"Oi, Fuyumiya!"

Fuyumiya Yukiko looked up from her book, irritated that she had been interrupted. The brown-haired girl next to her desk smiled and straightened her deep gray skirt.

"Maa! Watashi wa Kiba Hanako! My friends and I were going to the fair after school today. Want to come?" she asked the black-haired girl. Yukiko tied the braids on her hair and glared at her.

"Iie," she replied, looking disgusted at the very thought of it. She glanced back toward her book, trying to hint at Hanako.

"Are you sure? You seem so lonely. You're never with any friends," she pointed out.

"That is no concern of yours. Leave me alone," Yukiko said, looking back down and resuming her reading.

"All right... Just remember, if you do want to go, Wakaba-chan, Hoshi- chan, and I will be there most of the night!" Hanako said, turning to leave. The black-haired girl snorted in disgust and continued reading her Poe collection until the school bell chimed. Chairs scraped and groaned against the ground as the students stampeded out. Yukiko shut her book and slowly got to her feet, enjoying the pained look Tanaka-sensei gave her. She shuffled out the door, deliberately taking her time.

Once outside, she continued to take her sweet time going down the two flights of stairs to her locker on the first floor. Yukiko had nowhere to rush to like the other students; she had no friends and didn't live with her family. Thus being, she had no pressing engagements. The girl sighed, perhaps a little wistfully, and continued on her way.

"Oi! Oi!" She ignored the male voice floating after her. "Oi! Fuyumiya-san!" A pair of unfamiliar arms grabbed her around the waist.

"Don't touch me!" Yukiko snarled, slapping his hands away.

"Maa! I can't even give a hug to a deserving lovely lady?"

"You're damn right you can't."

"Oh well. Can you give me some directions to Aoyama Park? I'm going to the fair tonight," the blond-haired boy said sunnily.

"Ask someone else. I don't know," she snarled irritably. "I just moved here after the queen was murdered. So leave me alone."

"I see! Well, I've lived here since a little before that. Want to come with me to the fair?" The boy winked and tugged one of her braids. "It'll be fun!"

"Didn't I just tell you to leave me alone?" Yukiko said in an icy tone.

"Onegai?"

"Iie! Leave!" She pulled away from him.

"Have it your way, Fuyumiya-san. I'm free any night of the week, just in case you get lonely!"

"And it's no wonder," she said dryly.

He ignored this last comment and continued on.

"Ore wa Kusanagi Kouji! You're lucky you were found by such a handsome, strong guy. Pretty girls shouldn't walk alone in Tokyo," he said, reaching toward her again.

"Then go find one who is. Or you can do every female in Tokyo the favor of taking a long walk off a short cliff." Kouji smiled and waved it off.

"Stubborn, huh? I love a challenge," he said, unable to take a hint.

"Oi, I told you to leave me alone!" Yukiko took a turn down an alley and eventually shook him off behind some trashcans and piles of wet cardboard boxes. The girl squeezed sludge off of her uniform, cursing the garment and walking toward the rundown apartment complex where she lived.

"Finally. Bakayarou." The girl crossed the vacant street, still brushing rubbish off of her uniform.

Suddenly, she had to leap out of the way as a motorcycle roared its way right through the crosswalk without any warning. She wiped the blood off of her scratched legs, irritated at the driver. Yukiko shouted something at the driver and stalked off, resuming her way toward the shabby apartments. The motorcycle puttered up next to her, the driver flashing her a handsome smile. She blatantly ignored him and turned, walking through a lovely garden filled with pansies. The motorcyclist took his helmet off.

"Now, is that any way to treat an old friend?" the young man asked with a smirk.

"I have no idea who you are," she said coldly, ascending the stairs and rummaging for her keys as she went. He followed after her, trampling some pansies in the process and scraping them over the sidewalk.

Yukiko finally fished out her keys and unlocked the door, walking in and tossing her bookbag on the ragged couch she had dragged off the side of the street with her now-dead best friend. She smiled at it a little and shut the door, shuffling off into the kitchen to make her dinner.

"I have something to tell you, Musume-san," the voice of the motorcyclist said, quiet and slightly creepy. The girl whirled around with a spatula in hand to see him leaning against the frame of the open door. She also noticed that the door had no knob anymore.

"Get out of my house before I call the police," she snapped, whacking his hand with a spatula. He pulled it out of the way, smirking again.

"I'm afraid you would have no time to do that. I can move faster..." In a blur of brown and black, he appeared behind her. "...than you can see me."

"I don't care. Leave a note or something and go away." She went back to cooking her dinner. He moved from behind her swiftly and left the apartment.

Yukiko furiously stirred the canned soup that she poured into the pot of water, sending some of it flying onto the walls and stove. She turned the burner up to high and waited impatiently for it to finish cooking.

After it finished, she poured it in a bowl and walked out to the couch.

To her surprise, the young man lounged on the couch, one leg crossed over the other and his eyes closed. He yawned and opened one dark green eye.

"Ohayo," he said sleepily.

"Get off of my couch!" She took off one of her shoes and hurled it at him, narrowly missing.

"I'm not going anywhere until I tell you what I have to say, you idiot," he said a little coldly.

"Hn! I doubt you have anything worthwhile to say to me," Yukiko snarled, attempting to push his legs off the couch. He moved them briefly, only to set them back on her lap and stretch out.

"Don't touch me!" She pushed his legs off and managed to spill a little boiling soup on them. The young man didn't seem to notice at all as he sat up and stared into her eyes. She stared right back, her left eye twitching in anger. He gave her a faint smile and leaned back onto the couch again. She grumbled something and began sipping what little of her canned soup was even left.

"Now that I have your attention, Musume-san, I'll tell you what I have to say. My mistress wants a word with you, immediately."

"Tell your mistress to shove off, because I don't want anything to do with her. I don't want anything to do with humanity in general. That includes you. Out."

"Oh?" He sighed and sat up. "Why not?"

"Because humankind is an idiot race. They've done nothing but give me hell," she said.

"Bitter much?"

"Hai."

He slid a hand under her chin and tilted her face up to his. Yukiko felt her face burn a little bit.

"What if you could get a little reward for your suffering? A miracle of sorts?" The young man gently nuzzled his cheek against hers. Yukiko blushed and pulled away.

"I said don't touch me! But it's too late to undo anything. What's done is done," she answered irritably.

"Come with me. I'll help you." He extended a hand. She simply glared at it and went to put her bowl up.

"I don't want your pity," she said as she left. There was silence for a long while as she scrubbed the bowl in the kitchen.

"It's not pity. It's concern for a fellow victim of injustice," he said silkily, blurring in beside her and watching her with a smirk.

"Hn." She said nothing more and left the kitchen, tossing a dishrag at him.

"Give it a little thought. I know you want your vengeance from those who have wronged you in the past," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and massaging gently. She blushed and looked down.

"Hn..."

"Who has ever made you so incredibly angry that you'd hurt them?" His head rested on her shoulder.

"Oniichan..."

"Your brother? And who else?" he inquired softly.

"Okaasama... Otousama..."

"Go on..." He continued to rub her shoulders and keep his bright red eyes on her dark blue ones. He was basically hypnotizing her and causing her to take a trip into her anger and sorrow to fish out names of her tormentors.

"Mikami... Yuri..."

"And all those classmates?"

"Not all of them." Part of Yukiko's mind was lured into his hypnotizing trick, while the other part was screaming at her to slap him across the face and tell him off.

"Come... Is not even the mere thought of them enough to make you angry?"

"Hai..."

"I'll free you from your pain." He took her hand and grinned slightly. She nodded, now of her own free will. She was truly angry at her Oniichan, Otousan, and Okaasan, as well as her former friends.

They had left her all alone.

She resolved long ago that they must pay.

And she had found the perfect way.