Author's Note: Hey guys, posting from the little smidgen of wifi I'm able to catch up here! Enjoy the chapter ^u^

#13: I can't forget what you did

Wincing and rubbing her aching limbs, Kajiko crawled off the floor to her hands and knees. The box her head had been resting on, as it turned out, had been the Laughing Table, who shuffled its three feet.

"Th-thanks, Table-chan," Kajiko mumbled, her heart rather warmed by this display of care. "Hey, how'd you wake me up? What was that thing you gave me, anyway?" The Table showed her a goblet and its contents, and then tentatively reached out its floating hand. Kajiko, clasping the Table's palm, was rather surprised when the hand firmly levitated upward and pulled her to her feet.

She took a good look at her surroundings, because it certainly wasn't the bathhouse anymore, although one bath was still sitting innocently in the center of the room. Her new location was still frighteningly familiar. It was her old prison facility. Hello, again, to drafty halls and dingy barred windows, to indecipherable scrawl on the walls and broken chains in the corners. She shied away from them, reminded of her recent close brush with death.

"Wait… where's Kanji?" asked Kajiko. "I gotta thank that dude for pullin' me outta there." She racked her brains. "I mean, I think it was him… but who else could it have been, anyway?"

"Coulda been me," said a familiar distorted male voice from behind her.

Kajiko spun around, suddenly furious. "You!? What the hell—!"

Kanji's Shadow minced forward out of the gloom and then bowed Western-style, with an elegant twirl of his hand. "At your service, Lady-Kanji," he drawled. "You're very welcome."

"Hrmph," said Kajiko bitterly. She turned away and began to fiercely squeeze the water out of her jacket. "I ain't singin' your praises just yet."

"Oh, don't be like this again!" complained the Shadow. "A few seconds ago you were saying how you were going to thank me! What happened to that?" He trailed after her as she paced the room. "So ungrateful, as usual…"

Kajiko gnashed her teeth together. "Who the hell are you callin' ungrateful?" she snarled through them.

Shadow Kanji stretched like a well-oiled, smooth-skinned cat, every one of his well-defined chest muscles rippling. "Whatever," he said, rolling his eyes. "I can't believe you're still gonna make a big deal about that witty bitty fight we had."

"Not really gonna forget about the time you tried to murder me. And then you were a total bitch about it. So, yeah. We ain't friends." Kajiko clapped her hands. "Now c'mon, Table-chan! Let's go find Kanji… the real one."

"Don't know if that would be such a good idea," sang Shadow Kanji, running a finger along the windowsill and then wrinkling his nose. "Oh, my… such filth in this place… I'd say it needs a woman's touch but since it came out of your head—"

"And why wouldn't finding Kanji be a good idea?" demanded Kajiko, shouldering the Table, who had eagerly jumped onto its place on her back.

"Well, for one thing, he could be just anywhere in here…" Shadow Kanji tried to peep through the windows and then turned away in disgust. "But for another…" He giggled. "Who knows what could happen to me if he wakes up again? I might not be able to hold myself in… I might go completely out! Of! Control…! Whoo!" Shadow Kanji flexed and spun around with a flourish, sending a wave of rose petals and sparkles out through the room.

The room, which was now completely empty. The door on the end of the room was swinging shut. "Huh?—Shit!" Shadow Kanji straightened his towel and then raced for the exit before it latched. He got his foot in and then yelped as the heavy door jammed shut on his big toe. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" He hopped out, clutching his foot. "Yo! Lady-Kanji! Didn't you hear me! I said he could be anywhere!"

"The name is Kajiko, and I'm not waiting up for you!" The girl's voice wafted down from the end of the dimly lit hallway, along with the echoing patter of her receding footsteps. "Go back to your own damn world!" She turned a corner, and then a door squeaked open and slammed, cutting off the sound of the girl's feet on the stone floor.

"Nonono… Stop that! Kajiko! Come back here!" Shadow Kanji sprinted down the hall and then floundered as he met with a fork in the corridor. "Oh, you're so going to die if you keep this up! Now which way did you go? Left or right? Let's see… eenie meenie miney m—oh crap! Nope, nope, wrong way!" He bolted out of the rightmost room and hastily shut the door on the lunging blob of darkness. "Now they're attacking me, too!?" he moaned. "Stupid frikkin' Shadows… Could this day get any worse? Well, left it is!"

The left door took him down another hallway, and when he rounded a bend, he nearly ran straight into Kajiko. She turned and glared venomously at him. "Go away!"

"Why?" asked Shadow Kanji, a little grumpily. "You… you really don't want me around?"

"Hell no!" said Kajiko promptly. "You're annoying, you're untrustworthy, and you're underdressed. Also, I'm goin' to find the real Kanji, and you're gonna set him off or he's gonna set you off… whatever! It's a bad combination. So leave already!"

Shadow Kanji leaned forward and shook the girl by her shoulders, his yellow eyes wide. "You're. Going. To diiiee," he said slowly and deliberately. "In fact, it's a miracle that you haven't already! If you just go running off though this place without backup, you're so going to get swallowed up by your Shadow self and—"

"Oh, would you get off me?" snapped Kajiko, elbowing the boy away. "Some frikkin' personal space would be nice!"

"My goodness, Kaji-chan, you're just plain naïve," said the other Kanji, putting his hands on his hips. "You really think that you and that little Laughing Table can take on all the Shadows that will be crawling out to get you?"

The girl backed away down the hall. "Yeah, pretty much! I can outrun them and if one gets too close, well… I'll smash it with a hammer!" She pointed behind her. "That hammer, in fact. That one." The Table obediently floated the sledgehammer around in front of the girl and she grasped its handle. By now it was a long, thick, and robust weapon, almost ludicrously oversized, having fully completed its transformation from a thin and innocent stick.

"Sheesh, honey…" snorted Shadow Kanji. "Compensating for something, ah, missing there?"

"Huh? The hell does that mean?" Kajiko swung the hammer in front of her a few times and then tossed it back over her shoulder. "Look, I'm sure it's real cute that you're all worried about me now, but guess what? I don't need your damn worry!"

"I am not worried about you," said Shadow Kanji, pursing his lips. He hugged his chest and stamped his feet a little to warm up as he followed Kajiko down the hall. "I just don't know what do here all alone. It's all cold and dry and… and sad…"

A pause. Kajiko drew to a halt and let that sink into her brain. "Sad," she repeated, turning around. "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

Shadow Kanji looked away innocently. "Oh, you know… this place isn't very nice, is it? And it all did come from your mind. My place was warm and accommodating, at the very least. Whatever that says about the things you're hiding…"

"Your place was sketchy as shit, too," Kajiko told him. "At least my world isn't pretending to be otherwise."

"Sketchy? I'm offended! It was a perfectly legitimate establishment!" Shadow Kanji pouted. "I'd hoped you wouldn't be as rigid about these things, but apparently you're as bad as all the rest…"

"Didn't let any girls in," muttered Kajiko resentfully.

Shadow Kanji covered his eyes. "That was the whole point! It was supposed to be Man's World, not Everybody and Their Mother's World! It was a place…" He sighed. "Where certain people could just be themselves. What's so shady about that?"

"Well… I think girls would want a chance to be themselves, too?" said Kajiko, a little confused but slightly hopeful. "I mean if that's all you want, then why—"

"But I don't like girls!" blurted out the Shadow. "That's how I'm being myself! Come on, Kaji-chan, do you seriously not get it yet? I'm—"

"Then I don't like you back!" Kajiko huffed, spinning on her heel and marching away. "So the feeling is very, very mutual! No go be yourself somewhere else!"

"Wait… no, that's not what I meant! It's not that kind of 'liking', it's the other kind…"

"Oh, really?" said Kajiko furiously. "You don't mean that, huh? Weird, since "I hate girls" is practically the first thing you said to me." She shook him off. "Ugh! I'm outta here!"

"Wait, wait wait…" Shadow Kanji rushed after her. "You can't just—"

Kajiko froze. In the center of the next hall, a large Shadow was coalescing, coming out of the floor and oozing into shape, bulging and growing in size like a massive black tumor dragging itself along the ground.

"Crap…" whispered Kanji's other self. "Just back away quietly…"

"Now we gotta be real quiet," whispered Kajiko, her hammer at the ready. "Gonna see if I can't surprise this one before it—"

"What!?" hissed Kanji's Shadow. "No! You see the size of that thing? Get out while you still can!"

Kajiko ignored him and tiptoed forwards, raised her hammer high, and then brought it down with a yell, channeling all the power and might of a steel-driver. The startled Shadow flew apart into three separate blobs, which all began to float and take on a more cogent shape. When their transformations were complete, they rolled over and blew raspberries Kajiko's way.

"Pthhbbpppttt," said the three round, stripy blobs, with their wide mouths and fat tongues.

"Forgotten Hableries…" Shadow Kanji hissed in Kajiko's ear. "You are sooo stupiiiidd…"

The girl bristled. "You sayin' I can't take 'em on?" Kajiko hefted the hammer. "All right, you… you spitty mouthy things! Come and get me!"

The three Hableries bobbed uncertainly, and then the first one swooped forward and lashed out with its tongue. Kajiko leaped up to meet it and swung hard. The hammer struck and sank into the spongy flesh, sending the Shadow hurtling backwards.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" cheered Kajiko, whirling the sledgehammer in a circle at her side. "Baaaaatter up! Who wants a taste'a me next?"

The Shadows seemed to exchange glances (though they had no eyes), and then they all rushed forwards, coming in from the sides and overhead. Kajiko tensed herself and then bounded backwards at the last second. The three Hableries bashed into one another and flew apart, dizzy.

The hammer was tugging forwards in Kajiko's hand. It pulled her arm in a couple of tentative arcs, as if tracing out a path. "What're you tryin'a say, Table-chan?" asked Kajiko. "Wait, wait, what—!?" As the first of the Hableries recovered and darted forward, the hammer swung back and then threw itself right out of Kajiko's grip. It tumbled through the air and struck the spherical Shadow, then zoomed back into the girl's hands.

"Oh man that is… that is so awesome!" squealed the girl. "It's like that, that thunder god guy, with the hammer, and it always comes back to—that… that is so awesome!" She whooped. "Sweet move, Table-chan! Let's get goin', huh?" Kajiko lifted up the hammer and then took aim at the nearest Hablerie. "Gonna kick your ass, big spitty thing! If you even have an ass… I guess you're kinda like half an ass with a mouth, actually. So! It still counts!" And she threw the hammer with all her strength.

Shadow Kanji had been backing up the whole time, trying to stay out of the way of this battle. He wasn't going to stoop so low as to fight for her, was he? He'd saved her once already, so she owed him, not the other way around, right? He had to admit, though, she was pretty badass with that hammer out there… he could respect that.

Something large and wet smacked against his rear end and slobbered its way up his bare back. Shadow Kanji shrieked, stumbled around, and found himself face to face with one of the Forgotten Hableries, which had snuck up behind him.

It panted heavily and stuck its tongue out at him. "Pthhbbpppttt," it said.

"Did you just lick my—?" squeaked Shadow Kanji, frantically wiping said body part and coming back with a handful of slime. His face reddened and his voice cracked up yet another octave. "W-well, don't! D-don't you frickkin' dare! Ew! Icky!"

He flapped his hands in front of him, and a bolt of electricity crackled down from the ceiling, squarely striking the Hablerie and knocking it to the ground. "Get bent!" the boy shouted, then swiftly raised his fist once again and pummeled the floor, sending out a shockwave and a storm of lightning in every direction.

Two of the bolts hit the floating Shadows and sent them sprawling, and one sliced right through the already downed Hablerie, turning it into a cloud of black mist. But Kanji's other self was too busy trying to wring the slime off his hands to care. "Oh my gawd," he kept blubbering. "I feel so… so unclean!" Thankfully, after the Hablerie disappeared, its slime seemed to follow suit, albeit at a slower pace.

"Yo! Man up a little!" said Kajiko, backing past him with her hammer at the ready. She snickered. "What, so you don't like it when people lick your butt?"

"N-no," whimpered the Shadow boy, shuddering. "Not anymore…"

"Good," said Kajiko. "So ya learned somethin'. Now do you mind doing that lightning thing again? I feel like conserving my strength right now."

"Oh, just go hit 'em again," grumbled the Shadow boy. "They're weak to electricity, so your hammer should finish 'em off."

"Weak to…? Huh. Well, whatever you say." The girl rushed at the closest one, which was feebly rolling on the floor with its tongue lolling. One blow from the hammer burst the Forgotten Hablerie into shreds of smoke.

"That's what you get for mouthin' off at me, punk," Kajiko said, and then waited. "Mouthin' off at me? Get it? Oh, never mind…" After banishing the last one, she faced Shadow Kanji. "Anyway, what's gotten into you, dude? You can't really be that squeamish."

The other Kanji squirmed and hid his face. "Tch… no comment."

"I can't believe you're such a… such a…" Kajiko struggled for words.

"Wuss?" finished the Shadow mournfully.

"No! That's not… I mean you kinda are, but you took out those Habbly-whatsits." Kajiko grinned sheepishly. "Such a kid was what I was going to say. You go on an' on about manhood, but you're not old enough to be called a man in the first place, and half the time, you don't even act it. 'S weird."

The boy looked up, his eyes going wide, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"C'mon, Kanji," said Kajiko, shaking her head ruefully. "You're only fifteen. People our age don't know what we are, and we get all worried thinkin' we're the wrong sort of person, but… ain't it normal just to be… who we are? Which, when you get down to it is… children? There's no wrong way to be—I guess just do whatever comes natural to you."

Tears wobbled in the corners of Shadow Kanji's eyes. "R-really? You mean you don't… are you sure you…?" He reached over and slung an eager arm around Kajiko's shoulders, pulling her down to a seat on one of the low windowsills. "You know, I really thought I hated you," he said wonderingly.

"D-do you mind?" muttered Kajiko, trying to wriggle away. "Personal space, dude?"

"I blamed you for everything that was going on in my world," Kanji's Shadow continued, pretending not to hear her. He gazed off into the distance. "And I'm sorry about that. I can't forget what you did. You're the second person who ever treated me like I was normal."

Kajiko hunched her shoulders, trying to squeeze out of the Shadow's grip. "Uh. You're welcome," she muttered. "Who… was the first?"

The other Kanji slowly folded his hands on his lap, and a dreamy look took shape in his eyes. "You mean him," he said, and giggled. "Oh, my… I can't even talk about him without getting all… all goosebumpy!"

"You sure it ain't 'cause of the cold?" asked Kajiko. She stood up, reminded of something. "Hey, you sure you don't want…?" And then she decided it was silly to ask, and she unzipped her coat and draped it over Shadow Kanji's shoulders.

"There," she said. "It looks… interesting on you, but I hope it's warm."

"I like the cut," smirked Shadow Kanji. "Very…mhm… flattering to my hips."

"Yeah, it's a girl's coat," Kajiko told him, laughing. "Well, sort of. It didn't use to be, but then I—"

"I can tell," said the boy, pulling his arms through the sleeves. "I noticed it right away. The tailoring on this piece is simply magnificent."

"R-really?" stuttered Kajiko. "Ya think so?"

"Oh, I know so," said Kanji's Shadow. And he smiled, a genuine smile for the very first time that Kajiko could remember. It was a nice smile, actually. The only time she could remember seeing that smile was in photographs of when she was young.

"We… we gotta get goin'," she told him gruffly. "I want to find your other self. Just wanna be sure he's okay, y'know?"

Shadow Kanji clasped his hands together hopefully. "D'you… d'you think he'll accept me?" he asked her.

Kajiko sighed. "Maybe, dude. I don't know. I guess if you ask him nicely. Explain how it is. He ain't a bad guy."

The other Kanji let Kajiko drag him to his feet by his wrist. "Well, don't get too used to bein' alive," he told her, playing idly with the pockets on the coat. "You do get that the next Shadows we meet might not even be weak to anything we can throw at them…"

"Well, no worries! We got Table-chan on our side, and she knows all sorts of magic! I've seen her burn things and freeze things and… and…" Kajiko touched her shoulder, strained an arm around to touch her unburdened back, and then spun on her heel. "Table-chan? Table-chan? I… She must have jumped off after I got done with those Shadows but… Wh-where'd she go?"

The Laughing Table had vanished.

But in another section of the prison altogether, a blob of darkness slipped out of the wall and shaped itself into a three-legged table, clothed by a red checkered cover with a blue mask. Three objects were spinning in lazy circles above its surface.

Hobbling along in its crippled way, the Table unsteadily made its way along the hall, then poked its face through an open door. It moseyed through and nearly tripped over a fallen young man lying prone on the floor. A tiny rush of air blew through the mouth on its mask, as if the Table was trying to speak. It hugged the wall and made a sweep of the room, then wrestled a long knife – almost a sword, really – out of the door at the other end.

The Laughing Table then cantered over to the injured boy's head. It froze its items in their orbits and spread them out in a floating row, its disembodied hand flitted from one to the other, lingering on first a ball full of static, next the sword, before finally diving into a chalice and pulling out a pinch of what appeared to be tiny glowing beads, which it pressed past the boy's lips.

The world, for Kanji, anyway, exploded into existence.

He groaned and rubbed his skull. It felt like he had a bad hangover, or at least what he thought a bad hangover felt like, though he hadn't ever come near to alcohol in his life, since his Ma would have been quite disappointed with him if he had. Still, his limbs had a little bit less of an ache to them, and for some reason he felt no pain in his chest. Why was that odd?

Oh, right, because he'd just gotten kicked in the gut by a ten-foot gladiator. He remembered that all too well. But hadn't he broken a couple of ribs? Why didn't he feel them anymore?

Movement caught the corner of his eye, and he jerked back. "You…" he growled. The memories were flooding in thick, and he recalled the last moments before darkness had hit. "What the hell was that for, ya stupid Table? You want me to kick you in the face or somethin'? Why'd you hit me like that?"

The Laughing Table shook itself out and then bowed low, its mask face down on the floor in apparent contrition. It bent the cup towards Kanji, showing him the contents.

"Wait… what are those bead things?" The boy ran his tongue along his teeth. "Huh. Is that what you gave me? To wake me up?"

The Table bobbed up and down. A nod.

"Aw, shit," grumbled Kanji. "I can't stay mad at you, can I? Just don't do it again, you hear? Don't pull that crap without warning me."

The Table picked itself up and its surface – what passed for its shoulders – shivered with what looked like mirth. It then pattered happily over to Kanji, who shuffled away from it, his eyes widening when he noticed the long knife. "Whoa… that musta been what Kajiko was talkin' about before. Where'd you… where'd you get that?"

In response, the Table ruffled its cloth and innocently dropped the sword behind it. What, this old thing?

The boy rubbed his eyes and squinted upwards. "Dammit… where the hell are we now?" He rose unsteadily to his feet and peered at the room. "This place feels like some kinda prison. How'd we get from the bathhouse to here?"

Kanji walked to the other end of the room and tried the door, noticing the fat slice through the lock and wondering at it. It swung open with a squeak after a couple of hard tugs.

The room beyond was quite tall, with a central stage at the far end. The windows were higher as well, though they were so dusty that the silvery light they let through was barely enough to see by.

And at the other end, a figure was huddled on the floor, weighed down by heavy chains and manacles that draped over its body.

Recognition rushed through Kanji's mind, and he rushed towards the prisoner. "Kajiko! Oh my god…You okay there? I thought… I thought you were a goner! I'm so glad you're—"

The girl slowly lifted her face.

"Hey…" murmured Kanji, skidding to a halt. "What the hell happened to you?"

She bared her teeth – calling it a smile would be misleading somehow. "Yo-yo," she said. "'Sup, Kanji-kun?"

Her voice did not sound fully human; it was layered with echoes and reverberation. And her eyes, which were sunken in shadow, were a pale, glowing yellow. A bruise-colored aura wreathed her body.

"H-huh?" said Kanji, taking a faltering step forwards. "Is… is that you, Kajiko?"

Clanking, the girl stood up. "Of course it is," she said in her uncanny not-quite-normal voice. "I am Kajiko… and Kajiko is me."