Chapter 14

"Jen?" Izumi said walking out her door and rubbing one eye. Izumi's room was right across from Aoi's. Izumi had just got up from a nap. "You okay?" She asked sensing something was wrong. Aoi knew she wouldn't be able to hide it from her friend so just ran up to her, wrapped her arms around her, and broke down crying.

"H-he..." She mumbled. Izumi could barely hear her. Izumi tried to comfort her but knew if someone walked down the hall at that moment, there would be some explaining to do. Izumi helped her friend into the closest room. Izumi's. She shut the door behind them.

"What happened Jen?" She asked more concerned than before.

"He... Chichiri-he...."Aoi couldn't finish the sentence. It wasn't going to help much anyways because Izumi couldn't understand her.

"Okay calm down. Calm down." Izumi repeated. "Breathe. You don't have to tell me, just wait." Izumi said soothingly. Aoi was calming down a little and Izumi lifted her hand to Aoi's forehead. Izumi and Aoi closed their eyes and an image flashed into Izumi's head. It was so powerful, it almost knocked her over. She tried to see the whole picture and then snapped her eyes back open.

Aoi opened her eyes and more tears flowed out. She was shaking uncontrollably now.

"Oh Jen," Izumi said sadly. "Did he break up with you?" She asked.

Aoi couldn't speak so she nodded her head and burst out with another wave of tears. Izumi's shirt was now soaked but that didn't matter to her. She wrapped her arms around Aoi once again.

"Shh....... Its okay, did he tell you why he broke up with you?"

"He-he said...he...hates me......" She said between sobs.

"Its okay Jen. He didn't mean it. You'll be fine. I bet that's not even the real reason." Izumi rubbed Aoi's back lightly. "Don't worry, we'll figure out why he did that." Izumi said quietly. We'll find out what's going on."

When Aoi was feeling a little better, Izumi helped her back to her room and suggested some sleep. Izumi stayed there until she fell asleep and then left the room quietly. She quickly changed her shirt and ran down the hall to Chichiri's room. She through the door open and looked around but didn't find him in his room. She slammed the door shut and ran to the dining hall. She found Taka, Tasuki, Miaka, Usagi, and Yume.

"Do you guys know where Chichiri went?!" She yelled regardless of seeing them having a conversation. She didn't have time to be polite.

"Uh yeah, I think he went to the Sakura garden." Izumi's eyes narrowed. She took off in that direction and yelled back a thanks.

She stopped outside the door to the Sakura garden and peered in. There he was. That jerk of a man. She walked in calm.

"Hey Chichiri, I didn't know you were in here!" She exclaimed.

He glanced at her and then looked back at a Sakura tree. "Yeah, this is my favorite spot to think about things." He replied. Izumi was standing next to him and she pulled back her arm, balling the hand into a fist. Chichiri didn't notice.

"Oh yeah? Well think about this!" She yelled and swung her arm. Chichiri turned in time to be punched in the jaw. Chichiri fell to the ground and Izumi shook out her hand. "You know, you face is a lot harder than it seems." She said afterwards.

Chichiri sat up and held his jaw. "What are you doing?!"

"What does it look like I'm doing?! I'm kicking your ass!" She answered her own question. She kicked him in the arm and he went flying across the yard. He landed on his stomach. He quickly got up and looked at her amazed.

"What did I do to you?!"

"Its not what you did to me!" She charged at him. "Its what you did to Jen!" She cried and did a twirl kick into his other jaw. She knocked on the ground, yet again. She stood over him and glared down at him. She saw he was in pain. She was happy about that. "Do you get it now?" She asked.

"I get that you have some nice tricks." He answered grabbing her leg and pulling it from under her. He was up in a second. "But so do I." He finished.

She looked up at him. She clenched her teeth and then kicked her feet up at his face. He moved back and she did a back flip onto her feet.

"I told you not to break her heart. Did you listen? Did you?!" She charged at him again, this time to punch him. He blocked and she used her other hand to punch him in the stomach. He grabbed his stomach and she knew she couldn't miss this opportunity. She kicked him in the face then punched him in he stomach. She kicked him in his side and preformed a swirling ballerina kick that seemed to go around and around in turns and kicks forever. She finally decided to stop and he pummeled to the ground in a heap. She kneeled down to him and picked up his chin.

"I just want to know one thing." She said coldly. "Why'd you do it?"

"Its not my fault." He said with a voice just barely above a whisper.

"If it's not your fault, then who's is it?" Izumi actually wanted to hear.

"Jeez, did you have to be so rough?!" Tai Yi-Jun asked.

"Yeah I'm sorry about that. We were really just having fun!" Izumi said rubbing the back of her head. (A/N Izumi took Chichiri to see Tai Yi-Jun on the back of her fire dragon.)

"How is it that you didn't get hurt at all?" Tai Yi-Jun asked Izumi suspiciously.

"Oh well about that!" She as if there were a funny story behind that. "See, uh, he didn't want to harm a lady so, uh, he didn't even try to fight back!" She smiled at her story and the bowed. "I'm really sorry about this."

"Its okay, they were only flesh wounds. He'll be fine in a matter of minutes." Tai Yi-Jun explained.

"Well that's good to hear!" Izumi said laughing.

"Yes good in deed." Tai Yi-Jun gave her a weird glare and then left the room. Izumi let out a long sigh of relief. She sat down next to Chichiri on the bed and looked at him.

"You okay? I didn't hurt you too bad did I?" She asked.

"Well your punches were deadly and your kicks, lethal." He said with a smile. "But I think I'm fine. Plus you were trying to hurt me so of course it hurt, no da." He pointed out.

"Yeah sorry about that." She said scratching the back of her head. "When you're ready to go, I'll take ya back." She said looking at her new red glass stone. She had already made it into a necklace.

"Okay."

"Are you serious Bri?!" Usagi asked.

Usagi and Izumi were in Izumi's room. Usagi was sleeping in her room tonight because she didn't feel like staying in her room alone. Usagi was sleeping on a futon and Izumi, in her bed.

Usagi had on ice cream pajamas. The top was a white tank top with an ice cream cone in the middle that said "sweet dreams" under it and pants that had all different kinds of ice cream on it.

Izumi was wearing star pajamas. The top was a white halter-top with a star in the middle that said, "I'm a shooting star" under it and shorts that had moons, stars and shooting stars all over it.

"Yep," She answered.

"Oh my gosh, why did you beat him up?!" She exclaimed.

"Well, in my defense, I told him that if he broke her heart, I would kill him so basically I already warned him before I did anything."

"So?!"

"So it's not my fault he did it." She finished. "End of story. Lets go to sleep now." She said and blew out the candle. It was dark and silent except for Izumi's light snoring.

Outside it was almost pitch black. There were clouds covering the sky, stars, moon and all. In a tree outside the palace, there were two prowlers looking in. They silently leapt off the tree and through the shadows into the palace. The hopped from shadow to shadow, stopping every once in a while to make sure no one was following them or that no one could hear them. The stopped at a door and opened it quietly. They jumped inside and then jumped back outside, to bodies in their hands. They snuck back out of the palace and ran through the night.

"Breakfast everyone!" The maids hurried down the hall yelling the next morning. Everyone filed out of his or her rooms except two people. The only person that noticed was Yume. She looked around but decided not to pay too much attention to it. They walked into the dining hall and looked around. Miaka was already sitting in a seat but there was no sign of Usagi. Yume gasped.

"Hey, has anyone seen Usagi?" Yume asked.

"Hey, Izumi's missing too!" Emi pointed out. Aoi looked up from the table and stood up abruptly.

"Aoi, what's up?" Tasuki asked. She looked as if she were about to cry.

"No..." She whispered. She turned and ran down the hall with their rooms. Emi and Yume followed her leaving everyone else to just sit there, stare and wonder. She ran straight to Izumi's and burst through the door. There was a futon on the floor and both the futon and the bed were empty. She ran over to the bed and futon and placed her hands on them.

They were freezing cold....

TO BE CONTINUED