Though Yui has returned safely to Konan palace, there is no joy in her homecoming. She must now face the loss of Tamahome, and with it, the loss of her hope of victory, for without the seventh Sei of Suzaku, the god cannot be summoned and Konan is in grave danger.
But even in the moment of Miaka’s seeming victory, her battle also is not yet over.

Episode Twenty-three:

“Hiromasa!”

Hiro was started awake by his mother’s voice and her knocking at the door. He had his arms across ‘The Universe of the Four Gods’, and had lain his head down... He should’ve known reading it in bed was a bad idea. He stowed it under the bed and dragged himself across the room to unlock the door. “Unngh, Mom, what time is it...?”

“Eight AM. I already took Azami to school, and you’d better get up and get ready if you’re going to get back to the University. Are you feeling all right?”

“No...” the previous night was taking its toll, but at least he could turn that to his advantage. He had far more important things to worry about than school. “I don’t think I can do it today, Mom...”

“Do you need me to call a doctor? You’re not looking so good,” Mrs. Hongou said with concern. She touched Hiro’s forehead and looked at the deep rings under his eyes.

“No, I think I just need to rest. You and Dad go to work, I’ll be okay.”

“All right, honey, if you’re sure...”

He nodded.

His mother turned to leave the room, then turned back to him. “Do you know where Yui is?”

“Oh! Um...” Hiro fumbled for an excuse. “I think she and Miaka went off to do something early, before school.”

“Well, do you know where? Yuuki Keisuke called earlier this morning. He says they haven’t seen Miaka since she left for school yesterday, and he claimed that you talked to him on the phone in the middle of the night and then ran off in the middle of talking to him.”

“Oh, gosh, Mom, I was like, delirious... I don’t know...”

“Are you sure you’re okay, sweetie?”

“Yeah, I’ll be okay, I just need some sleep...”

“All right. Well, the next time you talk to your sister, you tell her to call me at work, and tell her to call Mrs. Yuuki and let her know where Miaka is. I wish those two had told us where they were going to be... Do you know when they’ll be back?”

“No, sorry...”

Mrs. Hongou sighed. “If she’s not here when I get home, that girl is going to get a real talking to when she gets here... Have a good rest, Hiro.” She left the room and shut the door behind her.

Hiro locked the door again and shuffled back to the bed. He listened through the door to the distant sounds of his parents’ voices, preparing for work. These excuses wouldn’t hold up forever. He’d have to figure out what to do... But he couldn’t do anything until they were gone. Well, anything except...

What did I miss...? He tried to remember the last thing he had read, and was amazed that he could have fallen asleep during it. Stealthily, he retrieved the book and flipped through it to the last printed page...

‘The Suzaku no Miko blotted Tamahome’s name out from her book. The Emperor comforted her, yet still she wept sorely.’ Oh, no...

‘Meanwhile, in Kutou, the fair-haired Shogun had allowed himself to be imprisoned in Suzaku’s Sei Chichiri’s place.’

*

Nakago noted the light angling in through the barred windows. Morning. Chichiri and the others had escaped; he had felt their chi departing, so at least they were still alive. There was no reason to continue this charade any longer...

“I must say, it’s an excellent disguise,” one of the guards murmured; a few of them were clustered together, looking at him through the bars.

“There’s a reason for that,” he said, rising. Blades of blue light sliced through the bars at floor and ceiling, and as they rang out on the floor, the guards hit the ground in kowtows, begging for mercy.

Nakago paid them no mind, but marched resolutely out of the hole in the bars, and up to the main levels of the palace. “MIBOSHI!!!”

“You called?” Miboshi queried as he appeared out of nowhere, bizarrely unflustered at being confronted with a raging Nakago.

“What have you done!?” Nakago demanded.

“Only fighting for Seiryuu. We cannot allow the Suzaku no Miko to summon her god first. A Sei of Seiryuu must stop at nothing to prevent that. Otherwise, what would people think...?” Miboshi added a wickedly wry smile to that last query.

Nakago’s jaw clenched as he struggled to maintain his composure. Miboshi had him there, certainly. And if Miboshi had known of his plan, and had it in him to betray it to the Emperor... He didn’t like the position that put him in.

Oh, don’t worry, Miboshi said in Nakago’s mind. That sot of an emperor is far below my consideration. I just don’t want to have you overestimating your level of control. That can be deadly at a crucial moment, can it not?

“Tell me one thing,” Nakago growled. “Where is Tamahome now?”

“Unfortunately last night he was unable to kill the Suzaku no Miko or any of her Seishi,” Miboshi answered aloud, “but even at that, I didn’t think we could afford to waste the advantage he provides. Imagine it, having an operative who can go straight into the heart of Konan without raising any questions and walk through any of Suzaku’s barriers. And those Suzaku-fools are so trusting, with just a little false pretense he could walk right into their imperial palace and kill their Miko, their Emperor...”

“Suzaku will not be summoned,” Nakago said. “I already have measures in place to assure that. There’s no need---”

“Oh, dear, that’s unfortunate,” Miboshi said. “I suppose I was a bit hasty in my zeal. He’s already left for Konan palace.”

Nakago only stood, glaring at Miboshi and breathing heavily with suppressed rage. He felt just on the brink of having a retort when another figure, a shaggy-haired teenaged boy, ran down the hall toward him.

“Suboshi!”

“Nakago! Where’ve you been?” the boy asked. “Do you know where Miaka-sama is?”

“No. You haven’t seen her?”

“Nobody’s seen her.”

Nakago paused slightly, and when he spoke, it was in a dangerous tone. “What do you mean no one’s seen her...?”

“Not since the fight last night.”

“Assemble the guard!” Nakago ordered. “I want every man in this district searching for her!!” He whipped around to confront Miboshi again, but found that the object of his wrath had discreetly vanished. At his roar of anger and vexation, several decorative vases lining the hallway shattered in bursts of blue light.

“Nakago-sama!?” Suboshi cried in shock.

“I gave you an order!” Nakago roared. “GO!!”

Suboshi dashed off down the hall. Left alone, Nakago punched a solid wall with the heel of his hand and rested his head against it. How could everything go so wrong in the space of twenty-four hours...?

*

Yui woke slowly into the warmth of a soft bed and thick quilted covers. She could hardly remember anything since the moment Kutou’s palace disappeared. She remembered Tamahome’s name with a line through it...

She pushed herself up on her elbows and looked around. Hotohori was sitting at the foot of the bed, reading a book. When he saw Yui stirring, he set it aside and came to sit on the edge of the bed beside her.

“Hotohori, I’m sorry...”

“Don’t worry, Yui, just rest.”

Despite his admonition, Yui pressed her face to his shoulder. “I tried, you know I did. I tried my best...” she said, her voice cracking.

“I know. You’ve been an excellent Suzaku no Miko.”

“How can you say that!? I lost!” She buried her face in her hands. “Oh, God, how Miaka was... It was just like she was playing a game with me! And I want to say she’s so stupid, to be like that, but I must be the one who’s stupid because she beat me...”

Hotohori took her hands from her eyes with a strong yet gentle grip. “We haven’t lost yet. We’re all still alive.”

“I don’t know...” she said. “Is Tamahome alive...?”

“Chichiri says that the Tamahome we know is still there, but trapped and hidden by the influence of the drug.”

“Is there an antidote, then?”

Hotohori paused slightly. “I’m doing everything in my power as Emperor. The whole of Konan will not rest until we find a way to help him.”

No, no antidote...

“Chichiri and Mitsukake are doing their best, and messengers are putting the problem to the greatest healers and scholars in the empire.”

Yui sank back into the bed-cushions, her eyes distant. What Hotohori was telling her hardly seemed real. Somehow it all seemed so useless...

Hotohori paused awkwardly, seeing her spiritless face.

“I just want to rest right now,” she said.

He nodded, and squeezed her hand one more time. He bent over her and kissed her lips, but she didn’t return the gesture. “Rest well, Yui. Don’t worry, we won’t fail you.”

As if you were all the ones who were responsible to me... She didn’t say anything, and Hotohori rose and walked away. He paused at the door and looked back at her for a long moment, then left. She heard his voice, muffled through the door, giving out instructions to the guards, and she lay still and quiet, hardly even daring to think until she was certain that he was farther away, as if she were afraid of him catching her at something.

Or maybe afraid of him coming back into the room. She still loved him, but now that love was strained with desperation. Although he had just left, the thought of his face---or of Nuriko’s, Chichiri’s...---it almost caused her physical pain. How could she face them, having failed? She touched the ring still hanging around her neck. How could the Emperor marry a failed Miko?

And Miaka, now there was no hope with her. Tamahome had rescued her as Yui had trusted him to do, but Miaka had no way of knowing what had been in Yui’s mind when she picked up the Tessen. To her, it must seem that Yui had tried to kill her.

It’s not a game, Miaka! Yui cried in her mind, squeezing the tears from her eyes. If it was a game, I could just stop playing now... Like Monopoly(TM). Once you start losing, there’s really no way to start winning again, and it just drags on and on forever until you slowly lose everything...

Slowly lose everything... She imagined slowly losing everything in this game. Konan being slowly overrun... Even with the help of a god, it would probably take years of bloody warfare to wrest an Empire from its native people. Slowly losing everything, her Seishi dying one by one... And she’d be last. She was the one at the center, who they were all protecting, who they’d all die for, and she’d be there to see it and grieve for them all.

Her tortured thoughts were spilling out of her now; she said them under her breath. “Did any of you ever think that maybe I didn’t want you to get hurt for me? I don’t!” She thought of people killed by assassins meant for her, Hotohori’s shoulder torn open by the bandit trap, injuries her Seishi and others had suffered. “I don’t want anybody to be hurt, or to die protecting me anymore...”

But it didn’t matter whether she wanted them to or not. They would all do it anyway, because they wanted to, and she couldn’t fault them that kind of selfishness.

“Maybe,” she whispered to herself. “Maybe they can’t blame me for it, either.”

What was it Miaka had said about Tamahome? “He’s not someone you can push around and use anymore.” I do, don’t I? Even if I don’t mean to. It’s just the arrangement... They seem to like it just fine. Probably they wouldn’t think they had any right to complain... But I have the right to complain, dammit!

There was no way for the story to end happily anymore. With no Suzaku no Miko, Konan would still fall, but surely a useless Miko was worse than none at all. Just a spurious thing to expend resources protecting, something for the Sei of Suzaku to die for, for no good reason. If I weren’t there, they could all just take care of themselves and maybe get through it...

Yui didn’t want to think what Taiitsukun would say to her now, but she almost wished that she was there on Mt. Taikyoku, somewhere where she could just say “Send me back.” There had to be some way back..

I never found out what would happen... I never found out for sure whether I could really die in the book... Maybe Miaka was right in that way. Yui felt sure, even after everything, that Miaka wouldn’t act this way if she thought that Yui would actually die. Maybe I could just wake up back there... “Eventually there will come a day when I’ll think this never happened.” That thought was no less unbearable now than before, but surely even that would be better than living with this failure for the rest of her life... Even if she really did die, surely even that would be better...

Yui didn’t hesitate. If Hotohori came back, or any of her Seishi, then she’d feel even worse about it. They’d find some way of talking her out of it... She took a deep breath to steel her resolve, then threw the blankets aside. She put on an outer robe and her own school-shoes, and went to the door.

“Lady Miko,” the guards greeted.

“I’m going for a walk in the garden,” she said, in a tired voice, and the guards began to form up behind her. “Alone,” she added.

“But My Lady---”

“That’s an order,” she snapped.

“Yes, Lady Miko,” one of the guards said, and they all bowed.

She continued down the hall. It was enough that she didn’t hear their footsteps; she didn’t look back.

*

“‘A light rain was falling as the Suzaku no Miko walked through the palace gardens, and it rippled in the surface of the lake as she gazed across the water.’

“Yui! No!” Hiro shouted aloud, now alone in the apartment. “Imouto-chan, don’t do this to me!!” His hand was poised to turn the page, but he was consumed with dread, and couldn’t bring himself to do it. In desperation, he flipped back to the previous page, where the text faced an ink-painting of Hotohori sitting beside Yui’s bed. “Hotohori!” Hiro shouted at the image. “Where did you go!?! Yui needs you! Listen to me! You have to save Yui!”

*

The table where Hotohori and his ministers discussed strategy seemed rather outsized with only Hotohori, Mitsukake, and Chichiri sitting at it.

“Do you think you could counteract its effect?” Hotohori asked.

Mitsukake shook his head. “I examined the sample you provided. Certainly I could never give it to someone and use them to test it, but I didn’t feel any evil energy from it that my power could absorb. However strange its effects, however wicked the intentions of its users, Kodoku in the end is just a plant.”

“Yet surely you can cure poisons. Are they not just plants?” Hotohori asked.

“When they cause suffering and death needlessly. The effect on Tamahome is a different sort of case; I honestly can’t say whether it would be within my power or not.”

“I’ve checked over and over for any kind of antidote and haven’t found anything no da,” Chichiri said.

“What do you know about Kodoku?” Mitsukake asked. “I’d never encountered it before now; perhaps your knowledge can help me.”

“I know what it does, and I know the technique to command someone under its influence no da,” she replied. “I’m afraid there isn’t much more that anyone knows about it no da.”

“I’ve sent messengers to Jouzen-shi, with my orders for the greatest scholars to search for any knowledge of it. If there is anything more to know, they will bring it to us,” Hotohori said.

“But you say you could command Tamahome as well?” Mitsukake asked.

“Hai no da,” Chichiri said. “It’s a simple technique, but... It’s a skill that gets better with practice, and I haven’t had any no da. The Seiryuu no Miko must have learned just lately and her will isn’t very strong right now, so I could probably counter her orders no da. But she isn’t the one to worry about no da. That’s Miboshi, and I’m afraid he’s a lot better at it than I am; I don’t think I could break a command from him for more than a moment no da.”

“Hmm...” Mitsukake mused. “I wonder if it would be possible...”

“What no da?”

“My power cannot take a person’s evil intent from them, since that would violate their will. But if an evil intention were imposed on someone against their will, like Miboshi’s on Tamahome... ---Hotohori-sama?”

Hotohori half-rose from his chair, with a hand to his head. “I have the strangest feeling,” he said. “It’s as if I can hear someone calling me...”

Chichiri looked around, her mask-face serious. “I don’t feel a presence no da...”

“I’ll go and see to Yui,” he said, rising. “We can’t be too careful.”

“Good idea no da,” Chichiri said. Mitsukake nodded.

“Do what you can,” Hotohori said as he left the room.

After a long pause, Mitsukake spoke again. “I was saying---mind you, I’m not certain about this, but even if the drug itself is neutral, outside of my ability to heal, Miboshi’s control over Tamahome is surely evil. I might be able to remove it if nothing else. Then you could take over, if we could get him away from Miboshi.”

Chichiri nodded. “We couldn’t leave him like that forever; Tamahome-chan would be a slave to anyone who knew how to command him for the rest of his life no da. But right now even getting that far would be a great step forward no da.” Her tiny lines of eyebrows were knit together, forming little triangle-shadows underneath them.

“Is something wrong?” Mitsukake asked.

“I just can’t help but wonder what Hotohori was feeling, and why I couldn’t detect it no da.”

“Yui is his beloved. He doesn’t need an explanation for an occasional stroke of concern about her.”

“I hope you’re right no da.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in no da!”

A palace guard slid the door open. “I have a message for His Majesty the Emperor,” he said with a bow.

“Hotohori-sama just left to check on the Suzaku no Miko,” Mitsukake replied.

“But, I was coming to tell him that she went out to the gardens and refused any escort,” the man said. “We dared not disobey the Lady Miko, but I knew that I must at least tell His Majesty.”

With one glance at each other, Mitsukake and Chichiri sprang from their seats.

*

Hiro’s heart pounded in his ears. ‘The Emperor followed the mysterious call into the gardens...’

“The lake!” he shouted at the book, “The lake! By the pavilion!”

‘...it said to him.’

*

Hotohori’s left shoe was flung from his foot as he dashed toward the lake. Better off without it, he kicked the other one off and kept running. The drops of rain stung like ice against his face as he came to a halt at the foot of the bridge leading across to the pavilion on the lake. Frantically he looked around. Not far away, on the near side of the lake, he caught sight of footprints in the mud, going into the water, with the heel sunk in a half inch deeper---Yui’s shoes!

With a deep breath, he plunged into the water and saw her, half obscured by water plants and churned-up silt. He hardly even knew how, but he darted toward her like a fish and took her in his arms. She was already limp. No! Yui, don’t die!

He turned his head back toward the gray lake surface, and let his feet sink into the muck until they found enough purchase and kicked off toward the air... He was just starting to move when he was jerked back, like hitting the end of a tether softened in the water. The shock of it made him let out his breath, and as he took an instinctive gasp, his nose and throat flooded with the pressure-pain of the water and he curled around Yui again. The weeds were tangled around his ankles, and she was hopelessly caught up in them...

Yui! I won’t leave you!! he screamed silently, even as other desperate voices bobbed up to the surface of his mind. I can’t breathe! I’m going to die! And then he thought Yui had been without breath longer than that. I will not die like this! I will not let Yui die like this!!

Paying no heed to the water, he shouted with his full voice. “Suzaku!! Give me your power!!!”

He held Yui to his chest like a doll. The water pressed in on him; his lungs were full of it now. But he knew that he was stronger. This was not enough to defeat him. The red light from the Mark of Suzaku brought the water to life around him. Its pressure lifted away like a bird taking flight...

*

Nuriko flung the door open and the other Sei of Suzaku dashed out into the gardens after her.

“Shit! ‘The garden’!” Tasuki cursed, looking around at the expanse of trees and flowers that suddenly seemed enormous. “Couldn’t we be a little more specific!?”

“Split up!” Nuriko commanded. “Chichiri, check the lake! Mitsukake, look in the trees there! Tasuki, Chiriko, that way!” she shouted, pointing at the expanse of garden in the opposite direction from the lake. With that, she dashed after Chichiri.

Chichiri stopped about halfway to the lake and picked something up. Nuriko skidded to a stop across the wet grass. “Chichiri, what is it!?”

“One of Hotohori’s shoes no da!”

“You sure?”

“Hai no da!* Wear those shoes and you never forget them no da...”

Nuriko looked around. “Here’s the other one!” she called, running to pick it up and looking back at Chichiri. She turned 180 degrees, along the line the two shoes made. It pointed toward the lake. “It’s this way!” she shouted to the others.

Nuriko dashed to the lake’s edge, with the Chichiri and the others coming behind her. “They’re in the water no da!” Chichiri cried, even before Nuriko saw the muddy footprints. A few air bubbles broke the surface of the water, breaking up the tiny ripples of the falling rain.

Nuriko coiled her legs to leap into the water, but Chichiri gasped and grabbed her arm to hold her back.

“Chichiri, let go!!!”

“Wait no da! Something’s---”

A soft roar rose up from the lake, and Nuriko looked up to see a red glow rising through the water, the entire surface of the lake bowing upward as the light pressed closer and closer, brighter and brighter until the moment when it must break the surface.

That moment was a roar like a hurricane, the water hissing through the air in a spiral of spray that forced Nuriko, Chichiri, and the others to shield their faces.

When the water died down, they looked up to see Hotohori, the character on his neck glowing brightly, holding Yui in his arms and walking toward them across the surface of the lake. With each footfall, a brilliant burst of ruby light erupted from the water to bear his and Yui’s weight.

Mitsukake was waiting, and took Yui from Hotohori’s arms as he stepped onto the bank. He lowered her to the grass and checked her pulse. “She’s alive. Thank Suzaku you got to her,” he said, setting about his work.

“Yes, thank Suzaku,” Hotohori said as the red light from his neck faded away. The moment the character disappeared, he collapsed into Nuriko’s arms.

“Hotohori-sama!” Nuriko cried.

Mitsukake dared to look as Yui started coughing. “His feet!”

Nuriko and Chichiri looked down. Blood was soaking crimson stains through the drenched stockings on his feet.

“Yui,” he said, desperately but wearily. “Help Yui.”

“It’s all right no da,” Chichiri said. “I can take care of Hotohori no da.”

“Yui will be all right,” Mitsukake said.

Hotohori let his head fall back against Nuriko’s shoulder and went limp in her arms.

*

Hiro let his forehead hit the open book as he did what someone already laying in bed could to collapse. “Oh, my heart...” he muttered, taking deep breaths to calm himself with the crisis past.

At last he sat up in bed, ran a hand through his hair, and opened the book on the blanket in his lap. “‘Mitsukake used his power to ensure the Suzaku no Miko’s health, and Chichiri the Monk’s power was enough to heal the Emperor. Suzaku’s sei Nuriko carried the Miko to her bed, and pleaded with the Emperor that he should rest also, but he refused and sat by the Miko’s side long into the night. When he slept, it was with his head on the pillow beside her.’”

*

Yui woke with a deep, sweet breath and opened her eyes to the morning light. She could hardly remember what had happened after she arrived at the edge of the lake, but she knew the fact of it. Now she was in her room again. She must have been rescued...

She felt a tickle of air in her ear, and turned. Hotohori was sitting in a chair beside the bed, leaned over and resting his head on the pillow. His deep, quiet breaths carried just a hint of a snore.

Yui smiled at him, despite herself. Even after what she’d done---and what she’d failed to do---to see him here like this, as if he had cast aside all thought except to remain at her side, brought to her mind all the sweetness of the love that he showered on her, from the first moment they met, however misguided it may have been at first.

The doubts were just beginning to rise up in her mind again---how could she explain what she had just done to him?---when something else caught her attention. She thought she saw... She raised her head to see clearly, and yes, Hotohori had obviously been there with her all night. Whiskers as dark as his hair covered his upper lip, cheeks and chin. It was such an unexpected sight that it struck her as comical, and she gently reached out and touched the tiny, prickly hairs with her fingertips.

Hotohori took a deep breath and lifted his head, rubbing his cheek and trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. “Yui... I’m sorry to present myself to you in such a state...”

“No, it’s okay,” she said with a smile, but in the pause that followed, her face fell. “Hotohori, I’m sorry...” she said.

“Hush, Yui.”

“I just... I just didn’t know what else to do...” she said. “It... After what happened with Tamahome, it all just seems so hopeless... I don’t want anyone to fight for me, or be hurt protecting me if there’s nothing I can do anyway...”

“Listen to me, Yui,” Hotohori said. “We aren’t defeated yet. We will do our best until the bitter end, and it may yet be enough.”

“But that’s just it,” Yui said. “I don’t want to see any of you get hurt. The way that you would fight to keep me safe... I’d do it for you, too, except that I can’t, and you all have to, even if you didn’t want to...”

“We all do want to, Yui,” Hotohori said. “Each one of us loves you in one way or another, though I hope that none quite like me.” That got a smile out of her, and he smiled too at seeing it. “And perhaps you’re right, but that’s exactly why you shouldn’t undervalue yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you seem to think you only impress upon your Seishi, and that you do nothing. But what you said may also be true in that your role is the most difficult one of all,” Hotohori said. “We must fight to protect you, and, if need be, die for you. But you must live for us.”

Tears came to her eyes as she nodded. “That is the hard part,” she said.

“But I know that you can do it,” Hotohori said. He wrapped an arm around Yui’s shoulders, and touched his forehead to hers. “I know that you’ll do your best, and I’ve seen enough of what that means that I say your best deserves our faith. And I have faith in Suzaku, also. I have since I was a child, and I do not believe that he would let the efforts of such a Miko as you be in vain.”

“But what if you’re wrong?” Yui said. “What if we can’t summon Suzaku? What if Konan is overrun and we all die?”

Hotohori smiled at her. “Then I will love you with my last breath,” he said, and eased his lips forward to kiss her.

Yui giggled.

“Hm?”

“Your face tickles.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

She only smiled at him, and took his head with her hands and pulled him closer again.

There was a knock on the door.

“This is turning into a running gag,” Yui said, frowning.

“A what?” Hotohori asked.

“Never mind.”

Hotohori crossed to the door and opened it to find a messenger, who bowed to him. “Wonderful news, your Majesty!” he said. “Tamahome-sama has returned!”

Hotohori started. “What do you mean?”

“He’s been seen in the city, and is coming toward the palace.”

“Are you certain it’s him?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“Gather the other Sei of Suzaku. I want them all there to meet him when he comes through the palace gate,” Hotohori said.

“Yes, sire!” the messenger said, and hurried off.

“Tamahome!” Yui said, starting up out of bed. “Could it be that he’s---”

“I’m going to find that out,” Hotohori said. “But until then, I cannot place you in danger. Please forgive me.”

“What?” Yui asked as he stepped through the doorway. As she moved to follow, he closed the door behind him, and a moment later she heard a bolt slide into place, and the jangle of a lock. “Hotohori, what are you doing!?”

His voice came faintly through the door, ordering the guards to keep the door secure, and then his footsteps began to fade down the hallway.

“Hotohori!” she shouted after him. If Tamahome was still under the effect of the Kodoku... She didn’t want to know what was about to happen, but whatever it was, she knew she had to be there...

*

“Wait, Miss,” one of the palace guards said, staying a girl wrapped strangely in a sheet as she tried to pass through the gates of Konan palace. “The Imperial Palace is forbidden. What business do you have here?”

“I’m with Tamahome,” she said.

“Is that true?”

“I came with him all the way from---well, a really long way!”

“Tamahome-sama!” the guard’s partner called after Tamahome as he entered the courtyard. “Is this young lady with you?”

Tamahome didn’t even turn to look at him as the gate fell shut again.

“If he’s not vouching for you, I’m afraid we can’t let you in,” the guard said.

The girl turned and ran toward the marketplace. As her voice faded into the crowd, the guardsman heard her cry out something...

“Miboshi, I hate you!”

*

To Be Continued...

*

PREVIEW

Tamahome has returned to Konan, but as a deadly enemy, not the caring friend Yui knows. Though she and her other Seishi desperately want to save him, they do not know how or whether they can do so. Tamahome’s life and the summoning of Suzaku are about to be decided.

Next Time: