A/N: Hello everyone! I am finally back with Chapter 10 of Scarlet Moonlight! So... I don't know if any of you have noticed, but I changed the cover for my story! Please take a look at it, and tell me what you think about it. I honestly think that it's WAY better, but I don't care about my opinion! I care about your's! So please, be honest and send me a review or PM. So the last chapter ended with quite the cliffhanger, and so I'll stop with my nonstop author's note and lets get on with the story!

Standing there, Aye could not do anything but stay frozen in place. At that second when Hijikata-san was about to be stabbed by the Oni, someone jumped in. Kazama's katana pierced through the person's shoulder, splattering blood here and there.

"Chizuru!" The two Shinsengumi members yelled. The blonde man's eyes widened, but showed no sign of surprise other than that.

Rushing towards the brunette, Aye limped as she suddenly felt her whole body about to give up. But she was cut short when Chizuru's eyes turned gold and a blue aura swept around her. Now, shocked and in pain, Aye dropped onto the ground.

Her eyes threatened to close at the moment when she was most needed. She needed to save Chizuru. Needed to kill Kazama. But her body would not listen. She felt as if some force was sucking out her soul. Her life.

Was she going to die here?

She couldn't afford to. She still had so many things to do. There wasn't anything that was impossible for her. She would live. She had to live.

But as if her body was doing the exact opposite of her mind, she dropped everything.

Dark. Dark and cramped. Aye reached her hands out, but only felt edges and walls. Outside of wherever she was, she could hear murmurs. Something fell, and it kept falling. Every time, it landed right above her face, but she couldn't feel anything.

Then suddenly, silence. The silence was so loud; she thought nothing like this could ever exist. The stillness of everything suddenly so painful, tears streamed down her cheek—no, more like poured down her cheek. Now, the only sound available was her quiet sobs, and soon, her whole body felt as if it were about it rip into pieces.

She was in a coffin.

She didn't know where that knowledge came from, but it was just in her head. It reminded herself that she was dead. Why? But there was only one answer to the question.

Herself.

She had killed herself. She was weak, and had been too careless. It was nobody's fault, but her own.

Knocking on the front as hard as she could, she punched and punched. When she realized that was not enough, she started screaming.

"I'm alive! Let me out!" She yelled, as she began to panic. Her breathing came in short pants, and her eyelids were slowly closing. No, she couldn't die. Not here. The oxygen in her lungs began to run out, and her eyes slammed shut.

Birds chirped, and a stream of warm sunlight hit her eyes. Aye was lying down, peacefully on her futon at the Shinsengumi headquarters.

'Was it all a dream?'

But then she realized she was forgetting a huge point. Kazama was probably still in the compound, after Chizuru. Sitting up, she noticed that her whole body was wrapped with white cloth, and that blood was seeping through. All at once, everything hit her. The pain, and memories of when the Oni's attacked.

'Was Chizuru safe? What had happened?'

Aye had no memory of anything after she watched Chizuru heal herself in her Oni state.

Barely able to move, Aye pulled herself towards the door, and slid it open. When she did, she found herself looking at someone's feet. She probably looked pathetic right now, sprawled on the floor. She looked up, and her gray eyes met with emerald green ones.

"Okita-san?" Squeaked Aye.

Then, a few footsteps rushed towards them. Saito-san and Nagakura-san were standing there, wide-eyed.

"I knew she wouldn't die," Okita-san said, grinning.

"How are you feeling?" Asked Saito-san, earning him a nudge from the big man next to him.

"I feel… great," laughed Aye. She tried her best to seem like she was fine—which she really wasn't. But even when she tried to brighten up the mood, nobody believed her. "Just… kidding?"

"Aye-chan!" Chizuru yelled, getting on her knees as she spotted the girl on the ground. "Thank god you're alright," she whispered, as tears fell down from her beautiful eyes.

"Chizuru? Are you all right? The last thing I remember is—" Aye started, but stopped when she felt too tired to say anything. She winced, and was released from Chizuru's tight embrace.

"Let me tell you about that,"

Asking the others to give them time to talk, Aye and Chizuru were the only ones in the room now. Making sure that Aye was in a comfortable position lying down, Chizuru started to talk about what had happened after Aye had blacked out.

"You… downright rejected him?" Aye asked, quite surprised that Kazama would actually respect Chizuru's opinion.

Only nodding, Chizuru put a towel on Aye's forehead.

"You're not fully healed yet. You shouldn't tire yourself."

There was a knock on the door, followed by Harada-san's voice.

"I'm coming in," he said as he opened the door. A cool breeze ran inside, touching Aye's hot and sweaty face. Harada-san was grinning like an idiot, and was holding a tray with food on top of it.

"Harada-san," Aye greeted, and was going to sit up, but was pushed back down with a gentle hand.

"No need to get up, I just came here to drop off some food." He said. "We don't want you up again but starved to death, right?"

Aye didn't know how he did it. But Harada-san always managed to brighten up the mood no matter how bad the situation was.

It was night, and Aye kept her door open on purpose, just to see the stars. The stars always seemed to calm her down, and make her able to relax. They were like a map to her. A map for her to look up to when she was lost.

She was currently lying down on her futon, thinking of all the times she thought she would die. But she never did. Was it because she was a Rasetsu? Or was it just somebody saving her all the time? There were so many questions in her mind, that she got a slight headache.

Closing her eyes, Aye slipped into the world where anything could happen.

Hehehehe :D So this chapter's ending isn't much of a cliffhanger. If anything, it's not a cliffhanger at all. So this chapter was really boring, and I'm sorry about that... :(

In the next chapter, Aye will PROBABLY be in Shimabara (not sure...).

ILoveKuramaTooMuch: I really don't know how to thank you... You have wrote such nice reviews, and not only that. They were like... A paragraph long. Whenever I see your review, I seriously feel like crying. But not in the bad way. Because I'm so touched and happy that someone actually reads my story and thinks about it... :') Your reviews always make my day, and whenever I feel down or bad about my book, I look at your review and everything becomes okay again! :) I know, I know, that's kinda weird, relying on just ONE person. But to me it's so much. So I know that I probably said this 1000000 times already, but THANK YOU SO MUCH! Please keep up with me and my story until the end!

Everyone, thank you, and see you next week!