Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ The Girl and the Curse ❯ Home Again ( Chapter 2 )

Author's Note: I am very sorry it took me so long to update but I was having problems with Izumi's memories (their so complicated, and that's not even all of them) O.O I sincerely apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes in my story. I really did try to make sure to catch them all. Arigato, sincerely from your authoress Emily.

 

Disclaimer: I do NOT own F. Y. (but I can dream) It is owned by Yuu Watase-sama and will always be owned by her. T.T But I do own Izumi and I will make her do what ever I want.

 

Izumi: Like hell you will!!

 

Emily: If you don't cooperate then I'll make you do the disclaimer next time! (glares at Izumi)

 

Izumi: Dam you! You know I can't stand that look. Plus I hate the disclaimer. (pouts)

 

Emily: I always win. (evil grin) Now on to the story.

 

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Chapter 2:

 

Home Again

 

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“Kuso,” cursed Genrou for what must have been the millionth time since they had been walking back to the stronghold.

 

“Will you quit already?” asked Kouji in a very tired voice. He couldn't think of another time that his friend had annoyed him this much. `Boy, it's a good thing that I really wana save this girl, after all she is a good fighter, I bet she could take on Gen and still be alright,' he thought not really paying attention to where he was going, he didn't have to he knew these woods like the back of his hand.

 

“If you don' wana' hear me complain' then you carry `er dam it,” replied Genrou obviously not very happy.

 

“You're the one that scared her with her stupid Harisen so you get to carry her,” Kouji told Genrou in a matter of fact sort of way.

 

“She fainted because of losin' so much blood, NOT because of my Harisen, wasn't that what you said Kouji,” Genrou said raising his voice a bit to get his point across.

 

“Ok I'll take her if you'll go on ahead to the strong hold and send for a healer, agreed?” asked Kouji knowing what the response would probably be.

 

“As long as I don' have to carry `er any more I don' care what I gotta do,” Genrou replied obviously relieved at being able to get away from the girl that was in his arms.

 

Maybe if she wasn't in his arms he could stop his mind form somehow drifting to think about the girl that they ended up saving. `Man you do have to admit she is one hell of a fighter, she could take out Kouji with no problem. Ack DAM IT Genrou STOP THINKGING ABOUT HER,' he thought to himself.

 

“Just make sure you really hurry, if ya know what I mean,” said Kouji with a wink.

 

Genrou was shaken out of his thoughts by his friend's voice, “like I would do any thing else” he said while transferring the girl to Kouji's arms, trying to sound offended. Then he took of with more speed then any human could have, trying desperately to not think more about the strange girl they had found.

 

Kouji looked down at the girl that they found. He felt bad for her his first impression was that she didn't have any where to go, no family or friends to stay with. He figured that she had to at least be 17 or so, old enough to get married, but was she? He thought about weather she had someone waiting for her to get back, but for some reason he was almost certain that this was not the case. When he and Genrou had been watching her she seemed to be in the middle of a dream, whatever the dream had been about it wasn't good her face held a look of pure pain while she lay there sleeping. He wondered what her dream could have been about and why it made her so sad. He looked over her more carefully studying her face and her body `she has a nice figure,' he thought somewhat innocently. He stopped at her arms when he noticed that there was something that looked like… well they looked like scars. They were mostly on the inside of her fore arm, it almost looked like she had tried to end her life… `but why would she do that,' he thought feeling very sorry for the girl in his arms.

 

By the time he reached the strong hold he felt as thou he needed to protect this girl, but it was nothing like wanting to protect a koibito, it was more like wanting to protect a little sister, not a lover.

 

Genrou had not yet returned with the doctor from the village at the base of the mountain. So Kouji took the girl to one of the many rooms that were not being used by the other Mt. Riekaku bandits. Just after he had set her on the bed and tried to make her comfortable despite her injury, Genrou walked in with the healer from the village near the mountain.

 

“Well let me take a look at her then,” said the wizened old man as he started to examine her. He felt her pulse and put his hand to her forehead too make sure she didn't have too much of a fever.

 

“Where was she injured?” he asked not seeing her leg under the blankets on the bed.

 

“On the upper part of her right thigh,” said Kouji quickly. The healer gently pulled down the blankets in order to get a better look. When he saw the deep gash in her flesh he had to bite his own lip to stop from gasping.

 

“Ok every one out until I finish treating her,” the healer said trying his beast to sound calm as possible. `If I had gotten here any later then now she would have not chance, I've got to try to get some blood strengthening herbs in her as soon as possible,' he thought hurriedly trying to get all the things from his medicinal bag that he would need. First he cleaned the wound and bandaged it. Then he made an infusion of several different herbs to strengthen her hart and maker her body replace the blood she lost faster. `She will need to drink this for a few days after losing this much blood, I'll have to tell those two boys to make sure she drinks it,' at first he thought that maybe he should stay until she woke up, but knowing that it could be a few days until she woke, and that he couldn't do any more for her, he decided to leave.

 

“You two will have to make sure she drinks this tea for at least three days after today, got that,” he said sternly to Kouji and Genrou.

 

“How much should she drink in one day?” asked Kouji knowing that Gen would never actually show he cared.

 

“Just two cups each day for three days ought to do it,” said the healer, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

 

The healer made Kouji promise to give the girl the tea while he walked out of the strong hold to head home, one of the bandits served as his escort.

 

“So you're the one who's taken care o' the girl right?” asked Genrou to Kouji while watching the healer leave the strong hold.

 

“Well I already know that you wont so yea,” said Kouji, knowing he could always trick Gen into it if he had to.

 

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Old memories flashed before Izumi's eyes she saw more then she wanted to yet at the same time she didn't see enough. It was hard for her to deal with her memories, she feared them but at the same time she enjoyed them. It was an odd mix of emotions, and not one that she found pleasant.

 

The first to flash before her was one of when she was 7. Daisuke and her where playing with wooden versions of daggers, there parents still wouldn't let them use the real thing. He was letting her win as usual. During their play fighting she discovered that if she was fast enough then she could trip him by kicking right through his feet. She knew that this trick would be very valuable to her. She smiled at the expression on her brother's face as he looked up at her from the ground. She wished she could have stayed in that memory forever but her mind didn't often do as it was told.

 

The next memory was when she was 8. She was watching her father work the forge and trying to figure out how it worked. She knew that she couldn't talk to him during this part of his work, he needed to be able to concentrate on it or he could end up getting hurt. She watched as he pounded the piece of metal with his hammer, she wanted to know why it had to go back in the fire so many times, and why did he sometimes add more metal but other times didn't? To her it just didn't make much since. She made a mental note to ask more about her fathers work at dinner time.

 

She wished desperately that she could escape the world of her memories and her past but she didn't seem to be able to open her eyes or to force herself to conciseness. This was one memory she didn't want to see, she knew the pain she would feel with this memory and was not anxious to feel that pain again. She was standing in the middle of a forest her legs would not move, they seemed to be frozen in place. She herd her own thoughts but was seeing herself a young 15 year old girl struggling to move foreword, to help save her parents with her brother, Daisuke. She knew very well what would happen next if she continued in this memory. She would find her old house and the old forge burning and she would arrive there just in time to see her brother die. She could feel the tears stinging behind her eyes but she pushed them back forcefully. `NO MORE CRYING,' she shouted in her mind.

 

She then started to drift out of her memories, she could hear two men speaking. She didn't quite understand what they were saying at first, she was still quite groggy from fainting. She thought that she herd a reference to her but she couldn't be sure, not in the condition that she was in.

 

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“Do you think she is a girl from the village?” asked Genrou, just trying to come up with something on the girl that was now sleeping on a bed a few feet from them.

 

“No, the girls in the village don't fight, plus she doesn't act like them either, she may have been staying in the village but she's not from around here,” responded Kouji.

 

“Ya that makes since,” said Genrou with a dull voice.

 

Kouji gave him an odd look, “you can think?” he said with wide eyes.

 

“Shut the hell up baka,” was the only response he got, of coarse the response only made Kouji laugh.

 

“So how long do ya think she'll sleep fer'?” asked Genrou trying to change the subject.

 

“My bet is on some time today since we found her last night,” said Kouji after rubbing his chin for a moment in thought.

 

She started to open her eyes, just a little to see if she could identify where she was. What she saw through her eyes was not familiar at all. She was in a room of some sort, there was a table a few feet from the bed with a few chairs placed around it. There was also what appeared to be a dresser in the corner. The room wasn't all that big but it wasn't crowded with three people in it ether. Then she registered that there where definitely two other voices in the room. `Great, she thought to herself, I must have been taken by those dam slave traders. Well kuso what am I gunna do now?'

 

She tried to lift her head up a little to get a better look around, but she found that doing so made her incredibly dizzy. She set her head back down wondering if she had ever felt like this before, nothing came to mind right away but for some reason the feeling was familiar.

 

She was able to turn her head towards the two men that were sitting at the table in the room. Both were starting at her.

 

One had bright red hair and deep amber eyes. He wore some a normal shirt with some kind of overcoat that she couldn't identify at the moment.

 

The other man had dark blue hair and eyes to match. She also noticed that he had a good size scar on his left cheek, she almost wondered how he got it. He just had on a normal shirt with what looked like a harness for a weapon on his back.

 

The two men sat staring at her for a few more moments, and then they stood and started towards the bed.

 

Her eyes went wide with surprise, she still was not quite registering what was going on. She started to rise out of the bed but found herself being pushed back down. At first she just was confused that someone had pushed her back down. In a moment she figured out who it had been and glared at the offender. It was the man with dark blue hair.

 

“You have to rest. That's what the healer said, so you can stop glaring at me,” he said trying his best to not start laughing at the oddity of the situation. The pure strangeness of what was happening was something that he found immensely funny. But he had a feeling that the other two people in the room wouldn't find it nearly as funny as he did. Had he laughed he would have found out how right he was.

 

“Where am I?” asked Izumi, her mind still trying to take all of her situation in.

 

“Yr in the stronghold of the Mt. Reikakuzan bandits,” answered Genrou.

 

“Oh,” she said, still looking very confused. “So who are you two?” she asked pointing to each of them.

 

“I'm Kouji” he said pointing to himself, “and he's Genrou,” he answered. “He's the leader of the bandits, so you'll be safe here until you heal,” he said wanting to explain the situation to her for some reason.

 

She didn't quite take in all of what he said, but figured she would get the info soon enough. She raised herself up to a sitting position, and then noticed that something didn't feel quite right. She put her left hand under the covers and felt her leg, surprisingly she found that her hand touched bear flesh. Her expression became one of confusion at finding this.

 

“Where are my pants?” she asked not realizing the insinuation of what she had just said, well not until she noticed Kouji laughing silently.

 

Kouji had to bite his lower lip to stop from bursting out in laughter, he was unsuccessful in hiding his silent laughter, and got a whack upside his head for it from Izumi. Genrou just blinked several times while this was happening not sure weather he should brave trying to answer that question.

 

Kouji was the one to finally speak up “The healer had to take them off to look at the wound on your leg.” Luckily he succeeded in keeping a strait face while telling her this, he was sure that if he hadn't he would have gotten a beating to remember.

 

Kouji realized that they still didn't know who this girl was he decided to fix the situation immediately.

 

“So what's your name, since you already know ours,” he asked trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.

 

“I'm Izumi,” she answered simply, her mind was starting to get back up to speed again.

 

She tested the area of the wound on her leg with her hand she pressed down gently. She let out a hiss, finding that it really did heart if she put presser on it. She had not meant for it to reach anyone ears but her own, but the look she got from Kouji told her that he at least had herd her reaction to the pain. Kouji gave her a concerned look, trying to figure out what had caused her pain (he didn't notice her hand on her wound).

 

He remembered the instructions of the healer right then (perfect timing ne?). “Here,” he said handing her the bag with the herbal mixture in it.

 

“You have to take two cups of this tea for three days,” he told her. She looked up at him with an eyebrow raised.

 

“How bout you tell me what it is, then I'll talk about taken the stuff,” she said showing her dislike for being ordered to do something. (hay she didn't bother to pronounce that right, she's so lazy >.<)

 

Kouji just sighed and explained what the healer had told him, he knew that there was no other way to get her to take the stuff. `Just like Gen, o boy this is gonna be just great,' he thought sarcastically.

 

She was satisfied with the answer she got about the herbal medicine but now something else came to her mind. `So they're just taking care of me for the heck of it,' she thought that people always had to have other motives to do these kinds of things. She was convinced that there really was no such thing as a kind person that just wanted to help, that didn't expect something in return.

 

“So, what do I have to do?” she asked them expecting something along the lines of being raped. Her only response was two blank stares, and another question.

 

“What are you talking about?” Kouji asked back thoroughly confused. She let out a broken sounding sigh, she had no idea what to say but tried anyways.

 

“Well …. If….. Oh hells never mind!” she said giving up on the whole thing. `I'll wait and find out what I'll have to do,' she thought with sadness. It was hard for her to pretend that people were good so she faced the truth unflinchingly. Knowing that people are horrible was something that made her extremely sad, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it.

 

Kouji and Genrou exchanged very confused looks, both not knowing what she was talking about. They just shrugged at each other and started towards the door. Kouji was just about out the door when he remembered something

 

“I'll come back with some food,” he said trying to be pleasant. She was sort of surprised at hearing this but at the same time she wasn't. `Maybe these guys are kind nice, but that still doesn't mean that I won't pay `em back some day,' she said to herself. She had never been one to accept charity or take help easily.

 

For the next two days she was restricted to her bed. She hated this but knew that she was stuck. She had already tried every thing she could think of on both Kouji and Genrou still neither let her out of her bed, forget about getting out of her room. She was very well aware that they were doing this in her best interest but she still was pissed off about it. On the third day she sat on her bed with dull looking eyes, she was board out of her skull.

 

`There is nothing to do around here,' she screamed in her head. She was sure that she starting to have conversations with herself in her head. `I may be going insane,' she thought with no distress, `but things might be more interesting that way.'

 

She was shaking her head in agreement with herself when Kouji knocked on the door.

 

“Get in here,” she said with absolutely no patients in her voice. She was happy to finally have someone there to brake up the monotony of her day.

 

“I brought some lunch,” he said carrying a try in his hand.

 

“Yippy,” she softly shouted. She rushed over to the table and sat down with only a small amount of pain. Kouji glared at her for a moment, knowing she could very easily open her wound if she wasn't careful.

 

“You know you're supposed to be more careful,” he said tiredly.

 

“Oh don't worry so much. It doesn't even hurt any more, look,” she said standing up and sitting down a few times. She forced her face to stay still and not show the pain that she felt. In reality it hurt quite badly, but she was far too stubborn to let such a small thing keep her in bed for long.

 

Kouji's eyes widened at this show. “Sit down before you open your wound again,” he said with his voice raised to show he was serious. She sat down slowly feeling like she had just lost her one chance at happiness.

 

“Fine I accept that I'm a prisoner in here,” she said in dull tones. She hoped she could pull on Kouji enough to get outside for just a little while. He sighed knowing she was up to something but still not being able to deny the puppy dog eyes he was getting.

 

“Alright tomorrow you can go out side for an hour in the after noon,” his words trialed off to mumbling while he walked out of the door. She almost jumped for joy, but caught herself in time remembering about her thigh. Instead she settled for wiggling in her seat in pure happiness.

 

Kouji walked down the hall to his friend's room. He knocked and made his usual speech

 

“It's Kouji, friend of Genrou, leader of the Mt. Riekaku bandits. Oh come on in. Arigato,” he said while pushing the door open.

 

“Hay Kouji,” said Genrou not really looking up at his friend. Kouji walked over to the table and collapsed into a chair. Genrou laughed quietly.

 

“So how's the brat?” he asked not bothering to hide the amusement in his voice.

 

“You know she'll kill you if she ever hears that nickname right?” asked Kouji with an eyebrow raised.

 

“Probably but who cares,” was his response.

 

“She is good at getting what she wants, you have to admit that,” said Kouji feeling tired from just dealing with the girl.

 

“So she still wants out of her room,” Genrou replied looking like he wasn't the least bit surprised at the news. He then took on a more thoughtful expression.

 

“She does realize that this place could be dangerous for a girl, right?” he asked Kouji.

 

“Yea I'm pretty sure she knows what she's gettin in to but that still aint much of a comfort,” he said sounding tired at the thought of all the things that could go wrong.

 

“Boy what did we get our selves into,” said Kouji.

 

“We? You're the one that wanted to ta help `er not me,” Genrou shot back.

 

“You know you wouldn' ta been able to leave `er there ta die,” he said with annoyance. He knew that his friend wanted everyone to believe he didn't care about any one but fact is that he's a big softy. He always claims to hate women but when ever any member of the fairer sex was upset he would immediately do what ever he could to help. `Genrou you're an idiot some times, you try to be too tough for your own good.' His friend really was stupid, no matter what kind of smarts you where talking about it seemed like Gen just didn't have them.

 

The next morning was wonderful for Izumi. She couldn't believe her luck. She was getting out of her room today!! She ended up waking with the sun, she dressed as fast as possible, true she wouldn't actually be going outside until the afternoon but it was still the day that she would go outside. She couldn't have been happier. `Well I could but my life would have to be extremely different. For me to be happier my family would still have to be alive.'

 

That thought sobered her mood easily. She drifted back to the time when she was 15 on the day she lost her family.

 

She could remember having to bury the people that she loved. She never did bother to bury the man that had killed her brother, the man that she had killed. She sat by the window and watched the sun raise the rest of the way up.

 

She found herself going through her life up until now. It was a somber journey, not much joy was ever in her life. She had lived in several villages. Many of them she had left after about a year, she never was one to stay anywhere too long. She never stayed in a place long enough to make it feel like home.

 

Yet for some reason she felt like this place could be her home. It was odd the way she had come to this place. The people she met had been just as strange. She cracked a small smile at that thought, seeing Kouji and Genrou in her memory. They where so different yet so alike at the same time, combined they reminded her of her brother, like her brother split into two different bodies and each only had half of his personality. Genrou and the more stubborn and prideful side, Kouji had the more caring and playful side. Her thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking.

 

“Knock, knock. Who's there? Kouji friend of Izumi, second in command of Mt. Reikakuzan bandits and here to escort Izumi to breakfast. Come on in Kouji. Arigato,” said Kouji entering the room in a style all his own.

 

“You do have a very different way of introducing yourself,” said Izumi with a smile. She had not missed that he said `to escort her to breakfast' not `here with breakfast.' `This aught to be fun.'

 

“So I finally get to meet the bandits?” she questioned trying to make sure her mind was not playing tricks on her again.

 

Kouji let out a sigh, “yes you get to finally meet the bandits, but don't expect too much of them, you don't want to be disappointed now do you?” She gawked at him for a moment

 

“Kouji if they're alive and are able to talk I'm happy,” she replied. She was completely serious, only talking to two people for several days had worn down her nerves.

 

“What! You mean you're tiered of me and Genrou?” he asked with a very fake shocked expression on his face.

 

“No offence meant Kouji, but yea I'm tiered of only talking to two people,” she said not worrying about his reaction. `This is too good an opportunity to pass up' he thought as he thought of a great joke to play on Izumi. He put his plan into action right away. He put on the saddest expression he could and tried to look hurt by her comment.

 

“You really don't like me,” he said in the most pathetic voice he could muster. Izumi stood there for a moment too stunned to speak. `What did he just say? No way did Kouji just say that. Yea he did just say that. Kuso that is not what I meant.'

 

“Kouji,” she hurried to his side putting her hand on his shoulder to comfort him “that wasn't what I meant, I swear.”

 

Then she noticed that he was silently laughing his head off. “Kouji I hate you,” she said with no feeling in her voice.

 

She walked down the corridor outside of her room not even knowing where she was going. Kouji walked behind her.

 

“Oh come on, I couldn't resist it was a perfect opportunity,” he said still trying to stifle the laughter that threatened to brake through.

 

“Yea I admit that it was a good joke, but you didn't pull it off that well,” she said trying desperately to recover her very broken pride. She continued walking in silence trying her best to not get lost.

 

Kouji ended up having to tell her to turn around twice, each time she felt like giving the bandit a good smack upside the head, she barely managed to restrain herself.

 

Breakfast was rather uneventful other then getting the attention of every bandit that was there. The whole time she felt eyes on her, it was disturbing yet oddly complimenting. She tried to make small talk like it was normal but failed miserably.

 

Instead she seemed to mumble to herself every few minutes and look around like she was paranoid. Kouji found this to be rather entertaining and didn't mind saying so. When he did Izumi wanted to take his head off. She settled with giving him a smile that told him he would die later on that day. He gulped in response and suddenly fell quite.

 

She spent most of the morning in the huge room that served as the eating area. There where several different sized tables occupying most of the room but not all, there was a good size area scattered with cousins to sit on.

 

Most of the bandits that didn't have other things they already had to do where there relaxing and generally checking out this `girl' they had all herd about. Izumi enjoyed the attention at first, but before long she found it rather disturbing and wished she could get the guys to stop staring at her.

 

`If any more eyes are on me at once I think I'm going to start a fire from blushing.' Right after thinking this she got an idea. She could help but smile mischievously at what she was about to do. She grabbed her drink and started taking lots of small drinks, she had perfected this technique while playing with her brother when she was young. When she felt like there was enough air in her stomach, she let it out, in the form of a very loud belch. Every single person in the large room looked strait as Izumi, their expressions ranged from disgust, to humorous, to plane shock. She gave every one a bright smile, and then promptly burst into laughter.

 

It took every one a moment or two to recover from the shock, but soon every one was laughing with her. Some shouted encouragement for more, but she only answered with a rather smug grin.

 

`Yep I think I'm starten to like this place.' She thought as a real smile graced her lips, something that no one had seen for a very long time. Izumi knew that this day would always be something that she treasure in memory, it was a good day something that she had far too little of.

 

The time passed quickly to lunch and on to the afternoon, now she would be able to go outside. She looked over at Kouji expectantly, he tried to ignore her hoping that she would be satisfied with just meeting the bandits. He was very wrong, she wanted to go outside badly. The outdoors was always something she had loved, she wouldn't let this chance slip by her for anything.

 

“You promised to take me outside today so let's go,” she said while standing up and grabbing his arm to pull him out of the large room.

 

“Ok, ok but you have to promise me something first,” replied Kouji a look of absolute seriousness on his face. She stopped and turned to him

“What do I have to promise?” she asked feeling more impatient to get outside.

 

“You have to promise that if you see someone training you won't try to fight with them,” he said with eyes digging into Izumi. She considered this a moment. True she would want to fight if she saw someone else training but that didn't mean that she had too, after all if she tried it so soon she might not get outside again for a very long time.

 

“Ok deal, no fighting,” she said sticking out her hand to shake in agreement. They sealed the deal with a quick shake and continued outside.

 

When they finally reached the outside of the stronghold Izumi was thoroughly exhilarated. She wanted to run just for the shear delight of being able to do so. She felt like a little kid again, she was sorely tempted to try cartwheels like she had when she was a little girl.

 

`Remember Izumi if you get to rambunctious they wont let you go out side for a very long time, so calm down and just look at things.' She reprimanded herself knowing that there where at least two people here that were very worried about her. Though at times she did wonder as to why they would bother to worry about someone as worthless as her.

 

She was amazed at how large the clearing around the stronghold was, you could have fit the village where she grew up in the clearing with a little room to spare. The stronghold was on one side of the slightly oval shaped space. There was also a large Weeping Willow in the middle of the wide open space the effect of the Willow was quite stunning, it seemed like this landscape was from a painters head, it was extremely beautiful. She wanted desperately to go to the middle of said clearing just to get a good look at where it was she had been staying the past few days. She almost took off at a run, but stopped herself just in time.

 

“Kouji lets go to the tree,” her eyes took on a mischievous look “bet I can get there first!” Kouji's eyes almost shot out of his head, he grabbed her arm to stop her from trying to run.

 

“Don't you dare! You try it and I'll lock you up for a week!” He looked like he was about to have a hart attack. She looked back at him with a rather smug smile.

 

“Just kidding!” she sang sweetly. Kouji's face twitched a few times before walking past her towards the tree in the middle of the clearing. She followed laughing the whole way.

 

She finally got to see the stronghold. It was huge it was built right into the mountain, there was two stories, and a balcony on the second as well as a kind of `porch' on the first story, there was also a large covered area separated from the building known as the stronghold. She thought it was great, perfect for the bandits.

 

They sat for a while just talking. He started to notice that whenever he brought up the subject of the past or asked about her past she skillfully changed the subject. She tried to not be too obvious while steering the conversation away from her personal history, but she was sure that Kouji knew he wasn't that stupid he would know that she was avoiding talking about her past.

 

She simply couldn't take the chance of them finding out about her life, true she wasn't a criminal or wanted for some other reason. Her problem was that simple bad luck seemed to follow her like a curse.

 

She had never known why but ever since the day she left her family she seemed to have just plane bad luck. When she moved to a village it would be fine for a wile. It usually took about tree months until it started, barns would start burning down for no apparent reason, land slides happened close to the village, floods would suddenly happen out of season, and the crops would fail causing a shortage of food in the village.

 

The only weird thing was who ever she was staying with or where ever she was staying was always strangely unaffected by these disasters. She had herd the roomers that spread from a village after she moved from it. It was always the same `she was cursed' was at the end of the story.

 

Silence had fallen between the two for a few minutes. It was a comfortable silence a first but she was starting to feel uncomfortable. She tried to think of something to say but found that her mind was completely blank at the moment. She was about to just stand up and head back to the stronghold when she herd Kouji speak.

 

“So what do you plan to do after yer wound heals?” She cringed, this was one subject that she didn't really want to speak on ether but he asked a direct question, not really something you can brush off by a change of subject.

 

She let out a deep sigh “I don't really know, I don't happen to have a place to go,” admitting this was a hard thing for her to do.

 

“I'll probably find some village and stay there for a while before heading on,” her voice betrayed her sadness at the prospect of doing this. She looked down at the ground refusing to meet the eyes she was sure would be on her in a moment.

 

He studied her face for a moment. `Why is she going to do that when she seems so sad about it? She is definitely hiding something but I still have no clue what it is. This is not very easy. Why do I get the hard jobs?' He wined to no one in particular.

 

“You know you could always just stay here, maybe you could join the bandits, and it's true that Genrou doesn't really like women but I'm sure I can get him to make an exception.” She wasn't quite sure as to what she had just herd. She blinked stupidly while looking up at Kouji.

 

“What?” She had to make sure that she didn't just hear what she thought she herd.

 

“You could join the bandits, it would definitely shake things up,” said Kouji. He was thoroughly enjoying the look on her face, it was one of disbelief mixed with…… hope?

 

“No there is no way that I could stay here permanently, but I will stay here for a while, until I feel the need to leave, I'll stay here.” She said feeling like she could have given the man a gigantic kiss as thanks.

 

They headed back to the strong hold for dinner. That night she felt as if she could conquer the world (she would never try to but…). She felt happier then she had felt in many years, not since her family had been alive had she felt this happy.

 

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To Be Continued…..

 

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First Thank you very, very much to all the people that where kind enough to leave a review they motivated my lazy butt to get going on this chapter.

 

Thanks to: Kristall(sorry about the mistakes I did try), caspercat22(thanks so much), and Queen of Monkey Magic(sorry about the confusion I have to try to make these things more clear)

 

Author's Note: sorry about the abrupt end. I had to cut it short a little because it was starting to look like a very long way until the end of the chapter. Some people thought Izumi was the girl from another world she will come into the story in the next couple chapters. I am extremely sorry about any and all spelling and grammar mistakes that I have made (I did try to catch them). I hope you all will stick with this story, arigato for reading it. Your strange authoress, Emily.

 

Review Please, and Thankyou