IMPORTANT NOTE; Before you read, I would just like to say I have nothing against Texan people, nor do I have anything against Mexican people. So if anyone takes offence, I deeply appologize. Nothing in here is meant to be racist.

"What would you like to order, sir?" I asked from behind the bar's counter while I was drying a glass with a clean, white rag. The man in front of me paused a moment, his eyes drifting down to where they shouldn't have been. I tried to take a deep, calming breath, don't smack him, don't smack him, DO NOT SMACK HIS HEAD OFF! "Sir?" I asked instead, my eyebrows rose as I set the glass on the counter.

The man shook his head and smiled up at me sweetly. "I'd like a miller, please." I smiled the diplomatic smile that I'd grown accustomed to using these past four months and turned before letting my expression sour as I rolled my eyes. How could anyone stand drinking alcohol? It smelled so nasty! Under regular circumstances I would have said something about it to the man, but I was sure that my boss would fire me.

Not that I really cared. I wasn't even going to be in this small, little, run-down Texas town by the end of this week.

I turned around and served the man his drink with that same diplomatic smile before returning to drying off the glasses.

Life is a strange thing, I've learned. It likes to fool you, lure you into a false sense of security. Everything seems to be good and then WHAM! It all falls apart and there's nothing you can do to stop it. The first few weeks after the tragedy are the worst; you're trying to move on, but you know you can't and it frustrates you to no end. After those first few weeks, you seem normal, but those who know you can see that you're broken and have no life left. That's one of the worst parts of it all, knowing you can't live up to what you're friends know you can be any longer.

That's the main reason I left.

No, there were other reasons too. I'd returned home from Japan shortly after my life collapsed about me. I was out of a job, but I still had all the money I ever needed. I still had all the money I ever needed, but I'll get to that later. I was tempted to sell the house that I'd bought, but when I thought about it more I figured that I'd need it after all this was done.

I went back to the school I'd originally been going to when I first came to this time period. It was awkward for me since everyone wouldn't stop staring and rumors wouldn't stop running around. Many said I was pregnant. No, I definitely wasn't that. Many said I'd lost my voice. No, not that either, I was healthy as a horse and could sing like a canary. Other's said I'd lost my fiancée.

That rumor was spot on.

I tried my best to ignore the rumors, but sometimes Crin would catch me in the bathroom trying to pull myself together. Hey, we can't all be perfect.

Anyway, I finished high school but instead of celebrating I started to completely devote my life to one thing…

Finding all the celestial warriors.

I tried to 'work from home', I really did. I even found two Byakko warriors living in different areas of California and I contacted them, letting them know I'd need them soon.

But it didn't take me long to hit a slump. I couldn't find any clues whatsoever, and none of my warrior's counsel helped. I started to get desperate. I had two more people to find from my side! So I did the only thing that I could figure to do.

I ran away.

Well, that's what Crin accused me of doing when I called the house using a pay phone in Nevada– the girls where now sleeping in the house I'd bought while the guys kept the old apartment. Ok, just because I successfully snuck out in the dead of the night without telling anyone where I was going and only leaving a note behind telling them that I'd be fine and they didn't have to worry, doesn't mean I actually "ran away". I just took my work away from home, that's all.

Look, all I wanted was some time alone. My warriors and friends were all trying to be nice, to keep away from that taboo subject, all of them hoping I wouldn't notice, but I did. I know they were just trying to help, but I couldn't stand it. I didn't want to have Takara sneaking into my room every night to check on me anymore. I didn't want them to sneak pitied looks at me any longer. I just wanted to pretend that everything was fine.

Even though it wasn't, but that's not the point.

I called them every week for the past two months using pay phones just before I left an area so that I couldn't be tracked. I had no credit cards or anything that they could track me with either, just the cash I'd pulled out of the bank the day before I left.

So I'd been traveling around the country looking for my celestial warriors. It was kind of nice to see the things I'd seen in pictures in books, they were so much prettier live and in person. And on the road I felt free. I could finally understand why for the longest time he originally wanted to travel alone. It was so…peaceful.

CRASH!

I sighed and gently put the cup I'd been drying onto the table. "Takiko!" My manager called, "go clean up the glass spill under table 5!"

I hated customers.

Nevertheless I grabbed the broom and walked out from behind the bar and headed towards table 5, ignoring the looks I got from the guys at the counter. Men were so unattractive when they were drunk, I'd come to realize. And yet they tended to reveal more of the things you wanted at the same time.

As I started to sweep the mess, the man sitting at the table grinned up at me with a cocky smile. "Hey babe," he gushed. I paused and looked at him skeptically and then went back to sweeping.

"Hello sir." I hoped with all my being that he got the message and left me alone, but apparently he didn't. Instead, he snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me to him. Um, Hooters was down the street, I wanted to point out, but refrained. Instead I pushed myself out of his grasp.

"Hey babe, don't be like that!" The man gushed. I stopped sweeping and looked at him again. This guy was like in his mid-forties, it seemed. I don't know how he thought I'd ever go for a guy like him, but apparently he seemed to be hoping.

"Sorry sir, is there anything I can get you? A refill, perhaps?" I asked as sweetly as possible.

"Nah, that's okay babe!" I smiled at him and then turned back to my sweeping, resisting the urge to smack him. I hated pet names. I wasn't a dog.

I leaned down with the dust pan to sweep up the glass and as I was doing so, I could see the man looking down my blouse through the reflection of the glass shard.

That's it, I thought as I casually thrust the broom handle into his jaw. "OUCH!" he yelped, rubbing his jaw. I looked up, my eyes innocent.

"Oh dear, clumsy me! I'm so sorry sir; can I get you anything to make up for that?" I stood with the now full dust pan in my hand. The man said nothing for a moment and I hoped he was too angry to want something, but my hopes were in vain. Instead, he smiled a strained smile and wrapped his arms around my waist again, this time tighter.

"Nah, I'm fine!" He gushed again. I was really starting to get sick.

"Sir, could you please let me go?" I asked in a strained voice. The man said nothing, only pulled me tighter and nuzzled his face into my stomach. "Sir…let me go." My voice was now hard as I looked back at my co-worker, Jenny I think her name was, for help. Jenny seemed to get the message; she instantly excused herself from where she was serving someone I couldn't see and started over, the bottle still sitting on her silver platter.

"Sir," Jenny started as soon as she was close enough. Out of the corner of my right eye I could see someone heading towards the scene as though to put a stop to it, but before that could happen I grabbed the bottle on Jenny's platter and smashed the guy over the head with it. The guy yelped and instantly let go as he passed out on the floor. I stepped away, handing what was left of the broken bottle to a shocked Jenny who stared at me like I'd just grown another head.

"Here you go." I simply told her with a small, amused smile. I turned around to see who it was that had started to come to my rescue and froze. The person had tried to hide themselves behind a newspaper, but it was too late. I hadn't seen their face, but I knew who it was just by the little I'd seen.

"TAKIKO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" My manager screamed as he ran to the scene, "THAT'S A CUSTOMER…"

"Well I just did," I whirled to face him, my hands on my hips. "And I also just quit." I untied the apron from around my waist and tossed it to him. He caught it with a dazed look.

"You can't just…"

"But I did." I interrupted as I headed towards the back to change out of my uniform. "See you later…" I called as I walked through the employee bathroom where my bag was. "Not," I muttered. I quickly pulled my now shoulder length hair out of the pony tail I'd thrown it into and ran my fingers through it, trying to get the crease out of it. It didn't take me long and I quickly changed into a pair of Jeans and a black, v-neck t-shirt. Before I left the bathroom, I shrugged on my motorcycle boots and a motorcycle jacket.

As I left the bathroom, I glanced towards where the would-be savior had been sitting to find the seat empty. I sighed and left the bar through the back door. Somehow I had a feeling I'd be meeting up with them quite soon.

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I trudged up the slippery metal stairs of the motel, the warm wind gently blowing in my face as I did so. It was about nine thirty and in the distance I could hear a coyote howl while another one barked somewhere else. Besides that the little town was silent. As I reached the top of the stairs, a car passed by on the only main road, but quickly disappeared into the middle of nowhere. That's pretty much what most of Texas was, I'd noticed. If there wasn't a small town or a major city, you were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. And small towns usually only had a few trailer homes, a motel, a Wendy's, a bar and a gas station. If they were lucky, they had a few more restaurants.

Hey, we had Ihop, so I didn't complain.

I reached the top of the stairs and started to head towards the room I was occupying in the little motel, my boots thudding against the metal floor. My neighbor, who was about my age and was talking to her boyfriend, looked over at me and smiled as I walked by. "Hello Takiko, how are you?"

I stopped just before my door and smiled a little. "I'll manage," I replied in a small, polite voice. I had absolutely no clue what her name was and I'd been living here for two weeks now. All I knew about her was that she was always with her boyfriend when I got home from work. It was like they just hung outside all the time like no one minded watching them make out. And trust me, I minded. Frankly I minded whenever someone was getting all lovey dovey in public. Now I understood what Takara, my fiancée's sister, meant when she said "get a room!"

"Well, goodnight Takiko," she said after an awkward silence, looking at me as though she didn't know what to say to me.

"Goodnight," I replied again before unlocking my door and stepping into my dark room. As soon as the door was closed I sighed and leaned against it, my fingers reaching for the switch. When I found it I flipped the light on and looked into the empty room before me.

The room had one double bed—like I needed that – with a night stand on either side. In front of the bed was a fairly good sized TV sitting on some drawers. On the other side of the room was a small kitchen that I'd hardly ever touched – hey, I wasn't that great of a cook, I wasn't going to risk poisoning myself—with a small round table in the middle of it.

I went over to the table and dropped my bag onto it as I sat in the chair and started to take of my boots. As I sat down, I took one better look around…

Something wasn't right in here.

Every morning I had a habit of making the bed. Don't ask why, I just did. And after watching a little of the weather I always placed the controllers on the bed's right side nightstand.

The bed's sheets were now crumpled as though someone had been lying on it and the TV remote was lying on the bed.

I instantly tensed, my heart thudding in my chest. At first I was wondering if some random creepy guy had broken into my apartment and was waiting till the perfect moment to jump out and murder me with an axe, but then I remembered the person in the bar and let out a sigh of relief. I really needed to stop watching horror movies.

I looked around, trying to see where they might be and my eyes fell immediately to the bathroom door to find it firmly closed.

And I'd kept it open this morning.

I casually finished taking off my boots and then strolled over to the bed, plopping myself down on it. I waited till I was comfortable before I said anything.

"You can come out of the bathroom now, Crin. I didn't hear any reports of there being a twister or anything, so there really is no point of hiding in there." (An; for those of you who don't know, Texas doesn't have basements, so if there's a twister, one of the safest places to hide is in the bathtub. It goes for anywhere without a basement. And yes, I actually have been in a twister before, but not a dangerous one. It didn't even touch the ground, so all it did was blow and knock down some trash cans. Ari's AN: I've been in like five, and one almost touched down in front of my house. It was scary…)

"I'm not hiding! I just needed to…um…I NEEDED TO PEE!" I rolled my eyes as her voice drifted from the bathroom.

"Sure you did Crin. Seriously, come out of there please." I called again, flipping the TV on and going through the channels as though I was completely calm. Football…football…more football… Texans just loves football, don't they?

"Oh fine…but I really did need to pee. You just surprised me when you came in is all. I mean, it's Texas , you never know if there will be some random guy with a chainsaw busting in." Crin mumbled to herself as she came out of the bathroom.

My eyebrows rose as I muted the TV. "I think you need to stop watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre." I told her, "and what in the world are you doing, breaking into my room? I could turn you in for breaking and entering."

"Technically, I did not break anything, if you will notice. Therefore I only entered and that is not against the law." Crin stated, matter-of-factly. I rolled my eyes again.

"Okay seriously," I finally said after an awkward pause, "What are you doing here?"

Crin instantly became serious, her hands going to her hip as she got ready to scold me. "What do you think I'm doing here? You leave a note saying 'oh, I'll be fine, no need to worry!' No need to worry my butt! You have dangerous people tailing you and you run off to fulfill your own happy little needs. I don't blame you for ditching the rest of them but wherever you go you need to take me with you! I mean we're bestest buddies!" I burst into laughter and sat up, shaking my head and rubbing my temples.

"Do I look injured to you? Physically, I mean."

Crin's eyebrows rose. "Do you want me to check? Because the last time I checked you for injuries I found that you are way too modest for your own good."

I looked up at her skeptically. "No, I'm good thanks. I'm fine, really. Sure, the ribs hurt if I do something too…" I stopped myself before I could say 'reckless', but Crin's eyebrows rose, indicating that she knew perfectly well what I was about to say. "Well, you get it. But other than that I'm healthy as a horse!" Crin didn't look like she believed me, so I sighed and changed the subject. "Well at least I called every other week."

Ok, well calling them hadn't actually helped lessen the magnitude of what I'd done. My phone conversations pretty much went like this;

Me; "Hey guys, I'm just calling to let you know I'm alive." Oh….now that I thought about it that didn't sound too good…

Everyone on speaker at once; "ARE YOU OKAY? WHEN ARE YOU COMING HOME?" etc.

Crin; "EVERYONE SHUT UP! Takiko, where are you?"

Me; "Oh, just leaving this place…"

Crin; "THAT'S NOT A LOCATION!"

Me; "Look, I gotta go, see you later, okay?"

So I didn't blame Crin for suddenly blowing up like she did. As soon as I mentioned the phone calls, her eyes flashed red and her hands clenched into fists.

"Let's get one thing straight, those sorry excuses for 'phone calls' were totally insufficient by any means. I can understand you not wanting them to tag along but I was very, extremely, offended when you left me behind!"

I gulped and had to seriously resist the urge to duck behind the bed for cover; I was terrified she'd start throwing flames. "Crin…take deep, calming breaths please! We really don't need to be burning down the motel, because that would be a bad thing. You might hurt someone, you don't want that do you?" I was using my calming, light voice. The Red in Crin's eyes became less vibrant, but they were still there. She seemed more irritated now. "Okay, I'm sorry I didn't take you. I didn't mean to offend you, seriously. Next time I decide to take my work away from home—I DID NOT RUN AWAY!" I pointed at her when she opened her mouth to protest, "I will make sure to bring you along."

"You better!" Crin huffed, "Now, what's this taking your work away from home? Do you honestly think roaming all over the country is going to help you magically run into a warrior?" I smiled a secret smile, this was just what I'd been hoping the conversation would turn to.

"Well, I figured since that's how I did it back in the book, I should be able to do it again. And," I stood, my hands on my hips and a small smile of triumph on my face. "I found one."

"One? You really think that the ratio of four months to one warrior is going to get us anywhere? Really Takiko, I thought you were smarter than that."

I rolled my eyes. "I've only been missing for two months, excuse me. And the country is huge. We know where Hagus is….sort of…but we need to find his twin brother." I started to pace, "Once we find his twin brother and get him out of Temudan's hands, I'm sure Hagus will have a much easier time with joining us." I paused, "Oh, and don't forget the two Byakko warriors I found before I left."

"Well let's see, that means you have five more Byakko warriors to find correct? And not only that but we still need to help Yui and Miaka find the rest of their warriors."

"Miaka is taken care of," I reminded Crin, "she knows where all her warriors are and I'm going to be calling them soon to find out where they are on that."

Crin shifted from one foot to the other as she thought of another way to get me. "Well," She started, dragging the ll's out. Finally, in a sudden rush of words that I had to really had to concentrate to understand, she said, "But still, you have a lot to do and it will be easier with two people and I know that secretly you missed me and ok maybe I missed you a bit too but you can't do this alone so you have to let me help you!"

I blinked at her for a long moment as her words sunk in and then I started to giggle. Before she could react, I had my arms around her in a tight hug. "It's not a secret, silly, of COURSE I missed you! Why wouldn't I?" I pulled away, but my hands were still on her shoulders. "You have kept me sane these past four months." My voice darkened, but I still tried to keep the tone light.

Crin smiled a bit before she changed the subject. "Let's get this show on the road then! Now, tell me about this warrior you found, and might I ask why you are in Texas ? You know that only scary people live in Texas ." I burst out laughing and patted her shoulder.

"Seriously, lay off the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Anyway, this warrior I found is Hatsui. I was worried about him from the beginning because he's only a kid. If he had parents, what was I supposed to say? 'Hey, I need to borrow your kid for a really long time because he's my celestial warrior and we need to take down some bad guy butt so that I can get Genbu out of my hair and my fiancée back!' Somehow I didn't think any good parent would fall for that.

"So then I thought what if he's in an orphanage? I'm not old enough to adopt a kid and I'm not ready to take that kind of responsibility. And I couldn't tell the orphanage that, nor could I just kidnap him. The cops would be looking for him everywhere and he'd be all over the news. So I went down to Mexico on one of my days off, just for the heck of it, and guess what acted up on the border?"

"The Necklace," Crin answered.

"Yup! So I followed it and it turns out he's just living on the streets. Which is bad for him…but still, makes things a whole lot easier. So for the past few weeks I've been setting up a way to get him out of there legally. And now," I walked over to my bag and pulled out the papers, waving them proudly in the air. "I got them. I'm busting him out of there tomorrow!"

Crin clapped her hands together in excitement. "Yay! I've always wanted to try some of that special Mexican Candy!"

"And after we get him, guess where we're going?" Crin shrugged, "Home."

Crin's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "EH?! But I thought you and I were going to get special best buddies alone time where we could have sleepovers and stay up late watching scary movies!"

I shook my head. "Crin, I've been out on the road for two months. Believe it or not I actually am very tired and although I like being out here alone, I still think it's time to go home. I was going to go home anyway after I got Hatsui. Besides, I'd like to sleep in my own bed." I paused, "And I think that Temdan's headquarters are somewhere in northern California . Not quite where we live, but close enough. That's something we ALL need to be in on."

I sighed, "We can have a sleepover tonight, if you want. And whenever you want, I'll get the other girls to go sleep at the apartment and we can have the whole mansion to ourselves. I'll even let you fill the pool with chocolate."

Crin's eyes brightened, "I never thought of that," she whispered to herself as she considered the possibilities. Suddenly her expression became serious, "Takiko, do you really think you're ready for this? Once we gather all the warriors and face Temdan who knows what the outcome will be? Some of us might even get killed. Are you ready to face that if it happens?"

I stopped smiling and frowned, my eyebrows furrowing. "I don't think that's something anyone can be ready for, Crin. I wasn't ready for it the first time either, but I still did it. I've realized that in battle people die, and I don't want anyone of you to die. I'll do anything to prevent that from happening. I just…don't know if I can face it afterwards."

Crin sighed and shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. As for now, let's get Hatsui!"

I burst into laughter; Crin was the only one who could make me do that nowadays. "It's the middle of the night, silly. Let me take a shower and we'll go first thing in the morning."

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The next morning I strode out to my Harley in jeans, motorcycle boots, a black tank top and a motorcycle jacket, and stuffed my bag into the storage compartment to the side of the motorcycle. Crin stared at me from the stairs, wearing her usual frills despite the heat.

"You know how to drive a motorcycle?" She asked warily.

"Actually it was one of my first vehicles upon arriving in this century." I didn't feel like explaining the reason why I decided to buy one now.

I liked the feeling of being surrounded by wind.

"Um, I'll be right back." Suddenly Crin dashed back into the apartment. I sighed and started the motorcycle, waiting for her to come back. When she finally dashed back, wearing a matching, tight fitting black graphic T-shirt and a black mini skirt. "See! Now I'm hardcore too!"

I rolled my eyes and motioned with my head for her to hop on, which she gladly did so. "Keep your legs away from the muffler please."

"But…I'm hardcore…"

"Just be careful, okay?" I started off down the street, the wind blowing the mumbled complaints that Crin had started up back behind me.

For a long while we drove in silence. The only sound was the motorcycle, the wind running through our hair and the cars we passed as we sped by, going at speeds higher than what was really legal.

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the border – I hadn't been living too far away from the border in the first place—and when I pulled up to the gate, I smiled sweetly at the guard standing there.

"Good afternoon," I greeted as the guard strolled over. I'd met him a few times from my trips over the border to work on getting Hatsui into America legally. He smiled back at me.

"Ms. Okuda," he greeted back. "How long will you be in Mexico ?"

"Hour at the most. I have what I need, I just need to get my friend." The guard nodded and stepped aside, waving me through. I thanked him and then sped off over the bridge that connected the two countries.

"Aren't they supposed to check your luggage?" Crin asked from behind me. I shrugged in response as my mind drifted to the contents in my bag.

"I don't know, but it would be bad if they did." I replied.

"Why?"

"You know why." My voice said it all. Ever since I'd bought my first gun – which I had lost after the first time I'd used it—I'd kept the gun Sarin had given me in my bag at all times. I'd never actually used it since then, but I still kept it close just in case. Truthfully I was a little scared to use it again. Sarin had convinced me that killing Ziyi wasn't my fault because if I hadn't he would have killed me, but I still felt a little uneasy about using a gun again.

After a few moments of silence, we started to enter into one of the border cities. I slowed down, trying to avoid hitting bystanders or homeless people. It didn't take long for Crin to get angry. She let out a low hiss and in my mind I could picture her eyes turning red.

"You went here WITHOUT ME? YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KIDNAPED! OR WORSE! AND NO ONE WOULD HAVE CARED SO THEN WHERE WOULD WE BE? WE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIND YOU!"

"Crin," I sighed as I took a sharp turn down a dark alley way, "You can yell and scream at me all you want when I'm not driving."

"I can't believe you, walking into a place where you know you could get into serious trouble…I sometimes wonder if you're going to survive till the end of next month!" Crin mumbled, but I ignored her. "When are we going to get there? I wanna get out of here. This place is scarier than Texas ."

I turned another corner and slowed to a stop. "Right now." We were stopped in an alley way with no windows on either of the buildings. Trash was everywhere and it was obvious that sanitation was not used in this area at all. Crin cast me another disproving glance and I sighed irritably. "Well I wasn't going to just leave him here! He's my warrior and a very sweet one too!"

Crin shook her head but said nothing, only looked ahead at the seemingly deserted alley way. "So where is he?"

I shrugged in response. "He should be around here somewhere," I started to lead the way and Crin instantly followed close behind. We walked for a while, turning a few corners with caution. Anytime we passed a homeless guy Crin walked so close to me that I could feel her wariness illuminating from her body. I couldn't help but laugh; she was the one in a mini skirt.

Finally as we turned the last corner, we found him huddled against the wall…

With a group of three, clearly older teenage boys crowding around him. They were saying something in Spanish, something I couldn't understand—I'd performed once in Mexico City a few years back, so I only knew enough Spanish to get me through a song and to get me what I needed. But although I didn't understand a word or what they were saying, it was obvious that they were hostile. One of the boys grabbed a hold of his hair while the others kicked dirt onto Hatsui, who cowered there.

"HEY!" I yelled. Crin's head whirled to look at me, her eyes clearly telling me, "SHUT UP!" I didn't pay attention. "Do you guys speak English?"

The guy in the middle – I assumed he was the leader, he was much taller than I was—stepped forward, his eyes watching us warily, "Yes," he answered, although his English was heavily accented.

"I was wondering if you'd be so kind as to let the poor boy go." The boys glanced at each other before erupting into snickers. Had I said something funny?

"Sorry, but no can do." The leader answered me, his expression full of amusement. And then they just turned their backs on me and started taunting Hatsui again. As if I didn't even exist! Anger flared within me as I clenched my fists and narrowed my eyes. I really hated being stepped on.

Before anyone could stop me, I was running towards the leader of the group and leapt into the air, jumping onto his back and biting his neck. The boy I was on top of cried out and jumped back a step, his hands going to try to pull me off.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?" He yelled before he started saying a bunch of Spanish. The other boys looked like they didn't know what to do at first. Then one by one they seemed to snap out of it and started to go to their leader's aid…

Until Crin stepped in.

"Stay away from her," Crin growled, her voice menacing, her eyes deep red. "Unless you want to face me." The boys paused and then reluctantly laughed. The last time they'd laughed, I'd attacked their leader—who was still trying to get me off. In response I only bit harder, making him yelp again.

"You laugh now, creepy Mexican kids, but I'd just like you to SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" Crin suddenly whipped out her spear out of nowhere – how did she DO that?—and threatened the boys. The boys gulped, slowly backing off.

I unclamped my jaw from the boy's shoulder, but still held on tight. "Are you going to let the boy go?" I asked, my voice deadly. The boy hesitated, but when I leaned in to bite again he yelped.

"YES, WE'LL LEAVE HIM ALONE! JUST LET GO OF ME!" I gladly did so – he tasted REALLY nasty—and he backed up with the rest of his boys. I walked over to Hatsui – Crin still had her spear ready to pierce anyone who came near—and pulled him up.

"Are you alright, Hatsui?" I whispered to him, giving his arm a small squeeze. Hatsui nodded, his small, roundish body still quivering. He had hardly changed a bit since the book. The only difference was that he looked a little older and his hair was shorter. "Let's go then," I whispered as we started to back out of the alley way, our eyes staring warily at the boys who stood together, watching us with their black eyes.

It was VERY creepy.

As soon as we rounded the corner, we burst into a run, heading back for the motorcycle. I had Hatsui's hand and lead the way while Crin stayed a few paces behind to make sure the boys –who, I'm sure, were following us now—didn't attack.

When we rounded the last corner, I immediately threw my leg over the motorcycle, turning it on while Hatsui climbed up behind me, his arms wrapping around my waist. Crin practically threw herself onto the motorcycle when she made sure it was on, probably ruining my shocks. She looked like she didn't really care though, her expression was a mixture of annoyance and frustration as she cried, "GO!"

We sped off at a speed suitable for three passengers but enough for us to get far away from the boys who had just rounded the corner, leaving them literally in the dust.

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So here we go again! Yes, this story will be in Takiko's first person. I don't remember if I said that the last time I updated....But I've been making an outline and this story is going to be EPIC! Full of action-packed, suspensful sequences. IT WILL BE AMAZING! :D

REVIEW!

Love,

Alice

PS: READ REBORN BY ARI SORENO!