"Oh, are those your parents, Kimihiro-kun?"

Watanuki nearly jumped out of his skin. He'd been staring at the picture in his hands intently and had not heard Doumeki's mother come up behind him. "Ah!" He exclaimed with surprise. "Akane-san!"

The woman smiled and sat down next to him.

The picture in his hands had a fine coating of dust on it. This particular photo was the only one of his parents that had been framed. After the accident he'd lost most of his family's possessions, along with nearly all of the framed family portraits. This was one of the few that remained and he had never been able to afford more frames. His thumb moved aside the dust that covered the faces of his mother and father. "Yes, those are my parents," he confirmed.

Akane studied the faded colors of the photograph. "You look nothing like your father, Kimihiro-kun! I can see you have your mother's nose, though."

Watanuki stared at the image a moment longer before he set it down and rummaged through his box of photos. "I was always told I look like my great grandfather, Mr. Reed." His hands finally found an envelope stuffed with images. The yellow of the paper was dark with age. "Here, see?" He gently extracted one of the photos and showed it to Doumeki's mother. It was a black and white photo that had been taken with a very old camera but the details were sharp and clear.

The face of the smiling man did indeed look like Watanuki. Twinkling eyes were set behind a small set of spectacles and his long black hair was pulled back and tied at the nape of his neck. Akane studied the image with interest. "Those are Chinese robes. Was your family from China?"

"On my father's side," Watanuki replied. "I think I still have some cousins over in Shanghai, but after the accident no one knew where to contact them or what their names were so the government never looked for them. I'm sure I would be in China if someone there knew."

"Not necessarily."

Watanuki looked up as Haruka entered the room. "What? Why is that?"

"Even with family emigration is difficult. The paper-work to make you a citizen in China would have been a nightmare, it was far easier for you to be granted emancipation. It would have taken the government years to clear the paperwork."

"Years?" He asked flabbergasted.

Haruka kneeled on the ground next to them and picked up the discarded picture. Watanuki's parents were a handsome couple. His father had a head of thick auburn hair and dark brown eyes. He was smiling in the picture with one arm around his wife. He was holding a ceremonial katana that was sheathed in an ornate scabbard in his other hand. He wore a set of Chinese clothing that was smartly tailored to his body's frame.

His mother was a beautiful woman with sandy brown hair and smiling green eyes. She was holding a small infant in her arms as she posed for the picture, her pink and white kimono flowing in an invisible breeze. "Looks like you had wonderful parents, Kimihiro-kun."

Watanuki blushed and took the frame back when it was offered to him. He held it close to his chest with one arm as he flipped through other pictures. "I don't remember much of them. My mother's name was Sakura, I remember that, and my father's name was Li." He looked back at the image again. "My mother always smelled like sakura flowers. I only really remember my mother laughing once when I confessed that I thought she was named Sakura because of what she smelled like."

Akane giggled at the mental image. "How old were you then?"

Watanuki's forehead wrinkled as he puzzled over the question. "Four, I think."

"Your father practiced kendo?" Haruka asked.

"He called it Jian Dao." He scrutinized the sword in the picture. "He left some scrolls about it behind, but I don't remember what happened to his swords."

"A pity," Haruka sighed. "That's a handsome weapon."

"Do you have anything else from them?" Akane asked as she looked through the other black and white pictures.

Watanuki set the photos aside and reached into the container to pull out a small velvet box. He offered it to Doumeki's mother. "I have their wedding rings."

Akane took the box and opened it. She was astonished to see two beautiful bands of gold richly decorated with engravings and diamonds placed evenly around the rings. One was slightly thicker than the other. "They're lovely!" She declared.

Haruka's face became neutral when his daughter handed him the box. Something felt cold inside of his chest.

"I only have them because the priest that handled the funeral removed them from the bodies and gave them to me directly. If the rings had been given to the government people that set up my apartment and handled my parents' affairs I'm sure I would have lost those, too."

Yes, that was why his chest felt so cold. He recognized those rings. Haruka swallowed and handed the box back. Watanuki did not need to know right then that he had been the one to save those rings. He had only been told briefly about the small boy's plight when the bodies had been brought to the shrine but there was not much he could have done at the time. He should have paid more attention. "They are lovely indeed," he agreed with his daughter.

Watanuki took the box back and snapped it closed. He set it next to his side and took out more envelopes. "I really should get photo albums for all of these. They'll keep getting faded and ruined if I don't preserve them."

"I'll pick up some albums for you while I'm out tomorrow," Akane offered.

"A-Ah, no! I couldn't ask you to, Akane-san!"

The woman chuckled. "Don't be silly, Kimihiro-kun. It's no trouble. I do want a real kaiseki dinner tomorrow night though!"

Watanuki's face became a picture of horror. "Waah! A kaiseki dinner? I don't have any seasonal ingredients right now! I'll have to go to the store and start pickling things tonight!"

"Oh, speaking of, you should start on your next batch of soy sauce," Haruka mused. The animated fit that followed the statement was both hilarious and thoroughly enjoyed. Haruka smiled as he looked away from Watanuki's wailing form and looked to the bottom of the box that all of the pictures had been placed in for the move. At the very bottom was a large white envelope that had what appeared to be a ring of brown coffee stains on the top. He lifted the package with curiosity and inspected it.

Watanuki's flailing grew suddenly quiet.

"Oh, what's in here?" Haruka asked at the sudden pause.

Watanuki's face was drained of color. "I-I... it's the photos from... the accident." His face flushed and he looked away. "I haven't been able to look at them yet."

Haruka looked at the package in his hands, his face inscrutable. "May I hold on to these for a while?"

Watanuki showed a silent shock at the question but acquiesced. "O-Okay."

. . . . . . . .

Doumeki was careful to open his lunch box that day. He didn't want any more surprise encounters with his peers in response to another cute lunch. He popped the lid off the box and peaked in through the crack.

Indeed. It was even worse. Not only was his onigiri shaped like hearts, but Watanuki had even dyed the stuffed balls a pinkish red color. Doumeki sniffed at the rice. Yes, his suspicion was correct. The food had been colored with beet juice.

Pieces of carrots, cucumbers and melons were cut in the shape of hearts, crescent moons and stars and scattered around the meal like confetti.

Doumeki snapped his lunch box closed and stared at Watanuki across the lunch yard. The silly boy was still sitting alone underneath the same tree he always ate at. Determined, Doumeki stood up and walked directly over to other. When his shadow fell over Watanuki's vision dark blue eyes snapped up and glared at him. "What are you doing over here?" Watanuki hissed.

"It's getting really obvious, Kimihiro."

Watanuki bounced up so quickly to stand one would have thought his legs were made of springs. "Don't use my name like that here!" He screeched. "I told you to leave me alone during lunch!" He gestured his arms out in a shooing motion that Doumeki ignored. "Just what is so obvious, anyway!"

Damn that I'm looking at an idiot face. It made Watanuki grind his teeth and clench his fists because he felt the insane urge to punch something, anything, that had Doumeki's dumb look. Namely Doumeki himself.

"It's obvious that you love me."

Watanuki, predictably, threw a fit. "Don't say such ridiculous things! And just what is wrong with you? Are you a Neanderthal? Stop saying such things at school!"

Doumeki shoved a finger in his ear. Watanuki was really noisy when he was angry. "It's true. You're putting more hearts in my lunches."

"I am not! Who'd make heart-shaped things for you, anyway?"

Doumeki opened his lunch and showed the contents to flailing teenager. "See? They're even red this time."

A bright blush spread across his face. "I-It's just leftovers!" He panicked.

Doumeki raised a single eyebrow in question. No one he knew ever had such food as leftovers.

"The shrine maidens asked for a snack yesterday! They requested heart shaped onigiri, okay?"

He closed the lid on his lunch and went over the past week in his head. He had a distinct memory of leaving a plate of Watanuki's onigiri for himself in the staff room's refrigerator at the shrine a few days ago. Normally the maidens left his food alone when it was in there, but that time Watanuki had made cute shapes of his snack food. It was the first time Doumeki had left cute food in the staff fridge. It was also the first time it had ever been eaten by someone else. "They ate my snacks I left in the fridge the last time you made them shaped like this. You made them for me in the first place."

Watanuki went to argue but his voice came out as a rather strangled squeak.

"See?" Doumeki prompted. "You do love me."

"Arrogant oaf," Watanuki mumbled. "Jumping to conclusions like that." His protest lacked its normal heat. "Fine, whatever. I like you. Can I eat in peace now?"

The taller student looked back at the other students still milling around the tables. "They're asking questions."

"... What?"

Doumeki raised an eyebrow again. "About the food."

Watanuki looked puzzled for a moment before he managed to figure out what Doumeki was talking about. When he did his face colored again. "Oh, oh no!" He grabbed the collar of Doumeki's shirt in his hands. "You haven't said anything, have you? My life will be over if they find out! Over!"

He really was such a drama queen. "No, not yet."

"What, what do you mean not yet? Shizuka, you big jerk!"

Doumeki smirked. "I want chazuke and yakizakana for lunch tomorrow."

"I hate you so much! Why am I cursed with the likes of you, why?" Watanuki wailed. The smirk never left Doumeki's face.

. . . . . . . . .

Haruka sat at the table in his kitchen and looked at the seemingly innocent white envelope that was stuffed with previously unseen images at hand. He wondered just how gruesome the accident pictures were. The boys were at school so there was no worry in the back of his mind of Watanuki accidentally seeing them while he looked through the package.

Someone needed to, though. There might be something important in those photos that Watanuki had never had the courage to look for.

Akane poured herself a cup of tea at the counter. "Are you going to look at those?" She asked her father.

"Hm," Haruka hummed. "Yes, I think so." He picked up the package and flicked open the flap at the top. There was a small stack of images that he pulled out. Strands of negative film strips were stuck in between the pages. He gently plucked them out and started to sort through the pictures.

Watanuki's parents had been driving a small black sedan. There was debris everywhere. The first few pictures showed the driver and passenger seats in the front covered in broken glass. The left side doors had been ripped completely off. Blood patterned the seats and debris in a sickening way.

Haruka frowned as he continued to the next images. There was something wrong here, but what was it? He scrutinized the images one at a time.

Strange. None of the pictures showed another car that caused the impact. In fact, there didn't appear to be anything the vehicle had run in to. So why was the front of the car smashed so thoroughly the very engine had fallen out and was stuck under the tires?

Haruka flipped to another image and nearly felt his heart stop. "Oh no."

Akane rushed to his side and peered over his shoulder. It took her a moment to gather what she was looking at. "Why... why is there a pattern like that on the hood? It's... like they were hit with curved pieces of metal."

"It's not just the car," Haruka said, his mouth dry. "Look. Those marks are on the pavement as well."

Grooves inches deep swirled like a lazy river around the vehicle's front end. "How? What would cause that?"

"... Something awful." Haruka set the pictures down with shaking hands and stood up. "I didn't know it was this bad."

"What do you mean?"

Haruka pointed to what appeared to be a fine coating of white dust on a picture of the interior seats. "The airbags did not expand when their vehicle was impacted. This dust-like substance should only be from that, yet it's not. Those swirled patterns indicate something attacked them while they were driving." He searched for another image that presented them with a close-up of the chalk like substance inside the car. Akane gasped when she saw what could only be what looked like calligraphic marks in the dust. "This also shows us that Kimihiro-kun's parents fought back. They were not ordinary people."

"Then... what do you think?"

Haruka sighed. "Kimihiro-kun is in danger right now. I know this pattern. I hoped I would never see it. This is not an ordinary spirit. People have often referred to these creatures as gods in ancient lore." He looked at his daughter. "It was after Kimihiro all this time. Maybe his parents, too. I believe his parents sacrificed themselves to protect him. Now that he needs Shizuka so much it seems to indicate that their protection is starting to wear off." He looked back again at the photographs. "I know the characters of that spell well."

"You mean then, that it could come back?"

"It will come back. It may already be watching him."

Just then the phone rang. Akane jumped, startled, then rushed over to the ringing device. "Hello, Doumeki residence?" This was the personal line that was ringing and not the general phone for the shrine itself. Anyone calling that number was looking specifically for one of them.

Akane's face paled. "What? Where? How?"

Haruka stuffed the pictures back in the envelope but did not remove his eyes from his daughter.

"What about the other boy, Kimihiro-kun, what happened? Is he all right?"

He shoved the chair back up to the table loudly and walked up to her quickly.

Akane looked stricken. "No, don't move them anywhere! We'll be right there!" She hung up the phone and turned to her father. "The boys have been injured at school! They said a bookcase fell on Shizuka-kun! And Kimihiro-kun..." Her eyes started to grow wet. "They couldn't tell me what happened, just that he was bleeding!"

Haruka grabbed the keys from the hook on the wall. "Come on, we're taking the car. Hurry."