"Come back here, you thief!"

Kyouko froze at the furious yell, her heart thudding. The small bag of apples hidden under her loose jacket felt especially heavy. One of the employees marched through the store, glaring at her. "You're coming with me, young lady," he growled. "You can explain this whole situation to the manager."

As Kyouko shuffled through the shop, following him, she couldn't bring herself to meet anyone's gaze. Her hands felt sweaty and somehow dirty. She hung her head, feeling her face redden. Guilt and panic gnawed at her in equal measures. "But... I had to!" she blurted. Surely he had to understand why she'd resorted to theft. "My little sister... I had to feed her..."

"Make all the excuses you want, miss. Stealing is stealing," the employee interrupted her as he led her into the back room.

Half an hour later, she found herself standing in front of her father and a stern-looking manager. She looked down at the ground, then at her father, and shuddered. Her father wasn't the type to get angry, at least not openly, but she'd never seen him regard her with so much disappointment. His lips were pressed flat, and he shook his head as if he refused to believe the situation.

"How could you do this, Kyouko?" he muttered. "How could this happen?"

"I'm sorry, Dad," was all Kyouko could bring herself to say. The employee's cry of "thief" still echoed through her mind, taunting her, making sure she knew what level she'd fallen to. How many times had she heard her father preach against theft? "Thou shalt not steal," he'd said, reading out the Bible in front of the congregation. Now she'd gone against the Sakura family's beliefs and her father's teachings.

"You can expect a fine in the next few days," the manager warned, gripping the notebook on which he'd written down Kyouko's name and address. "Consider yourself lucky that's all, and we didn't get the police involved. Now go."

The atmosphere during the car ride home was a strained one, to say the least. Kyouko stared out of the window, watching the passers-by, some of whom were families with well-fed, chubby-faced children. A few of the people carried bulging grocery bags. The red-haired girl sighed and turned her attention back to her father.

"I'm grounded, aren't I?" she asked.

"No," her father replied, his weary eyes focused on the traffic. He seemed to have aged five years in one day. "Kyouko, I understand you meant well. But do you have any idea what a sin against God this is, no matter what the circumstances? Let this be a lesson to you. And if this ever happens again, don't think I'll let you off so lightly."

Kyouko hunched her shoulders. "I was just trying to help," she said quietly. Why was it that whenever she tried to help, all she did was make things worse?

Facing her mother was no easier. Kyouko slunk along the hallway, the ticking off from her mother and the pleas from Momo for them to stop arguing still fresh in her mind. Upon hearing her father muttering something in the other room, she stopped.

"Forgive me, Lord," he said. "Forgive me for letting this happen. Forgive Kyouko for resorting to this."

Kyouko clenched her hands into fists by her sides. Her father blamed himself for the incident. She wanted to run in and tell him it wasn't his fault, but she knew he wouldnt believe her. Instead, she turned and ran back through the hallway, out of the door and towards the church.

The cool air in the stone building sent a chill through her as she stepped in. She shivered, her gaze drifting to the stained glass windows. The biblical figures they represented seemed to be looking down at her, judging her for her sin. She dropped to her knees, closed her eyes and clasped her hands together.

"Please, Lord, forgive me," she said. "Forgive me for what I did to my family." A tear trickled down her cheek. She'd ruined everything. Momo was still starving, her father had taken all the blame for her crime on himself, and she had no idea how she would pay the fine. "Please let me find a way to make things better for them, and not make everything worse."

"You want to help your family, you say?" came a voice. Kyouko opened her eyes and gasped. Approaching her was a small, alien-looking creature that vaguely resembled a white cat. "There is one thing you can do..."

Smirking with satisfaction, Kyouko shut the door to the apartment and started munching on one of the apples from the brown paper bag she held. Food always tasted better when she hadn't paid for it. She still couldn't believe that just over a year ago, she'd had such an uptight attitude towards stealing, or that she'd been lousy enough at it to get caught. What an idiot she'd been back then. Such an idiot, in fact, that she'd gone and let her good intentions destroy her family. Why hadn't she learned before making the contract with Kyubey that trying to help others only ended badly for everyone involved? At least she knew better now, but if only she'd known back then.

As she ate, she stared out of the window. She could see her father's church in the distance, a constant reminder of her mistake. If it hadn't been for her, maybe he would have gotten people to listen to him on his own. He'd still be alive, never having cracked from the revelation that magic was involved in his success. He'd have spared the rest of the family. Seething with anger at her own foolishness, Kyouko gobbled down the rest of the apple and, despite herself, muttered a prayer.

"Please, Lord, forgive me," she said, just as she had once done while in the church. "Forgive me for what I did to my family."

Even as she prayed, she couldn't see why God, if He existed, would forgive her. She was a thief, after all. A thief, a sinner, unrepentent for all but one wrongdoing - stealing away her father's self-respect, his faith in his cause, and even his life.

Some sins simply couldn't be forgiven.