The faint song of a bird could be heard in the distance as Amefuri absently recalled the battle she had fought with that mysterious stranger the day before.  ~how strange, the seal couldn't have been broken without my knowledge. It's a good thing Shinigami showed up, I doubt I could've repaired the seal if he wasn't there~

    She lay in her bed slowly letting the memories of battle sink in.  As much as she hated Shinigami, she had to admit that he was somewhat helpful.  Then slowly, her mind came to a realization...~the seal...did I remember to cast the spell?~ Amefuri's eyes snapped open. ~I forgot the repair the seal!~ She shot up in bed and promptly smashed her head on something that felt as hard as a rock.

"Itai!" Amefuri yelped and twisted to glare at whatever had gotten in her way.  Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Yorukai sitting on the floor of her room rubbing his head.

"Hey Ame," He said with an amused smile. "We truly must stop meeting in such painful ways, ne?"

"What are you doing here?" Amefuri fixed him with the coldest look she was capable of. "and how did you get into MY temple?"

"Oh Ame," Yorukai said with a cheery grin. "There will be plenty of time for me to answer your questions later.  For now, I think that you need to drink something and have some breakfast!"

    Avoiding Amefuri's questions, Yorukai placed a wooden tray down on the small table in the center of the room and proceeded to unload the contents of the tray.  Amefuri glared at him with a slight feeling of surprise.  ~How could he find my temple? What is he doing in my room with my tea set? What is this guy up to?~

    As if he had heard Amefuri's thoughts, Yorukai gave her a wide eyed, curious look from behind his long, blue bangs.  He caught her eye and flashed her a slight reassuring smile.  Amefuri narrowed her eyes and glared coldly back at him.

"Come Ame-san," Yorukai said softly and gave her a gentle smile. "Let's eat, there is plenty of time for speculations later."

    Yorukai peered over the rim of his teacup at Amefuri.  Her eyes were closed and her manner seemed very relaxed and at ease as she drank her green tea.  He looked at her curiously.  When he had arrived at her temple, she was lying unconscious on the stone altar in the front of the temple.  That in itself was very odd but the fact that she was acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary now was slightly unnerving.  Yorukai smiled slightly from behind his tea cup. When she wanted to speak, he was more than willing to hear her out. ~Until then,~ he shrugged mentally, ~I guess I just have to be patient~

    Amefuri carefully placed her cup down on the table and bowed her head. There was something unnatural about Yorukai and she was determined to find out what it was.  He sat there calmly with an irritatingly happy air about him.  No matter what she had done to him, he refused to give up. It was almost like he was on some personal quest to 'happy' her to death.  Amefuri stared at him from behind the soft curtain her hair had created.  She felt him watching her, trying to figure her out.  However, Amefuri wouldn't make the job very easy for him if she had any say in the matter.

"Now, Yorukai," Amefuri fixed him with a lie-to-me-and-I'll-kill-you-as-painfully-as-possible look. "How did you find me?"

"Well it's fairly simple Ame-san, I saw you getting on the bus yesterday after you ran out of the square.  I then went up to the local police station and got a bus schedule for the bus you got on.  I then went back to the school and pulled your profile from the school's database.  You didn't fill in an address so I went and checked up on the records of the report cards that were mailed to your home but there you always came to pick them up.  So, I asked around the office and school and found that you knew quite a lot about rituals and once seen wearing a miko (shrine maiden)'s outfit at a restaurant downtown. Then, I went to the main library and pulled the oldest records there were of the existing temples and shrines in the Tokyo area.  I know that you were a person that liked their solitude, so that ruled out all of the temples in town or the ones that were on the bus map.  Judging from the way you walk and act, I guessed that you were a very direct and efficient person. So the temple would have to be close to the path that the bus you got on takes.  You wouldn't change buses because you seem to be a person that hates any kind of hassle.  I over lay the bus map with the map of shrines and temples and looked for a temple that was far from town, not on a recent map of the city and in a very obscure location.  The lo and behold, there it was, a small out of the way shrine on top of a mountain.  I suspected that would have to be the place that you lived at given the facts so I got on the bus and came out here on the first bus in operation.  Seeing the huge staircase from the bus, I was almost positive that this was were you lived but I still needed to confirm it.  So, I climbed up the steps and upon seeing 'twilight star shrine' inscribed on the torii gate, all of my suspicions were confirmed." he shrugged and smiled. "No big deal."

~No big deal?~ She shook her head in disbelief with a wiry smile ~Well, I've got to admire his determination at least.~

"Well Yorukai," Amefuri looked up at him, her face set in an icy mask once again. "You found me. Now what do you plan to do with me?"

"Nothing really, Ame-san." Yorukai said smiling at her again. "I just want to be friends."

"Friends?" Amefuri snorted in disgust and turned away. "Now that's just stupid."

"It is?" Yorukai said giving her a curious look. "How?

"Simple."

"How is it so simple Ame-san?" Yorukai questioned her. "Would you please explain it to me?"

"No." Amefuri said and took a sip of her tea.

"Why not?"

"None of your business."

"But I don't understand..." Yorukai protested. "Why?"

"It doesn't concern you," Amefuri said coldly and gave him a withering look. "So I suggest that you go back into town and forget about tutoring me."

"But I can't do that Ame-san, I gave my word to the principal that I'd keep you out of trouble." Yorukai watched Amefuri, waiting for her to explode at him again. When she ignored him, he continued. "I'm not the kind of guy that gives up easily..."

"Che'.." Amefuri flipped her hair over her shoulder. "That's for sure."

"...And," Yorukai paused and looked at her. "I'm not the kind of guy that gives up on my friends."

"Friends? You think that we are friends??" Amefuri turned and pinned him a dark glare. "Let me tell you something about friends, boy. Keeping friends is the same as inviting an attack.  Friends are tools to be manipulated against you.  Friends are just kind speaking enemies.  Friends are not to be trusted.  Friends will betray you and all of your ideals by getting in the way.  Friends. Love. Companionship. All of these are weaknesses waiting to be exploited by your enemies."

"What enemies?"

"What enemies?" Amefuri shook her head in disbelief. "Why everything out there is a threat.  You can be sure that no one, NO ONE will protect you in the end.  When it all boils down to it, they'll condemn you for what you've done to fulfill your ideals and your dreams to save their own skin."

   Perhaps if she had yelled and screamed or even had some kind of display of anger, it wouldn't have been as frightening as the way she had spoken it. Amefuri had spoken in a calm, deathly quiet voice as she reached the end of her little tirade.  Her dark amethyst eyes were intense and glittering with barely surpressed anger and hate.  However, when he looked into her eyes again, she didn't seem to see him or the room anymore.  Instead, she seemed to be staring through him at something only she could see.

"They will all just betray you..." Amefuri whispered venomously. "They always have and always will."

Yorukai shivered slightly from the chill of the words Amefuri had spoken.  ~What could have happened to her?~

    A slight movement caught his attention as looked up at Amefuri.  He watched her slouched form silently for a few minutes before he noticed that she was staring blankly at the mats on the floor.  He could tell that nothing happening in the room was registering in her mind, as her attention was focused inwards.  Yorukai could see that her deep violet eyes were clouded over as she seemed to be reliving some kind of personal hell.

    Silently, Yorukai placed their cups and plates back onto the tray and stood up. He walked to the door and cast one last look into the room.  Amefuri was sitting perfectly still and was staring blankly into her cup of tea.  With a soft sigh, Yorukai slid the door to her room shut with a soft click.

    A thin sliver of light worked it's way through the stale air to fall upon a dirty stone floor.  The faint sound of dripping water filled the cold stone room as the glittering eyes of various vermin shone from within the piles of damp, musty hay.  The vermin screeched and hissed at the faint jangle of chains and scurried away as a figure weakly lifted it's head to stare at opposite wall.  The person's eyes may have been open but they failed to see what lay before it or it's surroundings as their attention was focused inward to escape the pain.

<Shadow Runner...> An unnatural breeze blew through the cell.  A person lay limp, shackled against the wall.

<Awaken> The 'voice' insisted more urgently. The person moaned softly in protest and tried to pull away.

<The time has come.> The 'voice' repeated a little louder.  The person turned it's head away and tried to ignore implications as it's shackles unlocked and dropped away.

<Twilight...>  Now the 'voice' sounded colder and harder. The person gazed blankly at the floor of it's prison.

<Retrieve the traitor> The 'voice' commanded. The person sat against the wall silently for what seemed like an eternity before it got to it's feet.  The person raised it's head gazed into the speaker's eyes with tired, empty, purple eyes.

"Acknowledged." It's dark crystal eyes flashed with pale green shards as it nodded it's agreement.
 
 

~The End~