Rougetsu Island - Yomotsuki House

The melodic flow of the piano drifted through the room, and it made Misaki lean back against the wall, head back, eyes closed, enjoying the way Ruka played. Ruka always had talent as a musician - something Misaki never could say she had. Even if she had been, as a young child, recruited to help with the Kagura Festival the island held every time there was a lunar eclipse.

In fact, there was no sound at all from any of the five girls as they sat in various places around Ruka's room. Madoka had perched herself closest to Misaki on the floor at the table in the center of the room, and watched Ruka with such rapt attention, she had forgotten she had her hand halfway in her small package of cookies. Marie had settled herself on the other side of the piano, with her back resting against the ornate dresser. Tomoe was sitting cross-legged on the bed, and had even stopped fiddling with the hem of her skirt.

The song reached a crescendo and it seemed to take all four of the girls listening with it, as they sat up straighter, and then quietly evened off into an ending that left the whole room resonating with the energy.

"... Wow," the silence was broken by Madoka's breathless whisper, and Ruka's head dipped as she turned around, the slightest smile coloring her usually neutral expression.

"Your piano teacher was right, thinking that song was perfect for you to play," Marie said, turning her head from where she had been staring blankly at the corner of the room across from her, and smiling at her long-time friend. Ruka's smile turned into a bashful beam and she bowed her head beneath her bangs, trying to hide her face.

Madoka finally remembered she had snacks, and so the sound of the crinkling plastic interrupted the otherwise reverent silence, and things seemed to relax back to normal. Misaki stepped away from the wall, and seated herself quietly on the floor next to Madoka, who offered a cookie to her. Misaki shook her head.

"I miss you being around, Ruka," Tomoe said, and gained everyone's attention, especially Ruka's. "I mean... I know your family's going through kind of a tough time right now, but did your mom really have to move all the way up to Tokyo?"

Ruka just smiled, sadly, and kept her head bowed. Misaki glowered at Tomoe, who cowed slightly under the look. The Yomotsuki family was going through more than just 'kind of' a tough time, with Ruka's mother and her father separating, and likely about to file for divorce soon with Ruka caught in the middle. Ruka loved and was close to both of her parents, so for them to split up was definitely taxing on her, and everyone knew it.

"How about if we focus on the Rougetsu Kagura tomorrow instead," Misaki proclaimed, shooting a none-too-pleased look at Tomoe, who simply continued to wilt in guilt. Getting on Misaki's bad side was never a pleasant thing.

"That nurse from the hospital is taking over for Miss Haibara isn't she?" Marie continued, grabbing Misaki's change of topic and running with it to avoid any more tension.

Misaki nodded. "They picked a new set of Kanade for this one - different than the last ones, even."

"Well, they're getting too old for it anyway; it's why we can't do it anymore," Marie chuckled, and they all followed suit. Even Misaki.

"I don't miss the practice or the weird meditation they had us do, but I do kind of miss being part of it. Big Sister says the same, even though she also says she can't do it anymore," Misaki continued, looking around the room as she spoke. It wasn't entirely the truth, but she wasn't going to divulge any more personal information than that. They didn't need to know things about Sakuya.

No one did.

"Hey, Ruka, are you going to be staying for the whole rest of the summer?" Tomoe asked, finally out from under the uncomfortable glare from Misaki.

Ruka nodded. "All but the last week. Mother wanted me back so we could go shopping before school started."

"Oh good! We'll have the whole summer to hang out and catch up, then!" Tomoe seemed excited and a little cheer was heard from Madoka.

"Not from me," Misaki said, and shook her head. "My cousin's pulling in another favor. After the Kagura, I'm going back to his house, and then we're leaving for a week. They want me to come with them to some village out by Kyoto that apparently has an old, abandoned graveyard outside it that people say they see ghosts wandering around."

"Your cousin's a little too into that, I think," Marie said, pursing her lips together. Tomoe fidgeted uncomfortably.

"That's way too scary," Madoka finally spoke, placing the package of snacks down on the table in front of her. "That folklorist he works with... aren't... aren't ghosts better off left alone?"

Misaki rolled her eyes. "They're boys; they won't leave anything alone until they've poked it enough to get the reaction they want."

"But aren't you going with them?" Madoka asked, and worry tinged her voice.

Misaki sighed. "Yeah. I'm going with them. I have to make sure Yuu and Kei don't do anything stupid. Besides, I have to make sure they don't break my camera."

Madoka's face fell and she scooted closer to Misaki. "You shouldn't! I mean... not... not if there really are ghosts there."

"I can handle myself," Misaki stated, and wished she felt as confident as she managed to sound. Dealing with ghosts, with old folklore, was always an iffy proposition. Sometimes, the lingering emotions were harmless. Sometimes, they were not. "Look, if it's such a problem, then talk to Big Sister while I'm gone. She'll always know what's going on."

Madoka frowned, and Misaki looked around, realizing all the girls were giving her varying degrees of confused stares, except Ruka. Some part of her had the thought that only Ruka understood the weird connection she had to Sakuya, and even then, it was only because Ruka had a strong enough sense to feel what it was that linked people to Sakuya in the first place.

"She'll probably be calling me more often than my mother?" Misaki added, knowing it was the truth, but also knowing it wasn't entirely the reason. "She'll be staying, because Ayako just got back in tonight."

Madoka paled, and Ruka reached out a hand from where she sat on the piano bench, setting it on Madoka's shoulder comfortingly. When Madoka looked over to her, Ruka merely nodded; she would be there, even if Misaki was not. Marie and Tomoe had similar expressions, and it made Madoka relax, just a little.

It was after dark before the girls left Ruka's house, and Misaki was the last one out. Madoka attempted to linger as long as she could, but eventually had to give up when her mother called her for a fifth time, and bid them all goodbye. Misaki and Ruka had stayed, speaking with each other over various things, until Misaki realized that she, too, should head home.

Misaki walked to her home in contemplative silence, worrying over the slowly growing fear in her stomach, and was seized by the urge to turn from her door and go down the block to the Haibara house. Sakuya would be feeling it, Misaki knew. Sakuya would feel the same thing and would be able to talk her out of the irritable mood she was slowly delving deeper and deeper into...

Misaki checked the sky, and found the moon high into it, practically full, and scowled. It was too late - she'd just be a burden if she went to Sakuya now, and the last thing she needed was to wake Ayako up. She would not be like a young child that had a bad dream, even though she could feel the nightmare at the vestiges of her consciousness. It was always so unpleasant knowing one was coming, but being helpless to stop it. Staying awake never helped, either, because then she started hallucinating.

Instead, she silently unlatched her front door, closed and locked it behind her as she stepped inside, and padded quietly through the dim, familiar hallways and up the old staircase to her bedroom on the top floor. Once within, she turned the light on, and immediately went to the bookshelf perched on the wall above her bed.

Because there, seated on the edge, was a short-haired doll in a black dress.

"Miya..." Misaki mumbled, reaching up and carefully pulling the doll down. Yes, if Sakuya couldn't be there, Miya could. Miya would always help her; that was why Miya was there. Miya was warmth and comfort when the nightmares came. Some part of Misaki felt a little embarrassed that something from her childhood was still some kind of a safety net with her nearly graduated from high school. However, Miya was not an ordinary doll... and anyone that tried to convince her otherwise was wrong. Miya was something else; a part of her, a part of Sakuya. Misaki had gone through a brief period of embarrassment around the time she was 13 or 14 realizing that the way she had named the doll was the way parents typically named their children, and that Sakuya had gone along with it without a word. But now, that little embarrassment was over. It had just been her as a child thinking of a way to name the doll that wasn't too complicated, and didn't make her stretch her limited knowledge of kanji too far. Sea and night were just fine.

Misaki checked her room one more time, closing her eyes to feel for any errant emotional spikes, ensuring nothing had picked up on her sense and followed her, then quietly slipped into bed, a cold dread settled in her stomach. The emotion was entirely her own, and it made the process of falling asleep annoyingly difficult.

She was greeted on the other side by whispers. An entire crowd of faceless, masked people stood around her, staring at her. She was on a stage; right in the center. She couldn't see anyone's eyes, but she could feel their emotions; sadness, loneliness, despair, sudden spikes of fear. The crowd began to shrink in toward her - nothing moved but the shadows converged atop her, until she could hear people breathing, gasping, labored, painful breaths, whimpers of pain...

"Misaki."

The sound was so relieving that Misaki didn't so much jump as she whirled at the voice, and found a girl around her age. Even with the crowd closing in, Misaki felt herself relax just at the sight of the other non-masked person in the room. The girl had a short, but different hair cut from Misaki.

And she wore the same clothes as the doll Miya.

"Follow me, Misaki."

Misaki moved obediently, even though she could feel the frigid breaths of the crowd on the back of her neck, down her shirt. She shivered, and fought the urge to look back.

No, she needed to follow Miya. Miya would keep her safe. Miya wouldn't let the ghosts get to her.

Miya disappeared through a door - just walked right through it, and Misaki jogged a few steps to catch up, not realizing Miya had managed to get so far ahead of her. She reached for the door, jiggling the handle, only to realize the door was locked. She shoved against it, the panic welling up again, and the sounds of the crowd once again converging behind her-

"Over here."

Misaki didn't bother to look first, she jogged toward the voice, forcing herself to remain calm, as panicking was not going to help anyone. The voice had come from near a far smaller, sliding rice paper door. Misaki hit the door and threw it open, barreling through with little regard to what was on the other side, and slammed it shut behind her.

Just like that, the sounds of the crowd disappeared. But Misaki realized she didn't know where she was.

That had been the Kagura stage before... but where was she now?

It looked like a side-room or closet. There were a couple pushed-aside silk screen dividers in the room, and a closet in the back with dressers and an ornate kimono box. When Misaki looked to her left, she saw a lattice overlooking an entranceway - a dirt entranceway, meaning it was an old house.

Except, the only way to get to the other room was to go through the door she'd just come through. Somehow, it was the most natural thing in the world to walk back through the door, even though it had just led to the kagura stage.

There was a large gathering room on the other side. She had been right in assuming it was an old-style Japanese house. A staircase led to the second floor on her left side, but, as she thought, there was a door to her right that led to the entrance. She didn't bother to explore the house; something told Misaki she should leave immediately.

She walked swiftly toward the door, but was stopped by rapid thuds, creaking from the boards, and it was heading right toward her. She turned in time to see a man dressed in a white kariginu, or something like it, with a blood-stained white veil over his eyes. He rushed at her with a cleaver in one hand, but just as he raised it to strike her down, something caught his hand, and Misaki was relieved to find Miya holding him steady.

It seemed remarkably easy for her to do.

"Go, Misaki."

Misaki didn't need to be told twice, and she was out the door in a flash, even though she felt the painful pull, the painful emptiness of leaving Miya behind. It was one thing when Miya disappeared on her own, but when Misaki tried to move away from the manifestation, she hurt. Hopefully Miya'd be alright with that... with...

Whoever that was.

Even if she missed Miya, Misaki needed to move forward. The door to the outside led not to what Misaki thought would be the outside, but instead, to a long hallway in what she could only assume was another hallway. She moved down it as quickly as she was safely able - the floor creaked and thudded and groaned with every step and at some point she'd forgotten she was dreaming because some sense of self-preservation told her not to step on any of the weaker looking areas lest she hurt herself.

There were two doors at the end of the hallway, and she stepped through one to find herself in a room with a projector and a screen. It wasn't like the projector in the dining room of Rougetsu Hall, where they showed movies on weekends for tourists and natives alike during dinner. The room was cold, small, and empty, and all that it contained was the projector.

The projector came alive as soon as the door closed behind Misaki - not of her volition: It showed a mirror, and whoever held the camera recording for the projector was slowly walking toward it.

Unfortunately, whoever they were, they did not cast a reflection. Misaki swallowed, but found herself watching, transfixed. The unknown cameraperson stepped closer and closer to the mirror, until she could see the reflection of ropes hanging behind the person from beams in the ceiling of the long hallway.

The closer the person got to the mirror, the tenser Misaki felt herself wind until her legs were cramping and her fingernails bit into her palms.

Then, there was a reflection in the mirror, and it appeared to be a woman, ropes hanging from her limbs and her throat. She began to float through the mirror, first her hand, reaching out, then the rest of her. Whoever held the camera didn't move, and Misaki almost didn't either, until the hand started to come through the wall from the projector screen. The sound of stretching and straining ropes filled the room, and whispers just beyond the range of Misaki's hearing, along with the sound like someone breathing into her ear.

Her heart jumped into her throat, and she turned for the door, fumbling with the knob before managing to get it open and running out and into the hallway behind her. The hall was different this time, but the sound of someone breathing in her ear remained, spurring her onward, up stairs that just seemed to appear out of nowhere as she traversed the hall, around the landing, up the second flight, she didn't bother to stop and think that action had caused her to redouble on her route and that ghosts could float through walls. A second landing, and then she saw the laundry room of Haibara Hospital next to her; a place she only recognized due to the time she had spent as a child playing hide-and-seek and exploring the hospital. She was coming to the roof... but there was no going back. Not with whatever it was behind her, creaking ropes and painful, cold breathing against her ear.

She burst through the metal door, ignoring the way the hinges wailed and made another cold chill run down her back, and made her way through the hanging sheets on the roof, running for the far edge, running, running so fast and so hard that she didn't realize that the railing was right in front of her on the other side of a sheet, and she didn't have time to stop. She was going to hit the railing and if she was unlucky crash over the edge and...

The rope stretching hit a crescendo, there was a snapping noise, and suddenly, something cold seized Misaki in a painful grip, first by the wrist, and then by her middle. She was caught by the ropes! Her mind flared in panic, in terror, and she tried to scream -

"Misaki! Wake up!"

She hit sudden resistance, rebounded backward as whatever had grabbed her was pulled forward simultaneously and she found herself in a tight, warm grip that was not suffocating ropes but smelled so familiar; floral and sweet all at once with a tinge of something ethereal and unexplainable, holding her back from the edge...

"Miya?" She knew the feeling, the sensation, the emotion, it was...

"Misaki! Wake up!"

Misaki was vaguely aware that whoever was holding her was trembling.

"I'm... Miya? I am awake...?"

"No, you're not fully awake. Wake up, you're safe now," the voice was so gentle, but it shook with fear and tears. It was Miya, it had to be, there was no one else that knew her like this, and no one else that could find her-

Sakuya.

The name came unbidden from the depths of Misaki's mind and suddenly, with a horrified gasp, she looked up to see the moon above her, the sheets beyond, Sakuya before her...

... And the railing keeping her from tumbling to her own death behind her.

"Big Sister..."

The last thing she saw clearly, before her eyes welled up with tears she wasn't entirely sure were from Sakuya or herself was half the night staff of the hospital grouped up, whispering, awe-struck to each other, one of the nurses holding Miya.

A/N: I... totally forgot to upload this chapter on Monday. Sorry, all! Enjoy chapter 10 - I had the most fun writing this one of any chapter yet!