A/n: I'm sooo excited! I didn't think I was going to be able to finish this chapter before I left! I couldn't get it to flow right, nothing seemed at all quality; and then, suddenly, it hit me. It's not long I'm afraid, and it's not edited, because it's already ten o'clock and I'm going to have to be up tomorrow at six to catch my flight. Sorry! I'm going away for eight days, btw, to a national competition for school, so I won't be home until next Monday the 25th. I honestly didn't think I was going to have anything to post at all, but then I saw that it had been so long since last time, and I didn't want to make you wait even longer! So please forgive the shortness/lack of action in this chapter. Next chapter the real action begins; the final stages of the tour. It'll probably be another four chapters or so and that'll be a wrap. I'll update as soon as I get home; don't be too angry! I love you all!

Chapter Fifteen: Stop Thirty-eight: Cape Town, South Africa

Cairo, Egypt had been their first destination, and Mitsuki immediately felt like she'd been transported back two-thousand years to the time of the Christian bible. She found herself taken out of the moist, sweltering rainforests to the dry, scorching deserts. But even here, the people were the same as they'd been in South America; needy but friendly. Her skin had toughened to it, but everyday new horrors slipped in through her mind. Still, she rode a camel through the Cairo desert, took a boat down the Nile and visited the Great Pyramids. In Nigeria, she took a more local approach, and she and Takuto visited local schools and played with the children for the day. Even though they were only able to explain a few short things through a translator, the children didn't need the language, they only needed the love, and Mitsuki found herself laughing right along with them as they pointed to different objects and she gave them the Japanese equivalent to the word. Apparently, Japanese was entirely foreign and completely hilarious to the small children, who giggled hysterically at almost every word she or Takuto spoke.

In the Congo, she was once again surrounded by rainforests, and she and Takuto were happily enjoying their lunches and trading stories about the places they'd visited when a group of local monkeys decided they were hungry and their lunch looked good enough for the day. The first to spring, landed directly on Takuto's head, clawing at his hair as he ran frantically to get the creature off his back. Mitsuki just stared in shock as he ran, screaming for help, "Me?" she pointed to herself and shook her head.

"No way man, that's one angry monkey," she jested, and Takuto glared and ripped the creature off. Needless to say, their lunch went to the monkeys, and Takuto was extremely thankful for the preliminary vaccinations they'd had to get when they struggled back to their hotel, and he found claw marks in his scalp and back.

"Only in Africa," he'd muttered, and Mitsuki laughed and agreed. There was something special in every place they'd been, and Africa was no exception. Europe and America had been all about what they held in material possessions, what monuments were there, what landscapes, but South America and Africa were beautiful and special for different reasons. Mitsuki could hardly place what they were, but she knew there was something sacred in the pristine and undeveloped lands. The ways of the people were primitive, but hardly uncivilized. The people were respectful and very dedicated to their lives and families. Mitsuki found herself wondering what she would choose if she had to choose between being as rich as she was but having no love, or being dirt poor and having more spirit and passion and love than any other person alive. She guessed she would rather live in a grass hovel and have a family and a job that made her happy than live in a mansion with no one to live in it with her. Fortunately for her, she would probably never have to make that choice, but she knew now what it meant, and she would defend these people if she could.

In South Africa, she found herself in a whole new world all together. Cape Town was far from primitive, as many of the other places she'd been were. Cape Town was not only a bustling city; it was a rich bustling city.

"They mine gold and diamonds in South Africa," Takuto whispered next to her on the plane when her eyes nearly bulged open at the sight.

She vaguely remembered hearing that, but she'd never placed South Africa in Africa for some reason, but there was apparently good reason. South Africa didn't seem to resemble the rest of the continent at all, or at least not the parts of the continent she'd seen. South Africa was just as alive as the rest of Africa, but it was more alive in the way America and Japan were alive, busy and hurried, not spirited and slow-paced. While South Africa functioned like the "modern" cities, it also functioned like a machine, unlike the rest of the continent and most of South America, which seemed to be breathing.

Suddenly, Mitsuki didn't feel as elated at the thought of a "civilized" society.

"It's all right," Takuto assured her, "That feeling will pass. You'll get reintroduced. There's something terribly romantic about the third world, about the sufferance there, but you'll soon realize you're glad you're where you are."

Since their time in Argentina, Takuto and Mitsuki began getting closer and closer, so they were at the point where they could almost read one another's minds. It was frightening and exhilarating all at the same time. Mitsuki loved that closeness, yet she dreaded it, because now that she was that close, she realized that Takuto was simply burying his questions for her sake, not because they still didn't itch him. And what happened when their tour was over? Did it go back to the way it was? What would the media say when they got wind of what had been happening between the two singers, both on and offstage? Did they already know? Dear gods, what does Oba-chan think? I bet they've made our little half-romance into a lust-filled tryst by now. Mitsuki shook the unwelcome thought away and turned her eyes back to the city that was quickly approaching. They still had a week here and a week in Australia, and then they were at their final destination – Tokyo.

Takuto seemed to sigh when she thought it, but she didn't comment on where the sigh came from; she knew he was probably thinking the same thoughts she was, and neither wanted to confront the questions.

Izumi sighed and rubbed his temples. Meroko had made herself scarce since that night in Argentina when he'd lied to Jonathan, and it was taking all his energy to keep the guise up for his Shinigami partner that when he was alone, he barely had the strength to search for her. And even if he did, he knew he wouldn't find her. Meroko wouldn't be found if she didn't want to be, and for some reason, she didn't seem to want to be.

I hope she didn't take what I was saying literally, he thought grouchily as he flew over Cape Town, following Mitsuki and Takuto on one of their usual excursions.

"Where is Meroko lately, Izumi?" Jonathan demanded heatedly, only worsening Izumi's dark mood.

"I don't know," he snapped, refusing to look at the ghost creature beside him.

"Well how are you going to…"

"Would you shut up?" he growled, and Jonathan snapped his mouth shut. At least I still have that one advantage; he's spent so many years being subservient to me that he doesn't even think before he does things sometimes. I should play off that…that made a small smile appear on Izumi's lips. He guessed some of his bad-guy instincts would never completely wear off. "There, down there," Izumi pointed, and Jonathan turned to him. "See that little girl? Turn her into an illusion of Full Moon."

"What? Why?" Jonathan questioned, examining the girl in front of Mitsuki and Takuto.

"Because Takuto thinks he was in love with Full Moon!" Izumi sighed, trying to seem exasperated. "That'll throw him off-guard, make him shy away."

Jonathan nodded his approval and flew downward to do as Izumi instructed. Little did he know, but Takuto and Mitsuki were sticking like glue thanks to their little truce, and Full Moon would hopefully only make Takuto question. It was a gamble, but it might just work.

As he waited for Jonathan to return, a calming presence filled his body, and he sighed, relieved, "Me-chan," he called in his mind, and the quiet, yet oddly sad voice entered his mind.

"You wonder why I've been distant?"

"I do," Jonathan answered in his mind, trying to keep the pained expression off his face and a scowl firmly in place. Why did she sound so sad? She didn't honestly believe what he'd said to Jonathan, did she?

"No," she answered simply, "but you still lied."

Izumi faltered, "What? I lied so that he wouldn't find us out and make a problem for them! I lied to protect what is good! Does that make it wrong?"

"An evil done in the name of good, is still evil," she answered with an ancient proverb, and he sighed, defeated. "Were you afraid to fight him?"

"There are things in this world that I cannot fight Me-chan, and the Shinigami boss is one of them. Fighting Jonathan would have raised eyebrows, and we would have been discovered. This way, Mi-ki and Ta-kun are safe."

"Are you so unsure of yourself then, that you didn't think your love would overcome it all?" her voice was strained, as if she was fighting something in him, trying to show him something he just could not see.

"I'm only scared Me-chan!" he was on his last leg. Why couldn't he do anything right for her? He'd changed his whole personality; he'd defied everything that he'd come to know, just to please her, and even now she wasn't happy! "I don't want to have to live without you! I just want us to be able to be together as long as possible, and if lying will get me there then I'll do it!"

Her voice seemed to smile, ever so slightly, "I am glad that you love me this much Izumi, but you won't be able to stand up to your punishment if there is still evil in your heart. I want us to be together too, and this is why I tell you; you must do only good; from this point forward. Your judging day is coming, and coming swiftly."

And then her voice and presence vanished again, and Izumi was left with a baffling riddle. His judging day, what was that supposed to mean?

Mitsuki laughed joyously at the young girl in front of her and Takuto who was playing hopscotch on a sidewalk near her house. Takuto grinned at her and took her hand as they stopped and watched the complicated patterns the girl made with her feet. They'd begun thinking it was hopscotch, but it turned out to be some kind of dance that they didn't quite understand, but was beautiful all the same. So, some African traditions still stood, even in the civilized parts of the continent of wilderness.

Takuto turned to look at Mitsuki briefly, and when he looked back to the young girl; she was no longer there. In her place, was a girl that resembled Mitsuki, only with stunning blond hair and younger seeming eyes. For some reason, those eyes didn't seem to match the girl. They were so naïve, so innocent, and this girl had to be at least sixteen; no sixteen year old was totally innocent, not like those eyes showed. Not even Mitsuki, with her kind heart and sympathetic personality had eyes quite like those. Those were the eyes of a child, and Takuto found his head spinning.

"Takuto?" Mitsuki called, but he shook his head at her, trying to get her to back off for a minute while the image swam, and he tried to make just one stay put for a second, so that he could see it.

There was a little girl, Mitsuki¸ he reminded himself. Yes, there was Mitsuki, standing in a park, with someone, a man, with blue hair and cat ears…was that him? He couldn't be sure, and he could feel the image fading, so he looked around quickly, there was the bunny girl with the cotton candy hair – Meroko. The man held something out to the little girl, a drop of blood was it? The girl smiled and took it, and the air seemed to shift as if it was being affected by a great energy…

"Takuto?" Mitsuki shook his shoulders frantically; his sudden collapse had scared the little girl out of her dance, and she'd come to see what was happening to the odd foreigners.

Takuto pulled himself out of the trance and sighed, "Nothing," he mumbled, but Mitsuki stopped him.

"What was it?"

He sighed and nodded to her, "Shall we go back to the hotel?"

She agreed quickly, both apologized to the little girl for interrupting her dance (as best they could with the language barrier) and gave her a complete, formal set of Japanese bows which delighted her enough, so that they didn't even need to be understood. With that, they headed back to the hotel, Mitsuki fidgeting the whole way, anticipating the questions and secretly wondering where Izumi was and what he was up to. He'd let too much slip; there was something wrong, and fear was welling in her stomach.

"So he has betrayed us as well," a voice boomed from the clouds, and Jonathan nodded, trying not to cower in fear. "Very well, then it will be your task to stop whatever Izumi is doing, but more importantly, what that girl may let slip to Takuto. He must not remember his past…is this completely clear?"

Jonathan took a deep breath and stammered a hasty acceptance, and the voice dismissed him with silence as he set off to sabotage whatever final attempts might be made to restore Takuto's memory. The war of the Shinigami was on.

"My God my tourniquet

Return to me, salvation

Do you remember me?

Lost for so long…

Will you be on the other side?

Or will you forget me?

I'm dying, praying, bleeding and screaming

Am I too lost to be saved?

Am I too lost…?

My wolves, cry for the grave

My soul cries, for deliverance…"

Evanescence, Tourniquet