Please take note:   I am going to change my pen name – It will be either Ikumi-hime-chan or Kogashi Mika.  Which one should I use?

Yumi: Hey guys!! 

Katsumi: We're Back!!!  J

Yumi:  And with the next chapter of Long Lost Family!!!

Okay. . .  Well, you heard them . . . Sorry it's been so long. . . *sigh*  I'm really trying to update as fast as I can . . . but if you couldn't tell, I'm having difficulties.  (especially since my baka disk broke last time.  Seriously!  This and the next chapter were on it. 

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Chapter   :  Memories of the Past Part III

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"I am alone," she reiterated as she realized what had transpired there.  Shaking her head trying to clear the images once more, she turned on her heel, heading back to the house to clean her wound. 

Sitting by the fountain, she dipped her arm into the water, immediately staining it a deep crimson red and putting her in more pain than before.  She was used to this kind of pain, though, so she refused to cry out, just as before.  Rinsing her wound, she started thinking.  'What do I do now?  What's next?  I don't have anywhere else to go,' she shuddered.  'Except for that man coming tomorrow.  But with the village dead, there really s no point in me going with him.  He wouldn't know any better. . .'

She sat up, pulling her numbed arm up to examine the deep wound.  She sighed, realizing that she probably would not be able to use this arm to her full extent again.  Carefully, she tore the bottom of her kimono and wrapped the wound tightly. 

'This is a problem.'  She glanced back down at the water, staring at how red it had become in such a short time.  Beneath the water, though, she saw a glint of light.  She reached under the water, struggling to touch and remove the glint.  It was just beyond her reach though, so she leaned farther in, stretching with her good, uninjured arm, eventually falling in. 

"Ack!" she said as she came to the surface again.  "Blood!" she shook, as though that would help remove the blood from her stained clothes.  Suddenly remembering the glinting abject, she turned and pulled it to the surface.  It was a full-fledged sakabato, the reverse-bladed sword.

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Aie!!  No hurtie Ikumi-chan hai?  I know it was short and sux, but as I said the other disk ate it!!  Sorry!! 

The next chapter will be much longer. . . I promise!

Also. . . Please answer the question posed in last chapter – How old am I making Mako-chan?

Ciao!  Ikumi-chan