Ryuuya had left the seaside town a week later after working part time for several people around town, all of whom remembered his father. One in-particular was the towns physician, who liked to tease him to no end.

All in all, he had been glad to get out. Especially when Haruko had made him drink almost every night. She had thrown a small farewell party for him, just the two of them, the night before he had planned to leave.

He was now sporting a rather impressive hangover, and though he had taken painkillers and acid depressants, his head still spun and throbbed, while his stomach churned. He was lucky enough to have brought some sleeping pills, he would have to sleep this off.

Looking out the window of the bus he was currently on, Ryuuya opened his bottle of water, popped two liquid pills into his mouth, and swallowed them. He then curled up in his seat and fell asleep gratefully.

/***\

"Sir? Sir, please, wake up."

"Hunnn? Wha?" Ryuuya grumbled opening his eyes.

"Sir, your bus fare has been expended, you must get off."

Ryuuya jumped up, still half asleep. "Sorry, sorry, I leavn'." Yawning, he grabbed his only travel item and stumbled off of the bus. It had been two weeks since he had left the tiny seaside town. He had been wandering along the coast, slowly forgetting why he had even began to travel in the first place.

He waved to the bus sleepily as he yawned. He then blinked slowly, taking in his surroundings. A large bullfrog hopped in front of his feet, making him look down. It croaked, and then hopped away. Ryuuya blinked, and then realized one important thing.

He was in the middle of nowhere.

"WAIT!" He cried, running towards the vanishing lights of the bus. "THIS ISN"T WHERE I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO!" Ryuuya slowed, the lights vanishing into the fog of the early morning the trees around him created. "Great, this is just great…" Ryuuya muttered. "I'll just have to wait until some light shows up…" He muttered, moving back towards the bus stop.

Just as he sat, his mobile phone began to ring. Looking at it, Ryuuya groaned. His mother was calling, probably wondering where he was. Why he still had his phone, he didn't know. He clenched the device angrily, glaring at it and the name on the tiny little screen.

He had no idea he would ever be this angry at his mother. Their last conversation hadn't been a pleasant one, it had been while he was staying at Haruko's, and she had wanted to drink. They had drunk a bit already when Rena had called, so Ryuuya stepped outside. The door had been open, through which Haruko could be heard listening to the TV and laughing.

"Yeah? What is it?" Ryuuya asked.

"You sound just like your father when I met him. What's the matter?" Rena asked, her tone teasing.

"Nothing. What did you need?" Ryuuya replied, trying not to sound quite as cold as he first had.

"I was wondering if you were coming home soon. The semester at the university is about to start. If you hurried back, I'm sure that you would make it in time. I already have all of your books."

"I already told you, I'm not going to college. You can sell those back."

"Then what do you plan to do with the rest of your life?" Rena asked, her voice becoming sharp.

"I told you. I'm going to find the girl. I'm the only person who can help her now."

"That damn story again." Rena hissed.

"Hey, Ryuuuuu! Whatcha doin'? come on, drink some more!" Haruko laughed, leaning out the door.

"Just a sec." Ryuuya told her, directing his mouth away from the mouth piece of the phone.

"Who was that Ryuuya? It sounded like a girl." Rena asked.

"So what if it was?" Ryuuya snapped, not liking the accusing tone in his mothers voice.

"What are you doing? Drinking? You'll end up in the same boat Your father did!"

"Haruko is an old friend of Dad's." Ryuuya growled. "She's a responsible adult!" He could hardly keep himself from yelling into the phone. "And I'm sorry to hear you think I was a mistake." He angrily hung up after, and shut the phone off. Shoving the sorry device into his pocket, he stalked back inside and grabbed the bottle of Sake sitting on the table and tipped the whole thing into his mouth. Haruko watched him quietly.

"Easy bud, you'll hurt yourself." She said as he took the bottle away, panting.

"I really don't care." Ryuuya said.

"Hey, don't pay any attention to your mom, okay?" Haruko said. "And pay more attention to this!" she grinned pulling afresh bottle out from under the table. Ryuuya smiled. Where did she hide stuff like that?

Growling at his phone, Ryuuya flung it away from him, making it skid across the road and vanish into the weeds on the other side. After a few more rings, it quieted. Sighing, Ryuuya shouldered his pack and walked down the road to a place where he thought he would no longer hear the phone ringing and sat down. The ground was a bit damp, but he didn't mind. He lay his head on the pack he had set on the ground and slowly shut his eyes, letting the nightly noises lull him to sleep.

/;*;\

Ryuuya woke slowly, a sun beam falling across his face and the first buss of the morning rumbling past. Ryuuya remembered the ignored phone call from his mother and grumbled. He should've made sure it would have gotten run over. Yawning and stretching, Ryuuya stood and shouldered his pack. Stepping out onto the road, he looked both ways, then behind him. There had to be a town somewhere if there was a bus stop.

Deciding to look for a map, Ryuuya headed back to the sheltered bench and sighed in relief. There was a town just uphill, and the nearest path there was just behind the stop. Making his way around the shelter, Ryuuya began his climb. The path was a bit overgrown, but it wasn't to steep and it was easy to walk. Seemed it was still in use.

He began to whistle a song his father had, feeling his spirits lift. It was easy to forget why he was out here and just take in the surrounding beauty of the towns he visited. He was glad he was away from home, out in the world. Yukito had always encouraged it, while Rena had been overbearing and denied him most chances to go out and play as a child.

Ryuuya's good mood didn't last too long, as he found the path a bit harder than expected. As the slope became steeper, he started grumbling. This wasn't his idea of a good time. Why was the trail even still available? Unless the map had been out of date.

Unable to answer his questions, Ryuuya made his way up the hill, and at around noon, several hours after he had started, he reached level ground.

It was a paved road, and a small one. He looked both ways before stepping onto it and sighed, lifting the few stubborn strands of hair out of his face. They flopped back down, sticking to his face again. Silently cursing his hair, Ryuuya headed off.

It wasn't long until he reached a small market district, and caught site of a refreshments stand. Grinning, he headed over, digging into his pocket.

"What'll it be, young man?" the man behind the counter asked. Ryuuya looked around at the drinks, chewing his lip.

"What's you're most popular?"

"This one here." Ryuuya almost began salivating at the sight of the moist glass. He frowned, then began to dig through his pack, growing more frantic by the second. "No way, this isn't happening… no way, no way, no way!" he muttered. But to no avail.

His money was gone.

Ryuuya slumped where he was. This was just perfect. He had left his money on the bus, great.

"Sorry sir, I'll have to come back…" Ryuuya said dejectedly, turning away. He walked along the small road, not hearing the man call after him, soon lost in the crowd. He made his way along the paths cut into the very side of the hill the town was set upon, too wrapped up in self-pity to pay attention to where he was going.

He was so deep in thought, that he didn't hear the bike bell coming from his right. Or the cry of shock and fright. What he did notice, was the bike shadow flying across his field of vision. He looked up in time to see a girl just before she landed on him, laying him flat on his stomach.

"OW! OW! OW! That hurt!"

"If you think that hurt, wait till I'm through with you if you don't move soon…" Ryuuya grumbled, trying to sit up.

"Oh wow! I'm sorry!" the girl exclaimed, getting off of him enough so that he could turn. Sitting, Ryuuya rubbed his head and tried to focus his vision on the girl kneeling between his legs, her arms on either side of his waist.

She had large blue eyes, long, thick black hair, and bells in her braids.

Something clicked, and Ryuuya couldn't look away.

Sorry about the long wait for this chapter, i've been wondering if this one was any good, tell me what you think, and if you feel i need to, i'll rewrite it happily ^^ I haven't even started the next chapter, unfortunatly ^^;

Thankx again for reading! see you next time!