lucetilogs | "I know you." "I don't."

"I know you." "I don't."

Who: Hikitsu

mirror_eye, Uruki

the_wind_woman, Takiko

waterfallchild, Demyx

demyxity if he wants in
What: Explanations, because time differences and wars make things really hard to understand
When: After Hikitsu's arrival, specifically after this thread
Where: Area of house 52
Summary: There is talk
Rating: Probably no higher than PG, mild PG-13 at the outside worst

Maybe it wasn't as unusual in this strange new place, but seeing a young man and a young woman walking in front of the houses lining the road south probably wasn't all that common seeing as they were both soaking wet and apparently having no issue with being that way. Also, they were both wearing full pants and long sleeves even despite the heat. All in all a slightly odd pair. Both were holding their journals firmly closed so as to avoid the normal cacophony that accompanied the strange books.

"Maybe we should just give her a general summary." Hikitsu was having mild second thoughts on his decision about what to tell Takiko. "She'll probably want to know all about the others and what they can do. If we can just avoid the deaths... Although I don't know how in Genbu's name we can explain Namame."

He was keeping a small part of his attention on watching the road for others; it was difficult to just let go of his constant vigilance. But it really did seem like their powers weren't horrible here; as a test, he'd kept up his water spray until forced by geography to abandon it, and no one had tried to shoot him or run away from him. Their home was getting better, but it seemed this strange place had that one foot up on home, even if everything else was worse.

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Uruki considered his fellow seishi's words, but really, it was hard to say what would be best. True, Takiko was stubborn, but explaining many things was very confusing. At times she was even in disbelief over her own ideas. "Why don't we leave it up to her? She'll ask about you, obviously, but telling her about all of us right now may be too much at once."

He sighed. "I have no idea how to explain Namame either, and especially how to explain and leave out Lady Anlu's death." That and she didn't need to hear about exactly how he got forced into a dress for that whole thing either. He could feel his face growing hot just remembering the comments Tomite and Hatsui had made then.

And he did also keep up the breeze that was doing a great deal to further cool them off. Their hair probably also looked a mess by now, not that he could see if any random leaves fell into his hair, and he didn't even care about that. Anything to deal with this heat really. Though for the sake of decency, he was going to make sure to keep his arms crossed in front of his chest, in case anything did actually show. There was no need to give the annoyance more ammunition.

"...That would probably be for the best. She hates not knowing things, I can easily see her being angry for not telling her everything. But if we make it clear that we'll answer her questions, but leave it up to her to ask them..." It was somewhat duplicitous, but there was very little chance of her asking about the health of people she hadn't even met yet. And in some cases, such as Lady Anlu, they didn't have to say absolutely everything. Just enough to make the story plausible, no matter how out of the ordinary it was. By now she should be able to accept the strange world of the seishi.

And he would hold onto his own secret. Neither of them needed that burden - especially since it wasn't going to happen here, anyway.

Hikitsu really wasn't too concerned about his hair, or his appearance in general. While not a slovenly person by any stretch, he didn't care nearly enough to stop and untangle the leaves from his hair, though he decided to find something to tie it back with as soon as possible. But he was also watching the buildings around them - buildings that had only a vague resemblance to the ones he was familiar with and that he wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable around. Especially the very large one they'd passed just a minute before. "Are we almost there?"

He merely nodded in response. Truly, so far that had been for the best. That way she wasn't given too much to digest all at once, but knowing that they would be happy to answer any questions she may have would appease her curiosity. "I imagine her questions will be mostly about you since she really knows nothing about you. That at least there is no harm in telling her about."

He stopped when they got to house #52. "Yes, in fact this one is it." He said as he looked over towards the house.

Edited 2009-07-11 10:03 (UTC)

"For not telling me everything about what?" She'd been laying in the shade to the right of the house, enjoying a reprieve from the heat when she'd heard two familiar voices. At first she'd thought to leave them talk since it was obviously important. But when they had begun talking about keeping things from her, well. She'd gotten up, and come to stand in front of the house, arms crossed over her chest. And she didn't look impressed at all.

"Well?" Her gaze drifted from one to the other. "Why on earth would you keep some things from me to begin with?"

Great, of course she would have to hear that bit. He'd not given her everything for a good reason, she'd be worried unnecessarily, and confused. Of course, he had no idea just how much of that she had heard, but he could try to divert the subject with something she knew about to some degree, and he didn't mind telling more about since obviously things ended well.

"Because neither of us wants to confuse you or to make you sad and angry to hear of things like how many times Hagus attacked me."

True, she'd probably continue to be mad, but there were still things that it was best for her to not hear right now.

That and there were some events that were really just very difficult to speak of because of the sheer pain associated with them.

Even if Xion hadn't just disappeared, there would never be a perfect time to tell her anything. And the idea that they'd withhold information from her was hurtful, to say the least. Her gaze darkened, and she marched up to him, looking up into his eyes with a look she knew displayed her hurt quite well.

"If I end up being sent back there and have to deal with it, I'll be angry and sad. If you keep something from me that we went through together, I'll be angry and hurt and confused. Didn't you think about that?" And here, her voice hitched a little bit. By now he knew her pretty well, or he should.

Several moments went by where all she did was look from one of them to the other and back again. Takiko set her jaw, irritation setting in. "I'd like you to tell me. All of it." She didn't scream at them or slap them, but she did want to show that she could and would handle this. As their priestess, yes. But foremost as their friend.

What else could he do but shake his head, putting one hand to his forehead. This was exactly what he'd thought would happen if Takiko got wind of it - possibly without the violence, but that was still to be seen. At least her ire was mostly directed not at him for the moment, though that would probably change when he spoke.

And hadn't he already done this? This was far too formal for him. "Takiko... Priestess, my name is Chen Emthatt. Tomite mentioned knowing me before you showed. I'd show you my symbol, but it traps anyone who sees it." He raised a hand to touch his eye patch briefly, indicating its location. "It makes them remember suppressed memories. You were caught once by it already on accident, and I don't think you'd like being caught again." Or before? Whichever. It was a bad experience once and would likely be so again, especially as it would probably bring up those same memories since this Takiko hadn't had prior exposure.

And Genbu, he was starting to dry out and bake again; some of that water was definitely sweat. "Can we go back to the river? It'll be cooler, and we can talk more there."

He sighed. He should have known that she wouldn't tolerate them doing what they thought was best for her. "Fine, but we can't explain it all tonight, or even within a short time. A lot of time has passed since your last memory of our world and when Hikitsu and I left. As far as I can tell, it was about five months that passed for us before my own arrival, and another half a month for Hikitsu."

Had he fallen in love in such a short time? Putting it like that really did make it seem like a lot shorter than it really was. Truly, it had seemed like he had known all of them forever now.

"But for now, I think Hikitsu's suggestion is a good one, and we should start with how we all met him even if that is in the middle."

Takiko's dark eyes fell upon the man she hadn't been formally introduced to yet, and smiled briefly. Of course, it was nice to meet him, and she bowed her head in response. "It's an honour to meet you, Hikitsu." That being said, she still didn't feel that the lack of an introduction was enough to keep her from being irritated with what they'd been planning. Even if it was best for her, it hurt to think that they'd keep something she'd experienced together with them from her.

"Oh, I don't think I'd like to experience that, you're right." Still, she was frowning. "But I'm a strong girl. I'm able to deal with whatever we've been through. When you think about it, I'm going to go through the same things anyway. So I really don't understand.." She turned her eyes to Rimudo then, and her look softened.

"So long as you don't keep it from me, I'm fine with however you decide to handle it." Compromise was something new to her. She sure wouldn't give such a benefit to her father or even Ousugi-san, but for him? She figured that she could. Stepping forward, she sighed, and gazed at them both.

"That seems like a good place to start to me, too." Now her gaze returned to Uruki, the time frame he'd given her turning over and over in her mind. They'd become more than friends in so little time? There was a bit of color in her cheeks at the thought of just how close they'd have to have been for that to of happened.

"W-Well, maybe we should go inside, then." And she turned around quickly, so neither would see the blush on her cheeks, heading quickly inside.

"The shikyokan is unforgiving; I don't want anyone to face it if it isn't necessary." Although... wasn't that just before Takiko had returned to her world for the first time? What if that had triggered it, somehow? Could they use it as a method of escape for her, at least? She couldn't return to their world, but surely she would be better in her own home than in this place.

But he refrained from shaking his head at the stammering and awkward between the two; Uruki was right, it certainly wasn't as advanced as it was in their own time. But the attraction was obviously going to end up in the same place - it was just inevitable with these two. He glanced off to the west, where he could hear the sound of moving water, and watched the distance for a moment before sighing and following Takiko into a building that at least wasn't as big as the one they'd passed.

Inside, though, he started to become... just a little apprehensive. Hikitsu wasn't really used to living indoors; his clan had been partially nomadic, and after they'd left his family had taken to living in caves. At least he was used to having something over his head, but everything there was just different enough to surprise him when he looked at it, from the building materials to the smoothness of the walls to the construction of the furniture. It was all just... strange. So, he tried his best not to think about it. "I think trying to tell you 'everything' would get very confusing - and it's a long story, so it would be easy to leave something out. If you ask the questions, I'll answer them."

Yeah, it was a long story. A lot had happened and considering who was here to tell it, they hadn't even been around for all of it. The only ones who had really been there for about everything had been Tomite and Takiko.

"I'll start things off since there are a few things that need to be said before it's explained how we met Hikitsu." He looked at Takiko directly at this point. "And you know I wasn't always around, so there may be details missing because I have to depend on Tomite's explanation of what happened."

Anyway, he took a deep breath before starting, because really, meeting Hikitsu had come at a time when things were quite odd. He was still not wanting to admit he cared, though it was obvious to everyone else that both of them did.

"By this point, you had a necklace that helped lead all of us to the others. Also right before we left to find Hikitsu, we had been given a dragon to aid in traveling. Right before that was when I had been forced to betray Kutou to protect you and obviously I could not go back anymore. So at the point where this starts, it was you, myself, Tomite, Hatsui and Namame."

And this really was going to be a lot harder than it seemed. "I'll leave the rest of our meeting to you, Hikitsu, unless there are any other details I'll have to fill in."

It was more than obvious.

But more important things first.

"Before you all arrived, I'd been out gathering wood, food, and water, when I felt my symbol being pierced by something... what felt like a very bright light. It wasn't... painful... but it was startling. I knew something was coming then, but I didn't know what. From what Tomite told me, your group landed in or near Tomite's old village that his clan had left the year before, with him injured but able to move slowly. You and Uruki went searching for herbs to help with his injuries and followed a cave system to an underground lake - where I was."

Hikitsu paused. He wasn't exactly proud of his actions, but he was pragmatic - and not remorseful enough to apologize for something that hadn't hurt them. "My other power - my main power - is controlling water. I made snakes of water that tied up the two of you, and Uruki tried to fight them with his wind blades and failed." He was a little proud of that - Uruki was arguably the most powerful of them all, but water was so malleable. "I warned you not to go any farther, and created a tidal wave in the form of a wolf, but Chamka - Tomite - found us and froze my water. I didn't want to see him." Perhaps Uruki would notice the slight vocal change that accompanied him sighing and looking more at the floor as remorse because he knew him; perhaps even Takiko would, since she was fairly empathic, but who knew. "I didn't want to face him after what I'd done, so I broke his ice's hold on my water and disappeared after telling all of you to leave again. Has Tomite told you of his past when you're from?"

During all of this, she sat very still. Very silent. Occasionally she looked from one to the other, but for the most part her focus was upon Hikitsu. She took it all in slowly, though it was difficult to compute. Oh not that he had attacked them. Takiko wasn't so naïve that she'd expected all of the seishi to come rushing at her with open arms. Especially after how she had met both Tomite and Uruki. It was the apparent bad blood between Tomite and Hikitsu that was truly concerning. A frown marred her face when he finished speaking, and she was finally free to speak.

"He said that you were friends, but one day you disappeared. Can you tell me what happened? Whatever it was might affect how you two work together, and it has me a little worried."

Folding her hands in her lap, she squared her jaw and stared up at the new arrival levelly. "Why did you want us to leave? Other than the fact that you must not have wanted to join us." Whatever it was, she knew that it had an impact on Tomite. A large one. Hikitsu didn't seem the type to be afraid to face anybody.

Hikitsu shook his head at her concern, raising a hand a little to quell her. "You don't have to worry about that now - it's been sorted out. But it began when Tomite was very young. My clan had abandoned my family when they'd left years before because of my shikyokan power, and my sister and I lived in a cave near Tomite's village. He and his father were out hunting one day when the Maw awoke - demons, giant demons, and one of them found Tomite and his father. The man told him to run, tried to shoot the demon, and was killed before Chamka's eyes." Ayla's, too. She'd shivered for weeks. "My sister and I had been out and we saw what happened; I was able to jump in and grab him away from the monster's notice before he could try to take revenge and just get killed as well. After that, he was one of the people we interacted with the most, and he knew I was a seishi, though he hadn't discovered his own power yet."

He paused again. "...This is where things get worse. A year ago, the Maw woke again, all of them, and someone from Tomite's village saw me trying to hold them off from attacking... I don't know if it was him, but I know that suddenly he was jumping into a stalemated battle I was barely holding my own in, with only a bow, and his mother was chasing him. I turned to look at them, without thinking, and my snakes hit Boraate when I'd been aiming at the demon." Now he gave a genuine sigh; he still regretted that. "I didn't kill her, but I hurt her badly. I was on a cliff for a better vantage point, and Chamka saw my snakes hit her - and thought I'd done it on purpose and thought I'd killed her. One of the best ways to awaken our powers is through powerful emotions, and his manifested with his rage. He put his hands together and shot out a barrage of ice aimed right at me, but Ayla jumped out to push me out of the way. She... She was caught in my place, and the Maw behind her, frozen alive in a small glacier. Chamka fainted in horror, thinking he'd killed her. I dragged him and Boraate back to their village and went back to Ayla, and apparently when he woke, Chamka didn't remember any of it. Rumors began to circulate among his people that I'd led the demons to them, and not long after, all of them packed and moved to their present location. I stayed behind, with my sister. I couldn't leave her."

He first looked to Hikitsu. "You don't have to explain to her what the Maw are, she's seen them." He couldn't help but smile remembering how she knew, still even now he was impressed at how she had not been scared and instead wanted to protect him. To Takiko he said. "They are what attacked us when we first met."

Of course, he would have to fill in some of the details Hikitsu did not know since he had obviously went somewhere else after they all left. Some of those details were not pleasant. A lot of arguing had indeed happened and things didn't go very well because they all were too stubborn.

"After we met Hikitsu we did all leave and Tomite told us some of the story. He didn't want to talk much about it, and it didn't help that he and I got into an arguement rather quickly too. Later on Tomite decided to go look for Hikitsu himself. You left to follow him and I left Souren to look after Hatsui and Namame and followed."

He sighed, because the next part was all due to the sheer stubbornness of Takiko and Tomite, not that he had been much better. "Of course, that didn't go very well. You did find Tomite and things were said between you that made him very upset. I happened to hear it also, but you didn't know that at the time. Still, even though your words hurt, I followed you, because I didn't want anything bad to happen to you."

"Eventually I met up with you, and that went over about as well as your talk with Tomite. You ran away at that point and came upon the ice that held Ayla. And we found Hikitsu again. Of course his warning came just a bit too late."

Truly, the moment she had touched the ice and she shouted a warning to him and Hikitsu arrived and told them not to touch it, that was really when he realized that her words claiming she loved another didn't matter. He'd do anything to have her care for him instead, and he wasn't going to let harm come to her if he could do anything to help it, no matter what may happen to him in return.

"I'll leave the next part to Hikitsu since he probably can tell the story better now. Unless you have questions about what we argued about, Takiko. I'm sure you can figure it out yourself and you may not wish to hear the cruel words you said to both of us."

Well, it was making a little more sense. Hikitsu's story was nothing short of tragic, and it reflected in her eyes. "You two mended things, right? If you didn't hurt his mother.. but your sister.." Truly saddened, her voice shook a little. Thinking of a little girl trapped in ice wasn't pleasant. All of a sudden there was a burning need to go back and free her. It wasn't right. neither of them had meant for what happened to happen. But Ayla was caught in the middle nevertheless. "Did we free your sister?"

However. Once Uruki began to speak, the manner in which she was able to compute all of this screeched to a halt. All she heard were the words argued and unless you have questions, as if he were afraid to tell her. As if he was coddling her like a child.

Takiko's chin rose, and irritation flashed in her dark eyes. She stepped forward to be toe to toe with Uruki, her expression a dark one. "You think that so trivial as to not tell me about it? I don't think I was the only one saying cruel things if I know the two of us the way I do."

And it looked like another argument was unintentionally begun. She raised a hand, and slapped him. "I'm not a little girl. I'm a grown woman and as much as I hate him I believe my father would have been more frank with me! What in the Gods' name happened? I want to know. Now."

She backed away from him then, her ire still readily apparent.

Yes, this very much reminded him of that. She had slapped him then.

"You have your answer. What you just said and did was pretty much it."

The look in his eyes at that point was definitely of pain, he didn't like remembering any of this any more than she was going to like hearing it. "You may want me to tell you, but you forget that I've already been through it once. It was bad enough the first time hearing about your boyfriend and how much you hated me. Oh, and it wasn't the first time you said that."

Wait a minute. What? Her irritation faded, leaving her appearing confused and torn. "Boyfriend? I don't have.." Oh. Oh no. She had tried to get Tomite to stop his pursuit of her by fibbing about Ousugi-san, hadn't she? Takiko winced, and shook her head. "I don't have a boyfriend." Besides him, in the future, as far as she knew.

"I thought myself in love with a friend of my father's. But he's married, with an eight year old daughter. I hadn't seen him in ten years. I hardly care for him that way. I was just.." Lonely. Sad. Desperate for someone to give a damn after her mother had died, and he had appeared to. Until he'd given her a harsh reality check. It seemed that Uruki was in need of one, too. She scowled.

"And you think I'd mean that? You might annoy me to no end sometimes and make me feel like clobbering you but I could never hate you."

And oh boy, she was folding her arms, appearing quite irate that he'd actually believe much of anything she said while in a temper. It was ironic and an observer might find it amusing. She simply couldn't understand how this man before her could be so sensitive to the things she said. Until he'd come here, he'd never cared or so it had seemed. Right now she was second guessing everything they'd said to each other from the point they'd met until now.

Okay, she'd try this a second time. Quietly, she spoke, "That's a silly thing to think. You know how easily I get mad. Most of the things I say, I don't mean. If it was Tomite I was talking to, you should of known." She ran a hand through her unbound hair with a sigh. "He's got feelings for me. And I was probably trying to put an end to them." She winced again. "That wasn't a very nice way to do it, though."

...You know what, at this point, he was just going to keep his mouth shut and his opinions to himself.

Clearly, these two had a lot to talk about, and just as clearly they hadn't been doing any of that talking before now. Or at least not much of it. This time difference made things doubly difficult for them; Hikitsu could understand both of the reasons Uruki had for not wanting to speak of things, but he knew Takiko well enough by now to know that she would only resent attempts to shelter her. And apparently Uruki hadn't really made it clear why he wouldn't discuss certain things.

But he'd known they were a pair from almost the moment he'd first seen them; now it was just up to them to find their equilibrium again. He didn't need to add to this conversation which was probably late in coming, so he just stepped back, ready to separate them if necessary, and watched.

"I don't know what Tomite intended, but he's not here to say it. He was telling you how it was obvious that I loved you, and that you loved me."

And then to that she reacted so badly, he still couldn't make sense of it. Really if anything it appeared that Tomite was coming to the conclusion that all he could be was a friend.

"What you said was very much in response to what you felt about me, and it did hurt me to hear it, especially because you didn't know I was nearby listening."

He turned to Hikitsu. "Why don't you go on with this? You found us soon after this arguement, if you didn't hear some of it as it was."

And Hikitsu had to groan, and roll his eye although they probably couldn't see that since he'd closed it. "All I could hear was yelling, and you all were very lucky that you didn't cause an avalanche with all the snow piled everywhere." Yes, he was getting stern, and would pull out the I'm older than both of you card if he had to. This was not his argument! "I'm not getting involved in this lover's quarrel. If you want me to continue the story, I shall, but this will have to be resolved between the two of you at some point, and sooner rather than later, even if I have to hold the two of you down to do so. You can't leave it hanging in the air over you like this, Uruki."

One metaphysical smack upside the head. Would he have to do more?

"But that doesn't make sense! Why would I say that?" Genuinely confused, she moved from the couch to sit on the floor, looking a bit dazed. Why? How was having feelings for someone so bad? Unless she thought, the fact that they were from other worlds had done it. "Maybe.." she was very quiet. "Maybe I was scared. If you weren't around much and we weren't getting along, I guess.. I might have assumed that you didn't care. But it still doesn't excuse that and.."

A moment of silence, and then she stood and walked to him. Emotion shone in her eyes, and she shook her head. "I'm sorry." If it still hurt him, this probably wasn't going to be enough. Though she grew annoyed--again--when Uruki tried to pass the story off onto Hikitsu, and said Seishi admonished them. "Quiet! I wasn't done." Well, she had a lot she wanted to say and those two talking didn't help.

She snatched up Uruki's hands, grasping them firmly. Her hands were cool. "Stop that. We have to talk about it. We are grown, and we're able to deal with it properly. Now I don't understand just why I said what I did, but I'm very sorry. The last thing I want to do is hurt you."

Oh, the irony. After she'd just clobbered him, too. "I was--and am confused about you. But there's been something there since I met you. Maybe it terrifies me as much as it did you."

And their reactions was exactly why he hadn't wanted to mention this. After this part, it becomes obvious that he didn't care about what Takiko said. Yeah, it hurt at the time, but he still cared about her and wasn't going to let anything happen to her.

And it ended well, it was just horrible to deal with at the time and he really didn't want to go through it all again. "I don't know why you said what you did. I only know my own words were my not wanting to admit that I cared enough that you having someone else you loved hurt me."

"I told you to give your boyfriend my regards and that you should go back to your world. It was cruel of me to say that when really, Tomite was right. Of course you slapped me said you hated me and ran away."

And he looks her right in the eyes as he says the next part. "But really, that's not important. I know now we all were angry and said things we didn't mean because we didn't want to admit it hurt. And I've never been good at explaining these sorts of things anyhow."

"When you ran away from me, you found the ice that Hikitsu's sister was trapped in, and touched it. And even though I was hurt and mad about what you said, I didn't want anything bad to happen to you. And when I saw that ice trying to trap you inside it, I didn't care anymore about what you said, all I wanted to do was try and get you out of there."

To be honest, the reply he'd supposedly give her in the future didn't surprise her. Not when she knew what she did. Her gaze softened a bit. "And I'm scared." Her eyes locked with his, and she smiled slightly. "To care this much for somebody scares me to death. But I won't say I hate you." The corners of her lips quirked upward a little bit.

"No, maybe you're not. But you should, later. I think it's about time that we talk. We shouldn't be feeling as though we have to walk on egg shells around each other." With a soft sigh, she listened to the tail end of his speech, and squeezed his hands. He'd most likely never cease amazing her.

"That's sweet. I'm glad. That you stayed, and that we somehow figured everything out. And I'm glad that you did that."

Now she was leaning into him, sighing again softly. It seemed as though she'd almost forgotten that they had an audience.

Well the reason Hikitsu acted like that was because he knew that Takiko would not rest until they weren't keeping anything that wasn't too incredibly personal from her. Uruki could probably avoid talking about Souren's death very much, as that was an obvious pain even weeks later, but Takiko would probably ask the same questions of him later. And when she'd been involved... well, there was no distracting her, and if he was going to tell this story he didn't need them arguing over every detail.

...Except now they weren't arguing. Oh damnit.

His groan this time was very audible, and he literally facepalmed at the same time, letting his head fall down into his palm and stay there for the moment. "Are. You. Done. Yet." Genbu this was exactly what he hadn't wanted to be caught in the middle of.

Slowly, slowly she turned her head to stare at Hikitsu. Intently. What never to interrup--oh. Color filled her cheeks, and she looked at him from beneath her lashes. It was obvious that she was quite discomfited. Still, that sassy streak in her was riled up by the tone he used and what he said, so that she risposted quite spiritedly: "Are you going to tell the story already? If not, you should go find a nice young lady."

Yes, it was quite humorous, but she looked absolutely serious, even with color high in hr cheeks. "Maybe then you'll understand just why it was so important for us to clear that up!" A scowl took up residence upon her face, and she continued to grace him with it. When would he get on with it? Never mind she and Uruki, this story was Hikitsu's to tell.

It was hardly their fault if he would rather be a voyeur than a narrator.

Somehow between Takiko's obvious forgetting that there was an audience and Hikitsu's reaction, Uruki was almost wanting to laugh, almost. It was amazing how quickly he and Takiko could go from arguing to not arguing.

But at the same time, he can so see how his fellow seishi could get annoyed. Really, maybe while they were all stuck here, they should find him a nice woman of his own.

And then Takiko's own response just undid any chance he had to not laugh at both of them, not really something he'd normally do, but really, it was becoming easier to show such things now because there was so much less to worry about. Really, the whole thing was just way too funny, she said just what he was thinking. He hugged her quickly once he stopped laughing. "I don't blame her for wanting to go on, the next part is far more pleasant."

He just shook his head at Uruki's laughter. Well, at least neither of them was so grim. "I'd be prefectly happy to go on with the story if you two would stop interrupting me," he replied, still sounding a little annoyed as he gave them both a pointed look and ignoring the mention of a nice young lady. No, Takiko, no matchmaking. "I can't tell it if I can't get a word in edgewise.

"Tomite's ice was practically alive - the first time I'd touched it, it began to freeze me, but I could feel the power in it and my water ability gives me a small control over ice as well. I was able to break it with my power before it had more than two of my fingers, but I had to stay with Ayla and to prevent anyone else from being caught. I set up camp in an old tree trunk nearby - that's where I was when I heard the shouting. I came as fast as I could, but by then you'd already placed a hand on the ice and been trapped. I was barely able to stop Uruki from touching you." He gave her a bit of a significant look with that fact; see, he really did care for you before anything. "Tomite was with him, and he recognized Ayla and demanded to know whether I'd set the monsters on the village and to free her. I couldn't - I'd tried. You froze more and more, and finally froze completely, then Uruki grabbed you and tried to use his power to free you, couldn't succeed, and began to freeze himself. And then...

"You began to shine with a silver light, brighter and brighter, and that was the first clue that I had that you were the priestess. I don't know how, but the ice around you and Uruki was shattered and you both were freed, but you had a fever. We took you back to my tree and I gave you medicine; Tomite and I talked, which was when I found out that he'd forgotten everything. I said we'd talk when you awakened, but he kept pushing, and pushing... I didn't always have my patch. Before I met you, I used bandages to hide my eye. And when Tomite wouldn't stop, I threw them off and made him look. You'd woken, and came to his side when he was caught by the shikyokan, and you saw the past as it happened, as he forgot and was remembering. So he knew what I'd done, and what he'd done as well."

Hey, she'll make matches for him if she wants. He'd asked for it by acting like a voyeur anyway. In any case, she kept scowling at him, until midway through his narrative. So far, their journey sounded like a dark fairy tale. Something those brothers who'd written Cinderella would pen. Only with far more magic. Takiko frowned openly, not really happy with how much sadness everyone had to endure. The fact that she'd gotten sick and frozen meant nothing. The fact that it had scared everyone, that Ayla had been like that for a year, and that Tomite had been traumatized so bad that he'd repressed the memory was all she cared about.

"And what next?" Her voice shook, and it was clear that she wasn't aware that things would be a bit more pleasant after that. The hug from Uruki was welcome, and she latched on, though her gaze remained intent upon Hikitsu. "Was he all right? What about Ayla? Did Tomite freeze the Maw again?"

Those demons were nothing short of nasty. She remembered vividly those gaping jaws from the time she'd been unceremoniously dumped upon a mountainside in the midst of winter. And how she'd wanted to beat them into a pulp for daring to eat someone.

Of course, Hikitsu wouldn't know of a certain detail, and since he had somewhat mentioned it to Takiko, he may as well tell her now. He leaned in to whisper to her so Hikitsu wouldn't scowl at them. "And while you had that fever I cared for you like you did for me when we met. You scared me so much when you glowed with that light again."

He sat back after that and spoke more loudly so Hikitsu could hear. "Tomite was fine. Hikitsu, should I continue it now or would you prefer to?"

Too bad that that whisper was sufficient distraction for her. Her eyes flew open wide, and a much darker blush stained her cheeks. "Y-Y-You did?" Oh boy. Now she was even stammering. Her hands reached for and squeezed his again, but she was by and large quite neatly shocked into silence.

Though this time, she was able to swallow thickly and keep her focus upon Hikitsu expectantly. "What.. what happened next?" Damn him, Uruki must be proud of himself now.

That whisper and reaction earned another eye-rolling, but he didn't say anything this time. "I'll continue, it's fine." Plus he suspected that Uruki would keep her disappearance quiet; with his own personal exception, from both of them, he was through with keeping information from Takiko. She would just beat it out of them later. "keep in mind that I'd thought Ayla was dead. She was my entire life - I couldn't leave her. But when I said that, you told us that she was alive, trapped in the ice. Perhaps it was Tomite's power that saved her, we don't know, but my wanting to melt the ice to retrieve her body became imperative to all of us.

"You can guess what Tomite did easily enough. Knowing all of that again, it overwhelmed him, and he'd never had full control of his power. He doubted himself, called himself weak - and you talked him out of that." And now Hikitsu smiled, an actual smile, at his priestess. "It's clear enough why you're the chosen one. Ayla was alive and that he'd get to finally have his revenge - once he had confidence, once we were ready, Tomite shattered the ice and freed Ayla. I caught her, and Hatsui took her into his cage to protect her during the fight, because the demons had also been preserved. Tomite, Uruki, Souren, and I faced off against them, and their time in the ice hadn't negated any of their skills. One of them cut me - here," and he tapped the area just above his temple, where the blow probably would have been fatal, "as I was putting Ayla in the cage and my bandages fell away. You saw my symbol directly, and my eye... And you began to glow again. Quickly. All over silver light, and then you disappeared."

Silence reigned for a long time while Takiko processed all of this information. Dark gaze troubled, she frowned over at Hikitsu. "What do you mean I disappeared? Every other time that light's glowed about me, I haven't gone anywhere!"

"This time, you did." And with that, he looked at Uruki. Your turn.

And he got the idea, he was to take over. "You did disappear, Takiko. Nothing any of us could do stopped that from happening."

"It was funny, I told you so many times you should return to your own world, but when you did, I didn't want it to happen. And even though you disappeared in my arms, we didn't fully believe you were gone."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "But there was little we could do then, we had the Maw to deal with, and there were three of them. We were able to take down the first two easily enough, but the last one was far harder to defeat, and that was the one that had killed Tomite's father. Then all of a sudden, a bright light appeared giving us a great opening to attack, and you returned to us."

His expression grew serious though, since there was definitely still more, and he remembered how afraid he had been for her. "When you appeared, you were in great danger, however. Not from the Maw, that had given us the chance we needed. No, you almost fell off the edge of a cliff." He couldn't help but smile a bit. "You should be glad my powers include the ability to fly, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to save you as I did."

"Then Tomite killed the Maw and everything was fine. Well, except for a certain stubborn person who wanted to insist on not going along with us." He said giving Hikitsu a look that also said it was his turn again.

Hikitsu rolled his eye at Uruki's comment but didn't actually respond to it otherwise. Really, in some ways, Uruki was as much a little brother as Tomite - just a potentially more annoying one. "It's possible - I'm not sure how probable - that seeing my symbol sent you home. And that means that it might work here. From what Uruki has said, though, I doubt it would work."

Oh, and how to go on after that. "Tomite was so proud at finally avenging his father. We'd all been injured to a greater or lesser extent, except for Hatsui and Ayla, so we recuperated at a hot spring nearby and then went to Tomite's clan on the earth dragon. It was there that Tomite convinced me to go with you all." He paused again for a few moments before continuing. "...I'm not a perfect person, Priestess. I've had more mistreatment from people than good, and while I don't hate people, the past hasn't given me any reason to trust them. Hokkan never helped me when my clan cast me out, and all the seishi have similar stories of pain. Despite my symbol, I had no reason to fight for them when Ayla and I could have easily evaded any invaders. But Tomite returning, and meeting you, and seeing how you recruited this hot head-" definitely referring to Uruki, yep "-to your side, showed me that we can protect at least those we care about. I decided to come to protect Ayla. But the times are changing, at last - I found my clan again, not too long ago, and defended them from the Kutou without even knowing it was them. And they saw what I was doing, and knew I wasn't any of the things they'd once believed I was, and invited me to return after the war." And at last he smiled, a real smile. "I forgave them for being frightened of the unknown. It can be terrifying - people can react badly. But in the end, we all deserve to live how we want to, and it's up to us to ensure that happens. I do understand now."

"I.." All this information was like a novel to take in. But she was bound and determined to handle it. The last thing she wanted was to be coddled like an infant. Especially when this time they were all fish out of water. How Hikitsu's eye worked precisely was a mystery to her. But if it had sent her home then, it could theoretically work here. Panic welled up in her, and she shook her head vehemently. "I don't even want to try that," she said, fists clenching in her lap. To leave them--especially Uruki, whom she looked at pointedly now, was the last thing in any world she could and would ever want.

Her father could wallow in his misery back home, for all she cared. Why should she be eager in the least to join him? She wasn't. All this talk of demons, nearly falling off cliffs, flying and heroism made her head spin. But she couldn't help but smile a little, too. "But I came back," she said, pleased. "I came back in time to see Tomite avenge his father and save your sister. He must be so proud!" And all of a sudden, she wished he were here. Just so she could hug him tightly and tell him how proud she was. Especially after how dour he'd been at the treatment he'd received in the village--this must have been one of the highlights of his life.

"Was he happy?" she asked quietly. It was her wish that he could find it, within their small circle and in his clan, too. Which made her all the more aware of Hikitsu's words when he spoke them. From a smile, her expression once more came to sport a frown. "Nobody is expecting perfection from you. I'm glad.. that you came with us. You took a chance, on life and on the people who caused you pain. I admire that." In fact.. and here went a moment of candour, because they'd both been so open with her: "I wish that I could have the strength to do that myself." Oh, her pesky parental issues.

One day she hoped to be able to approach them with as much maturity and wisdom as the one-eyed man seated across from her. And she nodded, sighing softly at his next words. "I know. Back home, my mother was ill with the sickness of the lungs. Nobody would come near me, because they thought wrongly that I carried the disease, too. And in that village just before I came here--" she sighed again. "The people in your world are even more fearful, but they seem able to come around. It gives me even more hope that we can do this, if we do it together."

When he saw Takiko looking at him and looking obviously like she had felt uncomfortable with the idea of going back to her world, he couldn't help but take her hand and try to give some gesture that he understood.

Maybe it was selfish of him, but he didn't want her to go back to her world anymore. Their world may not be the safest, and this place may have it's weirdness, but she seemed happy in either place. "I don't think it would work. Our captors more than likely blocked such attempts and all it could do is cause Takiko unnecessary anguish if it doesn't work."

And really, why cause their priestess anguish to go somewhere she didn't seem to want to be? She had come back, it was obvious either she didn't want to be in her world, or Genbu really wanted her in theirs. Either way, she belonged with them.

But there was still much more to tell, though they had probably given Takiko far more than she needed to think about for now. This was definitely all going to take a very long time to fully cover, definitely more than a few nights. "The people have good reason for their fears. But all they want is to have enough food to eat and to be safe. My clan sure isn't doing that for them. Also at this point, we know that my father has agreed to an alliance with Kutou just to kill me, along with the rest of us. With a ruler like that, it isn't hard to win the people over by protecting them as we also try to stay alive and protect you."

Nothing surprised her more than the fact that he failed to mention that she should go 'home'. Her heart thundered in her ears, and she was left staring at him incredulously fore a few moments. Rimudo wanted her here. In his world. Just with them, wherever they were. And she finally had a place to belong. A home. Warmth flooded her cheeks, and she smiled in relief that this power of Hikitsu's couldn't work here.

"That's good. My place is with the seishi, wherever you happen to be."

Forget being the best student in her English class, or class president back in Tokyo. Takiko had a purpose here that went beyond a simple job, that didn't pay money and was still rewarding her more richly than an entire lifetime's worth of a career and arranged marriage back in Japan. One of her hands reached out for his, and squeezed. Hikitsu might be annoyed by it, but she couldn't help it if she tried.

There was a lot to tell, but she was pretty content with where the story had stopped for now. She eyed them both, her gaze settling on Rimudo again. "They've been neglected, yes. And I can't blame them either. We'll just need to win their trust, and do what we're supposed to do. And--" Her eyes went wide. "Just to kill us?!" Shock froze the blood in her veins, making her feel frigid with fear and disbelief. What a monstrous man. She squeezed his hand tightly.

"Then.. once we get back, we'll have to hurry. This isn't good. The sooner we can summon Genbu, the better." The girl frowned, and held up her free hand. "That's enough for tonight.. I need to think about what you two have told me. If I remember this when I get back, I'll definitely do something about it." Truth be told, she was rather overwhelmed and shocked by what they'd told her. A intermission of sorts between the chapters of this story was much needed.

Hikitsu was really only annoyed by them being sweet when they forgot there was a world around them not involved in their courtship, like had happened earlier. Hand-holding, standing together, that was fine - just don't disappear into each other and everything will be all right.

"Probably won't work. It might - I wouldn't count on it, considering that apparently no one can walk over the borders of this place, but it's something to remember in case everything falls to pieces here." Always have an escape route. If there was anything he'd learned from following the Kutou army and trying to stall it, it was that one crucial piece of tactics.

And gods, now they'd worked up her fervor. "We seishi are doing everything we can - the common people are more behind us now than they ever have been. And those two assassins, or commanders, or whatever they are, haven't been able to kill any of us. We're holding our own, for now, at least. We'll take stock of the situation when we return and see what needs doing."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I know you." "I don't."

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Just imagine Hiki in Hatsui's place, ok?

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