"Chu are we going somewhere?" Rinku followed his unusually sober friend down the long stairs in front of Genkia's temple. It had been nearly three months since he, Chu, Jin, Touya, Suzuki, and Shishiwaka had been allowed to live at Genkia's temple. They had a few rules: no harming any humans, remain on temple grounds unless they told Genkia where they'd be, and lastly they were required to assist Yusuke when necessary.

"Chu? Earth to Chu."

"Hmmm? Oh sorry lil' buddy I didn't hear ya." Turning to face Rinku Chu continued, "I'm headed for the demon world. You should stay here, maybe you can hang out with Jin or Suzuki." Seeing the disappointment in his small friends face, Chu smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"But Chu, you promised we'd hang out sometime soon." Rinku's shoulders slumped as he fought back tears, "You never have any time anymore for me. Maybe I should go back to the Makai and stay there." Running back up the stairs two at a time, Rinku vanished from sight before Chu could reply.

"Kids, ah well he'll come round." Going on down the stairs he whistled cheerfully.

Rinku nearly ran headlong into a disgruntled Shishi*, "Sorry Shishi. I'm heading into the forest for a while. I'll be back in time for dinner."

"Whatever," Shishi shrugged for all he cared Rinku could do whatever he pleased so long as it didn't involve booby-trapping his closet, again.

Rinku slowed down. Once he was well within the tree line there was no point in running all the way to his hiding spot it would just attract unwanted attention. So he ambled along, climbing over a fallen tree, crossing a nearly nonexistent stream, and finally making it to the base of a massive oak tree.

Staring up its trunk, Rinku got out two yo-yo's. Using them, climbing up the tree was easy. Reaching a wide branch Rinku settled into a comfortable position to think.

It had been nearly six years since he and Chu had met. They had had their ups and downs but nothing had come between them like Chu's new girlfriend. Ever since meeting her at the demon world tournment Chu had become infatuated. Rinku had been happy for his friend for a little while, but Chu no longer spent any real time with him. Used to Chu would take Rinku out for a special treat occasionally, like ice cream, now however he all but ignored Rinku.

Tears formed in Rinku's eyes, "I want Chu back, it's not fair!" sobbing quietly Rinku buried his head between his knees. Even though Chu used to drink alot he had always been there for Rinku, no matter what. There had been a few times when they had argued but Chu never, never, hit Rinku out of anger. When she had come along though, the comeraderie between them had faded. It hurt to see Chu ignoring him and he sobbed harder as he thought about everything they had been through.

Rinku felt the rain beginning to fall sniffling he raised his head in time to see a flash of lightning. "I don't feel like being fried, I'd better get down." Rinku mumbled to himself uncurling to climb down. The wind began to pick up speed, the temperature was falling too. Rinku felt a cold shiver run up his spine just before lightining hit a nearby tree shattering it. Shards flew everywhere, several embedded themselves in his leg and arm.

Howling in pain Rinku lost his grip, crashing through multiple branches Rinku fell nearly thirty feet landing on the ground hard. Just before losing conciousness Rinku saw an arc of lightning overhead.

Several hours later it was still pouring rain outside as the group assembled in the front hall just before dinner. Jin and Touya were wringing out their clothes which had been drenched by the soaking rain as they had tried to make it back to the temple. Chu had been caught by the rain as well, since he had just returned from the demon world. No one else had been outside, except Rinku who wasn't back yet.

"Anyone seen Rinku?" Chu glanced round for his buddy.

"He told me earlier that he was going into the woods for a while." Shishi sat combing his hair absentmindedly, "He said that he'd be back for dinner."

"Maybe he's changing out of wet clothes." Touya glanced at Chu, "I mean if he was caught in the rain too he'd probably want to change."

"I guess that's possible." Chu shrugged, "He'll show up."

"Why don't we go eat? I'll keep something back for him." Genkai appeared, "Touya, Jin, Chu you three had better go change clothes before you catch a cold."

"Touya doesn't get colds," Jin snickered flicking water at Shishi who growled back.

"Watch it." Shishi scowled at the wind master.

"Nah nah nah," Sticking his tongue out Jin's ears waggled at Shishi.

"Hmph."

With that Jin soared out of the room followed by Touya and Chu to go change clothes.

*I shortened Shishiwakamura to Shishi for simplicity, ok?

I hope everyone enjoyed this, special thanks to Tenten-Kunai who edited this for me. ^_^