A/N: And cue the flashbacks! Getting to know a little about Lizzie and Azza's past this chapter. Feel free to leave a review if you want. Enjoy!

'Lissette awoke to the sound of someone running like mad through the hallway past her room. The footsteps were too heavy to be Azza's, so they had to be mommies.

"Mommy? What's going on? I thought we weren't supposed to run in the house?" She asked, yawning as she stepped out into the hall.

"Lizzie, sweetheart, go wait with your sister. Mommy will be back in a minute, there's been an incident outside."

"Mommy why do you look so worried?"

"Please Lissette, just go wait with your sister. It'll be fine, both of you just go to sleep and I'll be back inside before you know it."

"Okay…but be careful."

"I will sweetie, just go back to sleep." With those words, Ruriko kissed her youngest daughter on the forehead, and ran out of the house, while Lissette went to her sister's room like she'd been told.

"Sis? Are you awake?" She asked, poking her head in through the doorway. Azza just groaned and turned over, muttering something about Jiggles, the ayakashi that had developed a Jell-O addiction since becoming one of the ones that their mother had tamed.

"Azza, mama says I'm supposed to sleep with you tonight."

"No Jiggles…that's my Jell-O…go find your own." Her sister replied, still dreaming. Lissette took the response as a go ahead, and crawled under the covers with her sister, shutting her eyes in an attempt at sleep.'

Lissette awoke from the dream with a slight start, almost wishing that Raizou was there…not that she needed the ayakashi to fall back asleep…he just tended to make the process a bit faster. She was glad that she'd woken up before the nightmare had actually finished, but she knew the ending all too well regardless. It was the same nightmare that she'd had for years, which for a long time had caused her to wake up screaming every time she closed her eyes. It was more of a memory than it was a nightmare though.

She got out of bed, knowing she wouldn't be sleeping again anytime soon, grabbed a sketchbook and a pencil, and walked out onto the balcony. She sat down and flipped to a fresh page, looking at her surroundings for something interesting to draw. Finding nothing of interest on the ground, she looked up at the full moon, staring back at her, surrounded by stars. She started outlining the faint shapes in the darkened sky, thinking about how much quieter this town was at night compared to the last place she'd stayed in for longer than a month.

He mind strayed back to the dream that she'd awoken from, glad that no one was there to see the stray tear fall from her eye, down her cheek, and onto the old t-shirt that she wore to sleep in. The rest of the memory began to flow over her, and she let it. What was the point when she'd end up recalling it as soon as she did manage to go back to sleep?

'"Lizzie? What are you doing in my bed?" Azza asked, having finally been awoken by the other presence in her bed.

"Mommy told me to come sleep in here with you. She went outside a while ago and told me to sleep with you." The younger sibling answered, stretching a little.

"Why'd she go outside?"

"She said there'd been an incident."

"What kind of incident?"

"I don't know, I didn't ask."

"Why not?!"

"I-I don't know." Lissette sniffled, not used to her sister yelling at her like this. Azza sighed, trying to calm herself down some.

"I'm sorry for yelling Lizzie." She said, getting out of bed "Maybe we should go see if Mama needs help."

"But she said to stay inside sis."

"She might be in trouble Lizzie! We should go check on her and the ayakashi!" Azza reasoned, pulling on a pair of pants underneath her nightie.

"Okay…but if we get yelled at, it's your fault."

"Fair enough, now go get dressed!"

Lissette did as her older sibling said, going back to her room long enough to get dressed, then meeting Azza at the end of the hallway.

"I've got a bad feeling about this Azza…"

"It'll be fine Lizzie. We'll just go see what's taking Mama so long, and then we'll all come back inside and go back to bed. Okay?"

"…Okay, but I still don't like it."

Azza opened the outside door, and led her outside.

"Let's stick together, just in case." Azza told her, gripping her hand. Her own hand was cold and sweaty, showing her younger sister that she was just as terrified as she was. Lissette nodded, not wanting to be alone when there was probably something scary out in the garden somewhere. They started walking, shouting for their mother.

"…Hey Azza?"

"What Lizzie?"

"Where are all of the ayakashi?" Lissette asked, noticing that the garden, normally teeming with life at this hour, was oddly quiet.

"…Maybe they overslept."

"This late?"

"I don't know, I….Oh no, Jiggles!" Azza dropped her sister's hand and ran towards the body of the little bat-like, Jell-O addicted ayakashi, gingerly picking him up. "Lizzie he's not breathing! And he's all bloody!"

"Poor Jiggles, I wonder what happened to him." Lissette said, standing next to her sister in their mourning of Jiggles.

"If I'd known this would happen to him…I would had shared more of my Jell-O with him!" Azza said, crying.

"That's okay Azza, I gave him all of my Jell-O for you. I don't really like Jell-O anyways."

Lissette watched her sister for a minute, then crouched down and started digging a little hole.

"What's that for Lizzie?"

"It's for Jiggles." She explained, reaching out for the dead ayakashi to lie in the makeshift grave "We can bring him some Jell-O after we find Mama."

Azza sniffed and nodded, helping her sister lay him in the hole and cover him up, using pebbles to make a little J over the mound of earth. They stayed crouched for a moment, until Azza stopped crying.

"Come on" Lissette said, standing up and holding out a hand to her sister "Let's go find Mama."

"…Yeah, let's find her." Azza replied, taking the hand as her sister helped her back up. They started walking, silently this time, a nagging fear growing in Lissette.

"Hey sis, you don't think Mama's gonna end up like Jiggles, do you?"

"No!" Azza insisted sounding shocked that her sibling would even think something like that "Jiggles was a lot smaller than Mama, and he was slower too! Mama can get away from whatever it is that got Jiggles!"

"Yeah, you're probably right. Sorry."

"It's okay…I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"Let's just find Mama and go back inside."'

Lissette snapped herself out of the memory, not able to handle it as well as she'd thought she would. Her eyes felt puffy, and tired, and her shirt, along with her drawing, was soaked with tears. They had indeed found their mother that night, but Azza had been wrong. Jiggles hadn't even been a warm-up for what had killed their mother. All of the ayakashi that had tried to defend her had died as well, most of them, unlike Jiggles, had been sliced at least in half.

The thing that had killed her mother and the ayakashi, was the same thing that had taken Azza. It wasn't until she'd taken her search for her sister back up, that she'd learned its name. Kaguro. If she had to go through an entire horde of ayakashi to get to him, and find out where her sister was, then so be it. She'd do whatever she had to in order to reunite what little family she had left, even if it meant killing the member that had broken it in the first place.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Lissette was hiding something. Gen knew that her mother had died when she was seven, and that her sister had disappeared the same night, as did a good number of the Night Troops. She'd never told anyone how it had happened, or where her father had been at the time. Hell she'd never even mentioned having a father.

'"You can't trust anyone but yourself, especially when it comes to her."' The ayakashi from the confrontation that morning's words rang through his head, making him wonder about that last part. How could he possibly know anything about Lissette, let alone whether or not she was trustworthy? What was the connection between those two?

For one thing, they were both fast, and used similar, if not the same kind of blades to fight. Could they be related somehow? She'd already confirmed that the guy had something to do with her sister's disappearance, so had he had something to do with their mother's death too? Or was it possible that he was just overthinking this, and should just confront her about it? Would confronting her even do anything at this point?

"What's the point?" The egg again. He'd been wondering how long it was going to take it to chime in. "Do you still think that she'll actually stay this time? She left before. Once she gets what she's after, what's keeping her from leaving again?"

"Shut up" He muttered in reply. This day had been weird enough. He didn't need the talking egg's input.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Byaku, she'll be destroyed if you take her with you!"

"No she won't. She'll be riding with the Princess. The only reason that she's even going is to keep her entertained until we can claim Karasumori. So long as she stays where she's told, she'll be fine."

Azza had known about the meeting discussing Karasumori that day, and the opportunity to eavesdrop was hard to resist. They'd been talking about that patch of land for the past year or so, but no one would tell her anything intentionally, so this was the only way for her to keep herself informed. Once the meeting had ended, she'd followed Byaku and Miss Aihi, and couldn't help feel a mix of curiosity, excitement, and guilt. The curiosity and excitement were due to the fact that she'd been trapped there for seven years and hadn't been able to leave once. The guilt was because, from the sound of things, Miss Aihi wouldn't be able to go with her, even though she'd been trapped for so much longer. But if the mission was a success, she might be able to come later, right? It would be a nice change for both of them.

"Hey" The sudden voice almost caused Azza to shriek and loose her grip on the bottom of the bridge. She paled as she looked to see Kaguro watching at her.

"Gotta say kid, I didn't take you for an eavesdropper." He told her "Let alone one that was so easily startled."

"First of all, you're the last one I expected to sneak up on me." She replied, in an unfriendly tone, trying to make it sound like she wasn't tempted to just drop from the support beams of the bridge and make a run for it. "Second, you don't really know enough about me to make any kind of judgments like that, so go away."

"Oh, so you do have guts. Good, I don't like talking to cowards."

"Go to Hell."

"…A little rude, don't you think?" He frowned. Her palms were sweating enough that she was afraid she'd fall.

"Considering you killed my mother, and then kidnapped me, that's one of the nicer things I'd have to say to you." He laughed. She almost wished she'd gotten caught by Miss Aihi, or even Byaku, at this point. Out of all the ayakashi here, why did it have to be the one that she'd avoided since she'd arrived?

"You're almost as gutsy as that little sister of yours! Ran into her earlier today, looks like she's learned how to use those blades of hers!" He told her. …He'd seen Lizzie? She was alive?! Azza didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified for her sister.

"Kaguro, stop harassing my assistants. You've already cost me one of them find someone else's subordinates to mess with. Azza, what are you even doing down there?"

"Um…just trying to see how long I could hang here without losing my grip." Kaguro almost laughed at the excuse that even Azza knew was pathetic. Miss Aihi sighed.

"Eavesdropping again I see. I suppose it just makes things that much quicker, as I don't have to explain the situation to you. Try to stop making a habit of it though."

"Yes ma'am"

"And come out from underneath there. I need your help in my lab."

"Of course, I'll be right there." Azza told her. She started working her way along the support beams until she reached the edge then swung herself over the railing. She glanced behind her as she went with Miss Aihi back to the lab, somewhat relieved when she saw he wasn't following them.