A/N: Sorry that this is so late, my beloved readers! Real life has been crazy recently. I've had most of this chapter written for months but really struggled to get one of these scenes written and that's why it's been so long… Also, university has been crazy-busy. It was my birthday last week, and I really wanted to upload on my birthday as a gift to you all, but the chapter wasn't ready. And I'm not going to upload a chapter that is only half-done.

Regardless, here it is. I'd appreciate your thoughts on the chapter (and any love you wanna send my way!)

Chapter 16: Kill Them All

The Madam reeled back as the Hands struck at her mind within my own, digging their nails in and tearing her mental presence to pieces. She hadn't been prepared for a mental attack and the Hands had caught her off-guard. If she had bothered to talk to Zara or Sugoi about my capture she may have known what to expect. And whilst it didn't bode well for Zara or Sugoi's fate, it may very well have just saved my life. Or at least prolonged it.

Images and scenes flashed behind my eyes as the Hands delved deeper into her mind, drawing me in…

A dark-haired, dark-skinned young woman with bright blue eyes pressed a kunai knife against a pretty young woman's throat. The pretty girl was dressed scantily and the Madam's heart raced at the sight.

"Please," I – no, the Madam – begged. She sounded so much younger than she did now, almost as if she was just a girl or young woman. "Please don't hurt her! I'll do anything! I'll give you anything!"

The dark-skinned blue-eyed woman's eyes narrowed and looked to another, older woman who was dressed in a conservative kimono. Her hair was black and not a single strand was out of place.

"Well," the blue-eyed woman prompted the older woman. "The choice is yours, Madam Vera."

"Do not presume to threaten me, Kyūna," Madam Vera responded. "Release my daughter now and I will allow you to leave in peace."

"Kyūna, don't hurt her! Don't hurt Kimi! Please don't hurt my sister!" The Madam begged again, the familiar wet warmth of tear running down the sides of my – no, her face.

I felt the Madam's mind retreat from mine as she staggered out of her Seal, clutching her head.

"My lady?" An acolyte asked, stepping forward to assist her. "What is it?"

The Hands burst from my body in a fury, and I had to bite my lip to stop a pained gasp from escaping me. They pressed against the walls of the barrier, keenly searching for a fault to exploit.

But while the barrier was flawless, the acolytes were not.

One of the acolytes supplying the barrier around me with chakra left his Seal, hurrying to the Madam to see if she was all right.

"No!" Shin roared from his own Seal. "Maintain the barrier!"

Too late.

The Madam's head snapped to face the acolyte and he froze, hands half-outstretched to help her but terrified of the fury he sensed lurking behind that veil. Slowly her head turned to the flickering barrier behind him—to Shin and the two remaining acolytes who were now sweating profusely as they tried to keep the barrier seal intact without a sufficient and balanced distribution of chakra.

The barrier flickered briefly a few more times before it disintegrated completely, leaving me standing on that swirling Seal alone. I watched as the Hands stretched out of the Seals' perimeters gleefully, reaching for the ceiling and the walls carved from the rock around me.

The room was dead silent as they all watched me and I watched them. Waiting and wondering who would move first…

The acolyte near the Madam twisted suddenly and dove back for his Seal, no doubt intending to activate the containment barrier again and rectify the problem that he had caused.

It was that movement that suddenly sent everyone in the chamber into motion. Myself included.

I dove for the edge of the Seal, making it clear of the boundary before the acolyte even reached his own Seal, and rolled to my feet.

A big, muscly acolyte nearby made to grab me but the Hands lashed out at him and he fell to the ground screaming.

Squeezing my hands into fists, I spun around on the balls of my feet, surrounded by acolytes and the Madam on all sides. A female acolyte dove for me but the Hands got to her before she even made it halfway, and she too fell to the ground screaming as the Hands hacked away at her mind.

I pushed the sounds of their screams from my head, focussing on remembering my training. Papa had taught me a lot—so had the Academy. I could do this. I could.

Another male acolyte – the same one that had accidentally released me from the Seal – made to grab me in a bear hug, but I dropped to the ground in an instant, sinking into a deep squat. His arms closed over the empty space above my head.

Then I punched him in the dick—my jab coming in hard and fast—before I darted away from him again as he fell like a sack of potatoes. His face contorted in agony as he hunched over on the ground, clutching himself.

It was a cheap shot—I could acknowledge that. It wasn't very nice of me.

But you know what also wasn't very nice?

A group of adults beating up a six-year-old girl.

Or trying to, anyway. Heh.

And then I saw the kunai pouch attached to his hip.

I dove under another pair of grasping arms, scraping up my forearms on the rough floor. I made myself push the pain to the side as I clambered up to the acolyte who was weeping pitifully into the floor, still clutching at his groin.

Yanking the pouch off of his hip, I attached it to my own whilst also blindly fishing around for a useful weapon, cutting my fingers on the sharp edges of the unsecured shuriken in the pouch. Pulling a kunai out was difficult with my left hand as it was slippery with blood, but I quickly transferred the kunai to my clean right hand, glad that it was my dominant.

"Get her!" The Madam screamed, from where she stood on the other side of the room. Near the exit. To get to it, I would have to fight my way past her. "I want her contained! She cannot die yet!"

A short, thin, male acolyte reached for me and I blindly lashed out with the kunai knife, catching him in the throat.

Blood sprayed over my face, belying just how much damage I had done. Blinking blearily, I looked up at the odd gurgling sound coming from the man.

A hideous gash stretched across the front of his throat bubbled blood from his trachea and spurted blood from a severed artery confirming that the kunai had done a lot more damage than I had thought. He seemed stunned, his hand trembling as he reached up to touch his throat.

Then his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the ground. If he wasn't dead already, then he would be—very soon if the amount of blood pooling around him throat was any indication.

Suddenly, a large hand grabbed my arm and I slashed at it on instinct, but another hand grabbed that one too. An arm slipped around my throat, pulling my head into a tight stranglehold. I couldn't move besides attempting a feeble kick that made the arm around my throat tighten painfully.

It was Shin and two other acolytes. Shin was the one that had my unarmed arm in his grip, his large hands swallowing my small arm.

The Hands reached for all three of them before I could even command them to, clawing their minds with fingernails as sharp as talons. The female acolyte holding my kunai hand released me, clutching her head and staggering backwards with an audible shriek.

I immediately reversed my grip on the kunai in my hand and swung it backwards into the thigh of the acolyte standing behind me. He grunted at the injury, but his arms did not drop the stranglehold. It did, however, slacken enough for me to pull out the kunai again, twist around and embed it in his stomach.

My hands were suddenly slick with blood as I looked into his face. My red eyes into his eyeless sockets.

He fell away, taking the kunai with him.

Shin grabbed my other hand in his before I could reach into the kunai pouch at my hip for another weapon.

I turned my gaze upon him.

His teeth were gritted in pain as the Hands continued to hack away at his mind, trying to tear it to pieces. But his mind was more resilient than the others had been. I felt my awareness barely brushing the surface of his mind and no deeper.

Pushing more chakra into it, I pushed myself further into Shin's mind using the Hands—feeling the familiar shape of the cerebrum, the cerebellum… the brainstem.

I pushed harder. Pressing my consciousness—no, forcing my consciousness into his mind. A pressure was building up behind my eyes as I pushed myself further and further, my awareness spread so thin as it stretched from my body to his through his grip on my arms that I almost felt dizzy.

And suddenly the pressure was gone.

And I was in.

I could feel the sparking strands of his nervous system spread out around me—his mind lit up with small fireworks from the pain being inflicted upon him by the Hands, and all five of his physical senses—except sight, I supposed.

Reaching out with a pair of Hands of my own, I smoothed over the area where the Hands had been attacking his somatosensory cortex. Shin's grip on me relaxed slightly as he was suddenly free of the pain the Hands had been causing as I smoothly pushed them away.

Not for long.

I turned my attention to Shin's brainstem and the mass of actively sparking wires within. The part of the brain, Chelsea's memories informed me, responsible for breathing and cardiac function.

Kill him… Voices whispered in my ear. Then kill them all.

Reaching out with my two Hands, I grabbed the neurons in his brainstem… and I commanded them to stop firing.

Shin's breathing stopped immediately, his brain no longer able to command his lungs to expand and inflate. I could feel his confusion from within his mind—his fear. He didn't want to die and he could feel himself suffocating as his lungs refused to take in any oxygen. His heart took longer to refuse his body's demands and stop beating, running off of the remaining electrical activity in the sinoatrial node within his heart. But eventually his heart slowed to an actual stop.

His grip on me slackened and he fell to his knees, his whole body shuddering. His lips moved silently, perhaps trying to say a word, or a name. Then he toppled forward onto his face, finally completely relinquishing his grip on my arm, forcing me to withdraw my control on his mind. His ability to breathe returned to him, but it was much too late. His heart had already stopped.

And he died.

I withdrew from the corpse's mind, feeling oddly numb.

I had just killed someone. Several someones.

My very first kills and I felt… nothing. A bit tired from the chakra expenditure, sure, but not devastated. Not sad or even upset.

Good girl, the whispers crooned in my mind as I turned to face the Madam. Good girl. Kill them all. Show them our might. The might of Ayaka Yūhi. The vengeance of all the others who have come before you.

The Madam stared as a female acolyte with long, yellow hair darted up to me. I caught her wrist in my hands as she tried to stab me with a kunai, diving into her mind with greater ease now that I was physically touching her.

That was the secret to my control over them. Physical touch.

Curious as to what else I could do, I tugged on the Hands and they began weaving together over me, creating an illusion over her.

You're ours… the whispers echoed.

I'm not sure how I did it, but her face softened, as she looked at me using whatever echolocation jutsu the acolytes used to see. Her face filled with longing and adoration.

Another acolyte advanced on us, and with a cry the blonde acolyte flew at him, her kunai embedding deep in his chest before she had completely freed herself of my influence and regained her senses.

"What have I done…?" She whispered, looking down at her dying comrade. His blood staining her hands. Her face shifted so that if she had had eyes, she would have been looking straight at me. "You… you did this…" Her face contorted with rage.

A pair of Hands reached her before she could even so much as move off of her comrade's body. She fell to the ground screaming and writhing, clutching at her head—tearing at the skin on her skull.

I turned my back on her, making my way towards the Madam.

Kill her! The whispers demanded. Don't ever let her hurt us again!

"I'm going to enjoy tearing you to pieces," I said, remembering the way she had dismembered me so long ago. When I had been alive as Kito. "Death won't be visiting you for a long, long time."

My body faltered mid-step, and I fell to my knees.

The whispers screamed their frustration in my head. Over and over.

No! I had to finish this. I had to end her now!

But my chakra was gone. Only the barest minimum dripped through my chakra pathways—keeping me alive. I had used everything I had and everything that quartz that had been filled with chakra had given me. And it had still not been enough.

The Madam laughed, striding forward. "Well you certainly had a lot more fight in you than that Kito boy ever did. You're much more like Kyūna than he was, so much so that I can see her in you."

It was all I could do to remain on my knees before her, internally screaming at my body to move, to get away or strike her, as she approached.

My vision doubled at her approach, everything becoming hazy and difficult to focus on.

"Ayaka..."

The word was a whisper spoken from the entrance to the chamber, and my gaze slid over to it without meaning to. A man with a mop of white hair met my blurry gaze. He wore a Konoha flak jacket and hitai-ate bearing an insignia I couldn't quite make out.

Darkness beckoned me as chakra exhaustion finally got to me and I fell forward.

"Guy-san and Kakashi, stay with Mia-chan."

Kakashi balked. "I'm not staying with the girl!"

"I will defend this pretty young Kiri blossom with my life!" Guy declared, giving Sakumo a thumbs up.

"See? Guy-san has it under control!" Kakashi said.

"I'm captain of this team, Kakashi. You'll follow my orders," Sakumo said, fixing his son an impatient look. He didn't have time to be fighting with his son right now. Ayaka could be dead! What would he tell Kurei and Kagura then?

"No. I'm not travelling this far to be on babysitting duty!"

"You'll be on bodyguard duty!" Sakumo said, sighing. "Please, Kakashi. I need someone here."

"I won't—"

"I'll stay," Shikaku offered. "I'd prefer to stay out here anyway. It'll be less bothersome, I'd imagine."

Chōza rolled his eyes. "You're so lazy, Shikaku."

"I appreciate the thought, Shikaku-san. But you're a jōnin. Kakashi is barely a chūnin. I'd much rather—" Sakumo stopped himself, pinching his nose in frustration. "We don't have time for this. Shikaku-san, stay with Guy-san and Mia-chan. Kakashi can come with us."

Sakumo turned to Inoichi and Chōza. "Are you both ready?"

They nodded.

"Alright, let's go. Pakkun, lead the way."

The pug trotted into the tunnel that they'd opened, thanks to Mia's memory of the precise location of the entrance to the hideout, as well as the combined efforts of explosive tag seals and Chōza's expansion jutsu, which they had used to blast and pummel through the earth covering the tunnel. Mia had said that there were Seals that could be used to open the entrance, but she didn't know them. And they didn't have time to look for the boy who had helped her escape. He might have been recaptured for all they knew.

Sakumo stayed barely half a step behind Pakkun, his silver tanto out as they progressed into the darkness. Kakashi and Inoichi similarly had kunai in their hands, whilst Chōza remained unarmed, his fists enlarged to triple their normal size.

They came to an intersection and Pakkun paused, sniffing the ground.

"Do you smell her?" Sakumo asked, kneeling down next to the dog.

"Yes," the pug answered gruffly. He turned and ran down the corridor to their right, the Konoha shinobi following close behind.

"Pakkun—"

"Stop." The dog commanded, freezing as he smelt something up ahead, his little brow furrowing. "I… smell someone up ahead."

They all tensely peered into the darkness in the hallway ahead of them, expecting someone to jump out and attack them.

"Inoichi?" Sakumo asked.

The blonde shinobi shook his head, taking out a flashlight. "I don't sense anyone up ahead…"

Sakumo frowned.

"I think…" Pakkun began, sniffing the air delicately. "I think they might be dead."

Sakumo's eyes darted into the darkness again, whilst Kakashi took a nervous step back. "Is it Ayaka-chan?" He asked, his voice tense.

"I don't think so…"

"What do you mean 'you don't think so'?" Chōza asked, incredulous.

Pakkun sniffed, offended. "There are a lot of scents down here. It's hard to discern. The girl was definitely down here. Recently, too."

Inoichi switched on the flashlight and Kakashi fished out and switched on his own, lighting up the hallway.

A dark-haired girl sat slumped against the wall up ahead, her head turned away.

There was a moment, a split second, where Sakumo's heart stopped. That dark hair… Pale skin… It looked so much like Ayaka that he…

"It's not her," Inoichi noted at the same time that Sakumo realised it. "Ayaka is six years old, yes? That girl looks to be a teenager…"

They approached cautiously, weapons drawn and their bodies tensed, ready to dart back or attack at the first sign of danger.

The girl was dead. That much was clear from the way her body was slumped uncomfortably against the wall. That, and the fact that she was covered in copious amounts of blood.

Sakumo's gaze flicked over the kunai knife in her hand and the slash up both her sleeves. Inoichi said it before he did, however. "Self-inflicted," the Yamanaka noted. "This girl killed herself…"

"But why?" Chōza asked, frowning. "Wasn't she one of the people that kidnapped Ayaka-chan?"

"I don't know," Sakumo said, turning to face his teammates. "But she doesn't have any eyes."

"What?" Kakashi started, scooting around to look at the girls face for himself.

Sure enough, the girl's eyelids were open, showcasing the extraordinary lack of anything within them.

"If you've finished gawking at a blind dead girl," Pakkun grumbled from where he stood at the next intersection of corridors after the dead girl's body. "I've found traces Ayaka-chan's blood over here."

Throwing one last look at the blind dead girl, Sakumo and the others hurried over to the pug. Large drops of blood covered the floor, creating a trail up the corridor and out of sight into the darkness that the torches couldn't pierce.

"This is her blood?" Chōza asked. "How do you know?"

Pakkun harrumphed and didn't deign to reply, sticking his little nose in the air.

"Lead the way, Pakkun," Sakumo said.

A loud shriek echoed down the corridors to their ears.

Pakkun immediately broke out into a run and Sakumo followed, using his own keen hearing to follow the shriek. As they ran, they began to hear screams, more and more of them and Sakumo couldn't help the knot of worry forming in his stomach.

What was happening here? Was Ayaka okay? It sounded like people were being murdered in there!

The screams led them to a chamber carved from rock in the heart of the mountain that they were within. Sakumo slowed his sprint and crept into the doorway of the chamber, his team following as Pakkun dropped back, sensing a conflict within the chamber that he could not assist in.

The chamber was well lit and it wasn't hard to see the mess of bodies that sprawled throughout the room, many were still alive, rolling on the ground screaming and clutching their heads in pain. Some, at least two, Sakumo spotted, were dead.

At the centre of it the room stood Ayaka, but she was not like the little girl he had known in Konoha. Her frame and face were thinner, indicative of inadequate food, but that was not what Sakumo was referring to either. She was covered in blood. Her arms, her torso, her face stained red with the blood of those on the floor around her. The hairs on the back of Sakumo's neck stood up. Ayaka looked so… cold and hard and…

Deadly.

And that cold, hard gaze was turned on a tall, thin figure swathed in blue robes, with a veil covering the entirety of their head.

They regarded each other. The blue-robed figure still as a statue, and the six-year-old staring at the figure with utter hatred in her eyes.

"I'm going to enjoy tearing you to pieces," Ayaka said, her voice laced with not quite pleased, but something more akin to cold satisfaction and rage. "Death won't be visiting you for a long, long time."

Sakumo could feel his team tense behind him at the oddly adult and violent statement coming from the mouth of the six-year-old that they had come here to rescue. They had hoped that she would be alive. They had contemplated her ability to fight them off. But they had never imagined that she would have incapacitated so many of them… And not even seem bothered by it.

Ayaka took a step forward, squelching as she left bloody footprints where she stepped. A small smile adorned her lips.

And then suddenly Ayaka fell to her knees, eyes lidded and breathing heavily. The transformation happened so quickly that it took a moment for Sakumo to absorb just how the girl had deteriorated so quickly.

Chakra exhaustion, he realised. He had seen it take enough of his comrade's lives in the past. Ayaka had pushed herself beyond her limit.

The blue-robed figure stepped forward and laughed, their voice betraying them as female. "Well you certainly had a lot more fight in you than that Kito boy ever did. You're much more like Kyūna than he was, so much so that I can see her in you."

Kyūna? Kito? Who were these people?

But that didn't matter. Ayaka needed his help now.

"Ayaka…" Her name left his mouth as he watched the girl physically tremble before the veiled woman, her eyes barely able to keep open. At the sound of her name, Sakumo saw her eyes move to him and widen imperceptibly.

He noted the moment she recognised him, her lips forming his name. Calling him for help, although no words left her lips.

With the last vestiges of her energy gone, the girl toppled forward onto the floor, completely exhausted. And completely at the mercy of these people who wanted to do her harm.

The veiled woman approached Ayaka and suddenly Sakumo was moving, placing his body between the woman and Ayaka and drawing his silver tanto out smoothly and swiping at her with it.

The woman veered back abruptly and Sakumo held his position guarding Ayaka as some of the woman's associates began climbing back to their feet. None of them had eyes, Sakumo noted.

Chōza and Inoichi ran in behind him. Inoichi knelt down next to Ayaka and checked her pulse.

"Alive," he said. "She's weak, but alive."

Sakumo kept his eyes constantly moving, noting every one of the woman's associates that managed to return to their feet—as well as the ones that couldn't.

A white flash caught Sakumo's eyes, and Kakashi sprinted past him, kunai out and aiming for the veiled woman.

"Kakashi!" Sakumo barked. "Do not engage! Stay in formation!"

But he ignored his father and dove for the woman, seeking the glory of taking her down. The woman was waiting for him, however.

She spun as Kakashi flew through the air at her, her thin frame slipping past him as Kakashi overextended himself. A pale hand whipped out of her robes and snatched the boy's thick, white hair, plucking him out of the air and tossing him to the ground. Kakashi landed heavily but recovered quickly, rolling back to his feet.

Before Sakumo could command him to fall back, Kakashi launched himself at her again, kunai out and aiming for her gut. She knocked his hand away when he got close, however, before her hand lashed out at his face, drawing blood and sending Kakashi sprawling to the floor.

A bellow left Sakumo's lips before he could hold it back, and he dashed forward to intercept the Madam from causing further injury to his son. All the Madam saw was a white blur before he was upon her, his silver tanto lashing out and tearing through the front of her veil.

Blood sprayed.

The Madam shrieked and clutched at her face as the veil fluttered lightly to the ground.

Sakumo was already moving, hauling Kakashi back towards the others and Ayaka by his shirt. Kakashi protested but Sakumo ignored him, tossing the boy over to Inoichi before turning back to face the Madam.

She was staring at the blood pooling in her hands from the gash Sakumo had made to her face. And then she looked over at them. Sakumo felt his hackles rise in response. Her face was wrinkled and weathered, betraying an age that had not been shown through her voice or her body language. Her hair was thin and brittle, and a large burn ran up the side of her face ending at her scalp. She also only had one eye, an eye that burned with a fevered hatred that went beyond anger or even rage.

The Madam was an old and ruined woman, and, for whatever reason, she had wanted to abduct and murder a six-year-old girl as a part of some cult.

The tantō in Sakumo's hand glowed white in the dim environment, reflecting light off of the nearby lit sconces. He watched the Madam as he heard Chōza use an enlargement jutsu to beat down the few of the Madam's associates that were still alive and trying to assist her.

And then he moved.

He struck at the Madam again at such a speed that he was sure that she would meet her end on his tantō blade. But she didn't. The Madam twisted out of the blade's path in a flurry of robes before lashing out with a hand with long, sharp fingernails.

Sakumo evaded the strike, ducking low, and stabbed up with his tantō. This time the blade hit home, sinking into her gut. The Madam let out a shriek and she tumbled backwards. Sakumo pulled the blade out of her as she fell—she would bleed out faster that way.

"We'll try this again… Who are you?" Sakumo asked, his voice hard. "Who are you and why did you want Ayaka?"

The Madam let out a scoff that made her gasp in pain as the movement affected the stab wound in her torso.

"Oh…" She chuckled, blood gurgling from the corner of her mouth. "Don't you worry… she knows what this is about…"

"Did you act on behalf of a Village?" Sakumo demanded, stepping closer.

The Madam's lips pulled upwards into a grotesque smile at the copious amounts of blood pumping from the wound in her stomach, staining her blue robes a deep burgundy. "Tell Kyūna…" The Madam's gaze travelled over to Ayaka and Sakumo had no doubt in his mind to whom the Madam was referring to as Kyūna. "Tell her… this is not over. Even when I die. This will never be over for her."

"What does that mean?" Sakumo demanded again, but somehow, he knew. There was a larger conspiracy at work here, and at the heart of it was a six-year-old girl. How was that even possible?

Suddenly, the Madam was lunging to the side, lunging for where Ayaka's unconscious form lay. And Sakumo found his body moving of its own accord once again, to protect his precious nakama. To protect Ayaka.

He brought up his tantō, and swung it down with his full weight behind it, down on the back of her neck. Sakumo had never particularly liked killing, but in that moment—in that split second as he brought his blade down in what would definitely be a killing blow—he couldn't bring himself to regret the action.

He would do it again in a heartbeat.

The next thing I knew, I was in a hospital bed back in Konoha. The sheets were clean and pleasant against my skin, and the sunlight streaming in through the nearby window filled the room with warmth. This was home. Without a doubt. I could even see a tree outside my hospital window, and the chirrups of its resident birds.

But how did I get here?

I must have been unconscious for the entire trip back home from… I shuddered at the memory, willing it to be gone from my mind. It didn't work.

The Madam… her acolytes… and the things I had done to them. That glorious, intoxicating feeling of mowing through them like I was invincible and that they were nothing… I had killed some of them. Wasn't I supposed to feel bad? Wasn't I supposed to mourn the loss of some part of my soul that had fractured at the taboo act of murder? Perhaps I had lost that piece of my soul long ago. If what the Madam had implied was true, then Kyūna had definitely killed people. Maybe I had lost that piece of myself in her lifetime.

"Kurei! Kurei! She's awake!"

I turned my head slightly away from the window to see my parents. Papa had been asleep in the chair next to my bed, whilst Mama had been perched at the foot of my bed, a cup of tea in hand. As I watched, Papa jolted forward, rubbing a hand over the front of his face. There were dark circles under his eyes that I had never seen before, and his skin was pale and creased with worry lines. I don't think I had ever seen him look so unhealthy. He looked fragile.

Papa's red eyes met mine and a relieved smile spread over his face, so wide that I thought his face might split in two. It looked odd on his normally severe, serious face.

"Ayaka…" His arms engulfed me in a hug that in the past would have made my chest giddy with happiness, but now… my body seized and curled away from his embrace of its own volition.

Papa backed away uncertainly.

Dangerous, he's dangerous, the voices whispered in my ear. They were a constant presence in my ear, but only occasionally could I make out what they were saying. He couldn't protect you. Now he's sorry. Now he wants your forgiveness.

"Ayaka-chan, what's wrong?" Mama said.

She stepped forward to touch my shoulder and suddenly I was leaping out of the hospital bed away from them both. My legs were weak, however, and I crumpled to the floor as soon as I tried to stand, ripping the IV drip out of my arm and sending the stand holding the IV bag crashing to the floor.

"Ayaka!"

My parents both hurried around the other side of the bed, their arms reaching out to help me.

But suddenly—I was on the ground, the Madam leaning over me, stroking my hair with long, sharp, cold fingers.

I shoved myself backwards, away from those sharp fingers, scuttling backwards until my back pressed into the corner, my heart beating wildly in my chest.

Another woman was in the room as well, I noticed. She was wearing a nurse uniform and was patting the hospital bed as if trying to entice me back onto the bed. Her words were lost to the thundering of my heartbeat in my ears though.

"It's okay, Ayaka-chan," Papa said, palms raised high in a gesture of peace as he knelt beside me. "The people who took you… they're dead. They're all dead. They'll never hurt you again."

I pulled my legs tight against my chest and rested my chin on my knees, staring off into the distance as they continued trying to placate me. They could say whatever they wanted. The lies falling from their mouths like water from a tap. But I knew the truth. The Madam might be dead. Her acolytes might be dead. If only those facts were enough to bring me peace… but they weren't

Because I would never be safe.

The Madam was not the Big Bad. That title belonged to someone else. Someone who had stalked me throughout each of my reincarnations. Some supposed 'soulmate' that both loved and reviled me.

The very notion made me sick.

And what was I supposed to do now? How could I pretend that the nightmare is over when the nightmare has yet to even begin? Somewhere, deep in my psyche, I knew that this was but a prelude of what was to come.

I was wrong, I realised suddenly. I wasn't numb, I was frozen with fear like a deer in the headlights of a car.

Pushing my head in my legs to hide my face, I let the tears come.

And for the first time that I could ever remember, I cried—not because I was sad or angry—but because I was scared.

A/N: You might be able to tell, but Ayaka is mentally in a pretty dark place right now. There will be moments of levity thanks to Ayaka's somewhat sarcastic nature, but I really want to include some elements of PTSD into her character. I feel like it will help me flesh out her character to you in future chapters.

And if you're worried that this PTSD is going to affect Ayaka's ability to kick-arse and take names, don't fret! Ayaka's going to be becoming more hardcore. Not immediately, of course.

Just remember that Ayaka is only 6 years old at this stage (although a time jump is coming!). The only reason she was able to take out so many people was because was super-charged up by the chakra quartz from the previous chapter. With her current chakra reserves, she wouldn't have been able to do that.