AN: This one has been a long time coming, I know. My computer broke down, and then I got really sick, if that's any excuse. I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter, after all my editing, but I've decided to post it and get on with the story already. This was my experimental chapter, where I tried to get into Ayako Kaijiro's head. In the game, she comes off very unsympathetically, so I wanted to try to see whether she could be redeemed, or at least better understood, through some events that happened prior to the game (in my imagination, of course).

For those interested in the kanji, Ayako is (亜矢子) and Miyako is (美耶子). Their family name, Kaijiro, is (神代). I imagine that Jun is just ジュン, since he is supposed to be a foreigner, but I'm not totally sure about that.

…

Marriage will not take place in this life. (II)

…

Under the floodlight, the paper is thin, almost translucent, so that the red and black characters seem to float before him as his eyes flick up and down.

"Marriage will not take place in this life."

The sound of his own laugh surprises him.

"Professor, what is it?" Yoriko tears her sweater away from the bushes, squinting at him under the light. He passes her the crinkled paper with a shrug.

"God, this is terrible! This is the worst fortune that I've ever read!" He looks down at his reflection in the stream as she climbs up the shrine, twisting the paper into a vehement knot against the rotting wooden door.

In the black water, he still sees the characters floating before him.

…

"Come on Miyako— Hurry up!"

"I'm tired!"

"Be quiet, ok? You can sleep on the train." Ayako slid open the screen door, coaxing it gently and soundlessly through each of the places where she knew it always caught. With one last soft creak of the floorboards on the porch, they were outside. She rubbed her arms absently, looking back into the dark house where her parents' shoes were lined up on the shelf along the door. Beneath them on the bottom row were Jun's. She tried not to think about that.

.

When she took Miyako by the hand, her sister looked at her solemnly, with eyes that were far too focused for one who was supposed to be blind.

"You won't save me," she blinked slowly at Ayako, her voice horrifyingly calm.

Ayako only bit her lip angrily, and took Miyako resolutely by the hand. Miyako made no resistance despite her words, and moved nearly as quickly as Ayako, seemingly unhampered by her disability. Ayako was practically running, for she had traced this path so many times before that she fancied she could see her own footprints in the damp earth in front of her.

They would have to walk far to get to the station in the next town, but they could make it to the first train of the morning if they kept up this pace. Once they were on the train, she would have time to think and count her money—to see how far they could go with what they had. Once they were on the train, there would be little chance that any of their family—or Jun—would be able to find them again.

As she ran through the woods with Miyako, Ayako tried to imagine what it would be like when her parents awoke. Of course, they would be furious at first, but then they would understand the folly of what the priests had induced them to believe; they would finally understand the needlessness of any sacrifice. And Jun—

She tried not to think about Jun at all. He would live: her parents would take care of him better, because he would be their only child, and they would find him another girl to marry, and he would be happy.

Ayako tried to imagine what the girl would look like: her hair would be black and flowing, much longer and more beautiful than Ayako's; and her face—

Before she could imagine the girl's face, Ayako felt the dark soil slip suddenly from beneath her feet. She opened her eyes, her heart racing. Something was wrong. Miyako hadn't fallen with her, but stood eerily above her, looking down. Her skin was white under the moonlight, her eyes dark and vague.

"Don't just stand there: Help me! Miyako!"

Ayako shrieked as a man suddenly stepped forward into the place next to Miyako. When Ayako saw his face, she couldn't stop the sound coming from her throat.

"Ayako, calm down, please! I'll help you up," Jun was saying through the noise that she was making. Before she could react, he had lifted her up. Now he held her in his arms, stroking her back. "Come on, Aya, it's just me," he said gently into her ear, with his usual kindness, and then whispered, "love," much more quietly. With an agonized sob, she collapsed against him, pressing her face into his white shirt, looking down at his beaten brown shoes, the ones that she had seen on the shelf in the house, as Miyako stood next to them silently, unseeing.

"We should go back now, Aya, before it gets light out," he smoothed down her hair.

She groaned in pain, turning to look at Miyako, who was gazing blankly into the night. Ayako felt a coldness steal over her as she looked at her sister. Though Jun still held her, she felt goosebumps rise along her arms. In three years, would Miyako stare just like this through the flames? Did she even care that she was going to die, or had she already accepted her fate, like everyone else in the family? Was Ayako the only one left who wanted to fight?

With shaking hands, Ayako took the handkerchief that Jun offered her, letting him put an arm around her as walked slowly back to the house. As they made their way through the trees, neither she nor Jun looked back. They knew that Miyako would follow them.

By the time they slipped back into the house, the black sky was just starting to gray. Ayako felt exhausted, bruised and empty as she helped her sister take off her shoes and slip back into her bed. The house was still silent; Miyako's eyes were still wide open as she lay on the floor.

"You won't marry him," she said knowingly through the dark, "not in this life."

Ayako felt the room grow hot as she turned toward her sister. Her eyes burned suddenly with tears.

"You don't know anything!" she hissed, jerkily lifting the top layers of her futon and getting into the bed. When she had pulled the covers over her head, she wept silently, so that Miyako would not hear.

…