Prologue

Sakurazuka Setsuka threw her head back and laughed in sheer exhilaration. The blood in her hair was caking horribly and her black kimono would probably never be the same--but it was worth it. It was worth it, if this was what she had achieved, because now nothing would ever be the same.

Freedom.

She loved the taste of the word in her mouth.

They were watching. It seemed that was all the important people did--watch and wait and let their underlings get cut down while they were safe in their little offices behind the wards, where she couldn't reach them. But in a way, that was alright. It meant they feared her--Setsuka knew how to manipulate fear.

"Open the door!" she screamed, suddenly. Her face was contorted with rage and her eyes promised death to all who opposed her. "Now."

Silence.

She grinned. That was alright, too. They would pay attention soon enough.

She picked her way carefully across the fallen, mutilated bodies. Her nose crinkled a little in disgust. The stench was nigh unbearable. She hadn't known it would stink so much. But it would all be worth it, once she could walk outside and let the outside wide cleanse and purify her body.

Now and then, one of the bodies she stepped on would groan, or twitch. She frowned. Still not dead? True, she may have played around a little, but she had thought she'd killed them all. Except for That One, of course, the important one.

He was lying on the outskirts of the carnage, unconscious. A nasty bruise was forming at his temple, her own handiwork. She hoped that she hadn't permanently damaged him. He really was a handsome man, with the most piercingly beautiful amber eyes, and it wouldn't do for his looks to be spoiled.

She knelt down beside his head and lifted his body so that his torso lay sprawled across her knees, head to her chest. She tenderly brushed his bangs from his forehead and kissed him. Whispered, "Thank you...so much."

It was still silent, aside from the occasional groan, but now the silence was watchful, wary. They didn't want her doing anything to this man, just as she had suspected.

"Open the door." She smirked and placed one bloodied fingernail at the man's neck. No reaction. Her smile broadened.

"You think I won't do anything to him?" Amused, lilting laughter. "Do you think this man really matters that much to me?"

No response.

"Alright then," she continued, confidently. "I guess I'll just have to prove it to you, won't I?"

And she broke his arm.

Something snapped within that watchful presence. Was it just her, or was that the sound of a girl screaming? It was muffled by the wards and walls, but it was there, she was sure of it: A reaction.

"For every minute that you do not open that door," she announced, "I will break another bone in his body."

This time it was definite: A desperate, wailing "NO!" The voice of that fiancee of his she had heard so much about, perhaps?

Three minutes later, she had broken each of his limbs and her patience was waning. It was getting boring.

"I think it's time to change the rules a little, don't you?" she drawled. "Every half minute it takes for that door to open, I'll damage one of his organs." She lifted up her hand and let her aura be seen as it morphed into a small knife.

"No, don't!" A young girl, not much older than Setsuka herself, eighteen at a guess, rushed in. She collapsed and gagged, vomiting all over the floor at the stench, the sight, the horror of it all. No doubt, Setsuka thought, witnessing it and experiencing it is far worse than simply watching it from her room as if it were just a movie of some sort. She snorted. Pathetic.

"Please...don't," the girl whimpered.

Setsuka gently pushed the man off her lap and settled him comfortably on the foor. She gracefully stood up and crossed the room, walking past the girl without even a backward glance.

"Thank you," she murmured, smirking. The girl only sobbed louder in response.

As she left, Setsuka heard the girl behind her scrabbling around the floor, getting up and falling and desperately trying to reach her beloved as she cried her heart out.

The guards stationed throughout the building did not even try to stop her.

Once she finally reached the outside, Setsuka sighed in happiness. The wide, blue sky and the heat of the sun--oh, how she had missed these!

Free at last.