Many people long for a second chance on life, a chance to 
go back and relive their life, to better themselves. But what if 
a person was given this chance, only to be eternally haunted by 
the dark memories of the old life? Would they be able to repent 
themselves? Or go slowly insaneby their ever-knawing conscious? 

	Every where he looked, every time his mind wandered, he 
saw the small child. The little girl, laughing, and holding out a
small yellow flower. And every time, he watched as the fire 
consumed her whole, her anguish printed clearly across her face, 
but she never called out. Always silent, an angel of suffering. 
Always bringing back horrible night mares of that night, years 
ago...
	
 "Wake up!" Kitsune said sharply, hitting him in the head 
with her math book. Heero looked up, and glared angrily at her.
	"What do you want!" he growled, but then found himself 
looking up at the teacher. The teacher slapped the ruler down on 
the desk soundly.
	"Mr. Yuy, if you find you cannot show any interest in the 
class now, perhaps you could find interest in the class after school!"
the math teacher, Ms. Mugoi, snapped angrily. Heero just nodded,
and sat up. Kitsune began giggling after the teacher was out of
hearing distance.
	"Dude, I tried warning you! Maybe next time I'll let her 
hit you in the head!" Kitsune said, giggling again. Heero glared 
at her again.
	"Maybe you should shut up!" Heero spat. The bell rang, 
and the class hurried to get out of the school and begin enjoying 
the evening.
	Heero, not bothering to wait for Kitsune, went directly to
his locker. Though he had been attending the school for the past 
two years, he still had no friends. Not beyond Kitsune and Shibo.
And, rarely, if ever, did he enjoy their company. He preferred to
be alone, where he could sort out his thoughts, and untangle the 
tapestry of his past. To try and put it behind him. For, before
he had come to the school, and mingled with people, he had seen
the heavens and hells of the human race. The deepest kept secrets,
which was driving even him slowly insane.
	"Ding dong, the which is dead! All the little people.... 
all the little people.... all the little people jumped on her head? 
Hey, you know the rest of the words, Heero?" Shibo asked,
slamming the locker door shut for Heero. Heero glared at Shibo,
and stalked past him on the way to the computer lab. "Take that as a
no!" Shibo yelled at his retreating form.
	"Told ya. He is hella pissed." Kitsune said, bumping Shibo 
into a nearby locker. Shibo glared at her, but Kitsune merely
grinned at him, and started walking after Heero.
	"Yeah. I wonder why, he only had to put up with you all 
day." Shibo said, ramming her into the wall as they turned the
corner. Kitsune glared back at him, and contemplated revenge.
	"That's not true. I only see him during fourth. He has to 
put up with you during English!" Kisube pointed out, ducking as 
a football went whistling overhead. Shibo grinned, and waved his 
hands for the football to be tossed to him. No one noticed, but
Kitsune took her chance, and rammed him into a water fountain.
Shibo winced, but avoided showing his pain. Kisube began
laughing out loud, and several nearby people gave her odd glances,
but she was used to it.
	"That hurt! You idiot, I should kill you for that! Hey, get 
away from me!" Shibo yelled as Kitsune began another run to ram 
him into a nearby row of lockers. People began to back out of the
way of the two, like Moses parting the sea.
	"What, can't handle pain!" Kitsune smiled, triumphant. But,
as the two began walking onward to the computer lab, the people 
began to dissipate as school busses left, and cars drove away.
Soon, there were only a few scattered handfuls of people in the
hallway, waiting for parents to come and get them.
	"Dude, we'd better get to the computer lab. Heero's going to
wonder what happened to us." Shibo said, hefting his bag and
starting toward the computer room. Kitsune smothered another
giggle, and followed.
	"For some crazy reason, I don't think he really cares."
Kitsune said under her breath, and ran to catch up with Shibo.
	"So, you two finally decided to come." Heero said, not
looking up from the computer monitor.
	"What, were you going to come looking for us." Kitsune
said, sitting down at a chair, and, looking over Heero's shoulder,
watching the program code go scrolling down the screen. "Stop!"
She shouted, making both Heero and Shibo look back at her.
	"What's wrong, your brain fry!" Shibo cracked, trying to
kick her chair, but she was to far away.
	"Ah, screw you Shibo. Dude, look at that screw up, fifth
line down. You didn't adjust the VAR for the new figures. You're
reading off a direct character, not a VAR code." Kitsune pointed
out, and Heero looked back to the monitor, and with a few quick
strokes of the keyboard, he fixed the minute error.
	"That would explain why the arrow doesn't respond on level 
twelve, but not the armor on level 23." Heero said out loud to
himself. He had been surprised the first time Kitsune had pointed
out errors in his programming, with the screen flashing by so fast,
but it no longer phased him. Her eye was quicker than his mind.
	"Dude, you deleted the armor code to put in place a read key
function for the force field." Kitsune said, clicking PgDwn, and 
showing him, in the mangled forest of code, the exact line of the
force field. "See, no armor code. It won't read from the other levels
because there's no map connection."
	"She got you good!" Shibo began laughing at Heero, but was
silenced with a glare from Heero. "Spoil sport." he whispered under
his breath, and went back to his program.
	"Yeah, but you left out the VAR key entirely!" Kitsune said,
grinning over Shibo's shoulder. Shibo turned red, and took a swing
at Kitsune, but missed as she wheeled her chair out of range.
	"Cheater!" Shibo shouted, getting up and chasing her.
	"Get away from me! Get away!" Kitsune shouted, wheeling
toward Heero. Heero stood up, and put out his arm, blocking
Shibo from Kitsune.
	"Quit it." Heero said simply, not sitting down. Kitsune
began to giggle, and make faces at Shibo, but Shibo merely put his
nose in the air, and walked back to his computer terminal.
	"Thanks a bunch, Heero. You're my hero!" Kitsune said,
bursting out laughing. Heero merely glared at her, and sat back
down again. The smile fell from Kitsune's face.
	"People shouldn't run around in a computer room.
Something could break." Heero said, not looking away from his
monitor. Kitsune looked at him for a second, then turned back to
her computer.
	Within minutes, the three friends were absorbed in their
three computer projects, not watching the time on the clock go
spinning by. But the clock didn't freeze for them, and the red
light matched five, and the three still hadn't looked up. But the
lights were beginning to turn out automatically, and soon the three
were left in darkness. 
	"Dude! Where's the lights!" Kitsune shrieked when the
darkness fell. 
	"Um... maybe they flew away? Hey, it's already five!" Shibo
shouted in surprise. Heero, not seen in the dark, merely nodded his
head.
	"Well, my parents are going to freak! I told them I'd be
home by 5!" Kitsune said frantically, collecting scraps of paper and
disks into her bag-pack. Heero and Shibo began doing likewise,
though Shibo finally thought to turn the lights back on.
	"Hey, see you guys tomorrow. I gotta book, I need to be
home in five minutes!" Shibo shouted, and left the classroom.
	"Shibo, wait! Give me a ride!" Kitsune shouted at him, but
Shibo merely waved and kept running. She sighed, and slung the
pack over her shoulder, and started out the door.
	"I'll give you a ride." Heero said, walking up beside her.
Kitsune stared at him as if he had gone nuts, but shrugged her
shoulders.
	"Okay. But my parents are so going to kill me!" Kitsune
groaned, looking at her watch once more. It was five thirty. Heero
nodded, but said nothing, and Kitsune decided not to pry. "This
your car? Looks like it went through a mixer before it went
through the grinder!" Kitsune said, starting to laugh and the beat
up four wheeled thing. Heero glared at her, and she shut up.
	"Where is your house?" Heero asked, starting the car and
letting the engine warm up. Kitsune shivered as a blast of frigid air
came out of the heater vent. 
	"Um, the north street off of Maine. You know what I'm
talking about?" Kitsune asked, looking over at him. Heero just
nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Good, because I'm going to
be deep fried as it is. Dude, by tomorrow it's going to be snowing."
Kitsune said, looking out the car window, and readjusting the
black gloves on her hands. Heero merely nodded again, and turned
onto Maine. "Okay, take a left here. Yeah, that house right up
there, the bluish one."
	As Heero pulled up in front of the house, the car stalled and
died. Kitsune giggled, but stopped as she saw her father come
charging out the front door. The door slammed behind him, but
Heero didn't notice, he was trying to restart the engine, without
much luck.
	"Young lady! You had better have a good explanation for
being home so late on a school night!" Kitsubes father started
shouting. Kitsune got out of the car, and closed the door behind
her.
	"Thanks for the ride. See you tomorrow, kay!" Kitsune
winked at him, and looked back up at her father. "Dad, the time
just slipped away. I have homework, so move!" Kitsune shouted
back.
	"Yeah, but you have plenty of time to do it now! You're
grounded! No more computer lab and high jinks after school!
Come straight home, and not another word!" the father yelled, and
Kitsune let out a small whimper. And, as Heero looked up from
trying to get the car started, he saw the same note of anguish in her
eyes, the same expression, as the tiny little girl had carried
into her grave. Heero decided he couldn't face watching that again
without acting, without trying to stop it, without trying to fix what
he had done.
	"Sir, it's my fault. I asked her to stay late to help with my
program. Otherwise I would never had gotten it fixed." Heero said,
stepping out of the car and trying to smile, but the smile failed
miserably. The father glared at him, then back at Kitsune.
	"So maybe you should think more responsibly next time,
young man! Kitsune, inside, now!" the father shouted. Kitsune
shook her head no, but Heero saw a tear trickle out of the corner.
	"Sir, please. It was all my fault. I am sorry, I even drove
her home afterwards." Heero said, pleading as well as him stone
voice could.
	"Yeah, Dad. I was just helping a friend. From the way
you're reacting, you'd think the world was ending!" Kitsune
shouted, slightly boosted by Heero's help.
	"No more out of you! You're grounded!" the father shouted
at her. Kitsune burst into tears, and ran crying into the house,
leaving Heero and the father glaring at each other. Heero, seeing
no sense of staying any longer, turned around and got back into his
car. The father turned around as well, and headed back into the
house.
	As Heero drove to his home, he wondered silently why he
had tried defending Kitsune. He knew that all people must face
their own battles, but that look in her eyes. The way her twinkling
lights had dulled and gone out, haunted him. Like little ghosts,
telling him that he had done wrong, he had only made the situation
worse.
	As he pulled the car up to his own dark, deserted house, he
watched as the automatic timer turned lights on and off at will.
But no shadows of people ever marred the scene. His parents had
gone traveling for the winter, and he wouldn't see them again for
another month, maybe more. But he was getting used to it. They
traveled so much, left him alone for so long, that having them
home was the odd thing, not having them gone. He looked down
at his hands, which had gone numb from the biting cold, and
looked back up at the empty house. He sighed silently, and got out
of the car, walking up the stairs. There was no mail to grab, his
parents rarely mailed him postcards anymore. They had stopped
caring, as had he. 
	As Heero opened the door, he saw something move out of
the corner of his eye.
	"Hello?" Heero asked the lighted hallway. Nothing
answered. Heero just sighed, and locked the door behind him.
When he walked into the kitchen, turning on the light, he saw
something move again, rushing out the other door. 
	"Who is there." Heero said into the lit living room. The
lights went out, but he turned them back on. 
	And there, curled up in a hovering little ball on the sofa,
was a white puppy. Heero looked at the puppy for a second, and
walked over to it. It jumped at him, but it was so small that it
merely bounced off his chest, landing on the floor with a thump.		
	"You should be outside." Heero said, picking the runt up by
 
the scruff of the neck and walking toward the front door. He set the
 
puppy on the welcome mat, and pushed it away from the house.
The puppy looked up at him sorrowfully, and whimpering to be let
back in. 
	"Go home. You don't belong here." Heero said, pushing the
 
dog further away with his foot. But, after a few minutes, Heero
 
realized that the dog didn't have anywhere else to go. He looked
at the eyes, the sad and begging eyes, and felt memories washing
over him once more. Heero shook his head, and picked up the
small bundle, carrying it back inside.
	The dog, once inside, began to whimper again, dashing
back and forth from the kitchen to Heero, always with the same
pleading look in its eyes. At first, Heero just brushed the dog
away, trying to do his math homework, but after a while, he
realized that the puppy must be hungry. He reluctantly got up, and
walked to the kitchen.
	"There is nothing here for you to eat." Heero said to the dog,
looking down. The dog looked up, and walked slowly out of the
kitchen. Heero closed the cupboard, and walked back into the
living room. 
	The clock struck nine. Heero looked up, but not really in
surprise, and looked down at the dog. It had fallen asleep at his
foot, and Heero did not really want to move it. But he was tired,
and he did not really care about the puppy, so with a slight jerk of
his foot, the puppy was rolled off his foot, and soundly onto the
floor. The puppy looked up indignantly, but made no move to
retaliate.
	"You stay here. Or go home. I must sleep." Heero said, and
without further ado, he left the room. The tiny dog merely followed
him into his room, and snuggled on top of the covers of Heero's
bed. Heero brushed him off harshly while putting on his pajamas,
and once more while trying to climb into bed.
	"No, you aren't to come into my room. Sleep on the coach."
Heero said, picking up the puppy, and putting him in the hallway.
The puppy merely looked up at him, and curled up where it was.
Heero made no move to stop him. 
	Slowly the seconds ticked on, and sleep began to descend
upon Heero, bringing to him once more the dreams of a long
distant past, and night mares of a too painful memory....
 
	The little girl, wearing an overlarge yellow sunbonnet, held
the slightly wilted yellow flower out to Heero. And with a laugh,
Heero accepted the bloom from the small child. Her dog, Yurusu,
pulled on the leash, signaling that it was time for the rest of the
walk to begin, they had been in the same place to long. Heero
thanked her, and gestured for her to continue on, that her dog was
waiting.
	But, as she continued on, she turned around and shouted at
Heero.
	"Why is it you are here? Not many people like this place, it
is too dark for them!" 
	"Because I wish to bring back the light to this place. And to
show people that the light has come, so that they might come!"
Heero shouted back, without knowing why.
	"You are an important person, then! My hope goes with
you!" the little girl yelled back to Heero, and continued on her
walk. Heero smiled and waved at her, continuing on his way,
looking back to make sure no one was watching. 
	That night, as the people slept, he pressed the small trigger,
and watched as the military base was engulfed in a ball of flame.
But nothing went as it was supposed to. The building around it
were not supposed to be harmed, but the flame was large, seeming
to take a life of its own. 
	And, as Heero watched in horror, people ran from the
building, screaming in fear and pain. In vain, he looked around,
searching for the little girl. But she was no where to be seen. She
had not come out of any of the buildings, she was still in one of
them, slowly burning. But Heero heard a small cry, like that of a
faint dove, calling from one of the burning apartments.
	Without thinking of what he was doing, Heero rushed into
the building to save her. But he was foolish, and had not thought
of what it was like in the burning inferno. Pieces of ceiling,
dripping flame, came crashing in on him, trying to make him part
of the ruin. But Heero continued on, calling out in the smoke,
calling out for the small little girl.
	A dog, the small puppy, let out a brief howl, signaling to
Heero to where they were. Heero, crashing through the remnants of
a door, crashed into the burning room. But, as he opened his eyes,
he saw that it was too late, the inferno was already there. A piece
of ceiling crashed down in front of Heero, preventing him from
coming any closer to her.
	"Nozomi!" Heero screamed, but the little girl just looked at
him.	The fire was spreading out from her like a pair of angels
wings. But no angelic blessing was emanating from these, for only
death came from the burning plight of the fire. The little girl made
no move to try to save herself. She merely stood there, her eyes
opened wide in anguish, tears running down her face. 
	As Heero stood there in horror, the small puppy whimpering
at his side, the little began to speak. But no words came, for they
were eaten alive by the fire, but Heero heard them echo through out
his mind, with the smoky voice of the flames.
	"You are impor...." with that dying gasp, the flames roared
up around her, cutting off her life before she could finish her word.
	"Nozmoi!" Heero cried in anguish, but it was too late, she
was already dead. He looked down at the tiny white puppy, and
watched as it struggled to breathe in the clouds of smoke that
was billowing around them. "No, I should have been in that fire,
not her! Why did she have to die!" Heero started crying, pounding
his fist on the ground.....
 
	Heero sat up with a start, tasting the salt of his tears in his
mouth. At first he just sat up in his bed, drenched in memories and
sweat. Then he noticed an odd lump next to him, moving. He
picked it up, and saw that the puppy had climbed back up onto his
bed. He glared at it, then noticed a strip of fabric tied around his
neck. He hadn't remembered it from before, and in the pale moon
light, he bent and looked at it. There was, in nasty scrawling, a
word written. And, as Heero sounded it out, more tears began to
well up inside his chest.
	"Yurusu......." Heero looked at the small white puppy, and at
its name tag, the same name the little smoke choked puppy had had
so long ago. He started to cry once more. It was too much for him,
the pain was too fresh for him to handle. All he could do was sit
there, curled up in a ball on the bed, and begin to cry. But, as he
began to cry harder, he heard a voice at the foot of his bed.
	And there, standing at the foot of his bed, outlined in the
faint moonlight, was the little girl, dressed in her pale yellow sun
dress. She giggled, and held out a wilted yellow flower.
	"You are silly!" the little girl said, her voice like the faint
breath of summer.
	"But you...! You're dead! I watched you die, I killed you."
Heero said sullenly, wondering if he was dead.
	"Silly! You didn't kill me! Here, have a flower!" the little
girl handed Heero the small yellow flower. Heero took it in his
hands, and looked at it with sorrow.
	"No, you don't exist." Heero said, holding the flower in a
stony grip.
	"Don't worry, I forgive you!" the little girl said with a cock
of her head and a giggle, and faded into the night.
	"Nozomi!" Heero screamed, but it was too late. She had left,
leaving Heero alone in the room with only his dreams for comfort.

	"Beep..... Beep..... Beep.... Beep..." the alarm clock stopped
its annoying buzz as Heero hit the switch. He looked around him,
shivering in the cold of the morning, wondering for a second why
he was lying curled up on his bed without the covers. But in a
seconds blink, the entire dream, and events of the night before,
came back to him. He shook his head, sure that it was just a
nightmare. But clutched in his hand was the wilted yellow flower,
its petals beginning to turn brown. 
	"Oh god. No, please, let this all be a dream..." Heero
moaned out loud to himself, closing his eyes. But when he opened
them, the flower was still there. Resting gently in the palm of his
hand, as light as an angels feather, but there none the less.
	"No... no!" Heero cried, but it was of no avail, the flower
existed, nothing he could do could stop that. The alarm clock went
off again, he only had ten minutes to get to school. He looked at
the flower once more, and got out of bed.
	"None of this happened... She's dead. Gone. She doesn't
exist any longer!" Heero shouted at himself, pounding his fist into
the kitchen counter and throwing a mug of coffee at the wall,
watching the steaming drink slowly run downwards. But it solved
nothing, and only led to him being more angry. But it was then
Heero remembered the puppy, and noticed that he hadn't seen it
all morning. But he had no time to look for the small dog, school
would be starting soon, and being late always attracted unneeded
attention to himself.
	Heero's car was slow in warming up, but Heero didn't care.
The cold no longer bothered him. He had become too used to the
chilling feeling that had inhabited his heart as long as he could
remember. As he pulled into the school parking lot, the heater still
hadn't turned on, and his fingers had a slight blue tint to them, but
Heero did not notice, or care. To him, his life was not worthy of
caring about.
	"Yo! Heero! Que pasa mi amigo!" Shibo shouted at his
friend across the hallway, but Heero did not deem to reply. "Fine,
be that way!"
	"Shut up, you're going to be late!" Kitsune yelled at both of
them, rushing by and ducking into a nearby classroom. Shibo
ignored Kitsune's advice, and stopped at the drinking fountain.
And, as Heero was sitting down in the classroom, and the bell was
ringing, he saw Shibo go running by the door, late once more.
	"Stupid idiot." Heero said under his breath, but in the silent
class, the words echoed up to the teacher.
	"So, Mr. Yuy, you wish to add something to this
conversation?" the teacher, Mr. Rekishi, asked gruffly. Heero
made no immediate move to reply. "Since you seem to be at a loss
for words, how about you allow me to do the talking!"
	"Hn" Heero said, lowering his head to look at the book once
more.
	Half an hour later, while the class was busy looking up the
history of one dead person or another, one of the girls started
shrieking.
	"It's snowing! It's snowing!" the girl shouted, making Heero
look up and glare at her. But the entire class was blocking his
vision, in a hurry to watch the fluffy white flakes float down.
	"Class! Class, get back to your seats!" Mr. Rekishi yelled,
with no avail. Once starting the uproar, there was no stopping it.
Soon, Mr. Rekishi gave up even pretending to get the class's 
attention, and let himself be mystified by the snow.
	"Attention school. Due to the sudden snow storm, class's
will be canceled for the rest of the day. You are now free to go
home. Thank you, and be safe." the staticy intercom voice was
suddenly overwhelmed by the cheers of an unruly high school, all
students competing to get out first. Heero sitting at his desk,
making sure he had all his homework, when someone tapped him
on the shoulder. He looked behind him, and Kitsune was smiling
meekly.
	"I wanted to thank you for..... thank you for sticking up for
me yesterday. I guess I should also apologize for my father. He's
usually a jack ass, but you got to see him at his best." Kitsune said,
trying to wipe a grin off her face, but to no real avail.
	"Hn." Heero said, standing up.
	"Most people usually run in fear, so thanks for not acting
like a wimp." Kitsune said, giggling with the thought of Heero
acting like a wimp. It was not something that she could imagine
he could even do. "Dude, aren't you going to say anything!?"
	"No." Heero said simply, walking out the door and down the
hallway. There was no one else to be seem, except for a few
teachers.
 When they reached the door outside, Kitsune groaned, looking
out at the white wonderland, and the slushy street. The busses
were nowhere in sight, having already left with their loads. Heero
didn't even bother to glance at her as she stopped, he merely
continued on toward his car.
	"Heero!" Kitsune called, running up behind him and tugging
on his bag. Heero turned around suddenly, glaring angrily at her.
Kitsune smiled apologetically.
	"Could I get a ride home? Please!" she pleaded, shivering as
a draft of snow was blown by suddenly. Heero didn't even flinch.
	"Hn." Heero replied. Kitsune took that for a yes, and began
to follow him.
	"Slow down!" Kitsune complained, tugging on his bag once
more. But this time, maybe because of the cold, maybe because of
something else, Heero's bag slipped to the ground with a clatter.
"Sorry about that. Didn't mean to!" she giggled, smiling
apologetically.
	A snow ball went whizzing by, but Heero paid no attention
to it, more absorbed in making sure his bag was okay. A second
snow ball, another spare thrown from a nearby snow fight,
slammed into Heero's head. Heero didn't bother to brush away the
ice, watching instead the snow ball break apart as it hit the ground,
exposing the ice and rock mixture. 
	But as Heero looked down, he saw a tiny yellow flower
imbedded within the ice, silently reminding him of the little girl
once more. He reached down slowly, picking it up, and watching
it shake with his hand.
	"Dude, that was some bean, you all right?" Kitsune asked,
shaking Heero. "Dude, your head is bleeding!" she said, watching
some red drops fall to the ground, blooming outward like a
crimson flower in a bed of crystal. But Heero didn't seem to hear
her, or even notice that she was there. "Heero, you all right?"
	Heero looked up slowly, still holding the yellow flower. He
looked down as he heard a small scuffling of the puppy next to
him. The same white puppy, ash staining its coat, but no dirt
appeared where the tiny dog whined in the snow.
	"Heero! What are you staring at! There is nothing there!
Heero! Heero!" Kitsune shouted, shaking Heero. But as Heero
looked up at her, directly in her eyes, Kitsune could see nothing in
them. Nothing but cold, lifeless, empty pools of cobalt blue. But
then Heero's expression turned to that of pure terror. It was then
Kitsune shuddered, backing away from Heero slowly. 
	Heero looked on with fright as he saw the little girl appear
again, the flames surrounding her once more. And once more,
Heero found there was nothing he could do. The smoke was
clouding around him, trying to kill him, but letting him watch in
terror as she was burned alive.
	"You..... were......" she mouthed, letting the flames speak for
her.
	"Nozomi! It was my fault! None of that should have
happened.......! It was all my fault!" Heero cried, dropping to the
snowy ground, tears running down his face. But the little girl
didn't go away, she just stood there, unable to escape the flames.
Suffering in eternal agony and anguish. And Heero could do
nothing but sit there, weeping."Heero? Heero!" Kitsune said as she
watched Heero collapse to the ground, sobbing in misery. But no
matter what she did, he wouldn't wake up. "You asses!" she called
to the other students in the midst of the snow ball fight, "Call
911!!" she creamed, making them look up suddenly. One of them
grabbed their bag pack, and pulled out a cell phone. 
	"Nozomi...." Heero cried once more, reaching out at
nothingness with a clenched fist.
	Ten minutes later, when the ambulance arrived and placed
the nearly unconscious Heero onto a stretcher, Kitsune stopped
them. The med. looked down at her, wondering what was
wrong.
	"Can I help you?" the med. asked Kitsune, wondering why
she was staring at him oddly.
	"Please, what's wrong with him?" Kitsune asked, watching
as tears rolled down Heero's face.
	"Depends. What happened?" the med. asked back. Kitsune
shook her head, and looked over at the snow where Heero had
fallen.
	"A snow ball just hit him in the head. And he started
calling out Nozomi. Please, is there anything I can do!" Kitsune
said pleadingly, looking back at her friend as they strapped him
down.
	"Hey, Fred! Come here! Kid's got a death grip on
something!" the other med. called out. The med. Kitsune was
talking to, Fred, rushed over to help pry open Heero's left hand.
	Inside, they found a dog collar inscribed Yurusu, and a
faded yellow flower. The med. handed them to Kitsune, looking at
them curiously.
	"Just keep a hold of these for your friend here. Don't think
he'd want to lose them. Come on, Cal, let's pack!" Fred shouted,
and the driver started up the engine as Fred closed the doors,
leaving Kitsune to watch the ambulance speed away.
	Inside the ambulance, Heero was unaware of his
surroundings, conscious of only the suffering little girl, and the
flame spreading around her.....

	Maybe one start in life is all we get, all we should get. To
have more, to be able to remember the same horrible mistakes for
two life times, is too much. It could drive even the strongest
person slowly, and painfully, insane.