A/N: I wanted a longer chapter for this but a funny thing happened when I wrote this chapter. I was alone last night -when I wrote just a few paragraphs- and it was starting to rain, with a bit of thunder here and there BUT before it was raining, I felt a sound coming from –I was in my parents' room- outside the door. It was like someone knocking into the door. I waited. I stared at the door as my heart suddenly felt a bit weird. The door suddenly opened. I was keeping it cool and waited if there was anyone. There was none. I got up and closed the door. It kept opening. I slammed it shut but it kept opening. I repeated the process until I got fed up and looked outside. There was nobody. I immediately locked the door. It then rained. I immediately changed the song to 'Girlfriend' loudly and sang changing the lyrics to: I don't like your haunting! This is the nth time something weird happened when I update this story. This is one of the reasons why I'm trying to tone the update down other than resting.

Dedication: To the patient reviewers who endured the bitching I did in the note. Well, I think I should be allowed to bitch around; I'm not that nice even though I can say I am one of those that hardly flame other people. I doubt I ever did intentionally. I'm just human. BTW, if I cared about reviews in the first place, is it not logical that I've quitted a LONG, LONG time ago? Ring a bell?

Disclaimer: Things that don't belong to either me or Tecmo belong to Kamijyo. Things that don't belong to either me or Kamijyo belong to Tecmo. Things that don't belong anywhere in this world used in this story belong to me!!

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Hour Twenty-Two – Reincarnations

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Hooded green eyes stared into the nothingness presented in front of her. She reached out her pale bony hands, covered in dry blood and grasped at something invisible. Unclenching and clenching her hands, she moved her searching hands frantically, her hands only able to grab hold of air. She did not want to cry. She did not want to cry. She just wanted this nightmare to end.

"K-Kyo…" she whispered nervously as her hands touched a bundle of soft hair under its palms. She soothed the softness and trembled when she picked up the smell of death in the air.

Her nearly hollow eyes bear no more blood. She remembered how painful it was to have those arrows struck into her eyes one by one. How she fell on her knees…and how cruelly those men retrieved the sharp tip from her eyes…how splinters injured her eyes at the same time…how she tried very hard to run away…

How much it pained her. The pain of being slit at her delicate joints, her once flawless skin…how she was thrown at the wall and being hammered against it. She was stuck to the wall with stakes driven into her wrists and how amazing it was that she still lived. How close to hell she was, tortured with curses and prayers, her blood drawn out slowly from her from the cuts on her body…

She was nearly blind. She was already sure she wanted to die. She could not take any more of the pain infused on her body; she could not bear being stared at like a doll on a wall. She did not want to be cherished like a straw doll where they can puncture holes into you as if you were made out of nothing. No flesh, no blood, no soul.

She just wanted to die.

Only now, she could not. She wanted to save both herself and her love.

Her head shot up as her sudden heightened senses alerted her of more people coming into the quiet room. She could feel people surrounding her and his body. She encircled her arms around his head and pulled his body close to hers as she waited for whatever was coming at both of them.

"Tie them up together and throw them into the Hell Gate…sacrifice them!" said one of them. She could hear the rustling of clothes and felt how roughly she was pushed down onto the blood covered floor along with his body. Her hands were pulled back and she could feel the remains of the stakes hammered into her wrists being pulled out of her.

They pulled it out.

She was immediately losing consciousness. There were exposed holes in her wrists and she was dying. She could feel the numbness overwhelming her body as blood left her from the hollow openings. She was dying.

"I cannot believe that that stupid Kyoshiro found out about the sacrifice!"

"…we need to hurry. The Sea of Souls must be appeased before it releases its anger at us all!"

A quick sharp tug at the ropes could barely be felt by her. She was dragged across the floor mercilessly. Unknown to her, she was still conscious as her exposed chest was introduced with more cuts as she was dragged. Her blood left her, painting a path to her own demise.

…if only she…

…if only she didn't…

…if only she didn't meet him…

"Oh! How disastrous! The Hell Gate's Sea of Souls is overwhelming and is forcing it open! We must hurry and throw both their bodies!"

"I don't think we'll be able to make it!"

"It's already too dangerous! Can you not hear the screams and howling?! The Sea of Souls is already filled with Darkness! If we force it open- Fubuki-sama! What are you doing?!"

"If we wait any further, it'll become much worst!"

"Fubuki! This is crazy!"

"Hishigi, call for the Ceremony Priests to open the Hell Gate's ropes, we need to hurry and throw them into Hell's Abyss!"

"No!"

"Fine, I'll do it myself!"

"You are crazy!"

"Do you rather the Sea of Souls escape to the world and overwhelm it with Darkness?!"

"The Sacrifice must be willing, we must just pray!"

"Faith does not have anything to do with this! We've come this far! You! Throw them in NOW!"

"Y-yes!"

Her body was limply thrown into a hole. She remembered…no matter how vague it was…the faces of the people who tortured her for their own selfishness…how his body fell at the same speed as hers…

…how she remembered the cold embrace of dark hands around her body…

…how her last tears became blood…

…

"Sendai-sama! The rituals failed, you must run away!" one of the servants shouted as she fell on the floor in a heap of blood. Fresh sword cuts decorated her back.

The master of the Mibu Clan got up from his seat and carried with him the small body of the last of the Five Shrine Maidens, the little girl Ruru. Ruru looked up at him in fear as she hugged her cherished toy to her chest, stopping her tears as screams filled the mansion. Sendai took a secret underground passage only known to him and the rest of the Taishirou, hoping that no one will find out.

However, if one is referring to people, that would not be a problem.

"Sendai-chama! Watch out!" Ruru screamed as a katana slashed the front of Sendai's clothes. Falling back, he released Ruru. Ruru tumbled as she trembled.

"Ruru, hurry and run!" he told her as he desperately tried to unsheathe his own katana. In front of him was a man in bloody ceremonial kimono. Long ruffled dark red hair cascading down his bloody face, his gouged red eyes glowed in the darkness filled passage. Dark shadows loomed over him, hands surrounding his nearly transparent bloody body.

Sendai looked at him in fear.

Ruru turned around and hurriedly scurried with her small feet. Her toy making noise as she ran, she caught the interest of the bloody ghost of a slayer. Not aware of the shadows looming behind her, she kept on running, tears falling from her eyes.

"Ruru, watch out!" Sendai croaked out as a mass of shadow hands covered his body before suffocating him to death.

Ruru stopped and turned around and her eyes widened as the bloody form was now inches away from her face. She screamed and tried to run again but was stopped by the sound of a woman crying.

"…who manipulate other people for their own benefit…die of my curse…"

Her eyes widened even more when a woman materialized in front of her in a grainy form. Bloody kimono, disheveled hair, blood tears painting her face…Ruru trembled uncontrollably. When she rose up her head, her gouged out eyes left a deep hole in her eyes and swallowed Ruru's body when Ruru stared at it directly.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

-

Kyo undid the ties of his shoes as he sat in front of his front door, a package sitting next to him. He pulled off the shoe from his sore feet and pulled out the black socks, putting it into the shoes. He rose up, taking the house slippers and slipped his feet in. He bent down and picked up the package and proceeded to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, he pulled out a jug of cold water from the refrigerator and grabbed a clean glass from the cupboard. Pouring himself a glass until it was a quarter full, he placed the jug on the counter and leaned into it, bringing the rim of the glass to him mouth before he downed the whole glass in one go.

His eyes stared into space as his fingers thrummed on the table. Once. Twice. Thrice. Kyo looked up, his eyes resting on the small mirror just adjacent to him. His red eyes penetrated the ones that were reflected. He frowned.

"She's awake."

-

Yuya slowly wrote down her notes, scanning through the pictures she found in the Camera Obscura. The pencil tip was nearly dead from overuse. She looked up from the book to the pictures. She was surprised to actually find these pictures she caught from her dreams. Her dreams were becoming more vivid as of late. She was getting a little bothered with the rise and fall of the temperature surrounding her. She dropped the overused pencil accidentally and it fell from her hand and dropped, its tip broken by the impact as it met the floor. With an annoyed sigh, she bent down and reached out to get it.

She stopped.

Her pinwheel necklace dangled freely from her neck as she stopped dead in her action. Her loose blond hair falling down her exposed shoulders.

She watched with interest as the pencil in front of her moved. It rolled from left to right before it suddenly stood erect, the broken tip on the floor. It began to move as if a hand was holding it and was using it to write with.

Yuya's eyes narrowed as the broken tip was replaced with blood ink. The pencil continued to move on its own, writing down something in broken lines. When it stopped, the pencil fell on the floor again and rolled naturally until it stopped in front of the closet, the tip pointing straight at it.

Yuya only looked at it indifferently as she studied the writings done on the floor. She read the words written out with much difficulty.

'When I sink into a dark reality

Where my hand cannot reach yours anymore

I want you to kill me with your own hands

Without remorse, destroy me'

"…what…?" Yuya started but she was cut off by the sound of the closet opening with a familiar scrape introduced to her ears. The scraping sounds filled the whole room, like sharp nails literally digging into her ears. Yuya covered her ears as she was again, for the nth time experiencing flashes and a loud ringing in her ears.

"Help me!!" she shouted out for help as she was again being forced to see the dreams of someone else's.

"If I hadn't met you…"

"Stop it!!!"

"I wouldn't have to suffer this way…"

"No…"

"How I wish…I could gouge your eyes out…"

Yuya's body limply fell onto the floor as she felt her healed cuts open again and blood flowed out of it like a river, never stopping. Her blood dyed her blond hair red as she kept on trying to stop her tears, even going to the extreme of actually closing off her tear ducts. Her ribcage slowly raised up and down, muscles contracting and relaxing as blood flow to her brain was cut short. Yuya's vision became blurry as tears layered her eyes as she stared at the closet in front of her.

She smiled.

-

Kyo heard her screaming but he had to just observe her actions, just so that he can actually make out whether or not Yuya was going crazy like Mariya or not. A few weeks ago, after their visit to Namida Temple, Mariya's mother called him. She told him how Mariya kept on repeating a song talking about a Namida no Miko, a Maiden of Tears. Kyo paid her a visit and recorded the whole song. It was a song about wanting the maiden to cry more and more and more.

Mariya actually agreed to meet up with him. Her eyes were covered with a cloth and Kyo could see blotches of dry blood at her cheeks. She had been crying tears of blood. She talked quietly and rarely answered his questions about what she sees. She spontaneously told him about the song and how she actually learned how to sing the song. She told him that it was sung to her by a little girl who asked her to play ball with her in her dream.

She told him that if she sings the song, the Maiden of Tears will leave her alone because she's praying for more tears. Mariya actually smiled when asked about how she felt when she sang the song.

"…I feel like I'm going to die…isn't that fun…?" she told him with a laugh. "Soon, I won't have to see what I don't wanna see anymore!"

Right now, Kyo observed Yuya bleeding on the floor, not moving. He took a step forwards but stopped when he heard the same scraping noise Yuya had heard. His eyes scanned round for the source and it came from his room. He glanced at Yuya's body before leaving her to bleed.

-

Yuya could feel her life being drained away from her, as if Death was slowly playing with her soul, pulling her life thread inch by inch, watching her suffer. Her smile was still on her face as she watched the closet.

A doll fell from the closet opening and tumbled onto the floor. It was a Japanese doll her brother had given her when she was small, its skin pale white, and its eyes were made from glass, its body donned with a red kimono. Its hair was jet-black and shiny, as if made from real hair and its lips were painted with blood-red.

It moved.

Craning its neck, it stared at Yuya with dark eyes. Getting on its small carved feet, it walked to Yuya slowly, walking bit by bit. The sound of wood joints cracking filled the quiet room.

The doll finally stopped in front of Yuya and craned its neck again, its black eyes staring into Yuya's eyes. The doll bent down, its hand reached out to Yuya's face.

It slapped her nose.

Yuya blinked.

"Eh…?"

The doll didn't move.

'You can do it, Yuya-chan!'

"…nii-sama…?"

'You're my baby sister!'

Yuya slowly moved her pale hands and grabbed the doll. Weakly, she sat up and brought the doll to her chest, hugging it.

"…I'm sorry…" she choked out as tears filled her eyes again.

She cried quietly.

-

Kyo turned the knob of his door and pushed the door open. The scraping noise died down and completely left his ears as he stepped into the room. He narrowed his eyes as he saw a shadow in front of his mirror. He cautiously walked into the room, trying to not attract the attention of the shadow. He jumped when his door was immediately slammed from behind him. He turned around to witness the door being locked. He shrugged, trying to stay calm. He knew his heart was beating like mad.

He put on a mask of indifference before he turned around to see the shadow's head facing him.

The shadow pointed to the mirror before it disappeared.

Kyo took hesitant steps, approaching the mirror. He stopped in front of the mirror to stare at…

…nothing.

He waited but there was no change. He could only see himself in the mirror, along with his bed, closet, a hand on his shoulder and also the-

He stared as the hand moved and wrapped around his neck. He still didn't make a move as the hand started to grip his neck, choking him. When he was nearly cut off of his breath, he finally made a move to unwind the hand but the hand stuck to neck like his own skin.

"Have you seen my arm?"

Kyo saw a woman dressed like a prostitute in the mirror, her right arm dangling from little flesh that nearly came off and her left arm no where to be seen. Her black hair was tousled, covering her left eye and was floating in the air. Her body was filled with cuts and her neck, her wrists and her ankles were decorated with rope markings.

"…have you seen my arm?"

The grip on Kyo's neck became tighter.

"…you're just like one of them…"

Kyo's eyes rolled back into his head and he fell on his knees and collapsed in front of the mirror as a piece of shard broke from it.

-

A/N: I don't really like this and I hope it's not too confusing. I'll try and answer any confused questions. There's a new ghost introduced here and she's my favorite! If you skipped the long story above, read it. I was really scared last night. I hope you people liked this and please tell me if something bothers you because I tend to put your needs first. I read all your reviews, what you think bothers you and tried to improve it…did I do it alright? Anyway, R&R&R, it's polite. I'll try and reply those that need replying. Be careful with what you say though, I was 'shot' just today and am losing blood…if you know what I mean…I'm bitching around so careful. BTW, I think Indonesian music suits me well when I write this story…thanks Samsons and Agnes Monica for your songs! No mater how jiwang they are…and btw, I'm a bit sad because my class got raided by thieves and I'm one of the victims who got their money stolen…and I DON'T EVEN HAVE MONTHLY POCKET MONEY! I wanted to buy a new CD…damn. Pray with me that they have bad tummy aches and return my money to me. BTW, if anyone wants to see the Camera Obscura I designed for this story, go to my DA.