Kai and Saya had been searching for about an hour now, and had yet to find anyone who had seen the twins or Diva. Neither of them was surprised about Diva; she would have likely been bounding from rooftop to rooftop or running through the sewers to make better time. The twins, on the other hand, wouldn't be using such extravagant means of getting around. Saya didn't know them, but Kai did. And he knew they would be looking around and just taking in the sights.

"I wonder how big this town is." Saya remarked, trying to fill the silence of their travel down the sidewalk. The cars on their side of the street were idling due to a red light, and the subtle sounds of their engines were making her more anxious. The blazing sun wasn't helping, either.

"Well, the town itself isn't that big. I don't know the place's name, but I remember hearing that it's been a port town since the 1800's. So it's not as big as modern cities. The piers still take up a lot of space, though."

"Do you think they would have gone down there?"

"Yeah. But I think they would have checked some other places out, first."

They reached the traffic light, but it turned green a few seconds afterwards. Saya tried to think of where the girls could be. She might not know their personalities as well as Kai did, but she knew what it was like to be a teenage girl. A variety of things went through her mind before Saya remembered the clothing they'd been wearing; practical, dirtied, form-fitting bodysuits.

"I know where they would have gone. Do you have the map?"

Kai walked over to her, pulling out the map for Saya to search. She ran her finger along it until she found the market. There weren't really any clothing stores that they would have gone to, so the market was the best place to check out.

"But they didn't have any money." Kai reasoned.

"Trust me, if I was wearing one of those suits in public, I would be looking for anything else to wear."

Kai shrugged and tucked the map away. They waited for the light to change and both tried to think of something to ask. It was in that pursuit for casual conversation that Kai experienced a moment of serendipity. It was like the matter of Diva's children evading his mind all those years ago.

"Saya, what happened to your sleep cycle?"


Before Haji could respond, Diva noticed something behind him. As she began to put together the strange clothing, the hair color and the small bodies, Haji spoke.

"I was following them through town. I didn't know for sure who they were. Thenil I saw their faces. When I came to speak with them, they passed out. I believe they're suffering from a lack of blood."

Diva wasn't even aware of moving past him to reach them; before she knew it the girls were lying in the shade of an empty dumpster. Now that the sun was no longer filling their features, she did notice that they looked unhealthily pale.

"I need to give them blood, but what if mine hurts them?" She thought.

"There's no need for you to risk hurting them or yourself." Haji's calm voice spoke behind her. He knelt down by them and pushed the underside of his wrist against the white-haired one's teeth. It made no sound, but a slight trembling of the girl's lips told Diva that it was working.

"Thank you." She spoke quietly, petting the black-haired girl's head.

"This is the second time I've seen my daughters, and I don't even know their names." She admitted.

"I was surprised to see you awake, considering how much time has passed. I would have thought that you and Saya would be in your thirty year hibernation by now."

Diva thought about it and realized that their hibernation period hadn't come like all the years before. That was strange, if one thought about it. Though she knew what Haji really wanted to hear.

"Saya is fine. She was with Kai the last time I saw her."

As the color returned to the one girl's face, Haji moved his wrist to the other one, remarking that they appeared to have been in a battle recently.

"They were living underground with Kai and the others, but that man found them. They were trying to escape when we arrived, and we sent him down to the bottom."

Haji actually took the time to look at her after hearing what she'd said, with as close to a look of surprise as one could expect him to show.

"You killed Alessandro?"

"I didn't see it happen. But it would kill a chevalier, I'm sure."

He looked down at the black-haired girl and brought his wrist back.

"That should do for now. If we can find where Kai and the others are staying, I think it would be best to carry them back."

Diva nodded and lifted the white-haired girl onto her back. It was difficult getting the girl in place so that she wouldn't fall, but Diva found a way and began walking back the way she had come. Haji did likewise and used longer steps to catch up with her.

"I heard your daughters talking before I approached them. The girl you are carrying was being called Anna. I believe the other was 'Sakina'."

Diva thought on the names. She had never really thought of what to call her babies, even after they had been cut out of her. The meaning of either name was lost on her, but they sounded gentle; she liked that much.


"I don't understand; I was sure they would have ended up here." Saya admitted, feeling stumped.

"I told you; they didn't have any money. Sakina might be willing to window shop but Anna wouldn't have that. She's a lot like Diva in that way."

"And Anna was the white-haired girl?"

"Yeah… she's the younger of the two."

Saya didn't want to be rude, but she couldn't resist asking Kai why her hair was white. It had been over a decade, so who was she to know about fashion trends? Let alone outside of Okinawa and Japan.

"Actually, she did that less than an hour before Alessandro showed up. They snuck into the records area of the administration building and found Joel's Diary. You can guess where it went from there."

"So they thought they were human all that time? They had no idea?"

Kai glanced at some bootleg copies of various movies, thinking about how silly a couple of them looked.

"What other explanation could they really come up with? They knew they were different, but that was all. When the girls found out what they were, who you and Diva were, and what they were being raised for they went into shock. Not that I can blame them. Anna cut her hair and took the color out of it by pouring containers of bleach over her head. I still remember how singed her skin looked when I first saw her."

With that, Kai started gazing absent-mindedly at a shadow. With no leads, Saya decided to leave him be for now. From what she'd gathered, it looked like there were a lot of issues people hadn't gotten the chance to work through on account of Alessandro's invasion. Saya's greatest concern at the moment, however, was how Diva would react if her daughters rejected her. From the way Anna had acted when she first "met" Diva in the vehicle, at least one of the girls wasn't too eager to accept Diva as their mother. At the same time, with how sensitive Diva would be towards them, rejection would scar her. The last thing they needed was Diva having an emotional breakdown now that everyone was finally safe.

As if their conversation had been a magnet, Saya spotted something far down the street. At first, she couldn't quite make it out; the shapes weren't normal for people. Their tops swayed back and forth like an oversized hat. But then, as the figures came closer, she could make out that they were in fact four people, two of them riding atop the others' backs.

Saya grabbed Kai's arm and pointed at the figures. When he made them out she could feel the air change around them, but then she saw his mouth frown and his brow narrow.

"Wait, who's carrying Sakina?"

Realizing the paradox herself, Saya squinted to make out the figure behind Diva. Her mouth opened as she made out the long legs, the pale skin, the dark attire, and the solemn face of Diva's partner. Saya's heart slammed like a kick drum and then rapidly sped up.

"It's Haji."

The chevalier kept his gaze down and Saya at first wondered if there was something wrong. She and Kai closed the distance with them, though, and as Haji gazed up at her she saw a deep-set smile. She couldn't remember the last time he'd had such an expression, and could feel her face reflecting the same sentiment. Fifteen years. The term seemed so heavy, and yet so light at the same time. She saw the parts of her life and of everyone's that had been threaded like painful braids finally loosening and coming back together. It was undoubtedly going to be difficult making things work; they didn't know that Alessandro was truly dead. And even if he was, there were several interpersonal issues to fix. But with the rejoining of their family she couldn't help but feel an overwhelmingly optimistic feeling in her chest.

The sun was starting to set. The blue sky had started to darken and lose its saturation. The clouds around the sun glowed orange and red, like they were bleeding, or melting. But she didn't feel sad. It made her think about something her father had once said many years ago; "The sun has to set today so that it can rise again tomorrow. Today was a great day, and tomorrow will be even better."