There was considerably more traffic into the city of Hinansho over the next two weeks, though never in groups large enough to make the bored gate guards take note. Surprisingly few of the newcomers left over that time, slowly filling the inns to a capacity unusual for the rainy season. The innkeepers were glad for the custom in the off season, and few were inclined to ask questions of suspicious happenings in this city.

Tasuki and Chichiri were among the last to arrive, late in the second week of operations. Hooded and cloaked against the driving monsoon rains and to prevent their identities from being remarked upon, they made their way through near deserted streets to the door of a simple, nondescript house in the center of the city. Chichiri knocked in a predetermined pattern and the door swung open to admit them. As Tasuki gratefully shed her cloak and wrung the water from her soaking hair, Kouji gestured them over to the main table.

"You guys aren't gonna believe this," he glanced up at them, bending over a rough map of the city which had been pieced together by the Leikaku bandit spies. "Take a look."

Chunks of the map had been shaded in various colours, forming an asymmetrical mosaic. Chichiri squinted at it, unable to make sense of what seemed to be random blocks and squiggles.

"They're totally takin' over!" Tasuki exclaimed, carefully holding her still-dripping hair away from the map table. One slender, feminine figure traced a path that was incomprehensible to the other Suzaku Seishi. "They've got all the major trade routes covered, an' most of the minor ones. Half the government - if ya can call it that - is in their pockets!"

Kouji nodded grimly. "Most of the surroundin' country is burned out, useless - and they've been feedin' themselves offa the stored food. This city's gonna starve come winter - and anyone left tryin' ta live out there is gonna find themselves raided for food."

Tasuki growled and slammed a delicate hand into the table with a show of her old spirit. "K'so! First thing we do once we get this sorceress bitch is take out these fuckin' bandits. I've had enough of this!"

Kouji grinned at her unexpectedly. "How about we kill both birds with one stone, Aniki?" Gesturing to the two bandits filling their faces with warm stew on the other side of the table, he continued, "Baka and Ahou here have finally managed to get in with the bandits. They had a meetin' with the leader last night - and guess who it turned out to be?"

The two men, identical down to their chipped front teeth, took the ribbing with good-natured grins. They certainly looked the part of their nicknames, both huge and hulking with the kind of brutish features one usually associated with brainless bullies. Oddly enough, they were two of the more intelligent members of the bandits, with an easy-going, gentle nature that surprised anyone who didn't know them well.

The twin on the left spoke up. "Leader's name is Hinamura Mai, tiny dark little thing."

"With a penchant for blasting anyone that gets her upset." the second twin added. "Weird blue lightning comes out of her hands."

"Fries anything that it gets near," the first finished, and they both went back to gulping their stew.

"Sound familiar?" Kouji asked, knowing there could be only one answer.

"That's the bitch," Tasuki replied, her voice full of venom. "Fucking hell. I shoulda guessed she'd be behind all this shit. Well, then I owe her twice over - once fer turning me into a fuckin' girl in the first place, and second for the month a' hell I spent at her pet bullies' hands!" Smacking her fist into her palm, Tasuki gave a satisfied grin.

Chichiri frowned, one small detail niggling at his subconscious. "Demo… didn't Taiitsu-kun say that she would be using all her power no da?"

Tasuki's brow wrinkled as well. "Hey, that's right. Where's she gettin' the power to blast these things? Shit, I don't wanna go up against her if we're gonna hafta deal with magic strong enough to beat the old hag!"

Chichiri considered the problem. Taiitsu-kun had seemed so certain that most of the sorceress' power would be occupied fighting off the Creator herself. If she had so much power left to spare, why wouldn't she be using it in her battle to control the weave of reality?

"She had a little kitten, that she would always pet just before she blasted somethin'," one of the twins offered suddenly. "Thought it was just a weird habit, but now that I think of it, she didn't ever pet it except then," the other added.

"Sou ka," Chichiri blinked. "She must be storing energy in it somehow no da. Demo, you can't store energy in living things na no da! Are you certain the kitten was alive no da?" Both twins nodded, and Chichiri began to pace back and forth, absorbed in thought. "Everything she's done until now has conformed to the laws of magic no da," he murmured aloud, the steady rhythm of his footsteps the only sound in the room as he thought. "She's just very powerful no da. So how could she…" his head snapped up, masked expression brightening as something occurred to him. "Was it wearing a collar?"

The two bandits took a moment to reply, conferring soundlessly with each other in the manner of all twins. "Ah," the first one finally answered slowly. "Now that you mention it. Was as black as the fur, so it was hard to see."

"That's it then no da!" Chichiri proclaimed triumphantly. "The collar holds a spell of sympathetic magic - a sort of amplifier, na no da. The bolt is produced by static electricity when she pets the kitten, and is made stronger by the collar no da!"

"So all we have ta do is get the damn cat away from her, and we've got it easy, ne Chiri?" Tasuki asked, catching on quickly.

"Hai no da! She'll either have to divert her real power from her battle with Taiitsu-kun, in which case the Creator will be able to overtake her no da - or she'll be helpless against our physical attacks no da!"

"So we just gotta get through the bandit guards!" Tasuki's entire body was practically vibrating with glee, her eyes wide and glittering with joy.

Kouji held up a hand. "Ain't gonna be all THAT easy, Gen-chan," he warned. "There're a fuckin' LOT of these bandits to get through. AND we gotta get the damn cat away from her BEFORE she blasts us."

"We got two hundred of the best trained bandits this side of Kutou," Tasuki growled happily, not deterred in the least. "AND Chichiri to blast her ass to the Miko world and back to distract her! We got this sewn up, Aniki. Let's call in our boys and get this show on the road!"

Kouji laughed and slapped his best friend on the back. "That's the Genrou we all know and love!" he exclaimed. "I'll get the call ta muster started and round up all the boys - you and Chichiri-han start the battle plan!"
 
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rains had not let up in the least by the night of the planned attack - if anything, the downpour had only gotten stronger. Chichiri frowned at the main door of the bandit stronghold from their hiding place in a drenched alleyway. He truly hated monsoon season, for many reasons, and he could only hope it wasn't a bad omen of things to come.

"Ya ready, Chiri?" Tasuki's sweet voice slid through the darkness from his left, barely contained excitement dancing in her tone. Chichiri nodded, then remembered that she wouldn't be able to see him through the spell of invisibility he had cast, and answered aloud.

"Hai, no da! Once the Leikaku bandits get them to open the main doors, we should be able to slip inside without a problem, na no da. Then you just have to get the cat away from her, and I'll blast her with a spell no da. But remember… don't TOUCH anything until then, no da! The spell will dissipate the moment you interact with a physical object na no da!"

"Hai, hai! Don't worry, Chiri! We've got it in the bag!" The bandit leader's voice was outwardly confident, but Chichiri knew his friend well enough to detect the worry and apprehension buried below the brashness. He wished he dared reach out and hold his lover's hand reassuringly, but that would break the spell, and he didn't have the reserves to cast it again. It had taken him two days of solid meditating to build the power for it in the first place.

"Any second now…" Tasuki's observation was interrupted by the first shouts from the bandit stronghold. Dozens of Leikaku bandits spilled out of hidey-holes all around the building - shattered windows, broken doorways, dark alleys, even a few dropping down from the roofs above. The startled gate guards were unable to close the doors before the Leikaku bandits wedged them open, and were forced to confront the much larger force of attackers head-on. Shouts for reinforcements from inside quickly rang out.

"Here we go, no da!" Chichiri chirped as the big doors swung open to let the reinforcements through. He took off running, edging carefully along the side of the building to avoid the fighting. The Leikaku bandits had orders to keep the fighting at least an arm's length from the walls at all times, to allow the two invisible seishi to pass without disrupting the spell.

There were a few near misses, one of which ended with a battle-axe buried in the wall just inches from Tasuki's face. Cursing from no apparent source startled a few of the bandits on both sides, but both seishi managed to make it through the doors without disturbing anything enough to break the spell.

Once inside the much quieter hallway, Tasuki found herself swamped with rising memories. She knew this place, intimately - she'd spent four weeks as a prisoner within these walls. There was hardly a room that didn't contain some painful image for her, and she grew less and less confident the further into the stronghold they traveled.

Chichiri apparently sensed some of her distress, for the soft sound of the monk's footsteps came to a halt before her. "Tasuki…" his voice floated eerily out of nowhere. "Daijoubu ka? You don't have to do this… I can get in by myself no da…"

"Iie!" Tasuki replied, harshly forcing the emotions and memories to the back of her mind. "I need to see fer myself, Chiri. That she's gone, I mean. And dammit, I WON'T let this get the better of me!"

She could hear the proud smile in her lover's voice. "Wakatta no da. Just remember no da… you're not alone na no da. I'm with you. Always."

"So, what are we waiting for? The boys aren't gonna be able to keep the guards distracted forever!" Tasuki replied, striking out again. "One good thing… I've got a pretty good idea where she is. There was only one room that I was never brought to, and that I was never allowed to go into. Since I never once saw her here… that's gotta be it."

"Hai no da!"

Clattering footsteps warned them of the approach of more bandits from around a corner, and both Seishi froze, holding themselves as silently as possible, pressed up against the wall. The bandits ran by them, heading for the door, without so much as glancing in their direction. Tasuki let out a long sigh after they'd gone.

"It's just around the corner," she informed her partner. "Those musta been her guards - I think I recognized a couple of them from the first time I ran inta her. The boys must be doin' good, if she's worried enough ta send her own bodyguards!"

"Less for us to worry about, no da!" Tasuki heard Chichiri round the corner ahead of him, then the monk stopped with a disconcerted noise.

"What's wrong?"

"The door is shut no da! We can't open it without breaking the spell na no da!"

Tasuki cursed. "Shit. If we'd been a few seconds earlier, we coulda slipped in when the guards left."

They stood there helplessly for a long moment, stumped, then finally Tasuki shrugged. "One of us is gonna hafta open the door, and let the other one through."

"I'll open the door," Chichiri said, and firmly cut off Tasuki's incipient objection. "She'll blast whichever of us that she can see no da, and I can shield against that. You can't na no da. Your job will be to get the cat away from her as soon as possible no da."

"Yosha!" Tasuki cracked her knuckles. "Let's do it!"

Bracing himself, Chichiri readied a shield spell, knowing he would have perhaps moments to throw up his defenses before she threw a bolt at him. He'd have put them up before hand, but there was a slight chance that she was scanning for magical energy, and that would alert her prematurely.

With a deep breath, he slammed through the door, feeling the itchy tingle as the invisibility spell dissipated. He got a hurried glimpse of long dark tresses framing a startled face, before the expected lightning bolt crackled towards him. He threw up the shield he had prepared, and was relieved when the bolt spent itself harmlessly against it. The spell was strong, but not strong enough to breach his Suzaku-granted protections.

He felt the air swirl around him as Tasuki rushed past him, and sent a bolt of his own back at the sorceress in the hopes of distracting her from the noise of Tasuki's footsteps. It crashed uselessly against her own shields, as he'd expected, but it also allowed Tasuki to get by him and into the room.

"Who are you?" She demanded imperiously. "How dare you attack me in my own stronghold? What right have you?"

"Suzaku no Shichiseishi Chichiri!" he answered her, bringing his staff around in a defensive position. Her eyes narrowed.

"Sou ka? You must be that mageling of Taiitsu-kun's I've heard of." She gave a delicate little laugh, the sound sending thrills of ice along Chichiri's spine. "Do you truly think you possess the power to defeat me, little one? I have been gathering strength to me for centuries longer than you have even been alive!"

He could feel the power building around her, crackling and snapping in the air between them. A sense of countless years weighing him down crashed over him, and he was driven to his knees in sheer awe of the force of her power. He could easily believe her claim of impossible age, and the horrible possibility occurred to him that she'd been toying with Taiitsu-kun, leading the World's Controller to believe that all of her power was tied up in their battle, when in fact she had been holding back all along…

"Fuckin' bitch! Take this! LEKKA SHINEN!"

Flames tore through the air and engulfed the sorceress's shields, and she screamed. The looming sense of power vanished, and Chichiri found himself kneeling on the floor, holding himself upright by his staff, panting. Understanding came to him as he stared at the woman now battling the tide of fire. "A spell," he murmured aloud. "Another amplifying spell, to make her seem infinitely more powerful than she is…"

Tasuki was now visible, standing to one side of the dais, clutching her tessen tightly in a white-knuckled grip, grinning shakily at her lover as the flames died away. "Sorry 'bout that, Chiri," she said flippantly. "I was goin' fer the cat, but I saw my tessen and figured that'd be a hell of a lot more useful."

"Well, if it isn't the little bandit boy I decided to teach a lesson to," the sorceress purred, gliding towards the fiery seishi. Tasuki took a step back, brandishing the tessen threateningly, but she ignored it.

"And have you learned your lesson, little one? I know my dear soldiers have taken a great deal of enjoyment teaching it to you." She paused, and tilted her head, one finger artfully tapping her full lips. "But what is this little toy that you have? When my men brought it back, I sensed the magic within it, but was unable to use it. How is it that you unlocked its power so easily? It cannot be something so simple as a magic phrase."

Tasuki snarled at her. "Nobody can use it but me. Suzaku no Shichiseishi, Tasuki!"

"Ah, sou!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands together in revelation. "That explains the difficulty I've had in making my little spell permanent. But tell me, did you two boys truly think you could stand against me? You've been very clever thus far, I'll grant you, but do you think you've encountered all of my defensive spells?" Smiling wickedly, she made an elaborate gesture with one hand.

Abruptly the room was plunged into darkness, the floor tilting wildly. Chichiri gasped for breath and discovered all the air had fled the room, leaving only the darkness that invaded his eyes, his mouth, his ears, every possible way into his body, and it was slowly suffocating him in its grip…

"Chichiri!" Dimly, he heard Tasuki's shrill soprano cry, reaching out to him through the darkness. Panting desperately, he tried to focus on the frantic cries of his lover, pulling his scattered will back to him with a fierce grip.

"Suzaku… help me…" he gasped with his final bit of air. Was there a red tinge now to the void surrounding him, or was it only his vision fading in his last moments of life?

Brilliant red light exploded against the darkness, sweeping it away from the mage and bringing back the blessed coolness of fresh air against his cheeks. Chichiri dragged the wonderful stuff deep into his lungs, coughing raggedly, and became aware of slender arms holding him upright.

"Ta…Tasuki?" he croaked, squinting as the light faded and the room returned to normal.

"You stopped breathing," she informed him, her voice high and tight with fear. "An' yer heart stopped beatin'. Chichiri, ya scared the hell outta me! Don't do that again!"

"Not planning on it," he informed her wryly, as he struggled back to his feet. The sorceress had not moved, the superior smirk on her face conveying her contempt for the two seishi.

"You see? Your efforts are futile. Why don't you save yourself a lot of pain and effort, and just surrender now? I won't kill you… I won't even hurt you, if you agree to join my cause. I could use two such powerful fighters among my ranks."

"Why…are you doing this?" Chichiri asked her, his breath still coming in unsteady gulps. "Why do you battle Taiitsu-kun this way?"

She sneered at him. "Do you think you are the old hag's only student? I was once her protégée, as you are now. Her most promising student, she told me. But she's grown old, and paranoid. She was jealous of my power, afraid that I would surpass her. So she hid things from me, kept me from learning certain spells, tried to contain my power to what SHE termed 'acceptable levels'. Meaning not powerful enough to threaten her." She laughed that chilling laugh again, the sound holding more than a little insanity.

"When I stole one of her spellbooks in order to learn the magic that was mine by right, she cast me out of the mountain. Since then I've been biding my time, learning techniques to make my power stronger, more versatile. Now I am strong enough to challenge the old hag on her own grounds, and when my bandits have conquered all these lands, I will truly supplant her as Controller of the World!"

Tasuki snorted indelicately. "Yer insane," she told the other woman bluntly. "Much as I dislike the old ghoul, you ain't got nothin' on her. She's fuckin' immortal, ya idiot! She didn't GET the position of Controller, she just IS! She's the Creator, fer Suzaku's sake!"

"Tasuki is right, no da," Chichiri said, keeping his gaze steady on her rapidly darkening one. "Even if you were able to defeat her magically, no mortal could ever hope to hold the threads of the world as she does. It would tear your mind apart to try. And even should you survive it, the gods would never permit it. You would be destroyed."

"You know nothing!" the woman shrieked, poise and control vanished in the face of her unreasoning anger. "You are just her pawn, controlled by her as surely as she once tried to control me! And as such, you are limited in your power! You cannot hope to defeat me!"

So saying, she flung her arm out, and a wave of pure energy crashed towards the two seishi. Chichiri barely managed to erect a shield in time to protect them, and even still the sheer force of it slammed them both into the wall.

"Psycho bitch!" Tasuki growled, bringing the tessen to bear. "Eat flame! Lekka shinen!"

The sorceress countered the flames easily, laughing insanely as she threw bolt after bolt of energy at them. Chichiri shielded them desperately, frantically searching for holes in her magical armour. There were none, no weak spots that he could take advantage of, and even with Tasuki distracting her with her fire, the sheer power of her attacks was rapidly eroding his barriers.

"Tasuki…" he gasped, blocking another wave. His vision was blurring again, and he could feel exhaustion dancing along his nerves, dragging him down. He fought it, knowing that if he gave in both he and his lover would be destroyed.

"Hakuroen!" Tasuki was also tiring, but she threw everything she had into one final, desperate shot. The power surged through her as it never had before, and she could feel Suzaku behind her, channeling the energy that she needed, building it into a veritable mountain of power…

And still it was not enough. The sorceress deflected the massive wave of flame, laughing in delight as Tasuki stumbled back against Chichiri, panting. The mage held her tight, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stop the next blast, knowing that they were staring their own death in the eyes. Yet somehow, both were comforted by the knowledge that they would not die alone, with their love undeclared.

"And now," the dark-haired woman declared calmly, "You die." Chichiri could feel the build up of power as she gathered enough magic to her to level the entire compound.

"Not just yet, actually," a familiar gravelly voice gritted out from behind the dais, and all three combatants stared in amazement at the glowing ball of energy which had formed there.

"Taiitsu-kun!" Chichiri cried in relief as the energy resolved itself into the form of his mentor. The sorceress squeaked and tried to fling the magic she had gathered at the wizened old woman, but was easily deflected.

"That's quite enough of that, I think." Taiitsu-kun gestured, and solid lines of light reached out to wrap around the dark-haired woman, holding her immobile. Though she struggled, the ethereal strands also served as a sort of magical ground, preventing her from gathering any power to cast a spell.

"As I had hoped, Chichiri and Tasuki were able to anger you enough that you forgot to watch for me," Taiitsu-kun said gravely, staring at the woman held in her magical grasp.

"Taiitsu-kun?" Chichiri ventured hesitantly, and the Creator sighed.

"Yes, she was once my student," the hag replied, looking both weary and saddened. "She was born with a talent for magic, and came to me much as you did, looking for training. I granted it to her, but she quickly grew insatiably power hungry. Nothing was enough for her, and when she reached the natural limits of her power, she became convinced that I had somehow restricted her. She simply wouldn't believe that I wasn't holding something back from her, some way of increasing her power further."

She sighed, and shook her head. "I caught her snooping in my books of blood magic - the use of human sacrifice to gather power. I suppose in a way, I HAD been holding that from her, as it is indeed a way of increasing a mage's potential beyond their natural ability, but the rituals are evil in nature and require a great deal of pain and suffering from the sacrifice."

"The bandits…" Tasuki's eyes widened in understanding. "All the torture, the raping…"

"Building her power base," Taiitsu-kun confirmed. "Though you'll be happy to know that your bandits made short work of her men… ill-trained, the lot of them. Completely unable to work as a team, unlike your boys." Tasuki grinned and rested the tessen on her shoulder, full of pride for her bandits.

"What will happen to her now?" Chichiri asked, eying the captive warily.

"I will take her back to the Mountain, and do my best to heal the damage she has wrought, both to others and to herself. With luck, someday she will come to realize the full consequences of her actions, and repent them."

"Hey, what about me?" Tasuki demanded frantically. "The spell doesn't break if she's still alive! I don't wanna spend the rest of my life as a fuckin' girl!"

Taiitsu-kun chuckled, winking knowingly at Chichiri. "Oh? You seemed to have found at least one positive thing in the experience…"

Chichiri blushed, but didn't loosen his grip on his lover's hand. "Male or female, Tasuki is my other half," he insisted. "It may have taken something this extreme to make me realize it, but…" He shook his head. "The body doesn't make a difference. It's the soul inside that counts."

Tasuki gave him a startled look, and Taiitsu-kun nodded. "Good. It's about time you realized that - I was beginning to think I would have to do something drastic to get you two together." She chuckled as both seishi stared at her in astonishment.

"At any rate, now that I'm no longer spending the bulk of my power containing her…" Taiitsu-kun focused her full attention on Tasuki, muttering a few arcane words and gesturing broadly.

A wave of vertigo swept the bandit, and when his vision cleared, he found himself leaning heavily against Chichiri. "What the fuck…" he started, then his eyes widened.

"I'm a guy again!" He exclaimed joyfully, reveling in the feel of his own, natural body. "Suzaku, it's fuckin' good ta hear my own damn voice again!" Grinning at Chichiri - happily noting that he was looking DOWN at the mage once more, even if from only a few centimeters difference - he swept his lover into a passionate embrace.

When they broke for air, Chichiri was red as a beet, but smiling happily. "I'm glad to see you back to normal as well, Tasuki-kun no da!" he exclaimed. "And… I do like your male body na no da," he added shyly.

"Glad ta hear it, koi," Tasuki smirked at him, showing a little fang. He shook his head. "I guess I learned my lesson all right. Next time, I FLAME the bitch before she casts a spell on me!" Chichiri frowned at him in consternation, and he laughed. "I'm kidding! Hey, where'd Taiitsu-kun go?"

Chichiri glanced around, and sure enough, the Creator had left at some point during their spit-swapping session. He shrugged. "Back to Mount Taikyouku most likely no da. Her part in this is done no da."

"Just as well," Tasuki murmured, leaning in for another kiss. "What I've got in mind for celebrating my return to manhood does NOT require an audience!"

Their lips had barely touched when the door slammed open behind them, and they sprang apart into defensive positions automatically. Tasuki was halfway through the incantation for the tessen when he registered the sight of Kouji and dozens of his own bandits, wounded and winded but ready for more.

"Kouji!" He exclaimed, quickly swinging the tessen away.

"Aw, damnit Genrou, didn't ya leave any fer us?" Kouji grinned at him, relief at seeing his friend back to normal belying his teasing words.

"Sorry, Aniki. Yer just gonna hafta be faster next time. All the rest of the scum taken care of?"

"Dead, every one of 'em. And would ya believe it, we actually got help from some of the townspeople!"

Chichiri smiled. "Even the worst dregs of this town had to be objecting to what her men were doing na no da," he commented. "They just needed someone to lead the way no da."

Kouji waved the other bandits back out of the stronghold, and moved forward to sling one arm around each of the seishi's shoulders. "We've got a lot of work cut out fer us, if we wanna help these people get enough food ta survive the winter. But I figure, they'll be so damn grateful to us, we'll have a whole bloody city under Leikaku control!"

Tasuki grinned back at him, seeing the tacit acceptance of his relationship with Chichiri in Kouji's eyes. "So, Chichiri… ya ready ta give up wanderin' yet?"

"Yer welcome ta settle down with us!" Kouji threw in, nodding at Chichiri's startled look. He smirked. "Hell, with a mage on our side, even the palace guard won't be able ta stop us!" Laughing, he propelled both seishi through the door. "But in the meantime… let's just get the fuck out of here, and get some food and somethin' ta drink ta celebrate!"

Tasuki laughed, wrapped his own arm around his best friend's waist, and felt Chichiri do the same. "Bring it on!" he declared, throwing his free fist into the air in a victory punch. He could still feel the residual effects of his torment as a female as they made their way back through the too familiar rooms, and he knew he was going to have a long, hard time learning to deal with everything that had happened to him; but with his best friend and his lover by his side, he knew he could take on the world and win - and he'd never been happier in his life.
 
Review
Previous
FY Yaoi Fics
Fushigi Yuugi Yaoi
Home