When Hatori had woken up that morning, he was in a pleasant mood. Then the reality of the situation came crashing back onto him. Kana had left him. She had died. It was sad that the revelation had not sunk in for all these years and he had to wake up every morning, thinking that she was still there, his personal spring.

The event was burned into his memory forever, in crystal detail. She had died saving one of those new animal slaves from dying. The young boy, a snake, was being beat to death for some small, most likely fictional misdeed. She had thrown herself in front of the man and screamed at him to stop. The man had snarled at her and raised the whip again. Hatori had not been able to get in front of her, or to heal her when the heavy rawhide whip struck her and crushed her windpipe, rendering her unable to breathe. Hatori had attacked the man with all of the grief and anger in his body, and nearly killed him. Later, when he was more rational, he bought the young boy, Ayame, and he still works as his assistant. It turned out that Ayame was only two years younger than Hatori.

Then Ayame appeared in the doorway, all silver hair and fine clothing. Hatori treated him much like a brother, and the feelings were mutual. Ayame treated him in a infuriating, casual way that most slave masters wouldn't allow. In fact, many would punish Ayame for him if the thought he had just left his whip behind, or if they were in a bad mood. The fact of the matter was that Hatori didn't own a whip and if he had any say, never would.

"Are you on this planet still? Because if you aren't, bring me with you, it seems like a fun place." That would be Ayame. The annoying diva he was.

"No, I still reside on this planet, and if I was on another I wouldn't bring you with me, because I would have gone there to be away from you." Hatori was still sad and angry from the memory that had ruined his morning and Ayame's ever present cheerfulness.

"You're thinking about what happened aren't you?" Ayame's voice was soft and sad, and Hatori felt bad because he knew that Ayame blamed himself for Kana's death. "Well," and we are back to cheerfulness, except this was strained slightly, and faked, "there is another shipment of slaves coming in, do you want to help out this time, or do you want to take the night off? You know no one will blame you, you work a regular job and help all of us unfortunates out." That's right, today more slaves were arriving, and ever since that day he had used his abilities to heal incoming slaves before they were sold. That was the least he could do to in her memory, and in memory of her bright and kind spirit.

He wearily hauled himself out of bed and out his bedroom door, with Ayame behind him, chattering cheerfully.

"I'm going to need another haircut soon." He mentioned absentmindedly as Ayame prepared breakfast and began serving it to them both. "It is beginning to obstruct my vision. That's a problem."

Ayame glanced over at his purple eyed friend. "You look tired. You sure you're up for today?"

Hatori shook his head. "Can't. I should anyway; I canceled all appointments and need to do something. Besides, I have a bad feeling about today. Like someone is really going to need me. "

Ayame looked thoughtful for a second, and then realized that it could give him wrinkles and stopped. He shrugged "Alright, if you're sure. I don't want to not go and find out that someone died because you were right, but didn't go."

They both got up from the table and gathered Hatori's medical gear in silence, except for when Ayame stubbed his toe on air and gave a very girly shriek of pain and Hatori laughed at him. They headed out the door and toward the village square. It was just after noon and very hot out. However they didn't make it far before they saw a man pushing a slave boy, shown by his bright orange hair into town. The boy appeared to be only semiconscious and in a great deal of pain, with blood running freely from his back. Ayame and Hatori looked at each other and made a decision. They followed the man, and were unsurprised to find themselves in front of the building that hurt slaves were cared for before they were sold.

As they walked though the pseudo hospital, they saw many slaves, all with their characteristic bright hair, lying in various states of healing. They heard a man call loudly for a healer, and Hatori rushed over to the man. It was the one from before, and sure enough, there was the boy with the orange hair lying with his back down. That was a problem because that would put him in considerable pain, and he would probably pass out soon. Sure enough, just as Hatori was standing over the boy to flip him over, the boys eyes, a bloody scarlet, closed.

Hatori flipped him over quickly, and whistled softly at the extensive damage to the boys back. It didn't look like there was any skin was left on him from the bottom of the shoulder blades to the bottom of the spine. Even above or below that the skin was in strips. It was a miracle that the boy managed to walk. Ayame noticed something else, and mentioned it to Hatori.

"Shouldn't he be making noise? In the street, he should have been screaming, and with his back down on the bed even more so. That's not natural."

"No." Hatori agreed, "It's not natural. Perhaps he is mute, or was traumatized into being mute."

They both were silent then, pondering this, as Ayame sat, and Hatori bandaged the boys back. If you could call it that.

"We shall see what happens. Perhaps we will see this boy again." Hatori stated after disinfecting to mess that was the slaves back.

"We shall see." Ayame agreed gravely.

A/N: Yay! Hatori! He's my favorite character. This WILL NOT BE A YAOI. I love yaoi, but I just feel like it has no place in this story. But alas, not AyamexHatori. It will not happen, don't ask about it.

BTW: You Know Who I Am: Yes I do know who you are and I am very annoyed at you. Plus, I know you are probably laughing as you are reading this now. We will have words later.