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John cocked an eyebrow. Didn't Maximos regularly check people's shadows for additional information, information that couldn't or wouldn't be relayed by the person themselves, either by word or body? Perhaps this new Maximos, with his shiny gauntlet and his bizarre laws, had lost that ability. Or maybe he was telling the truth.

But that was the problem with Maximos. He read you - but you couldn't read him.

But then, what had taken place on this beach hadn't been earth shatteringly relevent to Tomorrow and Maximos - at least, a casual observer wouldn't think so. But the eye of the beholder was unique to many people, and thus different stories, different meanings, were told.

John tried to ignore the child's crys as he walked over to the edge of the beach to stand next to Maximos, looking down at the area where he'd trailed his hand through the sand. Time was much like that. A small event occurs, and a wave washes it from sight.

Crouching down beside his friend, John's gloved right hand dipped into the water, into the sand - to pull out a small shell, a clam that had been washed up on shore. The shell was a half-decent size, roughly the diameter of a CD, and was pink around it's frilled edges. John pinched his fingers into the edges of the shell, and tore it open with little effort, revealing to Maximos...

...A disgusting blob. An oyster of some description. Maximos was probably not used to the sight of such things up on his floating island, and like a true friend, John reveled a little in Maxi's revulsion.

John smirked as he showed it to Maximos - before suddenly tipping the contents of the shell into his mouth, swallowing the blob of fishy origin almost in one glup. A delicacy, oysters were, especially as fresh as that one had been.

Snapping the shell shut and putting it into one of the pouches on his belt, John's jaw moved about for a second, his lips convoluting - before he spat something out into his hand, retrivied from the creature before it slipped down his throat into oblivion.

A pearl. Almost perfectly round, it was a brilliant white, which refracted the light beautifully. Rolling it around in his palm, he drew it to his thumb and forefinger, holding it up to Maximos for him to see.

"It had been a clear day. We were both a lot younger back then." John whispered, almost as if it was a secret that he only wished to share with Maximos, even shifting a little closer to the man, holding the pearl out closer and staring into it's beauty. "We were friends, but also rivals - constant challenges, usually from me to you. I'd come here with Juuni, to teach her to swim, and you had shown up, reading a book of some kind. I remember thinking that was so typical of you, burying your head in a book when there was so much joy to be had amongst the waves."

"I tried to get you to swim, but you refused, you and your top hat. I went fishing for oysters whilst you played with Juuni, and i came out with a pearl much like this one. I think it was bigger." John's face twisted into a nostalgic grin. "Your face lit up like a strobe when i showed it to you. You offered me what i think would equate to a king's ransom in jewels in trade for it." John chuckled then. "If I'd told you they grew in these things all the time, i think you would've been in those waves like a bullet, back then..."

"But it's not your reaction that makes me remember this place, Maximos. Nor was it the time i spent with Juuni, or fishing for oysters. It was the first time...the first time...i thought of you not as a challenge, not as someone i needed to beat...but as an actual friend. Not once in that whole time did i think of fighting you. And that has stuck with me for a long, long time. I've tried to keep a hold on it, to remember that moment - because, for me...for my kind, as you say...they are few and far between."

Vargus Kobayashi was busy preparing a meal when a shadowy presence flowed out from under the bed in the apartment and fwumped a body down on it. Vargus turned, only to see a bloodied Ryugi on the bed and Ryudo standing over him with his hands out, teeth gritting.

Get healing...NOW!! Somethings happened...

Ryudo strained so hard because his psychic abilities were being pushed to their limit, as he had essentially frozen Ryugi's body in time, as if pushing a pause button. Everything stopped in Ryugi's body. His mind, the energy, everything paused and preserved at the time only a few seconds after the little girl had attacked him, even the bloodflow had stopped in his body, as well as the spread of the girl's poison.

Vargus acted quickly, forgetting the vegetables she had been preparing.

The damage is bad, but not irreversible... I've been checking him this whole time... Nnnng... Its some sort of corrupting poison along with that wound... He's lucky I decided to check in on him. The idiot has been messing around in Barton! If I hadn't taken him when I did...he'd be dead already.

Of course, Vargus had been watching the news, it was absolutely terrible, and now her love was in peril. She went to work quickly. The first task at hand was to purify and remove the poison from Ryugi's body. This was the easy part, and was done quickly. The next was the brain damage, which luckily, hadn't been that extensive due to Ryudo's timing. It wasn't very hard for Ryudo and Vargus to work in tandem to restore his brain to its fully operating, and non corrupted status. When you had positive energy working to repair and patch things for you, as well as a powerful psychic to aid in the smallest details, things went pretty smoothly in the manner of nerve and body damage. The one thing that she couldn't fix would be Ryugi's own body's recovery time. Healing abilities could only go so far, Ryugi's body would have to do the rest on its own.

The treatment completed, all Ryudo and Vargus could do was wait and take care of Ryugi while his body recovered. He'd be weak when he awoke, both from the battle damage he suffered in Barton, and the fact that his body had to get used to his newer nerve endings in his neck. Ryugi was lucky. His powers would need time to recover as well. The damage had been repaired, but Ryugi's attacks would take a big hit in strength for a while as his energy network would move to get back to normal.

I hope he'll be alright...

Vargus watched him rest. She patted his head as he lay there.

His energy network and body will recover, but if what I got from his mind was any type of accurate, I don't know if his spirit will ever be the same...

Indeed.

...He was going to knock, wasn't he?

Silence.

Then a curse as something hit the ground and broke.

Then more silence.

And the door cracked open, a low latch like lock preventing it from going far. Like a hotel door.

Dolo Groilin was a short, hairy, old, fair-skinned man. He looked like your typical mean, old person that liked hitting people with canes. Only he wasn't moving with a cane, he was in a wheelchair. For what it was worth, he looked to be in good enough health despite his current condition. From beneath bushy white brows did he look at the one who knocked. It was obvious that he eyed the bat first, the sheathed blades second, and was ready to slam the door in the man's face. This was a nice neighborhood, but you never know.

"Eh. What's your name, then?" The door closed, then reopened after the latch was removed. Dolo wheeled himself backwards so that after he said his name, the man could walk in. He'd be able to see the glass that broke a bit of spilled drink on the small table not too far off.

"Follow me, then."

The interior was relatively sparse... he lived simply enough, but what was in the house was very well kept and from the look of it, old. Furnishings of dark wood, walls of white. Their path was a straight shot from the door to a hallway. To the left, a staircase.

"Much as I can tell, they're coming from the attic." He pointed out the hanging string. "Till I get out of this confounded chair, I can't get to the second floor, much less to the attic."

"Surgery. Fell off a horse, busted my hip. Damn polo club's been doing nothing but burning a hole in my pocket anyway."

He grunted. "Neh. My books're down here now. So's the food. Nothing but rats, heat, and clothes I don't need out right now." He motioned again and started to back away. "No, up there's for you. Down here, with a glass of tea, is for me." Now, don't break anything up there that isn't a rat, or you're buying it."

"What, no," he called back through the hall. "Lotsa rats, big rats, but I ain't seen no monster rats poisonous an what's normal enough. I don't think there are nutria, but I wouldn't be suprised. But I'd need a flooded basement, wouldn't I?"

He spun around so he could wheel backwards. "Don't break anything, I'm telling you!"