After my siblings had left, we started our journey towards the Himalayas. Lavi had explained everything to me in as simple terms as he could put it, and I had to say that it was a simple mission.

Apparently, a very large light was shining like a beacon off the top of a mountain right next to Mount Everest. There was also a vicious storm that had whipped up out of nowhere, shrouding the entire mountain. Not surprisingly, it was called Savage Mountain because it'd killed more people than the man-eating tiger of India. We were supposed to brave the storm, fight Akuma on the way, dodge Abominable Snowmen, get to the top, figure out what was turning the mountain into a lighthouse, and then come all the way back down.

"The locals say the light is the dead spirits of the village coalescing at the top of the mountain, but I honestly think it's the Innocence making the thing shine like Time Square on New Year's," Lavi said, and I stared blankly.

The words 'coalesce' and 'Times Square' floated around in my brain before drifting away.

"Time Square?"

"Uh… Never mind. Anyhow, once we get the Innocence, the storm will stop, we fight off the Akuma that we'll finally be able to actually see, and presto! We're done. Easy, right?"

If he meant that drilling a hole in a wall with a toothpick was easy, then yes, this would be a piece of cake.

Kanda wasn't helping matters either. He was just as dour and nasty as ever, and the farther inland we went, the dourer and nastier he became. The humidity frizzing his hair probably had something to do with it. The amount of poof in his ponytail seemed to correlate exactly with his mood.

Speaking of him, our journey through India hadn't been totally wasted on riding elephants the entire way. I got to participate in fun-loaded activities like balancing on poles fifty feet off the ground, running ten kilometers in ninety-nine percent humidity, and learning how to catalog just how old my bruises were purely based on color.

Luckily, Lavi's regimen was a lot easier on me and had less to do with being painfully stretched, pulled, and prodded in a variety of potentially lethal ways. That wasn't to say that they were any less strenuous – they just seemed a lot safer. Even I can't break a toe playing chess. He had me on strategy games, breathing control, and meditation. Unfortunately, he liked to test my concentration by waving feathers in my face, wearing ridiculous costumes or, worst yet, wearing nothing at all. It didn't help that Lavi could beat me in three moves flat no matter what strategy game we were playing. The odds were definitely not stacked in my favor.

We were now in Tibet. My ribs were healed up, and most of my gashes were closed. I'd had the stitches cut off two weeks before, and the travel had switched from elephants to Hammer Travel, as I liked to call it. I was getting a lot better at riding the stupid thing, seeing as I'd had no choice but to cling to it for four hours straight every day. Even Bookman couldn't take riding Little Hammer for longer than a few hours at a time, considering he was so arthritic. I couldn't blame him. However, the time needed to get to our destination had been cut completely in half.

Despite the little time I had to myself, that didn't stop me missing my family. Every day that we landed, I'd try to call. I was always ecstatic to hear their voices, even if it was just a few minutes a day telling me that they were fine and they were washing behind their ears like I'd told them to. Even Tip answered back now and again, barking like the fool canine he was. I was looking forward to calling them today. Unfortunately, it was the only thing I could look forward to.

That was mostly because, seeing as it was Torture Tuesday, the minute we'd landed, Kanda had me take my stance and start on hand-to-hand. Already, I sported three fresh bruises, a few cuts, and a scrape up the back of one leg. The harsh, gravelly soil was not kind to skin. Heaven knows I'd fallen at least fifteen times over.

"Take your stance again," Kanda commanded, tapping a sheathed Mugen against his leg, and I struggled to stand up. Being clocked in the clavicle tends to make a body unsteady. My legs were made of jam, and my vision kept tilting. I managed to stand up, stretching out and popping joints that had been out of place. Taking a deep breath, I tried to take my stance.

The little hairs on my arms stood up as a cold breeze passed by, and I was uncomfortably aware that my pants were far too thin. Kanda refused to have me wear a skirt or a corset, requiring me to get new accouterments for training. I now had brassieres instead of corsets, and cotton pants rather than skirts. It wasn't that I was a girly-girl, but I most certainly wasn't a Tom.

My bra strained at my back, and the unusual feeling of straps on my shoulders bit heavily as I tried to keep my stance. My legs were spread with one leg ahead of the other, the back foot tilted forty-five degrees counter to the front foot. My arms were close to my chest, chin tucked in with fists at mouth height. I stared ahead, looking over Kanda's shoulder at the plains beyond, trying to forget about all the parts of me that I didn't know could ache.

Suddenly, Kanda rapped against my leg with Mugen's sheath, and he said, "Too far. You'll fall over. Move it back."

I scooted it across the ground, and he suddenly slammed Mugen into my backside.

"Stop sticking that out. Your back should be straight." I tried not to sigh. I slightly readjusted my posture. He suddenly whacked me over the shoulders.

"You're too tense. Loosen up," he growled at me from behind, and my eye twitched.

It was no wonder I was tense. I was getting smacked every other second with that stupid sword sheath, and I was losing patience quickly. I'd learned to shut my mouth and not snark about just how much it peeved me, but the sarcasm was always on the tip of my tongue.

"Oh, wow, I wonder why. I only get hit every ten seconds…" I muttered.

The sheath connected with my head, and I gasped as pain spread over the top of my ear. I lashed out on instinct, and Kanda already had a hand blocking my flailing attack. His other hand smashed me at the shoulder where the arm connected with my torso, and I stepped back, momentarily unbalanced. Kanda took that moment to sweep an ankle under my knee, and I fell over backwards, landing on my back.

The sky spread out over me, and it swirled. I wondered just how many times I was going to end up in this position, flat on my back. Heaven knew I'd ended up down here more times than I'd like. Kanda stood over me, and he spit, a glob of saliva smacking the ground six inches from my ear. He began to walk away, and I stood up in a scramble.

"Hey! That wasn't fair!" I shouted, finally losing it.

I was sick and tired of being treated like dirt. I knew that I was a weakling, but at the least he could start me on the elementary stuff instead of just tossing me in hot water like a crab at a Southern boil party. This had been our usual routine for the past six weeks. It was always the same motions - straighten up, stop sticking out your back end, and move your feet before going straight into the spar, like he expected me to already know how to fight.

Kanda looked back at me, and I could see Lavi stirring from his placid power nap like a cat sensing danger. I wiped my face of dirt as Kanda turned around, cracking his knuckles. That... didn't bode well. This was definitely different from our usual run-through. He never actually came back.

He suddenly walked towards me, and I felt a thrill of fear. I hadn't actually expected him to retaliate. I'd thought he'd just… well, walk away. Apparently, that wasn't the case, and I could already tell I was going to hurt tomorrow.

It happened faster than I expected. One hand made a pass for my face, and I knocked it away with the flat of my hand, backing up. The other hand dug into my stomach, and I tightened up in response, trying not to double over and leave my face vulnerable. I answered back with a dig to the foot, and he stepped over the attempted stomp before giving me one of his own.

"Agh!"

I hopped backwards, adding a bruised, possibly broken toe to my injury count.

A foot aimed for my knee went through air as I pivoted to the side, making myself a smaller target. That didn't deter him much as I managed to walk right into a smack to the face, and pain bloomed in my mouth and cheek.

Crack!

In the interim, I shoved his shoulder to give me breathing room. I faltered as I slipped a bit on the gravel, and he edged in.

"Life-"

This time, a new bruise materialized on my collarbone.

"-isn't-"

I dodged a punch to the abdomen and delivered a failed kidney shot of my own. I couldn't even get a hit in edgewise while he was talking.

"-fair."

I somehow twisted my leg between his, and I smashed my pitifully tiny fist into his neck. He grabbed my wrist, yanking backwards, and I slipped again on the gravel, the both of us going down. He was on top of me, hands pinning my wrists, and my breath caught in my throat as white hot fear traced lines into my veins, panic causing me to kick and flail like a trapped animal. He had no problem holding me down.

"You've done nothing but sulk this whole trip. Get used to it. There are no practice runs in the real world. You fight or you die. So either start fighting, or get to dying. Stop wasting my time," he growled in my face, not two inches away. He was close enough for me to smell the sweat and sword polish on him, skin overly warm and dry. He radiated domination, and I cringed underneath the weight of his disapproval.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, like some bloated body in a river, a memory surfaced, bursting with disgust. Funnily enough, I had been in a different position completely, but the general idea was still the same. Stinking fear, pain, inadequacy, homesickness, shame, a degrading speech, frustration, soreness – all present and accounted for. The rocks digging into my back were new, though. At least I hadn't had that before.

This optimism thing tasted a little sour, though. Something tells me it might've gone bad over time.

My stomach, always a good indicator of my feelings when my brain wasn't so sure, continued to show its discontent. I was literally shaking like a leaf. If I shivered any more, I would probably break apart into pieces.

"Do you hear me?" Kanda demanded, staring down at me from his crouched position over my poor, mistreated shell. I was struck dumb for a moment as Kanda's face actually swam into view instead of being superimposed over a memory, and I nodded.

"Answer me, don't nod. Do you hear me?" he reiterated, his hands like iron and his skin too close.

I couldn't look into his face, and I turned my head away. I wasn't sure I could even speak. I felt numbed, my initial self-preservation instinct kicking in as the part of me that was actually me was stuffed into a small, tiny box away from whatever was going on outside of me. This wasn't exactly the right time for that, though, and I forced myself back out.

"Yes sir," I finally answered, trying not to cry.

I was angry, frustrated, and felt sick to my stomach, and for some reason all those things were hard-wired to my tear glands. Kanda let go of me, standing up in a single, quick motion, and I curled up on my side. I stared after him from the ground, dark hair and taut body heading off. Today, he'd been moodier than usual. I'd noticed that as of late, even when he'd been doing nothing but sitting there, staring out at the sky. I continued to wallow in self-pity until I felt someone come near.

"You want to go and attack my character, too? I can sell you rotten tomatoes for it. Twenty cents a pop," I joked weakly, and Lavi sat down next to me.

Out of the entire group, Lavi had been the kindest and friendliest, if a bit distant, though in comparison to the rest of the bunch he was practically Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny rolled together in terms of congeniality. I didn't look at him as I stared out over the ground, realizing that he must've put up my tent alongside his seeing as there were four brown humps rather than three. He'd taught me how to pop the rawhide tent into place, and I'd been doing it myself ever since, though there'd been a unfortunate accident where I'd somehow tangled the poles together.

"No, I'm not going to attack your character," Lavi said quietly, and I could hear him shift his body as the gravel crunched.

I lay there for several more minutes, the both of us in silence, before I finally sat up. Lavi handed me a hankie, and I started to wipe the dirt off my face. As per usual for the aftermath of all our sparring, Lavi checked me over to make sure I hadn't cracked, gashed, or reopened anything. I held out my hands, and he checked my fingers first. Finally, I had to take my hands out of his as unease roiled in my stomach.

"Maybe you can check me later," I said, tucking my knees under my chin. I really wasn't in the mood to be looked over, especially after that debacle. If I was honest, I was kind of angry that Bookman and Lavi hadn't helped me. The wind blew a strand of brown, wavy frizz across my face, and I tucked it back in place.

"He means well," Lavi said, and I scoffed.

"Means well" must be code for slamming a novice into the dirt every day.

"He has a funny way of showing it," I muttered, suddenly feeling childish.

I picked up a rock and threw it, watching it disappear into a thicket of knee-high, brown grass. Everything here was a varying shade of brown, gray, or white. Even the animals followed the same color scheme.

Lavi sighed, and I looked at him. He adjusted his head band, an uncharacteristically somber look on his usually cheerful face. He picked up his own rock, and he chucked it as far as it would go. It arced about twenty feet into the air before descending.

"How did you guys get to be so strong?" I asked suddenly.

I'd always been anything but. Neurotic, yeah; frustrated, yeah; determined, eh; strong… well, no. Lavi shrugged, assuming the same position I was in. He wrapped his arms around his legs, holding on to the tip of his shoes with the ends of his spindly fingers. To me, Lavi was like a spider. Every part of him was thin and fragile-looking, yet he managed to display surprising strength.

"We've trained literally our whole lives to be the way we are now. It's absurd that anyone can think that you can accomplish what we've managed in just a few months," Lavi said almost absent-mindedly.

I smiled grimly, and asked, "I thought you were trying to make me feel better."

For a minute I could see Lavi backtracking mentally, before he scrambled, "N-no, I didn't mean anything by that! I just meant that… um, well… they set the bar a little too high for you, that's all. Kanda's just frustrated that he can't get you up to snuff on his own, among other things."

I rolled my eyes. At this point, I could care less what Kanda was frustrated about. I was sore, I was tired, I was sweaty, and I wanted to go home. I wanted to curl up on a couch with my brothers and sisters, and do nothing but watch the dog chase his tail and let Parley squawk to his heart's content.

Thinking about my family suddenly sent me straight back to Waterworks Central. My eyes just about started to leak. Lavi must've noticed because he started to hand me his hankie again. I took it and rubbed my eyes before handing it back.

"I need chocolate. And a bed. And my dog," I mumbled into my knees, suddenly sinking.

I'd been pretty good about staying optimistic, but this seemed to shatter all my hard won cheerfulness. There was a moment where I thought Lavi might actually hug me, but I gave him a slight shake of the head. He'd learned quickly that flirting with me was the equivalent of toying with a snappy dog, and touching was strictly off-limits. Kanda… hadn't learned that lesson, but luckily he didn't do either of those.

Lavi readjusted his eye patch, and he said, "Well, on the bright side, we're only a day's fly from our destination. After that, it's all uphill."

"Again – are you trying to cheer me up?"

Lavi deadpanned as he stared out across the plain.

We sat in silence for quite a while longer before he said, "And Kanda doesn't understand. About the touching thing."

I stared at him. I didn't think he'd noticed the entirety of my aversion. It wasn't just hugs I had problems with. It was… well, skin contact in general. Kanda hadn't learned that either, and he wasn't shy about slapping an arm or a leg into position whenever my stance was wrong or I was positioned incorrectly for a fight sequence or if my balance was off. I gave him a perplexed expression.

"Kanda… is really very young in a lot of ways," Lavi suddenly added, sitting up straight.

He leaned back on his arms, stretching long legs.

He cocked his head to the side, staring at the sky, and he continued, "His mind hasn't caught up with his body. He may be experienced with the atrocities of war, human cruelty, and other things related to destruction, but when it comes to people and the little social nuances we all live by, he's really underdeveloped. He's never had much of a chance to talk to a girl, much less work with one. Lenalee is the closest thing he has to a female figure to gauge reactions with, and he doesn't see her very much. You're the second closest, as well as the most constant for now. He doesn't know how to read you like he would a guy. You're… confusing to him. He's awkward."

I suddenly laughed.

"You act like he's some sort of preteen boy. He's not remotely awkward."

Lavi was quiet for a moment before chuckling darkly.

"Well, you're partly right. He doesn't do awkward. He does violent," Lavi said, pulling up a shirt sleeve to show a yellowing bruise.

"Oh, that's nothing. Take a gander at this," I said, pulling up a pant leg.

A massive, blue and purple bruise covered the area beneath my knee. That was from falling off of a fifty foot pole, and he caught me a little late. My leg hit a piece of wood, and I just about sobbed the entire time Bookman fixed up my leg.

Lavi waved at it nonchalantly, and he said, "I've got something even better."

He peeled off his white shirt, revealing a long, white scar down one side of his stomach, and my own clenched in sympathy. That looked like it must've hurt.

"Where did you get that?" I asked.

Lavi traced a finger along it, and he looked up with a bit of a mischievous smile.

"An Akuma thought he could take a piece of my hide, and I ended up having to scratch and claw my way out of a sticky situation," he stated proudly, puffing out his chest.

I rolled my eyes. He was such a drama queen. Violet had nothing on his ability to exhibit theatrics. She had even less against his rack up of napping hours. He could sleep longer than my cat, dog, and parrot combined.

"That is what I call a scratch," I snarked.

Lavi put his shirt back on, and he said, "Oh really? You have anything better?"

I opened my mouth and realized that there wasn't anything I could show him and still keep my dignity. I chuckled sheepishly, scratching the side of my face in embarrassment.

"Haha, that's what I thought!" Lavi said.

Suddenly, a boot hit him in the back of his head, and Kanda shouted, "Hey, idiot! Get over here and help hunt. You're the only one who knows how to use the gun!"

Lavi slumped at the mention of 'gun', and I felt a moment of curiosity as well as a gut-wrenching feeling of paranoia as I watched that strange, empty, glass-like expression cross his face.

"Hey… I'll talk to him, okay?" Lavi said, slowly reverting back to his usual expression. "He's not as bad as he looks. You just have to get to know him. Deep down… deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, really really deep down, he's a softie. All you have to do is get through all the layers of angry, annoyed swordsman to get to the soft part."

He got up and left, while I sat there on the plain. Finally, I got up and began to clean up camp, neurotic mind not letting me rest until everything was clean, everything was in its place, and I felt that I was prepared for every eventuality. In the distance, I could hear a flintlock go off.


I curled up in my tent. Light filtered through the hide, creating a soft glow on the inside from the fire blazing in the middle of camp. My fur-lined sleeping sack was nice and warm, and I was glad to finally have some down time. After sparring (or, more like, 'falling'), I'd been tasked with finding water and cleaning all the cooking equipment before the boys came back with the food for the week. We had bought a lot of preserved foodstuffs from the last town we'd stopped at almost five days ago, but it was running out. Not to mention I think I spoke for everyone when I say that eating dried poultry for longer than a few days is an experience best not repeated.

I stared at the wall of my tent, and I thought about where everyone was. Like Violet had let slip, she was in America. They were chasing a lead on some infestation out in the middle of New York City, and no one had been injured as of yet. Lily and Ava were supposedly down south in Africa, working with the French on the Barbary Coast. They sounded like they were doing fine, as well. I'd even talked to Crowley for a bit on a status report regarding Ava, and he sounded congenial enough.

"Kanda?"

I stopped breathing as I listened to Lavi walk in front of my tent, probably looking for Grouchface. I resisted the urge to press my ear to the side of my tent, just in case they could still see my outline.

"What do you want, idiot?"

If I had a nickel for every time Kanda called Lavi an idiot, I'd never have to work a day in my life.

Kanda had to be sitting next to the fire. I turned over, staring at the wall of my tent that was facing the fire pit, and I could see their outlines against the hide.

"Has the Order rung in yet on anything?"

Lavi sounded tired, but then again, if his complaining meant anything, he was always tired. Still, he sounded overly weary now.

Kanda gave his usual answer: "Tch."

For a while the two of them talked about mundane things, like supplies, with Lavi going on and on while Kanda just sat there without answering (or at the least, answering in grunts or terse, one word answers). Quickly bored with the conversation, I got comfortable and drew a blanket inside of my bag as I began to drift off.

"Hey, Yuu, I need to talk to you about something."

I cracked open an eye. The shadows on my tent shifted, one of them seeming to turn its head.

"What did I say -"

"Yuu, I'm not kidding. This is serious," Lavi said. "You need to take it easy."

"Is this about the civilian?"

There was a pause.

"Half and half. The Order was supposed to have tests come out about last week, and that's why I wanted to know if they called. Even if the tests are inconclusive, I still think you should really slow it down a bit, be a little more cautious. You can't take hits like you used to," Lavi said.

There was another pause, silence stretching out. Something howled. Something hooted. Wind brushed the ground.

"I thought you were supposed to be neutral? Aren't you supposed to be keeping this stuff secret?" Kanda asked.

Besides this morning's speech, this was the most I'd heard him talk all week.

"My life possibly depends on yours, too. You're the one protecting me. Therefore, if I help you, you'll keep me alive, hypothetically. Don't give me that look - if I don't justify it, I can't say a thing. Anyhow, once we're done with this trip, we should go back to the Order to get you checked out. For all we know, you could die in the next week if you take a big hit like you did back in Phuket," Lavi whispered, and my eyes widened.

There was another silence, and I could practically hear the hamster on its wheel inside of Kanda's brain.

"Everyone dies. It would've been fitting if I had today. It would've come nine years too late."

His tone was one I'd never heard before. It sounded almost regretful, but I hadn't thought that Kanda's emotional palette ranged beyond shades of anger.

"And, about Mag..."

There was another pause, but this one was more awkward, probably because it had to do with, oh, me. I was the odd one out of this group. Girls were a minority in the Exorcist ranks, and I could tell they weren't pleased that I was with them. Of course, Kanda didn't even attempt to hide it, but Lavi and Bookman were generally congenial, Lavi hiding his disappointment the best. That may just be my paranoia speaking, though...

"Pft. Don't start -"

"Kanda, she's not weak, she just... has strength in different areas than we do. Give her something to fight for, and she'll go after it like a dog for a bone. She managed to fight off a Level Three to save her sister - even if you dented it a little first. I can't beat a Level Three."

"Not surprising. You couldn't fight a defanged tiger."

"Well, thank you for reminding me of that debacle. I'd forgotten about it."

I could hear the fire pop and crackle, and they were silent again.

I shifted in my sleeping bag, almost asleep again, when Lavi continued, "And don't... don't touch her. Not bare skin, at least. It makes her uncomfortable."

I shifted in my bag, feeling squeamish all of a sudden. I also felt a little guilty for eavesdropping on them this entire time, but they were in the open air. It wasn't my fault that this was a free-for-all session.

"Why would I care about that?"

That didn't surprise me in the least.

"Because she's your student."

"You just said I'm about to die."

Wait, what? Where did that come from?

"I said might die, and you should still try to treat her better as it is."

Lavi knew about it, too? Why wasn't anyone willing to tell me I was working with a walking dead man? Sheesh, that I almost feel bad about all the times I pictured him hung up by his toenails and beating him with a tennis racket...

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because... I can... empathize a little bit. She's had things happen. So have I. Call it kinship."

My eyes widened. Lavi was an awfully good liar.

"What, she's your new best friend now and tells you everything?" Kanda joked sarcastically (ah, he does know sarcasm), and Lavi chuckled like he had a blade in his throat.

"Actually, I took a peek at the detailed part of her dossier. It's a lot easier to influence her that way than asking and manipulating later. There are some things people don't want to talk about, and I don't have time to waste," Lavi admitted.

I dimly remembered something about him looking at my dossier sheet. I hadn't thought they'd put that much detail in my information packet. What, was the Order suddenly giving away my life's story or something? I curled up in my bag as I thought about the implications. He'd said 'manipulate'... Paranoia set in, and all sorts of theories popped up in my head., that I was just being used - that they were meant to train me and they'd do it anyway possible, including screw with my head - that I was just another mission to them…

That I was some sort of sick joke.

And yet, he'd also talked to Kanda on my behalf, a rather risky venture that could've ended painfully given Kanda's volatile nature. Though, from the looks of it, Lavi was used to handling these sorts of moods from him. Then again, that bruise he'd shown me today looked pretty painful...

There was silence again, and the light from the fire died as they sat there. They began to talk again, albeit quieter. I finally fell asleep, listening to them murmuring things, and darkness seemed to shroud the world.


"You're not serious. We're climbing that?" I stared up at the mountain.

Actually, I was staring at a hunk of the mountain because it was so huge I couldn't even see all of it from where I was standing at the base. It also didn't help that there was a massive Cloud of Death hovering around the entire thing, obscuring it from view. Kanda passed by me and muttered, "Tch. It's a hill. Get over it."

I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to take that literally or figuratively...

We'd finally arrived after another two days of flying, and the trek here had been treacherous. At one point, Bookman fell off of Lavi's hammer because of a wind gust, and if Kanda hadn't caught him by his ponytail, he would've fallen to his death. Sure, he'd been pretty sore for a few days, but a couple of ripped follicles were better than promptly turning into a pancake from two thousand feet.

"Come on, Mag! It only looks bad!" Lavi shouted from his position nearer the front of the line of Sherpas taking us up the mountains.

"Liar!" I shouted belligerently as I stuck my hiking poles into the ice.

From Lavi's estimate, he'd said we'd need a good month to get to the top where the beacon was. We were taking a route that began with a glacier. After we got past the glacier, we took a path up the mountain, but pretty soon that eroded into nothing. We were on our own after that, trail-blazing with the guides who'd either been crazy or stupid enough to come with us and help.

The mountain was tough. We'd had to buy actual climbing equipment, and we'd circumvented the harder stretches of rock to spare Bookman the trouble of getting up the sheer walls. We were going all out against nature by the time we hit the five thousand foot mark, and I was ready to bail by then. It was rocky and snowy, and it wasn't long before I was finding it hard to breathe.

Kanda had let up on the sparring for now, opting to just let me climb, seeing as that was a workout in itself. Kanda himself was being tested a bit. Even Macho Man was wearing a thick, heavy coat and long, cotton pants. I myself had bundled up against the cold. I could nearly feel the snot in my nostrils beginning to freeze. The going had been especially tough on Bookman. Old men and cold weather didn't mix well. Still, he was holding up alright, all things considered. I, on the other hand...

"AH!" I slipped, only saved by the rope in front of me, connecting me to the person ahead as well as a quick grab at a pinion someone had jammed into the rock face. I looked down for all of a moment to find somewhere to put my feet, and I gasped at just how high up I happened to be.

This particular cliff face was hardly sloped at all, and it'd taken all of what little courage I still possessed to making it up this far. Kanda, in front of me, grunted as he took my weight, the rope pulling on him as I tried to lift myself back up. A lot of our climb was almost vertical, and this was probably the fifteenth time I'd slipped. Kanda grabbed me by the scruff of my coat, and he set me on a ledge like a rag doll.

"Uh... thanks?" I breathed.

Kanda didn't even bother to look at me. He just kept going up. I felt my arms burn, and my hands shook. The pack on my back was a good fifty pounds, almost half my weight. I started wondering if I should probably lose some weight so I didn't have to carry so much, and I shakily helped the Sherpa who'd been climbing behind me.

The storm suddenly started in earnest without warning, and the two of us almost fell off the ledge. I clung to him as he held the rock, and I looked up.

Lavi, at the front of the group with Bookman, was over the massive shelf of rock we were climbing already. The other Sherpas and Kanda weren't too far behind, and we were running out of slack. If we stayed here, we'd have to make them stop. I shook off my jitters, and the Sherpa on the ledge with me nodded as we began climbing again.

The wind was biting cold, and it only got worse as we overtook the rock shelf. The tip of my nose felt like it'd break off, and as we took a rest, I looked out over the mountain range on the precipice of the cliff.

I was astounded. The air here was clear, and the wind gusts were colder than a witch's tit, but the main storm was about a thousand feet above us. I let my lungs take in as much air as needed, staring out over the great expanse. The mountains rose as if they were sheets of cloth that had been rumpled, covered in snow and interrupted by passes. They were so stark, black against white, and the sky was an immense blue, like God had made the entire firmament a massive robin's egg. I pushed back my hood, my hair flying in my face as I watched the billows of snow fly off over the hill, and the glacier we'd taken spread out like a white bed sheet. I let out a long breath, wishing I had a camera.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

I was startled into tripping by Lavi, and he managed to grab my coat before I sent myself over the cliff.

"Don't... do that!" I grumbled, brushing off his grab peevishly.

I still hadn't forgotten his comments from over two weeks ago, and I was still a little miffed that he'd taken liberties with my privacy before he'd even begun to know me. My paranoia didn't help matters. My stomach, however, stayed strangely non-indicative of my current emotional state. Maybe it was finally learning its place.

"Sorry," Lavi chuckled, before pulling down his own hood. I glanced at him, fierce profile against a solid blue, black, and white background. His hair ruffled, and the blue contrasted with the bright red like a splash of paint against a canvas.

"Right now we're in China, believe it or not. I managed to get my maps confused. Out here, though, it's hard to imagine anyone being very concerned with borders," Lavi stated, looking at me with a curiously bright green eye.

Exercise had made him tired, but he also looked exhilarated. Well, that was good for him, because I was anything but exhilarated.

"I wish I'd brought my lithograph with me. This place is beautiful," I answered back, almost having to shout over the whistling wind.

He offered me a canteen, and I reluctantly took it, chugging down water.

"Well, enjoy it while you can. We're taking another bout up the mountain. The guides say there's a small camp up there on that ridge," Lavi said, pointing up.

I followed his line of sight, and I winced as I realized just how high we'd have to climb. Luckily, it appeared there was a natural path. I sighed as I noticed that everyone was packing up their gear. The storm began to bluster even further, and I saw that the camping site and the path were slowly being covered by cloud and snow. I groaned, and Lavi merely laughed. He patted my shoulder, padded by a thick layer of clothes, and we continued.

We hadn't gone up farther than a few hundred feet on that path when I noticed something strange. We'd taken off our safety ropes to rest, and we'd put them back on when we'd started again. My rope felt strange, like it was dragging on the snow. I stopped and yanked on the rope. The storm was so heavy now that I could hardly see Kanda ahead of me, much less anyone else behind me. There was no response to the rope tug, though, and I pulled it. Effortlessly, several feet slid up beyond me, and I knew something was wrong. My stomach had a better idea of that than I did.

"Kanda!"

My shout went largely unheeded, and I kept reeling in rope at a frantic pace. The snow was literally blinding me, now, completely hiding Kanda from view save for the glint of his sheath. The rope was too light. If it was this light, that meant there was nothing on the end. There was nothing on the end of the rope.

"Kanda!" I shouted again, coming towards the end of the rope behind me.

I came up with a dead end. My eyes widened as I realized that something was terribly wrong. The rope wasn't frayed - it was cut cleanly as if something had sliced straight through the rope with a knife. Unless that Sherpa had a death wish, I honestly didn't believe that this was an accident. This time, Kanda turned to look at me.

I ran as fast as I could towards the samurai in front of me, my heart hammering in my chest as I heard sharp, plodding steps behind me. Half my mind was on the slipping snow under my feet, terrified both by the prospect of accidentally falling over the side and that something was after us.

I felt the snow start to give way under something heavy behind me. I picked up the pace, flat out running on the snow, screaming Kanda's name before I felt claws pierce through my leg as a large body knocked me off the edge of the path and into the abyss beyond.


A/N: Another chapter. Just as a note, K2 really is the second tallest mountain on the planet, and is also the 'holy grail' for mountaineers, considering its difficulty. That is obviously downplayed in this chapter, as novice climbers such as Mag are able to actually brave the mountain. In reality, this is a very dangerous, risky proposition, and it would not have been taken so lightly.

Thank you, dear sammi117 and quillop, for leaving behind yet another review! Reviews are always helpful and keep me from strawing too far into the land of terrible fiction - or, at least, they should, haha! Big thanks as well to quillop for favoriting (oh, you brave soul), and I have no new subscribers as of yet.

Discussion: What do you speculate happened in Mag's past? How would you describe the relationship between the canon characters and the original character tagging along with them? Was this a good choice for a mission? Was there too much description? Too little? Was the chapter at all enjoyable to read? What sorts of emotions did this chapter invoke? Were any of the character particularly out of character? Bookman hasn't made much of an appearance yet ; would you like to see more of him?

That's all I have for now. God bless you, and happy reading!