A/N: Ah! It's been months since I updated and I'm sorry! It's because I've been really busy at camp! But I finally got this finished and I hope it's alright. Let me know what you think!

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Chapter 7

A Terrible Realization

Mitsuki thinks that she has never been so uncomfortable with Mirai or Akihito in her life and that alone puts her on edge. Just great, right? She'd been counting on their consistency with each other and with her to keep her head screwed on right, but Mirai is tight-lipped and Akihito stares out the window of the car, the space between them loud and obvious.

"What's going on with you two?" Mitsuki asks blatantly, eyeing them both with suspicion. At least focusing on their problems might help her take the thoughts away from the absence of her older brother and the unease that twists in her stomach.

To make matters even more apprehensive, Akihito remains uncharacteristically quiet, eyebrows furrowed while he continues to gaze out of the window. Mirai runs her eyes over his silent form for a moment before she turns to Mitsuki and shrugs. "Nothing." The peach-haired girl fingers her bandaged palm absently and tries to smile, but its clear that she's in distress. Huh. Guess even they have their ups and downs.

Mitsuki wants to tell them that there's no use in keeping secrets from her - it wouldn't make sense to, after all, seeing as she's their friend - but something about Akihito's stillness unsettles her. He's never looked so uptight before, and the shadows under his eyes are unnerving. It scares her to realize these things, since she's known him for a couple years now, and he'd been through a lot. Even when he lost Mirai, he'd never looked quite like this, silent and sulking and terrible. She can't quite make the words form in her mouth.

"Alright," she says instead, though she doesn't think she can let this go. The invitation for the fellow spirit world warrior to spend the night is about to tumble from her mouth when her phone begins to vibrate. She glances at the screen and her anxiety skyrockets as the word Aniki lights it up. What is he doing calling her? Hadn't they just said goodbye? She doesn't know what to expect since she knows he wouldn't just change his mind and stay for no reason at all; and anyway, shouldn't he be boarding his flight by now?

Mitsuki ignores the stares from her two companions in the car and swipes her finger across the screen to answer Hiroomi's call.

"What is it now?" she says by way of greeting.

"Get Sakura and Mirai as far away from their apartment as possible," he answers, his voice urgent and quiet, something feral about the way he speaks. She's stunned by his words, but even she thinks fleetingly that she's glad her brother is not an enemy of hers.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Just do it. I don't - " He cuts off immediately and there's a sickening moment of silence that sends Mitsuki sitting straight up in her seat. She's caught the full attention of both Mirai and Akihito who watch with eyes as intense as she'd ever seen. Hiroomi's voice comes back to her. "Mitsuki, I have to go."

There's muffled sounds on the other end, a deep, muted voice that she can't make out words to, and it terrifies her. She has no idea what's going on and for a moment she's afraid that she'll never see her brother again. "Wait!" she says sharply, gripping the phone so tightly it nearly cracks in her hand.

The line goes dead and it takes her a moment - a long, devastating moment - before she can work through the confused panic to take control of the situation. She drops her phone and leans forward to address the driver, telling them to take her to Mirai's apartment.

"What's going on?" Akihito asks, eyeing Mitsuki, his body rigid. There's an awful moment where she hears the fissure in his voice, where the stress of whatever is going on between him and Mirai is breaking him, and that nothing is okay right now.

"Is Hiroomi-senpai alright?" Mirai questions just as tightly. "Why do we need to go to my place? I thought it wasn't safe for Kanbara-senpai."

"He didn't say anything," Mitsuki replies tersely, and she hopes that her friend will not take her tone the wrong way. "But he asked to get you and your friend Sakura out of your apartment as soon as possible."

Almost everything about Akihito's entire demeanor changes - as though hearing that, for once, it isn't him in danger makes the situation 200 times more unacceptable. Mirai's eyes grow wide, but she doesn't appear as astonished or terrified as the half-youmu boy sitting beside her.

"That makes sense," she says softly.

Akihito turns to look at her and before he even speaks, Mitsuki feels as though this isn't a conversation she should be intruding on. The pain on his face turns him into someone she's never met and this is a private moment not meant for her, but for Mirai alone.

"What do you mean by that?" he asks the small, pastel Spirit World warrior.

She smiles painfully - Mitsuki notices that she does that a lot, when things hurt. "Isn't it obvious, Kanbara? I'm not someone the Society wants around. I don't need to remind you of what happened to my clan." She pauses for a moment. "I'm almost positive that Sakura is with a friend today, though, Mitsuki."

It's incredible, the Nase girl thinks, that out of everyone in this vehicle, Mirai is handling it with the most ease. She'd never have expected that. "So she's not at home?"

Mirai shakes her head. "No. She's probably with Ai-chan."

"Then we should swing by the Shindous' Shop and pick her up," Akihito mentions, his voice still breakable.

"Immediately," Mitsuki agrees, and then gives the instructions to their driver, who takes the direction in stride. It's unfortunate that Inami Sakura had to be pulled into this mess. That girl has been scarred one too many times by the Spirit World.

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Hiroomi doesn't answer his phone at all during the next several hours, though Sakura and Mirai are tucked safely into their own rooms in the Nase manor. While Mirai knows that things are stressful right now, Mitsuki looks relieved to have so many guests and the pink sweater girl can only guess at how lonely things must get in this big house.

Sakura sits on Mirai's bed, her legs folded, her hair a wavy mess around her face. "So now I'm a target, too?"

Mirai nods and straightens her glasses. "I think so. Mitsuki does, too. And Hiroomi-senpai must have figured it out because he scared Mitsuki when he called."

"That's a drag," Sakura sighs, propping her chin up in her palm of her hand. "I'm not even a Spirit World warrior."

If there was something Mirai could do to keep Sakura out of it, she would. She'd do anything. But walking away from Sakura now would only be more dangerous; while the Society probably doesn't want to get on the bad side of the Inami clan, Sakura has also made it transparently clear about where she stands with Mirai. Leaving her without the protection provided by Mirai or the Nase family would only give the Society a bigger opportunity to hurt Sakura. It makes Mirai ache to put her friend through this. It always seems that Sakura gets to experience every negative aspect of the Spirit World and none of its goodness and it's not fair at all. "I'm sorry, Sakura. It's because of me. I. . .I'm the problem here."

Sakura's eyes become hard though her expression hardly changes. "I chose to stay with you, Mirai. Where you go, I go too."

It's overwhelming, how much some people care for her. Mirai is so used to being an outcast, an anomaly that everyone hates, that sometimes hearing such fierce words of dedication make her happy enough she could cry. In fact, most of the times, she does.

She wipes at her eyes before the tears can fall. "Thanks, Sakura."

Sakura shakes her head. "You gave me a home. Mom and Dad are cold people now that Yui is gone and it was only because of my own desires that I left to come find you. Everything is much warmer now because of you, and. . ." she pauses, becoming very still for a moment, as though she's choosing her next words carefully. ". . .it's nice to have a sister again."

Mirai is left speechless and she can't find her voice. So, she smiles instead and tries her best to keep from crying, busying her hands with the sheets of her new bed. Tomorrow, they'll go pack clothes from her apartment, accompanied by Nino-san and Ayaka-san for extra protection, so tonight she'll have to bear with the starched blankets that both her and Sakura sit on.

"Anyway," Sakura starts, sensing Mirai's stuck tongue, "what is up with you and Kanbara?"

Ahh, how to explain it? "I. . .don't know."

The Inami girl stares at her with unreadable violet eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Mirai hesitates for a moment and then sighs, dropping her gaze to her lap. "I'm mad at him. We've been through a lot together, and lately he's been acting above and beyond unpleasant with not just me, but everyone around him. I think something's wrong and he won't tell me what and it pisses me off! After everything, don't I deserve better than that?" She hates that her voice shakes, hates that she has no idea what to do in this situation. Loving Akihito has only ever been complicated and painful and she wonders if things will ever be easy for them.

"I really . . . love him," she murmurs, thinking about all the times he put her above himself, the times that he made sure she felt normal and simultaneously important. It feels as though this time, he's carrying a burden he won't share, just to spare her the trouble. "But I wish he'd see that I can only be happy if he is happy, too."

Sakura blinks. "Shouldn't you tell him that, then?"

Mirai blushes deeply, despite knowing her friend is right. "It's embarrassing to say things like that."

"A little embarrassment is worth the truth," Sakura replies in her no-nonsense way. "I'm going to go to bed. You need to go talk to him." She slides off the bed and saunters out of the room without another word, closing the door softly behind her.

Mirai sighs and lets her eyes wander around the empty room, taking in the plain and simple furniture, the bare walls, the window that gives her a peek into the valley. The city below is lit up, the lights twinkling like stars and she chews on the inside of her cheek as she contemplates how to even begin a conversation with Akihito, as if the answers lie in the miniature galaxy below the Nase manor.

Twenty minutes later, she finds herself standing at his door, the hallway dark, a sliver of light shining out from the bottom like a single strip of gold. She doesn't know what she's going to say, or how she's going to say it, but she had mentioned to him earlier tonight that they would talk and she doesn't want to put it off any longer. Especially at Sakura's insistence.

She flattens her lips against one another and knocks. "K-Kanbara?"

There's silence for a long, unbearable moment and then he answers, muffled by the door. "You probably shouldn't come in here."

"Is that what you want?"

Mirai is sure that she stops breathing.

"No," he finally sighs.

"T-Then? May I?"

He says nothing and she takes that as permission. The knob is cold under her hand and she turns it slowly, opening the door as though she's waiting for him to change his mind. He doesn't, though, and his back is to her when she crosses the threshold and then closes the door behind her. She stares at him, hoping that he'll be the one to initiate the conversation - surely he knows why she's here - but he says nothing. His shoulders seem tense and she aches for whatever secret he's keeping, feeling herself grow angry again at his silence.

"We need to talk," she says in a voice that is like glass.

"I keep trying to call Hiroomi but he won't answer," he replies without turning to look at her, stiff and uncharacteristic. He sits on his bed, his eyes fixed on the only window in the room, and she takes in his posture and becomes determined to ease both him and herself before she leaves tonight. Her stomach tightens with anxiety when her eyes catch over a dent in the wall near the head of his bed, the plaster fractured, reaching out with cracks like spindly legs.

"Why?" she asks, deciding to indulge his sudden topic. Anything that keeps him talking is good enough for her.

"Mirai." He says her name so softly she wonders if she imagined it. "I'm afraid."

She can't stand the distance between him, and she doesn't feel herself move so much, but suddenly she's right behind him and her hand is on his shoulder. "Tell me," she says, her voice gentle.

His shoulders sag a little, the tension going out of him at her touch. "There are a lot of reasons," he hedges, but she catches the slight tremor in his voice and she hates this. Her arms wind around his neck loosely and she kneels on the bed, pressing her forehead to the back of his neck, closing her eyes against everything that is not okay.

"Tell me," she says again. She wants to know everything.

He doesn't reply for long minutes. Mirai thinks at first that he isn't going to say anything, but suddenly his mouth opens and it comes pouring out.

"I've been acting like a giant dick lately," he starts. "And I'm afraid because I can't control it. I feel myself saying things that hurt you and everyone else and that's not what I want to say, but that's what comes out of my mouth. I get angry so easily - I put that hole in the wall today when I buttoned my shirt up crookedly. I'm afraid of myself. I'm afraid because the Society knows that you're still alive and they want you dead." Her breath hitches as he buries his face against her arms crossed in front of him. "More than anything, I'm terrified of losing you again, and I couldn't stand it if Sakura got hurt all because they want me. And why isn't Hiroomi answering his phone? I don't know what to do at all."

She holds him because she doesn't know what else to do. "Weren't you the one who said, 'as long as we're together, we'll be okay'?" Her mouth presses against his T-shirt, and she can feel the heat of his skin underneath.

"That was before it was your very mortal life in trouble here," he replies. "I can be killed a thousand times and still live. But you can't." He raises his head and shifts under her, turning around. Her arms loosen and she pulls back to see the distress on his face. "That scares me, too."

She turns her eyes down, his gaze too intense for her, and settles on staring at the collar of his shirt. "Someday," she says in a small voice, "do think it'll be easy? F-For us, I mean."

"Loving you is easy," he says naturally and unashamed, "but because of what I am, and maybe even who you are, my feelings for you should not exist and they do and I don't know if it will ever be easy." He fixes the crooked tilt of her glasses and runs his hand over her hair. "Does that make you sad?"

She shakes her head and smoothes her fingers over his collar. "No, as long as I can love you, I'm happy." In playing with his shirt, she's brushed back the edge of the collar as he leans in to kiss her forehead. A fierce rush of terror and understanding race through her as her eyes lock onto a discolored patch of his skin just under the hem and he must feel her tension because he pulls away.

"What's wrong?" Akihito asks, suddenly on alert.

Mirai only pushes his collar away with more force, unbuttoning the first few buttons on his shirt to shove it away from his neck. In horrified awe, she runs her hand over the patch of interweaving darkened ridges of skin that run down the length of his neck toward his collarbone, a large freckle taking shape at his clavicle. The marks are still pale as though they haven't developed fully yet, but she knows what they are as surely as she knows her name is Mirai.

"A-A-Akihito," she stammers, unsure of what to say, her fingers pressing over the lacing of marks.

"What?" he sounds strained, almost angry that she can't find the words to explain it.

"Y-Your neck. Were these here earlier?"

"Were what here earlier?"

She blinks at looks up at him with wide eyes. "Your youmu markings."

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Next chapter: Hiroomi arrives at the conference in Europe and there's a visitor at Mirai and Sakura's apartment!