Aoshi woke with a start, he let out the beginning of a scream but stopped before he woke any nearby creatures. He looked around, the world was the same as always, the animals all seemed to be staring at him with pupil-less eyes, loathing him for any reason they could find. The fire had gone out and the smoke rose but it didn't quite drift right, it twisted and curled and formed faces that scrutinized him before they faded. He looked at the sun that had grown to look more like a black hole than the source of light. But He wasn't there, so that meant he was most definitely awake. "Another day in hell then…"

Aoshi flopped back down and tried to slow his breath. He looked around for the kid and couldn't find her. "so she decided to take her chances with the wilderness to escape huh? Not too smart, that kid" he said to himself, "then again, the forest probably isn't really as frightening as I see it" . He sighed and finally got his breathing under control. 'back to a one-man army I suppose' he thought to himself. No sooner had he thought this, that Lee burst through a small patch of twisted, blackened bushes with two small fish impaled on sticks, seeing that he was awake she smiled and said, "good morning! I just barely caught breakfast!"

Now Aoshi was confused, "why did you-?" Lee cut him off before he could finish, " 'Cause after yesterday when those damned things kept on moving I decided I'd get up real early and get 'em when they're half asleep!" she announced proudly, "And I got ya too didn't I ya little scum suckin'…" Aoshi sat up and took a close look at the two small fish Lee was now insulting rather vigorously. He noticed that both had claw marks on their sides. "Lee…" he interrupted her string of insults to the fish's mother, "you didn't catch those fish did you?" she hung her head sadly, "no, they were already dead on the beach. How'd you know?"

"I can see the claw marks on their sides."

"Ah." Lee said examining the fishes' flanks. "no matter," Aoshi said, taking the fish from her, "they're still good to eat"

Aoshi looked at the fish in the fire. Through the faces that materialized and de-materialized in the fire he could see The one burning eye that never wavered from looking at him…accusing him for any little thing he did… "I hate fish." Aoshi said darkly, "no matter where you go they are always watching you." Lee cocked an eyebrow, this was a rather random comment from such a seemingly dark and serious person. She looked down at the fish in the fire and locked eyes with it, she leaned to one side, then to the other, "I'll be damned." She whispered to herself "know what?" she said to Aoshi, "I'm not feeling real hungry anymore." Aoshi looked at his own fish and then tossed it in the fire; a particularly ugly face materialized and devoured it. "Nor am I." Lee did the same. No sooner had her fish gone up in flames did her stomach begin to complain. "grrrrrrrrr-RRRRRRRR there has to be something in that bag of mine that doesn't look at you while you eat it!" she sat up and began to quickly dig through her bag. Aoshi had never really wondered what she kept in that bag before but now he was curious. "what's in that bag anyway?" Lee looked up, "oh, this thing? Crap mostly. But occasionally, I will find something useful liiiiiike, OLD, HALF-EATEN LUNCHES!"

"Hmm?"

"FOOD!" she beamed holding up a brown paper bag and dumping it's contents out on the dead ground in front of her, there wasn't much, a few cookies in a bag and a moldy pb&j sandwich. "well, the sandwich is out of the question, judging by the rate it is mutating into a peanut-butter monster of the lake…" Lee made a feeble attempt at a joke, apparently to no avail for Aoshi's expression never changed. She took about three cookies out of the bag and began to eat them.

Aoshi sighed and laid down. He wasn't really hungry due to the fact that his stomach had probably shrunken a great deal while he was in the mountains. He could go days on only one meal if he really needed to.

"oi! Scary! Catch!"

He looked up in time to see a bag of cookies come hurtling towards his face, which he caught with ease, he turned to look at the girl who had thrown them to him, slightly puzzled, "it's payback for the fish yesterday" Lee said smiling. He shrugged and ate them without saying a word. 'geez he is a jerk,' Lee thought to herself, 'didn't even say thanks, or nothing'

After a while Aoshi stood. "we should go," he said, "before the sun gets too high." Heat didn't bother him much but the girl's body would wear out quickly in the midday sun. So he put out the fire, and headed back towards the stream. Lee grabbed her bag wearily and trudged along behind him.

For a good three hours they followed the stream in silence….that was around the time Lee came to realize something….being kidnapped was really boring. The only noise was from the stream. Finally, she couldn't take it any more and broke the silence, "ya know? Whatever happened to the exciting kidnapping stories, full of terror and threats to the kid's life, and savage animals….and the hot hero who comes in and beats the bad guy bloody!" Aoshi looked at her for a moment then shrugged and continued walking.

"AND AFTER ALL THAT ALL YOU DO IS SHRUG!" Lee yelled angrily after him. He sighed, "look, child, now that I know you have no connection with Battosai I don't have that much of a grudge against you." Lee looked even more put out now, "THEN WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME CARRY YOUR JUNK!" she yelled at him, waving the sheathed swords in the air. "That," he said turning around and bending so he could get in her face, "is for hitting me where no man deserves to be hit!" he glared at her for a moment longer, then stood up straight, and continued walking.

They trudged along without a word for a while longer…then Aoshi got bored. "what is in that bag really? It must've been hard if it knocked you out." He said curiously. "oh," Lee said, "it was probably the laptop."

"the what?"

"my Laptop," she repeated and pulled a square, black box out of her bag. The top was polished and smooth, like blackened glass, but faint gold lines separated the surface into squares. It was shallow in height, maybe half an inch. On one side it had many holes, outlined in bright colors with pictures and symbols next to them that Aoshi didn't understand. He had never seen such a thing before, but Lee spoke of it as though it were an everyday thing. "what in hell…" he said stopping to gawk at the strange object. Lee sat down on the ground with it and began to do something to it, Aoshi didn't know what. He kneeled down to get a closer look at it. "what? You can't tell me you've never seen one before." Lee said to him over her shoulder, smiling. She pushed two levers out to the sides and lifted, the top swung up like a trap door. The inside was filled with buttons. Lee pressed one and the one side that was smooth was dark for a moment then the box began to make a noise, it sounded like the wind whistling but more dull, more like…an intake of breath. 'this thing is breathing' Aoshi realized. Another noise came from it, a "beep" that sounded almost too perfect, it was unnatural, no living being could make that noise. The thing began to suck more air and it groaned in more than one tone, all of them were, again, unnatural sounding. The thing was waking up. Then the back of it suddenly lit with a blue light. Worse, it was awake. A large red and black vortex appeared on the once blue back of the thing. It's great red eye never blinking and always glowing. "It's…a demon" he said incredulously. What else could it be? He began to back away from it…"it…it shouldn't be…"

"oh calm down," Lee said laughingly, "I use it to communicate with my friends." She touched one spot clear of buttons and a small white arrow appeared on the creature's flat eye. When her finger moved along the patch the arrow followed the same path. She moved it to the bottom of the eye and a small blue bar popped up. She moved the arrow to a oval at the end of it and pressed a nearby button. A menu popped up along with it. Lee repeated this, every time she pressed that button while the arrow was over it a menu popped up until one covered the eye entirely. "Let's see if I have any mail" Lee said. She looked over her shoulder at the now dumbstruck Aoshi. His mouth had dropped open so much it nearly touched the ground. "You have no idea what's going on do you?" he shook his head slowly. Lee explained how the internet and the mouse worked and how you could write and send letters to people via cyberspace.

Incredibly, he got it… for the most part. A computer was a demon that worked for humans as an assistant and they were all telepathically connected by a system called, "internet" they could tell the messages to other "computers" and those computers would tell their master. But what would they do to someone who wasn't their master? His thoughts were interrupted by Lee, "what in…"

Aoshi looked over her shoulder, the message was in English symbols he couldn't read.

She read it out loud, "It's from one of my really close friends, Jeannie, she wrote,

'Lee,

where have you been? I heard that you and Mitch had gone missing from some kid at school, please E-mail me back if you get this, some weird things have been happening. It was all over the news, in case you haven't heard, they found a frozen body in the Himalayas, ya know, an ice mummy, they thawed it out and found that it was wearing denim, and had a watch on it's wrist…according to the carbon dates, it died around 200 B.C. plus, they say it didn't even die from the cold, it's neck was broken, along with most of it's other bones, like it had fallen from a great distance, but there was nothing that could have dropped him from that high back then. Planes weren't invented till loooooooong after that. Weirder still, it had the exact same necklace Mitch had, Y'know, that cheesy silver one he's always bragging about 'cuz it's "custom made" , the hawk that spreads it's wings to make a cross, that one. It's too advanced and symmetrical to be made by hand. His parents wanted to claim ownership of their lost, now dead, son. But the government is still insisting that he isn't Mitch, his mom wanted to see if the DNA off his first tooth matched the ice mummy's. And the bastards won't help that poor woman find her son just because it would prove that they don't have answers. None of us know how the carbon dating may have screwed up but…it must've somehow.

Please, send me a reply if you get this.

Jeannie'"

Lee stared at the screen for a while longer, "Mitch…" she said, her voice cracked and she hung her head and began to quiver. "he-he was annoying but…I didn't want him to…" she hugged her knees and hid her face. She looked up to look at the E-mail again but a hand closed the lid. "we'll stay here tonight." came a gentle voice. Lee looked up from her now tear-stained knees. She was slightly surprised to see that it belonged to Aoshi.

She didn't eat. Even though he'd offered her some food, she shook her head and looked away. "who was he? Friend? Sibling?" Aoshi asked. She shook her head, "Ex-boyfriend, he was the one who stole my notebook that day. He was mad because I was going to take the lead role in the play, even though I had to perform a stage kiss with some kid he didn't like. I wanted him to die then…I was so mad…I just…never expected it to happen…" she looked down again, hiding her face with her hair. "I thought…maybe…he was close by where I came out and…and he'd follow me so we could find a way home…somehow."

"don't blame yourself for what you haven't done. It won't do you or his soul any good and it won't bring him back." He said softly, staring into the eyes of a passing face in the fire. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW!" Lee yelled form the other side of the fire, "DON'T YOU PREACH TO ME! WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS? WHO'S EVER DIED ON YOU HUH?" She glared at him angrily. He said nothing, just continued to stare into the fire. "I know more pain than you probably ever will." He said quietly. He glared darkly at one face in the flame that laughed at him now.

After a long time of being lost in thought, Aoshi turned away from the fire and lay down. He looked at the sky but no longer wanted to look at the twisted moon and stars and turned his head and saw that lee had cried herself to sleep. 'poor kid,' he thought to himself. The night had gotten cold and the child shivered in her sleep. The cold never bothered him, he always felt a death chill, he'd gotten used to it. But Lee would get sick. Without really thinking, he took off the trench coat he always wore and covered her with it. He then lay down with his head against a log and slept.

"It would appear that she hit a nerve didn't she, My twin? Why wasn't she punished like anyone else?" that voice that sent chills through the body, it could only be one person… "Why do insist upon torturing me?" Aoshi asked his dark reflection who was now standing over him, looking down in contempt. "you've become attached, Aoshi."

" I have not, you have taken that ability from me." He said glaring at his twin yet also his opposite. "no, I haven't, I simply made you realize that it wasn't worth the pain." The Other Him said, grinning wide, flashing his wickedly pointed teeth. "if the kid got sick she'd be of no use to me…that's the only reason I gave her my coat." Aoshi said looking at the ground. "oh how badly you lie, brother." The Other Him said, kneeling down next to him. "remember that I know every little thought you have, no matter how private you think it is." Aoshi glared at this, "I thought nothing of the sort, it must have been you." The Other Him laughed, "right, I'll tell you what, I'll make you a little bet,"

"fine, I'll accept." Aoshi said, a challenge was evident in his voice.

The Other Him's icy eyes flashed with malice, "you resist the girl for a month and I'll only appear when you call me. Fail though, and I take total control of your body, and you become the alter-ego."

"resist? What do you-"

His lips pulled back again to reveal those pointed teeth again, "it doesn't matter, you have just sold you soul to Ihsoa." The inner world began to slip away again. And before Aoshi could question any further, his vision went black.

Aoshi only woke because he felt something move on his chest. He groggily looked for the source of the disturbance to find a sleeping Lee. Her head was on his chest and one arm was around his neck. He jumped a little at the sight, thinking maybe he was seeing things he shook his head, but no, she was really there. The coat was now covering the both of them. Lee began to move. He probably woke her up when he jumped. She sleepily nuzzled her face into his chest. Aoshi could feel his face getting red and his heart begin to beat at 150 mph. she finially looked up and saw who she was laying on.

It took a moment for both of them to register what was going on. In that moment Aoshi realized something; sometime during the night, he had wrapped his arms around her waist and they were still there. Plus, the bottom of her jacket had ridden up and his hands touched her warm flesh. Both of them quickly released the other and rolled away from them. "What were you doing!" Lee demanded as she clutched at her heart, trying to make it slow down. "I could ask you the very same question!" he yelled back.

She looked like she was going to argue but then went quiet, "last night, I woke up and saw that you'd given me the coat so I got up to thank you and accidentally touched your hand…you were freezing so I decided we could both use it…THEN YOU TAKE IT IN THE TOTALLY WRONG DIRECTION!"

"I TOOK IT IN THE WRONG DIRECTION! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO LAYED ON MY CHEST DURING THE NIGHT!"

"NO, YOU PUT ME THERE! YOUR ARMS WERE STILL AROUND ME WHEN I WOKE UP!"

"IT'S A NATURAL REACTION TO HOLD SOMETHING THAT IS PUT IN YOUR ARMS WHILE YOU'RE SLEEPING!"

This went on for quite a while before they came to the agreement that it was just coincidence and neither of them willed it (in the back of their heads they each knew this wasn't true) and they packed up and left.

After a while Lee said, "still though, thank you for giving me the coat."

"It was nothing." Aoshi said quietly. He touched the place on his chest where her head had been, it was still warm for some reason. The death chill that usually permeated his body to the bone was gone in the spots where she had touched him. He looked down at her and noticed something that he hadn't before, the area around her didn't seem as dead as it usually was…she made the grass under her feet seem alive again, and for the first time in a long time Aoshi swore he saw the world in daylight…

woot! I got chapter # 2 dooone Finally! I'd like to thank my one and only reviewer (as of august 20 2005) for reading my little story

yours truly,

aoshionspeed1317