Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara

Authors Note:

Hey guys, first off, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. :D I'm really happy that you guys are still there reading this and it really has kept me going.

So, not much in this chapter but bits and pieces of whats to come. I changed the flow a little bit compared to what I probably had in mind two years ago, and I apologize if some things aren't present here or may never be, as compared to the preview in the past chapters. I'm still open to suggestions as the story is approaching its mid point : ) so please Review and tell me what you think.

The Unwanted Circumstances

Kukai had never been the one to encourage himself to hate other people. He considered himself to actually be a very kind and considerate person compared to most. But now, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring himself to not hate the person in front of him. To actually see, after all these years, the man that had robbed his parents of their life and to see the man that left himself and his brother with no one but each other. It fueled hatred, brought back pain, and he wanted nothing more than to douse that pain by strangling the man in front of him.

Ikuto could only watch, as Kukai began to try his best to break the chains that held him down. His eyes never leaving Sai's. Ikuto looked over at the older man and saw a dash of fear, as recognition dawned upon him that the boy in front of him was the same boy all those years ago. Ikuto stayed there, watching the exchange between the two, and he honestly didn't know what to feel: sorry for Sai, or afraid of Kukai. And amidst all of this, Hiro's laughter broke the silence as his eyes looked over all the occupants in the room.

"Isn't this just great? A grand reunion." said Hiro with a laugh. "To be honest, I wasn't expecting this, but I'm certainly not complaining."

"Yeah, why am I not surprised that this amuses you?" asked Ikuto with a glare. Hiro was just treating this like a game. "You think this is funny?"

"On the contrary, I think it's hilarious, don't you?" asked Hiro. "I mean, just look at how happy these two are to see each other."

"You're pathetic." Ikuto spat. "You're actually enjoying this crazy nonsense aren't you?"

"Well, I did say that I never planned for any of this to happen. So it's all a surprise to me." said Hiro. He looked over at Sai and said "I'll leave you to deal with him. After all, you're what he wants." he said with a dark smile.

Sai clenched his fists, as he looked away from Kukai and glared at Hiro. "You're a monster." he mutters with gritted teeth.

"Oh no. If there's anyone in here who should be called a monster, that would be you." Hiro replies smugly as he begins to walk towards the room door. "After all, you're the killer. Not me." he chuckles again and looks over his shoulder at Ikuto and Kukai.

"Don't you dare leave us here." demands Ikuto as he too begins to struggle.

"Tsk tsk, it'll be alright. Sai here will stay to keep the both of you plenty of company. I on the other hand, am needed elsewhere." said Hiro and he gives Ikuto one last look and his eyes glow with a sinister glint upon them "Now, how long do you think it's going to take me to convince Amu that you're dead?"

"You leave her out of this! Hiro! Get back in here!" Ikuto shouts, but his voice merely echoes within the walls of the room, and all that can be heard were Hiro's footsteps and laughter as he walks away from the room.

Ikuto eventually falls back and lands with his back on the wall. He sighs and looks over at Kukai once again with distress in his eyes. Kukai was now looking down on the floor, looking like everything else was nonexistent. If Ikuto were to discribe it, the once happy go lucky Souma seemed like a memory compared to the one in front of him now.

"It probably doesn't mean much. But I'm sorry." Ikuto muttered, his words directed at his fallen friend.

Kukai continued to remain silent, not looking up, and Sai refused to look at the boy in front of him either. Ikuto sighed, he wanted to bang his head on the wall. "What a mess this turned out to be." he thought to himself.

"Hey." Ikuto called out to Sai, who refused to move from where he stood. "Can you answer me this?"

Sai turned his head further away, but did not move from his spot. "What?" he muttered.

"Why did you do it? Why did you do this?" asked Ikuto, all energy seemed to have left his body, the tone of his vice hollow.

"Which one boy?" asked Sai.

Ikuto sighed again. "All of it. Doesn't this bother you? Look at him for goodness sakes!" Ikuto was immediately loosing the calm tone of his voice. "Look at him! Doesn't it bother you, that the boy whose family you killed is right here in front of you?!"

Sai willed himself to turn his head and look over at Kukai. The older Souma was motionless, staring at something and nothing at the same time. His eyes, dead. Sai ground his teeth together, what was there to say? Here he was standing in front of the young boy who lost his parents because of him. What could he possibly say now?

"How does it feel then Sai? How does it feel like to kill an innocent boy's parents? To strip him of a family? Did you enjoy it?" Ikuto taunted.

"Enough!" exclaimed Sai as he looked over at Ikuto. "What do you want me to do? Apologize to him? And then what? What will that do?"

Ikuto stayed silent and observed the older man as he continued. "They're dead boy! Dead! And I did it. Nothing I can do can ever bring back the lives that I've taken..." Sai said, his voice laced with regret and dread.

"Then, why did you do it? Why'd you kill them?" Said and Ikuto turned to see Kukai who looked up and was now asking their captor.

Sai sighed. He had no idea what he was supposed to say, let alone if he should be saying anything at all. "It's complicated boy."

"But you owe it to me to explain!" exclaimed Kukai "You took my family away from me! And all you have to tell me now is that "its complicated!". Don't give me that! Look at me and explain to me why I should even reconsider wanting to end your life!"

Sai and Ikuto both cringed. Sai out of fear for his life, and the guilt that seemed to slowly eat away at his soul. And Ikuto out of fear that Kukai could actually pull through with his threat if he wanted to. "Souma, maybe you should calm down for a minute."

"Don't eve think of it Tsukiyomi. Calm is the last thing on my mind right now." Kukai replied with gritted teeth, also shooting Ikuto a glare.

"Then I don't have time for this." both boys looked over at Sai in shock. The older man began to walk away and as he was about to leave the room, turned his head a little to say "You wouldn't understand why I did it, and even if you would, right now you wouldn't listen." and with that, he walked passed the room and locked the door.

Ikuto and Kukai were again left to their own devices, Kukai couldn't help bang his fists on the floor. "I hate him. I hate him."

"I know." muttered Ikuto as he looked at the older Souma. Kukai had risked himself to look for Ikuto and in turn he got the shock of his life. But Ikuto wasn't completely blinded by hate for Sai, probably because he wasn't the victim, but that allowed him to see that the older man was remorseful and guilty with what he did. Ikuto knew that there was more to the story that why Sai was letting on, and to a point he agreed with the man, with how Kukai was, no explanation was going to suffice. Unless Kukai learned to calm down, he wouldn't listen to reason, and that was that.

Nagihiko dropped the glass that he was holding and it shattered. He let out a small gasp, and immediately, this caught the attention of everyone around him. Su had suggested that they have tea in the gardens for a change of the current gloomy atmosphere, and were waiting for Ran to come back since she said she wanted to go speak with Daichi. Everyone seemed to freeze at that moment, and Nagihiko was only brought back to reality when they heard rushed footsteps approaching the garden.

"I guess that means that Ran's back." Rima said with a smile, and she looked over at Nagi and asked "Are you alright? You've been spacing out for a while now."

Nagi pulled a small smile "Yeah, I just...have a bad feeling that's all."

As if on cue, Ran and Daichi appeared, both looking like they just ran through hell and back. When they got to the garden, everybody had started talking all at once, and that did not sit well for the exhausted Daichi. "Can you guys please stop talking." he pleaded.

Everyone stopped at once, after seeing the look of distress that crossed their friend's face. Su placed the tea she was holding on the table. And she stepped forward. "Daichi? Are you okay desu?"

Daichi shook his head. "Has any of you seen Kukai? Anyone?" he asked panicked.

Almost everyone shook their heads in response. Nagihiko looked at the younger Souma and noticed the look on his face. "Is everything...alright?" Somehow, Nagihiko didn't want to know the answer to that, but he couldn't help himself from asking.

Daichi looked at his friends and shook his head. "No, everything is not alright. I have no idea where Kukai is, he's been missing for a while now, and no one in town has seen him. I'm panicking here, and I don't know what to do anymore." he said in a rush. "You guys have to help me. Please."

"Woah, Daichi slow down please." said Nagihiko. "What do you mean Kukai is missing? Since when?" Now, even Nagi was beginning to panic, he had a bad feeling resonating from the pit of his stomach.

Daichi was still catching his breath, so Ran took it upon herself to continue what he was saying. "Kukai's been gone since this morning. Daichi never got to see him since he left the house, he never said anything and just up and left. Now, we can't find him anywhere."

"Maybe he just went to run some errands or something." suggested Miki.

"No, he would tell me. He didn't even bother to leave a note. When I woke up this morning, he was gone. But I'm sure he went home last night." said Daichi with a sigh.

"Did he mention anything to you?" asked Rima. "A couple of days ago maybe? Could it be that he just went somewhere today and will be coming back tonight?"

Daichi shook his head again. He knew that even Kukai wouldn't be that irresponsible to immediately take a day trip and not talk to anyone about it. "He wouldn't do something like that without letting me know."

"Who else knows about this?" asked Nagihiko suddenly. "About him disappearing all of a sudden that is."

"Just us." replied Ran "Daichi didn't want to bother Utau-chan with it."

Nagihiko nodded in approval. "That's probably for the best. I don't think that it would be best to let her know yet, especially since we have no idea what's really going on here."

"So what do we do now? Look for him in town?" asked Rima. She really didn't want to stomach the thought of any more of them missing. "And I'm assuming that Amu doesn't know either."

"No, she doesn't. Letting her know right now will probably worsen her condition. The emotional state that she's in isn't as stable. We wouldn't want her doing anything rash at the moment." said Daichi.

"Lets all head back to town then. I can head over to nee-san's place and ask if she knows anyone whose seen Souma-kun." said Nagihiko.

"Ill go with Nagi." said Rima "Let's all go in groups or pairs for now. We don't want anyone else missing."

"We'll scout the market area." said Daichi. "Ran and I will talk to Rhythm-san about it and see what we can do."

"Then I'll go with Su and Dia. We'll take the pier." said Miki. "Hopefully Kukai didn't pull an Amu on us and hitched a ride on the next boat out of town."

Daichi groaned. "Don't even think about it please. I do not want to think about those kinds of possibilities." He really, really hoped that Kukai wouldn't do something that stupid and leave town.

They all agreed to meet up again by sundown. As agreed Daichi also filled them in on not consulting anyone from the palace about it. They agreed to tell Utau about if once their such was over and if they came out empty happened. They could only hope now that they didn't turn up empty handed. Everyone knew that if they did, they'd never hear the end of it from Utau, and no one wanted to face her with news like that.

Meanwhile, Amu had come to slightly enjoy her time with Tsukasa in town. She didn't completely forget about her worries, but it helped in temporarily taking her mind off of things. They were currently walking alongside the markets. Tsukasa had bought something from a nearby clerk and had just finished a transaction.

"Was there something that you wanted Amu-chan?" asked Tsukasa with a small smile.

"No thank you." she replied. "I'm happy with just walking with you Tsukasa-san."

"It's good to know that I'm at least help you in some way. I don't like the thought of you staying in your room all day." said Tsukasa as he thanked the clerk and the two of them began to walk away.

Amu sighed "I don't know what else to do. No one wants me to participate in the search. And it's been a long time without even an inkling on how he's actually doing. No one even knows where he is."

"I can't say I completely understand how you feel. But I can only keep hoping. As I said, no one is giving up. So please don't lose hope." said Tsukasa.

"I won't." but even as she said it, she didn't really know what to think. And she couldn't really ascertain how long she could keep up being optimistic about the situation at hand.

"Would you like to sit down?" asked Tsukasa. "Or are you okay with walking?"

"I'm fine with this." said Amu. "Say, Tsukasa-san, I wanted to ask you something."

"Yes?" Tsukasa asked curious.

"I wanted to know if you know anything about Hiro and Kenta." said Amu as she continued walking "Do you know why he keeps telling me to remember him?"

"Remember him? Whatever do you mean by that?" asked Tsukasa. This was all new to him, he knew that Hiro was interested in Amu, but he never really knew to what extent that interest spanned towards.

"Well, almost every time I see him, he keeps telling me that he wants me to remember who he is." explained Amu with a shrug "To be honest, I have no idea what he wants from me, and thing is, I really don't remember anything about him."

Tsukasa contemplated for a moment "Hmmm, do you happen to know the true story behind Hiro and his family?" he asked her and she shook her head. "Hiro and Kenta, well Hiro for one, was never really a parrt of their main family."

Amu blinked. This surprised her, she had no idea that the two brothers weren't related. "So, they're not really brothers?"

"If we look at it directly then, no." said Tsukasa with a shake of his head.

"Then what is he? Hiro I mean?" asked Amu confused. "I always thought that he was related to Kenta, I mean, it sure looked that way."

"The two of them are related, though not as brothers. If I'm not mistaken, they're cousins." said Tsukasa as he tried to remember all the information about the two.

"Then why? I mean, what happened to Hiro's family? Why would he claim to be a brother to a cousin?" asked Amu even more confused "And the Terashima's treat him as if he was one of their own so what happened?"

Tsukasa sighed and stopped walking for a moment. "The Terashima family hasn't always had, what I would call, a clean reputation. They didn't do anything too rash, but that didn't mean that they escaped the scandals that were brought upon within their familial circle."

"What do you..." before Amu could finish, they heard a commotion nearby and decided to see what was going on.

"Seems like someone is in distress." muttered Tsukasa as he looked at Amu "I hope you don't mind if we halt the conversation for now. Shall we take a look at what seems to be going on?"

Amu nodded her head and followed as Tsukasa led them through the stream of people around the market and eventually, the two of them ended up in front of Rhythm's stall. Imagine Amu's shock when she arrived and saw Daichi and Ran, both looking panicked and speaking rapidly in front of Rhythm.

"Are you sure you haven't seen him?" asked Daichi perplexed.

Amu saw Rhythm shake his head and reply "No, I'm certain, and if he left as early as you say he did, then I wouldn't have had the chance to see him. I wasn't open that early."

Ran sighed. "Now what? It won't be long now before we have to meet up with the others, what do we do?" she asked.

"It seems as though you've found yourselves in quite a predicament." the three of them turned to find Tsukasa and Amu approaching and Ran gasped. She did not expect to see her friend in the markets the same time that they were scouting for Kukai. Talk about bad timing.

"Ran? Daichi?" Amu looked over at her two friends concerned. "What are you guys doing here?"

As the two were left stunned for words, Tsukasa took it upon himself to step in. "It seems like we all have some sort of explaining to do." he stated as he looked over at the two and then at Amu "I think that it would be best that we all gather together and talk, yes? After all, I think that your friends would like to hear my story as well."

Daichi and Ran could only nod as Tsukasa asked them where they were planning to meet up with the others. As much as they hated to admit it, it would seem as though their search had come up empty handed and no one still had an inkling to where Kukai was and what happened to him. As they all walked together to meet the others, it seemed to Daichi that involving Utau and Amu was now inevitable. Other than that, Tsukasa seemed to have something he wanted to say too, which meant that soon, everyone in their circle would know that something was wrong. And just when he thought things wouldn't get any worse, why did it seem like their problems just kept piling up one after the other?

Authors Note: I hope you liked this chapter, although it was more of just a transition for the next chapter. Next up would be the back story of Hiro and how exactly is he linked to Amu? Kindly Revew and tell me what you think : )