I won't write as descriptive like that in the beginning much anymore. Sorry, it's a habit. This also might be the shortest chapter I've written since it's kind if a filler.

This chapter's about how the two girls got along with each other, their father, the village and villagers, and what they think about the ritual. It'll switch perspectives, but I'll try to make it seem not confusing. That make sense?

Chapter 2- Together

Azami and I had an argument today. It was stupid, but she makes me so mad! It was my doll, and she broke it. And she lied about it! 'I didn't want to hurt your feelings.' It was my favorite doll! Dad said it took him longer than usual to build it!

Azami...why is she so...weird? Different-like? She gets so scared and stuff. I'm not like that, no I'm not. Maybe it's because we have to do the ritual...I don't want to X my sister! I hate her, but I can't X her!

Akane looked at what she wrote and wrapped her fingers around the pale purple stone that hung from her neck. She could hear shuffling feet from behind the door in front of her. Fearing it was her younger sister; she quickly stood up and ran to her drawer, stuffing the violet notebook underneath some folded kimonos. She closed the small drawer just as the door opened. Her white haired, almost sickeningly thin father entered the children's room. He smiled weakly at her and Akane brushed her long hair away from her face so her father could see her smile back.

'Dad, he always is happy, but his eyes…they look like they're about to cry.' Akane thought. 'Why? Is it because of the ritual?'

"Akane," her father said softly. "Your sister is upstairs crying, but she won't tell me why. Can you?"

Akane frowned slightly. She didn't know what to say. 'Azami tells dad everything. Why isn't she telling him this?'

"Uhm…Azami and I had…a fight." She paused and looked at her father. His face fell. "But…I'm sorry dad!" she said hurriedly. "I didn't mean to! She…she broke the doll."

Yoshitatsu looked at his daughter, the same happy grin that he had when his daughters talked about dolls burst onto his face. "Is that all? Well, let me see it, Akane."

Akane looked down, causing her long black hair to cloud her face again. She went behind her mirror stand and grabbed pieces of the broken doll. The arms, head, and legs were in one hand, the body was held limply in the other. As she handed the doll to her father, he held them up to his face and examined it more closely. He muttered to himself so that Akane couldn't hear, and tried to fit the pieces into their holes but they wouldn't go in. Akane was about to cry, but she stopped at the thought that it might make her seem weak.

In her young life, Akane had never cried. Azami was the one who did and she would cry about anything. The biggest thing she cried about was that she had no memories of her mother. Akane thought about this too, but never dwelled on it as much as her younger twin did. Yoshitatsu tried to cheer them up by telling stories about their mother, but that made Azami seem even more upset, if not angry. Akane didn't know why and every time she asked, Azami would change the subject.

"It's easy to fix, Akane." Yoshitatsu said, looking back at his daughter. "I can fix it in about four hours."

"Really?" Akane shouted, almost jumping in happiness.

"But, first, I think that you should talk to your sister." Akane sighed. "It's that or your doll won't get fixed."

Akane opened her mouth to argue but decided not to. She pouted a bit, this often worked on her father, but he left without looking at her. He was still mumbling to himself on how to fix the doll when he went through the door behind the screen. Akane sighed again and went through the door into the hall. The wooden hall was well lit, unlike other days. Akane stepped out from the indent and wondered which way she should go. She decided to go through the projector room and upstairs because Azami would occasionally read to calm down. She dragged her feet like she always did when she was angry, sending dust in the air, and went on a search to find her sister.

Azami sat on the floor in the raised tatami room, wiping her eyes with her blue sleeve. Her father had just been upstairs and tried to talk to her, but Azami didn't feel like talking, she just wanted to be alone and think.

Akane,

I'm sorry I broke your doll, I didn't mean to. It just happened.

Azami looked at the piece of paper next to her foot and crumpled it up, muttering, "That's stupid." She threw the paper away nonchalantly, and stared at the floor remembering last night.

She heard her father talking to the ceremony master, Mr. Kurosawa. The two talked in his doll room while under the impression the twin girls were asleep. Azami was only awake because of a nightmare and she had wanted to find her father since she didn't want to wake Akane, especially since the dream was of Akane.

"The Repentanance will come," she heard a muffled voice say loudly. Azami had crept closer to the work room and pressed her ear to the door. "Without the girls' sacrifice, the village will die!"

"Azami and Akane are only five years old!" she heard her father yell. Azami stared in disbelief. Her father was yelling, he hardly ever did, at the Ceremony Master? That could've been considered a death sentence. "Neither of them will understand why this is being asked…no, forced upon them!"

"They don't have to understand," Azami heard the younger man hiss. She straightened up and pressed harder against the door to hear him. "They need only to do what must be done. The older must kill the younger. This has been a ritual performed throughout the ages. It must be done, Yoshitatsu."

"Can't it wait until they are both older?" he added sarcastically. "Ryokan?"

"No," he said coldly. "It cannot. They will perform the ritual in a week's time. I will come back then."

Azami heard shuffling noises and stood up quickly, almost tripping and falling backwards. She turned around and searched the wall for the door to the family's altar room. She closed the door just as the other opened. Curious, she decided to open the door a crack and listened to the rest of her father's and the young master's conversation.

"We'll be glad to expect you again, Ryokan." Her father said darkly. Azami still wondered why he was speaking to the master this way. It frightened her, but it almost made her laugh. She covered her mouth just in case she burst out into laughter.

"Goodnight, Mr. Kiryu."

Her father only said "hmm" as a response. She could hear the door open and close and faintly she could hear the front door close. Thinking now would be a good time to go back to bed, she left the room. She was about to turn the corner and go to her room when her father called her sister's name. Azami turned around.

"Akane?" he repeated.

"No, Azami." She pointed at herself as she said it.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he rubbed his eyes. "Why are you up at this hour?"

"I had a…a bad dream." Azami said quietly looking down at the floor and shuffling her bare feet on the cold boards.

"About what?"

Azami frowned in the darkness and wondered if she should say, after just hearing her father and Mr. Kurosawa talk about the ritual. "About, me…and Akane." She whispered dodging the true answer.

"What about you and your sister?" her father asked, tiredly. Then he suddenly realized that she might have heard. "Did you hear the conversation between me and Mr. Kurosawa?"

Azami nodded and tried not to cry. In the dark it was impossible for Mr. Kiryu to see the shining tears that streaked his young daughter's face. Her father sighed and couldn't think of what to say. Instead her led her back to her room and told her that they would talk in the morning. As soon as her father left Azami cried more, mainly because she was angry that her father didn't want to talk now but would have talked to her sister.

In her anger, she threw the book nearest her onto her twin's drawer and the doll on top fell to the floor with a muffled crash. Akane was an incredibly heavy sleeper and couldn't hear anything. Azami stared at what she had done in confusion. Quickly she had grabbed the pieces and hid them in the back of the room behind the mirrors. Finally, she had fallen asleep, but was awoken hours later by her sister's frantic screams.

Azami jerked out of her memories and listened to the creaking floorboards, someone was coming near. Akane rounded the corner and stood in the open threshold watching her younger sister. They both flicked their long bangs out of their faces and there was an awkward silence between them. Finally, Akane looked toward the window and made a small comment.

"Can you hear? The villagers are happy about something." Her small, high pitched voice almost sounded like Azami's.

Azami looked up and could hear the cheers from outside. "Do you know why?"

"Nope. And I don't care. Do you?"

Azami shook her head. The villagers always stare at them in some sort of happiness, it scared her and Akane and now that Azami knew why they were celebrating, she hated them even more. The two girls hated the villagers for seeing how unaffected they were by the fact that Azami would die. 'All they care about is living, even though others have to die for their safety,' their father had told them. 'I hate their morals and that's why I wish we would have left, but it would be hard to.' The two girls didn't know why it was so hard to leave, but they both agreed it had something to with their mother, whose grave they visited once every month.

"We're going to perform the ritual soon," Azami whispered and Akane stared in wonder.

"When?"

"I don't know, sometime next week, I think." Akane frowned at this thought. "Dad was mad."

"How do you know?" Akane asked angrily.

"I woke up last night. I had a nightmare." Azami looked back down as the image of her sister slowly squeezing the life out of her flashed in her mind. "I went to the work room, and heard him and Mr. Kurosawa talking."

Akane looked down at the floor too. "We should spend more time with Dad then. Instead of running off to explore, we should stay here."

Azami nodded and the two girls went downstairs, holding each other's hands, and talked at length with their father.

Azami and I agreed that we wouldn't cry in front of dad when we thought about the ritual. We'll whisper to each other sometimes about it, but dad doesn't mind. He knows how sad we really are, even if we're not showing it. Tomorrow we're going to visit mom's grave together, one last time before Azami (a large ink spot) has to (another large spot) die.

Azami will be a butterfly and she said she'd watch over me and dad. I don't want to kill her! She's my sister. What will I do without her? She's annoying and whiny, but I love her. Without her, there's no reason to really live.

Do all Remainings have these thoughts? Do all Remainings miss their sister or brother? I don't want her to die! But she has to. We can't run away and leave our dad. That would be worse.

She'll be with me though, as one, so we'll never really be apart.

Akane is taking this worse than I thought she would. She's the stronger one! She can't break down like this! She has to be there for dad! I swore that I'd watch over her and dad as a butterfly, but can I really? There are barely any butterflies seen until another ritual is performed, does this mean that I won't be able to keep my promise? No, I'll keep it. No matter what, I'll be there for her and dad.

Me and Akane will be one and the villagers will still live. A part of me wishes that the Repentanance will happen so that the village will know our pain, but it won't fail. The dream I had, it showed that it works and Akane becomes a Remaining.

I'll miss them. And I'll never leave them when I'm a butterfly. A crimson butterfly. I'll stay with them.

So, a little shorter than usual, but still good. Right? I'll write the next chapter soon, but first I want to finish one of the Himuro endings.