Yes! I have Japanese formalities (jumps up and down)! Many thanks to Dying Redemption for helping me out with that :D. I'll try to use them properly.

Uh…yeah. Here we go!

Night crept over All God's Village. Hikari Kiryu, the late Yoshitatsu Kiryu's niece, sat in the Sliding Screen Room overlooking the area known as "Kiryu-Tachibana", the place between her house and the house of Itsuki Tachibana. She sat at her desk, reading, pausing every few minutes to stretch.

She had been thinking about her uncle a lot lately. A few days ago, she had found a note in his study that he had written shortly before his…death…talking about "the eyes". She had burned it – just thinking about its existence made her nervous, so why not destroy it?

Right now was one of those times. She took a drink of water and looked around the room. How many times had he sat here, rifled through the (many) books on the shelf to her left?

She began shaking her head. "Stop it!" she rebuked herself. "This isn't going to get anywhere…"

His memory, however, managed to cling to her mind. She finally closed her book and propped her head on her hands.

"Alright," she whispered. "I'm going to go to slee-"

WHY KILL WHY KILL WHY KILL WHY KILL WHY KILL WHY KILL WHY KILL

She screamed. What on earth was that? Her mind immediately jumped to the journal – Akane Kiryu's diary, which she had also burned -but that still didn't explain anything.

She ran out onto the bridge connecting the twin houses and looked down.

When she saw her dead cousin walking under her, she began to scream again.

The next day the held the celebration. Ryozo and Seijiro were swarmed by adoring villagers. Most of them were overjoyed that historians had actually come to visit, although a few were merely excited that anyone had come. Seijiro noticed a few people who seemed moderately detached, though – one was Osaka-san, a lady with a slight hunchback (which he attributed to her three young children), another was Kiryu-san, who claimed that she had gotten little sleep last night.

Ryozo and Itsuki sat with the twins Yae and Sae. The two girls seemed extremely nervous, but managed to act as though nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Ryozo wondered why they needed him so badly – and why Itsuki claimed he needed them, too. Of course, he would do anything to help his friend, no matter the reason…

Ryokan Kurosawa checked on the four of them often. All four of them knew why (He's already nervous, Yae mouthed to the rest of them), but they didn't know what they could really do about it.

Eventually, Sae excused herself. Yae gave her an inquisitive look – "Do you want me to go with you?" – and she shook her head slightly. She walked halfway across Whisper Bridge and stood facing the water, taking the same stance as her father had the day before.

I don't want to run…but I have to. She can't…she can't…why can't we just become one? It'd be so easy…why can't she…

She began to cry. Why couldn't Yae perform the Ritual? They could be together always, like they had promised each other…

When Sae returned to the ceremony (no, celebration; ceremony had another use in this village), Seijiro was taking pictures with his camera. She asked Yae if she wanted to get theirs taken, and she said yes. The picture came out oddly – Sae's face was twisted, impossible to see.

"I can take another, if you like…" Seijiro offered.

Sae shook her head. "No, thank you. I think this may make a more interesting memory." She secretly found it hilarious, but didn't know if that would offend Makabe-san or not.

"Maybe you could persuade Chitose to take one with you," Yae suggested.

Itsuki raised his eyebrows. "I doubt it," he said. "She was barely able to take one when Mutsuki was with us. Now I think she'd feel too vulnerable."

Ryozo sat back in his chair, trying to banish the image of Itsuki performing the Ritual. When he could not, he excused himself and went to get a drink of water.

We need to get together again, he thought. All of us. But how?

Ryokan rested uneasily that night. He was plagued by dreams of the Kusabi failing, of the Malice coming, of All God's Village being destroyed. Every time he fell asleep, the dreams would begin, and they would terrorize him until he awoke, panting and dripping with sweat.

The fifth time he awoke, he heard a door slamming shut. He turned his head…

Akane Kiryu stood before him, her hand stretched out, pointing accusingly at him. "You have three days…" she murmured, "until it is too late…"

A black cloud enveloped her, and she disappeared.