DarkTaoAngel: Thanks to all those who reviewed the last chapter, and I hope this one will be just as good or better. The last one was about four chapters put together in length for me, so I worked really hard on it and wrote it in one night. I hope to do the same with this one. Please review!

Ren packed enough clothing for five days, which was about how long he was planning on staying. He called for one of his thirty-three jets to arrive at the Tokyo airport, and he waited for a cab to take him there. Ren calculated that it would take him four hours to get to Hokkaido and find Horo, and he would stay at a motel once there if he had to. Food wasn't much of a problem, as he didn't need to eat on the way there, and he'd be there in a matter of hours, so he would find a restaurant once there. Unlike Horo, he could go more than two hours without so much as thinking of eating.

The jet, which happened to be Ren's newest one, was also his smallest, which was good as only Ren and the pilot of the jet would be flying in it, so it didn't need to be overly roomy; the mass of the jet would only slow them down if it was larger. Ren heard the taxi he'd called pull up in front of the residence, and the driver got out to take his luggage. Normally, he wouldn't have done such, but the extra money that Ren had handed him at the end of the ride had made up for any of the struggle he'd had with the suitcase. Ren had remembered to pack winter clothes as well as summer clothes, as Hokkaido was bound to be cold, but he needed something to wear of his trip back to Tokyo as well. He didn't bring much else, except for a little extra money for when he got there, which to any normal person would have been counted as an awful lot of cash, but since his family was rich, it didn't seem like that much to him.

The taxi took Ren all the way to the landing site in the airport, and Ren took his luggage from there. The jet had just arrived, and Ren was able to board it right away, as the pilot recognized him from last time he'd needed the jet flown, which was only once, as he never used it. Ren had the Chinese man, whose name was Shen, his suitcase, and entered the small plane.

The jet was very spacious inside for being considered small. It had ten chairs in the front for passengers, and an extra room in the back, which was where Ren would be on the way to Hokkaido. The room had a long, leather sofa in the middle of it, and two small full-size beds in the corners. There was a small fridge to the left of the room, and it was filled with juice and fruit, even a few sodas. Ren layed down on the couch and prepared for what was expected to be a very long ride.

One hour passed and somewhere between the jet's departure and then Ren had managed to fall asleep. Stretched out on the larger of the two small beds, Ren's feet didn't even reach the edge of the bed. He cuddled up to one of the blankets for warmth, for the weather outside was beginning to match that of Hokkaido, even though they weren't even halfway there yet. Ren was a generally light sleeper, but as the wind began blowing, he didn't even stir. It seemed as though things were going quite smoothly, that is, until they were about two hours into the ride.

Ren had awoke after about one and a half hours, and was currently reading one of the extremely long books he'd brought with him. His eyes drooped slightly, as he was still tired and hadn't gotten any sleep from the night before, having woke up at about six in the morning to depart for Hokkaido, but he tried his hardest to focus on the book. Telling himself that there were only a couple more hours left and he'd be there, he leaned back further in the couch, going back to his reading. The book he was reading was in all Chinese, and it was almost one thousand pages long. He'd read it once before, but that was a few years back, and it was the best choice for him to read while flying, as the words were larger print than any of his other books, so he didn't have to concentrate as hard to read the print.

The jet swerved sharply to the left suddenly, causing Ren to curse loudly as the book in his hands was sent flying, and he had fallen on the floor roughly. Still muttering curses under his breath, he picked himself up off of the hard floor, grabbed his book, and noticed that he'd lost what page he was on. He glared at the pilot, even though there was a wall separating the two of them, and shouted just loudly enough for him to hear.

"What was that all about?" he spat, leaning back on the couch again and opening his book to the approximate page he'd stopped at last, not able to find the exact page.

"My apologies, sir, but we're experiencing some rough weather. It seems as though a storm is coming in. do you still wish to chance flying this high, or should we land?" the pilot's voice was crisp, just like a butler's voice, and it was also very curt. He seemed a bit worried, but knew that he should first ask the owner of the jet, Ren, whether or not he wanted to land. It was only proper, plus Ren was the one paying him so generously to fly him such a short distance.

"There's no need for that, Shen, as it would only slow us down. No, continue flying, I don't think anything will happen from such a small storm. As you were." Ren waved him off, taking, once again, to his book. But, as fate would have it, to continue flying was quite possibly the worst decision Ren had ever, and would ever, making in his life. About fifteen minutes of silence passed, and nothing worse had happened since the jet had made a sudden turn earlier. They were about one hour from Hokkaido, however, when everything went wrong.

The storm intensified, causing wind to blow snow in front of the windows of the jet, obscuring everything that the pilot needed to see to navigate it. The jet made another dramatic swerve, this time turning it on its side. The wind let up a bit, revealing a huge mountain, right in front of the jet. The pilot tried to avoid it, but it was impossible. He put down the joystick and ran for cover, but it would take more than just hiding under something to protect him from the string of large mountains colliding with the small jet.

Ren heard the storm outside the jet intensify, and he knew something was wrong. He attempted to leave the room and find the pilot, but he didn't even make it to the door before the jet tilted again and he was sent flying sideways. He looked out of the window, seeing a large mountain close by. It was getting closer, and Ren knew that the pilot could not avoid it from that distance. Grabbing a pillow from a nearby bed and covering his head with it, he prepared for the impact that he knew was coming….

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Ren groaned, lifting his head up slightly, which proved to be a most difficult task as it seemed heavier than it had been before. His eyes were closed, and he didn't want to open them because they hurt so badly. All of him hurt, especially his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out except for a muffled kind of moan. He eventually managed to open his eyes, but what he saw turned out to be way worse than how he felt.

He was laying in a snow covered field, it looked like, but it was actually the mountain. Snow was falling all around, and he looked down at his legs to find them covered in the white stuff. His head felt oddly heavy again, and he rubbed it with his hand, but retracted it when he felt something sticky on it. Looking at his hand he found it to be something crimson in color, and he immediately recognized it as blood. He panicked, standing up suddenly, but his knees buckled and he was immediately on the ground again, coughing as he fought to breathe. Blood came out of his mouth, and for a moment he thought he was going to die then and there, but something came to his mind, something that gave him the will to live.

It was Horo.

Horo was in Hokkaido. Ren had never apologized for what he had said to him before he left, and he had also never gotten to tell him goodbye. There was still too much to be said and done, and Ren would not – no, could not – die until he got to see Horo at least one last time. He meant that much to Ren.

Ren managed to get on his hands and knees, but he felt as though he could not get any further. His legs would not support his weight, and wherever he touched he felt blood. One of his eyes was swollen, though not completely shut, and there was blood flowing freely from a deep gash in his left arm, which was too numb for him to even move it.

Ren struggled to his feet after a few minutes of coughing up blood, but he felt nauseas and fell back down. Clutching his head tightly, he prepared for the worst. But then that same thought from earlier struck him, that he was not living for himself, but for Horo. He owed him at least that much. And after he got to Horo and told him that he was sorry, he could die for all he cared. He just wanted to live long enough to say goodbye.

Ren felt the material of his shirt and found it to be covered in blood. He rung it out as best he could and attempted once more to stand. But this time, he actually managed to. Getting to his feet, Ren wobbled for a bit before straightening up without falling again. He spread his arms apart in front of himself, so that if he did fall, he'd land on them. His back hurt terribly, probably from the crashing of the jet, and it felt as though he'd broken a few ribs, but nothing more serious than that. It was then that it all hit Ren. The jet had crashed. They'd run into the mountain. What had happened to Shen? What had happened to the jet?

And then Ren saw it. A few yards to his left lay the smoldering wreck that was his jet. It appeared to have blown up upon crash-landing by the mountain. And a few feet away from that lay Shen, surrounded by a puddle of blood. Ren ran up to Shen, falling beside him and not even caring that it felt like his entire back was on fire as he did so. He checked Shen's pulse, and to his horror, there was none. Ren turned him over to find that the blood was coming from a large gash in his chest, right into his heart, from a rather large piece of the jet stuck in him. Ren promptly removed it, but that only made the blood come out even faster. He tried to stop it from coming, but it didn't help. Shen was dead. Ren would give him a proper burial later, but he had to focus on keeping himself alive for the moment. Stranded at the top of the Hidaka Mountains with no food… it was only a matter of time before he either starved to death, or killed himself.

Ren looked around and found his suitcase laying nearby. It was broken apart quite literally, and when he looked in it he found that all of the clothing was torn and burnt as well. Ren looked around the ruins of the jet, seeing nothing of use to him; except for the small blanket from the bed he'd fallen asleep on not even two hours ago. he lifted it up and found that it was full of holes, and would not keep him very warm, but whatever bit of warmth, however little, it gave could mean the difference between life and death for Ren.

Ren took one last look at Shen, but the sight was too painful for him to look at for long. Not only had Shen been a servant to the Tao family for many years, but he had also been Ren's only childhood friend. He'd helped him through so many hardships, and now he was dead before Ren's eyes, because Ren had made him keep flying. Because Ren had not let him land safely until the storm was over. Because of Ren, Shen was dead. Because of Ren. Everyone always got hurt because of Ren. He'd hurt Horo, and now Shen. For a moment Ren thought it would have been better for everyone if he just curled up and died right there on the mountain. But then he shook that thought out of his head. He still had to find Horo and apologize. After that he could kill himself for all he cared. He would have no reason after that to live.

Ren hiked for almost two hours after that. Still clinging to the tattered blanket he finally found a small cave built of snow. It was only large enough for him to fit in up to his shoulders, but that would have to do. He was tired, stranded, and badly injured. He no longer had the energy left in himself to go very far, and he'd left Bason back at Itsumo because he hadn't thought he would need him. That wouldn't be the first time that day that he had been wrong.

Ren crawled backwards into the small cave-like space, pulling the blanket over his head. He did not sleep that well that night, and he knew that would not be the only sleepless night he would get while out there on that mountain. He just hoped that he would not die in his sleep, for at that moment, it was a great possibility.

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The next morning Ren woke up early, knowing that he had to think about how he was going to get off of the mountain. He was groggy and knew that, if he had an alarm clock, it would have been about four in the morning. He was freezing cold, and thought at first that he had at least gotten a little hypothermia, but was astonished to find that his arms and legs were fine. Well, all except his left arm, which still felt numb and he was unable to move his fingers. He couldn't feel his arm from his elbow and below.

Willing himself to stand, Ren once again struggled with this task. But that morning in particular his legs felt like rubber and refused to support him. He fell backwards, falling on his snow cave, which broke apart completely. Ren would have to find new shelter for the next night, and he would also have to look for food, which would prove to be difficult where he was. He would have allowed himself to die easily, for it would have been so much more relieving and easy than living, but there was still that one thing left for him to do before he could move on.

He had to live for Horo.

He had promised himself that he would not hurt anyone again.

After what had happened to Shen, he didn't want to leave Horo hurt.

He didn't want to hurt anyone…

Like he'd hurt Horo.

All of his life Ren had never minded violence; killing was just another simple task in his life and was nothing major to him. He had lived in the darkness, thrived off of the pain and suffering of others. But he did not want to live like that any longer. He wanted to change, before it was too late. But, after what had happened to Shen, was it too late? Would he never be able to change his life? He had thought that he could, but he had already hurt so many, killed so many. Was that why he was stuck on that mountain? So that he could experience the pain that he had put so many others through? If he died, would he become a spirit? Would he go to Heaven?

Ren shivered slightly, wrapping the blanket around his small body to keep warm. Slowly standing up, he shook the excess snow off of himself and prepared for what was sure to be a long and horrible day. And it was sure to be the first of many.

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Yoh sighed and stretched in the chair he was in. it was another lazy day for him, when Anna was gone shopping and no one had come over all day. And, as difficult it was for the brunette to admit, he was bored. And then it hit him, Ren was supposed to had arrived in Hokkaido last night, and so, to waste time, he could call over to Horo's place and make sure the trip had went alright! Yoh smiled at himself for his own genius.

Yoh stretched one last time and headed over to the kitchen, picked up the phone, and began dialing the long distance number, even though he knew Anna would kill him for wasting money to call that far away. He put the phone to his ear and immediately heard Horo's voice on the other end.

"Hello?" Horo's natural bewilderment showed through, even over the phone.

"Hi Horo, it's me, Yoh! I called to check up on you and Ren." he still had the same lazy voice over the phone as he did every day, but he put on an excited tone, though trying at the same time to conceal how excited he was.

"Ren? Wait, isn't he there with you? He's not here. Why, was he coming? He better not be, there's a major storm just outside Hokkaido, and transportation is really dangerous. Yoh? You there?" Horo could no longer hear Yoh in the background, and for a moment he thought that he'd hung up, but it was the shock that had made him stop. He quickly shook himself mentally and began talking again so that Horo would know that he was still there.

"Yeah, I'm still here. You said that Ren never got there? But, he left for Hokkaido in one of his jets yesterday. He should have been there by now. Wait, what if something happened to him?" Yoh's voice sounded worried, and Horo had to admit that all of the signs to Ren getting hurt were there. The storm had been worst last night. And Ren's jet had been headed right into it.

"Oh man, Yoh! What if he got caught in the storm? Why would he even try to go out in that kind of weather?"

"Well, he did feel pretty bad about how he acted to you two days ago, and I think he really wanted to apologize. He was pretty upset that you'd left."

"Really? I didn't know." Great, now he felt really bad. It was his fault that Ren had ever gone out looking for him in the storm. And it would also be his fault if Ren was…. He tried to convince himself that no such thing had happened, and to stop thinking about it, but his thoughts kept coming to it. To Ren, cold and alone, dying because of him.

"Yeah, I think that's why he left. So, you're sure he didn't come down there?" Yoh questioned, tilting his phone slightly to hear Horo better from the long distance interference.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Yoh, this is bad. What if he's hurt? We have to find him, get a search party together or something." He was genuinely worried about him. And even if he had to do it alone, he would go out in the cold and look for Ren. He just hoped that he would not have to be alone when he made that trip.

"I know, we'll probably have to get a jet or something, I think we can pay to rent one or something. But, I don't have enough money to pay for the trip." Yoh said sheepishly, knowing that Anna had been buying enough clothes for ten people to keep herself.

"I have enough saved up, I think. I was going to spend it on some new plants for the Koroppukkur, but I think this is more important." And it was set. Horo did have enough money saved up, and renting the jet would be simple. And as it turned out, a pilot came with the jet to fly it, so neither of the boys had to learn. But there was still the problem of Anna, and whether or not she would let Yoh go on the trip.

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Ren had been walking nonstop for almost four hours, trudging along slowly, and still had not found anything he needed to survive. His feet were sore, and the bottoms of his shoes were wearing out from him dragging his feet as he walked. His eyes were unfocused and half closed, devoid of all emotion. His tongari had long since fallen apart, making his tangled hair look much longer than it normally would have been. The bitter cold stung at his bare flesh, but he no longer shivered. He was too cold and numb to feel it.

His feet gave way underneath him, and he fell with a slight 'thump' onto the hard, frozen land. A small jagged rock cut his arm, but it was his left arm, so he could not feel anything. He looked down at it and saw the blood form and begin to trickle down his arm.

And he watched it.

All he could do was watch.

All he ever did was watch.

Watch as the blood formed outside of the bodies of other people.

Watch as he hurt so many others.

Watch as he killed.

Watch as he bled.

And now all he could do was watch as slowly he died.

All he could do was watch.

He didn't have the energy left in him to fight death. He knew he would not die yet, for it took days to die without food or water. But there was water all around him, frozen water. The cold would slash at him slowly. But it was not solely because of this fact that he was dying. He was dying inside, too.

DarkTaoAngel: So, how was that chapter? I tried to make it as long as the previous chapter, and I think I did a good job. Sad chapter, I know. So, will Horo make it to Ren in time? What will happen if he doesn't? Will Ren ever get to tell Horo all he wanted to? I wrote this whole chapter in one day, so it isn't perfect, but please tell me what you think of it. Review even if you didn't like it, because I want to know what I can do to make it better and more enjoyable for you to read. And yes, I am only writing these author notes to fill up space. It's my goal to have 4,000 words per chapter or more. Please review!