The Box

Chapter 1

She was shocked at her own reaction as she stared down at the front page of the tabloid that screamed the recent night's events. No, there was nothing there about her, but there was plenty about him and his little escapades. She wanted to feel indignant. She wanted to feel pure hatred and the comforting feelings of vengeance, but there was nothing. She felt hollow and numb. No one, but her own mother had ever been able to elicit such a response from her and her manager was at a loss as he stared at the soulless being that sat before him.

Yashiro was at a loss. He knew there must be something that Kyoko had felt for Ren as a friend, but he had never expected a completely closed off Kyoko when he saw the photo collage of Ren's scandal sitting in front of her. She was like an empty soulless doll, with unnoticed tears streaming down her cheeks.

He tapped her on the shoulder, no reaction. He sighed. So this was it. She really did have feelings for him. He helped her up by her arm and proceeded to guide her from the LoveME room. He was going to take her somewhere and attempt to get her to vent. He didn't need her like this. She needed to release all of the pent up emotion that was causing this in her.

Halfway to the car, with Kyoko in tow, his phone rang with a familiar tone. He stopped and answered it. "What is it Ren?" He answered coldly.

Ren was taken aback by his manager's tone and hesitantly questioned him. "Where are you? Weren't you coming with me to the shoot today?"

Yashiro gritted his teeth and bit back the lecture that perched precariously on his tongue. "To answer your first question: I'm with Kyoko-chan today and to answer your second... I'm cleaning up your mess!" He answered shortly and quickly ending the call, leaving his male charge confused.

Less than an hour later, would find Yukihito Yashiro guiding his female charge to a remote location to encourage her to set free all of her pent up emotion, and "let it all out". He felt that she needed this. He had noticed that ever since the encounter with Morizumi and her manager, Ren's coldness and bad reaction to her meeting with Sho a few weeks ago, Kyoko had been holding everything in, and it was taking its toll on her.

He guided her to a small clearing in the large forest-like park. He gave her shoulders a small squeeze and whispered in her ear. "Let it go, Kyoko-chan. You need this. Just scream, cry, do what you feel you need to do and when you need me, I'll be here." He instructed, gently patted her shoulder, and stepped back to let her have her space.

Yashiro was rendered speechless when her scream literally knocked him to his back, and before his very eyes, she was engulfed in a strange blue-black circle of flames. He watched in horror as his charge's tears fell freely, trailing down in streams of what could only be described as blood. As a cold wind whipped around her, he watched while her skin paled and her short, light-auburn hair lengthened on its own and darkened to a raven black. Her clothing became tattered and worn as if she had been there for many years wearing them. The ground beneath her became darkened and diseased, while the trees around them blackened and lost all foliage. At those private moments, her pain was felt. Her pain was his. How could anyone have been so blind to how she had been suffering? He questioned as the images from her mind, poured into his freely. It was so obvious if you actually looked. He thought with tears behind his eyes.

He sighed and carefully approached her, trying to find a way into the flames, without being harmed himself. Oddly enough, they had parted for him as he stepped closer to her and pulled her into his arms from behind. "Shh... It's okay, Kyoko-chan." He pulled her in closely and murmured as one would a distressed child. "Let it all out." He told her as they both fell to the ground and he rocked her comfortingly, back and forth, cradling her closely in his arms.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She sobbed repeatedly. "I'm sorry, I'm not good enough. I-I can't do this anymore Yashiro-san. It just hurts too much. I'm tired of lying to myself. I just can't do this anymore." She whimpered as he caressed her hair, and held her tightly.

He looked up and around at the devastation around them. A perfect circle of death and destruction. Fallen, decayed trees. Glowing, blue poisonous mushrooms, sprouting from blackened, barren soil, and the decayed corpses of fallen birds and other small animals dotted the secluded clearing.

Yashiro cleared his throat as he sat with the ornately decorated little chest sitting in his lap, with his hands resting on it protectively.

Lory looked at him in disbelief. "They haven't released any of the details of the cause of the dead-spot in Arisugawa Park. How do you know about any of this?"

Yukihito sighed and focused his gaze on the small box. "I was there with Kyoko-chan, Sir. I took her there so that she could let off some steam when she saw the photos." With this statement, he pulled his phone from his pocket after donning a pair of gloves, navigated to his photos and handed the device to his boss.

Lory gasped at the devastation. "W-What happened?"

Yashiro shook his head sadly. "She was in love with him, Sir." He caressed the small box again.

Lory's brow furrowed. "What do you mean, was?" Of course Lory knew about how she felt for Ren, but to hear of it in past tense, alarmed him.

Yashiro carefully opened the small box to reveal a blackened, human heart-shaped, lump of stone that seemed to have glowing red cracks in it. Occasionally it would weakly pulse. "She told me to destroy it. That she didn't need it anymore. It was causing her too much pain. That... with it..." He sobbed quietly. "With it, she couldn't live with the pain. She wanted to die." He paused and a horrifying memory flitted across his face. "Sh-She ripped it from her own body, still beating. It was still beating when she handed it to me with a smile, Takarada-san! She fucking handed me her still-beating heart! She stood up like nothing ever happened, and walked back to the car. I swear to Kami, Sir... I've never been so terrified and heart-broken in my entire life. I watched a sweet angelic Kyoko-chan, turn into something inhuman and walk away from it as if nothing had ever happened!" He closed up the silk lined box and locked it once again. "I honestly don't know what to do. Who do I give this to? I don't want it destroyed like she told me to, and Kami knows Ren certainly isn't capable of caring for it. I don't know how to either. What should I do?"

Lory sat back in his seat in shock. "Are you telling me, that she tore her own heart from her body, and gave it to you? To you, to destroy?"

Yashiro nodded. "Yes, Sir." He whispered.

"Did she say why she didn't do so herself?" Lory was curious. If she had the incentive and means to do something like that, why not finish the job?

Yashiro sighed. "After she removed it Sir, that's when everything changed. She just didn't care anymore. Said she didn't need it."

Lory looked at him in deep thought. "So what we saw this morning, that was her?"

Yashiro nodded solemnly. "What do we do Sir?"

For the first time in a very long time, Lory had no idea what to say. He was just too shocked and horrified at this new development.

"Excuse me if I may, Takarada-sama." Ruto emerged from the shadows, and bowed deeply.

Lory looked up at him, a little surprised. Ruto rarely voiced his opinion on anything that he witnessed in the office. He nodded to him.

"Kyoko-sama is a very powerful witch. Without her heart, she will have nothing to control her." Ruto said factually, as if he had seen something like this before.

Lory and Yashiro looked to him inquisitively. "How do you know something like this?"

Ruto shook his head. "I have seen something like this once when I was a boy." He explained to them. They didn't need to know that it was his own sister he had witnessed.

"How do we return it to her? I doubt she'll willingly accept it." Lory asked.

Ruto shook his head. "You cannot. She will not be able to accept it in the condition that it's in at the moment. It is far too damaged." He turned to Yashiro. "Yashiro-sama, you have done rightly by protecting it from her, and from harm. It will need time and great care to heal from those that care deeply for her, those that actually love her. No others will be able to heal it." He told them gravely, briefly remembering the tragic demise of his beloved sister, Zahra.

And there was the conundrum. Were there others that actually loved her enough to repair that kind of damage? Could they actually find a way to turn a witch's stone heart back to supple, caring flesh and who could they possibly be? Ren had obviously proved his ineptitude in the task and Fuwa would probably make things infinitely worse. Her mother denied her existence. He didn't think they could rely on Kuu and Juli, she hadn't heard from Kuu since before Christmas of the prior year. Lory suspected that they couldn't rely on the Fuwas for that matter either, they had come to see her once in the entire almost three years she'd been in Tokyo, and that resulted in an explosive mess that took months for the PR Department to clean up. They were actually the main reason she was receiving hate-mail from Fuwa-san's fans at the moment. Who could they find to help heal her battered heart so that it could be returned to its proper place?