A/N: Pardon the long disappearance, the next chapter of Gifted is ready at last! Also, the first song I have used is Change Me by Meiko, and World is Mine is sung by Hatsune Miku.

To X-42S, Bring it on! Battle Sister Chocolat will guard whatever you throw at me! Well, Misaki has her powers thanks to her brilliant brain, that is the only answer I have for that…

To StattStatt, always great to hear from you, my friend! I am glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you will enjoy this one!

To Blackwing-Darkraven, I'm glad to hear that you like this story! I am sorry, but your Fragments from Cray requests will have to wait a little, I am really busy…

On with the story~

Haruka

Kourin's POV

When Misaki wakes, she is embarrassed to find out that her head is resting in my lap and that I have been stroking her hair for the better part of three hours. After assuring her that it is alright and that I honestly had rather enjoyed myself, my darn phone rings, the special ringtone I reserved for my manager. I answer it immediately, not really bothered that Misaki can easily eavesdrop, as I have nothing in particular to hide from her, and something tells me that it is pointless trying to conceal things from her anyway.

"Kourin-chan, it's me, Kazuya!" as expected, my manager's annoying voice greets my ears, and I growl at him in response. Chuckling, he says, "Sorry to disturb you on your day off, but it's about your big concert tomorrow. You do remember that we will be rehearsing from four in the afternoon?"

With a sigh, I respond, "I'm not that forgetful, Kazuya. The concert's the only reason I've got a day off today." Kazuya chuckles and tells me in an overly cheerful voice to rest well and take care of myself so that I will be in top form tomorrow. I simply roll my eyes and hang up on him; I am not interested in dealing with him today, nor any day for that matter. He always enjoys getting on my nerves, testing my patience, and generally making me as annoyed as possible.

I get up and stretch, meeting my new friend's quizzical gaze and explaining to her that I intend to rehearse a few of the songs I will be performing tomorrow just to ensure I have everything memorized. She still looks confused, as if she cannot comprehend why a person would not be able to remember something, but happily accepts my invitation to join me in the studio and lend a helping hand.

After briefly teaching Misaki how to operate the expensive and annoyingly complicated stereo, I signal her to turn it on and to blast the music as loudly as possible so I can accustom my ears to the deafening levels of sound I will definitely have to endure tomorrow. The lavender haired girl cringes at the volume, I stick out my tongue at her teasingly and then raise my voice to sing, my body already settling into the steps of the dance. This is one of the few public songs I have that contain some of my feelings, and I am careful to sing lightheartedly so my fans will not think too much about it.

"Nani ga dou toka wakaranai no yo, doushite kana… Umaku iezu 'hitori bocchi ne', mawari mitemo su doori. Dareka watashi wo tasukete hoshii, onegai…" I don't know anything and everything, and I wonder why… Aptly saying 'I'm alone, hey?', looking at those passing by in a cycle. I wish that someone would save me, please…

The lavender haired beauty across the room furrows her brows slightly, obviously not tricked by the lighthearted tune of the song and my false smiles. Watching me carefully, her gaze burns into my skin, her eyes seem to be committing every inch of me into her memory. Studying me, those crystal blue eyes bore into me, they seem to be pulling aside my masks and finding the true me. Blushing now, I continue singing and dancing, wishing that I picked a less… sexy dance to rehearse. My heart is thumping wildly in my chest, my throat is dry and the damn gymnastics class for butterflies is back on in my stomach.

When I finish the number and end with a flourish, Misaki applauds with a genuine smile on her face; it makes her look extremely young, fragile and harmless, a sweet girl who will never harm anyone. Thanking her sheepishly, I ask her to put on the next track I need to rehearse, one of the songs with a tricky dance number that tangles my feet in knots, World is Mine. The bridge nearly always trips me up, especially when I am in my usual white knee-high heels, and I have to get it perfected to save myself an embarrassing accident tomorrow evening. It surprises me that Misaki has already gotten the hang of my tricky stereo system; it took me a few weeks to grow accustomed to operating it. Also, she seems to have memorized all my dance steps, reminding me when I miss any in a cool, confident voice.

When I finish, the day has passed and it is already one in the afternoon; I am exhausted and sweaty but satisfied with my performance. I managed not to trip up at all in all my rehearsals of the World is Mine dance today, which is a first, and I am practically glowing with the achievement. I have managed to achieve all the high notes and spoiled, rich-girl screams, which I am very proud of, it always strains my voice to sing World is Mine and the lyrics do not feel like me. I mean… "number one princess in the world"? The song makes me sound selfish, self-centered and spoiled, which reminds me an awful lot of Rekka, whom I loathe. Still, it is a nice enough song and my fans love it, so why not sing it?

Walking over to the spellbound Misaki, I tap her on the shoulder and ask shyly, "W-would you like t-to come to my concert tomorrow? I-I can pull a few strings and get you a VIP ticket free-of-charge, i-if you want..." Why am I so darn nervous...? Is it because I am talking to an absolutely gorgeous young woman whom I definitely admire quite a fair bit?

A thoughtful look crosses the lavender haired beauty's features and she asks, an edge of nervousness in her voice, "Will there be many people?" I nod, wondering what it is that unnerves her, and she responds with a light, almost imperceptible shudder. I realize then that Misaki must be more antisocial than I am, and the thought of squeezing with a couple hundred people in an outdoor concert venue must be very unappealing.

"I'll get you a nice seat in the emptiest VIP section I can find, so please come," I beg, pulling the puppy-dog eyes for the first time in my life. I have no idea why, but I really want Misaki to be there tomorrow, it will mean the world to me. Misaki looks momentarily stunned, her crystal blue eyes widening, and then she smiles and agrees, ruffling my hair.

"I'm looking forward to it," she says, tilting her head to one side and smiling angelically. I wonder once again what is it that she hides in the darkness that enshrouds her; what can such a sweet and beautiful girl be concealing from the world? She seems more innocent and much nicer than Rekka!

Shaking the thought away, I declare shower time and allow Misaki free reign of my wardrobe; as expected, she steers clear of my girly outfits and picks a pair of skinny jeans and a black hoodie. They might be a little tight on her, but it will have to do as she has nothing else to wear; it seems she has no home where she can return to and get clothing from. I guide her to one of the many bathrooms in my way-too-huge mansion and then head off to my own room to shower, forcing away inappropriate thoughts of Misaki in various states of undress as I wash the sweat from the rehearsal off my body.

After the shower, I sit drying my hair with one hand and holding the house phone with the other, shouting into the receiver that I will not go home and I will not give up my musical career to start one in medicine or law. It is just a phase, Kourin, my father urges me, you cannot make a living out of… creativity. He says the last word as if he were saying "cancer", it galls me to the core. Pop stars, actors, actresses, authors, they are among the highest paid people in the world, and they are all creative! Who says creativity cannot help you earn a living? All the other pop stars I know are million or billionaires, I am already a millionaire myself! Authors can rake in profits with a notepad, a pen and their imaginations, actors and actresses rake in the cash by pretending to be who they are not... creative jobs can earn the talented more than enough money to last a lifetime, and they do not need to face the daily negativity all doctors and lawyers do! Creative jobs are the best as they give form to brand new things!

"Leave me alone!" with that, I slam the phone down and disconnect it to prevent my father from calling, turning off my family cellphone as well. With an annoyed huff, I run my hand through my almost completely dry hair and decide to go and look for Misaki, in case she has gotten lost somewhere in this immense mansion.

Misaki's POV

After the shower, I ask Kourin if she has a pair of scissors for me to cut my hair. Confused, she says she can recommend me a hairdresser and will take care of everything for me; I am relieved as I want my hairstyle changed as soon as possible. All records of me have been destroyed along with most of the scientists who knew me, so the government agents will be thrown off as long as I no longer fit the description they have been given. They do not think me intelligent enough to change my clothes and hairstyle; how dare they look down on me so? Well, it is to my advantage that they think me a primitive and unintelligent being without the capacity to adapt, I should be able to live right under their noses just by cutting my hair short.

The hairdresser cannot believe that I wish to chop off my long, natural lavender hair, but I assure her that I will regret nothing and she finally, hesitantly, gets on her way. In a better disguise than this morning, with a black wig and a thick, unflattering leather jacket, Kourin watches quietly in a corner as layers of my hair are sheared short, down to the base of my neck. The hairdresser keeps trying to chat with us, but neither of us really bother to respond to her nor laugh at her jokes, which rather unnerves her. Like a cat on hot bricks, she shifts around me constantly, talking in a high-pitched and nervous voice to thin air. She is saying absolutely anything that comes to her mind, and it honestly sounds rather ridiculous at times.

I silently memorize the process of her systematically cutting my hair, even if I do not wish to commit it to memory, I still will. I am unable to forget anything, and it is both a blessing and the world's most painful curse, for I can never forget and move on. All my pain, I have memorized it perfectly and it resurfaces at times, refusing to fade no matter how much I try to make myself forget. I long to burn the parts of my brain that store these terrible memories, but I am smart enough to know that doing that would be more or less suicide.

"Well, I have to say you look very beautiful with both long and short hair," the hairdresser announces when she has finished her work, "Don't you think so, miss?" She turns to address Kourin, who nods with a genuine smile and walks over to run her hands through my now short hair.

"You look really good," she tells me, a slight blush suffusing her cheeks, and I thank her while eagerly committing that image of her to memory. Even in that black wig and shapeless jacket, Kourin looks breathtakingly beautiful, a flower that can never be concealed no matter how many layers they place over it.

Kourin deals with the money that the hairdresser asks for and then guides me out of the store, laying low in the shadows to avoid any chances of being recognized. Together, we head back up the street to her mansion, and almost make it back without incident. However, we bump into that boy with the V-shaped hairdo just down the road from her house, and he leaps at her with a loud scream of her name. His shouting and flailing about attracts attention, and bystanders are all staring at him with quizzical looks on their faces.

Fans begin to race over in all directions, flooding Kourin and reaching out to touch her. The weird boy has pulled her wig off, and her lovely blonde hair flows gracefully down her back. Those fans are vying to touch it, trying to pull it out in clumps for keepsakes or something. Others are tugging at her jacket, tearing off strips of the dark leather, and others are ripping at her pale blue skinny jeans. A few of them manage to pull out a handful of brilliant yellow hair rather roughly, making Kourin cry out in pain. The sound reverberates through my bones; it knocks on the door of a certain vault of my memories, awakening what I have been trying hard to forget.

More screams of pain fill my ears, but they are not Kourin's, they belong to children who no longer live in this world. They belong to the dark and hopeless time of my past, and they consume my present with a frightening ferocity. My heart twists, and from deep within me, my instinct claws to the surface, seizing control of my body. Power flows, unrestrained, in an outward spiral from my body, throwing all the fans away from Kourin and down the street, knocking them all off their feet with the force of a bomb blast.

"Leave her alone," I growl slowly, enunciating each word carefully; my eyes are definitely a glowing, living scarlet right now. My short hair is whipping in a fierce wind that has picked up around me, and a huge telekinetic forcefield domes over us, shimmering slightly in the light. The strength of my telekinesis affects even the sunlight, which is starting to bend around the forcefield and making it glow even brighter.

In terror, all those annoying fans flee, save for the weird boy that I end up knocking out cold with a simple glance in his direction. A wall of telekinetic force slams into him like a truck, flinging him across the street headfirst. Back in the mansion, I finally calm down and my instinct bottles itself back up, allowing my eyes to return to their normal color and my brain to return to its normal state of activity.

"M-Misaki…?" Kourin asks softly, looking up at me with a little fear in her eyes, "What was… that…?" Oh boy... here come the consequences of my actions. I may not be able to stay here any longer, I may not be able to see the beautiful, alluring Kourin any longer...

I gulp and take a deep breath, wondering how I am supposed to explain it to her. I do not wish to lie to her nor tamper with her memories, I feel as if I owe her the truth. "Well… I'm not exactly… human, you see…" Oh come on, brain, you are supposedly more intelligent than any human being can ever dream to be, and that is all you can come up with? I was hoping to say something that sounds a little better than that…

Kourin nods expectantly and I continue, with a little difficulty, "I have an overly developed brain, so… I have some telekinetic powers." I keep the fire and wind a secret for now, as my control over them does not seem to have a scientific explanation just yet, and probably will never have as the scientists are already six feet under. I saw to that personally, and made sure that on Judgment Day, there would be a lot of trouble putting together what became of their bodies after I was through with them.

She nods again, trying to absorb everything that I have just told her. Her mind is swirling with fear and confusion, though there is something warmer and deeper there that I cannot identify. "It scares me a little," she says softly, and my heart drops, "However, I… I trust you, Misaki. You will not hurt me, I just know that." Before I can open my mouth to thank her, she continues, "You have definitely suffered more than I have, and I want to help you. Please, do not keep anything from me, okay?"

Gratitude wells in my chest as I wrap my arms around her, pulling the blonde as close as physically possible, "Thank you so much, Kourin. I will try my best." She blushes, I can feel the warmth of her cheeks against my ear; I smile and snuggle closer to her, glad to feel that she does the same. I love the feeling of her body pressed up against my own, and I am more than willing to commit the sensation to memory, burning it into my brain.

"Take your time, Misaki, I know that trust needs time to build," she mumbles softly, her arms wrapping around my back and one hand cupping the back of my head tenderly. It is my turn to blush at the intimate contact; I have never felt something so warm in my entire life. "I will wait for as long as it takes, and I will not leave you."

Kourin is willing to accept me as who I am, she is willing to wait to hear my story; I have finally found myself a safe haven and a trustworthy angel whom with I can spend the rest of my life. The gaping hole deep in my chest is slowly being filled with a warm, bubbly feeling, unlike the venomous and vehement sludge of vengeance and hatred that used to fester there. At last, I have found that which I have been desperately seeking.

At last... my life is worth living...

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I've been having writer's block for certain pairings and my exams are just around the corner. I might be very inactive for the next two months or so, I apologize for it in advance! I will try my best to make it up to you guys after my major exams have passed!

Reviews will be greatly appreciated.

Haruka