Running one hand along the wall while holding onto Dog-chan's leash with the other, I made my way to the kitchen. Hisae helped me fill a cooking pot with water for Dog-chan and we got tea ready. By the time tea was ready, Dog-chan had enough water and I went to wash his pot.

It was about then when the doorbell rang. I heard Makoto make his way down the hallway and open the door.

"Mr. Sakurazuka!" he cried.

I put down the pot on the drying rack. "Otou-san?" I yelled from the kitchen.

"Hitomi-chan," my father called back.

"Excuse me," I said to Hisae and grabbed Dog-chan. I lead him out of the kitchen and to the front door. I was sure Makoto was standing there and seing indignant at my father for being so bold as to come to the Lady Sumeragi's dwelling. I ignored him and ran up to my father. "Otou-san!"

He picked me. He was much larger and muscular than Oji-san. I rested my head on his broad shoulder and smelled cigarettes. He had been smoking. Both my parents smoke, but Oji-san never smoked in my presence and forbade Otou-san to if he was there.

Then I smelled the blood.

I couldn't decide to pull back or inhale the bitter, metallic scent when I felt Otou-san's large hand on my head. "I see you have a

dog," he said. "Was it from the animal shelter?"

My blood went cold. My. Father. Should. Not. Be. Around. Animals.

I twisted out of his grasp and stood beside the dog. By this time, Obaa- chan had wheeled herself to the door.

"Sakurazuka-san," she said coldly.

He was polite and cheerful as I had been earlier. "Good afternoon, Lady Sumeragi," he greeted.

"Subaru-san-"

"He was a little late, I'm afraid. He came as I was leaving. But I told him I was going to pick up Hitomi and take her home. I don't want her to bother you for too long."

"Where's Oji-san?" I asked, as if I didn't understand a thing of what

he said earlier. He was speaking in code. The three of them did around me. Trying to protect the child.

"He's on his way to see a prophetess."

"Subaru-san told you that!" Obaa-chan sounded scandalised and betrayed.

"Of course," replied Otou-san casually. "He tells me everything. Now Hitomi- chan, why don't we take that dog back to the animal shelter?"

I tightened my grip on the leash and said nothing.

"Come Hitomi," he coaxed playfully. "I got something to show you. Let's take Dog-chan to the animal shelter and then I'll tell you what it is."

"Okay," I said finally, but I didn't loosen my hold on the leash.

I bid good-bye to Obaa-chan and took Dog-chan with me to Otou-san's car. Dog-chan woofed softly when we got to the car and Otou-san bent down to pat his head. Instinctively, I moved closer to the animal and wrapped an arm around his neck "Aren't you a good dog?" Otou-san said in a soothing voice. It must have been the voice he used with the animals in the vet all those years ago, the one that made them trust him with their lives. The dog moved his head and I heard him licked Otou-san's hand.

"You must have been a good pet for your master, but you have no collar," Otou-san continued. "Does your master really care about you? Maybe he's forgotten about you. Maybe he doesn't want you."

"Of course he does!" I said sharply, and pulled the dog closer to me. Otou- san ruffled my hair and opened the door for me.

I sat in the back, with Dog-chan's head in my lap. "Otou-san," I

said as he started the car. "Do you hear about there being two

Kamuis?"

He was pleased to be getting information of me for a change. "Is

there?"

The car was moving and I leaned back on the cushioned seat. "How could there be two? Do they both decide the fate of the earth?"

"Fate never depends on one person, Hitomi. Everyone is linked to another person, and everything we do affects another person."

I hugged Dog-chan and remained quiet for a couple of minutes. The car hummed comfortably. I felt the heat of the sun on my face, interrupted by shadows and shades every so often.

Then I asked, "Who did you kill?"

His voice was amused. "How did you know?"

As if he didn't know the answer already.

"You smell like blood."

"Is that the Sakurazukamori part of you awakening?"

I clutched Dog-chan. "Oji-san said it was my mother's

perceptiveness."

He laughed. "Yes, Hokuto-chan was a very perceptive girl. Very smart."

"Where is she?"

"Excuse me?" I thought he sounded surprised and I grinned.

"I can't feel her," I explained. "I'm an onmyouji. I feel spirits all the time. I even talked to a few. But I never talked or felt my own mother. Why is that? Is she in a place I can't reach?"

"In a way, yes, she is. But I can take you there anyways. In fact, that's where we are going. There's something I want to show you."

Dog-chan lifted his head and I patted it. "You're a good dog, aren't you?" I asked him softly. "You're such a good dog your master wouldn't desert you."

"We're here," Otou-san announced. He stopped the car and we all got

out, Dog-chan included.

The autumn air was cool. I smelled flowers and heard distant birds and people talking. Small, cool drops of velvet kissed my cheeks and forehead. They brushed lightly against my hands. I reached out and grabbed one, fingered it. It was a Sakura blossom.

You'd think my father would be sick of them by now.

I dropped the flower. "It's not the time for Sakura," I told Otou-san. "Where are we?"

"Ueno Park."

"There's no one here," I objected. The voices and sounds were far away.

No.

They were right there, just beneath me.

"Maboroshi," I realised.

"Yes," said Otou-san.

"Mother-"

"She's right here." He took my hand that wasn't holding on the leash and lead Dog-chan and I away from the car. More sakura petals brushed by my face as I followed him. They caressed my arms and my bare legs beneath the skirt like large flakes of snow.

Outside, around us, people were walking and having picnics. I heard a child laugh as she chased her friend in the park.

Do they suspect, I wondered as I felt Dog-chan's sturdy body next to mine as we walk, that there is a powerful assassin amoung them? Don't they sense anything at all?

"Here." We stopped and Otou-san took my hand and placed it on something brittle and hard.

Dog-chan whined, then barked loudly, and pulled away. "Dog-chan!" I cried.

"I got him," Otou-san said, and I felt him grab hold of the leash.

I returned my attention to the object under my hand. It was a tree trunk. It was *alive*. It had a life force that I had never felt before. I felt it pulsing and rippling under my hand. It was so vibrant and strong and intense and-

Anguished.

Pain, Agony Sorrow, Unrest, the Gnashing of Teeth, the Wails of Mourners, the Cries of Slaughtered Innocence and Demented Sanity held

in place with Bonds of Blood

I pulled back, horrified. I realise it wasn't the life force of the tree I was feeling but the live forces of souls within the tree. There were actually souls in the tree! There were actual people, all trapped, all crying and wailing for relief from the hell they were in. The tree was enjoying with their agony, feeding on it, extracting strength from it slowly and luxuriously. It was perfectly mortifying!

It was absolutely fascinating.

"My mother is in there?" I asked, putting my hand back on the tree, trying to differentiate one disturbed soul from another.

"Yes, but you won't be able to find her. There's souls in there from five hundred years ago. After a while, their anguish is so intense, the souls just merge into one another."

Five hundred years! I tried to imagine being imprisoned in the tree for five hundred years, feeling nothing except pain and desolation and horrors. I couldn't for some reason. I put my other hand there. "Are the other Sakurazukamoris in here?" I asked.

"Yes," said Otou-san.

"Are how is living in the tree for them?"

"Comforting, actually," Otou-san said. "We all look forward to it."

I ran my hands along the tree trunk, feeling the cracks within the

bark and the anguish and the grief vibrating beneath it. There seemed to be large, chaotic waves of twisted emotions and sounds, one tormented soul crashing into the next, pulsing against the bark, spreading out of the tree into my hands, one scream after another filtering through my fingers, flowing up my arms and shoulders, pricking down my spine, one vertebrate at a time, until I felt the whole raw energy of it all coursing through my entire body.

It was strangely and perversely empowering.

"Come Hitomi," Otou-san said. He took my hand and pulled me away from the tree. I walked as if someone in a dream. The overwhelming sensations were gone, but I was still feeling the aftermath of it, sharp sparks of energy shivering through my body before gradually fading away.

"I want you to touch something."

I was aware of an unmoving mass a few feet off. Otou-san lead me to it and made me get down on my knees in front of it. Then he gently placed my hand on the object. It was a nose. A face. Absently, I ran my fingers over the eyelids, the cheekbones, the lips. There was some warmth left, but I knew it was dead. "Is this who Oji-san was trying to stop you from killing?" I asked.

Otou-san sounded pleased. "You really are Hokuto-chan's daughter, aren't you? Only she wasn't nearly as smart as you are."

I heard Dog-chan sniffing the body beside Otou-san and then barking loudly. The sound of it made me jump. I shivered, and then regarded my father. "Oji- san wouldn't be as agitated as he was if he was merely exorcising a demon," I explained absently. I moved my hand to the throat. There no was pulse. The lack of life was strangely attractive. "The three of you were talking in codes again. You always talk in codes when your occupations come in conflict. Protect the child."

I felt his satisfaction as he knelt down beside me. I felt his hand

rest on my head and stroke my hair. The touch was even colder than

the corpse in front of me. "How long have you known?"

"In the car with Oji-san on the way to see Obaa-chan," I answered, although I don't know if that was true. It was then I was aware of it, but I think I always known about the conflict between my parents, like I always knew that Otou-san was a killer from my earliest memory; when he leaned over the crib to pick me up and I smelled blood.

"Yes, this was who Subaru-kun was sent to save. He was too late though. By the time he got here, I had already sealed her soul in the tree."

I wondered what the confrontation between them was like they met each

other like this.

Dog-chan had stopped barking and was now whimpering. I got up and walked to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "Shh," I soothed. "It's just a dead body. It's all right."

He licked my face and I buried my face in his neck. I felt his pulse against my face, the strength of it. It was vibrant and alive, something I sometimes felt I could never be. I wanted to stop it. To bring my fingers together around it and crush it. Feel the life flow out; the body start to grow limp and then cold. Marvel at how easy it was to snuff out that pulsing vitality and energetic, promising verve and enjoy the satisfaction that it was me who stopped it.

My right hand moved down to Dog-chan's chest and I felt the steady heart beat under the fur. I remembering thinking, if only I could plunge my hand in there, I could stop that. I know I can-

The same hand pulled away, as if it was burnt, and shot up to my mouth.

Oh my God.

I yanked from the dog, horrified at my own thoughts. Horrified at the knowledge of what I was capable of.

"Hitomi-chan," Otou-san said sweetly. He knew what I was thinking and it amused him.

Damn him.

"I think it's time we took Dog-chan back to the animal shelter."

"Yes," I said weakly, feeling sick.

"We don't have to, you know." I heard the suggestive tone in his voice. "It's up to you."

Up to me.

"Yes, let's bring him back," I insisted, and got up quickly. I don't remember how we got back into the car. I just remembering hugging Dog-chan in the back seat, rubbing him behind his fluffy ears. I felt his pulse, and was happy he still had one. Of course I was happy and it wasn't because I was looking forward to stopping it. I wanted him to have one for a long, long time.

He licked me, trusting me completely. I rubbed his face and whispered in his big fluffy ears, "You're safe. I would never hurt you. I never would want to hurt you. I could never want that."

Liar. Liar. Liar.

- - - - -

End of Chapter 3