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Chapter 21a: The Return of a Love

As all this was going on in the senshi's dimension, turmoil was running high in another one... One Venus knew very well...

Yahara ran down the dimly lit hallways, panting heavily. His eyes scanned the hallways for any signs of life. So was this it? Were all the troops killed and all was left was the man pulling the stings behind it all? Yahara rounded the corner and suddenly came to a halt, almost crashing into the man before him. He took some steps back in shock as the man started laughing lowly. Yahara wasn't shocked by the laughter, but by the man's soul less eyes. Yahara brought out his Soul Sword, glaring at the man. He looked cautiously behind his shoulder for reinforcements, but none came.

"Come, come. You shouldn't be so upset - I'm just an innocent bystander, Yahara. Or should I say 'Mysterio?'" Yahara flinched at the sudden use of the name. Spontaneously, he ran towards the man with an upheld sword, "SHINE!" He passed the man, sighing now that it was all done. But it had seemed all too easy. He stared at his bloody hands, which by now he was almost indifferent to. Why hadn't the virus left him? He didn't have time to think as a sharp pain in his back suddenly erupted. Someone was pressing a sword against his back.

"Alright, Mysterio. Put away the Soul Sword." Yahara obeyed, not even moving, "Now go sit over at the North end there," the nasal voice said.

Mysterio sat down, now getting a good look at the man before him. The man was tall with brown hair pulled into a pony tail. He wore sunglasses so that Yahara could not see his eyes very well. He recognized the garb the man before him wore as a sorcerer's outfit. He sighed, realizing what had happened.

"You fool, Mysterio. You fell for the decoy - it was only my last soldier you killed. Baka."

Yahara looked down the corridor. Why weren't the backups here by now?

"Ah.. your friends have been..." the man paused to laugh, darkly, "..delayed. Besides this will be a good chance for us to get to know each other before I kill you."

Yahara tensed up, thinking of all the possible escapes from his captor, 'Running into the hallway won't do any good - he's too close, he could easy slash me before I got 2 steps away. So I have to fight, but without my Soul Sword... and the baka castle has an anti-portal barrier around it...' He then remembered his hidden dagger. If he could just distract the man...

The man crouched down to Yahara's level, breathing heavily into his face, "You know Mysterio I did this all because of you..."

Yahara's face showed obvious panic as the words registered. He laughed nervously and said, "Hey I'm not like that... I'm flattered, but hey if you like me that much, why don't you let me go, pl-"

"No, baka! I, Togeno Hebi, did this because of you. Don't think I don't know about Venus and you. Now that you are engaged, she's not public territory anymore. Oh yes, I was mad to find out that she was here without my knowledge. So mad that I decided that giving you the death you deserve is really the only way to repay that." he sneered, thoroughly enjoying putting him through this last bit of emotional torture before he put him out of his misery...

Yahara was silent, not knowing how to respond when suddenly he burst out yelling, "What do you mean not public property?! Minako is not some tramp!!"

"Now Yahara I think you fail to understand. Haven't you ever... oh wait, forgive me, you don't have to imagine, but some of us do... Some of us want to brush that long golden hair... kiss her a few times. Call it seducing if you will and..." Hebi's face lit into a perverted smile.

"STOP!!!" Yahara yelled, "I get your point... I don't want your ecchi details."

Hebi's face lit up once again, "Oh does it bother you that much? But I've only started my narrative.... and you haven't come into it yet... Of course somewhere the oh so great Mysterio walks in and finds out his precious fiancee isn't so precious and -"

"My goddess, it's not real! You're living in some stupid fantasy!" Yahara retorted, hoping to buy time... He had to keep him talking until the reinforcements came. He had to keep rambling on, 'Damn it, where's Mina when I need her? Oh wait, she shouldn't be here with him... scratch that thought,'

"Of course I wouldn't expect you to understand. You have everything you want... but I can help you understand." Hebi said darkly.

Yahara shuddered as he felt Hebi's mind reach out to him, trying to penetrate the barrier his mind had set up. Then he began to receive the visions of what Hebi had been talking about. He clenched the dagger in his pocket tighter to keep from crying out...

Just then, the reinforcements came. Hebi dropped his sword in surprise and stopped the mind torture, "What.. I thought..." Hebi stuttered. For the first time his eyes flashed with fear as he saw the dagger Yahara now held. He decided he had better not stick around to learn his fate and he said, "I'll be back and then, Mysterio, you won't be able to get away so easily." He jumped into the vortex that had opened behind him and he disappeared.

Yahara looked down once again at his bloody hands. He saw that the virus was gone, but his face did not acknowledge this joyous event. He heard his brother calling his name, but he sounded far off...

'It's all over... it's all over so why won't the blood leave my hands?' With that thought, his whole body felt very heavy. He crumpled into his brother's arms and drifted into a deep sleep...

Yahara slowly opened his eyes and blinked rapidly as his sight returned. The ceiling above him was one he had never seen before, it was white and low. Yahara began to panic when he realized he had no idea where he was. His brother's face suddenly appeared before him and Yahara relaxed in his presence, "Yahara... Thank goddess you woke up."

Yahara blinked. His brother seemed more emotional than usual, 'Just how long have I been asleep, then?'

"Yahara... knowing you, you'll want to leave right now, but you need to stay here and get your rest... then you can go back to Minako... k?"

Yahara noded weakly, too tired to disagree, and watched as his brother walked towards the door. He turned back just to say, "I'll be right outside Yahara... get some rest." He then walked out into the hall and slowly shut the door so that Yahara can barely hear it close.

Yahara quickly sat up, ignoring his brother's instructions to rest, and his head began to spin. Although healed, Yahara was still very weak. He gingerly climbed out of the bed and striped himself of the hospital clothes. After a short search in the dark, he found his clothes and put them on. He raised the talisman, about to say the words that will bring him to the palace, when something caught his eye. A man was moving in the bed next to his. He looked strangely like... like Yahara's father?

"Father... is that you?" Yahara shook his head... Could this shriveled old man really be his father?

"Yahara... is that you? You finally came back..."

There was no doubt about it... it was his father. But Yahara refused to admit that the man even existed and said, "No... No, you're not my father... Father is alive and well... No, Father should be dead by now... Why are you still haunting me?"

Yahara shakily backed away from his father's outstretched hand. And ran out into the hallway, bumping into his brother in the process. He was exasperated that Yahara was up out of bed and chastised him for it, "Yahara, I told you to rest,"

"You put me in the same room as Father?! You know that... that I..."

Yahara's brother's face grew tender again as he said, "I know, Yahara... we all were upset, but with time it will heal. Why don't you go and lie down and we'll talk when you're in a right state of mind..."

Yahara was shocked that his brother acted so calmly about the whole thing and said, "Brother? Do you not remember...? What has he brainwashed you into thinking now?!"

Yahara's brother looked shocked that he would even suggest such a thing. He knew that he had to calm down his younger brother somehow and began to speak, "Yahara--"

Yahara felt his eyes begin to well up with tears, but he forced the feeling down and interrupted him before he could go on, "Brother, I'm sorry to have frightened you... There has just been too many things these past days for me to handle. Even so, I promise you that I will never trust that man... I need to leave; I need to get away from here." He calmed down and looked his brother straight in the eye, "Until we meet again.. until then..." Yahara looked at his brother for a moment and then embraced him. He held up the talisman, whispering the words that would bring him back to Minako. He welcomed the white light that enveloped him and felt completely healed of any bodily weakness he had just experienced. It was just his heart that needed mending now...

Yahara's brother watched as Yahara left with a heavy heart. He reluctantly returned to the room where his father lay and started to silently weep as he realized it was no longer his father he was looking at. His hand was still outstretched as the white sheet was placed over his body...

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Pages Updated On: 22-Aug-2008 - 12:34:42
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