Chihiro stiffened, gave Ryouma a venomously cold look, and entered the room all the way. "I am not privy to the details of their mission," she told him archly, "as you should well know." One frail, blue-veined hand shot out to still the faint motion of the bed. "And this boy is injured."

This was Kakashi's lover? She considered Sakumo lucky not to be here to see what had become of his son.

"Ginta is very ill. As is Kakashi. Ginta insisted you be fetched." Her nostrils flared as she glared up at Ryouma. What kind of man kicked the bed of his gravely injured lover?

A violent one, she told herself. Memories of Ginta's bruised face in the aftermath of his break up with Tomoya came unbidden. But so did images of Gousuke, angrily tearing a wall in their garden to pieces, in the wake of a mission on which his good friend Aotsu had lost both legs.

She folded her hands into her sleeves and stepped back a pace. "Ginta is sleeping, but if you can agree not to assault him, I'm sure when he wakes he can tell you what happened to your friend."