Disclaimers: Don’t even.

Warnings: Sap, drama, blood and stuff; SHOUNEN AI!!!! **bright neon arrows pointing in former phrase’s direction, hehe**

Notes: For the thousandth time, thank you SO MUCH, everyone who’s reading! ^_^ And double thanks to people who reviewed. It really means a lot to me, y’know… **sniff** **dabs at eyes** No, I’m serious. I can only hope I’ll reach your expectations with the rest of this story. ^_^ Have fun, everybody!

Everything inside me screamed at me to go after him. But I couldn’t. The best I could manage was staring after him, mouth half open, shouting at him mentally to come back, please come back, and hoping for some sort of special seishi telepathic connection. Unfortunately, the magical powers that came with the job description did not appear to include such flippant accessories.

I clutched at my chest with a trembling hand, finding that whatever had been glowing had faded away. Had I imagined it? No…Gen-chan had seen it, too, I was sure he had. That’s what scared him off. That’s what made you so strong.

There was suddenly worried breathing coming from above me; a large hand, warm despite the slightly cool weather, on my face, turning it gently to stare into anxious eyes. Golden eyes. Really, they’re so pretty…

"Are you all right? Ryuuen?"

I gave a jerky little nod, trying to keep my lip from shaking and betraying me. Not that I wasn’t already betrayed by my expression and position as a whole. Not that a little shaking of the lip would really make a difference where judging my state of all rightness was concerned. But whatever. "Knew he’d flip out," I murmured. Just didn’t count on this much, really. At least he didn’t torch anything. But that’s silly, isn’t it. If he doesn’t believe us, he’s not gonna believe that Rekka Shinen thing of his will actually work.

Saihitei wrapped his arm around my shoulders and hugged me for a minute, for which I was grateful, even though I still wanted to pretend that I could look at the situation from a purely logical and unemotional perspective. He knew me better than that, though, I guess. Memories of me…of Nuriko, of who I’d been, what I’d hidden, probably tipped him off that a great deal of the time, when I claimed to be "all right," I really wasn’t.

"You had your powers back," said Saihitei. "Yanagi."

I frowned into his coat. "Wh…um, what?"

"Your seishi symbol." Pulling away, he tapped two fingers to his chest. "Yanagi. It appears when you’re channeling your seishi powers. In your case, strength."

"We should go after Genrou," I said in a feeble voice. Saihitei doesn’t seem that upset about what happened. Hm.

"Well," he said, "you’re the one who knows him the best. Do you think he’d be better off alone to deal with what just happened?"

"It’s all right," Saihitei said calmly. "We’ll find him."

About that time, I realized that he was hiding his worries over Genrou’s outburst for my sake. Trying to be in control, because one of us had to be. But it had to have hurt him, to have one of his old companions rant and rave at him like that, and accuse him of trying to screw with my mind.

"I can’t see him anywhere; he really took off." Saihitei peered down the street. "And it’s certainly getting crowded down there."

"That’s the direction of bartown," I sighed. "He’s probably there somewhere. Drinking." That way he’ll be able to convince himself that it was only a dream, or else he won’t remember anything at all.

"Well then," said Saihitei, linking his arm through mine and patting my hand. "Shall we take in the pub scene?"

I nodded. Trying to make me laugh. Wish I could. "His favorite one’s O’Brien’s. We could stop in there. The only thing is, if he doesn’t want us to find him, he’s not gonna let himself be found. He’s smart. He knows where I’d look."

We headed off toward O’Brien’s Pub, about four or five blocks away. There was no parking at all in the immediate area, so Saihitei opted to leave his car in the lot of the frozen custard place for the time being.

I hope he’s okay. We shouldn’t have told him. I KNEW this would happen. Tessen or no tessen, we shouldn’t have told him. My heart clenched tightly, because I did want him to know. But just because I personally wanted something, it didn’t mean that it was necessarily the best thing. Taka was right. We should have listened…

"Ryuuen??? I didn’t think you were the Saturday Night Barstool type!" called a voice from our left.

Looking up quickly, stopping so abruptly that I almost ran into some sorority girl with tight leather pants, I recognized Doukun and Myojuan approaching from across the street. "Ahhhh!!! I could say the same thing about you two!!" I exclaimed. "What, you’re not studying??? Are you feeling all right?"

Doukun gestured to his backpack and raised an eyebrow. "We’re going to the coffeehouse," he teased.

"Are you feeling better since Wednesday night? How’ve you been?" Myojuan inquired.

"I’m…a lot better, thanks."

"We’re going to…O’Brien’s," Saihitei told them, "if you’d care to come along."

Myojuan and Doukun looked at each other and shrugged. "It’s really not our thing," Doukun said. "But O’Brien’s isn’t that bad. I suppose for a little while. We could get dinner there."

"True," said his taller friend. "It would be nice to eat something that isn’t a cinnamon roll or…" he grimaced, "tea bread."

"He’ll be fine," Saihitei said under his breath as we headed down the street, dodging regulars with every step. "If he’s there, we’ll be careful…if not, like you said, he’d rather be on his own, anyway. I don’t know much about Genrou, but if he’s anything like Tasuki, he’ll be fine."

Wordlessly, I gestured frantically at Doukun and Myojuan walking in front of us.

"Ah, yes, well…" he cleared his throat, "I was only being polite. I didn’t actually think they would come along."

I stared at him incredulously.

"Sorry."

"He’ll be fine," Saihitei repeated, as if sensing my feelings, placing a hand on my shoulder as we turned into the pub.

O’Brien’s was a little place that reminded me of that bar from ‘Good Will Hunting.’ A sports bar, I guess you could call it; not one of those dancing places where the music was so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think, and loose women in tight pants and inconsequential shirts partied drunkenly to techno music on the dance floor. The four of us flashed our driver’s licenses at the bouncer and slid into one of the wooden booths; I scanned the crowd for Gen-chan, but, to my disappointment, didn’t see him anywhere.

"What can I get you?" Doukun asked Myojuan, preparing to go up to the counter to order some food.

"Fish and chips, and a Sprite." Myojuan held out a ten-dollar bill, and Doukun accepted it and went on his merry way.

Saihitei made a little sound that sounded like it could have been a mini laugh. When I looked at him questioningly, he only shook his head. At a loss as to why my friend’s order should be mini-laugh-worthy, I was about to shrug it off completely; but then…

…I remembered.

"So," said Myojuan to Saihitei, "we didn’t really have a chance to talk at Miaka’s party, in between the movies and the swearing and the desperate cries for pizza delivery. How do you know Miaka and Taka?"

Good question!

"Taka and I…worked together over the summer," Saihitei explained. "We found out I had transferred to the school he was attending, which made us intentionally attempt to grow closer."

Myojuan nodded thoughtfully, and Doukun returned quickly with their food. They ate and we talked, and watched the drunk people have a rip-roaring good time. (At one point, some guy with spiky black hair dropped in on our table and insisted that the four of us raise our hands and exclaim "Woo-Hoo!!!" …Yeah. Drunk people are funny.) We stayed there for about half an hour, and still no Gen-chan. When the other two had finished eating, Saihitei and I, resigned to defeat, walked back outside with them and headed toward the coffeehouse.

"You could stay with us, if you wanted to study," Doukun suggested. "I suppose you won’t have any books with you, though, now that I think about it."

"Thank you," said Saihitei graciously, "but I think we’ll be…"

And the street exploded.

~*~

All right, so the street didn’t actually explode. But the lonely diner across the street did.

The four of us, like everyone around us, were stricken into immobility, gaping at the flames that had suddenly erupted from the place. A few people screamed, and sirens were going off from somewhere… The heat crept across my face, like a mask of horror, and I knew…somehow, I just knew…

"It’s Genrou! It’s Genrou!!!" I screamed, and ran toward the burning building.

Across the empty parking lot, right up close to the flames…I saw something lying there, a body, pinned down by something heavy…

I ran over blindly with a wordless cry, sobbing in shock and apprehension, and slid to my knees before the still form, praying that it wouldn’t be him, not him, anyone but him…

…And it wasn’t. It wasn’t him.

It’s not him.

It was a dark-haired man, middle-aged, from what I could tell…unconscious, trapped beneath a large piece of wall. It was awful and selfish, but I was relieved… the smoke stung my eyes and added more force to my tears, and I just sat there, useless…

"It’s all right! It’s all right!!" An arm around my shoulders, keeping me steady; Saihitei, shouting to be heard over the screams and the sirens and the roar of the flames…

"H…Ho…" I began, trying to say his name; but he had taken control of the situation, and twisted me to look at him, his eyes burning fiercer than the fire.

"Ryuuen," he said—or rather, yelled. "Move the wall! Lift it off of him!"

I shook my head wildly. "I can’t!!" I wailed. "I can’t do it!!"

"You can!!"

"I can’t!! Saihitei, I…"

"Listen to me!!" he exclaimed firmly, his grip on my arms tightening. "You can, and you must!! Otherwise he’ll die!! He might still have a chance, but that depends on you! It all depends on you! You have to trust it!!! Trust yourself, for once!!!"

I turned to the fallen man, then looked pleadingly and wildly up at Saihitei. His face held nothing but open trust and love… And it suddenly hit me that…

Clenching my teeth together, I lunged toward the injured man and grabbed the solid, rock-like slab that held him…

I pulled upward, fully expecting my efforts to be met by firm opposition, a heavy weight that not even belief would budge. But then it happened…the burning, the glowing—even through my sweatshirt, I could see it glow—and the wall lifted, actually lifted, as if it had only been as big as a softball.

"All right…all right!" Saihitei’s soothing voice in my ear. "You did it; everything’s going to be all right! Just toss it away…and then it’s done!"

Taking a few shuddery breaths, I did just that: tossed it. It landed with a moderately large tremor about fifty feet away from us.

The man I had freed was a mess…I don’t think I’d ever seen anything like it. As a matter of fact, I knew I hadn’t…it was like a movie. It was like we were in a movie, and this wasn’t really happening at all. His chest looked as if it had been crushed; blood was seeping up through his shirt and pooling on the ground, creeping past my knees and soaking into my jeans… I wanted to move, to throw up…both, really…but I couldn’t. I could just stare, and panic…

A large form burst into my field of vision, and through my stupor, I could see another red light, the exact same hue and tone as my own… Saihitei scooted over and enveloped me in his arms, forcing my attention away from the blood, for which I could never be grateful enough. I was shaking so hard, it was like being in a go-cart, or something…

"Shh," he said, close to my ear. "Look." I shook my head, not wanting to see that sight again…but his fingers tipped my chin up, and I looked…and saw the man I had tried to save.

There was no blood.

There was no hollowness to his chest.

And he was…slowly…blinking his eyes.

My own eyes, peeled wide, more astounded than I had ever been in my entire life, raised up to see the familiar figure of Myojuan sitting to his side, peering at the man intently; his face was suddenly drawn and haggard, reflecting the orange and red of the fire I was so certain Genrou had caused. Clutching me even closer with his left arm, Saihitei abandoned me with his right, stretching it out to rest on Myojuan’s shoulder. Myojuan gave a start, looking up quickly, violet eyes both familiar and confused…

"Mitsukake," Saihitei said in a whisper that was barely heard over the stereo sound in the background, and gave the man’s shoulder a squeeze. "You’re back."

TBC…

Notes: Ummmmmmmmmm, yeah….I apologize for the melodrama. >< I’m so bad at doing action scenes. Ick. And I’m sorry this chapter’s a little shorter than it’s supposed to be, but I thought it was a good place to end, and Kaze-chan agreed with me. ^_^ So you can either blame me (which is not encouraged) or her (which would be okay, I guess). ^_^ hee hee. Sorry the past few chapters haven’t really been as funny as the first ones, because I do like doing funny stuff… ~.~()

Ryuuen: **narrating** …And the wall lifted, actually lifted, as if it had been only the size of a softball. Which was really all in a day’s work for…

**cue heroic trumpet music**

Ryuuen: **reappearing in stylish costume** ANDROGYNOUS BOYYYYY!!!! Prettier than a girl without makeup… Able to make both men and women fall for his glorious physical appeal…he defends the citizens of Earth from the evil forces of bigots everywhere!!!!! Soon to be a major motion picture starring Orlando Bloom…

Orlando Bloom: HEYYYY!!!! I’m not really androgynous!! They did that on purpose; it’s an elf thing!!

^_^

(Oh, yeah…for anyone who doesn’t know, Orlando Bloom plays Legolas in ‘The Fellowship of the Ring,’ which is a FANTASTIC movie. If you haven’t seen it already, then go!! Now!!! What are you waiting for????!!! ^_^ )

(No, seriously. I’ve seen it four times!!! Not like I’m a nerd, or anything…)