AN UNEXPECTED MEETING

"Where am I?"

Kyousuke Kasuga found himself drifting in a black, nameless void. He was feeling a funny sensation, like he was in a dream but couldn't wake up just yet.

"Hello?" he called into the darkness.

There was a faint reply, an echo that wasn't an echo.

"Kyousuke…"

"Who's that?"

A figure suddenly appeared from out of the darkness, walking towards him.

Recognition made him start. "Mom?"

"Yes, dear son."

His eyes stung. "What are you doing here? What am I doing here?"

"You don't remember how you got here?"

He frowned. "All I remember is… holy shit, I think I got shot!"

The figure laughed, tossing back its head full of shoulder-length brown hair. "Yes, you did."

"Mom!" Kyousuke reproached her. "This isn't funny."

"You should look at yourself in the mirror, dear."

"Why? Is there a hole in my head? Am I dead?"

The figure shook her head. "No you're not. You'll be sleeping for a while."

Kyousuke willed himself closer to her. "You look so… young, Mom."

"Do I?" She smiled gently. "I guess it's better to look this way than like an old crone, don't you think?" She reminded him of her early, untimely death.

"Mom…"

"Listen, eldest, I don't have much time. I just… I just wanted to say hello to you. And be with you for a while."

"No problem there. I don't think I'm going anywhere just yet."

"How's your father? Your sisters?" The questions tumbled out of her like water being spilled from a dam.

"Pop is fine, Mom. He still hasn't remarried." Kyousuke saw her smile crookedly. "Crazy fool…" he heard her say softly.

"Kurumi and Manami are doing fine," he continued. "Both have boyfriends now. And both are still gluttons." He sighed. "At least Kurumi's cooking has improved tremendously."

"Kurumi… I'm sad I never got to watch her grow up. Will you tell her I said hi?"

"Of course."

"And Manami too. Tell her thanks for taking up the slack."

"You want I should write this down, Mom?"

"Sorry, dear. Times like this are very few and far between, even for us ESPers."

"I was just kidding."

"And good luck to you on your wedding. May you and your lucky bride always be happy." A frown appeared on her face. "She sure isn't right now."

"Madoka? How is she?"

"She's by your side now, looking like a wreck." The woman once known as Akemi Kasuga looked straight at him. "She killed a man because of you, Kyousuke."

Kyousuke dropped his gaze. To think of Madoka's hands, red with blood…

"Because of her great love and fear for you, Kyousuke. She has sacrificed part of herself—her innocence—in your name."

He laughed a shame-faced laugh. "I always told myself I'd die for her—it looks like I was almost right this time." I'm sorry again, Madoka. I seem to be causing trouble all the time.

"The red string binding you two is strong, very strong. But there is still…" his mother intoned, her voice sounding different from when she had first appeared.

His mother began to fade away.

"Mom!"

"You have another red string attached to you, Kyousuke," said she, her voice fading along with her image. "I can't see where it leads… Please tell everyone I miss them!"

"We miss you too, Mom!"

"And tell your father to stop looking at the world from behind a camera for a while. And use his own eyes, like he did when we first met!"

"I will!"

"Goodbye, my son…"

------oOo------

Kyousuke woke up to the silent sterility of a hospital room. His head throbbed faintly. A red string, he thought. Why did a red string seem so important? He tried to remember, but the dream he had dreamed was already fading away.

Madoka was there, slumped in a chair, asleep. A black leather jacket was spread over her, no doubt by Hikaru, who sat quietly in another chair, watching a silent TV.

Kyousuke groaned and tried to move. Hikaru looked his way, and her bleary eyes lit up when she saw he was awake.

"Sempai!"

The shout woke Madoka, who jerked upright. Throwing off the jacket, she rushed to his bedside, a fraction of a heartbeat behind Hikaru.

"Sempai! How do you feel?"

"Wha… I feel okay, I guess. Ouch." Kyousuke grimaced. "Except for my head." He looked up at Madoka. "Hello, dear."

She took his hand. "Hello. We meet again."

Kyousuke's cheeks twitched upwards in a smile as he remembered her using the same words long before, when they woke up in a hotel room thinking they had frozen to death in a ski lift the previous night, and were now living in an afterlife. "Kasuga Kyousuke. Pleased to meet you."

Hikaru watched the exchange. "What are you two talking about?" she asked petulantly. Madoka was about to explain when she remembered the reason they had gone to the ski lift in the first place: to escape being caught, alone with Kyousuke, in the girls' hotel room by Hikaru. She shut her mouth.

Eyeing her, Kyousuke explained the situation to his one-time kouhai. "And that, is the truth, Hikaru, painful as it may be to you and me…"

"I see… You know, I saw you." Hikaru's eyes were lost in memory. "I saw you and Madoka-san, running away through the snow. I was wondering where you were going. Now I understand."

"Enough talk for now, Kyousuke. Please rest," said Madoka, gently patting his forearm. "Let's continue this later."

Kyousuke nodded slowly, closed his eyes.

As Madoka returned to her seat, Hikaru pulled her chair opposite hers. "Madoka-san."

"Yes?"

"Any more incidents like that I should know about?"

Madoka frowned. "I don't think you'll like hearing about them."

"Oh, big sister!" Hikaru almost shouted, suddenly angry at her. "I'm no longer a wet-behind-the-ears kid, you know. It's better for me to know the truth. It would have been easier for me…"

Madoka was quiet as she watched her struggle with her inner feelings. "Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Yes!"

"Alright. Some of them are actually pretty funny, once you get to think about it…"

------oOo------

"Kyousuke?"

"Mmm?"

"Why'd you tell her about what happened at the ski lift?"

It was next evening, and Kyousuke and Madoka were alone in the hospital room, Hikaru having gone out for supper.

"It's not fair for us to keep the truth from her anymore," Kyousuke said.

"You've reopened old wounds."

"They need to be reopened." Kyousuke looked up at her. "So they can finally heal."

Madoka sighed. "As much as it pains me, I know you're right."

"Still, I can't help thinking of her… alone…" Hikaru had never had a steady boyfriend. She had always flitted from one man to another. "She deserves better."

Madoka's jade eyes were full of sympathy. "That's a path she chose to take, Kyousuke. We can't decide it for her." She turned to collect the food tray, wishing to rid herself of the maudlin thoughts.

There was a knock on the door. It opened a crack, and a bespectacled person peered in.

"Helloooo," came the soft voice of a woman.

"Manami!" croaked Kyousuke.

"Onii-san!" she exclaimed, entering the room. "How are you?" Her face and clothes bore the marks of long travel.

"I've been better. What are you doing here?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Madoka interrupted. "I called your family as soon as we got here."

"I was the only one who could come, big brother," said Manami, putting her handbag on a side table and going to his side. Her eyes, big and brown, glistened behind her glasses. "Everyone was worried about you."

"Ah, this is nothing. The doctor says I can go by tomorrow."

"You have got to tell me what happened. It isn't every day you get yourself shot."

Kyousuke managed a wavering laugh. "You've got that right."

Manami gingerly touched the mass of bandages wound around his head. "Gee, they must've spent a week's supply of gauze on you."

"Yeah. It's to keep my brain from leaking out."

"Big brother!"

Madoka chuckled.

"Just kidding, Manami."

"Why don't you sit down and rest?" suggested Madoka. "You look tired."

"I came straight here from the airport. I almost didn't make my connecting flight." She gratefully crashed into a chair.

"What? No teleporting, no use of the Power?"

"Hello, brother. This is Manami speaking, not Kurumi. And I did teleport from the house to the terminal. I almost got caught by a janitor."

"Manami-chan, would you want anything?" Madoka paused by the door, hand on handle. "I'm going down to the cafeteria for a bit."

"Thanks. Anything's just fine, Madoka-san."

After the elder girl had left, Manami remarked, "Madoka-san looks like she hasn't slept for days."

"She's been here all the time," said Kyousuke. "Along with Hikaru."

"Hikaru-chan's here too?"

"She wanted to surprise us and followed us to the hotel we were staying in. Speaking of which," he added, propping himself up on his elbows, "I don't suppose you have somewhere to stay."

"Uh-uh." Manami shook her head.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to ask Mr. Pagott if you could stay in my room," thought Kyousuke.

"Not to worry, big brother. I've got enough moolah. That's why I was the only one to come. Oh, maybe Grandpa could have teleported us over here, but we couldn't contact him in time."

"Manami-chan? Come sit here for a minute."

She plonked her chair beside the bed. "Why?"

He told her the real reason he got shot. Manami's eyes grew big as she listened.

"Really? They knew about ESPers?" Her voice grew soft and grave. "I wonder what they wanted with you."

"Who knows? Maybe they wanted a lab rat. Maybe they wanted to use my powers for their own ends."

They talked for a few minutes, Kyousuke telling her all that had happened. "So you see, we should be even more careful about how we use our Power from now on."

Manami nodded.

There was a knock at the door. Madoka came in bearing a take-out box for Kyousuke's sister.

"Here you go."

"Thanks, Madoka-san." She opened the box and dug in.

Something abruptly came to the fore of Kyousuke's thought. "And Manami?"

"Hmm?"

"After I was shot I… I had a dream. About Mom. She said to tell you… to thank you for taking up the slack." He recalled Grandpa telling him how difficult it was for him to find her, in this timestream or any other, and was suddenly grateful.

Manami sat silently, waiting for him to continue.

"She says she misses you and Kurumi."

"Mom?"

Kyousuke nodded.

"Well. Well. I'm glad someone noticed," she murmured.

"Yeah, Manami. You've been housemothering us all this time… it's not that we don't notice, we just… forget to let you know how much we appreciate it, you know…"

"Oh, stop it, onii-chan. You're going to make me cry." She returned to her food with renewed ferocity.

--------

Early the next day a nurse came by and removed the bandages from Kyousuke's head, replacing it with a single pad bound with a strip of gauze taped around his forehead.

"Just great," he groaned. "I'm going to have a bald spot here."

Manami giggled. "Imagine that."

The nurse smiled at him. "It won't be that noticeable," she said in halting English.

Mr. Ayukawa, who had arrived along with his wife to replace Madoka and Hikaru, was sitting on the single couch for visitors. He patted his own thinning hair. "They say bald men are more virile."

"Then I guess I just got a little bit more virile myself," said Kyousuke, laughing.

The day passed along without incident. Madoka's parents busied themselves with getting Kyousuke discharged while Manami took care of her elder brother.

Around nine that evening he finally left the hospital, pale and still a little bit shaky but otherwise none the worse for wear. Madoka returned with Mr. Pagott himself to fetch him. They noted how effusive the hospital staff was in greeting him and accommodating his wishes. Then again, Kyousuke thought, he was probably one of their regular customers.

They all rode to the port in one of the rich man's stretch limos, a somewhat incongruous sight amidst the narrow cobbled city streets.

Kyousuke was wedged in between Madoka and Hikaru, while Mr. Pagott sat on Hikaru's left, nearest the door.

"You know," he said to Madoka, "ever since we arrived, I'm glad we've almost always faced the wrong way."

A puzzled look emerged on her face. "'Wrong way?' Are you sure you're over your concussion?"

He gestured eastwards, where the horizon seemed just the tiniest bit darker.

"Bosnia. So near, yet so far." In his mind's eye Kyousuke saw the bodies on the road again, the dead men, women and children, all killed in the name of country and religion.

Madoka said nothing, but squeezed his arm to show she understood. She had seen his photos.

Hikaru, who had heard, said "Sempai…," showing a sympathetic look on her face. But the fact that she had met him in Japan at the time while auditioning for a musical nagged at her mind.

She was about to comment on the fact when she noticed the old man beside her start. He had done so twice already. "Are you alright, sir?"

"What? Who is that? Hiyama-san?" His dark glasses pivoted in her direction.

"No need to be so formal with me. You can call me Hikaru."

"Hikaru, then. I keep smelling your perfume… I've dreamed once or twice about my wife already…"

"When did she die?" Hikaru's voice was all innocence, despite the abrupt manner of her questioning.

"A long time ago…. June 24, 1984. I will never forget that date. She died giving birth to our first child." His voice was quiet, husky.

"But then… your child didn't make it?"

He shook his head.

She looked at him and, although his expression was unreadable because of the round dark glasses he wore, felt his deep sorrow and loss. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It was one of those things," Andrei said cryptically. "I was out busy acquiring another company and only managed to arrive at her side before the end." He smiled a crooked smile. Bringing out his gold locket, he opened it and showed it to her. "This is her." Hikaru took it from him. The cameo inside was a delicate white, coral on a background of sardonyx. It showed a regal, fine-featured woman with shoulder-length, curly hair and thin, refined lips.

"She's very pretty."

"Yes, she was. My family—and hers—kept wondering why such a beautiful, intelligent woman would want a scruffy, wanderlust-bitten bum like me."

"Bum?" Although his face was lined and weather-beaten, she had decided that he must have been quite handsome when he was younger.

"I kept traveling. First over all of Italy, then the world. Being the young idealist I was, I found myself getting into things I should have left alone."

"So that's when you became a mercenary?"

A look of surprise crossed his face.

"Madoka-san told me," said Hikaru.

"Yes, I did. I wasn't at first. I flew supplies to the Biafran rebels in the beginning, assisting old Count von Rosen. But when he decided to help in the fighting, I decided to join him too." He shook his head. "It was a crazy time."

"You hijacked an airliner?"

"That was my second mission for the rebels. And yes, I met your friend's parents there." There was a pause. "We had precious few planes, so we decided to 'borrow' some from the Nigerians. We planned to release the passengers and crew after a day or two, but Seiji here kept begging me to release his wife. I could see she was well on the family way and, being the softie that I was, eventually gave in. I took my plane—Count von Rosen wasn't very pleased with that, I'll tell you—and flew them to Gabon, then went back to the war."

"I didn't know you were a pilot."

"I was. So was my father. He trained me, and that infected me with the wanderlust that made me travel all over the world."

As he told her the story, his mind wandered back into the past, back into the airport terminal where he had left the Ayukawas, back to when a younger Yoshiko Ayukawa, after bowing many times to him in thanks, impulsively threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you!" she had exclaimed in her halting English. "Please take care of yourself!"

He chuckled as he remembered the brouhaha that greeted him when he had arrived back at the airstrip that served as their home base. "I missed the first attack we made, thanks to these two. I never missed a sortie again."

"Sortie?"

"Mission. Sometimes I even flew alone, searching for targets by myself. Everyone kept telling me it was a bad idea. The Nigerians had far many more planes than we did, and newer ones too. My luck finally ran out when one discovered me and tried to shoot me down."

"But you're here now, so you escaped."

"Yes, but it was a near thing." In his mind, he began to relive that desperate struggle. "It was a Fouga Magister, a graceful, jet-powered twin-seater, armed with cannons. I was flying a propeller-driven Minicon, painted green with car paint, and armed only with a few rockets. I flew as low as I could above the trees, sometimes even between them. You know how a fish thrashes when it's hooked on a line but still keeps trying to get away?"

"Yeah."

"It was like that. I tried everything I could to lose him, but to no avail. He kept taking shots at me all the way back to Uli airfield. I was thinking I was never going to get away, that the last page of my life was already being written, when he suddenly flew past me, waved, and left. I later learned he had run out of ammunition."

"Ha!" yelled Hikaru, causing everyone else to jump in their seats. "Your luck didn't run out then. Good for you!"

"What are you talking about?" Kyousuke asked.

"Nothing much, just some old war stories," replied Andrei.

"So what did you do afterwards?"

"I grew disgusted with the futility of it all. Atrocities were being committed left and right by both sides. Everyone could also see that no matter how hard we tried, a handful of improvised attack planes just wasn't going to win the war. One morning I decided I had had enough and stowed away on a cargo plane, leaving Biafra behind forever."

"Where did you go?"

Andrei shrugged. "Back home, where else could I go? The money the Biafrans paid me was little more than enough to get me back here. Then I discovered when I arrived that my father had died the previous day."

There was a long and uncomfortable silence in the car. "I'm sorry I reminded you of that," said Hikaru sheepishly.

Andrei shook his head. "No, it's okay." He coughed once, then continued. "So I found myself having to manage my father's businesses, which he had left to me. Everything was so confusing I sometimes found myself wishing I had stayed in Africa rather than gone back home. But as time went by I found myself getting used to the position I held."

The limo arrived at the port, and after they had transferred to the ferryboat for the voyage to the Adriano, Hikaru sat herself beside him and prompted him to continue the rest of his story.

"Hikaru-san, why do you want to hear this old man's tale?"

"Nothing, I just find it interesting."

"And we want to hear it too," came a voice behind them. She looked up to see Madoka and Kyousuke taking the bench seats behind them.

Andrei laughed. "But there's not much else to tell. I stayed here for a few months, learning the ropes of the business. Then the wanderlust bit me again, and I left my company in the hands of a trusted relative. I went to Japan."

"Japan?" the young Japanese chorused.

"Yes. I visited your parents, Madoka-san, and they kindly allowed me to stay over at your house while I was there." He was quiet for a moment, and the sounds of the sea took over the silence vacated by his voice. "There's a lot more to be said about it, but I don't think I want to tell it to you youngsters. By the way, Kasuga, you should have seen your fiancé then. She was just a few months old, and very, very cute."

Kyousuke grinned at Madoka, who blushed. "Remember that episode we had with our childhood photos?" he reminded her. "I think I can imagine how she looked, sir."

Andrei continued. "Anyway, the long and short of it is I came down with pneumonia and your parents helped nurse me back to health. Then I left for Vietnam."

"Why'd you go to Vietnam?" Hikaru asked.

He sighed. "Old habits die hard. I went there thinking I could do some good. I signed up with the CIA-run Air America and began running cargo to different destinations. Sometimes it was Special Forces camps, sometimes Montagnard villages… I had a good time there. But I found that I couldn't stand the stink of the corruption that hovered around me, so after two years, I left again, this time returning home permanently. Soon after I returned I met Maria Christina again. We married, much to the displeasure of her family. Two years after that, she died."

"How sad," Madoka murmured.

"And basically that's it," said Andrei. "I've been here ever since."

Growing richer and richer yet growing more alone than ever, Kyousuke thought.

"Ever since, I've devoted myself to my business. Even going blind didn't stop me. Even my getting sick couldn't stop me."

Poor Mr. Pagott, thought Hikaru. Work as an antidote to his sorrow. "I'll sit beside you," she said, bright and girlish, "for the rest of the way."

"Why?" Andrei asked, puzzled.

"So you can smell my perfume, and dream of your wife…"

------oOo------

The raid had scared away many of the hotel's guests, but not everyone; there were those who, out of sheer foolhardiness or some other misanthrope, chose to stay. And Andrei said he didn't mind the loss much; he didn't really care whether the hotel earned money or not—that was what the rest of his companies were for. But he was exceedingly embarrassed at having put the Ayukawas and everyone else in danger; so in compensation he announced that they could stay as long as they liked free of charge.

Manami ended up moving into the room next to Kyousuke's, along with Hikaru, while her elder brother remained in his room for the next two days, slowly getting over the severe concussion he had sustained. More and more Madoka had to slap his hand away, so restless was he becoming. "Kyou-chan," she said in exasperation, "it's bad enough my parents know I'm staying here in your room. Don't make it worse, okay?" She tossed the bottle of iodine she had been holding down onto the small table beside his bed. "Goodness. And there I was, worrying about you all the time, you idiot. I guess I shouldn't have bothered."

Kyousuke, who had been sitting up while she daubed his wound with the dark fluid prior to changing the dressing, looked penitent. "Sorry, dear."

"Men!" There was a world of meaning in the single word. "You just got out of the sack, now you can't wait to get back in it." She sighed. "I'm sorry too. I've just been so worried about you these past few days."

"I know. When I dreamed about my mother, she told me… she told me you had killed a man… because of me."

"Don't remind me, please?" Madoka pleaded. "Seeing you fall like that… I thought I had truly lost you." She looked away from him.

He pulled her to him and embraced her. "I'm sorry you had to do that," he whispered. An image of an angel frantically washing herself at a fountain of the red spattered onto her wings and arms appeared in his mind. My angel has blood on her hands, and all I can do is say 'I'm sorry…'

------oOo------

Four days passed.

On the morning of the fifth, the form of Kyousuke Kasuga emerged from the room of Andrei Pagott. He squinted in the bright sunlight. "Ah," he breathed. "It's good to be up and about again."

"Everything alright, sir?" Cardiff, back in action, was standing outside the entrance.

The young man turned around. "Gad, you're a sight for sore eyes, old friend." He shook the butler's hand. "It's very nice to see you again. Very nice."

"What are you going to do now, sir?"

"Think and plan. I'm going to the gazebo to think about it. Don't let anyone disturb me."

"As you wish, sir."

"And stop calling me that, okay? Anyone who overhears us will get suspicious."

"Very well, young master."

His heart full of joy, the young man skipped along to the private—his private—part of the garden. Opening the white gate, he found a person already sitting there, in his sacred place, where his mother used to wait for his father before they were married.

What in blazes…?

Madoka Ayukawa, dressed in a dark-blue blouse and faded jeans, turned toward him as he approached, her green eyes cool, holding his gaze.

"Hello, Kyousuke… or should I say, Godfather?"

"Madoka? Is that you?" he breathed. "I was right." He sat down in the gazebo opposite her. "You're very beautiful. It's no wonder Kyousuke fell for you."

"Thank you." The smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"You know it's me, then?"

"Of course. You have a different air about you."

"What are you doing here? I've punished people for coming in here uninvited before."

She shrugged. "I came here to think. No one told me this place was supposed to be off-limits."

"Think? About what?"

"What my mother told me." Her gaze never wavered from him. "I did a little asking around, you see."

"And?" prompted Andrei, knowing full well what was coming.

"She told me… you almost had an affair with her while you were in Japan."

He was silent for a while. "That is true. But somewhere along the way to perdition, I saw you in your crib; it was like someone had poured cold water on me. In an instant I realized what I was about to do and did the only manly thing I could… I ran out the door."

"That's why you got the pneumonia."

The vague memories of his fever and of Yoshiko hovering over him, a worried look on her face, flooded back into his mind. He nodded.

She turned towards him. "Why did she make you my godfather?"

"I don't know myself."

"Perhaps she still holds a place in her heart for you. Not that it's any of my business." She couldn't keep the frostiness out of her voice. "No wonder my father looks funny at you sometimes."

"I've kept my distance. Your father knows nothing happened, except for my foolish lust for your mother. And besides—sinner that I am—am I not paying for it even as we speak?"

His niece averted her eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound judgmental."

He waved a hand. "It's alright."

"Uncle," she said, changing the subject matter, "I didn't want Kyousuke to know it, but I'm concerned about your deal with him."

"Twenty-four hours, Madoka. That's how long I have. That's all. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to sit here and think about how I'm going to spend them."

She nodded and stood up. "As you wish." Bowing, she walked out of the garden, closing the gate shut behind her.

In the gazebo, Andrei expelled a sigh of relief. She had a personality as strong as she was beautiful, but she was still a woman nevertheless, and still young. Maybe she would realize one day that one could not dictate the vanities of one's heart all the time. But at least that was out in the clear.

"Yep," he said to the sea breeze, leaning his borrowed body against the seat back. "Chasing skirts gets me into trouble alright."

------oOo------

After she left the garden, Madoka headed for Andrei Pagott's room, where she knew she would find Kyousuke—now an old man. She looked at the flower box as she passed it. The blooms were no longer there, having been turned under into the soil and the whole thing replanted. She didn't want to look hard enough to see if there were spots of blood still remaining.

"Kyousuke?" she said to the figure propped up against the pillows in the wide, cream-linen-covered bed.

"Who is that?"

"It's me." She came over and sat on the bed. "How are you?"

The old, husky voice answered her. "It's not so bad. But there's this ache in my chest that won't go away."

She placed a hand on his brow. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Yes, I am."

"What was that crack about 'atonement' you made a while ago upstairs?"

The sightless man turned to her. "I made you suffer."

"And you feel you've got to make up for it?" she said, her voice rising. "In this manner?"

Kyousuke had forgotten how good she was at reading his thoughts. He nodded.

"You're a bigger fool than I thought." She took his hand in hers. "Anata, you didn't have to do this."

"It's a matter of honor," he replied, in a tone she rarely heard him use, one that brooked no argument.

"If you don't mind, I'll stay here while you're in that body."

"Careful, people will notice."

"Then let them, damn it."

"Have you seen An—I mean, your godfather?"

"He's in the garden thinking about how to spend the twenty-four hours you gave him."

"No one but Cardiff knows about this, so I will have to keep out of sight as much as possible."

"You want me to tell Manami-chan?"

"Yes. But tell her not to worry, that I'm all right, and that she should enjoy her stay here." He scratched his head, the gesture seeming rather difficult to do. "I can't have the two of you fretting over me in this room."

She adjusted a pillow behind his back. "It's a good thing your grandfather sent that soul-switching rope."

"Too true. I didn't relish the thought of knocking heads again so soon."

------oOo------

That afternoon the small group and the rest of the hotel patrons enjoyed a routine put on by the Frecce Tricolori, the Italian Air Force's aerobatic team. Andrei had, through a friend, arranged it some days before. They stood on the veranda overlooking the jetty and watched as the handsome dark blue jets with the tricolor red-white-green trim performed in the skies above the Adriano.

"Far out!" exclaimed Hikaru after one noisy low formation pass, face alive with delight. "A hotel with its own airshow!"

"Yeah," Manami agreed. The sunlight reflected off her glasses. "Wish Dad and Kurumi were here to see this."

While everyone was absorbed watching the sky, Hikaru spied her sempai walking unobtrusively out of the hotel lobby. She was glad to see him okay, and walked towards him with the intention of greeting him a good afternoon. As she neared, she gave him her usual smile. "Hi!"

The look Kyousuke gave her, one bereft of any recognition, left her puzzled. But it was not as mystifying and alarming as his reply.

"Hello. Do I know you?"