Despite all odds, Yui and her Seishi helped Genrou fight for the bandits of Mt. Leikaku. Although Tamahome was far away in Kutou, it was his image that appeared by magic and Yui’s wish, protecting her and bringing them victory, but to no avail. Genrou tells Yui that Tasuki has already died, dashing her hopes of summoning Suzaku. Clinging to a shadow of hope offered by rumor, Yui and her seishi travel to the remote village of Choukou, searching for a person who can revive the dead and return Tasuki to them.

Episode Sixteen:

“I think I see the town, just over the next hill,” Nuriko turned over her shoulder and called back to Hotohori and Yui, who were riding slightly behind her.

“Good, we’re finally here,” Yui said. After several days of travel, she was more than ready to see civilization again. She turned and looked up at Hotohori, who noticed and smiled for her, but before that, she noticed the sad, serious look on his face. All this time, he had been like that... I have to get Tasuki back, for him if no one else. I won’t betray his trust in me... Perhaps it was a selfish motive, but it was the one she felt most immediately. Anything that kept her going couldn’t be bad...

“My goodness!” Nuriko gasped as they rode through the gate and into the village. Every house in sight begged for a new coat of paint or thatch on the roof at best, and many for new paper in the windows or new boards in the walls. A layer of grime coated everything, and in many places was accompanied by a layer of flies. If it weren’t for a few lights in the windows, a few scraggly vegetable patches, it would have been unbelievable that people lived in this place. “What happened here?”

Yui covered her face with her hand to ward off the faint odor of death. Why, if the person who revives the dead lives here...? She felt uneasy inside. What have I led us into, just on a rumor? When am I going to learn not to go off half-cocked?

She felt Hotohori turning slightly behind her. “Such deplorable conditions...” he said. “I never knew such a miserable place existed...”

“Move it! Out of the way! Comin’ through!” Their horses started as a cart stampeded past. In the back was a near-skeletal man, his skin yellow with illness.

“What a horrible place,” Nuriko muttered, calming her horse and dismounting.

The thought of suggesting that they just leave crossed Yui’s mind, but only briefly. I won’t have come this far for mothing. I can’t let myself just run away when it gets difficult... Hotohori dismounted and helped her down from the horse.

“Excuse me?” He turned toward the voice to see a woman who had come up behind him. “Did a cart just come by here?” she asked. “I thought I heard one.”

“One just went by,” Nuriko answered. She paused, then cocked her head curiously. The woman was nicely dressed, in a blue robe with pink sashes, and her long, light hair was done in two loops before spilling down her back. Her skin, however, was unusually pale. “Are you all right, Miss? You look a little sick.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “But this cart, what was it carrying?”

“There was a man in the back.”

“I’ll probably be needed at the clinic, then. Thank you.” She turned and started down the same road the cart had taken.

The cart rolling past replayed itself in Yui’s mind. That man... She shuddered to think it. He didn’t look alive... She didn’t even ask about that. Could this be...? “I’ll come with you,” she said, starting after the woman.

“Oh?” She stopped and turned back, letting Yui catch up to her. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do to help, but if you want to...”

“Yes, please,” Yui said with a nod.

“All right. You can come with me, then. My name is Shoka.”

“I’m Yui, and these are my friends, Hotohori and Nuriko.”

After a brief round of greetings, Shoka started for the clinic, with Yui falling into step just behind her.

“Yui?” Hotohori questioned, following beside her.

“I just... had an idea,” she answered. I can’t get his hopes up, in case I’m wrong. I don’t want to disappoint him again...

“I see,” he said, then leaned over and whispered to her. “Are you certain this is a good idea? I don’t want to abandon someone who is ill, but it could be contagious. We must think of your safety.”

“I think... We have to try to get Tasuki back.”

About then, Shoka stopped and entered one of the larger, less dilapidated buildings. Yui noticed the cart, now empty, sitting outside as she followed Shoka in, with Hotohori and Nuriko falling behind for a moment to hitch the horses. Surprisingly, the ‘clinic’ was mostly empty. There were cobwebs under the beds, and the entire room had the yellowish tint of disuse. The only people there were clustered around a bed where the man who’d been carried on the cart lay. The men who brought him and a few older villagers stood around.

“Miss Shoka, you’re here!” one of the men said, looking up as she approached the bed. “He’s been sick for a long time, and just died.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Shoka said.

The others backed away to give her room, and Yui got a good view of the dead man for the first time. Her heart sank; she didn’t think he was very old, although his face was thin with illness and his cheeks sunken, doubtlessly adding years to his appearance. She couldn’t help but wonder what he had been like...

Shoka leaned down close to his face for a moment, then rose. Everyone waited in expectant silence, but they weren’t looking at Shoka for something she might say. They were looking at the man in the bed. Long moments passed, and then Yui thought she saw his eyes twitch. A moment later, he opened them, and she was caught between joy and horror for one moment before he looked around, raising a hand to shade his eyes.

The man’s friends threw their arms around him, laughing and calling his name. “He’s alive!” Yui breathed, a thrill of joy washing through her. She turned to Shoka, fairly hugging the woman despite herself. “It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the one who can revive the dead!”

“I am that humble person,” she replied.

“Please! You have to come with us!” Yui pleaded. “We came to find you. We desperately need your help!”

The villagers’ laughter fell silent. “Please,” an old man said, stepping in before Shoka could reply. “You mustn’t take Miss Shoka away from us! You see the state we’re in here. She’s the only thing that gives up hope.”

“What is it that’s happening here, anyway?” Nuriko questioned.

“Some time ago, this village was hit by a horrible plague, an excruciating illness with pain worse than death. It’s called Shikkonki, because people say it’s caused by a demon with that name. There isn’t any cure or treatment that helps, but Shoka can revive those who die. It’s better to die and let her revive us then to keep suffering.” He motioned to the young men who were sitting on the edge of the bed, holding their revived friend. “See how happy she’s made these people! If this village loses her, there will be nothing left here but pain and death.”

“I can’t,” Shoka said. “I’m sorry, but I cannot go with you. That is the price of my power. It would be lost if I took even one step outside of this village.”

Yui sighed. “I don’t suppose you have a red character on you somewhere?”

“A character?”

“I had to ask.” Yui sighed and slapped her hands against her thighs. I suppose that’s for the best. It wouldn’t work to have a Sei who couldn’t leave this village... She turned to Hotohori and Nuriko and forced a smile. “Well, maybe we can still get Tasuki back. If we can’t bring Shoka to him, we’ll bring him here. I just hope Genrou will agree to it.”

“Be careful,” the old man said. “No one who’s left this village has ever returned. I can understand no one wanting to, but some of them said they’d go for help, and nothing ever came.”

“I hate it when people say stuff like that,” Nuriko muttered under her breath.

“It can’t be helped,” Hotohori said. “We cannot remain in this village. If it can’t be avoided, we’d best be on our way as soon as possible.”

Nuriko nodded, following Hotohori and Yui back to the horses.

“You look like you’ve had a long journey,” Shoka said, following them to the door. “You can rest at my house before you leave.”

“No, I think it’s best if we go as soon as possible,” Yui said as Hotohori helped her into the saddle. Less than an hour ago, she had welcomed a glimpse of civilization, but now camping on the road again seemed positively inviting. “Thank you, though. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

“I hope I can help you when you return,” Shoka answered as Hotohori nudged his horse into a walk.

Yui breathed a sigh of relief as they passed the city gate. She’d have to return with Tasuki, but it was comforting to be out of that village. What am I going to do if Genrou won’t let me take him? There’s no choice, I have to bring Tasuki here so he can be revived, but if Genrou wants to put up a fight, that tessen will make it hard...

“Yui, Hotohori-sama,” Nuriko said, interrupting Yui’s thoughts. “I think we’ve gone the wrong way. We didn’t pass through a graveyard coming in, did we?”

Yui looked around. She’d been so involved in figuring out what to do if Genrou was uncooperative, she hadn’t noticed the rows of headstones stretching out along the road. There certainly are a lot of them, she thought nervously, taking Hotohori’s hand. He squeezed hers reassuringly.

“I don’t believe we did,” he said in answer to Nuriko, turning his horse. “Strange, though. I’m certain we took the same gate. We’ll have to go back.”

A moment later, Yui heard Nuriko curse softly. “Come on, calm down!” she shouted as her horse reared. “There’s nothing he---Aah!”

Suddenly, Nuriko’s horse jerked out from under her as if something had taken its legs and yanked it away.

“Nuriko!” Yui shouted as the Sei hit the ground. The road crumbled under the horse, pulling it under like quicksand, and Nuriko scrambled away before she was pulled in after it.

“What in the world?” she questioned, standing and wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

“What is this place?” Yui asked in alarm.

There came a whisper, softly, but from all around them. One could almost call it wind in the leaves, but the air was still and stagnant. “Flesh...”

The horse sidestepped nervously and reared under Hotohori and Yui, throwing her sickeningly off-balance like some sort of carnival ride before it sent them both tumbling to the ground. Hotohori picked himself up as the horse galloped away. Yui got as far as her hands and knees, then stopped, holding her stomach. That sick feeling, like being on a roller coaster... It’s not going away...!

Suddenly, the ground beside her hand sank in, and something began to rise out of it. As she scrambled back, a stabbing pain shot though her belly, and she folded in on it with a cry of pain.

“Yui!” Hotohori cried, dropping to his knees beside her and taking her shoulders. He looked up at the thing that had risen from the ground and was now standing over them. Seemingly once human, it was now little more than a skeleton, draped in the rags of burial clothes and grayish remnants of skin and hair.

“Great Suzaku!” Nuriko cried, looking around.

Seemingly before every headstone and from every bald patch of earth, there arose similar corpses in varying degrees of decay. “Flesh...” Even of those still posessing them, no lips moved, but that whisper, now growing louder, was certainly the zombies’ voice. Slowly, with a grotesque, lurching stride, they advanced on the living among them. “Must have flesh...”

“Hold it, buddy,” Nuriko shouted, grabbing the zombie that was standing over Hotohori and Yui and tossing it aside. “I think going back to Choukou sounds pretty good right now.”

“I’m forced to agree,” Hotohori said, helping Yui to her feet as the zombie’s arm came loose, and its body fell to the ground. But when they turned back up the road, more undead blocked their path.

“Your flesh... Give it...”

“Not today!” Nuriko shouted, ripping up a tree and sweeping aside several of the zombies blocking their path, knocking apart all but the most recently buried of them. Hotohori drew his sword and began trying to clear a path through them like so many hedges, but although it only took one blow, even a glancing one, to destroy them, their seemingly inexhaustible numbers made it a hopeless task. Yui followed close behind Hotohori, clinging to him for support and guidance. Between the sudden illness and the ghastly battle, her stomach rolled with protest.

“Give us flesh...”

Yui looked up and back and saw one of them coming toward her, so close that all she could think to do was scream and dart aside, out of its path. It continued on, not noticing, to where she had been, and a shock of horror gripped her as it leaned against Hotohori’s back and wrapped its arms around his neck. No! After all this, I just abandoned him like a coward...!

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Nuriko snapped, darting over. She grabbed one of its arms and tried to yank it away; the entire limb came off in her hand. “This is so disgusting,” she muttered, dropping it as Hotohori twisted out of the zombie’s halved grip, bringing his sword around and slicing it in half.

Nuriko pulled back her fist and punched another of the attacking corpses, sending it flying across the graveyard in pieces. “We can’t do this forever! There’s too many of them!”

“Get down!” shouted a familiar male voice.

Yui’s trembling legs were only too happy to comply, and Hotohori bent low over her as Nuriko did the same.

“LEKKA SHINEN!” A wave of flames washed over them, incinerating the nearest zombies. A second burst a moment later sent the remaining corpses retreating back to their graves.

“Man, you guys sure know how to throw a party.”

Yui looked up as a red-haired man in a black coat trotted down the road, an iron fan resting on his shoulder. “Genrou!”

“Hey, ya miss me?”

“But, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Me and the guys talked it over. Koji’s gonna lead the bandits until I get back.” He looked at the blank expression on her face. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

“I suppose not,” she said as Hotohori helped her to her feet.

“Ya know how I said the Leader of the Mt. Leikaku bandits was Tasuki? Well, I kinda fudged.”

“Fudged?” Nuriko questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Genrou pulled back the sleeve of his coat, and Yui gasped. On his forearm was a red character, “Wing.” “It’s not the old Leader, it’s the new one.”

You’re Tasuki?” Yui asked. “He isn’t dead!?”

“Not last time I checked,” he said with a grin.

“Yes!” Yui exulted, forgetting her illness long enough to take the few strides to Genrou and hug him. Wait! He knew it all the time and he lied to me and sent me on this wild goose chase, why that---! Even as she thought it, another sharp pain shot through her belly, and she leaned on him heavily.

“Whoa!” he said, catching her before she collapsed. “You OK, girl?”

Yui only groaned, and Hotohori gently took her from Tasuki. She let herself relax into his arms, and with her head tipped back, she found herself looking up at his chin, where the zombie had held him. She reached up and touched the spot, as if in a haze.

He looked down at her and touched her forehead. “She’s terribly hot...”

“Do you suppose it could be that disease they have here?” Tasuki asked.

Hotohori looked up at him, a momentary stricken expression crossing his face. “It would take days to reach another village, and she can’t travel in this condition, whatever it is. We don’t have any choice but to stay here.”

“Here, put her on my back, and I’ll carry her,” Nuriko said, crouching. Yui slipped her arms around the woman’s neck, and Nuriko gently hefted her into a piggyback position. “Surely it isn’t Shikkonki,” she tried to assure the others, heading back for Choukou. “We were only there for an hour or so; she couldn’t have caught it so quickly. It’s... It’s probably just a flu or something.”

*

Chichiri was walking through the palace at night. Everyone seemed to be asleep, even the crickets, and the halls were filled with a weightless silence, broken only by her own footsteps. The moonlight turned everything to shades of silver and blue. Wait... Blue means Kutou. I can’t come here right now, I’m supposed to be Hotohori... I have to get back.

Without another thought, her feet knew what to do, and she followed a winding path through the halls of the palace, halls that twisted and cornered and intersected, but she took every turn as if for the thousandth time, as if there were no other. She was looking for Nakago.

It was a long way in the blue silence, through corridors that seemed to stretch forever, but end just before the threshold of patience. When she came to the right door, it looked just like a hundred others, but she knew it was the one, and knew better than to worry about whether she was welcome at this hour. The sound of it sliding open thundered in the quiet night.

A column of light illuminated the room with a white-blue radiance so intense that Chichiri had to shade her eyes as she came in. When her eyes adjusted and she looked up, she found that the light was solid, a mass of ice stretching from floor to ceiling, against the opposite wall. Maybe it was covering the window, where dawn light came in. Nakago was there, sitting on the floor. He seemed to be asleep, leaning his shoulder and his head on the ice, touching it with both hands.

“Nakago-chan?” she said, coming over to him and nudging him.

He opened his eyes, as if oblivious to the unusual circumstances. “Hello, Chichiri. I wasn’t expecting you.”

Just then, she sat down beside him, and she saw the thin sheet of ice on his shoulder, laying like a glove over his hands. There was frost on his forehead. “DA! Nakago-chan no da!” she cried, reaching for his hand. Her Mark of Suzaku shone under her mask as she readied her powers to melt him free.

“Chichiri, don’t!” he said. “I have to stay close to it. I have to find a way through it.”

Chichiri realized that he felt the cold from the ice, but she didn’t. “Let me try no da.” She saw a crack in its glassy surface, no more than a few inches wide, but she wedged her shoulder into it, and as she pressed forward, she slid through it like water, through the tight walls to what waited inside...

She stepped out of the crack into a burst of dawn light, swirling inside the trap of ice. For one moment she could bear to look into the window, and she saw someone else there, a black silhouette against the latticed window-pane, which seemed mere inches from the sun. A woman, with long hair, and with the sight of her came a wave of warmth and comfort and a hum more peaceful than silence, so starkly contrasted to the cold fragile darkness outside that the intensity of it was overpowering...

With a gasp, Chichiri woke, sitting up among her nest of thickly quilted imperial bedding on Hotohori’s floor---after so long on the road, sinking deeply into the emperor’s soft bed was a feeling too alien to sleep in. She sat there, breathing deeply as the first light of dawn streamed in on her and the dream-images resolved themselves in her mind.

Soi-chan...

*

“Yup, that’s Shikkonki,” the doctor pronounced.

“Are you certain?” Hotohori asked, holding Yui’s hand as she lay in bed.

“I know you don’t want to believe it, but that won’t make it any less true,” the doctor said, hurriedly collecting his things and picking up his bag.

“You can’t just leave her like this!” Hotohori insisted as the doctor headed for the door.

“Look, maybe you heard about a miracle healer in these parts, but I’m not him. There’s nothing I can do for her. Now, I’m sorry, but I’m leaving this place before I end up like her.” With that, he left the house and shut the door behind him.

“I’m sorry about this,” Yui said softly. “Shoka, thank you for letting me stay here.”

“My home is your home,” Shoka said with a soft smile. “I only wish I could do more.”

“Nuriko, could you hand me the mirror? It’s in my bag.”

Nuriko found the mirror from Taiitsukun and handed it to her. “Sure. Why?”

“I just wanted to see how close I got,” she said sadly, taking it.

“Now, girl, don’t talk like that,” Tasuki insisted. “Surely you’re not---”

“What’s this?” Yui said. The three characters she expected--“Star,” “Willow,” and “Wing”--showed up around the edge of the mirror, but there was a fourth, “Sadness,” in the middle.

“There is another one here?” Nuriko questioned.

“‘Miracle healer’?” Yui repeated. “Shoka, do you know who the doctor was talking about?”

“N- no, I don’t,” she said.

Yui sighed. “I don’t suppose it matters anyway. I can’t even get out of bed, much less go looking for Seishi,” she said, dropping the mirror on the blanket.

“Yui,” Hotohori said, squeezing her hand. “Please, don’t say such things. I won’t let you die, I promise. Whatever I have to do, I’ll find a way.”

“There is a way,” Shoka said.

“Well, what is it?” Tasuki demanded.

“Kill her.”

“WHAT!?”

“The disease will only get worse. She’ll die anyway, and go through a lot of pain,” Shoka explained. “There’s no way to cure it, but if you kill her now, I can revive her. She’ll be just as she was before, without the illness.”

“We can’t do that!” Nuriko protested.

“No, it’s all right,” Yui said. “I can’t do anything like this. If there’s no cure, we’re just prolonging the inevitable. It would be better to have it over with now.”

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a long moment. “That ain’t what he--she--whatever--meant, Yui,” Tasuki said at last. “Your little deathwish-martyr thing may be all well and good, but none of us can do it.”

Yui smiled at him. “Just when I was starting to wonder if there was a human being behind all that lying and scheming.”

“Yeah, well, don’t spread it around,” he said, looking aside with one hand behind his head.

“I’ll do it.”

Everyone turned to Hotohori. “I was just jokin’, there’s no reason to get contrary about it,” Tasuki said.

Hotohori stayed silent.

“That’s not what he means,” Nuriko said.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me,” Tasuki argued. Hotohori avoided his eyes.

“Come on, we’ll wait outside.” Nuriko tapped Tasuki’s arm and turned toward the door.

“That’s your freakin’ girlfriend! You can’t tell me you’re just gonna stand her and mur---”

“I said ‘come on’,” Nuriko snapped, jerking the collar of his coat and dragging him out of the small house.

“Ow! Let up! I’m tryin’ ta breathe here!”

Shoka followed them to the door, then turned back to Hotohori. “Don’t worry. I’ll revive her immediately, so there’ll be no permanent harm. She’ll be as good as ever.”

“Thank you,” Hotohori said. Shoka nodded and left, closing the door behind her.

“I... I appreciate you doing this,” Yui said. Why did it have to be him? I thought surely Nuriko or Tasuki would so he wouldn’t have to go through this...

“Are you absolutely certain about this?” he asked.

She nodded. She’d seen Shoka bring someone back to life; in her mind, she knew it was for the best. Still, it was so frightening, but she couldn’t let him see that. She had to be strong, for his sake.

Without a word, he bent down and kissed her forehead, then picked up his sword and unsheathed it, with a soft metallic hiss that sent a sick, giddy feeling through the inside of her.

What can I say to him? There were so many things she wated to say, like ‘make it quick,’ and that sort of thing, but it would only make him feel worse. Besides, she trusted him. She knew he would do his best not to hurt her. She just turned her head aside and closed her eyes, trying to look calm and unafraid, although her heart was pounding.

“Yui, I’m sorry,” Hotohori said, squeezing her hand.

“Don’t be. Everything will be all right.” She was trying to be reassuring, but was convinced that her fear showed through in her voice.

*

Reading in the darkened library, Hiromasa found Yui’s words difficult to believe. In all this time, reading about Mikos summoning gods, Seishi with divine powers, and all of it, he had eventually come to believe that somewhere, all of this was happening. Somewhere, it was all true. Still, the idea of someone truly being raised from the dead seemed unbelieveable. Perhaps it was because the stakes were so high...

What if it isn’t true? What if Yui really... Come on! Hotohori loves her! How can he do this!?

*

Not another word was spoken, but Yui felt Hotohori’s weight lift away from the bed, and without hearing more than the tiniest sound, she was keenly aware of the blade hovering over her. Stay calm, Yui... But she couldn’t help her pounding heart, her quickened breath.

THUMP!

Yui let out a short scream as she heard the sword go in, felt the air of its descent, but there was no pain. Is that it? Am I---?

The next moment, Hotohori’s arms were around her, lifting her up, holding her tightly, his cheek against hers. She heard him gasp--or sob--beside her ear. Did I really make him...? As he lifted her, her hand fell from her lap, and her wrist touched something smooth, metallically cold... the sword, buried in the mattress beside her.

“Hotohori,” she said softly, slowly putting her arms around him, as if to make certain she still could.

He took another deep breath and spoke. “Tasuki was right. I love you. I can’t hurt you.”

*

Tasuki lifted his ear from the door and turned to Nuriko. “Ah! Pay up!”

BONK!

“Ow!”

*

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Yui said. Although her mind had thought that way was better, her heart felt immensely relieved. Just then, her cheek felt something---a hot drop of water. She gently pushed Hotohori back so they were face to face. Even in everything they had been through, this was the first time she had ever seen tears on his cheeks. “Hotohori, you’re crying...” She took his chin and touched his tears.

He wiped them away with his sleeve. “I promised I wouldn’t let you die,” he said. “And I won’t. I’ll do whatever I have to.” He picked up the mirror from the blankets on her lap. “I’ll find that miracle healer for you. Perhaps he’s the Sei here, as well.”

“But that was just a rumor...”

“We came here because of a rumor, and we did find Tasuki, and we did find someone who can raise the dead.”

“And if it doesn’t work?” Yui asked.

“Then I’ll find something that will,” he said, leaning close to her face.

“You shouldn’t kiss me,” she said. “You could get sick, too.”

“I don’t care.”

THUNK! At that moment, the door fell open, and Tasuki, who had been trying to peek through a knothole in it, spilled across the floor. He looked up at them, then gave them a fanged grin. “Don’t stop on my account.”

“Tasuki!” Nuriko snarled, hauling him to his feet.

“This is gonna hurt.”

Hotohori sighed, then turned back to Yui and forced a smile, trying to ignore the fight that had started at the other side of the room. “Just rest,” he said. “I’ll see to everything, I promise.”

*

Nakago knocked on Tamahome’s door, then opened it and leaned in. “Is Miaka in here, Tamahome?”

Tamahome opened his mouth to answer.

“I’m here,” Miaka cut in, going to the door. “What is it?”

“Two of our agents have returned from Konan, and they have some news I think you should hear.”

“Okay, I’m coming,” she said, then turned to Tamahome. “You wanna know what Yui’s doing right now?”

Tamahome’s first thought was Of course I do! His second thought was the pitiful pleading he would get from Miaka if he said that. “Sure,” he answered with a shrug.

“Come on, then,” she said, following Nakago out the door.

He led them to a room in the more ‘official’ parts of the palace, where two black-cloaked men were waiting. “Seiryuu no Miko, Shogun,” they said, kneeling as the group entered.

“Tell Miaka the same thing you told me about the Suzaku no Miko,” Nakago ordered.

“The Suzaku no Miko has contracted a disease known as Shikkonki,” the first of the men said. “It is incurable, and fatal.”

“What!?” Tamahome cried.

The men didn’t answer, and Nakago lowered his eyes.

Finally, Miaka shrugged. “Fine,” she said, turning to leave.

“‘Fine’?” Tamahome sputtered in disbelief. “‘Fine’!?”

She whipped around. “When I first came to this place, I went through hell and she didn’t care! Why should I worry about her now!?” Tamahome thought he saw a sparkle in her eyes as she turned around and started down the hall again.

“For what it’s worth,” Nakago said as Tamahome started after her, “you have my empathy.”

*

“‘For the first time since he had arrived, the Seiryuu no Miko returned to her own chambers instead of Tamahome’s, and there she lamented for some time,’” Hiro read. For all she says, that definitely hit a chord somewhere... Of course, she is still Miaka, after all. At the same time, he knew it really didn’t change anything. Miaka was still going to believe all the things she’d been telling herself these three months.

Just maybe... If only someone could hold up a mirror and she could see how she’s acting right now. He glanced back at the previous page, with an illustration of Yui sick in bed. I just hope it’s not too late...

*

To Be Continued...

*

PREVIEW

With the help of Nuriko and Tasuki, Hotohori searches for a way to heal his beloved. The answer at the end of that path seems impossible, but Yui and her Seishi will soon learn that nothing in Choukou is what it appears to be, and kindness is as deceptive as darkness.

Next Time: