A/N: There may be large amounts of time between chapters, and I'm trying to make them as long as possible.

Forest of Bloodletting

Crunch…crackle

Yoshiki woke up at the slight sound. Instantly ready to defend the girl next to him. Pulling the hatchet out, he quietly got up. Looking around to find Ayumi was only moving in her sleep. He decided to just stay awake; he could defend her better this way. Gazing at the sleeping girl his thoughts kept shifting around, silently scolding himself for his affections for Ayumi.

"Mochida?" Ayumi started speaking in her sleep.

Crunch….crunch…..crunch…

Yoshiki assumed that it was Ayumi moving around in her sleep. Glancing over to see her movements were not synchronized with the sounds. He picked up the hatchet furiously, to him, anyone stalking them, even if it was to just say 'Hello', was a potential threat to Ayumi, and should be dealt with, at the minimum, cautiously and a blade to their backs just in case. He had to be ready to kill anyone that could have mal-intent with Ayumi. He had to protect her; for all those times that he couldn't.

Looking around he couldn't find anyone. Turning around he ran into Ayumi, stumbling over her. "What are you doing? What are you trying to do to me? Mochida would be much better." She pouted.

"I thought I heard someone." He was answering without emotion. He had to keep a clean and calm exposure; he couldn't let her have another panic attack. Secretly cursing himself though, for not being considered what Satoshi was, to her that is.

"Don't be dumb." She said, some cheer starting to return to her voice, entrancing Yoshiki and tickling his eardrums. He started packing up everything they had, minus the can of beans that they ate the previous night. He kept the hatchet drawn though, holding it ready to kill any ambush.

"I'd feel a lot safer if you put that away." She said, gesturing to the hatchet.

'I can't risk ANYTHING happening to you', He thought in return, but just said, "I just want to keep it out, and just in case we run into bandits."

"What are you going to do, chop their firewood?" She said, joking, even though she did know what it could be used for.

'She's starting to cheer up!' He thought, "Hehe, I'll poke them with sharp sticks." He said with a smile, gesturing a small thrust, and muttered, "If it keeps you safe."

They walked and talked a little, trying to forget the state that they were currently in, and lighten the mood, only to fail when everything could be related to Heavenly Host. They just stopped talking, 'He looks like a Guardian' she thought, looking up at the boy that was next to her. He was walking with the sun to the right of him, silhouetting him as he passed through the spots of light and dark in the forest. She could feel tears welling in her eyes as she felt so bad for treating the way she did, but bit her tongue, she didn't want him to see a weakness or opening.

She was too distracted by the boy to her right. She ran into a tree, with a thud, falling backwards. She rubbed her head, trying to soothe the light pain, while Yoshiki crouched down next to her, inspecting her for any type of wound. His hands were careful as they inspected her, finding no wound. He helped her up, trying to make her, feel better.

Twang…Thunk.

The two turned around to face the sound to find a person, skinned and hung, it looked as if they were skinned before the hanging. Ayumi screeched, turning to Yoshiki, enveloping herself in him. More bodies fell, hundreds of them, at least three per tree, mostly four or five, the smell was repelling. All the bodies were hung the same way.

Yoshiki picked Ayumi up in his arms, still keeping her head buried in him. He ran, for a long time, eventually getting to a cleaning in the forest to place her down. She was having problems breathing, a panic attack, he sat her on his lap, waiting for it to pass. It continued for ten minutes, not showing any chance of her calming down, she was gripping the fabric of his pants. Yoshiki wrapped his arms around her waist, shushing her silently, trying to calm her down, and still not working.

"Please Ayumi, don't do this to me, feel the air. Into our lungs" He said in a mellow manor, breathing in loudly. "Air in" He repeated breathing in deeply. "Breath with me, Air in" He breathed in loudly again after saying this. It seemed to be working. Her grip on his pants loosened, she started to calm down, letting herself melt in his arms, tired from the lack of air in the panic attack. He sat with her, on the verge of tears at how close he was to losing her, refusing to let go of her, embracing her tightly. She eventually woke up.

"Is it ok now?" He asked her, his voice wobbled from the recent scare he had. She nodded, trying to stand, but falling back in his arms; she was still weak, slowly drifting off to sleep. Sighing, Yoshiki lifted her up to carry her on his back. Holding her hands to together over his chest with his left hand, and holding her legs above his waist with his right. He trekked until he tired, placing Ayumi propped up against a tree, sliding down next to her; she started to move in her sleep again, grabbing him to pull him closer to her. He put his arm around her for good measure, making sure she was there.

"AH! What are you trying to do?" She remembered some of what happened, "What happened?" She rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"You had a panic attack, and passed out; I carried you here, about two and a half miles from the other forest." As he explained it, everything that had happened returned to her.

"What did you mean…" She started.

"What?" He responded.

"You said 'Don't do this to me', what did you mean." She queried

"It's not important…" He responded solemnly. He stood up, stretching, knowing that his affections weren't of the matter right now, her life was. 'I will do anything to keep you alive and safe' He thought. Helping the weak girl up and letting her lean on him.

"Don't get any ideas; I'm only leaning on you for a crutch…" She sounded half mad and half afraid as she said this.

"You really don't trust me…" He muttered under his breath.

"Hmmm?" She pondered.

"Nothing…never mind." He walked at her pace, holding her lightly. They managed to cross a great distance together, but not as far as Yoshiki did when carrying her in a panic. Trying to make conversation as they went Yoshiki asked, "So, Shinozaki, how were your studies going before…all this?" He gestured to the environment around them. He already knew how things were going, they were close friends, but she didn't trust him, she wanted to, but her love for Satoshi and her general anger directed to him kept her at a distance.

"Good enough, how about you?" She was still leaving the distrust in her voice as she spoke.

"After Heavenly Host, I got worse again…" He started staring at his feet, feeling like he had failed her.

"You can't slack off…Gosh, you should try being more like Mochida." She stated bluntly, refusing to look his way. He started to feel tears well up into his eyes, hearing such harsh words from his love; he felt like grabbing the gun from her pocket…and shooting himself, but he knew that the feeling would pass, and he couldn't do that to her, without him she would surely die. He felt tears start to roll down his nose from the harsh words, looking away from Ayumi to keep her from seeing him like this, he hoped that one day, she would be his, or at least trust him. Ayumi heard the quiet groans that Yoshiki was making, looking over to him to see his head turned, starting to feel guilty, she wanted to apologize, but felt like it would just be another point in which he would exploit her.

"Shinozaki…" Yoshiki turned to Ayumi when saying this, "Why don't you trust me?" As he asked this, he tried to hold back tears, only to have his chest feel like a giant hole had begun to appear.

"Because…" She tried to find an excuse 'I do trust you' she thought, "You're not trustworthy." She said it with doubt in her voice. They travelled though the grey forest, Yoshiki felt so much pain right now, like he had a hole cut inside his chest with a searing hot knife. He wanted to try to make it better, kiss her and confess his love, but he knew that would only make things worse, she would trust him less, and probably run off after slapping him and rejecting him. Instead he mustered through the pain. The feeling stayed with him though, scorching his heart.

They found a small place that was perfect to place camp, a sheltered pine was close by, perfect place to sleep without anyone finding them, there were old empty cans there, looking like they had been there from before the world went to shit. Yoshiki picked up a few sticks for a fire, setting one up quickly, when he realized that he needed to teach Ayumi what to do in case she was captured, and how to defend herself. He rose up and put his hand on Ayumi's shoulder, he felt her shiver with what seemed to be fear and disgust.

"Shinozaki, I'm worried that you may be captured, and I don't want anything bad to happen, so I want to show you how to get out of a few situations." He said approaching her.

"Ok…but don't get grabby." She said in a cross between fear and anticipation.

"I won't, don't worry" He set his right arm around her neck and his left around her stomach, very gently, "Keep in mind that the holds will be a lot stronger in the actual situation." He began backing up, "Now what you do is elbow them in the gut, hard, and try to spin them off of you." He spoke smoothly as Ayumi breathed heavily, to have her follow his instruction, and throw him off of her, causing him to stumble. "You're going to need to do that a little harder, but you have the technique." Now if someone grabs you're arm, psychological harm will help, catch them off guard, yank away trying to twist there arm, try doing it lightly on me." He said holding onto her arm, to see her telegraph the movement, "Don't telegraph the movement, it'll only harm you, try again." So she tried again, lightly yanking away from his arm, "Good, once you are away, don't hesitate to stab or shoot the assaulting person, stab them in the gut or in the neck, the organs aren't protected there." Taking her hand meekly and showing her where on the neck and where in the gun. "If you shoot them, then go from under the chin, or into their chest." He said, pointing to the general area that she should shoot aim. "There's a very real possibility that I may die before I can get you to the vault, I just want to know that you can be safe on your own…" He said, somberly towering over her. Ayumi started to feel tears well up, his sad speech hit her hard she didn't want him to die,

'He can't' she thought, "PLEASE, Kishinuma! Don't die; DON'T leave me alone in this world!" She yelled curling up.

"I'll try my best not to…" He gravely said.

"Don't be so grave, you won't die" She started to move towards him, curling up next to him, "promise me, please…"

"I won't die…" Knowing that he had a very high chance of dying, but dying to protect her would be the best death possible, but he still promised her. "We should get some sleep…" He stated pulling her to under the tree so they could be sheltered. As Ayumi drifted off to sleep, Yoshiki stayed up to protect her, soon falling into a light sleep against the tree with the hatchet ready.