Aishhh... Let me start off with an apology - I'm so sorry that this update (and also for every one of my fanfics) took so long. Currently, my poor laptop is just barely hanging on to life and part of it's serious malfunctionings means that Microsoft Word isn't working, meaning I couldn't type my stories. Of course, I later decided I could just type straight onto the FF website, but another one of my dear laptop's shortcomings is slooooowwww internet. On top of all of that, I have my GCSE exams in about five weeks? (stress stress) so yeah... sorry!

Well, I tried to make this chapter as interesting as possible - in other words as un-lame as possible - without losing faith in anything technological and my own dwindling imagination. (Another reason why this is so overdue is because I planned it all out in my head then forgot what I was going to write when I finally opened up this document... and this happened several times...) This 'arc' as I shall call it will mainly be from the said character's point of view and I think there's a lot more background information, along with messed up ages of people (tell me if something seems out of order), to come! (I think so anyway)

Enough with my blubbering... here you go! And thank you all for being patient and kind support!

Gumi:

Five Years Ago

Five years ago. That was when it happened. That was when her world was turned upside down. She was thirteen. Her brother was fifteen. The young 'genius' Master of the Organisation was a mere eighteen. That bastard was only nine. What sort of sick nine year old shoots little girls only a handful of years younger than himself? But that was how it had happened. That was the truth of it.

Partial truth, Gumi admitted to herself. Exactly why it had all happened… she didn't want to think about it anymore. She didn't want to remember it, but at the same time, she would hate herself if she forgot it. After all, she thought to herself, it was my fault.

Gakupo always told her not to blame herself – that it would have happened regardless of the decision that she had made. And though she believed her brother, she could not help but to point the finger at herself. If she were to try and point at anyone else, why, there would be still three fingers directed at herself. No, this event was part of her life. It had shaped her into what she had become. I had given her purpose for the past five years. But now… what a futile attempt it had been to take revenge. To kill that bastard's twin would surely mean little, or even nothing, to him.

Perhaps I'm lucky then? Gumi thought about the brother she had who loved her. Did that mean she felt sorry for that girl, Rin? Surely not. Gumi laughed at herself silently. Way back then, had that bastard ever loved his sister? Possibly. Not that he'd ever remember those times again.

Am I feeling sorry for him? Gumi scolded herself for empathising with her sisters' murderer. But then again, had those very sisters felt sorry for their killer? Now that was an interesting question Gumi would never know the answer to. What had they felt, standing in that line in front of a blond boy who was barely older than them, yet aimed a gun at their heads? Surely they would have been frightened to death; petrified like stone angels. Were they confused? Did they feel betrayed? Surely, surely, they'd be hating her now. Hating their once-loved older sister.

Eyes stinging, Gumi squeezed them shut and reluctantly remembered that scene.

...

It had been a year since their parents had been murdered by those strange men. After that incident, Gakupo, Gumi and their younger sisters had been taken under the wing of the Organisation. As part of a deal, Gakupo and Gumi worked under Shion, the Master of the Organisation who, in return, gave their sisters a home similar to their old one and kept them safe. Life under the Organisation was brutal; the weak and unneeded members were fired, or worse, killed off in order to prevent them from telling any other living soul any possible information or secrets. The two of them had to work above their limits every single day, just to ensure they were on par with the average level of the other Organisation recruits, for fear that they would meet a grim end too.

Gakupo had the terrible job of carrying out, at best, kidnappings or, at worst, killings. He didn't want to; he was only thirteen at the time when it all began. He hated having to do such disgusting things, yet he feared for the safety of his adopted sisters. Over the weeks and months, Gumi noticed that her dear brother was beginning to lose the ability to smile and laugh. He barely ever spoke and wore a stoic expression all the time. He wouldn't even talk to her, and she worried that she was soon losing him to a dark and cruel world. If she wasn't sorting out paperwork or helping out doing chores for the Master, Gumi herself was sometimes able to spend time with her younger sisters at their small home in an isolated area near the Organisation Headquarters. If he was very lucky, Gakupo was also allowed the odd day off to visit them, though he was never the same as before - he seemed more distant somehow, and lost. And on top of that -

...

Gumi shook her head. No, that wasn't the bit she wanted to remember. Gakupo was more like his original self nowadays: he smiled and laughed and had that lively spark in his deep purple eyes. She swung her legs up onto the sofa she was sitting on and turned off the TV. There was a cute little glass coffee table with an array of papers scrunched up in a bin next to it. She sighed and lay on the sofa, staring at an interestingly blank ceiling. Honestly, it would be much more exciting if it had been painted. With yet another sigh, Gumi closed her eyes and rolled onto her right side, curling up on the sofa. Of course, then there was that day when they met the boy.

...

Gumi walked down an empty corridor in the Organisation headquarters building, Gakupo a few steps behind. Whenever they came across anyone else, those people would always glance their way with a distrustful look before scurrying off as fast as they could; Gakupo and Gumi had worked their way up the ranks and were now favoured quite a bit by the young Master of the Organisation. They had been obedient, and in return, they received the Master's pricy kindness - he wasn't just kind to anyone. Gumi had grown a bit smug after the Master had shown his approval regarding their work and skill, and she hated it whenever anyone else seemed to be close to him. Was she just behaving like a child after all?

On this particular day, the two siblings stopped outside the door to Master Shion's office room and Gumi was about to politely knock, when the sound of shattering glass pierced the air from the other side. Without hesitation, Gakupo barged open the door. Surprised, Gumi gasped as she saw what was going on. A young boy of around seven or eight years of age stared defiantly back at her with cold, blue eyes. He stood in the middle of a carpet of shattered glass with wilted flowers strewn across the floor, dripping with spilled water. The blond child opened his mouth and was about to shout something when the Master quickly rushed over and clamped a hand over that mouth. Protesting angrily, the child kicked shards of a once-beautiful glass vase here and there, struggling to make life as difficult as possible for the late adolescent Master.

"Ack, behave yourself!" grumbled Shion wearily. "How many times do you want to break my poor vases? Honestly, the first week I bring you to my office and look what you do!"

In answer, the blond brat kicked Shion's shin as hard as he could manage, but got no response from the inky-blue haired man. Immediately, Gumi shouted, "How dare you do that to him!" She was about to dash forwards and teach the insolent brat a lesson, but Shion gave a desperate shake of his head.

Taking a step forward, Gakupo was also ready to intervene. He slowly drew his katana and pointed it at the boy, making a slight gesture as to say 'move away'. Of course, the blond was angered even more by this. Gumi watched in complete shock as the child roughly broke free of Shion's grasp, knocking the man over as he did so, and then dived for the bottom drawer of Shion's desk. His quick, cat-like movements surprised even the Master himself, and in a heartbeat, the young boy was standing behind the desk, a gun in his unnaturally steady hands, pointing it towards the two strange people who had just entered the room uninvited.

Gakupo and Gumi stood completely still, rooted to the spot in pure terror. More than that, they were unnerved by what had just taken place; neither of them had ever seen such a young child hold any weapon, let alone a gun, so steadily and easily before, as if it were second-nature. As much as it was terrifying, it was also horrible and somewhat alarming: what stories did this blond hold in his past? As of now, the duo knew nothing about the boy, not even his name.

Glaring intently at the two siblings, the blond child did not notice Shion, who snuck up behind him and casually swiped the gun out of the boy's hands. The man in the suit then used his free hand to pinch the child's pale cheeks whilst chastising him with a stern face, "What have I told you about messing with weapons, eh? Geez, if you don't behave yourself properly, I'll kick you back out and return you to where you came from!"

At that, the boy seemed to tense up for a moment, before glancing off to his right, clearly upset. He tightened his hands into fists and gave a half-defiant, half-pathetic sniff. As he rubbed his blue eyes, the Master's expression softened and he sighed, gently saying, "Alright, alright, I was joking. Be a good boy and run along. I'll find you later and give you a nice treat okay? How's ice cream sound?"

Without a reply, the blond child scampered off, running past Gakupo and Gumi. Before disappearing down the corridor, he shot the two a dirty look as if condemning them to some hell or another. At this moment, the Master seemed to notice them for the first time. He ruffled his inky mass of hair and sighed, exasperated, finally breathing, "Why hello, you two. What do you want?"

Still dumbfounded, it took the two in subject a few seconds to be shaken back to reality. Hastily, Gumi blurted out, "Wh-who was that bastard?"

"Ah, that's quite the harsh word to use, Little G..." the Master nervously laughed, a playful twinkle in those eyes.

"I'm not little!" protested the girl arrogantly. True, she was only twelve right now... but still! "And what's with that ridiculous nickname?"

"Little G, Big G, makes sense," Shion shrugged casually. "And I see your temper is as bad as ever..."

"Not as bad as that kid!" Gumi carried to argue. She was trying to subtly hint at the fact that she wanted to know more about that little devil. Perhaps the Master would let some information slip if she was lucky. "He's such an arrogant bastard!"

"I dare you to say that again," rumbled Shion, eyes now glinting with the slightest hint of menace.

"Bastard!"

...

Ah, maybe that was how the name stuck. Gumi rubbed her eyes as she sat up on the sofa. She went into the kitchen and opened to fridge to find some drinks, but was severely disappointed to find that she had to choose between boring old orange juice and some scarily bright-green nutrient drink. Juice it was. She grabbed some chocolate chip cookies from a nearby biscuit tin and went back into the front room, sitting by the glass coffee table. Rummaging through the pile of scrunched-up paper, she saw numbers and letters which seemed to form some sort of incoherent plan. Maybe only the bastard who formulated it would understand. Plans, huh. That sure reminded her of some grim and upsetting times.

...

Very soon after they had first met the boy, he came in once again into their lives. From then on, he continued to interrupt the smooth flow of faked happiness they once had, each time appearing and bringing some form of bad luck or destruction. It only started with small things, getting in their way when they were in a hurry, but then things got worse as he tagged along with their various jobs and ruined their carefully thought-out plans. Worst of all, he didn't seem to care and only repeated things like that again and again. Eventually, Gakupo and Gumi's track record began to slide as the sneaky blond, who they still knew very little about, jeopardised mission after mission for them; he had even betrayed them on one occasion, leading to a close failure and a near-death experience... Gumi didn't want to ever remember that again. A few months after they had first met the boy who brought nothing but disaster upon them, that dreaded event happened. Only two years after joining the Organisation, they had lost five younger sisters in a single day.

On that day, it was ironically a bright and warm spring. Even the most attentive person would not be able to guess the tragedy that would take place on that day. It was Gumi's day off and so she spent her day with her five younger sisters at the home provided for them by Shion of the Organisation. Gakupo would be joining them later after his reconnaissance duty was over. Since he would be arriving just after lunch, Gumi decided that she and her sisters would make a special lunch for him, especially seeing as they had nothing better to do and that it had been absolutely ages since they had last eaten together as a family of siblings.

As promised, Gakupo managed to finish his duties and return to the little home just after midday. He took off his shoes as he entered the old-fashioned, Japanese style house. Those fragile, white sliding doors reminded him even more of his time with his adopted mother and father and the times he had spent honing his swordplay skills with opponents of various ages and sizes. Had it been fun? He couldn't seem to remember all that clearly.

"Big brother! Big brother!" came the excited shouts of his younger sisters. They rushed over and crowded around him, the eldest girl now up to his waist. They sure had grown quickly and happily. If only he were that happy too. He tried to smile at his siblings, but only managed half a tired grin. Gumi poked her head from around a corner which led to the dining room. She smirked at him with that same tiredness and shouted above the noise of her younger sisters, "Hurry up, or the food will get cold!"

For the next hour or so, they ate together around a large oak table, the little ones laughing and running about whenever it pleased them.

"Careful you don't make a mess now!" warned Gumi, sighing exasperatedly at her younger sisters. They were so ridiculously full of energy, it was... well, ridiculous. It was tiring to watch them run round and jump up and down and whatnot. She just wished she had that much energy herself... maybe that would help her to smile more often. That would be nice.

After lunch, the two youngest sisters went for a nap, leaving the other three to stay with Gumi and Gakupo. They played card games for a while and Gakupo managed to keep a smile on his face, as exhausting or as fake it may have been – at least the three children didn't suspect anything. After another hour of playing board games, the three younger sisters got bored of sitting down and ran off into the garden instead.

Gakupo and Gumi sat beside each other for a while in silence, enjoying the quiet and calm atmosphere. Birds outside sang their afternoon songs as the gentle breeze rustled the petals of blooming cherry blossoms in their traditional Japanese-style garden. However, all that peacefulness was soon interrupted by the rumbling engine of a car which stopped outside their front door. Even before the doorbell rang, the two of them sensed that something bad was about to happen. Nonetheless, they went to the door to see who it was and what that person would want from them on their rare day off.

Upon opening the front door, they were greeted by a scowling face accompanied by dishevelled blond hair and contemptuous, glaring blue eyes. That brat had his arms folded across his chest as he gave an unimpressed 'huff' and glanced off to the right. Two men in black suits and white shirts came up behind him and ushered the boy forwards. One of the men explained the situation: "The Head wishes for the... child –" there was an extra emphasis of hatred on that word "– to stay here with the two of you until this evening. In brief, you are to babysit him."

"Shut the hell up!" protested the blond, agitated. "I don't need to be looked after by these people!" He was about to make a run for it when the second man grabbed him by the collar of his dirty shirt and dragged him back. The boy continued to shout, "I hate these people!"

"Ha, you're not the only one," sneered Gumi, "Do you think we like you? Not a chance. I'd much rather he didn't stay here too."

She was about to close the door on them, when the first man said firmly, "The Master's orders." He pushed the blond inside the house, closed the door himself and left with the second man, driving off in that black car.

"Fine. Have it your way, bitch," spat the blond. He turned around and was about to leave through the front door again when, this time, Gakupo held him back and restrained him. Gumi knew exactly what her brother was thinking: if these were Shion's orders, then nothing more could be done about it.

The purple-haired adolescent sighed and dragged the blond child into the front room. With another scowl, the boy shouted more curses at Gumi, before deciding to sit in the furthest corner on the room, where it was darker and colder than the rest of the area. He sat with his back to the wall and pulled his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and resting his forehead on his knees. There he stayed, curled up like a frightened animal, small and silent.

Gakupo exhaled deeply and left the room, with Gumi following closely.

"Foul-mouthed, isn't he? Jeez, how did his parents teach him..." muttered Gumi angrily.

"Well," said Gakupo slowly, "I guess not everyone is as fortunate as we were."

"So you don't think his attitude is a problem?" countered Gumi. "You don't think he's a problem at all?"

"...That's not what I meant," came the calm reply. "You know, maybe he just wants attention."

"I knew it! So you think he's an attention seeker too!" exclaimed Gumi, finally content that Gakupo agreed with her on something.

Her brother sighed, "Again, that's not quite what I meant. Gumi, let's put it this way: we don't know anything about him at all, so in all honesty, he should be given the benefit of the doubt. That's what Father always taught me to do. Be kind and compassionate towards others. Kindness and honesty, don't you remember too?"

"Yeah. I also remember that he's dead."

After that remark, the two of them remained silent for a long time. Gumi could only think about when the Master would come and relieve them of the damn brat. Hopefully soon. The afternoon dragged on, especially since their younger sisters were too tired after helping to make lunch to do anymore activities with them. Gakupo and Gumi had left the blond child in the front room on his own, as he did not seem in the mood to be socialising with others. However, when they went back to check on him an hour later, he was nowhere to be seen. He was no longer brooding in his little corner, nor was he in the vicinity of the area... where could he have run off to?

"Something seems fishy," sniffed Gumi disdainfully. She had a bad habit of doing that. They decided to split up to look for him. Gumi ventured out into the garden, reluctantly searching for the bad-mannered child. Suddenly, she heard the shouts of her younger sisters who had caught sight of her.

"Hey! Hey, Big Sister! Who's this?" the eldest yelled.

"Who's this? Who's this?" the rest of them chorused together.

Together in their green mob, they dragged the blond with them towards Gumi, who could not contain her annoyance and grumbled at the boy, "Where the heck did you run off to? Don't you think we were worried?"

He gave another 'huff' and pouted, "You only care because it's Master's orders."

The little girls stared, wide-eyed in awe. One of them piped up and asked, "Who's Master?"

Another asked, "Is this a friend, Big Sister? Can we play cards with him too?"

"I don't like boring games like that," sneered the boy. That earned him a hard slap across the cheek from Gumi, who simply told him off sternly: "You can't say things like that. It's rude. Didn't your parents teach you anything?"

The boy glared back at Gumi, steadily holding his angry gaze. The fact that he could hold eye contact for so long against someone with more authority than him unnerved her. Who did he think he was?

"I was just telling the truth."

Honestly. He had to have the last word, didn't he? Gumi chastised him with a slap again, "You shouldn't answer back to your superiors!"

He didn't even flinch from the hit. That was scary. He only glared back with more intensity and hatred than before. "What makes you my superior? Anyways, I was going to suggest something."

Gumi watched the boy as he smirked and turned around to face the group of awed young girls. He spread his arms and smiled as innocently as he could. When he spoke, his voice was completely different to before. In that painfully cheerful voice, he laughed, "Why don't we play a fun game?"

The little girls cheered, and chanted their approval together, unwittingly digging their own graves. They followed the blond child as he walked off, obviously having no idea where he was headed. Gumi wanted to stop them, but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to do anything. Just before he disappeared around a corner, the boy turned around briefly and smirked at her with a malicious twinkle in his childish eyes. Gumi was left standing there, dumbfounded. Well, whatever they were going to do, it wouldn't be that dangerous... would it? After all, it would just be a game, right?

After one or two hours which Gumi had spent alongside Gakupo doing something relatively unimportant, she decided to finally check on her younger siblings. Since nothing dramatic had thus far happened, she presumed that things were alright and they boy might actually have been behaving well. Gakupo lay down for a quick nap as she left for the garden. Along the way, one of her sisters bumped into her. The little girl's face was red and she was panting with a big grin on her face.

"Oh, Big Sister!" she cried, surprised.

"What are you lot playing at?" Gumi asked with a smile trying not to sound worried or scornful.

"Ah! We're playing at being spies on secret missions. Do you want to play too?"

"Spies, huh," mumbled Gumi. She blinked and gazed forlornly into the distance.

"Yep! I'm on a rescue mission to save the others from the evil mastermind..." the girl put an enthusiastic emphasis on the phrase 'evil mastermind'.

"Right... and who's playing this evil mastermind?"

"Len. He was quite happy to be the villain, which is funny. I thought he might have liked to play the hero."

It took Gumi a few precious seconds to register that the blond brat was called Len. That was strange – why did he tell these little girls his name so quickly, and yet even she and Gakupo had no idea what his name was after so long? Was there an ulterior motive? Thinking about that only worried Gumi more than before. She asked her sister, "So where are the others?"

"Awww, Big Sister, you should listen – I just told you they were being held captive!" pouted the youngster.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. Sh-shall I help you with your mission?" stammered Gumi. She was completely losing her cool to the monster worry gnawing at her stomach.

"Okay! So Big Sis can go rescue everyone whilst I check, secure and guard the area."

"Sounds like a plan to me," laughed the elder sister nervously.

The two of them played at spies, quietly making their way to a large shed behind a tall bamboo fence. The little sister nodded with some sort of purpose at her elder sister and jogged around to play at securing the area and making sure nobody was there. Gumi went to the other side of the bamboo fence, towards the shed door. More than playing along with this childish imitation of a game, she wanted to check on her younger sisters. Something felt off about all this. According to her sibling, they had already played one or two rounds of various different mission and apparently the boy had said that this would be their last game.

Trying to turn the door handle to the large shed, Gumi realised that it was locked. Of course, this happened in real life too. The whole situation felt scarily real, as she tried to think of a way to open the door without causing damage to property and to be as quiet as possible.

There was the soft rustling of her younger sister treading softly on the long grass on the other side of the bamboo fence. Gumi could hear her muffled laughs of excitement as she too tried to stay as quiet as possible. The little girl seemed to have taken a deep breath, as if she were about to shout something. But nobody would ever know what it was she was going to say. After all –

BANG.

Gumi's heart skipped a beat. She knew a gunshot when she heard one. She definitely hadn't imagined it. No. But that was impossible, right? For a few more valuable seconds, she stood there, rooted to the spot in pure panic. Then, plucking up the courage, she ran back the way she came, heart beating at a hundred miles an hour. On the other side of the bamboo fence, green was sprayed with a cruel shade of red.

Helplessly, she covered her mouth with her hands, vision blurring with hot tears. She was too scared to scream, too disgusted to retch. It was the bastard who did this. It must have been. What now? Surely Gakupo must have heard it. He must be on his way here by now. He must be coming. He was always there to help. Surely...

She must have been dazed for a while, as the next thing she knew, she heard the shed door open and a boy's voice announce, "Heh, I won this time."

"Awwww... can we play this again tomorrow?" chorused a bunch of girls.

"Nah, I said this would be the last game, didn't I? Besides, you guys did win the last two games."

Without thinking about any consequences, Gumi dashed back to the shed and pounced on the bastard. She understood now. She understood everything – everything but the reason. She didn't want to understand that.

"You bastard!" she screamed, "How dare you! How dare you do that!"

"Let go!" yelled the boy in return. The two of them tumbled and fought for a while, before the boy managed to yank free his left arm, aim and shoot. But instead of aiming for Gumi, the target was another of the sisters.

Chaos broke out and the four remaining girls began to scream and cry. It was almost pitch black in the shed, but Gumi managed to see that the girls had been tied up with bits of coarse rope, as if they were real hostages. Of course, saying that they weren't real hostages now... well that would be a lie. The blond forced himself free of Gumi's hold and gave her a kick before backing up to the shed door. Unfortunately for him, he reversed into Gakupo, who then held him in a lock, so that he was unable to move. Nonetheless, he didn't struggle, nor did he shout or fight back.

The girls continued to cry. Gumi looked for the gun on the floor but couldn't find it. It finally dawned upon her that the bastard must still be holding it. One thought inevitably led to the next, and the next thing she thought about was her brother, lying dead and bleeding from a gun wound at point blank. Before she opened her mouth to urge her brother to let the boy go, the blond himself spoke up.

"Hey, like I said, we were gonna play a fun game."

Gumi noted that he spoke like a trained villain indeed. She was half-kneeling on the cold floor but didn't dare move an inch. Her breathing was shaky, and her limbs were quivering so much that she feared she would fall over. She clenched her jaw, biting hard on her inner lip.

"Oh, that's a scary look you're shooting at me," smirked the boy, adding, "If you'll excuse the pun."

As he laughed at his own joke, Gakupo lessened his grip in confusion. The boy took the chance and broke free. He only stepped forward a bit, but that was enough distance to put him at an advantage against the others.

"H-how old are you really?" Gumi dared to ask. What was there to lose?

"Mmh, if you must know, I'm nine," said the boy in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You sick bastard."

"Heh, I get called that a lot, I think."

"Don't you think this is wrong? What sort of nine year old happily murders little girls for the fun of it? They're not that much younger than you, y'know. They also have the right to live their lives."

Judging from the boy's expression, Gumi got the feeling that she had said something which annoyed him terribly. That couldn't be good – who knew what he would do if he was angry? She watched as he toyed with the gun in his hands, handling it roughly. He glared at her.

"What?" Gumi managed to sneer, "Too scared to shoot are you?"

She expected him to lose his temper like a child, but instead he sighed and smirked somewhat sympathetically. He said slowly, "You don't understand, do you? Like I said – we're playing a game."

"Some game this is," she spat.

"Well if you let me finish," the boy continued, obviously losing his patience, "I'd explain the rules to you. Let's see... it's like a trade-off game."

"What are we trading?" Gumi interrupted abruptly. But her brother seemed to understand, as he muttered under his breath, "Boy, you wouldn't dare."

The blond turned his head to glance at Gakupo who was glaring fiercely back. With a shrug, the boy remarked, "You spoke."

There was a moment of silence where nobody made a sound. The four sisters stayed quiet too, stifling their sobs and sniffs.

"Now, as I was saying," the boy continued again, this time with a sort of grandness in his voice, "It's a trade-off game. So what are we trading? Heh, it's obvious isn't it? Those four for you two." He pointed towards the four girls and then gestured at Gumi and Gakupo. "In other words, you get to choose who will live and who will die. Either those four or you two. Hurry up and choose, cos I'm not the most patient person on this planet."

At least a whole minute had passed in silence as Gumi knelt there, too shocked to think. The same went for Gakupo, who stood like a statue, not thinking, not seeing. A gunshot broke the silence. The remaining three girls started screaming and crying again. If they were trying to say something, it was lost in their soundless blubbering and formless words.

"I don't like waiting."

Gumi clenched her teeth, trying to hold back tears, and shouted back, "Why are you doing this?"

"Personal reasons. You wouldn't understand." There was a sort of seriousness now in his voice. Or was it sadness? Maybe also bitterness? His face was in the shadows, so she couldn't make out his expression properly, but something seemed off. He gave a curt, self-mocking laugh and ran his right hand through his shock of hair, saying, "I'm still waiting."

Gumi saw Gakupo glance at her. His face said that the situation was hopeless. They would lose either way. However, she still tried her best to buy some time to think of a plan. Unfortunately, her plan backfired.

"Say, it's not really a fair trade-off is it? I mean, three people versus two –"

Gunshot.

"There, that's fair now, isn't it?" smirked the boy. "Just hurry up and make your decision – stalling isn't gonna do you any good."

There was no possible way to explain her heartbreak at the condemning words she said over the next few minutes. It was hard to remember exactly what she'd said; everything was a bit hazy after that moment. All she could remember was that damned smirk of his. That damn, damned smirk, as if he was flaunting the fact that he had won before the game even began.

...

Gumi wiped the tears from her face. She had probably cried back then too. Days had passed in a cascading flurry of tears. She vaguely remembered those five tiny coffins under the falling pink petals of cherry blossom trees. She vaguely remembered crying then too. Back then, she must have felt responsible, as she still did now. What a frustrating sight it was, seeing the innocent petals come dancing down as if they knew nothing of the world around them... as if they didn't understand how transient life was, even though they themselves would wither and die into nothingness in a mere week or so.

And what good had trying to take revenge done? It was almost like trying to ask the cherry blossoms to stop raining, or persuading them to last longer. It had been futile. It was strange though. Even after having left the Organisation for many years, it was strange that nothing much about the boy had changed. Even when they first met again, it felt as if he was seeing them for the first time. That bastard... surely he must have been briefed about the mischief she and Gakupo had been causing? Did he not remember them at all? It was the same with his ability to... like someone. Even now, he only knew
what dislike was, and apparently he only really knew that 'like' was the opposite of 'dislike'. But surely after spending so long with his cute little sibling (and Gumi had said those words mockingly in her head) he must have understood what it was to like someone. It was strange. It was almost as if he learnt things and forgot them easily if it wasn't to his taste. But even then...

Gumi angrily shook her head and rolled around on the sofa a bit more. Pulling a cushion over her head, she scrunched up her eyes and tried to force those infuriating cherry blossoms out of her head. Of course, she would never be able to forgive him for what he had done, but was there a chance she felt sympathy for him?

Bah! She grumbled to herself. If anyone should be feeling sympathy for anyone else, they should be feeling sorry for her! Not that blond little bratty bastard!

She bolted upright and threw the cushion across the room. Just at that moment, the front door opened and a blue-haired girl with annoying little twin tails walked in carrying a bag of shopping. Miku caught Gumi glaring at her from behind the sofa in the living room and immediately chipped in, "Turquoise."

The girl put the shopping down in the kitchen before entering the living room, asking, "What are you doing here? And whoa, wait – how? Like... how are you in here?"

"Was just passing by and thought I'd say hi, but obviously nobody was home. Leaving now." Gumi got up and quickly made her exit, but not before bumping into those cute little twins (again she said that with the most scathing tone possible in her mind). Luckily, the girl twin didn't say anything, but gave her a funny look – not quite anger, but not quite sympathy either. Not so luckily, the bastard boy twin glowered at her with oh-so-angry blue eyes. Gumi stared him down with the same anger until he glanced off to the side. That was funny. There was a new look in his eyes... regret?

Gumi laughed at herself. As if. That boy wouldn't know regret if it slapped him on the cheek a hundred times. But what was also funny... he looked as if... as if he'd been crying. His eyes were the slightest bit of red. Gumi took a quick look at Rin, who looked back with an expression that gave nothing away. That made it all the more obvious that she had something to do with it. Interesting, but... ugh. Too much effort.

With that, the green-haired girl casually took her leave and the door slammed behind her. No question as to who had closed it then. A cold wind picked up as she began walking alone, slowly down some unfamiliar streets, fancying she could smell the familiar fragrance of those bittersweet blossoms.

Ah, so yeah... I haven't proofread this and thought of a twist or two to add so it may not flow with the rest of the story... ah well. But here you go! If you guys want to know more about this story, just say and I might think about adding a bit xD or maybe there are some holes in this storytelling or bits that don't fit right - in that case also tell me so I can fix it. It's been too long since I wrote everything else, I can barely remember... but thank you so much for reading! Hope it was up to scratch OTL