"Ladies and gentleman! Boys and girls! Come one, come all to see the magnificent, mysterious and marvellously magical styling's of The Sister's Two!"

The curious crowd smiled warmly at the six year old dressed in a frilly ensemble gazing lovingly up at the top-hat toting teen standing on a wide fountain ledge – a makeshift stage. Most of them were probably humouring the duo, thinking that two girls crowing over the noisy pier were nothing more than attention seekers.

The elder teen smirked as she nodded towards her younger sister who beamed a toothy grin in reply, a front tooth missing. It was a busy summer night on the amusement park pier and she had managed to snag the attention of quite a few tourists with her booming speech.

The twinkling lights, chiming bells, laughter and smell of candy floss added to the excited atmosphere. She cleared her throat with an overly exaggerated air of professionalism, making a few people chuckle.

"For our first trick of the night I'll need a few of you lovely people to volunteer a bit of loose change! Please hand them to my enigmatic and enthusiastic assistant Hana-chan!"

Brown curls bounced through the crowd along with chirps of 'Arigato!' and 'aww' by Hana and the steadily growing crowd respectively. A moment later Hana was back at her sister's side, tiny fists full of a smattering of differently valued yen coins.

The teen turned towards the nearest person, a middle-aged man holding his young son's hand, and smiled at him.

"Good sir, would you mind helping me?" He nodded. She gestured to the coins Hana was laying on the stone ledge. "Please stack them as high as you can for me."

Wordlessly the man did as he was asked, the crowd curious to see where this was going. As the last coin was stacked into a pile almost three inches tall, she criticized it, finger to her chin.

"Not bad, not bad. What would you say if I told you I can take the same amount of coins and make a stack taller than yours?"

The man shrugged. "I'd say it's impossible."

"Ah! A non-believer! Hana-chan, Code Red!"

The six year old rushed over with an oddly serious look on her face, dress and hair bouncing in regular intervals as she whipped out a lollypop from a small pocket stitched into her dress seam. She shoved it into the man's hand and gave it a comforting pat.

"There, there mister. It's gonna be 'lright!"

The teen smiled down at her imouto who looked more than pleased with herself. She was so proud of the girl.

"Thank you, Hana-chan. Now everybody, watch… the magic!"

She theatrically waved her hands in front of the stack of coins. It did nothing but it looked cool. The coin on top of the pile twitched and a few people leaned in to feed their curiosity. It stood on end, spinning slightly. When the second coin joined, its thin ridge balancing the coin on top of it perfectly the crowd began to murmur. Like a rising tower of blocks the coins quivered and began to stack, end over end, on top of one another, the teen making sure to keep her hands moving to give off the illusion of magic.

The last coin snapped into place, the final spinning thread of coins over two feet tall. They remained upright, spinning elegantly like a coiled snake as the crowd awed at the teens' talents.

With a snap of her fingers the coins collapsed back into a perfect flat pile and the crowd clapped. Both sisters bowed, big grins on their faces.

"Thank you! Thank you! Now for my next tr-"

"Hey! You! Stop what you're doing!"

Hana's eyes went wide as her older sister snatched her hand. A pair of security guards was shoving their way through the crowd to try and stop the illegal hustlers.

"I'm sorry but that's all for tonight folks! Remember to spoil your kids and let them eat junk food 'til they puke! Later!"

The teen pulled her young sister onto her back, Hana laughing gaily as her sister splashed through the shallow fountain to the other side free of the crowd. She glanced back to see the two guards dispersing the crowd and about to give chase.

Her sister snapped her fingers and the soft spray from the fountain sparked and shimmered with all the spectral colours, the faint scent of a rainstorm filling the balmy summer air. Hana laughed harder as the guards twitched as their bodies were shocked with static electricity as the mist covered them, making them twitch uncontrollably.

Her sister ran, leaving behind wet footprints that would soon evaporate.

"Did you get it all, Hana-chan?" her sister asked.

In response she wiggled, the distinct sound of coins, money clips, bracelets and watches hidden in her dress seams making a delightful twinkling chime. They had managed to haul in way more than the handful of yen from the coin trick, albeit with a five-finger discount.

"Haha! Well done, Hana-chan! How about we get some pizza tonight to celebrate an impressive sold out performance?"

Hana's reply was a broader grin.


Anna watched the dream sequence from afar, unnoticed by the owner.

It was a scene that was filled with happiness but she could feel the bone deep sadness and disorientation beneath the surface like the woman didn't know which way was up anymore. She heard the last trickles of laughter fade and the dream began to dissipate, Anna's consciousness falling back towards her own body.

In the darkness of her own room, curled beside her recently reunited Aunt Honami, Anna clutched a small hand to her chest directly over her heart.

When she connected with the Red King in his dream there was an animalistic air about it, the dream-Shizume City having been reduced to nothing but ash and broken buildings by loss of control of his inner rage but she had also somehow felt safe; an ingrained knowledge that despite the fire, Mikoto would protect the ones he cared for with all his strength.

But the woman's…

It made her heart ache like nothing else before.


Someone was next to her.

She had gone through sixteen months with no ability or strength to open her eyes to confirm so she relied on her instincts and currently they were screaming too damn close!

Her next clue that she was indeed correct was the sounds of people talking in hushed whispers and the touch of something icy cold on her forehead.

She physically – automatically – flinched away, memories lost amongst the haze of pain resurfacing. She felt a spark erupt outwards and a pained gasp, the cloth dotting her forehead ending up on the floor with a squelch.

Her body ached and she huddled further down into whatever softness she was cocooned in, trying to get warm. She ignored her chattering teeth.

She tried to focus on the voices, to find out who they were and where she was but the words reached her ears disjointedly, forcing her to have to guess the direction of conversation. She knew it was about her, but was it positive or negative?

"-ou okay, Honam-"

"Fine! She didn't mean t-"

"-'s a Strain, right Tatar-"

"-to wear rubber gloves so you don't get zapped agai-"

Her body gave a violent shuddering jerk, making her moan in pain. She cracked open bleary eyes and four human-esque blobs appeared in her field of vision. The closest was a woman wearing what she thought might have been a soft smile. The film over her eyes was making it hard to tell.

The woman fussed over the blankets weighing her down, tucking them more firmly around her chilled body. "Easy now," the woman soothed, her voice soft and lilting. It made her relax despite herself. "You've got a pretty bad fever but it looks like it's going to break soon. Would you like some water?"

She opened her mouth to reply 'please,' only to find her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.

The action got her reply across, however, because not a moment later a soft rim of a glass was touching her lips.

She drank slowly, not wanting to upset her stomach after months of nothing but liquid food. She was hydrated through an IV.

It was something so simple; drinking water, but to her it was such a beautiful moment she felt like crying.

All too soon the water was gone and someone entered the room, a shade of horrid yellow in their hands; rubber gloves.

The woman took them without a word and slipped them on, going back to her ministrations of helping a stranger, dotting her forehead with a fresh, cool cloth.

For a long while the only sound was that of broken, sputtered breaths and chattering teeth.

"My name is Honami Kushina. What's yours?" the woman said suddenly.

Had she been more lucid and not soaking up the woman's gentle caress like a child starved of attention she would have remained quiet and distrusting, even for something as simple as her name. As it were, she could at least understand that a total stranger with no previous personal interaction with herself was going out of her way to make her comfortable and nurse her back to health.

She felt as if she owed Honami at least a single word…

"K-K-Kaede. M-my name is-s-s K-Kaede."


Okay, chapter 2. I know it's short but there will be a little bit of a time-skip-thing for the next chapter. Nothing major, just a fastforwarding to recovery and whatever. If you want you can review, tell me what you think so far and which direction you think this might go. I'm open for any good ideas :) Keep in mind that I accept constructive criticism, but downright insults I freaking hate so please, don't be an ass-hat and insult me or the story or my mother or other stupid stuff like that :)

PS: ... maybe writing this A/N at 1am wasn't such a good idea :S