Disclaimers: I am simply the author of this little fan fic. I own no characters, except for the ones that you don't recognize, such as…well, you'll see. I loves them, but I don't owns them.

Hige's POV

"I would like to find a way to open to you

Been awhile, don't know if I remember how to…"

Who knew fish could be so filling? Well, that and the Snickers that I borrowed from the gas station. One candy bar won't kill business. OK, so maybe I borrowed five, but I was gonna share. Kind of.

The sun had just started setting when Tsume growled low. "Hide."

Kiba easily slinked away before I could even blink. Tsume grabbed the Kid around the waist and tugged him into a secluded niche in the rafters. Nobody ever worries about me.

I spotted a pile of old blankets in the corner and hid under them. They reeked of mildew; I thought I was gonna barf. Making a little breathing space in the blankets, I peered out and caught a glimpse of the old guy and his dog. Great. I was screwed.

"Go and find them, Blue," the old fart growled to the dog, who put her nose to the ground and started sniffing.

Aw piss. She was heading right for me. Stopping about a foot away from me, she turned her head and gazed right at my hiding place. Her eyes met with mine, sharp and inquiring, and then she turned away and started sniffing somewhere else.

I couldn't believe it. Why hadn't she done anything about me? I was SO supposed to be dead. I knew I was charming, but not THAT charming. Something in me felt like leaping out and waving my arms and screaming, "HELLO OLD GUY AND DOG! HERE I AM!" And then that part of me committed suicide. No way I was gonna give myself away.

Blue whimpered and turned to the old man, looking pitiful and lost. He walked over and stroked her head. "That's alright, Blue….bastards must have crept off when we weren't paying attention. We'll get them tomorrow." He stalked out of the shelter, his dog at his heels.

Tsume hopped down after they were gone and ripped the blankets off of me. "What the hell happened?"

Toboe fell from the rafters and ran up to him, grabbing his arm and looking rather excited, despite the fact that his butt should have been broken from the force with which he hit it. "Tsume! Her name was Blue!"

"Big whoop." I stood up, heart still pounding. "The important thing is that I'm still alive. And I really don't know what happened….She just left."

"Is everyone alright?" Kiba appeared, teal eyes sharp as he glanced among us. Like he really cared. He'd probably be better off without us.

"Porky almost got himself killed because he doesn't know what the hell 'hide' means. That, or his fat ass won't fit anywhere…" Tsume glared down at me.

Maybe this was my punishment for the Snickers. "Hey, neither does the Kid."

"The Kid also happens to be twelve. YOU are older than both Pretty Boy and me." Tsume turned away in disgust, acting like he made some sort of wonderful point that was supposed to make me see the error of my ways. "Let's go."

"Just because you two were in Boy Scouts doesn't make you guys any better than I am." The thought of Tsume and Kiba dressed in Boy Scout outfits made me want to laugh as I followed them out of the shelter. "Aw man. I hate walking out into the sun."

"Me too." Toboe sniffed, walking along behind Tsume, who started jogging. "I hate running, too."

"I like nachos, though." Yeah, Hige, try to think positive.

"The cheese always tastes fake." Wow, Toboe does complain a lot.

"You need to be grateful, Kid—there's some hobo on the street who's dying of hunger while YOU eat nachos with fake cheese."

"Shut up." Tsume turned his head to give me a glare, somehow managing to dodge a random tree without turning around. "A hobo on the street? What the hell are you talking about?"

I smiled at him cheerfully; I loved how this got on his nerves. I think it was really my favorite part of the day. "I'm telling the Pup about the facts of life—there are those of us who eat cheese-y nachos, and those of us who become the cheese on those nachos."

"What?" Toboe demanded, starting to sound angry.

I turned my grin to him, since Tsume had turned away from us again. "That's why the cheese always tastes so fake—they melt hobos and put it on the nachos."

"You're lying! Why is it yellow if it's melted hobos?" He must have believed me at least a little to have asked me about it further. Score for the Hige.

"Hobos live on mustard, Kid! Sheesh, where have you been?"

"Tsume, tell Hige to shut up! He keeps lying to me!"

"So ignore him and tell the clerk the next time you see him steal Snickers bars." Tsume kept jogging, one step behind Kiba, who was doing a fairly good job of ignoring us.

I looked at Toboe in shock. "You saw me steal them?"

"Yes." He pouted, obviously trying to make me feel guilty. "I was gonna ask you for one, but you ate them all."

He failed. "Even the wrappers."

"Stop lying!"

"No, seriously—I ate the wrappers."

"Tsume!"

Sheesh. He believes me about melted hobos, but not about eating the wrappers? I seriously ate them, too. I just sort of assumed that since there wasn't a trash can, it was the easiest way to get rid of them without Kiba and Tsume chewing out my ass.

The moon was up before Kiba stopped next to another stream. "Rest up for a moment. We'll keep going after a few minutes." He knelt down to get a drink.

Tsume glared at me. "Did you eat all of those Snickers?" He must have been missing those Red Bulls that he chugs so often.

I burst into a grin again, despite the fact that I was completely exhausted. "Aw, does Drop Out have a sweet tooth?"

"Not for me, idiot. For the Pup." He pointed over his shoulder, where Toboe was stumbling towards us.

"Nope, I ate them all. Even the wrappers."

"You're more of a goat than a pig." Tsume leaned down for a drink, looking incredibly annoyed.

Toboe collapsed next to me, panting. "You guys run too fast."

"Go get a drink, Pup, you'll feel better." I stretched and went to lap at the stream myself. "This water tastes better then the water we had before."

Toboe dragged himself to the water and started drinking, his chin in the water as he sprawled on his belly. "It still doesn't taste very good. We're probably gonna get sick from it."

Tsume sighed in annoyance, stopping his own lapping to turn and gaze at the Pup's prone figure. "Do you have to complain about everything? It tastes better than Red Bull; there's not much more you can ask for in life."

I stretched again, glancing at our very silent and very stoic travel companion. "You've been awfully quiet, Kiba. Something wrong?"

He glanced back at me, though his face still had no emotion what-so-ever. "There was a pack of Wolves here before."

"So?" I scratched the back of my head, suddenly feeling a severe itch.

"They were here three days ago, when I first came to Tokyo."

"That's when I got to Tokyo." Tsume glared at Kiba, who refused to make eye contact and simply continued to scan our surroundings. "Are you stalking me or something, Pretty Boy?"

Kiba briefly glanced at him before looking away. "I was following you. You looked familiar."

Tsume looked like he was going to be sick. "What the hell…You got a crush on me or something? Sicko." He turned away in disgust. I had no idea that he was so homophobic. With the way the Pup constantly clung to him, you'd think that maybe he was the opposite….

"There was a struggle."

"There's going to be, if you—"

"No, between the Wolves and whatever happened to them."

"How do you know?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him as I scratched my chin; I hoped I didn't have fleas.

"Look." Tsume and I walked over to Kiba and looked at where he was pointing.

Several bodies were sprawled on the ground, flies buzzing around them. They had to have been there for at least two days. I guess Kiba had been lucky.

"No sign of what got them," Kiba murmured softly, face still expressionless.

"Then let's get out of here before it gets us," I suggested, turning around and freezing. "Aw piss…Kiba? I think I know what got that other pack."

"What?" He turned and starting snarling.

"Toboe, run!" Tsume yelled, charging towards him, pushing me out of the way and almost making me fall over.

Toboe stared at the soldiers in horror, taking a few steps backwards. Tsume tore into one of their throats, soon followed by Kiba. The Pup turned and ran to me, eyes wide in terror. "Hige!"

"Hide with the bodies, Kid." There was no way that Kiba and Tsume could take all those guys on. "I'll catch up with ya in a second."

Toboe and I ran in opposite directions, me towards the fray, him towards the body. My teeth met with the unfamiliar sensation of human flesh and I almost let go, but instinct told me to hold on. The soldier was flaying desperately, trying to get me off of his arm. I caught sight of another soldier aiming his gun at me and let go. His companion was riddled with bullets before he could think to stop, and then Kiba bit the back of his neck. He collapsed without a sound.

Tsume was having some problems with a few soldiers—guess I had to go and play hero. I knocked over one soldier so that it ran into another one, hoping that they wouldn't stand up and fill me with lead as I ran. The distraction was all he needed. Before I could blink all of the soldiers were dead. Tsume gave me a strange look. "What are you doing?"

"Fighting. So much for me being a coward, huh?" I gave him a crooked grin. I really felt like I was going to throw up.

"Where's the Pup?"

"Hiding with the bodies—I figured that if we all died they wouldn't look there."

Tsume nodded, still giving me a strange look, then turned to help Kiba. The soldier dropped a net on him; snarling and thrashing, Tsume tried to break the net before the butt of a gun hit his head. I never really thought that anyone could beat Tsume. And he was right. I guess I really hadn't thought this was real.

A soldier aimed his gun at me. My mind was screaming, "RUN YOU IDIOT! IF THAT GUN SAYS BANG, YOU'RE DEAD!" but my legs wouldn't move. Aw piss.

Blood shot from the soldier's arm as a dark blur raced by. He screamed and dropped his weapon, clutching his wound. The blur raced over to where the Forces were surrounding Tsume, sending more blood flying as it wounded the soldiers. Whatever it was, it seemed to be on our side.

Kiba finished off his opponents and whirled around to face the blur, who happened to be a very tall, very pissed looking guy with a knife and flashing blue eyes. "Who are you?" Kiba growled, eyes narrowing.

The guy frowned and turned away, heading for where we saw the bodies. "Get up. Show some respect for the dead."

Toboe scurried out and gazed up at him in wonder. "Thanks for helping out my friends."

He simply turned to look back out at the bodies. I couldn't see his face, but I could practically feel how emotion he was. My feet slipped and I plopped onto my hiney, staring at him blankly. This guy was really…creepy…

Toboe glanced from the guy to the corpses to the guy again. "Um….Mister? Did…did you know them?"

At first he didn't answer, then slowly nodded. "They were in my pack."

"I'm sorry," Toboe whispered, lowering his head.

"What's your name?" Kiba asked, looking at him suspiciously and tensing. Obviously he didn't trust the Blur.

The guy glared back at him. "Who are you to ask my name?" Abruptly, he turned back to the bodies and changed into a Wolf before starting to dig. He was a BIG Wolf with pale gray hair that shot out in every direction. He was DEFINITELY not a City Wolf.

"What are ya doing?" I asked, scratching my arm. I so needed a bath. He didn't answer, just kept his crazy digging.

"TSUME!" Toboe ran over to his unconscious form, looking like he was going to panic. "Tsume, wake up!"

"He got hit in the head with the dude's gun," I said, pointing to one of the soldiers. "Don't think he's gonna wake up for a while, Pup." THUNK. "What are you doing!"

"He's burying the dead." Kiba walked over to Tsume and sat down. "We can't go any farther tonight- try to huddle together. It's gonna be cold tonight."

"It's almost fall—better hurry and find her." The guy finished burying another corpse and was heading for the last one when Kiba stood in front of him. "Get out of my way."

"You know where she is."

The guy refused to even blink. "Get out of my way."

"You're seen her before." Kiba took out the picture of the Flower and shoved it in his face.

He was a broken record, a very pissed broken record, but still a broken record. "Get out of my way."

"Why didn't you follow her? You could have reached Paradise!"

The guy slapped the picture out of Kiba's hand and shoved him to the ground. "Paradise wouldn't open to me. It won't even open until it's the right time." He stepped over Kiba and headed towards the body.

Kiba grabbed and threw him. The guy landed on his feet and snarled, wild fur sticking straight up. This was turning out to be worse than Tsume and Kiba's little fights. "Where is she!" Kiba demanded, not looking the least fazed by his rather terrifying opponent.

The guy growled and slowly started walking around Kiba, eyes flashing. "I'm not going back there. Find her on your own."

Kiba followed every one of his movements. "Where won't you go back to?"

The guy froze and stared at Kiba, his eyes looking like ice. "Hell."

"What?" Maybe now wasn't the best time to interrupt, but this guy was crazy. "Hell? Who's been to Hell?"

"I have," the guy snarled, whirling to glare at me. "That's where the Flowers are. That's where they took the rest of my pack."

I scratched my back, hating everything small and parasitic. "How does someone go to Hell? And how do you come back?"

The guy started digging. "I'm not going back."

"You'll leave your pack there to die?"

The guy froze, then slowly turned to look at him. "They all died when we tried to escape. There's nothing for me."

"So why not try to find something?" I asked, laying down. "Wolves are social creatures, ya know."

The guy kept digging, refusing to look at me. After a long silence, he growled, "I'll lead you there, but then you're on your own."

"Thank you." Kiba gazed at him for a moment, then turned and say next to Toboe, who was gazing sadly at the guy.

"He seems so lonely…"

"Better leave him alone, Pup." I scratched behind my ear, scowling. "Can we stop at a Holiday Inn or something? I seriously need a bath." I grinned at the Pup. "And maybe we could get some nachos."

Author's Notes: Sorry for the long wait. I, at the age of sixteen, was able to go to Japan! dies of joy It was wonderful. Anyone who has the chance to go, do it. Everyone is wonderful. Any Japanese reading this, you are an awesome person by default. Anyways, I might upload another chapter right after this. Enjoy while you can. AND COMMENT!