I decide to quit fighting and follow her. For an old factory she managed to restore the inside completely. It looked exactly like a hospital. Or at least like the one in the picture I saw when I was young. She strips and crawls into bed. She motions for me to join her.

"Um. I don't actually sleep. I just cat nap when I get low on energy. That or I eat." I say wearily.

"Fine. Suit yourself." She says rolling over, instantly falling alseep. Why does she sleep for so long? Isn't she afraid? Doesn't she know that this is going to get her killed? I'll watch for her. I get out of the bed and stand next to her. She sprawls out on the bed, and then her arm starts flailing wildly where I was. She bolts up.

"Hotaru! Why are you next to me? Don't be coming onto me…"

"Coming onto you? That would be hard from here. Why do you wake up like that?"

"Because you weren't there! I was worried." She says groggily.

"So was I. So I decided to watch for you. You didn't wake after four hours thirty seven minutes."

"Why that number?"

"That is what we were taught at Sunlit Garden. It's to protect you."

"I don't need protection."

"You do, Alice. You're strong but you are too careless. And you let your emotions cloud your judgement. So I will protect you."

'Real smooth asshole.'

"Why is that not smooth, Kyo? She asked and I answered. Is that wrong?"

"No, Hotaru, this isn't wrong!" She says, trying to make herself believe those words. He could read her face. She was thinking about him. "Hotaru, can I ask you a question?"

"Can is a question of ability, and yes you do have the capability to do so."

"That's not what I meant, What happened that made you leave your humanity?"

"Hard to tell. I think it was when Onii-San left. It made Big Mother mad, and it was so I could stop feeling what she'd do to me, die to me looking so much like my Onii-San. Does that answer your question appropriately?"

"I guess. Goodnight Hotaru."

"Goodnight Alice." She have a slight pout and made a quick humph. It didn't matter, if she was mad she was mad. It's only six hours until the meeting in the courtyard. I decide to leave, and investigate. The complex was rather large. Not as large as home, but still what this would have been sent shivers up his spine.

'Home? Is that what we're calling V's stockyard?'

"It's where we were raised, Kyo. It's where we were developed. Would you call our actual home a home?"

'You sound insane when you say that. Surely you see the huge gap in that sentence.'

"No, I don't, please elaborate."

'Never mind. Let's find something to eat. You can't tell, but we haven't eaten in three days.'

"Ooh~ has it really been that long?" I say thinking of all the sleeping good that was here. Do they trust Alice so completely? Is that why they sleep so soundly? Doesn't matter, they'll be dead before they wake. Making up my mind I sniff out the most populous area in the complex. It was at the top of the main building, completely exposed. They must want to die.

'Idiot! It's so they can escape.' He swears, threatening to overtake my body.

Thanks Onii-San! I mentally praise him for that, and begin mounting the stairs. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight floors I climb. This must be where the grunts are kept. I search for a morsel that fits my requirements. I find a girl who could easily be like Paige, and decide it's her time.

Bang! An explosion wakes the floor. Some of the higher ups flood from above. "Quick, everyone up stairs! The CCG are here!" How fun! I'll get to see just how strong Aogiri Tree's opponent is. I kill anyone who gets in my way, as I make my way to the stairs. Apparently ghouls don't learn. They just keep trying to get in my way. But oh well, too bad for them. Finally! I make it downstairs and walk out of the entrance. It's quite amusing that they use spotlights to try and blind me. I just close my eyes and let my other carnal instincts take over. I can easily hear five 'doves' approach me. They draw their weapons, which appear to be dead-ish ghouls who've been harvested. As they come closer I let them take a few swings, why not let them feel like they died a hero. Plus even if they hit me, I'll heal.

"Ooh~! Shinohara-San! Look, he looks like a younger me! Almost like my brother!" A familiarly, distant voice says.

'Brother? Could it be?' Kyo says, his voice steadily rising.

"I don't know, Kyo, but we still can't see." I take out the spotlights and wait to focus. The doves don't give me common courtesy and run in to attack while I'm still blind. How mean. I get my left forearm ripped off, and both of my kneecaps are shot. What a pestilence. "Oh well, they'll be dead in a minute anyway."

"Will we! How do you plan to do that? And why do you look like me? Were you from Big Momma's? Did she do this?" He says cooing, while he's cutting at my tendons leaving me paralyzed. They heal, and he hacks again. I decide that I want to kill so I pull out six Rinkaku tendrils and release my havoc onto the surrounding doves, killing any they touch. The older me easily dodges me, however I'm not at full strength and he has grown old and sluggish. He is no longer nimble and his reflexes are too slow. Finally all of my body has healed and I stand.

"You've healed? But I severed your nerves. You should be in too much pain to move. Humph, fine then, this is still fun." He says.

"Did you know you had a brother? And when you left Momma she went into a fury and tore us all to shreds. She worked herself to death, and then Papa rid himself of us. Do you regret leaving? Is that why you're so weak now?"

"I'm not! I'm still just a sharp!" He says sounding like a hurt child.

"Really?" He doesn't know that I had managed to place a tendril behind him, so after it's too late he turns and sees it impale him. He looks at it, then looks at me.

"Sorry." He dies then. The brute he called Shinohara screams a mournful battle cry and charges. I easily cut his legs off and leave him. Letting Juuzo's partner live, because he was nice to brother. Then a tall white haired man with stupid glasses walks up to him and sets him to sleep. He then walks to me.

"Hello. I am Arima. However, everyone at the CCG calls me The God of Death. May I ask who you are? I like to know who I'm about to kill." He says, his face set in stone.

"Okay! I'm Hotaru! And this is Kyo! We are called Mad Hatter here at Aogiri Tree, and at V's garden we were called Shi. It means death, in case you didn't know." I say smiling.

"Your smile is like the ghoul Jeff the Killer. You look surprisingly like him. Even down to the clothes. But we lost track of him this morning."

"Oh, so that was that guy. He tried to make me smile, and I killed him."

"Is that so. Well, thank you then. I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have to kill you now." He rushed me, and from his form he was raised in a garden. V had told me how he had many of them each having it's own use. Arima was starting to get within range, and I brought out all of my Kagune and used my technique to kill anything. He had dodged most of them, but it only took one to bring him to his knees. And then he fell, dead.