Yes, there is a reason as to why this story is being updated after over two years. Simply put, ya'all can go blame my fiance and my sister. The tale goes as follows:

Lately, my life has been one big spin on the tilt-a-whirl of life. One of the few plus-sides to this spin is Ray, my fiance. I got to see him over the holidays; he came to visit me in Oregon where I'm living for a while. Since he was packing light, he opted to get me something once he got here. That something ended up being a DVD set of an old favorite of mine; the uncut first season of Yu Yu Hakusho. Well, that got me back into the series, and before I knew it I was digging out my old cards and blowing the dust off of a few chapters to reminisce over. Ray read them and, to my surprise, liked them enough to encourage me to start working on them again. Please note, I hate picking a story back up after a long time; the first two chapters seemed like crap! So, desperate for excuses, I told him that I couldn't rework the story until I had seasons two and four, the seasons that contain the characters I like the most. He was understanding. And then I stupidly mentioned this need for those two seasons in passing to my sister and guess what the brat got me. And boom. There went my excuse.

I love you both dearly, but you both drive me insane sometimes.

So, my excuses effectively dead, I set to work staring vacantly at Kaze no Fantasia and asking myself, how can I recommit to a story when my writing style has changed to the point that it's painful to look at my original chapters? A re-write was in order, so I polished up what had already been there before, added some meat to the paragraphs, and rearranged a few scenes that had originally just sort of ticked me off. I then updated the original two posted chapters- they're up that way now- and settled in to check over what I'd had of chapter three. Turns out chapter three was actually a chapter and a half- whoa- so I broke it down, polished up three- you're reading it- and now I get to complete chapter four. Whew!

And all because I know a couple of people who are a little too encouraging of my abilities, bless their hearts...

In a note of totally related cuteness, Ray now feels that my sister has one-upped his gift, and is getting me the third season and the one movie I don't have in order to get back on top of the game. I, personally, look forward to the Jin cellphone dangle he's already ordered me from Ebay. It makes me happy! Although I need to stop linking him to things for the "OMGIT'SSOCUTE" value. I'm letting him spoil me...

As for my other stories, they're rather on hold right now because frankly, I need to laugh. And the fact of the matter is, when I set Kaze no Fantasia aside to work on Anomaly... I didn't exactly expect Anomaly to be that freaking long! I had always intended to get back to this story someday. I guess that someday ended up being right now!

So let's go!

I will come up with a better catchphrase, I swear...


Mana was an interesting person to deal with first thing in the morning.

Jin hadn't meant to scare her, he really hadn't. He'd gotten up and gone to see if there was any breakfast yet, and there was Mana, standing over the stove. Curious, he'd gone to look over her shoulder to see what she was cooking. He thought she would know he was there- she had before, after all- but apparently she didn't. At least, she didn't until she backed right up into him and totally freaked out.

And that was how Jin wound up getting smacked over the head with a wooden spoon more times than he cared to try and count. It was also how he ended up receiving a threatening growl with his breakfast several minutes later. "Don't ever, ever, ever sneak up on me like that again!"

"Ah said ah was sorry," Jin mumbled over the plate of eggs and sausage. The sound of his voice only made the girl narrow her eyes; he decided it was high time he tried making an effort to speak a little more clearly. "'Sides, I didn't sneak. Ya had plenty of time to notice me." Well, it wasn't the best he could do, but it was a start. Mana snorted lightly.

"Just because I had a chance to notice you doesn't mean I'm going to. It's rude to sneak!"

"Ya sure noticed when I woke up the other day." Oh, good, he had control over a few more words now. As futile as Jin knew it was to try to hide his accent completely, he did like to try to be understandable to the people around him at the very least. Well, when he remembered to try at all he did...

Mana sat across from him, grumbling slightly as she picked up her plate. "That's because I saw your reflection in the toaster."

"Oh..." Jin had just figured she was really in tune with her surroundings. He watched her eat for a moment, amused by the dainty bites she took, before tackling his own meal himself. This made how many meals they'd shared together in the past couple of days? About four, he realized once he'd given it some thought. They'd had two breakfasts and two dinners together. The human seemed thankful to have someone to eat with. He wondered if she was lonelier than she wanted to admit.

Finally the blonde girl sat down an empty plate. "Listen, I've got school today, but first I want to change your bandages again, okay? It's not exactly easy to do when you're asleep, so right now may be the best chance I get today."

Jin stared. She was a bold little human! "Ahright."

At the very least, he decided a few minutes later, Mana had gentle hands. Jin sat working on his breakfast while she pulled off the old bandages and examined his stomach. "Hmmm... Well, that's interesting."

"Wot's interesting." The wind master frowned, trying to see his own stomach a little more clearly. It didn't work well when there was a blonde head in the way...

"Nothing." Mana pulled a little jar out of the basket she'd gotten from the end of the couch. Humming as she took off the lid- that song was going to be stuck in his head for weeks when he went home!- she dipped her fingers into the gel and spread some over the wound. Jin jumped slightly.

"Eh! That's cold!"

The healer girl's mouth quirked. "Sorry. This stuff is always freezing, no matter what the temperature in the room is. There's nothing I can do about it." She prodded his stomach gently a few inches above the wound. "Does this hurt?"

Jin fought the urge to squirm. "No. That just tickles."

Her hands moved down, drifting an inch or so before she tried again. "Now?"

"No... that still just tickles..." The apparition shifted uncomfortably. He had a sour feeling that he knew where this was going.

Mana pressed directly above the gash. "How about now?"

"Ow! That hurts, that hurts!" Jin scowled, jerking backwards. "Wot did ya hafta do that for?"

"Just checking something." Mana replied casually as she applied a bit more of the cool gel to his stomach and started bandaging him up again. He would have sworn she was smirking slightly if he hadn't already taken note of the fact that the human barely even smiled at all. Well, at least her hands were still gentle. "The good news is that your wound is healing. The bad news is that it's not healing very much. It's closed, but barely. Anything too strenuous could cause it to open again, so you need to take it easy."

The redhead nodded as he picked up the ever-present bowl of rice. That was something else he'd noticed; Mana ate rice at every single meal. He wondered why, to be quite honest. It was kind of boring. Ah, well, food was food and he would take what he could get. The blonde got up and started packing for school, leaving him to his meal, and it was several moments before she spoke again. "By the way."

"Hrng?" Jin looked up at her around a mouthful of food. As polite as she was, he doubted she would appreciate him trying to speak with his mouth full.

"Try to stay out of things today, please?" Jin froze up, just staring. Mana looked over at him. "My shampoo and conditioner were switched this morning, some of the boxes in my father's room had been opened and left that way, and the contents of one of my drawers were all mixed up." Gulp. And then Mana held up a red book. "And I'm taking this with me, so don't even bother."

Damn, there went his chance to actually learn something about her. "Eh... sorry?"

Mana shrugged and went back to getting ready for school. Jin watched her work, musing over the fact that she caught on to a few misplaced items in her home but failed to notice him when he was standing right behind her. He wasn't quite sure what to think of her observational skills. It was only after several moments of pondering that he realized she was speaking to him again.

"-curious, for that matter. But a girl does need some privacy, you know? If you really need something to do, you could always try reading a book. I have plenty, you're sure to find something interesting."

It was probably better to just pretend he had been listening. "Yeah, ahright."

Mana set her backpack by the door and disappeared to her room. He waited, curious, until she returned with a small duffel bag slung over her shoulder. "I've got karate lessons after school today, so I'll be a bit late getting home. There's still a bit of Chinese food left you can eat, and leftovers from last night in the yellow container in the fridge if those run out. If you need some fresh air there's a swing out on the balcony. It would probably do you some good to sit outside for a while. Just..." Mana paused as if searching for something to say and Jin looked her over carefully. Was she a bit paler than she had been the day before? "Don't do anything weird that would get you noticed, okay?"

The way she was speaking to him was starting to remind him of how a person would talk to an animal or a child. "Like wot?"

Mana shrugged as she packed her lunch, clearly only devoting half her attention to the conversation. Jin watched her face carefully; she was a bit whiter than before. "I don't know, like spitting over the edge or anything."

Jin tilted his head. "Why would I want to do that?"

There was another shrug. "I don't know. All I know is, whenever the boys at my school get really high up, like on a bridge or a rooftop, they do crazy things like spit over the edge to see who can get the best distance and what they can land on."

That sounded like a nice opening to tease. "That sounds fun."

"Don't you dare. I have to live in this neighborhood." A bottle of water went into the duffel bag and Mana zipped it shut. Jin watched her carefully. Her hand had been shaking slightly as she tugged the zipper, making faint vibrations in the weakening air patterns around her. She looked like she was really getting sick. Mana slung her backpack over her shoulder, picked up the duffel, and gave him a vague smile and a small wave. "See you later."

He waved back, just as he had the day before, and she left. Jin sat for a moment before setting down his plate getting up to explore the balcony. Not much there, just the swing she'd mentioned and a waist-high wall. He walked over and looked out at the city. The balcony overlooked the space between this apartment building and the next, but if he looked to the right, he could see the busy city and watch people walk down the street. If he looked straight down, he could count balconies below him. He was on the fourth story. There were no levels above him.

Jin looked back out over the city, and then decided why not? He leaned over the railing and spit.


Mana almost passed out in PE that day. They sent her to the infirmary to lie down for a while, innocently believing her vague claim of anemia, and her head had hardly hit the pillow on the uncomfortable cot when Sachi and Hachi came running in. "Mana!" Oh, damn...

"Hey, guys..." Ah, fiznit. As much as she loved the twins, they were the last two people she wanted to see right now.

"Mana, what's going on?" Hachiko was virtually wailing. She ran over to the bed, thankfully dropping her voice before she continued. "You're never like this unless you're on a job! Why didn't you tell us?"

Ugh, they were persistent. "It's not a job," Mana mumbled. "I promise, it's not a job."

"Lemme guess." Sachi flopped into the chair by the cot Mana was lying in. "The idiots from the college again, right? Got caught in a mob of them, I bet."

"Sort of..."

The more aggressive twin picked up a textbook someone had left behind. "Lying little twit, aren't you." The blonde backed away a bit, startled, as her black-eyed friend shot a glare at her. "You're lying about what's going on, same as you lied about your little appointment yesterday."

Mana fought the urge to flinch, instead keeping her focus steady on the other girl's eyes. "And why would you say that?"

"We watched you leave the gates, Mana. The dentist's office is that way. South." A pointed finger demonstrated as Sachiko's eyes narrowed. "You went that way. North. Towards your house."

Mana leaned back against the pillow, feeling an intense relief. They hadn't followed her; Sachi was trying to trick her into an admission. That was easy to dance around. "There're a lot of places north of here, aside from my house. I could have gone anywhere, really. Like to the nearest bus stop, maybe?" She tapped her fingers on the thin sheet irritably. "I was running late, I told you that. To be honest, you didn't help much. It was a choice between catching the bus or loosing a lung trying to run fast enough to make my appointment. The bus seemed easier."

She saw Sachiko wince, chagrinned. Mana forced herself to keep a stern face; even though one friend seemed to have bought it, the other still might not be convinced...

"But why are you so weak? The other students are saying you just collapsed!" Hachi's eyes were wide and concerned. She seemed less worried about the possibility of a case than she was about Mana's health. Mana wasn't sure if that was good or bad; the last time she'd had a cold, Hachi had dropped by unannounced to make soup. Mana waved her hand in a dismissing manner.

"I've been a bit anemic lately, okay?"

"Are you sure? Is that really all?" Hachi sat on the edge of the small bed. "Mana, you promised you'd tell us when you were on the job. Are you or aren't you?"

Mana sighed. At least she didn't have to lie, exactly, on this one. "I'm not on a job, Hachiko. I promise..."

Karate that afternoon was even worse. Normally sparring matches were pretty straightforward. Mana enjoyed being able to think on her feet; she wasn't too powerful, but she was fast enough to get in the hits that counted and fast enough to guard herself afterwards... usually. But the surprise kick to the stomach, with her constitution already weakened, was enough to send her to the bathroom to vomit. Her sensei sent her right to the bench when she got back to class, and approached her afterwards to ask if there was anything that she wanted to 'talk about.' She assured him that there wasn't- he was nice, if not a bit naïve- and left class tired, sore, and still a bit nauseated. Karate accidents and school lunches didn't mix.

She stopped for dinner on the way home. Take-out sounded easier than cooking at the moment, especially since she was now cooking full meals for two. When she got to her building she didn't bother with the fire escape; she'd never make it up on her own. She took the service elevator at the back of the building, the slight swaying motion making her tremble slightly. She unlocked her door and stepped inside, dropping her bags where she stood, and the dinner she set on the counter. She needed air; the apartment was too stuffy, she couldn't breathe. Mana headed out to the balcony. She needed a nice breeze right now. She would sit on the swing.

The swing was already occupied, and the occupant was asleep. Mana stood and stared at Jin for a while. There was an almost comical expression on his face, and she imagined he must have been having good dreams. How nice for him. She studied him a little longer. The demon boy was so alive, so full of energy... so lucky... she was so hungry! She reached over, brushing the seal around his wrist. Was that what the problem was? Had she miscalculated somehow? No. If he'd just come through to her would, he would have had to pass through the barrier between realms. And she could handle anything that was weak enough to pass through that barrier. She was just... tired. That was all. She was tired.

Mana went back inside and forced herself to sit down for her homework. She needed to stay awake that long, at least, before she could take a nap. She needed a nap...


The human girl was focused on her schoolwork when Jin woke up towards twilight. He stood in the doorway for a while, watching her pour over her books, before he spoke. "Ya must really like school."

"No, not really." Mana's voice was weary, and she didn't look up at him. "There's take-out on the counter, if you're hungry. I'm too tired to cook tonight."

"M'kay." Jin found two untouched meals on the counter. He picked one and sat down at the couch to eat it, watching the girl the whole time. She looked like a mess. "Ya had a rough day, huh?"

There was a small nod from the blonde head. "Yeah, well, you know. PE and self-defense on the same day and all. Makes a girl tired."

That wasn't it. He knew better. The girl's condition had been gradually worsening the entire short time he'd known her. Jin wondered vaguely if the people close to her bought those stories. He finished eating and, on a whim, walked over to the table and sat across from her.

Mana didn't even look up. "Do you need something?"

"Nothin' really." Jin leaned across the table to see what she was working on. The girl was pouring over mathematics out of a textbook with sleek, shiny pages. There was a calculator by Mana's elbow, and occasionally she clicked away at it as she wrote out the problems by hand. "Looks downright boring, that does."

"It is." Mana finished the problem she was on and slammed the book shut. "Honestly, I think I'm done for right now."

"Done wit' everything?" Jin watched her expression carefully. Mana was weak, weary... and not hiding it very well. Her eyes met his for a moment before she looked away.

"Yeah..." She pushed back from the table. "I'm done. Excuse me... I need to soak..."

He'd already gone to his room before she even got out of the tub. He heard her footsteps in the hall as she headed into her room, and then there was a long silence. Jin lay on his bed, waiting. And at around eleven, as sure as clockwork, the coughing began again.

The wind master got up silently and pulled his door open. He'd had it unlatched and ready. He headed for the kitchen first, getting a glass from the cabinet over the sink and filling it with cold water from the refrigerator. Then he went back to the hall. He stood outside Mana's door for a moment before pushing it open. There she was, sitting on her knees on her bed, coughing blood into her little bucket. He stepped inside cautiously, but she didn't make any response- probably didn't even know he was there. Frowning, Jin waited for a break in the coughing. After a moment the dull sounds subsided, and he walked over to the bed. "Here."

The human's head snapped around, and Jin was startled by how violently wide the pale eyes appeared on the pale face. He'd scared her good this time. Mana stared at him, uncertainty written on every line of her features. It was painfully clear that she didn't trust him just then. He held up the glass anyway. "Ya need to drink. It's not good, coughin' blood like that without a bit of water."

Shaking hands accepted the glass without looking at it. Mana's eyes never left his as she sipped at it cautiously. Jin sat down on the edge of the bed. "Wot's-"

He was cut of by more coughing. Reaching over, the demon patted the girl lightly on the back. "Easy, now. It's not nice to interrupt when people are talking, ya know." The little detective shrank away from his touch, her eyes meeting his again. Now, with her weakness this visible, she finally seemed afraid of him. "Wot's wrong with ya, Mana? I've heard ya doin' this every night since I got here. Are ya sick?"

The girl looked away from him. "Not... not exactly."

"Then wot's wrong with ya?"

"It's nothing."

Jin frowned. "I'm not stupid, Mana. Ya been coughin' like this every night. Wot's wrong with ya?" She shrank even further from him, like she was trying to hide, but he wasn't going to let her get away now. Reaching forward, he took hold of her forearm. "Wot's wrong?"

"It's a birth defect, alright?" Even angered, her voice was quiet. Or was it frustration he was hearing? "Or maybe it is a sickness, I don't know. I've been like this my whole life."

"Wot's it about, then?"

"I..." The girl's fingers tightened around the glass. "When I use my reiki, I don't regenerate it like normal people do. It comes back really, really slowly. Sometimes I don't regain enough energy to keep up with what I put out, and I get sick..."

She fell to another bout of coughing then, and Jin let go of her arm to pat her back again until it subsided. "Wot have ya been using yer energy on, then, that ya can't gain it back fast enough?" Mana said nothing, but her eyes inadvertently traveled to the cord on his wrist. Jin followed her gaze. "This? This is wot's making ya sick?"

"Not just that," the girl said as she raised the glass to drink. The wind demon wasn't even half convinced as she drained the water and set the empty glass by the lamp on the little table closest to her. "It's a lot of things. It's not just that." She fell over on her side, the mattress bouncing a little beneath her. Her back was to him, but he could still see part of her face.

"But it's mostly this, isn't it." Silence was his only answer. Jin tried again. "If it's makin' ya sick, ya gotta get rid of it."

"I can't do that..."

"Ya can, too."

"I don't know you..."

Jin stared at her. Was this girl really that brave, or was she just dense? "The way I see it, Mana, that don't matter for much. If I wanted to hurt ya, this wouldn't stop me. I'm twice your size, and ya can't fight back that weak."

"I can still fight. Believe me, I can still fight."

He raised an eyebrow at that before reaching over to seize one of the girl's arms. Mana tensed as Jin wrapped his fingers around her wrist, noting for a moment just how thin it was- his fingers overlapped his thumb around it by a good bit- before he gave it a good squeeze. The girl tried in vain to pull away, a soft whimper escaping her as he squeezed tighter. Jin pulled her towards him, capturing the other wrist and looking her straight in the eyes. "But could ya win?"

There was a brief silence, followed by a one-word reply. "Compelling."

Was she really that mistrusting all of a sudden? Jin let go of her arms and picked at the cord, trying to pull it off over his hand in vain. Mana shifted uncomfortably. "Please don't..."

"Eh?"

"Don't try to remove it."

"I gotta if it's making ya sick."

"No, you don't. I'll be fine. I've gotten a lot lower than this before and been fine." There was a weary edge to the pleading. Jin sighed.

"If ya say so. But Mana, one way or another ya gotta take this off sooner or later. Ya can't keep it there, not if it leaves ya to feel this bad. If ya really don't trust me, I can always go somewhere else. It's not worth killin' yerself for." There was no response. Jin leaned over to look at the girl's face and saw that in the brief moments it had taken him to answer her, she'd fallen asleep. He stared at her for a moment before reaching to the foot of the bed, where the covers lay in a rumpled heap, and pulled the blankets over the girl, tucking them around her and marveling over how stubborn she was. Was that a normal trait in human females, or was it just Mana? Getting up to turn off the lamp, Jin paused. Right now the girl was weak, vulnerable, in pain. As much as it was none of his business, he didn't want to leave her alone that way. With a sigh, the redhead crossed the room to settle into the chair at the vanity. Why had the girl taken him in if it was going to be this much trouble in the first place?


It had really disconcerted her to wake up and find Jin still in her room. He'd drifted off sprawled over the vanity table, using his arms as a headrest. Mana stared at him for a while before getting up and getting ready for school. She left some breakfast on the table for him, but didn't wake him before she left. She didn't want to talk to him just then.

The girl skipped PE that day. She told the teacher, quite honestly, that she didn't feel good, and he let her sit it out. Mana wasn't surprised that he'd believed her; the teachers always did. She was one of the good students, after all. Sweet, smart little Mana with her rich daddy and no mama, who worked hard and did her schooling diligently, so of course she'd be a success and then the school would look good.

She packed her messenger bag and headed up to the roof. It sounded like a nice place to go right then; Sachiko and Hachiko had yet to find her there. There was always a good breeze up on the roof, maybe it could give her an idea about what to do next. Sachiko and Hachiko wouldn't think to look for her on the roof.

She forgot completely who else hung out on the roof.

"What's one of the good students doing up here?" Mana winced. Apparently he'd seen her before she'd seen him. Damn it all... "I thought they were all in class where they belonged."

Mana scowled briefly before turning to Yusuke Urameshi, a local punk and, much to Mana's chagrin, a fellow aide to the spirit world... one who, and she was loathsome to admit it, outranked her completely. "I happen to be sitting out from PE today," she informed him tartly. "I didn't feel like attending. Of course, the teachers don't mind giving a straight-A student a break once in a while."

Yusuke looked her over appraisingly. "You look like shit."

This was why Mana hated Yusuke Urameshi. He was always like that, snide and condescending. He said whatever he felt like, whether there was any truth in it or not. He was a delinquent and a rogue and the only reason he probably even came to school was because the roof had a nice view; he spent more time there than in class. Mana didn't feel even the least bit bad about holding a fellow detective in such low regard, either, because she knew Yusuke couldn't stand her any more than she could stand him. They'd been sent on one mission together so far, just one, and by the end of it he'd pretty much told her everything he thought of her abilities. Useless, he'd called her, and the jerk had based it solely on the fact that she lacked the same offensive capabilities that he had. Actually, it hadn't been just Yusuke she couldn't stand. His demon friend Hiei had been even worse, insulting Mana the whole way and then swearing to Botan that if she ever made him 'baby-sit' like that again, he'd cut her up and feed her to the demon hoards. And Kazuma Kuwabara, another human and fellow student, had been rude in a completely different manner, treating Mana like she would break if something touched her. She was small, but she was not fragile! Only green-eyed Kurama had been tolerable by Mana's standards, and that was mostly because he didn't really say anything. He'd treated Mana with a quiet indifference, sort of a you-leave-me-alone-I-won't-laugh-at-the-fact-that-you-just-slipped-in-that-puddle attitude. The others had definitely laughed at the puddle...

Remembering it was enough to make her angry again, so Mana didn't dignify Yusuke with an answer; she just walked over to look out over the school instead. The air was nice where she was standing. It was the kind of wind that promised good things, but only if she was patient enough to wait for them just a little bit longer. Mana sighed. Good things. Right. Well, the wind had never lied before. Mana let herself get lost to time, trying to come up with a plan. There had to be a reason she was being drained this fast. For a moment, she wondered if she shouldn't ask Yusuke if she could speak to Kurama... but no. She had to figure this out herself.

Unaware as she wanted to be, Mana heard the bell ring, and saw her classmates trudging back inside. She watched them for a little while, and then headed over and sat down a few yards from Yusuke. He stared at her, but she made it a deliberate point not to look at him. She did not want to get caught in some petty staring contest. Instead, she dug through her bag for her diary and a pen. She'd had some interesting thoughts while she'd been standing there, and she wanted to write them down while they were still fresh. That was always a good way to do it; write down what she had come up with and then see where her ideas went from there. She opened to the first blank page, wrote the date, and started scribbling the different thoughts and emotions running through her...

Only to stop and clap the book shut when she realized Yusuke had stood and was looking her way, trying to see what she was writing. "Damn it, leave me alone!"

"You keep a diary?" Distaste and disbelief were both evident in the way he spoke. Mana gritted her teeth.

"Yes, I do! So what?"

There was a rather loud snort. "Shouldn't you be going back to class? PE is over."

"I don't feel like it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd rather like to write a few things down." Mana picked up her bag and rose, moving clear to the other side of the roof. She stayed there until school ended and the other students went home before starting back to her apartment, blissfully alone... only to stop short at the fire escape where Sachi and Hachi were waiting expectantly for her. Her heart leapt practically to her chest. "Ah... hi."

Sachiko didn't bother saying hello back. "Where'd you disappear to today?"

"Someplace quiet where I could think." Mana shifted slightly, mentally uttering every curse word she knew. Sachi's hands were on her hips again.

"And why couldn't you let us know where you were instead of letting us worry all day?"

"Sachi..." Hachiko looked uncomfortable. Mana sighed.

"If I told you where I went, it would no longer qualify as a quiet place, would it? I'd never be able to go there again without you turning up, and sometimes I just need my peace."

To Mana's shock, the girl didn't even argue. In fact, she only shrugged. "I guess not. Well, come on, let's get inside. I'm thirsty." And Sachiko moved to climb the trashcan and make the jump for the fire escape.

"NO!" Without even thinking, Mana grabbed the twin by the arm and yanked her back. Sachiko's eyes lit up in a decidedly devious manner, and Mana knew she was sunk. Hachi just sighed.

"Sorry, Mana, but you can't fool everybody."

Aw, fiznit.


Jin probably wouldn't have heard the cry of 'no' had he not opened the balcony door to let some air into the stuffy apartment. He frowned, setting down the book he'd been shuffling through, and headed outside. It wasn't as though he'd found much on the shelves to interest him yet anyway. Jin eyed the edge of the balcony curiously. That had sounded like Mana, although it had been louder than anything he'd heard her saying before. A peek over the side revealed the healer down on the ground below, cornered by a raven-haired girl. A second girl, identical to the first stranger, stood by quietly as the other two had a very agitated conversation that involved much hand and arm waving. Finally, Mana slumped against a trashcan in seeming defeat and there was a quieter period of conversation, until a sudden shout reached him from the depths

"You did what?!?"

Jin raised an eyebrow. Well, now, it sounded like his little hostess had found herself in a bit of trouble. He stepped back from the edge, settling onto the seat behind him. There was no point in wondering if he was involved in any way. If he was then he'd find out soon enough...