"Y-Yuka, calm down. We'll still be in touch."

"But it'll be a whole year before I see you again!"

Kouta looked around nervously, making sure nobody was staring. As nice as it was to receive affection from his cousin, he couldn't help but feel a little awkward at the way she was sobbing so uncontrollably, clinging to him like he was some kind of lifeline. He'd only be gone for a year, not a decade or so. Checking his watch, he saw that it'd been over a minute since they'd embraced. This whole thing was starting to get really uncomfortable for him. He was about to try and push her off, when he heard a few folks running by, shouting in alarm, and sporting expressions of sheer panic.

"What's this?" asked Yuka, looking at the fearful people with a bit of fear of her own. Kouta had no words. Just then, his father rushed up to them, looking relieved at seeing his son and niece safe.

"Kouta, Yuka, thank goodness you're here!" he exclaimed, "Where's Kanae? Where's your sister?"

"Kanae?" Kouta looked around, but couldn't see her anywhere, "I don't know, I think we were separated. She should be nearby."

"We have to find her," the terror was already creeping back into his voice, "People are saying that a bomb went off just down the road! At least several are dead, and your sister could be one of them!"

Horror rose up in Kouta, and it might have come out in a scream had it not been for a nearby voice.

"K-Kouta."

The voice was small and trembling, but Kouta and his family still heard it. They all turned to see Kanae standing ten feet from them, a few specks of blood on her face. The young child's expression was of one who'd seen the gates of Hell swing open before her. Kouta's father instantly rushed forward, grasping her shaking shoulders. His voice was rich with relief. "Kanae! Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?"

It was a moment before she was able to register her father standing right in front of her, but eventually the words started to come out, "T-there were these girls…they killed all of these people…They were being torn and burnt…it was horrible."

"We need to leave now. There might be more bombs!"

"What?" Kanae looked up in confusion, "No, it wasn't a bomb! It was these girls! One of them had weird eyes, and the other had these weird looking hor-"

She might have had more to say, but her eyewitness account was cut off when her father grabbed her and Kouta by the hand and started to leave at once, pulling them both with him. Yuka followed close behind, an expression of sheer terror. More people were beginning to panic around them, and more than one of them was reaching for their phones, intent on calling someone better suited for the crisis. Kouta himself was feeling a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts, and wasn't able to consider what his sister had said.

Alma and Lucy stood amidst a pile of cut-up and charred corpses. Alma tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and let out a deep sigh. It felt like a weight had been lifted. As though the frustrations she'd dealt with, however few there'd been these past few days, had been rendered meaningless. She no longer had to worry about Armacham, or running, or hiding, or…or…

"Lucy."

Her friend was still breathing heavily, looking around at all of the carnage they'd just committed. Finally, she turned toward Alma. Her expression was less than peaceful.

"He's not here."

"Kouta?"

"Yes, where is he?"

"He must've left when everyone started dying," she looked around at the gore, and just managed to catch someone's dangling entrails fall from the awning of a concession stand, and land in an abandoned noodle bowl with a surprisingly audible splash, "No surprise."

Lucy let out an angered huff that almost came out as a growl. "We need to find him. He needs to pay for what he did!"

"We're going to kill him?"

"We're going to punish him."

Alma considered her friend, and her aggressive mental state. It seemed as though that hidden consciousness, the part that had been repressed for so long, had seemingly surfaced, and now her best friend was harboring dark motives, and a desire to see everyone dead. Then there were the invisible arms circling her. Arms she'd used to rip everyone around her to pieces. As she probed Lucy's mind for further explanation of these phantom limbs, she discovered, buried in a thick fog of thoughts, a word relating to them: Vectors. This seemed to be a murderous weapon that Lucy's dark half was intimately familiar with. Granted, Alma had never split any hairs when it came to killing, but this was…new.

"Lucy, is this really what you want?"

Lucy turned back toward her friend with a look of surprise. "Of course I do. He lied to us about his cousin. He told us his cousin was a boy."

Alma would be lying to herself if she didn't admit that such knowledge burned. She didn't know whether to be more angry at Kouta for lying, or at herself for not taking a moment to verify through a mindscan. It hurt, and she did indeed feel a burning urge to incinerate her problems away.

…But still…

"...This doesn't mean he has feelings for her."

"Why would he lie about her, then?"

"Well…"

Lucy slowly walked up to her friend, fists clenched."They seemed really close when we found them, didn't they? She wouldn't stop clinging to him."

"Yes, that's true."

"Then we find her, and we kill her. And anyone else who gets in our way," she reached out and put a hand on Alma's shoulder. Alma bristled at the sudden physical contact, but Lucy smiled warmly, a sudden departure from her dark behavior. "You're my best friend, Alma. I know I can always rely on you."

Best friend.

Alma's mind probed through Lucy, looking for any hint of deception, or even manipulation, but found nothing but genuine compassion. She'd come to love receiving this warmth from her and Kouta, of being wanted by someone.

"I…okay. We'll find them. We won't run again."

Lucy pulled Alma into a warm embrace, and Alma returned the gesture in kind. A touching moment of compassion before a horrifying act of homicide.

Even before he was fully awake, Harlan could tell that it was the ringing of his phone that pulled him from his dreamless sleep…because part of him would never really sleep again, not so long as his daughter continued to roam free. The burdens of fatherhood were quite heavy, especially when your child was a mentally unstable, homicidal being of destruction and hate. He reached for his phone without getting up from his cheap hotel bed, and answered the call, wondering what gory bit of bloodshed he would soon be hearing.

"Yes?"

"Harlan! She's done it again! Some festival! People are dead! Her and her friend have to be involved!"

"Slow down, Boris, slow down," Harlan was feeling so very tired, "Where did it happen?"

"Some festival. It's…uh, my pronunciation might be off, but I think it's called the…um…Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. It's some annual event."

So Alma had been feeling festive, had she? "Alright, I know the place. Have you gotten in touch with our police contacts?"

"I'm about to. Figured I should call you first, give you a heads-up, and all that."

"Good, I'll be on my way."

He hung up without saying goodbye, and spent a second considering his ongoing problem. Suddenly he bolted out of bed, rushed toward the bathroom, and hurled his guts out into the toilet.

"You're an idiot, Kouta! I hope those girls kill you, too!"

"Shut up, Kanae!"

It had been like this ever since they'd parted ways with Yuka and gotten onto the train. Kanae had been insistent that the bomb had in fact been caused by two girls, one with horns, and another with foreign looks. Despite the clear connection to the friends he'd made a few days ago, Kouta had refused to believe that the friends he made would be capable of such a violent act.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Kanae!"

"Yes, I do! I saw them!"

"You're lying!"

"I saw them!"

"I don't like girls who lie to me!"

"Ergh…You dummy! Stupid dummy! I'm not a liar!"

There father, who'd been sitting nearby reading a newspaper, finally chose to step in, "Knock it off, both of you!"

Kanae looked at her father, then back at Kouta. Her clenched fists were trembling with anger, perhaps even fear. "I don't care if you believe me or not! I know what I saw! Those girls killed those people!"

Having made her declaration, the girl turned and fled down the train car. Her father watched her go and sighed, thankful that his family were the only ones on the train at this late hour. Well, them and two small figures that he could just barely make out, sitting by the edge of the next train car over. The train abruptly entered a tunnel, plunging the outside world into stygian darkness. Kouta hurried after his sister, concerned that she might try something foolish. He watched as she bolted down toward the other car.

"Kanae, wait!"

His sister turned toward him, her emotions threatening to leak down her face. "Go away, Kouta! Just go away!"

She continued yelling at him as two small figures slowly stood up from their seats, turning to face the two siblings. They barely made a sound, but Kanae still turned toward them. She didn't know why she'd turned. It might have been some minute prickling on the back of her neck, a great feeling of dread at her spine. Something unnatural that caused a hidden part of her consciousness to know that something was right behind her. Whatever the case, Kanae turned behind her, and gazed with fear at the faces of death.

"Oh, it's you guys," Kouta's casual, almost cheerful tone countered his sister's quiet dread, "I didn't know you were both on the train. I missed you two at the station…Is everything okay?"

Kanae felt a warm gush as her bladder let go. She tried to scream, but her voice died in her throat. It seemed as though her body had stopped working entirely. Kouta turned toward her sister, and looked at the streak of yellow fluid trickling down her leg with disgust. "Did you just pee yourself? Gross. I'm telling dad."

Kanae finally found her voice, "K…Kouta…Run."

"What?"

"Run!"

Many seats down, they heard their father grumble in discontent without looking up from his paper, "Keep it down, children."

Kanae couldn't believe what she was hearing. Here stood the people responsible for the massacre, who'd killed all of those people through some supernatural feat that was beyond her, and her family were just acting like nothing was wrong, like they all weren't in danger of getting cut up and burned up.

"You're a liar."

Those three words carried so much dripping fury, so much cold fury, that Kouta had to wonder if it'd even just been said by his friend. He turned toward Lucy, frowning in equal parts concern and confusion. "What did you say?"

"Kouta, what are you doing?" cried Kanae in exasperation, "We have to get out of here now, before they kill us all!"

Kanae immediately dashed forward. She put one hand on Lucy's chest, another on Alma's, and shoved as hard as she could. The two girls tumbled onto the floor. Lucy tried to grab onto a seat, but failed, her arm colliding with a soft thud against the plastic seating. Kouta, fed up with her antics, promptly turned around and smacked his sister across the face. The sound of palm hitting flesh seemed to amplify along the confined passageway of the train car. Kanae's terror-stricken expression morphed into one of hurt shock. She clutched her reddening cheek as she gaped at her brother. Behind them, Alma tilted her head in quiet amusement at the siblings' spectacle as she picked herself up from the ground.

"Shut up, you idiot!" he shouted angrily, "What are you even saying right now?! Do you have any idea how crazy you sound right now?! Apologize to my friends right now, or…or I'll hate you forever!"

Kanae's protests momentarily died in her throat. Tears welled up in her eyes at this wrathful declaration, "N-no Kouta! Don't say that! Don't hate me-"

A great red splash of blood erupted from young Kanae as her body was promptly cut in two, her body separating from her waist like a detaching LEGO piece covered in gore. Kouta's mind abruptly went blank. He couldn't conceive what was happening before him, couldn't feel the blood spraying his face. His mind, his psyche, was fragmenting. Alma could sense it all, and it felt…good.

That's what you get for lying.

Kouta looked down at his dying sister, watching as the life left her eyes.

"No…" her top half weakly gasped, "Don't hate me…don't…hate…"

The light left, her streaming tears mixed with her pooling blood and urine, but as Kanae's voice faded into eternity, Kouta found himself regaining his.

"...agh…ugh…uhuh…aaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

"Kouta, stop all that screaming," his father, having gotten up from his chair, came over to see what latest antics his children had gotten up to.

"Kouta, why are you-" his voice tapered off as he took in all the red. He looked at the remains of his daughter, who'd just earlier today had gotten him a flower from the festival. He opened his mouth to scream in despair, only for his head to rip right off his shoulders, and go rolling to the ground, eventually coming to rest at the feet of his shaking son. Kouta, covered in both his family member's blood, stared down at his father's head, at the shocked, glazed expression it now wore, an expression that he'd never seen on his father's face before. He screamed once more, impulsively kicking away the head of his late father. It rolled across the floor like a morbid soccer ball, before softly colliding with the severed legs of his sister.

Kouta slowly looked up from the pool of blood that he sat in at the two girls he'd come to be so fond of. It took a moment before he could speak, but when his voice came, it crawled out in a gasp, "D-did you two do this?"

Lucy's small smile held all the warmth of an all-consuming blackhole, "I did."

"Why?" that single word, so meek and pitiful, gradually gave way to a louder voice, "Why? Why would you do this to me?! I thought we were friends!"

"We are friends," replied Lucy in a placid tone, "I didn't kill you, did I?"

Alma nodded her head, as if in the presence of flawless logic. Kouta could only gawk at them both.

"Now, I'm going to kill that stupid girl," said Lucy, before turning to leave. She started heading down the car before Kouta, spurred by a strangled cry, got up and charged forward. He tripped on his sister's legs, (or perhaps his father's head), and fell onto Lucy sending her to the ground with a squeak and a splash. The dam finally burst as his tears surged forth.

"STOP IT!" he screamed into her shocked face. He lifted her head before slamming it into the ground-again and again, "NO MORE! PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU-"

Not a single hand was laid on Kouta, yet the boy abruptly found himself being yanked from Lucy. The diclonius lay stunned on the ground as Kouta was harshly lifted up and slammed against the ceiling of the train. Lucy looked over at Alma, and saw that her hand was raised and her expression was angry.

"Don't hurt my best friend," her voice was a cold snarl, but soon, Lucy knew, there'd be a great deal of heat to back it. In that instant something cleared in Lucy's eyes. She looked around at all of the blood she'd spilled, and the sobbing boy at the ceiling.

"Alma don't!" she wailed. Alma looked at Lucy in complete surprise, searching both her face and her thoughts for any falsehoods. There were none. Alma abruptly lowered her hand, and Kouta was lowered back onto the floor, leaving a bloody imprint on the ceiling in the rough shape of a small child. Alma looked at Lucy, wondering what she would do next. The fight had gone completely out of her. Now she only looked scared and sad. "L-let's go, Alma. Please, let's leave."

Almost as if on cue, the train emerged from the tunnel into an empty station. The doors opened, and the girls fled, Lucy looking over her shoulder at Kouta. The boy had curled up into a shivering ball by the bloody remains of his parents, his sobs filling the narrow passageway. Alma did not look back, but her unnatural abilities probed forth into his mind, which had way more stress than a young boy should have. She noted how some of his more lurid memories, memories of his family's brutal murder, were already beginning to fade, being forced back by the sanity of his mind to become something obscure.

His mind was repressing the murders of his father and daughter. He was even beginning to forget about Alma and Lucy. Alma…wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Kouta remained sobbing by his slaughtered family until the sheer stress of the past few minutes made him pass out. He slept in a dreamless sleep on the floor, and didn't wake up until the train had completely run its course, and the conductor found him.

Alma slumped against the recliner seat, welcoming the warm comfort of the leather. The house they were in had a few sofas and beds, but Lucy wasn't resting in any of these. She'd chosen to spend her time up in the bathroom. Alma could hear the soft hiss of the shower running upstairs, and the dark haze of thoughts permeating from her best friend. After another moment of sullen reflection, Alma let out a sigh, got up out her chair, and slowly trudged up the stairs. She opened the bathroom door, which Lucy hadn't even fully closed, and stepped into the steamy room.

The first thing that caught Alma's gaze was the small bundle of bloodied clothes laying at the foot of the tub. The next thing she noticed were the shattered remains of the small bathroom mirror. Many of the shards now rested in the small bowl of the bathroom sink. She looked into the shower to see Lucy sitting in the tub, her arms curled around her legs, hot water dripping around her body as the shower head continued to spray her. Feelings of guilt and negativity were radiating from her, particularly guilt, wafting about like the steam from the shower.

"Lucy?" said diclonius didn't look up at her, but she did respond.

"Go away."

"Why are you upset?"

"Why do you think?"

Alma supposed questions of feelings were irrelevant for a mind reader like herself, but excuse her for trying to talk with her best friend! "You're upset about what happened on the train."

"..."

"...it was your idea-"

Lucy's head snapped up, "I KNOW IT WAS MY IDEA!"

Alma felt numerous invisible forces whip past her. It was like standing in the middle of a high speed highway as vehicles sped by mere inches. Numerous dents smashed against the wall beside her as Lucy's vectors trashed the bathroom, ripping plaster from the walls with wild fury. Alma sat perfectly still, having sensed Lucy's intentions a half-second before they even occurred.

"You missed me…"

"..."

"...on purpose."

"..."

"I'm not leaving until you say something to me."

"...I messed up."

"With killing his family?"

"Yes."

"We killed a family to get this home. The father's body is still out in the hall, holding his kid."

"They weren't Kouta's family. He was our friend."

Alma actually brindled at those words. "I…well, yes." As Alma considered this, she found a weird sensation forming in her stomach. A pit of some kind. Was this…guilt?

Lucy leaned her wet head back against the cool tiled wall. Fresh tears mixed with the water on her face. "I didn't…I didn't mean to hurt him that badly."

"Many people don't care about how much they've hurt others," remarked Alma bitterly, "Nobody at Armacham cared how I ever felt. Honestly, that's one way you're better than them."

"I am?"

"We both are." Despite still being fully clothed, Alma stepped into the shower, ignoring the water that poured down on her. She reached over to Lucy and pulled her into a hug. "Whatever mistakes you make, I'll be here for you. What are best friends for?"

Alma was momentarily stunned by this display of affection, but eventually her wet arms closed around Alma as she hugged her friend back. A warm bond of friendship steadily deepened between the two, with an embrace more warm than the dead father in the hall, hugging the corpse of his six-year girl.

Family was to die for.