Warnings: Shounen sap, normal sap, inconsequential paragraphs, melodrama and stuff

Notes: Hope you guys like this chapter… ~.~() eheh. Thanks for reading it even if you don’t! Have fun!

Dedications: This chapter is dedicated to all the LotR fangirls/fanboys out there!! And ESPECIALLY to everyone who likes Pippin with his cool Scottish accent, and feels bad when people tease him for being accident prone and just a tad bit slow to catch on. **sniff** Seriously, I feel so bad every time Gandalf calls him a "fool of a Took." Poor Pipsqueak. ^_^ Anyhoo, later, everybody!

Myojuan returned his gaze to the man he had…healed?…and blinked. He took a few deep, calming breaths before quietly inquiring, "How…"

I felt Saihitei sigh. Yes, I thought, that means he doesn’t get it, and you’re gonna have to explain the whole thing yet AGAIN. Or at least, someone is. And where’s Gen-chan?? Where’d he go? Is he okay??

Three distinct siren noises—fire truck, police car, ambulance—circled in around us, and the middle-aged man lying on the ground looked up at us, dazed.

"You’re all right, sir," Myojuan assured him. "Just hold still. The ambulance is here." But we all knew he didn’t need one. He didn’t even have a scratch on him. Even the red stains on my jeans had disappeared.

The firemen went in with their hoses, shouting instructions at each other; a bunch of guys with stretchers raced over to the four of us. Doukun had been lost in the crowd; he’d probably been doing something sensible, like actually calling the fire department, even though those places were supposed to have radars and stuff like that anyway.

"Move back, move back!" the paramedics instructed. "Let us in!!!"

"None of us are hurt," Hotohori-sama attempted to tell them, but they didn’t listen. They did a quick check over Middle-Aged Guy, and found nothing.

"This man’s perfectly fine!" one of them exclaimed. Saihitei smiled at them blandly; they stared at him for a sec, then hurried off to the other side of the building. Some other paramedic guys without stretchers approached us then, and instructed us to please follow them into the ambulance.

"None of us are injured," Saihitei said again, sounding as if his patience was wearing the slightest bit thin.

"That may very well be, sir, but it would be better if we could at least take a look at you," said one of the men kindly.

Apparently, Saihitei understood this, as well. He climbed slowly to his feet, pulling me up with him (since I was rather firmly attached to him at the moment), and nodded. Myojuan, meanwhile, was helping Middle-Aged Guy carefully to his feet. The latter accepted his assistance, staring around at everyone and then down at himself, looking like he’d just woken up from a very strange dream…or else, looking like he was in one.

"I…I’m not hurt!" he exclaimed.

Saihitei’s body tensed in mild irritation, and I gave a breathy, pathetic giggle. We piled into the back of the ambulance along with the polite paramedic and trundled off to the hospital; I sat against my boyfriend (rather weaker "eheheh" this time, due to the fact that I was post-panic and exhausted as hell) and worried.

"Gen-chan," I rasped out as he tried to wipe the ash from my face.

"He’ll be fine. They have about a dozen paramedics over there. If he’s hurt, they’ll take care of him."

A sudden bolt of fear shot through me. Oh, no…what if Myojuan healed that perfect stranger and Genrou was lying there too somewhere, waiting for us to come?? What if he’s dead because we saved this other guy instead??!! A life is a life, I know, but goddammit, he’s my FRIEND…

"I feel just like Bruce Willis in ‘Unbreakable!’" announced Middle-Aged Guy, completely out of the blue.

Myojuan, Saihitei, the nice paramedic and I turned slowly to stare at him.

"The entire building exploded! I was on the way to my car, minding my own business… Something fell on me! I’m sure of it! But look at me: I’m perfectly all right!! I wonder if I have an evil nemesis with a big head somewhere…" He trailed off and grew pensive.

Myojuan looked over at us, raised an eyebrow, and shrugged.

There were a few more minutes of silence, during which I began to ponder whether Genrou had actually started the fire, or if I’d just automatically assumed he had because of the tessen and the fact that we were worried about him. I was about to ask Saihitei what he thought, when…

"I didn’t know people like me existed!" Middle-Aged Guy mused. "Doesn’t it seem like something out of a comic book? Well, sure…that’s what ‘Unbreakable’ was about, after all… I should write a letter to M. Night Shamayalan! Wouldn’t he be interested to know that I exist??!!"

Quiet again. My friend the med student was looking like he was regretting having saved the guy at all.

"I wonder how I broke my leg in eighth grade, if I’m immune to physical harm."

SHUT UP!!! IT WASN’T YOU!!! It was US who saved you!! Us!! UUUUUUUSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In my imagination, I dashed across the small space between us and soundly throttled the annoying megalomaniac.

"Maybe it’s something that develops gradually. Maybe they got that part wrong in the film, and it…"

"Sir," said Myojuan. "I don’t mean to be rude, but…you’ve been through a shock. Please. Try to relax."

"Please," chorused Saihitei, the Paramedic, and I.

He fell silent and gave us a timid grin, but, to the benefit of all present, shut up for the rest of the trip. If he hadn’t, we might have been forced to do something drastic.

I wanted to stay with Saihitei when we got to the emergency room, but they wouldn’t let me. I was ushered into a small "chamber" surrounded by a curtain, where a female East Indian doctor made me take off my shirt and looked surprised to see that my chest was flat. She recovered more admirably than most, though, and asked me all sorts of questions about where I was when the fire broke out, if I felt any difficulty breathing, yadda yadda yadda… The diagnosis was that I was perfectly fine except for a rapidly emerging, finger-shaped bruise on my upper arm, left over from my encounter with Gen-chan.

She frowned.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh noooooooooooo, I moaned in my head. She’ll think I’m a victim of domestic abuse, or something. This could get messy. Better make something up. Think think think…

"Looks like someone was gripping you pretty hard, here," she said gently, but in a tone that demanded an explanation.

I pretended to have just noticed the marks. "Oh! Jeez… That must be from Saihitei. When I saw the thing explode, I ran over right away; Saihitei tried to pull me back." Concentrating hard, I attempted to send her psychic brainwaves that would force her to believe me. Hey, it was a believable story! More believable than the truth, which would probably land me with an abuse counselor.

"Saihitei’s one of the other men who was brought in with you?"

I nodded.

"MissssTER Chou…why did you run toward the fire to begin with? Believe it or not, it’s a dangerous pastime." She gave me a small smile, and motioned for me to put my shirt back on.

"My best friend had headed in that direction just a little while before it… happened," I told her. "When the fire started, I panicked, I guess…" Heh…THAT much is true. Panic-prone imbecile. "…I saw someone lying there in the parking lot, and I thought it might be him." OH!!! Ask her if Genrou’s here! She might know!! Ask her!! "Is he here? His name’s Genrou Kou, he’s my age, with orange hair?"

She thought for a while, then shook her head. "I’m sorry; I couldn’t say. I don’t think so, but anyone who’s seen ER knows how crazy it can get in here sometimes." I smiled. "Well, apart from being slightly sooty, you’re perfectly fine. You can go have a seat in the waiting room until your friends are ready."

I thanked her and headed out. Okay…so Gen-chan probably isn’t here. Does that mean he wasn’t even around when the diner caught fire? Or does that mean he’s lying somewhere in a charred heap of…oooookay, STOP. Not going there. Not…even…going there. Think I need some of that Paxil stuff we keep seeing commercials for? ‘When I’m at work, I worry about things at home… When I’m at home, I worry about things at work. I thought I was just a worrier!’ BUT NO!!! It could be a chemical imbalance. I might need medication. Hm. Something ELSE to worry about. ‘Do I REALLY have a chemical imbalance, or are the circumstances surrounding my worry a good enough excuse?’

As it turned out, Saihitei and Myojuan were already in the waiting area, looking dirty and tired, slumped in worn blue-vinyl chairs; Myojuan was thoughtfully studying the palm of his left hand, and Saihitei was looking through children’s books.

"Interesting stuff?" I raised my eyebrow.

They looked up quickly, and stood to greet me. "Everything all right?"

I nodded. "You guys didn’t see Gen-chan being hauled in here, did you?"

Saihitei and Myojuan looked at each other, then shook their heads; I sighed despondently. "Maybe he didn’t start it, after all, then. Maybe he wasn’t even there."

"Excuse me?!" said Myojuan. "You think Genrou started the fire?"

"Which might not be the best thing to discuss at this exact moment and location," mumbled Saihitei.

Myojuan fell silent, unlike a certain voice inside my head that suddenly burst into song: We didn’t start the fire! It was always burnin since the world’s been…

"Here’s a question," I said quickly, before the spirit of Billy Joel could possess me again. "How the heck are we gonna get home? Your car’s still over at Curly’s Custard Cup."

Saihitei shot me a suave smile and dug a cell phone out of his pocket. "Modern technology. We don’t have to send messages by pigeon anymore."

"You guys! You’re okay; thank goodness!"

We turned and, sure enough, there he was, rushing toward us with a relieved expression on his face. "Thank goodness!" he repeated. "What were you thinking, rushing at that burning building like that?! Such behavior is not conductive to a long and healthy existence!" His relief turned to a semi-dangerous glare, directed mostly at me.

"Eheh…sorry," I said meekly. "But…no harm done, right?"

"Except to my nerves," he frowned, folding his arms across his chest. "Well, anyway…I raced back and got my car, thinking you guys would probably be in need of transportation when they were finished with you."

"Wonderful," said Saihitei happily, and put his phone away. "Can you drop us off at CCC so I can get my car?"

"Did you see Genrou anywhere?" I asked eagerly.

Doukun looked surprised. "Genrou? Was he even there?"

"He’s been arrested," said a voice.

And there was Houjun, grim-faced, more serious than I’d ever seen him in the short time we’d known each other.

"H-how’d you get here?!" I stuttered.

"Same way as everyone else, you know," he said.

"But you don’t have a car!"

"So I borrowed one. But that isn’t the point. The point is…"

"Gen-chan’s been arrested?!"

"Precisely," he nodded. "Thank you. They think he started the thing. Which he did, or else I’m completely blind. Leave it to Tasuki to get himself into this much trouble that’s so difficult to… But someone needs to go down and bale him out, or do something."

Nodding, Doukun tapped Saihitei’s arm. "Why don’t you come with me, and I’ll get you to your car…then we’ll all reconvene at the station. I’ll stop by Taka’s to tell those two what’s up."

"I’ll go along," said Myojuan softly. "I have to ask you something."

"You and me, then," said Houjun to me, and I nodded. We bid each other brief farewells and headed to the parking garage; Houjun had taken Taka’s car, whether with his permission or not, I didn’t know. We were silent as we drove, probably pondering the same exact thing: how were we supposed to account for Gen-chan’s behavior? If someone saw him use his tessen, how were we supposed to explain what he had done? Maybe we could make it sound so incredibly farfetched that it couldn’t possibly be OH MY GOD, HOUJUN CALLED HIM TASUKI!!!!!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" I exclaimed in surprise, startling Houjun so that he actually swerved a bit on the midnight road.

"What?! What’s wrong?!"

I stared at him with eyes like satellite dishes. Did I misunderstand?! Why the hell didn’t he tell us before??!! Does he really know??!! Why didn’t he SAY SOMETHING?!!

Houjun looked over at me quickly, then turned back to the windshield. "Ryuuen, are you all right?"

"NO, I’m not all right!!!"

"You know, don’t you??!!! You were Suzaku no Shichiseishi Chichiri, and you know that!!! Why the hell didn’t you tell us???!!!"

His jaw clenched the slightest bit, but his eyes grew suddenly sad, still fixed out the window.

"I had my reasons," he said.

"But…" I wasn’t shouting anymore, having been reduced to a confused, sentimental bundle of feelings that were, on the whole, a little hurt. "But, why? Were you afraid we wouldn’t believe you? But that’s silly, because you knew Miaka! You had to have known she’d remember!"

Houjun swallowed, and I waited about a minute for him to actually say something. "I didn’t mean to mislead anyone," he said firmly. "I just…I don’t want those memories back."

"Why?!"

Something flashed across his face, and he jerked his head toward me. "I killed my best friend, Nuriko," he snapped. "That’s not exactly something you want to be left with in your next life, now, is it?!"

I fell silent, mouth agape.

"I got rid of them…it took a lot of head-shrinking, but I finally got rid of them. Then what happens? I meet Miaka at school. I tried to keep away from her, but goddammit, she was my friend…and I wanted you back, all of you. I thought we could still be friends without having to remember the past; I didn’t think she’d tell me about my other life if she thought I didn’t know. And it would have been fine, perfect, even, if Hotohori hadn’t gotten himself involved, and spilled it to all of you. Or some of you. It doesn’t matter."

Something swelled up inside me, then exploded with shattering force.

"You’re still hiding from it!!" I shouted angrily. "You’re still hiding behind that stupid mask! Don’t you get it?? It’s in the past!! It’s over!! For heaven’s sake, deal with it!!" You know, you really shouldn’t argue with someone who’s driving…

"You’re one to talk!" he shot back. "I might have killed my best friend, but at least I didn’t start dressing like him!"

"At least I was able to put the past behind me!!!" Since when do you remember this much? Do you even know what you’re talking about??!! "I was able to let go of my mask!! You just hid behind yours and…"

"A lot of good it did you, huh??!!! A whole lot of damn good!! What’s the point of starting a new life if you’re only gonna go and get yourself killed by a goddamn werewolf not two days later?!!"

I felt his words like a slap in the face. They always say that in the books, but it’s true; that’s what it feels like sometimes. A slap in the face, and like a hand squeezing my heart so hard that it was almost too much to bear.

He’d pulled off the road.

"N-Nuriko."

No hint of anger in his voice now. He just sounded tired.

"I…I’m sorry…I…"

"You see?" I made myself say, my voice shaking. "Even now, I’m glad I remember. I don’t regret having Hotohori-sama tell me the truth. I don’t regret what you just said. Because like it or not, it’s a part of who I am. You can’t forget the bad stuff, it just doesn’t work that way. You just have to overshadow it with good stuff, good memories. The past can hurt, but you…you have to be able to look back and laugh at your problems! That’s the only way to show them who’s boss."

I swiped my sleeve across my eyes, willing myself to stop being such a baby. Well, so what if it was melodramatic; it’s true! It’s TRUE.

Houjun’s eyes had cleared, and while I didn’t really expect him to say anything, I certainly didn’t think he’d hug me. But he did. I didn’t remember a great deal about Chichiri (other than all the stuff I’d just spouted from the depths of my past memory that had chosen to surface without warning), but I was fairly certain he hadn’t been that much of a touchy-feely kinda guy.

"You’re really you, aren’t you?" said Houjun.

"I like to think so," I sniffed.

He took a deep breath and sighed. "I wish I knew who I really was."

"You will," I promised.

"You will."

TBC…

Notes: Was that a surprise, kinda sorta? ~.~() Maybe? Does Chichiri seem out of character? Kaze-chan says no, but I’m very unused to writing Chichiri. This angsty "Oh God, I Killed Hiccup!! (a.k.a. Hikou)" thing makes sense to me, but I’m not the best person to make the judgment, no da. Sorry for the sap and the Big Dramatic Mask Conversation. **shrug** What can I say. ^_^

ANOTHER STORY AKUGI!!!! ><

Ryuuen: You’re still hiding behind that stupid mask!

Houjun: **dressed as the Easter Bunny** N…Nuriko??? What’re you doing here???!!!

Ryuuen: Take it off, I say!!! Don’t hide anymore!! **tries to pull off the mask**

Houjun: Gahhhhhhh, stop it!!!!!! This is my job, you idiot!!!!

People at the Mall: **waiting in line to see the Easter Bunny** **blink blink**

Ryuuen: You can’t hide from the past!!!!!!! **yanks it off**

Houjun: **exposed** Aahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

Traumatized Children: **burst into tears**

Ryuuen: Ehehehehehehe….oops.

Houjun: ~.~()