I did my homework as I said I would the moment I woke up. Then I got dressed and walked into the kitchen.

I was nearly knocked off my feet.

"What's that lemon smell?" I demanded, putting a hand over my nose. My eyes were actually starting to water.

"It's the new dish detergent," Oji-san told me from the counter. He didn't sound upset in any way, as if nothing happened yesterday. Strange how disasters like awful smelling dish detergent can do stuff like that. "Got a free sample in the mail so I tested it on an old kettle. I know, it's very strong."

"Ugh," I groaned, wiping tears from my eyes. I like the smell of lemon, but not when they're literally choking you. And with my heightened sense of smell, it was damn well suffocating. "It's like a lemon exploded here. Open a window!"

"I opened all the windows," Oji-san told me. "The smell should diffuse outside soon."

"It´d better," I muttered, trying to breathe through my mouth because breathing through my nose was actually painful.

Otou-san padded into the kitchen at that moment. "My God," he exclaimed. "What's that smell?"

Oji-san tensed at his presence. "It's a free detergent sample," he explained flatly.

"I don't care if it does the cleaning for me, that scent alone is enough not to buy it," Otou-san remarked in disgust as he left to pick up his newspaper.

Oji-san took my hand gently and lead me to the table. "Why don't we eat in the living room?" he suggested, leading me there with one hand, holding the miso soup with the other.

I sat down on the floor next to the coffee table and sipped some of the soup. The smell of lemon was still clinging to me so the soup tasted like lemon too. I forced myself to swallow it. Yech. I wondered if Oji-san took it personally if I threw it in the garbage. Then I realised that everything in the kitchen was going to taste lemon now.

Great, I thought to myself grumpily. Remind me to put that detergent company on the top of my "to kill" list should I ever become Sakurazukamori.

Otou-san walked into the living and sat down beside me. "How's the soup?" he asked as I heard him open the newspaper.

"Disgusting!" I said sharply. "It tastes like lemons."

"Does it?" Oji-san, who had gone back into the kitchen for more soup,

walked up to us and placed two more bowls on the table. "Do you want

to eat anything else?"

"Everything else will taste like lemon too," I complained.

"I can go down to the corner store and get you some rice cakes or muffins."

I brightened up. "Wild berry muffins!" I exclaimed.

"Okay," he said, and started to pick up my bowl still full of soup to take back to the kitchen.

"Oji-san," I started, "can I go to the animal shelter today after school?"

Beside me I heard Otou-san flip another page of his newspaper as Oji-san said, "I'm sorry but I won't be able to take you there after school. I have to exorcise a demon."

Just exactly how many demons were there in Tokyo City? There must have been more of them here in our block alone than in Sunnydale and L.A. put together. But I said, "Okay" in a polite voice.

Oji-san sounded apologetic. "I'm sorry. I'll try to take you there tomorrow, okay?"

I nodded and he left with the bowl. I heard Otou-san crinkle his newspaper somehow. "Boring," I scoffed. I wasn't upset at Otou-san anymore. My tempers never lasted more than a day.

Of course it didn't matter with Otou-san how long they lasted or if they stopped at all. He more or less acted the same way around me all

the time. "You'll be reading them soon enough," Otou-san predicted playfully.

I snorted. Otou-san had tried to read various articles to me a few times. Other than descriptions on how people were murdered and articles on GLAY or other bands, I found them all incredibly snore-worthy. "Only old people read newspaper," I said.

"Old? I'm only thirty-five. I'm not old."

"Thirty five, you're practically ancient," I retorted.

Otou-san reached over and tickled me. I struggled and yelled with laughter. "Take it back," he ordered as I laughed helplessly under

his assault. "Say I'm not old."

"You're so old your teeth are falling out!" I managed to gasp through my laughter.

"Stop it, Seishirou-san," Oji-san commanded, yanking me out of Otou-san's grasp. In my banter with Otou-san, I didn't hear him come in. He put me down a feel inches from where I previously sat. I smoothed out the last of the giggles.

"Do you want to come with me to get that muffin?" he asked. He was doing a beautiful job of ignoring Otou-san, like he always did after

he failed to save a person Otou-san was assigned to kill. Mind you, he wasn't any more friendly when he did succeed, or any other time for that matter.

I nodded my head. "Sure," I said.

At that moment, his beeper went off again.

"Why don't you quit your job?" I demanded in frustration.

"You have no idea how many times I said that to him," Otou-san said beside me.

"You two," Oji-san warned, and seeing how the beeping stopped, I guess he was checking it. He stood up and walked over to the phone. "Hello. Obaa- chan?."

"Ugh, Hitomi, you're right," Otou-san said beside me. "This miso soup

does taste like lemon."

"Disgusting, isn't it?" I asked.

".Now? But I thought we agreed this afternoon."

"Very. Think Subaru-kun would take it personally if I came down with you to get a muffin as well?"

".I can't come now. I have to take Hitomi to school."

"He wouldn't have to take me to school then," I pointed out.

So Otou-san called out, "Subaru-kun. I'll take Hitomi to school,

okay?"

I heard Oji-san mumble, "Wait a minute" and I guess he was just standing there because Otou-san spoke first. "For Goodness sake, Subaru kun," he said in disbelief, so I could imagine the fear and reluctance he saw in Oji- san, "there's only twenty minutes before Hitomi's class start. After grabbing a muffin, we won't have time to go down to the park, if that is what you're so afraid of."

The exorcism must have been crucial and important because under no other condition do I believe Oji-san would have allowed Otou-san to take me to the school. But we both stopped by the corner store to pick up a muffin each.

"Hitomi," Otou-san asked as I got into the car with my half finished Wild berry muffin. "Do you still want to go to the animal shelter?"

The question startled me. The only time Otou-san ever went with me to the shelter was to return Dog-chan back to his kennel. Well, there was no harm done then. Plus Dr. Yuuki and the other vets would be there so surely nothing would happen. I agreed, and then got out of the car and went to class.

School was boring as usual. The only thing that stood out during the day was sitting on top of the monkey bars with Rika. She was a chatterbox, speaking quickly and excitedly, and I could feel her hands moving everywhere as she spoke. She was so full of life. I couldn't help wondering if pushing her off the monkey bars would silence her vivacious voice and stop her hands from flying about.

I wanted to tell Otou-san about it when he picked me up after school but I decided against it. We went to the animal shelter. Things went weird right from the start.

Dr.Yuuki was at the reception desk when we walked in and he recognised my father immediately. "Sakurazuka-san!" he exclaimed. "I thought it was you! Are you Hitomi's father?"

Otou-san laughed. "Yes, I am. It's been while since I've seen you, Yuuki- san."

Dr. Yuuki was beside himself. "I've always thought so! Her eyes are

the same beautiful gold colors as yours. Sumeragi-san never said anything about that. Or Hitomi for that case."

"I never told her," Otou-san lied easily. "The accident happened before she was born."

"That's right," Dr. Yuuki said. "I'm so sorry for bringing it up now,

then. Well, I guess Hitomi, you know your father used to be a veterinarian now."

I can't tell you think what I was thinking of at that the moment. I was at a loss of words. The whole situation seemed surreal to me.

"He was one of the best," Dr. Yuuki continued excitedly. "I swear, everyone thought he healed the animals with a touch."

"Yuuki-san, you're embarrassing me," Otou-san said with a laugh.

"Well, it's true. You were amazing with the animals. It's such a shame that accident made you unable to practice."

"Yes, it is." Strange, how the regret and sadness in his voice was so real. No wonder Oji-san believed his lies for a year.

I felt myself start to grow angry.

What right did he have to sound so *sincere*? He was nothing but lies and games, always playing games with who ever he met, and he had no right to be able to sound like he actually felt things, not him, not deceptions and secrets and ten years of walking around egg shells so I wouldn't set one parent off who would offend the other or offend one parent who would blame the other and--

"It's weird but when I asked Sumeragi-san if Hitomi could take a animal home, he said you didn't like animals."

"He was just trying to protect me. I haven't been comfortable around animals since the accident. It reminds me that I can't practice anymore and it rather saddens me, that's all."

I exploded right there.

"You liar!" I cried before Dr. Yuuki could say how sorry he was. I pulled away from Otou-san, ignoring the surprise I felt from Dr. Yuuki and the receptionist. "Why don't you tell him the truth?"

Otou-san of course remained calm and nonchalant. He asked me casually, "and what truth is that, Hitomi?"

"That we can't keep an animal in our house because you'll kill it!" I hissed. I was trembling, my feet set apart, my hands clenched into tight fists at my sides.

"Hitomi!" gasped Dr.Yuuki.

But I was on roll. "It's true, Dr. Yuuki. Otou-san kills animals." And thinking about Dog-chan, and all the animals I loved being killed by my father, I felt my fury grow. I whirled in Otou-san's direction and exclaimed, "He killed them back when he was working in the clinic all those years ago!"

"Sakurazuka-san," Dr. Yuuki managed to say through his shock, "what's Hitomi talking about."

Otou-san reached over to touch my head in a fatherly way, still cool and in control. "I think she's just tired, th-"

I smacked his hand away violently. "I'm not tired!" I fired back. "He used the animals to ward off the side affects of his spells."

"What spells?" the receptionist asked.

I was about to say, "the spells he uses to kill people," when I sudenly realised how foolish it would sound. Everything I had said so far sounded foolish. My father had been very thorough and neat at cleaning up after himself. He made sure no one could trace any deaths back to him.

"Hitomi," said Otou-san in that fake concerned voice of his. So sincere. So goddamn sincere! "Are you feeling all right?"

I froze for a moment, aware of Dr. Yuuki and the receptionist shuffling in embarrassment around me.

They must have thought I was a lunatic.

I raced out of the shelter, among yells of "Hitomi." I didn't know where I was running. People were yelling and cars were honking and

squealing and I felt the force of an oncoming car on my side-

Someone grabbed me and lifted me off the air. I landed hard on the

gravel, skinning my elbows and knees. "Ow!" I screamed. The car skimmed by us.

"Be happy it's only your elbows and knees and not your head," I heard Otou- san growl as he picked up from the ground. I wondered if he was mad at me.

I hope he was.

"Come on," he said, his voice returning to normal. People were crowding around us. Otou-san assured them that I was all right. Don't worry; he was a doctor. He carried me to the car.

"It doesn't look to bad," he said, examining my wounds in the car. They stung like hell and I told him so. "Serves you right for running in front of an oncoming car," he replied.

"You make it sound like I did it on purpose," I accused.

I knew he smirked. "It doesn't matter if you did. I'm just glad you're alive, that's all."

"You should be mad that I nearly blew your cover," I snapped.

"Why? That was fun."

He was so frustrating! "Why don't you get mad at me?" I demanded.

"Do you want me to get mad at you?" he asked.

"No! It's just." I couldn't explain it.

I think I kicked the glove compartment in front of me in frustration. "I don't mean anything more to you than just an heir to the Sakura Tree," I said angrily.

Otou-san made no replies but I knew he was smiling. He turned on the car and I felt it move out of the parking lot.

"You should have let that car kill me," I said.

I expected a small variety of answers, from him saying that the Sakura Tree needed an heir to telling me I might useful to him in a few years . But I never expected the response he gave me.

"If anything happens to you," he said quietly, "it'll make Subaru-kun cry."

- - - - - - - - -

End of Chapter 6

End of Fic