Disclaimer: Hakuouki is a visual novel game by Idea Factory. (They make a bunch of cute guys! Drools. So I always look up new series just so I can stare at them~) Hakuouki then was adapted into an Anime by Studio DEEN. And today, the Anime series is licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America. (I got this information from Wikipedia and I believe the information is accurate. I wouldn't know though!)


"Forever" will not keep us connected

Chapter 8

When Yuma drew his blade back to aim for Ayumu's shoulder, Kanon confessed with her eyes shut, "It's me! I'm the Time Healer's daughter!"

Ayumu snapped his eyes angrily at her, "Kanon!"

"Kanon-hime?!" Saburo was shocked.

Souji's eyes looked around for any signs of help. 'What is a Time Healer?' he asked himself. 'But I have to think of an escape for everyone! Come on, think!' Should he turn into a Rasetsu? Will it be enough? But what if Yuma noticed him and attack him first? Should he just take the risk, even if he did not like Ayumu as much?

Noticing Souji's gestures next to her, Yumeko gently nudged Sanosuke and kept it quiet. Sanosuke did not move his eyes, but got a feeling she was telling something. Slightly looking away from Yuma, Sanosuke's eyes dimly glowed a golden light. It was then he noticed a presence. '…It's Shiranui,' Sanosuke's eyes returned to normal, his mouth dropping open. Just beyond the trees, Sanosuke caught sight of Kyou's head behind the leaves.

Kyou narrowed his eyes and knew Sanosuke had sensed him. 'Maybe there's something we can do,' he breathed quietly. But without his bullets, he was completely useless himself. He smirked, 'But I'm still an Oni." So there must be another way to do this.

Yuma turned around to Kanon and she was sweating with nervousness. "You're the descendant?" he asked. She nodded firmly and he blinked slowly. "Then we'll take you away first. I would have to apologize again because you may not come back alive."

"Then take me instead!" Ayumu said, struggling through the chains. "I have a stronger healing power than my sister, so take me!"

'Ayumu and Kanon are siblings?" Souji asked himself. He would have never guessed.

Yuma's blade quickly pointed to Ayumu's face to shut him up. Kanon then shouted, "No, I'm stronger than Ayumu! Aunt Akiko sealed my full potential because I couldn't control it! If you want to revive a rotting body, then you need me!"

"Shut up, Kanon!" Ayumu shot her a death glare. How dare she revealed the secret their aunt tried to cover. Before Kanon could express a single word, Ayumu raged, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

She glared right back, "No, you shut up!" Tears filled her eyes when she shut them closed. 'I don't want to lose you!' Ayumu glared at the sight of his sister crying in front of everyone and all of them were looking at Kanon and Ayumu back and forth.

A voice was being recalled in Ayumu's memories, 'Remember, Ayumu. You name means Walking Dream. You must never activate what you inherited from your father. Even if you have both of your parents' powers, though not as strong, you're only allowed to use your mother's if you need or want to. Okay?'

'Aunt Akiko!' Ayumu cried out in his mind, his long bangs covering his eyes as he lowered his head. "I won't let them take Kanon," he murmured angrily as his nails dug into his palms.

"We'll take the both of you," Yuma declared with no haste, holding his blade up against his arm again.

Just right around then, Kyou had appeared above Kanon. He had been moving around over to her for a short while. Reaching out, Kyou pulled the chains off and freed her. Within that second, Hajime's katana was quickly drawn out and he thrust toward Kyou. But after Kanon got her footing, she quickly rushed forward to Hajime despite her legs wobbled a bit.

While Kanon blindly tackled Hajime down to the ground, Yumeko closed her eyes. 'Steady,' she told herself. She was scared of using her power, but she had to use it now. It was the perfect timing. Her hands emitted heat and sparks of flames appeared on chain near her shoulder next to Sanosuke's. The flame touched the chains as well as melting them.

"Ow," Sanosuke winced by a sudden heat. The chains were soon loosened and he quickly smiled. "Alright!" Either it was a miracle or someone else had a trick up their sleeves. He did not notice it was Yumeko's doing because he was too busy tracking Kyou's whereabouts.

Everyone started to get up. Saburo saw Yuma slashing out to Ayumu first. When Saburo was going to move in front of Ayumu, Saburo was only pushed back by Ayumu and Yuma's sword sliced across from Ayumu's right belly and up over his heart. Blood splattered into the air and Saburo cried, "Ayumu!"

Struggling with each other, Hajime was going to force Kanon off of him, but she grabbed his shirt and slammed her forehead against his own. Widening his eyes, his hand lost its grip on the katana as a white glow appeared from her body and soon down to both of their whole bodies. She was glaring and was uncertain of her own action. Staring into her eyes, Hajime then held his katana tighter as she pulled away and the light fading away.

Before Yuma could make another move, Yumeko quickly dashed and threw a punch to his right. Yuma blocked her with his arm with ease and his eyes noticed Sanosuke charging forward as well. 'This doesn't look good, Haru,' Yuma suddenly lost interest in fighting back.

'Then kill whoever gets in the way!' she scolded, getting upset. 'Or do I have to really make you?'

'If I die, then I'll finally be free of your control,' Yuma told her as soon as Sanosuke landed his fist into left cheek. Yuma's body fell off a bit and Yumeko let a knife fall down from her sleeves into her hands.

"Yuma?!" Ren glared back, but then Kyou came at him with his gun. His blade bit blocked the gun, making a mark on it as they both pushed at each other. "You're in the way," Ren grunted, feeling desperate.

"Your opponent is me," Kyou merely smirked. Ren glared, his physical power suddenly rose and slightly pushed Kyou's gun further. 'Where is he getting this strength?' Kyou snickered, looking at Ren straight in the eye.

Yumeko was only just a yard from striking her knife into Yuma, who was just sitting up. But all of the sudden, Hajime swiftly appeared as if from nowhere and stopped her knife with his katana. She glared at him and Hajime's eyes relaxed to her. "Don't kill him," Hajime said quietly, but strongly. Though it seemed to anger Yumeko because Hajime stopped her.

'Get out of there for now,' Haru's voice told Yuma and Ren mentally.

The silver head man got up on his feet and quickly retreated back. Ren pushed Kyou roughly and Kyou lost a bit of his balance. Out of Ren's pouch from his belt on the right, he took out a small round, black object. He smiled as he threw it in the air, and without delay, he cut it open with his sword. Smokes burst out upon the slash of the blade and Kyou backed away as he was covered up in them.

Meanwhile, Souji was laying the unconscious Ayumu on the ground and Saburo was weakening from his wound. The scentless smokes expanded and blocked their view on everyone else. "Sano-san?!" Souji called out first.

Emerging from the smokes, Kanon appeared and ran toward them. Focusing on Ayumu's still body, she ran to him, slamming her knees beside him. "Ayumu!" she cried, horrified at his large wound. She shook his shoulder and held back tears. "Ayumu! Can you hear me?!"

Across from her, Souji put his hand on her shoulder. "Relax," he said. "Can't you heal him?"

"Their clansmen can heal the others," Saburo groaned and sat down next to him. While Souji looked at Saburo's face, he continued explaining, "They can heal and save anyone... but not themselves. They… can't save themselves."

'They can't save themselves?' Souji gradually gazed to Ayumu and Kanon.

"Ayumu!" Kanon shouted loudly, her eyes glaring. She shook him furiously, but then Souji slightly pushed her back. "Ayumu!"

"Kanon, we should stop his bleeding first," Souji told her with a hard look. She gazed at him as if she just realized it and nodded.

While they were busy, Yumeko fought off Hajime and they both kept their distances. Before she made a move, Sanosuke grabbed her wrist with the knife and pulled her back. "Wait, stop!" Sanosuke hurried to pull her off balance. She listened and started to cool her mind. Sanosuke directed his attention to Hajime, who drew his katana back into his sheath. His eyes seemed to smile and there was light in them. "Hajime?" Sanosuke smiled, feeling safe around the purple haired friend.

"Yes," Hajime lightly nodded once to him.

Sanosuke let Yumeko go and walked through the smokes and patted on Hajime's shoulder. "It's good to have you back!" Sanosuke grinned happily. "How did you do it?"

Hajime glanced around. "Perhaps it had something to do with Kanon-san," he recalled. It felt strange when she put her face close to him. That was as close as any other girl had gotten with him. She was a very daring young girl. 'And she saved me,' Hajime was thankful and was trying to see where the others were.

Frowning, Yumeko ignored their reunion and sharply turned around. 'Ayumu,' she hurried off through the smokes. She actually wanted to kill Yuma, but then Hajime protected him with his own free will. She knew Yuma was just a victim, but she could not forgive Yuma for torturing Ayumu. Mind controlled or not. It was not long when Yumeko heard Kanon calling Saburo's name and a loud thud was heard to the right. Yumeko followed the voices and soon found them together. Kanon had just started to heal Saburo and Souji was tending to Ayumu's wounds.

The light between Kanon and Saburo went away and he smiled brightly. "Thank you, Kanon-hime!" he wiped his sweat on his chin. Kanon just nodded and still looked worried. "We should find shelter before they strike again."

"Y-Yeah," Kanon nodded, looking over to Ayumu sadly. Yumeko walked to Ayumu's side and sat next to him with an upset expression on her face. It sounded like Kyou met up with Hajime and Sansosuke and they were making their way through the smokes that were now vanishing. 'We should find Ayumu a doctor,' Kanon thought to herself. But there was no village or town nearby. What would they do now?

Kyou turned his head away from Hajime and Sanosuke. Narrowing his eyes, he wondered, 'I saw Amagiri with that man named Ren before… but where is he?'

[…^…]

Over the plain field of tall grass, Yuma and Ren were walking together and felt no danger around them. Ren glanced to Yuma quietly and blinked at the bruise on his left cheek. "You… okay there, buddy?" Ren smirked.

"I'll be fine," Yuma replied, keeping his eyes forward. This was the first time they talked since they retreated and Yuma was glad Ren did not feel awkward.

Ren chuckled and stretched his arms. Locking his hands together behind his head, he stared at the sky. "Too bad Hajime seemed to have broke away from Haru's control," he softly said. "I wonder how he did it?"

'There's no way I'm losing the two of you,' Haru's voice said coldly.

"Yeah, yeah," Ren snorted. It was not like they could ask for help from Hajime. Haru would only force them to leave the place as soon as possible. "But really, I wonder what happened?"

The answer was unknown to Yuma too. He was too busy handling the others. But his thoughts lead to the daughter of the Time Healer. 'Maybe she had something to do with it,' Yuma was thinking to himself without blinking.

'Even if you figured it out, Yuma-san, I won't let it happen the second time,' Haru warned. Yuma ignored her and let the thought slide. She snickered and his head slightly ached. 'If I had brain washing power, I would totally use it on all of you.' Her soft laughter continued and Yuma frowned.

Walking up the hill, Ren plugged his ears, but it did not help stop her laughter. "Shut up, Haru," he sighed with annoyance. "You're never this talkative."

After another moment of laughter, Haru happily sighed. 'All right, for now, meet up with Kyuuju-san,' she told them. Yuma and Ren glanced rather curiously at each other. 'I'll think up another plan to get my hands on the power of the Time Healer.' She would not rest until she did.

"Yes, ma'am," Ren closed his eyes, stretching again.

Yuma gripped on the handle of his sword and narrowed his eyes. "As you wish, Haru," he murmured unwillingly.


Author's note: "Ayu" means "step/walk" and "mu" means "dream/vision" so I decided to translate it as Walking Dream.

Thanks for reading!