Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, no point in suing…

A/N: This chapter really should have followed the last one with Usagi and Minau, but…it didn't. Also, to make a little more sense of this, you might want to glance through Chapter 21 again. Just saying, it might help.

The Photo Club Booth

"Naru-chan, come on!"

Gurio Umino tugged at her hand, and Osaka Naru laughed and followed him obligingly. Her other hand clutched a small stuffed animal. The little cat would not have earned the affection of most other young women, but after watching Umino pour into the arcade machine enough yen to have bought them both lunch and battle with the controls for nearly an hour in an attempt to seize up the one she wanted, Naru cuddled the plush little creature to her chest with the utmost tenderness. She had already forgotten that she had actually wanted the dog beside it.

A small yellow booth caught her eye, and Naru pulled both herself and Umino to a rather sudden stop.

"Nani? Naru-chan, you said you were hungry!"

"I am," she assured him, "but we need a picture of our family all together, don't you think?"

Umino maintained a grip on her hand, but his eyebrows rose over his thick glasses. "Our family?"

"Hai. You, and me, and little Umineko-chan!" she cried, holding the cat up. "I think he even has your eyes."

"Umineko?" He studied the animal closely for a moment, then shook his head. "It can't be named after me!"

"How can you say that about our baby?" Naru cried, her tone pained but her eyes dancing.

"Look at it! It's obviously a Nekonaru-chan!"

"Iie! He's a healthy little boy!"

"With a pink collar?"

Both "parents" looked appraisingly at the cat and its adornment for a moment. Naru frowned uncertainly for a moment, then shrugged.

"Umineko-chan," she declared in a tone that brooked no more argument. "We'll just have to do something about that later. Now hush, and get in!"

Still grinning, Naru pressed Umino into the photo booth and followed him, pulling the curtain sharply closed behind them. They arranged themselves before the camera, Umino slightly behind Naru, his chin hooked on her shoulder, and Umineko-chan held by both up before the camera. The bright flash sent stars dazzling across Naru's vision, and earned a little groan from Umino.

With a click, a small picture appeared in the tray under the camera. Naru snatched it up and peered at it for a long, critical moment. Then she burst into a grin.

"We look so sweet together!" she cried.

"Let me see!" Umino demanded, snatching it from her hand. He ran anxious eyes over the picture for a moment, then frowned. "I don't like it."

Naru's heart fell. "Why not?"

"Because you look so pretty with Umineko-chan, and I look so…"

With his thumb, he blocked out his own face, leaving only Naru and the stuffed cat.

"There. That's pretty."

Naru gazed up into his face, really looking at him for the first time in a long time. She had known him for many years and had never thought his face beautiful. He was not a prince, not a dream, not like…Nephrite. But he was sweet, and he was kind, and he knew all her favorite songs and sang them with her at karaoke even when other boys were there to make fun of him. He made her favorite meals, and bought her favorite cookies. He poured money into an arcade for the simple pleasure of being able to seize up a stuffed animal that would make her happy.

And he smiled that wide, wonderful smile at her every time.

"Umino…"

He looked up at her and saw her tiny frown.

"Naru…what is it?"

She lunged forward, threw both her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips to his. His hands seized her waist as he stumbled, trying to kiss her back and keep his balance at the same time. In the end her kiss won out, and he tumbled backwards against the photo booth wall.

Pressing closer into him, Naru closed her eyes and kissed him again and again. He felt warm, and he smelled wonderful, like books and sand and that sweet cake he always brought her. She had kissed one other man, but as Umino's glasses bumped against her cheek and his hands clutched at her clumsily but tenderly, she could not even remember that other man's face.

Naru pulled her lips from his, leaned in close to his ear, and whispered, "Umino…aishiteru."

"REALLY?"

She laughed and nodded against his cheek. "Really, Umino. Really, really, really."

Umino grasped her shoulder, pushing her slightly away so he could look into her face. His smile was twice as wide, and a hundred times more wonderful, than ever before. He put his free hand against the back of the booth to push himself upright again as he said, "Naru-chan, aishiter—oh!"

"Ano," Naru muttered uncertainly, "I'm not sure what that means, Umino."

He pulled his hand around from behind his back and held it out between them. Naru gasped in surprise to see a small trail of blood across his palm. Seizing a tissue from her bag, she wiped it quickly away. Underneath was a small cut, barely there.

"It's nothing," Umino said quietly, dropping his hand back to his side. "Just a sliver."

"Good," Naru said with a sigh. She pushed the tissue into the small garbage can in the corner, then looked up at him with a smile, hoping he would finish what he had been about to say.

Instead, Umino looked slowly around the photo club booth, blinking and dazed. Closing his eyes, he lifted his hand to his forehead with a little groan.

"What's wrong?" Naru asked with alarm. "Umino?"

"I don't know…I feel…I think I can hear someone. Can't you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Naru whispered, trying to draw his hand down from his forehead.

"It's like…whispering. Or is it wind?" Umino turned his head away from her and thrust back the curtain, as though he could find whatever he heard hiding there. But when the sun hit his face he fell back with a shout, his arm across his eyes.

"Umino!" Naru gasped, catching him before he fell out through the other curtain. "Easy! We need to get you home."

"Home," Umino echoed uncertainly. "Hai. I want to go home."

He lowered his arm and stepped gingerly out into the light. After a moment he smiled slightly.

"The light doesn't hurt at all."

"That's good," Naru murmured soothingly. "It must be a migraine headache. Come on. Oh, wait! Umineko-chan!"

She spun around and grabbed her little cat. She tucked him in her bag, took Umino by the hand, and began to lead him towards his house. His fingers twisted through hers, but he looked around with blank, uncertain eyes.

"Everything seems so…different. Like I'm seeing through someone else's eyes," she heard him whispering. "Or is someone else seeing through mine?"

.

.

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The Tree

Ducking under one branch, Kobe Ruruna sighed and checked her watch again. She had nearly an hour before she needed to meet Naruru at the mall. The bag already in her hand was heavy with the doujinshi she had bought only minutes before.

Smiling to herself, she dropped to the ground beneath the tree, drew out her book, and quickly opened it to enjoy the efforts of a like-minded, but more talented, fan.

"Ooh, Rangiku and Momo," she whispered with a grin.

Settling back against the tree, she put one hand down on a root, then jerked it back up with a gasp as pain flashed through her palm, up into her fingers, and down into her wrist.

As she glanced quickly down at her own hand, she saw only a tiny sliver of something dark in the center of her palm. Her brows rose in surprise even as her hand throbbed with pain. Ruruna tried to seize it between her thumb and forefinger of her other hand, but when she tugged at it the pain flared so high that she cried out.

The first soft hiss in her ear made her drop both hands into her lap. She looked uncertainly around her for the source of the sound.

"What is that?" she whispered to herself. "Is that wind?"

Ruruna leaned forward to peek out from under the low branches, putting her weight on the injured hand, but the hissing, or whispering, grew so loud that she did not even notice the sliver of darkness sinking deeper into her hand.

"Is someone there?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "Who's there?"

Voices whispered, somewhere between her ears and behind her eyes, many of them, arguing with each other and pushing against her mind.

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The Alley

Asanuma Ittou smiled at his aunt as they walked down the steps together, his young cousin leaping down two at a time in front of them.

"Be careful, Tohru," Aunt Keiko called after him with a sigh and a smile. She glanced out of the corner of her eye at her nephew, and gave him a playful frown. "Don't you laugh at me, Ittou."

"Never!" he reassured her, patting her on top of her red ponytail. "But I'm just happy to see you both happy. You seem so much…well, happier, these days. Did something change? Something with Uncle Yukio?"

"Iie, that will never happen," she told him on a sigh. "But don't worry about us. Tohru and I are better together, and that's all I need. Are you sure you don't want to go to get pizza with us, Ittou?"

"I need to get home. I have homework," Ittou said apologetically. "But if you need me to watch Tohru again, just call me!"

"You," she said, giving him a one-armed hug around his shoulders, "are a wonderful big cousin, Ittou. Arigatou."

They came to the ground floor, and together they walked towards the door that Tohru had already run out. Ittou glanced at the door to their left, number four, as they passed. His aunt did too, but she looked quickly away.

"They've cleaned it up," she whispered, "all that blood where that poor girl killed herself, but still they can't get anyone to move in. I couldn't do it."

"It was so strange," Ittou added. "For just a little more than a week the city went crazy. Suicides, murders…"

Keiko cleared her throat and stepped quickly outside, into the sunshine. Ittou followed her, glad to see his little cousin had waited at the bottom of the outside stairs for them, even if he was doing so impatiently. Ittou hugged Keiko, offered Tohru a friendly high-five, and waved as the two turned in the opposite direction from where he was going.

Ittou only took a few steps before he heard something strange off to one side. He glanced, startled, into the alley beside the apartment building. He saw nothing, but he heard it again.

Something was crying in the alley.

He took several slow steps off the sidewalk. The light dimmed surprisingly in those few feet, making him squint as he listened. A slight movement to his right brought him down on one knee. He moved a box, and broke into a smile.

"Hey there, little guy," Ittou whispered. "What are you doing down there?"

A small dog whined pleadingly up at him, and as it tried to reach him he saw the tape from the box wrapped around one hind paw.

"Ah, poor puppy," he said, patting the animal gently on the head. "I've got you. Hang on."

It took only a moment to untangle the dog. It gave a grateful yip, wagging a little curled tail at him, then frisked several feet away, towards the mouth of the alley. A play bow in his direction invited him to follow the dog for fun.

Ittou laughed, and rose to follow. The laugh changed to a groan as a pain started in his knee, quickly climbing up his thigh and down his calf. He shook his pants, trying to dislodge whatever had found its way into his knee, but he stopped as the fabric snagged against the sharp object and twisted it in his skin.

"Damn it," he hissed. His fingers grazed over his knee when he heard a female chuckle, low and sultry. As he stood up quickly, looking around for the laughing woman, there came a snapping somewhere behind him, like static electricity. Ittou spun in a circle, and saw nothing and no one but himself and the small dog.

Only now the dog lay on its belly, peering up at him with frightened little eyes, its tail pulled close to its body. Ittou took a step towards it in concern. It leapt up and flew out of the alley, tail between its legs and leaving a thin trail of urine behind.

"Wait!" Ittou called out, but the soft whispers brought him to a halt.

Someone was muttering, and someone was crying, and someone was laughing, and a wind was blowing, and they sounded like they were just behind him, but as he looked over his shoulder yet again, he saw no one.

Pain crawled up past his leg, past his belly, towards his heart.