The unfamiliar surroundings of Hagi didn’t seem to affect the two as they made their way to the hospital. They walked at a fast pace, running at times.  People around them watched curiously as they passed wondering why the two young men were in such a hurry.  In no time at all they arrived at the hospital, it was one of the few modern buildings in the small tourist town so it was easy to spot.  Touma approached the reception desk and inquired about Shin.
     “Mr. Mouri is in intensive care*.  I’m afraid only family can see him currently.  Are you family?” The receptionist asked looking at Touma over her oval glasses.
     “Yes we are.  We’re his cousins,” Touma replied.
     “I’m afraid it’s only immediate family who’s able to see him.  Try again some other time,” the receptionist stated politely, but Touma knew she had caught onto them.  He turned around to talk to Shu only to find that he wasn’t standing behind him. Looking around the small lobby Touma saw Shu standing along the wall to the left of the reception desk supposedly looking at the paintings.
     “Since when have you been interested in art?” Touma asked walking up to him.
     “Since I went to visit Grandfather in the hospital once,” Shu smirked as he turned to the receptionist and asked where the cafeteria was.  She instructed them, and they headed off.  “Since our connections within the clan aren’t biological, we weren’t allowed to see him.  So, I figured as one person was asking I’d see if I could catch the room number on the monitor,” Shu explained as they took the elevator up to Shin’s floor.
     “Bed five needs 4cc’s, and bed one needs 2cc’s,” A nurse instructed her peer as two young men entered the doors of their unit, “May I help you?”
     “We’re looking for Mouri Shin.  I believe he’s in room two,” Shu stated as they continued to walk into the unit.
     “Are you family?” The nurse asked blocking their way.
     “We are close friends,” Touma replied as he and Shu stepped around the small woman.
     “I’m sorry but only family can visit these patients,” The nurse stated firmly as she stood before the two again extending her arms out so they could not pass her.
     “Can’t you make an exception once? We came all the way down here to see him and find out he’s in the hospital!” Shu exclaimed walking forward to challenge the nurse.  The nurse did not back down and stood straight staring him right in the eyes.
     “I don’t care if you’re his secret lover, I cannot let you see him unless you are blood related!”
     “Hashiba-san, Shu-san,” a man with short brown hair walked from the room for which the two were headed.
     “Kenji, what’s going on?” Touma asked looking at the man before him.
     “Nurse, please let them come.  They have every right to see him, however, I cannot explain why that is.”
     “We can only allow two people in the room at a time.”
     “That’s fine, Sayako and I will leave, and they can sit with him for a bit,” Kenji nodded just as Sayako joined him in the doorway.
     “Touma, Shu,” She whispered as she hung her head.
     “Sayako, what happened?” Shu asked walking around the nurse.
     “We still don’t know. That’s why we’re here, they’re still doing tests,” Sayako explained as they stood in the hall outside the door.
     “The elderly lady next door to your shop told us what she knew.  She said he fainted,” Shu explained.
     “Yes, that would be a simple explanation, but it was more like he was drowning.”
     “Drowning?” Shu and Touma echoed.
     “Yes, he dropped the dish, and then dropped to his knees.  He couldn’t breath, he was turning white, and there was nothing we could do!” Sayako broke out crying and buried her face into Kenji’s chest.
     “Please make this visit quick.  I am going against the rules you know,” The nurse snapped at them as she made her way over to the desk that sat in the center of the hall. Sayako moved away from the door and allowed the two to walk in.  Shin’s bed was the only one in the room, monitors surrounded the head of the bed, wires and tubes were hooked up from monitoring his heart to feeding him to allowing him to use the bathroom.  Shu sat down in a chair right next to the bed while Touma picked up the chart that hung at the foot.
     “All his tests have come back negative,” Touma sighed as he finally looked upon their friend.  He lay peacefully in the bed, his chest gently rising and falling.
     “Do you think it could have been…” Shu trailed off.  Touma knew what he was asking.  He had been asking himself the same question since they found out what had happened from the elderly lady.  Has something happened to Suiko? Was it because of the Kikotei? Is there something else that has made it’s way into their world and can control the yoroi? These questions and more swirled around in Touma’s head.  He reached up with his left hand and pinched the bridge of his nose closing his deep blue eyes in thought.
     “I don’t know.  It could be anything.”  Shu leaned his elbows on the bed and his head into his hands.
     “How could something happen without us knowing?”
     “But something did happen Shu.  This.”
     “Ah, but there was no warning.  Why just Shin? Why not the rest of us as well?”
     “Well, there was a typhoon going on at the same time.  Maybe that had something to do with it.”
　 “Red,” Shin mumbled from the bed, his body shifting a little under the stiff blue blanket, “Red embers.” Shu looked up from his hands and into Shin’s sea green eyes.  “I saw them falling before me.  My family were just echoes in the background.  It felt as if the room had suddenly filled with water.  I didn’t have a chance to take a breath before my lungs were filled with it.  I tried to call upon Suiko, but it did not respond.”
     “Shin,” Shu whispered
     “Suiko didn’t answer me! It hasn’t answered me at all!” Shin tensed up under the covers his eyes were wild and danced from Touma to Shu, “I can’t feel it anymore.  Not at all.”  He relaxed and closed his eyes, “I thought I’d be happy, the day that I’d no longer felt it’s presence.”
     “Shin,” Touma started, but Shin continued on.
     “I do not like to fight.  I hate it. But I have to.  It is my destiny, I must except it.  I did except it.  But now it’s gone.  Suiko is gone, and I don’t know why.”
     “Shin, Please.  Tell me what it felt like when you were drowning.  Did you feel Suiko at all?”  Shin looked up into Touma’s dark eyes, his own sea green ones clear and firm.
     “It was leaving.  I could feel it getting farther and farther away.” Touma heard the rush of the water, he suddenly felt himself surrounded by it as if he were immersed in the sea.  Suiko was before him, only an image in the background slowly fading away.
     “Touma.  Touma!” Shu yelled and waved his hand before the archers eyes.  Suddenly Touma was back in the hospital room. “Don’t scare me like that, Touma!” Shu exclaimed flopping back down in the chair.
     “This isn’t right.  I need to talk to Nasuti,” Touma stated as he turned and headed out of the room.  
     “Touma?” Shu called after him confused but Touma had already left.  He turned back to Shin who looking past Shu and out of the window, “Don’t worry.  We’ll figure this out. You can count on it.  And we won’t leave you until we do.”
     “Thank you Shu,” Shin whispered as a silence fell upon the room.
 
     It wasn’t long till Shin was released from the hospital.  The doctors could not find what had caused his illness and could do nothing more for him.  Touma and Shu stayed in Hagi during shin’s hospitalization helping Sayako and Kenji with the store, spending time in the public library hoping to find something on the yoroi, and spending time on the phone with Nasuti.  They were not able to find anything in the library and Nasuti was at a lost as to what its cause could have been.  After calling Ryo and Seiji it was decided the Samurai Troopers would once again meet.  It would be the first time since they’d returned from Africa that all five would be at one place.  Shin apologized to his sister, who didn’t see why he needed to apologize in the first place, as Shu and Touma thanked them for letting them intrude on their home.  The three of them then set off for Nasuti’s home snuggled within the mountains of Mt. Fuji.
Touma sat on an outcropping of rock not far from the Yagyu estate.  He could see the house on the next hill over, the lake glistened in the valley below and on a clear day he could see the skyscrapers of Shinjuku in the distance.  A sigh escaped his lips as he watched the last of the sun’s disk slip below the horizon, bringing morning to the other side of the world.  He slipped a worn black notebook into his jacket and stood.  Stretching his arms and legs Touma began his jog back to the house, supper should be ready soon and Shu would kill him if he were late.
     “Ah, you can’t go down there Shin,” Shu announced as he grabbed the back of Shin’s shirt stopping him from going down the stairs.
     “Why not?” Shin challenged as the larger man made his way in front of his friend.
     “Because you need your rest, we don’t know when something is going to happen to you again!” Shu smiled proud of the excuse.
     “Shu, you know I relax the best when I’m cooking.  It’ll feel good to make a large supper again,” Shin ran his fingers through his auburn hair. He looked down at his hand and suddenly realized how greasy it had become, “Has Ryo made it here yet?”
     “Umm, yea, he’s here.  Shin! Why don’t you wash your hair, I’ll help ya,” Shu gave him a silly grin, “Maybe you can take a bath as well.”
     “As long as you don’t help me!” Shin laughed.  Shu directed Shin the other way towards the bath and thought he had won, but Shin was slyer than that.  Just as Shu showed his relief Shin slipped past him and flew down the stairs right into the kitchen just as a cloud of white erupted from the doorway.  Shin had blocked his eyes in time, but was now covered from head to toe with flour.  Shin lowered his arms and found Seiji and Ryo standing in the middle of the kitchen equally covered with flour.  Seiji’s arms were crossed before him his blond hair, which now reaching his mid back, was pulled back.  That didn’t prohibit his shorter hair to fall over his right eye, however.  Ryo was standing opposite of him holding a ten pound bag of flour; at least it used to be a ten pound bag of flour, now there was little flour remaining inside the bag.  Even though Shin could not see Seiji’s eyes because of his hair, he knew they had turned icy cold.
     “Oops,” Ryo whispered as he looked around the kitchen at the mess he just made and noticed Shin by the door, “Shin!”
     “Ryo,” Shin replied solemnly raising an eyebrow.
     “How are you feeling?” Ryo asked walking over to his dear friend.
     “Not as bad as you will be when Nasuti sees what you did to her kitchen.”
     “Ah, yea, it was an accident,” Ryo smiled lifting his hand up behind his head, “Well, it was nice seeing you, better go give Byakuen his bath now!”  Before anyone could stop him Ryo had slipped out of the kitchen and out of the house.
     “I told you, you were asking for trouble, Seiji,” Shu laughed as he walked in behind Shin.
     “MY KITCHEN!” Nasuti exclaimed as she walked in from the balcony, “Seiji, what were you doing?”
     “It was Ryo,” Seiji stated in his ever solemn voice.
     “I don’t care if it was Byakuen.  Someone is going to clean this up!” Nasuti exclaimed looking directly at Seiji.
     “Well, Shin, how’s that bath looking?”
     “That’s a wonderful idea Shu,” Shin laughed following his friend out of the kitchen.
     “Fine, I will clean it up,” Seiji sighed as he flipped his hair attempting to keep it out of his eyes stirring up a cloud of flour.
     “Thank you.  Oh, and you wouldn’t mind making super while your at it would you? Thanks.”
     “Ah…” Seiji started to object, but Nasuti was already gone and Seiji was left alone in the kitchen covered with flour.
 
     “The red embers would point toward Ryo, but he said he hasn’t had anything strange happen to him that he could remember,” Touma thought to himself as he ran through the woods.  He had been thinking of a connection that could possibly be made between what Shin saw as he passed out and the yoroi.  The trees around him started to thin out as he approached Nasuti’s house.  He could see Ryo outside playing with Byakuen in the dimming light of day, and he noticed that Ryo looked as if he had just been caught in a snow storm.  Touma’s forehead crinkled as he began to hypothesize just why Ryo looked as if he had been caught in a snow storm when something appeared in his vision.  Touma slowed down as he saw another one float down.  He looked above him and millions of small glowing red and black embers floated down from the sky toward him.  He slowed down just as he cleared the woods and like a child trying to catch a snowflake he reached out and grabbed at the embers only for them to disappear when he opened his hand.  In the distance he faintly heard Ryo’s voice calling to him, asking what he was doing.  Touma tried to answer him, only to find that he could no longer breathe. A strong wind seemed to have blown the red and black embers into Touma’s mouth and nose, which were now burning the sensitive skin inside his mouth, through his nasal passage, and down his throat into his lungs.  His hands were still grasping at the air as he felt a hand grab hold of him as he fell to his knees.  He could not see Ryo, he could only see blackness, an eternal blackness filled only with the red and black embers.  Then Tenku appeared and began to move away from Touma, into the deep blackness beyond the embers till it disappeared and Touma passed into unconsciousness.
 
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*Authors Note: I do not know what Japanese hospitals look like, how they are run, or what their usual layout is.  If by chance you do know, I’d be happy if you’d e-mail me and let me know.  Thank you.