7-Empress of Empathy, the lover of Satoshi

Steadily and calmly coming down the long grand staircase of Hotel LeGardenie, looking very much like a King coming down the stairs of His Highness's palace, Satoshi stopped at the end of the stair and look back to his fair princess, looking very much like a servant-in-waiting.

The truth is, Satoshi waited beside the lift for Maia to come down, preparing to glare at her as much as he could and bury some self-control in her, and when the lift finally let out an annoying and boring 'DING!', he couldn't be more grateful than to stare into a- who the hell's that?

"Maia?" Satoshi croaked out in surprise. He had expected to encounter a Maia wearing the full gears of jungle tracking, but not this.

Wearing a knee-length white dress and a white ballet flats complete with ribbons around her legs, Maia wore a dark sunglass and kept fidgeting around as if she was nervous. And there's the evident blush on her lovely cheek. Her hair was down and it resumed it's original lovely long dark waves.

"What the hell are you wearing that for?" he started, staring wide eyed at this- this very cute version of Maia. She looked so innocent and…scared and…blushing…could it be that she's shy!

Panic coursing into every vein of blood in her body, Maia stopped fidgeting her body and fidgeted her fingers instead. "It's not my fault that the whole lot of my jungle tracking gears is soaked in water and that there's nothing but this on my table when I got back!"

"What the- wait, you say your jungle tracking stuff is soaked? How did that kind of thing happen anyway?"

"How the hell would I know about it? And it's not just my jungle tracking stuff, my whole wardrobe has disappeared and soaked in the bathtub by the time I came back and nothing but this (gesturing to her current attire) is left! Miss Lee said I should change something since the shirt I wore is dirty with mud."

"Mud? What the- but your clothes are clean the seconds before you go up!"

"Yeah, but apparently somebody took the time to paint mud on the chair that I'm sitting the minute I got up. I had to change."

"It's wonderful of Miss Lee for allowing you to wear that."

Near tears, Maia chocked out, near tears, "It's not a wonder to me! What would the other people say about me when they saw what I wore?"

Seeing Maia pointing to her dress in a disgusted way, Satoshi can't help but to put up a 'I'm thinking' pose and 'scanned' her from top to toe, then toe to top again, then announced his hypothesis, "I could guess what they would say."

Tearing up in embarrassment, Maia held up a hand and said, "Don't. They made me scared."


To Maia's surprise, everyone in her class, excluding Risa of course, commented on her outfit and saying that it looks good on her, but nobody took pity on her as it is the greatest taboo in her life and she would go all out should someone said they pitied her. Risa looked strangely irritated and angry, and there were smokes spotted coming out of her ear.

Miss Lee had excused Maia off the jungle tracking expedition as she had no other appropriate attire and there are no spare ones for her. The way Miss Lee kept staring at each of her students as if studying them for a crime they have done makes Maia think that maybe the way her whole wardrobe that had dropped into the filled bathtub is no accident and that someone had intended to make her lose her face by wearing something different from others. But whatever that person's goal is, it did not reach that person's target as everyone praised Maia for how good she looks in a dress.

Then, when Miss Lee said all of them have 10 more minutes left to wander around the lobby hall, Satoshi chooses to pull Maia back to the stairs and planned to tell her something and a piece of his mind. He didn't like the idea that Maia had nothing left but a dress left to wear. Truth is, he liked the way how well she looked in that dress, but he didn't like the fact that somebody actually did something to her wardrobe that put her into a situation where she would have no choice but to wear that. He shivered at the many future events that could possibly happen to someone like Maia.

Unbeknown to them, somebody followed them.

Once well apart and well away from earshot, Satoshi gave her a piece of his mind.

"Maia, I want you to stay away from a situation where you will be alone by yourself."

Giving him a puzzled look, Maia said to him, "Why should I do that?"

Closing his eyes in exasperation at Maia's naive thoughts, Satoshi told her the reasons. "Because," he pondered on the thought of telling her and keeping it from her, but decided to brush off the latter and braved himself for the outcome. "- you might be a victim of a stalker."

There's that quizzical look again on her face. "Me?" she said, one hand over her chest, "A victim? Of a stalker?"

Nodding slightly, he replied her, "Most likely."

One eyebrow raised above the other. She kept quiet for a while, eyebrow wrinkled together in a thinking mode and pondered over Satoshi's suggestion. "Strange, I was thinking of jealousy from the girls."

Taken aback, he repeated, "Jealousy? Why is that?"

Maia gave him one of her quizzical look. "Seriously, you don't know what's wrong?"

Blinking quizzically at her (to which he could proudly said that she is the one and only person ever to witness this particular expression of his),"Is there something I don't know here?"

"I mean-" she started, then paused in mid-speech. Realizing what he was asking and what actually made him ask that particular question, she stared at him with an expression that made him somehow regret what he had said; awe. "Wait, you don't know this?"

Satoshi gave her the best blank look he could muster up, hoping silently that she would just ignore this as a random question.

Somehow finding this hard to believe, Maia's eyes widened in awe and said confidently, "I actually know about something that you don't know!"

Still (struggling in fact, because Maia's bewildered look appears to be rather amusing to him) maintaining his blank expression, he assured her in monotone, "I'm sure, Maia, that I'll be very excited to learn about it."

Feeling her chest bursting with pride, Maia puffed out her chest (and missed Satoshi's faint blush as he can't help but to caught the lovely swell of her cleavage) and held out a hand to hold him off of any further vocabularies. "Wait, hold on a second then. Let me bask in my moment of glory. *Takes a deep breath, breath out loudly* this is…this is cool! Awesome, really! I feel as if I'm standing on top of a mountain! Is this how you feel all the time?"

Unaware that one of the veins on his forehead actually popped, Satoshi exclaimed in irritation, "Maia!"

Now, according to most of her classmates, Hiwatari is not one to be angry, but one glare from him, which is nicknamed as 'Hiwatari-kun's Level 1 Rage', will froze one to the very ground they stand for a good 5 minutes, while the 'Hiwatari-kun's Level 5 Rage', which is extremely rare that only his comrades in the Azumano Police Department had ever suffered, is so terrifying that they'd rather took a one week worth holiday and endure the reduced salary than going back the day after they've witnessed 'Hiwatari-kun's Level 5 Rage'. The one and only person known to ever survive this atrocious rage of Satoshi's is none other than Saehara Takashi's father, Saehara Taeko, the current Police Inspector, although he did suffer serious cases of shiver in the presence of Supreme Commander Hiwatari(despite him protesting that it's not true).

Startled by the tone in his voice, Maia once again held out her hand to keep in check of Satoshi's anger. "Okay! Okay! Cut that tone out, you'll hurt my ears!"

Satoshi gave her another look, this time it's the eye rolling one.

"Okay! Here goes my victory, Sato-kun," she started, grinning from ear to ear. "Well, apparently, seeing that you're neither feigning innocent nor pretending to be ignorant about it and that you look odd with that look on your face (Satoshi gave himself a quick scan from the corner of his eye upon the reflective black polished marble on the wall), I would take the huge privilege of telling you something that you had missed the entire time you were with me."

"Well, what is it?"

"You know what most of the girls in Azumano High School wants?"

Satoshi gave her a blank look signifying that it's a stupid question. "Yeah, get themselves a boyfriend."

"No. They wanted you to, well; I must apologize beforehand for the future usage of a foul word, but for the lack of better word for those biatches's wishes drives me into using it, and so, fuck them."

Silence prevail.

"E-excuse me?"

Grinning, Maia explained, "In other words, they want you to take them to bed, and with me, Akihiko Maia, the beauty from the land across the sea," swinging her hand in the air in imaginary glory, "-kept hanging around you and ruining their chances of seducing you, and there's the new rumors that says we are lovers, they got angry and, well, let's just put it that their jealousy got the better of them."

Picking up and finally understanding a little of what she mean by 'jealousy', Satoshi said slowly, "So, you mean to say-"

"SATO-KUN~!" Risa screeched loudly in a sickly sweet voice and popped out of nowhere, enveloping Satoshi's waist with her arms, completely failed to spot Maia and Satoshi cringed at her high pitched voice.

"Harada-san," Satoshi exclaimed in a voice as cold as he could master, "what are you doing?" He tried his best to gently pride her arms off his waist, hoping to drive her away, but to no avail. If possible, he felt as if he's suffocating under her dragging weight.

Smiling as sweet and innocent as she could, Risa looked up, pulling off the round-eyed, innocent and naïve cute little girl look that she knew most boys like and would do anything for someone with a face like that, "Ne, Sato-kun~ Let's be partners on this jungle tracking expedition~ I heard that they're bugs and spiders in the jungle, and I'm afraid of them~"

However, she miscalculated something. Hiwatari Satoshi of the Azumano Police Department is no 'most boys'.

Rolling her eyes, Maia said ironically, defending Satoshi fiercely. "Isn't Saehara your partner? And in case your memory fails you, Sato-kun is my partner for any activity involving two or more people."

Frowning hideously, Risa's incredibly thick makeup cracked right in the middle of her frown, which she didn't realize for she was boiling in rage at the- the damn girl standing in between her beloved Satoshi and herself. "What are you anyway?" she accused dangerously, pink-painted fake nails pointing at Maia. "You're just a nuisance little thorn trying to break us up!" quickly resuming her innocent-and-cute tone, she turned her attention towards Satoshi, batting her fake eyelashes at him, "Right Sato-kun~?"

Satoshi resisted the urge to hurl right then and there at the sight of her cracked makeup. If only someone would come in and drag her away-

"Could you please let go of him?" said Maia suddenly in a dangerous tone, her skin turned a strange shade of pure livid; flushing in anger. "He's suffocating under your death of a grip."

"Just what are you anyway!" said Risa, unconsciously repeated what she had said earlier for her lack of offensive terminology. "You're just here for- what? Not even a month and you've dared to grab what's best for me! Sato-kun and I are made for each other, and a slut like you should stay away from us! We're good without you!"

"Harada!" Satoshi come back with an angry reply upon hearing Risa insulted Maia. He had tried biting back his angry feelings for her complete inquisitiveness in his life. To top it off, she had been telling garbage to everyone she met, saying how he loved to see her in pink and how he had lovingly caressed her face, which is a whole load of crap since he had never touched her nor talked to her unless it's urgent or important.

Risa widened her eyes in surprise and let go of Satoshi, purposefully letting her extremely sharp nails run along his wrist, scratching him. Never had anyone dared to raise their voice to her, no, not even her parents or her twin sister, Riku. Now that this Maia had appeared, not only her relationship with Sato-kun wavered, he's spending more time with the girl from across the sea than herself!

"You're raising your voice at me because of her!" Risa said loudly in a heartbroken voice, tears flowing freely from her eyes. "How could you do such a thing to me!"

"I'd do that to anyone who insult innocent bystanders," Satoshi started in a cold voice, "-and I won't hesitate to warn you off either, Harada."

Risa started to cry pitifully, hoping to pull off the sad look that most men would stoop down to anything just to comfort her and offer their shoulders to her, but to her surprise, Satoshi didn't look at her.

His eyes focused entirely onto that girl, Maia, who examined his scratched wrist, where four ugly scratch mark begun to bleed, angrily red.

"I'm fine, Maia," said Satoshi softly, noticing her expression darkening into something akin to cold fury, unconsciously making Risa angrier than she already is. Maia's face was veiled in a cold expression, furious upon the sight of bleeding and swelling scratch mark that Risa gave to Satoshi.

Turning towards Risa, she eyed her coldly and said grimly, "I cannot accept the idea of others hurting my loved ones, and I certainly won't tolerate it if anyone hurt him."

For a while, Risa is petrified. The tone in Maia's voice is plain obvious that she is warning her off, and it's making herself tremble. "You're nothing but an extra thorn in our life, Akihiko Maia!" sobbed Risa, angry and jealous at her for getting all of Satoshi's attention when the person who is supposed to treat his injured wrist is her. "Just leave us alone already! You're ruining our relationship!"

Satoshi had swallowed the unnecessary affection and all the garbage that she had spun after the infamous Phantom Dark Thief dumped her all for the same reason that Satoshi abhorred her; she's too demanding and selfish for her own good. But today, after seeing what she had done to insult Maia; he figured that enough is enough. He can no longer let her misunderstood about the current situation any longer.

"There were never 'us' to begin, Harada. All the time it was just you and your own thoughts misunderstanding the whole situation. I had enough of the lies that you spun to tell everyone about us, and since there were never us, there's no need for me to comfort you."

"Sato-kun-"

"That is not a name you are allowed to call me by," Satoshi snapped back angrily. "Maia is the only person I who is allowed to call me by that name."

"How could you do this to me!" she sobbed out loudly, hoping to steer up something. She loved being the victim, and if the news that she is dumped spread out again, it would be horrible for her reputation as the fairest n Azumano High School.

Just then, Daisuke walked in.

The poor chap had heard Risa sobbing not far from where he stand, and he had decided to check up on her to make sure nothing happens to his girlfriend's sister, and found that Risa was sobbing her heart out on the floor. Satoshi had his wrist held out for Maia to bandage with her handkerchief, and by the looks of it, his injuries were pretty serious since the handkerchief that Maia bound to his wrist is quickly soaked in four long line of blood.

"Hiwatari-kun?" he exclaimed in surprise. "Err…what happened here?" he said awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

The next person bounced in along with Daisuke.

"Hey, Daisuke, you didn't happen to see the younger Harada twins have you?" said Saehara, one hand slung lazily over his best buddies' shoulder.

Daisuke pointed innocently towards the pile of pitiful sobbing; Harada Risa.

Saehara raised one of his eyebrows puzzlingly. The sight of a crying Harada Risa is very common, but the sight of the greatly feared Hiwatari Satoshi staring lovingly at the Maia currently fussing over his bleeding wrist is rare enough. He knew that Risa is giving herself another one-sided-love, and he hadn't bothered to explain to his partner, which is Risa herself, exactly what kind of relationship that Hiwatari Satoshi and Akihiko Maia lead. He thought that she would give up her chase upon the enchanted Hiwatari, but the current situation told another story.

Mercilessly, Saehara fired his question bluntly, "Finally realizing it now, aren't you Harada-san?"

If possible, Risa sobbed even louder, drawing the attention of Miss Lee.

"How could you do this to me!" she started. "After everything I have done to her, you still refused to be my partner and be together with me!" pointing an accusing finger at Maia, she continued, "She's just making you stay here by saying her clothes had been soaked in the bathtub! And why are you wearing my dress!"

Everyone raised their eyebrow. Curious, Maia asked suspiciously, "How did you know my clothes were soaked in the bathtub?"

"You idiot!" she screamed at Maia, who purse her lips curtly, swallowing the insult. "I did it of course! No matter what I did, both of you just seemed to stick together like glue!"

"Harada Risa-san is that true?" said a familiar voice from behind the doors.

"Of course it's true!" said Risa haughtily, forgetting that she is supposed to act as a sobbing victim. Continuing in a higher, angrier pitch, she exclaimed piercingly "What else could I do to humiliate her!"

"I will call your parents, Harada-san, and in the meantime, Saehara-san will stay as your partner throughout the trip, and for the rest of the year."

Preparing to scream her lungs out at the person who dared to threaten her, she caught the familiar back of their teacher in charge, Miss Lee. It was then she realized that Miss Lee is the one who was issuing the order as a teacher in charge. She had stupidly blown her cover and now, she's no longer the victim but the person who stirs the entire unnecessary situation up.

Trying her last stunt, Risa screamed at the teacher in charge, "Then what about Satoshi-kun! He's supposed to come with us to the expedition!"

"He can stay her and protect Akihiko san from jealous schoolgirls."

Maia, to Satoshi's surprise, had her jaw dropped like a gaping fish. She cannot believe that a teacher is allowed to say such a thing, and she think that it's cool. Noticing Satoshi observing her skeptically, she smiled at him and pats his hand like someone consoling a child who just had their ice cream snatched by a big bully.

"Let's get this bandaged shall we, Sato-kun?"


Afterwards, everybody left.

Yes, everybody left, all excluding Satoshi and Maia. Miss Lee's decision had raised several uproars from the students, mainly Risa's supporters and Maia's many admires, but of course, as a teacher, you wield the most power among a group of students. She had only needed to threaten them with tons of homework and they were silent immediately, much to the younger Harada Twin's disappointment.

Risa had tried, once again, and unsuccessfully to persuade Miss Lee into permitting Satoshi to come along with them to the expedition and leave Maia alone in the hotel. But Satoshi, being the possessive one, knew that many of the hotel's workers, mainly the manager, had taken a liking to the rumored new Azumano High School's fairest beauty, Akihiko Maia, and that she is naïve and dense enough to allow a strange to feed her food, and being the glutton he knew she was (despite her protesting that she is not), would definitely fell into their simple little trick and had successfully persuaded Miss Lee that there could be many other jealous schoolgirls waiting to ambush her, and possibly murder her and buried her in the hotel's many mud pit, or worse, thrown over the jungle's bushes, which is the perfect spot for an outdoor sex- AHEM, I mean, outdoor private activities.

"And who would know," started Satoshi in a low and careful tone, which hinted the dangers ahead if Maia were to left alone, "-that the whole trip of coming here searching and studying for the bugs in the jungle would take a turn for the worst and turned into a shocking discovery of 'Akihiko Maia's murdered corpse'?" he was utterly delighted when Miss Lee's face paled a little, possibly imagining a pile of bugs that the class were supposed to study upon feasting on Maia's mutilated corpse, chomping down upon her bloody eyeball mercilessly, relishing in the wonderful free delicious human gourmet meal. Lowering a notch of his voice, he lashed out his last tactic, "I'm quite sure that you don't want that to happen to a naïve 17 year old young lady…"

"ENOUGH!" screamed Miss Lee, surprising everyone. "Alright you cheeky little brat," she called Satoshi, glaring at his amused expression. "You stay here and guard Akihiko-san from jealous murdering schoolgirls! The others, on to the expedition! No more noises or you'll risk being the next meal for our bugs!"

And just like that, they're gone.

To say Satoshi is a merciless manipulating devil would be a terrible thing, but it is quite correct. He knew that Miss Lee had quite the funny fear for any type of horrors and gores, and she did have quite the mind to imagine such a thing to happen to Maia if she were to drag him along to the expedition and leave Maia alone in the hotel. Teachers are no match for the famous 17 year old genius of Azumano High School, Hiwatari Satoshi.

If he really is a genius, then why would he suggest such a lame excuse to spend the time with Maia!

Currently, both of them were in the hotel's famous rose garden 'The Garden of Eden', they called it. Maia had scoffed the moment her eyes landed upon the sign to the rose garden, and declared that the hotel managers had probably ran out of ideas to name the rose garden. Satoshi had taken the privilege of changing his clothes once the teacher is gone and after that, he had gone immediately to Maia's room and dragged her aimlessly, not knowing that he's dragging her to the rose garden, which is a famous ground for confessions and marriage proposals. How lovely if he could just slap himself for the bright idea of wandering aimlessly right there and then, but his pride prevented his hands from moving.

And here they are, deep within the Garden of Eden. Maia was still wearing the same dress, and strangely, it suits the situation. The air around them was so thick with the wonderful hypnotizing smell of roses that one could practically preserve them with their clothes alone. Bees and butterflies were everywhere, roses of all colors on one side; all of them brought nothing to Maia's expression, except to make her look a little…grim.

What Satoshi didn't know is that she is thinking. There are just so many stupid things that she choose that time to think about; why so many stupid and embarrassing things happened to her upon her arrival in Azumano High School, why did such a stupid and dumb person like Risa would exist at the first place, why her clothes were soaked by sheer jealousy, why she's wearing a skirt, and why is that terrible wound on Satoshi's wrist at the first place. Before she knew it, her visions turned blurry and clouded with tears.

Satoshi, upon seeing her tearing up, froze in anticipation. He dreaded another 'Risa', he dreaded the panic that rise to his throat alarmingly and he dreaded the sobs that are threatening to come out of her. The whole point is; he didn't know what he should do to console a crying girl.

"Why did this things happen to me?" she sobbed miserably, startling Satoshi out of his dread. Her eyebrow was knitted in such a sad and slanted way that made his heart ache just by staring at her. "I was just loving you (he blinked in surprise at that), was that a wrong thing to do?" the way she asked him that innocent question was so adorable that he can't help but to feel heat rushes up to his cheek. Burying her head into the safest place, which is the crook of his neck, she sobbed her heart out.

"Do I deserve all those jealousy? Tell me, Sato-kun!"

The moment she told him to tell her what she wanted to hear, she had sealed his doom. Krad was already stirring inside of him right from the start, and he could do nothing to stop him once the fallen angle living within him decided to come out. Then, something strange happened.

He felt a strange wave of warmth enveloping his chest.

It was like nothing he had ever experienced. It's not like someone poured lukewarm water onto his chest, nor was it felt like he was soaking in a bathtub full of warm water. The kind of warmth he felt stirring within his chest is scorching hot, and yet it felt wonderfully wonderful, as if he's really taking a hot bubble bath.

He loved this feeling, and before he knew it, he was staring down at Maia's tear-soaked face through the eyes of Krad, his signature blond fringe blocking part of his sight. He had transformed into Krad with Maia still wrapped in his arms.

So this is what Niwa felt whenever he transformed into Dark, thought Satoshi. A pang of jealousy washed over him like wave does in beaches. The transformation was like a dream, painless and utterly blissful, and if he were to comment on it, it would be almost pleasurable. If he were to transform like this from now on, his life wouldn't shorten anymore like any other Hikari's. In fact, if he were to transform with this wonderful and painless method, he could well become the first Hikari to outlive his ancestors' greatly shortened lives.

But then, there's something strange. Isn't Maia the Rejecter? Isn't she supposed to reject any magical waves, for example, Krad's anxiousness to resurface and take over his body? And if she is the Rejecter, why did he transform into Krad?

Then something struck him like a lightning.

Transforming into his other form, Krad, needs not magical powers. Only if Krad tried to force his way out without the love genes does he need the power of magic to do so. And now, he practically transformed without the need of magic; he transformed because he felt love in his heart.

Then here comes the inevitable event; Maia raised her head up and stared naively up to his eyes, which are Krad's amber eyes at this moment.

"Sato-kun?" she sobbed. "*sob* when did you put on contacts and a blonde wig? *sob* you look so much like a dumb blonde… *sob*…*began to wail and cry and bury her face into the crook of his neck once more*"

Krad, to Satoshi's surprise, frozen onto the very ground he was standing, much like how Satoshi froze upon seeing Maia cried. From his point of view, it would seem as if Krad is every bit inexperienced in handling girls as a little boy hitting his puberty stage.

Then, Maia did the unexpected.

She stopped crying all of a sudden and held herself at arm's length away from Krad, who stared at her blankly. She stared at him with the funny look and scanned him up and down, and down and up again.

"Who are you?" she asked stupidly. And do you know what Krad did? Well.

He did nothing. No, not even a blink or a nod or a noise coming from his cursed piece of a mouth. No none, no sir, and it was right then Satoshi realized that Krad was sleeping within him all the time and the sudden transformation had him in a situation he had never handled before; transformation without Krad's consent. It was always the other way round.

Gradually focusing, Krad found himself forcefully transformed and- where the hell is this girl touching!

Krad, surprised at the sight of a girl, and a girl that dared to touch him at that, screamed his head off angrily, "Where the hell are you touching you stupid human girl!"

Eyes widened at the mention of 'stupid', she retorted back in equal anger and voice, "What the hell! (A/N: For some reason, I find this phrase highly amusing…) If you're not looking as if you would topple any moment soon, I wouldn't want to touch you, you rude piece of a man! Now where is Sato-kun!

Sato-kun? He did a double check on the girl that held him previously. He had to admit that she looked much more beautiful than before. Examining her from top to toe and toe back to her face, he realized what had made her looked that stunning all of a sudden. She was wearing a dress, just like what a girl ought to wear in Krad's ancient opinion. After all, he was the ancestor of his current descendent and host, Satoshi. It has been a long time since he had properly laid his eyes on a woman, and since he did took his time; he would have to make use of the given time since his decedent's body, Satoshi, has a limit of its own.

"Ah, so you are the human that my master is in love with," he started, taking note that her ears perked up at the mention of 'master'.

Looking back at the person that had so rudely pushed her off along with a rude remark of the insult 'stupid', which does a huge blow to her pride, Maia noticed something that she did not notice previously prior to her focusing entirely on the rude person's face which resembled Satoshi's face a lot.

That rude piece of a man has wings!

"I am Krad, human lover of my master," he begun, mouth began to form into a wicked grin. He knew just one thing that he had to do to her, for the chance for him to appear is rare since his master's body cannot tolerate his forceful ways. "Now, stand still and let me-"

"Krad!" Maia suddenly interfered, eyes wide in pure surprise and a tinge of naivety in her voice, like a child who found her favorite lost toy. "You're Krad! As in 'Krad the famed Fallen Angel'!"

kill you…Krad thought, finishing his sentence in his mind. It came as a surprise the moment this petite little human called out his name as if she had been searching him for years. Krad The Fallen Angel? Hmm…I like it.

Don't you dare touch her, Krad!

Why, why, why, Satoshi-sama? You know full well that you can't hold anything dear to you, for I will destroy them.

Just you dare-

Oh, I forgot, she's the Rejecter. I can't touch the Rejecter with magic, remember? But I can hurt her without magic.

Krad!

"Are you related to Sato-kun, Krad-kun? You resembled him in a way or two…"

Both Krad and Satoshi raised their eyebrows in astonishment. Both of them, one a reluctant master while the other a devil in an angel's mask had not expected this kind of question to pop out from Maia, or in Krad's case, the human lover of his master.

Rendered quite speechless, he accidentally sputtered unintelligently, "Y-yeah, I am." Once he realized that he's sputtering like a nervous stupid human, he quickly gathered what's left of his pride and fired with smugness. "You're just an outsider; you had no need to know about this, human."

Appeared unfazed by his rude told-off comment, Maia smiled kindly and said, "If given the choice, I would like Krad better than that thieving Phantom whatsit Dork, or was it Dark? We're far better off without that pompous little thing."

Sadly, Krad did not pay attention to her when she was speaking. In fact, he was busy glaring off a few bees and butterflies that had somehow taken a liking to his proud long golden ponytail. Upon hearing her mumbling something he cannot understand, he immediately wanted her to repeat it again. By means of wanting her to repeat her words, he had opted in using the kind of word that is so ancient and polite and dangerous and sounded oh-so-intelligent and civilized. So instead of using 'Sorry' upon someone like Maia like everybody does in this era, he, of all the words, used…

"I beg your pardon?"

Within him, he heard Satoshi sputtered and sweat-dropped.

I never thought you would one day be so stupid as to use that kind of word on someone like Maia.

Why you-

Eyes bulging in shock, Krad understood why Satoshi said those blunt words daringly after hearing Maia stuttered, possibly in shock. "K-Krad?" she stuttered. "Be- Beg my pardon!" pausing in thought, Maia burst out laughing in a silly way. "Oh, of course I'll pardon you, silly! What makes you think I won't eh? Haha! No worries, no worries! Ahaha…haha…ahaha…err…however, I must ask, what exactly did you require my pardon?"

Lips tighten in a dangerous line; Krad opted using his second line of what he labeled as 'Intelligent' and 'Civilized', just what a well-mannered and civilized man ought to say in this sort of situation. "Excuse me?"

Mistaking that he might not have heard her well, she repeated her question in a slightly louder voice, "Well, what exactly did you require my pardon."

Frustrated, he raised his voice a notch higher than hers, wanting her to understand quickly, "I said, I beg your pardon!"

"I already pardoned you, what else do you want me to do?" said Maia woefully, not quite understanding the complexity of the situation.

Resisting the temptation to run his hand through his ponytail, Krad responded in throwing his hands up in the air and shouted desperately, "God!"

Quickly resuming her quirky personality, Maia said in a matter-of-factly tone, "No can do my friend," using a finger to wriggle the 'no' in his face. "I am not the creator; therefore, I cannot create God. Amen."

Taking a deep breath so as to control his hand from flying to her neck and strangling her, Krad said slowly, "When did I say I want you to create God for me?"

"Well, I ask you want do you want me to do and you said God and then…well, it's obvious that you want me to create God since you shouted His name to my face, which I cannot, so, I had to say sorry at my being unable to fulfill your desire to see Him."

"You're impossible," he said dejectedly. He had been beaten by a mere girl with nothing but that- that piece of cursed off mouth and brain!

Smiling, she said softly, "Sato-kun used to say that to me too"

Head snapping up, she remembered the blue haired smarty, "And speaking of Sato-kun, where is he really?"

Brushing off imaginary dust off his clothes, he resumed his arrogant and smug expression and said proudly, "I am Krad, the other half of Dark Mousy of the Phantom Thief, currently residing within Satoshi-sama."

You stupid thing.

Mistaken the 'within' for 'with', she blurted out happily, "Oh, you live with Sato-kun? I see. What do you work as most of the day? And how come I didn't see you around the neighborhood?"

Krad chewed the insides of his mouth to contain his bubbling frustration. "No, I don't work," Krad said, trying to explain in a normal tone. "I reside within-"

"Oh! You mean you're unemployed?" Maia intervened happily. "Oh, this is my first time meeting someone who is jobless! How do you do? Tell me everything you know as someone unemployed! Aha! So exciting!"

It is strange to say, but the word 'jobless' seemed to stab him right on his pride. He had not the need to work! He's the great Fallen Angel, Krad, the other counterpart of Phantom Thief Dark! The only thing he needed to do is finish off that Dark and take over Satoshi-sama's body and make it his own and take back all the Hikari's artwork! He doesn't need a job or to work…r-right?

"Now listen here, you stupid piece of weak human-" said Krad, totally ignoring the shock written all across Maia's angrily flushed face.

"Hey! Watch what you are spitting out of that cursed piece of your mouth!"

"I am Krad, the other half of Dark Mousy. For some reasons, we resides within two different and a total polar opposite kind of people, the other which you already knew, which is Satoshi-sama. I live to destroy Dark, and I will destroy anyone that Satoshi-sama holds dear so that he will have no reason to live and will thus, surrender his body to me."

Maia stared with her eyes wide like an innocent porcelain doll at him. What she sees is not the pride and the smug and the arrogance displayed all over the angel's perfect sculptured face. Instead, she sees his heart breaking behind all those displays. Whenever it cracked, she could practically hear the imaginary screams of Krad, screaming for his body and mind to stop breaking his heart.

Since young, Maia had the knack of sensing other's emotions around her just by looking into their eyes. In fact, she is so sensitive to the thoughts of the people around her that it was practically a challenge for her just to make friends. Despite being pretty and open-minded and downright rich, she cannot trust the people of her age that called her 'their best friend'. Why is she their best friend? Well, she is rich. There are loads of people trying to scrap her clean, and most of her so-called friends does that by inviting her to an extremely expensive hotel for a huge cocktail party, and the next thing she knew is that the bills are right on their way to her family when she had nothing but chips and a glass of isotonic drink! Right after that happened, she changed her number and changed her entire being to make herself look more dorky and nerdy so that none of the popular and money hungry people would bother her, and they didn't. What she didn't know is that her cousin's father, whom she called Uncle Ken, is so angry and upset that those bunch of stupid children's had dared to upset his babies (he called all his close relatives that are either younger or around the same age as his daughter, Saya, babies.). For the fun of revenge, he invited all of them to a secret party using Maia's name and forced them to have fun when the same thing that they did to Maia happened to them. Bills, millions of debts for the each of them are right on their way to their parents.

"Serves them right, that bunch of ninnies," he had muttered happily when he saw the look of shock on their face. Nothing more fun than an irritated couple of parents.

Instead of looking all shocked and 'ohhh' like a stupid fan girls does, she gathered a few pieces of bricks and stacked them neatly. Stepping on them, she embraced Krad's head to her chest, much to his dismay.

"What-what the-! What the fuck are you doing!" sputtered Krad, cursing her for the heat pooling around his cheek.

Patting his head in a rhythm, Maia said softly, "Consoling your broken heart."

Krad's eyes widened in shock. What she had told him was like a bombshell dropped on top of his blonde mop of golden hair. His heart is breaking? That sounds so stupid. But when he gave himself over to his feelings, he felt a pang of sadness enveloping him in a sudden shield of emotions. As sudden as it was for him, his tears fell unwillingly from his golden eyes. Suddenly, his mind comprehended the reason why his tears would fell when his heart is already frozen to stone.

He remembered the first art piece he had made, and he remembered how he wished he could bring life to such a lovely statuette. Nobody wanted to be with him, for he was rumored to be mad and someone of no important property, except his vast knowledge in art. Those that pursued him were either in love with his knowledge or in love with his artworks, which is rumored once again to be of the finest quality and extremely valuable. He was lonely, and he sought out companionship through his artworks, showering them with love and eventually, sold his soul to the devil in return for the power to give life to his artworks. His passion in creating the ultimate artwork had resulted in a terrible mishap when the Niwa clan's thief came through the doors where he is about to give life to the last of his artwork, and that same passion had turned him into an artwork itself, who is bound to live in his next generation's body and resurfacing whenever his host held something dear to them. If only there are no artworks, he and Dark the thief would be the best of friends.

Within the weeping Krad, Satoshi pondered about what had happened moments ago. He was somewhat surprised when Krad had broke down when Maia told him the impossible thing; that Krad's heart is breaking and that she heard it breaking. How did she knew his heart is breaking, and how did she knew that he is in need of someone to console him of his sorrow? She was just a mere Rejecter living the life of an extremely unfortunate girl that seemed to draw more danger to herself than to those around her, as if the very presence of her innocently walking in the middle of the road excited Death to reschedule her death day.

As far as he knew, Rejecters are born whenever an extremely huge blow of heartbreaking episode happened in their life or that their life has been tempered by magic in a frequent amount of time, and they are quite a rare group of them all around the world. He knew a few old museum curators that frequently handled magical artworks that had developed the powers of a Rejecter, and magic had no effect on them whatsoever, thus allowing them further handlings on other more dangerous and cursed artworks. But if they are around the very being that gave off magical energies once in a while involuntarily, their powers as Rejecter could evolve into something much more different while still preserving their abilities and powers as a Rejecter.

A Rejecter, basically, is a powerless human with the uncanny ability to reject the very essence of magical waves, which they cannot control no matter how hard they practiced, for there are no ways to ward off the shield that enveloped their very being. However powerless magic appears to them, they still cannot evade the very essence of living magic implanted directly into them, which could result in several strange new abilities evolved from their strongest human traits such as strength or speed. In terms of implanted directly into them, it would take the forms of either the very blood of the magic wielder being transfused or consumed by the Rejecter, or the intimate ways, which both Satoshi and Maia had had before; Sexual Intercourse.

Satoshi came into a shocking conclusion. Maia, after having been injected by his very essence of magic directly into her being, had acquired the ability of empathy. She had had the strangest and strongest sensitivity in the thoughts of the people around her, and after having an intimate affair with him for one night, that trait of hers had evolved much further, and more powerful than anyone with Empathy could imagine since she had had it when she was still a young thing.

Maia becoming the Empress of Empathy huh? Thought Satoshi considerately. The title does suits her well.

"There, there," Maia said, still patting Krad's blonde mop of hair to sooth his sorrow. "Cry all you want, I'm here."

Krad rolled his eyes admits his tears. Of all the ridiculous things he had heard from this- this human girl, she advised him to cry all he want when it is the other way round.

"You're crying yourself too," he commented, his tears still flow freely while his face remained impassive. He, for once, allowed his emotion to get the better of him and freed all of his restrained sorrow and feelings in his heart.

"I feel sad all of a sudden too!" she sobbed pitifully, tears pouring without restraint from her eyes, remaining oblivious to the fact that Krad's eye is twitching in irritation for the fact that Satoshi is roaring in laughter within his being. Krad had long know that Maia is quite the interesting and hilarious character that kept Satoshi amused most of the time, mostly for the fact that she did not know that she was interesting and hilarious to Satoshi and most of her comical ways are unintentionally caused, but he didn't expect her to be comically stupid either.

Rubbing her head roughly onto Krad's head, she sobbed her heart out. It seems that Maia's emotions has been affected by Krad's waves after waves of sorrow washing and splashing all around him, while Maia, standing there stupidly like the Empress of Empathy she is, received the full blast of Krad's suppressed emotions. From another's point of view, it wouldn't look as if Maia is consoling Krad; in points of fact, she looked as if she is the one being consoled by Krad, who preferred to keep his hands to himself rather than pat and wrap his arms around her like what a silly confused 12 year-old boy hitting puberty would do, resumed the position of being a 'statue'.

I cannot comprehend how you could tolerate her very presence, Satoshi-sama.

Laughter reduced to silent chuckling, Satoshi replied lightly to Krad, surprised at the strange new way that he and Krad communicate. Practice does make things perfect.

Forcing Maia to stop clinging to him as if he's her screaming pillow, Krad regained his composure faster than Maia could fish out her handkerchief from between her breast and offered it to him. Krad, unable to suppress the very sight of a furiously blushing Satoshi within him, let out a loud roar of laughter.

"Did I do something funny again?" said Maia through her tears soaked face, eying Krad skeptically with her brown eyes. From Satoshi's action when they are free of spectators, Maia knew, she just had to do something to embarrass herself without her knowledge since he is known to laugh a lot when he was around her. And the very same thing happened to this beautiful blonde angel that appeared out of nowhere. She must have done something embarrassingly ridiculous.

"S-sort of…hahaha!" Krad laughed. He had never felt this good when he laughs, and he felt slightly lightheaded from it. He felt as if he's not Krad the Fallen Angel today, but Hikari Satoshi, his last descendent. Heaving mouthful of breath, he carefully spoke to Maia, who still had her handkerchief offered to him, hands stretched in a straight line.

Ignoring the handkerchief, Krad took hold of her outstretched hand into his and knelt down in front of her, completely yielding himself over to her command for the sheer will of not hating, fearing nor flee at the sight of him and treated him like anyone she would have met, well, excluding the fact that she called him 'the famed Fallen Angel Krad'. He adored the bravado she put up in front of him and not afraid to snap back at him when he had so rudely insulted her level of intelligence. What he find irresistible from her is the sheer fact that she is willing to offer her arms and shoulders for him to cry on, knowing that she had only known him for barely a full day. He appreciates it a lot at her display of emotion on his behalf by crying with him so that he will not feel awkward.

Placing his lips gently upon the back of her hand, Krad whispered loud enough for her to hear, "You are quite the interesting being, Maia of the Humans. I shall yield my being over for you."

As he had expected, she appears to be confused by his display of affection. Was he touched by my willingness to lend him my only handkerchief? Is he going to help me look for Sato-kun now?

"I shall return Satoshi-sama to you now, for I am terribly in need of a long slumber. Till we meet again, Maia of the Humans," he finished, and with that, he is gone in a flurry of soft white feathers, and right in his place is her beloved blue-haired genius, Satoshi.

"Sato-kun! You're back!" squealed Maia, launching herself right into Satoshi's arms, sending both of them tumbling to the rose petal covered ground.

"You're unbelievably calm about it when that guy appears," Satoshi commented softly. He knew Maia was the kind of people that would believe anything a person is telling, but since she had the knack of differentiating between a lie and a truth, he does not need to worry about his secret about the Hikari and the Niwa's.

"In a good way or a bad way?" chirped Maia happily. She was pleased when she saw the safe return of Satoshi, and it satisfied her greatly just by being in the safely of his arms.

"Both. Always both," he remarked crudely. Smiling, he kissed the side of her head and whispered in a voice only she could hear, "But that's what I like about you."

Afterwards, they waited for the return of Miss Lee and the rest of the class patiently. Sitting on a bench overlooking the entire beachside, Satoshi asked Maia something that he was sure she doesn't know.

"Do you know that the original name for this island is Avice?"

Startled by the sudden revelation, Maia smiled, glad that Satoshi is opening up to her. "No," she replied. "It's a very beautiful name," she praised. "What does it mean?"

Grasping her small hand in his, he gave it a gentle squeeze and spoke softly, "It means 'The only safest place'."


A/N: Why did I name that island Avice? Well, it would be put to emphasize a few things. First, Maia's bravado in facing the pipes single-handedly. Being the clumsy character I made her to be, she would definitely fall down from the pipes, but instead of falling down, she succeeded in climbing them. Next, her confrontation with Risa. With Risa being the much more savage girl in here since I hated her, Maia could have ended up in more wounds than just clothes soaked in the bathtubs, or she could have ended up naked without a thing to cover herself with. So, she had escaped the death threats twice. The third is the appearance of Krad-sama. We all know what Krad did to Daisuke the moment he met that poor red-headed boy in the manga, and the same thing would happen to Maia had not the powers of the island, Avice, soothed the nerves of Krad and twisted the event into a more interesting path for the characters to go, such as Satoshi's realization on Maia's new power, empathy. His nickname for her power had unintentionally given her the absolute power over all empathies, reigning over them as the Empress of Empathy. This proves that the power of the island Avice has not faded, and that would explain the prosperity of the hotel and the successful proposal of couples, for Avice is intervening and twisting the possible dangerous outcomes.