Author's Notes: Someone asked if this fic has been posted on LJ (for some odd reason that review was sent to my email, but never appeared in the reviews section), and yes, five chapters of this has already been posted in my livejournal. I'm known as Harumi, so just do a search, go to my memories and you'll be able to read it for yourself. I don't have very many memories, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Read, and enjoy. Review, critique, or flame at your leisure.

Summary: Akira and Hikaru are preoccupied with Shamanic magic. Think Tokyo Babylon and Onmyoji instead of Shaman King.

Chapter Two: Phoenix Flees

When they arrived at the simple screen doors that were the only barrier between a roomful of magical scholars and Shindou Hikaru, Akira noticed that Shindou had grown oddly quiet. A couple ideas flashed through his mind. Was Shindou starting to feel the magic present in the room? Or was the boy finally realizing that this wasn't just some silly game they were doing? Nevertheless, a shadow crossed the boy's face when Touya Kouyo's steady, low voice floated out from the shouji doors, bidding them to enter.

The doors slid open easily, and they entered the bright, calm room. To the left, the doors were open to reveal a traditional Japanese garden. Suddenly Akira was glad that he hadn't tweaked with the weather this morning. With the sun out, the atmosphere in the room was soothing rather than oppressive. A glance at Shindou's face showed that the boy was immediately terribly aware how out of place he was, dressed as he was in ordinary t-shirts and shorts.

"Otou-san, I've come home," Akira greeted formally, bowing slightly toward the formidable man at the end of the room. In front of this father formed two columns of students facing into the room. It looked like they had been practicing group spells before their arrival interrupted them.

Ogata murmured a similar greeting, and after a short bow took his place as the head of the right column of the room, closest to Akira's father.

"Welcome home Akira," Touya Kouyo said. "You should change out of your school uniform and return here immediately. We'll wait here for you." A slow turn of his head toward Shindou had the boy gulping audibly. So someone could intimidate him. It was good to know.

"You may sit, Shindou Hikaru."

Something that might have been a whimper came out of Shindou's throat, but he obeyed, sitting cross-legged on the tatami before his father's sharp gaze. Everyone else in the room was giving him similar scrutiny. It must be uncomfortable, being under the attention of so many.

Akira cast a suspicious glance in Ogata's direction. Ogata gave him a bland look that said nothing, but told Akira what he needed to know.

Mind reading without consent was a forbidden practice for most onmyoji, and considered one of the deepest acts of violation and privacy. The action was considered taboo in many schools, Touya's school among them. His father, no matter how great he was, could not have known Shindou's name with one glance, and he was not the type of man to break his own values and beliefs. That left Ogata, who even now must be holding a silent conference with his father by mind speech. Ogata must have felt that foreknowledge was important, and it was that realization that worried Akira more than anything else. Was there something Ogata saw that worried him enough to feel that his father must be warned? Akira bowed himself out of the room, a hard knot beginning to form in his stomach.

He returned to the room later changed back into the shamanic tunic he'd worn earlier that morning, and sat directly behind Shindou. The boy had somewhat relaxed between the time he'd left and returned, and was chatting nervously with his father.

"Umm…yeah. I go to Haze Junior High. I'm a second year student there."

"I see. Then you're the same age as Akira."

"I…I am? Oh."

His father nodded briefly at Akira, who nodded back.

"Shall we do this then? Ogata has told me that you've been blocked, and has expressed concerns regarding that. He's urged me to remove it as soon as possible, and after examining you, I have to agree."

"Ogata's…told you?"

At the boy's confusion, Touya Kouyo assumed the teaching expression Akira was so familiar with.

"While I was talking to you openly, Ogata was speaking to me silently in what we call mind speech."

"So you were reading each other's minds?"

"No. Mind speech is vastly different from mind reading. In many schools mind reading without the person's permission is a crime and punished swiftly. Do you know why?"

Shindou flushed at the question. He was clearly not expecting his questions to turn into a lesson, which was clearly what Akira's father had just done.

"I…it's wrong, isn't it? I mean, it'd be like reading someone's diary without their permission. And I guess with mind reading it's even worse, because when you read a diary at least the words are just words a person chooses to write out. When you read someone's mind you aren't just going to be reading words are you? You're going to be seeing…everything." His flush turned brighter, and he looked down at the ground in an attempt to avoid Touya Kouyo's gaze.

"Correct. Furthermore, a powerful mind reader can force his victim to relive the worst memories of his life, including things the victim might have forgotten. Done repeatedly, it can drive the victim mad."

"O-oh."

"Now, Ogata believes this block of yours was put on by someone else. I agree with his opinion. However, a block as powerful as the one that has been put on you requires a certain amount of mind reading. Do you have any idea who this person might have been?"

Hikaru shook his head.

"Are you sure?"

"No! I mean, yes. I don't remember anyone doing anything funny to me. I don't remember anything like that. And I didn't know magic was real until…" He turned around and waved emphatically at Akira, "…until this guy showed up!"

Well, at least he was no longer denying that magic was real. That was some progress at least.

If anything, Shindou's pronouncement made his father more concerned. Touya Kouyo crossed his arms in thought.

"What you say, if it is true, concerns me even more. Someone blocked your ability to sense magic, including your own. Your magic is powerful enough that the power required to block it is phenomenal. If you don't remember anything, than that also means that this person has rearranged your memories. I hope you don't need me to explain how wrong this is. I ask you again. Do you really have no idea who the person who blocked you might be?"

Something was happening to Shindou. He was starting to shake, in tiny little tremors, and then he curled up in himself, rocking back and forth.

"I don't remember. I really don't. Leave me alone!"

"Shindou…" Akira got up and proceeded to move toward the boy, but Shindou cast him a glare so full of venom it stopped him in his tracks.

"This is your fault! I didn't want to come here, but you dragged me here anyways. Now you people are asking me strange questions that I don't understand and I…I…" He trembled. "Leave me alone," he whispered. "I just want to be left alone."

"However, with your power, you're not going to be left alone for long," Ogata suddenly said. He calmly removed the glasses from his face and wiped them before continuing on. "You were extremely lucky that it was Akira who found you, and not someone else. Extremely lucky. Here we have nothing but your best wishes at heart. Someone else might not be so…kind."

Shindou flinched.

"This person who blocked you may very well have also had your best wishes at heart. I suspect that the only reason Akira was able to sense you at all was because this person set a timing mechanism in your block, so that it would naturally disappear at the appointed time. Initially it must have been a complete block, meaning that people on the outside were also unable to feel or see your power. This person must have known that there will be a time when confrontation with what you are is inevitable, so he created that mechanism to release when the time comes. I suspect it might have been keyed to a specific person's growing power."

He gave another slow smile, and a glance at Akira was the only hint he gave as an answer to the last cryptic sentence. Akira narrowed his eyes in thought. For Ogata, this was all incredibly amusing, but Akira was finding this more and more disturbing. Whoever this mysterious person was, he or she had already proven himself to be powerful enough to rival his father. If it turned out that this person was an enemy…

"An interesting theory, Ogata-san" Touya Kouyo interrupted. "But it is getting late, and I would like to proceed with this quickly. Shindou-kun, come here."

Shindou looked like he would rather be in a pit of vipers than go any closer to Touya Kouyo, but he reluctantly complied, sliding ever so slowly towards the man. He went forward quicker when Akira's father gave him a stern look of disapproval. After what felt like hours, he was finally close enough that Touya Kouyo could do what he intended, that is, place his hand gently on the boy's forehead.

"Now stay still. Close your eyes."

It was over quickly. Seconds later Touya Kouyo lifted his hands, and Shindou immediately took that as a signal to move back to where he was. The speed at which he did this demonstrated that he was not looking forward to being near the man's close proximity any time soon.

"Do you feel any different?"

"Umm…no." Shindou rubbed his head, for all intents a purposes probably trying to rub off the feeling of a strange hand on his forehead. "I don't feel anything different at all."

"You can't sense anything?"

"I told you! I can't sense anything! I kept telling you I wasn't magical and you wouldn't listen! Now do you believe me? I can't sense…" He had turned around violently and was on his feet when he looked into Akira's eyes. "…anything."

Shindou shuddered. His face blanched of all color, and he began shaking even more than before.

Meanwhile, something stirred in Akira's gut, the same place where the knot had been. He was feeling…urges. First and foremost was a fierce possessiveness that was making Akira's thoughts nearly incoherent. Then came the emerging awareness that the boy standing before him was…pretty. More than pretty. He was beautiful. All the instincts within him screamed at him to grab the boy now, by any means necessary, but the corner of his mind that was still sane told him that this would be wrong, very wrong, and if Akira did this he would regret it for the rest of his life, so no, he mustn't do it.

It was incredibly tempting though.

"You're…you're not human…" Shindou whispered.

The reasonable part of him pushed down the urge to point out that in all technicality, Shindou was no more human than he was. He stood up, hoping that a change in position would do something about the war zone that his mind had become.

"You're right," he said evenly. "I'm not human. I am Ryu."

"Ryu…" Shindou repeated faintly.

"I am Ryu, and you are Ho-Oo."

"Ho…Oo…" Shindou repeated again, looking like he was ready to faint.

Akira's ears became filled with the noise of his own pounding heart. He absently wondered why it hadn't flown out yet—it was pounding so hard. Time slowed. One foot lifted, and he placed it carefully in front of him. No, it looked like standing wasn't helping his mind at all. At this point he was having difficulty walking, since his vision had become filled with nothing but Shindou's widening eyes. Such lovely gray eyes. That was all right. Sight wasn't all that important anyway.

Unfortunately, the movement was a mistake. A shrill shriek of Ho-Oo's birdsong brought him forcibly back to the present. Screaming, Shindou pushed past Akira, ducking between two of his father's students to get to the door.

"Shindou!" he shouted, making a grab for him.

The boy, still screaming in terror, slipped away, threw open the shouji screens, and all but flew down the hallway.

"Touya-sensei, should we go after him?" Ogata said. Within the chaos the room had become at Shindou's sudden flight, only his father remained seated, his hands calmly crossed across his chest.

"Leave him be. Akiko will make sure he gets out."

"But, Otou-san!" Akira protested.

He was met with his father's sternest gaze.

"Akira, the boy has had enough shock to last him months. Leave him alone for now."

Akira wanted to protest again, but he stayed quiet. The look he was giving his father was probably enough to show that he was still dissatisfied, because his father chuckled, a low laugh that normally brought up his spirit, but was irritating him for some odd reason right now.

"You'll see him again Akira. Just be patient."

With the issue of his son dealt with, Touya Kouyo then proceeded calm the rest of the chattering students down. Akira took his usual place at the end of the column on the left, but his mind remained in turmoil.

His father had told him to be patient, but for the first time in his life Akira was having a hard time following his father's instruction. He loved and respected his father deeply, but this time the circumstances had turned his father into an obstacle he must get over at all costs. Shindou, he felt, was not the type to willingly come back. Someone had to drag him back, and Akira was determined to be that someone. As groups separated to do the exercises his father had assigned them, a part of Akira's mind was busy plotting a way to meet Shindou again.

For the first time in his life, he was actively rebelling against his father.