Just for kicks, I've got another one to send out.

If you've read Love&War, then this will make plenty of sense.  If not,
then this may or may not make sense to you...  ^^;;

Love&War can be found at www.deranged-otaku.com/Doshu/D-fix.html as well
as the illustrations made to accompany the fic.

<insert standard disclaimer here>

C&C for the aforementioned story and even for the teaser is more than
welcome...

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	There he was again.  She could see him again, there before her in
the small pool of light that pierced the darkness around them.  A small
glittering silver thread seemed to be tied around his neck in a noose that
trailed into the darkness around them.  Seeing him again made her heart
soar.  She'd never felt so happy in all her life before, seeing the man
she loved whole and unhurt.
	That's when he he looked up, looked past her into the darkness,
through her into her soul.  Ukyou lost herself in his eyes, the dark brown
pools of sadness that seemed the shimmer in the tears that filled them.
She could feel the pain, the futility in his soul as she looked into his
eyes, and into his heart.  All at once the joy and extasy that filled her
churned with the chaos of depression as they pulled at her heartstrings.
	Ukyou fell to her knees reaching out for him, trying desperately
to touch him, to comfort him, but her hands fell through his body.  She
was a ghost to him, an ethereal aspect of a soul he could never see.  She
cursed under her breath in frustration, damning the people who'd done this
to him; but then, that was the crux of it all, wasn't it?  Here he was
confined, uncomforted, isolated in his eternal damnation.  He could never
see her, could never touch her as long as he was here.  Butterfly kisses
and breathtaking embraces were gone, but his love was still there, she
could feel that much.  It gave her hope.
	"I love you, Ken," she whispered as a tear trickled down her
cheek.  "I'll always love you."
	Ken's head turned slightly, as if trying to hear her.  Ukyou's
soul lifted and soared as she frantically reached out for him again.
	"Ken, if you can hear me," she stammered, the tears falling freely
now, "I'll find you no matter what it takes!"
	
	Ken knew he'd been stripped of everything he cared for, of
everything that he knew defined who he was.  Above all, the stripped him
of his chance to be a whole person again.  Losing Ukyou was a loss of his
only chance at happiness.  In the solitude of the inferno, he could only
try to desperately hold on to his memories and pray that they would never
leave him.
	Now, somehow, for some reason he could hear her voice, a melodic
whisper that cut through the darkness like a ray of light.  If it was a
dream or if it was a punishment to inflict more pain upon him, he didn't
care.  All he knew was that he could hear her, if only for the faintest of
seconds, if only it was ephemeral.
	Somehow, despite the hollowness, the cold, the deafening silence
around him, he had her again.  He had her love, and it was more powerful
than any punishment they could mete out for him.
	"Ukyou," he whispered into the darkness.

	Ukyou's heart nearly burst when she heard her name.  She saw his
lips slowly form her name, whisper into the darkness, and cut through the
heaviness in her soul.  She reached out again, and marveled as she gripped
his hand with hers.  Ukyou could feel the warmth in his hands, the steady
beat of his blood in his veins.  She looked at him and found him staring
back at her.  
	Before a blinding white light forced her to close her eyes, she
could se it in his eyes, the look she saw when he'd first come to Nerima.
It was a look of hope.  Tears of sorrow were replaced by tears of joy.
She could feel the lifting soul in his body, the nervous energy that haope
gave to the hopeless.  Before she lost him in the deafning roar that
filled her ears and the blinding light, she felt him one last time.  His
lips graced hers one more time as she kissed him.

	When Ukyou awoke, she did so with a start.  She quickly looked
about her as the sunlight flooded her room and diffused a warm feeling
through her body.  A smile spread across her face as she slowly stepped
out of bed.  She looked about her room, an old picture of Ken on her
dresser taking up her vision.  She felt her body fill with a joyous energy
that seemed to reverberate through every pore of her body.  
	Ukyou ran out onto the sidewalk in front of her okonomiyaki-ya,
bursting through her door in a rush of happiness.  She looked about her,
at the rising sun and inhaled deeply.  Pure joywashed over her repeatedly,
making her feel giddy.
	Ukyou shouted jubilantly into the morning air.  Ken was out there
and he knew she was coming for him.  Nothing would get in her way.

*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Ethan Tsai
1 N. College Street
Northfield, MN 55057

TSAIE@Gridley.ACNS.Carleton.edu
http://public.carleton.edu/~tsaie/ethan.html

Quote of the day:
"You do not lead by hitting people over the head-that's assault, not
leadership." 
     --Dwight D. Eisenhower