Stormraven: More on Cho later. Well, I guess this whole story is stretching it! Lol! We've seen twinges of past memories peeking out ever since Kaoru was held by Shishio. But I'm probably being a bit far-fetched, but it somehow works out in my wistful mind. :) I'm kind of wishing I had a better way other than killing off past Kaoru, but I just didn't want to do that. Thanks again!

oro kenshin: I'm sorry to deprive you of sleep, but I'm very happy you're enjoying my story! Thank you so much for letting me know! I'll try and keep the updates as regular as I can.

Sessha Tetsuko: Hurt Kenshin really is brave, I agree. He pushes past pain as if it were an afterthought. Poor thing! I'm happy to finally bring our lovebirds a little relief!

Queen Emily the Diligent: I bet you got it! ;)

Chichanz: YES, HOPE! Finally! I would have lost my mind a long time ago if I were Kenshin or Kaoru, or Saito for that matter… I hope this chapter lives up to what ya'll are expecting! Thanks again!

Guest: Thank you very much! That was part of it… there's also something in the way Kenshin was acting and saying… or not saying. Lol!

Pinay Tiger: I'm so glad you're enjoying it! I have to admit, when I started this I didn't think it would be quite this long. Honestly, I thought people would get very tired of it, so hopefully you continue to enjoy. Thanks so much!

skenshingumi: I'm so happy you still love the story! YEs, A LOT of twists and turns! I figured, with time travel, that's really the only way. I just hope things are still making sense. There's still more explaining to do with why you felt Kaoru was blended from the beginning. :) Thanks again!

Averlyn: Welcome! I'm very happy to hear you like my story! And yes, not much of anything is what it seems. It's almost giving me a headache!

Author's Notes: Sorry for the longer absence. Life got in the way of my story telling. :( BUT I HAVEN'T GIVEN UP! I'M STILL HERE! We're doing things a little different in this chapter. In fact, quite a bit different as you will see. PLEASE ENJOY!

CHAPTER 40

"KENSHIN!"

My name…

Kaoru…

Ignoring every ache in his bones, Kenshin leapt up and immediately felt as if his head had filled with water. Swaying, he grasped the table beside him. The deep brown wood teetered precariously before his fingers slipped, and he stumbled and fell back against something warm and soft. His eyes were sickly hot, and as he peeled them open they burned the color of molten lava. He lay there for a small moment and blinked up at the white-tiled ceiling until his glowing eyes adjusted to the bright light. His fingers curled into the blanket beneath him, and with some irritation he realized he was lying on a bed.

My sword, he thought, grasping at his side. Enishi must have taken my sword.

Growling, he tried again, sitting up slowly and taking in several deep breaths. It was like being in an opium den, where everything and everyone was walking either in a white-clouded dream or a heart-pumping nightmare. Kenshin had killed in an opium den once, and by the time he'd left, the haze was enough that he stopped in the middle of the dark streets, contemplating momentarily if he'd done the job at all, even though his blade still dripped with his target's blood.

"Dammit," he hissed, staring down at his hands and blinking rapidly. He stared at them, willing his heart to slow. Thirty long fingers slowly became twenty.

Kaoru's fingers were soaked in blood.

Twenty fingers merged into ten.

The sound of slow footfalls filtered into his muddled consciousness and his heavy head snapped up.

A feminine form sauntered his way, dark hair framing a delicate face, and a light halo of white hovering all around her.

"Kaoru?" He coughed once and pressed his fingers into his knees, trying to steady his breathing, and shifted through his thoughts which had become like broken puzzle pieces in his mind.

Maybe this was all a dream. He was waking up in their bed and she was going to lean over and press her lips to his eyelid. The scent of light jasmine would blossom in his nose. Maybe she wasn't in trouble after all. He supposed she could have been angry at him... but those were two very different tones. When he or any one of their friends were in danger, Kaoru had the ability to call out his name like a siren, wakening something primal and instinctive inside of him that instantly lit like a fire doused with petroleum, and suddenly he could devour anything with his blade or bare hands to get to her.

He squinted again, and still she walked closer. With each step the knot inside the pit of his stomach loosened, and finally he could breathe again. Maybe she was going to wallop him over the head. Had he beaten her in Mario Kart the night before? Was that why she sounded so upset? She'd probably rough him up a little with her hurt ego, but that was okay. In fact, as he found himself instinctively reaching out to her, it was the one fight he'd always welcome.

She came closer, and the tight knot in his stomach slowly unfurled as each precious step brought her mercifully closer. Breathing again, he closed his eyes and sighed, waiting for the touch of her warm lips.

It never came. She stopped. Why did she stop?

His brows pulled down. Through the fog in his head he searched for her ki and only faintly felt her; a dim shadow of triumph and excitement amidst an avalanche of heartbreak.

Instantly, the knot in his stomach tightened as if being pulled on by a pair of strong hands. She was in pain.

And she was not in front of him.

A comforting and sweet scent filtered through in his subconscious… white plum.

Not jasmine.

His eyes snapped open to find two gentle eyes, black as opals, staring inquisitively down at him. He shot up with a growl, his palm smacking the small nightstand at his side as the room spun around him. It teetered precariously to the side before crashing over, bringing him down to the hard floor with it.

Clutching the side of his head, he pushed himself up again with a frustrated growl, and Tomoe took a hasty step back.

He flinched, watching her. After all that had happened, something deep down still hated the idea of frightening this gentle woman he once loved. There was a time when her presence would have brought him to his knees. A lingering memory of her hair brushing his chest, her careful mouth pressed to his.

But that was a long time ago. Another life…

He blinked again, and the world came into slow focus. Tomoe looked brittle as glass as she stood in front of him, her thin fingers shaking, gripping roughly into the cloth of her loose purple dress. Yet, there was a determination in her deep black eyes that he'd only seen once before… when she left to go save him, and he rewarded that bravery by killing her.

"Where is Kaoru?" he asked, blinking rapidly to hurry to clearing fog, and cursing quietly when it took its sweet time.

Instead of answering, Tomoe held her hands out in surrender before raising a finger to her pink lips, quieting him. He shook his head, trying to clear it, but everything in him clenched and coiled, wanting to spring through the wall if he had no other choice. Last he saw, Kaoru was safe. He had separated to save both her and Yahiko. He had gone after Kaoru… And that brave girl managed to save her own damn self again, running right past him to get to her son. At that moment, he could have been a ghost, she was so focused on Yahiko… and that made him love her even more.

Then he remembered…

Falling… slamming his sword into the ceiling to get back to them… pink smoke leaking beneath the door… nothing.

Glancing up, he squinted at the ceiling. Sure enough, faint lines made out the area where the floor dropped out from beneath him. He landed here, and from the ringing in his left ear, he assumed he also hit that side of my head. Gingerly touching the tender skin there, he pulled away to find mingling strands of red hair among pieces of dried and cracked blood on his fingertips.

Where is everyone? Has Enishi hurt them? Has he done worse?

He still felt the darkness crawling up his legs, leaving his limbs feeling numb and lifeless, drugging his brain like a poison. He blinked, and his eyes burned as brilliantly as they were colored.

"Do you know where your brother is, Tomoe?" He asked, taking a careful step forward, and soothing his face into gentleness to keep her calm, even as his chest tightened precariously with fury. "Are you hurt?"

Tomoe was a beautiful woman, but at that moment, heartbreak and horror painted purple bruises beneath her black eyes, aging her to a point he found her almost hard to recognize. Cautiously, she stepped forward, running her hands up and down her sides. Even in the last couple days she'd lost enough weight that her dress hung like a child playing dress-up in her mother's clothes. "I-I'm unhurt, but I-I don't know where Enishi is. I'm sure Kaoru is alive."

Alive. He shut his eyes and took in a deep breath. If it was the death of him, he would find Kaoru and his friends and get them safely out of this place. It was his fault they were in this mess to begin with.

Him, Tomoe, and Enishi… It all started there, so so long ago…

Tomoe clutched her fingers together and looked away. "I'm very glad you're okay, Shinta."

His eyes snapped to hers, unfocused and confused.

Shinta…

"But I'm-" He shook his head, attempting once again to find a little clarity. As it did every time they separated, all of the past memories were so vividly clear, Shinta was certain he would mistake them for his own reality for the rest of his life, and Kenshin in return. "Shinta," he finished softly, glancing down at his modern dark clothes.

That explains my missing katana.

Shinta took a deep breath, fanning his tangled and sweaty bangs lightly across the tip of his nose. It had always made sense to him that his hair was so vividly red. All the killing and the blood… so much blood. As if it had permanently stained him.

The memories of his current life were still in primary focus, of course, just a little less blindingly remorseful. Kaoru was right to be concerned. Having Battousai's memories was a pain of mind that kept Shinta awake at night, as it often did Kenshin, a pain that cut deeper than any metal blade, and only seemed to ever be muted by Kaoru's undeserved acceptance of him. Her heart had been completely open to him since day one, and he still didn't know how he'd managed to acquire something so precious.

Frustration bubbled in Shinta's chest, not having her here, and not seeing with his own eyes that she was okay. Tomoe's value had not been abandoned in this life, but it had been more muted than in the past. Having her here now was soothing in her own way, but it wasn't enough anymore.

"Are you hurt?" She asked, voice small.

"I'm fine. That I am."

Tomoe gave him a small nod and glanced quickly away.

Kaoru's voice, clear as a bell, rang through his memories from the day after they met: "If I have to tie you to the chair, I'm cleaning that cut on your cheek, Kenshin! Now sit!"

Shinta was suddenly reminded of Megumi's words to Kaoru, after he had told his friends about his brief marriage. "You are no substitute for Tomoe," she had said, not knowing he was listening. Megumi couldn't seem to help herself, jaded as she was by her past, and wishing for more than Kenshin's heart could ever give her. Those words were meant to hurt her, his Kaoru. Instead of being angry, he found shock in his heart to discover Megumi was right; Kaoru was nothing like Tomoe… and Tomoe was nothing like Kaoru. They both lived hard lives, and while Tomoe's pretty smile was rare as an eclipse even on her happiest days, Kaoru's inherent joy shined through even as she giggled delightedly in her sleep. Tomoe soothed as lotion soothed rough skin. Causing the death of a soul so gentle as hers was a sin in its cruelest form. Ten years later, and with her breathing right in front of him, he still felt the need to repent, to drop to his knees at her feet and beg for forgiveness.

For several years, and through both lifetimes, redemption was all he knew. And then a soul so enchantingly brave and selfless charged into his life and changed everything, not gently or slowly, but like a raging bull.

Kaoru soothed his conscience, settled his troubled mind, as the waves smoothed over even the roughest of stones. This infuriating, frustrating, beautiful woman loved him more than this one had any right to be loved.

The two of them could no better substitute for one another than salt could substitute for sugar and vice versa. Each left a very different taste on his tongue, distinct and precious and beautiful in their own rights, but never the same.

Megumi was right, but not in the way she thought.

Tomoe was accidentally his once, but Kaoru was forever. Everything.

And he had to find her.

Shinta lifted his head, grateful the simple action was becoming easier every moment. For a moment he had been unaware of how deeply he had drifted into those memories until he met Tomoe's eyes, black as obsidian stones.

"What did your brother do, Tomoe?"

That glint immediately appeared in her eyes again, though her expression remained completely neutral. "Enishi… he… he had Gein make a… a thing that looked exactly like you. I don't know how he pulled it off, but we saw you die."

"Everyone thinks I'm dead?" Kaoru thinks I'm dead?

A nod, very small, and very much like Tomoe. She looked like a fragile thing about to fold in on herself with the slightest persuasion.

"Why would Enishi pretend to kill me?" Why wouldn't he just do it?

Shinta didn't wait for a response, nor did he expect one. He closed his eyes tightly to block out the world. Often, he was thought of as being rude by not contributing to conversation but many times he required just a moment to simply think without other's ideas jumping in front of and entangling with his own. He'd seen too many battles, known the twisted minds of many men that others just hadn't experienced.

But Enishi… intensely unstable Enishi… He used a decoy, a replica, so everyone would think I was dead. He was smart and resourceful, and unhindered by even the remotest sense of empathy towards anyone other than himself. The things he must have done to…

Shinta's head snapped up.

A replica…

Sudden and intense relief burst into his chest with such force that the breath punched out of his chest in a disbelieving chuckle. The hints had been building up; Little clues here and there that Kaoru had memories from the past, whether she was entirely aware of them or not. Shinta's laughter ended in a sudden grimace, remembering how the sight of Kaoru with a sword protruding from her chest instantly made him collapse in on himself. He hadn't examined the body. Why would he? The blade had pierced her heart. Her eyes were unmoving, lifeless as a deep dark void. Instantly, he had become a shell of himself, able to move and breathe, but without Kaoru, his destructive, worthless life didn't make sense anymore. He knew he deserved it, after everything he had done, redemption would ask him to pay a heavy price. The one person he wanted to protect more than anything in this world was gone. And she didn't deserve that!

But it wasn't even his Kaoru! She was alive! And by repeating his wicked antics, Enishi just gave himself away!

Shinta's eyes opened slowly. Tomoe was staring at him with a lightly concerned crease in her brow. Damn! He was going to give himself away. A little dumbfounded with happiness, Shinta concealed his unbidden bout of emotions by schooling his features into a look he hoped conveyed intense determination. It wasn't difficult. He still didn't know Kaoru's whereabouts, or that of his friends. But at that moment, had his limbs been cut off, the elation he felt would make him stand, and he did, pushing completely through the fog.

But Tomoe, though inherently good, had lost so much, and her expressions gave away so little. Shinta knew he had to be smart, cautious.

"I know it doesn't replace the hole in your heart for Akira and your brother, but you will be okay, Tomoe. That you most definitely will. We are your family now. Kaoru would never have it any other way."

Another nod, same as the first. Shinta took in a deep breath and searched the room with narrowed eyes. "Is this glass or solid wall?"

Tomoe sat down on the bed softly and lowered her eyes to the floor. "I'm not sure we would be able to tell either way. I already tried breaking it," she said somberly, as she pointed to her discarded high-heeled shoes in the corner of the room. One heel hung by a single thread, making Shinta chuckle humorlessly under his breath.

"Okay." Shinta blew his bangs from his face. "As you taught me, if there's a way in, there's a way out."

Tomoe lifted her eyes. "Did I teach you that?"

He forced himself to smile, although the feelings churning in his belly made him want to rampage the room like a wild animal. "Remember when I first joined the team, the madman who locked Mister Suji and I in the basement?"

A very slight frown on her lips. "You went without permission. Perhaps it was deserved."

"Hmm," he conceded, sighing at the memory. It was stupid really, but it was a mistake that cost him and others dearly. Suji had been looking for a childhood friend, and, despite Saito saying he was too close to the case, he was insistent. Shinta sympathized with Suji and decided to help. When they stumbled upon a lead to a farmhouse on the outskirts of Tokyo, they discovered the bodies of half a dozen mangled corpses in the cellar. All the suspect had to do was hide until they were down there, and then, conveniently bolt shut the heavy metal door behind them. They had been held in the dank, nightmarish room for three days with the half dozen rotting corpses of the man's victims as company, until Shinta found a tiny hole in the old, sandy concrete and worked at it with a dull utility knife until his fingers were bleeding and numb. It was one of the few times he'd been grateful for his smaller physique. Once he was able to push through, dislocating his elbow and scratches riding up his sides like claw marks, he was able to detain the suspect with little more than a kick to the windpipe. Suji had found his friend, left rotting and smelling of feces and death in the corner of the room. He took early retirement, and Shinta was laid into by Saito hard before being sent to Tomoe to receive therapy for two months. He'd seen many nightmarish things, both in the past and present, but to this day being locked in small spaces haunted him. As Battousai, he could walk away from the sights and smells and the cold feeling of the company called death. Not there.

"It was deserved," he conceded, a cold shiver whipping up his spine. "That it was. I hope I have grown to be a little less impulsive since then."

"You have not," Tomoe answered simply, though not unkindly.

Shinta smiled, knowing better than to contradict her words. He was about to begin a thorough search of the room when a hidden door slid open in the corner, veiled with exact precision in the striped wallpaper. The Juppongatana member he fought at Misao and Aoshi's reception stepped inside, smiling as if he were a welcomed guest.

"Why hello there, miss Yukishiro."

Shinta 's eyes cornered over just as Tomoe flinched at being called Miss. "Careful, Cho," he warned in a low voice, making the taller man grin widely.

Cho glanced over at Shinta and one eye flickered open and closed in several quick successions. Shinta's eyes slid down to Cho's side, where his long fingers gingerly stroked the hilt of his upper sword. He kept his gaze locked there, and his body ready to spring like a shield in front of Tomoe until he was sure the broomhead wasn't going to use them. Instead, Cho grunted out a chuckle, "Apologies, ma'am," before bending from the waist, making a spectacle of bowing until his broomlike hair brushed across the floor. Then he stood straight, still smiling. "I'm going to have to escort your roomie to another part of the mansion if you don't mind."

Tomoe stiffened. "Do not hurt him," she warned, so fiercely that Shinta's eyes snapped to hers in surprise.

Cho simply chuckled. "I've no mind to hurt your… what are you, anyway? Ex-husband? Friendly co-worker?" He paused to wink. "Lover, maybe?"

Shinta growled beneath his breath. "Let's go." He met Tomoe's eyes once more before following Cho from the room. "I'll be alright. That I will."

Tomoe nodded, and Shinta strolled purposefully from the room, his belly bubbling with anxiety. The door shut with a light click, after which, Shinta could hear several clinking sounds.

So, the locks are mechanical. Is there one person behind a singular control system working everything in this place?

"Where is she, Cho?" He asked after a moment of following him in contemplative silence.

Another chuckle. "It seems to me Mister Enishi enjoys messin' with ya, torturin' ya, and otherwise making your life as fundamentally miserable as possible until you and lil' miss Kamiya ultimately separate. When giving you the choice didn't work, he used force. And I'll give him credit for that creepy human doll too. That thing'll make even my best nightmares seem like childsplay. Master Shishio has his reasons for wantin' ya both together. I'll let him tell ya why."

Eyes narrowed, Shinta glanced over at the patterns on the wall, a purposeful deception of stripes and colors to trick the eye. Another ruse, just like everything else. "If Kaoru is with Kenshin, then I'm assuming Shishio wants me jealous. That he does."

Cho's left eye cornered down to him slyly. "And why would he want that?" he asked with mischief.

Shinta kept walking, his eyes firmly ahead. He didn't answer because he didn't know, nor did he want to give Cho the satisfaction of a response.

Beside him, Cho let out a small chuckle and slowed his strides. "Well, here we are."

Beside the door sat a heavy balloon of a man. As they approached his wide smile spread more and more until Shinta thought it might split his face in two.

"Evenin' Iwanbo," Cho greeted, giving the giant man a big grin. "Everything ready?"

The man, Iwanbo, made a sound of compliance but otherwise didn't speak a word. Shinta's narrowed his eyes at him. Sitting, Iwanbo was eyelevel with the much smaller man. His puffy-cheeked face turned eerily slowly until he was staring back at Shinta, so cheek-splitting joyous that it made a chill run across Shinta's forearms. By the look in Iwanbo's squinted eyes, Shinta knew he was violent and unpredictable, and very clearly challenged.

Why would they put you in charge here?

Shinta glanced down to Iwanbo's thick hands splayed out on the hardwood floor. If he looked closely enough, he could just make out thin, sharp blades on the tips of each thick finger.

Cho opened the door, motioning Shinta through. He stepped carefully by the large man on the floor and walked through to find a room almost the exact replica of the one he woke up in. The only difference was the company.

"Sano!"

Sanosuke went from lying down on the bed to bolting up in the span of half a heartbeat, his wild hair sticking straight up in the air as if pointing to the clouds. "Kenshin!" He gave Shinta a pained smile before doubling over with his hand to his stomach.

Shinta hurried over, gently placing his hand on Sanosuke's shoulder, but his friend waved him off despite the fact that a fine sweat broke on his forehead. "It's nothing."

Cho sighed with loud exaggeration and turned out the room to rebuke Iwanbo. "You didn't take the Roosterhead out of the room first, you big egghead! Come on!"

From outside, Iwanbo's dull laughter drifted into the room.

Sanosuke met Shinta's eyes, and the silent communication was clear, "What the hell is going on?"

The restlessness was achingly clear in Sanosuke's eyes, so Shinta took his arm to help him stand. "Are you sure you're alright, Sano?" He asked, looking closely at the wound in Sanosuke's side. As tall as his friend was, Shinta didn't have to bend down very far. Gingerly, he lifted Sano's shirt to inspect the bandage. It needed to be changed. Blood soaked through the cloth, but there was no evidence of infection as far as he could tell. Shinta knew Sano would be upset to have missed the action, but he was grateful since it permitted him to heal well.

Sanosuke puffed out a humorless chuckle. "Alright as I can be, being stuck in this dump. Although, I have to admit, given different circumstances this place would be kinda cool." He glanced outside the door where the markings on the wallpaper made it nearly impossible to see it was open at all. "Like a freakin maze, isn't it?"

Shinta would have agreed, had his eye not cut to the deep purple bruises across his friend's right knuckles. He frowned and glanced over at the wall again, letting the edge of Sanosuke's shirt fall from his fingers. The damage was clear; dozens of deep indentions littered the walls, painted with tiny specks of blood like spattered paint. Shinta would have condemned Sano for not taking it easy had he not known he would have done the exact same thing. "I see you haven't been resting at all. That you most certainly have not."

Aware of his friend's unease, Sanosuke gave Shinta a pat on the head, a slight look of manly concern in his eyes. "Like I said, I'm okay. How's Kaoru? Megumi was sent to patch her up. Pretty badass if you ask me."

Shinta's vision went red at the idea of Kaoru needing patching up, but Sano was right; Kaoru was badass. "Past Kenshin is with Kaoru."

Sanosuke's head whipped to him. "Past Kenshin?" He asked, astounded. "Wait… are you tellin' me you're Shinta?"

A sharp nod, although it felt as if Shinta were nodding at a distant memory of a man. Still him; A man who had lived a hard life, and yet, nothing compared to the life lived long ago that tormented his very core.

Shinta knew his friend was on the verge on flying into one of his mini tantrums when he couldn't understand something. "Whaduya mean, you're Shinta?" Sanosuke's hands balled into fists at his sides, his eyes narrowing in a look that portrayed a mixture of frustration, anger and relief. "Megumi said they all saw you die."

"A ruse." Shinta grimaced as Cho walked back into the room. "That it was."

"Come on, Roosterhead. Time to go."

Sanosuke growled. "Hey, shut up, Broomhead! Can't you see I'm trying to get reacquainted with my undead friend?"

Cho laughed. "Another time. Let's go."

When Sanosuke huffed and turned his frustrated gaze back to his friend, Shinta gave him an encouraging smile. It always seemed to help when any of his friends were in distress. "Go. I will fix this, Sano. That I will." It was a promise, and when Sanosuke met Shinta's firm gaze, he knew it was true.

"Yea, Kenshin. I know. And you best keep your scrawny ass safe while doing it too." Sanosuke spun around and held his hand in the air as he followed Cho out the door. "Later."

"Are your feet made of lead or something? You're slower than my eighty-seven year old granny," Cho teased.

Sanosuke grimaced at him. "I'll show you slow when I lift you up, flip you over, and sweep the floor with your dumb head."

Shinta watched, feeling a little tug at the corner of his lips as the doorway slid seamlessly into place. "Hiko was right," he said, glancing around the room, "That name is growing on me."

Ever since he'd first heard Kaoru call him by the name Hiko had given him, Shinta had been that man. It was what she'd first called him when she smiled the smile that made the whole world tilt toward the sun and said, "Welcome home, Kenshin."

Not a minute passed before Shinta's eyes flicked back to the door. He sensed someone approaching even though the wall stayed closed. Blood and ash filled his senses, and he knew who was coming in even before the door began to open.

"Battousai," Shishio greeted, smiling a black, toothy grin.

Instantly, Shinta growled. He caught himself just before his knees bent to the floor in a fighting stance.

No, not yet.

"Where is she, Makoto Shishio?"

The cloth above his left eye raised as if to cock a missing brow. "You certainly have a one-track mind after losing that snip of a woman the first time, Battousai." He strolled casually into the room. Just before the door closed, Shinta saw a tiny rat-like man peeking inside, eyes slanted as he grinned joyfully. And then they were alone. Shishio stood beside him, smelling oddly of burnt metal. One shoulder was draped in a purple kimono that hung down to his ankles unevenly, as if he'd thrown it on in a hurry to get there.

Shinta clenched his fists at his sides and let each individual knuckle slowly extend. "I made a promise to you once, Shishio. Although, you may not be aware of that now."

"And what promise is that?"

"You've spent a decade slowly amassing power. But your reward will be death. That it will."

Shishio laughed once. "Ah, yes. Sounds like something idiotic you would say. Do I call you Battousai now? Or do you prefer little Shinta?"

Shinta felt his patience slipping little by little with each passing moment. Still, his lips curled as he stared hard at his withered enemy. "That depends. Do I call you Makoto Shishio or the human equivalent of charcoal?"

"Very funny."

"Mr. Marshmallow."

"I seem to recall the rumors of you being exceedingly serious, Battousai. As refreshing as it is, this isn't a game."

Shinta turned slowly, his lips curling into half a sneer. "Isn't it? Are we not in a funhouse, Makoto Shishio?"

Shishio's blackened lips curled. "Very well then. I have a proposition for you." He held out a black remote, and his bandaged thumb pressed a single white button in the middle. "But first, I'd like to calm your mind."

Shishio inclined his head, and Shinta followed his gaze to the wall on the opposite side of the room. For a moment, nothing happened, and then it glimmered with light before the colors began to fade and seep away, revealing a complete wall of glass. It was another room. A bigger room, though decorated in the exact same dull patterns and colors as all the rest. There was a table with a bowl of water atop of it. The water was pink, as if it had been tainted with blood. For a brief moment, Shinta couldn't breathe. And then he heard it, a sound that had endeared itself into his memory long ago.

A sigh. Her sigh.

His eyes swept over to the bed. The blankets moved slowly and rhythmically, and his heart stopped again.

"As you can see for yourself, Battousai," Shishio paused and bent down until his hot breath touched the scar on Shinta's cheek, "your woman is fine."