Author's Note: Oh my goodness!!!!! I'M BACK!!!!! The story lives! After a year and a half of hiatus, IT'S BACK! Thank you guys SO MUCH for all the reviews over the year. After this long, I thought that people would have already forgotten about this story, but no! I still got reviews asking for the next chapter. The chapter took so long because I had a writers block around the size of Mt. Everest. In truth I almost gave up, but you guys were so encouraging! Please review and tell me what you think! I will continue to do my best and turn out chapters as long as people want to read more of the story!!

So without further ado:

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A Heart of Ice

By: Stardustangel

Chapter 4: Tying of Fates

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Yuki stared hard at Tooru's frozen form and tried to will her to move even though he knew it was hopeless, the girl was petrified. Knowing that if he crashed into her, it would probably be the end for them both, at this point he was desperate for any ideas, his brain tried fast thinking. At the speed he was going, a sharp swerve, or any swerve for that matter would not be the wisest thing to try. 'But I can still turn a little… although it might not do any good… and...' Yuki winced as another bullet came rushing his way, thankfully missing. 'it seems that slowing down isn't an option either…' , he thought glumly 'we'll all just get shot.'

Then a nearly suicidal idea came up in his head.

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"We're so screwed" muttered Kyou underneath his breath. How can so many things go wrong in so little time? His arm still stung like hell to boot. The bullet grazed deeply and blood was now flowing quite freely staining his dark orange motorcycle a deeper shade of color. He could also see that Kagura was very distracted by his injury. Even though he found her annoying at times, it really touched his heart that even in such a dangerous scenario; she was more worried about him than herself. 'It's really stupid though' he thought to himself, she could get shot and end up dead.

"Oi! Pay attention baka!"

The brown haired girl was jerked out of her worried thoughts by the bleeding boy's command.

"Stop worrying about me! I'll be fine; I've gotten worse injuries and pulled out just fine!"

Incredulous that Kyou was actually concerned enough about her to try and assure her that he was fine; she opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by Yuki's shout.

'Right.' She thought to herself, surviving this ordeal is most important, 'Being distracted would only get more people hurt.' She then silently resolved to become a person that will protect Kyou instead of the one being worried over.

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"Akisa! Cover me on my right! I'm going to try a sharp right but I need you to push me back into balance."

"Hai."

As the answer came, the pale girl pulled into position not a second too soon as they came upon the intersection and Yuki tilted towards her at an alarming angle. With Kyou and Kagura moving over to cover their backs, Yuki felt a big jump in their team work efforts.

'This is what family is about, absolute trust.'

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Back on the traffic scene, Tooru let out a silent scream as the motorcycles neared. 'Is this going to be the end Okasaan? Am I going to finally be able to see you again?'

Then she felt herself falling as something hit her, falling and falling, it seemed like forever as her mind raced in hyper speed. The gentle girl's head hit something hard and Tooru plunged into darkness then knew no more.

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"YUKI!" Kagura shrieked.

The motorcycle did, for the most part, miss the young pedestrian, but the front wheel of the black motorbike grazed the foot of the said girl and she slumped forward out of pain onto Yuki, more precisely, between Yuki and his dashboard. The poor girl was knocked unconscious by the shock to her midsection as she impacted the bike hard on her stomach and the sudden rush of blood to her head as she was draped unceremoniously onto Yuki.

"CRAP!" Yuki cursed, much outside his normal persona, as the girl's impact of him caused him to almost swerve straight into Akisa who was riding beside him. He barely saved himself from total-demolition-caused-by-hazardous-driving-and-impact-upon-another-human-being the second time in the space of seconds by sheer will. Well, that and good arm muscles.

'Good, atleast she's knocked out. All the better for us' Akisa thought to herself as soon as she realized that she wasn't about to be splattered onto the concrete. Then she got to work.

Akisa pushed, with great difficulty, Yuki back to a less acute angle enough so that he could regain his carefully cultured balance.

The grave but relieved expression on Yuki's face told her that the worst part perhaps hasn't passed yet. True that the girl and Yuki have successfully avoided a collision that almost guaranteed death to the participants, but now the said girl was unconscious on Yuki's dashboard and they couldn't just leave her without knowing how severe her injuries really are.

'This was not how she planned her new school year out to be' she thought sighing. Akisa realized that with the current circumstances, they would be forced to bring her back to Shigure's house where Shigure, Hatori, Hiro, and Kisa would certainly be waiting for their return.

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The rest of the journey home was thankfully less eventful as the weary group finally pulled wearily into Shigure's yard. Upon turning off the motor of her bike, Kagura quickly hopped off and ran to assist Kyou, who vehemently protested against the offered hand, as expected.

While Kagura was fussing over Kyou, Haru and Akisa had both calmly dismounted their respective motorcycles and walked to Yuki's side to offer help in carrying one very unconscious Tooru into the house. The help however was unnecessary for Hatori had already gathered the poor girl in his arms and was half way to the house, thus relieving Yuki of his duties. The band finally made their way inside to where a very worried Kisa and a glaring Hiro was residing.

"Nii-san! Nee-chan! You guys all made it back safely, I'm so relieved." Kisa let out the tension that had racked her body when the group had not returned as early as she had hoped. Looking at her slightly ragged cousins, Kisa realized that something must have gone fairly wrong. Then there was that girl who Hatori had carried away, who was she? Hiro's clipped, sharp, tone cut through her contemplation.

"What did you guys think you were doing?" Hiro demanded; Kisa, he knew, had to be worried sick even if she tried her best not to show it.

"We were detained by the Serpants, and this time, they had guns." Yuki replied sharply as he left for his room and left the explaining to the other members. He would check on the girl later, right now, he need time to be alone. The stakes of this sickening game has been upped yet again. How much longer could they hold out, he didn't know.

Haru trained his eyes on Yuki's retreating back then let his gaze sweep to Kagura who was now trying to bandage Kyou's hand with Shigure poking fun at them both. Hatori chose this moment to open the door and enter.

"How is the girl?" Kagura piped, looking up from her elaborate work of art that was Kyou's bandaged arm.

"Better, although we would have to wait out a day to rule out all head trauma" Hatori replied somewhat grimly. "The question is still, however" Hatori continued, "what are we going to do with her once she regains her conscious. We can't very well just send her back home and pray that she doesn't ask questions and blab about the event."

"It's not everyday a girl get mowed down by a motorbike." Shigure add his two cents to the conversation jokingly. "We do owe her at least a partial explanation." He finished on a more serious tone.

"It's too dangerous to tell her anything!" Hiro interjected, "In any event, it was her own fault for not watching where she was going. Absentmindedly crossing the street like that, she was practically asking to be run over. Silly girl."

"Hiro-kun!" Kisa gasped out in mild horror. "That's not a nice thing to say about her." She fidgeted slightly and looked down at her hands in her lap, "everyone has their own moments of carelessness…" Finishing with a slight bowing of head, Kisa wondered if she had said too much.

Rebuked, Hiro silently got up walked out of the room full of occupants who were now staring at Kisa and him; he had upset Kisa yet again. 'Will I ever make her happy?'

Kisa raised her head at the sound of someone exiting and her eyes widened at Hiro's absence and she quickly rose to her feet to follow his sound of his receding footsteps.

The rest of the group watched in silent morbid fascination.

"In any event, back to the topic on hand." Hatori said in an attempt to lure all attention back on him as to give the young couple a reprieve. "We still haven't decided on what to do with this girl."

"Honda Tooru"

People looked at Kagura who was looking at Hatori who blinked at her. "Her name is Honda Tooru, she's from our class. I went over to say hello during lunch today, remember?" She glanced at her cousins who then in turn all nodded their heads slightly in agreement. "She has two close friends, I didn't catch their names, and she seems to always be so cheerful. That's all I know." Kagura finished with a slight flourish.

"Hmm… She's in your classes? That complicates things…"

"Oh! And she also sits next to Yuki-kun too!!" Kagura added.

"Oh?" A thoughtful look from Shigure prompt others to look semi-thoughtful too.

Now it was Yuki's turn to be stared at.

Yuki merely stared back.

"We keep her."

The quiet yet firm voice of Haru cut short the staring contest abruptly.

"But …" Kagura started.

"Absolutely not!" Kyou cut in. "What can she do? She'll just be a liability, that's all. Then we'll all have to go rescue her when she gets caught."

"She can be a spy on occasion. She's unassuming enough and has an innocent air about her. The Serpents will never know that she's with us." Akisa spoke up to defend the currently unconscious girl.

"No."

Everyone looked at Yuki once again as he finally spoke up. "No, we can't drag her into this. She's too innocent."

"I agree with you Yuki, but in this matter, we have to choice. We need a gurarntee that she won't talk. We make her one of us." Hatori looked at Yuki meaningfully, "You will be her partner in the initiation trial."

Now everybody including Yuki stared hard at Hatori (there seems to be lotsa staring going around). Most people had expected Kagura to be her partner.

"This settles it" Hatori continued disregarding all the looks that he got, "I will now go inform Akito-san about the new development while Yuki makes the preparations." He started to walk out then paused and turned back around, "Kagura, please inform Honda-san about this when she awakens tomorrow. Thank you."

With Hatori gone, the rest of the Jyunnishi looked at each other and wonder what the heck would happen next.