He woke to find it was still dark, and everyone else was sleeping peacefully. He looked around, found Shizuru to be nearest to him, and crawled over and poked her until she woke up. “Who’s the blind man?”

“Hh-hu--w’the hell?” she muttered indistinctly.

“The blind man,” Shuichi repeated in a whisper. “The one who keeps showing up in Kur--in my dreams.”

Shizuru looked at him blankly. Shuichi sighed and gave a more detailed description, keeping going until he saw comprehension finally dawn in Shizuru’s eyes. “That sounds like Yomi,” she said. “But I don’t know anything about him and Kurama. Ask Hiei--or Yusuke,” she amended, clearly remembering the tenor of the one public conversation Hiei and Shuichi had had. “But do it in the morning. Listen, kid,” she said with a yawn, “I know you’ve got a lot going on in your head right now, but I also know the kind of dreams you’re having. They won’t go away if you figure them out. So get some rest.”

She had gone back to sleep almost before her last sentence was complete. Shuichi, dissatisfied with her explanation but unable to do anything about it, crawled back to his own makeshift bed and eventually fell back asleep as well. He dreamed of the red pendant he had seen briefly before, dreamed of it swinging slowly back and forth, and woke with unexplained tears on his face. He wiped them away before anyone else could see.