Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie concept.

Warnings: As it turns out, Dark and Krad are only FRIENDS, as well as the other two. There's a reason to this… so yeah. Oh, and the usual spelling and grammatical errors…

Whoopee… and update… why do I take so long?

000

"Every living creature on this earth has a reason for existing. But I wonder… what is the reason for us? Is there even a reason?

What? Yes… okay. Maybe there is a reason, but we have yet to know…"

-- Daisuke Niwa

"Why are you always pulling us into these messes…?"

-- Krad Hikari

--- Eight: Family Fights are Fun… I Think ---

Crashing into the door was the only way to describe how Dark exactly opened it to his room. The other three watched as the purple-haired teen ran into it out of… well, stupidity, it seemed, and it slammed open under his weight, leaving him to groan on the floor.

Satoshi glanced impassively while the other two sweat dropped, "Let's just hope that he doesn't get up anytime soon."

"Satoshi-kun… you're so cruel…" muttered Daisuke nervously, peering down at the dazed teen. The blue-haired boy shrugged while Krad bent down to heave his friend up.

"… Too bad then," the blonde concluded, "He's already recovering." Unable to help it, he continued, "I suppose it has something to do with the fact that his skull is thicker than most brick walls."

Dark's head snapped up, "Hey!" He would have said more after that, but his head hit the bottom of Krad's chin and, obviously, they were in pain. They reeled away from each other and Dark staggered into the room. "Ow…"

"Well, you're very considerate," muttered Krad, rubbing his chin as the rest of them piled in. Upon seeing the state of the room, one could only wonder how many hours a day that he actually lived in it; and considering the rest of his family, he was probably there all the time. Now, if only he had a kitchen and a bathroom connected to it…

He stopped thinking this way because sooner or later, he would most likely find Dark waving a hand in front of his bad. And that was the last thing he really needed at the moment. After the lack of sleep and the monster attacks, he seriously wondered if there was any other way to get a normal life; besides running out of the country in desperation. Oh, the way the world worked. A very strange place they lived.

Okay, why was he thinking this way now?

He shook his head. Maybe he was sick.

"Krad?" Dark looked over his shoulder, frowning in concern. Satoshi was looking out the window, and Daisuke looked like he was trying hard not to run around and clean the place up. He really did have that tendency to impulsively clean a dirty place up, huh? Strange, strange kid. Honestly, being an only child could do strange things to them.

But that didn't mean that their own families were any better. Looking over his own family… history, the blonde shuddered. Then he pulled himself together and looked back at his concerned friend.

"Yeah?"

"You are really, really, really out of it today," the blonde teen pointed out simply, "Are you sure that you're alright?"

Krad raised an eyebrow at this before replying, "And what would make you think that I'm not feeling well? Or are you questioning my mental ability?" True, there was some reasoning behind that sort of behavior, but he really didn't need to be asked if he was mentally insane.

"No, it's not that." Dark seemed thoughtful for a moment as he tried to explain what he meant, "It's just that we all seem to have pretty screwed up families; besides Dai-chan, anyway." He added when he noticed the small redhead opening his mouth in protest, "And, you know, the whole thing about families being odd can rub off on their children… well…"

Satoshi wiped his glasses clean as he stood by the window, "He's questioning all of our sanity now. But then again, he has none."

"Shut up, you creep!"

The blonde rolled his eyes as the two began to argue back and forth and Dark completely forgot about what he had been talking about just before. Daisuke didn't seem to be in any better mood and he just offered a sigh of resignation before joining the older teen. "Why do you think they always fight?"

He shrugged and watched with faint-yet-old-amusement, "Because Dark has no brain and Hiwatari has too much of them?"

"Er… I guess…"

"I suppose you can say that with the amount of brains that that kid has, Dark could really use them," Krad suddenly grew thoughtful, "Makes you wonder how he actually managed to get into school, considering his incredibly low IQ level. Wonders will never cease…"

Jerking his head in their direction, Dark scowled; obviously he'd heard the last part. "Hey! That's not exactly the best thing to say to me! And why am I arguing with you anyway!" He gave Satoshi a blank look, who didn't say anything and merely glared before turning away. "Oh well, have it your way then." He looked around the mess that was his room. "Now, why were we here again…?"

"I think you're having a brain shortage as well," Krad pointed out, "And today is my birthday."

Remembering when the blonde said this, Dark began to plough through his mess and tried to find something… no one knew what, and considering who it was that was doing the searching, it might have been better than to think about it. It was much safer that way.

But life, being as cruel as it was, would not let it drop, and the other three boys waited until the teen disappeared in the mess and they couldn't tell what was human and what was mess.

That was scary enough for them.

Eventually Dark reappeared out of the wave of clothes and held up something triumphantly. The other three gathered around to see what it was.

…?

"Uh… Dark?" Daisuke asked hesitantly, "What is it?"

The teen shook it in front of them and then blinked, "I… don't know…"

Everyone sweat dropped at this and no one said anything. But then again, it wasn't like their minds were working right, after the battle that they had and now there was a large chance that they had caught influenza.

But, knowing the purple-haired teen, he just lost a couple of brain cells.

He passed it over to the blonde, who looked at it skeptically and then turned it so he could get a better view of it. Eventually, he peered over at his friend, who was ignoring the looks of disbelief from the two younger boys.

"… It's a box."

"Well, what do you know! It is!"

Krad hit him over the head for that.

000

During this time, Aeka was currently arguing on the phone with Raine, who didn't seem that happy with the proceedings at all.

"Look, I know that you find this serious, but Christina's just a kid!" shouted the younger of the two, "And you do know that both mum and dad don't give a damn about her either! We heard them talking about ages ago and we know about it!"

"Christina shows great potential," snapped Raine coldly, "And you cannot get in the way. It's essential that we do it soon."

"You can't do that to her and you already know that!" Aeka fumed, trying to keep her temper in check, "And we all know that Dark won't like it a bit when he hears about your… plans for her. And he won't be the only one standing up against this decision!"

There was a moment of frosty silence between the phone lines, and then Raine continued like it was just a normal conversation, "We have to deal with it now, and you know that only two or three of you cannot stand against the rest of the force. Give it up and get Christina ready."

"No way!" before she knew what she was doing, Aeka had slammed the phone back down and was shaking. How could that just happen! She knew, from the start, that the youngest child held a power that could be well and truly feared, but if she was placed in their care… who knew what would happen?

"Aeka-san…"

Looking up and smoothing back her frazzled hair, she blinked at Christina, who looked worried and concerned behind her glasses. She was clutching onto Dark's 'pet' and didn't look very happy with what she saw.

"Christina, how long have you been there?" questioned the older girl, having finally calmed down enough to hold a conversation that wouldn't scare the hell out of the younger child. Said child tugged at the back of her ponytail hesitantly, gnawing her lip, as if undecided on what she was supposed to say. With seemed to reflect on her actions as well, and if a demon could look sad, that's what it looked like at that very moment.

"Where's Raine-san taking me?" she finally asked softly.

Aeka paused at this; how much HAD the girl heard? And there was absolutely no way she was going to let that older, and definitely more brainwashed and scary girl take control of her youngest sister, who really didn't need that influence. No way in hell, and all that other random stuff people say.

She bent down and beckoned Christina to enter the room, "She's no going to take you anywhere as long as we're around," she replied gently, "Why do you ask that, anyway?"

The girl shifted nervously again for a moment, like she was weighing her words down carefully in case of reprimandation, "Raine-san has been talking about it a lot, and I hear her all the time… and the letter we got from okaa-san and otou-san said something like that as well… so…"

Smart kid, but then again, she wasn't exactly stupid, was she. With a small sigh to vent her frustration, Aeka stood up properly and gave her sister a reassuring smile, "Don't worry about it. It's not going to happen as long as your older sisters and somewhat insane brother are still around. Okay? So don't worry about it."

Christina returned the smile brightly, but as soon as she was out of the room, she gave a darkened glance at the wall in front of her.

000

Eventually Daisuke had been unable to take in the mess that was Dark's room and was now trying to clean and sort it out. He would have done the job alone, being somewhat of a neat freak in his own terms; but Satoshi couldn't stand just sitting around and having to listen to Dark's stupid comments and offered to help. The two younger boys found that the task was a lot harder than one would have thought, and you had to wonder when was the last time someone had stepped into the room and cleaned it up.

On the bright side, there wasn't much rotten food lying around; and for that they were grateful.

"How long do you think it'll take before the rain stops?" asked the redhead as he pulled out a textbook dated twenty years back. He frowned at it and tossed it to one side with all the other out-of-date books and continued to shuffle around.

Satoshi shrugged lightly at this and peered out of the window, which was completely fogged up at this point. "I'd have to say around early morning tomorrow."

"Ah…"

While they continued with their pointless talk about anything and nothing, Dark and Krad had decided to raid the kitchen to see what they could eat that wouldn't kill them. Just like the rest of the house, the kitchen had a dreary feeling to it and seemed fairly hostile to strangers; Krad being one of them.

The blonde looked around at the cleanliness of it all, "Do you and your family ever eat in here?"

"What?" Dark didn't seem to understand the simple question as he stuck his head into the refrigerator, "Well, I kinda doubt it. Seeing that we would be tearing at each other's throats and all, so… no?"

"I see…"

Watching the purple-haired teen, it was obvious that he lived in a home that wasn't exactly the most supportive and caring about the people within them, but then again…

It was like what he'd said; about them living in a strange sort of family, and he had a point. It was kind of sad when one thought about it, and it was worse about their… unique abilities and the like.

Where were they in society then?

One could only wonder in these sort of situations.

"Cheese?" something was shoved under the blonde's nose and he raised a brow before pushing it out of the way.

"Is that the best you can do?"

Dark shrugged, looking at the yellow block like it was a lego piece; something very inedible, "Well, I tend to just eat take-out, you know. So most to all of this stuff is kinda used for lunch… that Aeka deals with for us, cause most to all of us are too lazy to make it ourselves. And Raine's never home, so it's all good and all. So yeah."

"Right…" Krad wondered if he should throw in a random/sarcastic comment, but then Nina popped into the dreary kitchen, grinning like there was no tomorrow. That and she was holding a cordless phone and seemed to be in the middle of punching in a number.

"So, who wants pizza?" she asked to no one in particular, but then looked up and pointed a finger at Dark, "Come on, you know you want some."

"… Did you have too much sugar again?" was all he could ask, but then nodded, "Sure, whatever. There's nothing in here anyway."

She laughed before finishing the number punching, "Well, nothing that Aeka and Raine won't kill you for taking. We needed more stuff for lunch and all, you know."

"I know, I know…"

There was the distinct sound of someone tripping over something and then falling to the floor upstairs, and that could only mean one thing… both Dark and Krad sprinted up the stairs and into the boy's room.

Daisuke was on the floor in a heap, and rubbing the top of his head; why, no one knew. "Ow…"

"Are you okay?" asked Satoshi, offering a hand.

"… Uh… yes?" the redhead took the offered hand and was pulled up, "Thanks, Satoshi-kun."

Krad blinked as he and Dark stood at the doorframe, "How did you manage to trip in the first place?"

"Who knows," the purple-haired teen replied before the younger boy could even open his mouth, "Dai-chan has always been over to trip on nothing. This is just another way to prove his lack of foot coordination."

"Dark-kun…" Daisuke pouted, "Shouldn't you be glad that we're actually cleaning this up for you?"

Dark waved a nonchalant hand at this, dismissing the idea at once. "You did it yourself; I never asked for this pigsty to be tidied up."

"Your disorganization amazes me," Satoshi commented, "How you manage to find the front door through all this, one has to wonder…"

One could almost see the vein pop in Dark's head, "You… are going to DIE for that!" Disregarding the fact that there was a stack of books and clothes piled everywhere, he tried to tackle the other boy, who managed to dodge him. And that didn't make Dark happy at all.

At the sidelines, both Daisuke and Krad watched in amusement, "Who do you think is going to trip over the mess first?"

"Huh? Oh… chance of draw, I suppose…"

"What's what supposed to mean?"

"I don't quite know myself… what did Dark-kun get you anyway?"

"Who knows. The boy is taped shut quite a bit. And I think Dark was proud of his taping skills, so I don't think I'll be opening it anytime soon."

"Ah… okay…"

As it turned out, everyone tripped over something in the room, since the doorbell rang, the pizza came, and Dark managed to tackle Krad in the process and Satoshi just tripped over… who knew what; Daisuke nearly fell down the stairs, but the blue-haired managed to save him from that predicament, and Dark nearly ran into the wall. No one knew why, but it was a close call.

Aeka raised a brow when she noticed the other three people; having had no clue about the arrangements for the time being; she'd been too busy arguing on the phone with Raine to pay the world much attention; "School project that I never knew about?"

"Nah. Monsters, raining, and I couldn't leave them in the rain, right?" Dark replied coolly. She shrugged at this, mind obviously elsewhere, and they ate… whatever was on the pizza. As far as they were concerned, it was edible, and even the little imps in the basement wouldn't disagree with that.

Or so Christina said.

Why they were still there… who knew.

Who knew at all…

Then Aeka popped up with a question that Dark had clearly forgotten about, "So… are you planning to share the one bed, or are the others going to sleep on the floor?"

"Er…"

"He never thought that far, huh?" chuckled Nina.

"Eeto…" Christina still seemed fairly nervous and was paying attention to the plate in front of her more than anything else. Krad, Satoshi and Daisuke glanced over at a very confused Dark and he merely blinked back at them.

Rolling her eyes at the no reaction situation, Nina decided to take the matter into her own hands, "Let's see… you can't sleep in the living room, cause Raine might see you and then sacrifice you to the evil overload who-knows-what… I think we have a spare room… somewhere?" She looked over to where the other girl was sitting, and she nodded briskly.

"But it's never been used, so you might want to give it a good dusting down… and there's only one bed, so…"

"That's all okay," she pointed at Daisuke and Satoshi, "You two can have that room for the night and the blondie," she pointed a finger at Krad, "Can share with Dark. Okay? Okay."

The decision hadn't really processed into anyone's minds, and when it did… well… they didn't know how to react, to say the least. But it was also obvious that there was no other way around the situation (unless they really wanted to sleep on the floor or go out… in the dark… and most definitely get attacked by monsters prowling along) and besides, they got along fine… in the end. Except for Dark's ignorance and… yeah.

Daisuke borrowed the phone to call his parents, Satoshi was using his mobile, and Krad? Krad simply stated that his parents couldn't care less about his whereabouts, and as long as he wasn't dead, that was fine with them.

000

Sometime during the night, Dark jerked out of his sleep when he heard a loud crash; like someone had just killed the front door. Krad woke up as well, blinking blearily at his friend. "What's going on?"

The purple haired teen could only shrug, "I don't know, but I'm going to go and find out."

"Hn…"

Pushing back the hair that was getting in his way, Dark left the room and peered down the railing, where the stairs connected with the first floor. It didn't take him long to find out what the commotion was for, because he could locate Raine's voice shouting at something. It was kind of ironic as well, seeing that the oldest sibling never raised her voice unless she was really, really, really angry. And it was usually Dark's fault in the first place.

"I don't think you understand the situation! It's the only way this can finally be settled and don't try to give me the speech about blood being thicker than water, because it's not going to work!"

It was Aeka's voice that shouted back furiously, "But to do that would be like giving up our souls to something up above that we know nothing about! We'd lose the meaning of our existence! Do you want to do that to us!"

"You know as well as I do that we're not normal."

"I'm not going to let you hurt anyone in the family. Raine, you've already condemned this family to hell with your teachings, and the fact that you allow both mother and father to use us like puppets… can you not see that we're all not like you?"

"I don't think you understand the situation yourself, Aeka," the older girl's voice had calmed somewhat, but it still had the underlying tone of venom that screamed "danger" in all its forms, "If Christina doesn't go, then they're coming for her anyway. And no one can stop it."

There was incoherent spluttering at this statement, and Dark's breath caught in his throat. They were taking Christina somewhere? And by the sounds of it, it was all part of the stupid religious thing, and that in itself wasn't a good thing.

Wondering on what he should do, the boy's mind wandered back to he letter that Christina had mention and decided that that might hold some answers to the situation. So, without further ado, he crept down the stairs, found the latter sitting on one of the tables in the hallway, and took it upstairs with him.

Upon entering, Krad seemed to have efficiently woken up, and he was giving Dark the 'what happened?' look. He waved the letter and switched on the lights.

"Something to do with the freakin' religion again," he snorted, "And they want to drag Christina in it somehow, and for who knows what reason. Anyway…" He opened the letter, pulled out a single piece of paper, scanned it, and froze; all in a matter of ten seconds.

Noticing this as a bad sign, the blonde reached over and plucked the letter out of his friend's hands and read it; "…"

Raine,

Ritual has failed. All higher-class powers needed. Christina has proven a worthy candidate. We need her for the ritual.

Don't let anyone else get in the way.

There was no indication of who had written it, but it was obviously something that Dark and his family had experienced many times before, because the purple haired teen wasn't looking happy at all.

"How many times have we told them that we're not going to let that happen?" he ranted to himself. "There's no way in hell that we're going to get involved with this…"

"Dark… are you saying that Christina can use magic as well?"

"… We're still unsure of that. She's shown signs of it, but nothing strong. She's more of a healer, like Daisuke, you know? But how… and why…"

"You want to talk to Dark's guardian angel?" Akane blinked, not quite understanding what he meant.

"Well, either that or someone in Dark's family bloodline," the blonde clarified. "I know monster attacks have become more frequent, but they seem to aim at him more than most."

The redhead frowned, taking in the information, "I see… well, the balance of magic isn't exactly the most stable… so…"

"Can you?"

"Yeah," nodding, she led Krad into a smaller room that was completely overwhelmed with scrolls, small crystals and the random trinkets that people had that they believed held good luck. "It shouldn't be that hard anyway."

Watching on the sidelines, the blonde could only wait.

Talking to spirits was one thing in itself, but it had done nothing more than confirm Krad's fears, or suspicions, and he didn't like them one bit. Especially if Dark got involved with it. Akane had promised to keep quiet about the whole situation, but she seemed to note the problems at an instant; and that wasn't a good thing.

Flopping back onto the bed, Dark sighed and wondered what the blonde was thinking. If the family were trying to gather people using magic again, all four boys were in danger of being discovered, and he would hate to have to fight his way through them again. It was an unbearable thought.

It wasn't long before the two boys had drifted back off to sleep, and the non-existent rain outside dimmed into nothingness, leaving the sky as gloomy as it had been for the past few days.

It was only a matter of time before someone got hurt; and they all knew it.

000

Oooh… foreshadowing… great. And as for what Dark got Krad, I have no idea. That's why it was taped and all. So if anyone has a suggestion for it, I would really, really appreciate it! I mean, it can be relevant to the story… or irrelevant, I don't care. Thanks. Anyway, er… yeah. Can't say much else…

Hakudoshi-chan: Yup, rain is evil. It always seems to do that to them though… maybe it's autumn or winter or something… although winter would mean snow…

neko-nya: You're okay still? Immune system okay? Er… yeah. Reverse psychology might work… I wanna get the anime but it's too freaking expensive XO Know any sites on the internet I might be able to use? (actually, there's a low chance in that as well… this computer hates to download really big files… or something…)

Gabriel of Dreams-Yume Chan: It hurt to get this done, truth be told. I mean, I started it, then I left it… so I had to pick it up. No idea when the next chapter will be up though. Well, I think they're getting there and yeah! Here's the update! Hope it was okay!

kyo's little koneko: I came up with… little. And a lot of bloody chaos in their part. It was fun. XD Any idea what Dark gave Krad? I mean, he's confused, Krad doesn't even know and… yeah.

Thanks to you all for reading and reviewing! Er… other than that, I don't know what else to say. (shrugs) Hope you'll be back for more XD