Sakuragi sighed and hugged her back, breathing in the perfume of her hair. Don't worry, I'll never be far from you. Nor will Lord Maki."


~~~~

The ship cut its way through the Demon World Sea, the fog around them showing nothing but emptiness when suddenly a shape of a structure appeared among the void. As the ship came nearer, the structure became more visible.
It was an archway of a Japanese structure, what in the human world was known as an entrance to a shrine.
But this archway was not an entrance to any mere shrine.
It was the entrance to the Japanese spirit realm.

The thick tassel hanging on the beam of the archway lay motionless and undisturbed and on both sides of the archway floated two globes, dispersing the darkness around the them.

"There it is," Kishimoto said lowly, "The gateway to the Japanese spirit realm."

"That is it?" queried Hikoichi in curiosity.

"By destroying the two orbs, the barrier will be nullified and the gate will be open," Maki told his crew.

Fukuda crossed his arms in front of his chest and regarded the gateway silently before speaking, "So we will do so".

"That'll be easy," remarked Ayako.

"The only problem is that there will be a sentinel," Kogure reminded his friends.

"Hai," agreed Haruko, "Rukawa."

Mitsui shifted casually under his thick dragon armour and said, "But it seems that he's not even here."

"I know of Rukawa's whereabouts," Haruko murmured.

"My dear Haruko," Kishimoto purred, "Is it Sakuragi's presence that you sense? Not Rukawa's?"

"Yeah," added Hikoichi, "He's always with Rukawa. Isn't that right, Haruko?"

Haruko narrowed her eyes and walked away from Kishimoto who was beside her. She never did like the young man and the smug insinuation from him did not endear her to him one bit.

"I will take care of it," Haruko said coldly, her steps hard on the wooden deck.

"Haruko," Maki called but brown-haired shinma pretended not to hear. When she walked past him, the high-powered shinma grabbed her by the wrist to pull her back.
"Haruko, Calm down. What do you intend to do?"

Before Haruko could answer a firm hand on her shoulder made her turn around to see Fukuda looking at her with compassion in his dark eyes. Other than Maki, Fukuda was most sensitive to her feelings despite his reserved manner with everyone else.

"Leave this to me," the shinma told her.

"But-"

"You just want to know why Sakuragi is devoted to Rukawa, is that right?" Fukuda cut in.

Haruko bit her lip and nodded, "Hai."

"How can she control a man like Sakuragi?" wondered Mitsui aloud.

"I want you to go with Fukuda," Maki told Haruko, "And remember, do not show your hand. Let Fukuda do the work."

Haruko stared at Maki for a moment before she nodded in aquiescence, "Hai, I understand."

"I wanna go too!" Hikoichi exclaimed.

Fukuda shrugged non-chalantly as he slipped on his leather gloves for battle.

"Your job will be finding Rukawa and keeping him occupied," Kishimoto reminded Fukuda, Haruko and Hikoichi, "In the meantime we will destroy this barrier."

"Let us begin," Ayako nodded.


~~~~

"Kaede..."

The sound of the bamboo leaves rustled in the wind but the baritone voice of his shinma protector was clear as if the call was whispered into his ear.

"Hanamichi?" Kaede called, padding across the room to stand under the threshold of the door.
He was in his house. The house that he grew up in when his mother was...

"Hanamichi. Did you call me?"

"Kaede..."

The vampire looked around, feeling lost when he suddenly felt a tear slip past his cheek. The grip of his hands tightened on the sliding door of the room as he wondered,

-Why am I crying?-

Suddenly he was five again, before realising with a start what he was holding - a little yellow breasted bird lying still and cold on the palm of his small warm hands. It's cold. So cold, he mourned trying desperately to warm it up by hugging it to his chest.

"Kaede..."
The little raven-haired boy looked up and blinked his wet blue eyes to see a dark cloaked figure before him. The being took off his mask so that Rukawa could see his soft brown eyes regarding him with affection and the bright red hair awed him for a moment when the hood of the stranger slipped away.

"Why are you crying?" asked the redheaded person whose husky voice soothed him through his mind.

"My bird, Pyo... it's... dead," Rukawa answered, lifting the small lifeless body from his chest to look at it with sorrow.

"Because life is not eternal. It's time here is beautiful... and now it's life is over so it had to leave", the redhead told him gently.

Kaede bent his dark head and hugged the bird again to his chest, "Someday, can I go to where Pyo is?"

The redhead caressed the dark head and replied, "Of course, you can."

The raven-haired boy flung himself into the man's arms, his voice trembling as he told the kind stranger about his attempts, "Its so cold... I tried warming it up..."

-Even though I try and try... it remains cold...-

-Hanamichi... Hanamichi...-

"Rukawa."

"N-Nani?"

Rukawa's eyes finally gained focus and in front of him was a dark-haired man with small dark eyes, attired in an overcoat with a white scarf around his neck and in his gloved hand was a fencing sword gleaming under the supernatural light from wherever it came from the dark void surrounding them.

"Had a pleasant dream, Rukawa?"

The vampire rubbed the remaining tears from his eyes and glared murderously to the stranger.
"Who the hell are you?"

The person made a bow to the boy and answered, "I am a Western shinma, Fukuda, Shaper of dreams."

Around them the area changed back from a void of darkness into a Japanese-styled room which looked familiar to him. They were back in Rukawa's childhood home.

"Western shinma..." growled Rukawa, pushing the screen door fully open to not let the demon out of his sight, "How dare you!"

Suddenly the surroundings around him shifted again and they were back in the darkness, where the focal point of the only source of light shone onto him and the shinma.

Where am I? How did he manipulate my dreams? wondered Rukawa, clenching his fist in anger.

"You're careless," came a voice, this one sounding younger than the low voice of Fukuda, "You can't win in Fukuda's dreamworld."

Rukawa whirled around and behind him was a boy, with big ears, blue eyes and fangs that were evident as the person grinned at him.
"I am Hikoichi. Miyagi's younger brother."

The name sounded familiar and Rukawa narrowed his eyes in thought. When he finally remembered, the picture of a brown-skinned man with wavy hair and a piercing in his ear came to him.
Miyagi.... the Western shinma who came to get Hanamichi... Hanamichi called him 'an old friend'...

"Ah!" Rukawa cried, falling to his knees as he clutched at his head.
Am I dreaming again? My head hurts!

I sealed him in darkness, Rukawa mind told him of that long -buried memory, I... I...

"After I found him, I should have killed you right away!" Miyagi had said before the darkness overtook the western shinma.

My head hurts...

Rukawa stepped back uncertainly as the redhaired shinma extended a pale clawed hand towards him.

-This happened before...-

"Blood? My blood?" whispered Rukawa, his mind gone numb with shock.

"Yes, I shall put your blood to rest," the redhead intoned.

"No... Hanamichi...Don't!"

The redhead grabbed him in an embrace but before the clawed fingers could pierce his skin, Rukawa's blue eyes turned golden, mesmerising the shinma with his unconcious charming spell.

"Hanamichi..."

The redhead's brown eyes went wide and could only stare forward as Rukawa placed warm pink lips on his neck and bit. The shinma couldn't make a sound, much less groan, as Rukawa sucked the blood from his neck. The young-boy-now-turned-vampire held him in a gentle grip which was as strong as iron.

It was a bitter dream from the past and the old pain that he thought has disappeared when he turned came back full-force.

-Hanamichi... He was my first true victim after my mother... I... I made Hanamichi...-

Fukuda smiled, "The dream confused you even more..."

Hanamichi!!


~~~~

Kaede? He's calling me.
The redheaded shinma moved faster to where Rukawa's presence was strongest, worried about the tortured voice from his master and love.

Suddenly a force of power appeared a few metres in front of him and he stopped to see a large globe of light dissipate before a figure of a masked woman could be seen standing motionlessly on the grassy ground.

"Hanamichi-kun.... I missed you..." a young woman's voice floated towards him.

"W-Who.... are you?" stammered the shinma.

"I saw you in Rukawa's dreams," she went on, "The dreams that Fukuda helped shape."

Sakuragi blinked, not understanding what she meant. The woman's mask did not help him one bit at recognising who she was but the voice held a note of familiarity and the brown-hair escaping her hood made him think of a young shinma-girl who he has left before he joined Rukawa for eternity.

"Poor Hana-kun..." the young woman said softly, "You're tainted by Rukawa's blood."

"Rukawa... Kaede! Has something happened to him?!" demanded Sakuragi urgently. He needed to get to Rukawa fast!

The young woman clenched her fist before she held up her hand to push the hood from her head. "I can't forgive this..." she said through gritted teeth, "How could a half-human vampire steal my precious Hanamichi..."

When the western shinma removed her mask, Sakuragi's brown eyes widened in startlement.
"H-Haruko?"

The blue eyes gazing at him with unhidden affection reminded him of the years before when the female-shinma was brimming with childhood innocence and vevacity that were now gone from her beautiful adult face.

"Haruko... is that... you?"

"Yes!" Haruko cried, "I've been waiting for a long time for you!"

Stepping unhesitatingly towards the tall redhead, Haruko lifted her fingers to touch Sakuragi's cheek in gentle caresses that did not hide her hunger for his love.
"It's me. Haruko. I'm here to take you back."

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