A/N: It's only been three months since a chapter. Apparently I'm improving! I do apologize for taking so long in getting a post up here, as I've had other things taking up my time. Among them, gathering inspiration for Salk's character and brainstorming for this one. No one has yet seemed to figure out the hidden bonus from Chapter 18: Single Theft, and the time to find it (and get first dibs on the Wild Mass Speculation) is running out. Please read and review! Reviews make authors write like coal makes a steam engine run! T_T

The Gemini Movement

Chapter 20: Single God

Keitaro had spent an absurd amount of time marching through the twisted forest with his scarred companion. As they wound around the trees and vines, they never spoke once, which seemed to suit Break just fine, and Keitaro himself was too occupied with his thoughts to make conversation.

So, Naru was there because it's a church of some sort, but I haven't seen any of the other girls anywhere, especially not the Cathedral or the Church. Now that I think of it, though... one of them could pass for Shinobu... The Lady Joy radiated the same love and purity that her shrine did. They even shard the same figure... And their faces.

Keitaro stopped dead in his tracks, his mind reeling in thought.

The Lover was Kitsune, spot-on, dressed in a robe similar to his Terrick.

And Su could obviously be the Dancer, who else would have an animated statue like that?

Motoko... the Stalwart, almost hilarious how obvious it is. Then the Mistress is... Oh. Oh god.

The Mistress, the Dark Lady, could only be one person. Strange, how often he had admired the Mistress' dark beauty, how her presence was comforting in its cold darkness. And now he knew her to be Kanako.

But then, who is the Mender? Those eyes were so sharp. Literally made from blades, as he had found out some time ago. No one had eyes like that. Motoko and Kanako could be intimidated by eyes like that. He had only seen eyes like that once. Just before arriving in this strange world.

But Su is the Dancer. How could she be the Mender, too? But no one else seemed able to fit it. Nothing else seemed 'right'.

Well, 'right' by the standards of this ludicrous world he had been dropped into.

It couldn't be this easy, could it? Just a few hours ago, he was being kidnapped by strange monster men, dragged through the nightmarish landscape of the forest, and now he was walking with Break, seemingly unraveling the mysteries of this place.

And many years ago, he was with the girls, actually enjoying his life. He could recall it now, from the now musty corners of his memory. He had really been here too long if he had forgotten them so much. The Goddesses and Saviors had taken their place. He made a vow to himself that it wouldn't happen again.

"You about done yet?" A rattling voice broke his line of thought.

"Huh?" Keitaro answered gracefully.

"Are you done racking your brain for the answers? Just as soon as yer done we can get there," Break was obviously annoyed.

"Huh?" Keitaro was truly a master of conversation.

"Listen, I know you'd like to figure everything out now, but once we're at the Church with their royal highnesses, you'll hear the same thing, but we won't have to keep walking. You'd also get to have Tweedledee and Tweedledark to explain themselves, so shut your brain-hole so we can get there already."

"...Huh?" Truly, greater words were never spoken.

This gap in Keitaro's thought seemed to last long enough for Break, however, and the trees finally cleared up.

"Finally, we're here," Break gazed calmly toward the City, which seemed to be covered in a thick fog, "Ah, so it is in transition. I wonder what it shall turn into."

"Today, our fate seems to be in his hands."

"Basically, today you're the boss!"

Gault and Salk had joined them at some point, Keitaro was unsure when.

Salk spoke, "In short, right now you can mold the City to whatever form you feel comfortable with."

Any form? Maybe something old. Familiar. Hinata...

…

Watching an expansive and antiquated town morphing into the only slightly dated contours of his former hometown was curious, to say the least. It was akin to watching a documentary about a conspicuously European medieval village advancing rapidly through the centuries into a Japanese suburb. The whole idea was ludicrously inaccurate, however. Hinata was basically founded by Granny Hina's grandmother, who raised her son (Granny Hina's father, Keisuke), in the Hinata Inn during its heyday. The town formed around it.

But that didn't stop the transformation from stone turrets to concrete walling from being any less interesting. The great and looming castle fell to ruins, collapsed, and faded into the landscape all in the space of a minute. Numerous fires broke out, and at one point seemed to form a riot, burning a large portion of the rapidly evolving settlement to ashes, which soon enough molded into tarmac roads. Eventually, Keitaro's eyes were drawn to the building he was most anxious to see.

The scattered stones of the castle, now a large hill, came to life and began to arrange themselves into the long, lazy staircase he knew and loved. The earth seemingly pushed itself up to give the stairs a place to rest on, higher and higher, until at the end of the gloriously white path, as though it were there all along, was his Hinata-sou.

Keitaro was running well before he knew it, Gault, Salk, and Break trying desparately to catch up with him, but he didn't care. There was his home, just as he'd left it! He'd been gone for so long, he had to go see the girls, tell him he was all right. He vaulted up the first ten stairs, not caring that he could have misstep, and started jumping up then three at a time.

"Keitaro, come back!"

"Stop!"

He may have heard them, but nothing they could say could have stopped him.

…

Naru happened to look out the window at that moment, and saw a figure on its way up the steps.

"No. No no. No way," Naru whispered to herself when she recognized who it was. She ran out to greet him.

…

Keitaro cleared the last steps, too exited to tell if he was out of breath or not. The door opened.

…

Naru's fist made contact with chin.

…

Keitaro's jaw dropped.

…

"SO NOT THE TIME KENTARO!" She shouted, tears streaming from her eyes.

…

It was empty. The Inn was totally bare like he had never seen it. Keitaro walked further in, taking his hand from where it still rested on the door frame, but stopped after a few steps. He was numb. He had been so sure they would be there. He heard footsteps behind him, but right now he didn't care.

"Keitaro, this is what we were trying to. This isn't real, none of this is real. That's why we're taking you to where you can learn the truth," Keitaro was dimly aware of Break's voice, and even less aware of what he was saying, but he nodded anyway. Anything to make them leave him be.

No such luck. Gault and Salk had looped his arms over their shoulders and stared to carry him upstairs, following Break. They turned right, and Keitaro noticed that they were headed for his room. Not that he knew why, there wasn't likely to be a bed there.

Well, I'm just wrong all over the place today, aren't I? Keitaro thought derisively to himself. As it happened, 'his' room was both familiar and different from how he remembered it. The structure seemed mostly the same, and in fact most things were quite similar, but also seemed to shift as he focused on them, becoming larger or smaller by random chance. Keitaro's head lolled to the side so he could see his study table, and saw what was definitely the biggest change.

His old, sometimes-kotatsu, table has become a ridiculously huge knights-of-the-round-table style slab of wood that should have dominated the room, but only seemed to take up as much room as his old junker table. The surface was elaborately engraved, though he couldn't make out exactly what was depicted. Scattered across it were books, writing instruments, plates, nearly everything he could think that had once had a home on that table was there. Seated at the head of the formidably unrealistic plateau was.. his great-grandfather?

No, no, but you wouldn't fault him for thinking it. Keisuke had rounder features and a more pointed nose thank Keitaro. This person now staring down Kaitaro looked like himself, but with shock-white hair, and carrying himself like a well-aged man.

The elder Keitaro looked at Gault and Salk, who were bowing to him. "Come now, by me. I have to fix this mess."

"Yes, my god," the two chorused and rushed to flank him, Salk on his left side.

"And you," Old-Keitaro softly said to Break, "You've been waiting far too long for your rest, haven't you?"

Break spoke oddly, compared to anything Keitaro had heard before. Was it... respect? "Yes, sir, but I intend to see this through the end. I want to make sure this won't happen again."

"As it will not. You do have a part to play," the apparent god replied. "And you, me. We have to get you sorted out as well."

It took Keitaro a moment to notice that he was being addressed. "I'm sorry what? Who needs sorting out?

His elder copy smiled, "You, me, us. You are me. Or, more accurately, I am you."