:::Chapter 3:::

"It was The Dragon." Ken answered in an equally soft voice. Shuhei's face went still and his eyes flashed.

"You think your folks're okay?"

"They don't want to hurt them. They're trying to hurt me. I'm worried about Emi and Sara." He watched his sisters in silence for a while. Emi was holding Sara's hand as they made their way down the street. "I called a friend of mine. She'll let them stay with her until I can get this worked out."

"Will they be safe? Maybe you should stay with 'em too…"

"No. Tsukiko-san is trained in kendo. She can at least defend against any intruders. And besides, there are already enough rumours at school about her and me. She doesn't need it getting out that I moved in with her and we're 'playing house' with my sisters." Normally, Shuhei would have found the news of rumours about his best friend a source of great amusement, but under the circumstances, he held his tongue.

"I was wondering," Ken added after a while, "if I could stay at your place. Then we could figure out how to deal with this together."

"Sure, man. You may have to crash on the floor, though. Landlord wouldn't like it if I moved another bed into the place."

"Thanks, Shu."

Ken told Emi and Sara where to turn and they made their way to Tsukiko's building in relative silence. Ken called up to Tsukiko's apartment and let the group in at the buzz.

"Go ahead and use your key, Ken-san!" The door muffled Tsukiko's voice. Emi, Sara, and Shuhei looked at Ken with raised eyebrows at the statement. Ken cleared his throat loudly and let everyone into the apartment.

"Hi!" Tsukiko called from the kitchen. "I'm boiling water for tea. Go ahead and make yourselves at home!"

Ken and Shuhei had just settled down on the couch, Emi and Sara curled under their brother's arms, when Tsukiko walked into the living room, tray in her hands.

"Tsukiko-san, thank you so much. I owe you big." Ken smiled weakly at her.

Tsukiko, who had until then been eyeing Shuhei, smiled sympathetically at her friend. "Don't worry about it, Ken-san. I'm just glad that I can do something for you. Uhm… I don't mean to be rude," she looked pointedly at Shuhei, "But, who's that?"

"Oh! Hinata Tsukiko, this is Yuuki Shuhei. He's a friend from Okinawa." Tsukiko smiled.

"Pleased to meet you." She handed Shuhei a cup of tea and poured one for Ken and herself. Emi and Sara had fallen asleep on Ken's lap, so there was an extra cup on the tray when the three teenagers had been served.

They sat in a rather awkward silence for a long while before Tsukiko spoke again. "Do you have any idea what happened to your parents?"

"I know." Ken said darkly. "I know /exactly/ what happened." Tsukiko frowned slightly and waited for him to continue, but Emi was stirring.

"'Niichan…?" She sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Shu-chan?"

"Emi-chan," Ken said gently, "I want you to meet a friend of mine." Tsukiko rose from her chair and squatted in front of the little girl.

"I'm Tsukiko." She held out her hand. "Your name's Emi?" Emi nodded, shaking Tsukiko's hand and yawning. "How old are you, Emi?"

"Eight." Emi answered softly.

Ken shook Sara's shoulder, waking her, too.

"Hn…?" The smaller girl blinked and pushed herself up. "Aniki?"

"Sara, this is my friend Tsukiko-san. You and Emi are going to be staying with her until Mama and Papa come back."

"Where will you be?" Sara blinked wide brown eyes at her brother, who smiled gently.

"I'll be staying with Shuhei. You remember him?" Shuhei waved when Sara looked at him.

"Tsuki-chan," Emi, who was much more awake, had stood up beside her hostess and was pulling her arm. "Tsuki-chan, I want to help you with the dishes."

"Dishes?" Tsukiko blinked at the child, who simply pointed at the tea tray.

"/Those/ dishes." Tsukiko smiled.

"Alright. Come on then, Emi-chan. We'll do the dishes. Do you want to help, Sara?"

"No thank you, Tsukiko-san." Tsukiko blinked, looking amused by the little girl's response.

"Okay then, Sara-san. Maybe you and your brother can go get your sleeping bags? Do you want to sleep here in the living room or in my bedroom?"

"Your room!" Emi answered immediately. "I wanna sleep in your room!" Tsukiko laughed outright.

"Alright then." She turned to Ken. "It's at the end of the hall." Ken nodded and stood up, picking up Emi's sleeping bag and pillow. Sara picked up her own and dutifully followed her brother down the hall to the master bedroom.

Shuhei was left with his own thoughts in the living room. He was contemplating whether or not it would be worth it to plug in Tsukiko's PS2 when the box near the door buzzed loudly.

"Oh! Shu-kun, could you get that?" Tsukiko's voice came from the kitchen. "It's the green button on the right!" Shuhei, not having anything else to do, rose and pressed the indicated button. A few moments later, there was a light rapping on the door. Shuhei, still having nothing better with which to occupy his time, answered it.

"Tsu—oh!" The visitor, a young woman with long black hair and sharp brown eyes stood at the door, hand searching for something in her bag. "And you are…?"

"Yuuki Shuhei. You?" The girl frowned and entered the apartment.

"A friend of Tsukiko's. Is she here?"

"Meiko? Is that you?" Tsukiko emerged from the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. Emi followed a short time later.

"Tsukiko-chan, who are these people?" The girl, Meiko, looked from Emi to Shuhei.

"Uhm… Yuuki Shuhei and Midorikawa Emi. And…" Ken and Sara returned to the living room at that time. "…Emi's older brother Ken and her little sister Sara." Sara bowed when she was introduced. Meiko nodded in return. "Emi and Sara-san are staying with me while their parents are out of town. And Ken- san is staying with Shuhei-kun."

"Oh." Meiko looked around. "I brought the tea for you." She pulled a small sack from her purse and offered it to the other girl.

"Thank you. How's your uncle?" Meiko's uncle was the pharmacist at the small clinic down the street from Tsukiko's apartment.

"He's fine. Aunt Juri had her baby. A little girl. They named her Suzume." Meiko smiled. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to get back to the clinic or Aunt Juri will worry. Did you need anything else?"

"No, this should do it. Thank you, Meiko-chan. See you tomorrow." Meiko waved as she made her way out of the apartment.

"Well, Emi, Sara," Ken spoke up, "It's past your bedtime and you both have to go to school in the morning." Ken herded his sisters back to the bedroom.

Ken returned to the living room to find Tsukiko and Shuhei hooking up the PS2 and arguing over games. As far as he could tell, Tsukiko wanted to play Dance, Dance Revolution and Shuhei wanted a considerably more violent game.

"Ken-san, please /remind/ your friend that this is /my/ console and /I/ will choose the game!" Tsukiko's teeth were clenched and her shoulders were hunched as she glared at Shuhei.

"Shu…" Ken walked over and sat on the couch. Shuhei gawked at his friend for a moment.

"Traitor!" He cried finally, sitting on the ground in a huff. Ken chuckled and Tsukiko beamed victoriously at Shuhei as she plugged in the game.

"So, Ken-san," Tsukiko said, taking a break from the game after about fifteen minutes. Shuhei eyed the game for a minute before getting up and taking over. Tsukiko laughed softly as she watched him. "What happened?"

"That…" Ken sighed and continued sotto voce. "Tsukiko-san, there were a lot of factors that contributed to us moving here. Okinawa doesn't hold a lot of good memories for my family. Did you notice that I'm the only one in my family with red hair? That's because my mom had an affair with an American soldier before she married my dad and I was born.

"I got into a lot of trouble back then. I was in a gang called The Tigers. Shu was in the same gang. For the most part, we just went to arcades and clubs in a pack and hung out all the time. We'd get into fights sometimes with other gangs, but it was never anything serious. Just a fistfight or two that would end before it really began because we were too chicken to actually fight.

"I got into a real fight with a guy in a /real/ gang once, though. I didn't know his name, but I fought him. And I won. But to do that, I killed him."

Tsukiko gasped and Shuhei, who had stopped playing, snorted.

"Tell the whole story, Ken." He turned to Tsukiko. "The guy attacked him. Ken had to kill 'im. It was self-defence."

"Which is why I was never convicted of murder. But I still killed a man." Ken wasn't looking at Tsukiko or Shuhei anymore. His eyes were focused entirely on the ceiling. "The gang he was part of was called The Dragon. They're more of a mafia, really, in that all the members are part of the same family. Well, I killed one of them and they never really forgave me. They have my parents."

Tsukiko was silent. Shuhei was silent. Ken was silent and still. The only sound in the room, actually, was the game, which was playing itself out in 'demo' mode.

Ken stood abruptly and fished the key out of his pocket. He set it on the table and made for the door. "We'll go now."

"Hold it." Tsukiko had risen, the key clutched in her fist. Her eyes were narrowed and her mouth was set in a firm line. Ken steeled himself for a verbal attack, but none came. Instead, Tsukiko thrust the key back at him. "I gave this to you because I trust you. I'm not going to /not/ trust you now because of something you did out of /self-defence/ in the past. If you were going to hurt me at all, you could have done it anytime. When you stayed the night." Shuhei's eyebrows disappeared beneath his hair at that comment.

"Tsukiko-san, I—"

"No. I don't care about what happened in the past, Ken-san. It doesn't matter to me. Everyone does things that they aren't proud of. It wasn't a good time for you. You said that yourself. Do you think that /I/ can judge you? Maybe you think too much of me. Or too little of yourself." She smiled warmly and stepped toward him, key extended.

Ken smiled weakly in return and accepted the key. He held it in his fist and bowed low in thanks before turning to the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Tsukiko-san." Then he and Shuhei were gone.

:::End Chapter 3:::

Nami's Notes:

Whew! I'm on a roll! So! The Dragon is explained. Did you guess it? Be watching for cameos (and possibly more…) from Yahiko, Tsubame, Misao, and Aoshi. Meiko—AKA Megumi—will be popping up more regularly, too.

As always, I love your feedback. So review! (Even if you already have once or twice before. I like to know that ppl like this story enough to keep up with it.) ^^