Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay. I had lots of trouble with this chapter trying to put things into words.

I hope it's ok.

At the Hospital

When they arrived at Aoi's room, Aoi can be seen awake and staring out her window.

The sounds of footsteps caught her attention. She turned to glance at the doorway to find out that she has visitors.

"Oni-San!" Aoi exclaimed happily as she saw Natsume.

Natsume gave her a small smile and went to her bed side. Aoi immediately wrapped her arms around him.

"I miss you so much Oni-San." Aoi told him.

"It's ok, I'm here." He replied while he patted her head.

Ruka and Mikan stayed at the doorway observing the heart warming scene in front of them.

When Aoi finally released Natsume of her hold, she noticed two other people behind her brother.

"Hi Ruka-ni-chan." Aoi greeted happily.

"How are you doing today, Aoi-chan?" Ruka asked her.

"I'm doing a lot better now. The nurses wanted to thank you for helping me improve so much. You should go see them at their office. I think they like you." Aoi said while giggling.

Ruka shivered at that thought of visiting them. Some of the nurses, especially the younger ones, acted like his fan girls back at the academy. They even tried to flirt with him while he was trying to feed Aoi when she refused to eat. "Um, tell them it's nothing. I was only doing it to help you anyways so they don't need to thank me."

Aoi giggled and asked, "Who's that with you? Is she a new nurse?" Referring to Mikan since all the nurses were either acolytes or priestess.

"Oh no, this is our friend Mikan Sakura. Mikan this is Aoi, Natsume's emoto." Ruka introduced the two.

"Hi Sakura-san. Nice to meet you." Aoi greeted her.

"Ah, Mikan is fine. Can I call you Aoi-Chan?" Mikan asked.

Aoi nodded happily.

"Oni-san, where have you been the last couple of days? Ruka said you were resting before so you couldn't visit me. Why did you have to rest? Were you hurt or something?" Aoi asked worriedly.

Natsume glared at Ruka for putting those thoughts into his sister's head while Aoi kept on pestering him for an answer.

Ruka started to sweat from Natsume's glare and gulped, "Um, I think we'll wait outside to look for Tsubasa-senpai. Why don't you two catch up? We'll come back in a bit." Ruka suggested and then grabbed Mikan's wrist and pulled her out of the room.

"Bye Ruka-ni-chan, Mikan-Chan. Come back soon." Aoi waved to him.

After the two left, Aoi asks, "Are they going out?"

Natsume's heart gave a painful squeeze at that question but shrugged non-enchantedly for an answer. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Well he's your best friend. And Ruka said she's friends with both of you. Which sort of surprised me since you guys don't have any friends that are girls. She also didn't act like your fan girls either which is rare." Aoi commented.

Aoi's questions got him thinking. She's right about the remarks about them and girls. They've never been friends with girls before since they all fan girls. But Mikan was different. She willingly became close to him and tried to become friends with him even when he covered up his face with his assassin mask and sakkat. He knew she didn't care about looks. And somehow, Ruka and him ended up getting to know her without each other knowing. Just what is she to them he was wondering to himself when Aoi started poking him for his attention.

Meanwhile, Ruka is still pulling Mikan's wrist dragging her away from the room.

"Ano, can I have my arm back please?" Mikan asked gently.

Ruka looked at his grip on her wrist and blushed furiously. He immediately let go of her hand and scratched his head sheepishly, "Sorry about that."

"It's ok." Mikan reassured him with a smile that mesmerized Ruka.

"Oh right, don't I have to call Tsubasa-senpai?" Mikan asked snapping him out of his dream state.

"That's right. Can you please call him to see if he can come to the hospital now? Let him know that we found my friend that he wants to talk to." Ruka replied.

"Sure." Mikan responded as she looked up Tsubasa's link in her communicator.

"Hey Tsubasa-Senpai. Are you there?" Mikan calls him on her communicator.

"Hey Mikan. What's up?" Tsubasa's voice could be heard

"I'm at the hospital with Ruka right now."

"The hospital?! Are you hurt? What happened?" Tsubasa asked worriedly.

"No no, I'm fine. We're visiting Aoi right now. Well actually we stepped out of the room for her to catch up with her brother." Mikan explained.

"Her brother? You found her brother?"

"Yeah it's a long story. Do you have time now to come over to the hospital? Ruka said you needed to talk with Natsume."

"Yeah, I'll be right over. Don't let him leave before I get there."

"Sure. See you soon."

"Want to go back to Aoi's room and wait for Tsubasa-senpai there?" Mikan suggested.

"But we just left them not long ago." Ruka told her.

"But I told Tsubasa-Senpai that we'll make sure he stays there until he gets here. If we don't go back then we won't know if he left or not."

"I guess, lets go back then." Ruka responded as they began to walk back to the room slowly.

Aoi and Mikan got along great. They were both happy go lucky type of people. The difference is, Mikan is dense while Aoi is much sharper about her surroundings and other people.

She could sense that there is something going on between Mikan, her brother and Ruka but they're not telling her.

She figured she'll fish it out of Mikan somehow without her knowing.

"So Mikan how did you end up being friends with these two guys. I mean they were the most unfriendliest people in novice school. Especially to girls."

"Oh, it was all by chance. I actually didn't meet them together. I met Ruka when I was sent on an assignment to Payon Caves. He was bitten by a zombie and poisoned, I found him sitting by the wall and healed him. Then we started partying together to gain battle experience and we ended up as friends. Your brother I met in Prontera field. He was badly injured and I helped him out. Then it just became a normal thing to do, not sure why but he always had some sort of injuries when I saw him. But I guess it's good practice for me. Natsume is so rude. He wouldn't tell me his name or anything. He never thanked me either for saving his life all the time. At least Ruka appreciates me."

Aoi giggles and mutters under her breath, "Probably appreciates you more then you think."

"Wow, I didn't know my brother and Ruka are so weak. They were so strong back in novice school." Aoi teased them.

"Hey, that was at the beginning. I just changed to an archer and needed practice with my bow. It's not that easy you know." Ruka defended himself while Natsume choose to stay quiet about his activities.

"It's interesting how you met both of them at different times but basically for the same reason." Aoi pointed out.

"Well, I'm an acolyte. Well now a priestess but that's besides the point. It's my job to help people and I really enjoy doing it."

"You know, I think I'll consider being an acolyte too! The nurses and doctors here were so nice to me. It's thanks to them that I got better. I want to help other people just like how they helped me." Aoi announced.

"I don't know about you being an adventurer. I think I'd rather have you safe at home. Knowing you, you'll be running into monsters head first and getting into trouble all the time. And really, how can you be an adventurer if you run away from fabres (A/N: small green caterpillar monsters, very easy to kill)." Natsume said to his sister.

"Hey! That was when I was younger. I'm sure I can fight with monsters properly if I went to novice school."

The four of them were enjoying their time talking with each other when a crusader stepped into the room.

"Hey guys." Tsubasa greeted.

Mikan immediately ran to her senpai and gave him a big hug when she saw him. She missed the frowns on the two boys' face when she hugged her senpai but Aoi noticed their facial expression and snickered.

"Hi Tsubasa senpai." Mikan greeted him, "What do you think?" She asked as she stepped back and twirled around to show him her new uniform.

"Wow, congratulations Mikan. You're a priestess now! It looks great on you." Tsubasa complemented her.

Mikan giggles in returns and thanks him.

"Although it would be better if the slits on the side of the dress was lower. I bet you get lots of attention from the guys now because it's so high." Tsubasa commented as his over protective side showed up.

"Don't worry, I wear shorts under." Mikan replied with a smile. (A/N: long ago, when the priestess character is dead on the ground…you could actually see her panties…parents complained…and they added in black shorts.) Natsume frowned even more when he realized he won't be able to make fun or her underwear anymore if she trips and falls.

Then Tsubasa looked at the rest of the group and spotted the ravine hair boy.

"You must be Hyuuga." He stated as he made eye contacts with him.

"Oh, Natsume, this is Tsubasa-Senpai, Senpai this is Natsume." Mikan introduced the two.

"What is it to you?" Natsume asked rudely.

"I need to talk to you. Why don't we take it outside?" Tsubasa suggested.

"Why would I talk to you?"

"It's about Aoi, if you know what I mean." He added the second part softly.

Natsume was hesitant but Ruka encouraged him. "You should go talk with him Natsume. He may be able to help you."

Natsume sighed, "Fine." And walked out the room swiftly.

Tsubasa nodded to the rest of them before following Natsume, leaving the room in silence.

"That was odd." Mikan piped up breaking the silence.

Aoi had a feeling what they were going to talk about. After all Tsubasa was the one that questioned her about the events that had happened. They were things that she wished to forget but she couldn't.

"Don't worry about it Mikan. Anybody want a snack?" Ruka asked while motioning the fruit basket they had brought with them.

"Sure, I would like an apple please." Aoi responded.

Ruka left the girls to chat while he went to wash the fruits.

In the meantime, Tsubasa and Natsume walk around in the hospital.

"Who exactly are you and what do you want." Natsume asked hostilely.

"Don't worry, we're the good guys. I was the one that found information about the captives in Mother Marthilda's place. I was assigned by the crusader guild to assist the Prontera knights in their investigations. Seems like they have been busy lately."

"Hn" Natsume replied but kept his alert on high.

"Ah, Misaki, that's where you went." He said as he approached a pink haired monk only to be punched by her.

"That's for taking too long." She replied.

"Gomen, gomen. I side tracked a little because I found out our little kohai is now a priestess." Tsubasa replied.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Mikan job changed and is now a priestess."

"Oh! I have to go see her!" Misaki exclaimed as she started to go towards Aoi's room excitedly.

"Wait! Warp us to the castle first. I'll call you for the pick up since you probably want to stay here." Tsubasa requested.

"Castle? Where are you taking me?" Natsume asked with a frown. He understood that these people knew Mikan but he couldn't help but be suspicious after what he had gone through.

"To talk to the General of the Prontera knights. Don't worry, we know of your situation so you're not under arrest. We'll work something out for you but we need to find out exactly what happened from you first."

Natsume narrowed his eyes at the explanation. He didn't like the sound of that but he knew this would be his best option. He just got away from the guild and if he doesn't work with the knights then he would be running away from two different groups of people at the same time. He just didn't want to get arrested now that he's finally reunited with his sister. Everything he did was not by choice either. It was all forced.

"Ok then, lets do this." Misaki said as she opened up a warp portal for them.

"Time to go find Mikan. Call me when you're ready to come back." Misaki told them as she happily went off to find her little kohai.

"Lets go, I need to take to you see the General. We can do this the hard way or the easy way." Tsubasa said to him with a hand on his shoulder.

Since Natsume was still hesitant, Tsubasa shoved him into the portal and followed behind him before it closed.

I really hope it was ok. It was a little more slow moving.

Next chapter we will get to see more of what happened to Natsume and get more info into those guys that used him etc :)

Please review, to let me know how I'm doing.

Thanks for the reviews:

HyuugaYingLang: It's always nice to get reviews from you. I wanted to make this chapter longer with more of what happened. But I don't have the time to write that yet and I think with that included it will be too long.

Natsumi: Thanks for reviewing :) I hope school is getting better. I've seen you update a couple of your stories...don't stress too much

yuuki36: NxM is such a cute combo, sorry for RxM fans...but I guess i'm more mainstream

ooOFireKisuneOo: thanks for adding me to favourites and reviewing 3