I found this chapter fun to write. So much fun... I didn't expect to hit past 2,500 though...

*Ahem* Anyway... warning for language.

I don't own anything other than the obvious OC's.

Within this space filled with grass and flowers lies a table, draped with perfection for its seated occupants. It held everything needed for a fabulous tea party, never rotting...

For time is suspended, and beauty can never fade.

Up above in it's sky, a man gazes at the seated occupants with the upmost admiration. And maybe some insane frustration, but that's up for debate.

Landing on the ground with grace, he goes to cradle the face of a sleeping dark haired boy, hugging a book like a stuffed animal. "Did you eat yet?"

After a while, he then goes to a short dark brown haired girl, holding a baby with closed, fluttering eyes. "How about you, my dear, did you feed your sister yet? Your mother and I are so proud of you taking care of her while she's sick..."

Then, as if his name was being called, he lets go and rushes across the table to the dark haired rapunzel, her empty green eyes searching for nothing.

"What's wrong my love?" He brings his ear to her chest, hugging her all the while in an awkward position. "Are you lonely again?" He sadly smiles moments later, setting her back to proper sitting position in her seat.

"I see. I'll find our older children. And our family will be all together yet again." He opens a door to his space, looking back at the table lovingly.

Then, a light flashes in his eyes, and they narrow as he smiles creepily. "And I'll finally get back at those bastards who tried to take you away from me all those years ago."

After he leaves, another man comes through a door he had created with his own power in the sky. Quietly, he counts the three remaining chairs at the table. Going down to their level, he places a hand on the dark haired woman's head.

"Don't worry," he says to her, looking at the sky, "I'll save them. All of them who have misunderstood. Even when my time runs out..."

He smiles sadly into her hair. "After all, I am him and he is me."

3rd Person POV

Gentle blue gray eyes look up in surprise as the door to the apartment opens and shuts loudly. Afraid that the person was someone other than who she wants it to be, she makes a beeline for the bathroom.

"No, no!" A familiar voice beckons her back, "It's me, Haruka!"

Halting in her tracks she rushes back and smiles as she greets her master. "Welcome back! Um... Master..."

He grins at her. "I told you, call me Chiaki!"

"N-no... that is far too informal..."

She watches as he staggers comically to the couch. "You say that like you're my servant or something!"

"In a way... I am? Aren't I?"

He shakes his head. "No, no!" Then he thinks of something. "Oh, how about you call me 'Nii-chan' then?"

She cocks her head. "Nii-chan?"

He nods. "Yeah! Like 'Nii-chan', or 'Papa'..." Her head perks up at the 'Papa', and he continues, "But... 'Papa' is bit w-"

"Papa...?!" She says, her eyes sparkling at him along with the geniune smile at her face.

"Eh? What? Wait! Uh, no! Call me 'Nii-chan'!"

"Papa!" She repeats again, smiling. "Papa!" Going to hug him, she mumbles happily. "You're my first Papa."

'That's right,' Chiaki thought, feeling slightly guilty, 'She was a orphan in the first place before becoming a doll...'

"Umm..." He looks down to see her looking upset. "It's okay right? If I call you Papa?"

"Aww!" He hugs her, "Okay, you can call me Papa!" He just can't stay no to her.

"Oh yeah, I bought you some clothes with the help of this one girl," he shows her a bag, "Choose what you want to wear, okay? Sorry if what I bought isn't to your taste..."

As she looks through it, looking curiously at the evidence of her master's girly tastes, someone attempts to come into the apartment.

"Oh, crap! I can't believe I forgot..." In a rush, Haruka manages to grab all the clothes as her master picks her up and sets her in his room. "When you're done, just put the rest of the clothes in the closet, okay?"

"Okay." After a pat on the head, he shut the bedroom door behind him. Hearing a while later that it was that Tori person Haruka couldn't help but be worried. He sounded like a really mean person.

"I wonder if Kotone and the others are okay..." she says to herself as she goes through the clothes. It was beginning to feel lonely without her friends.

3rd Person POV

From the high level of the apartment, a small black haired boy with glasses peers across his back porch to the neighbors. Maybe just maybe, he can see her again, before her father yells and threatens him for peering like this.

To his happiness the small dark brunette is out again, playing with her bear doll like always. She was so tiny, the boy had thought the first time he saw her. She looks his age though, and she talks very well for their age. He found himself wanting to see her everyday, even though he still doesn't know her name.

"Hi! It's me again!" he greets from afar.

His heart skips a beat as she looks at him, her warm brown eyes looking over at him. "Hi," she says softly.

"Where's your daddy?" he asks.

Looking back at her bear doll, she answers calmly. "Grading papers."

"Oh, is he a teacher?"

She nods.

"But today's Sunday! Can't he take a break?"

"It distracts him from missing my other Papa."

The boy cocks his head in confusion. "Your other daddy?" He did not know someone could have two fathers.

With a calculating gaze, she looks at him. "I have two Papas," after a while she added, "Papa found me outside his door. Other Papa is on a hospital trip, so Papa has been very lonely."

"Oh..." After a round of silence, he hesitantly asks, "Where is your real family?"

She looks away from him to her bear doll again. "They died a long time ago. Very long."

"O-oh..." For some reason, he feels guilty for bringing it up. "Sorry."

"But my little sister is with me though," she says softly, cradling the bear doll lovingly.

"Where is she?"

She looks over at him again, her gaze making his heart beat rapidly again. "She's right here."

He frowns, his eyes roam the space around her, finding no one but her and her bear. "I don't see anything."

As she opens her mouth to speak again, the sliding door behind her opens. The boy cringes as her father glares at him. "Oy, stay on your side and mind your own business, you brat!"

"Can she come play over here then?" he asks rashly, feeling the courage to ask.

"No." With that, the boy watches saddened as his new friend is carried away by her father.

Inside, she is set on the kitchen counter. "At this rate, I'm going to give an earful to his parents," Hiroki says in frustration. "Almost every day he-"

"It's okay," she says, trying to calm him, "The boy is just curious. He's a nice boy."

"They're all nice at first."

She laughs, her voice light. "It'll be okay. I plan to show him my joints and tell him I'm a special model."

"You and your fascination in how people react..." He sighs, still grumpy, "Just stay in here for now until I'm done, okay? Then we'll head out because Takatsuki texted to me that he found another master."

Her eyes brightened, but her expression remained calm. "Really?" She smiles at him, "That's great!"

She realizes her mistake as a lost expression showed on her master's face. "Oh, I'm sorry... I'll try to remember..."

He looks away. "It's fine. Just..." he leans on the counter and sets his head on his arms. "I miss him," he confesses. "And I let him stay over there for another month because 'It'll be a good experience,'" he adds bitterly. "I miss him so much."

Realizing that he just confided to them his true thoughts yet again, he keeps his head down, hiding a embarrassed blush. "Bu-But not that much! I can't just tell him to come back because I miss him when he's doing so well! Haha..."

She goes to pat him on the head, the bear doll mimicking her movement. "Other Papa has a nice smile, doesn't he?"

"..." He sighs. "Yeah. Just try to not remind me with yours, Shizukesa."

"Then should I frown like you, to remind me of you?" The bear nods at this, "Arashi says she'd do that if she were human."

He looks up from his arms unamused, and pokes the bear doll, messing with the white ribbon on its dark head. "Hell no."

Misaki POV

Ritsu and I sit behind a tree, scared out of our minds.

You see, twenty minutes before this happened, we were in front of the library with Takano, Shiori, Mio-chan, and Chiemi. Some moments later, this Yokozawa guy and a new guy named Shinobu, who seemed very familiar by the way, joined us along with Chiemi's twin Riemi and someone's dog.

Shinobu then tells us that there was another master and that he was coming to meet with us as well.

Back to why we ended up behind a tree. Ritsu and I were sitting happily on a bench until we locked eyes with it.

A blue, huge sized Suzuki-san with a ugly green vest and an neon pick bow. The blue and the green were actually fine, the neon pink bow just keeps glaring at me and my eyes are kind of hurting...

After that, we were suddenly somewhere else that looked like where we were but it wasn't. There was nobody in this mimicry but us and the bear. After a while, it began picking up stuff that came out of nowhere and threw it at us. Running for some time, we ended up behind a tree, and to where we are now.

"What should we do?" I ask Ritsu. "Should we go kick it or something?"

"No... It seems too..." we cringe as something hits the tree we are hiding behind. "Strong."

"But then, how are we supposed to leave?"

Suddenly, we hear another voice. A very familiar voice. "Takahashi? What are you doing here?" We look to see Kamijou-sensei walk up to us.

"Kamijou-sensei?! Did he get you too?!" I ask.

"The bear? Like I'll get caught by that. We entered here on our own."

"We...?" says Ritsu, "Are you a doll master as well?"

He looks at us in surprise. "Don't tell me you guys are..."

I nod. "We are. But we were the only ones who noticed it so we ended up here by ourselves..."

"Can you guys not use their power yet?"

Ritsu looks at him in alarm. "Their power?"

Kamijou-sensei holds up his right hand and we see a ring on his finger. "You guys never made a contract?" he looks to the side. "Figures..."

"What?" I ask.

He avoids eye contact with us. "Nothing," he says, "You're going to have to talk to them about it." Kamijou-sensei, why can't you just tell us?

"Ah, that's right!" I look to Ritsu, "Ritsu, this is one of my professors, Kamijou Hiroki."

"Nice to meet you," Ritsu says to him.

"Likewise," Kamijou-sensei says, and he gestures us to get up. "Come on, it'll should almost be over now."

Out in the clearing, I look at the doll against the bear. Her hair was as short as Mio, probably a tiny bit longer, cut straight and smoothly along her shoulder. The color was slightly darker than Kamijou-sensei's and her eyes were a warm dark brown. Her bangs went across the top of her eyes, and some identical bangs on the sides of her face. Her light yellow and red dress seemed pretty normal compared to Mio-chan and the other dolls, I would have thought her to be an extremely small child and not a doll at all.

I watch as a small bear runs at us from the doll, and it goes to Kamijou-sensei, who picks it up and lets it sit on his shoulder. He looks so funny with it...

"Takahashi stop staring at me!"

"S-sorry!"

"Her name...?" asks Ritsu.

Hearing that, the doll turns at us as the bear begins to sway and sit down. Giving us a small smile, she bows politely. "I am the 8th doll, Shizukesa, five years old. Arashi is my little sister."

"Little sister..." I frown at this before Ritsu and I found ourselves staring at the tiny bear on Kamijou-sensei's shoulder. Before we could even ask, Kamijou-sensei beat us to it.

"She's a year old."

That... I shake my head. Nii-chan's child was older than that, but I can't imagine it...

I look back to Shizukesa who turned back to the bear. Strangely, it wasn't attacking her. Then, just slightly, she flicks it's arm and the darkness disappears from out of it, just like that.

"What is her power, Kamijou-san?" asks Ritsu.

"She can affect others with her emotions. She's mostly always calm, and if the negativity of those things are less than its positivity, it's easy to defeat them." He looks at his hand with the ring on it. "With me, I tend to set things on fire."

"I see," I say, slightly backing away from him, "Do you fight a lot?"

"Actually, no. I get tired from work, so I never get enough energy; found that the hard way coming home and finding one casually walking out of my bathroom with a pocketknife."

"How frightening," comments Ritsu who shudders, no doubt afraid to stay home now.

Moments later, the space around us begins disappearing, and Ritsu and I find ourselves where we were the first time, on the bench.

This time though, everyone was around us looking very worried.

3rd Person POV

At the awards ceremony, Ryuuichirou bides his time. He has to stay patient and unassuming for this to happen. Like they say, the past repeats itself, but this time...

A knowing smile comes upon his face, before looking annoyingly at a fake-smiling Akihiko. Usamis are unpredictable in a way; he may have to re-plan a lot, but no matter. They can't help that they are unknowingly involved. Oh, when the skeletons come out of the closet...

He straightens his tie, ready to proceed with his plan. It hurts him a bit to hide all this from Kaoru, but it must stay that way.

"Isaka..." he looks to see his childhood friend walk up to him. "What are you up to this time, that I had to come here with him in the room?"

"Lighten up, Haruhiko," he says, patting the man on the back. "I just wanted to introduce you and Akihiko to someone."

"Is it that important?"

All Ryuuichirou does is smile knowingly hearing Akihiko done with his speech.

Akihiko sighs as he gets off stage; he wants nothing more than to leave and go home. And get that refill of Misaki that he's been pining for.

Of course, Ryuuichirou comes to pull him off somewhere. "There's someone I'd like you to meet."

"Who?"

"Umm..." he looks to see a young woman approach him, a bit younger than he was, wearing a yellow dress, and she held a bouquet of flowers out to him reluctantly. "Here... I heard Ryuu-tan forced you here too. I'm so sorry..."

"Oh, you too..." Akihiko says, somehow feeling some sort of companionship with the girl. With a determined expression, he says to her. "Let's run, right now."

She nods to him. "Agreed!"

Before they could even move though, Ryuuichirou links their arms with his with a big grin on his face. "Now, where are you guys going?"

"Home," they both say, trying to break out of his hold.

Ignoring them, he introduces Sumiko. "This Hirakawa Sumiko. She's the main heroine of the new movie."

"Somehow, I got the role," Sumiko says, upset. "I don't even remember how I auditioned..."

"Anyway," Ryuuichirou brushes her off, "She'll be visiting you, Akihiko, frequently for input on the songs she has to write and sing."

She looks at him surprised. "Eh?! I'm writing the lyrics?! I read the book, Ryuu-tan, and it didn't necessarily need a written song, just a beautiful sound in a series of la's and ah's. Along with the tone of the story line."

"The director agreed in that we wanted to deepen her character through lyrics given the certain points in the novel."

"I agree with Sumiko," says Akihiko, looking at him with a deadpan expression, "You just want her to use her voice to gain more fans, prompting her to debut as a singer, and make an album along with other fundamentals to get more money."

"It seems I've rubbed off on you, Akihiko."

"As if." He gets away from Ryuuichirou's hold, "I'm going to go; I did everything you asked, I now have no more reason to be here."

"Me too," says Sumiko, out of his hold as well, "I need to go pick Mitsu up, wherever he is right now."

"But you two didn't say hi to Haruhiko yet," Ryuuichiou gestures to Haruhiko, who had been ignored the whole time.

"W-were you always there?" asks Sumiko. He nods, and she bows apologetically. "I'm sorry...!"

Meanwhile, Akihiko glares at him. "What are you doing here?"

At that, Haruhiko stares at Sumiko, who doesn't notice as she looks at Akihiko to Haruhiko. "So... Haruhiko and Akihiko? Are you guys brothers?"

"Yes!" answers Ryuuichirou. "They're both of the Usami family."

"Eh..." She stares at them for a bit before looking awkwardly to the side. "That's nice..."

"Hehe..." They all look at a amused Ryuuichirou, "She has no clue who the Usami family are."

"Shut up! I just arrived here like how many weeks ago!" She crosses her arms, "Besides, it's not like I have any business with them other than the songs and the movie." Then she looks at Akihiko. "Oh, since I have to go to your place, can you show me where it is and what time to go there? I don't want to disturb you if you have a girlfriend or something."

"Okay."

"So you do have a girlfriend?"

"No, it's not a girlfriend." Akihiko ignores the look Haruhiko gives him.

"Eh... Then, a boyfriend?" she says jokingly. "He probably cooks for you and everything huh?"

He looks surprised at her. "How did you know?"

"! Really, you do?" she looks at him awed. "Can I see a picture?"

"...You want to see a picture?" This is a first for him.

She nods as Ryuuichirou butts in. "Akihiko, those people over there want to talk to you," he says, dragging Akihiko away.

"Why..." Sumiko looks at Haruhiko. "Why'd Ryuu-tan butt in like that?" It's not like she was dense or anything, she can see that Ryuuichirou had taken away Akihiko on purpose.

He ignores that question. "Are you not phased that Akihiko has a male lover?"

"Should I be? I mean, whatever makes you happy. Do you have one?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Why?" Haruhiko repeats.

At seeing a tall white bear standing near the tables like no one's business, she does a double take as she answers him. "You look like a nice guy."

"A nice guy?"

"Yeah," Sumiko answers, looking over at the tables, "I mean, I think if you were to ask someone out, they'd accept in a heartbeat."

"...I see."

The white bear leaves the room. She goes to follow, but not before turning to Haruhiko. "It was nice meeting you, Haruhiko. I'll be taking my leave now."

Before she even could even leave though, a hand pulls her back and once again, she faces Haruhiko. "What is it?" Was the tag on her dress showing or something?

"Would you like to go out with me?"

After two rounds of blinking, the only response she could give him was, "...Eh? Why?"

"Why?"

She begins playing with a strand of her hair. "W-well, I never really planned to ever get into a relationship... And this is kind of sudden..."

"But you said that if I were to ask someone out, they would accept."

"! Th-that... I mean, I would, I think. I never went out with someone before, and I just said that I never really planned to get into a relationship..."

After a moment of silence, one of them manages to talk. "I'll pick you up at 8."

"..." Hanging her head in defeat, Sumiko replied weakly. "Okay..." Then she remembers the bear. "Oh, um, I don't have my cell phone with me, so you have to go ask Ryuu-tan! I really have to leave now, please excuse me!"

As she turned to leave though, she smacked right into someone, and sees with shocked eyes that it was the white bear, staring blatantly at her with its dark eyes.

How is it? Just wondering. Any questions?