Kimihito was quite certain that the person Smith was talking about was the man he saw that day. He perfectly fit in the description: tall, mysterious, and somewhat not-human-like.

He went back into the woods to lead Smith to the place he met him. The leaving part was surprisingly very easy. He thought that it would have been impossible to keep the girls apart. To his surprise, Rachnera worked together with Centorea to stop the girls from following him. Seeing those two work together was something surprising in itself, of course, but the most astonishing part was that they succeeded into stopping Miia from coming. To his surprise, the one that seemed like she wanted to follow until the very last moment was Meroune. He wasn't sure how he should understand that.

There was too much going around him nowadays. He decided to forget about it.

"Are you sure we're going the right way, Darling-kun? I have a feeling we're getting lost in the woods," said Smith. In one part of his mind, Kimihito wasn't too sure how things worked so that he was alone with this woman. Although she was beautiful, and he didn't try to deny that, she was always a somewhat scary person to Kimihito for many reasons.

Despite that, Kimihito knew that he was going the right way. Although he didn't really have a map of this area in his mind, he just had this feeling that this was the right way. And he could feel this feeling growing stronger the more he moved his feet. "I'm pretty sure it was. Around here, I think we'll see the… oh, here it is."

He stopped in front of the giant tree, the tree that seemed like the center of the forest.

"I didn't know that there was a tree this big," said Smith. She looked sincerely amazed. Kimihito had to agree with that. Seeing the tree in broad daylight seemed to make it look even bigger and even more magnificent. Kimihito thought that with all the crazy events and overwhelming characters around him, he could believe it if someone said that the tree was the tree of all life or something. It was so big and somehow mysterious that it seemed like it radiated magical powers.

"I know, right? But I don't see Kii…" Kimihito looked around. No sign of her.

From that point, Kimihito wasn't too sure where he should go to next. Kii was the one that led him to that guy-or the girls, depending on the way you look at it. He was stuck.

He was just about to tell Smith that, when he heard footsteps from far away. They were footsteps for certain. They couldn't have been sounds that Kii made when she moved around in the forest. The thump sound was too prominent.

He moved his head towards the direction he could hear the sound, but he could see that Smith was even faster than him. She was already walking towards the direction.

From far away, he could see a tall human figure walking towards his direction. The closer he came, the more certain he was that he was the one he saw that night.

The man came all the way up to them, and stopped right in front of Smith, who was heading her back towards Kimihito. He had no idea what kind of face she was making.

That was the first time Kimihito was able to take a good look at him. He was certainly very tall. Although he and Smith were both not that short, standing next to him, they both looked like they were teenagers. His hair was straight black, a bit longer than his, and was a bit messy. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and black pants that he couldn't make out the material of. He was overall quite muscular, not too buff, but just good enough to look attractive to everyone.

And his face. Kimihito wasn't so sure how he should describe it to anyone. He looked like he was in his early or mid-twenties, and one thing was absolutely obvious-he looked like he would have more women around him than himself. But there was this feeling he could feel when he looked at him, and he wasn't sure how he should put that into words. Nostalgia? Sadness? Mysteriousness? He seemed familiar and distant at the same time. He just didn't look…. Like a 'normal human being', although he had 2 legs, 2 arms, 10 fingers, and all that, if that made any sense.

"Hello, there. We've met each other before, didn't we?" The man winked at Kimihito, and soon moved his eyes to Smith, who wasn't even moving an inch. "And I believe I saw you before, as well. You do look a bit different without that giant yellow suit." He smiled.

Smith looked at him as if he was a lost family member that she barely managed to reunite. She was certain that he was the one that she was looking for, the one that she remembered seeing that day.

She had been looking for him for so long, she wasn't so sure what she had to say.

"May I ask you why I brought your boyfriend with you to the woods to meet me? I don't think you're lost again," he said, with that smile still on his face.

Although it was difficult, she managed not to get possessed by that smile and managed to say something. "I've came here and looked for you before."

He nodded. "I know. I could feel that."

"Then why didn't you appear back then?" Her voice was trembling. She couldn't help it.

"You had company." He said simply.

"But that's the same for this time! Why didn't you…"

He lightly put his hand on her shoulder, as if he was trying to sooth her. His touch gave out a strange feeling-warmth, freshness…. Just like the feeling she could get when she was lying on the forest grass on a warm, sunny day.

"It is much better for me not to appear in front of your… other female friends. Believe me, it is for their own good, and mine, of course." He chuckled a bit. Smith swore that he was breathtakingly beautiful when he did that. She almost forgot what she should say next.

"You're Riku…right?"

He nodded. His eyes just didn't stop smiling. "It seems like your zombie friend told you the right information. Although," he paused for a minute as he moved his eyes towards his hands as he just pointlessly moved them around. After that, he returned back to her with the same smile in his eyes. "I'm not so sure if I should have told her that part of information. It was very careless of me to tell my… personal information to a government official."

"Maybe. But I don't think it really made any difference. I couldn't find your record anywhere. It didn't help he know anything about you."

He laughed again. This time the laugh was much bigger. "I knew that you would have had problems with that. That wasn't really my concern. Unless you were perhaps thinking of arresting me or something for illegal trespassing?"

She shook her head. She knew that this was perfectly neglecting her duties. But it wasn't like she never did this before. Besides, she knew that she couldn't do that. She just couldn't.

"Um…Riku was it?" 'Damn it, why did he have to interrupt here?' Smith thought to herself.

Riku turned his attention to Kimihito. "Ah, I'm sorry about that. Hey, did you go back safely that day?"

Kimihito nodded. "All thanks to you."

"Not really. There would have been no reason for your little walk to get into a mess in the first place if it wasn't for me." He walked towards him, leaving Smith behind. "Say, you didn't tell anyone else about what happened, right?"

Kimihito nodded. "How did you know that?"

He laughed again. "I just thought so. You didn't seem like the type to talk about all kinds of things to just anyone. Did you explain to them, though?"

Another nod. "I see. I guess that couldn't have been helped."

"But Riku, I don't really get it myself. Would you mind explaining me what happened that night? Thoroughly. Nowadays everyone around me isn't giving me any kind of explanation for anything."

"Wait," Smith stepped in the conversation. "What happened?"

Riku wrapped his arms around Kimihito shoulder, as if the two of them were old buddies. "Just a little guy-secret." He winked.

Smith wanted to interrogate him. But she just couldn't. What on Earth was that guy doing to her? He was a handsome guy, and she had to admit that she had never seen anyone that looked as good as him throughout her whole life, but she never thought of herself to be so easily swayed just by good looks. What the heck was he?

While Smith was stunned, the two guys started to talk again.

"I think it will be really great if you didn't tell about that incident to anyone else as well."

"I can do that. I don't think anyone else would believe me anyway. But please, can you give me any explanation?"

Riku responded with nothing but a smile. Kimihito was starting to think that his smile might have been carved into his skin. It never seemed to leave his face.

"Really, nothing?" He groaned. He was sick of this. "Fine then, just tell me this one thing. Who exactly are you?"

Riku seemed to ponder about that. "That's a tricky question."

'Why on Earth is that a tricky question?' Kimihito thought to himself. If he was just a bit more impatient, he would have yelled at him.

"Let's just say that I'm not the usual guy you see on the streets, shall we?"

'As if that wasn't any obvious!'

"I think that's about all that I would be able to tell you two for now." He moved a step away from Kimihito and Smith. "It's time for me to go."

"Wait," Smith grabbed his arm. She had no idea she did that. She was only thinking of stopping him from leaving. "I still have much more to say to you!"

Riku slightly frowned his left eyebrow.

"Why did you disappear that day? Why did you avoid me? And why!" She was literally yelling at him at this point. "Do you look just like that person from 11 years ago?"

Riku put that smile on his face again. He slightly grabbed her hand with his other hand to get her hands of his arm. "So many questions that I can't answer. But believe me, young lady, that it is all for your sake, and not mine." He looked into her eyes. "Please understand me. I don't have any other choice."

With that final word, he walked away, just as he left. Although he was just walking, it almost felt like he was warping to another dimension. When Kimihito and Smith were back into their senses and started to follow him, they soon found out that he had already disappeared. Just like that.

Smith sniffed. She used her hand to wipe her tears. She lost him. Once again.

Kimihito returned home by himself. Smith disappeared to wherever she had to go with a dumbfounded look on her face even before Kimihito could offer her a ride or an escort. And of course, Satsuki was not home. He double-checked that with his own eyes, when he went inside her room to find out that there was no sign of her to be found in the house.

He decided to stay in that room for a while. He needed some time by himself. He sat on the bed that was neatly made up, causing a slight disruption in its perfect figure. He used his hands to cover his face.

What has he done wrong? Everything seemed to be going in a weird direction or even worse, a wrong direction. He couldn't even talk normally to his younger sister that he's been looking for such a long time. The recent incident with that guy that called himself Riku turned out to be a complete mystery that he wasn't willing to explain about.

He was too absorbed in his thoughts that he couldn't notice Suu coming in the room. Well, she did do her best not to make any sound at all. She transformed herself into a flat puddle to get inside the room through the small gap between the door and the floor.

"Master, are you okay?"

Kimihito held his head and looked at her. "How did you do that? Coming in without a sound?" But it was pretty obvious in his tone that he wasn't actually curious about how she did that. Kimihito has been living long enough with the girls to have understood that there were things that they could just do.

So Suu just took the vacant seat next to him. She seemed like she was in her teenage-from-that is, the medium stage of her child and mature form. She just simply asked, "May?"

Kimihito nodded. Suu nodded in understanding. "There is something that I would like to show you, Master."

He looked at her with an obvious question mark in his face. Suu placed the antennae on her head on his head.

"She told me many things while the rest of you were all sleeping. She doesn't want you to know all about this, but I think she's wrong."

Those were the last words that he heard before the vision he saw no longer showed his little sister's room. This time he was in a place that seemed to be a cottage in the middle of the forest.


A/N: As always, thank you for reading The Kurusus. My schedule isn't allowing me to upload frequently, but I am doing the best I can do.

The story has already passed halfway. It might even end much earlier than I have expected. There were many side stories and characters that I would have wanted to write about, but I realized that my ability as a writer won't allow me to bring out all that and at the same time, not make the story boring. Up until now, the story was mostly a series of questions that weren't fully answered. I plan to answer the questions that might have popped up in your minds from now on.

What do you think about the story up until now? Please do tell me through the reviews. Although I don't answer them (mostly because that would spill the beans), I do read through them and think about how I could improve.

Once again, thanks.