H o s h i - g a - H o s h i i - d e s u

"I want the stars"

by Lucathia

chapter 22: gone

Anna frowned deeply. It was already late in the night, but Yoh still went out with that older woman. He had seemed alarmingly serious for once, so Anna hadn't forbidden him to leave. He was going to meet Hao. But still.

Annoyed, Anna slammed the record book close. Why was she so ticked off? She continued frowning as she put away the book. She glanced at the clock. Should she wait for him to come back? But that would make her seem too eager to see him come home. She sighed. Why hadn't she gone with him? She had thought that it would be better to let Yoh go by himself. But apparently she was wrong, since she was fretting so much right now. She frowned again. She should probably just go to sleep right now and save the yelling for tomorrow morning.

As she got up to go to her room, Horo Horo finally came back in after Ren's wild chase around the entire inn. Anna was surprised that they hadn't woken up the inn's customers with their clamor, but then it was a given that Funbari Onsen's customers had to be heavy sleepers. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to sleep at all, due to Anna's constant reprimanding of Yoh and the others.

Not to mention Anna's infamous slaps.

Horo Horo heaved a sigh of relief when Ren finally stopped chasing him. Geez, why was Ren so worked up over his teasing about those cute fluffy creatures that went nyaa? What had Horo Horo said wrong? What he had said was perfectly true. Ren seriously needed to learn how to lighten up sometimes.

Horo Horo stopped his train of thought as Ren gave him that glare of his. Horo Horo sweatdropped. He was ready to take off the moment Ren showed any sign of giving chase once again.

Until that icy voice broke in, of course.

"You two, stop being so childish," snapped Anna.

Horo Horo immediately gave his attention to Anna. "Roger!" He gave her a supposedly reassuring smile that promised that he'd stay out of trouble. However, it turned out as a goofy grin that only caused Anna to narrow her eyes more.

Ren, on the other hand, reluctantly let his annoyance subside. After all, he couldn't do much against Anna's wrath. He glanced around the empty room with one eyebrow raised.

"Where'd Yoh go?"

Horo Horo looked around as well. "Yeah, and where'd that kid go?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "If you two hadn't been so busy chasing each other around, you'd know!"

Ren seemed to want to protest, but he was cut off by the ringing telephone.

Anna fumed. Who was calling at this ungodly hour? She stormed over to the telephone, debating whether or not to pick it up. If she did pick it up, she could choose not to listen to whoever was at the end of the other line and slam the receiver back down. That sounded like a satisfying plan.

And so, as calmly as she could, she picked up the phone.

"He's gone!" was the first thing she heard. This was a waste of her time. People need to be clearer with their words. How was she supposed to know who "he" was supposed to be? Geez...people and their ambiguity! Especially at such a late hour! She was supposed to be in bed by now.

But she had a feeling that this "he" was important, so she had restrained herself from the satisfaction of slamming the phone down. She patiently listened to the other boy's ramblings. Afterwards, she hung up and immediately headed outside.

Horo Horo trailed after Anna. "Where are you going?"

Anna glanced over her shoulder at the two boys. "To where Yoh is."

Ren's eyes widened slightly. "Did Yoh leave to meet Hao?"

Anna nodded, her hands clenched. "Apparently. But I doubt he'll be able to meet him."

"Why not?"

Anna looked forward grimly. "He's gone. Or so Manta says over the phone."

Manta had only begun to tell Hoshi about Asakura Hao when Hoshi started laughing.

And laughing

And laughing.

Manta truly thought that Hoshi had gone insane, for he wouldn't stop laughing. Manta was frightened by Hoshi's insane laughter. What had he said to cause such a reaction?

Hoshi shook his head wildly, his loose strands whipping about his face.

"She knows. She knows now that she's seen him." Hoshi continued laughing that wild laugh of his as he stumbled over to his closet.

Snap.

He glanced down impassively.

He ignored the cracked star earrings lying next to his feet as he pulled out some clothes and stuffed them in a bag.

"What are you doing?" questioned Manta, his eyes wide.

Hoshi glared at Manta. "What do you think? By the way, do you have any money?" Manta blinked and felt around for his wallet. He slowly pulled it out, wondering why Hoshi was asking. Hoshi immediately snatched away the wallet as Manta was taking it out. He then swung his bag over his shoulders.

"I thought you were going after her!" sputtered Manta, not really caring that his money just got taken away. By the look of things, Hoshi was clearly planning on leaving.

Hoshi shrugged.

"But you promised her!"

Hoshi looked away. Promises were such fragile things...easily broken.

Before he left, Hoshi gave one last laugh. He had been on the verge of a breakdown ever since the day of his nightmare...the day that he discovered he was a murderer of his own kin. He had somehow remained sane for all these days, but when he listened to Manta talk about his old identity, something in him finally snapped.

Hoshi choked back his laughter as a smile full of regret appeared in its place. "I...have to leave, for I've been living a lie all this time...a lie too good to be true. And now, I must accept reality."

Manta was speechless.

The only thing left of the other boy in the flurry of his leave was...

A pair of broken, star earrings.

Tsuki glanced up at his kaachan and then up at Yoh-san. The two of them were both surprisingly serious. And unsmiling. His kaachan had even cried a few moments ago! He was utterly confused by everyone's actions around him.

He felt like he was being kept out of something very, very big.

His kaachan's hands tightly gripped his as they walked along the path towards their house. Her grip was so tight that his hands were turning white. He tried to keep from wincing. His kaachan didn't seem to notice despite his frequent tries to break out of her tight grip.

Yoh-san, who had seemed extremely aloof previously, said not one word. He followed them quietly, occasionally raising his head up to glance at the stars. Despite the little time that Tsuki had known Yoh-san, Tsuki had the impression that it wasn't like him to be so serious.

Really, what was wrong with all of the older people around him?

Tsuki thought really, really hard, trying to remember everything he had heard in Yoh-san's house. He had tried to introduce himself to the pretty yet scary female when she started yelling. She even slapped Yoh-san! Scary indeed. Tsuki didn't want to be anywhere near her. Then, a funny, blue-haired guy came in and started patting him on his head. Tsuki made a face. He wasn't a puppy or anything! Afterwards, a weird guy with pointy purple hair walked in and said something that made everyone freeze.

That's it! What had he said?

The others had been talking about Hoshi-niichan before the pointy-haired guy came in.

Tsuki frowned. What had they been saying about Hoshi-niichan? It better not have been something bad!

He was lost in his simple thoughts during the entire trip home. Before he knew it, he was already standing before his own house.

He glanced up at Sora-kaachan and Yoh-san, who both had grim expressions. Tsuki frowned. He really, really couldn't understand why they were so unhappy. Tsuki would have been elated about being home if it weren't because of their serious expressions!

Sora-kaachan looked at Yoh-san, giving him a nod of affirmation.

With that, she opened the door, which surprisingly, was unlocked.

Tsuki immediately brightened and bounced inside. Yoh-san and Sora-kaachan remained motionless, standing just outside the door.

He glanced back at them. "Come on!"

They still remained rooted to the spot. Tsuki frowned. He wanted to see Hoshi-niichan right NOW. Why was his kaachan and Yoh-san acting so weirdly? Tsuki decided to forget about them. He wanted to see Hoshi-niichan and tell him that he was sorry for making him and his kaachan worry.

Tsuki went through the house, calling Hoshi-niichan. Hoshi-niichan didn't come out to greet him though. Maybe he was mad at him. Tsuki continued calling for Hoshi-niichan. He even went into Hoshi-niichan's room to look for him.

But he wasn't there either.

Instead, Tsuki saw a short boy picking up some broken pieces off the floor. Tsuki was shocked that the boy was actually shorter than him. After all, Tsuki wasn't very tall.

Nevertheless, Tsuki ran up to the short boy and demanded, "Where's Hoshi-niichan?"

The short boy pointed at the doorway.

"Gone," he whispered.

It was then that Tsuki noticed that the broken pieces in the other boy's hands were actually Hoshi-niichan's old earrings! Tsuki's eyes widened as he grabbed them from the other boy.

"Ouch!" He winced as the pieces made an ugly cut in his finger. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the broken earrings in his hands.

He heard footsteps behind him. Could it be that Hoshi-niichan had come back? Tsuki hopefully turned around.

Only to see Yoh-san and Sora-kaachan standing behind him, both with equally unreadable expressions.

Tsuki dropped the earrings and started sniffling.

Hoshi-niichan had left them.

to be continued

next chapter: revelations

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