Disclaimer: Hakuouki is a visual novel game by Idea Factory. (They make a bunch of cute guys! Drools. So I always look up new series just so I can stare at them~) Hakuouki then was adapted into an Anime by Studio DEEN. And today, the Anime series is licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America. (I got this information from Wikipedia and I believe the information is accurate. I wouldn't know though!)

"Forever" will not keep us connected

Chapter 7

On the big road, Kyou was by sitting himself on the dry grass and was thinking about his next move. He has been sitting there for a while now. Lifting his eyes from the ground, he became aware that he had not heard from Kazama Chikage or Amagiri Kyuuju for a long time. He wondered how they were holding up. Knowing them, he smirked and could only assumed Kazama Chikage was after Hijikata Toshizo and Yukimura Chizuru while Amagiri Kyuuju was living in peace. Or anything else close to that.

Hearing running footsteps, Kyou stood up right away and his head turned to the forest where the noise was coming from. Something felt odd about the coming presence. Silently and quickly moving off to hide, he disappeared into the shadows of the trees.

From the forest, Ren jogged right out and slowed down when Kanon begun coughed. "Oh?" he smirked, still holding her over his shoulder. "That was fast. What woke you up, little girl?"

She coughed again and Ren heard the sound of her throwing up. He lowered his body to put her down on the road and saw the blood on her lips. "Damn… how far did you take me?" she glared into his eyes, holding her aching chest and lying on her back. Her strength weakened and she knew she would not be able to fight back the stranger with the black eye patch.

Curious, Ren kept his knees bent and studied her. "What's wrong?" he asked rather softly. Her body begun to sweat and tears of pain were in her eyes. Kanon could not answer him and Ren sighed with pity. Ren rubbed his eye under the eye patch when it got itchy. "Hey, Haru… What are your orders now?" he said, as if talking to himself.

A young female's voice echoed in his head, "Bring her to me."

His hands moved on his own and he picked Kanon up over his shoulders again. It would appear Kanon had just fallen unconscious. "But I'm worried," he said with a carefree smile. "Have some pity on the poor girl, will you?" His feet begun to take a few steps forward. "Just how long do you plan on using your mind controlling power anyway?" The voice did not respond and Ren just smirked to himself.

From the trees, Kyou peeked out and narrowed his eyes. 'What is he doing with Kanon?' he thought, breathing quietly. And did that guy said mind control? What was going on here? Kyou planned on staying close and follow them to see what was going on, but then he noticed the man carrying Kanon was waving down the road to greet someone. Kyou's eyes gazed in the horizon and with shock, he saw it was Amagiri Kyuuju who the eye patched man was waving at. '…Amagiri?' Kyou lightly glared. 'What in the world is going on?"

Just how long did Kyou missed out on the news of the outside world?

[…^…]

Through the forest trees, Sanosuke was leading the group to find Kanon. His eyes were glowing a pale golden light and he could see a white light that resembled a person's soul. Grasping that it belonged to Kanon, he was only focusing on chasing after it before the light disappeared from sight.

"Do you think Harada-san found Kanon-hime?" Saburo asked Ayumu. He was still holding onto the wound where he was stabbed. Despite his guts were hurting, Saburo was doing his best to not fall behind with the group.

Ayumu narrowed his eyes, jumping the root of a tree. "I will just have to believe Sano caught sight of her," Ayumu replied quietly.

Behind them, Yumeko was running alongside with Souji, who was carrying the sleeping Hajime on his back. She glanced to Souji, who looked worried for multiple reasons. Yumeko then inquired, "So this man is a friend of you and Sanosuke's?" she queried. "Why did he attack you guys then? Even Kanon was kidnapped."

"I don't know," Souji frowned. "Hajime-kun would never do anything like this… and there was something strange about him."

She blinked, "What is it?"

The two of them ran a bit faster and Souji grunted. "It's like… Hajime-kun was talking to someone," he said. "But I didn't hear anything… And it's like… someone was forcing him to kill me."

Yumeko glanced away and thought for a moment. "I just had a bad feeling," she said loudly. Ayumu looked back and had no comment. "So this Ren guy was asking for the clan who could revive people. And Hajime-kun seemed to be under someone's control? Sounds a bit fishy, don't you think?"

Ayumu looked back to the front and Sanosuke slightly made a turn. "Mind control," Ayumu uttered.

"What?" Saburo's eyes popped open. "How is that even possible?"

"Think about it," Yumeko lifted a finger up, raising an eyebrow. "Someone who knows about the forbidden clan… and might have mind controlling power, right?"

With a glare, Ayumu growled, "Someone from our clan must have saved that person who now took Kanon away."

Souji's eyes widened a bit. It made sense, even if there was no proof.

"Oh, then maybe that's why the eye patched man was apologizing to me!" Saburo realized, looking back to the others behind him. "But it sounded like he was still himself. Maybe it's not a completely mind controlling power?"

"We'll just have to see," Yumeko told him. "Though, it's still highly possible."

"Anything is possible," Ayumu said, lowering his voice. "Our cursed clan are full of possibilities… that was why the elders isolated all of us from the world."

Souji bit his lip and tried to pick up his pace. 'Kanon… Hajime-kun,' he worried.

Just a second after, Yumeko wondered out loud, "So if Hajime wakes up, do you think he'll attack us?"

Saburo chuckled uneasily, "Maybe. I hope he doesn't."

"Don't worry," Souji smirked a bit. "I'll make sure Hajime-kun doesn't do anything he would regret." Souji would be there to stop him no matter what.

The light belonging to Kanon had ceased going further, Sanosuke saw. The group was now running through an opened area were there were less trees around. But then Sanosuke immediately noticed another presence that his eyes picked up just ahead. And that person was much closer than he thought. Sanosuke did not realize it for he was too focused on Kanon's presence. "Everyone, wait!" Sanosuke quickly stopped in his tracks.

On his cry of signal, they all slow down and their feet sliding against the ground. All of the sudden, a large rope net flipped from the ground and carried everyone into the air. It was then Yumeko threw a knife from her sleeves and it flew, cutting a couple of ropes that almost trapped them. Their bodies slammed together when the rope net took them into the air and thanks to Yumeko's quick move, the net loosened up right after.

Everybody landed on the ground. "Hold on," Sanosuke glared. He saw tiny white powders falling from above.

Ayumu lifted his chin up and noticed the white powders were from the net. He covered his mouth and nose and gestured, "Don't sniff these stuff in!" His warning was too late though. Saburo lost consciousness and fell over on his face.

Souji's eyes grew weary and he fell on one knee while Hajime's body dropped to the side. "Sleeping… powder?" Souji struggled to keep his eyes opened. Yumeko and Sanosuke had already fallen over and Souji was the next one to go with his body falling forward.

"Damn…" Ayumu glared, trying to get his body to listen to him. A figure of a man had walked toward him, but then Ayumu's vision blurred and his eyes closed. He collapsed on his side, helpless and defenseless.

[…^…]

The wind felt cold. Her wrists were hurting. The jingle of the chains was hard when her conscious was returning. Kanon knew right away she must be tied up. The moment she forced to open her sleepy eyes, her vision was dark for a few seconds. In her surroundings, it appeared she was facing a large tent that stood some yards away from where she was. Making sense of what was behind her, it was a tree. There were a few fire torches lit around circularly around the area.

As soon as her vision became clear, over to her left, she saw her tied-up friends were all sitting together with their legs spread out. Black chains were wrapped around their chest and their arms behind them. They seemed to be sleeping and were unaware. Kanon could only see the faces of Ayumu, who was between Sansouke and Saburo. The back of the heads of Souji and Yumeko limped.

"Ayumu?" Kanon called, trying to get her voice loud and clear. Her wrist turned and twisted in the chains, but she was only pinching her skin in the process. She then noticed Saburo's stomach had blood, which was slowly bleeding out. "Saburo!" she exclaimed. She knew when he was unconscious; his power would not be able to hold to keep his wound closed.

From the tent, Ren walked right out. He yawned with a stretch of his arms. "Oh, she's awake," Ren rubbed the back of his head tiredly. His turned looked over his right shoulder causally, "Hey, she's awake. Let's get this cruelty over with."

Kanon glared and another man walked out of the tent. He was tall with ruffled silver hair and silver eyes. The way he dressed was different, like a foreigner. A black jacket with fur, a black u-neck underneath, black pants, and black boots. In his right hand, he carried a straight thin sword. He was holding it upside down, having the blade up next to his arm. His eyes were calm and collective when he met Kanon's angry gaze.

She uttered, "Why—"

"Wake them up, Ren," the silver haired man interrupted, gesturing with his arm. His voice was deep and quiet.

Ren blinked and crossed his arms to his chest. Turning to face the silver haired man, he inquired, "Now Haru doesn't want us to take this girl to her?"

"She rather kept her face unknown to these people," the tall man said, still staring at Kanon. "Did you not hear Haru giving out the order moments ago?"

"Well, Yuma, Haru likes talking to you more," Ren shrugged with a snicker. "How was I supposed to know?"

Kanon glared as soon as Ren walked off over to her friends. "Wait, what are you guys going to do to them?" she demanded, struggling with the chains again. "How did you even catch them? It's just the two of you!"

"They simply fell into my trap I set up," Yuma told her. His eyes were never cold, only complete quietness. "Haru said she remembered that the clan had an issue about being away from others and that they may die if they were too far apart."

"Sounds like this Haru knows a lot," Kanon grumbled under her breath. And the person named Haru knew Kanon would die? That was already too much information for an outsider.

"I apologize for any offensive that will be made," Yuma slightly bowed with his eyes closed. Keeping his body lowed, he slowly opened his eyes and paused. "…This won't be pretty."

Ren had grabbed a bucket of water from the side of the tent and directly threw it over the group of people. Being the first one to yell, Saburo gasped when the cold water touched his open flesh wound. Everyone else woke up and started to open their eyes. Ren threw the bucket away and dusted his hands, "There we go."

"Damn," Sanosuke grunted, glaring over to Ren.

While Souji and Yumeko both looked back to see where they were, Ayumu saw Kanon tied up on a tree and her feet barely on the ground. Afterwards, Ayumu glared to Ren and Yuma who now stood together. 'This doesn't look good,' Ayumu thought bitterly.

Souji kept his head turned, 'Where's Hajime-kun?'

At the same time as Saburo closed up his wound once again, he felt awfully faint. He must have lost a lot of blood and his fingers and feet felt numb. His eyes widened when Yuma walked over to them. "H-Hey," Saburo weakly glared, struggling with the chains. "It's not nice to have hostages."

"Well now…" Yuma's eyes gazed over to them. He ignored Saburo's remark and studied everyone closely.

"Don't do anything to them!" Kanon shouted, kicking her feet against the tree.

Yuma's eyes slowly glanced back to her. And then he wondered, "Who is the most important person to you?"

Kanon glared and gritted her teeth. She only kept her eyes on the man and tried to avoid looking at the others. "That's playing dirty," she murmured angrily.

Walking around the group, Yuma took his time to look at their expressions. He stared at Sanosuke first. In Sanosuke's eyes, he wanted to do something and looked like he would jump at any minute. Yuma looked to Yumeko, whose eyes were quiet with rage. Next to her was Souji, who glared deadly but it was unable to faze Yuma. Now over to Saburo, his face was simply pale, but he put up a brave front. Yuma's lips moved, "You."

Slightly wincing, Ren looked away when Yuma had stabbed into Ayumu's left thigh and Ayumu held in a grunt. Kanon opened her mouth. "No, stop!" Kanon cried, struggling in the steel chains. "Don't!"

Being next to Ayumu, both Saburo and Sanosuke looked at him with distress, "Ayumu!"

Keeping his mouth shut, Ayumu bit on his tongue. The blade remained in his thigh and the blood leaked out. Yuma looked back to Kanon, who struggled harder to free herself. "First question," he slowly said. "Where is the Time Healer?"

"She's long dead," Kanon answered quickly. Her concerned eyes were twitching and only stayed to stare at Ayumu's pained face.

"Did she have any descendants?" Yuma inquired further.

Kanon replied without holding herself back, "They're all dead."

Souji breathed quietly and wondered what he could do at a time like this. If only he knew what kind of power he had, he might be able to do something. Unless it was not an aggressive power like Sanosuke's, then there was nothing Souji could do. 'But there was to be something,' Souji told himself, rushing his thoughts.

Taking the blade, Yuma took it out of Ayumu's thigh and then stabbed it under his left kneecap. Ayumu groaned, keeping his voice in and Kanon banged her arms against the tree madly, itching to protect him. Ayumu looked to Kanon, who was trying hard not to cry. 'Don't tell them… a single thing,' he wanted to tell her. He could only hope she heard him.

"Where are the descendants?" Yuma questioned again, his eyes down to Ayumu. He could tell there was something they were hiding now. The way Ayumu looked to Kanon easily gave it away.

"I already told you," Kanon firmly said.

'Kill him,' a voice ordered in Yuma's mind. Yuma grunted and simply twisted the blade slowly. The blade moved in Ayumu's flesh and Ayumu could only continued to hold in the pain.

"Stop it!" Yumeko demanded, glaring over to Yuma. Sanosuke looked to her as her arm moved against his. "Stop hurting him!" Yumeko warned, her voice becoming deep.

"Yeah!" Saburo spit a bit.

Souji sneered, "You won't get any answers by killing any of us. Do you not know that?"

Watching Yuma's still movements, Ren heard the tent and looked back. Hajime had just walked out of from the tent and his eyes glanced to Ren quietly. "Good to see you moving," Ren smiled with a chuckle.

Hajime fixed his two katanas in place and stood by his side. He heard his friends calling his name, but Hajime ignored them. There was nothing to say or anything he could do to help them. So he simply remained silent.

"Hajime, help us!" Sanosuke glared over to him. "We know you're stronger than some mind controlling power!"

"Oh?" Ren smirked. "You guys already figured us out?"

'Mind control?' Kanon thought to herself. What a cheating power! She would never have guessed. 'So there's someone else behind this?' Was it the same person the two men mentioned? Haru? If these guys were not as bad, then all she needed to do was help them break free from the mind control. But how? Was there any way to break it?

"Hajime-kun!" Souji shouted over to him.

Hajime sighed and closed his eyes. "…Sorry," he told them. Both Souji and Sanosuke were now quiet and stared at Hajime's emptied face.

Ayumu hissed when Yuma took out the blade again. "Where are the descendants?" Yuma questioned one more time, watching Ayumu suspiciously. The sharp edge touched Ayumu's left cheek and Yuma slightly sliced a small layer of his skin. The blood dripped down and Ayumu glared at him. "Unless you want me to torture her next," Yuma said.

"Don't you dare!" Ayumu growled at him, his eyes turning cold and thirsty for blood.

"Torturing you alone should be sufficient," Yuma said. The look on Yuma's face was still the same. Simply calm and cool minded. He actually would not dare himself to torture a woman. "After all, she is more willingly to break easier than you."

When Yuma drew his blade back to aim for Ayumu's shoulder, Kanon confessed with her eyes shut, "It's me! I'm the daughter of the Time Healer!"

Author's note: Sorry for the load of OCs here! I needed someone for this part. And I assure you; I will hold myself back a bit more as the story progresses!

Thanks for reading!