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!)

Author's note: Yet, another 2-week update! XD Maybe a little more than two weeks…

I apologize. About last week (more than eight days ago maybe, I don't really remember), my sister was home for her Spring break, so I spent most of my time with her… no matter how badly I wanted to write. Seriously, I mean it. I had to choose her or FanFiction… and I chose her in the end. And for the last few days, I was tired and busy. At the very least, I was able to update!

"Forever" will not keep us connected

Chapter 30

A sigh escaped Kanon's lips. She was standing by the opened window of the bedroom where Little Fukui was resting. She was alone. The other men had gone off to gather their thoughts about her matter by themselves. Although, Akio was just standing out in the hall. Kanon did not know where Souji and Yuma went.

As long as those two men did not kill each other then she believed they would be fine on their own.

It was just an hour ago when Yuma was speaking about a man named Kuromori Hibiki…

[…^…]

"Kuromori Hibiki?" Kanon squinted her eyes at Yuma, who still stay where he was. Souji was still leaning back against the wall while being seated and Akio remained by the door too. "Is he someone who may know how to help me?" Since that was the issue she wanted to solve.

He nodded, causing Souji to feel some hope for Kanon. Yuma went on to say, "However, Kuromori Hibiki and I have met only twice. I do not know where he is or what he is currently doing." Souji rolled his eyes at Yuma's report. "He has mentioned he meant your clan once before, Kanon. He even lived with them for the time being as a outside friend."

She widened her eyes directly at Yuma, slightly shock to know an Oni had wandered into her village before. Other than Haru herself. This fact seemed to have interest everyone else in the room too. "Go on," Kanon persisted with a nod.

Taking a breather, Yuma slowly notified, "Hibiki seemed to know a lot about your clan. He said he befriended your mother, the Time Healer. The two were rather close when Hibiki indicated it."

'My mom?' Kanon thought with no feelings attached. It was already in the past when she slightly recalled grieving for a woman in bed when Kanon was a little child.

"Although, Hibiki never gave me the details of your clan," Yuma stated, almost lowering his head with shame. "I believe he may be able to assist you, Kanon, for the reason is that his power may be prove useful."

Souji frowned, "In what way? Cut to the chase."

Ignoring the human with green eyes, Yuma gestured with his hand raised in midair. Kanon stared at him intensely and waited for him to continue. "The blood of my clan…" Yuma closed his hand, his fingers into his palm. "I believe it wishes to harm you, Kanon. As we know, my great-great-great grandfather's younger brother hated your great-great-great grandmother… My blood may have reacted at a fast rate because of your power. With that, finding Hibiki and have him cancel your power completely, but only temporary… may save your life and you may give birth safely."

"Will that really work?" Souji questioned, narrowing his eyes to the Oni. Now, Yuma looked over to him as he sensed the human was merely concerned. "You're not just making it up, are you?"

"I know I am correct about my blood reacting Kanon's healing power," Yuma confidently replied with his calm gaze.

Kanon clapped her hands once and seemed enlightened. "I think Yuma is on to something," she said. Souji and Akio gave her a long look. "Because something seemed to be blocking me and my power for some reason…"

"That may be a reaction from the hatred of my family to your bloodline," Yuma clarified since it made more sense. And he wanted to ask, "What else have you noticed that changed?"

She rubbed her chin and squinted her eyes. "…There's that black light…"

"Yeah, that one," Souji snapped his fingers as if he just remembered it.

Yuma looked to him and then at Kanon. "The black light," he also recalled it now. "…I do not think it was caused by me or my clan."

"Eh?" Kanon blinked at him, completely confused. "Why? How? Why?"

The silverhead grunted softly and thought carefully first. They stared at him and patiently waited. "It may have something to do with your brother, Ayumu," Yuma finally considered to give his judgment. The black light only reminded him of Kanon's brother after all.

"A-Ayumu?" Kanon's mouth dropped. How did her brother get caught up in this?

Yuma let out a sigh and looked to the side with his eyebrows furrowing. And then his eyes lifted back to make eye contact with Kanon. "Did something happen before your brother passed away?" he inquired for any clues.

She quickly shook her head, "Nothing. He…" She trailed off in her sentence because it bothered her now.

There was that moment when Ayumu was sending waves of the black light that night. It was absolutely gorgeous. Her memories forwarded and rewound back and forth to see if something was amiss at the time. The black light touched the ground and the sky… Kanon slowly recollected the traces of the black light. Then she remembered the black light touched her body during the moment she took Ayumu's hand.

The black light was emitting from his body and when it touched her… it disappeared into her once.

"Ahhh!" Kanon rushed up on her feet and her fists in front of her. Her sudden outburst made all of the men flinch at the same time. "That black light spread out, but there was a second of it that it went into me!"

"Hah?" Souji peered at her, puzzled at what she meant. "What does that have to do with anything, Kanon?"

She pouted and waved her arms around. "I don't know!" she told him. "But I feel it may be some kind of clue! …What the hell did Ayumu do to me?! Or maybe he didn't know, butttt…!"

Yuma boldly stated, "That honestly does not help us."

Kanon glared at him and Yuma closed his mouth. She pointed as she yelled, "I'm sure it means something! Think, Yuma, think!"

The Oni gave her a strange look and was utterly quiet. And Souji's chuckle broke that pause between all of them. "This probably means we've reached to an dead end of this conversation," Souji observed.

Akio nodded, "I believe so too." But he was still confused about all of this, yet he got the gist of what had been happening to these young people.

The only person who sighed loudly was Kanon. Because now they must find someone named Hibiki. Just how in the world could they find him? There was little time left since Kanon felt the child might take her life first.

[…^…]

Back to the present, Kanon poked her head out the window to touch the wind. But it felt dead and she frowned at how things were looking down all over again. Little Fukui was not awake yet, Souji and Yuma seemed to be love rivals at the moment, and Akio was unkind to her. Kanon wished Ayumu, Yumeko, and Saburo were here to brighten everything up.

But that wish would never come true. They were already gone for an eternity. And her heart just broke from thinking about it.

"I miss you guys so much," she mumbled, leaning her head against the window. Could she exchange the life of the child inside of her to get Ayumu and her friends back? If she could, she would.

Her hands ran down her belly and she closed her eyes as she rubbed it softly. It felt weird. Was there really a child in there? Was it a boy? Or a girl? She was curious and wished her power gave her the ability to know the gender. Maybe Little Fukui would have that power.

"Oh," Kanon opened her eyes and turned in place to look over to the child. 'That's right, he should have a power now,' she thought to herself. Being really curious, she stared at his body and tapped into her power once again and hoped to find what kind of power Little Fukui had.

However, her head snapped and she closed her eyes and touched her head.

"Gosh, damn it," she cursed, opening one of her eyes. It must be the Kuromori's curse interfering with her again. It was really annoying and inconvenient. 'Guess I'll check what power Little Fukui have later,' she decided, leaning back against the wall. Then she slid down and sat down.

There was silence, although the voices of other people in the inn and outside were heard. She could not make out the words, so she thought back about the child inside of her.

'If I had a girl… I wonder if Little Fukui would fall in love with her,' Kanon grinned at the thinking.

Before she knew it, she began to imagine the future alone in the room and wondered how it would be like.

[…^…]

Without realizing the strange darkness around him, Sanosuke was fighting through an army of Hakuouki, running and panting all at the same time with his spear in hand. His faceless friends were fighting in the distant and Sanosuke kept his concerned eyes on them. Arrows pierced through Heisuke and Shinpachi and blood rose into the dark red sky.

Sanosuke wanted to shout out to their backs facing him, but there was only silence. Before the blade of the katana swung across his face, he heard Hajime's voice shouting, "Sano!"

"Hey, wake up, Harada!" Kyou told him as if Sanosuke would fall off the edge of a cliff.

Someone smacked Sanosuke's in the head, causing him to open his eyes and staring at the blue sky. However, Hajime and Kyou closed in to look at Sanosuke. Both seemed slightly worried and Sanosuke breathed as his heart raced for a second.

"…What is it?" Sanosuke questioned weakly and moved to get up. His head ached and he touched it to stop the pain somehow.

Hajime leaned away and sat on his ankles on the dirty ground. "Are you all right, Sano?" he asked instead. Sanosuke glanced to him and then stared at the ground to collect what was going on just now. "You did not wake when I shook you."

"And you're sweating," Kyou noted. He had moved to stand up on his feet and folded his arms to his chest. He was scowling too since Sanosuke still seemed absentminded, who stared at his right hand.

As for Kyuuju, he quietly stood at a distance with his eyes on the three men.

Sanosuke finally blinked and remembered the dream he had. 'What was that all about?' Sanosuke furrowed his eyebrows. He never had a nightmare like that one before. It also felt too real.

"We probably tried to wake you up for an hour too, Harada," Kyou frowned at Sanosuke's silence.

"An hour?" Sanosuke now looked up at him, fazed. "Seriously?"

"Yes," Hajime answered rather calmly. "You were completely as still as a statue."

Sanosuke gave all of the men strange looks. "Uh…" he had no idea what to say. Maybe it was nothing to be distressed about. A dream was just a dream. "Sorry, maybe I was simply really tired," Sanosuke now smirked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh huh, sure," Kyou rolled his eyes. If only Sanosuke saw himself, Kyou was certain it would be worrisome for him too. Turning to face Kyuuju, Kyou decided, "Since Harada is up, I'm going to go ahead and make sure the road is clear."

As Kyuuju nodded firmly, Kyou leaped and disappeared in an instant. Sanosuke gave Hajime a questioning look in the eye, "Wait, what?"

Hajime explained, "You and I are injured. For those reasons, Shiranui offered to make a path for us to travel with no trouble."

"Ohhh," Sanosuke chuckled, but more to himself. "How nice of him. He's been showing such a caring side, lately, hasn't he?" Of course Sanosuke would see it.

Rather not respond, Hajime looked away to check their surroundings. However, there was nothing to be cautious of, so he remained quiet and kept his eyes elsewhere. 'Are the others safe?' Hajime thought to himself. And he was distraught for their well-being.

[…^…]

In another town, Ren walked inside of an inn with a black tray of two plates of riceballs and two cups of hot tea on his left palm. It had been some time ever since he and Kosuzu brought the unconscious Ryunosuke here. Even a nice doctor temporary treated Ryunosuke's wound with free of charge. Now, they were just waiting for him to wake up before moving on to head for Edo.

Currently, Ren made it on the second floor. He strolled through the hall and took his time. Until he heard Kosuzu shouting for Ryunosuke's name, Ren dashed while being careful with the tray he still held.

Sliding the door opened all the way, Ren looked into the room. Kosuzu was trying to shake Ryunosuke awake, who was grumbling with pain and his eyes completely shut tight. "What's wrong?" Ren entered the room and quickly closing the door behind him.

Kosuzu did not desire to use her super strength to get Ryunosuke to wake up. He had sweats on his forehead and his fingers claws the floor. "I-I don't know," she told Ren, glancing to him with a concerned expression. "He suddenly started to—"

She was cut off when Ryunosuke mumbled cursing words. Ren lowered the tray on the ground, away from them, and he moved over to the futon where the couple was. When he was closer, he heard Ryunosuke trying to call Kosuzu's name in his sleep. "Maybe he's having a nightmare?" Ren thought out loud.

Just as Ryunosuke's arm threw back harshly, Ren slightly blocked the arm so it would not hit Kosuzu's face. She raised her hand to her chin as her body was shaking with fear. "How can a nightmare do something like this?" she inquired. For it seemed to be too extreme for a single nightmare. She had never witness anything like this before either.

Casually, Ren suggested, "Did you try to hit him?" And he said it almost innocently as if it was a normal thing to do.

She lightly blushed with embarrassment, "He is still injured." Just after that, Ren raised his right fist and punched to Ryunosuke's chest. "Ren-san!"

Loudly, Ryunosuke coughed and his eyes were opened widely the second he sat up from the futon. He winced as Ren went to reach for the tray. "W-wha…?!" Ryunosuke gave his surroundings a quick look, as if he was searching.

"Ryunosuke!" Kosuzu smiled with relief, but still disapprove of Ren's way. The bluehead looked right at her and she moved closer to him. Before she could ask if he was well, Ryunosuke had taken her wrist and pulled her into an embrace. She was shocked as she felt his arms trembling. "Ryu—"

"You're… all right," he softly murmured. He hugged tighter and let out a shaken sigh. Her arms locked under his embrace and she could not find words to understand what was going through his mind.

"Hey, hey, I'm still here," Ren smirked at their closeness. Kosuzu blushed and gently tried to push Ryunosuke away. She did so rather easily because of her power, causing Ryunosuke to blink and coming back to reality. And Ryunosuke turned his head to regard Ren. "Yo."

Ryunosuke recognized the black eye patched guy and pointed. "Why are you here?" he questioned. But more importantly, where was this place?

"Uhhh," Ren glanced to Kosuzu for her to explain.

However, she insisted on asking about Ryunosuke's strange condition. "Ryunosuke, were you having a bad dream?"

His eyes fixed to her and he seemed hesitant. "Y-Yeah… but it was nothing," he replied. "It was… just a dream." Kosuzu slowly narrowed his eyes and he knew right away she was still worried. "Really, just a simple dream!"

Ren quietly smirked as the two were still at it. And he began to feel envious. 'They're so lucky to have each other,' Ren thought to himself. He wished he had someone to care for too. Just seconds later, Ren interrupted their staring contest, "Eat up, fearless lovers. We have to start moving as soon as we can, remember?"

"And just who are you?" Ryunosuke demanded as he snapped his head to the purplehead. Now that he thought about where they were, he wondered about of his friends.

Taking one of the cups filled with tea, Ren offered it to Kosuzu first. "We can replenish our energy while we help Ryunosuke catch up with our plan, Kosuzu." She nodded in agreement as she took the cup into her hands.

"Why are you calling me by my first name?" Ryunosuke raised his voice. "And don't call Kosuzu so lightly!"

Really, recently people have been doing that. Was that the trend now? To call people by their first names?

[…^…]

Inside an unmoving black carriage, Kuroro was taking his nap comfortably. His body as laid on his right side and his head on his arms. Then slowly, he opened his eyes when he heard footsteps moving and stopping nearby. Then he listened.

"Lady Haru, it would appear Ryunosuke is conscious now." The voice belonged to the young woman dressed in yellow kimono.

Kuroro tapped into their conversation since a part of Haru's power was controlling him in some way too. Haru had said, 'Good. As long as he's alive.'

Then another girl outside cheerfully suggested, "Can't we just guide them here ourselves, Lady Haru?" She was the other young woman dressed in pink from before. "We need Ryunosuke's power!"

"Momoko," the voice of the first young woman sighed. "You know that Kosuzu and Ren know our faces. We shouldn't get close to them."

"I know, but still," Momoko's voice complained. Kuroro sat up and leaned back against the carriage. "We can't wait any longer than twenty more days. We have to start now before we—"

Haru's voice interrupted with a chuckle, 'Just be more patient. You and Kiko still have time.'

"Aw, but…" Momoko whined. "Lady Haru, you…"

The three of the young women continued their little conversation whereas Kuroro covered his face with his hand. And felt frustrated. 'I want all of this to be over with,' he calmly wished. Time was running short and he worried for those who were affected by curse of the Time Healer's clan.

Outside the carriage, Kiko stood to face the south. They had stopped talking and Kiko used this chance to use her power. Closing her eyes as it glowed yellow in that second, she made her sight go beyond the horizon. She saw trees, lakes, paths, people, and houses. And then her sight captured Kanon in the inn that she was in.

"Nothing is happening ever since Yuma told Kanon about Kuroro," Kiko confirmed.

Momoko blinked and wanted to use her power as well. Covering her ears with both hands, her pink eyes glowed dimly and she used her hearing ability to where Kanon previously was. "…Oh, sounds like that yummy Souji guy returned to the inn too," Momoko noted as she beamed. "Lady Haru, should we continue to keep our eyes and ears opened?"

'It's fine, everything is pretty much set into motion,' Haru told them. Slightly, her own voice in their minds filled with some discomfort. 'Thank you, Kiko, Momoko. Cease from using your powers too often.'

"Yes, Lady Haru," both young women replied. Kiko opened her eyes and it stopped glowing. Momoko removed her hands from her ears and smiled to the other girl with yellow eyes.

'Haru,' Kuroro's voice now came to their minds. 'There's something I must request of you.'

'And what is that?' she asked indifferently. Whatever it was, she had complete trust in him and respected his decisions.

The boy with emotionless red eyes stared at his left hand that rose in midair. "Allow me to meet Yuma to give him a warning in person," Kuroro stated, keeping a resolve in mind. "And have him realize there is no such alternative to save the child of the Time Healer."

In this way, perhaps all hope would be abandon for Kanon and the people she met. And it would be to both Kuroro and Haru's advantage. For the ending had already been decided.

Thanks for reading!