Well anyways hope you liked last chapter now….wow…..THE 10TH CHAPTER!

Chapter 10- The Blood Stain

Ryuhou was unsure of how to deal with the situation. He couldn't exactly go to another HOLY member and insist that there was a Native Alter running around who currently had Mimori in a nightmare where pain was real, but he couldn't make himself fall asleep…

"But I know who can…," he said softly as he began searching. Then he saw exactly what he was looking for. Through his bedroom window, he could see the Native Alter with his eyes closed and grinning. Ryuhou was angered by this, and ran through his window and onto his balcony. He began choking the intruder, and the intruder opened his eyes while trying to breathe. He put his hands on Ryuhou's to try to make Ryuhou let go, but Ryuhou wouldn't budge. In fact, the harder he tried to break free, the tighter Ryuhou's grip got to be.

The Alter shoved his hands in front of Ryuhou's face, and powder flew out. Ryuhou felt himself slipping once again, and the intruder was free of Ryuhou's grip. But that was exactly what Ryuhou had been counting on. He opened his eyes suddenly and, for once, was happy that he was in a nightmare.

"Miri where are you?" He looked around frantically to find Mimori when he spotted her. Her body still had fire surrounding it, but the fire had grown weak, and the man's Alter had her on the ground and was kicking her in the stomach.. She coughed up lumps of blood. She looked at him and smiled softly. She couldn't cry even though she wanted to.

"Ryuhou…." He voice was soft and hoarse from the beating that she was receiving.

"Miri!" he began to run to her, but was stopped by the Alter.

"Why should you do that?" it asked Ryuhou. "All she is is a memory of your past; she is the only thing that binds you to it, so why must you save her? Without her you can move on. Isn't that what you want, Ryuhou? Freedom from your past?"

"Hai," he said, looking at the ground. "That is one thing I want, but this is not the way to achieve that goal, the only way to achieve that is by defeating the man in black and white."

"But don't you see? Even after doing that, she will still remind you of it! So why must you insist on protecting her? All she does is get in the way and mess up, so why keep her around?"

"You're right, she will still remind me of it….and she does get in the way when I fight…."

Mimori's heart felt worse than her body now. She would've much rather have had to endure more beatings than to hear Ryuhou actually agree with the Alter.

The Alter smirked at hearing this. "So your eyes have been opened and you see it my way? Good, now I can cont-" He was silenced because Ryuhou had put his hand on the Alter's shoulder in order to prevent it from getting any closer to Mimori. "What are you doing?"

"You may be right. She gets in the way every time I go to fight that baka Kazuma and always forces me to retreat, and she is one of the chains that bind me to my past… But she is the one chain I'm willing to keep around, because no matter what, Miri is Miri." Mimori smiled, she wasn't sure if she wanted to cry out of happiness or pain. "But that doesn't mean that I'm here to protect her. Not by any means actually." Pain, definitely pain. The small smile she once had faded as soon as it had come.

'Of course, he just came here to do his job, I should've known, so why does it surprise me?' Mimori thought sadly as a single tear began to trickle down her face. But Ryuhou, on the other hand, only grinned as he looked the Alter straight in the eyes.

"I'm not here to protect her," he repeated, "because she no longer needs protecting. I'm just here to help her." Mimori's eyes widened, and she smiled as well. She got up in spite of the pain and waited for the tears to fall from her face to the palm of her hand. Sure enough, as soon as it fell, it formed a fireball that she sent hurling towards the unsuspecting Alter who had his attention focused on Ryuhou. It torched the Alter's back, but the Alter only laughed.

"Do you honestly think that hurts?" He turned his head to look at Mimori and cackled.

"No," Mimori grinned, "but that should," she pointed towards Ryuhou, and the Alter, just like Mimori had expected, turned his head. As if on queue, Ryuhou's fist met with his face as soon as he had turned it.

"Zetsuei!" Ryuhou summoned his Alter, and, though Mimori was badly injured and had lost a lot of blood, she summoned as much energy as she could in order to help Ryuhou. The fire surrounding her body grew again, and she made it surround Zetsuei as well.

"Motto!" they both said. Zetsuei transformed into his second stage, and the flames grew bigger. The Alter gulped. There was something about this that he didn't like.

"How about some sleeping dust!" he blew dust at Zetsuei, but the fire surrounding him served as a shield, and the dust had no effect. "Oh……crap….." He tried to run away, but Zetsuei was already feet behind him. The Alter turned around and pulled out the blood stained dagger he had used on Mimori. He stabbed Zetsuei's arm, but nothing happened to him.

"Baka, his body I armor, no stupid dagger can do anything to him." But the Alter only grinned.

"Who ever said I was trying to hurt your Alter?" Mimori winced as he said this, and Ryuhou looked only to find the stab wound in the spot on the arm where Zetsuei was stabbed. She held her arm and fell to the ground. "When this dagger gets something on it, if that substance remains, it hurts that person even when it's trying to hurt something else. In this case, the girl's body."

"MIRI!" He held her in his arms as she looked at him and smiled gently. Sweat was dripping down her forehead and fusing with the pool of blood that was beginning to form around her. "You're losing too much blood, we need to get you out of here…. Stop fighting, I can do this on my own."

Mimori shook her head. "Iie, I refuse to be the reason you retreat, I refuse to be just some girl in the way.. I'm going to fight by your side, that's what partners do!"

"That's also what friends do…. But friends also don't let their friends get injured, so rest."

"Iie! Motto!" Mimori said stubbornly, sticking her tongue out as the fire the fire surrounding Zetsuei began rising.

"Motto," Ryuhou said softly, and Zetsuei inched forward.

"Motto!" Mimori said again, the flames growing bigger.

"Motto!" Ryuhou shouted as the Alter was backing into a corner. Ryuhou was beginning to like this dream…

"MOTTO!" Both of them shouted. Ryuhou held Mimori in one arm while aiming his other arm towards Zetsuei and the Alter. Mimori's hands were clutched on Ryuhou's jacket. Her body still glowed so Ryuhou, thankfully, couldn't see anything. The Alter was angry because it knew that this was the end.

"I'm not going down without taking someone with me!" It stabbed Zetsuei as hard as it could in the stomach, and was disintegrated moments later, leaving only the dagger. Ryuhou was sweating and Mimori's body still glowed as Zetsuei and the fire surrounding him disappeared into thin air.

"I'm glad that's over, now to get out of her and-" He looked down at Mimori and his eyes widened. Her stomach was bleeding badly, she was definitely going to lose too much blood… "MIRI!"

Ryuhou awoke on his patio with a start, then ran into the kitchen floor where Mimori was laying, but Mimori wasn't moving. The Alter User had gotten away, but that wasn't his top priority. His uniform was stained with her blood, as were her clothes. He was very thankful that he clothes weren't torched in the real world. But he had no time for that at the moment. The gash in her stomach, the bruises covering her body, the cuts on her arms, she was in very bad shape. "MIRIIIII!" he did something he hadn't done since they were kids- he held her as close to him as he could. "You can't die, you aren't supposed to die…. You're the only person left that gave me good memories of my childhood…. We have to get you to a doctor- NOW!"

He picked her up and ran through the halls of HOLY. "Ry-uhou…." She said as she breathed . It was painful for her to do anything. They arrived at the emergency center to find the doctors asleep on the job.

"WAKE UP IDIOTS! GET OFF YOUR BUTTS AND HELP THIS WOMAN!" He slammed one fist on the front desk and the 2 doctors awoke with a start. "SHE NEEDS INTENSIVE MEDICAL ATTENTION NOW!"

"Miss Kiryu!" The doctors said in shock. "What happened to her!"

"That is irrelevant at this point in time now hurry up and get her what she needs!" One of the doctors put her on a stretcher and sent her to the emergency room while the other doctor was setting up the needed equipment. He quickly hooked her up to many wires and blood bags while inspecting her.

Ryuhou waiting patiently for one of the doctors to come outside and inform him of her condition. He came out with a grave look on his face. "What is it?" Ryuhou asked nervously, though not daring to show this to the doctor.

"She's got 3 deep external wounds and a very bad internal wound. She has a rib that almost broke and minor cuts and bruises beyond that. We have no idea how long she'll be in, she's lost a lot of blood and is unconscious right now. It's a good thing you got her here when you did."

"I see, may I go see her?"

"If you like, but the scene isn't very pretty." Ryuhou walked into the room to find the other doctor sewing her stomach. It made Ryuhou hurt inside to see that happening to Mimori. After about an hour, the doctor left, leaving Ryuhou and Mimori alone in the room. He pulled up a seat beside her chair and sighed.

"Why did you have to insist on fighting with me? You could've spared yourself the pain…. Why Mimori….."

A few days passed, and Ryuhou hadn't left the emergency center. Scheris and Cougar had heard about Mimori's injuries and came to see her. Cougar wanted to be the one to stay with her instead of Ryuhou but he and Scheris had to go to work. Her pulse was back to normal, but the bruises looked worse than ever. The internal injuries were almost fully healed. He couldn't sleep very well, every time he would close his eyes he would see her face that was full of pain and shock.. So he decided to watch and wait until she woke up, until he was sure that she was going to be ok. He was just about to nod to sleep when e eyes slowly flickered opened.

:"Mimori!" he said suddenly.

"Ryuhou!" Mimori smiled. "How long have I been out?"

"A few days, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, I was actually dreaming about what you said… about how you said I can't die…"

"I never said that…"

"Yes you did," Mimori insisted. "When we first woke up…"

"No, I found you with those wounds when you were on your bed, you screamed and woke e up. I went in your bedroom and saw that you had those injuries. I carried you from your bed to here, I have no idea how you got your injuries."

"Oh…." Mimori said sadly. "I must have been dreaming then."

"I supposed so…. Hang on I'll be right back." He was gone for about 15 minutes before returning. He was somewhat out of breath but he was trying not to show it. "The doctors said I could take you home, but they'd have to wrap your arms and stomach where the stitches are before you left." He waited outside of her room as the doctors wrapped her stomach and arms. She walked out of the room and together they walked back to their apartment. Ryuhou walked into his room and fell asleep while Mimori walked into her bedroom.

"That's strange…" she said to herself. "My sheets don't have any bllod stains on them…" She walked into the kitchen and saw the coffee pot that held the coffee she had made for them just before they were forced back to sleep. "Didn't I make that….?" She averted her eyes to the floor to find the faint traces of a blood stain. "That is so strange… who could've cleaned this up….and why would Ryuhou lie to me…." She pondered on this for a while, never noticing the blood stained rag that was in the trashcan…

well that's the end, sorry this chapter sucked. I'll do better next time!oh and to teh readers of my other story, i have the next chapter written, but it's on another computer so i have to wait to post is. I have it though...