"Gosh, practice went forever tonight!" Misao commented to a friend as they pulled their shoes on.

"I know! I don't think I'll ever get the hang of that walk over!" her friend complained, stretching her back for emphasis.

"Really? It's a cinch once you know how! See?" Misao said as she deftly excecuted a walk over and did a backwards handspring for show. Her friends applauded.

"You're so felxable, Misao-chan!"

"I wish I was as elegant as you!"

"No wonder Shinomori likes you so much!" one of the girls said enviously. "You make everything so sexy!"

Misao, taken aback by this last comment, left hastily. She hurried across the parking lot, her mind whirling. 'Aoshi-kun, like me?' she thought in disbeliefe. 'He's never shown it, no...' she corrected immediately.

Her mind drifted back to that moment when his lips had brushed fleetingly against hers. She doubted he would expose that much emotion as a bluff, for any reason. 'Besides, we were in love in a past life. Why shouldn't we be in love now?' Misao rounded the corner of the building and caught sight of the two boys.

Aoshi and Enishi were facing each other with dangerous looks in their eyes. Misao couldn't recall when Aoshi had had a scarier look on his face. Enishi's features were contored into a mask much different from the cheerful, slightly bumbling Enishi-kun she had known before. This was Yukishiro Enishi.

'Come. It is the beginning of the end of Jinchuu...'

Misao saw Enishi's maddened eyes and Aoshi's determination. With a burst of speed she hadn't known she had, she dashed across the parking lot. Just before the two combatents clashed once more, Misao threw herself between them.

"That's ENOUGH!!" she cried. Balling her hands into fists, she crossed her arms and threw them out, catching both Aoshi and Enishi in the center of their chests. Aoshi merely stepped back a pace, but Enishi was knocked to the ground.

"What's going on?" Misao demanded furiously, glaring from one boy to the other.

Enishi smiled, the cheerful bumbling forgein boy once again. "Oh, Aoshi-kun and I were just sparring. I didn't know he knew kenpo."

Misao gave him a withering glance and his happy face fell away. "You're full of shit. You..." she pointed an accusatory finger at Enishi, then turned away in disgust. "You, on the other hand..." she added, turning the finger and stare at Aoshi. He lowered his gaze.

"I know. I know. Let's go. We've got a lot to talk about, Misao."

He turned away and opened his car, tossing his discarded clothes into the back seat. Misao walked around to the other side. Enishi glared at Aoshi and muttered at his back, "Don't be so damn familier with her, asshole."

"You're in over your head, Yukishiro Enishi. Your 'Jinchuu' stops now," Aoshi said coolly.

"Jinchuu? What are you talking about?" Aoshi shook his head and got into the car. As the engine started Misao grabbed his arm.

"Aoshi-sama," she hissed. Aoshi immediately froze. Misao was remembering... "Tomoe... Yukishi... no... HIMURA Tomoe..."

"Tell him?"

Misao hesitated only briefly before nodding stiffly. "Yes."

Enishi rose to his feet and began to fastidiously brush himself off. He picked up his coat and scarf again and donned them. Just as he was wrapping the scarf around his neck one last time Aoshi rolled down the window.

"Enishi, search your soul for Tomoe," he said cryptically. Enishi froze. His world flipped upside down and began to spin. He saw the two people in the car in an entirely new light. The girl was not to be trusted; she sided with the murderer.

"Himura Tomoe," she added with a malicious smile as the car roared back into life and pulled away from the shocked boy.

Left alone in the parking lot, Enishi dropped heavily to his knees and stared at his shaking hands. "Yukishiro Tomoe, Himura Tomoe, nee-san..."

He felt the glasses sliding off his nose and reached up to stop them, but rather than pushed them back up with his middle finger he pulled them off and dropped them in his lap. Spirits swirled around him like fog. He glanced around desperately, searching for the face; the face that haunted his dreams; the face he longed to see; the smile, the tender eyes, the gentle hands, the loving way her voice said his name...

Then the figure stepped out of the mists of souls and Enishi reached his hands up to her. "Oh, Enishi... you poor thing... perhaps this will teach you the hard lesson I couldn't teach you while I lived."

"Nee-san," he gasped, eyes voice harsh with tears, "nee-san, why did you turn against me?"

Tomoe shook her head sadly. "Enishi, I didn't turn against you. We have no controll over who we love no more than we have control over what we look like at birth. But I love you Enishi. I never stopped