DISCLAIMER: Flame of Recca belongs to Anzai Nobuyuki

AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's been way too long since my last update.

A NEW BEGINNING

CHAPTER 12- Silent Tears

There were three figures standing on the roof. The girl in the middle stepped forward, and leaped into the air followed by the other two boys by her side.

They all landed right by the unconscious Taku and Kayo. The two boys each picked up an unconscious figure, and faced the Hokage gang.

The girl in the middle smirked at them and began to talk.

"You win, we won't take the girl this time, but it's a matter of time until she's ours'."

"In your dreams!!" Recca yelled back at them ready to burst.

"You're not taking Yanagi away from us! If you want her, you gotta beat all of us!!" Fuuko was starting to lose her patience.

"Of course, that's what we intend to do." The boy carrying Taku on his shoulders said.

"How do you intend to do that?" Kurei asked as he glared at the three enemies.

"We're going to invite you to a fun event" The other boy carrying Kayo answered coolly.

"A fun event..?" Mikagami asked back at the boy

"Yup, a fun event. The 1st Doguro Jigoku(Doguro means deadly skull in Japanese. It's not a good sign. Jigoku means hell)"

The girl answered this time taking a step forward.

"Do..Doguro?" Koganei asked back looking a bit frightened.

"Yes, Doguro. The rules are easy. It's almost exactly like the Urabutou Satsujin."

"Almost..?" Nae asked back looking a little puzzled.

"The tournament isn't going to be a one on one battle of each team member like the Urabutou Satsujin. You'll be fighting in a maze."??

"A maze?" Nae asked back looking at the girl straight in the eyes.

"A maze. Just come to the same place as the Urabutou Satsujin, on Friday. You'll find out the details then."

The three of them turned around with both boys carrying an unconscious figure, and began to walk away.

Then the girl in the middle turned around facing the gang, and focused her attention towards Nae.

"I'll be looking forward to fighting you, Nae." She said with a smirk and faded away into the background with the others.

Nae's face was just like Mikagami's face. Expressionless.

The rest of the Hokage were focusing their attention towards Nae waiting for an explanation.

Nae just sighed, and walked back into the room without a word.

The others followed her into the room, and sat down.

They focused their attention to Nae once again who was just staring into space.

No one knew the exact words to say, and was silent for a long time with their own thoughts.

Then finally Nae broke the silence.

"You want to know who they were right?"

That was the exact question revolving around everyone's mind. All except Kurei, and Koganei who already knew.

"They were..." Nae began to talk, but stopped in the middle of the sentence, and just sighed

"The girl was Mika, and the two boys were Kaito and Souta." Kurei finished the sentence for Nae since she didn't seem to want to talk.

"Who are they?" Domon asked looking completely clueless.

Mikagami just sighed,

"Nae's friends from the orphanage. You know..." Koganei reminded him.

"oh..yeah...right...I forgot"

No one knew what to say. They were lost in words.

No words were said among them for a long time. The only thing heard were the slight steady breathing of each of them, and ocassional sighs coming from Nae.

It was a long time until someone finally spoke up. It was Nae again.

"Let's go home." She said as she began to stand up.

"Wait." The voice came from the master of the Hokage House, Kagerou.

"Why don't we stay here for the night. The sun is setting, and it will be night soon. I think it's better that we stay here for the night, and we can talk about that Doguro tournament that girl was talking about in the morning."

No one opposed. They were all tired from the day's event although most of them didn't do anything except listen, and watch it was a lot to take in, all in one day.

Kagerou stayed in her own room, and the boys (Recca, Mikagami, Domon, Kurei, Koganei) and the girls (Yanagi, Fuuko, Nae) used two rooms that were separated by a fusuma (a sliding door that is usually placed between two traditional Japanese tatami rooms, so when opened it could also be used as one big room. It's kinda like a divider of a room.).

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Koganei was having trouble sleeping. He kept rolling back and forth in his futon. Although he was not close with Mika, Kaito, and Souta. It was still hard for him to face the fact that they were now enemies, and he had to fight against them. He hated to fight against people he had once called his mates. It was enough that he had to experience it once. But his heart ached when he thought of how Nae must feel. Mika was her best friend, and they had gone through so much together. It must of been so hard for her to fight Taku, and Kayo that day as well. She had taken care of them since they were babies, and had thought of them like they were her brother, and sister.

Everyone in the Hokage House was awake except Domon sleeping soundly. Kurei, and Recca were thinking the same thing as Koganei, but being more silent about it. They weren't rolling over on their futons, but they had the same fear as Koganei on their minds. Would Nae be okay?

In the girl's room on the other side of the fusuma. Fuuko was looking up at the ceiling with her futon covering her body. She kept on letting out big heavy sighs.

Yanagi was lying down with her futon tucked under her arm looking at Nae lying next to her. Nae had her whole body including her head under her futon. Heavy sobs were heard from under her futon. Yanagi, and Fuuko knew she was crying, and couldn't blame her.

Nae was crying under her futon trying to hide her tears by pressing her face into her pillow which made them even worse. She couldn't take it anymore, and stood up, and walked out of the room, and went to a part of the house no one was near. Yanagi, and Fuuko who both sat up after she left the room decided to leave her alone.

Nae just walked around the outside hallway of the house going around in circles until she found a spot to sit down. She sat down in the middle of the outside hallway facing the front yard. She tucked her knees into her chest, and began to sob lightly into them trying not to make too much noise. She didn't want to wake the others, and most certainly didn't want them to see her like this.

But things don't always go the way you plan. Life's just not fair. She heard footsteps coming her way. She wiped away her tears, and just looked up pretending she was looking at the stars. The footsteps came closer, and stopped right behind her. She heard a familiar voice.

"Nae." The voice said softly. It was Kurei's voice, and Koganei was right behind him.

"You okay?" Koganei asked in a gentle voice.

"..." Nae didn't answer, she just stared at the sky trying to hold in the tears welling up in her eyes.

They took a step down into the ground and sat down next to Nae, and looked up at the sky. Koganei slightly opened his mouth to say something but closed it again thinking it was best to keep the silence.

They stayed in silence for a while just staring into the clear black night sky looking at the bright shinning stars.

Soon Nae couldn't hold in the tears anymore, and dropped her head into her knees as tears fell down onto the ground. She tried her best to hide the tears from them but they saw every single drop. Koganei just watched the tears fall. Kurei took his hand, and lightly patted her head, just like he did a long time ago every time Nae would cry.

All she did the rest of the night was cry. She kept on crying until she finally fell asleep without realizing.

"Is she asleep?" Koganei asked looking up at Kurei.

"I think so" Kurei said not taking his eyes off from her.

"Come, Kaoru let's take her to her room."

Kurei got up as he lifted up Nae into his arms, and carried her into her room (Yanagi&Fuuko both awake), and stayed by her side.

Koganei walked back into the boy's room to find Recca, and Domon still awake.

"Hey chibi (midgit) where'd you go?" Recca asked Koganei as he sat up when Koganei entered the room.

"We went to where Nae was. She was sitting there in the middle of the outside hallway. She fell asleep crying."

Koganei answered back as he entered into his own futon.

"Was Kurei with you?" Recca asked

"Yeah, he's in Nae's room." Koganei covered himself with his blanket.

"Oh, ok..." Recca began to cover himself with his blanket as well, then jumped up.

"What did you say!?" He yelled at Koganei.

His voice startled everyone in the next room.

"What DID you say? Kurei's in the GIRL'S room?" Recca yelled as his face got closer, and closer towards Koganei.

Koganei was startled, and all he could do was nod his head up and down.

Recca ran to the fusuma, and opened it, and jumped into the room, but to find Kurei slaming him quietly down onto the floor covering his mouth to keep him from screaming.

Recca kept on trying to get away from Kurei's grip. He kept on swinging his arms, and legs up, and down. Yanagi quickly ran up to him, and put her index finger over her thin lips telling him to be quiet, and pointed at the young sleeping figure.

Recca finally understood the situation, and calmed down.

The young girl had fallen asleep with a sweet expression on her face. It had been a long day, but tomorrow was going to be an even longer day. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~