Chapter Three

III

Ritsuka's mother, Misaki, rode in the backseat of the cab with him. Ritsuka sat next to her, listening as she spoke to him in that sweet, kind voice.

"You're going to get better, Ritsuka," She told him over and over. "They're going to cure you here. I'll visit you every week, I promise. You'll make friends here, Ritsuka. You'll get better. They'll bring the old Ritsuka back. You'll be good, Ritsuka, right?"

Ritsuka just smiled and nodded through the whole thing. She smiled back and continued toying with his sleeve. "Yes, mom, I'll be good," He said through his fake smile.

This was nothing new to Ritsuka. He had been to fourteen different mental facilities in the past year. There was nothing wrong with him. Ritsuka knew it and the doctors could never find anything wrong with him. They would send him home after not even a month, saying there wasn't anything wrong. Misaki kept sending him back to the hospitals. She truly thought her son wasn't right in the mind.

Deep in his heart, Ritsuka knew it was his mother who had something wrong with her. She beat him constantly and claimed that he wasn't 'her Ritsuka'. It was a fact that two years ago Ritsuka had lost his memory and become a whole different person, but he was the same person. For a year it was just the beating and the hallucinating. That is, until Seimei died.

Seimei had been Ritsuka's older brother by five years. He was smart, caring, and kind. Ritsuka idolized him. He would come home frequently from where he worked as a doctor and he cared for the younger brother. Ritsuka wanted to be just like him when he grew up.

Then one weekend, Misaki and Seimei had heard of Seimei's death. She had gone into full-blown insanity when she heard, and soon shipped Ritsuka off to his first hospital.

This time was different, though. Ritsuka was going to the hospital where Seimei used to work. His mother had said she had been saving this option for last. Maybe this time will be different. One part of his heart believed it but the other asked 'why'. Why would it be different? There was nothing different about this time around.

"They will bring my Ritsuka back. I'll have him back. Then, Seimei, Ritsuka, and I will be a happy family again. Yes, that's how it will be," Misaki babbled in the background of Ritsuka's thoughts.

"Ma'am, we're here," The cab driver said from the front. He looked annoyed at her constant talking, which was understandable. He brought the vehicle to a halt and waited for the two members of the Aoyagi family to get out.

For the first time since they got in the cab, Ritsuka glanced out the window. His big violet eyes widened at the sight before him. He had expected a bland prison-like building in a remote uninteresting place. The scene he was looking at differed greatly from his past experiences.

It was huge. The buildings were not prison-like at all, and they actually looking nice, friendly even. The front structure was a light gray rectangular looking building with bright blue tinted windows. Ritsuka counted about seven levels of windows, so there must have been about seven floors. Two round buildings that had the same painting style stood directly behind it. These were about twice the height of the first building, and they looked more like hotel towers than hospital buildings.

On each floor of these two towers was a wrap around balcony for the entire story. These also looked as if they acted as ramp, for kids were walking down them. The institution was fenced in, of course, but not with barbed wire or eight-foot tall walls. This fence was simple and black. It looked easy for kids to climb over. The gates were also open to the street and a long gray path winded up to the front building.

The grounds were not barren at all. In fact, they were quite the opposite. The area surrounding everything was healthy green grass that only stopped at the beach not far away. Gardens were planted around the buildings, and trees provided some shade. The fenced in grounds were large, looking to be around a square mile.

The first thing that struck Ritsuka odd was that there were kids everywhere. The next was that they were all, in fact, kids.

In every other hospital Ritsuka had been in nobody had ever gone outside. Here, there were kids lounging on the lawn, eating with friends, playing with others, stuff that normal kids would do. People were laughing, holding hands, and even studying together.

Nobody looked over the age of eighteen. During his other stays, creepy adults, all of whom looked like they wanted to murder him, had constantly bothered Ritsuka. Ritsuka wondered if staying in a hospital with only kids would make things better.

"Come on, Ritsuka," Misaki had opened the car door for him and was holding out her hand to him. "There's someone waiting for us."

Ritsuka took his mother's hand and followed her down the stone path. He caught the glances of a couple other teenagers, and most of them smiled kindly at him. Not one of them had that murderous intent in their eyes. It felt good knowing that Seimei had worked in such a nice place.

Soubi was with Kio and Chouma when his phone went off. It had been two days since the conference of the board and nothing more had been said about the suspicion surrounding Seimei's death or the new arrival. It was a Saturday, so both Kio and Soubi had the morning off. Chouma had joined them for lunch, and now the trio were walking around the cafeteria with the brother and sister arguing about what to eat. Soubi was only half-listening when the unmistakeable sound of his phone went off.

They were in the employee food court, but it still drew some attention. Soubi quickly shut it up and, the caller being Ritsu, pressed ignore. A message came up instantaneously

Soubi-kun,

I know you ignore my calls. You should really pick up once in a while.

Oh, and Ritsuka has just arrived.

-Ritsu

"I have to go," Soubi told Kio and his little sister. He didn't wait for an answer before rushing off. He heard Kio call after him, but he didn't stop.

Soubi's relationship with Seimei had been a complicated one. He wanted to be dominated, and Seimei was the one who could do that. He had been taught to be completely void of emotion, which is what he was. He never showed what he was really feeling, just usually hid it.

Little did he know that everything he knew was about to change.

A timid looking cat-eared woman was waiting for Ritsuka and his mother at the front doors. Her brown hair was neatly brushed and she looked highly uncomfortable in the high heels she was wearing.

"Aoyagi…Ritsuka?" She asked, reading off of the papers she held. Ritsuka nodded and she motioned for them to come inside. "My name is Shinonome Hitomi… and I-I'll be your teacher." She was stuttering nervously. "A-Aoyagi-san, you're going to have to come with me. Ritsuka… I'll leave you with… Yuiko-san! Come over here!" She waved at a girl who was whispering franticly with her friends.

As she happily bounded over to Shinonome-Sensei, Ritsuka got a better look at her. She was a tall girl about Ritsuka's age with long pink pigtails and a rather large bust. She was blushing as she met Ritsuka's eyes and her ears lowered when she bowed to him.

"Yuiko-San I want you to show Ritsuka around the school," Shinonome-Sensei instructed carefully. She was taking her words slow; as if she spoke any faster the girl wouldn't understand.

"Yes, Sensei!" The girl, Yuiko, said rather enthusiastically. "Come on, Ritsuka! Yuiko will show you around!" She began to head off and Ritsuka followed her. "Do you have a cell phone?"

Ritsuka wasn't getting a very good impression of her. So far she seemed dumb, stupid, and easy to take control of. "No," He replied simply, trying not to be too unfriendly. He wondered what she was here for.

"How about your favourite idol, then?" She rattled off.

"I don't have one," Ritsuka mumbled. He didn't want to talk to her. She seemed nice, but bubble-headed. "You don't have to talk to me, you know."

"Yuiko! Call me Yuiko! Not you, Yuiko!"

"Hush!" Ritsuka hissed as Shinonome-Sensei and his mother passed by.

"Are you two getting along okay?" Misaki questioned.

Ritsuka put on another fake smile and dragged Yuiko ahead of them, "Yes mother, Yuiko here is very friendly!" When they were finally out of earshot Ritsuka let go of Yuiko. "Listen," He growled. "You don't have to talk to me. Just give me the tour."

Yuiko laughed, "It's like you're two different people!" Ritsuka froze.

Two different people. The old Ritsuka and the person he was now. Two different people. Two different personalities. They weren't the same thing, they just shared one thing. That thing they shared was called a host. A host body. Was that all Ritsuka was?

No! Ritsuka thought franticly. I'm the same person! Mother's wrong, this girl's wrong… why can't they just see?
"Don't ever say that again!" Ritsuka yelled at her, not caring who was there to hear him. He felt tears welling in his eyes as he fumed at the ditzy girl. "You're wrong! Just- just leave me alone!"

"Ritsu, that bastard!" Soubi cursed to himself as he ran down the hallways of the school, trying to get some result. Couldn't Ritsu have told him who the teacher was at least? He wasn't even sure what he was looking for!

Slowing his pace down, Soubi mentally pictured the photo Seimei had kept on his desk. Ritsuka had looked just like his older brother, but also different at the same time. That didn't help his search much though.

"Just leave me alone!" A desperate yell startled Soubi. That voice sounded all too familiar… The yelling was soon replaced by footsteps pounding towards the doctor at a fast rate.

"Yuiko's sorry!" A girl yelled. "Ritsuka-kun, I- Yuiko is sorry!"

Soubi couldn't believe his luck. Ritsuka was running towards him right at that moment. Well, he was actually running towards back exit to the courtyard, but Soubi would be able to get there first.

Taking a deep breath and pushing all second thoughts aside, Soubi prepared to finally meet Ritsuka.

Ritsuka let a sob escape as he burst out the door. He was crying and still running, when a hand grabbed at his wrist, violently jerking him backwards. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to fight against whoever was holding him back.

"Stop following me!" He cried, assuming the person was Yuiko.

"Why are you crying?" A deep voice followed.

Ritsuka opened his eyes and looked straight into a pair of light blue eyes. He was being held by a tall man with long blonde hair and an iron grip. The man was peering at him over his glasses with an intense stare. Ritsuka noticed almost immediately his lack of ears on top his head.

"Why are you crying, Ritsuka?" He repeated, taking in Ritsuka's dumbfounded stare.

"Who-who's crying? And how do you know my name?" Ritsuka snapped, regaining his senses and once again trying to pull free. He was held on to tightly still. "Let go of me!"

"If I do, you'll escape," He stated simply. "Do you know who I am?"

"How the hell would I? I've never met you before!"

The guy turned his head to the side in interest. "Didn't Seimei ever talk about me on his trips home?" He asked innocently.

Ritsuka's gaze softened and he stopped struggling, "You were one of my brother's friends?" If Seimei knew him, then he must be okay. Seimei only knew good people. He wouldn't make friends with someone with bad intentions. "What's your name?"

"Soubi's my first name but I get called Agatsuma-Sensei around here a lot."

He let go of Ritsuka and leaned against the wall beside them. It was a summer day, so the sun shone down on them both, warming Ritsuka up a bit. Birds tweeted nearby and a butterfly fluttered past them. He looked back at the man before him and flushed at his attractiveness.

"Agatsuma-Sensei… You're a doctor, then?" Ritsuka guessed. If Seimei had known him and people called him 'Sensei' then he was probably a doctor at the institution.

"Just call me Soubi, Ritsuka. And yes, I am. Actually, I'm the head doctor here but I don't treat many cases."

Ritsuka stared at the butterfly flying in circles for a moment and thought. "Then you must have my case," Ritsuka concluded. "I'm guessing not many patients know you personally. That, and I've been to fourteen mental hospitals, so I'm considered high priority."

"That's right," Soubi smiled at him and Ritsuka blushed a little more as he did so. Soubi wasn't speaking to him as if he was stupid, like Shinonome-Sensei did to Yuiko. Instead, he spoke to him normally. Ritsuka liked that. He could live with this guy being his doctor.

"Soubi," Ritsuka tugged at his arm. "Do you have any free time?"

"Of course, Ritsuka. Would you like to do something?"

"Are we allowed to go down to the beach?" Ritsuka brought out his camera from the pocket of his jeans and held it carefully in his hands.

"I would think so," Soubi held out his hand and Ritsuka happily took it.

Hello my dear readers!

Thank you so much for the reviews. I am happy that I have quite a few coming from Poisonous!

Just a quick question, do any of you know if I can install Windows XP on my compaq Armada M700?

Special thanks to my beta, Summer-Flower-Girl

Keep reviewing!

~Wolfie