She remembered that a group of guys suddenly attacked them then something silvery flash in their midst and the next thing she knows is Tegoshi dragging her away fom that place.

But where is Maki and Yamapi? what happened to them?

She looks at her surroundings, somehow it looks familiar even though she knows that it is her first time being here.
There's another bed on the corner apart from hers and Tegoshi's, then it means that someone must have slept with them last night.

She looks back at Tegoshi again. A smile played across her lips, they were the only ones here inside the room. She went to his side and caress his cheeks. She vaguely remembers how they got here, what was clear in her mind is how Tegoshi carried her on his back, how she gripped on him tightly before unconsciousness took her. She blames her sickness for not making her enjoy the moment of being with him at that time.
She's going to enjoy this moment though, she thinks as she continues to caress his cheeks.

She looks at his face and wonders what's wrong with him. He looks so pale that he looks like he's sick. Then she remembers that he haven't been going to classes lately, maybe he's really sick. Running under the rain while carrying her must have weaken him.

Just then Tegoshi moves and snuggle closely, but still asleep. She smiled fondly at him and she's thinking about doing something to those inviting lips when someone enters the room.
"Eh? you're awake already?" A very pretty girl said
Ayu quickly withdrew her hand away from Tegoshi's face.
The pretty girl smiled when she saw Ayu's reaction.
She looks familiar though Ayu is sure that she haven't seen this girl before.

The girl went up to her and touch her forehead.
"Thank goodness, your fever is already gone. I was worried last night, you know." The girl said
Ayu blinks, this girl talks and moves like they have known each other for so long. Despite of that, she feels comfortable with her as if they were friends before.

The girl looks at the sleeping Tegoshi, Ayu can see that she's a little bit worried. "Don't worry about him ne~ he's going to be okay" the girl said to her.

"Who are you?" Ayu ask her
The girl turns to her looking shock. Then Ayu saw different emotions flash across her face. She looks sad while answering her
"I'm Toda Erika. You can call me Erika" the girl said. "You're Ayu right?"
Ayu nods.
"Tegoshi is one of our friends ne~ Both of you were sick when you came here last night, Masami is the one who takes care of you and I'm the one who changed your clothes." Erika said
Ayu looks down at herself, her clothes are different from what she's wearing last night. "Oh, thank you"
"By the way Maki is already downstairs, do you want to join her for breakfast?" Erika ask her
"How about him?" Ayu points to Tegoshi
"Let us just wait for him to wake up ne~" Erika said
"Oh okay" Ayu said
"Come. I'll lead you down stairs" Erika said and she starts to move towards the door. Ayu followed her outside.

Just when she's closing the door she saw Tegoshi looking straight at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maki sits nervously infront of the table. Ryo, Massu and Shige are sitting with her while Koyama serves them food. She looks at the plate that is infront of her, there are 3 eggs and 2 hotdogs in there. Apparently she's not the only one whose nervous, Koyama haven't been paying attention to what he's been doing. Massu eyed her plate wistfully, there is only rice on his plate.

Maki wish that Yamapi would come soon, at least when he's here the atmosphere would not that be heavy.
She can still feel Ryo's heavy stare on her. Maki is still afraid of him, after what he did last night.
"Maki, thank you for saving us last night" Shige said. "I'm sorry if we leave you like that"
Maki smiles "I was the one who forced you to leave, right?"
"Are you okay now Maki?" Massu said and giving her a very bright smile, assuring her that everything will be fine.
She smiles and nods at him. Somehow she feels slightly better seeing how bright Massu's smile is.
"What happened to you last night?" Ryo suddenly ask her, his voice is gentle but his stare is still hard.
"What happened to me?" She said. Her fear is back now that Ryo started to speak to her.
"Yeah, we found you unconscious in the forest last night" Ryo said
"Who found me?" Maki said, remembering the silver-eyed girl again.
"Me and Yamapi"
"What about the girl?" Maki said
"Girl?" Ryo said
Maki tried to remember the girl's name, but can't.
"I can't remember, but what I know is that her eyes is silver" Maki said
Ryo and Shige straighten up in their seats.
Maki looks at their expressions "What? What's wrong?"
"We don't know any girl with silver eyes" Koyama said slowly
Then Ryo took something out of his pocket and placed it on the table infront of her. It is the silver orb.
"Do you know what this is?" Ryo ask her.
Maki looks at the orb. "I saw the girl holding that thing last night" she said.
She saw Ryo and Shige exchange furtive looks while Massu and Koyama looks at the orb quizzically.
"Its the first time I see something like this" Koyama said while Massu's brow is knotted in concentration as he looked at the orb.
"What happened to you last night?" Ryo repeats the question again. "I mean why are you unconscious when we found you?"
Maki tries to remember what happened last night. She can only recall bits of it, like meeting the girl but the rest of it was so vague. So unclear that it makes Maki doubts if meeting that girl is true or only a part of her dream. But the silver orb is here so it means that it really happened.
"I can't really remember" Maki said "but don't you know her? I thought she's one of you?"
Ryo looks at her long and hard. "We don't know any silver-eyed girl and how can you say that she is one of us?"
"Because I can't hear her thoughts and I can't hear your thoughts too that's why I thought that she's one of you." Maki said
They didn't look surprised when she said this, Yamapi must have already told them.
Shige opens his mouth to say something but close it again when he saw 2 girls went down the stairs. One of them is Ayu.
"Maki!" Ayu said
Ryo quickly takes the silver orb and put it back again in his pocket.
"Mou~ Kei-chan what did you do?" said the other girl as she looks down at their plates.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Koyama said when he noticed his mistakes and corrects it. He puts hotdogs on Massu's plate and add rice on hers. He continue serving them.
"Maki, this is Erika" Shige introduce the other girl to her
"Good Morning Maki" Erika said
"Good morning too" Maki said. she didn't ask how this girl knows her name, they must have already told her
Erika ushered Ayu to the table "ne~ Ayu join them and eat your breakfast too so that you can recover quickly" she said while Koyama adds some plates. Ayu sits beside Maki.
"How about you?" Ryo ask Erika
"I already have some, I'll just look for Masami ne~" Erika said and she went outside
"what happened to you Shige?" Ayu said, noticing the bandages on Shige's body.
"Oh, this is nothing" Shige said
"Did those guys attack you too?" Ayu ask him
"Uh yeah~" Shige said shyly while Ryo snorts
"We heard from Yamaa-kun what happened, we're sorry if we got you involved in this ne~" Massu said to Ayu
"Its alright, who are those guys anyway?" Ayu ask them
"Some gang from another school" Shige said
"Eh? I didn't know that you guys are involved in some gang wars or something" Ayu said
"Those bastards are only jealous of us, don't worry they will never disturb us ever again" Ryo said as Koyama sits down and they start to eat.
"Oh really?" Ayu said "all of us are absent today ne~"
"and this day is also the deadline of our project ne~" Shige said sadly
"EH? really?" Ayu said

Maki eats her food while Ayu and Shige continue to talk. She thinks about what Yamapi said earlier, about joining them. She is really curious of how she got this kind of ability and maybe joining them will give her the answer. But she also knows that joining them means danger, what with all those people coming after them. And who is that silver eyed girl, Maki can't really remember her name or what she told her last night.

As she contemplates this things. Ryo is watching her closely from across the table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tegoshi looks outside the window as he lie on his bed. He still feels weak but he's lucky though, he's still alive. Yamapi must have caught up on him last night and heals him, he will thank him later on when he sees him.
He dreams again last night, dreams about those things that happen to him and to his family. Makes him relive every moments of it, always haunting him, reminding him how he failed to save them all.
Only to be awaken by the soft caress on his cheeks. Even with his eyes closed, he knows who's the one doing this. Knows the only person who have gentle hands and who will caress him like this. So instead of opening his eyes and stopping the moment, he pretends to sleep and snuggle close savoring every minute of it. Let the touch comforts him from the nightmares that haunts him.
So it was really a great disappointment to him when Erika came and interrupted them, and have to took Ayu with her.
Tegoshi sighs. He have other things to think about too. Things that concerns Maki. She can't really remember him but she remember the car accident. If he only knows what happened to her, how she becomes a human. But still a trace of her gift is left-

Just then someone knocks on the door. It opens and reveals Ryo who is standing outside.
"Feeling better?" Ryo said as went to his bed and sat on it.
Tegoshi just smiles in response.
"You still looks pale, are you really alright?"
"Yeah" Tegoshi said
"What happened to you last night? we all got worried you know" Ryo said
"The curse attacked me while I was fighting those guys. I think that is a major attack." Tegoshi lied. He can't tell them about the spell that he did. He just can't, not yet.
"You got so weak that Pi had troubled healing you" Ryo said
"How is Yamapi-kun?" Tegoshi ask, slightly worried for him.
"He is okay. Though he said that you can't still use your gift while you're at that state so we have to make some lies for Ayu" Ryo said
"Oh, how is she?"
"She's okay too. Her fever is gone, Masami is the one who takes care of her last night since Yamapi is busy with you."
"How about Maki?" he ask him. He want to hear something from his sister.
Ryo is silent before answering him. "Me and Yamapi talked about her early this morning, he wanted her to join us"
Tegoshi's eyes went wide, his sister joining them? "But she's a human, what if those guys attack her too?"
"That's what I told to Yamapi too. But you see she's not an ordinary human, she has a gift too.... and a curse and Pi said that for us to know the reasons behind that she must join us."
Tegoshi can't bear the thought of his sister joining them, it does not belong to his plans.
"I only agreed to him because of some things" Ryo said quietly
"what things?" Tegoshi ask him
"Do you know what happened to her last night?" Ryo ask him
"what?"
"After you guys escaped Yuihiro, you guys went running inside the forest right? But Yamapi decided to be left behind to stop them so that makes Maki running alone after you" Ryo said
Tegoshi didn't know that, he thought Yamapi would take care of her.
"Maki got lost and when we found her she was lying on the ground, unconscious" Ryo said
"why? what happened to her?" Tegoshi said
"She's okay now, Masami took care of her too" Ryo said "when we talked to her this morning she said she remembered meeting a girl with silver eyes"
Tegoshi sit up straight on his bed. A girl with silver eyes?
"Then she said she can't remember the rest of it, we would like to ask her more but Ayu came so we have to stop. And by the way I found this lying on the place where we found her last night" Ryo said and he took something in his pocket. It is a silver orb.
Tegoshi looks at it. A silver-eyed girl and a silver orb? Then that means that one of the Maidens is still alive.
He stretch out his hands to take the orb from Ryo's hand but the moment his hand touch the orb a great pain shots through his body. He falls back to his bed again and doubled over in pain.
"Tegoshi?! what's wrong? what happened?! Pi! Yamapi!" Ryo shouts as he touch Tegoshi's back, trying to comfort him or something. The orb falls from Ryo's hand and helplessly rolls on the floor away from them.
"What happened here?" Shige said as he and Massu came running inside the room.
"I don't know, he just suddenly went like this" Ryo said, fighting the urge to panic. "Where the hell is Pi?"
Massu went to Tegoshi's side and started to rub his back. Tegoshi lie there on the bed panting. Now that he's not touching the orb, he can feel the pain slowly receding.
"Yamapi-kun hasn't returned yet" Shige said. And then he spotted the silver orb lying on the floor "Did he touch that?" he points to the orb.
"Yeah, I think." Ryo said
"You shouldn't have let him. You don't know what those people in the temple did with those things. I heard they put some weird spells or charms on that. That thing might be dangerous." Shige said
"I didn't know about that twerp! and Massu didn't say anything about that thing earlier" Ryo said
"Actually I'm not sure about that stuff. I can't identify if that is dangerous or not" Massu said as he continues to rub Tegoshi's back.
"Ryo you know the people from the temple they always do mysterious things." Shide said
Tegoshi knows about it though, impure people can't touch the orbs. He is cursed that's why he can't touch it. Its been a long time that's why he forgot about that rule.
"Where is Ayu? Maki? did they hear us?" Ryo said
"No, Koyama and Erika already brings them to the school." Shige said
"What about Pi? or Masami?"
"Yamapi hasn't returned yet since he went out with Maki early this morning. I haven't seen Masami too" Shige said
Ryo immediately stands up. "Watch over him" he said to them as he runs through the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm sorry Pi if we have to disturb your precious moment with Maki ne~" Jin said as he, Kame, Yamapi and Masami walk through the trees.
"But this thing is really important, we want you to see this to make sure" Jin said as he dodge a low branch that is on his way.
They spotted Meisa standing in a small clearing.
"You took so long" Meisa told them
"What's this?" Yamapi said as he looks around the clearing. The plants that surrounds the clearing are destroyed and there's a deep slashes on the trunk of the trees.
"Who did this?!" Masami said as she looks at the destroyed greenery. Some of the plants and trees turns black, as if someone puts a weird poisons on them.
"Who dares to destroy my home?!" Masami said angrily. The forest is always been her home, she guards it and it guards her, since her gift is connected with plants and trees. She can control them, make them do whatever she wants them to do.
"Who did this?" Masami repeats as she kneels down and touch her precious plants.
Meisa pointed to a piece of paper that's lying on the ground. Yamapi picks it up and reads the words that is written there.
' I'm Coming '
It says. Yamapi's heart starts to beat up faster. He have seen this kind of handwriting before, knows the only person who will do this kind of thing and who writes like this.
Yamapi looks at the others. "Aoi was here. She is just nearby."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So see you tomorrow at class?" Koyama said as they stand at the gate.
"okay" Maki said
"Aren't you going inside too?" Ayu said to Koyama
"No, I have to go back there. The others are still there you see" Koyama said
"Oh, take care okay? and thank you for everything" Maki said as she looks at Koyama and Erika.
Erika just smiles at them.
"We are the ones who should be apologizing for causing you so much troubles" Koyama said to them.
"I already said its nothing, please say my regards to others ne~" Maki said
Koyama nods as he and Erika starts to walk.
Maki and Ayu watched them go away.
"Mou~ I didn't manage to talk to Tegoshi-kun" Ayu said as they walk towards their dormitory.
"You still can talk to him tomorrow at class" Maki said
Ayu stops on walking and stares at Maki's back. If they can only stay at that place a little longer and wait for Tegoshi to wake up, she wants to thank him for what happened last night
Then she saw movements from the corner of her eyes. She looks back at the gate again, and there she sees a very beautiful woman with long flowing black hair standing there.
The girl's beauty is so heavenly that she looks like an angel.
She also looks so very familiar.
The girl tilts her head to the side and smiles at her.
Ayu blinks, she is sure that she have seen this girl before she just don't know where or when.
"What's wrong?" Maki said making Ayu to look back at her.
"There's someone at the gate" Ayu said as she returns her gaze back at the gate.
"Who?" Maki said looking at the gate too.
But the girl is already gone.

__________________________________

sorry if this is really long... Erika S. will appear on the next chapter.
about the interview, i pass it!! yey!! so now i have to take training from 8am to 5pm.... mon- fri.. which means less time to write..*boo*..
but i will gambatte ne!!! i'll try my best to write the next chapters!! please wish me luck..

and to all who comments and reads... thank you sooooooooo much... you are the reasons why i keep on writing this fic... im really grateful to you guys...