Good evening, Author here. Thank you for your reviews and patience.

Mai-hime and related belong to Sunrise


Harness

Flames littered the immediate area where the Edelweiss café used to stand. Ashes rained down on the stainless steel appliances of the kitchen and littered the warped sections of the cash register. Tables were upturned and a general state of upheaval was blanketed by layers of blue and red flame. Tokiha Mai was in the middle of it all, slumped down to her knees and cradling her head as she spastically rocked back and forth. Fire licked her body in a wash of heat but her clothing and skin remained intact. The others stared at her with mixed emotions.

"I don't understand why she's reacting this badly," Natsuki muttered in a frustrated tone before turning towards their unwanted visitor. "You. You had something to do with this, didn't you?"

Nagi glared at her.

"Me? Out of everyone here I would have the least to do with anything involving Tokiha Mai," he argued with a flippant wave of his hand. "I only met the girl a week and a half ago. But you, my fine black wolf, you have been around her for years. Surely you are not so thick-headed as to ignore the poor troubles this girl has gone through?"

Natsuki pulled back and watched Mai. She knew. She wasn't so oblivious as to deny that behind that cheerful smile and can-do attitude there laid a bitter girl who wanted to be anything but.

Her brother was suffering from a heart condition and was in a hospital thousands of miles away, hopefully getting the transplant he needed. She held out on hope but Takumi had been abroad for nearly two years now. Her mother had died when she was a child, wasted away right in front of her before saying goodbye. Her father had abandoned them shortly after that. She managed to climb that mountain and shout her exuberance at the top of her lungs even as she worked her hands to the bone to keep herself afloat in this cold world. Deep down she shouldered her wordless regrets as Tate Yuichi, the one who said he would have loved her forever, got up and left much like her father had. It was turning into one vicious cycle of hope and regret.

These painful bricks mounted further and further up in Natsuki's thoughts and she shook her head roughly to clear them away. She was acutely aware of Nagi's knowing smile and wanted nothing more than to smash his face in with her fist. She held herself back with another shake of her head as she thought back on Nagi's words. That couldn't be everything in Mai's life. What of Mikoto and Reito? Natsuki could barely make their still forms out from the smoke.

What about them? They could be dead for all we know.

Dead. A lifetime of tragic milestones was burning with blue fire and the high flames of hell had risen to retake their Queen. Even Nagi began to grow a little concerned as the flames began to grow towards them.

"I have to stop this," Natsuki muttered. "I have to stop her."

"And how would you do that, may I ask?" Nagi inquired with a curious tilt of his head. "Will you fight her? Kill her, even?"

"What? No!" Natsuki turned and grabbed the boy by the collar of his coat to bring him to her eye level. "Listen here, kid!"

"Kid?" Nagi repeated. He growled. "I'm fourteen, you big oaf—"

Natsuki gave him a smart shake and his head snapped back before he could finish his statement.

"This isn't some sick game where you can go and mess around with people to see if they'll break!" she snarled over his garbled protests. "Mai's going to go to the deep end soon and she's never going to get out unless someone stops her."

"So… it's in your hands, then." Nagi placed a hand over her wrist. She was briefly surprised at how cold his fingers felt to the touch. "Go then, Kuga Natsuki. Become one with the monster within you. Leap into the fray and bury your fangs and claws into the night. You could stand maybe an hour with your phenomenal skills, but she will get you eventually. You know you won't be able to win when she does. The second she hits you with that blue flame, you'll die, plain and simple."

Nagi sighed in mild disappointment when he saw nothing but fierce rage and determination buried within Natsuki's good eye. The boy then decided to employ a different tactic. He gestured towards Shizuru and was rewarded when Natsuki flicked her gaze over towards her.

"Honestly, try not to place my cousin in any more duress than she already is," he said dolefully. "She's having a hard enough time trying to decide what to do without you running off on your own again."

He let out a yelp as his bottom encountered the frozen ground. Natsuki swallowed and turned to face Shizuru. She had yet to take her eyes off the fire that was starting to grow even larger in size. Haruka and Yukino weren't with them any longer—she had heard the boisterous call to arms from the blonde before she jetted out with Yukino still wrapped around her middle. It was just her, Shizuru, the brat, and a difficult choice.

"… Shizuru?"

Shizuru looked down at her cousin, Natsuki's whispered plea lost in the roar of the fire.

"Even if I did agree, how would you set about calming Mai-han down?" Shizuru asked in a low voice.

Nagi grumbled and hopped up to his feet.

"You would have to link with her for a few moments. Hopefully she'll take the bait in time for this."

He withdrew a capped syringe that was already filled with a clear liquid. He took in the distrust from Natsuki and frowned.

"Listen, I wouldn't want to poison her. This is just a concentrated form of the pills you took on a regular basis when you were growing up, Kuga-san. I dare say you even carry a pack with you in case something strange happens."

His was right, of course. Natsuki always carried a capped syringe similar to the one Nagi had produced. As she weighed her options Nagi shrugged and watched Mai once more. There was something strangely wistful about his sigh. But he straightened and shot Natsuki a glare when she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Nagi… I have a feeling you aren't being completely honest," Shizuru said.

"And you're observant, as always, nee-chan," Nagi replied. "But this is something that even I couldn't get out of. Just… please."

Now Natsuki and Shizuru looked at the boy with identical expressions of surprise as he sighed once more. When he looked at Mai again there was a hint of remorse underneath his pinkish eyes.

"She's going absolutely insane in there. The dance is becoming a struggle to survive beneath that cumbersome beast. That Kagutsuchi." Nagi clucked his tongue in disapproval. "You know of the legend of Kagutsuchi, do you not?"

Shizuru nodded and Natsuki looked back at Mai.

"Are you saying that the spirit will try to kill her?" Natsuki asked. "That's unlikely. A spirit needs its medium to survive."

"Then, by all means, do try to negotiate with him," Nagi replied with a grand sweep of his hand. "I'm sure he'll listen to reason."

The sardonic tone was not lost on her but she offered no response to it. Shizuru shook her head.

"I'll go with you."

Natsuki turned and gaped.

"Shizuru, don't—"

"Natsuki!"

She stiffened as Shizuru's biting tone echoed in her mind. She had never, never raised her voice like that. Shizuru seemed surprised herself but it quickly melted to a long-suffering patience when she took Natsuki by the hand.

"Do you see her, Natsuki?" Shizuru looked out towards Mai and Natsuki followed her gaze. "She is crying in there. Her heart is breaking in front of us. You are right, if we don't help her soon she will break from us and will never come back. Even if the method isn't the best, we have to help her."

"I'm not going to let you go again," Natsuki protested with a violent shake of her head. Her fingers curled around Shizuru's hands and squeezed desperately. "A year was too long, way too long."

"But you came back, Natsuki. You came back and you saved my father." Shizuru smiled a fond smile. "Now… let me do what I can to save your friend. No matter what, I will come back to you."

"… And if you can't?" Natsuki asked softly.

The smile never wavered and a hand came up to caress Natsuki's cheek. "You will just have to come get me, I suppose."

Shizuru pulled the girl in for a close hug and rested her chin on Natsuki's shoulder.

"Make a way for me," she whispered in Natsuki's ear. "Don't worry. Her flames shouldn't harm me if I touch her. Do this for me, Natsuki. For me."

Shizuru felt the muscles vibrate underneath her arms and she squeezed Natsuki tightly before loosening her grip.

"Go, Duran!"

Natsuki tore herself away from Shizuru's embrace as Duran's full-throated howl ripped from her throat. Shizuru could feel the silken fur against her fingertips before Duran left her touch. The wolf charged towards Mai as the eerie green glow from its eye lit a path through the darkness. Ice crept up to Mai's knees before her head snapped up towards the wolf. Her violet eyes registered the glow and responded with an unearthly glow of their own before she bared her teeth in an angry grimace. She threw her hands up and a jet of fire spewed out from her open palms. Duran barely dodged in time and threw up a wall of clear ice to stave off the intense heat. It melted within seconds. The wolf snorted its displeasure and looked around for another way to get close without trying to burn itself in the process.

Duran used the crumbling café as a vaulting point to kick off from the ruins and turn towards Mai. Ice gathered on its fur to form a sort of shield that spun into a sharp point when Duran twisted in mid-air. This ice drill was able to punch through the first two waves of flame as it regenerated with each turn from the abundant snow that picked up and molded itself into the cracks. The third wave crashed through the drill but Duran merely lowered its head as it bodily tackled into Mai, knocking her into a snow drift. In an instant the connection with Kagutsuchi was jarred, reducing the blue flames around her wrists and ankles to a much more manageable red.

Glittering ice and smoldering fire rained down onto the thick blanket of steam that had begun to linger on the ground. It was getting a little hard to breathe but Duran gladly went along with it. Anything was better than the searing heat of those flames. This momentary salvation from the choking fires enabled Duran to pin Mai's arms down with its large paws as its heavy hind paws buried her legs into the snow. Mai—Kagutsuchi—glared up at Duran. The snow was rapidly beginning to melt and Duran could feel the heat attempting to blister its paws as Kagutsuchi attempted to work its way back up to the outside world. Before Mai could kick the wolf off she felt a pair of hands caress her face. Shizuru's eyes were closed and if it weren't for the slight dip in her brow she would have made a perfect picture of serenity. She rested one hand on Mai's forehead and gently ran her fingers across one cheek in slow, calm strokes.

Duran began to back away when it felt the fire leaving Mai's limbs. Steam emanated from its paws as it contacted the snow once again. The wolf backtracked, sending slow tendrils of ice over the remaining fires. During its meandering Duran bumped into a soot-covered body. After turning it over Duran registered the unconscious form of Reito. The cut above his forehead had since slowed its bleeding and other than the nasty bump he would gain he was otherwise unharmed. Mikoto, likewise, was alive with what seemed to be a dislocated elbow. Duran receded and Natsuki remerged relatively intact in the winter's wasteland. She studied the awkward angle of Mikoto's arm and quickly set the elbow back into its proper place. Mikoto jumped in her unconscious state but did not wake up.

Alive. That's good.

The control that had blanketed her mind with a hazy comfort was receding in favor of Duran's rage at being called back so soon. She reached into the pocket of her pants and extracted a small silver case. Inside was a syringe markedly similar to the one Nagi carried with him. She rolled up her sleeve, uncapped the syringe, and emptied its contents into her arm. Almost immediately she felt a syrupy sensation of the medicine interacting with the beast's protests. It trickled down her mind and began to disable the switch that connected Duran's struggles with her own. The wolf panicked under this familiar feeling but soon even that rare emotion was lost in the wash of medication. Natsuki watched on in a daze as Mai jerkily sat up and began to draw Shizuru into her arms. A memory from years ago tickled the edges of her mind.

"When we make our connections, Natsuki, the only way I can establish a strong enough bond is through touch."

A pause. "Touch? Like holding hands or something?"

A giggle. "Or something, sometimes."

"… This isn't some sort of excuse to grope me at will, is it?"

"Ara, Natsuki, you make it sound as if it's some sort of punishment."

Laughter again, this time from the two of them. Easy, trivial laughter joined by the joining of hands and simple caresses.

It was a punishment to watch this. It was a punishment to watch Mai rake her fingernails against Shizuru's back in that impossibly close embrace. It trampled all over the line of courteous friendship that the two shared. Thin red lines trickled and stained the older girl's back from the force. Shizuru winced but kept her hold even as Mai's fingers nearly buried themselves into her upper back. It was punishment, but she merely stood and watched with her molasses-ridden brain and a curious silence from Duran. Soon enough the fires that Kagutsuchi called upon dwindled and the only disturbance came from the ragged sobbing of the newly-resurfaced Mai. Even that soon ceased when Nagi quietly injected the sedative into her. The boy took off his coat and laid Mai's body down on top of it before closing his coat around her as best as he could. Shizuru watched his ministrations and sighed as she stood and walked over towards Natsuki.

Rubies and emeralds passed by each other once before connecting. Shizuru could see that Natsuki was already withdrawn into her own mental prison and she closed her eyes in pain. There was no link there. Duran was mired in the medicine and Natsuki would register next to nothing now.

"Nee-chan. We need to get going."

Sirens echoed in the night, followed closely by the sound of vehicles racing towards them. Shizuru stared at Natsuki for one long moment before she reached up. She tucked several wayward strands of dark hair past her ear and clipped something silver above them to keep them in place. The unnerving silence brought with it a light gathering of snow that soon grew into heavy flakes. Shizuru grasped onto Natsuki's face with both hands before drawing close.

"I love you," she whispered.

Something flickered beneath Natsuki's eyes but there was no response. Shizuru felt something try to reach out to her and heard snatches of a mournful howl enter her mind but all was lost by the more immediate roar of the storm that was now picking up around them. Nagi waited patiently with his hands stuffed in his pockets despite the drop in temperature and his lack of a coat. His gaze never left the empty eyes of the lone wolf even as the cousins slowly disappeared within the blizzard.

I'm sorry.


The Suzushiro mansion was unusually quiet. Usually the mansion was alive with the hustle and bustle of workers but today most of had been called off to take a break with only the most dedicated staff on hand. They knew little of the reason behind the dark cloud that had cast itself over the mansion but nonetheless they continued their work in respectful silence. One would have thought that with such a dire setback the young mistress of the mansion would have torn the entirety of Fuuka apart in her quest for vengeance. Curiously enough there was nothing of the sort going on. Instead, Haruka had holed herself up in her room with Yukino and her terminal of computers, leaving a false sense of peace in place of impassioned exuberance. Answers to their problems eluded them and they hadn't slept in days, which only added to their stony silence.

The mansion had gained several new occupants for the time being. The residential ward housed three comatose patients and one drugged-up individual who merely spent her time sitting in a chair in an otherwise sparsely-furnished room that had been used for little else. Her eyes were trained to the window as she stared out in a sort of daze. Periodically she would turn over the silver hair clip in her hands to run her fingers across the stylized winged shape of it. Most of the time she sat in the lone wooden chair and waited in the quiet room. After an unsuccessful attempt to rile Natsuki up in some form of action, Haruka shook her head and tried to coax her other guests into some form of consciousness to get an answer out of them. Anything would do for now, just so she could get her own doubts purged and finally have a plan of action going instead of arriving too late to everything on hand. It was to no avail. The doctors informed her in grave tones that it would take at least several days for any of them to wake up, which left Haruka to ransack the kitchen in another snack attack. Yukino left her friend to fend off her stress and decided to go to the abandoned room down the hall from the makeshift infirmary. As an afterthought she doubled back and poured out a glass of water before leaving the kitchen once more.

She raised a hand to knock but decided against it and simply turned the doorknob. Yukino walked in and closed the door behind her with her free hand. There was no acknowledgement of her presence but she hadn't been expecting any. The two rarely spoke in general and now they shared a mutual yet tense silence as Natsuki continued to stare out the window with empty eyes. Yukino sighed at the lack of change but she remained optimistic as she set a glass of water down at the table beside the chair. She noticed the orange bottle filled with pills and frowned. For a second she thought of taking them, but if everything Natsuki had explained to them before was true, she decided she couldn't risk it.

Still… She's so dead inside.

"I'm sure that no matter what, Fujino-san will be safe," she said quietly. "Please… stay with us, Kuga-san."

Natsuki offered no response, as was expected, but Yukino left the room with a heavy heart. They had been beaten by an anomaly, something that should not have conceivably happened, but it happened nonetheless and now they were worse off than when they started when everyone was apart. Yukino returned to her room and pushed the door closed as she leaned against it. Instead of returning to her waiting computers she laid her glasses at the table, trudged over to her bed and fell on it face-first. She gripped a fistful of the sheets and suddenly pounded on the mattress before she shuddered. The screens went from their screen savers to shutting off as the computers went to sleep.

Haruka walked in with a plate of crackers but promptly set them down when she heard only the soft hum of the machines in sleep. For a moment she looked around in mild panic that eased when she saw Yukino on the bed. With a heavy sigh she stood beside her friend and awkwardly patted her back in some attempt to comfort her. When there was no change Haruka sighed and decided to sit down on the bed beside her. Soon her hand settled at the base of Yukino's neck where her fingernails gently scratched at the younger girl's scalp. They said nothing and preferred to keep it that way as Yukino slowly drifted off to sleep. Haruka sighed wistfully but she knew that she couldn't go to sleep just yet. Any of them could wake up now, she reasoned as she snuck over to the bedside table and pulled on the drawer. From her secret stash came a plastic-wrapped curry bread that she popped open before munching on the snack. Yukino turned over and Haruka laid a protective hand over her head as she ate in the stillness.

The silence had now settled in a thick, choking fog, bringing with it a noticeable taint of despair.

Shigeru was used to this silence. The Fujino mansion in Kyoto was a bastion of quiet, after all. One could clearly hear the trickle of the outdoor garden's pond from a mile away on an especially pleasant day. As the butler and maids ushered around in mirrored silences in this bizarre, backwards world of the Suzushiro mansion he merely sat and watched the snow fall from the sky from his vantage point at the window.

The door knocked twice and he turned as it opened to reveal a stern-looking man around his age. The imposing man standing before Shigeru looked down at him with piercing blue eyes and a firm frown. Despite being a year or so younger, Suzushiro Jinpei did not age as gracefully as Shigeru. His hair was now mostly gray but it retained a slightly tousled look that strongly reminded Shigeru of a shorter version of a lion's mane. His frown lines and the dark skin beneath his eyes probably had something to do with the stress and strain of his former occupation as a gritty construction worker before he struck big with a fledgling construction company. Jinpei was an honest, blunt man. He had little time to defer to old money and was not above showing distrust towards those who flaunted their familial assets. Shigeru and the Fujino family in general illustrated the very concept of old money. They could not have been on more opposite sides of the spectrum, yet Jinpei would begrudgingly admit that Shigeru was one of his most trustworthy partners. Some of the moral discrepancies that Shigeru exhibited were mostly ignored in light of this, but right now his gaze showed nothing but contempt.

"So I see you've charged into the fray without any thought towards the consequences, as usual," Jinpei began in his gravely voice.

"You know, I always wondered where Haruka gets her exuberance from," Shigeru replied in a light tone. "She couldn't have learned it from doom-and-gloom Jinpei over here."

Jinpei's brow twitched but he failed to fall for the bait. In another time, perhaps, Jinpei would have raised his voice into a shout, and Shigeru's lips would curl into a pleased smile over his successful attempt. Then the two would have fallen into their familiar patterns of baiting-and-switching until one or the other grew tired of it. It was just one of their many games. Jinpei shook his head.

Games, games.

He snorted impatiently.

Only those with nothing to lose and everything to wager can afford to play these kinds of games.

"I heard Kyoko was back from France," Jinpei said, deciding to go straight to the topic at hand.

Shigeru made a gun out of the forefinger and thumb of his right hand and pretended to shoot Jinpei with it.

"Bang." A crooked smile appeared on his face as his hand dropped. "Always the straight shooter Jinpei, aren't you? Alright, yeah, Kyoko is here."

"Did the two of you talk?"

Shigeru gave his colleague a strange look.

"Her kid shot me." To emphasize he undid the buttons of his shirt and let Jinpei see the bandages wound around his torso. "I'm sure we talked enough."

"Ah. And let me guess… Same-old, same-old? I'm sure Kyoko was happy to see you after all those years in exile and the countless kicks out the door she received from your father."

"You're a comedian today, Jinpei. And right, as always."

Jinpei folded his hands behind his back and stared out the window.

"It's all just another game to you, isn't it?" Jinpei asked finally.

"According to Kyoko it's been the same game over the years," Shigeru replied with an even tone.

"Even when it involves your only child it's still a game," Jinpei countered harshly as he turned and faced Shigeru. His voice grew louder. "Even when it involved your wife, it was a game! What is the matter with you, Fujino?"

"What, indeed," Shigeru muttered.

The bed sheets bunched up under his hands as he closed them into fists but Jinpei ignored it in favor of continuing his tirade.

"Explain to me, Fujino, because I'm not sure I understand. I don't think I ever did understand. You and your sister initiated some sick form of amusement to entertain yourselves, only to bring Kiyo into your fold in some attempt to bring up the stakes when you decided that marrying the girl would piss Kyoko off. Only, you managed to fall in love and even have a child before she passed on. And yet, this game between the two of you continued on and on, bringing in so many people that I don't even know who is with who and what is even going on anymore."

Jinpei paused to breathe before he turned and jammed a finger in Shigeru's direction.

"But you! You sit here in my house with a bullet wound and that damn smile of yours. What the hell do you find so funny about this situation?"

"What do I find so funny?" Shigeru repeated. His fingers touched the corners of his lips and he realized for the first time that he was smiling. "What do I find funny…"

"Kiyo was my friend, the only real one I had growing up," Jinpei continued in a fraction of his previous volume. "She made me promise that I would try to be cordial to you when she was gone. But you are reaching the end of my patience, Fujino. If it weren't for Kiyo's insistence I would have cut off any ties with you a long time ago."

"She looks like Kiyo, doesn't she?" Shigeru replied. "Except for the eyes. Those are my eyes, Fujino eyes. I bet you wish she had Kiyo's eyes, so that when you look at her you aren't reminded of my cursed family."

Jinpei roughly ran a hand through his hair in an exasperated swipe.

"Curses and games, curses and games. Is that really the only thing you can think of saying at a time like this?" Jinpei asked with a tired sigh.

"I wish she had Kiyo's eyes too," Shigeru continued, seemingly oblivious to Jinpei. "Maybe if she did then she would've been spared this agony."

"Stop this," Jinpei barked. "You aren't making any sense, Fujino. There's no such thing as a curse running in your family. We all have a choice in whether or not we want to do something for ourselves. Obviously you never learned that lesson when growing up."

"Oh? And what have you learned from your humble background, Suzushiro Jinpei?"

"All I can tell you is that no matter what, there is a consequence to your actions. And you know that already, Fujino."

Jinpei turned to go but was stopped when Shigeru took in a deep breath.

"Kyoko wanted so badly to be a part of our lives, Jinpei. She wanted to live up in the sunlight and grow as a beautiful, capable lady of the Fujino family. That's not much to ask for, is it?"

"… I would suspect not."

Shigeru nodded to himself. "No, it's not much at all. So when that ailment came, when she started to turn into something we couldn't understand, we threw her into that room in the corner of the mansion. You remember that room. The chain room."

Jinpei closed his eyes.

"I was five when I first saw what it was that made Kyoko live in the darkness of the Fujino mansion. I never quite looked her in the eye after that. Over time she got better with the doctors and the pills, but something had left her that we would never retrieve. And what took its place fed on our doubts and insecurities, on our anger and jealousy. She fed on it, and wanted more."

Shigeru sighed.

"You know, I don't really think you understand, Jinpei. I had to play these games with her. She was struggling inside, dying, even. I hated her for that condition of hers and she probably hated me just the same, but all she ever wanted to do was be normal."

He laughed tonelessly.

"Normal. What's so great about that? Anyway… So we played games, messed around with each other. She wanted attention and I decided that it wasn't so bad to give it to her."

"But what you did was wrong, Fujino, no matter how you look at the reason behind it," Jinpei stressed. "Kiyo didn't deserve—"

"You shut your mouth!" Shigeru roared, momentarily shocking Jinpei.

"Kiyo knew about all of this," the man continued in halting tones as he tried to rein himself in. "Don't belittle me, Suzushiro. I may be what you call a gloriously rich bastard but I loved her and I never lied to her."

Jinpei remained quiet as Shigeru fixed him with a loathsome glare.

"Yes, I know how you think," Shigeru snarled out venomously. "You think that all my family has to offer is perverse behavior and no morals whatsoever. And maybe you're right, maybe we're a worthless bunch of psychos with too much money and not enough vices to spend them on. There is nothing else in the world that will say otherwise and quite frankly I don't care what they think about me or Shizuru as long as we are alive and well. But you're wrong in thinking that we are not cursed."

Shigeru winced but he was too angry to stop his tirade. Jinpei watched on in mute concern as his colleague clenched his jaw. This was not what usually happened, Jinpei noted with quiet alarm. Usually it was him losing his temper, not the other way around. Shigeru seemed to pick up on his uneasiness and he lifted his chin towards the standing man. His lips curled into a sneer.

"We are cursed, but not in some mythical manner like you may like to think. We're cursed in that, with all these riches and privileges, we will lose what we regard as our most important thing."

The rage that glimmered beneath those maple-red eyes fixed Jinpei to the floor by the sheer clarity of the emotion.

"Suzushiro, you can go to bed at night knowing that your wife is safely in bed beside you and that your Haruka will wake up to see another sunrise and her best friend waiting for her. You could have nothing and you would still go to bed feeling safe."

Another laugh tumbled out of Shigeru's lips, hollow and dark.

"But me? My sister? We will lose everything. We have lost everything. We will go to bed in our rich mansions in any exotic location and hope that the sun never does rise again to remind us that we've already lost something we'll never get back. Her daughter is already unable to be called back from her path in life."

"And Shizuru?" Jinpei asked quietly.

"Shizuru… Shizuru has already accepted her fate." Shigeru shook his head. "You can't fight what's already inside of you. Everything will eventually amount to nothing."

"That girl that Shizuru used to talk about doesn't seem to think that," Jinpei pointed out.

"Kuga?" Shigeru asked. At Jinpei's nod he shrugged. "She's a good kid. She'd probably fight anything. But that's not enough."

"It's not?"

Jinpei opened the door to the room. Before stepping out he turned and looked at Shigeru, who was now back to staring out the window.

"You know, Fujino. That Kuga reminds me a lot of you when you thought you could fight off destiny. A brawler who kept getting up no matter what, just fighting for something worth fighting for."

"What good did that do?" Shigeru asked hollowly. "From what I heard she's incapacitated and will probably give up now that Shizuru willingly went back. Kyoko has all the pieces in her hands and we have nothing to combat her with."

"I don't think she will give up," Jinpei replied firmly. "She gained and she lost, but she isn't bound by your games or your curses."

He paused as he turned back towards the door.

"… Maybe she'll succeed where you failed, Shigeru."


For the first time in twenty-four hours, Natsuki's eyes traveled to somewhere other than the window. The glass of water had been left over to sit next to the bottle of pills that she had periodically swallowed dry in order to keep herself in check. This time she trained her gaze towards the glass—more specifically to the water within the glass.

The glass began to frost as the water in it started to grow colder and colder. Her brow tensed and she tilted her head slightly as she concentrated. Duran likewise remained quiet and concentrated on the water. Soon it froze into a pristine block of clear ice with no imperfections. Natsuki exhaled slowly as she reached over for the glass. The numbing cold failed to bother her as she handled the glass with both hands and wiped off the condensation that began to build on the glass as it contacted the warmer air around it. Her hands closed around the frozen glass and she squeezed.

Diamond dust exploded from her hands, spraying towards her face and chest. As the sparkling mixture of ice and glass fell to the carpet she stood and stared at her hands. The glass had made super-fine cuts into her palms and soon blood oozed out in slow rivulets. Natsuki stared in apparent fascination at the sight before she let her hands fall numbly to her sides. She pushed the door to the room open with a bloodied palm before stepping out into the dim lights of the hall. The lone butler straightened from his task of shining a light fixture to acknowledge the haggard young woman standing before him. She gave him a rough, jerky nod and he bowed in response.

"Shall I escort you to the bathroom, Kuga-sama?"

"Kuga is fine." She was slightly surprised at how rough her voice sounded. "And yes, thank you."

After nearly an hour she emerged from the bathroom to find a neatly-laundered suit and a small roll of white bandages laid out for her. She carefully pulled on the clothes and wrapped the bandages around her hands and wrists. After an experimental flex of her fingers she rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and loosened the tie of her suit to unbutton the top button of the collar. The silver hairclip was all that remained. She stared at it before putting it into her vest pocket.

The medicine was beginning to recede, but strangely Duran was not taking an opportunity to find a way out of his confinement. Instead he sat on his haunches and waited. Natsuki decided to do the same. She walked into the sitting room and took a seat next to the fireplace before folding her hands in front of her. The flames eagerly devoured the logs she tossed in and sent up appreciative sparks in response. She pointed a finger towards the flames and narrowed her eyes. Slowly the logs were covered in an encasement of ice that crawled up to the fire itself. As she watched the imprisoned flames eat away at the ice, a plan slowly began to form in her mind. Her lips twitched and she leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees.

It was crazy, she knew that. There was a very good chance that she wouldn't come back alive. Even if she had help, success could be costly. It didn't matter too much. There was a chance it could work, and that was all that really mattered.


AN: Whew.

Mai's despair: She did cry a lot in Mai-hime from what I recalled. I thought about it, and I reasoned that if I took away the fantasy elements of the show and just focused on the here and now, per say, Mai had a pretty rough life and still managed to keep truckin'. Getting slammed with that much destruction would've set anyone off, lol.

About Jinpei's characterization: The Suzushiro family was not always rich, and richness tends to be a product of hard work and shrewdness rather than dumb luck (except with lottery wins, but that's besides the point). Therefore I thought it would make more sense that Haruka's father was not exuberant to the point of making a fool out of himself.

Also, is it bad that I already have an idea for another fic before finishing this one? Lol...