I ran swiftly as I could and decided that it couldn't be Kurama. It had to be one of his underlings. However, when I got to the location of the scream, the dead silence bespoke a funeral ground. Something had happened here that wasn't right. Nothing could shut up that annoying voice that said I shouldn't have left him out there to be taken by something more dangerous than his desires: his recklessness. Upon abandoning me, he seemed to have abandoned the skillful caution that had helped in his success. Loneliness crept over me as the creatures of the forest sang, their voices raising up a lament to those lost.

"Mistress?" Jakiri called. "Mistress, please, it's alright..." Nothing could stop the tears. Guilt made me feel so inadequate that I wished she would plunge her claws deep into my throbbing heart. Death was the only way to escape the pain. It was the only way I could atone for his death. Why hadn't I seen it? Yuki was obvious and very forward, but it wasn't her that he wanted. Kurama had always wanted me more than he would ever want any other woman. My heart had been so obviously blind to every gesture, every act of rejection when I turned him down. If he didn't have me, then he wouldn't have anyone else.

Tears formed so easily in my eyes as I sat there, not seeing his body. I didn't even see his corpse, but I could sense an emptiness in the forest, as though something important had left. Before I could even realize or confess my feelings, my flurried emotions, I had lost him. Now he was gone forever, never to return. It struck me like a thousand painful daggers. I felt the way I had when those thorns rent my flesh, tearing it to pieces. No, that made me think of him. It felt as though he were looking down on me with scorn...no. It felt like I had been a complete and total asshole toward him when he loved me with every scrap of passion in his soul. Yes, but I didn't want to believe in my naivete.

Jakiri rested a hand on my shoulder and I felt myself slowly drifting off to sleep, or something of a half-sleep. "No," I murmured restlessly. "NO! I don't want to think about him anymore!" To my servant, it didn't matter. She would do what she thought was best for me, and I was already closing my eyes against my will...

"Kurama," I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself and shivering. In this world it was cold, there was nothing left to feel except for this numbing coldness. "Kurama," I cried again, a tear falling from my eye. "Please, don't be dead. I don't know what I have left. There's nothing for me to do anymore except fade away into oblivion." Now tears streamed, and I collapsed to a kneeling position, bent over the cold, frost-covered ground. It burned on my knees, bared by my loose skirt that fell just short of that area. However, I knelt there, clutching my head frantically as though letting go would mean letting go of those few memories we had shared.

A hand suddenly slapped me across the face. It was my master from my days as an assassin. His hardened features were a greyish hue, almost black. Brightly livid green eyes glared out at his softened pupil coupled with a stubborn frown. "This isn't the Kaiina I knew," he said, spitting on the ground before me. "You've become nothing but a disgrace to yourself, and to everything you or your family ever was. Now you're just nothing, a soft-hearted idiot with nowhere to run."

"NO!" I cried. "It isn't true!" Standing up, I found that the cold caused me to stagger, but my master showed no signs of faltering. There was nothing that could be done to make him fall like I was about to.

Before there was time for me to draw my saber, he leaped at me, his steel pole crashing into my face, sending searing pain through my frozen body. Chill enveloped me, and I could hear his laughing. Never before had I remembered it being that wicked. No, it had been far kinder when I was the cold, emotionless wretch that he had praised so often. That monster hadn't deserved the praise, but now I understood. My own kind wouldn't take me in anymore. From here on out, it would be me and Jakiri, and that would be about it.

The icy embrace of death seemed to be closing in on me. However, I felt something wrapped around me, and I was in his embrace. It felt so good after being away for so long. Now his kiss felt like the liquid fire that soothed my veins, got my blood flowing again. Regaining control of myself, I wrapped my own arms around his neck, feeling every part of him. It was all so real, and I didn't want it to ever end. While I kissed him passionately, we were both on the ice, ignoring the chill that was probably freezing us together as one.

Looking at him, I saw his silver hair spread out across the white, snowy ice. Golden eyes like molten honey gazed at me so lovingly as his hand touched my cheek briefly. It had seemed like so long since we were alone...alone and happy. Jakiri had created a gap between us that had been very difficult to bridge at first, but now I just felt him constantly, letting him touch me and flood my chilled body with his warmth. Somehow, though he was touching the ice, he wasn't cold at all. "Please forgive me," I said softly, kissing him briefly on the lips. "I should never have left you."

"No," he said with a winning smile. "It was my fault. I shouldn't have let you go." Pressing me close to him, he let me rest my chin on his shoulder, staring into that soft mass of silver hair.

"Can't we just stay here forever," I asked, tears running down my face. "Please, I don't want you to leave. Not again. Not for the third time."

"I have to," he said. "Your servant will want you back, and I will try to find a way. Trust me, beautiful Kaiina. We will see each other again?"

"But how-?" He was gone. There was no time left for questions as I laid my head down on the ice, not caring whether my cheek would end up frozen to it or not. Honestly, I hoped it would...

"That was a cruel trick," I muttered to Jakiri, who had settled my head comfortably in her lap. My voice was entirely monotone. Why bother with expressions when the one who had shown me how to feel many different emotions was gone?

"I thought you might be happy to see him again," my servant retorted, giving a look that demanded the retraction of my ingratitude.

"Illusions are no way to see him," I said, sitting up. "I have to see him in person."

And there indeed he was, lying prone on the ground. His toga-like garment was torn in several places, and I could see cuts and scrapes from various minor injuries. Nothing was left entirely intact, but I embraced him nonetheless, stroked his back, kissed his cold lips. It felt like dancing with a corpse, but I wanted to love him in any way that I could before the animals picked the body apart, feasting on the man who was my love. We wouldn't see each other again. We would never even hear each other's voices in the future. He was gone for the rest of eternity, and I was doomed to a life of misery.

Jakiri looked at me sadly, unsure as to what to do. Never before had I been this depressed, and it felt so terrible I wanted it to just go away. However, it wasn't about to do that. The pain tore at my soul, rent my heart in two, slashed my thoughts of happiness to bits. Now there was only sadness...complete sadness and this cold, lifeless body.

Nothing could be done about that. There were very powerful demons out there like Yuki, who could do great deeds, but they couldn't cheat death. No one ever can. It is the one thing that is both imminent and final in this world. Each of us, even those believed to be immortal, will die at some point in time, and when we die, we shall never be able to be resurrected. We shall be lost to those who loved us, or happily reunited with them in the afterlife. There is nothing more to death than that. Otherwise, it is a sad and cruel thing that either causes the corrupt to feel pleasure, or the caring to feel horrible, biting, tooth-gnashing pain. I was left in a situation where the only logical thing to do was to die.

Yet there did remain that very small hope, the one that somehow he would find a way back to me and the one thing he had ever loved in this world. Who knew what it would be? Perhaps he would appear as some strange ningen, or a creature from their world. Perhaps he would appear as a beast, ready to impale me upon its horns before it remembers the love it once had, too late to save either life. For my own selfish desires, I hoped he would appear as the same old Kurama. Then he would know me, and I would know him at first glance.

There was nothing at all to be done, and now everything had fled from me before my tearstained eyes. The one whom I had loved, who had loved me when I needed it most, was gone. Jakiri's sheltering arms seemed so far beyond compare to his. His simple touch made her melt into a very small puddle, wanting him to touch her more, yet not wanting to give him the satisfaction of victory.

Looking down at my collarbone, which was bared by the shirt that I wore, I saw a deep cut further down. That was the one that Yuki had declared infected and unhealable. Kurama had been the cause of that, hadn't he? He'd forced me to such distress that I had secluded my own soul away from my body, wreaking havoc upon my empty corpse. It was so dangerous, behavior like that, and I didn't want to do that ever again. "I can't just run away again," I confided to Jakiri. "What if he comes back and I'm too busy acting like the scared, immature child that I am?"

"You'll know it when he's back," Jakiri replied, filling her voice with as much confidence as she could muster. "He will be back."

With nothing else to do, I embraced my servant, and then looked at the corpse. Feeling lonely again, I laid down next to it and caressed his face, his beautiful golden eyes closed, perhaps never to look at me again. "Don't leave me alone," I whispered in his ear. "You will find me in Ningenkai. I'll be there when you're ready for me to come to you. Please, do come back. For now, farewell." I kissed him softly on the cheek one last time and then raised myself up, ready to leave the place that held so many memories.

"Can you open a portal to Ningenkai?" I asked Jakiri.

"Certainly," she replied. Raising one arm to the sky, white light enveloping it. More uncertain than ever, I watched in amazement. Soon enough, the light shaped itself into a rough circle. Shining so brightly...I felt blinded by its radiance, just like I had when we had been together for a few minutes that night. Tears ran down my cheeks, but there was no one else beside me and Jakiri, so I stepped through...

The first thing I saw was a bustling city. Wherever it was, everything was busy here. Ningens bustled around in a hurry, chatting on strange contraptions and shuffling through what seemed to be endless stacks of papers. It was so different from the wild world of Makai. This place had been tamed.

Shuffling past all the people, I searched for a place to stay where it would be free. Force wouldn't work here; it would be too conspicuous. Jakiri and I looked at each other, and ducked into an alleyway. "We need to take on disguises," I whispered. Let's start with the appearance." With a flick of my hand, my eyes turned a deep, liquid blue, and my hair became a smooth, inky black. My height remained for the most part, with only a few inches taken off. The clothes could be taken care of soon enough.

Jakiri chose something far more elaborate. She became a very pretty blonde, with innocent baby blue eyes, brighter than the sky itself. Her frame was so simple: a little curvacious, but fit. Before, I had never seen her actual shape through the long dress that she wore. It was still there, but somehow she made it a little more fitted, snug around her shapely hips. Producing a long, thin blue ribbon from the folds of her garment, she used it to tie her hair back in a loose ponytail, a few golden strands falling forward. "You look so beautiful," I said, looking at the transformed Jakiri.

"This was what my mother's original form looked like," she said, looking to the sky with her big, pretty eyes. Silence fell over both of us, and I decided it was time to go find some clothes that would fit in here, rather than the garb of forest warriors.

Here, there seemed to be certain shops where clothing was sold, rather than having it custom made. Several of the shirts said things that contained references which I didn't get. It was all so very interesting, but I wanted to choose something inconspicuous. In the end, I chose a pair of dark grey pants and an olive green shirt. Jakiri wore a white sleeveless top that had a slit going a couple inches down and a pair of blue jeans that fit her very well. The saleswoman looked at us and how we are dressed and barely suppressed a snicker. Too sad and tired to be angry, I took the useless plastic bag and went off with Jakiri to the restrooms to change.

Now that the point of our appearance had been changed, I decided it was time to find a place in which to live. Neither of us knew how such arrangements worked in this world, so we both walked up and down the streets. Darkness fell and we still hadn't found a place. So, the both of us decided on a very run-down parking garage that looked about ready to fall apart. This might not have been the ideal place, but we both knew that there wasn't going to be anyplace else.

As we were both falling asleep, I walked out to the outside of this dingy old building, a blanket wrapped around me. Cold though it was, my heart felt colder. Hopefully, Kurama could find his way here, where I was waiting for him earnestly. With a rueful sigh, I whispered his name softly, as if he was there, and lay on my back, imagining that the stars formed his face...

A/N:Sorry for the short chapter, but there really wasn't much else to communicate. Thanks once again to all my reviewers, and I hope you continue to enjoy "The Midnight Rose"!

Miari