Hiro's POV

For hours, I could only stare at my sister's dead body. She hadn't been as strong as Keiryi, but she was no weakling either. Every moment we'd shared, all the love we'd held for each other, none of it had been able to bring her back sooner. Had she been struggling and unable to tell us? What if her bond with my Mom was so strong that she couldn't bear to live without it? Whatever the cause, I walked sullenly into the living room, and my father was inside looking at the paper.

"Why the sudden interest in the news?" I asked. "Don't we have enough going on around here?"

"I need to find a place for Mikari's funeral," Dad answered absently, turning the page. His eyes were focused ahead intently, and he was obviously set to ignore me. As that was the case, I walked upstairs to my room.

There were a lot of things I could have expected to find once I got up to my room, but Hiei was not one of them. Ever since Mom died, he hadn't come around at all. From what I heard, Hiei and my dad had a long-standing feud that they weren't quite willing to let go. "What are you here for?" I asked acidly, wanting to go to sleep and dream that my sister was still alive.

"Apparently you haven't been following what's been going on in Makai," Hiei stated flatly. "Keiryi is going to try and stop Fehreil on her own."

My eyes went wide as I heard that. Mikari had died attempting the exact same feat. "But that's how--"

"I know," Hiei snapped, cutting me short. "I'm only here to tell the facts. Make of it what you will."

"I want to help her," I said firmly, clenching one hand into a fist. "I can't let someone else die while I sit back and do nothing!" In the past years, I'd trained some, and after Keiryi was captured, my father taught me how to use the spirit sword.

"You'll just get yourself killed, baka," Hiei spat, and watched my blood rise to my head, turning my cheeks a dark red.

"If there's no one else left, then what does it matter!" I screamed back at him, my rage boiling over. It wasn't often that I got angry, but his indifference at Mikari's death was too much for me to take. The spirit sword was in my hands, and I flew at Hiei, the bright red energy flying through the air. He drew his sword and we went at each other fiercely. Every blow he threw at me, I was able to dodge, and eventually I was on the offensive rather than the defensive. He was pinned under my sword, sweat rolling down his face.

"How's that for weak?" I taunted spitefully. "I'm part demon, you know. I can fight."

"Don't speak so soon, child," Hiei said smugly, and then I was the one on the floor, the cold steel of his sword pressed hard against my neck. "You're young, and still inexperienced. How do you think you can help Keiryi?"

"I'll do what I can," I replied, getting up once our swords were put away. "I love Keiryi, and I don't want to watch her die."

"Maybe it's her destiny to die for all of us," Hiei said coldly. "Those two are an even match for each other, but I think Keiryi will win...if she can figure out how to use her power."

Fear replaced anger in my mind. So she could win...but only if she figured herself out first. That was always one thing she had seemed to fear. She never wanted to find out her own self, just everybody else. Back when we were kids, she didn't like answering questions about herself, and even while we were dating, she didn't share all that much of herself. I don't know what her problem was there, but I'd never bothered to ask or worry about it.

"How can I get to her?" I demanded of Hiei, wishing for once that he was a little more forgiving of my blind ignorance. "Maybe I can't fight Fehreil, but I can help."

"You'll only get in the way," Hiei stated glumly, "but if you really want to go, then you should go see Jakiri." Without bothering to bid my uncle farewell, my body went on autopilot and I came dashing down the stairs.

Dad didn't try to stop me from running down to Keiryi's house; he was too engrossed in everything that had happened. There didn't seem to be anybody there, though. Come to think of it, I had no idea who Jakiri was. Due to Keiryi's reluctance to talk about herself, I didn't know of any family friends by that name. Anyway, weren't we supposed to be some of the only friends Katie had left?

I knocked furiously on the door, wishing my stupid conscience would shut up about common courtesy. This was an emergency, and Keiryi's life hung in the balance. A woman answered the door, her mystical eyes shaded by dark circles of worry and age. "Is there a Jakiri here?" I asked hastily, and she sighed.

"Don't you kids get it?" she screamed at me angrily. "If you stayed out of your elders' business, you wouldn't be dying so young!"

Fighting back the tears that came with this reality, I put on a stony mask and stared at her. "I don't know who you are," I said, "but I'm ready to fight for something more important to me than the world itself. One of the only people I've cared about is going to die if I don't help her!"

"The girl is more powerful than you'll ever be," she said calmly, shaking her head. "Besides, you can't change fate. It's going to come out the same, even if you do something to prolong the end."

I knew it was true. What if I got there and she was already struck dead by her fiend of a grandfather? Even if I could do something to save her, there would be people after us again, and they would get her sooner or later. It didn't matter, though. I was going to save her, and I was going to hold her one more time before we both had to move on. That would have to be enough.

"I don't care," I answered, a little calmer now. "I want to see her again...while she's still alive."

"Jakiri can't get you to demon world right now, though," the woman said flatly, running a hand through her long, emerald hair. "She's holding off Kaiina. I can get you there, but it won't be as easy as it is for her."

"Just do it," I commanded, like some stony general. What the hell had I done with myself?

The swirling green portal swallowed me up and then blinked away, and I was tossed into a long corridor. I went down based on the fact that the stairs went down from where I was. And eventually, I saw that flash of vivid red hair go black, and those fierce jade eyes turn golden. "Keiryi!" I shouted, running toward her. And I stopped dead when I saw him in the corner.