Episode 23: Desperation
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She's not here...

Mai blinked as she gazed into her empty room. Once again, she had successfully stolen into the Deathrose palace without being seen. She had gone straight to her room, wanting to rant all night to Aiko. But she wasn't there.

Maybe she's in the library, researching like she said she would, Mai thought. She exhaled heavily, her adrenaline finally subsiding. Only then did she realize that she just done something really reckless. She could've gotten herself -- not to mention Aiko -- exposed... But now that she's here, the wisest thing she could do is to be inconspicuous.

Mai went to her closet and changed into her own clothes. Then, after taking a deep breath for confidence, she stepped out into the hall. She reached the library in a few minutes. As usual, the large hall was practically empty, but Mai went in, anyways. Personally, she hadn't spent much time there, and she didn't want to spend time there, either. Aiko was one brave girl to stay in that huge room alone all day...

Mai stopped walking when she finally saw someone poring over a stack of books.

"Yuuji-kun?" she asked even before she could stop herself.

Yuuji's head snapped up, his purple eyes wide in surprise. "M-- Mai-sama!" he blurted out as he abruptly stood up, accidentally making a few books fall to the floor. "What-- What are you doing here?"

Mai blinked. "Well... I live here," she said simply. Why was Yuuji so...jumpy?

Yuuji scratched the back of his head. "Yes, but... I meant here here."

Mai chuckled at how silly Yuuji looked and sounded. "Is it wrong to visit the library every now and then?"

"I... suppose not."

"Well, I guess I should be going," she said.

"Didn't you come here to read?"

"Hm... Not really. I was just walking around." Mai gave a small bow, turning to leave. "Good night, Yuuji-kun."

"Good night..."

Mai sighed again as she left the library. Well, so much for being inconspicuous, she thought, shaking her head. Mai stopped walking again when she came across the widest, most well-lighted hallway in the palace. The one that led to the throne room. Hmmm....

Her shoes made little noise as she walked through the hall. OK. Game plan, Mai...Peek inside, and, if no one's there, go and find Aiko somewhere else. And if someone's inside---

Mai didn't get to finish her thought as the double doors to the throne room opened. Suddenly panicking, Mai looked left and right, and, a split-second before a couple of voices floated to her ear, she leapt to hide behind one of the thick pillars near the walls.

"...and he's always always there whenever I have to work! It's so frustrating, Fuu-chan! Why do I always have to fight him?! He fights so unfairly, you know?"

"We can't say he's unfair, Maya. His element---"

"He makes everything so dark it's so unfair! That know-it-all! Swishing his bokken at me the whole time! I'm starting to really really...NOT like him!"

Mai blinked. Maya and Fuu were talking about Hikaru?

"And tonight, did you see what he did?! He demanded I tell him where his sister went! How was I supposed to know where the Wind Angel was, Fuu-chan?! I'm not her keeper! Besides, I hadn't seen the Angel for several months now! What do you think, Fuu-chan? Do you think she's missing?"

"I don't know, Maya."

That was the last thing she heard as the two Roses finally walked out of earshot. Although Mai wanted to go after them and ask them what happened to Hikaru -- I hope he's OK... -- she still had Aiko to look for, and three more Roses to avoid. When she was finally sure that no one else was in the hallway, Mai stepped out of her hiding place. But where was she supposed to go now? Fuu and Maya had just gotten out of the throne room; somehow, it seemed odd that Aiko was in there. Then again, there's no harm in checking, right?

Mai finally pushed one of the doors open. Taking another deep breath, Mai leaned peeked in...

"Looking for something, Mai-sama?"

"AAAAAH!"

Holding a hand to her chest, Mai gulped as Youko blinked at her.

"I'm sorry. Did I startle you?"

"A... little, yes."

The silver-haired man chuckled, visibly amused. "Why are you prowling around like a thief, Princess? Aren't you too old to be playing hide and seek?"

"We all have an inner child," Mai said, smiling as she finally regained composure.

"Ah, yes, that's true," Youko said, nodding. "Children love playing, don't they?"

"Yes, they do."

"And they love surprises, too, don't they?"

Mai's eyebrows furrowed ever-so-slightly. "I suppose so..."

Youko smiled, holding out his hand to her. "Well, then, Mai-sama, I have a surprise for you. Won't you come with me?"

"Where to?"

Her sensei smiled in response, taking her hand. "To see someone."

Before Mai could form a reply, her stomach suddenly flip-flopped as she felt like she was floating. But, in the next split-second, she was standing on the ground again. She shook her head, trying to remove the nauseaus feeling she always got whenever Youko teleported her.

When her brain stopped swimming, Mai blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and, little by little, she saw where she was. She was standing on cold, hard rock, and there were stone walls all around her. She shivered when a picture of a dungeon came to mind. She looked up at Youko beside her, who was still holding her hand.

"Youko-san..."

"I never took you here before, have I, Mai-sama?" he asked as he started walking.

"No, you haven't. Are we still in the palace?"

"In a way, yes. This is the prison several storeys below ground level -- the palace's ground level. This is where we kept Elementals who couldn't control their Seed."

"This was before the Elementals broke into two factions?"

"Yes. Since we started collecting the Seed, we didn't have a need for this place. Until today."

"Oh? How so?"

Youko stopped walking in front of an iron door. "I don't know how it happened, but the palace had been infiltrated by an enemy."

Mai froze.

Oh, no... Oh, God, no...

"An enemy?" Mai asked, trying to keep herself looking as calm and clueless as she could. "Who?"

Youko said nothing as he put his hand on the lock. The door opened, but Mai couldn't see what was inside properly. It was darker in there than it already was. When Youko had stepped inside, Mai followed, but she suddenly whirled around again when the iron door closed loudly.

"Youko-san---"

Mai's sentence was cut short when the room was suddenly flooded with bright light. With a surprised gasp, she shielded her eyes painfully, and waited for the light to subside. When it finally did, Mai blinked her eyes open, this time adjusting to the light instead of the dark. It was a strange sight: the room was still dark, but Mai could see herself clearly. Suddenly, she was reminded of Hikaru's Light.

"She's over here, Mai-sama," came Youko's voice.

The Princess turned around, and found that she had guessed correctly. She saw Youko standing there, as 'bright' as she was, his silver hair a complete contrast to the darkness surrounding both of them, especially since he was dressed in white. Then, her Sensei held out his hand to point to the reason they went down there in the first place. Finally seeing who 'she' was, Mai just wanted the ground to open up and swallow her alive.

"Do you know who she is, Mai-sama?"

Despite her state of shock, Mai still heard and understood what Youko just said. But she didn't know what to say. She didn't know what else to do but stare at the girl lying motionless on the floor.

"I... Who is this woman?" she decided to ask. She didn't have to pretend to be surprised; her voice was shaking enough as it is. It depended on Youko if he was going to read it as shock, fear, or suppressed rage.

"You don't know her?" he asked curiously. "This is a Blue Star, Mai-sama. Her name is Kazetenshi Aiko."

Mai gulped the huge lump in her throat. Now, what?! Think, Mai, THINK!!!

"A Blue Star? How did she get in?"

"As you can see, she has taken on your image," Youko explained, "so she can pass herself off as Your Highness without anyone being suspicious. And, given the speech you gave last week, no one suspected her until I found her this afternoon. Oddly, her ki is uncanningly close to yours, as well."

"I see..."

"What I'm wondering is how she managed to walk around the palace without bumping into you. I was beginning to wonder..." Youko paused, eyeing Mai, "if you had gone out of the palace again today..."

"Yes, I went to the park today," Mai lied.

"Ah, so that explains it."

"So, what do you plan to do with her?"

"As Your Highness wishes."

Oh, Thank God! Mai celebrated in her mind. "Well... Just get rid of her. We have no use for her here."

"As you wish," Youko said, then aimed his hand at the fallen Star. Mai's eyes widened as white light instantly light shot out from his hand, and hit Aiko, making the Star scream.

"Youko-san!" Mai exclaimed frantically, grabbing onto Youko's hand. "I didn't tell you to torture her! I meant 'get rid of her' as in take her out of the palace!"

"This is taking her out of the palace, Mai-sama."

"I didn't tell you to torture her!" Mai repeated. "Stop it!"

"But---"

"I said, STOP IT!!!!"

But Youko didn't stop. In fact, his attack even intensified. Aiko's screaming continued as she writhed on the floor, and, helplessly watching her, Mai felt like she was being tortured herself.

"I SAID, STOP IT!!!!"

In desperation, Mai violently pushed at Youko with her flaming hands, and flung him towards the wall. Taken by surprise, he staggered a few steps, but he regained his balance almost instantly. His silver eyes narrowed at the Deathrose Princess.

"Turning against your own sensei for this Star, Mai-sama?" he said as he flicked his long ponytail over his shoulder.

"I gave you an order, Youko, and you disobeyed it." Mai stated bravely. "I am your Princess, and as such, I have authority over you. Despite the fact that you are my adviser, you are just my adviser. I have the final decision, and you are to follow it!"

To Mai's surprise, Youko only smiled. "Well said, Mai," he said. "But you are not my Princess."

So maybe she already expected that, but she didn't expect to hear it from Youko himself at that very moment.

"W-- What?" she breathed, her face pale.

Youko laughed. "Why so shocked, Mai? I thought you already knew, seeing that you collaborated with the Stars already. Though, I must say, you're a very good actress. If I didn't know what was going on, you could've fooled me."

"You... you knew..."

"Of course, I knew, Mai-sama. I suppose you can thank me for cutting this charade short, too. I simply pitied the Wind Angel, spending the whole day in the library... She was so engrossed -- obsessed, I'd say -- in reading that she often forgot to eat... Poor child. You could have just asked me, you know. Had you asked, I would have told you the truth. The real truth, and not the one that you had so blindly believed for years..."

"You...lied to me...?"

"Yes, I did, Mai-sama," Youko stated easily. "You were a means to an end. You should be grateful you had a purpose for living."

Mai closed her eyes tightly, trying to block out the sting of incoming tears. "This...this isn't real," she said almost inaudibly. In spite of her past doubts and discoveries, she had trusted Youko far too long. He had been her pillar, her teacher... She considered him her father, for crying out loud! "This isn't you, Youko-san! You--... you're brainwashed! Yes, that's got to be it! This isn't real! The past sixteen years... All my life, you---"

"No, Mai, it wasn't sixteen years. It was twelve. I only had you under my care when you were four. And, this is real, Mai-sama. The life you thought you knew... that wasn't real. I'm not the one brainwashed, and neither was Kazetenshi Aiko. It was you, Kazetenshi Mai."

It hit her like a bombshell.

This was the real Youko... After years of wanting to see what was behind that air of authority and occasionally cold mask, she finally saw who Youko was.

A liar.

Mai was having a hard time breathing, and she didn't know if she was going to cry or scream in anger. Youko lied to her. Youko lied to her. Youko lied to her! And to think she trusted him all her life! Mai felt so blind, so gullible, so stupid!

The tears finally fell. And along with them, so did she. Mai felt as if her legs had disappeared from under her, and she fell on her knees in exhaustion. She just had too many revelations in one day...

"Why?" she managed to croak out. "I don't understand... Why did you do this?"

"There are some things we are not meant to understand, Mai," Youko said, his voice suddenly soft. But that was as good as it was going to get. After that split-second, Youko's face was suddenly cold again. "And you ask why... Well, didn't you ask Ran?"

"I...I was..."

"You were too scared of him, weren't you?" Youko said, reading her thoughts. "You had the wrong reason to be scared of him, Mai. He didn't kill your father. Your father's alive, as he still lives with your brother and twin. And he didn't kill your mother, either."

"So she's still alive?"

"No."

"Then...how--?"

"I killed her."

Mai clutched her forehead. Her brain was starting to hurt...

"You didn't... You couldn't!"

Again, Youko laughed. "I'm offended, Mai-sama. Do you not think I'm a powerful Elemental? I'm a Kurobara, Mai, I have the power to kill any Elemental if I wish to. Like you, Rieka was a means to get to Ran. The reason why I took you was so she would give up her being a Star, which she did, so that I could kill her, which I did."

"Why?" seemed to be the question of the day.

"I was merely paying him back."

"Paying him...?" Mai echoed.

"Not everything I told you is a lie. The part about the Elementals was real. Zai was real. It was true that the Elementals split because of his principles, but the reason for The War wasn't because of your parents. It was because of Ran. He was so powerful, he couldn't control his Seed. He killed every powerful Elemental there is, except me.

"Perhaps, after he blindly lashed out, perhaps he suddenly realized exactly what he did. Perhaps he felt guilty, and decided to spare me. To tell you the truth, I would have preferred it if he killed me, as well. You may know how hard it is to grow up without your family, but at least you had friends. At least you had the Roses, didn't you, Mai? As for me, I had no one. Do you know how hard that is, Mai? I had to live in this empty palace by myself. Even for a grown man, that could get pretty depressing. No man is an island, so they say."

"But...if the Kurobara clan had been the strongest, then how did Ran defeat you? I mean, one against hundreds---"

"Simple. Ran was a Kurobara himself. He was my brother."

Even though Mai was already sitting down, she felt like she just fell on the floor again. She could do nothing else but stare at Youko. Only today did Mai fully understand the meaning of the term: 'information overload'.

Ran and Youko are BROTHERS?! My goodness, what's next? That Kamui is my cousin?!

...I most certainly hope not...

"Well," Youko said after a few moments. "Now that history's out of the way, let's get to the next part of the programme, shall we?"

Mai didn't even have time to wonder what he meant, as a glowing orb of bright light materialized in Youko's palm. She scrambled to her feet, wanting to shield Aiko from Youko's attack again. But she suddenly froze when she saw just where Youko aimed the bright light that exploded from his hand.

At her.

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"NRGH!"

Kaji gritted his teeth as his back hit the wall hard. He shook his head so his brain would go back to its normal position before kicking the ground, trying to save himself from getting cut from bamboo again. He was able to avoid it, but only by a hairsbreadth. Recovering quickly, he threw flame spheres at his opponent before charging downwards, fire sword in hand.

Kamui jumped, knowing full well that his bamboo sword -- or ANY sword he could produce, for that matter -- didn't stand a chance against fire. When Kamui landed, crouching on the ground again, he was already in the garden outside. After being refreshed by the cool early evening breeze, he shot leaves at his opponent again.

Gotcha.

Seeing an opening, Kamui charged at Kaji, throwing a punch amidst the leaves. But Fire Soul proved his quick reflexes, blocking Kamui's numerous attacks even before his eyes regained focus. Kamui jaw clenched when, after blocking all of his punches, Kaji suddenly caught his fist. His maroon eyes narrowing, Kaji pulled on Kamui's hand, quickly giving the younger Star a fierce upper-cut.

Kamui painfully winced in mid-air before twisting himself to land on the ground, his feet roughly skidding on the earth from momentum. But before he even regained his balance, Kamui had to back-roll away from his position again when Kaji went at him with flaming fists. And when Kamui was far enough, he immediately slammed a fist to the ground, making the ground shake, and Kaji lose his footing.

Of course, Kaji had enough brains to jump up to avoid the earthquake. Seeing that he couldn't get close enough to his opponent to use his sword, Kaji finally resorted to use a long-range attack. In mid-air, he put his hands together, gathering his ki to produce his attack. Meanwhile, on the ground, Kamui himself conjured a plan.

Both boys yelled a battle cry in almost perfect unison, and, in the next second, a huge flame blast burst from Kaji's hands, just as Kamui swiftly shot two thick vines at him, the ends sharp enough to pierce Kaji. Both Stars confident that their own attack was going to prevail, neither moved from his position.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Startled, Kaji and Kamui quickly turned towards the angry voice, momentarily forgetting that their doom was accelerating towards them. When they both remembered, though, it was too late.

Crap.

Gah!

Yuki's eyes widened as she watched Kaji try to jump away, and Kamui reflexively make a block of earth burst up from the ground to use as a shield. Kaji crashed through the walls of the dojo from the force of Kamui's vines, and Yuki had to shield her eyes from rubble as the ground Kamui was standing on exploded upon impact of Kaji's flame blast. Yuki held her breath as she frantically tried to feel for the boys' ki...

The dust settled.
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Ran's eyes narrowed, surveying the scene that, just a few minutes ago, was the beautiful garden outside the dojo. It was now a disheveled piece of land, stripped of any attribute that would have qualified it to be called a garden. Trees were burned, the earth was cracked, and there was a huge crater on the spot Kamui had occupied.

What a mess.
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Kamui was stunned. Kaji's attack...it was probably the strongest he had seen yet! Disregarding the fact that it was aimed at him, Kamui couldn't help but be amazed. His musings were cut short, though, when the self-same angry voice that distracted him earlier spoke again.

"What the hell is going on out here?!" yelled Ran, practically fuming. Beside him, a worried Yuki stood.

"Nothing you should be worried about, Ran-sama," came Kaji's calm voice as he stepped out from the dojo, kicking debris as he went.

"Nothing I should be worried about?!" echoed Ran angrily. "You actually think I shouldn't be worried about this?! Would you just look what you did to the dojo?! What on EARTH has gotten into your brains?!"

"We were just sparring," Kaji said without thinking.

"'Sparring'? 'SPARRING'?! How long have you two been fighting?!"

"Just about---"

"Spars don't last this long, Kaji! And they don't involve Stars lashing out at their teammates with their BEST attacks at full force! And what were you two doing, not even planning to avoid an assault? Do you realize what could have happened if we hadn't arrived? Do you realize you could've DIED without that force field around you?!"

"But, Sensei, Stars don't---"

"Stars don't die, yes, thank you, I know that Kamui. But you could've gotten seriously hurt! Don't even begin to think of saying that I can heal you anyway, because judging from the intensity of your attacks, I doubt I can heal you both in one day! And what if there was an attack, hm? Who's going to defend?"

"There're still three Stars on the Ground," Kaji stubbornly reasoned.

"That is NOT the point, Hino! ARGH! Honestly, you two! I expected both of you to be more sensible than this!"

"It wasn't my fault!" both boys said at the same time.

Yuki couldn't help but sigh. What a pair of hardheads.

"What do you mean, it's not your fault?" Kamui yelled, glaring at Kaji again.

"I wasn't the one who threw a punch first!" Kaji countered.

"If you hadn't started accusing--"

"I wasn't accusing anyone of anything! I was just considering the possibility that---"

"You weren't considering it! You had your mind made up---"

"I wasn't decided! I was freaking asking you to help me make sure, Toriyam--- AAAAH!"

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Ran growled again, practically throwing both force fields around the boys into the air, making them lose their balance. "You've caused enough trouble for one day, both of you! Aiya-yayay..." Ran scratched his head in frustration, looking like a father who didn't know what to do with his two impossible sons. "Listen to me, OK?" he started, trying to calm himself. "I know there are some issu---"

Ran's sentence was cut short when he suddenly froze, his eyes widening. Before the three other Stars could wonder what was going on, Ran spun in place, his eyes fixed on the pathway that lead back to the main hall. His three students looked at each other in confusion.

"Sensei?" Yuki asked tentatively, following Ran's line of vision, but seeing nothing. "What's wrong?"

As if answering her question, a girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She standing at an odd position, her breathing was short and labored, her clothes torn and her hair disheveled. She finally lifted her head, her brown eyes glassy, obviously trying very hard to focus...

"H--...Hao..."

With that, her knees gave away, and she started to collapse.

"AIKO!"

Kaji caught her in a flash, his maroon eyes worriedly gazing at her.

"What--... Who--..." he heard Kamui stammer behind him. "She was attacked?! How come we didn't sense it?!"

"We were too busy 'sparring'," Kaji said involuntarily.

"No, that's not it. I didn't sense it either..." Ran corrected him, examining the girl in Kaji's arms.

Yuki blinked. There was no arguing the fact that she was worried, herself. But the way Ran's eyebrows were furrowed, and that bothered look on his face scared her. "Sensei, what is it?" she asked.

"A normal Rose couldn't have inflicted this much damage on her ki..."

"'This much damage'?!" Kaji exclaimed, starting to panic. "Sensei---"

"Kaji, take her to her room as fast as you can. Open the window and make sure the air is circulating, and that she can breathe easily. Do NOT leave her alone. Kamui, get your sister, and Yuki, go look for Hikaru. Come back as soon as possible." Ran clenched his fists as he stood up. "We have a situation in our hands..."

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"Aren't you tired yet?"

Yuuji looked up from the thick book he was reading to see Fuu standing by one of the shelves, holding a glass of water. He smiled. "Just a bit."

She shook her head as she set down the glass of water in front of him. "You should get some rest, you know."

"Thanks, but I'm fine."

"Really," she said, unconvinced. "I thought you were allergic to research."

Yuuji's eyebrows furrowed. "Huh?"

"If I remember correctly," she said, tapping a finger on her chin, looking pretty thoughtful, "you never liked research in high school. Whenever we had a reading assignment, you always asked me if I wanted a group study, and what always happens is I end up reading the whole thing and just reiterating it to you."

"What?" Yuuji asked, laughing. "I did that?"

"You were a pretty diligent student, always ready for quizzes and exams. But when it came to long reading assignments and research, you take on the attitude of a juvenile delinquent."

"Hey! It can't be that bad!"

"Yes, it was that bad. That was just three years ago, Matsuo, I can't believe you already forgot about that."

"It was three years ago, Hiroguchi, I can't believe you still remember that."

Fuu shrugged, ignoring Yuuji's grin. "Yes, well, high school is one of the most exciting stages of life, so they say. It's pretty hard to forget."

"I know..." Yuuji said with a smile. "High school... What a blast." He chuckled, shaking his head. "I never did find out if I passed Tokyo U..."

"You did," Fuu answered, surprising Yuuji.

"I did?!"

"I checked the results the day it was out. You passed."

"Wow..."

"Everyone expected it. You were the only who thought that you weren't going to pass."

"How come you never told me?"

"You never asked."

"Mom must've been jumping around with joy that her prediction came true," Yuuji said, laughing again. When Fuu didn't react, he turned to look at her. To his bewilderment and surprise, her face was serious again, and she seemed to be slightly upset as she kept her eyes on the shelf beside her. "Fuu? What's---"

"I can't believe you just said that." Fuu said, her voice a bit shaky.

"What... What do you mean?"

"Of course your mom didn't jump around with joy, Yuuji. Why on earth would you think that?"

"Well...Because I passed college?"

Yuuji didn't know what to think of the way Fuu was looking at him. She looked angry, surprised and sad, all at the same time.

"You... You don't remember?" she said.

Yuuji blinked. "Remember what?"

Again, she looked away.

"Fuu..." he tried, reaching for her hand, "please tell me what's wrong..."

"The... The results came out the day after you disappeared, Yuuji... No one really bothered to see if you passed or not because they were too busy being shocked that you were gone. No one cared if you made it if you were 'dead', anyway. It was pointless to look for your name on the list."

"But you did."

"That's because I---!" Fuu suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, her eyes widening as if she was surprised at what she was going to say. Quickly closing her mouth, she wrenched her hand free and turned to leave. But Yuuji quickly stood up, catching her hand again before she could take her second step.

"That's because you what?"

"Let me go, Yuuji."

"Because you what, Fuu?"

She didn't answer him, but at least she didn't try to get away, either. Yuuji had to try very, very hard not to scratch his hair in frustration.

"Fuu---"

"Please don't ask me again, Yuuji." she said quietly.

"Dammit, Fuu!" he yelled, his voice echoing in the huge hall. "Every time I get to talk to you alone... Does it always have to end this way?"

"Yes..."

"Why?!"

"Because. Just because."

Mai had said once that Yuuji was the most patient guy she had ever met. That's easily true because she hadn't met a whole lot of people. But, the truth was: Yuuji's patience was impressively long. Nothing was able to change that. Not Youko, not the Stars, not the minors, not even Kaori and Haruna's bickering or Maya's constant, persistent questions. No one could provoke him so easily... Except Fuu. If Mai thought that Yuuji was amazingly tolerant, then, to Yuuji, Fuu was unbelievably stubborn. He loved it that she was level-headed, calm, collected and unmoved when they were working or in the middle of a crisis, but sometimes he just wished that she wasn't like that when they were talking.

Gritting his teeth, Yuuji's grip on Fuu's hand tightened. He didn't really mean to, but he couldn't help it, either. He expected that she was going to whirl around, yelling at him to stop it because her wrist was starting to hurt. But she didn't. Getting impatient, Yuuji finally spun her around himself.

"Fu---"

Finally, he got her to face him, but Yuuji immediately recoiled, his eyes widening. She still had a fierce look upon her, her lips arched into a deep frown, and her eyebrows knit together. But what wiped his brain clean of whatever he was supposed to shout at her was her two stormy blue eyes. Sure, she was glaring as usual, but this time...

This time she was crying.

Yuuji was shocked frozen as he watched tears flowing freely from Fuu's eyes. Despite the fact that his brain had suddenly seemed to shut down, all the memories he had of her swiftly flashed through his mind. Never, never in his life had Yuuji seen Fuu cry. Not when the boy she liked in sixth grade told her in her face that he didn't like her back, not when one of her classmates slapped her for a reason he couldn't even remember, not when she broke her arm when she fell down the stairs once, not even when her parents died.

"Let me go, Yuuji..." she repeated in a broken whisper.

Yuuji unknowingly relented, his purple eyes still disbelievingly staring at her tears. He was only able to blink himself awake when Fuu turned her heel and ran out the library. He couldn't run after her; he couldn't move his feet. Suddenly exhausted, he fell back on his chair again, his elbow unintentionally shoving a relatively thin book off the table. It fell on the floor with a thud, but he didn't really care.

For a few minutes, Yuuji just stared at the table, trying to make sense of what just happened. But the more he thought about it, the more he got frustrated, confused, saddened and bothered. Shaking his head, he shoved the memory -- along with whatever he was feeling -- to the back of his brain, deciding to channel his energies somewhere else. Sighing, he went to pick up the book that had fallen on the floor. He was about to close it when something caught his eye. All the books he had flipped through so far had read like a record of history, or a teaching tool. This one, however, was written using first person narration, like someone was recounting a personal experience...

He placed the book on the table, his eyebrows furrowing as he read...
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Next on Blue Star
They attacked the Stars. They look pretty emotionless. Most have already forgotten about them... But they're people, too. And they get confused, too...

"I am NOT letting you go...not anymore... "

Extra Episode: Clarity

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Review Topics go first today. you don't have to read the 'From the Author' section if you don't need to hear me ranting.
- Youko's revelation: loopholes, anyone? Whaat's your take on who Ran really is?
- Mai's reaction to Youko. Too shocked? Too undecisive on what to believe? Or is it realistic?
- Kaji and Kamui's 'sparring' and how Ran handled it
- Yuuji and Fuu's conversation

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From the Author
Lots of quarrels and shouting in this episode. This is the ever-lovable Explanation Episode, version two.

OK, I'm going to be honest. This is the first draft (meaning I haven't edited this thing at all, I haven't even reread it) , so forgive typos, loopholes, etc. It's just that something... uh... not too happy... happened to me a few hours ago, and I decided to write to work off negative energy. So, forgive me if the general feel isn't happy either. I don't know why I uploaded it at all... Maybe I'll replace this with an edited version later.

I broke my own record. I wrote one and a half episodes in two hours. April 4, 2005, 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Clap, clap. According to my outline, Episodes 23 and 24 are supposed to be released on the same day as a "one-hour special", but I finally decided not to. For some reason, I really really wanna upload something.

... ARGH!!! Rawr. Think happy thoughts... Happy thoughts....

By the way, there was this thing in the previous episode that I thought a lot of people are going to comment on. No one did. Not that it really matters. Anyway, I'm sure you noticed the two new names in this episode. Matsuo is Yuuji's family name, and Hiroguchi is Fuu's. It's about time I give them family names, too.Uh... Can I insert a last, quick rant here? OK.
-----start of rant----
GRAH. I can't believe it took me so long to realize that I hadn't given the Roses enough build-up... Now I'm cramming them into these pitiful episodes. Nyerf nyerf nyerf. -sigh- Rawr.
-----end of rant----

Gomen nasai... I'll post reponses to your reviews on my next update.