By animeninjaNIPPON

Dear God, I must have been losing my mind. But no, I was still sane - it's not like I left to join Hao or the X-Laws, I just...couldn't get Chocolove out of my thoughts. And I don't mean merely his stupid, unfunny jokes that somehow made me laugh, I mean HIM.

Allthough I did start to get an idea of why they often amused me: they temporarily took my mind off my troubles. But in retrospect, there were probably other things I could have used for such a vice. Of course, the jokes were only a small part of the whole issue...

About a day or so after that cactus incident, my teammates and I were walking through Patch Village, looking for a Chinese restaurant (at my request), when some guy in a leather jacket and ripped blue jeans bumped into Chocolove.

"You better watch where you're going." He whirled around and pushed Chocolove into the brick wall beside us.

"Hey, what's your problem?" HoroHoro demanded.

The punk turned to face Horo and me. "Tell your friend to pay attention to passers-by."

I could feel my blood boiling, and I wanted so badly to oversoul Bason and show that jerk a thing or two. Had Yoh, Anna, Tamao, and Jun (as well as their spirit allies) not stepped in, I probably would have done something to the extent of attacking that guy while he was unarmed.

Now I was definitely no stranger to anger or frustration, but all that time I'd spent with Yoh and them had whittled away at my feelings of hatred. They were my friends, I guess I could say, and of course I'd be upset if someone mistreated them, but the feeling I got when I saw that happen to Chocolove was more than I would have expected of myself at that point in time. It left me asking myself, "Would I have done the same thing if it was HoroHoro or Ryu?"

That night, I went outside and up to the roof of the place I took temporary residence in. The stars were bright and bold, as they always were on a clear night. I looked up at the moon, which was waxing, and just spent some time thinking about various things.

"Young Master." Bason interrupted my contemplation. I slowly turned around in his general direction. "There's something bothering you, isn't there?"

"I'm fine," I replied.

"Forgive me, but I sense that you are worried about something."

I sighed. It was futile to lie to someone as connected to me as Bason - he was, after all, my spirit ally. "Perhaps I am."

"What is it?"

"It's Chocolove." I hoped no one else could hear me. "I honestly don't know what it is, but...something draws me to him. Makes me want to...to understand him better." I could have phrased that better, but Bason seemed to know what I was talking about.

"I see...Young Master, you've taken a liking towards him."

The way he said that made my stomach get this weird fluttering feeling. "What do you mean by that?"

"You like him."

Damn. It was phrased more appropriately the first way. But it didn't matter, because either way, Bason was right. That strange shaman had grown on me. And somehow, I felt he'd liked me from the start.

End of part nine