The hurting was all falling away now.

	:They'll go on now, won't they? I opened the way, didn't I?: he thought 
muzzily.

	<<Yes, you did.>>

	:Who's that?:

	<<It's me.>>

	:My, how informative,: he thought. It was a lovely bright warm place in 
which to rest and he was playing Twenty Questions with a little voice in 
his head.

	<<Oniichan no baka!>>

	He knew that person. He *knew*. But...

	:But you're dead!:

	<<So are you.>>

	:Oh. That makes sense.:

	<<Whenever you feel ready, your teammates could use your assistance.>>

	:Whenever I feel ready?:

	<<Time has no meaning here. Whenever you feel ready to go help them, 
you'll be right on time.>>

	:Oh.:

	:I'm ready now.:

****************************

	:I helped them,: he thought later -- if later had any meaning in this 
place -- :all the times they needed it. But they're -- different -- 
somehow.:

	<<Of course they're different. The living change. The dead are frozen as 
they were when they died.>>

	:So that's why -- :

	<<Yes, to both questions.>>

	:How do you know so much?: he asked, dimly curious.

	<<A god is speaking through me. It's how they work.>>

	He was momentarily stunned.

	<<Oniichan, your heart was in tangled shape when you died.>>

	:I was... in love with him.:

	<<I saw that.>>

	:How?:

	<<You wouldn't let me go, and you kept me tied to you on the near bank 
of the Sanzu no Kawa all the days of your life. I saw everything you did, 
and everything you felt. Nice man, but not really my type.>>

	:But I thought -- :

	<<You can't excuse it all as me; even though that was, of course, 
responsible for a large part of your problems.>>

	:I...: he thought desperately.

	<<It's probably just as well that I died when I did.>>

	:*WHAT*?!:

	<<If I'd lived, we'd have had to fight each other. I was marked by the 
*other* one, Oniichan! My accidental death didn't please him at all. He 
had to reach back in time and twist it so that the youngest one of us was 
split in half to cover the deficit. You didn't think they were like that 
*normally*, did you?>>

	:Mine didn't -- : he was unable to continue, filled with an oddly 
distant sense of sick horror.

	<<I don't think so.>> Chill comfort, but -- <<The one speaking through 
me believes it to have been pure accident. But tell me, Oniichan: *could* 
you have fought me, if I'd been Ami?>>

	He thought about that one for a while.

	:I don't know,: he admitted finally.

	<<Well, at least you're heart-honest about ONE thing.>>

	:Which one is speaking through you?: he asked, suddenly nervous.

	<<Which -- oh. None of *them*. Their domain is Earth and Sky and all 
between. Yomitsu no Hirasaka is a bit out of their frame of reference.>>

	:Oh.: He paused for a moment. :Good.:

	<<As for the rest of your heart...>>

	:I'm not in love with him anymore.:

	<<Ah.>>

	:You can only pour so much down a bottomless hole,: he continued, driven 
by a need to explain. :I was in love with him for three years, and then 
it faded. My liver gave it up as a bad job. And I fell in love with her.:


	<<Bottomless holes...>> the voice was amused.

	:Yes, I know it was even more hopeless than the last, but the liver 
doesn't *think*! That's what the *brain* is for.:

	<<So now you feel nothing for him.>>

	:No, that's not right. I'm no longer IN love with him, but...:

	<<You did very well in this last life.>>

	:I did?: he asked, unsure where this was leading.

	<<As a reward, in your next life, you will get a second chance at 
whichever ONE you choose.>>

	:A chance.:

	<<Yes. No guarantees. But you'll get a fair chance to capture the liver 
and heart of your chosen person.>>

	:And only one... so I won't see the other again.:

	<<No, that's not quite true. With your karmic bonds, you probably WILL 
meet the other one. Just not in a situation where that person would ever 
fall in love with you.>>

	:Will you be there?:

	<<Of course. You lead, and I'll follow a little later. Oniichan, do you 
seriously believe I'd let you go off by yourself and maybe do something 
stupid?>>

	:No,: he smiled. :Of course not.:

	He thought about his options.

	He was in love with her.

	He loved him.

	He made his choice.