Crimso's Notes:

I don't have much to say here other than the fact that I highly enjoy long weekends, especially when you have four days off and then two weeks after the next week. Yeah, winter break is approaching. I honestly cannot wait for it. Why? …Well, that's obvious, isn't it? Everyone in my school is forward to not having any school. …It's just an evil thing. We've been thrown with a whole bunch of work, and… it's crazy. I have homework from four subjects (I finished Science, and I just realized we really did have math homework. Whyyyyy?) and it's kind of crazy. No one likes school.

Note one: The day before the Watanagashi. Fun!

~~~~X~~~~

Chapter Thirty-One: Loneliness

Mion could only open a single eye to look at who had entered when she heard the creaking of the metal door, indicating that someone had opened her cell. She would usually dash and try to escape through the open door, but the leash that was binding her to her cell was impossible to break off and she had long given up on trying to escape. The metal collar that was pulling at her every time she tried to break herself free by running was beginning to hurt her neck, and it was not pleasant.

That's why she didn't say anything as she looked up at stared at the figure in front of her, knowing who it was in seconds.

"Number Twenty-Seven, it's wonderful to see you back. I'm sorry that I was unable to see you the day you came. I was a little busy with the Watanagashi speech," the man Mion recognized as Yasuo spoke in a sarcastic tone as he mentioned how lovely it was to say her again, though dropped it with his second sentence. "I'm going to be the one who is speaking this year. Fun, hm? It's too bad that we haven't caught the killer yet. I have not been able to write up my speech about the victim."

She was lying on the ground, blinking at him as he spoke. She didn't say anything, though.

"Oh cheer up, brat. I brought you something you may like," Yasuo told her. Mion didn't react at all to that, until she heard the ruffling of a plastic bag, and then a slam as something hit the ground.

Confused, the girl looked up, finding that the object he had thrown into her cage was a slab of meat, and it was quite a big amount for what she usually got. She shot him a look of disbelief, and the man grinned, though his grin was not one that could be described as happy.

"Surprised, Number Twenty-Seven? I think that this is the first time I've fed you in months. And no, it's not poisoned or anything like that, so go ahead and eat. There would be no use in me killing you," Yasuo crossed his arms impatiently as he waited for the suspicious Mion to make a move.

Deciding that he was right and that there was no reason to trick her, the girl lunged for the meat, luckily being within distance for her to grab it without tugging at her collar. She buried her fangs into it instantly, tearing at it greedily. She was no longer questioning the reason why he had brought it, as it no longer mattered. All she was thinking about now was how wonderful the meat tasted to her tongue and how good it felt to have some food in her stomach.

"Listen, Number Twenty-Seven, I'm not giving this to you to be nice. I still hate your guts. I wish I could murder you here and now but Oryou would not allow that and it would be pointless anyways. Instead of leaving you to rot in this place, we decided that we're actually going to put you to some use," he told the girl, his tone rough and tainted with hatred for the girl in front of him. He had never liked her.

Mion looked up briefly from her meal, curiosity in her eyes. She was going to do something for once? Ever since she had been born, the only thing she had done was stand in front of the wooden door that led to the room with the demons with humans watching her, which was really pointless as the humans had a hold on her and they could have easily stopped intruders themselves. She had stopped doing that once the other demons were killed off, though.

"You'll find out what that is soon enough. For now, I just want you to gain strength by eating that meat. You're too skinny," spat the man, looking at the girl with hatred still burning in his eyes. "Way too skinny. Yes, I know it's my fault as the head of the demon handling here, but I don't care."

He moved on from that topic. "I'm hoping that we'll be able to grab your sister soon, too, so that should cheer you up. And don't say that you're happy that your sister is free. You wish she were here with you. And to be honest, even though I hate both of you, I wish she were here, too. Your sister will also be put to good use when she is found, but for now, you will be receiving all the meat and the jobs. Do you understand, Number Twenty-Seven?"

Mion finished her meat and nodded.

Yasuo smirked. "Well, good. You shouldn't get your hopes too high, after all. You're still just Number Twenty-Seven, no matter what people have told me about how you reacted when you first came here. Stop pretending." He stood up and turned towards the door, though before he exited, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "By the way, the boy that you were with has been suspected of being the one that stole you, and the one who found you will be returning to him tonight. He will be punished for his actions in the most brutal way that we can find." He smirked once again. "I hope you don't mind…" he taunted.

Just that one smirk, that one smirk full of victory, made Mion's rage burn higher than ever before. They were going to kill Keiichi! Without thinking, she lunged forward with her claws outstretched, her mind set on killing Yasuo. She completely forgot about the leash binding her, and was quickly reminded when she felt a jerk and her plans stop right in their tracks.

"Oh, I forgot. You do mind. Oh well, then. He's a thief and Oryou said that she wants him dead. Besides… we are missing a sacrifice for the Watanagashi," he added on.

Despite the meat he gave her, Mion realized that Yasuo was as much of a jerk as he was before. Mion hissed and growled, snapping her jaws and showing off her fangs furiously as if to threaten him, though it did no good, as Yasuo was not threatened by this at all.

"…See you, Number Twenty-Seven."

The metal door creaked shut, leaving Mion alone in the darkness once again.

She screamed out as she tried to lunge for the door again, though was once again stopped by the chain around her. She growled as she tried biting at the chain, though she knew that it wouldn't do any good at all. She didn't care, though. All she wanted to do was get out of her cell and claw that man's eyes out. Her fangs began to hurt as she gnawed and gnawed at the chain that refused to break, and she stopped, accepting the fact that it was useless. She allowed a claw to slip behind her neck and pick at the tape, though scratching at it wasn't doing very much good at all.

She fell to the ground, defeated. Keiichi was going to die. There was nothing she could do about it.

He had been so kind to her. Even when he had first come down to the basement to explore, he was kind to her. He did not yell at her for being a demon and call her a disgusting creature or anything like that; he instead started a conversation that had no ill intent. Just from that, she knew that he would come back and save her one day. And he really did. He came back day after day, and then finally, he let the girl go. There, they spent their days playing out in Keiichi's yard and playing games like Go Fish and Clue. He also taught her many things, like the meaning of happiness and other emotions.

He showed her the outside, he brought her meat, he gave her a name… he did so many things that she thought would never happen. They were miracles.

And finally, she had fallen in love with him.

And now, he was going to die.

She felt sorrow all over her body, and she hurt. She recalled it being not a wound of the body, but one that was in the heart and was not seen. That was also something that Keiichi had taught her. She would never be able to see the boy's smiling face again, or just his face again at all. He was going to die.

She wanted to break free from her chains and get out of the basement, but there was little she could do. Even if she were to release herself from the chains, she would still have the metal door to unlock and then the cell door itself. Then, she would have to sneak by all the servants that were working in the garden. Sure, she had done it before, but she had done it barely and it was very lucky that she hadn't been caught by anyone. If she did it again, it was possible she would be caught.

It was all useless. There was nothing that she could do.

A tear drifted down her face, and that tear soon became two tears.

She wanted some form of comfort, but there was no one there. There was no warm feeling around her. All there was was the cold feeling, the cold feeling that she knew well but hated with all of her heart. She despised the very feeling she got when she was alone, and there was hardly anything that she could do about it. There was no warm feeling.

She was alone.

But that was when she remembered something.

The bracelet! Sure, it wasn't Keiichi, but it was given to her to remember him and the feeling that she got when she was around him, and it really did work. When he had left her for school, she would look at the bracelet and feel warm because she would remember and feel that warm feeling that she got around him, that warm feeling often known as love. She looked down to her wrist.

But the bracelet wasn't there.

Had it fallen off? Had someone taken it away? Whatever the case was, her last hope of having a warm feeling around died, and she realized then that she was truly enveloped in nothing but darkness and the cold feeling. There was no warm feeling to make her feel better anymore. Nothing was there.

More tears that she thought had disappeared began rolling down her cheeks, hitting the cold, stone ground barren of any comfort. Why did this have to happen to her? Why was the world so cruel to her? Why couldn't she have just stayed with Keiichi? The two of them could be cuddled up together by now, enjoying the warmth that they gave each other. But no. Fate had to be evil and make her be alone. Fate had never been kind to her. Fate forced her away from her mother when she was still a baby and kicked her in a cell, and then proceeded to leave her without food or a purpose in life.

However… Keiichi had found her a purpose in life. He had taught her about life and many things that she had never known, and made her happy for once.

But that purpose was now gone, because he was going to die.

She curled up into a ball, allowing her tears to pour out on the ground. She didn't need to be embarrassed about shedding tears, even though she always had the need to be strong and not show her weak side in front of anyone.

However, it was okay here.

She was alone, after all.

~~~~X~~~~

Afternoon came, and since no one ever wandered around the house that belonged to Satoko, Satoshi, and Rika around this time aside from them, Shion was allowed to go out and explore the area around the house. She remained at the back of it, looking at the many flowers that everyone had planted. Satoko, Satoshi, and Rika were all out as well, tending to the flowers. While Shion wasn't doing anything to help them, she found it very intriguing to watch. Being outside in the sunlight was enough for her. It had been so long, after all.

"Nii-Nii, you're pouring too much water on that one plant," sighed Satoko. "It's going to drown."

Satoshi pulled the watering can away from it instantly, realization dawning upon his face. "Ah, sorry about that! I need to be more careful." Satoshi placed a hand on the back of his own head and rubbed it nervously, embarrassed at having made such a mistake. Almost everyone knew that you weren't supposed to over water a flower, because it was possible that that flower could drown from it.

Shion didn't know this, though, and found that fact very interesting. She made a mental note of it in her head.

Flowers were very amazing, she realized. They could preform photosynthesis and they could make many seeds and plant more flowers by releasing their seeds into the air. They did not need to walk around to live. Because of photosynthesis, they could stay in one place. But if that place didn't have sunlight, they could not do this and they would end up dead. Life as a flower must be very challenging. Even though she had compared herself to a flower before, Shion realized that she did not want to be a flower.

They would die if it was too cold, they would die if no one was there to give them enough water (that was, if it didn't rain for a while), and they would die if there were no sunlight. She realized that if she were a flower, she would have died long ago. There was no sunlight in the basement and no one really came to give her water, and there certainly wasn't rain. The basement was cold aside from Mion's warmth, but that wasn't the kind of cold that they were talking about.

Even if flowers were pretty, she definitely wouldn't want to be one. She wondered if she was pretty enough to be a flower. She didn't fit most of the things you needed to fit in order to be a flower, but at least that… right?

Demons and flowers were similar, however. No one believed her, though.

"Satoko," she spoke to the girl the girl who was standing right next to her. "Would you like to be a flower?"

"Huh?" replied Satoko, a confused look across her face. "Why would I want to be a flower? I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone or anything like that, and I wouldn't be able to have my Nii-Nii or Rika. It is no fun being a flower. Besides, flowers die too easily."

That was true, too. She wouldn't want to be a flower because that meant she couldn't communicate or feel things. She was hesitant to believe Rika about that kind of thing, since she was so much like a flower, but she was more informed about the subject, so she reluctantly believed what she said. If she were a flower, the warm feeling would have done nothing because she wouldn't have been able to feel it, and if she did, then it would have no effect because flowers don't have emotions.

Flowers were like what people believed demons to be, but they were unlike what demons really were, she realized. There was a fine line between demons and flowers, just as Rika had said.

Well, she could still compare herself to a flower easily. She was supposed to not have emotions, just like a flower. But when the part about her really did having them came in, it was a different story.

She still liked flowers, though. They were pretty and fun to look at. They were many different colors, and the colors that she saw were the ones that were different from the ones in the basement. The one that she was looking at now was a specific type of flower that she didn't know about, but what she did know was that the color was called orange. Rika had mentioned it to her once. She decided that she really liked the color orange.

Rika was tending to a bunch of light blue flowers. She had long go decided that she also liked the color of the light blue flowers. They reminded her a little of water, and she liked water very much. It was cold and while it didn't taste like much, it was refreshing. Maybe it was because it didn't taste like much that it was refreshing. Whatever the case was, she liked both the color and water.

There was also another color she had learned about during her stay at Rika, Satoko, and Satoshi's house. This color was purple. She liked it a lot because she never imagined a color like purple would ever exist, and it reminded her of nothing that she had ever seen before. It was a wonderful color because of this. It was new and exciting, and Shion placed it high on her list of colors.

She didn't actually know what her favorite color was. There were too many pretty colors for her to decide.

She also didn't know what kind of flower she liked best. They were all beautiful and amazing because they were very unique and could do cool things like make food from sunlight and drink up water from the ground. It was hard to drink water whenever it spilt on the ground, but the plants could get the water that was absorbed into the soil.

They were truly amazing, even if they couldn't feel emotions.

"Looking at the flowers again, Shion?" Satoshi said with a smile. "You really like flowers, don't you?"

Shion nodded her head. "I like the colors of the flowers. Also, they smell nice." She leaned forward to take a sniff of the flower in front of her. It was unlike anything in the basement.

Satoshi chuckled a little as he went to stand next to the girl, leaving his little sister to tend to the rest of the flowers. Not that she really minded. She actually looked happy to be doing some of the work and make herself useful. It was proving herself to her older brother. "I like the flowers, too. That's why we work so hard to take care of them." He bent down and sniffed the same flower Shion had smelled before. "Yes, this one really does have a good scent."

Shion looked at that flower. It was a dark shade of purple, and it was very pretty and on top of that, it smelled very good. She decided that that was her favorite flower, even if she didn't exactly know what it was.

"Here," Satoshi spoke. He took out an object that reminded Shion of something she believed to be called scissors, and then placed the stem in between the two blades.

Shion looked horrified and was about to plead for the poor flower's life, but she then remembered that even if the flower died, it couldn't feel anything anyways, and that no flower would miss it, so it was okay. The look of horrification was wiped off her face and she simply watched as Satoshi snipped the top of the flower off of its stem. There was still quite a bit of the stem left, however.

He reached up and began to fiddle with Shion's hair, holding the flower close to it as he tried to do something with it. He frowned as he kept trying, but found that it was very hard for him to do whatever he was trying to do.

Satoko sighed and walked over to her older brother. "You do it like this…" she began to explain a few things to her older brother, and Shion wasn't really listening to what she was saying as she was trying to figure out why he would cut off the flower in the first place. Sure, it didn't hurt, but still, there had to be a reason. Then she realized that she could also compare this to how people thought demons really were. They believed that they should not feel bad about killing demons because they could not feel sorrow at being killed, and that the demons had a higher tolerance to pain, anyways (which was partially true. Really, it was that their healing powers were better and they were harder to kill, but…), so they shouldn't worry about causing pain.

Suddenly, Satoshi stepped back, a grin on his face. "There."

The flower had been placed in her hair, and while she couldn't see it, she was sure that it made her look very beautiful. The flower was beautiful, so it had to make her just as beautiful when she wore that flower. It was purple and pretty, after all, and it smelled good.

Shion smiled at the boy, very grateful for what he had done. "Thank you! I bet I look pretty now," she commented.

Satoshi smiled. "Of course you look beautiful, Shion," he responded, then reaching out to pat the girl on the head.

But Satoko snapped at him before he could. "You're going to mess the flower up!" she cried out.

Satoshi pulled his hand away. "Ah, I am. Well, you look pretty in that, anyways. Not that you weren't pretty before…—" Then he paused, and his face turned a deep shade of red when he realized what he had just said. He looked down at the ground and began to shift about uncomfortably.

Satoko smirked. "Ohohohohoho! It looks like Nii-Nii just said something nice to a girl. Ohohohohoho!" she laughed. Her laugh was very shrill, Shion noted.

Satoshi was still flustered, and he didn't say anything.

Shion was very confused. Why was saying something like that something that he should turn red at? He shouldn't. He had said something nice, and it made her feel very happy, so there was no reason to turn red and look down like that. She really didn't understand, but she found that she really didn't need to. She was just happy at being called pretty.

~~~~X~~~~

It was the night before the Watanagashi, and Keiichi was actually very surprised to find that the man who had stolen Mion had not come yesterday. He knew for a fact that he was going to come for him today, and it was something that he hadn't done anything about. What was the point? He was going to be caught sooner or later anyways, and due to reasons that he had thought about before, there was no way that he could call the police.

He was breathing heavily, scared. He could fight his fate, but the boy didn't want to. That man killed eight demons, he killed Kimiyoshi, probably stole a bunch of children if he and the kidnapper were really the same people, and stolen forty-three. That was a real accomplishment, as some would say. Demons were very strong, as he could tell from hearing The Legend of Makoto and Koichi. Killing eight of them must have been hard, and he didn't seem to have a sword or anything. The only item that had been said to be with him was a single knife. That was also what he had come with when the two of them encountered him the night before.

Things had been going well in the battle last night. He had almost managed to defeat that man… but unfortunately for him, he managed to grab that textbook right out from his hand and knock him right out. He noted before that he should be glad that was the only thing that it had done. He had heard many stories about people's heads getting slammed with a dictionary or some other kind of large book and then the victim losing all of their memory. He didn't know what he would do if he lost memory. Onigafuchi was the last town he wanted to do that in. Besides, he would then forget about Mion.

Sure, the memory of her was painful to him, simply because he knew now that she was gone and would not come back. There was no way that would happen. It was already impossible. But at the same time, he wanted to keep the memory of he. Even if it was horribly painful to think about… there was still something warm about the thought of that girl.

She really had changed him.

It was a shame, really. He wished that she wasn't in this village, and that she had been born elsewhere. Then, her and Shion wouldn't have to suffer through what all the Sonozaki family put them through, and then the two of them could have met somewhere else. He wouldn't have had to go through this horrible adventure.

He thought back to the days where he spent all his time studying, and how he longed for the taste of adventure. Sure, the model gun was supposed to be a replacement for one, but it quickly turned into a nightmare. He had definitely had an adventure here, but now it was one he was wishing he didn't want to have. He wished that he never wanted a taste of adventure in the first place. Anyone who wanted one should know that it tasted foul and they should never long for such a thing. Every day life was much more fun.

Still… he wouldn't have met Mion.

He buried his hands in his face. He just wanted things to go back to how they were when he first came and met Mion. Then he could start things over from the beginning and change the past. Maybe his parents wouldn't have had to die.

But it was either that or Mion and Shion staying in the basement for all of their lives… never tasting the fresh outside air or feeling emotions.

He didn't want to think about this anymore. There had never been a choice. Well, there had been when the man asked him to make a decision that he would regret, but at the time he didn't even know what that decision was. That was the only description that he had gotten of it. Would he have chosen differently if he knew?

I told myself I didn't want to think about this anymore, so why in the world am I still thinking about this? Keiichi asked himself, gritting his teeth.

He lay back on his futon, his eyes closed. There was nothing more that he could do aside from wait for that man to sneak into his house and kill him. He didn't care. There was nothing he could do. He sighed, opening his eyes as he looked up at the ceiling.

That's when his eyes caught sight of something in the room, something that glistened brightly as the light hit it. His eyes widened and he felt himself creep towards it, and when he got close enough, he recognized the object to be the bracelet that he had gave Mion... the one thing he gave her to remind her of him and to light up her spirits. How had it gotten here? No, that wasn't the question. It had fallen off during the fight somehow. The real question was how he hadn't noticed the bracelet before.

He realized that Mion, in the cell, was completely alone without a reminder of that warm feeling. The bracelet was for her to remember the feeling of love that she got around her to help her realize what love was. Sure, she figured it out, but the bracelet still had its uses. She could remember it with it. And without it... there was nothing. No warm feeling. His heart hurt as he realized that. Mion... all alone in the basement... where it was cold and dark. He felt awful for her, to the point where he felt like crying. The poor, poor, poor girl.

He grabbed the bracelet and attached it to his wrist. To him, it was also a memory of that warm feeling he got around her. With this, he could always remember her.

Suddenly, Keiichi was pulled away from his thoughts by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, and he knew who it was instantly. He whipped around just in time to see the door to his room opening. His eyes lay on the man as he sat up, staring at him and the glistening knife that he held in his right hand.

The man seemed much, much more surprised than he was at the fact that he simply wasn't startled by his appearance, for his voice seemed rattled when he spoke. "Oh, you don't look surprised at all. Well, I did say that I was coming back, didn't I? Sorry about last night. I was going to come… but I had another pest to deal with. But now that that's over…" The man held the glistening knife up high, pointing it at the boy. "I'll take you."

Upon seeing that knife glint with the brightness of the room, something went off in Keiichi. It was something that told him that he couldn't just let this man kill him. He needed to be hurt for what he did to Mion! Sure, it was mostly a useless fight, but if he could do something…!

The man charged, and Keiichi jumped out of the way and grabbed a book. It was not thick and hard like the textbook that was used before, so there was no chance that the man could use it against him. A book like this could never knock anyone out. When the man ran to stab him again, the boy held the book up in his hand and allowed the knife to slip through the book instead of him, ultimately saving his life. He attempted to take both the book and the knife away from the man, but the book slid past the blade of the knife and it did not follow. Grumbling, the boy threw away the now useless book away. There was no way he could use it to defend himself now, as it was all ruined. He hadn't planned on reading it, anyways.

The man grumbled as he moved to stab the boy again, this time the brown-haired boy ducking so that the knife plunged into the wall instead of his flesh. He smirked as he tumbled out of the way of the man as he moved to stab again, once again letting the knife stab the wall of his room. There were now ugly dent marks in them, but he really didn't care about that kind of thing.

And as the man came at him again, Keiichi picked up the textbook and allowed the knife to go through that, though once again his attempt at bringing the knife along with him failed. He decided that using the thing was too dangerous, so the boy tossed it out the open window. He could hear another grumble of annoyance come from the man. It was apparent that he had been planning on using that again.

Too bad. Strategies like that don't work twice.

But as the knife came down again, he was too slow to dodge. The knife plunged into his side, and he screamed out in pain. The knife was then removed, causing the boy to fall over the floor and more and more blood began to pour out of him, staining his white clothing. He had never felt so much pain before, and despite that, he knew that he had to get up. He struggled as he placed a hand on the wall, trying to pull himself up, but when he did he was met with the blade of the knife digging into his leg.

Dizziness overcame him, and black specks began to fill his vision. He couldn't allow this! This couldn't happen to him! He had to keep going! But as he tried, he found that the blackness was overcoming him, and that there was no use fighting it.

Soon, the dizziness became unbearable, and the black fully claimed his vision.

~~~~X~~~~

Crimso's Corner V.2 (Long edition)

If there is one thing that I cannot take, it is the thought of losing too much blood and the black specks you see and becoming dizzy… it makes me feel terrible and dizzy myself, which is why the ending could have been a lot better. It is not something that I can stand writing. My head… it really, really, really hurts. I feel awful just thinking about the black specks. Oh god… need to think about something else… quick!

Okay, I thought about my cats, and now I feel a little better. But it still hurts. Oh god…

I hope the part with Keiichi finding the bracelet wasn't out of place. It... was actually supposed to be in the chapter where Mion disappeared, but I forgot... and then I nearly forgot to put it in this time. Heck, when I wrote that part, I was in the document editor, getting ready to publish this chapter in a few seconds. I am so, so, so, so glad I caught that. I missed a few things in chapter one, but those were easily fixed. This one... would not be able to be fixed in any way AT ALL. I caught it when randomly scrolling up the document and seeing the word "bracelet." ...It... is pure luck... that I didn't kill BFB... By the way, I want another opinion about Satoshi and Shion. I was originally planning to not do anything after the last time I brought it up, but after this chapter, I realized that I could make it be. It would be a stretch, but I could try. ...It would be very tough, though, to find a way to fit it in. What do you think?

That said, poor Keiichi. I put him through too much in this fanfiction. And I thought what I did to Mion and Shion was bad. Well, that's awful, and this is also awful. I'll let you judge what's worse. Would you rather be in Mion's position, or Keiichi's? Mion spent her life in a cage, never seeing the outside and being treated horribly and not having a name, or Keiichi, who is suffering throughout this whole fanfiction AND has spent his life doing nothing but homework. You don't have to answer that. Just something to think about. I personality don't know. You can if you want to, though. Just wait until WAN…

I am taking a break tomorrow (probably) but the next chapter should be on Sunday. Should be. Maybe not. We'll see.

Please review! …I actually feel like I'm being terribly greedy when I ask you this every chapter, so I'm thinking of just reminding you nicely this time that you should. If you really want something, then take a bowl of ice cream (or some other kind of food if you don't like that), but I will ask you kindly to point out typos. I really have issues with those, and while I do catch a fair few of them when I go through my writing, there are some that miss my eye.

This is the shortest chapter in a long time. I'm actually kind of glad. Note that a lot of it is Crimso's Corner.

~Crimso

P.S: These chapter titles... have become really, really, really dark...