Usual disclaimer: I did not create Fruits Basket. Et cetera.

Here's the next chapter. Right on schedule, and posting near midnight as usual. I keep odd hours. If you can, try and guess where it's taking place, and what exactly is with all that Hana goes through. Be interesting to hear about it in reviews, if you would be so kind:) Hana is playing a rather larger part than I had previously planned for her; I am, amazingly enough, not the biggest fan of the "wave girl", but I didn't know where I was going in this chapter and so she lit the way...

"Hana!" Tohru screamed, grabbing at her friend with both hands. "Hana!"

Mayuko lifted Hana's head off the ground and cradled her in her arms.

"Hana, wake up. Wake up, Hana." Mayuko tried to keep her voice calm. She knew that the goth had "wave powers", as the other students called them, but she had never actually seen her use them, or be affected by them. The teacher slapped Hana's face gently. This wasn't good.

Uo rubbed Hana's hands, and Tohru stroked her hair, sobbing. "Hana. Hana, wake up. Please,wake up."

Hana was somewhere she didn't want to be. She didn't want to be here at all. She was in hell. Pain ripped her soul away, tearing her to pieces that dissolved on a flaming wind and then resolved to fly back in her face, mocking her with her fragility. There was fire everywhere, fire that simultaneously froze and burned, cheating her of any one sensation, any certainty. She was dark and light at once, joyous and agonized, loved and hated, beautiful and hideous, powerful and helpless. Everything made sense, and nothing did. Her soul was being shredded. If she stayed here much longer she would be gone.

She struggled against the wind that was trapping her here, forcing herself against its lethal strands, desperate. She felt herself disintegrating in its grasp…

A hand reached out and pulled her out of it. Hana gasped, doubled over. She could still feel the wind, but it was no longer killing her. She wished it had. Where she was now was even worse.

It was dark and clammy, slick with oily blackness that covered everything. Hana didn't dare open her eyes; she knew the oil would cover them immediately. The blackness was so heavy that she couldn't breathe. Hana wheezed frantically, trying to get something in her, but oil filled her lungs with each breath. It was drowning her, collapsing her veins.

"………….hold……..on………" A voice muttered harshly. Something was pressed over her face, and she found that she could breathe again. She greedily sucked the air in, only to have it cause the oil in her lungs to bubble and churn. Hana screamed, filling herself with oil. A different voice whispered around her, coming from every direction and none, brushing gently against her oil-slick ears.

"…………calm………"

"……………………………….down…………………………"

"…………………………..miss……………………………………"

"………………………"

"……………Hanajima……."

Hana shuddered, keeping her eyes shut. She felt a hand flutter against her face, trying to touch her and yet almost unable to. She shrank back only to sink deeper into the oil, until only her head was above it. Hana tried to tread oil, but her body wasn't floating. It was sinking deeper. Deeper…she shut her mouth tight to force away the scream that would choke her to death. The voices were whispering all around her, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. It was horrible. She pressed her hands tight over her mouth to stop the next scream. She couldn't stand it.

"……it's…………………all……………….right………." A third voice became intelligible to her, closer this time, almost caressing. "……………..you'll…….be…….."

"…………fine……."

Hana recognized that voice. Recognized it and clutched at it as her only salvation.

"Shigure?" She whispered, barely opening her mouth. Oil seeped in at the corners. The voice quivered around her, brushing wearily against her, so lightly that it was almost intangible.

"………..open………….your………………eyes…………………"

Hana trembled. "I can't." Her voice became shrill. "It'll come! I know it'll come! It'll kill me!"

"……….open………..your……………….eyes………………." The voice repeated, sounding fainter than before. The other two voices, now joined by at least ten others, beat lightly in the back of her consciousness, begging her for something, but she couldn't understand what. They were too weak for her to hear. She couldn't even recognize them, whoever they were.

"…………………..Hana………………………."

Shigure's voice was fading, almost incomprehensible now, joining the others outside. She clutched at him with both hands, not wanting him to go, not wanting to be left in this horrible place. Not wanting him to be alone. Not wanting him to diminish as the others had.

"Shigure!"

Hana opened her eyes.

As she had expected, the oil immediately began to cover them. She began to shake uncontrollably. It felt horrible.

And he wasn't there.

"Shigure!"

Something passed gently over her eyes, wiping away the oil. It hurt—whatever it was was rough—but she could see. She blinked and cried. The oil wasn't covering her eyes anymore. It covered everything else, but not her eyes. Hana realized suddenly that she hadn't been breathing. Why wasn't she dead?

"………………..you're………………not…………………in……………….the…………world………………."

"Shigure?" Hana cried. "Where am I?" The oil was no longer seeping into her as she spoke. She didn't know why, and didn't want to know why. Only that it was happening. That was enough. She didn't want to know the reasons why anymore. Ever.

"……Hana….you…..have………to……….warn…………………….."

"Warn who?" Hana asked, searching out in the darkness with her hands. She didn't understand what good opening her eyes would do. She couldn't see anything! Why had he told her to open them in the first place if she couldn't see!

"………………..TOHRU…………..." One of the other voices screamed. The scream went on and on, unending, without breath. Hana was flung backwards into the oil by the force of it, sinking into the pool. It was covering her eyes again, and filling her lungs. Drowning her. She screamed before she could stop herself, vomiting up the oil only to have more fill her throat. The voices rose frenetically, beating at the screaming voice, forcing it to silence. Hana gasped. The oil receded, and after a quick brush of pain her eyes were cleared again. Her throat emptied, and she was able to breathe again.

"…warn………..Tohru…" Shigure paused. Hana heard him gasping for breath, wet gasps that sounded almost like…

"Shigure? Are you…are you all right? Shigure!" Hana felt a small amount of oil begin to pour into her opening mouth, but she ignored it. Almost.

"……..must…….we……….aren't……….there…….." He paused. "……….open……………your……………………….eyes…………….."

"What?" Hana lunged out at the darkness, trying to grasp him, but was met only with emptiness. The voices started up again, quieter this time. They were slipping away from her, fading away into the dark. And Shigure was going with them.

"Shigure!" Hana screamed. The oil was filling her again, crushing her in its liquid consummation.

They were gone.

And she was trapped here alone!

Alone.

Hana fainted.