AN: Hello! Thank you for reviewing! I was still amazingly surprised at how many reviews I got. Thank you! Once again, my beta is partly to thank for this chapter not sucking and being very mistake-ridden. Well, I don't have too much to say so, here is your chapter.

Losing Her Mind
CHAPTER 3
A VINE CONNECTS THROUGH THE SOUL

What was he doing? This was ridiculous. He shouldn't be doing this, yet he had to find out what was going on. It wasn't fair to her. No, absolutely not, but it had to be done. Plain and simple. He sat in a random tree at some random university. It didn't matter. It wasn't close to her house. Rather, apartment. His two normal eyes closed, and the one plop centered was open and glowing. His arms folded over his chest and his bandanna in his hand, he searched through her mind. Strangely, it was different from last time. Different, as in, it was much harder to crack open her barriers. Plus, there was a strange burning sensation throughout his body. It didn't hurt, but it was strange for it to be there.

The same complicated weave of memories jumbled here and there made it hard for him to find what he was looking for. There was one major difference this time from the last one. There were two or three set memories stuck in the front of her head ready for access. It was as if her mind had begun to try to remember things. He headed towards the jumbled memories and took a different approach from last time to see what had happened. This time, he intended to ingest the memory. He took it in the palms of his hands and swallowed it whole. His mind flashed into her eyes.

-------

She stumbled around with blurry vision as she attempted to locate her way. But the only problem was, she had no idea where she was going. She saw a sign. A really blurry sign. It didn't matter. She stumbled in and fell to the floor. Heavy footsteps could be heard rushing across the wooden floors. A voice that shouted was indistinguishable. Her mind was so disoriented. She couldn't even think straight.

-------

Hiei could feel a push on his hold with her mind. He was shoved out of her thoughts. The force was so strong that his head was thrown back into the tree. He could feel his Jagan snap shut in a hurry. He quickly wrapped his bandanna on and jumped from his perch. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he briskly walked down the street shoving past people. He could only sense his way to where she was.

:01234543210:

As the heat receded from her body, she lay there, not willing to move from her painful position. She didn't know how she did it or why, but she pushed her mind to follow whatever had caused her to heat up like that. She found the source running towards her apartment. She closed her eyes and willed it to come, whatever it was. A few minuets later, she could hear the door knob being juggled to be opened. She wearily stood, and as she got there she could hear the unsheathing of a sword. She unlocked the door and opened it up to come face to face with him. He stood at the ready to chop down the door. She unsheathed her own katana, but not to fight him. She held it in her hands as though it were porcelain and would break if she moved it an inch. Sadly, his expression never changed.

:01234543210:

On his way over, he could feel a strong heat course through his body. He was strong enough to withstand it, but why was it happening? As he prepared to shop the door down, he heard footsteps shuffling across the floor to him. He stood in his position in case it was a demon that needed slaughtering, but he knew it wasn't. Somewhere deep down, he knew it wasn't. He still stood in that position when she opened the door. Why was he doing this? She seemed to be reading his mind because she asked just that.

"Why are you doing this? To hurt me? To hurt yourself? I want to remember you. I know somewhere in my mind, lost among other memories, you're there. Please I want to remember," she begged, her voice sounding through the empty apartment.

Hiei seemed to loose his voice and regain it all at once. His stomach jumped into his throat as he tried to come up with a solution of what to do.

"Hn. Every day, at the tree, ask me one question and I'll give you the answer. Only one." With that, he was gone in a second.

:01234543210:

She stood in the doorway with the cold wind blowing in her hair, katana still raised in her hands, confused. She didn't know what to do. It was a lot, to say the least. She was finally going to have someone answer her questions. She sheathed the katana and set it in the umbrella holder. She shut the door with one swift movement and leaned against its frame for composure. She glanced at the wall clock: 10:30 PM. She rubbed her eyes and headed to the bathroom. She took a quick shower and went to bed.

The next morning, as she pushed the button to turn her alarm clock off, she formulated the perfect question in her head to ask him. First of all she was going to ask his name, but she didn't just want his name. That would be a waste of one question. So she would make it two questions in one sentence. She dressed herself in her normal work attire and headed off to Takumi-san's Bakery. She walked through the crowded streets snuggling into the warmth of her coat. She really liked the feeling of being warm.

She pushed open the front door and was greeted by the sound of noisy customers eating their breakfast. She glanced over at the ordering counter. Many people were lined up waiting for their food. She hung her coat on the bottom of many others on the coat rack in the front doorway. She made her way though the tables to the counter. Takumi appeared from the back with tray of fresh bread. She smiled in greeting and quickly went to put the bread in the glass store case. Kazuko entered through the side door in the wall to the back room where all of the cooks worked. She pulled on an apron grabbed her wet cloth for wiping down tables. She received many 'konnichi wa's (1) as she walked out to do her job.

She began clearing the tables of left over wrappers and wiping them down as fast the people came and went. By mid-morning, she retired to the back and let Kitari, the other bus boy, take over cleaning tables. She walked over to the ovens where Charlie, the head cook (also American), was pulling out sheets of croissants. He turned to greet her with a smile.

"Just put your rag down and go over to the dough sitting there," Charlie said.

She nodded her head threw her rag in a sink of soapy water. She began to kneed the dough with her fingers gingerly. She began to pull pieces off and shape them into flat triangles. She then rolled them up into the shape of a croissant and would fold in the edges in neatly. Charlie was impressed at how much she remembered of making croissants.

"That's amazing. Hey, you're not getting one of those get smart quick operations like Charlie in that book Flowers for Algernon, are you?" Charlie said.

"No, silly. I'm forgetful, not stupid." She smiled at him and continued to work until the dough ran out. She popped them in the oven, sheet by sheet and went to work Kitari.

He was wiping down a booth seat when she came over to join him.

"Umm, I have a favor to ask," she said, helping wipe down the seat.

"Sure, shoot," Kitari said starting to wipe the table.

"Well, I have a friend to visit over my lunch break and he's kind of far away. I was hoping that if I don't make it back in time, that you could cover for me."

"Sure. By then the customers will have already started to thin."

"Thanks so much. I promise that I'll remember that I owe you."

"Hah! That'll happen." Kazuko frowned at him and went to wipe some other tables.

As noon approached, the customers began increase. Kazuko waved to Takumi as she fished her coat out from underneath the others and exited on her lunch break. She walked quickly through the flow of people on the sidewalks to the same tree she first encountered him at. As she neared, she realized she only had a few moments to ask her question and get back. It had taken her almost a half an hour to get there and would take a half an hour back.

She yelled up to the tree, "Hey! I'm here! I've got my question!"

"Hn. Hurry up before you waste any more of my time."

"Um, yea. Well, here goes. What is you name and age?"

"Hn. Hiei. I'm two years older than you." Her mouth nearly dropped open at the fact that he had actually cooperated with her.

She managed to keep it shut and responded, "So that makes you… 22?"

"No foolish girl. You are 834. That makes my 854."

Somehow, that clicked in her mind. He had given her more information than she had expected to get. She heard the school bell ring. She hurried away as the students poured out for their lunch break. She sensed something odd among the students. It was a different energy from Hiei's but not any more powerful. She shook it off and hurried back to the bakery.

The snow stung her face and the cold was now at an unbelievable peak but it didn't matter because she was going to answer every question that had ever hung in the back of her mind. It was finally okay. Everything was going to be okay. She returned to the bakery only a few minuets late and helped Kitari to finish wiping the tables.

What next?

AN: Well, what do you think? I'm so surprised at the number hits and reviews that this fic is getting. It makes me proud to be a writer. And be proud of my beta, Dawn, who is solely responsible for this not being a grammatical mess.

Here's the Japanese I used:
1: Konnichi wa means hello. That's really it.

After the fact… WAY after: Oh my gods, you guys, I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in never. I'm really sorry. This chapter also wasn't beta'd due to extenuating circumstances. I really hope that you all haven't forgotten me. Once, again, I'm so sorry. Please excuse my horrible mistakes and such.