Darkness. That's all that was there. It was her air, her ground, everything. She tried to turn around, only to feel as though no matter where she went, there was no sense of up or down, left or right- as though there was nothing.

'Is… this…death?'

Before she could answer herself, or start to go on about all the weaklings that would feel her wrath were she to find out that they were responsible for this void, a strange, greenish light penetrated the darkness, enveloping her and the small area around her. Within it, she saw a dark shape that was quickly moving closer.

She had no idea why she moved when and how she did, other than the fact that she just needed to get to the dark spot.

As she tried to make her war forward (she had no way to tell if she was other than the dark spot coming closer- and even then it could just be it moving towards her), the old saying "go towards the light" ran through her mind, and she smirked- it was slightly hard to move towards a light when she was surrounded by it.

She was about to scream in frustration as it started to look as though the dark shape was moving away, when she felt the hairs stand up on her neck. Turning around, she was ready to faint- the darkness, seeming to be more menacing then ever, had been following her.

She felt like she was a stick that someone was holding, and dragging through the surface of calm, green water- only that the disturbance had become pure, total and evil looking darkness.

Fear griped her soul. She felt herself slowly being once again surrounded by darkness, the product of her fear of a number of things that she had suppressed over the years- but mainly the feeling the loosing a loved one. Just before she felt herself drifting into oblivion, she heard a voice that she recognized echoing in her mind, forever haunting her dreams,

"Hear your spirit, your desires… the darkness may show you your fears, but only your soul may show you the truth…"

{}BACK TO REALITY...{}

"Is she awake?"

"How would I know?! I'm not a doctor!"

"Well, the least you can do is get out of the room and let her rest!"

Rika groaned in her sleep. The voices were very close, and they were bugging her.

She rolled over, trying to escape from the loud symphony of noise so close to her ears.

"She just moved!"

"Yeah, so, you act like it's a miracle."

"Well, it is, since-"

"She needs her rest. We shouldn't wake her up...."

"Is that her mother speaking or the doctor's advice through her mother?"

"...."

"Well, if she wants to go to the memorial service tomorrow, then we should let her get some rest."

There was silence for a moment, which Rika was eternally grateful for. However, silence, she knew, could not, and would not, last, especially around her- whether or not she was the cause of the noise.

"Henwy! Why awe we hewe? Whewe is the angwy kid?"

"Suzie, not now. Rika needs to rest!"

"But I wanna talk to the ANGWY KID!"

There was a drawn-out sigh. "And what do you need to talk to Takato for, Suzie?"

"Well… I saw his funny swhape the otha day, Henwy! And thewe was a big beam of light…."

Rika could easily feel the tension in the room as Suzie said those few words, even though she was unconscious. Just mentioning what Suzie called the angwy kid's swhape"- the Hazard sign- made everyone relive exactly what had happened one year ago. Rika heard Jeri gasp, and she herself was, for some reason, reminded of the dream that she recently had.

Another voice, Rumiko, entered the conversation again.

"Suzie, dear… what IS Takato's shape?"

Another dreadful silence filled the room, which Rika promptly broke by moaning- it seems that she must have gotten hit in the head a few times between the park and where ever she was now.

"Rika! Oh, Rika dear, are you okay?"

The red head slowly opened her eyes to find her mother looking down at her, worry etched on her face.

"I… I'm fine, mom…"

Rumiko sighed, as did mostly everyone else in the room.

"Thank God, Rika… we were so worried! I woke up almost an hour ago- it's 11:30 pm." Jeri said happily.

Rika blinked, as she sat up with her mom's and grandma's help. "Then… why are you guys still here?"

Jeri smiled kindly. "Well, we couldn't just assume that you were fine, when you certainly didn't look it!"

Rika groaned as looked around- the whole remaining Tamers team was in her room, some (Kazu, Kenta and Ryo were actually on the porch outside), and Rumiko, her grandmother, Jeri, Henry, Suzie, Rin and Leighya were all crowded within the room.

"Can't a girl get a little room to breathe?"

Everyone apologetically backed away from her, giving her more room.

Rumiko stood up, after making sure that Rika was fine. "Thank you everyone for coming here to make sure that Rika wasn't seriously injured by whoever or whatever caused her to become unconscious…" the Tamers remained silent- Jeri had told them what it felt like, and they did not want to think about their missing comrade, "and I think that now everyone should go home. However, if you'd all want to stay over for a sleep over…"

"YEAH! SLEEP OVER AT RIKA'S!!!"

Rika sighed as Kazu started dancing around, dragging Kenta along as his partner. Ryo only grinned, while Jeri, Henry, Rin and Leighya thanked Rumiko for her generosity.

Suzie simply walked over to Rika and sat down beside the older girl, and whispered to her, "Why wewe you so swad?"

Rika almost grinned at the way that the little girl spoke, but, knowing her reputation, kept it hidden with a scowl.

"I'm not sad… just… depressed…"

Suize grinned. "Then let's play Pwincess Pwetty Pants to help you cheew up!" And with that, the youngest member of the Tamers (okay, she's the same age as Ai and Mako, so sue me!) dragged Rika over to her dolls, where she promptly started playing with them.

She looks so happy… nothing like how I felt when I was younger… I wonder what my life would have been like if my dad was still here… NO! I WILL NOT THINK LIKE THAT! I CAN'T!!!!!! But… I…

"Rika? Rika? Earth to Rika?!"

The redhead looked up from watching Suzie play with her dolls and into Rin, Leighya, Jeri's and her mother's eyes, with a vacant expression in her own.

"I hope you don't mind that we're staying over tonight?" Leighya asked, always the polite one around people more than 3 years older than her.

Rika sighed and nodded. "Yeah, but… tomorrow, we're all supposed to meet up at our schools before we go to the ceremony, right?" She got nods from everyone around her. "So… won't it be a lot of trouble for us to get to two separate schools, and then get back together later?" More nods. However, Rumiko (seeing that Rika was trying, and succeeding to persuade her friends not to stay over) said quickly,

"Now now! Let's call all your parents, tell them that you're sleeping over! Then they can call your schools, and we can all sleep in tomorrow, and go to the ceremony together!"

More cheers greeted this, and Rika sighed in defeat. She had wanted time to herself to think about the dream/vision thingy that she had seen, but THAT was apparently not going to happen tonight.

"Come on… now, one at a time at the phone…"

Rika followed the Tamers and everyone else into the main room, where Ruki's grandmother had gone to get away from the madness know as Kazu and Kenta celebrating.

"Hello… I heard from here that you were all sleeping over… I can make you some food, or would you like to grab some chips from the store just around the corner? Or maybe you would like to go to sleep…."

However, Kazu answered that question LONG before she was done. "Dude, we want everything! Chips, pop, sushi, ramen… you name it, we'll eat it!"

Kenta sweatdropped. "Kazu… you shouldn't talk to your elders like that, Kazu!"

"So? She's Rika's grand… mother…" It was about then he realized that she was indeed Rika's grandmother, and therefore however he talked to her would be an immediate reflection upon Rika… who was currently cracking her knuckles, a number of facts forgotten:

1) It was about now almost midnight, and most people were asleep

2) She had just awoken from being knocked out for a couple hours, and her body was not quite ready to properly pound Kazu

3) Rin, Leighya, and Jeri were trying desperately to hold her back, and succeeding

4) There were enough witnesses in the room that Rika wouldn't be able to properly hurt Kazu

"KAZU, YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!"

Both Kazu and Rika then proceeded to leave the room, Rika hot on his tail.

The rest of the Tamers and Rika's family in the room sweatdropped.

"Well, you got to give her credit, she can sure get up quickly!" Henry said, all the while watching the red-haired girl chasing the visored boy around the Koi pond in the yard, before he tripped over something and fell into the pond.

Rika immediately stepped in and gave him a nice WHACK! over the head, before returning to everyone else in the main room, grinning.

"Now… who wants something to eat?"

{}THE NEXT MORNING{}

It was almost 8 by the time that everyone in the Nonaka household was up- guests included. No one was used to waking up so late, especially on a school day.

Rika sighed, slightly depressed. Knowing the Tamers, Henry, Jeri, or Ryo would more than likely mention Takato in their small speeches that they were going to say.

It worried Rika, because she had, over the last little while, tried to forget the Gogglehead, and to hear his name mentioned in a remembrance, as though he was dead… because, although others did not think so, she knew that he was not dead. She could feel it within herself, and besides, she though to herself rationally as they all proceeded to get in the limo that would take them to the HUGE auditorium of Hypnos, that could easily fit everyone left in the city in, if he was dead, why would the Hazard still be around?

Rika pushed by everyone and got to sit in the back corner, where she wouldn't be so close to everyone, and would also be the last to get out. Henry and Jeri sat on her left, while Rin and Leighya sat in front of her. After what happened not only last night, but also at breakfast, it was pretty obvious that she would not want to sit next Ryo, Kazu or Kenta.

{}FLASHBACK! AH!{}

Rika yawned as she stretched. She was so used to waking up much earlier than what she needed to normally, and then add in the fact that she didn't have to leave the house until 8:15 instead of 7:10…

Let's just say that Rika was pissed that she didn't sleep in more.

Not that she didn't try of course. She decided to lay in her bed, the heavy sound of three other's breathing filling the room.

Although her room was quite large and quite empty, with four adolescent girls on the floor in sleeping bags, the amount of room to move around in was incredibly little. Not to mention that it got quite hot with the windows closed.

Rika groaned as she got up to take a shower, only to hear that the water was already running. She was about to yell at whoever was in there to get out, when she realized that it would be smarter if she did her morning exercises first before she took a shower.

She walked out onto the small porch… thingy, and proceeded to stretch. She remembered how only a few days ago she had been doing the usual exercises, and then went to school, not suspecting a thing- the day had certainly started out normal.

It was only later that she found out about the attack. Her heart broke (or at least the icy shield still around it did) when she found out the fate of Mie and Takehiro Matsuda.

She groaned, remembering that today was celebrating the one-week anniversary and memorial service of that attack, and she decided that the Sakura tree beside the pond deserved a few punches and kicks.

She raised her fist to hit the tree- and stopped. Her eyes had found the surface of the pond, and in it, she could easily see (although she knew it was just her imagination) the image of her partner, lounging in the tree, just like she used to.

Rika felt herself almost beginning to cry, and she decided that her training could wait for today- she needed a shower, and soon.

She crept back into her room (not being courteous, just not wanting to talk to anyone), grabbed her robe and slipped into the bathroom down the hall.

She had just slipped into the shower and turned it on, when she heard foot steps down the hall. She assumed that it was just one of her "friends" that had slept over who was up early and heading to breakfast.

She didn't notice, however, how the foot steps stopped right outside the bathroom door, as she had turned her back away from the door, and was concentrating on massaging the shampoo into her hair. She also didn't notice when the door slid silently open.

She did notice when the person standing in the doorway coughed to signal their presence. She whipped around only to come face-to-face with-

"YOU! HENTAI!"

This was followed by many, many, many repeats of the typical pounding: POW! TWACK! BLAM!

It wasn't too much later that Rika exited the bathroom, completely dressed, and looking less then happy. Everyone was sitting around the table in the dining room- the kitchen table, as big as it was, couldn't comfortably fit 12 people. Ryo, as soon as Rika sat down, moved to the other side of the room- he didn't want to be Rika's morning workout.

Kenta, who had just gotten up to get some more milk from the kitchen, came back with a new jug, filled to the brim. Kazu, who had just finished his meal, decided at that moment to stretch his legs. Unknown to him, his legs were place right in front of Kenta, causing the bespectacled boy to trip.

Needless to say, Kenta ended up spilling the jug of milk that he had- right onto Rika's head.

And, also needless to say, Rika was… more than a little angry.

"What did you do that for?!"

Kenta backed away. Kazu, though (not realizing that he was still on Rika's hit list) stood up for his friend. "Hey, he didn't do it on purpose… I tripped him, and-"

"You TRIPPED HIM?! As in, PURPOSEFULLY?! What the HELL do you think your doing, Shiota?!?!?!"

"Erm… eep!"

This resulted in another chase around the yard, the rest of the guests and Rika's family watching in slight amazement.

"It's barely 6:30 in the morning, and she's already trying to kill someone…" Rumiko stated with a sigh.

{}END FLASHBACK!{}

Well, the Tamers did know that Rika would be angry for the day, so they decided that she should be kept separate from the other three… although no one could quite understand why she was angry at Ryo.

"It's gonna be another one of those days…" Rika's grandmother thought, as the limo took off towards the Hypnos complex.

And, things were just about to get much, much worse….

{}TA DAH! END!{}

And there is another chapter. Now, I sincerely hope that people won't kill me for making it so short compared to the other chapters- but exams are coming up, and school is almost over, so I won't be able to access the computers for a while. I will personally email you the answers to your reviews, or just say thanks.

Anyways, I hope that everyone has an awesome summer! Ja ne!

And, as always:

Song of the chappie: "If I never knew you" from the Pocahontas OST, all rights reserved.

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"Hmm? What? Stoner?" -me, during English

"I think this is a consiracy... they put some kind of drug into the radiators so that anyone who sits near the windows suddenly become stupid during last period!"

"And what you said the other day is a VERY good expample of that!" -convo between me and my friend, Mila, during English.

(English seems to be a very weird subject for me, doesn't it?)