[-Chapter Eleven-]

I watched Aiko worriedly as she dressed in her ragged clothes. The echoes of her loud coughing still rang in my ears. She shouldn't be awake right now, my brain insisted stupidly. My sleep had been disturbed by nightmares for as long as I could remember, but Aiko once slept soundly through anything. Now it seemed she was up every other minute, shaking and coughing. It was beginning to terrify me.

Last night, I could hear her screaming in her dreams. I wasn't sure if the liquid on her face was tears or sweat or some combination of both. Her gaze was distant and far away, as if overnight she'd gone somewhere that I could never follow. Come back, Aiko. My silent pleading sounded pathetic, even to my own brain, but I couldn't help it. Don't you fall apart on me. Because if you go, I…

I what? I was going to do something about it? Please. I hadn't been able to do anything for… Arisu. Her name still stuck in my throat like a stone. Suddenly all the spit dried up in my mouth. Well this is different. Aiko is mine, and she will be safe.

I guided Aiko from the bedroom and we left for work again. The ruins of Arisu's house were cleaned up. No one had seen her parents since the day of the blaze; it was widely believed they'd died in the fire. And Arisu… but I couldn't think about what had happened to her. It still hurt too much, especially knowing… knowing it was all my fault.

Instead, I focused on the charred marks and gray snow around the site of the old ruins. They seemed odd, I realized. Like the fire had come from the house equally in all directions. The snow was still falling, thick and furious, but I could see where the fire had burned off the snow. Usually a fire burned in one spot more: the spot where it caught fire. Arisu's ruined foundation had burned equally on all sides; no more snow was missing from one spot than another.

Almost as if the fire had been started intentionally.

I remembered what my dad had said to me yesterday. "She had nowhere else to hide." But the Chen-Li wouldn't do that, would they? I thought of Aku, his dark eyes and bias towards me for something that had happened years ago—and it wasn't as if those robes were irreplaceable! Yes, Aku would burn down a house and anyone inside it. I could see it in my mind's eye: the Chen-Li surround the house, the home of a "dangerous criminal", encircle it, and set it on fire. I fought a sudden case of the shivers.

"Hikari," Aiko murmured, tugging on my hand. I returned to walking, but her voice was unnaturally weak and I found that fact distracting me. Her steps came slower, less steady than before. She tottered every now and then, like a little old lady with doll's eyes and beautiful hair. My throat tightened. Maybe I should have kept her at home… "It's so white," she gasped. I looked down at her: most of the snow had turned an ugly brown color. It had mingled with dirt and other undesirable substances until nothing on the ground was white and beautiful.

"Aiko, are you okay?"

She looked right up at me and breathed in sharply. For a moment, just a moment, my little sister stared at me in the purest wonder. Then she blinked, shook her head, and kept on tottering as if nothing had happened. I couldn't take much more of this: if Aiko was going to get sick, I just wanted those crazy symptoms over and done with. A fever, I could handle. My sister losing her mind… That was a road I refused to go down.

I went down the road to work instead, passing the village mud pit. A group of children called out to Aiko. She looked up at me wordlessly for permission. I nodded, the usual restrictions implied in the same motion: no leaving the mud pit, don't antagonize the other children, and most importantly, five minutes and five minutes only to play. I crossed the pit to the ground outside of Makoto's house. The door was closed, so I let myself settle on his front steps and relax my feet. I could feel the stares of the townsfolk passing by; some burned with anger, others gentle with curiosity, a few electric with some other emotion.

They seemed to say: What is that peasant girl doing, sitting on the porch of the richest man in town?

Had they asked, I would have answered: Pondering the death of his son's girlfriend, that's what.

Death. It meant complete absolution from anything and everything on the face of the planet. Freedom from whatever burdens Arisu had been bearing before: the strange mission she shared with Makoto, the growing rift in our own friendship… She had left all of those brightly colored problems hanging in the air over my head. There was only one issue: I didn't know how to juggle.

My mind traveled to Koto, the soon-to-be-grieving ex-boyfriend. How would he take something like this? He'd been completely devoted to Arisu; in hindsight that was clearer than anything. I'd rarely ever seen them argue until the very end. The knowledge that they were arguing over me, that she'd died angry with him over me, made me sick. Between throwing the proverbial stone that killed her and causing relationship issues for her… yeah, was I ever on a roll. My mouth was somehow sour and bitter at the same time.

When would Koto even return? He went "camping" to very remote regions: on his first trip I would ask eagerly if any travelers had seen him coming back. Of course, travelers were few and far between, but Koto was easily recognizable. And time and time again, they all said no. Then, one day, he was there and smiling at me again. Where had he come from? Where had he gone to?

I thought back, puzzling and lingering over the memory. There had definitely been some new bruises on his upper arm, and light scratches around as well. But those were typical of camping. Had I not heard his conversation with Risu two days ago, I wouldn't have believed that he did anything other than camp. Yet now, I had to wonder: where did Koto get those bruises? That one question led to others.

Why didn't Arisu go camping? She always seemed sulky and upset when Koto left, at least twice a month. Had that been actual jealousy from Arisu—the one person on the planet who was always gracious and kind? Well, if she can beat up a man while I'm unconscious in an alley… There was just so much I didn't understand.

What, exactly, was this crap about the White Lotus Tile and a terrorist group? Empress Koori had long ago burned our books, because she didn't want us dwelling on unhappy memories of the past. Sure—she just didn't want us looking back to the better times, before the monster invasion and the Bending madness. I wished, not for the first time, that we had a library. I would have found something useful there, certainly—unless Koori decided to burn all books with a positive image of "terrorist groups." Or maybe this group was so secretive that we couldn't know much about them anyway.

Why were Koto and Risu members but not me? How had they been chosen for the process? Had someone actually looked at me and said I wasn't good enough? I could have proven myself, and from the looks of things Koto believed in me as well. But Arisu, my best friend, had called me impulsive. Just hearing that description on her lips, or even reliving it, made me want to find her and punch her in the face. How could she talk about me that way?

I guess another fair question would be: how could I feel that way about her? She was dead. I was never going to see her again. And yet I had nothing inside, only the same exact day-to-day concerns that had plagued me before. I should have been ripped apart, curled on the ground and crying and begging for someone to spare me from the horrible pain of losing my best friend in the world. Instead I was sitting on her boyfriend's porch, calmly reviewing every fact about her far-too-short life.

A groan escaped my lips and I let my head fall down into my waiting hands. "What is wrong with me?"

"Oh, far too many things to number," Aku's snide voice informed me. I glared up at him but my heart wasn't really in it. "You seem upset today, peasant. Or maybe not—aren't you sad that your friend is dead?"

That did it. "Don't you DARE question me, you little bastard," I snapped. He just raised one eyebrow at me, as if I needed a reminder of my short stature. "You think that just because your stupid and obnoxious Empress…" I paused, remembering my dad's many speeches about choosing my words carefully. They never seemed to sink in when I needed them. Now I've gone and put my foot in my mouth again! My verbal assault grounded to a halt; I returned to glaring.

"Oh please," the Chen Li agent invited pleasantly. "Don't hold back on my account. I'm sure our wise and glorious Empress is very interested in what you have to say." He kept his hands folded politely in front of him, unnatural in his stillness, waiting expectantly. My eyes flickered instinctively to Aiko; I couldn't afford to start a scene with her watching. I knew that, despite her instinct to annoy me, she truly did love me. And she was my baby sister.

I just couldn't risk her seeing me get hurt.

No matter how much I knew it was essential to be polite and—I shuddered—suck up to Aku, I could not bring myself to smile at that creature again. "…your Empress is ingenious and worthy of praise," I grumbled sourly.

"And don't you forget it, you worthless peasant," the Chen-Li agent hissed. "You are a nobody. Your opinion does not matter, you do not matter, and if you do not watch what you say, you will soon disappear." My teeth seemed to clench of their own will. I could not remember moving but I was suddenly inches away from this man's face, very close to breathing fire through my nose. "Come and get it," he invited. His black eyes glittered menacingly into mine, fierce with pleasure. "The second you lay a finger on me, I will have you thrown in jail, never to be seen again. I will see to it that you rot, you misguided peasant, and that your spirit is shattered."

I gave him a careful once over, checking my temper more than his body structure; I knew I had no chance in combat against a fully trained warrior. I didn't even truly understand the basics of self-defense, though Makoto had taught me many times. I longed for his company now, Koto's gigantic looming presence that gave me confidence and strength. Instead, I settled for a sneering glare. "I'm not going to touch you."

The Chen-Li agent grinned back at me, showing a full set of yellowing teeth. "Smart girl." I nearly gagged on the scent of his breath. "Of course, I still think you would benefit from a sound whipping, so let's see what I can do about that. I believe disrespecting our Empress is worth twenty la—"

A bloodcurdling, ear-piercing scream shattered the shrouded haze of anger and hatred bounding about in my mind. The village mud pit had fallen dead silent, all staring at one central figure.

It was my baby sister, my little Aiko, with her arms raised up on either side of her. Mud was splattered all over her new pants and her hair was a complete mess; the sight made me smile before I truly understood what was going on. Why everyone was staring at Aiko as if she was crazy.

The earth from the mud pit had flown up into the air to join her.

A/N: Is it really Wednesday already? Time really seems to fly in the summer-not sure if I really like that but we'll have to see. This chapter was a bit of a doozy! It was originally Eleven and Twelve in the old version of the story, but hey that means more for you to read! Yay! Poor Aiko x(

Tainted..."Anyhow, goody, a vain character who's far too confident. This should be very fun..." That's what I was thinking when I wrote her. Although I would argue that she might have a right to be confident-she really is one of a kind, that Empress Koori! And thanks for the cookies! Delicious as always.

That's all for now, folks. I'll see you next week!