Disclaimer: yui doesn't own Gohou Drug or X, only Riida.

Taisetsu na okurimono

By miyamoto yui

Part 2 - Doll face.

It was the middle of the day and the sun was above them was like a heater that didn't want to be turned off. Maybe it was the fall, but the unusual weather wasn't the only thing perplexing the two bishounen that walked slowly towards the house of their destination.

They stopped. They thought they were lost.

The map said it was a white house. It was the 'x' on the map their client had given them.

But for such a high-paying job, didn't this neighborhood seem kind of ordinary? That was the thought running through Kazahaya's head as he looked at and away from the map that Rikuou was staring at.

"Are you sure we're at the right place?" Kazahaya asked as he tilted his head and lifted up an eyebrow. He crossed his arms as he stood in his place.

"I know where we are..." Rikuou said with a slightly unconvinced face, his usual calmness eradicated at the moment. "...but you feel it too, don't you?"

The blond boy shook his head and took out a handkerchief from his pocket. Patting it over Rikuou's sweaty forehead, he said with his cheeks puffed out, "You sure this isn't an excuse for getting lost like the last time?"

"ONE time, and he won't let the damn thing go..." Rikuou thought to himself as he looked down at Kazahaya as he put the handkerchief away into a pocket of his jeans.

"Seriously, there's a great force around here," Rikuou said as his head turned from side to side to scan the area around them.

There were people walking around and houses with gates, the usual sort. So why did this seemingly normal neighborhood feel like it had been hit by a powerful aura of some sort?

Kazahaya grabbed Rikuou's hand and slowly waved it around the area. The young mothers passing by whispered and both of the boys blushed. (Well, the blond more than the black=haired one.)

He closed his eyes as he tried to feel his way through.

No one could understand this type of thing unless they knew how to feel their way through everything. To completely trust your senses was a very difficult thing. The only way he could ever describe this to Rikuou was that he had to feel the sense of warmth around him as well as his whole body pointed towards the right direction.

Flash...

"Car!" Kazahaya shouted all of a sudden as he opened his eyes while letting go of Rikuou's hand. He looked at his partner and nodded. "We're in the right direction. We're in the right neighborhood after all."

"Why did you shout?" Rikuou asked as they started walking again.

"That's what I saw at that particular spot. A red sports car. Odd, isn't it?"

What he couldn't describe to Rikuou was the amount of emotion he was feeling at the moment. It was like boiling water. Bubbles were coming towards the surface and bursting at their exhalation of air, being able to pop even though it destroyed their fragile shape.

Rikuou could only feel that there was something very wrong with the situation and he was starting to regret accepting the job.

They stood in front of a simple looking white house. It had a clean yard and looked very well-kept.

"So," Kazahaya smirked as he glanced at Rikuou, "are we going to go in and say, 'Yes, we're here for a picture.'"

"I've got a plan. C'mon," Rikuou answered while pulling Kazahaya's jean jacket sleeve and pushed through the gate. "If we stand here any longer, someone will call the police on two suspicious men outside of a white house."

"I am not suspicious looking. _You_ are," Kazahaya hissed as they both walked to the front door.

"I'll get you back for that comment later." Rikuou smirked and then he whispered before ringing the doorbell, "Try telling me that when I corner you in your room. Again."

Kazahaya turned deep red at the thought. Then, he closed his eyes and tried his best not to hit Rikuou's head.

"Yes?" a middle-aged woman's voice answered as she opened the door.

"Good afternoon," both of the boys said at the same time.

"May I help you?" The woman looked at them and they couldn't feel any strange aura about her. None at all as a matter of fact.

This was even more perplexing.

"Yes, we're here to ask you a question about a person we're looking for."

"Ah," the woman said, half-hinting as if she already knew their purpose.

She opened the door widely to let them into her living room.

When the two boys were seated in the living room, the middle-aged woman said, "I'll go get some tea."

As she was preparing tea, Kazahaya's and Rikuou's eyes wandered around the room. A wooden table made of mahogany, which seemed to be the theme of the whole living room. Shelves with dishes from all over the world and things like that. Classy, yet very elegant.

Strangely, there were no pictures of anyone anywhere.

"Here," the woman politely offered as she sat down across them.

"Thank you," each of them said.

Rikuou took up his cup and said, "I am sorry we just showed up unexpectedly."

"It is something quite consistent here," she answered with her eyes looking away while drinking from her cup.

Then, they introduced themselves to her, and she did the same. "I am Riida Miko."

Both of them immediately thought it was a weird name since they had never heard of someone named Riida before. But they were more concerned as to how they were going to ask the woman for a picture of the girl they were supposed to find.

The short, brown-haired woman smiled as she nodded her head slowly. "Don't worry. I know why you are here."

"You do?" Kazahaya spoke up out of confusion.

"You have no time to waste with me here because the other two places are going to very difficult for you two." She opened a drawer that was attached to the coffee table before them.

"Many years have passed since I've seen her, but I hope she is doing well." She then took out a small wooden box with a lock. "People suddenly came here and took her away from me. No matter what I did to protect her, they still took her. Even though I had erased her existence from every place imaginable, they still found her despite everything.

"Only her sister comes to visit me once in a while, but even that is forbidden."

With a quiet mantra coming from her lips, she then produced a key to open the box which contained a picture of two black-haired girls. But the woman went through the stack and took out one with a strain in her face.

"When she grew older and older, her father's blood shone through. And her hair grew white while her red eyes stayed the same, two reflective plates that looked as if they could watch through you." Pushing the picture towards them, the woman looked as if she would cry, but she had done enough crying. "Now, her sister says she is sealed."

"Yes," Rikuou and Kazahaya both nodded.

"This is the one named Hinoto-hime the Dreamseer," the woman said. She looked up to watch the calm, yet concerned countenances of Rikuou and Kazahaya.

"Do you know how to unseal her?" Rikuou asked as he put his cup down after finishing his tea.

Hinoto's mom shook her head. "I only have a feeling as to how to unseal her, but nothing more."

"Any help you can give us will make our job a bit easier," Kazahaya said.

The mother took the picture into her hands and closed her eyes. She kept on asking inside of her mind, "What are you looking for, Hinoto?"

After a few minutes of silence, she opened her eyes as she said, "The boy. A boy led to her undoing."

"Do you know what he looks like? Where he is?" Rikuou asked as he looked at her.

She shook her head. Then, she gave the picture to Rikuou. "Please return this to me if you can. It is all that I have left."

"We promise to return to you," Kazahaya answered.

With that, they left and Kazahaya looked at Rikuou. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

Rikuou glanced at Kazahaya and then he looked down at the girl's face. The girl with the white face and red, red lips.

He thought of Tsukiko and her beautiful dresses as well as her wonderfully painted face with lips as red as blood. One day, when he thought she was kidnapped, Tsukiko said to him, "No one can take me away. I'll choose when."

Kazahaya looked up to the sky and thought, "Kei and I used to walk through neighborhoods thinking when would we ever live in a house again. Then, when we could, I had to run away..."

Each of them were lost in their own world and then they looked at one another again.

"The boy. A boy led to her undoing," Rikuou said while recalling the woman's words.

"What does that mean?" Kazahaya said as he looked at the picture before them. Holding onto Rikuou's hand again, he closed his eyes.

He was going backwards, trying to see where this picture came from. But then, the images stopped as a soft voice of a young woman said something and Kazahaya repeated it aloud:

"When can I ever break the porcelain clay of this face and be free?"

tsuzuku...

--

author's note: I have finally made an outline for this story, but I am hoping it will not be too strange since the two titles and their timelines are different. Hope you are enjoying the story!

Here's the next chapter, Hiki-chan. ^_^

I used the name Riida Miko for Kanoe's and Hinoto-hime's mother because I wanted her to represent both K and H.

Dairi-sama - emperor and empress dolls

Miko - in ancient times, they were used as mediums that talked to the gods and spirits. (Noh actors are thought to take this kind of divinity when they dance for the gods because of its origins.)