Hanamichi opened his eyes. Looking around confusedly, he wondered where he was. Where is Youhei and that gorilla? And Hiko and the rest?

He was sleeping on this soft down bed (A bed at long last!) and he was in a small room which was simply furnished with wood furniture.

"Ha ha ha, maybe Gorilla had finally decided that it was time to let the tensai rest and he would finally acknowledge my greatness.." Hanamichi thought delightedly. Yes, he is getting better ^^;;

Someone had stepped in.

"Youhei!" Hanamichi tried to sit up.

"No, no, don’t get up." Youhei hurriedly closed the door and pulled a chair close to Hanamichi’s bed. "You are finally awake!"

"Of course! Nothing could keep me down. I am the tensai, remember?" Hanamichi replied, earning a disgusted sigh from Youhei.

"Yah right, tensai!"

"Where are we? And what happened to me? I don’t really remember," Hanamichi prodded Youhei and gestured towards the table. Youhei understood. Hanamichi wanted to drink something. In normal circumstances, he would have just told Hanamichi to get his own drink. But well, it wasn’t exactly a normal situation..

"You fainted."

"Me? The genius? Faint?!" Hanamichi said in disbelief.

"You had a high fever and in addition you had sunstroke." Youhei poured a cup of hot green tea and handed it to Hanamichi. "Maybe your hair was too red .."

"What?!" Hanamichi sputtered.

"Heheh, sorry I just couldn’t resist that ^_^ although I really don’t know where you got that fever from.. " Youhei’s eyes twinkled as he patted Hanamichi’s back.

Wiping some green tea off his mouth, Hanamichi gave Youhei the evil eye.

"You wanna get a bump on your head is it?" Hanamichi mock threatened.

"Oooh.. I am so scared.." Youhei made a face then quickly ducked as Hanamichi’s fist flew towards him.

Amidst the laughter that resulted, the door opened. And both boys turned to look at this intruder.

Hanamichi had never seen her before. She had a rather sweet face and bright eyes. Just one look and you will know that this girl was one that you would want to bring home to your mother.

"Are you feeling better already?" She smiled at Hanamichi. "Uh, yah. Who are you?" He blurted out.

Youhei grinned. He was not going to miss this for the world.

"I am Haruko Akagi. Just call me Haruko." She placed one small hand on Hanamichi’s forehead, despite Hanamichi’s weak protests.

"HUH?! AKAGI? THE GORILLA’S SISTER???!!!" Hanamichi gagged and Youhei almost fell onto the floor laughing.

Haruko looked surprised.

"My brother is Takenori Akagi. You have probably met him." She grinned. "He may look fierce but he definitely has a soft heart inside."

Hanamichi mock-fainted.

"Hey he was the one who carried you like a babe all the way to the inn!" Youhei laughed. And he was the one who ran all the way to get the doctor for you, I have never seen him so worried. Not even when we encountered that flame coloured creature in the forest...

Having said so, Youhei made Hanamichi sit up and put out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Haruko. I am Youhei. This redhead here is Hanamichi."

Haruko shook Youhei’s outstretched hand and then turned to Hanamichi, her eyes glowing. It seemed as if the colour of her cheeks had suddenly shot up. Youhei raised his eyebrow. Was there something going on here?

Hanamichi didn’t seem to notice anything. He just took Haruko’s hand and said," Well met, Haruko. You can call me The Genius of the Century." Haruko blinked, a quizzical look on her face. Youhei gave a derisive snort.

"Okie, just call me Tensai." Hanamichi hurriedly said.

That earned him a box at the ears. Youhei grinned at Haruko. "Don’t mind him, he is just like that..."

Outside the Hanamichi’s room, a huge shadow lurked..

Akagi stood hunched outside the door, trying to look as unobtrusive as possible. Two serving maids had already walked past him with strange looks on their face. He did not want to show his concern. He did not want to go in and see how Hanamichi was. He did not want to hear that silly voice claiming that he was tensai. The list goes on and on ..

But he was damned glad that the monkey was all right. Akagi smiled.