Sweat dripped onto her neck, the sun bearing down on her through the canopy of leaves. A light breeze rustled her hair, but it was so hot and humid that it burned almost as much as the sun did. She could feel the water in the air, dragging her tired body down subtly. Her knees ached from long hours of bending, and her feet were numb to all sensation but pain. Every fiber of her being begged for rest, or at the very least some movement.

More sweat dripped from her forehead and found its way into her eyes. The stinging sensation brought out tears in an effort to cleanse the pain. It was getting difficult to breathe, and a headache had formed above her left eye. Her hands twitched, resisting the urge to wipe away the sweat and grime that made an unbearable situation that much worse.

Purple eyes darted to and from, efficiently categorizing the threat level of her surroundings. The pain brought about from every eye movement was determinedly ignored. Despite her aches, pains, and exhaustion, she could not allow herself any slip ups. To fail now, after so much hard work, was unthinkable.

She was determining the risk inherent in moving to a new area when a loud crash erupted from the north. Birds squawked in surprise and fear, exploding out of the trees en mass. Underneath the commotion, she heard the chilling pops of a new chase beginning. She was halfway up and ready to bolt before she caught herself. Tension threatened to overwhelm her as the sounds of a ruthless hunt headed in her direction.

She swallowed thickly, squashing her instinct to take off running and forced herself to freeze. They were nearly in sight when a yell, followed by a crash, sounded out and all movement abruptly ceased. She didn't dare move or even breathe as she strained her hearing. She crouched lower, legs trembling with the effort as they dredged up strength she didn't have to support her. There was no sign of the hunters, but that meant little.

This had turned into a contest of skill and patience. Moving when her better armed, better skilled, and better rested enemy was in such close proximity, when she had only her fists and legs for weapons, was a gamble of lower odds than she could afford. She absently wished that they had fallen in close enough range that she could take out the hunter while her ally distracted it, but she wasn't one of the few luck favored. She would have to rely on plain hard work and what little luck she was granted.

Long minutes passed, so slow it felt as if she had been there for hours. She was about ready to give up when the hunter moved. There was no sound to betray the hunter, only a shadow of movement in the distance. She waited patiently for any signs of her position being betrayed. Her waiting, however, payed off. Sounds of animal life soon returned, and no human beside herself invaded the area.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, she sat down to rest and considered her options. Judging from the sun's movements, she had been out here for four hours. The terrain had gotten incredibly dense and steep, and personal experience told her that she was about halfway up the mountain closest to the school. If she continued northeast, there would be a waterfall that had a small cave hidden half a mile further down. In the opposite direction, there was a gorge that made a perfect place to hide, and the worst place to get trapped.

Neither, unfortunately, was close, and hunger was starting to set in next to the fatigue already taking its toll on her abused body. For all the time she had once spent in these wilds, she was no ranger, and only vague memories and long buried instincts kept her in the game this long. She was fast approaching her limit, and the danger was at its greatest level. With so many others having been taken out, the hunters were free to focus on the few of them left, and she had a bad feeling that the prey was quickly becoming outnumbered.

Running a hand through her now bright orange hair (for further stealth training, they had been told as they were handed complete uniforms of a matching color, but the smirks on the hunter's faces led them to believe otherwise) she decided that she would travel back south along the stream fed from the waterfall.

Decision made, she took a minute to shove aside her pain, steady her breathing, and refocus her concentration. Once prepared she headed down the mountain, quickly but carefully. Her opponents would see her long before she saw them, thanks to the eye-searing brightness of the outfit. The color of her jumpsuit may have been dulled by the dirt and mud collected on it, but she was still frightfully obvious among the green foliage. She had no plan, no goal, beyond surviving for as long as possible. They had been given no directive beyond "hide."

Making her way through the trees, she spotted large movement out of the corner of her eye. Throwing herself to the ground she froze as her heart raced, hoping that it had been her imagination. She could hear no footsteps above the sound of the trickling stream, and the area remained otherwise silent.

Getting up slowly, she had enough time to determine that the area was clear before she heard a pop, followed by pain exploding from her stomach. Her shoulder and neck were hit with equally bruising force, and the last thing she recalled before the world turning black was the crunching of leaves signifying the presence of a hunter.

~Several Hours Later~

Shizuku bolted up, causing the world to spin dangerously and her stomach to rebel furiously. Face pale, she curled up and fell back onto the floor.

Gingerly testing her range of movement, she rapidly came to the conclusion that she had nearly died at some point. No one could feel this much pain and not have come to the edge of death. Her legs felt like they had hundred pound weights strapped on them and her feet burned. The trembling in her arms and shoulders refused to stop, even though they felt just as heavy as her legs. The muscle aches associated with prolonged running were making themselves known with a vengeance. Even if she could manage to move her limbs, the pain would stop her short. The aching in her head was even worse, and there was an odd ringing in her ears. The lack of food and water, along with the heat, destroyed any source of energy she could have used. It was incredibly hard to think when just moving made her sick. Her throat ached, and she knew without a doubt that she had a large bruise covering a good portion of it. She vaguely recalled being hit on her shoulder and stomach as well, but it was hard to pinpoint the pain from the bruises amongst the rest of her injuries.

The most concerning thing was that despite the very obvious fact that she was awake, the world was still pitch black. Taking the time to try to focus on something beyond her tenderness, she also realized that she was not alone.

"What happened?" she managed to croak out painfully. Her throat must have taken a harder hit than she thought, because those two words alone were difficult to get out.

"Ah, Miyamoto! So you're the one they dragged in."

"Welcome back to the realm of the living."

"Not that any of us want to particularly be here at the moment."

"The room or the realm?"

"Both. Please give me back my pain-free oblivion."

"Stop whining. And to answer your question we are...here."

"...That's helpful."

"We got caught, we got tossed into a dark room, we are awaiting the Captain's judgment. Not much else to say there."

"Are we waiting for everyone to be brought in then?"

"Looks like. Horrible punishment for those who were captured early."

The conversation went off on a tangent, and she was left to nurse her bruises in silence. Wherever they were, it must have been a decently sized room if it was holding all the guards currently stationed at Tenchi. No one was quite sure why they had been taken and put into a dark room, but they'd been told to stay and none of them were inclined to try and go against that order.

Terrible things happened to those who didn't obey the Captain.

Shizuku managed to doze off, minutes, maybe even hours, passing by while she recuperated. She couldn't join into many conversations because of her throat, but most of the other guards were just as injured as she was. Talking tended to start up whenever a new person joined them, then tapered off after a few minutes, followed by long periods of silence until the person actually woke up.

"Wake up you lazy bums! Your rest is over!"

Every single person in the room groaned, whined, whimpered, or yelped when the lights were switched on without warning. Several people, Shizuku included, cradled their heads in mind numbing pain as whatever head injury they had revolted against the sudden brightness.

The Captain looked inordinately pleased with herself for the reactions she'd garnered. Her and the Kaicho really were similar souls, though thankfully the younger one wasn't nearly as sadistic minded as the Captain. Yet.

"Done wasting time? Move out! Hurry up! I'm not going to wait here forever!"

The less injured people got up hastily, followed sedately by those who were trying to keep the world from spinning too much. Shizuku stepped gingerly, desperate to keep down her rising nausea. She was fairly certain she was suffering from a concussion of some sorts, and when she added that to her other injuries, she could safely say that moving was not recommended at the moment.

"Weaklings, help the injured walk before they topple over!" the Captain growled in annoyance. "They, at least, had the skill to put up a damned good fight."

Some of the less injured guards glared at the Captain, though discreetly so as not to be noticed. Sagara, a newer guard, helped Shizuku along, wincing whenever he looked at her. She tried not to think of how she must look. It couldn't be any worse than she felt, but that was little consolation.

The walk to wherever they were headed seemed to take years due to her injuries. She couldn't even say where they were going, since she was using all her concentration to walk and breathe. The training facility wasn't that big, though it had the infirmary, dojo, dorms, locker rooms, and spa all connected to it.

She was vaguely aware of walking through a door, but she didn't pay it any attention until Sagara abruptly stopped. Her mind still focusing solely on walking, she stumbled and came so close to falling all together that she blanked out for a moment. Once it registered that they had arrived, she slowly looked up to observe their destination.

It was very orange was her first thought.

The second was that the neon lights were extremely painful considering her condition.

The third was that the smell of food was having an equally painful effect on her stomach.

Her mind sluggishly processed everything separately, then things clicked into place.

"Oh. A party." someone noted dazedly.

The group didn't know what to do with the realization. This was the last thing they had expected to see, and they were finding it difficult to switch out of work mode. The Captain ignored all of them, shouting out orders for the nurses present to take care of the worst ones.

Shizuku came out of her daze when Ai, who had made a beeline to her, took Sagara's position as walking staff.

"You look like hell kid." she said. Raising an eyebrow at the moan she got in response, she shook her head and helped her stumble over to an area sectioned off for those in need of medical attention.

The girl stared blankly at her surroundings while Ai went to work, chatting lightly as she did so. A distant part of her noted the overdone Halloween decorations that littered the area. Everything in the room was decorated for the holiday, including the medical area.

"You dizzy? Got a headache? Feel sick? Ears ringing?" Getting a positive answer (more or less) to each question, the nurse frowned. "Concussion." Ai announced after she shied away from the flashlight. "I'll get you some ice and medicine. Sit tight and don't fall asleep."

It took a while for the worst of the pain to fade away even with the medicine. Moving and eating were still off-limits, (Ai's order of no alcohol had earned her a puzzled look) but she was happy observing the festivities in her little corner. Hitsugi had showed up soon after she was taken care of, but she'd managed to convince her friend to join in the fun while she rested. She'd resisted at first, but eventually gave in when Shizuku said that talking hurt and she was better off alone until she recovered some more.

She tried not to fret about the disappointed look that overcame Hitsugi's face, but everything she said was the understated truth. Hitsugi deserved to have some fun and besides, she couldn't tolerate being anywhere near the food.

"Shizuuuukuuuu." Speak of the devil. Literally, as that was the costume she wore. It was rather sedate considering the ideas she'd been spouting all month. She must want to save them for the school functions coming.

"Yes Hitsugi-san?" she questioned tiredly. She most definitely did not have the energy for this. At least her throat hurt less due to the medicine, although her voice still had a harshness to it to signify its pain.

Instead of replying, Hitsugi dropped herself next to her injured friend and wrapped an arm around her waist. "I miss you." she whined. Shizuku wondered if she had been drinking.

"I've been here the whole time."

"Exactly. You have been here the whole time. I had gone through all that trouble to prepare a costume for you and now it has gone to waste!" Shizuku couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for missing out on that. The "costumes" her partner usually prepared for her were the type she would expect to receive from that ninja-girl Kuga. They were most definitely not fit to be worn by normal people like Shizuku.

"My apologies." Her answer was ignored. Hitsugi knew it wasn't sincere.

"I admit to some astonishment. It is not your usual practice to go to such lengths during guard training."

"Ah. We decided that since the Captain was vague on the punishment for those who did not perform as well as expected, it was best to curb her temper and last as long as possible."

"It seems as if not everyone followed that line of thought."

"The newer transfers and recruits were advised to do so. Whether they listened or not was of no concern to the rest of us."

"Careful Shizuku. That was almost resentful."

"Sorry."

"No matter. At any rate, Uryuu-san said that you would need at least a week to heal enough to move normally."

Shizuku looked at her in slight dismay. "That's about what I expected. I'm sorry. It will be a few days before I can ring the bell." Normally she would have never admitted that her ability to perform her duties was sub par, but the concussion made her speak truthfully. She just couldn't muster up the energy or emotions to act as usual.

"Your health is more important." Hitsugi said plainly.

Even through her pain, enough embarrassment rose up to make her look away. She became very aware of the arm that had tightened around her, forcing the two closer than she was comfortable with. "You should rejoin the others. I'm probably not very good company right now."

"You're always good company Shizuku." Hitsugi smiled. "I want to take the time to admire the eye-searing color of your outfit as well. And your hair. It's not very often that I get to see you in such a manner."

Shizuku huffed. "I didn't have a choice." she grumbled half-heartedly.

"And besides, the others have decided to punish Den-san for falling asleep." Her partner rested her head on her shoulder, mindful of the bruises and aches. The horns for her outfit turned out to be stuffed, though they still poked unpleasantly at her sensitive bruises.

"Why would he sleep? He was hardly injured at all." The usual annoyance that would have leaked through was killed in the face of the distraction that Hitsugi's action was creating.

"He may have had too much alcohol, but the others followed your line of thinking and came to an agreement that he deserved some retribution." she laughed lightly against her neck.

"Wouldn't you usually want to watch this kind of thing?"

"A change of clothing was required, and I am not interested in watching that sort of mischief unless you are involved." she shook her head in rejection of the idea. She had yet to switch positions, and the sensation caused a small stab of pain to shoot from her shoulder.

"Oh. Hopefully that will scare the newbies into acting seriously. They're far too cocky for their limited abilities and experience." she said, pointedly ignoring the second part of the sentence. She was certain that Hitsugi pouted at her failed attempt to get a reaction.

"...I do not think it a good idea that you converse with many people while suffering from the effects of the concussion." she commented after recovering from the let down.

"What?"

"Nothing. However, I am relieved to know that you approve the use of your outfit."

"My outfit?"

"Yes. Den-san will undoubtedly be quite infuriated when he awakes. He is a most sound sleeper." Hitsugi snickered in a way that almost made her feel sorry for the guard. The sound combined with the outfit was incredibly unnerving.

"What. What kind of outfit did you get?" She had a horrible feeling that it had been the usual type of "gift."

"Merely a cat suit. Though "suit" implies a lot more material than it truly has."

As if that was any surprise. "...Why don't you ever get me normal costumes?"

"Why ever would I want to do that?" Her partner drew them even closer, if that was possible, and smirked at her. "I would very much approve of you showcasing for me."

"I refuse!"

~Two Days Later~

Shizuku gingerly lowered herself onto the chair, not yet fully recovered from the survival exercise. Every muscle was sore, and anything like laughing or coughing caused her stomach to ache furiously.

"If you want, I can carry you to the office today." Hitsugi sang, on the verge of laughing at the younger girl's slow motions.

"I'm fine. I just need to...move more." She would have been more than happy to not move at all, honestly. Unfortunately, she couldn't get away from her responsibilities, and neither would she give her partner the satisfaction of having a good reason to act on any of her comments. Her body may eventually recover, but no amount of time would heal the mortification of being carried around the school.

"My offer still stands. Oh, and we have mail." The older girl dropped an envelope onto the table. "Pictures from the party."

Curious, Shizuku grabbed the envelope and pulled out the contents. They were indeed pictures, and she browsed through them intently. They were odd, what with all the guards covered in bandages and bruises while bright orange or wearing all black. Costumes had been pulled out at some point, though she couldn't remember that having happened. Pumpkin styled cakes, cupcakes decorated with fake bugs, odd-shaped cookies, and drinks that looked like potions were everywhere in the pictures, and she was sorry she wasn't able to eat any. Antics with various decorations had her laughing painfully, and the pictures of Den in the suit (which she did remember) had her disgusted as much as she was amused.

She turned bright red when she stumbled on the pictures of Hitsugi leaning on her and immediately passed over them. Hitsugi whined at her and stole the pictures so that she could hang them up. Shizuku gave chase, putting up a good fight in her condition. In the end, however, the pictures were stashed away to be brought out later, and she hoped that Hitsugi would forget about them.

It wasn't very likely, but she had to have hope, didn't she?

~End~

Happy Halloween, I guess. Not very Halloween related though. Whoops.

Err. To any who already read the latest chapter, and the note, in Tigers, it still stands. (If not, shame on you.) This is an anomaly as will be explained below. To those who have been through the process of buying a house, you know how stressful it is. Well, today we were supposed to close on said house, and then I could start moving and cleaning and all that fun stuff.

We didn't close. In fact, we are in very real danger (for the millionth time during this closing process, I swear to God) of the deal dying. The mortgage company told us today that guidelines changed, and we have to have twice as much money, right now, or else the deal is dead. As you can imagine, none of us were happy. That's a lot of money we have to make appear out of fucking nowhere. So the loan officer, the realtor, and the underwriter are all frantically getting us set up with another company and getting this thing through NOW, because if we don't get this house we don't get any house after this, because it will be impossible. The loan terms have technically expired yesterday, and the lock on the house two days ago, and we're stretching everything to the damn limit.

It's not a fun time at the moment, on top of everything else I'm going through. I have spent the day alternating between anger, nausea inducing depression, and complete numbness. After my harsh bout of cardio yesterday, I did more today because I just can't handle that amount of stress without some type of outlet. (The screen starts spinning when I stare too long, and I almost fell down the stairs a couple times, so it was quite the effective workout.) However, since I can't do that all day without fainting from exhaustion, and none of my other outlets are available or effective, I finished this fic that's been on my hard drive for a little while. It was quite easy, since I can relate to Shizuku's soreness at the moment. I'd promised someone a fic by Halloween, and though I know I'm not being held to that promise, I decided to get this done on top of the Tigers chapter. I'll be completely gone from FFN until March after this however. (Thanks to the Kindle 3G and its incredibly basic HTML browser, I at least have permanent access to my email, if nothing else.)