Hi, my poppets! Sorry for the delay. Personal things at home will cause me to be delayed as I am returning to school for creative writing. o3o

The air had a brittle tang of death. The sky was such a violent shade of dark gray it almost seemed to be night. Gia let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding as she sat outside of Yusuke's apartment. After the group had separated with plans to search for Hikari's parents, Gia took possession of the notebook containing every single inch of Hikari's soul upon its pages. Even going through what little they had, Gia had not gotten the closure needed for her to consider letting go of this insanity that seemed to keep brewing.

Zeri, on the other hand, seemed to have gotten weaker with what little knowledge they've found in the notebook. Keiko had put her on bed rest and Zeri complied, knowing that Keiko could be fearsome when necessary. Yusuke stayed inside just in case of Zeri having an episode of night terrors. Gia knew Zeri would want to go through Hikari's notebook too, but Gia felt that this wouldn't help Zeri's condition any more than it would clarify why Hikari kept things from her friends.

Looking at the book in her lap, Gia raised a shaking hand to the cover, opening the notebook to see the photographs that decorated the inside. Hikari never had a camera of her own, so whatever pictures were taken she would want a copy to keep. Exhaling another breath, Gia turned the pages, going past the babble about Azazel. She barely skimmed the pages that seemed to have incomprehensible gibberish and paused when a particular date was etched on top of the page.

It was the day when she had returned from being around Hiei, trying to be stone, but the tears were evident in her eyes. Gia stilled, her body going completely cold. Hikari was never open about her true feelings, but reading them on this stained page, only added another dimension to the girl they knew.

"All I wanted was to show him that acceptance was possible. That he had it. But he only pushed me away. At that moment, I knew what that agonizing tearing of my heart really meant. I knew what my feelings for him were, but I didn't care if he accepted those feelings. I wasn't looking for him to do that. I wanted to give him a safe place—and the only way I knew to do so was to show him the physical manifestation of my soul."

Gia swallowed thickly before she turned the page. Whatever pushed Hikari to her emotionally dark place; she had written about Zeri and Gia, about everyone else, including her own helplessness…

"I want to tell them what I see, that I see Azazel. But Azazel is crafty. All I want is to keep Zeri and Gia, Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, Hiei…everyone. I don't want them to die or lose their minds like mama and daddy had. I don't want them to be murdered like Chika was. I don't want to watch my friends die. It's so wrong of me to keep this from them all, but how can I? I can't risk their lives. As selfish as it is, I can't let Azazel know that every single one of them is every possible weakness. But I sense Azazel knows. He always knows. And I'm scared. I'm terrified that I will not be able protect them in the end."

"Oh, Kari…" Gia whispered, tears pricking her eyes, threatening to fall. "Why couldn't you come to us sooner?"

The question would never be answered. Hikari was terrified, which was why she hadn't told anyone about Azazel. What she hadn't divulged was what Azazel even was from what she could see…

But she had just skimmed the pages with the name. Gia backtracked, shifting through the pages, but all she found were the vague "Azazel is always watching", over and over and over, Hikari's handwriting becoming sloppy.

Always watching….

Always there…

Getting closer…

Gia let out a frustrated scream, burying her face into her hands. Azazel had such a grip on Hikari that it frustrated her to no end! What was she supposed to even do to help? Angry tears spilled over her cheeks in scorching her skin as she dug her teeth into her lower lip deep enough to draw bleed.

"Woman, if you draw any blood, you may catch attention from a demon with less inhibitions." The cold voice that Gia was so familiar with caused her to raise her head and glared into the empty space before her. She could sense him to her right, but refused to grace him with even a glance. "What are you even doing here? You've proved that you don't care about her. You pick every chance you get to run the minute she gets under your skin," she spit the words out with venom, wanting the demon male to understand the hurt that was rooted into her very bones.

Silence met her words, hanging in the air like an accusation. Who was Gia kidding, her words were an accusation; Hiei would be there, then left the minute Hikari got into his head. She knew that he knew that and she was in no mood to let him off the hook for it. "Why aren't you answering me, Hiei? I know you're there. I know she's in your head."

"You don't know anything. Don't act like you do." Hiei's tone was cold, biting. It was the harshness that was familiar, but there had to be something underlying it, something that made it crueler than anything he's ever said to Gia, Zeri, his comrades, and even Hikari.

"You feel guilty, don't you? For making her cry that day?" Gia whispered, looking at the pages as her tears fell steadily like water from a faucet. Silence yet again answered her and she was sure that Hiei had probably taken off for the Makai to dwell in working for one of the former Three Kings.

Hiei knew Gia could sense him, but her emotional state was fracturing worse than Zeri's mentality. Her feelings had clouded her senses, so she assumed he had gone when he was there, standing on the branch of the tree by Yusuke's apartment. It was barely considered a relief, but it had left Hiei to his thoughts. Gia accused him of not caring, of coming and going, of carrying guilt over Hikari. He shouldn't care, he didn't want to care, but it bothered him that it was otherwise. It bothered him even more that he hadn't even heard whispers of Hikari calling out for him recently, hadn't sensed the ice that would seep into his veins when remnants of her spirit were nearby. It unnerved him more that she wasn't in his head more than when she was, that she wasn't leaving any cryptic messages.

He had been indifferent to her when she lived, he realized. Hikari's presence had sparked a myriad of feelings within him—one being unmistakably peace. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in almost a long time and it bothered him that a human girl could spark such a thing within him. With Gia challenging whatever feelings he may have held toward Hikari, irritation gripped at him with guilt underlying the crevices. Yes, Hiei felt guilt and he didn't like it. He hated the guilt that twisted within him, especially when Gia mentioned the situation where Hikari bared her soul to him through that book Gia currently had on her lap.

Hiei wasn't sure why he understood the scars etched upon Hikari's soul, but the guilt that weighed him down was that he added another one to it. He scented the tears when he rejected her, but she hadn't cried in front of him, not a drop. She only smiled at him before she left him that day, taking that mindless peace with her. Soon after, he, Yusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara had dealt with the whole Chapter Black incident and Hikari had simply faded away. She barely showed herself except for the times she had written Kurama, due to the latter's words. Her murder was almost more an accusation than a testament that she could not come to them, that her soul was so fragile that she could not bear to look them in the eye, afraid of what she'd find there.

Zeri bit hard onto her fingernails, crushing them between rows of teeth in sharp, rapid pain. Her eyes were wide, unblinking, not focused on the here and now. Her body rocked to and fro, teetering precariously to the edge of the sofa. Keiko sighed softly and wrapped her fingers gently around Zeri's wrist to tug her fingers from her mouth. Zeri's teeth tightened upon her fingers, the nails ripping sickeningly from her flesh as a splash of red dripped from her pale lips. Her dark eyes flickered to Keiko's face, not truly seeing her as her fingers dripped red.

When Yusuke went to Keiko's side, his lips twisted into a grimace. Zeri's mind seemed to be fracturing more and more lately and she disregarded the fact that she was bleeding. "Zeri," he ventured cautiously.

"Shhhh," Zeri interjected, pressing a bloody finger to her lips, smearing red onto her flesh. Her eyes glowed, manic, bloodshot. "Shhh, you'll scare her away."

"Do you mean Kari, Zeri?" asked Keiko softly. "If we're loud, she won't come."

She nodded, her lips stretching into a grin. "Azazel will let her see us if she is good."

Yusuke froze at the name, the name of the demon that has haunted Hikari. "What?"

"Azazel had to punish her…" Zeri's voice suddenly rang out twistedly, distorted. Demonic. "It was so delicious to watch."

Red blinded him and Yusuke was only aware of Keiko screaming, the door bursting open, and Zeri pinned to the floor, laughing mirthlessly. Yusuke's teeth ground together painfully, his grip on Zeri tightening.

"Urameshi, what the fuck are you doing?!" Gia's voice broke through him before he was aware of her fingers clinching around him, her grip tight as she wrenched his hand away from Zeri. But when the red faded, Yusuke took a good look at Zeri's face. Her complexion was utterly pale, her eyes wide with fear, her chest heaving as she looked back at him. "Yusuke?" she whispered.

Yusuke's own breathing was rapid, arm tensing beneath Gia's grip. "What…"

"D-Did I…what did I do?" Zeri's voice was reduced to a whimper and Keiko had rushed to her side to help her to her feet. Yusuke's gaze fell to his hand, watching it shake violently. Why did I grab her like that…?

"Did I do something?" Zeri asked, covering her mouth shakily. Gia gently took Zeri by her elbow to lift her. "No, hon, you didn't," she mumbled, her eyes flickering to Yusuke's. Yusuke saw the different emotions within hers and knew only one course of action.

They had to find Hikari's parents and fast.