Atsushi Kiba was still the tall, dark haired cousin she remembered as he pulled up outside the Oohira house that Saturday in his black car. He grinned at her as she got in the car.

"How you been, Koshimi?" he asked, as she strapped herself in.

"Oh, you know…trying to hold the guys together while they deal with their grandfather's death…trying to get Tatsuki to calm down over his powers…easy stuff."

Kiba smirked and started making their way toward the airport.

"So, about that lead…?"

"Kazuma Koutari. He has a grudge against Tatsuki and he has almost the same powers as Tatsuki. Apparently he got his powers from touching him some time when we were in first grade. It really astounds me that there can be three guys I know out there with the same power. Especially one that causes such emotional turmoil."

Koshimi looked over at Kiba who sighed.

"Yeah well, you and Kouichi helped a lot. Though Kouichi is more than his share of a pain."

Koshimi smiled at her older cousin.

"And yet here you are going to pick him up from the airport. Daww."

They chatted casually until they reached the airport. Inside, they found Kouichi Udou waiting for them with his suitcase. The two high school buddies grinned at each other.

"Hey. It looks like your pet projects are in trouble. You'd better get on that," Kiba joked.

"Yes, Sir."

Looking over, Udou noticed Koshimi standing beside her cousin.

"Well, look at that! You brought me my future wife!"

He let go of his bag and pulled Koshimi into a huge hug.

"GACK! Get off me! You're worse than Yuuto!"

Udou let go of her with a laugh.

"What? Dating Oohira now?"

Koshimi cringed and ignored his statement, but he understood well enough.

"Ah, so it's complicated. I'm sure it is after what has happened recently."

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We're going to do our best to settle everything, Shi."

She nodded and they were soon on their way back to the Oohira house to drop her off.

After school the next day, Koshimi hung around after school to wait for Yuuto as he had gone to Kotarou's basketball practice to talk to the kid. Koshimi at on the stairs outside the school as Yuuto came out on the phone with Mio.

"Great! This should be fun!"

He hung up the phone and looked down at Koshimi with an accusatory look.

"What?" she asked in confusion.

"YOU BROUGHT UDOU BACK!"

She stared at him for a moment before laughing.

"Oooh, you ran into him did you? He's here for the alumni game, so calm down."

"How am I supposed to calm down when he walks up to me and tells me on I'm on reuniting duty! Like I don't know this already!"

"You're only blaming me because I know the guy personally. Moving on, why were you on the phone with Mio?"

Yuuto smiled slyly.

"We are now going to karaoke with Mio and Kotarou! Let's invite Karen!"

Yuuto tackled her and tried to find her phone since he knew she had her number.

"Get off! Yuuto! You almost went up my skirt, you pervert! I'll get it for you! God."

She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and handed it to him.

"Sheesh. I hope you know Kotarou is not going to thank you for this."

Koshimi was right on target. Kotarou tried to hold in his anger but, in the middle of Yuuto singing a solo, he couldn't handle it anymore.

"Stop! Just…stop! I can't believe you crashed our goddamn date!"

Yuuto stopped singing as Koshimi and Karen stared at Kotarou in alarm. Mio stepped in.

"Don't be mad, Kotarou. I'm the one who said he could come. I thought maybe more of a party would cheer you up, and since Yuuto was interested…I don't know, I thought it would be fun."

Yuuto laughed and put down the microphone.

"You heard her—the more the merrier. And look! Even Koshimi and Karen came to show the love."

"Enough already!"

Kotarou pushed his friend in annoyance when Mio dropped her glass. It broke and splintered on the ground.

"Oops. Gosh, I'm such a klutz. OW!"

As she had gone to pick up the pieces, she had cut herself.

"Mio! Are you okay?" Kotarou as everyone gathered around to make sure she was okay.

"Looks like a little nick," Karen commented.

"Just leave it, Mio," Yuuto told her," I'll tell the staff."

"I'm okay…"

Koshimi looked over at Kotarou.

"Why don't you go help her clean out that cut?" she suggested.

"Oh! Sure…"

After the staff came in and cleaned up the glass, the three left in the room sat back on the couch. Karen put her head on one hand as Yuuto slumped over. Koshimi just looked at the two of them.

"So? What's the plan, you two? Tatsuki Oohira's still on the loose," Karen commented.

Koshimi sighed. She hadn't been able to do something for Tatsuki. When he was home he ignored her like the rest of the inhabitants of the house and he was out for most of the time.

"No clue," Yuuto responded, sullenly," You gotta help us, Karen, Darling!"

-Reuniting duty. Yeah, right. Knowing where Tatsuki is would be a nice start, Udou. We can't have you running all over town looking for his mind either, Shi.-

-And you know I would do it if it wasn't such an unreasonable task…-

Mio and Kotarou returned to the room and they all decided to head home. On the way home, the group heard an odd sound coming from an alleyway. It sounded like a fight. But there was also the sound of someone getting tossed with a lot more force than a human could produce.

"Did you hear that? What was that?" Mio asked.

"Sounded like an accident," Kotarou stated.

Koshimi looked back in alarm. Her and Karen seemed to instantly know what was going on and both took off toward the sound.

"What's the matter, ladies?" Yuuto asked, as they both passed him.

The others followed not too far behind. Reaching the alleyway, they found Tatsuki strangling Kazuma. Everyone but Kotarou stopped.

"Tatsuki! What are you doing?" he demanded.

Tatsuki looked over in shock. He had not expected his cousin to find him.

-Kotarou. What am I…?-

He suddenly let go and took off running.

"Tatsuki!" Kotarou demanded.

Looking down, Koutaru only just noticed who Tatsuki had been fighting with.

"Is that you Kazuma?"

Yuuto as staring in shock.

-What the hell? Why was Tatsuki trying to strangle Koutari?-

It suddenly hit him why, but Kotarou took off after Tatsuki.

"Mio, do me a favor? Stay with Kazuma a minute."

Koshimi dashed after the two boys. Kotarou and Koshimi found Tatsuki standing not too far away. Kotarou stopped and walked slowly. Koshimi stood a little ways off.

"Tatsuki!"

"Get away from me."

"No! have you lost it? Do you realize what you were doing?"

-Get away from me.-

"Tatsuki."

Koshimi saw what was coming.

"Kotarou move!"

-GET AWAY!-

Tatsuki turned and Kotarou went flying backwards. Koshimi ran over to the blonde who was now on the ground. Yuuto had come around the corner just in time to see what had happened.

"Kotarou!" he shouted, running over.

Tatsuki took off running again, but this time Koshimi dashed after him. She refused to let him get away from her again. He couldn't keep this up. She needed to do something. After awhile, Tatsuki stopped running and just walked. As he passed a few lampposts the light bulbs would explode, alarming some people walking under them.

-You were the only one I didn't want to find me.-

A picture of Kotarou yelling at him flashed in his mind.

"I've waited too long for this nightmare to end. I didn't want it. I held my breath. I closed my eyes and felt it eat away at me. I waited and waited…for the day this curse would finally disappear. No more…-

Koshimi stopped in alarm as the lamppost beside Tatsuki was completely disintegrated. It was frightening to say the least, but Koshimi ran up closer. Tatsuki finally noticed her. He looked at her with a glare on his face. She put her hands out and looked at him stubbornly.

"Are you going to blast me, too? Are you going to knock me to the ground…hurt me?"

"Go away."

"If you're even remotely thinking of killing yourself or killing someone I will definitely not leave you alone. Tatsuki, I…I love you too much."

He turned and stood in the middle of the sidewalk. No one was around and the streets were completely silent.

"I'm done pretending we can be together, Koshimi. You and I are done. There was never and us and there can never be and us. I've toyed around with your emotions enough. Just leave."

"You don't mean that. You just want to deal with everything yourself! After I've spent most of my life chasing after you and trying to help you, you can't just tell me to go away. And don't tell me that you were just toying with me because you know that isn't true. I can read your mind, remember?"

She was taken off guard as Tatsuki turned and blasted her with his new power. She sailed straight into one of the lampposts that hadn't broken as Tatsuki passed and heard a nasty crack as her arm broke from hitting the ground. Pain seared through her back and arm as tears came to her eyes. She couldn't read Tatsuki's face through her tears.

"I don't care about you and no one cares about me."

He took off running again, leaving her there to struggle to her feet. She hissed through her teeth every time her arm moved and her back ached from the impact. Finally making it to a standing position, she swayed on the spot and would have fallen over if Yuuto hadn't caught her.

"Dammit, Shi, tell me Tatsuki didn't do this. Your arm…"

"I wish I could say he didn't. Aggh! It's broken."

Yuuto pulled her up into his arms.

"It's gonna be a long trek to the hospital…"

"I'll try and bear it."

An hour later, she was having her arm put back in place and her arm with put in a sling. Her elbow and wrist were the issue. Yuuto stayed with her the whole time at the hospital, calling Kotarou and letting him know what happened. Koshimi was able to walk home with Yuuto accompanying her later that night. Yuuto could tell the girl was seriously depressed.

"Why do I get the feeling this is not only painful, but emotionally hard on you?" Yuuto said, put a hand on the shoulder of her good arm.

"Because you can see my aura, maybe. I was probably just fooling myself, anyway."

Yuuto frowned at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Not at school…but at home for the past month or so…Tatsuki and I have kinda been…together. Before knocking me into the hospital, he said he'd just been fooling around. He said he doesn't care about me."

Yuuto scoffed.

"You don't seriously believe that do you? Tatsuki rarely shoes anyone feelings. He opened up only to you and he's just trying to deny it now because he's in turmoil."

"He broke my arm if you didn't notice!"

"And I bet he is weeping in a corner about it as we speak!"

"My ass, Yuuto. No one gives a shit about me. I've been fooling myself. I've been pretending he actually cared because I did. I should've stayed with my parents in New York and not have to deal with this bullshit."

Tears trailed down her cheeks as she spoke. Yuuto stopped her on the sidewalk as she started sobbing profusely into his chest.

"I wanna leave, Yuuto. I want to leave and never come back."

"You can't just run away from this! You're my best friend! I need you here and so do the others. Tatsuki is just saying whatever he can to get you to leave him alone. He went a little overkill this time but don't give up on him!"

The two of them made their way in silence the rest of the night and the two parted at the gate to the Oohira house. Everyone was already asleep as Koshimi went upstairs and fell into bed. She cried herself to sleep, not knowing what to do.