Title: Trading Places [6/?]

Disclaimer: I don't own them and the idea for the role reversal came from the debate on the fyfanfictionML. Idea for Miboshi was stolen in part from WingSong2003, who graciously betaed this for me. Fuuka and Yuuma are from the Tamahome Novel.

Notes: AU; role reversal of the Suzaku and Seiryuu no Seishi.

Warnings: Language; bastard Hotohori; Yaoi hints

/ ... / = thoughts

~~~~~~~~~~ = scene change

//...// = flashback

*...* = emphasis

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Tomo placed the last of his bags on to his horse and glanced at the others. Soi was talking to Lady Yui as the young blonde helped her prepare her own horse. /One would think that nothing happened last night by looking at those two./ He glanced over to Suboshi and noted that the boy seemed rather haunted by what had happened to his brother. He had spent every moment since the attack with his twin, only leaving now because the older boy had insisted. /I can not tell him what I found. He would never believe me. That only leaves .../

Nakago walked over to his general and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You seem rather deep in thought, old friend. Is something troubling you?"

Tomo sighed, nodding. "Heika, I need to speak with you. I know Amiboshi killed the intruder, but ..." /I can't tell him. Even if the boy is a Seishi, he'd have him killed./ "I don't think she was alone." He turned to fully face the blond before leading him away from the others slightly. "I do not claim to know how your ministers came to choose the women of your harem, but it seems a little strange that a Konan killer could get in and not raise suspicions."

"I was thinking that myself. I had my advisors check. The girl was from a village on the border of Kutou. One that had been, in the recent past, part of Konan. I guess she is one of the many that felt bitter over the last war." Nakago glanced over to the others and sighed. "I do not want to question our brothers, Tomo. I have enough fears from my own ministers. But if what you were saying is true ... do you really think he is capable of such things?"

"That is what your guards are trained for, Heika. That is what why we Seishi exist, to defend our Miko and our god with our lives."

Nakago nodded, his gaze dropping to the ground. "I was afraid of that. I will double the guard on Lady Yui and have her moved closer to my own rooms." He glanced back up at Tomo and smiled slightly. "And Tomo, stop calling me Heika. How many times have I told you to just call me by my name?"

Tomo smiled, bowing. "Forgive me, Lord Nakago. If I have done anything to offend you, please tell me what I can do to earn your forgiveness."

Nakago rolled his eyes. "If you're not careful, Soi could take advantage of that position." He started laughing as the grey-haired man quickly straightened. "Please don't fight with her on this trip. The last time, the two of you nearly killed each other."

"That was an accident, Hei-Nakago. How was I to know she'd use her powers while sitting in the middle of the river?" Tomo grinned slightly and mounted his horse. "We will return soon, Heika."

Nakago fought back the urge to smack the other man and turned to Soi, seeing that she too, was ready to leave. "Both of you, be careful. Our enemies would try anything to stop us," he replied. He watched as they left, thankful when five guards fell into step behind them. He turned back to the others and motioned them into the palace. "Come, we must check the scroll and see what we can find out. I want to be ready to summon Seiryuu as soon as Amiboshi recovers."

Suboshi nodded, turning back to the palace. Yui hesitated for a moment, watching the others through the gates. /Our enemies ... Konan ... Nakago said they had also found their Priestess. Could that be where Miaka went?/ She jumped when she felt someone take her arm. She saw one of the palace maids leading her inside and smiled.

"Lady Yui, you shouldn't stand out in the open like that. His highness and Lord Suboshi have both asked me to stay with you when they can not." The young woman was close to Yui's age and seemed to be very comfortable around this girl from another world, where some of the palace maids seemed afraid to even speak in her presence. She appeared to be descended from the same tribe as Lord Nakago, her strawberry blonde hair making that quite obvious. What the Priestess found most interesting about the girl, however, and one of the reasons she didn't mind when the others left her in their place, was the girl's eyes. Eyes that were almost orange with their intensity and left the Priestess thinking of only one word to describe them: amber.

Yui smiled at the girl and allowed herself to be led. She knew that most of the maids and the Emperor's advisors thought the girl, whom she had learned was named Naomi, was overstepping her bounds in regards to her relationship with the Priestess and Yui silently dared any of them to say anything in her presence. "I know. I was just admiring this view of the city. We didn't really get a chance to see it when we arrived."

"Then perhaps you should ask Lord Suboshi if he will take you to see it? I do believe that they are holding a celebration tonight."

"A celebration? What are they celebrating?"

"Why, your arrival, my lady." The maid left the blonde at the doorway to the Emperor's private study. "I will be waiting just around the corner, my lady."

Yui nodded, thinking over what Naomi had said. /Maybe going into town is a good idea. It will get Suboshi's mind off of his brother. And Lord Nakago could stop worrying so much./ She made up her mind to ask the younger man as she entered the room and saw only Nakago standing over the scroll. "Where is Suboshi?"

"He went to check on his brother again," Nakago replied, smiling slightly. He glanced up from the scroll and motioned for the blonde to take a seat beside him. "Sometimes, I swear that if I didn't know Amiboshi was the older of the two, I'd think it was Suboshi. He always seems to be worrying about him. They were the same when they were younger, or so I'm told."

Yui smiled, remembering what she had seen of the two brothers since she had met them. "Lord Nakago, if you don't mind ... can I ask you about the others? Besides Soi, they seem rather hesitant to talk to me."

Nakago looked up from the table and sighed. "I can imagine why. Kutou has not prospered under my reign as it has under my ancestors. We have been fighting with Konan for several generations now, the most recent war being less than thirty years ago. All of this has put such a strain on the people of our land that I am afraid several hundred of our people have fled to Hokkan. Some have even gone to Sairou," he replied. He stood and walked over to the window, relieved that he had already ordered his ministers not to bother him before the Priestess arrived.

"As I said, the twins I do not know that much about. They were already in training before Tomo told me they were Seishi. Soi, on the other hand, was brought here as a child. One of my father's guards overheard her parents trying to sell her to a brothel, so he instead, paid for her to join the Seraglio." He smiled sadly, glancing back to the younger blonde. "Father always said he wanted me to have a wife before I ever really needed one. And he is the reason I was married before I turned eighteen."

"You're married?"

Nakago nodded. "I was. She ... died, shortly after our son was born."

~~~~~~~~~~

"As the Suzaku no Miko's party set out on the second day of their journey, the Priestess couldn't help but feel nervous. Upon waking, she had been informed by Ryuuen that the Shogun Hotohori and the peasant Chichiri had already left for Mt. Reikaku. The Shogun was apparently worried that the bandits already knew they were coming and thought that they would attract less attention in smaller groups.

"Ryuuen, although he would never tell the Priestess, suspected that Hotohori had planned this all along. And that he was still not convinced that the young peasant was truly one of the Suzaku Seishi."

"Hotohori is acting strange. Then again, last time around he was so worried about his country's needs, that he never seemed to break from the role of Emperor." Keisuke sighed as he picked at his food. "I mean, come on, first he's suspicious of Chichiri and now he's riding off into the sunrise with him."

Tetsuya chuckled. "Well, the book did say that Ryuuen thought Hotohori still didn't trust him. Although ..." He glanced over a couple of pages in the book, smiling slightly. "Chichiri is acting a lot like someone else did before, overly protective of the Miko and all. Not to mention getting the crap beaten out of him at every turn."

Keisuke raised an eyebrow. "You can't be serious. He's not acting that bad yet. He still seems to have some sense about him."

Kyoshi looked at the two friends curiously. "What ARE you guys talking about? Who is he acting like?"

"Tamahome," Keisuke replied. He looked at his sister's fiancé and sighed. "That's the man she ..."

"Ah, I see." Kyoshi glanced at his breakfast, shrugging. "I was wondering who he was. But he hasn't shown up yet. Do you think ... do you think she'll be attracted to him this time around?"

"Depends on what he looks like. And if he's the same money-grubbing fighter he was last time," Tetsuya replied. When he saw the curious looks he was getting from the other two, he shrugged. "Well, he was. True, he was doing it for some very good reasons, but he was still cheap."

Kyoshi chuckled slightly, raising an eyebrow. "Should I be worried then, that she's just marrying me for my money?" He took the book from Tetsuya, quickly finding where the other man left off. "I wonder what's going on with Miaka's friend, Yui. I haven't seen anything about her since last night. I'm starting to believe what you guys said about it leaving out things."

"As they approached Mt. Reikaku, the Priestess felt her stomach start doing flip-flops. According to the scroll, one of the Seishi was supposed to be on or near the mountain. The guard, Ryuuen, had insisted that they wait until they met up with the Shogun in Suuon before investigating."

~~~~~~~~~~

"I just don't get it," Miaka replied. She glanced back toward where they had encountered the bandits. "I thought that bandits were supposed to be mean. They were rather nice."

Mitsukake chuckled slightly. "Most of the time they are. Nice, that is. As long as you cooperate with them, they won't fight you. But, more importantly, could you tell if any of them were Seishi?"

Miaka shook her head, turning her attention back to the road in front of them. "No. I asked the one that called himself Kouji, but he said he didn't know what I was talking about. There was no man among them with a mark on his body."

Ryuuen tightened his grip on the Priestess. "You just came right out and asked them?"

"Yeah, after the other one said he wanted to talk to you. What was that about, anyway?"

Ryuuen shrugged. "He was just asking a bunch of stupid questions about what was going on in Eiyou. He wanted to know if it was true that the Priestess had been found. I told him I wasn't sure, my business kept me on the road most of the time." He glanced at the brunette sitting in front of him and sighed. "You shouldn't have just asked them. Now they'll know that you're the Priestess."

"Sorry. I was just trying to help. I really don't like traveling and horses ... well, I actually don't mind horses. But there are plenty of things I'd rather be doing than traveling all over Konan," Miaka replied. She crossed her arms over her chest and ignored the looks she was getting from the guard.

"Like what? Sitting in the dungeons again? If you really want to, I'm sure Lord Saihitei would be more than willing to arrange that for you." Ryuuen rolled his eyes. /What a stupid girl. She's here barely two days and she's already getting on my nerves. Suzaku, please let us find the other Seishi quickly. I don't know how much more of this I can take./

"Once we are free of these trees, perhaps we should quicken our pace," Mitsukake began, looking back toward the now empty road. He had been carefully watching the trees as the others talked. "We're being followed."

Taking the taller man's advice, Ryuuen nudged his horse to make it go faster. He made sure the healer was following and silently hoped that the Shogun would be waiting for them.

~~~~~~~~~~

Yui smiled as she walked down the streets of Kutou and saw all of the people smiling. "They all look so happy."

"It is because of you, Lady. With your arrival, they are finally beginning to hope once again that we can defeat Konan." Suboshi watched her as she moved to each booth, looking over the various items for sale. He was glad that Lord Nakago had let them come out into the city, even though he had insisted that the Priestess be in disguise. The young guard couldn't help but laugh when he remembered the look Yui had given the Emperor when he told her he thought she should dress as a boy.

Hearing her escort for the evening laugh, Yui turned to face him. "Come on, Su-Shun. I want to see the rest of the city."

Suboshi allowed himself to be dragged along and idly began to wonder if it had been a good idea to refuse the guards or not. /At least she finally seems to have stopped worrying about being attacked again. And whatever Lord Nakago told her this afternoon seemed to make her even more depressed. I wonder what they talked about./

"Ladies and Gentlemen!"

Yui stopped and turned toward the new voice. In the center of the market place, someone had erected a small stage. Standing in the middle of the stage, was a tall man, dressed in robes that Yui vaguely recognized as being Opera robes. She fought down her urge to run as Suboshi started pulling her toward the gathering crowd.

"Tonight, we present for you, a gift to the Priestess of Seiryuu. It is the story of the Priestess from our homeland in Hokkan ..."

/Hokkan ... Nakago said that was the land of Genbu. Their Priestess came here two hundred years ago./ Yui gasped slightly when a young female character stepped out onto the stage in what appeared to be a school uniform similar to her own.

Suboshi looked at his companion. "Are you alright, Lady Yui? You seem rather ... upset."

"I ... the clothes the girl is wearing. They look like the uniforms we have to wear for school. That means ... she came from my world." Yui glanced at the younger man. "I mean, I thought that she and the Byakko no Miko had, but ... it's still a bit of a shock because, judging from the uniform, it can't have been that many years since they came here."

"But it has. The Genbu no Miko was two centuries ago and the Byakko no Miko was close to one, I think. I'm not entirely sure. The history of other lands was never very interesting to me," Suboshi shrugged. He glanced back at the performers and noticed that two of the Seishi that had been gathered were female. "Looks like Soi isn't the only one after all. She's always complaining about being the only woman."

Yui turned her attention back to the stage, just as a tall man wearing a red and black outfit stepped onto the stage. Her heart suddenly sounded as if it were in her head. She felt her chest tighten as she slowly started backing away from the stage. /He looks like ... he looks just like ... my dream ... the man that tried to ... kill Miaka./ She turned and started running, ignoring the voices of the people behind her.

Suboshi turned when he heard voices, cursing when he noticed that Yui was gone. He asked the people he had heard shouting and cursed when they motioned toward the slums. "Stupid girl. She's gonna get herself killed at this rate."
One of the townspeople looked at him in shock. "She? You had better run boy. By the time you catch up to her, there's no telling what could happen. There's only thieves and murderers hang out in that part of town."

Suboshi cursed again and started running in the direction they indicated.

~~~~~~~~~~

"The young guard ran after the Seiryuu no Miko. But as he turned a corner and came face to face with a dead end, he realized the people in the market had lied to him. He started back to search elsewhere, only to find his way blocked by several large men that had recognized him as one of the palace guards ..."

"K'so!"

Tetsuya dropped the glass he had been cleaning and ran into the living room. "Kyoshi, what happened?"

"They've got Suboshi cornered and Yui ran off again. It doesn't say where she is, but these guys are beating the crap out of him." Kyoshi then glanced up at the others. "What is it about these Seishi? They can't seem to avoid fights."

Keisuke nodded. "That's normal. Last time around, Tasuki and Tamahome were always fighting. Not to mention Nuriko was always smacking one or the other of them into the nearest wall." He smiled slightly, then moved to look at the book. "What's happening now?"

Kyoshi turned the page and sighed. "Yui's alright. But she's lost in the city. It's saying that Nakago sensed what was happening to Suboshi and has sent guards to find them. Guys, Yui's in serious trouble here."



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