A/N: Heya guys! I know, I know, it's been a while since I've updated. And to make things even worse, this is the LAST CHAPTER! But not to worry, I think if you guys liked Evanescent Regret, you'll LOVE this bonus chappy! This here is a little bit of backstory to fill in what happened to Hiroki that made him move away from his sister, why he doesn't want Nowaki to got to the Dungeons for any reason whatsoever, and other little things that I had hoped you noticed enough to comment on but didn't. Oh well, at least now you'll know! I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did writing it! Have at'cha!

The Nursery in the Woods

It was the end of the summer and was finally time for Nowaki and Hiroki to go back home to Tokyo. As hard as it would seem, Hikari had actually begun to warm up to Nowaki despite their rather rough introduction. Hiroki had spent a great deal of time re-immersing himself in the familiar routines of village life, teaching the young apprentices when he could, playing with his little niece who had grown very attached to him during the summer, and spending time with Nowaki. Things with him had gone right back to the beginning, like it was at the very start of their relationship. They would never be the same as before, not after all of what happened, but they would try and get as close to it as possible. So, to help them get closer, Hiroki gave Nowaki the grand tour of the place, telling him stories of when he was a child and what life was like there. Nowaki took it all in with undisguised wonder, asking plenty of questions and letting his curiosity get the better of him on more than one occasion.

But, almost too soon, the summer was over and Nowkaki found himself in an old jeep with Hiro-san, Matsuda-san, and Hikari-san riding down one of the roads on the outskirts of the village. Both men were all packed up and prepared for the journey home, and the twins conversed amongst themselves while Nowaki watched the scenery fly by. Nowaki loved the beauty of nature, not that it could compare to Hiro-san in any way, and he was sometimes treated to the sight of some wildlife (or maybe a villager? He still couldn't tell the difference). He became lost in his thoughts as the scenery flew by, the conversations slowly fading into the background. There was more wildlife on this road because it was one less commonly used; the one that the trio had taken up the mountain at the beginning of the summer had been closed due to a small landslide, and so they had taken this alternate road. For some reason, the other three were very agitated when they heard the news, but seemed to have forgotten about it now. Either that or they were ignoring the hell out of it. It was very hard to tell since all the Kamijou's he had met so far seemed to have a stubborn streak a mile wide.

He was still looking out into the woods when he saw something strange. It was barely distinguishable from the woods around it, as overgrown with vegetation as it was, but Nowaki could only just make out the structure of a building in the background. Before he could get a good look at it, the thing was lost in the background again. He looked on in confusion, not really understanding what he saw. Hiro-san hadn't told him about any buildings out here, and it was relatively close to the rest of the village. Just barely on the fringe of it, really. He wondered what it was for and why no one was using it.

He looked over at the other passengers in the car and saw that all of them were looking in any direction besides the one that the strange building lay in. Hiro-san was determinedly looking in the other direction, and had gone worryingly pale. His jaw was clenched tightly and Hikari strongly mirrored her brother. Matsuda had a grim expression and kept his eyes steady on the road. Nowaki had been so out of it, that he hadn't noticed that the conversation had gone quiet and the atmosphere had grown tense. Now that he was paying attention though, it greatly bothered him, especially because he didn't know why.

They rode on for a few more minutes, but the silence was agonizing for Nowaki. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore, his curiosity and need for the silence to end got the better of him.

"Hiro-san?"

Said man turned to look at him, giving a grunt of acknowledgement. Not one to be deterred, he asked his question: "What was that back there?"

The effect was instantaneous. Hiro-san and Hikari-san's heads snapped in his direction and their eyes went wide in shock, and Matsuda-san slammed on the brakes in alarm. Everyone flew forward, only stopped by their seatbelts as dust flew all around them from being flung up from the dirt path. Once all of them caught their breaths, Matsuda and Hikari looked at each other and then gave Hiroki a look of worry; Hiroki just looked away, breathing heavily.

"Hiro-san? Is something wrong?"

He shook his head vigorously, as if to shake himself loose from his thoughts. "No, it's fine. I'm fine." He saw the married couple's skeptical looks. "I'm fine." Hikari didn't look like she believed him and neither did Nowaki. But before he could say anything, Matsuda began driving again and neither of the other two would look Nowaki in the eyes. For a while, he thought he wouldn't get an answer his question. So he, Matsuda, and Hikari jumped a little when Hiro-san suddenly spoke.

"It's nothing really. Just the old Apprentices' Nursery. Nothing much to talk about."

He could hear the lie in his voice, but knew better than to pry if it caused such a drastic reaction like the one that just happened. That much he had learned while dealing with traumatized children in the hospital.

Hiroki was panicking on the inside, trying to force the fear down, the memories. He knew, he KNEW that coming this way down the mountain was a horrible mistake! He knew, and he still did it! Damn it, there had to have been another way, but now the damage was done and he was remembering, and that was extremely dangerous for his mental health. And it wasn't bad enough that they had had to pass it, oh no, NOWAKI of all people had to bring it up, too. Damn brat didn't even know what he was asking! But he still couldn't help it. Couldn't help sliding back into those memories that were burned forever into his mind, never truly letting him rest, and never letting him forget. Not for a single minute.

Even now, in his adult years, he could remember everything, including the day that it started…

The sun was bright and blazing that early summer morning. Despite the heat, there was a strong and soothing wind blowing through the trees and hills that made up the mountain. All in all it was a beautiful day, and no two appreciated it more than the two young apprentices Hikari and Hiroki of the honorable Kamijou family. They were running and playing around in the grass as nine year olds typically did: jumping and rolling over each other, playing tag, and just enjoying the warmth of the sun on their skin. They would have preferred to have Matsuda with them, but he was older and had already moved out of the apprentice's dorms before them. He had already found a mentor and was too busy training with her to play with them. Neither Hiroki nor his sister had found theirs yet, but both hoped to find one soon.

Not that they minded living in the Dorm; it was full of kids to play with (although the twins mostly preferred each other's company and that of their horses to all others excluding Matsuda), it was far enough away from the rest of the village to provide some privacy. It was only children there with the closest adult living in a cabin near the rest of the village, and they had gotten used to it in the last four years. It was always a village tradition that the children would live with their parents for the first five years of their lives, then move to the dorms for basic training until they were ten. Then they were assigned to a mentor and got to move back in with their parents or began to live with their mentor. Sometimes an apprentice/master match would be made before that time and the master would take over the remainder of the basic training, thus causing the apprentice to move out of the Dorm early.

Matsuda was a year older than them, so naturally he was already out of the Dorms. This made them both sad, but they dealt with it by training harder and playing more to distract themselves. For now they satisfied themselves by playing tag and hide and seek, trying hard to catch one another and win each game. They didn't realize they had gotten farther and farther from the village until Hiroki ran into a clearing and tripped. Hikari was running behind him and didn't see him go down until it was too late. She tripped over him and landed just in front of him. They both looked up and saw that the area wasn't one they knew.

Nothing about this particular clearing was familiar to them, which meant they must have been way farther from the village then they had ever gone before because they had memorized and explored every scrap of land near the village; everything from Coronary Peak to the Falls were places they knew well. But here was somewhere new, and both twins sat up and looked around them to take in the view.

They hadn't been sitting there long when they began to hear quiet laughter coming from the shade of the trees in front of them. The two leapt up from where they'd been sitting and, just as they'd been trained, their hands flew to the hilts of the swords strapped to their sides. The laughter continued as a dark shape came forward as if melting out of the shadows.

Hiroki and Hikari rose a bit out of their battle stances a little, but not by much, as a kid about Matsuda's age was revealed. He had a strange smile on his face, something between a smirk and a grin. His hair was ink-black and rose in soft looking spikes around his head. The strange boy's clothes were all black, but not too dissimilar to their own, only without the katanas. But the thing that really struck them were his eyes: they were such a deep burgundy that they were almost red when the light hit them just so. And for some reason, those eyes were focused solely on Hiroki.

They kept their stance for a few minutes while the strange boy continued to chuckle, eventually Hikari got fed up with it. "Just what are you laughing at?"

The boy kept laughing for a bit and spoke when he finally calmed down.

"You. I'm laughing at you. What are you guys doing with those things for?"

The twins looked at each other, having a hard time understanding his strange accent and what he said.

He tried again, "What's with the swords? You guys paranoid or somthin'?"

The two looked at each other and, silently agreeing that he didn't look dangerous, put their swords up for the moment. They could always bring them back out later. They still didn't trust this boy yet, though. This didn't appear to deter the strange boy though, as he simply walked right up to them, prompting them to take a few steps back in alarm. He kept coming forward until he was right in front of them and bowed a little in greeting, "My name is Akito, what's yours?"

Again he was looking right at Hiroki, but Hikari answered him instead. "I am Kamijou Hikari and that is my brother, Hiroki. Why are you here?" She demanded.

He gave her a look, "Why are you?" She huffed, "We were got bored and were playing a game. But I asked you first." The boy, Akito, thought for a minute before answering. "I was fishing." Hiroki looked at him skeptically, there was no pole with him but now that he noticed it the boy was holding a small woven basket in his hand that smelled strongly of the supposed dead fish inside. "Where's your fishing pole, then?" He asked.

The boy turned back to him with a big grin on his face, "Don't need one, I use a wooden stick."

Hikari huffed again, "You can't catch a fish with just a stick! It's impossible!"

Akito stuck his tongue out at her. "Sure it is! I do it all the time, see?" He held out the basket.

They argued back and forth for a while, almost completely leaving Hiroki out of it before it was decided that he would prove that he could catch fish with just a stick and they let him lead them to a nearby riverbank. He simply took out a small dagger, grabbed a long and sturdy stick, sharpened one end of it, and then stood by the riverbank for a while. Suddenly he plunged the sharp stick deep into the water and, much to their astonishment, it came back up with a fish skewered and flailing on the end of it.

Hiroki was completely impressed, and Akito smiled widely at the look of wonder on his face. Hikari thought it was impressive too, but when she looked at the grin on his face and the blood draining out of the quickly dying fish, she couldn't help a small shudder of apprehension, remembering that two of her older friends and cousins, Oji and Makine, were very fond of the water and everything that lived in it. Despite his excitement, Hiroki felt her apprehension and the shudder and turned to her with concern. As soon as Hiroki looked away from him to tend to his sister, Akito's face fell into a deep scowl of displeasure that the two siblings failed to notice.

It was gone by the time they looked back up at him, and he was back to smiling. He spent the next hour teaching them all the little fishing tricks he knew, and even showed them how to make a fire and cook them. They ate lunch together and talked. The twins had loosened up a bit around him, which wasn't hard to do considering the boy was charming, handsome, and funny. They parted ways with the promise of meeting together at the same time and place the next day.

They kept meeting on and off depending on their schedules for the whole summer, and Akito had almost grown as close to them as Matsuda was. This was a relief since they could hardly see him at all due to all of his extra training; as it would turn out, his mentor was a real enthusiast when it came to teaching and Matsuda wanted to learn as much as he could. It was a perfect match, but it still left him very little time to hang out with the twins, which was especially sad for Hikari. But they spent the time that Matsuda couldn't be there with them with Akito, playing in their secret place in the woods.

As time wore on, Hikari began to notice little things that bothered her. Sometimes Akito would pay just a little too much attention to her brother and would completely ignore her or he would lay his hand casually on him for just a second too long. She didn't know what those little things meant, but it gave her the creeps. In response to this, she began to subconsciously place herself between them when they walked, calling over her brother to look at things when she felt there was too much physical contact between the two, or anything else that she needed to do to draw Hiroki away from him.

For a while she figured it was just her natural instinct as a twin to want to monopolize Hiroki, but she had never felt this way around Matsuda and it confused her. Hiroki didn't notice the odd behavior and was never the one to initiate any of the strange contact, but Hikari was determined that he would be protected either way. Sometimes she would look over at Akito and he would be looking over at her brother with an unreadable look on his face, or sometimes she would catch him looking right back at her with a just barely hidden expression of… what looked like pure hate before turning away like nothing happened. And it frightened her.

But he was still friendly with her, friendlier with her brother, and they always kept going to the woods when they played together. Eventually, it was the final day of summer, right before the Fall Equinox, and Hikari and Hiroki were preparing to leave for the village again. Suddenly, Akito approached Hiroki and called him off to the side. They talked in low tones for a while, and Hikari watched as Hiroki shook his head and Akito formed this longing and sad look on his face like a puppy begging for treats. They talked for a little more and Hiroki kept shaking his head while Akito kept that look of sadness, eventually Hiroki came back to her and they set off for the village again. She turned around to see Akito with his head hung, his hair covering most of his face. But even from where she was she could still see the tightly clenched jaw and fists. She shook her head in confusion and followed her brother. After a while she approached Hiroki about it.

"So, what was all that about?"

"Oh, he wanted me to come see his village and I told him I couldn't."

"Why?"

"He wanted me to go right now. Immediately. And we have to get back to the Dorm before curfew."

She was shocked at this; he'd never even mentioned belonging to a village before this, but what would he need them to go there now for? As if reading her thoughts, and perhaps he had been, he said the rest of it, "He also wanted me to go alone with him. Said he wanted to show me something that you might not like. I wonder what it was…" He grew quiet and so did she, both wondering at their friend's unusual request. But they were both tired and went to sleep soon after arriving back at the dorms. It had been a long day, and neither one of them were prepared for what was about to happen as the sun disappeared from the sky and the light of the full moon took its place to watch over them on that fateful night.

He had been dreaming, that he knew. Hiroki didn't remember what he had been dreaming of, but he did remember hearing a loud racket. He didn't think much of it at first; the older apprentices had all snuck out to hang out in the towns at the base of the mountain, and in his mostly asleep state he thought that it was just them returning. He only woke up once the screams began.

In a moment, he had woken up and sprung out of bed. The dorm was dark, too dark. Hiroki looked around and saw that all of the windows had been shut up. He tried the one closest to him and it wouldn't budge. Something had sealed it from the outside. He heard another scream and looked out toward where the rest of the beds were. The dorm itself was simply a long, rectangular building with rows of beds. There was only one exit, not counting the windows, and the building currently housed around thirty apprentices; twelve of them were gone still.

His eyes began to adjust to the darkness and he looked around to see all of the other apprentices out of bed and standing around looking at the doorway, which was currently the only source of light. Nearby one of the smaller apprentices, stuck in the wall, was a long dagger. A figure stood, silhouetted in the moonlight, within the doorway. No one knew what to make of this, but two of the remaining apprentices recognized the figure at once.

"Akito?" Hikari and Hiroki called.

The boy stepped slowly into the room, his footsteps creaked along the old wooden floors. As the moonlight came in behind him, the twins noticed something that they hadn't before. Akito held a long and deadly sword in his hand. They looked from it to his face in shock and gasped. Their friend's face was far from what they were familiar with. He had a long, almost face-splitting smile on his face. But what disturbed Hiroki the most was his eyes: they were wide with pupils that were so small that for a minute Hiroki thought that Akito had no pupils at all. Something really bothered Hiroki about those eyes, but he brushed that thought aside for now.

Those same eyes landed on Hiroki and stayed there and, if Hiroki were completely honest with himself, it sent deep bolts of fear down his spine.

"Hiroki…" He said in a low voice.

Hikari, feeling her brother's unease, stepped between them, "Why are you here, Akito? We thought you went home."

As soon as his gaze landed on Hikari, Akito's face contorted into a mocking smile. "I did. They sent me back here."

The twins couldn't understand what was going on. Why would his village send him here at this hour? It had to have been somewhere between one and two in the morning, at least. Despite his unease, Hiroki wasn't quite ready to doubt his friend's character. "So, they kicked you out? Why would they do that?"

This Akito found extremely hilarious. He began laughing long and hard, the sound of it bouncing harshly off the walls of the cabin until the younger apprentices huddled in the back for comfort. Seeing the effect it was having on the others, Hiroki just couldn't take it anymore.

"Just what is so funny?!" He snapped.

Akito slowed his laughter until it was only a chuckle. "They didn't kick me out. I'm exactly where they want me to be, where they always intended for me to be." He began to slowly approach from the far end of the cabin.

"In fact, that is why I'm on this mountain at all! I had to find where the village kept its apprentices. At least, that's what they told me to do. My family was very specific about that. 'Find it; do whatever it takes, but you'd better find it.' Pretty clear, huh?"

"Why would they want you to do that? What's the point?" Said Hikari as he came closer.

Akito shrugged and grinned widely at her. "To kill you, of course."

There was a stony silence for a moment as Hiroki and Hikari stared at their friend in horror, all movement in the cabin stilled.

He couldn't be serious could he? The sword at his side said he very well could. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Hiroki was expecting Akito to start laughing, a "Gotcha!" at the tip of his tongue. But there was absolutely nothing in Akito's face that showed he was joking. Akito began approaching again, breaking the spell and causing the two twins to slowly back up towards their beds.

Then a chilling thought struck Hiroki: the dorms were too far away from the other houses. While it was good for the apprentices' privacy, it also meant that they were too far away to call out for help. No one would hear their screams. And for another thing, as he turned to quickly look at the other apprentices behind him, he also realized that he and his sister were the oldest ones here aside from Akito. The two glanced to each other, a plan slowly forming between them. But for now they had to keep Akito talking.

"Why do you want to kill us?" He asked as calmly as possible while still backing up slowly. He was praying to every deity he knew that Akito wouldn't catch on to what they were doing.

Akito shrugged and looked almost hurt by Hiroki's cold tone.

"I didn't want to kill anyone at first. It seemed like a lot of work, and there was all sorts of possibilities for failure. I could get caught, get killed, get injured, not to mention the punishment that I would get if I tried to go home after failing to complete my mission. It is a rather important one, after all."

"Why do they want you to do this? What's in it for them?"

Akito paused to think this over, cocking his head gently to the side in thought before smiling. "Revenge." He then nodded like he was warming up to the idea, "Yeah, revenge. And it's all a part of their strategy. They want me to kill everyone in this building so that Bluestar Village will have less warriors than mine later on in life, making it an easier target. You see, my village was made fairly recently. Just a couple decades ago, really. And it was created by the same outlaws, criminals, and bandits that Bluestar Village had cast off because they were 'dangerous'," he rolled his eyes and drew quotation marks in the air with his free hand. "And the village elders thought that it would be great if all of Bluestar's apprentices were murdered by one of our own. So, here I am!" Akito was laughing now.

"I still didn't want to do it, though. So they sent me on a spying mission first, apparently hoping I'd see just how great you guys have it up here and decide to kill you all out of spite or envy, not that it worked. I was going to just go fishing and go home, since there was no way for them to tell if I really did it or not, but then I got to meet the two of you."

He just kept coming, slowly, ever so slowly gaining ground on them. After all, the only door was behind him, and all of the children were running out of room to back up into. Hiroki and Hikari had almost reached their beds by now.

"I was really shocked to run into you guys so far outside of your village. I kinda thought that the adults of your village coddled you close to the others in case you scraped your knees or something. But then I figured, why not? So I decided to get some information out of you and then maybe kill you out there. But while we were talking, I was thinking things over. If I did kill you, then people would come looking for you and might just realize that someone was out here killing off apprentices. Then they would come after me to kill me too, and I couldn't have that! Then I realized something else." He began smiling at Hiroki alone, not unlike the way he was smiling at him that first day they met.

"I realized that, for some reason, I really really liked you. You were fun to be around, kind of pretty-" Hiroki sputtered indignantly, "and just talking to you made me happy. I couldn't understand it." His glance slid to Hikari and his face formed a sneer, "She looked almost exactly like you, but I didn't feel anything for her. Well, I did feel something: it was kind of like a deep annoyance. I don't like people in general, but for some reason I seem to dislike her more than I do other people. I don't find her pretty, I don't like talking to her, and every time she would start to take your attention away from me I wanted to slap her across the face. I hadn't really felt like that before, either." He laughed, then turned his attention back to Hiroki.

"When I got back I told them what I'd learned, but that I still didn't want to do it. Then the village elders had a meeting to see what they could do to get me to do it, and they found it. Honestly, I probably would never have agreed if it wasn't for that one reward they promised me."

Hiroki suddenly felt the sharp edge of his bedframe digging into his legs. He looked over and saw that Hikari had reached hers as well. Her bed was directly across the room from his, so she still had some space between herself and Akito. But Akito was getting closer and closer to Hiroki with every step. He saw her hand sneak under the mattress before he tore his eyes away to look at those Akito's, which still held something strange within their gaze. His own hand, much slower since he held the majority of Akito's attention, slid under his own mattress behind his back.

'It's almost time… not yet,' He kept chanting in his head as Akito began closing in. He had to keep him distracted!

"S-so, what did they offer you? To kill us, I mean?"

This caused his former friend to stop in his tracks and smile brightly at Hiroki.

"You."

The whole room grew dead silent. Hikari was looking at who she thought was her friend with complete shock and horror, but Hiroki didn't see it. He was transfixed by the look on Akito's face, his own horror creeping in on him from all sides. There was a sort of roaring in his ears and he felt a little dizzy. Hiroki's mind shut down and was unable to process anything except the boy in front of him.

"What… what do you... mean?"

"Exactly what I said. They told me that if I did well and killed all of the brats here that I could take one home as a trophy, alive, as my own personal slave. And I want you. It'll be great! I'll never have to share you with anyone else again, you will come and live with me, and since you belong to me no one can take you away." He flicked the sword a little, causing it to glint from what little light there was in the room. "I won't let them."

Seeing the look on Hiroki's face caused Akito to deflate a little in concern. "What's wrong? Don't you want to be with me? I like you so much! I think I might even love you! I would do everything you need, like protect you, get stuff for you, play with you, anything you need! Aren't you happy, Hiroki?"

Not seeing any change in Hiroki's horrified expression, Akito looked around. His face brightened and he backed away from Hiroki, much to the younger boy's relief. Which was short lived.

"I know! You must be afraid I'm gonna hurt you since I'm about to kill them! Well, I'm not; I would never intentionally hurt you. Maybe you just need time to get used to the idea. Once I kill Hikari and the rest of these twerps I'll take you to your new home. I know that it might be a little much to take in, but I'm sure you'll see things my way soon."

But Hiroki wasn't paying attention anymore; he had slipped even further into shock at what he was hearing. All of this time his friend had been plotting to literally stab them in the backs, but not him? Why not him? Because he loved him? He would happily kill all of the people Hiroki knew and loved as family and friends, including his own twin sister, just so that he could keep Hiroki locked away somewhere to himself? The thought alone was almost enough for Hiroki to be violently sick on the floor. That's when he realized what it was he saw in Akito's eyes: pure insanity. Akito was insane.

Not noticing this, Akito tried to move forward towards the others only to find his way blocked. Hiroki was brought out of his stupor by the sound of swords clashing together. He snapped his head up to see that Hikari had moved to intercept Akito with pure fire in her eyes.

So that is what it was the whole time... He had betrayed them. Had always meant to betray them. All of those strange looks. Everything made so much more sense now. At first she was hurt, but then determination slowly took its place as she saw how terrified the younger children were and the look on her brother's face as he learned the horrible truth. And now Akito not only wanted to take away her life and her friends' lives, he wanted to take Hiroki away to his own personal hell. Well, she wouldn't LET HIM!

Pulling her katana out from under her mattress, she unsheathed it and in one full swing had begun the lethal exchange with her now-enemy. He blocked the oncoming blade and used the momentum to push himself backwards to get better footing.

Brought out of his trance, Hiroki reached back under his futon and pulled out his own sword with a growl. His infamous anger was coming back and there was no way in hell he was going to just sit there and become some reward for slaughter. And with a ferocity that he never knew he had, he leapt into the fray just in time to block a swipe aimed for his sister's head.

Akito wasn't particularly surprised when Hiroki began to fight. It just wasn't in his nature to accept change very easily. He knew that after a while of living with him, Hiroki would get used to him again and they could be together. Sure he'd be upset with him at first, but he would make it up to him so that he could be forgiven. But for now, he just needed to be certain not to seriously hurt Hiroki while he dealt with the others. Otherwise he would be in too much pain for the journey to his new home.

They went back and forth, knocking aside beds and tables as they went. Various items became knocked off of their perches and smashed to the ground as the three fighters darted around each other. Between the two of them, Hiroki and Hikari were evenly matched against Akito's age and height advantage. Hiroki found himself in a mostly defensive position. Akito's focus was mainly on his sister, and it felt like he was just attacking Hiroki to get him out of the way of his real target. This pricked at his pride and caused Hiroki to attack even more fiercely. Every so often he would glance at the others to check on their condition before his focus would be dragged back to the fight at hand. He couldn't afford to be distracted. Akito was definitely holding back while fighting Hiroki, but he was flat out trying to kill Hikari.

The other apprentices kept themselves huddled in the back of the cabin, some of the older ones keeping guard in front of their kouhei's. They weren't old enough to be of much use in the actual fight, but they could possibly slow Akito down long enough for the others to get away. If it came down to that. But they watched in horror and wariness as the fight went on, preparing for anything that might happen.

It went on for what seemed like forever, but eventually they could feel the end of it all coming near. The three former friends were covered in cuts and bruises, blood dripping down from both their bodies and swords. All of them were panting harshly, Akito still focused intently on Hikari with venomous eyes. So far none of the other children had been hurt, but it could still end in either parties favor. Even two against one, they were too evenly matched.

He couldn't believe it! He was just supposed to have killed the brats and be well on his way home with Hiroki by now! Akito glared at Hikari with all the hatred he could muster. It was her fault, he was sure. Why else would Hiroki be so violent towards him? She must have done something when he wasn't looking, must have said something to him… He would make her pay. With this thought in mind, Akito decided enough was enough. He was determined that Hikari was going to die right that moment, the rest of the world be hung. No one would keep him from his Hiroki. It was time to end this.

Putting all of his effort into it, he put all the force he could manage into one final strike. Pushing forward into a lunge, he smirked when he saw Hikari's eyes widen in fear as she realized there was no way she could block him in time. She clenched her eyes shut, preparing for the blow…

Hiroki saw what was about to happen from a few feet away. Knew what Akito was about to do. Hikari would never be able to dodge in time. His body acted before his mind had a chance to catch up, everything feeling like it was slow motion and his body was moving through water. He pushed Hikari out of the way with his shoulder, landing in the place where she once was and bringing his own sword up in a wide slash. Akito's own eyes widened in shock as Hiroki's sword struck him across the chest, sinking deep into his flesh and the force of it propelling him backward and knocking him out when he hit the floor... but not before his own sword pushed completely through Hiroki's chest, very close to where his heart was.

As Akito lay motionless on the floor, Hiroki staggered back. The blade was still imbedded deeply into his body, and Hiroki had begun to cough up blood as he whimpered in pain. He hurt so bad that he couldn't even scream due to how his throat was locked tight. Through the pain he could only catch on to a few of the scattered thoughts that managed to leak through the pain. His main thought was about how much it hurt and how he was only nine, he wasn't supposed to feel this much pain when he was only nine. The only other thought he had, childish as it was, was about how he was scared and wanted his sister.

Hikari looked up from where she had fallen just in time to see the aftermath of what her brother had done.

"HIROKI!"

She jumped up and caught him just as he was beginning to fall. She held him close and tried to get his attention, but his eyes were unfocused and he was having a hard time breathing through the blood. She looked over to Akito and saw that he was alive, just unconscious. Hikari then turned to the other apprentices.

"Quick! Someone help, he's hurt!"

A few of the braver apprentices immediately rushed over and helped her to pull the sword out of Hiroki and put him gently on her bed. They sent one of the apprentices to run to the village to get help while the others stayed behind. Most of the apprentices set about restraining Akito as much as they could. They searched him for any more weapons, tied his feet and legs together, tied his hands together tightly behind his back, pulled his legs up behind him to tie his feet and hands together with a short bit of cloth, and then used whatever else they could find to tie him to a bed in the farthest corner they could find from both the door and the bed that held Hiroki.

Those who weren't helping with the new prisoner were with Hiroki trying to stop or slow the bleeding, using strips of sheets as bandages. But it wasn't working. They had even tried to have one of the heavier apprentices sit on his chest in an attempt to put pressure on the wound, but it just wasn't helping. Hiroki was fading in and out of consciousness, holding tightly to his sister's hand for whatever comfort he could get. She cried as she held on to him just as tightly, feeling it was all her fault for not realizing what kind of person Akito was sooner. Hikari prayed that the messenger they sent would get there soon, she could feel Hiroki getting colder as the minutes drew on…

That night, everyone in the village had been awoken by the desperate and frantic screams of an apprentice. He had been taken directly to the village head and Medicine Man had been sent for. It had taken some time, but they eventually got the child calm enough to tell them what happened. When they heard what was happening, they wasted no time and rushed over to the building immediately, Medicine Man and his kit in the lead. Matsuda had also gone with them, concerned about what was happening where his friends were. As they neared it, they heard a sound that sent cold shivers up their spine. It was dead silent except for the sound of a single girl's wails of agony.

This made them go even faster until they finally made it into the Apprentice's Dorm. Four of the young apprentices were standing by a bed that had what they suspected to be the culprit bound tightly with their swords drawn, but most of them were surrounding another bed closer to the door where they stood. All of them (except the 'guards') had their heads bowed with a look of deep sadness and pain on all of their faces. Those who were standing by the prisoner had looks of rage and hatred directed at the person they watched, sword hands shaking with repressed emotion. Village Head Kouta and Medicine Man pushed their way through to the front of the larger group and froze. Hikari half lay on the bed, her cries being the one's they heard, clutching desperately to the hand of the person laying on the bed. They looked closer and saw that she was holding her brothers hand-

-And he wasn't moving.

Immediately the two older men rushed toward the bed. Kouta grabbed a hold of his granddaughter and tried to gently move her away. This caused her to go into hysterics, desperately fighting to not be removed from her brother's side. She fought his hold, chanting "NO! NO! NO!" over and over again. While he dealt with her, Medicine Man placed his hand on Hiroki's neck. It was cold and there was no pulse. He checked for other signs, and learned from them that little Hiroki had been dead for about ten minutes now.

Hikari knew this. She felt it the exact moment that Hiroki died. But she didn't want to leave him, despite how her grandfather tried to pull her away, she couldn't stand the thought of leaving her brother alone on the bed like that. But her grandfather didn't try to make her leave the room, only took her to a corner and tried to calm her down.

Matsuda then made his own way to the front and was horrified at what he found. One of his two best friends was in great pain and the other one was dead on the bed in front of him. After a few seconds, his vision began to blur with his own unshed tears and he couldn't stand to look at his poor friend anymore. So instead, he went over to the only one he was still able to help and tried to help her grandfather to calm her down. He wrapped her up in a hug and let her cry into his shoulder as he tried to keep his own pain at bay for her sake. While she was thinking about how it must be her fault for not realizing Akito's true nature, Matsuda was thinking about how it must be his fault since he wasn't there for his two best friends when they needed him the most. He felt that even if he was a year older than them, they shouldn't have been left to fight for their lives by themselves. He should have been there to help them, and now Hiroki was dead because of it. So he did the only thing he could do, try to comfort the only one of his two best friends he had left.

While he did that, Medicine Man went around and talked to the other children as Warriors dragged the unconscious murderer away to be locked in the dungeon. From what he heard, Hiroki had died a hero's death to save the other apprentices when he was the only one that was going to be spared. He looked over to the body of the young man with pride in his eyes. That took courage, and a lot of it.

He slipped into his thoughts, tuning the world out as he turned the problem in his head. He needed to think quickly or the opportunity would pass. He looked around and saw that some of the other warriors were about to cover Hiroki's body and move it to the burial ground. He rushed over to stop them, an idea already forming in his head. After ensuring they would do nothing to it without his say-so, he reached into his bag and pulled out a vial of purple liquid.

Before anything else could be done, he needed to do this. He walked over to where his Village Head and the two apprentices were sitting and gave the bottle to Hikari with a simple order to drink. She stared at him blankly for a moment before the order made it through her grief. When it did, she did as she was told, too tired and pain stricken to argue. 'Good,' the masked man thought to himself, 'That will keep her from being dragged into death by her link with her twin. Now I just have the one to deal with.' He looked over with determination and newfound respect at the body of the little nine year old and began giving his orders.

Kouta, despite the great sadness and anger at losing his only grandson, noticed immediately that things were now being done and that he had no knowledge of it. He approached Medicine Man.

"What's happening? Why isn't Hiroki being prepared for burial?"

Medicine Man did not look up from his task, which was checking through his bag to ensure he had the proper materials needed for what was to come. When he spoke, it was calm and with perfect clarity, the seriousness of the situation subduing his childish tendencies for the moment.

"He will not be buried. Hiroki needs to be prepared for something else."

Satisfied with the contents of his bag, he snapped it closed and followed the warriors who were carrying Hiroki's body out on a stretcher. The remaining warriors were busy escorting the apprentices back to the village for the night, as it would be impossible for them to remain where they were. Hikari and Matsuda hadn't gone with them, and instead tried to follow her brother. When they saw the exchange between Medicine Man and Kouta, she stopped and went over to them.

"Where are they taking Hiroki, Grandfather?"

He looked down at her in confusion, "What do you mean? Aren't they taking him back to the village?"

She shook her head as Matsuda also approached. "No, they're going down the road into the woods. Why? What are they going to do with Hiroki?!" She was starting to break down again, the stress of the situation and not knowing what was going to happen was getting to her. Matsuda wrapped her back up into his arms as she began to shake.

Kouta looked over at Medicine Man. He would have growled and really given the man some painful memories if he didn't already know what the man was like. And the man always did things the things he did for a very, very good reason. That was pretty much the only thing keeping his fist from flying into a mask at that moment. But if he didn't have a good reason for this, Kouta would personally ensure that there would be hell to pay. For now, he would give the man the benefit of the doubt.

"That's a good question. Where are they taking my grandson?" He asked him.

Medicine Man looked between the grandfather and granddaughter before kneeling down to be at Hikari's eye level. He made her look him in the eyes and made absolutely sure he had her full attention.

"We're going to bring him back."

They had needed to move quickly, while the full moon was still out. Medicine Man saw to all the preparations himself, making sure that everything was just so. The warriors who brought Hiroki's body to the site had been dismissed, the only ones allowed to be there were Medicine Man, Kouta, Matsuda, Hikari,… and Hiroki. Kouta objected to the two apprentices being there, but Medicine Man said that having his twin there could help draw Hiroki back. Matsuda was allowed to stay because he was the only source of comfort Hikari had at the moment. Other than that, no one else was allowed to see what was about to happen. This was an extremely sacred ritual and only a small number were allowed to witness it.

Hiroki's body had been patched up as best they could and prepared with the special herbs that Medicine Man had collected over the years. They stood at the edge of a large pond in the middle of the woods. Almost directly above it hung the full moon. This area was so secluded that Medicine Man needed to personally guide the group to it so that they could take Hiroki's body there. He had discovered it some decades ago and the certain… qualities it possessed. He decided that now would be the best time to use it.

He looked down at Hiroki's body laying at his grandfather's feet, now stripped naked in nothing but a white cloth to give any sense of decency. All of his wounds were laid bare in the pale moonlight, the wind gently caressing his face and running through his hair. His face looked peaceful and relaxed, as if he was only asleep. But no breath came from his body, and no warmth from the summer night was able to reach him where he was. He looked back up at the moon. That would soon change. It was almost time.

He looked around at the pond. All those present were stationed at different parts of the pond, surrounding it. All eyes were on him, but not a sound was heard aside from the wind gently rustling around them. He picked up a small hand drum and mallet laying at his own feet and began to hit it in a soft and steady rhythm, nodding to Kouta who bent and picked up the still body at his feet. Medicine Man began to chant lowly under his breath in the language that he had learned so long ago, rarely heard now. Kouta began to walk with the body into the water before stopping and placing the body in and backing out back to the shore as Medicine Man continued chanting.

The body slid down below the surface of the water, floating until it was at the very center of the pond, resting at the very bottom. The moon drifted to the center of the sky, directly above Hiroki's body and perfectly placed above the water. The whole pond began to slowly glow white, the water brightening until it hurt to see. Everyone began shielding their eyes, forced to look away from the small figure at the bottom. Even Medicine Man had to look away, but what happened next would be completely up to Hiroki. There was nothing else they could do.

Hiroki woke up to what felt like complete numbness. Well, not really woke up: it felt more like he came into awareness. Into being. It was hard to describe. Just that one minute he was… somewhere and the next he was here. There was no feeling of warmth or of coolness around him, no temperature whatsoever. But there should be one, shouldn't there? It was summer after all… As his memory began to return, his eyes snapped open. Or had they always been open?

Akito had betrayed him and his sister! The last thing he remembered was being in a lot of pain and then having that pain be slowly replaced with cold… it was so cold…

He was dead… wasn't he? He looked around, but didn't recognize where he was. The area he was in was surrounded by black in all directions. He sat up and looked down at the ground he was sitting on only to find that it wasn't made of any material he recognized. It had no discernable texture and the only way he could describe it was… white. It was just a flat white thing he was sitting on. He looked further and found that it was a sort of large round white thing he was sitting on. It extended into a circle, the center of which he was laying on, and expanded outwards only to fade away at the edges into the blackness as solid as walls.

Seeing nothing else, he decided to look down at his bedclothes, the same ones he had fought Akito in, and was shocked to find there wasn't a single tear in sight. Looking inside he wasn't able to see any of the wounds he distinctly remembered getting before coming here. This simply wasn't possible. He felt the pain of those wounds, he knew he did! It couldn't have been a dream, and even if it was, where was he now? He sat there staring at his lap for a while before he determined that he should see where the blackness led to if it led to anywhere.

He got up to do just that, but when he looked up he was shocked to see three doors lined up beside each other that had not been there before. He whipped around and saw that there was a single door behind him which hadn't been there before either. Feeling more than a little freaked out with this turn of events, he debated what to do. Eventually he came to the conclusion that he'd rather something bad happen than to be stuck someplace and have nothing happen at all.

He began by trying the door that appeared behind him since it was somewhat isolated from the other three. When he looked closer, it was a very pale shade of dark gray. To his surprise, it was locked, and no matter what he did (kicked it, hammered on it, pushed, pulled, etc.) nothing happened. Eventually he gave up on that door and moved on to the one to the right of it, which was the leftmost one in the small group that had appeared in front of him.

This one appeared to be a white color, and was cool to the touch. Not cold, but still too chilly to be pleasant. He didn't expect anything different from the last one, so he was mildly surprised when the doorknob turned easily in his hand. What he really wasn't expecting was that when it opened, the inside looked like it was coated in white. He looked even closer and could see what looked like people sitting in a group on the ground. He almost didn't see them at first because they were also wearing white.

They weren't doing anything at all, just… sitting there. Then he saw something that looked like a human statue with wings float by. It wasn't flying, even though it had wings, but it looked like it was being dragged through the air by an invisible string, not moving a single muscle. The thing looked very beautiful, but the way it moved without moving unnerved the small boy. Not to mention that while beautiful, the face held no expression. It was almost like it was trying to look human but was failing. He looked around from the safety of the doorway and saw that more creatures like the one he saw were circling around the small huddles of people. He didn't understand what was going on, but saw something very strange. One of the people sitting on the ground stood up and tried to move away from the group she was with. She didn't get very far before one of the winged creatures went over to her and, with very little effort, turned the woman around and sat her back down with her previous group. The woman tried doing this a couple times with the same result before finally giving up and staying where she was put.

Hiroki watched all of this with great confusion. Why were those people being made to sit together like that? Why weren't they doing anything? What were those things flying around? He was jerked out of his thoughts as one of the flying things noticed him and began that strange movement toward him. It began to hold out its hand to take a hold of him like it did that woman in what could possibly be described as an inviting gesture. As it neared him, Hiroki backed out of the doorway quickly and closed the door, trying to block it with his body. Whatever was going on down there, he didn't think he wanted any part of it.

After a while of nothing happening, Hiroki deemed it safe to move away since it didn't look like that thing was trying to open the door. With a wary glance, he cracked the door open again and looked inside only to instantly slam it shut again with a gasp. The thing… had been right at the door, still holding out its hand to grab a hold of him.

Hiroki was certain he would not try to open that door again.

Much more wary this time, he went over to the door farthest away from the white one and found that it was a very washed out shade of red, pink almost. He approached it like you would a wild animal, and slowly reached out his hand to the doorknob. He immediately jumped back, screaming, once his skin touched it. The handle was burning hot and as soon as he touched it he could hear horrible screams of agony and fear coming from behind the door. Now that he was far away from it, the screams vanished, but the sound of them still rung in his head. It was the worst thing he had ever heard, and he hoped to NEVER hear anything like that again. Never again in his life! He didn't know what was behind that door, and he didn't want to know. He absolutely refused to touch that doorknob again either.

He looked down at where the knob had burned him and was more than a little shocked to see that there wasn't any damage at all to his skin. It had hurt very badly, so he had been sure he was burned. But he wasn't. By this point, the fact that nothing was making sense was really starting to tick him off.

So he decided to stand back and review what he knew. The door at his back refused to open (and at this point he wasn't sure he wanted it to), the door to his left opened up to some freaky world were people sat in huddled groups and were kept there by some sort of statue things, the one on his right burned him and had… something… really bad happening behind it. The one in front of him is the only one he hadn't tried yet, but at this point he wasn't sure if he was going to.

Unfortunately, he was soon faced with the same problem that had gotten him to trying the doors in the first place. He also had no way of telling time in this strange place so he could have been sitting there staring at those doors for what could have been minutes or just as easily have been hours. If he didn't do something soon, he was going to go mad.

Eventually enough was enough. Hiroki was going to open that door, but first he was going to be smart about it. He slowly approached it, taking note of its minty green color and reaching out to touch the doorknob before jumping away. Nothing happened. He approached it again and this time grabbed hold of the handle. The knob felt pleasantly warm in his hand. He put his ear up against it, but only hear the faintest of rustling sounds.

He built up his courage and opened the door a little crack to look inside. He was greeted with a very pleasant breeze ruffling his hair around his head. Feeling a little more confident, he opened the door all the way, revealing… a trail?

It looked just like a forest trail back home on Bluestar Mountain. There was a dirt path on the ground surrounded on all sides with a beautiful canopy of leaves, casting the path into soothing shade. There was luscious green grass on either side of the path, and the sound of living creatures was all around. It was all very pleasant, nothing like the other doors. The area inside the white door was unpleasantly cool and everything felt so very still and quiet; the very air seemed to stay absolutely still. The red door was burning hot and the gray door he couldn't even open! But this one seemed to be a lot more welcoming and natural than the other doors. He tried looking down the path to see where it might lead to, but it just seemed to go on and on before disappearing through the trees. But… somehow… he got the feeling that there was something truly amazing at the end of it. Something that well worth traveling down that path to find.

As he watched on in awe, he was brought out of his thoughts when he saw something flutter down and land on the pathway in front of him. He looked down and saw a red-tailed hawk standing on the pathway, looking right back him. He expected it to turn around and fly away after seeing him, but it didn't. This confused Hiroki, who didn't know why it was there. But the creature seemed to have a strange intelligence behind its gaze. It called to him, then looked back over its own shoulder to where the path led. Then it looked back at him, called again, and took off to land in the branches of a nearby tree, getting out of the way of the path, but was still looking at him.

It's strange, but to Hiroki it felt like it was inviting him to go down the pathway, like that statue-like thing did. But unlike it, he kind of felt the urge to go, to find out where it leads. He took a step back into the 'room' he had previously woken up in and looked around. There wasn't much reason to stay there, the only thing he could see that the room did was provide a place for the doors to appear. This door was the most pleasant one he'd encountered, but he got the feeling that if he went through any of these doors there would be no coming back out. He had no clue why he felt that way, but he did. He looked back into the green doorway and the hawk was still standing there looking at him. When it noticed him looking, it flapped its wings once and looked back down the pathway.

Hiroki was still a little hesitant, but as he got closer a strong and warm wind blew out of the door and surrounded him. It wasn't strong enough to knock him down, but it felt really good for some reason. Like it could just pick him up and carry him away with it. He was once again broken out of his thoughts as the hawk called again and flapped some to hover over its branch. Hiroki wondered if that is what it felt like to be a bird. To be able to fly and be carried off by the wind… wouldn't that be amazing? Hiroki smiled a little at the thought.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad going through this door? He thought it was far more preferable to the other ones. And with that he made his choice.

But as he began to set foot into the green doorway, he heard a door creak open behind him. Setting his foot back into the room, he turned and saw the door that had been locked behind him was now swung completely open.

Inside it was completely dark, from what he could see, and that bothered him. He couldn't see anything beyond the doorway. He didn't want to, but he got closer to it anyway. When he got to the doorway, he thought he heard voices. They were very indistinct at first but became clearer and clearer to longer he listened. They were… calling his name? At this he listened even harder, closing his eyes so he could concentrate better.

In time, he could put each voice to a name and a face.

His grandfather… his sister… Matsuda… Medicine Man…

All of them were calling his name, as if he was lost and they were trying to find him…

Was he lost?

He looked back at the doorway he had been about to go through, and walked back over to it, keeping an eye on the gray door in case it decided to shut again. The hawk was still there, and Hiroki had this strange urge to talk. So, talk he did.

"I can hear my family calling, its coming from that door over there," he told it. "Is it really them?" He felt kind of stupid for asking this to a bird of all things; at least, he did until it nodded. He was slightly taken aback by this, but since when did ANYTHING here make sense? Hiroki figured he'd just roll with it.

"So they're through that door, and I'm here. Does that mean I'm dead?" Another nod.

"So through that door… is life? My old life?" Nod.

"And that means it's safe to go through there?" At this the hawk shook its head. Hiroki was confused until he suddenly realized his mistake and facepalmed. If the living world was safe then how did he end up here in the first place? He peaked through his fingers at the forest path ahead of him and looked back to the bird almost shyly.

"Is… is this path safe?" The bird nodded and flew from its branch to land back on the path like it did when it first arrived.

He heard the soft calling of his family behind him again, and half turned to look.

"This path is safe, but I won't see my family for a long time if I go here, will I?" It was a rhetorical question, but when he looked back the bird nodded anyway.

Hiroki bit his lip, thinking things over in his head. "What should I do?" He looked over at the small creature, but it wasn't doing anything. It stared right back at him, not gesturing in any direction.

"It's my choice? You can't help me?" Finally the bird nodded.

Hiroki sighed and sat down on the ground just in the doorway, facing the hawk. "If I go back… will I ever return here again? Will I ever have the chance to come back here if I choose to go home?" The hawk called and nodded its head. Hiroki nodded back to it, and just sat there a moment enjoying the warm breeze.

If he continued forward, he was sure that he'd never have to worry about being hurt ever again. The agony of his impalement, while not physically there anymore, was still fresh in his mind and he gave a visible shudder at the memory. But sitting here, leaning a little on the doorway and starring off down the way surrounded by a gentle breeze, warm air, and the sound of leaves rustling, he felt more at peace than he could ever remember. He closed his eyes to savor the moment, and the sound of his family calling out to him grew just a little bit louder.

He didn't want to be hurt again, but… he would miss his family if he left. All of his friends, all of his family, everyone. Besides, there was so much he still hadn't done. He was only nine years old, was he really okay leaving things as they are? He opened his eyes again, his mind set.

He then got up, thanked the hawk (feeling a little out of his mind for doing so) and then ran straight through the gray doorway not once looking back. If he had, he would have seen the green door gently swing closed as the hawk took to the air once again, back to resume its job of watching over a certain brunette haired boy that was about to wake back up (1), revealing a long stretch of silver feathers lining its back.

The light faded from the water of the pond, and from the boy residing within it. The body floated to the surface and the waves made by the spell carried it onto the shore. All of the people present rushed over to where it washed up, eager to see if it had worked. Kouta got there first and skidded to a stop, kneeling. He pressed his fingers frantically to Hiroki's throat, laughing giddily when he felt warmth and movement under the skin. With a shout of happiness, he hugged his now living grandson to him in a massive bear hug. He couldn't be happier as the soft puffs of warm breath tickled the hairs at the back of his neck.

He held the boy bridal style and tilted him outwards to show the people clustered around him. Hiroki's eyes were still gently shut, but there was now movement behind them. The wounds that had covered his body were now nearly invisible scars, including the one that had claimed his life. Hiroki was now completely healed and sleeping, no longer dead.

Hikari rushed over to him and hugged her twin close, crying again. Matsuda went over and wrapped both twins into his own embrace. Medicine Man watched on, smiling, letting them have their moment before deciding to intervene. He walked over and knocked both young apprentices across the head.

"Ow!"

"Hey!"

He waged a finger at them, back to his childish self now that the danger had passed. "No! You squishy him! He no breathe good if you squishy him!"

THAT caused both children to immediately back off. Hikari winced a little as the sudden movement pulled on some of her wounds. Seeing this, he gestured over to his medical bag and they went over to it so that he could fix her up.

Not daring to put his grandson down just yet, Kouta walked over to them with Hiroki still sleeping in his arms.

"I can't thank you enough. You've given me back my grandchild; there's no possible way for me to repay you, but I will do my best."

Medicine Man looked over to the still sleeping Hiroki. "Hiro be hero. No one forget," he nodded to himself as he went back to patching up the other twin.

Hikari looked over with mild disbelief in her eyes. He was back. Hiroki was fine. Alive. She now had another chance to protect him, she would make sure that nothing like this ever happened again. Her face darkened, remembering who was truly responsible for all this pain.

"Grandfather?"

He looked up from where he, too, was staring at Hiroki with disbelief. "Yes?"

"What will happen to Akito?"

That got everyone's attention, as they all waited for a reply. Kouta thought about it for a moment, looking at Hiroki and then looking around him at the people present.

"You mean the boy who killed Hiroki?"

She nodded, now realizing that in all the time they knew Akito they had never thought to tell their grandfather, or anyone else for that matter, about him. Every time they were asked where they were, they would simply say they were off playing. They never meant to keep Akito a secret, but they just never thought to tell others about him. They had told Matsuda, but he hadn't thought to tell anyone either. She felt her heart drop into her stomach when she realized that they had basically set themselves up for the surprise attack. Finding a stranger on the mountain that they didn't know anything about… why hadn't they thought to report it? Because it was a child like them? She had been a fool, and Hiroki had paid the ultimate price for her stupidity. 'Never again,' she silently promised the unconscious boy in her grandfather's arms.

Meanwhile, her grandfather was still thinking. He grunted to regain Hikari's attention.

"Tell me about him. About everything. Start from the beginning."

Hikari looked out of the jeep and growled to herself as she remembered what had been decided about the traitor. Because he was an apprentice of another village and they couldn't prove that he was sent there on the other village's orders, they weren't able to sentence Akito to death. If they killed him, it would have started a war between the two villages. The bloodshed would have gotten the attention of outside forces who would force their way into the whole business. They couldn't forget that while things may have stayed the same on the mountain for centuries, things in the outside world had changed. The only thing they were able to do was lock him up in the dungeon for the rest of his life for murder. Hell, the bastard was alive even now.

To this day, Akito was the only permanent resident of the dungeons. He's always kept under close supervision and well-guarded. Even though he hasn't seen sunlight in years, the boy- now man- was extremely dangerous and just as insane as he was that day he had attacked the Nursery. After he woke up, Akito was immediately taken to stand trial in front of the whole village. During questioning the only response they could get out him was shouts of how Hiroki now belonged to him, was now his property, and how he would kill them all and take what was his.

Hikari had gone to see the trial and smiled in sadistic glee at the look of despair on his face when they told him that he, Akito, had killed Hiroki with his own sword. That was the first time the whole trial that Akito actually got quiet. The murderer looked like he was about to break down and cry right there in the court room, but no one spared him an ounce of pity. They knew he wasn't sorry for what he tried to do, just that the one person he wanted was killed in his attempt.

Medicine Man was then called up to tell the rest of the village what happened after Akito had been knocked out, including the fact that Hiroki had died saving all of their children and that he had managed to resurrect him using an old ceremony from the ancient times, taught to him by one of the Original Masters (though he wouldn't say which one).

This snapped Akito out of his depression and he immediately demanded to see Hiroki. This, of course, was denied him. He was then informed that he would never see either of the twins again, or anything else besides the contents of his cell. At the end of the trial, they deemed him guilty of murder (though Hiroki was brought back to life, which was beside the point) and dragged him away screaming that he would break free and get his Hiroki back. According to the guards, Akito still believed he would do that one day. Hikari didn't believe him, but she was going to be well prepared for if he did.

She looked over at her brother who was still staring ahead with a faraway look in his eyes. That terrible night had left a deep scar on all of them. Especially Hiroki. When he finally woke up, he had been given a hero's welcome. Everyone in the village has a deep respect for him, particularly those who he died to protect that night, and they all still remembered the courage and strength he demonstrated in his sacrifice, going so far as to tell their students and children about it when Hiroki wasn't around. But as much as he appreciated being welcomed home, his heart just wasn't in it. He was glad that everyone was alright, but he began to have frequent nightmares about being killed and developed problems with trusting and opening up to people. The only ones he allowed close at the time were the same ones that had seen his resurrection that night.

After what happened that night, Medicine Man had grown a special fondness for the little brunette. He was even there when the boy woke up, making sure that everything was fine. Hiroki would often go to Medicine Man when he needed advice or to tell him about his problems, staying afterwards to help with whatever the man needed.

Hikari herself had become even more protective of her brother than she had been in the past, not that he minded. At that time he had needed all of the support he could get. He had told her about what he experienced while dead, and it had taken a bit of time but she believed him. Could you blame her? What she heard was absolutely insane! But bringing someone back from the dead sounded just as insane, didn't it?

Matsuda had also changed. He, too, became protective of the two twins, especially Hikari (much to her surprise). They had grown even closer due to that experience, and she would never forget the way he held her as her whole world was shattered by the death of her only sibling. He began to ensure from that moment on that he made time for them, despite his training. Matsuda was also there for her after her forced separation from her twin not long after that. Over time they only grew closer and closer, until finally they reached the point they were at now: happily married with a beautiful baby girl.

But after that incident all those years ago, the whole Nursery was left to rot as it was on the edge of the village. No one dared go back in after that, so it was boarded up and became reclaimed by the mountain as years passed by. They built a new one much closer, and the old one was soon put to the back of everyone's minds. It wasn't too hard to do considering it was so far out of the way, but then that was the problem with it in the first place. But Hiroki never forgot, and neither did the others there that night. What made it even worse was that not only was it a permanent reminder of that betrayal, but no one had gone in to clean it afterwards. If someone were to look in there today, it would look just the same way it did that night: beds and tables knocked over, gouges cut into the wood at random places, and Hiroki's blood covering much of the floor and one of the beds.

They didn't travel that way very often.

By the time the three of them snapped out of their memories, they were already at the base of the mountain. They looked at each other, then back the way they had come. They couldn't see anything passed the trees, but they all knew what lay back there. Overgrown with weeds and vines, left behind to rot like the murderer in the dungeons. Akito was the reason why Hiroki had been so desperate to keep Nowaki out of the dungeons. He couldn't stand the thought of such a gentle person being in the same place as that monster. Nowaki…

Hiroki looked at him as the man got out of the jeep and began grabbing bags, unknowing of the eyes following his every movement. If Akito had succeeded that night, he would never have been able to meet Nowaki. But if he had never met Akito, then he would never have been made to move to Tokyo with his parents to find him years later. For this, and this only, he was grateful to his murderer.

With a small smile that he hid behind a book, Hiroki got out of the jeep to help his boyfriend grab their things. He was more than ready to go home, and he would be going there with Nowaki. Akito and his memory could just stay locked up in that building in the woods and in the dungeons. He had his own life to live, and a good idea of who he wanted to live it with.

Hikari and Matsuda watched as the young couple began unpacking from their jeep and putting them aside. Matsuda grabbed his wife's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She looked up and saw him smiling. At her confusion, he nodded his head to where the two were and saw what he did. Hiroki was back to being his old self, hitting poor Nowaki over the head for something he had said while said 'poor' man was hugging the violently flailing professor close in a hug. Her own worries began to fade away as she began to laugh uncontrollably at the younger man's misfortune. Especially when Hiroki started flinging books in his direction. Her husband gave a sympathetic hiss as one smacked Nowaki straight between the eyes, but deep inside he was laughing too.

What had happened was in the past, and the three of them refused to give Akito the pleasure of ruining their happiness. Not after it took so long to find it.

That was Hiroki's spirit guide. The villagers take on the form of whatever their spirit guide is, which (in Hiroki's case) was a Storm Hawk. It's job is to help guide Hiroki to make his own decisions, not make them for him.

A/N: Well, isn't this sad? This will be the last chapter, and Evanescent Regret is officially done. Thank you for everyone who's kept with me so far and anyone who will read this in the future, I love all of you guys! And I hope you loved or at least liked this bonus chapter, as this is a favorite brain child of mine. But I want to know what you guys thought about it! After all, a review in my inbox is one of the MAIN reasons I get up in the morning. So, I beg and plead, PLEASE REVEW~~~~

No, seriously, I mean it: pleeeeeaaaase review! Or I'll cry. )':