DISCLAIMER: I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm sick, no creative disclaimer tonight. I just don't own this.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry sorry sorry! Sorry it's been so long since an update (ANY update), but I wanted to get 26 finished and for some reason it just. Wouldn't. Work. Of course, kinda not having the plot pre-planned when beginning to write a chapter'll kill ya everytime... Don't do that, it just causes problems if you aren't on an Inpirational Tsunami.

Let's see, what's going on with Kaze-chan. Okay, finished my fall semester and took my finals (no idea what grades I got in the classes though, although I'm guaranteed at least three A's - it's Physics I'm worried about). I bought the new FY artbook they have out in English - be warned if you buy it that there are quite a few typos. The funniest one is that on the map all the countries are mislabeled! Suzaku's standing in Sairou and Byakko in Hokkan! I've also acquired Eikouden, the "limited edition" version, whcih means I've gt a set of really cool pictures now. Also, I've been accepted to the colleges I applied to, one of which is my Dream School, so I'll be going there next year (YA-HAA!). I'm completely broke - my net worth right now is 3 cents and 6 coke tabs. Seriously. Oh, and a bit of yarn. Christmas is just around the corner, and this year I've had more than usual to pay for - not just stuff for my father and my friends, but also more than one Secret Santa present, charity donations, required spending for clubs... I budgeted the same amount of money as last year and it just didn't work out. At least I learned my lesson. All right, not much else to say, so on to replies!

Skittles, ahh, you're first again! ^_^ Looks like you've memorized when I post. Thanks soooo much for saying it wasn't confusing or fast or anything, and thanks for the happy birthday! ^_^

Stormlight, you have nooooooo idea ~grins~ Kadiri and Gesshin are quite entertaining. And yeah, maybe you do have pure dumb luck! That would definitely explain it!

Arashi, I hope it's been long enough (and post-less enough) to let you finish that paper! And I hope you got a good grade on it despite my interference! ^_~ Thanks for thinking that Reijie's thinking is logical, but HENTAI! ~whacks her arm~ Although that line made my day... And the Gesshin line was wroooong, just wrooooong. Although if you ask nicely I'll release him to you to do what you wish ^_~ I just need him back for when he needs to be in the story!

Zerianyu, you know I got that review twice? I know, I know, it's not soon - I tried, it just didn't work. And it was a bad spot, but at least it's not like the end of 8 where the main character's DYING...

KRIS! You hurt and I repossess! I admit, he needs to get some brains knocked into him, but give him a break! He keeps getting the stuffing knocked OUT of him! And you are NOT going to do more, you're not even going to hit him! Yeah, he needs some stability - Nuriko seems to have handed down his "whirlwind through life" attitude, except it didn't come out in quite the same way. And that was a very weird idea, but somehow I don't think it'd work. ~grins~ And you know the rest.

Chibigreen, angsting is a VERY good word! Since more than half the stuff I write has to deal with some sort of angst, I've adopted many forms of the word. Let's add this to the list ^_~ And yes, Gesshin driving is amusing and heart-attack-inducing, isn't it?

Elwing, you... sorta guessed wrong. Sorry. And you called me chica! It's been awhile since anyone's called me that, and I happen to like it ^_^ Good memories. It's makes me so happy to hear that you can't stop reading! It's exactly what I aim for! And the roommates bit is amusing ^_^ I'm gonna have to deal with that next year... Yeah, you got it right, and I'm happy that you said you found that scene lacking (I wish people would tell me what was wrong!). Unfortunately that scene got written on "burn out," so it was pretty much a force-words-on-paper part. I want to try and make it better, but when I get the chance is another matter...

Hotohori Fan, yeah, cute guy who's gay! ~grins~ After finally being able to work with Chomei, I can tell that I, at least, like him - he's complex. He's also not dumb, which raises his points significantly. ~grins~ And I'm glad you like Kadiri - no doubt about it, the chick's got her head in the right place and the guts to knock those males into -their- places. Not bad for someone with a dead-beat mom.

Draconsis, thanks for clearing that up for me ^_~ And thanks for not killing me!

Flying heart, where are the typos? Most likely I'll miss them again, so it's a really big help when people point them out. Yes people, POINT OUT MY TYPOS! I want to fix them at some point! And glad to see SOMEONE agrees with me about cliffhangers! I swear, I must be reamed the most of anyone for leaving off at Important Points ^_^ It's fuuuuuuun.

elfofthemeadow, wow, three days?! O.O I didn't know I'd written so much! Market's much more of the "epic" type so I'm used to the two-days to read it thing in association with that story, not this one. Wow, that's cool. And check at the bottom for ages.

Zero Phoenix, thanks! I think I'll steal that phrase, it's cool ^_^ And yeah, wouldn't it just be fun to watch them cause havoc? Hehehehehehehehe...

J. Liha, keep your dirty thoughts over in Market where someone ~coughcoughTokakicouch~ can appreciate them! Yes, I'm sure I'm not writing a lemon! ^_~ And somehow I KNEW you'd like it, you little hentai ~grins~

Gack! Someone reviewed without leaving their name! And they gave so many compliments that I want to respond with a lovely big glomp but I can't unless I know who it is! If it's yours, please tell me and you can get glomped next time!

Evil Hunter... Wow. WOW. Wow, that floored me. That was honestly one of the coolest reviews I've ever gotten. Reading too much into things can cause great fun and makes you invent explanations! Go right on doing it if you want to! I love it when people come up for explanations of my stuff! Wow! That was... wow. Thank you for all the lovvvvely comments and the attempt to explain the general fascination with the Reijirou/Risako pairing - I think I understand it now! (And yeah, I honestly didn't know - before, I've just mainly been confused ^^;;; Sorry! You're great!) And you are the only person who picked up on the Adam fact - wonderful, that's great!

Okay, now that that's over, let's just get on with the story.



*************************************************************************************




"Boiling oil?"

"Have it."

"What about poison mushrooms?"

"Already got poison period, but mushrooms are different. Thirty-six."

"Death by silkworm?"

"That's good, if we could figure out how to do it."

"This is gonna take us a long time."

"Yeah, but what else've we got to do?"

Reijirou and Risako were sitting back-to-back in the storage closet, leaning against each other since neither of them was quite willing to lean against the shelves and get dust all over their clothing. Pounding on the door had done them absolutely no good; Risako had explained with a sigh that somehow Gesshin and Kadiri had managed to lock them in at a very low-traffic time. There was one bulb in the tiny room, but it was of very low intensity, just bright enough to keep people from walking into things as they entered the room, and not much light was let in by the cracks around the door. Their eyes had adjusted, but it was still a strain to see things. The weird shadows cast by the various things sitting on the shelves didn't do much to help the imagination, either. To keep themselves firmly grounded in something besides nebulous fears, they'd started playing "One Thousand and One Ways to Kill Kadiri and Gesshin."

They were only on thirty-seven.

"How long's it been?" Reijirou asked for what felt like the thirtieth time.

Risako held her watch close to her face to read it. "Seventeen minutes. A minute and a half since you last asked."

"Graaaaaaaaaaah, what can they hope to accomplish?!" Reijirou yelled in frustration, kicking out with his right foot and sending a bucket skittering across the floor and into the wall with a metallic clang. "Why the hell did they do this?!"

"Oh, think, Reijirou," Risako drawled, unusually sarcastic. "Why do people normally shove their friends in closets?"

"I've been trying to avoid that option," Reijirou grumbled uncomfortably. The thought had crossed his mind, many times, but he preferred not to think about it. And if that really was the reason, then those two pranksters deserved an even bigger pummeling than they were gonna get in the first place…

"I mean, come on," Risako continued, almost light-heartedly. "I've done it to my friends. There's really no other reason than to hook up two people-"

"Yeah, but not US!" Reijirou groaned, his head falling into his hands. "Bakayarou, they're gonna die for this…"

"What, make you uncomfortable Reijie-chan?"

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry, this place is getting to me."

"Like hell it is, you're just as bad as the two of them."

She snorted. "Not when it comes to things like this. Are you sure you can't get through that door?"

He groaned again. "For the twentieth time, NO. It's reinforced steel Risako, and I sure as hell ain't Nuriko."

"Well, actually-"

"Don't say a word, just don't say it."

"A word."

"Oh lord, here we go again…"

"Hmm, death by puns?"

"Hey, that's a pretty good one."

"Thank you."

Thirty-eight down, nine hundred sixty-three to go…

"Heyyyyyy, death by closet-shoving!"

Risako turned slightly to stare at him over her shoulder, puzzled. "What?"

Reijirou grinned wickedly. "We put 'em in a closet together. A real closet, smaller than this thing. Eventually they'll kill each other!"

"The ultimate revenge!"

"Exactly! I can picture it now…" Reijirou tipped his head back, a smile reminiscent of a gourmet chef tasting his specialty dish on his face as he watched the scene unfold on his eyelids. "Gesshin'll pull out the tessen… and Kadiri will just be waiting to electrocute him for getting her in that mess… All this after a very loud cuss-fight of course."

"Oh, of course," Risako agreed, a similar grin on her face.

"It'll all start off with Gesshin saying 'This's all ye're fault, ya damn stupid woman!' "

Risako smothered a giggle. "You've spent too much time around him, you just sounded exactly like him."

"Thank you, it takes practice. And then Ka- It's starting," he stated abruptly, sitting up straight and staring at the ceiling, completely serious and with no hint of joking in his voice. "They're starting to summon Chiriko…"

"Huh? How do you know?" Risako asked, straightening up from where she'd fallen when Reijirou had suddenly moved, brushing dust out of her hair.

It was a slightly creepy sight she saw: Reijirou's eyes were half-closed and his gaze was directed at the ceiling, and the minimal light in the room made him look both pale and sunburned all at once. She couldn't help shivering slightly at the sight. "I can feel it." His voice, at least, was still normal, if slightly spacey. "I just do… They're drawing on our power to call him…"

He was starting to creep her out more than a little. She knew exactly what he was talking about, of course, but that didn't make it seem like anything less than something out of a horror movie. "All right… If you say so…"

"Hey, I can see it!" He closed his eyes all the way, a look of complete amazement on his face. "There's Miaka, and there's Daisuke - how'd he and Keisuke get by without them hearing us? - and Chichiri, and Hokusai, and Nuriko, and- Whoa, here comes Chiriko!... It's all the smoke!... I never actually got to see it before… There's this red light, it's all over the place, and… Wait, there's two light sources? The book and… and… damnit, where's the other one from? Oh, here comes the smoke disappearing… and… explosion! Whoa, that was so cool! Too bad you couldn't see it Risako, but you've seen others… Risako?"

Risako couldn't answer. She had fallen over onto the floor, gasping for breath.

"RISAKO!" he shouted, his voice echoing many times in the small room's confined space. "RISAKO! SPEAK TO ME!"

She didn't respond. Reijirou pulled her up and turned her over, revealing her ashen face and shallow, short breathing, more a rasp than an actual drawing of breath. She looked, and sounded, very, very bad…

"What should I do what should I do what should I do what should I do?" he chanted as he raced through the first aid steps he'd learned in his physical education classes. This wasn't a sprain, this wasn't dehydration, this wasn't a heart attack - or was it? No, it couldn't be, she was much too young. So what could it be?! What could he do?!

He grimaced as he hit on the one thing that might help her, but could very well have her killing him in the aftermath. "Please don't take this the wrong way Risako…" He carefully laid her down on the floor, watching her breathing become more and more shallow every second. Tilting her head back and propping her mouth open, he started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

After the three rounds of the required five breaths, he sat back to look at her, then began panicking. It wasn't helping, it wasn't helping, it wasn't helping! He had completely forgotten that mouth-to-mouth didn't have any effect unless the patient had already stopped breathing; he was grasping at straws.

And they tumbled through his fingers.

"NURIKOOOOOOOOOO!"



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~




"Huh?" The purple-haired seishi looked quickly behind him, momentarily startled from his transfixion of watching Daisuke greet a boy who was fully more than half a foot shorter than him. He could've sworn he heard something…

"What is it Nuriko?" Hotohori asked quietly next to him.

Nuriko shook his head, wondering if it was possible for a ghost to have auditory hallucinations. "I… I don't know. I thought I heard something…"

"Maybe you did," the ex-emperor replied just as quietly, taking a quick glance around the main room. "Have you seen Reijirou-san lately?"

"Not since he and Risako went down to wait for Chomei… Which was awhile ago… Where are those two anyway?"

Hotohori nodded slightly, a piece of hair slipping into his eyes. "We don't just 'hear things'. Usually it's the other you that you hear."

"So you're saying I heard Reijirou?" Nuriko queried. At Hotohori's nod, he continued. "So what do I do?"

"Find him," Hotohori replied simply. "I'll cover for you here."

Nuriko nodded and quickly disappeared, finding his link with his modern counterpart and following the road it provided to land-

-straight in the middle of a shelving unit. He blinked in the dimness and looked around. "Reijirou? You in here?"

"Nuriko!" came the frantic response. "It's Risako! She's barely breathing and she passed out again!"

"WHAT?!" Immediately the seishi knelt next to the girl, putting a hand on her forehead as if to check for fever. "Suzaku, this is not good."

"NO SHIT! What do we do?!"

"Calm down, I'll be right back." He disappeared again without even bothering to stand.

Reijirou heard his own watch's second hand tick - once, twice, three times - until there was suddenly much more noise in the tiny room than either he or Risako were making. "Nuriko, what's going on? Chiriko's up there scared and confused and-" Mitsukake did not sound happy.

"-And Risako's PASSED OUT!" Nuriko yelled in the usually stoic healer's face.

"Mitsukake, help me!" Reijirou pleaded, trying to lift Risako into a sitting position again, her head falling back against his shoulder like a doll's. "She fell over and she's barely breathing and nothing I did could help and-"

Mitsukake placed his large, square hand on Reijirou's shoulder, and Reijirou could almost feel the calluses through his clothing. It shushed him instantly. "She's still alive. Don't worry. Here, let me see her." Reijirou nodded, and Risako was transferred from his grasp to Mitsukake's effortlessly as Nuriko watched, a worried frown pasted on his face. Risako's head still flopped back, but compared to the size of the man she was now leaning against she was tiny. Mitsukake gently laid her down, then held his left palm over her chest and closed his eyes, Nuriko and Reijirou crowding each other on her other side in order to see better. Their little shoving match was interrupted by the flow of green light that surrounded Risako, giving her an otherworldly appearance.

The light danced wildly for a moment, flickering like a candle, and then Risako gave a great gasp and her eyes flew open, her upper body flying upright half a moment later, the ends of her hair whipping Reijirou in the face. She clutched a hand to her chest and gasped a few more times, half bent-over as if she'd just run an exhausting marathon. Nuriko quickly put an arm around her shoulders to steady her, letting her get her breath back.

She gasped one last time, then took a shuddering breath and turned to face Mitsukake. "Did it…" she asked hoarsely. She swallowed, then tried once more. "Did it happen again?"

He nodded, more serious than either of the two teens had ever seen him, even when he'd heard about Reijirou's wounding or Adam's death. "I don't know why," he said bluntly. "I can't tell what's happening to you." He turned away, and Reijirou could almost swear he saw a troubled expression on his face. "I just can't tell."

"Will it happen again?" Reijirou asked in a subdued voice.

"I don't know."



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~




After Nuriko had undone the lock from the outside, the four of them had trooped back up the stairs to the Daishi apartment, Reijirou supporting Risako. She was still somewhat weak, and even though she had firmly insisted that she would have no problems walking, Reijirou had even more firmly insisted on giving her the extra help. As the stairs kept coming without many breaks her protests died down, and by the time they got to the apartment she looked exhausted.

They let themselves in and passed unnoticed by the chaos in the main room, leaving Nuriko and Mitsukake there, heading down the hallway to Risako's bedroom. Reijirou gave the door a little kick to open it, and he helped the tired girl through and to her bed.

Risako lay down gratefully, pulling the pillow over her eyes. "The light hurts…"

"Just go to sleep," he said gently. "Sleep cures everything."

"Like you're a doctor," she grumbled.

"I'm an athlete with a long record of injuries. I know something by now." He grabbed another pillow off the floor and tossed it at her. It rose in the air, then fell onto the pillow on her head with a gentle smack. She knocked it off with her fist impatiently, and it resumed its starting place on the carpet. "So that's why your room's so messy."

"Reijirou?"

"Yeah?"

"Stuff it."

He laughed a little, then turned and began finding a path through the fairly minimal obstacle course to the door. "I'll leave you to sleep. See ya."

"Ne, Reijirou," she said quietly, her tone completely changed from her ornery one just seconds earlier. She almost sounded… timid. "You… you tried, didn't you?"

He glanced back, confusion etched on his face, bangs swinging into his eyes. "What?"

She hadn't turned to look at him or removed the pillow from over her head, but he got the feeling that she couldn't be paying more attention to him if she tried. "You tried to help me down there, didn't you?"

"Well… well, yeah, you scared me half to death, just falling over like that. How could I not help?" He began retracing his steps to her bed, not quite sure what this was about. "I couldn't just let you lie there."

"A lot of people would have… Thank you."

He felt his face redden a bit. "You're welcome… Ah… I'm gonna go out there and see if anyone needs my help-"

"Please don't," she said, more a question than anything else. "Sit down?"

He glanced towards the door again, then slowly obeyed her request and pushed aside some books and papers to have a seat near the head of her low bed. He leaned somewhat uncomfortably against her wall, trying to avoid the pushpins that threatened to dig into his back with every move, still not quite sure what this was all about. "Are… are you okay, Risako?"

To his surprise, she didn't answer. Instead, she turned onto her right side, facing the wall, her head still under the pillow, her body curling up like a nervous cat's. And unless he was severely mistaken, he was sure he heard her sniff.

"Risako?" he asked, a little more urgently, raising himself to his knees so he could peer at her closely in worry. "Risako, are you all right?"

"I'm such a chicken…" she spoke with a catch in her throat. "I'm such a horrible little frightened girl… I'm scared, I really am."

He was silent for a minute before he could gather the courage to ask. "Scared of what?"

"Of falling asleep…" she hiccuped, a hand digging under the pillow as if she were wiping away a tear. "What if… what if I don't wake up?"

Reijirou didn't have any idea what to say to this.

Risako just kept going, the words tumbling free like water through a broken dam. "What if I close my eyes and never open them again? Mitsukake didn't know what was wrong with me, what if it's something that can't be fixed? What if all of this is because one day soon I'm going to faint and he won't be able to revive me?"

"Uh… well…"

She pushed the pillow off her head with shaking hands and sat up quickly to face him, dark red hair spilling over her shoulders, eyes wide with something that could almost be hysteria. "I know I sound really stupid, but it's serious. This is starting to scare me! Once I can shake off as a freak accident, but twice?! Maybe that's why my mother gave me up for adoption, she knew she had something fatally wrong with her that would cause her to die at a young age and didn't want me to-"

"Risako!" Her crazy river of words stopped short at the tone in Reijirou's voice. But once he had her quiet he didn't know what to say or even think.

Her fear wasn't entirely illogical, after all. Everyone had been worried about her when it had happened in the bookstore, but Mitsukake had reassured them all that she was all right. But it had happened a second time, with no basis that he could detect. What if it really was something wrong with her genes? Maybe Mitsukake, being about a millenium out of practice, couldn't tell if something that small was wrong with her…

"Risako…" he found himself saying, although he couldn't remember telling his mouth to form any words, "it won't happen. I know what it's like." He did; he woke up with nightmares about the encounter with Ashitare at least twice a week now. Every time he could feel those awful natural daggers dig into his body, ripping it apart mercilessly… He'd wake up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath, with Nuriko hovering in concern next to his shoulder. "I know what it's like to be scared like this. But you're like me; we're just too stubborn to die. At least not without a fight. And you know everyone out there will help you in any way they can."

"I know." Her voice was small again, recovering from the jumbled outburst. "But I just can't help it…"

"Is everything okay here?" came a new voice from the doorway. Reijirou turned quickly to see a rather tall silhouette framed there, one hand on the door handle. Taka was leaning half in the room, ready to shut the door if necessary. "Because I can leave if you want me to…" He wasn't teasing, just trying to be considerate.

Reijirou threw a quick glance at Risako, but she had turned her head away so her hair fell about her face, concealing her expression, almost in shame. He looked back at Taka and nodded the older man into the room. Taka hurriedly shut the door and came to kneel next to Risako's bed, next to Reijirou, a bit of an ironic smile playing about his features. "Well, I have to say that nothing in graduate school prepared me for something like this… What's wrong, Risako?"

She just shook her head, still keeping her face hidden, mostly turned to the wall. "Nothing's wrong."

"Now that's the worst lie I've ever heard," Taka remarked casually, off-handed. "Worse than any of Miaka's, even, and that takes skill. Do you know why I became a teacher?" he asked unexpectedly.

Risako turned her head slightly toward him, watching him out of the corner of her eyes. "Why?"

"I could've done just about anything," he continued in the same light tone. "Been a basketball player or coach, gone into business with Keisuke and Tetsuya, even gone back to my family home and been a farmer, as my father is, and his father was, and so on and so forth. But I became a teacher for two reasons. One was a remnant of feelings from before I discovered who I was and something I knew I had to do - a need to know everything I could about a certain period of history from a certain place in the world, because for some reason I felt some sort of connection to it, as if I only partially belonged in the modern world. Of course, I figured out why I felt like that after I found Miaka and learned about the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho and all, and then I realized that if anyone else felt the same way I had, I had to help them learn about it and sort it out for themselves. All that is one reason."

"What's the second?" Risako whispered after a moment of quiet silence.

"Yuiren," he replied immediately. "She loved to learn, although she didn't think of it as learning. She would 'discover' new things every day, and the look on her face when she did never ceased to fascinate me and make me feel proud, especially if I was the one who helped her along the way. And I couldn't bear to see her sad. Every time she was, I'd just pick her up and hold her for a long time until she forgot the sadness. I was so happy that she trusted me enough to help her with everything, and all my siblings. In this world, only teachers can really affect more than a few people in all those ways. So I knew I had to be one."

Risako slowly shook her head, a hand coming up to wipe at her eyes. "What does all this have to do with anything? I'm not Yuiren, or Gyokuran, or any of Tamahome's siblings. Why are you telling me this when it has no reason?"

Both she and Taka had almost forgotten that Reijirou was in the room as well, but he could see another smile twitching at the corner of Taka's mouth. "It does, though, don't you see? You don't have any siblings, do you?" She shook her head, still not looking at him. "And sometimes you feel uncomfortable talking to your parents, right?" Another silent answer, a nod this time. "Well, if you want to talk to someone with a bit more worldly experience than you have, I'm right here. I couldn't call myself a good teacher if I didn't help at least one student during my career." He suddenly grinned mischievously. "You can bet I didn't do it for the enormous fortune found in the teaching field."

Risako let out a strangled little laugh that sounded almost like a sob, pressing a hand to her mouth. "Trying to sound like Tamahome?" she managed to say around the laugh-sobs.

"Why not? I am him, after all." Taka stood, putting a hand on Reijirou's shoulder and patting Risako's head with the other. "Although I've gotta say I never knew I'd become this involved with my students. You two come out when you're ready, all right? I'll make your excuses out there."

"Thanks Taka," Reijirou said lowly to him, very grateful. Taka flashed him a very Tamahome-like grin, then crossed the piles of stuff on the floor and exited, closing the door behind him.

"Well… I wonder how many rumors are gonna start from this," Risako said in an attempt at a joke.

Reijirou laughed a little, nodding in agreement. "Kadiri for one… she'll jump on this."

Risako nodded agreement, then turned her head to the wall again. Reijirou lowered his chin until he was studying the carpet. They fell into a distinctly awkward silence, both cursing it very colorfully in their minds but neither quite brave enough to break it with actual words.

Fully three minutes passed with nothing breaking the silence in the room but their own breathing and the much-muted conversation from the living room. Those three minutes were about all Reijirou could take; he quickly stood, causing Risako to look at him, then back at the wall. "If you… won't be needing me…" Damnit, he cursed, I don't want to sound all stiff and formal! "I guess I'll be going back… Do some damage control… Can you…?"

"Yeah," she replied, knowing his meaning without more of the question. "Taka helped… a lot. You can go."

Reijirou knew she didn't mean it offensively; knew that she was just tired and overstressed - and he couldn't blame her for that; knew knew knew that it wasn't what Normal Risako would say - but the tone of her voice was unconsciously like a master dismissing a servant. For some odd reason it hurt him. He just nodded stiffly, then followed their teacher's path out the door.

She barely noticed his leaving, watching her fingers curl and uncurl in front of her face as she lay sideways on the mattress, but something inside plunged through an elevator shaft when the door closed with what sounded like an all-too-final 'click.' She shook her head as well as she could with half of it buried in the pillow, deciding she was just feeling fatalistic. Then she took a breath and closed her eyes, and allowed the sleep that had been clambering at her mind since Taka had left the room to claim her.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~




It was very… blue.

Light rippled past like the sun patterns on the bottom of a pool on a bright summer day, sometimes bright, sometimes navy, sometimes midnight. There didn't seem to be a floor, or walls, or any confinement; but somehow none of the "water" escaped the place. It pressed in, smothering breath if there was need for it, but thankfully there wasn't. Instead, the closeness promoted a feeling of comfort and warmth, despite some of the icy hues racing past.

About ten feet - if you could call them feet - ahead lay a body. The proximity should have made every feature clear, revealed whether the person had freckles or warts, what color clothes they were wearing, or if it was even a person at all. But the sight remained dim and very hazy; the most that could be detected was a subtle shift in the grays that cloaked the figure from head to foot, almost as if they were moving in and of themselves; living, breathing shades.

And then the figure stood.

It rose to a height for a tall human male, standing on two… things, not quite legs and not quite anything else. It spread two more of the appendages, which could be attached to things that could almost be shoulders, and the blob that could have been a head seemed to tilt back; or rather, the living grays seemed to give it the shadows of a head tilting back. And then-

soundless explosion

invisible light

life to death to death to life

negative color rushing in, filling the living grays with living color, easing the limbs into thicker, unmistakably human appendages, bright enough and dark enough to blind, and standing there was someone who had no business appearing in the dreams of anyone besides his family and friends.

The blue sun lights reflected off blond hair that shone with an unearthly radiance, and the clothing seemed to flicker in and out of being between two very different sets - one of a simple red tee-shirt, a pair of jeans ripped at one knee, with worn black-and-white sneakers with pen doodles all over them, and a swirling cape, even longer hair and taller body, and very distinctive spikes that seemed to grow like demented vines from his - for he was definitely a male - shoulders. But no matter which outfit he was in, two things always remained the same.

His eyes - hard yet sympathetic, showing an emotion of understanding and pity and sadness yet with the determination to see anything through, no matter what.

And the blue "heart" kanji shining from his forehead.

"Adam… Nakago…"




*************************************************************************************




AUTHOR'S NOTES II: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! HE'S BACK! IN A REALLY FREAKY WAY!

Betcha weren't expecting that! I wanted to present a twist, and I hope I did it. Now all that's left is to find out why he's "there"!

All right, elfofthemeadow has requested that I give everyone's age, so let's get started, youngest to oldest. Naora is EASILY the youngest at 4, with Reijirou's brother Hajime and Katai and Shirai all coming in at 14. Ijiri Mitsuyo, Gesshin's sister, is 15, and Gesshin follows his sister at 17-18 (he has his birthday SOMETIME during the course of the story - I am not sure when). Daisuke, Risako, and Adam all come in at 18, with Reijirou a very recent 19. Chomei is next at 20, then Chiaki at 21, and then Suezo at 22. Kadiri is 24, with Miaka, Yui, and Morin right after her at 25,and Hokusai next at 26. Taka is one of the eldest at 28, and Keisuke, Tetsuya, and Setsuko (Murai's wife) beat him at 30. Murai himself is 32, while Hoshiko and Ryobe round it out at 47 and 49 respectively. No one knows how old Akihiko is, but he seems to be in his mid-30s. I don't bother to give ages to non-reincarnates who don't show up much, such as the two police, but you can generally tell roughly what ages characters are if it's important. Hope that helps!

Oh yeah, question for everyone - I basically know these people's abbreviated pasts and all that, so is anyone interested in seeing the background info for any character (actual seishi not inculded)? If so, just tell me which characters and I'll start adding them on in the notes down here.

All right, I'm tired and achey and might be getting sick so I'm gonna go lie down. Love ya everyone! ~huggles~