A breeze came over her skin, creating goose bumps on her arms as she sat there.

Miyuki closed, remembering the conversation that led her here…

i"Sen what is it?"

"Those kids, Black was seen taking White to a hospital! Dragging him, the kid looked barely conscious…"

"What? When?"

"Just now, someone said there was blood trailing after them! I don't know what happened but-"

"I have to go!"

"Miyuki! MIYUKI!"/i

It hadn't taken her long to get there. Black had gone into an alley with Gramps while the Doctor told her that White wasn't able to receive visitors yet, so Miyuki just sat outside with her arms wrapped around her legs.

Waiting.

White… she couldn't believe he was actually hurt!

After all the scrapes she'd seen those boys get into, and the multitude she didn't know about, it was a harsh shock that one of them had been seriously wounded. The doctor told her that White had been stabbed and lost a lot of blood, but even if she hadn't been told she would have been worried.

It had to be bad for Black to even consider a hospital.

Black.

She tried to imagine how this would affect him. Ever since she had met them, one thing was always certain; Black wanted to protect White.

This had to be a huge blow to him.

Footsteps caught her attention.

Her eyes lifted.

"Black?"

The boy didn't respond to her voice, continuing to walk slowly along the pavement. His face had changed.

When she first spotted him, he'd seemed empty. Lost. Just how she'd expect.

But his expression now was… she'd never seen anything like that before.

Hardened. Cold. Certain.

"Black what happened? Are you alright?" She tried again, getting up and going after him. Her hand reached out to grab his arm. "Black answer-"

He suddenly spun around and gripped her wrist… hard.

The grip was tight and painful, Miyuki was sure she felt bruises forming already, but that was irrelevant as her eyes met Black's in a rigid stare.

Dark.

That was the only way she could describe those eyes as they stared at each other.

"It doesn't matter. Nothing gets in the way of my town."

For a while there was silence.

It was then that Miyuki became aware of the large, black crow watching them from atop a nearby telephone pole.

Something had changed.

And though her greatest concern at that moment was White… a sense of calm overcame Miyuki.

"I understand." She responded softly, never breaking his gaze.

Black let go of her wrist.

Then he walked on again before vaulting himself up to the top of the pole, the crow now hovering around it.

Miyuki rubbed her wrist slightly, beginning to turn away from-

"NOOOOO!"

Her head snapped around to see Fujimura coming out of the hospital, carrying a screaming White in his arms while Sawada tried to hold the doctor back. What the hell was going on? Her first instinct was to run over and help White but then she heard him call out Black's name.

More silence.

Fujimura had begun shouting at Black, telling him this was for White's own good, but Miyuki had already figured out what his response would be.

"White's only holding me back. Take him away."

Miyuki closed her eyes.

And walked away.

She could hear White's screams and Black's responses but there was nothing she could do now.

White was safer with the police. Black was taking a different route.

Her heart was conflicted.

Part of her wanted to go back and be with White. Comfort him, tell him that Black didn't mean it and things would be alright. She wanted to make sure that he would recover and that he didn't feel abandoned.

And the other part of her was content.

Despite all her advice to Black about calming down and focusing on White, despite every time she had encouraged them with their plans to leave… she felt closest to Black when he was lost in his darkness.

That darkness she'd seen in his eyes when he grabbed her wrist.

It was a selfish happiness that she felt incredibly guilty about, but she wanted to be closer to him just as much as she wanted to see White safe and happy; perhaps even more so.

Either way, this change meant the streets weren't going to be safe for a while.

She needed to keep out of the way.

Fishing a few coins out of her pocket, Miyuki walked over to the nearest payphone.

bClick. Click. Click./b

She wrapped her fingers around a small, red card before dialling the numbers written upon it.

Dial tones echoed in her ear for a moment.

Then…

i"Hello, this is Snake speaking. How can I be of assistance?"/i