Volume 4

After another one of Tamahome's confession of his undying love for Miaka, the seishi feel an evil presence. Then , with the help of Chichiri's magic, the one speaking, a Kutou spy, appeared. He delivers a message that the Kutou army has already advanced to the borders of Konan. He says they'll temporarily stop the attack in one condition: that Tamahome will present himself in the Kutou palace...alone. The spy runs away, "wrecking the wall", according to Nuriko.

Tamahome finds out that the towns attacked were near his, and Miaka worriedly asks him if he'll go. Tamahome smiles and tells her that he promised her that he won't, so he won't. Of course, Miaka doesn't believe him at first. But when she finally fell asleep, Tamahome sadly apologizes to her with a kiss, then runs off stealthily to the palace gates. He arrives in Kutou, and Yui welcomes him. She asks if Miaka really let him go. He tells her, "I'm sure she's mad at me, but she's really genki (cheerful), she'll get over it and will be able handle herself soon enough."

The next morning, Miaka runs around the palace calling for Tamahome, holding a notebook in her hands. All the racket she made woke up the other seishi, and she tells them of Tama-kun's disappearance, and that all sh found was the notebook opened to a page with Chinese kana. Hotohori reads it and tells them that Tamahome went to Kutou, and will come back when Miaka has found the remaining seishi. Miaka didn't want to believe it, but later decides to leave and look for the seishi with Chichiri and Nuriko. She presents to them a mirror that Taiitsukun gave her, that will help her look for the seishi. whenever a seishi is near, the mirror shines and a clue appears. Hotohori sadly allows them to go. While on their way, the mirror shines and says "Yama" (mountain). Nuriko notes that the nearest mountain is Mt. Leikaku, but the famed Mt. Leikaku bandits are there. Miaka says that it's OK, Cchichiri is with them...but they look back to see that he wasn't behind them. Back in Konan, Chichiri appears before Hotohori. He turns himself into Hotohori, and offers to cover for the Emperor.

Nuriko and Miaka stop at a diner to eat and wait for Chichiri. Miaka orders loads of food, while Nuriko cautiously watches the waiters. All this time, Miaka has been acting cheery, and Nuriko angrily tells her to stop forcing herself, wrecking a table in the process. Miaka tells him that Tamahome trusted her to do her job while he was away, so she has to remain strong and do it. As they were eating, Miaka suddenly turns pale, drops her chopsticks, and keels over. Nuriko is alarmed, thinking that she was poisoned, and the waiters attack him. Then, Hotohori appears for the rescue. They beat the crap out of the waiters and check on Miaka. Turns out she just choked a bit^_^;

Outside, Miaka looks at the Tama-kun's letter. Hotohori tells Miaka that she shouldn't be sad that Tama-kun left. "See these characters at the end? It means 'I love you'. That's how Tamahome feels for you, Miaka. He'll come back, so don't be sad." Miaka smiles at this and thanks him. Unable to control himself, Hotohori moves in for a kiss, but Miaka stops him. Suddenly, Nuriko pops out of nowhere, screaming "LOOK OUT!!!" a trap set by the Mt. Leikaku bandits appears and nearly hits Miaka. Hotohori pushes her out of the way, therefore getting himself wounded. The three are cornered by bandits, and they are taken to their headquarters.

While the three are bring tied, Kouji appears. Miaka makes a racket biting off pieces of the bandits' clothes, looking for a seishi mark. Because of this, Kouji takes her to their "leader." Before leaving, Miaka reassures her seishi, saying that she'll just go off to look for a seishi. And so, Miaka is led to the room of the leader of the Mt. Leikaku bandits...

The door opens to reveal Eiken, the drunk "leader" of the bandits. After Kouji leaves, Eiken begins slithering up Miaka's skirt, to which Miaka screams, of course. Outside, Kouji hears Miaka calling for Tamahome, but sadly just continues walking. Miaka tells herself that Eiken will strip in a few seconds, so she should know if he was the fifth seishi or not. Teary-eyed, she lets Eiken take advantage of her...

Meanwhile, the other bandits take interest in Hotohori and Nuriko, thinking they were beautiful...women. Nuriko notes that they ARE prettier than Miaka, after all^_^; The bandits let the two loose from their ropes and had them serve tea. Hotohori and Nuriko had no choice but to play the role, and Hotohori gets REALLY good at it...So good to the point that one of the bandits got drunk and clung onto his legs. Unable to put up with all that any longer, Hotohori asks Nuriko to "take care" of the guys. And so he does. After beating up the bandits (especially the one that STILL hugged Hotohori's legs, even knowing that he's a man), Hotohori and Nuriko go to look for Miaka.

The two reach Eiken's room and barge in, and Nuriko pretty much destroys the walls (again). They ask Eiken if he knows who Tasuki is. Eiken says yes, and, as if on cue, an amber-haired man appears from outside and grabs Miaka, commenting that he just left for a journey, and Eiken automatically proclaims himself the leader of the Mt. Leikaku bandits. Kouji appears and is stunned to see the amber-haired guy. "Genrou..." Genrou whips out seals and, suddenly, "wolves" appear and attack everyone in the room. Genrou jumps off, taking Miaka with him, and Eiken takes out a metal fan, and burns the "wolves".

Genrou takes Miaka to a dark house and attmpts to rape her. Miaka just lets him get started, with the same thought of finding the seishi in her brain. Genrou stops, saying that he doesn't like to do a girl who doesn't scream. (There's a funny scene here when Miaka herself removes Genrou's shirt to see if he has a mark:) Knocks come at the door, and someone speaks...

"Excuse me.."
"Yes who is it, please?"
"This is Kouji, Gen-chan's best buddy in the world!"
"Oh, yes, please come in!"

And the doors open. (Note:Kouji did the same thing when he took Miaka to Eiken's room) The Merry Bandit Duo make a dance of joy in seeing each other, then get doen to business. Kouji discusses the current goings-on in the Mt. Leikaku bandits. Apparently, though some of the bandits actually want Eiken to be the leader, most of them just followed Eiken because he has the fan. So what's the big deal with the fan? It's a magical one that has been handed down the generations of leaders of the Mt. Leikaku bandits. It can produce fire, too. Kouji tells Genrou that he should return and take his place as the leader. After all, he was trained by the preceeding leader himself. Miaka suggests that, that being the case, they SHOULD go back, and have Nuriko and Hotohori help them, and they can tell her where Tasuki is, along the way.

So the three go back to the headquarters. On the way, Miaka sees Genrou's seals, and asks what they're for. Genrou says that you write on it what you want to appear, like your favorite things in the world, and they appear. Miaka asks if she culd borrow some, when Nurikos and Hotohori appear, the latter nearly slicing Genrou's throat if Miaka had not stopped him and explained the situation. Now there were five of them. They enter the building and make an all-out attack. Of course, the four fighters kick butt, but they were still outnumbered. This calls for Genrou's seals. He throws them and summons wolves...but cakes, pastries, candies and other food appeared. He tries again, and the same thing happens..and we all know who the culprit is: Miaka. Eiken gets hold of Miaka, the four not knowing what to do. Suddenly, a familiar voice speaks a familiar line: "That's not the way to treat a girl..." and the character "demon" shines bright red. To everyone's surprise (thos who know him, that is), TAMAHOME appears! He kicks butt and takes care of the remaining bandits. He smiles at Miaka, but, and Miaka goes to hug him. But, just as she was about to touch him, he disappears, and a seal falls to the ground...Miaka had written what she wanted to appear...

Tasuki says that Tasuki is their leader that passed away. In the next town, they heard that there was someone who can cure people, and can raise the dead. The five go. They see Shouka and Myou Juan. Shouka won't come with them. Tasuki reveals himself and joins the group. Miaka gets an unknown fatal disease which gives her high fever and pains. No one know the cure, but if they kill Miaka, they know a way to bring her back to life. Miaka agrees that they kill her, and Hotohori prepares to do just that...

Hotohori tries, but can't kill Miaka so Shouka volunteers for the job instead. The three finds out that the real Shouka actually died 3(?) years ago and run back with Myou Juan to save Miaka from "shouka" that was actually possessed by a monster, the same one causing the epidemic, and the one that caused Shouka's death. Miaka figures out why this happened and calms Shouka down. Shouka asks Myou Juan to heal her, even if she has to die. He does so, and Shouka dies. He also heals Miaka, and Miaka sees a seishi mark on his hand, and he turns out to be Mitsukake. He carries Shouka sadly. Miaka remembers Tamahome and Yui, promising to herself that she'll save them both.