Day 1- One Heart - Mazuhara Kurosawa -

Location: Unknown.

Time: Unknown.

"Ready or not, here I come!"

Mazu's heart skips a beat at her friends joyous cry, she places her hands to her chest as she rushes down the long Main Hall of the One Heart Orphanage, she skids to a halt before a large door that read: Infirmary. She pokes her tongue out of her mouth in distaste as she backs away from the door, if she was going to hide anywhere, it wasn't going to be there.

"Found you Misae!"

Mazuhara gasps when she hears the sounds of another friend being found behind her, she glances back at the infirmary door apprehensively, she didn't want to hide there but now she felt she had no other choice. She clutches the bottom of her dress in her fists as she moves toward the door, once close enough, she reaches a shaky hand toward the bar on the door.

She could hear it already, the sounds of moaning patients, the cries of mourning families, she could see her cousin's sad sick eyes as she entered the her sick-room.

"Mazu...I missed you," she always whispered.

Mazuhara hesitates once more, she hated that sick room.

"Mazu here we come!"

Mazuhara gasps when she hears the sounds of her friends' feet scurrying across the floor not too far from her, she takes a deep breath before pushing into the Infirmary Hall.

In a blind rush of excitement and fear, she bolts down the hall, her eyes darting to dark corners for a place she could hide, the further she went the safer she felt, the faster she ran- the quicker she could find a place to hide.

"They'll never catch me," she pants as she makes her way down the Infirmary Hall.

She'd keep running if she had to, they could never catch a moving target, she'd run until they gave up, until she was queen of the game and they begged her to reveal herself.

"Mazu!"

She slows at the sound of what sounded to be her mother, however she does not stop, she already knew what she wanted.

"Come sit with your cousin," she would say as she pulled a seat next to her bed."

Mazuhara didn't want to sit in that depressing room anymore, in fact she wouldn't, if they wanted her, they would have to catch her as well.

"Mazu...don't go there!"

Once again, she falters though this time for a different person's voice.

"Rukae," Mazuhara skids to halt at the sound of her sick cousin's voice, she clenches her fists in slight frustration, what did she want this time, another story or maybe something to drink. Mazuhara stands there for moment, waiting for Rukae to say something more, but nothing ever comess.

"Ru...," Mazuhara turns to face the girl, but what she finds before her isn't her sickly little cousin.

The hall no longer held the soft light of midday, the sounds of machines beeping no longer filled the halls, and she couldn't hear the other girls behind her anymore, she bites her lip as she ponders the last time she'd actually heard them.

She takes a step forward, but at the harsh sound of a heavy boot hitting the floor she pauses again, she looks down at her pale legs, they were no longer short and stubby and she no longer wore her tattered pink Mary Janes, she was dressed in high school uniform and on her feet were very heavy combat boots.

"What the..." she whispers pushing aside her jet black bangs, it was like being splashed with a bucket of ice cold water, the shift from her innocent carefree dream of herself as a child again, to this dark cold reality.

Mazuhara wraps her arms around her body as she takes another step down the hall, it was a slow measured step, she wasn't sure if she wanted to go back anymore, but she didn't want to stand in this dark hallway either.

"Ru," she calls down the hall, the sharp clear quality of her newly matured voice shocks her but she keeps moving on ahead, "Rukae...where are you?"

She shudders when a cold draft pushes down the hall past her, it felt as though someone had just come speeding by her, she pauses briefly to look back, though she knew it was silly, she couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.

"R-Ru...Misae...Yuuri," she whispers down the hall, if something was in the hall with her, she didn't want to draw too much attention to herself, she squints down the hall when she hears the slow creaking of an old door being opened.

She bends down as she struggles to see through the thick oppressing darkness of the hall, the darkness was so dense, it had it's own presence, it was like a thick blanket of obscurity and though it scared her, it filled her with a strange comfort, she didn't want to see everything that hid within it.

"Rukae..."

"Mmmm, mmmm listen children...to their song...the four corners of Tsubasa, before they're gone..."

Mazuhara backs away as the sound of a woman singing floats down the hall, the song itself did not scare Mazuhara, it was the way that woman sang it, she sounded so sad, she had tears in her voice.

"The four corners...the protectors of our souls, listen to their song...before they're gone..."

"Excuse me..." Mazuhara whispers through the darkness, "Miss..."

"LISTEN CHILDREN TO THEIR SONG, THE CHOSEN CHILDREN...BEFORE...THEY'RE...GONE!"

The woman's voice goes from mournful to demonic, Mazuhara raises her hands to her ears as the woman's voice turns into a sound reminiscent of a metal being scraped together, she was no longer a sad woman, she was an evil banshee.

"HOLD THEM DEAR TO YOUR HEART, AND PRAY THAT THEIR SOULS ARE STRONG, THANK THEM WITH ALL YOUR HEART...BEFORE THEY'RE GONE!"

"S-S-Stop...stop singing!" Mazuhara shouts into the darkness, she clenches her hands into fists at her ears when her eardrums begin to throb in pain.

She's shocked when the woman's horrible singing suddenly ends, it was as though someone had just switched off a radio, abrupt and slightly off-putting.

Mazuhara lowers her fists to her side as her heart's pounding slows and levels out again, "...who...was that?"

It couldn't have been Rukae, her voice was too small and soft for to make such a sound, and it definitely wasn't her own mother, Mazuhara hugs her arms close to her body as she begins down the hall again, this time with a bit more speed and determination; she no longer wanted to be in this place.

"Shimur...Shimure..."

Mazuhara groans at the sound of that voice again, but she keeps her pace, nothing would stop her from leaving the Infirmary Hall.

"Shimure...don't...leave me!"

Suddenly the hall fills with the marching of what sounded like a large band, the "steps" echoed along the walls of the hall and shook the floor under Mazuhara's feet.

She falters when the shaking grows stronger and the "steps" louder, for a moment she loses herself in the darkness, she wasn't sure if she was going forward or backward, but she keeps running ahead, too afraid to stop now.

"Shimure!"

Leave me alone, she wanted to shout, she wanted nothing to do with this sick woman and her crying, she wanted out of the darkness, any longer in this hall and she feared she'd go mad- if she hadn't already.

Mazuhara's heart flutters when the large Infirmary doors come into view, she reaches for them even though she was still a great distance away, beneath the door she could see the glow of light from the other side, she wanted to be there.

She releases a cry of fear and relief when she gets close enough to the door to grab the bars, she pushes her hands into them but a sharp cry from behind her drags her attention back to the end of the hall, against her better judgment she looks back.

Through the darkness, she could see a figure crawling across the floor, it's body glowed with an inhuman light though it seemed human shaped, it scurries forward, it's hurried steps causing the loud marching sounds, as it gets closer, it's shape becomes more human and more feminine, it's long black hair hung over it's face and onto the floor.

It's body was covered in thick black blankets but when it shifted it's limbs, it's female anatomy could be clearly seen, it lurches forward suddenly, placing a clawed hand on the ground before it.

Mazuhara whimpers when it comes to a sudden halt, though it's head did not stop moving.

The woman throws her hair back to show a white face and full black eyes that oozed black tears, she reaches for Mazuhara as black ink falls from the corners of her mouth, she smiles before opening her lips wide, so wide that her face fades into nothing and only a black hole could be seen.

She releases a scream that shakes the entire hall, this scares Mazuhara so badly that she launches through the Infirmary doors and into the light of...

Mazuhara sits up abruptly in her bed, almost immediately she's comforted by the smell of the eggs and rice that her mother was surely making for breakfast, she turns in her bed to the window near her, the sun stood at it's highest in the sky and birds flew hurriedly past her window, probably headed for a warmer part of the world since winter was coming to Japan and fast.

She pushes her hands into her lap as she turns in bed again, surely she had woken up late, it was never this bright when she woke up in the morning, she covers her mouth with her hands as she releases a long happy sort of yawn, goodbye bad dream!

She pushes aside her midnight blue blanket as she crawls out of bed, the ensuing moments are one big blur, somehow she showers, dresses and ends up in the bathroom mirror without her even realizing how she'd done it all.

"Ugh, these bags..." she utters pushing her fingers under her eyes, her fingers fit perfectly into the deep creases that her lack of sleep had created, "ugh...I look hideous..."

Lately, she'd been having strange dreams, creepy dreams that usually ended with her cowering in fear and praising the morning when she finally came to, they always started with her as a child in that old orphanage, One Heart. It was true that she'd spent much time there as a child, but she didn't understand why it suddenly became a part of her dreams and her waking thoughts.

She pushes her hands from her face to her medium length black hair before reaching down to adjust the creases in her uniform skirt, "maybe I heard it from Rukae, she's always talking about something weird..."

"Mazu, Yuuri is here to take you to school!"

Mazuhara pushes away from the mirror as she resolves to never think about that orphanage again, she wouldn't let Rukae's imagination consume her as well.

"Coming!"

After rushing down the stairs and through a bowl of Tomago Gohan, she runs to her best friends car at the outside of her house, she frowns as she walks toward the passenger seat, much to her disappointment everyone had already been gathered together in the car.

Her best friend Yuuri, her tag-along Misae, and her cousin Rukae.

"Oh I see how it is," she mutters as she crashes into her seat, "why am I last to be picked up?"

Yuuri rolls her eyes as she starts up the car, she turns up the volume of the radio and the voices of her favorite pop band fill the air. Mazuhara glares at her from the corner of her eye but Yuuri does a good job at ignoring her, this goes on for a while until Mazuhara switches off the radio.

"Hey, that was my favorite part!" Yuuri cries reaching for the power switch but Mazuhara clamps her hand over it with a grin of triumph.

"Why am I the last to be picked up," she demands as Yuuri falls back into her seat in mock annoyance.

"Because you're always late, there- I said it!" Yuuri cries slamming her hands against the wheel, "I always go there first, I even drink green tea with your mom, all the while little Mazu is sleeping away upstairs!"

Mazuhara folds are arms as she leans back in her seat, "yeah ok..."

"Yeah ok, now put your seat belt on!" Yuuri concludes as she runs her fingers through her short locks, she glares at Mazuhara when she doesn't immediately follow her orders.

"Whatever," Mazuhara sighs grabbing the seat belt, she turns to the younger girls in the back as she locks the belt into place, "wassup girls!"

Misae is the first to speak, she always did so eagerly whenever Mazuhara spoke to her, though she wasn't sure if Misae knew, her thirst to be Mazuhara's friend was blatantly clear.

"Everything's great Mazu, slept well last night." She tilts her head with a smile as she awaits Mazuhara's answer, Mazuhara shrugs as she turns her attention to her cousin.

"Didn't sleep that well," she whispers peering into Rukae's soft brown eyes, Rukae seems to shift uncomfortably under her gaze but she does her best to give her a genuine smile.

"Bad dream again," she mutters in her low monotone, "maybe some tea before bed..."

Mazuhara quirks a brow when Rukae breaks their eye contact to look through the window on her side of the car, "yeah...my mom said the same thing..."

"Or maybe something sweet, can't be scared with a mouth full of chocolate," Misae sings happily.

Mazuhara shrugs as she turns back to sit normally in her seat, she didn't want to seem dismissive of Misae but she knew that nothing Misae said had any baring on what she was going through at the moment, she couldn't sympathize because she was too much of a follower, nothing real came from her lips and if it did- it was usually lame.

With Rukae on the other hand, she was much too into her own head to realize how strange she sounded sometimes, so she couldn't be inauthentic.

Mazuhara sighs when Misae starts up about a class project that they were supposed to start working on that day, a history class project, one that Mazuhara fully intended on forgetting about.

As Misae begins to talk about all the things they could research, Mazuhara ponders how she got to this place with this girl and her cousin.

Rukae being younger and more meek had always been separate from Mazuhara at school, her best friend for the longest, Misae seemed to hold a thirst to hang out with the older more popular girls, even if that meant leaving Rukae behind. Not being the one to leave a family member out of the loop, Mazuhara took both girls under her wing, when she thought about it- this was pretty sad. They were pretty closely related, with their great-great-great grandmother's being sister's, they weren't as close as they should have been, not that Mazuhara wasn't there for Rukae, they just didn't hang together.

"OK-OK Misae, damn we're not even in school yet and you're talking that nonsense." Yuuri sighs as they pull into the school parking lot, Mazuhara glances back Misae who now wore bright red blush, she lowers her head with a quick nod.

"Sorry." she whispers looking aside.

Mazuhara rolls her eyes as she undoes her seat-belt before getting out of the car, she would have liked Misae a lot more if she had more of her own personality, she pulls her bag strap over her arm as they enter the school building.

"Long day ahead," Yuuri whispers to Mazuhara as they enter their class, the teacher had already begun handing out detention slips.

Mazuhara shrugs as she takes her seat next to Rukae, who had already removed her history book from her satchel, she peered down into it's pages with deep interest though the teacher hadn't even told them what they were to read.

"Late again girls!" Mrs. Shimouto shouts as she pushes away from her desk, Mazuhara rolls her eyes as the Rukae presses her face even further into the book.

"Sorry Miss-."

"Mrs." Mrs. Shimouto shouts at Yuuri who raises her arms into a shrug.

"Sorry Mrs. Shimouto," she mutters glancing at Mazuhara who had by now begun to titter under her breath, unfortunately this does not go unnoticed by Mrs. Shimouto.

"It's funny to you huh misses Kurosawa," she exclaims slapping her hand on another students desk, "you wanna know what's funny to me, your failing grades!"

Mazuhara glowers at her desk now, it was true, her grades weren't the best, but failing...that couldn't be true.

"Humph, what's your excuse Miss Yoshitano, you used to be such a good student, what happened to you!?"

Misae shrivels up and dies under the teacher's harsh gaze, "I-I'll...try harder."

"You'd better. Miss Kurosawa!"

Both Rukae and Mazuhara look up from their respective hiding places, Mrs. Shimouto smiles at Rukae.

"Don't let this bone-headed cousin of yours sway your better judgment, OK?"

Rukae looks at Mazuhara apologetically as she weakly nods her head, this seems to satisfy Mrs. Shimouto because she begins tormenting the other students.

Mazuhara settles into her seat as the teacher torment continues, that is until the subject of their history project is brought up, Mrs. Shimouto smiles at class as she removes a folder from her desk.

"Since all of you much too lazy to come up with your own project idea's I have put together a list of group's and what I will have you doing...Mei Hirasaki... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Rukae and Mazuhara, you two will be doing an expedition and report on the One Heart Orphanage."

Both Mazuhara and Rukae breath audible gasps.

"But-."

"But nothing, I want the two of you to come in here next week with brand new facts on the place, nothing you can easily find in old news papers either," their teacher calls over them, she looks back down at her folder as Rukae and Mazuhara look to one another helplessly, though it was unspoken, neither one of them wanted to go.

"Yuuri and Misae, the two of you are to go to the orphanage as well, but you are to study it's old Infirmary Wing. As the first hospital in Miyoji, it holds a special place in our history."

"Soooo, we're all going to the same place." Yuuri murmurs looking to the other girls, Mazuhara shrugs and the teacher nods.

"Yes, you are...I warn you though, that is a historical landmark, if you vandalize-."

"We look like vandals to you!" Yuuri exclaims sitting up in her seat.

Mrs. Shimouto smiles at her bitterly, "yes and unfortunately...I will be forced to stare into that evil face today...WHILE YOU'RE IN DETENTION!"

Mazuhara covers her smile with her hand as Yuuri continues to dig herself into a deeper hole with her arguments, it was funny but it happened a lot between the teacher and student.

At the end of the day, the girls once again crowd into Yuuri's car, Mazuhara smirks as Yuuri drones on and on about the evil's of Mrs. Shimouto, she looks over at her as Yuuri starts up the car.

"What do you think about our project?"

"Pfft, she wants us to fail." Yuuri whispers bitterly as she pulls away from the school, "or die...like who sends four girls to an old broken down building by themselves, she's a crazy person!"

"I don't want to go," Rukae whispers leaning toward them between the seats.

Though Mazuhara shared her sentiments, she didn't want to agree with that she felt was Rukae's reasoning, she wouldn't admit to being scared.

"Why not?" She asks turning to her shaking cousin.

Rukae bites her lip looking away, "I just-."

"Don't be such a scaredy cat Rukae," Misae mutters looking aside.

"B-."

"No buts, we gotta do what we gotta do, I can't fail again this semester." Mazuhara grumbles looking ahead, she really didn't want to, but her summer vacation depended on this, she didn't want summer school, not again.

She'd have to suck it up, her fear.

Rukae looks at the rest of the girls with what looked to be disappointment, she sighs before falling back into her seat.

"Since we're off for the rest of the week, we should start preparing to go...tomorrow we get things ready...and the day after...Friday for my dimmer car-mates, we go." Yuuri says looking back at them.

Though her stomach did somersaults within her, she had no other choice but to play it cool, Mazuhara smiles, "OK."

To Be Continued.

Next Chapter: Forgetting Where You Came From- Misae Yoshitano.