wahhh! *sob*
Nikki isn't going to be here tonight!!!
that's prolly why i'm not as excited as i usually am.
it's jus' not halloween without Nikki...
Nyeh, i'll prolly do what i usually do. sit around and wait to go pick 'er up from work.
WOOOOT! maybeh watch a scary movie or something.

'ave a 'Appy 'Alloween!


SPork <3

“You,” was Lot’s nearly inaudible admittance. “We…I was with you…and she walked in on…I can’t believe I’m telling you this…” Why am I telling him this? Lot panicked in his mind. Why do I keep talking when I should shut up? He continued talking, though.  “I’m not usually like this. Really. I know when to shut up most of the time. And I don’t babble and I don’t sit on kitchen floors cuddling with boys I’ve had sex dreams about. I just don’t, but I am right now, which is terrifying. I don’t go out drinking, but I did. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I was going to get married and have kids. I was supposed to love and take care of Nanashi. I was going to be second-in-command of the entirety of White. Those were the things planned for my future. Not really by me, but at least I had a purpose. Now what? I’m a fugitive. I’ve failed Nanashi. I’ll never get married or raise children who are my own blood because I’m in love with a boy. What the Hell happened to my life? Asa used to be my best friend and now he hates me… I wanted to kill him for even touching you…” Lot’s cheeks and hands were wet with tears. “I haven’t cried since I was really little… I never cry…” His breath hitched in a sob.

“I’m so sorry.” Reiko wiped away Lot’s tears and held him close. “I didn’t…I didn’t realize just how much shit I’ve caused. I didn’t mean to. It’s just…I like you so much. I just wanted to be with you. I never wanted to cause any trouble. That’s all.” he swallowed down the grief he felt well up inside of him, trying hopelessly to keep the tears out of his eyes. “Lot, I’ve said it before, if my being a guy is something that makes things harder for you, I can fix that. And Nanashi…Why are you the one who has to take care of her? Why can’t she take care of herself? She seems capable enough. And…do you really want to be second in command of an evil empire?”

 “She’s my responsibility,” Lot stressed, “It’s a long, messed up story. This started before you, Rei. Don’t take all of the blame upon yourself. Don’t cry because of me.”

“But it is! It’s all my fault! I’m so sorry!” Reiko scrambled up. “You’re just trying to make me feel better and it isn’t working! I’m sorry!”

“Reiko,” Lot pleaded, “Please don’t. I knew I should’ve shut up. You’re just so easy to talk to…Reiko, I don’t blame you. I couldn’t possibly blame you for anything.”

“Yes you can and if you don’t now, you will later!” Reiko howled. “Everybody always does…”

Lot took to his feet and embraced Reiko, “I love you, Reiko. I never meant to upset you… I was just overwhelmed and… This is why I don’t cry. Don’t show or say anything of what I’m really feeling. I just wanted to tell someone…”

Reiko cried nosily into Lot’s shirt. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I …and I don’t mean to…it’s really…” his words became unintelligible noises.

Lot stepped back in his mind from the situation and laughed inwardly, Aren’t we the perfect pair with our synchronized emotional breakdowns…

Outwardly, he was serious and strangely at ease with his arms around Reiko who was sobbing into his shirt. “It’s really okay. We’ll figure each other out someday. Cry as much as you want, if it makes you feel better.”

Mizuki covered her head with a pillow trying to drown out the noise downstairs. “What the hell could they doing down there? People are still sleeping up here…”

“Some sort of mating ritual,” Kit explained. “You should’ve seen it… but it’s better that you didn’t. That image will be burned into my brain forever…”

“What? Were they having sex or something?” Mizuki uncovered her face. “Or something weirder than that? Bestiality maybe?”

“There was definitely some foreplay going on,” Kit laughed as he shook his head slowly, “There’s just something about that kitchen…”

“It’s a magic kitchen. Either that or it’s full of aphrodisiacs.” Mizuki shrugged. “Either way, it totally works for me.”

“I would certainly agree,” Kit slipped back under the covers. “I was going to bring breakfast but… well, that didn’t quite work out.”

“Obviously.” Mizuki snuggled up against him. “Did they ever find Nanashi?”

“No, I don’t think so. I thought I heard Asa yelling about it,” Kit slipped his arms around her body. “But I think Lot chased him off.” What Kit didn’t say was that he had eaves dropped and heard everything. He battled with whether or not Mizuki needed to know all of the details.

“If Asa was yelling about it then I guess his men never found her…” Mizuki sighed worriedly, “I hope she’s alright.”

“Yeah,” Kit moved his arm so he could play with Mizuki’s hair, “Nothing could hurt Nanashi.”

“I know but I still worry about her.” she murmured. “I can’t help it.”

“She’s with Riku, he liked her, I think, so he wouldn’t—“Kit caught himself. “Dammit.”

Mizuki sat up, “She’s with who?! You said Riku! Where is he? Why is he—“she gaped at Kit. “Did you know he was here? You weren’t going to tell me, were you?”

“I wasn’t sure how you’d react,” Kit said with an edge of nervousness, “I didn’t want you to be upset when things were going so good…”

Mizuki took a few moments to gain her composure. “Ok, so Riku is here. Then why hasn’t he said anything? And why did he run off with Nanashi?”

“I’m not sure. I didn’t hear anything about that stuff. Reiko and Asa got into a fight before any of that could be determined. Asa seemed pretty adamant that Riku had brainwashed her,” Kit spilled. “Though, I think it’d take a lot to brainwash that girl.”

“Why would Asa know about…” it suddenly dawned on her. “Oh my gods, Kit! Riku is in White and Asa’s in Black! What if he tries to hurt him?” She leaned against him. “He can’t get hurt. I’ve barely even spoken to him.”

“He already tried, but Nanashi fought for Riku.” Kit stroked Mizuki’s hair—it was one of his favorite things about her—and tried to calm her fears, “If she fought for him once, she’ll do it again if the situation calls. I just wish I knew why this was happening. Nanashi’s not the type to abandon her friends.”

“I don’t know. This is so confusing.” Mizuki held Kit’s free hand. “I almost wish that I never even saw Riku. It just makes things complicated.”

“I don’t mean to make things worse, but we still need to get out of this town and away from that freak show of a collector,” Kit laced his fingers through hers. “Maybe we’ll meet up with them later.”

Mizuki shuddered and buried her face in the front of his shirt. “I hate this place, Kit. What if there are more people like him? It scares me because I know that there are.”

“I won’t get us into a mess like that again,” Kit promised. He crossed his arms over her protectively.

“I know. But it still scares me.” She hugged him tightly. “Why would anyone even do that?”

“You’re beautiful. I could see why a person would want you for their own,” Kit reasoned, “But to enslave a person as a pet is going a little too far.”

“I may be a demon but I’m no animal.” Mizuki huffed. “People really suck sometimes.”

“I could argue the part about you not being an animal,” Kit laughed with sinful amusement.

The doorbell buzzed downstairs. “SOMEONE GET THE DOOR!” Reiko shouted from down the hall. “ME AND LOT ARE NAKED!”

“SHUT UP, REIKO!” Lot yelled from the same direction. There was a whimper and it could only be assumed that Lot had hit Reiko for his inappropriate yelling.

Kit released a weighty sigh, “I’ll be right back.” He kissed the top of Mizuki’s head, the tip of her nose, and her lips before reluctantly lumbering out of bed.

When he arrived at the door, no one was there. A note was pinned to the doorframe:

To my little family of misfits:

I’m sorry if I’ve caused any trouble by disappearing like this. Riku and I have to leave (I’m wanted by yet another group, goody!) so we don’t have to fight Asa again. We will continue toward Musahar and hopefully meet up with you all either before we get there, or when we get there. I’m really sorry for causing so much trouble. I love you all so much! I’ll miss you already! (Especially Reiko and his deliciously sexi body!)

Until we meet again,

Nanashi

Kit took the note in his hands back upstairs, rereading it several times. Reiko popped out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel on his hips. A trail of water was left in his wake, “Who was it? Was it Nanashi? What’s that? Lemme see!” He snatched away the paper and took a moment to read it. When he handed it back to Kit some of the inky words were smudged from his damp fingers.

“I’m glad she’s okay,” Reiko piped beamishly, “I feel sorry for her though… being deprived of the sight of my delicious body…” He giggled in a giddy fashion.

Is he on drugs? Kit raised and eyebrow at Reiko’s questionable mirth.

“Reiko, you can’t just track through someone’s home dripping water everywhere,” Lot complained as he exited the same bathroom Reiko had emerged from. A towel draped over his damp hair and wearing a pair of black jeans, Lot stopped when he realized his brother was in there as well. A deathly silence befell the hall.

The silence was broken by barely-contained snickers as Kit covered his mouth.

“Don’t even start,” Lot warned, his cheeks pink. “I didn’t say anything about you and Mizuki…”

“Okay, okay,” Kit let a small laugh escape. He turned and walked briskly back to the room where he had left Mizuki. After he closed the door he laughed without restraint.

“Shut up, Kit!” Lot yelled indignantly from the hall.

An hour later the group was ready to leave the colourful town of Pharacesa. The healer who had helped them out the night before couldn’t be found so they left him a note of thanks and some of the money they had left over. On their way out of town, they stopped by a few merchants’ stalls to replenish the supplies they would need to get to the next town. More than a few times they were forced into a crowd or a shop to escape some of Ulric’s men who were undoubtedly looking for them.  After what seemed like an eternity, they finally made it to the cheerful coloured yellow green gates that marked the end of town. Yet again they found themselves wandering around chilly snow covered woods. Fortunately for them, the road from Pharacesa to the next town was one that was constantly traveled, and therefore easy to find in the snowy slush. Only when they made it to the tiny village of Truskill did they stop.

Truskill was the complete opposite of Pharacesa. It was tiny, dingy and seemed almost deserted. The buildings were worn and depilated and some looked as if a slight breeze could tear them down. The entire village was bland and colourless it seemed as if the entire place had been completely drained of every colour save black, white and various shade of grey.

The group decided to stop and rest for awhile at one of the more stable looking cafes in the village. Inside was almost dead silence despite the number of people there.

“Does this place freak you out or what?” Mizuki barely whispered.

“Like hell it does!” Reiko shouted. “It’s so depressing here!”

Lot nudged him in the ribs and gave him a look.

“Alright, alright…” Reiko muttered. “I’ll keep it down.”

They took a booth in the back corner of the café and ordered. Truskill cuisine was just about as bland as the entire village was, if not more so.

Reiko pulled the map from his bag and spread it out on the table. “We can probably make it to about here tonight.” He pointed to a small dot in the map with his fork. “There’s still a few days before we’ll be able to make it to Aversin.”

“Hopefully the rest of these places are less depressing than this.” Mizuki pushed away a plate of food that was supposed to be spaghetti but looked more like stringy baby vomit. “Maybe they’ll have better food.”

Kit shrugged and took a bite of his burger. “I think it’s ok.”

“That’s because you’re a freak.” Mizuki stared in horror as he took another bite.

“I think you’re a freak.” Reiko reached across the table and poked her with his fork.

“You have no idea…” Kit grinned impishly. Mizuki buried her face behind her hands and groaned.

Reiko chuckled and put his arm around Lot. “Well she isn’t the only one.”

“Shut up, Reiko.” Lot’s face turned pink.

“Ok, so once we’re done here we’ll head west past Emi and into Ithika. We can stay the night there and probably make it to this little place here the next day.” He pointed to yet another spot on the map. “After that it’s smooth sailin’ to Aversin. Who knows, maybe we’ll meet up Riku and Nanashi.”

“Maybe we can…” Mizuki said hopefully.

Reiko packed the map away and set some money out on the table to pay for their so called food. “Onward to Ithika, I guess.”

Riku climbed into a tree and scanned the horizon carefully, looking for anyone that could be following them. “Good. No one is following after us.”

“I told you they wouldn’t. Not just yet anyways.” Nanashi brushed the snow off of a rock and sat down.

“You can never be too careful.” Riku hopped down from the tree and took a seat next to Nanashi.

They sat together in comfortable silence, the only noise around was their quiet breathing.

Riku was the first to break it. “Listen Nanashi, I owe you my life. I owe you everything and I want to thank you for it.” He kissed her lightly on the cheek. “There’s no way in all the hells I could ever hurt you. I just won’t return to White. Alva will probably think I’m dead, which is what I’d be anyways if I returned to him without your jewel. But you know, I’d rather be dead than have to carry out the rest of this mission.”

“It was nothing, really, I’m used to pissing people off with random acts of violence. I’m a hypocrite like that,” she brushed away his words, “What else could I have done? Consider us even for when you helped my friends and I. As for not carrying out your mission, you shouldn’t be so quick to give up.”

“Why not? I don’t think I could do it even if I wanted to.” Riku shook his head. “Even monsters like myself have some sort of morals.”

“Honestly, I’ve probably killed more people than you have. I’m not saying that to be boastful, either. It’s just so,” Nanashi searched for the right word, “It’s easy. Disturbingly easy if you can do so from a distance with a wave of your hand.”

“Yeah.” An almost wistful look fell upon Riku’s face. “It would be easier. You wouldn’t really have to see them. But then again, that is part of the fun…”

“Sure, it’s fun at the time, but later… when you’re lying in bed trying to sleep and there’s no one to talk to about it but yourself…” Nanashi became distant, her eyes focused on nothing in particular, “It’s really, terribly awful.”

“I bet it is.” Riku shrugged. “But I don’t really know, seeing as how every time I killed someone I usually had a good reason. Or at least I thought I did.”

“Yeah,” Nanashi stood up abruptly. “Let’s get going. I want to get back to my friends. I’m lonely without them.”

Riku looked up at her. “Did I say something wrong? If I did, I didn’t mean to.”

“No, you’re okay. Which way are we going again?” as Nanashi spoke, the snow began to fall again in swirling flurries. “Dammit, stop it!” She yelled at the sky. The dismal clouds answered with a generous rush of snowfall. “Crap. It’s doing it again… we should hurry up and try to find a place to stay. The last one lasted for two days and left behind three and a half feet of snow.”

Riku stood and turned his head toward the sky. “What do you mean ‘it’s doing it again.’? I mean what is it doing? It’s just snow, right?”

“It’s the damn rock and it’s me,” disgruntled, Nanashi stomped off in a random direction, “It’s a blizzard. A really bad one, by the looks of it. I haven’t figured out how I start them or how to stop them yet.”

“Uhm, you’re going the wrong direction. That’s the way we came.” Riku called. “If we hurry our asses up we can be in the village in less than an hour.”

Nanashi complied, returning to Riku, “Lead the way.”

The two managed to make it to the next village and find an inn right before the blizzard hit. It was small, falling apart and reeked of cats and rotting garbage, but it was the only place with a vacancy.

“Ah, room sweet room.” Riku said unlocking the door. “Well, it’s really not so sweet. It smells like something died in here and was left to rot.”

“It smells worse than that,” Nanashi tried desperately not to breathe in the stench. “I’d rather be out in the blizzard.”

“But it’s cold and snowy out there.” Riku carefully inspected the bedding before sitting down. “Besides, I like it better when you’re with me. Even in the stink hole of an inn.”

“I don’t mind the cold or the snow, I just didn’t want to inadvertently freeze you to death. And it’s hard to travel through,” Nanashi found the bed disgusting, but sat down beside Riku anyway.

“So kind and considerate. It’s hard to believe that you’d be some sort of fugitive.” Riku kicked off his boots and flung them against the door. “It just seems odd to me.”

“And you seem odd to me,” Nanashi stayed very still, hoping the thing skittering across the floor was a mouse and not a roach.

“What’s so odd about me? I’m your average assassin. I pretty much do what I’m told, which is kill people, for a living. Nothin’ too special about me.” Riku thought he could feel something crawling on his legs so he jerked them up onto the bed.

Nanashi smirked, “You look insane right now—eeee!” She squealed and scrambled, making strange squeaking noises, all the way to the headboard of the bed. “A bug! A big ugly gross gross bug! It was on my shoe! You’re the assassin, kill it! Kill it before it gets me!”

“What bug? Where?” Riku looked frantically around the room in the several directions Nanashi pointed. “I don’t see any bu—Oh my gods!” a massive yellow brown spider roughly the size of a human hand crept up from Nanashi’s shoe. “Its frikkin huge!” Riku threw pillows and blankets at it to try and chase it off. The spider made a noise akin to that of  hot coals left out in the rain and jumped at him. Riku jumped up, grabbed his boot and brought it down on the creature with a loud splat. Sickly green spider insides splattered across the floor. “Got it!” Riku held up his goo covered boot proudly.

“Eeeeewww,” Nanashi covered her face. “That’s disgusting! I frikkin’ hate bugs!”

“And I’m sure they love you oh so much.” Riku tossed his boot against the wall leaving a grimy streak across it. “This place sucks.”

“I can’t sleep here, Riku,” Nanashi got up from the bed and prepared to leave, “I’m sleeping outside.”

“What?! But it’s cold out there!” Riku barred the door. “I’ll kill all the spiders…”

“I told you,” Nanashi tried to squeezed past him, “The cold doesn’t affect me. You could kill all the spiders in the universe and I still wouldn’t stay in this dump!”

“But I don’t want to stay in here by myself! Look at this place!” Riku gestured at the tiny, possible disease ridden room. “You can’t leave me alone in here.”

“Yes I can,” Nanashi placed her hands on her hips. “You can’t expect me to stay.”

“Sure I can.” Riku tried hard not to smile. “You know, you look freakishly like Reiko’s mother when you do that. It’s creepy.”

“But I don’t wanna be here!” Nanashi refused to give up, “You wouldn’t force me to stay against my will.”

Riku sighed and stepped away from the door, “Fine. You can go if you want to but I’m coming too.”

“Fine,” Nanashi opened the door, “But if you end up a frozen corpse I’m not going to cry for you.”

“I bet you will.” Riku shifted to his canine form and trotted out the door wagging his tail. “You’d be sad if you couldn’t see my amazingly hott bod anymore.”

“I lived without it before,” Nanashi pointed out, following the beast. “It’s really strange for you to say that when you look like a dog. You make it sound like I have the hotts for a mutt.”

“Mutt?” Riku snorted. “I’ll have you know I’m a pureblood Urthound, thank you very much. Not one drop of human blood in my veins. And as for your life beforehand, well let’s just say, now that you’ve seen me there’s no way you could go back to living without me.”

“Oh really?” Nanashi laughed an unconvinced, mocking laugh. “Just because I find you attractive doesn’t mean I have any reason to remember you. You’re just another cute guy like every other cute guy I’ve met or grown up with. You have in no way changed my life with your appearance alone.”

“Damn. Aren’t you just little Miss Priss? How could you not be able to remember me? I have a tail and a set of fucking horns…” Riku grumbled. “I’d say that’s somewhat memorable.”

“I’m the prissy one? You act like you think you’re some god or something,” Nanashi stopped before she reached the door to the inn.

“God? Me?” Riku growled in an amused manner. “I’m about as close to being a god as a rock.”

“Then stop acting like a conceited dick,” Nanashi crossed her arms over her chest.

 “I am a conceited dick!” Riku barked loudly at her.

“Maybe I’ll freeze you on purpose then!” Nanashi’s voice was louder than she intended,

“And you can just die so I don’t have to listen to you anymore!”

“Fine, I’ll just leave your ass here then.” Riku turned tail and stalked back to the room.

Nanashi did the same, only in the opposite direction.

“Nanashi…” Riku threw open the curtains, sunlight flooded the room. He walked over to the sleeping girl and shook her gently.  “Nanashi, it’s nearly noon. Wake up.”

Nanashi moaned and covered her face with her hands, “Damn it…already?”

“No I’m lying.” He sat down next to her. “Do you still want to…you know… get married?”

She peeked at him with one honest blue eye, “Do you still think it’s a good idea? Would it really help anything?”

“I can’t really answer that question. I could say yes, that it is a good idea and it will solve all of our problems, but I don’t know for sure.” He wagged his tail good-naturedly. “I want to say yes, but I don’t know if that’s my head or my heart talking.”

“Your heart, huh?” Nanashi reached over and stroked his tail. “You have a heart? Isn’t that strongly discouraged in your line of work?”

“Everyone has a heart. It’s just whether or not they choose to use it.” He smiled. “As for it being discouraged, I’m a bit of a maverick, if I do say so myself.”

“Are you?” Nanashi sat up, stretching her arms toward her feet. “What made you decide to start using yours? Heart, I mean.”

“You did.” Riku looked away bashfully. “It was really strange. It’s like I was living in darkness, oblivious to all the pain and suffering that, not just me but the entirety of White, had caused. But after I met you …its like a light suddenly pierced through all the gloom and brought to the surface everything that seemed wrong.”

“I’m sorry,” Nanashi smiled at the childish look on Riku’s face, “You’d have been happier if I’d let you alone.”

“I don’t think so.” He shook his head slowly. “Then I wouldn’t be sitting here with a gorgeous girl like you.”

“You would’ve found another girl,” Nanashi’s face changed to a sort of irritated scowl, “A blonde bimbo with giant tits spilling out of her shirt.”

Riku was taken aback. “What? No. Never. Not me.”

“And a waist half the size of mine…” The more she thought about that time in the training camp, the more she wanted to slap herself for being so stupid. Riku had to be lying. He’s using his charm to trick me into doing something I’ll regret, like he tried to do when I was disguised with Reiko’s slut potion. “…I’m an idiot. You’re just trying to use me…”

“What! No, Nanashi, it’s not like that!” His voice was like that of a child who’d been accused of eating a cookie right before dinner. “I wasn’t, I’m not using you! I really do like you.”

“What about when Reiko disguised me as some skank so I wouldn’t get caught by the soldiers from HQ? Do you remember the blonde girl who was sparring with Lot? The one you asked out to a café? And Reiko said she would be busy and you made some dirty comment like ‘she will be if I can help it’! If you liked me so much why were you hitting on random trash?”

Aw, fuck. Riku got up from the bed and stalked moodily over to the window. “Ok, so I’m a bit of a womanizing he-slut. What else do you think I’ve had to do for eight years? Old habits die hard.”

Nanashi stared out the window, not knowing what to do or say. She caught a glimpse of something black on the roof of an adjacent building, “We’re being watched.”

Riku shrugged. “So? Let them watch, we aren’t doing anything.”

“Except I’m fraternizing with the enemy,” Nanashi sighed. “And the enemy is a sexi man whore.”

“You aren’t fraternizing. You’re negotiating.” Riku pulled the curtains closed.

“We’re still on opposite sides, though,” Nanashi stood and straightened her clothes, “I don’t want to be facing counts of treason for both. In fact, I’d like to avoid being punished by any and everyone, but that’s not very likely. If this is a negotiation, then the terms of it should be outlined in a clear and concise way. Perhaps we should even have lawyers present.” Mock professionalism guided the cadence of her voice.

“Lawyers?” Riku snorted. “I thought you were trying to avoid being punished.”

Nanashi imagined herself childishly sticking out her tongue at Riku. The imagined image made it easier for her to force a smile, “What is it that you want from me? Not to have to kill me, or at least that’s what you say, and what?”  Why are you so damn confusing? Nanashi screamed in her head.

“You know, I really don’t think I know myself.” Riku gathered his things from around the room then headed for the door. “But I don’t feel like having to deal with Black right now.”

“Wait!” Nanashi called out, feeling a surprising desperation, “I’m not done with you yet!”

Riku halted a few steps from the door. “What more could you possibly want from me?”

“I don’t know,” Nanashi admitted, “But I don’t want you to leave… or be mad at me when you leave. I’m sorry. It’s very sweet of you not to kill me even though you should.”

“I’m not mad at you, Nanashi.” Riku smiled sadly. “I’m just at a loss right now. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“That’s okay,” Nanashi shrugged as if she had not a care in the world, “That’s how I live my life. I’m never sure what I’m supposed to be doing.” A feeling of relief crept through her.

“I’m sure this won’t be the last time we see each other.” Riku slowly opened the door and looked outside. When he was convinced there was no one outside waiting to ambush him he quickly took off down the hall leaving Nanashi by herself.

There was a clattering of different sounds once he rounded the corner. Shouts, cursing, heavy objects hitting the walls and floor, sounds of a struggle.

“Riku?” Nanashi ran to find out what was going on and was knocked to the carpet by a man dressed from foot to collar in black. She threw him off of her in a rush. When she finally reached the area hidden by the bend in the hall, she found Asa having a difficult time restraining Riku. Other Black soldiers crowded the hall and blocked the exits. 

“Asa! Stop it!” She tugged, with no effect, at the arm Asa was using to shove Riku’s face into the wallpaper.

“Riku Watanoba,” Asa declared, “You’re under arrest.”

“Fuck you, you pansy ass bitch!” Riku snarled. “I haven’t done anything!”

“Really?” Asa laughed without humor, “Countless murders involving innocent women and children and unnecessary torture? Ring any bells in that sick little brain of yours?”

“Asa, please,” Nanashi persisted in trying to pry Asa off, but was ignored.

“Then there’s a more recent offense,” Asa snapped a set of cuffs on one of Riku’s wrists and tried to get the other without letting him loose, “Of kidnapping”

“What the fuck!?” Riku kicked out at Asa’s legs “Whoever you get your information from is fuckin’ wrong! I haven’t done anything of the sort!”

A burning frost kissed at Asa’s throat. The blade in Nanashi’s hand was the culprit, “Let. Him. Go.”

“Iniko, this man is a criminal. If you assist in his escape then you, too, are a criminal. I don’t know what lies he fed you while he held you captive, but I will not let you destroy yourself by forming a coalition with this scum,” Asa brutally constricted the second cuff around Riku’s wrist. “Please understand. This is for your benefit.”

Nanashi’s weapon hissed away. Hostile temperatures had everyone in the hall fighting the shivering of their bodies. “I wasn’t held captive. Riku wouldn’t lie to me. I can feel it. He’s no more of a criminal than you or I. It would be of greater benefit if you were to back the hell off.”

“You’re ‘feelings’ don’t change what a monster he is,” Asa was immovable, a stone soldier set in his ways. “If I were to release him I would be committing treason against my people. That is something I refuse to do.”

Riku ceased his struggling and spit in Asa’s face. “You don’t have to release me. I can get away all on my own.”  The cuffs fell clattering to floor tangled with a small black snake. Before the snake even hit the floor a snarling horned canine took its place.

Immediately the surrounding soldiers lunged to attack. Instead, they screamed in agony at their ice encased legs. The cold was intense, cutting through the cloth of their pants and digging all the way to the bone. Asa silently slipped behind Nanashi, his hand clutching the jewel, and pulled. The thin chain snapped. The ice vanished, leaving Asa’s men crumpled on the floor trying to rub the freezing pain from their frostbitten legs. Silvery blue crept into his blond hair even as it vanished from Nanashi’s. He used the jewel’s ice to capture the Urthound’s legs.

Shit, I’m not going to make it out of here. Riku desperately tore at the ice with his teeth but resulted in only hurting himself. Finally realizing that struggling was pointless, he snarled angrily and looked daggers at Asa.

If Nanashi could see past the angry, frustrated tears that crowded her eyes she would have glared at Asa, too. “I hate you, Asa!” She realized how childish she was acting, but she couldn’t help it. Asa had taken away her favorite toy and her new friend. How could a man who vowed to protect her be so cruel to her? “Let him go and give me back my jewel.” She was reduced to begging when Asa did not acknowledge her tears and demands, “Please? Please, Asa, please? I’ll do anything you want. Anything at all… you name it. Please give it back.”

“I want you to return to the place I’m staying. You will rejoin your companions who have been through hell in your absence. You will leave this town immediately. The jewel will be given to Lot until you are stable enough to guard it once again,” Asa directed in an emotionless monotone that masked some emotion Nanashi did not care to identify.

“…what about Riku?” Nanashi dared to ask.

“He will be taken care of,” Asa responded. Nanashi knew what that was code for. She shuddered, her skin feeling the cold and her insides going numb.

The biting cold tore through Riku’s body like icy knives causing him to lose control of the form he had and return to his more human-like one. He saw the look on Nanashi’s face. It frightened him and made him sick to his stomach. He knew he was in deep shit. “Asa…” he muttered. “You’re a fuckin’ bastard.”

“If the opinion of a corpse mattered to me, I would be deeply wounded by that remark,” Asa contorted the ice into a new set of restraints for Riku’s arms and legs. His control of the frozen matter was choppy and crude compared to Nanashi’s ability to create a liquid-like beauty with the ice. “Now walk.”

The soldiers had regained their footing and shuffled warily down the stairs.

Nanashi refused Asa’s arm when he offered it and sped up to walk beside Riku. “’m really sorry,” she sniffled. “Mizuki will be so upset if she has to lose you again.”

“That’s why you can’t tell her anything.” Riku stared dejectedly at the ground as he walked. “I’m the only family she has left. Her mother’s dead. Her father’s dead. And now I’m good as dead. For now anyways. But that damn Asa can’t hold onto your jewel forever and the second he lets go of it…”

“It’ll be in Lot’s hands and Lot listens to Asa more than he listens to me,” Nanashi whispered bitterly.

Thanks for the encouragement. He thought bitterly. “I knew it this was a bad idea. I’ve failed White. I’ve failed Alva. I should’ve just died that day in Lykiska because there’s nothing more humiliating than being killed by some high and mighty jackass who looks far too much like a girl for my comfort.”

Nanashi winced. This is my fault. His life sucks because of me. His death is going to suck because of me. I hate wallowing in self pity! I have to do something. 

She slowed so that she dropped back to walk at Asa’s side. “I’m sorry, Asa. I didn’t realize I was such a burden.” Nanashi leaned against him as they walked, wishing she could enjoy the corpse-like coolness of his skin instead of shivering from it. She sniffled and wrapped her arms around him. It was a little awkward to do this and walk, but she managed it. Now… which pocket is that shiny jewel in?

“You aren’t a burden,” Asa looped his arm around her shoulders, “You’re a child. You make mistakes.”

What?! You’re just three years older than me! Seventeen isn’t that young! Nanashi argued mentally. Out loud she agreed, “I know. I’m sorry. A kid like me can get into such ridiculous messes…”

Riku glanced back at Asa and Nanashi. They were walking side by side and Asa had his arm around her. Something wasn’t quite right about it. For a moment he thought he saw Nanashi’s hand disappear into one of his pockets. What a clever girl!

She kissed Asa’s cheek, leaving a frosty lipstick ring. His eyes widened and he tried to catch her arm before she went hop-skipping happily to Riku’s side, “Ready to make a run for it?” Nanashi smiled, devilishly dangling the retrieved jewel between her thumb and index finger.

Riku was so happy he could’ve kissed her. And he did. “Ready when you are.”

The ice shackles dissipated. Soldiers were literally frozen in place before they could even know to react. Nanashi grasped Riku’s hand and they started running. Asa, feet frozen in place, could do nothing but yell for her to come back.

“Good morning, love.” Reiko snuggled closer to Lot and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Actually, from the looks of it outside, I think it might be afternoon.”

“Mmm,” Lot moaned as if he were having a wonderful dream that he did not want to abandon. Actually, he was, and he was barely aware of the waking world. He wrapped his leg around Reiko’s and nuzzled his face in Reiko’s long red hair. Pressing his stomach and hips against his bedfellow’s, Lot mumbled something unintelligible.  

Oh dear gods, I’m in heaven. Reiko was having difficulty controlling himself. His hands wandered down Lot’s sleeping form pausing just at his waistline.

“…Nanashi…” Lot moaned.

Reiko pushed him away then climbed out of bed scowling. Way to ruin the moment.

“Huh?” Lot felt around the warm empty space with his eyes closed. “Reiko?” He sat up, his eyes barely opening. “What time is it?”

Reiko shrugged and pulled some clothes from his bag. “I dunno, why don’t you go and ask Nanashi…”

Lot blinked, a little more awake, “You sound mad. Why do you sound mad? Wait… Nanashi’s back?”

“I don’t know.” Reiko huffed. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“Can I come, too?” Lot asked, hoping that would lighten Reiko’s mood.

Reiko stopped dead in his tracks and spun around. “I believe you know the answer to that.”

Lot had an uneasy feeling when he saw the glint in Reiko’s eyes, “…I was joking…” Sort of.

“You’re so mean to me!” Reiko stomped out of the room.

“Wait!” Lot’s foot got tangled up in the covers and he fell on his face before stumbling after Reiko with a bloody nose. “I’m sorry!”

Reiko glared at him moodily. “I know you are.”  His anger slackened a little when he noticed the blood dripping from Lot’s nose. “You’re bleeding…” He took the edge of the shirt he grabbed and wiped it off. “Are you alright?”

“If you’re not mad at me, I am,” Lot glanced away. “I’m ruining your shirt.”

“It’s just a shirt. It’s no big deal.” Reiko slung it over his shoulder. “I’m more worried about you.”

“Why were you so mad? Did I kick you in my sleep or something?” Lot’s nose ached. “Or did I keep you up? I talk sometimes in my sleep…”

Reiko shook his head. “That’s not it. It’s stupid is what it is.” He sighed. “I’m just jealous I guess…”

Lot gave him a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

“Nanashi…” Reiko mumbled. “You were dreaming about Nanashi, weren’t you?”

Lot continued his confused staring, “Sort of.”

“I thought so.” Reiko sighed. “You sure sounded like you were having a good time with her.” 

“It’s not what you think,” Lot turned an interesting shade of scarlet. “She was there… but only at the very end… I was trying to tell her to go away…”

“Lies! Lies!” Reiko pointed his finger accusingly. “I don’t believe you!”

Lot grabbed his hand and lowered it, “Really. It’s more embarrassing than that. Just trust me. It wasn’t about her until she walked in on u—“

A door slammed downstairs and an angry clomping of boots followed. Asa’s voice came from the kitchen. Every other word was colorful and crude. “Fucking mongrel!” seemed to be the phrase he repeated the most.

Reiko looked down the stairwell to see what was going on. “What the hell is his problem?”

Lot, relieved by the distraction, wandered toward the kitchen, “It has to be some pretty deep shit if Asa’s throwing a temper tantrum.”

Reiko followed him into the kitchen and stared at Asa. “What’s wrong with you?”

 “Nanashi’s run off with a psychotic murdering puppet.” Asa gave Reiko the sociopath glare.

He hid himself behind Lot. “A psycho what now?”

“One of Alva’s favorites,” Asa vented, “An assassin by the name of Watanoba. He’s brainwashed her into thinking he’s, I don’t know, a saint. I had him under arrest and she took out my best men to free him. They took off together… If that manipulating bastard lays a single perverse, womanizing finger on her I’ll take his life in the most excruciating way possible…”

“Holy shit! Riku is here?! Why the hell is Riku here?” Reiko looked all around the room as if he was expecting his friend to magically appear.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you were in on it,” Asa shot at Reiko.

Reiko growled indignantly at him. “What do you mean? I didn’t even know he was here!”

“You were the last one to see Nanashi before she ended up with the devil,” Asa stalked toward Reiko, his accusations made all the more severe by the murderous scowl on his face. “You drugged her and handed her over to him. God knows how else the both of you could have taken advantage of her incapacitated state…”

“I would never do that! Not in a million years!” Reiko stepped out from behind Lot. “The only reason I gave her those ‘drugs’ is because she was sick! How was I supposed to know Riku would be here? I haven’t even seen him since we left!”

Lot pulled Reiko back a couple of steps by wrapping his arms around Reiko’s waist. “I told you before, Asa, Reiko isn’t the bad guy here. You’re just angry and looking for someone close enough to punch to blame.” Lot’s voice was calm and clear as he stared directly into Asa’s terror-inducing silver eyes. “Rei’s not at fault here. Riku’s the evil one.”

Reiko tilted his head slightly so he could look at Lot better. “But Riku isn’t evil…”

“He killed my family, Rei,” Lot said with quiet morose honesty, “How am I supposed to believe that he’s anything but horrible? My mom…my little brothers and sisters… they didn’t do anything to him…they couldn’t have even fought back…”

“It’s not his fault.” Reiko defended. “He’s broken and White made him that way.”

Asa watched their exchange in quiet disgust. He turned on Lot, “Don’t think that you don’t have a part in this fucked up mess, either, Lot. You probably drove her to run away with that thing. What else could she do when her fiancé’s a fag? She probably thought of Riku as the lesser of two evils.”

What? Lot was frozen in silent shock. Oh Gods, what if he’s right? What if it is my fault?

Reiko broke out of Lot’s grasp and stalked angrily over to Asa. “How dare you talk to him like that! What the hell do you expect him to do? The girl is old enough to take care of herself, she doesn’t need a baby sitter.”

“She’s not a normal girl,” Asa stood very still, “If she was this wouldn’t be an issue. She was chosen to guard a jewel, which makes her a weapon. A weapon that’s now in the hands of an enemy. Lot was charged with keeping her safe, which he neglected to do. I could arrest him for basically handing over such valuable property to White’s most favored assassin.”

“Do you hear yourself? Maybe you should listen to the bullshit that comes out of your mouth sometime.” Reiko shouted. “You’re talking about a girl, a living, breathing person, like some sort of object! You’re just as bad, if not worse, than Riku!”

Lot felt like a child again, watching a fight he was helpless to prevent. His heart raced, but outwardly he shut down and became calmly indifferent.

“Which makes her even more volatile,” Asa disregarded the parts that were meant to tear him down. “If he were to cause her enough pain she could plunge us all into an age of freezing death.”

“You just don’t get it!” Reiko fought very hard with himself not to punch Asa. “You have no idea of the person he really is. All you know is what they tell you. You don’t even bother to ask questions like ‘Hm, I wonder if this man really did do that.’ Or ‘Did he really want to or was he just following orders?’ Riku may seem like a heartless monster but he’s really not and the last thing he’d ever want to cause a girl like Nanashi is pain.”

Lot casually walked down the stairs and out the door.

“I make the orders. I know what a wretch that man is because I have seen it with my own eyes. I’ve seen him laugh after killing a child. I don’t just believe what I’m told;” Asa continued stubbornly, “Why would I take the word of a man whose brain is completely rotted by booze over what I’ve seen with my own eyes?”

Reiko lunged angrily at Asa. “You’re so fucked up you don’t know what the hell it is you’ve seen!”

The noises of a fight brought Lot back up. When he saw Asa trying to choke Reiko into unconsciousness or worse he exploded into an ebony lion that dug its claws into Asa’s back.

“Lot!” Reiko coughed and gagged, desperately trying to get oxygen back into his aching lungs.

Asa crumpled to the floor, unable to take the creature’s massive weight. Lot’s jaws hovered over Asa’s throat.

“It’s…ok, Lot.” Reiko coughed. He stumbled over him and hugged the huge beast. “I don’t know how I ever could’ve been angry at you.”

The lion shuddered, becoming Lot once more. The shuddering did not stop. Lot edged away from Asa. “He hurt you.” I should kill him.

“It doesn’t matter about me.” He held the shuddering boy close to him. “What matters is whether or not he hurt you. Maybe not physically but emotionally or mentally.”

Asa retreated down the steps. The door slammed.

“I’m okay,” Lot answered automatically.

“Then how come you don’t seem okay?” Reiko asked.

“I don’t know,” Lot became still, “He pissed me off, s’all.” He sniffled like a child. “He just made me mad… I’m okay now, though.”

Reiko rested his chin on Lot’s shoulder. “I hope so. You’re kind of frightening when you’re angry.”

“Sorry,” Lot wiped away a tear before he thought Reiko could see it. “I’ll try to play nice in the future.”

“Don’t play nice. It’s what I like about you.” He breathed kissing Lot’s neck. “You’re always so strong…”

“I’m faking it,” Lot leaned his body closer to Reiko’s in response to the touch of his lips. “So you’ll like me better.” He couldn’t have imagined enjoying Reiko’s closeness two days ago, but now he craved it.

Reiko’s hands slid carefully down the front of Lot’s body. “You don’t have to fake anything around me. I like you just the way you are.” He whispered between kisses.

“Whoops,” Kit walked in the kitchen and turned right back around, “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Lot’s face was on fire, “Shit.”

Reiko grinned. “It’s so cute when you blush…”

Lot hid his face in his hands, “I can’t believe he saw that…”

“Oh you know you like the attention.”

“At least it wasn’t Nanashi who walked in on us this time,” Lot mumbled through his fingers.

“When did that happen?” inquired Reiko with a curious turn of his head.

“In my dream,” Lot fumbled with his words, “That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier… I wasn’t dreaming about her…I was…it was…”

“It was…?” Reiko coaxed.

yo.
reports over indians, feathered not dotted, suck. suck ass like a really REALLY cheap whore.
i'm sleepy. but not cold. why am i not cold?
BECAUSE NIKKI EFFIN' ROCKS THAT'S WHY!!!
scarf n' guvs baby, scarf n' gluvs.
h-ween iz in 2 days.
oh yeah.
<pelvic thrust>


SPork <3

Ok, I lied. Obviously, since nothing has been posted yet.

Arrgh! I hate that the story posts backwards! It's a pain in the arse. But I'm too lazy to fix it and SPork's too lazy to fix it. Thus it goes unfixed and a mess of wordage. Like this post. Ooh! We should do a Halloween mini-story! 
I FRIKKIN' LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!! I WANT TO HAVE ITS BABIES!!!

A purple and green spotted dog limped his way through the shadows of a dimly lit street with its nose pressed to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a large black dog like animal headed in his direction. Reiko’s  first instinct was to hide but as the animal got closer he saw that it was Lot. Reiko’s long tail wagged happily. “Lot!” He ran over to him as fast as his injured forepaw would let him. “Lot, are you ok? How about Kit and Mizuki?”

“I’m fine, they’re fine,” Lot answered quickly. He nudged Reiko’s injured paw with his nose, “What happened? Is it broken?”

“I think it might be. One of them smashed it with this huge shield thing. I can’t put any weight on it or move it very much but I think that might be the least of my problems. My back is pretty fucked.” He said glancing at said injury. His back and side were completely ripped open. It looked like someone had taken a rake and ran it down his side and back. In some places the wound was deeper and you could see white flecks of bone and a mash of torn flesh and muscle. “There were a little more than I expected but I’m ok for the must part.”

“You don’t look ok,” Lot felt nauseous looking at Reiko’s injuries. “You look like hell. Maybe you shouldn’t be walking.”

“Don’t worry, Lot. I’m fine, I promise. I’ll just fix myself up good as new once we get back to our room.” Something dawned on him. “Do you think they know where we’re staying?”

“Fuck. I don’t know. I didn’t even think about that,” Lot whimpered. “If they do and Nanashi is there…”

“Then they’re good as dead.” Reiko finished.

“And we’d have to leave in a hurry,” Lot added, wearily. “You don’t look like you’d be up for traveling and Kit’s gushing blood from his side…”

“What do we do then?” asked Reiko. “If they aren’t at the inn we could be leading them there. Just because we can’t see anyone doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Or if they’re already there we could be walking into a trap.”

Lot shifted to his human form, “We need to find a doctor. I don’t think they would come after us in a place as public as a hospital.”

“I think you’re right.” Reiko shifted back to his human form as well and pointed down the street with his uninjured arm. “I’m not positive but I think there’s a hospital that way. There used to be several of them but I’m not so sure now.” They two started back the way Lot had come to go get Kit and Mizuki. “I hope Nanashi’s ok.”

“She can’t be any worse off than us,” Lot glanced at Reiko’s arm and cringed. They found Kit and Mizuki, but Kit had collapsed. Unable to maintain his animal form, he curled into a fetal position on the ground and shivered from the cold and pain.

Mizuki was at a loss and, not knowing to do, she curled up next to him in an attempt to warm him up.

“Damn, we need a healer right now.” Reiko stuck peered around the corner of the ally just in case one had decided to magically appear. “I can try and see if there’s one close. A lot of them live above their offices. Maybe there’s one close.”

“I’ll go,” Lot elected, “Which way’s the closest?”

“Down that way.” He pointed down an empty street, that during the daytime, was filled with colourful merchants’ stalls and various street shows. “That’s a really popular street during the day, so there’s bound to be a healer somewhere.” Suddenly feeling dizzy Reiko leaned his uninjured side against the alley wall. “At least I hope there’s one.”

“I’ll be right back,” Lot leaped back into his canine form and ran. He scanned the signs and windows for any mention of a healer. He had almost lost hope when he caught sight of the words “general practitioner” painted on a door. Not even bothering to read the name, Lot pounded on the door in human form. Lights flickered on in the upper rooms, which were apartments. “Open the damn door! My brother’s going to bleed to death and my friends are fucked all to hell! Open up!”

A face peeked through the downstairs window then disappeared. There was the scrape of a lock being opened and then a click as the door swung open. A tired looking man dressed in blue striped pajamas stood in the doorway. “Where are they? This had better not be some sort of prank.” The man instantly took back his words; the boy at his door had a bloody gash across his face and it was evident that the original color of his shirt was not rusty red. Lot grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him to the alley.

“Lot!” Reiko stumbled out into the street to meet him. “It’s not good, Kit’s bleeding everywhere and he won’t stop shaking and Mizuki’s no help, she’s too spastic to do anything.”

The healer stared wide eyed at Reiko’s injuries and shuddered. “What the hell happened here?”

“That’s not important.” Reiko said pushing the man into the alley.

The pajama-wearing healer had to coax Mizuki off of Kit. He gasped when he realized that all of that blood was coming from the boy in the ground, “By all rights, this boy’s as good as dead if I don’t have someone to help  me…” He turned and instructed Lot, “Back at my office there’s another man with healing abilities. Hurry up and get him. He’s blond with silver eyes.”

Lot nodded and ran.

The healer placed his hands on Kit’s side and began trying to repair the damage as quickly as possible. Lot returned, impossibly fast, with a familiar face. Asa, dressed in the uniform of a high ranking Black soldier, knelt beside Kit and placed a healing hand upon him.

“Hey,” Reiko whispered to Lot. “That blond haired guy looks sort of familiar. I thought he was a soldier in White.”

“He is,” Lot leaned against the side of the building, exhausted and scared. “He gathers information for Black.”

“Oh. I should’ve figured as much. There was always something funny about him.” Reiko swayed slightly then sat down on top of a garbage can. He grimaced, watching the healers work, “I don’t think I’d be able to do that for a living. Mostly because that’d require some sort of intelligence.”

Asa insisted that he could handle Kit’s injuries on his own and told the other man to help Reiko, Mizuki, and Lot.

“I’m not sure I have enough power to heal all of you,” the healer warned.

“That’s okay,” Lot assured, “I’ll be fine without any sort of help. Don’t waste your energy on me when they need it more.”

The man grunted and went to work on Reiko’s mangled back and arm. “Dear gods boy, who the hell did you piss off?”

Reiko winced as the healer lifted the back of his shirt. “People with very very sharp weapons.”

The healer frowned.

Mizuki changed back to her normal self and stood next to Lot, watching Asa anxiously. “He’ll be ok, right?”

“If it was anyone but Asa helping him, I would say I highly doubt it,” Lot smiled as reassuringly as he could. “But Asa’s the best. He’s practically able to raise the dead.”

“It’s a good thing you don’t have such high expectations of me,” Asa withdrew his hand from Kit’s side. He lifted the boy easily, “Kit will need to sleep for a day of so. I healed enough to stop the bleeding and jump-start his healing process, but it’ll take him a while to replace the blood he lost. You will all have to stay at the office for that time and take it easy. Give me a few hours to recover my own strength and I’ll finish what I started. And tackle any other minor injuries you’ve managed to get.”

The other man nodded in Asa’s direction. “I know it’s late but we should leave before someone sees us. I’m pretty sure that three bloodied boys, an old man in his pajamas, a soldier and a demon girlie isn’t very inconspicuous.” He gestured to Reiko. “His arm is still messed up but I did manage to close the wounds on his back. He should be fine to move.” He gestured for Lot, Mizuki and Reiko to follow.

Asa carried Kit upstairs to a guest bed. He turned to Lot, who had followed close behind him, “I have some spare clothes, but not much, and nothing that would fit the girl. I assume you’ve left your supplies somewhere else. Is it possible for me to retrieve them?”

“I’m not sure. Everything we own is at the yellow inn,” Lot could not look away from his brother who seemed as still as death. “They might be there, waiting.”

“And Nanashi?” Asa took a fresh change of clothes from a drawer. He ripped what was left of Kit’s bloodied shirt in half. The pink scar on Kit’s side looked almost harmless now, though Lot knew that it was only healed on the surface. Asa carefully dressed Kit in the unsoiled clothes.

“I don’t know where she is,” Lot admitted shamefully.

Reiko crept quietly into the room. “Maybe we could go back to the inn. I don’ think those people know what we look like.”

“Okay,” Lot looked away from Kit to Reiko and smiled with forced hope, “Maybe Nanashi might be there waiting for us.”

“I bet she is.” Reiko rubbed his arm which had been healed by the healer downstairs. “Hopefully she had a better night than we have.”

Asa handed the boys each a change of clothes, “I expect an explanation when you get back.” He directed them to a room down the hall, “You can get changed in there.”

Reiko and Lot changed. Then Asa gave them the two orange keycards he’d found in Kit’s pockets and they set out to go find the inn and, hopefully, Nanashi.

They were quiet with only the scuffing of their shoes making any sound on the streets. Lot started to say something and stopped, muttering a “Nevermind.” 

“What?” Reiko tilted his head curiously. “What were you going to say?”

“It’s not important,” Lot wiped his hand across his face. His voice was strained, as if he were losing it. Or trying not to cry.

Reiko put a hand on his shoulder. “Lot, anything you have to say is important to me.”

His face hardened, the emotion drained from his voice, “I’m tired. That’s all. Tonight was Hell and I’m ready for it to be over.”

“I agree.” Reiko sighed heavily, knowing Lot wasn’t telling him what was really going on. He tried to make conversation anyways. “This has been one of the more eventful nights I’ve ever had that didn’t involve being naked.”

Lot laughed despite himself, “I’m guessing that there are an abundance of those.”

“Of course. A sexi guy like me is damn near irresistible. Don’t you agree?” Reiko ran his hand down Lot’s arm playfully. “I’m irresistible.”

“Yeah,” Lot shook his head slowly, a sarcastic smile on his face “I can’t stand not touching you.”

“You’re not the only one.” Reiko rubbed his formally injured arm. “Apparently armed henchmen can’t get enough either. They’re a little too kinky for me though. I’m not into the whole sado-masochistic thing.”

“That’s too bad,” Lot sighed, “I kind of enjoy smacking my lovers around. I guess you and I aren’t as good together as you think.” He changed from a joking to solemn, “Thanks for holding those guys back, though. I don’t think we could’ve all made it out alive without you.”

“I’m sure you would’ve done the same.” Reiko muttered. “It’s no big deal.”

“I think it is,” Lot grabbed Reiko’s arm and stopped him. He studied Reiko’s eyes, “Really. Thank you.”

He felt himself blushing under Lot’s gaze. He turned away from him to try and hide it. “You’re welcome. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

“Hopefully you won’t have to. That scared the hell out of me when you weren’t right behind us,” Lot let him go, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Really?” Reiko said a little too excitedly.

“N—“Lot started to say ‘no’ and turn away. “Yes… I was…I really…lo—like…” Frustrated with words that refused to come out right, Lot grabbed Reiko, pulled him close, and kissed him.

Reiko was so startled by Lot’s reaction that he nearly pulled away. But instead he pulled him even closer. “I knew you thought I was irresistible.”

Lot suddenly pushed him away, “I didn’t just do that.”  He shoved his hands in his pockets and stalked off down the street. “What the hell? What’s wrong with me? I did not just kiss that guy…” He rambled his thoughts out loud. “That’s just…wrong…horribly wrong…”

Reiko trailed a few feet behind him, dazed and a little hurt by the fact that Lot was denying what just happened. “It’s ok you know. You aren’t going to die from it. I don’t have cooties or anything.”

“Shut up,” Lot yelled. “It’s not okay. It’s… just gross…and cruel. I don’t like you and now you probably’ll never leave me alone…and…” He stopped in the middle of the street and stared at the ground.

Reiko stopped as well. “What’s so wrong about it? What do you want to do, pretend that it never happened?”

“Yes,” Lot answered with finality, until he looked up and saw the pain on Reiko’s face, “I mean… no…I’m…”

He stared intently at the ground in front of him. “Lot, please just give this a chance. I love you. Can’t you at least try to love me too?”  

“I… I lied…” Lot admitted in a loud stuttering string of words. “Okay? I lied. I like you. There. You win. You’re so… I can’t not-like you, even when I try. I… you…” Lot’s voice trailed off nervously. Both boys looked like a couple of bashful school kids with crushes giving each other cards on Valentine’s Day.

“I love you too.” Reiko walked over to Lot, took his hand and kissed it. “You’ve just managed to turn one of the worst nights in my life into one of the best.”

Lot looked like he was about to die of embarrassment, almost as if he were having second thoughts. “Don’t use your cheesy lines on me. I’m not a bar whore.”

“But cheesy lines are the only ones I know.” Reiko defended. “Besides it’s true. This is one of the best nights I’ve ever had. And it’s because of you.”

“Don’t expect anything more than me tolerating you,” Lot started down the street again, remembering the reason they were out in the middle of the night. Or, technically, early morning. “And even that has limitations. No fondling me in public… I’m agreeing to try and have a relationship with you. I reserve the right to leave your ass if you go too far.”

 “No fondling you in public?” Reiko sighed. “I can live with that. Does that mean I get to fondle you in privet?”

Lot shot him a glare, “What do you think?”

“I think so.” Reiko started off down the street again before Lot could say anything more. “Wonder what Nanashi’s going to say.”

Lot went pale, “We have to tell people?”

Reiko shrugged. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“You make me sound like an ass with that response,” Lot gave in, “If you really want to tell Nanashi and the others, go ahead. I’m screwed either way.”

“Well, if you don’t want to tell anybody we don’t have to.”  Reiko shook his head. “It’s nothing new to me.”

“No, it’s fine. They already think we’re a couple… it’s just embarrassing…” Lot grabbed Reiko’s hand as they walked. “I’m not used to people knowing too much about my personal life.”

“We’ll have to change that.” A warm feeling filled Reiko as he walked hand in hand with

Lot toward the yellow and orange inn. “I wanna know everything about you.”

“I’m all yours,” Lot mumbled, secretly hoping Nanashi wasn’t at the inn. She would make fun of the pink color that refused to leave his face and he knew that would only make it worse

Reiko slid the orange keycard through the slot on the door. The lock clicked and the door swung open. “Nanashi?” he called. “Hey Nanashi, you in here?” The two boys walked into the dark room. Lot found the light switch. The only thing the dim lighting revealed was an empty room. Reiko went over to the door that connected with the other room and peeked inside. “Hey, she’s not in here either.”

Lot collected their belongings, “If she didn’t have a card then of course she wouldn’t be here… there’d be no way for her to get in… which means Asa’s going to kick my ass when we get back and tell him the news. He’s possibly the only person alive who’s more protective of her than I am.”

“Where could she be? Maybe she got lost…” Reiko grabbed the bag he’d brought with him and slung it over his shoulder. “Wherever she is, I hope she’s safe.”

“What could possibly harm a killing machine in a cute girl’s body, hm?” Lot carried his own bag and the scant belongings of the other three. “Are we the only ones who are actually prepared for extensive travel?” Lot held up a small torn pack that belonged to Mizuki and an even smaller blue bag that was Nanashi’s.

“Seems that way.” Reiko scanned the room for anything that might be of use. There wasn’t much. “Come on, we should get back to the others. We can try and find Nanashi in the morning. How hard could it be to find a girl with long blue and white hair?”

Lot slipped a pack of matches with the inn’s logo printed on it in his pocket, “You’d be surprised. I’m sure White thought the same thing in the beginning…”

“I hope she can find us then.” Reiko opened the door. “She probably will.”

“Probably,” Lot passed through. “I would think our group would stand out to anyone in a crowd… which might not be a good thing.”

Reiko followed him down the hall and to the elevator. “Judging by tonight that wouldn’t be a good thing. It’s probably best if we leave after we find Nanashi.”

“Agreed,” Lot set his heavy bag down on the elevator floor. “I wonder how my brother and his girlfriend got themselves into that mess…”

“I’m not exactly sure what was going on but it looked pretty bad.” Reiko stared at his distorted reflection in the metal doors. “That place had bad vibes and not just because we were getting attacked by a bunch of minions with really big knives.”

“I feel obligated to hunt the bastard down for almost killing my brother,” Lot growled. “He’s the only family I have left worth protecting. Him and Nanashi.”

“I agree. Someone like him shouldn’t be allowed to live. Chances are Kit isn’t the first person that guy’s nearly killed.” Reiko snorted. “What a nut job…”

“Yeah,” they were quiet.

But Kit’s okay and Mizuki’s okay and Reiko’s not dead. He could have been killed, but he wasn’t…what if Reiko hadn’t come back? Lot was tempted to hit the emergency button and stop the elevator just long enough to make out with Reiko. It shocked him that such a thought would pop into his head and when the little bell dinged signaling that they were on the first floor at last, he sighed. “Something’s wrong with my brain…”

“I think its fine.” Reiko jumped out of the elevator. “If there’s something wrong with it I can’t tell. My brain is probably the broken one.”

Lot grunted and slung his bag back over his shoulder. He jumped over the little crack in the floor. “Even if your brain is broken, it’s cute, so you can get away with it.”

Reiko’s face reddened slightly. “I’m glad somebody thinks that.” He took Lot’s hand and they started back to the healer’s office. “I’m so tired. Tonight has been particularly exhausting.”

Lot made a small sound of agreement.

Mizuki sat in the healer’s kitchen blowing on a hot cup of tea. She was exhausted but found that she couldn’t sleep. The night’s events weighed down on her and made her feel like crying. She was worried about Kit. She worried weather or not Reiko and Lot would find Nanashi. And she was afraid that Ulric would try and find them. She sighed heavily and took a sip of her steaming tea.

“Kit will be fine,” Asa’s low, soft voice caught her attention. “He’s resilient and can survive pretty much anything. He has always been like that.” He took a seat next to her, “But if it would make you feel better, you can cry.”

Mizuki regarded him curiously. “Are you psychic or something?”

“No. It doesn’t take a psychic to see how worried you are,” Asa chuckled.

“It’s not so much the fact that he’s hurt that worries me. I know he’ll be fine. But earlier when they were gonna take us away from each other…” A few tears ran down Mizuki’s face. “I thought I was never going to see him again. I was so scared that they would take him away and I would lose him forever…”

Asa smiled over his cup of tea, “You love him. Of course the thought of never seeing him again would hurt you. Technically, he should be dead right now, but I think he couldn’t leave you. Why would you be worried about a boy who would defy death for you? He wouldn’t let you lose him.”

Mizuki broke out sobbing and hugged Asa. “If it weren’t for you he would be dead! I don’t think I could stand to be without him…”

Asa put his arms around her, a little uncomfortable but wanting to comfort the crying girl, “I couldn’t let an old friend die on the slimy ground of a dark alley…”

“Aw, Zuki, don’t cry,” Kit’s voice was raspy and his hair was a matted mess. He leaned in the doorway with a sad smile on his lips.

“You’re supposed to be resting, boy,” Asa reprimanded Kit in a fatherly manner.

Mizuki ran over to him and, careful of his injuries, hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re ok. You really had me worried.”

Kit crushed her against himself, not caring about the pain. “Yeah. Sorry I made you cry. I’ll never make you cry again, okay?”

Asa set his cup down and stood up, “I can heal a little more of your injuries, Kit. It hasn’t taken as long as I thought to recover some of my ability.”

Mizuki wiped her eyes and rested her head against his chest. “You should let him finish fixing you up so you can get better. I don’t want you to start gushing blood everywhere again.”

“You’ll have to step away for a moment,” Asa’s hand rested on Mizuki’s shoulder. “I’ll try to be quick.”

“Oh, right.” Mizuki stepped away and waited anxiously for Asa to finish. At the moment she wanted nothing more than to feel Kit’s arms wrapped tightly around her in that strange protective way he had. “I never thanked Reiko and Lot. If it weren’t for them we might not be here now.”

Asa stepped away from Kit and took a deep breath, “You still need to take it easy, but the wound is healed.”

Kit pulled Mizuki back against his body like he couldn’t breathe without her touching him, “Where did they go?”

Asa collapsed into his chair, groggy from using up his energy healing Kit, “They went to get Nanashi and your things from the inn.”

“Oh,” Kit kissed the top of Mizuki’s head. “I’m glad everyone’s okay.”

Her tailed wagged contentedly as she clung to Kit. “I thought Nanashi went with Lot and

Reiko. I wonder why they split up. Maybe Lot made her angry again.”

“Who knows,” Kit traced little designs on Mizuki’s back with his finger. “I’m just happy they came to help. I don’t think I could have survived having you taken away from me like that.”

“Should I leave you two alone?” Asa smiled at the couple.

“Honey, we’re home!” Reiko called from downstairs. The front door slammed.

“Reiko, what if you wake them up? Some people like to sleep at night,” Lot could be heard chastising Reiko as they climbed the stairs.

“Yeah, normal people like to sleep at night but we’re a bunch of--oh hello, what’s this?” Reiko nearly ran into Kit and Mizuki. He smiled. “Nice to see you’re up and about. How’re you doing?”

“I’m fantastic,” Kit still refused to let go of Mizuki. “I owe you guys everything.”

“Bunch of what?” Lot had to ask. He smiled at his brother and Mizuki as he slipped into the room.

“Wierdos.” Reiko finished. “We’re a bunch of wierdos who stay up all night.”

“Where’s Nanashi?” inquired Mizuki. “She missed a hell of a night.”

“She wasn’t…” Lot started. Asa walked up to him and traced the cut on his face with his finger, healing it.

“It would have scarred,” Asa explained, “Continue.”

“She wasn’t there,” Lot finished. “She didn’t have a card so she wouldn’t have been able to get in the room.”

Asa’s face was judging, “You left a wanted girl alone in a place like this with nowhere to turn?”

“I didn’t realize—“Lot knew it was a foolish thing to argue with Asa, “Okay, yes, it’s my fault. I was supposed to be watching over her and I fell down on the job.”

“It’s not really his fault. I was the one who suggested that we go out. And I let her leave alone too. I asked her if she wanted me to take her back to the inn but she said she didn’t need me too.” Reiko admitted. “I didn’t realize that she might disappear.”

Asa had a terrifying way of being angry. He did not yell or glare; his face looked perfectly calm and emotionless. He made Lot think of how an apathetic sociopath might look before calmly chopping up his victims as they screamed and writhed in pain. Asa was giving Reiko that look. “I know where I’ve seen you before. You’re that fool of a commander from White. For all I know you could have lured her to some sick trap.”

“I did no such thing!” Reiko defended. He didn’t like the look he was getting from Asa. “I was with Lot the entire time. Well, except when I found her in the bathroom. She was a little sick so I gave her something to make her feel better.”

“How do I know you didn’t poison her?” Asa stared him down.

“Asa,” Lot hissed, “Rei’s telling the truth. He wouldn’t hurt Nanashi.”

“I wouldn’t dream of hurting Nanashi. I like her. She’s nice.”  Explained Reiko. “I even left White.”

Asa stared at Reiko like he was an idiot, “And I’m supposed to take your word at face value?”

He nodded. “What have I done for you not to? Sure I was in White but I never really did anything bad. Like you said, I was a fool commander.”

“I don’t think Reiko is smart enough to pull off something like hurting Nanashi.” Mizuki joined the conversation.

“Reiko’s a good guy,” Lot continued to defend him. Asa was starting to give. “I would trust him with Nanashi’s life and I don’t trust anyone with Nanashi, usually.” That was enough to derail Asa’s blaming Reiko.

“Fine,” Asa backed off from Reiko, “If you say he’s trustworthy then it must be true.”

Reiko cast a quick glance of thanks in Lot’s direction. “We were going to go look for her tomorrow. Then we thought it might be a good idea to leave as soon as we do.”

Mizuki nodded. “That sounds nice. I want to leave this place as soon as possible.”

“I’ll have my troops look for her,” Asa walked past everyone. His posturing was always regal-looking, as if he owned the entirety of the universe and it was old hat. “You all need your rest.” He descended the stairs, never betraying his exhaustion.

“He’s right.” Reiko stretched his arms above his head and yawned. “I dunno about you guys, but I’m bushed. Off to bed!” He grabbed Lot’s hand as he left the room. “I want you to come with me.”

“Do you really have to sound so lewd when you say that?” Lot smiled as he complained and followed Reiko.

“Of course.” He giggled. “That’s how it’s supposed to sound.”

“I really don’t think that’s appropriate,” Lot told Reiko, “Considering we’re guests in someone else’s house.”

“What if we weren’t in somebody else’s house?”

“Then that’d be different…”

“How different? Would we strip naked and have wild, hott grizzly bear sex?” asked Reiko.

“Uh…” Lot scratched the side of his face, “Maybe?”

“You sound enthusiastic.” Reiko pushed open the door to the guest room, took off the majority of his clothing and climbed into bed. “I hope Asa’s troops find Nanashi so we don’t have to wake up early tomorrow.”

“You don’t seriously expect me to sleep in the same bed as you when you’re practically naked, do you?” Even as Lot asked this, he knew Reiko did expect it.

“Lot, you remind me of a virginal little girl sometimes,” Reiko pulled the blankets around him so that only his face was visible. “Or a prude. I know that somewhere under all those clothes and guarded ways there’s a wild sex god waiting to be unleashed.”

“Am I going to have to break your face again?” Lot threatened and backed toward the door.

Reiko sat up quickly. “Lot…” he whined. “I’m joking! I just wanted to see what you’d do. Please don’t leave.” Idiot. He thought to himself. Like he’d just wanna jump in bed with you because you want him to. “I’ll be good. I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

“I’m not leaving,” Lot sighed and crawled in next to Reiko, feeling like an ass for making him whine like that.

He sighed contentedly and hugged Lot. “You know, for acting so cold at times, you’re really quite warm…”

“I don’t act cold,” Lot contended. He had no choice but to hold Reiko in his arms, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah,” Reiko closed his eyes sleepily. “I don’t know what I was talking about.”

“They seemed awfully close,” Kit and Mizuki were still in the kitchen.

“You noticed too?” Mizuki looked up at him. “Maybe Lot’s finally convinced himself that he really likes Rei. I mean, did you see how worried he was when he noticed that Reiko wasn’t following behind us?”

“Yeah,” Kit ran his fingers through Mizuki’s silver hair. “I’m happy for him. Both of them.”

 Kit began kissing Mizuki’s lips. Small, playful kisses at first, then they deepened and he held her so close he nearly crushed her. Warmth spread through her entire body, she shivered with pleasure. She never wanted this moment to end. He kissed his way down her neck, whispering how much he loved her with every little breath. His hands sought the bare skin beneath her shirt.

“I want to be with you,” Kit breathed into her ear, “Forever and in every way possible.”

“Kit,” she whispered, guiding his hand upward beneath her shirt. “I never want to be without you for a single moment.”

He blushed and caught her lips again for a lingering moment before he scooped her up in his arms, “You’ll never have to.” He carried her to the room where he had regained consciousness earlier. He chuckled, wondering if what he had in mind was against Asa’s orders to rest.

Chapter Six

Kit moaned, the skin on his side feeling tight and pinched together. “…Zuki…”

“Kit! You’re ok!” Mizuki rushed over to his side. Her entire head throbbed and ached. “I’ve been really worried about you. I thought he might’ve…killed you.”

“You mean he didn’t?” Kit could not bring himself to move and disturb the wound. “I’m not talking to an angel?” He chuckled at his own cheesy line and quickly regretted it. His side burned with pain and he winced. “I hate getting stabbed.”

“Be careful!” Mizuki said worriedly. “I don’t want you to get hurt worse than you already are.” She looked around the room uneasily. It was painted white and completely bare. There were no doors and no windows. No way to escape. “I’m scared. What if we get shipped off to some sort of zoo or something?”

Kit doubted that was the worst that could happen, but he smiled confidently, “We’ll be fine. At the very least, I don’t think he would kill something that could guarantee him a good amount of money. Which means you should be safe.” Kit knew his safety was less likely. His family of shape shifters, though they were few now, would be relatively useless to a man like Ulric due to the limitations on their abilities. Especially without his counterpart, his twin brother.

“You’re a very clever boy.” Ulric’s voice came from all around them, echoing in the tiny room. “And you’re also very lucky that there are some people who want to meet you.” There was a loud noise, like the grinding of rusty metal gears and slowly the walls of the room began to sink into the floor leaving thick glass in their place. They Tiny glass room was surrounded on all sides by at least fifty well dressed onlookers. They pointed at the room and whispered excitedly to each other. Ulric smiled at them.

“I don’t think a fish feels lucky to be in a bowl,” Kit muttered, “Or a bird to be in a cage.” Several of the people behind the glass commented on Mizuki’s horns and tail. A couple even seemed to be interested in Kit. He grabbed Mizuki’s hand. She whimpered and moved as close to him as possible. People began to call out prices.

“Fifty thousand for the demon girl.” Someone called.

“Seventy thousand!”

“A hundred!”

“I’ll give ten thousand for the boy!”

“Twenty thousand!”

Ulric held his hands up to silence the crowd. “Now now, not so fast. I know that there are a lot of you who want these two exquisite creatures, but unfortunately there can only be one or two of you. Now I want this done in an orderly fashion. Who’ll give me one hundred  thousand for the demon?” Nearly every hand was raised.

“One fifty?” asked Ulric.

Fewer people this time.

Ulric got to twelve hundred and twenty-five thousand before Mizuki was sold to a younger couple who had a privet zoo and animal collection. Kit went to a curator of an experimental medical hospital for one hundred and eighty thousand. Ulric bowed to the crowd and suggested they go see the other items he had for sale while his men prepared Kit and Mizuki for their new owners.

 Kit forced himself to move despite the pain. He wrapped his arms around Mizuki and refused to let her go, “I’m sorry. This is my fault. I love you.”

Mizuki sobbed into his shirt. “They can’t do this to us. We’re not animals. They can’t take you away. They can’t do it! I love you!”

“We can escape,” Kit stroked her hair, “I can get away once my wound is healed and we can find each other, okay? Don’t forget about Lot and Nanashi and Reiko… they’ll be looking for us. It’ll be okay, Mizuki. I promise.”

Ulric’s men arrived then with weapons to protect themselves and restraints for Mizuki and Kit.

“No! Let go of me! Kit!” Mizuki screamed as they pried her away from Kit. She bit and kicked and scratched and the men. She managed to wound one of them before they could properly fit the restraints around her.

“Are you going to do this the easy way or the hard way, kid?” One of the men asked, slapping his sword in the palm of this hand. “Because, personally, I’m just aching for a good fight.”

Kit lunged at this man in the form of a wolf several times larger than any found in the natural world. He closed his jaws on the man’s middle, crushing his body in two ragged pieces. Another coal-black wolf joined in the fight, mangling another of Ulric’s men. This wolf’s cold blue eyes caught Kit’s violent green eyes. Kit nodded to his brother.

The twin wolves fought in a synchronized pattern; they moved with mirror actions as if they shared a brain. More men spilled into the room, all armed.

“What the hell is this?!” Ulric stormed in after his men. “What in the hell is going on here?” He let out a frustrated growl seeing the fight between Lot, Kit and his men. “Oh for gods’ sake.” He ran up to the back wall and flipped a panel of switches. Instantly the door to the glass room closed and walls once again replaced the glass. Vicious snarls and agonized screams were magnified by the small room. Finally, all noise ceased. Ulric motioned for the remainder of his men to surround the room before he once again flipped the switches. The glass walls were splattered with blood and gore, twenty five of Ulric’s best lay dead or dying inside the room with two black haired boys standing in their midst. He fought his urge to scream as he watched Kit free Mizuki of his restraints.

“How did the other one get in here?” he demanded.

“He must’ve snuck in with the guards, sir.” Answered one of the men.

Ulric pointed to the small room. “Dead! I want them dead! But leave the little demon girl alive.”

Kit breathed heavily, his side completely soaked and stained in not only his own blood but the blood of the men he had slaughtered. Lot did the same, as if they suffered from the same wounds.

“Reiko’s in the building somewhere,” Lot spoke softly, wanting his words to reach only Kit and Mizuki’s ears, “Let’s hope he has enough sense to be useful. Mizuki, it might be wise for you to take a stronger form.” He wanted to say more, but he would save his critical questions for after their escape.

Mizuki immediately changed into a silvery, horned wolf dog.

Yuri, the black and white suited man, burst through the door, nearly knocking Ulric over. “Master Ulric! They’ve escaped! All of the animals escaped and are running rampant through the entire house! They’re destroying everything!”

Ulric cursed. He motioned at some of his men. “I want half of you in here and the other half to get those damned animals back where they belong!” Ulric stormed out the door. “And remember to be careful with the girl! I want her alive!”

Instantly half the men followed Ulric out of the room, silently thankful that they didn’t have to fight against the three.

Shivering  into their own canine forms, the twin brothers were nearly indistinguishable from each other. The color of their eyes was the only difference, though they appeared to become shades closer to each other in the process of the shift. Both looked at Mizuki with the same trusting expression and for a moment she could not tell which wolf was which.

“Hey, this way!” A small pink and yellow bird whipped into the room then changed into a massive red hued bear. “Get going! I can hold these guys off for a few minutes.” One of the men dared to step forward and Reiko ripped him open with a sweep from his large clawed paws. Mizuki and Kit dashed through the door without hesitation.

Lot stayed, his voice was gruffly altered by his wolf’s form, “You sure you can handle them?”

“Positive.” Reiko grinned, his razor sharp teeth making him look all the more menacing. With an ear splitting roar, he lunged at the remainder of Ulric’s men, blocking them from the exit. Lot ran for the door.

The halls were in chaos. The former buyers were being trampled and rippled apart by their purchases. Kit zigzagged, leading Mizuki out of their would-be prison.

Silently Riku slipped out of bed and went to the window. He couldn’t sleep. His mind was going a mile a minute and couldn’t seem to stop. He had had it all planned out. He was going to kill Nanashi in the morning and take her jewel. But for some reason every time he thought about he felt sick to his stomach. Riku looked over at the sleeping girl and sighed. Why shouldn’t he kill her? She was the cause of all his troubles. She confused him and filled him with uneasiness. He wanted desperately to show Alva that he was still loyal to him and to White, but there was something about Nanashi that made him hesitate in carrying out his orders. He sat down on the window sill and stared up at the moon. Maybe he could just steal her jewel and bring it back to Alva, that way he wouldn’t have to kill her.

She stirred, “…Riku…” He started to respond, but it was evident that she was talking in her sleep. She moaned as if she were having a nightmare. “…don’t hurt him..”

 “Don’t waste your dreams on me, Nanashi.” He shook her gently and whispered. “Hey, wake up, you’re having a bad dream.”

“Hmm?” sleepy blue eyes stared up at him, “Oh. You’re okay.” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes like a child, surprised at how much better she was feeling after such a short rest. It had felt like it would take days for her to recover when she had gotten herself lost in the alley ways. Reiko’s pills really did work, she thought with a smile.

“Was I not ok in your dream? Wait, that’s not  important. This is though.” Riku touched the jewel around Nanashi’s neck. “I think maybe I’ve come up with a plan to benefit the both of us. Why don’t you just let me take this little rock off your hands so I can let you live. For some reason I don’t really want to hurt you.”

“No,” Nanashi answered both the question and the request. She took his hand and moved it away from the center of her power, “I can’t just give it away. It’s part of me. I can’t live without it.”

“I figured as much.” Riku sat down on the edge of the bed. “There has to be another way. Maybe a fake. Maybe I could give Alva a fake.”

“There isn’t. He would recognize a fake and kill you, then send someone else to try and kill me,” Nanashi propped herself up. “So you might as well kill me. You’d be quick about it, right?”

Riku shifted uncomfortably. “Well, yeah. That’s usually how I do things but…I really don’t want to. It makes me sick just to think about it. How come you can’t just agree with your father?”

Nanashi sat up and hugged her knees, “Because all he’s ever caused me is pain. Well, that’s not entirely true, when I was younger I thought he was the greatest because I didn’t understand much of what he was. Is.”

“I don’t think I quite understand it either.” Riku hid his face with his hands. “Before I met you, I was a good soldier. I still am, I think.  I want so much to please him and but I don’t know why. He killed my father and tried to kill me and for years I thought he killed my sister too. But still I’m oddly compelled to follow his every order, no matter what it is. I’m completely fucked in the head.”

Nanashi was shocked at his blunt confession. She crawled to his side and swung her legs off the edge of the bed. “That’s something I wanted to ask you about… You said before that he saved you. Saved you from what?”

“Everything. I’m sure you know what happened in Lykiska. I tried to take on Alva all by myself and being a child, failed.” Riku’s lifted up his shirt and pointed to a scar that ran down the length of his upper body. “See? He damn near ripped me in half. Then after he left someone came in and healed me enough to patch me up halfway decent and stop the bleeding. Later I found out that he told Alva I was dead so he could have his own little slave.” He pointed to the broken horn on his head. “See, the guy who fixed me up thought he was clever when he realized that he could make money by sawing off my horns and selling them on the black market. Now that guy was fucked in the head. Alva found out about it, had the guy killed and the sort of took me under wing until we got to HQ. Then he sort of gave me to this woman named Akiko whose son had died in a raid the year before. So that’s how I spent the past eight years, he taught me everything I know. He’s a strange man.”

Nanashi reached back into her memory, “Did I meet you before? We must have at least seen each other. I didn’t run away until I was thirteen. My father trained me and my two companions, also. I can’t believe in five years I never saw you once. I was with my father in Lykiska. The jewel was mine by then. I made it snow for him, but I didn’t get to go with him into the village…”

Riku tilted his head in thought. “You know, I think maybe I did see you before. With those two boys, the black haired ones. I thought you were pretty and wanted to go and see but Akiko and Alva never let me. They said you were special. I don’t think I ever saw you again after that.”

“Special,” Nanashi scoffed. She played her fingers across the smooth surfaces of the sapphire at her neck. “Special enough to be used as a tool and a weapon. Alva probably thinks of you as being ‘special’ in the same way.”

“No, that isn’t right.” Riku sounded like a child scolding an adult who told them that tooth fairy isn’t real. “No, surely I’m worth more to him than just some tool.”

“Would he have sent you to die if he thought more of you?” Nanashi tried not to sound like she was threatening Riku, “No one he has ever sent to kill me and retrieve the jewel has ever survived. He gave up for a time. Started killing off everyone I had known instead…to get me to surrender…and I haven’t yet. I should have when we found Kit and Lot’s family slaughtered… but that would never have brought those children back…”

I wonder if she knows what I did. Probably not or else I’d be dead right now. Riku looked at the ground uncomfortably. “Maybe he thought I could kill you. I’m usually pretty good at that kind of stuff.”

“Then why haven’t you?” Nanashi  gathered her hair and pulled it back to expose her throat. “Go ahead. I’ll give you a clean shot. Hell, I’ll even give you a weapon.” She produced a crystal dagger out of seemingly nothing but cold air.

Riku turned away from her. “Stop. I can’t do it. I want to, yes, but I can’t. It…doesn’t feel right. It’s odd, I feel fine, even compelled, to kill you so long as you aren’t near me. But the second you are, every thought of harming you disappears. There’s no way I can do it. This is the first time I’ve ever failed to carry out my orders.”

Nanashi let the dagger dissolve, “Performance anxiety?” She felt bad for joking about the situation, but that certainly didn’t stop her.

Riku smiled a little. “If only. You know, I think it might be a good idea if you left. No offense, but it makes me sick to be around you.”

“Thanks,” Nanashi did not budge from her spot, “I love it when guys tell me I make them sick. I still have one question though…why did you kiss me last time? Is that just your signature move? You kiss people before you vow to kill them?”

“Why? What sort of girl asks why a guy kisses them?” Riku gave her a funny look, as if the answer was obvious. “I like you. I hardly know you and was sent to kill you but I still like you.”

“What kind of guy tells the girl he supposedly likes that he really wants to kill her?” Nanashi shot back.

“A really fucked up one.” He answered. “Or maybe a clever one. Maybe I’m just saying a bunch of bullshit to try and get closer to you then lop off your head. It’d certainly make things more interesting, don’t you think?”

“I suppose so. If that’s the case, then I’m looking forward to getting my head lopped off,” Nanashi pulled her legs back up on the bed and crisscrossed them in front of her.

“Ugh.” Riku made a face and fell backwards. “Will you just go? I don’t think I wanna have to deal with you any more.”

“I’m having fun torturing you, though,” Nanashi poked his stomach.

He swatted her hand away. “I’m not! I already have enough problems without having you sit here and annoy the hell out of me.”

“It’s your own fault for actually agreeing to bring me here,” she poked him again, this time in the side. “You’ve got a nice body. Do you work out?”

“Will you stop that?” he growled. “And no I don’t work out. I’m naturally super hott.”

Nanashi smirked at that, “You sound kind of arrogant. I hate that about attractive guys.” She blew out a tiny cloud of frost and watched it float down to Riku’s chest.

“Dammit! That’s cold!” Riku turned around and faced Nanashi. “I’m not arrogant, I just happen to realize that I’m not ugly.”

“Uh-huh, I wish I could make ice cream. Like, without having to get ingredients. Just ‘poof’ an ice cream cone into existence.” At the word ‘poof’ Nanashi blew out another frosty cloud in Riku’s face.

“Nanashi!” he whined. “You’re gonna make me catch a cold! Then I’ll be sick…and I hate being sick.”

“You don’t catch a cold from the cold,” Nanashi made a little ice-and-snow Riku in the palm of her hand and made him dance like a ballerina. “Everyone knows that.”

He shook his head and pointed to the snowy effigy of himself. “Aw, come on. I don’t look like that. You made my head too big…”    

The little Riku started dancing provocatively and stripping off his little ice shirt. The shirt exploded into tiny snowflake confetti once it flew out of Nanashi’s hand. She laughed so hard that the tiny Riku lost form and went the way of his ice shirt.

Riku looked at the little flurry of snowflakes then to Nanashi. “That was wrong in so many ways.”

“I thought it was amusing,” Nanashi’s laughter subsided, “Could have been worse. You could have been wearing women’s lingerie.”

“Oh no,” Riku frowned, “Don’t you even dare think that, is so wrong. I’m not like Reiko, I don’t wear women’s clothing.”

“Reiko’d look sexi in a mini skirt,” Nanashi held a scantily clad Reiko in the palm of her hand.

 Riku shielded his eyes from the little snow figure. “Stoppit! That’s so creepy!” he peeked through his fingers to see if it was still there. It was. “So, do you really think Reiko likes that guy? I almost find it hard to believe.”

The tiny Reiko was joined by a tiny Lot, “It’s impossible to not believe. They’re… like this.” The ice Reiko’s face melted into Lot’s as they kissed. “But Lot’s still kind of like this…” The tiny Lot punched Reiko in the face and tiny ice chunks flew everywhere.

Riku flinched as chunks of tiny Reiko’s face landed in his. “Huh, if Reiko really does like this guy, Lot doesn’t have a chance in hell. He’s extremely persistent and refuses ‘no’ for an answer.”

The couple dissipated, “Good. That means I don’t have to marry Lot after all.”

“So you could marry me instead?” Riku asked grinning.

“I could,” Nanashi eyed him suspiciously, “But why would I?”

He shrugged. “I dunno, maybe your father wouldn’t want you dead if you got married to me. Or not. More like wishful thinking.”

“Okay,” Nanashi said with intense seriousness, “Let’s do it.”

“What?” Riku sat up. “You’re joking, right? Surely you’re joking.”

“You’re the one who suggested it,” Nanashi slouched. “Why not?”

“I don’t know.” Riku was quiet for a long time. “Maybe we should. There’s nothing stopping us and who knows, maybe this’ll be a turn for the better. Plus that’d take care of my little dilemma. There’s no way I’d be able to off my own wife. Even Alva could understand that. Probably. Maybe. Not so much…”

“And that’d definitely get the point across to Lot that I’m not in love with him. Which means he’d finally accept Reiko,” Nanashi was really joking, but Riku’s serious reaction made her heart thunder.

“If you were serious, I would marry you without a second thought.” Riku’s fiery eyes locked on to Nanashi’s. “No doubt about it.”

She struggled to breathe normally, “O-okay.” Her answer was barely audible. He’s too gorgeous, Nanashi thought. How could I say no to that face?    

“You’re sure?” Riku was trying hard to mask the excitement in his voice. “I mean, you’re really sure you want to do this?”

Nanashi nodded, “Yeah, as long as you aren’t just doing this to gain my trust and kill me later.”

“Nope.” Riku said seriously. “I just want everybody to be happy. If I have an excuse not to kill you I’m happy and I’m sure that you’re happy you don’t have to marry Lot.”

“And I’d be happy to be with you,” Nanashi could hardly believe they were seriously talking about this. Lot would flip out. What would Mizuki say? Nanashi started to panic. What if she wouldn’t make a good wife? What if it was a bad idea to marry a complete stranger?

Riku chuckled. “Ha, you sure could’ve fooled me. Judging by that expression on your face you have no idea what you want. I think the only reason you said yes was because I offered. Do you think you’d actually be able to marry a complete stranger?”

Nanashi fell backwards on the bed, “Isn’t that a good enough reason to say yes? You’re… really gorgeous.. And I’m just vain enough that it doesn’t matter that you’re a total stranger….and I know what I want….”

“Ok then.” Riku lay back down next to her. “We’ll get married tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” Nanashi repeated. She looked out the window, “Is it tomorrow yet?”

Riku looked at the clock on the bedside table. It read 12:03 a.m. “Technically yes, but I say we actually try and get some sleep before tomorrow.”  He threw his arm around Nanashi’s waist. “Don’t want you to fall asleep at your own wedding.”

“Right,” something dawned on Nanashi, “Does this mean we’re going to have a honeymoon?”

“Hmm.” Riku thought about it for a moment. “That’s usually what happens but if you’d rather not I understand.”

Nanashi blushed, “Uh… yeah… that’s okay…” She hid her face against his chest, “I mean, if we’re getting married…then…”

“Of course.” Riku kissed the top of her head. “It’s always awkward the first time but it’ll be ok…”

It occurred to Nanashi that her honeymoon would be the least of her problems if she was to marry one of her father’s minions and a complete stranger. But maybe Riku was right and her father would back off…or maybe Riku would realize that his life up until this point has been a horrible lie.

Kit, Mizuki and Lot, still in their animal forms, ducked into a dark alleyway to throw off anyone who might be on their trail. Mizuki whined. “Is it going to be ok now? They’re not following us, right?”

Kit nuzzled Mizuki and licked her face with loving relief, “I think we lost them”

“Where’s Reiko?” Lot looked back nervously, “He was supposed to be right behind us.”

Mizuki pawed the ground anxiously. “Maybe he got held up. Maybe it took him a little longer than we thought it would.”

“Maybe I should go back,” Lot paced a little bit, his wolf ears pressed flat against skull.  “What if he’s hurt?”

“But you can’t go back.” Mizuki sat down and leaned against Kit trembling violently “What if he catches you? You’ll be gone forever.” Kit was completely lost in his wolf form, licking Mizuki’s ears and face like a puppy that had really missed his owner.

“I’ll be fine,” Lot ran back the way they had come from to look for Reiko.

Mizuki poked at a small cage that contained a large colour changing bird. “That is so cool. I wish I could do that.”

“Me too,” Kit watched a tiny blue wren skitter across the bottom of its own cage. “My mom could change colors when she shifted, but my dad couldn’t so I can’t either.”

“Aw, I think it’d be cool to be able to be different sorts of animals. I can only be a dog beastie, which is ok, but they can’t fly. If I could be another sort of animal, I’d be a bird.” Mizuki took one last look at the colour changing bird then wandered off to the next stall, which sold all manner of shiny things.

“It’s cool when it isn’t some kind of bird hunting season,” Kit followed, “You make a cute dog beastie, I think.”

“Cute?” Mizuki picked up a strange orb that glowed orange when touched. “You think that a big goat dog is cute? You should probably lay off the drugs.”

“I’m not on any drugs and I still think you’re cute in any form,” Kit poked at silver necklace hanging from the edge of the stall’s roof. “Especially as a big furry goat dog.”

“I’m glad somebody thinks so.” Mizuki flicked at a large bell suspended from a silken ribbon. “Its nice to know somebody thinks I’m cute. See? We make a perfect pair. I’m cute and you’re cute, we’ve got strange brothers and we can both be strange canine beasties if we wanted. Perfect match.”

“We really are, aren’t we?” Kit had to flick the same bell, “That’s neat. You need something shiny. Pick something and I’ll get it for you.”

“Ohh really?” Mizuki looked around the stall excitedly. She picked up and examined all sorts of things before finally deciding on the bell. “I want this. Its shiny and it jingles. What could be better?”

Kit smiled and shook his head, “I might be able to think of at least one thing.” He paid for the bell and tied it around her neck. “Perfect.” He tapped the bell with his index finger and it sang in its chiming bell voice.

“Thank you. I love it and I think I love you too.” Mizuki kissed him on the cheek then slowly started to wander off towards the large crowd that had gathered around the front of a shop. Kit smiled to himself as he walked at her side in a joyful stupor.

“What’s going on?” a stranger in the back of the crowd asked someone ahead.

“Can’t tell,” was the answer. There was a chain of questions that traveled around, but never were answered. A little brass bell tinkled as the front door of the shop opened.

“Oh look! There he is!” Someone close to the front of the crowd shouted.

People craned their necks to get a better view of the man. He was thin and lithe with long blue black hair that was tied back. He wore a red top hat and cloak. As he passed the crowd the two black suited men who followed him threw wads of money into the air. People went wild trying to grab at it. The man threw an odd glance in Kit and Mizuki’s direction as he walked by. After he was gone and the money had been collected the people began to disperse. “Hey,” Kit stopped a stranger holding a fistful of cash. “Who was that guy?”

The man looked at Kit like he was a drooling idiot. “That’s Ulric Amanov. He’s some rich guy who gives out free money every week. No one is quite sure what it is he does but most people think it has to do with selling illegal stuff on the black market. No one really cares though.” The man nuzzled his money. “He gives out all this glorious free stuff.”

Kit was curious, but he asked no more of the money-grubbing bystander. “That’s interesting.” I bet he’s got pockets worth stealing from, Kit thought with a plotting grin.

Mizuki looked suspiciously at Kit. “What’s that grin for? Are you plotting something?”

“Maybe,” Kit disappeared and a little boy stood in his place. “Stay here.” He ran after the man who had so much money that he was throwing it away.

“Kit!” Mizuki started after him but he disappeared into the crowd. She looked around, bewildered, unsure of what to do. “I can’t believe he’d just go off like that after that guy.”

Nanashi was hopeless and lost. All of the alley ways looked exactly the same; the colors of the buildings started to look ugly and repetitive. She should have taken Reiko up on his offer to walk her back to the inn because, drunk as she was, she had no idea where to turn. Distraught and starting to feel nauseous again, Nanashi slumped onto a set of cold concrete steps in a dirty, empty alley.

“Well, well, fancy meeting you here.” Riku grinned fiendishly at Nanashi’s somewhat disheveled form. “You wouldn’t happen to know where my buddy Reiko is, would you?”

Nanashi blinked as if he were a hallucination, “No. I don’t know who you’re talking about.” Even drunk, she knew to be evasive.

“Of course you do.” Riku sat down next to her. “I know you and the rest of your little posse came here with him. The thing is I’m worried about him. He’s bound to get into trouble if he hangs around with you.”

“That’s a good one,” Nanashi wanted to lie down and go to sleep, but now was not the time. “He’s not hanging out with me, he’s with Lot. And Reiko’s bound to get into trouble no matter who he’s with. I like Reiko. He’s strange, but in a cute way.”

So much for being evasive.

Riku nodded understandingly. “The boy is a bit off, but he’s a good kid. You know, I was going to find and kill you today so I can get back in Alva’s favour but I’d feel bad if I killed you like this.” He gingerly pulled Nanashi up from the stairs and started to lead her down the street. “You’re not too far from your inn. Just a little further.”

“You can’t kill me,” Nanashi leaned against him, “Not until I talk to you about some things first…then you’re welcome to try… Okay? Maybe tomorrow when I’m not inca…inssuh…saspuh…tay….”

“Incapacitated?” Riku supplied.

“Yes,” Nanashi held on to Riku’s shirt. “That’s the word. Where are you staying? Is it closer? I could just stay with you and you could kill me in the morning after I asked you my questions. Win win, see? You wouldn’t even have to get me alone again. And all my friends are coupled off…I don’t want to be the third wheel in either party. ‘Specially since everyone’s getting so close…”

“That sounds like a nice idea. The inn I’m at isn’t too far from here.” Riku steered her down the street and past the yellow orange inn to a teal coloured one. “Why wouldn’t anyone want to be close with you. I’d think Reiko would be all over you.”

“Reiko’s all over Lot,” Nanashi laughed, “They’re so cute t’gether that it makes me jealous.”

“So he really likes this…boy?” Riku spat the last word like a curse. “I can’t believe it.”

“You wouldn’t be so against it if you saw how happy Reiko is around Lot,” Nanashi defended the boys. “Which you probably have if you’ve been stalking us.”

Riku sighed in an exasperated sort of way. “This must be how he felt the last time I hooked up with this girl. I sort of just left him alone and ignored him. I didn’t mean to but I did. I don’t want to lose my best friend, my only friend, to some guy.”

“That was rude of you, but at least the next time you’re an ass to him he won’t be alone. And how can he ignore you if he doesn’t know you’re around?” Nanashi decided she could walk without Riku’s help and pushed away from him. “You aren’t losing Rei.”

“He must really like you guys. Because just up and leaving an entire squadron isn’t his style. He knows what’ll happen if he gets caught. It’s only been a week but HQ has already labeled him a traitor and a deserter.” Riku pointed to a two story building that had been painted to resemble a beach scene. “That’s where I’m staying.”

Nanashi stopped, “Damn White. Reiko’s not a criminal. That’s one of the reasons I hate those bastards. I’ll take ‘em down on my own if I have to. Alva’s power isn’t seeded in anything. Not like my power. His is weaker. I could take him down and take over White… I’m still his blood, so I’d naturally inherit…unless he disowned me and named another successor…. Yeah, I’ll show him treason…He doesn’t even know…” She rambled on with more half baked plots and criticisms of White. “…and then everyone would be happy and free…”

“Happy and free…” Riku echoed. He took her by the hand and led her up the stairs to his room. It was small and painted with an underwater theme. Mermaids and fish swam across the walls and the silhouettes of people and ships were painted on the ceiling. “It’s a little small but I think it’ll be fine. You can have the bed and I’ll take the floor.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Nanashi crawled under the blue down comforter and curled into a ball like a dog. She hid under the covers completely. Her eyes were closed and sleep already colored her voice, which was muffled. “The floor looks uncomfortable. I won’t bite you.”

“Well, if you insist.” Riku shrugged and climbed into the bed with her.

Kit, still in the form of a child, struggled against the black clad soldier that had him by the shirt collar. “Leggo, ya big meanie!” Kit shouted, trying to stay in character. He had been caught stealing money from the man with the red top hat. The kid Kit kicked at the soldier’s shins. People were staring, as they were always apt to do when a child was making a scene.     

“Oh, what’s going on now?” Mizuki asked the nearest person.

“Ugh, some soldiers got a hold of some kid. Probably for some sort of vandalism.”

“That’s not how I heard it.” Another person chimed in. “I heard he was caught trying to steal from Amanov.”

Mizuki turned to the last person. “He did what?”

“Some kid tried to steal form Amanov.” The person spoke loudly and very slowly, as if Mizuki were deaf or quite possible stupid.

“Oh gods.” She groaned. Mizuki pushed her way through the small crowd of onlookers to Kit and the soldier. “You’re in big trouble, young man!” She pointed at Kit with a clawed finger. “What did you do?”

“Does this runt belong to you ma’am?” asked the soldier.

Mizuki nodded. “You’d better believe it. He’s my nephew.”

“Do you know what he was doing? Your little brat was caught trying to steal from Mr. Ama—“

Ulric Amanov, who stood next to the soldier, interrupted him. “Oh never mind all that. Let the boy go. I’m sure he had his reasons.”

“What? But Mr. Am—“

Ulric gave the soldier a stern glare. “I said it was alright.”

Reluctantly the soldier let Kit go and started to walk away. “I’m keeping an eye on you.”

“Right.” Mizuki took Kit by the hand.

“Wait.” Commanded Ulric. “I’d like it very much if you would come over to my house. If its money you need, I’ll happily give it to you.”

Mizuki turned away from the man and whispered to Kit. “It seems sort of weird that he’d invite someone over to his house who just tried to steal from him. What do you think?”

“I think we need the money,” Kit whispered back, “Imagine it! We could probably get enough money from him to last until we reach Musahar. We could skip the cheap, gross inns and travel in style. Maybe we wouldn’t have to suffer through another one of Reiko’s ‘meals.’”

Mizuki nodded. “Well, if you think so.” She turned back to Ulric, “Lead the way.”

Ulric’s house was a large gothic style mansion complete with gargoyles and a wrought iron fence. “Welcome to my humble abode.” He said, gesturing around the ornate marbled entrance of his house. Inside ancient looking portraits and strange looking antiques lined the walls. A man in a black and white suit led them to another room. Three expensive looking sofas sat in front of a blazing fireplace. Dozens of taxidermied animals stared at them from the shelves and walls. Mizuki shuddered. All those dead animals gave her a funny feeling.

“Sit down, make yourselves at home.” He pointed to the sofas then to Kit. “There aren’t any soldiers here. You don’t have to stay in that form if you don’t want to.”

Kit shifted back to his eighteen-year-old self, “So you can see through shifts? I’ve only ever heard of that in books and rumors.”

“Yes, it’s a very rare skill. There aren’t many who can do it nowadays. All the old families are dying out.” Ulric waved the black and white suited man away. “So tell me, what brings you to the lovely city of Pharacesa?”

“Passing through,” Kit looked at Ulric with a bit more respect, “We have a long way to travel and our supplies are low, so we’re desperate for anything that can help us get to where we’re going and arrive in good health.” He smiled apologetically, “I may have gotten a little carried away. I meant no disrespect to you.”

“None at all. As you can see, I have plenty of money and I have no qualms about giving it away to people who truly need it.” Ulric pointed to Mizuki. “I mean no offense but she is a strange looking creature. I have yet to see anything like her. Wherever did you find it?”

Mizuki frowned. “He didn’t find me. We met at an inn. And for your information, I’m an Urthound. Half anyways.”

“I thought they were all dead…” Ulric mused. “How very strange…”

Kit put his arm around Mizuki protectively, “Mizuki’s special. She’s my girl. I’d prefer you not talk about her as if she were an exhibit in a zoo.”

“Terribly sorry.” Ulric bowed his head in apology. “I forget that some people don’t share the same hobbies, and therefore the same understanding, as I do. You see, there are two reasons I’ve become so wealthy. One, was my inheritance. And two, I am a collector of rarities. Animals and demons, no that there’s much of a difference. You see, certain people are more than willing to pay an arm and a leg for endangered species, be they animal or demon.”

Kit moved Mizuki behind his back. “I think I see what you’re getting at.”

“Ah good.” Ulric picked up a small black case from the table next to him and started pulling out bills. “How much? Name your price.”

“Price?” Mizuki sputtered. “I’m not for sale, you jackass!”

Ulric glared daggers at the girl. “How much?”

Kit stared dumbly at the money, then at Ulric, “You’re kidding, right? You can’t seriously think I’d sell her. She’s worth more than you could offer.”

“Oh I doubt that. Everyone has their price.” Ulric said walking up to Kit. Mizuki growled angrily. “Just accept my offer and you can be on your merry little way with a hefty amount of cash in your pockets. I could give you more than enough to get you to where you’re going.”

“No way in Hell.” Kit stared him down, “She’s mine.”

“Then I’m sorry you feel that way.” Ulric pulled a dagger from behind him and plunged it into Kit’s side.

Gasping, Kit clutched his hands over Ulric’s, which still held the dagger in place. A warm wave soaked through Kit’s shirt and his vision danced dizzily. “Mi...Mizuki… get out…”

“Kit!” Mizuki pushed Ulric away with all the strength she could muster. He stumbled backwards, wrenching the knife from Kit’s side. “Kit! Please be ok…” She put her hand over the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

“Poor thing.” Ulric grabbed a heavy iron candelabrum from the table and swung at Mizuki.

She collapsed to the floor in next to Kit.

Ulric smiled to himself. Now he had an endangered demon and a shapeshifter. “Yuri.” He called, summoning the black and white suited man. “Prepare a room for our ‘guests’ and get this one patched up. I want them in prime condition when the others get here.”

Yuri scrambled to carry out his master’s orders.

On the fifth floor of  the yellow inn Lot sat in the middle of the hallway, waiting. Reiko was trying to find a way in to the locked rooms without the key cards.

“Nanashi should have made it here by now,” Lot wiped his face with his hands, “What if something happened to her?” He rubbed his side, having just recently developed a dull pain there. “Kit. I’m getting a bad feeling about Kit, too.”

“I know, something doesn’t seem quite right about all this. I mean its getting really late.” Reiko kicked the door handle which resulted in nothing but hurting himself.

“I shouldn’t have let her leave without me…” Lot muttered. “I should’ve remembered the damn key…” He glared up at Reiko, “This is your fault. If you hadn’t wanted to go drinking we wouldn’t be drunk and locked out of our room and Nanashi would be where she needs to be…”

“What? How can you blame this on me? You wanted to go too!” Reiko repeatedly kicked the door. “That isn’t fair. You’re just blaming me because there’s no one else to blame.”

Lot was quiet, mostly because he knew Reiko was right but he did not want to admit it. “Quit kicking the door, we don’t have the money to replace it…. And I’ll blame you if I want to. Especially if something bad happens to her.”

“Fine. If it makes you feel better, go ahead and blame me.” Reiko gave the door an evil look then sat down on the floor in front of it. “Open door! I command you!”

Lot sighed, “Fine. It’s not really your fault. Sorry. But we still have to find Kit. I think he’s hurt. Nanashi’s probably passed out on the bed in there and too lazy to get up and open the door.”

“She did drink a lot.” Reiko reasoned. “You’re probably right. We should go and try to find Kit and Mizuki.” He stood up. “Where would they be?”

Lot pointed, “That way. Go a few blocks, turn left, and keep going straight…”

Reiko gave him a funny look. “Why didn’t you say something earlier? We could’ve found them by now.”

“I didn’t really think about it until now,” Lot looked up at him with a half-smile, “I think your brainlessness is rubbing off on me.”

“Or maybe your intellect is rubbing off on me.” Reiko poked him with his shoe. “Come on, let’s go find those two crazy kids.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Lot stood and brushed invisible dirt from his pants. “I’d like to think that I’m more of an influence on you than you are on me.”

“I agree.” Reiko took his arm. “You’re definitely a better influence than I am.”

Lot followed the odd little voice in his head that directed him toward his twin.

Chapter Five

“Good morning, or afternoon, rather.” Reiko called cheerily. He gently shook each of them awake and shoved steaming bowls of some soup like substance into their hands. “I woke up early this morning and thought I should demonstrate my amazing cooking skills for everyone and make some breakfast. Well, it was supposed to be breakfast but it got sorta late, so now its lunch. I found lotsa edible looking plants growing around here and…” Reiko rooted around in the snow then held up what looked like the bloody tail feathers of a bird. “I caught some birds! They were really stupid ones too. I practically walked up to them before they even realized what was going on.”

Mizuki poked at something that was floating around in her soup. “Are we going to die if we eat this?”

Nanashi shrugged and took a bite. “Tastes ok.” Seeing as how she didn’t start choking or drop down to the ground writhing in agony, everyone figured the food wasn’t poison.

Everything was just fine until Mizuki squealed and dropped her bowl into the snow.

“What’s wrong?” asked Kit through a mouthful of food.

Mizuki cringed and pointed to the snow. “I found a foot in my soup! A freaking bird foot!”

Reiko ambled over and stared at the spot where Mizuki had thrown her bowl and picked up something. “Huh, it is a foot.” He held it up and wiggled it at Mizuki.

She whimpered and shied away from it cringing. “No! Stop it, Reiko!”

He giggled and wiggled it at her some more.

“Quit it!” Mizuki whined.

“Ok.” Reiko stopped wiggling it around and threw it at her.

“Ahhh!” Mizuki screamed and threw herself to the ground. “Get it away from me!”

Reiko giggled like a naughty child.

Lot smirked, “Kids these days…” He picked a feather out of his bowl and frowned, “Who the hell taught you to cook, Reiko?”

“I did!” Reiko said proudly. “I taught myself rather well, if I do say so myself.”

“Figures,” Lot continued eating the meal anyways.

Nanashi had hers finished first, “I think it’s tasty. What’s on the agenda for today? We’re still a long way from that moose hair place, right?” She didn’t sleep all night and was somehow perky and energetic to the point of being annoying. “What places do we get to pass through on the way?”

“Hm…” Reiko sat down on the tree stump and rummaged through his bag. He found the map and stared at it for awhile without saying anything.

“Hey, you alive?” asked Mizuki.

“What?” Reiko looked up from the map. “I was just thinking that it’d be fun to stop in Pharacesa for a night or two. They have a few nice bars. We also pass through Aversin, which I like even better than Pharacesa. Oh, and there’s Sumersa too. I’ve never been there but it looks nice.” He paused, then made a strange grunting noise. “The only problem we might have in getting to Musahar is the fact that nearly every village we pass through is controlled by Black.”

“Black we can handle,” Lot dumped the rest of his soup in the snow when Reiko wasn’t looking, “We’re members of that group… sort of…”

“I think we still count as members of Black,” Kit scratched his chin in thought, “Asa’s one of their best spies and he’s practically family.”

“You mean there’s more than one crazy organization?” This was news to Mizuki. “Couldn’t they’ve come up with a better name than Black? Like the Super Dream Team or something like that, only cooler.”

Reiko shook his head and put the map back in his bag. “Pharacesa isn’t really too far away. We could probably be there by tomorrow if we leave soon. Who knows, at the rate we travel, we could be there by tonight. I’d much rather sleep in an inn than outside again, though it did have its perks.” He cast a sideways glance at Lot and grinned.

“That’s creepy.” Mizuki muttered.

Lot smirked, “You weren’t the one who had to share a tiny sleeping bag with him. You have no right to complain.”

Nanashi smiled with incredible good cheer, “Let’s get going then.”

“Right.” Mizuki nodded and began to pack.

Reiko led them through the woods in a matter of hours with little incident. After breaking through the woods they had two hours to travel before they reached the eccentric town of Pharacesa. The streets were packed with street vendors and colorfully dressed pedestrians. Streamers twisted and swayed in the frigid breeze, but the atmosphere was charged with excitement.

“It looks like a festival,” Kit observed a group of fire juggling people who wore numerous gold bangles. In the center of them a girl with eyes of lavender--even the third eye in the center of her forehead--did an enchanting dance with a set of exotic-looking twin blades as her dance partner.

“It’s always like this,” Reiko sped up, “But they’ve added some stuff since I was last here.”

“This place looks fun.” Mizuki said eyeing some of the stalls and shops. “I like this a lot better than where we were. That place was depressing, but this place is…colourful.”

“Yeah, but it’s so easy to get lost here. Everything starts to look the same after awhile. Or maybe that’s because I was always drunk off my ass after a few hours. Ohh, I think the inns are this way.” Reiko took a weird turn down a narrow grey alley. They wound up in front of a long strip of inns. Reiko strolled down the street pointing at different buildings. “We shouldn’t stay here, there are always funny stains in the sheets. And that one smells like rotted cheese. That one is nice but its super expensive.” He stopped at the entrance of a five story yellow-orange building. “This looks nice. Cheerful.”

“Anybody have any money?” Kit shoved his hands in his empty pockets and looked around at everyone. Lot held up a small coin that was practically useless and Nanashi shrugged.

Mizuki held out a few bills.

Reiko took out a small sack and dumped the contents into his hand. A few coins and a slip of paper fell out. “I.O.U. two hundred dollars. Riku.” He read aloud. “Aw, dammit, Riku!”

“Looks like I’ve got some work to do,” Kit clapped his hands together in front of him and rubbed them together, “I bet people carry tons of cash in a place like this.”

“Feel bad about stealing from all these happy people,” Nanashi looked specifically at a group of laughing children.

“That’s why I do it, not you,” Kit chimed as he disappeared into the throng of noisy people at the end of the alley. He seemed to shrink to the size of a seven year old boy.

“As long as he doesn’t get caught and have his arm broken again,” Lot dropped his bag into the stomped-up snow slush.            

“Kit’s a thief?” Mizuki asked, watching a multi-coloured crowd of people swarm by. “Well, I guess I can believe it.”

“I’m glad he can do that sort of thing.” Reiko added. “I thought we might have to whore ourselves out or something.”

“No.” Mizuki frowned. “That wouldn’t happen.”

“Sure it would. It happens everyday.”  He pointed to a group of scantily clad men and women walking down the streets, eyeing the passersby with interest.

“No one would pay much for you, I bet,” Lot surmised of Reiko.

“I wouldn’t mind whoring myself out to some of the guys here,” Nanashi stared after a collection of attractive men. “It’d be like getting paid twice.”

“That’s really creepy Nanashi.” Mizuki grumbled. “Though some of those guys are kind of cute.”

“You’d be surprised how much my sexi body goes for.” Boasted Reiko.

“You’re kidding,” Lot said apathetically.

A little boy with scraggly black hair and lively green eyes tugged on Mizuki’s hand. “Are they cuter than me?” 

“Of course not.” She said kneeling down, eyelevel with the boy. “You’re most definitely the cutest guy here.”

“That’s sweet of you,” the little boy handed her a large wad of cash. “Will this be enough?” 

“Holy crap, you work fast.” Reiko looked in awe at the wad of cash. “That should be more than enough. Probably.”

Mizuki giggled. “If it isn’t you can always go and whore yourself out.”

“That’s true.” Reiko nodded. “I could just charge a lot and get plenty of cash in no time.”

“Charge a lot or charge a Lot? Because he doesn’t really have any money,” Nanashi grabbed the money Kit had stolen and began counting it.  

Reiko waggled a finger in Nanashi’s direction. “He wouldn’t have to pay, he’s my boyfriend.”

“That’s true,” Nanashi finished counting the money and stuffed it contentedly into her pocket.

“It’s not true. I’m not his anything,” Lot picked his bag up from the ground. The bottom of it was wet with melting snow. “Dammit.”

“Why do you keep denying it, Lot?” Reiko asked, making his way to the entrance of the brightly coloured inn. “I think we were meant to be together.”

“That’s just creepy sounding coming from him.” Mizuki whispered to Kit.

“Creepier still because it might be true,” Kit whispered back.

“I’m not denying anything because there’s nothing to deny,” defended Lot who followed Reiko into the inn.

“I think there’s something there.” Mizuki took Kit’s hand and followed the others inside.

The inn was decorated in different shades of yellow, orange and red. The rest of the group waited on the plush red sofas while Reiko went to take care of their accommodations.

“This place looks lively.” Mizuki commented. “Do you think it’s because this town hasn’t been taken over by White yet?”

“Probably,” Nanashi let little ice animals form in the palm of her hand. A glassy squirrel in a skirt danced around before changing into a horned wolf creature scratching its ear vigorously. “White would beat the life out of this place.”

“That’s the truth.” Reiko returned waving two orange cards. “Hey, guess what? Our rooms are on the fifth floor. That means we should get a pretty decent view of the place. It looks sorta like a rainbow threw up and people thought it was a good idea to use it to paint their buildings with.” He grabbed his bag and ran excitedly over to the elevators.

“Sometimes I wonder where he comes up with his descriptions. Rainbow vomit.” Mizuki chuckled.

“They probably occur to him when he’s under the influence,” Lot lugged his bag over his shoulder.

“Hurry up! I don’t want the elevator demons to get me.” Reiko held the elevator door and cautiously peered down the tiny crack between the floor of the inn and the floor of the elevator. “I had a friend who held the door too long and that’s what happened.”

“We’d better hurry up then.” Mizuki deliberately walked slowly towards the elevators. Nanashi and Lot passed her and stood inside the elevator.

“Are elevator demons any kin to the pants eating monster?” Lot criticized.

Reiko nodded and quickly jumped into the elevator after Kit and Mizuki got in. “If you stand above the crack too long the elevator demons will grab you by the feet and pull you under the elevator and eat you. But before that they like to take your pants and do all sorts of weird thing with them. I heard that sometimes they make you eat them, or they make sauce with them.”

“And those are my pants…” Lot leaned against the elevator wall, “I would hate for you to lose them. I wouldn’t mind if they took you, as long as I got my pants back.”

The elevator dinged.

Reiko took a flying leap over the crack in the floor and landed in an ungraceful heap on the other side. “If they took me, who would you sleep with at night? And who would be your boyfriend?”

Mizuki rolled her eyes at Reiko. “You’re an idiot.”

“That looked painful,” Nanashi did a bunny hop over the crack.

“I’m sure I’d manage,” Lot mumbled and strolled out of the metal box.

“Nope. I don’t think so.” Reiko stumbled up and grabbed Lot’s hand. “I think you’d be lonely.”

Lot pulled his hand away, “I think you’re delusional.”

“Oh, I know that I am. But I think what you and me have is real, you’ve just yet to see it.” Reiko started whistling some unknown tune.

“Whatever,” Lot adjusted his bag on his shoulder.

The doors to all of the rooms were painted with different designs and themes. Reiko stopped in front of a door with a magenta unicorn dancing with a giant flaming fox. He pointed to the door next to it that was painted like the moon with a small population of lemon-colored bunnies having a feast on the surface. “These two rooms are ours.”

“I call the one with the bunnies!” Mizuki grabbed a keycard from Reiko and slid it through the slot on the door. The bunny room opened to a room painted with several different shades of blue and white to make it resemble space and the surface of the moon. Little yellow coloured bunnies danced across the walls, along with a few bright blue mice.

Reiko opened the other door to a room of vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows that made the walls appear as if they were engulfed in fire. The unicorn and the fox appeared all around the room carved into the head board of the bed, sewn into the quilt, carved yet again on the dresser and a set of two chairs. “These people really know how to decorate,” Reiko ran in and jumped on the bed.

“No kidding.” Mizuki opened a door that connected the two rooms and peered inside. This place is cool. We get to stay here tomorrow too, right?”

“I paid for two nights but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll get to stay that long. I hope we do though.” Reiko looked up at the ceiling where a red and yellow fan spun around looking very much like a giant fireball.

Lot shook his head, “This room gives me a headache.”

“I like the blue one,” Nanashi invaded the bunny room.

“Isn’t it cute? I love bunnies. Not so much mice though.” Mizuki tossed her bag in a corner and flopped down on the blue carpet. “I wonder what sorts if things moon bunnies eat.”

“People,” Kit guessed.

Lot placed his bag in one of the chairs in the fire room and collapsed into the other. “Who’s staying where?” He called.  

“I’m staying with you!” Reiko said instantly.

“I wanna stay in the bunny room!” Mizuki shouted.

“I like the bunny room, too, but it doesn’t matter to me.” Nanashi called back.

“I don’t want to stay overnight in the same room as my brother and his boyfriend,” Kit replied, already settling in to the bunny room.

“Ok, that works out perfectly.” Reiko cried happily. “Everyone can stay in that room, and me and Lot can get this room to ourselves.”

“No,” Lot argued, “Nanashi can stay in here, too.”

“But I want her to stay in there so we can stay in here all by ourselves.” Whined Reiko. “What, do you think I’m going to do something to you while you’re sleeping? I’m not going to. I didn’t last night so what makes you think I will tonight? I told you I’d be good.”

“Maybe Lot’s afraid that he’ll do something to you while you sleep, instead,” Kit yelled, “He’s got no self control.”

“Shut the hell up! I’ve got plenty of self control!” Lot yelled back, “That’s not the point!”

“Now I wouldn’t mind it if you did something to me. That’d be just dandy.” Reiko sat up. “Somehow I don’t think I’m quite that lucky at the moment.”

“As much as I enjoy hearing you talk about how much you want Lot to screw you while you sleep, I think we should go have a look around.” Mizuki stood up and looked out the window. Reiko was right. It really did look like the village was painted with rainbow vomit.

“That sounds like fun,” Nanashi agreed, “Exploring. Not the part about Lot molesting Rei.”

“I think we should all go for a nice drink.” Suggested Reiko. “I know a few good places around here.”

This was a suggestion Lot could agree to. “Sounds fine to me.”

Kit could not, “I don’t drink. It’s a waste of brain cells.”

“I’ve never been to a bar and actually had something to drink,” Nanashi said, “Can I tag along?” 

“The more the merrier.” Reiko grabbed Lot by the hand and pulled him into the next room then grabbed Nanashi’s hand. “I think this’ll be fun.” He pointed at Kit and Mizuki with one of his feet. “You two kids be good now.”

“Somehow I don’t think it’s us you should be worried about.” Mizuki waved them out the door.

They had been gone five minutes before Kit mentioned, “They probably should have taken a key card with them.” He held up two orange cards.

“Oh gods.” Mizuki groaned. “I think they’ll be fine. Probably. Do you wanna go wander around town? Maybe we’ll see them on the way.”

“Sure, this place looks like a fun place for a date,” Kit put the two cards in his back pocket.

“I agree.” Mizuki took his hand and together they left the inn.

Riku wandered the crowded streets of Pharacesa in search of Reiko, Nanashi and her little friends. He’d checked himself into an inn and changed out of his uniform. Now he blended in with the crowds of tourists and locals. The only problem was that Reiko and the others did too. “I’d bet almost anything the first place Reiko would go is to the bars.” Riku said to himself. Immediately he set off for the centre of town where most of the bars and taverns were located.

“Isn’t this place great?” Reiko asked, stopping before a dilapidated old tavern covered in peeling white paint. “Sure it looks bad, but the drinks here are excellent.”

“It looks fantastic,” Lot stated unenthusiastically. “Like some sort of shack of ill repute.”

“I’m sure it’s wonderful,” Nanashi encouraged.

“Oh it is.” Reiko opened the door for his companions and followed them inside. The interior of the tavern was the complete opposite of the outside. It was dimly lit with blue and purple shades of light. Iron tables lined the walls on three sides, the long bar of polished wood ran along the other. Down the middle of the tavern ran a long runway like stage, on either side was open space that was used for a dance floor.

“Wow,” Nanashi breathed, “This place looks awesome! What’s the runway for?”

Reiko led the way to the bar, “Sometimes they have shows here. Random bands, drag queens, strippers. You name it and it’s probably been up there.”

“What kind of strippers?” Nanashi wondered.

“I knew it would have to be a real skank hole for you to enjoy it, Reiko,” Lot turned to walk back out.

“Don’t leave.” Reiko grabbed his hand. “There aren’t always strippers or anything. Sometimes there’s nothing!” he turned and whispered to Nanashi. “Sometimes they have male strippers or stripper dudes in drag. Or just plain naked people.”

“That sounds… interesting,” Nanashi stared at the stage as if a naked person would suddenly appear.

Lot stayed, but he told himself it was only because he couldn’t leave Nanashi alone with a person like Reiko in a place like this one.

“Come on guys, there’s lots of alcoholic liquids just begging to be drunk.” Reiko raced over to the bar and claimed one of the spinning chairs as his own. He gestured to the bartender. “I want some of that purple bubbly stuff that tastes like chocolate and tea.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Lot took the seat next to Reiko. “Sounds kind of girly.”

“Do they have anything that tastes like just chocolate?” Nanashi chose the seat on the other side of Reiko, “Because that’d be awesome.”

He shrugged. “I dunno. I usually just pick something and hope it tastes good. If it doesn’t then I just get something different. That’s probably why I usually wind up so wasted. I never know just how alcoholic something is because I never know what it is.” He picked up the glass of lavender liquid the bartender sat in front of him and took a sip.

Nanashi thought about that and decided to try something random as well.

“That’s so reckless,” Lot ordered something simple, but potent. “No wonder your brain doesn’t work properly.”

“My brain works just fine, thank you very much.” Reiko took another sip then drained the rest of the glass. He spun around in the chair and when he stopped he pointed at something else on the shelf. This time it was a bright green liquor that burned like liquid fire as it went down, but left an aftertaste of mint. “I like this stuff.”

“That’s the stuff I tried first,” Nanashi pointed to Reiko’s glass, “If you make it really cold it doesn’t burn the same.”

Lot still worked on his first glass, taking a sip here and there.

Reiko held his glass out to Nanashi, who obligingly fixed his problem. “Wow, it really doesn’t burn as much.” He thrust his glass at Lot, “You gotta try this.”

“Fine,” Lot took the glass and sipped at it cautiously. “Huh. It’s not bad.” He finished off Reiko’s glass and asked the bartender for two more. One for him and one to replace Reiko’s. Nanashi worked her magic on the drinks and tried a glass of candy pink liquid next.

They continued like this, talking and trying out new alcoholic beverages, for nearly half an hour. By that time they were in high spirits, laughing and joking loudly. Nanashi suddenly stopped laughing and stumbled to the nearest bathroom to vomit. She discovered it was the men’s room too late and hid in a stall when she heard someone entering to take a piss.

“’Nashi?” Reiko leaned against one of the stalls to keep from falling over. “You ok? I mean, you’re not dead, right?” He tripped over his feet and fell when he went to look under the stalls for Nanashi. The guy Nanashi had hid from laughed loudly as he left.

“I’m going to—“ Nanashi was cut off her own stomach emptying itself completely in the toilet. She sat on the grungy floor with tears in her eyes. “I’m not dead, just really really really sick.” Nanashi kept herself from shivering by clutching her knees. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

Reiko crawled over and sat next to her. “Just take it easy. This is normal. You’ve just had a little much to drink. I’d be in the same state as you if I weren’t used to drinking so much.” He pulled a small bag from his pocket and tipped it into his hand. He gave the two small pills to Nanashi. “This’ll make you feel better and in the morning your hangover won’t be as bad.”

Nanashi took the pills gratefully, “Thanks. I think I’m gonna go back to the inn, though. Will you an’ Lot be okay without me?”

“Uh-huh.” Reiko helped her to her feet. “We’ll be ok, but will you? I’ll take you back if you want.”

“No no no, you stay and have fun with lover boy,” Nanashi stood on her own, for a second before leaning against the wall. “I dun wanna ruin your fun.” She repeated the word ‘fun’ a couple more times and stumbled out of the bathroom.

Reiko waited a few moments before leaving the bathroom and going back to the bar. “Nanashi said she’s done and headed back to the inn. ‘S just you an’ me.”

“Poor girl,” Lot sighed and took another drink in hand. “She already gone? She knows the way back, I hope. Why does she keep leavin’ me alone with you?”

“What’s so bad about being with me? I said I’d keep my hands off.” Reiko ordered another drink.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Lot stole a sip from Reiko’s drink. “You don’t mean anything. To me. That’s what’s so bad, ‘cause you think you do or you want to and you don’t. And she’s jus’ encouraging your rejection. It makes me sad, ‘cause you’re an okay guy sometimes… and being rejected by someone you love sucks…”

Reiko sighed and downed half his drink. “I really wish you wouldn’t say things like that. If you know what its like to be rejected, then why do you keep rejecting me? Its ‘cause I’m a guy isn’t it? If that’s the problem I can fix that easily. Hell, I could even be Nanashi if that’s what you wanted.”

Lot stared at the surface of the bar, “I don’t want a fake Nanashi. I want the real one. But that’s stupid. Maybe it wouldn’t matter if you were a guy if I didn’t already love someone. But that’s stupid, too. ‘Cause it doesn’t change anything.” He crossed his arms on the bar and hid his face. “I wish I didn’t have to be such an ass.”

Reiko wrapped an arm around his shoulders “I don’t think you really mean to be. It’s just…I dunno, a defense mechanism. You’re sorta like a porcupine. You have a tough exterior, you’re hard to get close to because you’re all prickly and it hurts. But if you can get past those prickly quills you’re really a nice guy.” He sighed heavily. “I don’t mind getting hurt if it means really getting to know you.”

Lot looked sideways at Reiko, “You’re an idiot, then, and you deserve what you get. But I already knew you were an idiot when you thought I was a girl, so I’m not surprised.”

“But you do look kind of girlie. Especially when the person looking at you is somewhat intoxicated.” Reiko finished off the last of his drink and laid his head down in the bar. “I still think you’re frisky too.”

“Thanks,” Lot stared at Reiko who was now eye-to-eye, “I guess. For putting up with me, I mean.”

Reiko laughed, amused. “I’m the one who should be thanking you. You’re one of the only people who’s bothered to put up with me like you have.”

“Then we’re even,” Lot smiled, “Sort of. I owe you a little more, but we’re mostly even. And I don’t think I could stand to drink anymore… I’m not really the bar mongering type.”

“Ok, let’s go then.” Reiko pushed him self up from the bar. “Wanna go back and see how Nanashi’s doing or what?”

“Guess so,” Lot scooted off the chair and swayed on his feet. “Unless you can think of something better t’ do.”

“Well, there’s always the choice of wandering around. I usually woke up in some nice alleys and shop steps.” Reiko near toppled over, trying to get out of his seat. “Or maybe not…”

“C’mon,” Lot helped Reiko regain his footing, or at least he tried. Both nearly fell over, “We need to get back before we really do end up in some disgusting street.”

“Agreed.” The two somehow managed to help each other out of the bar and into the streets.

Chapter Four

“Reiko!” Riku call cheerfully as he walked up to the cabin. “Let’s go get a drink!”

Reiko slammed the door shut before he reached the steps. “Nevermind.”

“What was that abou—“ Mizuki started.

“Riku’s here! You guys gotta hide!” he pointed down a narrow hallway, “Go upstairs and don’t come down ‘till I come get you!

“Reiko?” Riku’s muffled voice came through the door, “What’s going on?”

“Uhm, I’m naked!” he called.

“No you’re not. I just saw you.”

“Well, I am now!” Reiko watched as the four disappeared down the hall.

“Reiko! Reiko, let me in its cold out he—“ Reiko threw open the door. Riku glanced around the room suspiciously. “What was that all about?”

“Uh…” Reiko had no idea what to say.

“Have you already been out drinking or something?” Riku sniffed the air. “I don’t smell any alcohol…”

“No, well, there was this girl, er, guy, and she, I mean, he…then I…so she left.” Reiko rambled like an idiot.

“Uh-huh.” Riku’s attention was focused on something else. He noticed Reiko’s bag and the bag of camping gear Lot had had.

Upstairs Nanashi was straining to hear what was being said below. She whispered to the others, “Reiko’s dying out there.”

“Really?” Mizuki asked, clasping her hands together hopefully, “Why isn’t he screaming in pain?”

Nanashi gave her a harsh look, “I mean he’s going to give us away if we let him continue babbling.”

“It’s just one person, though,” Kit leaned against a wall, “You could get rid of him if he comes up here.”

A tiny light flashed on in Nanashi’s head. “Lot could get rid of him now.”

“I what?” Lot registered the meaningful way Nanashi was staring at him as a warning to a horrible plan.

“Take off your shirt,” Nanashi instructed with a fiendish smile on her face.

“Who’s that?” Riku nodded to the black haired boy strolling topless down the hall with the first two buttons of his pants undone.

Reiko squeaked in panic, “What are you doing? Get back up stairs!”

“But I missed you,” Lot came up from behind Reiko and nuzzled his neck, “What’s taking so long?” He slipped his hands into Reiko’s front pants pockets, “Are you leaving me for this guy or inviting him to join us?”

Reiko emitted a couple of noises that might have been the beginnings of words.

Riku blinked, shifting uncomfortably at the sight before him, “Reiko, you never told me you were… I didn’t realize I was interrupting something.”

“Well, I am. I mean, you are. Uh… I-I mean…” Reiko stuttered. Lot moved one of his hands slowly up Reiko’s shirt as Reiko was attempting to speak coherently.

“I’m going to go now,” Riku announced, thoroughly disturbed, and quickly exited the building.

“Huh,” Lot rested his chin on Reiko’s shoulder, “That really did work.”

Nanashi peeked out of an upstairs window, “Lot must have done something right, because Riku is walking away really fast. Eep!” She ducked down quickly and waited for a few seconds. When she looked out the window again she sighed in relief, “He’s gone.”

Riku knew something was up. Hopefully just figuratively, because he hated losing his fellow bar hopping womanizer friend to a creepy boy who looked too much like a girl. When he looked back, he swore he saw a flash of icy blue in the upstairs window, but it was gone when he looked again.

“Reiko Okage,” Riku wondered aloud, “What kind of mess have you gotten yourself into?” He decided he would find out; he would keep a close watch incase he wasn’t simply imagining things.

“Uhm, Lot?” Reiko glanced side ways at him. “Does this mean we’re gonna do it?”

“Gods no,” Lot moved away from Reiko to check the window, “It means we get to get out of here.”

Reiko sighed. “That is so messed up in so many ways. Do you know how wrong that was? You can’t just do that and leave me hangin’! It’s wrong!”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Lot apologized flippantly, still staring out the window, “I’ll try and remember that next time.”

Reiko frowned “I can’t believe you got me all happy and I don’t get anything out of. You at least felt that little spark between us, didn’t you?”

“No,” Lot stepped away from the window, “You’re lucky I felt bad about punching you in the face and let you join our group anyway.”

“Oh.” Reiko sounded like a child whose favourite pet had just died. “Well, I sorta wanted to talk to you about earlier. I mean, I didn’t mean to do it. Well, I did but I didn’t mean anything...sorry.”

“Don’t sound so pathetic…” Lot tried to sound blunt, but he couldn’t. “Just try not to attack me like that again and I won’t be a total ass to you… and stop making that face! It’s… it’s…. depressing…”

“We should probably get going. And you should probably put your shirt back on.” Reiko left to go get the others.

Lot followed to retrieve his shirt and boots.

Mizuki looked up when Reiko and Lot came in. “Ooh, it looks like you two had a good time.”

Reiko shrugged. “We need to go before Riku comes back.”

“Mmmhm,” Lot grabbed his shirt and threw it on then went after his boots; he added: “It was a sexi party.”

“We should have a sexi party once we get to wherever we’re going.” Mizuki suggested.

Reiko nodded in agreement. “I think so.” He led the group back out into the main room, grabbed his bag and stood at the door. “Ok, let’s try this again.” He threw open the door and struck a dramatic pose. “Onward to the land of the Rat Eaters!”

“That’s such a corny looking pose,” Nanashi giggled as she often did.

“Oh, I know you like it.” Reiko grinned. The group stepped outside into the grey slush and headed off to the village of Musahar, unaware that Riku was watching their every move.

The group had been traveling together for nearly a week and it passed without much incident until they neared the end of the woods separating White and Black territories. They had decoded to stop and set up camp in a small clearing shielded on all sides with thick trees. Kit, Mizuki and Reiko were sent out to get firewood and to find something to eat, while Nanashi and Lot set up camp. The three were on their way back to when Reiko saw a rabbit and took off after it leaving Kit and Mizuki to try and follow him. Unfortunately, he had changed himself into a large hot pink leopard and forgot that he was much faster than either of the two could go. It wasn’t long before the two were hopelessly lost.

 “Kit, we are so lost.” Mizuki spun around looking for some sign of life.

Kit stopped and examined a nearby tree. “I think we’ve already been this way. Damn Reiko.”

Mizuki nodded in agreement. “What are we gonna do?”

“I could try to fly and look down through the trees… or we could sniff them out. Do you have a good enough nose?” Kit tapped the tip of Mizuki’s nose.

“Probably. Maybe. I’m not sure if I really wanna smell Reiko. I don’t know if you noticed but he smells a lot like dead babies and beer.”

“Dead babies?” Kit shook his head at Mizuki’s shenanigans. “That’s specific.”

He paused for a considerable amount of time before suggesting, “We could enjoy our alone time?”

Mizuki hesitated. “We could?”

“Yeah,” Kit stared at the treetops to avoid looking at Mizuki, “Unless you really want to go back to camp and suffer through Lot and Reiko’s married-couple arguments or Nanashi’s doting on… well, she kind of dotes on both of them.”

“She really does like them a lot.” Mizuki kicked a pile of snow, sending it flying in all directions. “I really like you a lot, too. There’s just something about you. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but whatever it is, it’s a good thing.”

“Really?” Kit stopped staring at the trees and stared at Mizuki. “I like you, too. What a coincidence.”

She smiled at him, then suddenly frowned remembering what happened back at camp with Silvie and her sisters. “You really piss me off though. So did those triplets from hell. What was up with that?”

“I was just being friendly. I didn’t want to blow our cover,” Kit turned his head to the side, “I didn’t realize you’d get so jealous over that.”

“What?” Mizuki looked at him like he was a complete idiot. “Are you serious? Of course I would get jealous. I mean, that girl was all over you. She would’ve kissed you too, but I didn’t want you to get some sort of disease.”

Kit laughed, “That’s thoughtful of you. I’d like to remain diseaseless. I wouldn’t want to give you any random diseases.”

“I wouldn’t want any.” Mizuki walked over to him and took his hand. “I’m really glad we got lost.”

“See?” Kit lifted her hand and kissed it, “Maybe we should thank Reiko for running away and getting us lost.”

“I really hope we don’t find him anytime soon.” Mizuki blushed and kissed him. Kit pulled her against him, an amused laugh rumbling in his throat and vibrating through his lips as he kissed her back.

“Mizuki? Kit?” Reiko wandered alone, bewildered and pantsless through the woods. He’d lost the rabbit sometime ago and had just realized that he’d lost Kit and Mizuki as well. “Hey guys, this isn’t funny! Where are you?” He spun around in confusion. Grey wisps of smoke rose above the trees. Reiko gasped. “Nanashi! Lot! Camp!” he ran shivering towards where the smoke rose from.

He burst into the little clearing, “I’m saved!”

“What in all the hells?”

“Mommy! That man is naked!”

“Cover your eyes!”

Reiko stared wide-eyed at the three people. A big dark haired man, who looked like he belonged in the mountains grabbed a fallen tree branch from the ground and brandished it at Reiko. “You won’t make it out of here alive!”

A small mousey woman covered a wailing toddler with her body and screamed. “Get him Frank! Smash that pervert into a million pieces!”

Frank the mountain man charged at Reiko swinging the branch wildly.

“OH! MY! GODS!” Reiko ran back into the forest screaming bloody murder.

“Hey,” Nanashi poked at the campfire with a stick, “Was that a scream?”

“I think it was a bird,” Lot relaxed on a sleeping bag he had lifted from White’s numerous camping supplies.

“Oh,” giving up on the joys of poking a campfire with a stick, Nanashi tossed the charred bit of tree into the flames. “You’re probably right.” She sighed. A few seconds passed and she sighed again, louder this time.

“What?” Lot yawned.

“Nothing,” Nanashi sighed for the third time. “Except, is there a point in us getting married? Besides that it was arranged, there’s not really any reason…”

“Of course there is,” Lot answered automatically, “I love you.”

“But… Reiko…” Nanashi hesitated.

Lot choked on a laugh, “What about him?”

“Nothing,” Nanashi decided not to piss Lot off, then did the exact opposite, “Except you two are really cute together.”

“Nanashi, please tell me you’re joking,” Lot’s smile faded when he saw her serious expression. “You aren’t joking. Why would I be even remotely interested in Reiko? He’s disgusting.”

“Don’t be mean! He’s adorable!” Nanashi couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore. “Okay, okay, I was kidding… sort of…”

Lot snorted, “You’re sick.”

“But I was serious about the other part,” Nanashi amended, her cheeriness wearing off.

“There’s no question,” Lot said confidently, “You and I belong together.”

The strange ‘bird’ noise was getting closer until, finally, Reiko crashed through the trees.

“Reiko! Where are your pants?” Nanashi ran over to Reiko. She stopped him from screaming with her hand over his mouth.

He pried Nanashi’s hand from his mouth and took a moment to regain his composure. He went and took a seat next to Lot on the sleeping bag and began retelling his encounter with the rabbit in the woods. “Well, me and Kit and Mizuki were out gathering stuff like you asked and we were doin’ pretty good, when suddenly I saw this bunny. I thought to myself, ‘Why, Reiko, that bunny would make a tasty treat.’ So I changed into a leopard and took off after it. I figured that’d be the smart thing to do ‘cause leopard are fast.” He paused, as if waiting for one of the two to object to the fact that leopards were indeed fast. After an awkward moment of silence, Reiko continued. “So as it turns out, the stupid bunny could sort of blend in with the snow, so I lost it. I changed back to normal, sexi, me and went off in search of easier prey. Then” Reiko gestured dramatically, “I was attacked by something. It was large and bush like, but I knew better. It was a pants eating monster and it wanted my pants! I was afraid that if I just untangled my pants the beast would come after me, so I just left them there for the monster to devour. It was about that time I had just figured out that I had lost Kit and Mizuki. So off I went, alone and pantsless to find my two lost companions. I searched and searched and even ran into a couple of blood thirsty bears but of course they were no match for me. Suddenly I noticed that there was this smoke coming through the trees and I thought it was you guys. Well, that turned out to be wrong. Very wrong. What I happened to stumble upon was a cannibalistic tribe of mountain men and their family. As you know, mountain men are very protective over their territory. So Frank the mountain man came after me with this giant branch, trying to smash my brains out. But somehow I managed to make it back here alright.” Reiko took a deep breath then turned to Lot. “Hey, sweetums, I’m cold, can I lay with you?”

“Do I have a choice?” Lot was still trying to digest the babbling that was Reiko’s story.

“Of course not.”  Reiko snuggled up next to Lot and sighed contentedly. “I like it when you’re not beating me up.” Lot grunted indifferently in response.

“So you lost Kit and Mizuki in the woods?” Nanashi salvaged from the mass of senseless words.

“Uh-huh.” Reiko nodded. “I tried to look for them and obviously I failed at finding them because I got attacked by a monster.”

“… a pants eating monster…” Lot had to add, finding the idea completely ridiculous.

“Should we look for them or hope they make it back okay?” Nanashi plopped down on a tree stump.

“Mmm…they’re probably off somewhere doin’ it.” Reiko shrugged. “Personally, I’d like to be out in those woods doin’ it with a certain someone right about now.”

Lot started to get the urge to smack Reiko in the face, but instead he pretended not to hear what the red-head had said.

“I could leave you two alone, if you’d like,” Nanashi had the look of a mischievous kitten.

Reiko was surprised when Lot didn’t smash his face in, throw him against a wall or even hit him. Grinning stupidly, he shook his head. “I think we’re good for the moment…”

“Aw,” Nanashi’s shoulders slumped. “You’re no fun… and you didn’t bring back any firewood…” She jumped to her feet. “I’ll go get some!”

Lot began to panic, “No! Don’t leave me alone with him!”

Nanashi was already far enough away that she could pretend not to hear.

“Don’t worry.” Reiko threw his arms around Lot and pulled him closer. “I’ll be good. I won’t do anything.”

“I seriously don’t trust you,” Lot almost whined.

“I promise I won’t do anything.” Reiko tried to sound as sincere as possible. “I always keep my promises.” He started shivering from the biting cold that was all the worse for someone without pants.

“Reiko,” Lot sighed, annoyed. “You’re going to die from the cold.”

“No I won’t, you wouldn’t let me die.” Said Reiko confidently.

“Only because Nanashi would bitch at me if you died,” Lot stood up, “Get in the sleeping bag before you freeze your nads off.”

“Yes sir!” Reiko happily snuggled up inside the warm sleeping bag. “I think I’d like to keep my nads where they are.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Lot dug around through his bag of supplies and pulled out a pair of black pants, “Here. These are mine so you better not fuck them up or lose them to some imaginary creature.” The pants landed on Reiko’s face with a ‘smat.’

Reiko, not wanting to step back out into the cold snow, somehow managed to wiggle into the pants without getting out of the sleeping bag. “Mmm, pants, how contented I am with you. Thanks, Lot.”

“Don’t mention it,” Lot sat down on the tarp that was beneath the sleeping bag and faced Reiko. “So what exactly is your problem?”

He shook his head, a confused expression crossed his face. “Be specific. I have lots of problems.”

“Which ones make you act like a… the way you do?” Lot propped his chin on his hand and stared at Reiko like he was a puzzle with a few pieces missing.

“Things that make me act the way I do…” Reiko stared at his hands as he thought about it. “How do I act? Tell me how I act and I’ll try and tell you why I do.”

Lot laughed, just a little chuckle, as he thought it over, “You act like an idiot… an attention starved idiot. Who decides they’re in love with a total stranger before they know their name, or gender for that matter? You’re just not…”

“Right in the head?” Reiko finished. “Gods, I sound pathetic. I probably am. I’m pretty sure that it’s from hearing it for nineteen years.” He sighed. “This sounds stupid, I know, but my mommy never loved me. Well, at one point in time she did. She loved me when she got to pretend I was a girl and when she thought I was normal. She wanted a girl real bad. I was a disappointment at only a few minutes old.” Reiko laughed a little bit before he continued. “This is kinda weird, but my mom used to dress me in girl clothes.  But no, one day, my dad said that he’d had enough, that my mom should start treating like a boy. After that she never paid much attention to me. Especially after she got pregnant again. This time it really was a girl and I was pretty much left out of the picture after that. That’s probably why I act like I’m starved for attention.”

“I was going to say you’re just not logical,” Lot smiled with an odd understanding, “Before you told me that, I thought you were pathetic. Illogical. Irrational. I would still say the last two are true, but you aren’t pathetic. When I was a little kid my parents sent me and my brother to be my un—to be Alva’s slaves. We were birthday presents to his daughter. Inik—I mean, Nanashi and I looked disturbingly alike as children so she would use me as her scapegoat when she wanted to go out where she wasn’t supposed to be. There’s a family portrait hanging somewhere in the mansion where it was supposed to be Nanashi and her father, but the little girl is really me. I really hated her at first. But what I was getting at is that we kind of have something in common. You and me. It’s a really weird thing to have in common and I’ve never told anybody… so you better not go telling people…”

Reiko nodded. “Ok, I won’t tell if you don’t tell. Do you really think I’m illogical and irrational?”

“Yes,” Lot answered simply. “You’ll drive me insane some day, I’m sure, if you haven’t already.”

“That’s probably the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” Reiko patted the sleeping bag. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Always,” Lot hesitated, “I’m used to it, though. I grew up in the cold.”

“Aw.” Reiko looked disappointed. “But I’d like it so much better if you were over here.”

“It doesn’t mean anything, though,” Lot claimed as he moved to Reiko’s side. “So don’t get too excited.”

How can I not? Reiko thought to himself. “I wonder if Kit and Mizuki are alright. Or if Nanashi’s found them yet.”

“I think Kit and Mizuki are probably taking their time getting back and Nanashi left on purpose,” Lot yawned, “So I’d get stuck with only you to talk to. She’s probably out roaming around, not looking for anyone or anything, and snickering about it.”

Reiko wrapped his arms around Lot. “Am I really that bad to have to talk to?”

“Yeah,” Lot muttered, falling asleep, “Shut up. Don’t touch me, either. It’s…” his words started to jumble together, only some of them recognizable, “…and I’ll have to smash your face again and that hurts my hand…..”

“Don’t worry.” Reiko mumbled. “I won’t.”

“Uhm, Kit? Do these look like pants to you?” Mizuki held up a pair of light blue pants she’d found caught in a bush. “Someone is running around pantsless in the snow.”

“Those pants look familiar,” Kit stared at the pants. He squinted, “Is there a name written on the tag?”

“Huh?” Mizuki took a look and read out, “R-A-A-K-O-W.”

“It’s spelled all weird, but I think it’s supposed to say ‘Reiko’ …. That’s where they came from! Those are Reiko’s pants,” Kit announced.

Mizuki squeaked and threw them on the ground. “Tainted! I’ve been tainted! His butt’s been in there! And so has his…” She ran over and poked Kit. “Now you have Reiko germs!”

“That’s cruel,” Kit rubbed his arm where he had been infected, “What did I do to deserve that?”

“Absolutely nothing, but I figured I’d just infect you sooner rather than later.” Mizuki kicked some snow over Reiko’s pants, covering them.

“Shouldn’t we take them back to camp? Because chances are if they’re here then they aren’t on him,” Kit uncovered the pants and folded them into a little pants-square.

 Mizuki shook her head vigorously. “If you want to touch them, go ahead, but I refuse now that I know that they’ve touched Reiko’s butt. What if he doesn’t wear underwear? Then you’re indirectly touching his butt, among other things.” 

Kit tucked the disease-ridden pants under his arm, “All the more reason to take them back. Unless you want him traveling with us with everything hanging out in the open… to which I would have to say you aren’t the girl I thought you were.”

“Oh dear gods.” Mizuki covered her eyes with her hands. “Thanks for the visual. He smells funny! And I really don’t wanna have to see his ‘stuff.’ I’d probably go blind.”

“At least if you were blind you wouldn’t have to see it anymore,” Kit continued walking.

Mizuki followed after him. “That’s true. But then again, an image like that would be burned into my memory for all of eternity.”

“Sad, but true,” Kit took a weird turn, “I think camp is this way. If I do a partial shift I can improve my sense of smell a little. I can find Lot, for sure, because I usually have a sort of tracking thing with him. We can tell in which general direction the other is… but it has its limits. We’re just now getting close enough.”

“That’s kinda cool. It’s sorta like you’re always connected to your brother. Can you guys do other weird twin stuff like finishing eachother’s sentences or reading eachother’s minds?” Mizuki lightly sniffed at the air. “You’re right. I can smell beer and dead babies from here.”

“We say stuff at the same time,” Kit thought for a moment, “I can’t read his mind, though, just his mannerisms. He’s easy to read that way. I can tell what he’s thinking… mostly. Sometimes not even I know what’s going on in that brain of his.”

“I don’t really think I’d want to know what goes on in his brain.” Mizuki shuddered. “Do you think he really likes Reiko?”

“That’s… a difficult one. Lot doesn’t hate Rei, mostly because he would have to do something really horrible before he could. Lot doesn’t hate people for no reason,” Kit kicked at a small chunk of ice. “He’s probably happy to get the attention, even if it is from a lunatic.”

“Really?” Mizuki gave herself a minute to let Kit’s words sink into her brain. “I think going up to somebody and groping them would be pretty bad.”

“It’s not as bad as murdering their loved ones,” Kit said quietly. “Or gaining their trust only to betray them.”

“What do you mean? Well, I know what you mean but…” Mizuki trailed off confused.

“We have our tragedies,” Kit shrugged, “They’ve affected us differently. Lot’s decided to be all prickly and cold because he thinks it protects him against all the shit that can happen when you’re being hunted down. He isolates himself. Reiko’s so forceful that it’s impossible for someone to isolate themselves with him around, which is good for my brother. Unless Reiko’s faking his… friendliness…and kills someone Lot loves, which has happened before with other people. We’re incredibly paranoid people for a reason…”

“I won’t kill you.” Mizuki declared. “I don’t think Reiko’s pretending. Well, he did seem freakishly obsessed with Lot without really even knowing him. He’s sort of like a puppy dog that’s been left stuck in a dark closet for weeks and Lot was the one who let him out.”

“I guess they’re perfect for each other,” Kit laughed, “But Lot’s in denial.”

“Not for long. I think it’d be hard to deny someone as persistent as Reiko.” Mizuki pointed through the trees. “We’re getting closer to camp.”

They ambled to the campsite to find Lot and Reiko stuffed into a single sleeping bag, sleeping nose-to-nose.

“Huh,” Kit turned his head to the side, “Looks like you were right, Mizuki.”

“Holy crap. Do you think they did it?” She stared at the two, smiling despite herself. “Reiko looks happy.”

“Please don’t put images like that in my brain,” Kit picked up some twigs and tossed them into the dying fire. “We forgot to get firewood.”

Nanashi sang a tune as she carried a pile of neatly cut sections of branches. “Oh, you made it back,” she smiled at Kit and Mizuki while re-building the fire, “You were sure gone a long time. Whatever could you have been doing all alone in the woods together?”

“Shut up, Nanashi.” Mizuki snapped. She then pointed to the two sleeping boys. “I think a better question would be what have they been doing while we were lost in the woods.”

“Talking, mostly,” Nanashi grinned above the rising flames, looking devilish, “But then I

had to stop eavesdropping and go get firewood, so I missed how they ended up like that.”

“Well, it looks to me like they have the right idea.” Mizuki spread out another sleeping bag over a tarp a little ways from the fire and settled down for the night. “What sorts of things do gay men talk about?”

“I don’t think they’d want me to tell you that,” Nanashi sat on the stump by the fire. She let a bit slip, for the sake of seeing Mizuki’s reaction; “Mostly they talked about being little girls.”

“They’re little girls?” Mizuki was completely confused. “Is that some sort of new word for homosexuals? Or do they want to be transvestites?”

“No, no, and no,” Nanashi answered. “It’s complicated.”

“I think she’s saying Lot told Reiko about how Nanashi used to torture him and make him wear frilly dresses,” Kit cleared up, “Because they looked so alike that no one could tell that Lot wasn’t her. She used to make him pretend he was so she didn’t have to study and stuff.”

“Nanashi!” Mizuki scolded. “That’s terrible! Funny, yes, but terrible.” She suddenly broke out into a fit of giggles. “I can totally see Lot in a frilly pink dress…he actually looks sort of pretty.”

“I was a mean kid,” Nanashi giggled, “Especially when I found out he made a prettier girl than me. He’d always get compliments about how he’d grow up to be a beautiful woman when he was pretending to be me. It pissed me off. Then I found out I had to marry him and I started treating him worse…”

“Why do you have to marry him? I know you’ve already said why, but I think it’s silly. You know since there’s no one here to enforce it, you don’t actually have to get married.” Mizuki snuggled deeper into the warmth of the sleeping bag. “You could just go out and find you some other guy if you wanted.”

“It’s a bloodline thing,” Nanashi tossed another piece of wood onto the fire. “I’m lucky my mom went away before I could have a brother or I’d be engaged to him. I tried to tell Lot it wasn’t necessary, but he says we ‘belong together.’ Plus, I don’t have anyone I’d want to run off to.”

“You’d have to marry your brother? That’s wrong in so many ways.” Mizuki watched the fire dance and sputter. “Right now you don’t have anyone you’d want to run off with, but you still have plenty of time. You’re what, seventeen, eighteen?”

“Well,” Nanashi admitted, “Lot’s Alva’s nephew, which makes him my cousin. And I suppose you’re right…”

“Lot’s related to that…thing?” Mizuki stared at the sleeping boy like he was a giant pus filled tumour. “Then does that make Kit your cousin too?”

“Yes,” Nanashi started to get irritated, “And ‘that thing’ is my father. Even if I hate him.”

“By ‘father’, do you mean ‘embodiment of all that is evil’? ‘Cause I won’t argue with that.” Mizuki growled.

“Just go to sleep, Mizuki,” Nanashi grumbled back. Kit shifted into a small dog and weaseled his way into Mizuki’s sleeping bag.

“Whatever.” She muttered, pulling Kit-dog closer to her.

“Hey! Hey, Nanashi! Wake up!” Reiko poked her in the side ceaselessly until she opened her eyes. He was dressed in a pale green suit and cloak “Look what I got!” he held up some spare White uniforms. “You guys need to get ready because we’ve gotta go.”

“…aren’t you supposed to be wearing white, too?” Nanashi rubbed her eyes and looked him over.

“I look out of proportion in white,” Reiko flopped the uniforms on the bed.

“I don’t think it matters what color you’re wearing,” Lot was already gathering his uniform.

“Really?” Reiko took his comment as a positive one, which it was not, “You think I look sexi in any color, right?”

“Right,” Lot answered with a level of sarcasm that went completely over Reiko’s head.

“I think he’s warming up to me.” Reiko whispered before he went next door to wake up Mizuki and Kit. Lot and Nanashi hurried to dress and followed Reiko in their crisp new ensembles.

“Wake up, sleepy heads!” Reiko yelled jumping on the bed and almost crushing Kit.

Mizuki screamed. “Who the hell are you?! Get away from me! Help!”

Reiko held out his hands, and pleaded for her to stop screaming. “I’m Reiko Okage and I’m here to save you!”

“More or less,” Nanashi popped in, looking eerily pale, like a warrior ice goddess dressed all in white. Lot sauntered in after her; his features and the long white cloak made him look like a young Alva.

“You guys look scary.” Mizuki sat up. “Hey, where’s Kit?”

“Hm, is this him?” Reiko held up the little black bunny by the scruff of its neck.

“Yes.”

“Ok then.” Reiko slid off the bed and headed for the door. “There are a few things I have to take care of so meet me in front in twenty minutes. Oh, and I suggest you get something to eat across the street. Just say you’re friends of Commander Okage.”

“Sounds great,” Nanashi gave Reiko a hug before he could leave, “Thanks for helping us.”

“Kit!” Mizuki whispered, “It’s the bunny eating skin suit man!”

Kit shifted back to his human form, but neglected to realize that in doing so he would end up nearly on top of Mizuki “Is it? Oh, whoops…”

“Uhm, Uhm yeah, I’m pretty sure that it is.” Mizuki quickly moved out from under him, blushing deeply. She turned and looked at Nanashi, “Care to fill us in on what the hell is going on?”

“We’re joining White,” Nanashi tugged at her cloak as if to show it off, “To avoid getting caught, that is. There are some higher-ups headed this way and we don’t have the time to get away. Reiko agreed to help us out because he’s madly in love with Lot.”

Lot pretended she hadn’t said that last part.

 “He’s in what with who?” Mizuki stared at Lot like he had a ten foot growth protruding from his face. “You didn’t say Lot was gay. No wonder he’s always cranky. There aren’t any sexi guys around except for his brother and that’d be wrong.”

Lot pointed to the ring on his left hand, “I’m not gay!”

“I’m sexi, huh?” Kit grinned and poked Mizuki’s side.

“Well, I think so.” Mizuki grinned back. “So does it bother you that your brother likes other boys?”

“No, but I kind of feel bad for Nanashi for loosing her fiancé to a man. That’s what they must’ve been fighting about last night,” Kit concluded.

 Lot sighed, “I’m not gay. He’s in love with me, it isn’t mutual.”

“I don’t think it matters to them,” Nanashi leaned on Lot’s shoulder, amused.

“You’re right. So why don’t you take him somewhere else so we can change and get going?” Mizuki gathered up her uniform and pointed to the door.

“Right,” Nanashi tugged Lot out the door, “One of you can change in the other room, if you can’t handle getting undressed in the same room without jumping each other.” Nanashi winked.

“Shut up, I’m not a whore!” Mizuki threw a pillow at the door. “Stupid Nanashi, like I’d just jump a guy I just met.”

“If you say so,” Nanashi giggled her way out the door with Lot.

“Kit! Take off your clothes!” Mizuki pointed to a corner of the room. “I’ll show her I’m not some floozy. I’ve got self control!” she shook her fist at the door.

Kit stared at her like she had gone crazy, “And sacrifice my innocence to the horny silver devil? Are you mad?” He cracked a smile.

“Horny silver…devil? I do hope you’re referring to the fact that I have horns, Kit.” Mizuki growled.

“Oh, I didn’t even think about that,” Kit laughed, taking off his shirt.

“You are a terrible person.” Mizuki muttered, pulling off her own shirt and grabbing the one Reiko brought. “Why is it that all the cute guys are sick minded people? Is it to make up for the fact that they’re cute or something?”

“I’m not sick minded,” Kit stared at the floor as he put on his own shirt. He tried to hide his blush beneath his hair. “I was only joking.”

“Yeah, a likely excuse.”  Mizuki turned her back on him and smiled to herself. “Do you really think this is a good idea? Joining White, I mean? What if we get caught?” 

“Nanashi’ll just chop up anyone who comes after us,” Kit hurriedly switched out his old black pants for the new white ones. “Like she always does.”

  “Right, but what if they knock us out again and we wind up back where we started?” Mizuki quickly finished changing and fastened the heavy white cloak around her.

“We’ll get away like we always do?” Kit finished tying his boots and shrugged on his own cloak. “Or die in the process. Hopefully the first.”

Humming some tune, Mizuki opened the door. “See, we can exercise self control. We showed her.”

“Yeah, but I could tell you were really straining against your urge to touch me,” Kit laughed, “I was afraid you wouldn’t make it.”

“Oh was it that obvious?” Mizuki pouted. “I thought I was doing such a good job hiding it. I just couldn’t help it though. Your hott bod is enough to drive any girl wild.”

“Actually, I almost didn’t notice. I was a bit… distracted, myself,” Kit admitted, stopping in the doorway.

“What, did you see a mirror?” Mizuki pushed him out the door and followed him downstairs.

“Ha, I’m not that conceited,” Kit almost tripped on his own cloak.

“Took you long enough,” Nanashi complained with a mischievous smile.

“Not nearly,” Kit sighed dramatically, “We didn’t get to do everything Mizuki wanted to. She’s so demanding.”

“It’s not that I’m demanding. You just don’t have enough stamina.” Mizuki walked over to Lot and whispered, “Do your boyfriends have the same problem with you?”

“Hey!” Kit and Lot sounded equally offended.

“Good one,” Nanashi gave Mizuki a high five. “That’ll keep them quiet for a while. They’re pouters.”

“I don’t pout,” the twins defended, both obviously pouting.

“Aw, it’s so cute when you do that!” Reiko appeared seemingly out of thin air beside

Lot and gave him a kiss. “You know, you look even better when I’m sober.” He pulled two containers of a sickly green liquid from under his cloak and handed one to each of the girls. “I figured that blue hair, fuzzy tails and horns would be like a beacon to HQs troops, so I whipped up some of this stuff. Once it circulates through your blood stream it’ll make you look like completely different people.”

Kit snickered at Lot, “You’re blushing, brother.”

“Am not!” Lot smacked him in the back of the head, though his cheeks were pink.

Nanashi opened her container of mysterious goop, “Ew. Do we eat it or what?”

“Well, if it’s chewy then yes. If it’s liquidy then drink it.” Reiko shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve never actually made this stuff before.”  

Mizuki stuck her finger in the goo. “It feels like jelly.”

“Don’t eat that crap,” Lot snatched the goo away from Nanashi, “What if it’s poison or something?”

“I would never do that!” Reiko snapped. “I have ethics! I have morals…sort of.”

“As long as I don’t end up a bald fat man,” Nanashi took back her container and slurped down the contents.

“I’d better not die you weirdo.” Mizuki downed the container.

“Don’t worry. You’ll look amazing after this. Not that you don’t look amazing.” Reiko led the way out the door and toward the camp. “Ok, so HQ’s troops are due to be here in about an hour. Nanashi, Hottie’s brother and dog girl you three were just transferred from another squadron on the eastern front. You’re the only survivors and if anybody asks your commander’s name was Ciphel Lush. And you,” he turned Lot smiling slightly, “are my personal assistant.”

“Yes sir,” Lot responded lamely.

“How long does it take for the green stuff to work?” Nanashi inquired. “We need fake names.”

“Uhm, Zizi Funk, Siko LeBoner, Gona Rhia and Luke Emia.” Reiko pointed to Nanashi, Kit, Mizuki and Lot and giggled. “Yeah, those are your names…”

“Those names are horrible,” Lot complained.

“Would you prefer Hottie McSexpants?” Reiko challenged.

“It’s better than leukemia!” Lot admitted reluctantly.

“Ooh… tingly…” Nanashi stared at her fingers.

Reiko grinned.

“Ah! Nanashi! You look…” Mizuki pointed at her and stared, laughing uncontrollably. “I think that outfit might be a little small. Nanashi, you look like such a hooker.”

“Just the shirt,” Nanashi poked at her now over-sized breasts. Her hair was nearly white, it was so bleached blonde. She made a tiny blade from ice and cut the neckline so that it plunged dangerously low. “Ah, much better, don’t you think?” The blade disappeared between her thumb and index finger.

Reiko gaped open-mouthed at her. “Oh my gods. Oh my gods. I am single handedly the greatest man in the entire universe.” He turned to Mizuki and grinned. “You’re much sexier now. Isn’t she, Hottie’s brother?”

“What?” Mizuki stopped and looked in a shop’s window at her reflection. “Oh gods. I look like a stripper.” She now lacked horns and tail but gained a set of large breasts and light brown hair.

“…wow…” Kit gawked, “You look… dirty….”

“Nanashi, have some decency,” Lot tried to cover Nanashi’s cleavage with her cloak.

“They even feel real! Feel ‘em! And look how tiny my waist is! Damn! No more diets for me,” Nanashi trailed her hands down her body. “You’re a genius, Rei.”

Reiko watched Nanashi in perverted fascination. “They’re so big. I wanna…touch ‘em.” He reached out and groped her. “You’re so hott.”

“Touch her and I’ll smash your face,” Lot growled.

“Lot wants you to grope him instead!” Nanashi giggled girlishly, looking more like a naughty school girl when she did so. “He’s jealous!”

“…aren’t we supposed to be doing something besides groping each other?” Mizuki took a step away from Reiko incase he decided that Nanashi and Lot were not enough for him.

“Uh-huh.” A very wolf like grin spread across Reiko’s face as he ran over to Lot. “I think you’re just as hott, no hotter, than Nanashi.” He kissed Lot and groped him at the same time.

“Hey queers, get a room!” yelled a passerby.

“Ew! That is so gross!” yelled another.

“I think its hott.” Someone else said

 Mizuki hid her face behind her hands. “Somehow I don’t think this is going to end very well.”

Lot shoved Reiko into a wall and started pummeling his face. Nanashi tried to pull Lot off, but not before he broke Reiko’s nose.

“Don’t fucking touch me again,” Lot seethed, completely losing his composure.

“I didn’t realize a person’s face had that much blood in it,” Kit remarked, morbidly fascinated by the blood gushing from Reiko’s face.

“I’m sorry! I couldn’t help myself!” was the last thing Reiko managed to say before he broke into tears. He tried to wipe the blood off his face with his cloak but stopped because of the pain.

“I feel so bad for him right now.” Mizuki whispered to Kit. “I’m pretty sure Lot broke his nose.”

“Oh, Reiko, this is entirely my fault,” Nanashi held her unnaturally cool hand to Reiko’s nose and made him tilt his head back a little in hopes the bleeding would stop. “I was only joking!” She started to scold Lot, but he had already stomped off in an unknown direction. “He didn’t have to attack you like that…”

“I know it’s my fault but he’s just so…I dunno what else I’m supposed to do! The only other people I’ve confessed my love to is skanky bar whores!” Reiko sobbed. The throbbing in his nose was slowly replaced by a tingly numbing sensation. “We have to hurry up and get to camp. I can’t let those HQ guys see me like this. They’ll think something’s up.”

“Is there a healer in your camp?” Nanashi rubbed Reiko’s back, not knowing how to comfort him.

“I can do it myself!” he shouted, “Just hurry up and come on.”

Reiko led the way to camp, which was just outside of town. It consisted of seven small cabins and one large one. It was somewhat reminiscent of a summer camp. Only instead of being filled with children, it was full of white cloaked soldiers. Reiko pointed to the cabin closest to the biggest one. “You guys go and hang out inside there until the troops get here. When they do just do what ever everyone else is doing.” He left the three outside their cabin and disappeared into the larger one.

“I wonder where Lot stormed off to,” Nanashi wrung the edge of her cloak in her hands worriedly.

“He’ll come back,” Kit clomped up the steps in his big black military boots. “But for Reiko’s sake, I hope he doesn’t.”

“Speaking of Reiko, he’s a frikkin nut job if I’ve ever seen one. I mean how in the hell is he in ‘love’ with Lot of all people. I think he’s messed up in the head.” Mizuki pointed to Nanashi, “and he made you look like a whore.”

“Reiko’s just a little… misguided…. And Lot’s not a bad guy if you take the time to know him. He can be sweet and lovable…” Nanashi trailed off.

“When he’s not smashing people’s faces,” Kit tried the door to the cabin. It creaked open and he stuck his head in, “Looks like we get our own place for now.”

“Sweet and lovable? Misguided?” Mizuki took the end of a bed. “Is that some sort of secret code for hateful, mean and perverted?”

“No,” Nanashi snapped, “Lot’s just…really stressed out…He’s not normally so…so cold. He really isn’t.”

“No, sometimes he’s worse,” Kit tried to be playful, “But she doesn’t see that. She only sees her prince charming future husband.”

A hail of tiny ice needles barely missed Kit’s face.

“Husband? Oh, I get it.” Mizuki sighed. “No wonder all you see is good. No one wants to see anything wrong with the person they love. You do love him don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Nanashi’s answer came a couple of seconds too slowly. Strangely enough, Riku popped into her head when Mizuki was talking. “I mean, we’ve been engaged since I was little. It was arranged.”

Kit released a lengthy sigh. “I’m so glad I’m the younger twin.”

Mizuki gave him a kiss on the cheek, “Me too. If you weren’t then you’d be married to Nanashi.”

Kit grinned like a fool and pulled Mizuki closer.

Nanashi turned away, thinking, What’s so awful about being stuck with me?

“Hi!” A short girl with sandy blond hair poked her head through the door. “I’m Silvie and I guess we’ll all be room mates!” She stepped inside and was followed by two other girls who looked identical to her.

“I’m Lynette.” One of them waved

The last one grinned a big goofy grin, “And I’m Sam!”

“And we’re triplets!” they all said in unison.

“Hi,” Nanashi transformed her personality to fit her outer image, “I’m ZiZi!”

They all three shot her a death glare. Silvie immediately approached Kit, “You’re cute, what’s your name?”

Nanashi bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying anything.

“Hey!” Mizuki growled “Get lost skank.”

Lynette and Sam both made faces at Mizuki and Nanashi. “You two are the skanks!”

“That’s original,” Nanashi moved away from the trio, unwilling to have to deal with them.

Kit introduced himself with his fake name and a friendly smile.

Mizuki glared at him then thought it better to follow Nanashi. “Stupid little whores…Do you think Lot will make it here ok?”

“Of course,” Nanashi lied. “He wouldn’t abandon us just because he was in a bad mood.”

The triplets exploded into giggling fits at something Kit had said. “You’re cute and funny! I like that,” Silvie toyed with Kit’s hair.

“Ooh, they just piss me off…” growled Mizuki. If looks could kill the three girls would be swinging from the ceiling by their insides. “How the hell do people get so annoying?”

“They were probably born that way,” Nanashi shrugged. “Or created in little test tubes for the sake of a lab experiment.” She frowned, “Don’t look now, but that one’s getting a little close.”

Nanashi was referring to the apparent leader, who was now sitting with Kit on one of the beds. She was whispering something into his ear that made him laugh.

“What the hell does she think she’s doing?” she turned to Nanashi, outraged. “She can’t do that!” Mizuki jumped up, ran over to the two, grabbed Silvie and punched her in the face. “Back off you, horrible little wretch!”

Sam and Lynette stared at Mizuki like she was the devil.

“How dare you touch our sister!”

“How dare you touch my Kit,” Mizuki punched Silvie again, because the first punch was too much fun.

“Hey—“Kit started. A bell tolled outside in the camp.

A soldier burst through the door “Get your asses out here, on the double!”

Reluctant as Mizuki was, she let Silvie go and marched angrily out the door.  Outside Soldiers stood in long lines facing the larger cabin. Reiko stood outside dressed in a light blue uniform; his face looked as good as new. “Alright everyone, the troops from HQ will be here shortly, so I want you all to be on your best behaviour. And remember, if they don’t like what they see, it gets reflected on me. And if I get into trouble I’ll make sure to drag you down with me.” 

A man with long black hair tied back in a professional-looking manner jogged up to Reiko’s side. “Sorry I’m late, sir,” Lot bowed his head obediently.

“You’re…here?” Reiko looked confused and then smiled to himself. “Alright everybody, I suggest you start your training exercises or something. I want you all to actually look like you do something when they get here.”

The soldiers started milling around purposefully.

“What training exercises are those?” Lot whispered to Reiko, “They don’t look like they know what they’re supposed to be doing.”

“Right.” Reiko nodded. “Uh. What sorts of training exercises do people usually do?”

Lot sighed exasperatedly, “I’ll take them through the basic ones. I’ve been trained by the best.” He called Nanashi over. “You remember the moves we learned?”

“How could I forget? They’ve been drilled into my brain,” Nanashi looked between Lot and Reiko. “Why?”

“We’re going to lead these idiots through the basics,” Lot instructed. Nanashi nodded.

Then Lot did what he does best: bark orders.

It wasn’t very long before the troops arrived. Reiko wandered around the campsite trying desperately to look like he was somewhat useful. “Commander Okage, you’re under arrest for harboring fugitives.” A voice came from behind him.

“What!?” Reiko spun around and came face to face with Riku.

“Just kidding.” Riku grinned.

“Holy hell, you scared me.” Reiko paused to give himself a moment to calm down. “What are you doing here, you sorry excuse for a demon?”

“I was just passing by when I encountered a rather lost looking group of soldiers from HQ. Thought I’d give ‘em a hand.” Riku stared at the two soldiers sparring in the middle of camp. “Hey, those two are pretty good. Who are they?”

“Huh?” Reiko turned to look. It was Lot and Nanashi. “Uhm, new recruits. Just transferred from Lush’s squadron.”

“I wanna go meet ‘em.” Riku decided, walking off.

“Hey wait!” Reiko trudged after him.

Nanashi landed on her back in the snow-slush mud with a painful ‘splat.’

“What? Give up?” Lot stood over her with a teasing, triumphant grin.

“No,” Nanashi sprung to her feet, fretting over her uniform, “I just really liked this outfit… now it’s ruined.”

Lot’s entire countenance turned cold at the sight of Riku’s approach. He held up his hand, signaling for Nanashi to stop. She turned slowly, suffering minor heart failure when she looked upon Riku’s face.

“Hey there.” Riku said waving. As he got closer he thought he recognized the black haired boy but wasn’t quite sure. He was distracted by the busty blond girl. He held his out to her. “I noticed you guys sparring and thought you were pretty good.”

“Thanks,” Nanashi caught her breath. She wiped the mud from her hand onto her pants before shaking his hand. “My dad’s been in the military forever. He couldn’t stand not having anyone to carry on his little hobby, so here I am.”

“Well I’m glad for that.” Riku said smiling. “I was planning on leaving later this evening but if you want, I can take you out later tonight. I know a nice little café.”

“She’s not interested,” Lot smiled politely and pulled Nanashi behind him. He was picturing Riku dying the humiliating death he deserved when he added, “She’s with me.” Riku acted as is if Lot hadn’t spoken. “Well, think about it. I’ll be staying over there tonight.” He pointed to Reiko’s cabin. “Just in case you change your mind.”

Reiko finally caught up to his friend. “Riku, what are you doing?”

He held up his hands innocently. “I was just talking to this lovely young lady here. I thought maybe she might want to go out later tonight.”

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea.” Reiko glanced at Nanashi. “She’s going to be busy later.”

Riku laughed and walked off. “I know Reiko. She’s going to be very busy if I can help it.”

“Riku!” Reiko whined. “Leave my troops alone! I never messed with yours!”

Nanashi let out a tiny gasp as she realized there was a growing blue streak in her hair. She tugged on Lot’s cloak to get his attention and pointed to the blue that was growing like a mutant fungus.

“Shit,” Lot whispered urgently. “Pretend you’re injured or something!”

“Won’t that just cause people to notice me more?” Nanashi murmured back. Lot was uncertain and it showed.

“Stay right there,” Lot trotted over to Reiko and whispered in his ear that they had a tiny situation.

Reiko walked over to Nanashi and stared at her. “Aw damn, this sucks.” After staring at her for another moment he grabbed her hood and threw it over her head. “There. Now you two go and wait for me in the big cabin while I go fin—“

“Oh my gods! That girl had horns!” a Silvie screeched.

“It’s Satan!” Sam screamed.

“No! I won’t let you have my immortal soul!” Lynette cried over dramatically.

“Well, at least I won’t have to look very far.” Reiko ran off to get Kit and Mizuki.

Mizuki met him halfway looking terrified. “It’s wearing off, Reiko! Fix it!”

People were starting to stare. Reiko pushed her toward the cabin. “Nanashi and Lot are already in there.” Mizuki ran off and Reiko went to calm down the triplets and possibly to convince them that anything they saw was just in their imagination.

Nanashi sat on a bed staring down at her shirt which was muddy and all loose from being stretched out. “How sad…” She twirled a long strand of blue hair around her index finger.

“That could have been worse,” Lot sighed.

Mizuki burst through the door and slammed it behind her. Her silver hair, horns and tail were back. “Oh, you too Nanashi? This isn’t good. The triplets from hell saw me and said I was Satan. Do I look like Satan?”

Kit opened the door and slipped in, “You almost slammed that door in my face.”

“Kit! Do I look like Satan?” Mizuki ignored his complaint.

“You look like a horny devil to me,” Kit shrugged.

“Ha ha.” Mizuki laughed flatly. “Very funny. What are we gonna do?”

Reiko opened the door and peeked inside, “Is everyone alive in here?” He was answered by a chorus of ‘yes’s. “Ok good. You’re lucky, the only people who saw Mizuki was the triplets and I’ve managed to ‘convince’ them that they didn’t see anything, but we’ve gotta get you guys outta here.”

“What about you?” Nanashi looked up from her chest and caught Reiko’s eyes, “You’re coming with us, remember?”

“What?” Kit and Mizuki chorused their shock and a hint of disgust.

“Lot, tell her no,” Kit begged without sounding whiney. “You can’t really approve of him coming along. I mean, you bitched about Mizuki.”

“But I have to come!” cried Reiko. ‘”I love Lot! I can’t live without him!”

“I already said ‘yes’,” Lot shoved his hands in his pockets. “It won’t be a big deal. What’s one more person?” There was not a shred of sarcasm when he spoke.

Kit still wanted to argue, “But he’s loony…and apparently you are, too.”

Reiko smiled happily then stuck his tongue out at Kit. “I’m not loony, I’m just eccentric. Besides, without me, you could’ve been wandering around out there and Riku would’ve caught up with you. Plus I’m good to have around in emergencies. I can make all sorts of stuff for healing and various other useless stuff.”

“Yeah.” Mizuki nodded skeptically.

“Loony,” Kit mumbled.

“What are we going to do about Riku?” Nanashi piped in, “Won’t he notice if you disappear?”

 “No. Well, yes. Eventually. I’ll just leave him a note saying that I had to run over to the next village and I’ll just never come back.” Reiko had already begun to scrawl out the note in big spidery letters. “After a day or two he’ll just figure I’ve gotten myself wasted and I’m wandering around the city in a drunken stupor”

“You do that a lot, huh?” Kit raised a judging brow.

“If you cause too much trouble,” Lot warned, “we’ll leave your ass passed out in some seedy alley way, got it?”

“No worries, I’ll be good I promise.” Reiko said taking a look out the window. “Ok, most of the troops have gone into town, so we should be ok to leave now. Is there anywhere in particular we need to be?”

“Away from where we might get caught?” Nanashi threw out.

“Toward what we’re looking for?” Kit added.

“Hey,” Mizuki chimed in, “What exactly are we looking for?”

“Hm, I have a map of all the places taken over by White, if that helps. It even has little spots marked that are supposed to be under control in the next few months.” Reiko whipped the map off a table and inspected it. “We could go to Greyvie Town.”

“We’re looking for more of these,” Nanashi tapped her jewel, “If we have the others we might have a chance at beating White, or at least putting up a good fight.”

“There are five,” Kit explained further. “We only need the other four.”

“Where are they? How do you get them?” Mizuki stared at Nanashi’s jewel. “and why do you have them?”

“Ooh, I knew that rock looked familiar.” Reiko said excitedly. “I saw one of those once, only it was yellow.”

“No shit!” Kit perked up excitedly, “Where?”

“They’re… everywhere? You just have to find them,” Nanashi tried to answer Mizuki, “Mine was an heirloom of sorts. They’re supposed to be really powerful… I can barely control mine. That’s why it snows where ever we go.”

“I think it was back in Musahar. We were supposed to be clearing out these little villages and I remember seeing one of their shaman guys having this funny yellow rock with him. He said it was a gift from the gods or something like that.” Reiko searched the map. “Musahar is pretty far off but if we can find the right portal we could be there in no time.”

“You mean we actually have a destination?” Kit asked in awe, “You were actually useful?”

Reiko glared at him. “I’m not a complete idiot.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” Mizuki muttered.

“Play nice,” Nanashi chided. 

“Let’s go,” Lot picked up a bag full of military camping supplies. “No use wasting any more time here.”

“Right. It’d be best if we left before everyone else gets back.” Reiko grabbed a bag full of his things and opened the door. “Onward, to the land of the Rat Eaters!”

Chapter Three

“You have no fucking clue where we’re going so shut the hell up!” Kit’s voice rang out through the barren forest. Clouds of black dot-birds ascended into the grey heavens to escape the blasphemous shouting. Down below them, Lot held a crinkled map up to the birds as if to implore them where to turn.

Mizuki and Nanashi sat with their backs against opposite sides of a blackened tree trunk.

“He’s sort of right, Lot,” Nanashi made a tiny blizzard dance before her eyes, “You’ve never had a good sense of direction. I think you’re holding the map upside down.”

Lot crumpled the map into his fist in response. He worked his jaw, teeth clenched in frustration, “I know where we are.”

“None of us know where we are,” Kit called from a low tree branch, “Least of all you, so you can stop making an ass of yourself.”

Lot un-crinkled the map to the best of his ability and preceded to attempt reading it once again, “If we just… then maybe…”

“We made it out of Oka, at least,” Mizuki sighed, her clawed finger tracing a little stick-person family being eaten by a giant squid-monster with Lot’s hair style.

“Lot,” Nanashi caught his attention. She made a swirling motion with her finger. He looked back at the map, making a tiny “oh” sound and turning it the right way.

Kit knocked the back of his head repeatedly against the tree branch he was lying across.

“Why don’t we just go that way?” Mizuki pointed off in some random direction. “Or better yet, aren’t you two shifters? Can’t you just poof into little birdies and try to figure out which direction to go?”

“That would be too easy,” Nanashi and Kit said at once.

“Not to mention, stupid,” Lot argued. He crumbled the map again, admitting with vigorous hatred for all map-makers: “I can’t read this thing. It must have been drawn by a child or a drunk, because all I see are meaningless squiggles.”

“Or maybe you’re just an idiot.” Mizuki traced a little duce hat on the squid monster then wiped the entire picture away. “I say we go that way.” She stood up and pointed. “I’m hungry and my tummy says there’s food that way.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kit hopped down from the tree he had made a temporary home of and stretched. Nanashi stood and did the same.

“You’ll be the end of us all, mutt,” Lot tossed the map-remains into a snow bank. “If not you, then you’re brainless kin.”

“Yeah, well I have yet to lead us in the wrong direction.” Mizuki growled, trudging through the snow.

“You’ve yet to lead us at all.” Lot pointed out.

Mizuki made a face at him. “You’ll thank me once I get us to the next town.”

Lot did not thank her, he only scowled and muttered.

“Why didn’t we put you in charge before?” Kit put his hand on Mizuki’s head and messed up her hair playfully.

“Food… a bed… maybe a shower…” Nanashi was lost in her plans for the near future.

“A drink,” Lot added with his muttering.

“Ooh, I’m so hungry.” Mizuki looked for the nearest inn. It was somewhat dilapidated but still in working order. They went inside and got two rooms. After a quick shower and a change of clothes Mizuki immediately went downstairs to find something to eat. Kit was there with a plate of food piled too high.

He pointed to the doors of the inn, “There’s this huge mess hall across the street—for starving homeless people, I assume. All you have to do is say you’re allies with some commander and they give you free food. All you can pile onto a plate.”

Mizuki was out the door in a flash. When she returned she carried a plate piled so high with food she could barely see. “Hey Kit, do you think that commander is a good guy?” she set her plate down spilling some of its contents, “I think he must be. Why else would he have a giant mess hall for homeless people? Unless of course he’s just fattening them up so he can eat them.”

“Who eats people when there’s all this free food?” Kit followed up by taking a chunk out of a large slice of chocolate cake.

Mizuki paused mid chew. “Oh god. What if…this is people? Kit what if we’re eating people?”

“Tasty people,” Kit said through a mouthful of food, “If people are this tasty...” He finished chewing and swallowed, “…then maybe they deserve to be eaten.” Kit grabbed Mizuki’s hand and nibbled on a finger.

Her face turned bright red. “Uhm…y-yeah, tasty people…” She pulled her hand away and shoved some food in her mouth.

“How cute,” Lot passed by with that single emotionless comment.

“Don’t be an arse,” Nanashi giggled, following close behind.

Kit shrugged at the two-person procession that passed. “The people in the ‘hall were saying he was a real beast… like he ate puppies for breakfast. Well, not exactly that, but they made it sound just as bad.”

“When I was in line I heard someone say that he killed a man for just looking at him funny. Then he ate the guy’s pet bunny. His pregnant pet bunny. That’s just wrong.” Mizuki swirled her mashed potatoes into a small bunny shape. “Poor bunny.”

Kit stole the potato-bunny’s head with his fork, “Maybe pregnant bunny is a delicacy here?”

“Kit, that’s disgusting.” She lobbed together the bunny’s new head using some stuffing. “I don’t think I’d be able to eat a bunny. They’re too cute to be eaten. I don’t think I could eat anything that’s cute when it’s alive.”

“I wouldn’t mind another taste of yo—“Kit was interrupted, of course, by Nanashi storming back through the room.

“Lot is such… such a…” she growled like an angry puppy, sounding half as ferocious, and stormed off again.

“I have a feeling we’re missing something important,” Kit stared after Nanashi a while, “…or entertaining.” He returned to the previous conversation, “They say that commander guy has a suit made of human flesh.”

 “Birthday suit…” Mizuki mumbled. The mashed potato bunny was now joined by a squirrel and a strange blob that looked somewhat Kit-like. “Was it a body suit or a three piece?”

“Dunno,” Kit chuckled, “Maybe it’s not a suit at all, but a dress and matching parasol.”

“Hm, I don’t think this evil man sounds like a dress and parasol kinda guy, unless he made it for his girl friend or sister or something.” Mizuki stared off into space. “Hey, what do you think Lot did yo piss off Nanashi?”

“We’ve become gossipers,” Kit realized aloud. “Like old people with nothing better to do. Quick! We must regain our youth… by eating bunnies…” Kit stole the potato-bunny’s head for a second time. “Whatever it was, it was probably a result of Lot’s insecurity and emotional issues. And cross dressers can be sinister, too.” 

“Right!” Mizuki ate the rest of the bunny’s body. “Hey, can you be a bunny? I wanna see you as a bunny.”

Kit complied, his fork clattering to the floor in front of a little black flop-eared bunny’s nose.

Mizuki squealed, “You’re so cute! How could people eat bunnies?” she picked him up and stuck him in the face of the nearest person. “Would eat this bunny? No? I thought so. He’s just so cuuuuuute!”

Around the lobby people were staring at her. It wasn’t everyday a girl with horns and a fuzzy tail went around waving bunnies in people’s faces.

Lot continued his grumbling over a bottle of something alcoholic in a nearby tavern. Some idiot was screaming the lyrics to a song not worth recognizing in the background. Lot sunk his head onto his arms which were crossed on the bar and waited for the day to end and take him with it.

Thankfully, the screaming stopped, but was replaced by something equally as irritating.

“Hey beautiful, I don’t usually go for flat-chested broads, but I’ve been watching you since you stepped in the door and you can really hold your liquor. I like that,” Lot turned to glare at the scarlet-haired boy to which this voice belonged. The boy, who was possibly only a little older than Lot himself and reeking of alcohol among other things, slipped his arm around Lot’s shoulders. Lot tensed and growled a little, “Ooh, you’re frisky! How about you save it for the bedroom—“

Lot slammed his fist into the drunkard’s gut. “I’m not your type,” Lot snarled as he stood and finished off his drink. The bottle clunked when he slammed it down and added, “And I’m not frisky.”

“W-wait!” the red-head yelled after Lot who was already leaving. “You’re totally sort of my type! Even if your voice is freakishly deep! ”

Lot stopped and reeled around. Most of the bar stopped with him to watch. “Is your brain completely absent from your skull? I’m not a woman. Even if I was, you’re a disrespectful drunken slob!”

“Not a….woman?” the boy followed Lot out of the bar and into the streets. “What do you mean ‘not a woman’? You’re totally a woman. A sexi woman for a sexi man.”

“How blatant can I be, aside from dropping my pants here in the street, to prove I’m not a woman?” Lot stopped, hoping to rid himself of the drunk before he reached the inn. “I’m even engaged. To a real woman, I might add.” Lot pointed to his left hand where a little gold band rested on his left ring finger.

“Yeah, uh-huh, like a strip of metal is going to stop the great Reiko Okage.” He took Lot’s hands in his, “I don’t care if you were engaged to fifteen women and twelve men. I’d still be here for you. I love you.”

“What the Hell is your problem?” Lot yanked his hands away, “No. Just… no! Leave me alone!”

“I could never leave a lady alone and defenseless.” Reiko glared at passersby, “The world is a dangerous place. Full of all sorts of suspicious people. At least let me escort you back to your home.” 

“There are so many things you need to change about what you just said,” Lot shoved his long black hair out of his face with one hand before continuing, “First and most obvious: I’m not a lady. Second: you are one of those suspicious people. Third: I don’t live here, so I certainly don’t need an escort.”

“Hm. No, I don’t think I like reason number one because if you were a boy that would mean that I’m…” Reiko whispered the rest. “That would mean that I’m gay. Because I am so hopelessly in love with your flawless beauty.”

“Then you’re as gay as gay can be,” Lot answered in his own special flat, emotionless tone. “And I’m not. I like women. One, specifically. Run off and find some other drunken loser who, like yourself, doesn’t realize he prefers men.”

“But…I like you. You’re pretty and tall and have nice hair and you are frisky. I don’t care if I’m drunk or if you’re a guy.” Reiko wrapped his arms around Lot’s waist and grinned foolishly.

“I do,” Lot struggled to get away, “I care. Get off me. And I’m not frisky. I’m mortified.”

“No!” Reiko had a death grip on Lot “No! I can’t let you get away! I promise I’ll be good to you! You can have anything you want! I have a good job so you wouldn’t even have to work. We could be happy together!”

“Why can’t you be happy alone? Why does this shit keep happening to me? I could see it happening to Kit… but me?” Lot quit struggling, completely enveloped in woe.

“Happy alone?” Reiko looked up at Lot, “Who could be happy alone? I’ve been looking for the right girl for ages and you’re her, er him, I can feel it in my bones! Well, I can feel it elsewhere too…”

Lot shuddered in disgust. He felt Reiko’s grip loosen a little and he took this opportunity to get in a decent punch.

“Dammit!” Reiko writhed in pain on the ground. “You’ll ruin my good looks. You don’t want to be in love with an ugly guy do you?”

“I don’t want to be in love with a guy at all!” Lot kicked him in the side out of spite. “If you really loved me you’d let me go!” He turned away from the writhing drunk and headed back toward the inn.

“Wait!” Reiko cried. “I can fix this!” Suddenly in his place was a tall red haired woman. “Look! I’m a girl! Do you love me now?”

“I already told you, I love someone else,” Lot didn’t bother looking back to see how Reiko chose to ‘fix’ the situation.

“Can’t you just pretend? Just say that you love me. You don’t have to mean it.” Reiko muttered. “Please?”

“No,” Lot answered coldly. “How could I love a freak like you?”

“You’re so cold!” Reiko sniffed. “How hard is it to utter those three simple words?”

“I.” Lot counted on his fingers, “Hate. You. Yup, that’s three.” He held up three fingers tauntingly as he walked away.

“You’re horrible! I should have you arrested! Yeah, that way we could be together forever. Well, a couple of days at least…then you’ll love me.”

Nanashi sat alone on the bed in one of the rooms the group had purchased for the night. Mizuki had fallen asleep in the other room with a small black ball of rabbit fur nuzzled against her cheek. Not having the heart to wake Kit and Mizuki, Nanashi took to the second room instead. This meant she would know when Lot came in, if he did at all. When he did return, the room would be nice and icy for him.

“Bastard,” Nanashi blew out a small snow flurry with the word. She was insulting three people at once, which made her smile. If only she had one solution for all of them. She should have killed her father. She should have killed Riku. She… had no idea what to do about Lot. He was not on the ‘kill’ list, though after accusing her of switching sides the idea was tempting. If she had killed Riku, they wouldn’t have had this argument, but even the ‘should have’ was becoming increasingly ghastly. Why waste all that male beauty on a rotting corpse?

She was letting her mind wander to similar subjects when the door clicked from the outside and Lot walked through it. “Nice of you to come back,” Nanashi crinkled her nose, “You stink like a dirty homeless drunk.”

A blue squirrel skittered into the door after Lot and scurried up to Nanashi. It circled around her ankles twice before whipping up to her head. “Is this your girl friend?” it asked.

Lot stopped in the doorway and glared murderously at the squirrel, “You.”

“I’m your girlfriend?” the blue squirrel’s tail twitched happily.

“No!” Lot went to snatch the squirrel from atop Nanashi’s head, but the rodent was too fast and darted down her shirt. She squeaked and tried to pull him out.

“No!” the squirrel cried. “You have nice boobies! Not like flatty over there” it poked its head out of Nanashi’s top and grinned at Lot, “but its ok. I love you just the way you are.”

At that Lot grabbed the little blue squirrel and threw him against a wall.

The squirrel turned into Reiko who writhed on the floor in agony, blood and tears running down his face. “It hurts! It hurts so bad!” he sobbed.

“Oh my!” Nanashi rushed to his side, wiping away the blood with the bottom of her shirt, “Lot! You could have killed him!”

“I will!” Lot tried to go after Reiko, but Nanashi stayed between them. “I’ll kill that… I can’t think of a word bad enough to describe him!”

“Do you see how he treats me?” Reiko cried, clinging to the front of her shirt. “After all we’ve been through together; this is how my boyfriend treats me!”

“All you’ve…boyfriend?” Nanashi looked between the two curiously.

“He’s a drunken liar!” Lot countered. “He followed me home like the idiot mongrel he is.”

“I may be drunk but I most certainly am not a liar!” he turned to Nanashi, “I love him and he loves me!” Reiko suddenly pushed Nanashi away and pointed at her accusingly, “I won’t let you tear us apart!”

“I’ll tear you apart,” Lot mumbled under his breath. He grabbed Reiko’s ear, twisted it, and tugged him toward the door. “No one talks to Nanashi like that.”

“I’m sorry! Please don’t make me go! I don’t think I can stand to be without you! I’ve fallen madly in love with you! You’re so beautiful and strong and I know we just met but I already love you so much.”

Nanashi started to giggle, quietly at first, and then she exploded into hysterical laughter, “You have a fanboy, Lot. How cute!”

“It’s not funny!” Lot pleaded with Nanashi. “He’s mentally ill.”

“I am not! I know what I feel in my heart! When I look into those steely eyes I get all tingly inside. I’ve never felt like that with anyone else before! We’ve only just met but I feel like this was meant to be! Its fate!” Reiko dropped down to his knees, “Can’t you just give me a chance? Just a teensy little one? I’ll be good, I promise!” he looked at Nanashi “Don’t you think we’d look cute together?”

Nanashi cover her mouth and laughed some more, her face red from giggles, “Absolutely adorable. You two should kiss and make up.”

Lot was tempted to kick Reiko in his sad, puppy-dog-like face. “Nanashi! This is just payback, isn’t it?”

Nanashi nodded devilishly.

“Hey that’s a great idea!” Reiko jumped up, kissed Lot and then cowered behind Nanashi. “I love you…”

Nanashi pet the strange drunk man on the top of his head encouragingly, “See? All better. He isn’t yelling or trying to kill you anymore.”

Lot appeared to be paralyzed, “It kissed me. There’s no telling what diseases it harbors… and it quite possibly just gave them to me…”

“I like you.” Reiko smiled at Nanashi. “You can be my girlfriend. Then I’ll have a boyfriend and a girlfriend. Hey.” Reiko turned his brown eyes on Lot, “I just realized that I don’t even know your name. I’m gonna call you…Hottie McSexpants.”

“Aw,” Nanashi smiled, “How sweet. A pet name. Don’t you think that’s sweet, Lot?”

“No, I don’t. I think it’s disgusting,” Lot was starting to feel he was losing horribly against their combined power, which he was.

“You think…it’s disgusting?” Reiko whimpered, looking for all the world like he was about to burst into tears.

“He doesn’t mean it,” Nanashi reassured, “He’s just too shy to admit he likes you back. He was totally checking out your butt a minute ago when he was pretending to hate you.”

“Was he really?” Reiko looked at her and then to Lot hopefully. “I wanna stay here tonight. Can I stay here?”

Nanashi and Lot gave contradicting answers.

“There’s only one bed,” Lot stated pointedly, “There’s not enough room.”

“You’re both shape shifters,” Nanashi grinned, “There could be enough room.”

“Yeah, there’s plenty of room. I could be a squirrel.” Reiko changed back into the blue squirrel “Or I could be a bunny. Or a gerbil.” He changed into each as he said them.

“Can you be gone?” Lot picked up the speckled talking gerbil, tossed it into a drawer, then shut him in. “Nanashi, you can’t be serious. He’s delusional.”

“So we should leave him to roam the streets?”

“What do you want from me? I’ll do anything—except sleep in the same bed as that…”

“Reiko!” a muffled voice called from the drawer, “My name is Reiko!”

“…thing,” Lot held Nanashi’s frigid hands.

“Let him stay. We’ll be leaving in the morning anyway,” Nanashi whispered, “We’ll take him to a shelter here in town before we leave.”

Lot sighed, “Fine. If that’s what you think is necessary.”

“So I can stay?!” a shiny magenta beetle climbed out of the drawer then changed back into Reiko. He ran over to Lot and caught him in a bone crushing hug. “Oh my beloved, I shall stay by your side forever!”

“Whatever,” Lot shifted into an indifferent cat that slipped out of Reiko’s grasp and hopped onto the bed.

Reiko sat down on the floor and stared at Nanashi. “Hey, do you think we’ve met before? I’m not quite sure what it is about you but you seem kind of familiar.”

“Possibly,” Nanashi sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed. Lot slinked into her lap and curled up to sleep. She stroked his back absently, “Where are you from?”

“Sudami! It’s one of the vacation islands in Nani-Mo. But I haven’t been back there in nearly seven years. Where are you from?” Reiko crawled over to the bed and sat next to Nanashi.

“I can’t really tell you that, but I can tell you I lived in a big mansion made from stone the color of my eyes,” Nanashi paused, “I’ve never been to any of the traditional vacation spots. I can’t stand heat. What are you doing here, of all places? I would imagine any normal person would pick a beautiful island over a village that’s falling to pieces.”

A bitter smile crept across Reiko’s face. “Well, if you haven’t guessed, I’m not what you’d call a normal person. Besides I’d rather be in this crumbling stink hole than stuck back in Sudami with people who hate me.”

“People hate you?” Nanashi stared at Reiko, “You’re kidding.” Her smile was amused, “I travel with a whole crew of not-normal people, so I guess I can understand.”

“You mean there are more of you?” Reiko looked around the room. “Where? Are they nice? Are they sexi?”

“They’re in another room. There’s Mizuki, she has a tail and horns and pretty silver hair. Then there’s Kit, he’s Lot’s twin brother,” Nanashi named off her fellow travelers.

“No way, I totally know this guy with horns! He’s funny. And Hottie McSexpants has a brother, is he a girlie lookin’?” Reiko patted cat Lot on the head. “I thought he was a girl.”

“Kit has short hair and green eyes… and he’s more… pleasant to be around,” Nanashi smiled at the one-eye-open cat-glare she received. “I don’t think Lot has been mistaken for a girl since we were kids.” Nanashi played with Lot’s tail, “I’d never seen anything like Mizuki until recently. I wouldn’t describe the other one I met as ‘funny’, though.”

“Hm…” Reiko ran his fingers through his hair in thought. “Maybe there are more of them. There’s not supposed to be many left though. Someone got the notion that those goat dog demon beasties were bad and they got massacred. I know White has a couple. One of ‘em is my best buddy. He seems like a bad guy but he’s really not once you get to know him.”

“You… work for White?” Nanashi stopped playing with Lot’s cat tail. Lot lifted his head and stared at Reiko. They were like a small captive audience.

“Uh-huh.” Reiko nodded and grinned “I’m the commander of an entire squadron. I may not seem very smart but I’m a frikkin’ genius on paper.”

Lot sounded like he was hacking up a hairball.

“I see,” Nanashi’s smiled wavered, “And this other horned demon friend of yours wouldn’t happen to go by the name Riku, would he?”

Reiko jumped up, “You know Riku too?! Isn’t he the greatest? That guy can really hold his liquor. Plus he’s a kick ass assassin.” He sighed, “But there’s no way I’d be able to do his job. Too many missions that involve killing innocent people. He’s the guy who has to go out and kill the families of traitors and stuff like that. Sometimes I feel bad for him.”

The fur on Lot’s back stood straight up and he growled deep in his throat. Nanashi grabbed him, fearing he might do something rash. “That’s terrible,” was all she could say. “That’s really terrible.”

Lot sprung forward, turning human mid-jump and still landing on his feet. “I knew it! I’ll kill him. Nanashi, I told you that mongrel was up to something! He killed my family.”

“Maybe it wasn’t Riku,” Nanashi suggested doubtfully.

“You know damn well it was him,” Lot trembled with rage. To that, Nanashi was speechless. “They were just kids!”

“Hey, what’s going on?” Reiko backed up a little from the enraged Lot, “What exactly am I missing? Did Riku do something?”

“Your friend killed my mother and my little brothers and sisters,” Lot informed him. “Then he took us all prisoner—“

“But he let us go,” Nanashi added.

“But that’s silly! Riku only kills the families of traitors,” the truth slowly dawned on Reiko. “What the hell did you do to deserve it?”

Nanashi pointed to her face, “You probably recognize me from wanted posters. That’s where you’ve seen me before.”

“Well, that does make sense.” Reiko nodded. “Though if they went to the extremes of exterminating your family then you must’ve done something really bad. And if you haven’t been apprehended then that means you’re on the run. Which makes it my duty as the commander of this village to arrest you.”

“Good luck with that,” Nanashi gave Reiko a pat on the back, obviously unconcerned. “I don’t really want to kill you, though. You aren’t like all those other commanders.”

“Yeah.” Reiko plopped back down on the floor. “and I don’t really want to have to turn you in. Hey I have an idea. Why don’t I hide you? Troops from HQ are due to be here sometime tomorrow and if they catch you you’re as good as dead.”

“You would do that?” Nanashi asked hopefully.

“He’s friends with a child killer, I’m sure he’d do many unexpected things,” said Lot, his sarcasm thick.

“He was only doing as he was told! Maybe if you hadn’t broken the rules your family would be alive today.” Reiko growled. He turned to Nanashi, “I could hide you in my 

squadron. They’d never look for you right under their noses.”

“If they told you to kill my family would you do it?” Lot had to ask, fighting that need to punch the guy in the face. “Would you kill Nanashi and me, also? Because, technically, that’s the order Alva’s given. Dead or alive, preferably dead.”

“No. No I wouldn’t. I would never be able to do that. Riku and I have been friends for a long time but,” Reiko stared vacantly out the window at the snow swirling around outside. “They’ve got him so messed up. He’s been convinced that it’s the right thing to do.”

“Why are you in White if you don’t agree with what’s going on?” Nanashi implored.

Reiko answered her as if it were common knowledge. “Well, it’s either you’re with them or against them. And I just want to be on the right side when the time comes.”

“We’re against them and we’re not dead yet. We might even have a way to beat Alva,” Nanashi toyed with the chain her necklace. “It’s just a matter of finding what we need.”

“I’d rather die doing what’s right,” Lot sat down next to Nanashi.

“I admire that in a person. That’s why I like you so much.” Reiko smiled “I wish I could be like you guys. I hate doing what I do. It’s like I live a lie everyday.”

“You could—“

“Don’t say it, Nanashi,” warned Lot.

“—come with—“

“No! The little dog girl already tipped the scale.”

“—us,” Nanashi finished.

“Come with you?” the thought had never even occurred to him. Reiko remained quiet for a few minutes mulling it over in his head. Finally he spoke, a grin played on his lips. “I’d like that very much. Plus,” he sidled over to Lot and smacked him on the butt. “I’d get to be with him everyday…and night.”

Lot covered his face with his hand, “Why do you do this to me, Nanashi? Why? Do like seeing me suffer?”

“Oh, shut up,” Nanashi looked at the two boys standing side-by-side. “You do make a cute couple. I’m jealous.”

“As you should be.” Reiko said happily. “When do I get to meet the dog girl and Hottie McSexpants’s brother? Are they going to mind me tagging along? Wait, who am I kidding, they’ll love having a sexi guy like me around.”

“You can remove your hand from my ass now,” Lot stepped to the side, away from Reiko.

“Maybe the morning would be best. We need to get some sleep if we’ve going to be infiltrating enemy forces in the morning,” Nanashi made herself more comfortable on the bed. “I might want to warn you, it gets really cold when I sleep.”

Reiko changed into a dark green artic fox and snuggled up next to her. “I’m sure that I’ll be fine.”

Lot was the one left to turn out the light. His tiny cat paws trailed up Nanashi’s leg then settled on her stomach.

CHAPTER TWO

They traveled silently for what seemed a long time until Mizuki broke the silence.

“Hey guys? How much longer ‘till we get to where we’re going? Is it far, ‘cause I’m sorta hungry.”

“Not far. We’re heading toward our house,” Kit cleared his throat after not talking for so long. “I can’t wait to see all those little brats again. Mom hasn’t seen me and Lot since we were fourteen. She’ll cry, I bet.” He grinned as he said this, undoubtedly remembering his family.

“I hope they like me. I don’t really do all that well with children. They’re not mean are they?” she whispered “They’re not like tiny little Lots are they?”

“Some of them,” Kit whispered back amusedly. He stopped. The trees had cleared away and they were now walking on a weaving dirt road. Ahead, smoke billowed from a pile of ash and broken boards. The rumble smoldered in a stone pit.

The pit was the foundation of a house.

“Oh no…”Mizuki stared at the remnants of the house, “Poor people. They’ve already been here…”

“But… Lot, this isn’t it, right? We’ve got the wrong house,” Kit tried to convince himself. Lot shook his head slowly, his eyes fixed on the trees just past the burning remnants. The rest followed his empty stare. Nanashi immediately closed her eyes as tight as she could, but the image of small mangled bodies hanging from tree limbs remained seared into her mind. Kit shuddered, his jaw clenched against tears.

“We’ll have to cut them down and bury them,” Lot said in monotone. “It’s all we can do now.”

From the trees a silver haired demon grinned at his handi-work. With grim satisfaction he watched as his victims’ family cut down their mangled bodies. He laughed inwardly when they found one of the tiny bodies headless and missing most of its appendages at the base of a tree. When their grim task was finished, the demon couldn’t help a nagging feeling of disappointment. Not one of them had shed a single tear.

Not that it mattered, really. They would get no more time to dwell on it. Soldiers closed in around the small group, unnoticed. They would not be suspecting a second ambush.

Likewise, they would be too distracted to fight back effectively.

A small dart whizzed out of the bushes and hit Nanashi in the neck. In seconds she slid to the ground, out cold.

“Nanashi!” Lot ran to her side. He pulled the dart out of her, “Shit! It’s another am—“ He clapped his hand to his shoulder then fell beside Nanashi. Another dart shot from the bushes, then another. Kit and Mizuki lay passed out in the snow.

The silver haired demon hopped down from his perch in the trees as white cloaked soldiers surrounded the four. “See,” he said “I told them this would be more effective. But does anybody ever listen to me? No, of course not. They’ve all gotta learn everything the hard way.”

At first Nanashi was only aware of distant sounds. A man humming cheerfully. A clamoring of metal. A small crash followed by a muttered curse. Her eyes fluttered open, reluctant to awaken.

“Hi there, cutie.” A tall demon stood outside of the iron bars that formed the cell Nanashi currently resided in. He had short silver hair with a bit of black in it and two horns similar to Mizuki’s, only one was broken. His fiery red orange eyes were locked onto Nanashi’s cool brown ones. “How you feelin’?”

She paused to consider the question, “Like utter Hell. Where am I?” Sitting up, Nanashi suffered a slight dizzy spell. “And why is it so hot?”

The guy cocked his head on a dog-like fashion, confused. “Hot? Why it’s a comfortable 72 degrees in here. Maybe you’ve got a fever. That’s a common side effect with those darts.”

“You put me in here,” Nanashi started to comprehend her new reality. Her hand flew to her neck and then to her now dark umber hair. She exclaimed a very un-lady-like curse. “You son of a bitch! Give it back! Let me out of here before I slice you to—“ To bits? With what? My incredible mind powers? Nanashi mocked her own threats in her mind. She sighed, outwardly exasperated. “I suppose you won’t tell me where my friends are? Even if I beg?”

“Huh? Beg? Why would you have to beg me?” The guy pointed down the hall, “They’re all down there. The black haired boy, the black haired girlie and the demon, right?” He paused in deep thought for a moment. “That was a girl wasn’t it? She seemed a little flat chested and she did have pretty big hands…” he shook his head as if trying to rid himself of  that thought, “I guess that’s not really important.” He looked at Nanashi. “I didn’t put you in here because I wanted to, you know. Just following orders. If it were up to me I’d have put you up in one of the more comfortable rooms here” he winked, “You’re too cute to be rotting in a filthy, disease ridden holding cell.”

“Oh goody,” Nanashi replied in a flat tone, “The sexi evil man didn’t really want to lock me up, he’s just following orders.” She gave him a critical look, shifting to sarcasm, “Please, just because I have cleavage doesn’t mean I’m some gullible ditz, and the black haired one is most certainly male. I don’t doubt that he would kick your ass for even looking my direction, let alone call me anything like ‘cute.’ You can play nice all you want, bitch-boy, because once I get out of here you’re a corpse. ”

“Oh no I’m shaking in my military issued boots.” He wiggled his foot around then grabbed a half empty crate, turned it over spilling the remainder of its contents, and sat down. Clearly, he didn’t plan on going anywhere for a while. “You said I was sexi.” He grinned. “So, seeing as you’re not going anywhere for a while, I think we should make friends. I’m Riku.” He held out his hand and then quickly pulled it back thinking better of it.

“And evil, don’t forget the evil part,” Nanashi scooted a little closer and leaned her back against a wall. “Evilness trumps pretty much anything remotely attractive about you. Though, it would be more fitting if your physical attributes matched your black and rotting heart,” Nanashi commented with cheerful animosity, “Like say, if your face were half formed and dripping pus.”

“You wound me.” Riku held his hand over his heart. “Aw, C’mon, it’s not like I woke up today and said ‘Hey, Riku, let’s go and shoot a bunch of kids with some drugged darts and then lock ‘em up in tiny little cells.’ I’m really not a bad guy. I just do what I have to. I don’t know about you but I, personally, like to keep most of my internal organs inside my body. So I’d much rather not piss off the big boys.” He pointed upwards to the ceiling. “If it makes you feel better, I made sure that no one is gonna kill any of your little friends. That was their original plan, you know.”

“I imagine so. It’s kind of difficult to warm to a guy who follows the orders of others blindly. Like a mindless oaf. A mindless oaf who put me in a cage… which makes me all the worse for getting caught.” Nanashi buried her head in her arms, which were folded atop her knees. “There’s no telling what they’ll do to me now.” She sniffled a little, hoping she sounded a tiny bit less false to him than she did to herself. “Sure, you say they won’t kill any of us… but the one who wants us is the boss over everyone here and he would rather I be dead. I don’t want to die, Riku.”  Nanashi looked up with tears burning her eyes. “Help me, please? I can’t die yet. There are so many things I haven’t experienced yet…” She was careful to let the last part sound suggestive without being to overtly obvious. Hopefully, this guy is a dirty minded wretch.

 “So what you’re proposing I do is break you and your little buddies out, correct? Now why would I do a thing like that? Cute as you are, I don’t think I could trust you not to kill me.” Riku grinned, “Not unless you could convince me otherwise…”

“I was bluffing,” Nanashi played like she was admitting some terrible truth. “I couldn’t really kill you… I don’t think you’d really hurt my friends. I mean, after all, one of them is a… a …. Like you. With horns and a doggy tail and she said there weren’t many of your kind left. I’d feel bad about killing someone she might really connect with. And, you are very attractive. Maybe we could work something out? Like a deal?” Nanashi let her real hope show through.

“Yeah, I saw her earlier…”Riku had a far away look in his fire coloured eyes, “It’s been so long since I’ve seen or even heard of someone like her. She looks like someone I used to—“ snapping back to reality, he stared intently at Nanashi. “What if I decide to help you? What’s in this for me? Other than the chance of me having my insides ripped out and being strung up by them.”

“Uhm…whatever you want?” Nanashi was getting tired of playing games. It took all of her patience to still appear desperate and distraught. “Whatever’s in my power to give, I should say. Money maybe?” Except, I’m totally broke, but he doesn’t have to know that.

“You know what?” Riku stood up “I think it’s about time for a shift change.” Footsteps echoed down the hall. “I like you. So I’ll see what I can do for you.” A sandy haired man came to relieve Riku. He waved goodbye and headed down the hall towards the others’ cell.

“Hi there!” Riku waved to Kit, Lot and Mizuki, who were all in the same cell. “Everyone alive in there?”

Kit’s hair was mussed like he had woken up from a fitful sleep. His expression was pure hatred and he spat through the bars onto Riku’s shoe. Disrupted from his frantic pacing, Lot instantly demanded to know where Nanashi was. They both wore collars that inhibited their ability to shape shift and were rather pissed about it.

“Nanashi? That must be the girlie right? Right.” He answered himself, then pointed down the hall. “She’s fine. Not dead or anything. Feisty little thing, isn’t she?” Riku sighed. “She doesn’t like me very much. I like her though. She wants me to spring you guys out of here. But you know what sorts of things happen when you disobey the big boss guy, huh?” He looked directly at Kit and Lot, he smiled ever so slightly. “People you love tend to get hurt.”

“And you have something to lose?” Lot spoke where Kit turned away from everyone.

“Maybe I do.” Riku shrugged. “It just so happens that I’ve found something very special…”

Lot stared at him indifferently. “What do we care? You have no real intention of letting us go.”

 “Well you’ve just got me figured out, don’t you? Good boy! You get a gold star.” Riku gave Lot a thumbs up. “Well, I’ll see you kids later.” He turned and waved as he walked off.

“That’s the guy from the forest! That’s him! Did you see his horns?! One of them is broken! That’s him! He’s gonna save us, I know it!” Mizuki’s tail wagged excitedly. “You’ll see, he saved me once, he’ll do it again.”

“That asshole isn’t about to do anything for us,” Lot grumbled.

Mizuki scowled at him. “You’re just a pessimist. It’ll be ok. I know it.”

Upstairs, Riku approached a tall black haired man more lavishly dressed than

the others. “Ok, so the ice girlie is up an’ at ‘em. I tried to make nice with her but she doesn’t seem too happy with me. Oh, and the other three are up too. Anything in particular you want done?”

“I trust you to handle them,” in the man’s hand was the sapphire Nanashi had been wearing around her neck. “I have what I want.”

Riku gave a quick salute then marched off, humming some tune he’d just made up.

It was near midnight when Riku returned to Nanashi’s cell. “Hey there cutie, guess what?” he jingled something behind his back. “The big boss man said I could deal with the prisoners however I choose, and you know what? I’ve decided that’d it be too much of a bother to have to kill you guys. Oh, and messy too.” He held up a large brass key ring. “I guess I’ll just have to let you go.” He slid a key into the lock and opened the cell door. “Happy?”

“Almost,” Nanashi strolled out of the cell, stretching and yawning. “Get me my friends and my jewel and you’ll never have to bother with me again.”

“Well, your friends I can take care of, but the jewel is another matter. Can’t we just stick to the easy stuff?” Riku spun the key ring around on his finger.

“I’m not an easy girl,” Nanashi crossed her arms over her chest, “If you won’t help me, my friends will. I wonder who would get blamed if the prisoners you were in charge of went rampant and started stealing valuables.”

“Well damn, when you put it that way, I don’t have to free your little friends and you can just rot in your cell for all I care, but I’m really trying to be a nice guy here, turning over a new leaf, atoning for my sins, that kind of thing. So don’t ruin it for me.” Riku started whistling and dragging his claws across the bars of each cell they passed. He stopped in front the one containing Nanashi’s friends. “So if I let them out do you promise to be good little kids and behave yourselves?”

“I could promise that,” Nanashi waited for the click of the lock being undone, “But I’m terrible at keeping promises.”

“What?” Riku narrowly missed getting hit in the face with the cell door as Lot, Kit and Mizuki rushed out. “Aw shit.” He cursed, “You four are going to get me into trouble, I can feel it. Why can’t you be good little escapees and just leave? Hell, I’ll escort you to the door myself.”

“No fun in that,” Nanashi watched Lot slam Riku into a wall while Kit caught the keys that went flying.

“Hey!” Mizuki ran over to Riku who was sporting a busted lip, “Why did you have to do that? He was helping us!”

“You can’t possibly be dense enough to think he would help us without some hidden agenda!” Lot looked down upon Mizuki after checking to see that Nanashi was mostly in tact. “He may be one of the few people I would gladly let Nanashi slaughter.”

“Yeah, speaking of my ability to wreak havoc,” Nanashi interrupted, “he knows where my jewel is. That might be a helpful bit of information, though I’m not sure slaughtering him is entirely necessary…”

“Slaughtering me isn’t necessary.” Riku held up his hands pleadingly, “But if you want your jewel back that’s something that I won’t help you with.”

Mizuki looked at Nanashi, “He got us out didn’t he? Surely we can find your jewel without him.”

“Point the way, that’s all we need,” Nanashi sighed. Lot gave her a look that seemed to ask ‘then can we come back and kill him just because?’

“Upstairs, end of the hall to the right. It’s this massive blue door with all these weird words carved into it. There’s no way in the hells you can miss it.” Riku glared at Lot. “See? That’s all you had to do.”

“It’s not as satisfying,” Lot stated simply.

Nanashi bit her lip, chewed it a little, and then made up her mind, “I should go alone. He won’t kill me right away.” She gave Mizuki an uncertain look. “I know we said we’d lead you to the man who killed your family… but… I guess I didn’t think we’d have to deal with him this soon.”

Mizuki stared at her, “You mean to tell me that the guy who murdered my family is sitting up there right now? Surely you don’t expect me to stay here.”

“You’ll die if you go,” Nanashi pleaded. “Even with me there, he’d kill you without a thought. You’ve finally found another demon like you and you’re willing to die before you find out if there are any more?”

“Yeah.” Mizuki growled, “I’m more than willing to kill that bastard and if I die in the process so what?”

“You can’t kill him, though,” Kit spoke up, “Not when he has the ice jewel. If we had another to fight him with, well, that would be another story…”

“We don’t have any choice but to go after him, though, do we?” Nanashi growled to herself, “Why couldn’t I have had a normal family? You know? Without the genocidal father?”

“We wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for that prick,” Lot pointed in Riku’s direction.

All three were talking at once and their words mixed together.

“Are you gonna let him talk about me like that?” Riku’s asked Mizuki, “We’re supposed to be family!”

“What the hell do you mean?” demanded Mizuki.

He leaned closer to her, “Don’t you even recognize your own brother?”

“WHAT?!” Mizuki shouted “YOU’RE MY WHAT?!”

Riku’s tail wagged happily, “I’m you’re brother. It just so happens that I’m not dead. Cool huh?”

Mizuki punched him in the stomach. He doubled over and gasped for breath. “That’s not funny! Kill ‘im Nanashi!”

“We could use him as a decoy and have my father kill him… for real this time,” Nanashi suggested passively.

Mizuki pointed at Riku “You’re a liar!”

“Oh, come on.” He growled, finally catching his breath. “You don’t think its just some coincidence that I just so happened to be named Riku. Or that we happen to look remarkably similar. Or that I just happen to know exactly who you are. Surely you aren’t that dense.”

“But, I saw yo—“

“Die?” Riku finished, “Almost. But that’s a long story and we really don’t have all that much time, do we?” he looked at Nanashi. “Do you know what he has planned for that little hunk of shiny blue rock?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Nanashi looked back at him like he was crazy, “No, not specifically, but I know it’s not good.”

“Well I figured as much.” Riku shook his head. “It’s not too horrible. There might be a few casualties but what’s so bad about that? You can’t have peace without spilling a bit of blood first. His idea could really help a lot of people. Why do you have to ruin it?”

“Wow. He really brainwashed the hell out of you,” Nanashi looked at Riku with pity now. “Do you even remember the death marches? That’s how he got you, wasn’t it? Recruited you from the survivors… told you to join or die when you didn’t have anything to live or die for… I was there, too. I didn’t really understand it for a while, but I was there. How could you wish that on other people? What he wants isn’t peace, its oppression so heavy no one will be able to breathe to speak out against it.”

“No. You’re wrong. It isn’t like that at all.” Riku pointed at Nanashi “You’re the one who’s been brain washed! He told us there were people like you out there, people who were against us.” He looked at her sadly, “We just want to help. We’re trying to make this a better place for all of us. There are some bad people in White, yes, but there are bad people everywhere. I don’t care what you do any more. Go get your rock if you want.” Riku slowly headed up the stairs. “And just so you know, I wasn’t recruited from any ‘death march’. Your father is the one who saved me. He brought me here and let Akiko take care of me. He’s not so bad.”

“Lunatic,” Lot had to say, “I didn’t realize lunacy was so contagious. Who praises a man who killed their family?”

Nanashi twisted her black-brown hair around one finger thoughtfully, “Riku, wait, maybe you’re right.”

He stopped and regarded her suspiciously, “What do you mean?”

“Well, maybe I do have it all wrong. Maybe I need to have things explained to me better. Could you take me to my father for that reason? We could have a discussion… or something…” the excuse was lame, but Nanashi used it anyway. Lot had started to object, and then seemed to catch on.

“Really?” Riku looked at her hopefully, “Maybe then you could understand what’s going on. But…” he paused, “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“It’s between that and dying,” Nanashi shrugged, “Would you want me dead or on your side?”

“Good point.” He smiled happily and held out his hand to her. “I’m glad you’re trying to make things work. You’re far too pretty to die.”

Nanashi smiled and took his hand. When she turned her head away from Riku to tell the others to wait for her she winked. Lot smiled, although reluctantly.

Mizuki, who had been oddly quiet the entire time, finally spoke, “Riku’s broken. He’s delusional. Maybe it’s all an act…”

Lot followed up the stairs a ways before turning back, “All clear.”

“That might explain why he went along so well with ‘Nashi’s terrible acting,” Kit regained some of his energy. “I assume we’re following them. Rats again?”

Lot shrugged, “Good enough for me.”

“What about Mizuki?” Kit used one of the keys from the ring to unlock the collar around his neck. He passed it to Lot, who did the same.

“I’m right here,” she huffed. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not.”

“We could use her for further distraction. Can you be a nuisance on purpose?” Lot turned to Mizuki. “If things go badly, a little mayhem from a certain escaped prisoner could help.”

Kit jingled the key ring with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Only one escaped prisoner?”

Every bit as imposing as Riku had explained it to be, the enormous blue door was impossibly tall. “He’s in here.” Riku rapped on the door, “Sir?  I have something important to speak with you about.”

A muffled voice replied.

“Come on.” Riku pulled open the door and followed inside.

A couple of rats scuttled in unnoticed before the door slammed shut.

Nanashi’s grip on Riku’s hand tightened unconsciously at the sight of the brooding figure at the end of the unnecessarily long room. She wanted to run away as badly as she wanted to run forward and embrace the man who had been God in her child’s eyes. For a moment she saw him as that man, the one who had sheltered her from a harsh world. Alva’s black hair was sleekly pulled back, leaving his pale angular face completely visible. His was a face that never aged, only matured. Eyes colder than her own met hers; her image of him as a loving father smashed itself on the hardness in his eyes. It was impossible to ignore that the harshness he had sheltered her from, he had created it.

Her gaze flickered from his to the sapphire stone on a table behind him, then quickly back again. Nanashi graced her father with a smile, “Hey… daddy… It’s been awhile.”

Riku smiled at Nanashi’s father like he thought he was the greatest man in the world. “Uhm, sir, Nanashi told me that she would like it very much if you could tell her about your idea. I told her that it would help a lot of people. She didn’t believe me at first but she’s a clever girl and thought it’d be a good to talk to you so that she could understand better.”

“Iniko,” the man basically disregarded Riku’s existence in the room, taking a familiar tone with his daughter. He almost sounded compassionate, but his eyes changed not at all. “You could at the very least go by the name I gave you when you were born.”

Nanashi’s mouth quirked into a half-smile, “I’m a rebellious teenager.”

 “It’s your rebellion in other areas that I’m most concerned about, dear,” Alva’s smile was cruel. Nanashi wondered if Riku saw it as ‘loving’ instead. “That rebellion is called treason. Treason has its consequences.”

Riku’s smile slackened bit but he silently hung onto every word exchanged by father and daughter.

“As does mass murder,” Nanashi countered, her own smile disappearing. “But let’s not dwell on your crimes.”

“And yours as well,” Alva reminded her, “I’ve lost many good soldiers to your temper.”

“Sorry,” Nanashi became increasingly bitter as she talked, “I tend to react violently when a mass of armed minions following the orders of a sadistic psychopath try to kill my loved ones to get to me, but, you know, that’s just my little character flaw.”

“Nanashi!” Riku whispered, “That’s no way to talk to your father! You said that you’d try to work things out! Please don’t make me regret bringing you here.”

“Riku!” Nanashi whispered back, “Please! This is how we work through our differences! By yelling at each other!”

“That’s never going to get you anywhere.” He snorted.

“Being a blind fool is never going to get you anywhere!” Nanashi truly was yelling now. She was yelling at both of the men in the room, hoping to further distract from the rats on the table. “Maybe you’re happy with your stupid plan, but what about the people who die? What about the people who care for them? Of course that doesn’t mean anything to a man who murdered his own —“

Nanashi didn’t have the chance to yell the rest before she was back handed by her father. She stumbled back, caught off guard, and landed on her butt on the floor. The death grip she had on Riku’s hand never loosened. He jerked back with her, but managed to stay on his feet.

“The murderer of women and children!” Nanashi continued shouting, “What kind sick bastard gets his jollies off killing little kids and their mothers!”

“Shut up, Nanashi! Just stop it already!” Riku snarled and wrenched his hand from her grasp. Her last words had really struck a nerve.

“You know I’m right, Riku, you know it’s wrong!” Nanashi pleaded, “Alva used to know it was wrong, too…”

“No, it’d be wrong if we didn’t have a reason! But we do!” Riku looked imploringly at Alva. “We do don’t we? We have a good reason…”

“We have the best reason of all,” Alva turned to find the table behind him empty, “Where is it?” He roared, returning his focus to Nanashi. He moved toward over her. “What did you do with it?”

“Nothing. I was over here the entire time,” Nanashi stared up at him contritely.

He responded violently, pulling her to her feet by her throat. “Lying bitch. I should have ended your life before it began.”  

Riku whimpered. “Alva! Alva, she didn’t do anything! She was next to me the entire time! Let go!” He tackled Alva, freeing Nanashi from his grasp. She instantly jumped to her feet and ran for the door. A siren went off somewhere in the building.

Alva threw Riku off, “Argh. The prisoners are escaping! You idiot, go after her!” “Dammit.” Riku muttered. “I knew I shouldn’t have let her stupid little friends out.”

Nanashi opened the massive door to utter chaos. All those who had once been locked in the lower levels were storming the building. Lot tossed her the stolen jewel, which she returned to her neck. Subsequently, her hair returned to icy blue and snowy silver. She looked back into the room where her father was raging at Riku.

“Hurry up Nanashi! We’ve gotta go!” Mizuki grabbed her hand.

“I’m sorry!” Riku scrambled to get away from the enraged Alva and to the door. “I’ll fix this, I promise!”

A wall of ice moved up from the floor like backward falling water between Riku and Alva. The wall split the room in half, capturing Alva in the half with no exit.  Nanashi addressed Mizuki, “What do you want? Should he live or die?”

Even as she spoke this, the glassy wall was shifting, becoming thinner with Alva’s power fighting against hers.

“Let ‘im live. Maybe he has his reasons. And they’d better be damn good ones at that.”

Riku stumbled out the door and into Nanashi and Mizuki. “You’d better go before someone catches you.” As the girls started to leave, Riku grabbed Nanashi by the wrist pulling her close, and kissed her. “I hope I see you again, hopefully under different circumstances.”

“Come with us, Riku.” Mizuki hurriedly suggested.

“Sorry. I can’t. Not just yet anyways.” He gave the two a shove in the direction of the exit just as the wall of ice began to shatter. “I suggest you run.”

They didn’t have to be told twice. Lot and Kit pulled the girls forward through the rioting prisoners. Nanashi let the temperature around her plummet. The escapees shied away from the familiar cold, clearing the way to the exit.

Hours later things finally calmed down, most of the rioters were either locked away in their cells or lying in the heap of dead bodies outside. Several officers were busy reporting the losses and damages to Alva when Riku sidled in empty handed. The reporting officers quickly wrapped up, leaving Riku alone.

He gestured around the room, “Well, as you can see, I wasn’t quite able to get Nanashi and her little friends back.”

Alva sat in a plush armchair, his body appearing relaxed as he regarded the jagged hole in the broken window thoughtfully. “Then why did you return?”

“I thought that maybe you might want to know.” Riku kicked at a loose piece of tile. He was quiet for a minute, then continued “Sir, I have a question. What if she’s right? What if all these casualties really are just senseless killings? Like that family…they were mostly just children. They couldn’t have done anything…” he trailed off, thinking back to how just a few hours ago how proud he was of finding inventive ways to kill them.

“If she were right would not she be you leading instead?” Alva set his chin on his hand. “Riku, you’ve been a commendable soldier up until this point, better than a son. I would have trusted you to lead if any unfortunate event was to befall me, but after today I have my own questions.”

“But it’s not like that! I’m still just as loyal to you as I was before this ever happened. You know that I’d happily carry out any orders to the best of my ability. It’s just, she makes things so confusing. She doesn’t understand.” Riku bowed his head slightly, causing his silvery hair to fall over his eyes. “I just want everybody to finally be happy, that’s all.”

“If happiness is what you want, she is the answer.” A cat-like grin bloomed across Alva’s face, “She is the reason for death, after all. If happiness is what matters, then what stands in its way must be destroyed.” Alva stood; glad to have found a solution to his problems. “I believe I’ve found the perfect redeeming mission for you, my boy. Go after her. Take her life and take the stone around her neck as proof of the deed. Return to me only after this is done. Understood?”

Riku nodded. “Yes sir.” He turned and near ran out the door. He’d bring back the jewel and maybe her head as an added bonus.

Chapter One

            Fire dipped and sputtered at a burst of chilly air. Mizuki looked up from the hearth and snapped from her fire-trance at the arrival of new travelers to the inn. She shifted on the large plush couch to get a better look at the cloaked stranger. It was no use, their faces were obscured by heavy winter cloaks. Mizuki pitied them, for she had arrived hours ago before the freakish blizzard hit.

            Two of the travelers, males, were cloaked in black and had heavy black boots. One lowered his hood to reveal black hair that was cut in a style that marked him as a foreigner. He was shivering more than his companions, yet he was the only one smiling. He was young, probably closer to Mizuki’s age, with cheerful forest green eyes. He chattered at the other black cloaked traveler and

Mizuki could not help but listen.

            “Finally, air I can actually breathe!” the green eyed one laughed and glanced in her direction, “And chairs! Oh gods chairs!”  No one responded, so he continued, “It’s kind of a dump though.”

            “Don’t be ungrateful,” green eyes voice came from his companion in black’s mouth.

            At first Mizuki was confused. When the other black hood finally went down she understood. He had the same face but longer black hair and rainy grey blue eyes. They were obviously twins, though the long haired one had a permanent-looking scowl on his face.

The third in the party was a female who kept her stark white cape covering her face, “Lot, go get a room key for us, please. It’s been a long day and I don’t want to hear you bickering with Kit anymore.”

The angsty, long-haired youth quietly obeyed. The two that were left started in Mizuki’s direction. She pretended to be stretching and returned her gaze to the flames.

Mizuki began to fidget nervously when she noticed the white cloaked girl openly staring at her with indigo-blue eyes.

“Good evening,” the girl prompted. Her green-eyed consort plopped down on the opposite end of the couch. He sighed noisily. The girl continued with her icy-clear voice, “I’m Nanashi, are you a traveler also?”

Nanashi tried to give a friendly smile to the twin-horned demon girl sitting on the couch bundled up in a blanket. Both girls exchanged wary looks, as if they half expected the other to attack.

“Maybe,” Mizuki was not one to openly give information to suspicious travelers. “What’s it to you?”

Nanashi considered her wariness disarming, as no enemy of hers would act so guarded. If anything, they would pretend to be friendly and open. Nanashi smiled contentedly before asking, “So are you running from the soldiers, too?”

“Soldiers?” Mizuki cocked her head in a way similar to a confused dog. “No. What soldiers? Why?” She looked at Nanashi suspiciously, “You AWOL or something?”

Snowy slush sprayed all over the surface of the short table that sat in front of the couch as Kit kicked his boots up. “Something like that, but it’s a secret. So don’t tell anyone,” he winked at Mizuki and reclined lazily as if he owned the entire inn. Nanashi rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

“Cool!” Mizuki looked at the two excitedly. “What’d you do? Are you some sort of anti military vigilantes? Or did you just get tired of mercilessly slaughtering innocent people? Or maybe you just happened to really piss them off and now you’re on the run?”

“Hmmm,” Kit cocked his head in thought, his hair falling in his eyes, “A little of the first, a little of the second and a whole lot of the third.”

By this time the other twin, Lot, had returned with a room key and overheard a bit of the conversation. His scowl was a more severe glare, “That’s enough information, Kit. For all we know the mutt could be a spy.”

“Hey,” Mizuki growled, “you’d better keep a civil tongue in your head when you speak to me or ill gladly rip it out.”

“Probably a liar too.” Lot grumbled under his breath.

“Really?” Nanashi ignored Lot’s complaints. “That’s horrible. About your family, I mean. Maybe we could travel together for a while if you’re heading—“

“That’s unnecessary,” Lot interrupted. There was something of a serious staring contest between him and Nanashi. She looked away first, defeated. “We have enough problems,” Lot said coldly.

“I won’t be a problem! I can take care of myself and I won’t bother you for anything. Please,” Mizuki looked pleadingly at Lot. “Please let me come with you. I’ve been on my own for so long…and if I do get in your way, just tell me and I’ll leave. Pleeeeeease?”

“Sure,” Kit answered happily, “That makes two against one. He doesn’t really have any say in anything. He just likes bossing people around.

“I’m not just bossing you around for the fun of being a prick.” Lot answered, annoyed. “If she dies- when she dies, you’ll hold all of the responsibility for being so damn insistent.”

“So you do boss people around for the fun of being a prick?” asked Mizuki.

“A little,” Lot admitted, fighting to keep his scowl.

“She won’t die,” Kit saw Lot’s resolve crack a little bit with Mizuki’s comment.

“Yeah, we aren’t dead yet,” Nanashi chimed. “Plus, it’d be nice to have someone new to talk to.” She smiled like a small child trying to convince her parents that she really, truly needed a new puppy. Lot caved instantly, “Fine.”

 “Yes!” Mizuki grinned happily. “I guess we should get to know each other a little bit don’t you think?” without waiting for so much as a nod, the girl continued. “Well, my name is Mizuki Watanoba. I’m seventeen and I’ve been traveling for quite sometime now. When I was little I lived in a port city called Lykiska. I also used to live with my father and older brother Riku. My mom died when I was little.” She paused for a moment then looked at Kit, “You have really pretty eyes.”

  Kit beamed at the compliment, a goofy-yet-cute grin on his face.

Nanashi spoke first, “I’m Nanashi, as I said before. I’m the same age as yourself and Kit and Lot are just a year older. They’ve been my friends for a very long time. We are, for the most part, outlaws.”

“Yeah,” Kit agreed. “Lot and I come from a huge family where we had to put up with a pack of shape-shifting younger siblings. We can become any animal we wish, but we can’t be any color other than black because it’s our natural hair color.”

Lot grunted, still against Mizuki’s inclusion in their party despite giving his consent.

“Shape shifters? Really? I can become a weird dog beastie, but I don’t think that counts for much.”

“That grunting sack of mud is Lot,” Kit added, “He’s an ass most of the time, but he’s got his redeeming qualities.”

“It’s late,” Lot interrupted, “When you two feel you’ve shared enough intimate information with this random stranger, our room is the one with the six on the door.”

“What’s wrong with a bit of intimate exchanging?” Kit directed at Lot, but gave Mizuki a mischievous smile.

Lot shook his head at Kit’s attempt at humor, “Don’t pretend you’re such a bad-boy when you still rely on juvenile humor to earn a lady’s attention.”

Kit stuck his tongue out at Lot in response.

Mizuki completely ignored him. “So you had lots of brothers and sisters? How many siblings did you have?”

“Twelve not counting me and Lot.” Kit chuckled at the demon’s expression.

“Good gods. That’s insane.” Mizuki sighed. “I miss my brother. I wish he were still alive.”

“How did he die?” Nanashi inquired, “If you don’t mind my asking that is.”

Mizuki stared at the melting pile of slush on the table, “Well, I a kid at the time. I’d just turned eight. All these people dressed in white came to Lykiska. They destroyed the entire village.” Mizuki’s gaze slowly shifted to the fire and she scowled. “They set fire to everything that would burn and massacred innocent villagers. We lived at the farthest edge of the village, so we didn’t really know what was going on. Suddenly this tall guy with black hair burst through the door with two other people all dressed in white behind him. My dad yelled for us to run. But there was no where to run. It all happened so fast. First Riku and I were hiding under my dad’s bed. The next thing” Her voice cracked a little, “Next thing I know my dad is dead with his head rolling around on the ground. Riku crawled out from under the bed and tried to fight with the man. But Riku, being twelve, wasn’t any match for him. So the guy killed Riku.” She paused, “I remember that I was terrified when he found me. But it wasn’t the thought that he might kill me that terrified me. It was his eyes. Those dark icy blue eyes…Next time I see him I’ll rip those evil things from his head”

Kit’s smile faded away. Nanashi’s face went from snowy white to sickly green. Both were disturbingly quiet.

Lot actually smirked. “Then I guess that means that we can’t travel together. That’s the exact man we’re trying to get away from”

“WHAT?!” Mizuki jumped up from her seat, her silver tail twitching angrily. “Where is he? I’ll kill him!”

“NO!” Nanashi pleaded with every fiber of her being. “He’ll kill you! No, his soldiers will kill you before you even get close to him. Please don’t.”

“You’d have to have a serious death wish.” Kit sat up.

“Where the hell is he?” growled Mizuki. “Tell me now!”

“He’s that way.” Lot pointed matter of factly, a smug smile spread across his face.

Mizuki gathered her blanket around herself. “I’m gonna kill that bastard right now!”

“Go on then.” Said Lot with a grin.

“You can’t go alone.” Kit reasoned, “We’ll go with you.”

“Why?” Mizuki asked suspiciously.

“Because we could get you close enough to have a decent shot at the guy.” He answered.

Nanashi looked at Kit like he’d lost his marbles. “Are you crazy?! Kit, she’ll be killed!”

Kit turned to her, “Not with us as her guides she won’t.”

Nanashi suddenly picked up on something in Kit’s voice. He had a plan. “Well, she would have a better chance with us on her side.”

“So, you’ll help me?” asked Mizuki skeptically.

“No.” Lot grumbled.

The other two ignored him. “Yes. But it’ll be dangerous.”

Mizuki shrugged “Well I didn’t expect lollipops and teddy bears.” 

“Right.” Nanashi stood up. “We can start tomorrow if you’d like.”

“The sooner the better,” answered Mizuki.

“Off to bed then. We’ll need to get up early.” Kit got up and started off to his room.

“Right.” Mizuki nodded.

As the trio walked away, she could hear Lot complaining about how idiotic they all must be.

Mizuki hopped down the stairs still trying to put on her left shoe and carry her belongings. Kit was there to catch her before she could go sprawling face first into the hardwood floor of the inn. “You take forever to wake up,” Kit complained with a smile, “You’re worse than me.”

“That’s all we need,” Lot complained, but without the inviting smile, “another lazy lout.”

“Silence you slave-driving overlord!” Kit pointed at Lot.

“What he said.” Mizuki mumbled. “What is your problem anyways? I haven’t known you very long but all you’ve been is doom and gloom.”

“He’s a happy person somewhere under all that defensiveness,” Nanashi looped her arm in Lot’s and he cracked a tiny smile.

“Yeah. Waaaaaaaaaaaay way under.” Mizuki turned to Kit “So where is this guy at? Is it far?”

Kit thought about it for a moment. “Yes. Yes it is.”

“Will it take long? Even if we travel fast?”

Kit nodded. “Uh-huh. It’ll be a few weeks to a month at the earliest. We traveled a long way before we met you.”

“Damn.” Mizuki cursed “Where the hell is this place?”

“Well, it’s in a remote area,” Nanashi hedged.

“Very remote,” Kit nodded.

“Hey,” Nanashi quickly switched the subject, “Won’t you be cold? That cloak is… here, take mine.” Nanashi unhooked her own pristine white cloak with its plush rabbit fur lining. “I don’t need it.”

“Won’t you be cold? I mean it’s snowing out there.”

Nanashi shook her head and handed her the cloak. “I’ll be fine. Trust me.”

Mizuki took the heavy cloak in her hands then put it around herself. “Thanks. Thanks a lot.”

A few moments later the four started out into the cold.

The cold seared straight through to the soul of three of the four travelers, though only two openly showed their suffering. Even Lot’s resolve finally crumbled within another hour and he was shuddering just as violently as Kit and Mizuki. Nanashi strolled ahead in her sleeveless top and pants not fit for the cold, apologizing to the others from time to time.

They had traveled until the moon had replaced the sun before coming to a barren town that looked to be more dead than alive. The inn keeper informed them that he had not a single customer until the night before, and that had been only one young man.  Lot exchanged suspicious glances with the Nanashi. He paid for two rooms, anyways, and split up between them.

Mizuki was in the main lobby getting extra blankets when a gang of white-clad soldier-types entered the inn. Two of them made a bee-line for Mizuki. The first one was a woman with short raven hair, “Excuse me, but have you seen any of the fugitives in this picture?”

The photograph was of poor quality, but Mizuki recognized the black haired twins and the blue haired girl.

She stared at them for a minute. “No, no. Have no money. Me no want pictures.” She shoved them back at the woman. “No money. Sorry, yes?”

The woman whispered to her compatriot something that sounded like “She’s a buffoon.” Mizuki looked confused, “Balloon?”

The two left her without a word. They joined the others who were questioning the innkeeper who was pointing to the stairs.

Mizuki took off up the stairs before anyone else could. She burst through the door. “You guys! There are bunches of those soldier people are out there and they’re lookin’ for you!”

“I expected as much,” Lot let his bag of necessities clunk to the floor.

“I can get rid of them,” Nanashi eagerly threw her own belongings on the bed.

“No,” Lot commanded, “We don’t need a massacre on our hands.”

“We don’t need a lot,” Kit punned.

“What we need is to stay alive long enough to find the—well, you know,” Nanashi gestured to the sapphire that was hanging by a thin silver chain around her neck. “Those people down there are most likely the only ones, like a small search party.

Mizuki was confused. “So are we staying or leaving? What? And what are we looking for?”

“Shinies,” Kit muttered at the same time Lot said “Leaving” and Nanashi said “Staying”

Mizuki was all the more confused. Her tail twitched in an agitated manner. “Well you need to hurry up and decide because I hear footsteps.”

There was a pounding at the door soon after, “Let me in.”

“Erm…No, I not know who is ‘me’. I no let in. You be thief! Go ‘way!” Mizuki yelled.

“Who is that idiot?” the masculine voice demanded.

Kit called out, “What’s the password?”

“Damn it, Kit, there isn’t time for this,” the voice was emphasized by the pounding that ended each word.

“Say it….no, Sing It!”

“NO!” there was a pause before the person on the other side of the door started singing off-key: “Kit is so amazing, I want to be his bitch, Kit is so fantastic, from women I will switch.”

Nanashi covered her face with one hand, “Just let him in.”

Kit snickered and opened the door to a red-faced blond man with eyes like silver knives aimed at Kit’s brain area. “You’re a prick, just like your brother.”

“Asa!” Nanashi tackled him with a hug as he closed the door behind him, “What are you doing here?”

“Infiltrating enemy camps, you?” Asa gestured to his white uniform. “I suggest you get out of here, the troops are moving in…you chose the wrong way to travel.”

“Every way is the wrong way,” Nanashi huffed, blowing blue-and-silver hair out of her face.

“He looks like a girl. A pretty pretty girl.” Mizuki mumbled. “Wait. I thought we were going the right way.”

Kit took a breath but lost the words to use on it. Asa’s glare choked the words from him, “I swear I’ll turn you in if you utter even a tiny sound.”

“We are,” Nanashi assured. “We just have to detour.”

“Detour or not don’t you think we should go?” asked Mizuki impatiently.

“You stay here,” Asa instructed Mizuki. “They’ve already seen you so there’s no use hiding. Lot, Kit, you should blend in…. I’m not sure what Nanashi can do.”

“Window,” Nanashi suggested. “Maybe the roof?”

Lot and Kit nodded, then vanished. Two black rats scurried away. Nanashi opened the window and swung out of sight.

“Ok.” Mizuki nodded. “That’s good. So do I just stay here ‘till those bastards down there leave?”

Asa nodded. “There’s really not much you can do at this point.”

“Oh. Right.” Mizuki said. “I wish there was something I could do.”

Asa escorted Mizuki into the hall, “This is the only one I found.”

“I see,” the raven haired woman was in the hall waiting. “Take her in for questioning.”

“She’s a foreigner. She knows nothing,” Asa argued.

“And who are you? Don’t question my authority, underling,” the woman snarled, giving a good view of snake-like fangs.

Asa gave Mizuki an apologetic look, “I am nothing. I will take her to—“

“I will do it,” the woman snapped. Her long, razor sharp nails dug into Mizuki’s flesh as she yanked the girl forward. 

“What?! N-no I don’t—“Mizuki whimpered. The woman’s nail’s dug deeper into her shoulder.

“Quiet!” she snapped. “When I want answers from you I’ll ask you for them.”

Mizuki struggled to get away from the woman as they neared the door. “NO!”

“Gimme a break, Zuki,” a man’s voice whispered into Mizuki’s ear from the woman’s mouth, “I’m gonna get you out of here, just stop struggling. You’ll blow my cover!”

Mizuki stopped, trying to remember where she had heard that voice before. She was pulled from the inn into a wooded area where she was released without much of an explanation beyond the woman’s transformation into a silver-and-black haired canine with two black horns, though one was broken. It gave her a wolfish grin then bounded off and out of sight.

“What in Damyu was that thing?” Nanashi trotted up to stand by Mizuki. “A big dog?”

“No way.” Mizuki stared off in the direction the animal ran off in. “There’s no way in hell that could’ve been another one. I thought they were all dead” she turned to Nanashi “You saw it too right, or am I just crazy?”

“Yes and yes,” Nanashi stared off, “It was pretty, whatever it was.”

There was a flurry of shouting from the direction of the inn.

“Dammit! Come on!” Mizuki grabbed Nanashi’s wrist and pulled her the way the beast had gone. “Maybe we can still catch him!”

“But Lot and Kit are still back at the inn!”  Nanashi pulled back.

“They’ll be fine,” Mizuki insisted.

Nanashi hesitated, but agreed in the end.

They ran through the woods in the direction they thought the stranger went.

Mizuki paused to catch her breath “Where is he? Where could he have gone? I have to find him…”

“Why? Did you know him?” Nanashi gasped. “You’re a dog, too, can’t you smell him

out?”

Mizuki looked at her like she could’ve kissed her, had something like that not been so awkward. She changed into a silvery, two horned wolf dog and looked at Nanashi. “Come on. We gotta hurry before he gets too far.” She bounded off into the trees.

Exasperated by the fact that her human legs carried her at a considerably slower speed, Nanashi gave chase.

Mizuki stopped quite suddenly when she came upon a clearing. She cursed. The stranger’s scent abruptly disappeared. When Nanashi got to the clearing she was completely out of breath. Mizuki trotted over to her. “It’s gone. His scent just…disappears. I thought for sure I’d be able to catch him.” She paused, “Hey, you ok?”

“Yeah,” Nanashi had to stop and sit in the snow, “Just a little over heated.”

Mizuki sat next to her. “Aw, I’m sorry. I was just so excited. I really want to find him. Maybe he knows where other people like me are.” She swirled some snow around with her paw, “I’m only half demon but I don’t think that it would matter, seeing as there are few enough of us as it is.”

“I see,” Nanashi blew a flurry of snowflakes from her pursed lips. “I can understand that, but it’d also be fun to know you were the only one like you in existence.”

“Hm…” Mizuki nodded. “I guess so. But don’t you think it’d be kind of lonely? Sure there’d be other people but no one who could really relate to you, you know?”

“Other people who were the only ones like them,” Nanashi pointed out, “They could relate.”  She paused, “How could a person… or beastie’s scent just disappear?”

“Don’t ask me, I’m no forensic scientist. It’s just completely gone. Not a trace of him anywhere. It’s kind of depressing. Speaking of depressing, how do you think Lot and Kit are doing? Do you know where they went?”

“I thought I heard a fight,” Nanashi admitted. “I’m kind of worried. We have to go back… do you remember which way we ran from?”

“Uh-huh.” Mizuki nodded. “It’s this way.”  She padded through the snow back in the direction they came, Nanashi following close behind. “I hope they’re alright.”

All hope was lost when they arrived back at the inn to find it overrun with soldiers dressed in white, blending in with the snow like humanoid snow blobs.

“They wouldn’t still be here,” Nanashi peered at the inn from behind a tree. “They probably went to find us, in which case, we’re screwed. We should have decided a meeting place!”

“Dammit. What do we do? Just wander around in the cold or—I bet I could smell ‘em out if there weren’t all these people here.” Mizuki growled. She was back to her normal form. “Are they gonna be ok? Oh my gods. What if they got caught? They could be stuck with those evil soldiers bring tortured to death! What do we do?”

“Don’t say stuff like that! You’re freaking me out!” Nanashi squeaked. 

“But what if they are!? Oh dear gods! We have to save them!” Nanashi and Mizuki were just about to run off and save them when something grabbed Mizuki’s tail.

“Save who?”

When she turned around both Lot and Kit were there.

“You’ve got a soft tail,” Kit molested Mizuki’s tail, “I want one!”

Nanashi attacked Lot in a crushing hug, “You’re alive. That’s good.”

“Erm…” Mizuki wasn’t quite sure what to say. “Go get one?”

Kit considered that for a moment then sprouted one.

“While you’re sprouting things, sprout a brain,” Lot grumbled.

“Sprout a sense of humor!” Kit’s tail vanished and he released Mizuki’s.

“Aw. I kinda liked it.” Mizuki whined. “Hey, you should be a cat boy. You can do that, right? ‘Cause that’d be cool.”

“I’m sure he would do anything you asked,” Lot interrupted brusquely, clearing his throat and peeling Nanashi from his side, “Let’s get out of this hole of Hell and move on to the next.”

They started off toward Lot and Kit’s hometown of Oka, in hopes that it wouldn’t be overrun by White soldiers. This also happened to be the same direction the stranger had run off in. Mizuki noticed this and pointed it out to the others.

“Hey, Nanashi? Do you think we’ll find that one guy?”

“What guy?” Lot questioned.

“There was this woman back at the inn who was gonna take me in for questioning but when I started to struggled she said ‘Stop struggling, I’m gonna get you outta here. You’ll blow my cover.’ Or something like that. But, it was really weird, I swear I’d heard that voice before. Next thing I know she changes into this beastie and ran off.” Mizuki recounted “Only I think she was a he.”

 “Transvestite?” Kit wondered aloud. “Maybe that was the cover he didn’t want blown…”

Unsettled by this new information, Lot set it back in his mind for future reference in case anything bad came of it.

“Uhm, somehow I don’t think so.” Mizuki shook her head. “What do you think about it guys?” She was referring to Lot and Nanashi.

“Suspicious,” was Lot’s predictable answer.

Nanashi shrugged, “It’s possible…”

Mizuki suddenly stopped. “Hey guys, I really really gotta go pee.”

“We really don’t have the time…” Lot kept walking. “You can use the restroom then.”

“But I have to!” Mizuki sounded like a little kid. “Really bad!”

“We’ll wait,” Nanashi scowled at Lot.

“But…” Mizuki whispered “I’m afraid to go by myself. What if there’s a bear? It’s hard to fight a bear with your pants down.”

“I’ll go with you,” Nanashi started to walk off toward a heavily vegetated area.

“Ridiculous,” Lot muttered.

Mizuki stuck her tongue out at him. “See what I do when you have to go pee, Lot.”

A few moments later both girls returned, Mizuki happily relieved.

“Great.” Lot muttered, “Don’t look now but I think we’re being followed.” He made a slight gesture to the trees behind them. The others started to look, “Don’t!” he snapped, “Just act normal.”

“How the hell do we act normal when we know that people are following us?” whispered Mizuki loudly.

“Shut up,” Lot growled. “Keep walking.”

“Yes, all knowing master.” Mizuki said sarcastically. She started walking though.

As the group traveled through the woods they noticed the treetops and brush rustling behind them.

“They’re still staying a good distance back so they must be planning something” observed Lot.

Kit nodded, chancing a glance behind them. “Ambush maybe?”

Mizuki shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense though. If they wanted to ambush us wouldn’t they have ambushed us back there when we were split up?”

“Or maybe they want to confuse the hell out of us,” Kit remarked cheerily.

“Say the word,” Nanashi’s body stiffened a little and gave Lot a nod, “I could kill them.”

“No,” Lot whispered harshly.

“Why not? If it’s that easy, why not just get ‘em off our case?” Mizuki looked from the trees to Nanashi.

“It’s not like I haven’t—“

“I said no. That can’t be our automatic response to everything,” Lot touched a dagger at his hip, “We defend ourselves, we don’t kill because there might be a threat in the future. You aren’t going to end up like your father.”

Nanashi was silent.

“I wish we knew where we were at. ‘Cause maybe then we could split up and meet somewhere.” Mizuki sighed. “I wonder how many there are.”

They continued on for several paces until they reached a swirling mass of lime and turquoise light that was the portal through which they could reach Oka.

“Ohh, where does this—“ Lot pushed Mizuki through the portal and then the rest followed.

They came through the other side in an area exactly like the one they came from, the only difference was the weather. It was chilly but there wasn’t any snow to be seen.

“It’s too hot,” Nanashi complained. Instantly a tiny snow flake fluttered down to earth to touch the tip of her nose.

“Ugh,” Kit groaned, “NO MORE DAMN SNOW!”

“Stupid snow! Why can’t you just stop for one day? Huh snow? Huh?” Mizuki shook her fist at the sky.

“Shake your fist at her,” Kit pointed to Nanashi. “It’s her fault.”

“Oh sure, and you make it rain and doom and gloom over there makes it windy. Oh and guess what? I can make it rain giant fireballs from the sky and cause monsoons in Damyu with my mind.” Mizuki sarcastically. “Yeah. Right.”

 Nanashi smiled, “Yeah, right.”

Mizuki shoved Nanashi playfully, “So is there gonna be a blizzard tonight, Snow Queen?”

Nanashi extended her arm and held out her palm. A tiny blizzard twisted in her hand, “If I wanted it, sure.”

Mizuki shook her head, “WHOA! Are you for real?! There’s no way...” She rubbed he temples and stared at Nanashi, “How the hell did you—wait, I know what this is. This is some sort of test isn’t it?” She looked at Nanashi in awe, “Are you some sort of goddess in disguise or something?”

Lot clasped both of his hands over Nanashi’s in a lightning quick motion, a look of desperation on his face.
“Shit! They were herding us into their trap!” Kit pulled a blade that had been concealed in his cloak. “Mizuki! Nanashi! Get out of here!”

As soon as Kit announced this, a swarm of white-clad soldiers emerged from behind every shrub and tree.

A crystalline scythe formed gracefully in Nanashi’s right hand. She grasped Mizuki’s hand with her left and charged off toward an opening in the ranks.

“Don’t let them get away!” Yelled a dark haired man. Half the soldiers took off after the girls and the remaining ones formed a menacing white circle around Lot and Kit.

Nanashi came to a halt, causing Mizuki to narrowly miss crashing into her side. Fluid, like liquid frost, the scythe lashed out without the slightest twitch of Nanashi’s arm. It twisted like a ribbon of glass that slipped easily behind the knees of their followers, severing the muscles needed to propel them forward. Half of the soldiers dropped in rag-doll poses, screaming in pain in the blood spattered snow.

Mizuki stared wide-eyed at the broken and bloodied soldiers. She shuddered. “You really must be some kind of goddess. I’ve never seen anything like that except when—“ She stopped suddenly. A thought slowly dawned on her. She hadn’t seen anything like that since the day White attacked Lykiska. Mizuki cast a wary glance at Nanashi. “Who, no what are you?”

Light caught in Nanashi’s haunting blue eyes and shattered into a thousand icy shards, “I’m the reason the world has gone to shit, if I may be so conceited as to say so. I’ll tell you everything later. Now, we run. Those soldiers are interested in capturing me, not the boys. They may retreat from Kit and Lot if they think they’re losing track of me…”

Their identities stripped, the white clothed soldiers were hardly distinguishable as individual people. Nanashi told herself that, in fact, they were only objects. “…or I could…” Without much of a warning, Nanashi broke off in a run back toward her fighting companions. Her weapon shifted in an effortless wave, destroying the lives of any being she passed, scoring large gashes into nearby trees. In time there were no sounds of battle. Snow flakes fell in gentle wisps across the glazed and bulging eyes of the dead and in their gaping mouths to melt on still-warm tongues.

Mizuki threaded her way through the carnage after Nanashi. One of the dying soldiers reached out for her, pleading with terrified eyes for her to save him. Fighting a scream she jumped out of reach and ran off. The soldier reminded her of half dead villagers that littered the streets of her home town that fateful day. By the time she got to where they’d left the boys the snow was stained with blood and bodies lay maimed and scattered everywhere.

Kit wore a grimace upon his face and held his left arm where a blade had nicked his flesh through his heavy sleeved shirt. Lot wore an empty expression, his eyes skimming over the area without letting it sink in. Out of the three standing in the clearing, Nanashi was the least affected by the violent arrangement of corpses. “Shall we go?” She asked this simply, as if no event out of the ordinary had occurred. She started off in the direction they would have traveled had they not been attacked first, stepping over bodies as if they were fallen trees.

“Hey, wait!” Mizuki called “You said you’d explain!” she quickly caught up with Nanashi. “What the hell is all this about? What do those soldiers want with you? And what’s up with you being little Miss Snow Queen? Where did you learn to fight like that? I demand explanations!”

Stopping, Nanashi looked around at the bodies with a ‘well, duh’ face, “I just assumed you would rather not be surrounded by death for longer than necessary… seeing as how your family died…”

“Oh.” Mizuki shuffled her feet around in the snow. “Uhm, thanks, I guess…”

Both girls were quiet as they continued walking, Lot and Kit followed behind them.

Prologue

          Knees were encased in snow, ankles captured in ice shackles of an unnatural make. Lines across barren white landscape, a garish parade of the hopeless trudging on to worse fates. White cloaked soldiers drove the prisoners forward with rough shoves and harsh words. The sky, the soldiers, and the snowy terrain morphed into a single entity controlled by one man who strolled along the line with a small girl at his side. He was tall, but next to the girl he was a giant and to the prisoners he was a terrible giant. Behind the girl trailed two small boys who might as well have broken away from the ragged line of poor spirited captives.

            Smiling with ice sickle warmth, the black haired man looked down upon the girl who was too young to know the horrid procession she accompanied. She smiled back up at him innocently. The next village, Lykiska, would probably yield more participants in the march. The little girl begged to go with her father this time, but the man refused her as he had the time before. She only wanted to know why so many people would want to go with the soldiers. He told her they only wanted to be safe. He told her lies.

            The boys, captive in their own way, were silent. They knew the truth. Even they could see it in the eyes that peered at them from the death march.