My body does a 360 as I smash into the enthusiastically-chiming grandfather clock. I bump my head against the pendulum when I roll onto the floor. When I slowly touch my face, it burns as if people are shoving candles to my face, trying to burn it off. Crap, there's blood on my fingers, I hope glass didn't get stuck in my face, I'm sure I look bad enough with all these zits here.

How am I supposed to fight back when there's no one left to fight for? He said Haruki died, I couldn't save him-I couldn't save Mom either. What's the point of staying alive at this point? I fought through all these different worlds 'cause I always hoped I would find my family and bring us all back home. But I'm an idiot and I deserve to die by the hands of these Heartless and Dori-the one who got me into this mess, the one who opened the black door, the one who saw into my heart and felt the sadness I had, the one who basically kept me captive here, the one who deliberately almost got me killed, and the asshole who knows what happened to my family while I'm laying here being a stupid girl. He's going to tell me what happened to them if I get out of this alive, he swore.


She hasn't been properly prepared. This is a fight Mizuki will lose, why was I foolish enough to think otherwise? I was given a mortal brain to think with but I let my imagination and dreams run rampart She can't die yet, I should force the Heartless to disappear now. From Mizuki's throat, a loud grunt echoes throughout the house as the triumphant cheers continue outside. There are a few scrapes and blotches of blood on her nose and cheeks with some dark remnants of acne, her frizzy hair flattened but tussled when she crashed into my clock. Her eyes are still tense, veins pulsating towards them, and pale as the clouds, does she plan on exacerbating this chaos? "Raaaaaa!" She charges at the time-freezing Heartless and jabs through its glass and jabs its pendulum, causing it to shriek as it fades into purple mist, releasing a heart. The second Heartless freezes time again, ceasing her next attack. Her face is frozen in a furious, determined glare at the monster. The clock Heartless swings its lanky arm, hitting her multiple times and sending her straight for me. I catch her as we slam into the staircase and slump to the floor. My mortal emotions are taking over-I can feel my palms getting drenched in sweat. She shakes her head and angrily shrugs my arms off her shoulders.

"You should-" my suggestion is swallowed by Mizuki's cry of resolve as she lunges for the next Heartless, understanding where its soft spot lies and stabbing its pendulum with her fingers. I'll give her that, she catches on quickly in the heat of battle. The final Heartless stops time just as its comrade turns into a puff of smoke and another crimson heart is released. As it raises its arm to swing Mizuki away, something spectacular happens-something that I could have never have predicted. She breaks out of time's hold on her and faces the last Heartless, repeatedly and rapidly jabbing its pendulum as if the blood of the Byakugan clan has been transfused in her since birth. How her arms move so fervently but leniently; she's getting stronger and quickly. My eternal rival does stand a chance against the forces of time and space but not now. She needs to grow stronger and I need to keep testing her, no matter how much she'll detest me for it but will eventually share the same feelings I have. Sooner than Uncle and I could have assumed, she is absorbing power at an incredible level-she can already break through time's hold on her.

"Hit me now!" she cries out to the faded-away Heartless. Her palms open as she turns around to face me with austere scorn. "What happened to my family? You swore."

"You're-you are stronger than I realized," I gasp in awe. Her quick fist slams me headfirst into the table but I catch myself. I spit out blood and groan while picking myself up. "So much stronger."

"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!" she attempts to hit me again but I push myself out of the way. "Tell me! Tell me what happened! Tell me what happened!" she swings clumsily as I swiftly move out of the way. "Just tell me what happened to them! You swore-TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!" when she essays a jab at me I hear her sigh quietly and collapse to the floor in front of my feet. I have confidence in our future Mizuki, you're almost ready.

I bend down to stroke her hair and she softly moans. You'll learn to want me.


A crowd of black blurs surround me, they're Heartless, all of them. I throw my hands at them, keeping them away, I feel them touching me. These things-these evil Heartless. "Get away from me."

"…axe….sss…urt…"

"You touch me you die!" They press harder down on my arms, stopping me from attacking. "Let me go or else I'll-!" The blurs become more defined-I can see now, they're faces, middle-aged human faces. I can't recognize anyone but they look genuinely concerned for me. All at once they're talking to me, asking me questions about the mess in the house and the "Professor". "He swore to tell me the truth, where is he?" I demand groggily.

"He disappeared," answers a man behind the circle of concerned strangers. "The Professor is gone." Of course he's gone, why would he honor his swear? That lying douchebag-are all boys like this? I'm starting to lose hope in the opposite sex.

"What's going on?" A million people answer me at once. "One at a time!"

"Miranda heard a lot of noise when she passed by the Professor's home and she knocked on the door but nobody answered. She got me to come over and I banged on the door but no one opened. Falan got worried with all the screaming we heard and the broken window and he broke the door down and you were-"

"-passed out like a drunk at a club," Miranda says softly as if I'm experiencing a hangover, upside from my view. "What happened in here?"

"Dori. He-" it occurs to me that no one in this group would believe me. They revere Dori, everyone loves him here-they call him the Professor because he's so freakin' smart and nice to all them and they all admire him for his knowledge. If I say that he summoned Heartless and tried to kill me, who the hell is going to believe that their talented, generous, omniscient teacher would do that to a foreigner? "I don't remember."

"Somebody get some hydrogen peroxide and cotton balls," orders a grey-bearded man kneeling beside me to another dude in the circle. "Wait, you're saying you don't remember anything?"

"I just remember D-Professor making me oatmeal and then everything goes black." Two women, forty-five and fifty years old, apply the alcohol-drenched cotton ball to my face, forcing me to bite down on my lip so that I don't scream. I inhale sharply, closing my eyes as the alcohol stings different spots on my face.

"So you don't remember a thing?" Miranda asks, putting Band-Aids on my face. I can recognize her even though her true, aged face has been restored 'cuz of the destruction of the barrier. "What about Professor? Where did he go, did something happen to him?"

"How many times do I have to say it? Everything's black and fuzzy."

' ' '

"I'm impressed Mizuki. Here's your payment for eradicating the curse," Erick places the fat envelope on the desk with my name on it. "You came back with scrapes and bruises, how are you feeling?"

"Ok," I lie as I put the fat envelope in my pocket. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You can take a day off tomorrow you want."

"I'm ok, just dandy," I sarcastically answer as I look away from his burdening dark eyes. There's nothing I want to talk about with him, so don't say a damn word Mizuki. I don't want to get him of all people involved in my own mess, he doesn't really care about any of my wellbeing, he sees me as a source of work and nothing more. So I'm not gonna stand here and bawl and expect him to provide me with any solace.

"You don't look fine. Did something happen to you on the mission?" persist Erick calmly. I squeeze my eyelids shut, taking in a deep breath to stop my bottom lip from shaking and the tears from falling. If I cry, I'll make a fool out of myself in front of Erick and that's not what I want to do. But why do I care at this point? The family I thought was within my reach is gone, I should've listened to my dad. He knew that there was no point in searching for them but I didn't get the memo and now I don't know why I bothered fighting for so long. Maybe I should just end it all, my purpose in living has gone up in smoke, just like everything else. "I strongly suggest that you take the day off tomorrow. You don't look too well."

"I'm fine," I insist. "Don't treat me like I'm some little kid who doesn't know any better 'cuz I do!" Or maybe I don't know any better and I won't ever return to this musty office ever again. Maybe I'll meet my brother tonight-I won't ever have to see Erick, Risa, or blue-haired Mia again. Only my family will be waiting for me tonight.

"I know that look on your face, hmm, all too well. I didn't think you were the kind of person," I storm towards the door as my eyes sting, "who would give up so easily." As I squeeze the doorknob, I take in a deep breath and freeze. He doesn't know, why would he know? I didn't tell him, did I? "I had the same look on my face years ago when I ended up here. I figured that it would be easy to drown myself and escape it all. But on the brink of madness I stopped myself."

"Why?" I surprise myself by asking, looking at him through my peripheral vision. He shrugs, leaning back.

"I wanted to live despite everything. I don't really know, but it's something that you and Mia and Risa have." I face him completely, no longer caring about the warm tears streaming down my face. "You three still have hope you'll get home and maybe I do too, deep down in the deepest pits of my heart. I've met all kinds people who have come from different worlds who gave up too quickly-you don't seem like the type who would."

"B-but everyone's dead, everyone died," I whimper, slumping against the wall. "There's no point anymore." I cover my eyes while I snivel humiliatingly. "There's no point."

"Who died? Mia, Risa?"

"Not them."

"Who? Do you want to tell me?" I shake my head but after two minutes of bawling and sniffling, I explain what happened to my mom and my brother eleven years ago, me moving away from my main home, and my miserable life in Tokyo. I also explain Dori bringing my world down by opening the black door and being the cause of all of my problems and what he told me about my missing family members. "And you believe him so willingly why?"

"He's really powerful and smart, of course he's telling the truth," I snap as I squeeze my aching temple, my head pounding from all the crying. "He wouldn't lie about that."

"Who's to say he isn't lying about all that?"

"He would-would he? I don't know-"

"Exactly. It's that uncertainty that should stop you from giving up, right? It's the uncertainty of going back home and remaining here that keeps me living and doing this job. How bout it?" After wiping all kinds of liquid off my face, I ponder what he said in silence for five minutes. Then he waves me off casually. "Have a nice night." When I leave, I cross my arms and see my misty breath as I walk among the citizens of Metropolis. Dori lied about his name and other stuff, why wouldn't he lie about this information? Boys are all jerks and liars anyway, what should I believe then? Rubbing my arms, I stop at the cross light as the red hand glares at me and traffic continues. Do I continue?

I get back to the hotel, immediately going into the bathroom to wash my pimple-covered face. All this stress is making me break out, I don't need any of this. In the mirror, I stare at the bathtub, imagining myself drowning in it, legs thrashing around as I gasp desperately for breath. It would be an ugly scene in here, the workers seeing my dead body in the bathtub, cleaning down the tub and sanitizing it and stuff. "It's stupid," I sigh, lowering my head and drying my face but then staring at the tub again, realizing that my only escape from everything here is less than three feet away from me. All I have to do is turn the handle, plug up the water and stick my head in, it's that simple. Haruki might be waiting for me.

J.G.P