A/N- Thanks, ZAP IS ZAK! :'D You is so nice for always reviewing! Have a cookie!

Disclaimer: NO OWN OKAMEH

I stared. A... hot springs? Really? REALLY?

"Wow... it really is the biggest in all of Nippon," Larka said. "Bath house connected to a hot springs... wowie-zowie! I'll never get to go to another, I bet, so we'd best go now."

I stared at her. Uhh... what? What did she mean by that?

Dravis wrapped his arms around Larka. "I wanna take a bath with youuuu..."

"No," Larka growled.

"Pleeassse..."

"No."

"Come oonnnnn..."

"For the God's sake, Dravis, no!"

"Punishment for swearing, dear Larka~"

"Draviissss!"

I watched them, one eyebrow raised. For once, Dravis was actually showing that he cared about her. Or, at the very least, had teenage boy wants that included sexual feelings. Or something along those lines, anyway. He might have just been teasing her.

I glanced over to Yuuki, who was giggling slightly. Her cute little smile forced my entire face to burn bright red. I looked away, choosing to stare at a rock that was beside my foot instead, hoping that she didn't notice how pretty I thought she was.

"Jin, is something wrong?" I heard her ask. "You seem really tense. I guess this was a good idea."

"Your fault," I muttered before striding on ahead to catch up with Larka, who was shouting at Dravis while they walked inside.

"What was that?" she asked, quickly catching up to me.

"Nothing!" I cried.

"Why is your face so red, then?" she asked, her face extremely bright as though she was thoroughly enjoying teasing me.

"No reason!" I managed before entering the bath house and bumping into Larka and Dravis.

Little birds. Little birds were running the hot springs/bath house/whatever the crap this place was. Holding towels, running around while holding food, talking with other birds... I know I should be used to this kind of crap by now, but this just weirded me out.

"This... is... so amazing!" Yuuki squeaked from right behind me. "This is the Sasa Sanctuary! I've dreamt about coming here for so long! This is amazing!"

"Sort of," Larka answered. "Since demons kind of took over Sasa Sanctuary and burned Sparrow Inn down to the ground, the relocated over here, were the Demons Against King Lee Society have managed to place their protection over."

"Hunger... bird..." Dravis said, watching a bird skip past. "Mmmm..."

"Don't be stupid," Larka said calmly.

Meanwhile, I was still in amazement. Birds. Golly, the past sure was weird.

A small bird that had gray in its feathers walked right up to Larka, wearing blue clothes. "Could it be... my, it's been quite some time, Larka."

"Dude, I know. Like... a while," Larka said, frowning and thinking.

"And even longer, Kouin," he said, bowing to me.

"Why bow to the pervert but not me?" Larka complained.

"Because I haven't seen this guy for, like, twenty years, that's why," the bird answered snobbily.

"You're so cuuuuutte!" Yuuki squealed. "I wanna hug you and hold you and... ohhhhh, you're just so adorable!"

"Whoa, freak-out session," the bird said.

"Who's the bird?" Dravis asked bluntly.

"The bird is right here!" the bird snapped. "And the bird's name is Tori!"

"Well, isn't that the same thing?" Dravis asked. "Tori and tori... bird and bird... same diff..."

"Shut up, stupid demon!" Tori snapped, stopping on the ground. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

"Well, Tori does mean bird..." Larka said.

Whoa. The bird's name was bird. Whoa. That was epic.

I glanced over to Yuuki, who had a bright smile on her face while she watched Tori freak out at Larka and Dravis because he was being called his name. Her cheeks were rosy, but not blushing at this moment. She was an absurdly beautiful girl. I was starting to feel a little amazed that she could fall for a dork like me.

"Oi, lover-boy," Larka shouted at me. "Come on, we're getting some rooms. You and Dravis are sharing."

"Noooo!" Dravis shouted, falling to his knees and looking to the ceiling. "Why?! Why?! Why couldn't I just be happy for one day?! What cruel punishment is this?! Why, O Gods in Heaven Above, must I suffer to deal with the fag that is Jin?!"

"Stop being so dramatic," was all Larka said in reply.

Fag? That was a little harsh.

But still. Whoa. It was a bird named Tori, which meant bird. Whoa.


"The water is hot!" Larka announced as she sat down in the pool of hot water.

"I'd guess..." Yuuki answered, hesitantly putting a single foot in the hot water. It was hot. And steamy.

Larka glanced over to the other girl, who had no idea what Larka was planning. Which was, quite simply, to get Yuuki to reveal her powers and get her to spill where Jin's shrine/temple/whatever was. Yuuki was the only person alive who knew, and, as team leader, Larka had to figure out how to make the other girl spit it out.

She, to do this, would need Jin's help... his willing to give away his second kiss. Yuuki had been mentally and emotionally scarred because of what had happened. Seeing her father tortured and murdered right in front of her eyes, watching all of her village be slaughtered... Larka was almost certain that Yuuki had forced these things to be forgotten.

On a bit of a lighter note, Larka was pleased to find that her breasts weren't a fourth the size of Yuuki's like she had thought, but they were, instead, a third. Quite nice to know, yes.

"So, what would you do if Jin walked in here right now?" Larka asked casually.

"Throw something at him, scream at him, stuff like that," Yuuki answered, shrugging. "Or maybe I'd just sit back and watch you work your magic. After all, Larka, you could kill him with a single finger, I'm sure, and no one would ever know."

"Wouldn't you want your future husband, I dunno, alive?" Larka asked, laughing.

Yuuki grinned wickedly. "I wouldn't mind him dead if he did anything to me."

Larka took in a deep breath. "So, what if your dad walked in right now?"

"I'd ask him what the heck he was doing in the women's bathing area," Yuuki replied. Her eyes softened slightly. "And... and how he got there... and if this meant he was going to come back here..."

Larka felt her heart lurch slightly. Despite the fact that, at the beginning when they first met, Larka couldn't stand Yuuki, they had somehow managed to become pretty good friends, as long as they ignored the other's faults to the best of their extents.

"Sorry, I brought up something painful," Larka said softly.

"It's fine," Yuuki said softly.

"What do you suppose the guys are doing?" Larka asked, hoping to make the air a bit lighter before she took another stab at seeing if Yuuki would tell.

"Arguing," Yuuki answered. "I'll bet you ten thousand yen that they're arguing right now."

"I won't take that bet because I know I'll loose," Larka replied.

Yuuki sighed and Larka could feel a welt of jealousy beginning to form. Despite the fact that Larka was a goddess and therefore should be beautiful and such, Larka felt like she was nothing next to Yuuki. A human girl shouldn't be able to be that smokin' hot. Not right.

Larka pushed it aside. She needed to focus on the big picture right now.

"So... do you remember where the temple is?" Larka asked, trying to keep casual.

"Which temple?" Yuuki asked, sounding somewhat surprised.

"You know, the one where Jin used to live. His shrine," Larka said.

"Oh." Yuuki looked away, biting her bottom lip. "No."

"Are you sure?" Larka asked. "I mean, we have to find it, ya know. Jin's powers are there."

"I said I didn't know where it is," Yuuki answered flatly. "Stop asking."

Okay, so, yeah, Larka would have to get Jin's help on this one. Hopefully she could get him to spare some romanticness (although his hitting-on-girls skills were probably extremely low, Larka supposed anything would work with Yuuki as long as it was Jin) so that she could get the information that she needed.

"Well, the hot water is already starting to make me feel a little light-headed, so I'll be getting out, now," Larka said, standing up.

"I'm gonna stay here a bit longer," Yuuki murmured.

A slow and creepy smile fought it's way onto Larka's face as she left. Yuuki... she would spill all of her secrets... including her cup size...


I laid in my room, staring up at the ceiling. Nothing was there but ceiling. That's right. And I was bored. Ughhhh... so bored...

"Knock knock," I heard as Larka opened the door, wearing a purple and black silky kimono. "Where's Dravis?"

"He's too good at rock-paper-scissors for me..." I answered, lazily sitting up. "We played like, ten times, to see who would go in to the bath first, and he beat me every freaking time... I swear, I probably just have bad luck, knowing me."

"I'd agree with the last part," Larka agreed, sitting in front of me.

As I looked her up and down, I stifled a snort. Despite the fact that she was wearing a kimono and we were inside, she was still wearing those escalator-type boots. I couldn't help but wonder if they were like a comfort blanket to her or something, because I had almost never seen her socks. I had never seen her toes.

"What's so funny, dork?" she growled.

"Nothing," I answered, shaking my head and laughing slightly.

"By the way," Larka said, suddenly scooting over a bit closer to me. "I was wondering if you had any of your past memories..."

"Uh, no," I replied.

"Talked to my- our mom lately?"

"Nope."

"I see." She seemed slightly disappointed. "Well, I guess we have no choice, then."

"About what?" I asked.

"I need you to be romantic with Yuuki so she can spill some secrets that we need the answers to or we won't be able to progress after meeting with the princess of Nippon and the prince of the Moon. Which, as you know, would be a bad thing," Larka stated.

"Uh, what?" I asked, not making the connection.

Larka sighed and rolled her eyes. I had the feeling that she was wondering how stupid I could possibly be.

"Basically, Yuuki was scarred by some memories that she doesn't want to remember, so we need you to make her a bit more... ditz-ish so we can get her to speak her mind with no problems. I don't think she'd drink much saké, so we're on our own with this one," Larka said.

"What would I be asking her?"

"Where your shrine is located," she answered.

"How do I be romantic?"

"I dunno, figure something out," Larka replied, standing up and dusting off her kimono. "Make sure to do it soon. If we don't figure out where your shrine is... well, basically, we're all screwed."

Ah, the wonderfulness that is having the world's fate resting upon your shoulders. I fell back into the staring at the ceiling-type fun, thinking. How had my life turned out like this? Nothing felt simple any more. In fact, I couldn't be idiotically bored and stupid anymore without it serving some form of eternal purpose.

I desperately wanted to be able to see someone from the future so I could know that that part of my life wasn't a dream or something. I really wanted someone to be there for longer than five minutes, as well, and for them not to be captured by Lee. Like that would ever happen. Pe-shaw.

I closed my eyes, taking in deep breaths. Fall asleep, Jin. Fall asleep. That's when things make sense...

Without even realizing, I drifted off into sleep. I guess. It felt like the same, just with my eyes closed. Maybe some sort of weird thing was going to happen? As if the universe wanted to confirm this for me, I heard someone speak.

"Kouin..."

Oh, great, not that name again...

"Kouin, can you hear me?"

Sure.

"Kouin, you have to speak if you can hear me."

"I'm here. Who're you?" I asked, opening my eyes.

I was still laying down, but now in a completely white space. A gray-haired fox-eared girl in a black kimono stood before me, lips pursed.

"Kouin, I am Hitorigami, a life-long friend that you have forgotten. One of the few gods that you chose to interact with," Hitorigami said. "I am neither male nor female, so please... do not call me female, no matter how much I would like to be so."

Meh. Wasn't as weird as the bird named Tori.

"Yeah, cool, so what do you want?" I asked.

"I would like to ask where your shrine is so that we may meet there later," Hitorigami said.

"Um, see, I would love to, but I don't know where it is," I answered.

Hitorigami frowned. "Well, that's somewhat frustrating. I need you to find out. Otherwise, we will not be able to meet, which could spell doom for this planet."

"Oh. Yeah, could be bad," I agreed.

"Where is the Priestess?"

"Ya mean Yuuki? I think she's in the bath right now."

"Speak with her immediately," Hitorigami commanded. "Find out where the shrine is, then tell me while you dream tonight. I need to know, lest I will not be able to help you and you will not be able to see those that you most dearly wish to see."

That caught me off guard. "Who? Who do I want to see?"

Hitorigami gave me a flicker of a smile. "I believe you know. Wake up."

Dang it, I hate mysteriously ending dreams.


I sat up, feeling a bit bleary. Larka and Dravis were kneeling down next to me.

"Jeez, finally!" Larka complained. "You've been asleep for, like, ever! I even yelled in your ear and you wouldn't wake up!"

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"It's morning. You slept throughout all of yesterday and last night. It's about noon, now, so we were starting to get a little worried," Larka said, folding her arms. Dang, I was asleep that long?! What the crappidy crap was wrong with me lately?!

That was about the point that I noticed Yuuki, who was sitting a safe distance away from me. Her hair was shinier than usual and her skin seemed to glow more. Bathing had obviously done nothing to her beauty but enhance it. I felt my face begin to burn as I stared at the short-skirted low-dipping kimono she was wearing. Hot. That's all I could think.

"Uh huh..." I mumbled, looking down. "Sure."

Larka rolled her eyes. "You don't even know what I was talking about."

"Sorry..." I was paying more attention to me bare feet than anything. Don't think about Yuuki, don't think about Yuuki...

The dream suddenly came back with force and I blinked. "Hey, Larka, do you know anyone named Hitorigami?"

Larka stared at me. "Uh, duh. It's, like, the gossip-center of the gods. Everyone loves to make fun of it for being so reclusive and depressing."

"Well... she... it... whatever came into a dream last night," I stated.

"Seriously?!" Larka demanded. "What did it say?!"

"It talked about the thing that we talked about yesterday," I answered casually.

"I see... now it's, like, five times as important," Larka said, frowning. "Make sure to do it ASAP."

"Got it," I answered.

Larka, as though deciding to hurry the process along a bit, stood up, grabbed Dravis's arm, pulling him up as well, and dragged the confused emo out of the room. I watched them go, giving a little wave as they went, leaving Yuuki and I alone. Great. How to begin this...?

"I'll be leaving, too, I guess," Yuuki mumbled, standing up and brushing herself off.

"Wait," I began, grabbing her arm as she walked by. "Don't... don't go..."

Her face reddened considerably, but she sat down beside me. She was looking down, her thick eyelashes covering her golden eyes. She was so beautiful. Way too good for me.

My hand snaked its way around her shoulders and she jumped slightly, looking up at me with wide eyes. I silently pulled her to me, hoping that she wouldn't freak out and run away from me or something. Quite the opposite happened, luckily for me, and she slightly leaned against me.

I was starting to feel a little dizzy. What was I supposed to be doing again? Did it matter? I doubted it did, because all that seemed to matter at that particular moment was that Yuuki smelled good. Better than before since she had had a bath.

I buried my head into her hair and breathed into her ear, "You're really beautiful, you know that?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her give a little smile. I wasn't moving too fast, I guess. My right hand moved from the floor where it had been sitting to over Yuuki's. Her cute little smile got a little bit bigger. I felt extremely content at that moment and felt like there was no reason why I should move.

Why did I not want us to be together? This was wonderful. I didn't know how it was possible, but with every moment that passed, I fell for her more and more. I was certain, by this point, that I was in love with her. This beautiful, wonderful girl who I so desperately was in love with... how could she even possibly like me a little bit like that?

At that moment, as though unable to contain myself, I whispered into her ear, "I love you, Yuuki."

Her eyes widened considerably and she looked at me, her lips slightly opened. For some reason, that just made it more obvious to me that I was in love with her. I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew that it was something that was right.

I touched her cheek, leaned close to her face, and kissed her gently on the lips. Her lips eagerly kissed mine back. Again, I couldn't understand why I didn't want this before.

I was drunk off Yuuki, and I didn't care. My arms changed position so they were around her waist. Yuuki's also changed, hooking themselves around my neck. The kiss was slowly becoming more and more passionate and I was feeling dizzy for some reason. Ah, that's right, I needed air. I wanted the kiss almost as much as I needed the air, though, so I kept the kiss going for a couple more seconds.

Finally, I parted, gasping and flushed. Yuuki's wide eyes stared into mine. She looked much more dizzy than I was. Which was about the point that I remembered what I was supposed to be doing.

"Yuuki," I whispered, putting my forehead against hers. "You want me to regain my memories, don't you?"

"Yes," she answered in a tiny voice.

"Then you have to tell me where my shrine is," I continued. "And I'm not kidding about loving you, by the way. I really do."

"I love you, too," she whispered.

"Then, please, tell me, where is it?" I begged.

"Do you remember where we first met as Yuuki and Jin?" she asked softly. "That little abandoned cottage with all the demons around? There was a forest close by. It's about two or three kilometers in there. It's where we lived... that's where..."

I gently kissed her again on the lips before whispering, "Thank you, Yuuki."

She blushed deeper before asking, "Are we... together, now?"

"I dunno, do you wanna be?" I asked, giving a weak laugh.

"Very much," she answered.

"You have to deal with my pervertedness," I whispered. "Do you think you'll be able to handle it?"

"Yes," Yuuki replied firmly. "Trust me."

I laughed before kissing her again. She didn't allow it to be less than a second long like our last had been, choosing to make it a bit more passionate by pulling me closer to her face. I kissed her back, feeling amazingly happy and warm.

"Okay, okay, knock off the sappy stuff," Larka said in disgust as she walked in, making us both turn bright red. "Seriously, you guys are the most grossly lovey-dovey couple I have ever friggin' seen... it makes me feel like I'm gonna loose my breakfast at any given time."

"Larka!" I snapped, standing up. "I was finally accepting my feelings and crap like that and you had to ruin it! Why do you always ruin our romantic moments?!"

"Because I feel sick if I don't," Larka answered. "Incomplete, if you will."

"Come on!" I complained. "You gotta be kidding me! Cut it out! You're such an annoying little sister!"

"Part of my charm," she snorted back.

I felt a hand take my own, and I glanced over to see Yuuki holding my hand, a gentle smile on her face. "Just let it go for now, okay? There will be plenty of time to do that sort of thing later, so for now, just calm down a bit and let it go."

"Sure," I answered automatically.

"If Yuuki smiled at you and told you to jump off a cliff in a cutesy voice you'd do it," Dravis snorted, who I hadn't notice come in. "Don't be controlled by a woman."

Both Yuuki and Larka hit him.

I grinned. I felt a lot better about today for some reason.


"Night, Dravis," I said as I closed my eyes.

"Whatever," was his muffled answer.

I felt clean. It was a good feeling. I hadn't been clean in so long, so knowing that I smelt like roses was really nice. The best part of it was that it seemed to attract Yuuki a lot more, too. If it made Yuuki happy, then it made me happy. Always. Forever.

I felt so stupid and happy and in love.

I closed my eyes and felt myself automatically drift into that weird-not-quite-dreaming mode.

"Kouin... are you all right?" Hitorigami asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Uh huh," I answered, grinning like an idiot.

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. Wait, no. I'm not."

Hitorigami sighed, looked up, and then asked, "Do you know, now?"

"Yup," I answered. "In a forest."

"A forest? Where?"

"Up north, near where I met Yuuki," I stated.

"Ah, you mean Yoshpet?" it asked.

"I dunno," I answered.

"A big, foreboding forest?" it asked, folding its arms.

"Yeah," I replied, remembering. "Scary-looking. Didn't like it. I think."

"Your shrine is in Yoshpet!" Hitorigami groaned. "Of all of the places, why did you pick there? How are we supposed to find it in Yoshpet?"

"Dunno," I answered. "Doesn't that mean 'the Consuming Forest'?"

"Yes," Hitorigami muttered. "It does."

"Scary," I said calmly.

"Let's leave it at that for today, Kouin..." Hitorigami muttered, sighing. "I'll talk with you later when I figure out how to get through such a place."

"Wait, who do I want to see?" I asked, hoping so desperately, but not knowing if it was true.

"Two young girls," Hitorigami replied. "One being your age and the other being eleven."

I felt myself choke. Miuri and Ai. They were safe. They were safe.

"Now, I really must go. Day is beginning to break and you are all leaving tomorrow to start your journey again," Hitorigami stated.

"I-" I began, but the dream ended suddenly again. Dang it. I was starting to really dislike this... this... thing.

A/N- Happy V-Day!... I guess... I hate this holiday, but I guess it's a good one for these people since they get together that day. Sort of. lol You'll understand later.