Future Talk

Chapter 51:

"Tea Party"


Ryu looked tired. He wore a pair of loose jeans and no shirt, and his tanned skin seemed sallow beneath his warm demeanor. Bags like bruises marred the skin below his eyes, and he quickly sat down at the table as we traded dissimilar looks—his open and quietly delighted, mine suspicious and visibly unhappy.

"Dani," he said, smiling as his blonde hair fell into his eyes. He straddled the back of one of the chairs so he could lean his chin on his crossed arms. "It's good to see you, even if you're wearing somebody else's face."

His posture made him seem young and harmless, so I warned myself to keep on guard. "What, do you think blonde doesn't suit me, either?" I said, lacing my tone with liberal amounts of sarcasm.

My tone went right over his head, apparently. "I think it suits you very much," he protested, and then he laughed sheepishly. "Or maybe I'm biased because I'm a blonde, too?"

I did not laugh at the joke, though he dropped a chuckle of his own, and in a fit of misguided rebellion I shut my eyes, dipped into theta despite the shackles chafing at my wrists and the dull throb in my tattoo, and called up an image of my face. It flowed into me with a snap and when I opened my eyes, the hair—the hair that had escaped from my customary pigtails sometime during the wild night—hung long, soft, and definitely brown in front of my face. I rubbed my face against the inside of my upraised arms to clear it from my vision, and then I placed all of my efforts into glaring at Ryu with all of the negativity I could muster.

It didn't do me much good. His eyes lit up, he grinned, and then he clapped his hands together. "I'd been wondering what your powers would look like in the flesh!" he exclaimed, obviously interested in my abilities in a way that left no room for intimidation. "How do you manage to do that? It's cool!"

I snorted. "What, tell you everything so you can use it against me later? No thanks."

His lips twisted in apology. "I keep forgetting how much you hate me." Fingers tugged his hair back over the crown of his head. "I'm not your enemy, Dani. I don't know how many times I'll have to say it before it sinks in, but…" He smiled, but it was more like a grimace. "I am not your enemy. You have my word."

I said nothing, but I think he understood that I didn't believe him. He sighed, pursed his lips, and looked down at the floor for a second before meeting my eyes again.

"I'm sorry for the way Hogosha treated you earlier," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "I know that friends shouldn't yell at friends, but she is…protective, of me."

A memory—one brought on by thoughts of Hogosha, Ryu's awkward tone, and his continued gentle treatment of my undeserving person—made my lips purse. "Remember when we first met?" I asked.

Lilac eyes softened. "It's hard to forget."

"You told me you were in that garden because you were running from a woman," I said. I spared no time for pleasantries. "Hogosha?"

Strangely, he seemed pleased. "That's very perceptive of you, Dani. I'm surprised!" He rubbed the back of his neck again. "She can be taxing to deal with. Loyal, of course, but… well, she's kind of a nag." He laughed out loud. "Ah, but she certainly has her uses, doesn't she? She brought you in with hardly a hair out of place!"

My teeth clenched. "You're a jerk," I gritted out, and Ryu looked at me, shocked. "Are you ignoring the fact that she loves you, or is your head jammed so far up your ass that you just can't see it for what it is? Because either way you've proved tonight that you're probably the biggest freaking jerk I have ever had the misfortune of meeting."

Ryu's mouth worked as he recovered from my verbal assault. "I'm not… unaware, of her feelings," he managed, and my anger narrowed down to a sharp knife-point of hot rage.

"You're not unaware?" I repeated, seething. The chains above my head clanked together as my fists clenched and trembled from the strain. "You're not unaware? Then why, pray tell, do you insist on ignoring her, ordering her around, making her do your dirty work, and why do you flaunt how much you're obsessed with me in front of her face? If you're 'not unaware' of how she feels, then why do you insist on torturing her so much?" I twisted against the chains. "You're despicable, the worst kind of man, and you don't deserve her loyalty!" My next words were a sharply pointed barb aimed straight for the heart. "And guess what, Ryu—after seeing the way you've treated her, I'm pretty damn certain when I say that I would never, ever, not in a million years, let you have me!"

I deflated a little once I got the words out, sagging against my bonds as I stared at Ryu's wide eyes. My breath ran fast in my throat.

Eventually, Ryu said: "You're not her."

"Like hell!" I snapped. "I had a chat with Hogosha before you showed up, Ryu." I said his name with a sneer, like it was nothing but repugnant slime in my mouth. "She told me that you're not after me because of who I am, but because of what I am! You don't want love or companionship, or even a cure for your loneliness!" Anger became so palpable at that point that I lunged forward, shoulders stretching painfully as I pulled against the immovable chains, but I couldn't get close enough to Ryu to gouge his eyes out like I wanted. "All you want is a figurehead, you bastard! All you want is some fucking symbol to represent your own dual nature so you don't have to expose yourself! You'd put me on the line, expose me to criticism and prejudice, because you're not man enough to face it on your own!"

I had gone too far with that. "SHUT UP!" he roared, leaping to his feet. The chair fell over with a crash and he was in front of me, hand fisting in my hair as purple eyes blazed. I let out a pained, startled cry as he pulled my head back. My neck popped with a series of sharp cracks. "JUST SHUT UP!"

"Why?" I hissed, glaring at him through the pain. "Is it because you can't take hearing the truth, you coward?"

My words seemed to shock him out of whatever ferocious, animalistic state he'd succumbed to, and he pulled his hand out of my hair like I had jolted him with electricity. My head lolled forward, scalp smarting, and then I looked up to find him staring down at his hands.

"Maybe I am a coward," he said softly, still looking at his palms, "but you don't understand. You don't understand anything." His hands clenched and he shut his eyes, smiling weakly. "How could you? It's not like you know me at all."

"You don't know me, either," I said.

"But I know that you are what Hogosha is not," he said, looking at me again. His eyes held no apology, only resolution. "I need a bridge between humans and demons, humans and others, at my side. Hogosha is a bridge between demons and demons. She is not suitable."

"And I am?" I said, and laughed. "But who the hell gave you the authority to decide who's who in all this? Who died and made you king? You can't define me any more than you can define Hogosha, and you can't just reject her feelings like they're not worthy of y—"

His eyes hardened and his mouth thinned, displeasure darkening his gaze to violet. "For all your talk of recognizing another's feeling, you seem to be forgetting that you consistently reject mine." A cruel smile, a harsh laugh. "Hypocrisy doesn't suit you."

I growled: "Like my daddy always said, 'You shall judge a man by his enemies as well as by his friends.'"

He blinked. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're forgetting the reasons why I can't accept your feelings," I said.

One eyebrow quirked. "Care to explain?"

"It would be an honor," I said, smiling a smile dipped in acid. "Lest you forget, you're currently in a close alliance with a man who, by your own admission, will capture, use, and kill me as soon as he has the chance."

Ryu, to his credit, looked a little flustered.

"And you know what else Seishou will do?" I asked. "He'll gut my friends for being my friends, and he'll kill innocent people—people like Karla's little sister who never hurt anyone in her life—just for standing in his stupid way."

"You don't understand," Ryu said.

"Damn right I don't," I replied. "I don't understand why you're working with a murderous, foul , and flat-out evil devil. I don't understand why you and Seishou have totally different objectives, so far as I know, but still cling to each other even though you don't want the same things. I don't understand why you're helping him even though you say you detest his goals." I shook my head from side to side, hair flying as I squeezed my eyes shut. "How the hell could I understand that, Ryu? You say you love me but you're with him, and that doesn't add up! And it doesn't add up that you want the Book to make people psychic but Seishou wants some weird lady locked in a dungeon for reasons that are probably geared more toward world domination or some shit like that!" I gnashed my teeth, frustrated. "And what's more, you ask? Somehow I'm related to America, which just so happens to be Hogosha's birthplace, and which just so happens to be Seishou's number one interest! Coincidences like that don't happen overnight!"

"You're right," Ryu breathed. "They don't."

"So tell me," I told him. "So tell me what's really going on. Tell me the things I don't know, make it all make sense, dammit, because I'm confused and I'm scared and I don't get you!" I struggled against the manacles again, but I only succeeded in drawing blood. It flowed in a sullen trickle down my arm, but I hardly registered the pain as I said: "Why would you work with someone like Seishou? He murdered a young girl right before my eyes, and yet you're helping him? You're not like that, Ryu, you're—"

"Dani."

I stopped talking. He had whispered my name like some sort of prayer, staring at me through torn eyes all awash in unnamable emotion. I had no idea what he was thinking, and that scared me more than any threat.

"Dani," he repeated. "Before I met you, I was exactly as you described."

I didn't say a word.

"I was willing to help Seishou even though he's a killer. A monster." His gaze did not falter. "But then I met you, and I saw your compassion, your openness, your… naïveté." He chuckled. "You trusted a stranger and made me laugh, not caring about who I was or what I had in mind for you, and that charmed me. Too many times have people approached with calculated kindness, but you… you expected nothing in return."

"Get to the point," I said.

"I will," he said. "I was charmed by your innocence and lack of guile, and then, later, I realized that there was even more to you than that. You are a perfectly imperfect combination of weak, ordinary human, and strong, exceptional demon."

I laughed outright. "Me, strong? You've got your head in the clouds!"

"I don't mean in body," Ryu said. "I mean in heart. You're stronger willed than most humans I encounter, willing to go the distance for what you believe in." A smile broke through the clouds. "When I saw that drive, one which matched my own, I knew I had to make you mine."

"Hate to break it to you, but you're wrong. Most call me irrationally stubborn, not willing to go the distance," I said, not liking his too-perfect, overly-idealized description of me one bit. "I'm stupid and pig-headed and weak and mean and bitchy and inconsiderate, Ryu. Why can't you see that?"

But Ryu only shook his head. "Perhaps you are, but that matters little to me."

"Maybe it should."

"That's my business." He took a deep breath. "But then, after meeting you… that's when I started to see Seishou for what he really is."

"A psychopath?"

"More or less." Another deep breath. "I have weighed my options, Dani, and I have found that there is no way for me to keep my alliance with Seishou intact, and to keep you, as well. Thus, I am on the precipice of a choice that will affect the rest of my life, for better or for worse."

"Me or Seishou, huh?" I asked.

"Precisely."

I licked my lips, thinking hard before I chose to very carefully say: "And would you mind terribly explaining what both choices would mean for you, me, and the worlds, in the long run?"

A measuring look made me tense up; what was Ryu planning? But then his eyes fell; he looked at the floor, visibly unsure of how to proceed.

"Please?" I ventured, and his trepidation cracked.

"To understand the choices I will make tonight," he said slowly, still not looking at my face, "you will have to understand me, as a man, and the events that shaped who I have become. Otherwise, everything I say will ring hollow and flat."

I rattled the chains like Jacob Marley's ghost. "I'm not going anywhere," I said.

He said: "Very well," and then he began his story. "My father married my mother through an arranged marriage. He had no idea what she was until after the ceremony, but by then it was too late."

"What she was?" I asked.

"A psychic," Ryu said. "One who could carve doors in space and go anywhere at will. She taught me the beginning of her craft, in secret, before my father found us out and banished her to a far-off estate. He hated her ability—it made him feel inferior, and threatened, and when he saw that I took after my mother… he could not stand the sight of me."

I couldn't help but feel a twang of pity for the man at that, but I pushed the feelings aside as I tried to pay attention.

"I was only eight years old at the time," he said. "Father sent me to boarding school in a far off country where he wouldn't have to look at me, telling me that if I used my powers I would be killed by the people watching me, and I spent two miserable years away from comfort and love." His eyes held a look of far-off, long suppressed pain. "Word that my mother had killed herself reached me when I was ten, almost two years after I was sent away."

I gasped; I couldn't help it. Ryu heard me and tried to smile. He failed.

"I was angry, of course, and the child in me thought I could strike out on my own. So I used my mother's long-forgotten teachings and tried to create a rift to another place, another city where I could start life anew." He looked up at the ceiling with a wistful smile. "Of course, it did not go that way at all. I had no idea how to handle the powers I possessed, and my emotions of hurt, betrayal, and fear made my abilities run wild. The door I opened led me to a place unlike any other I had ever been, a world I had no idea existed and one that was more fascinating than any I could have dreamed up on my own."

"Demon World?" I guessed.

Ryu nodded. "Demon World."

"Hogosha found me wandering in the forest, alone and lost and scared—but eager, and innocent, and interested. She took me in after I told her about the loneliness I had endured, promising to be my new mother and friend who would accept me no matter who, or what, I was."

"Birds of a feather," I said.

"Of course." He moved to sit down, righting the fallen chair with a momentarily regretful look. "I spent ten years in her care, living with Hogosha as an outcast. But despite being cut off from our own kinds, we were not lonely. We had each other."

"I suppose," he mused, "that I think of her as my mother. Maybe that's why I have such trouble thinking of her as a potential lover."

A pang of startling recognition made me think of Koenma. There was love between us, I knew that to be true, but it was a pure love, one that didn't have the more sinful flavor of romance, just… kinship.

Ryu and Hogosha, Koenma and I… were we more alike than ever?

Oblivious to my inner workings, Ryu said: "When I was twenty years old, Seishou appeared."

I froze solid.

"He spun a rather odd story," Ryu said. "He—"

"But, but Seishou is the Dark One!" I protested, cutting Ryu off completely. "How did you not recognize him after living with the Sisters for so long?"

Ryu merely laughed. "Seishou is an ancient demon, Dani. Do you really think he's spent every moment of his waking life plaguing the likes of these people? No, he has forayed far from here, and all during my ten years with Hogosha he remained aloof."

"Still," I said, "Hogosha—"

"She hates her people as much as she longs to be one of them," Ryu said, brow knitting at the paradox. "She was as alarmed at his appearance as I was—which is to say, not much."

"But—"

"But nothing, Dani," Ryu said, voice harsh. "The fact remains that Seishou approached me, and not because he wanted to hurt Hogosha and I."

"Then why—"

"It was because he knew me, Dani," Ryu said. "He knew me, knew who I was, knew who my father was, and do you know why?"

I thought about it, feeling the pieces slowly some together, and then I ventured: "The Society?"

Ryu smiled. "Indeed. Seishou, while travelling in Human World, met my father only a few months after my disappearance." His smile faded. "Perhaps if I had met Seishou sooner, things would be different." He grimaced. "But what's done is done. Seishou met my father, who, unbeknownst to me, was obsessively grieving my disappearance. When no human could track me down, he turned to the one people who he thought might be able to help."

I breathed: "Psychics."

"Yes." Ryu's eyes were as hard as chips of quartz. "My father only realized his love for me when he lost me, and when I vanished he recruited many psychics to the cause of finding me. Ashamed of his prejudice, he began to look for ways to bring out psychic powers in normal humans, so he could search for me himself."

"And you thought he hated you, your whole life," I said. "Fate's sure been a bitch to you, Ryu."

He snorted. "You're telling me. Anyway, Seishou was intrigued by my father's plans, and he was my father's right hand man… up until my father's death."

"Death…" I trailed off, not knowing what to say, but Ryu kept on talking.

"My father entrusted the Society to Seishou when he died," Ryu said, "and Seishou took the lead with the finesse of a natural leader. But no one can be totally dedicated to a single cause for years on end, and Seishou returned to the Sisters when he became somewhat bored of running the Society."

"And that's when he met you," I said.

"Yes," said Ryu. "He was not expecting to see me, the son of his predecessor, but he recognized me even though I had grown up. In me, he saw exactly what he had always been looking for. With my intimate connection to the Sisters through Hogosha, I could very easily infiltrate the sanctuary of the Bright Ones and help him achieve his goals."

"But why would you do that if you were happy with the Sisters?" I asked.

Ryu sighed. "He played me very well, I'm afraid, but I was younger then, and eager. He painted a picture of the Society finding peace and tolerance between psychics and humans, and even demons like Hogosha farther down the line. I grew so enmeshed in this idea that I would have done anything, anything at all, to become a part of the Society." He let out a bitter laugh. "He baited me by saying that there was no way a young upstart like me could ever hope to get into the Society, even if I was my father's son. Then, however, he got the idea that if he used his influence to ease me into the role of leader, I could one day assume my father's position and further the goals I so desperately desired."

"Let me guess," I said. "He offered a trade or something—your help getting the Bright Lady in exchange for his influence in the Society?"

"An astute observation, Dani," Ryu remarked. "From there, he informed me of the Society's plans to steal the Book from Spirit World, and I knew that my powers were suited—no, fated—for the task." His eyes lit up, happy and shining and fervent. "It was fate all along, you see—had Father not driven me from him I would never have made it here, Father would never had made the Society, and equality could never be reached. My suffering was my destiny, and it was for the good of all the Worlds!"

Somebody has a messiah complex, I thought, but I didn't want Ryu to turn his ecstatic face my way, so I said nothing.

"And now you see what I risk, here," Ryu said. He stood up and began to pace around the small room, hands waving as he spoke in an increasingly loud voice. "To choose Seishou is to risk my goals, my life, for his wishes, for what if his intentions for the Bright Lady conflict with my own? He has shown decreasing concern for the Society in recent months and I fear he has used up his uses for us after finding me as an ally. Perhaps the only reason he wanted the Book in the first place was to use it to get to the Bright Lady; who is to say that his intentions have ever been pure?"

He turned to me, then, and strode forward to grab me by the shoulders. His smile reminded me of a doll's, frozen in hollow emotion and fragile beauty.

"You, though, you're pure," he said in a desperate whisper. "To lose Seishou is to lose his influence on the Society, but what will that matter with you, the bridge between all races, standing at my side? That's influence enough, with or without Seishou there!" I saw his ideas solidify in the hardening of his lips and jaw. "You're the answer. You'll give what Seishou can't."

"But you can't trust me!" I protested, squirming to get away from him, but he held on tight. "Dammit, Ryu, I don't want to help you! I don't believe in your goals or—"

But he wasn't hearing me, not when he was gripped so tight by his overpowering ideals. "Join me, Dani," he said, eyes ablaze as his hands cruelly grabbed my arms and squeezed. "Join me, please!"

"No!" I shouted, and then: "You're hurting me, Ryu, this isn't right, you can't just force me to—"

He wasn't listening, of course, when he bent down and tried to kiss me, eyes wide open and boring into mine like they could force me to submit to his efforts like some sort of doll or mannequin, but I pulled back and screamed and kicked and cried and when he shoved his tongue into my mouth I bit down, hard, and he pulled back with a curse. I was breathing like a freight train when he spat blood onto the ground and glared, but I just glared right back and said: "Get the hell away from me, you rapist! Get it through your head—I won't join you!"

Eyes narrowed; fists clenched; shoulders hunched; head inclined so he could look down at me like a king looking at a misbehaving servant.

"I didn't want it to have to come to this," he said, "but I can see that your demonic nature calls for such drastic measures."

"What measures?" I spat, tasting his blood on my tongue. Pounding, screaming, agonizing adrenaline made me shake, shiver, twist; fear, for a moment, was replaced by anger. "Are you going to bring whips and chains into your little tea party or something? Because I am not into that and I most certainly am not into you!"

"Hogosha told me about this," he said, and he walked to my right before circling around behind me. Eyes traveled up and down my body, scrutinizing me from tip to toe. "About how demonesses will only submit to a dominant male. And if that is what it will take to win you, then I will play that role with pleasure."

My stomach lurched when he said that because I didn't like the sound of it and what the hell was he talking about? I twisted around to face him, chain links squealing as they spun in on themselves, but Ryu grabbed my arms with a furious look and spun me back around, jerking me back so my back pressed up against his ribs and sternum.

Arms wrapped around my hips and pulled me off my feet so Ryu's head was on level with my neck, but I kicked and managed to connect with something soft, and he dropped me with a grunt of pain. I fell and hit my foot on the floor, sagging in my chains as my leg turned to fire. My tattoo burned, too, a mirror of my smoldering anger, and I assumed that the tattoo was merely burning because my shoulders had been in such a stretched position for so long—

I was too absorbed in my foot and my tattoo to notice Ryu limping past me. He stood before me, and when I looked up into his furious violet eyes he struck me across the face, fist closed. The blow connected with my cheek and temple, and stars danced in my vision as I hung there, limp, and tried not to throw up from a combination of mind-numbing fear, anger, and pain.

"Cooperate and I won't have to do that again," he said, though I barely heard him, and then I saw his boots disappear behind me. Something tugged at the side of my neck, cool air rushing beneath the bandages as Ryu pushed a portion of them away from a spot on my throat. Arms went around my hips again, lifting me, and his head squeezed between my neck and my upraised arm, and I felt the heat of his breath on my exposed skin at the juncture where neck and shoulder curved together—

He sank his teeth in.

Slowly.

And it hurt.

Badly.

The pain quickly cut through my haze. I struggled anew, back burning even hotter as pain and rage made my vision tunnel, and I bellowed "LET ME GO, YOU BASTARD, I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU IF—" but the burn in the tattoo was rising, rising, reaching a boiling point—

Something as malleable as a liquid but as solid as ice pushed into the place where Ryu's teeth broke into my shoulder, forcing its way inside in a glacier-cold wave of invasive, disgusting, and loathsome power. It spread from the bite in my neck, bleeding into my shoulder and chest before spilling over onto my back. My struggles couldn't stop its spread, and I went limp as a sob broke in my throat. What he did to me was a violation of the highest order, forcing his very essence into my body without an ounce of care or delicacy—

That's when the cold met my tattoo.

Have you ever thrown icewater onto a hot frying pan? The water sizzles and spits before vaporizing into hot steam, and when Ryu's cold invasion hit my on-fire tattoo the power roiled and writhed and hissed before bursting up and out of my tattooed skin. I felt it shoot out of my pores like bullets, and when more cold hit the tattoo a millisecond later it backtracked up and out of the bite wound like a rogue bottle rocket.

Ryu threw me off of him with a screech; the force of his push nearly tore my shoulders out of socket when they met the resistance of the chain, and I think I screamed. Still, I was aware enough to see Ryu fall to his knees in front of me, bare chest alight with a massive, bloody burn and mouth dripping hot, red blood.

"Hogosha!" he cried, though his diction was slurred. "HOGOSHA!"

The demon burst into the room, took one look at the pair of us, and grabbed Ryu up into her arms. She took him out of the room at a run, and I felt a terrified sob rise up when she came back in, eyes blazing as she strode over to me and raised her hand to strike.

I screamed a little, then, but her hands merely gripped the chains just above my wrists and broke them into shards and dust. I collapsed on the floor since I had no support, but Hogosha jerked me upright by the elbow and thrust something into my hand.

I knew before opening my eyes that I held my staff. Warmth and comfort flowed into me in a burst, and I used the staff to stand as I rubbed my cheek along its silky surface and let a slew of relieved tears slide free.

The tattoo on my back stopped burning and merely glowed with dusky consolation.

"Leave, now," I heard Hogosha say, and I opened my eyes to find her in tears herself. Her English words were soft. "I heard what you said about me; I heard it all. Seishou is on his way now, but even though you reject my Ryu, I know he would mourn you if Seishou had his way." She turned away, still crying. "Seishou and his talk of the machine, and of the Bright Ones as the keys to its operation… Ryu does not know what Seishou plans for them, he does not truly know what Seishou plans for you. Forgive him for that."

"M, machine?" I stammered, because what was she talking about, could she really keep Ryu from helping Seishou, what—

But Hogosha did not hear. "Ryu only knows that the machine and the Bright Ones matter little to him, and that helping Seishou is merely an inevitable stepping stone to his own goals," she said, and she strode to the door. "Go, now. I will hold Seishou back so you may flee, my Sister."

And so, dazed and scared and violated, I left her.

I stumbled into the night.

I did not look back.


I wasn't sure where I was as I, still crying, tugged my bandages over the bleeding wound on my throat and tried not to collapse onto the cobblestone street. The houses of the Sister's city loomed high above me, foreboding and grey and shadowed in the dark of the Demon World night. I didn't recognize any of them or know where to go, so I just used my staff to get as far away from Ryu's lair as I could. Memories of Hogosha saying that Seishou was on his way echoing through my head, driving me forward despite how badly I longed to just curl up into a ball and sleep, and I slipped and slid because it was humid and the stones reflected wetly like mirrors in the dark. Breath hissed in and out of my chest as I strode relentlessly ahead, each step sending a shock up my leg, and I had to stop for breath.

A figure, a figure wearing a metal mask that glinted with a frozen smile, stepped out of the darkness ahead.

I went paralytic, eyes filling up again because it was Seishou, not him, anything but him after what just happened, and as I started to voice a helpless scream the figure bounded forward. A hand came up and cupped my mouth before I could get the shriek out; another went tight around my waist and dragged me forward, and then the figure was carrying me away with my feet dangling off the ground.

I relaxed in those arms on reflex, wrapping my own around his shoulders as I pressed my face into his hair.

I knew the minute he touched me, without really knowing how, that this was Hiei.


We ran. For how long, I don't know. I was too busy clinging to my safe haven to notice the turns we took, and then Hiei stopped, pried my arms off of him, set me on my feet, and held me at arm's length.

"Why is your face back to normal?" he demanded, eyes sparking through the mask's eyeholes. It was hard to look at him when he seemed so much like Seishou, and when I averted my eyes in irrational fear he gave my shoulders a light shake. "Woman, answer me—did anyone see you?"

I did not reply: I threw my arms around Hiei's neck instead. My face pressed into his throat as I clung to him, trying not to cry from sheer relief as I felt his familiar heat wrap me up and hold me.

My half-sobbed words—"I'm so happy to see you!"—did not cover a tenth of the emotion packed behind them.

He stiffened, but then his arms jerked up and caught me around the chest, squeezing tight just below the tattoo's lowest lines. The edge of his mask grazed my temple roughly, but I didn't care as I squeezed him tighter, drowning out the memories of Ryu's cold invasion with the sensation of Hiei's presence: the heat of him, the solidity of his body, his scent, his strong arms, the way my tattoo had begun to tingle and purr and glitter against my skin…

The moment only lasted until Hiei said: "Were you seen?"

I pushed away, but Hiei's hands stayed spread on my back and I didn't get far. "Ryu, and Hogosha," I stammered, and I lifted my shaking hands and reached toward Hiei's face. "Hiei—!"

"What?" he asked, "What is it, Dani?", not getting what I wanted at all until I finally managed to grab at the mask with numb fingers.

"Mask," I hissed, "mask, take it off," and his hand joined mine and we pushed the mask off of him together, revealing his anticipating face and wide-open eyes dyed black in the dark, and I put my hands on his cheeks and stared at him, feeling my eyes well with tears because he was just so right, so familiar, and then his eyes flickered to my mouth and his hands tightened as we both came to the same conclusion, eyes meeting in sharp, sweet, shared surprise before—

I don't know who leaned forward first, him or me or both at the same time, but we kissed each other and that was that. No more waiting, no more hesitation, no more overanalyzing or hedging or claiming this wasn't real, this wasn't happening, I don't feel anything for you, because it was obvious in the way my hands fisted in his shirt and in the way he wrapped me in an embrace so tight I thought my ribs would crack that something was there, something as palpable as his firm lips and my racing breath; it was in my blazing tattoo and the strange sound halfway between a sob and a plea that echoed in my throat, and it was in his low growl that said mine, finally, and yes.

The kiss only lasted for a minute, a simple press of mouth to mouth that didn't exchange anything more potent—though potent it most certainly was—but searing heat and pointed intention and something else I couldn't name, and then we broke apart completely and stared like we'd never truly seen each other before in our lives. His mouth looked perfect; his eyes looked wild; he seemed ready to take me back at any moment and finish what we started, for better or for worse, consequences be damned and—

Suddenly I thought Hiei had left me alone in the dark, but then I realized that my eyes had just fallen shut. I opened them. Hiei stood a foot away, hands still out like we were still locked together, and then I said: "Oh, I'm—sorry."

It wasn't the best thing to say, I think. Hiei's hands dropped and disappeared into his pockets as he looked at me, breathing deeply through his nose with eyes that I couldn't read. Everything about him seemed to burn, most of all the air around us as it shivered against my skin.

Still my tattoo throbbed.

"I was just so glad to see you," I stammered, body aflame as I tried not to let my trembling knees give out on me.

He scowled. "Would you have been as glad to see Kuwabara?" Hiei asked flatly.

I suppose I looked horrified at the suggestion, because his eyes closed and he smirked.

"Then you have nothing to be sorry for," he said, and he opened his eyes. He seemed… amused. Maybe elated. And maybe just a little—just the smallest bit—afraid when he casually suggested: "We can pretend that it never happened… if you wish."

I gaped at him. How could we ever…? But that had been so…

How could I ever forget that?

His jaw twitched. "I thought as much," he muttered, taking my silence in a way I did not intend, and he walked past with without a word.

"Hiei!" I said, turning after him, and he stopped. I could barely make out his shape in the dark, but I could still feel him like he was beside me...

…could still feel his heat on my lips, back, chest, everywhere, and not just where he'd touched.

"Hiei, it happened!" I said, the words bursting out before I could check them. "It happened, and—"

He turned to me, but he did not move closer. His features remained bland, calm… but tense.

Like he was waiting for me to take it all back.

"It… it happened," I said more softly. I couldn't think of what else to say, so I repeated yet again: "It happened."

This time he smirked, smugness overriding his fearful poker face.

"So it did," he said. He very, very slowly licked his lips, and he held my eyes when he did it. Whether or not he realized he was doing it was a moot point because I was on fire. "So it did."

The sense that everything was different—and yet familiar, and welcome—lingered long after the moment passed.


We did not, for those of you who want to know, kiss each other again that night. There were no sappy declarations of love, or promises of protection, or anything like that. We were both content, I think, to simply sit back and absorb everything our desperate kiss meant, like dusty ground basking in a light, warm rain. Hiei just picked me up without a word when it was through, letting me recline in his arms and twine my hands around his neck, and he sprinted into the night. My eyes closed on reflex. While he took us to wherever it was he was supposed to go, he brushed the glitter of his mind against mine until I let him in.

He didn't waste time in getting to the heart of the matter. We chased Seishou into the city square, where the Sisters had him cornered, he thought to me. They were grateful for the backup even if they hate men, and while we distracted Seishou they managed to get most of the other Sisters out of that sunken building and into a safe place in the city. I saw it in their minds.

I tried to talk right as Hiei made a massive jump, and I bit my tongue.

Keep it in your head, idiot, he admonished. We were fighting and we almost had Seishou pinned down when she came running into the middle of the fight.

Rather than ask who he meant, I just squeezed him a little tighter. He understood what I wanted and gave it to me.

The healer, he told me, flashing an image of Karla's face in my head. The one you like. She came running in, saying things about Elaina, about you, and Hogosha. I connected with her and saw memories of Hogosha knocking her out, and then the healer woke up just in time to see you vanish. I told the others and I went after you alone. You managed to escape before I got there.

But how did you find me? I thought.

I know your energy, he said. It wasn't hard to trace.

Something in his tone suggested more than what he'd said, but I let it go. There wasn't time. And what happens now?

His fingers dug into my thigh and upper arm. If they're still fighting Seishou, we join in, Hiei said. If they're not, we go back to the sunken building and regroup.

They won't be fighting Seishou, I told him. When he sent a vague questioning feeling at me, I said: Hogosha told me that he was coming right before I left, and to run.

Then we'll go back to the Hall, he said. His legs worked faster. Hang on.

I wanted to say something else to fill the silence that came after that, but I hesitated for a moment. Hiei, sensing my unease, urged me on and I finally added: That's why I was freaked out when you… showed up. I felt my real-world cheeks color. It's why I hated seeing you in that mask. I was scared out of my mind that Seishou would catch me.

I could tell, Hiei said, and I felt smugness color his mind. You calmed down when I touched you, you know.

Good-natured irritation (mixed with embarrassment) prompted me to say: Now you're just being obnoxious.

Says you, he told me, and I saw an image—an image of me through his eyes, standing rumpled, wide-eyed, defenseless, and trembling in the middle of the street as he approached, and then I relived the way I'd seemed to melt into him when he—

Hiei, don't, I said, injecting force into my tone. We can talk about this when getting distracted by each other isn't so… so hazardous!

It took him a minute, but then he grudgingly said: Fair enough.


We made it back in record time, but the Hall's outside doors were tightly closed.

"Hmph," he growled when he put me down outside of them. "If this isn't enough of a guard against Seishou, nothing is." He paused, sizing the doors up. Then he said: "We can open them when the others get here."

It had taken ten Sisters working together to open them the first time, I recalled, and I looked around us very carefully. "Do you think we should get out of the open?" I asked, and Hiei nodded before scooping me up again. Before I knew it he had jumped, practically flying into the branches of one of the massive trees, and he sat down on the massive bough without setting me aside. Arms draped loose around my waist.

I didn't want to be too close to him right then, though, because I had calmed down and for some reason touch didn't feel right, and I scrambled out of his lap and sat on my own, peering over the edge of the limb (which was at least as big around as a barrel) to stare at the ground a hundred feet below.

"Did you really have to pick one up so high?" I asked, swallowing, and when I looked up I found Hiei staring at me, leaning against the tree's trunk with a smirk.

"After all you've been though, you're still afraid of heights?" he asked. With a jolt I realized that he was, in his own harsh way, attempting to tease me a little, and I forced a smile.

"Sort of," I said. I looked around us, catching sight of the Hall through small gaps in the leaves. "Where are Yusuke and the others, do you think?"

Hiei closed his eyes, then opened them. "They're on their way," he said. "About five minutes now."

"Oh."

We sat in easy silence for a minute, each lost in our own thoughts. My tattoo had stopped screaming at me, settling instead for a dull moan of warmth, but there was a small spot of cold beneath my breastbone I hadn't been aware of before then.

"What happened, Dani?"

I knew he was serious since he used my name, but I didn't look at Hiei when I said: "I don't know what you mean."

I heard him snort. "Don't give me that. I've never seen you so shaken before."

My lips quirked. "Not even after the Sioh incident?"

"That was survival instinct, not emotional response," he said. "This is shock, fear… disgust."

To my immense horror, my stomach churned in response and the thought of Ryu's horrible attack resurfaced in full force. I put a hand over my mouth, trying not to gag when I thought of the way he—

A hot hand closed over mine, pulling it away from my mouth as another, hotter hand pressed against my cheek. That hand moved my face until I was staring straight at Hiei. He looked about ready to kill something.

"Your face is bruised," he said quietly.

"It's too dark to see that," I said. I could hardly see Hiei's eyes in the gloom, but I remembered Ryu's punch as plain as day.

"I don't need to see. I can feel the heat of your blood beneath the skin." A pause, with Hiei looking thoughtful on the other end of it. Then, in a very calm voice, he asked: "Can I kill him?"

My smile was weak, but genuine. "Careful, Hiei. I might take you up on that offer."

"I'd welcome it," he said. The hand on mine tightened. "He hurt you. Don't lie to me. How?"

The bite on my neck stung a little, but I just nuzzled my nose into Hiei's worn palm before looking back up at him. He was staring at the place where his hand met my cheek, lips thinned into a hard line, and then he met my eyes. His mouth softened somewhat, but his eyes did not lose their murderous edge.

"Talking about it right now won't help us steal the Bright Lady," I said. "I need to focus. So can we talk about it later?"

He saw that I was serious, and he did not argue. He knew I would come to him in time.

I only hoped that, when I did, Hiei wouldn't judge me for it.

In the face of our most recent… development, I wasn't sure if I knew how to predict the way his moods would swing.

Or, for that matter, how Hiei could predict my own.


The others arrived not long after, dashing up to the Hall's doors in a quiet, but intent, wave. Hiei sensed them before I even knew they were there; in fact, the only way I figured it out was because Hiei pulled me into his arms before jumping down to the ground. I kept my eyes shut for the whole thing, and I only realized we weren't alone when I heard voices.

"Dani!" I heard Kuwabara say once I had solid ground beneath me. "You have your face back!" He strode up to me and clapped a hand on my shoulder, but his expression was hard to see in the night. "I missed it!"

"It might be wise to wear the other one while we're inside, however good it is to see you back in your own skin," Kurama remarked, and I nodded before calling up Mom's face once more. Once I had gone back to being a fabulous blonde goddess (sarcasm of the highest order, here) I looked the boys up and down. None of them looked too banged up, though a large scrape on Yusuke's cheek and a sagging tear in Kuwabara's jacket sleeve had me worried.

"None of you are hurt?" I asked, and the group basically shrugged me off.

"It was hard to even get close to Seishou with the Sisters crowdin' 'im all the time," Yusuke griped.

"What happened after I left?" Hiei asked. He had moved a few feet away from me, not flaunting what had happened between us through unnecessary touch, and for that I was grateful. I didn't think I could stand much teasing from Yusuke at that point.

"Nothing noteworthy, I'm afraid," Kurama said, face growing somber when he thought about it. "He summoned several of his shadow creatures to distract the fighters, then fled. It happened not long after you left to look for Dani, actually."

"But we couldn't come back here right away because those dogs were all over the place, and we helped clean them up," Kuwabara said proudly. "I got five!"

Yusuke laughed at him. "Yeah, and I got eight; whaddaya think of that?"

As they bickered over who had the highest kill-count, Kurama said: "It took some maneuvering to sneak away, but we managed. And how did the two of you fare?"

I stuck to a short version of events. "Hogosha knocked out my guard and took me to Ryu," I said. "He told me a lot about how he and Seishou met and stuff, but other than him trying to get me to join him, there's not much to report."

"You'll have to tell us what you learned later, but for now there is no time," Kurama said, and he paused. "But, may I ask how you got away?" He looked to Hiei. "I assume you had a hand in that?"

Hiei tossed his head. "Dani did that on her own, actually. I found her wandering in the streets."

Is it just me, I thought, trying to decipher Hiei's shadowed face, or does he seem kind of… proud of me? Indeed, Hiei's bright eyes didn't look nearly as pretentious as they usually did…

"And how did you mange that, Dani?" Kurama asked, looking impressed, and I promptly froze.

"Uh," I said, because I didn't want to tell the truth but I hadn't thought to prepare a story, "uh, well, Ryu got a little too close and I…" I laughed, blushing a bit. "I might have aimed below the belt, you know?"

Yusuke and Kuwabara—who had finished beating each other up and wandered over to listen—gave me looks of revulsion (Kuwabara) and pride (Yusuke).

"Way to go, blondie!" the ex-detective chortled, ruffling my hair. "Teach that bastard who's boss!"

"Why do people keep doing that to me?" I snapped, waving his hands out of my hair, but he only laughed.

"It's because you're a kid," he said, and he started toward the Hall's doors. "Let's get going, guys. Operation 'Steal Bright Bitch' is underway!"


Muscles enhanced with Spirit Energy (and probably some of Hiei's telekinesis, if his glowing forehead mean anything) made short work of the Hall's doors, and after we went inside and the doors swing shut behind us, darkness as complete as death broke over us.

I didn't like it, not one bit, so I dove into theta for an escape and started singing the firesong. I pulled it into the world and opened my eyes, happily surprised to find that the fire had wrapped itself around the sphere on the top of my staff. The bright plume of flame cast enough flickering light to cast a twenty foot circle of illumination, and I smiled at the boys before saying: "So who knows the way?"

Everyone looked at Kurama, who sighed and snapped his fingers. There immediately came a dull blue-green flash from my right, and I spun, frightened, before realizing that a patch of moss on the floor had started to glow.

"I marked the way there with phosphorescent algae," he explained, and he turned to follow the trail. "Follow me, everyone."

The five of us walked along in silence for a time, with Yusuke and Kuwabara bringing up and the rear and Hiei and Kurama in front. I walked in the middle since I had the light, marveling at the strange network of tunnels and wall. Some parts of the intricate maze appeared to be newer and made of stone, while other parts of it seemed old and were probably original parts of the building.

Eventually Kuwabara asked: "You're sure there's no one in the place, Hiei?"

Hiei snorted, glancing at Kuwabara over his shoulder. "I told you, they evacuated it and shut the doors to keep Seishou out. The Sisters are safer in the city."

We had come upon the feast hall at that point, and we crossed it in silence before Kurama said: "Dani, I believe this is where you lead."

"Uh," I said, peering into the shadows, and then I pointed. "We walked straight in that direction for a little bit, and then there's a big crack in the wall. From there it's a straight shot to the Bright Ones' door thing." I let my point drop. "We might have to walk until we hit the wall then look for the crack a bit; I've never walked there on my own so it might be hard to find."

It was not, actually too hard to find at all, but not for reasons I anticipated. Kuwabara strode past me before I could even gesture for the boys to follow and walked right into the dark without a flinch, vanishing briefly before we heard him, a few meters to our left, yell: "Hey guys, it's over here!"

We trotted—and limped—after him, only to find him standing in the crack's mouth. He was grinning from ear to ear when he said: "You guys sure look surprised!"

"But… but how did you find it so fast?" I asked, totally flabbergasted.

Kuwabara shrugged, and then he turned to Hiei. "Are you sure everybody evacuated, Hiei?" he asked, suspicion coloring his voice like crayons.

"Yes I'm sure," Hiei snapped. "I read it in the Rider's minds, and they were in charge of the whole thing."

Kurama, however, said: "Out of curiosity, Kuwabara, why do you ask?"

The human psychic shrugged. "It's just that I keep getting ghost-flashes of energy up ahead, that's all. I followed them and they led me here. It wasn't hard."

Hiei looked pissed; Kurama looked wary. Yusuke, contrary to them both, looked excited.

"So I might get a punch in, after all!" he said, bounding into the crack despite the darkness. His voice echoed in on itself a hundred times when he yodeled: "FOLLOW ME!"

Kuwabara did so with a shout. Kurama put a hand over his eyes. "Brilliant, Yusuke," he muttered. "Just brilliant." Then he looked to me and said: "What can we expect on the other side?"

"A big room and a big pair of doors," I said. I walked past him. "That's about it. Let's roll."

And so we rolled, into the crevice for many silent minutes broken only by footsteps and Yusuke's and Kuwabara's bickering from up ahead. It didn't take that long to reach the large room with the riveted support beams, and as we crossed its immense dimensions I heard Kurama remark: "The architecture here is atypical of Demon World. How does it compare to America, Dani?"

"It's similar," I admitted. "Riveted steel I-beams were all the rage in big buildings."

"I thought as much," he said, and then we found ourselves standing before the doors—well, the Doors. These deserve a capital 'd'.

"What the heck do you make of these?" Yusuke was saying as he stood a mere inch or two away from the Doors, leaning in close with a hand on his chin. He looked sick in their pale green light.

Kuwabara, beside him, had adopted a similar posture. The effect was comic; I half expected him to call Yusuke 'Sherlock'. "Hey, there aren't any handles!" he said. "How do you get them open?"

"Step aside," Hiei said, walking forward. Yusuke and Kuwabara cleared out of the way as Hiei placed his hand flat on the Door, concentrating…

His arm jerked back with a snap.

"It shocked me," he dead-panned, staring at his palm. He held the flesh up for Kurama to see; it was bright red. "Not badly, but if I pushed harder I get the feeling it would get less… friendly." He stepped back and stared up at the Doors through narrowed eyes, and then his eyes fell shut and his forehead started to glow.

"Anything?" Kurama asked after a moment or two.

A frown deepened the lines around Hiei's mouth. "Something is keeping it closed," he said, eyes opening. "I don't know what."

I swallowed, remembering the Grand Mother's attempt to open the Door with the blonde hairs from her bracelet—hairs that could not have come from a Sister. "Um, guys?"

When I had all of their attentions, I took a deep breath.

"I… I think I know what to do," I said.

"Care to enlighten the rest of us?" Kurama said silkily, and I ran my fingers through my hair.

"Well," I said, "the Grand Mother kept hinting that I'm… that I was someone who… well…" I grimaced. "She implied a lot of things, but I get the feeling that if my plan works, it'll prove at least one of them once and for all."

"Then go for it, Dani," Yusuke said, and I smiled.

"I will," I said, and I pulled my hand out of my hair. A few strands clung to my fingers, and I carefully selected the longest one and pinched it between my forefinger and thumb before walking toward the Doors. Hiei stepped aside but stayed close as I held out my hand, hair dangling brightly through the air.

"Do you really want to do this?" he murmured, so low that I doubted anyone else heard.

I took a deep breath, heart hammering in my mouth all of a sudden, and I offered him a weak smile.

"I have to know what I am," I said softly, and the hair touched the Door.

Imagine, if you will, that the Door's pitted, flawed, and pockmarked surface went utterly smooth in an instant. Then imagine that the green-tinged metal gleamed like water and sucked forward, pulling the hair into it and out of my hand like a child slurping a spaghetti noodle. The entire thing rippled a few times as I stepped back to look, mouth dry in disbelief as the Door trembled like jello mixed with quicksilver, and then it surged liquidly upward and pulled into the walls and out of sight.

From the room within there came a faint blue glow.

"And what exactly does this prove, do ya think?" Kuwabara muttered, but I didn't hear him because movement in the dim blue darkness had stopped my heart.

It started again, though, when the Grand Mother revealed herself, and smiled.

"I have been waiting for you, Danielle," she said, and she held the gas mask out to me. "I knew you'd come."

I walked forward like I was in a dream, not really feeling anything other than a hollow roar in my ears and the sensation of my sneaker striking the now-metal floor. The metal vibrated a little under my feet, and I wondered at this. I took the mask in my free hand and stared into the Grand Mother's face, searching for answers I didn't have but she most likely did.

But she wasn't interested in reconciling my doubts just then. She turned, black cloak swirling about her figure, and then her hunched back moved away. I followed, dazed, and barely heard the boys whispering behind me as they came, too.

I dimly remember saying "Just follow me, OK?" over my shoulder at them, but I don't think I was over the shock of it all yet. Around us stretched a room smaller than the one we had just left, but one that my torch still did little to illuminate. I could not see the source of the blue glow, but as I followed the Grand Mother the light grew progressively stronger. I doused my illusion of fire not long later, because it had been conflicting with the blue and making it hard to see, and when I did I realized that the room was far from empty.

Around us, like a graveyard of shattered eggs, lay the fabled chrysalises.

They were about nine feet tall each and oval in shape. The back of each one had been made of curved metal, and glass doors that completed the egg-shape stood open on most of the pods. Some of the doors were shattered; some of the metal halves were crushed like paper cups. None looked to be in good repair, most having fallen forward or backward or to the side, but the ones that were still standing looked regal, alien, and strange. They had been arranged into rows at one point, but little organization still remained because bits of the roof had caved in, crushing several pods and denting several others.

The rows of them stretched far off into the dark. If I had to guess, there must have been a hundred or so pods, at least.

The Grand Mother walked down an aisle that cut between the rows of chrysalises, a row clear of debris and worn smooth by many passing feet, and as we traveled down it the blue grew bright, so bright. The source of it—a pod that still stood whole and unbroken, a pod that was bigger than the others and raised upon a pedestal as tall as I was—stood intact, whole, beautiful, undisturbed. More empty pods ringed it, facing it as if they were trying to bask in its light, and once my eyes adjusted to the pod's brilliance I could make out a hulking metal machine behind it, and I could tell that it was the source of the vibration in my feet.

We stood, I somehow knew, in the center of the place. This chrysalis—this was the world's heart.

While I stopped to stare at the pod with an open mouth, the Grand Mother climbed up the pedestal's five steps and stood blocking its light. She turned around to face me, face in shadow thanks to the light behind her, and then she spread her arms like some prophetic nightmare.

"This is the Bright Lady," she said, "but I trust you knew that already." Her crone's voice dropped into a whispering hiss. "You knew her, after all."

"I—" I choked out, confused and a little frightened and what?, and the Grand Mother moved aside.

"Look at her," the Grand Mother ordered, walking down the steps to stand at my side. Her hand in the small of my back urged me on. "Go. Go to her and look."

And so I did, moving up the steps one at a time, slowly. The pod's clear face had a coating of dust, so I wiped it away with my shirtsleeve and peered inside.

Piece by piece, inch by inch, I began to see. The body's skin was smooth and tan, covered by a glittering network of small silver dots connected by thin threads of more silver metal, and the limbs were long, proportional, and strong. Narrow-waisted and with small hips, the woman had a boyish build and a tall body, with long hair that fell from her head in a blonde waterfall. The mass of it puddle in the pod's base and obscured her legs all the way up to the knee; how long was it, I wondered, if it had been growing for ten thousand years without a trim?

But the hair held my interest for only a moment because that's when I saw, that's when I really saw, the woman's face.

Her cupid's bow mouth would smile easily; I knew that much, and her wide-set almond eyes would be blue, and the lashes lying thick on her high cheekbone were geared more toward being ignored than slathered by mascara. Her strong square jaw with its slightly clefted chin, the way her straight nose pulled all of her features together into a face of strength and poise, a face that would, if she were only to open her mouth and laugh, be put to shame by how warm she really was, by her sense of humor and inner might and willingness to love, to understand, to accept, to be goofy and silly when I wanted it but serious and comforting when I needed it—

I knew her. I knew her so well it hurt to breathe. The only thing I could do, the only thing my reeling mind was capable of forcing my body to do, was gasp out a name.

"Lauren," I whispered. "Oh my god, Lauren."


NOTES:

please don't kill me…

but at least Dani rescued herself, right?

... and it least this was the longest chapter ever, right?

do you see which fanfiction cliché(s) I'm going to dive into next?

and Dani's tattoo: what's up with it?

NEW ART BY MISUZU-PM ON PROFILE! GO CHECK IT OUT! =D A lovely painted portrait of Dani! YAYNESS!

So the reviewers of last week's chapter get an extra special thanks. Why? It's because the Holiday/Chrismahannaquanzadon season meant that fewer people had time to review (or even read) and I do not deserve the love you gave even though your schedules were perhaps too busy to give it. Hence, I LOVE YOU, READERS! AskingAlice, Koryu Elric, Fuurai, Supreme Baka, Kaiya's Watergarden, Foxgirl Ray, itsallaboutbob, Dreamehz, Kai-Chan94, chocolateluvr13, Doily Rox, MusicFiend666, DaAmazingMeepers, Angel of Randomosity, Yoko Kiara14, Turtle Kid the Woolgatherer (Did you know that your PMs have been disabled? Because I tried to talk to you and I was rejected most soundly. I was heartbroken!), Reclun, AkaMizu-Chan, yumchaitea, BiGayStraightWhoCares, darkrevensnight, unknown player, Mihakuu, Off-Color, j.d.y., 0nfateswings, TallyYoungBlood DevilAngelWold27, colbub, etowa-ru, Katt Jeane, Willowleaf2560, OhhTaylorJade, Snowgirl7589 and ShadowFireFox13!