Chapter Three

They're here, they're here, THEY FOUND ME!

Kazahaya wasn't thinking. All he could do was run blindly. His thoughts were racing and his heart was pounding so strongly that he thought it would burst out of his chest. His sides were burning and tears blurred his vision but he didn't care. He thought he would throw up.

He tripped, and slammed face-first into the dirt. He lay there face-down on the ground, his heaving breaths the only sounds in the darkness. Kazahaya looked up and stared at his surroundings. He recognized this place. It was the park where Rikuou and him had chased the spirit-cat to.

Spirit-cat...Kazahaya pressed his face back into the ground. He hugged his arms over his head as sobs shook his body.

They found me. Everything I did was for nothing. What...What am I going to do? Rikuou, Kakei-san, Saiga-san...they will all be in danger if I stay.

Kazahaya's sobs grew in volume and he curled into a ball on the ground. The pain inside of him so was intense that it made breathing difficult. Why? Why did I stay at the Green Drugstore? I should have left when I got my strength back! If only...

He wasn't thinking clearly; he knew that he wasn't. Staying at the Green Drugstore had been necessary to Kazahaya's survival. He had wandered around Japan, knowing nothing of his surroundings or how to take care of himself, and then finally almost did die in a plaza in front of dozens of people who did nothing to help him. Only one did; Rikuou, and he brought him to the Green Drugstore. He brought him to Kakei, who gave him a place to stay and a job to earn income.

Rikuou had given him life. Kakei gave him a home and livelihood. He would have NONE of those things had he chosen to run away from the Green Drugstore.

But now they're in danger. They found me, and they're here. I can't escape them. I probably never truly could...

Kazahaya suddenly heard the familiar 'caw' directly over him, and his pulse spiked in alarm. But before he could sit up he felt an unusual sensation against his hands. Gusts of winds and brushes of...feathers? He quickly realized that the headless crow was hovering over him and attacking him. Against his better judgment he rolled onto his back and began swatting at the bird with both arms. "Go away!"

The headless crow continued to caw and beat its wings against Kazahaya's arms and face. It looked much larger so close than it had in the apartment. Kazahaya noticed though that the crow had its talons curled beneath its body, as though it were trying to avoid scratching him. It was only interacting with him with its wings.

It's not trying to hurt me. But that means...KEI?!

"Stop it, Kei!" Kazahaya shouted. He reached out and grabbed the headless crow's torso. Its body was still wet and sticky. "You don't understand...!"

His powers of post-cognition triggered in that moment and Kazahaya threw his head back, the back of his head bouncing off the dirt. He felt the air hitting his face, but his body...his body felt weightless. He turned his head down and he realized that he was airborne in the memory of the crow. It was daylight.

On the ground several meters below, he saw Rikuou splayed upon the ground of the unknown location where they were. Rikuou looked horrid—Kazahaya wheezed when he saw how horribly injured Rikuou was. He was covered on bruises, lacerations, and blood. Blood was splattered on the ground underneath his body.

And standing over Rikuou, gripping his wrist extending his arm and licking the blood off his arm, wearing a kimono drenched in blood...was Kei.

The crow swooped down without Kazahaya's prompt. Rikuou looked like a corpse on the ground, but Kazahaya already knew that Rikuou wasn't dead. He watched with horror as his twin licked her lips and abruptly dropped Rikuou's arm upon his body. She reached up and traced her mouth with the tip of her index finger.

"Thank you, you thief," she said. Her voice was calm but full of so much hatred that Kazahaya gasped in shock. "Now I have what I need."

Kazahaya shoved the headless crow away from him. "Kei—you?!" he cried out.

The headless crow flew back towards him, but a leg swung out from the darkness and delivered a roundhouse kick to the bird. "Get away from him!"

"Rikuou!" Kazahaya cried out as the other young man collapsed to his knees. The headless crow went flying as Kazahaya scrambled over to him.

"Shit, damn it!" Rikuou grunted, curling into his body slightly.

"You idiot, what are you doing?!" Kazahaya snapped at him.

"What am I doing?!" Rikuou yelled at him. "You're the one who ran away! You put yourself out in the open without protection! Why don't you ever think before you act, Kazahaya?!"

"You need to get back!" Kazahaya carefully grabbed his arm and tried to pull him to his feet. "It's dangerous, you can't be out here!"

"Neither of us can!" Rikuou grabbed his elbow with his free hand and glared into his face. "What were you thinking?!" he snarled through clenched teeth. "I'm still injured! I can't protect you like this!"

His statement startled Kazahaya but he quickly shook it off. "I'll get you back there Rikuou," he said, softening his tone. "B-But then I need to go. I can't stay—"

"You're not going anywhere," Rikuou interjected. "You belong at the Green Drugstore and you're going to stay there, Kazahaya!"

"I DON'T belong there!" Kazahaya cried out. He felt tears stinging his eyes once more but he shook them off furiously. "I don't belong anywhere, Rikuou! What happened to you is MY fault, and if I stay then—"

"Whoa, hold on!" Rikuou leaned in close to him. "I know you didn't just say that what happened to me was your fault!"

"But it was!" the tears did come then and Kazahaya scrubbed at his face with his sleeves. "They h-hurt you because of me! If I stay with you, t-then—"

"Last I checked, you weren't the one who attacked me," Rikuou retorted. "That would be the only way what happened to me was my fault. But you weren't there Kazahaya, and you didn't attack me. So what happened to me wasn't your fault."

Kazahaya shook his head and pulled on his arm. "W-We need to go—"

"I'm not going anywhere," Rikuou said harshly. "If taking me back to the Green Drugstore gives you an opportunity to run away, then I'm not moving." He pulled himself free and planted himself on the ground in a sitting position, his legs spread out in front of himself.

"What—Are you serious?!" Kazahaya hollered.

"Yeah," Rikuou snapped, glaring up at him. "If you're going to abandon me as soon as you take me home, then I'm not going back. You'll have to drag me back there, Kazahaya."

Kazahaya sputtered loudly and indignantly for several long seconds. "W...What are you, a kid throwing a temper tantrum?!"

"Call me whatever you want. I'm not moving."

Kazahaya grabbed Rikuou by his elbow again and pulled upwards with all his might. Unsurprisingly, the larger boy didn't budge from where he sat. "Damn you!" Kazahaya snapped at him. "Why are you so big?!"

Rikuou smirked. "Pure luck. Not all of us are hot-headed pretty boys like you."

"You—What?!"

"Get back!" Rikuou suddenly shouted, pushing Kazahaya behind him. Kazahaya and fell to his knees behind Rikuou but he turned in time to see the headless crow lunging in flight directly at Rikuou. He furrowed his brow, and right before their eyes blood geysered from the headless crow's chest. It flopped onto the ground and after a few twitches it went still.

"What did you do?" Kazahaya asked him.

"I can break small objects," Rikuou reminded him. "So I focused on where I thought its heart was and broke its heart."

"Y-You blew up its heart?!"

"I guess so since it's finally dead. I've never used my powers on a living thing before. Or...whatever that was." He gestured to the headless crow.

Kazahaya let out a shaky breath and raised a hand to brush his hair out of his face. "I—" his voice broke off and he cried out in alarm when he saw blood covering his hands. "R-Rikuou!" he screamed, turning back to him. To his shock his white shirt was only slightly dirty, but not bloodstained. "Your wounds—"

"They haven't reopened," Rikuou reassured him. "Did you touch the crow though, Kazahaya?"

He quickly nodded. "I thought so. That headless crow was coated with blood. It was still fresh and wet on its feathers."

"W-Why was it covered in blood?!"

"If I can guess...it was my blood," Rikuou said grimly.

Kazahaya gasped. He looked down at his hands again. Both were coated in dry blood. "Y—Your blood?!"

"Kakei is powerful," Rikuou said. "I overheard him one time with Saiga. Sometimes he can...hide the Green Drugstore. Like behind a barrier or something. When that happens, no one can come near it."

Kazahaya remembered occasions when the streets had seemed deserted in front of the drugstore, even at 5 o'clock at night when the streets should be full of people. "So...the headless bird," he whispered. "Kei covered it in your blood so it could bypass whatever barrier Kakei-san had put up?"

"Probably," Rikuou said. "The barrier would have sensed me on the bird and let it—"

His voice abruptly broke off and his head snapped up to look at Kazahaya. "Kei," he said. "Your twin sister was the person who attacked me, then?"

Kazahaya felt like crying all over again. His mouth open and closed soundlessly for several moments. He didn't know what to say.

"...Let's save it for later," Rikuou said, his tone surprisingly calm and soothing. He held out his hand. "We need to get back and wait for Kakei and Saiga to come back. They'll know what to do."

Words flooded Kazahaya's mind then and there was so much that he wanted to say. But he swallowed the words back and helped Rikuou stand. "Okay," he said quietly. He managed to choke out a laugh. "I may as well go back because of my feet. They're freezing."

"Yeah, because you're barefoot," Rikuou pointed out.

"I am?" Kazahaya looked down.

At the entrance of the park, they heard the violent roar of a car engine. Bright headlights pierced the darkness, and a large black windowless van drove straight towards them.

Kazahaya wheezed in alarm and grabbed Rikuou's arm. "RUN!" he shrieked.

Before either could move, the van sped ahead of them and screeched to a stop horizontally in front of them, blocking their path. Kazahaya grabbed Rikuou's arm, but the other boy pushed Kazahaya behind him as the van door opened and several people spilled out. Men and women dressed in black but all were wearing masks that looked like Noh masks.

"Kudo Kazahaya," one called out, stepping forward. It was a nondescript man probably ten years older than both of them. "We're here to take you home."