Ooh! I'm a little annoyed because I wanted to finish Part 1 with this chapter, but it's going to take one more chapter to complete. I shouldn't have divided 5 and 6! It's not like I got more of a response by doing that and I would have been happy with a nice round number like 10. ^_^ But oh well, no help for it now. Anyway, thanks for dropping by! Those who reviewed left such wonderful ones that I updated this story again before working on my other story. So thanks! Please read on! ^_^

Evermore

Chapter 10

By Zapenstap

"This is ridiculous," Tohru heard Kyo muttering at Belduine from behind her for the third or fourth time. "You're going to get us all killed. We're all going to be killed!"

Tohru realized she was chewing nervously on the end of her hair and hurriedly extracted it from her mouth. They were all on the edge of the forest, looking back toward the house and only a few footsteps from the yard. Belduine advocated strolling through what was left of the front door and simply getting what he thought they needed, but Kyo had forestalled any such plan with a sudden flood of questions and demands for reassurances. Tohru wasn't sure what to do so she just stopped walking, waiting anxiously while others fought it out. Her thoughts were mostly on what might be happening at the Main House. She couldn't chase the thought of Yuki in peril, and all of the Sohmas, out of her head. She didn't know what to do.

A little ways ahead, Uo and Hana were crouched in the bushes, squatting like two toadstools side by side, skirts pulled over their knees and peering at Shigure's house from the safety of the foliage as dusk deepened the color of the sky. When Belduine and Kyo had started to argue, Uo got caught up in the excitement and had volunteered to "scout ahead" with Hana. Belduine had cast one amused glance at the two girls creeping through the bracken before Kyo started berating him with inquiries but hadn't said ay or nay to either of them. Watching everyone else passively, Tohru grew increasingly more and more fretful by the second. Running into Belduine had made her feel better at first, but she was starting to get the idea that Belduine wasn't terribly good at making decisions. Though he was adamant that they needed supplies, he seemed hesitant to actually tell anyone what to do. Even though he must have a better idea of what was going on than they, he was secretive, dodging Kyo's questions glibly, which was clearly driving Kyo's limited amount of patience and hyper-extending his trust.

"It's not my plan to get you killed," Belduine told Kyo with an air of sincerity. "I really hope that doesn't happen."

"Really hope…!? Geez, you've got to be kidding me."

Tohru still refused to turn around and look at Kyo, but she imagined him with his hands clenched and his shoulders hunched and his teeth gritted as he fought to contain an explosion. She tried not to imagine him that way naked. Instead, she stared fixedly ahead with her face turned toward the house and her feet planted firmly together, adamant that under no circumstances would she turn around. She felt her face heating up and set her mouth grimly. It was hard not looking at him simply because she was used to being able to read his moods in his face and body language, but she just couldn't turn around when he wasn't wearing any clothes! That no one else seemed half so particular to her notions of privacy and modesty only made it worse.

"Do you want me to check the house out alone first?" Belduine suggested. "I think can manage to get in and out without being noticed even if they are there."

"I still don't know if I trust you!" Kyo snapped.

"Well, what do you want me to do then?" Belduine's tone almost made him seem perplexed.

"Hey, guys," Uo's voice came back to them suddenly. She spoke in an excited whisper, ignoring the verbal battle, and waved at them without looking in their direction. Her not-looking had nothing to do with Kyo's nakedness, Tohru was sure. Uo was just intent on whatever she was watching; Tohru thought now that both her friends had looked at Kyo. Feeling her own cheeks flaming, Tohru tried desperately to pay attention. "There's definitely something going on in there," Uo was saying. "I can see shadows moving around and I totally thought I saw someone a second ago."

Belduine walked up on Tohru's left, his head cocked to one side like a sparrow inspecting a bread crumb. "There's somebody there?" He sounded genuinely surprised.

"I don't feel any strange vibes," Hana murmured.

"Does magic feel different to you, EC?" Belduine asked her curiously. "Can you sense it? That might be useful."

Hana turned her empty, liquid eyes on him and he seemed to grow gradually uncomfortable under her stare. "Yes and no," she whispered in a detached tone. "Magic must somehow affect the psyche of those who wield it of I don't think I could. It just gives me a headache. "

"Well that's something anyway," Belduine said positively.

Hana smiled. "You are a little different," she added, and Belduine started in surprise. "You're not like them, but you're also not like us. The air around the others almost seems to…vibrate; a very unnatural electric signal. It's unpleasant. With you there is a resonance, like an echo of something, softer, but still of the same tenor. Quiet, but more fluid. I have difficulty explaining."

Belduine blinked and shifted uncomfortably. Tohru couldn't tell for the life of her if this information made any sense to him or not. It made very little sense to her. She found herself smiling stupidly out of sheer anxiety.

A commotion from inside Shigure's house brought all their attention back around.

"I'm going to go see," Belduine said. "You guys can stay here if you want."

"Hey!" Kyo shouted, but it was too late. Belduine bounded ahead of them, squeezing between the trees and trotting off toward the house with a fleet-footed grace. Tohru could practically hear Kyo fuming in the background. Upon reaching the edge of the house, Belduine slowed down and Tohru almost lost sight of him as he slipped into the lengthening shadows cast by the structure and the trees surrounding it, his shape becoming a vague form sliding along the wall. He tarried a moment, pacing back and forth, and then abruptly jumped up onto the deck and disappeared inside, never once stopping or turning to look back at them.

They waited breathlessly for several minutes.

"This is crazy," Tohru heard Kyo muttering from a little closer behind her. "Absolutely crazy."

She turned to look at him before she thought, meaning to say something encouraging, to give Belduine the benefit of the doubt, but completely lost her words when she remembered why she had been trying so hard not to turn around. Seeing Kyo naked, she forgot all her words. She didn't mean to see. She saw his face too, and knew that he was even more embarrassed than she was by the way his eyes bugged out of his head when he saw her looking, how his skin flushed deep scarlet. She shut her eyes immediately, blotting out all vision before he could move, flushing to her hairline, and banged her forehead with both of her fists. "Oh, I'm such an idiot!" she squealed. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't see anything. It was completely an accident!" It was a lie, though. She saw, but she roughly folded and filed that visual memory away in a box and slammed the lid shut before her brain could fully process it. It hadn't been the first time she had claimed to "almost" see something when she actually had seen it, but the visual became blurred if she was determined enough, and she forced herself to believe she had shut her eyes just in time.

"Tohru, you really need to calm down," Uo told her candidly. "Honestly. I'm serious."

"Yes. How do you ever expect to get married, Tohru?" Hana whispered.

Married? Tohru covered her face with her hands. She knew what they really meant. "Oh. Well I… I mean…"

"Hey, he's coming back out," Uo said, cutting her off.

Tohru turned resolutely away from Kyo and pulled her hands down a little bit to peak out at what was happening. Belduine had appeared again on the deck and was waving to them with his full arm.

"It seems all is well," Hana murmured.

"Yeah, for him at least," Uo said. "But do we trust him?"

Kagura Sohma appeared suddenly on the porch beside Belduine. Tohru's mouth dropped open in surprise. Belduine turned away from them and toward her, engaging her in animated conversation. Then, to everyone's surprise, he took her hand in his and lifted it up to kiss it. She seemed too astonished to object.

"Of all the…!" Kyo sounded furious, so angry he forgot his embarrassment. Hearing his voice, Tohru flushed again as Kyo muttered a few choice words she couldn't quite catch. "Well, at least she's all right," he said begrudgingly. "But what is she doing here? Of all the useless…"

"Great," Uo said, straightening out of her crouch and brushing off her skirt. "Glad that's settled. Seems it's all safe. I vote we go in."

"A good idea," Hana agreed.

"Um, yeah," Tohru said shakily. "I'll…I'll get you some clothes, Kyo." She scrambled forward.

Kyo stayed behind in the woods as Tohru, Uo and Hana picked their way out of the woods, but she could almost feel his eyes boring into her back as they crossed over the yard to the porch.

"You have very pretty eyes," Belduine was saying expressively to Kagura. "They remind me of the sea in cloudy weather. Have you ever been on a ship at sea? I know a very grand lake where I can get us a boat and…"

"Hey, loverboy," Uo interrupted. "What took you so long to give the okay?"

Belduine jumped when Uo spoke, released Kagura's hand (it fell limply—she still looked shocked) and grinned up at Uo like a boy whose mother had caught him stealing cookies. "Sorry," he said, and Tohru suddenly had the impression that Uo was the kind of personality that had a disciplinary impact Belduine, the rough-shod, abrasive, self-motivated leadership type that refused to be daunted or stopped by anything. He seemed sincerely contrite around her. "I got a little distracted. You all know Kagura Sohma, right?"

"Of course!" Tohru said with a welcoming smile. Kagura's answering smile had a bit of a strain in it.

"We've met," Hana murmured.

Belduine leaned in around the doorframe, peering into the house. "Hey, Ritsu. Come out, okay? I promise it's safe."

Tohru felt her stomach flip over. "Ri…Ritsu? Ritsu Sohma? What is he doing here? How? And Kagura…?"

Kagura looked over her shoulder, surveying the house as she turned in a slow circle. She wore her cat-shaped backpack over a green cardigan sweater and a yellow dress, soft brown leather boots molded tightly around her calves just under the knee. Her eyes blinked in worry as she took in the damage done to the front of the house where the magicians had ripped through the paper doors. Even some of the heftier wood was gaping in chunks, giving the house an appearance of having been destroyed and then abandoned. This close, the area felt ghostlike. Tohru shivered unconsciously, unable to process all her thoughts and feelings. Having Kagura and Ritsu appear safe so suddenly made her feel a little better, but what about Yuki? What was happening up at the Main House with Yuki and Shigure and everyone else? The presence of Kagura and Ritsu just made those gaps seem greater.

"I came to visit Kyo," Kagura said slowly. "I was worried about him with all that's been happening."

"The Main House," Tohru blurted. "Is everyone safe?"

"I don't know," Kagura said slowly. "Shouldn't it be? What's happened here? I couldn't figure out where everyone had gone. I had such a bad feeling. And then Ritsu showed up and has been telling me the wildest story…"

"I was attacked!"

Tohru jumped as Ritsu appeared out of nowhere, popping into the doorway and shouting practically in her ear before shuffling the rest of the way out onto porch. Uo and Hana regarded him with equally assessing stares, taking in the form of a man dressed in a woman's kimono with his hair long and gathered back like a girl's blankly. Belduine slipped past them and inside the house. Tohru could hear him rummaging around on the main floor and didn't question what he was up to. What Ritsu had to say was filling up all the thinking places in her head.

"Attacked?" Tohru breathed, and her stomach began to churn.

"Men in green cloaks," Ritsu whispered in a softly dramatic, feminized voice. "They came to the Hot Spring resort. They hurt my mom…" His eyes shimmered with tears, his lower lip quivering. "I got away. I don't know how I did it! They grabbed me and walked me out the door and then I just screamed and ran…"

Tohru took in Ritsu's confused account of the incident feeling a trifle stunned. For all his confessed lack of ability, Ritsu was amazingly agile and she wasn't surprised that if there was one thing he was good at, it was running away from danger. Not that Ritsu was a coward precisely. Considering how low his confidence was, he had shown remarkable tenacity in the past and it was truly amazing that he had been able to escape.

Belduine came back out of the house carrying a bundle of mixed clothes. Coming to herself, Tohru remembered what she was supposed to be doing and immediately helped Belduine sort out the bundle, separating Yuki and Shigure's things from Kyo's. Tohru was a little surprised that Kagura didn't seem to want to help. She appeared too bewildered, her eyes continuing to stray toward the house even when Tohru assured her that Kyo was all right. "What about the others?" she murmured, still unusually serious, and Tohru felt an echoing pang resonate in her chest.

No one answered her, and the silence was answer enough.

"I'm glad you're all right," Tohru whispered to Kagura and Ritsu.

"Starting packing," Belduine suggested. "The sooner we can get out of here the better."

Belduine took clothes out to Kyo while the rest of them headed inside, spurned by a new sense of urgency. The living room was a mess, the table overturned, the tatami mats pulled up and cards scattered about the floor. With her thoughts in a haze, Tohru went immediately to the kitchen, unconsciously thinking from habit that everyone must be hungry. Following Belduine's advice, the others immediately emptied their school backpacks of their notebooks and papers and filled them instead with the supplies they guessed they might need. Nobody seemed motivated to fill Ritsu in on the details of what they were doing, but he seemed to understand without an explanation and acted as an errand boy, directed by the others to fetch various items. Kagura timidly questioned Hana, and by the look on her face, what she heard frightened her considerably. Tohru brought out snacks from the fridge with numb fingers, handing it to her friends as they worked, and listened with half an ear as Uo badgered Ritsu again for his story. Maybe he was still shaken up from the incident, but Ritsu's relating of events the second time made no more sense than the first, and Tohru simply could not concentrate. She was still shaken up herself.

"How did you get here so fast, though?" Uo said, folding up a blanket and trying to squeeze it into Yuki's backpack that someone had fetched from upstairs. "This Sohma Hot Spring Resort. It doesn't sound like it's in town."

"I don't know!" Ritsu cried timidly, wringing his hands. "They took hold of me and I just went along. I am a coward, I know; I was so scared! We walked out the front door and I swear we were somewhere else, somewhere near the Honke. I recognized the buildings. I panicked. I don't understand what happened! I beg you to please forgive me, though I know I don't deserve to be forgiven! I think maybe I fainted when I was kidnapped. That would be like me. I couldn't really have just walked through a door. That must sound so stupid! I'm sorry! I'm such a weak fool."

Belduine returned at the end of this speech with Kyo on his heels. With his hand stuffed in his pockets, Kyo didn't look in Tohru's direction, his head lowered and his cheeks tinged faintly pink. Belduine moved about with quick, efficient and determined energy. "You didn't faint," he assured Ritsu. "Azaren would have used the Key. The Key opens doors to other places. It's how we all managed to come here in the first place. That's probably how they left this house too, though there may be more than one group.

We'll never be safe, Tohru thought absently, as long as they have something like that.

"Kyo," Kagura whispered, shrugging off her cat-bag and kneeling on the floor with it. "I came because I wanted to talk with you and make sure you were all right. How…how is your injury?"

"Huh?" Kyo looked up at her, blinking. "Oh, yeah." He touched his side gently. "You know, it's really not that bad. I'd actually forgotten about it. It healed really fast. It's barely there at all now." Tohru saw Belduine eye Kyo sideways, but he said nothing. "What did you want to talk about?" Kyo asked Kagura. "I thought we talked enough."

Kagura lowered her chin. "Oh… Um, nothing important, I guess. It doesn't matter now. I'm just glad you're feeling better, that you haven't…" She trailed off.

"Hey, let's finish packing and go," Belduine broke in. "There's no time to waste, right?"

Kyo actually looked relieved that he didn't have to answer Kagura, glancing down at his wrist with a strange _expression.

"Right," Uo muttered. Her backpack couldn't hold anything else. She stood, slinging it over her shoulder. "What we need now is a plan!"

"You should pack some food," Belduine told Tohru, kneeling on the floor with a pile of items he had raided from various drawers and nooks in the house on his own. He waved Kagura over and she knelt beside him, holding her cat bag open for Belduine to fill. "Whatever won't spoil, and warm clothes, cloaks if you have them. I don't suppose you've got any weapons? Probably not, the way you fight with your hands."

Kyo lifted his eyes. "Where are we going again?"

"Yeah, are we going to Evermore?" Uo demanded. "Because I want to give this Esper a piece of my mind."

"Yeah," Kyo echoed. "If there's some way we can…"

"The Esper is very dangerous," Belduine interrupted, shaking his head. "The main thing is to make sure that she can't get all of you who are Cursed together in one place. Even if she gets some of you, it's better than the alternative. We can't afford to let all of you get captured. The magicians will transport whoever they catch to the Holdings as soon as they lay hands on them. If she ever has you all together she can do… things, things through your curse that you won't like. I'm going to try to keep that from happening, but you'll never get free if she manages to get all of you."

"Wait a minute," Tohru whispered. She had begun filling her backpack with food goods as Belduine had suggested, but her hands faltered as what Belduine was saying began to make sense to her. "You mean to save the others, right? Not just us? Everyone at the Main House? Yuki and Shigure… If they're in danger…"

"It's probably too late for them," Belduine said brusquely. "I don't think you can help."

A moment of shocked silence halted activity.

"What?" Uo said angrily. "How can you…? You never meant for us to help them?"

Kagura hands relaxed their grip on the bag. Belduine simply took it from her limp fingers and continued to fill it without looking at the rest of them. When he finished, he handed it to Kagura and stood up. Kagura took it absently, staring at nothing with wide eyes. "But everyone is at the Main House," she said. "Akito. Yuki. Momiji. Hiro and Kisa. Rin. Haru. Hatori. Shigure. Kureno…"

Arisa's head jerked with the utterance of that last name. Her body stiffened and then she grimaced. "Right. It's not the same guy. No way…"

"Oh no," Tohru whispered, and trembled as tears threatened to well up in her eyes. She wasn't sure what made her speak or why she was crying, but as soon as it slipped out she clapped both hands over her mouth. She bowed over where she knelt on the floor, plastic-wrapped rice balls and boxes of crackers scattered around by her knees. "Oh, Uo. Please don't hate me! There isn't time to explain, but I…Kureno Sohma is…." She couldn't stop a few tears from falling. She was shaking so hard she couldn't think. Abandon them?

Arisa stared at her with something like shock, and then anger stole across her face as she turned on Belduine. "Now, you listen here, kid! We're going to that Main House! I am anyway, if for no other reason than I have to know something. Do you hear me?"

Belduine raised his hands defensively, backing up a few paces as Uo advanced. "Hey, look, it's not that I…"

"You can't think that I'm going to run and go hide somewhere," Kyo said indignantly. "If the Yankee's going, I'm going too!"

"Me too!" Kagura chimed in.

"No, wait," Belduine said. "This isn't the best idea. It would be better if I..."

"Don't you have any special magic powers of your own to help us battle this out?" Arisa demanded. "Why can't you just help us? Are you scared or something? Maybe you're used to running but these are our friends and family! Do you think we'll only go on the offensive if we're sure to win? Is that your style? Stabbing unsuspecting victims but not down for a real rumble, is that it?"

"I'm just a messenger," Belduine said, and it was the first time he had sounded angry to Tohru. "I used to be a thief. What would you care to know about it anyway? I don't fight for fun. I don't want to rumble. I'm just telling you that I don't think this is the best idea." He shifted from foot to foot, fingers playing with the sleeves of his shirt as he took several deep breaths. "Look, don't be rash, all right? This isn't an army you've got here and you'd need one to battle Azaren as you put it."

"We've got an army of seven, and Hana counts for a couple if she's up to it. How many of these magicians can there be? We have to try. And I think you've got powers you're not sharing. Plus that flower. It's useful, wherever the hell you got it from since you claim you're not magician enough to make it. Not enough, though, right? So what can you do? I'm with Kyo. I don't trust you. You've been holding back on us from the beginning."

Belduine remained stubbornly silent, bright eyes set in a face full of disapproval, but not complete opposition.

"Hana?" Arisa asked. "Are you up to this?"

Hana hesitated, turning her head slightly, her eyes strangely sorrowful. "I don't know. Shocking Minami and those fan girls is one thing. But what you are suggesting… I don't think I can let myself do anything like that."

Arisa was shaking, her fists clenched, her eyes glassy, but she did not object. "You're right. I'm sorry. Whatever you think you can do, Hana, I'd be grateful." Tohru wrung her hands where she knelt on the floor, watching, deep, expression-twisting emotions chase each other across her friend's face in quick succession. Arisa's eyes lowered, filled with something sad and desperate that Tohru could not define. If she was thinking about Kureno…

"I'll help," Tohru said, getting to her feet. For Uo, for Yuki, for all of the Sohmas. Her family. How could she not? "I… I don't know what we're up against, but if the others can't be saved I don't want to be saved either."

"But you don't have to save them," Belduine began, and stomped his foot petulantly. "EC…"

A crash sounded as the front door was flung open.

Everyone turned as one, terror setting into the marrow of their bones, replaced instantly by shock as a figure loomed largely in the doorway, drawing all eyes.

"Shigure! You won't believe how good business was today! I have just been commission to make the most wonderful things! Your eyes are going to drop right out of your head when you see the designs! I even brought some fabric samples over so you could help me decide! I tried to call Hatori but he wasn't answering his phone! Can you believe it? I can't wait to see the look on his face! Oh my, whatever have you done with the house? Have the fights gotten this bad? I thought you told me they were getting better. I'm most disappointed. The Main House won't pay for this, you can be sure of it! How is my dear little brother supposed to feel safe in a building without proper walls!? Shigure! Shigure?"

Tohru's mouth fell open. Uo backed off Belduine in surprise. Even Hana look slightly startled.

"What are you doing here?" Kyo demanded angrily, throwing an accusing finger at the red-robed figure coming through the door.

"That…That's Ayame Sohma," Tohru said breathlessly for Uo and Hana's benefit.

Ritsu had shrunk into the corner, his eyes as round as plates, timidly staring at Ayame with something close to reverence. Kagura just blinked. Ayame turned toward them, his eyes fluttering open and shut as his gaze swept the room, noting their stuffed bags, the mess, their aggressive stances and the things littering the floor.

"Whatever is going on here?" Ayame said. "I haven't heard a thing about this. Not a thing! What a strange group you are! I've never seen half of you in my life! Who is the shifty little kid the blonde looks like she wants to bite? He reminds me of some kind of furtive little animal. I don't know why. Tohru, you can't possibly eat that many riceballs, though I'm sure they're perfectly lovely and good for you. And Kyo!" he gasped. "What did you do to the house? Where is Yuki?"

"Me?" Kyo bellowed. "I didn't do anything to it! Where the hell have you been?"

"Eight," Arisa said vehemently before Ayame could reply. "That's eight." Her eyes narrowed and her fists clenched. "If no one else will take charge here, I will." She turned toward Ayame. "Hey, you, have you been to the Main House? Do you know Kureno? Good looking guy, kinda klutzy?"

"Kureno?" Ayame blinked dramatically. "What does any of this have to do with Kureno? I hardly ever see him. If Akito keeps him practically tethered to his leg, it's none of my concern. What I want to know is where Yuki has got to. And Shigure. I did try to call before I came. He shouldn't go anywhere without telling me!"

Kyo looked positively withered. "Our army can't get any more annoying! Why these people?" He threw an accusing arm to include the blank-faced Kagura and sheep-eyed Ritsu.

"Any objections?" Arisa said. "We have to work with what we got or give up and run like Belduine suggests."

Kyo let his arm fall with a sigh. "No," he said more somberly, a strange, resigned expression on his face.

"I still think you should reconsider this," Belduine urged. "This isn't the best idea."

"Help us or don't!" Arisa snapped.

"I don't understand what's going on," Ayame complained pleasantly.

"We'll explain on the way," Arisa said with a determined growl. "Everyone grab a bag."

Tohru got to her feet, stowing the last of the food wares into her backpack. She was glad that somebody was taking charge, even if Uo was a bit…abrupt about it. The others grabbed their things and fell in behind her. Belduine was left in the entryway, trailing slowly after them, an unhappy, conflicting expression stiffening his face. Tohru was torn. She really felt that Belduine was on their side, but Yuki and the rest of the Sohmas were in danger and she couldn't imagine not going to help them. They were all Tohru could think about. Belduine might not understand how important they were to her and everyone. If she lost her nerve now she risked losing her only remaining family. Her mother would have been stronger. She had to be strong too.

Once they were outside again, Tohru shivered. The sky had gotten dark. Night was falling and a cover of gray clouds obscured the light of the stars.

*****

Yuki raced through the twisting hallways of the inner complex, calling for Haru, Rin, Momiji, Kureno and anyone else who might still be inside. He had tried to find Shigure, but the writer had been too fast for him. Where he had gone, Yuki had no idea, but he wasn't going to worry about it. Akito's order was twisting him up. Find them. Bring them all to me. Yuki had never felt so strange. His head ached. He didn't want to think about what was happening.

He stumbled upon Haru suddenly. The white and black-haired Cow was sitting dejectedly on the three steps that led down to the main entryway. He sat with his boots spread wide apart and his elbows looped loosely over his knees, hand hanging. His expression was sad, thoughts moving slowly and wearily behind pale ice eyes that stared down at nothing.

"Haru," Yuki whispered, slowing to a stop.

"Hi, Yuki," Haru replied. "It's good of you to come find me. I could use someone to talk to."

Rin. Yuki didn't have to ask. The conclusion just leaped to him logically. He didn't always understand Haru's relationship with Rin, but he knew how she affected Haru's emotions. Their relationship had always seemed rocky to him, confused and painful and complicated. He wasn't sure if it was the curse or the personalities involved but in observing it, there was a part of him that felt he wasn't ready to deal with something like that. He tried not to think much about it. It was likely he would never have that kind of relationship anyway.

It didn't matter right now.

"Haru, do you know where she went?"

"She said she needed some fresh air," Haru murmured, and turned his face up to look at the ceiling. "She meant she needed some space away from me. Do you think I should go look for her? You always seem to think so. But with Rin, sometimes it's better to just…"

"No, you don't understand," Yuki cut in. "Akito has summoned us, all of us, everyone, even Kyo if we could find him. Something terrible is happening. Ritsu was taken at the Hot Spring Resort by strangers we think are Belduine's magicians. Shigure called…"

"What?" Haru breathed. He got immediately to his feet, his _expression altering in the blink of an eye.

"They might be in the Honke already," Yuki continued. "We're supposed to stay inside. If Rin…"

Something rocked the building, like an earthquake slamming it from the side. The floor and walls and ceiling shook and rattled, dust rising in clouds in the air. Yuki stumbled against the wall, losing his balance, choking on his words and coughing as he swallowed air and dust the wrong way. Haru fell on one knee, bracing his knuckled against the floorboards until the shaking stopped as abruptly as it had begun.

Regaining his balance, Hatsuharu grabbed Yuki by the shoulders, steadying him until his coughing fit had passed. "Are you all right?" he asked worriedly.

Yuki nodded. What was that? "It's not asthma. I just swallowed something wrong. What about Rin?"

Haru didn't answer. He just got to his feet and raced down the steps. Yuki made to follow, but stopped when Rin came running toward them from the opposite direction. Her _expression was grimly set, her luminous dark eyes wide and wild, hair lashing out around her face and pouring messily down her shoulders and back. She saw Haru standing in front of her and something in her expression abruptly changed, her emotions fragmenting, fear replaced by relief, determination by distress, desperation by need.

Yuki watched from the landing as Rin flung herself bodily into Haru's chest. She seemed to melt into him, shrinking as her arms wrapping around his back and he engulfed her completely and protectively. Her eyes shimmered with frightened, unshed tears and at first she refused to speak, holding Haru close to her, but gradually she released him, allowing him to touch her cheek softly with the back of his fingers and then to kiss her comfortingly. Yuki felt a stab in his gut as he watched, something like shame and jealousy and longing that he could neither understand nor describe. He wished and he hoped and he feared and he dreaded and didn't know what to do with any of those feelings.

"What's wrong?" Haru whispered. "What's happened?"

"They're coming," Rin said quickly, and her voice was thick with emotion. She looked pale. "Strange men have taken them, kidnapped them. My Hiro and your Kisa! I saw them taken just now, right behind us, outside in the middle of the street, with light enough to see by."

Yuki's heartbeat quickened. They were here. He saw Haru's blank expression shatter and tried to still the buzzing in his own head. They had to go. They had to find as many as they could and go to Akito. Right now. There wasn't time to be scared. Think, damn you, think!

"And Momiji," Rin continued. "Hiro said his name. He saw me in the window. He told me to go inside, to run away. Haru, I was awful to him the other day! I called him a child. I pushed him away. And now I'm so scared for him I can hardly think. And Shigure too! He said Shigure's name. Shigure. He's an adult…sort of. I just didn't think… I never would have imagined…"

Haru pulled her in close, smothering her against his chest, quieting her as he stared blankly over her head. She was shaking, but Haru was anything but calm. He seemed too frightened even to go Black.

Yuki couldn't think. He tried, but his thoughts were like driftwood mired in a bog. Shigure. Shigure taken? Was that even possible to believe that anything could ever happen to Shigure? And Hiro and Kisa and Momiji. Who was left? Where were Kagura and Kureno? What about Ayame? He felt a stab of fear that made him suddenly nauseous. His brother, whether they got along or not, was still his brother, and he really had been trying to bridge that gap. If something could happen to Shigure, an adult as Rin said… He still couldn't believe it.

"Akito," he forced out, plowing through his confusion, forcing himself to reassemble. "We have to go to Akito. Is there anyone left in here? Where did Kureno go? Where is Kagura?"

"Kagura went out," Rin said. "She left before that boy was brought in. Maybe she was taken on the street. Maybe she got away. I… I never really liked her, but now I…" She trembled. "I'm such a horrible person."

Haru hushed her with a finger against her lips. She quieted, steadying herself with her hands flat on his chest, and he kissed her forehead reassuringly, holding her gently by the waist. Yuki looked away.

Akito was watching from further down the hallway. Yuki gasped audibly.

"Is this what you do when I'm not watching?" Akito murmured. His voice cut the air like a knife, slicing through the silence with sharp, metallic quality.

Yuki felt his blood freeze. Haru and Rin disengaged from another as if burned, each turning in opposite directions and hiding their faces. Yuki started when he felt Akito's slim fingers clutch at his shoulder, the pressure threatening to push him down as Akito hung on him. "Akito," Yuki whispered. "It's not…"

"I asked you to gather everyone," Akito murmured. "Even the stupid and useless ones. Clumsy." Haru and Rin both flinched. Akito's grip on Yuki's shoulder lightened, but just when he was about to breathe easier he was pushed roughly aside, the force of the shove causing him to stumble a few steps to the left. Akito flowed past him and down the steps toward Haru and Rin. Haru raised his head, staring at Akito as if spellbound, his face broken with emotion. Rin held herself, clutching her arms and staring down at her feet, fighting it seemed, to hold back tears.

Akito smiled almost pleasantly. He ignored Rin as if she were garbage rotting in his path, and instead moved close to Haru, reaching up to touch the taller man's cheek fondly. But there was something in his eyes that belied the gesture as well as the expression, and Yuki knew from experience that Akito's touch was poisonous.

"Come with me now," Akito said. "We'll talk about this," he moved nothing but his eyes, and those shifted to Rin's huddled form, "but later."

When Akito turned and strode quickly away, they could do nothing but follow. Yuki felt his heart plummet as Rin stumbled after them. Haru tried to speak to her, but she shook her head violently, falling back behind him. "It's my fault," he heard her say. "I'm not worth it." And she wouldn't budge, despite Haru's objections. Yuki knew Rin was strong, at least on the outside. And before her, Kana had fallen, and Kisa too. Yuki didn't think it possible that there was anyone out there with her eye on a Sohma who was audacious enough to stand up to Akito. He didn't want Tohru to try.

Yuki strode ahead of Haru and Rin, eating up the distance Akito had made between them swiftly. Akito's eyes slid to the corners with Yuki's approach, and he grimaced, but said nothing. Yuki sweated as he fought to speak. "Akito, Isuzu told is that the magicians have taken Momiji and Hiro and Kisa and…"

At that moment they emerged into the open room Akito had sent him from earlier to find it occupied by more than just Hatori.

"...Shigure," Yuki breathed.

"What do you mean?" Akito had turned to look at him when he began to rattle off names and did not see at first what Yuki saw. Akito's face had paled visibly when Yuki relayed what Rin had told him, the flicker in his eyes a cross between anger and fear. When Yuki whispered Shigure's name, Akito's eyes widened visibly, but then he caught Yuki's stare and turned to look at what had grabbed his attention.

The tiger curled up in the middle of the room was not Kisa transformed. Mammoth in size, its tail lashed back and forth fitfully, its ears laid back against its skull as it let out a low rumbling growl. The gray-haired man who reached down to sooth it was the only man in the room with his hood thrown back. Others lined the walls, an eerie entourage of silent, hooded, menacing figures. Akito's eyes darted from the man in the middle of the room to the tiger to where Hatori was kneeling at the feet of two men in the corner, his hands behind his back and his chin against his chest as if asleep.

Yuki fought to breathe. How did they get in here? When? What was wrong with Hatori? He remembered the boom that had rocked the building with a distinctive chill.

Yuki grunted as Akito shoved him backward and stepped alone and angry into the room. Yuki caught himself from falling by grabbing the edge of the doorway, and without looking at Haru and Rin, held out a hand behind the wall to stop them from coming any closer. "Akito," he whispered urgently.

He was ignored. "Who are you?" Akito asked in those especially cool tones that barely restrained a swirling storm of fitful emotions.

The man with gray hair inclined his head with a plastic, secret smile twisting his lips, but said nothing. Golden runes marched up the front of his robe and around the edge of the wide, circular sleeves, and as he lifted a hand, the material fell back from his wrist to reveal similar runes tattooed into his hands. The tattoos were gold and shimmered under the lights streaming down from above, but even as Yuki watched the shimmer increased until the symbols on the man's hands glowed with a peculiar light. Yuki drew in his breath sharply as a sphere of white light appeared above the man's upturned palm, a sphere outlined in a shadow of black that pulsated to the rhythm of a heartbeat. Drawn to the light, Yuki could only stare, and slowly his eyes began to pierce through the shine until shapes within the sphere began to leap out at him.

He recognized the shapes immediately. They were the animals of the Zodiac, each a two-dimensional silhouette that pulsed with shadow in line from first to last, one to the next, the cat too. Some, he noticed, seemed different than the others. The Tiger, the Sheep, the Rabbit, the Dog and the Dragon all looked static in posture, and he knew why when the Rat appeared. He felt it in his body, like irons being clamped around his soul, like screws digging into his heart. He gasped and wilted at the door, but the magicians paid little attention to him. The one holding the sphere was staring at Akito, and when the images in the sphere passed over the shape of a rune Yuki did not recognize, something like satisfaction crept over the magician's face.

TBC

Coming up next: Arisa and Kureno? A climactic finish to Part One? I'm not giving details, but there's lots more to come. ^_^ Please stay tuned!

Extra-curricular reading (i.e. Thanks Yous and shameless petitioning):

Mizaya: Heya. It's cool hearing you call me zap. I wonder if I would respond to it in real life? I probably would! Yeah, I do like tigers. I'm trying out the tiger thing. We'll see how it goes. ^_^ I threw lots of naked Kyo in there, though just for you. And I'm personally very fond of electrical cupcake. I couldn't do without it! Hope you had a nice weekend! Thanks for reading!

The Great Thing: HI!!!! Welcome back. I'm sorry you are swamped with school work. I feel really behind so I can understand. Thank you for coming back, though! You are the best. I really appreciate it. I felt wonderful just seeing your name return and I honestly have nothing to complain about! I'm not sure I deserve the compliments you are throwing at me, but it makes me feel special and encourages me to continue, so thank you very much!! I can't say it enough.

Grrl N: You must have me on author alerts or something to be so prompt! That's really incredible. Thank you so much. I'm trying to keep the mystery interesting without being confusing, but I hope you're intrigued. I'm trying to move things along… Please bear with me and keep R/Ring!

Calendar: Thank you for reviewing! I really appreciate hearing from you. I like Hiro and Kisa a lot and it made me sad to hurt them, but there's some devilish delight mixed in there too. Just you'll just have to wait and see what I have in store… O_o Anyway, thank you very much and please keep reading!

Kyra Rivers Oh, wow! The only time I get a review this long is when I'm being flamed, the most recent one telling me not to write Fruits Basket fanfics coincidentally. *glowers* But you are not flaming me!!! I'm not worthy! Don't be shy about babbling. So long as it's relevant it's the most wonderful thing ever, like a special tonic just for my imagination. And it makes my heart happy too ^_^ Your review is one of the chief reasons I continued this story before my other one. You commented on so many things I could write a scene in the time it would take me to dissect them all, but I read your review at least five times so I'll try to live up to it! And don't worry. Momiji will be coming back ^_^. Stay tuned for when I actually get the cast to Evermore!

Sarlinia: I really love your reviews! They make me feel so good inside and it's quite inspiring. I wish I had more of Momiji in the story for you, but he's currently unconscious so you'll have to wait for him to wake up. He definitely has a part to play, though! And thank you very much for the comments on Akito and Hiro in his stead! It's really difficult managing so many characters. And thanks for complimenting the story title too!

Niana Kuonji: Hello! I'm really pleased to hear from you. ^_^ Thank you so much for the comments! A 'fantastic story'? *blushes* Thank you very much! You might be right with that guess about Evermore too (I didn't make up a mini-world for nothing!), but you'll have to keep reading. ^_~

Emmi-Chan: Nope! Ritsu's alive and well. That was supposed to be ambiguous, but I hope it wasn't too ambiguous. I have Homework to do too… Quite a lot of it and it's pretty dang late to be starting it, but oh well! One will persevere. Anyway, thank you for making it feel worth it!

Melinda the Digimon Poet: Apparently Belduine doesn't have a plan. Or does he? Heh heh. But yeah, his memory wasn't erased, though I haven't explained exactly how that works yet. The pace is quickening, ne? Is that a good thing (aka exciting) or a bad thing (aka rushed)? I hope for the former! Anyway, yeah, Akito doesn't have time to make a plan. It's too late. Thank you for reviewing!! I really enjoyed it ^_^.

T-c3: I really appreciate your efforts to review. Thank s for the comments on Belduine and Akito. There are…interesting things in store for everybody. I like Akito too, in a "I wish you weren't like that" kind of way. I really enjoy writing him and there's a lot in store from him. Anyway, thank you and please keep reading!

Miaka Mouse: Omg!!! I didn't know you were reading! And I can't be more thrilled that you reviews. *glomps Miaka* I'm glad you are liking the action and suspense. Heh heh. More to come. Please keep R/Ring?

Just out of curiosity, are R Junkie, Flirting with Incoherence, Merryday, Caiti, Rivulet, Caer, Sakura Avalon, Sal-chan, Lady Kara and other one-time regulars still keeping up? You win some and you lose some, so I'm honestly just curious. Obviously, if you don't want to read or review the story you don't have to, but I'd be happy to know!