A/N: It's been a while, but here;s the next chapter of What Is A Soul?. It turned out to be deeper than I .planned, but that makes it all the better. Plus it speeds things up in the Haruki/Karmina depertment. Well, enjoy.

Disclaimer: Don't Own any of the InuYasha characters.

Chapter 8: Requiem For the Ice Maiden

My nose wrinkled when I felt a sudden drop of cold. I looked up into the groggy sky to see littleorbs of white falling down from the heavens. "Well, this is odd," I murmered.

Ha-chan came up beside me. "I know we're getting into mountainous territory, but this is out of season!" he exclaimed, looking at the snow. "It's late spring!"

I frowned. "Something tells me a demon is causing this."

We treked across the hilly country and by the time we reached a small, poor village, blanketed in snow. The villagers were even more baffled than we were about the snow. Some of them didn't have the proper gear for this kind of weather. 'This snow is unnatural,' I thought grimly. 'Some of the children may get sick. Plus the crops are going to die in this cold and the people will starve.'

"Ha-chan, let's ask around the village if they know of any ice demons or the like," I ordered him, looking at the nervous villagers.

Haruki's face lit up. "Karmina, you-"

"Don't get me wrong," Karmina stuck her nose in the air. "I'm not helping them. Hopefully, they'll give us some food. I'm starving!"

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We regrouped after an hour and shared information. From what we could gather, there were no known demons in this area, except for the harmless, small kind, that usually kept to themselves. However, there did exist a haunted house further into the mountains. Rumors of strange moanings coming from the decrepit house were frequent, but not as much as reports of seeing a glowing woman in the windows of the house.

"Looks like we're becoming paranormal investigators," Karmina sighed. "You up for a ghost hunt, Ha-chan?"

"You ask that now, but we're already heading for the house," Haruki grumbled, fidgeting.

"What's wrong?" Karmina smirked viciously. "You scared of ghosts?"

"O-of course not!" He barked, flushing red. He was such a terrible liar. "I'm just worrying if you get hurt! This house must be old an rotted! You could fall through the floor or something."

"I'm not that clumsy," I snorted.

They continuned plodding through the snow until they reached an opening in the trees. A wooden house, burdened with snow lay before them. It definitely gave off the vibe of a haunted house. Pieces of it lay strewn about the yard, which was covered in weeds that struggled through the snow to get what little sunlight escaped from the clouds. The windows were so dirty and broken nothing could be seen from the inside, or out.

'This thing as supernatural written all over it. Plus, I can taste a mournful soul inside.'

"Let's go."

Haruki nodded and followed closed behind me while I walked through the front door. It creaked open with difficulty and when I tried to close it, the wood crumbled and the already ripped paper ripped even more. The inside of the house was worse than the outside. Furniture lay strewn about the floor, overrun with termites. Broken glass littered the floor and some critters dashed across the floor occasionally. A rank smell of mold hung in the atmosphere, and the dim sunlight barely shown through the cracks in the walls. I shivered.

We carefully made our way through the debri checking the floor first to make sure we didn't fall through the floor. A rat scuttled across the floor, glaring eyes red. I jumped, and Haruki jumped farther, knocking me over in his scream. Of course, we fell through the rotting wood of the floor, and plunged into the darkness. I looked around, but could see nothing.

"Ow! That hurt!" Ha-chan cried through the darkness. "I think I fell on something."

"That's me, you idiot!" I screamed. "Get off of me!"

"Ah! Sorry!"

"EEEEKKK! What was that?!"

"What was what?!"

"I felt something touch my butt!"

"Sorry, that was me."

"Hentai!"(1)

"No, I swear it wasn-GAAAAHHH!!!"

"Tryin' to make a move on me in the dark, are ya?"

"No, I swear! I wasn't! I couldn't see and I happened to-"

"Likely story! Now stop flailing about and try to find some sort of light."

"Light?" Well, I see a tunnel of light."

"Really? Where?"

"Over there."

"Oh, I see it."

"Karmina, are we dead?"

"Well, my dad always told me to run away from the light, but I'm not liking the dark too much, either."

"If we are dead, then the light should be much better than the dark, I should say."

As we walked towards the source of light, it grew brighter and brighter until there was a flash, and I squinted my eyes to adjust to the bright surroundings. We were in a small room with rocky walls. The source of light was a glowing girl, sitting on the floor, crying. She had black hair, cropped short, that tucked around her ears. She had bright amethyst eyes that were now full of tears. She looked up at us, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her kimono.

"Are you alive or dead?" she asked us.

"Umm, we're not exactly sure about that right now," Ha-chan answered, sheepishly.

"There's only one way to find out then," the little girl said darkly, standing up. "If we try to kill you and nothing happens, then you are dead, and if you stop moving, then you are dead anyway." She opened her eyes widely suddenly and we were blown back by an unkown force.

We hit the rock walls and dirt fell from the ceiling. It felt like we were being squished, but upright. 'What an amazing amount of spirit force,' I gritted my teeth at the oppressive pain. 'This girl must've suffered something terrible to have so much searing emotion in her attack.'

"Die, and stay here with me," the child asked in a flat-tone, her wide eyes unblinking. She lifted her hand and there was a sudden swirl of snow. A mini blizzard in the cramped room.

"Karmina!" Haruki shouted.

"What?!" I yelled back, my lungs only being squeezed further, and now frozen.

"I think she's the one causing all the snow in the mountains!"

"No duh, Ahou!"(2)

My body took the emergency measures to start vibrating madly in a frantic hope of creating heat. It wasn't working out too well. I couldn't reach for my flute, but I could get off the wall. I held my arms before me to block the oncoming snow. I took my first step. My arms felt like they were icy stone by now, but I persisted. My next step. I shivered. Next step. And the next. And the next. The next.

The little girl took a step back, beffudled by my assiduous advancement. "St-stay back!" she stuttered, fear gripping her. The winds died down and the snow disappeared. Haruki fell to the floor, and I...I stood still in front of this petite child. We stared into each others eyes what felt like eternity. Her's full of fear, mine, full of hunger.

Slowly, ever s slowly, the child became transparent and wrapped around me like whisps of smoke. I blinked, and then she was gone, and so was I.

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Haruki's POV

A loud grunt escaped my lips as my shoulder met hard floor. With no more oppressive aura from the small girl that opposed us, nothing was keeping my body against the wall, so gravity took its course. I shakily sat up and looked over to find Karmina standing in the middle of the room, very still. Then suddenly, her shoulder-length hair grew longer and darkened to a pale baby blue. Her kimono became a dark midnight blue with cerulean trimmings and floral designs along the hem. She turned around to face me, and her once bright, silver eyes were nowa bright sky blue with crystal clear tears pouring down her cheeks.

"K-karmina?" I gasped. Was this really the same girl? Or did she have other transformations like the scary black one?

At the sound of her name, the girl broke down into more ferverent sobs. Startled, I ran to her side, to see what the problem was.

"I-It's terrible!" she moped into my sleeve, which was now soaked in her tears. "M-my father...-hic-..even though I gave him all my...love...he...locked me...here...in this basement. I was alone! Oh, I was alone...for so long! I eventually rotted away...here...all...alone...I-I...I just wanted...someone...a friend...anyone."

She blew her nose into my sleeve. I resisted the urge to derobe myself right there.

"I...didn't mean to kill them-hic-. I trully loved him! I swear! It's just...I wanted him...with me...always...even after death."

"Y-you..." It dawned on me. "You're not Karmina! You're the little girl! And you killed your father!"

The blue gurl nodded, iping her tears althought they continued to pour. "I did-dn't hate him...or anything...it's just...I missed him so...I was lonely. I...needed somone."

"Then why did you stay here?" I blurted out. I had this bad habit of speaking before thinking. I cringed as she stopped her gasps and sobs.

"Here?" she asked quietly.

I gave a sigh of relief, glad she didn't chastise me. "Here, in this plane. In the Living Realm. When most Souls die, they either go to heaven or hell, depending on whether they're good or not. No matter where you went, there would still be another soul there to accompany you. That's why you're father didn't linger here when you killed him. He went to Heaven...or Hell. If you went there, you would be with friends. Though I highly recommend you go to Heaven. I here it's much nicer there."

She looked at mestupidly, and I wasn't sure how she would react to my little explanation, or if she would react at all. Then suddenly, her slight absence of tears was destroyed by the sudden burst of water works. But this time, she smiled and laughed, too. Needless to say, I was baffled. I've never seen anyone laugh and cry at the same time. But before I could find out the source of her sudden happiness, the blue faded to white, and my albino Karmina had returned.

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Karmina's POV

When I had regained my senses, I was staring at Ha-chan's relieved face which seemed a bit blurry. I then realized that tears were blurring my vision and I quickly wiped them away."Huh? I was crying?"

"Not you," Ha-chan smile, "the girl."

I thought about it for a while and then I came to the conclusion that the girl had possessed me, and these new memories that were flashing before my mind right now must be hers. I cried again, and this time, they were my tears.

"W-Wha?! Karmina?! What's wrong?!" Haruki stuttered, patting my back.

I launched myself into his lap and let all the tears out. Haruki was still for a moment, and then he wrapped his arms around mine.

After I had no more tears left in me, I still lay against Haruki's chest, my eyes and throat sore. "Hey, Haruki," a muttered quietly, so as not to irritate my throat further. "Do you think she went to heaven?"

He smiled softly and then whispered, "Yes."

I smiled too, and then stood up, reaching for my flute. "What are you doing?" Ha-chan asked, still sitting on the ground.

"Playing a Requeim for the Ice Maiden," I replied, and placed my lips to the cold steel, and played.

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(1) Hentai - Pervert.

(2) Ahou - Stupid.

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