As soon as Sasame left, Takako collapsed on her bed crying. Soon she realized that if she continued to cry, someone would hear her and ask what was wrong. She knew she wouldn't able to tell anyone. So she stifled her tears and snuck out of the mansion. Once she made it past the gates of the mansion, she ran instinctively to the church. She bustled into the silent church, filling it with the noise of her sobs and dropped down onto the floor in front of the altar. "What have I done!" she cried several times.

"Oh, you want to know?" Tsui replied in a playful, mocking voice as he appeared, hovering in the air over the altar.

"You!" Takako cried with all the hatred she had accumulated towards Tsui.

Unaffected by her harsh addressing of him, he caused a crystalline orb to appear which seemed to be a window of sorts, allowing himself to spy on people. He looked into it as if he were a curious young child. An image slowly appeared into the orb. "Aw… what a pity," he said mockingly. He levitated the orb right in front of Takako and said "I'll leave you two alone," he said as he disappeared.

- o - o - o -

Tsui appeared in the forest where he and Takako had talked in private.

"I'm sure when I return Takako will be heart-broken. Everything is going according to my plan. It is time for the next stage."

He pulled a half-wilted red rose out of his cloak and laid it down a few feet in front of himself. Then he pulled out a vial, uncapped it, and poured a green liquid onto the rose. Within seconds the rose became animated, quivering at first and then suddenly morphing its shape. The rose became tinged with black and started to "stand" on its own as it began to grow.

"Welcome my precious, evil Rose of Darkness," he said when the rose stopped growing at around 10 feet tall. "I'm sure you must be starving for negative energy. I will give you the sustanance you will need to survive. Come, with me."

- o - o - o -

Takako looked into the orb and saw Sasame in the forest. She watched as he cried, his whole body shaking from his sobs, and how he occasionally punched the ground with a tightly balled fist. His clothing was wrinkled and dirty, his hair disheveled, and his tear-stained face showed a pain that could not be put into words.

"Sasame. Poor Sasame. He must hate me SO much."

Takako started to cry uncontrollably. After a few minutes she had to gasp for air to continue crying. Her eyes stung and her chest began to ache. She felt totally dejected, lost, alone. The same way she felt two other times in her past.

Seemingly from out of nowhere, green tendrils grabbed Takako's arms and hoisted her into the air.

Takako kept crying even at the site of a huge rose lifting her up and seating her inside its bloom. She felt like she was in a trance, and did not struggle when the two tendrils that had grabbed her by the arms wrapped themselves around her torso, feeding off the deep sadness in her heart.

"Excellent!" Tsui yelled maniacally. "Takako is the perfect fuel for my rose!"

'No one will be able to snap her out of her depression. Although, maybe Sasame could… but he hates her now I'm sure. He will probably never want to see her again,' Tsui thought as he then laughed aloud.

As the hours passed, the Rose of Darkness kept Takako captive. Bit by bit it fed off of her feelings, and slowly it started to grow taller and stronger.

- o - o - o -

Eventually, Sasame had become tired of crying and silently sat on the ground sulking and thinking to himself. Finally, he stood and said angrily, "If I had never been a Leafe Knight, maybe this wouldn't have ever happened." Not thinking, Sasame took off his communicator and threw it on the ground and started walking deeper into the forest.

It was beginning to get dark and the other Leafe Knights were beginning to wonder where Sasame was. They split up and looked around and none of them could seem to find him. So they met back at the house to try to figure out what they should do.

"It's strange that Sasame isn't answering us on his communicator," Hayate said uneasily.

"I hope he's okay," Go said worriedly.

"Maybe you should try to track his communicator on your computer Kei," Hayate suggested.

"Good idea. Let me try that."

Kei clicked away on his computer as all the other knights looked on quietly.

"I found him," Kei said proudly. "He's all the way over in the Cedar Forest."

The knights all teleported and began to search around the forest.

"Sasame!" they all called out at different times, receiving no answer.

Kei walked around with his high tech palm pilot he had developed about a month ago. "According to this, Sasame should be within ten feet of where I'm standing. Where is he?"

Suddenly, Shin spoke up. "Look what I found in this patch of flowers," he said holding up Sasame's communicator.

Kei took the communicator from Shin's little hand. "I guess Sasame must have lost it."

"Oh man, who knows how far Sasame could be from here," Mannen whined. "I'm getting tired."

"I'm kinda hungry," Hajime said.

"Me too," Shin said.

Hayate sighed. "It is getting late. Let's go back, maybe Sasame will come home later. Hopefully he's all right."

Sasame continued to wander around the forest, not thinking that the knights were probably looking for him. After awhile, a wave of exhaustion hit Sasame, and all he could do was lay down on the ground and sleep.

In the meantime, no one at the Awayuki mansion had noticed Takako leave, so they all assumed that she was resting in bed, and decided not to disturb her at all.