Whee! Thanks for waiting! Had a somewhat hard time with this chapter, because the next chapter was supposed to be this chapter, but then I thought 'No, I'm missing something. Put things right first, Pash-can!'. So I did.

I'm putting things right by Joe! (or as right as left-kicking person could be right, which isn't very right to begin with)

So Enjoy!

Engel's Zimmer
Chapter 5 --- Outcasting Engels

Baron didn't need to read her journal, he never did, but with her lingering wishes he did indeed stoop down to the small bureau and fish out every last page. Each one warmed his cold fingers, sent little slivers of white magic skipping up his arms. Her words were so powerful even to someone long dead.

Every page was fitted together neatly again once they all came out, and he organized them slowly, carefully, as if they were thin wisps of glass spun by an enchanted spinning wheel.

He sat there for a good while, cross-legged, and read the few pages he didn't get to glimpse. The ones she wrote on-the-go, or when he had to leave before Death's silent rounds through the city. Yet even as he read them, he couldn't help but curse himself a thousand times over.

"I admire a young woman who speaks from the heart."

Admire? After what she had admitted, all he could counter with was a flimsy admire? I guess I was a bit embarrassed then too, he thought as he closed the notebook tenderly.

His lover pranced up to him, glowing white just as he did. That's all they were now, glowing white things without color or inspiration. "Who's that from, my love?"

"A young lady," he replied. "One of my former employers." Strictly business, he always tried to remind himself. Strictly and utterly . . . not business. "Actually, her name is Haru."

Louise's face would have twisted in annoyance if it wasn't an illuminating ball of white. "Yes. That silly little girl." A silly little girl who cared an awful lot for an inanimate object. "Come, love, or we will be late for Death's silly little dance."

The dance that would enrapture them forever and ever on until Ever never existed. He had been avoiding it for the past few weeks, and Death finally caught up with them that night and told them it was the dance or oblivion. For both of them. Louise didn't deserve oblivion, she deserved perfection. Louise deserved the dance.

He, on the other hand, did not.

Baron wanted to stay glued to this spot forever. An eternity of lackluster dancing was an awfully long time, even to his standards, but it was a necessity to join the dance someday. Everyone had to.

He just didn't think he would go so soon.

"Come on, love, or we'll miss it!"

Slowly, Baron stood without Haru's loving journal and nodded. "Of course, Louise. We shan't miss it."

The two white figure took each other's hand and stepped into a rift between time and space, into a land of honeysuckle and beauty. Yet it wasn't the beauty he saw, it was a nightmarish prison they stepped into, but he went.

His perfect soul became like every other soul at the dance, a twin to a brethren he never knew, a duplicate to every soul before himself. And then, for no other soul at the party had those eyes, the Engel's Zimmer slipped away.

And Baron became just another part of the dance.

Just another thing in a dance that never was.

---

Haru was right to think that her mother needed some company. In fact, Haru's mother and Toto got along very well. She even let him rent out a spare room upstairs. Haru was glad to see her mother happy for once. It had been a while since her mother smiled, and she did finally smile again at dinner that night when Toto asked if there were any mulberries.

Haru was right to think that her mother needed some company. In fact, Haru's mother and Toto got along well. She even let him rent out a spare room upstairs. Haru was glad to see her mother happy for once. It had been a while since her mother smiled, and she did finally smile again at dinner that night when Toto asked if there were any mulberries.

Things were fitting in so peacefully, she had to wonder if there was a bringer of Death, what would he say to this picturesque moment? What would he think to a statue-turned-living eating at their dining room table, talking and having a wonderful time? And she had to wonder what drove herself to think the same.

"Haru," her mother pointed with her chopsticks. "You've been acting differently lately."

Haru shrugged. "I'll be back to normal soon, promise." She smiled and, to her mother's astonishment, she did not excuse herself from the table that evening. Haru didn't even think about leaving the table actually, with everyone all laughs and jokes and smiles. She hadn't seen much of that in a while.

Or maybe it was the simple fact that she never wanted to realize them. Maybe they were always there to begin with.

Muta gorged himself again that night, and muttered a thousand curses on his slow procession up the stairs. Toto kidded him by asking, "Do you want me to carry you, fatso?"

That earned him a ripe claw-in-the-ankle attack Muta had perfected on Haru.

By eleven, everyone was situated, even Toto in his new living conditions, and Haru declared that tomorrow they were to go shopping.

For an odd reason --- probably an instinct to do with human male brain anatomy --- the birdbrain paled, "Sh-Shopping?"

The fat cat grinned impishly. "Beware!"

"Oh, hush you," the young woman nudged the cat in the stomach. "Yes, shopping. Besides, I need to look for something."

"What?" Toto asked, undoing his jacket.

"A dress. I'm going to a dance." Playfully, she waltzed into her room with an imaginary gown and hummed to herself gently. Under her eyelids, she imagined waltzing in front of the Cat court with that beautiful dress on, spinning, tripping, swirling, until she went into her room and closed the door, then did she stop acting like a fool.

Besides, what fool would have actually thought writing would bring someone back to life?

"Oh well," she said to herself somewhat happily, "it was a good shot."

The figurine of Baron stood on her desk, as regal as ever, but as she stared at it longer, she realized its eyes weren't sparkling. There wasn't a flaw at all --- in fact, there was nothing. She ran her fingers along those eyes, to see if it was just dust that clouded them, but it wasn't.

And then she knew.

Baron was finally gone.

She also knew the notebook beside him did not belong to her, the one Shizuku gave her, and it wasn't her who should finish such a story because she didn't know who Baron was to Shizuku. She only knew who Baron was to herself. Yet if she could say goodbye to Baron, couldn't Shizuku also say goodbye and add a finish to such a sparkling story?

Packing both the figure of Baron and the tattered notebook in her book bag, she made a mental note to visit the author tomorrow. The next morning, she did in fact leave her house. Something she didn't think she could do without rethinking her actions, but her mind was set in stone.

Nothing would change what is. It was childish to even think one person could make such a difference in the world in deciding if another soul should live, or stay dead.

First she visited a little antique shop closed for the weekend and found Seiji sitting in the basement, playing an old violin. He looked startled to see her, but then smiled and waved a seat for her.

"Haru, how did you get here?"

"Shizuku wrote about this place in her story," she motioned to the notebook in her hands, then took the Baron from her satchel and set it on the stool instead. "I think I need to return this."

Seiji stared at the cat for a moment. "Did you find him?"

"I did, and I think he would have wanted to return to this place."

"Thank you, my grandfather would have wanted that too." Seiji set down the old violin and stood to inspect the figurine, picked it up, and motioned for her to follow him up the stairs and into the abandoned antique shop. He flipped on the lights to dazzling carousel horses and golden trinkets long forgotten from India and Malaysia, wooden statues from Germany and Italy, and then, on the table, a figurine stood out from the rest. The one that made Haru catch her breath in awe.

It was Louise.

Seiji sat Baron beside her.

"There," he beamed happily, "they're together. A man dropped off the girl cat, and you just now brought Baron back. Isn't that a stroke of good luck?"

Haru smiled, and found herself smiling more often, like the old days. "Yep, a stroke of luck. Guess they were destined to be together."

"True love always draws things together in the end."

Haru nodded and left. Then her smile faded, and she walked along the alleyways that once led her to the Bureau, once led her into adventure. Today, they led her where her feet took her, to the place she was destined to go. She could feel the magic in her life slowly slipping away, and it alarmed her to think her life would become mundane again. But there was nothing she could do. Nothing at all.

And somehow, she would come to accept that in time.

Or maybe she would never stop dreaming of wistful, childish fantasies. Maybe someday she would go away in her dreams and never come back. Never return to this nightmarish world of mishaps and unhappy endings.

At the house of Shizuku, she gave the notebook back with the simple explanation of, "It's your story so you finish it."

Shizuku almost looked stroked, but then she recovered and replied, "Of course, what was I thinking? It's my story, isn't it? Well, maybe this time I can finish it, and this time, maybe I can bring life into this old thing."

"Maybe," Haru replied, then looked up to her friend with tears in her eyes. "I envy you, Shizuku-san."

The writer sat the notebook down on her desk. "Why?"

"Because you have the courage to write, and understand, and know what will happen even before it does happen, and you have the courage to express yourself, and make a character living who isn't alive at all. Not everyone can bring a fictional character to life, but some authors can. Some authors pull you into their story, and you are one of those people, Shizuku-san, you can honor Baron better than I ever could."

"Oh Haru," the older woman pulled her young friend into her embrace. Haru burst into tears, quietly sobbing into her shoulder. "So, he really is gone now, isn't he?"

Haru nodded. "He's with Louise --- and I should feel spiteful and jealous --- but you know what?" She lifted her head from her shoulder.

"What, Haru?"

"I'm happy for him." Even though it choked her to say that, to squash every one of her dreams in simple words. Words that have echoed along the empty walls of her body from the moment she first laid eyes on him. "He deserves it."

After Haru left, Shizuku sat down with her notebook and stared with intent and understanding, memories tumbling from some long-forgotten part of her mind she had somehow forgotten within her busy life of adulthood. "No, Haru," she whispered as she flipped through the spiral pages to remember Baron a bit better, "he deserves someone a little better."

Even in her story, Louise didn't feel like the one who appealed to him. In fact, Louise seemed very much self-centered, and he seemed a little more caring, a little more giving to deserve such a self-righteous thing as Louise.

"Baron deserves you."

Continue? or No?