Author's Note: ~eyes bug out~ 16 reviews on chapter seven? That's a record! ~gasps~ Wow! You guys are great! Touya and Yuki are I mean, since they're the reason you guys are reviewing. ~giggles~

Other people who are great: Teldra (who reviewed chapter six right as seven was coming out and missed seven), Peacewish, L-chan, AtomBunny, Rei Eien, Anthy, Kira, Silver Angel, MoonMystress, Chaeli Hebitsukaiza, Turin, Dark Ice Angel, Askani Blue, Killua kiken na, EJ, moonchild, Kamitra, and EJ (again?). Oh, also, both Askani Blue and L-chan are writing stories right now about Touya. These stories are giving me serious inferiority complexes! (I thought writing in the shadow of Peacewish was intimidating enough, but this is...wow.) Go read their stories if you haven't already!

In other news, Not Human is getting closer and closer to 100 reviews. Four reviews to go! That's it! Can you believe it? I know I can't! I never thought it would continue to get so many reviews after I finished it. I'm so happy to see that it is though. If you're reading this and haven't read that one, Not Human takes place after Touya tells Yuki he knows he's not human. Hence the name. ~laughs~ Wait a minute! I didn't bring it up to offer a shameless plug, I swear! I mentioned it only because I can't believe how many reviews I'm getting. ~grins~ I'm so happy!

So, to all the Touya fans out there, I offer this new chapter. I hope it is worthy.

Shades of Discovery

Countdown

Things started happening pretty fast after that. It seemed we left for spring vacation, only to come back and have our lives rushed to some sort of conclusion--or new beginning. I don't know what it was exactly, but Sakura had won a trip for four to Hong Kong, her and I each took our best friends, and when we got back I had a feeling of something looming closer on the horizon. Everything from Yuki's birthday until then seemed so calm, but--

Maybe it was the start of the new school year. Maybe it was turning 17 and seeing all my friends at the same age. Right around the corner from adulthood. Maybe...maybe...maybe....

I don't think that was it though.

"I didn't know Sakura's new teacher was Mizuki-sensei." Yuki was smiling, just saying whatever came to him while we ate lunch. "You know her from before, right, To-ya?"

A chill ran down my spine. It had been months, and I had thought that I was used to the idea of her being back in town by now. I had seen her around plenty of times. It was rattling my nerves in an unpleasant way to see her today while I had to work. On one hand I wanted to go up to her and confront her. On the other I wanted to take off and keep avoiding her some more. I wasn't ready.

But I couldn't do either.

Yes, Yuki, you could say I knew her from before. In more ways than one.

I didn't answer though. I just nodded.

"Or, is that something I shouldn't ask?" This time he didn't try to tickle it out of me, or tease me. He was serious. And concerned. My heart lightened a bit.

"I'll tell you in a little while."

The conversation shifted gears after that. We were working at the strawberry farm that day, and by some coincidence Sakura's class had a field trip there. It seemed it was the worst day for her to be there though because the materials room door had become stuck.

Maybe it wasn't coincidence at all though. There was something in the air that didn't feel normal, and it was a feeling I was getting used to feeling around Sakura a lot.

Yuki and I talked about that, making conversation, agreeing that it was quite a disappointment for her. I would hate to go on a field trip and not get to do the part I had been looking forward to the most, especially at her age. There was nothing we could do about it though, so I finally shrugged and went back to eating.

A couple of girls burst into our break room. "Oi, you aren't supposed to be here. Employees only."

"I'm sorry, but we need your help. Our friends are locked into the materials room!"

The other girl nodded, "You're Sakura's big brother, right? She's in there, and--"

"Sakura's group is locked in?" I could feel the headache building. Of course. It had to be Sakura in the middle of it all. Sakura was always in the middle of it all these days.

We walked over to the building they were locked in. Some of their friends had gone to look for her, but couldn't find her anywhere. Why would Kaho be missing when there were students that needed her? It wasn't like her, unless there was something else that was more important.

Or if she already knew about it and was already helping.

When we got there though, she was nowhere in sight. I pulled out the key and--

And--

I felt something. I knew that the key wouldn't do any good. Sakura was stuck in there forever for all the good I could do, and that thought didn't sit well with me.

"Daijobu."

It was her voice. She was suddenly standing behind us, when she hadn't been anywhere in sight a moment before. Where did she learn that trick? No, not now. That's not what I was worried about right now.

"Kaho..."

"It will open." Her voice was happy, pleasant, calm. Beautiful.

I heard the tumblers in the lock mechanism move, but I felt an uneasy sense that Sakura was now in a maelstrom of chaos just out of my reach. I heard loud crashing sounds and screams from Sakura and her friends.

"What's going on?" I was on the verge of panic, worried that one of those crashing sounds would be the crash of something hitting my sister. Forgetting the key, I started pounding on the door and called out to her--only to nearly fall on my face when the door finally opened.

It was okay.

Everything was okay.

Just like Kaho said it would be.

~~~~~@~~~~~

I was still thinking about it a week later in class. Sakura was on my mind a lot lately, so I started putting the puzzle pieces together since I couldn't concentrate on the lesson anyway. She was surrounded by magic, and I'd have to be completely self-absorbed to not realize that she was getting stronger and stronger since last spring. So, what was going on?

Well, a few things had changed since that time. That brat from Hong Kong had come here, and he had a lot of magic. I had seen for myself that his whole family was steeped in it when we had been there over vacation. (I indulged in another shudder when I thought of his sisters and all the fawning they had done over me and Yuki. One had even...er...groped me! I was glad they were there and we were here and we'd hopefully never meet again.) He had to be here because of whatever was going on with Sakura. I couldn't think of any other reason he would have attacked her that first day, but they seemed to work together now. It had started out seeming to be a rivalry and had become--a partnership?

I carefully unclenched my hands, realizing they had balled into fists at that last thought. I had thought I hated that kid when he had threatened her, but now...now I think I hated him more. He had a look in his eyes lately that made me wonder at his intentions.

I stopped myself. The fact was, he was here, and it seemed he was here because of what Sakura was doing that she didn't want to talk about.

I had deep suspicions that Kaho had come back for the same reasons. There was no coincidence, so there was a reason she was Sakura's teacher. She seemed to know what was going on with Sakura, like the time she had been at the shrine and asked me not to scold Sakura for being late. She had also told me that things would be okay just before the door had unlocked last week. She hadn't been guessing or saying things just to make me feel better, she had known.

Who else was around Sakura that had magic? None of the other friends she had made me suspect magical involvement. The only one that had magic at all was Yuki--but he didn't know it, and he was my friend.

But, why did that thought make me feel--

Touya!

Her presence in my mind was unexpected.

Kaho? Why...what...?

It's Sakura. She's very sick, you should take her home before she tries to walk home.

I'll meet you at the fence, I thought in reply, then dashed out of the class without thought of what a disruption it would cause. Sakura was more important than anything I was already tuning out in class.

I waited for her, making sure I had heard right. It wasn't a full moment though until she walked out the front doors to meet me. It seemed to take forever for her to walk over, but I almost welcomed the excuse to watch her approach despite the feeling of having my heart torn in two directions.

"I'm glad...you came."

"Because I was called," I replied.

"Just in my heart," she said with a smile.

That's when I realized she hadn't heard me. And she probably had tried before to call to me, but my heart was no longer hers.

"It's not that I hear it all the time," I said as the thought came to the inevitable conclusion.

"It's because it was about Sakura?"

Panic again clutched my soul as I thought about how listless she had been this morning, and how irresponsible I had been to let her go to school today. "She--"

"Yes, it looks like a cold. Please take her home. She's already getting ready to leave." And she turned to leave, finished with our business.

No! I could just let her walk away! This was the first time we had talked...since.... "Kaho!" She turned with just a touch of impatience showing in her frown, but I went on. I had to know. "Why did you come back?"

"I have something I have to do."

And then she was leaving again, turning her back on me.

I watched her go, then I walked back to the school's gate, rushing a little to get Sakura before she tried to do something stupid, like walking home on her own. I realized as I was walking that it hadn't been so bad. Talking to her after she had ripped my heart out and walked away as if I meant nothing hadn't hurt nearly as much as, say, breaking your leg and then walking home a mile. It hadn't even hurt as much as getting a paper cut on your eyelid, then drenching the whole eye in lemon juice.

So, it really didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would.

I could almost handle the thought of seeing her again, knowing that there would never be anything between us again. It was strange to see the history we had together and contemplate being friends, but I had someone else to moon over in secret now.

~~~~~@~~~~~

"There's no such thing as coincidence," I told Sakura, but I was looking completely over her head. At Kaho.

"Only the inevitable," Kaho answered, eyes taking in the teddy-bear form my body was encased in.

She felt it too.

Something was building in the air, something was coming to an inevitable conclusion, at exactly the same time I'd gotten a job passing out balloons in Tokyo for the day. It was further from home than I liked to work usually, but everything had fallen into place too easily. I regretted being so close to the archery contest but being unable to see it.

"So who won?"

It was Sakura who answered, enthusiastically regaling me with a play by play of how close it had been, and how it had come down to Kaho and Yuki in the end. That hardly surprised me since I'd seen them both before. What did surprise me was when Sakura told me how Kaho lost her concentration at the end. Kaho just smiled and shrugged it off.

"I'd love to hang out here and ask more questions, but I'm still on the job. I'll catch up with everyone later." I patted Sakura on the head before putting the stuffy, smelly bear head back on to wander around like a fool some more. I had a few more balloons to hand out, then I could go. Half an hour until it was time? I checked with the sun as I walked, nodding. Half an hour until I could head back to the locker room, then checking in the costume and making sure there was no damage, a quick shower, and then I would be free to look for them again.

I made it back late. It had seemed like an earthquake, but wasn't. I had made it just far enough away that Sakura didn't see me, but I saw her. Flying. I couldn't believe my eyes, but it was true.

And it would be the least of my shocks that night.