Hi 8D So in this chapter, I'm finally gonna have Ikuto in it :D~ I just finished the rough drafts for these like.. a minute ago (7. Pages. Long. Front & back D:) I might not update tomorrow, or this weekend because I need to rewrite the rough drafts for the storyline.. AGAIN. ;_; Unless I miraculously find my notebook ._. Plus I'm gonna spend the weekend watching season 2 of Haruhi Suzumiya and the movie ;D The song to listen to for this chapter is "Madonna - Frozen" c: Enjoy!

Also, please read the author's note after this, because I need some advice, and to clear up some things.

For once, everything seemed to move far too quickly.

One minute you had Amu running, holding the fate of her town in the hands and remembering a nonsense poem to try to hold up her confidence, and the next thing she knew, she was WAY too close for comfort from her enemy. The knife that Nadeshiko had given her was dug deeply into the tree, only a few mere inches from his face. Despite their position, Amu had to stand up on her tip toes to be able to look in the killers eyes.

Against her own will, she could feel her face begin to heat up. It wasn't just because of the fact that they were practically skin to skin ; it was because that since she was so close to him, she could easily define each and every one of his features. He had big, sapphire colored eyes that, despite the emotionless look in them, would've stunned her in a second had he not been a physcopath murderer. Hell, they even seemed to have a weird glow to them due to the suns rays.

His deep blue bangs gently scattered over his forehead, a few of the bangs too long, but that didn't really matter. It was gently messy from her sudden attack. Amu realized that she was taking in too much of this man, and quickly let all those thoughts flow out the window. She took a tigther hold of the knife in the tree, and stared straight into his eyes.

Those beautiful, lifeless eyes of his.

"Murderer."

Ikuto at first looked confused, and then he smirked at her statement. Amu gritted her teeth at his reaction. How dare he.. how dare he even THINK about smiling at a time like this! She thought. Her grip on the knife grew stronger. She began to muster up all his strength, ready in an instant to aim for his pretty little face of his.

Just when she was about to get the knife free, she felt a hand on her wrist, which gently pried her own fingers off of the cleaver. "You don't want to do that."

Amu struggled against his hold, while shouting at him, "Yes I do! You.. you killed him! You killed Tadase. Everything.. everything is all your fault! It's all because of you.." at that, her voice began to fail her. She could feel her throat beginning to choke up on her sorrow.

She quickly looked away. She wasn't going to let him, of all people, see the weakest side of her, which is probably exactly what he wanted.

Amu then felt a hand being to gently stroke her tear-stained cheek.

She looked up, startled, only to see Ikuto leaning down, almost towering her in the process, and gently caressing her face, acting as her skin was porcelain glass that looked ready to break.

In a lot of ways, that was exactly what she was.

His azure eyes pierced her heart. They had so much sadness, so much sympathy flooded into them that she almost forgot that this was the same man that had killed her best friend.

He continued to slowly stroke her face, while Amu was frozen. She was far too shocked to be able to react rationally.

"I'm sorry.. Amu."

Her eyes widened. H-how did he know my name? She thought, but she never got the chance to think further into that. Realization then struck her, just not fast enough.

Not until he firmly pressed his lips upon hers.

After hitting a shockwave of reality, Amu began to do what anyone would do in this situation; she struggled against him. She did everything she could to pull away, but this man was older than him. Older meant stronger. Stronger meant he could overpower her. He took a hold of her shoulders and roughly pushed her up against the tree he was standing by a few minutes ago.

She shut her eyes, trying to ignore the pain in her back. Her heart fluttered painfully at his actions. She felt his tongue force its way into her mouth, while at the same time he let his hands wander down her body. He delicately traced his fingers down her shoulder, across her arm, and below her waist. Every touch he gave her, with each passing second of him getting rougher with her lips, a burning sensation passed through her body. Everywhere his fingers touched, it left a flaming, seductive tinge on her skin.

Her struggles began to get weaker as his force got stronger. In all honesty, she didn't enjoy this at all. She hated it, hated every minute of it. Amu knew where this would lead, but she also had a sick feeling that if she acted against it more, he would kill her. He killed Tadase for no reason, so why would he spare her, especially if he HAD a reason?

In a shorter sense, she had to stay alive to be able to deliver that letter. Even if it meant losing her virginity in the process.

She felt his cool lips leave her bruised mouth and begin to move down to her jaw. His delicate tongue left an alluring warmth on her sensitive neck. He quickly moved up to her ear, and whispered to her, "You better stay quiet. I'd hate to have to kill you." His breath tickled against her ear, and she shuddered as he bit down on it. She opened her eyes to see him still moving down, and diverted her attention towards something shining near her.

It was the cleaver. The blood-stained cleaver used to murder Tadase.

A trail of memories began to enter Amu's mind. The day she first arrived in this new city, her crush on her friend, the fights, the laughs, and not just with Tadase either. She focused on the time she had to help babysit Yaya's brother, the aquarium, each precious reminiscence hit her.

It hit her hard enough to snap back to reality.

She knew that she had to stay strong. For Tadase, for her friends, for everyone. She wasn't going to let one person get in her way.

As Ikuto began to move his hands up her shirt, taking the next step in his mission, he felt a horrible pain in his stomach.

Amu had kneed him as hard as she could to get him off of her.

He groaned loudly in pain, and took a few steps back. Amu took advantage of this and quickly kicked him in the gut, knocking him down and leading to him crashing to the ground.

She quickly grabbed a hold of the butcher-like knife, and turned towards Ikuto, who was just starting to recover from Amu's attack. He struggled to get back on his feet. Ikuto grabbed a hold of his throbbing check, and look up at Amu.

She was glaring down at him. The sun seemed to make her have a silhouette-like stance. Her eyes were bitter as she glared down at him. She held the knife in front of her, showing off the sharpness of the blade. The wind seemed to make her short hair even more messy. She was panting, her face was flushed, and a blush adorned on her face from what had taken place a few minutes ago.

Even though Ikuto had a feeling that he was totally fucked now, he couldn't help but think that she looked, in a totally twisted way, really, REALLY hot.

He pushed those thoughts aside, and lets his glare reflect hers. He chuckled humorously, then said, "You know you couldn't kill me."

Amu's glare hardened. She kept any emotion from seeping onto her face, as she began sauntering towards him.

Ikuto had to hold back a smirk at her bold move. He knew, deep in his heart, that no matter how much Amu hated him, that she just didn't have what it takes to kill a person. She was too pure of a girl to do something like that.

Amu finally stopped about a foot away from him. Her hands quivered slightly as she tried her best to keep a hold of such a heavy knife. To put it bluntly, she was terrified. She knew that she could never kill someone. No matter how cruel he was, no matter how many people he killed, she couldn't take his own life. He was still a human being; he had a family, he probably had a good amount of friends, people who loved him, innocent people who didn't deserve to be hurt or affected by his death.

People exactly like Amu.

"Don't cry."

Amu looked up, not even realizing that she was, once again, hiding herself from him. She tried to send him another cold look, but failed at doing so. The tears wouldn't stop. She didn't make a noise, just stood there, letting those remorseful thoughts take over her mind.

Ikuto sighed, and stood up despite the pain in his stomach. He reached out to wipe off the tears that fell. "A-"

He was thanked with a smack across the face. A hard one at that.

Ikuto trembled for a second or two under that sudden move of hers while holding his reddening cheek. He looked back at her. She was still crying, like the kid that she was, but this time hate and disgust was in her eyes.

"D.. Don't you dare touch me! You murderer, you molester..!" She had so much more to say, but Ikuto yelled back at the teenager, "You don't know anything!" he scoffed, then continued, "I'm not the one to blame for an-"

"LIAR!"

He blinked at the force and venom that was in that one word. The girl stared up at him, more pissed off then ever. She dropped the knife to the ground, scared that she would do something that she'd later regret. She walked up to him, recreating the situation they were in when she first saw him in the park.

"This. Is. All. Your. Fault. Don't you DARE forget that." she told him, staring directly into his eyes. "I swear, if I ever see you again.." she paused, trying her best to think of a convincing threat. "...well, you better not cross my path again!" she ended. She backed away, and looked up at the sky. The pink and orange that painted above told her that it was going to get dark soon.

She sighed, deciding that the letter can wait to be delivered tomorrow. She turned around from the scene, and proceeded to head back to Nagihiko's house.

Ikuto looked at the girl, and groaned lightly, knowing that his father would punish him greatly for failing. He then remembered something, and looked back at the retreating Amu.

"Don't trust that Nadeshiko girl so much."

She turned around, shock apparent in her expression, which was quickly covered up with a resentful look. "Name one reason why I should believe, or even listen, to a damn thing you have to say."

When he didn't reply, Amu took it that her point had gotten across, and began the long walk home.

After about 10 minutes of a silent, peaceful walk back to the Fujisaki home, she saw Nadeshiko standing at the end of one of the streets, knowing that the next street was the way to Nagihiko's house. She approached the girl, wondering why she had such a sad expression on her face..

"You're not welcome here anymore."

Ikuto's POV:

I sat under the tree, replaying today's events in my mind over and over again.

It was time like these when I started to imagine such useless stuff. I imagined me being able to escape this all.. to run away to the unopened forest where the cicadas cry.

A smile escaped my lips, knowing the truth in the back of my head.

I can't turn back anymore.

I'm not too sure what the song is called that I used.. all I know is that it's the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni opening (NOT the one from Kai) so if you wanna look it up, you can c:

OK: A few things I have to ask;

Should I change the story's name to "The March of Death" or something else that isn't this? Someone pointed out that my story title kinda gives off a cliché type of look, which in reality, I'm pretty sure this isn't cliché at all. o_o I kinda want to, but at the same time I don't wanna lose people who read this because they can't recognize the story. ;~;

I kinda wanna make another story, I'm not sure what it's about but should it have like, scattered chapters? Basically, the chapters be out of order on purpose because of the storyline? I'm not sure about this, people would probably not get it and get mad because nothing makes sense, but just, I can't decide D:

Some things that I need to clear up are how in the last chapter, I kinda swithced POV's on accident.. sorry ;^; since that part was last minute, I had a feeling I'd make a stupid mistake like that. So from now on, I'm definitely not gonna type unless the whole thing is on paper.

The other thing was.. well I forget actually. If I remember I'll put in the beginning of the next chapter's A/N.

Thanks again SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS :D Seriously, I love each and every one of them to death. ;_;

Please R&R! C: