Tasuki looked once at the purple-haired seishi beside him, and seeing the look in Nuriko's eyes, he immediately took off after the rest. He had the feeling if he didn't, he was going to be pummeled.

"Come back here you-" Nuriko started to call, then was cut off abruptly. "AHHHHHH!!! NURIKO KOWAII!" he yelled, then there was silence.

Hotohori stopped, looked at Tasuki, then back to where they had left Nuriko. "You go back and help Nuriko. He'll try to jump me again if I do...."

Tasuki grumbled a little about it, but finally went back in search of his friend. "Nuriko? Are you here? Come on, cut it out!"

Then the other five Seishi heard Tasuki start to swear. Soi caught up to Suboshi and yanked him back. There was no point in getting separated. "Come ON!" she said, dragging him back."

Suboshi's eyes widened and he tried to jerk away from Soi. "B-but....Yui-sama!!!!" he blubbered, tears starting to build in his eyes. "I want my Yui-sama!!!"

Hotohori blinked at the Seiryuu seishi, quite astonished at this turn of events. He looked at the small group, and sighed. "Well, let us retrieve Nuriko and Tasuki, and then we will once again be on our way."

"Who knows?" Chiriko asked chipperly. "Yui-sama might even be over there!"

Hotohori decided that it would be counterproductive to point out that it was unlikely that Nuriko would be scared of the Seiryuu no miko. Suboshi was off and running, and they all saw him pull up. "It's just Ashitare," he said in disgust. "Along with the Suzaku who never talks."

Hotohori arched his eyebrow at Nuriko, who was now clinging to Mitsukake's side. "Good to see you, Mitsukake." he murmured, a dry chuckle in his voice. He found it quite funny that Nuriko was clinging like a frightened child to the tall healer.

"Nyaaooo!" Tama-neko made his demand for attention, jumping from Mitsukake's shoulder to Tasuki's and beginning to purr quite loudly in the bandit's ear.

"Gettitoff!" he said, reaching up to yank the cat off. But you see, there was a slight problem with that maneuver. Tasuki was still covered in the sticky taffy and Tama-neko was.... well, Tama-neko was OBVIOUSLY a cat.

"MRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" Tama-neko protested his fur clinging to the yellow-eyes seishi.

Tasuki began to hop around in a frantic little dance, trying to get Tama-neko off of him. "DAMN IT!!!! @%#&$!!!" he roared, unhappy about being stuck to the cat.

Soi couldn't take much more of this, and she started to laugh, softly at first. "That's so...so....funny!" she gasped out, before dissolving into laughter once more. The green-eyed woman hadn't had this much fun in quite some time.

Chiriko looked at Tasuki, unable to think of anything to say aside from, "We're going to HAVE to figure out how to free hair from that candy," he said.

Hotohori scowled at the reminder of his mess.

Mitsukake, though, just ignored all of the chaos, and tossed something to Ashitare, which the wolf-man eagerly caught and ate.

Nuriko began to pout that Hotohori wasn't paying any attention to him. After all, he did deserve to be worried about, after being left alone like that. "Hotohori-sama doesn't LOVE ME!!" he began to wail, sobbing on Mitsukake's shoulder.

Hotohori, on the other hand, began to twitch as the purple-haired cross-dresser cried. When he noticed that everyone was looking at him, he chuckled weakly. "W-what? Why is everyone looking at me? I didn't do anything wrong....Nuriko is obviously in....uh....shock! That's it, he's in shock!"

Soi stopped laughing, then glanced back and forth. A flush rose on her cheeks. She sympathized COMPLETELY with Nuriko, having been in something of a similar situation herself- loving someone who didn't love her. She couldn't do anything for HERSELF, but that didn't mean she couldn't help the effeminate Suzaku seishi.

Hotohori reeled back from the slap Soi dealt him with confusion. Soi stood with her hands on her hips, glaring. "You go help him RIGHT NOW!" she snapped.

"N-nani?" Hotohori said, blinking in shock. He was quite surprised that Soi had slapped him, and didn't know what to do. "How am I supposed to help him?"

Nuriko looked up at this, sniffling a little. A Seiryuu seishi was helping him out? Well, if it would get Hotohori to hold him and comfort him, what did it matter? Soi would have his eternal gratitude if this worked.

"Go over there, NOW!" She said, raising her hand threateningly.

Chiriko blinked.

Mitsukake tossed something at Ashitare.

Tasuki continued to try to pry Tama-neko off.

Hotohori sighed and awkwardly made his way over to Nuriko. He lightly patted the cross-dresser's shoulder. "It's okay, Nuriko. Don't cry, onegai?" He knew he sounded stilted and very awkward, but what could he do about it? Hotohori didn't think that way about Nuriko, and he knew he never would.

Chiriko clapped as Mitsukake continued to throw things to Ashitare and the wolfman would catch it. "That's cool, Mitsukake! How did you teach him to do that?"

"He likes jelly beans," he said, tosses a black one. "Except the white ones."

Nuriko transferred his grip on the healer over to Hotohori, then cautiously peaked up. "You mean all I had to do was throw CANDY at him, and he would have been a good little doggie?!?!"

Mitsukake nodded his head, throwing another jelly bean at Ashitare. "Jellybeans actually..." he murmured.

Hotohori looked skyward and continued to pat Nuriko as he clung to him. //I don't like this, I don't like this...// he thought over and over again. "Ack, Nuriko....I can't breathe...."

"Oh, gomen nasai." Nuriko smiled prettily, loosening his grip just slightly. "Is that better?"

//It'd be better if you let me go// was Hotohori's thought, but he wisely said nothing. Soi was still watching him,. and he wondered about it. There HAD to be a reason why there was only one female among the seishi.

Tasuki, though, managed to pry the cat loose finally, at the expense of some of Tama-neko's fur, and a long claw mark on his right hand. "@#!#@$#%#!" he swore.

Tama-neko hissed at Tasuki, his back arched and his tail pointing skyward, before he finally climbed back onto Mitsukake's shoulder, beginning to lick his fur clean.

Tasuki stuck his injured hand into his mouth and sucked on it a bit, glaring the whole time at Tama-neko.

Suboshi crossed his arms in front of him, a frown on his face. "Come on! We have to go find Yui-sama!! What if she's hurt or injured or been captured or...." he trailed off as Soi clapped her hand over his mouth. "We get the picture, Suboshi."

Mitsukake rose up, making sure to grab a HUGE bag of jellybeans to keep Ashitare happy. The healer ate all the white ones as he started to walk away. Suboshi took the lead, with Soi and Chiriko right behind him.

"Oi! Mitsukake! Don't ya think ya should heal my hand, considering it's your CAT that did this?!" Tasuki yelled angrily.

"Iiee!" Hotohori said. "He should Heal my hair! That was YOUR fault!"

Tasuki smirked at Hotohori. "Well considering it's just CANDY, Nuriko can eat it off of you." Turning back to Mitsukake, he once again began to bug the healer.

Hotohori's face turned crimson and only the fact that Nuriko was still clutching him tightly kept him from throttling the bandit.

Mitsukake tossed another jellybean for Ashitare before looking at Tasuki. "Iiee, what if Miaka is badly injured? If I heal you, I would be unable to heal her injuries...and the miko takes precedence over all seishi."

Tasuki blinked, that was one of the longest things he had ever heard Mitsukake say. "Uhh..."

Nuriko smiled. "But he DID have a good idea," he said, again preparing to have a little snack on Hotohori.... literally.

"I was joking!" Tasuki said, not wanting to watch.

"Nuriko, that is NOT appropriate behavior!" Hotohori protested.

Soi look at them, grabbed a bon bon and smeared it over Chiriko's noise. He looked at her with wounded eyes, but she quickly bent down and licked it off. "I see nothing wrong with it," she said calmly.

Hotohori was about to have a fit. "Nuriko, I have let you clutch me, I've patted your back and said soothing things, but I am NOT letting you lick this candy off of me!!"

Ashitare whined a little, begging Mitsukake for another jellybean. He and the tall healer were ignoring the rest of the seishi for the moment.

"Yui-sama!!!" Suboshi shrieked once again, grabbing hold of Nuriko's braid and beginning to pull him. He was becoming frantic about not being able to find his Yui-sama.

The mixed group heard someone counting. "...234, 235, 236..." and Suboshi took off. Nuriko lost his hold on the emperor and was dragged after him.

"That voice sounds familiar," Soi mused. Then her eyes brightened. "I guess it's the next best person to Yui," she said. "HE at least might be able to reason with the little obsessive."

Hotohori was ecstatic to be free once more. Taking a deep gulp of air, he stretched.

Chiriko blinked up at Soi, a questioning look on his kawaii face. "Who is it, Soi?" he asked, flashing her a cute grin.

She looked down at her closest ally among the group, trying to figure out how to word it. "Well, YOU might have a problem with it..."

They heard Suboshi's jubilant voice. "ANIKI!"

The Suzaku scowled and hurried up to see an odd scene. Suboshi had a death grip on his brother, who was calmly licking a lollipop and counting.

Hotohori blinked, taking in the sight of Nuriko sprawled on the ground and Suboshi hugging his brother tightly. "Um....what's going on?" he asked, looking around.

Tasuki shrugged his shoulders, blinking at the boshi twins. "What the hell is he counting?" The bandit was still trying to pull pieces of taffy and cat fur off of himself.

"...247.... 248.... 249," Amiboshi said, taking a lick after each count.

"Weren't you the one who complained about finding the crazy twin?" Hotohori said, looking at Tasuki with a raised eyebrow.

Nuriko pushed himself to his feet. "The damn kid was so excited that he managed to lift me off my feet while dragging me! When he saw his precious Aniki he let go," he griped, rubbing his side.

Tasuki blinked at Hotohori, then grumbled softly. "Yeah, well, this one seems to have lost his marbles too. He's counting how many licks he's taking of that @%#*& lollipop!"

"Aniki!" Suboshi repeated, burrowing his head into his brothers shoulder for a second like a little boy, then shaking his older brother. "We have to get going! Yui-sama is missing."

Amiboshi frowned. "SHUN! You made me lose count!" He quickly ate the rest of the lollipop, and opened a new one. "One... two... three...."

Hotohori gave the other seishi a wide-eyed look. disbelief on his face. "Ano...I don't think either of the twins is going to be of much help to us in this state..."

Tasuki put his hands onto his hips, frowning at the Boshi twins. "Come on! Our #@*&$%* mikos are lost and we gotta find them! You can keep count of how many licks you take of that damned lollipop later!"

Amiboshi frowned, got to his feet, and started to walk, making no attempt to dislodge his brother.

"Well, at least that will calm Suboshi down," Soi said helpfully.

Amiboshi ignored her while Tasuki seethed, wishing he was POSITIVE that his tessen would cancel out any lightening strikes she would make is he attacked her.

Hotohori once again made sure to keep several of the seishi between himself and Nuriko. The Emperor was quite positive that he did NOT want to be glomped by him again.

Suboshi, without saying anything to anyone, just dragged his twin off in the original direction he had been headed. "I'm sure Yui-sama is this way! Yui-sama, we're coming!!!" he cried out.

Amiboshi just winced as Suboshi yelled right in his ear. He really wished he had had time to finish counting how many licks it took to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

All too soon, they heard the soft sounds of someone singing in a surprisingly pleasant voice. Glancing uneasily at the others, Nuriko took the lead. Maybe he could impress the Emperor with his courage, since his other method seemed to have hit a brick wall.

"Who's there?" he called.

"Yui-sama!" Suboshi said, de-glomping from his brother and launching himself into the darkness where the voice was coming. Silence reigned, then: "AHHHHHHHH!"

Soi blinked into the darkness, then down at Chiriko and shrugged. "Hey, have any more of those Hershey's Kisses?" she asked softly.

Tasuki tapped his tessen against his leg, looking around at the other seishi. "Why don't we send Ashitare after him?" he suggested after a moment.

Mitsukake frowned. "Then I would have to go, since I'm keeping his jelly bean supply. It would be wiser if one of the warrior seishi went."

"Did anyone EVER claim that I was wise?" Tasuki argued.

"Maybe we should find out what happened to Suboshi-san soon," Chiriko suggested, looking at the dark look in Amiboshi's usually serene eyes.

"MEN!" Soi said. "Come on, Chiriko-chan. We'll show them what courage is."

Chiriko laughed and took her hand. "Hai, Soi-chan."

Tasuki watched, his arms folded across his chest. "Why's that kid even hanging out with her?" he muttered, then cussed a little, his foot tapping on the floor.

Hotohori was still trying to pick the taffy out of his hair. He sighed every time he pulled some out. //My poor hair....I wonder if it will ever be fine again....//

Soi looked around, holding Chiriko's hand as they walked deeper into the darkness. "Suboshi? Where are you? Stop playing around!" she called out.

She was just about to send out a short burst of lightning to illuminated matters (and punish Suboshi for ignoring her) when she heard it. "Kakakakaka..."

"Oh, no," Soi groaned. "Those two in close proximity? I wonder which one will end up dead THIS time..."

Chiriko looked up at Soi with a genki little smile. "I take it Tomo and Suboshi don't get along with each other." he chuckled. "Why don't you zap both of them with a little lightning?"

Soi looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe I will do that....after we see what kind of mischief they are up to over there..."

He smiled at her. She was so much FUN! Sometimes he wished that he wasn't one of the good guys- the bad guys got the cooler powers. "K!" he said, popping another piece of chocolate. "This is SOOOO GOOOOOOD."

"When you're older, I'll show you something that's even better," Soi promised with a wink. "TOMO! SUBOSHI! WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING??" she called at the top of her lungs. "NAKAGO-SAMA WILL NOT LIKE IT IF YOU KILL EACH OTHER!"

They suddenly heard an excited squeal, then laughter. "Nakago-sama? Is he here? Where are you hiding him, Soi?" called Tomo.

"Urrrk..." Suboshi gasped, trying to pry Tomo's arm off from around his neck. "Heeeeeeelp....."

There's a connection between twins. There's no doubt about that. The connection between the boshi twins, though, was frighteningly strong. Suboshi's slight whisper somehow or other reached his older brother, who was still back with the other seishi. Frowning, he took off, and Tasuki was the only one able to keep pace with him.

"Hold on, Shun!" I'm coming!

Tasuki ran alongside Amiboshi, looking at him curiously. "What the @%#& is your problem? You were content to wait around before!" he called.

Hotohori blinked, and with a sigh, settled down to wait once more. He began to pick more of the taffy out of his hair, even as he watched Mitsukake feeding more jelly beans to Ashitare.

"Um, I would suggest letting Suboshi go," Chiriko said innocently.

"Why's that?" Tomo asked without any real interest.

"Well, unless my ears are wrong, it sounds like Amiboshi is coming- and we all know how protective those two are of each other," Chiriko continued. "Soi-chan? Maybe we should plug our ears in case Amiboshi decides to make Tomo's brain pop?"

Soi nodded her head in agreement. "Hai, that sounds like a good idea, Chiriko-chan." She glanced once more at Tomo and Suboshi, then shook her head. "You're in over your head, Tomo."

Suboshi was turning a bluish color by this time, and once more made a strangled plea for help as he struggled to get away from Tomo.

Then Amiboshi arrived, and with him, a chill even colder then the northern most parts of Hokkan.

"Shun-chan!" he called, and he grabbed the bag that held his flute and growled angrily. "Let him GO!" he said dangerously.

Tomo began to cackle, his amber eyes dancing insanely as he stared at Amiboshi. "Where's Nakago-sama? Tell me and I'll release your twin. Kakakakaka!!"

Tasuki arrived at that point, huffing a little as he blinked at the cackling maniac in front of them. "You're a nutbar, anyone ever tell you that, Tomo?"

"Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't!" Tomo sang cheerfully.

"I'll give a song," AMIBOSHI said threateningly.

"AMIBOSHI!" all the other seishi said, a few plugging their ears.

Tomo opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, he felt a sudden sharp pain in his hand. "Damn it! You bit me, you little brat!!!" he shrieked, pushing Suboshi away from him hard.

Suboshi stumbled into Amiboshi, but soon straightened up, spitting and wiping at his mouth. "Yeah, well, it's not an experience I soon want to happen again. Bleah, nasty...." he spat, disgust evident on his face.

Tomo was about to start raving nastily, but Nuriko stopped him by tossing him an Almond Joy. "Well, I doubt any of us would argue you're a nut, so why don't you have some and keep quiet? We're going to go looking for the mikos, and if you're lucky, we might run across your Nakago."

"If we're UNLUCKY," Tasuki muttered. "If you don't behave, we'll leave you," Soi threatened.

Tomo started to sulk, but bit into the candy bar. His expression brightened almost immediately.

Hotohori looked back at the painted seishi as he began to hum the Almond Joy theme. "Oh dear...." he sighed.

Nuriko looked at Hotohori, pouting a little because he wanted to be glomped onto the Emperor and he wasn't. "Hotohori-sama...."

Hotohori blinked once and shook his head. "No. No way, no how, uh-uh. You are not latching onto me with a stranglehold again."

Chiriko sighed and bounced over to Soi. "Hotohori-sama and Nuriko-san are going to spend the next ten minutes arguing unless you get them moving."

"I'LL get them moving!" Tasuki volunteered, brandishing his tessen.

"Let me! Let me!" Suboshi volunteered.

Hotohori glared regally at them. Well, as regally as he could with taffy in his hair. With a small sniff of displeasure he briskly made his way back to the front of the group, to distance himself from Nuriko.

Nuriko's pout increased, and he promptly latched onto Mitsukake and started bawling. "He doesn't love me. All he ever does is ignore me....why?!" the purple-haired seishi sobbed.

Mitsukake blinked once, then continued to feed jellybeans to Ashitare, letting Nuriko use him as a leaning post.

Soi sighed. "How do you put up with them?" she asked Chiriko.

"How do you put up with THEM?!" Chiriko retorted, pointing at Ashitare, Tomo, and Suboshi, who was clinging to Amiboshi.

"They're not all bad," Soi said, then sighed. "Suboshi is actually tolerable if he has his aniki and you don't mention the Y-word."

Chiriko shrugged, blinking at his teammates. "Usually they're not this bad. I dunno what's wrong with Nuriko....he should know that Hotohori-sama isn't in love with him...."

Tasuki began to grumble under his breath as Nuriko continued to cry. "Willya just SHUT UP already?!! I'm sick of your wail..." The bandit never got a chance to finish his sentence. Before he knew what was happening, Nuriko had swung his arm out and bashed him into the wall.

Soi sighed. "Let's get moving," she said, taking charge. The others were all so busy bickering that they would NEVER notice that the mikos still hadn't been recovered. "And I thought OUR infighting was bad...."

Suboshi let go of his beloved twin. "Where's Yui-sama?" he said, and then he was off.

Hotohori rolled his eyes skyward as Suboshi went dashing past him. At this rate, they were never going to find the mikos.

Amiboshi sighed and looked around. "Come on! We can't just let him go off by himself, who knows what kind of trouble he'll get into?" He saw that everyone was looking around, mumbling to themselves, and he could tell they didn't really want to go chasing after Suboshi. "Move it!! Or I'll play my flute!"

That did it. If it had been anyone but Amiboshi who said that, Tasuki would have made a sarcastic comment, but Amiboshi's power was, in a way, the most frightening since you couldn't see it coming and there really was no defense against it except earfuls of cotton. Grumbling, the seishi trotted off after the rather obsessive Suboshi.

"Almond Joy?" Tomo said to Amiboshi, hoping to calm him down a little.

Hotohori continued to pick taffy out of his hair, studiously ignoring the still wailing Nuriko. It wasn't his fault the man was so obsessive that he'd fall in love with him.

Tasuki grumbled a little, looking back at Nuriko, who was attached to Mitsukake's arm still. "Che! Doesn't he ever shut up?! I woulda thought he knew that Hotohori-sama wasn't interested." he mumbled, shaking his head and making sure a wide distance was between him and the purple-haired seishi.

Amiboshi ignored Tomo, wandering a bit in front of the other seishi. "Where did he go? I can't see a thing around here..."

They heard groaning from around the corner. "I bet he has something to do with THAT," Tasuki snickered, then painted an innocent expression on his face. "What?" he said, playing dumb as Amiboshi moved a threatening hand towards his flute.

"Well, we should check it out," Chiriko said, and Soi nodded her agreement. The pair turned around the corner, and they were all surprised to hear Chiriko start shrieking while Soi laughed.

Tasuki figured it couldn't be anything threatening if Chiriko and Soi were laughing at it. Tapping his fingers on his hip, he strode after them, stopping in stunned silence before beginning to laugh as well.

Hotohori frowned, moving after the bandit. When he spotted what the others were laughing at, he blinked in astonishment. "Chi-chiri?" he stammered, surprised at the monk's actions.

Somehow or other, the monk had managed to turn a bunch of crates that had been stacked against the wall into a ski slop. He had fashioned skis out of a bunch of different candy and hooked them to his feet uses licorice whips. Mitsukake and Nuriko turned the corner just in time to watch him sail down the uneven slope, landing in a pile beside a small child.