She woke up, gasping for air. When she opened her eyes, she saw black. No. It was black smoke, dark dirty looking smoke coming from a car's engine. Engine? She doesn't know what's exactly an engine, but she knew that if it was smoking smoke black as the ones given off by a barbeque grill, it only meant trouble.

Trying to get up, she noticed she was in a car. And she was upside-down, with the car's seatbelt holding her still on the flipped car's seats and the supersized Jack Frost toy doll she had was keeping her body from making contact on the car's roof. She gripped the seatbelts with her small hands until she reached the clip and she took it off. Her descent on top of the doll was met with a cry of slight pain, shaking the car briefly.

"Ugh," someone groaned out beside her. She looked around and found a blue-haired boy that was looked so young like her. "What happened…? Hamuko?" She tilted her head in confusion at the still hanging kid. His hands were already finding the clip of his own seatbelt until he soon fell down from the pull of gravity. The Jack Frost doll she's gripping at was then thrown by her towards him and was used to catch the blue-haired boy, making the boy smile at her. She smiled back in response, the yellow light coming from the outside showing her and his own smiles and then smirks.

"Come on, let's get out." The boy nodded and reached out towards the locks on the door, clicking them open. A whoosh and the two went out of the flipped car, crawling out of the flipped over car and avoiding the smashed glasses of their windows. Confused, she wondered how the two of them managed to stay away from being scratched by the broken glass. Not even a single prick was on their bodies and it seemed to be strange that they weren't injured from it. Maybe the glass went outwards instead of inwards?. She had then noticed her parents weren't in the car, so probably the had already gotten out and was doing something else. Maybe they were busy searching for help? Or maybe busy in getting the fire out?

…Why did she thought that a fire would come after the smoke? Before she could answer her own question, a rocking tremor swept through the two of them, knocking her and the blue-haired boy. It wasn't that strong to throw them back by a meter or so but it was enough for them to be flat on the ground, making them sit and wince at the pain of falling down suddenly.

Minato was the first to get up and help her stand up.

…Minato? He looked like Ryoji but… Who's Ryoji? Ryoji looked like Minato but Minato was… He was her brother.

...Yes, that's right. He was her brother and Ryoji looked like Minato that she thought sometimes she was adopted because it seemed he was his twin instead of her.

...Who is Ryoji anyway? She… She can't remember. Who...?

...Where are they?

"W-Where are we? Where's mom? Where's dad?" she asked, quickly whipping her head around in search of their parents. The car they were in moments ago was now a flaming husk of metal at the front and there was a suspicious flowing red violet liquid coming below the vehicle, slowing making its way to them while flames walk leisurely on top. "…Minato-kun?"

Her… brother was silent. She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the flaming liquid towards what she knew as the metal railings of the Moonlight Bridge. How she knew it was the name of the bridge was a mystery to her since their family just visited Tatsumi Port Island yesterday for some job offer or something. It was important, her father said, for the two of them . Shaking her brother to get his attention, she finally noticed their surroundings and, strangely, found herself in awe of it.

The moon was unusually large; its face was so close to them that she felt so small and insignificant compared to the yellow shining moon. It didn't compare to the green and red combo of their surroundings, as if someone threw some sort of green and red cellophanes over the entire sky. Everything was so… weird and unusual that the gasp in her throat was held back until she had noticed the scattered puddles of red stuff at the road and the color of the water below the bridge.

It was red like blood and looked like blood. She had doubts it was blood though. Who would track around their wounds and let blood out around like that? Her mother would get mad since according to her, it was hard to take out the stains of blood out of their clothes. She then looked around, confused as to why there weren't any noise she found common on the streets. It was quiet, too quiet. Aside from the crackling of the fire from the overturned car, she couldn't find anything else around them.

"I-I don't know! W-What's going on, Hamuko? Why is everything so green?!" his brother at last voiced out in a admittedly hysterical manner. 'That reaction is the norm when one's in The Dark Hour,' her mind supplied but nothing else came afterwards. She questioned why her inner voice (the one that her mother referred to whenever she read a word without speaking, that kind of voice) gave her that but before she could answer her brother's question, a series of pings and pangs rang out at the bridge.

Both of them ducked their heads, terrified from the clangs. Whooshes and booms came afterwards, shaking the concrete road they're on. She and her brother looked up and searched for the source of the noise and found two figures making their way towards them. One looked like chasing the other as the chaser was throwing some things at the other.

'Bullets. Ammunition.' Again, her mind gave her those words but she doesn't know what it meant. ' It would hurt a lot if it hits.' …Like a rock thrown? That's how it worked?

Minato pulled him away from the railing and ran back behind the burning car, no more suspicious liquid flowing anymore at their new position and the heat of the fire much lesser than what it was before. She looked at her brother and noticed his eyes were wide and sweat were dripping from his forehead. His hand on her own was shaking and it was wet and cold.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned about his brother's shaking. He was acting like that when they were watching a horror movie one time and she knew it was because he was genuinely afraid. She wasn't afraid at all but was otherwise curious and… in awe. How and why was she not like his brother, shaking and cold and sweating?

'It's Death, though not the one I have imagined to be before but still related to. I've faced him before and we became friends but brother never met him before.' …' Death '?

The noise around them grew louder and with her curious about it, she peeked and saw a lady in white fighting a… ghost with chains wrapped around him. Halloween was already over though, so why would the other person wearing a creepy looking costume. It looked funny and not really scary at all, the dinosaur mask was also funny on the ghost costume.

Minato pulled her back down and gripped her shoulders, tension apparent by the way her brother's hands were shaking. "I-I don't know! I want mom! I want dad! I don't like this place." She nodded. Even if she found herself curious about the entire place, she wants their parents and the bed they love to sleep on.

Standing up, she reached out her hand to her brother. "Let's run then. The lady in white and the creepy dinosaur guy are fighting. I think it's a fight from a late Halloween party," she said, turning her head towards the fight beyond the car. She saw the lady doing a series of kicks and some martial arts moves she saw once in television and it looked amazing. Flipping, jumping, jabs done in mid-air. Like the ones she watched with Minato and their dad on Saturdays at the movie theaters. Most were foreign films from what she can remember. The dinosaur guy, on the other hand, was nothing compared to the way the lady in white as she flipped over him, even though dinosaur guy was so cool with the large poles. She threw the dinosaur guy with just a single grab at its cloak.

Still amazed at the sight, her brother had thought it was time for them to leave as Minato took her hand and went sprinting down the bridge, her stumbling after with him. As they ran, a vague sense of familiarity with the area came to her - though she doesn't know where it came from - that she can tell and knew they were on the way to the mainland instead of the Tatsumi Port Island area. Wasn't the police station at the man-made island instead on the mainland? But with the fight behind them, she doubt the police wouldn't notice it and ignore the ramble.

Then it suddenly dawned to her. There weren't any people as far as her eyes can see and the cars that were littered on the roads were empty. Who would report the fight? Was this the reason why their parents weren't there with them? Because they searched for more people?

"Is that… a closet?" her brother asked, pointing to one of the weirdly shaped boxes inside a car they passed by. "It seemed to be so… big." They passed by another car and just like her brother said, it was a big that it seemed to be resting on the seat of the car. It also radiated a weird red shine that made the entire thing glow.

'They're safe. Safe from the Shadows. The Shadows can't reach them inside as the coffin protects them from their influence, though someone with an ability to reach out can pull them out of that state.'

…Safe? From the shadows?

"I… I don't know Minato. Let's go. I bet mom and dad are on their way towards us, and they probably had policemen with them," she said, pulling her blue-haired brother away from the car and back on the road. "Do… Do you think they'll be angry? I mean, the car blew up. Dad said it was expensive."

"…Maybe? We still have Jacky here," Minato replied, gesturing the Jack Frost doll she had around her arms. She didn't notice she was clutching it all the time until Minato made it known to her. "And that's more important."

"Silly." Her brother certainly was being funny. Or trying to. Nevertheless, they continued walking instead of running down the road, not bothering to sprint anymore because their feet were tired and Minato complained of getting his brand-new shoes with the red paint that were scattered all over the road. She didn't have the strength to tell him it wasn't paint at all.

All of a sudden, a tremor went pass through them, again, stumbling her and her brother on their feet and leaving them lying around on the concrete road. Minato was beside her, right side up and staring at something at the distance behind them. She turned her head around, her neck feeling strained from the force of impact, and saw the two Halloween goers still fighting. But they were now moving towards them. Were they moving while they're fighting? Probably. Their fight looked to be the same. The only difference was that the lady in white was pushing the dinosaur guy towards their direction because dinosaur guy was blocking her strikes.

She tried to get up but the impact had her arms feeling like pancake syrup and her legs feel like wet cereal flakes. Or a bunch of super soggy mochi. Her brother noticed her struggle and tried to help her up but another tremor went through the concrete road, tripping her brother over his feet and bringing him back to his previous position of lying down on the road.

'Death saw me and attacked. But she stopped him. She was injured and I was too. Shen then did something.'

…Yes, dinosaur guy will see them and use them as a shield. She now felt they weren't Halloween party goers instead because dinosaur guy had no legs and he was floating . The lady in white was actually not a lady but a robot because she had gears and cogs for her joints and her arms looked like a doll's arms; they keep on twisting.

They were approaching them faster than she expected so she struggled to get up. Her mushy legs and arms resisted but she did get up and, despite her legs screaming out in pain, she helped her brother up. Minato was woozy, like he had banged his head on the concrete. She can feel a bump at his forehead, confirming her thought.

Quickly, she helped her brother reached the side railings of the bridge and hid themselves behind a car. The noise of their fighting was loud and she can hear them making cracks on the concrete. She took a peek and saw dinosaur guy using its chains as a whip to hit the robot lady. Robot lady evaded it and responded by shooting from her fingers. Her fingers were guns…? She was certainly a robot lady.

Shooting, whipping and some sort of magic tricks were done before the two passed by their hiding place. She made a glance at her brother and saw him returning back to wakefulness. He held his head and turned it around, searching for something or someone familiar. When his blue eyes met hers, he visibly relaxed and slumped back on the metal bars of the bridge.

Minato tried to say something but he was interrupted when a large chunk of concrete made itself known at the car they were using as a hiding spot. The glass windows of the car shattered, forcing the two of them to scramble away in order to avoid being hit by the glass. Minato was about to be hit by the car's door when it happened but she had tackled him down, hitting her back instead. She winced in pain but ultimately ignored it; she helped her brother up instead and they ran down the road, wincing slightly.

She looked over her shoulder and was relieved to see her shirt wasn't torn. The door just hit her, that wasn't bad at all. She then turned around and saw a box inside the car crushed, bent and visible cracks apparent with a weird colored liquid coming out from the said cracks. She felt afraid for some reason and wanted to cry at the sight of the glowing box being crushed by the dinosaur guy's impact.

Dinosaur guy whipped its head at her, probably noticed her stare previously, and floated up. The mask of dinosaur guy opened and mimicked an act of roar and rushed towards her. She tried to move but she couldn't. She wanted to cry because she was afraid. Dinosaur guy had crushed a box and she felt scared. She didn't want to be like the box.

A force behind her pushed her out of the way and she quickly whipped her head around. It was Minato. He pushed her out of the way of the dinosaur guy's ghostly hands and, instead of her, he was caught in it. The force of her brother's push was not that strong to completely make her fall, just enough for her to be missed.

Her brother then struggled from the dinosaur guy's ghostly hand, face torn into a silent scream and visibly struggling to get away from the one in front of him. Dinosaur guy's mask tilted the same way a bird tilted its head in confusion as its head continued to follow her brother's head. She felt her eyes playing tricks on her as dinosaur guy's mask seemed to change shape and color, flickering like a candle being blown by the wind. It was as if it was changing into…

'Death had a form of a person so it would make sense if he had copied a person's face to use as his. But I always wondered where did he got that face so familiar to me yet for the life of mine, I don't know where I have seen. I forgotten it actually where, no, who it used to belong.'

Minato's. His brother's face. Wanting to stop her brother from experiencing more pain, she used her doll to hit the dinosaur guy, making him release her brother. She noticed as she caught him, her brother was gasping and his face was white as newly cleaned blankets. She shook him hard and slapped him silly. He was her brother; he shouldn't be this... white. This… pale.

Color returned to his face and she saw the blue return to his eyes, it was gray and almost silver before. She smiled and would have cried right there before his brother was suddenly pulled up from her arms and was tossed up in the air by the lady in white. She wants to cry out, just like his brother who now began to scream from something that he certainly felt as pain.

The robot lady beside her had her eyes wide open and they seemed to be bulging like crazy. The area around her neck was open and she saw light coming from there. She looked up. The dinosaur guy was wailing silently while her brother was screaming from the air. They were suspended like someone hanged them on the wall with duct tape.

She kicked and hit the robot lady, demanding to let her brother go, but she was too strong for her. In fact, she screamed in pain because her legs were metal and she had just kicked something metal. Then there was a bright light that almost blinded her, forcing her to close her eyes.

'She sealed him to me, hampering my own emotions, development, and memories in the process and in the next 10 years. I couldn't remember much of my own past because of it. I never even knew why I was even being transferred because the first thing I could only remember was waking up on the train. Nothing more before that point. It was like I had just existed then and there but I knew I was alive before coming there.'

The light seemed to take forever to pass by. Then just like it appeared, it ended, leaving her the only one conscious in the aftermath. The robot lady was passed out on beside her, eyes closed and visibly not moving; dinosaur guy suspiciously gone; Minato lying on the ground like he was just sleeping. But his face, it was in pain from what she can tell. Eyes shut, lips trembling and small sweat drops forming around his face. Even his body was shaking mad like those people he saw in the television and movies. See jures.

'It was like nothing mattered before that year.'

It looked so terrifying with how the green and yellow light of the moon shined on his face that she wanted to cry out for help, cry for her parents, cry out to the robot lady and demand what she did to her brother.

She felt the world shift and she saw the large moon in the sky disappear into the small moon she was familiar with. Disappear like paper being burned and ashes falling from it one by one. Only faster. The sky was blue and the star are out. Even the streetlights of the road were back and the noise of the cars were back.

She looked around. A car was fast approaching her but it hit the robot lady instead, throwing the car upside-down and crossing the other side of the road. It was terrible. The car hit another and another and one even blew up and… her brother was still unconscious beside her.

'Then again, nothing really mattered before that time. I had nothing with me before coming there so what happened all those years ultimately was useless. Maybe that's why I couldn't remember a thing about it.'

Minato, her dear brother, was beside her. She pulled his body and helped him to the railing, letting his body lean on the wall. His chest was moving, allowing her some sense of relief. She heard stories of people not breathing and though she had seen what happened to those on television that stopped breathing, she doesn't want that for her brother. Quickly, she patted him and he felt warm yet at the same time cold. Strange.

'But the moment I stepped out of the train, I knew that something was starting. It was change.'

She then opened his closed eyes and what she saw stunned her. It was gray.