Kiyoshi: Wow. It's been a long time.

FCL64: Yep. But they (hopefully) don't know that; because I just posted chapter seven. That's seven chapters ago!

Kiyoshi: You make no sense.

FCL64: Wild onions encourage cannibalism.

Kiyoshi: What?

FCL64: Just proving your point.

Kiyoshi: Please keep in mind that Hiei has not actually enrolled; it's just that no one is willing to risk asking him to leave, because Hiei has a tendency to… get violent, and they can somehow sense that. So he is really just hanging out. Just go with it; it's necessary for the story to continue.

I Hold Back the Night and I Open the Skies…

"Gentlom, I can't get it out of my head." Fate was pacing back and forth, threatening to wear holes in Ella's already thin carpet.

"Mmm… What's that?" Gentlom obviously wasn't paying much attention to her, but Fate's far too used to that to notice. Even if he wasn't aware of the conversation now, he'd somehow manage to remember it later.

"Ella's placing significance on Yukina's name. These bonds formed before birth are incredibly powerful. More so than I thought…" She was almost jumping with a combination of contained excitement and confusion.

"How so?" His mind was evidently elsewhere, one reason she liked to confide her revelations in him. Gentlom wouldn't tell anyone, unless asked to by her, and he gave off vibes of not paying attention—mainly because he wasn't. But that gave her a sense a comfort—she could say anything with no reaction. It was a nice change.

"She felt drawn to a name that was attached to a soul after it was given a body… after the three of them were separated."

"So it would seem. What will you do?" Gentlom didn't notice her eyes light up with sudden inspiration; he hardly registered the door slamming as she ran off to act upon it.

Kurama didn't really have any friends at school. They all viewed him as slightly odd, as if something were off in his personality. He was personality, sure, but he didn't act like a nineteen year old. Not even close. But they couldn't pin down exactly what it was. Throw into the mix the fact that he'd disappeared suddenly for a little more than a year to "study abroad" then come back to take a second senior year and he was no longer slightly weird, but downright weird.

But even "Shuichi Minamino" had nothing on his new friend. He was of an unusually short stature, wore strange clothes (made stranger by the fact that uniforms were required), and never seemed to eat. He also had no respect; he was a very arrogant, well, not kid; he was like Shuichi in that respect, seeming more like an adult than was natural.

But what truly made the other students wonder was the fact that his fascination with Ella (arguably even weirder than both Shuichi and the new kid) bordered on obsession, or even stalking. Not that she seemed to notice. And if she did notice, she didn't care in the slightest.

She and her friend Yuri had taken to sitting with Hiei and Shuichi at lunch. But even with Ella in that close proximity—and his clear obsession with her—the new student's expression remained calm, inscrutable, with that constant undertone of malice.

The only difference was noticeable to no one but Kurama. In Hiei, there were the beginnings of what looked like uncertainty and confusion.

The door slammed and Fate was once again treading the same patch of floor. "How'd it go?" Gentlom asked absently, sending another soul off to another body in another life.

"I didn't do anything. Ella's at school. So is Hiei, which almost worries me. I went around encouraging a few other people like I should be doing instead of dedicating so much time to this one pair. But something about them is interesting in a way I cannot explain; I'm continually and unintentionally drawn to them."

"Cītā, what are your intentions? I feel they may be dangerous." As usual, Gentlom was picking up much more than he was letting on.

"I'm going to accidentally tell Ella Yukina is Hiei's sister. Tell her not to tell. Then arrange a meeting between the two of them." She paused, her eyes glittering happily. "I'm counting on Ella not being able to keep her mouth shut."

"Be careful… Hiei has a fiery spirit… If any one person could pose a threat to us, it would be him…"

"I'm aware. And I'm willing to risk it." Suddenly something occurred to Fate. "Gentlom… do you give the souls certain spiritual characteristics?"

Gentlom looked up. The look on his face was one of rare confusion. His sister seemed to be drawing that out a lot lately. "The souls are what they are. As you cannot change the person's very being without their consent, so can I not alter the basic nature of a soul. Dheunos is the same. We change situations, not people, Cītā. The situations and the experiences are what cause the changes in the soul." In his usual half-present manner, Gentlom drew forth an incredible piece of wisdom and imparted it to his sister, leaving her stunned at the truth in his words, without realizing the effect they had had on her.

"So I can talk to them, lead them in a certain direction, but I could never control their response. Free will." The idea that free will and the Fates could exist at one time was something she had long understood, but never voiced. And the contradiction of the two in human terms was astounding.

Gentlom didn't seem so stunned. He just nodded, "Mm-hmm…"

"Ella, what's going on with you?" School was over and Yuri was walking with Ella back to Ella's apartment.

"What do you mean?" Ella called back, dancing, spinning down the sidewalk in the spring air.

"You seem… different," Yuri said, not sure of what she was trying to say.

"I don't feel any different," Ella laughed as the first drops of what would later be a violent storm hit her face.

"You seem… dreamy. Dreamier than normal, I mean."

Ella slowed down, "Whatever you say, Yuri."

"So what are you going to… Wait, are you even listening to me, Ella?"

"Yeah. Dreamy. Okay."

Where Gentlom's strange ability to listen, comprehend, and remember put Fate at ease, Ella's similar but less impressive ability to do the same aggravated Yuri. It made her feel Ella wasn't listening. Particularly since that was often the case.

Then Yuri said, "Ella, what are you thinking about?"

"Nothing." This was not a common response from Ella. She was normally willing to tell Yuri everything.

"Come on, Ella, you can tell me."

Ella looked at Yuri with a blank stare. Then she caught Yuri's meaning. "No, Yuri. I'm literally not thinking about anything."

"Well, some thoughts must have intruded on that nothing. What are they?"

"Well, Shuichi's face has come up, the name Yukina, I'm hungry, so cookies, ice cream sandwiches and rice, cats, my socks, Hiei a couple of times," she continued rattling off all the random things she'd thought of, unaware that her smile had brightened by a miniscule amount, just enough for Yuri to notice, when she had said Hiei's name.

"Ella!" Fate said the moment the girl unlocked her door. "I have a very important matter to discuss with you!"

"Okay." The girl smiled. Fate stopped. Ella was even bubblier now than was normal. What had happened at her school today? Yuri saw her question and mouthed 'Hiei is stalking her.'

That made Fate nearly fall over with delight. But before she could say anything, Ella asked, "Who's Yukina?"

Fate couldn't have planned this better herself. "Hiei's sister, now…" she pretended to catch sight of Yuri's and Ella's stunned faces. "Oops. That was supposed to be kept in the dark."

Kiyoshi: Been a while since you actually wrote a chapter out longhand on a piece of paper.

FCL64: You really think I have nothing better to do in Spanish than pay attention?

Kiyoshi: Just Spanish?

FCL64: Shut up. Now on to reviews!
Kuramasredredrose: yes. letting the story flow is good. i've discovered that whenever i truly try to fight it, my writing suffers. badly. as for when he's going to admit it... i'm not at liberty to discuss it.

Kiyoshi: In other words, she doesn't know.

FCL64: Liar. I know... I just don't want to give anything away. The next time you interrupt, you get to finish answering the reviews.

Kiyoshi: you make it sound like we don't like answering reviews. which means we don't like reviews.

FCL64: Correction. you don't like answering reviews. i have no problem with it.
animegrlsteph: actually... he's not stalking kurama... he's stalking ella (possibly making it even creepier)
heve-chan: lectures... i never thought of it that way. and i totally agree-hiei is cute when he's pissed off.
babygirl1998: glad you liked it. as for rewriting your story, it depends on what you mean. rewriting the actually story... no, I like that the way it is. editing it to make sure there aren't any mistakes and changing the formatting so it's easier to read, yes. hope that helps.