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The little village of Aoka lay nestled among the rolling hills like a pearl in a bed of satin, almost hidden by the tall, green-gold grasses and rows of trees that adorned the landscape. Rice fields flanked the village, while the blue line of the sea sparkled in the distance, banded by a narrow beach of gray sand, rocks and the occasional fishing boat. A dirt road curved, whip-like, about the low, wood-and-thatch houses and various vegetable gardens and animal pens, lingered around the courtyard in the middle of the village, and tapered off into mere ruts dug into the ground by cartwheels as it meandered away into the hills. There were no inns in Aoka; the rare traveler who somehow managed to stray into the village never stayed for long, and most of the time never even realized where he'd been. For many years, the little village lay within its nest of grass-lined hills, isolated from the rest of the world. In the past several months, however, the world had ended Aoka's isolation, and uncertainty now hummed beneath the rustic peace of the little village.

A young woman stepped out of one of the houses and turned her face toward the sun, breathing in the crisp smell of morning. A hand lifted to tuck several strands of hair back into her white cap, while the other adjusted its grip on the basket partially hidden among the folds of her plain, homespun skirt. Several chickens tumbled past in a flurry of feathers and alarmed squawks, pursued by a couple of squealing, laughing children. They waved at her as they ran past her, and she smiled and waved back, then her smile faded into a sigh. Unconsciously bracing her shoulders as if gearing up for battle, she set off toward the center of the village.

"Yui-oneechan! Yui-oneechaaaan!"

She turned at the sound of a voice calling her name. A girl around eleven years old bounded toward her, thick braids flying straight out behind her. "Yui-oneechan," the girl panted when she caught up with her, "are you going to visit the prisoners again?"

"Rika-chan, you could try to be a little more ladylike," Yui admonished mildly, but Rika merely grinned. "To answer your question, yes, I am. But you mustn't think of them as prisoners. They're our guests."

Rika made a skeptical sound as she fell into step with Yui. "That's not what it looked like when Eijiro and the others brought them here. In fact," she added conspiratorially, "Masao-kun said that one of them was demon-possessed, and they had to chain him up to keep him from attacking them again."

"Rika-chan—"

"He nearly beat Daisuke to a bloody pulp," Rika went on in hushed tones that were nevertheless full of relish. "It took four of them to bring him down, he was that strong. At least, that's what Masao-kun said."

"Masao-kun talks entirely too much," Yui said with a sigh. "Rika-chan, they are not demon-possessed, merely confused, grieving and in pain. Eijiro and the others rescued them from a terrible battle from which they barely survived. Their wounds go deeper than the ones I tended to, and it is our duty to take care of them, with or without Eijiro's instructions."

"What kind of battle, Yui-oneechan?" Rika asked, frowning. "We're not fighting with anyone, are we? Is it Mizaka? Eijiro said that Mizaka wants to destroy them and that anyone from Mizaka could not be trusted. Have the city guards come for them?"

Yui shook her head. "No, not the city. Something worse." She glanced down into Rika's questioning face. "Do you remember what happened to Takeshi-san's farm?"

Rika's eyes went wide. "Not…demons?" she whispered. At Yui's grave silence, she shivered. "But that was just one time, wasn't it? I mean, those demons aren't really going to come here, are they?"

"Probably not. Our village is too far away even for demons," Yui reassured her. "In any case, I ask that you let Masao-kun's tall tales end with you. Those four people need our compassion and understanding, Rika-chan, not idle chatter and suspicion."

Rika giggled, the sound chasing away the cloud of fear. "Yui-oneechan, you talk like a stuffy old priestess. All right, I won't spread stories about them anymore, but I'd still like to see them."

"You're right on time then," Yui said in amusement, "because we're here."

She stopped in front of a house similar to the others although quite larger in size, pulled a key out of her pocket, and unlocked the door. Light cut into a bare, dim hall, and Yui hid a smile at the way Rika jumped at the ominous creak of the door as it swung open. At the other end of the hall was a corridor with rows of doors on either side, made of hardwood that was nigh unbreakable, each one arrayed with thick bolts. The light tried to follow them in but the gloom in the hall crowded it out, and Rika pressed close to Yui as she walked with only the slightest trepidation toward the first door. She put her basket down and lifted the bolt with both hands, then paused and glanced at Rika. "Rika-chan, perhaps you should wait here for me. I won't be long."

When Rika nodded, Yui picked up the basket, took a deep breath, and slipped into the room. She was gone for a seemingly interminable length of time, and Rika began to grow nervous. She'd already decided to rush in and rescue Yui from the clutches of the demon-possessed prisoner when the door opened and Yui stepped out, looking both relieved and befuddled. "Yui-oneechan, are you all right?"

Yui nodded. "How was the priso—guest?" Rika asked.

"He's fine. The infection has gone down, and his wounds are finally healing." She rubbed her forehead in puzzlement. "I don't understand it. He seems like an entirely different person. He was so decent and polite, and he even thanked me for taking care of him. How did this happen, I wonder?"

"Is he the one who was demon-possessed?"

Yui gave her a look that was meant to be reproving but somehow lacked conviction. "He is not demon-possessed," she chided half-heartedly. "Although…" Her brow furrowed. "Perhaps I should ask Eijiro to allow him to return to his companions. He certainly doesn't seem like a danger to anyone now."

She made her way toward another door, this time allowing Rika to follow her in. In contrast to the gloom of the hall, the room was sunny and warm, if a bit bare, consisting of a bed pushed back against a wall, a chair, and a table with a pitcher of water and a vase with a single daisy whose petals waved slightly in the breeze. The thick wooden bars installed across the windows were the only indication that the place was not quite the perfectly ordinary room it seemed. A man lay upon the bed, a heavy blanket covering him to the chest. At the sight of the open windows, Yui gave a soft cry and hurried over to draw the curtains closed, then turned to the man on the bed. "Oh, Kensuke-san, please don't tell me you spent the night with the windows open."

The man opened his eyes and attempted to focus on her, then groaned and closed his eyes again. Yui regarded him with anxious sympathy, then proceeded to tend the bandages wrapped around his torso with the medicines she had packed in her basket. The man barely moved throughout her ministrations, grimacing only when she lifted his head and forced him to drink a tonic she had prepared. Her task done, she sighed and stood up, becoming aware of Rika hovering nearby, watching curiously. "His name is Kensuke. When he came here, his injuries were far worse than the others'," Yui told her. "His wounds are healing, but his spirit has been very badly drained, and his body grows weaker because of it."

"Why is that, Yui-oneechan?"

"I don't know. He seems to bear a great heaviness of the heart. Eijiro said there had been another like him, but he died on the way here."

"Another like him?"

Yui pointed at the foot of the bed. What Rika had thought was a small pile of scrap metal turned out to be a dented armor, a battered shield and a broken sword. Through the scratches on the shield, Rika could still make out the figure etched in gold upon the black metal. "I can't be sure," Yui went on softly, "but I've heard that in the city of Ryuukama soldiers bear upon their shields the image of the dragon."

"Ryuukama," Rika said wonderingly. "Is he a sorcerer, then?"

"A knight. One who has been sent to protect. He has wandered far from home then, the poor man." Yui brushed back a lock of hair off the knight's forehead, then turned and walked away, closing the door gently behind her. She and Rika then headed toward the last door. With her hands upon the bolt, Yui paused and glanced back at Rika as if say something, changed her mind, and unbolted the door.

As the door swung open, Rika took a step back, as if expecting a maddened prisoner, with frothing mouth and flaring eyes, to spring out of the room like a jack-in-the-box. But when Yui walked with no hesitation, Rika had no choice but to follow.

Like the other rooms in the house, this room was brightly lit and neatly, if sparsely, decorated, and hardly what one expected a sickroom to look like. Two beds faced each other from opposite sides of the room, while a table and two chairs set atop a threadbare rug in the middle. There were even a couple of picture frames hanging on the wall between the windows, and Rika, following the line from the picture frames to the windows, finally laid eyes upon the figure standing at the window with his back to them, his hands upon the window sill.

The figure turned, and solemn golden eyes returned her frankly curious stare. The figure was a boy who looked just about her age and height, and dressed a ragged pink shirt and brown short pants. Sunlight glinted upon rumpled, golden waves of hair, giving him a cherubic air. The boy smiled slightly and inclined his head in a little bow, and Rika's gaze dropped to her toes as shyness suddenly gripped her.

"I can give you something to help with the pain if it still hurts you, Momiji-san," Yui said over her shoulder while rummaging through the contents of her basket. Rika lifted her eyes again and only then noticed the bandage wrapped around the boy's head, half-hidden by his hair.

The boy called Momiji shook his head. "Mm. Thanks, but it feels better now. Yui is a really good healer."

Yui gave him a sad smile. "In these dark times, Momiji-san, I've had to be." She looked over at the bed near Momiji, where a large lump lay completely covered by the sheets. "Is Arisa-san—"

"She's asleep," Momiji said before she could complete her question. Yui stared at him, then at the bed with the gently knowing expression that Rika knew meant she'd spotted a lie, then to the girl's surprise she nodded, accepting his answer.

"How is Haru? And Kensuke? Are they all right?" Momiji asked.

"Kensuke-san's condition is unchanged, but Hatsuharu-san is doing much better. He seems to have calmed down a bit. More than a bit." Yui expelled a gusty breath. "Honestly, Momiji-san, I'm convinced your companion has been kidnapped during the night and this mild-mannered imposter has taken his place."

"Eh?" Momiji's shoulders loosened a little as some of the tension seemed to leave him. "So Haru's finally turned white again. I'm glad. He was really terrible the last time he was black."

"'Turned white,' Momiji-san?"

"Mm," he murmured again. "See, there are two Harus inside him, one we call white, the other black. Black Haru comes out whenever he's hurt or angry, and when he's black he can be uncontrollable. But he's harmless when he's white, just a bit dazed sometimes. You can untie him now, Yui," he added quietly. "He won't hurt you when he's white."

Rika's jaw dropped when the ever-composed Yui actually blushed. "Oh, h-he didn't really hurt me when he turned black, Momiji-san," she stammered, fiddling with the jars in her basket to hide her scarlet cheeks. "He just acted a bit, ah, forward with me, that's all. No harm done." Rika craned her neck to better observe the rare phenomenon of a flustered Yui, and the young woman gave her a quelling frown. "B-besides, I took off his bindings as soon as I could. The ropes were chafing at the bruises on his arms."

Momiji breathed a sigh of relief. "Can we see him then?"

Yui looked troubled. "Momiji-san, I—that's not for me to say."

"You said he was better now," a new voice cut in tightly. The lump on the bed suddenly threw off the covers, revealing the angry face of a girl who looked a few years older than Momiji. Blond hair fell over her shoulders in a disheveled mass, partially concealing a pair of blue eyes that were red-rimmed and sharp with resentment. The girl's jaw jutted out aggressively, and Rika could see the fading remnants of what must have been a rather large bruise on her cheek. "Wasn't that why you took him and Kensuke away? To tend to their injuries? Or are you gonna come up with another sorry-assed excuse to keep us all apart?" the girl said scathingly.

"Arisa-san, it really—"

"Don't give me that 'it's for your own good' shit," Arisa growled. "When you locked us up and bound my friend hand and foot like some animal, it sure as hell wasn't for our own good, was it? Why were we brought here, anyway? Why are we caged up like this? What the hell have we ever done to you?"

"Arisa," Momiji murmured, looking worriedly at the girl.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Arisa-san," Yui said. "But your friend Hatsuharu was only doing himself and others more harm when he went berserk. Eijiro and the others only did what they had to. And you are not prisoners here, despite what it looks like. Eijiro brought you here to our village in order to nurse you back to health. You were barely alive when they found you."

"Well, if this Eijiro is such a saint, then maybe you should tell him to take those damn things off," Arisa retorted, pointing at the bars on th0e windows. "And I still don't see what bolting the doors to our cells have to do with nursing us back to health."

"That—that's not for me to say," Yui repeated shakily. "You must ask Eijiro when he comes back."

"He wants something from us, doesn't he? He's keeping us here for a reason," Momiji put in. "He and the others must have been tracking our caravan the whole time. The village seemed deserted when we got there, before—before the demons…" He shuddered, the color fading from his already pale face. "Eijiro and his men arrived just in time to save us. It was all too convenient. And to think we didn't even know they were following us."

"H-how is your ankle, Arisa-san?" Yui asked somewhat desperately.

Arisa glanced up from her brooding. "Huh? Oh, it's fine," she answered, looking down at her bandaged leg peeking out from the sheets. "Thanks for patching us up," she muttered grudgingly.

An awkward silence fell over them, and Rika fidgeted under its weight. Yui noticed her restless motions and beckoned her closer, almost pushing her forward. "By the way, this is my cousin, Rika," she said, relieved to have something else to talk about. Rika found herself the object of scrutiny of two pairs of eyes, one with subdued interest, the other impassive. "She came with me because she wanted to meet you. Rika-chan, say hello to our guests, Momiji-san and Arisa-san."

Rika bobbed her head helplessly, too self-conscious to speak. Arisa's face softened a little, and her lips quirked upward. "Yo," she said.

"Glad to meet you, Rika. So you and Yui are cousins, ne? I thought you looked alike." Momiji smiled, and Rika ducked her head to hide a blush. Yui raised an eyebrow at her odd behavior, and Rika tried to glare up at her cousin and peek at Momiji from beneath her bangs at the same time.

"Yui, can you take us to Haru?" Momiji pleaded. "We'd really like to see him. Maybe our presence will keep him from going black again. And Kensuke, too. I think I have an idea what's wrong with him. Maybe we could help him get better, ne?"

Yui looked torn. "Oh, Momiji-san, I don't know—"

"Yes, you do," Arisa interjected, the twist of her lips turning sardonic. "All you have to do is undo that bolt, right? You did say we weren't your prisoners, and it's not like we could cover much ground if we do try to escape, with our condition and all."

Yui rubbed her forehead, a gesture Rika knew meant she was thinking deeply about something. "All right," she said with a sigh. "I'll see what I can do about your companions. In any case, I'll have your breakfast brought to you shortly. Come along, Rika-chan."

She picked up her basket and was almost at the door when she halted. "Oh, silly me, I almost forgot again." She turned back toward Momiji, her hand reaching into her pocket. "I found this in Hatsuharu-san's hand when I was treating his wounds. It seemed like a very important thing to him, so I thought I ought to give it to you for safekeeping until he has fully recovered."

Moving as if his limbs were suddenly too heavy to lift, Momiji reached out for the silver chain Yui was holding out to him. The chain swung in the air, the little animal charms glinting innocently in the sunlight. Beside him, Arisa gave a choked cry. He forced himself to focus beyond the charm necklace, and found Yui and Rika watching him with a mixture of sympathy and interest.

"It's a pretty little thing," Yui commented. "I thought it might belong to a special girl Hatsuharu-san knew."

Momiji moved his head jerkily. "No," he whispered. "It belonged to a special girl we all knew."

The two of them waited in frozen silence until Yui and Rika left the room and the bolt thudded over the door. Then Arisa twisted violently and slammed a fist against the wall beside her. "Son of a bitch!" she screamed, her voice thick with tears. She pounded against the wall, shouting a stream of curses until she began to lose coherence and her screams ground down into hoarse sobs. "All she wanted was to help," she wept as she sagged onto the bed. "That's all she ever wanted. That's all she ever…how could this have happened to her? Oh gods, why her? Why her?!"

"Arisa."

She turned. Momiji hadn't moved, as if shock and sorrow had turned him into stone, but she could see the slight tremors that wracked his small body. Slowly, he curled his fingers around the charm necklace and met Arisa's anguished gaze with one of his own. "I—I can't see her," he confessed painfully, tears beginning to stream down his face. "I can't see her at all, not even in my dreams. I could before if I really tried, if I concentrated hard enough, but now I can't. I can't." His voice cracked, and Arisa threw herself off the bed and knelt on the floor, unmindful of her bruises and her injured ankle, and wrapped Momiji in a tight embrace. "I can't see her anymore," Momiji whispered against Arisa's shaking shoulder. "Tohru."

They remained that way for several long moments, taking what comfort they could from their shared loss. Eventually, Arisa released Momiji and sat gingerly on the bed, with Momiji coming to sit beside her. They stared dully down at the charm necklace as if to divine from it the fate of their friend, but the silver chain and its little animal charms remained stubbornly mute. "Haru found it?" Momiji finally asked, his voice still husky from crying.

Arisa nodded. "We were searching for the source of that golden light. Osamu said it felt like it came from Touma. We found him lying in a crater with a lot of dead villagers around him. With so many of those damned vipers after us, we didn't have time to look where his companions had gone. I remember Haru-kun breaking away from us to pick something up off the ground. That move nearly cost him his head, and Kensuke had to go after him to keep him from getting lost. I guess this was what Haru-kun risked his life to retrieve back then."

"And he kept it with him all this time," Momiji said softly. "It must have been torture to him, being reminded this way. No wonder he kept turning black so often, despite his injuries."

"She never took it off. Not even to take a bath. Kyoko-san gave it to her, and she was so proud to wear it." Arisa leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes in bitter recollection. "I promised Kyoko-san I'd be there for her. I promised her that I'd make myself worthy to call Tohru my friend. She and Tohru were the ones who saved me, back when I was still with that gang in the Outer City. They were hunting me down to keep me from breaking away, and I would've gotten killed if Kyoko-san hadn't rescued me. Tohru and Kyoko-san, they gave me the strength to climb out of the bottomless pit I'd fallen into. They gave me the strength to change." She thrust a hand through her hair and looked up at the ceiling. "Gods, how do I tell Kyoko-san that I've let Tohru down now?"

Momiji looked over at her and opened his mouth, but the low scraping of the bolt being undone forestalled his speech. The door opened and Rika peered cautiously around it. "Um, hello," she said timidly. "I brought you breakfast."

She opened door wider to make room for the tray she carried, which wobbled precariously in her hands. Momiji rose to help her with it, setting down the bowls of porridge and earthen mugs full of steaming rice coffee on the table. "Waah, we get honey on our porridge? Thanks, Rika."

Rika reddened at his praise. "They almost didn't let me bring it," she admitted, and Momiji caught sight of a man standing outside the door, watching them. When Rika grinned and waved, the man nodded at her, glowering all the time, then bolted the door closed.

Arisa cocked an eyebrow. "You're pretty brave, hanging around a couple of strangers without anyone to watch over you. Aren't you worried we might be dangerous? We've been locked up, after all."

Rika flushed again. "You don't look dangerous," she said in a rush, darting furtive little glances at Momiji. "Although you did scare people when you started yelling and hitting the walls like that. Besides, Yui-oneechan did say you were guests of our village, and there's nothing wrong with me talking to guests, right?"

Arisa and Momiji exchanged looks, then Momiji clasped his hands behind his back and smiled. "True, true," he said, sounding like a ghost of his former ebullient self. Rika smiled shyly back.

She ushered them toward the table and watched them as they picked at their food despite the honey, with her elbows on the table and her chin propped up on her hands, her face bright with fascination. "You two talk funny," she announced, then clapped her hands over her mouth when she realized how rude her statement was. "I mean, you don't talk like anyone else I've met. You make your words sound different," she added hastily. "What village are you from?"

"Not a village," Momiji answered. "We're from Mizaka."

Rika's jaw dropped in shock. "Oh no, you're from the city? You haven't come to arrest Eijiro and Daisuke and Akane and the others, have you?"

"Arrest them?" Arisa echoed. "Why the hell would we do that?"

"Because Mizaka wants to destroy Eijiro and his people."

Both Momiji and Arisa stopped and stared at her, with the glimmering of suspicion evident in Arisa's narrowed eyes. "Waaaait a minute—"

"I think your city was just being mean and cruel," Rika declared roundly. "Eijiro and his people only wanted a place to live in, and Mizaka not only drove them away, it even sent those city guards to kill their chieftain's son and his friends. And that's after they were already driven away, so what's the point in that? Really, that was pretty childish of you. I mean, not you you of course, but your city," she amended.

Neither Momiji nor Arisa seemed to have heard the rest of Rika's little speech as they stared at each other, their faces mirroring each other's thoughts. "Bandits," Momiji said, dropping all pretense of eating. "Eijiro and his men are Ashari bandits."

Arisa gave a short, ironic laugh. "Shit. You mean to tell me we were rescued from demons by a bunch of bandits?"

"Eijiro and his men are not bandits," Rika protested hotly. "They're friendly and nice and they're really good fighters. They saved Takeshi-san and his family when demons invaded their farm, and they showed my father and the other men how to fish so that they could catch more without destroying the schools. Akane even showed Yui-oneechan how to treat someone with the bloody guts. Eijiro and the other Ashari protect our village and the other villages from the real bandits and now from demons and monsters, too. They steal and rob only what they need, and only from those people who deserve it."

"Heeh? Who deserves being robbed and stolen from by Ashari bandits?" Momiji wanted to know.

"W-well, people from Mizaka, I suppose," she said, her words ending in an embarrassed mumble, and she stared down the table top as though she had never seen it before.

Arisa sucked in a breath. "That's why they were tailing our caravan. You were right, Momiji." Momiji locked gazes with her, and the two of them shared the same grim realization. "Oy, Rika, where is Eijiro now?" she asked, her eyes never leaving Momiji's.

"Oh, he and the others left a couple of days ago to go back to their settlement. They just brought you here and told us to take care of you then they left right after," Rika replied, oblivious to the dread her words had stirred.

"And when are they coming back?"

At Momiji's measured question, Rika glanced at him then at Arisa with a puzzled exprssion, somehow beginning to sense the undercurrent of tension. "I don't know," she said with a shrug. "Eijiro only said they'd be back soon. Anytime now, I guess." She took in Momiji's drawn expression, and chewed on her lip for a while. "I could go ask Yui-oneechan, if you want," she offered, then straightened as if coming to a decision. "Yes, that's a good idea. Eijiro talked the longest with her, so she probably knows what his plans are. Let me go ask her."

She skipped to the door, knocked on it three times and waited until it was opened by the same man who brought her to the room. "Wait for me, all right? I won't be long," she called to them, apparently forgetting that neither Momiji nor Arisa had much choice in the matter.

Momiji stared down at his barely eaten porridge with unseeing eyes. "They've been following our caravan for who knows how long," he said in a low voice. "Arisa, they know who we are."

Arisa nodded darkly, the unspoken thoughts flying thick and fast between them. They consider Mizaka their enemy. They think we killed their chieftain's son. And now they think they've gotten their hands on a prize catch: the children of the Sohma clan, Mizaka's most powerful family. They have us at their mercy, and they fully intend to return the favor. "Huh," she said out loud, her lip curling in disgust. "All these bolts and bars on the windows. They must think we're madmen or something."

"We've got get to Haru and Kensuke somehow. Maybe we could ask Rika to help us."

And when they find out that we're worthless to Mizaka, they just might kill us anyway.

"How far do you think we could go? We're all in pretty bad shape, especially those two."

"We could try."

We've got to get out of here. Before they come back for us.

"I don't know how much time we've got, but we have to try. Tohru would have wanted us to."

We've got to escape.

The bolt scraped against the door again, and the two occupants of the room jumped in their seats. Rika practically kicked the door open, earning a scowl from her escort. "Have I got some good news for you!" she announced happily.

"You talked to Yui? What did she say?" Arisa demanded.

Rika shook her head. "Even better. Listen, do you hear that?"

They tilted their heads, sifting through the normal, everyday sounds of the village. They could hear voices speaking excitedly outside, the clucking of chickens and the bleating of a goat that had been tethered to a tree just outside their window. The voices grew louder, and every now and then a child would eagerly shout out a name. There was another sound though, a low, rhythmic thudding that made the ground shiver underneath their feet. A horse neighed in the distance, echoed by another and still another, and as one Momiji and Arisa shot to their feet and rushed to the windows, trying to peer through the cloud of dust and the gathering crowd.

Arisa stepped back with a frozen expression. "Sounds like a fucking army's out there," she muttered.

"Uhuh," Rika chirped, and they turned and stared at her. "They're here. Eijiro and the other Ashari have just come back, and they've brought their chieftain with them. Isn't that wonderful?"

Arisa met Momiji's eyes. It was too late.