A/N: Apologies beforehand, if this chapter became more like a crossover with xxxHoliC

"What did you mean that you know of a way to save Keiwa!?"

.

Bujin and Kitsune immediately turned to look at each other before cocking their heads together.

"I wonder what's that idiot talking about right now—?"

"I know, right? What is it that did he think that we know that he didn't know already?"

"I wonder about that as well..."

Ace fumed as the frustrations that kept accumulating inside of him gave him enough strength to push himself enough into a sitting position.

"I'm asking about the things the two of you were just talking about earlier! What was that about wanting to save Keiwa and why you didn't want me to know what to do to save him?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Kitsune, as he suddenly wore a mischievous foxy grin. "You were talking about THAT. Nah, do your own homework by yourself... and don't cheat this time. You owed it to Kei-chan to play the game by the rules and not take a shortcut and cheat." Kitsune just scrunched his nose in Ace's direction before taking out his Kitsune mask and putting it on again.

Ace blinked at his darker twin before turning his head towards Bujin.

"Cheat? What are you talking about? Don't the two of you want Keiwa to wake up and get better? Why aren't you telling me what should I do to save Keiwa's life?"

Bujin just made a face at Ace before glancing at Kitsune. "Kitcchan is right, you do need to do your homework by yourself. And I shouldn't tell you anything about it, not even a hint. Although Kei-chan can always drop you a hint himself... but I don't think even he knows what you should do to save himself. Since Kei-chan is not you."

Bujin then turned towards Kitsune and started to pout. "Eeh! I want a fancy mask like yours too... stingy!"

Kitsune lifted his Kitsune mask slightly and gave Bujin a soft peck on the cheek. "I thought it'd clash with your aesthetics...but if you really want it—"

The shadow fox took out another mask from inside his sleeve as Ace recognised the pattern to be of a tanuki in nature. Kitsune gave the tanuki mask to Bujin and the latter smiled widely.

"Oh nice, now both of us matched!"

xxx

Bujin walked back down towards him as Kitsune followed the other silently behind. Both of them sat down in front of Ace just to be a slightly bit 'nicer'. Though Ace couldn't really be sure about that since both of them were now wearing their respective masks, thus hiding their facial expressions.

.

The Tanuki Mask just cocked his head to the side. "Though to be fair, I think your other friends had already somewhat figured out one important hint by chance. Punkie turned out to be quite observant and smart."

Ace blinked at Bujin. "Huh? Punkie... you mean, PunkJack?"

The Tanuki mask just did a little dance as Bujin didn't answer his question. And then Ace realised something...

"Wait, by any chance... are you still connected to Keiwa? Is he still alright?"

Bujin just shrugged at him. "Beats me. It's not like I can just jump out of you and hop back into him. It's just that... occasionally some soft 'breeze' would come over—"

"What did you mean by that? Do you or do you not know if Keiwa was alright?"

Before Bujin could provide him with any more specific answer, Kitsune Mask glanced up towards him and spoke.

"Seriously, you still hadn't realised that you've misunderstood something very important. And looking at you right now, it'll still be a while before Kei-chan could wake up. But don't worry, I'm sure Kei-chan could still wait for you to figure it out eventually."

Bujin took off his tanuki mask before grinning at him.

"You really need to ease up on being so dramatic, Ace-san. You kept forgetting about something very important... even when someone did try to remind you about it."

"Huh?"

"Buffi tried to remind you about it the other night, didn't he? What Kei-chan had said to you." Bujin shook his head in disbelief. "I seriously can't believe I'm praising that buffalo for once, but the guy really does start using his brains properly these days. Guess losing Kei-chan once and being faced with another possibility that it'll happen again made people realise how important Kei-chan is in their lives and made them want to make sure that they could protect him properly this time."

Ace opened his mouth to try to say something but ended up drawing a blank, as his mind become empty. Bujin took that opportunity to place a soft kiss on Ace's lips.

"Isn't it about time for you to start bucking the hell up, Ace-chan? Stop trying to run away anymore!"

Kitsune took the chance to grab Ace's face to make him turn to face the darker twin before Kitsune gave him a cheeky grin. Ace couldn't help wondering when did Kitsune take off his mask as well.

"Kei-chan said that he's putting his trust in you so we'll do the same. But you need to start trusting yourself again, Ace. Or else you wouldn't be able to see the answer even if it stood right in front of you."

And just like that... everything around Ace suddenly turned bright.