It was that darkness again.

Not a gentle darkness that enfolded and protected him, but a suffocating darkness that seemed to wrap around his throat and strangle him.

A toxic, green light flashed and vanished. Kariya screamed in horror. In that split-second, he had seen his blankets, but they were moving and pulsating like a mass of huge, squirming bugs. Now they didn't feel like blankets anymore; they were cold and wet, sliding across his skin in a million different directions. He began to thrash and cry, but then he felt one of the wet things at the corner of his mouth. He clamped his mouth shut in terror, but the thing kept pressing relentlessly at it, trying to pry apart his lips.

Then another of the things touched corner of his left eye. Deliberately, it began to force its way inside, sending an unbearable pain shooting through his skull. When he opened his mouth to scream again, the thing at his lips immediately slipped in, falling straight to the back of his throat. Kariya choked and tried to cry out, tried to sit up, but he couldn't move.

His eyes snapped open. Where was he? It was dark. He had to get away. Still screaming, he scrambled out of bed and ran across the room, bursting through the door into the hallway where he stumbled and fell to his knees.

"Help help Sakura help!" His thin voice echoed as if from a distance. "Help! Help! Help...help..." Slowly, soft, pale moonlight faded into his vision, and his screaming died down. He fell silent, gasping, his hands and knees pressed against the carpet. No, wait...he was at home, right? He looked back toward the door. A shudder went through him. Again, the details of the nightmare had already blurred, and he only remembered the huge, wet creature falling into his mouth. That, and stark terror. Dread still pounded through his skull, making his arms and legs feel weak.

Suddenly, the door at the end of the hallway exploded open, and Kobato flew at him, her fluffy, pink nightgown glowing in the moonlight. Before Kariya knew what was going on, she had wrapped him in a hug, pressing his face to her shoulder. He trembled and began to cry, clutching at her sleeve.

"What is it?" Kobato asked, her voice piping into the darkness and calming his terror.

Kariya held onto her more tightly. "Nightmare," he gulped.

"Can you tell me about it?"

"Well, there were these big worms, a-and one of them went into my mouth, and--and..." Kariya trailed off, sobbing.

"That sounds very scary!" Kobato exclaimed seriously.

Kariya nodded, digging his face deeper into her shoulder.

"However," Kobato went on, raising one finger and smiling down at him optimistically, "It was just a dream, and dreams aren't real. You're safe now."

Kariya sat back and nodded again, wiping away his tears with the back of his fist. "Mhm," he mumbled.

"Are you ready to go back to sleep?"

The boy shook his head.

"Hmmmmm..." Kobato put a finger to her chin thoughtfully. Then she smiled again, clapping her hands together. "I know! We can drink some hot tea downstairs. Then maybe you won't be scared anymore, and you'll feel like going to bed again."

"Mhm," Kariya repeated. He stood up with Kobato, holding her hand, and they went downstairs to the kitchen.

There was a water-boiler already filled on the counter, so Kobato simply pressed its button to start it heating. She then opened the cupboards and pulled out two tea cups, two packets of green tea, a jar of honey, and a spoon. Kariya sat at the kitchen table and watched, subconsciously trying to remember his nightmare, even though every thought of it sent chills down his spine.

Humming an indecipherable tune to herself, Kobato tore open the tea packets and dropped one into each cup. As she worked, the crackling of the water boiler turned into a deep rolling sound. Hearing this, Kobato abruptly spun back toward it to take it off its stand, but her elbow hit one of the tea cups along the way. It shattered loudly on the floor.

"Oh no, I'm sorry!" Kobato cried. Dropping to the floor, she began frantically scooping up shards of teacup in her hands.

There was a sound of footsteps descending the stairs, and Kariya looked toward the door as Fujimoto stepped in, his eyebrows knitted together grumpily. He was wearing a white t-shirt and loose, dark blue pants, but his hair was still tied, and his glasses on. He pressed a hand to his forehead, half-covering one eye and clenching his teeth. "Kobato, what are you doing?" he sighed.

"Huh?" Kobato popped up from behind the table like a prairie dog, shards of china in her cupped hands. "Aah! Kiyokazu! I'm sorry!"

Fujimoto strode over to her and seized her wrists, turning her hands to make her drop the shards. "What are you doing? You'll cut yourself!" he snapped. He went around to the other side of the round table and took a broom and dustpan from the corner. As he worked to sweep up the broken teacup, Kobato tried to explain the situation.

"I heard Kariya-kun calling for help, so when I came out, I found him in the hallway. He'd had a terrible nighmare!" she said hurriedly, "He was too scared to go back to bed, so we came down here to have some tea, and then, well..." She lowered her head in shame.

"Never mind," Fujimoto grunted, standing up and dumping the broken teacup into the trashcan. He tapped the dustpan against the side so that every shard fell in, then returned the broom to the corner and faced Kobato again. "Is the water boiling?"

Kobato spun around and meekly turned on the boiler again, which had flipped itself off when it got too hot. In the meantime, Fujimoto took out two new teacups and two packages of green tea, preparing three place settings. "Sit down," he said. Kobato sat abruptly next to Kariya. After pouring a little hot water into each of their cups, Fujimoto joined them at the table. He pushed the honey toward Kariya.

Shyly, Kariya stirred a spoonful of honey into his green tea, listening to the clinking of the spoon against the china. He returned to spoon to the honey jar and slid it to Kobato. Fujimoto suppressed a yawn, sitting in his chair with folded arms. The silence was deafening.

Kobato was the first to try to break it. "So, what shall we do tomorrow?" she asked brightly.

"I have to work tomorrow," Fujimoto said.

"Oh, but you're off on Saturday, right? We should take Kariya-kun out somewhere." She gasped suddenly. "That's it! A boat! We can take him to the park and ride one of those rowboats! Will you teach him how to row, Kiyokazu?"

Kariya smiled and cautiously sipped at his scalding tea, but Fujimoto seemed unimpressed.

"Shouldn't we be focusing on finding out who his family is?" he said.

"Oh, but we don't know how long that might take, so in the meantime, we might as well do something fun, right?" Kobato insisted.

"He's right, I need to get back to them," Kariya interjected suddenly, "I promised..."

"What did you promise?" Fujimoto asked.

"That...we'd be together again," he whispered.

"Kariya-kun! Are you remembering?" Kobato asked hopefully.

Kariya shook his head. "No, but...I promised."

"Don't worry! It'll be okay," Kobato said optimistically, "We'll do our best to find your family, won't we, Fujimoto?"

Fujimoto gave a grunt of acknowledgement. He stood up and placed his empty teacup in the sink. "Are you ready to go back to bed now?" he asked Kariya.

The boy shuddered. "I don't want to go back to that room," he replied.

"Oh, if you're scared to sleep alone right now, you can sleep in our room--can't he, Kiyokazu?" Kobato turned to him eagerly.

Fujimoto opened his mouth as if to protest, but then he closed it again with a sigh. "Fine," he said. He turned and went out of the room. A moment later, footsteps echoed up the wooden stairs.

"He's mad because I woke him up," Kariya mumbled into his tea.

"No," Kobato said, shaking her head and then smiling toward the door, "Kiyokazu is always like this, but he's actually very kind. Right now, he just wants to get some sleep so he can be energetic for work tomorrow. He's always worked very hard."

They sat together for a few more minutes, finishing their tea quietly. When they were done, Kobato said, "Now we should get some sleep too. We have a lot to do tomorrow!" They headed upstairs and down to the room at the end of the hall. Fujimoto was already asleep in bed, facing away. For a moment, Kariya considered telling Kobato that he didn't want to be a bother and return to his room, but the very thought seized him with such terror that he kept silent.

Kobato had him climb into bed first beside Fujimoto, and then she snuggled under the covers as well, turning to her side to face him. She laid one hand on his chest as he stared up at the ceiling. "Don't worry; everything's going to be okay," she whispered.

"Mhm," Kariya replied, but he didn't believe her. Deep in the back of his mind, something felt wrong, and this wrongness spread through his whole body, infecting his heart. Whatever it was that he couldn't remember screamed at him that nothing was going to be okay.

For a long time after Kobato fell asleep, Kariya stared at pale moonlight on the ceiling. Then exhaustion overcame him without him even noticing, and he sank into a dreamless sleep.

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

The next morning, after Fujimoto had gone to work, Kobato announced, "We are going to see Kohaku-san today!" She was wearing a white and green spring dress with a yellow patterns of flowers and a matching hat.

"Who's Kohaku?" Kariya asked.

"She's an angel from Tenkai," Kobato replied, "But she's living here in Ningenkai so she can be with Shuichiro. If anyone can find out why you can't remember, she can."

Kariya hadn't understood most of what she said. "What do you mean she's an angel?"

"She's not from this world," Kobato explained, "And she knows about things that most people don't know about, like how Ioryogi can talk even though he's a stuffed toy!" She gasped. "Oh, I should ask for Ioryogi's help too! Maybe he can find something out about you. He always seems to know a lot."

"Where's Ioryogi from?" Kariya asked, remembering that she had mentioned him the day before.

"I'm not sure," Kobato admitted, "He never told me. He was always around back then to help me, but now I don't see him as often. He was helping me to get my wish, so now that I have it, he's not always here anymore."

"You got your wish?" Kariya said as they left the glade and began walking down the sidewalk toward the main part of the city.

"That's right!"

"I have a wish."

"What is it?"

"I want to keep my promise."

"I see," Kobato said, "You want everyone to be together again, right?"

Kariya nodded, a happy warmth rising in his cheeks. "Now I just wish I could remember who 'everyone' is so we could be together," he said with a shy grin, scratching the back of his head.

"That's a wonderful wish!" Kobato exclaimed, "It will definitely come true!"

"Do you really think so?"

"Definitely!"

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

Before long, they arrived at the gate of a large house in the city. Kobato pressed the doorbell and a buzz went off. A moment later, the gate swung open to reveal a small, slim woman with golden hair and amber eyes. Her hair was all swept over her head to the side so that it fell in a wave onto her right shoulder, and it was much shorter than Kobato's. She wore an elegant, purple blouse that tapered to a stiff point behind her knees, creating an almond shape around her dark blue jeans.

"Kohaku-san!" Kobato began with a big smile, "I want you to meet Kariya-kun!" She guided him so that he was standing in front of her, placing her hands on his shoulders.

Kohaku got down to the boy's level, her hands on her knees. "Pleased to meet you, Kariya-kun," she said brightly.

"I'm pleased to meet you too," Kariya replied.

"Kariya needs help with remembering," Kobato announced.

"I woke up in the alley yesterday, without any memories," he explained.

"I see," Kohaku said, straightening up. She turned to welcome them inside.

Through the gate, they came into a large, green yard with an Asian-style house in the center, its wood walls painted yellow with sliding doors. On the left side of the house, there was a wooden porch looking out over a small pond and a wild orchard and garden. Kohaku led them over to the porch, and they sat down together, Kariya in the middle.

Sitting straight-backed on her knees, Kohaku looked sideways at him. "So when you say you have no memories, do you really mean none at all?" she asked.

"I don't remember who I am, or where I'm from, or who my family is," Kariya replied, "But I do remember that I promised we'd be together. I really, really want to keep that promise, because..." He trailed off, clutching at his blue hoodie over his heart.

"Because...?"

"I don't remember," he admitted quietly, "But I have to."

"Is there anything else?"

"He was having a nightmare when I found him, and he had another very scary one last night!" Kobato put in, "He dreamed that worms were getting in his mouth!"

Kariya shuddered and hunched over, grasping his left arm so that it hung down between his legs. "Well, I don't even remember the dream much now, but I'm still scared," he said, "It was horrible."

"Close your eyes," Kohaku instructed, and Kariya obeyed. The sounds of the wind in the treetops and the chirping birds were suddenly very distinct. "Now," Kohaku said, "Just be quiet for a while and try to focus. See if you can remember anything else at all: names, faces, emotions, anything. Anything you can think of will be helpful."

Kariya took a deep breath and tried to sink into his own mind, searching. Yet the farther he went, the more an oppressive dread began to build. It seized the back of his throat and swirled in his chest, forbidding him to continue forward. No, he told himself, I promised. Remembering his promise gave him strength, and he ignored the fear, casting about for any hint of a memory that might give him a clue. Suddenly, a different emotion flashed through the the darkness like fire. His eyes snapped open. "I'm angry," he said. He felt a tension in his hands and looked down to see that they were clenched, white-knuckled on his knees. He was leaning on them heavily.

Kohaku's eyebrows knitted together in concern. "Did someone hurt you?"

"No, they hurt--Well, maybe..." Kariya stammered.

"They hurt someone else?"

"I don't know--I'm confused, s-stop it," Kariya mumbled, pressing his hands over his face.

"Kariya-kun--"

"Shut up!" he screamed, "I'll kill you!"

Silence fell over everything. Even the wind and the birds seemed to pause with bated breath. Kohaku raised her amber eyes to Kobato's face.

Then Kariya drew in a sharp breath through his teeth, clutching at the back of his head. A sharp pain had just exploded there, shooting all the way down his back and tingling in his fingertips. He stood up.

"Kariya-kun!" Kobato cried, jumping to her feet as well, "Are you okay? Does it hurt?"

"Just the scratches stinging," Kariya grunted, "Please, I--need some time alone." With that, he turned and ran from the porch, disappearing around the corner of the house. Kobato tried to run after him, but Kohaku caught her by the arm.

"I need to talk to you," she said.

Kariya sprinted halfway around the house, diving into the orchard and collapsing with his back against a blossoming sakura tree. Pink petals swarmed violently around him as a gust of wind rushed through the tree, and he winced again, grasping at the back of his neck as another pain shot down his back. "No," he whimpered, "No-no-no-no-no...leave me alone!" Gasping, he curled up on his side and began to sob. Piercing pain travelled in waves through his skull and down his spine, but it wasn't the pain that made him cry. It was the anger: the faceless, formless hatred. I'll kill you!

I'll kill you!