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 Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 5:54 pm
Home of the Mount Reikaku bandits, the only noble bandits in the area, the area around is flourishing. The reason for this is because of the bandits themselves. Whatever they steal or request for toll(Ten Mon which is little more than a dollar), part is kept by them to pay for expenses, while the rest is given to the poor. Not all of the bandits like this arrangement, but it is tradition.
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Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 6:17 pm
Heading through the mountains was generally considered a bit hard, due to the fact of the Mount Reikaku bandits. They were known for stealing some of whatever came through the area, presumably for themselves. While they weren't as bad as some of the other bandits, as they were not ones to go on a rampaging killing spree, they still did take what wasn't theirs. However, today, things were much easier. Atleast, they were for Miki. Being the leader of the bandits had it's advantages. Behind him on several other horses was a group of miscellaneous people, most of them between 6 and 16.
They were orphans, the lot of them, and Miki was going to give them a new home. Before, they were gutter snipes, pickpockets, and beggers. At Mount Reikaku, they would be fed, trained, and allowed to become proper bandits if they chose. The older ones would start training immediately, where as the younger ones would help around the base, cleaning and doing the menial jobs until they were old enough to learn the trade. Many would consider it child slavery, but they were being paid a small wage for any work they did, and given free room and board. Besides, it was something that Miki wanted to do.
Veering off of the beaten path, he led the group up to the base camp. It was a harder road, as they didn't want people to find their way to the camp. As they neared the gates, some of the sentries drew their bows on them, though they stopped once they saw who it was. The doors were opened, and the group headed inside. A few of the womenfolk were there to meet Miki, and take the children to their new quarters. It would be small, with several of them in a room, but it was better than nothing. Sliding off of his horse, Miki nodded, handing off his horse to one of the other ladies, who went to take it to the stables.
Of course, shortly after he arrived, Mika's messengers arrived. Tai and Kei passed along their message, to which the man could only sigh. He had hoped they would have more time before this day came. Miki did want to take his proper place as a Celestial Warrior, however, he did have other things that needed to be taken care of before he could do it. Which meant that if things were as he feared, he had precious little time. Dai, hot on the heels of his brothers, arrived moments afterwards, telling Miki that his sister was going to bring visitors. As if it could get any worse.
Pausing for a moment in the kitchen, to pick up some hot tea, the Leader found his way to the old shrine. It had been created shortly after the first warriors had summoned Suzaku, as a tribute to them and the Phoenix god. That, by itself, was amazing, but the true secret lay behind a door past the alter. Only he and Mika had been able to enter it, which as children, they didn't quite understand why. It was only when their mark appeared did they finally figure out the reason. Unless one was a celestial warrior, the way was barred, to prevent it's secrets from falling into the wrong hands. Inside lay a small shrine, looking more like a small memorial to the fallen warriors. Inside were 6 small pedestals, each with a mark on them, and each with a item on top. Tamahome, with an old sword sitting upon it, Tasuki, a diamond fan, Chichiri, an old cloak and string of beads, Nuriko, a pair of beautiful bracelets, Chiriko, a scroll, and Mitsukake, a container of salve. All were out in the open, but any attempts to touch them could cause injury. He had tried long ago, and the scars were still apparent on his hands.
Despite the inability to get the items, this place was rather quiet, which allowed Miki some time to concentrate. Closing his eyes, he sought to open his mind. After a moment, a very familiar mind connected to his. What seemed like a few minutes passed in only a few moments, allowing the young man to determine what had really happened. Tamahome and another warrior, hmmm? This could prove to be very interesting.
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:47 pm
It was the weirdest sensation she'd ever felt, like being pulled very quickly through water while at the same time flying at impossible speeds. A bright light opened up before her, and she flew straight into it . . .
Into mid-air.
With a squeal of surprise, shock, and some fear, Hibari flailed as if by doing so she wouldn't fall. But gravity had its way, and she dropped like a stone, landing hard on her butt.
"Ite! Itetetete . . ." she whined softly.
Sitting up, she looked around, still rubbing her sore backside. This . . . this isn't the library!! For one thing, she was outside. Rock and forest was all she could see, as well as a sky so blue it hurt to look at it for long. The afternoon sun glared down on what was clearly a mountain trail, which was what she was sitting in the middle of. Confusion coloured her features, and she blinked a bit before rubbing her eyes as if by doing so she could change what she was seeing.
"Eh? I'm not dreaming, am I? Did I hit my head on a bookshelf?" she wondered aloud.
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:59 pm
The Bandit King had been sitting at in the shrine, simply meditating for the time being, when his arm felt exceedingly warm. This pulled him out of his meditation. He glanced at his mark, seeing the half character glowing brightly. He hadn't been using any of his powers, so there was no reason for it to ignite. Unless... She's here. He hadn't been expecting the Priestess to show up quite so soon, but it appeared that was the case. Which meant she would have to look for him, or he would have to go out and look for her. Given the strange feeling in his stomach, Miki decided it would be better to go looking.
He headed out of the shrine, telling the others he would be back momentarily. Somehow, he didn't think she was going to be too far. It took a few moments, glancing about and following his gut instincts when he happened to spy a young woman sitting in the road. She looked quite lost, and the clothes she wore were strange. The strange feeling continued, getting stronger as he came closer. "Are you alright, miss?" Was this the Priestess? He didn't know, but he had a very good idea she might be. For now, however, she was someone who was lost.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:02 pm
A man's voice snapped Hibari from her slight stupor. Turning, she saw a man dressed in unusual clothing looking at her. A couple of confused blinks, then she pointed at him - or more rather, his facial hair.
"Mr. Tumnus!" she exclaimed, but then immediately clapped her hands over her mouth. "Uhm . . . uhm . . . I mean . . . Yeah, I'm fine! Who're you? I've never created a Mr. Tumnus without his horns and goat legs before . . . Heck, I've never even created a Mr. Tumnus!"
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:17 am
It was very clear that Miki was completely confused by the young woman's comments. He had never heard of this Mr. Tumnus, nor understood why she happened to think that was his name. Particularly since apparently this Mr. Tumnus had horns and goat legs. There was a puzzled look on his face. She must have hit her head on something. The fact that she seemed to think he resembled this odd Mr. Tumnus was exceedingly peculiar. He pushed it aside. Given the clothes and her odd mannerisms, she was obviously delusional and likely alone. While part of him would leave her here in the road, the burning mark on his arm refused to allow such a callous thing.
"Perhaps you should see a healer. You might have hit your head. If you come with me, I can take you back up to camp, and one of the women can see you." He offered his non marked hand to her, to help her stand. "My name is Miki. And you are?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 1:02 pm
The man's confused face was so comical Hibari would have laughed aloud if the situation wasn't so odd. But when he suggested that she see a healer, she knew what he was implying. Brows knitting together and cheeks puffing out in childish anger, the petite pink-haired girl pouted up at the man.
"Hari-chan's not crazy!" she retorted. "None of Hari-chan's imaginary friends say that, especially when I'm dreaming! And besides, I've never created a Miki. I don't imagine up guys with facial hair."
Of course, Hibari was still convinced that she was dreaming. However much she wished it, in real life, people don't suddenly teleport to the middle of nowhere. And, being the ADHD kid she was, her mind was already pondering over her situation.
"Come to think of it . . . this is a really weird dream. I bet there was some weird chemicals in the dust . . . yeah, to keep all those books nice. Why else would that old book be in such good condition? And then it did something in Chemistry and now I'm having a crazy dream because I fell over and knocked my head on a bookshelf! Yeah!" Feeling better, she jumped up to her feet - flailing to steady herself - and smiled at Miki, "Miki, right? But it sounds like Mickey . . . and you're not a cartoon mouse. Hari-chan'll call you Mustachio instead!" Seizing his offered hand, she pumped in energetically up and down, deciding it was best to play along with the (very) lucid 'dream' she was having. "Hi Mustachio! I'm Hibari, Arikawa Hibari. You can call me Hari!"
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:49 am
Try as he might, this girl just confused Miki. Particularly when she started mentioning imaginary friends and dreaming. He didn't know what the girl was thinking, but this wasn't a dream. He sighed, shaking his head. "I meant that you might have hurt yourself. You obviously aren't from around here," he said, gesturing to the area around, "and most people don't end up here without some sort of injury. It's always better to get checked out."
Given how she was talking, to say she wasn't from around there was an understatement. He didn't understand a word of what she was saying. He could understand a good portion of the words by themselves, but all together, it just sounded like gibberish. He tried not to let it show, though he did cringe a little when she decided to come up with a new name for him. "Nice to meet you, Hari. Though, if you are going to give me a nickname, I would rather Tasu if it's all the same." He got a distant look on his face for a moment, his eyes drifting out of focus as the mark blazed to life on his arm. It took only a few seconds, before he shook his head. "You must be hungry. Come on, I'll take you up to camp." He gave her a small smile, as he motioned for him to follow her. "So, Hari, where are you from?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:18 pm
Miki confused Hibari almost as much as she confused him. She understood that somehow, she wasn't in the library anymore, but she was still convinced - or perhaps still determined to believe - that she was still in the library having a hallucinogenic dream. She tried to ignore the small voice that kept pointing out that everything she was seeing lacked a dream-like quality, and that she was rather lucid to be dreaming.
That, and her butt still hurt.
But other than that she was fine. The pink-haired girl had been about to tell him so when, at the mention of food, her stomach growled its demand for sustenance. Hibari was notorious for being a snack addict; she loved the stuff, especially the sweets. But it was about lunchtime anyway, and with the sudden change, she felt hungrier than usual. The petite girl thought of helping herself to some of the snacks that she constantly kept stocked in her messenger bag, but not wanting to seem rude, she resisted the alluring call of the sugary confections. Besides, she was curious as to what Miki had in store.
"Hari-chan'd love food~!" she giggled, and fell in step with Miki. "You know, Mustachio, you're funny. You don't look much older than Souta-nii or Ken-nii. But you act like you're an old man. Like thirty or something," she told him bluntly.
If she'd heard his request to change nicknames, she'd either decided to ignore him or was determined to keep the one she'd made up. Hibari added slight spring to her step in time to some mute music only she could hear.
"Hmm? Me?" The teenage girl looked blatantly surprised at the question. "Japan, where else? Can't you tell?" With a giggle, as if she'd said something only she found funny, she skipped ahead a few steps, warbling, "Lunchtime, lunchtime~"
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:22 pm
Again, with the odd comments. If this was the priestess, which he was guessing due to her odd behavior that she was, he was going to have to learn to deal with it. That didn't mean that it didn't make him wonder. He was glad he was atleast able to get her moving up towards the camp. Most people would say it was because it wasn't safe, but being the leader of the bandits tended to make that a moot point. Really, it was because then he was able to talk to her about more important matters in private rather than out in the open. Miki chuckled softly. "I suppose I do. One of the perks of the job." He had to act very wise, since everyone in the camp came to him for guidance.
At the comment about her being from Japan, he blinked. He had never heard of the place. "Japan? Where is that?" He honestly sounded confused. "Is it a new city in Hokkan?" He looked over his shoulder at her while they walked, trying to figure out just what she was talking about.
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TionneDawnstar Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:40 pm
Tamahome followed Mika up the trail, which wasn't as big as the road, so he looked back to make sure that the horse was fine. Once that was confirmed, he hurried up to be right behind Mika. "The priestess really is here?" He wasn't sure if he should be happy, or worried, but he decided to make that determination once he met her.
He also wanted to make sure that Mika was alright, she'd seemed to get a bit light headed, leaning against him... not that he minded, the Bandit Princess was beautiful, and kind... he hadn't felt any sort of softness toward anyone in a long time.
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:46 pm
"A job? Mustachio's got a job~?" she turned a one-eighty on her heel, the ground scrunching beneath her black Converses. Her face was cutely amusing, some mixture between surprise and awe. "Then Mustachio's like Hari-chan's nii-kun~" The tiny girl twirled around again, still doing a semi-skip walk. "Neh, Mustachio, what are you?"
She never got an answer, because those words had barely left her lips when she heard Miki's question. The pink-haired teen stopped abruptly and whirled on the older man, their obvious difference in height not hindering the girl's ability to be vehement.
"You don't know Japan!?" her incredulous cry sent birds in the nearby woods to scatter in fright. Hibari raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing Miki despite the fact that he was wearing his confusion on his sleeve. "What have you been doing, living under a rock? Japan, you know, place with all the anime and the boy bands and the super hot technology that has everyone scrambling to get?" She sighed, as if she were trying to teach a thick-headed child, even though in this situation, she was more the child than he. "Hokkan? Don't you mean Hokkaido? Hokkaido's in Japan, not the other way 'round. And Hari-chan thought she was bad in Geography . . ."
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:19 pm
Miki had been about to respond to Hibari's comment on his job, when the girl screeched. If he hadn't been standing close to her, it might not have bothered him, but as it was, it caused his ears to ache and ring for a moment. "I have no idea what you are talking about. There is no place like that here. And I mean Hokkan, in the north. It's the land of Genbu." He felt rather sorry for the girl at the moment. She really was from another world, and he wasn't sure how she was going to take it. Honestly, he wouldn't know how to take it either if he had just been dropped into some random place without a word.
"Where ever you are from, this isn't it. You're in Konan, at Mount Reikaku. I don't know what happened for you to end up here, but you're safe. Nothing will happen to you, and I'll do my best to help you get home." He put his hand on her shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. Even if she wasn't to be his Priestess, he still felt a need to protect her. She reminded him of some of the children he brought to the camp. They were scared, alone and completely lost in their lives. They needed someone to guide them, and he was usually the one that did it. "Come on. The camp's just up ahead."
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:31 pm
The young woman continued quickly up the trail, making sure to glance back to see how the others were doing. She smiled at Tamahome, nodding. "She's here, and from what Miki says, she's an odd one. She..." she was about to continue, when her ears started to ache and ring, at the same time as a low cry came out. She winced a little, rubbing her ears. "Owww... That would be her. She and Miki aren't too far away. We should be able to catch up to them before they make it to camp." Apparently, their priestess was a feisty one. This was going to be interesting, that was certain.
She glanced back at Tamahome, nodding. "We should hurry." Despite not expecting to meet up with the other warriors so quickly, she found she was actually enjoying this quite a bit. It had been a long time since Mika had felt any sort of rush from her job. Most of the time, banditry was pretty routine. Afterall, it got to a point where some of the merchants just stopped and waited for them so they could pay the toll to be done with it. While it wasn't a bad thing, it seemed so repetative. With this, not knowing what was going to happen was exciting. And having such interesting companions to do it with made things more fun. Tamahome, in particular, seemed quite interesting.
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:53 pm
Hokkan? Konan? Mount Reikaku? Hibari felt as if the world she'd so carefully built up had suddenly crumbled around her. She was finally forced to face the truth. She wasn't dreaming. She wasn't in the library. She wasn't with her friends.
She wasn't in her world.
A large part of her wanted to freak out. Freak out and run. But where would she run to? This wasn't the dream she'd hoped it would be. She'd get lost, and then she'd definitely be in trouble. So then what? Curl into a fetal position and cry? No. That wasn't her. Arikawa Hibari would never grovel and weep just because something wasn't normal.
Deep inside, or perhaps not so deep, a part of her was completely and utterly thrilled beyond words. The petite girl was a complete fangirl. Whatever manga she cracked open, whatever anime she watched, whatever RPG she started, she would always, always have a bishounen that she adored. It was never surprising for her to have two or three. And it was never surprising for her to imagine what-ifs. What if she'd been transported into a game? What if she'd been taken back in time? What if she was part of that time, that universe? And her imagination would take her everywhere, usually involving being her favourite bishie's perfect girl and having him sweep her off her feet and whisk her away and they would live happily ever after.
And this was exactly what it was right now, right? She'd been spirited away from her ordinary, somewhat mundane life, and landed in a place that looked like it popped out of some historical fiction manga. She wasn't sure of her part to play, but the possibilities positively wired her.
As she pondered, letting her creativity generate endlessly, a small thought pricked Hibari's mind. Something Miki had said, just a word. 'Genbu'. It took her about a minute, and then it hit her as suddenly as if she'd walked into a brick wall. The girl halted, eyes widening. No way . . . is this . . . am I . . .
"Miki . . ." She'd lost her hyper cutesy moe moe that was her norm. It was obvious, from the way her voice had suddenly changed, suddenly tentative, and that she'd suddenly dropped his nickname. "Miki . . . who's Genbu? What's . . . what's the 'Universe of the Four Gods' . . . ?"
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