Chapter Two ~ Fate Intervenes

I have to get her back. That guy took her; he just HAD to! Ukiyou thought to herself as she sat in the back of the hay cart. She contemplated her options: if she DID find Yui with the young man who had saved them, then she'd be happy that her friend was all right.

Should I beat him up when I find them? she asked herself. She shook her head. Nah, he's too cute to deserve that. Maybe I should yell at him, but then Yui'll get mad if he didn't do anything wrong.

It had been a few hours since her best friend's disappearance, and Ukiyou was determined to find her. If she couldn't find her and somehow returned to Japan, then Yui's parents would lose their trust in her, not that they had any in her anyway. So, her only lead was their rescuer, and she didn't even know where he was.

Too lost in though, Ukiyou almost didn't notice the stares the men that had passed by gave her. She glared back at them, turning most of them to look elsewhere.

"Mou, what're those perverts looking at?" she muttered to herself, crossing her legs.

Ukiyou saw nothing wrong with her as she sat in the hay cart, but from a local's point of view, it was quite the opposite. Her kimono, from the day's traveling, had been shredded at the bottom. She had loosened the grip her obi had around her waist so that she could put her arms behind her head. This action had loosened the top of her kimono, revealing some cleavage. Not only that, but the button on the bottom of her kimono had snapped earlier and so when she crossed her legs, she also revealed a good portion of what they looked like. Many of the women that passed by whispered to each other about Ukiyou's "vulgar" manner of dress, but Ukiyou was a country girl and couldn't care less.

She stared up at the clear blue sky, thoughts and past memories fading in and out of her head. She sighed.

"I wonder how oneesan is doing," she murmured softly to herself. "I hope she found some information about Sano and Katsu..."

Flashbacks of the time when she was in the Sekihoutai came back to her. Her hand unconsciously stole to her scar, which was now a deep gash from the upper left corner of her right eyebrow all the way to the middle of her left cheek. The scar was a constant reminder of how her brother and the Sekihoutai were betrayed by the Ishin. She would continue to carry the scar until the man responsible was put to justice.

She shook her head again to get rid of the memories and turned to her side for a more comfortable position. Her eyes widened and she let a small gasp escape from her mouth as she viewed the city before her. "Sugoi!! It's so pretty..."

Her eyes began frantically searching through the crowds below her, hoping that she would find the person she was looking for. Fortunately, she did find the young man who had rescued them and grinned evilly to herself. She grabbed her bag and prepared to jump off. There he is.

"Ojiisan, arigatou!" she shouted at the driver before leaping off.

The old man, surprised to hear a voice, halted his horses and turned his head to see a young woman hopping happily away down the cliff towards the city. Who was that?

<around ten minutes later>

"Suminasen, can you let me through?" Ukiyou asked for the hundredth time to yet another person.

"Huh? Oh, sure, miss," replied the man and stepped aside while eyeing her unusual clothing curiously.

Ukiyou paid no mind; she got the look at every person she asked to move. After thanking the man, she continued to walk around the marketplace until she plopped down on a nearby bench and sighed.

"Mou, where is he?" she muttered to herself. She had given up trying to ask the people if they had seen a young man with the character of 'oni' written on his forehead after a couple of tries, so her last bet was that she would somehow run into him. The city couldn't be that big, right?

Ukiyou stared at the road in front of her, observing the street shows that were going about. If I can't find him, there where am I supposed to go?

A faintly delicious smell filled her nostrils, making her stomach rumble. She rubbed it instinctively, looking about. "I'm so hungry..."

Her eyes immediately caught the sight of food: a dumpling stand was just right across from her! She scrambled for the stand, too hungry to even care who she had run in to.

"How much are these, mister?" she eagerly asked the merchant.

The merchant gave a hearty laugh. He had never seen a young woman so eager to buy his food. "Well, for such a pretty girl like you, miss, it's ten cents each."

Ukiyou handed him the change and quickly grabbed the two dumplings. The old man looked so happy that it made her smile and also risk asking the question. "Ne, did you happen to see a really cool young man with the kanji 'oni' on his forehead?"

The merchant pondered for a moment, not even bothering to look at the change...for now.

"A cool young man with 'oni' on his forehead?" he repeated. "...Nope, never seen anyone like that." Then he laughed and pointed at himself with Ukiyou's money. "But I'm a cool guy right hee...."

Ukiyou paused in the middle of finishing off her second dumpling and stared at the merchant, realizing her mistake. "Uh...oh...."

The merchant got up from his seat and nearly slammed his food off of the stand. "OI! WHAT KIND OF MONEY IS THIS?!?"

"It's a Japanese coin, sir!!!" Ukiyou shouted as she disappeared in the crowds.

<slums>

Ukiyou hoisted herself onto an abandoned cart and sighed once again as she stared at the sky.

"Too close," she said and frowned as her stomach growled again. "Those two dumplings didn't do any good. I'm still hungry...." She sat back up again, staring down at her hands. "And I didn't find him, either. NOW what am I going to do? Yui-chan, where are you?"

As she began to get lost in her thoughts, a hand gently landed on her shoulder, startling her out of her reverie. "Ojousan?"

Ukiyou turned to her speaker who was a young man just in his early twenties with dark brown hair and eyes. Like all the other people in the city, her wore clothing that was vaguely unusual to her. Yet again SHE was the one who wore strange clothing.

The man smiled at her with a charm that could almost make her puke.

What does he think I am, stupid? Ukiyou thought angrily to herself. However, she remained calm as she listened to her new guest.

"Why are you here in the slums of Konan-koku alone? It's dangerous here," he sweetly said.

I can take care of myself, bud, Ukiyou thought as she smiled back at him. At least I know what the name of this city is called. "Uh...actually, I'm looking for someone."

"A young man with 'oni' written on his forehead, right?" the man asked.

Ukiyou's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "You...know where he is?"

"Of course I do!" the man exclaimed as he jumped off the cart. His smile still remained plastered on his face. "He's a friend of mine."

Ukiyou's suspicions grew as she arched a curious eyebrow. "Honto?"

The man nodded. "Aa. I'll take you to him, if you want."

"Um..." There's something fishy about the guy, she thought. He's too nice, but I have no other leads, do I? She inwardly grinned to herself. Besides, if he's wrong and tries to do something, I can just kick his sorry ass. She jumped off the cart and once again smiled at him, knowing that he was unaware of the danger that she possessed. "Okay. Take me to him."

<market district>

Restaurants were always bustling about, never resting. They were the best places, besides the bars, to listen to the latest gossip. And now every person had heard about the mysterious young woman dressed in foreign clothes, except for one person.

"Hey, did you hear?" a man asked his friend.

"Nani?"

"Chen was telling me that there's this girl wearing strange clothing asking if he'd seen a man with 'oni' written on his forehead."

Dark grey eyes looked up from its meal in sudden interest.

"Oh, her? Yeah, I heard a while ago. She gave some foreign money to the dumpling seller and then ran off with the food after he started to yell at her! Some people say that she could be the Suzaku no Miko..."

"Anno..." the young man approached their table, taking a seat. "Sorry to interrupt."

"Hm? What is it, pal?" one of the gossipers asked.

"You were talking about the strange girl asking if there was a guy with 'oni' on his forehead, right? I was just wondering: was there another one with her?" the young man asked.

The two men looked at each other and then back at him.

"From what I've heard, I think she was alone," one replied.

"Oh..." The young man said with genial interest. Can't be those two, then. "Okay, thanks for telling me."

"No problem."

The young man returned to his table and paid his lunch, walking out of the restaurant lost in thought. It can't be those two...right?

<slums>

Ukiyou followed her guide through the slums of the city with high suspicion. She always looked around, noticing that the amount of people populating the slums were getting thinner and thinner.

"Oi, just where exactly is your so-called friend at?" she asked impatiently.

They stopped in front of a dark alley. Her guide turned halfway around, smiling sinisterly. "Right here."

Ukiyou instinctively backed away from him as more men came out from the alley.

"Oh? This one's stranger than the last few you gave us," one man said in a voice that made Ukiyou resist the urge to growl in anger. She hated women being thought of as things.

"I wonder if forgein girls taste any different," another added.

"Her clothes can be sold at a good price," her guide said as he eyed her lustifully. "Even though they are a bit dirty."

Ukiyou smirked, folding her arms and closing her eyes. "Oh, so you are what I thought you wre in the first place."

An arm wrapped itself around her waist possessively, running her body into another man. "It was your fault that you followed him in the first place, honey."

Ukiyou's smile grew wider as she heard the men come closer. "Oh, really? Well, I have something to tell you boys." She pulled the man's head behind her closer to her body. "I'm," she then kneed him in the gut, taking his breath away, "not," she locked him in a headlock, "easy," she kept her strength and balance as her victim flailed his arms wildly as he was being lifted up over her, "to deal with!"

She tossed her first opponent over her head, sending him crashing into two other men. Without even giving them a chance to react, she side-kicked one in the head who had recovered from being toppled over. She then executed a roundhouse kick at another, knocking him out. And then finally, her guide was caught off guard when she gave a swift chop in the neck. She wouldn't let any of them go into offensive as she continued with multiple combinations of kicks and punches.

After a few more rounds, all the men lay sprawling on the ground unconscious. Ukiyou blew back a strand of hair that had gone loose and grinned to herself.

"Huh, what do you know?" she said to herself as she straightened her kimono. "That was easier than I thought."

She began to make her way through the pile of bodies when her guide grabbed her ankle, tripping her. She fell unceremoniously to the ground and turned her head to look. Her guid was glaring at her with such a malice it froze Ukiyou solid.

"Think you can make a mockery of us?" he growled as he and his friends stood up.

Ukiyou tried to get up as fast as she could, but the man was faster then she was and pinned her down. She lay there paralyzed with fear and stared into the once friendly eyes of her guide which were now filled with a mixture of lust and anger. Ukiyou's instinctive reaction was to try to get out, but her body and her mind would not cooperate. Instead, she just stared in horror at what was about to happen. Kuso, this can't be happening! It can't, it can't, it can't! She squeezed her eyes shut, prepared. Onegai...anybody...

Before the man could begin to tear off her clothes, a small rock hit the side of his head. He sharply turned his head while his friends looked up at the roof. There, they all say a young man just a little younger than themselves tossing a small pebble in the air.

"Who are you?!?" the guide demanded.

"Five guys against one girl?" their intruder asked as he ignored the question, his voice strangely calm.

He caught the pebble and crushed it in his hand. The kanji of 'oni' glowed a bright read underneath his dark blue hair. "And you guys call yourselves men?!?"

He jumped off the rooftop, heading straight towards them. The men forgot Ukiyou for the moment and went to attack their intruder only to be knocked out with his attacks. Ukiyou sat watching the fight in a shocked silence. It wasn't until the fight had ended when she dared to look up at her rescuer: the same person who she had been looking for.

Their eyes locked in a way which they would forever see each other. It was then, on this day, when their lives would be forever changed.