This is chapter 20 everyone! Sorry for double posting. There was something wrong with the document. Wow, I can't believe we just hit the double-digit mark! Technically we already did when I had chapter 10, but I just feel elated at the moment. Just so you know, this chapter was rewritten twice. Not that I had anything to do with it; my computer just crashed and made me restart the darn thing. Oh well. At least you guys can get DOUBLE the quality eh? I made this chapter longer too, just in case some of you didn't notice. In honor of my second round of the double digit, I finally managed to make a WEBSITE. Squeals with joy It's at my profile under HOMEPAGE. There are polls there, so please vote in as many of them as possible. I will be happy, yup yup yup. ' For those who have voted in my other poll, please vote once again. That was, in you must know, just a temporary draft. The one at my website is real. Sorry for any inconvenience caused! It's still in the process of building, so there are not a lot of stuff there. . .yet. Please check it out if you will, alright? And please sign my guestbook! Thanks! Please read and review! I spent a LOT of time on this one. Smiles I spend a LOOOTTTT of time on this chapter, so please give me a LOOOT of reviews back, okay? Haha. Thank you everyone in advance for reviewing me.

CHAPTER 20

Anna was thinking.

About what, one would not be sure to say. Unless you had the mind-reading skills of Hao Asakura, but that was not really the point here, was it? She seemed deep in thought; her knees crossed, her chin rested between her thumb and second finger, her head cocked towards the window in an almost appraising way. It was when it seemed like she was ready to nod off for second when the door burst open, and there stood Yoh Asakura, a phone in one hand, the other gripped together to form a fist in triumph. " Anna!" he gasped, and she raised her eyebrows. " I've done it!"

" That's great," she said airlessly. " With whom?"

" If I actually did cheat on you I would prefer it if you would at least seem jealous." he said, shaking off the disappointed air almost instantly before once again grinning at her. " I just got us movie tickets to the Top Box tonight! It's a Home Movie, and it's banned in Japan due to licensed material but they're playing it just this once for 50 people, and we've got it! We've got tickets to the greatest mastermind of all time!"

" Garry Kasparov?" she said sarcastically, still slightly annoyed at him for breaking the peaceful silence that she had been basking in for the past three hours.

" No," he said, looking affronted. " Hitler: Rise To Evil."

" Is that his full name?" she said, feigning confusion.

" That's the title of the movie." he snapped.

But Anna wasn't listening. " Hmm. . ." she said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. " It's true that we've been cooped up in this house for way too long. . ." she said.

" Yes." he said eagerly.

" It would be awfully nice to smell the nice evening air once again. . ." she went on.

" Yes, it would be lovely." he said, egging her on.

" Yoh, I was thinking. . ." she said, looking up to meet his eyes.

" Yes, Anna?" he said hopefully.

" Do you want to go out for a walk?" she finished, and you could almost see disappointment drop down over his cheerful features.

" H. . .What?" he spluttered.

" Just kidding." she said, smirking, getting to her feet. " You're paying for the popcorn though."

" Like always." he muttered, opening the door for her.

" Like always." she agreed, getting her coat.

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" Good afternoon, Ren." Hao said cheerfully, accepting the coat that Ren had so ungraciously handed over to him. He grunted at the sound of his name and made his way to Hao's study. " By the way, my dear friend," Hao called out, and Ren stopped in mid-step, turning around with raised eyebrows. Usually, these few days, wherever they went they would frequently speak in codes; afraid of being caught by either Sumiko or Ejio.

" There's an elephant in the pantry." Hao said, looking directly at the door of the room they were about to go into. " Ejio is inside, by the way." Hao meant. If it had been Sumiko, he would have changed elephant to "mongoose" Knowing the code all too well, Ren nodded and entered cautiously.

" Where's Opacho?" Ren said casually.

" There's nobody inside." Ren meant.

" He's playing hide-and-seek with the Spirit of Fire." Hao said.

" He's hiding somewhere in the room." Hao meant.

" Right." Ren said, nodding, sitting down on the chair opposite to where Hao was standing. Soon enough, Hao joined him, and they sat across from each other with a round table in between them. Directly above them Ejio had planted himself in the heating vent, peering through the gazed wire that was keeping him from being seen. Beside him was a pile of chopsticks, in which he calmly started to build the first layer.

" How've you been?" Ren asked Hao casually.

" Very well, thank you." Hao said. " How's Pirika?"

" She's okay." Ren said. " She's been into acting lessons lately."

" Is that right?" Hao said, lips twitching. " Who's her teacher?"

Ren looked around the room. There was no sign of the boy anywhere. Obviously he was good at planting himself; he must have been a killer to find when his mother wanted to give him a bath. Hao smirked before leaning back in his armchair. Ejio frowned to himself as he stacked the second layer. This certainly was strange. The two of them weren't doing anything peculiar. Not anything that he had been expecting, anyway. He dropped the last chopstick on the third layer before rubbing his chin thoughtfully. There was a huge possibility that they were putting on an act for him to see, but he had been extremely careful when he entered. Not to mention the fact that he barely made a sound since the moment he hid inside. Topping it off with the fact that he was a professional, there was not even the slightest chance that they could have noticed he was inside.

" A person who used to be an exterminator." Ren said, grinning.

Ejio blinked, already on the fifth layer now. The conversation was sounding more and more phoney by the second. It was like the two of them were just trying to buy time. Talking about this Pirika person made them seem like two people on their first date, struggling to find new topics of interest to talk about. Unless this girl had something to do with either of them. . .He pulled out his laptop and typed in the name. He received only one search; and that person seemed to be from the Ainu province. Her parents were unknown, but she had one sole brother whose name was Horo Horo. He blinked. That certainly was a peculiar name. Without even hesitating, he pulled out his earphone speaker and placed it to his ear before dialing a number. Within a few seconds, a girl had answered.

" Hello?" she said restlessly.

" Sister." Ejio said as quietly as he could. He had done several test tries on whether it was possible to be not heard by Hao and at the same time be heard by Sumiko. With the current height and vacuum-like atmosphere, the possibility of him being noticed by Hao and Ren was close to nil. Unless the two of them had the hearing skills of a dog, anyway. " This is Ejio. Check up a person called Pirika."

She sighed and placed her bag of freshly bought lemons on the chair next to her and referred to the notes that Kino had handed her. She had just been to the grocer for an obvious reason, and was just on the way home when this oddball of a sibling called her up. " She's the current girl-friend of Ren Tao." she said plainly. " Is close friends with Yoh, Tao Jun- - -"

" Wait, did you say Ren Tao?" he said, eyes wide.

" Yeah, what about?" she said.

" Nothing." he muttered, setting the sixth layer more calmly now. " Give me deeper information than that," he said. " What is her relationship with Hao Asakura like?"

Sumiko raised her eyebrows. " It says that they get along well, but barely make contact. Kino suspects she once worked for him in favour of a task, but details are still scratchy. It says that he's close friends with her brother though."

" And would that be Horo Horo?" he said restlessly.

" Yeah, how do you know?" she asked.

" Just a hunch." he said tiredly, laying the eighth layer. " Well, I have to go."

" See you later." Sumiko said, putting down the phone. She glared at it for a moment before looking up at the skies above. " Something's going to happen to him." she whispered under her breath. Without waiting another second to think, she grabbed her bag of lemons and ran towards the direction of Hao's household.

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" Come on, give me more. . ." Ejio breathed, laying the eleventh layer.

" Hey, just now when you said exterminator, it reminded me of something." Hao said, grinning. " There are way too many spiders in my house. I need to call one pronto."

" You need to call a spider?" Ren said, feigning stupidity.

" Dumbass." Hao said, lips twitching.

" Too many spiders in the house. . .An exterminator. . ." Ejio muttered, rubbing his chin. It was just a matter of reading between the lines, that's all. The spider obviously was directed toward himself. That was one thing for certain. He was not afraid of that. The exterminator was obviously the symbolism of death, and they wanted to get rid of him. This was not what he was afraid and curious about. Hao would have been specific and said "rat" or "cockroach". Why did he have to use the word "spider"? He pondered as he set the twelfth layer. " Spiders are not harmful animals." he said under his breath. " They help kill other harmful insects."

It was when he lay the last chopstick of the thirteenth layer when his eyes widened in shock.

" My sister." he whispered.

He hit his fist against the thirteen layers of chopsticks; it clattering to the floor loudly. Ejio smashed through the vent, landing perfectly on the table below him. " Ejio!" Hao said brightly, sounding like the sight of a person smashing through the roof and landing down on his priceless furniture through mid-air was a daily occurrence to him. " This is my friend Ren, I doubt the two of you have met?"

" No. We haven't." Ejio said flatly, before pointing his finger at Hao. " I don't care whatever the Hell you do to me. But I won't let you lay a finger on my sister."

" Wasn't planning to." Hao said, grinning broadly.

" Liar." he snarled.

" If you're trying to find reason to hit him, please do it after getting off the furniture." Ren said calmly. Ejio stood there for a moment, his face facing Ren until in a split second he was right before him, his fingers pointed in his direction. Soon there were icicles bursting from Ejio's hand, and Ren darted back to avoid them, grabbing his family sword and slashed the icicles into ice cubes. After watching them melt for a moment, Ren looked up and smirked at him triumphantly. " That was nothin- - -" he started, until a gust of blood spilled from his chest.

His eyes widened in shock as he pressed his hand forward to cease the bleeding. Ejio smirked and crossed his arms across his chest. Ren grinned back and pointed his sword at him. " If it's a fight you want, I'll give it to you." Ren said. " But only when you calm down; it would be worthless to fight with someone who is blinded by their rage and confusion, because that does nothing at all except cause the person's skills to be lessened considerably."

" Don't act like you know me." Ejio snarled, the smile disappearing from his face. " I'm more than twice your age and strength, just so you know."

" I'll believe that when I see it." Ren said.

" Shall we take this outside?" Ejio asked.

They glared at each other for a moment before dashing out the back door. Hao peered at his watch for a moment and his eyes widened. He took a step forward. " Ren!" he called out, real fear in his voice this time. " You don't want to engage in a fight right now! This time it's- - -!"

But he stopped at the sight of Sumiko.

She was not facing him, but she was looking straight at the scene before her. Hao looked in her direction and sighed and shut his eyes. There stood Ejio and Ren; an ice boulder almost crushing Ren's head to pieces, Ren's sword through Ejio's stomach. Sumiko gripped the lemons in her hand, almost lashing the plastic to pieces. " Brother. . ." she whispered out softly, and Hao sighed, looking at his watch one last time before snapping it shut.

" Crap." Hao muttered, smashing it to pieces. " Looks like I have to plan my tricks all over again and without Ren. . .it's going to be doubly hard."

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The movie was not a bad one.

Anna was not one who enjoyed watching evil men aim to take over the world or at least German, both in real life and in a movie theater. Maybe that was the reason she and Hao never seemed to get along. She didn't think she and Hitler would be best buddies either. Anyway, she actually found herself being interested once or twice during the movie, but she was always good at faking boredom when Yoh sneaked looks at her. Putting it simply, pride was both her strength as it was her weakness.

Yoh, on the other hand, was enjoying himself openly. He was doubtful of the movie in the beginning, but after the first ten minutes he got mesmerized by the beauty of the screenplay. There was a large bag of popcorn that had been sitting comfortably on his lap for the past hour, and it had been only touched once or twice; the times it had been grabbed up, the pieces of popcorn had frequently missed Yoh's mouth without notice. The theater was fully crowded, so Amidamaru only could bob as a Spirit Ball next to Yoh's shoulder, much to Anna's amusement.

" This reminds me of the time when Hao was still evil," Yoh muttered into Anna's ear, and she smirked. It was pretty true, actually. The two of them, Hitler and Hao, were practically equally scheming, just that Hao probably had better dress sense and had higher intellect to know that growing a toothbrush shaped beard would very well get you laughed out of your grave. Then she frowned at that thought. Had Hao really changed for the better? She was always doubtful of Hao and the way he acted ever since he came back to Yoh in repentance. Yoh, being the always nice guy, accepted his apologies and took him in as a brother once again.

" Hao," she muttered under her breath as she grabbed a piece of popcorn from Yoh's bag and popped it into her mouth. She still did not trust Hao, no matter what Yoh would say to her. She looked sideways at him and chuckled at the sight of him cringing as Hitler started yelling again. She let out a small smile. There was something about looking at Yoh that just made her feel peaceful. At ease. Sure he made her angry from time to time, but that didn't make her hate him. Yoh was not Hao, in any case.

Smiling softly, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before sitting back down. It was as time seemed to stop and Yoh turned to face her, a look of amazement on her face when she started to regret ever doing such an action to him. " I. . .I don't know why I did that. . ." she said to him, face flushed.

He grinned at her.

" I didn't know Hitler movies made you feel romantic." he said cheekily.

" Shut up." she muttered, turning crimson. " It's just. . ."

" Run!" Hitler roared in the background. " Run for cover!"

If only it was that simple.

" I don't know, actually. . ." she said, chewing on her bottom lip, face burning. " I just thought you looked really cute and handsome then, so. . ."

" Cute and handsome?" he said, grinning wider now. " You thought I looked cute and handsome?"

A girl behind them giggled, and she blushed even deeper now.

" It's not what it sounds like," she said, almost exhasperatedly. " I just. . ."

But she was cut short by Yoh's lips pressed firmly upon hers. There was a gasp behind them, but they ignored her. Anna, outraged and embarrassed, raised her hand to slap him when she noticed his eyes were open too. She stared at him, and he simply looked back. Then, concurrently, they both shut their eyes and her hand dropped to her side. Amidamaru opened his mouth to say something before noticing the "event" happening before him. He just let out a small smile before getting back to the movie.

Yoh's heart leapt. God, kissing Anna felt amazing. It felt like jumping into the sky, taking a slice out of Heaven and falling back to Earth again, just without the hurting in the knees that would come soon afterwards. Well, Anna wasn't slapping him anyway, which would bring about the same amount of pain.

He pulled her closer to him, conquering the almost imaginary gap between them, continuing to breath in on her. She whimpered as he clutched her tightly, and was about to touch her most secret of places when he heard the dull buzz of his hand phone. Anna inwardly groaned while Yoh grunted a swear word before picking it up towards his ear. " Hello?" he said, as softly as possible, giving Anna a chance to catch her breath.

She pressed her fingers to her lips, a smile creeping up on her face. Yoh indeed was a good kisser. She had never felt so light-headed in her life. She glanced behind her, and noticed the gasping and giggling girl looking back at her, a smile on her face. She winked at Anna before looking back at the movie. Anna raised her eyebrows before smirking and sitting back down in her chair. This was going to be a good night after all.

" Anna," Yoh said urgently, putting down the phone. " We have to leave now."

Maybe not.

" What's wrong?" Anna asked as the two of them budged past rows of people.

" Ren's been admitted to the hospital." Yoh answered.

Anna's eyes widened.

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Kino raised her eyebrows.

Then she smiled.

A blue feather flew before her for a mere second before disappearing. " That's another of Anna's heart feather's gone." Kino said, smiling to herself.

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" I'm sorry, Mister Asakura." Doctor Foswell said firmly, gripping him on the shoulder. " Frankly, I do not care if your friends can heal or revive better than us ordinary doctors. What I care about, most importantly, is your friends's heaths. They are in serious conditions now, and I think it would be better if you let them recover by themselves without the use of magic, shamanic abilities or whatever the Hell you call it. After all, it is serious, but not critical. I'm glad your girl-friend chose to bring them to us."

" She's not my girl-friend, she's just someone I'm taking care of." Hao said before getting back to the subject. " Look. We brought them here, and I accept that. But I cannot, and will now, allow you to touch Ren Tao at all. He's a close friend to me, and I have a friend who is experienced in this field of- - -"

" If you're talking about Doctor Faust, you might be right." Foswell said, sighing. The two of them were sitting in the waiting bay of the hospital, which was currently devoid of people except for Hao, the doctor, and Sumiko. Sumiko was sitting down on a chair behind them, while Hao and Foswell stood roughly three to four meters away from her. " But he's busy at the current moment, and I cannot let you bother him."

Hao chewed on his bottom lip.

" Whose injuries are worse, Ejio or Ren?" he asked.

" Well, if you want to be all technical. . ." Foswell muttered, looking at his many sheets of paper that were fastened to a clipboard. " Ren only has several large bruises in his back and a blow in the head, but that's about it. The one who was severely hurt has to be Ejio." At that, the two of them turned around and looked at Sumiko, who was still looking down at the ground, chewing quietly on the lemon in her hands, a small box of them on her lap. They looked back at each other and Foswell sighed. " She's his sister, isn't she?" he asked.

" Yes." Hao said gloomily. " Yes she is."

" Then console her." Foswell said firmly, turning his heel to walk away. " I'm going to check on their progress. You may visit them in around twenty minutes; I will request your friend Faust to look over Ren while I do some finals check-ups on Ejio, alright?"

" Alright." Hao said. " Whatever the doctor says."

Foswell gave him a grave nod before walking off. Hao waited until Foswell was out of sight before sitting down next to Sumiko, scratching the back of his head uncomfortably. They stayed in this position for another moment before Hao sighed and looked down at his feet; a similar position to Sumiko's.

" I'm sorry." he finally said. She said nothing. " I should have been by Ejio's side at that time."

" So why weren't you?" she said so suddenly, so cold, so merciless.

He flinched at her tone before smiling sadly.

" I didn't think they would get into that big of a fight." he said quietly. " I never knew that they both had such big killing intentions for each other. I'm not very clever for a guardian, am I?"

" That's right." she said, still not looking at him.

Hao shivered. This girl was almost as scary as Anna.

Hao bit his lip before sighing. " Sumiko. . ." he began.

" Don't call me by my name!" she yelled, and he jumped, appalled by her sudden outburst. " What makes you think that I would still allow myself to be under the care of someone who doesn't even understand his friend enough and protect the person that matters the most to me? You're the World's strongest shaman, damn it! Why didn't you know? You can read people's minds, can't you? You are more powerful than the both of them combined, aren't you? SO WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THEM?"

The dam had burst.

The box had been opened.

The glass had broke.

Tears formed in her eyes and she wiped them away furiously. He reached out to wipe them away when her hand slapped his hand away and whipped itself across his cheek, and he looked at her, shocked. She got to her feet, the lemons falling to the ground in a dull thud. " I HATE YOU!" she screamed. " I hate you, you hear me? I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"

" Sumiko, don't. . ." he said.

" I SAID DON'T CALL ME BY MY NAME!" she yelled, tears flowing from her eyes continuously. " You should have stopped him! You did that on PURPOSE, DIDN'T YOU?"

" It wasn't entirely my fault, you came in when I wanted to run after him!" Hao shouted back.

She stopped, eyes wide.

There was something that crossed her eyes and she looked away, sighing in resignation. She bit her lip and wiped away the last of her tears. " I'm sorry." she whispered, reaching down to pick up the fallen lemons. " There was nobody else I could blame and release my anger on, so I flung it at the only person who cared for Ejio enough to bring him to the hospital. I shouldn't have lost my temper so easily. Please forgive me. . .Hao-san."

Even though he was not the one in the wrong, he still felt a shred of guiltiness as he watched her pick up every single lemon pitifully and he bent down to help her out. " No, I can do it myself, thank you." she said silently, and he stopped. He settled for watching her until she finished putting every lemon inside the box and got to her feet to leave.

" Wait, you- - -" he called out.

" I would like to be alone for a moment, Hao-san." she said sullenly before continuing to walk away. She disappeared behind the arch in the hallway and he leaned against the chair behind him, sighing. He turned to look at the lemons that were neatly back in the box and he reached out to take one and put it in his mouth before wincing.

" So sour." he muttered.

It was at that moment when his eyes widened, and something so distinct and familiar came back to him that he just sat rigid to the spot for a moment before smiling sadly. " Well, you know what they say. . ." he said quietly, tears starting to fall from his face. " The more sour the fruit. . .the sweeter they are in the center."

He buried his face in his hands, and started to cry.

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How long he stayed there, he didn't know. But he was so lost in himself that he didn't even notice footsteps approach him. It was when he heard the single thought from Yoh when he was finally painfully brought back to earth.

Oh God, is that my brother crying?

He looked up abruptly, wiping his eyes furiously. There stood Yoh and Anna before him, looks of shock and curiosity on their faces. His eyes and Anna's eyes met, and his heart leapt as he noticed concern in them. " What's going on, Hao?" she asked him. " Is Ren going to be okay?"

Oh.

She was caring for Ren.

" He's going to be alright." Hao said dully, hiding his disappointment as much as he could. " You can visit him in Room 304. It's on level three. To go to the lift you just have to go straight, then turn a left before going straight again. It's near the vending machine. If you pass the toilets then you've gone too far."

" Thanks." Yoh said hurriedly. " Are you okay?"

Hao forced a smile. " I'm fine."

Yoh nodded and made motion to leave when he stopped and turned around. Anna was still standing there before Hao, a look of confrontation on her face. She shut her eyes before turning to Yoh. " You go along first. I want to speak to your brother before I go."

Yoh gave her somewhat of an appraising look before running off to the lift.

She sat down next to him. " I want to speak to you about something, Hao." she said.

He chuckled.

" If it's about me crying. . ." he said.

" I couldn't care less about that." she said stiffly, and he stopped.

" Oh." he said, concealing his disappointment, but he didn't have to. Anna wouldn't even have shed a tear if he died on the spot at the moment.

" I want to ask if it was you who messed with Yoh's grades." she said.

He raised his eyebrows before grinning.

" You really always go straight to the point." he said.

" Bite me." she snapped. " I have already spoken to Seika, and he readily admitted what you did. I want to know why you're doing this. Changing his grades wouldn't make a difference to you, would it?"

He smirked at her and got up from his seat. " I do not have to tell this sort of thing to you, Anna." he said. " Now I must go. I have important things to do that desperately require my attention. Please help me wish Ren a good health."

She got up to her feet and glared at Hao, whose back was facing her.

" What the Hell are you running from, Hao Asakura?" she snarled.

He stopped and turned around to meet her eyes again, and he grinned. " Not you, definitely." he said. " Why are you so interested in me all of a sudden?"

" I don't trust you." she said.

" I never asked you to." he said.

She pulled at the beads on her neck and it fell to the ground like the crack of a whip. " Then I'm going to have to make it quite plain. If you dare to hurt Yoh in any sort of way. . .I'll personally murder you."

" That's admirable." he said quietly, a frozen flare flickering within his eyes. " But you yourself over anyone else should know that Yoh trusts me beyond anything imaginable. If I'm indeed planning to take anything away from him, he wouldn't believe it even if I took it right before his eyes, would he?"

" And just what might that possibly be?" she said, face hardening.

He cocked his head, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

" It would be you, Anna." he said.

" I would never go to your side, Hao." she practically snarled.

" You're breaking my heart." he said placidly.

" Tell it to someone who cares."

They just stood there, looking at each other for a moment when Hao just shrugged and turned his back towards her again. " I'll be dropping by tomorrow. I have something important I have to tell Yoh."

She did not reply.

He took one last glance at her before walking out of the waiting room to the garden that was found outside the hospital, leaving Anna standing there alone. She just looked at the spot where he stood not long ago before placing the beads back on her neck once again. She glared at the shut doors of the clinic before making her way to the lift, making sure that when she reached the third level, she wouldn't pass the toilets, which would mean she went too far.

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Anna entered Ren's sick room, and found herself among Yoh and several of Ren's other close friends. Horo Horo, Ryu, Lyserg, Chocolove, Faust and finally a tearful Pirika were sitting near Yoh, who was by Ren's bed. They noticed her, gave her grim nods before turning their attention back to the tired boy. Faust got to his feet and beckoned the others to follow him out of the room. It was when they shut the door behind themselves when their expressions turned to anxious looks. " So how is he, Faust?" Pirika asked frantically. " Is he going to be alright?"

" Everything looks fine for now." Faust said, a grim smile on his face. " Unfortunately, that's the cheerier side of the news. It seems that he has forgotten a period of his memory from a certain moment until the time he was admitted to the hospital. I suspect he received a hard blow in the head to cause him to get amnesia."

" Do you think he still remembers that the two of us are dating?" Pirika asked, clasping her hands together fearfully.

" I'm not sure about that yet." Faust said, sighing. " It's rather hard to tell this sort of things, especially if it is of a mind of a person like Ren. You see, he has been revived far too many times to have just one stable memory base in tact. It has been modified far too many times, thus making it hard to retract which was the true date of the happening."

" Like reformatting a computer." Horo said knowledgeably.

" You could say that." Faust said, grinning sheepishly.

Yoh took a glance at Ren from the glass window in the room before looking back at Faust. " How long do you suppose he would take to recover this memory?"

" At most ten days, I would say." Faust said, turning to look questioningly at Eliza. When she merely shrugged he turned back to Yoh. " But that all depends on his memory power. Does he recall things easier? Is he in the area where he was in in the memory which he forgot? The least that would happen would be him having tons of deja vu, that's all."

" Guns on the tar who pats all?" Chocolove said, popping up.

Silence.

" Sorry." he said gloomily. " I thought all of you could use cheering up."

" Why are we so concerned about this, anyway?" Lyserg said questioningly. " It's only a few months of memory, why do we have to be so desperate to help him recover these thoughts? Wouldn't it be better for him to just regain his memory by himself one step at a time?"

" A memory is still a memory, Lyserg." Yoh said, smiling at him.

" Simple, let logical." Ryu said, grinning.

Somehow Anna was not sure that things were not so simple. Somehow Hao was behind this, and she was going to find out whatever he was planning, and stop him with whatever power she had.

Yoh raised his eyebrows as he watched Anna.

There was a strange flicker in her eyes that he never saw before; making her look unapproachable, making her seem isolated. He bit his lip and looked away and turned to Horo, who was peering into Ren's room. Anna, at this moment, turned to face Yoh. His back was facing her. She turned to leave, her footsteps echoing in the dull silent halls of the hospital ward.

END CHAPTER 20

Well, how's THAT for a turn of current events? What did Hao mean when he spoke to Anna? Will Ren gain his memory again? Will Hao really steal Anna away from Yoh? What is to become of Pirika? What is Sumiko's big secret? What is to become of Ejio? What is to be of the relationship of Yoh and Anna? Find out in chapter 21! P.S. Please check out my website. " I would like that. And vote in as many polls as possible. Thanks bunches! Chapter 21 will be up and ready as soon as possible!