"Ohaiyo, Zero-kun!"

"... don't call me that..."

I turned my head as Chiaki skipped to my side, a gleeful smile on her face. "I found some apples today. Look, they're red! Want one?"

"No."

Chiaki's bottom lip pouted as she leaned forward on the table and shook my bound arm. "Please, Zero-kun! It's a gift," she begged.

"I told you I don't want it!"

She went silent at my sudden outburst, her golden eyes widening. "I'm sorry, Zero-kun..." she muttered as she sat back and let the apples fall to the floor. "I was just trying to be nice."

Turning my head back towards her, I could only glare. "You have your dogs attack me, you tie me to a table and mock me, and you plan on torturing me for answers. What makes you think I would want to be your friend after this?!" I shouted.

"Zero-kun..."

"Shut up! Don't call me that!"

Chiaki looked down to her shoes, clicking her toes together every once in a while. "Why... why don't you want me to call you that? Is there someone that you love who says that?" she asked.

My breath hitched at her question; for a twelve year old psycho-killing kid, she was smart... sometimes. I looked away, pretending to study the wall.

"What's she like? Is she beautiful?"

For probably the seventeenth time today, I thought back to Kaname. A whole week had gone by since we last saw each other, since we last touched. I wonder what he was doing without me there. For all I knew, he and Cross were out there right now looking for me. "Yes... very beautiful..." I muttered under my breath.

Chiaki's golden eyes grew warm, something I had never seen from her. "I'm happy for you. Does she know you love her too?" she asked, a little choke in her soft voice.

"Yeah... he knows..."

"He?"

"Got a problem with it?"

Chiaki shook her head, her cheeks turning red. "No, it's just... I loved someone, too. She was very beautiful, my Mamma... and my little brother was so adorable..."

A tear rolled down her cheek, and soon, she was balling her eyes out. Despite everything that had happened this past week, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. "Chiaki..."

"My name is not Chiaki... it's Matsuo Amane... Chiaki is the other person in my mind."

Two people in one mind? That would explain the constant mood changes, but something still didn't seem quite right. If there were two minds, why was the real person not the dominant figure? If she was telling the truth, that her real name was Amane, then Amane's personality would be more prominent; however, it seemed to me that Chiaki was the center of her soul. "I don't believe you," I said bluntly.

Chiaki (or Amane, or whatever) sat silent, twisting the ends of her curly black hair around her fingers. "I was a noble once," she sniffled, "my family knew the Kuran household very well. We weren't bad people... we wanted to live happily and peacefully. My Mamma... she got sick after Eiji was born; Papa said she was dying. One day... one day, I got home from school, and the house was all bloody. Cross Kaien... he was standing over my family. He... he murdered them..."

I noticed the corners of her lips begin to twitch as she fought off a smile, and her eyes were shaking. She was mentally losing it. "Chi-Amane..."

"There was no one to call me 'little darling' anymore," she continued, "There was no little hand to hold on to mine. I never sat in Papa's lap again, and my sister never read me any more bedtime stories. They were all gone..." She turned rigidly towards me, now pulling at the ends of her hair. "You know Cross Kaien, right? You know where to find him so I can kill him?"

She lost it. Her mind had officially broken and was now crumbling down to insanity. Amane was quickly giving into Chiaki's hold. If I said one word out of place, she would release hell. "I... I don't know where he is now," I replied cautiously.

A hard palm struck my face. "You lie! You know where Cross Kaien is! Tell me now!" she yelled frantically. When I didn't answer, she grabbed me roughly by the collar, shaking me and screaming, "TELL ME!"

I closed my eyes and turned away. "Even if I did know where he was now, I wouldn't tell you, no matter how many times you hit me. Cross is as precious to me as your family was to you; he took me in when I had nowhere else to go," I said truthfully. Wow, if Cross ever heard I said that, I was going to kill whoever told him.

Aname's face suddenly changed, her tears ceasing and eyes narrowing. "So, that's how it is?" she asked with a strange twist in her tone.

"I'm sorry, Amane, but-"

"My name is not Amane!"

Shit, this was Chiaki. Aname would have listened, but if I tried negotiating with Chiaki, there would be no chance in hell.

With a smirk, Chiaki turned and kicked at a switch sticking up in the ground before sauntering over to the wall of torture. I felt the table begin to move backwards as it lined up against the wall. The chains around my wrists pinched my skin as I dangled an inch off the ground.

"Now do you believe that our minds do exist?" Chiaki asked as she took a leather whip from her collection and wrapped the chords around her fist. "Think about it, do you think I would allow for my questions to go unanswered? If it weren't for me, Amane wouldn't be alive.

My eyes widened as the realization hit me: the two minds in one body... it was real. The Amane this person claimed to truly be was gentle in nature and always tried to be my friend; Chiaki, however, was the one who taunted and abused me. If there was a way to call out to Amane and awaken her, then this would be over. "Amane, don't do this," I pleaded. "You'll only be hurting yourself."

The girl shoved the butt of the whip against my jaw, forcing my head up. "I'm sorry, Amane's not home right now," Chiaki mocked. She chuckled as she drew in closer. "Tell me, Zero-kun, this person that you love... if he were doing this, would you answer the questions?"

I looked away, biting my lip. "I would answer without hesitation, Amane," I replied.

She scoffed. "This Cross... do you realize how dangerous of a man you're working with? He's a real bastard."

"No," I whispered hoarsely. "He took me in even though he knew what I was to become. He helped me."

"He had no mercy on my family!" Chiaki shouted as she pushed the whip's handle harder against my neck. "My family was innocent, and he took them all away!" She unfurled the whip, cracking it against the floor. "He killed them!"

Closing my eyes and lowering my head, I muttered, "Cross is a good man; he would never kill anyone unless he had to."

Chiaki's golden eyes flared with rage. "Did he have to kill my dying mother?! Did my infant brother have to die?! DID THEY?!"

I bit down on my tongue as the whip's three leather tails lashed against my chest, making long gashes in my shirt and skin. It wasn't so much the wounds that got to me; it was the undying sting of flesh being torn away. "Amane, please..." I murmured before the whip came down again.

A wide grin spread on Chiaki's face as my blood splattered across her clothes and skin. "Amane is no longer here! Amane died that night! Now tell me where Cross Kaien is! TELL ME!"

I lost count of how many times the whip struck me as well as how many time Chiaki's voice screamed. I just hung my head low, pretending not to feel any pain. God, I wished this would end; I've been shot and stabbed before, but the pain then was nothing like this. It was a disgusting feeling, your skin being ripped off your body. When I next opened my eyes, my shirt was in tatters and Chiaki looked as if an artist had dipped a large paintbrush in red paint and flicked it on her; there was so much blood. With a growl, Chiaki threw away the whip and grabbed my jaw. "If you won't tell me where Cross is... I will kill you," she hissed.

"... then do it..."

Next I knew, the chains around my wrists were broken and I was sprawled on the floor. "It's a good thing for you I don't have the dogs with me," Chiaki stated as she pressed her hell against the back of my neck. "They would have torn you to pieces by now. Oh well. I guess I'll have to get creative."

There was a loud explosion as one of the walls collapsed and dust filled the room. I heard several stomping feet coming closer, though I couldn't see anyone. For the first time in a week, I could breathe a sigh of relief: I was found.

"Vampire!" a familiar voice yelled. "Back away from him now before I put a bullet in your miserable head."

Two booted feet appeared in view. I smiled weakly at the familiarity of them. "Yagari... sensei..." I muttered.

Chiaki flung herself backwards, crouching low in a corner as the smoke cleared. "Zero-kun! Don't let them kill me!" she cried.

A gentle hand rested on my head, and Cross' faint voice said, "Kiryuu-kun, thank goodness you're alive."

I glanced up to see his smiling face. "Cross... you found me..."

He tilted his head to the side. "Don't thank me; Kaname helped out," he replied.

"Cross Kaien..."

We all looked over to see Chiaki, who had stood; there was a hateful spark in her gold eyes. "You... murdered my family," she hissed.

Cross' eyes filled with concern. "Amane, I remember you," he said in a fatherly tone. "Why... why are you accusing me of that?"

Before Cross could ask anything else, Chiaki had leapt from her corner at him (whip in hand), screaming, "I'm going to kill you!"

Yagari caught her around the wrists, saying, "Look, Missy, you're standing on a fine line between living and dying. I have no mercy on kids."

"Take her back to headquarters."

The other hunters, as well as Yagari, looked shocked at Cross' order. "She killed a person and kidnapped one of our own," my teacher retaliated. "Why should we let her live?"

"... personal reasons..."

Yagari's brow arched. "Personal reasons?"

Using Cross as a leaning post, I sat up and leaned on his shoulder. "I agree with Cross," I replied. "There are more questions we need to ask her."

"Even after she held you captive and tortured you?"

I nodded. "Yes. Although Chiaki is speaking now, Amane...

Amane is not dead..."