NOTE: Hello again, everyone. I'm doing my best to keep my word and post once a week. Heads up, however, I was about halfway through chapter 4 when I decided I didn't like where it was taking me, so I scrapped what I'd written. I don't think this will put me behind, but just in case it's not up by Saturday you know why! Keep reading, reviewing, and enjoying.

Chapter 3

Nasté sat in her study and watched the news ticker as it scrolled along the bottom of the screen. She felt morbidly impressed as the numbers from the Tokyo Station explosion rolled by: eight hundred people affected, two hundred confirmed dead, and bodies were continuing to pile. A large number of persons had gone missing in the event and still remained unaccounted for nearly twelve hours after the incident.

She, Toma, and Ryo were up half of the night discussing the potential of the disaster. The two troopers were certain that it had been caused by some kind of youja activity but Nasté remained firmly convinced that it had been a freak accident with no discernable cause at all. And when Toma and Ryo tried to convince her to go and retrieve Jun from his work at the hospital before something terrible happened she diligently explained that everything would be fine.

When the phone rang just after nine she jumped and stared at it for a few moments before picking up the receiver and uttering a quiet greeting.

"Ms. Yagyu," said the voice on the other line, "I hope you're having a good morning."

"Haru," Nasté replied. She was now somewhat surprised by the call as she had not expected to hear anything more from the hospital until much later in the day. Jun was supposed to have been off at eight and would probably skip classes, so he should have been walking through the door at any moment.

"I'm calling with regard to Jun," Atsuko said officially.

"If you need to keep him a while longer that's okay with me. I understand you've been busy, I've been watching the news all morning."

Atsuko chuckled lightly. "No, no, I don't need to keep him," he said and continued before Nasté had the opportunity to panic. "You see, Jun was involved in a minor incident this morning and I'm afraid I need to send him home. The problem is that I don't believe he's in good enough condition to be driving that motorbike of his all the way back to your place and I'd rather not put him on a bus."

Nasté's brow screwed up in confusion. "An incident?"

"A minor incident," Atsuko corrected. "There will be plenty of time to explain once you're here. I have already informed the nurse at check in that you will be arriving so you should have no trouble getting into my office."

"Is he all right?" Nasté said. She could hear panic welling in her own voice.

"I assure you that everything is fine. He just needs an escort home."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Nasté said quickly and hung up the receiver without uttering a goodbye.

Within ten minutes she had roused Ryo and Toma, the latter of who remained only semiconscious even after Nasté had explained herself, and the three were soon on the road to Tokyo. Nasté said nothing as she drove even as Ryo barraged her with questions: did she know what had happened, what had been the cause, had there been any youja involvement? And Toma, who fell quiet as soon as Nasté had explained that he was there to translate any jargon she might encounter with Atsuko, remained half asleep in the back seat with his head propped lazily on his hand.

At ten thirty Nasté pulled her ancient red car into a stall near Keio University Hospital's front entrance, exited the vehicle, and marched toward the door without so much as thinking to wait for her two companions. With effort Ryo managed to wake Toma and the two followed some distance behind, exchanging dark looks both for Jun's incident and for the sour mood that Nasté had fallen into.

By now the hospital had become relatively calm. Patients continued to trickle in who had suffered very minor wounds or had developed symptoms well after the fact, and while the place remained full well past its capacity the halls had been almost entirely cleared of the wounded and dying with notable exceptions waiting in queue outside of the surgery wing. Nasté found the check in desk easily and rushed forward with a quick stride and a look of extreme panic wrinkling her delicate face.

"My name is Nasté Yagyu," she said at once and the nurse sitting behind the counter looked up. "Atsuko is expecting me."

The nurse pointed to her left with a smile. "Straight down the hall, corner office."

Nasté hustled off with Ryo and Toma following close on her heels and within two minutes she had barged through the wood and glass paneled doors into Atsuko's office. The dean sat quietly behind his tall wooden desk, scribbling away at paperwork, and glanced up at Nasté thoughtfully as she began to survey the room.

She found Jun at once, reclined and quite asleep, lying curled on his left side on a simple daybed in the corner nearest the door. His head rested gently between the back of the headrest and his left hand which was curled into a loose fist, and his right hand extended out behind his back where it hung over the daybed's frame like a discarded cloth. A simple metal stand had been erected behind the head of the bed and on it hung a bag filled with clear fluid, connected with a thin tube to the top side of Jun's right wrist.

Nasté rushed over and bent low over him, her arms outstretched as though she meant to touch him, and then she looked terrified at Atsuko.

"What happened? Why is he all hooked up like that?"

Atsuko looked between Ryo and Toma and Nasté then beckoned the three of them toward his desk. The company obliged, each took a seat in one of four plush leather chair situated opposite him at the desk, and Atsuko smiled benevolently while extending a hand to Ryo.

"Hatsuharu Atsuko," he said, and once Ryo had shaken his hand he held it out to Toma, who did likewise. "I don't believe we've met, but if you're a part of Ms. Yagyu's cavalry then you must close friends of Jun's as well. It's a pleasure to meet the two of you."

Ryo nodded and introduced himself quickly while Toma simply looked around the room as if he were bewildered by the enormous office space.

"Haru," Nasté prompted.

Atsuko smiled at her again and produced a small stack of long thin papers from a folder on the side of his desk, laid them out before her, and pointed to a spot near the middle of the sheet.

"This is a timecard," he explained. "Specifically it is Jun's timecard for the last pay period. Do you notice anything peculiar, Nasté?"

She examined the paper closely and nodded. "He's worked every day since March 25," she said.

"He's worked at least twice the number of hours that I've scheduled him every week for the last month now," Atsuko added. "He's worked seventy hours this week after the triple shift he pulled this morning. Is everything all right at home?"

Nasté looked somehow indignant. "Of course everything is okay," she said.

Atsuko nodded, taking Nasté honestly upon first answer. He could see that he was trying her patience by avoiding the discussion of Jun's incident and so he pulled the timecards back, stowed them in their folder, and clasped his hands tightly together.

"Jun has been overworked and undernourished for a while," Atsuko said. "He experienced a hallucination this morning that left a number of his classmates quite worried. Around eight Chiharu, a friend of Jun's, came bursting into my office claiming that he was running through the halls like a madman and had knocked two patients to the floor. By the time I caught up with him he was on the roof, standing at its edge like he was about to jump. I wondered if perhaps he had been more upset at the large number of patients we lost last night but once I called his name he came right back."

Nasté sat quiet but glanced at Toma and Ryo, who again exchanged looks that were full of meaning. "What do you mean "he came back?" she said.

Atsuko sat straight in his chair with an impressed look upon his face. "It was the most remarkable thing I've ever seen," he said, "Jun self-diagnosed his hallucination, but he would not tell me what he saw, and he was completely lucid for its duration. If anything he may have been slightly alarmed by the situation, though I'm sure that if I had been in a similar state I would not have fared nearly as well," Atsuko paused and then looked thoughtfully at a spot on the ceiling. "It was as if his mind was in two places at once. He could see me clearly, though I remained in the context of his hallucination. I asked if I could run some tests but he vehemently declined. So I hooked him up with a supplemental IV and a small dosage of sedative and, well," he waved a hand in Jun's direction as if it should explain everything.

Toma and Ryo exchanged the same look again. Atsuko's description of the situation seemed consistent with what they had seen on a number of occasions before, on occasions where Jun had utilized the special ability of his armor to summon a duplicate of himself. Jun had tried to explain the sensation to them once before and described it as experiencing a very vivid and very powerful daydream in which he could see through his own eyes and from the perspective of the shadow simultaneously. This dual consciousness allowed him to control his body and the shadow at once, a maneuver at which he had become quite adept, in order to execute difficult offensive moves and decoy tricks. More than once Ryo had been confused into thinking that Jun's shadow was not a shadow at all, and on those rare occasions he learned his mistake by way of the flat of a blade to his back.

"At any rate," Atsuko continued, "I would like him to head home and get as much rest as he can. I don't want to see him in this hospital again until at least Monday, I would prefer him to stay away until his exams are finished, but I understand that such a thing is a little much to hope for."

Nasté nodded.

"And do make sure he's getting plenty of food, will you?" Atsuko said with a smile. "A man of his stature needs more than we tend to think and I know that if he gets too caught up in his work he forgets."

Nasté nodded again.

The company sat in silence for a long moment after this exchange and it seemed as though Atsuko was trying to decide what he should do next. Then, as if it were an afterthought, he opened a drawer in his desk and produced a small pad of paper, scribbled on it, and handed it firmly to Nasté.

"It's a prescription for a mild tranquilizer," he said lightly and then continued as Nasté, Ryo, and Toma looked worried. "It will help him to regulate his sleep."

Atsuko stood then and walked toward Jun with a brisk gait. He unhooked the tube from Jun's wrist and collapsed the pole behind the daybed, then turned back to face the three at his desk.

"Would you like me to arrange help getting him to the car?" he said. "He won't wake for an hour or so."

"We can get it," Ryo said firmly, and the company exited Atsuko's office. Ryo carried Jun out through the emergency doors to avoid panic and situated the sleeping boy in Nasté's car for the hour long ride home.

The rest of the day passed in uneventful quiet. Nasté shut herself up in her office to continue work on her records while Ryo and Toma lounged in the sitting room and talked about youja and Jun's incident. Jun, who had waked an hour or so after arriving at home, lay silent on his own bed with one hand tucked behind his head while the other absently rolled the now cool yoroi ball around on his chest. He was thinking about what he had seen.

His memory was fuzzy and he could not be certain whether it was caused by legitimate fatigue or if it was an after-effect of the sedative he had been given at the hospital. He recalled the hallucination in detail, the sights and feelings were quite vivid, but he could not remember what had been said. It was particularly troubling because Jun was certain that Mai, or his vision of Mai, had been trying to warn him of something.

She had talked about altering his path, about the other troopers forsaking him, and that they would die, but he could not recall the exact phrasing. Had she said 'alter your path and the others will forsake you' or 'alter your path or the others will forsake you?' The difference between the two was immeasurable.

He felt almost certain that she had used the word 'and,' because it would not make any sense for the others to be upset if he continued living as he was. The other troopers were proud of him, proud of his success in school and his development as a warrior, and would likely be upset if he chose to give any of that up. Furthermore, Jun was certain that the dynamic of the group had changed for the better since he had become involved again. He gave the warriors something to focus on besides themselves and their own differences. His presence was a unifying factor that helped everyone to feel as though they were working toward a single goal.

But the thought tugged at his mind that she could have said 'or.' But if that were the case it would mean that Jun had to change something or suffer apparently dire consequences. There were so many different aspects of his life that he could not be sure what he would even need to alter. He could not think of anything that might cause the others to turn against him and could not think of anything that might prove deadly for anyone.

And over the implications of Mai's warning loomed the physical sensation that had accompanied the hallucination. He had felt somehow out of control, as if his body had been working on instinct alone and without the guidance of his usually cool mind. From the moment he saw the image of Akiko in the cafeteria he had felt absolutely impulsive. He had given no thought to the consequences of chasing her at full speed through the hospital and had only been able to regain control of himself after Atsuko had called him back to reality.

Jun realized that in that moment he had not been himself. It was as if he had been seeing the world through eyes that were not his own and acting on desires and instincts that were completely foreign to him. He had felt awkward in his own skin and knew as soon as he came back to his senses that he had been acting incredibly far out of the bounds of his character. But all the same he had not realized the sensation until it had passed. He had been completely unaware that he was acting strangely at all, and that lack of control over himself was perhaps the most troubling bit of all.

The source of Jun's deepest pride was his ability to temper himself against all sorts of emotions, impulses, and reactions. He was never out of control, was level headed, calculated, and quite slow to anger. It was a quality that others admired in him even if it caused him to come across as ice-hearted and emotionless at times. It meant that he was thoughtful, careful, and could be relied upon to make objective decisions in times of stress.

He wondered what all of it meant and whether the whole episode had merely been a byproduct of his fatigue as Atsuko had said. Somehow Jun doubted that it was and he fell asleep late that night, kept alert by worry and thought.

Next morning Jun woke early, as alert and aware as if he had slept for twelve hours, though when he looked out the barely open window opposite his bed he could see that the sun had just begun to peek over the trees in Nasté's enormous back yard. It looked like it would be an unseasonably cool day; he could see the sparkles of dewdrops as they hung on the trees and could feel a chill breeze as it blew through the curtains.

He rolled out of bed, or rather from on top of it as he had not gotten under the blankets before he fell asleep the prior evening, and changed into a pair of loose shorts and a jumper. Then he crept quietly downstairs, past the sitting room where Toma still slept quietly on the couch after having apparently fallen asleep while trying to decipher one of Jun's textbooks, and sat down in the foyer with a sigh. There, he tied on his running shoes, exited the house, and closed the door behind him with an expertly quiet click.

He had been right about the morning being unseasonably cold. The breeze bit hard at his legs and face though he thought that it was a pleasantly refreshing sensation after spending much of the previous day numb from sedation. So he began his morning run feeling as content and uninhibited by thought as any other day. In fact, he realized that he felt better than he did on most mornings and chalked it up to the fact that he had not been out since Monday.

In the hour that he ran he did not think once about his hallucination, the warning that Mai had given him, or how his classmates might react once news of his incident spread. He remained happy and thoughtless until well after he returned home, up until the point when Nasté shuffled into the kitchen with a wide, loud yawn while Jun stood at the sink draining his second glass of water.

"Already out today?" she said.

Jun could suddenly feel his stomach writhing, as if he'd ingested a small snake with his water. It was an unfamiliar sensation, at least in this scenario, and so he remained quiet while he contemplated his strange reaction. He realized moments later that what he felt was anxiety for the fact that he had not yet told anyone exactly what had happened at the hospital and had not yet described what it was that he had seen. He fully expected Nasté, Ryo, or Toma to want to talk about it but Jun felt uncomfortable with the idea even still.

"Yeah," he said flatly and made for a quick exit. "I'm going to go clean up."

Nasté watched him exit and could not help but feel like he was avoiding her. Generally he was quite personable after he ran and was more willing to talk to her at that time than at any other. She could not fathom why he had made such an obvious move toward the door when she had not even so much as sat down.

Nasté sat at the table and thought for a long time about Jun's odd behavior and could only conclude that he was still feeling awkward and embarrassed about his episode. She had not planned to ask him about it until she knew that he was ready because she understood that such a moment of vulnerability was uncomfortable and unusual for him. So Nasté put all thoughts of his incident behind her and decided that if Jun wanted to discuss anything at all he would find her the same way as he always did.

It was surprising, then, when half an hour later Jun came striding into the kitchen so purposefully that she, Ryo, and Toma, who had waked and joined her for breakfast a few minutes before, fell immediately quiet and stared at him with some expression of confusion and automatic expectation.

"It was a patient," Jun said briskly from the doorway, "an eight year old girl who died on the table from bleeding in her brain. It was a long night, I was tired, hungry, and I was upset from losing half of the people that came into our room. It was a one-time deal and any unusual behavior you see from me henceforth is a byproduct of all the crazy things that have been happening between work and school. I'm stressed and exhausted, and that's all there is to it."

Nasté, Toma, and Ryo exchanged blank looks. To all three of them the speech had sounded somehow rehearsed, as if Jun had spent his uncharacteristically long shower deep in thought in order to prepare a succinct explanation for everything. It was not unusual for him to prepare his words before speaking, they all knew that sometimes Jun had trouble expressing his feelings in the heat of the moment and that he felt comfortable when everything he did and said was well thought out. It was part of what made him such an excellent fighter, the troopers knew, because he had the uncanny ability to predict how others might react to his words and actions and could adjust what he did to fit his audience and his purpose.

But somehow this statement had sounded odd, even considering its curt delivery.

"Unusual behavior?" said Ryo with interest. "You haven't been acting unusually at all lately, not that I've noticed."

Then, Ryo looked between Toma and Nasté, both of whom shook their heads to indicate that they had noticed nothing strange from Jun either. It was as if the boy was apologizing for something that he had not yet done. Or perhaps he had been acting strangely but had been doing it in such a way that no one else had been able to tell. He could have been thinking unusual thoughts, having unusual dreams, or experiencing unusual feelings. All of these things could be easily concealed by someone such as Jun, someone with enough mind to stay quiet about things which might cause others to worry.

"The point stands," Jun said. He produced a cup of tea at the counter, took a seat at the table, and it seemed to the others that he was trying to act as though he had said nothing out of the ordinary. He looked at Toma and casually sipped his drink. "Study today?"