Note: For some of this part, I use "Kudou" instead of "Kazahaya", since it's in Doumeki's perspective. It was deliberate, since Doumeki would no doubt think of Kazahaya as Kudou, same as how I expect Rikuou would have thought of Doumeki and Watanuki as Doumeki and Watanuki instead of their first names.

Chapter 3

Dedicated to rusalkaz

Dammit, what the hell was that?

Doumeki shook his head to clear the fuzziness. He could remember yelling something to Watanuki about not passing out, but the rest was all a blur. His head was throbbing with pain and he blinked. As he tried to stand up, he felt as if he was swimming through a huge current and all he could think of, for a few seconds, was the pain in his head.

"Are you all right, Doumeki-san?"

He lifted his head a little to see a white and scared-looking Kudou Kazahaya. "What happened?"

"Rikuou was taken by…something. Same with Watanuki-san. All I could see was you suddenly hitting the fireplace and Watanuki-san being lifted in the air." Kazahaya shivered. "It seemed as if the whole building shook and I fell. Then I remember seeing Rikuou picked up by…something."

Doumeki narrowed his eyes and scanned the room. He couldn't remember the house shaking, but flying through the air would do that to you. It was with feelings of guilt that he remembered Watanuki's terrified screams for help. Normally, Watanuki never asked for his help, he was prideful like that, which meant that whatever he had seen had scared him so badly that he had lost all control. His heart was tight with guilt and pain and he knew that he had failed. Watanuki wasn't dead, but he had failed all the same to keep him safe. So now the only option left was to get him back.

"Where do you think they are?"

"They're upstairs."

Kudou blinked and looked at him. "How do you know that?"

The archer pointed at his eye. "Watanuki and I share this eye. Sometimes I see what he sees. The last thing that Watanuki saw before he passed out was stairs, so I'm assuming that he and Himura-san were dragged upstairs."

"Oh, Doumeki-san. Here's your bow."

Doumeki blinked as the bow was held in his direction. It hadn't even occurred to him. He'd probably dropped it when he'd been flung against the fireplace. He took it without a word and tried heading to the stairs, only to stumble. When he put a hand to his head, it came away bloody.

"Doumeki-san! You can't go now, you're barely able to stand as it is!" Kudou's arms went around his chest, as if to help him keep standing.

"I have to help Watanuki. What is it?" he added when he noticed the somewhat far away gaze on his face.

Kudou blinked and shook his head somewhat. "N-nothing. You were just thinking of Watanuki-san so strongly that when I grabbed you to keep you from falling, I got a memory." He paused and it seemed as if he was thinking about whether to ask something. "Was there an incident in the past where Watanuki-san was kneeling in front of you and crying?"

Doumeki looked away for a moment as he straightened up slowly. "Yes."

"Can I ask what happened? Watanuki-san's face was so…poignant there that…"

He sighed and slid down the doorway until he was sitting. His head was swimming really bad again and he had to get it all straight. He knew that if he tried the stairs right then, he'd probably end up falling. "He almost died then. He was meeting the spirit of an older woman in the park because she was feeling lonely. Even after he knew that she was killing him, he still went. It got so bad that he was collapsing at school."

Kudou slid down to sit in front of him. "What happened?"

"I followed him one day with my bow and got rid of the spirit."

"You killed her."

"I suppose you could say it like that. That's how Watanuki saw it. He got attached to her because she reminded him of his mother, I guess."

"Watanuki-san's parents died, right? I got that impression from his memories."

"Yeah, so I've heard."

"Why did you do it? If Watanuki-san was so happy with this spirit, wasn't there a chance that he'd never forgive you?"

Doumeki didn't say anything for a long moment. He'd thought about this question for a very long time, ever since it happened. It was and at the same time, wasn't an easy answer. He doubted that Watanuki would appreciate his feelings, but he'd had no choice. He couldn't have let it go on.

"Because I didn't want him to die."

Kudou didn't ask anything after that and for a few more minutes, they didn't say anything. Why had he thought of that memory when Kudou had grabbed him? Probably because he was afraid that Watanuki would die. This was the only other incident they'd been involved in that death truly was a thing to consider.

"Let's get going. You must be worried about Himura-san."

Kudou reached out to help him up, but Doumeki didn't take it right away. "You'll see my memories if you touch me, right?"

"Don't worry, I won't. I only saw it because you were thinking so strongly about Watanuki-san and I wasn't prepared for it, so I couldn't block it out. It won't happen again."

He shrugged finally and accepted the hand up. His head still ached, but at least his vision wasn't fuzzy and it seemed the trickle of blood had stopped. He was going to rescue Watanuki and he would not accept failure again.

There was little to inspect in the room and Rikuou glared at nothing. There was a chain around his ankle and around Watanuki's, but it wouldn't have taken much to break it. The only reason he hadn't yet was because he was hoping that the unconscious boy would wake up. Once he began the process of breaking out of the room, it would be like rolling a rock down a hill: whatever it was that had dragged them there would come back and in order to know what the hell was going on, he needed the spirit-detector awake.

A groan behind him made him turn. Blue eyes blinked hazily and a hand immediately covered his mouth. The coughing started, as he had expected after hearing about the boy's powers, and it sounded so much worse than even when they had first entered the house. So when that Doumeki was around, he really did get better after all.

It sounded like he was going to cough up a lung…

"Himura-san? Where are we?"

"God knows. Somewhere upstairs is about all I can tell you, though what floor, I don't know. There were at least two floors above ground level."

"There's…a basement…"

Well, wasn't that not a surprise?

"You feeling better?"

"Not…really…"

"You really do get better when that guy's around, don't you?"

"You mean…that jerk…? Wish he wasn't! He's so…annoying…" Almost every other word was broken up by a wracking cough and Rikuou raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"If he can suppress your power and help you by just being near you, why do you not like it?"

"Because…he's my…rival. I…hate him."

Rikuou pursed his lips. This was sounding remarkably like Kazahaya. They were so similar that it was damn scary. Which reminded him, what had happened to Kazahaya? The cleanest recollections that he had, the ones that didn't just jumble together with how fast the chaos had come and gone, was Kazahaya clinging to his shirt and crying and then being yanked apart when the house had shaken somewhat. He didn't even have a damn chance to use his powers against the thing. How could you when you didn't even see what was attacking you?

"I wonder how Kudou-san is doing?"

He glanced only briefly back at the small hitch in the voice and he wondered if Watanuki had been about to add 'and Doumeki'. Despite the assurances from the boy, it seemed as if he and Doumeki were actually quite close, since they were always referring to each other without honorifics. Come to think of it, so did he and Kazahaya. It brought up and interesting line of thought. He couldn't recall ever referring to him as Kudou. It had just seemed so natural to call him Kazahaya…

"Come on, we're getting out of here."

"How? We're chained in—Himura-san, don't move!"

Rikuou froze and for a breathless moment, neither of them moved or twitched. There was an inordinately cold breeze that passed at the nape of his neck, causing an involuntary shiver that he couldn't suppress. His eyes darted left to right as much as he could without moving his head, but he still didn't see anything. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Watanuki's terror-stricken face.

A few more seconds passed and finally, Watanuki seemed to relax. "You can move now."

"What was that about?"

"Himura-san, I think we're going to be meals for the spirits. That one…it seemed to be examining you. I was afraid that if you moved, that maybe it would attack."

Now that he could look more closely, after that little incident, Watanuki looked even worse. He hadn't stood up, merely sat there since he woke up, but the weight he braced on his arms seemed to be seeping from him. Rikuou frowned. He really needed to get the kid back to that Doumeki. He seemed to be on his last legs right then and he doubted that Watanuki would actually be walking anywhere.

Well, there was no helping it. He'd have to carry him. It didn't take a lot of power to destroy the chain around their ankles and despite Watanuki's weak protest about what he was doing, he lugged the boy over his shoulder. There was a clinking sound and he turned to see Watanuki's glasses. He took only a few seconds to scoop them up and shove them in his pocket, before he broke the lock on the door with his ability.

In the hallway outside the door, while it was not overly bright in the house, was certainly brighter than that of the room and he took a moment to blink so his eyes could change. There was a shattered but awkwardly boarded up window to his right and it still seemed really dark. Shouldn't it be getting lighter soon? How long had they been in this house? It seemed like days instead of hours.

"Himura-san! Run!"

His introspection cut short by Watanuki's outburst, he turned, trying fruitlessly to see the danger. He didn't want to run to the stairs in case that was where the spirit was, but there wasn't any other way down except to jump, which would get them killed.

"What are you waiting for? Run!"

"Run where? Where is it?"

"Just run to the stairs!"

He frowned, but did as instructed. The only choice was to listen to what Watanuki told him if they wanted to get to the others alive. And he was worried about Kazahaya. The boy was helpless without him, what with his complete lack of common sense and any degree of intelligence. He was always getting in trouble and he was always having to bale the boy out.

"Duck!"

His foot tripped a little on the stairs as he evaded whatever it was and he reached out to grab the railing, only to have it snap like a toothpick in his hand. There was screaming from someone. He developed a severe case of vertigo so he couldn't tell if it came from Watanuki over his shoulder or from down below, where he could glimpse Doumeki and Kazahaya. There was a suspicious silence from behind him and he wondered if Watanuki had passed out from fear.

Then again, he was afraid too, since when you were falling from a third story and plummeting to the ground, it was usually bad news.

End chapter 3