Chapter 2: Reaching Memories and Shadows

Sora decided he wasn't going to think about anything. The carriage incident was already old news as more explosions shook London, and the dream was tucked away into some distant corner of his mind. He could ignore all the idiots at school who gossiped, but never said anything to his face. He would visit Cain with Nanami and Shinichirou to thank him, and that would be the end of the matter. Or so he had thought.

"Please sit down. I take it you are doing well, Mr. Hashiba?" One look at the raven-haired teen told Sora that Cain was not going to let the whole thing blow over. Maybe it was the wary intelligence Sora could see in those golden-green eyes. Or maybe it was simply the way the Earl held himself. He looked like he wanted answers of some sort, and he'd like them sooner rather than later.

"Call me Sora. I'm not old enough to be Mister Hashiba." Sora plopped down in the offered seat with a grin. He saw Shinichirou do the same, albeit more gracefully, as Nanami took up the customary position of every butler by standing behind Shinichirou. "I'm doing fine though." He felt his grin twist into a rueful smile. "Thank you for taking me to the hospital. Who knows what could have happened if you hadn't."

"It was my pleasure to do so." Cain gave him a small smile. The Earl was actually quite pretty, Sora realized with something akin to shock. Where had that thought come from? "I was wondering if you could possibly tell me what happened. It's a little bit worrisome when someone's carriage explodes, especially when that someone is the brother of a delegate."

Embarrassment rushed through Sora and he was certain it was visible on his face. "That's kind of a problem. You see, I don't remember what happened, or even why I was in that carriage in the first place. I usually walk to and from school." The streets of London were more often busy than not, making it more practical for him to walk whenever he could.

"I see. In any case, I'm glad to see you are well." Cain realized at this point that it would be pointless to question Sora further. If he didn't know, he didn't know, and Sora couldn't lie for anything. Cain's silver-haired manservant, Riff, entered the room with tea as the conversation turned to more mundane things.

Sora hardly listened to them gossip. The uneasy feeling from the other day had yet to fully disappear. If anything, it had grown stronger, and the nightmare hovering in the back of his mind did absolutely nothing to soothe him. Plus there was this Nao-kun Matsuri had mentioned. He had never heard of Nao before that day in the hospital. The picture itself had been an odd find, as Nanami and Shinichirou had gotten rid of most of their belongings when they moved from Japan to London. Sora had found it in a small box labeled 'Yoru's'. Come to think of it, he had never asked who Yoru was. He had kind of just assumed this Yoru person had lived in their house as part of the last delegation group.

Which didn't explain why he was in the picture, or how Matsuri had known who was in it.

"Cain!" The loud screech cleaved through the steady conversation and Sora's unwanted musings. A blonde little girl stood in the doorway to the room, hands on her small hips. Sora decided she would have been very cute if her face had not been twisted with anger.

"That must be his sister," he heard Nanami mutter to Shinichirou.

With fire burning in her blue eyes, she stomped over to Cain, who was looking oddly at her as though he had just been caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar. His guests seemed to have been unnoticed by her.

"How dare you leave for three days again without telling me, Big Brother!" she bellowed, a finger coming out to poke him mercilessly. "Not only that, you left Oscar here to help!" For such a little thing, she had a really deafening voice.

Cain winced. "Merry, can we talk about this later? I'm in the middle of entertaining a few guests."

The girl blinked and turned, finally taking notice of her brother's company. "Oh. Fine then, Big brother, we'll come back to this later." After shooting her brother a glower, she blasted them with a brilliant smile. Sora had thought correctly; she really was cute. "I am Merryweather Hargreaves. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Shinichirou nodded. "I am the Japanese Delegate, Shinichirou Minato. This my younger brother, Sora, and my butler, Kai Nanami." He motioned to each in turn.

Nanami gave a small bow, a gentle smile on his face. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss."

Sora grinned at the little girl. "Nice to meet you."

She eyed him for a moment before plopping down next to him on the sofa. "Why are you here to see Big Brother? Not a lot of people tend to visit us. It's usually just Oscar and my governesses."

"Well, he saved my life," Sora explained as Cain, having seen that Merry wasn't going to create much mischief at the moment, picked up his conversation with Shinichirou.

"Oh, so you're the one whose carriage exploded," she exclaimed with a nod of her head. Has everyone heard about it? Sora wondered a bit irately. Merry continued speaking. "Big brother is always trying to help people, even if it never seems like it. Why don't I give you a reading? It won't tell you who the culprit was, but it might help you find out why."

"A reading?" All Sora could imagine were books, and he didn't see how that would help at all.

"A tarot card reading," Merry clarified. "I used to give them all the time, before I met Big Brother."

Tarot cards? Sora wondered. Was that really any better than books? Well, it couldn't hurt, right? "Sure, why not?" he agreed with a shrug and a grin.

She flashed him a smile. "Okay then. Big Brother, I'm borrowing your guest for a few minutes!" Sora was being tugged out of the room before Cain could even reply.

"Are you sure that it's fine?" Sora muttered to Merry.

"Of course. Big Brother wouldn't say no to it. You were looking a little bored anyway."

"Nah, I just don't have a head for politics."

Merry performed several readings for Sora, but for some reason, she was not satisfied with any of them. "They're not accurate," was all she would say, arms crossed as she sat her bed pouting at the cards. "I guess I'm too content at the moment."

Sora decided not to ask. Instead, another idea struck his mind. "What about dream interpretation? That's kind of like tarot cards readings, right?" He looked up at her from where he sat leaning against the bed.

The condescending glance she gave him informed him that dream interpretation was in fact not at all like tarot readings. "And here I was thinking you weren't an idiot like Oscar," she muttered, before speaking up. "Of course not, but if you think it would help, I can certainly listen. I've never tried dream interpretations before."

Sora shot her a glare for the idiot comment, but didn't vocally complain. He didn't know Oscar after all, and Merry seemed to strongly dislike the other man. Maybe the guy wasn't as much of a moron as Merry made him out to be. "Never mind. I just had an odd dream the other day, but it probably doesn't relate to the case at all."

"Just tell me," Merry ordered, poking him. "Dreams are supposed to be messages from the subconscious anyway."

She had the same look in her eyes that her brother had had with his earlier questions regarding the accident. He looked away from her with a frown. "Not much happened. I was a kid again and running away with someone, but they disappeared." His face darkened as he recalled the terror that had gripped him at the other's absence.

"With whom were you running?"

He just shook his head. "Didn't see them. Probably wouldn't have recognized them anyway."

Merry tilted her head. "Why not? Sometimes Big Brother, Riff, and other people I know are in my dreams."

His blue eyes drifted to the window. The sky was probably the same shade of blue as his hair at the moment. Soon the sun would set and sky would be a rosy shade of pink, sliding between the dark leaves. Pink and green. He had never been a big fan of that particular color combination. "There aren't usually people in my dreams."

"Oh. But then you can't know if you would recognize them or not."

Sora didn't answer. His eyes were glued on something outside the window and his head pounded slightly. Her words seemed come from far away. Without him being even aware of it, his hand reached inside his pocket.

"Sora?" Merry tapped him on the shoulder, making him jump.

"Hey, don't do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack." He did look quite panicked, before his face turned red with embarrassment.

"Then you should pay more attention," she retorted, her small hands on her hips. "It's rude to not listen to a lady when she's talking."

He winced and crossed his arms. "I was listening. I just- " He paused, suddenly seeing what he had pulled from his pocket. His mouth went dry as he looked at the card in his hand.

"You just what?" she demanded only to see the look on his face. "Hey Sora? Sora, is something wrong?"

He didn't seem to hear her. He simply sat there shaking, his eyes wide, his head pounding. Warning bells were going off and he didn't know why. This card, he had never seen it before, and yet… and yet…

The world decided then to go dark.

The dwindling conversation between Shinichirou and Cain was once more interrupted when the door was thrown open with a bang. "Big Brother, something's wrong with Sora!" Merry rushed into the room and threw herself at Cain, her voice shrill with panic. "He just fainted all of a sudden!"

Cain's eyes widened and he rose to his feet. "Merry, where is he?"

"In my room," she whimpered, staring at him with frightened blue eyes.

The Earl handed Merry over to Riff, and dashed out of the room, closely followed by Nanami and Shinichirou. He bounded up the stairs, and down the corridor, and shoved Merry's partly shut door open. There, on the floor, was Sora, blue eyes closed. Kneeling besides him was a boy with long pink hair that Cain had never seen before (at least, Cain was pretty sure he was a boy). The pinkette's head snapped up at the noise created, treating Cain to a startled pink stare. For a moment, Cain would have sworn his eyes were red. Neither of them noticed Shinichirou and Nanami's arrival until the butler's surprised voice cut into the room.

"Sunao?"

That seemed to be the pink-haired boy's cue to leave. He stood and darted for the balcony. Cain attempted to snag his arm, or even his long hair, only to miss as the boy jumped off it and vanished. Swearing softly the Earl turned back to the prone body on the floor. Nanami was checking Sora's pulse, and Shinichirou had bent to pick something up. The man's face seemed to pale. Cain moved quickly to his side, intent on see the object before the delegate could hide it. It was a tarot card. More specifically, it was a black-bordered Emperor card, the likes of which he had only seen several times before. Each of those times had been connected to Delilah.

Sora's blue eyes blinked open, and he muttered, "Ran?" before unconsciousness reclaimed him.

The Earl called a certain psychic medium as soon as he had pacified Merry and his guests had been made comfortable. He had insisted that they spend the night, especially since Sora had yet to gain consciousness. "Crehador, I want information on the Japanese delegates as soon as possible. Think you could manage that?"

He could sense the brown haired medium raise an eyebrow. The request was not that odd in one sense, but very unusual in another. "The Japanese delegates? Whatever for, Earl Hargreaves?"

Cain ignored Crehador's mocking tone to explain. "The adopted brother of one Shinichirou Minato was nearly killed when his carriage exploded several days ago and he's since then received a tarot card with a black border. I want to know what kind of connection they have to Delilah, if any, as soon as possible."

This time Crehador frowned. He could hear it. "But they don't normally target delegates, or their relatives, and it would never be in such an obvious fashion."

"That's what makes the whole thing odd. No one targets delegates. The only explanation I can come up with is that Delilah is somehow behind it, yet this doesn't seem like their style at. In any case, he was sent a black-bordered tarot card. That alone deserves being looked into."

Crehador sighed. Once the Earl got wind of a mystery, he just didn't let go. "I can try, if you double the payment. The Japanese tend to keep to themselves. It's difficult to find any of their secrets."

"For all that you hate the wealthy, you do love money don't you?" Cain crossed his arms. "Alright Crehador, you get double. Half now, and half when you find something. I expect to know if their property is part of the diagram at the very least."

"I will need a few extra days too…"

"I'll give you until one week from today. No later."

Crehador knew that tone of voice. "Done Cain. I'll be seeing you in a week."

I generally don't mind it if people don't review (I certainly don't review every story I read), but I would like to know what people think of this one. So, even if you don't have much to say, please review. ^.^

A shout out to Musical Sunrise and irishKaoru again for betaing! Please Review!