Disclaimer: I do not own X or any of the characters from the movie, anime, or manga.

Chapter 2

“Oh, excuse me.” Kotori said as she bumped into one of the many students milling about in the courtyard in front of the school. Alright, milling wasn’t the word. Most of them were trying to file inside, but as usual mornings were absolutely chaotic. Both Kotori and her brother had already parted ways for the morning and now she was simply trying to get to class.

Kotori wasn’t obscenely tiny for a girl, but she wasn’t exactly what you’d call large or stocky. She was a soft, small girl with light brown hair that appeared blond in some lighting. Her eyes were similar in color to her hair and almost visually reflected her gentle, sometimes shy, other times talkative personality. Kotori seemed to fit the stereotype of the nice, dutiful, kind daughter and student. Although how there could be a stereotype of a kind of girl all too rare in the modern day is up to debate.

“Sorry,” she said again as she stepped on yet another person’s feet. She wasn’t sure just who she was apologizing to, but it was right to at least say it anyway. Things were even more hectic than usual today.

“Hey, watch it.” A boy said as he bumped into her, heading in the opposite direction for one reason or another.

“I’m sorry about that.” She replied to him. Giving a small bow as best she could under the circumstances before continuing forward with the rest of the throng. Yet she almost paused. She had an odd feeling she’d lived through this moment before. True she went through this everyday trying to get to class, but this was almost like déjà vu. Running into the guy, going through a particularly dense crowd and apologizing as much as she had in the exact same way she had.

“Shit...” She heard a girl murmur and she turned to see a girl bending down to try and pick up the books she had been holding in her arms. If anything the feeling became stronger. She’d seen this girl drop her stuff before and bend down to pick it back up under the same, difficult circumstances. On instinct Kotori bent down, getting jostled for doing so, and helped her collect them. Once or twice she nearly got her hands stepped on, but it was worth it. “Thank you.” The girl gave her a nod before continuing on with the flow.

Now Kotori was sure. As she straightened up and looked around she was absolutely sure she’d lived through this moment before...but when...wait... her dream last night; the one she’d told Fuma about while he walked her, sitting on the seat of his bicycle, to school. She’d dreamt she was walking through a crowd similar to... no, exactly like this one and then she’d...

As she had in her dream Kotori looked to her right and her eyes instantly found a distinctive face in the crowd, one that didn’t belong to any student who went to this school. It was sharp featured, and almost femininely handsome. The boy had black hair with long backs, although the rest of his hair was short. Like the others he was dressed in a school uniform and like the dream Kotori recognized him with ease. It may have been six years ago, but she still remembered the face of the boy who she and her brother had played with when they were younger; who’d saved her life when she’d fallen out of that tree so long ago.

She remembered those days as though it were yesterday, before her mother died and their Aunt had left with Kamui. They’d had such fun. She couldn’t have found a better set of friends anywhere than in Kamui and her brother. Then he’d just disappeared without even saying goodbye. Their father hadn’t given them any real explanation about it and now here he was no more than a few feet away.

Then she was jostled again and lost sight of him in the crowd. She turned her head this way and that, but like in the dream she couldn’t see him anywhere. Had it really happened? Or was this just another dream? No it had to be real...but if it was then why had she dreamed it the night before? So many confusing questions, but if Kamui really was here then the answers really didn’t matter. She wanted to see him again. It had been so long...

‘Well, this is the place.’ Sorata Arisugawa thought as he came to a stop at the gates of a high school. ‘At least this was where he supposedly transferred.’ School was in session right now so there wasn’t much Sora could do right at the moment. He put his hands into his yellow jacket and leaned against a building across the street. ‘I Guess I’ll just have to wait for him then.’

He’d actually arrived in Tokyo yesterday, but as could be expected since he hadn’t found his charge right away he’d taken the time to enjoy the life Tokyo had to offer. Considering the sheer number of stands and restaurants he’d hit already he had mentally marked out which he wanted to return to and which cooked worse than the monks back at the monastery.

Speaking of life here compared to the monastery, this was great. All of the noise, people, things to do, and the food he was having the time of his life. Let it not be said however he did not miss the Kouya Monastery. Despite all of the chores and habits of life with the monks he’d loved it there. Truth be told he could love life anywhere. He was that kind of guy. He also missed them a great deal, especially the old stargazer.

But he couldn’t let that or anything else get him down. He had a job to do. He’d wait until Kamui got out of school and... ho hum... this was so boring. How long had he been out here waiting? It felt like hours. Really it was about 15 minutes, but this was Sorata.

After a short time more of just waiting Sorata sighed and continued walking. ‘I’ll find something else to do in the meantime and come back when school let’s out. Yeah, that’s the plan. I’ll come back and walk with him home. I’ll talk to him a little, buddy up with him; hell we’ll be friends in no time.’ This was pretty much the entirety of Sorata’s plan to meet his charge. Or course he had yet to meet Kamui and had no idea what he was in for. He hadn’t the slightest idea.

‘Well that’s wonderful timing,’ Kanoe thought; closing up her cell phone and putting it away as the steel doors in front of her opened with a hiss of freezing cold air meeting the stagnant humid variant on Kanoe’s side. Mist poured out like a thing fog being blown by a breeze and instantly she felt the cold wash over her. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, but it did most certainly wake her up.

Even though she could barely see she stepped forward through the mist and into the room; knowing nothing obstructed her path. A huge, monstrous machine loomed up ahead of her, being the first thing that came into view in the room. This wasn’t surprising however since little else was in the room other than the giant machine and the wires that snaked to and from it. Inside the room it was even colder. Of course it had to be for the Beast to function properly.

“Am I interrupting your playtime, Satsuki?” Kanoe said, seemingly speaking to the machine. Kanoe was in her work clothes still, a black office skirt and dress suit, considering she’d just come from there. Her headquarters was in fact right under where she worked. She was a pale, black haired woman, who looked somewhat like a stereotypical female vampire from a bad horror movie.

“No. As a matter of fact I just finished,” came a cold, almost emotionless reply. The ‘shield’ up on top of the mechanical mountain slid back and wires disconnected form the speaker’s body. Then she sat up and looked down at the visitor. Satsuki had disheveled, black hair in a tiny ponytail. She wore a black vest over a white shirt, black shorts that were covered up by another khaki pair and nearly touched the tops of two black, thigh length stockings.

“So then tell me; the boy who went to the Togokushi shrine, is he the real Kamui?”

“According to Beast the answer is yes. I’ve also located his records as a student and juvenile offender. He had a criminal record in the justice system’s database.”

“My, so we have a temperamental youth on our hands. This will prove to be very interesting. Send it to the printer in my office and I’ll pick it up later. In the meanwhile I’m going to head back up to my work now. I got a call while coming down and we have a deadline coming up. Have Yuuto wait for me if he shows up.”

“May I come up sometime? I’ve never seen what its like where you work.” Satsuki asked.

Kanoe was somewhat startled by the request and turned to regard the girl. “I suppose if you want to. But I warn you it’s the most boring place in the world.”

“Why’s that?” The girl tilted her head yet, despite the look, her eyes were still cold and her voice sounded like that of an automated response.

“It’s full of dull people doing dull work. Trust me its enough to drive you out of your mind.”

“Oh, I see.” Satsuki muttered as she lowered her eyes. Kanoe resisted the urge to smirk. She could tell she’d easily squashed the girl’s curiosity with that statement. The girl had a rebellious streak when it came to constraints, orders, and being forced into things; enough to use her computer ‘friends’ to kill anyone number of people. But when it came to Kanoe’s subtle manipulation she could get just about whatever she wanted. As long as the girl was here and spent little time around actual people Kanoe was content. Her ‘control’ was secure. Not that getting to know people would do anything to change that, yet social interaction and learning about the subtleties she often used would make things more difficult. “I’m just going to go for a short ride then.”

“Alright, be careful now. Word is the sky is falling and the world is ending.” With that Kanoe turned to go.

“Mmm-hmm, there’s nothing like chocolate-chip, blue bell ice cream in Tokyo!” Yuzuriha cried; making a high pitched squealing sound of happiness. “It’s really good! You should try some.” She stopped walking and held out the spoon to the dog walking down the sidewalk beside her. To any bystander it must have looked like she was trying to feed thin air. The Inugami shook his head in an almost humanlike gesture. “Oh, wait. That’s right. You can’t eat it. I’m sorry. But don’t worry. I still love you. My Inuki...”

“Excuse me, miss.” Yuzuriha looked up to see a young man in casual clothes, standing not a few feet from her. She’d been ignoring other pedestrians and vehicles until just now. It was obvious by the way he was looking at her and by the fact he hadn’t mentioned someone her age should probably be in school what was on his mind. He was probably a year out of high school. Either that or he was skipping and was as young as he looked. “I was just going to go have tea. Do you want to join me? I know a great place.”

“Um well,” her eyes went to Inuki. Then she smiled at the would-be womanizer. “Can you see him?” She pointed to Inuki with her spoon.

The boy gave her a puzzled look, then turned his eyes to the apparently empty space beside her. “There’s no one there.”

“Okay. No thanks then.” She said cheerily. “Come on Inuki. Let’s go. Don’t worry; I’d never date anyone who couldn’t see you.” With that she walked past him.

“Wh-wait...” She stopped and turned to look back at him. “Wh-where are you going.” He seemed a little flustered and confused, but also seemed to realize any tacky comments on his part concerning her ‘imaginary friend’ would completely blow his chances.

“The diet building.” Yuzuriha sounded so polite and nice, despite the fact she’d just blown him off.

“The died building? Why on earth would you want to go there?” If anything he was more confused than he was before.

“Oh no real reason. Just to discuss the end of the world.” Then with a shrug she left the now gaping flirt standing where he was.

It was childish in a way, but she fully intended to keep to the promise she’d made to herself all those years ago. She wouldn’t become romantically involved with anyone who couldn’t see, and therefore didn’t believe in, Inuki. She had never gotten over the stigmata her telling the truth all of the time had caused. Inuki was without a doubt her closest and dearest friend and about the only real one she’d had growing up. Her fondest wish had always been to meet someone else outside her family who could see him; who would actually believe her, but...

“I suppose there really isn’t anyone here who can see you.” She said to the Inugami as they crossed the street. She did well to keep her dejection out of her voice.

Only a few seconds after making it to the other side she heard a scream of terror. Turning, she took the situation in at once. There was a toy truck in the middle of the road and running out towards it was a little boy. The light had changed and a very real truck was coming. On the other side of the sidewalk stood the screamer, obviously the boy’s mother. Inuki was faster however. The dog leapt into the road, bit down on the back of the boy’s shirt, and with the grace and power only an Inugami could poses leapt to the mother’s side. A second later the truck rumbled over where he’d just been. Of course it crushed the toy flat, but little more. To the mother it must have looked like he flew back, but she didn’t care. He was alright. She crushed the crying boy, for his toy was destroyed, in a hug and began to sputter ‘are you alrights’.

After setting the boy down on the opposite side Inuki crossed over to Yuzuriha and took his place again at her side. “Good job Inuki.” She whispered to him.

“An interesting animal.” She heard a cold voice say as a bike pulled up in front of them. It only narrowly avoided hitting either Inuki or Yuzuriha. “Although not a word of thanks from them. How predictable.” It was a girl with glasses who was speaking. Casually she reached out and gave the dog a pat on the head.” Still it was a...” She stopped the moment she realized just how oddly the schoolgirl was staring at her.

Yuzuriha’s eyes were glistening with tears and brimming with emotion. This was the opposite of the girl in front of her, who showed nothing other than mild curiosity and slight puzzlement. Yuzuriha was actually crying. Never before had she met someone who could see Inuki and she’d just resigned herself to never meeting someone who could. She would be disbelieved forever, but now someone finally saw him. Without thinking she flung herself forward and tackled the girl in front of her in a hug. Satsuki teetered for a second, trying to balance her bike and this new weight. Then she fell. The bike pinned one leg painfully and the girl fell with her, landing right on top of her.

“I’m so sorry!” Yuzuriha cried. Trying and failing several times to get up before finally managing it. Then she pulled the bike off of the girl. “Are you alright.” Satsuki nodded as she got up and readjusted her glasses. “Oh my god I didn’t mean to... please forgive me.” She gave a small bow and then turned tail and ran at full speed away from her.

Satsuki didn’t have a clue what to think about what had just happened. It didn’t fit any logical pattern of human behavior she knew of and that spontaneous tactile contact... she just wasn’t used to someone touching her so casually. Even Yuuto didn’t, who was the most free with her of anyone she knew. Still, after a few moments, Satsuki put it out of her mind, got back on her bike, and peddled the opposite direction. It wasn’t like she’d see the girl again so it wasn’t worth wondering over. Little did she know how soon they would see each other again.