"I don't believe he just went off and left her!" Nuriko complained for at least the twelfth time. "He finally admits to Miaka that he loves her, and then he just--just runs away!"

"He's doing it for the country," I reminded him. Again. "The Kutou army is headed right for his home and those adorable little brothers and sisters of his. And by going with them, he can stop it, if only for a while. Do you really blame him?"

Nuriko whined. "No...I suppose not," he admitted. "But let me tell you, the hopeless romantic in me is not happy at all."

"That's because the hopeless romantic in you is obsessed with lost causes," I teased him gently. "If you'd start looking for a couple that might work out--"

"Oh, but then it wouldn't be a challenge!" he interrupted with a wink. And then sighed. "Besides...it's a nice distraction for me, Akane. Getting those two kids together...if I can see somebody around me who isn't lonely...it's like there's hope."

"I know," I answered. My heart ached for him. Of all the wishes in the world, the one I most wanted the power to grant would give Nuriko his one true love.

But all wishes would come later, and who knew if I would have the choice of them anyway? First we had to find the rest of the Seishi-and the mirror, as if reading my thoughts, flashed to life with the symbol "mountain" reflected in its glass.

"Nuriko-kun! Look!"

He leaned across from his horse to peer closer at the mirror in my hand. "Mountain. Do you think it's because Mt Reikaku is up ahead? We can go there, but the place is crawling with bandits. We'd better stick to the main road and keep our eyes open."

I grinned. "Just like we always do...anyway, we have Chichiri the Wonder Mage back there to bail us out of trouble," I added, twisting around to see if he'd heard me.

He wasn't there.

"At least I thought we did. Chichiri..?"

"What?" Nuriko turned to look as well. "Where'd he go? He was right behind us when we left, I saw him!"

I sighed. "Oh well. He can teleport, remember? Maybe he got tired of riding. Or of our babbling. I'm sure he'll be around when we need him. He always is."

Chichiri never did reappear, even after Akane and I stopped off in an inn along the side of the mountain road. I wasn't thrilled about being here--the place was dangerous. But the mirror told us to go to the mountain, so to the mountain we would go. And it was either the inn or the side of the road.

Maybe I just didn't like the way the men inside leered toward my Miko and me when we entered. They were grey and dusty, labourers all, or something worse--the sort of men with muscles that come from an active lifestyle, not a training ground. Too many of them had weapons for my taste.

Well, I was Nuriko, Suzaku no Seishi, and I could probably knock down this whole building with one good push. I didn't need weapons, right?

The innkeeper brought us our meal. Akane leaned toward me over it and spoke in a low voice. "You look nervous, Nuriko-kun...what is it?"

"Just keeping my eyes open," I told her, motioning toward a table full of tough-looking sorts in one corner. "Mostly on those few over there."

She nodded. "I know. The place makes me a bit nervous, too."

A very disturbing thought found its way into my head. "Akane--maybe we shouldn't eat this. Just in case."

"But--you really think--?" She looked forlornly at the meal. It did look good. It was hot, it was steaming, it smelled good...and we were both so hungry. It had been a long day. I watched her face fall, and then school itself into an expression of stoicism. "We'll just have what we brought with us." She reached into her bag to pull something out, and then--

"Heeey, ladies." One of the men had departed the corner table while we were discussing the possibility of drugged or poisoned food, and now he was leaning over us, leering. "Bit far out in the wild for a pair of lovely ladies to be wandering alone, isn't it? Something awful could happen. You could get hurt."

I didn't even bother telling him I was a man. Let him find out the hard way or not at all. "We'll just have to take the chance," I smiled up at him. "Besides, we can take care of ourselves all right."

"That's good," the lout continued, that ridiculous sneer still plastered on his face. "Cause I'd hate to see anything happen to ya...acourse, if we were offered some...compensation for our services, me an' the boys here would keep ya nice and safe."

"Thanks," Akane said flatly, "but no thanks. We really can take care of ourselves."

The expression on the creep's face never changed, but he moved fast. He was behind Akane in an instant, his arm around her throat. "Can you, missy? Why don't you take care of yourself by handing over that bag you were just looking through, hm?"

"Hey, you--" I stood up. Nobody threatens my Miko without answering to me. It's what I'm here for. But I could be calm. "Let her go, and I let you live."

He looked as if he were about to laugh. "Don't be stupid. The bag. Now."

"All right," Akane said easily, reaching for her pack--and instead of grabbing it, she shot her arm straight up and back into his face. "Let go of me, bastard!" she growled, jerking his arm from around her neck.

That was my cue. I hit him--one good sharp jab to the nose, and he went flying back into the wall so hard he left a dent. All this gave his friends time to come join in the game, and I felt my hair stir as a sword whizzed past my head way too close for comfort. I spun, blocked his arm as he swung again, and punched him hard enough to shatter his face.

I heard Akane grunt in pain, but as fast as I turned to see her, I still thought I would be too late. She wasn't a warrior, even if she did have a fast kick and enough attitude that I thought death-rays would shoot out of her eyes. She was trying to duck out of the way as a sword, very like the one belonging to the fellow I'd just given cosmetic surgery to, hissed through the air toward her head.

And then clattered to the ground as the man wielding it crumpled to the ground with blood spurting from his back.

"Hotohori-sama!" I heard her gasp, and felt my heart constrict as his familiar, musical voice replied. "Akane...are you all right?" There was more concern in those words than I could fathom.

Our emperor had come to save us--no, not us. Her. And the bastard bandits were the perfect targets for me to take it out on. Each sickening crunch of bone when I hit them was silence compared to the shattering of my heart.

Something very strange was happening.

Hotohori explained to us how Chichiri was taking his place in Eiyo, and how he had used the monk's magic to join us at the inn. Now that he had joined us--I was happy to see him, of course, but it felt wrong, like he was being entirely too soliticitous. I wasn't imagining it. Nuriko noticed too--though perhaps we were both too attuned to such things, for the same wrong reasons.

Hotohori was my friend, and one of the most sensitive, caring men I'd ever met. But every time he said something sweet, Nuriko's face would fall, and he would turn away as if he didn't want me to see. But I did, and every time my heart would cry out in pain for him. I was beginning to hate it--the entire ridiculous situation we three had found ourselves in. It wasn't enough that we were trying to save the world. We had to deal with our own hearts, as well.

So we trudged along toward the mountain, beckoned by the mirror, in either companionable silence or forced banter, and let the mood descend on us as it would, the tension peaking, driving us all to wonder when it would break

So I knew, one bright afternoon when Hotohori pulled me gently away with questions in his eyes, that it was about to.

"Akane--" He was troubled. I found myself praying, without realising where the thoughts came from. Suzaku...god of love. How pathetically true. You've made your warriors too sensitive for their own good, you know, and your Miko's no better. "I shouldn't be pushing this. I know that. I just--I just feel like I have to tell you again. I love you."

"Don't. Onegai." I could not halt the long sigh that left my lips. "I told you--Nuriko has very strong feelings for you, Hotohori-sama. We both understand that you don't, can't return them. But it's not fair to him to make him watch this, do you understand? He's my friend--I can't watch him hurt every time you look at me." Brutal honesty was the only option left, and besides, when dealing with close friends, it's the best way anyway.

He looked surprised, and then immediately contrite. "You're right, of course. Gomen nasai. I would not hurt Nuriko if I can help it." After all, weren't they friends too? "I would--"

He never got to finish whatever he'd been about to say. Nuriko's voice echoed through the woods--"HOTOHORI-SAMA! AKANE--!" as something large and metal swung toward us from the tree. Or rather, swung toward me. All the breath left my lungs as Hotohori thumped into me, knocking us both to the ground, shielding me with his body. From somewhere nearby I heard a grunt, and another thud--Nuriko, I suppose. I saw boots surrounding us as men poured from the woods, laughing low in their throats.

And that was all I remembered for a time.

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