[Alright! Not much to say on this other than since school is starting back up, update time will probably be even slower than it normally is, and for that I apologize :S Thanks for all your comments, they've been really helpful in refining my writing style as well as supportive!]

"Are you sure?"

"Er…I guess so!" Suou grimaced as she took the steering wheel. "I mean, I've been practicing nonstop for months! I can do this!" She gingerly tested the gas pedal, which didn't respond at first; she pressed a little harder and it shot forward.

"Careful," her father warned. "Now, the road's a little slippery, but it'll be good practice. Just stay in the parking lot and keep it slow."

Suou nodded and gave a careful push again. It took a few seconds before it began to move forward, like a buzz, a droplet riding a wave. She tested the steering wheel at the first turn, turning it just a little to the left, and was disappointed when nothing happened. She swung it a little more and made a nice, clean leftward movement.

"Great start. Now, speed it up a little. Go to fifteen or twenty," he advised. She nodded again in meticulous concentration as she prodded the gas just a little more. From ten to twelve. Just a little- whoa-

"Slow down!" Mr. Pavlichenko shouted. She eased the gas in a panic, but there was no halt in the car's path. "TURN!" The command was frantic; Suou turned the wheel around fully as the parking lot's meeting with the walls of an insurance company approached rapidly. The car swung around, and she exhaled, and immediately began trying to straighten out the wheel.

"Going to get us killed," her father muttered. She applied the breaks when the wheel refused to offer assistance to their situation. That was her mistake. She felt a skid, then another skid, and then a wheel slipped off the slick road and into the grass, far less elevated than they.

A terrifying, surreal sensation engulfed them both, the feeling one gets when soaring down a rollercoaster's hill, or trying to clear a loop-de-loop. A sharp impact hit the driver's side, and she narrowly jerked her head away from the side. The ceiling's hit was unavoidable, however, and the bone-crushing blow sent her into immediate darkness.


Fading…was that chirping? Birds? No, it was metallic-sounding, mechanical to the ear…sounded like an ambulance…


Chirping again? She wanted to see, this was no ambulance, she knew that sound…this was something new…it was cold…


"I'm afraid she's comatose, Mr. Pavlichenko," a cold, white-coated man adjusted his glasses uncomfortably. "Not quite brain dead, no. There's still significant activity. But cases like these will require a great deal of patience."

"Do you think we can wake her? Dr. Morris?" Suou's father pressed urgently, a broken expression evident as he waited for his wife's return.

"Well…I think only time will tell. I would like to try an operation in two weeks, if she is still unconscious then. It could have side effects," he glanced away, "such as a temporary loss of motor control, or paralysis. But I'm afraid some of her neural passages may have been damaged, and we would have to do our best to repair those."

"I should have never let you drive, you idiot," he cried softly. "Not on a day like this…"

Dr. Morris didn't offer any consolation. He paused, then left abruptly.


Things were clearer now. Suou now had a very sharp sense of being, although it was cold, like she was without a body. She urged herself to move, and pulsed forward slightly. It was like she was a vibration across a string, and whenever she moved, powerful heat shook her core. Surprisingly, it wasn't painful. Anything that hot should have left a burn, or at least provoked pain, but nothing happened.

She continued to "run" down this cord. It was a wire, an electric wire, she realized. An odd thought occurred to her- had she died? Was this heaven? Was it hell? It didn't seem particularly good or evil…

She heard a steely purr, and focused her awareness on its origin, following lines until she could see clearly. A man with holes in his hands was handling an iron cat sculpture. Things were getting weirder and weirder…this must be a dream. A weird, awful dream. She watched as white tingled on the corners of her vision…no, she had to see this…the man took a piece of metal and began chewing on it. Chewing. What was…no, not now…she felt silver eyes with no whites flicker up at her as a head turned, and then…


Hei felt eyes on him. He looked around the room- no water, all glass was covered. He'd thrown a sheet over the lamp as he furiously surfed an unplugged laptop for more information on Wednesday and his organization. He hadn't stopped thinking about it for a moment, not since…

He hadn't heard much, just something about them not wanting him to interfere in their affairs. Yin hadn't been able to tell him, it had all happened too fast…so far, he hadn't found anything but Wednesday's star code, DS-983. He concluded that Wednesday was probably a newer contractor, far newer than November 11, April and that general following. He'd had no qualms about killing his hostage, either, suggesting that it may have been the original plan anyway. And that, he concluded, probably came from the need to destroy Izanami.

That feeling of being watched had not ceased. He looked around the room a second time. Curiously enough, it didn't feel like a purposeful observation, nor one with an intention. But it still could not be tolerated. He stood up, scanning for any possible medium. Dolls didn't travel through wood, did they? No, the ground was not watching him…


Finally, she had a grip on her awareness again! She couldn't exactly see much, though. She cast her sights out a little further and saw a man, standing up in a dark coat. Hey, she knew this one from somewhere…oh yeah! The man from her dream! So she must be dreaming after all. She peered closer at him, though her firm attachment to some blue strand- electric cord- was painfully obvious to her. He slowly turned around, and fixated his eyes on her. He approached aggressively, unsheathing a two-pronged knife. For some reason, though, she didn't move, fascinated.


"The ethernet cable!" Hei suddenly realized. "Dammit! But most Specters don't go through anything but their mediums…"

He watched in utter bewilderment as the blue, glowing shape extended itself from the wall, taking on some humanlike shape. Hei paused, then threw his knife into the wall, slicing the cable in an act of self-preservation. But to his surprise, the shape seemed to solidify somewhat, into an imperfect version of a haunting figure of his past.