The Dream Shifter

Chapter 49

"Get a hold of yourself, Saki! This isn't like you to be depressed like this! Snap out of it!"

"Ayumi… I-I…"

Saki said holding her hand against her red stinging cheek while staring at Ayumi a little shocked but finally back in reality. All of the thoughts on Yuki had been shattered and she finally realized that she was in a restaurant as she looked around.

Ayumi glared back at Saki making sure that Saki was really awake this time. The change in demeanor from Ayumi had the boys at a loss for words thinking that the shy and weak little girl would not have had the courage to do something to Saki.

"Yuki's allowed to do what he wants, Saki. You can't be protecting him his entire life."

Saki turned away staring at the window thinking that she saw Yuki for a moment.

"I know… I know, but that Seiji…"

"He seems a little strange, but he is a Shinto Priest right?"

Hiroshi said stepping into the conversation now that Saki was finally awake. He had plenty of questions for her and hoped that she would be in the mood to answer them.

She turned back to look at them and nodded to confirm Hiroshi's question.

"Yes, he is, but that's not the problem."

"Then what is it, Saki?" said Ayumi working with Hiroshi to pull at Saki until she would speak willingly.

"What is it between you and Seiji and Yuki? What happened in middle school?"

"Middle school? That was more just a time. Seiji didn't even attend our school."

Saki began to think about the memories from those times to remember what had happened.

Hiroshi became curious already knowing some of the pieces of Yuki past first hand from Yuki, but it still left a lot of blanks in his past. There was still so much that he did not know about someone that he considered a close friend.

"How did they meet if they didn't go to the same school?"

Saki tried to think back, but there were, unfortunately, things that she did not know about Yuki.

"I don't know how they met. I just know that one day Seiji began showing up out front of our school when Yuki and I would be leaving. You already know about what Yuki was like back then, right?"

She looked at Hiroshi and Ayumi knowing that after what had happened with the last assassin that some of Yuki's darker secrets of his past were revealed to them. There was a fair amount of explaining that had been done to keep Hiroshi off of them.

Hiroshi gave her a nod as did Ayumi, but Tatsuya and Kazuhiro looked completely lost. They had not been involved and it seemed that Hiroshi was not one to go around spreading secrets about Yuki that was best not remembered.

"Well, it's easy enough to say that Yuki was different back then. They were very similar back then. I remember always thinking that when I saw them together. They seemed to be at peace when they were hanging out."

"So you're saying that Seiji likes to fight?"

Saki nodded to him as her mind flashed through images.

"Seiji seemed to be looking for a fight and for a while, Yuki and Seiji always beat each other up. But it never seemed to matter who won or lost. They just wanted to take a swing. Not exactly the qualities that make for a priest-in-training."

"I see…"

Hiroshi said as though he was pondering something to himself.

"I think I'm starting to understand."

His friends seemed to be lost still and trying to take in what Saki was saying. Hiroshi could read the feelings on Saki's face to know what she had to be thinking.

"So they always fought during middle school?"

"No. Something happened during the last semester of the first year that changed things for them. They stopped fighting each other, but I would see them fighting others together."

'So there are things that even Saki doesn't seem to know. Yuki…you've got quite the sorted past.'

Hiroshi looked over at Ayumi for a moment to see how she was taking the story. Ayumi had a concerned expression but otherwise seemed to be dealing a lot better than his friends. He was a little embarrassed for them but turned back to Saki.

"For two that seemed to get along so well together, what changed a year ago?"

The moment that he asked the question there was a suddenly retreated look in Saki that made him confused?

'What happened that Saki is reacting so?'

Saki turned away and Ayumi was quick to react as well as though she remembered something. The girls both acted guilty knowing the significance of that time for Yuki. Hiroshi pressed them both for an answer, but only got resistance from them.

"That was when…"

Saki softly said making eye contact with Hiroshi once more.

"Yuki changed from how he used to be to how he is now. Ever since Yuki's acted like how he is now. Seiji slowly stopped showing up until he stopped completely. It's been a year now since and I don't know what he is thinking."

…

..

.

Yuki and Seiji finished their long walk arriving in front of a long series of steps that stood before a large torii that acted as the gateway into the Shinto shrine that lay above on the top of the hill. It was a long walk, but it brought back memories to Yuki from the times that he would race Seiji to the top.

When they reached the top Yuki stood in place staring around at the shrine grounds to see if anything had changed. It had been a year, but it still looked the same as he always remembered.

Seiji's family, the Tsuji family, was a long line of priest and priestess that kept the shrine in their family for generations. The Tsuji Shrine was of great pride to them drawing back connections to the emperors of the past before their decline.

They were now more groundskeepers at times than Shinto Priests, even though they focused on their training just as much. For their family keeping the line going and maintaining the shrine was all a part of their duties and one that Seiji would eventually inherit.

"Yuki!?" a young boy's voice said from a distant unseen corner of the grounds.

The shout was followed up by an old voice scolding the other. Then out of the side of a small detached structure from the main shrine, a young boy popped out running towards Yuki.

"It is you!"

"Shoji?"

Yuki questioned for a moment almost not recognizing him for how much he had been growing. Shoji leaped up into the air before coming into a collision path with Yuki knocking him down to the stone tiles nearly sending him down the stairs.

"You've…gotten bigger…"

"Hey Yuki, it's been so long since you visited. Did you bring him, brother?"

Shoji said looking up from Yuki, who he was sitting on at this point, towards Seiji.

"Is this what you meant the other day about finding what you had lost?'"

Seiji twitched his eyebrow and then turned away not wanting to answer the childish question.

"I just bumped into him and we found our way back here."

Shoji looked a little disappointed but quickly got over the lack of an answer. He stared back down at Yuki with wide-eyed excitement.

"Hey, you got any new moves you can show me? Seiji won't teach me anymore."

Yuki's eyes went wide for a moment with realization and then lowered. He stared within at the dark shadowed figure that lurked at him with glowing red eyes waiting for the moment.

"Afraid, I don't. Sorry."

"Aw, but you've got to have-"

"Shoji, let Yuki go,"

Seiji said as he went down to pick up Shoji. Shoji pulled away starting to pout in front of Seiji making him a little frustrated.

"If you do, I'll…show you something."

"Really?!"

Shoji said standing up immediately tilting his hand back to look up at Seiji. Seiji reluctantly nodded back to him as he ran off back around the wall he had appeared from. Seiji looked down at Yuki offering him a hand up.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

Yuki knew just as well as anyone that Seiji would not have appeared randomly after a year just on a whim. There was something deeper that was bothering Seiji that he needed to get to the bottom of.