'I need to find Takako as soon as I can,' Sasame thought urgently as he flew over the city. 'Where would she be? Maybe I should start with where Taru, I mean, Tsui and Takako had their date.'

Sasame landed at the park close to the bench where he had seen Tsui and Takako the other day. While he looked around and listened to try to find Takako, Tsui appeared behind him.

"Why hello Sasame. We finally get to meet," Tsui said in a quirky voice.

"Who are you?" Sasame asked critically, since he had never seen Tsui in his real form before.

"I am Tsui."

Sasame readied himself to attack, aiming straight at Tsui. "Tell me, where's Takako?" Sasame demanded.

"Why don't I just show you?" Tsui said in a playful tone. "Come, my darling," he called in the direction of the forest.

Out of the forest, loud thuds could be heard. Soon the Rose of Darkness stepped out of the trees about 50 feet in back of Tsui. Sasame's eyes followed the rose's huge, root-like feet all the way to the top of the bloom. The rose stood about two stories high, barely able to hide amongst the trees in the park.

The rose moved some of its petals aside to reveal Takako captured in its center. Sasame gasped at the sight of Takako, her body hanging limply within the grasp of the rose's leafy tendrils.

"Takako!" Sasame yelled. Takako did not respond, and Tsui laughed.

"You can't reach her, no one can. She's in her own world now," Tsui said.

"Let her go!" Sasame yelled.

Tsui snapped his fingers and the rose hid Takako with its petals once again. Then the rose turned and adeptly began to bound away from the park, paying no mind to what it was smashing beneath it.

Sasame started to chase after the rose, but Tsui blocked his path.

"You won't save her and you won't defeat me!" Tsui yelled.

Sasame did a sound wave attack against Tsui and Tsui blocked it easily. Then he returned fire with his own electricity energy blast.

Sasame put up his shield, but the impact of the blow knocked him out of the sky.

Undaunted, Sasame stood up quickly and attacked Tsui again from the ground.

"I see you are tougher than you look," Tsui said. "But you are still no match for me!" he called out as he blocked Sasame's second attack.

Tsui charged toward Sasame and fired two small glowing balls of energy at him. Sasame stood his ground and shielded himself. He was surprised to find that the energy balls had fallen short, hitting the ground right in front of him and leaving two cracks in the cement path.

Sasame hoped he could finally hit Tsui at close range and mustered a very powerful attack at him.

In response to Sasame's attack Tsui created a bubble around himself and was unscathed. Sasame had become somewhat winded from launching such a huge attack and Tsui then landed about 15 feet and watched Sasame catch his breath in amusement.

Suddenly, Sasame felt a vibration from under his feet. The ground where the two energy balls landed began to break apart into smaller pieces of rock. Sasame felt his feet sinking down into the ground, and as he went to escape, the rock fragments seemed to grab hold of Sasame's ankles, keeping them in place.

Tsui laughed as Sasame's legs became cemented to the ground.

"Damn," Sasame said as he struggled at first, then he began to use sound wave attacks to loosen the rocks' hold.

"No you don't," Tsui said angrily.

Tsui closed his eyes and chanted. This caused a number of vines to come shooting out of the forest towards Sasame.

Sasame gasped in surprise at the barrage of vines, and turned his efforts towards destroying them, but he could not get all of them. Soon the vines had his arms pinned in back of himself and he could barely move.

Tsui slowly walked towards Sasame as Sasame struggled to get free. As he struggled, the vines' grip only grew tighter, making it hard for Sasame to breathe.

Tsui walked right up to Sasame. "Still struggling huh?" Sasame ignored him, as he tried to maneuver his way out of the vines. "It's no use," Tsui said mockingly.

"When I get free, I WILL save Takako," Sasame said determined, unphased by Tsui's tricks and demeanor, even though he wasn't making any progress on getting out. 'Himeno and the others must be getting close by now,' Sasame thought to himself.

"I will not have you ruining my plans!" Tsui yelled, noticeably angered by Sasame's unwillingness to give up. Tsui abruptly reached inside his robe and took out the box with the huge thorn in it. He yanked the box top off and threw it to the ground. Taking a hold of the thorn like a knife, he ruthlessly jabbed it into Sasame near his right shoulder.

Sasame cried out in pain, and Tsui's anger turned to pleasure. "That's better. Now about we play a little tag?" Tsui said in a playful tone as he disenchanted the vines and rocks, causing the vines to fall to the ground and the rocks to loosen. Then, he began to fly away.

Sasame was stunned by Tsui's change in mood and his "generosity" but didn't intend on dwelling on it. Sasame pulled out the thorn, and ignoring the wound, Sasame started flying after Tsui.

Sasame caught up with Tsui as they were flying over a shopping center. Sasame shot a sonic arrow at Tsui and caused him to lose his balance, forcing him to land in an abandoned lot in back of the stores. Sasame landed as well, trying to conserve some of his energy since he was becoming rather fatigued.

The sonic arrow barely seemed to do any damage to Tsui. As Sasame landed, Tsui knocked Sasame to the ground with another energy blast, and started to charge him.

Suddenly, an unusually stiff wind gust knocked him backward, breaking off the attack. Sasame looked up and saw that all the other knights (with the exception of Go, who was préted with Himeno) had finally found him.

Sasame got up and flew to meet the others. "The creature that attacked me was Tsui. He's the one who has Takako captive in a two story tall rose. If we all attack Tsui at about the same time, maybe we can overwhelm him."

"Right!" everyone shouted as they sped after Tsui.

Kei and Hajime were the first to reach Tsui and he struck them down with an energy blast. Shin came next and was able to tangle Tsui up to some degree in some vines. Tsui tried to throw an energy ball at Shin, but Mannen flew in and took the hit for Shin. Himeno as the fire prétear began her fire attack.

Hayate flew in and did a wind attack, but Tsui reflected the attack back towards Hayate, knocking him off balance and sending him backward in the air.

"Sasame, now's your chance… hit him!" Hayate called out from 20 feet behind him, seeing that Shin and Himeno couldn't maintain their attacks for much longer.

Sasame went to fire another sonic arrow, but as he was preparing to fire he suddenly stopped short in the air. Sasame clutched his shoulder wound and started breathing heavily.

Wasting no time, Tsui grabbed Shin's vines and flung the little knight into Himeno causing both of their attacks to stop.

Sasame, who had been hovering in the air, cried out in pain as he changed into his street clothes and began to fall from the sky.

"Sasame!" Himeno and the others yelled in unison, as his descent diverted all their attentions, including Tsui's.

Hayate, who was closest to Sasame, darted towards him, and caught Sasame in his arms before he hit the ground. Hayate landed, and kneeling down, gently placed Sasame on the ground in a seated position supporting his back and head with his arm.

"Ha ha… now Takako will never be saved," Tsui laughed loudly and disappeared with a flash.

The other knights and Himeno decided to ignore Tsui and let him go for the time being. So they all landed and gathered around Hayate and Sasame to figure out what happened.

Hayate looked over Sasame with concern, trying to figure why he had fallen out of the sky. Sasame's shoulder wound was not bleeding much, but he was breathing unevenly, and appeared to be unconscious. It looked as though a terrible fever had come over him suddenly and sweat beaded his brow, but he looked rather pale.

"Go, let's give Sasame some leafe," Himeno said to Go (who was still inside her).

Himeno knelt down beside Sasame and started transferring leafe to him, but even after a minute, his condition did not appear to change at all, even though she gave him a good deal leafe. Himeno and Go unpréted.

"It wasn't working." Himeno said surprised.

"Yeah, he doesn't seem to be getting better," said Go a little winded from using his power.

"It seems as though his body won't accept the leafe," Kei said.

"But why?" Hayate said, his voice filled with hints of confusion, anger, and worry.

"Wait a second…" Himeno started, remembering Takako's journal entry and the part about Tsui wanting to poison Sasame. "I think he's been wounded by something tipped with poison. When we read Takako's journal she had said something about a poisoned thorn and that Tsui was threatening to kill Sasame."

Suddenly, Sasame began to stir. He slowly opened his eyes and sat up on his own.

"Oh Sasame, thank goodness!" Himeno exclaimed. "Tell me, did Tsui wound you with the thorn that Takako wrote about?"

"I think so," Sasame said drowsily.

Though suddenly, he seemed to perk up, remembering what had happened, "That's right… Takako! I've got to go save her," Sasame said urgently, rising surprisingly quickly, only to feel dizzy and have to grab Hayate's shoulder to steady himself so he wouldn't fall.

"Whoa, slow down, Sasame. You can barely stand." Hayate said.

"I need to go to her," Sasame said, reluctantly letting go of Hayate and starting to walk shakily. "Takako needs me… but I-"

Sasame cut himself short when he started to falter. Himeno grabbed his arms to steady him. He continued, "I feel so strange." He closed his eyes and began to concentrate. After a moment he opened his eyes again, "It's too quiet." He closed his eyes again and concentrated, this time seeming to put much more effort in. After another moment, he opened his eyes and he lowered his head and shook it back and forth.

"What is it Sasame? Are you all right?" Himeno asked worriedly.

Ignoring her question, Sasame asked, "Himeno, would you prét with me?"

Sasame held onto Himeno's arm with one hand, but offered his other for her to take. Himeno looked at Sasame unsure of how he would handle préting considering that he seemed to be pretty weak. Sasame nodded his head, and Himeno apprehensively put her hand in his, and nothing happened.

"That's weird. I just préted with Go a few minutes ago," Himeno said.

Sasame shook his head back and forth again. "It's not your fault, Himeno. I've lost my powers," he said dejected, looking at the ground.

"What?" everyone questioned at once. Kei, who had a pensive look on his face said, "It must be the effects of the poison. It's prevented you from accepting leafe from other people as well as from using your ability to manipulate leafe and sound."

"So what should we do? Just let that creep Tsui get away? We gotta go after him and save Takako!" said Mannen, who had been pretty quiet this whole time.

"Calm down, Mannen," Kei said.

"He's right." Sasame said firmly, letting go of Himeno and stepping toward Kei. "We should go now, probably… the sooner… the…" Sasame suddenly fell, his knees giving out from under him.

Kei helped Sasame up and Sasame, who was now lightly shaking as sweat poured down his face, leaned heavily on Kei's slight frame while Kei helped him over to a bench to lie down.

Everyone could tell how badly Sasame wanted to go find Takako, but they knew that he couldn't do much in his condition.

"Sasame needs to rest for awhile, and we should really take care of his wound," Himeno said.

"How about Himeno and I take Sasame back to the mansion, while the rest of you go looking for Tsui and a huge rose with Takako in it," Hayate said.

"Sounds good," the other knights replied.

"Let's go!" Go said as he, along with Kei, Mannen, Hajime, and Shin, flew off.

Hayate and Himeno walked over to Sasame who was still lying down.

"Sasame?" Himeno said softly. Sasame didn't respond. Himeno put her hand on his forehead. "He's definitely got a fever, Hayate," Himeno said frowning. "The poison must be taking full effect now, I don't think we should wake him."

"Yeah, I agree. We're not far from the mansion. Let's walk back and I can carry him," Hayate said.