Kei wandered through the familiar black surroundings, nothing was seen but the blackness for a time. He looked about and an image phased into existence, it was Fen, playing Pai Sho with himself. The clacking of the pieces resonated throughout the area like thunder from afar. One more image phased into existence alongside Fen, Hana, she had her usual childish smile, ecstatic, as if she had received a new toy. A bloody hand print was printed on her innocent face, and she was wielding a bloody knife. She was sitting, facing a body on the floor, the unseen floor of the blackness. The body was that of a man, Kei could not make out his features, for his face had been cut off, revealing the inner workings. His eyes still seemed to have life in them as the protruding masses moved once, starring into Kei's own eyes, before the iris turned grey. The man's torso has multiple stab wounds in it, most likely from Hana, who then proceeded to continual plunge the knife into the lifeless corpse, laughing in the most innocent way imaginable. Kei wanted to look away from the scene, but his body was unable to move, his eyes stayed fixated on the corpse.

Out of the floor, an arrow of white light pierced Hana's chest, right into her heart, killing her most likely. Sakura appeared behind Kei and kissed him passionately on the mouth, then they began to remove each other's clothing...

Kei awoke before the dream ended, luckily, a dream that haunted him every night for the past two seasons. He woke up to the familiar surroundings, he enjoyed familiarity, stable surroundings and such. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, for he knew exactly what they would find. He felt two smooth legs intertwining with his own, luscious, soft, hair against his right arm, and a silk-like abdomen against his left. He felt and warmth of another body against his torso and smiled.

"How are you able to get me into this position when I am asleep?" Kei inquired.

He heard Sakura's trademark giggle, followed up by her angelic voice, "A girl has her ways."

"One of these days you are going to have to answer that..."

"Well you ask every morning, and I have yet to give you an answer, so I think you prefer the mystery and the repetition," Sakura giggled once more before rolling around in Kei's arms and facing him with her bright blue eyes.

"An answer would be better than keeping the mundane peace..."

Sakura smirked devilishly and pushed Kei on his back before moving on top of him and straddling her hips against his waist, "Well if you dislike the mundane, why don't we find you a girl then? You seem ready to go right now."

"Shut up..."

"Are you two quite finished?" Fen's booming, grandiloquent voice echoed through to them.

Kei glanced across the room at Fen, sitting down at the Pai Sho table in the center of the small room. The room was about 20 square meters, he had a stove and a cupboard in one corner, his bed against the one window, with a dresser and a bookshelf taking up the rest of that wall's space, other than that he had the Pai Sho table in the center of the room, and a small table with three chairs against the wall opposite his bed. It was cheap living, and comfortable to him. When Kei's glance returned to Sakura, she had her clothes on once more, she never liked to be naked around his other hallucinations, Kei never really bothered to inquire as to why(as with many things involving her). Kei, however, had no real shame about his body, seeing as the hallucinations have seen him bathe, have sex, even go to the bathroom. Sakura rolled off of Kei and sat at the end of the bed, allowing Kei to get out with ease. He got up and grabbed a pair of pants, brown and cheap-looking, putting it on.

It was mid afternoon, which is when he usually awoke, seeing as he made his money during the night. The sun shone through his window, which was pointed to the west, he got a few hours of direct light before the sun went behind the tall building across his street. He enjoyed it for a time, not the sun itself, but the mundane repetition of his morning. Fen was sitting at the Pai Sho table, which was set up and ready to go.

"Your move," Fen said stretching out one of his legs beside the table.

Kei moved to the table and made his first move before moving to his kitchen area. Sakura was leaning against the wall by the cupboard as Kei grabbed what he needed to make Jook and Ginseng Tea.

"So, any thoughts on a girl?" Sakura said as Kei prepped everything, "That one who always wishes you luck at the arena, the owner's daughter, seems nice, it would be real easy to get into her pants, she isn't even subtle about being turned on by the violence!"

"I just don't-" Kei began.

"-have time to think about a relationship at this juncture," Sakura repeated in an annoying impersonation of Kei, "You say that every single time I bring it up, you need a girl rather than continually having sex dreams every night..."

Kei was surprised at her stating this, he never told her about it, and most of the dream didn't involve sex, it brought up many questions that Kei didn't want to think about, "Look, I am enjoying the peace that I have been getting every day, and I would like to keep it like that..."

"Peace? You beat someone half to death every other night and talk to aberrations of your mind, one of which is a psychotic homicidal bitch! Face it Kei, your life is never going to know peace... this is going to get worse and worse until you start seeing leagues of ever changing people so that you can't trust anyone or-"

She stated Kei's greatest fear, a permanent degeneration of his psyche, leading to complete insanity. Kei quickly glared at Sakura and she stopped speaking, just turned her head and moved back to his bed, lying down and looking out the window. The sudden change in her demeanor signaled the beginning of his terrible day. He moved back to the Pai Sho table, Fen had made his move and Kei followed up, returning to his cooking. He did this in silence until the food was ready, he then took it and a cup of tea to the Pai Sho table and made his next move.

"You should really listen to us Kei," Fen said, making his move, "Your only interactions with people can't be your grocer, a man in an arena, and your mind. You must realize that it isn't healthy for you. We always have your best interests at heart, always."

"And what happens when they catch me talking to myself?" Kei said, forcefully.

"Well you can always not tell them. Its worked before, you know Sakura and I will not bother you when she is around..."

"I know that, it's others that I am worried about..." Kei was of course, referring to Hana, whom was not in the room yet. Sakura was the only one that was around him for most of the day, Fen usually appeared at home, or when he was talking to someone whom Fen deemed untrustworthy, which was everyone. Hana appeared randomly, although never when he first woke up.

"Ah yes, the pestiferous tumor..." Fen said, continuing to play, unvaried, "She has yet to affect you in your second trip to the city, so I would not worry about her, you have the will of a titan, however not the resolve of one... but that is why I am here isn't it?"

"But you did just mention leaving now didn't you?"

"I said leave you alone when you have found a woman to trust, I will still need to be here to provide the voice of reason and integrity..."

"More like the voice of apprehension and paranoia."

"One in the same my boy."

"I thought I told you not to call me boy. You are me remember? Mentally we are on the same level."

"But it's the looks that matter."

Kei shook his head and continued playing the game without speaking. Once he lost, which happened about half the time, he cleaned his dishes and looked at Sakura, still wallowing on the bed. He looked at her for a time before building up the courage to speak with her. He sat down at the end of the bed and placed her feet on his lap.

"I am sorry Sakura, but I just don't feel ready to find a girl yet," Kei said, looking into her eyes, which were still situated out the window.

"You need to find someone you want to spend your life with, you need it to be truly happy. You need the courage to find someone who can accept us, so we don't have to leave you unprotected," She looked genuinely concerned as her eyes returned to Kei's glance. Her eyes brought about a sense of misery within him...

"Okay, I will talk to the arena owner's daughter tonight, I promise."

Sakura's entire demeanor lit up as she propelled her torso up and hugged Kei tightly, "She'll be moist with desire after the fight! Looks like you won't have to have that dream again!"

"Hey, hey, hey! I did not say anything about bringing her home!"

"Oh, kinky, doing it at her place then?" She said, with a devilish grin on her face as she pushed off of Kei's body.

"No! I meant I am not going to have sex with her!"

"But she wants it so bad! She loves the violence and all those other guys in the arena are so ugly..."

"I don't care how much she wants it, I am not going to do it... I said I would talk to her, not go down on her!"

"Hey baby, one thing I have learned over many, many years, is that it is better to get the fun in first, rather than finding out she isn't the right one for you..."

"What do you mean learned over many years?"

"I mean in your head..."

"So far your philosophy as brought only trouble to me, so I don't think I am going to listen to you this time..."

"Even I have to admit that the Bei Fong girl was a bad idea. But all those other times? You got sex didn't you? One of them even developed into a meaningful relationship! So what if it turned out that she was a spiteful prejudiced bitch with no imagination or room for understanding in her tiny little stupid bitchy mind? At least you got an experience."

Kei looked away from her vexatious gaze. He didn't like to talk about the one real relationship he had, and Sakura was usually good about not bringing her up. Kei was over the girl of course, but what happened with her branded his mind with unpleasant thoughts, but Sakura was right, he had to move on. He moved her legs off his lap and got up, saying, "Yeah, it's very disheartening knowing that you watched it..."

"Hey, I'm in your head, plus I like seeing my handiwork, never forget who gave you pointers!"

Kei placed his hand over his mouth and sighed, "I doubt I will ever forget you barking what to do right in the middle of things... now can we please change the subject? I need to go to the store and I would prefer not to have to hear you going on about sex every five minutes..."

Sakura giggled a bit before saying, "Fine, fine. I promise to try."

Kei put on a shirt, it was nothing fancy, but simple. Most people wore robes or something of that nature, but Kei thought they limited movement far too much, and preferred something tighter, as he didn't want to wear something that looked like he was ready to fight, like soldier-type garb. He left his room and went down to the street.