Chapter three, praise the Lord!

Wow, third chapter! I didn't think I'd get this far when I first began... but here I am! I'm feeling really good about this story, about where it's going. It's fun to waste precious time with... ya know? Also, I apologize about how long it took to get this chapter up. Stuff's happenin' in my life that I can't really control, and it's giving me writer's block...

MUCHO GRACIOUS (I don't know if that's proper Spanish...) to all of my -wonderful- reviewers! You guys ROCK MY FACE!

And a special thanks to my SUPA-FLY beta-reader, Alucard2! You so cuh- raaazy!

Disclaimer: I don't like disclaimers. I think on the next chapter, I'll get someone else to do it... Oh, by the way, this wonderful anime belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

F O R G I V E
M E
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F O R G E T
M E

Chapter 3: Sweet dreams, traveler

A small, arched bridge, dimly lit by four flickering lampposts, connected a river in a darker, more desolate section of Tokyo. Ryoga had never been here before, but then again, most of the places he had traveled to had been purely by mistake anyway. This place however, especially in the dead of night when all the earth seemed to be at it's most vulnerable point... made the hair on the back of his neck tingle. He wasn't supposed to be here, but he had to stop, just for tonight. It was much too dark to continue on his journey.

The mountains of Japan were his destination, as always, but the young traveler assumed it would be difficult to reach those mountains when you were stumbling around in pitch-black. Though his conscious demanded he keep moving - not out of fear of Akane, but of something he wasn't even sure existed - his feet ached and pleaded for him to stop. Also needing the sleep and the time to reflect (considering prior traumatizing events) he chose rest for the night...

Sitting his backpack down by the concrete railing of the bridge, the weary adventurer took up his heavy red umbrella, and took a seat next to his pack. With his back against the stone edge of the bridge, and absolutely nothing to look at, Ryoga crossed his legs and hugged his umbrella as though a sudden chill had swept him.

He was sound asleep the instant his heavy eyelids had closed...

-^^-

... And found himself in a most horrible place moments later. Soft, pastel- pink cherry blossoms spun and drifted in the chilly evening air contently, eventually floating to the cold ground in slow reluctance within the small, enclosed park. The sun was going down, beautiful dramatic orange rays boasting its last show for the evening. Someone sat in front of him, some beautiful girl with soft, brown eyes and short, bouncy blue hair.

He decided right then and there that this certain blessed angel before him at least doubled in beauty when heavy, glistening tears ran in trails down her willowy cheeks.

"... Oh, Ryoga," she swooned with a quiet, wistful grace. Her lovely eyes were glazed and sparkling with the residue of new tears.

'...Ah, She speaks the name I long to hear. Never have I been so pleased with the sound of my own repulsive appellation. Please, Love... won't you speak to me again?'

"R... Ryoga, I..." She stumbled upon words that would not come. Suddenly, this perfect angel seemed broken and confused, unable to step over the slick stones of her cluttered emotions.

"A-Akane, please..." the ashamed, young rogue tilted his gaze to the ground. He was soaked down to his very bones and hardly noticing. All he knew was that he felt sick to his stomach, and was ready to turn into the fountain and vomit.

'Please, Love, understand my plight. I am but a mere fortune hunter, ensnared in the relentless web of my own Heart's Desire. I wander the land whilst holding my humanity above my head, so as to find love when all else in life has failed me...'

"Ryoga... why? Why tell me now, of all times? Why did you wait so -long-?" she asked quietly, thankful her voice hadn't given away. Words were worth much more than tears now, and in mere milliseconds, the moment would no longer be sufficient...

"I had to, Akane. Please understand that using you or hurting you was completely unintended, and I'm the biggest idiot in the world for doing both of those things and not even noticing until it was too late..." Ryoga heaved in a rackety, persistent sigh, pausing for a moment to collect himself. "But I couldn't keep you in the dark..."

Ryoga's somber voice faded away with drained reluctance, though barely lingering in the unnecessary pandemonium of the lively park. Then everything went gravely silent. The wind blew in a delightful summer breeze to ruffle their hair, and the young traveler realized just how one-sided and pointless the argument was.

Ryoga opened his mouth to say something positive to lighten up the situation, but abruptly shut it when his beloved whipped around to face him, her pretty face tear-stained and scowling heavily. Her chest heaved with boiling anger.

The precious young girl's dark, new aura caught Ryoga completely off-guard, and he stared her in the eyes as though waiting for the heavy blade to come down on his neck.

'Oh, Akane... please don't say it.'

Cherry blossoms swirled and flew about in several small, hectic windstorms as the cool breeze turned into a sudden, violent wind, which aided in drowning out the young Akane's last words to poor, apologetic Ryoga.

He could hear them though, even if they reached no one else's ears. And they made perfect sense, no matter how you said them.

And he realized that he deserved the sudden smack across the face. He deserved to watch her leave through the storm of blossoms, deserved to feel the same pain he had caused her. He limply held out his hand, hoping that Akane would come back so that he could apologize in full to her for his obvious mistake. But in the mere seconds it took for him to shake off the initial shock of it all... she was already gone.

^__^

Ryoga started from his sleep, eyes heavy and his body wet with sweat and perspiration, heart thumping in his throat. He awoke with his cheek stinging feverishly, and his hand tingling as though he had hit it against a boulder. It was then that he realized that he had slapped himself from his nightmare.

"Oh, great..." Ryoga said uneventfully to himself. "She even haunts me in my dreams. Oh, Akane..."

At the far side of the bridge, there was a scuttling of gravel in the darkness that caught the heart-broken boy's attention with ease. Ryoga whipped his head to the side to stare into the darkness, subconsciously aware of how tightly he was gripping his red umbrella. Two lampposts were stationed on each ends of the wide bridge, so that only the four corners were visible to him.

Ryoga swallowed a hefty gasp as a hooded, hunched-over figure moved into the circle of orange, flickering light at the far end of the bridge. An old woman, perhaps? A crippled young traveler with worse luck than even himself?

"U-Um, excuse me...?" he said shyly, debating whether or not it was a good idea to help out this seemingly harmless stranger. He crippled along as though with an aching back or a walker of some sort, just hobbling along like he nowhere to be. "D... Do you need any help?"

The stranger stopped suddenly, turning to Ryoga as though he could see straight through the darkness. Ryoga froze, and stiffened up. There was something wrong here. He could sense the atmosphere thickening around him.

"Help?" the stranger asked in a very awkward, ethereal male voice. Ryoga pressed his back cautiously against the wall, staring intently at the stranger in the spotlight. "Yes... help."

Ryoga wished desperately to take back the offer. This was very strange... Was this guy even human? He couldn't tell if he were man, woman, robot... the hooded figure seemed very synthetic.

"Could you help me?" he asked kindly.

Ryoga's eye twitched visibly. He stuttered, "Y... yeah. I-I'm not that great at directions, but I c-could-!"

The large sack by his side was suddenly lifted from the ground and taken in to the black trees as though someone had reached down from the branches and snatched it up.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Ryoga screamed, scrambling to his feet and searching the darkness for any trace of his pack. "What's going on? Give it back!"

"Help?" the hooded figure asked again, as though nothing had happened, as though the young traveler's house (figuratively speaking) hadn't been pilfered from right under his nose. And in a startlingly deep, male voice, said in a most contemplating tone, "There will -be- no help for you."

The enigmatic figure straightened up to his full height with an air of superiority. Ryoga swiveled around, gasping, but with no breath so as to speak. The man was at least six-and-a-half feet tall, with a brooding lankiness to him.

"You wanna fight?" Ryoga yelled, fangs shining fiercely. "Bring it on!"

He was smiling beneath his hood. Ryoga could feel it, as it made his blood run cold and his heart race at a break-neck speed.

The man slowly lifted his arm, from which his hand was concealed under the flowing black sleeves. He was holding something in his hand, but the appalled Ryoga couldn't tell what... Everything went so horribly quiet...

BLAM!

Ryoga fell back, cracking his skull on the side of the bridge harshly. He was unconscious before he hit the ground, with a rather nasty wound in his shoulder.

The hooded man retracted his smoking pistol, removed his hood, and said in a commanding voice into the rustling trees. "All right, boys. Search 'im... take everything he's got."

Several lanky, seemingly human creatures popped out of the trees, all giggling and swinging their apish arms. None of them had any trouble with leaping out of the gargantuan trees in a pack and securing the unconscious boy's arms and legs to the pavement whilst the rest searched him shamelessly.

...Once again, Ryoga suffered the same dream. The cheery blossoms were still pink and swirling in pastel storms... His heart was still heavy with the pain of guilt and loss... His beloved was still crying next to him. But he couldn't wake up this time...

The supposed leader of the apish gang, a young man with smooth, white skin, piercing blue eyes, and long, silver hair, saluted his victim with his gun in a mocking manner. "Sweet dreams, traveler."

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I'm sorry! This chapter was horrifyingly short and pointless, and I don't even know if I'm gonna bring this gang up again! I think I may give the leader-guy a teensy role in later chapter, for YAOI purposes... ya think I should? I wanted to dedicate a chapter to Ryoga because you've all been so... BLAUGH! And obviously wantin' some Ryoga-goodness. So... I'll bring him up more, I promise! ^^; Remember: I accept Flames. I don't like them, but I'll accept them. PLEASE REVIEW!