Note: Again, yes, I do have kale's permission to post his stories here. That permission is documented in his author's profile. This is the fourth book, continuing the saga begun in 'SoulBound', 'A Bond Unbreakable', and 'The True Believers' and occurs the winter before the beginning of canon season 02.

Reading of Book 2, at least, is recommended to follow the storyline.

Though this is the Koumi saga, the events in the prologue deal with neither Koushiro nor Mimi.

Book Four -- Unite the Righteous Virtues: The Koumi Saga

Matt Ishida strolled silently into the park near his father's apartment, his hands jammed into his pockets and his head bowed against the frigid wind. The day itself had not been too awfully cold, at least as far as winter days went, but as night approached the temperature was dropping rapidly.

The blond-haired boy, however, hardly seemed to notice. In his mind he was going over the hesitant admission that Sora had just made to him, the confession that crushed his heart just at the point when he thought that she had chosen him over Tai.

Matt… It's not that I don't have feelings for you, because I do. Very deep feelings. It's just that… well, you're really more like a brother to me. I do love you, but it's not like the love that a girl has for a boy… not like the love that I have for Tai…

That had stung him momentarily. He had pushed Sora to choose between the two of them just as much as the others had, yet now that she had finally chosen, he wished that it had never happened. Better to live with the hope of success than the certain knowledge of failure.

But, try as he might, Matt could not be bitter. Tai and Sora were two of his closest friends, and if he looked at the situation from the perspective of a truly neutral observer, he realized that the two would make an excellent match. In all honesty, the boy would need Sora to keep him from… well, to keep him from being Tai too often.

So now, all Matt really wanted was some time to himself. Not necessarily to brood, he wasn't nearly as standoffish as he had once been, after all, but just some time to think. And on a day as cold as this one and at this time of day, the park was likely just the place to find some solitude.

The boy frowned as he stepped through the trees and into the verdant grass of the park. Someone was already there, sitting on one of the benches with their knees pulled up to their chest and their face buried in their arms. Well, it was a big park, so it would be easy to avoid the individual, he reasoned, and started off for the benches on the other side of the small lake in the center of the parkland.

Then the wind carried the sound of a sob to his ears. Matt glanced once again at the despondent figure. Yeah, buddy. Life's tough all around.

Matt sat down on a bench of his own over on the opposite end of the park. It seemed that all of his friends were pairing off into romantic couples. Tai and Sora would be the second, after his own little brother and Kari. And Mimi and Izzy… well, though they both denied it, he was beginning to suspect that there might be something to those two as well. Was it all that they'd gone through that somehow pulled them together in that manner? And worse, did that mean that he'd end up paired with Joe?

Matt leaned back onto the bench, stretching his arms over his head and staring back at the moon that was looming overhead, peering down at him. What? he almost demanded of it.

The blond-haired boy craned his head as he watched the figure on the other side of the park suddenly perk up and rise to their feet. Good, Matt thought, finally some solitude.

Though it was hard to tell at that great distance, Matt got the distinct impression that his woeful companion was female. Something about the steps that the other took as she walked down to the shore of the lake were much too delicate to have been made by a boy. The figure, who was dressed in a thin jacket and a pair of ratty jeans stopped at the edge of the lake, and again the wind carried the sound of crying to Matt's ears. Definitely a girl.

Then, hesitantly, the figure on the other side started to walk from the shore of the lake into the water. Matt frowned. It was awfully cold to go swimming, particularly since the other was fully dressed…

"Hey!" the boy shouted, sitting up and calling across the water to the other. "What do you think you're doing?"

The other did not so much as hesitate at his voice, and instead continued on a slow and deliberate march into the cold waters.

Matt leapt to his feet and dashed along the shoreline of the lake towards the girl, kicking off his shoes as he neared the far side. As he reached the spot where she had entered at, the dark figure plunged forward into the icy water and bubbles broke to the surface as she purposefully exhaled her breath. "Stop!" shouted Matt as he splashed clumsily towards the girl.

The blond-haired boy finally reached the area where she had gone down and started fumbling about beneath the water for her. After several seconds of frantic searching the boy's hand hit something solid, and he grabbed a tight hold on it and yanked it towards the surface. After a moment the girl's head broke the water, sputtering. "What are you doing?" she demanded, slapping furiously at the boy. "Let me go!"

Matt glared at the willow-thin girl, long, wet tendrils of dark hair obscuring her face. "What am I doing?" he rejoined, reversing his grip on the girl and trudging back towards the shore, pulling the other alongside him. "What are you doing?"

"None… of… your… business!" the other protested, struggling with the stronger boy in a desperate attempt to make her way back into the deeper water.

Matt wrapped his arms around the girl from behind and lugged her backwards. He found his hands joined fairly close to… well, to somewhere where they probably shouldn't be on someone that he'd just met, but at that moment his sole cogent thought was to get the maniacal, suicidal girl away from the water.

Finally, exhausted, the blond boy managed to drag the other to shore. He was somewhat surprised at the strength of the willowy female. He hadn't been expecting her to put up such a good fight in her attempt to…

"Why don't you just go away?" the girl sobbed angrily, falling to her knees and facing away from her rescuer. "Why won't you just mind your own business?"

Matt was breathing heavily, the cold of the night air beginning to sting his lungs. "You're welcome," he retorted, careful to keep his body between her and the water in case she should try to go back in.

The dark-haired girl checked another heated response, her teeth chattering together briskly. Wait… that voice, she thought, glancing surreptitiously over her shoulder. It can't be…

Matt looked over at the girl as she quickly turned her head back around. "Hey," he said, walking over to her side and draping an arm over her thin shoulders. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

"Don't touch me! Get back!" the girl shouted, shrugging his arm off of her.

Matt stepped back, a frown on his face. "Okay... Okay, fine. I won't touch. I'll just stay back here, I guess. But I'm not going away until you calm down. Or maybe I should just drag you to the police and let them keep you from killing yourself."

"No," the girl said in a barely audible whisper, curling up on the ground. "No, please… not the police. I'm… I'm sorry I yelled at you. I just don't like anybody touching me… back there…"

Matt frowned, then his eyes caught a glimpse of something. The girl's thin jacket had slipped off of one of her shoulders and revealed her bare skin. And something else…

"What the hell?" Matt murmured, then looked closer at the mark on the girl's back. His frown deepened. "Take off your coat," he said seriously.

The girl was prepared to snap back at the boy, to tell him once again to mind his own business, but she was used to obeying the orders of boys who could give them with authority. Also, though she was loathe to admit it, there was something that attracted her to someone that finally seemed to care. And so she bit her tongue and sat up, letting the oversized jacket slip from her shoulders.

Matt was horrified at what he saw as the girl shed her coat. The pale flesh of her slender back was literally covered with almost innumerable scars, most of them looking as though they had been cut and healed over long ago. The blond boy almost winced at the sight before his teeth clamped together in rage; his eyes dark. "Did your parents do this to you?" he demanded of her.

The girl exhaled once, then shook her head sadly, still careful to keep her face hidden from the boy. If he discovered her identity then she doubted that his amicable manner would last. It could well be that she would suffer a beating at his hands as well. "No. No, I haven't seen my parents in years. Whatever you see there was caused by my brother."

Matt stiffened, the response shocking him into a momentary silence. The hint, the very idea of one sibling doing something like this to another… the boy thought of his own little brother, who he loved more than anything on earth… it was unimaginable to him. With a profound sadness in his eyes he moved closer to the girl and placed his arm gently around her shoulders, careful not to place any pressure on them.

The girl blinked once, startled at his touch, then closed her eyes as the boy's strong arm enfolded her. With a tenderness that she'd never experienced before he pulled her against his chest, and despite the chill of the cold she felt warm all over. Oh, God… I can't let this happen. Not with him, of all people. I've got to tell him to go… to push him away… "Matt... please stop," she murmured in her surreal state. But then the girl froze, alarmed, as she heard the words leave her lips. Oh no...

"Huh?" The boy stopped and removed his arm from her shoulders, trying to glance around to see the girl's face. "How did you know my… have we met?"

The other turned her face to the side, bringing her hands up as well. "Go away."

Now Matt was becoming angry. Something about this was all wrong, and the boy didn't like feeling confused or deceived. "Who are you?"

"Please," she whispered. "Thank you for what you've done. I don't know of a proper way to thank you, but you have to leave. I… I don't want you to hate me."

Matt's brow furrowed. "Hate you? For having been beaten? For trying to kill yourself? I feel sorry for you, and I want to help. More than anything, I want to help you." He paused, the truth of that statement just then occurring to him. His own sorrow at being rejected by Sora had been all but forgotten in his concern for this sad, slender girl with the musical voice. He gently turned the girl's shoulders until they were facing one another, both on their knees by the sandy shore. Matt placed a finger on the girl's chin and lifted her face that he might know her.

Matt's jaw dropped as he looked into the girl's eyes. "Oh… my…"

The girl broke down instantly, her hands going to her dark eyes. "I asked you… I begged you not to do that," she cried fitfully, her words trailing off into incoherent weeping. Matt moved to his feet while staring coldly down at her, brushing the dirt from his knees. "Rio Kuroda," he muttered in disgust.

"Now will you please go away?" she demanded tearfully, shrinking beneath his icy glare. The warmth of his presence was now gone, and her teeth began chattering anew.

"Gladly," Matt replied, seething in disgust and turning his back on the other as he took a few, quick steps in the opposite direction. To think that he had almost started to feel some affection for that girl… Her, the one who but for a remarkable twist of fate would have killed his little brother months before. He felt almost dirty. Was this somebody's sick idea of a joke?

Then he stopped, hearing the dark-haired girl still weeping feverishly at his back. He was certain that he didn't want to stop, but something coerced him into it. Was the sudden, guilty feeling truly because he had started to feel something for her, however brief? Or was it perhaps because he was walking away from someone who was in evident trouble and who clearly needed him?

The boy frowned. In his heart he knew the right thing to do, he just wasn't sure at that moment that he wanted to do it. She tried to kill T.K., and almost succeeded. But then another voice interposed itself over his own thoughts. It was as if his little brother was there and speaking to him as well. Matt, whatever she did in the past, she needs help now. And you're the only one there for her. Don't let her die because of me. Please, Matt. I couldn't live with that.

Matt snapped out of his reverie. The voice had been so eerily like T.K. that he was forced to fight the impulse to turn around and look for his little brother. Slowly, uncertainly, the tall boy walked back to where Rio still knelt in the sand. "Come on, get up," he said gruffly. "It's freezing out here. We've got to get you to someplace warmer."

"Oh, what do you care?" the other snapped.

Matt frowned. "You're dripping wet and you're freezing. I didn't just save you from drowning yourself to let you catch pneumonia and die."

Rio looked up with tear-stained eyes, her cheeks a cherry-red color and her wet, dark hair still hanging in front of her eyes. "I don't need your help," she insisted, her voice breaking.

"Sure. That's why you're alone, out in the middle of a freezing night with almost no clothes on, looking as though you haven't eaten in a week and trying to kill yourself. Look, I'll give you a choice. You can come with me or I can take you to the police and tell them you what you were doing. Either way, you're safe and I can sleep with a clear conscience tonight."

"You don't have to burden your conscience with me," the girl shot back, but Matt stood firm against her glare, his arms folded across his chest. Rio sighed, sad eyes lowering against the hopelessness of her situation. He hated her, she knew, but was left with no choice. "Fine, Matt Ishida. I... I'll go with you."

*****

Matt took the key from his pocket and opened the door to the apartment that he shared with his father. Rio followed him in hesitantly, looking about the room. "What about your family?"

"My dad's out of town, and T.K. lives with mom." The boy closed the door behind the girl and locked both the knob and the deadbolt. He motioned with his hand, ushering the girl into the living room.

Matt quickly stripped off his wet shirt and grabbed a clean one from his room as they were passing. "The shower is down there," he said, jerking his thumb down the hallway. "The towels are under the sink, and I'll find you something dry to wear for when you're done."

"You don't have to do this," Rio answered, feeling a deep shame that he would be so solicitous of her after their past together.

"Tell me about it," the boy murmured in response, his words unheard by the girl. Then, "Yeah, I do, 'cause I gotta eat here tonight, and I'm not going to be able to do it with you smelling the way that you do."

The girl blinked. When she had been younger, she remembered her parents using the same kind of depreciating humor on one another to display their closeness and affection. For just a moment, she felt better than she had in… well, for as long as she could recall. "Fine," she said, marching down the hallway that the boy had indicated.

The girl turned on the water to a warm setting, and was just ready to strip off her shirt when the door opened. Matt set an older-looking set of clothes down near the sink. "I don't have any girl's clothes, so you'll just have to wear some of my old ones. Oh," he paused, and opened up a drawer and pulled out a set of unopened straight-razor blades, placing them in his shirt pocket. "Just so you don't get any ideas."

Rio watched the boy as he closed the door behind him, then proceeded to strip off the flimsy shirt that she was wearing, then her pants as well. Wearing only her undergarments, the thin girl looked into the mirror, then turned around and craned her head about to glimpse just what Matt had seen on her back. Despite the fact that the beatings from Roan's hands had taken place for the previous three years at the least, she had never actually looked to see what physical evidence her sadist of a brother had left.

Rio almost sobbed as she caught her first sight of the ruined flesh that was her back. No wonder Matt felt sorry for her. Older scars as well as more recent ones were scattered liberally across her skin, and though they had all healed long ago, she knew that the evidence of what he'd done to her would be there always.

As if it were compelling her to stop looking, the mirror then fogged up from the steam coming from the shower. All of a sudden the girl felt exceptionally dirty. The scars on her back were bad enough, but what she had been forced to do with Roan to keep him from beating her further… that was truly indecent.

Rio sighed as she stepped into the warm water, then turned the knob to make it a bit hotter. Turning away from the nozzle, she allowed the water to soothe the aching muscles on her back and to wash away the memories of her abhorrent past.

*****

Matt put some water to boil on the stove and then turned back to the meal that he had been preparing for the girl. Nothing special, just a quick pasta dish that wouldn't take to long to prepare. He started to mix the noodles quickly, then stopped and stared into the bowl. What's wrong with me? the small voice in his head demanded. Why can't I stop thinking about her?

Matt sighed, then stirred the food all the faster. He just felt sorry for her, that was all. Nothing else… not affection, not even casual friendship… just pity.

Minutes later the blond-haired boy slammed the metal pan down on the counter in frustration. She tried to kill us! he screamed at himself. Now I've saved her, brought her into my house and… God, I'm cooking for her.

Matt heard the water in the shower stop, and he went back to the now boiling water. With a sigh he poured two small cups of the steaming liquid and dropped some tea leaves in each, then set both of the cups on the table. Quietly he spooned some of the pasta into a couple of plates and placed one beside the cup that he had made for the girl, putting his own on the counter. I'll save her life, take her to my house and cook for her, but I'll be damned if I'm going to eat with her.

Moments later, Rio walked on bare feet into the kitchen. Matt looked at her once, then quickly dropped his eyes. Now that she had been cleaned up and her hair was washed, the girl was really… pretty, he thought, at the last minute consciously making the choice not to think 'beautiful'.

Rio said nothing and sat down at the place that Matt had prepared for her, her eyes going hungrily to the food. Forcing herself not to devour it like a starving animal would, the girl used the best table manners that she had ever been taught and ate slowly.

Matt watched her in silence for a few moments, then frowned. "How long has it been since you've had anything to eat?" he asked, his voice serious.

Rio looked up briefly but then turned her eyes away from the boy's steely blue ones. "A few days, I think. I'm not really sure," she replied.

The dark-haired girl reached for the steaming cup of tea and took a sip, almost sighing in contentment as the liquid warmed her insides as she shower had done for her muscles. She continued to study the food on her plate, then asked quietly,"Aren't you going to eat with me?"

Matt almost sighed audibly. The girl had not even looked up to ask the question… afraid of rejection?

The boy took his own plate and sat down opposite the girl, staring at her quietly. It was almost impossible to believe that this was the same girl that they had met in the caverns of the mountain that half-year before. At the time she had been cruel, loud and boisterous. Now she was so timid that she couldn't even look at him to ask him to sit beside her.

Matt couldn't contain his questions any longer. "What happened to you?" he asked pointedly. "Six months ago you were as cold and heartless as anyone that I've ever met before, and believe me, I've met some real bastards. Now you… you... well, look at you!" he snapped in frustration.

The girl's lips trembled, and for a moment Matt felt sorry for raising his voice. "I… I had to be like that, then," she said, so quietly that the boy could hardly hear her. "It was the only way that I could get along with the others. Ian, Daven, Leiko and Roan… especially Roan. He had no patience for people who weren't like him. If I couldn't learn to be like him… well, you saw what happened…"

Matt bit his lip. He wanted desperately to believe the girl, but… "And what's happened since then?"

Rio swallowed another sip of tea, then continued. "After you five let me go, I wandered around for the longest time, not really having anyplace to go. My parents are long gone, and before I had always just done what Roan wanted. This... this was really my first time ever out on my own." She smiled. "Guess I didn't do such a great job, huh?"

Matt almost smiled, then stopped himself. Then he shook his head once. That wasn't quite fair. If it had been any of his friends he would have appreciated the self-disparaging attempt at humor… even a stranger might have evoked a smile from him. Why not her?

At a silent while, Rio finished her food and stood up. Matt watched her, not having said a word since hearing what the girl had said. The girl padded on her bare feet across the room and stopped by Matt's side, then she leaned over and gave him a slow kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," she whispered, then grabbed her shoes from their spot near the door and started to turn the lock.

Matt almost flinched at the kiss, then stood up at the girl started to leave. "Stop," he insisted. "You can't... you can't leave yet."

Rio looked genuinely surprised. "Why not?"

Yeah, why not? the taunting voice in Matt's head muttered again. "Look… just stay," the boy persisted. "My dad won't be home for another couple of days, and I'd rather not send you back out onto the streets any sooner than I have to."

Rio looked at the boy with a strange expression on her face. Then she nodded and got to her feet and walked over to Matt's side, again kissing him, this time on the other cheek. "Thank you again," she said quietly.

"For what?"

"For caring. I can't remember the last time that anyone cared."

*****

Matt tossed fitfully in bed that night, the girl's last words echoing in his head. Caring? Did he really care? He wasn't sure that he wanted to… but for the life of him he couldn't think of another explanation.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered, finally giving up on the pretense of sleep and sitting up in bed. He held the pillow tight against his chest and rested his chin on it. "I don't care about her, and I didn't fall in love with her just because I feel sorry for her."

Matt's eyes widened as he heard the words that passed his lips. God… tell me I didn't just say what I think I did. No. No, no, no. That was just not possible. He did not just meet a girl that had tried to kill him a few short months ago and in six hours fall in love with her. That just didn't happen, he was sure of it, no matter how beautiful she was.

Matt looked out the window at the full moon with a sigh. This was getting him nowhere. He had to talk to her. He didn't know exactly why, but was beginning to have a suspicion… and that suspicion didn't sit well with him at all.

Matt left his room and pulled on a button-up shirt, through he didn't bother to fasten it closed as he went quietly to T.K.'s room. His little brother stayed with him infrequently, but it was still often enough that his bed was covered with clean sheets and pillows. As he walked in, he heard Rio stirring as she rested underneath the thin covers. Matt closed the door quietly behind him and sat down on a little chair near the bed, watching the girl.

Moonlight from the window spilled down onto her face, giving it an innocent, almost childlike appearance. Matt frowned. He wanted desperately to believe her story from earlier that night about fitting in with the others solely for her own safety, but had to have some proof. The scars on her back were ugly, yes, but could he believe that story either? He just wasn't certain, and myriad, confusing thoughts ran wild throughout his head.

Then the girl's tossing became more fitful, and she sniffled and once or twice sobbed deeply in her sleep. "No, please,' she murmured quietly, then almost flinching against an imagined pain from the past. "No!" she screamed loudly, and sat up quickly in bed. And what did she scream out? For her parents? For her brother, or anyone on her past?

No.

"Matt!" the girl wailed, and then the boy was at her side, cradling her head against his bare chest and stroking her dark hair soothingly.

Matt's lips trembled, and at that moment he experienced what he had been most afraid of for most of that day. He could almost feel his heart leave his chest and place itself firmly and willingly into the girl's thin hands. "Rio, shh, " he murmured gently, rocking her as he continued to pet her hair. "It's all right. I'm here. And I promise that I'm not… I'm not going to leave…"

Rio looked up, frightened. The fear of the dream was passing, but now it was being replaced by another fear, deeper, more disturbing. She had not thought that she could love, did not think herself capable of that most complicated of emotions any longer after what she had been though with Roan. Yet the feeling of Matt's bare chest against her cheek and the tenderness that she could feel radiating from him for her did for her soul what the water had done for her flesh and the tea for her body. Warmed it… soothed it… and at that moment, if it had not happened before, the girl fell in love with him.

Matt's blue eyes locked with Rio's dark ones, and slowly he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. Blond hairs intertwined with black ones and the two embraced one another tightly, the girl's mouth moving feverishly against the boy's as his love nourished her and nursed her back to health. She felt overwhelmed with passion and desire for the strong young male opposite her, and after another few minutes she reluctantly pulled her mouth off of his. "We really need to talk," she whispered, and Matt nodded his head.

Oh my God, he thought, closing his eyes in despair. What on earth am I going to tell the others?