Epilogue: Book of Joy

Three days later...

Mion sat in Rika's hospital room with Keiichi close to her. Hanyuu sat on the hospital bed, making sure Rika was eating properly.

The past couple of days had been rough. Both Keiichi and Rika had been brought into ICU due to being both shot in the lung. They had to perform surgery, and both needed blood transfusions, especially Keiichi. His body still hadn't recovered properly from the blood loss, and Keiichi had aggravated his body from fighting with Takano and being shot.

But now he was better, and he was sitting in the chair next to Mion, holding her hand tightly. Mion was still bashful, in a way. She never believed she would be able to hold hands with Keiichi like this, but here they were. He'd taken her hand like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Maybe Rena was right. Maybe they did belong together. It just felt... right... being next to him.

Mion looked at Keiichi and a feeling of sadness overcame her. He'd gone through so much, just to protect her. He'd risked his life so many times, and he'd paid dearly for it.

She vowed right then to stick by his side always, and make sure he lived a stress-free life. He honestly deserved it.

"Hey," Keiichi said, feeling her uneasy gaze. He squeezed her hand. "You okay?"

She smiled. "Yeah, just thinking."

"Can you lovebirds just get a room already?" Rika said, her true persona showing through. She smiled at her friends. "I swear the love is so thick in this room I could cut it with my spoon." She waved her plastic spoon in the air for emphasis.

Hanyuu whined as soup flew from the spoon. "Rika! You're getting soup everywhere! Auauau~"

"Am I now?" Rika said, an evil glint in her eye. She dipped her spoon back in the soup, and flung the food at her friend, who quickly hid behind the bed frame.

"Why are you so evil?" Hanyuu cried. "You seem so sweet most of the time!"

"Looks can be deceiving." Rika said with a wink. "You know this better than most people."

"Auauau~" she whined, as everyone else laughed.

Rika winced in pain.

Keiichi cringed. "Take it easy, Rika. That's a serious injury right there. Trust me. It's no fun, and I'm still recovering from it! Besides," He looked over at Mion. "It's not like this old man over here is going to be letting me do anything on my own anytime soon."

"Damn right." Mion said, looking pointedly. "If you even think about doing anything stupid, you're gonna regret it. I'll make the past couple of days look like a walk in the park!"

Keiichi gulped. "I swear, sometimes you're scarier than Takano."

His girlfriend grinned. "I think I'll take that as a compliment."

"It wasn't."

Mion acted like she was going to hit Keiichi, but decided against it. "I swear, why do I even put up with you?"

"Because you loooove me." Keiichi winked at her teasingly.

Mion blushed hard and looked away, suddenly self conscious. "I- well- I- uh..."

He pulled her close, and kissed her head. "I'm sorry, Mion. I couldn't help it." He said, patting her on the head affectionately.

She blushed, and looked at him sheepishly. "At least warn me next time you do that." She said, trying to sound angry.

"I promise." He held her, and Mion allowed herself to relax. His embrace was warm, as it always was. But there was an added sweetness to the mix, as she felt a touch of romance in his embrace. She relished in the fact that he would reserve this type of thing only for her, and the fact that he actually loved her. Not for her looks, but for who she was. He loved the tomboyish side of her, but he loved the girly side of her that she tried to keep hidden from the world.

Well, looks also had a role to play in his attraction to her. It wasn't completely out of the picture.

They suddenly heard singing.

"Keiichi-san and Mion sitting in a tree.. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Keiichi in the-"

Mion couldn't hold it in anymore. Her face heated up and she turned on the source of the singing. "Satoko! Can't you just give it a rest?"

Satoko stood in the doorway with her brother. "Ohohohohoho... But I have to tease Keiichi-san as much as I can! It's my job, isn't it? Look, he's blushing already!" She laughed hard.

Mion turned and looked to see that her boyfriend actually was stiff, and as red as a ripe tomato.

"Well, how about we make a deal, Satoko?" Mion said. "You leave the teasing to me, and you just stick with getting him with your traps. Deal?"

Satoko made a show of thinking hard, then smiled. "You got a deal!"

"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better..." Keiichi grumbled.

Satoshi scratched the back of his neck and laughed nervously. "Sorry, Keiichi. Satoko has an evil streak that even I can't seem to manage."

"I don't think anybody could manage that thing." Keiichi said as his friend walked forward and shook his hand.

"By the way, where's Shion?" Mion asked. "I'm surprised she's not with you."

"Eh, she said she had to work today." Satoshi said, sitting himself down in one of the chairs nearby. "She's taking as many open shifts as she can. She said keeping busy will help her get over last week."

"Yeah, she's always been like that." Mion said. "If she ever got restless, you usually found her working on something, be it housework, or yard work, or cooking. Even going to the range with Dad when he visited helped her out. Just doing something helps her out a lot."

"Well, I'll have to keep that in mind." Satoshi said.

"Yeah, you better." Mion said. "Because if she resorts to doing school work or book work, you're in deep trouble. She hates that stuff."

Everyone laughed.

"How are you doing, Rika?" Satoshi asked the blue-haired girl. "You seem a little better than yesterday when I visited."

"Yeah, I'm getting better." Rika said. "The doctor said it would take me a while to recover from the shot, and I lost a lot of blood, but I'll be out of this bed soon! Niipah~" She smiled widely.

"Hauuuuu~" Rena had just walked in the door and heard Rika's little outburst. "So cute! When you get better, I'm taking you home with me!"

"Not this time, Rena!" Keiichi cried. "Calm down, and stop your hauu-ing!" He struggled to get Rena to calm down, but it was no use. She turned her sights on Satoko instead and swiftly grabbed her and began running down the hall with her.

"I'm going home with her!" Rena called out with glee. Satoshi was right behind her, screaming, "Wait, Rena, slow down! Kidnapping is illegal! Wait up!"

Hanyuu peeked out from her hiding place. "Is it safe to come out now?"

Everyone laughed again, and Keiichi shrugged. "Hey, at least I tried."

Something seemed different, Rika noticed. It seemed as if their little rag-tag group of friends had suddenly grown closer together. If they had been close before, now they were easily inseparable. Their friendship had been solidified by repeated horror and tragedies and trials. But, despite all the odds stacked against them, they came out on top.

Satoshi and Satoko came into the room, both of them were out of breath.

"I... I got her..." Satoshi said breathlessly

"I think we lost her... " Satoko wheezed. "That was too close..."

They walked slowly in the room and collapsed in the closest chair. After a while, a somewhat calmer Rena joined them. They visited for the longest time, and the air in the hospital room felt jovial.

"So what are you guys going to be doing later on today?" Satoshi asked once he gained his breath again.

"My dad and I were going to go grocery shopping later on today," Rena said. "Then I'm going to go treasure hunting again!" She got a far-away dreamy look in her eyes. "So much treasure..."

"And we lost her." Keiichi said. "Off she goes to La-La land."

Satoshi leaned back. "Satoko was going to show me around the village a bit. She said a little bit has changed since I disappeared, and I'm a little interested in finding out what's new."

"Oh, you should check out the rose garden by the river!" Mion said instantly. "It's so beautiful."

"I'll check that out." Satoshi grinned. "So what will you two be doing?"

Keiichi smiled. "Well, I figured I'd take Mion to town and we'd go on a proper date, like we should've done a long time ago."

"What do you mean, 'should've done?'" Mion asked. "Didn't we technically have a date last week, before all the craziness?"

"Well, yeah," Keiichi admitted. "There was that, but we treated it more like a friendly outing than a date. We were way too shy for no reason. Now that the secret's out, I say we go all out, like a couple should!"

"That's the spirit, man!" Satoshi gave Keiichi a thumbs up, which Keiichi quickly returned.

"Well," Mion said. "We have to at least go by the Angel Mort. No date is complete without something sweet, right?" She quickly winked at Keiichi, who smiled and turned slightly pink at the daring expression. Nobody else had seen it. He guessed Mion had a secret talent for hidden flirting.

"Sounds good!" He said. She smiled, and leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around her once more, and they continued talking to their friends that way.

Everyone else simply smiled, and thought the exact same thing.

It was about damn time these two realized how they felt about each other.

"Come on, Keiichi, you're too slow!" Mion said as she dragged Keiichi into a clothing shop. She was gripping his hand a little too tightly, and Keiichi winced.

"Mion, not so hard...!"

"You're a wimp, Keiichi! Come on, what happened to the strong man who protected me last week?" She teased.

"He's currently begging you not to break his hand into five pieces." Keiichi retorted flatly.

"I swear, Keiichi, you're so hard to understand." Mion sighed.

She guided him through the many isles of clothing articles, occasionally stopping every few feet or so to search through a rack and throw an outfit at him. This went on for a while before Mion finally said, "Okay, I think I'm all set." She looked around, but couldn't see her boyfriend anywhere. "Keiichi, where are you?"

"I'm right here." His voice came from nearby.

"Where?" Mion turned in a circle, gazing wildly around her. "Can you give me a hint?"

"I'm literally right in front of you, Mion." The stack of clothing in front of her suddenly moved to the side, and she could see him grinning.

"Oh, there you are." She said, relieved that she hadn't lost him in the store.

"I think this tells you that you have enough outfits to try on," He said. "If you can't find me under a mountain of clothing, then I think it might be time to stop."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Keiichi." Mion said. "Come on, the rooms are this way."

She led him to the back of the store, where the many changing rooms were. She talked to one of the ladies in charge and she gave Mion a key to Room #3. Keiichi followed Mion, until they reached the room in question.

"Just set the clothes over there," Mion said after opening the door. Keiichi replied, and with a grunt he set the mountain of clothes down as instructed.

"Alright, mister, now out! I need to change." She said, shoving Keiichi out of the room. Before closing the door, she gave Keiichi a wicked look. "And don't be having any strange thoughts, you hear me? I'll know..."

"Hey, I'm leaving that job up to you." Keiichi said, winking.

Mion suddenly flushed red and became flustered. "Sh-shut up." She said as she slammed the door shut.

Keiichi laughed. Mion sure was a piece of work. He settle down on a nearby bench to wait.

But, despite his best efforts, he couldn't stay awake while he waited for Mion to finish trying out her outfits. Slowly, steadily, his head fell forward and he drifted off to sleep.

…

"Keiichi, wake up. Don't tell me I tired you out already?"

Keiichi woke up to see Mion kneeling in front of him, a slightly worried expression on her face.

Keiichi yawned. "Nah, I'm good. Just the past couple of days catching up to me, is all. Did you find something you like?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure about it. I wanted to know what you thought about it." She quickly stood up and spun around, giving him a view of the dress she'd picked out.

Keiichi felt his breath get stolen away. Mion had found a strapless black and white striped dress that fit her in all the right places, along with a cute star-speckled skirt that came just inches above her knees. She'd also somehow managed to find matching star earrings.

Keiichi felt overpowered by her beauty. It just felt all too surreal that this vision of angelic beauty before him was his girlfriend. He couldn't help himself. He stood up, pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

She moaned slightly in surprise, and wrapped her arms around his neck as they deepened their kiss. They stayed in this embrace for a few minutes before breaking for air.

"What was that for?" Mion said, blushing hard, but smiling.

"I'm sorry," He said, still holding her close. "I couldn't stay away. You just seemed so irresistible. I just had to do it."

"Well, I don't exactly mind hearing that." She said flirtatiously, leaning in to peck Keiichi on the lips again. She pulled out of his embrace. "So, you like this?"

"Love it." Keiichi winked at her.

"Good." She said. "I'll buy it then."

She went into the room to change back into her casual outfit, and carried her items to the register to check out.

Keiichi watched her as she walked off, a vision of confidence and beauty.

His life was really about to get interesting, wasn't it?

"Keiichi, stop daydreaming!" He heard his girlfriend say. "We promised Shion we'd be there by five, we're running late!"

"Coming!" Keiichi ran onward, towards the rest of his life.

The End.