Hold On 4

Hikou stretched and yawned deeply before scanning the room. The bandit's had once again returned from a successful raid and were once again celebrating with massive amounts of sake. He himself had a glass before him, but wasn't in the mood to get wasted. He rose carefully, feeling the need to go outside for some fresh air, and slunk out of the room quietly. Once outside, he stared at the full moon and sighed. Chichiri and Tasuki had left for Mt. Taikyoku four days earlier on the promise of returning shortly, but Hikou had been compelled to stay behind with the bandits when, at a time, the idea would have sickened him. He rubbed his arms against a sudden chill and furrowed his brows. There was something odd in the night air: something only one intune with magic would detect. He thought briefly of returning to the stronghold and getting Kouji to come with him, but he decided against it and followed the invisible trail of magic he felt.

Meanwhile, Kouji looked up from his glass and realized Hikou had left. Standing up, he staggered a bit and stumbled towards the door. He shook his head carefully in an attempt to clear the sake-induced fog that was settling around his brain and made his way to the mage's room. Finding no evidence of his there, he rubbed the back of his head and wandered a bit, wondering where the man could have disappeared to. As he passed by a window, he stopped suddenly and stared out into the darkness, disbelief reflected in the jade green eyes.

"Snow? In da summer? Sumthin's wrong," the bandit said, narrowing his eyes. "What's goin' on here..." Nodding his head after a brief moment, he hurried off to the main room and snatched his scythe from its resting place. He hurried out into the cold darkness as black clouds began to cover the moon.

"Hurry Tasuki, no da!" Chichiri cried back to his companion. He had teleported near the base of Mt. Leikaku to keep Tasuki and himself from being found. Taiitsu-kun had sensed an evil beginning to descend on the holy mountain(1) and the two seishi weren't about to take any chances that their friends might be hurt.

"I'm way ahead a' ya, Chiri," the bandit responded, grabbing the mage's hand and guiding him swiftly up the mountain path. They could only pray that they wouldn't be too late.

Hikou shivered, wishing he had thought to wear something warmer than his sleeveless tunic.

'On the other hand, it was a warm night just a few minutes ago,' he sighed, watching his breath rise in a slivery mist. His eyes caught sight of a flash of magic just in time and he leapt back as a spear made of ice lanced through the air.

"Leave this place, traitor," a familiar voice hissed. He turned, narrowing his gold eyes at the figure that spoke.

"I'm not a traitor," he spoke, unfolding his arms. "I never wished to serve the Darkness to begin with, Arcadia."

The woman remained hidden in the shadows, but Hikou knew she was grinning at him with that same lustful grin she always had had around him.

"Well, Hikou, that's not my problem now is it." she purred. "You are still a traitor and, on top of that, you still refuse me, am I correct?"

"Why would I fall in love with a witch like you? Just because you stole her body doesn't mean I'll have feeling for you."

"Oh Hikou, I'm crushed. Very well, then, I'll destroy the bandits after I kill you." Hikou stood ready as more spear flew at him, returning the favor with a barrage of water. When it cleared, he saw that Arcadia was gone. He spun around just in time to see the two-foot long ice spear as it slammed into his chest. Arcadia cursed that it had missed its mark a bit, but decided to leave the mage to die a slow death. With a burst of chi, she struck Hikou again and left him lying in a deep snow bank.

Hikou gasped for air, clawing his way out of the snow. He brought a hand to touch the projectile and cried out in pain. It hadn’t gone all the way through him, but it was deep enough to make him wish it had. Blood seeped around the thin shaft of ice that was only an inch wide, but shrinking a bit because of his body heat. Fighting the urge to just lie there, he forced himself to his feet and began walking back towards the bandit’s stronghold, barely noticing that the snow seemed deepest where he had found Arcadia.

‘I…have to warn Kouji...’ he thought, but knew he wasn’t going to make it. He was halfway there when a familiar figure approached him, though by this point Hikou was going on sheer will. He didn’t realize it was Kouji until the bandit gripped him by the shoulders firmly, worry and concern burning in his jade eyes. The bandit carefully lifted the mage and began running, praying that there was someway to save Hikou.

“Just hang on, Hikou,” he whispered to the mage. “Please, don’t die on me.”

That was a lame ending, I know (da)… Oh well, I’m working on Chapter 7 of Fushigi Akugi and I have College Algebra in six minutes so I hope you like it. More to come, promise, no da!