His eyes were just open!

What's happening to him?

Get the doctor…NOW!

Atsushi!

Atsushi's eyes shot open only to see…nothing. There was only blackness surrounding him.

That and his head felt like every headache he'd ever had in his lifetime rolled themselves into one massive migraine. The noise wasn't helping either.

"Ouch. What happened to me?"

The last thing he remembered was talking to Naoki, only to find himself flat on his back in complete darkness.

Atsushi slipped as he attempted to get up. He tried to catch himself, making the mistake of landing with all his weight on his left side. The pain of his broken wrist came raging back to the surface. Atsushi curled in on himself, cradling his injured arm, shaking in agony.

My wrist should have already healed. What's going on?

"Dazai? Kunikida-san?" His weakened cry lost in the vast expanse of emptiness.

Atsushi hissed in pain as he struggled to finally sit up. It had slowly begun to get a little lighter out but a heavy fog had enveloped him, making him unable to see more than a foot in front of his face. Looking out into the void, he didn't feel scared really, just alone. Completely and utterly alone.

"Where am I?" he whispered to himself.

While he couldn't see anything, the sound encompassing him was deafening. Atsushi couldn't make out any of the voices as they all wove together into a cacophony of noise. Beyond the fog, he could hear a faint pained growl amidst the chaos. The tiger, his tiger, was suffering and he had to help them.

In the past year, he had begun to get more comfortable with the great beast becoming a more pronounced presence within himself. He felt invincible when they were together. But when Naoki had touched him, his tiger had fled, leaving them both all alone and in pain.

He winced as another soft whine pierced through the fog yet again.

Where are you?

A soft whimper responded. Atsushi could barely hear it in all the noise and the fog was messing with his eyes as he tried to adjust to the dark. The agent slowly got to his feet. He had to find his tiger and get back to the others. Tanizaki was hurt pretty badly and Dazai…

A sharp laugh cut through the craziness of the noise. Atsushi couldn't place the origin but it sounded like a it belonged to a child.

Why would there be a child here?

"Are you a new friend?"

Atsushi jumped about three feet in the air. He turned to look for the source of the voice, still finding himself surrounded by the black void.

"I've never seen you before." the voice said, this time it was coming from another direction.

"Where…?"

"Have you come to play with me?" the child's voice said, coming from yet a third direction. Atsushi had finally had enough.

"Who are you?"

"Me? No one's ever asked me before. I'm the Jumping Spirit, of course!"

Jumping Spirit? That's a dumb name for whatever this thing is.

Atsushi couldn't help but laugh at the name "Jumping Spirit". It was definitely the sort of thing he would have made up as a kid. To be honest, he would have made up anything to get away from the horrors he had been living through at the orphanage.

Clouds of fog slowly wrapped themselves around a small figure as it stepped out of the mist. The child looked like he was made of the void, as black as the darkness surrounding him. The only reason Atsushi could see the boy at all was the slight shimmering silver that outlined his entire body. He almost looked like a negative photo from an old camera film. The only color coming from the boy was the bright green glow of the duel jade necklaces hanging from his neck. Atsushi recognized one of them immediately as the same necklace Naoki wore..

"Jumping Spirit? Wait are you…you're Naoki-kun's ability?"

"I get so lonely. It's dark here. So sometimes when we touch things I get to go outside and bring new friends here." The boy continued, seeming as if he either didn't hear or didn't understand Atsushi's question. He then proceeded to jump playfully and effortlessly onto a tree branch above them.

Since when was there a tree here? What the hell is this place? I feel like I'm in Ann's room.

"So you get to go outside?"

"Yes."

"But in return…my ability …my consciousness gets trapped here?"

The boy's head tilted in confusion. It would have been cute if Atsushi wasn't getting slightly annoyed with the brat. But as frustrated as he was, the boy looked even more so.

"Usually."

"So if I'm here and my actually body is there, why does my head feel like it's going to explode? And why is my wrist still broken?"

"I don't know. I usually bring a new friend back…but they always disappear right away. Maybe something interrupted my little Naoki's ability."

Dazai!

"It was Dazai. He must have touched Naoki after I was knocked out to make you stop." The head tilted again. Atsushi held his still pounding head and sighed.

"Nevermind. Look, I need to get out of here."

"I couldn't even begin to tell you how to do that. Usually Akari is the one to stop little Naoki from using me too much."

"Akari? Who is that?"

"You don't know? That's my Naoki's twin. She's so much fun. She tries to act like a big sister even though she's younger than us by a minute. She's got one hell of a healing ability too. Have you seen it? The House of Red Leaves is quite a sight to behold."

What is this kid? Sometimes he rambles on like a toddler and other times he talks like adult.

"Slow down. House of Red Leaves?"

"She touches the broken thing she wants to heal and the world around her just becomes a whirlwind of red maple leaves. It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. She could probably help that broken wrist of yours. Maybe your broken tiger too?"

"My tiger…where is he?"

"I heard him around here somewhere. I was looking for him when I found you."

"How can you hear anything in all this noise?"

"What noise?"

Now it was Atsushi's turn to be confused. He had no idea how the kid could even carry on a conversation with the noise surrounding them. He felt like he was shouting every word he was saying.

"How can you not? It's deafening."

"I only hear you and your tiger. Other than that, it's all silence."

"I don't understand this place."

Atsushi ignores the mumbling coming from the spirit and walks towards where he last heard his tiger. He makes his way through the void when he spots something in the distance. The fog had cleared a split second to reveal the large creature lying on its side. The tiger's breathing was labored, clearly still in pain from whatever this place or that kid had done to him.

Atsushi crept closer, not wanting to spook his tiger. As he got near, he reached out his hand gently but was met with a sharp growl. Atsushi would have lost his fingers if he didn't pull back right away.

"Easy. Sshhh. I'm right here. You're okay, now." He shushed the the animal who seemed to calm almost immediately at the sound of Atsushi's voice. The creature lifted his head to sniff the air in search of him. The darkness and noise seemed to be having an effect on his poor tiger as well.

"Where did you go, my friend. Please, don't ever leave me again." the beast purred softly when Atsushi leaned down to pet the beautiful white creature. Their serenity didn't last long, however.

A blast of wind smacked Atsushi in the face while the cacophony got increasingly louder. But within the blasts of wind he could hear snippets of his friends voices.

Atsushi! Wake up!

Kenji-kun?

Come on, kid! You gotta wake up!

Kunikida-san?

Atsushi-kun. I'm sorry. Please open your eyes.

Tanazaki! Why is he apologizing?

"What's happening?" Atsushi shouted from his cover inside the tiger's fur.

"They're trying to save your life."

"My life? You mean I'm…?"

"Dying? Yes."

"What? Why?" The wind finally settled but Atsushi's mind was still in turmoil. The spirit looked at the boy with something that appeared to be pity.

Dying…I'm dying? I can't…No!

"Something about little Naoki's gift drains the life of any ability users he comes in contact with. I can tell because I've been slowly getting stronger as we've been talking. The only reason you've managed to last this long is because of your tiger's healing and the fact that Naoki's ability never fully completed."

"What happens when you take all of my energy?"

The spirit remained silent. The dual jade swayed back and forth around his neck, glowing like some kind of haunted metronome.

"Is there nothing I can do?" The spirit shook his head.

"I'm sorry. Not unless…" The dark kid played with the jewelry around his neck yet again.

"Unless?"

More silence.

"Come on. I really want to help but I can't if you're going to keep jerking me around. Now tell me what you know!"

"You've no doubt seen the jade dragon around Naoki's neck, yes?" Atsushi nodded, not entirely sure where this conversation was heading. "It usually helps to reign in Naoki's power but something happened when he touched you and it didn't trigger."

"He was pretty badly injured when we found him in the forest. It must have been broken while he was running away."

Atsushi remembered seeing the necklace around the boy's neck. He thought nothing of it at the time and it certainly didn't seem broken. He's never needed an item to trigger his ability so he knew nothing about how those types of powers worked. Maybe he should ask Kunikida...if he ever manages to get out of here.

"And where is Akari now? Is she with Naoki?"

"No. We can't find her. Naoki was pretty devastated when he realized that she wasn't with him when he escaped."

"That's unfortunate." The spirit said with a sigh.

"What?"

"Her jade butterfly is what's needed to save your life."