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Concept by: Nishizaki Megumi, Watase Yuu
Written by: Nishizaki Megumi
Illustrated by: Watase Yuu
Summarized by: Tetris no Miko


Back at the Kutoh jail, Karin is in denial about Raimon's death. Chichiri feels sorry for her, but hears Tasuki's cries for help and knows he has little time to get the talisman from Karin to go rescue him, so he uses the direct approach and just asks Karin for the mirror. He tells her Raimon has probably been reborn and is under the influence of the devil and is trying to acquire the talismans for evil…

Bad move.

This of course makes Karin suspicious that Chichiri is actually the badguy and why should she trust him, etc. Chichiri tries to gain her trust by telling her he is Chichiri and has special powers…but his symbol on his knee won't appear. (both his and Tasuki's powers had been weakening ever since they came back from Miaka's world), so this makes Karin believe him even less. She points the mirror at him, flashes out white light, and runs away. She thinks to herself that it's impossible that Raimon is dead and the "bad guy". She looks into her mirror and a sweet image of Raimon tells her he'll be there to see her again soon. Karin smiles and has a nice long flashback about her life with Raimon…

And then we have a dammmmmmmn long chapter (over 50 pages!!) about their past. (told mainly through Raimon's eyes, actually, because he's also flashbacking as he's about to burn Tasuki) … anyway!

Raimon was an abandoned baby, found in Hokkan. An old lady who belonged to a traveling circus decided to adopt him, so Raimon technically never had a "home village". The old lady was very nice to him, and the head of the traveling circus was also rather civil. Then one day, the circus leader (I wish I remembered his name… I'll just call him Kirk), anyway, "Kirk" noticed that three-year-old Raimon was pretty skilled with knives, so he decided to push some knife training on him. Raimon didn't really mind that much, but he was a meek boy anyway and would do what he was told.

Soon after, the kindly old lady died, leaving a very young Raimon (I think he was only 5 or something…) in the care of Kirk… who was starting to go rotten. Kirk demanded that Raimon earn his keep by cleaning and basically doing slave-work. Raimon was frequently beaten by Kirk as well, since Kirk was an alcoholic, perpetually in debt from gambling.

Raimon had little will to live until around age 9, 2 new members joined the circus. A pair of sisters (yup, Karin and Anzu, ages 7 and 5) were sold into the circus by their parents (who were in debt) and were both very sad and bitter about it (especially the boyish and outspoken Anzu). Karin, more like Raimon, decided to cooperate to earn money as quickly as possible to pay off their parents' debt. Raimon was inspired by Karin's optimism and decided to put more work into his knife-throwing act.

Then, SEVERAL years later (Raimon is 19, Karin is a week younger than 17, and Anzu is 15), all three of them had advanced very well in their arts. Karin and Anzu had just mastered a trick where Karin throws Anzu in the air and Anzu flips 5 times in the air before landing on Karin's shoulder (…yeah right ^^;), and Raimon has a death-defying trick he perfected with the monkey he found a couple years back. In this trick, he had the monkey hold a "karin" (my kanji dictionary says a "karin" is a "Chinese quince", but the "karin" mentioned in the trick is written in katakana, so I'm not really sure what it means… it's probably the same as the girl "Karin", but it was just written in katakana so the readers wouldn't think he was doing the trick with the girl Karin ^-^;)… so where was I? oh yeah, the monkey was holding a "karin" to his chest at one end of the stage, and Raimon at the other, with his back facing the monkey. He then threw a knife over his shoulder and hit the "karin", spilling its delicious fragrance about the theater. Karin (the person) was scared at first, but Raimon stared directly into her eyes before he threw the knife and told her everything would be okay. Raimon did this trick as a subliminal message to Karin that he loves her, and it's pretty apparent Karin understood, because she told him afterwards that his trick had "touched her".

But it's not all happiness and flowers for long. Suddenly, just before the money from the audience was collected, there was a big disturbance in the sky. A huge dragon flew around, then disappeared. Yup, it was Seiryuu. The traveling circus happened to be in Sairoh the day Yui summoned Seiryuu. This angered Kirk, because the audience all ran away before they could collect any money. He blamed Karin and Anzu for taking too long with their performance and performing unnecessary risky moves. He told them they should just try and be sexy and cute and that's good enough.

Since Seiryuu was summoned, Kirk assumed Kutoh would now be a peaceful country, so he decided the circus would travel there next. Raimon, having just blown another perfect opportunity to finally tell Karin he loves her, decided to tell her on her birthday. Before the company left Sairoh, he decided to go on a walk among the ruins of the temple where Seiryuu had appeared. And whaddaya know, but he found both talismans! He sensed they had power and decided to give one of them to Karin for her birthday.

Then, the company arrived in Kutoh, but found the country seemed even more warlike. Still, they decided to perform. As Raimon watched from the wings of the stage, he noticed a fat, bearded rich-looking guy staring greedily at Karin. He didn't like this, naturally… So when it came time for him to do his over-the-shoulder knife-throwing trick, he decided to use the fat, bearded rich-looking guy instead of his monkey. He had the guy hold a steamed bun and did the trick, coercing him to do it with a, "what? Are ya SCARED?"

Satisfied with his victory, Raimon then asked Karin to meet with him in the square later that night to talk to her about "something important". Guessing he was finally going to confess his love to her, Karin and Anzu were very excited about it.

Along with telling Karin he loved her, Raimon had another plan. He was going to make the three of them free. He would demand freedom from Kirk, and if that was denied, he would just take the two girls and escape in the middle of the night. Anzu and Karin had actually paid off their parents' debt long ago, and Raimon felt he owned nothing more to his "father", who'd neglected him so much all those years.

Raimon had intended to give Karin the mirror for her present, but as he walked along, he saw a flower shop, selling karin-blossoms (a "karin" might be a fruit, actually… since I think I remember the book saying Sairoh's "karin" had all turned into fruit already, or something like that…) Raimon decided to barter his mirror for a branch of karin-blossoms, but just as he decided this, a thief holding a branch of karin-flowers ran out of the store. Raimon had his monkey capture the thief and bring back the branch… but consequently, the shopkeeper then concluded it had been Raimon that stole the flowers. Raimon tried to explain himself, but he was obviously an outsider and wearing strange clothes, so the shopkeeper and villagers nearby all decided to have him arrested.

After waiting for a while for Raimon, Karin was suddenly approached by a breathless Anzu, telling her that Raimon had been arrested. As if that weren't enough, Kirk suddenly tells Karin she has to marry that fat bearded rich-looking guy (who turned out to be a landlord of the area who offered to get Kirk out of a huge gambling debt he'd just made the night before in Kutoh, in exchange for Karin). Karin refused, but Kirk told her that the landlord (I'll call him "Larry") had a lot of influence with the government and might just go ahead and have Raimon executed since he refused to admit to stealing the flowers. Kirk bargained with Karin, telling her if she married Larry, Anzu and Raimon would be freed, but if not, Raimon would probably die. So Karin agreed to marry Larry. (but secretly in her heart, she decided that once Raimon was freed, he would rescue her from Larry anyway and until then, she would keep her chastity).

So Kirk and Larry took Karin to the jail to see Raimon, to tell him of their idea. Raimon was outraged to hear Karin agreed to marry Larry… but then concluded she must have been bribed. But he still refused to say he stole the flowers. Karin went close to him and tried to communicate her true intentions telepathically (they seem to have a bond), and Raimon slipped her the two talismans, telling her they would surely protect her.

So Karin was carted off to marry Larry, Anzu was carted off still with the circus (yeah, Kirk had lied about setting her free…big surprise…) but Karin had given her the necklace before she left. And Raimon, the next day, was lead into the square where a wooden cross over a pile of dry branches awaited him. His monkey stayed with him while he was burned to death, and both of them thought bitterly about how evil and cruel humanity was.

After a while, Raimon was revived and heard a voice telling him he would be given the power to take over the world.

Wow, long flashback…okay, back to the actual story…

Okay, so back at Mt. Reikaku, Tasuki is still about to be burned to death. But first, before the leader of the rival bandits can say "Rekka Shin'en" and burn him, he needs to say the magical incantation (new info that seemed to originate in this novel… Apparently, simply picking up the tessen and yelling "rekka shin'en" isn't enough for a first-timer to activate it. There's a secret incantation that needs to be said before it… and ohhhhhh my god, it's sooooooooo cheesy!!!) the incantation is none other than "mahariku maharita yambara yayaya-ma." (aside from the "ma" at the end, that's the incantation Sally-chan uses in the 60's shoujo anime, Mahou-tsukai Sally ^-^;;;)

So anyway, as he's saying the incantation, Tasuki distracts him by making fun of him (because if you stop in the incantation, you have to start all over again). He looks over to Anzu and Koji, tied up on the ground. It looks like Anzu has given up hope, and for some shocking reason, Koji's eyes seem to tell Tasuki, "don't look at me!"

So after some talking/mocking/blah/whatever, the leader says "rekka…shin…", but before he can say the finishing "en" and burn Tasuki to death, something comes flying at the tessen and grabs it away from him. That "something" is Anzu. She had freed herself from the rope (being an acrobat and all, she's very flexible) and had also untied Koji (which was why Koji didn't want Tasuki to look at him.) All of Tasuki's mates are also freed and now they're ready to fight again… but Raimon and his monkey are nowhere in sight.

A mini-battle ensues and only a few of the evil-bandit's minions are killed. Tasuki decides to spare the lives of Eiken and the perverse leader-dude…I can't remember why, though, but whatever.

Then, Tasuki and Anzu realize they must go to Kutoh to find Karin/Chichiri/Raimon…even though it'll take them for-like-ever to get there, but what else can they do? So they both start running.

On the way, they pass Reirei's grave, and Anzu sends telepathic messages to her, telling her she'll watch over Tasuki, etc. Then, there's a little flashback thingie of how when Anzu first came to Mt. Reikaku, she and Koji had alternated going to Reirei's grave every day. On the days Anzu had gone, she at first talked harshly to Reirei, criticizing her for throwing her life away for Tasuki and certainly he's not THAT wonderful, etc. but as the days progressed and she heard more and more stories about Tasuki from Koji, she realized she herself was starting to fall for him…but thought this was absurd, and often confided in Reirei, sort of like a best-friend. As she passes the grave now with Tasuki and tells Reirei's spirit she'll look after Tasuki for her, for the first time, she hears Reirei's spirit speak back, "all right! Take good care of 'im for me, please!" and Anzu is very happy to hear this.

As they're running, suddenly Chichiri pops into the scene. He'd finally come to after Karin had blasted him away with her mirror, and seeing her nowhere near, decided to go to Tasuki (even though he was probably dead by then, or so he thought). Tasuki also thought Chichiri might have died, since he had been unable to rescue him, and both have a teary reunion. Anzu is very impressed with Chichiri's powers and teases Tasuki about it. Tasuki argues back with her for a while, but Chichiri (being the only adult there; hahaha…wow, I'm almost as old as Chichiri now O_o) makes them focus and teleports them to Kutoh to find Raimon and Karin (he's pretty sure Raimon has found Karin by now and that they're both in Kutoh waiting for Chichiri to get Seiryuu's talisman from the mausoleum, since Chichiri is probably the only person capable of doing so and Raimon knows this.)

Meanwhile!!! (you knew there was bound to be another "meanwhile"…) Larry and his servants are looking for Karin. Though he thought originally that she had died, people reported having seen her in Kutoh wandering around asking where Raimon was. One even reported having seen her suddenly disappear into thin air while in the company of some dude.

Then, Kirk comes in, begging Larry for more money. Larry tries to shoo him off, but Kirk blackmails him with Raimon's execution, so Larry grudgingly agrees and gives Larry some money… well, not really, he brings out a bag that is supposedly filled with money, but instead, he draws out a dagger, intending to just kill Kirk (cool idea), but someone stops him…none other than Karin!

At first Larry is flattered, thinking she came back to be with him, but both Kirk and Larry recognize quickly that she's not herself. With disheveled hair and robes, and gleaming eyes, she looks like a mad-woman. She informs them she just came to "be sure of a few things". She had overheard Kirk blackmailing Larry and learned about the conspiracy with Raimon's death. Actually, it turns out that Kirk had asked Larry to frame Raimon to get him arrested so he'd be out of the way, so both are responsible for his death. Knowing this, Karin decides to kill them. Yay. She uses the Byakko talisman to paralyze them and is about to kill them when Raimon shows up.

She suddenly gets soft and teary and runs into his arms…then falls straight through him. He apologizes and says he can't hold her anymore. Karin smiles painfully and loses consciousness. Raimon takes the talisman from her and decides to finish what she'd wanted and burns the two men to death. Yay.

So Chichiri, Tasuki, and Anzu all get to Seiryuu's mausoleum and wait for Raimon to show up. Soon enough, he does, along with Karin (and his monkey). After some cool talking and whatnot, Raimon makes it clear that unless Chichiri retrieves Seiryuu's talisman for him, he will slit Karin's throat (she's still unconscious…) but then she comes to and tells Chichiri not to do it because she wants to die with Raimon. Raimon is a bit ruffled at this, but Chichiri still goes in to the mausoleum (despite protests from Anzu and Tasuki).

When Chichiri gets in, Nakago's spirit is waiting for him. Chichiri is shocked that Nakago had even let him through the barrier in the first place and wonders why he even bothers to devote his afterlife to protecting the talisman of a god he hated…

Nakago had no answers, but simply held out the talisman for Chichiri to take. The talisman is one of the tear-shaped earrings Yui wore during her ceremony. Chichiri asks Nakago why he's handing over what the devil he worshipped desired, and Nakago answers, "you will learn in time."

Then, there's a flashback of Yui and Nakago after her ceremony. Nakago tells Yui she must choose something from her outfit to become the talisman. She chooses one of her tear-shaped earrings because she and all of her warriors are all fighting for such a sad purpose and are crying underneath.

Back in the present, Chichiri hands Raimon the talisman with no struggle. No longer in need of a hostage, Raimon tries to kick Karin away, but she refuses to budge. Tasuki demands to know what Raimon plans to do next and he answers that he'll first assassinate the two remaining Suzaku warriors. A battle ensues; Raimon's knives turn into balls of fire and set the surrounding trees and mausoleum on fire, but Chichiri remains calm. Everyone thinks that he had to fight Nakago to get the talisman, but he had obtained it peacefully and had given it to Raimon peacefully, this is because he "wanted only for Raimon to remember just how much he loved Karin and Anzu".

This ruffles Raimon for a moment, and Karin jumps in and sobbingly apologizes for all the wrong that happened to him and blames herself for it and says she wishes she could have died with him, etc. After some more admonishing from Anzu and Tasuki, Chichiri then asks Raimon if making some devil strong was really what he'd wanted, and if he really did have no concern over what happened to Karin and Anzu.

After a long pause, Raimon answers emptily, "I'm dead. I can't be with them anymore anyway."

Then, Chichiri and the others argue that he's wrong and that spirits continue to live on. Anzu mentions Reirei, and that those who loved the dead person will never forget him and his spirit will live on forever, etc. Then, Karin is finally able to tell Raimon how much she loves him.

Then, images start to appear from Seiryuu's talisman. First, it's Soi, crying over how much she loved Nakago and how much she gave for him and how he never returned her feelings, but she still loved him and died for him.

Then, it's Suboshi, crying over how he was orphaned and separated from his beloved twin, and eventually died trying to protect Yui, who he fell in love with.

Then, Tomo, crying over being alone and misunderstood and dying in the pursuit of helping Nakago. Ashitare and Miboshi are also crying over their failures and empty existences…

Last is Nakago, crying over how he accidentally killed his mother, then killed his father, was molested, etc. and also died a meaningless death. That is what the true "talisman" of Seiryuu is; tears over having died meaninglessly for no purpose; just like Raimon had.

That is what Nakago had wanted to show Raimon and free him from Tenkoh's control. Raimon breaks down, back into the gentle man he once was… but it's too late. Both he and his monkey are turned back into their true forms (rotting corpses ^^;) and violently attack/burn everything some more.

Things are looking bleak, but Chichiri tells Tasuki to send his "ki" over to the three talisman (since they are originally meant to work for warriors of the gods; not random dead dudes with monkeys ^_-) and Tasuki and Chichiri do this… Karin tries to throw herself at Raimon to stop him from doing any more damage and hurting himself more, and this and a combination of other things seems to freeze him up and Tasuki can burn him to death (again. Hahaha…)

As he burns, he's returned back to his former self (so has the monkey) and he finally says to Karin, "thank you… I love you…" before he and the monkey turn to ash.

The surrounding trees and mausoleum are also ash now. Not knowing where to put Seiryuu's talisman, Chichiri is perplexed, but Nakago's spirit tells Chichiri he will be entrusted with it. He then says it is time for him to go home…back to the time when he was still pure and beautiful. His spirit then walks off to Seiran Lake to be with his mother, father, and Taria. Soi's spirit walks by his side… (nice little bit of closure for Nak-fans ^_-)

So now that everything's solved, what'll they all do next?… form their own circus, of course! With fake names, Tasuki and Chichiri join Karin and Anzu for a while (it's not clear how long, really; could be anywhere from a couple days to a few months…) and do traveling shows.

When in Konan, doing their first show, Karin and Anzu feel very nostalgic…that's because that was the place where they had done their first show ever. Some audience members had awarded the girls with seeds for "karin" and "anzu" trees (forgot to mention this earlier, but "anzu" means "apricot"… so it's pretty clear that "karin" IS some sort of fruit…Oh, incidentally, "Raimon" means sort of "crying thunder", because he had been found crying very loudly on a stormy night… okay, back to the story) By now, the trees are full-grown and covered in fruit. Karin and Anzu open a bag and spill the contents over the trees. The "contents" are the ashes of Raimon and his monkey. Nice little funeral.

Tasuki and Chichiri stay with the girls for a while, performing, but then, one day, Chichiri does his disappearing act with Tasuki…and they never come back. Karin tells Anzu that she can go be with Tasuki if she wants to, but Anzu decides to stay with her sister, travel, mature, and become such a great woman that Tasuki won't be able to refuse her; THEN she'll come back to him.

Chichiri decides to return the three talismans to Houki, and Tasuki decides to return to Mt. Reikaku. They both wonder where Suzaku's talisman is, and Chichiri hypothesizes that maybe Suzaku's talisman had been with them during the final fight with Raimon. Houki had suggested that Suzaku's talisman might have been an intangible thing, and Chichiri concluded that maybe it was love. Oooooh…

So they both go their separate ways…but before they do!! A stone materializes in each of their hands. (those of you who are familiar with part 2 of the manga should know what these are…) Neither Tasuki nor Chichiri know what the stones were, but guessing they're probably important, they tuck them away in their sacks.

Meanwhile, Tenkoh is brooding to himself over Raimon's failure, etc… but he knows his plan to take over the world is still going strong. He has already assembled Renhoh, Miisuu, Kanki, Hikoh, and Yosui and is going to do…evil stuffTM

Theeeeee end!

So yeah, the authors don't imply another novel, but they don't imply that there will NOT be another novel, either… Dude, there's still more material; I'm sure there'll be another one… but don't hold ME to those words ^_-