A Third Life

Kunzite waited at the designated place, a park a few blocks west of the palace. He had threatened Endymion several times over with what would happen if he didn't hold his end of the promise to meet the next morning, but somehow Kunzite knew that he would show up.

He had mauled over the three areas the king had described. An up scale business district just screamed Nephrite's territory. Kunzite wouldn't be surprised at all if he has re-assumed the identity of Sanjoin Masato.

The more questionable area, the furthest one from the palace, the king has said contained a lot of prostitution and drugs. Somehow Kunzite could see Jadeite being a regular customer at a brothel, or even so far as to have his own establishment.

The temples were where Kunzite knew he would find Zoisite. Surrounded by the beauty of sakura trees, Zoisite would be right at home. It was the closest, and so they would be heading there first. If Endymion bothered to show up.

He ended up being a couple minutes late, and he was dressed in casual civilian attire to help hide his identity and draw less attention to the pair.

“You're late,” Kunzite said. “You wouldn't have been considering backing out, would you?”

“Nothing of the sort,” the king replied, “it just proved a slightly greater challenge to sneak out, that is all.”

“So no one knows you are here?”

“Not a soul.”

“Good. We're going to the temple first.”

---

The journey was short and silent. Endymion had taken a moment to try and zero in on the locations, but the other Shitennou could easily move from the time he checked to when they arrived. “When I checked this morning, one of them was at Zenyoumitsu-ji, it's just around this corner.”

As soon as the temple was within sight, Kunzite picked up the pace. A pair of statues marked the entrance, and the temple was surrounded by trees. Kunzite walked inside quickly and surveyed the grounds. He saw no one, so he decided to head towards the main hall. Just as he reached its entrance, a voice called out to him. “May I help you?”

Kunzite's spirits feel as he recognized the voice and turned to face Jadeite. He wore traditional black and grey robes and held several books in his hands. The thing that Kunzite found most strange was his lack of recognition upon seeing Kunzite. “I was looking for someone,” Kunzite replied slowly, observing Jadeite, “I guess he's not here.”

Disheartened, Kunzite turned to exit the shrine grounds, but Jadeite called out to him. “Wait!” Jadeite said, and Kunzite turned back to face him. “You look familiar, do I know you?”

Kunzite was confused. Why would Jadeite not have his memories? Did it have anything to do with how he died? Jadeite had been sentenced to eternal sleep, rather than an actual death. Perhaps it had affected him in this life. “No,” Kunzite replied, “you don't.”

He turned again and left the shrine quickly. “The business district,” Kunzite commanded as soon as Endymion was within ear shot.

---

The time to get over to the other side of the city was a bit longer, and they had to take the subway to get there. Along the way, Kunzite considered the possibility that Zoisite would be here rather than at the temple. It was higher class, and Zoisite did certainly appreciate some of the finer things.

The train reached their stop, and Kunzite followed Endymion off the train and out of the station. They walked a few blocks, having said nothing to each other since Kunzite's brief words at the temple. Endymion stopped in from on a tall office building. “This was where one of them was as of this morning,” he said and then waited for Kunzite to make his move.

The building was far too large to search, but Kunzite noticed a sign on the side with a list of offices in the building. As he read through them, one caught his eye. “Astro Technologies, Sanjoin Masato.”

“Damn it,” Kunzite cursed as he turned from the sign and started back towards the king. As he turned however, he found himself face to face with Nephrite, wearing a business suit, and staring back at him. Kunzite was hardly in a good mood at this point, and he and Nephrite hadn't exactly been on the best of terms in the Dark Kingdom, so his voice did end up sounding rather condescending. “Sanjoin Masato?” he asked.

“Do I know you?” he asked, still staring.

Now Kunzite was surprised. He didn't recognize him either? “You don't remember me?” Kunzite asked.

“I'm sorry, I deal with a lot of people every day. Were you looking for me?”

“No,” Kunzite replied, stepping around him to return to the king. “I was not.”

---

Kunzite was feeling a lot of things on their way out to the outskirts of the city, and none of them were good. Why was Zoisite in the worst part of town? How did he get there?

Also, neither Jadeite nor Nephrite remembered him, but they had shown at least some recognition. Surely Zoisite would recognize him, considering how close they had been. Zoisite's final words had haunted him these entire two years, “I loved you, Kunzaito-sama.”

Love had been forbidden in the Dark Kingdom, and Kunzite had not considered himself able to feel such an emotion. Zoisite had felt that way, however, and looking back on that time, and the time before that, there had been... something. Kunzite was just terrible at expressing his emotions, Dark Kingdom aside.

“We're here,” Endymion said as the train made it's final stop. They were the only passengers left in the car.

Kunzite looked around, garbage littered the streets, and a few people sat on the side walks against the buildings, all in varying states of consciousness. “Where is he?” Kunzite asked.

“Follow me,” Endymion whispered.

Kunzite knew that they stood out. Neither had dressed particularly fancy, but even casual clothing stood out as above the poverty line. They were getting looks, and Kunzite did his best to not make eye contact with anyone, but at the same time he was scanning for the familiar coppery gold waves of hair.

Endymion paused briefly and spoke quietly, “He was in here this morning.”

Kunzite looked at the building, and it was indeed a brothel. Closed until later at night, and there didn't appear to be much activity inside. “Why?” Kunzite whispered to himself, worried about what the answer might be.

“Come,” Endymion instructed and they continued on their way. “We need to appear to know where we are going,” he explained. “We shouldn't have any problems with thieves, even though we stand out.”

“Where are we going?”

“If he's not here, he must be in the area. We'll take a quick look around, and if we don't find him, we'll come back at another time.”

As the pair walked down the street quickly, Kunzite caught something in the distance out of the corner of his eye. There were two people down one of the side streets, and the smaller of the two most definitely had Zoisite's hair.

Kunzite turned and walked towards them without any warning to Endymion. As he got closer, he could make out voices, and soon Zoisite's face became clear, as did his situation. The other man, much larger than him in both height and width had him backed against a wall, blocking him in with his hands. Zoisite had a few bags in his hands and was trying to press himself as far into the wall as he could.

“I told you, I'm not working right now,” Zoisite said.

“I didn't say you had a choice in the matter.”

Kunzite's anger began to boil as the other man continued to make advances on Zoisite. “Don't touch me,” Zoisite said, and edge of warning in his voice. “You know I get the money up front.”

The other man scoffed, “You hardly held up your end of the deal last time, you owe me.”

Zoisite dropped the bags he was carrying, groceries apparently, as the other man grabbed his wrists and pinned them against the wall quickly. Zoisite tried to kick out at him, but the other man was quick for his size. He dodged the first one, and then used his body to (hold? Press? Missing word) Zoisite's legs against the wall as well. He was obviously disgusted by this man, as was Kunzite. Nobody touched his Zoisite.

“Let him go,” Kunzite ordered, glaring at the man who was easily his own height.

The other man looked Kunzite over. “And who the hell do you think you are?”

“Let him go.”

“I got to him first, you can have him after I'm finished.”

Without further warning, Kunzite stuck the man with his fist. It was enough force to get him away from Zoisite at least. He didn't give him enough time to respond before spinning around and launching a back kick into the man's stomach, an easy target.

The man fell on the ground on his back, and Kunzite took this moment to check on Zoisite. He hadn't moved from his spot and stared at Kunzite with wide eyes.

“You bastard...” the man groaned.

“Move on,” Kunzite said, standing over him. “Or do we need to continue this?”

The other man's eyes narrowed at Kunzite has he got to his feet. “You'll regret this,” he spat at Kunzite before looking over at Zoisite, “and you still owe me.”

“I don't owe you shit.”

He turned and left then, quite frustrated and with a bloody lip, but gone and that was all Kunzite cared about. He turned to Zoisite then, who was still staring at him in shock. “Are you alright?” Kunzite asked.

“Fine,” Zoisite replied, his voice a bit more quiet now.

The bags that Zoisite had dropped earlier had fallen over, and so Kunzite leaned down and began to gather the food that had spilled. Zoisite just continued to stare down at him, Kunzite could feel his eyes on the back of his head. Was he remembering? Kunzite was holding back telling him everything, since he wanted Zoisite's memories to come back on his own.

Kunzite stood and handed the bags back to Zoisite, who accepted them, but still didn't seem to know what to do. “Do you live around here?” Kunzite asked.

Zoisite nodded. “I was just heading back there.”

“I'll walk you there.”

Again Zoisite nodded. Kunzite walked beside him, his hand touching the small of Zoisite's back in a protective and possessive gesture. He wasn't naive, he knew what Zoisite had been doing for money these last two years. It disgusted him that so many men had laid their hands on him, but at the same time, he blamed himself. He hadn't found Zoisite fast enough, and for whatever reason, Zoisite, without any memories, had done what he needed to find money.

The pair reached Endymion, and Kunzite had them pause for a moment. He knew, of course Endymion knew, and he gave Kunzite a look of pity. Kunzite wanted none of it. “You're free to leave,” he said, and then walked on, not once looking back at the king.

“May I ask who that was?” Zoisite asked quietly.

“No one important.”