Baptism
The thing struggles in her fist and she can feel its heartbeat. Fast, frantic little thing throbbing against her cool palm. The man beside her stretches languorously like a slowly uncoiled spring against the tree. She concentrates and tightens her grip until its rhythm stutters and stops. She drops the feathered corpse into the pungent litter of sakura and the crimson from her digits follow it in a sluggish ooze. In Ueno Park, Seishirou smiles with teeth and tells Kazuki he is proud of her. She looks into his dark sunglasses and cannot find herself.
Only Nataku is reflected back.