Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Don't own DN Angel, I've got to finish this disclaimer before I lose my inspiration for this chapter, sorry!

…

Lumi's POV

"Dark?" I whispered again. The empty church was so still and silent I could hear my heart beating and see my fingers trembling. "Dark?" I glanced about me and realized it wasn't my fingers that were trembling, but the tears welling in my eyes.

Lumi. I could only faintly hear Dark's thoughts. They sounded fuzzy, like static from a badly tuned radio. Get out… hurry… Namida… be fine… Taking me… Daisuke… Then there was nothing.

Satoshi's POV

I sat at the kitchen table, staring at the note that still lay in front of me. Honoo no Namida wants me dead, I thought. I can understand why, even, but… she's good. She knows how close I am to Daisuke. That we're friends. She even knows where I moved to. I supposed you forgot my old house burned down? Well, there's a simple reminder. I'd lived with Daisuke and his family for a while, but I enjoyed being on my own.

For a moment, I stared at the table and allowed my thoughts to wander about. Then I shook my head and stood. If it's the artist or the thief she wants, I thought, I'd best go find Dark. I stood and got ready to go to the Niwa's house.

…

As I approached the Niwa's front door, Lumi swooped down beside me. She'd been learning how to fly like an owl, on silent wings, so I jumped when she thudded down beside me, a panicked look in her eyes. "Hello Lumi," I said, surprised. She didn't even look at me. She looked like she was in shock.

"They- she- it…" she whispered, "Dark…" Then she seemed to snap out of the trance she was in and ran inside, kicking off her shoes without pausing.

She didn't break down the door, I thought dryly. What a surprise. Then I decided to come in myself. No… I should probably knock. So I closed the door and politely rapped on it. Lumi swung it open a second later, pulled me inside, and ran back down the hallway. I took off my shoes and took a step in, half expecting the floor to fall in beneath me. Thankfully, it didn't.

I met Fenga halfway down the hall, and stopped to scratch her ears. She growled a thank-you, (or what I think was a thank-you) and led me the rest of the way to the Niwa's living room. I noticed that her broken wings were fully healed now, and she was walking with a spring in her step. Lumi had told us that Gray and Fenga were still connected, so wherever she was, Gray must not be in any mortal peril.

When I walked in, Fenga only a foot or so ahead of me, I could tell that whatever was about to be thrown at me wouldn't be good news. Lumi was sitting on the couch with Mura in her lap and Emiko and Towa, whom she was talking to in dazed tones, sitting beside her. She must have been in shock.

"There was another half to the bow," she muttered, staring at the floor. "And then… it cut me…" Only then did I notice a long cut running down her arm. "I was trying to figure out where Daisuke was. Dark lost his signal. I don't know who took him, but he's in danger."

"But we already know Honoo took Daisuke," Emiko said gently. "Lumi, what happened to you? Did you find Dai's signal? Is that where Dark is?" Lumi sighed, put her head in her hands, bit her palm (as near as I can figure) and screamed softly.

"Someone kidnapped Dark," she clarified. "I don't know who." She stroked Mura's head carefully, like she might break her.

"What do you mean?" Emiko asked, wide-eyed. "Can't you just find him?"

"I can't sense him, or Daisuke, or anyone else…" Lumi squeezed her eyes shut. "Did you already send out that warning letter?" Emiko nodded.

"But we'll have to just let it slide," she assured her. "I doesn't matter." Mura twitched her ears, but Lumi only sighed.

"I thought as much," she whispered, "I guess… well, I suppose, Satoshi, that you'll call off the police force?" She still looked to be in shock, and I was surprised she had remembered I was even there.

"It would be suspicious if I knew Dark wasn't showing up," I began, but then began thinking. "But if… Lumi, you could disguise yourself as him and steal –Wait, what am I saying?" Lumi shook her head.

"I have to go after him anyway," she muttered. "I couldn't steal it if I wanted to."

Then I remembered why I'd come here. "You can't," I said, "You can't go after her- after it, tonight. She'll murder you." I pulled out the note I'd been left and spread it out on the coffee table. "The artist or the thief." Lumi froze.

"Oh God… Dark and Daisuke." Her words hung in the air for one second. Then two. Then a minute, then a year, then a life. About a life and a half later (or at least, that's what it felt like), Lumi broke the silence. "Satoshi, come on." Her plan passed through my head in a whirl of full color pictures and sounds, and I nodded before calling on my wings. I hadn't considered that Daisuke would be the artist, but now…

All the pieces were falling into place, and the picture of this puzzle was becoming horribly real. Someone, a human, was going to die. Just don't let it be Daisuke… I didn't know it at the time, but our next casualty would be yet another artwork. Yet another person sacrificing themselves to save another's life.

With Krad…

Hateshiganai walked down the street without another word, looking neither left nor right as she went. Krad, dazed and seeing only shadow on shadow, followed several steps behind. She's not Gray, he told himself, hoping the shadows would clear. She can't be. Gray is why I came here… she isn't Gray!

"Come on," Hateshiganai snapped, "Hurry, hurry." She glanced back as she said it, and suddenly Krad began picking out differences between her and Gray. Hateshiganai's eyes were deeper and darker, and her nose appeared to have been broken. The shadows began to lighten as he began to shift his thoughts elsewhere.

Her hair was a lighter shade of silver, as though it had turned that color through age (though she still looked at the eldest, seventeen) and wasn't natural. She didn't have wings, and she didn't wear Gray's combat boots or her necklace. "Where are we going?" He asked.

"To my own little shop," she answered curtly. Her voice was different then Gray's. It was thin, like the breeze moving through the branches of a weeping willow, and spoke of times untold. She turned back towards him again. "We are almost there." She was blind. Her deep, haunted eyes obviously couldn't see him.

"You're blind," Krad said in shock.

"Yes," she replied, "I am blind to the present. The future, however, cannot hide from me, and I expected you."

"How are you walking like you are?"

"I see my steps before I take them," she replied. "My Sight can take me years to the future, or only a few seconds. I think you may wish to duck." Krad saw the tree branch, moved his head accordingly, and smiled. "Please forgive my sister… living eternally on the brink of death has made her bitter." Krad flinched. "It is not your fault. You tried."

"I made a terrible mistake. I cannot do it this time." The Seer shook her head sadly.

"Krad, you must understand that some things cannot be changed. Sometimes, people you love are meant to go." Krad stared at her in shock. "Gray died for a good cause. Could this be what she wanted?"

"Gray wouldn't have left us," he said. "She came to me, the night she died, and told me to look for her. Why would she do that if she did not wish to return?"

"Come over this way," the woman gestured. "I am yet another old lady trying to earn a living selling flowers." Krad chuckled, but stopped when he saw some of the plants the Seer sold.

These were… beyond all imagination. "Where are these from?" He asked in wonder, looking at them.

"They are spell flowers," Hateshiganai replied, "Flowers that bloom when a spell of light is cast. In fact…" she walked over to a rosebush covered in gold-yellow buds. "This one is yours." Krad followed her over. "See, it senses its creator." As Krad approached, the flowers slowly burst into bloom.

"I have never… never heard of these," he said, blinking. "How are they possible?"

"How are you possible?" The woman replied, "No one knows, but they are there. Now come, we will talk." She sat down on a chair, gesturing for Krad to sit down in another. "She came to you in a dream?" It took Krad a moment to remember what he had told her, but then he did, and spoke.

"Not a dream, but she spoke to me." The old woman nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. "She told me to look for her in a white forest, locked up." There had been something else, something about a spinning wheel, but it seemed insignificant. "She said that she would not forget me, and that she couldn't speak. I interpreted that to mean she couldn't use her own words, and I believe they may have been from songs." Another nod from the woman. "I have heard nothing else from her."

"So little to go by," she said. "What a shame. Krad, I cannot say much on this subject, but allow to consult time, if you would." Without waiting for an answer, she closed her eyes and her breathing slowed. A moment later, her blind eyes opened, and she slumped forward. "Go back to Azumano," she whispered. "Seek out the Shining Violet."

"Can you tell me nothing more?" Krad asked.

"Only this: a silver rose awaits you."

…

AN: So… short… *sobs* I hope you liked the bit with Krad at the end though; I had fun writing more with Hateshiganai. (Oh, by the way, I think it's pronounced like Haa-tay-shi-gah-ni-ee… if you say that fast... I'm terrible with teaching pronunciations, sorry!)

Anyway, you know the drill! R&R!