy, who looked about ten years old, looking up at him with admiration. But suddenly the boy's daydreams were interrupted by his older brother calling him. "Doukun! Hurry up!" the voice yelled above the notes.

The young child in a bright green kimono that matched his eyes glanced around in surprise, yanked out of his daze. He bowed quickly, thanking the musician. While he jerked his head back up, his light brown hair, which was in a pony-tail, bounced. "Coming!" the boy shouted, placing some extra change in the musician's open box.

To Be Continued...

AN2: We spent a lot of time trying to make the last part of the episode make sense. If any of you out there are confused, please send a review telling us so, and we will try to explain it in the next episode. But, honestly, don't read too much into it. We would have asked our editor, Emi (the best person ever), to help us out, except for we just discovered she has mono. So now we are editor-less for this episode and the next one because we forbid her to get out of bed.

~*~

FUSHIGI AKUGI ~Blame the Dr. Pepper~

Mits: You shall be healed! (Places hand over Katherine) Behold the power of Suzaku!!! YOU SHALL BE ABLE TO SEE!

Katherine: AHHH! GLORY BE TO SUZAKU! He has healed the demon inside!!!

Mits: Now, remember, you are special and Suzaku loves you!

Christina: (Singing in diva-mode) OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD HE REIGNS FROM HEAVEN ABOVE!

Nuriko: (Clapping) GLORY BE!!!

Tasuki: CAN I HEAR AN `AMEN'!?!?

Hotohori: Amen!!! (Falls to knees)

Tasuki: Hallelujah!?!?

Hotohori: HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Tasuki: PRAISE THE LORD!

Katherine: (Running around) I can see!!!