Nakago cleared his throat meaningfully.

"Gomen, Oniichan!" Kiri said, let go of Amiboshi's hand, and raced over to her brother. She threw her arms around him. She was in an inexplicably good mood.

He gingerly patted her. "You seem cheery."

"I'm really tired of this. I think this parody should finish," she said. "Hikaru-chan and I have already decided that there is going to be a continuation-"

Everyone in the room paled. So did the reader.

"-but this one is getting old," she continued, ignoring the faces.

"I see."

"So give them Hotohori's... daughter..." She snickered. "Mina's going to kill us..."

Hikaru nodded. "She is MY PenPal. She'll kill ME."

"Well, then. That's all right," said Makoto.

Hikaru glared.

Makoto hid behind Nakago.

Keisuke put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

Suddenly, all the scenery disappeared and most of the characters vanished.

Except Hikaru and Keisuke.

She was wearing a long billowing dress, gently moving in the wind. The same wind pushed her hair off her face. He wore a suit of armor so clean and new. She held wildflowers in her hands.

He turned her around. "I promise I'll be back."

She glanced up at him, then buried her face in his chest, never wanting him to leave.

She felt her chin being tipped up. "Keisuke," she whispered.

He smiled and leaned down.

And the scenery flickered and they were back in the palace.

In the same position.

Makoto giggled.

They turned a very bright red simultaneously, and hurriedly pulled away.

"See, Hikaru-chan?" Makoto laughed. "Isn't it fun?"

Hikaru glared, but maintained her heightened complexion.

Makoto jumped out from behind Nakago and gave Amiboshi a hug. "So now what?"

No one said anything.

Yui nervously stepped forward. "Well... we kind of need to get Hotohori's daughter back."

Makoto and Hikaru exploded into laughter, as did Nakago.

Everyone looked confused.

Makoto took a deep breath and steadied herself. "What do you say, Oniichan? If you just give... her... back, then we can go out to eat!"

"Okay," Nakago agreed.

Everyone stared.

And then promptly fell down.

All except Makoto, Nakago, and Amiboshi, but only because the last was still entwined in Makoto's hug.

Makoto let go of Amiboshi, walked to the center of the room, and was immediately surrounded by blazing fire.

"Why is it so hard to believe that he can be a good person?!?!? The only reason he had problems was because of that stupid emperor!!! So KNOCK IT OFF!!!"

"Uh... Kiri..." Nakago hesitantly interrupted. "I'm supposed to be the bad guy."

She looked crestfallen. The fire went out. "Oh." She sat down on the floor, suddenly depressed.

Amiboshi went over to her and helped her up. "It's okay," he told her. "I'm supposed to be a bad guy too."

She sniffled. "I guess I just have an affinity for evil people."

Hikaru frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Suboshi rolled over. "Legos... mine... NO!... I want... zzzz...."

Makoto's eyes lit up brighter than neon lights.

"I've got a GREAT idea!!" Makoto yelled.

Suddenly Miaka disappeared. In her place was... another Miaka? Except taller, prettier, nicer, and three years older.

"You're here!!" Makoto, grinning, ran over.

Miaka- the new one- looked bewildered. "I- I guess I am."

"Who is this?" Yui asked cautiously.

"IT'S MIAKA!!!" shouted Makoto cheerfully.

Everyone sweatdropped.

"She's my new Oneechan," she explained.

"Ohhh..." said... actually, no one did, because no one understood.

Suddenly, the light in Hikaru's eyes brightened too. "OH!! That Miaka!"

"YEAH!" Makoto grinned.

Fiboshi laughed and threw a muffin at her.

She threw it back at him.

It exploded.

"Ewww..." he said, precisely as Nakago had last chapter, and proceeded to pick muffin guts off himself.

"See?" Nakago asked. "It's no fun." Then he stuck his tongue out at him.

No one dared to fall down because Makoto was glaring so furiously.

"Wait a minute..." said Soi, coming out of the shadows. "If she's your Oneechan, where does that leave me?"

Makoto ran over to her and gave her a hug. "Right here. I can have two, you know."

Soi hugged her back.

"Better?"

"Yeah," agreed Soi. She went to stand over by Nakago. "Shall I bring his... daughter?" She began coughing into her hand.

"Are you okay?" asked Miaka, concerned.

"I like this Miaka better," Fiboshi said. "She's smart... and..."

"SMART!!!" yelled Fiboshi, Makoto, and Hikaru in unison. They cracked up.

While they were laughing hysterically, Soi disappeared.

She reappeared a second later with a child.

{begin camera pan, from feet up}

The child wore light pink shoes, a light pink flowered dress that actually looked very nice, and a very worn expression. The child had big green eyes, light pinkish-brown hair, complementing the dress nicely, and wore it in a pony tail on the top of the head. There were tears streaming from the child's eyes.

Everyone stared.

"Hime?" asked the smart Miaka. "Hotohori's daughter?"

The child nodded, VERY sadly.

"I hate authors," could be heard.

Tasuki had turned red from inheld laughter. Nuriko just stared. Sakura didn't care- she had Nuriko. Miaka was trying to figure out how she had gotten here. Soi was trying not to giggle. Nakago kept his eyes down. Chichiri had a shocked look on his face. Yui had paled. Tetsuya held her steady. Suboshi began to snore lightly. Keisuke blinked. Amiboshi stiffened. Fiboshi stood on his head.

"Hi, Chiriko!" said Hikaru, waving merrily.

The child dropped into sobs.

"Oops..." said Makato. "We didn't mean to make him cry..."

"He makes such a GOOD girl..." trailed off Hikaru.

Nakago snickered. "At least he's not Alice." He then glared at Hikaru.

"DIFFERENT PARODY!!" Hikaru protested. Keisuke stepped in front of her protectively.

"You know, we already ate Miaka's pizza," Makoto noted. "I don't really feel like any more..."

"Me neither," agreed Amiboshi. He was VERY glad he was the page owner's favorite character. MUCH safer.

Makoto turned to him, her eyes large. "You never have to be afraid of me... I never want you to."

He smiled gently and took her into his arms.

Everyone in the parody turned away from the mushy stuff.

"ANYWAY..." started Hikaru.

Fiboshi threw a muffin into the air, but as he was still on his head, his aim was poor and it just landed on the ground.

He then stood upright and walked over to Yui.

"Hi..." he said.

Tetsuya handed him a bill.

Fiboshi ate it happily.

"ANYWAY..." Hikaru tried again.

Keisuke was the only paying attention to her.

She grinned at him enticingly.

Miaka looked puzzled- and this was the SMART one! "Where's Tamahome?"

Everyone turned to Makoto. "Yeah, where is he?" asked Nakago.

"WHY, Oniichan?" asked Makoto, VERY unwillingly disentangling herself from Amiboshi's arms.

Nakago glared at her, but she glared right back. Nakago sighed. "I felt like tormenting someone, actually."

"Oh, in that case..." Makoto snapped.

Nothing happened.

"Huh?" she asked. "Uh-oh..."

"Uh-oh?" asked the smart Miaka.

"Um... he's not where I left him."

Kimura popped out of the wall. "WHAT?!?!"

Miaka sniffled. "But... my TAMAHOME!!" Her cry did not get anyway near the annoying high notes the original Miaka's did.

"MY Tamahome!!" exclaimed Kimura.

"WHAT?!?!" shrieked Miaka, nearly reaching those high notes now.

"He's MINE!" shouted Kimura.

"MINE!!" screamed back Miaka.

Makoto sighed, snapped again, and the dumb Miaka appeared.

She stared at the screaming girls, but then noticed that one looked vaguely like her. She sat down on the ground to figure it out.

Now that that was done, Makoto turned happily back to Amiboshi.

He grinned at her. "Hi."

She grinned back. "Hi."

There was a puddle of drool by Fiboshi's feet.

A girl, about 5'3", ran out of the shadows. She pulled at Makoto's sleeve.

Once more, Makoto sighed, and pulled away from Amiboshi. "Gerry-chan?"

The girl pointed at Suboshi. "Isn't he cute when he's sleeping?"

Makoto inched away. "Uh... sure..."

Gerry happily went over to Suboshi and sat down next to him.

Amiboshi smiled. "They make a cute couple."

"If only he was awake..." Makoto said, snickering.

"Who's Gerry?" asked Hikaru, drawn away from Keisuke by the strange person.

"She my wonderful translator, at least one of them, and also my PenPal," replied Makoto. "She has a funky page, too."

"Are you about done hauling in random people that will get a kick out of seeing their names in here?" asked Hikaru impatiently.

"Just making sure everyone is a couple..." Makoto said, scanning the room. "Let's see..."

"Me and Keisuke," Hikaru said hurriedly.

"Of course," replied Makoto. "Me and Amiboshi, Tetsuya and Yui, Tasuki and Azaria, Sakura and Nuriko, Gerry and Suboshi, Soi and Nakago-"

Nakago actually blushed, but no one noticed it because it was dark.

Makoto glanced at him, smiling. "-Chichiri and Houjin-sama-"

"Who's that?" Hikaru asked.

"Well... she's not here right now... but she's getting me the second OVAs... so I have to be nice..."

"Oh," said Hikaru.

"Who else?" mused Makoto. "Hmmm..."

"Hey, Kiri," growled Fiboshi. "What about me?"

"Oh, yeah..." Makoto said. "That's a hard one..."

"HEY!"

Amiboshi pinched his arm. Suboshi jumped up. "Ow!"

Immediately, Gerry, completely SD'd, launched herself at him. "Shun-chaaaannnnn!!!"

He stared at her in shock.

"I'm going to marry you," she told him gleefully.

He paled and looked to his brother for help.

Amiboshi very usefully shrugged and looked back to Makoto.

While Suboshi was trying to pry Gerry off his "nice, hard body" (HER words, not mine!!!), everyone else assembled into their couples, Azaria appearing from nowhere again, and began to square dance.

Except for Fiboshi.

He ate his muffins.

"Why are we doing this?" Hikaru asked, suddenly stopping.

"I don't know," Makoto said, snatching one of Fiboshi's muffins and eating it.

"HEY!" he said again.

She fed some of it to Amiboshi.

"This is really getting pointless..." said Hikaru.

Makoto pouted. "Fine. YOU finish it."

So she did.

Hikaru REALLY shouldn't leave me alone with the disk...

Makoto looked around at the utter chaos around her.

"How did it get this bad?" she asked.

"I think we lost control," Hikaru said as a muffin flew past her head.

"Ummm, weren't you going to end this anyway?" Yui asked hesitantly as she stepped aside just in time to let Fiboshi whizz past her and smack into the wall. The spazzed out Muffin Seishi fell backwards and little Muffins with Wings (Patent Pending) flew around his head.

"Yeah," Makoto sighed, "I guess we did."

Tetsuya pulled out his calculator and notepad. "We have enough money for one last chapter."

The two authors nodded and decided to fit as much nonsense into the last chapter as possible.

Chiriko was over in the corner crying, his head hung down and his hands clasping the cruel pink dress he was still wearing. Suddenly from off-stage, there was a loud rumble and a girl burst into view.

"What did you do? Why is he in a dress?" she demanded, pointing at Chiriko meaningfully.

Hikaru and Makoto gasped. "Mina ?!"

Mina shot a Death Glare (TM) at the two authors and grabbed Chiriko by the hand. "Come on, kid, we've got to fix this."

Chiriko looked back helplessly as he was dragged off-stage.

Miaka, Miaka, and Kimura were still trying to figure out who got Tamahome. Makoto swallowed and hoped she could find him, because if she couldn't, she'd be quite dead.

Hikaru smirked (oh, no, it's contagious!). "I'm just glad I wasn't the one with the keyboard when he disappeared."

Yet another Death (TM) flew between the co-authors. Nakago cleared his throat meaningfully for at least the 12th time this parody.

"So, you do plan on ending this, right? Shouldn't you return Hotohori's daugh... uh.... Chiriko to him? For some sort of closure?" Nakago asked, kicking a stray muffin out of his path as he walked towards the two girls.

"That'd make sense," Makoto thought.

Sakura nodded from her place next to Nuriko. "But how do we get all the way back to the palace in one chapter?"

Makoto opened her mouth as though to say something and them promptly closed it. She looked around the room thinking. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. "Hey!!!!"

Everyone in the room turned to look.

"We can take the train!!" she said.

Hikaru blinked. "There's a train?"

"Sure!" Makoto said.

Chichiri opened his mouth to tell them that trains didn't exist in this time, but then he remembered a certain SWAT team experience and kept quiet.

Makoto snapped and there was a tremor and the ground beneath them started shaking.

A train, straight from the commuter rail, barreled through the palace wall. Nakago grimaced.

"Gomen, Oniichan, I'll fix that later!" Makoto said brightly. "All aboard!!"

Everyone boarded the train, except Hikaru, who looked around questioningly. "Where's Chiriko?"

"He's over here!" a small high-pitched child's voice called.

Hikaru and Makoto looked toward the voice. It came from a small girl, about 10 years old. The girl looked strangely familiar. "Mina??" Hikaru asked incredulously.

The girl nodded.

"What in Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho happened?"

Mina pouted. "I tried to make Chiriko older, so he'd be near my age, but it backfired."

"Oh," Hikaru said. "Well, he is closer to your age..."

Mina glared at her and dragged Chiriko, now dressed in his normal attire, onto the train. "Can we just get going?!?!"

Makoto looked at Hikaru. The two girls shrugged and boarded the train. No sooner had they seated themselves than the train began whizzing through the country side away from the temple of Nakago and towards Hotohori's palace.

After about ten minutes of utter nonsense and loud dialogue which are purposely being left because they were pointless, the train pulled up just outside of Hotohori's palace.

Everyone piled off quickly and the frantic emperor ran out to greet them. "You're all okay! Did you manage to complete your mission?" he asked, eyeing Nakago, god of war, warily.

Miaka nodded. "Yup! Here's your daugh..." she stopped mid-sentence when she saw the glare Mina was giving her. "Your Chiriko!" she finished quickly.

Hotohori smiled and nodded, his little box hat rocking precariously with the motion. "Thank you! All of you, but doesn't that end this parody?"

Hikaru and Makoto exchanged a look. "For now..." Hikaru trailed off meaningfully.

"But but but but but!!!!" Fiboshi said, butting in, "I still haven't found my Miko or the rest of the Muffin Seishi!!"

Hikaru nodded. "Yeah, that's for the sequel."

"HEY!!!"

Makoto shrugged. "Also for the sequel." She grabbed Amiboshi's arm and walked over to Nakago and Soi. "Ready for that pizza?"

Nakago nodded. "Yeah, let's go. You want anyone else to come, Kiri?"

"Makoto."

"Whatever."

"Well," Makoto began. "You wanna come, Hikaru? Keisuke? Yui? Tetsuya? Suboshi (at this, Yui paled again)?"

The five in question nodded and left behind the rest of the confused cast either puzzling over the whereabouts of Tamahome, looking for a Muffin no Miko, or just sitting there being. And finally, the first long and spazzed out journey of Miaka: Warrior Miko and company ended, much the way it had begun, in complete disorder.

But remember, to every strange story, an even stranger sequel must come....

"Da da daaaaaaaaaa!!" Chichiri sang as the curtain closed.

Ha! Now you can't yell at me because it isn't done anymore, Kiri!!! Ha!! ~Hikaru

*snickers* Now we just have to finish part two and Saigo no Maku...