"I can't understand this," Nyx said, sipping her Frappucino. "Huge explosion... screams... and no one thinks anything of it? I'd expect an Otaku or two to show up."

Susanne shrugged in response and tossed her empty Dr. Pepper can into a nearby garbage bin. "Don't forget, they probably don't know where they are. Or when they are. Or they might. But they're nervous. And if they know that it's Woodstock '99... well, they probably wouldn't be suspicious of an explosion or two." She pulled another can out of her HammerSpace.

"So... we just sit here? Wait? Any suggestions?"

"Um... well, everyone ought to be here. Somewhere. But we'll have a hell of a time finding them. And I'd like to leave Meredith and Kristsi alone. And Anaera, though I doubt I could stop you if you saw her."

"Damn, you're picky. Well, you leave alone whoever you want."

"Those two aren't in your league, Nyx."

"Mercy's not in your league. What would you like to do to her?"

"Meredith and Kristsi didn't betray you."

"And if you see Remy?"

Susanne shrugged. "I don't like to fight." The girls sat silently for a few minutes, watching the fire. "You know," Susanne said after a little while, "I've been thinking..."

"About what?"

"Well... we fight for the honor of Bishounen, right? So whoever wins, it means their Bishounen is the best."

"Something like that."

"I've got... well, I met... okay, let me back up. Have you met your Bishounen?"

After a few silent moments, Nyx said, "Yes. After a fashion."

"And you've met other Bishounen?"

"Endymion-sama."

"Does it feel different to meet your Bishounen? Like, I know you can feel when a guy is Bishounen. Is it a different feeling when you meet your own Bishounen?"

Nyx appeared to be deep in concentration for a minute. "Yeah," she finally said. "It's sort of the same feeling, but to an even higher degree. And... I dunno, I can't quite explain it. You just know that he's your Bishounen. Why are you asking me this?"

"My aura is this brown color... they told me that it was very distinctive, that there aren't many Bishounen who are represented by this color. But... well, I have met my Bishounen. Or I have met Hotohori. His reincarnation. He was the first one I met. But I realized that it felt no different from meeting any Bishounen. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, it does make sense... so you're back to not knowing who your Bishounen is?"

"I guess so." The girls sat silently for a few more minutes. Nyx finished off her Frappucino, tossed the bottle into the garbage bin, and pulled another out of HammerSpace.

"You know, even if she didn't suspect anything, I'd have expected Celly to do something by now."

"I know what you mean. Something toppling over, lots of people screaming... maybe even something out of the ordinary." At that moment, a rather sizable explosion issued from the area directly in front of the stage.

"You mean like that?"

---------------------------------

Meredith and Kristsi turned to see what had blown up this time. They couldn't tell, but that almost scared them more than seeing what had exploded.

"Do you still think it's Susanne doing this?" Kristsi asked as they eased away from the area.

"That, no... and this here isn't her style, but... who else would have sent us back to the original Woodstock? And I swear, that was her ki-blast I saw!"

"Look, I know she was your best friend, and..."

Meredith held up a hand. "Holy crap!" she said, looking at a refreshment booth. "Four bucks for a bottle of water? No wonder there was rioting..."

----------------------------

"I told you, DON'T TOUCH ME!!!" Celly stood, her golden aura flaring violently, in the middle of a ring of people who had stopped dancing and stared at her in shock. One young man stood frozen in front of her. He looked quite scorched and very much in pain. When he didn't move, Celly said in a low tone, "Leave now, or so help me, you will never know the touch of a woman."

The man scurried off as best he could, and Celly relaxed and looked around. "What are you all staring at? Just go back to dancing or whatever you were doing! Sheesh!"

"Ah, Celly... are you sure that wasn't a bit... much, perhaps?" Remy said quietly.

"He had it coming," Mercy said as she surveyed the crowd. "Little bastard deserved it."

"I guess the demonstration will keep any other random guys from accosting us, though," Remy observed.

"Hey..." Celly said suddenly. "Do you guys feel something?" The others stopped and concentrated. "They must be pretty far off yet, though..."

"You're right, it's very faint. And they're on opposite sides. One's over there--" Remy pointed off to her left, "and the other's off that way," she gestured to her right.

"So we should go this way," Mercy said, striking out. "Who d'ya think it is, anyway?"

"Does it matter? If it's Nyx, it's bad news. If it were somehow Susanne, also not good. Anaera isn't someone I especially want to run into. Meredith, Kristsi... no one else is friendly."

Mercy shuddered as Celly mentioned Nyx. "I sure hope it's not her... why did she do that? I still don't get it!"

"Yeah, with everyone in teams, she's not at much of an advantage lone-wolfing it."

----------------------

Susanne held her breath as Remy pointed almost exactly at her. *They know we're here,* she thought. She could almost make out what they were saying... but she couldn't risk getting any closer. They obviously thought the two they felt were far enough away not to worry, but any closer, and they wouldn't miss her. They started to move off, and Susanne caught Nyx's eye, and shook her head.

Nyx indicated that she wanted to keep following them, and Susanne waved her on. She like to keep up, too, but she felt something off behind her... luckily, they were probably just too far for Nyx to sense, but Susanne wanted to keep it that way. She headed off to her right.

----------------------

Meredith's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets. "Did you see that?" she said to Kristsi.

"What?"

"I swear, I just saw Susanne right over there!"

"She's not there now."

"She went this way!" Meredith pulled Kristsi along. Every now and then, she caught a glimpse of her friend through the crowd, but she realized that it was too noisy for her friend to hear her. "Over here!" Meredith said excitedly as she saw her again. "Around here! There she... was."

The girls soon found themselves on the outskirts, and the people here were thinly scattered.

"Okay, then... where is she?"

Meredith looked around, squelching a vague urge to cry. She wasn't here.