Chapter 1


Something snapped inside of her as she sat quietly listening to Erika, Kimiko, and Yashiro talking about the circumstances. Fear mixed with anger, anger mixed with pure hatred and complete despair in the knowledge that she meant nothing to the man she had come to love. It had all welled up inside of her and in a sudden burst of energy that she couldn't contain, she vanished.

"Kyoko-chan?" Yashiro called out confused. None of them saw her leave. He panicked and ran to the railing to look down and find nothing below. He turned to Erika. "Did you see where Kyoko-chan went?" He asked the small group, preoccupied with their own drama.

Erika turned to him. "Wasn't she just over there?"

Kimiko sneered. "She probably couldn't handle it anymore and jumped."

Yashiro shot her a heated glare. "No she did not! What did you drug her with? Maybe that has something to do with it."

Kimiko and her manager suddenly paled and clammed up.

Erika's eyes went wide as she rewound the footage from the most recent event. "Sh-She's gone!"

"I know that. That's why I asked if you saw where she went." Yashiro said worriedly.

"No Yashiro-san, you don't understand. She vanished into thin air. She was here and now she's not! Look!" She rewound again and presented her evidence.

Everyone present looked on in shock.

~xoxo~

Kyoko stood in a daze as she listened to the panicky, misty images discussing her disappearance. She looked down at her hands and noticed she was holding two razor-sharp, black blades. Where did those come from? She thought as she glanced at the small group. It was a strange scene. The image where Yashiro had been standing had small, strange, silver creatures holding tightly to his hands. They were grimacing as if in pain or hungry. The next image, the one sitting, had a creature sleeping in her lap. Its limbs were wrapped tightly around her legs like a small sloth-like, blanket, seemingly restricting any movement. The final images had a large, sinister dark, shadowy creature standing between them. It had coiled its limbs tightly around the pair, in what seemed like a vice-like grip. It glanced up at Kyoko with its sickly yellowish-green eyes and flashed the jagged, sharp teeth in its mouth, in a twisted form of a smile.

"What the hell are you?" Kyoko murmured, and the creature hissed at her when it noticed the two blades she carried.

"What the fuck are you?" It gurgled a response. "Not host, not us... Not Silver One." It slithered to her, without releasing its grip on the two shadows. "What do you taste like?" It pondered, and quickly retreated.

"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH OUR MISTRESS!" A collective of voices hissed from behind Kyoko, and sped past her like very large bullets.

Kyoko stood there stunned as she watched the little blue-black creatures coil around the larger creature and immobilize it. The creature hissed and screamed as it attempted to release itself from their grip. "RELEASE ME VERMIN!" It demanded as it bubbled and pulsed.

"Mistress! Your blades, before it harms you and others again. You must destroy it." The smaller creatures instructed, and in a flurry of blades that only Uesugi-dono and Yashiro-san had witnessed, she cut the creature down, removing its hold on the pair and causing it to evaporate into a pile of smoldering ashes.

"W-What happened?" Kyoko fell to the ground roughly on her bum, breathing heavily. In mere moments she found herself wrapped comfortably in the small arms of what she could now identify as her own grudge demons.

"Mistress, you cannot stay here. It's not safe." They warned.

Kyoko snuggled the one next to her cheek. "I really don't know how I got here or how to leave."

They helped her to her feet and guided her to the image with the creatures on his hands. They placed her hand on him and smiled. "Just think about Yashiro-san."

Kyoko did as she was instructed and found that she was now standing behind a very shocked manager. What shocked her even more, was the fact that Kimiko Morizumi and her manager were out cold on the patio. Both looked at each other and the question came simultaneously. "What happened?"


She never told Yashiro or Erika what had happened. She feigned ignorance of the entire ordeal, claiming that she didn't remember anything from that night. The truth being quite the contrary. She honestly didn't know how she had escaped to that other strange plane of existence and she most certainly had no idea what those creatures plaguing her friends were.

It had been several weeks since she had experienced the strange phenomena and she hadn't been back since. She had no clue how to return. She wanted to go back and remove the creatures from Erika and Yashiro-san. She wanted to help them and rid them of the afflictions the monsters were causing in them.

She felt a strange shiver go up her back. "You've changed." He whispered in her ear, standing directly behind her.

She groaned a little inwardly. "What are you doing here Beagle?" She asked a little tiredly. She just didn't have the energy to deal with him, Ren or, Sho lately and she just couldn't force herself to care about their petty scandals and playboy ways. Not with her trying to figure out what had happened.

"I just thought I'd stop by and see how you're doing. It's been awhile since we've seen each other." He gave her a small mischievous smile.

She rolled her eyes at him. "I really don't have time to play your games." She told him and started to walk away.

He grabbed her wrist and saw everything. His eyes went wide in disbelief. "Y-You were there..." He stared at her quietly and loosened his grip on her. "Are you okay? You could have been killed. What were you thinking? How did you even get back?" He questioned the surprised young woman as he pulled her into a tight hug.

She stared at him in shock. "Um..." She grabbed his hand and dragged him to her dressing room, shut the door behind them and forced him to sit on a small loveseat. "What is that place?" She asked as she pulled a folding chair with her and sat in front of him.

He sighed and tried to put the description in terms she would understand. It was something he'd been told as a child. "Well essentially, it's a place where most pure evil comes from. A different plane of existence, if you will. More like it's birthplace. Your demons I suppose, are different. They were born directly from you. I guess that's why they don't feed off of you or, your emotions, but those of others." He mused on the last part, rubbing his chin in deep thought. "I suppose you could say that there are creatures there that cause most of the world's problems. Greed, hatred, envy, jealousy, love, lust, and most of the others."

She sat back in her seat in deep thought of what he'd told her. "Wow... I don't even know how I got there." She confessed.

Reino furrowed his brow. "Do you have time later? Maybe we can go over it and figure out how everything happened." He was genuinely curious. This was not a request to get her to go out with him or to trick her into spending time with him. He had actually heard of this place, and caught a glimpse of it with his grandfather when he was younger.

Kyoko eyed him warily, trying to figure out if he was trying to worm his way into her personal life like he'd done a couple of times before. As far as she could tell at the moment he was being sincere with her, and he'd actually never lied to her before, now that she thought of it. She nodded her head. "I get off work at five... Hmm, I suppose I'll be home around six." Not like I need to worry about what Tsuruga-san thinks anymore. He has Kana-san to worry about. She sighed inwardly at the depressing thoughts.

He looked at her expectantly. "Is there anywhere we can talk without being interrupted, privately?"

She thought for a moment and the only places that came to mind were the Karaoke Box and the Darumaya. The Karaoke Box was still a little too public and it was her and Moko-san's special place. She didn't want to share that with anyone, but her best friends. "I suppose we could meet at my place." She said a little apprehensively.

He furrowed his brow. "I don't have your phone number. What if something comes up and I need to let you know I can't make it?" Yes, now he was being his usual sneaky self, but he was going to get her address. Why not try for the phone number too, and no, he hadn't been the one harassing her in the past as she had initially thought.

"Oh! I suppose you're right." She told him while digging through her bag and finally pulling out her LoveME notepad. One might think that Reino's little scheme was working; however, as naive as Kyoko usually is, she was not so clueless to not see through Reino's little deception. Of course she knew what he was up to, but he had been the one person that hadn't mistreated her or tried to flat out deceive her, and make her feel like she was the one at fault or a fool for believing what she was told. Sho, Ren and so many others that had been lying to her for various reasons, and she was just so completely exhausted from it all. She wanted to talk to someone that didn't lie to her, and that she didn't feel the need to lie to. Reino knew her secrets, just from a touch. Sure it was creepy, but it made things so much easier when she had someone that knew the absolute truth of everything about her, without her having to relive every excruciating, miserable detail.

Sho had been stalking her more and more lately, waiting for her at home so often that she was starting to find it really creepy and unsettling, almost afraid to go home. She could hardly wait until he was on tour.

Ren was lying to her, and hiding Corn from her and yes, she was seeing him for what he was now. It almost felt like he'd been purposefully lying to her and making fun of her, using her belief in fairies for his own amusement... for a very long time. She saw through him that night in the park and he never said another word about it. Not to mention the fact, that he was blaming her for the situation with Sho, and had the nerve to try and make her feel guilty where it wasn't her fault. Then there was the fact that he already had someone, and he was acting like a first class playboy.

Hikaru using his band-mates, and their friendship to coax her into little "outings". Finally, lately Koga-san using the excuse of going over the script or, fight choreography to spend extra time with her off set. It was actually getting exhausting and she really needed a break from all of these persistent men. Not that Reino wasn't one of them, but he actually had something relevant to her situation to offer. She would concede and allow him to meet with her at the Darumaya. It wasn't like Taisho and Okami wouldn't be there, and Taisho could be very persuasive when it came to getting rid of her admirers.