Yusuke couldn't erase the shock that chilled his system at the sound of Zeri's inhuman shrieking and Hiei collapsing to his knees in pain. The brown-eyed male knelt beside the black-haired demon, taking in his pale face and glazed eyes. Hiei was fixated on the space in front of him, mere inches from the window, yet Yusuke had no understanding of what was going through his friend's head. The glazed look in Hiei's eyes darkened into something indistinguishable. Yusuke gritted his teeth and he grasped Hiei's shoulder and shook him roughly. "Hiei. Hiei, snap out of it, man! What the hell's up with you?"

There was a flicker of reaction in Hiei's eyes, but Yusuke couldn't discern if Hiei truly heard him. There were a few beats of silence before Hiei shook his head furiously, blinking before resting a hand against his temple. The piercing screeches dropped to mere whimpers now and Yusuke could hear Gia's voice attempting to soothe Zeri before he returned his attention to Hiei, who was pushing himself to his feet. "Whoa, man, you just collapsed! The hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm leaving." Hiei's answer was clipped and irritable as he advanced toward the window. Granted the male was usually irritated by something (like Kuwabara), but this irritation was steeped with something dark and Yusuke couldn't help but wonder. "Why were you staring so hard near the window?" he asked. Hiei stopped short, his foot on the sill, and his hand hovering inches from the window to haul out. Hiei couldn't even begin to explain what he saw. Like Zeri, in her current state of lunacy, he saw Hikari—no, that was incorrect. The image of the girl that floated in front of his eyes while he was crippled with pain was not the soul they were chasing. It was a vision, he was almost sure. It was similar to the one he had in Mukuro's compound before he had returned to the Ningenkai to try and remove the noose that ringed his neck, yet it was different. It was wrong. The girl was in healed body, dressed in black. Her eyes were just as black as the cloth that concealed her body, void of the emotion she always held. The aura she exuded in the vision was unlike any villain he had faced alongside Yusuke: it was chilling, the scent of power and death overpowering the air. The moment he regained his senses, the vision disappeared like smoke and a sickening knot formed in his stomach.

"Hiei, the minute we find Kari's parents and know more of what's going on, this can end," said Yusuke in a solemn voice. It was a rare mood for the ex-detective that Hiei could sense that Yusuke thoroughly believed finding Hikari's parents would somehow fit the jagged pieces into the ever-growing myriad of what they didn't know. Clenching his teeth, Hiei shook his head brusquely. "You do not know that, Yusuke. This may not end," he muttered coldly. He was unsure of how he could possibly know; however, he had an ominous feeling in his bones. That feeling had worsened when that fleeting vision passed through his eyes. With another shake of his head, Hiei jumped out of the window without another word.

Yusuke stabbed his fingers through his dark hair, eyes narrowed in irritation. Hiei had gone off without even leaving information on where to find Hikari's insane parents and it was the one, vital piece of information they needed in order to get their girl to the Reikai without casualties. As the thought passed through his mind, Yusuke remembered when he, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama had gone into Hikari's apartment and found that box with scraps of paper with her odd little notes. What could probably piece more together would be Hikari's notebook, her most treasured possession. If Hikari etched her very being into that notebook, it would unveil every secret she ever kept inside—and the only person who had seen her soul lay bare was Hiei.

"Yusuke?" Gia's voice broke through his thoughts and Yusuke turned around. Gia's expression was one of worry. "Did Hiei bail on us?" she asked.

"For now," answered Yusuke with a heavy sigh. "Hiei left without telling us where to find Hikari's parents, but I'm sure he'll pull through."

"Hope so," muttered Gia, wrapping her arms around herself loosely. "I just…Zeri seems to be out of it. It's getting worse each time, like she's wounded in a way that's deeper than we even realize."

Yusuke felt a lump rising in his throat, but he wasn't sure whether it was grief or anger. Everything they had the comfort of knowing was ripped apart at the seams and it appeared they were becoming even more powerless to stop it.

There was a chill in the air and it bothered Kuwabara for many reasons as he walked through the streets. Much as he was with Yusuke, the girls, Hiei and Kurama, they were no closer to finding anything out about Hikari and how some dark spirit chained her soul. He could sense spirits and sensed when Hikari's soul happened to be nearby. It bothered him and made him wonder why her window of opportunity to speak with them was short. So short, in fact, that she would disappear the moment the fear lit her deadened eyes. It was bad enough to know how her body looked after being savagely murdered by demons. It was worse to know that her soul was tainted and whatever did it had no intention of letting go.

He had gone home and Yukina was the first to pick up on his mood. His sister, of course, had a stronger sixth sense than him and he knew she had to have caught wind of the situation. Yukina was the first to ask, her crimson eyes glowing with concern, and, with a heavy sigh, Kuwabara sat Yukina and Shizuru down to explain the situation.

Yukina had clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening with horror at what little he knew. Shizuru took a drag of her cigarette, her eyes downcast, before she spoke, her voice heavy with something unfathomable. "If she's trying to reach out to you guys, the least you can do is listen."

Kuwabara understood that much, but that wasn't what bothered him. The only person Hikari's spirit seemed to try to reach for was Hiei, and their relationship, if anyone could call it that, was tumultuous at best. Kuwabara may have been single-minded in his training back then, to be strong and to harness his aura to fight alongside Yusuke, but even he had noticed how strange the interaction between Hiei and Hikari had been. Hikari had already been an odd girl, and Kuwabara made it no secret to his friends that he thought so. Hikari had been too out of sorts after she was saved from the demons and whenever they had seen her, she had that damned black book that she guarded as though her life depended on it. Though now that he thought it, perhaps that notebook was the very thing that kept her sane, that kept her from flying to the deep end. Her very history, whatever it was, had to have been in that notebook.

There had been another thing that Hikari had done. She was very curious about demons, even though they all had found out about her older sister being murdered by demons. Had Hikari witnessed it, but not realize they were demons? Or was she truly in the dark until now?

A chill swept up to Kuwabara's spine as he looked over his shoulder. The presence was unfamiliar and before he could put his finger to what it could possibly be, a voice whispered in his mind: "That way. Go that way."

A thrum encompassed him and Kuwabara felt the strange, urgent sensation of needing to find something. The voice drilled it into him, propelling him into the direction of a nearby park. The feeling was growing stronger as he walked through the deserted area, close to the cluster of bushes near the playground.

The thrumming banged his bones when he was near a small bush, the feeling of whatever he was supposed to find blaring his senses. He knelt down, digging his hands into the dirt. He had no idea what he was digging for, but just knew that whatever it was, it was buried right here. Dirt lined the tips of his fingers, staining his hands, as he dug deeper and deeper. Soon, his felt something hard come into contact with his fingers before he spread the dirt aside, his fingers hooking beneath the item before he pulled it out.

It was a thin, black book, the once pristine cover and edge of pages smeared with dirt. Frowning, Kuwabara turned the notebook over, the thrumming lessening from its fever pitch, but still present. He placed his hand over the cover and proceeding to sweep the dirt off of it, feeling grooves of something engraved upon it. When he cleared enough of the dirt from the notebook, he looked at the cover.

His mind went blank as his eyes widened, the chill growing worse inside of him, chilling the blood in his veins.

On the cover of the notebook was one word, and one word only.

Tsukiyomi.

"All right, Kuwabara, tell us what it is you're freaking out about, but do it a bit slower, okay?" Yusuke had to haul Gia and Zeri out of bed the moment the sun had rose after he received a call from Kuwabara, saying that he needed to get everyone to meet at the park not far from Kuwabara's home. Kurama had arrived a few minutes after Yusuke, Gia, and Zeri and Yusuke had to have imagined the sharp glare Gia threw to the demon fox's direction. That was a resolution for another time.

Kuwabara's face was serious before he revealed the item that he had behind his back. The black notebook with the name Tsukiyomi etched on the cover sent a wave of tension throughout the group. Zeri's eyes widened as she breathed, "Where did you find it?"

"Here," Kuwabara muttered. "I had a feeling and I found this notebook buried in the dirt." The hand holding the book shook, a sign of the male being unnerved which had been extremely rare as of late. "I hadn't opened it and I don't want to. I just have a bad feeling."

"Kuwabara," Kurama spoke carefully, reaching to take the book from the orange-haired male. "Calm yourself. We will all go through this."

Nodding, Kuwabara relinquished the book to the fox's possession, yet Kurama was certain that he was not the only one who felt a chill growing within him at the notion that this was a clue that Hikari had hidden away. The physical manifestation of her soul was in their grasps now and just the jagged pieces they found out only wrought more questions.

Gia supported Zeri carefully, her eyes slightly narrowed and lips pressed together in a thin line. Naturally, she wanted information that etched the pages of that notebook, but she had to be mindful of Zeri, whose round, darkening eyes seemed have sunk into their sockets. Zeri seemed keen to know the innermost thoughts of Hikari; however, whatever delusions she seemed to be suffering from in regards to her friend's agony was not healthy for her. "Open it," she breathed softly and Kurama was acutely aware of all eyes on him and the book in his hand. Steeling himself, Kurama lifted the book slightly, flipping the cover open.

On the inner cover were a few taped photos. The most recent ones involving them as a whole were on the bottom. The topmost picture was a photograph of a much younger Hikari, with her sister Chika, and two adults that Kurama deduced were her parents. The photograph, however, was in sepia compared to the color photos Hikari taped within her book. The first page of the notebook was a rough sketch of the city set aflame, and that strange spectre she had drawn on a smaller sheet of paper looming over it. Underneath, Hikari had written only one sentence, one that Kurama read aloud with a dry throat. "The darkness took the name of the demon Azazel."

A tense silence followed the statement before Yusuke asked, "Azazel?"

"Hikari is correct that Azazel is the name of a demon. However, the image of the spectre-" Kurama turned the notebook to them to show the sketch that was on the first page, "—is the same one we found on a scrap of paper when we went to Hikari's apartment. She wrote that this entity has taken the name."

"That's the thing that took her," Zeri whispered, her eyes becoming impossibly rounder as she studied the sketch intently. "That's it."

"How do you know, Zeri?" asked Kuwabara, looking to the brunette curiously. Zeri's already dark eyes seemed to sink even further inside, the color utterly drained from her cheeks, as her eyes flickered from face to face. "The nightmares I'd have of Hikari screaming in agony, that thing…Azazel…it would be there, with its hand squeezing Hikari's neck and dragging her away," she murmured, leaning against Gia for support as her eyelids half-mast. "Hikari's scream would be in my head, echoing like a bell, but her lips were sewn shut and her entire expression was like stone. She was like stone."

"Hell," muttered Yusuke under his breath, his brown eyes cast to the ground, teeth furrowed into his lower lip. Gia raised her eyes to meet Kurama's. "Turn the page," she urged softly. With a curt nod, Kurama turned the book to him to flip the page. Hikari's elegant handwriting took up the page.

"Chika didn't know much about the curse that haunts our family. Mama had told me about how the curse wasn't what it seemed to be: it wasn't merely a pact between an entity and an ancestor of our family. Mama had said that our ancestor had given herself to the entity and it has since had a taste for the power that ran in our blood. In my blood.

I've seen Azazel. He gave me his name. At first, I had no idea why he revealed himself to me and I had thought I was delusional at first. Azazel never said anything, though. All he did was watch.

All he did was haunt."

"She…sensed it?" Kuwabara gawked, his jaw dropping. "Hikari didn't have an aura. How could she have sensed it?"

"She didn't sense it," Yusuke shot at the orange-haired male. "Kari's seen it. It's been hovering over her and we haven't even had an inkling-"

"That is incorrect," Kurama interjected, his voice cool. He narrowed his eyes at the words etched on the thin page, the sliver of knowledge burning within him that signified that the Hikari they always thought they knew wasn't as aloof as she seemed. She had been alert and not in the traditional sense—she was not alert to her fellow humans, but rather an entity named Azazel. "Hikari's had an inkling of an aura," he continued, aware that his companions were waiting for him to resume his train of thought, "a burst of aura that would radiate from her at strange moment. However, I believe this page alone just answered the question about that aura and it wasn't Hikari's."

"You've felt it too?" whispered Gia, a faraway glint in her eyes, her expression slackening slightly. "That strange feeling around her, like…like ease, but not really?"

Kurama wasn't certain if he should dignify the question with an answer, especially when he couldn't subtly evade it without giving some sense of himself away—and Gia was a bit sharper, compared to Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Zeri. If Hikari had been alive, she would be the sharpest of the group, sensing an aspect of anyone without any exchanges of words.

"I don't know what you guys feel, but sometimes I used to get tetchy around Hikari," said Yusuke, crossing his arms. "Like standing on eggshells and you know me, I tend to break them."

"Did you break the eggshells around Hikari?" asked Zeri.

"Dunno," Yusuke answered.

Kurama turned the page again, the expanse of two pages were filled with sketches. Mostly of small things, insignificant things like a flower or a bird. He turned the notebook out to the group, observing their reactions as they studied the pages.

"Kari really liked to draw, huh?" Zeri asked, her eyes roaming over the two pages. "Just strange, little things."

"She always just wrote or something," Yusuke pointed out, glancing at Zeri. "We chalked it into a quirk."

"She just put everything into her notebook." Gia shook her head, as if signifying that she didn't want to see nor hear anymore of Hikari's entries. "I can bet we'll find more things, like details of her family or this family curse, or, hell, even her little crush on Hiei."

There was a pregnant pause before Zeri bit out, "That wasn't something for you to share, Gia."

"Stop it, Zeri. It was as obvious as Yusuke's nose in front of his face."

"Hey!" Yusuke cut in, offended.

"Shut up." Gia rolled her eyes. "The point is Hikari wasn't hiding the fact that she was into Hiei. She always trailed after him, always had that weird look in her eyes whenever she sees him."

"She was whipped," Kuwabara commented.

"It was more than just a crush. Hikari was in love with Hiei. She just never hid it." Now that Gia had put it to the open, Kurama could guarantee that some of the passages of Hikari's notebook would contain some pieces of her feelings for the fire demon. However, Hikari never hid her behavior; she never even behaved like a febrile butterfly like most girls would. She gave no inclination, but it had been obvious—

No, that was false. Hikari did give an inclination. After she had bared her soul to Hiei, she had returned the group with her spirit broken, her eyes glistening with tears, but she never conveyed much of the interaction. She only "bared her soul".

"Find something about her parents, Kurama." Yusuke broke the silence, his tone firm. There was no quiver of emotion, just a fierce resolution. Kurama did so, turning the page carefully so that he didn't miss anything. In the middle of the notebook, the single thing on the page was a family tree—or what could be considered a family tree. Hikari had written her and Chika's name at the bottom and penned two names above theirs were the names Tsuyu and Hatori—the names of her parents. The tree was incomplete, it seemed, but she was in no rush to complete it.

"Hatori and Tsuyu Tsukiyomi. We have their names," Kurama announced before shutting the notebook close. "Now, we just have to find them."

"The only person who knows is Hiei," Gia said. "He said he knew where they were."

"So now we have to wait until he decides to tell us? Just great," Kuwabara grumbled, crossing his arms in irritation. While he and Hiei never got along, they were still comrades; it just so happened that Hiei's mannerisms and strange code dictated that he moved of his own interests.

"He'll come back to us," whispered Zeri, turning her eyes upward to the sky. "Kari's calling for him, I know it. Much as he wants to, he can't ignore it."

"Are you one too?"

Tsuyu Tsukiyomi asked this of the shadow that mixed with the sunlight of her room. The shadow said nothing, merely stared. She sensed the shadow's presence was swathed in another presence so familiar it brought tears to her eyes. "Did you know I had a daughter? I had two beautiful daughters, but the youngest…oh, she was unusual. Always focused on something, but she was such a good girl…"

The shadow seemed to flinch before it began to move closer, its eyes fixated on the blabbering woman who was so suddenly absorbed back into her own world, unaware of the infiltration of her mind.

She was always so quiet, even when her older sister tried to get her to play like most children.

Yet Hikari wasn't most children.

She always stared into some space and her eyes…He realized her eyes were the same as when he knew her…

She raised a tiny, delicate hand, her fingers outstretched to the empty space…

And the memory twisted into itself, into something darker, sinister…

The clawed hand that stabbed into the flesh of her neck when she had grown, grasped the child's hand in a deceptively gentle manner. The spectre that haunted her in the present emerged in her past, hidden in the memory of her mother, its being hidden beneath its tattered cloak. The child's eyes—Those fiery eyes—remained on the spectre, but a strange smile curved her lips as she whispered, "Azazel."

"Azazel" said nothing, only gripped the girl's hand with one of its own, before the other thrusts into her chest. The child didn't scream. Black liquid ooze from where "Azazel" stabbed her, black dripped from her eyes. Then, the spectre turned to him, turning the child to look at him. The girl's head tilted to the left—so sickeningly far to the left that her neck cracked. A high, keening scream shattered the memory into pieces and threw him out of the memory…

Tsuyu writhed in her chair, her throat tearing from her inhuman shrieking, as the shadow disappeared into the sunlight. "Azazel is coming!" she shrilled, digging her fingers into her face, tearing at the flesh. "Azazel is coming, with his most prized possession! He will drown the world in blood and take all we hold dear!"

Amid the shrieks, a quiet voice whispered, "Azazel is here…"