It was just like any other mornings I've woken up to ever since I had assumed my brother's responsibility of looking after the stubborn itako. Well, a little rainier than usual, but it couldn't erase my cheerfulness. Everyday had been a pleasant gift-wrapped surprise for me ever since I became Anna Kyouyama's caretaker.

Caretaker. I liked the sound of that, especially when used with the itako's name in one sentence.

I continued on my way to the Asakura House.

To my surprise, the community of elders in the family were having a pow-wow. I was about to ignore them and head straight for Anna's room when my grandmother suddenly called me.

"Asakura Hao!"

I had no choice but to go to her. "Yes, lovely Obaasan?"

"Anna left this early morning to look for her kitten, but she hasn't returned yet. Will you help Tamao look for her?" asked Kino after glaring at me, suspiciously reminding me of Anna's own infamous glares.

I frowned. "Why did you let Anna go off all by herself anyway?"

This prompted everyone to give me strange looks. I silently castigated myself- even for her caretaker, my tone was too concerned.

Mikihisa replied for them. "She insisted that she can take care of herself…and you don't argue with a woman like her."

Yohmei nodded solemnly, his eyes cast sideways on Kino.

I couldn't help but smile at their acts. "Fine, I'll look for her." I was about to turn my back on them when Mikihisa suddenly threw me a bar of Butterfingers®.

"It might come in handy," he said, and whatever his reaction could be was hidden by the silly bird mask covering his face. I really should buy him something else to cover his face. I heard an Ultraman rubber mask was on sale dowtown.

"Anna! Anna!!!" My voice was being carried by the chilly wind, but instead of being grateful for that, worry was creeping inside me. What if Anna left for the forest without anything to protect her but that piece of cloth she calls a bandanna?

"That foolish woman…what was she trying to prove anyway, going there all by herself?" I wondered. "Ah, I hate her! I had never felt this upset before…not even when Yoh came back to life in our last match. If I don't find her…I…I don't know what I would do."

I paused. What was I thinking? Brooding like that couldn't help the situation! Where did my rationale go? Was it carried away by the panic slowly forming within me?

Before my thoughts could get any more stupid, I heard a familiar voice, a soft cry, but it was enough to jolt me alert. Only one voice could do that.

"Anna, where are you?!!!" I yelled.

"Over here!!!"

"Where here-"I took a couple more steps to the left, then the ground beneath my boots crumbled. I slid down the ground for what seemed like a minute, then landed painfully on my rear in the quagmire.

"Here here," said Anna, eyes narrowed. "I wouldn't have thought you were stupid enough to fall here too just to make sure where I am."

I blinked, then suddenly pulled her into my arms, laughing. "Anna!!!"

"What do you think are you doing?!! You're getting me dirty and I just cleaned-ugh!" She soiled my mantle with her hands. She looked up at me worriedly, but I was still laughing too hard to say something. Beside us, Brownie, a bit muddy too, was playing with the strands of my hair.

I never knew what relief really was until I realized that the itako was safe after all.

"I heard Brownie meowing here, so I tried to climb down, but the ground beneath me shook and broke loose. I-I think I sprained my leg," she glanced at her right leg.

"Ah, don't worry. The ascent won't be so hard. Our only problem for now is the rain. I don't want you to catch cold." I looked around the small cave by the mudfield and smiled. "We'll have to stay here and wait for the rain to stop."

"You don't look worried," commented the itako, narrowing her eyes at me. "Aren't you worried about anything at all?"

I contorted my face in mock anxiety. "No, in fact, I'm a chronic worrywart. I worry about what the dogs are thinking when they look at me. I'm worried about the career of Britney Spears. I worry about marrying an Eskimo woman who would send me adrift an iceberg when she loses interest on me. I worry about the end of the world coming while I'm sitting on a toilet bowl." I tried my best to look sullen. "I'm really, really worried."

She rolled her eyes, as if disbelieving that she was conversing with me at all. "You always say women are next to impossible in figuring out when the likes of you are impossible, do you know that?"

I nodded eagerly, as if I was a pre-school pupil learning arithmetic for the first time in my entire life.

She rolled her eyes yet again.  "They say that people like you who breeze into life just like so are those who are trying to escape a sordid past. I haven't heard much about your past life, except that you were perpetually dissatisfied and that you tried to start a rebellion against the Ying Yang Masters."

"Do you really want to know about my unhappy past?" I asked.

She paused.

"When I was a child, I was often beaten up by my stepfather. He allowed me to be gang-raped by a community of gays. He would stuff me into the cabinet of Obaasan, and he would often stub his cigarette's butt on me as if I was an ashtray. He won't even let me shampoo my hair too because he thinks it would be a waste of money." I tried to look teary-eyed. "Worst of all, I was circumcised without an anesthesia."

She slammed my head with her itako beads. "I'm serious!"

Laughing, I caught her hand. "I was just trying to make you smile." My eyes twinkled as my fingertip lightly touched the twitched corners of her pink cherry-like mouth. "Like that."

She let out one of her soft cries of surprise again, setting my adrenalin on fire.

"You live to toy with people," she said after awhile. "I wonder how is it to live your life."

I turned serious. "You won't like it very much," I admitted. "Life would be very boring for you, as if breathing and existing would be just motions you would have to go through. That's why…that's why…" I smiled at her tenderly. "I was really grateful that Yoh gave me a chance to know you."

She gasped. "H-Huh?"

"Although you're not a woman that is very easy to get to know, it made things  better." I tipped her chin lightly with my finger, smiling still. "You are not very easy to read, you know that? Believe it or not, you frighten me a little, Gishi. You are the most mysterious woman I've ever met."

"But you act as if you can read my thoughts well," she murmured, confused. Her eyes were wide in unwarranted innocence, or was it just me?

"It's just that, well, I'm attuned to you now," I admitted, smiling impishly as I pinched her cheeks fondly.    

The minute I rested my fingers on her smooth, milky skin, I realized the fatality of my mistake, because as if it was a natural course for me, my head followed.

"H-Hao!" She looked up in alarm, and that too, was her mistake.

My mouth met hers that was gaped open in surprise. I penetrated her honey-sweet lips with no problem, and found myself slowly losing my wits in her warm sweetness. My ears lost the power to hear the rain, the mews of Brownie; my eyes were only for her, and my hands were attached to her skin like magnet…everything in me was paying homage to this woman whose every touch could set me on fire, even more than my own furyoku did.

I left her mouth for a while, panting. "Anna…"

Her eyes shook, then looked down. "T-The rain…I think it stopped."

"OK," I agreed quietly. We both need some time to think about what happened. I helped her up, then shook my mantle off to wrap around her. She nodded gratefully, but awkwardness remained while I walked her home, holding Brownie too.

I then remembered something. I took out the slightly smashed Butterfingers from my glove and offered it to her. "Want some?"

She nodded again and smiled. I was relieved; Mikihisa's chocolate did come in handy after all!

As Tamao fussed over Anna, I was ushered by the community of the groovy Asakura oldies into their clandestine meeting.

"We thought it over, Hao, and we realized that Anna has mourned long enough," began Kino.

I nodded. "And…"

"We decided that she has to busy herself with something already," said Yohmei. "It would help her heal faster."

"And it would benefit you too. You won't have to look after her anymore," quipped Kino.

"So what are you trying to say?" I asked.

Mikihisa was quiet all throughout the discussion.

"We're going to ask one of Yoh's friends to marry her," explained Kino.

The first word that shouted across my mind was a resounding 'No!'. However, I kept my emotions checked. "Tell you what, you don't have to do that."

Mikihisa looked up, as if he was sensing what I was about to say.

"I'll marry Anna Kyouyama myself," I announced.

tsuzuku