A/N: HI GUYS!

How many years has it been now? All I know is more has changed than what I can communicated in but a single A/N, but I'll certainly do my best!

So to start with, this story along with my other works sorta died after a series of unfortunate events; my laptop brick-ing on me, as well as starting college. I periodically provided updates but some of them didn't blow over too well, and ended with my deleting them. But now I've returned to re-tell the tale a little bit better.

I can't guarantee the most consistent updates, but with me successful in my irl career, it's safe to say things should come back one way or another. My big ambition is to close the works I left unfinished, as well as start several fics that have been lying on my profile for a while now. While I can't say how much of my original readership remains, I can just hope that everyone who this work has ever impacted is living their best life.

"Alright, alright, if there's any more sap, I'm gonna need a bucket..."

Ah, Nijo, I was wondering if anyone was waiting for me…

"You kiddin?! Since you made your great escape we've all been scrambling to keep your ass on this site! I want overtime!"

I know that "all" means Sanpei doing a bunch of the hard work, you finding a new way to be even more crude and Ichinose has a new place to nap.

"..."

…

"...I missed you, man."

Missed you too, brotha. Now we've got a story to get to.

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The air: 30 degrees Fahrenheit and falling.

The snow: falling across the park. Draping itself like winter's blanket around the curves and plumes of the surrounding greenery.

Rokujima: the sixth Kazu sibling, and currently face down in this winter wonderland. It was but the ringing of his cell phone that rose him from his comatose state. The vibration and chipper song by TENDOUJI blared from his pocket. Rokujima slowly rose up; dusting the snow from his once prim and proper outfit, and his orangish-brown locks from his face, he slid his thumb across the LED screen to answer a familiar number.

"Hello?" Rokujima watched his breath disappear into the night in front of him.

"Yeah, can ya hear me?" Nijo's voice broke over the silence.

"Loud and clear..." Rokujima assured as continued to preen himself for any stray flakes.

"What the hell happened?!"Nijo boomed before the sound of the phone being snatched from his hand scuffled over the speaker.

"Rokujima, it's Sanpei, you're on speaker with us in the kitchen, Ichinose is here, too." Sanpei's cool, crisp tone reported.

"Hiii!" a drowsy Ichinose piped up.

"Oh nice sitrep jacka-" Nijo's brilliant one-liner was cut short by the swift hand of justice. A hand that bore a striking resemblance to Sanpei's. No one needed to acknowledge Rokujima's sigh to know that it was happening.

"Tell us what happened," Sanpei spoke up again, "one minute your location has you at the front gate and now you're all the way by the North Moat?!"

"Is that where I am?" an equally puzzled Rokujima retorted. True, he hadn't taken any time to gauge his surrounding, much less the time. As he drew the phone away from his face, he examined the digital clock.

10:15 P.M.

Rokujima's dark brown eyes scanned his immediate horizon. At arms length he was inside some kind of forest no doubt, but upon remembering Sanpei's words, the gears started turning.

'Forest…' Rokujima thought to himself, '...the Memory Forest by the moat!' Sure enough, with a few brisk steps, Rokujima broke the cover of foliage and was greeted with more pale white light from the light posts. Gazing behind him, he could see the perfectly carved path of the forest that led back some couple hundred meters to the cement pathway of the Aoya-mon Gate. Making an about face to the west, he could see the Kyobashi-guchi Entrance peeking from the veil the snow created.

"Rokujima?" Sanpei called from across the phone line.

"Smack me with a stick and call me a pinata..." Rokujima muttered to himself.

"Rokujima, are you still there?"

"CQ, CQ, Breaker, Breaker, 4-1-9" Nijo interjected, his hand cupped over his mouth like one does when imitating a radio.

"Where'd you learn that one?" Ichinose practically slurred.

"Beats me, man." Nijo purred, "I just hear Seishirou say that stuff all the time."

"Y'know, you don't have to do...that if you're talking on the phone," Rokujima could practically hear Sanpei gesturing at Nijo, "you're already plenty muffled seeing as the average phone call transmits at about 8-64 kilobytes per second."

"Hey, so, Dad told me like, none of you guys got laid in high school and I gotta tell you, before you came to me with this job, I actually wondered why." Rokujima had placed his phone on a nearby bench and had begun to remove his jacket and vest, leaving him in just his taught white dress shirt, trousers, and dress shoes.

"Roku-" Sanpei began to raise his voice but Rokujima saved him the time.

"Long story short," he firmly began as he tied his locks back into a pony, "the late crowd rushed me and I got swept up along with the kids."

"You mean Raku and Seishirou?!" Sanpei exclaimed, accompanied by the murmurs of Nijo and Ichinose.

Rokujima heaved a small sigh. He gazed back south at the park one time, almost convincing himself to make the dash back. "Look, from what you've told me, they're smart kids, right?" Rokujima returned his attention to his goal, the Neyagawa River, running parallel to the park on its north side. "I told them they had to be inside the gates before 10:30, they've got time!" Rokujima began picking up a brisk pace, the clop of his dress shoes battering the concrete creating percussive taps that rang through that corner of the night. "Me? I don't!"

"Well, what do you want us to do?!" Nijo crackled, clearly fighting for a position on the phone.

"You have phones, don't you?!" an exasperated Rokujima heaved as he continued to build speed. "Just call them!"

"We tried." an innocent Ichinose responded. "Voicemail."

"You're kidding..." Rokujima droned, growing more and more fed up.

"Ok, there's 20 minutes and counting, right? If you run from where you are now-"

"Oh noooOOoo, tunnel." Rokujima cut Sanpei short and began to furiously tap the red hang up button.

"ROKU-" began the chorus of angry siblings before the line dropped and Rokujima slipped his phone into his pocket. He cast one last glance at the Neyagawa. He could hear the slosh of its cold water and feel it breath with the crystals that continued to fall.

One long inhale through his nose, and one to match it from his mouth before Rokujima sprung with all of his might right off the embankment, and into flawless swan dive form, straight into the river. His goal was simple, just make it to the other bank. In fact, the only trouble he found himself with came when he glanced for a split second at his pants pocket and found himself wondering, 'Wait, this model was the waterproof one, right?'

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[TIME: 10:17 P.M.]

Hasty heels struck urgent chords as they clapped one right after the other down the concrete.

But Seishirou found herself taking a brief pause when she felt the very edges of her already flushed earlobes twitch in the bite of the winter wind. Because it seemed that behind the fangs, echoing somewhere deep inside there, was one seriously big splash.

"Seishirou, what are you doing?!" Manami's boots skidded to a halt on the path.

Since their fateful meeting, the duo had found their way out of what was revealed to Seishirou to be a part of the Fragrant Forest, had hung a left and were currently dashing between vendors and park patrons peppering the street in order to scrape into the nearest gate, the Tamatsukuri-guchi Entrance before time ran out.

Jarring herself from her trance, Seishirou shook her head, her locks dusting the corners of her face. "S-Sorry about that!" She called as she adjusted her navy blue coat and picked up the pace once more, "Thought I heard something!"

This fetched a chuckle from Manami, who despite looking quite like a savior to Seishirou, was hardly prophetic in the amount she spoke. In fact, apart from their brief conversation in the woods where Manami offered her lively version of directions, the two had scarcely spoke. They found themselves slowing their hustle when they noticed the crowd stagnating. The causeway was scribbled end-to-end with bright pink and blue sidewalk chalk by kids scurrying around in the masks of their favorite mascots.

While young avengers kept the streets safe, the adults found themselves indulging in the many flavors of the night. Under matching blue and pink paper lanterns the crowds ran like water between takoyaki booths, sake tasting tents, paper net fishing, jewelry tents, and every carnival game that springs from one's imagination. Games that Seishirou and Manami found themselves with time to marvel at themselves, as they took their place in line to be herded in before the display began. Seishirou's eyes glazed the menagerie. All it took was one glimmer of the fish dancing in the long tank and the sound of nets swishing to remind Seishirou of Raku's marked talent with that particular game.

'I just got done having my own life saved…' Seishirou thought, her eyes barely blinking as the queue pushed forward a single step, 'and he's really all I can think about? I know I might have said l-' Seishirou felt her head jerk. Seems the word even found ways to choke Seishirou from beyond. '...said what I said...but still, there has to be some room to think of myself right?' Seishirou offered a small, nearly silent sigh to the wind which whisked it away graciously and almost immediately. 'C'mon Seishirou...Seishirou Tsugumi' Seishirou could feel her chest lift the slightest bit as she inflated herself from the comfort of her own thoughts, never mind what she must have looked to the rest of the people in line.

But it was Manami's voice that broke the silence in Seishirou's noggin. She raised an arm of that designer gray coat and indicated to an orange booth with a small line forming and the words 'FIND THE LADY, BIG WIN' scribbled in obnoxious kanji across the top. "What's that one?"

Seishirou angled her head to take in the spectacle.

The booth's resident M/C and Trick Master was a rather average looking man in a pink and orange shirt accompanied by a festive hat that featured what appeared to be a kazoo pinned into the brim of it (for that extra "something"). He had a square smile and black hair that looked like it'd seen better days.

Seishirou felt a twinge in her neck as she began to respond, but caught herself.

'Wait a minute, these being the first words she's said to me since we met…' Seishirou mulled in her head, '...would this be our first conversation?!Ohhhhh no, I'm not ready for girl's talk, still! Miss Onodera said we start that next month!' Seishirou grabbed a quick inhale. 'Breathe, come on, you do it every day…' Adjusting her posture Seishirou found her way to formulating a response.

"It's just another card game, it's called Three Card Monte." Seishirou delivered in perfect English.

Manami turned, her wide blue eyes meeting Seishirou's with genuine fascination. "Th-Three, what?"

Seishirou felt her slight unease about speaking in English melt away. She cast a gesture at the man who was currently showing off with one of those over-the-top card shuffles. "See his trick is when he shuffles it," Seishirou pointed out, "the goal is to find the odd card out of two alike cards. But when he stretches the card out when he shuffles..." the cardsharp drew to a close and shelled three cards out in front of an unwitting young couple.

"The game is simple folks!" the man cooed. "Find the odd card, double what you bet!"

Seishirou couldn't help but heave as she watched the man in the couple stumble over the clearly marked odd card. Well, it would be clear to a trained professional who had spent two years in Israel doing recon for one of Claude's clients. Another shudder riddled Seishirou's body. "He marks the edges of the odd card out, so that when he's shuffling, he can suggest the person away from the real deal, and bag a profit."

Manami looked on in awe as Seishirou nervously watched the advancing line as closely as the time on her phone. "Where did you learn all that anyways?"

Seishirou bit her lip as she struggled to hide her (ahem) experience. "I was a magician's assistant for a while!" A lie, but with some truth. Seishirou was briefly a magician's assistant at a resort on Christmas Island...during a coup...that she instigated.

Manami didn't press, so it was fair to say she bought it. "Wow, so have you done modeling and stuff like that, too?"

Seishirou felt a familiar heat began to curl and trace her face from coast-to-coast. Now, no matter what embarrassment she had overcome to this point, no matter what butterflies she was keeping on a leash, Seishirou came to the conclusion it would be a cold day in Hell before she talked to a random stranger about the one dream she had with Raku and the camera.

Stifling her blush as best she could, Seishirou squeaked out, "No way! I'm hardly pretty enough for anything like that!"

Again, another chuckle earned from Manami who parted those nude matte lips into a smile. "Girls who are pretty are always the first people to tell you they aren't!" Manami confidently declared to Seishirou, being met with the blankest of stares. It was her turn to wear a blush as she compensated, "Well, at least that's what my Mom used to tell me!"

"Oh," Seishirou began as she raised her hand to settle Manami, "you didn't say anything wrong. It's just-.." Seishirou chanced a glance left and right, almost like she was checking for traffic, "y-you can tell I'm a girl?"

"Well, yeah!" a thoroughly amused Manami replied. "I mean how does anyone miss-" Manami caught herself, pursed lips and all, before she finished that sentence, confusing Seishirou even further. Manami's eyes scrambled. "-miss those eyes!"

'Some people have shown me eyes don't mean shit…' Seishirou thought to herself as the image of Claude flashed through her mind.

"Th-Thank you!" Seishirou cautiously accepted. The girls advanced slightly further as the line brought them closer and closer. Silence hung between the two, save for the chatter of those around them, until Seishirou continued, "So...you come here often?"

'Oh, SMOOOOOOTH MOVE, CASANOVA.' Seishirou taunted herself.

"You're cute!" Manami burst out with a laugh, "But uh, no, not nearly enough." She flashed a mostly white smile. "My dad's in business, he does security for hotels and stuff so we travel sooooo much."

Seishirou felt the warmth of relateabilty take her over. Eyes still glued to the back of the line, she chose to carry on. "You travel a lot, huh?"

"Oh yeah," Manami began to recount as the line moved forward further and further, "Paris, Dubai...I was born in London but raised in Japan until I was sixteen and then we really started going everywhere." She pulled out her phone and slid several notifications out of the way. Her wallpaper was some sort of daisy-patterned edit of an anime character Seishirou didn't recognize.

"Sounds sort of like what happened with my family." Seishirou found herself clutching on the word 'family'.

Manami offered another smile. She pocketed her phone and responded, "I'm thinking about it, and this is maybe the third time I've been home in the past two years, it's outta control."

"Two years?!" Seishirou exclaimed. "We're barely away from home for two weeks..."

"We?" Manami playfully purred, eager on teasing her new friend. "Was that the guy you were talking looking for earlier?"

And there it was. The question to make Seishirou squirm. But she was adamant about keeping it under control this time. She stiffened her lower lip and jaw and raised her posture to disguise her blush as part of the light.

"Y-Yes." Seishirou managed to squeak out.

"What's the story there, anyways? Are you two...doing the-"

Seishirou frantically waved her hands in an attempt to stop Manami while she was ahead. "That's enough! Besides, his girlfriend is my best friend, and I don't swing that way in the first place."

There was a moment that Manami stared at Seishirou with raft attention. Their eyes met for spare moment; Seishirou swore she saw them shine. "Hm?" Seishirou inquired as she nodded her head.

"Nothing!" Manami responded, raising her hand and waving it in an act to dismiss the conversation.

As the line pressed forward, Seishirou furrowed her brow as she found herself wondering, 'She realizes I mean that I don't swing with cheating...right?'

The furrowed forward and Seishirou found herself tugged once more with the gravity of the crowd.

A scratchy voice began to boom over the PA.

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[TIME: 10:25 P.M.]

"Attention! For everyone here for the Osaka Bourealis show, the castle gates are closing in five minutes. There's still time, so we hope to see you there!"

"Ahhhhh..." Raku groaned as the volume and static finally drowned from the condensed speakers.

The purple prince was certainly worse for the wear. His sweatjacket was currently dotted and charted with footprints of all shapes and sizes. The enthusiastic crowd had swept Raku just a little less east than Seishirou, landing him around the park's bandshell. His firm fingers massaged his temples as he took a moment to examine his surroundings.

The snow created thin lines and cushions over the blue and white plastic bleachers, Raku currently occupied a seat in the second row, just in from the aisle. What seats weren't currently taken by people and couples sharing seats and passersby snapping the occasional shot, that is. The bandshell, trimmed with a brick and rolling tan facade sat dormant in the wintery night. The hardwood floors that accompanied symphonies and soloists over the many years echoed with the whistles of the wind in the night.

"Uh, pardon me."

Raku shook himself from his trance to notice the man who had approached him in the meantime. He was a simply-dressed, older man. Not old enough to be his grandfather, but old enough to have a nice halo of gray in his hair. He wore glasses and a forest green overcoat with loose-fitting jeans and sneakers. "S-Sorry man, did you want this seat?"

The man gestured for Raku to keep his composure and a smile stretched from his lips. "Easy, son. Just looking for directions!"

"Ah," Raku responded, a chuckle beginning to emerge, "I gotta say sorry, again. I'm just as lost as you are right now."

The man cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Really? Don't kids have GPS these days?"

Raku nodded his head. "Phone's dead." He angled his finger to indicate his pocket. "And plus, doesn't everyone technically have GPS now, with phones and everything?"

"True. I mean it's what I'm using right now."

"HUH?!" Raku nearly fell off his chair as the old man flashed his phone alight with Google Maps directions. "THEN WHY DID YOU NEED TO ASK ME FOR DIRECTIONS?!"

He offered a hearty laugh in return. "Well, even old people tend to hide things I suppose. For instance," he raised his head to flash another smile at Raku while a small group of tourists fluttered by, "I didn't want to say that I was worried about the boy with only a sweater to keep him warm. And you..."

Raku wiggled his eyebrows and scrunched his face a little. "What do you mean 'me'?"

"I mean that there's probably a reason you're sat here and not rushing to the fireworks like my sons used to." He pocketed his phone.

A giggle emerged from Raku. "Who are you, old man?"

"JiJi." The man replied promptly, completely oblivious to Raku's dig.

This serviced an even larger giggle from Raku. "An old man named JiJi..."

The humor was lost on JiJi however who only offered "That's me!" in a genuinely friendly tone. "I'm in from Berlin right now. What about you, live around here?"

"Nah, I'm in on a flight with...a friend." Raku pensively responded. "Won some street lottery and ended up here we're staying at the Grasmere, you heard of it?"

"WHAT?!" an astonished JiJi exclaimed. "I tried booking there last year and the waiting list was still eight months long..."

As much as Raku would have loved to have entertained banter, he realized that very same friend needed him now more than ever. "Say, JiJi," Raku began, "you wouldn't happen to have the time right now, would you?"

JiJi flashed a look at his phone. "10:27, kid!"

Raku felt his adam's apple begin a slow tumble down the chute of his throat, following close after his heart. Flashbacks of middle school track and his terrifying 14 minute mile time sparked and steamed the imaginary pistons in his legs to full force.

Three minutes to close the gap between him and the sanctuary of the inner gates.

"Say, JiJi," Raku began calmly binding his power and doing some quick stretches, "did your kids ever run this fast?"

Before JiJi could ask, Raku deftly vaulted his seat and those in the row in front of him. He felt his presence so swift and cunning that he sliced even the snowflakes around him as he soared for that brief moment. Cloth rattled fluttered as his shoes touched down

...along with the left side of Raku's face. Raku, who had failed to account for the thin layer of ice that glazed the concrete, was sent not only lateral but backwards and into the stone facade of the bandshell. There was a CRACK, and Raku swore he saw stars for the few seconds he clung to consciousness. But as a few people began to congregate around the boy wonder, Raku was graced with one sound that made it all a little better: JiJi utterly cracking up in his seat.

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A/N: So, bit of a brief chapter, but simple is best, right?!

I anticipate chapter length to pick up again as these stories gather some of their old steam and I continue to post more additions!

In the meantime, it's a wonderful feeling to be back, and I look forward to hearing from all of you with any suggestions or review. Hope each one of you has a great day/week/month/year of your life, and I'll see you before long. ;)