Chapter 2: To Find a Place Once Home

"This is my home."

"How can you be sure?"

"Everything is the same. Violet is on the door in and Wind is on the door to my room. But, my parents…"

"We'll find them. Just a few miles further is Tamahome's village. Someone there might know."

"Can you go back and get him? I want to stay a bit longer."

"I understand."

Nuriko returned without Suu to Hotohori's surprise. Tamahome was out in the city trying to make a bit of quick money. He wished Suu was there to make the sand glow so he could get more for it. "Tamahome, Suu needs you."

"Where is she?"

"Do you know the abandoned house outside your village?"

"Know it? The kid was my first business partner. She went missing about five years ago. Her parents died about a year after her disappearance. Why is she there?"

"She thinks it is her home. You should tell her."

Suu was just where Nuriko had left her earlier that day. Tamahome put his hand on her head. "I really missed you when you vanished. I also let your father down."

She looked up at him lost as to what he was saying. "What?"

"It was easy money. All I did was keep you out of trouble. All you wanted to do was help. Your dad was the best goldsmith in history. Jade, you disappeared five years ago."

"Where did they move to?"

"Jade, I'm sorry I forgot about the doors. If I was ever to see you I'd never expect you to be sixteen, you'd only be ten. They died a year after you vanished. I tried to keep up the garden but your mother must have had a gift."

"Oni never suited you. I had been saving the gold shavings then. I had collected enough for Dad to make them for me, the three symbols in guardian."

She pulled a small piece from her pocket. "I remembered a friend but lost the name and the face."

She clipped it to his collar. "Funny, it seemed so much bigger when Dad made it."

"You were five. Everything was bigger."

She smiled, eyes wide shimmering in the afternoon sun. It was the light he remembered not the dangerous glow before she slipped time. "Jade. It sounds familiar."

"Does it hurt you?"

"Does what hurt?"

"Any of it. Slipping time or contact with others, does it cause you pain?"

She withdrew. Her eyes became hollow. Jade slowly walked into the dilapidated house. Her steps were light. They didn't seem to disturb the moss growing over the floorboards. "Jade? What's wrong?"

She remained silent, stopping at her door. "Kaze? Why is that on the door?"

She looked back at him while opening the door. Her eyes had a slight sense of recognition back to them. "Dad asked you what my favorite thing was."

"I remember that. I said it was quiet times with the wind blowing around you."

"The company. Knowing that you were still there watching over me. That sense remained in my darkness."

He set a hand on her shoulder. She continued into the room. His hand slipped off taking a layer of sand with it. Immediately he felt sorry for doing it. "Not anymore. I've lost feeling to my body a few slips ago. Now that I know my search is over I have only one tie left before I go to ask a favor myself."

He gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Always others before yourself. How far back can you take Miaka?"

As gentle as it was Tamahome still had sand on his lips. He thought about her mark. Maybe it also told how much time she had left. Most of the sand was gone from the top of the glass. "Maybe to the moment she first arrived. That is my best case. I have no record in time of her before then. I might only be able to take her to when she came back. It would be a waste then. I'd hate to think of the worst case."

She surveyed the ruins of what was once her room. There was a glass tank in the far corner. Her eyes widened at the memory. There was a turtle with a cracked shell she was caring for. "I released him for you when he healed enough to be on his own. He never would eat from my hand like he would from you."

"Thank you."

"Only trouble I had was getting that splint off of him. It worked just like you said it would."

She smiled and shook her head. "These memories are all five years fresher than mine. Would you still protect Miaka if I hadn't vanished?"

"Your parents were great to me. I don't know really. If I was still making sure nothing happened to you then I might not have been there to save Miaka and Yui."

"Is there any part of your past you'd like to see before I try to give it up?"

"Are you sure?"

"If it is part of your past and you might cross paths we won't want to enter completely. Chichiri has been the only one to sense when I do that."

"Sure then."

Jade dropped a mound of white sand on the floor. "Lock wrists."

They grabbed each other's wrists. Her eyes glowed within followed by the mark. He was right, there was less sand in the top now. He felt weightless suddenly as all the light drained from around him. Just as the last light left his sight Jade was surrounded in a green light that engulfed him as well. "Is this what happens when you slip time?"

"Yes. Look below us."

He looked down to see the thread. "Wow."

"That small green point it where we were. So, what did you want to see?"

"Before my mother died."

"Alright."

She let go of one of his arms to try to get moving towards the thread. As soon as she let go Tamahome felt like an enormous weight was put on him. "Jade!"

She reached back and he again felt weightless. "I forgot how heavy this place was."

She walked the thread back from her green mark. She knelt down with Tamahome over the thread. "I found her. Just walk in. I'll hold you out."

He understood, heard but not seen. "Tamahome, why are you up so early?"

"If I'm not protecting Jade then I won't get paid."

She laughed kindheartedly. "She probably won't be awake for another few hours. You were both up very late."

"But I'm awake now so she should be too."

"Eat some breakfast first, then you can go. You really like her don't you?"

"Other than the fact she's a girl, I guess she's a good friend."

"Why don't you bring her here for the day?"

"I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Because we don't have anything here to do. I don't want her to think less of me because of it."

"How long have you been her friend and protector?"

Tamahome heard Jade laughing around him. The scene in front of him didn't hear it. The look on the young Tamahome's face was comical to her. He seemed to be thinking so hard on the answer. "Two years?"

"Has she ever judged you, or anyone else?"

He hung his head. "No."

She gave him a hug. "Have fun. You don't have to spend time here if it makes you uncomfortable."

"Thanks Mom."

Tamahome followed as the boy ran to Jade's house. "Tamahome? Are you ready to go back?"

"Just a bit longer, or do you need to go back?"

"I'm fine. Enjoy what could be the best thing this power has done."

The little Tamahome knocked on the door. Jade's father answered from within. "Come in Tamahome."

He carefully opened the door. As he entered he saw Jade running down the hall at full speed. She jumped ringing her arms around his neck. "I thought you weren't coming!"

Her grip failed and she fell to the floor. Tamahome was at least two feet taller than her. She scampered to her bare feet. "Are you alright?"

Her green eyes sparkled with happiness. "I'm fine."

The goldsmith called from the kitchen, "Tamahome I need to have a word with you."

Tamahome's thoughts jumped to being scolded. He had to have heard the thump as Jade fell. It was his job to keep her safe. He rounded the corner. "Yes sir?"

He handed Tamahome three high-end coins. "Have fun it you two go to town like you were planning last night."

"Thank you."

He put up his hand. "Nope. I will only accept thanks in the form of a fun day without worry."

"I'll do my best."

He went back to the door where Jade was waiting. She already had her shoes on and started to open the door as she saw him coming. He watched his past through until he parted for home. Tamahome looked up at Jade, "I'm happy. We can go."

She pulled him up from the thread. "Why there did you want to stop?"

"You vanished between when I left and came back."

Jade watched herself. The young one was so happy from the day. Dad gave her the long awaited project. She couldn't wait to give it to Tamahome. She put her clothes back on and placed the treasure in her pocket. She went to the window as her eyes started to glow. She saw only them in the half open window. Jumping back she screamed. The hourglass, empty at the bottom, appeared as she vanished. Her mother and father entered the room to find her gone. "Now we can go."

She floated up never letting go of Tamahome. She smiled. "You make this so much harder than it should be."

"You offered."

Tamahome noticed that here in the void she had her color back. She seemed of flesh and not sand. She cocked her head to the side and half squinted. "Do I have something on my face?"

"No, nothing like that. Instep with time you look so pale but here you don't look that way. More like how I would have imagined you."

"At the time I just didn't want to be two feet shorter than you."

"You're still short."

"Times change, people really don't."

"What does the future hold?"

They were now standing over the area her marker shown through. "This is as far as I ever dared go. Do you see the fray?"

"What about it?"

"I don't dare to pass it. Something big is going to happen, big enough to disrupt time. I can tell you more later."

He nodded as she pulled him into time. Again darkness but this time there was a light Jade followed, the green glow of her sand. Tamahome felt like they were speeding up. The light seemed to move. He felt his weight returning. Jade slipped through the light. It was blinding. He closed his eyes. Jade let him go. He reached for her in his blindness. "Oni, you can open you eyes at any time."

He opened them to see they had returned to the exact spot she dropped the sand. Her eyes still had a faint glow and the glass was almost undetectable now. "Is the trip always like that?"

"When I have a target, yes."

They went back. "Suu! We were worried being gone so long."

"Thank you for worrying about me Hotohori. My name is Jade, I know that now that I've found my past."

Tamahome whispered in her ear. She smiled as he walked off leaving her to talk with the emperor. "Why didn't you stay?"

"They died a year after I vanished. I vanished only five years ago. So, I've decided to stay here and try to help."