The castle seemed so quiet when everyone left when King Hayate did. Nanashi was sad to see some of them go, especially Asa and Haruto. She could not blame them though. She knew if she begged the two of them to stay, they would have, but it would have been too selfish of her. They were wanting to make a life together in the capital, where Asa had lived for decades. Plus, Haruto had started a new business and needed to keep it afloat.

Nanashi had taken up work in the library for Lord Mukuro when not looking after the twins with the other two nannies. Lord Mukuro thought that job would be fitting for her.

That was when one of the other workers in the library announced that Hiei was outside, fighting with Lord Mukuro. Nanashi rose up, jogging towards the closest window that should the front of the castle to see if it was true. She looked out, seeing Hiei standing before Lord Mukuro, panting. Both of them looked like they had been fighting. She swore under her breath. This could ruin everything.

She opened the window, jumping out of it. She summoned up her wind dragon's wings and landed softly on the ground. She summoned the wings away, running towards the two who were fighting.

She managed a few yards before she got tackled sideways. She slammed into the ground with something heavy on top of her. Her teeth rattled painfully in her jaw.

She felt the weight rise off of her. She rolled, standing up and facing whatever it was, wind dragon around her neck. She paused just for a second when she saw Kirin. He shook his head at her wordlessly.

She heard shouts behind her. She saw Hiei and Lord Mukuro at each other again. She turned her back on Kirin, ready to run again. Kirin did not let her get that far. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her back. "You're not to interfere with their conversation," he growled at her.

"Conversation?" she said aghast. That was a fight, not a conversation.

She struggled against him, telling her wind dragon to strike him, but not kill him. The wind dragon went for his face, but was unable to do any damage to the mask he wore. She felt the ring of the wind dragon's teeth strike uselessly.

"Let me go," she hissed at him. She looked over at the two of the fighters. Hiei was charging at Lord Mukuro, sword out and swinging so fast she could barely see each stroke. It almost made her dizzy to watch. "I said let go," she growled at him.

She twisted fruitlessly in his arms, much to her avail. She raised foot up, slamming it down on his instep. She heard him grunt, which was a good sign. His arms loosened. She went boneless, feeling her gravity make her slip under the taller Kirin's grip. She was free, but he might still try to stop her.

She wheeled around, punching him in the jaw. It made him stagger, but it made her wince and draw her tender right fist over to her chest. She rubbed it gingerly as the pain throbbed in it. She tried to open her hand, but it was too painful.

Kirin kept moving while she was standing and wincing. He had stepped between her and Hiei and Lord Mukuro, arms raised in front of him. Nanashi looked around behind him. Lord Mukuro was in the air, shooting several red blast of sorts down at Hiei on the ground. He cut them away, but one got him and exploded around him.

Nanashi charged at Kirin, wanting desperately to get around him. Her right hand ached, but she tried to ignore it. She ran towards him and then tried to duck left around him. He was not fooled. He struck her, knocking her to the ground. She growled up at him in fury. She jumped up, panting and wiping at the trickle of blood she felt flowing down her lip. She had to get around him to stop Hiei and Mukuro from fighting.

She summoned up her wind dragon, holding out her left hand towards Kirin. 'Stop him from breathing,' she commanded.

She watched him, feeling a pull on her energy. His hand went to his throat. His eyes went wide in shock and then narrowed. He could not speak, he could not talk, and most importantly, he could not breathe. Nanashi panted as she stared at him unblinking. She could not let him or anything else break her concentration.

A blast of bright red light broke her concentration. She looked over at it, seeing Lord Mukuro punch Hiei in the gut, red light coming out from behind his back. She felt her own stomach drop. She watched him slam into a far away cliff side half way to the top of it. He tumbled down against it as he fell. She lost her concentration on Kirin. She had no clue she lost it until Kirin was on top of her. He had her by her injured right hand, crushing it until she know felt she could not breathe. Her heart pounded, drowning out everything but the pain. It was unexpected and threatened to drown her.

A flash of heat suddenly surrounded the area, bringing both of hers and Kirin's attention over to Hiei and Lord Mukuro. Hiei was still alive, much to Nanashi relief. He stood shakily on his feet. He was summoning up a the black dragon hellfire he had warned her once he had tamed.

She felt her own wind dragon's revulsion internally. It wanted her to flee from the area, away from the hellish energy surrounding them. Every inch, every cell in her body screamed the same. She panicked, trying to pull away from Kirin anew, but to run away rather than stop the fight between Lord Mukuro and Hiei now.

Kirin still had her though. He held fast to her broken hand, clearly with no intention to let her go. "Please," she grunted out. The heat blasted hotter in the area. She could not stand it, would not stand it. "Let me go, please," she pleaded.

"She said not to let anyone interfere," he stated.

"I don't want... want to interfere," she panted. She could not be here anymore, did not want to be here anymore. She wanted to flee as fast as she could, as far as she could.

"Liar," he stated.

Nanashi panted, panic threatening her with the inability to think. Energy pulsed around the area. Hellfire mixed with Lord Mukuro's energy. Without warning, the hellish energy disappeared, making Nanashi breathe a sigh of relief.

She dropped to her knees before Kirin. "I won't interfere," she promised. She felt all of the fight drain out of her.

She knew he had no reason to believe her, yet he did. He let her hand go. She brought it down to her chest, cradling it against her chest. It ached, pulsing with pain. She felt resigned as she watched the fight between Hiei and Lord Mukuro continue.

The two were exchanging blow by blow. She watched resigned as Lord Mukuro three yellow arc by yellow arc around Hiei. They pulsed with their own electric energy. If he was not careful, those could easily cut him down. He dodged them over and over, as they surrounded the two of them.

Then the hellish energy was there again. Hiei had his arm and forehead unwrapped now. The hellish black energy surrounded him, making Nanashi want to run all over again rather than be exposed to it. She heard her wind dragon pleaded all over again in her mind to run from it. Everything angelic in her told her to get up and go. She refused to run though, to leave Hiei alone in the area. She doubled over, covering her left ear with her left hand. She screamed in tandem when he released the dragon on Lord Mukuro, raging against her desire to run away from it. She had to stay. She had to stop the fight. Somehow.

The hellish energy accumulated in the area, making it feel like hell had come to this world. Just when she felt like she could not take it anymore, she felt Lord Mukuro's energy over power the hellish energy. She straightened up, looking up to see Lord Mukuro do battle with the dragon, rending it in half. She watched it split all the way down the middle all over to where Hiei stood, blowing him back down to the ground on his stomach. Lord Mukuro landed before him. Hiei struggled to stand up, staring Lord Mukuro down.

Nanashi watched unblinking, unsure what would happen next. The two of them were too far away to hear. Shakily, she stood up, careful of her injured hand. She felt soaked in a cold sweat. The adrenaline that had been coursing through her was dissipating, being replaced by exhaustion now.

"Brave fool," Kirin commented next to her.

She looked up at him, then followed his line of sight. Broken chinks of circle metal lay on the ground before Lord Mukuro's feet. The old shackle from back when she was a slave, that tied her to her past. The shackle Hiei said she would never remove. He had removed it for her, much to Lord Mukuro's shock.

Then Nanashi watched Hiei stumble towards Lord Mukuro and collapse against her. Lord Mukuro took him in her arms, guiding the two of them down to their knees. Nanashi felt a flare of jealousy burn through her, struggling with that more than even the fear of the hellfire energy.

Nanashi took a tentative step towards the pair, waiting cautiously to see if Kirin would hold her back this time. When he did not try to stop her, she broke into a jog towards them.

Lord Mukuro was now standing, Hiei, unconscious, draped over her shoulder. Lord Mukuro looked at her, without really seeing her. Lord Mukuro turned towards the castle, heading in that direction. Nanashi, unsure what to do, followed after her.

Nanashi kept following after her, down the steps to the chilled basement area. The cold made Nanashi shiver due to the sweat she was soaked in. It was too cold, but she would not retreat. Lord Mukuro entered a room in which held a handful of rejuvenation tanks and other things one might find in a surgeon's office. Doctor Daiki was even there, sitting at a desk surrounded with files and looking over a computer. He jumped up in haste when he saw the three of them enter.

Lord Mukuro did not speak, only cocked her head towards the closest tank. Doctor Daiki moved quickly, opening it up and helping Lord Mukuro strip Hiei down before putting him into it. Nanashi stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, unsure what to do or say. She felt a flash of jealousy rage up inside. It was all she could do not to shout at Lord Mukuro not to touch him. She was worried their fight might have ruined everything. On the off chance it did not, she would not let her jealousy ruin anything either.

"He'll need a few hours, quit damaged," Lord Mukuro told Doctor Daiki. "Whenever he uses his dragon, he often needs to hibernate to recover set it to release when he wakes up naturally."

"Yes, my lord," Doctor Daiki said politely. "Those cuts and bruises are from you though. Why were the two of you fighting?" His question seemed so nosy, but his tone stayed a mixed respectful and curious.

Lord Mukuro grunted in amusement, mimicking Hiei. Her hand went to her unshackled wrist. "It was a long time in coming. He's better for it."

Nanashi bit her tongue, seething. She spoke too familiarly about Hiei. She could not know all of him like she herself did, even if their minds had once interconnected. The love between had to be a more powerful connection than that.

Lord Mukuro spoke again, snapping her out of her jealousy. "See to her hand, Daiki," Lord Mukuro instructed. "She picked a fight with Kirin, injuring it."

Doctor Daiki stepped over to her, asking, "how did you injury it, exactly?" he asked politely. He took her right hand in his two hands. A flow of relief flooded into it.

"I punched his mask when he would not let me get around him," Nanashi answered truthfully. "I was trying to stop their fight. He called their fight a conversation."

Doctor Daiki hummed under his breath, showing he was listening to her. "Once you're done, you can leave," Lord Mukuro instructed.

Doctor Daiki turned to her. "Someone needs to watch him in the tank. Just in case anything happens."

"I'll watch him," Lord Mukuro said, laying a hand on the tank Hiei was in affectionately.

"I'll watch him," Nanashi echoed.

"Do you even know how these tanks work?" Lord Mukuro asked her shortly.

"I..." she started.

"Maybe next time, my dear," Doctor Daiki told her soothingly. He gave her hand a gentle rub before releasing it.

"Daiki, you may leave," Lord Mukuro instructed.

"Yes, my lord," he answered, stepping out of the room and leaving the two of them alone.

The door shut with a resounding click. Nanashi stood stock still, ears straining for any other sound.

"Your jealousy is unbecoming of you," Lord Mukuro said, breaking the silence. Her hand was still on the tank. Nanashi sucked in a breath. She felt heat flare in her gut. "When you were fighting Kirin, if you would call that a fight, it was not enough to make you sweat like that. Your hair is half soaked and I can smell you from here."

"Just leave him... leave him alone," Nanashi hissed out. "My lord," she added respectfully.

"You were scared," Lord Mukuro pressed, hand still pressed against the glass. "When he released his own dragon, you were terrified. You nearly fled. Why is that?"

Nanashi scowled. "I didn't run."

"You wanted to run away," Lord Mukuro pressed. "You've never seen him use that attack before. The angelic part of you sensed the hellish, demonic part of him and was frightened."

"So what?" Nanashi answered.

"Well, isn't that proof right there that a demon should not be with an angel?" Lord Mukuro pressed. "Only another demon?"

Nanashi shook her head. "I love him," she stated confidently.

"And yet you keep a secret from him, locked away. Because you're scared what he'll do if he knew you listed your other lover's name," Lord Mukuro added smugly. "Scared he'll kill him in a jealousy rage." Her hand stroked the glass of the tank affectionately.

Nanashi felt like something snapped in her. She stepped forward, standing toe to toe with Lord Mukuro. "Get your hand off the glass."

"Speaking of jealous rages," Lord Mukuro said with a smug smile.

Nanashi reached up, grabbing Lord Mukuro by the sleeve, yanking her arm down off the tank with more force than she intended. Nanashi let her hand go after that, which ended up being her mistake. Lord Mukuro struck her across the face. Nanashi stumbled against the tank, keeping herself on her feet nearly through sheer will.

The pain across her face stung not alike her hand had earlier. Even the slightest twitch in her face made the bone in her cheek ache. Nanashi straightened back up, wind dragon visible around her neck. She ordered it not to let Lord Mukuro breathe.

Lord Mukuro looked unphased, rounding on her. Lord Mukuro held her hand up, a short yellow light of line crackling in her hand. She threw it at Nanashi, catching her in the stomach. Nanashi flinched, feeling it cut into her like a thin, sharp blade. Her shirt felt wet there. She felt herself lose concentration in tandem with the small cry that escaped her throat.

Lord Mukuro moved towards her, and vice versa. They met in the middle. She slammed her smaller body into Lord Mukuro, pushing her back. Lord Mukuro met her in kind, turning and shoving her into Doctor Daiki's desk side first. The computer rocked precariously. Papers on the desk shifted and some fell to the floor. She winced when her hip made bruising contact with edge of the desk. She hissed under her teeth, moving towards Lord Mukuro once more, throwing her weight leading with her shoulder. It worked to drive Lord Mukuro back into an unoccupied healing tank. She threw a handful of punches that communicated her anger, but all were blocked.

She panted, taking a step back to summon up her wind dragon. She launched herself up at Lord Mukuro, surprisingly unblocked. She pressed her forearm against the front of Lord Mukuro's throat. She ordered her wind dragon to bite, but to hold its teeth in Lord Mukuro's flesh only.

"What's the matter, can't kill me?" Lord Mukuro choked down at her. She pressed harder against Lord Mukuro's neck, though her arm started to shake. "You've killed before. Lesser demons, doxies, a thunderbird, even the elder Toguro brother. Why hold back?" Lord Mukuro brought her hand down. She heard a crackling sound just before she something burn against her side. Lord Mukuro held a shard of yellow against her side. It cut only slightly into her side, but could gruesome damage if shoved into her. She winced, fighting against herself not to pull away. "You're a killer, but have never killed in cold blood. Even when you were possessed by an evil spirit. Have never desired it beyond your desire to survive. It's more enjoyable that way." She closed her eyes, holding the wind dragon back from killing her. "Look at me," Lord Mukuro demanded sharply. She looked up, trying to look mean. "A demoness would mean it. Yet if you sent air into my blood now, I would slice you half and watch you die before I succumb from your attack. That would leave him to awaken to find both of us dead before him."

She did not want to back down, even as her heart thudded against her rib cage. "He's mine," she growled before summoning her wind dragon back to her own neck and bringing her arm off of Lord Mukuro's neck. She wished she had the courage, the wherewithal to kill Lord Mukuro like she wanted to.

Lord Mukuro took her shard away, shaking her hand so it uselessly fell to the ground, striking a gash in it. Lord Mukuro then leaned against the empty tank behind her, arms crossed over her chest. "He is, indeed," Lord Mukuro conceded. She looked up. "Not any demon would surrender himself not once, but twice for any young fool, regardless if you managed to get him rescued. He tried to force you away more than once, onto his own uncle even, but you pushed your way back to him. Pushed him to sleep with you when you made it clear that was the only way he could keep you. So he bound you to him in marriage and with the bite he dared to make. Yet back then he did not have the choice he once could have. There was only you who wanted him, so you wore him down. Had he had the choice in front of him a year ago, he would have chosen differently."

She felt a rage wash over her all over again, but she did not want to lock it away this time. "What does it matter! You're dying! You fucked up trusting a new dark crone and she took away the rest of your years when you were striving for immortality! Have much longer do you have anyway?!"

Lord Mukuro kept her face unreadable. It was eerily familiar. "You had a choice. More than two. Likely more if the king would have let others pursue you. A lord, a stable master..."

"I chose him and he chose me," she pressed, hating the undertones Lord Mukuro was spinning.

"He honored his prior choice," Lord Mukuro said with a condescending sneer.

"I hate you," she snarled, wanting to throw a harsher insult, but after years of Haruto teaching her to hold back hateful words was still ingrained in her.

"The feeling's mutual," Lord Mukuro grunted. "You let your emotions guide you too much. You have never survived six months like he did," she cocked her head over to where Hiei was.

"Yes, I would have," she insisted, checking herself as she caught her anger fueling her brave words.

Lord Mukuro raised her hand up into the air, snapping her fingers. A black, empty circle opened up underneath her. She felt her stomach drop and panic dwelling. She could not fathom why she had not fallen through it. Lord Mukuro snapped her fingers again. Solid ground came back under her feet. Relief washed over her. "You were scared and it would have been the death of you." She shook her head, but stopped and scowled when Lord Mukuro laughed at her. After her laughing died down, Lord Mukuro took on a more somber face.

"Then why chose my daughter for your heir if I am such an emotional coward," she spat sarcastically.

"She's the eldest. Also, maybe she can balance out yours and Hiei's weaknesses and strength. Should be interesting," Lord Mukuro explained with a nonchalant tone. The shift in tone made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "You do love him fiercely though, I'll give you that. You must never rescind it from him."

She frowned, blinking up at Lord Mukuro at the odd shift in conversation. "What?"

"No matter what he has done or will do, you cannot turn him away from you, no matter what," Lord Mukuro pressed.

"What...?" she asked.

"Promise me," Lord Mukuro insisted. She looked so intense.

She could not fathom how or how much this fight turned conversation has twisted and turned. It made her suddenly uncomfortable being alone with Lord Mukuro. "I promise," she agreed.

Lord Mukuro straightened up, walking towards her with confidence. She drew a sharp breath, bringing her guard and wind dragon up. Lord Mukuro stood looming over her much too closely. "Teach your daughter to be stronger than the both of you." Lord Mukuro brought her hand up to her shoulder, clasping it. Lord Mukuro headed towards the door after that. "I'll send Daiki back into you to heal you once more and look after Hiei."

When Lord Mukuro left the room, she sucked down several breaths, hardly comprehending what of all just happened.

'She's unhinged,' the wind dragon commented. Nanashi did not think to disagree otherwise.

When Doctor Daiki came in and saw her, he rushed over to her instead of his disarrayed desk. "My dear, what happened?" he asked, stepping over to her to heal her face and stomach unbidden. Nanashi shook her head, feeling too weary to answer, ieven if she wanted to. Doctor Daiki sighed. "Two of you picking a fight with her in the same day."

"She started it," she answered mousily.

"Likely you struck first. They always do. Mind readers do have a tendency to know exactly how to push someone's buttons. She's no exception," he replied.

He turned away from her and went over to his desk, sighing as he bent down to gather up the scattered papers. She stepped over next to him and knelt, helping him. "Is she... alright...?" She grasped for an appropriate, but polite word.

Doctor Daiki straightened up, setting his handful of papers on the table. He began to sort them into three neat stacks. "She's been self closeted, keeping to herself for so long, centuries. Hardly willing to let anyone know her gender, let alone her real self. Trapped in the past but desperate to flee from it. How would you feel?"

She hummed under her breath. "Probably worse when you both abruptly face mortality and make a genuine connection with another person..." She looked over at the tank Hiei was suspended in. He had promised her once to connect mentally with her the same way Lord Mukuro had with him. To share life's memories with one another. "How did they do it?"

"Do what?" Doctor Daiki asked.

"How did they make that connection? How did they share memories?" she questioned, stepping closer to Hiei's tank.

"Well, to share memories like they did, at least one of them has to be a telepath," Doctor Daiki explained. She nodded, knowing Hie was one. "It's easier with two telepaths. They can both handle the neural load. Non-telepaths struggle with it. Chase the rabbit so to speak."

She had reached the tank. "What if... how might one of them hold back a memory... from being shared?" He was still suspended in the liquid, eyes closed. She could hear the machine sounds humming nearby.

"The person simple imagines it locked away in their mind before the memories are shared," Doctor Daiki explained simply.

She felt her heart pounding, echoing in her ears. She imagined her explicit memories of Ruka and Jin locked away, as well as her memory of writing down Jin's name for the king and queen. Locking those memories away together would lessen his suspicion.

"That's it?" she asked.

"Simpler than it sounds," Doctor Daiki responded. "The telepath's got to be willing though."

She looked back at Doctor Daiki, seeing he was too focused on reorganizing his papers. She turned back. She took a deep breath, reaching up and touching his tank. His Jagan Eye was uncovered, but he was unconscious. She clumsily reached her mind out to him all the same, feeling self conscious about it. She watched him as she offered herself to him. She held back a gasp as she saw the center of his forehead light up a bright lavender color. She felt drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

Her mind felt aflame. So many memories flowed into her mind at once. All of them were not hers. She panicked at the feeling of being thrown from a cliff as a newborn. A mix of blood lust, the urge to become stronger, and the desire for revenge being the sole focus of one's childhood. The memories tumbled over and over around her. They were not hers, but they felt like it. With the memories came the emotions and feelings. She had her own fleeting thought that Lord Mukuro should not of judged her for running emotions when he had in his childhood.

When she hit the memory of getting the Jagan Eye though, she screamed in the present. That pain was the worst, like a drill burrowing into her skull in the past. In the present, she heard Doctor Daiki shout in panic. In the past she felt the overwhelming desire to claw her own eyes out. In the present Doctor Daiki was next to her, yanking her hands away from her face and holding them tightly to her side. She screamed, not sure what to do or what to feel, or where she was.

When the memory faded in the past, she felt bone weary exhausted in the present. She wondered how long she had been laying on the floor, shivering. She could hear Doctor Daiki leaning over, asking what she was doing in the present. In the past, the memories were less painful, more subtle. She reached the fighting pit memories. The thrill, the fear, the challenges. The brief lovers taken, mostly men. The dark fear that consumed her when when she thought about taming the hellish dragon. Had he not controlled the dragon, she would fear him even more. She met the fox for the first time, feeling the surrealness of wanting to fuck him of all things. It caught it her off guard at the hints that it happened a few times even, but thankfully she was spared witnessing that memory. Then she met the stranger, thinking him full of himself, but rather surprised when he managed to seduce the fox.

In the present she could feel Doctor Daiki shaking her, shouting down at her to wake up. She was awake... She was watching other pit fighters she had known get bought out of their debt or die before that could happen. The offer coming from the fake lord to buy him out. The internal conflict over whether or not to accept the offer. He regretted it. She watched the fake lord make a move on her, failing so miserably to force himself on her. It was pathetic. What was worse in shoving that miserable fool off of her lead him to stabbing himself in his own gut.

Doctor Daiki slapped her across the face in the present, making her wince in real time, but nothing else. She saw the ship ride down to her hometown, and meeting... herself... A frightened half-child. Not sure what to make of her, but she had the determination to carry out being forced by her mayor to be his apprentice and guide. How she claimed to be half demon, but then survived doxy toxin. How seeing the procurer in the town and his desire to take her spurred up a desire to protect her. The keeper pushing for him to take her away and marry her to save her from the procurer. The kiss he gave her without planning it and how it spurred his desire to keep her safe. The temptation to abandon her anyway and flee from the procurer. Almost doing that, but then giving himself up to save her, only to watch her be poisoned.

The pain spurred up again. The chronic hunger, the fear of the dark crone, the constant and nagging ache in her hips in the past. She heard herself cry and beg aloud in the present not to be given to the black crone. Doctor Daiki was repeating over and over again that he would never do that to her.

The thought of herself being dead, and yet flying over to him in the night with angel's wings to rescue him. Yet the rescue was botched and she was sent to death anew.

In the past, the memories finally dulled thankfully. She was in the castle, waking up feeling so weak with the girl protective over him. The king taking interest in him. The odd, but easy friendship formed with the king, someone who grew up enjoying watching the fighting pits and had even been a fan of his. All while the desire for the girl was building up in him, almost overwhelming him when they had destroyed the cape of no return with the others.

Her annoyance was in dissonance with the memory when she saw in the past the deal made with the king to all but sleep with her to train her up for the uncle. The almost inability to hold back from bedding her completely. Yet then the mixed emotions from the night she tried to slip him inside of her anyway and the rage he felt at her for that. The jealousy that burned in him when she agreed to marry the uncle and cut him off abruptly. She was better off with the uncle and should have stayed with him. The dissonance within her over that in the present made her growl in frustration.

The hope with her betrothal to the uncle would just be over abruptly and he could disappear. Only to watch the procurer crawl back into their lives, trying a third time to kill her. Volunteering to go in her place, watching for the chance to kill the procurer, but never getting the chance. The procurer would never stop going after the girl so long as she lived. The determination to survive the asinine battle against fifty animals in the fighting pit to determine whether he lived or died. Seeing the girl and others step and fight along side him and all the drama and her near death and the injury that eventually lead to the loss of her wings.

Going within the stadium after the queen. Seeing the queen grabbed the procurer, whisper to him, and then him getting into the cage with the wyvern that ate him. Enjoying not only the reveal of the queen's secret ability, but also the sight of the procurer's gruesome death in the past. In the present, she could not believe this memory true. The queen never did that. She was never that close to the procurer. The desire to not believe the memory made her head ache. Doctor Daiki in the present was back at her, swearing at her, holding a tissue under her nose.

The memories kept moving, even though she was hung up on the one that could not be true. The burning jealousy of watching the wind mage trying to get her to run away with him. The desire to kill the rival even now burned within him. Then in turn her demand for him to sleep with her and him giving in as a ploy to keep her away from the wind mage.

The difficulty of finding out he was the father's son. The fear that shot through her both in the past and the present at seeing the just the uncle's memories of that wretched father. It frightened her, making her want to flee all over again.

The running away from the castle, only to be found by the bomber, rescued by his sister, and fighting with the detective. Going back to the castle and the rush of those memories going by in a fast pace rush. She tried to stick to the memory of meeting with the king the day of their wedding, but it just skipped over to the wedding and the weeks that followed. That moved fast too, in a mix of loved and bliss. Only to be taken away in the desire to take over Lord Mukuro's territory when the woman was dead in the past. In the present, Doctor Daiki had left her side, pounding on buttons and the sounds of machinery and whirls of water.

She sunk into the memories of fighting for months in Lord Mukuro's fighting pit of sorts. How around every corner, every second, or one false move could lead to death. She saw the fight with the osteopath, the certainty of death in that moment. In the memory there was no fear of the death, only sorrow for it ending. In the present, she raged, not wanting to die. She felt her whole body tremble as she resisted any and all desire resign herself to death.

She could heard Doctor Daiki's berating tone demanding she be stopped and the sound of wet and stumbling footsteps in the present. "You gave her those memories and now she can't handle them. Take them back," Doctor Daiki.

She felt like she had slipped under and awakened to the sharing of memories with Lord Mukuro. She felt the memories pause, causing her to blink and resurface into the present. They were not finished, she needed to go back to them and finish them all. Her mind begged for it, even as she opened her eyes. She saw Hiei kneeling above her, hand resting on her forehead. She felt the shock of now hit her. How cold and hard the ground felt underneath her prone body. Every muscle ached like it had been pounded repeatedly. How sweaty and icy her skin felt. How sticky and stinging her face felt, especially under her nose. The sickening taste of blood on her lips and in her mouth.

"Sleep," he told her, exhausted, Jagan Eye glowing above her.

"No," she protested, closing her eyes. She raised a shaky hand, gripping his wrist feebly. "Don't take them away," she pleaded.

"Open your eyes," he told her. She shook head, eyes staying firmly shut.

"Why did you give her your memories?" Doctor Daiki demanded close by. "You should have known she could not handle them. She screamed, she cried, she begged, scratched up her own face before I could stop her, and she even seized at one point. Take them away. She can't handle them."

"I wasn't conscious," Hiei hissed. "I didn't realize what was going on when she made the request," he tone dripped with regret. She felt sharp fingernails suddenly dig into the inside of her wrist. She gasped at the pain, opening her eyes without thinking. He held her gaze, telling her, "sleep," once more.

This time she could not resist.