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"Students, I'd like you to meet the newest member of our class: Kari Niwa. She's Daisuke's cousin who just moved here from Kyoto. Everyone say hello!"
"Nice to meet you, Niwa!" The class recited like a well-oiled machine.
Kari stood in front of the class, staring at her shoes. She hated having so many people pay attention to her; she could feel all of their eyes on her and their hushed whispers asking questions about her.
"Hey, Niwa," a boy whispered across the isle to Daisuke, "why didn't you tell us that you had such a hott cousin?"
"Heh…" Daisuke laughed nervously, a blush creeping up his face.
"And another surprise for the beginning of the school year!" the teacher announced, "Satoshi Hiwatari is going to be joining us once again!"
The class stared as the blue-haired, bespectacled boy stepped into the room. The girls couldn't believe it, Satoshi was back! The room was full of excited whispers as the two students quickly took their seats and the lessons began.
"Alright class, today we're going to be discussing the cultural reformation!" Kari's eyes grew wide, Daisuke could feel her heart beat faster and fear began spreading through his body, "Wha-what's happening?" He thought.
"Kari's heart is affecting you," Dark's voice rang in his head, "whenever her feelings are strong you'll be able to sense them and vice versa."
"Dark! You're back! How are you feeling?"
"I've been better, but let's not worry about that right now. What set Kari's heart off like that?"
"I don't know, when the teacher mentioned the cultural reformation she just started freaking out."
"Well it's obvious that something happened to her during that time period…"
"Mr. Niwa can you tell me which family led the cultural reformation?" the teacher asked, expectantly.
"Uh…uh…no, sorry I can't…" stuttered Daisuke.
"Fine then, Miss Niwa?"
"I-I-" She stopped, grabbed her book bag and ran out of the room. Pain was surging through Daisuke's body. Something was definitely wrong with Kari.
"I should go check on her!" Daisuke yelled, jumping up and running after her.
He skidded to a halt in the hall, "Which way did she go?"
"Follow her heart, she can't go far without it: only about one hundred yards," Dark instructed.
Suddenly there was a sharp pain in his arm; he looked down to see a clean cut on his wrist with blood slowly flowing out of it. Daisuke couldn't believe it, "Where did that come from?"
"Apparently when something happens to Kari the same happens to you…" Dark mused.
Daisuke tore down the hallway searching for Kari, her heart leading the way. He stopped in front of the girl's bathroom. "She's in there…" he whispered. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open to see Kari leaning over the sink with tears streaming down her face, the Exacto knife they had bought her the previous day in her right hand and blood flowing down her left. Daisuke stared in horror as she lifted the knife to attack her wrist once again.
"No, Kari, stop!" screamed Daisuke, running at her with all his might. He grabbed the knife and she jerked away from him a deep cut was slashed through his hand. Kari stared as the same happened to her, "Wha-?"
She collapsed on the bathroom floor deep, heavy sobs escaping from her chest. Daisuke grabbed a roll of toilet paper from one of the stalls and began wrapping her cuts. She didn't fight him at all, just sat there crying. While he was treating the gash on her wrist he noticed old scars all over her arm. "Kari," whispered Daisuke, "how long have you been doing this to yourself?"
"A little over three hundred years," she had stopped crying and was staring at his hands, "How did you get that cut? It's just like mine…"
"Dark said it was because whenever something happens to you it happens to me…and vice versa I guess from the cut on your hand."
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hurt you, too."
Picking her up on his back he said, "It's alright, let's go home."
"But…what about school?"
"Forget about school for today, you need some rest. I'll carry you so don't worry."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his sweet-smelling red hair, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"It's alright, just don't do it anymore, okay?" He said, that goofy everything's-going-to-be-okay smile on his face. They were already out of the building and making their way across the school yard to the road, "If you don't mind me asking, what happened back there?"
"You know the legend of my heart, right?"
"Yeah, you confessed your love to the lord of your town, he rejected you and your heart turned to ice," he said, condensing the version his mom had told him.
"That's not true at all. What really happened was much worse," she whispered, Daisuke could feel his hair getting wet from her tears. "I was a maid in the lord's house, one day, when I was cleaning his chamber, he forced himself on me. I couldn't fight him off, he was far too strong," her voice had a faraway sound to it. "It hurt him that I didn't accept him willingly and did not love him as he loved me so he had a curse put on me that turned my heart to ice and removed it from my body. He would carry my heart with him everywhere so that I was forced to follow him where ever he went," she was shaking in Daisuke's arms. "I soon began to notice that I didn't age, I just remained a fourteen year old while he grew old. It wasn't until he lay on his death bed that he told me how to lift the curse: I have to willingly accept a member of his family or I won't be able to die and just follow my heart where ever it is taken."
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know…"
She just continued as if she didn't hear what he said, "The reason I acted that way in class was because his family was the one that led the Cultural Revolution: the Hikaris." Daisuke froze, he couldn't believe what she was saying, "Another part of the curse is that no matter what all of the male Hikaris are attracted to me. Although the curse can't be lifted now…I looked it up myself, the Hikaris are dead, there are no more left."
"Yeah," whispered Daisuke.
