(Yo! I'm back! Sorry for the mega delay but I had a different story to do and exams had me caught up. Oh by the way, in the last chapter I found a little mistake. I'm sorry if you noticed it. Alright, STORY TIME!)

(I do not own the characters. The story, I do.)

WOOSH! I felt the wind from a small hole in the window. I was sitting on a rotten old bed. Some of my hair covered my face. I didn't care. I kept absolutely quiet. I could only hear the sound of the wind.

"Hikari..," Shiki said from the other side of the cottage.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"I can see your underwear. Looks pretty nice," he said.

I felt embarrassed. I looked at him. Shiki was hiding behind a wall, not wearing his armor, but his face was peeking out. I pulled it down so that he couldn't see it. I looked at him again. His face spelt disappointment all over. Now I was just plain angry.

I walked up to him and said, "How could you act like this? First, you threatened to kill me. Then you didn't bother telling me you were with me all the time. And now you act as if it was nothing. What have you got to say for yourself?"

"Umm…did you miss me?" he said with his most innocent voice.

I didn't say anything. I turned back and sat down on the bed. I looked at the ground. When I heard footsteps fading, I looked at the floor and started crying. I asked myself, 'why are you crying?' I didn't know the answer. Not until Shiki grabbed my hand. I thought he left but I guess I was wrong.

"Let me go, you heartless pig! Let me go! LET ME GO!!!" I shouted in rage trying to get him to let go of my hand.

Mixed emotions came. I was happy, at the same time; I was sad and angry too. I was confused. Tears kept coming out of my eyes. The same eyes which Shiki was trying to stare into. I was glad that he cared for me. I was disappointed that he didn't tell me anything about it. I was mad at a whole lot of other futile things. Why did my life turn into such a mess?

"Hikari…listen to me..," he said in a calm voice.

"I don't want to!" I shouted.

"HIKARI!!" he yelled.

"NOOOOO!" I shouted.

He was still holding my hand. He grabbed hold of the other one. He got closer and closer. I looked at his face and I didn't know what to do at that moment. It looked like Shiki did though. He kissed me. The tears stopped flowing out. He grabbed me along the waist and held me tight. It felt like time had stopped at that very moment. I wished it did. He pushed himself away and brushed off the tears off my face.

"I…I…Shiki…" Nothing came into my mind after he kissed me.

"Hikari…" he said with a gentle whisper.

He came closer again. It seemed like he wanted to do it again. I froze. He grabbed me again and…

KNOCK! KNOCK! It sounded like someone was at the door. Shiki looked annoyed and let me go. He walked to the door and opened it. He looked around and went outside. I sighed and went to the bed. I sat there.

"Wow. You look down in the dumps. No da," the man beside me said.

"Yes. I am," I said.

We sat therefore a while and then it hit me. There wasn't supposed to be anyone in this broken down old cottage except me and Shiki.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I screamed.

The person just sat there. Shiki slammed the door open. The person looked at Shiki.

"Why, hello there! I'm Chichiri. No da," he said.

"YOU!! You are…" Shiki said.

The person threw his straw hat into the air and out came a shining light. The last thing I saw was Shiki, yelling my name.

"Oof! Falling out of nowhere is becoming a habit," I said brushing off dust from my skirt.

"Hikari!" a familiar voice called out.

Next thing I knew, dad was hugging me. Not that it was a dramatic moment or anything.

"D-dad…c-can't breathe..," I said gasping for air.

He let go and I let in air into my lungs. When I got my breath back, I was surprised to see such a huge place in front of me. It looked like a palace.

LATER

"What do you mean I have to stay away from Shiki?! You can't force me to do that! He's my friend!" I said angrily, slamming the wooden table in front of me.

"It's for your own good. And don't say he's your friend. I know he means more to you than that," dad said.

I blushed. Dad couldn't have possibly known about that. That Chichiri guy must have seen me and Shiki kissing. And then told dad about it.

"But why? Why do I..," I said.

"Because I said so. Now let's go home," dad said.

"NO! Not unless I know the reason why I have to stay away from Shiki!"

He stood right there, not saying a word. He faced me and nodded his head. I felt glad.

"I think the best person to explain it would be Lord Hotohori. Let's go and let him do the explaining," dad said.

"Lord Hotohori?" I asked, puzzled.

Dad led the way while I followed. I saw a lot of men in armor. The armor kind of looked like Shiki's…except theirs were bronze and Shiki's was blue.

"AAAAAAHHH!!!" dad yelled.

"AAAAAAHHHH!!!" I screamed.

In front of us was Chichiri. I guess he must've appeared out of nowhere again if dad screamed. I mean, being a coach, I didn't think that dad was afraid of anything…except mom's cooking.

"Lord Hotohori is waiting for you in the throne room," he announced. "Would you like to take the express route? No da," he added, pointing at his hat.

"Uhh…it's okay. I think we can get there by foot," dad said.

Chichiri looked disappointed. I let out a huge air of relief. My bottom can't take more punishment. Chichiri disappeared. And then…

"TAMA!!!" someone shouted happily.

I got out of the way and a man, whose hair is the color of fire, hugged dad. It was a silly sight. But what's even sillier was the fact that dad was called Tama.

"Pfft! Hahahahahahahaha! T-Tama? Oh! You sound like a cat with that name," I laughed. And I couldn't stop either.

"Tamahome? Who's th' kid?" the man asked, looking puzzled and staring at me.

"Tamahome? Who's that? His name's Taka…right dad?" I asked.

Dad shrugged. He seems to be keeping a lot of secrets from me. I'll have to remember to make him spill it out later. The strange man kept looking at me. I kept wondering why.

"MIAKA!!" he shouted out.

"Huh? No, I'm not Miaka. My name is Hikari," I said.

"Oh! Well, you sure remin' me a lot of Miaka," he said. "By th' way, th' name's Tasuki."

"Tasuki, can we save the introductions for later. We have to go meet Lord Hotohori," dad said.

Tasuki nodded and went off like a bullet. We continued our way to the throne room. This time, no distractions along the way. But the worst came to the worst when we came into the throne room.

"See? Told ya' all Tama was here!" Tasuki said once we entered the throne room.

Tasuki and someone else hugged dad until he fell onto the ground. Dad tried to get up but that was really ineffective. His hands were under that pile of three people.

SOON

The man with a small hat on him sat down right in front of me, sipping the tea from his cup. He seemed to be the emperor of the palace but who knows really. He stared at me with such gentle eyes and then smiled.

"Hikari, this is Lord Hotohori. He's the emperor of Kounan," dad introduced.

I said hello and the emperor just smiled. He asked me if there was anything I needed to know. I stared at dad who was whistling a tune. 'You are so dead,' I thought.

I then faced Lord Hotohori again. "I want to know about Shiki."

He looked startled and then his face relaxed back to his calm face, only this time he wasn't smiling and he looked a whole lot serious. "Hikari, it's best if you keep away from that boy," he said.

"Why?" I asked in rage.

He didn't answer. I asked him again. "That boy is our enemy. He is the crown prince of Kutou."

"I don't get it. What does this have anything to do with me?"

"You are the daughter of our Priestess of Suzaku. We cannot let one of those Kutou men harm you. And trust me…they will harm you," the emperor said.

'Priestess of Suzaku'. He's talking about mom. What I don't get is…what this entire thing has anything to do with me and Shiki. "Suzaku and Seiryu are sworn enemies. Kutou serves the god, Seiryu while we serve Suzaku. On top of that, Kutou has done so much horrible things to us and our country. Just think what they will do to you," he explained.

"You're wrong!" I shouted. "Shiki…he…he would never do something like that." I ran out of the room, past the guards and finally, out of the palace.

I kept on running and before I knew it, I was out of the perimeter of the town. I looked back at the town and then started to run again. I bumped into something and then felt someone grab hold of my hand. I saw his shiny blond hair and deep blue eyes again. He embraced me in his arms and whispered in my ears "Don't cry, Hikari. Be strong."

His words comforted me…but I started crying. Tears flowed out of my eyes like rain. He lifted my face and stared at me. "Shiki…"

He cut me off by saying something. I was shocked to have heard what he said and he pushed me away. The bright red light surrounded me and before I knew it, I was in my bedroom. I couldn't stop crying and traced back those words I wished could forever be gone… "Return to your world, Hikari. We can never be together."

I looked down, staring at my bruised and dirty knees, seeing the tears that had fall from my eyes.

(I'm sorry for taking so long. Hope you enjoyed it. Next chapter: Hikari's life 3 years later. Till then)