I know none of you care but I scraped like a whole layer of skin off my toe! It hurts! But enough on my petty problems, here is the next chapter and you all better kiss Tallulah's feet cause if it weren't for her you'd be getting crap, she's the one who whips me into shape when I write badly!

ShadowAngel26- Glad you liked it...keep reviewing but please leave out that word

Tallulah- ok...here we go, yes I am American! I'm a kid in America (singing off tune and switches abruptly to Green Day) Don't wanna be an American idiot! I checked my Japanese dictionary and it is Neesan, it means older sister, it's a less formal way, I believe sort of like sissy or something...well thank you for betaing and reviewing.

Gijinka Renamon- thank you for review and I'm glad you like it!

Standard disclaimers apply

Chapter 5

(Masago)

I stood there on top of that junk heap in the middle of that destroyed area staring at the man, my long hair whipping around behind me in the wind. I didn't know what to do. Obviously I was going to speak to him sooner or later, I had seen it. None of visions had ever been wrong and I didn't think they were about to start right now. But I didn't want to talk to him, right now, tomorrow or ever. I just wanted to sit down and be alone. Not have to worry about anything. Waves of sadness, almost like despair, were rolling off him. I wasn't close enough to him to be able to hear his thoughts but I could almost guarantee I didn't want to. Lifting my foot to begin my retreat, I tripped and fell down creating a sound loud enough to wake the dead. The man turned to look at me and I nearly died. Here I was flat on my ass in front of some old man who supposedly knew my family with my face all puffy and red from crying.

"Do you want something?" he asked rather roughly and I found myself comparing him to my fellow gang mates; that's how they usually talk.

"Not really." I stood up and lost my footing, stumbling into 'thought range.' Who does she remind me of? She looks familiar.

"Who are you?" He was eyeing me warily as he took in what I looked like and I had to listen to his mental critique of how I appeared. To sum it up: I was too short, too thin and too red and puffy.

"Masago," I muttered trying to think up a way to get the hell out of here. I didn't want to deal with this right now. "What's your name?"

"Kai," he answered and I filed his name away. "What are you doing here?" It was nice that he wasn't thinking too much now, just asking what came to mind.

"I came here to get away from it all. To escape from people and their thoughts." Figuring there was no point in trying to dodge the upcoming conversation, I sat down and pulled my hair over one shoulder. Uta liked the fact that I had long hair; she thought it was nice that I had one feminine thing about me. Yuki and the rest only saw it as a hazard and thought I should cut it off. Absently I separated the tresses into three sections and began braiding. I kept my hair long because one of the only things I can remember about my mother was that she loved long hair. It was one of the only things I had that reminded me of her and my family.

"Have you ever heard of someone named Kaneda?" I asked this not because I wanted to know or because I was curious but because it seemed a logical way to start the conversation. My head was still throbbing and pounding and so I didn't feel like beating around the bush.

"Why?" He was wary of me and had every right to be; I mean if I was some old decrepit guy who most likely wore Depends I would be a little cautious. I could easily be some whacked out psycho (which wasn't too far from the truth) who wanted to beat him up and steal all of his money.

"Cause I'm looking into my family history." I couldn't help the sarcasm that seeped into my voice, it was pure accident. "My grandfather's name was Kaneda and his wife was Kei, other than that I don't know much else." How could I have not known! Of course she is Kaneda's grandkid, she looks very similar and she's sure got his attitude down pat.

"So you're Kaneda's grandkid, shoulda known." He looked at me and I got the feeling he wasn't seeing me. "I knew your grandparents, they were good people." It was what he had said in my vision, but slightly different and that threw me. In the vision he had spoken better, more correctly, he was saying basically the same thing, but it was different. "Did they ever tell you about Akira or Yamagata? Tetsuo and Kaori?"

"Thank you Kai." I breathed a sigh of relief and pushed my braid behind me. It felt so nice to have that out of the way. "No, they never told me about those people. Kei died giving birth to my father, and Kaneda was killed when I was very young, along with the rest of my family." Dark anger began to bubble up inside me but I tamped it down; there was no need to have a fit in front of some poor old geezer.

"I'm sorry." There was genuine regret in Kai's voice, which surprised me. Most people just say they're sorry because they're at a loss for words but when he said it, it was like he meant it. So you beat me there after all Kaneda…all three of you. Now I'm really on my own.

"Who were those people you spoke of?" I wanted to know for some odd reason.

"They are part of the past," Kai responded coldly but I caught the flash of emotion running through him. Why would she want to know? Why should I dredge up the past? It won't help anything. Hundreds of images, feelings and voices flashed through my mind. My grandfather crashing a bike. Wind whipping through your hair while the thrill of the chase takes you over. Kei walking across water. KANEDA! Kai sobbing over someone's body. A huge explosion. Your soul being ripped from your body; your one true love is dead. A young boy on a heap of rubble, he's high on capsules. That music that Kaneda loved. If you wanted to die why didn't you just hang yourself or something? Tears spilling down your cheeks. What about my burning desire to study and learn a vocation! Hands sliding over your skin. Lips on yours. The rising sun symbol. YAMAGATA!

The screaming went on and on but it wasn't in my or Kai's head anymore, it was coming from me. For the second time today I was screaming and sobbing unable to control myself whatsoever. The pressure in my head was increasing until I felt like it was in a vise and someone was cranking the handle, causing it to go tighter and tighter. Something popped and I collapsed, all the tension gone from my body, and I lay there, tears leaking from under my closed eyelids.

"Holy hell," Kai breathed next to me, it would have been humorous had I been in another condition. "What happened?"

"You won't believe me," I groaned, curling up into a ball. "There's no point in explaining."

"You don't know till you try." It was like what happened to Tetsuo that once after he had beaten up that Clown. An image of a black haired boy stumbling down the street clutching his head popped into my mind, then an image of me curled up on the ground.

"I can hear every thought that crosses your mind and every other person's mind. I can see into the future, feel others emotions, move things without touching them and communicate mind to mind." I waited for him to scoff and say something derogatory, but I wasn't expecting:

"That explains a lot." Cracking open an eye I looked up at Kai who was watching me. "Your grandfather never told you about Tetsuo?" The boy clutching his head popped into my mind, the same one on the rubble heap who was high on capsules.

"No," I croaked, sitting up and coughing hard. "Why should he have?"

"Your grandpop and I were in the same gang along with Tetsuo and my…" He hesitated trying to figure out what to say. What should I say? My friend? I loved him and him me, but maybe this girl won't get that; even now people are stupid about it. They don't understand that you don't have to be different genders to be in love.

"Your lover?" I offered this for him, I didn't mind homosexual relationships, "You guys were in love right?"

"Yes, his name was Yamagata." The rising sun symbol flashed through my mind. A nice looking dark haired guy showing his injuries to a girl. The same guy who must have been Yamagata yelling loudly about something. Him asleep with his sheet wrapped around his waist showing off his muscular chest. On his bike. Laughing. Teasing. Smiling. Scowling. Drinking.

"One night when the gang was fighting our main rivals Tetsuo got in an accident." The boy was back but was lying on the ground obviously badly hurt. "He was taken away to what we thought was a hospital; were we ever wrong. He was taken to some sort of scientific facility, they woke up some dormant power inside of him." Tetsuo flinging Yamagata back without touching him. He wasn't himself. "He turned into this evil creature that none of us recognized." Kai paused for a moment and closed his eyes, his throat worked but nothing came out. "He…he killed Yama right in front of me." He swallowed hard and bowed his head. Yamagata's body, twisted and mangled, was all I could see even though my eyes were open.

"The fucking bastard killed him!" Kai clenched his fists, "I watched him die! There was nothing I could do! Nothing!" His anger, remorse and hatred swamped me and I found myself drowning in his intense emotions. There was nothing I could do! Yama please forgive me! I'm so sorry!

"Stop!" I gasped, struggling to disengage from his mind and emotions but I couldn't. It was all starting to hurt again and I wanted it to stop.

"Sorry." Kai cut himself off and stopped thinking about it.

"Don't be, I'm so sorry for your loss but I can't handle your emotions right now," I whispered, my voice sounding hoarse and strained. "It's my fault, please go on."

"I don't really know what happened in the end, I wasn't there." Kai was trying to not feel or think about his feelings but all the images engulfed me. A huge explosion of light taking over the whole city. Kei realizing that Kaneda was in there. The aftermath of trying to find Kaneda and thinking him dead. KANEDA! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! He said Tetsuo wasn't dead, just gone. It was easier to think him dead. "It happened right here. He killed Kaori, his girlfriend, before he died." A young innocent girl, she followed Tetsuo around like a puppy. She loved him. "He killed countless others as well."

"How does that explain anything?" I asked, wanting him to get to the point.

"Kei was a medium, I think, for the sort of power you have," Kai explained. Kei walking across water with an aged young child who was blue. "Kaneda said they could control her actions. He told me that she was the beginning of humans gaining more power, like what Tetsuo had."

"So you're saying that…" I trailed off staring at him in horror; I could be like Tetsuo? I could end up killing all those I cared for? Would I turn into some kind of monster like him? Is this my future? Tetsuo's past?

"It makes sense that you and your family would inherit her powers," Kai told me. My family? I don't think my family ever displayed powers like mine, none of them! A memory rose up from the depths of my mind, a pot with a wooden spoon in it stirring the pot by itself while Chiyo cut up something next to it. Chiyo had had powers! While I was still revelling in the fact that I wasn't the only one in my family who had possessed power, Kai had begun talking again.

"-do you live with?" Focusing in on him I was able to catch enough of his question to make sense of it.

"When my family was killed I was put in an orphanage." I started in on my own tale. "I ran away multiple times but they always got me back somehow. Finally I ran into Yuki and his lot, they took me in so I didn't have to go back. Yuki, Raiden and Takeo banded together to take care of me. All four of us are in a gang together, Yuki's the leader with Takeo and Raiden in second."

"How come you say 'my family was killed' and not 'my family's dead?'" Kai hit the nail right on the head. He asked the question that no one ever asked. Like all those years ago, that other presence inside me came to life, but this time it didn't comfort me. Uncontrollable anger and hatred flooded through my system.

"My family was slaughtered by the underground, you know, the people who sell illegal drugs and weapons." My voice was not my own, it was someone else's, and the tone was pure ice. "My father refused to deal with them, he didn't want their blood on his hands." I was starting to breathe harder as I clenched my fists. "They came in the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep, filthy cowards! We were defenseless! They dragged us outside and torched the house just in case someone else was in there." I was starting to shake hard, along with some pieces of junk nearby. "My mother shoved me under our neighbor's car when no one was looking. She saved me right before they began to beat the shit out of all of them!" Random things flew into the air around me and began to whip around me like a tornado. "I hit my head and blacked out, and when I woke up…each and every one of them was dead."

Mommy! I was reliving it! I didn't want to! Make it stop! Mommy! Wake up! I grabbed her arm, it was ice cold, there was no more life in it but I still shook it as hard as I could. Why won't you get up? Mommy! Daddy! Where are you Daddy? Make Mommy get up! There he was, there was Daddy, he would make Mommy wake up, he'd make her stop playing this game! Grabbing on to his sleeve I caught sight of his face and jerked backwards. What had happened to Daddy? Why did he look like that? My hand touched someone else so I turned to see who it was. Grandpa! He was watching me with his black eyes, but they weren't smiling any more. Clapping my hands over my mouth I trapped a scream, Mommy had told me to be quiet and I had to listen to her. My vision blurred with tears.

Chiyo! If I find her she'll know what to do! She always knows what to do! Hurrying over to where I saw the blue of her nightgown I found her lying in a pool of red water. Her eyes were open just like Grandpa's and she was holding Goro tightly. Why did they do this neesan? Why? I looked away, knowing that soon Chiyo would yell at me to take Goro because he was getting too heavy, but she didn't. Kami! Manzo! I rested my small hand on my brother's face, ripping my hand away when I came into contact with cold skin and blood. Then I began to cry.

"Masago! Masago, snap out of it!" Someone was shaking me, calling me back; opening my eyes, I found Kai watching me, worry etched on his face.

"Mmm'ok," I murmured and he stared at me in disbelief. Trying to break the tension I glanced at my watch and started. "Shit! Yuki's going to kill me! I was supposed to be home about three hours ago!" Quickly I shoved myself to my feet and was about to hurry off to my bike when I remembered a question I had wanted to ask him. "Kai, why do you come here? I mean, I've never seen you here before."

"I only come here on the anniversary of Tetsuo's death," he whispered not looking at me but at the full moon in the sky. "I come here after I visit Yama's grave." Why did I survive, Yama? You were so much stronger and better! You had more to live for!

"I'm sorry that I interrupted you, I didn't mean to ruin your day of mourning." I bowed my head and said a short but meaningful prayer for Tetsuo, Kaori and Yamagata. "I'm sorry that I must leave so abruptly, please forgive me." I bowed and only after he responded with an accepting motion did I leave to go to my bike. Since there was no one riding behind me I didn't bother to do anything with my hair and just pulled on my gloves. It was a short ride home because I was absorbed in my thoughts so much that I couldn't hear anyone else's. Soon I was standing outside of our apartment door listening to Yuki pace back and forth worrying about me.

Placing my hand on the doorknob I twisted it, preparing myself for what was to come. I knew I would be yelled at for not coming straight home or at least telling him where I was going but it was the fact that he cared enough about me to worry and yell at me that warmed me. Pushing open the door, I embraced what was to come immediately and pushed aside any thoughts of what was going to happen after that. Everyone said to live in the present, not in the past or the future. That was what I was going to do.

R&R!1