Lost to a Memory

Chapter 1: The Winter Sprite

The sanctuary was on edge. It had that tight chested atmosphere of a place that was waiting. Of an event hall that had been spruced and decorated and all that was missing was the party. It was a vibration in the air that set Ryuu's fox-like ears twitching in nervous suspense. He could almost hear the tension - like there was an orchestra of cicadas using his brain space as an auditorium but they had paused unexpectedly, waiting for something to pass so that they could continue playing.

Despite the tumult of anticipation, there was nothing else to tell Ryuu that anything was out of the ordinary. There had been some similar activity when a wall of snow had come to engulfed the place in a thick duvet of the stuff. The spirits had wakened in delight as they felt the disturbance of it in the air. Perhaps that was it. Maybe a storm was gathering itself up to show them what a real snow-in looked like. But Ryuu was well accustomed to weather patterns. He had a visceral knowledge about such things, and even if he hadn't, the signs that foreshadowed violent weather systems had been absent. Plus, to get the spirits in his care as hyped as they were, it would have to be one colossal storm. A sneaky colossal storm. And in the natural world, such a thing did not exist.

Ryuu knew the grove and it's inner workings better than he knew himself. It was the meaning of his life - to protect the grove and the few around the world like it that still remained. But the Ojiro sanctuary especially was dear to his heart. It was where he had found sanctuary in a life that had been torn with grief and hopelessness. This place, and it's creatures had cradled him and mopped out the pain from his aching soul when the rest of the world had done its worse to smother him in its darkest recesses. And though Ryuu knew the grove inside and out, he could not discern the seed that had grown such a commotion.

Unable to sit still until the mystery was resolved, Ryuu moved gracefully up an unwritten path that weaved around tall stones and artfully developed root systems, being careful not to unsettle the slumber of the secrets that could dwell there. It was his seventh patrol of the grove that night. He felt as restless as a soldier waiting for an inevitable battle. He didn't know when it would come, but it was coming. Ryuu paused. He'd been leaping nimbly across some stepping stones to get to the other side of a small creek. The hesitation interrupted his balance so that his foot slipped and broke into the ice. Ryuu cursed and hopped to the shore, his foot sopping wet and now freezing in the ankle deep snow. When had he ever begun to feel nervous about battle? Ryuu didn't even know that it was a battle that he was waiting for. It didn't matter though. Until the potential threat was no longer being held over the sanctuary like a swinging sword on a tether, there would be no rest. This place was his home, and under his shepherding, it would be kept from safe from harm.

Unfortunately, there was no way to know what the danger was for sure, if there even was one. Ryuu could only make hap-hazard guesses. And the spirits would be offering no clues. They hadn't yet risen into their physical forms, though they would once the event was upon them. For now, they resonated in the air, in the ground, in the trees - dormant, but active with anticipation. Maybe a new and renown spirit was on the verge of making it's home among them. Or perhaps something with more unsavoury business in mind was about to make an appearance.

Ryuu passed over an ancient wooden bridge on his way back to the shrine, cutting a path of footprints through the perfectly lain snow lit with the blue hues of moonlight. The worn beams of the bridge, painted, a vibrant red, stood out euphorically against the snowy backdrop and Ryuu's long black hair and traditional robes billowing out behind him made the scene even more striking. Gorgeous gems like the artfully crafted bridge were not a rare thing in the grove.

There were old statues, murals, and other ethereal works of art scattered all over, created by not only the lucky humans who had been lead to the sanctuary, but by spirits from all over the world. They had sought out sanctuary, found it, and had repaid it by adding to it's splendour. But once you found a sanctuary and left it, it was very hard to find again. That was just part of the sanctuary's whimsy - it would be open to all who needed it, and then hide itself away until one had reason to call upon it again. Ryuu felt himself very privileged to be a guardian of the sanctuaries.

When he reached the end of the bridge, Ryuu came to a halt, eyes widening in delight as his way was suddenly illuminated by the bright blue light of a floating wisp. The wisp bobbed soundlessly in the air, a disembodied tongue of flame, and came to hover over Ryuu's shyly cupped hands. He marvelled at the apparition lovingly. It'd been a while since one of the wisps had greeted him.

"What is it, little one?" he asked it softly.

The wisp brightened and flounced several meters away. It hovered there patiently and drifted away again once Ryuu was within touching distance. He followed it up the hill, past the frozen water fall, and to the moon pool. Ryuu had called it that for its circular shape and mystic nature. He figured that the pool was fed by underground rivers that went through the mountain. It made the pool look eternal, for it did not appear to have a source, and despite the efforts of the waterfall, it had never emptied. Ancients must have also appreciated the site, because japanese characters, telling of protection and guardianship, had been etched into standing stones along it's banks. Standing stones were also not a rarity in the grove. They were basically waystones, all varying in size, the largest could be classified as a boulder, the smallest came up to the middle of Ryuu's calf.

Ryuu's gaze passed over the pool and it's enormous border patrol of trees. The night was quiet, but for a lazy stirring of wind that fanned Ryuu's fine hair out in a halo around his face. Only the trembling of semi conscious spirits indicated that mischief was afoot. "I see nothing." Ryuu told the wisp. The wisp merely continued to flicker in that slow and hypnotizing way that wisps do. Then a shadow passed over the frozen pool. Ryuu instantly took to the darkness of the tree line, making himself virtually invisible.

The shadow came again, larger this time. Ryuu's finely tuned eyes shot up to it's master, and there found a boy. A large, hooded cloak flapped dramatically around his silhouette. In his hand: a large but slender staff with a cartoonish shepherds hook. What was this? The boy was certainly not human, despite his deceivingly human figure. And he'd never seen a lesser spirit that was quite so solid and natural looking, so it would likely be a greater spirit.

As Ryuu pondered, the boy became a victim of gravity, and plummeted out of the sky. Ryuu flinched, preparing himself for the crack of the bony spirit's body on ice, but it caught itself just in time. His pale feet touched down lightly on the silver ice like a dancer's in slow motion; toes, to pads, to heels. A fern-ish pattern of frost etched itself into the ice around the boy.

Ryuu straightened. All this commotion had been about a winter sprite? It was all very odd. They'd never had one visit before; winter sprites typically kept to the seelie court, and most of the creatures who called the seelie court home were heartless, virtueless beings -they had no need for sanctuary. But sprites were the lesser of the greater spirits. They were little vandals that existed to cause trouble. They could be somewhat dangerous if you had no knowledge about winter sprites and came across a large group of them. But they were, for the most part, weak, and small. And the spirit who stood gazing out at his surrounding did not look much like a winter sprite.

Like most winter sprites, the boy had white hair. It stuck up on one side as though he had slept on it funny, and it hung dangerously close to being in the way of his his eyes. But the white hair was where the similarities ended. His face wasn't all sharp angles, nor was his skin blue or his eyes black. But, he had obviously been endowed with winter powers, and so, Ryuu decided that the teenager was close enough to being winter sprite that that was what he would think the boy as being.

The sprite began crossing to Ryuu's side of the lake, taking careful, wobbly legged steps, leaning heavily on his staff for support as he did so. The sprite paused and bent over himself to give a few shallow coughs and straightened again. Then he collapsed. Ryuu's friendly wisp began to move towards the sprite, but Ryuu didn't need the prompting. He was already gathering the fallen winter child into his arms.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"A Kitsune."

Ryuu paused from grinding a glob strong smelling herbs to look across at the winter sprite. He had put down some blankets and pillows for the spirit to lie on. It had purple half moons beneath its eyes. Ryuu had hoped the spirit might sleep a while longer, it was obviously in a fragile state of exhaustion.

"Yes, I would seem to be so," he answered lightly, flicking a large fox-like ear, and went on grinding the herbs.

The sprite flew into a sitting position. "You can hear me?" He asked, eyes wide. He bent himself at the waist from left to right, showing an impressive amount of flexibility as his hair brushed the bed, a look of disbelief written across his face. "You can see me," he breathed.

"It would have been quite impossible for me to have brought you here if I couldn't." Ryuu responded after a moment of brief bewilderment. Now was not the time to address that. Finishing the concoction, Ryuu tapped the pestle approvingly against its matching mortar and scraped the sharply scented herbs into a steaming cup of tea. His tail made a shushing sound as it swept across the shrine's tatami mat and he came to kneel down next to the sprite, tea tray in hand. The sprite was very alert for one who showed all signs of extreme exhaustion.

"Drink this tea, it will give you some strength back," Ryuu told him, passing over the cup of tea. The sprite cupped the tea into his hands and sipped it slowly. He flinched at the bitterness, but didn't complain, and continued to take small sips. His gaze never left Ryuu for a moment. It was a while before he spoke.

"The stories say that a kitsune takes the form of a beautiful woman, or an old man. You couldn't make yourself a beautiful woman, could you?"

Ryuu blinked down in surprise at the unabashed sprite. It smiled back at him cheekily. "I am quite content with my gender and age, thank-you."

"But if you wanted to be a woman, could you?"

"I don't want to, so I won't."

"You have longer hair than some girls."

"I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"Come on, you're holding out on me, aren't you?"

"I was not born a girl, and I will not ever be a girl."

"Sure, sure." The sprite winked and waved a hand dismissively. He took another sip of tea, peering at him from over the brim of his cup with suddenly serious eyes, in apparent speculation.

"How are you able to see me?" He asked finally.

"Because I have working retinas," Ryuu said patiently, setting the spirit's empty tea cup back the tea tray.

The winter child was quiet a moment. "But no one else can see me."

Ryuu sensed a great amount of distress flooding from the spirit, and looked back up from the tea tray. The sprite had been leaning forward, peering out in a searching manner from beneath his wispy bangs with wide haunted eyes. Once they made eye contact, however; some of the spirit's distress ebbed away and the tension left his body.

"You do see me…"

Ryuu nodded slowly and made himself comfortable. Seeing the sprite's desperate need for it, he continued to hold eye contact. Why was it that no one else could see him, Ryuu mused.

"What's your name?"

"Jack. Frost. I'm Jack Frost." The boy said, and, seeing that the kitsune wasn't going anywhere, eased himself back into the the pillows that had been built up around him.

"I'm called Ryuu. Are you a sprite, Jack Frost?"

"A sprite?" Jack blinked a few times, his brows coming together. "No, I don't think so; a group of them tried to kill me once."

Ryuu's ears perked. Jack glanced up at them and then eyed Ryuu's tail. "So, were you born the way that you are?" Ryuu asked.

"I'm not actually sure. The moon pulled me out of some ice, told me my name, and then there I was." A look of hurt and irritation passed over the spirit's pale features, but disappeared just as quickly. Ryuu would have to address that later. But he knew the moon to be mostly a good spirit. One of the most powerful of them too. If Jack was a spirit because of the moon, he could likely be reassured that the sanctuary and it's locals were in no danger.

"Were you born a Kitsune?" Jack asked curiously.

"No. I was once a human."

The side of Jacks mouth twitched down. "You had a life before this one?" His eyes were pensive.

"Yes, but it's hazy and uncomfortable to dwell on."

Jack brought his gaze up to meet Ryuu's again when the kitsune placed a long nailed hand across the sprite's forehead. He was at a normal temperature for a human, but Jack was obviously no human. As long as they still had a life force, and winter magic coursing through their veins, Winter sprites were meant to stay cold. That meant the spirit was practically burning up. He had already removed the spirit's cloak to help him return to regular body temperature. Maybe the tea had been a bad idea. Jack frowned and closed his eyes. As though Ryuu's attention had made him remember all his ailments, Jack gave a shiver and rolled his shoulders to stretch out some invisible pain.

"I could not find any injuries. Do you recall being hurt before you fainted?"

Jack's eyes snapped open, and his body tensed. "Oh man," he gasped. He moved to get up, but Ryuu frowned and stuck his hand on Jack's shoulder to keep him there.

"Wait," he demanded, "If you've been injured you need to…" Then his nostrils flared, eyes widening. With a flap of swirling fabric and the whoosh of his long black tail, Ryuu was upon his feet, eyes cold; narrowed and deadly. Eye's that made you think of a dark body of water hiding mean creatures with sharp teeth and hot breath beneath it's deceivingly tranquil surface. Jack only realized that Ryuu had a sword to his throat when the moon blinked off of it, reflecting little points of light on the kitsune's robes.

"You carry an evil darkness, Frost sprite. Why have you come to desecrate this sanctuary? Speak quickly; your shadowed presence disturbs me and those who call this place their home." Ryuu tapped the silver blade of his katana against the goose-pimpled skin of Jack's neck.

"I don't know what you-" The wide eyed sprite began, lifting his chin and pushing himself into the pillows in an attempt to avoid the uncomfortable closeness between his neck and the blade. Then Jack gasped in pain. His hand leapt to his abdomen.

Without hesitation, Ryuu swooped down and lifted Jack's shirt up to his ribs, revealing a pulsing tar like substance. It's reaching tendrils grew with every throb, turning the surrounding capillaries purple beneath Jack's skin; which had taken on a sickly yellow colour. Like a leaking ink stain, the skin in closest contact to the anomaly was turning black.

"Woah. Well. That's concerning." Jack stated numbly.

Ryuu touched his katana to the diseased area. The Katana had been blessed with holy water and silver. It repelled all evil, so when he put it upon the sprite's plague ridden skin, a hissing noise was made as though the katana had been swapped with a hot poker. Jack flinched away with a cry of pain.

"What are you tying to do, brand me?" Jack bellowed, shielding the wound with one hand, and holding up the other between himself and Ryuu to ward of the threat of the katana.

"What caused this?" Ryuu murmured, ignoring Jack's accusation.

Jack blinked and furrowed his eyebrows. Ryuu thought at first that the sprite might be in further pain, but then he realized that Jack was just trying to remember.

"Umm, it was a shapeless creature, I think. Big and black. It's hard to…it's like a half forgotten nightmare or something."

Ryuu's ears pinned back on his head. No. It couldn't be. He shook his head. It wasn't, so it must have been something similar. Similar was still an alarming diagnosis.

"Ryuu? You're looking…"

Ryuu gave his attention back to the concerned looking sprite and wiped his face of expression. "Get up. We have to cleanse you. The phantom you fought may be trying to possess you."

Jack gave a sharp intake of breath as Ryuu helped him to his feet and half dragged him outside. It was very dark out. Heavy snow clouds had likely obscured the moon and stars. Sure enough, around them was the ever so quiet sound of snow gently settling across the ground, as light as goose feathers. It muffled the natural night time noises of creaking branches and scuffling creatures. Ryuu snapped his finger, and the outside lamps illuminated their way with blue fire, casting speckled shadows from falling snow across the ground.

"Neat." Jack said, eyeing the flickering blue flames appreciatively and they awkwardly crossed the shrine's patio, stairs, and snow covered walkway.

"You're kind of short, did you know?" Jack panted as Ryuu paused to adjust Jack's weight.

Ryuu bristled, but It was true. Though their aging process had likely stopped at around the same time, Ryuu was a noticeable amount shorter than the other boy. Times were difficult when he had been growing up, and so it had been hard to find enough food to fulfill his height capacity. He flicked up his ears and it added just enough for them to be about the same height and then some. Jack noticed and laughed.

Ryuu glared at the other boy and thought about dropping him. There was no way Jack would be able to stand without his support. "You really have no idea who you're talking to. Now do you want me to save you from possession or don't you? Because I don't think I would mind so much any more to see you as a phantom's drooling servants."

"Ooh, you should be more careful about showing that red button. You know what they say bout those; you shouldn't push them, but it's just soo hard not to."

Yup. Ryuu would drop him and then kick him for good measure. Let the sprite deal with the phantom by himself. Ryuu managed to resist the urge.

"So this cleansing thing… do I get some great spiritual bath or something?" Jack joked nervously eyeing the small tub sized, stone basin that Ryuu had lead them to. The water had a thin layer of ice. Unlike everything else, the basin was not covered in snow. This was due to a traditionally designed shelter over top of it.

"Basically." Ryuu said. He sensed a wave of nervousness from the spirit.

The basin was a purifying well. Phantoms and other plaguing darknesses could not stand anything that was meant to be holy, so a quick dip would likely force the parasitic phantom out of Jack. There were some potential flaws in the solution though. When Jack had stepped on the Moon Pool, the ice had thickened. It was possible that the same thing would happen should Jack make skin contact with this water. Also, a purge was painful. The phantom had already bonded to Jack's body, so it's pain would be his pain. If he went in slowly, the immediate reaction would be to jump right back out. Fast and unexpectedly was their best bet.

"This will sting at first." Ryuu warned, and then using the back of the boy's shirt as leverage, yanked the sprite down towards the ice. With a surprised yelp, Jack's slender legs flew over his head and he fell. Water splashed over the basin walls to turn the snow on the ground to slush, and Jack was submerged for a quarter of a second before he came up gasping.

"What the…" The Frost spirit began, and then his eyes widened and a strangled sound came from his throat. He clutched at Ryuu's robes to lift himself up out of the water, but Ryuu pushed him back down.

"Stop, struggling," Ryuu growled, "The pain is good, it means the phantom is letting go."

But Jack, snarling and squirming like a feral cat, continued to fight the efforts that kept him from escaping the tub. He nearly got away too when he surprised the kitsune by clawing at Ryuu's face, until Ryuu finally managed to get a good fistful of the hair at the nape of Jack's neck. But it wasn't necessary. Jack's pained, and terrified shouting was already falling down to ragged gasps. A black vapour rose from the water that sloshed back and forth and trembled with Jack's own shaking. They both watched it tensely until Ryuu ran it through with a sweep of his midnight tail, and like a shadowy smoke, it dissolved into the night.

Jack frowned at Ryuu, and pinched the kitsune's arm. Ryuu released him and, not caring about getting his robes any wetter than they already were, sat upon the ledge as Jack shakily scrambled out of the basin with choppy movements that were comparable to a drunk's. He stumbled forward several paces and then fell heavily to his knees, where he sat dripping and hugging himself, trying to still the shivers that coursed through his wiry frame. These shivers had nothing to do with the winter night chill; the sprite still reeked of fear.

"You're afraid of water." Ryuu said bluntly.

The sprite cast him a withering look from over his shoulder. "Anyone would have panicked if they were suddenly shoved underwater in a painful exorcism. I couldn't have just splashed a little water on it or something?"

"You'd damage the phantom, but then it would simply move to another part of your body and intensify it's efforts to posses you. Now, tell me, how did you come across it?"

"I-" Jack shuffled around to face him, sitting cross-legged, but trailed off, looking lost. "I'm not sure, exactly. I think… it just sort of woke up and attacked me. It's weird, but I can't actually remember what I was doing at the time."

Ryuu stiffened. All the similarities were there. Maybe he really hadn't defeated her. Ryuu swooped over to crouch in front of the sprite so that they were at eye level with each other. "Do you remember where you were? Before it attacked you, perhaps? Think hard." he put as much urgency into the command as he could.

Jack's look of surprise transformed into bewildered concentration "Ahh," Jack made a noise of frustration in the back of his throat. "There was… a big tree, I think. Yeah, it was a dead tree in a sort of crater or something. With stones all around it that were carved with japanese writing."

Ryuu's ears swivelled to pin back on his head. Closing his eyes in what appeared to be sudden weariness, he inhaled heavily through his nose.

"What, you know this place?"

Ryuu nodded, forcing his hands out of fists and looked back at the sprite. His purple eyes glittered quizzically. Oh yes, he knew the place well. It was where he had finally defeated Kukiko and sealed her grave, or, at least thought he had. Somehow the phantom must have survived, and though bound and weakened, waited and stored up her energy for the right opportunity. Jack Frost must have been exactly that opportunity. Kukiko was frightfully patient; she would never wait for second best. If she had decided that Jack should be the host that would free her, that meant that Jack was far more powerful than he appeared.

"Kukiko's Keep. It's where the spirit, the one that attacked you, was defeated and then it's remains, bound for good measure. Or at least, I believed that she had been defeated. If not, then she has been dormant and waiting for many many years to be freed. You're absolutely positive that there is nothing you can remember from after you came to Kukiko's Keep?"

"It's so weird."Jack laughed inhumourously. "I can't remember more than the place."

Ryuu nodded, staring at nothing "That's Kukiko's work. She steals memories. If she steals all their memories, she can possess a spirit to use as one of her puppets. As for the humans, she can only steal their good memories, thank the moon. However; it can corrupt a person, to live without knowing or remembering love and joy, and one's better moments. So as you can imagine, she's very dangerous." His narrowed eyes flicked up to Jacks. Kukiko had tried to take possession of Jack's soul, but that did not mean that Jack hadn't been an eager participant in her escape. Kukiko was deceitful; she didn't think twice about double crossing people.

Jack looked a little stunned at the information. "I might have actually met her before today."

This was news. "How old are you?"

"About a decade away from three hundred years. Close to it anyways."

The same amount of years that Kukiko had been imprisoned. "Why do you think you've met her?"

"There's a point in my life, when I became Jack Frost, I guess, where I can't remember anything before it."

Further proof that Jack was no sprite. Sprites were born the way that they were; as a lesser spirit - an ethereal being, weaker than any greater spirit. And Kukiko would not use a lowly winter sprite to free her, or even bother to take possession of one; spirits like that didn't care for their memories, there was nothing substantial there to use as the strings to puppeteer. "So thenJack Frost is your spirit name? The name that you were given when you became a spirit?"

Jack turned away from Ryuu and was silent a moment. "Spirit." He said softly, pulling up his hands to wiggle his fingers in front of his eyes. "Is that what I am, then? A ghost with a frosty staff." He lifted his face to the sky, seemingly to address the moon. "What's with that, huh?" It shone across his face like a layer of silk. After a moment, he seemed to remember himself and faced the kitsune again. He took in Ryuu's inquiring look and raised his impish eyebrows. "What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"Nothing," Ryuu answered quickly.

Realization passed over Jack's face. "Oh," he laughed. "Sorry, I forgot that's not really normal, what I just did there. I'm used to speaking my thoughts aloud to whatever it is that's around to talk to. I guess I've forgotten my people skills. Just wait though, I'm a knock out at one sided conversations if you ever want to stare off into the distance. Seriously, do it, you'll be really impressed with what I can come up with to keep the conversation rolling."

Ryuu was frozen in a horror that he grasped at with numb fingers, working desperately to keep it concealed beneath a blank face. Had the spirit really spent so long alone? In such desperation for someone to talk to that he contending with different voices in pretense of conversation? Ryuu knew loneliness. Just as he had told Jack, his own past was hazy; he wasn't sure of the details. There were images that came up, scenes he pushed back down into unconsciousness sometimes, but the memories of emotion were there - rage, brokeness, vengeance, despair, guilt, and over-all; a crushing weight of loneliness. But he had still always been seen at least. People acknowledged his existence, whereas Jack had no more proof of his existence than his own self-awareness and cause-effect reactions on the physical world.

"Yeah, you should ask the moon about it," Jack continued gaily. He turned his face back to the sky. "Am I right, you fat assed glow worm?" He shouted, smiling viciously.

The shrine's wind chimes began to tinkle. Merrily, at first, but then quickly increased to something more turbulent; a warning. A fierce wind that had been armed with ice, struck at them from over the moon pool, ripping at Ryuu's robes and yanking at his sensitive ears so that he was forced to plaster them to his head like a skull cap. The air was so dense with energy that Ryuu felt it running across his skin like static. Jack was left completely unfazed by the sudden storm. With a burning look on his face, he sat and stared at the moon through the frenzy of snow and wind, his hands fists at his side.

Then Ryuu gasped in surprise and pain as a thousand minds were suddenly brought into full consciousness, barreling into his own mind like a strike of lightening. They carried with them a sea of un-worded questions. The spirits needled and tugged at his senses - the rush of so many minds converging with his own was so aggressive that Ryuu's vision was nearly overwhelmed by darkness. Struggling against oblivion, he strained to pull up a mental barrier between himself and the lesser spirits, fighting them out of his mind with exhausting meticulousness. Panting with concentration, Ryuu pulled himself back to the situation at hand and forced himself upright again. His vision came back with blurred edges and a spotted overlay.

"Sure, make me a spirit!" Jack was screaming at the sky "Then make me invisible! And while your at it, go ahead and let a possessive phantom steal away all my memories! You sick, sick bastard! Why did you curse me?" His eyes were without pupils or irises, just two points of blue light.

"Jack," Ryuu interrupted. "We can get them back. Hey- listen to me." The spirit was quickly spiralling out of control. A storm like this could easily destroy the sanctuary if it expanded to include more than just them. But how did one get through to somebody under such distress? Some of the closer trees were creaking dangerously, their branches too rigid to last under such aggressive conditions. The lesser spirits belonging to the trees that fought against the hurricane force winds were bright flames of anxiety in Ryuu's mind. He had to act now. It was a gamble, but…

Ryuu wound up and backhanded Jack across the face with a hit so forceful that it snapped the spirit's head back. It was strong enough to send him sprawling into the snow, and Ryuu vaguely hoped he hadn't given the spirit whiplash. If Jack were human, he'd have had a few broken bones, but a strong greater spirits body could take an amazing amount of abuse and come out unscathed.

The wind died immediately and the snow was frozen in the air around them, showing the ribbon like paths of the currents that had inspired their blizzardly manner. It looked as though time had stopped. Ryuu was awed by the amount of raw power Jack seemed to have. He didn't even want to think about the chaos that would be sure to ensue if Kukiko had succeeded in possessing the winter spirit. Jack lifted himself up slowly. His bright eyes still glowed with a twitchy wildness. Now the bet began. Ryuu put a hand on Jack's shoulder who he tried to shake it off with a distaste that Ryuu didn't understand.

"Don't touch me. You can't touch me." He snarled vehemently, meeting the kitsune's searching gaze with violent eyes.

The air quivered around them with the tautness of a an armed bow: stretched back, waiting for it's release to deliver a deadly arrow. Though an agonizing chill crept up his arm, Ryuu stubbornly held his ground, remembering how his eye contact had calmed the spirit before.

"I see you," he told Jack. "You're no ghost; you are a tangible, touchable being. There is reason that you exist, Jack Frost, a potential that only you can fulfill. It is not a curse, it is a responsibility. It may not be pleasant, or fair, but it is the hand that you've been dealt."

"What right do you have to say so? You don't know what I've been through," Jack shouted, but there was no more edge to his voice. It was wavering and sad, the shout of someone who was being frustrated to tears. His shoulders had gone slack and the icy needles in Ryuu's arm were retreating. A great shudder ran through the boy, and he began to tilt sideways, but caught himself before he tumbled over. His eyes held Ryuu's as if they were his only line to staying above the grabbing waves in his mind. "I just want to know why I'm like this," he croaked.

"Come on." Ryuu said, helping the sprite to his feet. Jack seemed to be having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

"You can rest in my shrine again."

"I'd be alright out here too." Jack said through his sleepiness. He sounded nervous. Perhaps he was afraid of causing too much inconvenience. And it was inconvenient, Ryuu liked his own space, but this was a part of his guardianship, right? But there were other reasons that Ryuu could not just let Jack rest unsheltered beneath the stars.

"You've been disturbing the spirits from their sleep. My shrine has an active borderline around it, an invisible shield from mischievous lesser spirits, that will keep them from bothering you. Try to bottle up some of that emotion and energy, though, still, would you? Or they'll all want to come see what the fuss is about."

Jack glanced around them to check for the spirits. "They dangerous?"

"Not usually." Ryuu decided that he need not tell Jack that the spirits had nearly caused him to faint when they had woken all at once and latched their consciousness into his. Ryuu was very sensitive to the spiritual realm, and their effect on him was far more potent on him than it would be on most. But he had trained himself how to overcome their effects, for the most part.

"At least not purposefully dangerous. But with that show of power, and your emotional instability, they'll likely be drawn to you in hordes. Too many effects of various spirits can lead to very dangerous circumstances."

"Emotional instability? Your face is unstable," Jack muttered tiredly.

"I do not understand how that is possible."

"No, you're just too old to know when you've been burned."

"I cannot be burned so easily, I am a kitsune. We thrive in fire."

"You don't understand expressions at all, do you? Time to shake out the cobwebs in your innuendo schooling, old man."

"Not at all. You just need to come up with better insults."

Jack smiled wryly, a half raised, weary grin as they climbed the patio stairs. "I'm a little tired to unleash the fury of my full wit right now, but when I do, you'll be begging for mercy."

"I'm sure." Ryuu replied. There was no effort on sarcasm or wittiness. There were too many questions that niggled at Ryuu's patience, ones that needed answering to know just what Kukiko had planned for the spirit, and how she had broken the bonds that had kept the world safe from her wickedness. But by the way that Jack's feet dragged, and his eyelids drooped, Ryuu figured there would be no useable information to be gleaned from the sprite. When the pile of blankets and pillows that Ryuu had spread out for Jack came within reach, Jack fell forward without hesitation and curled up in their centre. He was asleep at once, leaving Ryuu alone to sort out his growing anxieties about the very much alive, and likely at large, Kukiko - the phantom that had, at one time, been his lover and his master.