A/N Hey all. I have finally returned! Yay for me! Sorry I haven't updated lately, I have just been busy. I hope you like this chapter. I would like to thank my Bata reader Diva Dlf and her Cousin Phee. Thanks to all my faithful reviewers as well. Plz r/r!!

Chapter 6

Hitomi walked further and further away from her old home. Ever since she came back, everything had been a nightmare. She couldn't understand why her daughter

would choose to listen to her friends over her parents. She felt that maybe they had brainwashed her little girl. She felt that now there was no way out.

Hanaka would probably hate her forever. Hitomi began to feel an extreme sense of guilt. With every step she took, the guilt grew more and more. She had

felt really guilty before but never like this. She could remember everything the day her daughter left.

****Flashback***

"Van, do you think this is the right thing to do?"

"I dunno. I just don't want her hurt. You never know with Gaea. It is peaceful now, but we are bound to have another war. The motions for it are set. You

understand that. Plus, the advisers suggested that this was the right thing to do."

"I know, but I just feel so bad. She's our little girl. She looked so sad this morning when I was helping her pack."

"That's why I wouldn't watch. Hitomi, I couldn't. You're the strong one. That means that she will be strong too. We'll all get through this."

"I hope so, Van."

"Mommy, I don't want to go. I want to stay with you and Daddy. This isn't fair. Why can't you come with me?"

"Sweetie, we are doing this so you don't get hurt." Hitomi watched her husband consult their little girl momentarily before running out of the room. She

couldn't stand to watch her sad expression any longer.

****Reality***

Now as she walked down the quiet roads, she could feel that feeling once again. She got the idea that maybe she always ran from her problems. Van had always

said she was strong, but to Hitomi, it didn't feel that way. She wanted to give up.

With every step grew more and more guilt. More pain and sadness filled her. She had to get rid of it.

She saw an old alleyway and began to walk down it. She came to an open drug store at the other end. She went in and bought some pills. She only wanted strong

ones. She had recognized the clerk at the counter but it seemed to her that he didn't recognize her. That's how she knew she felt completely alone.

No one recognized her anymore. Only her parents, and when they saw her, they seemed shocked to. Had she changed so much? Had she changed for the worst?

She wasn't sure and she didn't care.

She had to get this over with here and now. She had to leave everything and let peace fill her. She had to let it end.

She walked back in to the alleyway and began to take the pills one by one. Finally, she had finished them all. She felt extremely tired now. She lay down

in the grass and closed her eyes. All she wanted now was to be alone. Be alone forever.

Back at the house, Van was becoming worried about what was said. He ran upstairs to talk to his daughter to see if she had said anything to make Hitomi

run off like that. He didn't bother to knock on her door and barged in. He walked to her bed and said her name. The girl refused to answer him.

"Hanaka, what did you say to her?"

There was still no answer. He reached over and shook the girl awake.

"What do you want?"

"Don't talk to me like that, young lady. Your mother ran out of here all upset after you two had talked. What did you say to her?"

"I told her the truth. I told her that I felt neglected; that you just think that you can come and visit me and everything will be alright. That's not the

case, Daddy. Not the case at all. I am sick and tired of holding my secret inside. So sick of everything. Sick of having to live with my grandparents because

my real parents have no faith that I could fight for myself.

"I wanted to go home so much but no, I couldn't do that. You guys were too worried about my safety to worry about my feelings. Obviously you didn't get

your priorities straight until now. My friends are right. The two of you are low lives. You didn't have the decency to raise me on your own and you pawned

me off. Thanks a lot.

"Do you know how hard it is to live like this? No, you don't! Don't even try to understand. Sure your parents died and that was bad, but still, at least

they had the decency to stay with you when they were alive. The decency to take care of you. Obviously, having no parents taught you nothing! Nothing at

all! Get the fuck out!"

Van couldn't believe his daughter. He wanted so badly to slap her but, he didn't. Before he realized what he had done, he raised his hand to hit her, but

she blocked him.

"Oh, now you are going to abuse me? As if things couldn't get any worse. I don't even think you love me. Do you love me, Daddy, do you? Do you?"

"Hanaka, you are over reacting!"

"No, I'm not! Not at all. I have tried so hard for this for so long. Tried to think that soon I would be going home. Bottled up my emotions and I couldn't

even talk to my friends about it. That makes a person crazy. I mean, really crazy. It's not fair, Dad. It is so not fair."

"I'm sorry Hanaka, I really am."

The girl looked at him with eyes filled with hate. She was lucky that he couldn't see her. That brought her to another point.

"Did you pawn me off 'cause you were blind? Were you ashamed to have a daughter? Were you scared of taking care of me wrongly?"

"No, it's not that at all. I just wanted you to have a good life and make sure that you didn't have to live through war. Hanaka, war makes a person crazy.

It ruins you forever. I didn't want that happening to my little girl. I needed you to be okay. If something ever happened to you, I wouldn't know what

to do with myself. I couldn't live knowing that I could have saved you from whatever it was."

She was speechless. In all this time of being angry with them, she never once stopped to think about how they would feel if she had been hurt because of

them. She felt a wave of guilt come over her. She got up and stood beside her father. She knew what she wanted to say but, she was afraid of him being

angry with her.

"Daddy, can you leave me alone please. I need to think. I can't take all of this. Go find Mom. She will need you. I feel like there might be something wrong

with her."

"If I were you, I would hope there is nothing wrong with her. If there is, it will be your fault."

Van was not thinking of what he was saying and then he saw his daughter throw herself down on her bed face down. She began to sob loudly. He couldn't take

this and he walked out leaving her alone.

He rushed down the stairs and past Hitomi's parents. They tried to ask him where he was going, but there was no answer. He wasn't sure of his way around

here, but something would take him to his wife. Then he remembered what she taught him. He would picture her in his mind and then he would find her.