Love Hurts 5 Ways (OUTDATED STORY)

by Aloubell

This is an outdated story and the beta version for the current Destiny Song series. The story premise is generally the same, but in this beta version, things just kind of happen without much of a plan. I'm keeping it on this site as a record of what used to be. Please check out "Destiny Song" if you want a more coherent story. Thank you!

31. When One Door Closes

ATTENTION READERS: This is the Beta version of LH5W, if you want to read the official, updated version of the story, you'll have to go over to DeviantArt. com and head on over to my page. My username is Aloubell. You can also get there by going to my fanfiction. net profile which provides a link over there.
In any case, this Beta version is basically the rough draft of LH5W, my first attempt at it. Much of the plot points from this version will be the same in the official version, but there are significant and consistent characterization changes, a few (but very important) plot differences, expansion of past ideas, and overall better quality in storytelling.

All of this will be done over on DeviantArt. I no longer will write the story in traditional prose nor submit/update it here to fanfiction. net. The Beta version will remain here, just know that it isn't the 100% official story.
The official version will be written in a lazy prose mixed with play-writing elements (you'll get what I mean when you see it).
This is the new format for the story from now on.
So please head on over there if you're interested in updates to the story! Thank you for stopping by =D

-Aloe

PLEASE NOTE: The official version is being written somewhat out of order. The official version will start on chapter 46, the place where the Beta version left off. The official version will go on to complete the last chapters of Season 2. Once those are done, I will redo the story over again from Chapter 1 which will be the official version.

Having said that, if you choose to continue on reading, I hope you enjoy the Beta version and look forward to the official!

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Genrou's 3rd POV~

Trying to hold back tears, wave upon wave of disbelief and dread rushed throughout Genrou as he stared into the lifeless crimson eyes of his immobile friend. As she lied on the ground, face up, he deeply hoped that he would see a twitch—any tiny bit of movement that signified that she was still alive. But there was nothing.

It was supposed to be a happy time. They had defeated that little ring-master brat, and probably bought their ticket out of the maze. But how could things turn out so wrong?

"Aki, stop playin' around—this isn't funny!" He bared his fangs in anger, hoping to get a reaction out of her. "There is no way that yer dyin' on me. Dammit Aki! Say somethin'!" How the hell could this be happenin' to me again? He shook his head, trying to get the possibility of his companion's death out of his head. She wouldn't allow this to happen.The events unfolding then and there reminded the flame-haired bandit all too well about the tragic passing of his friend Reirei. She too was helping him out with something dangerous, trying to go up against forces that none of them should have tampered with. But being the little reckless girl that she was, she went off, thinking that she could change the tide of it all. Right when they thought that they were in the clear, Reirei gave her life so that Genrou could win and survive.

After they met (and after a whole bunch of ugliness that was exchanged in the form of words), Aki had agreed to help him out on finding the cure for Hakurou's illness.

"Let me come with you." She told him.

Then Genrou asked her, "Why would I want to travel around with the likes of you?"

Using her usual snarky tone, she explained herself. "Well…let's start with the fact that we are both looking for something. Since there is strength in numbers, it wouldn't be all that bad of an idea. And it wouldn't be for a long time, just…temporary." And of course, she installed a bit of confidence into her argument. "And I wouldn't be holding you down—I can handle myself. And if you're worry is about you looking less macho with me around, don't worry—I'm plenty tough and not girly in any way. You saw what I did to that building back there."

It was supposed to be a simple operation: get the flower and disband. In theory, the whole plan seemed quite simple—not strings attached. And with the combined efforts of him and two magic users, things should have been accomplished a lot faster. It really shouldn't have turned out like the way it had. None of them expected things to actually be difficult and a risk to their lives…

Genrou still wasn't sure about what her motives were for wanting to come along—she mentioned how they were both searching for something—but what was she looking for? It didn't matter to him. Not anymore. The point was that she was willing to help out a stranger—a stranger that she had a mysterious bond to, but a stranger nonetheless—while enduring some sort of internal battle that neither he or Chichiri knew about. But he could feel it, no matter how strong she seemed on the outside. It was weird that that was how things went, but there was no point in fighting it.

But because of him and his stupid mission, Aki may have gotten herself killed while trying to complete the bandit's dirty work.

Boy did Genrou feel pretty damn low.

"Chichiri! Why're you just sittin' there? Do somethin'!" He ordered the sullen, blue-haired monk.

"I…" He spoke in a somewhat low voice. "I never studied any healing spells, ya know? So I'm afraid, that I probably won't be of really good use here—"

"Don't give me that!" Genrou roared. Hovering over the woman, he took hold of her shoulders and started to violently shake her, foolishly thinking that that was all it would take to wake her up. "You have to wake up! Come on! Wake up!"

Chichiri placed his hands over the bandits', giving him the best stern look that he could manage with that fox-like face of his. "Genrou, you have to stop! Shaking her won't do anything."

"It's better than nothin'! At least I'm tryin' somethin' instead o' just sittin' there feelin' sorry an' thinkin' that nothin' could be done!"

The monk sighed, staying calm while trying not to argue with his younger consort. "You just don't understand." Lightly pushing the bandit away, Aki's upper body was gently lowered back onto the ground, still undisturbed. Taking her wrist, Chichiri pressed two fingers against her skin, just under her palm. A slight gleam of hope washed over his features, only to be replaced with one of mild dread. "Her pulse is getting weaker…I only detected very few heartbeats, and they were far, far apart from each other." His head sunk lower as he released her wrist. "Her life force has almost completely dissipated. I'm sorry to say that…" Turning his head, Chichiri's voice started to strain. "She probably only has a few minutes, if that."

Reaching his arm over Aki's body, the distraught bandit took hold of Chichiri's collar, forcing him to look directly into the blazing eyes of Genrou's resentment. "If she still has a pulse er a life force, then she can be saved. So you better do somethin' before I make ya do somethin'…"

"Genrou, I told you—" Seeing the determination in his fiery-haired companion's features, a flicker of optimism flushed through the monk as a plethora of ideas raced through his head. He must have known that giving up would have been the wrong way to go. Chichiri knew that Genrou was right: as long as there is a small glimmer of hope, then it would be a waste to just throw in the towel—Aki deserved at least that. "Alright, I guess I'll give it a shot, ya know?" Genrou's dedication to saving the girl was contagious—Chichiri didn't want her to die either.

With his grip loosening, Genrou's expression softened, switching back to concerned rather that full of rage. "So what are we gonna do?"

The monk crossed his arms and legs as he searched his thoughts. "It's a long shot, but I think I have an idea, ya know?" He looked up into his companion's amber eyes. "But it will involve collaboration between the both of us—and hopefully Aki if she's still in there."

"She is." Genrou said with a matter-of-fact tone. "Tell me what to do." He didn't know what to expect, but he was damn sure that he would be willing to do almost anything to make sure that history wouldn't repeat itself.

"Well considering you two have a bond, I'll need you to use that in order to call her back before she's too far gone. Reach out for her, ya know?"

For some strange reason, Chichiri's plan made Genrou blush a bit as he gave the bandit a baffled look. "How the hell do ya expect me ta do that?" Something about the monk's words made Genrou extremely wary.

"Well…you could kiss her, ya know?"

With his face becoming even more red, a grimace formed as he looked from Aki to the ground on the side of her. "A-A-Any other suggestions?"

Chichiri gave a slight laugh, causing Genrou's eyebrow to cock up. "I didn't honestly expect you to do that—you can just hold her hand, ya know?"

"Well why didn't ya say that in the first place?" He erupted, trying to calm down enough to make the flushness of his face disperse. The very idea of even having to kiss the woman made him feel uncomfortable, especially after the whole mess they had just went through while being controlled by that little kid. If his and Aki's will weren't so strong he wouldn't have gotten away with just merely kissing her on the forehead—even that memory made his body temperature rise a bit.

Rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, a small smile still remained on the blue-haired man's lips. "Sorry, just trying to use your reactions to lighten the mood a bit, ya know?"

The bandit gritted his teeth. "Now is not the time you damn-side-trackin' monk!" Clenching his fists, Genrou failed to see how he could honestly be joking around at a time like that. They were trying to prevent their friend from dying, so continuing to stall and test the fates of the universe could prove disastrous. Time probably wasn't on their side so they couldn't afford to delay any longer.

"Okay, okay!" Chichiri cleared his throat, attempting to become serious again. "But really, I'll need you to hold her hand—that would be a good way to exchange your energies, ya know? I'm gonna need you to really focus."

Hesitating a bit, Genrou started at Aki's soft, pale hand. On any other occasion, such a sentimental gesture would probably make him want to punch himself—or tempt Aki to do it. But if this would save her life, then he would so what needed to be done. Taking hold of her hand, he noticed even more of her limpness—there was absolutely no resistance when taking a part of her into his possession. Feelings of sadness and hopelessness temporarily squeezed his heart once again as he was plagued with the thought of losing her. But just like before, he shook it off, knowing full well that having doubts wouldn't help the situation at all.

"So what are you gonna do in the mean time?" He asked the monk.

"I'm going to try and get her breathing again, ya know?" With shaky hands, Chichiri reached up for his face, squeezing a bit on the sides. Right as Genrou was about to ask what he was doing, his eyes automatically widened when he saw his friend's face come off! Underneath was a similar, yet different face with one serious eye with red-brown irises while the other had a deep scar over it, forcing it closed. Genrou just sat there, mouth wide open as he had his finger pointing at the mysterious phenomenon he knew as Chichiri. His eyes continuously switched from the apparent mask to the real face. What the f%&$ing hell? "With us working at the same time, this should prove to be effective." Noticing how the atmosphere changed a bit, Chichiri looked up at him. "What is it?" The monk already seemed to know what the bandit wanted to ask since he was practically shooting daggers at him with his one sharp crimson eye that seemed to say "I dare you to ask me about my face. Go on punk. I. Dare. You."

Genrou's eyes just seemed to trail off in another direction steadily as he said, "Oh nothing…" Mentally slapping himself out of his trance, he added, "Let's just do this."

Chichiri nodded. He put the heel of his hand on Aki's chest, then covered it with his other hand, interlacing his fingers. Without further instruction, he began to compress the chest, over and over, trying to get her lungs to react.

As he held Aki's hand, Genrou found how unbelievably hard it was to concentrate and do what Chichiri had asked of him. He knew that he had to stay strong for her sake, but…the feelings he was having were absolutely horrible. The thought of this turning out exactly how it had with Reirei caused him to feel nauseous—his heart beat intensely in his chest. All o' this is wrong! No one was supposed ta get hurt—not this bad anyway. Why did things turn out like this? Focusing at this point was virtually impossible, no matter how much he wanted to.

Closing his eyes tight, Genrou started to send powerful thoughts through his mind. You might be a bit too sarcastic, as well as too serious at times, and are as stubborn as the hardest brick wall… Once again, the incredible urge to cry was there, but he had to stay strong. But dammit, you're not weak Aki! You're the toughest woman I have ever met.

After about thirty compressions, Chichiri tilted her head as her chin lifted, making her mouth open slightly. With no hesitation, he pinched her nose and lowered his face onto hers, pressing their lips together.

An unexplainable sting conflicted Genrou as he watched the sight. However seeing her chest rise up and down from the transferred air, he knew that what had to be done was necessary to revive her.

Shaking his head, he put the peculiar feelings at the back of his brain, trying to focus. Genrou watched as Chichiri brought himself back up, starting with the chest compressions once more.

Come on Aki. Ya can't let somethin' like bein' electrocuted do you in. His thoughts suddenly exploded inside his head as a loud, emotional shout. WE'RE FRIENDS DAMMIT AND AS A MAN I'M NOT GONNA ALLOW YOU TA JUST GIVE UP!

…

…

…

Almost immediately, Aki's hand squeezed, sending a pleasantly familiar jolt coursing through his body. Simultaneously, her eyes regained their life as she took a deep breath.

---

Aki's POV~

Feeling a bucket of air enter my lungs all of a sudden, continuous deep inhales and exhales persisted, allowing me to become familiar with the reflex of breathing once more. I blinked a few times as my blurry vision attempted to settle and become clearer. Nothing really processed through my brain, and I couldn't really feel my body, not immediately anyway, so my only real perception to the world around me was the sound of my heavy breathing.

My heavy breathing…For some reason, the perfectly normal idea seemed so surreal.

What happened to me?

I really couldn't remember anything that happened—all I knew was that I couldn't move and that…two people were staring at me. Who are they?

When my eyesight finally improved, I found myself looking into the concerned, yet at the same time relieved faces of an amber eyed, flame haired bandit and a blue-haired, bang-defying gravity monk whose mask was off for some odd reason.

"Ch-Chichiri…Genrou…wha-what's…up?" I asked weakly. Why are they staring at me like that?

"Aki…" Genrou's words seemed to have caught up in his throat considering his words trailed off as he peeled his eyes away from mine, staring at the ground instead.

Giving up on trying deciphering his awkwardness, I turned my attention to my other, probably more audible friend…who seemed to have put back on his mask before I even had the opportunity to blink or comment about it. Umm…okay?

He must have noticed my looking at him and as he asked, "What is it?"

I shook my head, closing my eyes to try and get my thoughts in order. It confused me as to why he had his mask off, but it was usually for a good reason, so I didn't bother to ask. If he wanted to tell me, he would—I knew that the topic regarding his true face and that mask was a sensitive subject, so I wouldn't press on it.

Trying to avoid eye contact with me, Genrou looked to Chichiri. "So tell me, with that mask of yers, how did'ja—"

"How are you feeling Aki? You had us really worried, ya know?" You could tell that he instantly changed the subject, making me give a small smile before it fell once again.

"Well, honestly," I sighed and chuckled bitterly. "I've been better." Without warning, pieces of memories came spiraling through my consciousness. There was a fight…Being paralyzed, controlled by some punk, merciless kid…I was…electrocuted? The rest of the details were still hazy—it gave me a severe headache trying to recollect everything, but I was pretty sure that I got the gist of what occurred previously. Which of course prompted me to immediately ask (yelling out),"Did we win?"

Finally speaking directly to me, Genrou started out with scolding. "Do ya know how stupid it was to heal me like that? Ya could have used that energy ta save yerself insteada me ya idiot! Puttin' yer life in danger like that wasn't worth it!"

Feeling the urge to punch him with his offensive statements, I thought, he doesn't talk to me this whole time and this is what he comes up with? What a jerk! "That didn't really answer my question you dope. Besides," My eyes trailed up to the sky as a flash of that ring-master's face flashed into my brain. "He would have killed me off regardless of the things I did or said as long as I refused to cooperate." I probably just speeded up the process. Calming down from my completely justified annoyance at Genrou, I began to realize just what those two had gone through after my electrocution—recalling their extremely worried faces when I regained consciousness, they must have went through a lot for my sake. It was a weird feeling, one I wasn't used to…knowing that someone worried about me so much. And I could feel it radiating off of Genrou, a mixture of remorse and distress, our bond allowing me to empathize with his feelings. Part of me was starting to feel guilty for snapping at him the way I had (the other half not so much since he so rudely lectured me). The only sad thing was that since I wasn't familiar with their feelings towards me, I didn't know the proper way to react to it all. Even though it had happened back in the other worlds with the friends I had left behind, it was still a foreign concept for me as a person. For most of my life, people never cared about me—not with the dark ring plaguing my life. All I had was Kajou—sincere feelings from anyone other than her either seemed wrong or just plain unnatural.

But these guys…they could have just left me to die—or stay dead—and went on without me, going on with their lives. It was a similar practice that I had to go through when switching worlds. In that aspect, fighting it and looking back was virtually pointless for me—I had agreed to make sacrifices to achieve my wish after all. Genrou and Chichiri didn't accept it though…

I wonder what it all means…

Searching the eyes of both of my companions, I smiled and said, "Thanks you guys… for bringing me back." Don't know if I was completely gone, but still…Before giving them a chance to respond, the object of our mission came to mind. I instantly shot my upper-body up. "You didn't use the Sacred Blood Lily on me did you?" Extreme aches of pain shot through my body with my sudden, unprepared movement. So apparently my muscles had relaxed so much after the incident that now I was feeling every ounce of pain that was dealt to me from the battle—literally everything hurt like a bitch. It felt like my whole being was being crushed while some jerk-ish force was twisting my bones as if they were made of silly putty (if they were actually made of silly putty, then I seriously think that I wouldn't be in so much damn discomfort ). I'm starting to think that having a fully numb body wasn't such a bad idea…God dammit…I seriously hate the universe right now…With the weight of the world pushing my body back (i.e. gravity…a.k.a. bitch number 23), I expected to feel the unbelievable agony from my sore back hitting the cold, hard ground. But instead, I landed in the secure arms of Chichiri as he smiled brightly at me, his playful features lightening my mood a bit.

"You don't have to worry Aki, the flower didn't even show up yet, ya know?"

"Yeah, and we probably wouldn't go wastin' it on you anyway," Genrou sourly chimed in. On an impulse, Chichiri shot him a look that shot through the bandit like a laser. He chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head and looked away. "It was a joke…" I swear if I wasn't convinced that he was my friend, then I would have obliterated him by now for those crude jokes of his…

"Well, it's good to hear that you guys didn't use it—otherwise I would have killed you for wasting the one thing we've been fighting for on the likes of me."

Through gritted teeth, Genrou spoke in a low tone, probably hoping that neither of us would hear. "That's a great way ta repay yer friends for savin' yer life." This time, I ended up glaring at him though sharpened eyes. Without even looking at me, you could tell that he felt the sting of the scowl. "You two are real chumps, ya know that?"

Having that said, our little group had a few seconds of silent awkwardness being exchanged. It was then that something came to my attention. "Hey Genrou, quick question: can you tell me why you are holding my hand?" His eyes suddenly widened in alarm as he looked down to inspect the problem. Not a second later, he threw my hand away from his just as another spark was exchanged—an apparent blush running across his face. In an effort to hide his embarrassment, the bandit quickly jumped up from his spot and walked off in some other direction without another word. My eyes followed him as best as they could as I wondered what exactly was up with him. Sure I was still curious as to why he was holding my hand in the first place, but I was slightly more concerned about why the hell he was acting so darn awkward around me. My brain was still a little too fried (no pun intended) to try and figure it out.

"So Aki," Chichiri began.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think that you'll be able to move on your own?"

Contemplating his question, the swift memory from my hasty—not to mention painful—move earlier came to my attention, making me respond with, "Not very well…" I sighed, feeling frustrated at how vulnerable I was at that moment. "Really, if I had another chance at that brat, I'd show him the true wrath of a woman's scorn." You could practically see the fire spewing from my mouth with that last statement.

A drop of sweat fell down the side of Chichiri's cheek as he slightly shrunk in comedic fear. "That sounds kinda scary, ya know?"

Genrou suddenly appeared from wherever he went with his arm extended down to me, my kunai being presented in his hand—handle out as he expected me to take it. Still the guy refused to really look at me directly, so the majority of his standing body was turned outward. Even with his face turned away from me, his flushed features had extended around even to his ears.

Looking at the kunai, I asked, "How did that even get all the way over there? I don't even remember taking it out." This must have been one of those details that I couldn't recall. If it was even possible, Genrou became even redder as he seemed to be fishing through something in his mind—a memory perhaps? He probably knew what had happened to me but didn't want to say. I wonder why.

Groaning in frustration, he kneeled down, grabbed my hand, and forced the kunai into my possession. "Just take it already!" He ordered, right as he pushed himself back up and faced his back to me while crossing his arms.

My eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Rude much?"Dude! Where the hell is that attitude of yours coming from?"

He scoffed and glanced back at me, looking out of the corner of his eye. "I don't have an attitude. I'm exactly how I always am."

"Okay, okay, I can see where this is going so I'm going to stop it right here, ya know?" Chichiri frantically spoke to the both of us. "Aki, Genrou is just happy to see that you're okay. He's just trying to find the proper way to express himself, ya know?" I shot him a skeptical look. "Well I never said that he was doing a good job, ya know?" Despite his words, it was hard to actually believe them. If Genrou were really worried about me, I doubted that he'd be acting like such an insensitive jerk. He couldn't have been concerned about me—he was probably just peeved about me wasting his time even more than I already had been doing. Perhaps I had been giving him too much credit earlier. Perhaps…he didn't care about me at all.

Well it doesn't matter to me.

Taking a look over at the flame-headed bandit, I showed a scowl. "You're wrong Chichiri. It makes no difference to him if I make it through this alive or not."

Genrou turned abruptly to face me, an expression of both hurt and anger flaring in his eyes. "Ya can't honestly believe that can you? I never said that I wanted you to die—I'd never say that!" He clenched his fist at me. "It scared me half ta death when ya wouldn't respond ta me." Lowering his arm, he started to calm down a bit as his words began to trail off. "I…I didn't…It's just that—you…" With the blush returning, he awkwardly brushed through his hair, his hand resting on the back of his neck as he looked away attempting to search for the right words. "Why do you women always have ta make things so damn difficult?" No you're wrong Genrou—you're the one who's making things difficult…why can't you just say what you want to say? You're kind of sending me mixed signals here.

With the unwanted continuation of uncomfortable silence and glances being exchanged, our attention all focused on one spot on the ground about two yards away from us. It seemed like something was sprouting at an astonishing rate! As confusion lied riddled on our faces, we were surprised to behold a glowing, light-green stem rising up from the soil. At the end of it was a large bud, awaiting for the right moment to reveal its hidden secrets. Anticipation riding the air, the bud suddenly opened up, blossoming into a larger than average lily with radiant red pedals, the inside near the core blending into an off-white color.

The three of us just continue to stare as the lily brings its own roots up from the ground, floating in the air as if by some mystic force. As if our little group were calling out to it, the luminescent plant levitated over into our direction. I was shocked to find that it had made its way to me as I lay in Chichiri's arms. So weakly, I extend my arms out, and take it mid-air, the perfectness of it never faltering with my touch. The silver veins branched all over my body seemed to spontaneously flicker the very moment the flower landed in my hands. There was no doubt in my mind that this had been the treasure we had been looking for this whole time—its healing abilities were so powerful that even its sensation on my skin gave me enough energy to sit up on my own (temporarily). Even a wave of uncharacteristic optimism shot through me given the things that were happening. But here it was…

The Sacred Blood Lily.

Still no words left any of our lips as we sat there completely dumbfounded by the marvel that lied in my hands.

But just like some magical switch that was flipped on, my two companions completely shifted the atmosphere as they practically leaped for joy.

"Hell yeah! We beat the shit outta this maze! We finally got the flower!" Genrou fist-pumped the air as he cackled with extreme happiness.

"I knew we could do it ya know?" In all of the excitement, Chichiri immediately got up from his spot (leaving me to almost fall back completely since I had no one to support myself on anymore) and went over to Genrou. They locked arms and began to do some odd dance where they skipped around in a circle with goofy smiled on their faces.

"I don't ever recall bein' this happy! I feel like I can do anything!" Genrou proclaimed. "I've never been so happy ta see a flower in all my life."

"You said it, ya know?"

Instead of being annoyed with losing my resting buddy, I smiled at their goofiness. Being who I was, I stayed relatively calm on the outside, while in reality, a mini-party complete with confetti, balloons, silly string, and a huge cake—as I bounced off the walls like a hyper little kid—went on in my head. Really, having that flower in our possession meant one of the biggest waves of relief I had ever felt in my entire life. Finally we can leave this awful maze for good.

Noticing how I was just sitting off by my lonesome, the two of them rushed towards me and hugged me tight, almost like we had just won the championships in some huge sport tournament. Victory had finally met us after our hardship—it was definitely something worth celebrating.

"The game is over Aki! We beat the maze at its own game!" You could tell that Genrou was so stuck in his enthusiastic high that he wasn't even aware that he was acting giddy and hugging me. My body was crying out to me in pain as they continued to stimulate my sore muscles with their hugs. But oddly, I didn't care so much about that or focus greatly on it. I was more concentrating on this new feeling. Never before had I worked so hard with others to achieve something so great—something that showed our endurance and significant efforts—truly working together like a team. It had always been me by myself—trying to get things done on my own. People didn't want to get near me, but it didn't matter as much to me because I at least knew that on my own, I could do the work perfectly—no flaws and no distractions…it was their loss. Things were different this time though, we had completed the task and I felt good about it. You could say that I felt very content with myself, even if things didn't unfold as perfectly as I would have preferred—the sense of accomplishment with teammates was there. And boy did I revel in it.

Plus that flower had excellent timing considering it completely broke the awkwardness between us. "You know," I began with my usual cynical tone, "it would be best for you to keep your mouth shut before the universe decides that we're not being modest enough to accept such a gift."

Almost immediately, the bandit ceased his flow of elation as he looked at me with a comically worried expression on his face. "There's no way. There's absolutely no way that it can be that cruel. Could it?"

Flashing him a teasing smile, I said, "You have no idea." This is me talking from past experience.

Without warning, the world around us seemed to just fade away—an updraft from the ground below lifting us slightly as everything turned to a blinding white. My whole being felt as if it were temporarily weightless, it was a different type of weightlessness that I induced with my energy when I flew. This one felt somewhat…surreal and disorienting yet at the same time I felt like I was finally being liberated.

After one simple blink, I realized how we were teleported back to a familiar spot. Up above, the sky was a cheery baby blue with wisps of white clouds that floated by—birds flying and chirping happily as they soared across. The clean, crisp, and fresh scent of the greenery around us aroused my senses along with the pleasing visual stimulation and traces of real nature. Nothing seemed genuine in that maze—it was almost like we were in some sort of dollhouse and everything was just made of plastic. Just sitting there in that spot we had started in almost made it seem as if nothing had really happened. But the impacts of everything were so real, there was absolutely no way in hell that what we had been through had just been a dream, or a very elaborate game of pretend.

In front of us stood the arch of trees that we had used in conjunction with a mysterious, universe formulated map in order to open the portal to the maze. For some reason, it seemed so long ago…Genrou, Chichiri, and I had just met—a feeling of tension surrounding our little group as the bandit and I exchanged hateful comments and glares. It didn't exactly help things very much when Chichiri used that binding spell on us. In the end, though, everything worked out—more or less.

And now the maze would be locked up again for another thousand years—waiting for its next set of victims to come along in search for the legendary flower.

God have mercy on their souls.

"Well, it seems like we're finally done with that adventure, ya know?" Chichiri stated.

Thank God,I thought.

Upon the teleportation, Genrou had long since realized that he was hugging us, and had already backed away, leaving me to be held up once again by Chichiri (at least somebody was considerate enough). Speaking of which, I attempted to shift my position, but found that moving was something that I'd have to suffer through until I could fully heal.

So I decided to speed up the healing process.

Closing my eyes, I casted a spell, "Blessed, humble hand of God. Breath of Mother Earth, I pray thee come before me, show your great compassion on my person and deliver me!" My body developed a gentle sheet of glittering, pale-green moving energy as I finished the chant with "Recovery." Some of the aches and pains felt like they just elevated off of my body, floating off into some space of nonexistence. Unfortunately, I was still so drained from everything that happened that I lacked the strength to completely finish the spell and heal myself fully. So the light faded and I ended up taking in a deep breath, only to let it out in exasperation.

Suddenly feeling drained, I leaned back a bit, panting from the loss of energy.

Genrou looked at me with a confused gaze on his face. "What the hell was that supposed ta do?"

"I was trying to heal myself." He flashed me an "it didn't look like it did much" look. So I continued with an explanation. "The healing spells I have aren't exactly the greatest things in the world considering they have drawbacks to them. The one I just casted on myself forces me to use my own energy times two—something I can't exactly use in plenty at this given moment. But believe me, some my muscles don't exactly feel like their being tortured anymore." I sighed again. "I'll have to keep on using this spell every time I get a boost of energy until I'm fully healed." What a drag. Damn you maze.

Walking over to me, Genrou squatted down to my height, took my arm, and wrapped it around his neck. Then he used his legs to push up, bringing me from the ground along with him as he supported my weight using his—my free hand continued to hold the still radiant Sacred Blood Lily. "Well it won't do ya any good to just sit there an' do nothin'. The best way ta get over bein' hurt like that is ta just walk it off!" Surprised, by his kind gesture, I didn't fail to process what he just said. I'm pretty sure that that's not the most accurate accusation. He had been yelling at me before, and now he was helping me up. Man did I wish that this guy would be a little more consistent.

Just as I was fishing around for what to say next, Chichiri spoke up with a surprising statement. "This has been a real blast, ya know? But I just recalled how there was somewhere I needed to be."

"What? So suddenly?" I asked. It actually never occurred to me that he would be the first one to leave the small group of ours.

He nodded, the playful smile on his face never faltering. "I'm afraid so." Walking over to me, he gently took the flower from my hand, and used some type of spell to encase it in a magical, light-pink bubble. Pressing down on it, the bubble, along with the flower, started to shrink, down to the size of one of those small, rubber bouncy balls that many kids are so enamored with. Huh that's actually pretty smart!

When he was finished with what he was doing, he held it out to Genrou, who stared at it for a few minutes, trying to figure out what had just happened (poor guy couldn't figure it out fast enough). With confusion still on his face, the bandit took the conveniently sized treasure and placed it in a pocket on the inside of his trench coat.

"We've worked so hard for that flower, ya know? So I figured that we—or more like you—should keep it safe until you need it, ya know?" He chuckled. "And I made it travel size for you!"

"Uhh…thanks Chichiri. Ya really helped out a lot and came through fer us." Genrou smiled, his fangs in full view. "Yer a real man's man."

Chichiri chuckled. "Thanks for the compliment!"

"But Chichiri," he looked over at me, "as I recall, you told me that you didn't have any agenda or prior engagements you had to deal with." I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion. "So what could have possibly popped up out of nowhere after we had just exited an inter-dimensional maze for who knows how long?" I mean, come on! It's not like he as AIM or text messaging—and I'm sure as hell that Facebook hasn't even been thought of yet.

Genrou gasped a bit when he processed my words. "Hey ya, that's true. Plus we just went through all of that crap back there. Yer just gonna go?"

Shrugging, the monk leaned on his golden staff almost as if he were trying to think of something. "Sometimes things are just weird like that, ya know?" He bowed to us. "I really am sorry to just get up and leave, but something really did come up, ya know?" I didn't exactly know how to feel about him just leaving like that. As somewhat embarrassing as it was to admit, I had sort of looked up to Chichiri as an older brother type, even if I didn't exactly know what it was like to have an older brother. But now as I thought about it, I realized that elevating him up that high on my relationship-o-meter probably wasn't for the best considering it would be harder for me to let go. Even though I had for the most part trained myself how to release someone from my life, much of the process was still very difficult to accommodate.

That's how things went in the world, however. And I just had to suck it up and deal with it.

Walking on the path ahead of us, the blue-haired man stopped short and turned around to face us one last time. "By the way Aki, there's something I've been meaning to ask you, ya know?"

My curiosity peaked, not knowing what to suspect from him. "What is it?"

"You're not from this world, correct?"

Both mine and Genrou's eyes widened with Chichiri's claim, but mostly likely widening for completely different reasons. My reason being that I thought he already knew that and didn't need confirmation. Genrou's reason probably being that, surprisingly, he had never caught on and was just now making sense of why I was so different than the average Universe of the Four Gods gal. Such a sad, sad boy he was.

Revealing a sly grin, I responded with, "Why no, no I'm not." For some reason, I felt as if I knew what he was going to ask next.

"Well then, could you possibly be the Priestess of Suzaku?" Knew it. All Genrou did was exchange glances between the monk and I, mouth gaping open as if he had been blown away by something.

"I can see how you'd assume that—a girl with foreign clothes who had descended from another world who was destined to save the land. Or something like that, correct?"

One of his eyebrows popped up. "Huh. So you're familiar with the legend?"

"Only bits and pieces of it—the emperor told me quite a bit." Most of the details are lost to me, though. Holding up my arms, elbows bent, I shrugged with fake indifference. "Seems like a real nice bedtime story if you ask me."

"Fascinating." Stroking his chin a few times, he persisted on (I honestly wondered how long I could string him on like that before giving him a straight answer) with a troubled look on his face. "But you never really answered the question, ya know?"

I decided to beat around the bush for a little while longer. "I don't know—are you a celestial warrior of Suzaku?"

He decided to play along as well. "That's a very good question, ya know? It would be much easier to answer your question if you answered mine first."

Touché.

Sure enough, I was getting somewhat bored and annoyed at this particular game of back-and-forth. We were getting nowhere at the rate we were going, and it could keep on going like that forever. "While I completely understand how you would think something like that, I'd have to admit that no, I am not the Priestess."

"Well why didn't'cha say so in the first place?" Genrou yelled out for no apparent reason.

Giving him a "well why are you so p'd off in the first place" look, I decided to not dignify that with an answer. Instead, I turned my attention back to the monk. "Now it's your turn. Are you a Suzaku Warrior?" I didn't know what prompted me to ask, but a legitimate answer would be nice to stifle my curiosity.

"Hmm…" He put his finger under his lower lip, feigning thought. "Maybe, maybe not, ya know?"

"Wait—what?" And with that pleasant statement, Chichiri took his cloak and concealed his body. In a few spins, the cloak shrunk more and more until it was completely gone, the wielding monk along with it.

His voice carries itself along with the wind, flowing past our ears. "I'll see you guys around~!"

Scanning the area around us, a slight hint of bitterness could be caught on my consciousness. That sneaky monk did that on purpose. Still, it felt kind of weird with him gone…

"What a weird guy," the bandit pointed out as he joined me in the scan.

With an "oh brother" expression riddled on my features, I retorted with, "Well you're not so normal yourself."

"Look who's talkin'!"

His harsher tone not fazing me, I concluded with, "So I guess we're all freaks then."

He smirked. "Looks like it," turning his head to face me, his smile turned more genuine. "But I think I prefer it that way. Things are more excitin' when things aren't exactly normal." I couldn't explain it, but seeing him smile like that seemed to make my stomach do a tiny flip—it was the oddest thing.

All of a sudden, my body became very cold as an outrageous wave of negative emotions flourished throughout my being. There was a horrible sensation at the pit of my gut as an ominous cloud of despair manifested in my mind—the sheer density of it making me want to break down and cry. All other thoughts from just a few seconds before were glossed over as a violent rush of every horrible emotion and memory completely overwhelmed me. I continuously gasped for air as I felt that I was literally sinking into a deep ocean of despair. Blood rushing to my head, a creeping blackness started to obstruct my vision, blocking off the rays from the sun I hadn't seen for so long due to the simulated continuous evening of the maze. My heart was directly being attacked—with every beat, a surge of emotional pain pumped through my veins instead of blood, draining all warmth from my being. With panic stirring up inside of me, I wanted to scream out. I had just made it out of a dark unfriendly place, why was I being pulled into another one? Why couldn't I experience the light?

Right when I thought that things couldn't get any worse, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. All I knew was that I wanted out—like I had never wanted out of anything before (even the maze seemed more inviting than wherever I had been flung into). When I started to believe that I had been damned into eternal darkness, my eyes started to adjust, and before I knew it, I realized that I wasn't in pitch-blackness. In fact, it was like the abyss I was in was surrounded by dense walls of black and a dark, metallic-looking color that seemed to thickly flow like magma. And yet, it felt like I was standing on something solid.

How peculiar.

The thing that caught my eye the most was that, all around me, but a good distance away, I could see how I was at the center of a large, electric-like energy that surged all around. Tilting my head upwards, I noticed how a separate ring was around the same space, but was vertical instead of the other one which was horizontal. At two points, the two rings intersected, probably with a strong bond no doubt.

Still feeling an unpleasant chill, I instinctively wrapped my arms around myself. Part of me sort of wanted to believe that Shadow Maidens were lurking around, but something about it seemed…off.

"Taiitsukun! Taiitsukun!" I called out, figuring that this was all of the old woman's doing. "Taiitsukun! If you're the one who brought me here, then take me away already! Just kill the suspense—"

"Taiitsukun isn't here Akimoto…" A feminine and high-pitched chilling voice came from behind me , making me reluctant to turn around. However my more defensive side prompted me to jump around, ready to cast whatever spell I needed. And floating there in front of me where two sharp eyes, almost cat-like, one a turquoise-ish color and the other, a dark off-orange. What the?What I didn't expect was for the pair of eyes to start giggling. "Oh I'm sorry! I just can't do it! Staying that serious is such a drag! Honestly, that isn't my style." Much to my relief, I was finding that the eyes actually belonged to somebody—more like some girl. The body of a small girl, maybe around seven years old, began to manifest. She had extremely pale skin, almost as if she had never seen sunlight before—her two different eye colors more prominently standing out. Her hair was extremely long and wavy, flowing all the way past her knees—the shade seemed almost black, but faint sheens showed how it was actually a very dark magenta. She wore an elegant gothic dress that was predominately black, but had some white frills on her sleeves and skirt lining.

You'd expect such a child to have a sweet and innocent tone to her voice, when in actuality, she sounded pretty condescending and snobbish. The question was if those were her actual personality traits. I guess I'll find out. "Don't worry! I know that you prefer to be called 'Aki'—I was just tryin' to sound dramatic." All I could do was just stand there, confused, as I tried to make sense of what was going on. So far…nothing.

The little girl snapped her fingers, and in a cloud of smoke emerged a white, concrete throne-like seat—her tiny body only occupying a small portion of it as she lied down sideways with her legs just barely dangling off the armrest. She stretched with a satisfied smile on her face. "You have no idea how great it is to finally be awake again! I absolutely hated how that maze sealed me up with its nasty," she shuddered, "sacred powers, yuck!" Battering her long eyelashes at me, she added, "I knew that you'd make it out somehow—'cause you're awesome like that Aki!" She sighed with relief. "And now we can be together again!"

What? Together again? I don't even know who this girl is!

"Umm…who're—" In the blink of an eye, she was found with her arms wrapped around me in a hug, my arms bound in as well. You have no idea how uncomfortable I was feeling at that very moment. Some little girl is hugging me…Did I have a daughter that I don't know about? Or maybe my parents had another kid that I don't know about? I think I'd remember someone with her eyes and uber clinginess. Really, the way this girl hung onto me but Miaka's clinginess to shame.

Sneering, she continued to speak. "Hey Aki, where you lonely without me? I just felt so awful leaving you with those two unnecessary idiots." Is she talking about Genrou and Chichiri?

Yet, I felt as if I had heard her voice somewhere before, but I couldn't exactly place where. "Okay little girl, I've had enough of this, so start talking. Who are you?"

Her distinct eyes widening for a split second, she resorted to giving that chilly giggle from before. "Oh Aki, I've been with you for nearly your whole life." The next statement that came from her lips had transformed her voice, making it deeper, more sinister and into one I had come to know way too well. "Do you recognize me now?"

I was startled, completely stunned from the realization. "You're the voice—the female voice that has been talking to me this entire time."

"I'm much more than that." She grinned as her voice returned back to normal. "I'm the dark ring."

---

Genrou's 3rd POV

"Aki? Aki!" Genrou circled the woman who suddenly turned stiff, her previously sore body standing up on its own as she stood unresponsive to the world. "What's wrong with ya?" I can't believe all of the crap that happens to this chick. Someone obviously hates her. Looking into her eyes to see where she was staring off at, he was shocked to find that her eyes had turned completely black—not just her irises, the normally white space as well. His attention then alarmingly switched to the still new silver lines dispersed all over her body. They were starting to fade away, her smooth fair skin returning to its original, non-branched state.

What's goin' on? Some sort of dark force covered her completely, like a fog that was exclusive only to her. Most of it was beginning to concentrate at her mid-section, forming some sort of ring around her.

That thing from before…it's comin' back?

The bandit looked up at her in concern, not knowing what he could do for her. "C'mon Aki, wherever yer stuck at, you can make it back out!"

---

Aki's POV

The attempt to fully process—more like accept—her words proved to pretty much be a failure on my part. "What do you mean that you're the dark ring? You're just a little girl! And besides that, I thought that it was gone!" From the moment I took a step into that maze, I was relieved to find that the dark ring was finally gone—if anything, that was the one and only thing I was grateful to the maze for. Sure, some of the important decisions I had were a tad difficult to make since there was nothing there pointing me in a direction, but I was starting to feel that I could finally make my own decisions, like I was free from something—or in this case someone—dominating my life. And now I was finding out that not only was the woman's voice and the ring one and the same, but they were both a little girl (and what was up with all of the little kids that were popping up lately?)

She shook her head with an amused grin on her premature face. "Nope not gone, more like sleeping—or sealed I suppose." Releasing one of her arms from around me, she superficially flipped some of the hair that fell on her shoulder. "You know how weird that maze was—its sacred nature blocked off all entities and essences of Darkness. Which totally blows since I wasn't able to be with you!"

Wait…what does she mean by that? "That can't be true. Chichiri and I fought off some shadow creature when we were trapped underground." How could I possibly forget that incredibly horrid trial? Both the monk and I were lured into a trap where our powers had been sealed, making it so that we would have to fight through without them. I couldn't stand that test—that was the weakest I had ever felt in my life and it didn't help that the maze had sent Hellhounds and Heartless after us as if we were being hunted for some sick sport. If I had never forcibly bent the rules of the game, Chichiri and I probably would have been surely done for.

Shifting her position, she resorted to just hugging my arm, rubbing her head on it as if I were some large, fluffy teddy bear. The creepiness factor was continuing to sky-rocket by this point, causing my eye to start twitching. "Oh Aki, you must have learned by now that that maze played a whole bunch of tricks on you and your playthings." Are we referring to Genrou and Chichiri as my "playthings" now? "If those were real shadow creatures, you would have needed Light in order to defeat them."

My eyes flashed wide for a split second as the epiphany made its way into the light. Oh yeah, that's right. I used a Wind spell on them…I was kind of surprised that I didn't make the connection sooner. A red flag should have instantly been raised in my mind the moment I took down those things so easily with BramGush.I was just so stuck in the moment that it never occurred to me.

The little girl sighed in a dramatic "oh woe is me" type of way. "It's just so stupid how that place only allowed five of the elements to exist in it while Darkness is off by its lonesome. When I meet the jerk who came up with that place, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind!" Five elements?

"Wha-what do you mean by 'five elements'?"

Her embrace on my arm became tighter, almost as if she were claiming me as her own or something. "Oh come on Aki, I know that you're smart enough to have figured out the final two elements, even if that hag Taiitsukun didn't reveal them to you."

Now that I think about it, Taiitsukun did tell me a while back that there were two extra elements other than Water, Fire, Earth, and Wind.Somewhere along the lines, she also said that those two would be too difficult for me to achieve—I felt very insulted of course. But throughout my growth with the magical arts, some things did come to my attention as I made my way through several discoveries. "They're Darkness and Light, aren't they?" Something had told me that they were, but a part of me didn't exactly want to ask Taiitsukun about it. How can you blame me? She's the type of old woman who hates getting to the point and makes you figure stuff out on your own. If I had asked if those two were elements as well, she probably would have responded with "well what do you think you stupid girl? Do I honestly have to spell everything out for you?" Yup. That's exactly what she would say.

Finally allowing my arm a breather, she took both of my hands in hers and swung them merrily. "Bingo! Six elements in all. And might I add that it was really clever using my power to boost the Dragon Slave some time ago. You are quite the resourceful one—which is part of the reason as to why I love you so much!" Hold on a second…love? And what did she mean by her power? It seemed very evident to me that she was pretty amused by my lack of knowledge on some stuff. However, it didn't take a rocket scientist to decipher how this little girl had an ample amount of answers to a vast majority of questions. The problem for me was to choose which ones to ask and ask them carefully—I didn't know what bizarre world I was in, but judging from her demeanor and her ability to make a throne appear out of nowhere like that, this was her domain, and who knew the things she was capable of. If there was one thing I learned from that maze, it was not to underestimate small children.

They can be deadly.

"Fine, whatever. But that doesn't explain who the hell you really are." Her explanations to things might have made sense, but I still had a hard time believing that she was who she claimed to be.

Completely ignoring my question, she continued to swing our arms as if she didn't have a care in the world. "It's so nice to finally see you up close! You know, I never thought that you and I would be meeting anytime soon—which made me want to cry—but when you left that maze, I grouped up a whole bunch of energy so that we could finally talk face to face." She chuckled. "I must say that it did take a little effort to pull you in here." That was when she started to levitate again, this time circling around as she observed certain features—just like a curious child.

"Hey! What're you—"

Without my permission, she took my arm as she floated around in the air, repeatedly brushing her hand along its length. "Wow, your skin is a nice creamy color, and how your beautiful brown hair is so silky, yet thick at the same time." Shifting herself behind me, the little girl combed through my locks, starting with my scalp, not caring about my input on the whole situation.

Forcing myself forward, I violently turned around to throw her off. "Stop feeling my hair!"

Unfazed by my sudden reaction, she continued to probe further. Somehow teleporting behind me (again) she wrapped her skinny arms around my waist, as more of a measureable sense than an embrace. "Small waist too, but still curvy enough to display attraction." This girl is a freak!

By this point, I was so flushed that I thought I was going to possibly explode from having to endure all of that...that…touchy-feeliness. It was just such an unnatural thing! "Let go of me!" I called out.

Twisting around to my front, she levitated higher and grabbed my head, bringing my face cloer to hers—her cat-like differentiated eyes in full view. "And has anyone told you that you have the most beautiful eyes in the universe? They're like perfect rubies in the shadow of Darkness."

Feeling completely fed-up, I took the palm of my hand and smashed it in her face. Using probably more force than was absolutely necessary, I pushed her away, probably a good few feet. The action of it sort if reminded me of trying to hit away a balloon whenever it got too close. "Back off!" With a tone that expressed that I was done with her crap, I demanded, "You tell me who you are already!"

To my surprise, she didn't get offended or even mad at my actions. Instead, she just shook it off and maintained that slightly smug and amused expression. "I told you, I'm the dark ring that's been with you for most of your life."

"Since when did the dark ring have a consciousness?" It just didn't make any sense.

Bringing her hand her mouth, she closed her eyes and giggled again, pretending to act like a sweet and innocent little kid. "Since forever, silly! I know you must have heard my voice all of those times. Am I right?" Looking down slightly, I couldn't help but recall all of the negative comments, feedback, and advice that woman's—little girl's voice sent out to me. Some of them really fueled some of my decision making with certain situations. Somehow, she knew what must have been wandering through my mind. "See? Now you realize that I have been looking out for you—with those awful kids when you were younger, all of the judging teens now, with those jerks back at Ouran, and even when that bitch—or bastard—Nuriko was saying bad things about you." Back when Nuriko and I had first met, he and I had started off on horrible terms—even worse than what Genrou and I started off with. The darker part of my subconscious really wanted to make him pay for things so insignificant such as his walking near me. Luckily things weren't like that anymore. If only I hadn't accidentally went too far and made him suffer with a wave of the dark ring—him and Tamahome. Sometimes…I just lacked the control to control that side of me.

With all of what she was saying coming together, I felt the need to make something clear. "Wait! If what you're saying is true, then how did you…why did you—"

"To answer your question, it was my mother who created me and imprinted me onto you. I was created, simply put, to keep you safe!" This was what she called 'safe'? I kind of hated the idea of knowing what dangerous was to her.

"Your mother?" Not only did the dark ring have a consciousness, but it—she was given birth by someone? "You mean…some chick put this curse on me?" There was just so much information to process—so not only am I still plagued with the dark ring, but it was technically a person, and some sadistic bitch was out there somewhere who wanted to make my life miserable for no apparent reason. Oh yeah universe, that seems completely fair.

Apparently the little girl possessed the skills to make herself tear up on command, because I was sure as hell that she wasn't the type to get offended so easily—at least not with a comment like that. The act almost reminded me of the fake tears that Hikaru and Kaoru used for their little display for the ladies back at Ouran (honestly, real actors don't need fake tears like that. But the clients never caught on (let's remember that these are the same chicks who can't add two and two together and figure out that Haruhi was actually a girl). So you can see the madness that went on back at that school). But back onto more pressing matters. "Aww…Aki you make me sad by calling me a curse. But I forgive you!" I rolled my eyes. She bounces back fast. "Yes, by extracting the Darkness in your heart and exposing it to the outside, I was then given life and a personality." She lightly dabbed her fist onto her chest to make her look more valiant. "So, you were actually never alone even when you thought you were! It's just been so sad not being able to really talk to you, or hug you, or do any of the things I want with you because I'm limited to this space." Really, most of those things she wanted to do—and did—would have been a lot more appreciated if she kept them to herself.

"Hold on," something about her explanation stuck out to me, "you said that the Darkness was extracted from my heart. What Darkness would that be? I mean, I attained you so long ago—seemingly since I was a baby—I didn't even know what Darkness or any of that stuff even was." How would something like that even be possible? From what this little girl was saying, she made it seem like there was a time in my life where I was free—but I just couldn't recall such a time. Was it possible that a part of my memory was blocked out?

Her eyes scrolled up when she started to ponder on it. "Let's see…what's the easiest way to explain this….Everyone is born with both Darkness and Light in their hearts—but they are both buried deep, deep inside only triggered by specific emotions." She scoffed in disgust. "And because humans are so pathetic and unbalanced, they only blindly use them and end up doing really foolish things—the most foolish thing being them corrupted by Darkness. If humans weren't so darn weak, that wouldn't necessarily be the issue." Her discussed turned into an exasperated sigh. "But alas, the morons continue on. Luckily, though, you and I aren't one of them!" What?Realizing that she had caught herself too late, she jokingly tapped her head and bit her tongue. "Oops! I think I said too much…My bad."

I didn't want her to think she got off scrape free. "What did you mean by—"

"It's a secret. Can't tell you now, sorry!" For some reason, that didn't really surprise me—it was a big disappointment, but not a surprise. "Anyway, because of what—I mean who you are—you're able to use Light, Darkness, and the other elements to your advantage. Knowing this, instead of having your Darkness remain inside, my mother thought that it would be a good idea to expose it so that you can use it—or me—to your benefit." Lying back leisurely in the air, she continued on as if the information she was giving was unimportant. "I never felt that I was being used though, out of all the people I'm glad that it's you that I get to spend eternity with."

Eternity my ass."Back up a bit kid. I want to know, first of all, who this mother of yours is—as well as why she hates me so much to go and make my life a living hell." I had wanted answers all my life, and now this was potentially my chance.

She started to float away from me—still perfectly comfortable as if she were floating on one of those blow-up toys in a swimming pool. "Can't tell you that either—it's also a secret!" She uncharacteristically paused for a second. "She chooses to remain anonymous until the right time. But I can say that she certainly doesn't hate you—in fact, we both think that she did you a huge favor." It was somewhat hard to place, but it almost seemed like her tone became more serious when the topic of her mother came up. Where did that come from all of a sudden?

Regardless, though, I'd be damned if I allowed my opportunities for answers slip through my fingers. My tolerance levels from all of this were starting to boil over. "Don't give me any of that crap! There are some bits of information that you're hiding from me—spill it, or else I'll be forced to make you." The aggravation was spread on pretty thick with those last few words.

Emulating the Hitachiin twin's first reaction to my threats and powers, the little girl just smiled brightly and clapped her hands. "How amusing! I always wanted to hear your famous threats in person. You do sound pretty cool when you say them. Far better than any superhero some geek can come up with." An immediate fire began to blaze in her eyes as anticipation flowed through her being. "Well if you insist on fighting me, then go ahead!"

Insinuating this as an invitation, I immediately assumed a battle stance as I fished throughout my brain for a spell. Rationalizing that Darkness wouldn't be all that bright of an element to use (again, no pun intended), I knew that I'd have to take another route. Gathering energy to my body, one spell stuck out to me that I figured would do the trick. Remember Aki, you don't want to kill her. You still need her alive for answers. Agreeing on my resolve, I casted, "Source of all souls which swell in the eternal and infinite…"

"Ah, so you're gonna use that spell!" She applauded. "Very well then!" What I didn't expect was for her to say a part of the incantation. "Everlasting flame of blue, let the power hidden in my soul—"

"Be called forth from the infinite!" I finished. So she knew the chant—big whoop. It didn't necessarily mean that she could back it up. A blue halo emitting around my body, hers as well, as my aim caused a circle of blue light to appear around her…and curiously me as well. Thinking it best to ignore it—or be prepared to get the hell out of there, I concluded the spell, "Ra-Tilt!" Light-blue flames dancing around the magic circle appeared, preparing to flare up in its final attack. Seeing as how the exact same thing was happening around me, I didn't form another thought except gotta get away!Using a bubble of Wind underneath my feet, I managed to immediately jump up and out of the circle of danger, just as an infinite pillar of blue energy rushed up from the ground, having the ability to destroy any target that ever had the unfortunate mishap of getting trapped in the middle.

Landing somewhat firmly on my feet, with just a small stumble, I looked over to see how things went with my opponent. Turned out that she also avoided my attack as she floated freely along. Confusion rattling in my brain, I manage to get a stutter out that sounded like, "What the?"

Seeing the spell disperse, the little girl nonchalantly made her way over in my direction, the intent on fighting completely leaving her intentions. "I'm a part of you Aki, so technically, I have the same abilities as you do." I groaned. Well that's sort of…f%#$ed up. "You can't really surprise me with anything—not when I know you're every thought." An evident scowl riddled on my face, my logical brain tried to work through every possible scenario that could occur. But all the while, I was distracted from the built up rage that was surfacing and long overdue. Not surprised by my reaction, she levitated around me, almost like she was psycho-analyzing me—like she knew exactly what I was about. "Oh I see what's going on now, you're mad at me, aren't you?" Her eyes narrowed as the smile continued on. "Yes, you're not mad that I'm keeping information from you, not completely, you're more mad of the fact that you've been…blessed with me your whole life."

Snap.

"Blessed? Blessed? That is such bullshit!" So far, I had concealed my emotions about this whole thing—but no longer. All of the turmoil—all of the pain I had ever experienced was because I was stuck with this little brat almost like a disease. A life like mine wasn't even worth living—it just wasn't fair. A small, darker part of me—the part that didn't give a damn about acting calm and staying strong by not reacting to pain—wanted to just destroy everything and show people the anger and sadness that I had welled up in my heart. But I knew that would be wrong—it wasn't their fault. I gave the little girl a deathly stare. It was hers. "I could never get close to anyone because of you! I can't even imagine a life where everything's okay and I'm perfectly happy—because of you, I'm that messed up!" No one should have to go through what I had to. I just felt that…that things should have been different.

Seeing me so worked up, she halted in her spot, a frown now forming on her lips. "Aki, please, you must understand the reasoning of all this…" Her worlds trailed off and for the first time, it was like she didn't know what to say—she didn't know what words would be able to make everything she did alright.

F%#it. Darkness is my power too. "Darkness beyond twilight—crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows." I could feel the dark cloud surrounding me, giving me the malevolent strength that rested in my hand. "I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand. Before the mighty gifts bestowed in my unworthy hands." A combination of black and red lighting condensed into an ever-growing sphere on my palm as the spell commenced. "Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" Not taking another second to think about it, I released the violent beam of Darkness. "Dragon Slave!"

The little girl had mentioned that she could do the exact same things as I could…yet her reaction time was off by…a lot. Fortunately for her, she broke out of her daze and mirrored me right at the last second. "Dragon Slave!" She didn't even need to pull off the whole incantation, she just dished it out and used her energy to divert mine, leading it into a different direction. Feeling that I lost my control, and ability to win this way, I ceased my flow of power, diminishing the spell until it was completely over. Letting out a sigh of relief, she then turned to me with a concerned expression. This time, all feelings of amusement completely washed away. "Look, you can't defeat me that way, so can you please just hear me out?" An exhausting sensation overwhelmed me, forcing me to submit for the time being. It was amazing to me how I was even able to move at all in that world—unlike back in my physical consciousness where I'm still sore from battle damage. It wouldn't have been smart to continue on with something that could turn out tediously. I was already grateful that I could stand, who knows how much control that little girl honestly had as well. "First off, I never wanted to hurt you—I love you too much to even think of doing that." She shook her head as her eyes trailed down in apparent remorse. "I hate that this whole condition brings you pain and misery, but I promise that it will get better the moment you decide to finally let go."

Unclenching my fists a bit, my curiosity perked up only slightly. "Let go of what?"

"What else? The futile dream of wanting to have a relationship with anybody." Noticing how my eyes widened as my body relaxed a bit, she continued as a bitter tone stuck onto her words. "Others aren't perfect like you Aki, they are corrupted, and betray each other—love and friendship basically mean nothing to them. Those terms are just titles they stick on certain weak bonds that only last for a short time. With them, nothing is forever. They continue to kill and lie and cheat, and many of them aren't even sorry for the sins they commit." I hated to admit it, but she was right. Back in my world, all you had to do was turn on the news and story after story would be about how the world would get even more corrupted. You eventually find that you can't trust anyone—that you're never safe. It's sad when a world is so messed up that you think you'd be better off being alone. Being the over analytical persona that I was, I noticed things in people—I saw the darkness in their hearts and how they displayed them. I also noticed how so many were unaware to their wrongs thinking they were right. With so many different views and actions going on, who's honestly to say who or what was right or not. What was good and evil?

Her words flowed easily along with my inner thoughts. "You see that I am right. You know that I'm right. I've seen what you've seen Aki, been where you've been, heard what you heard. And in that world you grew up in—even in the worlds you've traveled too, both emotional, and physical pain is inevitable." You can't escape the pains and evils of the universe—to think that you could would be a foolish lie to tell yourself. I had long since realized and accepted that my life and the existence of the world around me was screwed up. Why else would I desire change so bad? "Because of the conditions my mother bestowed onto me, I allow you the burden of remembering every ounce of pain you have ever experienced in your life…" That was the curse that was on me—that was what made my suffering distinguishable beyond others. Every single day, I was forced to live through every painful experience almost as if it were happening over and over again. The feelings I had would remain, the torment never ceasing. I could still hear my cries of agony and sink in the depth of hopeless ness—every little memory that made me want to cry. Most people either forgot times of hardship or even put it past their mind to move on.

I lacked that luxury. I wasn't allowed to forget. And with every new painful scenario that unfolded on an everyday basis for me, it would just keep piling on more and more. To lessen the burden, I would pretend like nothing affected me, perhaps fool my psyche into thinking that nothing mattered. But even I knew that I couldn't get off that easily. So with this journey, I tried to learn how to put on a genuine smile, trying to prevent any more pain—trying to acquire new memories that would make everything better. But no matter what I tried, I knew I couldn't mask the pain forever. "Instead of giving up and just ending your life, you remained strong Aki—that's another reason why I like you so much. You continued on everyday knowing full well that more pain would come your way. But when things got too bad, I helped you release the negative energy stored inside your heart—or more like in the dark ring I suppose—which would be forced out as a wave onto the sorry people who harmed you, making them feel only a fraction of the suffering that you had to go through." That was the other condition. Whenever I felt threatened or figured that the negative energy became too strong, I had no choice but to let it go. Anyone around me would then be forced to suffer because I couldn't contain myself. The only benefit I found in this was that people would leave me alone. But at other times, innocent people would get hurt because of my selfishness. "You always felt better whenever that happened, didn't you?"

Feeling slightly ashamed, I whispered, "Well…" That was also true—a slight wave of relief would smother me, if only for a few seconds whenever I let a dark wave shoot out.

"Or rather, you feel better whenever you don't feel sorry for them afterwards." The overwhelming ping of guilt would often gloss over my feelings of relief, making it seem like it was never even there to begin with. The little girl's volume increased. "That's your problem! You care too much about a bunch of other's who will end up hurting you. And, I'm sorry to say, but there's something that you have failed to realize: You are incapable of falling in love with anyone."

Her words hit me like a violent electric shock—I would know. "What the hell do you mean that I'm incapable? I've felt feelings—"

"That you thought were love or affection and such. But in reality, you're more in love with the idea of being in love. Why do you think that you were so easily smitten by that mutt Inuyasha, the moody feline Kyo, and that trickster rich bastard Hikaru? Because of the mindless dribble that had ended up brainwashing you from your world, you grew up in an environment where being appreciated, popular, and loved by a bunch of people means true happiness." Part of that did make some sort of sense. Looking back on it, I did sort of attach myself to those guys rather easily—more Kyo and Inuyasha, I sort of had to refine my feelings for Hikaru before they could become known—but still. Even when I was younger, seeing so many romantic movies and all the happy couples made me rationalize that being happy meant being in a relationship. That was why I forced myself to have a crush on Yosuke back in my world—I wanted to achieve simulated bliss. But something in me told me that that was wrong, so I never pursued it. Truth was…I actually hated that guy. "Sure that's the nice end of the fairytale if you really believe in all that. But the people who made up those standards are all hypocrites in that every single one of them has wronged someone at some time or another, making their lives worse." The little girl hugged herself and closed her eyes, maybe imagining that I was over there with her—comfortably embracing.

"I'm trying to give you that happily ever after Aki, but the way to do that is just let go. Let go your negative waves of energy and show others just how much pain you're in…maybe then they will finally understand what selfish fools they are. Let go of your desire to be accepted into a society that is too primitive to even see how wonderful you are." Opening her eyes slowly, you could see a slight pleading expression hanging on her soft, yet cold features. "Let go and be forever with me—your best friend."

Her sincerity was starting to break through, but I was sorry to say that that didn't quite make up for all of the crap I had been through. "There's no way in hell that you're my best friend! And I don't completely believe that people are as bad as they may seem. Everybody has a trigger—something that makes them feel horrible or make them do equally horrible things." I used to hate people. I used to hate the world for shunning me the way it did. But when I realized that it was me causing their pain, that it was me making them lash out in response to their happiness, I knew that, deep inside, they didn't have the desire to hurt anyone—they just wanted to protect themselves. And now, even if this is the little girl behind the dark ring, it is still my dark feelings that are projected on to them.

Snapping her arm out, she pointed at me with an accusing finger. "You see Aki? It's thoughts like those that add even more sorrow to your soul. You can't fall in love because it may end up killing you. You've been hurt so much half because of the concern you have for humans, and the other half from the harm they've caused you. If you were to fall in love and have your heart broken sometime after all that, the added pain would be too unbearable and you might end up killing yourself or submitting your soul completely to the cold darkness. And I…" Tears—genuine tears started to form in her eyes, running down her pale cheeks. Somehow, I could feel what she was feeling, similarly to my bond with Genrou. Unlike last time, she wasn't kidding about her sadness. "I don't want you to do that." She tried to speak past her excessive hiccupping. "I want you to be safe…I want you to be with me and I promise to make you happy and keep you safe from all of those evil people who are so bent on hurting you." Huh? "I thought that you almost died back there Aki. I couldn't sense you for a while, it was so scary—like I had been detached from an important life-line and I was just floating around in some cold space with nowhere to go and no one to talk to." She must have been talking about when I got electrocuted—when I was stuck in between life and death. "I couldn't feel your warm presence and it scared me. I wanted to die—if I couldn't be with you, there was no point of living anymore." She's…she's taking this a bit far… "You're mine Aki, and I don't want to lose you or give you up!" At this point, she was completely wailing. She ceased her perky floating and sunk herself onto the cold, black ground, curing up in a fetal position as the tears made their way to the floor.

With everything that happened, and how young this girl really seemed, I was actually starting to feel bad about how I exploded at her like that. When I thought about it, the more I realized how none of this was really even her fault. After all, she did say that her mother imprinted her onto me—she really didn't have a say in anything. All she did was adjust and make the best out of her situation. And in the meantime, she was observing me, learning more about my life and traveling along for the ride. This little girl…really does care about me…

"I do! I really do!" The way she looked so small and vulnerable on the floor like that really made her seem the age she looked. If what she was saying was true, then she was forced to watch someone she cared about suffer for so long. My face softened up. She really does feel my pain—she knows what I have been through."You were willing to give it up for those two morons you're traveling with, I just couldn't take it—I love you too much to want anything bad to happen. I don't want you putting so much effort into helping out them or anyone else." Attempting to toughen up, she sat up and wiped her tears away, clearing her throat to sound less needy. "They will hurt you Aki—all of the humans will."

My legs finally began to move out of their spot, allowing me to calmly make my way over to the little girl. "Look, I know it might seem that way, but if you really know me, then you know that I simply can't accept that." When I finally reached her, I crouched down, matching her level as we met eye to eye. With a sympathetic and confident grin, I told her, "I left my world to find a way out of my crappy life, and I'm pretty determined to do just that." Yeah, my life was bad—real bad. But there wouldn't be a point in going on if I didn't look for some kind of light out of the end of this tunnel. I wasn't a sad little brat who made other people do things for her as she was waited on hand and foot—no, I go for it all on my own.

The little girl, obviously frustrated, flailed her arms around. "But there's no point!" Obviously she was still following along with my thoughts. "You know how things go—people don't want to be around you because you cause them pain, unintentionally of course, and you're too scared to be around them because they might hurt you and add more to your pain, not to mention that you don't want them to get hurt by me. All of the trouble just isn't worth it." Her face was scrunched up in anger as she slammed her fist into the ground. "By trying so hard, you're just gonna end up in even more pain. And I don't like hurting you, that's just the way my mother designed me—to train you to want to stay away."

Nodding in understanding, I confirmed her accusation, "Sure, I'm scared to get close—I'm really terrified." I've felt so much pain in my life and it will only get worse…like a disease. "It's sad when the one thing you want the most scares you to death. That's what happens when a curse gets put on me, but nothing will improve if I let this take over my life for much longer." She already knew everything about me, so there was no point in hiding how I felt. Saying all of that sure made me sound tough, but I still had more doubts than one could imagine. I was a frail person, afraid of so many things, and a curse certainly didn't help. To hide my pain from the world, I act indifferently, even to a point where I seem cold to most—like I have no feelings or even a heart. They will never know. Shaking my head, I had to try my best to conceal those negative emotions. That was when something rather important came to my attention. "Wait, I just remembered something…you said that everyone wants to stay away in order to avoid me sending out constant waves of negative energy. But…what about Genrou?" Her eyebrow cocked up in an irritated fashion at the sound of his name. "I mean, he's not affected at all—he completely repels your—my—our effects. He's not like Miaka or Saru or Kyoko, they receive a small part of it, but he gets absolutely none."

Her growl at the sound of his name was low and hostile—almost as if she had a score to settle with him or something. "Oh yes…that guy…that meddlesome fiery-headed thorn at my side."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that she did not have the same type of feelings that she had towards me that she did with him. There was something deeper in there—something I wasn't seeing and something she wasn't telling me. But the bottom line was, "What makes him so special?"

Completely ignoring my statement, the little girl seemed absorbed in her own thoughts—plotting nefarious schemes that only she could really comprehend. In a low tone, she mumbled to herself. "One of these days I'll have to figure out how to deal with him…" In my head, there was a thought…but it didn't belong to me. It said, 'before things get too critical'. I sort of figured that if she could hear my thoughts in this mysterious space of hers, then the same things could apply vice versa. However, her curious bitterness towards my bandit companion probably made her ignorant to that fact.

"Before what gets too critical?" I asked. My question must have caught her fancy since she turned her attention back onto me. Intriguing . So I can read her mind.

She smirked, her amusement returning in response to my epiphany. "Yes, you can—just like how I can do the same to you. In this space, nothing is hidden unless you can conveniently eradicate it from your mind." Figured as much.

Trying not to lose focus on the topic, I pressed on. "Well whatever, why is he so different than everyone else? And how come we have that whole spark thing that goes on?"

Scratching the back of her head, she sat cross-legged and wondered what to say next. My face was determined, hoping silently that she would finally cave and reveal all of her secrets. The resolve she made caused her to smile sneakily, and respond with, "Like I said before…That's. A. S-e-c-r-e-t."

Falling over comically, straight onto my face, I looked up at her with sweat running down my cheek. Oh course it is. I give up. This girl is almost as bad as Taiitsukun. Well, at least her attitude was a little more pleasant, and I did get a lot of information regarding why my life had been so screwy. Seeing her satisfied smile sort of uplifted my spirits a little, as odd as it may sound considering whom she was. It was hard to explain, but I really did feel like I could completely open up to her—almost safe and homey. The sensation was familiar in some way…

All of a sudden, my body started to flicker in and out—it was almost like someone had just hooked a fishing line to me and was pulling me away. As I looked at my hands, my legs, everything else, I could see that, for the most part, I was losing my opacity—soon there would be nothing left.

"What's happening to me?"

Pouting like the little kid she was, she complained, "Aww man…your connection to this space is weakening. I'll have to send you back soon." I wasn't quite sure on how to feel about that. She may have been the object of my troubles in life, but she also understood me more than anyone I had ever met. Part of me really wanted to end her existence and the other wanted to stay and hear more about what she had to say. The confliction was perplexing, but I knew that the universe would end up making the choice for me whether I had a say in it or not. My whole universe problem wasn't necessarily a curse per se…but it was definitely a nuisance. The young girl sensed my disturbance. "It's okay Aki, I'll still be with you and I promise that we'll meet again! While I will be sad that we probably won't meet up again like this for a while, it has been the highlight of my life getting to really meet you."

"Uh huh…" The atmosphere became thick with awkwardness—on my part anyway, she seemed pretty content with herself. When I first arrived there, I was confused. Then I went into a justifiable rage. The transition was soon followed by depression and hopeless ness—ending in acceptance. This little girl was able to do that much to my emotions and now we ended up on better terms. There were still so many questions…so many things I wanted to express and talk about—she was the person to do that with. "So um…what should I call you? I mean, continuing to call you 'dark ring' is getting a little tedious." My question seemed to have troubled her. The smile on her face faltered a bit as it tilted in thought, her different colored eyes trailing up as she searched for an answer. This was peculiar to me. "What's wrong? Your mom didn't name you?" My parents hated me but they still gave me a name—the name wasn't exactly all that creative ("Akimoto" meaning "true autumn" in Japanese. I was born in autumn so my parents just used that), but any name is a name I suppose.

The younger girl just chose to shrug it off. "She didn't see the need to. She probably figured that I wouldn't be important or around others enough to be called something…"

Well, I'd feel sort of bad if I just referred to her as the dark ring—especially since I know that she's actually a person. Well, more or less. "Let me see…" All I wanted to do was come up with a simple name—perhaps something that had to do with who she was…She focuses on dark and negative energy so…I guess the simplest thing to name her would be… "How does 'Shokyoku' sound?"

She tested the name out for herself. "Sho…kyo…ku?" The name was another way of saying "negative" in Japanese. Considering that's the kind of energy she emitted (you know, dark ring and all), I figured that it fit rather nicely.

"If you don't like it—"

Using her energy to propel herself into the air, she zipped around at high speeds, doing various tricks and flips as happiness basically oozed off of her. "Are you kidding? I love it! You named me so I'll cherish the name forever! My name is Shokyoku! Shokyoku! Shokyoku! Aki gave me a name!" She cheered. The little girl reminded me so much of a kid who had just developed a sugar high in less than a minute from chowing down on buckets of candy.

Because of my inability to turn my back to cute things—and at this point, Shokyoku was acting real adorable—I kept my cool as best as I could. After all, I still knew that that little girl was not innocent at all—her little speech earlier proved that, she was just playing her part in combination with her newfound giddiness. "Alright calm down Shokyoku—it's not that big of a deal."

She zipped over and took my hands just like before and started to swing them while she floated. I found myself not resisting as much as I initially did when I had first arrived. "Of course it is! My Aki gave me such a wonderful name! Thank you!"

Chuckling nervously, I was starting to feel uncomfortable with such a drastic change in atmosphere. "Okay, okay, you're welcome." Just calm down already.

"If only you didn't have to go…" Letting go of my hands, she wrapper her arms around me—hugging me gently as she rested her small head on my shoulders. My maternal instincts took over as my hands moved up to return the hug, stroking her smooth hair as softly as possible. Getting close to my ear, she spoke in a low volume. "Just remember what I said: everyone else can and will hurt you. But if you're willing to go through with this, then I won't stop you—I don't have the power to even if wanted to. Just know that I'll be here for you when you need a reliable and truly loving shoulder to cry on. Then together…we can make them all pay…

Blinking hard, I half expected to still be in Shokyoku's realm, but the moment a flash of familiar physical pain impaled my body in an instant, I felt myself falling backwards as the brightness of the cheery blue sky and yellow sun that lit up the land filtered back into my vision. I was soon caught by strong arms as only a few rays from the morning star fought its way through the various branches and leaves of some tree. An appearance of fiery-red hair and amber eyes soon hovered over me.

So I really was back.

"You were really out of it," Genrou spoke in a lower tone, "what happened to ya?" As he helped me to sit up a bit more, I couldn't help but notice how the dark ring—Shokyoku—was around me once again, the silver veins completely gone from view. Even though I knew that her intentions were good, it didn't take away from the fact that the curse did still bring pain, and I didn't notice until that moment how I had been temporarily relieved of my burden the whole time I was in the maze. The residual pain was still there, allowing me to actually believe that I was still affected by the curse. I didn't even have time to really enjoy the short amount of freedom I had been given. Being lost in my thoughts, I didn't answer Genrou's question—putting all of my feelings and experiences into words for someone who couldn't completely comprehend was a feat that I didn't exactly feel like attempting that at that present moment. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked with a concerned expression. Oh yeah…I forgot about our empathy.

"Tell me, did I actually go somewhere…or…" Yeah, I was aware that I avoided his question, but it wasn't like I wasn't curious about what I asked.

"Huh?" Seeing where I was getting at, he answered with, "Nah, ya just stood there and yer eyes went black. Ya wouldn't move so I put you under this tree when I gave up on tryin' to wake you up er whatever." So I really was inside of the dark ring. He shrugged. "I figured that you'd break through sooner or later so I'd watch over you until ya did." I wonder…Since he could feel my strong emotions as well as the other way around, was he aware of what I was feeling when I was talking to Shokyoku? The flame-haired bandit looked around awkwardly as if there was something he was avoiding himself. He, however, chose to go through with it. "So, uh, there's somethin' I've been meanin' to ask ya when we met…" For some unexplainable reason, I could feel my heart beating in my chest a lot more prominently as butterflies erupted in my stomach. Why would him saying that make me feel like this? The temperature of my face started to rise uncontrollably as my anticipation rose.

What the hell?

Wait a second, why am I reacting like this? I sighed, trying to calm myself down. I must be woozy from all of that sub-dimensional swapping I've been doing lately.

"So I was wonderin'…" Yeah?"What exactly is that thing around'ja?" Blinking a few times, my head sunk in disappointment when I realized what he was referring to.

What he was referring to…

My eyes shot open as wide as they could possibly go. "Are you telling me that you c-can see the ring of energy around me?" Even in my lifetime I could only see it when my emotions were strong enough. No one else was even aware that it was there unless I said something about it in order to warn them. More often than not, I would believe that people in my world would have laughed in my face if I told them something like that. But the people in the worlds I had visited seemed more…open minded. Despite that, I was still wary about it. So how was it possible that some guy I still barely knew could see what was unseen to everyone else?

He scratched his head sheepishly. "Yeah. I've always been able ta see it. I jus' didn't say anythin' 'cause I thought I might've been crazy and it just went away in that whacko maze. Since its back, I figured that it could actually be serious—"

"Shokyoku." I flatly told him.

"What?"

"The ring around me has a consciousness—her name is Shokyoku." I took offense with his words as I narrowed my eyes at him—my thoughts floating towards the memories of that mysterious little girl. "So please don't refer to her as a 'thing'." What I expected next was to hear him argue with me, ordering me not to tell him what to do.

In a matter of submission, he sighed. "Fine, I'm sorry, alright?" Almost immediately, my aggression had been subdued, still in slight surprise that none of it came from him. "Jus' tell me, what exactly is it—uh, she?"

Perhaps talking to someone who's out of the loop would make me feel slightly better about everything that happened. There wouldn't be much harm to it especially if he ended up forgetting about me in the long run anyway. Besides that, he'd probably probe me until he made his way through my defenses. I was honestly too exhausted to really give a damn. "She's a part of a curse of eternal suffering that we are both connected by. If it were just two victims, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad—but thanks to me other people are pulled in and pushed away…"

A puzzled expression hung on his tan features. "What the heck does all that mean?"

Normally, I'd get frustrated, but his simplicity was a bit…refreshing compared to the grand scheme of complexes that made up my existence. It was nice knowing that I had someone around who knew exactly what my situation was, but…I don't know…having someone around who was open-minded kind of brought me a small, temporary breath of fresh air. Shaking my head, I said, "Never mind." For what it was worth, I was happy that for once, I couldn't make someone suffer on my expense—that the curse didn't affect him. Even if he was just one person. I was so thankful for Genrou, even if he had no idea of the gift he had given me. For once in my life, a person never felt the curse, so they couldn't have possibly had any preconceived thoughts about me—especially the ones that came from hurtful gossip. For once I was able to steadily form a relationship the customary way, no influences, no Darkness interfering, just a normal friendship. Sure, like everything else I had to work for it, but…

It brought me a gleam of hope.

Please don't let anyone extinguish it. It's honestly all I've got.

I acknowledged Shokyoku's warning—how the piles and piles of negative emotions and memories would end up escalating to dangerous levels…which was very possible. But like I told her, I had to fight through this, even if it ended up killing me.

I'd risk death to fight through this hellhole of a life in a heart beat.

Seeing as how I stopped talking while getting lost in my thoughts (once more—honestly that seemed to be happening an awful lot lately), Genrou suggested something that through me for a loop. "We should go out somewhere."

Due to my mind being on the frizz from all of the "excitement", the connotation that should have flowed through my mind completely skipped over to the next possible explanation. "We've already been 'somewhere' if you haven't realized. That awful maze was 'somewhere' and then some. I've honestly had my share of 'somewheres' for a while. Besides," mentioning the maze brought back a reality that both of us failed to acknowledge for a while. "Are you sure that it would be a good idea to just go off and do something like that? I mean, we don't even know how much time has gone by while we were in there." Our eyes locked onto each-others. "Don't you have to deliver that flower to your leader?"

Showing a toothy smile, he assured me, "Nah, Hakurou's tough, he can hold out for a little longer." Gosh am I happy that this guy isn't in charge of my medication. Worst. Nurse. Ever.

Continuing to go on, I knew, would mean that breaking off later would be even more difficult than it already would be. It would have been smart to just leave each other then and there—just like what Chichiri did (again, I was still surprised that he was the first to leave). In the long run, that method would work the best and hurt the least. Of course some pain can't be prevented, so I had to tough through it. Leaving friends behind wasn't something I liked exactly, but the idea of never being able to form close bonds was beginning to be etched into my brain.

Some of Shokyoku's words did end up making a lot of sense.

"Look, we had just been through a lot of crap and deserve ta take a little break, rest, have some fun, and celebrate!"

He doesn't quite seem to fully comprehend what I'm saying. "I know what you're saying, but—" In the middle of my objection, Genrou slid his arms under my body, scooted me closer to him as he lifted up with his legs, ending up with me being held in his arms bridal style. An apparent blush ran across my face in response to his sudden notion. "H-Hey!"

"Ya still can't walk all that well, right? So I'll be forced to make ya loosen up by takin' you somewhere," he looked down at me with a smile. "C'mon trust me on this—I know how ta celebrate…therightway."

I scoffed. "Oh so apparently there's a wrong way?"

"Damn right there is!" Shoulda known.He had a hard head, so arguing in this specific case would not have been all that effective. So the guy was lucky that I wasn't at my full strength at the time—if the trials of that maze hadn't messed me up so badly, I would have dashed off before he could even suggest going out—well, I would have at least prevented up from holding me the way he was. I would have been as hostile as an alley-cat being forced into a cold tub full of water—not pleasant.

---

"You know, it amazes me how quickly you go from a serious tone to a playful one," I told Genrou as he sat across from me at a table filled with a diverse variety of cooked foods with intoxicating aromas (too bad I had never really been much of a big eater). After he forcibly brought me to a decent enough of a restaurant (ish kind of thing…didn't exactly know what to call a place like that in ancient China-like terms), I had stopped rejecting his cause and decided to just go with it. At the very least, I had to keep up my dignity by using Recovery enough times to where I could walk on my own—painfully, but on my own nonetheless. And as much as I objected, I was sort of glad that he dragged me there…sort of.

Taking a sip of sake (of course), he countered with, "Why? We're not fightin' anymore and we got our trophy." He took out the bouncy-ball sized container for the Sacred Blood Lily and waved it around, treating it like some sort of ordinary trinket. "To me that sounds like a great reason ta let loose a bit." Returning it back to his inside pocket, he put his elbow on the table as he leaned his cheek on his hand. "C'mon Aki, lighten up! I even brought ya to this place with great food and, o' course, drinks! My treat, remember?"

My eyebrow cocked up with skepticism. "Your treat huh? I'm guessing that you forgot that I'm the one with the royal crest on her kunai." An imaginary thought bubble formed between us with the picture of my kunai in it as I spoke in a slight monotone. "Technically no one is paying for anything." Even if Hotohori were paying for the things I purchased, I sincerely doubted that it made a dent, let alone a scratch mark on his incredible fortune.

Annoyance was starting to hang around the air him. "Hey what's wrong with ya? Yer kinda bummin' me out here."

Without looking at him, I responded with a calm, "Nothing's wrong…" Like I realized before, when Shokyoku was sealed in that maze, I didn't even realize how the burden of all that pain was suddenly lifted. I was left with the residual pain, so it was like nothing was different, but it was. And when she came back, it all came rushing back like a tsunami. Ever since the dark ring reappeared around me, the curse was reenacted. It's like I had a gigantic boulder made up of sorrow and agony that I was forced to hold up all on my own. It never got any easier…I sort of wished that it had never been taken away by the maze. That way, I never would have had to know what it was like without it, now that I know, the realization of how much my life sucked smashed into my face almost as hard as George of the Jungle swung into trees.

Genrou, with his little optimistic self persisted on. "Ya know you can tell me—I'm all ears!"

Can I really? There wouldn't really be any point… I tried my best to convince him of the story I was giving. "I'm just tired is all. Honestly, how can you not be especially after all that?"

"My excitement is just too high from finally bein' outta there. I don't have the time to be tired!" Looks like the Duracell bunny is still going on pretty damn strong in his brain.

I couldn't find where he was possibly getting all of that energy. My body still ached and the toll from the maximum amount of magic usage was still intact. The question was whether or not the spells I used in Shokyoku's realm did anything on my physical being—I suppose I'd never know. Just like when I came out of my electro-unconsciousness, my body had relaxed so much that the adrenaline flowed away from my system, leaving the pain to come through like a wave. The effect was still there much to my dismay

Stroking his chin, the bandit observed me. "Now that all is said and done, yer not really lookin' too good there!" A mental snap went off in my brain. What? "Yer still bruised up quite a bit, even if ya did perform some healin' spells on yerself." Strike one. "Not to mention that yer clothes look are torn up somethin' fierce, ya even lost that white coat o' yers that you were wearin' before." Strike two. "Exhaustion is really showin' on ya with those bags under yer eyes and lack of energy ya seem to have—"

Bringing out the giant red and yellow toy hammer out of absolutely nowhere (called the Hammer of Justice), I used reserve energy to stand up from my chair and strike down on him—hard. Strike three.Fallen completely out of his chair, he lied there on the ground, foot twitching as he tried to comprehend the pain that I had just inflicted onto him. "I still have enough energy to do that!" My body didn't favor that too much though… But it was worth it! "That is no way to speak to a woman you jerk! You are not supposed to point out things like that—especially not in public! What are you, some kind of idiot?" Why am I even asking? Noticing how things suddenly got quiet all around, I realized that all of the other customers, and even the waitresses, had stopped what they were doing to stare at us—at me, the girl with the now apparent temper. Oh crap! Everyone's staring at me! Putting the hammer away, I immediately sat back down and took a bite of a plate of noodles in front of me, almost as if nothing had ever happened.

Struggling back into his seat, he bared his fangs at me as he roared, "Why the hell did you do that ya psycho? Serves me right for worrin' about'cha!"

Still focusing on my food, I refused to look directly at him. "You call that worrying? While I appreciate the sympathy, I'd much rather you kept it to yourself."

Scoffing, he poured more sake into his small cup and slammed the bottle on the table. "Whatever!"

Somewhat amused by the situation—funny how the roles had switched—I smirked and asked, "So quickly to lose your newfound cheerfulness? How sad." Just as he was about to retort with something, I wisely added, "Haven't you ever learned to never let anyone disturb your happiness or let them take it away from you? No matter whom they are." The saying may not have applied directly to me, but overall, I found that it was actually pretty good advice.

He eyed me warily. "Well if that's true, then why did ya let someone take away yers?"

My eyes widened with his accusation. The thing was…he wasn't exactly all that far off. "No one—I-I told you that that's not what's wrong. I'm tired, okay?"

This time it was his turn to borrow the suspicious tone. "That tired?"

"Yes! I feel like I could just hop into a comfy bed and just sleep for a week straight, hoping that no one would disturb me…" My eyes slowly trailed away. "Maybe longer." Sounded pretty nice the more I thought about it.

"Sleepin' fer that long? What a waste of a perfectly good life."

Perfectly good, huh? If only you knew. A small trance overcame me at the thought. "When you sleep, it's like everything else that's happening in the world just seems to fade away, as if all of the problems didn't matter anymore 'cause you'd be detached." A small, emotionless smile crept across my lips. "You'd be so at peace that all of the pain just disappears. That's sort of how I felt when I was near death." Eternal sleep where nothing can disturb you—a sweet, comforting darkness was pulling me in, and I was willing to submit—you know, at that time. Whether I was destined to an eternity of bliss in Heaven or eternal torture in Hell was uncertain ( gosh I would have preferred the primary)…but it didn't matter, because I was taken away at the last second by a golden light that called out to me. "It was sort of scary, but looking past that, I was content, almost happy to leave it all. Kind of makes me wonder if it was worth it for you guys to bring me back—"

"Don't talk like that!" He yelled out, unintentionally knocking over his precious bottle of sake. It didn't even seem to matter to him at that moment. "Don't you ever feel regret fer choosing ta live! I don't know about you, but I'm happy that we brought'cha back—it wasn't time fer you ta go."

His feelings were strong, I could sense them from where I was sitting. And his concern was sort of making me…happy. "Genrou…" But he was starting to make another scene.

Scooting out of his seat, he gazed down at me with determination burning in his eyes in order to get me to see things his way. "Death is so far away, so it's not worth mentionin'. And if ya ever consider killin' yerself, I swear that I'll—"

"Genrou control yourself! Everyone is staring at us…" As I spoke, I absolutely refused to allow my peripheral vision to work. I did not want to see those accusing eyes on me again.

"I don't care—I'm tryin' to make a point—"

"Point received." I spoke through clenched teeth. "Now sit down and shut up!" Shooting daggers at him with my eyes, the invisible force seemed to somehow increase gravity in his area, pushing him back down in his seat, his amber eyes still fixated onto me. "Plus I never said anything about suicide you moron! That's a coward's way out—I'd never stoop that low." Never again.

Hesitating with his words, he began to ask, "Are ya sure—"

Grabbing my head on both sides, I did my very best to not lash out at him for forcing me to continue on with this topic. "Yes I'm sure!" Letting out my frustrations with a sigh, I released my skull, going on with a calmer, yet at the same time tense voice. "Bottom line is: I'm tired. That's it. That's all. No hidden meaning—no secret message. No decoding of any kind. I'mtired, and as you so rudely pointed out earlier, that must be obvious. So just drop it already." Drop it, please just drop it Genrou. Leave it alone—I don't want to persist with this conversation any longer.

Some cosmic ray in the universe apparently allowed my message to get through to him. "Well if that's really all, then I know something that will easily wake ya up!"

Pinching the nerve between my eyes, I whispered, "Don't tell me…"

"Sake! It's the miracle potion for anything!" He was the most predictable guy at times.

"If that were true, then why did we just torture ourselves in that God-forsaken maze looking for a magical flower?" Lowering my chop sticks, I crossed my arms and looked directly to him.

"Ya know what I mean. Let's just drink up and be merry!" Putting the bottle upwards again, he poured a small cup and held it out to me. "I promise that you'll feel better."

It was like watching one of those "Above the Influence" commercials on TV—I couldn't recall ever signing up for that contract. "Are we really stooping to peer-pressure? I'm not interested."

He swung it in front of me rhythmically. "C'mon! Ya won't regret it. Ya might get a small hangover, but that's just the result of a good time."

That's actually very unlikely. When I was younger, Kajou told me a very interesting tidbit about herself and I—how our anatomy seemed to work a bit…differently than others. She said that toxins in smoke, drugs, and alcohol couldn't affect us. We could take in as much as we wanted and nothing would happen-no trip, no hangovers, no cancer, or cardiovascular disease—nothing like that. She mentioned how our systems for some reason worked differently than theirs.

When I became curious—around age thirteen or so—I tried drinking alcohol just so that I could test my older sister's theory, or rather, experimental findings. After many, many cups (really, by this point in my life my parents couldn't care less about what their hopeless daughter was doing), the only thing I really developed was a stomachache from drinking so much, my mind didn't seem infected at all—and I wasn't sick the next morning. It was like everything I had ever learned in health class was disproven—at least in my case. Deciding to mix in a tad amount of business sense to the recent findings, I bet other kids on how many shots I could take. Yeah, it was immoral, but those kids annoyed me and I needed a few extra bucks in my pocket (hey, don't judge. You have things that you do in your free time, I had mine). I really only did that a few times, stopping after I found that the taste of liquor wasn't all that great. Besides, I figured that the other kids weren't planning on getting wise any time soon, so I stopped before I began carrying more cash than Las Vegas.

However, messing with my bandit friend did seem like the kind of sport I could get into. After all, he did tell me to 'loosen up'. Displaying a maniacal smile, I warned, "I might not regret it, but you certainly will if I end up doing this."

Chuckling in a condescending fashion, he retorted with, "I doubt it. After all, I'd like ta consider myself a pro at this sorta thing."

I don't care who you think you are, going up against someone who isn't capable of being drunk is a mistake. "Well…" Looking into the mixture of pleading and anticipation in his eyes, I thought, then again, this would either end up teaching him a lesson about drinking or just be plain entertaining on my part. May be he was right—I can have some fun with this! (To all the people out there, yes, my version of "fun" is a bit skewed, but come on, you can't say that you don't enjoy this!).

"What'dya say?"

Taking the small cup from his hand, I feigned a smile, my hidden agenda tucked under my bangs. "Sure why not? I'm sure a couple drinks won't hurt." Won't hurt me anyway.

Genrou immediately cheered, practically jumping out of his seat with joy and laughter. "Sweet! Finally yer speakin' my language!" Spinning in his seat, he waved his empty bottle in the air. "Hey can we get a few bottles o' sake over here! Hurry it up 'cause I'm not gettin' any younger!"

Mentally rolling my eyes, I continued on with the fake smile. Oh brother.

---

My eyebrow twitched with irritation. I'm the one whose body is sore beyond reason, so how the hell did I end up being the one lugging him around? Being the flame-headed, no self-control wielding nimrod that I should have known he was, Genrou managed to keep on drinking and drinking until he was darn near close to passing out. In the beginning, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, thinking that he's gave enough sense to stop when he reached his limit.

Boy was I wrong

I almost want to kill myself for actually agreeing to his stupid suggestion. I should have known that this idiot would keep drinking even when he went past his limit. With him being so damn tipsy, I was forced to buy two rooms (and by buy I mean show the royal crest and virtually pay for nothing), 'cause it was obvious that we wouldn't be going anywhere while Genrou was still out of it. And so he has officially evolved into a waste of my time. It was my fault I suppose—I should have just pretended to lose while knowing full well that I didn't have a capacity but normal people like him did. That was just my luck: I try to have some fun and it bites me on the ass.

I knew I mentioned it before, but the universe really was a bitch.

A strong scent of liquor circled around him, the flushed look on his face made it obvious that he was wasted. "Wow Aki," his words slurred as his arms hung around my shoulder. I did my best to hold him up with an arm around his waist. "I didn't think that you were this strong. We should have a weight liftin' contest!"

Grimacing even more than I had been (if that were even possible), I said, "No thanks—you need to get some sleep after downing so much sake." Even if I had all of my strength, I still wouldn't have wanted to go through all of that trouble. What a freakin' bother.

His arm tightened around my neck as he became more excitable. "Sleep? I don't need no stinkin' sleep! I can keep fightin' forever." Punching the air randomly, Genrou almost slipped on his own feet, bringing him pretty close to falling down. "C'mon Aki, it's just you an' me, takin' down all of the bastards!"

I sighed as I tried to rationalize with him. "There's no one to fight here." Even if there had been, fighting alongside a drunk? No. I'd be much better off on my own. "Just calm down, we're almost to our room." We were just slugging our way to our rooms, but the sooner we got there, the better. Then I can finally sleep! That beautiful idea alone motivated me to keep on going to drop the lug off in his room and race towards mine.

"Ya know what? Speakin' o' rooms, I just remembered somethin' that Chichiri said. Somethin' about Suzaku and his priestess." What the heck does that have to do with rooms? The thankfulness of my inability to get drunk was definitely there, especially after the events that befell that night. Never would I want to be so out of it that I couldn't comprehend some of the things going on in the world around me. The worst part about this whole thing? I could have made a profit on it! "I didn't even think ta think that you were the priestess. I mean, come on! Look at'cha!"

Even in a drunken state, he managed to slightly tick me off. "You know what? I am this close to dropping you off in this hallway and leaving you to be trampled on." Sure, morally that would not have been good, but it would have made me feel a hell of a lot better.

"Oh stop barkin' at me woman! An' just listen!" Actually, I thought I said that in a rather mild tone. Wait—why am I trying to reason with my self on this? He's wasted! As the argument with myself persisted, he continued with whatever drabble he had started. "Since yer not the priestess, I can tell ya a little secret."

Discovering an opening, I smirked. "That you're actually gay?" The joke was as old as when we first met. He would always say how much he hated women and all that crap and would say how he wanted to be the toughest, manliest man. So I started joking around saying that he was gay. I knew that he wasn't, but seeing that rise out of him provides me a spark of entertainment.

Apparently, though, even while being drunk he still knew when his sexuality was being targeted—kind of peculiar, don't you think? "Dammit woman! I told'ja that I'm not gay! I like women!" I wasn't sure on what to be more surprised about: The fact that he admitted that he liked women or the fact that he said it out loud. Either way, the only way he'd ever say something so blatantly, to a woman no less, was if he was really, really drunk. "Do ya wanna hear my secret er not?"

I chuckled nervously, wanting to scratch my cheek. "I'm not quite sure to tell you the truth."

His voice suddenly rose, causing his voice to ricochet off of the walls. "Well ima tell ya anyway!" Why even ask me if my opinion doesn't matter?" Ya see, I'm one of them warriors of Suzaku that'cha hear so much about." Immediately ceasing the trek to our rooms, the biggest surprise of that day right after learning that the dark ring had a consciousness had just hit me. I certainly did not expect to hear any kind of news regarding stuff with that phoenix god Suzaku—well other than Chichiri's sudden interrogation before he left. With my mind not even focused in on that, hearing that kind of news was completely unexpected.

Forcing him to face me, I loudly asked, "Wait…you're what?"

Smiling with hollow accomplishment, he told me, "Yup! Can't believe it? I didn't either until Hakurou pointed it out ta me a while back." It was difficult believing him at that present moment, especially because he wasn't sober. Somehow sensing my skepticism, he went further in the supporting of his claim. "Ya gotta believe me! If ya don't, check my wrist." Which was exactly what I did. Checking under the sleeve of his right arm, I was shocked to find that a glowing red kanji character sat there as plain as day.

My mouth just gaped open with no audio processing for what seemed like minutes. Finally, I managed, "Omigosh! You are a Suzaku Warrior!"

"Told ya! The character says 'Tasuki'. So in a way, that's actually my name! Genrou just sounds cooler and Hakurou gave it ta me when I joined the bandits. Hell, I didn't even give a damn about bein' a stupid Suzaku Warrior. Mt. Reikaku is where it's at!" The more I thought about it, the more my memory recalled a bit of Hotohori's words when he was reading us the legend from the Universe of the Four Gods. The name 'Tasuki' was actually ringing a bell.

I wouldn't accomplish anything by just standing around in the hallway like an idiot, so I decided to continue helping him get to his room as my brain attempted to sort throughout all of the new information. I can't believe it! I found a warrior of Suzaku! It was really supposed to be Miaka's job. Taiitsukun would have no doubt killed me if she found out that I prevented the girl from finding him on her own. Analyzing the circumstances, I had to acknowledge the fact that Genrou—I mean Tasuki (boy that would take some getting used to!) was drunk when he told me this, so he probably wouldn't even be aware that he told that secret to me. I guess that I'll have to keep this secret now too.

Talking to him quietly so that he wouldn't respond back, I confirmed myself. "So your name is actually Tasuki, huh?" Yup…I'll definitely need time to get used to that. Of course I wouldn't be allowed to call him that—it would tip him off about me knowing.

Finally reaching the door to his room (didn't realize why I didn't order a closer one), I shifted him around me so that I could reach for the key. Upon heading inside, towards the bed, I was relieved to find that in just a few seconds, I could be free for the rest of the night—With his body submitting to the intoxication, Tasuki collapsed before he even made it onto the bed. Having his arm around my shoulders caused me to fall down along with him. "Hold on! Don't fall asleep right here!" It was no use, he was unresponsive at this point—I was on my own. Scooting up to the side of the bed, using the little reserve energy I had left, my sore muscles cried out to me like someone was torturing them with a flamethrower. The last of my energy went into laying our backs against the wall of the foot of the bed. His arm was still roped around my shoulders, and at that point, I honestly had nothing left to check into my own room.

"I know that you complained about having me around, but for what it's worth, you aren't exactly all that easy to deal with yourself." Oh well. No point in complaining about it now—Without warning, the weight of his head fell over to the side, landing on my shoulder, his fiery, unruly hair brushing up against the side of my face. I did my best to contain my blush, but…who was watching? The whole time my body had been tensed up from the awkwardness of it all, but it was evident that I wouldn't have been going anywhere until Tasuki came back to consciousness. So I relaxed, which allowed his head to get a better, more comfortable position on my shoulder—the whole side of his body snuggled in quite close, which didn't help at all with the rising of my body temperature. Looking everywhere in the room except him, I resolved to just closing my eyes, calming myself down as sleep slowly took over. He wouldn't be doing this if he wasn't drunk.

You're such an idiot…

---

"Argh!" It wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that the bandit finally came too. And boy was her not happy—which was understandable since he almost drunk himself into a coma the night before. I couldn't even imagine the agony he was feeling at that moment. Well—no, I still knew suffering from my curse, but at least it wasn't that kind of suffering. From the time he woke up, Tasuki was woozy and a major headache (frankly I was surprised that he didn't puke up all of those poisons—the whole thing was actually pretty clean. Either he lacked the gland used to throw up or he was an expert at holding it back). Bottom line, he wasn't doing so well. "I don't see how you don't have a hangover! What the hell is up with that?"

I shrugged, still choosing not to reveal my little "condition". "Just lucky I guess." We had already walked about a mile from the place we stayed in—actually I walked, he treaded along like a wounded horse.

"Luck nothin'! You drank as much as I did, if not more." More. I definitely drunk more and I could have downed way more than he was even capable of.

Turning backwards to face him, a mocking smile played on my lips. "I thought you said that you could handle it? Huh? Big, strong, tough-man. What happened to 'I'm a pro'?" This folks, would be considered the gloating part of the story. A huge, fat "I told ya so" should have been written in neon colors and advertised above the bandit's head. Unfortunately, I didn't possess the power to do something like that.

"I'm not sayin' that it's horrible, I can handle it." His dreaded actions said otherwise. "And besides, I don't normally go that far…"

Why do I have a hard time believing that? Crossing my arms, I turned back around and closed my eyes in disapproval. "It's your own fault you know. Your foolish male pride compelled you to keep going right when you figured that I'd be superior to you when it came to drinking. You reached your limit back there yet you kept on going. Long story short: you have no one to blame but yourself." When you think about it, my contribution to his hangover was just a small part—he could have stopped at any time. Even so…I'd never end up doing that with him again—he was way too much of a competitive person.

He groaned in misery. "Can't'cha do anything to dull the side-effects at least? I mean, come on! Yer a witch fer cryin' out loud—" Like a reflex, I brought out the Hammer of Justice and rested it on my shoulders, ready at any time to swing it at full force at the bandit. Somewhat emulating a trained dog, Tasuki cringed, at the sight of it, knowing that he shouldn't have called me what he called me.

Withdrawing my toy, I snickered at his reaction. "Nah, I won't hit you…this time. I'd say that you're already paying for your stupidity in full as it is." Even I had to admit that sometimes, rarely, the universe dishes out punishments fairly. This…would be one of those times. The universe may have loved to pick on me, but it has the potential to be an equal opportunist on better days. Thank God for that for if its attention was on me all of the time, I'd never get anything done.

Continuing on with his groaning, he asked ferociously, "Can ya please just help me?"

"What kind of powers do you think I have? I'm not a doctor." Believe me, I didn't want to seem harsh, but there really wasn't anything I could do that would do much good.

"You healed me before, and yerself!"

"Okay one: using Saifogeo would make me weaker since I'd end up giving you my strength. I'm finally able to walk properly again, so that's a no. Two: Using Recovery would mean making you weaker because the spell uses the energy of the person being healed. Considering the state you're in, it would probably end up making you feel worse. Three: Those two are really the only recovery spells I have, and their effects mainly only work on broken parts of the body, and wounds and such. I don't really think that they can aid hangovers. And four: this whole experience will teach you a lesson about trying to one-up somebody—especially when it comes to drinking."

There was an immediate pause following my drawn out list, then Tasuki's tone went dry. "Ya know, I feel kinda sorry fer the sorry bastard who comes along and marries you."

Winking at him, I pretended that his words hadn't affected me a little. "I can say the same thing to you Fang-boy." But maybe he was right…no matter how much I wanted to go around it, his getting drunk like that was fundamentally my fault. His competitive edge wouldn't have been triggered if I hadn't tricked him. My conscious would continue to stab at me and stab at me until I managed to come up with a way to do something about it.

"Hey!" He proclaimed, "I told'ja that I'm not gay!"

"Oh yeah! And speaking of which," I stopped in my spot, preparing to ask a question that had been circling in my head since we woke up. "How much do you remember from last night?"

The bandit's demeanor became rather defensive at my unintentionally offensive comment. "Oh sure, keep rubbin' it in my face why don't'cha! Fine, ya beat me in a drinkin' contest. But'cha better not tell anyone."

Yeah, 'cause I know how often that topic comes up in everyday conversation. "I'm not talking about that. I'm seriously asking what do you remember about what happened after we left the table." That information was important for me to know in order to see if he remembers what he told me about who he was.

Backing off a bit, he uneasily answered it the best that his hangover would allow him. "I sorta remember walkin' to the room but not much else..." He tried to search his memory deeper, but his head was just in too much pain. "Why? Did I do or say somethin'?"

If that's the case, then I guess I'll just keep it to my self for now. "No not really—nothing worth mentioning anyway."

"Then why ask?"

"Curious." Simple enough, right?

Running in front of me, he demanded the truth he didn't know I even had. "You wouldn't ask unless somethin' happened."

"Or maybe I'm just curious." A nasty expression hung on his face as disbelief riddled throughout his features. "Why are you scowling at me? I could just have a natural curiosity. Sheesh! You never know when to let things go."

Staring at me for what seemed like hours, his persistence gave up when it appeared to him that I wouldn't break. "So…yer sure that nothin' went on?"

Pointing to my frown I asked him, "Does this look like the face of someone who's unsure?"

"Hmm…guess not." Being the simple guy that he was, his focus soon took another direction. "Well, whatever, if it was somethin' then I'll find out eventually." He would find out…in time. Miaka would find him and then our friendship would be allowed to go on for a little bit linger—at least until this whole issue with Suzaku was over. I would have been lying to myself if I had said that it didn't matter to me whether or not he was a Suzaku warrior. Let's just say that I felt reassured knowing that even though we'd have to split up soon, it would only be for a small while. Tasuki did get on my nerves way too often, but I sort of wanted to explore my friendship with the one person who wasn't affected by Shokyoku. Besides that, if I had left those feelings aside, there were still the secrets about him that Shokyoku was hiding from me. He was different, and I wanted to know why. "So Aki," He held his head o help subdue the headache that was probably pounding in his head. "Seein' as how we have the flower an' all, I was thinkin' that we could head on back to Mt. Reikaku an' give it to Hakurou. What'dya say?"

Uneasily trailing my eyes in some opposite direction, his offer processed throughout my mind. "Well, we did get it so that he could get better…but…" You no longer need me for this. This was technically his mission to begin with. I just interfered and butted in with the intent of having someone be my map and my front line whenever I casted spells.

"But what?"

"I—" Before I even had the opportunity to finish my sentence, a flash of red blocked my vision, instantly bringing me back to the palace in Konan's capital. I was inside the elegantly designed throne room—Hotohori sitting on his rightful seat at his gold and scarlet throne. There was a deeper flash of light that occurred in the middle of the room, eventually taking the shape of a young girl with olive eyes, reddish-brown hair in an Odango hairstyle, and a familiar brown middle school uniform. She had on some ridiculously huge backpack filled with who knows what that caused her to fall backwards.

Right as I blinked, the vision ended, landing me back on the trail talking to my newly discovered Suzaku warrior companion.

"Miaka!" I instantly shouted out. He gave me a puzzled look when I mentioned my childhood friend's name. Deciding not to leave him hanging, I explained, "It's Miaka, she's back!" Calming down a bit, I panned up towards the sky. "I have to go."

"What? Why? How do ya know?"

To answer his questions in order, "That friend of mine that I told you and Chichiri about—I did tell you that I'd have to go back to the palace when she returned. And I had a vision. So…" Who would have thought that in the beginning of our journey together that I'd actually hesitate in getting away from him? It was kind of funny…when we met I couldn't wait to separate myself from the likes of that bandit. Things definitely had changed. "I guess this is good-bye for now."

Tasuki's past aggravation with me had ceased with my announcement. "Are ya positive that'cha have to go? I'm sure that yer friend wouldn't mind if ya did one more errand." Didn't particularly matter if she minded—even though she would. But I made a promise to look out for her. It was primarily up to me to keep her out of trouble. She may have been acquiring warriors to protect her, but there were some things that even they couldn't do.

Trying to make the parting seem less awkward dramatic, I changed the atmosphere around a bit to switch to my favor. "Hey, you've got the easy part now—I doubt that you actually need my help—a woman's help." Hopefully he would take the bait. "Do you?"

Taken aback by my statement, he crossed his arms with indifference—toughening out the obvious pain from his still lingering hangover. "Of course not! I can deliver the stupid plant all on my own—"

"Well okay then. We're in an agreement." Using my energy, which had for the most part returned (I still had to take it easy though), I took to the sky—enjoying the intentioned weightlessness that I hadn't experienced recreationally for quite a while. The fly back should prove to be rather relaxing. I gazed back down at him. "Let's not make this whole thing real dramatic, 'kay?" We both had things that we needed to do and we were both aware that this would happen eventually. So parting on good terms was the best way to go.

Understanding what I was trying to get at, he nodded up at me. "I'll make sure that Hakurou get's this."

Waving him off smugly, I tried to emulate Shokyoku's unique façade. "See that you do—try not to screw it up."

Struck a nerve. "What're ya tryin' to say?" Bending over in pain, that ping of guilt struck me once more, leading me to think of something last minute. Rolling my eyes, I silently cursed my conscious for being a pest. I levitated down to him, while still managing to keep my feet off of the ground.

Lowering my forehead to his, I initiated his past request—but with my own special twist. "Convergence: Recovery!" Taking advantage of our bond, I utilized the energy that we shared together and used that as fuel for the new spell I had created (due to quick thinking and magic logic). Searching deep down for his origins of pain, it didn't take long before the negative sensations were exchanged between us—I felt it all, the severe pounding in the head, the increased sensitivity to sounds, and who could miss that acidic nausea? Being able to sense it way easier in myself, I extracted it with the spell—our bond, in turn made it so that his pain was relieved as well. The spell was an empathetic one—the pain that one feels so does the other, combining their energy would be necessary for non-physical healing (such as things that didn't involve blood or wounds) to then occur. Hoping that I did a good enough job for him, I released the bonded spell and lifted myself high into the air as I told him, "Don't push yourself." Chances were that that spell would only work between the two of us.

Instead of a thank you or a proper reaction, all he did was stand there, holding his head to put everything into focus. That was soon replaced by a somewhat annoyed look followed by a light pink blush.

Understanding his silence, I left some more parting words. "Good luck." We'll meet up again sooner or later. After all, Miaka needs you to summon Suzaku.

Resting his hands on the back of his head, he turned his back to me. "Yeah, yeah. If yer gonna leave, then go already. Yer holdin' me up."

All I gave was a single giggle. No one's pinning you to the ground. You could have left at any time. Before he would end up using his superhuman speed to leave the area, something important came up. "Oh! One more thing."

He was already mid-run when I called back out, so he ended up losing his balance and falling to his face. "Yeah? What do ya want?" He yelled back with dirt all over his face.

Feeling slightly embarrassed with the question I was going to ask, I looked away and scratched the side of my cheek. "I'm still relatively new to this land, so I don't exactly… know where the capital city is…"

Standing up to dust himself off, the irritation on his face persisted as he pointed in what seemed to be south (using the sun as a reference). "How could'ja honestly not know… where ya came from?"

Yeah, I already know that I should have gotten a map from Hotohori—didn't exactly need to hear youlecturing me on about it. "Thanks a bunch." With that pleasant note, I boosted my levitation energy, giving me the speed to make it above some of the passer-by clouds in only seconds. The chill from the water particles were refreshing, waking me up and helping me feel slightly energized. Choosing not to waste any more time, I casted an aiding spell to assist my speed. "Ray Wing!" A swirling shield of wind covered my body as I flew, leaving a beautiful white tail following behind.I'll be there soon Miaka. An instinct of mine prompted me to look back even though I knew perfectly well that I wouldn't have been able to see him even if I tried, not at the speed that I was going. I shook my head and focused onward, dedicated to my upcoming mission.

Until we meet again…Tasuki.

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ATTENTION READERS: This is the Beta version of LH5W, if you want to read the official, updated version of the story, you'll have to go over to DeviantArt. com and head on over to my page. My username is Aloubell. You can also get there by going to my fanfiction. net profile which provides a link over there.
In any case, this Beta version is basically the rough draft of LH5W, my first attempt at it. Much of the plot points from this version will be the same in the official version, but there are significant and consistent characterization changes, a few (but very important) plot differences, expansion of past ideas, and overall better quality in storytelling.

All of this will be done over on DeviantArt. I no longer will write the story in traditional prose nor submit/update it here to fanfiction. net. The Beta version will remain here, just know that it isn't the 100% official story.
The official version will be written in a lazy prose mixed with play-writing elements (you'll get what I mean when you see it).
This is the new format for the story from now on.
So please head on over there if you're interested in updates to the story! Thank you for stopping by =D

-Aloe

PLEASE NOTE: The official version is being written somewhat out of order. The official version will start on chapter 46, the place where the Beta version left off. The official version will go on to complete the last chapters of Season 2. Once those are done, I will redo the story over again from Chapter 1 which will be the official version.

Having said that, if you choose to continue on reading, I hope you enjoy the Beta version and look forward to the official!